//------------------------------//
// 6. The Reaper Cometh on Clawed Wings 
// Story: Dark Aura 
// by NavelColt 
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“Everyone to me!” Starswirl screamed. The creature reared up on a pair of talons, and so Starswirl, at last, got a good look at it.

It was the size of a roc, boasting a wingspan to boggle the mind. Instead of feathers, claws protruded from each wing like spears, rigid and sharp. A third appendage sprouted from its backside and thrashed about as a restless tail, felling trees and erupting clouds of ash. A bald, spear-like head resembling a carrion bird was adorned with forward-facing horns, and from its neck rose a dark grey mane that flowed even in the absence of wind.

Ponies called out in alarm when it flared out its wings and shook the forest with a shrill cry. It was then that Starswirl's horn erupted white light, and a dome of magic enwrapped the group.

“By the ancient magics, what a beast,” Flash Magnus said in awe. He took a step forward within Starswirl’s bubble, watching those monstrous wings curl and flex. “I cannot begin to imagine the world it hails from.”

“It came from the same one Everly came from,” Fluttershy replied. She watched it as well, but with far more sullen eyes. “I assumed that all of the creatures in her world were magical, but I didn't think there was anything this big, or intimidating."

“Starswirl,” Meadowbrook started, marked concern in her face and voice. “You saw what happened. I know you did. Tirek attacked it—he’s trying to get it to think we’re the ones who did it. We cannot strike back. As soon as we do, all that anger will be justified.”

Falling to its wings, the creature used them to crawl along the ground in a horrific display, puncturing great pits in the earth. Upon reaching the Equestrians, it stretched out its head, pausing a moment to examine their protective field of magic.

Starswirl glanced to the clearing off to their right, now empty.

“He's already slipped away," the sorcerer growled. "The conniving snake."

“Durable too,” Rockhoof spat, shouldering his shovel. “He should be feelin’ that extra firm back massage for a while yet, but he still managed to get away when we weren’t lookin’. Commendable.”

“I think we have bigger concerns right now!” Rainbow Dash shouted, gesturing to a massive claw hurtling towards them.

A bang shook the forest as the claw came down with enough force to level a building. Though the group could still draw breath, a sickening crack began to run along thier shield. Starswirl turned to Twilight.

“Go, Twilight,” he urged. “What we need now is two-fold. First, we must locate Tirek before he gains any more power. He’ll soon be too powerful for any of us to handle with normal magic.”

An angry cry heralded another claw. Starswirl’s horn flashed again, and a reinforced layer of energy rose beneath the first. Not a moment later, the outer layer shattered, its shards spraying in all directions before dispelling into bits of light.

“Second, we must send someone to alert the princesses.” Starswirl looked to Dash and Flash. “The situation here has escalated, and so we must recall Discord however we can. Only he can relocate this entity now.”

Sickly red energy pulsed beneath the creature's skin as its cries grew more erratic. Starlight's frazzled voice bellowed over them.

"But you once banished the sirens with your portal spell! Can't you do the same thing here?!"

"What I did was hold a portal half the size of this beast open for mere seconds!" Starswirl thundered, wheeling around. "I do not possess the power necessary to create something of this scale!"

Another pitiless claw slammed into them, shattering the barrier and toppling ponies like rag dolls. They skidded along the ashen ground and slammed into trees, rocks, and each other.

Groaning in pain, Starswirl attempted to stand but was stopped when a burst of wind rushed his face. He watched the creature take flight, raking the air with lethal claws to stay aloft. 

Its attention fell on Mistmane, who had fallen closest to it.

"Mistmane!" Starswirl shouted, standing at last but too winded to focus. He scanned the area. Twilight and the others had yet to even get to their hooves, suffering much greater trauma from the impact of roots and trees.

But there was no time to assess. A ghastly orb of light now shone down from above, gathered at a focal point between three claws.

"Mistmane!"

The forest tinted a horrid red. A sonic boom shook the trees as a column of light fell like lightning. But just before it could hit the ground, a flash of orange and silver dashed forward, drawing the eyes of everyone. When Mistmane lifted herself up at last, she looked up and gasped. Certain oblivion was being held back only inches above her head.

"Move her!" Flash Magnus shouted, sandwiched between his companion and his own trusted shield. "Quickly!"

Freshly conscious, Twilight stood and took in the chaos with shaking eyes. It took her only a moment to cast a spark of magenta magic and appear at Mistmane's side, and another to ferry her away. Another pop signaled her return just behind Starswirl, but the sorcerer was still eyeing his trapped friend.

"Flash, get out of there!" cried Rockhoof. "Princess Twilight, please, get him as well!"

"No!" yelled Flash, his hooves buckling. The back of his shield pressed into his helmet, his shakes causing metal to scrape. "I am all that stands between this beast and the ground! If anyone tries to move me, we will both be hit before the teleportation can finish!"

"Then I think it's about time to clear the air," Starlight declared, stomping a hoof to anchor herself. She lit her horn with deadly resolve and took aim for the forest's crown, and the dark silhouette situated there.

"Starlight, no!"

Starlight knew her response before the  protest even finished. "Why are you protecting that thing, Meadowbrook?!"

"Because it wrongly believes we're the enemy! If we attack it, it will cement that thought into its mind, and things will only get worse! There has to be another way!"

Hiding in plain sight, Fluttershy smiled, but the sentiment was dashed by a cold, retorting tone.

"There isn't another way! If we don't stop that thing right now your friend will be turned to stone!" Starlight motioned a hoof. "It's already attacking us! Let's maybe worry about avoiding conflict when somepony isn't in danger!"

Meadowbrook opened her mouth, but the words, the will was no longer there. She bit her lip and stepped back, where comforting hooves from Rockhoof and Somnambula awaited her. She did not try to stop Starlight's next attempt.

The lilac mare grit her teeth as a potent teal aura collected just in front of her horn tip. Blues began to push back against reds along the shadowed ground.

"You're not the only one who can shoot lasers, you oversized vulture."

A second coming of splendid magic lit the forest. Retribution in motion, the cyclone washed over the creature and obscured it from view, ending the attack pinning down Flash Magnus.

"I've got him!" shouted Rainbow Dash, and she surely did. In the blink of an eye, a trailing rainbow rescued the stallion and returned him to the relative safety of the group. There, he was readily embraced by Starswirl, Somnambula, and Meadowbrook, the last of whom hugged him the most tightly of all.

Attention inevitably returned to Starlight. The mare's mane flailed in the wind created from her spell. Adrenaline gripped her—power poured forth like water from a burst dam, unrestrained and devastating. What few trees were unlucky enough to have fallen within range saw their upper halves disintegrated.

But out from the edge of that tunneled vortex came familiar claws. The group gasped as the creature emerged, seemingly unscathed. Pulling itself free from the stream, it hovered in the air, watching its retaliators without further movement.

With a focused thought, Starlight turned off the stream. She was joined by Twilight.

"...that didn't even phase it," Starlight muttered, her disbelief wrestling with her confusion. "How is that possible?"

Twilight turned to Starswirl. With his companions safe for now, he rejoined the group, sufficiently reforming their coven.

"Is being immune to magic a possible byproduct of being from another dimension?" Twilight pondered aloud. Starswirl grunted.

"Or an innate power it's always had," he replied. "Either way, this situation is spiraling out of control. Even now, we regroup only because it allows us to."

"Well we can't just retreat. It'll chase us or go terrorize someone else," Starlight reasoned, looking at the group of ponies behind her. Several of the other Pillars, not to mention her friends had already been thrashed around once, and the damage showed. Bruises and light scrapes dotted nearly everyone—herself, included.

They were lucky that was all they had, so far.

"Starlight's right, we are all that's keeping this thing here," said Twilight, bridging the tensions between her idol and pupil. "We cannot let it leave. It could repeat this nightmare somewhere more populated. On top of that, if we split up, and send ponies to find Tirek or Discord, our chances of success fall across the board. We have to assume Tirek will already be powerful enough to take us on the next time we see him, and we may need everyone to help with things here, too."

"Divided we fall, so together we must stand, completing both our objectives as a group," Starswirl finished. He sighed before nodding. "I see your point, Twilight. I continue to be impressed with your leveled head under pressure, today. What do you recommend?"

For a time, Twilight watched the dark creature. Each beat of its wings pushed air along the ground, flurrying soot and dust.

"Your spell," she said at last. "The one you used to banish the sirens—could you make it bigger if you had more magic to feed it?"

Starswirl's hoof found his beard. His eyebrows raised. "Theoretically. So you wish to overcome the size limitation by funneling your power to me?"

"It's the only option we have, save Discord popping in to save the day," Twilight replied. She paused a second, half hoping the name drop might see a miraculous appearance from the draconequus.

It didn't.

"I agree, and I'll help too," said Starlight. "If magic won't work directly, then a portal is the only way we're getting this thing out of here. Like Twilight said, we don't have the luxury of hunting for Discord right now, not with this thing awake."

Starswirl let out a more contemplative sigh. "Part of me hoped we'd never need to resort to this strategy ever again."

Starswirl turned to his companions, and to the other Elements. He summoned them with a nod.

"If we are to create a portal large enough to push this creature through, it will take precision of timing and strategy that even our fight with the sirens did not reach. With Twilight and Starlight helping me, we may be able to meet the size requirement, but our portal will still not hold for long. Furthermore, we must avoid the creature's attention so that the spell can be cast."

"You need a distraction," Dash summarized, pounding her hooves together.

"He needs bait," Somnambula corrected. "A role that I, myself played in our struggle against the sirens. Though I fear this time a single pony will not do."

"Lucky for y'all then that you've got ponies to spare," Applejack replied. "Let's wrangle this thing and send it on its way."

Discussions came to an abrupt end when the rhythmic wingbeats behind them grew erratic.

"It's moving again, prepare yourselves!" shouted Starswirl, wheeling about. Sure enough, the entity rose higher into the sky, surveying them all from beyond the forest canopies.

"We cannot let it fire its magic again!"

"We will be your bait, Starswirl!" Rockhoof declared, wielding his shovel in his mouth. Along his sides, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Flash Magnus joined him. Together they reached the center of the clearing, far away from the rest of the group, and began to holler and pollute the forest with noise. While Rockhoof drummed Flash's shield with his shovel like a gong, Rainbow Dash soared skywards to catch the beast's eye, a fly before a mighty falcon. 

"C'mon, you freak! Let's see how fast you really are!" she challenged, zipping around its head and body in a series of eye-catching rainbows. Tying the display off like a ribbon, she plummeted back down towards the ground.

She grimaced when a shrill cry pierced the air behind her and steadily grew louder.

"I don't think this is such a good idea," Fluttershy expressed from the ground, watching the chase while chewing a hoof. "Do we really need to put everypony in danger for all of this to work? Isn't there some other way we can safely relocate the animal?"

Meadowbrook soothed the pegasus with a hoof to her back. She nodded to Starswirl and his coven. Together they stood around a large magic circle, a purple diagram etched into the forest floor. As it glowed, so too did manes wave in a display of low gravity. Sparks of electricity in shades of blue, white, and pink danced around them and seemed to grow stronger by the second.

"It isn't ideal, but this animal appears to be beyond any of our help," Meadowbrook said, smiling to Rarity and Mistmane too as they approached. "If we're to save our land from the fate this forest saw, then we must send it elsewhere, whatever the cost."

Fluttershy returned her attention to the conflict. She felt her breath seize in her chest.

'Beyond any of their help'? She refused to believe that.

With a crash, the beast landed, its talon cleaving earth where Rainbow Dash had been just moments before. A wave of wind swept the clearing in its wake, tossing manes and squinting eyes.

"He's all yours, Rockhoof!"

The azure pegasus flew past him, and so Rockhoof stepped forward, intercepting the creature's gaze.

"Ay, lass. Thank you for retrieving him. Now maybe we can get down to business, here on the ground."

A half-dozen stones bombarded the entity's beak. When violet lights fixated on Rockhoof he proudly held his shovel high.

"I've wrestled with monsters much bigger and nastier than you, ya wee shadow warbler," he declared, sizing the creature up with an unimpressed brow. "Let's you and me toss up some dirt, shall we? My friends got a surprise for you, if you'd stay a while. I'd hate to disappoint them."

Fearless and resolute, Rockhoof charged. He took the avatars of bravery, loyalty, and honesty with him.

From the far tamer edge of the field, Rarity watched the scuffle with sympathetic eyes. She turned to Mistmane, whose eternal smile was ready and waiting for her.

"Is there nothing our magic can do to help, as well?" the unicorn asked. "I cannot just stand here. We must help them if we can."

Mistmane cast a thoughtful eye to the fight. Her smile brightened.

"Perhaps there is something we can do," she whispered. "But I'll need you to follow my directions to the letter, Rarity. I believe we'd be wise to take along a bit of laughter, as well."

Rarity blinked. Before she could inquire what that meant, Pinkie had appeared at Mistmane's side from seemingly nowhere, grinning wildly.

"Let's do it to it, sister!"

"Lure it this way, Flash! I'll have Dash drop that ailing tree branch on its head!"

"You sly dog, using the environment to your advantage. I like it. You heard my comrade, sky terror! Come and get it!"

Across the field, the scuffle continued to the tune of enthusiastic taunts and furious, otherworldly cries. As the entity grew angrier, its attacks grew quicker—slamming wings grew more accurate, and with every narrow escape from its prey, the beast seemed to track them with calculating eyes.

"Branches away!" Dash yelled from on high, dislodging a lopsided branch. Down it fell, crashing upon the beast's head and causing it to fidget midair.

Victorious voices echoed through the trees, but a sudden yelp of pain muted them.

"Rainbow Dash!"

Dash felt the air extracted from her lungs, propelled from her by the merciless ground. Hundreds of yards had she been swatted in an instant, her adrenaline and attitude arrested just as quickly.

The beast landed before her with a deafening crash, its eerie shadow engulfing her. There was no convenient pause, this time—a wing raised, and a claw fell in the same motion, eager to smite.

But just as Dash clenched her eyes, the creature howled again in anger, spinning its attention elsewhere. Its claw came down and heaved up earth not yards from Dash's body.

"You will keep your filthy wing claws away from my friends! I take back what I said about your diamond patterns—not only are they tacky, they are beastly, just like your manners!"

Two elongated dragons spun from magic had wound around the beast's tail, yanking it just enough to be noticed. Across the field they had traveled, puppeteered by the eb and flow of Rarity and Mistmane's movements. In stark contrast, Pinkie Pie bounced erratically nearby. With an offensively large pair of binoculars she observed their efforts, her various appendages twitching periodically.

"To the left! Oh no, to the right! Oh, make that his right! You girls better do a Reverse Lunar Cycle Quantum Knot stat, because that tail is about to twitch-a twitch!"

Guided by the miracle of Pinkie Sense, the dragons predicted their foe's movements, further tangling themselves along the creature's grisly form. It slammed and shook itself against rock and tree alike to no effect.

"Haha, yes!" Rockhoof bellowed, pulling Dash free from her imprint in the ground. "Never have I been happier to see such finesse in a fight! Show em' what for, lassies!"

"That laser appears to be linked to his ability to fly. If we can keep him grounded, he might not be able to use it!" Flash Magnus strategized aloud, joining his counterpart and checking her once over. "Keep it up, everyone! From the looks of it, the portal spell is about ready!"

Not so far away, Twilight bit her lip in a display of anxiety. Even as magic enwrapped her in light, levitated her inches off the ground, her attention scattered around the field.

“Dash was almost-”

“Focus, Twilight,” Starswirl directed, his eyes closed and his brows taught. “Have faith in our companions to look after each other while we ready our path to victory. What they do, they do for us.”

Twilight swallowed. Closing her eyes as well, she returned her focus to the diagram.

“Imagine the void between realms. Traverse it with your mind. Allow our thoughts to connect through the diagram, and for the energy transfer to begin. Find that location, that shared thought. Seize it tightly and do not let go.”

What began as a whisper soon grew to a harmonious humming. When Twilight next opened her eyes, they glowed as pupiless windows of white magic.

An orb of swirling, fluid light rose from between the three mages, born from the diagram, itself. From out of its depths came the image of a lush jungle, framed by a horizon filled with large planets.

For those that wrestled against the beast, it was a sight of wonder to behold. But one pegasus was watching the avian creature, instead. She saw it cry out in response to the portal, growing further agitated still. She saw it thrash and kick up storms of soot and dust, scattering her friends in the process. When those dragons of blue light tugged again at its tail, she saw its claws dig into the surrounding earth, as if to anchor itself.

Through it all, she couldn't shake the sight of an animal desperate to escape.

"This isn't right," Fluttershy muttered to herself. She saw Starswirl nod to his successors, guiding their horns towards the creature. When the portal began to expand and move, Fluttershy found her strength.

"This isn't right!" she yelled this time, beseeching Twilight with concern in her voice. "Look at him, he's terrified!"

Twilight looked to the beast and her pupils reappeared. Fluttershy could see it in her friend's eyes—for a moment, she, too, looked past the frightening visage and saw a struggling animal.

Unfortunately, her voice was not the one to retort.

"How it feels is no concern of ours!" Starswirl bellowed. "It is dangerous to everything in our world and must not be allowed to stay here! We cannot back down now after coming this far!"

Fluttershy glanced to Starlight. She too looked taken aback by the pegasus's firm rejection, stunned and distracted from her work. The portal they'd all conjured had come to a dead stop.

Fluttershy gave Starswirl her most reserved expression, one of fiery passion.

"Do you really think sending him to another place he doesn't belong is right?"

"This is the only means we have available to us. If I had the ability to pinpoint the dimension it came from, myself, I would. If we had the tools ready to freeze it in limbo where we might return to it at our behest, we would. As Meadowbrook said, this is no ideal situation." 

"So being sorry that you can't do better makes it okay? The ends justify the means? Excuse me, but that's not what saved your relationship with Stygian."

Twilight and Starlight shared a grimace. Starswirl's temper flared to the comparison.

"Your love for all life is misplaced here, Fluttershy!" the sage seethed. "This creature is responsible for the possible death of an entire ecosystem, and it does not belong in this reality! This is not a matter of resolving a misunderstanding between friends, of reforming a villain's ways, this is the very nature of a wild animal! Its very existence is toxic to the environment!"

"Even if that's true, banishing him to someplace else just to get rid of him can't be the solution!" Fluttershy thundered back, stamping a hoof and taking even the sorcerer by surprise. "Blaming poor preparation is no excuse to do it anyway, and saying Discord can retrieve him later doesn't make it less cruel! All he's done is lash out in frustration!"

"Then what do you suppose we do!?"

"Oh, I'll tell you what you ought to do, Starswirl." 

From between the trees came an orange blast of magic. Blinks could scarcely be cast before Starswirl was violently launched from his diagram, slamming into a far tree trunk and slumping to its base. At once, the aura of magic around Twilight and Starlight vanished, as did the portal.

"You ought to stop punishing creatures just because they don't abide by your rules."

Garnishing the attention of the entire clearing, Tirek emerged from the shade of the woods. With an exaggerated breath he drank in the looks of shock and disgust, and with his palms, firmly pressed against the base of his back. 

"Quite the uncanny strength that one has," the centaur said, regarding Rockhoof with a patronizing look. "But unfortunately for him—and all of you equines, really—my species is as rugged as they come. In our prime, we can shrug off the greatest of physical injuries within minutes. Imagine all the intriguing things I learned in that time, resting up just through the trees."

The centaur's head sharply turned. Another blast of magic sailed through the air, obliterating the foothold Rarity and Mistmane stood upon. As they fell, their dragon bindings evaporated, granting free mobility to vulture once again. It curiously turned to the centaur, and there, their eyes met.

"Fluttershy is right," Tirek began, an insincere sweetness to his tone. He outstretched his arms, as if welcoming a guest he'd long expected. "How could you try and banish a creature as magnificent as this? Could you not see it was in distress? And here I thought morality and being righteous were all the rage in Equestria."

Stepping before their fallen partner, Twilight and Starlight ignited their horns.

"The bird might be immune to magic, but you surely aren't," Starlight said venomously.

"You shouldn't have stayed, Tirek," Twilight warned. "You're only supporting blind destruction by stopping us. What is your goal, here? Is ruling over a lifeless world really what you want?"

Tirek smirked. It proved to be too much for Starlight.

A spark became a typhoon of teal energy in a second. It barreled for Tirek, parting ground like water as it did so, but all at once, it was stopped. A massive black wing slammed down as a wall and cut off the unicorn's target, dispelling the magic effortlessly. In tandem, the beast let out a shriek towards the spell's castors, its violet eyes shining that much brighter.

When the wing lifted, dripping crumbs of soot and dust, an even craftier smirk awaited from the other side.

"Right now, all I could ever want is what you've so generously given to me, Princess Twilight," Tirek cooed. His beady eyes glinted. "A fellow creature who understands what it's like to be pelted with haughty unicorn magic at every opportunity. A fellow creature scorned by the righteous hubris of Equestrians, who would have us imprisoned or banished for simply doing what is in our nature."

A sense of great dread fell upon the clearing as the vulture took to the sky again, its body a lantern of flowing red light.

"It's readying its attack!" Somnambula called, hovering to draw the attention of her comrades. "Everyone, we must regroup, it is too dangerous to fight when airbo-augh!"

The pegasus was struck, knocked from the air by Tirek's magic. Sent tumbling along the ground, she came to rest against an emerging root with a jolt. She opened her eyes through a pounding headache to see a dark red sun in the sky, crackling with menace and lightning.

"It's rather unwise to draw attention to yourself," Tirek remarked, his cruel sneer blooming in shades of red. "You're the objects of my new friend's fury, and far be it for me to deprive him of his vengeance. After all, friends help each other in their endeavours. Isn't that right, Starswirl?"

"Somnambula!"

The words fell before an impending blaze of magic. From within a curtain of red light, Somnambula's body grew rigid, frozen in a perpetual state of panic. Only a statue emerged from the attack, barely distinguishable by the telling outline of chiseled clothing.

Ponies cried out in response, but something else drew Starswirl's eye. Venturing to stand from his second thrashing, he witnessed the creature's body glow in an anomalous veil of light. It stretched itself out in the air as if breathing deeply, before its colors, and its posture, returned to normal.

It was as if it'd consumed something, gained energy through its heinous act. Something in the pit of Starswirl's stomach churned. The eradication of flora all around him suddenly made too much sense.

"It preys on life energy," he murmured, his ire fusing with fascination. "Surrounded by death—you are a true vulture, aren't you? Do you petrify with intent, or is petrification simply all that remains?"

In the face of Somnambula's fate, hesitation and caution laid forgotten. Blasts of magic and rushing hooves quickly descended on Tirek from every direction, forcing him to abandon his carefree stance. Galloping in a wide arc, the centaur took aim and shot at the advancing calvary while developing a maddening grin.

"Did I strike a nerve with that one?" he taunted, projecting his voice so that all could hear. "Not so fun to be on the receiving end of cheap tricks and sneak attacks, is it?"

The centaur's smugness drained away as he stumbled, his footing compromised by beams of magic liquifying the ground. Before he could right himself, a strong body collided with him, tackling him to the earth.

It was Rockhoof, and hot tears fled his face.

"You mangy, pompous, conniving serpent!" the stallion bellowed. A backdrop of ponies contending with the ethereal vulture framed his face. "That was your doing, just as waking this thing up was your doing!"

"What's a centaur to do, outnumbered and out-magic'd," Tirek replied, recovering his snark within moments. He glared up at the stallion from his back, a sparkle coming to his eyes. "Now, how does that saying go? 'Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice…'"

Rockhoof cried out in pain, his underbelly jabbed with a set of hooves. As he fell back, a strong arm seized him by the throat and held him fast. Like clockwork, Tirek's jaw unhinged in the same motion, coaxing forth a stream of blue magic.

Just as Rockhoof began to shrink, an orange blur slammed into the centaur from his blindspot, releasing the trapped Pillar of Strength.

"You will not make a meal of my comrades today, Tirek!" Flash Magnus proclaimed, pressing the edge of his shield against the centaur's throat while standing atop his chest. "The only future for you lies in the earth beneath us, as Tartarus's most vile inmate."

Choking for a moment, Tirek clenched his eyes, but it didn't stop his returning smirk. A great cry shook the clearing, and from behind Flash, red light now illuminated his back at an alarming rate.

Tirek cackled, pressing his head back into the dirt.

"Inspiring bravado, but I believe my ally disagrees."

Flash turned, but it was far too late to reposition his shield. A wave of horizontal light overcame him in an instant, narrowly missing the centaur laid beneath. 

When the danger subsided, Tirek yelped to the additional weight now pressing into his abdomen. He promptly pushed the grey ornament from his body and stood up, brushing himself of soot. 

Agony gripped the forest in wails once again.

"Now then, where was I?" Tirek sighed, returning to Rockhoof. The stallion had knelt before his friend's statue, too mortified to move, even as Tirek's hooves stepped before him.

The centaur's mouth opened, but only to express pain. Magenta magic sniped him from across the field, propelling him to its desolate outskirts.

"Twilight, we need to do something now!"

Twilight relished in her small victory only a moment. As her horn hissed to silence, a small stream of smoke trailing up and outwards from it, she turned to her pupil. Starlight watched her with inconsolable eyes, haggard and out of breath. She'd just emerged from the ongoing fight.

"We cannot fight this thing as we are," the unicorn went on, motioning to the black and red vulture. Starswirl, in his rage, had rejoined the fray, leading the charge against the beast. "I've tried everything just to be sure. It's immune to most forms of magic, and going after Tirek first is too dangerous! We should retreat for now!"

Twilight sought counsel from the ground—rather, she used it to organize her racing thoughts. Her efforts to restimulate the portal had failed, and soon, Starswirl would be too exhausted to attempt a reopening anyway. Raw magic had no effect on the creature—Mistmane's dragons, which utilized physical manifestation magic seemed capable of at least touching it, but it was far too large, and they had far too few magic users to restrain it properly.

The alicorn nervously looked up. Tirek had already recovered, rising from a pile of broken trees. His tongue insatiably licked around his mouth.

"We need the Elements," Twilight said at last. "With their power, the girls and I can summon Discord from wherever he might be. He can solve this whole mess in one fell swoop by returning the creature home and reimprisoning Tirek."

"You're sure that'll work?" Starlight followed up quickly, casting glances over her shoulder with every shout or cry. "He's sealing portals and returning critters home, isn't he? What if he's in the other world when you try? What if it doesn't work?"

"Then we'll have to look to limbo," Twilight said gravely. "We didn't need to sacrifice the Elements when we rescued Stygian, but if things get bad enough, we may not have a choice this time."

"It won't come to that, Twilight. Discord will come when he's called—I have faith in him."

Twilight and Starlight turned to find Fluttershy. The meek pegasus had been attending Rarity and Mistmane after their abrupt fall. Now, she faced her friends with a rare resolve.

"Go get the Elements, Twilight," she encouraged, eyeing the creature. "In the meantime, I need to try something."

Horror lit Twilight's face.

"What? No, Fluttershy, don't tell me-"

"Starlight, I need you and the others to hold off Tirek for a minute," Fluttershy interrupted, shifting to the lilac mare. "They're dangerous together because Tirek is using him, but if we can separate them, I think we might have a chance. We might be able to calm him."

"Fluttershy, you can't!" Twilight yelled, gripping her friend with desperate hooves. "That thing has petrified three of our friends, already! It's far too late to just calm it down!"

In the face of Twilight's panic, Fluttershy smiled. She hugged her friend tightly, ending the stream of words, but triggering a tear instead.

"It's never too late," Fluttershy replied softly. "And I have to try, Twilight. It's who I am. He might be a big, terrifying cockatrice-like creature from another dimension, but he is still an animal—an animal that is just confused and frustrated. I don't have strength, or speed, or magic to help all of you, so please let me help in the way I know how."

Twilight shut down. She could only stare as the pegasus turned towards the ongoing struggle and nodded towards Starlight. Starlight nodded back.

"Starswirl!" Starlight bellowed, galloping in the direction of Tirek, who was nearly upon their petrified friends once more. "Help me deal with Tirek! Twilight has a plan, and Fluttershy's going to distract the bird, but we need to keep them apart!"

Starswirl's head pivoted sharply to his pinged name. He scrutinized the yellow pegasus a moment from afar before turning to his comrades.

"You heard the sorceress! Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rockhoof, to me! The rest of you, form a line between our enemies! Do not let them reach each other!"

The battlefield twisted in a matter of seconds as the consolidated efforts of the Equestrians shifted gears. Tirek's hearty gallops screeched to a stop as magic again assailed him, forcing him from his sought meals. By contrast, the dark entity hovered alone in the air, seemingly confused by the sudden abandonment.

When a tiny pony dared to fly before its face, it bathed her in purple light. Squinting before the ocular spotlights, Fluttershy merely wore a smile.

"It's just you and me now, mister. I know you must be very upset, and miss your home terribly, but my friend thinks she has a way to help you. While we wait for her, I need you to take a deep breath and calm down a little. Can you do that for me?"