The Stone Chisel Way

by King Genesis

The Stone Chisel Way (Part 2)

A massive horde of running colts got out of the castle, only to find out the whole ground was invaded by some strange, annoying smoke that could not let them see.

However, that was the less important thing happening at that moment. Chisel and Bag, who didn't separate from each other since the moment they were released, know there's something else hiding somewhere.

And the one who has to run faster than ever, the one guide who has to show everyone the way...

... is not moving.

Suddenly he stops running when he feels something near. He doesn't know what but felt it. Some kind of breath, maybe? Some kind of whisper? It was cold. It felt a cold wave of air invading him in the distance.

He bites his lips while looking at Bag, who suddenly stops before he completely fades out in the smoke. He can be barely seen when he shouts: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

"Didn't you...?"

"NO!" he shouts. "COME ON! WHERE IS THIS MARE YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT?"

"WAIT!"

They hear something from behind. Both of them.

It feels... like a stampede coming onto them. Right about to crash them and break their shapes into pieces.

Bag turns around and tries to run, but a shout stops them both. "WAIT!" shouts a feminine voice. They don't recognize her at first until they see a couple of colts and a pony with blue caps right in front of them. "Wait," she, Golden Badge, says while looking around. Nopony can breathe well now due to the annoying smoke. "You thought we would let you go so easily?"

"And are you still on your game?" suddenly shouts Stolen Bag. "Hey, hello! We can't even see the city of Canterlot because of this smoke! Don't play the cop right now, you lil' mare---!"

"I'm not playing the cop with anyone, mister!" she shouts. "And don't you dare to play the bad colt on me. What I want now is to be together, and I'm especially talking to him!" she points to Stone Chisel, who squints his eyes, nervously.

"Me? And what did I do?"

"You are the one who knows the way!" she shouts. "I mean..."

He bites his lips. "Yes, yes, I know... uh... well," stutters Stone Chisel. "I'm---"

Suddenly a deafening noise is heard near them. It sounded like an explosion, but it was so quick it lasted less than a whole second. The fur of everypony gets spiky and starts to turn their heads around...

... until they find out what was actually happening.

A confused colt cop asks Golden Badge... "Where is---?"

And everybody closes their eyes and throws themselves to the floor.

But seconds later... they feel nothing has changed. There was no fire. No burns. No cold. No death at all...

... what is going on?

They are playing with them.

They open their eyes and find out nothing has changed at all. They are in the same place as before. However, they get confused when they find out there is a missing cop. "WILD RIDE!" shouts someone, until they realize everypony else is in the same spot as before and no one flew away. Looks like something exploded but no one got affected by that.

Only one colt cop has disappeared... "Are we dead?" asks somepony, but no one answers.

"Where's Wild Ride, then, if we are dead?"

"He disappeared right in front of us!"

"WILD RIDE!" a cop shouts, trying not to get further. He fears getting lost. "WILD RIDE!" The smoke around them slowly starts spinning around the silent, confused mares and colts. Stone Chisel, still without saying a word, suddenly feels there's something behind...

... and turns around...

... but nothing is there. He swears on his inside he felt something.

Stolen Bag also turns around, but just like Stone Chisel, there is nothing behind his back. Just smoke. "What's..." asks a cop. "What's going on? What the...?"

"Where's Wild Ride?"

"There isn't."

The ponies start looking at each other when they hear that voice coming from somewhere. A young male voice jumping around the blind floor. Golden Badge looks around, observing Stone Chisel and Stolen Bag, and then her partners in silence. "Who said that?" she asks, with her spiky fur. "Was it you, Soft Raisin?"

A young colt cop suddenly shakes his head. However, things begin to get a lot stranger when he finds out her partner starts drooling. "Of course, I didn't," he replies. "I don't sound like that... uh... Badge?"

She squints while breathing heavily. "Yes?" She's still drooling.

Stone Chisel and Stolen Bag suddenly find out what's going on too, and stop remaining silent. "You are drooling," suddenly says Stolen Bag, nervously raising his eyebrows. "You are..."

"What?" she says, with paler skin and bloodshot eyes. "What are you talking about? I'm not."

"Yes, you are," replies the burglar, looking at his partner Stone Chisel.

"No, I'm not."

"Ms Badge!" suddenly shouts a partner of hers. "Your skin!"

"Uh, come on!" she whines. "But I'm feeling..."

Nevertheless, once she looks at her skin she realizes what they told her, and from out of nowhere, all of the pain and sicknesses come in and stay on her inside. Now she drools even more, almost about to break in half. Her bloodshot eyes start getting watered and the last thing she can do is to look at Stone Chisel in silence. "Ms Badge!" suddenly shouts Soft Raisin, her young partner, in a desperate try to help her. "MS BADGE!" he shouts running to her. The cops also try to hold her and prevent her from falling.

However, her bloodshot, watered, shocking look in Stone Chisel's eyes directly sends him her absolute fear and anger about all of this... the lump on his throat suddenly feels a lot heavier.

Her lips say something but she doesn't have the voice to communicate it. "No," she whispers while being held by her partners. However, just when Soft Raisin come to hold her head, a strong wind appears in the middle and freezes everyone, except for Golden Badge, whose pale body breaks into pieces and turns into dust, fading out in the wind.

The blank reactions of her partners don't last so long when they find out they are also breaking into pieces and being carried away by the wind. Stone Chisel and Stolen Bag look at each other desperately, but both of them don't have any scars. The police colts, trying to do something one last time, find out both burglars are not being carried away. All of them, almost in tears and in shock, look at each other. One of them opens his mouth and tries to shout but his face melts into dust when he's about to do it. Another one tries to jump onto them both but also fades out. His whole being suddenly is nothing, and with only thinking that, Stone Chisel and Stolen Bag's fur gets spikier than ever.

And silence comes in.

Both colts look at each other. Sweat on their faces. They've never seen each other sweating before. Stolen Bag clenches his teeth. "You son of a bitch," he stutters. "We are going to die."

Stone Chisel, however, shakes his head. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" he asks, raising an eyebrow. "Oh, come on, you fuck. Didn't you... just... uh... see... what the hell is going on?

Stolen Bag tries to run away, getting past the smoke, but returns seconds later, only to remain straight, standing on the ground, looking at his partner in his eyes. Both of them share a silent look. "Are you going to say something, at least?" Stolen Bag threatens. "Or are you going to stay silent there? Do you know we have to go to that place you said, right?"

The yellow-skinned colt looks around, but the smoke hides them from absolutely everything, even the sky. When he ran away, he only saw smoke, smoke... smoke, smoke...

... he doesn't even understand what's going on and tries to understand Stone Chisel and empathize with him.

But he can't.

He's guilty of all of this.

"I know," answers Stone Chisel.

"So?"

He turns around. "I don't know."

"You don't know what?" Stolen Bag's now feeling mad, after all of the shocks he has just dealt with. "Come on! What are you talking about?"

"I just..."

"Just?" His hooves are shaking, he wants to do it...

"Uh..."

Stolen Bag punches his partner, also a friend, right on his face. Chisel trips over and falls to the ground, feeling colder earth he never experimented with, so cold it actually relieves his pain. He frowns and gets up fastly, confused and mad, just like the colt in front of him. "What the--"

"Come on, you mother---!" he shouts then. "You set that monster free and had your project and the only thing you say is I don't know! What the fuck?"

"What the fuck is going on with you?" he shouts. "Don't you see that cop and her partners died and turned into dust right in front of us?"

"Yes," he replies. "So?"

"So?" he says, almost laughing out loud. "What? Some colts and ponies, just like us, die and beg for mercy in front of us and you want me to act like I didn't see anything? Don't you see we have to swallow this?"

"Swallow my hoof in your face then," he shouts. "I understand it was a rough time to look at, but it's not time to mentally process death because if we do, we will turn into dead pieces of mincemeat, Chiz!" Then, he starts running in circles around him. "Don't you see? Don't you understand?"

"What do I have to understand?" he shouts, angrily. "Huh?"

The partner approaches him once he stops running in circles. "We are going to die anyways, but we can, if you don't stand like a stupid statue, save time for something... maybe to beg for mercy."

However, once Stolen Bag says this, a beam of light suddenly shines on the ground. In the middle of the dark fog, smoke, or whatever that is... a hole is opened right above them, where they can see the bright sun being the witness to such a slaughter.

The hole suddenly gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger, until they realize they are breathing on the ground. The real ground. Huge mountains of smoke and fog remain around them in the middle of a plain wasteland which looked like Canterlot a couple of minutes ago.

Nevertheless, they are not the only ones there. Right in front of them, four strange, young rams are looking at them. A white ram looks at a bigger blue ram, who looks like his older brother.

The tallest of them all stands right in front of both colts. "I was about to erase you two but I've got to admit your argument was entertaining to watch."

"Ugh..." suddenly emits Stolen Bag. "What a creep." Stone Chisel raises an eyebrow, and Stolen Bag looks at him back. "Let me talk... I've got nothing to lose."

"You said you will beg for mercy."

"And who are you?" suddenly asks. "Tenebris?"

"He's not," interrupts Stone Chisel. "Tenebris is taller and bigger, and older... or... maybe he rejuvenated himself, who knows...."

The young ram chuckles along with his brothers. "Almost, pony. I am not Tenebris."

Chisel gets confused. "So?"

He closes his eyes. "My name is Maior, a younger relative of Tenebris the Night Ram."

Then, Maior turns around and points to his relatives. "She is Risu, a younger relative of us... and those smaller and younger rams are Mors and Sanguis."

Bag squints while looking at them. He's scared and confused at the same time. Chisel, on the other hand, is overwhelmed. "I don't understand..." he says. "He... you... you are alive?"

"We were always alive," replies Risu, approaching the ponies. "While our bones and legacy were rotting and our banished souls floating in nowhere, you were living a happy life."

"PONIES!" shout both Mors and Sanguis, also getting nearer the ring.

"And we are here to express how angry we are because of how mistreated we felt all this time. We are here to show you how powerful and how superior we can be. You don't listen to us? You don't hear me? Ok then... I'll show you what can we do... What can the Night Rams do as a community..."

Maior stops talking and takes a step behind due to being, according to his thoughts, too close to the ponies. At that time, they look at each other while Mors and Sanguis squint their eyes to look at both of them. Risu, on the other hand, sighs and looks at them angrily. "So..." asks Stolen Bag, clenching his teeth, burying his hooves on the ground, while Stone Chisel doesn't say anything. "Are you going to kill us or not?"

Chisel looks at him madly. He is seriously thinking he has nothing to lose now. He thinks about running away, but both he and his partner know they won't get so far. However, Maior has something else to say and looks at his relatives. "Firstly, I want to say something."

Stolen Bag, confused, raises an eyebrow while Maior takes another step behind, this time to look at Stone Chisel on its whole. Risu, Mors and Sanguis find out something else and do the same.

"Tenebris has told us many things while we were on Mt. Everhoof," he says, looking at Risu, who's nodding her head. "He did kill several creatures, destroyed an empire... he even told us a weak grey pony with a silver ring on his ear set him free and made him laugh." Stolen Bag looks at his partner. Maior keeps speaking."He told us you had some kind of clumsy attitude. A stupid clown who set him free. A pony who did defend his tongue against the animals and creatures who did kill... that's what he said, Risu?"

Risu only nods her head, looking at Stone Chisel. "So?" he says, confused. "What you are trying to say?"

Maior turns back for a second and then looks at him again. "Where's that attitude, then, pony?"

Silence. Chisel blinks a few times... but doesn't say anything. Bag looks at him, breathing heavily but without saying anything. Mors and Sanguis chuckle, and then say: "We took it from him."

Bag raises an eyebrow while Chisel doesn't say anything. His mouth remains shut and his face seriously straight. "And this is the moment when I realize," says Maior. "I realize one more time, Risu," says Maior. "We can be superior. We can change them... We've changed the Empire. The castle is nothing but shards of crystal... the Princesses are gone and scared... the grey clown is nothing but a statue of stone."

Chisel squints, while Stolen Bag realizes there's something in the sky. The burglar who had the silver ring on his ear suddenly sighs and exclaims: "Fuck you."

An overwhelming feeling she never dealt with before.

While holding the baby with her hooves, with all of her strength, after learning her brother had died, her friend Cadence had died, the Castle has been destroyed...

What is left for them?

For her?

For Flurry Heart?

Inside the smoke, she can't see any other thing than her desperation and also her friends' faces, which go from total consternation to confusion. Suddenly, she sees Spike running around trying to find an exit...

... but suddenly he returns to Twilight's hooves. "No," whispers the dragon, still shaking with fear. "It's all smoke."

"All?" asks Rarity, also trembling with fear, looking that everything around them is just pure fog. They can't even see the sun.

"Everything, Rarity," he says, touching his head. "Everything."

Rainbow Dash with her broken wing lets a tear go while looking at Applejack, who is standing like a statue.

When did this go out of hand? She thinks while still holding Flurry Heart and using her wings to move over the ground. "What if?" she says, looking above her, trying to find out if the sky is still there...

"I wish I could fly out there," whispers Dash next to Twilight. "But... if it wasn't for this stupid wing..."

"Don't take a risk, Dashie," suddenly says Fluttershy, with a depressed gesture. "Who knows... what could be... out there..."

And at that same moment, Flurry Heart starts sobbing, really quietly, though. Twilight shakes her head and looks over the clouds of smoke one more time. "You've seen Ms Celestia?"

All of them suddenly shake their heads. "No," replies Pinkie Pie in a low voice, so scared her hair is smooth. "Not even Luna."

Twilight swallows saliva while preparing her wings to fly. She looks at the blinding clouds trying to bite her off, but she won't give up.

No. She won't.

"Don't tell us you're trying to..." suddenly interrupts Applejack from behind. "Oh, no, sugarcube..."

"We have to know how grave is this."

"But..." pronounces a Pinkie Pie with smooth hair. "Everywhere around is..."

"... Smoke."

"I think," whispers Fluttershy, trembling and standing right next to Dash. "It looks... darker... it's like... some kind of... fog."

Twilight, however, turns around and looks at Applejack. "We have to know how big this smoke, or fog, or... someone has to fly."

"But not you, Twilight!" suddenly interrupts Spike. "I mean... what if? what if something or someone or... I don't know, catches you on the skies and you never come back?"

"I know how to defend myself, Spike."

"But you know how to defend yourself from Tenebris the Night Ram?"

Silence in the middle of the fog. Twilight, who tried to flap her wings and fly away, suddenly sighs. "I think... we've got to walk around, find something, somepony," speaks Rarity. "And maybe we can find the exit of this."

"You sure?" asks Applejack.

She sighs and bites her lips. "I said maybe..."

"Why don't we?"

"Twilight?"

The feminine voice came from somewhere and make all of them turn around. A bright white suddenly appears to pass by the fog, accompanied by a dark blue mare. Twilight's eyes widen when she looks that the Princesses are still there. "Princess..." she whispers. "You are..."

"Girls..." Luna pronounces while finding the manes and the dragon in the middle of the fog. Then she also finds Flurry Heart is there, along with them. "Oh, thanks..."

"Wait," interrupts Celestia. "We are all together... what about... where is Sunburst?"

Spike shakes his head. "We still haven't found him. Neither Stone Chisel nor all of the cops that were with him."

"I think we should take a look above us," replies Celestia. "Besides everything around us is fog... I still feel the Sun shining."

"And the Moon breathing," also says Luna. "Although I cannot see it from here."

"But we may see it if we fly," suddenly says Twilight. "I tried to... but I'd have to take a risk to do it."

"Don't take risks now, Twi," Pinkie Pie appears next to her. "I don't know... what's outside."

"Have you seen there were more than two rams, didn't you?" asks Rarity. "We don't know how many of them may be around this."

However, despite Rarity's question, wondering how many rams may be around Canterlot, Celestia flaps her wings. "I think we should take a look, sister," she says. "What worries me the most are all of the innocent ponies who were in Canterlot, with no idea of what was going on in the castle."

"Oh..." says Dash, with a lump on her throat. "I didn't even think about that..."

"Me too..." whispers Fluttershy. "What... what about... them...?"

When Luna is about to say something, she hears something.

Looks like someone passed by them... and didn't even realize. Celestia turns around... but can't see anything. "You heard that?"

"I did," replies Twilight, while Applejack grabs Flurry Heart and Rarity gets in front of her, trying to take care of them both. "I did, Princess."

Suddenly, the Sun Princess's horn starts glowing and a small beam of light comes out of it. Despite it is not so effective, it can, at least, help the ponies by dissipating a small part of the fog around them. However, they still can't see the mysterious creature who ran away.

The ponies start looking around while Dash starts grunting. "I think it is better to move rather than stay in the same place," says Luna, looking at her sister.

Celestia flaps her wings again, biting her lips. "But... where do we go then?"

Everypony and also Spike start to look around again, but only Applejack answers: "I don't know," she says.

"Maybe we can follow the creature who passed by us," replies Rarity. "But... it's something quite risky."

"What if that creature is around us and watching us?" asks Dash. "I don't know... it may be... possible..."

"And if it isn't looking at us..." interrupts Pinkie Pie. "How can we know where is it now?"

"Well... I've also heard those steps right there," Spike says, pointing at its right. "But he may have run away."

"We don't know if he did..."

"No, we don't know."

"We have to find that out..."

Someone's about to explode.

Her name is Twilight Sparkle and looks above her. The black fog is not now the main cause of her blindness. She has to let it out. The anger, the fear... the anxiety...

... she flaps her wings and...

Stolen Bag looks at his partner by the time he finished saying that. "Those were your last words?"

However, Chisel stops thinking when he finds out there is something purple in the sky. It fastly goes down and then, from out of nowhere...

The beam luckily lands over the four small rams and a purple smoke surrounds both lost stallions. A small explosion happened in front of them and both didn't even move from their spots, unexplainably. Something else can be heard in the free spot on the ground, like something heavy crashing against the surface.

... Once the purple smoke fades away, Stone Chisel and Stolen Bag find out they have Twilight Sparkle in front of them, spreading her wings and her horn glowing with magic. The first one to come out from the small crater created by Twilight is Maior, who has not got even a scratch. "Who dares to interrupt my first intimidating spee---?"

He doesn't even finish the sentence when Twilight attacks him with another magic beam, making him fly away into the black smoke. At the same time, lots of different colours appear in the sky. White, dark blue and yellow. From behind the crater, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie holding Flurry Heart, Rarity, Applejack and Spike come out of the smoke. Risu, Mors and Sanguis also appear but they don't even have a chance to speak or say something, due to being expelled from the sky due to Twilight's magic. "Twilight!" shouts Celestia, landing on the ground along with her sister and Fluttershy. "Wait a minute!"

"I'll defeat them!" she shouts unconsciously. "This is for what they did to my brother." Suddenly, she raises her head and looks at the sky. "MY BROTHER!"

"TWILIGHT!" Celestia shouts louder, making everybody focus on her. "No! We don't have to attack them!... we have to go. We have to run where..." She looks at Stone Chisel. "Where... Do you still know the way? With this... smoke?"

"We..." he blinks while taking a breath. "We have to go to the west... and the west..."

"Wait." Twilight interrupts him and everybody focuses on something coming out of the smoke... but this time it's not Maior, Risu, or the twins. The big, dark blue ram, along with his soulmate, stands in silence. Nobody says anything until Twilight slowly makes a move, letting Stone Chisel be seen.

"You," he says, raising his eyebrows. Rushkwa opens her eyes, surprised. "You... you are still... alive?" Stone Chisel clenches his teeth and passes by Twilight, stopping almost next to her and not saying anything. "And I don't even remember your name."

"Stone Chisel," replies Maior from behind, while all of the young rams come out of the smoke. "I was talking about how we actually changed everything in this... ponified culture until a purple beam landed on us."

The two sides stand in silence while Stolen Bag slowly hides behind the manes. Stone Chisel is almost in the middle and Tenebris, however, focuses on something else. "You never changed. You haven't changed."

"You killed my brother," Twilight Sparkle replies fastly. "You killed his wife. You murdered my pupil."

"You'll see them again soon." Twilight prepares to attack but stops when she finds out Celestia and Luna pass by her, approaching the ram and standing next to the burglar.

"You also have not changed, Tenebris and Rushkwa. Is this what you want to hear?" asks Celestia to the rams, with her serious face. "Your wish has been granted after so long. We, my sister and I have understood the capacity of a united kingdom of creatures and have recently started the idea you offered to us. What do you want us to say? That you were right all this time?"

Rushkwa prepares her position in silence but Tenebris stops her. "We don't need your opinion to know we're right." He shakes his head. "Actually the thing we want to hear the least, princesses, is your opinion... you fulfilled your fake hearts with an idea we gave to you, and you built the world we, the Night Rams, dreamt of once we vanished from the land. You truly are more outdated than me, and I've been imprisoned in Tartarus for a long, long time..." He stomps his hoof against the ground, making a small crater under him. "Do you think I did what I did because I wanted to hear you say sorry? I CAME HERE TO KILL YOU!" the shout of Tenebris resonates in the whole place and makes the smoke around shiver. "Do you think I stained my fur with your dirty, filthy blood because of some foolish sentences?"

"Yes," interrupts Luna. "Your hatred for ponies started because of a sentence, am I right?" the younger sister puts herself in front of Celestia, trying to cover her. "My sister and I don't forget that time you told us why your father came back to your land with such a disappointing gesture."

Rushkwa makes a small jump while all of the younger rams prepare to attack but Tenebris raises a hoof, making them calm down. Then, he uses that hoof to point at Luna. "My father was disappointed with you. That Flash Magnus monster told him it was not an appropriate moment to ask for help."

"The Pillars were fighting against a magical menace who threatened to burn down the entirety of Equestria, including your community, Tenebris the Night Ram," replies Luna. "It was not an appropriate moment because they were protecting you."

He snorts. "It was never an appropriate moment, isn't it?"

"You knew about us, your sister knew we were recluded, we were scared." Rushkwa also speaks. "Where were you?"

"Where were you when we vanished?" also asks Maior. Risu, Mors and Sanguis nod their heads angrily.

Luna sighs while looking at the ground. "That's what you don't want to understand, all of you. There were lots of closed communities that needed help at that time. Although we put all of our efforts into connecting with them, we couldn't do it with everyone. Some of them were too hostile or far from the kingdom."

However, Tenebris shakes his head while the six manes are getting prepared to defend the princesses. "I do not understand why are we talking about this. I didn't come here for your apologies. I came here to make you feel what I felt. An eternity of vanished souls, dead innocents, marauding youngsters, my wife inside an amulet and I... imprisoned in a statue. Do you know how it feels, Celestia and Luna, to have a community of friends vanishing in front of you?"

The huge walls of black smoke slowly fade away, showing the clear ground around them. Everyone is standing over a green hill which offers a view of the whole city of Canterlot... which is nothing but dust. The whole city has turned into a ghost town, with all of its bright and smart colours drained into a monotonous grey lake. Everything is destroyed, broken into pieces and there isn't any living thing moving around. It feels... empty. Mors and Sanguis begin to giggle while looking at the ghost city of Canterlot.

Now all of the good ones' faces get angry. Stolen Bag doesn't know how to react while Stone Chisel tries to swallow his guilt for everything that had happened. He turns around and realizes the smoke mountains are fading away from behind, making the way visible. However... is it appropriate to run away right now?

Twilight Sparkle clenches her teeth while burying her hooves in the ground. Her friends are preparing to attack while Rarity can't stop crying, even while frowning. Rainbow Dash flaps her sane wing while Fluttershy angrily takes a step next to her. Spike hides behind Twilight but not without showing his angry face to him. Celestia and Luna are in the front, also glowing their horns. Luna is the angriest of them all, about to shed a tear. The rams, on the other side, except for the small Mors and Sanguis, are not laughing. They only make small grins or smiles. "That's what I wanted you to feel. That's what you did to my community." He clenches his teeth while Rushkwa and everyone prepare to watch the spectacle. "Don't even try to attack. I'll end your suffering in a sec--"

No. No. Suddenly, Maior, Risu, Mors and Sanguis are thrown away by a strange force. The four of them fly away and crash into what remains of the castle, getting buried in shards of crystal. Tenebris stops talking, trying to find out what's going on when Rushkwa gets also thrown away by something. The Princesses, the Elements, Stone Chisel and Stolen Bag get confused and don't know what's going on...

...until the burglar decides to turn around.

He takes a look at the empty lands behind him and finds out there is actually something approaching them. A beige earth pony with caramel hair wearing a dark brown cloth which covers her loin. She's not running onto them, but flying in a floating wooden plank surrounded by a black aura. Stone lets a small chuckle go before processing who actually is that mare. "It's she," he says, looking at Stolen Bag.

Everybody turns around while Tenebris turns his back to look at Rushkwa being thrown away. He grabs her with his powers and makes her go back to her previous position. Then, he erases all of the shards of the crystal inside the castle to find the four young rams laying on the floor. However, the beige mysterious one passes by every one of the ponies when she stops and gets down from the wooden plank to look at Celestia. Her cutie mark can be barely seen: a grapefruit slice. "You must not fight this battle, princesses," she seriously says. "You need to go away."

Tenebris blinks, trying to find out who she is... and how did she turn out to throw away his five friends. "Wh-What? How is this...?"

"My mentor told me everything about you, Tenebris," she says, staying in front of the princesses. "I---"

"Wait, Grapefruit!" The beige pony stops talking and slowly turns his head around. She finds out a familiar grey stallion with a cut ear is right now next to him. Once he sees him, her eyes shrink. "Why are you out of your house? Since when do you come out of it?"

She squints her eyes. "Since an explosion destroyed the entire city of Canterlot and the lives of the princesses were in danger, Stone Chisel."

Rushkwa dares to attack but, surprisingly, Tenebris raises a hoof. Maior, Risu, Mors and Sanguis start flying onto the hill, looking at him in shock. "This can't be possible." He looks at the grey stallion and then at the beige pony. "What are you?"

Then, a yellow horn comes out of the beige pony forehead, impressing everyone. "Why should I answer you, monster? After what you've done to my species?"

"I can turn you into a lake of blood if I want, filth." He squints his eyes and shakes his head. "You... you have honestly surprised me."

"Grapefruit, listen..." Stone Chisel tries to call her attention. "Don't you dare to fight them. We need to talk. It's abo--"

Stone Chisel's neck gets crushed and is smashed against the ground by Tenebris' powers, but when he is about to get riddled, Grapefruit Slice puts a hoof over him and one of Tenebris' hooves gets twisted. Rushkwa gasps before clenching her teeth and the youngsters stop flying while looking at everything from the sky. How? Wait? What? "You idiot," she says, helping Stone Chisel to get up. "I can touch you. We share the same magic."

Celestia, on the other half, looks at both pony and ram with disgust. She's thinking about something specific. Twilight is the only one that is still in her position after Grapefruit Slice's arrival. Stone Chisel, getting up and coughing, touches Grapefruit Slice's loin, revealing her cutie mark. "No. We need to talk. We need to really talk."

She fastly replies, looking at the silent rams. "We don't have anything to talk about."

"Not you and me... but there's someone else who we can talk to." Grapefruit knows what he means. What he's talking about... so she tries her best to ignore him and pushes him away with a hoof. "I mean seriously. You know it's a way."

"No."

"Shut up." Tenebris points at Stone Chisel with his twisted hoof, only to fix it again with his own powers of chaos. "I'm being too humble by letting you explain how..." He looks at Grapefruit Slice. "this can be able to attack--"

"AAAAAHHHH!!" suddenly a shout is heard in the sky. Twilight Sparkle jumps, spreading her wings and about to fire something from her horn. Rushkwa is about to jump onto her at the same time the princesses and her friends try to get in the middle, defending Twilight and attacking, trying to attack.

However, someone else had a plan just in case. A yellow sphere is slowly created around all of the ponies and Spike, which gets brighter and brighter. Tenebris, surprised, fires a beam at it, only to find out that it's fastly shrinking into something microscopic. Rushkwa, Maior and Risu try to step on the sphere which is getting smaller, only to see how that disappears by burying itself into the ground.

All of them stand in silence. Tenebris fastly goes to the spot and in just one second, he breaks the whole hill in two parts... but there is no yellow sphere.

Are they gone?

The night ram, floating in the air, blinks twice. "No." He feels an undescribable feeling over his loin. "How can I be so stupid to let her talk---" He clenches his teeth. "NOOOOOO!!!!"

The remaining buildings of Canterlot start exploding while huge waves of lava appear on its surface.