//------------------------------//
// Chapter Twenty Four: War 
// Story: Sky Dancer, the First Flying Unicorn 
// by Scroll 
//------------------------------//

“Hello there, tiny little horses,” spoke a booming voice just beyond the Crystal Heart barrier. “I hope I am an imposition. I was just wondering if Feather Wind can come out to play.”

“Ah . . . Feather Wind,” Spike called back partially over his shoulder while he kept his eyes glued on the huge, menacing sight beyond the Crystal Heart barrier. “I think . . . he wants to see you.”

“Do you actually know this dragon?” Ember asked Feather Wind as he emerged from the crowd.

“Indeed I do,” Feather Wind answered in a serious tone as he stepped ahead of the crowd and regarded the recent looming threat just beyond the barrier. “He is the first dragon I met in this time period. The only one I met here besides all of you.”

“Huh.” Ember regarded the intruder with interest. “So that's the chump that fell against you so easily.”

Feather Wind nodded. “Confirmed, although I will have to say he's lost a lot of weight since then.”

The dragon in question was nothing but bones. The gigantic bone dragon leaned heavily against the Crystal Heart barrier, almost resting on top of it. Tiny red eyes hovered in giant empty eye sockets as the crazed and hungry-looking dragon scratched at the Crystal Heart barrier over and over again. The only thing that passed for skin on this creature anymore was a black cloud floating between it's bones. Feather Wind's Red Crystal hummed very strongly to be in this corrupted creature's presence. For that to happen, it meant the unliving dragon radiated intense amounts of dark magic. It likely required that much to animate a corpse this powerful.

“Hello, Feather Wind,” the dragon said in a tone of false politeness. In fact it positively dripped with intensely powerful negative intentions. “It's so good to see you again. It's been such a long time. I was beginning to wonder if you had forgotten about me. How are you?” His polite words were such a sharp contrast to his menacing tone, it was really quite disturbing to hear. Feather Wind could practically hear the gurgle of hatred boiling under his voice.

“I've been better,” Feather Wind admitted honestly. “My journey has been rather trying lately but, fortunately for me, I have a lot of new friends to help me through these awful times.”

“Aw! I'm sorry to hear that!” Fang said politely with a tone dripping with venom while he kept on absently clawing at the Crystal Heart barrier. His tiny red eyes shook harder with barely contained raw fury. “If it will make you feel worse, I'll gladly kill all of your new friends for you, then you can be perfectly miserable again. How does that sound?”

“Sounds like a plan I'll do everything in my power to prevent,” Feather Wind replied firmly as he spread himself in a more secure battle stance. The Red Crystal on his neck flared for a moment. After that his coat became glossy with transparent crystal.

“I hope you do, my tiny little morsel. I hope you struggle in vain as I pull off their tiny little legs one by one. This is going to be ever so much fun, and oh, that gem about your neck looks so delicious! It may be a tiny little morsel, but something tells me it packs quite a punch. I can't wait to devour it.”

“Choke on it,” Feather Wind menaced as he narrowed his eyes.

“I'm not sorry. I can't do that. I no longer have mortal weaknesses like you and your pathetic friends,” Fang reported. He lifted his bony tail high above his head, “but, like I said, please feel free to struggle all you like. I want to savor the moment I break your spirit. Abandon hope, tiny one. It will service you no further beyond this point.”

The giant dragon dove his tail into the earth while he continued to stare hard at Feather Wind like a rabid dog about to tear into a juicy meal. As he continued his fixed, icy stare, the terrain started to rumble more and more.

“What is he doing?” Author Scroll asked aloud as he used magic to help steady himself from all the sudden and violent rocking.

Ramadon bowed low and touched the earth with a hoof, closed his eyes and concentrated, then he answered, “He's disturbing the earth's tectonic plates with his tail. He's creating a small fissure in the earth! That tail must be massive!”

“Well, can't you stop this?!” Trixie asked with rising panic as she stumbled about back and forth.

“I will try.” Ramadon slammed both of his forward hooves into the earth, closed his eyes and concentrated hard.

“Yes! Struggle!” Fang invited in a vicious tone that boarded on nearly sexual sounding excitement. At that point his entire head was quaking in addition to his tiny red glowing eyes. “Your despair will taste so much more delicious when it comes at your failure despite your best efforts. Think of your friends. Think of your loved ones. Know that you are about to fail them, and there is nothing you can do to stop it!”

Fang withdrew his gigantic tail from the earth. He finally pulled away from the Crystal Heart barrier only to take a massive intake of breath, which seemed kind of pointless to a dragon made almost entirely of only bones, then he spewed out a projectile vomit of roaring black flames into the hole his tail made a moment ago. He kept that flame spewing out constantly. The land around him started to melt and turn into lava due to the intense and constant pressure. He was not living anymore so he no longer had mortal limitations. His flame breath, accordingly, was inexhaustible.

The land quaked much harder, and Ramadon shouted, “OH NO! HIS FLAME BREATH IS BUILDING UP A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF PRESSURE UNDER THE EARTH. THERE IS LITERALLY NOTHING I CAN DO!”

Sombra slammed both of his hooves into the earth and quickly tried to grow a giant lattice of crystal under the earth in the hopes of holding everything together. 

“THIS BARRIER IS PROJECTED UNDER THE EARTH TOO, RIGHT?” Princess Cadence called out loud to her grown up daughter in concern as she fought to steady herself. Her supportive husband remained loyally by her side and tried his best to aid her balance.

“YES,” Flurry Heart hollered back, “BUT THAT ISN'T GOING TO MATTER IF THE WHOLE EARTH BLOWS UP UNDER OUR HOOVES.”

“EVERY UNICORN MUST ASSEMBLE WITH ME!” Star Swirl called out desperately. “WE MUST ALL COMBINE OUR MAGICS TO HELP FORTIFY RAMADON AND SOMBRA'S EFFORTS TO SECURE THE EARTH.”

“Oh no!” Sombra said with horror under his breath as he watched the red crystal under him glow brighter and brighter, then he called aloud. “IT'S TOO LATE!” Immediately he abandoned his efforts to hold the crystal lattice underneath them together and instead rushed as fast as he could to Princess Flurry Heart. As he leapt into her, he erected a spherical crystal barrier around himself and Flurry Heart in a desperate attempt to protect her. 

Right after that, the earth under all of them erupted as a violent spew of lava which exploded high into the air. Every creature within the massive area tried their best to leap out of the way, fly out of the way, or erect a magical barrier. Some of them also managed to save several other creatures from the potentially fatal attack, although the dragons in the party were not much threatened. Instead of being damaged, they were blown away and lost in a virtual tsunami of exploding lava. Even if it did not burn them, it weighed them down as molten rock later started to cool on their torso, limbs and scales. 

{I, myself, barely had any time to save any creature. I did not even pay attention to whom I was saving. I simply used my horn to draw in every creature around me as if I were briefly a black hole. Once they were pulled in close, I created a powerful whirling spherical cyclone of air all around us. It caused the lava to spin all around us even as we were shot out of the danger zone. Since all of my concentration was used to maintain the barrier, we crashed pretty hard on the rocky earth eventually when we landed. 

{By the way, one of the creatures I happened to rescue in my attempt was Spike. Mind you, he may not have been threatened by the heat of the lava itself, but he could drown in it.}

Feather Wind shook his head as his body throbbed with pain in many places. He almost asked if every creature around him were okay but, upon listening to their groans of pain, he realized he did not need to ask. They were definitely not okay, but at least they were alive enough to complain about it. 

{The blast of lava scattered us all across the landscape. That put us in extreme danger, not to mention many of us could have been vaporized by the volcanic blast of the lava itself. Even if we survived that, they had to survive the fall. If they survived that, then there was the Black Blizzard snow storm, the choking smoke and the hoards of unliving monsters waiting to pounce us. This disaster was so severe it had a chance to wipe us all out in one blow. My mind and heart was aching with worry for all my beloved friends, but my situation grew considerably worse a few short moments later.}

Another earthquake shattered the earth nearby Feather Wind's position. He looked to one direction and realized, with horror, what had caused it. The unliving dragon, Fang, had landed nearby, and he kept his sights locked on a tiny yellow mare pegasus with a lavish pink mane and tail.

Fluttershy screamed, startled, when the earth rumbled violently around her. She shivered in fear as she kept her forward hooves covered over her face until a giant reptilian gurgle sound won her attention. She slowly uncovered her face from her hooves and looked to her left. There she saw a giant bone pelvis just sitting on the earth. As her eyes steadily climbed up the tower of bones beside her, her eye pupils gradually grew smaller and smaller in sheer terror. She increasingly opened her mouth as widely as it could to scream reflexively but very little actual sound came out of her. She tried to scream but managed only tiny little adorable peeps. 

{I could not believe the horror she must have felt in that moment. Fluttershy made it abundantly clear many times how scared she was of massive dragons, and this dragon was as menacing as they come. It was not alive anymore either. Only pure negative energy held it together. One could say that pure hatred kept it on it's claws. There was zero chance she could peacefully negotiate with this one, and it would also prove absolutely immune to her famous “Stare”. It was known for sure that this dragon had extremely hostile intentions to the point of being sinister. Fang could be perfectly content to rip a strip of hide off of her one inch at a time. He savored the pain of others that much. 

{I wanted to save her. I truly did, and I also knew that Fang's interest were locked on me even more than her. I tried to call out, but panic choked me as well, not to mention the smoke. The volcano belched a cloud of smoke away from the area momentarily but it was about to return with a vengeance. I felt bewildered and helpless. The situation felt massive and overwhelming.}

Fang slowly reached down with a bony claw to pick up Fluttershy as if she were a tiny toy. By the time his claw surrounded her, Fluttershy finally fainted. The unliving bone dragon scooped up her limp body up to half of his towering height. With his other claw, he poked at her unconscious body for a moment, probably hoping to wake her back up so he could savor her intense terror again. The effort was in vain. Her body merely got nudged as if she were a fresh corpse. 

“Leave . . . Fluttershy . . . ALONE!” Discord demanded as he suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He also grew to the same height as the towering dragon. He raised his own eagle claw and lion paw upward as he grew. A black cyclone storm whirled above his own head. Discord grew black for a moment as eyes flashed red very menacingly at the bone dragon Fang. With a snap of his lion paw, the lava flowing out of the earth that originally scattered all of his friends turned into a giant pile of ice cream with multiple flavors and layers to it. With a snap of his left eagle claw, the menacing Black Blizzard storm that was starting to return turned into cotton candy that rained chocolate which, incidentally, greatly pleased Pinkie Pie. 

“Drop the adorable little pegasus,” Discord demanded of Fang as he slowly lifted his right lion paw, threatening to snap his fingers again, “or you'll see what I turn you into. Maybe a giant pile of rotting cheese? Or, better yet, how about a xylophone made of bones! Ooo-hoo-hoo-hoo! I can't wait to pick a bone with you.”

“Do it, Discord! Destroy him!” Card Shark yelled up to Discord which immediately made Feather Wind alarmed and suspicious. If Card Shark wanted Discord to mess with the unliving dragon then somehow that plan would backfire. 

“No, Discord! Remember what the Doctor said to us all those years ago!” Spike called loudly up to his friend. “If you use your powers against it, The Dark Star will copy you!”

“What do you propose as an alternative?” Card Shark asked Spike sharply. “Do you want to see your friend Fluttershy die?”

“No. Of course not. Um,” Spike grew frantically thoughtful, then looked back at Discord as he made a suggestion. “How about you instead turn me into a giant dragon? Then I can save Fluttershy myself.”

Discord snapped his lion paw then, after a brief white flash, Spike suddenly gained a long gray beard, a pointy wizard hat, a long purple cape and carried a magic staff. Spike examined himself and realized, with delight, that he became his fictional character Garbunkle from his game with Discord called Ogres and Oubliettes (which was a game Vision liked to play with them as well). He then said, “Ah, thanks Discord! That works too.”

“Let us see how squishy this tiny little one is,” Fang said curiously as he lowered one claw towards Fluttershy. “I wonder how much blood will spread on my claw when I squish her. Such a tiny little bug.”

“He wants to hurt her,” Card Shark observed as he slowly pulled down the edge of his fedora hat to hide the look of evil satisfaction he had in his eyes. “He's already hurt her. Fluttershy has already been scared out of her wits severely enough to lose consciousness, and you're going to let a little sidekick be her hero instead of you?”

Discord's eyes and eyebrows flamed with fury, and he trembled with rage.

{Meanwhile I could not raise my own voice in objection, and the truth was a strong part of me didn't want to. What argument could I possibly give that would be strong enough to convince Discord to abandon Fluttershy? That I had a bad hunch about Card Shark? 

{Then there was Fluttershy to consider. I was furious at Fang and greatly concerned for her too. It was hard enough to keep my own wits in check let alone expect restraint from an omnipotent being accustomed to getting instant gratification to every wish all the time.}

“You messed with the wrong beauty!” Discord growled. The storm cloud above his head whirled about faster and faster. While that happened, the blaze in his eyes grew brighter. “Now you'll get the beast!” 

Screaming in rage, Discord gathered both of his claw and paw near the side of his upper chest area and conjured a steadily growing, large ball of whirling, chaotic black energy between the claw and paw and shifted that gathering whirling mass of energy to his side near his right rib cage. While he did that he, for some inexplicable reason, suddenly grew tall golden hair that glowed with bright energy and stood straight up. At the same time an explosion of golden energy whirled around him and made a radiating, wavy sound. As he charged this attack, the dragon Fang froze while he regarded Discord curiously. Discord, meanwhile, spoke out in a multi-voice, “Ka . . . may . . . ah . . . may . . . HAAAAAAAAAA!” After ten seconds of powering up, Discord shot a constant stream of black, chaotic whirling energy at Fang, meaning to annihilate the bone dragon in one shot and simultaneously save Fluttershy. 

It would have hit the dragon, too, if it weren't for another copy of Discord suddenly appearing and swallowed up Discord's constant stream of chaotic energy, but Discord ended his attack prematurely when he noticed he had a new problem. He gazed across the battlefield to see a totally black, shadowy version of himself stand up straight, wipe his lips then burped in satisfaction.

“Ehhh!” Discord put his eagle talon into his neck and dragged it outward. His own skin acted like it was merely a shirt which promptly let out a blast of nervous steam, looking very uncomfortable at that moment. “That's not good!”

Shadow Discord reached up into the heavens. A stream of lightning bolts shot into him and zapped all around his body which made him writhe a bit with the energy charge, then he appeared to stretch. “Finally! Finally I'm free of your wretched weak self!” Shadow Discord cried out in evil satisfaction. “Now I can finally free you too. Behold!” Shadow Discord snapped his lion paw and Fluttershy teleported into his eagle talon while simultaneously becoming a stock of broccoli that looked very much like a tree. He reached that above his head and proceeded to drop the broccoli into his mouth but it vanished in mid air and appeared as Fluttershy's normal form nearby the original Discord, complements of the same draconequus.

“Oh, so you want to play a game!” Shadow Discord cried in delight at his counterpart. “Well, game on, fool!”

Shadow Discord conjured a cloud of piranha fish to rain down on the entire battlefield. 

Discord countered by summoning a bunch of seagulls to snatch them all up before the fish could land and, for some reason, every single seagull kept repeatedly squawking the word, “Mine!” 

Shadow Discord summoned and wore a golden gauntlet with five brightly glowing, different colored gems on the gauntlet's knuckles. He reached back towards the moon with the golden gauntlet then made a crushing fist. Far into the background, the moon instantly shattered into many tiny pieces. When Shadow Discord dragged the golden gauntlet forward, the pieces of the distant moon was dragged towards the planet at devastating speeds.

Discord countered by conjuring a fishing rod and throwing the string forward. That caused the moon fragments to suspend for some reason. When Discord yanked the fishing rod back, the moon fragments not only drew away from the planet and return to its original position, but they also reassembled into one piece again. 

Shadow Discord lifted two fingers on both his lion paw and eagle claw and crossed it in front of him while saying, “Shadow Clone Jutsu!” As soon as he said that, an army materialized around him, and each one was an evil copy of all of Feather Wind's friends, including Feather Wind himself. 

Discord fumed out flames from his nostrils, then summoned a scroll out of thin air which had the title at the top of the scroll reading “Naruto References in M-L-P” and he quickly wrote out angrily, “TOTALLY NON-CANON” under the title. Instantly all of the shadow clones disappeared, a few doing so with mild complaints. 

Shadow Discord snapped a claw and said, “Taste the shadow rainbow, loser!” A rainbow suddenly stretched out above them but quickly lost it's color. It rained tiny bits of candy from it at first but they, too, lost it's color and became giant boulders raining down from the sky. 

Discord shook with fury and snapped his eagle claw. The boulders turned back into tiny bits of candy (which Pinkie Pie tried to devour on it's way down) and the rainbow above regained it's color. Moreover, there was now a pink fluffy filly with a wide happy smile, enlarged eye pupils and a fake unicorn horn taped to her forehead who hopped on the rainbow continuously first with it's forward hooves then hind legs while the words, “Pink fluffy unicorns, dancing on rainbows,” sang repeatedly over and over again all around them. 

Shadow Discord snapped his lion paw and thousands upon thousands of Fluttershy clones appeared all across the landscape, each one crying at Discord and begging to convince him that each one was the real one, in some cases to the point of being in tears. 

Since this recent change brought back very bad memories for him, Discord shook both of his limbs below him as the top of his head exploded as if his head became a volcano and the upper half of his head was just a loose lid. He shouted, “ENOUGH!” He clapped his paw and claw together and a shock wave of energy spread out from him which wiped away every creation both of them made and it also teleported both Discord and Shadow Discord away. Unfortunately that also meant the unconscious body of Fluttershy returned to Fang's bony claw and, for some reason, Spike vanished.

There was a stunned pause by every creature and shadow corrupted creature because of what recently happened but, after a few moments, the sounds of battle resumed.

“Well, that didn't go so well for our adorable yellow heroine,” Card Shark announced smugly. “Now it's up to you, Feather Wind.”

“Me?” Feather Wind countered in disbelief.

“You're the one the dragon really wants,” Card Shark reminded Feather Wind. “You killed him once. Now he wants to return the favor. Oppose the dragon now, or let Fluttershy die. She's one of the Elements of Harmony. In this case, she is the weakest link of her six friends, but no less important when it comes to summoning your ultimate trump card which you'll need to defeat The Dark Star. If she dies, the world dies. Make your choice, boy!”

Feather Wind regarded the giant bone dragon.

“Is this one precious to you?” Fang asked curiously and tauntingly while lifting up Fluttershy's unconscious body towards Feather Wind's direction. “Is she one of your treasures? Please say yes.”

“He'll kill her regardless of what you say,” Card Shark told Feather Wind quietly. “Make your choice, but make it quick. Fluttershy's life is on the line, but what do you care about her? She's just a meaningless time clone anyway, is she not?”

Feather Wind slammed both his hooves into the earth and dragged it backwards towards him. Angry tears hung in his eyes. His face was scrunched up in anger and determination.

She is not meaningless! Feather Wind cried out in his mind. Time clone or no, Fluttershy is Fluttershy, and she is my friend! That makes her my treasure, and I will not abandon her to this monster!

“That's it, Fang! You want a rematch? Well here I am!” Feather Wind boldly cried out as he stood back on his hooves again.

“Way to go, Dad! You tell him!” his daughter in the future cheered him on.

“I'll fight you to your heart's content, on one condition,” Feather Wind went on. “Let Fluttershy go unharmed, or I will just stand here and let you kill me.”

“What kind of bargain is that?” Fang asked in surprise as he looked taken aback.

“You tell me,” Feather Wind countered evenly as he narrowed his eyes at the dragon. “You'll only get to kill me once. How will you decide to kill me? Do you want to squash me right now and get it over with, or do you want to fight me at my best and prolong my suffering as long as possible? The choice is yours! Right now I live in hope. You were the one who said you could crush it by defeating us when we're at our best.”

Fang seemed amused. “You drive a hard bargain, tiny horse. I'll call your bluff and raise the stakes.” Fang crawled forward and swung the claw that held Fluttershy crashing down on top of Feather Wind. Feather Wind just stood there and closed his eyes while the giant claw came crashing down on top of him, then opened his eyes four seconds later and saw the giant claw suspended above him. “You were really just going to stand there and let yourself be killed?” Fang asked, dumbfounded.

“All I ask for is Fluttershy's safe return,” Feather Wind repeated. “You won't get what you really want until you give me that first.”

“Whoa, Dad! You were such a bad-ass!” Star Breeze remarked, impressed.

Fang growled intensely in anger then chucked Fluttershy away. Feather Wind caught her in a telekinetic aura then guided her gently to the ground. Card Shark moved to protect her after that. 

Fang crouched low and backed off smoothly like a cat getting ready to pounce, except for the fact that he crawled backwards away from his opponent. He kept a fixed stare on Feather Wind as he did so.

“You're right, my little horse. I do want to fight you at your best,” Fang admitted. “I want you to know for sure that you will lose this fight no matter how hard you struggle. I want you to know that you never stood a chance from the beginning. I want you to writhe in agony and despair!”

“Talk is cheap!” Feather Wind barked back. “If we're going to do this, let's do this.” 

Feather Wind's entire body glowed silver. His cloak behind him billowed as it turned dark gray like a storm cloud gathering water. In addition, a real storm gathered far above their heads. Fang briefly looked up to regard that developing threat, then looked back at his opponent carefully. He underestimated his opponent last time. He was determined not to make that mistake again. Meanwhile Feather Wind's Red Crystal also glowed red as it lifted off his neck a bit. He created a crystal sword beside him which hovered near him, ready to strike as Crystal Sage had taught him.

Then, all of the sudden, everything went dark.

“What?!” Star Breeze exclaimed in shock.

The next time Feather Wind regained his consciousness in the past, he looked above him and snorted away the dirt that clogged his nostrils which made a horsey blowing sound from his muzzle. Ahead of him, he saw Card Shark bend down to pick up the Red Crystal off the ground. Moments after he touched it, the crystal grew black as if he infected it somehow with dark energy.

“Why?” Feather Wind cried out then winced in pain. Apparently there was a sharp blow to the back of his head. It was most likely the reason he lost consciousness a moment ago. “Why betray me now? You had a long chance to do it all along while I was talking to Fang. I was even distracted.”

“Because you did not tap into the power of the Red Crystal yet,” Card Shark explained as he lifted the now black crystal near his face and grinned at it in evil satisfaction. “For me to tap into it's full potential, I needed two things from you. One was your blood, and the other was you unlocking it's power as you prepare to use it. I could only use it while it was at the height of it's power.”

“My blood?” Feather Wind questioned. “You don't have my blood. You are not part of my family. You . . .” Feather Wind paused in shock as he recalled the time Card Shark licked a small trace of blood off the paper cut from his cheek. Privately Feather Wind wondered in shock, That's it? That's all it takes to use the crystal?

“Two Jokers down,” Card Shark said in evil satisfaction then flashed Feather Wind the same grin. “One more to go.” With that he aimed the black crystal at Feather Wind. It started to suck out all of Feather Wind's magical energy which took about four seconds but it felt a lot longer to Feather Wind. After that Feather Wind's light blue coat faded to gray and his cutie mark vanished from his flank. His eyes grew duller in color. 

“Ah! Such precious magical energy!” Card Shark savored. “The power to control the earth and sky, and the power to do whatever else unicorns have up their horn. Thanks for the charge, fool. I will use this a lot more wisely than you did, and say . . . that's a nice cloak. I think I'll take that as well.”

Card Shark aimed the stone at Feather Wind again. The cloak teleported off of Feather Wind then draped smoothly onto Card Shark. The moment that happened, the clouds in the cloak turned black like a heavy rain storm. 

Feather Wind tried to get up but found he was too weak. He tried to summon his magical energy but found he was empty. Even his emotions felt drained from him somehow. It grew difficult, but not impossible, to care about anything.

“Thank you, Fang, for playing your part in this brilliantly,” Card Shark said to the bone dragon with a graceful bow.

“Took longer than I thought,” Fang noted. “I honestly did not expect the boy to just stand there while I threatened his friend. I thought you said he cared for the little filly.”

“He does,” Card Shark assured. “He was just playing you for a fool, or at least he tried to.”

“Can I eat her now?” Fang asked eagerly while hungrily looking at the still unconscious body of Fluttershy.

“With what? You have no stomach,” Card Shark pointed out. “Besides, I have further uses for the little filly. Why kill a friend?”

“She's not my friend,” Fang argued.

“Yes, but she will be mine soon. I prepared her well for this situation.” Card Shark strode over to her and whispered into her ear, “Wake up, little filly.”

Fluttershy did. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked around, dazed and confused. “What? What happened? I had an awful dream.”

“Of course you did,” Card Shark said with a slight roll of his eyes, “but you can relax now. I will take care of everything for you. Now, my pretty little love slave . . .” Card Shark leaned forward and said very emphatically, “. . . your master . . . calls upon you.”

Instantly Fluttershy's eyes grew very small as she got seized in a trance, and she said in a quiet, monotone voice, “I am pleased to answer my master's call.”

Card Shark smiled in satisfaction as he stood up straight again and gently pat her on her head with his gentlecolt's cane. “There you go. Now get up, my little love slave.”

“Yes, my master,” Fluttershy said emptily as she moved to obey.

“You may go now,” Card Shark said over his shoulder to Fang. “Fluttershy, Feather Wind and my daughter are under my protection, but you may slaughter all the rest to your heart's content.”

“Which one is your daughter again?” Fang checked.

“She wears a purple cape and has a tall, pointy, purple hat with fancy stars on it. She'll erroneously claim to be great and powerful and often speaks in third person. You can't miss her. Leave her alone and these two, or we will have issues to deal with later on.”

“I'm going to pretend you just didn't threaten me a moment ago, and remember our bargain as well.”

“I remember,” Card Shark assured as he narrowed his eyes but not in Fang's direction. “You'll get what's coming to you soon enough.”

Fang spread his bony wings apart. “At LAST! Now the real fun begins.” Fang leapt up and flapped down. Despite the illogical use of his wings without skin, they functioned perfectly fine. A huge blast of wind shot around him as the bone dragon took off to assault the rest of Feather Wind's gathered allies. 

“Well, this has been a most entertaining show,” Card Shark said with a flourishing bow to Feather Wind. “Now if you'll excuse me, I have a world to conquer. Toodles for now!”

Card Shark was about to turn to leave until Feather Wind called out desperately, “Wait! What about your daughter?”

That question made Card Shark freeze. As Feather Wind had suspected, that question hit a nerve.

“If you betray us all to The Dark Star, you'll betray her too!” Feather Wind argued. “Whatever promise The Dark Star offered you, you of all ponies should know how treacherous the darkness is. It will betray you as soon as it is done using you like a pawn. If you do this, you prove to it and every other creature that you are not a King, you are just a pawn. You are just another card lost in the shuffle of the deck. Well your daughter is shuffled in that deck too! She is the Queen of Wands. You care for her. Admit it! Stop what you are doing now and turn away from this path before it's too late.”

“Be . . . QUIET!” Card Shark roared sharply as he spun around and lifted the Black Crystal. It ignited with a black aura and the same surrounded Feather Wind. Card Shark used the crystal to telekinetically lift Feather Wind seven feet off the ground then proceeded to smash him back into the earth hard. It almost knocked Feather Wind unconscious again, but he held on this time. Looking back at Card Shark, he saw Card Shark breathing heavily as the rim of his hat was low enough to conceal his eyes again. 

After several long moments, Card Shark calmed down enough to speak again. “You may know my true name, boy, but that doesn't mean you know me!” Card Shark growled in a passionately aggressive and gruff tone, so different from his usual suave, calm and arrogant attitude. “You have no idea what I sacrificed to get here.” Card Shark glared at Feather Wind angrily under the rim of his hat, but Feather Wind was even more shocked to see some tears in Card Shark's eyes. “Nor do you know what I will sacrifice before I achieve my final objective in this mission,” Card Shark went on. “EVERYthing that I have accomplished to get here, everything I had put aside and everything I will have to give up . . . is all for her!” 

Card Shark stood up straight and dusted off his tuxedo then tugged at his red bow tie to tighten it a bit as he attempted to regather his composure. “I know that sounds out of character for me, but I have my reasons for doing what I'm doing. Everything I have accomplished until now and everything I will accomplish for the rest of this mission will be to her benefit, not mine! Get that through that thick skull of yours. I'm upset enough as it is that this is necessary. I'm not accustomed to being this selfless, but this threat . . . I cannot ignore.”

Feather Wind felt too stunned to make a counter argument.

“Come, my pretty little love slave,” Card Shark growled to Fluttershy with irritation lingering in his tone. “Let us depart.”

“Yes, my master!”

Card Shark tucked his hooves into each corner of the cloak then blew wind into both it and under Fluttershy's wings. Together they soared off in a hurry.

{I was left stunned because my gut told me that he was being serious and honest. Somehow his twisted sense of honor convinced him that all of his actions were necessary for his daughter's sake, but what he was convinced was best for her wasn't likely to be any other ponies benefit. Curiously, not even his own. 

{So I was right. Trixie was the key to all of this, and she did not even know it. A game of titans clashed hard and far above her innocent and oblivious head. In the end, I was even convinced she was going to hate the end result, but that hadn't mattered to her father. He was still convinced that what he was doing was best for her sake, regardless of what any other creature thought. 

{Still, I was convinced that he was being an ambitious fool whose own plan would backfire against him like so many others in the past. As brilliant as his plans could be, his methods often have hostile side effects that even he normally did not foresee.}





xoxo





{Now for the rest of this chapter of the story I'm about to tell you, I was not there to personally witness. Instead, I'm about to relay to you the testimony of those who told me their story later on. They did so because they wanted the story to be remembered. They wanted me to write it down later on so at least somepony would remember their brave actions on that day.

{To be honest, I really don't know what happened to Spike. One moment he was there and the next he was gone. He claimed that he came back for me later but I had lost consciousness by that point. He hadn't known what happened to him either, hence the reason I am unable to explain it to you, but his strongest theory was that Discord tried to protect Spike by warping the baby dragon away from danger even as he sent himself and Shadow Discord away. 

{Speaking of Discord, what happened to him was he teleported himself and his dark counterpart to another chaotic dimension in order to remove both of their influences from the battlefield. Now that he was stuck with an opponent every bit as powerful as himself and possessed the same knowledge and yet had darker intentions, Discord figured his best hope was to fight his counterpart to a perpetual stalemate. Their battle raged on throughout countless worlds and eons. They fought on levels we mortals will probably never truly understand. An ultimate chaotic reality bender versus himself. I shudder to think about all those who were caught between that titanic fight. 

{It really did not take me long to figure out that Discord was one of the three Jokers that Card Shark was referring to, and that I was the second. From that point on I needed to deduce whom Card Shark thought was the third because it suggested that, whomever it was, had the potential to be a major game changer in this campaign.

{As for the others, let me start with another critical element of the battlefield, which I briefly mentioned earlier but I will now elaborate upon. Sombra protected Flurry Heart from the brunt of the volcano blast, but she bashed her head hard upon landing and she lost consciousness for most of the fight. Actually, she also ended the fight as soon as she regained her consciousness, so I'll get to that part later.

{A great deal of demons and unliving corrupted former mortals tried to exclusively target Flurry Heart. They all knew that if she fell permanently, all the rest of her allies would forever remain more exposed. They bashed against her barrier in futility for years but, now that it was finally down, they wanted to finish her off once and for all in order to keep that barrier down. Fortunately for her . . . Sombra alone stood in their way.

{Some say he fought like a raging demon. Some say he fought like a guardian angel. I tend to think the truth was somewhere down the middle. He probably fought like a pony who loved his Majesty. He fought to make up for all of his mistakes and to help the Crystal Empire to rise to glory again. He fought with the determination of every love he ever had in that Empire and who might get a chance to rise again. Flurry Heart was unconscious at his hooves, living proof that a better future was possible but it was being threatened. That which he dearly loved was being threatened so he did not hold back. 

{I heard that the crystal sphere protecting his Majesty grew spikes and spikes grew from those spikes. I heard he created a crystal sword and swung it telekinetically with expert ease. I heard he stabbed one of his foes with his own horn, not even caring if the effort would damage his horn which, fortunately for us all, it did not. Sombra was screaming “No” over and over again as his magic and limbs were a constant blur of motion. For example, he created a cloud of pointy crystal spikes and had it whirl around him faster and faster, shredding apart any creature that dared to stray too close to his beloved Majesty. 

{Being a time clone had given him infinite stamina, but magic was another story. All of the time clones magic regenerated at our normal rates. For Sombra during this fight, that meant whatever he had, what he spent remained gone for the rest of the fight as he fought desperately on to protect her hard with every second of that battle. That was why he did it, and that was all he could think to accomplish. Fight with all of his might just to protect her one more second and the next and the next and the next. 

{This all changed when Princess Cadence and Shining Armor caught up to him. Their arrival was delayed with battles of their own. They fought as hard and as quickly as they could in order to get to their future daughter as fast as they could. I heard they even amazed themselves with the feats they managed to pull in those epic moments. 

{When at last they finally caught up to their unconscious daughter, they touched each other's horns together. Cadence cast a love spell at her husband which he then returned to her which she used to return to him and back and forth it kept growing, kept building, until they lifted off the ground and created an explosion of brilliant light filled with the power and magic of their love. This blasted back every demon and unliving opponent away from the vicinity. It even restored some of Sombra's magic a little. After that, all they had to do was concentrate on maintaining the barrier. 

{Shining Armor thanked Sombra profusely for all of his efforts in defending his daughter so far, but also ordered him to leave in order to protect the others. At first Sombra was reluctant to go until Shining Armor made the following argument. Shining Armor tried to convince Sombra to imagine what Flurry Heart would have wanted if she were awake right now. Some of her subjects were out there and many friends and family as well. Shining Armor also added there was a tactical move Sombra could do while out there. Shining Armor encouraged Sombra to find either Mage Meadowbrook, Zecora, the Doctor or Vision and bring any of them back to help heal and revive Flurry Heart. Once Flurry Heart regained consciousness, she could then summon the Crystal Heart again and use it to protect every other good-hearted creature in the vicinity.

{Seeing the strategy and wisdom in this suggestion finally convinced Sombra to cooperate. It was a good thing he did that, too. His efforts helped to save many more of our friends, but I'll get back to that later.

{While many of the demons and unliving creatures targeted Flurry Heart exclusively until they could no longer get to her thanks to her parent's barrier magic, there were still plenty more to target every other creature. My friends also started with several disadvantages. They were scattered, injured, and some were even unconscious as I previously established with Flurry Heart, but remarkably . . . none had died yet due to that volcano blast except for maybe one, but their ongoing situation made it quite difficult to maintain that status. 

{For a while there they were cut off from each other due to the Black Blizzard storm. It froze their limbs and chilled their souls which basically sucked out their courage like a parasite. The storm was also too loud to audibly tell where their other allies were. At best they could occasionally see bright flashes of light caused by powerful spells from one or another of the unicorns. 

{They were injured, lost, disoriented, freezing, their courage was being forcibly drained from them, they were choking on volcanic smoke, and some of them were under direct assault by one of the many evil creatures surrounding them. We brought a powerful army with us and it had some of the most legendary ponies in all of Equestria, but add up all of these problems and you can understand why they were under a great deal of pressure at first. 

{Some of that pressure was momentarily abated when Discord turned the volcano into ice cream and the storm clouds into chocolate-raining cotton candy, but then the battle was complicated again due to all the changes both Discord and Shadow Discord caused until later when both of their creations were wiped away which reestablished the original conditions for all of our friends and enemies had except, during some of those changes, some of our friends and enemies moved about and affected the battlefield in various different ways later on. 

{Regrouping eventually turned into a top priority for my friends, but that effort was hard won. Several unicorns of the group such as Twilight, Celestia, Luna, Star Swirl, and a few others used magic to enhance their voice and call out to all their allies to regather and regroup. Even if their allies heard that, however, they had to fight all kinds of monsters in between. 

{Fortunately the Royal Legion and the Wonderbolts managed to organize themselves the fastest. Under orders from several princesses, they scouted about for their allies and informed them where to regroup. Sometimes they also swooped in and carried their allies aloft in order to personally deliver them back to safer ground. Gathering our allies together did the same for the enemy because it consolidated all their remaining targets to one area, but it was still worth it. The more my allies collected together, the more they mounted an effective defense despite the gathering pressure against them. 

{Magical beams flew. Hooves were swung. Weapons were swung. The Mighty Helm and Hector swung through swaths of enemies with every swing of their mighty axes. Maud Pie punched a boulder out of the ground then chucked it at various flying baddies like a living catapult or had a giant rock roll across a line of monsters and thus flattening every enemy in the rock's path. Rockhoof was in a similar situation. As the only pony as large as the ancient horses of this time period, even a little bigger I think, he had the brawn necessary to tear chunks of rocks out of the earth and chuck it away at monsters with his trusty shovel. At the same time he dug a trench for the more injured or less combat capable ponies to escape while he remained to continue to cover them overhead. 

{They told me Derpy, my mother and Somnambula all sang a song together in that ditch which was eventually picked up and sung by every pony that heard them. It helped unite their spirit and restore their courage which was literally under assault and it also served as an audible lure to gather the rest of our allies. They say their singing even diminished the severity of the weather somehow. If The Dark Star's evil magic was the cause of the hostile weather, then their courage and uplifting singing dispelled that evil and weakened its influence over the weather. 

{Mage Meadowbrook and Zecora both tended to the injured within the trench that Rockhoof helped to dig up, but most of their supplies were in Vision's dimensional saddlebag. Although blind, Vision could empathically sense the direction of her allies and even helped to find them. At their request, she tossed Mage Meadowbrook and Zecora her saddlebag so they could start pouring through it and heal all these injured ponies. 

{That was not all that was in those saddlebags. It also had many other types of supplies too like Pinkie's party bombs, Applejack's food supplies, Trixie's extra smoke bombs and fireworks. These supplies were dug out in a hurry and tossed upward so that one of the pegasus ponies snatched it up and dropped their payload upon one of their enemies. Those enemies were dazzled and even burned by Trixie's fireworks. They were lost and disoriented by her smoke bombs, although the heavy winds made short work of that. Pinky's cake batter slowed them down and made it too sticky to fight effectively. Applejack's delicious pies, may they rest in peace, was dropped upon the faces of various enemies. Some even paused to lick it up. Many creatures in this age had never tasted something so good so they occasionally grew distracted with that.

{As my friends continued to collect together, the Wonderbolts got even more organized and flew in a rapid circle in order to create a controlled tornado. They swept this back and forth to collect various enemies then subsequently scatter them. 

{My uncle Ramadon, at one time, gave them a better option. He drove his forward hooves into the ground and focused on his magic. The land shook. Cracks formed in the earth then split apart. He created a giant fissure in the earth. He told his allies to sweep the enemies into it. The Wonderbolts were especially effective at that tactic. They swept in enemies by the droves into that earth fissure. The Mighty Helm and my own companions Hector, Tibbons, and Talsious lined up at the edge of the fissure and swat down any enemy that tried to climb back up the fissure after being tossed down into it. The Bolts also flapped their wings in unison and caused a brief but powerful gust of wind that knocked over any enemy that was near the fissure or drove them down into the fissure while they were flying above it. 

{I heard Celestia's magic was actually extra effective against the demons or unliving creatures. Anything with dark magic proved extra vulnerable to her sunbeams when she projected it either from her horn or radiating in a massive area which at least dazzled them but some were also incinerated.

{I heard Luna fought like a beast. She telekinetically drew out a pair of enchanted crystal swords and whirled them around her in order to clear whole swaths of enemies. Every one she chopped down never got up again. She erected several runic symbols in mid air that allowed her to suddenly accelerate when she charged through the symbols. I heard she crashed like a meteor on a large group of enemies then summoned a bunch of copies of her crystal swords using her magic and either rained it down upon them or spun the swords in a circle around her at high velocity. She helped guide the more injured or powerless ponies to the safety of the camp while shooting beam after beam to defend any of her friends. 

{Starlight Glimmer very likely had the most powerful and/or focused horn beams. She cast a lot of other spells too. Barrier magic, speed spells, temporary duplication spells, and whirling balls of energy she freely controlled to whack back and forth. Her magic was not her only strength. Starlight was also a tactical leader who was put in charge of retrieval missions. What that meant was she helped to skillfully and intelligently guide others back to the gathering base camp and she was put in charge of others who joined her. She kept surveying the situation, passing quick commands to whole teams of ponies she led and kept bringing more and more of them back together. 

{In a similar line but with far less magical strength, Stygian gave tactical advice directly from the collecting base. He listened to the feedback of various groups he sent out and the advice he gave in return improved as time went on. He hadn't just helped to organize the teams, one of which he put Starlight in charge of, he also gave them advice on how to defeat the various enemies they were encountering. Now that an actual battle was occurring, they were fighting many different types of opponents and they all had their strengths and weaknesses. As he gained this knowledge, he shared it back to the others which, in turn, improved their performance in later encounters. 

{Star Swirl was easily one of the great masters of the battlefield. He was able to cast spells no other pony could. A few examples of things I heard were time manipulation, opening portals to tactically move either his enemies or allies about. For example, it was his advice to have a bunch of the dragons gather in one place and prepare to breathe fire at whatever came through a portal he would open near their position. After establishing that, he sent enemy after enemy who charged at him or others through a portal that led to a group of ally dragons all surrounding the portal and all breathed a coordinated fire breath attack that burnt each enemy to cinders in seconds. He also conjured massive magical webs of light that ensnared entire groups of enemies where he or his allies more easily mow them down afterwards. He also temporarily summoned extra planar beings and sent them to attack his enemies. He was also responsible for summoning a giant comet, but I'll get back to that part later.

{Thanks to a magical gem given to Rarity, she was also invaluable in the battle. This gem, or gems I should say, was made of Starlight Dust and it helped her to create magical force constructs. Basically they were barrier type spells that could be easily customizable in terms of shape and size, and they could move. She had something exactly like this when she got sucked up into a magical comic book, of all things, and within it she became the persona of one of the superheroines within the story who, in turn, had access to a magical gem that did something just like it. I remember she said, “I do ever so much enjoy a functional accessory.” I heard she primarily used this device for defensive, utilitarian and crowd control purposes. Despite its capabilities, she rarely used it for direct offense even though I think the item was theoretically capable of it. My guess is that was simply a choice based on her own personality. The item still drew upon her magic but it focused it in ways she normally could not. Basically, it was like having a second cutie mark, one that focused on highly customizable barrier magic. That was very helpful. With it, she expertly controlled the flow of battle and protected the more defenseless ponies.

{Rarity was actually one of the ponies sent with Starlight Glimmer's team in order to retrieve other ponies and, thanks to Starlight's tactical and inspirational leadership which was eventually further refined by Stygian's tactical knowledge, Rarity was able to make the best use out of the gems. She had complained about how messy she had gotten or how rude her enemies were, but she cared enough about her friends to tolerate inconveniences temporarily. That hadn't stopped her from complaining about it, but at least she fought on nonetheless. 

{Rainbow Dash and Flash Magnus I kind of already covered. They were organizing the flight teams and I already told you what they did. I will add this, though; Flash Magnus and his Royal Legion were not as good at flying as the Wonderbolts even with two years of extra training time while traveling north with us, but they had more experience as warriors. They could not do fancy maneuvers in the sky or conjure a tornado as easily as the Bolts did, but they knew how to use their weapons and shields in a coordinated manner, and they knew how to use the terrain offensively and defensively. They often brought in storm clouds and used the lightning against their enemies, or at least used it for tactical concealment. The Royal Legion were especially devastating when they dove down from the sky with spears aimed ahead of them. With that much built momentum, they maximized the effectiveness of the spears. They were also all armed with shields which they used to protect ponies from the air from projected spikes or breath weapon attacks. 

{Flash Magnus was especially effective at this with his magical fire proof shield known as Tidus. I heard he was very busy with that shield. He even used it offensively to bash away his opponents to daze them, knock them away or finish off a weakened opponent. With him and the Bolts, our allies had air superiority but that was an advantage they had to struggle to maintain. Some of the enemies could fly too, after all, and they even outnumbered us initially. 

{My father defended the base camp. His wife was there and he was not about to leave her side.

{As I established earlier, my mother's main contribution was her singing which others caught on too.

{I can't imagine my father doing that too much, however. It's not that he doesn't have a good singing voice. He does. It's just that, at the time, I think he was focusing mainly on any approaching threats.

{While he is and was capable of basic attacks, telekinesis and barrier spells, my father had access to a wider range of spells than a standard unicorn. I even have a feeling he outclassed his brother on that regard, but his brother was better at actually performing the fewer spells he knew so their talents kind of balanced out in that regard.

{Among some of the more rare spells my father had access to was healing magic. I learned that from him too during our northern march. It's a very useful, if time consuming and steadily costly spell but super useful since it could save a pony's life. Far better to have a strong ally at your back rather than a dead one, and spells like this helped to keep them strong.

{He was nowhere near as good as Star Swirl, nor would he expect to be, but I also believe he far outclassed most other standard unicorns because magical study was his profession in life. He learned how to use it to it's best potential through years of study and practice. He also had a lot of practical knowledge, not all of which was useful on that particular day but it came in hoofy many other moments during our two year trek.

{He mostly just stuck close to Silver Shine. He wanted to spend every moment with her as much as he could, even if he knew they both had a temporary existence.

{Then there was your mother.} (Feather Wind released a long breath.) {Like me, she was among the few ponies on the battlefield that was real so she had plenty of time to fill me in on her side of the story over the years. 

{She was . . . amazing. It was like a true superheroine come to life, and one who had almost god-like potential, at least for brief spurts. She was already formidable enough to begin with. With all the years of training with puffball and the Doctor, then further augmented by the Prism Armor, she was nearly as inexhaustible as any of the time clones but, on top of that, she had formidable combat skills and experience to draw upon. Even without her augmenting her strength, she already started out really strong. Her armor and it's weapons were the perfect tools to deal with opponents like this both offensively and defensively. A lot of ponies owed their lives to her efforts.

{Since she did have the ability to briefly augment her abilities and potentially to extreme heights, Stygian and Starlight guided her to fight the more formidable opponents on the battlefield. She kicked, stomped, stabbed, bashed, rammed, sliced and ripped them apart with her bare hooves. 

{Do note; super strength is almost useless without endurance to back it up. If you punch a wall with enough force to break it down, you'd only end up shattering your own hoof instead of the wall unless the endurance of the hoof was augmented too. In that case, if the endurance and strength exceeded the wall's endurance, then it broke instead of her hoof. Just a little something to keep in mind, for I assure you, your mother kept that in mind due to necessity.

{Another one of the abilities she also had was the ability to augment her own natural healing so, even if the enemies managed to land a few blows, it did not keep her down for long. The true danger in the long gallop was exhausting her supply of magic she needed to augment herself so she typically had to use the boosts sparingly as needed. 

{Mysteriously, the Doctor was missing from the battle for a while and he would not say where he was or what he was doing after the battle, but he eventually regrouped with the rest and his sonic screwdriver managed to dispel the evil magic empowering his enemies. He could even do it in mass. The only problem was it took time and, the stronger they were, the more time it took. They had to remain within his sonic wave range throughout that whole time to disable them. I don't know why, but that device of his never seemed to exhaust it's energy supply so it's utility helped them out greatly and consistently. He also used it to help heal the other injured ponies which was actually his preferred choice in the battle. 

{Vision was one of the ponies most consistently on Starlight's search and rescue team because she had the ability to help find our allies even if the rest of her companions were blind. Her sonar vision was far more effective up close compared to afar, but her empathic sense helped guide the other members of her team up to the other ponies and/or creatures and helped pull them back to base camp. Like the Doctor, she also had access to a sonic device but had considerably less experience in wielding it compared to the Doctor so her tactical use of it was more limited. She knew enough to disable many types of locks or repair them, she knew enough to aid her to heal, and she knew enough to aid in her senses. She was also an expert at martial arts and easily smashed any opponent in her way but not as easily compared to living opponents. If they were living, she could have used her medical knowledge to disable their weaknesses and pressure points. Instead, she was mostly up against skeletal opponents so smashing through them by hoof was the better way to go in this case. Since they were already corrupted dead, she did not hold back against them nearly as much as she did with most other opponents but, on the other hoof, they were more naturally resistant against her attacks. Despite this, she usually had the upper hoof over any situation she faced but I must give credit to her companions as well. They probably helped a lot. I have heard that Vision never lost her cool during the battle. It was as if she already knew they were going to win and victory was eventually inevitable so it wasn't worth stressing over. Given the fact she had the ability to see into the future, this was quite likely the reason for her confidence in that battle.}

Feather Wind paused in thought to consider if he was missing any creature, then nodded to himself.

{Pharynx was completely missing and he did not show up after the battle either. It was presumed he was wiped out by the initial lava blast and, if so, that was the only death among our own allies that we were aware of at the time. Thorax, on the other hoof, did survive and he was unusually aggressive that day. He zipped back and forth in many forms, and he used whichever form was most advantageous in any situation he fought. For example, did you know changelings are fire proof if they morph into dragons?}

“Of course I didn't know, Dad. I have never met a changeling, or at least I think I haven't,” Star Breeze said.

“Mmm.” Feather Wind gave his daughter a cautious look. “Let's hope you never do, either. Changelings aren't always so nice. During this time period they are evil and they feed off of love. Their conversion to a nicer, gentler race was a recent change in Thorax's time period and he was one of the leading causes of it. If you actually do encounter a changeling in this time period, I warn you to back off but not quickly. Do not arouse suspicion. Do not let them know that you know what they are until you get in a better position. Understood?”

“Yes, Dad. Thanks for the warning.” 

{Anyway, as I was saying, normally Thorax was quite timid. He was a friendly friend, but I had concerns for him if he entered into actual battle. Based on the reports I heard about him later, however, I learned he could be quite aggressive when he was busy defending his friends.}

“He probably was also upset at the loss of his brother,” Star Breeze theorized sadly. 

“That may have been so,” Feather Wind partially agreed.

{Thorax and his brother had demonstrated that they could morph into inanimate objects as well. That made me wonder if they could even morph into enchanted objects. My question on that point was never answered. I'm leaning on no but they don't really seem to have a limit when it comes to their morphing ability so Thorax, in this case, could also morph himself into a creature made of bone. Because he could disguise himself as the enemy, he occasionally led them into clever traps or caused tactical diversions. It usually wasn't his idea. Such advice came more from the tactical advisers like Stygian and Starlight.}

“Can they also use unicorn magic if they morphed into a unicorn?” Star Breeze asked curiously.

“Um . . . yes, I believe so,” Feather Wind answered. “That said, very few of them are well versed in it. I heard their original Queen Chrysalis was quite good at magic even in her original form but, since the rest of the changelings were not nearly as good, I think she deliberately avoided teaching them in order to remain in power. For that matter, it also meant the changelings don't even need to morph to gain access to unicorn-like magic but, due largely to ignorance, that was a rare talent among Thorax's pack even before they were purified.”

“Wow.” Star Breeze sounded impressed. “It must be nice to be a changeling, then. They basically get every advantage of any other race and then some since they can also morph into inanimate objects.”

“In Thorax's time it must be nice but, before that point, his species were basically enslaved by their former Queen and, even without her, they were left starving all the time. They needed to feed off of love and positive energy all the time and Thorax said they could never be full of it.”

“Ew.” Star Breeze winced in disgust. “Okay, I take it back. Being a race that starves all the time isn't worth the advantages they have.”

Feather Wind half shrugged. “It's a complicated world.”

{I already established where Fluttershy and I was. I also told you about Card Shark, Spike and Discord. Any other creature missing from this list?

{Oh, Trixie. Yeah. Of course. Well . . . based on her testimony after the fight, I had to assume it was greatly exaggerated. From what I could tell from the others report, Trixie freaked out a great deal at the start of the fight but then suddenly got cocky when she regrouped with the rest. Naturally she would not admit to the earlier part. If you believe her story, she blew her opponents away with her natural charisma right from the start and they would not dare to cross her and her awesome amazingness.}

“Yep, that sounds like Trixie alright,” Star Breeze said with a roll of her eyes.

{It was far more likely that, at best, she scared a few off with some of her explosive but mostly harmless bombs. At worst, and probably more likely, she continued to freak out even when she got back to camp. She probably cowered in that ditch, even after the singing started. From what I know of her, she would even question why the others would sing at a time like this and it would take her awhile to notice the singers were making a positive contribution after all but, after that, she might have joined in and thereafter pretended she had done it all along.}

“Geeze.” Star Breeze applied both of her hooves on her eyes and shook her head. “Why do you defend this idiot so much?”

“Because she's my friend, and I care about her!” Feather Wind said firmly.

“Sorry,” Star Breeze apologized, then realized something as she lowered her hooves from her eyes. “Hey, wait a second. Fang is about to crash down on top of their party, right? Now that most of your friends had gathered in one place, it would very likely draw his attention to that place as soon as he did go on the offensive, but he was under orders not to attack Trixie, so I'm curious . . . did her presence there help protect the other ponies, at least indirectly?”

“I doubt it,” Feather Wind replied. “From what others told me, Fang did not hold back when he went on the offensive. He just swept a constant stream of fire across the landscape as he traveled. 

“Since we've reached this part of the subject, let's go on to . . .”

“Wait! What about Pinkie Pie and Applejack?” Star Breeze interrupted with concern.

“Oh! Um, thank you for the reminder. I had a lot of friends to keep track of during this time period so it helps to have a reminder. Let's see.” Feather Wind looked up, thinking back.

{Applejack's position in this battle was kind of mixed as it went along. Initially she was alone when the battle started. She managed to retreat to the edge of the Crystal Heart barrier and leapt beyond it when the earth blew up. I think she even tried to warn her friends to do the same as she retreated. 

{Physically, she did not start that bad off. Some of her hair on her tail got singed, from what I recall. The majority of the damage to her came later when she faced a bunch of the monsters and, at first, she was mostly just galloping for her life. When she got rescued by the other ponies, however, she started to take a more active role in the defense of the team. In her case, it was her trusty rope that was her true friend and primary tool in the defense of herself and others. As Rockhoof's shovel was synonymous to Rockhoof, so too was the cowboy rope synonymous to Applejack. She knew how to use it well too, even for performances. It was difficult to call it an offensive weapon. She mostly used it for crowd control. She threw it around monster's mouths to keep them from biting or monster's wings to crash them into the ground. Initially Applejack started this battle very scared but she ended it very bravely. Physically she was a force to be reckoned with as well. I heard she pulled off some amazing feats on occasion. Once she got her courage back, Applejack was very helpful.

{Now Pinkie Pie . . . um . . . darn. Trying to remember.} Feather Wind paused a moment as he tried to recall, then shook his head. {It's a little unclear, and here is why. 

{Pinkie's pretty random to begin with but one thing I do know about the mare was she had a sixth sense for danger. That likely came in hoofy many times throughout the fight. From what I know of Pinkie, she probably taunted her opponents multiple times and proved almost immune to the Black Blizzard's courage draining attacks. Her policy, when it came to danger, was usually to laugh at it, and I could very easily imagine her doing that many times throughout the fight. She probably also splashed pies, cakes and cupcakes straight into her enemy's faces. On top of that, she had unlimited access to her party cannon, but ammunition was an issue on occasion. Since I know that the back up supplies were in Vision's saddlebags and that ended up in the ditch, it was probably where Pinkie Pie eventually ended up. 

{That said, she seemed to be able to store a surprising amount of stuff in her mane, even things that's normally too big for it, kind of like the TARDIS itself. Aside from earth ponies like Mage Meadowbrook or Vision, Pinkie was easily one of the most magical earth ponies I have ever met. She could also stretch impossible distances, apparently teleport if she was chasing somepony, and her mane could turn into useful tools like holding objects or . . . you know what? It's Pinkie Pie. As Rainbow Dash said so many times, never question her. Since the others had a hard time describing where she was or what she did, it seemed likely she was bouncing all over the place and indirectly assisting her other friends. 

{In Pinkie's case, she was at her best when she did not think about what she did and instead relied on pure instinct. That also meant she had no strategy, but apparently she had not needed it either. She was very unpredictable, even to herself. When I asked her directly what she was doing in that fight, I think she answered, “Oh, you know. I was over here and over there. I met lots of friends, and I had FUN-FUN-FUN!” she cheered, and I kind of think she meant it. 

{I know for a fact that seeing her friends physically hurt or mentally depressed really got to her. If she noticed it, she would try to fix it very stubbornly but, if she still failed, then she got very depressed and suddenly lost a vast majority of her powers. 

{So, in the end, I'm not exactly sure what happened to Pinkie Pie. I know she survived the battle, and I even think it was unscathed which was really rare in this situation. Her Pinkie sense defended her from every possible danger at least on a personal level, the volcano included. I think she just bounced around randomly, doing whatever she felt like doing, and random behavior was hard to recall even for her in the long gallop. She could have amazing memory when it comes to names and faces but, in other regards, her memory had lots of holes. All of this depended on what she considered a priority in her mind. If it was important, she would go out of her way to memorize it in extreme detail, otherwise the information could just as easily be trashed and never recalled again. 

{And, of course, we had Princess Twilight Sparkle. She told me she mostly just hung around the base camp. In fact, her initial position she started at later became the base camp. She was good at gathering her friends to her position. I can't even tell you why on a completely conscious level. There was just something about her that drew others to her. 

{She met Princess Celestia, Luna, Cadence and Shining Armor first but the latter two quickly left to try to find their daughter. We established what happened to them earlier. The three princesses left worked together to help organize a plan and got the situation under control. 

{I've spoken with Twilight enough times to know for a fact that she was not as strong or as brave as she pretended to be, but she often found it necessary to hold a brave face even if she felt otherwise. That was actually the mark of a good leader. The truth was she often was very scared, but struggled against that fear for the sake of her friends. That probably was inspiring to those who witnessed her and, most likely, very few had realized how hard she actually struggled. That might have even been true for her closest friends. Out of all of them, I suspect it was Starlight that had the most insight into her old teacher's mindset. Well, that and Spike.

{Twilight was very good with magic, even compared to her own teachers. A lot of ponies thought she could even rival Star Swirl himself, but Twilight had not agreed. Actually, I'm pretty sure she knew exactly how many spells she had mastered and had a very good idea how many Star Swirl had mastered unless there was some he hadn't written down or it got lost in history but, even comparing what was known, she figured her old idol far outclassed her. In terms of spells known, Star Swirl probably did have the upper hoof, but Twilight easily made up for it with her leadership skills, friendly support, and intense inner strength. If you consider compassion a strength too, then add it to this list as well. I saw her as a very well-rounded and talented pony. The numerous tools she had at her disposal helped her to adapt to any situation she faced, especially with the support of her friends. In a crisis situation, she was always at her strongest with her friends to guard her back and, in return, she gave plenty of support to them as well. To say she was useful only because of the spells she blasted back and forth really demeans her. There was so much more talent she offered and, in this situation, every little bit helped.

{We were dropped in an unfriendly environment, initially separated and surrounded by many enemies. To look at that and to look at the fact we made it through the battle with absolutely no casualties, except for maybe Pharynx, I'd say they all did a legendary job. 

{But yeah, the dragon Fang had eventually showed up. When he had, Sombra defended them from Fang's breath weapon with many diagonal towers of crystal spikes so, right off the bat, he immediately saved every ponies' life in the base camp the moment he showed up. This was a titanic problem, and some ponies lost their nerve in the beginning.}

“I can so hear Trixie being one of them,” Star Breeze said with a sigh.

Feather Wind glared at his daughter and said, “Down, girl!” Star Breeze waved a hoof off at him.

“You know I'm right,” Star Breeze said under her breath.

{This was a problem for all of our friends. This was the final boss of this particular fight, and they weren't even done with the other monstrous minions yet. Fang's mere presence seemed to make gravity heavier. The flap of his wings created wind storms. The Wonderbolts, Rainbow Dash included, quickly answered that attack by working together and flapping back. Together they caused a counter wind to help neutralize Fang's own attack. Fang stopped flapping at one moment and allowed himself to drop down on top of Sombra's crystal towers. Despite having no meat or skin on his bones, Fang landed on top of the crystal towers as if he had his full weight during life. It immediately started cracking and the cracks spread very quick.}

Feather Wind paused for a moment, then said.

{I'm not completely sure what happened next because the reports I got were mixed. It was pure chaos, was what they said. There was an explosion of action. So many things happened all at once that each creature had a hard time noticing it all so they couldn't report it to me later as efficiently either. I do know our ally dragons kept flying back and forth breathing fire on . . . well, a fire proof creature. Flash Magnus tried to defend ponies with his shield but the flames were so large it just went around his shield. He could only defend himself and those very close behind him. Our ally dragons were like mere gnats to this gigantic dragon but at least they were barely affected by Fang's offensive fire breath attack in return.

{Some of the ponies described a rain of spells being showered upon Fang. Some of those attacks even came from above. At one time Celestia, Twilight, Luna and Starlight (who floated with them telekinetically) all joined together and shot a huge combined beam which pounded into the dragon's back. He looked up at them in annoyance then flew on after them. It turns out that this was part of their plan. They pulled back then scattered into a bunch of clouds other pegasus ponies put there ahead of time. At that point Fang could not even locate his targets but, even if he had, he'd have to chase them down one by one since they split apart from each other. The point was, it drew him away from their base camp where his own weight alone was about to crush the innocent ponies trapped underneath it. 

{Then your mother came crashing down upon his back like a meteor. Her veins brilliantly flared with streaming red light projected from her crystal spine. She succeeded to drive him all the way down to the ground. From there, she smashed into his spine over and over again and did serious damage to him every time. Since she also enhanced her senses, she was aware when his head spun about and tried to bite her. She rolled off his back and he ended up biting into his own back. Now on the ground, he swatted at her with one claw. Not only had she caught it, but she tore his own arm off then proceeded to swat him using his own arm as a weapon. Doing all of this was terribly draining on her magical energy but, by that point, she tapped it enough that she lost control over her own mind again and, along with it, her natural restraint.}

“Wow!” Star Breeze exclaimed. “If she was strong enough to whack down a giant dragon using his own oversized arm, then how the hay did you survive her attacks? If she was that powerful back then, then there was no way you could have survived, especially when you were that exhausted.”

“I have several explanations for this. For one thing, she had not mastered her own abilities at the time. She had no restraint at first, but it was precisely that that allowed her to tap even greater potential later on down the road. Also she was not wearing her Prism Armor when we fought. If she had, I would have instantly recognized her and she would have been able to physically endure greater amounts of enhancement. Since she was wearing it this time, it slowed the massive stamina drain on her system. My last explanation is that she was just like a savage animal when I first fought her but, in that battle, she was fighting for all of her friends and loved ones, including all the ones left back in our own timeline. She gave this everything she had and more and, because of it, she was amazing.”

{But that wasn't all. Now that the massive dragon was down, it gave your mother's allies a chance to regather and respond. Sombra buried Fang in crystal after crystal stabbing right through the dragon's skeletal system. That meant the crystals were inside of the dragon. They even expanded from there. I have no idea where Sombra was finding all of this magic, especially after his exhausting fight earlier defending Flurry Heart. All I can say is he was just that amazing. 

{With Fang's incredible strength, even though he was “disarmed” a bit, he started to crack through those crystals but then he had other things start to bury him. Ramadon grew trees out from the earth and started to entangle the dragon with it, particularly the one forward claw he had left. Star Swirl covered the dragon in a massive energy web. Several unicorns blasted him from the side. If you believe Trixie, she tossed a smoke bomb at him for what it was worth. Starlight claims she reinforced the efforts of the others, even donated some of her magic to them. 

{Come to think of it, maybe that was where Sombra got his burst of energy. 

{Then, at Star Swirl's request, he asked a bunch of the unicorns and alicorns to join him in casting a powerful spell. While they did that, your mother kept whacking the dragon back down every time he tried to get up. Meanwhile, with each alicorn and unicorn that joined together in a group spell, it helped to minimize the long casting time. With it, Star Swirl opened up a massive portal high into the air and a real Starlight Dust comet shot through it and crashed onto the dragon which obliterated him. The comet was charged with pure and intense positive energy magic in addition to the momentum of its own weight crashing down upon the dragon at very high speed so it proved especially effective against the dragon's negative energy empowered skeleton body. 

{The gathered allies had to brace for the impact but at least they had enough warning since this attack was prepared by their allies. They erected a shield to block the brunt of the attack, including Rarity's gem shields. 

{There was a moment of reprieve following that attack. The remaining monsters just saw their opponents defeat a powerful ally so it took awhile for them to regather their courage and resume their assault. Before that happened, Sombra warned the rest of his allies where Flurry Heart was. They moved back to her position together. Several ponies worked to immediately help to heal Flurry Heart upon arrival, including my father. Zecora gave Flurry Heart some smelling salts which worked to awaken Flurry Heart with a start. Shortly after that, she was able to resummon the Crystal Heart and project a barrier. That pushed away the few monsters who managed to gather in time and kept out the rest. To this day I'll continue to give credit where credit is due. If it weren't for Flurry Heart's parent's barrier magic, she would have been defenseless against those who tried to assault her while she was still unconscious but, while that barrier was very effective, it just could not amount to the sheer size that the Crystal Heart itself could form nor could it be maintained as easily, especially while oppressed by the closer proximity to The Dark Star.

{Spike later claimed he saw the light of the Crystal Heart barrier. He flew back and informed the rest of his friends where I was. Your mother immediately demanded to be shown the way. Flash Magnus and his company of Royal Legion agreed to accompany her to help defend her from the monsters that were outside the barrier. They went but Flurry Heart also made her way towards me. The others followed her to make sure they remained within the barrier. It ended up that your mother, Flash Magnus and the Royal Legion remained to defend me while they simply waited for the barrier to catch up to them, and then I was finally safe. While I was still unconscious, Spike filled everyone else on what he knew before he was teleported away.}