//------------------------------// // Witches 8: Twilight Takes Manehattan // Story: A Witch in Broad Daylight // by Epsilon-Delta //------------------------------// Twilight had nearly the entire network mapped out by this point. She could only hope it’d be enough. It was a shame she had to destroy such a vast network of portals, but this would be the only way to defeat Minuette. Perhaps they could build a new one someday in the future. The network stretched out much farther than Twilight expected. Most of it remained in Equestria, but points were leading all over the planet. Some were even high in the air, though Twilight struggled to think of how Minuette could have made a landing point up there. She’d figure it out once she could focus on something else again. Sadly, she didn’t get all the way. They managed to stall for an impressive amount of time, but it could have only lasted so long. A hundred portals opened all around Twilight. Minuette emerged from the largest and guns poured out of the rest. Twilight tsked. How low had the order fallen? Not only had they become morally corrupt, but they were using weapons invented by outsiders now? Did Minuette seriously think something like this could kill a pony on the level of a witch? Before the guns fired, Twilight cast her spell, surrounding herself with electricity. Minuette’s eyes widened in horror, and she reared her head back from her mistake as the hammers fell. She only just now realized who was coming after her. As the guns fired, a burst of electricity surged out from Twilight in a half-sphere, extending to fit the dome. The bullets bounced back, the guns fired and all of those projectors shorted out. Minuette slammed hard against the wall but recovered quickly. Even Rainbow Dash reacted in time, putting up a wind wall to block off the hallway leading to her and Sonata. Interestingly, Sonata showed no concern for the guns at all, not even blinking like they warrant no response. But Twilight had no time to be suspicious of that. She turned her full focus on Minuette. “It’s you?!” Minuette stumbled back until she pressed up against the wall. “No! No! No! I didn’t think this would happen so soon!” Sonata raised a hoof. “Just so we’re clear, you’re worried about them and not me, right?” Sonata asked. Dash whacked her hard on the head. Sonata became pouty and teary-eyed but silent. “We were relatively lenient with Trixie because she surrendered.” Dash stepped forward, ready to protect that reporter again if needed. “This is your chance to give up.” Minuette only trembled more. She shook her head, eyes wide in terror. “You don’t have any hope of winning this fight,” Twilight warned. “I defeated Trixie and she’s generally considered tougher than you.” “Oh yeah?” Minuette pointed at herself. “Well maybe you can take out Trixie, but there’s one difference between me and her you haven’t accounted for.” “And what’s that?” Twilight asked. “That I’m an enormous coward!” Minuette opened a portal behind herself. “I’m not going to stick around to fight somepony stronger than me. So later.” Minuette jumped through the portal, closing it a split second after she vanished. Twilight closed her eyes and put her hoof on the blue circle in the center. She could feel the lines, just as before. More importantly, she could feel the parts of it that had bent from use recently. Using a Z-gate weakened that part of the network each time. “So did our plan work?” Dash asked. Twilight opened her eyes and nodded. “I think so! I’ll be able to follow her to nearly any of her portals.” Twilight cast the Z-gate spell, opening a portal to the same location Minuette escaped to. Twilight destroyed this landing point, then she and Rainbow Dash jumped through the portal, reappearing in a different room. Minuette stood in the massive, empty room of an abandoned warehouse. She chuckled to herself as the new portal opened behind her. She stopped laughing as soon as Twilight and Dash emerged. In horror, Minuette pronked back a solid yard and created a new portal to escape through. They followed her to a forest, then a cave, then to the top of a tall building. Each time, Twilight destroyed that landing point, and Minuette’s network shrank slightly. Even at this rate, it would take all day to corner her. However, on the top of this tall building, with the stary sky behind her, Minuette finally stopped running and turned to confront Twilight once again. “You!” She lowered her head. “You found some way to track where I land? And you know how to use Z-gates?!” “You won’t be able to get away,” Twilight warned her. “I’ll give you another chance to surrender.” Minuette gritted her teeth together. She took out their target – volume seven of The Book of Shadows. “You think I’m weak, don’t you?!” Minuette held up the seventh and final volume. “Everypony says I’m the weakest of the five-belled witches! But it won’t be as easy as you think!” Minuette took out the seventh volume. “So what if you know the Z-gate spell?” Minuette asked. “The past fifteen generations that held this book honed it non-stop their entire lives. We’ve overwritten the mind fibers that make up the spellbook with that experience and expertise. One of them was a total loser who just cast Z-gate non-stop every day for sixty years! “So you get it? You’re not just fighting against me; you’re fighting fifteen generations of ponies who dedicated their lives to perfecting the Z-gate spell! I’m the ultimate portal master! You can’t possibly compete with me, not here!” Minuette created twenty separate portals leading off in every direction so that they dotted the sky. She then cast the murder spell, breaking off into twenty crows. Each crow flew off to its own portal. “Oh, yeah.” Dash watched the crows escaping. “I keep forgetting every witch can do that one.” Minuette must have already figured out Twilight was tracing her via landing point. If she went through the portal, then changed back, there’d be no way for Twilight to know which one Minuette arrived at. Of course, for certain other ponies, this game would be all too easy. Twilight had ponies waiting at various known Z-gate locations. While near a spot herself, Twilight could effectively summon them to her side regardless of where she ended up. Twilight opened a portal and summoned Pinkie just as the last crow vanished from sight. Pinkie jumped out of the portal and grabbed tight onto Twilight’s back. “Pinkie! Guess which portal she’s going to revert in.” Pinkie had only caught a brief glimpse of the portals, but even just that was enough “Oh! Oh!” Pinkie pointed at one of them. “That’s the lucky one!” Twilight nodded to Dash and jumped at the portal with Pinkie in tow. She left the spot where Dash stood unharmed. This way she could summon Dash later. They appeared high above a snowy village. Minuette turned in midair, letting out a yelp when she noticed Pinkie had joined the pursuit. She repeated her crow trick two more times before realizing it wouldn’t work. She merely jumped through the next portal. “Careful! There’s a lot of guns in this next place,” Pinkie called out just as Twilight opened the next gate. To be cautious, Twilight shot a blast of lightning through this Z-gate and shielded herself before jumping in. They got through and it appeared her worries were for nothing. They fell through a brief layer of clouds. They now found themselves in the air miles above the ocean. Below them, Twilight could see nothing but water. That explained how she could make portals leading to the sky. She’d somehow learned to inscribe clouds! An impressive feat. Twilight could see Minuette far below. She launched a large firebolt directly down at her. Minuette simply created a portal a foot in front and behind herself. The firebolt went in one side and out the other, crashing into the ocean, leaving Minuette completely unharmed. She could do short-ranged portals like that too? Minuette really might be better than her at this one spell! But already, Twilight’s mind spun with ideas on how these tricks might work. As Minuette neared the water, her horn began to glow. The water crested and from it burst forth ten guns far larger than Twilight had ever seen. She could compare them to train cars in size. These had to be those ‘artillery cannons’ she’d read about in her Equestrian research. They all fired in unison, sending a wall of fire and shrapnel ascending towards them. At least Minuette was trying to kill her with a big gun now. Twilight teleported down as far as she could get, bypassing the wall entirely and getting close enough to the other witch to see the fear in her eyes once more. Twilight shot another firebolt but Minuette used the same short-ranged portal technique to dodge it. Hitting her at long range would prove difficult! Minuette escaped through another portal she opened beneath herself. “Underwater!” Pinkie warned. The warning was hardly necessary this time as water came gushing out of the portal in question. Twilight had to push hard to get through it. They had to have been incredibly deep underwater, wherever they were. It was pitch black on the other side. The weight of the water above assaulted them with crushing force. That alone may have killed a normal pony. Pinkie held the water at bay with her psychokinesis, struggling slightly. Twilight lit her horn to reveal the ocean floor. Tiny crab-like creatures scuttled away from the light. From above, seven red lights appeared and rapidly approached. Twilight quickly realized these were rockets hurtling towards them. The shockwaves would be far deadlier down here than on land, too. She cast an elemental resonance spell to quickly move through the water. Both she and Pinkie vanished from sight, merging with the water. She’d never merged with such a large body before but found it surprisingly easy. In fact, she could put this incredible weight to her use. Twilight quickly closed in on Minuette, dropping Pinkie off several yards in front of her. As Minuette wound up to fire at Pinkie, Twilight moved swiftly behind her and sent a torrent of water gushing at Minuette from behind. Minuette choked at the weight, swallowing some water as she was roughly thrown at Pinkie. Pinkie hit her with a blue wave of psychic energy that blew her back once again. Twilight reformed and got ready to begin pinballing Minuette back and forth between the two of them. The other witch decided she wouldn’t win on this field and created another portal to escape. The rushing water all but sucked the other two ponies into the latest portal. They slid out into what they soon recognized as a farm. Minuette gasped on the ground for a moment, already covered in small cuts, then quickly jumped into another portal the moment her pursuers arrived. “Like a– a volcano or something!” Pinkie shouted at her. “Above!” Twilight glanced upward as she landed in the next death room. She could feel the immense heat and see a pool of lava suspended up above, held up only by an oddly colored glass ceiling. Minuette dashed down a narrow hallway. As she ran, she pulled forward a string in her mouth. Only once she vanished through a portal on the other side did the string become taut, threatening to activate some mechanism above them. Pinkie deftly grabbed onto the string with her psychokinesis to buy Twilight a second. Instead of going all the way down the hall, Twilight merely created a portal a foot ahead and dove through that. Twilight rolled out of the way on the dismount, as lava began pouring out of the portal a second later. Minuette jumped up and down to stamp her hooves harder in frustration. But she didn’t give up. She rushed headlong into the next portal. “And now we’re going to an explosion!” “Something sharp is gonna be below!” “Like! Like the three o’clock!” “A squid!” In this manner, Pinkie effectively warned Twilight of all the death traps Minuette had set up. Every time, Twilight managed to counter them all. Every time, Minuette screamed and ran off faster and more panicked than before. They didn’t get any hits in, Minuette stayed too far ahead and Twilight had yet to get a hit through her portals but it didn’t matter. She only had so many landing points. There’d be nowhere to run eventually. Finally, after ten rounds of this little game, Pinkie gave her most dire warning yet. “There’s something really, really dangerous in the next one!” Pinkie pulled on Twilight’s ear trying to get her to slow down. “You gotta be ready!” “Something dangerous?” Twilight stopped a moment before opening the next portal. “I can’t be more specific than that.” Twilight sighed, braced herself, and went through the portal, expecting a thousand-foot-tall dragon. That wouldn’t be so bad. How much worse than that could it get? Minuette screamed as she stumbled onto a rocky shore. These ponies were way too strong! She needed to start busting out her trump cards! Behind her, violent ocean waves pushed themselves up onto the cliff upon which she stood. Before her stood the mountain of Glen Rock and on its top, the city of Griffonstone. The city walls raised an impressive five hundred feet and stretched along the length of the mountain near the summit. Only a tiny bit of the very peak of the mountain could be seen over those walls and none of the city inside was visible. But nopony coming here for the first time would even notice the city. Heck, they’d barely even see the mountain itself. Not thousands, but millions of zombie griffons piled on top of one another, trying to claw their way into that last bastion of their civilization. They covered the entire mountainside in a massive blob but were unable to get over the wall. Thankfully, the word ‘zombie’ started with a Z. Well, technically the spells she was about to cast weren’t even ones created by Twilight, but they still fit the theme. Just as she arrived, Minuette cast the zombie resonance spell. All the zombies would see her as one of them now and ignore her completely. Then, as her assailants came chasing after her, Minuette opened her mouth and cast her second spell. The resulting scream caught the attention of every zombie around for twenty miles. The mountain of undeath before her shifted as all the zombie griffons turned their attention downward. Then at once, they all moved. More like a tsunami than an avalanche, the griffon zombies came crashing down. They couldn’t fly, but they could glide and soon they covered the sky. Even though it was day here, the world grew darker. Even more undead came from behind, crawling up from the rocky shores behind Silverstorm and Pinkie Pie. Nothing could escape this! Their only option was to leave via a portal. Then Minuette could get away! She smirked as the ground began to rumble and the howls of the zombie horde reached her. The swarm of zombies came at them from all sides, closing in like a clutching claw. Minuette laughed in the distance as the wave came rushing towards her. “This is a lot of zombies!” Pinkie warned, looking around. “This type eats meat, you know! Meat like us? Maybe we should 23 skiddoo?” “If we leave, Minuette can get away!” Twilight shook her head. “We’ll just have to fight one million zombies. How hard can that be? “Well it’s not the craziest thing I’ve ever done.” Pinkie jumped off Twilight and turned toward the zombies from the sea. They stood back-to-back and got ready to blast the undead as hard as they could. Minuette stopped laughing and watched them, baffled that they were going to try and fight their way out of this. Twilight took the first shot. Her body glowed briefly with magic, then she fired a massive torrent of fire into the air. It blew a hole in the zombie swam above them, letting in sunlight briefly. Before long, the griffons simply filled in the gap and grew even closer. Pinkie threw one of her spirit bombs behind her, blowing the largest group of zombies to pieces. She then proceeded to send psychokinetic bursts forward, blowing the zombies back and breaking them to pieces as they fell back off the cliff. That kept them at bay from the rear, but the main threat lingered up ahead. Twilight needed to get ready for that. Twilight shot another massive fireball at the crowd. It opened a gap only for it to fill in again. The second, third, fourth, and fifth blasts all yielded the same result. Finally, she resorted to her plasma beam. The white light flashed forward, going all the way to the distant mountain. It vaporized anything caught in its light and incinerated zombies anywhere close to it. When it faded, Twilight could see the hole melted in the rock far away. But still, the zombies kept coming. Before long, even that gaping hole filled back in. She needed to prepare for a longer fight it seemed. Twilight’s body glowed and she cast the hyper dance spell. Ethereal swords and spears rose all around her, then became solid. Thousands of dancing weapons surrounded them, would fight on their own. This too would fall short. They’d dull and break long before they cut all the enemies to pieces. She slammed on the ground and a wall of rock erupted up, creating a barrier. Twilight still needed more help! Who would be safe to bring here? She decided to summon Saccharine, whom they likely couldn’t damage. Zombies surrounded them completely as the robot emerged. She needed no explanation as to what was about to happen. The world grew dimmer as they approached. The three of them stood back-to-back as the claw closed around them. Twilight shot out rapid bursts of chain lightning above. Saccharine fired explosives to the right. Pinkie threw off spirit bomb after spirit bomb to the left. The mob was so big that the earthen wall did little to stop them. They formed a bulge as they slammed into the makeshift shield, then came tumbling over it. The rock soon cracked under all the pressure. Then the zombies began clashing with the dancing blades. They tore the griffons to pieces, holding them at bay briefly. Saccharine switched to her flamethrowers. Almost all at once, the wall of dancing weapons broke down. Zombies lurched at them from every direction. Pinkie dug her hooves in to stop the whole thing from crashing in on them. The three of them were effectively in a dome now. The only light came from the fire and lightning. The walls came closer and closer no matter how many they destroyed. Saccharine’s flamethrowers ran out of fuel. She switched the plasma weapon Rarity created with Twilight’s help. Her body glowed red, lighting up the dome, then a beam of plasma shot out. In mirror, Twilight fired out a second beam of plasma in the opposite direction. The two spun halfway around in sync, creating a full circle between them. The world became filled with a blinding light and ash filled the air, making Twilight cough. Saccharine wouldn’t get a second shot with that. Even Twilight couldn’t do that too many times in a day before getting exhausted. She looked up. At last, she saw it! A tiny ray of sunlight broke through! They began to thin out. Pinkie switched back to attacking and Saccharine charged forward covered in drills and buzzsaws. A moment later, Twilight could see the terrain once more. Pieces of zombies and ash piled all around them. The area looked more like a desert now than a rocky mountainside. Twilight caught a glimpse of Minuette. Her eye twitched as she watched them in horror. Zombies still covered the area, giving Minuette a moment of respite. “Okay! Then how about my strongest zombie?” Minuette opened a portal. “Say hi to Drillbeak!” Another griffon came rushing out of the portal. He wasn’t like the others. He came at them much faster. As he got close Twilight heard drills. His talons, it seemed, had been replaced by them. Twilight needed no effort incinerating him as well with a fireball, but the whirling screech returned from above. She looked up to see the same griffon coming at them from the sky. Destroying him there only caused him to come bursting out of the ash below a moment later. Twilight turned and fired on him as he constantly rose again and again from the ashes. A psycho zombie! Just like before! “Well? Even if you do escape from here, he’ll just keep following you forever!” Minuette laughed. There was no way Twilight would have enough time to seal this one away, not until much later anyway. She couldn’t chase Minuette with this thing appearing behind her at every turn, either. She needed more help. She knew who the best pony for this was. Twilight opened another portal. Fluttershy peeked her head out of the gate to look over what she must have assumed to be a desert. “This is a lot of zombies!” Fluttershy hid behind Twilight. She did not know what ‘a lot of zombies’ was. “Fluttershy! You’re incorporeal! They can’t even touch you!” Twilight called back. Twilight opened a hole in the ground, dropped her bear in, then buried it. The zombies showed no interest in the spot where her bear was safely buried. Fluttershy remained untouchable. “Oh. I forgot.” Fluttershy floated out into the zombie horde. A few of them swiped at her harmless. “I guess this is fine, then. Though they’re still pretty ugly.” Fluttershy created a wall of ice between them and the horde. Or course, calling them a horde was stretching it at this point and they no longer had the mass to break down a wall. “Good, but we need you for him!” Twilight pointed at Drillbeak appeared yet again, coming screaming down at them. “He’s one of those psycho zombies.” Fluttershy froze Drillbeak and fifty additional zombies all in one massive, solid block of ice. “But can’t it just teleport out of this?” Fluttershy asked. “Not if you’re looking at it,” Twilight remembered. “Just keep staring at it till we get back! I won’t destroy this point.” “Um. Okay! I can do that.” Fluttershy crouched down and gave him a serious stare. Straggling zombies rushed at her but were unable to touch Fluttershy. Twilight looked back up at Minuette, now out of ammo. The area quieted down as only a small number of zombies remained. Minuette could only stare slack-jawed as it registered with her that they actually got through that unscathed. The witch took two steps back as Twilight approached. “Oh yeah?” Minuette jumped back. “Well, uh! Back to running away!” Minuette opened another portal just ahead of herself. A large, metallic cylinder with a rounded front appeared just overhead. Twilight struggled to imagine what sort of weapon this could be. No! Twilight recognized this. It was a rocket. Minuette grabbed onto the rocket as fire spewed from the backside. Her laughing rose over the fiery roar only to be overtaken a moment later. The two of them blasted off over the ocean, getting only faster as they went. Twilight wouldn’t be able to find where Minuette ended up unless she used another portal. She moved too fast for Twilight to catch up to even using teleportation. She opened a portal and summoned one of her allies. Fleetfoot came flying out of the portal fast. Part of the plan was to help build their reputation with the S-rank ponies. They hoped letting Fleetfoot fight alongside them would show her Twilight’s capabilities and build comradery at once. Twilight grabbed onto her and merely pointed forward. Having already planned this sting out, Fleetfoot needed no further prompting to take off in the correct direction at full speed. Fleetfoot grabbed Twilight tight and flew off at incredible speeds – faster than Twilight could have managed even with chain teleportation. They hadn’t exaggerated in the least about her speed. The wind became unbearably loud. The two of them would have caught fire or got pummeled by the g-forces were it not for a barrier Fleetfoot’s goggles created. Twilight had to keep her eyes narrow to see ahead. She couldn’t tell at first, but the tiny dot of red in the sky grew ever so slightly brighter and bigger. Fleetfoot could outfly the rocket! Minuette must have seen them just then. She created portals behind her to block their way. Bumping into one would send them to some far-off land. Fleetfoot swerved around them with surprising ability for how fast they soared. Before long, they were passing dozens of portals in every direction in pursuit of Minuette. They successfully weaved between them, but the blockade stalled enough for Minuette to keep at the same distance. Then it happened! The fire from Minuette’s missile died. They rapidly approached her, would be there in seconds. Fleetfoot threw Twilight forward and flew off to the side herself. At the same time, she took out her anchor and sent it hurtling forward. Now the two of them were on course to pincer Minuette from either side. The anchor flew between them at Mach 2, on a direct collision course with the witch. Before long, Minuette had grown past a black dot. Twilight could see the blue in her again, then make out her shape. As the ocean charged on and on beneath her, Twilight looked up to see Minuette panicking as she looked at the three incoming threats. The anchor reached her first. Minuette created a portal just in front of her and the anchor went through it. Twilight noticed another portal open a short distance behind Minuette. From this second portal, the anchor emerged and kept flying onward, then it vanished. Twilight shot a burst of lightning up at her only for Minuette to shield herself with a portal in the same manner – the bolt shooting out above her. The two witches began to lose speed, but Fleetfoot only got faster. She took out metal rods from her bag of holding next, each the length of a pony. They shot out faster than bullets at Minuette. Minuette did a good job making it appear ranged attacks were useless against her. Every time one got close, she’d open a portal from in front to behind her and it would harmlessly pass through. She tried redirecting them down at Twilight, but they were always off by just enough for Twilight to deflect the projectiles. Twilight knew she could imitate these short-ranged portals after seeing them this many times. Then she resolved to use them against Minuette. Beneath Minuette, Twilight opened a portal in the path of a stray metal rod. She created one mere yards away from Minuette, redirecting it at her. Caught off guard by how quickly Twilight picked up the spell, Minuette couldn’t react in time. The rod hit her, with an audible crack. The blow would have at least taken a limb off from a normal pony, but it merely broke Minuette's momentum and sent her spiraling out of control. She created another portal and sent herself off somewhere far away. Twilight registered she’d gone off to a city this time and followed with her own portal. Minuette tumbled across asphalt, picking up several scrapes at this incredible speed. The pain in her rear left leg had yet to register, but she knew that blow broke it. How had some stupid pirate learned to imitate one of her techniques so fast?! She stood up on three legs and looked up at the tall buildings to confirm she’d landed in Manehattan. Silverstorm came out a second later. She hadn’t lost her speed and flew off down the streets at dangerous speeds. She tried to slow herself using fire like a rocket, but still shattered through the window of a skyscraper. Three and three-quarters seconds. That was the delay. Minuette only had a few seconds to decide on her next course of action. Things were getting bad! She breathed in and out as slowly as she could, trying to calm herself. She still had plenty of cards to play. She could still get away from this! Minuette took the precious seconds she’d bought to try and fuse her bone back together as she looked around for a hostage to take. If it was between a hundred foals dying and catching Minuette, surely Silverstorm would let her go. And yet… “There’s nopony here?!” Minuette looked down the empty streets in horror. She couldn’t see a single pony! She knew it was late, but she’d never seen Manehattan completely empty! She put this portal specifically next to an orphanage for this exact purpose! Yet when she turned to it, the lights in the building were off. She’d been here before and that never happened. Had they seriously somehow thought to evacuate this orphanage ahead of time?! They may have just taken shelter in the basement– nearly every building in Equestria had some sort of safe room. But how could they have seen this far ahead?! In fact, nearly all the lights in all the buildings were off! Silverstorm came out of the building she’d crashed into. Minuette’s bone recovered back to one piece but still cracked. It’d have to do! She couldn’t possibly go against Silverstorm in a straight fight. Minuette dropped through another portal. She landed in what she knew would be the busiest part of Detrot at this time of night. But when she got to the streets, nopony was there. Panic welled up in her heart once more. This couldn’t be happening! The streets of Trotonto were empty. The streets of Las Pegasus were empty! Baltimare, Fillydelphia, Applewood, and even Canterlot were all barren wastelands! None of these cities should be half as empty as this! Finally, she tumbled out into the streets of a smaller town to find that, too, had been emptied. “Gah!” Minuette jumped up and down, stamping her feet. “Where is everypony?!” “The alert wasn’t just for one city,” Silverstorm explained. “We talked to the SA, and they sent out an alarm for the entire nation. Everypony has already taken shelter.” Minuette stumbled back, holding in a yelp. “I helped Trixie and I can help you too,” Silverstorm made her offer yet again. “Just stop this!” What the crow did she think was going to happen? “Shut up! You think that’s enough?!” Minuette shouted at her. “I can hold an entire city hostage if I want!” She went through another portal, appearing far over the city of Fillydelphia. Miles in the air, even the tallest skyscraper was nothing but a speck beneath her now. She was higher up than any pegasus flew, enough that it became cold and difficult to breathe. “I’ll just destroy the entire city from orbit!” Minuette held up her hoof and opened ten massive portals. Silverstorm appeared right above her just in time to see the incoming attack. From each gate emerged an enormous cargo ship. Those ships were filled to the brim with explosives! If even one of them reached the ground below, falling at terminal velocity, it would level multiple skyscrapers and break straight through whatever basements the ponies hid in. Silverstorm saw the boats falling to the helpless city below and immediately her soft conscious shot fear into her. Things were going to work out! “You can chase after me or try to stop the destruction! How are you going to–?” Minuette barely had time to boast. Silverstorm simply teleported down below the ships and opened a portal beneath each one. They returned to the cave where they originally came from. The fire that came roaring up out of the portals confirmed they’d exploded on arrival. In another moment of stunned confusion, Minuette got pelted by the shock wave and shrapnel. The pain was starting to break through her adrenaline! This day kept getting worse! “What was that?!” Silverstorm scolded her. “You’re trying to kill bystanders now? Even Trixie fought with more honor than this!” “Honor is for dead ponies!” Minuette shouted down at her. Though Minuette may be included in that group one way or the other shortly. Where was she going to get a hostage?! Go running around the griffon or zebra lands?! No! She knew where one pony she could use was! Minuette opened another portal underneath herself and vanished. It’d been over an hour since the party train departed and Sonata just stood there the whole time, scratching her head, wondering if anypony would come back. But nope! That was that. “Well that happened.” Sonata shrugged, finally deciding she was safe. “Guess this is just one of those random, pointless events that don’t go anywhere.” At least Sonata learned that Silverstorm could cast magic with her whole body like witches did. Maybe Sonata would get praised for that? Yeah! It’d be so great if her mistress was happy for her! Of course, that’d be useless information if Silverstorm lost this upcoming battle. Sonata wondered whether she should be rooting for Silverstorm or not. If either of them died, it’d mean one less strong pony for her mistress to worry about. Perhaps it didn’t really matter. But for now, there looked to be more rooms! On the other end of the dome, she spied a hallway. Sonata got so excited. She might be able to find something cool in the witch’s house to take back to her mistress! Then she’d be so pleased with Sonata! Minuette was distracted so she could easily get away with this. Sonata hummed and marched towards the empty hallway. Then a portal opened. Minuette charged out of the hall, grabbed Sonata, and pulled them both into another portal. Then it was any crow’s guess where Sonata got thrown next. She looked around and found herself high up on some snowy mountain. Which snowy mountain, she had no idea. Minuette slammed her hooves into the snow and spun around with Sonata in tow. She used her magic to clamp down on Sonata hard, holding her in place inches in front of her. She’d encountered a witch once before, a long time ago. This came as a rough reminder of just how strong these ponies were. Even the one considered the weakest could grip Sonata with crushing force like this. She imagined she’d be struggling to breathe if she had lungs. She couldn’t budge an inch. Though she could just leave her body. Before she had the chance, a portal opened from where she’d just stood, and from it emerged Silverstorm. Minuette summoned a gun from one of her portals and pressed it hard against Sonata’s temple, causing Silverstorm to halt where they were. She couldn’t let them find out she was a ghost! Not yet! “Yeah!” Minuette pulled the hammer back. “If you don’t let me get away, I’m blowing her brains out!” “Um.” Sonata didn’t look the least bit worried by that threat. Guns couldn't harm her. “About that.” “You see?” Silverstorm glared at Sonata. “This is why I hate you ‘reporters’. You’re always making a nuisance of yourselves.” “Yeah! That’s a pretty good point.” Sonata nodded. “Well, you’ve convinced me. I don’t deserve to live.” Sonata looked up at Minuette. “Go ahead and shoot me. I’ll just take one for the team.” “W-what?” Minuette’s grip on her gun loosened. Suddenly, she was unsure of herself. “Come on!” Sonata started to kick in her weakened grip. “I don’t have all day! Just shoot me! Do it! Do it!” Even Silverstorm was left stunned by this gambit. The two of them could only stop and stare, trying to figure out this genius-level move. “Uh.” Minuette took a step back. In the end, she created another portal behind herself and pulled them both in to buy more time. Now they were high up in the air. Sonata was too restrained to get a good look. The sky filled her entire sight. “Okay! What are you?!” Minuette threw her gun away, certain it’d have no effect. “Look! If you don’t let me go, I’m gonna scream!” Sonata threatened her. “What are you, eight?” Minuette asked. “No! I’m a banshee.” Sonata flew out of her body. “What?” Minuette’s eyes widened. “Oh, what the buck?! How unlucky am I gonna get today?!” “You know what? You’re a threat to my mistress anyway, so–” Minuette created another portal beneath herself. She was too late. Sonata opened her mouth and shrieked her death wail in Minuette’s ear! She felt Minuette’s heart tremble and knew for sure it got her! “Wow! That was easy!” Sonata smiled to herself as Minuette vanished from sight. “How come we don’t just do that to every witch? And more importantly, where am I?” Sonata looked down to see the ocean rapidly rising to say hello. “Wah!” Sonata darted back into her body, presently dragging it down with her. She got in and gave the wings a few flaps. She slowed her descent but not enough to avoid landing in the water with a big splash. “Ah, no!” Sonata cried and pouted as soon as she came back above water. “Now the stuffing’s all wet! This will take forever to fix!” She looked around, seeing no shore in sight. “I hope I’m not that far from land!” Sonata pouted. “The one time I do good, and I get immediately punished for it! It’s not fair!" At least she couldn’t drown. Things were getting worse and worse! A death curse could be taken off in a few ways. The banshee could decide to remove it, be killed, or at least hit hard enough. Minuette tried going back to that part of the ocean but found the landing point destroyed! Did Silverstorm plan this out?! Option two? She could unravel it. Normally, this wouldn’t be too big of a deal. Even non-witches could unravel death curses. But that would take an hour or two she didn’t have! No, no! Minuette would need to let every attack hit her from now on or the death curse might be able to chain up to its full power and land a certain kill on her! Yet it’d be too much of an inconvenience. And she’d have horrible luck from here on out! She landed in a small town. It was still night and all the ponies were still hiding. Yet she did see a spark of light just ahead of her. She stumbled to the side to narrowly avoid it. A fire hydrant just happened to go off and sprayed water out into the streets. On top of that, a wire coincidentally happened to go down and fall into the water. Minuette had nearly been electrocuted. This had to be because of the death curse. If that was the case, dodging the shock was a bad thing! Should she jump in or was it too late? Minuette watched the electrified water slowly spread till it reached a gutter. Something down there screeched in pain as it got shocked. That had to be the second domino! Minuette rushed over to the storm drain just as a tentacle burst out. She could have easily dodged or destroyed it but allowed the thing to grab her and slam her around the road. Eventually, it smashed the road up just enough to stop the electrical flow to itself and flung Minuette away. That would keep the death curse at bay a moment longer. Silverstorm came through the gate a second later. She saw Minuette on the ground, getting a clear opportunity at last. But instead of attacking, she opened three more portals all around Minuette. A pony jumped through each one and, as though they’d rehearsed this, they all tackled Minuette at once. Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fleetfoot, and Silverstorm all landed on her at the exact same moment. More likely, it was a fraction of a second apart! But which one hit her first? Minuette remembered the condition for breaking most of her curses. Somepony had to beat her at tag. If a pony tagged her and didn’t get tagged back for fifteen minutes, all of her hard work would be undone! But which one was ‘it’?! Minuette had fifteen minutes to get the right one! Soon after touching her, the four mares broke away. In an instant, Fleetfoot rushed away and became a speck on the horizon. Pinkie jumped back through the portal she came from. Rainbow Dash cast the murder spell and flew off in every direction. Silverstorm alone remained to fight! Minuette would just have to get all of them somehow! The one who turned into crows! Minuette decided she had to be the weakest! At least, she’d yet to see that one do anything impressive yet. She summoned another round of guns and fired a barrage at the crows. That dastardly pirate already learned this trick though! She created a portal in the path of the volley and redirected them all at the ground. Clearly, Silverstorm was some kind of prodigy! Minuette needed to tag her too, but that could wait. She couldn’t lose track of those crows. Minuette created a short-range portal towards one of the crows. She jumped through, then teleported, then jumped through another portal. She’d successfully put some distance between her and Silverstorm now, approached one of the crows from above. Minuette punched the crow, sending it down to the ground where it died. Of course, this didn’t kill Dash. No, one of the other crows simply reverted back to pegasus form in a nearby tree. Minuette pointed a new gun at the pegasus as Dash prepared to cast the murder spell again. The gun misfired! The curse again! Minuette turned her attention to the stray bullet which smashed through a window. A second later, a propane tank came whizzing out from the same window, flying haphazardly through the air. She couldn’t let this chain continue. Minuette interrupted it by teleporting in the way of the propane tank, letting it smash into her gut before flying off to explode in the air. Instead of turning back to crows, Dash watched this, puzzled. “Wait. Is that a death curse?” Dash followed the propane tank. “I had one of those once. You know, we can help you if you give up.” “Shut up!” Minuette shouted up at her. “I already tagged you and you won’t be getting me again!” “You sure about that?” Dash unfolded her wing. “I’m getting pretty good at the murder spell, you know.” She only had one? Minuette paused to consider what that meant. No! She’d seen Screwball do this variation before, where you turn part of your body into crows. Dash had converted one of her wings! Minuette spun around and took out four more guns. Sure enough, a crow nearly got her from behind, but Minuette gunned it down. If this worked the same as Screwball’s version… She turned once again to see Dash’s wing reformed. She struggled hard, but Dash managed to make her full body glow ever so slightly. She couldn’t seriously be attempting to cast a hyper-spell, could she? Such a pathetic display wouldn’t work. It wasn’t entirely incredible, but Dash did manage to get a spell off, turning her into a massive, black cloud. This time she turned into hundreds of crows instead of the usual twenty. They all swarmed at Minuette from all sides. She summoned as many guns as she could, gunning down swathes of them in the air, but they managed to close in on her. One scratched her just slightly with its talons and that was all it took. Before Minuette could punch one back they all vanished. Minuette desperately turned around, looking for Dash! One of the crows escaped and turned back! She’d never be able to find her! She couldn’t even get one of them?! Not even the one she was now certain was the weakest! To make things worse, Minuette turned her attention on Silverstorm, swiftly approaching from behind. Minuette kicked the portal forward. She’d created mobile portals, too. Sadly, for now, the portal rushed headlong at her, threatening to swallow Twilight and send her to some other death trap. Twilight effortlessly sidestepped it. Minuette made five more portals and kicked them all in turn. They didn’t move nearly fast enough to catch Twilight, and she dodged them all. Minuette didn’t seriously think such a slow-moving attack would be enough to get Twilight, did she? There had to be something else going on. Turned out Twilight had been right not to underestimate her. She noticed something off about one of the portals as it passed. It faced the opposite direction of the others. Minuette had been trying to set up a sneak attack. Twilight placed her own portal in front of the backward-facing one, leading behind Minuette. Minuette noticed this and created her portal leading from behind her to behind Twilight. The chain formed quickly after this. From behind Twilight to Minuette’s right. From Minuette’s right to Twilight’s left and so on. Back, right, left, front, above in that order until both ponies were surrounded with nowhere to go. Running through the chain in her mind, Minuette seemed to be at an advantage. Once all of this set itself up, the attack would move through each of these twelve portals in turn and ultimately blast Twilight. No doubt, Minuette notice this too. However, even when surrounded in all five directions, Twilight still had one move left. She created a portal from beneath herself to beneath Minuette. Caught off guard, Minuette stumbled briefly. Twilight leaned down, reached through the portal, and grabbed Minuette by the hooves. She flipped both through their respective portals, switching places with the other witch. Twilight flew up to Minuette’s cage and vice versa just as the attack went off. Minuette summoned some magic at the last minute, but it was already too late. Fire surged through each portal, finally sweeping over Minuette. All the portals collapsed soon after. Minuette fell to the ground, large patches of her fur burned off, but still conscious. She’d been badly bruised by this point. Twilight watched her silently. For now, she just needed to keep her from reaching the others for fifteen minutes. “You don’t have to keep doing this,” said Twilight. “You don’t have to be like this. If you’re scared of ponies hurting you for being a witch, then acting like this will only make things worse for you. “Will you shut up with this already?!" Minuette spat at her. “You think you’re the good guy here? If you were, you wouldn’t be trying to break my curses! So don’t go spouting your moral platitudes at me. I’m the hero!” Twilight took a step back, more surprised by this than any attack Minuette had yet to launch. “What?!” Twilight closed her eyes and shook the idea out of her head. “You’re just trying to distract me. You’re going to say that after trying to blow up half a city? Nopony would think you’re in the right here.” “That’s because everypony lacks vision! Have you stopped to think for one second what you’re trying to do, you fool?” Minuette stepped forward. “The world is advancing too rapidly. Equestria is becoming too powerful. If I don’t do anything, they’ll surpass even the witches in just a few hundred years.” Twilight remembered having the same concern not long ago. She could relate on some level. Yet the different path Minuette took seemed terrible even from a purely strategic point of view. “If you’re worried about the rest of the world catching up to you, why not join them instead of fighting against them?” Twilight offered up her plan to Minuette with an outstretched hoof. “If you work with them, they won’t have any reason to want to kill you, even if they get stronger than you one day. I understand most of you were kidnapped as foals and indoctrinated into this way of thinking, but if you hand over your book now, I promise I’ll do everything I can to help you escape this life.” Minuette laughed. Twilight felt a twinge of personal assault in that laughter. She was laughing at Twilight’s plan, after all. “Did Trixie give you some sob story about how she’s a pathetic child who just wanted to feel special?” Minuette laughed nervously at the idea, peeking over her shoulder briefly like she was concerned Trixie may have overheard that. “Look, I don’t know what you think but I’m not a victim here. I sought out the pony who trained me. I believed in this cause and willingly chose to become a witch.” “Believed in–?” Twilight tilted her head. This made no sense, but she felt like she was getting somewhere now. “In the cause of what?” “All the other lines of witches are different from mine,” said Minuette. “We alone, the witches of time who have an unbroken chain going back thousands of years, have remembered our true purpose. The order got corrupted countless centuries ago. I don’t consider any of the others, not even the last of the masters, to be true witches. Nopony but me.” Minuette took out the seventh volume and looked down on it in disdain. Suddenly Twilight felt as though revealing herself to be a master witch might not have the same effect here as it did with Trixie. “That bastard Sombra killed Master Displacement and so much knowledge was lost. But I know this! Witches were tasked by our true master to lie in wait, preserving our knowledge and power, only arising when chaos overtakes the world. All the others forgot our mission. They cut themselves off from the world entirely or gave in to the temptation of the power we were granted. But not me. I will protect this world now when it needs me most!” Her true master? She had to be talking about Golden Feather, though Twilight never heard anything about a ‘true mission’. It did raise an interesting thought in Twilight’s mind, though. If the order had become so much more corrupt from the time of her master’s master to today, then could Twilight’s understanding of their order be a corruption of an even earlier teaching? Not that it mattered much, especially not at this moment. It didn’t matter whose beliefs were the original. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Twilight shook her head. “You’re the one causing the chaos. The world needs to be protected from you. Or is there some giant space monster hurtling towards us I haven’t heard of?” “I’m going to protect the world from you.” Minuette sneered down at her with enough genuine disgust that Twilight didn’t doubt for a second she meant it. Did she figure out who Twilight was? No! She started all this before ever even meeting Twilight. “You say you want me to ‘help’ these weak peasants?” Minuette shook her head. “Help them do what? Do you want me to share my knowledge with them? Run around protecting them from monsters? Show them how to cure diseases and create their own portal network? What do you think all of that would come to in the end?” In the end? Something like an endpoint never existed in her mind. The road had always been endless to her. Gaining acceptance was the closest thing to a real goal she’d ever had. Even creating true void had simply been a stepping-stone. But was this new ‘goal’ even an end for her? Twilight wasn’t sure what came after that, but she hardly felt like it was ‘the end’ either. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at,” Twilight admitted “You see? No one has vision but me!” Minuette stomped her hoof in frustration. “’Helping’ them will only make things worse. It will make their technology and magical abilities advance faster. This is already the most advanced civilization that has ever existed since the days of Golden Feather herself. In many ways, they’ve even surpassed the ancient world. And you want to do something that will push them even further ahead?” “I still don’t see how that’s a problem if you’re not their enemy,” said Twilight. “For the last time, I’m not their enemy! I’m the only one trying to stop them from rushing head-first into disaster!” Minuette pointed at Twilight. “What are you talking about?” “How do you not know yet? Haven’t you ever read a science fiction novel?” Minuette asked. “There are so many ways technology can destroy everything. Think about it! Pinball seems fine and all, but with each year ponies will make increasingly fun pinball machines. Eventually, they’ll create one that’s so much fun that nopony will ever be able to stop playing, and then they’ll all die! “Ponies will create bigger and more destructive spells until they destroy the whole world with some mega spell. They’ll create machines that will conquer and replace us. Telephones will make us more disconnected than ever before. Some megacorporation will enslave everypony. Things will only get worse the longer this continues.” “So what?” Twilight asked. “To stop them from destroying themselves you’re going to destroy them first? Have you thought about this?” “Don’t talk to me like that! I come from a lineage of ancient wisdom,” said Minuette. “My predecessor, two thousand years ago, successfully destroyed the Zebra Empire when its population was just one hundred million. If it’d been destroyed at a population of one billion, the disaster would be an order of magnitude worse. It’s better to occasionally destroy small kingdoms than to wait for a massive empire to implode.” “And it’s okay for you to use this kind of power but nopony else?” Twilight asked. “Shouldn’t you destroy yourself by your logic?” “Of course there’s a difference! Without somepony as wise and glorious as Golden Feather to rule us, we’ll always fall into destruction. Only ponies with my wisdom and knowledge can wield this kind of magic and power. The masses are too stupid to keep from pushing each other off the cliff, which is why they need me. Ponies like you simply lack the wisdom to handle it all. Have you not yet seen how dangerous letting them get this kind of power could be?” Twilight remembered the self-replicating molecule she’d encountered in the sewers, the ‘blob’ as all the others called it. There was no possible way somepony from Equestria could have created something like that six hundred years ago. “I have,” Twilight admitted. “I know two ponies who created something that shouldn’t exist and could destroy the world.” Of course, Twilight also created her blob monster centuries ago. She and Filthy Rich had one other thing in common besides that. “Both made the right decision in the end,” said Twilight. “I don’t believe we’re all as foolish as you think.” Minuette gritted her teeth but couldn’t answer. “Didn’t I hear something about your predecessor trying to destroy the world with mass pollution?” Twilight asked. “She invented aerosols to dissolve the atmosphere and super-reactors to pump out super-toxic waste? If everypony else is so stupid, why didn’t they fall for that?” “Shut up!” Minuette stomped her hoof. “Your optimism is all the proof I need to dismiss everything you’re saying as worthless! How can you seriously believe all this?! Have you never seen a single science fiction movie?” “No.” “No?!” Minuette stepped back in utter horror as she truly began to understand what she was dealing with. “I barely even understand what ‘science fiction’ even is.” Twilight shook her head. “Please. Can’t you just give me one chance to show you you’re wrong?” Minuette stared loathingly at Twilight. “I hate that doofy attitude of yours so much! You can’t just talk your way out of everything. If anything, talking to you has just made me more certain you need to die! You want me to stop running away? Then fine! Let’s do this.” Minuette, despite her words, seemingly ran away through a portal once more. Twilight supposed Minuette really wasn’t like Trixie after all. Minuette had one serious option for killing this pony! She landed hard in one of her safe spaces. This was nothing but a run-down shack in the woods. She had a few spots like this that existed only to store needed materials. She broke a floorboard and pulled out two small syringes hanging on a strap. The contents emitted a bright blue glow and caused the syringes to rumble slightly. These were her micro-dive stim packs, ones she ‘appropriated’ from the Mad Science Institute. This was her ultimate weapon, but a risky one. When even the Mad Science Institute didn’t use a technology, you knew it was truly dangerous. Minuette put the strap around her foreleg, wondering if she should use one now. She’d be able to unravel the death curse in seconds. Nopony had ever survived her using one of these against them before, but she’d never faced somepony like Silverstorm. No, she had to be completely certain. She had to create the perfect arena for this fight. Silverstorm followed her into the safe space just a second later and Minuette left. Minuette appeared above a wide-opened field, her next portal already open shortly beneath her. She created as many portals as she could in every direction before reaching the gate below. These didn’t lead to her Z-gate landing points, but each connected to one another. But she only had a brief second to get as many as possible. Minuette could only poke in and out of this place briefly without Silverstorm noticing her gambit. After just an instant, she fell through to another location. Switching like that worked! Silverstorm appeared high above Great Pines rather than in her killing field. Minuette summoned yet more guns and fired hopelessly up at Silverstorm, screaming. She hoped that this would be enough to convince her pursuer she was simply attempting to outspeed her once again. Minuette briefly reappeared in her field. “Come on! Come on!” She shouted at her growing collection of portals. Then she fell a second time, appearing high in the air once again. She fell even more rapidly, her and Silverstorm picking up more and more speed. “Come on!” She opened more portals in her next, fleeting visit to the field. One more round. “Come on! Come on!” Minuette opened more portals in her ever-shrinking window. Then another! “Come on!” She only got two more that last time. She’d have to make her stand. Minuette slammed herself to a halt as she entered the portal leading to her field yet again. She landed and made one last mad dash to open as many portals as she could before Silverstorm finally arrived. Minuette panted. Sweat coated her body. She could feel she’d become dangerously dehydrated but doubted Silverstorm would let her take a water break. Portals lit up the dark field, making it bright as day. She’d created the most open arena possible. The field it had once been looked like a tight corridor compared to this. Not only that, but she had a labyrinth of portals too complex for even herself to understand. That is, Minuette couldn’t possibly understand her maze in her current state. She took out the first dose of micro-dive and jabbed her leg with it. No way! No way Silverstorm could be good enough to figure this out, to escape this time. Silverstorm appeared and the micro-dive took effect. Time stopped. Minuette’s eyes grew wider than ever before, and her blood surged through her veins at a dangerous rate. She could feel her body pulsing repeatedly, though not a single second had yet to pass. Everything around her flickered, moving with after-images behind them. More importantly, they moved with before-images. Minuette could see where everything would be a second before it got there. She could predict Silverstorm’s moves ever so slightly in advance. She saw every possibility laid out before her. She saw every particle in motion. Her sight transcended reality. Her world was no longer confined to the illusion constructed by what tiny bits of information her senses could gather. She truly saw the world. And she all but saw the thoughts in Twilight’s mind. Yes… Twilight’s mind. Minuette at last realized how much trouble she’d fallen into. Normally, getting to this point meant instant death for her opponent. She’d see the exact, perfect way to inflict lethal damage on them and execute it flawlessly in under a second. But this time? She saw no such path. There was no way to kill Twilight at this moment no matter what Minuette did. Every chain of events could be countered to some level. For that to be even remotely possible, this pony would need an insane pool of spells to draw from! And her vastly accelerated mind knew in that instant that this was a master witch– the last master witch! All the signs pointed to it. Already she’d spent too long considering her options. A thousandth of a second had passed, far too long given her current state. By her calculations, she’d lose ninety percent of this boost after five seconds. In one minute she’d be back to her normal state. Within five minutes she’d suffer an eye hemorrhage and pass out. At least she could avoid a stroke – which happened more often than not after you took a micro-dive. Even if this was a hopeless fight, Minuette had to try. She couldn’t allow Twilight to exist. She couldn’t allow a master witch to go through with some plan to ‘help’ Equestria become even stronger than they were now. She would die trying to save the world! And there was a chance she could win later after inflicting a serious wound. So she calculated the path to maximum damage. Minuette drew more magic than existed into her horn and began to dissolve the death curse manually. In her current state, unraveling it seemed so easy. Everything seemed so easy. She drew in more and more magic from outside reality. The light of it all obscured her and poured through the portals, blinding the area with white. A new spell formulated in her mind instantly and she cast it. Sharpness itself rang through the zone. The ground tore to pieces underneath her. The invisible blades tore deep scars through the land leading off for miles. No one else could have survived this. But Twilight reacted by summoning a sphere of plasma around her. Minuette knew this was the only thing Twilight had that could have stopped such an attack. What’s more, her plasma-based spells were by far her most draining. Twilight could only be attacked right after she used one of these spells. It seemed so obvious now. Even now, Twilight struggled against the wall of sharpness. Just before her attack ended, Minuette rushed to the side. This was her opening. She already saw the results as a forgone conclusion. She could break one of Twilight’s ribs, shoot her in the leg and land at least one hard blow to the head. She shot three bolts of fire in the exact right direction to draw Twilight’s attention where it needed to be. She summoned three guns to her side and rushed at Twilight through a complex path in the portals. Even still, Twilight would block her if she came at her too straight forward like this. Minuette shot down with one of her guns as she drew near. The bullet flew through twelve portals and hit her in her own left foreleg. She didn’t even register the pain. The blow made Minuette swerve in midair and pushed her forward ever so slightly. Just enough to get past Twilight, to get into the exact right spot. She contorted her body in midair, override her nervous system, and bucked Twilight in the chest with strength borrowed from some unspeakable place. The blow sent Twilight reeling back, put a slight fracture in one of her ribs, and threw her through a portal. At the same time, Minuette shot her remaining guns up and down. The two bullets met a great distance away, collided, and ricocheted off one another. A headshot wouldn’t have worked out, but Minuette did land a bullet in Twilight’s rear leg! Five seconds passed. She lost ninety percent of her boost already. Minuette came down through a portal just as planned and landed her last guaranteed hit – a punch to Twilight’s face. The world grew dark. The future melted before her eyes. Twilight moved so much faster now. She couldn’t see what would happen next, but she could see through the paths of the portals. She had hope instead of certainty now. But she was still the faster of the two. Minuette blasted Twilight back with lightning, then turned to fire at where she knew Twilight would reappear. Twilight got flung through the portals a second time, giving Minuette hope at least she might just be able to do this! She summoned ten guns and fired them all a the intercept! But Twilight recovered too quickly! She blew all the bullets away with one of her own firebolts! They flew through the maze, shooting lightning and fire at one another, each time clashing and colliding in various directions. Minuette dashed through her labyrinth at incredible speeds. For a moment she drew closer and closer to landing another blow on Twilight. But then, just like that, Minuette’s push began to slow. Twilight got faster so rapidly after that! Seconds later she met Minuette’s speed, then exceeded her! Minuette lost her place in the maze! She couldn’t fight like this any longer. She desperately summoned a hundred guns and fired in every direction. The maze became an infinite loop of whizzing bullets, but even this was not enough to hit Twilight again. Instead, Minuette felt a sharp pain in her shoulder and realized she’d only injured herself! A blast of lightning came at her a moment later and she briefly whited out as she flew through the air. Twilight ran over to Minuette’s side leaving the maze of portals behind her. The other witch still managing to get back up. Minuette coughed hard enough to stagger herself. She was in terrible shape at this point. Cuts and bruises covered her body. A blood vessel had burst in her right eye, turning it fully red. Her left looked bloodshot enough to join it soon. Her horn sparked out of control. Pushed far past its limit left it in danger of taking permanent damage. Her entire body strained to its limits. Even if she stopped fighting now, this battle would leave her with permanent injuries. “You can’t keep this up any longer,” Twilight warned. “If you keep casting big spells like this, you risk fracturing your horn. You could even die.” “You’re–” Minuette wheezed, she staggered to the floor and barely got back up. “You’re a master witch, aren’t you?” Twilight said nothing. “You’re Twilight Sparkle.” Minuette began to laugh, her chuckle interrupted by occasional coughing. “See? I’m not as much of a novice as you think.” Twilight kept her mouth shut. Had she seriously figured it out? She’d done something strange back there, but Twilight couldn’t tell what. Or maybe Twilight’s fighting style made it too obvious. “Would it matter if I was?” Twilight finally asked. Minuette sat down and looked up at the sky, eyes barely open, breath heavy. “No,” she said after a pause. “No. I’d just– I’d have to stop you even more if I’m right. So who cares?” What could Twilight even do with a pony like this? “Well you’re not going to stop me,” said Twilight. “Look at you. You can barely stand!” Minuette tried to get back up but stumbled. She took out a syringe and smiled weakly at Twilight. “Maybe. But if I’m going to lose then I’ll…” She couldn’t even finish the sentence. For a moment, Twilight thought Minuette would pass out. Instead, with a sudden jerk, she injected herself. At that she jumped back to her feet like nothing had ever happened. “Yes!” Her eyes opened frighteningly wide, so much so that Twilight feared they might pop out. “Come on! One last round! I have one more thing to show you! I know I can do this!” Minuette opened a portal behind her and jumped in. Again, they were high in the air. Minuette began opening portals left and right to pull objects to her side. This time, they weren’t weapons, however. As she fell, she began putting on an odd costume. She summoned a helmet made of glass. It looked like a fishbowl more than anything that could seriously protect her. Next came a big, puffy suit that covered her whole body. Finally, she attached two cylinders to her back, attaching them to her helmet via a tube. Immediately, Twilight thought Minuette might be taking them back underwater or into another volcano. She got ready to shield herself from anything of the sort. Minuette fell deeper than any earlier plunge. Her body glowed with magic, and she blasted it down at the ground to rent straight into spacetime itself. This portal had a completely different feel to it than the others. Minuette punched deep, far longer than would be needed to reach any point on the planet. Twilight briefly thought this must be a portal to the outer realm, but it looked just like any other Z gate portal. She’d never seen a portal like this before. Where could this possibly lead? Somewhere outside the fleeting remains of the network, it seemed. Twilight made her preparations. She created a dimensional tether to pull herself back if needed and a shield to protect from any immediate danger. Then she too fell into the portal. Normally, the trip through a portal took little enough time that it may have well been instant. A brief, one-second delay reminded Twilight that her destination lied far away. She landed on a patch of grey sand and bounced higher than she would have expected. Everything felt off, yet nothing damaged her shield. Twilight wasn’t surrounded by poisonous or even corrosive gas, nor was she underwater. Instead, a vacuum surrounded her. The most immediate danger now was rarefication. She could solve that easily enough by clamping down on her entire body with telekinesis. She wouldn’t have long to find air, though. She glanced around where she stood to find herself in a rocky desert with white sand stretching as far as she could see. Was there seriously a place like this on Equestria? How could there be a desert with no air in it? A thought came to her mind and Twilight looked up to find the answer. High above them, shinning only as a crescent, hung a blue sphere. Twilight realized that she was looking up at Equestria. They were on the moon! She’d seriously made a portal to the moon! That sincerely impressed Twilight. If only Minuette could have been reasoned with. So much wasted potential. Twilight turned to the younger witch who’d collapsed a good distance away. She breathed quickly in her moon gear; her eyes opened but were unable to get up for now. She must have some way to get back to the planet or she wouldn’t have come here. Sadly, Twilight’s dimensional tether snapped from the great distance between her and the planet above. For now, Twilight had more immediate concerns. Concerns like breathing. Remembering she could survive underwater without air using the elemental resonance spell, Twilight decided to see if that could save her. Twilight planted her hooves in the ground and searched for something, anything, she could resonate with. She sensed something unexpected. Ice! It didn’t look like it at first, but tiny amounts of ice were dissolved in the sands of the moon. There wasn’t nearly enough to resonate with, but a new plan formed in Twilight’s mind. Ice meant water and water meant oxygen. Twilight cast a spell that drew all the ice towards her. She needed to cover a vast area to get a decent amount of ice. Thankfully, the moon was one of the greatest sources of magic in the world. Twilight could feel the immensity of its power beneath her, dwarfing even her own. She could cast any spell here without getting tired. Her entire body began to glow. Minuette got up at the sight of that, only partially recovered and unable to open her bad eye. Wary of Twilight’s spell, she jumped back, covering a great distance thanks to the reduced gravity. Each speck of ice was too tiny to see, but Twilight felt them drawing in. For a hundred miles around, the lunar sands began shifting as they released their ice. Minuette put up a shield, likely thinking Twilight would attack her with this sand. Finally, the ice converged to the point it became visible. It grew to the size of a marble, then a small apple. Twilight’s lungs burned, begging her for air. She struggled to keep up her work, wishing she could tell her lungs that if they’d just shut up for one minute, she could get them what they wanted. Minuette sat up and watched the ice forming with growing horror. To overlook something so obvious made Twilight suspect Minuette had never done this before, and she’d had no idea there was ice here. Soon Twilight had a chunk of ice bigger than her head. This would have to do! Twilight didn’t have much time left. Furthermore, Minuette had finally regained the courage to make one last attack at this desperate moment. She jumped forward, bounding towards Twilight. Twilight would be turning purple right now if that weren’t already the case. The ice boiled away as Twilight converted it into hydrogen and oxygen. She expanded the clamping motion to keep it from floating away and surrounded herself with this new air. Twilight took a deep breath in. Not the best thing to be breathing, but she could survive for minutes in here. She looked up at Minuette, now descending towards her. The other witch needed only create a tiny spark to blow Twilight to pieces, given her present atmosphere. Her horn glowed briefly. Twilight crouched down ready to counter a fire spell. But then Minuette’s horn sparked, and her body convulsed. She must have fractured it casting that last spell after pushing herself far beyond the limit. Still, she pressed on with her final attack. She took out an odd gun and desperately tried to aim it down at Twilight with what remained of her good eye. A rocket shot out of the wide barrel, streaking towards Twilight with a tail of fire. Shooting that proved more than Minuette could manage. She faltered to one side upon firing it and went spinning out of control. She landed and tumbled lifelessly into a crater. Her aim was off to begin with and Twilight had no difficulty making a boundless jump away. A soundless explosion flashed off harmlessly to the side. As she hung weightlessly in the air, at the peak of her leap, Twilight watched Minuette tumbling limply into that crater. Another jump sent her after her defeated opponent. Up close, Twilight realized why this spell hadn’t been the first card she played. Minuette’s horn sparked and sizzled morbidly. Cracks ran up along the side of her horn. Her horn hadn’t just cracked, it threatened to rupture entirely! A unicorn’s horn was the strongest bone in any animal. Shattering one was an enormous undertaking. A horn bursting couldn’t even happen under normal circumstances. Whatever she injected herself with may have pushed her far beyond her limits, but that proved to be a bad thing. Worse, she was in the middle of a seizure when Twilight found her. Both her bloody and good eye rolled upward, and her body twitched out of control. “Can you hear me?” Twilight grabbed her weak body in her hooves. “If I don’t get you out of here right now, you might die. Did you have some way of getting back?” Minuette was already comatose. Twilight wouldn’t get any help from her. “Well, you can still help me even like this.” She immediately regretted talking. Already her oxygen supply ran thin. She became lightheaded from breathing this stuff too much besides. Twilight held her breath and scanned Minuette’s gear. She soon found where the seventh volume had been stored away. Twilight pulled the volume out and held it up. Unconscious, Minuette could not attempt to stop Twilight from taking it. She’d retrieved two, now. If you counted the one Sunset Shimmer had and the sixth volume recovered some time ago, then the journey to get all seven out of dangerous hooves was over halfway done. Just three left. And then… Twilight didn’t have time to think about that just now. She needed to use this book herself. She opened it and the fifteen generations of knowledge Minuette bragged about entered Twilight’s mind. She understood every trick perfectly now. She could see exactly how to make that portal to the moon and the one back to Equestria. Minuette saved her own life by recording that vital spell. Twilight’s lungs began to burn once more. She cast the hyper-spell to smash the same hole in spacetime Minuette had created shortly before. She grabbed Minuette and jumped through the portal. They reappeared in Equestria’s atmosphere, higher up than they’d yet to go. Twilight struggled to breathe this high up. There was nowhere to aim where on the planet that sort of portal would take you, so Twilight opted to go high. One last portal led them back to the rooftop where Rainbow Dash waited. Minuette landed hard enough for her helmet to shatter. Then her horn began glowing white. Just as Twilight feared, the trip back was too much for her. Just before it exploded, Twilight rushed forward to clamp down and prevent as much damage as possible. A large chunk of pure carmot burst off it with a blast of lightning, but she stopped the entire thing from bursting. The light died down. Now Twilight’s efforts shifted from breaking Minuette down to keeping her stable.