//------------------------------//
// Chapter Thirty: Resurgence 
// Story: CRISIS: Equestria - Divergence, Book 3 
// by GanonFLCL 
//------------------------------//

Brother Yellow Jacket was just one of the almost-thirty loyal servants of the Dark Lady that had entered from underneath Pandora Tower. He remembered seeing the tower from a distance for the first time as a young colt. He never thought he'd get a chance to ever actually visit the place, and now here he was, storming up a maintenance stairwell along with his comrades, heavily armored and armed to the teeth, ready to kill in the Dark Lady's name.

Long may She reign indeed.

He still didn't quite understand what the armor was made out of. Volcanic iron he understood, but the other material used in the alloy was unknown to him. He didn't question it, though; if it would protect him from some of the freakish powers the Traitors wielded, it would be to his benefit.

The weapons were easy; he'd been on the team that had been stealing them from the NPAF stockpiles over the years.

He was the leader of Squad Four, and as such trailed at the back of the formation. While Squads One, Two, and Three continued up the stairs, Squad Four stopped here at this floor where Brother Power Flux was waiting; Power Flux was in charge of Squad One, and would catch up to his team afterwards.

But now, he was giving Squad Four a rundown of their assignment: 

"The Dark Lady wants as many of the young ones alive as you can manage," he said, looking between Yellow Jacket and the others in his squad. "Subdue them however you can, then bring them down to the tunnels and await further instructions from either myself or one of the other squad leaders. If you hear nothing in one hour, leave. The Dark Lady will guide you."

"How many are there?" Jacket asked.

"Roughly thirty is my best estimate."

Jacket hummed. "We would have to make multiple trips, Brother. Wouldn't that attract attention or risk them escaping?"

"Do it however you like, Brother. If you don't want to take multiple trips, kill the ones you don't take with you. And, if they present a problem that puts your assignment at risk, kill or cripple anypony who resists." Flux pulled Jacket close, not to whisper, but to look him in the eye. "And remember, they are freaks just like the Traitors. Your armor should protect you, but don't be stupid. It isn't infallible."

Jacket gulped and nodded. "Of course. 'Being stupid' is what got Brother Melon and his team killed by that Traitor whore. The same will not happen to us, I assure you."

"I hope not." Flux clapped him on the back. "Get to work, Brother Jacket. May the Dark Lady guide you on your path."

"Long may She reign," Jacket replied, thumping his armored hoof on his armored chest.

As Power Flux left, Jacket turned to his team and gestured towards the door, then made a few gestures with his hooves to indicate for them to take positions. A larger member of his squad, Steel Straw, readied himself a few feet from the door, then, on Jacket's signal, rushed forward and busted it down.

Which was surprising, actually. Jacket had been led to believe these doors were locked and quite difficult to break down with just brute strength. He'd expected Brother Steel to take at least two attempts, most likely three.

He and his squad immediately moved in through the open door and into what was supposed to be some sort of primary access floor to the facility these freak children lived in. They had dormitories on the floors below this one that could only be accessed via this primary room, hence why his squad had to come through here first. The dorms would naturally be where the children would hide after the intruder alarm had been activated; it would ironically make it easier to round them up.

The entire room was completely dark, as in, there wasn't a single light source whatsoever, not even from any windows; only the dim bulb in the maintenance stairway behind them provided any light at all, and the light just didn't reach into the room enough to make any difference.

Since he couldn't silently indicate to his squad to activate their flashlights with hoof signals, he activated his first so that they would follow his lead. Ten lights in the darkness now.

The room was empty of any ponies, though it was clear there had been some here fairly recently and that they hadn't cleaned up after themselves before leaving. Some of the children must have been gathered here before the alarms went off, playing board games and eating snacks. The layout of the floor was reminiscent of a classroom and a cafeteria side-by-side, with some sort of lounge area off in the corner. 

There was an odd decoration in the lounge area though that briefly drew Jacket's attention. Some sort of bipedal suit of armor, it looked like, but in a strangely modern style. Was it a suit of armor designed for a bear? They didn't have bears up here. It must have been a novelty item or something that the stupid kids were interested in; a school mascot perhaps.

Jacket gestured for the team to spread out and find the entrance to the dormitory floor; he himself headed into the classroom area to look around. There were maybe a dozen desks here and a large monitor at the head of the classroom. It was all very stand—

The door to the maintenance stairway slammed shut.

Ten lights shot to the door to see what had happened, Jacket's included. None of his team was within ten feet of the door; how did it close? Was it automatic?

Then, all ten flashlights started to flicker simultaneously. Which was, of course, impossible; the batteries were all brand new and high quality. What in the world was going—

"Y'know, I think that maybe I should have left one of your little asshole friends alive when they attacked us at the arcade," came a female voice from… well, from Jacket's perspective it sounded like it had come from right in front of him, but there wasn't anypony there.

"Where's that coming from?" Jacket quietly called out to his team as they all frantically searched for the source.

"It sounded like it was right in front of me," said Brother Steel, who was over near the deactivated elevator.

"Same here," said Sister Pennyfeathers, who was on the entirely opposite side of the room from Jacket, near the suit of bear armor.

The rest of the squad chimed in with the same. What in the world was going on?

"If I had left one of them alive, then they would've crawled back to whatever hole you all crawled out of, and they would have told you all the story of how you don't. Fuck. With Red Velvet." A pause. "You can fuck Red Velvet, sure, but don't fuck with her. Do you get what I'm saying here?"

"Where are you?" Jacket called out, unslinging his rifle and preparing to use it; his squadmates didn't even need hoof signals to do the same. "Show yourself!"

"Why is it that everypony who can't see who they're talking to is always all with the 'show yourself!' schtick? What, you think if somepony was trying to hide from you and talk to you from a different location that they'd actually fall for that? Pfft. You'd have to be pretty stupid to think I'd fall for that."

Jacket snorted. "Then tell us where you are, and we'll come to you if that makes you feel better."

"Oh, sure sure, I can do that. At the moment I'm

Over here!"

Jacket aimed his light and gun to the left. There wasn't anypony there. A brief glance at his squad, though, told him that they weren't all looking in the same direction that he was; they were looking to the left of where they'd been facing before, which was exactly what he was doing. What?

"Or maybe I'm

	Over here!"


Jacket swung far to the right, and again, nothing, and again, his whole squad had done practically exactly the same thing that he'd done, only they weren't all looking where he was looking. What was going on? Where was that damned bitch hiding?

"Orrr, maybe I'm


	Right behind you."


Jacket turned completely about face, but there was nopony—

Somepony on his squad let out an agonizing scream, then a loud gurgle; they all turned their lights over to see that Brother Bitter Bottle was missing his head, just as his body was teetering over. And that was all that they saw; there was otherwise no movement whatsoever anywhere in the room apart from Jacket and his squad.

The voice came again: "Now, do you see what happens when you fuck with Velvet? When you fuck with her kids? The last guys who did that ended up in several different garbage bags. Face it: you guys are all gonna die tonight. Painfully."

"I don't know who or what you are, but you're the one who's going to die tonight," Jacket snarled up at the ceiling, since that seemed the most sensible place to direct his vitriol. He signaled to the others in the squad to search around for the voice's source; she had to be somewhere in the room.

"I know why you're here, y'know. Your friends from last time wanted to take my kids away from me, and you're trying to do it again now. What I don't know is why. I'd love to know the reason why you guys are throwing your lives away to take my kids from me."

"We're not telling you anything. You can hide all you want—"

Another of his squadmates let out a gurgling noise, and everypony turned to see that Sister Almond Joy was clutching her throat—what was left of it—and slumping forward to fall to the floor.

"I'll ask you again: what do you want with my kids? Hmm?"

"Come out and fight, damn you!" Jacket snapped. "Where are you hiding?!"

Everypony heard the thump of another squadmate hitting the floor. Brother Steel hadn't even made a sound and nopony could see what his injury had been.

"I can do this all night if you want, y'know. Killing a bunch of faceless mooks doesn't bother me one bit. I just don't understand why you think your lives are worth not giving me an answer? Is it really that bad?"

Sister Pennyfeather, who was still near the suit of bear armor, growled, then shouted up at the ceiling, proud and true: "Your 'kids' are the property of our Dark Lady! She gave them Her blessings! Once She has burned this city to ash, She will use them in Her army to conquer the south and any other world She wants! They are Her children, not yours, whore!"

"Aha, that makes a lot of sense, actually. Wonderful, thanks for being honest with me. I think you deserve a prize. You wanna know what it is?"

"No, what?"

"It means I'm not gonna kill you, of course! I mean, duh? You answered my question. I think it's only fair that I don't kill you."

The light in the room went on all at once, filling the entire room with a red glow, the kind that they had in those red light sex clubs that were popular in parts of the Mid-East District.

Jacket, and the rest of his squad, were quite surprised when the suit of bear armor moved. None were more surprised than Sister Pennyfeather, of course, who was right next to the suit, especially since the suit had just grabbed hold of her neck in between its two meaty forelimbs.

"But that doesn't mean that I'm going to let you live," the suit said in a perfectly articulate, normal voice that wasn't even remotely what Jacket thought a bear would sound like if a bear could talk.

"Wh-what?" wheezed Pennyfeather.

The armor squeezed down and crushed Pennyfeather's neck, then dropped her like a garbage bag before turning towards the remaining squadmates. It was here that Jacket realized that there was a stallion inside the armor. "Okay, who's next?"

With a target that they could actually, finally see, Jacket and his squad opened fire on the bear. It did approximately nothing; whatever the armor was made out of, it completely absorbed the impact of the rifle rounds and left the broken shells to fall to the floor; some rounds even ricocheted off and fragmented into the walls behind the target.

The armor then lifted its left arm, upon which was mounted a rifle of some sort. It fired a single round and hit Brother Socket Wrench right in the chest and came straight out the other side, leaving a two-inch-wide hole in its wake.

More rounds were fired at the armor, and still they did nothing. The armor moved with a little less agility and speed than a pony, but that didn't matter; Jacket and his squad didn't have any place to run to anyway, and it was still fast enough to keep up with them. 

It caught up to Brother Mayflower with only a few strides after cornering him in the eating area, then just simply raised its right arm and bashed Mayflower's face in with a punch. Two punches— no, three. 

The armor only stopped because Mayflower no longer had a face to punch. Jacket had no idea why that thought had just come to him; in fact, he was fairly certain it wasn't even his thought at all.

"And hey, just so that nopony forgets about me," said the voice from earlier, "I'm gonna join in on the fun too. Hope you guys don't mind. Sharing is caring, after all!"

It was difficult to see in the red light of the room, but there was a new pony in here that just sort of appeared right next to Brother Low Tide. There were off-putting, blackish-red tendrils sprouting from her forelegs, which she used to, without much effort at all, slice through the joints in the Low Tide's armor. 

Low Tide fell apart, literally. Again, why was Jacket thinking such a morbidly inappropriate way to describe his comrade's death? This wasn't how he usually thought at all about anything. He'd always been a serious sort and blah blah blah blah blah.

Pretty soon, Jacket was the only one left, cornered against a window. He didn't know when it had happened, but he'd been stabbed in the neck through the joint between the separate pieces of armor. Why couldn't he remember that happening? Why couldn't he remember even getting over here? Why couldn't he remember—

"Because if we went through each and every death in your stupid little squad, each one of you would have to have a name, and those get tiring after a while," said the blood-drenched mare who was stepping over to him. "I mean, you noticed after a certain point that your names got kinda silly, right?"

"Fuck you, bitch," Jacket spat, pointing his rifle and taking a shot. It just gave a loud click; out of ammo.

The mare rolled her eyes. "Not that it would help, anyway. You know I can heal from pretty much anything, right? Or did you miss that part of your little cult's seminar? Hey, speaking of which, if you guys are a cult, do you have, like, cult meetings or something? This is a real cult, right, not a scam? What's the entry fee like?"

"You make jokes, but right now, the Dark Lady—"

"Oh, shut up, geez. Everypony's tired of that 'Dark Lady' shit already. Do you guys go door-to-door with pamphlets or whatever, trying to get converts? All knocking on doors, 'Hello! Would you like to change religions?! I have a free book written by the Dark Lady!' The Book of Morons, we'll call it."

She then turned to the stallion in the suit of bear armor and gave him a bright smile. "Oh hey, by the way, I got more kills than you did, babe, so you can get this one."

The stallion chuckled. "Oh, it would be my pleasure." He reached out with his right arm and grabbed Jacket by the neck, lifting him up and pressing him against the window. "How do you like my suit, by the way? I made it myself. The Pilot-Operated Mechanical Pony." A pause. "The name's a work-in-progress."

"I told him it made it too easy to make fun of," the mare chortled, running a hoof through her blood-soaked mane. "POMP and Circumstance, POMPous ass, POMPadour, yadda yadda yadda. And hey, change just one letter and you've got the PIMP. I don't know what that would stand for, but walking around in a PIMP suit doesn't sound very serious, y'know?"

The armored stallion tilted his head. "It's funny actually, come to think of it."

"What is? PIMP?"

"No, I mean, when Nihila's cult attacked you—"

Jacket snarled even as he struggled in the suit's firm grip. "You dare use the Dark Lady's true name—"

"Oh my stars, shut uuupp," the mare groaned, holding her temples. "You guys are the worst cult in the history of ever. Why can't you be one of the cool ones that all drink poisoned wine or whatever, sheesh. Save us all the trouble."

"Ahem. As I was saying," the armored stallion continued. "When Nihila's little fan club last attacked you and threatened our students, I told you that if necessary, I would hunt down each and every one of them and kill them with my bare hooves if I had to. Do you remember?"

The mare bit her lip and nodded. "Oh yeah, I remember. I love it when you get all violent and passionate like that. Huge turn-on. Why is that funny, though?"

"Because I'm not using my bare hooves, of course."

The mare paused, tilted her head, then shook her head in disapproval. "Nah, you lost the audience, babe. You know how to do a lot of stuff, but you really gotta work on your jokes. Just throw him out the window so we can start cleaning up already. You're embarrassing me."

The stallion shrugged, then turned back to Jacket. "You heard the lady."

The armored hoof then shoved him right through the tinted glass and out into the open air beyond. As Jacket was an earth pony, he couldn't fly even if he wanted to, so he knew that he was going to meet his Dark Lady soon, having loyally served Her for many years. Knowing that his soul would give Her strength gave him all the satisfaction that he needed; he was not afraid to die for Her.

Long may She reign.


*****


Brother Jackhammer's Squad Three stopped at the sixty-third floor of Pandora Tower while Squads One and Two moved further up to secure the top floors of the tower. Squad Three was the smallest of the squads, only consisting of Jackhammer himself, Brother Indigo Clover, Brother Brass Tack, and Sister Lavender Silk. They didn't need a large team since their task was relatively simple and should be quick and easy.

"Brothers, Sister, we have one task ahead of us," he said to the team as they prepared to break down the door into the room proper. "The Leaders presented Brother Flux with a dagger several weeks back, which he gave to Brother Melon to use to murder one of the Traitors. Brother Melon lost it and disgraced us with his failure; we are to retrieve it.

"This dagger is absolutely crucial to the success of our Dark Lady's plans. Without it, we lack a distinct advantage against the Traitors; they may yet be able to resist us. It is made of pure dark obsidian, the only pure source we have left of it; the rest we used to strengthen our armor, but the pure material is stronger. We cannot fail, is that understood?"

His squadmates saluted. "Yes sir," they said in quiet unison.

Jackhammer gestured at Brother Brass, whose strength would help break down the door. It would still likely take two or three attempts, but—

Strangely, he was able to do it in one. "Well done, Brother," Jackhammer said as he followed behind and entered the floor proper. "You've certainly put in a lot of work with your regimen if you broke that door down so well. I underestimated you."

"Thank you, Brother," Brass said with a firm nod. "Our Dark Lady guides us this evening. I could feel Her presence within my bones, giving me strength."

Jackhammer grinned and clapped Brass on the shoulder. "Long may She reign. Come, let's find our target and carry on with the mission."

The floor consisted of a hallway that wrapped around the entire floor, with rooms on either side that were designed for forensics and scientific research. At the moment the floor was dimly lit, but that wasn't really much concern; the dagger wouldn't be lying around in the hall, after all, but in one of the rooms, which each surely had their own light sources.

Jackhammer and his squad moved down the hall to the left first, making for the first doorway. The rooms themselves weren't kept under lock and key, so to speak, so it was relatively easy to get the door open and check inside for movement. 

The room was dark, of course—nopony would have reason to be here today if the Traitors were expecting an attack—so Jackhammer turned on the light. The room seemed to be cleaned and prepped for some fresh project, so everything was in its proper place and stored away. The dagger wasn't anywhere out in the open.

But that didn't mean that it wouldn't be hiding somewhere. "Brother Brass, search the room," Jackhammer said, gesturing inside with his head as Brass moved forward. "We'll move on to the next room and keep moving along room by room. Report on what you find or don't find when you're done. And be thorough."

"Yes sir," Brass said with a salute.

As Brass entered the room, Jackhammer took Clover and Lavender along to the next room, repeating the process of opening the door, checking for movement or danger, turning on the lights, then putting somepony in the room to search it, in this case Clover. Lavender was assigned to the next room, and Jackhammer took the fourth. Time was of the essence, so they needed to be quick; four rooms at a time would save them precious minutes.

Jackhammer searched through every drawer, every cabinet, and every storage container in the room; he looked under the chair, the desk, and the research table; his eyes scanned every surface for any trace whatsoever of the dagger, but found none. Though it took several minutes, he found nothing useful whatsoever.

As he headed back into the hall, Brother Brass approached; he was empty-hooved as well. Jackhammer tilted his head further down the hallway. "Check the next room over, Brass," he said. He then waited and directed Clover and Lavender to continue onward before following on to the eighth room along the hall.

After yet another thorough check, he found nothing yet again. He hoped somepony else on the squad was having better luck, but even still, he knew this was a very hopeful assignment in the first place. They didn't know with absolute certainty whether or not the dagger had been moved to another floor or even if it was still here in the tower at all—hence why they didn't waste numbers on the assignment—but they had to try.

As he left the room and moved into the hall, he waited for the rest of the squad to finish their checks, and Clover and Lavender returned first, having taken roughly the same amount of time that they had with their rooms before. Brass was taking some time, though. A long time, actually, as the squad waited a good minute without so much as a peep from him.

"Brass, have you found something?" Jackhammer called back.

No response.

"Brass, report. Have you found anything in there?"

No response.

Jackhammer gestured with hoof signals for Clover to check out the room Brass had been in; the other stallion nodded, prepped his rifle, then moved slowly and quietly over to the door. He then sharply moved into position in case there was a hostile inside… then lowered his rifle.

"Brass isn't in here," Clover said, tilting his head towards the room. "He's gone."

"The hell do you mean 'he's gone'?" Jackhammer grunted. He stomped over to the room and looked inside, and sure enough, nothing. The room was still totally clean and neat, though it was clear that Brass had been here and searched through some of the drawers. "What the hell? Where is he?"

"Like I said: he's gone."

Lavender gulped. "We're not alone here, Brothers. There's somepony else here, there just has to be."

Jackhammer hummed, then cracked his neck. "I agree. Brother Flux said that one of the Traitors had the ability to change her shape. She must be here on the floor with us now."

Clover tilted his head. "Change her shape? You mean… like she can change into a trash can? She could be anywhere!"

"No, you idiot, she can change her skin to look like another pony's," Lavender snapped. She paused, then looked at Jackhammer, eyes wide. "Wait… does that mean that—"

"Yes, Sister Lavender," Jackhammer said, lifting his rifle and aiming it at her. "It means that either one of you could really be the Traitor in disguise."

Lavender aimed her rifle right back at him. "What're you aiming at me for, Brother? I'm not the Traitor!"

"That's exactly something that the Traitor would say to get us off her trail!" spat Clover, also aiming his gun at Lavender.

Lavender swiveled on her hoof to aim at Clover now. "And casting blame on me to draw it away from you is exactly something that a Traitor would do, Traitor!"

"You're acting suspicious! You knew exactly what the Traitor was able to do! I didn't know any of that, so obviously you know how her freak powers work, because you're her."

"No, you're her! You obviously killed Brass and hid the body so that we wouldn't find it, and you're faking stupidity to draw attention away! Everypony knows what the Traitors can do, Traitor."

"When could I have had the time to even do that?! We only took a few minutes each to search the rooms, and you would've heard me kill him and hide him, and there would obviously be evidence!" Clover paused, then clenched his teeth. "Which means obviously it was you!"

Lavender rolled her eyes. "How does that 'obviously' mean that it was me?"

"Because you obviously snuck over, killed Brass and hid the body, and now you're trying to pin it on me. You've always been sneakier than the rest of us. Always acting all shifty-eyed back at the hideout—"

Lavender snarled; she looked like she was about ready to shoot him right then and there. "Are you for real? If anypony's been suspicious at the hideout, it's you. Always sneaking around at night and saying you have to 'use the bathroom'. Bullshit. I bet you're sneaking out to send messages to the Tratiors!"

"I have a kidney condition, you stupid bitch!"

Jackhammer didn't hesitate to shoot Lavender in the face through her visor right then and there. Clover leapt back a few feet in shock and aimed his rifle at Jackhammer.

"What the fuck?! What the fuck dude?!"

"Easy, Clover, easy," Jackhammer said, lowering his rifle and just using his hoof to gesture for Clover to do the same. "I know that you're not the Traitor. You mentioned your kidney condition, and obviously the Traitor couldn't know that you have one."

Clover didn't lower his rifle, though he did relax on the trigger a bit. "Y-yeah? How do you know about it? Huh?"

"Because you asked me for a recommendation for a doctor to see about your kidney stones two years ago? Remember?"

"Oh… oh yeah, that's right, I did ask you that, didn't I?"

"That's right, you did." Jackhammer gestured towards the dead body of "Lavender". "Just watch. Since she was the Traitor, she's gonna change back to her original form any second now, just like in the movies, okay? Just watch."

Clover gulped and nodded, then looked towards the bleeding, twitching corpse of their supposed "Sister". And they waited. And waited. And waited. Nothing changed.

Jackhammer was careful not to make any sudden movements; something wasn't right here. If Lavender was the Traitor, then surely she'd have shifted back to her true form by now, but she wasn't. Which meant…

"Say, Clover?" Jackhammer asked, his tone still calm and smooth. "What was the name of the doctor who I recommended for you again?"

Clover blinked. "Oh, um… Doctor River Dancer, right?"

Jackhammer closed his eyes and took a short breath, then, in one swift movement, swung his rifle around and shot Clover in the neck, through the gap between his helmet and his shoulder armor. Clover clutched his throat and fell to the ground, gasping desperately for air.

"It was Doctor River Driver, Traitor. The real Clover would have known that."

"Clover" gurgled something and started reaching for "his" rifle.

Jackhammer shook his head and kicked the Traitor's rifle away. "I don't know how you figured out Clover's kidney condition, but you must think you're pretty clever, don't you? Tricking me into killing Sister Lavender like that? A regrettable sacrifice, but the Dark Lady will reward her service."

He pressed his rifle right up against the Traitor's visor and fired another two rounds in quick succession; better safe than sorry when dealing with these Traitors, he figured. A shame that the rest of his squad had to die to deal with one of the Traitors but it was a worthy trade-off; the Dark Lady would be proud of their dedication and proud of his resolve.

The fake Clover's body sure was taking a long time to change back to its true form, though. Maybe that wasn't how it actually worked? Life wasn't always like the movies, apparently.

Oh well. He didn't have time to think about it. He had a mission to accomplish, and he would do so in the Dark Lady's name no matter who stood in his way.

Long may She reign.


~~~~~


A very much invisible Curaçao watched quietly from the doorway into one of the examination rooms as the last member of the little squad moved on down the hall. She hadn't expected the paranoid to ramp up so quickly and effectively, but she wasn't going to question it. It wasn't often that somepony had the common courtesy to do half her job for her, after all.


*****


Sister Platinum Rivet and Squad Two followed Brother Power Flux and Squad One up, up, up towards the top floors of the tower. To her surprise, and likely to the surprise of the other members of the two seven-pony teams remaining, the door leading into their destination was already unlocked. Flux just needed to push it open and that was it.

Both squads entered into the room which was well-lit but otherwise unoccupied. It appeared to be an entertainment lounge of some sort, specifically one designed for a smaller number of ponies and for niche interests: there was a piano up on a platform in one corner, a pool table in another, as well as a dart board, a chessboard on its own table, and a stocked minibar against the near wall.

The elevator doors were nearby to the maintenance stairwell, but of course the elevators were still disabled; Rivet was more than a little winded and aggravated that she had had to climb over one hundred floors to get here for that reason. On the opposite end of the room was the door to the stairs that would lead up to the next floor, which would in turn lead to another set of stairs that would lead to the roof.

The windows in the room were huge, covering the left and right wall from floor to ceiling. Rivet could see pretty much the entire city from up here, which included what looked like some fires out in the west end of the city. Ironic, that; here she and her Brothers and Sisters were, trying to ensure that their Dark Lady's glorious purpose was fulfilled and that She could burn this city to ashes, and the citizens were doing it on their own.

"Where is everypony?" one of the ponies on Squad One asked; Rivet didn't bother memorizing his name since he wasn't on her squad.

"Either on the next floor, the roof, or making their way up here after the alarms drew them elsewhere," Brother Flux said with a nod. "They must have other means of traveling to the other floors that we don't."

Flux then turned to Rivet. "Sister Rivet, you and your squad will hold this position until Squad Three arrives, then proceed to the roof. If the Traitors or their companions try to sneak behind us, you're our first line of defense."

"Of course, Brother Flux," Rivet said with a brisk salute. "May the Dark Lady guide your hooves and bring swift death to Her enemies."

"And you as well, Sister." Flux gestured for his squad to move to the other stairwell, and followed along after them as they ascended.

Rivet turned to her squad. "Spread out, keep your eyes peeled. I don't like this."

"Me neither, Sister," said Brother Shell Shock, his eyes darting around the room. "I was expecting some sort of resistance by now. Why does it feel like we're walking into a trap?"

"Because we're obviously walking into a trap, Brother. The Traitors and their allies knew we were coming and made attempts to prepare for our arrival. Their efforts will be in vain; our Dark Lady will guide us along our path to victory in Her name. Long may She reign."

Shock nodded and thumped his hoof against his chest. "Long may She reign."

The squad spread out and looked about for any sign of a threat, but at the moment the room was perfectly calm and quiet. Even looking out the windows didn't show any sign of the pegasi Traitors or their pegasi comrades, below or above them. 

It was beginning to get worrisome, actually; did this mean that the Traitors were all together and possibly fighting against Squads Three and Four? Or were they all on the roof waiting to ambush Squad One?

Rivet had no sympathy of course, because if her comrades were killed while serving in the Dark Lady's name, then they would earn a seat by Her side in the end times, their souls empowering Her to even greater heights. However, if they died in Her service now, then that meant that they had failed in their missions, which meant that Squad Two would need to pick up the slack.

Then the room suddenly went pitch dark for all of about a second—Rivet felt as though she'd basically just blinked and nothing more—before the lights came back on in full force. 

The layout of the room had, in the span of that one second, changed slightly; there was what looked like a fashion runway leading from the elevator into the room, complete with spotlights along the edges pointing inwards. A curtain was draped over the elevator door now that hadn't been there earlier. There was even a row of exactly seven seats—comfortable chairs, too—spread out around the runway.

Oddly enough, none of this remotely disturbed the rest of the room's layout at all; if Riven didn't know any better, she'd have sworn this new addition had always been there. Her initial thought was to panic at the sudden change, but there was something about it that was oddly compelling, despite her confusion.

Then, the door to the maintenance stairway opened up and a pink mare with a poofy pink mane wearing a professional-looking blazer stepped out of it, looking through a set of what looked like index cards. The mare stepped up onto a platform that was next to the runway, then looked out amongst the squad before putting her hooves on her hips, disgruntled.

"Sheesh, guys, aren't you gonna take your seats?" the mare said, gesturing at the empty seats around the runway. "The show's about to start! This is very unprofessional—"

Rivet didn't know which one of her squadmates had fired their rifle at first—a quick look told her it was Brother Quick Trigger, appropriately enough—but then it didn't seem to matter; the shot had missed wildly and impacted about a foot to the right of the mare's head, striking the wall behind her.

The mare glanced first at the bullet hole, then out at Trigger, and pointed at him with disapproval. "Hey! Did you forget to check your weapon at the door? You know that we don't allow firearms in the showroom. Security!"

Two more pink mares with pink, poofy manes, these ones wearing security uniforms like you'd see at the mall, popped up on either side of Trigger, grabbed him up underneath his forelimbs and, without an ounce of resistance from Trigger whatsoever, escorted him over to the maintenance stairway, opened the door, kicked him out, and slammed the door behind him.

Rivet had no idea why she nor anypony else in the squad had done anything to stop it. She felt strangely… compelled to just watch it happen.

The pink mare on the stage—the other two now stood guard by the maintenance stairwell so that Trigger couldn't get back in—cleared her throat and gestured at the empty seats meaningfully. "Ahem? Take your seats, folks, c'mon. We don't have all night."

Rivet didn't know why she was listening to the bossy pink mare, and that terrified her. Why was she moving so quickly to not only take one of the seats for herself, but to put away her gun so that those… security mares didn't throw her out? But hey, these seats were cozy! This was the most comfortable chair she'd sat in in years.

Oddly, Rivet noticed that another pink mare was sitting in the seat that had once probably belonged to Trigger. She was dressed in an old-timey reporter's cap and a trenchcoat and looked like she was taking notes. Taking notes on what? Why did she have a press badge? Why was she dressed like that? What was going on?!

The podium mare cleared her throat again, then took a breath, and instantly there was a spotlight on her. "Fillies and gentlecolts, it's time for the night's main event—from our perspective anyway—the Spring Swimwear Fashion Showcase! We have some beautiful models here tonight that will be modeling creations by esteemed designer Rarity of Lovers' Lane, hoo hoo."

The mare then flipped to the next index card in her stack. "The models tonight will display beachwear with a touch of tropical themes to evoke the mystique, splendor, and romance of the southern seas inspired by Seaside traditions, but with a touch of modern northern flair and, hmm hmm, sensuality. So let's get the music started, and then bring in the girls!"

A spotlight popped on in the opposite corner of the room, at the piano, where another pink, poofy mare in a proper tuxedo immediately started playing the piano… and yet somehow starting making all of the sounds of an entire traditional Seaside band, including maracas, trumpets, a guitar, a violin, and yet not a piano at all.

Rivet had no idea what to expect next, but it was definitely not to see the most gorgeous black unicorn mare she'd ever seen step out from behind the curtain. The mare was wearing… well, the pink podium mare was describing it:

"Insipid here is modeling a piece called 'Mermare Myths'. This piece draws inspiration from the Seaside legends of mermares—half-mare, half-fish creatures that live in the southern seas," she said, reading from her index card. "The flowing green 'tail' evokes the long, fish-like tails of the mermare, while the clamshell necklace and bikini bottom evoke the shells the mermares are said to wear to attract mates."

"That's the ticket!" the pink reporter mare said, frantically scribbling in her notepad. "Clams on the dame's clam, yessir, that's a heckuva pun!"

"Hold on a minute!" exclaimed Shell Shock, sharply rising to his hooves and looking quite distressed. "Are we seriously sitting here watching a fashion show right now?! What the hell is going on? What's happening?! Why are we doing this?!"

The model mare tilted her head; she happened to be right in front of Shell when he made his outburst. "Are you, like, not enjoying yourself?" she asked, a hoof to her mouth. "'Cause like, I thought for sure you guys would want to all watch me wearing a bunch of different swimsuits and junk? I mean, you know who I am, right?"

Before Shell could respond, Brother Chili Powder abruptly stood up as well. "Yeah! You're Insipid! You were in last year's Lovers' Lane lingerie catalogue! Pages fourteen, twenty-one, twenty-six, and thirty-seven!" At the looks his squadmates were giving him, he gave a shrug. "What? A bloke can't have a wank over lingerie every now and then?"

The mare, Insipid, blinked. "Oh! Wow, that's some real memorization there. Are you a fan? What am I asking, of course you are, obviously. And honestly, I'm flattered, I guess? I mean, you're totally not the first stallion to admit he was, like, doing that with one of my more risqué collections."

Shell slapped the back of Chili's head. "What the fuck are you talking to her for?! She's one of the Traitors! We're supposed to kill them!"

Rivet realized that Shell was right; what the hell was going on? She was supposed to be trying to kill this mare, but she'd been so captivated by her beauty that she'd forgotten all about it. Well, it was time to put a stop to whatever was causing this problem. She reached for her rifle—

"So… you guys don't want to let me have my swimsuit show?" Insipid asked; Rivet couldn't explain why she hesitated, or why she wanted to just let the damnable mare keep talking. "'Cause like, I only get to do these once a year in the summer, and I was really looking forward to getting a little practice in. Cha."

Shell reached for his rifle. "Die, Traitor!"

"Ah well." Insipid turned to the pink mare. "You're so much better with these powers than I am, Pinkie. You handle this." Rivet watched as Shell just seemed to lock-up in place so that the two mares could have another conversation.

The pink mare, Pinkie, smiled, nodded, and came onto the stage to pat Insipid's shoulder. "It's alright, you gave it a try and you got to have a little fun, and that's all that matters: having fun. You had fun, right?"

"While it lasted, yeah."

"Then it's allll good." Pinkie then turned to the squad below—why weren't any of them shooting her? Why wasn't Rivet shooting her?!—and gave them a disapproving shake of her head. "As for you guys, shame on you, spoiling my friend's fun. Looks like you all need to be taught a little lesson." She pointed at the piano-playing Pinkie. "Hit it!"

How a piano could suddenly start playing an instrumental rock song, Rivet had no idea, but that wasn't important right now. What was important was that the Pinkie on the stage dramatically ripped off her fancy blazer to reveal that she was wearing an entire costume of some kind underneath it that should not have been able to go unnoticed:

A bright red coat that went all the way down to her flank over a white, long-sleeved shirt with matching hoof guards over her fore hooves; black pants over her flank, rear, and hind legs; white boots over the pants; a long, white scarf around her neck; and, to top it off, a pair of flight goggles. Oh, and a wicked sweet blue and white guitar; Rivet couldn't describe it any other way.

The dramatic undressing almost seemed to happen in slow motion, and the pink mare moved like a blur, wielding her guitar like it was an actual weapon, a baseball bat perhaps, and leaping off of the stage to smash Shell across the face with it. 

The guitar gave off an appropriately guitar-y noise but was somehow completely undamaged; Shell, meanwhile, was launched across the room like a rocket, slamming into the opposite wall and leaving an impact print like in the cartoons.

"I've been waiting over a decade to do this!" Pinkie cackled, a wicked, crazy look in her eyes as she turned towards Chili. "Luuunch tiiiime!"

Wham. She'd swung the guitar in an arc from below, smashing Chili in the gut and sending him into the ceiling.

Rivet and the other three remaining squad members all took aim with their rifles and fired. Again, everything seemed to suddenly start moving in slow-motion, as the pink mare leaped over the seats, twisted in the air to avoid each and every round, then brandished the guitar like a shotgun, with the head serving as the barrel—wait, was there an actual gun barrel there?!

The blast the guitar fired exploded at the hooves of both Brother Elbow Grease and Brother Rocket Fuel, knocking them off their hooves and knocking them out in one fell swoop.

"She's so fast!" spat Brother Smoke Cloud as he fired at the target; she was still just barely avoiding round after round after round with ease. "How is she so—"

Pinkie leapt through the air right at him and smashed down with her guitar right onto his head, flattening him into the floor.

Rivet was left in awe at what she'd just seen. This poofball-maned pink mare had just taken out five heavily armed and armored soldiers in the span of about ten seconds and didn't even look like she was breaking a sweat doing it. How was all this happening? It was, simply put, impossible.

"You can't be real…" Rivet muttered in disbelief.

And then, to her legitimate shock and surprise, the pink mare's new clothes and guitar all fell apart into threads and pieces, falling to the floor and vanishing into nothingness. The "other" poofy pink mares also vanished, though they did so in puffs of comical smoke. Even the music stopped, and the room was quiet once again.

"Heyyy…" Pinkie groaned, giving Rivet a mean stink-eye. "You ruined it! I finally got a chance to do this and you ruined it! What a jerk, you jerk! Are you happy with yourself, huh? Do you like ruining other ponies' fun? I'm never gonna get another chance at this!"

Rivet paused, because in that moment she realized that she had her chance. She took aim with her rifle—

Then she quickly snapped her head to the left to see a piano just inches away from her face, flung by Insipid's magic. "Shi—"


*****


Power Flux opened the door to the top floor of Pandora Tower and ushered his squad in first before bringing up the rear. In the grand scheme of things, what he was doing right now was utterly insignificant, but from the perspective of somepony who'd lived in this damned city his entire life, it was quite an accomplishment: he was walking along on the top floor of the enigmatic Pandora Tower.

The entire floor was composed of a large sort of… rock garden, or something like that. He'd heard about these before; some of the Inner District ponies built them into their homes to serve as relaxation chambers. Supposedly, where and how the rocks were positioned could provide physical and mental health benefits. An absurd thought, but then rich ponies would believe anything if you attached a price tag to it.

There didn't seem to be anypony here, which was just bizarre at this point. Were all of the Traitors and their allies waiting up on the roof or something? That just seemed so unlikely that he couldn't believe it was true; the enemies of the Dark Lady were stupid to stand in the way of Her glorious return, certainly, but that just foolish pride and hubris, not an intellectual lacking. To all gather in such a space just seemed idiotic.

Then he watched as the mare-shaped stone statue just to the right of the central metal path moved and bucked her rocky rear hooves right into the side of Brother Night Blaze, who was right in front of Flux. The strike was so hard that it dented his metal armor around the ribcage, and he tumbled all the way across the sandy floor to come to a stop at the wall-sized window, groaning in agony.

The action had taken the squad by such surprise that nopony reacted for a good, full second, which was more than enough time for the mare-shaped statue to turn into sand and disappear into the sand beneath her hooves.

Flux and his squad turned their rifles towards the sand and opened fire just on principle. He had no idea if it was doing anything or even if it could, but what other option did they have?

Flux did not expect to hear hoofsteps from behind the large rock on the opposite side of the path, right behind Brother Onion Crisp. Nor did he expect to see a zebra stallion step around from behind the rock with some sort of huge sword held in his tail. 

Nor did Flux expect that zebra to swing the sword around with such strength and speed that Onion couldn't react in time. Nor did he expect that zebra's sword to cut through Onion's armor and slice his chest open. How was that possible? The armor was made of primarily volcanic iron; this stuff was nearly as strong as police-grade durasteel.

Sister Breezewind, who was closest to Onion, turned her rifle towards the zebra to fire back; there was no way possible that the zebra could close the distance before she shot him. But Flux did not expect the zebra to simply point the tip of his blade right at Breezewind's face, and he did not expect a gout of black fire to launch forth from it.

Their armor was designed to protect against magic to a certain degree—the dark obsidian material that had been alloyed into it was of the same sort that had been used to make the Leaders' dagger—so it should have been of great use against a magical flame. Unfortunately, it only seemed to protect against the actual flames, not from the heat or light—odd, as the fire was black—that the fire generated.

The heat was enough that Breezewind flinched, clutching at her visor and screaming in pain, giving the zebra enough time to rotate back behind the large rock he'd come out from behind initially.

Flux gestured for Brothers Blacklight and Rusty Spoon to get into position on the left side of the rock, while he and Sister White Mocha moved to the right, where the statue had disappeared to. 

White Mocha only managed to take a few steps through the sand before a pair of sandy hooves reached up, grabbed her hind legs, and pulled her down into the sand until she was buried up to her neck. Just how deep was this sand? It didn't matter; Flux immediately got off of the sand and back onto the central path.

"Help!" Mocha called. "I'm stuck! Help!"

Flux then watched as the rock that Blacklight was using as cover toppled over on top of him, manipulated by some unseen force. He'd tried to get out of the way, but the sand grabbed him and dragged him back in the way. He was pinned and effectively useless.

The sudden sounds distracted Rusty just enough that the zebra could leap back out from behind the rock and drive his sword straight through the side of Rusty's neck without much effort. Rusty hadn't turned in time to fire back and actually do anything, though Flux was certain that one shell had clipped the zebra's shoulder.

Flux was simply too shocked to even react. What the hell had just happened? Why was this happening? They'd done everything right, and yet he and his squad were being stopped by a primitive zebra and some living statue. What happened to their Dark Lady's guidance? Why was She not aiding them from Her throne beyond?

No, this wasn't good at all. Flux fell back towards the maintenance stairwell, taking a couple of potshots at the zebra to cover his retreat; the zebra used his sword as a shield, and the bullets didn't even dent it. Flux knew now that he needed to go back down and get reinforcements from Squad Two immediately. 

As Flux reached the door and opened it, though, he was greeted by a most welcome and curious sight. "Brother Jackhammer?" he said, unable to help himself from giving a surprised grin. "Excellent, you made it. Where is the rest of your squad?"

"Down on the floor below us, holding the area," Jackhammer said. He glanced out into the room beyond, where the fallen members of Squad One—dead, injured, or trapped—lay strewn about. "I was hoping that you'd have done the same up here."

"Head back downstairs and grab the others. We need to get past these two," Flux replied, keeping his rifle focused on the zebra, who had retaken cover behind the rock. "Do you have the Leaders' dagger?"

"Yes, I do."

"Good, we might need to use it—"

Flux felt a sharp pain in his neck, and glanced to see the familiar hilt of the Leaders' dagger jutting out.

"Wh-what… are you…" Flux gurgled.

Jackhammer's hoof, still on the dagger and pressing firmly enough to shove Flux against the doorframe, slowly shifted in color and shape, into a mare's hoof, blue and slender. The rest of Jackhammer followed suit until he was no longer Jackhammer at all, but a beautiful blue-coated mare with a red mane, wearing a simple, comfortable jacket.

"Tu ne m'échapperas pas cette fois, mon ami," the mare said with a cocksure grin. "Au revoir et bon débarras."

She then sharply removed the dagger from his neck, cutting him harshly on the way out, before tossing the blade behind her down the stairs. He could hear it clatter on step after step after step.

As his vision started to fade, as he watched the blue mare step towards the zebra and an orange mare that had just popped out of the sand, watched them chat amicably, check that one another were uninjured, and ensure that his other squadmates were down for the count, 

Power Flux could only barely gurgle out his last words: "Long… may… She…"


*****


Fluttershy was growing exhausted flying away again and again from the phoenix and its seemingly unstoppable rampage. The avian just wouldn't stop and listen to her, no matter how many times she'd tried so far; it would just lash out at anything and anypony that happened to be nearby, and the most that she and her friends were able to do was distract it and keep it occupied here in the part of the city that it had already ruined.

Which was probably the best they could do, actually, and frankly that could actually be considered a success.

But it wasn't enough. Fluttershy knew that she needed to calm the phoenix down for good, otherwise it might eventually grow bored of her and her friends and move elsewhere into the city. She couldn't let that happen, wouldn't let that happen.

"This isn't working, Shy," Havoc muttered as she and Fluttershy took cover in the burned-out husk of a building; the phoenix had taken flight and chased after them again, only to be slammed into the ground by a gravity burst from Gray. "I don't know if this is gonna work at all. We might have to put this bird down, y'know?"

"No, we can't," Fluttershy said, shaking her head firmly. "I have to keep trying. I know if I can just get it to listen to me, I can stop all this. Please, we have to keep trying."

Havoc sighed. "Look, I get what you're trying to do, and I think it's great and all, but we can't keep this up forever. I don't want to kill this thing either, but we're running out of options."

"Are we even sure we can kill it?" Gray asked, slowly flying into the hiding spot. "I've hit this thing with like six houses and it's not even slowing down. The wall guns didn't even do anything to it, and those things were supposed to be able to chase off a Gargantuan."

"Yeah, well, looks like there's a new apex predator on the loose, right?"

"We have to keep trying," Fluttershy said, giving Gray a pleading look. "Please, we have to. I can't… I can't just let this poor creature suffer like this, and I can't let it hurt anypony else because of its suffering. There has to be something that we can do."

Gray paused for a moment, then sighed and nodded. "Fine, but we need to change our strategy somehow, 'cause this one isn't working. We lured it a pretty good distance away from the untouched areas, but it's losing interest in us."

"And every time Shy tries to get its attention, it either breathes fire at us, or ignores us to go after you, or it tries to grab us," Havoc noted. "I dunno if Shy can talk to it while we're flying for our lives, but that seems unlikely."

Fluttershy hummed, then took a breath and closed her eyes. She had an idea. "Gray, you tried to pin it to the ground before, right? It looked like it was working."

Gray raised an eyebrow. "I mean, yeah? It struggled a lot and it was hard for me to keep it down, and then it shot fire at me. I'm lucky that I got out of there before I got turned into charcoal or soup or something. I dunno what it would do to me." She put her hoof over Havoc's mouth. "And I don't wanna know."

"Well, what if you focused on keeping it pinned, and Havoc protects you from the fire? That would let you concentrate all of your attention on the phoenix, wouldn't it?"

"I guess it would, but then Havoc's not with you."

"I know. But we need to keep the phoenix from moving around and attacking us so that I can talk to it. Do you think you can do it?"

Gray hesitated, then nodded. "Yeah, I can do it."

"Dash ain't gonna like me leaving you alone," Havoc noted, crossing her hooves over her chest.

"I'll worry about Rainbow, okay?" Fluttershy replied with a small smile. "In fact, I'm going to go talk to her right now. I need her for part of my idea. You two stay safe and try to keep the phoenix's attention away from the rest of the city. When you see the signal, Gray, you pin the phoenix down. Okay?"

Gray nodded. "Sure, okay. What's the signal?"

"You'll know it when you see it."

Gray and Havoc shared a look, then shrugged. "I sure hope you know what you're doing, Shy."

"Yeah. Me too," Fluttershy sighed.

Fluttershy took off and, after making sure the phoenix's attention wasn't anywhere near her, she flew off towards the distant rain cloud that Rainbow had made. It had gotten a lot bigger over the past half-hour, and Rainbow was slowly pushing it over the ruined areas of the slums to put out the fires as she went.

"Rainbow!" Fluttershy called out, flying over and landing on top of the cloud and walking over to her friend. "Rainbow, we need your help!"

Rainbow poked her head up over the edge of the cloud. "Sure! I've been waiting for somepony to ask me to tag along. This damage control gig is great and all—really brings back Ponyville weather patrol memories—but I wanna be where the action is. So what's up, what's the plan?"

"We need a lot of rain over where the phoenix is, and we need it there fast," Fluttershy said, pointing off in the direction she'd come from. "Not just to put out the fires it's causing, but because I think it might weaken it enough for me to get its attention and keep its attention."

"This cloud's gonna take a while to get over there," Rainbow said, gesturing at the size of the cloud. "I mean, I could make a new one but it'll take time to do that, too, and that's right there with a big phoenix around that might not like what I'm doing."

"Okay… gotta get the rain there fast, okay…" Fluttershy paused, then nodded with another idea. "Can you make a hurricane?"

Rainbow blinked. "A hurricane? I mean yeah, no problem, but that's gonna be a lot of rain and wind, and probably a bit of lightning too, and I can't exactly stop on a dime when making it. It might cause a lot of collateral damage, y'know? Just sayin'."

Fluttershy gulped and nodded. "I know. But we don't have a choice. The phoenix is already moving towards the unwrecked areas, and if we don't keep its attention and subdue it now, it might start flying around the city and then we can't stop it without putting lots of ponies in danger."

Rainbow tapped her hoof to her chin, then nodded. "Alright, you got it. Give me a few minutes to get started, and I'll bring a hurricane over there. You're sure this is gonna work?"

"Thanks, Rainbow. This is going to work, I know it. I have to believe in it, because it's the only plan we have left."

Fluttershy then kicked off the cloud and flew as hard as she could back towards the phoenix battle, which was several minutes away at her top speed.

Which was unfortunate, as Rainbow had been quite honest about only taking a few minutes for her to get started. Fluttershy watched as Rainbow flew at high speed—not supersonic speed—overhead, the massive rain cloud trailing behind her as a storm cloud instead.

Within seconds, Fluttershy was caught in the hurricane-like storm, buffeted by some of the strongest winds that she'd ever felt and pelted by harsh rain. Lightning streaked through the cloud above, striking down below occasionally onto the twisted metal frames of what was left of some of the taller buildings.

True enough, Rainbow's hurricane was devastating to everything below it. Structures that were somehow still standing after the phoenix moved through the area did not withstand the hurricane afterwards; the remains of homes and businesses were torn apart by powerful winds. 

At least all of the fires in the area were being put out, and Fluttershy hoped that there weren't any ponies still around. And luckily, the hurricane was somehow contained to just the area underneath the storm cloud, which amounted to about five square miles.

She saw the phoenix up ahead, its entire body giving off a plume of steam and smoke as the rain made contact with it. It seemed utterly confused by the development, looking about in the sky as if rain was a new concept to it that it should be quite angry with, as it was firing bursts of flame up at the cloud. These did almost nothing to it, but Fluttershy hoped Rainbow wasn't hiding somewhere up there.

Then the bird suddenly stumbled to the ground, its own weight being turned against it by Gray's gravity powers; Gray had gotten the signal. Though it took a few seconds for the phoenix to turn its head and locate the source of its annoyance, it did manage to struggle against Gray's powers well enough to eventually find the pegasus, and let out a breath of flame towards the second floor of a ruined building.

But Havoc was there as well, thankfully, because the flame stopped quite a distance before it reached the building's windows. The flame breath didn't seem any weaker because of the hurricane apart from how it billowed about and steamed in the process.

But the phoenix knew by now that when its flames were stopped, that meant that Havoc was working her magic, which meant that it needed to use its size and strength to chase her off as it usually did; the bird was clearly quite intelligent, which only served to make it more dangerous.

But it kept firing its flame breath this time while taking careful, slow steps towards the building as it fought against Gray's gravity. Fluttershy gasped; the phoenix had figured out that Havoc couldn't stop its breath and move at the same time, and was keeping her locked in place so that it could destroy the building with her and Gray inside.

Fluttershy flew as fast as she could—she was already flying as fast as she could, but pushed herself to fly faster—and yelled at the top of her lungs to try and get the phoenix's attention: "SSSTTOOOOOPP!"

She was never so thankful to have those angry eyes turn in her direction. The phoenix ceased breathing fire at Havoc and Gray just long enough to turn its attention towards Fluttershy; the fact that it could somehow hear her over the hurricane-strength winds was probably a contributing factor.

Before it turned its attention back to the other two pegasi, though, Fluttershy swept in and got right in the phoenix's face and Stared right into its eyes. "You stop that right now! Do you hear me?! You stop that! Right! Now!"

The phoenix hesitated, but kept its fierce gaze locked right on Fluttershy; with how close she was, she knew that it could reach out and snatch her up in its beak at any second if it wanted to. But for now, it was listening to her. Actually listening to her!

"I know that you're hurting! I know that something happened and it's made you very, very angry! But the ponies whose homes you're destroying, whose lives you're destroying, they're not responsible for it! They never did anything to hurt you!"

The phoenix opened its beak… and let out a ferocious screech; Fluttershy could feel her ears ringing, and they probably would keep ringing for a while.

"I want to help you!" She shouted back at the giant avian. "But I don't know why you're in pain, and I can't help you until I know what's wrong! Please, let me help! I don't want to see any creatures in pain anymore! Not these ponies, and not you either!"

The phoenix let out a low trill, though it kept its eyes locked with hers. It otherwise didn't move, didn't attack, didn't even blink. Fluttershy took that as a sign that she had an opening, so she took it, hesitating briefly at first as she flew forward and touched her hoof to the phoenix's beak; the beak was uncomfortably warm, like the surface of a cup of too-hot tea or coffee.

As her hoof made contact, Fluttershy closed her eyes and took a deep breath, reaching out with her spirit to figure out what was wrong. Normally she could just tell what was bothering a critter or creature with little more than a glance, but this phoenix was so alien to her that it took a concentrated effort. Knowing that her natural affinity with animals had become "super" in this world just made her that much more confident.

Within seconds, she could sense the phoenix's spirit as it mingled with hers, and it was then that she realized what was wrong. 

"You're in pain…" she murmured, both to herself and to the phoenix; the words didn't carry across the hurricane-strength winds surrounding them, but the bird would hear them all the same. "Not physical pain, though. No… you're grieving. The loss of a child, no… of children, of all of your children. Your pain is more than just emotional, it's spiritual.

"Your children were taken from you. Not by nature, but by an enemy…" Fluttershy could see glimpses in her mind. A large creature, though not nearly as large as the phoenix was now, destroying eggs. The red claws and tail were familiar, but even though the creature was smaller she still knew what it was. "A dragon. Dragons killed your children…"

More glimpses filled her mind, glimpses of the phoenix, smaller than she was now—the phoenix was female, a mother, the mother of all phoenixes—coming across what was left of her nest. She could feel the incomparable grief that the mother felt for the loss of her unborn chicks, the last hope for the phoenixes; her heart could barely take it.

But then Fluttershy felt the sheer rage that the mother felt. She knew who was responsible for her grief, who had taken the last of her children from her from out of her very nest. The mother's anger erupted like a volcano, and in her rage she became what she was now, fueled by hate, and rage, and grief.

The dragons' nests were in the mountains to the east. She flew there on wings of fire and lava, destroying fields of green below her with her mere presence alone. The skies were darkened with smoke. She found the dragons in their mountain caves, and she unleashed her inferno upon them. Even their heat-resistant scales were nothing before the phoenix's wrath.

It took her less than an hour to hunt down and destroy each and every single dragon alive.

The rest of the north soon followed. The mother of all phoenixes was too angry to care about anything in her path; her clutch was gone, she'd long since lost her mate, and now she was the only bird of her kind left. Everything burned until there was nothing left in her wake; if she was destined to be alone, then she would be alone. 

When she was done, she returned to her nest in the heart of the largest volcano, and there she wept, curling up upon herself until the pain of grief and anguish stopped and she turned to stone.

Fluttershy gasped as she drew herself out of the mother phoenix's memories. "Oh dear, that's… that's terrible…" she breathed, setting both hooves on the avian's beak. "I'm so sorry…"

The phoenix stared at her some more and made another low trill with her throat, but otherwise didn't make any movements, hostile or otherwise. Fluttershy noticed that the flames and lava across the phoenix's body were slowly dimming, as though she were letting the rain do its work.

"I know that you're in pain because of your loss," Fluttershy said, stroking the phoenix's beak. "And I want to help you. I know that nothing I say is going to bring your children back to you, but I just want you to know that you're not alone in this. You never have to be alone with your grief, okay? I'm here for you, if you'll let me be."

The phoenix hesitated for a moment, then Fluttershy watched as the flames and lava that made up the bird's body died out completely, leaving behind charred-looking flesh that slowly flaked off in the water and winds until healthy feathers and plumage—red, gold, and orange—started to peek through.

Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you…"

Rainbow apparently noticed the change in the phoenix's behavior, because the hurricane died down into a pleasant rainfall. Fluttershy could see Havoc and Gray flying over, likely to check on her and make sure things were okay, but she didn't acknowledge them just yet, and they remained quiet.

For now, there would just be peace and comfort.


*****


Rarity knew how to defend herself just fine if some brutish ruffian wanted to attack her for one reason or another, but she had no idea how to defend herself against a phantom spirit that caused instantaneous, agonizing pain on contact. She was no expert, but she'd taken her fair share of martial arts classes over the years; however, hoof strikes and kicks seemed ill-advised in this context.

So she strained herself to her limit trying to do several magical things at once: a large portion of her magic was being channeled into Pandemonia to help empower the alicorn's cleansing spell; a fair portion of her magic was also flowing into Zyra to enhance her combat skills and empower the light of her runic blade; the rest of her magic was being used to defend herself from the phantoms that Zyra couldn't reach or react to, though Rarity's magical blasts weren't nearly as effective as Zyra's sword.

All-in-all, it was quite stressful.

"I don't know how much longer I can take this…" Rarity breathed, staggering back and collapsing onto her rear. "This is too much. It's too much for me…"

"Hold strong, my friend," Pandemonia murmured, her eyes still closed in focus. "It will not be much longer now. I can feel it; Nihila's expenditure of the Beacon's energy is weakening her control over it. Just hold strong, and we will be victorious."

Zyra leapt over to banish another phantasm that was making right for Rarity. "Don't worry, My Lady Rarity! Stay strong! I— ahh!" Another phantasm had struck her in the back; Zyra collapsed at Rarity's side, clearly in severe pain and barely moving.

"Zyra? Zyra, darling, can you hear me?"

Zyra groaned in response and struggled to reach for her sword, but couldn't quite get there. She looked like she could barely even keep her eyes open.

Rarity let out a few tired breaths, then groaned and rose back to her hooves before blasting another phantom before it could reach Zyra. "Come on, Rarity, you can do this…" she mumbled to herself, pumping more magic into her horn; she was more than just woozy now, she was exhausted.

Come on Rarity… you can do this. You can do this. You have the strength inside you. Come on. Think of everyone who's relying on you to make this work.

She blasted another phantom that was screeching towards her.

This isn't just for you anymore. This isn't for Zyra or for Pandemonia. All of your friends down below are relying on you to stay strong.

A spirit snuck up behind her and impacted the back of her leg. She howled in pain and fell forward to her knees. She was so tired; she just wanted to rest her eyes.

Come on, Rarity, stand up. Stand up and stay strong. Everypony in this city is relying on you to stay strong. Everyone in Hope's Point is relying on you to stay strong. Your friends and family back home are relying on you to stay strong!

She clenched her teeth and blasted another phantom, and another, and another, that were all making their way towards Pandemonia. It hurt just to breathe; it hurt just to think.

Stay strong, Rarity! For Lockwood! For Blackburn! For your foal! You can do this, Rarity! Stay! Strong!

Rarity let out a frustrated scream and pumped every last bit of magic she had left into Pandemonia's spell. The act of doing so left her weak, and she stumbled sideways and tripped over Zyra in the process. She could hardly breathe anymore; everything just hurt so much.

She watched as several phantoms swirled through the air together, then came rushing towards her. She closed her eyes and braced herself for the inevitable.

Only for the sound of screaming in the air to suddenly evaporate.

Rarity opened her eyes and glanced about; there were no more spirits in the air around the rooftop. "What happened? Where—" She turned towards Pandemonia, and her eyes lit up with relief and awe. "Oh my. We… we did it. We did it!"

The light of the Beacon had changed utterly from orange to purple; Pandemonia had taken control of it. With one more burst of light from the alicorn's horn, the Beacon's light then disappeared entirely. The sky above was clear as Rarity had ever seen it, beautiful and dark and dotted with stars, with the light of Equestria's two moons illuminating everything around them.

"Now it is up to Twilight's team and my sister to finish this," Pandemonia said, sounding thoroughly exhausted herself. "The fate of our worlds are in their hooves now…"


*****


Dawn slowly opened her eyes, honestly surprised that she could even do so. It was dark, wherever she was at the moment, which seemed like some sort of terribly small cave. The only light source was the flickering glow of a unicorn's horn. Not hers, of course—she'd know if it was—but from somepony standing over her. The outfit looked familiar. Turtleneck sweater, scarf, beret… was it Winter Glow? What was she doing here?

Then, Winter's horn glow petered out and she slumped forward, barely conscious, against the wall of rock. Dawn could hear the shifting of rock above them; the whole tunnel was going to come down very soon. "Winter?" Dawn grunted, struggling to get to her hooves. "Are you alright?"

Winter groaned; she was definitely not alright, Dawn could tell right away. "No, but… this was… the only… way…" She sucked in several breaths. "Get us… out of… here…"

Dawn took a few breaths as she tried to recover her own strength. She couldn't feel anything in her left foreleg at all and her entire body ached like nothing else she'd ever experienced before. But she fought through it and dragged herself over and on top of Winter, then lit up her horn and focused on the one space nearby that she felt would be safe.

The cultist hideout along the side of the volcano was thankfully still intact despite the fact that an entire side of the mountain was now gone; when that had happened, Dawn had no idea. She had not accounted for the possibility that anything would have happened to it, but she was glad to have been right; she was always glad to be right, of course, but this was a significant moment of triumph.

She was able to breathe a bit better now that she and Winter were in open air instead of buried under rock, and with just a little effort she was able to expand the building's heat shield to protect her small, prone comrade. She pushed herself off of Winter and up onto her hooves, though she still couldn't feel one of them, but it was better than the alternative.

"What happened, Winter?" Dawn asked, ignoring the searing pain in her skull and her leg. "Where's Nihila? Where's Twilight?"

Winter groaned, but didn't get up. She just weakly pointed her hoof off to the south.

There, Dawn could see flashes of clashing lights, as well as… was that orange light the same as the Beacon? She didn't need Winter to tell her what was happening, though. "Twilight is battling Nihila, then. Alright, I suppose that naturally follows considering our circumstances…" She paused, then looked back at Winter. "What are our circumstances? What happened, exactly?"

Winter groaned and shook her head. "Doesn't… matter. Just… shoot the bitch…" She then groaned again and slumped back down.

She was obviously in no condition to answer any other questions at the moment, and Dawn knew better than to press. She wasn't particularly skilled with healing magics, but she did know what a ley line fracture's symptoms were. Winter was likely suffering from one right now, which, considering she'd used a barrier to defend against several tons of rock crushing down on her, was a worthwhile trade-off.

She'd have to ask later what had happened. For now, all that mattered was helping Twilight however she could. One little blast wasn't going to cut it; she needed to hit Nihila with everything she had in one big burst.

She closed her eyes and charged her magic through her horn, taking deep, careful breaths as she pushed herself to generate more, and more, and more power, more than she'd ever expended in a single attack in her entire life. She could feel the energy crackling around her; tendrils of black lightning licked the frame of the building.

But she didn't stop. She just exerted more magic into her horn, and more, and more. She clenched her teeth so hard she was worried they might crack under the pressure; her entire body felt like it was on fire.

And then... it was all too much, and she felt herself grow weak; her body couldn't keep up with the strain. The magical energies flowing through her flickered and sputtered, falling from a mighty, roaring tempest of power to a mewling, whimpering spray of sparks. "I... am not strong enough..." Dawn muttered as she fell to her knees.

"Come now, my dear," came her father's voice in her head. "Is that any way for this all to end? A whimper and a cry, rather than a mighty scream of defiance?"

"F-Father?" Dawn blurted. She shook her head. "I am... sorry. In my hubris, I believed I was capable of withstanding Nihila's might. I have failed you—"

Silvertongue's voice was stern. "Dawn."

"Y-yes?"

"You have heard Nihila's plan, have you not? She wishes to take Twilight Sparkle—your friend—and do to her what she did to Pandemonia. She plans to use her as a weapon to destroy Twilight's world, and more than that, every other world she comes across. With the power she will possess, she can even bring war to the Chronomancers. Every world across all of reality will be in danger.

"And before all that, she will use Twilight's power to destroy thisworld. She will destroy everything you and our family have worked towards. She will destroy your home. She will destroy your new friends and your old ones. She will destroy your sisters. She will destroy me. But first... she will destroy you."

"I... I know, father."

"Then what are you waiting for? Are you not Golden Dawn, the most powerful unicorn who ever lived? Are you not my daughter, my progeny, my Warden? Do not tell me that you lack the strength, my dear, for that would be a bold-faced lie. I would not believe in you so strongly if you were lacking in power and will."

Dawn felt her internal magical energies rise tremendously, as though given new life.

"I am proud of all that you have accomplished, Dawn. There is only one thing left for you to do: ensure that Nihila never threatens our world—any world—ever again. And no matter what happens... remember that I will be with you every step of  the way."

With a firm planting of her good hooves, Dawn grit her teeth and let out a mighty shout as she let her magic flow through her again, more than ever before. The entire foundation of the volcano shook in terror. She was the most powerful unicorn alive, and it was time that she proved it, to herself, to Nihila, to the world.

And as the last few drops of magical energy she had entered into the tip of her horn, she took aim…


*****


Nihila could not decide if she should be ecstatic or aggravated by her current circumstances. Twilight Sparkle was everything that she'd ever wanted in a host: powerful beyond reason, simple and elegant in form, and in possession of a trustworthy face that would allow Nihila to begin her conquest of other worlds with ease. Her ranks would swell with downtrodden fools looking to serve her in hopes of salvation.

But at the same time, that power was so great that even though Nihila was fighting with the most power that she could possibly wield in her natural form and was draining the energy from the northern Beacon, Twilight Sparkle still managed to resist her. Every blow she dealt to her foe was met with one upon her in turn, and Nihila knew that if she didn't drain more from the Beacon to counteract it, she'd never overpower her opponent.

Which meant that she needed to hurry before that accursed former host of hers finished her work; once Nihila had Twilight Sparkle in her possession, nothing would stand in her way now, or ever again.

"Cease this pitiful resistance, Twilight Sparkle!" she snapped as she blasted the opposing alicorn away and into the side of a volcano. "Submit to me now and I might just spare some of your pathetic companions. Once I have control over your body and soul, I will form an army the likes of which no one has ever seen before; it will conquer endless worlds! Some of your comrades might just have a purpose within my ranks."

Twilight Sparkle climbed out of the rocky debris she'd been left in, still looking none the worse for wear. "You keep talking to me as if I'm listening to anything you have to say."

"Do not be so foolish as to think you can continue fighting me forever. I can feel you already growing weary. You might be an alicorn of incomparable might, Twilight Sparkle, but you still possess pathetic mortal limitations. Thankfully, I do not, nor will you once you serve as my vessel."

"Let me guess: this is my last chance before you unleash everything you have and defeat me at last? You're the pathetic one, Nihila. You have no power of your own. You can only take from others what doesn't belong to you. You are a parasite. A disgusting, wretched little parasite."

Nihila flared her wings. "You dare to mock me? Very well, then! Once I am finished with you and have made you my vessel, I will destroy your pathetic realm and everyone who lives there! Friends! Family! Everything will bur—"

She stopped speaking suddenly as she felt herself grow immensely weaker; the orange glow of her Beacon was gone. "What?! No! How could they have purified it already?! My pawns should have stopped them!"

Twilight Sparkle tilted her head. "What's the matter, Nihila? Did you lose something?" Her tone was still flat and angry; there was no mirth there.

Nihila made to retort, but then she found her eyes drawn north; there was a light there, off in the distance, somewhere high up on the central volcano. She could feel a familiar energy radiating from it, that of the insolent whelp who called herself a daughter of the treacherous snake.

"Impossible…"

Twilight Sparkle noticed it too; her eyes widened in wonder and relief. "Dawn… she's alive… she's alive!"

"Impossible! Your pathetic comrade is dead!" Nihila snapped at Twilight Sparkle, igniting her horn with furious fire. "Allow me to prove it!"

Nihila fired a blast of energy towards the light, and was surprised when her blast was overwhelmed by a massive energy beam. She barely reacted in time to ignite her horn again to resist the blast just inches in front of her face, holding back the surge of immense power like a tidal wave. This was impossible; the worthless spawn could not have this much power still left in her!

Nihila's eyes were drawn to the side, where Twilight Sparkle had also ignited her horn; her eyes widened when Twilight fired a burst of her own magic, not at Nihila herself, but at the energy blast that Nihila was holding in place. There was no avoiding—

The resulting explosion was magnificent; there was so much destructive power contained within it that it leveled the entire range of volcanoes for a mile around. Lava and rock poured down into the resulting crater; smoke and ash filled the air. And in the center of it all, Nihila came crashing down to the volcanic rock below.

She had never felt such agony before; her entire being was screaming out in… pain. She had little time and few options; she could sense Twilight Sparkle coming to finish the job, and she could not allow that.

Her first thought was to reach out and take control of the Calamity. She attempted to do so, knowing the distance would make that difficult, but then there was something more at work preventing her from doing so: the Calamity's rage had dissipated. How? Impossible; the Calamity was rage and grief made manifest; how had it's fury been soothed?

A bitter thought came to mind: she should not have adjusted her scheme so utterly. She should have taken the Calamity as her host and used its power to lay waste to everything herself, then taken Twilight Sparkle for herself. Now she was only left with one option:

She needed to escape back into the Void, now. With what little energy she had left, Nihila began to tear open a rift in the fabric of the world, a gateway to safety. It would take thousands of years to recover her strength enough to find another world with another lost, foolish soul whom she could manipulate into inviting her, but—

Then, she stopped when the most curious thing happened. Everything around her went suddenly very, very dark, except for her immediate surroundings, which were filled with an agonizing bright light. No, not just light, but Light, the most potent source of the stuff she'd experienced in untold eons.

She glanced up, and a new emotion rippled through her that she had never experienced for herself: fear. The entire sky was as black as the darkest night, with the exception of Equestria's moons. Those were of the purest white, glowing with such intense energy that it burned. It burned like nothing Nihila had ever felt before.

She frantically tried to tear open the rift, but even putting in the slightest ounce of effort caused her tremendous agony. No! I must… I must escape! I must… escape… the Light! What is this Light?!

"Never shalt thou plague a world with thy presence, Nihila," came a voice that Nihila hadn't heard in hundreds of years: Harmonia. "Thou art a blight upon harmony, upon peace, upon life, upon the essence of my sister, fiend. 'Tis my duty to cleanse existence itself of thee and thy poison. Begone, monster!"

Nihila screeched as the Light intensified. "No! No! I… am Nihila! Darkness incarnate! And I will not… be—"

And then there was nothing.