Dawn watched as Twilight exerted a little bit more power into her horn so that her barrier would knock away all of the rock, dust, and ash that had fallen on top of it. "Everypony okay?" she asked, though it was unnecessary as everypony had stayed under the barrier with her; knowing Twilight, it was just a force of habit.
"Just fine, Twilight, thanks," Winter replied, wiping her nose. "Just a little dusty, eh?"
Dawn didn't reply; she just locked her eyes back on Nihila who hadn't so much as moved from where she'd seen her last, nor had she even made any attempt to capitalize on the situation and attack while they were distracted.
She wasn't sure what to make of what had just happened; what in the world had Nihila just unleashed? Whatever it was, it had cleared out all of the smoke in the chamber, and the egg-shaped rock in the middle of the room had been completely shattered. Most of the tunnel behind her and her friends had also been torn open, giving a clear view of the heart of the volcano and the magma reservoir below.
"Now, as for you three…" Nihila said, using her horn to clear a path through the rocky rubble so that the ground between her and the other mares was flat and empty.
"What was that?" Twilight demanded, glaring at Nihila. "What did you just do?"
"I already told you: I unleashed the Calamity upon your pitiful little fleets. And when she is done with them, she will move north towards New Pandemonium. She will burn that miserable city to the ground until there is nothing left but fire and ash. Then she will do the same with Hope's Point, and soon after, the south.
"Your plan to deactivate the southern Beacon will of course be your downfall," Nihila continued with a mocking tone. "Without it to prevent me from influencing the Calamity as she rampages across the south, I cannot be stopped, not by Pandemonia, not by that treacherous worm who stole power that wasn't his to take, and not even by Harmonia. This world will burn; I will have my revenge."
"Not if we stop you here, you won't." Twilight lit up her horn a little brighter; her barrier spell intensified. She then turned to Dawn and gave her a firm look. "You focus on attacking her, and I'll focus on protecting us. Together, we can win."
"Agreed," Dawn said with a nod, igniting her horn and preparing to fire, this time with a much stronger blast. Her last three blasts had been minimal in power, so if Nihila was strong enough to defend herself while Dawn was being conservative, then Dawn knew she had to be more liberal with her magic.
Nihila tilted her head, her horn glowing white hot. "Hmm. As amusing as it would be to crush you three here and now, I find it more amusing that you seem to think I would allow you to unite together against me. Not that it would help, but I much prefer to divide and conquer."
Dawn felt a sharp rumble under her hooves, harsh enough that she lost her balance, as did Winter and Twilight.
Nihila then took another step forward and looked right at Twilight. "This volcano is erupting, Twilight Sparkle, with all of us inside. I will survive, of course, and you might as well, but I doubt that your comrades will, nor will the kirins that are not too far away. Whatever shall you do?" Dawn could practically hear the smug grin on her face, if she had a damnable mouth to grin with.
Twilight turned back towards the magma reservoir, as did Dawn and Winter; they could see the light of the liquid magma rising up. "Oh no…" Twilight muttered.
Winter turned to Dawn. "We have to get out of here. Now."
"And we have to find those kirins before they're overwhelmed," Twilight added.
"No," Dawn snorted, gesturing towards the reservoir. "Twilight, you can stymie the volcano's eruption, and perhaps with Winter's assistance even reverse it. I will engage Nihila in combat alone until you have completed your task."
"What? Dawn, I can't just—"
"We have no time to quibble over the issue. If we evacuate now, we will forfeit our opportunity to defeat her, and we cannot possibly save all of those kirin ourselves given our resources. This is our only favorable circumstance, as unfavorable as it might seem."
Dawn lit up her horn to cover herself in a small, personal barrier that conformed to her body and would protect her from the heat, and only the heat, as she couldn't use a proper barrier spell and attack at the same time. She was fully prepared to fight Nihila alone, and had been for a long time now; this was just the last step in the process.
"Go," she said to Twilight.
Twilight paused. "But—"
"Go!"
Twilight hesitated, then nodded, and she and Winter headed the now-shorter distance up the tunnel to the edge of the path. Twilight maintained her barrier to keep her and Winter safe from the heat, but her horn was glowing brighter now than Dawn had ever seen it; the rumbling under Dawn's hooves slowed considerably and now was hardly even noticeable.
Dawn, now alone with Nihila—though Twilight and Winter were near enough that she could see them clearly—rolled her shoulders and readied herself. Nihila had deflected her blasts earlier with seemingly minimal effort, but unbeknownst to Nihila, those blasts had only used a tiny fraction of her strength; she was ready to unleash everything she had now, and she preferred it this way. Just her, her opponent, and nopony in the way to get hurt.
"I would admire your courage if it were not so pathetic," Nihila gloated. "Do you truly believe that you can withstand me alone, little worm? You are nothing more than an inferior copy of a creature far greater than yourself. Not to mention that I made you. I can just as easily unmake you."
"You did not 'make' me. My father made me," Dawn snarled, digging her hooves in the dirt. "The source of my flesh is irrelevant; the source of my power is irrelevant. My father provided me with purpose, inspiration, and love, not you. His example molded me into who I am today, and it is by his example that I will finish his crusade against you."
Nihila tilted her head. "Then when you see your father in the Dreaming after I have ended your pathetic existence, you can tell him that you died fighting for his inevitably meaningless cause."
Dawn waited a few tense seconds, then raised a deflective barrier when Nihila launched a blast of magic at her. The impact was enough that, though the barrier withstood it, it knocked Dawn off her hooves. She braced herself more effectively against the next blast, and the next; these ones caused her some discomfort, but her barrier held against them.
She saw an opportunity between Nihila's attacks to drop her barrier and launch a blast of magic of her own, this one infused with much more power than her earlier attempts. Nihila didn't dodge this one, or deflect it away, or even evaporate it into nothing, though she clearly tried to do the latter.
But there was enough force in the shot that it still went through and made contact with Nihila's chest, knocking the alien alicorn off her hooves and back into what was left of the egg-shaped rock.
Dawn did not relent, firing another blast into Nihila, and another. Each one impacted, and each one knocked Nihila back with enough force that when the third blast hit and slammed Nihila into the rear wall of the cavern, it did so with the explosive force of a missile, sending rock, dust, and ash everywhere. The chamber's ceiling shook; Dawn didn't care. If the cavern collapsed, so be it.
She barely raised her barrier back up again when Nihila returned fire through the billowing dust and ash, though this one was much stronger than the blasts Dawn had been dealing with before; again, the blast sent a wave of pain through her horn as the barrier absorbed the force of the impact.
Nihila spread her wings and took flight—the chamber was tall enough that she could do so—then fired another blast down at Dawn's barrier. Again, she absorbed the impact and grunted in pain, but then she dropped her barrier and fired another blast at her opponent.
This one Nihila deflected, sending it careening into the ceiling just behind her and showering the chamber with broken rock. Dawn reacted quickly, latching onto as many chunks of rock as she could and flinging them at Nihila from behind.
The rocks surprised Nihila and knocked the alicorn about, but if they did any damage, Dawn couldn't tell; Nihila didn't seem to bleed or bruise, and if she did, Dawn couldn't see it against her unnaturally black coat.
While Nihila was distracted, however, Dawn took the opportunity to move to a better position to fire another blast, this one impacting Nihila squarely in the side and slamming her into the ceiling. She then fired another blast, and another, and another; the chamber was being torn apart by the sheer explosive power of each and every burst.
Then Dawn raised her barrier again and waited. And waited. But Nihila did not counterattack. Instead, the alicorn just drifted slowly out of the hole in the ceiling that she'd been lodged into, looking none the worse for wear.
"I will commend you on your efforts, failed spawn," she laughed, causing Dawn a great deal of discomfort in her ears. "You are still an inferior copy of Twilight Sparkle, of course, but you should feel proud that you managed to impress me. Not enough for me to spare your miserable life, but enough that I have allowed you to live this long just to see how far you could reach."
"I have yet to even utilize my full potential," Dawn replied through clenched teeth. "We shall see who impresses—"
"No, I think not. I grow tired of this distraction."
Dawn enhanced her barrier just as Nihila fired another blast of magic at her, but this one was different. Not just more powerful—the pain was so much that Dawn barely managed to keep her focus on the shield—but more… alien.
It didn't pierce the shield or anything of the sort, but as the magical blast enveloped the bubble, Dawn could hear screaming surrounding her. Shrill, terrified screaming that echoed endlessly inside the bubble, louder and louder until it made Dawn's ears ache and eventually bleed.
This was enough to break her concentration on the barrier, but Nihila didn't follow up with another blast. Instead, she grabbed Dawn with telekinetic magic, lifted her off the floor, and whipped her across the room so fast that Dawn didn't even realize it had happened until her back impacted a wall.
From that point on, everything was pain. Dawn attempted to resist Nihila's magic, to guard against it with her own, but she just didn't have the time she needed to build up enough energy to overcome it.
Nihila threw her into the wall, down to the floor, up against the ceiling, punctuating each with a small blast of explosive magic that Dawn could barely defend herself against and which left her disoriented and vulnerable to another grab and toss.
In less than a minute, Nihila broke Dawn down to nothing. The only reprieve Dawn received at all was when Nihila simply stopped tossing her around, but Dawn was in such agonizing pain at that point that it didn't matter. Bloodied and beaten, Dawn couldn't even summon the strength to stand on her own four hooves; she could barely even feel all four hooves.
"Look at yourself now, you worthless wretch," Nihila laughed. "You thought yourself to be a paragon of power, a worthy opponent for a goddess, but you cannot even begin to comprehend what I am. I am no mere deity, fool. I am Nihila, and I am Darkness incarnate, the Void made manifest. You are beneath me, a mere ant barely worthy of being squashed beneath my hooves."
Nihila ignited her horn and tore out a huge chunk of the wall; the entire cavern rumbled as it started to fall apart. Dawn watched, barely able to breathe, and the giant rock levitated ten or so feet above her. She ignited her horn to raise a protective barrier, but she wasn't confident at all that it would save her.
Father… I tried.
As the rock came crashing down towards her, the last thing Dawn saw was Winter Glow standing over her, and then everything went black.
~~~~
Seconds Earlier…
Twilight strained as hard as she could to keep the volcanic eruption at bay, which was proving exceptionally difficult. This volcano was the largest in the region, the largest she had ever seen before, and so there was a lot of liquid magma to keep under control. Luckily she had Winter at her side to help keep both of them cool against the sheer heat so that Twilight could focus entirely on the eruption; she couldn't imagine not having Winter with her all the way.
Focusing on that, however, was not particularly easy. She could hear the fighting behind her, though she couldn't see it, and she desperately wanted to turn around and make sure that Dawn was okay. Twilight had felt the kind of power Nihila could bring to bear before, not just seven years ago when she was in Pandemonia's weakened physical form, but only a month ago when she had wrestled control of the viewing spell from her.
But if Dawn was as only powerful as Twilight had been before becoming an alicorn herself—or even slightly more powerful—it was likely not going to be enough. Twilight needed to get this eruption under control so that she could help.
A small click to her side distracted her momentarily, and drew her attention to Winter, who had just snapped her Timekeeper shut. "Winter? What's wrong?" Twilight asked.
Winter paused for a moment, then let out a breath and gave Twilight a small smile. "Nothing. Everything's gonna be alright, Twilight. I promise."
"Huh? What're you—"
Then Winter ran off back towards the battle, her horn glowing bright.
"Winter! Where are you going?!" Twilight called, turning fully towards the fighting.
Her eyes widened in shock. Dawn was on the floor, horribly wounded and barely moving, a flickering barrier all that stood between herself and a humongous rock that Nihla was lifting over her. Winter ran right at Dawn with all the speed and confidence of somepony who knew what they were doing, stopping over their fallen comrade and standing firm.
And just as Winter arrived, the rock came crashing down on both of them, tearing through the earth and burying them both under tons of rock, dirt, dust, and ash.
The volcanic eruption didn't matter to Twilight any more. She just ran towards where her Winter and Dawn had just been, leaving the tunnel behind her without a second thought. "Winter! Dawn!" she called out, looking through the rocky debris for any sign of them. "Where are you?! Can you hear me?!"
If they could, they didn't answer.
"Winter! Dawn! Please, answer me!" she called again. When again she received no reply, she felt a surge of nausea sweep through her gut, and a burning sensation filled her heart; her eyes began to water. "No… this can't be happening…"
"You waste your breath on the dead, Twilight Sparkle," Nihila said, a hint of a smirk in her tone. "Is it not the natural order of things for only the strong to survive, after all? We both know that they were weak and had no business being here in the first place. So really… I suppose their deaths are your fault."
Then, something inside Twilight just… snapped.
~~~~~
Nihila watched Twilight Sparkle's anguish and torment with no small amount of mirth. With the wasted spawn that called herself a daughter of that miserable traitor out of the way, as well as the delightfully surprising senseless sacrifice by the accursed Chronomancer, nothing would stand in her way of taking what was rightfully hers at long last.
"You waste your breath on the dead, Twilight Sparkle," she said. "Is it not the natural order of things for only the strong to survive, after all? We both know that they were weak and had no business being here in the first place. So really… I suppose their deaths are your fault."
She then lit up her horn and prepared for the next stage of her plan, which required her to beat Twilight Sparkle into submission as well so that she could usurp control of her body and mind—of her power—as she'd done with Pandemonia. The deaths of her friends would make that easier; her spirit would be weakened, and—
Then Twilight Sparkle let out an anguished scream, and with it came such a surge of pure power that Nihila found herself tense up out of instinct. The entire cavern shook with tremendous pain as the walls and ceiling crumbled apart in particles of dust; the volcano's eruption ceased completely, magma retreating back down under the earth out of fear and fear alone.
Nihila marveled at Twilight Sparkle's sudden change. Her mane and tail had grown tremendously long and billowed behind her like a glorious cape, tinged with the soft glow of twilight and dotted with stars. Lightning crackled around her form in ribbons. The tears in her eyes flowed not down her face but up into the air, but these were no longer tears of mere grief; these were of rage.
And oh, the power that Nihila could feel radiating off of Twilight Sparkle now. She wasn't as powerful as Pandemonia or Harmonia, she wasn't as powerful as the Mother of Calamity, she wasn't even as powerful as Nihila herself.
She was beyond all of them; she was magical might made flesh, potential incarnate, the most powerful creature that Nihila had ever encountered in eons of devouring world after world after world.
She was everything that Nihila had ever wanted and more.
"I see… so there was untapped potential within you," Nihila said blissfully. "With this much power, you could destroy an entire world by yourself if you wanted to. And yet it goes to waste—"
Twilight Sparkle's horn ignited; the blast came so fast that Nihila couldn't even react.
She felt her body crash through layers and layers of rock until she was suddenly outside the volcano, where she was finally able to recover and take flight. Her wings were really just for show; she didn't need them to fly, capable of hovering in the air on her power alone.
She looked on in awe at the results of the attack. The entire side of the volcano was gone.
Incredible. So much raw power.
Twilight Sparkle then just appeared about five feet in front of her without so much as a sound; the teleportation had been so perfect that it hadn't even generated light.
Her horn did, though, especially when it blasted Nihila again, this time sending her spiraling down towards the side of the next volcano over to the east, where she impacted and pierced several feet inside before coming to a stop.
Nihila couldn't feel actual pain, not in the way mortal creatures did, but she could feel something akin to it as her energy faltered. It was an annoyance, to say the least, but not completely insurmountable, just surprising.
She shook off the rock and dust that had covered her and was about to blow her way out of the mountainside, when she spotted a light off in the distance. It impacted just as she saw it, filling her world with white hot agony.
When the annoyance and the light were gone, she was barely afloat in the air above what was left of the volcano.
Twilight Sparkle appeared suddenly in front of her again, but this time Nihila was ready, and fired her own blast at her opponent. Twilight Sparkle's horn flashed for a brief instant; Nihila's blast deflected straight up into the air, exploding like a bomb.
The counterattack was just as swift; another flash of Twilight Sparkle's horn sent Nihila crashing down into a river of lava far below. The lava had no effect on Nihila, of course, but the blast was, again, incredibly draining, and maybe a little something more. What was this sensation flowing through her? It was unpleasant.
No, this will not do. She is more powerful than I thought, Nihila thought to herself as she floated under the lava flow. I need more power to overcome her. Hmm… the Beacon will suffice. A risk worth taking.
Nihila lit up her horn again as she floated up and out of the lava, concentrating her energy on the northern Beacon, which still flowed with Pandemonia's power, yes, but also with her own. This fact had been the only thing preventing that treacherous snake from deactivating the Beacon entirely himself, and now its boon would be twofold.
In the skies above the entire northern continent, the orange glow of the Beacon's light retreated towards the Beacon itself. It only took a few moments, but soon the beam of energy radiating from the Beacon now flowed in a continuous stream up and into the sky, curving west towards the Redblade Mountains.
Just as Twilight Sparkle found Nihila and launched another attack, the Beacon's light arrived and filled Nihila with the surge of energy she needed to deflect the blast. Twilight Sparkle was surprised, but undeterred, and attacked again, but now, Nihila was able to defend herself. It took some effort, but Nihila would rather acknowledge that they were on even terms now than otherwise.
"Your advantage was short-lived," Nihila laughed. "I hope that you enjoyed it while it lasted. With the Beacon's might at my back, my power is doubled. Your defeat is nigh."
"Give yourself all the power you want, Nihila," Twilight Sparkle replied with a tranquil rage. "I'll destroy you all the same."
*****
Rarity had to admit, though her role in the plan seemed rather simple enough, it was hardly easy. Pandemonia stood before her in all her splendor, horn glowing with purple power and doing… something to the Beacon to deactivate it without any indication of how well the process was going. Rarity, in the meantime, had her own horn alight to empower Pandemonia—empowering a goddess seemed such an odd thing to say—and she felt herself starting to get a little woozy.
Well, there was one thing that was indicating a change in the Beacon, technically: the orange glow was starting to fill with little specks of purple, though not at a rate that seemed to mean anything. And Pandemonia was so totally locked into her task that she might as well have been a statue; she didn't move apart from the wind in her mane, and she certainly didn't speak.
Zyra, meanwhile, stood dutifully by Rarity's side, her longsword now held in her tail rather than strapped to her back. The runic markings along the blade carried a magical effect that allowed the sword to be wielded by the zebras' tails—hence why their warriors, like Zyra and Zircon, had such long tails—and also made it feel lighter to the wielder while still maintaining its actual weight. It was all very fascinating; Twilight knew more than Rarity did about it, though.
"Anything happened out there, Zyra?" Rarity asked, keeping her attention on her magic but still able to divert it to a conversation. "I thought I heard a noise earlier. Two loud booms? We're not under attack, are we?"
"I heard it too, and then there were two rings of light off in the west," Zyra replied, looking off in that direction. "One rainbow-colored, the other flame-colored."
"Rainbow-colored… a Sonic Rainboom? Hmm. What's Rainbow Dash up to, I wonder? She must have brought Havoc along with her; the other ring sounds like what Havoc's own sonic boom is supposed to resemble."
Zyra grunted and nodded. "It's very strange, but I can see lights off in the distance in that direction, like distant flames. Perhaps our enemies are attempting to lure away our allies by attacking the city elsewhere? Never fear, My Lady, I will remain by your side no matter the circumstances."
"I don't doubt it," Rarity tittered.
Suddenly, Pandemonia groaned in discomfort and staggered off-balance briefly. As she did so, Rarity noticed first that the Beacon's light grew more intensely orange; second, she noticed that the glow in the sky seemed to be drawing itself towards the Beacon rather than permeating away from it.
"Pandemonia, is everything alright?" Rarity asked. "Is the deactivation working? Is this supposed to happen?"
"No, Rarity, this very much not supposed to happen," Pandemonia huffed, annoyed not with Rarity—she hoped—but whatever the situation was. "Nihila is doing something to the Beacon. I can still deactivate it, but… there's something wrong. I know not what her intentions are—"
Then, they all watched as the Beacon's light curved through the air in an arc and impacted somewhere far beyond the horizon to the southwest.
"Where is the light going?" Zyra asked.
"That's in the direction of the Redblade Mountains…" Rarity muttered, her heart catching in her throat. "That's where Twilight's team went. Oh dear, I hope they're alright."
Pandemonia groaned again. "Something's… something's coming. I can feel a disturbance in the Beacon's energies. Nihila is aware of what I am doing, but now she is trying to stop me because she needs the Darkness stored within. Be ready, friends. I know not what terrors she might yet have in store for us."
Zyra gave her sword a little flourish and settled into a ready stance. "Whatever Nihila sends our way, I am ready to face it."
"And I as well," Rarity said with a firm nod. "Once we finish this, then Nihila is finished. Everyone is depending on us."
They waited. And waited. And waited.
Then, a terrible noise issued forth from the Beacon, the sound of thousands of screams of terror and pain and anguish all together. It was so loud that Rarity had to cover her ears; she could already feel her whole head ringing just from the short exposure she had to it. There were just bare hints of words in some of the screams that Rarity could make out:
Help.
Help me.
Please.
Make it stop.
It hurts.
Please help.
Save me.
They all sounded like different voices. Some were masculine, others feminine; some young, some old. What they all had in common was this otherworldliness to them, like they weren't quite real, or like something out of a nightmare.
Accompanying the sound were numerous black shadows streaming out of the Beacon's light. At first, they seemed harmless aside from the chilling screaming, but then one of them swooped towards Pandemonia and, upon impact with her, caused the alicorn goddess to howl in pain. The attack didn't leave any physical signs of injury, but it seemed to have hurt all the same.
Then another such shadow swooped towards Pandemonia.
"Begone, phantasm!" Zyra shouted. She stepped in and swung her blade straight through it; the shadow evaporated in a burst of light. "By the gods, what sorcery is this? The souls of the dead reside in the Dreaming, but I thought Nihila no longer had access to it?"
"We can worry about how later, dear," Rarity grunted as she used her magic to keep Pandemonia at full strength; the attack had disrupted her focus. "Just keep these 'phantasms' away from Pandemonia." She yelped as one of the things swept towards her, ducking just under it. "And away from me!"
"Of course, My Lady," Zyra said as her blade banished other of the shadows away. "None of these foul spirits shall— ah!" she yowled as one of them rushed into her back.
Rarity panicked; more of the shadows were streaming out of the light now. "Zyra! Are you alright?!"
Zyra grunted and rose back to her hooves, then nodded. "I am fine, My Lady. Don't worry about me." She leapt forward and cleaved through a spirit that had snuck up on Rarity. "Focus on your task. I will worry about the phantoms."
As Rarity watched more and more of the spirits screaming out of the Beacon, not just towards those on the roof, but out towards the rest of the city, she had a sudden wish that things could just go back to being simple and easy.
*****
Fluttershy took a moment to recover when she and Rainbow arrived not far from their destination. She'd never flown at supersonic speed before, obviously, as Rainbow had never carried her while doing so. It was disorienting, to say the least, and her whole body felt a little off-balance because of it. How Rainbow could do it so frequently without any adverse effects was baffling to her.
"Oh my goodness," she muttered, hooves over her mouth, as she looked out towards the west edge of the city.
There was virtually nothing left of this entire section of the Outer District, just a smoldering ruin of smoke, fire, and ash amidst the burnt remains of houses, apartments, and businesses. There was no telling how many ponies had managed to evacuate in time or how many had been injured or killed; Fluttershy couldn't see movement beneath all the smoke.
The phoenix itself wasn't far—you couldn't miss it—but luckily hadn't taken to the air yet. A creature that size could probably obliterate the entire Outer District by making a single lap around the city just by flying overhead. It was distracted by the guns on the wall. While they didn't seem to be hurting the giant avian much, if at all, they were annoying it enough to keep it on the ground while it was here.
Any collateral damage they caused would be far less than what that phoenix could do once it was airborne.
Havoc arrived right behind Fluttershy and Rainbow, just seconds later. She was about to say something, but then she saw the same sight that Rainbow and Fluttershy were seeing, and her eyes went wide. "Holy fuck. Guess it's definitely not a false alarm." She turned to Fluttershy. "What's the plan here? 'Cause that bird of yours looks pretty nasty."
Fluttershy shook herself out of her stupor. "I… I have to talk to it so that I can find out what's wrong. When I saw it on the news, I could see in its eyes that it was in a lot of emotional pain."
Havoc nodded. "Got it, you're gonna play phoenix therapist. I figure you've gotta get close enough to that thing to talk to it, so I'll stick with you in case it tries to get antsy with ya."
"I'll get to work putting out these fires," Rainbow said with a firm nod. "But I'll keep my eye on you guys if you need a distraction or something. Stay safe, alright?" She poked Havoc in the chest. "You hear me, shrimp? Stay safe, and keep Shy safe. If either one of you gets hurt, I'm gonna kick your tail, got it?"
"Psh, you wish you could kick my tail, dingus," Havoc retorted, hoofbumping Rainbow in the process.
"How're you going to put out the fires, Rainbow?" Fluttershy asked. "There's not enough water around here to make a rain cloud with."
Rainbow glanced along the ruined stretch of the city, then pointed out a busted fire hydrant that was spewing water. "That'll work. Watch."
She swooped down and spiraled around the water spout, creating a twister to help her carry the water up into the air to make a cloud. It started off small, but after a few such trips Rainbow was able to stretch it out to be pretty big in very little time, a benefit of being able to move so quickly. A little love tap was all she needed to start the rain; Fluttershy could see steam and smoke rising from the flames immediately.
"I'll just keep building up on this sucker since I've got a good starting source," Rainbow said with a smirk. "Don't worry, I'll take care of everything." She set her hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder. "You go do your thing, okay? Just don't do anything risky."
Fluttershy took a breath and nodded. "Okay. Thank you, Rainbow, for coming with me."
She turned to Havoc and gestured towards the phoenix, and the two of them made their way in the direction of the destruction. Fluttershy used all of her willpower not to look at what the phoenix was doing to the city below it, which amounted to wanton destruction of lives and property and nothing more. She couldn't bear the thought of seeing ponies fleeing or calling for help; all she could do to help was to stop the source.
Once she and Havoc were within shouting distance of the phoenix, Fluttershy tried to get its attention, clearing her throat first; this all seemed so ridiculous from an outside perspective, but she had to try. "Um… ahem. Hey! Stop!" she called, waving her hoof at the giant bird. "You're hurting ponies! Stop! They didn't do anything to you!"
If it heard her, it didn't react.
She tried again. "Stop! Please, stop what you're doing! I know that you're hurting, and I want to help you! Please stop this!"
This seemed to get it's attention, as its head perked up and turned towards Fluttershy and Havoc. Its eyes still looked exactly like Fluttershy remembered from the news report: filled with anguish and sorrow as well as rage and hate. Fluttershy was terrified for that brief moment; those same eyes were now focused entirely on her.
She gulped. "That's right! I can tell that you're in pain, and I want to help! But in order for me to do that, I need you to stop—"
The phoenix opened its beak, and a gout of flame spewed forth.
"Look out!" Havoc yelled, flying so that she was in between Fluttershy and the flames.
Havoc held out her hooves and pushed the fire back, not physically, but with her powers. Fluttershy was very thankful that Havoc had come along; the heat from the fire, even from this far away, was intense enough that it hurt to be around and bright enough that it hurt to look at, and it had been aimed right at her!
The phoenix seemed legitimately surprised that Havoc had stopped its attack, but it tried again, and again Havoc just kept the fire at bay with her powers and now her body alone.
This seemed to only have one effect: making the phoenix angry. Because as soon as it realized that Havoc was immune to its flames, it turned itself completely towards the two pegasi and shifted itself as if getting ready to take flight.
"Uh-oh," Havoc muttered, slowly drifting back towards Fluttershy. "I think we'd better get moving."
The phoenix then spread its wings.
"Oh yeah, we're moving!"
Fluttershy agreed and, right along with Havoc, they started flying away, back towards the ruined sectors of the city; best to keep it from destroying areas it hadn't gotten to yet.
With a few loud, thunderous steps and a flap of its wings, the phoenix gave chase; the beat of its wings was so strong that it leveled an entire city block with the wind shear alone. When it was clear that it was not a slow flyer, Havoc grabbed Fluttershy without a second's hesitation and started flying faster.
And yet the phoenix still caught up long before they managed to make it back anywhere near Rainbow and her rain cloud. Fluttershy watched in terrified anticipation as the giant avian lifted up its talons in preparation to snatch its prey out of the air.
Only for it to suddenly look up just in time to see an entire two-story apartment building come flying right at it. The building slammed into the phoenix's head and completely caught it off guard, knocking it out of the air and onto the ground.
Fluttershy and Havoc slowed down and looked in the direction the building had come from to see Gray coming their way. "Sorry I'm late, girls, but I'm not that fast," she said nonchalantly.
"Shit, sis, did you just chuck a building at it?!" Havoc asked, awestruck.
Gray shrugged. "Meh. Found a ruined building, made sure nopony was in it, pulled some gravity shenanigans, boom. You know how I roll."
"Well yeah but… that was tight as shit! Remind me not to pick a fight with you if you can throw a fucking building at me."
"What's the plan here?" Gray asked, looking at Fluttershy. "Obviously whatever you were trying didn't work."
"It's not listening to me," Fluttershy sighed, shaking her head. "And as long as it's able to fly around and attack things with that fire breath, I don't think I'm going to get it to listen, either. I don't know what we're going to do…"
The three turned when they heard the phoenix stirring behind them.
"Well, we'd better figure it out quick, 'cause that building to the face didn't keep it down for long," Havoc said.
Fluttershy gulped. This was turning out to be a very bad evening.