//------------------------------//
// Chapter 26: Pay-Off 6 
// Story: Piece by Piece 
// by Eltirions 
//------------------------------//

12 December 1008

Ponyville was swarming with soldiers. Again.

Nightmare had personally attended the battle for the town; Twilight Sparkle had vacated the town already, but there was still a stiff defence put up by the Celestialists. Still, Ponyville wasn’t a fortress; its only defence was the Canter and the Everfree to the east, and with Canterlot already in her hooves, it was easy enough to attack from two sides and cut off any escape route.

Currently, Nightmare was once again contemplating the stupidity of her soldiers. She had given explicit orders that no one was to enter Twilight’s castle without a direct order from her. Why had the guards let through Sweetie, her friends and her bodyguard?

‘’Your Majesty?’’

‘’Report,’’ Nightmare snapped back at the soldier. ‘’Where did Twilight go?’’

‘’We can’t tell, ma’am,’’ the soldier, one of her Night Guard, admitted glumly. ‘’The teleport’s trace is completely scrambled; could be by the magic of the Castle, could be intentional, could be both. At least that’s what Imperial Magician Shimmer says.’’

If anyone knows, it’s Sunset.

Nightmare was not one to ignore the power of magic, but its finer details had always escaped her; part of that was a lack of interest, another was a lack of time to fully delve into the more arcane parts of the magical arts.

‘’I see,’’ Nightmare said succinctly. ‘’I will talk further about this with the Imperial Magician myself. How are the…’’

She couldn’t think of a proper word, but the soldier understood what she meant anyway, as he replied: ‘’All four of them are being treated in the hospital. Agent Flower has broken his left foreleg and has taken a magical bolt to the head, but he should be alright. The three young mares are all physically alright, aside from some slight bruises, but the doctor says there is some remnant of mind controlling magic on all four of them.’’

Nightmare took a breath. ‘’I see,’’ she said again. ‘’And the dragon Spike?’’

‘’We found him in his room, and had to knock him out after he attacked us. There is, apparently, severe damage from mind control spells to his mind. At this point it’s unknown if he will ever recover.’’

Stars damn it all.

She should have locked Twilight up, instead of keeping her in house arrest. She definitely should not have left Spike with her; then again, if Twilight could overpower a dragon’s natural magic resistance, leaving her with a pony guard would have been even more dangerous.

‘’How did no one notice this?’’

It wasn’t a question aimed at the soldier, but she got an answer from him anyway. ‘’Ma’am, if I may… We’ve already taken some testimonies from the former Bearers and Lord Discord, who have all reported that Spike did not act out of character anytime in the past months.’’

Nightmare frowned. That was quite strange; mind control spells usually overrode the affected person’s being completely, turning them into creatures who could only act within exact parameters set down by their controller, and those parameters did not allow the controlled person to continue acting as normal.

Perhaps Twilight had invented a new and dangerous form of mind control. That was the only explanation that made sense. And if it was true, then that was quite a problem.

‘’I will speak with them myself,’’ Nightmare informed the soldier. ‘’Where is the Captain?’’

‘’She’s combing out the castle with the Imperial Magician and a few others.’’

‘’In that case, report to her second-in-command. Tell her I will be visiting Lord Discord before visiting the hospitalised ponies.’’

‘’As you wish, ma’am.’’ The soldier saluted with his wing, then bowed his head and flew off.

Nightmare turned around and almost had a heart attack.

Discord was already waiting on her, grinning. Next to him was Fluttershy, who looked calm and completely unaffected by her… husband’s(?) behaviour. 

‘’Afternoon, Moony,’’ Discord greeted lazily. ‘’I hear you’re looking for me?’’

‘’Yes,’’ Nightmare said, ignoring her own surprise. ‘’What do you know?’’

Discord shrugged. ‘’As much as those guards were willing to tell me, officially. Unofficially, I’ve figured out a little more. And, for the record, I didn’t know they were going to go into Twilight’s castle. If I did, I would have stopped them, or gone with them. Alas, I am not omniscient.’’

‘’You knew Twilight was doing this?’’ Nightmare snapped.

Discord raised an eyebrow. ‘’I just said I’m not omniscient, Moon and Star,’’ he quipped. ‘’And no, I did not know Twilight was doing anything with mind control. I guessed, and let me state extra clearly that it was a guess, nothing more, that she would go a wee bit cuckoo, and that visiting her like that probably wouldn’t have gone over too well, but I had no idea she would try to mind control anyone.’’

Nightmare let out a breath. ‘’She had control of Spike too. He might have permanent damage.’’

Fluttershy gasped, while Discord’s shoulders sagged. ‘’I’ll see if I can do anything,’’ he offered, sounding very sincere. ‘’I’m not a healer, but I think I’ve gotten pretty good at unfucking messes.’’

Nightmare took a moment to contemplate it, then nodded. ‘’As you wish. I’ll tell Captain Mournhoof you two are free to go wherever. She shouldn’t try to stop you anyway, but still. Better safe than sorry.’’

‘’Thank you, your Majesty,’’ Fluttershy spoke up. ‘’I think we’ll visit the Crusaders and Twinkle now.’’

‘’You do that,’’ Nightmare said with a smile, before remembering something. ‘’Oh, and Fluttershy? Congratulations on your pregnancy.’’

With that said, she spread her wings and leapt up into the air, headed for the castle.




|-x-X-x-|




12 December 1008

Sunset glared down the hallway. They were quite far into the castle now, probably underground as well. They’d gone down a staircase or two already, after all.

Sunset was at the head of their little group; behind her were Captain Mournhoof and a section of the Night Guard, making ten ponies in total including herself. Between Sunset’s magical skill and the combined firepower of nine Night Guards, there shouldn’t be anything in the castle that could stop them.

Still, that didn’t mean Sunset liked being inside a castle that had been inhabited by a (soon-to-be-certified) madmare for months with no clear escape route in sight.

‘’It looks safe,’’ she noted.

‘’Looks can be deceiving,’’ Captain Mournhoof remarked. The dark blue thestral stood next to Sunset, peering down the hallway as well. ‘’You know anything about this place? More specifically, where this leads?’’

‘’My guess is as good as yours,’’ Sunset replied. ‘’The only one who knows is a wanted criminal as soon as the paperwork is done, probably.’’

Mournhoof chuckled dryly. ‘’Let’s just move forward then, see what we find. Keep your eyes peeled, lads.’’

They moved forward through the hallway, Sunset and Mournhoof at the front. Sunset had a shielding spell ready the moment she noticed anything off, and she’d already seen that Mournhoof could get her rifle out and ready to fire in the same time it’d take her to cast a shield. Presumably the other soldiers could do the same.

The hallway was well-lit, at least. Still, Sunset couldn’t see where it led to; the hallway just seemed to go without end.

As they continued walking, however, they found this was not the case. At the end of the hallway, a door was visible and steadily growing more so. Sunset also noticed another thing: the air was getting thick with magic.

She stopped. ‘’There’s a lot of magic in the air, and I mean a lot. I don’t know what it means we’ll be finding inside there, but it’s probably not very safe.’’

‘’Noted,’’ Mournhoof said. ‘’Anything else?’’

‘’No.’’

‘’On we go then.’’

Once they were in front of the door, Sunset gently opened it with her telekinesis, and one of the soldiers took point. ‘’Clear,’’ she said after a few seconds, and Sunset opened the door further to allow them all to walk through.

As she might have expected, inside was a laboratory. Quite an extensive one, too; it must have been there before the Civil War, there was no way Twilight had constructed it in secret during her house arrest.

‘’Talk to me Shimmer, what are we dealing with here?’’

‘’A laboratory,’’ Sunset sweetly replied. ‘’What she was researching here, I’ve no idea.’’

‘’Find out.’’

‘’Yes ma’am,’’ Sunset muttered under her breath as she moved towards what appeared to be the main table. ‘’Don’t touch anything,’’ she called out to the soldiers, who had spread themselves around the room.

‘’You heard her,’’ Mournhoof said. ‘’Keep your hooves to yourselves.’’

Spread out on the main table were schematics of various magics; spells. Sunset had to admire it; it was a very detailed research paper, penned in some of the neatest hornwriting she’d ever seen. For all her seeming insanity, Twilight had still been able to work on magic like no one Sunset had ever met, including herself.

‘’This is how Twilight’s mind control spell works,’’ Sunset informed Mournhoof, who’d walked over to stand next to her. ‘’I’ll have a look, see what else there is.’’

‘’Do that.’’ Mournhoof cast a critical eye over the research equipment. ‘’Can this be moved?’’

‘’Maybe,’’ Sunset replied after giving it a glance. ‘’I’d have to take a closer look. For now I wouldn’t try it though.’’

‘’Understood.’’

‘’Ma’am, there’s a doorway here!’’

Both Sunset and Mournhoof turned towards the stallion who’d said that, to see him standing on the far right side of the room, next to what looked like a full-body mirror. As Sunset came closer, however, she saw the mirror had a small knob.

‘’What’s the plan?” she asked Mournhoof.

Mournhoof looked critically at the mirror. ‘’Do you detect anything off?’’

Sunset cast a life-detection and then a magic-detection spell at the mirror, both coming back negative. ‘’Nothing,’’ she replied with a shake of her head. ‘’It could be shielded against my spells, however.’’

‘’I’ll take that chance,’’ Mournhoof declared after a moment. ‘’Alright, form up everyone! Eyes on this door. I’m going to open it, Sunset is going to be next to me, and the rest of you will be back, at the ready.’’

‘’Yes ma’am,’’ the soldiers replied, and they moved to their positions. Sunset, for her part, prepared a shielding spell.

‘’Ready?’’ Mournhoof inquired.

‘’Ready,’’ Sunset affirmed with a nod. 

‘’Here goes nothing,’’ she heard Mournhoof mutter, before she reached out and touched the knob. After a moment, she pulled. That did nothing, so she pushed, and the door opened.

Something moved.

Mournhoof was slammed back by a grey… thing; Sunset couldn’t for the life of her see what it was. But that didn’t matter; she snapped her shield up immediately, before shooting an energy bolt at the thing.

The bolt missed, as the creature was already moving away from Mournhoof, at a pace that Sunset couldn’t help but be impressed by. The Night Guard were moving too, going for cover even as they opened fire, bullets shooting through the air. Sunset made sure to keep her shield up around her; one wild bullet could be the death of her.

The thing pounced on one of the soldiers, and she went down with a shout. Sunset seized the opportunity and sent a barrage of spells at the creature. One or two hit, and the thing whipped its head around to face Sunset.

Glowing purple eyes set in a stone-grey face glared at Sunset, and she had one moment to reflect.

Fuck.

With an unearthly screech, the creature leapt forward towards Sunset. The bullets of the guns seemed to bounce off its skin without effect. 

Sunset tried to dodge, but she was too slow; the creature was already upon her. Claws dug into her side, and she let out a yelp.

The creature pushed her on the ground, and dug its claws further into her. Sunset slammed raw magical energy into its face, and it recoiled back, though not enough to pull its claws from Sunset’s body.

Then someone - one of the soldiers - dove upon the creature. The claws came free, making her gasp, as the soldier and the creature rolled on the ground.

Sunset got up on shaky legs and cast a quick healing spell to stop the bleeding. She’d need to recast it properly later, of course, but for now it ensured she wouldn’t pass out from blood loss, at least.

The soldier and creature were still scuffling on the floor, and four more soldiers were moving to help. Two were helping Mournhoof and the soldier that’d been pounced on by the creature, so that left only Sunset as not doing anything. And with five soldiers on the creature, surely that’d be enough?

Just then, there was a scream, and someone was flung away. Then the creature screeched again, and the soldiers who’d been trying to keep it down were knocked away. It rose from the floor, growling.

Sunset hit it with a semi-dark spell designed to shatter whatever it hit like a wine glass dropped from a three-story window, and the creature roared as its side exploded into tiny stone shards.

Sunset grimaced. ‘’Alright, then, you bastard. Let’s see how you like this.’’ And she shot a lightning bolt from her horn. The crack of thunder that followed was deafening, echoed by the crystal walls and drowning out the pained roar of the golem as it failed to dodge and was hit on its other side by the spell.

It charged forward then, but Sunset was ready this time, and sent forth another lightning bolt, which made it stop as it was hit straight in the face.

Gotcha, motherfucker.

‘’Shimmer, get a shield around it! Something that can contain an explosion!’’ Mournhoof shouted, the last word cut off as Sunset shot lightning again at the creature, only for it to dodge and the bolt to splash against the crystal walls without much effect.

‘’Okay!’’ she shouted back. Easier said than done.

She hit the thing with a spell that made it stagger, then saw a grenade being thrown from behind the creature, rolling under it. Immediately she cast the shield around the creature, and before it could break free (the shield would only hold the explosion, not the creature), the grenade exploded.

Sunset looked away but still maintained the shield, to contain the force of the explosion. After a few seconds, she looked back.

There was nothing left of the thing but pieces of stone, scattered around the floor. Sunset let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding in as she approached the remnants of the thing.

‘’What,’’ someone, Sunset didn’t see who, said, ‘’in Tartarus was that?’’

‘’A golem,’’ Sunset absently answered as she stared down at the stones.

‘’Shimmer!’’ Mournhoof’s voice called out. ‘’Get your flank over here!’’

Sunset hurriedly complied with that demand and made her way to Mournhoof, who was resting on a seat, attended by two of the soldiers. There was a bandage wrapped around her barrel, stained a light red in certain places.

‘’Fucker got me good, but I’ll live,’’ Mournhoof said. ‘’How about you?’’

‘’I cast a spell to stop the bleeding,’’ Sunset replied. ‘’I’ll cast a better spell later.’’

‘’Do it now,’’ Mournhoof ordered. ‘’And let Moonshine here take a look at it.’’

‘’It’ll be fine-’’

‘’Shimmer.’’

Sunset cast the spell, then allowed the medic to look her over. No shame in that, and she wasn’t a healer after all. Still, it looked like she’d done it well, as the medic declared she was good to go.

‘’So, what’s the plan?’’ Sunset asked as the medic moved on to the soldier that had been trashed by the golem.

‘’Go back topside,’’ Mournhoof said without hesitation. ‘’I’m not staying down here any longer than necessary.’’

‘’As you wish.’’ Sunset looked around the room. ‘’I’ll inform the Empress of this.’’

‘’We’ll do it together,’’ Mournhoof countered. ‘’After I visit an actual doctor, of course. Moonshine’s been known to be lacking.’’

‘’Screw you too, ma’am!’’ the stallion in question shouted back.

Sunset couldn’t help but chuckle at that.