The audience sat in stunned silence, their half-open mouths matching Aquila’s expression.
“Did she…?” asked Twilight Sparkle.
“I told you,” said Obsidian.
“But...why?” whispered Fluttershy, pale in the face.
“She was losing control, and she knew it,” said Aurora. “She had no use for ponies who wouldn’t obey orders. She also wanted to force our hoof…”
***
Aurora was running through the streets, Sauti, Jingles, Aquila and Charcoal following close behind. Normally there wouldn’t be much traffic at this hour, with the afternoon shift already back from work, and those who still felt like staying awake gathering in the local pubs. But now the cobbled streets echoed with the sound of hooves, panicked shouts spreading increasingly alarming gossip as everypony was trying to make sense of what had just happened. The Elements did their best to ignore it, focused on finding the most efficient way forward without bumping into ponies.
They’d almost reached their goal, an old building which they knew could provide them access to the right part of the sewers without attracting attention, when the Tower of Justice erupted with lightning.
Everypony on the streets froze, watching with their mouths open as the sudden storm illuminated the evening sky. Aurora’s pegasi instincts went haywire - the air pressure dropped rapidly, clouds suddenly forming above the center of the city, faster than any natural stormclouds could, draping the Shattered’s seat of power with a dark canopy.
Then a voice rang from the sky, not from the city’s rooftop loudspeakers, which Aurora had made a habit of vandalising, but seemingly from the tower itself, the boom of it audible even over the thunder of the lightning strikes.
“CITIZENS!” the voice called, “YOU ARE CITIZENS NO MORE! FOR A THOUSAND YEARS, FIFTY GENERATIONS, HAVE I LABOURED, TRYING TO MAKE THE PONYKIND INTO THE ENLIGHTENED AND JUST NATION IT HAD THE POTENTIAL TO BECOME! BUT YOU DID NOT WANT TO FULFILL THAT POTENTIAL, AND EACH OF THE FIFTY GENERATIONS WOULD ACT TO UNDERMINE MY EFFORTS! THIS ENDS TONIGHT! YOU ARE NOT WORTHY OF THE CONTINUED WORK! I HAVE CREATED NEW PONIES, MORE FIT TO ACHIEVE WHAT I SEE YOU COULD NOT! WITH THEM I WILL START ANEW FROM A CLEAN SLATE, AS SOON AS I HAVE ERASED THE FAILURE OF YOUR EXISTENCE!”
Nopony moved as the proclamation echoed through the city. Aurora looked around, and saw only expressions of stunned horror. A city guard she hadn’t noticed dropped his spear to the street, his face just as terrified as those of the others.
Then lightning struck, branching off the pillar of storm surrounding the tower and snaking across the city, hitting one of the big chimneys in the industrial district, and blowing the top half of it off.
This was the signal - the street erupted into full panic, ponies galloping in all directions, crashing into each other with frightened whinnies, all desperate to run, with no idea where to.
“Let’s hurry,” barked Aurora. She galloped forward, allowing her honed combat instincts to guide her safely between the running ponies. Soon she discovered that those getting close to her slowed down, still frightened, but with much more lucid expressions. Chancing a look over her shoulder, she saw the soft light of Kindness emanating from Sauti.
They went through four more blocks in this way before finally reaching their destination. During that time, eight more lightning bolts struck various targets across the city. The Elements took a turn into a gateway off the street and into a small courtyard. Then their stopped, taking a moment to catch their breaths.
“Why is she doing this?” asked Charcoal, pointing up at the sky.
“No fury like a mare scorned,” answered Jingles solemnly, “even more so when she deserved it. I guess this must have built up for centuries.”
“No,” said Charcoal. “I mean, why the lightning? She could just burn down the whole city at once, couldn’t she?”
“It is a challenge,” said Sauti.
Aurora ground her teeth. “She could kill everypony right now, but she isn’t sure where we are, and she wants to see our deaths with her own eyes.”
“Well then, let’s go disappoint her,” said Aquila. “How long do you think it will take for Whisper and Cristal to get here?”
“The sooner the better,” said Jingles. “Time is a luxury nopony can afford anymore.”
***
The minutes stretched, the Elements sitting on the cold stones, the sky raging above them. Their previous exploits forced them to get used to waiting, but this was different - during this time the lightning bolts lashing out from the tower methodically struck every major landmark in the city, and had now begun to hit civilian houses. Each of them knew they couldn’t waste any more time, but all the same, they couldn’t proceed without the whole team.
“He comes,” said Sauti suddenly, her blind eyes snapping open. Her calm face was then cut with a frown. “Alone. He’s been injured.”
Aurora looked at her with alarm.
Sauti lifted a hoof, and slowly pointed down. Everypony’s heads turned towards the sewer cover in the corner of the courtyard. The heavy metal lid moved, pushed from underneath.
Aurora pounced forward, but Aquila was faster, her magic grabbing the cover, and pulling it out of the way. Inside there was Whisper. Rather than using the metal bars of the ladder, he was sticking to the walls, small orange lights underneath his hooves. He was missing the hat, and the coat he was wearing was stained red and green. There was also a freshly healed cut on his face, from the edge of his right eyebrow, all the way to his jaw line.
Aurora examined him closely, her wings spreading to keep the others away.
“What’s happened?” she asked. “Are you hurt?”
“Healed,” answered Whisper. “Couldn’t go through the sewers with open wounds.”
He gently grabbed her wing with his magic, and pushed it closed, revealing the rest of the group. Then he took a deep breath.
“Changelings,” he finally said. “Infiltrated the cell. Crystal saw through them just before they struck, she saved me, and the sealing gem. But then Hate showed up. They… killed each other.”
Silence fell, punctuated only by the sounds of the storm.
“Cristal is dead?” whispered Charcoal finally.
“Yes,” said Whisper. “There were too many of them to fight them all. Hate… stabbed her. But she managed to stun him. She tossed the sealing gem to me, and collapsed the whole basement.” He looked around into his friends’ eyes.
“Whisper…” started Aurora.
“I have the stone,” he interrupted her briskly. “She’s made sure we’d have the chance to take Vengeance down for good.” He paused, and then took a breath. “With Hate dead, it’s only Vengeance and Deception left. We need to do this now, before Envy returns… while there is still anything left to save.”
***
“I smell a trap,” said Obsidian. “You didn’t ask him to confirm who he was.”
Aurora lowered her head. “I was distracted. Sauti said it was him. Besides, I saw him use his magic. How could he use Honesty if it wasn’t him?”
“But it wasn’t?” said Obsidian.
“I… don’t know,” replied Aurora.
***
They decided to take the underground route, as decided earlier, to avoid any surprises on the way to the tower. Of course the sewers didn’t have to be safe either. Charcoal was leading the group as a guide, with Jingles walking beside her looking for traps, while Sauti scanned their surroundings for living creatures.
There was no ambush waiting for them there. And yet, Aurora could feel a growing tension, so strong she’d have probably felt it even without casting a link spell to her friends.
“Without Cristal,” projected Aquila in her direction, “we’re one short. We won’t reach anything near our full power. That means it will have to be my magic that seals her. I’ll do what I can to keep us all alive, negate her powers where I can, and limit what she can do. But you’ll have to use that to hit her hard, hard enough to give me an opening to finish her off.”
They got as far as the Inner City without stumbling into anything dangerous. Charcoal’s experience with the sewers directed them by a less obvious route, but got them safely exactly where they wanted to get. It was only when they got there, that Jingles noticed something amiss. There was a strange mist in the sewer, and a sharp, bitter smell.
Jingles flapped his wings to push it away. “Bubble,” he commanded. Aquila cast a spell, a translucent barrier expanding around her until it encompassed all of her friends. They stood, considering the situation.
“Do we push through it? asked Aquila.
“Give me a moment,” said Jingles. “I’ll check topside.”
He took a shovel and then spun, a blur of blue that drilled into the sewer wall and disappeared from sight.
Everypony gathered around the hole. Behind it there was now a tunnel leading slightly upwards. Aquila shone the light of her Element into it. “Jingles?” she projected. “Is the coast clear?”
The response came with some hesitation. “Come up. This cold night will turn us all to fools and the mad.”
Aquila walked in with some hesitation, the rest following, making sure they stayed inside the bubble. Aurora followed her sister, instinctively running her magic along her wings, to make sure the blades were properly attached.
It was now night outside. The stormclouds overhead were twisted in a spiral pattern, forming a cone of darkness above the tower, like an impossibly slow tornado. A corona of lightning still surrounded the tower top, illuminating the plumes of smoke rising from its chimneys. Small droplets of rain were falling down onto the white streets. The mist was there too, but already disappearing, the last strands of it holding to the ground, not enough to conceal the inert bodies.
Aurora saw Charcoal flinch with fear, as the filly emerged from the tunnel and surveyed her surroundings.
The lightning storm provided ample illumination to see by. The Inner City lamps were not lit, but still, everything was clearly visible, a stark, monochromatic landscape. The place looked like it always had, with one key exception: there was nothing alive anywhere in sight. Bodies, long-limbed and white-coated, lay here and there, scattered wherever their death had caught them. The grass was wilted, and the flowers had lost their petals. Even with the protective bubble surrounding her, Aurora found herself holding her breath in panic.
“It’s clearing already,” said Jingles, “she must have dropped it before going to Portus.”
Aurora looked around with huge eyes. “She didn’t need them either.”
“They thought they were chosen,” said Sauti, “but to her, they’d always been nothing but another failed experiment.”
“”That means no guards, does it?” said Aurora.
Whisper nodded, coming to her side. “Unless she has some constructs to fight for her.”
“So, what now?” asked Jingles. “Do we fly up there?”
Aurora looked up into the storm. “Perhaps we should cut these fumes first?”
“The basement? No more obvious place for a trap,” said Jingles, “except for the top, but we know she’s there. Unless Envy returned earlier than we thought, there’s nopony in the world but Vengeance who could do something like this.”
“I’ll blow these away when we get there,” said Aquila, pointing her horn up. “Let’s go up through the building. This way we can see if she has any more surprises stored for us, and tackle them as we go.”
“She’ll know we’re coming,” said Sauti.
“Of course, she will,” said Aquila. “She’s done all this to draw us here.”
They headed for the exit and into the promenade leading towards the front gate. Once they did, it became apparent that the poison mist had hit there as well. There was nopony to oppose them.
We needn’t have wasted time on the sewers, thought Aurora bitterly.
She turned towards Charcoal. “You’ve helped us enough. It’s time you retreated. This poison seems heavier than air, so fly once you leave the bubble.”
“Are you sure you don’t need me?” asked Charcoal, though she did immediately take to the air.
Whisper turned, and looked Charcoal in the eyes. He said nothing, but after a few seconds, Charcoal saluted, and with a sigh, flew up and away. The remaining five ponies looked at the tower.
“All the world is a stage, and all mares and stallions merely players,” said Jingles, as they started to walk forward. “And yet, our foe seems to be quite fixated on playing the villain here.”
Aquila looked at him, then waved her horn, indicating the dead guards on the pavement before them. “Playing?!”
JIngles nodded. “Yes. Something is wrong here. Vengeance has never shown a shred of mercy, but she has always been self-righteous, even when she turned ponies into ash without a second thought. And now suddenly, she embraces the… theatrics of a mad tyrant. She’s doing all this on purpose, as if... trying to appear as evil as possible. What does she have to gain from it?”
“Nothing, if we defeat her once and for all,” said Whisper. “Let’s hurry.”
***
The first form of resistance they encountered was a trio of golems standing on the stairs leading to the front entrance. The heavy metal constructs, twice as tall as regular ponies, turned their heads toward the intruders, blue lights in their eyes turning red.
Aquila looked at them, then sideways at her friends.
“No fireworks yet,” said Whisper, “Jingles?”
The pegasus nodded his head. “On it.”
He trotted forward, heading straight for the steps, as expression of still seriousness plastered on his face. There was a spring in his step, more and more pronounced, until he actually started springing, the last step taking him up the stairs and to the face level of the central golem.
The construct lurched forward, a whirr of gears spinning inside its shell, the head swinging for a powerful headbutt, but Jingles wasn’t there. He emerged, still expressionless, between the golems, jumping up to tap the leftmost one on the withers.
The golem reared, turning to crush him, with his front hooves. He ended up overreaching, falling over the middle golem’s back, narrowly missing Jingles, and slamming right into the third construct’s faceplate. It flattened with a noise of deforming metal. The middle golem pushed with all its hooves, trying to free itself for the sudden extra weight, but didn’t have much success. This left it unable to do anything to mitigate the damage when the last construct, freshly flat-faced, and now trying to get rid of Jingles jumping around him, bucked with both hind legs. The kick quite predictably missed Jingles, connected with the immobilised golem, and deformed its barrell.
The Elements kept watching, their ears twitching rhythmically with every crashing sound. When the last of the golems finally tumbled down the stairs, a loud ‘sproing’ of a winded spring flying loose from inside it signifying the end of the fight, everypony ran forward to join Jingles.
The Element of Laughter hadn’t suffered a single scratch, and his expression remained unchanged. Aurora smirked despite herself; even on this darkest of days, he was able to find a way to amuse his friends, if only a little.
The five stood in front of a heavy, double door. Normally, during the day, these were open all the time, allowing a steady trickle of busy office ponies in and out. Now in the night they were surprisingly ominous.
Aurora looked aside at Whisper. Their gazes met, and he shifted closer to her, allowing her to wing hug him, pressing their barrels together. They’d spent a couple seconds just standing in silence, their breaths synchronising.
“We’ll do it,” said Whisper.
“For Cristal,” said Aurora. She felt the Loyalty get warmer on her chest, as her resolve spread from her, pouring strength first into Whisper, then into the others.
“For Everypony,” said Aquila, once more surrounding the team with a barrier bubble before pushing the door with her magic.
It opened into a dark main hall. The Elements looked in cautiously. They had all expected something to happen, perhaps an explosion, or another cloud of poison. But the door wasn’t even locked. They walked in slowly, magical senses sweeping their surroundings in search of ambush, hoofsteps echoing over the cold stone.
There was nothing there, not even dead bodies.
Sauti took the lead, the group following her to the end of the hall, where two trios of elevator doors faced each other. Sauti turned her head, and lead them to the central one of the left row. The buttons were dead, but when she pulled the door with her magic, it relented, sliding aside. There was a cabin behind it. The five ponies walked inside, their force bubble becoming a cube to fit in.
Jingles cocked his head. “Going up?”
Aurora closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. Wisps of fuchsia magic danced around her eyelids, quickly replaced by blazing white fire. She opened her eyes, and looked at the ceiling, the whole cabin vibrating from her power. “All the way up.”
Aurora had just a split second to focus, Loyalty lighting up to add its power to the spell alongside the others. The cabin accelerated upwards in a shower of sparks, going faster and faster.
What’s happening to the cable? thought Aurora briefly, before another thought struck her: This shaft only goes up half of the way!
She barely registered the impact when the elevator plowed through the machine room at the top, then through one floor after another, the images visible through the missing door blurring together as Aquila’s magic flooded through as they passed, ripping apart trap spells and constructs. When they reached the top floor, the elevator itself exploded, a spreading ring of Aquila's purple magic devastating the penthouse, ripping the metal pipes outwards, and scattering the clouds above.
The Elements jumped off what was left off the elevator, a second before it tumbled down the perfectly square hole it had made in the floor. They looked around for the enemy, but their magical senses had already found the anomaly, their linked minds causing them to all look up, Aquila’s magic flaring to meet the light descending at them from above.
The image froze. Aurora and Twilight looked at each other, then at Obsidian. The stallion in turn looked towards a ripple to the right of them - a translucent image of an alarmed-looking Spike walking through the still image of the explosion. He opened his mouth in slow motion, the words hanging in the air suddenly catching the right speed as everypony felt a powerful sense of being pulled. They all awoke with a start, the vision scattering as reality slammed into their senses.
“... wake up!” finished Spike aloud. “Princess Luna’s here, with the Equestrian army!”