Any chance ponies had of getting sleep that night was destroyed as Silvia was tossed effortlessly through not just the patio’s screen, but the glass door leading inside. Luna didn’t even have an opportunity to open the door before Silvia’s body hit it. Luminous, who had taken to trying to sleep on the kitchen floor after leaving her mom, was the first one to truly noticed what had happened. What her eyes glimpsed upon from following the shattered glass, was a bloody Silvia on the floor. The wolf’s body, from paws to her ears, were stained red from the glass, and a large gash from something much much worse across her chest.
Thunder, being on the now glass covered couch was the next to wake up, the first thing in his line of sight being the broken glass door in front of him. Turning around, he watched as Luna opened the door, unknowingly pushing an injured Silvia that was blocking it. Her gaze immediately fell down, a gasp escaping her as she caught the mess that had been made. Luminous rushed to her mother, unsure of what to do and to scared to hug her due to the glass.
“Mom?” Luminous called out. Her reply came in the former of Silvia’s eyes opening, gaze directly at her daughter. “Don’t worry mom, everything is going to be okay.”
“What happened?” Thunder asked Luna, or Morning Brew as he knew her as. “Did you do something to her?”
“I don’t know, just get everypony up and out of here,” Luna relayed, making her way over Luminous and over to the bedrooms. “We need to move out before-”
“Before what, my little unicorn?” Everypony froze at the voice, attention turning to the broken door. Tholak stood in front of them, his gaze immediately falling upon the beaten form of Silvia on the ground. “How pathetic. I had assumed she had some skill, considering what she did to Aurora, but it seems she’s all bark and no bite.”
That was all Luminous needed for her to justify her actions. “You monster!”
She rushed at Tholak, doing everything to ignore the pain of the glass under her hooves, but to no avail. Tholak merely kicked her away, sending her straight into the front of the coach. It didn’t stop Luminous from getting right back up and jumping at him, an action that did nothing as he effortlessly grabbed her around the neck midjump. He spat on her, and then threw her to the side, colliding with a stunned Luna who was too shaken to move. Moving out of the doorway, he motioned his soldiers towards the ponies, with one holding Thunder at spearpoint while the other pinned Luminous and Luna to the ground.
“No weapon, no thought, no plan. Typical,” Tholak spat, turning his attention back to Silvia. He carefully stepped through the living room, avoiding the glass as if it were the plague. “That’s how ponies always were. Truthfully, it would have been better for the world if I had just killed you all. Was that display at Canterlot what you call a defense!” He took the scepter in his hand and pressed it against Silvia’s opened wound. She winced at the pain, but kept herself from screaming. “I’m sure all of you know who I am.”
“Dragonlord Tholak,” Luna said. She felt the soldier’s foot press on her neck, but Tholak motioned for him to halt, his attention turned to the unicorn. “Around one thousand years ago, you started a conquest to wipe our kind from the face of the planet. You marched on our lands and killed many innocents, all because you didn’t think we deserved our intelligence, or to live through the windigo’s cold winter.”
Tholak smiled, recognizing the voice almost instantly. “Well, isn’t this a strange sight. The former princess, immortality lost, nothing but a peasant to cast off,” The scepter sunk deeper into the wound, Silvia whimpering at the pain. Luminous looked to Luna, unsure of what to say. “How about a deal than, to extend your miserable lives for a little bit? Hand me the canon, and we’ll leave you all alone. Sounds good doesn’t it.”
“You dare think that I’ll-” Luna’s words stopped as a scream erupted from Silvia, Tholak’s foot placed over her neck.
“P-please, please leave mom out of this,” Luminous pleaded, doing everything she could to get the weight of the dragon off of her.
“Mom? Well that is most certainly interesting,” Tholak smiled slightly as he bent down to look over the wolf. “Well, how about it, little pegasus. You want to save your mom, or are you gonna let me kill her? All I need to do is snap her neck and she’s gone. Just. Like. That.”
“Luminous, you know he’ll kill me either way,” Silvia said, managing to speak through the immense pain. “Don’t worry about me, just get out of here!”
Luminous knew what her mom wanted her to do, even if Silvia herself didn’t want her to choose that option. It should have been as easy as saying no, telling Tholak that he wouldn’t get what he wanted out of her. Yet, that little hope that he had given her, the idea that she could save her mother, slightly empowered her. She would say yes, but her mother’s plea held her back enough to stop her from doing so.
“I… I know mom, but I don’t want you to die,” Luminous explained. “If… if there even a sliver of chance than I’ll… I’ll-”
“Luminous, listen to me,” She told Luminous, her daughter’s eyes unable to meet her mother’s. You’re life, and the protection of the canon, means more than anything to me,” Silvia closed her eyes. “Besides, he’ll kill us if you hand it over, so just do. The. Thing!”
“Um… what’s going on out here?” All attentioned turned to the kitchen as Gabriel, seemingly half awake wandered into the room, the bag with the canon still around his shoulders. “I heard the window break and-” His eyes fell on the dragons, Tholak’s eyes grabbing onto the bag he carried. “Oh no.”
“My dear griffon friend, might I ask what you have in there?” Tholak asked.
“Nothing you’ll have to worry about very soon.”
Before Tholak could question the voice that had spoken to him what they meant, a dark mist enveloped around his legs and threw him across the room. With her mother temporarily out of harm's way, she decided to try what her mom had explained earlier. The dragon standing above her was shocked to see the pegasus suddenly disappear, looking around to see where they had gone. That gave Luna enough of an opening to move out from under the soldier, proceeding to trip him before grabbing his own spear. Luminous appeared behind the dragon holding Thunder hostage, grabbed his tail and threw him back through the window.
Luna wrapped the spear the first soldier’s neck, only for her attempt to choke him be denied by him using his hands to pull her off. Ripping the spear back, the dragon prepared to strike into Luna’s chest. Thunder Shield, no longer at spear point, immediately launched himself at the dragon, knocking him back to the ground. Luna watched as he jumped onto the counter and put a hindleg to a light while flicking a lightswitch with his front. As soon as the bulb turned on, lightning started to visibly course through his body, popping the lightbulb and transferring all the electrical energy to him. The electric current made his body glow bright yellow.
Before the dragon could get firmly back to his feet, Thunder launched himself at the enemy. Tackling him to the ground, the electricity in his body transferred to the dragon, sending one hundred and twenty volts straight into his opponent’s body. The kill was near instant, the glow fading from Thunder’s body with the volts transferred out. He looked to Luna, who was staring at him with a mixture of awe and terror in her eyes. He sighed, knowing he had a lot of explaining to do.
“Short version, my body is a conductor, and I’m pretty sure I might have knocked all power from your house out,” He explained, hoping off of the now fried dragon below him. “Also, don’t touch him, the current will probably kill you too.”
“Noted,” Luna said with a nod. Her attention turned back to the wounded wolf, a certain black pegasus helping her into a sitting position.
“What’s going on out here?” Flurry asked as she and Sunnyside joined with everyone, the latter letting out a gasp at the sight of the dragon dead on the floor, body still twitching from the electricity in him. Flurry ground her teeth at the sight, turning to Gabriel. “Do I want to know?”
“We’ve been found,” Silvia said. Sunny felt like she was about to faint upon seeing the state the wolf was now in. The wolf turned to the white pegasus, giving what smile her face could muster. “If Morning Brew is Luna, then you’re Princess Celestia, am I correct.”
Sunnyside’s eyes only seemed to grow wider the more things that she heard. “You… you recognize me?” Silvia looked to Luna, the former princess looking to her younger sister. “Luna, you did it! We finally found somepony who knows what-”
“Now is not the time Tia,” Luna responded, motioning to the amount of stares she was receiving from everypony save the wolf. Luna turned to addressed the room. “That goes for explaining our situation as well. Now, any of you know why Tholak is alive?”
“He was the one who captured Canterlot,” Thunder explained. “I failed to stop him, and I failed my troops in preparing them. Forgive me for my diservice la… princesses.”
“If he’s alive, than Aurora is somehow alive too, isn’t she?” Celestia asked Silvia, who smiled and nodded. The pegasus sighed. “None of this makes any sense. How?”
Luminous let out a yelp as the dark cloud settled down next to her, though she relaxed when the form of Arcane materialized from it. She had forgotten he could do that. “We can talk about this later. In case some of you didn’t realize, only one dragon is dead.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Flurry asked the room. “We kill him that’s one of two threats down, right? Get me near him and I’ll incinerate him to nothing but bones.”
“Barring the fact fire spells don’t work on dragons, I need you to do something else Flurry,” Silvia said, getting to her paws despite the look of worry on her daughter’s face. “I don’t want to think worst case, but if it happens, it’s better to send our most valuable asset to safety. You know how important the canon is,” She put the alicorn’s paw in her hoof, a look of desperation on her face. “Get to the Changelings, tell them of our coming.
Flurry caught the wolf as she collapsed to the ground, Luminous making her way to her mother's side slowly. She was breathing rigidly, conscious but not seeming to be completely there. Flurry bit her lip, a large part of her wanting to fight, but she knew why Silvia needed her alive. If Twilight somehow died, she was Equestria’s hope. Whether or not she believed anything about the supposed barrier the wolf said didn’t matter, if she wanted any sort of vengeance, then she needed to live. If the barrier did exist, she wasn’t about to be reckless.
“I can get her to safety, but it will slow me down,” Flurry explained to the room. “As much as I hate to say it, taking Twilight’s canon with me is a bad idea. If he catches me, the Crystal Empire has no ruler, and Equestria is without its queen.”
“And you expect us to just go ahead and trust you?” Thunder asked. He knew there was another reason for it, there always was with Silvia.
“Do you have any other options?” Flurry responded. Thunder mouth opened to answer, but nothing in the end came out of it. She hoisted Silvia onto her back. “Exactly. Now, buy me enough time to get in the air, that’s all I ask for. Something tells me you will be here a little longer than that, but that is the most I need.”
“Promise you’ll keep her safe?” Luminous asked. Flurry nodded, a hint of sympathy in her eyes.
As she made her way to the front door, the rest of the ponies and Gabriel made their way out the two broken glass doors that Tholak and his soldier had been tossed through. Arcane took the lead, keeping his eyes glued on the makeshift entrance their adversary had made. He turned behind him, noting the look of uncertainty on Celestia’s face. He made his way back, putting a hoof on Luminous shoulder. He placed the other hoof over his heart, and then moved it over Luminous’, a motion that Silvia had taught her, meaning “eyes on you.”
“Thanks,” Luminous replied. She moved forward with the others, while Arcane continued back.
Hoping out of the patio, Luminous looked around for any sign of the attackers, her steps followed by Thunder and Gabriel. The ponies couldn’t see anyone nearby, Tholak seemingly having disappeared into the forest. Gabriel, however, took notice of a very faint trail of blood leading over towards nearby bushes. Keeping a claw on the bag in case someone tried to sneak behind and take it from him, he left the two ponies and went to investigate. He placed a claw on the bush to push it aside, only for a hand to grab his own.
“Gotcha.”
Gabriel barely had the time to dodge the spear that came through the bush as he yanked his claws away. Luminous looked back to the griffon, watching as he fell on his back, the other dragon soldier stepping out of the bushes. She rushed into the fray, ramming him in the stomach as he tried to stab downwards with the spear. The blow knocked the spear out of the dragon’s hands, gabriel grabbing it as it got free. Without waiting he got up and launched into the air, landing on his attacker with the spear landing right in his gut. He raised it again, and stuck it straight through the heart, dealing a fatal blow.
While this was happening, Tholak had jumped Thunder, clubbing the pegasus in the face with the scepter. It didn’t phase him for long, however, ducking the next swing and going around the dragonlord’s legs. He reached for the tail the same way Luminous had done earlier, but was outmaneuvered as Tholak turned and dropped his foot on the pegasi’s back. The force caused some pain but Thunder managed to keep standing just long enough for him to once again get hit in the head with the scepter, knocking him unconscious.
“Tholak!” He turned to Luminous, standing tall and proud. Next to her was Gabriel, and Tholak’s eyes drifting hungrily to the bag around his shoulder. “Step away from Thunder. It’s us you want, not him.”
“Your right, but you wouldn’t have to watch me beat him down if you had just handed me the bag,” Tholak replied, holding out a hand. “It’s in there, isn’t it? The item that I had to come all the way over here to grab from your filthy hooves. How about you hand it over and I’ll-”
“Yeah, that’s not happening,” Gabriel replied. He twirled the spear before pointing it at the dragon. “Silvia is a friend of mine, Twilight as well, and these ponies around us are very special individuals, former princesses or otherwise. You say that we’ll be spared, but I know better. Individuals like you…” He dropped into a fighting stance. “... only care about themselves.”
Tholak only smiled. “Now how do you even believe that when we’ve only just now met?”
Luminous didn’t wait for an answer, charging forward and tackling Tholak to the ground. She attempted to punch him, but he blocked her hoof with his hand, tossing her off as he did. It did little to keep Luminous down, landing on her feet and taking his tail in her mouth. Her attempt to fling him away was halted as he did the same thing to her, moving his tail with enough force to throw her away. He got back to his feet and dusted himself off, his gaze turning from Luminous to Gabriel.
The griffon used the spear to vault into the air, opening his wings as he glided at the Tholak. With the spear pointed at this face, the dragon put his hands up in reflex, catching the spear inches before it would have struck him. He winced in pain, one of his hands having caught the spear at it’s tip, the blade cutting into his hand. It did nothing to stop him from ripping the spear away from Gabriel, who had very little time to react before his own weapon was used against him. A slash right along the chest, not deep enough to be dangerous, but hurting enough to make him flinch just enough for Tholak to grab his beak and throw him to the ground.
Luminous had seen all of that occur, a mixture of anger and fear resonating in her chest, heart beating like it would burst at any moment. Without thinking, she once again rushed at Tholak, screaming at the top of her lungs. It did nothing but get her head caught in Tholak’s grasp, and what anger there was in her heart was gone, fear alone remaining. He gave her a smile, one of pure joy and content. One that told her she was a dead mare, a feeling that only elevated when she felt his claws digging into her left eyeball.
“That wolf you called your mother did something horrible to my comrade, to the one I care for most in the world,” Tholak told Luminous, whispering unintelligibly. “I think an eye for an eye is more than a fair exchange.”
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Miles away, Twilight screamed out in pain, collapsing on the ground in her cell. Her hooves instinctively moved to her eye, a sharp pain coming from it, as if it was being removed. As the pain turned to numbness, she moved her hoof away, only to search her eye to make sure it was still there. It was, and she sighed in relief, but wondered why she had even though it had fallen out in the first place. She had no idea where the pain came from, why it had hurt so badly, or the terror that now sat deep in her chest. It took her only a minute to realize that she had felt one of those things before, and her heart sank.
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“Hurts, doesn’t it?” Tholak asked, tossing Luminous’ left eye in the palm of his hand as the mare cried. He throws it away, walks up to Luminous, and kicks her to the side to reach Gabriel. “Now then, how about I just take this.”
He grabbed the bag around Gabriel’s shoulder, the griffon grabbing it with his talons as he did. Tholak didn’t bother trying to break Gabriel’s grip, as he was forced to hold his open wound, loosening his grip just enough for Tholak to simply walk away. He opened the bag, squinting his eyes at the bright light, and took out the source of it. His smile nearly overtook his face as he held the canon, licking his lips.
“It’s as disgustingly bright as she said it would be,” Tholak said. With her remaining eye, Luminous looked up in fear, noticing that the crystal was dangerously close to his mouth. “And it is a joy to destroy it.”
Before she could say anything, Tholak opened his mouth, and bit down. Like any other gem that he had, his teeth splintered the canon, cutting it in half and causing the glow to fade. He took the remaining half of it and squeezed it, Luminous able to hear it shatter in fist. Opening it, she was left to look on the remains of what had been their mission, a breeze blowing it out of Tholak’s hand into the night sky, never to be seen again. With his hand free, he picked up the spear and walked to Luminous.
“I gave you a choice, and I would have more than honored it,” Tholak explained, Luminous shuffling her back into the nearest tree. “I gave you the chance to live-” He raised the spear. “- and you choose to die.”
Luminous closed her eyes and waited for the impact, for death to embrace her. Yet, while the sound of the spear sinking into skin did play through her ears, there was no pain. She thought for a second she might be dead, but she could still feel the grass under her, and the bark of the tree against her back. Believe she was saved, she opened her eyes and hoped to see a weapon of some kind sticking through Tholak’s body. The moment she opened her eyes, she regretted it.
Above her was Sunnyside, or Celestia if what she had heard earlier meant anything. Her face was twisted with terror as she stared into Luminous’ eyes, the paradox not wanting to look away from her eyes in fear of what she would see. Yet, she did it anyways, and was greeted by a spear poking through the princess’ body. The white coat had started to turn red from blood, and Luminous could feel herself getting light headed. She thought that the amount of cuts she had gotten would have prepared her for what she saw, but this was worse than any cut she would imagine.
“Tia!”
Her body lurched forward as a magic blast hit Tholak, letting go of the spear and allowing a near dead Celestia to fall on Luminous’ lap. Tholak looked to see where the blast had come from, but was flung backwards as another one hit his stomach. That same dark cloud from earlier surrounded his body, and he started to howl in pain as cuts, bruises, and slashes appeared on his body. All of that while Luna, from a distance, pupils dilated, sent blast after blast into the wounds created. After a time, he fell to the ground, the dark cloud moving away from him and forming once again into Arcane. The dragon was alive, but he doubted he would live long enough to receive health. He looked back to the ponies and griffon, Luna rushing to her sister, and cursed himself.
All that time, trying to convince Celestia and Luna to hide, and he had been made oblivious to what he had allowed. Walking up to Luminous, he saw her missing eye, and the former alicorn bleeding out in front of her. The look on the young pegasi’ face said everything, and just like the mare who had taken the blow for her, was looking ready to pass out. He looked to Gabriel, who despite being on his feet, was clutch a horrible wound.
“You have first aid somewhere?” Arcane asked Luna, the unicorn holding her dying sister in her hooves.
It took Luna a few seconds to respond. “Master bathroom. The mirror is also a cupboard.”
Arcane gave her a nod, but not a thank you, knowing that a simple first aid kit couldn’t save Celestia, nor did he lack any knowledge in healing magic to help her. He walked past Gabriel, who was grabbing Thunder’s unconscious body. The griffon looked to the unicorn, a look of fear on his face. All that Arcane could do was nod, though he knew not what question he was supposed to answer. To both of them, the ones not overcome by fear or the death of a friend, a feeling a shame washed over them. The shame of having failed Twilight, of no doubt leading her to her death.
“Get everypony moving,” He ordered. “Tell Luna we can’t bury her sister, not until we are truly safe from these monsters.”