CRISIS: Equestria

by GanonFLCL

CRISIS: Equestria - Chapter Twenty-One

Anything that can go wrong, will. Twilight had never been fond of the adage. She tried to think back to when the saying began carrying weight with her. Which of the constant chaotic catastrophes that plagued Ponyville on a weekly basis was originally to blame? Parasprites? Missing a friendship report? Time travel? It always seemed that no matter how much work and planning went into a task, something would go wrong and ruin everything despite every precaution being taken.

Such was the situation into which she and her friends had been placed: two days without food, and water was running low; one member of the party injured and dying, with no way to ease his pain or treat his wounds; and, just to make matters worse, the typical, sandy, easy-to-cover terrain of the Wastelands had become hard, rocky, and uneven, and excruciatingly difficult to traverse. Black boulders blanketed the entire area, with patches of flat ground so few and far between that they formed a natural maze. Worst of all, Tick Tock’s map was strangely useless in helping them navigate, due to an awkward, unnatural characteristic of the terrain: the rocks shifted about on their own, changing the layout of the maze as soon as they thought they had it figured out.

Twilight sidestepped a boulder that had just lurched in front of her path. “Whose bright idea was it to travel through all this, anyway?”

“It was a joint decision,” Tick Tock said. “Applejack was just as keen on traveling through here.”

Though normally Tick Tock would be at the front of the group leading the way with her map, today, Applejack had taken point. Tick Tock’s face was still buried in her map, of couse. The others followed behind in a single file line. Flathoof remained at the rear, Lockwood still draped over his back. Rainbow was the only one not in the line as she floated above them.

“Navigating this maze is wasting our time,” Twilight said. “Of all ponies, I figured you would be the one least likely to suggest anything that might do that.”

“I’ve never seen it like this, and I’ve been through this region dozens of times, hence why I suggested we travel through here. It’s always been rocky, but the rocks never bloody well moved before. I’m proper confused.” Tick Tock sighed and shook her head. “At the very least, this is still the faster route. The Rockfield only covers a few dozen miles, so we should be on the other side in a few hours.”

“It ain’t as bad as y’all’re makin’ it out ta be either, Twi,” Applejack said as she led the party down one fork of a path that had suddenly sprung up. “I can feel th’ earth shiftin’ ‘round beneath me, so I can predict all the changes in the layout.” She paused, stopping mid-stride, then sidestepped to the left. A large boulder popped out of the ground where she’d been standing. “See? Ain’t no trouble.”

“Maybe not for you, Applejack, but the rest of us aren’t having as easy of a time of it back here,” Twilight huffed. As soon as she’d finished talking, a rock popped up beneath her right hooves, throwing her sideways.

“I don’t see how this is still the faster route,” Rainbow grunted, as she circled around the group’s heads. “You guys are bumbling around down there. You can’t even move faster than a trot.”

“Not to mention that all this constant shifting certainly isn’t making it any easier for Captain Flathoof to keep our dear Lockwood stable,” Rarity added, glancing behind her.

Twilight turned back as well to see that Flathoof was indeed having a tough time keeping Lockwood on his back while being forced to constantly dodge rocks popping up out of nowhere. Only Fluttershy’s assistance in keeping Lockwood from falling off was making the task easier, though it was cause for everypony to slow their pace so that nopony was left behind.

Applejack grunted; she’d seen the whole thing too. “Yeah... I realize that, but there ain’t no use in complainin’ ‘bout it. This here is still the fastest route through, no matter how ya slice it. The cliffs to the west are harder ta climb, and circlin’ round th’ eastern way’d take a whole extra day.”

“Why don’t we just have Twilight teleport everypony to the other side?” Rainbow asked. “I could fly her over there, fly her back, and poof! Piece of cake.”

Twilight frowned. “While that’s a good suggestion, Rainbow, the distance limitations on teleportation magic are too extreme to make it viable. A single pony can teleport themselves maybe five miles, tops. Mass teleportation of that distance is out of the question, completely unheard of, and impractical to boot. I could maybe teleport all nine of us a few dozen yards.”

“Twilight has a point, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity agreed. “If you’ll remember, even that loathsome Starlight Shadow couldn’t possibly teleport so many ponies such a great distance. Why, if she could, she very well could have captured us at any time, were that their intent from the start.”

Rainbow groaned. “Man, magic’s got way too many rules. Besides, aren’t you supposed to be super powerful now?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Power can’t just break the laws of magic, Rainbow. That would be like you breaking the laws of aerodynamics when you fly.” She glanced at Pinkie. “Uh… Verisimulation excepted, of course. That has its own rules to follow.”

“Right... well, if you guys say this way is faster, I guess I’ll take your word for it,” Rainbow muttered. “At least AJ’s taking the lead now.”

Tick Tock grumbled something incoherent, but Twilight was sure it was very rude.

“Well thanks, sugarcube, I appreciate the support,” Applejack said. She then shook her head and sighed. “I tell ya, if I didn’t have this newfangled Geophagy—"

“Geomancy,” Twilight corrected.

“That’s what I said. Anyway, if I didn’t have it, navigating this here place would be a mite bit tougher.”

“At least you don’t need to be down here trekking through all this filthy dirt and rock, Rainbow Dash,” Rarity chided. “If anypony has no right to complain, it’s you.”

“I’m only complaining because it’s taking so long,” Rainbow fired back. “Besides, the terrain does affect me, for your information. I’m supposed to be scouting, remember? Fat lot of good that does when the whole area looks different every time I turn my head. For all I know, something could be hiding around any one of these rocks, but I can’t see it because everything keeps changing.”

“If there was anythin’ down here with us, I’d have felt it by now,” Applejack assured her. “I only feel seven sets o’ hoofsteps, which is all nine o’ us, minus you ‘n’ Lockwood, who ain’t walkin’ ‘round down here. Ain’t nothin’ down here, so keep yer eyes open fer anythin’ up in th’ air.”

Rainbow grunted. “I am. There’s nothing up here either. Believe me, if anything was coming by air, I’d see it a mile away.”

Twilight froze mid-step. She felt a strange energy in the air. There was flash and a popping sound, followed by a loud explosion.

A blur of silver and red tackled Rainbow mid-air, slamming her to the ground a few yards in front of Applejack. “Eat dirt, Rainbow Crash!”

Havocwing.

The foul-mouthed red pegasus shot off into the sky. “Catch me if you can, punk!”

“Oh, we’re doing this!” Rainbow spat before rocketing after the other pegasus.

“Rainbow! Come back!” Twilight shouted.

“Dashie! Wait up!” Pinkie scrambled past the others and chased after Rainbow.

Twilight followed suit, trying to catch Pinkie before she got too far. “Wait! Pinkie! Don’t go off on your own! We can’t afford to get—"

With a loud rumble, a wall of rock sprung up in Twilight’s face, blocking the path ahead. A similar rumble from behind told Twilight that the path back had been blocked as well.

“Separated...” Twilight stomped her hoof. “Shoot.”

To Twilight’s surprise, the surrounding walls of rock expanded and changed shape. The thin corridor they’d once been standing in became an encircled patch of flat rock. The surrounding walls were several yards taller than her, and were so smooth and straight that it would be impossible for anypony to climb.

“Hell-ooo!” called a voice from above.

Twilight and her friends glanced up to see Insipid standing atop the wall nearest them.

“Oh no...” Rarity muttered. “Not her.”

“Looks like we got company, girls,” Applejack said.

Grayscale Force and Curaçao soon joined the excitable black unicorn, who waved at the ponies below her with great enthusiasm. Grayscale took hold of Insipid and flew her down to meet the group, while Curaçao simply slid down the wall without an ounce of effort.

Twilight and Applejack took up defensive positions, putting themselves between the approaching trio and the rest of their friends. Twilight glanced about cautiously, wondering why only these three had come. Where were Red Velvet and Starlight Shadow?

“Like, hey guys!” Insipid chirped, as if the two groups had no possible animosity between them. “It is so totally super to see you! I thought we’d, like, never get to see you guys again! That would be so lame-o. But now you’re here, and we’re here, and it’s like, y’know, perfect and junk?”

“Four days away from you isn’t quite long enough,” Tick Tock said. Her eyes darted between the trio. “So, an ambush, is it? Why am I not surprised a bunch of no-good rats like you would resort to this?”

Curaçao huffed, and smoothed back her mane. “Rats? Hmph! C’est une dégoûtante insulte.”

“You’re absolutely right, and I apologize, because that was insulting. Insulting to rats.”

“Whoa, like, take a chill pill there Hip Hop,” Insipid snorted.

“Tick Tock! Get my bloody name right, you ignorant twit!”

“Since you showed up, I am assuming that you’re here to fight,” Twilight interjected. “If it’s a fight you want, it’s a fight you’re going to get.”

“I would razer avoid such garrish zings as fighting, Mademoiselle Sparkle,” Curaçao said, idly eying her hoof for dirt or blemishes. “We ‘ave defeated you and your friends before. What makes you zink we cannot do it again?”

Twilight smiled. “This time, we’re going to even the playing the field. Isn’t that right, Applejack?”

“Sure are, Twi.” Applejack ground her hooves into the rock, and the rock climbed up to coat her body. “This ain’t gonna be no one-sided tussle this time. We got some new tricks up our sleeves.”

“Interesting. This changes things,” Grayscale muttered, stroking her chin. She shrugged. “Not by much, of course.”

Insipid clasped her hooves together and let out an excited gasp. “Like, oh my stars! You so totally look like my cutie mark! I love your new trick, Applejohn!”

“Applejack!” Applejack shouted.

Insipid rolled her eyes. “Whatever! Geez, you guys are, like, totally lame, always correcting me and junk? Rarity, tell your friends they’re total lamewads.”

“Well, at least she gets my name right,” Rarity muttered.

“Where are your other sisters hiding?” Twilight asked. She kept her focus on the trio before her, but made sure to scan the nearby area for any sign of the two remaining members of Starlight’s group.

Curaçao chuckled. “Oh non non non, zey are not ‘iding. Zey are merely preparing zemselves. Red Velvet will deal wiz Mademoiselle Pie soon enough, et ma capitaine ‘as been very busy making zis arène. She will make ‘er présence known soon enough.

“Now zen, zis is your last chance to surrender, mademoiselles,” she continued. “We will not go easy on you zis time.”

Applejack scoffed. “Y’all kiddin’? There’s six o’ us, ‘n’ three of you. I don’t need no fancy mathematics ta tell me y’all’re outnumbered.”

“Outnumbered, maybe, but that’s all you’ve got going for you,” Grayscale yawned. “Six against three, huh? Sounds to me like we still have the advantage.”

“Tough talk from somepony who’s about ta get a whuppin’.”

“Such confiance! Well zen, if you insist on trying to fight us, per’aps you should do somezing about your ozer friend back zere. Lockvood was ‘is name, non? We vould not want ‘im to get... ‘urt.”

Fluttershy frowned. “You wouldn’t.”

Flathoof narrowed his eyes. “If any one of you so much as tries—"

Curaçao erupted with a great, open-mouthed laugh. “Ooh là là, c’est magnifique! Such a brave, strong étalon. A shame zat you are, ‘ow you say, ‘taken’, non? Mademoiselle Applejack is une chance jument.” She over-dramatically placed her pastern to her forehead. “C’est la vie!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow and turned to Applejack. “Uh... what is she talking about?”

Applejack grunted. “She ain’t talkin’ ‘bout nothin’. I’m as confused as y’all are.”

“Oh? Zen ‘e is... euh, ‘available’? Mmhmm, c’est une agréable surprise!” Curaçao smirked, smoothed her mane back, and fluttered her eyelashes in Flathoof’s direction. “Per’aps ‘e would prefer une jument wiz plus goût raffiné—refined taste. Hmm?”

“Are we gonna do this, or ain’t we?” Applejack spat. “I’d sure like ta get ‘round ta wipin’ that there smug look off yer face.”

“Yeah, enough talk already,” Grayscale agreed. She cracked her neck and rolled her shoulders. “I was about to fall asleep, you were talking so much.”

Curaçao shrugged. “Oh, pardon, I did not mean to bore you, Grayscale. Allons-y!”

Twilight and Applejack stepped forward; Insipid leapt forward to meet them, flaring her horn as she did so. Insipid’s spell created a blinding flash of light, disorienting the ponies in front of her. Grayscale rushed forward, scooped Applejack up, and flung her over the wall.

“The country bumpkin’s out of the way. The rest is up to you,” Grayscale said to Curaçao and Insipid. “If you can handle it, of course.”

“Zee capitaine will be intervening shortly,” Curaçao replied. “Go on zen, ‘ave fun.”

Twilight’s eyes readjusted just as Grayscale’s form soared over the rock wall. Now, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Applejack were alone with Starlight’s other sisters.

“Bloody rotten trick!” Tick Tock spat, rubbing the remaining blindness out of her own eyes. “Oy, you stupid git, eat this!” She fired a burst of magic at Insipid.

Insipid blocked it with a well-crafted barrier spell; the bolt of magic deflected skyward. “Ha ha, nope!” she giggled. “Try again, Knick Knack!”

“That shield... how did you—" Tick Tock gasped. “Rarity’s magic. You still possess that power increase?”

“That’s impossible! My enhancing magic doesn’t last that long!” Rarity exclaimed.

Twilight fell in line with Tick Tock. “Just relax, Tick Tock. If Starlight isn’t going to show her face, that pits me against Insipid and Curaçao. Even with Rarity’s power boost, Insipid’s magic still isn’t as strong as mine—no offense, Rarity. Plus, Curaçao has yet to show any combat prowess.”

“We still don’t know what she can do though, Sparkle,” Tick Tock replied. “I’d be cautious, just in case.”

“Naturally.” Twilight put her hoof on Tick Tock’s shoulder. “Just let me take point, and—"

Twilight and Tick Tock disappeared.

Twilight and Tick Tock blinked into existence with a flash and a pop.

“-we’ll be... fine?” Twilight finished.

The two unicorns found themselves in the middle of a large, circular rock arena. Tall, sharp spikes topped the surrounding wall. The wall itself was as smooth and polished as marble, and taller than twenty ponies. Even the ground was smooth, with a tile pattern meticulously etched into it. The ring of rock appeared perfectly crafted for aesthetic appeal.

Twilight kept her guard up. She’d been so focused on Insipid earlier that the teleport spell’s signature escaped her notice. It was obvious, though, who was responsible for it.

Tick Tock had the same idea. “Where is she, Sparkle?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight replied. “Just hold on to me. She clearly has some mastery of a non-contact teleportation spell, but the rule of contact still applies. As long as we stick together, she’ll be unable to separate us, and we can take her as a team.”

“Right.”

Several long moments passed, each one tenser than the last. Twilight carefully examined the surrounding area for any sign of company, but there was none. This portion of the Rockfield wasn’t shifting, but remaining completely static. She didn’t know where she and Tick Tock had even been teleported to, so she couldn’t teleport back to her friends without knowing their relative position. They were trapped and alone.

Where is Starlight Shadow?

A pop drew Twilight’s attention behind her. She didn’t have time to react as a blast of magical light shot towards her and Tick Tock.

Tick Tock had better reflexes, and raised a barrier to defend against the attack, but it wasn’t big enough to shield both her and Twilight. Only Tick Tock moved; she skidded several yards back from the sheer force of the blast.

“Tick Tock!” Twilight exclaimed.

Tick Tock vanished with a flash and a pop.

“That affair certainly transpired without drawback,” came Starlight’s smug voice from behind her. “I would have favored an outcome where the Chronomancer did not safeguard herself, but it is essential to adapt to circumstances as they unfold.” She clapped her hooves together. “Well now, with that distraction expunged, you and I may partake in a proper challenge.”

Twilight grit her teeth and turned towards Starlight. She glared at the other unicorn, who stood smug as ever, horn aglow. “You. Where did you send her?”

Starlight’s mouth curled in a cocksure grin. “Her destination is one where nopony would desire being, were they an acrophobic sort of individual.”

Twilight paused, then looked skyward. Her eyes widened when she caught sight of a tiny green dot far, far above her head.

Twilight racked her brain to calculate the proper distance based on her split-second evaluation, and cast a teleport spell of her own. She warped straight up. Tick Tock whizzed past her. She had no time to react.

“Oi!” Tick Tock screamed as she passed by. “Sparkle! Help!”

“Hang on Tick Tock, I’m coming!”

She spun in the air, desperate to straighten herself out so she could see what was going on. It took only a moment to right herself, and now she could see she was still much too far above Tick Tock. She focused her magic and teleported again, but this solved nothing; Tick Tock was still falling too fast, and every time Twilight teleported, she lost some of her momentum.

Twilight cursed her inability to make proper calculations for her teleport. Trying to judge proper distance when both she and her target were in freefall was an algorithmic nightmare; one wrong teleport could easily create a horribly messy outcome. Not having much conservation of momentum just made it that much harder. What she could calculate, though, was how long she had left. Based on the height Tick Tock had started at, how much Tick Tock was doing to slow her own descent—which included lots of limb flailing—and the amount of time that had passed, Twilight had only a few short minutes before the unthinkable happened.

Then, when all Twilight needed was more distractions, Starlight blinked into existence just beneath her, falling at precisely the same speed Twilight was. Seeing the other unicorn bend such a basic rule of teleportation left Twilight speechless.

“As amusing as this is to observe, Sparkle, I must inform you that it was never my intent to permit you to ‘rescue’ your companion,” Starlight said, her voice magically amplified. She shook her head in disappointment. “A grave misfortune that you are not as apt with teleportation magic as I am. Were our roles reversed in this dilemma, I assure you that Miss Tock would no longer be in jeopardy.”

“Get out of my way, Starlight!”

“I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request.”

“Oi!” Tick Tock shouted, lighting up her horn. “Take this, you bucking twat!”

Starlight turned her head just slightly, then rolled her eyes and teleported away just as Tick Tock fired a flurry of bolts at her. Without her in the way, the bolts shot at Twilight instead.

“Gah!” Twilight raised a barrier in time to deflect the shots. “Watch what you’re doing, Tick Tock!”

“Eh... sorry, Sparkle!” Tick Tock called. She shook her head. “Just... just hurry up and catch me, damnit! I’m not too fond of pancakes, if you catch my drift!”

Twilight grunted, and tucked her limbs in at her sides, slimming her shape to decrease wind resistance. It seemed to work, as she closed the gap between herself and Tick Tock almost immediately. She drew closer, and closer, until she was so close she felt she could grab Tick Tock. She reached out a hoof, but came up short; Tick Tock raised her own hoof up. Together, they inched towards their goal.

“Almost... there...” Twilight breathed through clenched teeth.

“Come on, Sparkle! Just a little more!” Tick Tock shouted.

There was a flash and a pop, then Twilight found herself back on solid ground; she slammed hard into the rock, knocking the wind out of her. Tick Tock was not with her. She groaned in pain and glanced up to see Starlight’s legs right in front of her.

“Really, Sparkle, did I not promulgate succinctly enough for you?” Starlight asked. She sighed, and put her hoof on Twilight’s head, pushing her face back down into the rock. “The Chronomancer is most assuredly a lost cause. Were I you, I would surmise that the more prudent course of action would be self-preservation.”

“Twilight! Tick Tock!” Rarity shouted, rushing to the spot they had just disappeared from. She spun, seeking out some trace of the two. She then turned her glare upon Insipid. “What did you do?!”

Insipid snickered. “Hey, like, relax, Rarity. Okay? Don’t like, blow a gasket or whatever?”

“Mademoiselle Sparkle will be indemne—un’armed,” Curaçao said with a coy grin. “Mademoiselle Tock, zough, I cannot say zee same for. I would be more worried about myself, if I were you.”

“Yeah! Like, me and Curie are total battle buddies! We’re gonna like, y’know, totally thrash you, or whatever?” Insipid gave a happy squeal and grabbed Curaçao in a hug. “Eee! I can’t wait to see what Curie’s got in store for you! This is gonna be, like, tray awesome! Remind me to thank the boss for, like, letting me be your partner, Curie.”

“D’accord, ma copine. Now zen, let us begin.” Curaçao turned her gaze to Flathoof, and flashed a sly smile. “I will ‘andle zee beau étalon. You take zee two ozers. Zey will be easier, oui?”

Insipid bounced in place. “Ooh! Yes! Yes yes yes! Let’s see, which one first?” She pointed her hoof at Rarity first, then shifted it to Fluttershy, then back to Rarity. “Eeny meeny miny mo—"

“You ladies aren’t really taking us seriously, are you?” Rarity huffed. She stood tall, taking up a defensive position in front of Fluttershy and Flathoof. “If you think I’m a pushover just because I’m a lady, then you are sadly mistaken. There’s no need for either of you to involve anypony other than myself in your little scheme; leave Captain Flathoof and dear Fluttershy out of this.”

“No need to step in as my defense, Miss Rarity,” Flathoof said. “You and Miss Fluttershy can stay behind me, and keep Lockwood out of harm’s way.”

“Tch, are you guys still worried about that lame-o back there?” Insipid huffed. “I mean, like, look at him. He’s such a scrawny wimp. Totally useless.”

“You take that back,” Fluttershy said through clenched teeth. “He is not useless! He saved my life! I will not listen to you insult him!”

Rarity turned to Fluttershy and frowned. “Fluttershy, there’s no need to get yourself involved in all this. You should stay safe with Lockwood, and let Flathoof and I handle the situation.”

“No.”

Rarity froze, glanced at Curaçao and Insipid for a brief instant, then turned her gaze back to Fluttershy. “Please, darling, these mares aren’t fooling around. I don’t want to see you get hurt—"

“And I don’t want to see you get hurt,” Fluttershy said, stepping forward so she was even with Rarity. “I’ve already seen one friend get hurt because I stood by and did nothing. I won’t allow somepony else to get hurt when I have the opportunity to do something about it. Let me show you that I don’t need defending anymore.”

“Fluttershy...”

“Awww, that is so totally cute and junk. The little squeaky thing thinks she’s, like, tough?” Insipid snickered. “That is super. Major. Funny. What’s she gonna do, like, cry on me? Huh? Are you going to cry, squeaky thing?” She then turned to Curaçao and asked, “Hey Curie, do you like my Havoc impression? Is it good? Huh?”

Curaçao nodded. “C’est convenable—it’s good, ma copine.”

Insipid squealed excitedly and clapped her hooves together, before turning her glare back to Fluttershy. “So, like, yeah, I think I picked my first target and junk? I call the squeaky thing.”

“You’re going to have to go through me, first,” Rarity said.

Fluttershy pushed Rarity aside and glared at Insipid. “No, she’s all mine, Rarity.”

“What? But—"

“Lesson ten!” Fluttershy shouted. “When somepony wants to disrespect, make it clear that they’ll get wrecked!”

“If... if you insist, Fluttershy, I’ll do what I can to support you. Both of you,” she added with a glance to Flathoof. “I’ll keep Lockwood safe as well.”

Curaçao chuckled. “Well now, zis is quite zee change, oui? I did not zink zat zee lâche pouliche would want to fight.” She turned to Flathoof and smoothed her mane back again. “Monsieur Flathoof, je regrette zat I ‘ave changed my mind, so we will not be ‘aving any private time today. I cannot let ma copine deal wiz two ponies zat want to ‘urt ‘er, voyez-vous?”

“You don’t really expect me to stand by and let you two try to hurt my friends, do you?” Flathoof scoffed.

“You don’t ‘ave a choice.”

The rocks beneath the group of ponies violently shifted and separated everypony into pairs: Fluttershy and Insipid were left alone within a much larger ring of stone; Flathoof and Lockwood were shoved into a ditch and surrounded by twenty-pony-high walls.

Rarity and Curaçao were shifted a great distance away when the rock surged like a wave beneath them. Rarity was unable to keep her balance. Curaçao, on the other hoof, was able to remain perfectly still the entire way.

When the pair stopped moving, they’d been placed inside an arena with a large rock in the center, so that the area was shaped like an elongated donut.

Rarity stumbled upright and scrambled towards the wall. “Fluttershy!” she exclaimed. “Where are you?!” She scraped and clamored at the wall before falling back to the ground; it was too smooth and steep to climb, and too tall to leap over.

“C’est louable, zat you care for ‘er so much, Mademoiselle Rarity,” Curaçao said. She glanced at her hoof, as if looking for dirt. “Right now, zough, it may be better to care about yourself, non? I believe I ‘ave said zis before.”

Rarity backed away from the wall and glared at Curaçao. “Are you threatening me? I assume you wished to ‘challenge’ Captain Flathoof because you felt you could charm him, and I also assume that you decided to go against me because you think me weak. I warn you again, I am no pushover.”

“C’est vrai, c’est vrai,” Curaçao sighed, shaking her head. “I was so certain zat zee beau capitaine would prefer not to fight, but would succumb to mon charme. It would make Red Velvet jalouse, et Applejack as vell.” She chuckled. “Ah, but you are incorrect in assuming zat I zought you were une chiffe molle. I ‘ave seen you fight... euh, quelque peu. I assume zat when you are by yourself, you a more of a ruffian.”

Rarity sputtered. “Ruffian?! Well, I never! If either one of us is the uncouth brute here, it’s you.” She huffed and straightened her mane. “I need not resort to such dreadful things to subdue such a brute.”

“Alas! Woe is me!” Curaçao said, putting her pastern to her forehead in an over-dramatic fashion. “Une petite poney de terre against zee might of zee grande licorne. I fear I ‘ave made a mistake, choosing to fight you, Mademoiselle Rarity,” she added.

Rarity’s eyebrow twitched. “You... you’re mocking me! Well, if you think you’re so tough, then have at you!”

Rarity lit her horn and attempted to envelop Curaçao in her magic. She wasn’t sure if she was strong enough to keep an adult mare subdued, but she was going to try.

Curaçao did not give her that opportunity. The earth pony leapt at her so quickly that Rarity didn’t have time to react; she hadn’t expected Curaçao to possess such speed. She tackled Rarity; the pair landed and rolled on the hard rock.

Curaçao maneuvered her way around to Rarity’s back and pinned her to the ground. She placed her foreleg around Rarity’s throat in a tight chokehold.

Curaçao pushed her weight into Rarity’s spine, keeping the unicorn from moving. She leaned close to Rarity’s ear, and whispered, “So, tell me ‘ow zis ‘power’ of yours works. Elle fascine moi—it fascinates me. Zee power to améliore zee powers of ozers... c’est similaire to ma copine’s magic, only in reverse, oui?”

Rarity struggled to get out of Curaçao’s chokehold, but she was only able to lift the other pony’s leg off her windpipe just enough to catch a breath. She used the opportunity to voice her outrage. “Get off of me you barbarian!”

Curaçao continued her interrogation. “I just want to understand ‘ow it works. Ma copine only keeps it because je vois son potentiel.”

Rarity flared her horn, bathing Curaçao in bright blue light. “I said”—she lifted the earth pony of her and flung her at the nearest wall—“get off!”

Curaçao nimbly flipped as she flew through the air. With a dexterous twirl, she planted her hooves on the wall, then dropped safely to the ground. “Ooh là là!” she exclaimed, a wide smirk on her face. “Such fearsome power, you unicorns ‘ave. I am trembling!”

Rarity staggered upright, then glared in Curaçao’s direction. She kept her horn aglow. “I’ll give you trembling, you tactless thug!”

Curaçao absently eyed her hoof. “I suppose you do not know ‘ow your power works, zen. C’est la vie. Per’aps I will ask ma capitaine after she ‘as dealt wiz Mademoiselle Sparkle et Mademoiselle Tock, and after I ‘ave dealt wiz you.”

“You may have gotten the drop on me earlier, but I assure you, that was the only one you’ll get.”

“Oh? Vous êtes sûr?”

“Oh, it. Is. On.”

Curaçao smirked, then darted towards Rarity with blinding speed.

Rarity raised a barrier in time to block a vicious jab.

Curaçao bounced off the shield, but was able to flip upright before landing neatly on one hoof and proceeded to maintain her balance while giving Rarity a coy look.

“Ah, you ‘ave learned to make barriers yourself. Très bien!” Curaçao laughed. She pushed off her one-hoofed stand, somersaulted through the air, then landed on all four hooves. “But, ce n’est pas tout à fait suffisant—not good enough.”

Rarity narrowed her eyes, annoyed less by Curaçao’s taunting and more by her superiority. She had never seen somepony so nimble before, not since she took Sweetie Belle to the circus some years back. The earth pony was a natural acrobat, and judging from the chokehold and precise jab before, she was a practiced bare-hooved fighter too. Then, she remembered a small tidbit she’d learned from Insipid when they first spoke together: Curaçao practiced martial arts. Apparently, Rarity thought, not just to maintain her tight figure.

She kept her horn aglow, determined not to be caught off-guard. “Back off, you oafish lout. I don’t wish to hurt you, but if you leave me no other choice—"

Curaçao laughed. It was a great, open-mouth laugh, as though Rarity had told the funniest joke in the world; a joke so funny, perhaps, that it would leave Pinkie Pie herself in awe. It took the earth pony several moments to calm down; Rarity was so outraged at the reaction that she didn’t even bother attempting to capitalize on it.

“Oh... oh my, arrête de déconner! Sois sérieux!” she breathed. She wiped a false tear from her eye, making a great show of her mockery. “If you really vant to ‘urt me, Mademoiselle Rarity, you are going to ‘ave to catch me first.”

Rarity huffed. “Bring it on, you—"

Then, Curaçao was gone. She didn’t disappear with the traditional flair of a teleportation spell, no, she just sort of melted away into thin air. However, it took Rarity only a moment to realize that she hadn’t vanished without a trace, or somehow left the area. Her keen eyes were accustomed to seeking out the little things in fashion: loose stitching, fine details, intricate patterns, and the like. She could see that Curaçao was still exactly where she’d been, only her coat and clothing had somehow become almost completely transparent.

“This is... unexpected,” Rarity muttered. “But it’s not enough to stop me from defending myself. I can still see you.”

“Oui, oui, zat may be true,” Curaçao said. Rarity couldn’t see it, but she could practically hear the cocky smirk on the earth pony’s face. “‘owever, zere is zee matter of your friends. Zey cannot see me, and zey will not even know I am zere. Ta ta!”

Curaçao’s near-invisible form turned, then darted around the boulder in the center of the arena, and out of sight. It happened so fast that Rarity barely even registered what was going on until Curaçao was already gone.

“Oh... no, wait!” Rarity exclaimed. “Come back here! Don’t you dare go after my friends! Your fight is with me!”

Rarity gave chase. After she darted around the boulder, she saw that the walls on this side of the divider were exactly the same as those on the other side. That is, they were tall, smooth, and straight; no earth pony—save for Pinkie Pie, perhaps—could possibly scale or leap over these walls.

Or so Rarity hoped. That, of course, was the dilemma: she had no idea what Curacao was capable of. Her group had already seen the strange powers of most of these mares, so they at least knew what to expect, but against Curacao, she was flying blind.

Rainbow honestly wasn’t surprised that Havocwing was as fast as she was. While her normal flying speed was above-average, it was nothing special compared to Rainbow; with the weird rocket effect she’d thought up, though, she was easily faster than Rainbow was, so long as Rainbow wasn’t shooting for a Sonic Rainboom. Now, though, Rainbow had a new trick up her sleeve: her lightning trail. To her dismay, however, all it seemed to do was put her even with Havocwing; the two of them could chase each other forever, and neither one would catch the other.

The pair had been swooping and darting about the sky for several minutes now, and Rainbow had yet to catch the other pegasus; so long as they didn’t keep flying in a straight line, Rainbow couldn’t reach Rainboom speeds. The only way for either of them to actually do any fighting, it seemed, was for the lead mare to slow down.

Which is exactly what Havocwing did.

Rainbow did not swerve in time to avoid Havocwing abruptly stopping dead; she collided with the other pegasus, and the two tumbled towards the ground.

Havocwing, however, had been ready for the collision. “Whoops!” she exclaimed. She pulled her hoof back and punched Rainbow in the gut. “Watch where you’re flying, Rainbow Crash!”

Havocwing punched Rainbow again, and again; Rainbow wheezed as each punch knocked the air out of her lungs.

Rainbow moved her hooves to block the next punch, then pulled her head back and headbutted the other pegasus in the nose.

Havocwing reeled back, clutching her now-bleeding nose. “Augh! You punk-ass b—"

Rainbow cut Havocwing’s curse short by rushing forward and punching her in the jaw. Then, kicking her in the stomach before delivering a vicious uppercut.

Havocwing tumbled downward for half a second before recovering. “Oh... that’s it! You’re dead!”

“Eat it, dragon breath!” Rainbow spat as she bolted off in the opposite direction.

“Hey! Get back here!”

Rainbow ignored the pain in her ribs; Havocwing had only punched her a few times, but it felt like she’d been hit with a sledgehammer. The other pegasus sure had a lot of power in such a small frame. She had to rethink her plan; a direct fight wouldn’t work, even if she initiated it. She just had to keep the foul-mouthed missile behind her occupied until she had the perfect opportunity.

Taunting, of course, still proved a fine distraction. “What’s the matter, torchy?!” Rainbow shouted back at her pursuer. “You look like you’re having trouble keeping up!”

“Bullshit!” Havocwing spat back. “You might be fast, punk, but you’re not fast enough!”

Rainbow laughed. “Eat my dust, shrimp!”

She looped, and spun, and rolled, and dived. The erratic moves came easy to Rainbow, easier than ever before thanks to her new weather powers. The wind dared not hinder her; her trail of lightning allowed her to move more fluidly.

Havocwing, to her credit, was able to keep up, but only just. “You’re just making things worse for yourself!” she shouted. “When I catch up to you, I’m gonna rip your bucking face off! I’ll teach you a lesson about respect!”

“Respect? Ha! I guess it is disrespectful to handicap myself against somepony who so clearly can’t keep up! Smell ya later, jerkwad!”

Since Rainbow was the lead pegasus now, she dictated how the chase played out. No more fancy flying. Now, it was all about speed.

She soared upward as high as the air would let her, then rocketed off in a straight line. Havocwing gave chase, but Rainbow already had a sizeable lead, and it just kept growing. Rainbow knew there was no way the other pegasus could keep up once she hit Rainboom speeds.

Havocwing, however, did not seem to like being outmatched. Rainbow chanced a look back at her pursuer, and saw that the distance had increased even further. Havocwing had cut off the jet of flame on one of her forehooves, and even now was taking aim.

A second later, and a fireball whizzed past Rainbow’s head, just inches away from her ear. Another fireball skimmed Rainbow’s jacket, searing the leather. Rainbow did not wait to see if the next blast managed to hit her; she swerved to avoid it, losing speed in the process.

“Not so fast now, are ya?!” Havocwing cackled, launching fireballs in such a rapid stream that Rainbow had no room to do anything but dodge. “What’s the matter, afraid of a little fire, Rainbow?!”

“Damn! How does she have such good aim at these speeds?” Rainbow muttered to herself as she swerved to avoid another salvo. “Fine... if that’s the way she wants to play, then let’s play!”

Rainbow clapped her hooves together, expanding her lightning trail far behind her. The length was such that it forced Havocwing to back off, lest she fly straight through the trail and get electrocuted.

This didn’t stop Havocwing from volleying fireballs and insults, however. “Ooh, fancy trick, crash master! Is that all you’ve got?!”

“Ha! I’m just getting started!” Rainbow shouted back. “Try and dodge this!”

She clapped her hooves together again, harder this time, sending a shockwave through her trail. As the shockwave moved along the bolt of lightning, more lightning sparked outwards in all directions, creating a veritable storm. When the shockwave reached the end of the trail, dozens of lightning bolts arced through the sky.

One just narrowly screeched by Havocwing’s face. “What the buck?! Hey! Watch where you’re aiming, bitch! You almost bucking hit me!”

“Well duh! That’s kinda the point, idiot! We’re supposed to be fighting!”

“Buck your point!”

Rainbow produced another shockwave, creating another lightning storm. Havocwing dove to avoid the lightning arcs, then responded with a volley of fireballs. Rainbow looped to avoid the torrent of flame, then responded with another lightning storm. This back and forth continued for several moments before Rainbow grew tired of it.

“This is getting me nowhere,” she muttered to herself while dodging more fire. “I need to try something else. Ah! I know just the thing.”

Rainbow swerved sharply to the left, spinning into a barrel roll in the process; her lightning trail evaporated, but Rainbow suppressed the formation of the whirlwind trail that should have formed to replace it.

Havocwing gave chase, as expected. “Giving up, punk?”

Rainbow smirked. “Just try to keep up!”

Rainbow continued to maintain a tight, circular turn; Havocwing attempted to take an inside path, but Rainbow put everything she had into keeping her distance. The faster Rainbow went, the tighter she brought her circle; the tighter the circle, the faster the winds moved. Before long, the winds had picked up to a fearsome gale.

Just a little more, and I’ve got her right where I want her.

Applejack crashed on a flat stretch of rock. Stones burst up from around her, encircling her and cutting her off from the rest of the area. She rose to her hooves and glanced about to examine her new surroundings. The new arena was packed pretty tight; there was hardly any room to move. The earth around her groaned in pain; to Applejack, it pleaded for her help. She wished she knew how to.

She didn’t have long to think on it, though. She had company.

Grayscale Force glided lazily over the arena wall and landed in front of Applejack, striking the ground like a two-ton weight. She took a moment to give Applejack a once-over; Applejack did not take her eyes off the pegasus for a second. Then, the pegasus grunted out a greeting: “Hey.”

Applejack adjusted her hat on her head—she was glad it hadn’t fallen off mid-flight—and shifted into a fighting stance. “That all ya got ta say ta me? ‘Hey’?”

“Would you rather I start taunting you, or something?” Grayscale asked. She shrugged. “I mean, okay, if that’s what you want... hayseed.”

“Y’all’re in fer a world o’ hurt there, missy,” Applejack snapped. “This ain’t gonna be like last time. You ‘n’ me, we’re gonna do this legit-like. Mare-ta-mare, hoof-ta-hoof. None o’ yer fancy flyin’, or weird weight tricks. None o’ that.”

“Eh, I guess I can humor you. I’ll even let you keep your rock armor,” Grayscale said, gesturing to Applejack’s flank.

Applejack grunted, and sprung forward. Grayscale raised her hooves to intercept Applejack’s tackle. The two entered into a grappling match. Applejack pressed forward, pushing Grayscale towards the ground.

Grayscale yawned, and pushed back, bringing them to their original positions. Applejack pushed harder, but Grayscale barely budged.

Applejack took a deep breath, drawing more of the earth’s power into her body. Still, Grayscale did not move. Applejack was left putting all of her effort into an attempt to move an immovable object, and that left her confused. She knew Grayscale could mess with weights, but she’d always moved her wings to do so; Applejack had seen it clearly, and Twilight had expressed the same understanding. Was she really strong enough to resist Applejack’s force?

She pulled out of the grapple for an instant, then rushed back in to tackle Grayscale. She slammed into Grayscale’s midsection, and pushed her back several inches. Then, Grayscale skidded to a halt, and she pushed back with so much power that Applejack went tumbling to the ground.

Grayscale slammed her forehooves down on Applejack’s back; to Applejack, it felt like having a house dropped on her. “Are you done?” she asked. “This is boring.”

Applejack snorted, but kept her eyes on Grayscale’s hind legs, which were just in front of her face. “Hmph. I wasn’t expectin’ y’all ta be so fat.”

“Cute. I’ll ask again: are you done? Because I want to get this over with already.”

“Oh, we ain’t done. In fact, we’re just gettin’ started!”

Applejack called out to the earth below and, with its strength behind her, swept Grayscale’s legs with just her own forelegs. Grayscale wobbled for an instant; it was enough for Applejack to roll out from under the other mare’s weight.

Grayscale recovered quickly, though, and kicked Applejack hard in the midsection, then flicked her wings the instant Applejack left the ground.

Applejack felt her body weight decrease for all of a few seconds—enough to go airborne—then suddenly increase again, so sharply that she slammed right back down into the rocky ground, cratering the surface on impact.

Once her weight returned to normal, Applejack rose to her hooves. “Dirty cheater... I done told ya not to use none o’ them fancy tricks! Ya said ya’d fight fair!”

“Fair? Fair is for fools,” Grayscale chuckled. “It’s just not practical to play fair. Makes things take too long.”

“Yeah, well, that don’t make ya any less of a dirty cheater.”

“I just want to get this over with.” Grayscale yawned. “Face it: I’m way out of your league, ground-pounder.”

“Oh yeah? We’ll just see about that,” Applejack snorted.

“Here we go again. Second verse, same as the first, I guess,” Grayscale said with a shrug.

Applejack leapt towards her, but Grayscale easily avoided it by taking to the air.

“Get back here, ya danged coward!” Applejack shouted, shaking her hoof up at the retreating pegasus. “Fight me like a mare, dagnabit! Y’all ain’t doin’ this right!”

Grayscale circled around in the air above Applejack at a lackadaisical pace. “If being practical is wrong, who wants to be right? Only total numbskulls fight fair. It’s a pretty simple concept, really.”

“An’ only total cowards fight like dirty, rotten cheaters! That’s all you ‘n’ yer sisters are! A bunch o’ cowards! Sneakin’ around, ambushin’ ponies, an’ fightin’ dirty!”

“Y’know, these easy assignments are kind of a mixed blessing,” Grayscale said. “On one hoof, I hardly have to put in any effort. You’re just not worth it. But, on the other hoof, I can’t just up and take a nap, on the off chance you decide you want to be competent.” She shrugged, and kicked back in the air. “I’ll look at the bright side though: at least from up here, I can see what everypony else is doing. Might as well enjoy the show.”

Curaçao watched in amusement as Rarity circled past her for the fourth time, her eyes darting every which way for some unseen opponent. The distraction had worked perfectly. Rarity was unsure if Curaçao was anywhere nearby, or if she was even nearby at all. It had been a simple matter of playing off her invisibility capability as less effective than it truly was. If Rarity knew that Curaçao could turn completely invisible, she’d probably be trying to feel around for her, rather than just use her keen eyes.

Magnifique.

Curaçao took a breath and focused her mind on reaching out and connecting with Grayscale’s. Once she felt the connection, she asked, <Grayscale? Can you ‘ear me?>

<Curaçao?> Grayscale responded over the connection. <Interesting. I thought only the boss could do this.>

<I ‘ave learned ‘ow to use it myself, vois-tu? I will teach zee rest of you after we finish wiz zis affaire.> Curaçao cleared her throat. <Anyvay, ‘ow are zings going over zere? Applejack is not giving you trouble, is she?>

<Not even remotely. I’m just kicking back and keeping an eye on the others, like we planned. If anypony runs into trouble, I’ll go help.>

<And I will try to keep zem out of trouble in zee first place. Zis is vorking out better zan expected, even wiz zese ozer mares ‘aving new powers, non? Parfait!>

<Maybe for you and I, but I’m still not sure about the others.>

<Hmm... c’est vrai. I am not sure if ‘avocwing will be able to deal wiz Rainbow Dash’s new abilities. Per’aps you can—>

<Whoa!>

<Grayscale? Qu’est-ce que c’est?>

<The stupid hick is flinging rocks at me. Hang on, I’ll get back to you after I take care of this.>

Applejack lifted another chunk of rock out of the ground, tossed it into the air, spun and bucked it as hard as she could, sending it speeding up at the bulky pegasus above her.

Grayscale had seemed distracted earlier, enough that she didn’t even see Applejack work out her plan of attack. Now she had no choice but to sit up and take notice. She flicked one wing, and the rock sailing towards her plummeted to the ground.

“Hey, featherbrain!” Applejack shouted, now that she had Grayscale’s attention. “Why don’t y’all bring yer sorry butt down here, before I make yer sorry butt get down here!”

Grayscale didn’t come down. She circled in the air, as if looking for an opportunity to strike.

Applejack wasn’t about to give the pegasus any such opportunity. She focused her energy to summon another bunch of rocks from the ground. The rocks orbited her at just the perfect height for bucking. She turned, and, using only one leg so as to buck faster, bucked each rock one at a time. Every time she bucked a rock at her opponent, she summoned another to replace it, until she had a steady stream of ammunition launching skyward.

To Applejack’s delight, Grayscale didn’t seem to have an easy time avoiding the rocks at all. While at first she’d just flicked her wings to deflect them groundward, now there were too many, and their intervals were too uneven to catch all of the rocks in a single weight-changing action.

Since Grayscale needed both wings to fly, she soon had to resort to dodging the rocks, a feat not made easy by her broad frame. Applejack counted the rocks that managed to hit their mark, and was pleased to say her aim was getting better.

“What’s the matter, Grayscale?” Applejack called. “Y’all havin’ a lil’ trouble up there?”

Grayscale stopped moving just over Applejack’s head, then dropped like a stone.

Applejack dove to the side. Grayscale slammed into the ground, cratering the spot where Applejack had just been standing only a split second before; rocky debris and clouds of dust sprayed in all directions, and great fissure lines ripped through the earth.

Applejack rose to her hooves. The dust did not bother her senses, so she could see Grayscale just fine through the settling clouds; the pegasus bore a cocksure grin, and was looking straight at her.

“Not bad, dirt farmer,” Grayscale said. “Maybe you’re not so boring.”

Fluttershy hadn’t really given much thought to how she was going to go about teaching Insipid a lesson. The other mare didn’t seem like she’d accept or even understand anything Fluttershy could try to explain to her. So talking to her was out. She had to take action; Lockwood was hurt, and this mare had insulted him. Even now Ophanim bounced erratically around Fluttershy’s ears, eagerly waiting to be called upon.

Insipid, however, did not seem patient enough to let Fluttershy think. “So, like, are you gonna do something, or what?” she asked with a weary sigh. “You’re just, y’know, standing there and junk? This is totally super dull.”

Fluttershy huffed. “You’re right. No more standing around. I’m going to give you a chance to apologize for everything you’ve said and done. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Hurt me? Pshaw! Yeah, right! You?” Insipid laughed, long and loud; it was the most annoying sound in the world, like somepony was tormenting a helium-filled duck. “That’s sooo totally funny! You’re, like, a super good jokester, Buttercup.”

“Fluttershy,” Fluttershy said through clenched teeth.

Insipid rolled her eyes and groaned. “Okay, like, who cares? Why are you and your friends so touchy over your names and junk? I don’t have time to, y’know, memorize everypony’s totally lame-o names, okay?” She flipped her mane and huffed. “So like, are we gonna get to it or whatever?”

Fluttershy narrowed her eyes and readied herself to sic Ophanim on the unicorn. “This is the last time I’m going to ask,” she said. “Apologize, or else.”

“Ah, bite me!”

Insipid sprung at Fluttershy like a cat.

Ophanim bolted forward, taking on his wolf form in the process, and pounced on Insipid in mid-air. He had her pinned in seconds; his large frame dwarfed hers, and made it easy to keep her from escaping. He brought his muzzle just over her face, then snarled, baring his great, sharp fangs.

“Ahhh!” Insipid wailed, her pitch so high that Ophanim pulled back an inch and flattened his ears. “Big doggie! Get it off! Get it offff! I don’t wanna be doggie chow! Help! Helllp!”

“Good boy, Ophanim,” Fluttershy cooed. She flew over and patted the great wolf on his head, then scratched him behind his ears. “Who’s a good puppy? You are! Yes you are!”

Ophanim’s hind leg twitched excitedly, and his tail swished to and fro. Fluttershy was glad to see that even though Ophanim wasn’t a real wolf, he certainly did act like one. Gilderoy was right: for all intents and purposes, Ophanim was whatever animal he took the shape of, only he obeyed Fluttershy’s commands. He was also much larger, which gave him an advantage over a wild animal.

“Okay, Ophanim, just keep her pinned,” she said. “Mommy’s going to see if she can find where the others have gotten to and if they need any help.”

As Fluttershy took to the air and began to fly off, Insipid cried, “H-hey! W-w-wait! Y-you’re not just gonna, like, leave me here? Are you?”

Fluttershy turned back, and landed beside the unicorn. She scowled at her, and shook her head. “If you apologize, and you promise not to hurt anypony ever again, I’ll let you go.”

“B-but the boss said—" Insipid paused, and her ears perked up. “Hey... wait a sec...” Her mouth curled into a toothy grin, and her eyes glowed with wonder. “Your doggie’s made of magic. Heh. Ha ha ha! Yes!”

Insipid brought her forehooves up to grab the sides of Ophanim’s face. Ophanim whined, and his light flickered erratically, like a shorted-out light bulb. He leapt off of Insipid and staggered back a few steps, as though wounded.

Fluttershy darted over to him. “Ophanim! Are you alright?” she asked as she stroked his fur. “What did she do to you?”

“Oooh, yum yum yum! That’s good magic!” Insipid cackled as she rose to her hooves. She lifted her forehoof and gave it a once-over; Fluttershy noticed the hoof glowed green for all of a few seconds. “Hmm... okay, let’s see how this works. Form of... a, uh... whatever that doggie is!”

Insipid’s body flashed a bright white for a few seconds, then took on a new shape. When the glow subsided, her body had taken the form of a wolf just like Ophanim, though not as large. Her thick fur was charcoal black like her regular coat, and tufts of bright yellow—the same color as her mane—spread across her chest and streaked through her tail. Her cutie mark no longer emblazoned her flanks, and her horn was gone. The only pony feature she retained were her big, decidedly un-wolflike eyes.

“Oh... oh my...” Fluttershy gasped.

Insipid raised a paw to her face, then glanced back to examine herself, and even spent a few seconds chasing her tail. When at last she was satisfied with her new form, she bounced excitedly in place.

“Oh boy! This is so cool! Now I’m a doggie too! Woof woof! Arf arf!” She dropped her body low to the ground, as though preparing to pounce. “Okay, round two! Ready... setgo!”

She leapt at Ophanim and tackled him, slamming him to the dirt. She opened her maw and bit down on Ophanim’s neck.

Ophanim yowled, then rolled over so that Insipid was beneath him. He used his leverage to wrestle out of her bite, then he backed away to ready himself for his next attack.

As Insipid attempted to right herself, Ophanim leapt upon her and sunk his teeth into the back of her neck, putting all of his weight into forcing her to the ground in the process.

“Ow! Like, watch it, you stupid dog!” she spat.

“Ophanim! Please, try not to hurt her!” Fluttershy pleaded.

Insipid shook Ophanim off and scrambled away. “Tch, your dumb doggie’s, like, one tough cookie.”

Fluttershy glared at Insipid. “Stop this, Insipid. You might look like a wolf, but Ophanim’s the genuine article, and he’s bigger than you. If I let him cut loose, he can and will hurt you. I don’t want that, and neither do you.”

“Pshaw, as if. Okay, like, fine. So your doggie’s a better doggie than me,” Insipid said with a shrug. “Let’s see if he can handle something else!”

Insipid glowed white again, and in seconds, her form had changed. Her body molded into a longer, thinner shape, and grew in size until she was just slightly bigger than Ophanim. Her head shorted, her ears shrunk, and her tail grew and thinned. When the glow subsided, Insipid had morphed into the form of a tiger with stripes alternating between charcoal black and garish yellow.

Fluttershy balked. “B-but... how?”

“Round three!” Insipid shouted. “Rawr!”

Insipid darted at Ophanim and pounced upon him as she’d done before, only this time she dug her great claws into his sides. Ophanim yowled in pain, and attempted to throw Insipid off of him; Insipid’s grip was too tight, though, and he couldn’t dislodge her.

Insipid roared and sank her fangs into Ophanim’s neck. He howled again and sunk low to the ground. His light flickered; Fluttershy could feel his pain. She wanted to help, but she didn’t know how. A tiger was naturally superior to a lone wolf, and so Insipid’s form was superior to Ophanim’s. Even if his was that of a bigger, stronger wolf, she was even bigger and stronger. She was faster too, and she had an additional weapon in her claws. The only thing Fluttershy could think of that would help is if Ophanim could change forms, which wasn’t possible.

Or was it?

If Insipid copied Ophanim’s powers entirely, and she can change forms, then perhaps...

Fluttershy glared at Insipid for a moment, then directed her attention to Ophanim and focused her thoughts on molding him into the sort of animal that would best beat Insipid’s tiger. Ophanim flashed white for a brief instant.

This distracted Insipid; she backed away from the glowing form before her. “Uh... like, what gives?”

Ophanim reached out with a massive arm and grabbed Insipid’s face with its huge hand, then slammed it into the rocky ground. He did not give her time to register the pain, either; she was forced to dart aside to avoid being crushed when Ophanim, now in the form of a mighty gorilla, swung his fist down to crush her.

“Like, whoa! Giant monkey!” Insipid exclaimed.

“Giant ape,” Fluttershy corrected, shooting Ophanim a proud smile.

Ophanim roared and pounded his chest.

Insipid rolled her eyes. “Whatever! I’m still gonna beat it!”

She leapt at Ophanim, claws reared and ready to tear into him. She was met by a forearm almost as thick around as the rest of her body; the blow knocked her into the rock wall behind her.

“Oww...” Insipid groaned as she stumbled upright.

“Are you ready to apologize now?” Fluttershy asked. She trotted up to Ophanim and patted him on the waist; it was the highest she could reach without taking to the air.

“This totally blows. So like, okay, doggie beats pony. Kitty beats doggie. Monkey beats kitty. So... what beats monkey?” she asked, tapping her chin. “Shark?”

“Just give it up, Insipid. Any animal you pick, I’ll pick something suited to beat you. Ophanim will always have the size and intellect advantage over you. Stop this already, and apologize for what you’ve said and done, and I’ll be on my way.”

Insipid blew a raspberry.

“Suit yourself,” Fluttershy sighed. She turned to the spirit gorilla at her side. “Ophanim?”

Ophanim grunted in affirmation and took a step forward.

“Go.”

Pinkie galloped as fast as her hooves would carry her, keeping her focus on the sky. She could see Rainbow and Havocwing looping about up there, and had been watching them ever since they had broken away from the others. She was so focused on what was going on above her that she almost ran into a boulder that sprung up in front of her; she only noticed when it poked into her line of sight. When she tried to go around it, more rocks burst out of the earth, forming a solid ring around her.

She frowned, but kept some of her attention on the sky. If these rocks were in her way, she’d be unable to follow Rainbow’s path.

Just as she stepped back to take a running leap, she was struck by a chilling cold. She froze in place; the light around her dimmed to nothing, leaving her in total darkness.

“Well, well, well. Look at what I caught,” came an all-too-familiar cackle. “A Pinkie Pie! Mmm… just the way I like ‘em: fat and stupid.”

Pinkie wheeled around, drawing her pistol from its holster and aiming it at where she thought she’d heard the voice originate. There wasn’t anything there but darkness.

“I know you’re there, Red,” Pinkie said. “Show yourself!”

“You’re like a teeny, tiny mouse in a trap, lured away from her safe little hole by the promise of cheese,” Velvet continued, though she still spoke from nothingness. “How does it feel, knowing you can’t help your lover up there? She’s all alone with a crazed pyromaniac. Havocwing might be an idiot, but she’s brutal when she wants to be. When she’s done, your precious Dashie will be burned to a crisp. You might as well call her Rainbow Ash.”

Pinkie aimed her pistol to her left. So long as Velvet kept talking, she’d eventually figure out where she was. “Dashie’s no slouch either, and she’s stronger than the last time we met. She’ll handle herself just fine.”

Velvet’s bone-chilling laugh echoed through the darkness. “Aww, that’s so cute. Who are you trying to convince, Pinkie? Me, or yourself?”

Pinkie felt the sharp cold creep up her spine. Velvet was somewhere behind her, but she couldn’t be sure where. She wanted to turn and look, but resisted the urge. All she needed to know was where she was; if she turned, Velvet might move.

“I can taste just the slightest bit of fear in you, Pinkie. For all your big talk about being confident, you still fear for dear Dashie’s well-being. You’re still afraid of losing her. You’re still afraid of me.”

Pinkie closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. “I’m not afraid of you.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t quite hear you,” Velvet teased, sliding unseen tendrils along Pinkie’s once-injured leg. “You’re gonna have to speak up.”

“I said...”

Pinkie spun around and delivered a vicious jab into the darkness. The punch sent Red Velvet reeling backward into the wall.

“I’m not afraid of you!”

In Velvet’s stupor, she lost control over the surrounding darkness; it evaporated like fog, and the cold went with it. The ring of rock was clearly visible now, and soon, too, was the sky. Pinkie could no longer see Rainbow and Havocwing; she frowned.

Velvet righted herself, and shook her head to clear it. She hadn’t been expecting the blow. “How?! You should be—" She paused, and raised an eyebrow. “Now what the hell are you wearing?”

Pinkie’s outfit had changed once again. A much more colorful ensemble had replaced her gray-on-gray police uniform. Her now-muscular frame pressed tightly against the spandex-like material of a blue jacket and matching blue pants. The golden color of the boots on all four hooves matched the bright scarf around her neck. A silver shoulder plate accented the jacket, but only covered one shoulder. Her helmet was the most distinct part of the outfit by far. It was a bright, sporty red, and bore a golden emblem on the front that looked like a falcon. A black face shield covered the top half of her face and obscured her eyes, though to an outside viewer, they appeared as white slits.

Pinkie reared back on her hind legs and shifted into a fighting stance. “Yeah, you’re right. I am afraid about something bad happening to Dashie, and to any of my friends. But I’ll say it again: I’m not afraid of you.”

Velvet sneered, and her eyebrow twitched in anger. “This... this feeling. I feel your fear, but... I still feel so much joy! How can you be excited at a time like this?”

“Oh, I’ll tell you why I’m excited. The thing that would make me happiest is if I knew all of friends were safe. Since I can’t help them with their own battles right now, I’ll do the next best thing: keep you away from them. And that means kicking your butt!”

Velvet smirked. A slit along her spine burst open, letting loose a torrent of blood that formed blades, spikes, and blunt objects of all shapes and sizes. “I love it when they get all brave. Okay then, you wanna go? Let’s go. I’ll tear you to shreds. Then, I’ll do the same to allll your little friends.”

“Aww, but I thought your boss lady was keeping you on a leash, little puppy. Did she let you out for walkies?”

Velvet grit her teeth. “I might be bound by that ridiculous ‘non-lethal’ garbage, but you know what’s funny about that? You’d be surprised at what you can live through.”

Velvet leaned forward as if to charge, but her hooves didn’t budge an inch. Her tendrils wobbled about in a tight formation, clearly aching to move but also unable to do so.

“Why can’t I move?!” Velvet spat. “What did you do? What’s going on?!”

Pinkie pulled a small, flat gadget out of her pocket, and used her hoof to fiddle with the screen. “Hang on, okay? I’m picking the accompanying music. You can’t have a fight scene without some sort of background music, after all.”

Velvet rolled her eyes. “Ugh. This again? Are we gonna do this every time?”

“Yes.”

Velvet groaned.

“Don’t worry, I always pick something appropriate.” She tapped her gadget’s screen with a dramatic flair. “Aaand... there!”

The music Pinkie picked played though the arena from some unseen source.

“How... what... but...” Velvet sputtered. She then paused, sighed, and shook her head. “You know what? I’m just gonna stop asking questions. Are we ready to do this?”

From out of nowhere, a distinctly male voice announced:

“What the hell was that?!” Velvet exclaimed. She frantically looked about for the source of the voice. “Who said that?”

“What happened to not asking questions?” Pinkie snickered. She settled back into her fighting stance. “Here we go, Red. Show me your moves!”

The male voice announced:

“Who keeps—"

Pinkie cut Velvet off with a running shoulder tackle, popping her up into the air. Then, before Velvet could react, she leapt after her, and slammed both rear hooves down hard on Velvet’s back, knocking her right back into the ground.

Velvet recovered and rolled out of the way before Pinkie landed. She swung a single blade at Pinkie’s face; Pinkie jumped mid-air to avoid it.

“Falcon Kick!” Pinkie shouted. She came rushing downwards at her, her hind leg sheathed in fire; Velvet’s eyes widened.

Pinkie’s hoof struck Velvet’s face and knocked her airborne again. She then leapt up and smacked Velvet with a quick one-two kick, knocking Velvet clear to the other side of the arena.

Velvet snarled as she rose to her hooves. She rushed Pinkie, tendrils flaring in the air like lightning. She lashed a blade at Pinkie; Pinkie rolled back to avoid it. She unleashed a flurry of spikes; Pinkie miraculously sidestepped the entire barrage. She charged at Pinkie, slicing rapidly through the air; Pinkie rolled behind Velvet, somehow passing through her tendrils and body in the process.

“Stop moving you stupid oaf!” Velvet snapped.

“Pfh, that defeats the purpose of picking a fast character, Red,” Pinkie scoffed. She twirled around the air to avoid another wildly-flailing spike. “You can’t complain about me avoiding all your attacks if all you’re going to do is spam. Predictable noob tactics, Red. I expected better.”

“I’ll show you predictable!” Velvet snorted. She lashed out with multiple spikes at once from varying directions.

Pinkie darted away to avoid them. When she saw an opening, she sprung at Velvet with a running short-hop. She lifted her hind leg up and smashed Velvet in the gut with her knee; the impact sent electrical currents ripping through the air, launching Velvet into the wall.

Velvet removed herself from the wall and shook off her stupor. She glared at Pinkie. “Enough of this!” she shouted. She reeled in her blood until all that was left were four thick globs, which she slathered on her hooves.

Pinkie gestured for Velvet to ‘bring it on.’

Velvet lunged at Pinkie, hooves outstretched. Pinkie sidestepped the initial charge, and attempted to capitalize with a fierce roundhouse.

This time, though, Velvet rolled out of the way, just as Pinkie had done earlier: through the kick, through Pinkie, and to Pinkie’s other side. Before Pinkie could react, Velvet thrust her blood-soaked hoof into Pinkie’s back; her blood allowed her to easily pierce through Pinkie’s flesh.

Pinkie yowled in pain, and squirmed to dislodge herself from Velvet’s grip.

Velvet punched Pinkie in the spine with her other hoof once, twice, three times. She then lifted Pinkie over her head, and slammed her face-first into the ground behind her in a reverse powerbomb.

Pinkie bounced at an odd angle, giving Velvet ample time to pounce again. Velvet snagged Pinkie’s hind legs with an outstretched tendril, swung her around in a wide circle, then tossed her over the arena wall.

Pinkie exploded in a shower of white and blue sparks the second she passed the boundary.

Velvet’s jaw dropped. “What the—"

The male voice from earlier returned, and shouted:

“Uh...”

“What? What game? What’d I win? What is happening?!”

Pinkie giggled. “Looks like I underestimated you, Red. That was a pretty sick combo.”

Velvet turned slowly to face Pinkie’s voice. Pinkie stood before her, unharmed, as if nothing had happened. Velvet glanced down at herself to see that she, too, no longer had any injuries; even the gash along her spine had healed.

Pinkie rolled her shoulders and got back into a fighting stance. “Okay then, let’s keep going. Round two.”

“No... I just... but you...” Velvet babbled. She ground her teeth in rage, then stopped, as if struck by an idea. She let out a great, loud, open-mouthed cackle. “I think I get it now. You’ve locked us in some sort endless duel, and we recover from our injuries after every fight.”

“Well, technically one-stock isn’t exactly endless,” Pinkie said, scratching her chin. “We just play another round immediately after the last one.”

“Either way, this is good. This is very good.” Velvet cackled again, then smiled wide, revealing rows of fangs. “If you heal every time I ‘win’, then I can really cut loose and unleash everything I have on you. I’m going to enjoy this!”

Pinkie smirked. “Funny story: I get stronger when ponies are having fun.”

“Let’s do this!” Velvet shouted, letting loose another full array of tendrils.

“Show me your moves!” Pinkie retorted.

Applejack dodged another of Grayscale’s crushing dives. She misjudged her landing, though, and slammed into the surrounding wall. She quickly recovered and prepared herself for the next attack, but was genuinely surprised when it didn’t come.

She glanced skyward. Grayscale was up there, certainly, but didn’t look to be preparing for an attack. In fact, she looked like she was just observing the surrounding area.

“Now don’t that beat all,” Applejack muttered, scratching her head. “What is she doin’ up there, jus’ lookin’ ‘round like—" She paused, then grinned. “Ohh, I get it now. She thinks she can just leave me down here ‘n’ find some other fight ta join in on. Well, we’ll just see about that.”

She kicked another rock just past Grayscale’s head.

Grayscale groaned and turned her gaze down at the earth pony. “Really? Why do you have to mess up this good thing I’m trying to have? It’s so easy: I don’t bother you, you don’t bother me. It’s the perfect system.”

“Fat chance!” Applejack kicked another rock, not really intending to hit so much as show intent. “I ain’t ready ta throw in the towel yet, featherbrain, so get yer sorry butt back down here an’ let me whoop ya!”

Grayscale sighed, shrugged, then dove at Applejack again. Applejack remained still.

Grayscale came in hard and fast. Applejack stood firm.

A second before impact, Grayscale adjusted her trajectory and, instead of landing right on top of Applejack, landed directly in front of her.

Applejack weathered the shockwave, then leapt on Grayscale as soon as the ground stopped shaking. She and Grayscale tussled, rolled, and finally came to a stop near the middle of the arena, where the rock had been so cratered and broken that all that remained was sand and dirt.

It had been easy, really; Applejack was used to wrestling with her brother ever since they were little. Big Macintosh was a big, powerful workhorse, bigger than any stallion Applejack knew. Grayscale nearly matched him in size. Catching her off-guard was all it took.

Applejack slammed Grayscale down on her back and pinned her neatly to the ground. She planted her legs such that Grayscale was effectively unable to move. She’d used this exact pin on Rainbow once or twice when she’d caught her catching a nap in her apple trees, so it was only a matter of adjusting for size.

“Well lookie here! I caught me a pesky pegasus.”

Grayscale snorted. “Not for long.” She flicked her wings and pushed upwards; even without much leverage, if Applejack was light enough, she’d be easy enough to dislodge.

Applejack didn’t budge an inch.

“Heh, nice try,” Applejack laughed. “But y’see, th’ other thing ‘bout bein’ connected ta th’ earth is that I’m really connected ta th’ earth.”

She gestured towards her legs with her eyes, hoping Grayscale would follow the glance. Grayscale did exactly that, and saw that Applejack’s legs had fused with the rock beneath her.

Grayscale returned her gaze to Applejack’s face and narrowed her eyes. “I see. By fusing yourself to the ground, you’ve added its strength to your own. Clever.”

“Yeah, I reckon it is,” Applejack said. “See now, you ‘n’ me? We’re gonna just sit here and have us a grand ol’ time. Y’know, I never much got a chance ta talk ta y’all before all this here fightin’ happened. What’s yer favorite color?”

“Are we really doing this?”

“Favorite food, maybe?”

Grayscale snorted. “You know, by staying here with me, you can’t help your friends.”

“Yeah, an’ by stayin’ here with ya, you can’t help yer sisters, neither. I saw y’all up there lookin’ ‘round. Y’all’re keepin’ an eye out, ta see if ya can’t make sure they all win, ain’t ya? Now, that ain’t fair.”

“Fair? The fights are already unfair. You think your friends Fluttershy and Rarity can last against Insipid and Curaçao?”

“They’ll have a better chance if y’all ain’t involved, so if that’s what I gotta do to help my friends, that what I’m gonna do.”

Grayscale paused, then cocked a slight grin. “Huh. Seems I misjudged you, Applejack. You’re not so bad after all. Now, I’m gonna figure a way out of this, and then we’re gonna fight again, okay? I won’t hold back, either. How long do you think you’ll last?”

“As long as it takes, Grayscale,” Applejack replied, cocking a grin of her own. “As long as it takes.”

Havocwing took aim at the rainbow-maned pegasus ahead of her with all the care and precision her patience would allow. A surge of heat wafted through her leg up to her hoof; she launched a fireball like a bullet. She led her target, she adjusted for drop, and the blast was large enough that even if she just glanced her target, the rainbow-maned pegasus would be in for a world of hurt. It was the perfect shot.

The only thing she couldn’t figure out was the wind, and that was what caused her fireball to wildly miss its mark. There was hardly any wind at all in the air, so accounting for it was easy. But, when the projectile got within a few yards of its target it careened off course so erratically that it was as if it had a mind of its own, and its mind was telling it to avoid hitting Rainbow Dash at any cost. This was not the first shot that had done this, either; in fact, Havocwing had lost count of how many shots she’d fired and missed since Rainbow pulled into the simple, circular flight pattern she was in now, a pattern that had no right making it so easy to avoid Havocwing’s shots.

“Is this all you’ve got, crash master?!” Havocwing yelled. “Flying around in circles like you’re some kind of bitch chasing her bucking tail?! You can’t lay a hit on me so you’re just gonna fly around? Come at me, punk!”

“Whoa now, looks like we’ve got a real badass over here!” Rainbow hollered back, her mouth curled in a wide grin. “You having problems back there, hothead? Maybe you need some glasses!”

Havocwing snarled. “Wipe that shit-eating grin off your face, or I’m gonna kick your bucking teeth in! Then we’ll see who needs glasses... braces!”

“Uh-oh, you sound mad. You mad, Havoc? ‘cause you sound mad.”

“You haven’t even seen mad yet, you muff-diving skank! I’m just getting started! If you’re trying to get me mad, maybe you’d better stick to something you’re good at, like munching carpet!”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Oh, yeah, like I haven’t heard that one before. Keep ‘em coming, skunk face! I can do this all day!”

Rainbow continued circling, not showing even the slightest signs of switching it up.

Havocwing was still trailing just behind Rainbow despite taking the inside path, so she increased her speed. She launched a fireball every chance she could, but the bursts still just would not hit their target.

Rainbow’s loops tightened by the second. Havocwing tightened hers in turn to keep her positioning. Soon, her own loops were so tight that she was effectively flying in a circle no bigger than three ponies wide. At the same time, the wind picked up. Really picked up, so much so that Havocwing had trouble aiming at all, let alone trying to compensate for it in her shots; worse, the wind snuffed out several fireballs before they even came close to Rainbow’s tail.

“Dammit!” Havocwing spat. “Where the buck did all this wind come from?!”

<’avocwing! Fais attention!>

Havocwing paused. That was Curaçao’s voice, and it had spoken into her head just like Starlight had a habit of doing. <Curaçao? How are you—>

<Ça ne fait rien!> Curaçao exclaimed. <Écoutez, you need to—>

<What I need to do is focus!> Havocwing snapped. <You’re distracting me! Leave me alone!>

<Non! ‘avocwing! Do not close—>

Havocwing closed off her mind to Curaçao, effectively severing their connection; no more distractions. The winds were picking up more than ever, and it was hard enough trying to fly without her elder sister’s incessant yapping in her head.

“Hey, torchy! I bet you’re gonna wish you had some goggles in a minute!” Rainbow shouted. “Things are about to get windy!”

“What?!” Havocwing shouted back; the winds had drowned out Rainbow’s words so much that she wasn’t certain what had been said. “Speak up, I can’t y- whoooaaa!”

A fearsome gale sucked Havocwing up into the swirling vortex of a tornado; it had formed so quickly that she hadn’t even noticed it. She frantically tried to right herself, but the winds were so strong that everything she tried proved useless. Around and around she spun, losing all sense of direction, and her lunch as well.

She didn’t even notice Rainbow Dash flying through the whirlwind unabated, nor did she notice Rainbow Dash screech towards her with a dive bomb kick.

“Eat it, chump!” Rainbow yelled.

Rainbow’s hoof impacted Havocwing’s back, knocking her out of the tornado’s vortex with enough force to rocket Havocwing towards the ground below.

Havocwing flailed about to try and regain control, and failed miserably. She slammed into the rocky ground, hard, and bounced a fair distance before hitting the ground and bouncing again, punctuating each hard crash with a loud swear:

“Shit—" Slam. “Cock—" Bounce. “Dammi—" Crack. “Motherfuck-k-k—" Tumble. “-unt...”

Insipid snarled, bared her sharp fangs at the absolutely massive bear towering over her, and prepared to pounce. Then, she heard a loud crack behind her; both she, the spirit bear, and Fluttershy turned their heads to look at the source of the noise. A foul-mouthed pegasus had just bounced over the wall and landed within the bounds of their arena, rolled along the ground, then came to a screeching halt against the opposite wall, swearing all the while with words that Insipid knew were very, very bad.

Insipid’s sisterly instincts took over; she rushed to Havocwing’s limp body with all the speed of a cheetah—conveniently, this happened to be the animal form she’d been in before the crash, albeit her coat was black with yellow spots rather than the other way around. She leaned down and pawed at her elder sister’s side. Havocwing was covered in cuts and bruises, her wing was bent awkwardly, and she was missing a tooth.

“Havoc! Are you, like, okay?” she asked.

Havocwing’s eyes blinked open, barely. Her mouth curled in a dumb smile. “Oh... hey there... pussycat...” She laughed, then her head dropped and she closed her eyes as unconsciousness took her.

Insipid frowned. “Uh oh... totally not good.” She pawed Havocwing’s cheek. “Havoc? Hey! Hey Havoc, wake up! C’mooon, don’t go all, like, lame-o on me!”

“Looks like Rainbow won,” Fluttershy said. “That’s not good for you, or your sisters.”

Insipid jumped and dropped back into a pounce-ready position; she’d completely forgotten Fluttershy or her big spirit bear were even there. Then, Fluttershy’s words finally registered: Havocwing was here, injured and unconscious, which meant that the rainbow-maned pegasus had free reign to help out any of her friends. And, since Havocwing had just landed right here, that meant the other pegasus was close by. Insipid immediately turned her gaze skyward, but couldn’t see anything except a fading tornado.

Curaçao’s voice spoke into Insipid’s head. <Ma copine! Insipid? What ‘as ‘appened?>

Insipid perked up and glanced about in search of her eldest sister, tail swishing back and forth excitedly. “Curie? Is that you? Where are you?”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “Curaçao? She’s not here... is she? That would mean...” She gasped. “Rarity!”

<Chut!> Curaçao hissed. <You do not need to speak, ma copine. Just zink.>

“Uhhh... okay?” Insipid muttered. “I am thinking? I mean, duh, Curie. I have to think before I can talk.”

Curaçao paused, then sighed. <Sometimes, ma copine, I do not zink you do zat at all. Ça ne fait rien. Are you alright? I ‘eard a crash near you, and after losing contact wiz ‘avocwing—>

“Oh, Havoc? Yeah, that crash was totally her.”

<Zut! Is she alright?!>

Insipid glanced at Havocwing’s limp form. She hesitated. “Um... not really? She’s kinda bleeding, and she passed out and junk. She’s, like, the opposite of alright?”

Curaçao groaned. <Merde. We need to get ‘er out of zere. Are you still ‘aving trouble wiz zee creampuff?>

“The what? Oh! You mean Flufflepuff! Yeah, I’m still having a little trouble, I guess?”

“Fluttershy! It’s Fluttershy!” Fluttershy shouted. “Who are you talking to? Is that Curaçao? Tell me: is Rarity okay?”

Insipid snorted. “Cha! Rude much? I’m trying to have, like, a conversation here?” She huffed and turned her attention back to Curaçao. “So, you were saying, Curie?”

<It might be best to add ‘avocwing’s powers to your own, zen. She will not be needing zem.>

“Aww, but Havoc’s powers are so lame—"

<Trust me, ma copine.>

“Ohh... fine. But only because it’s you, Curie. But, uh... so like, what am I supposed to do with them?”

<Combine zem wiz vhatever powers you ‘ave. Did you steal some of Fluttershy’s?>

“No, not exactly. I took her doggie... bear... whatever’s animal powers though. Uh... I forget his name. She talks to him like he’s her, like, pet or something?” She turned to Fluttershy. “Hey! What do you call your whatever-it-is?”

“His name is Ophanim,” Fluttershy said. “He’s a spirit familiar, and... wait, why am I explaining this to you?”

Insipid turned her attention back to Curaçao. “She said his name is Optimus. He transforms into different kinds of animals and junk? He’s a spirit… uh, transformer.”

<Ah bon? Intéressant...> Curaçao paused. <I zink I know a way to combine ‘is power wiz ‘avocwing’s. Take ‘er powers first, and zen I will explain.>

“Okay!” Insipid chirped.

She put her paw on Havocwing’s head. Her body glowed red for a moment, and she braced herself for Havocwing’s typical explosive temper, but it never came. She now had Havocwing’s ability to control and create flame once again.

Fluttershy blinked. “W-what are you doing?”

Insipid scoffed. “Uh, I’m taking Havoc’s powers? Duh.”

“But... doesn’t that hurt her?”

“Nah,” Insipid said, dismissing the idea with a wave of her paw. “Dummy here went and got, like, knocked out, so she can’t feel a thing. Good thing too, otherwise she’d be totally mad and junk? Besides, even if it did hurt, she like, totally deserves it. Her motto is, ‘if you can’t take the heat, stay out of my way.’ She, like, obviously wasn’t cut out to go against your pal up there?”

Fluttershy glared. “Just because you have Havocwing’s abilities now doesn’t mean I’m going to give up. I said I’d stop you from hurting anypony, so that’s what I’m going to do.”

Insipid cracked a toothy smile. “We’ll, like, just see about that, won’t we?”

Applejack sighed. It felt as though hours had passed since she’d pinned Grayscale to the ground, though with no sun to judge by, she couldn’t rightly tell. Looking down at the bulky pegasus mare’s face for this long was, to be blunt, boring. The only thing that affected the tedium of it all was Grayscale’s continued attempts to dislodge herself.

“So, are y’all ready ta just admit that ya lost, or what?” she asked.

“Lost? No, I don’t think so,” Grayscale said, eyebrow raised. “See, right now, we’re technically at a draw.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Pfh, whatever ya say. Y’all‘re just like Dash. None o’ y’all hotshot pegasi can admit losin’.”

“Admitting losing implies I lost. I haven’t lost yet.”

“Uh huh. Listen missy, I got ya pinned down good ‘n’ tight, so ya ain’t gonna get me off o’ ya any time soon. If that ain’t losin’—"

Grayscale shook her head. “If I lost, then you’d have won. Do you call sitting here doing nothing ‘winning’?”

“I call keepin’ y’all outta their business winnin’, yeah.”

“Well then, you haven’t won just yet. You’re not the only one with tricks up her sleeve. For example, did you know I don’t need my wings to adjust my own weight?”

Grayscale closed her eyes and took a deep, deep breath.

Applejack watched, unsure what Grayscale was up to, when a sharp pain shot through her head. The earth was crying out to her, as though a massive weight was pushing down on it.

Grayscale began sinking into the sand; it did not take her long to sink low enough that Applejack no longer had her pinned. “Later,” she said with a small smile.

“Oh no you don’t!” Applejack spat.

She sunk herself into the dirt so that she landed right on top of Grayscale. Their combined weight sunk deeper and deeper into the sand, until they passed straight through the sand into the solid rock beneath. Dust, dirt, and sand crumbled around their heads, burying them under its weight and pushing them further down.

Grayscale, however, was no longer effectively pinned. She shifted and rolled so that Applejack was pinned beneath her, instead, then punched Applejack in the jaw. Applejack barely reacted; her skin had transitioned from soft sand to stone. Grayscale just didn’t have the velocity needed to put her mass to work. She only punched once, though. Once she realized Applejack wasn’t going anywhere, she stopped moving completely of her own volition.

She did not, however, stop adding to her own weight. She and Applejack continued to sink down into the earth, passing through another stratum of rock, this one greenish-white—Applejack’s skin changed to match it.

“Dagnabit, what’re y’all tryin’ ta do?!” Applejack grunted.

“Me?” Grayscale chuckled. “You’re the one that’s just letting us keep going.”

Applejack blinked, then sneered. With a grunt, she put all of her effort into pushing against Grayscale’s weight. They slowed to a stop.

“Well now, looks like we stopped,” Grayscale muttered.

“Dang right we did.” Applejack snorted and shook her head. “Nice escape plan there, wingnut. Did ya really think ya could get away by bringin’ me closer ta th’ earth?”

Grayscale shrugged—at least, attempted to shrug, what with all the sand and rock on top of her. “Not exactly. Now you’ve got me right where you want me: buried alive.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”

“See, now that we’re buried down here, you can win. You can probably just move through this rock like it was nothing, and leave me here to die so you can go help your friends. That’s dirty, and unfair. I like it.”

“Y’all can’t be serious,” Applejack muttered. Grayscale’s expression did not change. “Listen here, missy, that ain’t my style. I ain’t gonna leave ya down here ta die.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Grayscale chuckled. “If you were telling the truth, you’d have done something by now.”

Applejack narrowed her eyes. “Y’all accusin’ me o’ bein’ a liar?”

“Yes.”

Applejack grunted, then focused all of her effort on asking the earth around her to aid her in proving Grayscale wrong. The surrounding rock complied, and slowly shifted itself around until it formed an open, spherical chamber around the pair. The walls of the sphere were coated in a thin layer of quartz, which Applejack was able to use to see.

Grayscale, however, was not able to do the same. “Hmm... what’s this you’re doing?” she asked.

Applejack picked her hat off the ground, glad that it had followed her all the way down here—though maybe the earth around her had something to do with it—and adjusted it on her head. “This here’s a lil’ cell I made. We’re surrounded by tons ‘n’ tons o’ rock, so much that no matter what y’all do, y’all ain’t gettin’ out without my help. But, I ain’t gonna leave ya buried alive or nothin’. I’m gonna go up there, I’m gonna help my friends, then I’m gonna come back ‘n’ getcha. Sound fair?”

“I suppose it does,” Grayscale replied, stroking her chin. “You left me with enough air to last me several hours. More than enough time for my sisters to beat you and your friends, and for my sisters to come get me.”

Applejack smirked. “Yeah, y’all just keep thinkin’ that. But yeah, y’all’re right: I left enough air fer ya ta last a while. Ain’t nothin’ else down here fer ya ta use against me in a fight, an’ I know I can rightly beat ya if’n ya tried.”

“Nothing, huh?” Grayscale shrugged, and flared her wings. “Let me educate you a little. Consider it thanks for providing me with my first real challenge since, well, ever.”

“What’re y’all goin’ on about now?” Applejack huffed.

“See, the thing about air is that it, too, has mass. Watch, and learn.”

She flicked her wings. A great burst of air blasted throughout the little cage.

Applejack found herself having trouble breathing. She tried to ask Grayscale what she’d done, but her words did not come out. The cell grew eerily quiet, as though nothing was making a sound at all. She and Grayscale began to tremble as their breaths became shorter.

One second.

Applejack clutched her neck; a layer of frost had formed on her and was beginning to do the same to Grayscale and the rest of the surrounding chamber. While it looked like frost, it wasn’t very cold.

Two seconds.

The rock beneath the frost cracked. Applejack couldn’t hear it, nor could she see it beneath all the frost, but she could feel it. The sensation felt like snapping bone.

Three seconds.

Applejack turned her gaze to Grayscale fully. Grayscale cracked a weak smirk, then pointed at Applejack, then pointed straight up. Applejack raised an eyebrow, unsure of what the gesture meant.

Four seconds.

Grayscale repeated the gesture: she pointed at Applejack, then pointed up. Applejack closed her eyes, realizing what Grayscale wanted: she wanted Applejack to take them up and out. If she didn’t, they’d both die.

Five seconds.

Applejack glared at the pegasus. She’d just told Grayscale she wasn’t going to leave her to die, but she didn’t think for a second that Grayscale would force her to make a choice like this. It was cruel. It was dirty. It was unfair. But, it was done, and Applejack needed to act.

Six seconds.

Applejack called out to the earth above her, and with a resounding crack, a gaping tear ripped through the ceiling, letting air rush into the chamber. The sudden change of pressure knocked Applejack to the floor.

Grayscale, though, was unshaken. She stomped over to Applejack and forcefully helped her to her hooves, then pointed upwards again. “Still have... one more... step, hayseed.”

Applejack grunted, still trying to catch her breath. She grabbed Grayscale, and called out to the earth beneath her. A fierce rumble shook the chamber, and a torrent of rock shot up from beneath Applejack, forcing her and Grayscale through the hole in the ceiling.

Fluttershy was only slightly bothered by the fact that Insipid had yet to act since she’d drained Havocwing’s powers. Nearly two minutes had passed, and the loony unicorn hadn’t so much as started a fire. Insipid had, however, been circling around on the opposite edge of the arena, talking to herself. Sure, she sounded like she was holding a conversation with Curaçao, but Curaçao was elsewhere, trapped with Rarity, or so she hoped.

A loud boom drew everyone’s attention skyward; Rainbow Dash had tamed her tornado and blasted off in their direction like a streak of lightning. She arrived in seconds, swooped around the rocky enclosure, then landed next to Fluttershy. She removed her goggles and eyed both Insipid and Havocwing’s limp body, then grunted in approval and smiled.

“I guess torchy’s out of commission for a while. One down, five to go,” she said. She turned to Fluttershy and put a hoof on her shoulder. “You okay down here, Fluttershy? This airhead isn’t giving you any trouble, is she?”

Fluttershy’s answer was stiff: “I’m doing just fine on my own, Rainbow, thank you.” She hadn’t really intended to sound so curt, but she wanted Rainbow to understand that she wasn’t a weakling that needed her help.

Insipid clicked her tongue and rolled her eyes. “Pfft. Figures Havoc would, like, bring her problems with her too and junk. So unfair. Curie was right. Now I have to deal with Gutterball and Potato Mash.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Who the hay is Potato Mash?”

“I... I think that’s supposed to be you,” Fluttershy muttered. “She’s bad with names. Really bad.”

Rainbow paused, stared at Insipid in disbelief, then shook her head. “I... have no words.”

“Good!” Insipid said. “That means we can, like, get to the fighting now, yeah? Two against one may be super. Major. Totally. Unfair. But, I’ve got extra powers now, and Curie’s got an awesome plan in store and she’s, like, gonna tell me right now, aren’t you Curie?”

“Who the hay is she talking to?” Rainbow asked.

Fluttershy shook her head. “Curaçao, supposedly. I think Ophanim might have hit her in the head too hard or something, because there’s nopony else here.”

“And you’re just letting her talk to… whoever?”

“I’m… just concerned for her mental health.” Fluttershy frowned. “To be honest, I can’t stop watching her do it.”

Insipid’s mouth curled in a mischievous grin, and she turned her attention back to Rainbow and Fluttershy. “Ooh hoo hoo, that is so totally awesome, Curie. See? This is why you’re my favorite. You’re so super smart and clever, but you explain things to me so I can understand it, not like Star.”

She shifted out of her cheetah form into her original unicorn body, and stepped a fair distance away from Havocwing. She lit up her horn; her body glowed bright red, then began to change. She grew, and grew, and grew, until at last she stood five stories tall and half as wide. Her shape had gained some frightening features throughout the transformation: her tail had become solid and gained a sharp point at the tip; her scaly body stood upright on two massive legs and stretched out two great arms; gaudy yellow spikes trailed along her spine from the tip of her tail to the top of her head; her neck grew longer, and her head elongated; she opened her great maw, revealing rows of gleaming fangs; a grand pair of wings flared out behind her.

Fluttershy’s jaw dropped, her knees quaked, and her wings snapped to her sides. She recognized Insipid’s new form instantly: a dragon. Insipid stood tall and proud, and let out a massive, terrifying roar; Fluttershy bolted behind Rainbow and Ophanim for protection, drained of all her courage.

Rainbow gulped. “Okay. Didn’t see that coming.”

Insipid lifted her large claws up to her face and looked them over, then glanced down to examine the rest of her body. “Oooh… this is totally neat-o!” she said; her voice had become deep and menacing, and managed to be completely terrifying in spite of her dialect. “Oh. My. Stars. So awesome! This was a great idea, Curie!” She paused. “Huh? Oh, yeah, I made sure to, like, follow your directions totally super exactly-like. I’m mega huge.”

She leaned down so that her great snout was inches from Rainbow’s face. From behind Rainbow, Fluttershy could see Insipid’s rows of gleaming, sharp teeth, each one as large as a grown pony. Insipid’s devilish grin didn’t help matters any; if Fluttershy didn’t know any better, she looked hungry.

“Look at you guys! You’re so tiny! I could totally just like, squish you!” To demonstrate, Insipid brought her claw down to Rainbow’s level and measured the pony’s frame between two talons. “Hee hee! You’re like little toys! I just wanna brush your manes and dress you up!”

Rainbow snorted, and pressed her hoof against Insipid’s snout in some feeble attempt to push her away. “Get your big mouth out of my face, airhead. Your breath stinks.”

“R-Rainbow… w-we should g-g-get out of here,” Fluttershy whispered. “D-don’t antagonize her…”

Insipid huffed and drew herself back up to full height. “Tch, rude much? Well, for your information, my breath might be a little stinky because I took Havoc’s powers too. Curie said it’s to, like, ‘complete the image’? Which means I can do… this!”

She turned her head to the side, took a deep breath, then unleashed a torrent of flame into the air. The dark green flame raged against the wall of solid rock for but a second before melting straight through it. When Insipid was done, she turned back to the ponies and spirit animal below her, a huge grin on her face.

“See? Cool, huh?”

Rainbow stood still for a moment. “Huh,” she murmured. “Well… see ya!” In one swift motion, she turned, grabbed Fluttershy, and flew away as fast her wings could take her; Ophanim morphed back into his orb form and returned to Fluttershy’s bracelet. “Hang on Fluttershy! I’m gonna get you out of here!”

Insipid snarled. “Hey! No fair, flying away! I can’t—" She paused. “Ohhh… right. I can fly! Thanks, Curie!”

Insipid flapped her great wings, then took off in pursuit. Rainbow glanced behind her; Fluttershy looked as well. Insipid was able to fly surprisingly fast for her large size, and despite Rainbow’s speed, was already catching up.

Insipid took a deep breath and unleashed another torrent of flame, this time directly at the two fleeing pegasi. Rainbow dove to avoid to blast, then looped around and rocketed past Insipid in the opposite direction.

“Hold on tight, Fluttershy,” Rainbow said. “This is gonna take some fancy flying.”

Fluttershy squeaked in response.

“Hey!” Insipid barked. She twisted around to give chase, but her unwieldy frame made it difficult to maneuver. “Get back here!”

Velvet swung her blade briskly through the air, only to miss Pinkie by about a yard; the blue-clad buffoon moved with far too much agility to catch easily. The longer they fought, the more agile Pinkie became, as if she were learning how to fight as she went. Rather, it seemed like she was learning to fight against Velvet, specifically: the range of her tendrils, the speed at which they moved, and how to time her dexterous rolls, side steps, and jumps to avoid them. Velvet could hardly even land a glancing blow anymore.

“Where in the bucking hell did you learn to fight?!” she bellowed as she whiffed another swing.

What made matters worse was, Pinkie always took advantage of every missed attack to deliver one of her own. So, after Velvet had missed again, Pinkie slid along the ground, rear hoof first, encased in fire, and shouted at the top of her lungs: “Falcon Kick!”

Velvet popped up into the air and tumbled back to earth, landing face first on the rocky ground. She seethed and grumbled and spat a thick glob of blood onto the ground before wiping her lips. “This is ridiculous. How did she get so fast?”

She spun around, bringing a bladed tendril with her, just in time to block Pinkie’s shoulder tackle. Velvet gave herself some credit; it seemed that as easily as Pinkie was able to avoid Velvet’s attacks, Velvet had come to an understanding about Pinkie’s in turn. Pinkie was fast, sure, and she was plenty strong, too. But, she couldn’t overpower Velvet in a straight confrontation.

Pinkie rolled back to a safe distance. Velvet remained where she was and lashed out with a tendril while Pinkie was still in mid-roll. She snagged Pinkie’s leg just as she popped out of the roll.

“Gotcha!” Velvet cackled.

Velvet swung Pinkie through the air and slammed her onto the ground as hard as she could. Pinkie bounced high into the air, but regained control quickly and righted herself before she landed, then dashed forward again.

Velvet, not about to give Pinkie another attack opportunity, sliced a tendril through the air, spraying blood out in a forward arc. The blood splatter formed into tiny spikes mid-flight. Pinkie couldn’t avoid them all, and she didn’t; Pinkie stopped midway through her charge and bounced back a fair distance.

Velvet sprayed another salvo of blood spikes as Pinkie was recovering from the first, knocking Pinkie back again. She cackled as she pressed her assault; Pinkie had difficulty fending off ranged attacks. It was draining to use her blood in such a fashion, but damn if it didn’t work.

Once Velvet had pushed Pinkie back against the wall, she halted her spray of blood and reared back with one long tendril, molded into a club. She swung it at Pinkie, fully expecting to smash the infuriating pink mare’s face in the second she got up.

Pinkie, though, had other plans. She recovered from Velvet’s salvo too quickly. She sprinted at Velvet. Instead of her usual shoulder tackle, she leapt into the air over Velvet’s tendril and over Velvet herself.

Pinkie bellowed, “FALCON—"

Velvet found herself awed as Pinkie spun mid-air so that she was facing the opposite direction she’d been when she jumped. Pinkie’s forehoof was encased in a miniature inferno. Velvet reeled in her tendril and turned around, swinging a tendril wildly in an attempt to catch Pinkie.

She missed.

Pinkie thrust her hoof forward, and screamed at the top of her lungs, “PUNCH!”

Her hoof exploded into a tiny supernova, and struck Velvet in the face with just as much force.

Velvet couldn’t really describe what the punch felt like, only that it hurt. A lot. The sheer force of the blow knocked her sailing over the wall of rock. As soon as she passed by the arena’s boundary, she felt her body grow searing hot for just an instant.

Then, the pain was gone.

She opened her eyes. She was back inside the arena, standing precisely where she’d started the “round” at. Pinkie stood opposite her in the same spot she’d started at as well. She groaned; this is exactly what had happened with Pinkie earlier when Velvet had tossed her over the wall. She took some solace in the fact that at least losing inflicted severe, burning pain for a fleeting second, because that meant Pinkie had felt it too.

Pinkie busted out a series of lightning-fast kicks so fast that Velvet had trouble keeping track of them, then struck a boisterous pose.

“Ha ha! I win!” she giggled. She then broke out into a wild, unseemly dance; words wouldn’t do it justice. “Yes! Yeah! Woo! Go Pinkie! It’s your birthday!”

Velvet grumbled and snarled. “Gloat while you can, moron!”

“It’s not really my birthday,” Pinkie interjected.

“Shut up! You’re going to regret making me play by whatever these wacko ‘rules’ are that you’ve set up!” Velvet brandished another array of blood weapons, opting for a more balanced, unusual selection this time; ranged attacks seemed to be effective, as did variety. “Let’s go! Bring it on, punk! I’m gonna shove my hooves down your throat and tear out your stupid lungs!”

Pinkie smirked and settled back into a fighting stance. “Sounds like you’re ready to… show me your moves.”

Fluttershy held on to Rainbow for dear life as her friend swooped, looped, spun, rolled, dove, flipped, and darted to and fro. Insipid was, to her credit, a voracious predator when she was on the chase; despite Rainbow’s speed, she managed to just barely keep up, and she pestered the pair of pegasi with persistent blasts of fearsome flame.

“Would you, like, stop moving around so much and junk?!” Insipid shouted. “You’re being a total lame-o right now, y’know?”

Luckily, Rainbow was still superior in the agility department; while Insipid could match her flight speed, she could not maneuver as well, by far. She tucked and rolled, bolted at Insipid, and narrowly skimmed the dragon’s underbelly. Insipid flailed, trying to snag Rainbow in her claws, but came up short.

“Just try and catch me!” Rainbow snickered. “I’m the fastest thing alive!”

“All you’re doing is, like, running away! Ooh… what would Havoc do in this situation? She did the whole ‘catch me, chase me’ bit with you.”

“She liked to run her mouth a lot, is what she did. Bunch of lame taunts and stuff.” Rainbow paused. “Crud, I just told her to start talking, didn’t I?”

Insipid abruptly stopped flying, and tapped her chin. “Taunts, huh? Uh… oh!” She cleared her throat. “Run, run, run as fast as you dare! I’ll catch you, ‘cause I’m, like, the gingerbread… dragon? Wait… wait, that doesn’t- tch, how does Havoc, like, make all those rhymes?” She turned her attention back to Rainbow and Fluttershy. “Do you guys rhyme too? Is that like a pegasus thing?”

Rainbow put her hoof to her face. “Ugh. Just… just shut up and get back to chasing me, so I don’t have to listen to your stupid voice anymore!”

“That didn’t rhyme either,” Insipid said. She paused, then scowled. “Heyyy… what’s wrong with my voice?! Rude much! Get back here, you little meanie!” She promptly resumed the chase.

Rainbow zipped past Insipid again. While the dragon was distracted, she turned her attention to Fluttershy. “Hey Fluttershy, we’re gonna need to fight back if we’re ever gonna get out of this and help the others. Think you and your little friend there can whip up a distraction for me?”

“I don’t know,” Fluttershy whimpered. “I’m scared, Rainbow.”

“Scared? Of her? Just a minute ago you were all over that ditz.”

“That was before she turned into a huge dragon!”

Rainbow snorted. “So? You’ve dealt with huge dragons before. Remember? C’mon, you said you wanted to show us that you can handle yourself out here, so prove it!”

Fluttershy hesitated, then nodded. “You… you’re right. You’re right, Rainbow. I’ve got to… swallow my fear and… face her. Even if she is a huge dragon.”

She took a deep breath and let go of Rainbow. Rainbow continued onward; Insipid flew right past Fluttershy, still in hot pursuit of a more active target. Ophanim sprung out of her bracelet and circled Fluttershy’s head, then took on the form of a hummingbird and perched himself on her hoof. Off in the distance, Rainbow and Insipid had looped around and were headed straight back towards her.

“Lesson seventeen,” Fluttershy whispered to herself, “if somepony makes you upset, show them that you are a threat! C’mon Ophanim! We’re off to take down a dragon!”

Ophanim took on the form of a falcon, and when Rainbow flew by, he soared up to land on Insipid’s back as she passed over as well. As soon as he was safely upon her, he took the form of a lion and dug his claws under her scales.

“Ow!” Insipid exclaimed. She turned her head to see what had caused the pain. “Tch, you again? Like, what do you think you’re gonna do? Get off!”

She spun into a tight roll, flinging Ophanim off of her. He quickly recovered, changed back into a falcon, and dove at her like a missile. He was on her again in seconds, landing on her underbelly this time, turned back into a lion, and sunk his teeth into the softer flesh.

“Ow! No fair! Get off! Get off get off get off!”

“Hey, airhead!” Rainbow shouted. “Eat this!”

“Eat what?” Insipid asked. She turned to face Rainbow, who was zooming towards her, ensheathed in lightning. “Oh.”

Rainbow slammed her lightning-clad hoof square between Insipid’s eyes, knocking Insipid off balance.

The shock of the attack broke Insipid’s concentration, and she shrunk back down into a unicorn. It only took her a second to realize that, without wings, she could not fly. She flailed her legs about, attempting to flap them like wings. Despite this, she still fell like a rock, and the ground was approaching fast.

“Ahh! Helllp!” she screamed. She shut her eyes tight. “I can’t change back! I’m afraid of heights! Helllp!”

Fluttershy swooped towards Insipid and scooped her up, then gently floated her down the rest of the way to solid ground. Ophanim, a falcon again, returned to Fluttershy’s side before turning back into his original wolf form.

Insipid stopped screaming and opened her eyes, then let out a breath of relief. “Phew! Like, thanks, Bumbershoot,” she said, wiping her brow. “I was almost, like, an Insipid pancake, and that would be totally not cool and junk? Major. Grody.”

“My name is Fluttershy,” Fluttershy huffed. “Get it right already!”

Insipid rolled her eyes. “What-ever. Why should I—"

“Quiet!” Fluttershy snapped.

Insipid drew back, confused. “Uh…”

Fluttershy scowled, and Stared Insipid right in the eyes. “I’m only going to say this once, got it? Stay away from my friends! Or else, I might have to use lesson twenty-four: when somepony tries to hurt, you bury them in the dirt!”

To emphasize the point, Ophanim gave a loud snarl, baring his fangs for Insipid to see.

Insipid glanced between the two, then gulped. “Like... um... o-okay? Whatever you say… uh… F-Fluttershy.”

Twilight stared down Starlight, unsure of exactly what she should be doing. She’d seen what the other mare was capable of, but that had been in a rather closed environment. Her first thought, though, was for Tick Tock up in the air, desperately needing a rescue right now. So, she grit her teeth and prepped a teleportation spell.

A fierce rumble beneath her broke her concentration. A spire of rock erupted from the ground; she used her teleport to avoid it, warping just out of range. Another rumble kept her from focusing on a more effective teleport, so she warped away just far enough to avoid another spire.

Starlight’s cocky grin did not leave her face. “Your persistent attempt to extricate your companion from her dire circumstances vexes me so, Sparkle.”

“If I’m annoying you, then just let me save her!” Twilight snapped. “I thought you said you weren’t trying to kill anypony!”

“Your recollection of events is erroneous. My explicit promulgation was that my sisters and I were not to inflict lethal injury upon the Elements of Harmony. The Chronomancer is not a constituent within that organization, thus said edict does not pertain to her.” Starlight paused. “In short, her life is forfeit.”

“I know what all that meant, thanks,” Twilight snorted. She eyed the rock spire beside her, and realized exactly what was happening. “I assume that all this nonsense is your doing too, then. Keep us separated so that we can’t help each other, is that it?”

Starlight nodded. “It was not initially my strategy to ambush your company, Sparkle, but Curaçao insisted upon it. I must concede to her tactical brilliance; father did explicitly advise me to heed her words, after all. It was no paltry task, manipulating the sediment in such a fashion, but if anypony was capable of such an undertaking, it was me.”

“You still think you’re the top pony, huh? Well… I’ve got some power of my own.” Twilight channeled her own magic until her horn glowed a brilliant purple, bright enough to match Starlight’s aura. “You want a showdown? You’ve got one.”

“Well now, this is intriguing.” Starlight laughed. “A fine demonstration! At last, you have reached inside yourself and actualized your potential. Bravo, Sparkle. Though I must regretfully inform you that your power is still a mere pittance juxtaposed against my own.” She shook her head and shrugged. “It is a ‘showdown’ that you desire, then? If so, I offer fair warning: I will emerge victorious. How shall we compete? A sparring match of sorts?”

Twilight chuckled. “Actually, I’ve got something better in mind.”

She flared her horn and exploded in a flash of light bright enough that even Starlight flinched. When the light was gone, Twilight stood there as firm as ever, completely unchanged. The only difference was that there were four more Twilights flanking her, two on either side. Each wore the same clothes, their manes and coats were all equally dirty and disheveled, and they each bore the same cocksure grin.

“I figured we’d play a little game, Starlight,” the central Twilight said. “It’s called, ‘Find the Real Twilight’.”

“Duplication… fascinating,” Starlight murmured. She snorted and shook her head. “A guileful technique with numerous practical combat applications. Clever indeed.” She flared her horn. “But not clever enough!”

A great rumble resounded from beneath the Twilights, and was followed by a thick wall of rock. It would have easily destabilized the lot of them and canceled the spell—duplicates weren’t known for their formidability—had any of them been present. As it so happened, all five Twilights teleported simultaneously, warping into positions to surround Starlight on all sides.

Starlight glanced around between the three Twilights in front of her. “Incorporating teleportation spells with duplication, are we, Sparkle? An attempt to invoke disorientation, and a pitiful one at that.”

She flared her horn again, and a single spire erupted from the ground beneath each Twilight. Each Twilight, in turn, teleported away to avoid being struck. It was rather easy for the Twilights to pull off, too: while Starlight was using more magic to create bigger or more numerous rock eruptions, she was also taking more time to cast the spells, making them easier to predict and avoid.

Starlight unleashed another quintuplet of spires, and another, and another; the Twilights warped out of the way of each one in turn. She attempted to increase the rate at which the spires burst forth, but this only made it harder to aim; spires were erupting from the ground in places nowhere near the Twilights. She spun around in place in an attempt to maintain line-of-sight with at least one of the Twilights, and failed miserably.

“Cease this shameful parody of combat at once!” she snapped. “You are not properly engaging me in battle! This is a grievous assault upon propriety!”

“What’s the matter, Starlight?” one of the Twilights snickered. “Are we moving too fast for you?”

“Can’t keep up?” another taunted. “This must be how Rainbow feels all the time.”

A third laughed. “You look pretty silly, twirling around in a circle like that. Getting dizzy yet?”

“Silence!” Starlight screamed.

She stopped using the rocks to attack, and instead turned and fired a bolt of magic at the Twilight that had called her silly; or at least, the one she likely thought had called her silly. She missed, at any rate.

“Whoa!” that Twilight blurted. “Upgrading our attacks, huh? Well, two can play at that game!”

“Though I think six would be more accurate,” another Twilight corrected.

One Twilight fired a bolt of magic of her own at Starlight. Starlight easily turned and deflected it, but as soon as she did, another bolt struck her in the back of the head. It wasn’t a very strong blast, just enough to sting and distract, and it certainly worked in the latter regard; as soon as Starlight turned to face the source of the second blast, another blasted her in the flank. She winced and twisted towards whoever had fired it, only for another burst to strike her in the ear while she wasn’t looking.

“Hey! Over here, Starlight!” called one Twilight.

“No no, over here!” called another.

Starlight snarled, then shouted, “Enough!”

Her horn flared even brighter, and she launched a volley of bolts outwards in all directions. The Twilights were unable to avoid the entire salvo; the blasts knocked them back into the surrounding walls. Starlight then latched onto each with her magic, then slammed them together in a single location.

She kept them pinned as she trotted over, her calm, confident demeanor returning mid-stride. “While it was an amusing distraction while it lasted, your frenzied merrymaking now comes to its conclusion. So, as per your issued stipulation, permit me to confer judgement as to which of you is the genuine Twilight Sparkle.” She lifted one of the Twilights up and gave her a quick once-over. “Not this one, certainly.”

She blasted it with a searing bolt of magic; the Twilight copy disintegrated. She lifted the next Twilight in the set and, once certain she was looking at a fake, blasted that one as well. She followed suit with two more, until at last the fifth and final Twilight was in her grasp.

“By process of elimination, I have discerned that you are the genuine article. As my dear sister Havocwing would phrase it, ‘That’s a bingo’.” Starlight paused. “That is the proper phrase, correct? ‘That’s a bingo’?”

Twilight snorted. “Actually, it’s just ‘bingo’.”

“Ah. Bingo! How delightful.” Starlight cleared her throat. “But I digress. Where were we? Ah, yes, I was just proving that you, Sparkle, are the… genuine… article.” She paused, then her eyes widened. “No… you are… how are you not indubitably Twilight Sparkle?!”

A flash and a pop behind Starlight drew her attention. Twilight—the real Twilight—had just teleported into the arena, and Tick Tock was with her, practically clinging to her savior. The pair dropped the remaining few inches to the ground, greatly benefitting from the lack of conservation of momentum.

Tick Tock detached herself from Twilight almost immediately. “Oh, thank the stars!” she exclaimed. She took several deep breaths and held her hoof to her heart. “Thank you, Twilight. I thought I was a goner for sure.”

Starlight glared at the pair, then turned her attention back to the Twilight clone in her levitation field. “A distraction.” The Twilight clone blew a raspberry; Starlight abruptly vaporized it with another blast of magic. “You do not engage in honorable combat adequately, Sparkle.”

“Neither do you, Starlight,” Twilight retorted. “Ambushing us, separating us, and trying to kill our friends isn’t exactly fair. Besides, the first rule of combat is to know thine enemy.” She smirked. “I happen to know for a fact that you’re easily distracted when angry.”

Tick Tock chuckled. “Yeah, maybe you should take some bloody anger management courses.”

Starlight seethed. “I will not be lectured by the likes of you!”

She flared her horn with a fearsome burst of magic, then fired a volley of blasts at the pair of unicorns.

Twilight raised a barrier to defend herself and Tick Tock.

The first blast struck the shield, and exploded with all the brilliance of a star.

A pained roar above Curaçao drew her attention away from stalking Rarity to the writhing form of Insipid. From this distance, her dragon form was still easy to see; then, in an instant, the dragon form shrunk, and Curaçao lost sight of her younger sister.

<Non, non, non!> Curaçao said, her voice rapid and panicked. <Insipid! Qu’est-ce qui s’est passé?! Ma chérie!>

“Ha! Well done girls!” Rarity cheered. “I just knew Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash could handle that brute!”

Curaçao snarled, and leapt upon Rarity, slamming her roughly against the rock wall and pressing her hoof to the unicorn’s throat. She dropped her camouflage in the process specifically so that Rarity could see the fierce anger in her eyes.

“Imbéciles!” she spat. “Qu'est-ce que vous avez fait?!”

“C-Curaçao!” Rarity sputtered. “So… you are still… here…” She placed her hoof on Curaçao’s and attempted to push it away. “Your ‘copine’... has failed. Perhaps you… should go help her.”

Curaçao responded by placing both hooves on Rarity’s throat and squeezing. “Ferme ta gueule avant que je ne la ferme à ta place, espèce de catin!”

She glowered at Rarity, squeezing harder and harder simply because the unicorn didn’t respond.

All Rarity did was gasp for air, and her face started turning blue. “Choking…” was her only response.

Curaçao lessened her hold on Rarity’s throat, realizing that perhaps Rarity hadn’t even understood what she’d said. So, she made it clear how she felt about the situation. “If anyzing ‘appens to ‘er, I will—"

Rarity glared back. “You’ll what?” she choked. “Your... ‘capitaine’ would not… like it if… any of us… were hurt. I wouldn’t… worry about… Insipid. Fluttershy won’t… let anything happen—"

A massive explosion to the south drew their attention. A great, blue cloud rose from the ground, forming a mushroom shape; lightning danced through the cloud formation, and the very air around it darkened and caught fire as it spread.

“What is zat?” Curaçao muttered, releasing her grip on Rarity. “Le sud... zee capitaine?”

Rarity gasped, more for a breath of air than anything. “Twilight!”

Starlight struggled to open her eyes. Her head felt like it was on fire. She shook her head to chase away the feeling, but that only made it worse. When she managed to get her eyes open, she saw that the wall surrounding her had been obliterated, and that the rocky ground had been warped into a thick, circular sheet of glass dozens of yards wide. The circle’s origin was the brightly glowing barrier generated by Twilight Sparkle. Twilight looked just as bad as Starlight felt, her face contorted in pain.

Tick Tock, on the other hoof, didn’t seem to have been affected at all. “Twilight? Are you alright?” she asked.

Twilight shook her head. “My head… it feels like it’s… about to split open.” She attempted taking a step forward, but collapsed the instant her hoof left the ground. Her shield collapsed with her.

“Twilight!” Tick Tock exclaimed. She rushed to Twilight’s side and tried to help her up, to no avail. The purple unicorn slumped back to the ground. “Come on, you have to get up!”

“What manner of—what did you do, Sparkle?” Starlight demanded. She took a step forward, though she tried her best to hide the slight wobble in her step. It was hard enough to think, let alone walk. “This should not have happened. Answer me, Sparkle! What did you do?!”

Twilight did not respond.

Starlight snarled. “Very well. I will just have to interrogate you.”

Tick Tock stepped between the other two unicorns. “Leave her alone!”

“Ha! You think you can defend her?” Starlight chuckled. “I have been anticipating this moment for some time, Chronomancer. I will derive great pleasure from atomizing you. Goodbye.”

She channeled her magic for just a split second, only for the attempt to send severe, burning pain through her horn. She abruptly canceled the spell and stumbled back, falling onto her rear in the process. Her breaths were heavy, and her eyes had started to water; the pain had felt as though her horn had been struck by lightning.

Tick Tock dropped the shield she’d cast to defend herself. “Well now, it looks as though somepony’s run out of juice.” She stepped towards Starlight, a coy grin on her face. “So let’s see, what was that you were saying? About atomizing me? Yeah, good luck with that.”

Starlight panicked. “N-no! This turn of events makes no logical sense!” She attempted to cast another spell, only for the searing pain to return. She cried out as the pain whipped its way through the rest of her body as well. “This… this is not possible! Sparkle! What have you done to me?!”

“It would seem as though Twilight’s theory about the interrelations between Arcane and Void magicks has at least some merit. This certainly would qualify as a hostile reaction.”

“What are you blathering on about? Arcane? Void? Make sense, you vile cretin!”

Tick Tock smirked. “What does it matter? You’re finished, Shadow.” She flared her horn and took another step forward. “Ta ta.”

Starlight scrambled back several inches. “St-stay back!”

“Ha ha! Looks like the horseshoe’s on the other hoof, isn’t it? Come on then, you bloody lunatic! Beg for forgiveness!”

“Tick Tock... stop...” Twilight muttered.

Tick Tock turned her attention back to Twilight. “Twilight, this maniac—this monster tried to kill me. Twice, actually. I feel a little fair treatment is in order.” She turned back to Starlight, a wicked grin on her face. “I just want to show her what happens to monsters out here.”

“You w-would not dare,” Starlight stammered as she continued to back away.

“Wouldn’t I?”

“If you did... you’d just be the same kind of... violent monster... you make her out to be,” Twilight said. “I know you can be... kind of a jerk sometimes... but I know you don’t have it in you. I… hope you don’t have it in you.”

“You underestimate me, Twilight,” Tick Tock snorted. “I’ve killed monsters before. What’s one more in the pile? In my eyes, there’s no difference between her and some bloody Gargantuan. Kill or be killed is the philosophy of life out here.”

“Please… Tick Tock…” Twilight set her head down on the ground and fell into unconsciousness.

Tick Tock rushed back to her. “Twilight? Oy! I having a bloody debate with you, don’t you pass out on me now! Twilight!” She grumbled, then turned her attention back to Starlight. “So! Where were we?”

Starlight shut her eyes. <Sisters! To me! Help!>

Her horn flared a brilliant purplish-silver and fired off erratic pink sparks. The pain was unbearable, but Starlight trudged through it to utilize her magic to its fullest. She focused every ounce of her being on calling out to her sisters and bringing them to her with a single, complicated spell: a simultaneous mass teleport, with no line-of-sight or even acknowledged coordinates. The spell took everything she had and more; she passed out just as the spell completed.

Tick Tock took a step back as a crackle in the air preceded the traditional flash and pop of teleportation magic. Five other figures warped into existence right before her eyes, all in different states of being, all within seconds of one another.

Havocwing was the first to appear, and popped into the air just a few inches above the ground. She was unconscious, and fell limp the instant she appeared. Tick Tock could tell she’d been dealt a particularly heavy beating; Rainbow Dash certainly gave her the fight she’d wanted.

Grayscale Force was next. She appeared to be in the middle of throwing a punch when she warped in; had Havocwing been standing, she’d have likely taken the punch instead of Applejack, who Tick Tock guessed was the intended target. It took the bulky pegasus a split second to realize she’d been teleported, and she turned her attention to her two unconscious sisters.

Red Velvet followed, poised in the middle of a pounce. Once the spell completed, she lashed out a tendril at the nearest target: Grayscale. Grayscale didn’t flinch when Velvet’s blade nearly sliced her neck; Velvet drew it back instantly, apparently mortified at who she’d almost attacked. Her body was covered in bruises and burns; Tick Tock figured the earth pony had been in the middle of a fight, likely with Pinkie Pie.

Insipid was next, and appeared as a panicked mess. Whatever she’d been dealing with just before the teleport had truly frightened her; Tick Tock couldn’t fathom a guess as to who she’d been engaged with. Neither Rarity nor Fluttershy seemed to type to inspire this sort of reaction. Flathoof, maybe?

Curaçao was last, and of all the five, seemed to be the only one expecting the teleport. She warped in perfectly still, perfectly calm, and perfectly upright. That is, until Insipid tackled her to the ground.

“Oh Curie! Curie Curie Curie!” Insipid cried, sobbing into the earth pony’s mane. “Oh it was so terrible! There was, like, all this lightning, and there was a big explosion, and next thing I remember I was falling and, and… it was awful! Oh stars, those eyes!”

“Shhh, shhh, ma chérie,” Curaçao cooed, stroking the unicorn’s mane. “It’s fine now. I am ‘ere for you, d’accord? Are you alright?”

Insipid sniffed, wiped her nose with her hoof, and gave Curaçao a small smile. “Yeah... yeah, I’m totally fine now, Curie. Like, thanks.”

Curaçao sighed, and helped Insipid get up. Then, she noticed Starlight laying nearby, unconscious; to Tick Tock’s surprise, she didn’t seem at all surprised to see Havocwing in the same state. “Ma capitaine!” she shouted, rushing to her sister’s side. She attempted to wake Starlight up, to no avail. “Capitaine? Ma sœur! Réveillez-vous!”

When Starlight did not respond, Curaçao turned to glare in Tick Tock’s direction, her face and eyes alight with an intense, furious anger Tick Tock did not expect to see on the normally cool, collected earth pony.

Tick Tock gulped as Grayscale, Velvet, and Insipid also glared in her direction. She took several steps back until she was next to Twilight’s limp form again. “Uh… eh heh. Let me just, uh… yeah.” She lit up her horn and sent a light up into the sky; she only hoped somepony could see it.

“You! Chronomancer, you did zis!” Curaçao snapped. She turned to the others. “Mes sœurs! Détruisez—"

An explosion to the north drew everypony’s attention, and they turned to see what it had been. Even from this great distance, everypony could clearly see the ring of rainbow-colored light.

“Rainbow Dash,” Grayscale muttered. “She won’t take long to get here. We need to act quickly.”

“Acting quickly is my speciality!” Velvet exclaimed, brandishing an array of spiked and bladed tendrils. “The boss won’t like me kill-stealing, but orders are orders. The Chronomancer has to die!”

“Who, like, says you get to kill her?” Insipid snorted.

“We don’t have time to argue. I’ll kill her. Discussion over,” Grayscale said.

“Discussion not over!” Tick Tock exclaimed. She grit her teeth and erected a barrier large enough to encase both herself and Twilight. “None of you are going to bloody well do anything.”

Grayscale shook her head. “Cute. Velvet and I have more than enough power—"

“Power, yes, but time?” Tick Tock said, a coy grin upon her face. “I’ve still got plenty of energy left, more than enough to last until Dash gets here, and she’ll be able to hold you all off long enough for the others to arrive as well. You’re down two members; do you really think you can handle the rest of the Elements of Harmony when they arrive as a team?”

Grayscale took a step forward, then hesitated. She glanced north, where now they could all see the telltale signs of a forming storm cloud; Rainbow Dash was coming, and fast. “Damn. She’s got a point.”

“Oh no! No no no!” Insipid exclaimed. She frantically tried to take cover behind Curaçao. “Like, hide me, Curie! I don’t wanna take another lightning bolt to the face and junk!”

Curaçao patted Insipid’s shoulder. “Do not worry, ma chérie, we will not be fighting zem. We are at un désavantage, non?”

“Bullshit we’re at a disadvantage!” Velvet spat. She stepped up to Curaçao and prodded the earth pony’s nose. “We can handle whatever they want to throw at us! Lemme at ‘em!”

“It’s not worth it,” Grayscale said. “We need to regroup and recover. We got thrown into a fight we weren’t prepared for, and need to rethink our plans.”

“We are wasting time discussing it. Wiz zee capitaine unable to issue orders, j’ai l’autorité,” Curaçao agreed. She turned to Insipid. “Insipid... ma chérie. We need une évasion, quickly!”

Insipid pointed at herself, confused. “Wait, what? Me? Like, what am I supposed to do?”

“Zee capitaine ‘as zee power to teleport a great distance, non? Take some of ‘er power and get us out of zis situation.”

Insipid’s eyes widened. “Like... t-t-take the boss’s powers?! N-n-no way! She’ll kill me!”

“We do not ‘ave time to argue!”

Insipid gulped, nodded, then laid a hoof on Starlight’s head. She glowed a deep purple as she did so. “Um... like, okay, so now what? How do I teleport and junk? I don’t know how to do that.”

“Don’t you usually figure out how to use the power once you’ve gotten it?” Velvet asked. “You figured out Havocwing’s in just a few seconds.”

“Well yeah, but that’s her power,” Insipid insisted. “The boss’s power is, well… power. I don’t, like, suddenly know how to cast the same spells she does, I just can, y’know?”

“Just focus on someplace as ‘ard as you can, and we’ll be taken zere,” Curaçao said. “C’est ma compréhension.”

“But where? Where should we go?”

Grayscale hummed. “There’s nothing but flat desert out here. Just pick a direction and take us a few dozen miles out.”

“Um… o-okay, here goes,” Insipid said. She flared her horn, biting her tongue in concentration. There was a flash and a pop, and all six mares were gone, leaving Tick Tock and Twilight alone.

Rainbow came screeching in to a halt just seconds afterwards. “Damn!” she spat. “Missed ‘em...”

“Dash!” Tick Tock called, waving to get Rainbow’s attention. “Quickly, help me get Twilight back to the others. She’s injured.”

Rainbow bolted over to the pair like a bullet. “Whoa! What happened?!”

“Long story, lots of magic babble. Just help me.”

There was an empty stretch of desert. Then, there was a flash and a pop, and the empty desert was empty no longer, now occupied by six mares.

Insipid was the first of the six to stumble away from the others. “Ow ow owww,” she muttered, rubbing her temples. “Why didn’t you guys, like, tell me that teleporting hurts? My brain feels all burny and junk.”

“Zee capitaine never complained,” Curaçao said, tapping her chin.

“It’s probably because Insipid doesn’t usually use her brain,” Grayscale noted. “Emergencies are emergencies though. Let’s just be glad we’re all in one piece.”

Curaçao leaned down and gave Starlight’s unconscious form a more thorough investigation. “C’est terrible. What ‘as ‘appened to zee capitaine? I ‘ave never seen ‘er like zis.”

“She’s not the only one, either.” Grayscale tilted her head towards Havocwing. “Havoc got hit pretty hard too.”

“I smell blood!” Velvet exclaimed. She leaned in close to Havocwing’s limp body, and licked her lips. “Ooh! Yeah, Havoc’s beat up pretty bad. I bet I could—" She paused when Grayscale put her hoof on the back of her head. “Okay, fine. No snacking, I promise. I bet I could help, though!”

Grayscale shook her head. “I don’t think any of us really trust you.”

Velvet rolled her eyes. “Tch. Whatever.”

“What I want to know is, where did those guys get those new abilities?” Grayscale asked, addressing Curaçao. “They definitely weren’t using them before.”

“Oui, c’est un mystère,” Curaçao mused. She shook her head. “We will worry about zat later. What is important is ‘elping zee capitaine and ‘avocwing.”

“And how do you propose we do that? Without the boss, we don’t have—" Grayscale paused, and tapped her chin, then nodded in agreement with her own idea. “Hey, Insipid. Over here. You’re needed again.”

Insipid tilted her head. “Hey, me? What do you, like, need me for?

“You’ve already used the boss’s powers once,” Grayscale explained, “and we need you to use them again. She’s a master of every magic I’ve ever heard of, so she should have healing magic too.”

“Ah, oui! Très bien,” Curaçao agreed. Then, she frowned. “Hmm. But, ma chérie does not know ‘ow to make zis kind of magic vork, n’est-ce pas?”

Insipid rapidly nodded. “Yeah! I, like, have no idea—"

“She was able to teleport just fine,” Grayscale said, “so she should be able to heal just fine, too. All she has to do is think about what she wants to do, and it’ll happen. That’s how unicorn magic works, right?” She stared at Insipid, as if expecting an answer. After not receiving one, she asked again, “Right?”

“Huh? Oh! You were asking me.” Insipid tapped her chin. “Like, yeah, I guess that’s how it works. I just think, think, think, and like, poof! Magic!”

“Yeah, this sounds like a great idea! Let’s ask Insipid to think.” Velvet huffed and shook her head in disbelief. “This idiot couldn’t think her way out a paper bag! And you’re asking her to think about healing ponies?”

“Like, bite me, Red,” Insipid snorted. “I’ve got the boss’s powers now, remember? That means I can, like, send you to the moon or whatever? Cha, then we’ll, like, see who the idiot is?”

“Newsflash: it’s still you.”

“Red, just leave her alone,” Grayscale said.

Velvet turned to Grayscale and snarled. Grayscale didn’t flinch. So, Velvet clicked her tongue and trotted away. “Whatever. Call me when you need to clean up the mess she’s gonna make.”

Insipid frowned. “But… what if she’s right? What if I screw this up and hurt the boss more?! She’d be so mad at me.”

Curaçao patted Insipid’s shoulder. “Do not worry, ma chérie. You will do fine. Zough… maybe you should try ‘ealing ‘avocwing first. Just in case.”

“Right! Good idea! Nopony cares if I make a mess of Havoc.”

Insipid set her hoof upon Havocwing’s forehead and focused all her energy on making her elder sister feel better. Her horn glowed with a dim silver light, and soon her entire body glowed as well; the light slowly flowed through her hoof into Havocwing’s body.

The blood on Havocwing’s face and sides evaporated. The cuts and bruises healed in seconds. Her wings straightened, her feathers smoothed out, and her coat regained its former luster. The tears in her jumpsuit repaired themselves as well. Lastly, her tooth grew back. Havocwing was, for all intents and purposes, good as new. The glow subsided as soon as its work was finished.

Insipid scrunched up her nose. “Hmm… did it, like, work?”

She and her sisters crowded around Havocwing’s still body.

“Yo Havoc! You alright?” Velvet asked. She poked Havocwing’s nose.

“Aauughh!” Havocwing screamed as she jolted awake. Her eyes darted back and forth amongst her sisters. “Oh… it’s you guys. Uh… what the buck happened? Where are we?”

“See? Told you it’d work,” Grayscale said. She clapped Insipid on the shoulder. “Congratulations, Insipid. You’re not completely useless.”

“Woo! Not completely useless!” Insipid cheered.

“Oh man, my head is bucking killing me,” Havocwing groaned, rubbing her temples. She weakly rose to her hooves and stretched out her wings. “I feel like I got hit by a train.”

“You got hit by Rainbow Dash,” Grayscale explained. “So much for ‘kicking that dyke’s ass’, huh?”

“This just in: Havocwing sucks!” Velvet announced. “As if any one of us is surprised that you bucked up royally.”

“Both of you can kiss my ass,” Havocwing snorted. She turned to walk off her lingering pain, and nearly tripped over Starlight in the process. “Whoa. Is that the boss? What the buck happened to her?”

Curaçao sighed. “We do not know yet. We will ask when we finish ‘ealing ‘er. Speaking of which,” she added, tilting her gaze sideways towards Insipid.

Insipid blinked and tilted her head. “Huh? Oh! Me. Heal. Right! On it, Curie!”

Insipid knelt down and proceeded to administer the same spell she’d used earlier on Havocwing.

Curaçao shook her head. “C’est très perturbante—most unfortunate.”

“Unfortunate? Ha!” Havocwing blurted. “The boss is down for the count! That means that, as second-in-command, I’m the new boss until she gets better.”

“What?” Grayscale asked.

“Quoi?” Curaçao asked in unison.

“You heard me. Boss is down, that means I’m up to bat,” Havocwing insisted.

Velvet laughed. “You? Seriously? First of all, none of us would take an order from you even if our lives depended on it. Second, Curaçao is the boss’s second, not you.”

“Pfft, as if,” Havocwing scoffed. “A leader needs to be able to hold her own in combat, to prevent mutinies and stuff. Curaçao isn’t enough of a total badass to be the leader. That’s why she went after that stuck-up skank instead of anypony that might have actually challenged her: because she knew she’d get her ass kicked.”

“Yeah, like Rainbow kicked your ass?” Velvet snickered.

Havocwing darted over to Velvet and got right in the earth pony’s face. “That was a bucking fluke and you know it, Red,” she snapped. “I didn’t know she had freak-o lightning powers. Lightning and pegasi don’t mix. Whose bright idea was it to pit me against her, anyway?”

“I think it was you,” Grayscale said. “As I recall, you wanted a rematch. The boss got sick of you begging to fight against Rainbow, so you and I traded targets. I still say you’d have fared better against Applejack than you would’ve against Rainbow.”

“You’re full of shit. I don’t remember any of that,” Havocwing said, crossing her hooves over her chest. “And even if you were telling the truth—which you’re not—then you guys let me get away with it.”

Velvet raised an eyebrow. “Get away with it? What, with letting you go through with fighting Rainbow?”

“Exactly. None of you guys would make good leaders because you guys buckle like a bucking belt. What good leader would listen to an idea they knew was bad?”

Grayscale stared at Havocwing for a long moment. “I’m sorry, but what planet are you from that that makes any logical sense?”

Havocwing huffed and flared her wings. “The point is, I could kick the shit out of any of you in single combat, and by default that makes me the leader while the boss is down. Eat it up, chumps.”

“Forgive my intrusion, but what is all this discussion about me ‘being down’?” asked Starlight.

Havocwing turned white. She turned her head slowly; Starlight was standing right behind her, the picture of perfect health.

“Ooh, this is gonna be good,” Velvet snickered. “Wish I had some popcorn.”

“Well? I believe I postulated an inquiry, Havocwing,” Starlight said, narrowing her eyes.

Havocwing tugged at the collar of her jumpsuit. “Oh, uh... hey, boss! I was just, y’know, stepping up to take charge while you were out of it and all, so that we wouldn’t get sidetracked or anything. Ha! Ha ha... um... right. So, uh… seeing as you’re not out of it, I guess we don’t need to worry about it! Nope! No need to worry about me attempting to take charge or anything. Ha! What a… silly idea.”

Starlight grunted, lit up her horn, and yanked Havocwing to her by the throat so that they were eye-to-eye. She glared at her elder sister. “Let me be as unambiguous as possible: I am the authority here, and in the event of a misfortunate vicissitude, Curaçao was nominated as my second-in-command, not solely by our own vote, but by our father’s.”

“Oh… right…” Havocwing muttered. She chanced a smile. “I was… just kidding?”

Starlight tightened her grip around Havocwing’s throat. “Any attempt to usurp said position can and will be interpreted as insubordination. You recall what fate befalls insubordinates, do you not?”

Havocwing chanced a glance at Velvet. “Y-yes sir,” she gulped.

Starlight dropped Havocwing to the ground. “Now, if I am not mistaken—which I never am—you are under obligation to your younger sister, Insipid. Is that not correct? If so, please, display some sense of gratitude.”

Havocwing turned her gaze to Insipid, who gave Havocwing a bright, cheery wave and a full-toothed smile. She growled, then snorted. “Thanks, sis…”

“You’re welcome, Havoc!” Insipid exclaimed.

“I, too, am indebted to you, Insipid,” Starlight said. She turned and nodded to her elder sister. “Much obliged.”

Insipid gasped and put her hoof to her mouth. “Oh. My. Stars. The boss thanked me for something. Boss… you… you’re so totally welcome!”

“In the interim, it is impractical for you to possess my capabilities past this point in time, Insipid,” Starlight continued. “You lack crucial understanding of the intricate nature of my magical aptitude, and such ineptitude may prove precarious if said capabilities are misused under duress.”

“Right!” Insipid said with a salute. She glowed deep purple for an instant; Starlight’s powers left her body. “All done!”

“Is everything okay, boss?” Velvet asked. “You look like you took quite a beating.”

Starlight frowned. “My physical, psychological, and magical health are at peak levels. There is no need for you to fret over any of them, Velvet.”

“Well, zat is good to ‘ear,” Curaçao sighed. “Still, ‘ow did Mademoiselle Sparkle inflict such injury, ma capitaine?”

“I… am not able to make an accurate assessment at this time,” Starlight admitted. “I would query father for possible theories, but… I hesitate to involve him in this.”

“More importantly, where did those six get those powers?” Grayscale asked.

“Per’aps zee Gryphon Ruins are zee answer,” Curaçao suggested. “Zey must ‘ave found somezing in zere… but what?”

“A sound theory,” Starlight agreed. “Whatever the case, it will certainly factor into any future strategizing. I do not, however, foresee possible complications in our next engagement. We merely encountered an unpredictable circumstance, but now that we are aware of this variable, we can adapt.”

She turned to her sisters and smiled. “First, though, we must recuperate and replenish our energy. Our targets are injured, disoriented, and demoralized, and as we have observed, they are also without nourishment. Our next encounter will proceed differently. Time is our ally; let us utilize it.”