The party emerged from the elevator transporter on the one hundred eighty-second floor. As they explored the floor, Twilight considered what Belzebub said. She was still unsure if she could trust the changeling as she was still unsure whether or not she working for the enemy. Strangely though, Sophia and Thanatas didn’t seem the least bit concerned about whether the changeling was being truthful or not.
“Aren’t you two concerned about what Belzebub said?” Twilight asked.
“Nope, what she said has nothing to do with us,” Sophia responded. “This seems like a problem for your kingdom.”
“Oh, right…” Twilight mumbled.
“But aren’t you the least bit concerned about the threats to this kingdom?” Fayt asked.
“Fayt, you and the others are denizens of the Eternal Sphere. When this is all over, you will be going back home once the backups have been engaged. You’re here to protect that home and do what you can to make sure Crystal Silicon never threatens it again. This world may have created your universe, but it’s not your home. You have no obligation to assist the Equestrians with their problems.”
“And yet he helped my kingdom during the Airyglyph invasion even though he had no obligation to help my people,” Nel countered.
Sophia sighed and rolled her eyes. “Yes, Fayt is like that. He likes to stick his nose into matters that are none of his business. I’m sure that he would love to help you guys out, but he needs to realize that he has his own life he needs to live and he can’t run around playing hero all his life. The same goes for the rest of you.”
“So what are you going to do once this is over?” Fayt asked.
“I’m not a true denizen of the Eternal Sphere like you Fayt. Once the backups are engaged, the Sophia that I once replaced will be restored and will be able to live her life like she was supposed to. I can’t go around pretending that I’m her sister either. I learned from Thanatas that everyone in my blood family is immune to the ravages of time. Once I reach my physical peak, time comes to an abrupt halt for me. Even if I didn’t return to the family right away, people would still ask questions about my lack of aging and that would lead to a number of major hassles. I’m not so foolish as to believe that I can avoid addressing the issue forever.”
“So you’re going back to your birth family? Maybe we can visit you every now and then,” Fayt offered.
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple,” Twilight sighed. She knew this conversation was coming, so they might as well have it while they were in a section with more manageable monsters.
“What do you mean?”
“The Eternal Sphere backups are designed to rewind events back to a point where we can take action to prevent the events that proceeded from the safe point. This will affect all digital beings that exist within the Eternal Sphere. All events that went on after that point will be rewritten as if the universe had entered an alternate timeline.
“For you who are currently outside the Eternal Sphere, I’m not sure what will happen. The backups will return all characters to the states they were in at the safe point. However, the point we would have to choose would be a little over nineteen years ago in ES time, just before Crystal Silicon sent her message to the Leingod expedition. This will mean that your times will go back to a point just before Fayt and Maria were born. Since we’ve never had characters manifest in our universe, I have no idea what will happen. But I can hypothesize that the backups will simply create stand-ins of yourselves to live your old lives for you while if you choose to stay in our universe, you can no longer return to the lives you once had.”
“So what happens if we go back when the backups kick in?” Cliff asked.
“Then, most likely, stand-ins won’t be created and your personal timelines will be reversed by nineteen years. Any and all memories made during that time will be erased.”
“What?! You mean we have to choose between getting our memories erased or never going home?”
Twilight nodded. “I don’t expect you to make a decision right away. Take your time to decide, because this is a hard decision to make.”
The digital characters began to think about what Twilight said, but they didn’t let it distract them from the enemies around them. The easiest of them were the toad warriors whose tactics were slow and predictable. They had to be cautious of the tadpoles because of their tendency to self-destruct when people were around them. There were also black variants of the floating tentacled hydras who were so transparent that the only way to see them was by seeing distortions in the space where they were. There were also red four-armed demons and red-haired succubi who forced the females of the party to punch the faces of the men in the group when the succubi tried to control them.
A small surprise awaited the group on the one hundred and eighty-seventh floor. As they arrived on the floor, they saw that the walkways were bolted to the walls to prevent their use, preventing the party from advancing further.
However, whoever had bolted the floor had not counted on Sophia’s psionic prowess as she levitated everyone around the floor. While the process was a little straining on the templar, the lack of monsters allowed her to concentrate as she moved through the area with Twilight navigating with her map.
One thing was for sure in Sophia’s mind, she needed her own means of mass transit in case something like this happened again.
Twilight soon directed the rabbit to a large room where the next elevator was. Not surprisingly, the platform was intact. However, the middle of the platform was occupied by two familiar and famous ponies. While the stallion was the same as he was on television, the mare’s coat was strangely black. However, she was wearing the same outfit as the famous arena champion.
“Is that Solar Point?” Twilight asked.
“I think so, but his partner doesn’t look like the Diamond Crown that I saw in the posters,” Sophia noted.
“That’s because my white coat was part of my public image,” Diamond Crown said. “A simple color changing spell was enough to sell the illusion.”
“So why the white coat then?”
“Hmph, ponies are always judging on appearance. Myself and Solar Point are not only the arena champions but we are also the most popular because of our sterling appearance. My power and my beauty are why I am the most popular fighter in the arena, with Solar being a close second.” Solar rolled his eyes.
“Basically, she’s afraid that if anypony knew that her natural coat color was black, ponies would associate her with black diamonds.” Solar explained, earning him a glare from Diamond. “Though more rare than white diamonds, natural black diamonds are looked at in society as fake, cheap and not as popular as white diamonds.”
“So you changed your coat color for popularity? Sounds kind of shallow,” Sophia scoffed.
“So why are you here?” Twilight asked.
“Isn’t it obvious? We are here to put an end to your interference in Lady Silicon’s plans,” Diamond declared. “We actually owe our ongoing reign as the arena champions to Lady Silicon. We use our positions as champions to scout potential members for the Equestrian Liberation Front and our Lady uses her connections to disqualify any potential contenders to prevent them from dethroning us.”
“To be frank, we were nervous that you might do just that since Lady Silicon was preoccupied with executing her plan,” Solar added. “I have to thank you, princess, for pulling those three out of there when you did in order to retake this tower.”
“Wow…crooked arena champions, how original,” Thanatas said sarcastically while rolling her eyes. “Guess this means that we can finish what we started.”
Diamond gave a smirk, “Why would I need to dirty my hands when I can just imprison you all?” Her horn began to glow.
Sophia and Lyra, who read Diamond’s mind and saw what she was planning, ran over to Thanatas who put her sword into the floor and put up a black dome around the three of them.
As this was happening, Twilight and the others found themselves trapped in bubbles and held against the wall. Before they could try to escape, Diamond placed the eleven in a stasis spell.
“Quickly Solar, kill them all before the spell breaks!” Diamond ordered.
Solar rushed over to Fayt to impale him with his broadsword but was blocked by Thanatas and her sword, much to Solar’s surprise.
Diamond looked from Solar and Thanatas to where the strange black dome was and saw Sophia and Lyra with their blades ready. “What!? How did you avoid my spell?”
Thanatas smirked, “Anti-Magic Zone, I’m full of surprises.”
While Thanatas clashed swords with Solar Point, Diamond Crown unleashed powerful spell after powerful spell in succession. Sophia and Lyra had to be quick to avoid being held in place by Deep Freeze spells.
Diamond teleported away when her opponents got too close and unleashed a Stone Rain on them. The templars used their agility to dodge the rocks and escape the earthen shower. Diamond then teleported to the other side of the platform and tried to envelop the whole field in an Explosion spell.
Thanatas saw the slowly dropping orb of fire and had an idea that she considered fun. She delivered a powerful kick between Solar’s legs to break his guard and leave a huge dent there. The stallion was surprised that the undead could kick a dent into his thick armor which left him in a constant state of discomfort as his armor pressed against his groin. The undead then grabbed the stallion by the arm and spun him around before hurling him into the falling sphere of fire. The sphere detonated prematurely but the blast was still enough to knock everyone away.
Sophia and Lyra flew back to the wall and used it as a jumping point to launch themselves at Diamond Crown who was about to unleash a Meteor Swarm on the area until Lyra spun herself around in midair and delivered a devastating kick to Diamond’s stomach which sent her flying until she hit the back wall hard. Diamond coughed up blood as a result. Just when she thought the worst of that attack was over, Sophia flew into her like a missile and body slammed her through the wall and out the building.
Diamond lost consciousness from the last impact and would have fallen one hundred and eighty-seven stories had Sophia not grabbed her in a telekinetic grip. She then floated herself and Diamond back into the building. As the mare was placed on the floor, Sophia saw Solar on the floor whimpering as he held himself between his legs in constant discomfort of the dent in his armor. He also had a lot of scorch marks on his body and ruined armor.
The others were released from their prisons and landed on their feet on the floor.
Azure Lazer approached the thrashed duo before she shook her head and pressed a button on her communicator and requested a small capture squad to apprehend and hospitalize a pair of criminals.
“Y-you c-cant prove that w-we are with the E.L.F…” Solar Point grunted breathily. “W-we are two f-famous arena ch-champions. Our f-fans will demand our r-release.”
That was when a Protoss observer deactivated its cloaking device and deposited a crystal into Azure’s hands. The blue mare was smirking in satisfaction as she saw Solar’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped before his head lowered in defeat.
“Get these two into custody and remain on standby until we take down our next target,” Azure ordered.
The Protoss nodded in affirmation and placed Diamond Crown and Solar Point into mobile stasis cells for transport.
With that done, the party turned their attention to the elevator to the next floor. Thankfully, the elevator didn’t sustain much damage from the Explosion earlier.
The party continued to fight through more toads, tadpoles, demons, succubi and transparent hydras for five more floors until they reached floor one ninety two where the monsters changed once again. This time, to everyone’s horror, the most dangerous type of monster made their appearance. This type would spell doom for not only the building, but all of Equus if these monsters ever escaped the building. The group focused and became as vigilant as they could.
And so, they began their extermination of the most dangerous type of monster ever conceived by the Eternal Sphere staff.
Sooties.
Hunting the dangerous pests became top priority to prevent the tiny powerhouses from multiplying and destroying the world. Every now and then, the party had to shield themselves from an onslaught of Lightning Strike and Explosion spells that tore up the area. They had to knock away any sooties that tried to suicide bomb themselves into the party and used them as grenades to blow up other nearby sooties.
Once they finished exterminating the sooties on the floor, they found the room where the next elevator was…
…and the location of their next fugitive: Swift Burial.
The brown stallion had his rocket launcher aimed at the party. “I should have known you people would make it this far. This contract has certainly been a pain in my flank.”
“Swift, why did you accept that contract?” Twilight asked. “You should have known that doing so would have made you an enemy of Equestria.”
“I told you before, princess, I am a mercenary. I don’t have the luxury to choose who I work for. Integrity doesn’t put food on the table.”
“Couldn’t you have taken the time to develop a trade skill and make enough money to live on while you’re between jobs?” Sophia asked. “I can’t imagine mercenary work as your primary and only source of income. That sounds like a terrible idea.”
“My cutie mark is a golden rocket launcher,” Swift countered. “My talent is being a mercenary. How can you expect me to simply learn something else to help me make credits when I don’t have the talent for it?”
Sophia raised an eyebrow before a scoff escaped her lips which soon turned into full blown laughter. Swift growled as he felt that the rabbit girl was mocking him. After about a minute of laughing, Sophia’s laughter finally died down.
“Wow, Belzebub said you were an idiot, but what you said made me feel like she was sparing your feelings. You’re one of those morons who believe that their special talent defines them? How stupid can you get?!”
Swift snapped and aimed his launcher at Sophia, preparing to unleash all of his ammo on the girl. However, she closed the distance between them in an instant and used her energy blades to cut his launcher in half. She backed away in an instant while the subsequent explosion sent Swift flying a distance, landing hard on the floor a few meters back.
The stallion groaned while Sophia appeared before him again. “Tell me, are changelings defined by their talent? What about Zebras? Minotaurs? Griffons? Yaks?”
“How do you know about those creatures?” Twilight asked.
Sophia briefly glanced at the mare, “You really should learn to build some better mental defenses, Lyra is much better at that than you are.” Twilight blushed as the rabbit looked at the stallion again.
“How should I know? I’m a pony,” Swift said.
“Poor excuse, you’re just as capable as anyone else when it comes to learning something new,” Sophia shouted. “The reason you’re in this situation now is because you limited yourself to your talents and was too much of a coward to consider branching out. You didn’t have to take that contract with Crystal Silicon, but you chose to anyway. As far as I’m concerned, you’re no different than an agent of the E.L.F. like Diamond Crown and Solar Point.”
“You make it sound so easy to learn a new skill. What makes you think you’re so skilled as a templar?”
“I don’t. I practice doing what I love and I still find time for hobbies. I’ll admit I’m a mediocre cook at best since my tastes seem to adapt to poor cooking to make it taste good, doesn’t stop me from practicing. When it comes to chemistry, I let my body handle all the work and I spit up the results…literally. Thanatas is a ruler of the dead and she has a PhD in chemistry, pathology and anatomy and physiology. When this is all over I’m pursuing a PhD in molecular genetics, which has nothing to do with leading a military organization that I’m about to inherit. So what’s your excuse?”
Swift opened his mouth to say something, then closed it. He did this several times before he gave up on trying to come up with an argument. He sighed in resignation, “You’re right, I should have tried giving myself options instead of playing with the hand I was dealt. I had plenty of opportunities to expand my repertoire. I only have myself to blame.”
Seeing that the stallion had accepted his defeat, Azure moved in with the capture squad and placed him in shackles. Swift got up and walked out of the room with the security mare.
Azure glanced at the defeated stallion and sighed, “I may be a talented security officer, but I’ve also written a few books that are popular with the locals. I even wrote one book that was a bestseller. When a publisher wanted me to go on tour with that book, I declined. I love writing books as a hobby, but my passion is always for keeping this institute safe from people like you.”
After Azure walked away with her prisoner, the rest of the group moved on.
The climb slowed somewhat because the party had to take time to thoroughly investigate each floor as they hunted for any sooties in the area. Any sooties that got overlooked by the party could pose a huge threat to Equestria later. Because of how tough the pests were, the party had to take small breaks between floors to regain their strength.
It took them an hour to reach floor two hundred because of the infestation of tiny black critters.
When they arrived on the floor, they still noticed the infestation of sooties, but Twilight sensed something powerful on this floor; something familiar. Whatever was on this floor made Twilight curious and apprehensive. Whatever was on this floor, it matched her in terms of raw magic power.
Sophia picked up on Twilight’s anxiety. “Something on this floor we should be worried about?”
“Maybe, the next guardian seems to be on this floor. Whatever is here is as powerful as I am.”
“Since the theme for this place is apparently enemies that we’ve faced in the past, I wouldn’t be surprised if that twisted version of you, Midnight she called herself, is on this floor.”
Twilight didn’t want to believe that her counterpart had survived being crushed by the singularity, but she also couldn’t deny that there was a very strong likelihood that Midnight was waiting for them. Unlike last time when Midnight was only as powerful as the standard monster generator could make her, this version of her felt like she could easily match Twilight in power.
“If it is Midnight, then we need to be ready for anything. Since this is the two hundredth floor, I imagine that only Midnight, Lenneth and whatever monsters are left are what’s between us and Crystal.”
The party continued their extermination of the sooties on the floor, going through rooms and hallways and making sure there were no sooties left to multiply. Sophia made sure to check for psychic signatures to make sure there weren’t any hiding from them.
Once they reached the next elevator, they found the figure that Twilight feared was on this floor. Midnight stretched her raven wings which now faded to black at the joints instead of the tips this time.
This time there was no cocky look on her face, no glimmer of arrogance in her eyes. Sophia only needed a small glimpse into Midnight’s mind to know that she was very different from their previous encounter. Not only was she different physically and in power, but she was also different in mentality. The rabbit could sense sorrow, longing, hope, jealousy and…desperation?
“Are you here to try and stop us Midnight?” Twilight asked. Midnight, however, didn’t respond and instead put on a determined face as she lit her horn and pointed her palm at the group. She launched a barrage of Fire Bolts which Twilight defended against with a shield.
Adray casted an Efreet spell which Midnight countered by blasting the fiery creature with a wave of ice, quickly cooling it and turning it into solid rock. Midnight blasted the statue into fragments and hurled them at the party. Thanatas blocked the attack with a wall of bone.
Sophia and Lyra rushed at Midnight but the dark mare casted a temporal distortion spell to slow time around her. As fast as they were, both templars were moving in slow motion to Midnight. To the mare’s surprise, however, she noticed that Sophia was slowly accelerating. Acting quickly, Midnight blasted the duo back into the group where Fayt and Cliff caught them.
Midnight followed up by unleashing a burst of frost magic to freeze the party but Thanatas plunged her sword into the floor and created an Anti-Magic Zone to negate the blast.
Sophia growled and charged at Midnight again and again Midnight used a temporal distortion spell. This time, however, it had no effect on the rabbit as she moved freely in distorted time, to Midnight’s surprise. The others and Midnight expected her to finish the mare, but instead Sophia punched her back into a wall.
Sophia didn’t pursue, instead she lowered her arms and sighed, “What is this all about Midnight? I can sense your desperation so it wouldn’t make sense if you were willingly working for the E.L.F.”
Midnight glared at the rabbit, “This has nothing to do with those foolish rebels. Crystal may have created me, but she was quick to discard me just because I couldn’t stop you. It’s not my fault that she used that inferior monster generator to create me.”
“Great, I know where this is going. Hello mistreatment-induced betrayal trope,” Thanatas said with an eye roll.
“Not the time, Thanatas,” Sophia chided. She turned back to Midnight. “If you aren’t working for them, why are you trying to stop us?”
“The Valkyrie Monster Generator is on floor two hundred and ten, guarded by Lenneth. I know that you likely intend to destroy it and end the monster threat in the tower. My former master tried to delete me when I failed her back at Spiral Tower. I managed to escape her with just enough data to stay alive. I used the Valkyrie Monster Generator to reconstruct my data and raise my parameters to where they were supposed to be since the old generator was incapable of that.”
“I’m guessing that your existence is now tied to that generator and now you’re fighting to live,” Sophia finished for Midnight who nodded.
“That’s why I cannot allow any of you near the generator. I can’t die without making Crystal Silicon pay for her betrayal.” Midnight removed herself from the wall and lit her horn to continue the fight.
“How about we negotiate instead,” Twilight said as she walked next to Sophia. “I think I know of a way to help you with your predicament, but I need to know if I can trust you. When we first met, you were with the enemy. How can we know that you are truly against them now and that this isn’t all just an act?”
Sophia sighed, “We wouldn’t be having this talk if I knew for certain that she was the enemy, Twilight. Lyra really should teach you how to make better use of your psionic powers. You seem to use it mostly for magic purposes, but you seem to be slacking in the telepathy department.”
“Princess Celestia made it illegal for unicorns to use telepathy so I was never able to explore that area of psionics. There are exceptions for templars though and only as long as they don’t abuse that power.”
“I suppose that’s fair,” Sophia shrugged. “...since such a power could be used to mind control another like Crystal did to Azure and it’s often invasive.” She cleared her throat, “Anyway, I’m sensing that most of her malice is directed toward Crystal with some toward our Eternal Sphere friends, though that seems to be laced with envy.”
“That’s because it’s unfair how those digital beings get to exist outside the Eternal Sphere with no strings attached,” Midnight snapped.
Twilight took a moment to assess what she had learned so far. She ignored the last part since that related to her offer. Since time was of the essence, she had to be quick with this interview. “Tell me, aside from magic, where do you believe your skill sets lie?”
Midnight raised an eyebrow, “Are you turning this into a job interview?” Twilight nodded and Midnight rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’ll humor you. Crystal didn’t design me in haste, I’m a product of years of her designing my AI whenever she was bored and had nothing to do. I learned from her, every keystroke, every line of code, every programming technique. When she wasn’t working on me, I took the time to use search engines to learn more about the world beyond that computer. You wouldn’t believe the coding techniques she used on me that aren’t even known to the public. I’m probably the first AI who can use Equestrian magic along with symbology.”
Twilight was about to ask another question but a more important one popped into her head. “On the side, did Crystal ever tell you where the E.L.F. hideout was?”
Midnight shook her head, “She prefers to keep her home life and her criminal life separate. Figures that she wouldn’t trust me with anything important.”
“I see. Anyway, would you be willing to offer your skills to the Sphere Institute? If your skills are as you claim, you should make lead programmer in no time.
“Of course, I will encourage you to befriend your fellow coworkers and help you to understand friendship because it will enrich your life here. You are a very sophisticated AI for someone who was created on a home computer and I would be honored to teach you the magic of friendship.”
It didn’t take a psychic to pick up on Twilight’s growing enthusiasm and it was starting to scare Midnight. However, the dark mare had weighed her options and didn’t see any good that would come from rejecting the offer, but there was still one issue to deal with.
“This is all well and good, but how are you going to free me from my dependence on the Valkyrie Monster Generator?”
“Simple, Fayt and Maria will use their powers to alter you into a real pony.”
“What?!” Fayt and Maria said in unison.
“Maria’s power allows her to change the physical composition of whatever and whomever she chooses, though I’ve only seen this work on digital beings. Fayt’s power allows him to bring the physical laws of the Eternal Sphere into this world and allow digital beings to interact with real beings,” Twilight elaborated. “It’s thanks to those powers that these denizens of the Eternal Sphere are able to exist among us without assistance from any monster generator.”
Midnight looked at the blue-haired humans with a hopeful expression. “Would you be willing to do that for me?”
The rest of the group, aside from Twilight, Lyra and Sophia, were taken aback by the mare’s behavior. They never expected to find someone willing to betray Crystal among their enemies. Though even then some were skeptical about Midnight’s sincerity.
“I think we should give her a chance,” Fayt said.
“Are you sure? She might be good at hiding her true intentions, even from Sophia for all we know,” Maria questioned.
“I know, but we would never have gotten this far without trusting each other. Way back then, we had to deceive Nel into thinking we were from Elicoor because telling her the truth would have been a violation of the UP3. Yet, she still trusted us. Honestly, I still can’t believe that she still trusts us after the truth came out.”
“To be frank, you did show me that I was too trusting at times,” Nel said. “Though given the circumstances at the time, I didn’t have much choice since Aquaria was in dire straits with the war against Airyglyph. After we found out who you and the others really were, I found it difficult to trust you again. I know you had your reasons, but it still hurt that you couldn’t trust me until the Vendeeni invaded our world.”
Fayt gave Nel an apologetic look before he turned around and shook his head. “Let’s do this, Maria.” Maria gave Fayt a look before she turned her attention to Midnight. Both humans closed their eyes and pointed their palms at the mare. They concentrated on their symbological power before a pair of magic circles appeared on both of their palms and expanded outward. In the center of those circles appeared a sphere of light. A hum of power was heard throughout the room and grew louder. After a few moments, the spheres disappeared.
Midnight saw herself enveloped in blue light as she looked at herself. The light lingered for a few moments then faded. She didn’t feel any different so she wasn’t sure if the spells worked.
Twilight walked up to Midnight and smiled as she offered a hand. “Do you trust us?”
Midnight didn’t know if the magic worked so she was still uncertain if the destruction of the generator would mean her end. However, the hopeful part of her desperately wanted to trust that the magic worked and that she could trust the people before them. She suppressed her anxiety and grabbed Twilight’s hand, returning the smile.
“I hate to ruin the moment, you two, but we still have to finish the final leg of this tower,” Sophia said. Twilight and Midnight nodded in agreement before the party took the elevator to the next floor.
Once the party reached floor two hundred and two, the party’s aggravation continued as the final set of floors was also occupied by sooties. However, the sooties were not the only monsters there as the Valkyrie Monster Generator sent out its heaviest hitters in the forms of cockatrices, beholders, yellow-furred renders and vampires wearing black and scarlet suits.
The new monsters were troublesome but the real danger was allowing the sooties to escape. To that end, they continued being thorough in clearing each floor of its infestation. Thanatas personally crushed each vampire they came across while the others dealt with the other monsters with their usual attacks.
Once they reached floor two hundred and seven, the cockatrices no longer showed up and were replaced by red dragons. Sophia personally ended one dragon by climbing onto its back and snapping its neck and ripping its head off before the whole beast vanished.
After what felt like hours, the party finally completed their extermination of the sooties on floor two hundred and ten, the penultimate floor. With one room left unchecked, everyone knew who was waiting for them in that room so they made sure they were ready, even taking a few minutes to rest and eat some of their supplies. Once they were ready, they headed inside the last room on the floor.
Just as expected, Lenneth was waiting for the party. Everyone took up stances as they prepared for whatever the little girl was going to throw at them. Behind Lenneth was a strange panel that appeared to be a terminal. Most of the party could only guess that that terminal was the Valkyrie Monster Generator.
“My mistress is on the next floor,” Lenneth said. “I will personally ensure that your journey ends here. I must avenge the deaths of Gabriel and Freya, by sending all of you to join them in the afterlife. With my mistress close by, I am now allowed to face all of you with everything that I have. Prepare yourselves!”
Lenneth then floated in the air before being enveloped in a brilliant white light. A pair of pure white wings manifested on her back. When the light faded, the wings disappeared and she was wearing a dark gray winged helmet with no back. Her torso was garbed in navy blue armor with gold lining. Her light gray skirt also had gold lining.
With her spear in hand, Lenneth charged at the party at blinding speed. Thanatas blocked her spear strike with her sword but Lenneth raised her hand into the air and a sphere of light appeared. She pointed the light at the party who dove aside to avoid the coming blast.
The devastating ray of light that followed demolished the entrance and blew a hole through it and the wall behind it and out of the building.
“Wow, this kid’s no joke,” Sophia said. She then ran up to Lenneth and slashed at her with her energy blades. To Sophia’s surprise, the blades actually parried with Lenneth’s spear.
Lenneth tried to run behind the templar but even her speed did not outpace Sophia’s perception. When the guardian unleashed a powerful swiping attack that struck the wall, Sophia quickly tore through the floor and moved beneath the platform to avoid the attack. Lenneth floated in the air to avoid being taken by surprise by the templar.
Despite her anticipation for the next attack, Lenneth didn’t expect an attack from above as Sophia tackled her from midair and slammed her hard on the floor. Lenneth bounced off the floor but quickly recovered by standing up. She took a moment to wipe some blood off her mouth.
As the templar and valkyrie were fighting, Twilight was looking at Thanatas in confusion as she appeared to be keeping everyone out of the fight. “Shouldn’t we help her?”
“Nah, she’s got this. This is actually entertaining to watch.”
Lenneth began keeping her distance from Sophia and started using powerful symbology such as Stone Rain and Deep Freeze to slow the templar down. Sophia avoided the crumbing rock by jumping on the rock and using it to propel herself toward Lenneth. The valkyrie blocked Sophia’s attacks with her spear and pushed the templar away. She managed to get a hit on the rabbit with a Southern Cross symbol which struck her with light magic. Sophia toughed out the spell before quickly moving behind Lenneth at a speed that the valkyrie couldn’t keep up with and delivered a roundhouse kick that sent her flying across the room.
By this point, Lenneth had more than enough of the young templar wearing away at her defenses and was ready to put an end to the fight. Her hand glowed white before pointing it at Sophia who prepared herself for what was to come.
She was not expecting to get herself impaled by three spears of light that appeared out of nowhere. When she looked at herself, she realized that the spears had not actually impaled her but the illusion made it look like it did. The pain from the illusion still felt real though and she could still barely move.
The wings of light returned on Lenneth’s back as particles of light came from them and empowered her spear. Once fully powered, Lenneth took a throwing position and prepared to hurl the spear at Sophia.
Twilight gasped. “If that attack goes through, I’m not sure she would survive that. The power in her spear is enough to cause a powerful explosion.”
Thanatas continued to watch.
“Once I’m finished with you, the others will be child’s play,” Lenneth said. She then called out her attack as she hurled her spear, “Nieblung Valesti!”
While the spear was traveling at the speed of sound, to Sophia, it was traveling at a snail’s pace. The templar smirked before a tentacle erupted from the floor and intercepted the spear at the flat part of the blade, knocking it off course and sending it spinning backward uncontrollably until it bounced and landed on the floor.
The sudden interruption of her attack left Lenneth stunned long enough for the illusion placed on Sophia to break. Acting quickly, Sophia picked up the still empowered spear and took up her own throwing stance. “You can have this back,” Sophia called out as she hurled the spear back at Lenneth.
The travel speed of the spear was even greater than the previous speed and Lenneth had no time to dodge the attack. The blade of the spear impaled her chest and sent her flying through the monster generator and the wall and out the building before the energy within the spear detonated. The tower rattled violently from the blast.
The explosion could be seen by at least half of Equestria. The citizens of Ponyville had to cover their eyes as a wave of air pressure washed over them. The citizens of Canterlot looked in awe at the massive explosion near the Sphere tower. The blast knocked Cloudsdale off course. Other cities only saw a distant explosion.
Once the explosion had subsided, the rest of the group approached Sophia while Thanatas was laughing like she heard the funniest joke ever. “What an awesome fight! Michael Bay, eat your heart out.”
Once all congratulations were done, Midnight took a moment to look at herself. After a couple of minutes of looking at her hands, she sighed in relief that she wasn’t disappearing. Tears of joy fell from her cheek.
Twilight’s communicator beeped, telling her that Azure wanted to say something. She pressed the button on her communicator in her ear. “This is Twilight.”
<”Twilight, I’m glad to hear you’re alright. The monsters in the building have suddenly vanished, so I assume that you were successful in destroying the Valkyrie Monster Generator?”>
“That is correct. We’ve also disposed of Lenneth. We will be moving to the top floor shortly.”
<”That explains the explosion. Anyway, be careful Twilight, there’s no telling what Crystal will throw at you with her piloting the Ethereal Queen.”>
“Agreed, only one way to find out though.” Twilight shut off her communicator.