Twilight’s spell went off first.
That was a minor miracle unto itself. The lhaksharut’s announcement of what it was about to do wasn’t followed by any gesturing or chanting or outward invocations of any sort. It was only because of her ability to sense nearby magical fluctuations that Twilight knew that it was casting its spell with its thoughts alone. Compared to that, her needing to use her voice and her hoof to cast her spell should have made it nearly impossible for her to beat it to the punch.
But somehow, she did it anyway. Focusing as much of her alicorn magic through her horn as she could, Twilight sent her spell racing toward the metal-and-stone monstrosity. The effort nearly left her dizzy, her eyes closed as she tried to steady herself, knowing that she’d be able to feel whether or not her spell worked without needing to be able to see it.
In a fraction of an instant, her spell crossed the distance between herself and the lhaksharut. Just as its own spell reached completion, hers struck it. For the briefest instant she felt the two energies clash in an instantaneous struggle for supremacy.
And then hers shattered, unable to overcome the lhaksharut’s.
Twilight’s eyes snapped open immediately. “NOOO!!!”
But it was too late as the lhaksharut spoke a single word, the timbre of its voice making the very air shudder as the massed power of its spell was unleashed. “Dictu-”
And then it was cut off.
Unable to do anything but stare, Twilight tried to comprehend what was happening. Its spell had gone off, but she could feel that the magic wasn’t discharging properly for some reason. Instead it was…smothered. That was the only word for it. She could feel it trying to get out, to sweep outward in a wave of energy that would have engulfed everyone there. But it couldn’t, and a half-second later she felt the spell suddenly collapse in on itself, imploding now that there was nowhere else for it to go. And just like that, it was over…the lhaksharut’s axiomatic numinous field that would have crippled – or more likely killed – several of her friends was defeated.
But how…?
“Good goin’ Twilight!” yelled Applejack as she charged back toward the thing, clearly not realizing that whatever miracle had just happened had come from somepony else. “You keep its magic contained, and we’ll-”
Applejack’s sentence abruptly ended as she ran forward, despite the fact that her lips were still moving. Being so suddenly muted clearly caught her by surprise, very nearly making her stumble, but she shrugged it off as she once again ran up to the lhaksharut, throwing herself into a heavy kick with both of her back legs that deformed another of the swirling rings that made up the thing’s lower body. Just like with what she’d been trying to say, the attack landed silently, lacking the heavy clang that had happened the first time she’d scored a hit on it.
“A silence spell,” murmured Twilight in sudden understanding.
“Darn right!” cheered Pinkie, making Twilight jump. She’d been so focused on what the lhaksharut had been doing that she’d almost forgotten how Pinkie had been hanging back and cheering them on, complete with a pleated skirt and pom-poms that she’d gotten from somewhere. “That big stone meanie has been scaring everyone for the entire fight! Everytime it’s said something, everypony was all ‘oh no!’ and ‘look out!’ and ‘this is so tough, I’m going to need a flashback to come up with a way to deal with it!’ Well it can’t do that now!”
Twilight’s jaw dropped. “Wait, you cast that silence spell on it?!”
“Yep!” grinned the pink party pony. “Well, except it’s not really on it. It’s just sort of around it. If you try to cast this spell on someone then it follows them around which is way more convenient if you want to stop them from saying some really awful stuff, but they might be able to shake it off if you try, in which case the spell doesn’t take and it just sorta fizzles out like a soda that’s sat on the shelf for too long, so it’s usually better to cast this spell right next to whoever you want to make stop talking since it spreads out a short distance from whatever spot you cast it on, although that means that anyone who doesn’t want to be quiet anymore can just walk right out of it, but that’s not really too much of a big deal since the thing lasts for less a minute anyway, but I figured, ‘eh, why not?’”
Still trying to come to grips with how certain disaster had been averted, Twilight could barely take in what Pinkie was saying. “But…but how…?” It made no sense that Pinkie’s silence spell had shut down that thing’s spell. It hadn’t needed to speak out loud to cast it, so why…?
“I once saw a colleague of mine use such a spell, unleashing a powerful burst of axiomatic, or ‘lawful,’ force with a single word against a group of over two dozen gem gnoll marauders that had surrounded us, since he felt certain that none of them were of that particular persuasion whereas we all were.”
“…with a single word…”
Under Score’s anecdote came back to her then, causing Twilight’s eyes to widen in sudden understanding. The lhaksharut hadn’t needed to speak to invoke the spell; rather, the spell was meant to be delivered in the form of a single word, spoken out loud! It had been trying to say that when Pinkie had dropped her silence spell on it – or rather, around it – and saved everyone!
Misunderstanding Twilight’s question, Pinkie just shrugged. “Oh, it’s just a little something I picked up while I was looking for Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. For some reason, ponies kept casting that spell on me when I would show up and ask them if they’d seen two little fillies and that I’d come back and celebrate their birthday if they could help me find them and then showed them a demonstration of how great my parties were by singing and cheering and playing a whole bunch of instruments at once and I just kinda figured out how it worked after a while!”
Despite the fact that they were far from being safe, Twilight couldn’t help but laugh weakly as a sense of relief washed over her. “It’s good to have you back, Pinkie.”
Giving a toothy grin, Pinkie threw her a wink. “Thanks for bringing me back!” Lowering her voice to a stage-whisper, she leaned in closer. “But we should probably save the reunion for later! The middle of a fight is no time to stop and chat!”
Princess Celestia grimaced as another magically-augmented beam of energy winked out of existence right before it hit the lhaksharut. Whatever resistance to magic this thing had was formidable! So far she hadn’t been able to draw its attention!
Instead, it swung its gigantic sword again, aiming for where Fluttershy, Discord, and Cadance were crouched. Once again, Shining Armor raised a force field before the blow could land, though by the way his legs quivered she could tell that it was taking everything he had to prevent the strike from breaking through. Given how swings from the creature’s weapons had so easily reduced the conference room to a rubble-strewn mess, Celestia couldn’t help but be mildly amazed that Shining Armor was able to stop its attacks at all; that thing had to be attacking with far more force than the changeling army had when they’d shattered the shield he’d raised around Canterlot!
Nor was Shining Armor the only one capable of such incredible feats. Dodging a heavy thrust from the lhaksharut’s tree-sized spear, Applejack was in no position to keep moving as the thing brought its mace down toward her in another deadly arc, the spiked metal head at the end of it knocking out more of the ceiling on its swing. But rather than trying to get out of the way, Applejack instead heaved herself up onto her hind legs, raising her forelegs over her head as the same attack that had felled Discord rushed down toward her.
Only for her to catch it.
The force of the blow made nearly made her hind legs buckle, and the ground cratered beneath her hooves, but although Celestia could see Applejack’s face contorting with effort, the farm pony withstood the strike. Mostly. From her vantage point, Celestia could see that one of the spikes radiating out from the head of the mace had grazed Applejack side, sending a long gash down over her ribs. But the earth mare didn’t seem to notice, instead straining to stop the mace from flattening her completely.
In that she succeeded, as the lhaksharut withdrew the weapon a moment later, and Celestia knew that they needed to change tactics. Applejack and Shining Armor were only barely able to keep the enemy’s attacks from getting through, and stopping only a few of them was already taxing them severely. By contrast, the lhaksharut was easily withstanding all of their counterattacks, repairing the few that were getting through. If they kept going like this, they’d be defeated in short order, she knew.
The one good thing about their situation was that everyone who wasn’t fighting had made it out. Even as Celestia glanced at the end of the room, she saw Rarity and Grass Patch hauling a struggling Soft Mane away, bodily dragging her out of the room. The reason for her reluctance to leave was obvious: Spike was still there, the little dragon hurrying over to one of the windows overlooking the courtyard around the castle and…breathing fire on it.
Despite Spike’s tiny size, the gout of green flames that came out was enough to shatter the glass instantly, the flames billowing out past the frame of the window and projecting into the air. Nor did he stop there, continuing to exhale as hard as he could, keeping the flames roaring, until he finally ran out of breath several seconds later. Celestia had just enough time to be confused when he looked over at her – no, at her and everyone around her – his expression tense. “Take cover!” he yelled, immediately diving to the floor at Twilight’s hooves and raising his claws over his head.
Not knowing what was happening, but willing to take Spike’s word on faith, Princess Celestia immediately touched down from where she’d been hovering in the air, moving close to Shining Armor. The stallion grunted with effort as he formed another shield around them, with Cadance moving to support him, murmuring a prayer to ease the strain he was putting himself through using so much magic. Fluttershy whispered something to Discord, who blinked before looking over at the windows expectantly. “Oh, this should be good,” he snickered, producing an umbrella from somewhere and opening it.
Pinkie, meanwhile, bounced up and bit Applejack’s tail, tugging sharply on it. The orange mare seemed to know what that meant, because she broke off her attack on the lhaksharut, barely dodging a sword swipe as she rushed back to Twilight’s side, Pinkie in tow. For her part, Twilight wasted no time, raising a shield of her own around them.
If the lhaksharut was puzzled by their behavior, it didn’t show it. Instead it simply held out its lower arms again, unleashing another series of elemental blasts at each group. A blazing ray of fire impacted Twilight’s shield as another beam of electricity hit Shining Armor’s, both siblings straining to maintain their defenses against the assault. But after several seconds went by with no sign that the lhaksharut was letting up, Celestia leaned toward Fluttershy. Fortunately, they were far enough from the field of magical silence that she was able to speak, raising her voice to be heard over the sound of the beam hitting Shining Armor’s shield. “What’s going on?!”
“Spike called for backup!” yelled Fluttershy in return. “That fire was him signaling her where to go!”
Celestia was about to ask who Fluttershy meant, when a new sound made itself known. It was a high-pitched whistling, barely audible over the din of the lhaksharut’s attacks but growing louder rapidly. In the time it had taken Celestia to become aware of it, it had already overpowered the sound of the their enemy's elemental assault.
But the lhaksharut itself, still inside Pinkie’s silence spell, couldn’t hear a thing.
A second later a rainbow-colored blur flew in through the window at an incredible speed, striking the lhaksharut dead-center with such force that it created a multicolored mushroom cloud.