//------------------------------//
// Power 
// Story: Darkest of Days 
// by starshine_dash 
//------------------------------//

As the battle between her friends and Dawnbringer's companions was joined, Twilight stared down the unicorn. Applejack began to slide away to her left to try and flank their opponent but was stopped by a blast of energy from his horn. He smiled and fired a few more, causing the earth pony to dodge and forcing her back to the tree line. Twilight countered with an attack of her own, but her opponent easily blocked it with a bright orange shield.

She became the target of several more attacks as she retreated into the maze of the forest alongside her friend. They dodged and weaved around trees, using them as cover from the constant barrage of attacks sent forth by Dawnbringer. His careful steps kept them in range and under constant fire. Ducking behind a particularly large log, the two tried to catch their breath, "We can't keep runnin like this, Twi..."

"I know, AJ," the librarian said, gasping for air. She was definitely not used to this much exercise in one day, "If you can distract him, I think I can hit him hard enough to knock him out."

"Alright, sugarcube, one distraction, comin up!" the farmer said with a nod and leapt on top of the log. She gave an exaggerated look of shock and took off into the woods toward the east, keeping in sight.

Dawnbringer fell for the ruse and began to fire searing bolts of magic after her, igniting trees and the forest floor with every missed shot. Twilight leaped out behind him and fired a gigantic purple blast, sending the solar unicorn rolling head over hoof. He landed on his back and quickly got up with nary a hair in his mane out of place, "Good! But you'll have to do better than that, Lady Sparkle."

He charged his own shot and began to fire, only to be intercepted by a solid buck from Applejack, sending him hurtling through a few trees before he landed. The farmer grinned and shouted at the prone villain, "Gotcha that time!"

To both their shock, Dawnbringer simply stood and shook some of the leaves and dust off of him with a raised eyebrow and a blank expression, "Was that supposed to hurt? I'm afraid it will take more than the buck of some small time farmer to damage me."

"Small time!?" Applejack shouted and charged at Dawnbringer, her fury over his little lie forcing her armor into existence as she collided with him, raining blows all over his body with her hooves. He accepted them with disdain before kicking her off and sending her sailing through the trees to land unconscious near Twilight.

"Foal. She really should know that blind fury cannot defeat calm and cunning..."

"How about righteous indignation?" Twilight asked, firing another bolt of pure magical power at her opponent. He easily deflected it with another shield, causing the ground several feet behind him to explode in a blast of light.

"Please... You may have been the most powerful unicorn in Equestria before Solar Flare, but now I most certainly out do you," he said calmly firing a rapid series of bolts, forcing Twilight to dodge and keep moving as she fired a counter. Her opponent easily dodged her hastily fired attacks and kept pressure on the librarian.

Panting with exertion, Twilight sighed, drawing on the last of her magic for one last shot. She fired as Dawnbringer did the same, their magical energies colliding in mid-air. The two held the beam, each putting more energy and concentration into it, causing the meeting point to shift toward one caster or the other.

Twilight was beginning to panic. She knew that despite being one of the strongest unicorns in the world, she did not have the combat training, and her attack wasted a lot of energy. Options presented themselves, most of them ending in eating the beam or being an easy target for a follow up attack. Suddenly, she was distracted by an explosion of color and sound in the sky to the south. Rainbow had performed a Sonic Rainboom for some reason! It was enough of a distraction that Dawnbringer managed to press his attack, forcing Twilight back.

She redoubled her efforts but found that she had nothing left to give. She dumped everything she had to push his beam back just enough that maybe she could dodge to one side or the other, but his beam was too fast. Her heartbeat spiked as the organ itself seemed to lodge in her throat while time slowed down. Her eyes went wide and began to glow white, new power coursing through her horn as if a dam had broken somewhere inside of her. The element of Magic shone brightly adding its own energy and forming a coronet beneath its wielders horn. The armored chest plate and grieves soon followed, glowing with power as her beam reformed and collided with her attackers.

For his part, Dawnbringer simply raised his eyebrows briefly before returning to the attack. He was on the losing side of this contest now, his opponents raw energy pushing his tightly focused beam back toward him, the energy bleeding off to scorch the ground around the combatants. Realizing that now that the element had activated, he could not win without dying anyway, he poured every drop of power the Eternal Sun had graced him with into his attack. Neither side giving, it was only a matter of time before the magic built up to critical mass and detonated, sending shockwaves into the forest for miles and a blinding flare of energy into the sky.

Where Dawnbringer once stood was simply a statue made of ash in the shape of a unicorn. Twilight was glowing with power, the air around her shimmering with light and energy. A self-contained wind blew her mane and tail around. Applejack gradually regained consciousness and stood, in awe at her friend. When the earth pony realized that her friend was levitating several inches off the ground, she moved in front and looked into her eyes, "Twi? Calm down, sugarcube. Fight's over."

"Applejack?" the unicorn asked, her voice far away and echoing across a vast space, "I... So much power... I... Couldn't stop."

"It's okay, you had to do what you had to do. Ain't nopony gonna fault you for what you did."

"I can't... I feel like I'm going mad.  I can feel it. The turn of the world. The ground beneath our feet is flying through space at 67,000 miles an hour, and I can feel it. The weight of the sun and moon as they're moved across the sky. All of it," she cried, silver tears flowing down her cheeks, "I could stop your heart by thinking it. Applejack, I can't. I can't take this. I want it to stop! Make it stop!"

Twilight's cry echoed through the forest before the power faded into nothing and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious as Rarity and Fluttershy galloped up, "Oh my, Applejack, what happened?"

"She unlocked her element, Rares. Ah think it was a bitch much for her..."

Fluttershy moved over and gave the unconscious mare a look over as Twilight's armor faded away to the tiara she had worn previously, "She exhausted all of her magic reserves, but she should be fine. She'll need to rest, and not out here. We have to go back to Ponyville," the pegasus said quietly. Applejack began to protest, but the element of kindness cut her off, "I know, we need to stop the Princesses, but we're all exhausted. Rarity is only still on her feet because of her armor, and likely the same with you, I saw that hit you took earlier. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie are still fighting and will likely be just as tired. We're going home to rest before we try again, and that is final."

Applejack nodded, "Alright sugarcube, we'll do things your way."





After Pinkie and Dash had dived down the hole into the underground cavern, they were soon attacked by their pegasus opponent. There was less room for him to maneuver down here, but the stallion was definitely agile, dodging stalactites with a practiced ease. His job was made slightly difficult by the fact that they regularly changed positions or were joined by hurled stalagmites courtesy of Pinkie Pie, who never truly let her rock farming abilities get rusty despite being a party planner for the last decade. Dash harried her prey with diving attacks, kicking at his wings.

Ashen quickly grew frustrated, and with frustration came carelessness. He took his eyes off the area in front of him for a split second and crashed into a wall of rock with a sickening crack, dead on impact. His body fell to the floor of the cavern, turning to ash and disintegrating on the way. Rainbow landed next to Pinkie, both out of breath, "I never knew you could do that with rocks, Pinkie."

"I did grow up on a rock farm, silly filly."

"Yeah, but, I always thought that was a joke."

"Nope! We actually grew and molded rocks for use as statuary and building materials!"

Rainbow blinked a few times before simply picking up the pink nut and flying out of the cavern, landing near the clearing where the entire fiasco had started. As they landed, Fluttershy approached, followed by Rarity, and Applejack bearing an unconscious Twilight, "Oh man, it Twilight okay?" Dash said, flying over to her friends.

"She just needs to rest. We're heading back to Ponyville," the other pegasus explained.

"But-"

"No Buts," Fluttershy commanded, heading down the path that lead back home.

"Yes ma'am, no buts, ma'am!" Pinkie said, following along, her armor vanishing back into its necklace and her hair returning to its usual cotton candy texture. Rainbow's armor did the same as she flew alongside Applejack, beginning to regale her with the story of their fight against Ashen. Applejack and Rarity's armor remained active, as it was truly the only thing keeping them on their hooves at that time. They plodded back to Ponyville, arriving well after dark, and sneaking their way into the library. After gathering a small dinner from what was available in Twilight's pantry, the gathered pillows and spare blankets and succumbed to their exhaustion.