The ground started to rumble as Tirek came into view. His muscles bulged with raw magic, and his horns nearly broke the treeline. Twilight felt a bead of sweat run down her neck. How many other ponies has he drained?
He spotted her, and Twilight was ready for the gloating, the taunting, the threats. She wasn’t ready for him to instantly fire off a blast of energy strong enough to level a block. At the last possible second, she teleported to right behind him, her horn ablaze with magenta light.
She launched a lance of energy into the back of Tirek’s head. He cried out in pain.
“Where are your friends, you big meanie?” Pinkie shouted.
A fly behind Pinkie engulfed itself in sickly green fire, and Chrysalis pounced on her. She held her horn to the earth pony’s throat. “Surrender,” she hissed, staring right into Twilight’s eyes.
But with her eyes thus occupied, she didn’t see Applejack throw a rope around up towards her and roughly pull her down. Chrysalis yelped, and Applejack quickly trussed her. For a moment, it looked like the battle was nearly won.
Tirek’s horns crackled, and he fired a bolt of energy so powerful Applejack had to duck for cover. He followed up with a hair-thin ray to slice through Chrysalis’s bonds. The changeling queen snarled at Applejack, and darted towards her.
Twilight was so preoccupied watching all this she didn’t hear Cozy sneak up on her. But she felt the rush of air currents signifying a sneak attack, and rolled aside reflexively—the place where she’d just been now occupied with a spear.
Cozy carried a spear, obviously liberated from a guard, twice as tall as she was. Her wings beat furiously to just stay aloft with her weapon. It was clear she was unfamiliar with the weapon, and having difficulty using it.
“You know, you made a lot of mistakes, Princess Twilight, but the biggest one was not surrendering to us all right away.” Cozy’s voice carried a cocky tone that grated on Twilight’s ears. “If you had, well, Shining might be okay!”
“What did you to do Shining!?” Twilight demanded, her vision turning hazy with rage.
“Oh, nothing bad,” Cozy replied innocently. “Tirek just drained his magic, and Chrysalis cocooned him. But I’m sure he’ll be fine! Chryssy even said something about releasing him and keeping him as a minion…~”
A dark part of Twilight wanted to shut Cozy’s mouth for her, but she suppressed that impulse. Instead, she fired a lance of raw magic at Chrysalis, sending the changeling skidding backwards and nearly over the cliff. She went into a power dive, flying around Tirek faster and faster. As he tried to track her, she abruptly shot back upwards, leaving a cloud of dirt and dust in his face.
She conjured a paneled cage of pure magical force around Cozy. After a moment of consideration, she made it soundproof as well.
Twilight breathed deep, and swooped down towards Chrysalis, her horn surging with pure power. But just before she reached her, Chrysalis shapeshifted into a malwurf, and body-slammed Twilight!
Twilight’s head spun, and her magical cage around Cozy vanished.
Okay, this won’t be a short fight.
Cozy felt the magical cage around her dissipate. She let a confident smile play out across her face. If the bearers of the Elements think I have something up my sleeve, they’ll pay attention to me and not my allies. If I do it enough, my allies should hopefully get plenty of openings!
It was to be expected that their enemies had figured out counters to their assorted tactics. She had to admit, creating clothing to distinguish each other from Chrysalis was a very clever move.
But she hadn’t nearly ruled Equestria by having only one plan. With a grin, she flew downwards, trying to use her spear to rip the cloaks off.
She missed completely. Despite her incredible intellect, she was still a filly fighting fully-grown mares, who were both stronger and more agile than her. She muttered, “This is starting to make me peeved.” Although unlikely, it was possible her enemies would be startled by her vulgarity.
Rainbow Dash zoomed around Cozy too fast for her eyes to follow, quickly entangling her in her cape. “If you’re the best Grogar can send, then Equestria’s completely safe!”
Cozy started laughing. “Oh, you—oh, golly, this is too good!” As Rainbow looked at her suspiciously, she continued. “You think we’re here to capture you? No, we have a very different mission.”
“Yeah?” Rainbow demanded.
“We’re a distraction, heeheehee! While you’re fighting us, Grogar is conquering one city after another!” Cozy lied effortlessly. “Even if you beat us, Grogar will rule Equestria!”
Cozy saw the uncertainty and doubt on Rainbow’s face, and easily imagined what was going through Rainbow’s head. Is the brilliant, terrifyingly persuasive Cozy lying again? Telling the truth and hoping I’ll read it as a lie?
Cozy’s words disturbed Rainbow’s concentration just enough the blue pegasus was gripped in Tirek’s telekinesis. He opened his mouth wide, ready to drain her magic, but a pie to the face sent him stumbling backwards. His telekinetic grip loosened, and Rainbow managed to get free—but so did Cozy.
Ordinarily, Cozy liked to figure out who the leader was, and strike at their greatest vulnerability. She’d started by looking at Twilight Sparkle. But the reflexive way each of the bearers fought, their perfect synchronization, forced her to one conclusion:
They didn’t have a leader. Each of them except Spike was an equal. Spike was clearly subservient to Twilight, but other than that, they were simply friends.
On the one hoof, this meant she couldn’t achieve instant victory by removal of the leader. On the other, it meant the capture of any of the septet would make a critical hostage.
All of these thoughts flashed through Cozy’s mind in the space of a few heartbeats. She untangled herself from Rainbow’s cape, and scanned the battlefield. Chrysalis was locked in battle with Applejack and Twilight. Rarity, Rainbow, and Fluttershy fought Tirek. Pinkie stood atop a pillar, firing cupcakes at both Cozy’s allies. And Spike?
As she looked for him, he jumped upon her and knocked her to the ground. She struggled in his clawed grip, but he effectively pinned her. “These muscles? They’re from years of holding huge stacks of papers,” he said confidently, as if he’d read her mind.
“Golly, I guess you caught me,” she admitted. “I wonder how the others will react? Will they cheer you? Will Rarity finally give you a kiss? Or will they give you a quick thanks and then ignore you?”
“I—w-well,” Spike stuttered. Cozy smelled weakness.
“Face it, Spike, they see you as a sidekick. They only keep you around as their slave.” She gave him her most charming smile. “If you joined us, though, we’d treat you as an equal. All the gems you could ever want! Chrysalis could assign one of her changelings to act like Rarity and be your girlfriend!”
Spike put a claw to his chin in thought “Hmmm,” he murmured. With only one claw grabbing her, Cozy twisted around to get free.
Spike narrowed his eyes, and exhaled a torrent of green fire towards her. She screamed, covering her face with her hooves.
Chrysalis saw Spike menacing Cozy Glow. She hissed, her tongue waving menacingly, and darted forward. Just as Spike breathed fire towards the filly, Chrysalis scooped him up in malwurf form. Only the first flames reached Cozy, and she quickly stopped, dropped and rolled. “Help!” Spike screamed.
“Don’t you dare hurt Spikey-Wikey, you shapeshifting fiend!” Rarity cried, and hurled a blast of sparkling dust into Chrysalis’s eyes. Rainbow, Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy likewise formed into a combat position. Pinkie still lurked in her sniper tower.
Chrysalis felt the aetherial imbalance signifying a huge magical discharge, and dove aside with her hostage as Tirek launched a blast powerful enough to crack a mountain right at the five friends. Twilight and Rarity poured all their skill into a barrier, but ultimately it just wasn’t enough. The blast surged out the other side of the Castle of the Two Sisters, leaving nothing visible of the ponies.
Chrysalis was about to congratulate Tirek on victory when she felt a horn against her malwurf throat. “You’re lucky that I am a lady and do not stoop to your tactics,” Rarity said in a cold voice. “Nonetheless, if you don’t release Spikey-Wikey this instant, I may be forced to act in an unladylike way.”
Chrysalis saw Twilight and Rainbow threatening Tirek similarly. With a sigh, she moved as if to let Spike out, but suddenly whirled and slammed her claw towards Rarity. The pony barely dodged out of the way. She fired a retaliatory beam of light, but it did nothing against Chrysalis’s now rock-hard hide.
She noticed her claw felt warm… now hot… now burning! Spike was breathing fire onto her claw! With a yelp, she dropped him, and shapeshifted back to a changeling to put the fire out.
Chrysalis bared her fangs. “Now, let’s try this again.”
Tirek surveyed the battlefield. This fight is going more poorly than it should be. Those ponies have learned how to predict each others’ moves, and even my allies’. Most irritating.
He raised a shield to deflect Rainbow Dash’s ferocious kick, and answered with a beam of magic that only grazed her and still sent her into a tailspin. This isn’t working. And the longer this fight drags on, the worse off we’ll be when we have to face Grogar.
But all that magic had made him quite a tall centaur, and he could see over the treeline. Something very, very interesting was happening just out of earshot. He gestured for Chrysalis to fly over to beside him. Under the cover of uniting their magical lasers into one, he rapidly explained his idea to her. At the last second, he leaned forward, firing his magical blast at the ground. The strike kicked up a cloud of dust as high as Canterlot’s towers. Though he couldn’t see Chrysalis, he knew what she would be doing.
He could hear the ponies’ cries of confusion. “Where are they?”
“Is everypony okay?”
“Where’s Fluttershy?”
“I-I’m here.”
“What are they doing?”
Stupid, Tirek thought to himself with a smile. They’re all giving away their positions. Cozy, he noticed, stayed completely silent. She’s a bright one, that kid.
Tirek unleashed a blast of power at Rarity, It was carefully calculated to injure, not destroy, so the others would rush to her aid—and reveal themselves for his more powerful blast.
He was rewarded with a scream, but not for the reason he expected. “Eeaugh, I’m covered in mud! You monster!” Rarity had jumped aside at the last second.
Tirek suppressed his urge to chuckle. If Chrysalis succeeds at her little mission, Rarity will have a lot more to worry about than mud on her coat.
Chrysalis fluttered her membranous wings, her lip curled into a predatory smile. She could already taste the sweet flavor of victory.
Tirek’s words echoed in her mind. “This battle’s odds are against us. We can’t pin them down enough to destroy them, and they’re so slippery we can’t take any effective hostages. We’ve nearly lost twice now.” He had smirked. “But I saw those six students that thwarted Cozy just a few hundred feet from here. If you can lure them here, we’ll have six civilians they care deeply about.”
Chrysalis fixed the image of Fluttershy in her mind, and felt her horn recede into her head. Fur sprouted along her coat as her chitin receded into skin. She quickly rolled about in the dirt to make herself look appropriately roughed up, and then staggered out towards the crystalline treehouse with the students.
Their names flashed through her mind from one of Cozy’s rants. “Gallus… Yona… Smolder… Ocellus… Sandbar… Silverstream! We need your help!” she gasped.
Gallus bolted to his paws and looked down at her. “What happened?”
“Cozy’s… returned. Chrysalis… Tirek… Grogar… Sombra… all working together…” Chrysalis cough-cried in Fluttershy’s voice. “A-and I think Discord is… is…” she sniffled, sobs breaking through. “But there’s still hope. Twilight thinks she’s… she’s found a way to restore the Elements of Harmony. But… but it needs you! The Tree of Harmony has a special connection with you!”
Any doubts in the students’ faces vanished upon her mention of a special connection with the Tree. It seemed Cozy’s educated guess about their connection had been correct.
Chrysalis wanted to grin, to exult, to cheer for her genius ally, but she knew if she did it’d blow her cover. So she just cowered as the students discussed what to do next.
“We hit them fast and hard,” Smolder said, her smile matching Chrysalis’s inner grin. “Link up with the Tree, and fire a harmony beam.”
“Yona hate Cozy Glow. Yona want to smash Cozy back into cell in Tartarus.”
Ocellus said, her eyes fearful but full of conviction, “After Chrysalis’s defeated, I’m sure King Thorax will know what to do with her.” Every word Ocellus spoke was a condemnation not only of herself but of the entire Hive. Chrysalis wanted to tear into the grub’s chitin, but she kept her anger in check. There’d be time enough to exact justice later. For now, her only goal was victory.
“At this point, the only bully they’re missing is the Storm King!” Silverstream said. “H-he hasn’t come back, right?” she added fearfully.
“I-I don’t know,” Chrysalis blubbered. “I just don’t know! The magical creatures I talked to all think Grogar created their kind, so he might be creating entire new groups now!”
“Then let’s go stop Cozy and her friends, and then go after Sombra!” Gallus declared. “C’mon Fluttershy. We’re here to protect you.”
“W-Wait!” Fluttershy added. “W-we should go through Everfree Forest! They saw the way I fled and will be watching us.”
“Sure,” Gallus shrugged. “Sounds good to me.”
“T-thank you. I-I’ll lead the way,” Chrysalis offered.
“Of course,” Sandbar reassured her. But Chrysalis’s mind was already elsewhere. One word Gallus had said stuck out in her mind, blazing as bright as the noonday sun over the Badlands.
Friends.
Are Tirek and Cozy my friends?
Certainly not, she answered herself. They’re useful allies, and they do have magnificent talents and power. When I regain my rightful rule over the Hive, it will be very useful to have allies like them beside me. But that doesn’t make them friends, just business partners.
She was not going to turn into a hideous chromatic abomination like that high traitor Thorax. She vowed that with every fiber of her currently-endoskeletal being.
Chrysalis did her best to shut out the nagging voice at the back of her head slyly cooing, Cooperation, respect, and the desire to keep working together? Sounds like friendship to me…~
Spike rolled, narrowly dodging a stomp of Tirek’s huge hooves. Far above, Fluttershy berated the centaur as Twilight countered his magic.
“It doesn’t matter how big you are, you cannot, I repeat, you CANNOT be a bully! Now, are you going to apologize and give back all the magic you’ve taken, or are we going to have to do this the hard way?”
Spike rolled his eyes. There was no way Tirek was going to become any nicer, but Fluttershy still had to try. As for Spike, he was hunting Chrysalis. Nopony had seen her in a few minutes. Capturing Cozy would be trivial for somepony as agile as Rainbow Dash, and if Spike could apprehend Chrysalis, the battle would be over quickly.
Of course, “find” and “apprehend” were quite different, especially for a shapeshifter. But Spike had a plan.
He was going to make himself look like a vulnerable, easy-to-capture hostage that Chrysalis wouldn’t be able to resist. Then he’d spring his trap and catch her.
He mulled over how it was unfortunate the villains weren’t friends. If they were, capturing Cozy would be enough to get the other two to surrender. As it was, they just quickly freed her, no doubt seeing the tactical value of doing so.
Spike shook his head back to reality. Is that Gallus’s voice?
It was! The griffon was saying something about how griffon law would treat Tirek.
Spike poked his head out of a bush. The six students were heading right for the castle—and Fluttershy was behind them!
That Fluttershy was a changeling, Spike was certain. He froze right where he was, letting the student 6 walk past, and then jumped on Fluttershy-Chrysalis. He knocked her down, and opened his mouth, ready to breathe fire.
“Give it up, Chrysalis.” He bared his mouth, ready to exhale a wave of fire.
“Kids! This isn’t Spike, it’s Chrysalis! Help!” Fluttershy cried.
Chrysalis kept her bubbling rage under control. This little dragon was on the verge of ruining this brilliant plan! And if she didn’t comply, he was ready to roast her with his dragonfire! It was so utterly humiliating.
Ocellus looked from Spike to Chrysalis. “How can we tell who’s real? Quick, say something only the real you would say!”
“I use tail extensions!” Chrysalis called out.
“I have a crush on Dragon Lord Ember!” Spike confessed.
“Those are both realistic…” Ocellus said, putting a hoof to her mouth, as Smolder stared at Spike. “I know! Let’s take you to the others!”
“Wait!” Chrysalis cried, her soft voice so unbecoming of a queen. “If Chrysalis already replaced Spike here, then the others must have defeated the rest of the Bearers! We’d be walking right into a trap!”
“When I left, the battle was going in our favor!” Spike claimed. “You just don’t want them to see that there’s another Fluttershy!”
“You two walk at the front,” Smolder demanded. “No tricks. We’ll go there ourselves and learn the truth.”
Chrysalis could already predict how this would end. The students would see a second Fluttershy, arrest her, and she and her allies would be shipped off to Tartarus.
The changeling queen pleaded, doing her best to sound genuine, “But I don’t want you all to get captured! We might be Twilight’s only hope, and we can only win the war if we flee this battle!”
“Don’t worry, Professor Fluttershy,” Silverstream reassured her. “You said it yourself: we have a special connection to the Tree of Harmony. It might be scary, but we will find a way. That’s what heroes do.”
“I…” Chrysalis made her body take a deep, firm breath. “I can’t let you all march into a trap. It’s just too dangerous.”
“You’re just scared of what they’ll do when they find out you’re a changeling,” Spike crowed. “But you’re also scared of what I’ll do if you try to hurt any of us.”
There was truth in Spike’s words, though it pained Chrysalis to admit it. One thought coursed through her brain:
What do I do now?
Cozy analyzed the battlefield. Rainbow was still chasing her, but Tirek’s energy blasts provided plenty of cover fire. She searched back and forth. Where was Chrysalis?
There! Down below, she saw another Fluttershy leading her old adversaries. Cozy licked her lips in anticipation. Revenge was sweetest when it was cold.
Gallus heard an all-too-familiar voice calling down. “Chrysalis! Shapeshift into an Ursa!”
Both Spike and Fluttershy looked up. “Come on!” Cozy urged. “Drop the Fluttershy disguise and fight your way out!”
“There! Cozy confirms what I’ve been saying!” Spike exclaimed, his voice rising with triumph. “Fluttershy is a changeling!”
“Wait a minute…” Yona said. “Evil Cozy pony very smart. Very nasty. Always has tricks.”
“Yona’s right,” Sandbar added. “I bet she’s trying to make us think Fluttershy’s Chrysalis so we all attack her, leaving us open to Spike-Chrysalis’s real attack!”
Gallus nodded. That seemed like the kind of thing Cozy would do. “Alright, Chrysalis, you’re our prisoner now. Leave Fluttershy alone, or things might get messy.”
“N-no! It’s— uugh!” Spike groaned as Yona roughly pinned him down. “She’s the changeling, not me!”
Gallus flew quickly after Cozy. Despite her twists and turns, he grabbed her with a slipped his claws around under her forelegs. “Golly, you sure are strong, Gallus,” she cooed. “Better be careful! You don’t want to hurt me, do you? Maybe you should loosen your grip juuuust a bit.”
“Not likely,” he retorted flatly. “And besides, look around. We caught Chrysalis too. By now, Rainbow and the others have probably caught Tirek. Looks like you lost, Cozy.”
“Gee, that sure is a shame.” Cozy’s smile dropped. “Well, I tried being nice. Now!”
Gallus heard a ferocious roar from below. Fluttershy was gone—in her place was a Tazltwurm! With lightning speed, its three tongues entangled Gallus, Sandbar, and Silverstream. The shock of the incredibly gross tongue made him lose his grip. Cozy slipped away, grinning diabolically. “Should’ve listened when I asked nicely~” she taunted.
Gallus frantically fought against the tongue-tentacles, but it was a losing battle. They easily slipped into his weak spots, like the middle of his back, and then looped around to his chest and back again. “Urrgh, leggo!”
“You’re a smart chicken, Gallus. It’s a shame I’m so much smarter!” Cozy winked cheekily, and shouted, “Everycreature surrender, or these three get it!”
“Don’t call me a chicken!” Gallus clucked angrily. He processed the rest of what she’d said, and looked down at the giant mouth.
Ocellus, Spike, Smolder, and Yona slowly lowered their claws or other offensive appendages. “That’s right, let’s be nice and pleasant about this,” Cozy encouraged. “Just don’t make any trouble, and your friends will be A-okay!” Chrysalis roared her agreement. Perhaps tazltwurm mouths weren’t suitable for speech.
Cozy hovered just out of reach of Gallus, and grinned. “I knew if I were to openly ask Chrysalis to help me, you’d assume I was trying to convince you all that the pony I was talking to was actually Chrysalis, and thus that she wasn’t. I had to get you all to get your eyes off her for long enough for her to shapeshift without incident. And look how it went! Your own brains betrayed you. Golly, you must just feel horrible about all this.”
Gallus winced as the tongue-tentacles squeezed his chest a little harder. He tried to stay calm, and think. Cozy has to have a plan in mind when taunting me. Usually she doesn’t gloat for gloating’s sake. Is she just trying to break my spirit, so even if I manage to escape, I’d feel too hopeless to oppose her? Or is she up to something else?
Applejack smiled, her face draped in satisfaction. Between herself and her friends, they’d managed to shut down Tirek’s attacks completely. He was now hiding behind a force field as she, Twilight, Rainbow, and Rarity bombarded it with spells, storms, and good old-fashioned kicks. From the tower above, Pinkie continued to keep a lookout for Spike, Cozy, and Chrysalis, as Fluttershy flitted back and forth on a more active search.
“Something big’s coming this way from Everfree Forest!” Pinkie called down. “Really big!”
Applejack hoisted her lasso. If it was Chrysalis, she was ready to capture the bug. And if it was just some wandering critter, Fluttershy could talk it down.
Applejack ran forwards towards the huge disturbance, and charged right into—Ocellus?
The cyan changeling gasped in shock. “Applejack?”
Before Applejack could reply, a saccharine voice drifted down. “Aww, looks like you’ve stumbled onto our little group!” Cozy taunted. But the earth pony was too quick. With a toss of her lasso, Cozy was pulled to the ground and quickly tied up.
“Golly, you’re a good athlete,” Cozy praised. “But of course you’re going to release me right now and beg for my mercy.”
“Not happenin’, sugarcube,” Applejack retorted flatly. “Yer gonna get locked up back in Tartarus.”
“Oh Chrysaliiiiiis~” the deranged filly called out. “Come and show Professor Applejack our friends!”
Ocellus, throughout all of this, had just stood there, trembling. “Come on, Ocellus!” Applejack instructed. “Get to the others, and tell them to head over here!”
“I-I can’t!” she moaned. “Ch-Chrysalis—”
A roar shook Applejack to the ground. She rolled over rapidly, and saw a huge worm monster! Sandbar, Gallus, and Silverstream were bound tightly in its tongue-tentacles, and the rest of their friend group—plus Spike!—trotted in front of it dejectedly.
“Has three of her friends,” Cozy finished, grinning. “Now, Chrysalis is a shapeshifter, but she does get some of the instincts of her assumed form. I imagine it’s taking quite a lot of effort to keep all three of those creatures out of her mouth. It’d sure be unfortunate if she couldn’t keep control… why don’t you release me, just to be safe?”
Applejack couldn’t let anything bad happen to any of her students. Her eyes lowered in shame, she untied Cozy. “Now, start walking along with the others,” Cozy ordered.
Applejack obliged, already thinking about what to do next. How can I get the kids free?
Chrysalis undulated towards the Castle of the Two Sisters. Her huge worm body was clumsy and ungainly, but it was uniquely well suited for taking prisoners.
She had no intention of harming these irrelevant creatures unless necessary, of course. What did she care about a hippogriff, griffon, and pony? As for Twilight and her friends, Chrysalis had every intention of eliminating them. She didn’t really care if they suffered; she just wanted them out of her hair and unable to interfere with her plans.
Now Starlight Glimmer… Chrysalis would ensure that she suffered immensely. Many days, the only thing that had gotten her through the day was imagining Starlight defeated, lying helpless at her hooves as Chrysalis revealed the utter destruction of everyone Starlight had cared about. Even now, the thought filled her with a surge of energy. She let out a roar through the tazltwurm’s mouth.
Beneath her, Applejack stumbled along. It was pathetic, really. One of the Elements of Harmony, reduced to helplessness not through combat, but simply through threats against innocents. Heroes are so predictable. Chrysalis would have smiled, if her current mouth had been capable of it.
Pinkie perched atop her lookout position. Tirek was cowering underneath his magic shield. Applejack and Spike had both disappeared. Probably captured, but maybe just lost.
She peered into her binoculars. There—trees being knocked over! Since Tirek was here, that was probably Chrysalis in a huge battle form.
Spike, Fluttershy, and a few of their students walked out of the woods. They all looked scared. Pinkie reached for a cupcake, ready to throw at the slightest sign of Chrysalis.
She didn’t have long to wait. A huge worm monster with giant tentacles for tongues was holding the rest of the students hostage! “Twilight! Save them!” Pinkie shouted. “Quickly!”
The alicorn nodded. With a flash of light, she blinked in front of the worm monster. With unbridled ferocity, she fired a beam of light right into Chrysalis’s mouth. The worm howled, and squeezed tighter on the students it was holding—but Applejack kicked it right in the side. It let out a wheezing gasp, and dropped the students. Twilight shot downwards, scooped each of the students, and then with a blink of purple magic, she vanished. The rest of the students, and Spike, did as well.
A moment later, she was back. Her gaze burned with fury. “It’s one thing to go after us, Chrysalis. We all knew what we were getting into. But keeping innocent creatures as hostages? That’s low, even for you.”
The worm writhed in fire, and out stepped Chrysalis. She surveyed the field, and transformed once more. This time, she became a huge, dangerous roc, and flew to beside Tirek. He adjusted his magic shield, letting her in, and she settled on his shoulder in her natural form.
That’s two of the meanies, Pinkie knew. But where’s Cozy? What schemes are she up to?
Cozy watched the battle play out from her hidden spot among the trees. As powerful as Chrysalis and Tirek were, they were unlikely to prevail at this point. Every effort to take prisoners had failed, the students were gone, and even Spike was too. All there were left were these six hardened experts.
She tapped her chin. Unfortunate, but not hopeless. She had backup plans even for slowly losing matches like this. The most important factor, she knew, was to shatter their cooperation. As long as the six bearers continued to work together, they were nearly undefeatable. Break their teamwork, and breaking their bodies would be easy.
She focused inwards, reaching for the perfect ruthlessness deep within her. Drawing her breath in, she imagined every enemy, every ally, everyone she had any opinion at all on. Exhaling, she imagined each one of them dead. Not painfully; torture had never been to her interest. It was a much simpler thing, really: creatures only had a purpose in her world insofar as they could serve her. Everyone she had an interest in was by definition a potential threat someday, and therefore needed to be eliminated. Not kindness, not revenge, not loyalty, not obligation would make her so much as pause in doing what she always did:
Win.
But this time, her perfect ruthlessness found a block. Imagining Chrysalis and Tirek dead left her feeling… weird. It was a feeling she had never felt before, and she didn’t like it. To test this emotion, she instead imagined them bowing down to her. It was there, but weaker. Next she imagined them ruling beside her. The feeling vanished altogether.
Strange, she thought to herself. Well, let’s try that again, leaving those two out of it. This time, she didn’t experience that weird feeling at all.
Her mind now locked into that perfected ruthlessness, she flapped her wings quickly, and flapped forward. It was time to move one step closer to victory.
Spike stared out the window of the treehouse dejectedly. He wanted to be back with Twilight, fighting to save Equestria. But his big sister had insisted that he stay here. “If something happens to us,” she had said, “it’s up to you to protect our students, and get word of what happened to Starlight.”
He understood the importance of what she was asking. But he couldn’t help but feel that maybe she just wanted him out of the way so he’d be safe.
He turned back from his brooding to listen to what Gallus was saying. “The Tree said that our friendship would be safe within here. What do you think that means?”
“Maybe it means that the powers of bad guys can’t touch us in here!” Silverstream exclaimed.
“Maybe it means any of our conflicts with each other will be easily resolved,” Ocellus suggested.
“Or maybe it’s just a fun place to hang out.” Sandbar shrugged. When Gallus gave him a skeptical look, he insisted, “Hey, it could be!”
“It’s much more than that,” Spike said. He thought back to all the complex history of the Tree of Harmony. “From when the Pillars planted it to now, it’s been an embodiment of the good things in the world. The things Grogar and his minions want to destroy. The Elements were powerful enough to stop Discord. Even with them gone, there’s still a lot of ambient magic here. We don’t know what the limits on its power are, if it even has any.”
“It has to have some, or Sombra couldn’t have destroyed it.” Smolder crossed her arms.
“But he couldn’t. Even after that, it still came back.” Spike smiled in what he hoped was a comforting way. “And that’s why I know we’ll win: the ideas we’re fighting for always win.”
Twilight and her friends fought for the fate of all Equestria.
Tirek and Chrysalis were both powerful, but they were constantly on the defensive. Whenever either was about to strike, one of the Bearers skillfully negated the attack. Tirek couldn’t focus long enough to drain magic, and Chrysalis kept having to shapeshift just to avoid getting knocked unconscious. All in all, the battle was going well.
“To your left, Fluttershy!” Applejack called out. Fluttershy swerved, just barely avoiding Chrysalis’s lime laser. The beam sheared a tree in half behind her. Rarity fired a cloud of glitter to blind the changeling, who only just staggered behind Tirek’s shield again before Twilight would have encased her in solid crystal with the spell she’d trapped Starlight in years ago.
Cozy was still missing, which meant she was almost certainly up to something. But with her two accomplices occupied here, Twilight was quite confident of victory. The evil pegasus focused on coordination and manipulation, after all, and neither was very effective without allies or gullible marks.
“Just—hold—still!” Tirek grunted. “Stop moving so fast!”
Twilight channeled a current of magic down her horn, intensified it at the very tip, and let loose a discharge of magic so potent it could crystallize a whole town block. Tirek and Chrysalis combined their magic to block the bolt, and Twilight was rewarded by seeing beads of sweat running down their faces.
“Golly, so you’re finally ready to win?” Cozy asked lightly as she fluttered down to them. “I would have thought you’d made up your mind already, but I guess you disappointed me. And that’s not all you disappointed, is it, Chrysalis?”
Twilight seized the filly in her telekinesis, gently but firmly immobilizing her. “What?”
“Chrysalis here is a love-eater,” Cozy reminded Twilight. “That means she can feel emotions as well. And do you know what she felt radiating off of Luna and your teacher Celestia?”
“Shut up,” Twilight ordered coldly.
“Disappointment. Shame. Even contempt. They were both expecting such great things from you, and in the end, what did you do? You ran away, leaving them to… well, you know.”
The words hurt more than Twilight could admit. “Don’t talk about them that way.”
“Who’s going to stop me from saying it? You?” Cozy smirked. “You’re bounded by your own ‘heroism’. An ethics code that says there are certain lines you won’t cross. And because of that, I can say whatever I want.”
Twilight still had her magical cage of silence spell ready, but she was a little too angry for rational thought right now. “Don’t—you—!”
“Me what?”
“You little fiend!” Twilight unleashed her power, pinning Cozy to the wall with bolts of force. She looked through the two obvious monsters they were fighting. Time to deal with this more directly.
Cozy strained against Twilight’s viselike grip. The princess’s magic was completely immobilizing her. Twilight glared at Cozy’s allies with pure hate, charging her horn for a more powerful attack.
It was unfortunate Cozy had to resort to this plan, as it was one of her more dangerous ones. But the battle was in that tenuous zone between evenly matched and firmly lost, and Cozy wasn’t going to let it be lost on her watch.
“You know what the funniest part is?” Cozy taunted as Twilight’s eye twitched. “You could have won this fight at any time. You’re an alicorn, and unlike with Cadance, we don’t have the element of surprise.”
“Unlike Cada—what?” Twilight stared daggers at Cozy. “What did you do to Cadance!?”
“Oh, you know. She and her husband were in Ponyville, because of you—you did call them there, didn’t you?” Only a guess, but from the look on Twilight’s face, an accurate one. “And we beat them easily. Tirek drained their magic, and Chrysalis cocooned them up nice and safe. I bet she’ll drain their love over the coming weeks… you know, after we finish crushing you and your friends.”
That was too much for the princess. She half-screamed, half-sobbed, and purple-green-black magic flowed down her horn. “You won’t get the chance!” She trapped Cozy in crystal, and hurled bolt after bolt at Tirek and Chrysalis.
Through the crystal, Cozy could make out Twilight’s ferocious attack on her allies. Cracks formed along their shield, and it shattered like glass.
Twilight seized them in her telekinetic grip, and slammed them both into the ground. She followed up with bindings of magic to hold them in place.
“I’ll never see Celestia again!” she screamed, tears flowing down her face. “Because! Of! You!”
Her horn blazed with magic, no doubt preparing a spell to petrify, banish, or otherwise remove her allies. Cozy wanted to gulp. If I judged wrong, this might be the last I see of them. And they’re, well, fun to talk to.
Fluttershy swooped between Twilight and the villains. “Twilight, stop! This isn’t you!”
“Revenge ill becomes you, dear,” Rarity agreed from down below. “I know what they’ve done is absolutely despicable, but this isn’t the way to right that wrong.”
Slowly, reason returned to Twilight’s eyes. “You’re right. I just felt so… I just got…” She looked downward in shame.
Unicorns, as a rule, had to focus to actively maintain combat spells. If that focus were broken, the spell would weaken or even end. Cozy was banking on the hope that alicorns obeyed the same rule.
As it turned out, they did—or at least, Twilight did. As she covered her eyes, Cozy’s crystal cage dissipated, and to her delight, so did Tirek and Chrysalis’s bonds. With a quick wing signal, she gave them an instruction.
The sky cracked as Tirek and Chrysalis poured every drop of pure power they could into a combined beam to destroy Twilight. Rainbow clamped her wings to her side, power diving to knock Twilight and Fluttershy out of the way, but even a glancing blow sent them all spinning into the trees.
Cozy grinned. This is more like it!
Pinkie watched the villains nearly knock three of her friends unconscious. What kind of meanies would do that to Fluttershy? She reached for her cupcakes, and let a barrage of baked goods splatter all across Chrysalis’s face.
Rarity slammed a thick curtain into Chrysalis, sending her careening through the air. Applejack lassoed Cozy again, and the awful filly couldn’t do anything to escape. But Tirek was charging up a laser, aiming right for Twilight’s prone body!
This calls for extreme measures. Pinkie Pie style!
Pinkie reached for her largest cake, and hurled it right between the centaur’s horns. Before he could finish his spell, the cake swooped through the magic. He was thrown backwards from the feedback, leaving Twilight unvaporized.
Pinkie afforded herself a smile. They never expect the cake attack.
But her happiness was cut short by what she saw in the distance. The skies over Canterlot weren’t just cloudy anymore. The clouds were beginning to spiral, as if nature itself had gathered to watch whatever was happening there. Worse, they were starting to glow with a faint unearthly light.
What’s Grogar doing?
Chrysalis roared as she was entangled in the curtain. Those ponies dared to trap her in cloth?!
She reached deep into her pool of energy, and felt thick fur replace hard chitin. Hole-filled hooves grew and grew, splitting apart into razor claws. A skeleton popped up just inside her back, and a ribcage formed to protect her vitals.
Her Ursa Minor form tore free of the curtains.
“T-that was an antique!” Rarity whined. “How could you?”
Chrysalis replied with a deep roar. Flecks of spit clung to Rarity’s mane. “My hair!” she cried. “That. Is. It!”
Rarity fired a laser right into Chrysalis’s hide, but she was no Twilight and the beam was nothing more than a distraction. Chrysalis growled, and batted the annoying unicorn away.
Chrysalis looked across the area, soaking in the situation. Tirek had almost been able to finish off Twilight, but Pinkie had interfered right at the moment of triumph. So Pinkie would be her next target.
She charged forward, ignoring all feeble attempts to stop her. She was an Ursa, of course, and very few indeed were the ponies who could hope to stop her.
She body-slammed Pinkie’s tower at the end of a full charge. High above her, she heard the satisfying sound of the pink one’s shouting rapidly approaching. “Aaaaaaaa!”
But before Pinkie fell to her fate at Chrysalis’s claws, a rainbow blur intercepted her and snatched her to safety. Chrysalis stared in disbelief. Even after Tirek had hit Rainbow that hard, she was still coordinated enough to save a falling Pinkie?
Twilight struggled to her feet. Tirek had just tried to destroy her, and only Rainbow and subsequently Pinkie’s timely interventions had saved her. Now she had to find a way to win this fight.
Chrysalis was going after Pinkie. Cozy was skulking, probably trying to figure out another way to get into their heads. Tirek was charging another magical laser in her direction. She closed her eyes, reaching into the font of magic deep in her soul. Thought became action, and she teleported to behind his twin horns just as he fired a sizzling laser. She watched in astonishment as he gouged a path through the forest.
Twilight fired a volley of energy at his hindquarters. “Urgh!” Before he could finish turning towards her, she teleported to Chrysalis. She launched a crystallization spell, which actually worked—until Ursa-Chrysalis broke free.
Twilight racked her brain. Her knowledge of how to fight Ursa Minors was centered around pacifying them. But this wasn’t an actual Ursa—it was the body of an Ursa with the brains of a changeling queen.
A queen… one desperate for subjects, Twilight reasoned. So Twilight needed to restore the queen to her throne—or at least make her think she had been.
She had never been especially skilled at illusion magic. In her eyes, magic should affect the real world, not the senses. But she had still learned a few illusions. And the alicorn power coursing through her veins did give her a universal talent at magic.
Her horn blazed with pure power as she struggled to create an effect similar to what Sombra had done to her, but in reverse. Rather than trapping Chrysalis in her worst nightmare, she was going to show Chrysalis her happiest ending possible.
Just as she was about to release the spell, a shockwave threw her thirty feet backwards, flipping her over and over again. She looked up weakly, and her heart nearly stopped:
Canterlot was destroyed.
Twilight couldn’t tear her eyes away from what remained of Canterlot. Every building within had been reduced to rubble. A yellow-black lance of light pierced the swirling clouds. The clouds formed eerie concentric circles around the beam, like a pinwheel about its center.
Her mind was filled with visions of her mom and dad trapped under masonry, hurt, maybe even gone. No…
How could this happen?
I should have been there. Maybe I could have helped them. Maybe they’d be…
Twilight shook her head. There they were. Tirek, Cozy Glow, and Chrysalis. Three villains—no, monsters—who had just destroyed an entire city. Maybe even one still full of ponies for all she knew!
“You—” she choked out. “How could you?”
Fluttershy watched Canterlot fall. She softly wept. All those poor ponies… those helpless creatures, buried under a pile of rubble…
She closed her eyes, trying to blot out the images. But she could still see the great towers crumbling like sandcastles.
Why? Why would Grogar do this?
She looked down at the three villains not far from her. A righteous rage seared in her heart as she fluttered towards them. They’d gone too far. Now they’d have to answer to her.
Pinkie shut her eyes. She didn’t even feel her hair losing every bit of poofiness and turning straight. But she did feel something: absolute, crushing fury. Nopony, no, NOPONY hurt that many harmless ponies and got away with it.
When Pinkie opened her eyes again, she felt like the world had changed color. It was greyer, and more yellow. She looked from the beam erupting from Canterlot, over to Ponyville. Would Grogar repeat this elsewhere? How many of their other friends would…
She shook her head. No. He won’t. Not while Pinkie Pie is still around.
It was time to get some more cupcakes.
Rarity stopped worrying about her mane, or the curtains being destroyed, or any of the other horrible things happening to the aesthetics.
For Canterlot was no more.
No more Gala.
No more Canterlot Boutique.
Maybe even no more Sassy Saddles.
Even if they won—how could Twilight rule now? Equestria’s capital was completely gone.
Rainbow felt a cold dread seeping into her bones. She knew the ponies of Canterlot had probably been safely evacuated, but the ones doing the evacuation would be the Royal Guard—and the Wonderbolts. And she knew Spitfire. The safety of the citizens came before their own safety.
She felt sick. What if Spitfire didn’t make it out? Or Soarin’? Or Fleetfoot?
They were her friends. She’d flown beside them. Spent years idolizing them. And they might have just had something horrible happen to them in the line of duty.
She forced down tears. Now’s not the time to cry. Now’s the time to make sure that sacrifice wasn’t in vain.
Applejack worried for her loved ones.
If the shockwave had been that powerful even here, sending her skidding ten yards, what had it done to Granny Smith? Was she okay? What about little Apple Bloom? Her bones hadn’t finished hardening, and little fillies were fragile…
It made her sick to her stomach. Why would anypony do something like that? Even regular villainy had a goal to it: conquering subjects, or discovering magic, or revenge. But Grogar was doing this to who knew how many ponies he’d never even met!
Spike watched Canterlot crumble, dragonfire raging in his heart. The place he and Twilight had grown up was now nothing but rubble.
He wasn’t just a kid. He was a dragon. And now his home had been taken from him.
“Stay here,” he told the students. “I’ll be back soon.” Before they could answer, he dove off the treehouse. A quick flare of his wings turned his fall into a rapid glide as he shot back towards the battle.
It was time to end this.
Across Equestria, the fall of Canterlot seemed to freeze time itself
The six students gaped in horror, Ocellus breaking into tears…
“Stars preserve us,” Starswirl whispered…
“That’s not possible,” Meadowbrook murmured…
Stygian watched in rigid horror. “I thought I’d left this all behind me…”
Flash Magnus removed his helmet and closed his eyes…
“Canterlot… no…” Shining choked out. He buried his face in Cadance’s shoulder, as their tears mingled on their chests…
Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom hugged tight, hoping against hope things would be okay…
And in a Las Pegasus resort, a shaky voice managed, “I-I do say, brother of mine, this may require a major revision of our business strategy…”