"Now... Shall we begin?"
For a brief, infinitesimal moment, Celestia's gaze dropped from Dexter to the floor. If he could see past her glowing horn, he would have seen a grimace of disappointment and maybe sadness on the solar alicorn. However, it was replaced a moment later with resolve when she turned back up to focus on him.
A few tense seconds ticked by before the two remaining guards jumped into action. Ambushing Dexter from his flanks, both stallions’ horns flared brightly before they released identical spells at him, spells the young colt’s suit instantly registered as stun spells.
Their magic washed harmlessly over the colt, who turned his rifle toward the charging guard on his right, letting loose a blast of blue energy. The stallion seized mid-tackle, toppling past Dexter.
Dexter checked his visor for the position of the other guard now behind him, and with a single fluid movement brought the butt of his rifle back to meet the armored chest of the second lunging guard. The strength enhancement of his suit caused the blow to knock the stallion back, sending him careening into a bookshelf. It collapsed on impact, showering the guard in an avalanche of books and wood. An ugly dent in the guard's armor punctuated his failure to impede the colt.
A large blast of golden magic struck Dexter in the side, causing the magic dampeners in his suit to flare to life. He quickly recognized it as the same spell Celestia had casted on Luna to put her to sleep.
He didn't feel the least bit drowsy, and the visor of his suit indicated that his dampeners had peaked at five percent of their capacity to absorb magic.
Dexter turned back toward Celestia to find her horn still alight, radiating a golden aura. She had taken several steps toward Dexter, wings raised as she studied him with narrowed eyes.
Behind Celestia, Twilight stood dumbfounded, unable to believe what she just saw.
"This isn’t a fight you can win, Dexter," Celestia pleaded. “We can still resolve this without endangering anypony else.”
Dexter took aim and fired, striking Celestia in the center of the chest, just above her ornate gold and amethyst.
She merely grimaced in discomfort before letting loose a more powerful pulse of magic. The suit's dampeners flared to a solid fifteen percent. "Dexter, enough!" Celestia said. "We're not going to hurt you."
"All evidence to the contrary," Dexter scoffed, taking the opportunity to change the output level of his rifle well beyond stun. He wasn't going to make the same mistake Celestia did.
"Not even Nightmare Moon at the heights of her insanity could condone bringing harm to a child." Celestia motioned with a hoof toward where Luna lay unconscious. "I have no desire to fight you, but I will subdue you if you leave me no other choice."
Celestia was answered by a pair of brightly glowing bolts crashing into her.. The first knocked her off her hooves while the second sent her rocketing through the library wall. The impact caused the side of the library to explode outward as a white blur careened into one of the nearby wooden buildings.
Letting his rifle hang from a sling around his neck, Dexter walked toward the library's newest opening. His visor adapted to the brightness of the sunny day outside before his eyes could, removing the glare of the afternoon sun.
The area around the library had erupted into activity as the remaining guards reacted to the explosion within the second floor. Quadraplex displayed a map for Dexter showing how they surrounded the library with more approaching from around Ponyville.
"Kicked the hornets’ nest, haven't we?" Dexter remarked.
Dexter spotted where Celestia had crashed. It was a wooden building whose front face had collapsed inward with the solar alicorn's impact. A multitude of scattered tables and chairs indicated it was a restaurant or saloon of some kind. With a neural command, Dexter activated his suit's sensors, allowing him to see through the rubble and lingering dust. To his relief, there wasn't anyone else in the debris other than Celestia. The build was clear of any bystanders.
However, the alicorn was already rising, pushing wooden debris off of her.
"Be advised," Quadraplex answered. "As hostilities between you and Celestia continue to escalate within Ponyville, the chances of collateral casualties will rise toward one hundred percent."
"Then we'll have to take this altercation somewhere safer. Find a location that is within support range of the lab but secluded, and get ready to teleport the both of us there. Make sure it is well outside of Pony–" Dexter turned, readying his rifle when he heard a groan from his side. Soon enough, he spotted lavender fur poking out from a pile of wood and books. Apparently, the bolts that had sent Celestia flying through the library wall had also been strong enough to throw Twilight into a nearby bookshelf.
A quick scan from Dexter's visor let him know she was unharmed, though she might have a bit of a headache.
But that didn't mean she wasn't a threat.
Twilight coughed, pushing several books away from her before using her magic to remove those that had fallen on top of her. She froze in place when she saw the colt standing over her with his rifle pointed at her face.
"You couldn't just leave me alone, could you?" Dexter hissed. Twilight's eyes went wide with fear as he pressed the barrel of the rifle to her chest. "You couldn't just let things go and focus on the changelings instead of–"
A pulse of purple magic from Twilight's horn hit Dexter. It was another knock-out spell designed to put him to sleep, but it was far weaker than anything Celestia had thrown at him. It failed miserably against his armor.
Dexter laughed as he flicked a knob on the rifle's side, setting it back to stun. Twilight desperately struck him with several more blasts of magic, growing more panicked with the failure of each progressively stronger spell. Eventually, he poked her with the barrel of his rifle a few times.
"Are you quite finished, Twilight?" he asked condescendingly. However, the last spell she cast caused her to disappear entirely with a purple flash.
Dexter rolled his eyes. "Quadraplex, set up a dampening field around the library, then bring her back." He shifted to his haunches at getting back into an aiming stance.
After a good ten seconds, a white flash returned Twilight to the pile of rubble she had just left. Panic instantly overtook her features again. Her first attempt to summon her magic resulted in a purple aura on her horn fizzling, thereafter not alighting again despite her efforts.
"Magic not working?" Dexter mocked, taking aim. Twilight pulled herself up to her hooves. A combination of fear and adrenaline caused the mare to tremble on her hooves. She took several steps away from Dexter before backing up into a wall.
She was helpless, and Dexter couldn’t stop himself from grinning.
Twilight was the root of all his problems. If she had only left him alone, none of this would be happening. He wouldn’t be embroiled in yet another fight. He would have been free to pursue a way of getting home.
But she had to stand in the way of that, and he hated her for it.
Dexter’s grin slowly gave way to a dark chuckle, a faint recollection of Nightmare Moon’s laugh echoed in his memory.
“More power…” Slowly, Dexter reached up to the setting knob on the rifle. The sensation of his foreleg and hoof felt oddly good, faintly euphoric. “...full power…” At this setting, a reactive bolt from his rifle would have enough power to vaporize the entire library, let alone the purple little pony before him. “Yes…”
“She deserves this. Everything would have been fine if it wasn’t for this stupid, purple―”
A memory flashed in his mind. “If I could ask a favor from ya, don’t shoot, drug, or kidnap Twilight again. Or anypony else for that matter.”
“I guess I can do that...”
“No!” Dexter caught himself squeezing the firing lever. He quickly pulled his hoof away from the trigger, while pulling the rifle away from Twilight’s direction.
He could feel a bolt of unrestrained fury shooting through him, yet it was distant and dull to the point he could hardly make out the emotion. It felt foreign.
However, none of that mattered at the moment to the colt.
“I was going to kill her…” Dexter whispered to himself, terrified as he imagined Twilight being blown into tiny pieces. Dexter swallowed, hoping he was misreading the situation. He nervously glanced down at his rifle to check its setting. It was indeed set to its maximum level. Enough to vaporize everyone and everything in the room, excluding himself given his armor.
Dexter could hardly stop himself from dropping the rifle. “What's wrong with me?” He asked under his breath. However, Dexter’s contemplation was cut short when icons indicating approaching guards appeared on his visor display.
They were reinforcements from somewhere within Ponyville. He shook off his stupor to look back up at Twilight.
Twilight had watched the odd display that played out in Dexter, and now stared disquietly at him. Despite the unease, there was something about her expression that Dexter couldn’t quite place. It was like she was questioning what she just witnessed.
"Relax, Miss Sparkle." Dexter slung the rifle over his back before reaching out a hoof toward Twilight. "It's okay," He took hold of her foreleg before pulling her forward, causing her to stumble. "I'm not going to shoot you if I can help it."
"I..." Twilight paused, hesitating while she wrestled her trembling under control. "Y-You attacked the Princess!"
"Miss Sparkle, it’s called preemptive self-defense. If you recall correctly, I was trying to leave. She sicced her guards on me." Dexter shrugged, however most of the motion was lost under the armor he wore.
“What is wrong with you, Dexter!” Twilight demanded. “Why turn this into a fight!?”
“You’re listening now, aren’t you?” Dexter said. "If you would be so kind, please take Princess Luna to a more appropriate location. When you teleported out, you sort of left her behind." He said, pointing toward the prone alicorn. Luna lay untouched from where Celestia had left her, no doubt the fact that she was prone allowed any flying debris to miss her completely. "I do not know how vulnerable she is at present, given that Celestia apparently knocked her out. However, she is one of two individuals that keeps the sky working. So she should be kept safe. Can I trust you to do that?"
Twilight glanced at the alicorn, then back to Dexter. She gave a hesitant but curt nod.
"Good, now I am going to let you use your magic again." Dexter’s tone sharpened to make known his unspoken threat. "Do not attack me with it." Again she nodded. "Quadraplex, lower the dampening field on the library."
Dexter backed away from Twilight, returning to the newly formed hole in the library wall. He braced his rifle against a pile of books and rubble, aiming toward where Celestia had landed. As he expected, the white alicorn had risen from the debris of the ruined shop and was now surrounded by guards who appeared to be in the process of pushing aside the remaining debris.
Dexter flicked the rifle back to a higher setting. It was nowhere near the rifle's maximum output level, but thus far this setting worked well.
Taking aim at Celestia, Dexter waited for a clear shot. Guards both in front of and behind Celestia complicated his shot. He took a second to calm himself and steady his breathing; for if he missed and hit one of the guards, the force of the miniature explosion would tear the unfortunate pony apart.
In the corner of his visor a small map expanded. Icons within the map showed the position of every pony nearby, some of which bore cutie mark symbols he recognized. The icon with Twilight's cutie mark flashed from yellow to red a few times before adopting its new hue permanently.
It was a warning from Quadraplex.
"My rifle is not set to stun anymore, Miss Sparkle," Dexter said ominously, keeping his aim steady on Princess Celestia. The alicorn was now barking orders to the guards. They rushed to do her bidding. "And your magic is useless against me. It is ill-advised for you to try something."
There was a tense moment of silence before a large wooden plank dropped to the floor with a clatter, having been released by a purple aura after hovering near Dexter. Apparently, she had deduced that indirect magical attacks were a lot more effective on him than direct ones. Clever girl. "She thought she was protecting you." Twilight said, almost too quiet enough for Dexter to hear. "Maybe even saving your life." Her words got Dexter to turn his head, his skepticism hidden by his visor. "I told her about your broken ribs before she made her trip down here. She thought–"
"None of that matters at this point!" Dexter snapped. "Go, now" Twilight hesitated, before again disappearing in a purple flash. This time, the spell encompassed the prone form of Princess Luna, causing the sleeping alicorn to disappear as well.
Dexter faced forward again, peering down the rifle's scope. Much to his surprise and pleasure, Celestia, at some point, had leapt into the air. She was hovering just in front of the building while still barking commands to her troops. She was above the heads of the vulnerable guards, with nothing but an empty ruined building behind her.
A clear shot.
"She's ordering them to capture you at all costs," Quadraplex stated through his earpiece. "Though she is also ordering them to capture you unharmed. Furthermore, the guards on the first level of the library have evacuated the other Elements of Harmony and the foals. It appears they had a plan in place in the event of a changeling attack, and are executing that plan now."
Good, at least Applejack and her friends were out of the way.
Celestia had only finished giving out another command, motioning toward the library with a hoof as she hovered over the growing mass of troops beneath her. She and all the guards had turned their heads toward the library, following the motion of their princess's hoof, just in time to witness a blue bolt of energy dart away from the library's second floor. It impacted its target almost instantly, striking Celestia directly in the chest and exploding.
Celestia was sent careening into the ruined wooden building for a second time, causing it to erupt in another shower of splinters and debris. This time, the impact exposed a support beam within the ruined building. Adjusting his aim, Dexter fired again. The shot landed squarely at a joint, causing the building to collapse upon its royal occupant.
However, the guards beneath her didn't scatter as Dexter had expected. Most of them rushed to stand, or hover in the case of the pegasi, between their princess and the source of the attack.
"Idiots," Dexter muttered. "She won’t die if she gets hit by a reactive bolt, but you morons will!" He shook his head silently out of disgust. Celestia was willing to use her guards as living shields, when she herself was immortal?
"There may be a way to convince the guard to retreat," Quadraplex answered his complaint. “Or to convince Celestia to order them to pull back.”
"The short version?" Dexter asked, adjusting the scope on his rifle. The guards were again at work exhuming Celestia. Their pace was much faster this time, as several new arrivals used their telekinesis to lift the larger pieces of debris.
"Celestia declared that you are a non-lethal threat, and that you would not kill." Quadraplex answered. "Naturally, with no risk of death for her guards, her strategy appears to be to use them to overwhelm you. If we convince her and the guards to the contrary, she may rescind their orders to confront you in overwhelming numbers."
"Why does she think–” Dexter squinted in thought, before realization struck him. "She studied how I operated during my mission to the past. She knows I went through great lengths to avoid killing Nightmare Moon's guards; she must be assuming the same thing here."
"You did reveal to her that said events occurred only three days ago from your perspective."
Dexter wanted to curse. That fact was something he had overlooked. "Quadraplex, is that teleport ready yet?"
"Yes."
"Good, but first, for this fight to be fruitful, Celestia has to give it her all," Dexter replied. "Otherwise, she'll still pursue me on a mistaken belief that she might possess the strength to subdue me. We need to motivate her to fight her hardest."
"My plan can be augmented to accomplish that goal, Dexter, such that she is convinced we are willing to kill while also inciting her into a rage…"
---
"Thank you, again, my little ponies." Celestia had just finished pushing the last beam off her body as one of her nearby guards used his magic to pull what was left of a sofa off the princess. Several more guards, pegasi to be specific, stood before the princess and were actively pushing debris away to clear a path for their leader.
Another business the crown would have to rebuild thanks to this whole fiasco.
Celestia rubbed her chest with a forehoof as she stood back up, regaining the sense of feeling as the painful sting of being stuck wore off. Her coat and mane were covered in soot, wooden splinters, and dirt. She stepped out into the street, underneath the brightness of her afternoon sun.
"Are you alright, your Majesty?" A unicorn guard asked. The worry etched on his face was matched by every guard present. She nodded to reassure them despite another unicorn scanning her with his magic. Undoubtedly he was checking for wounds, despite the fact such a check was unnecessary.
"I'm fine," she said, using her magic to brush off some of the wood fragments and dirt from her coat. She glanced at her ruined regalia before using her magic to pull it off. "But we must not delay, let me know when that perimeter has been set up. Then prepare to move on Dexter from all directions simultan–"
"Princess!" A pegasus guard overhead called in a panic, pointing in the direction of the library just in time for it to explode once more. Instinctively, Celestia summoned her magic to cast a shield around herself and guards with her.
When the dust around the library cleared, Celestia’s blood ran cold.
The prone form of Twilight was lying in the street, just underneath where the library was blown open. A new, yet small, crater surrounded Celestia’s student. Twilight’s leg appeared to be broken, and several gashes around her body left blood stains in the dirt street. Shakily the unicorn tried to pull herself up, only to wince before settling into a sitting position. A layer of brown dust from the earth around her clung to her main and coat, and she clutched her barrel with a forehoof.
“Twilight?!” Celestia called in disbelief, as fear gripped her chest and threatened to squeeze the breath from her lungs.
However, she didn’t get to say anything more before an armored figure jumped down from the hole in the library's second floor, landing in the street with a thud beside Twilight.
The armored colt took several steps forward before unslinging his rifle and taking aim at Twilight. Twilight flinched, summoning a shield of magic around herself as her horn lit up. However, after another moment Twilight’s shield flickered before failing; vanishing faster than it appeared.
"No!" Instantly, Celestia cast a teleport spell on the prone form of Twilight. However, nothing happened. Her golden aura didn’t even appear over Twilight, and Celestia sensed the spell matrix collapse before it could take form.
She had sensed this type of drain on her magic once before, a thousand years ago. It was Dexter blocking her magic.
“DEXTER!” Celestia’s voice boomed. The growing panic in Celestia caused her magic to momentarily spike, causing her voice to be enhanced to deafening levels.
The armored colt briefly glanced at Celestia before resuming his aim at Twilight.
The reactive bolt which struck the form of Twilight exploded, spraying a conical smear of blood and viscera across the street.
The world seemingly stopped for Celestia. She was unable to believe, unable to comprehend what she had just witnessed. Fear, shock, desperation, and the tidal wave of growing pain in her chest exploded, before her vision went completely red.
"Y-YOU MURDERER!" Tears streaked from Celestia as her face morphed into the incarnation of pure rage. She leapt into the air, flying at Dexter faster than he had ever seen a pony move.
“Looks like your plan worked, Quadraplex.” Dexter nodded. “She’s angry.”
A blast of magic from her horn hurled toward him, only to fizzle out on his armor. It wasn’t until Celestia was on top of him that a white flash made both ponies disappear from the streets of Ponyville.
---
A few moments earlier.
"Ma'am, please. We have to keep moving." A solar pegasus guard blocking Applejack's path was very quickly becoming a source of frustration for the mare.
"Ah have ta make sure Dex is alright!" Applejack countered, trying to push her way past the guard. However, he stepped into her path once more. "Get outta ma way!"
"Applejack, please," Rarity said from somewhere behind her. "Dexter was with the princesses and with Twilight, they wouldn't let anything happen to him."
"An' what if they need our help?" Applejack retorted over her shoulder. Though that wasn't the true reason behind her concern. She knew the likely case was that she would have to protect Dexter from the Princess, or vice versa, given what the colt had told her. Of course, her promise prevented her from saying any of that.
"Ma'am, we have no idea what is going on," the guard ahead of her interrupted again. "And I have orders to keep you and the other elements safe if there was a security breach–"
"If ya don't know what is happening, then how do ya know there's been a security breach?"
"There were multiple explosions," the guard countered. "I don't have to know anything beyond that."
"I'm with Applejack!" Rainbow voiced from somewhere above, bold as usual. "If not Dexter, Celestia and Twilight might also need our help!"
Without another word, Applejack put a forehoof on the guard's chest, and using her earth pony strength, along with her years of farm work, she began pushing the pegasus in front of her back. With a growl of frustration, he quickly relented. "Fine, but only you two." He waved a hoof to the other guards in his troop. "Take the rest to the safe house, now."
"Pinkie and I will take care of the fillies," Rarity called, eliciting a thankful nod from Applejack before the farm pony galloped back toward the library.
Rainbow flew ahead of Applejack, swinging around to fly high above and in front of the library just as another explosion rocked Twilight's home.
"No!" Applejack quickly recognized Celestia's voice as she rounded the corner, turning in the direction of Celestia's shout. However, her eyes didn't first land on the princess but rather the forms of two ponies in the middle of the street. Just outside the library, Dexter stood over a bleeding and burnt Twilight, aiming his rifle down at her with Celestia standing far in the background and staring in horror.
There was a blue flash from the colt.
Applejack couldn't believe what she saw next, her jaw dropped as she froze in place. Somewhere up above her, Rainbow Dash looked on in equal levels of horror, covering her mouth with her forehooves.
"YOU MURDERER!"
Before Applejack could react any further, Rainbow Dash darted down toward Dexter; both fury and tears in her eyes. Before she could reach the colt, a white flash whisked him away. She slammed into the ground, kicking up her own cloud of dust and debris where Dexter stood only moments before. However, despite the impact she was still on her hooves, shaking with equal parts fury and anguish.
"WHERE IS HE?! WHERE DID HE GO?!" she yelled through her tears.
Applejack was unable to take her eyes off the red smear that was once her friend, slowly approaching the grisly scene. "Twi..."
"It's a deception." A monotone voice in Applejack's ear declared. "Twilight Sparkle is not dead. Her demise was an illusion."
"What," Applejack turned in the direction she heard the voice only to find an empty street. That was when she remembered the ear piece Dexter had provided her, and she instantly recognized the voice of Dexter's computer. "What? WHAT? WHAT THE HAY DID I JUST SEE?!"
The grisly scene in the street before here seemingly phased out of existence with a faint buzzing sound, returning the street to its original condition minus a few new craters. Rainbow Dash, noticing the disappearing blood, jumped away.
Rainbow Dash hovered for a few more moments, her eyes darting around the street then back at the spot where the blood had disappeared.
"ANSWER ME YA TALKING TIN CAN!" That outburst earned Applejack a glance from Rainbow Dash. "Request Granted." Applejack heard in her ear. However, not a second later, another figure seemingly phased into existence from thin air, standing just before Applejack. However, this figure was that of a completely unharmed and healthy Twilight Sparkle. Every inch of her was pristine and was utterly indistinguishable from the genuine article as far as Applejack could tell.
"I apologize, Applejack. However it would be far easier for me to communicate with you both in this fashion." The figment Twilight turned to glance at Rainbow Dash, who was now staring back in confusion. "You both were not supposed to witness that illusion, and I do not believe that Dexter wishes for either of you to suffer any emotional trauma. He instructed me to do what I can to limit collateral damage from his altercation with Celestia."
"Twilight?" Dash flew over, landing next to the figment of her friend. She stretched out a hoof to poke the figment, only to find her foreleg pass through this Twilight as though she were nothing but a shadow. After watching her hoof disappear into the body of the figment and the figment rippled in form around her leg, did Dash quickly pull it back.
"No," The figment glanced at Dash again. "Dexter allowed the real Twilight Sparkle to teleport herself and Princess Luna to the Ponyville hospital. They are both safe and healthy. What you saw on this street was an illusion designed to enrage Celestia."
The figment's words caused a wave of relief to wash over Applejack, so much so that she slumped in place for a few moments as she drew several deep breaths.
"Twilight's alive?" Dash panted. Whether she was still trembling from anger or simply adrenaline was anyone's guess; however, to Applejack, she did sound relieved.
"Yes," the figment confirmed. "You can verify for yourself if you wish, she is on the second floor of the clinic." The figment turned back to Applejack, staring forward while waiting for Applejack to recover from her newfound sense of relief.
"Thank goodness, Ah nearly had a heart attack." Applejack slowly brought herself up to a full stand. "Ah want to talk ta Dexter. Now!"
"I cannot grant that request at this juncture," the figment replied. "This communication was not authorized by Dexter, and he is currently preoccupied in combat with Celestia."
"WHAT?!"
"I initiated this communication with a secondary purpose," the figment declared. "Dexter currently believes that the only way to accomplish his goal–inciting Celestia to voluntarily leave him alone–is through proving to Celestia that she does not possess sufficient strength to overcome or subdue him. To that end, he has initiated a form of psychological warfare against her in an attempt to make her forego all her restraint in battling him."
"That's crazy!" Rainbow Dash retorted, glancing between Applejack and the figment. “What the hay are you supposed to be anyway? Some sort of new changeling?”
"His plan has a high probability of working and does possess substantial merit." The hologram turned back toward Applejack, ignoring Rainbow Dash. Several guards had filed in around the mares. "A psychological profiling of Celestia suggests she would pursue Dexter and repeatedly attempt to capture him. Predictably, she would utilize progressively greater portions of her magical and physical strength until reaching her limit. Dexter had decided to short circuit that process by pushing her beyond all restraint immediately."
"How do we stop him?" Applejack asked.
"You don’t, and I would deploy countermeasures against you if you tried." the hologram stated. "However, this plan possesses significant risks to Dexter. "
"That's right!" Applejack poked a hoof at the hologram's chest. Though her hoof simply went through it. "An' you know Ah care fer Dex just as much as you do. So tell us how ta stop this before Dex provokes Celestia inta hurtin' him. By accident or otherwise."
"False." The hologram disagreed. "You do not care for Dexter as much as I do. However, you do have a point. Dexter has a high probability of achieving his desired outcome, but his actions are not without risk. I wish for you to assist me in a contingency plan to stop this fight should it become necessary to prevent permanent harm to Dexter."
Applejack frowned. " Here’s a hint, stop it now."
"No. Proceed to the Ponyville hospital and reunite with Twilight Sparkle." The hologram pointed in the direction of the clinic. "Then inform her of the current situation. In the event it becomes necessary, I will teleport both of you and Twilight Sparkle to Celestia and Dexter's location. There, the three of you should be able to convince Celestia and Dexter to halt their confrontation."
“An’ what am I supposed ta say?” Applejack nodded. "You know Ah promised ta-"
"Dexter has declared that his secrets have been exposed by Celestia recalling his identity and by his subsequent explanations to her," the hologram answered. "Both by Dexter's admission and by the terms of your promise, you are released from your oath to keep what you know secret. You may tell anyone whatever you wish. It does not matter at this point."
"What the hay?" Rainbow Dash interjected.
"Ah'll tell ya in a minute." Applejack turned back to the hologram. “What's the catch? How do you know we won't jus show up and stop the fight early cause we can?"
"First, I won't let you," the hologram began to list off. "Second, they are outside the teleportation range of your magic users, including Twilight Sparkle. Third, you do not know their current location, so even if you could reach them, you don't know where they are." The hologram curtly phased out of existence.
---
Celestia suddenly found herself standing in the middle of a grassy clearing. The Ponyville streets had vanished along with the world around her only to be replaced by an almost idyllic meadow distantly surrounded by a forest.
She was well acquainted with the sensation of being teleported. The sudden change in orientation and environment had long since ceased being disorientating for her.
However, the change in scenery had almost gone unnoticed; covered underneath a torrent of emotions sweeping through her.
Twilight had just been murdered right in front of her.
The grisly scene of her student's demise flashed across her eyes. Desperation, fear, anger, shock, they all threatened to overwhelm Celestia as her vision turned red.
"I told you I wasn't playing nice anymore," Dexter declared. "Twilight found that out the hard wa–"
Celestia snapped in Dexter’s direction, she could feel what was left of her composure shatter like glass in the back of her mind. "SHE WAS A DAUGHTER TO ME!"
A bright golden lance of magic shot out from Celestia's horn, struck Dexter by surprise. It was wide enough to completely encompass the colt’s form, and caused his suit's dampeners to flare to life. Where the beam missed the colt it carved into the ground, rending a flaming gouge in the grassland.
However, despite the dampeners, the intensity of the beam caused Dexter to fail to notice another pulse of golden magic from Celestia's horn. The ground beneath Dexter flashed in response before exploding upwards, launching him into the air.
By this point, everything around the colt was a blur as the verdant earth mixed with the blue hue of the sky. Less than a second later, he was caught by Celestia’s forehooves. He couldn’t tell if she had teleported or simply charged at him. Either way, she wasted no time in driving the colt into the ground, creating a crater as she slammed him into the ground.
"I'll see you chained in Tartarus for the rest of your miserable life," Celestia hissed, standing atop Dexter with a hoof pressed against his armor’s chest piece. Given the disorientation, it took Dexter a moment to comprehend her words. His suit could compensate for inertial changes, preventing him from being injured from most sudden accelerations or impacts. However, it made hurtling through the air more disorientating than usual by distorting the sensations of his impact.
When he finally came around, he looked up to see a furious Celestia pinning him. He turned his head toward his ion rifle. It had been slung over his back, and landed a few feet from his side. However, Celestia's had noticed it too. With an audible crunch, she brought a hoof down on the weapon, leaving a hoofprint behind where she flattened the frame. It crackled with sparks several times before falling silent.
"Surrender now, Dexter." Celestia increased the force which she pushed down on Dexter, warning icons flashed across his vision. However, it wasn’t from Celestia's crushing hoof. “Surrender, and you will spend the rest of your existence praising the sun for the little mercies I will leave you with.”
"Idiot," Dexter muttered loud enough for Celestia to hear as he sent a neural command to lock his armor and set his inertial dampeners to full. His armor stiffened, and a faint glowing barrier surrounded the colt and hugged his form. Celestia opened her mouth to respond; however, she was cut off by a growing hissing sound, accompanied by a strange metallic whine, coming from the rifle she had just crushed. Glancing at it, she noticed it was now starting to rattle and shake violently to the point where it was jumping off the ground.
"My rifle is a more refined version of my canon," Dexter stated simply. "My cannon exploded, remember?"
Sensing the danger, she cast a teleportation spell on the violently shaking rifle.
Unfortunately, the magic dampener in Dexter's suit flared on her magic's contact.
"Do you practice at being this stup–"
The explosion from the rifle's energy core ripped across the ground, unleashing a blue wave of plasma. The resulting crater was the size of a basketball court, and spread flames much further.
With the rifle beneath Celestia, the explosion launched the solar alicorn into the sky. Her burnt form created a black streak that hurtled into the clouds before disappearing behind them.
Groaning, Dexter tried to shake off the vertigo and disorientation the explosion had given him. The explosion had pushed him further into the ground, burying him under charred dirt and freshly formed molten earth.
Sending a neural command in his suit, he was happy to see that it had done its job. A report showed him to be completely unharmed. The suit itself was another story. Dexter grimaced when several red indicators lit up to highlight damage it had received. The explosion had overloaded several of the onboard systems.
"Inertia inhibitors, shielding, and powered movement systems are damaged and working at less than fifty percent capability," Quadraplex reported in Dexter's ear. "Seventy two percent of your suit's ablative armor has been destroyed, and your suit's power systems have also been drained down to forty percent capacity. You are also unable to lock your armor until repairs are made. May I proceed with repairs now?"
"Yes," Dexter said, shaking his head while gritting his teeth. He began pushing dirt away, starting the slow process of digging himself out.
With a final heave, Dexter emerged from the ground, pushing burnt dirt and ash aside. He stood up, surveying the now destroyed meadow around him. Everything that could be on fire was. He was in the middle of an inferno, which explained why his suit had switched him over to an internal oxygen supply.
It made him want to chuckle. Quadraplex really did think of everything.
"Might I suggest you withdraw?" Quadraplex asked as Dexter brushed off some lava that had cooled and solidified against his armor. "If Celestia believes you perished in the explosion, she will stop pursuing you."
Dexter glanced around the fire once more, deciding on the closest path out of the blaze. "Unfortunately, no, Quadraplex. Celestia is smart enough to quickly realize that had the explosion been capable of killing me, I would have teleported away instead of letting it happen and taking the brunt of it. She also would realize that I stayed in order to prevent her from using her magic to escape herself." He started walking, smothering miniature parts of the blaze with each step. “Besides, one psycho princess already has issues because she thought she killed me. I don't need to up that to two. Well, that is assuming Celestia is..."
"Celestia survived the explosion. It launched her to an approximate altitude of eight hundred meters. However, she still possesses life signs and has started flying back to your location. She will land momentarily." A blip appeared in Dexter's visor, pointing him toward Celestia. "Be advised, the guard forces in Ponyville will eventually notice and discern the location of that explosion. I predict they will send a force to investigate within a few hours. "
"Thank you, Quadraplex. This should be over long before they get here." Dexter paused in thought. "The purpose of this altercation is to send a message to Celestia. I think we can drive the point home quickly."
"How so?"
"Initiate and dispatch my latest Robo-Dex iteration," Dexter ordered, still standing within the blaze as though it were normal.
"Mission parameters?"
"Set its onboard A.I. to autonomous combat. Target: Celestia. Non-lethal force. Feed it data on her capabilities, so it knows how much force it can use without killing her." Dexter started walking forward. "Dispatch the anti-alicorn armament systems to assist."
“Understood, repairs to your armor will be completed momentarily. Then all systems will be back at 100% operational capacity.”
Celestia landed at the edge of the inferno. Her fur, tail and mane were all still charred black. However, the ashes that were once the exterior of her body began to sluff off as new pristine fur grew in its place. She stared into the fire with a mixture of anger and regret. Even though she believed he had killed Twilight, it wasn't her intention to kill the colt.
She was certain nothing could have survived that explosion. At least, nothing other than an alicorn.
“I didn’t want to kill you…”
Which is why no small part of her regret and anger was replaced with disbelief when she saw a colt sized figure casually strolling through the blaze. He had apparently noticed her landing and turned to approach her.
When Dexter emerged from the fire, slightly smoking, parts of his suit began to spontaneously fall from his body before a flash of white deposited clean and uncharred components in their place. Entire segments of blacked and ruined armor fell to the ground before new segments appeared in their place. Soon, the only evidence of the entire fight were a few burn marks marring his armor's otherwise dark blue exterior.
By the time Dexter had emerged from the blaze, Celestia had fought back her stupor. Her fury had returned, though now much more restrained.
"Not the easy fight you expected, Celestia?" Dexter asked, the moment he was close enough to be confident she could hear him over the roar of the inferno before her.
"Don't be so smug, Dexter." Celestia glared at the armored colt. "You're now weaponless, and I have only begun to tap into my strength." She turned to the left of the colt, charging her horn. A pulse of golden magic erupted from her horn, washing over the ground as she swept from left to right. Her golden aura extinguished much of the blaze, leaving only charred earth and burnt foliage behind. Only an area around Dexter remained smoldering. "This is a fight you will lose; and I will make you pay for what you have done."
Dexter shifted, pressing an armored hoof on a smoldering piece of grass underneath him before twisting his leg to make sure the embers were stamped out. "All I wanted was to be left alone."
"You should have thought of that before MURDERING Twilight!" Celestia snapped, as her horn began to glow threateningly once more. “Now I shall never rest.”
Dexter rolled his eyes though she couldn't see it behind his reflexive visor. "Her termination was a necessity." He lied. "A product of your obstinance. You have to realize there will be consequences for pursuing me."
"You will be pursued; justice demands you be punished." Celestia declared. "And I will see it done!"
Dexter scoffed. His impression of Celestia was not that of one overly concerned with justice. "Justice or revenge?" Dexter countered. After a moment he shrugged. "Either will do, I suppose. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re angry Celestia. But that’s a good thing. It has to be this way. You have to be angry enough to give this fight your all." He turned back to Celestia, sensing an opportunity to bait the solar alicorn. " So, when you lose, you know there is nothing you can do. Your motives for this are just as irrelevant as Twilight’s life was."
Celestia's fury redoubled as her eyes flashed with arcane energy. However, what happened next caught Dexter off guard. Celestia had burst into action, moving toward the colt with a supernatural speed for which the colt had no remote chance of reacting to quickly enough.
Thankfully, she wasn’t fast enough to beat Quadraplex’s reaction time. The A.I. activated the time dilation device in Dexter’s suit, causing the blur of speed that was Celestia to slow before coming to a virtual standstill merely a meter away from the colt.
The sudden appearance of a furious Celestia standing over him, frozen mid-lunge with a scowl and glowing eyes, caused Dexter to nearly jump out of his own skin. Given the stance of her lunge, she was intent on delivering another strike to the colt with her forehooves.
"Gah!" Dexter stumbled from his place, frantically backing away.
"I calculated Celestia’s velocity to be approximately three times that of the speed of sound." Quadraplex's voice came through his earpiece. "Although your suit would protect you from the impact, I would have had to begin repairs again if the blow landed. To give you the opportunity to avoid the impact, I activated your time dilation generator and slowed time to approximately a thousandth of normal progression."
"Thank You Quadraplex" Dexter nodded in appreciation, wearily eyeing the monstrous alicorn that had nearly gotten to him. A simple glance at the world around him did reveal that everything was, in fact, frozen in time. "Sometimes I forget that this is how you perceive reality, Quadraplex."
"Not entirely, this is how I would perceive the flow of time if my processors were downclocked by ninety-nine percent. I am substantially faster," the computer corrected. "Now, I recommend that you punch her." A target icon appeared on the form of Celestia in Dexter's HUD. "Your suit's force amplifiers, along with the temporal shear caused by the time dilation device, will amplify the blow immensely."
Dexter walked over to Celestia's side as a grin formed on his face, a horse-shoe shaped device on the bottom of his forehoof began to glow as he settled beside Celestia.
Celestia didn't know what hit her. All she knew was that she had lunged at Dexter with a speed she could only attain at the peak of her fury. Now she lay at the bottom of a crater at the end of a large gouge in the earth. It felt like she had been hit by a thousand freight trains, having seemingly shattered every bone in her body before sending her careening through the blackened and charred earth.
However, the worst of it was that her body was beginning to heal. The rapid healing process was something she appreciated as an immortal, as it would be very difficult to live forever while accumulating permanent wounds. Unfortunately, the mending of broken and shattered bones as they snapped back together was never painless.
At least once it got going it was rather quick.
Meanwhile, Dexter stood at the edge of the crater, looking down. "Good," Dexter let out a baited breath. He had turned off his time dilator. "For a second she really looked dead. I know you told me! But that's not the–"
Celestia let out a cry of rage, causing Dexter to jump back from the edge of the crater. A blast of golden magic launched whatever charred dirt that covered Celestia into the air, before the alicorn burst from the crater. She merely glanced at Dexter with a newfound rage before ascending into the sky.
Dexter traced the alicorn's flight; however, a sinking feeling in his gut told him she wasn't trying to flee. "Computer, how long until Robo-Dex gets here..."
Celesta stopped to hover, well above the charred and blackened ground that had become her and Dexter's battlefield. What happened next both awed and scared the colt. Celestia's body flashed with an aura of golden magic. Shortly after, the sun itself began to move across the sky. The sun settled right overhead, before pulsing in tandem with the magic flowing over Celestia's body. The sun now glowed with an unnatural brightness, seemingly magnified as though it had gotten closer. However, the world hadn't burst into flame, which led Dexter to believe it was some sort of optical effect.
The glow over Celestia's body did not fade as the magenta of her eyes were replaced by a piercing gold. But that wasn’t what worried Dexter. Something within him could feel the raw magical energy build up inside her like a distant yet persisting weight in the air above him.
After another few moments, Celestia's gaze turned to lock onto Dexter.
"Uh oh."
Celestia disappeared in a flash of gold, and the weight of her magic disappeared from the sky. It reappeared right behind Dexter on top of him.
The colt had barely a moment to reach before he felt Celestia grab hold of him as two powerful forelegs wrapped around his barrel. He barely had enough time to twist around to half face Celestia before her legs went tight, immobilizing the colt.
Dexter responded by punching Celestia with his unpinned foreleg, the force amplifier on his forehoof discharging with increasing levels of power against Celestia. However, the now glowing alicorn was seemingly unphased by the blows and responded by swiping the offending limb with her own hoof. The strike broke the device, shattering several pieces of armor covering the colt's hoof. She then slammed Dexter into the ground beneath her, pinning him.
Celestia pushed Dexter into the burnt ground. She squeezed tighter, causing the armor around his barrel to dent inwards. Alighting her horn, Celestia cast a very bright yet very narrow beam of golden energy from her horn into crevasses in Dexter's armor. She was trying to cut through it, starting at his shoulder.
If she managed to peel off a portion of Dexter’s suit, he would be vulnerable; and this fight would be over shortly thereafter.
His magic dampeners flared to life once more. Dexter quickly discovered that the narrow focus and high intensity of the beam prevented his suit’s dampeners from effectively siphoning from the beam. While she could keep him pinned and still, her highly precise magic was still effective. Alarms in his suit blared as the raw magical energy of the beam started to cut through to the inner layers.
Less than a moment later, Celestia's grasp on Dexter vanished as a flash of white light made the colt disappear. He reappeared several meters away, where he jumped to his hooves.
Celestia instinctively rose to her hooves before launching herself into the air with a powerful beat of her wings. Without so much as a glance to her surroundings, she circled in the air a few meters from Dexter.
"I haven’t called upon my sun like this in eighteen centuries," Celestia declared. Her voice echoed with the raw magical energy she was channeling. The golden portion of her eyes glowed like the rest of her. "I hope it's what you wanted."
"Impressive." Dexter motioned upwards with his head toward the sun. "But not as impressive as I had hoped for."
Despite her fury with the murderous child, Celestia couldn’t help raising an eyebrow and pulling her head back slightly in surprise. Dexter picked up on the movement just enough to read it.
Dexter extended the forehoof with the damaged and crushed armor to his side. The entire outer layer of armor on the leg fell from his form along with the damaged forced amplifier. A white flash had fresh replacements attached in their place instantly.
"Don't get me wrong. I've never seen someone call upon the sun in a fight before," Dexter began, replying to her unspoken surprise, "but we've already established that magic doesn't really work against me. Your response to that knowledge was, well, more magic." Dexter scoffed. "I know you're a bit emotional right now, but that is a poor excuse for failing to think.”
Celestia scowled before an incredibly bright yet concentrated beam of golden energy erupted from her horn. It hit the ground in front of the colt before traveling upward to engulf his form. The beam itself burned through everything it touched, creating a new scar in the earth around and behind Dexter.
Another alarm sounded in his helmet as the blast nearly overloaded the magic dampener in his suit, with them having absorbed an amount of magical energy Dexter had previously thought impossible for a single magic user to wield.
"Power level at four hundred percent of standard capacity," Quadraplex declared in his ear as he sent a neural command to his suit to stop the alarm and activated his time dilation. Another warning indicator appeared in his vision, showing him the overcharged state of his suit.
He would have to get rid of the extra energy soon if he wanted to prevent his suit from becoming unstable.
He grinned.
With Celestia frozen in time once more, the colt casually strolled over to where Celestia was hovering. He sent the neural command to activate his force amplifiers once again, devoting to them all the extra energy he now had. It was enough to blow out the amplifiers.
He ordered Quadraplex to prepare another set of replacements as he leapt into the air toward the alicorn.
...
For the second time that day, Celestia found herself staring up at her sun from the bottom of a crater. However, this one was significantly larger than the last. Fortunately, however, her bones weren’t broken this time. Her improved link to the sun had made her practically invulnerable, suffusing her body with magic that easily reinforced her physical and magical strength. Other than mud and charred earth staining her glowing coat, she was fine.
However, it didn’t last, as a dark blue blur appeared in the crater on top of her. With speed she had never seen, the blur began pounding her further into the ground.
Being virtually invulnerable didn't mean the blows weren't painful. She swiped at the blur with her foreleg, only to find her foreleg caught and wrenched away with unfathomable speed before the flurry of blows resumed.
It only stopped when Celestia pulsed her magic once more, creating an explosion within the crater in an attempt to drive the bounding blue blur from atop of her. It worked to some degree, as the blue blur disappeared from its place just as the magical blast was cast.
And again, Celestia was buried in mud and charred earth at the bottom of a crater.
With a flash of her magic, Celestia teleported out of the hole in the ground. She stood beside the crater she had just extricated herself from. The only thing to show for the attack was a muddied coat.
She glanced at the crater for a moment, wondering how much of it was caused by her magic versus the colt’s impossible strength.
"Here," Dexter stated simply, not letting the alicorn wonder as to where he went.
"I can see you, Dexter." Celestia said before turning her head toward the colt. The gold of her eyes still glowed enough for Dexter to see over the brightness of the sun overhead. "Can you not see the futility of this fight? You battle the sun itself, even now my strength only grows."
"Not that I am keeping score, your Majesty, but you've been losing this fight so far," Dexter replied curtly, squaring up toward Celestia.
"You cannot truly hurt me, Dexter," Celestia countered, her voice continuing the echo of the air around her. "I am an immortal. It is only a matter of time before you are defeated."
"Are you sure?"
Celestia paused, considering the colt's words before deciding they were merely a bluff. "Despite everything you've done, Dexter, I still do not want to see you destroyed. Nor do I wish to see a child like you sentenced and chained in Tartarus. Surrender now, and allow yourself to be reformed, and I will grant you a measure of leniency."
"You don't get it, Princess." Dexter shook his head. Again the colt did the puzzling ritual where the devices and armor on his forelegs fell from his form and to the ground. White flashes replaced what was lost instantly. "You’re still not thinking. I'm the hero here. you're the villain. So forgive me if I pass on your offer to be 'reformed.'"
“Does a hero murder one as virtuous and true as my most faithful student?”
“You mean the student of the princess who stood around and watched as her crazy sister murdered countless innocent ponies? If she was as true to you as you were to your subjects, she probably wasn’t that virtuous.”
This time, Celestia didn't scowl. "I studied everything Star Swirl collected about you. In fact, you were the only thing I focused on other than my sister. You have the unique ability to dispel direct magical effects, but you are more than susceptible to the use of magic indirectly.
"But I think there is something you haven't taken into account, after all I know much more about magic than someone, such as you, who cannot practice it." Celestia's horn lit up again. However, it was not nearly as bright as it had been previously. "Your magic nullification prevents a spell from being cast but does it stop one from being withdrawn?" She let the question hang, causing Dexter to grimace behind his face shield.
However, after only a few moments Dexter figured out what she was getting at.
Dexter felt a familiar twinge in his side and back, specifically where he had once been wounded during his trip to the past. Celestia had been the one to use her magic to heal him, enough so that she had left residual magic behind at the site of his wounds.
"Your means of dispelling magic must merely create a barrier between yourself and the world around you, much like your armor. Otherwise, you would be weakened from the magic being drawn out of your own body." Celestia observed as the twinge in Dexter's side and back suddenly got painful. There was a snap and tug, before a loosening, as though something inside his lungs had unraveled. "But what if some of my magic has already made it beyond that barrier?"
"Gah!" Dexter clutched his side as the pain sharply spiked; however, the movement alone caused another jolt of pain to shoot through his spine. He began to cough uncontrollably.
"I may have cast it a thousand years ago, but my magic still answers my call." Celestia said. "And those healing spells are like stitches. They can be removed early or torn out to cause just as much damage as they had been intended to fix."
Dexter continued to cough. He couldn’t breathe, and soon enough, he found himself coughing up blood into his visor, spraying his face shield and covering up portions of his HUD in red.
"Sorry for opening old wounds, Dexter," Celestia pressed. "But how was that for thinking hmm?'"
Dexter didn’t respond. He still couldn’t breathe despite his continuous coughing. A warning indicator in his partially bloodied HUD showed him he had internal bleeding. However, despite this, and in an attempt to breathe, he pulled off his helmet before coughing further into the charged dirt before him. The coughs sprayed blood onto the ground. His face was reddened.
"I've deployed nanites into your bloodstream." Quadraplex came through his earpiece. "They should be able to stop the internal bleeding soon. However, you will have difficulty breathing for significantly longer than that."
"Now it’s your turn to think, Dexter." Celestia approached the colt, standing over him. Without his visor, the glow surrounding her appeared brighter. The weight of the magic imbued in her form felt that much more oppressive this close. "Reason with me, Dexter. Surrender and submit yourself to be reformed. I do not wish to hurt you further, and you cannot defeat me. My magic is already inside you, you cannot win."
Dexter merely coughed again before shaking his head. Celestia scowled.
"Is this what you want?” Celestia motioned to the devastation that was their battlefield. It was the first chance she had to gauge the expressions of his face since he put on his helmet. "Is this what you're hoping for? The suffering you've caused, the ponies you've hurt. The life you ended. If there is any ability to reason behind this madness, use it now. Surrender!" she commanded.
"Reason with you?" Dexter panted. He spat a glob of blood onto the ground. "An o-old quote for you, Celestia, from a wise leader," Dexter panted, pain evident from his gritted teeth, " 'You cannot reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth!' " He sneered.
The ground beneath Celestia quaked as something titanic slammed into the ground behind her. It landed with enough force to throw Celestia into the air.
Rounding on the new arrival, the solar alicorn froze in place to process what she was seeing. Thirty meters away was a titanic-metallic foot.
It was one of two colossal feet attached to a figure that towered over the whole battlefield. It stood much taller than any buildings Celestia had seen, taller than even the highest tower in her Canterlot palace.
It was bipedal and was armored from head to toe in the same metallic material as Dexter's armor. Its overall style was square as there were hard corners where curves would have normally made up in an organic form.
The sun gleamed off the metallic titan.
"When I picked this fight, I only wanted to convince you to leave me alone," Dexter wheezed, causing Celestia to jump and turn back toward him. Her previous glare of fury and determination was replaced with genuine bewilderment and possibly fear. Though Dexter couldn’t exactly tell; without his glasses or his helmet’s visor he could hardly see. Remnants of his blood remained on the corner of his mouth as Dexter held a new device. He directed a scowl at Celestia. His anger was well beyond the simple contempt he usually held.
"But now… I’m upset." A new helmet appeared in front of Dexter in a white flash, which he quickly stuffed onto his head. He then attached another device to his foreleg before pressing a button on it. It crackled to life, extending an apparent beam of piercing blue energy with a deep humming sound. His visor reflected the blue light of his now ignited plasma saber, which he leveled at Celestia.
"Dext–"
"Target: Celestia," the metal titan said with a booming voice. Its voice was synthetic and monotone, and was rough to the ears. "I've come to destroy you." A gigantic metal fist flew down toward Celestia at speeds she didn't think were possible for something so large.
And so for the third time that day, Celestia was staring up at the sky from the bottom of a crater.
Pulling herself from the ground once again, Celestia summoned her magic to teleport. However, she could feel a certain level of instability in her magic due to the dampening field the titanic machine was projecting. It couldn’t stop her from using magic, but it would foul more intricate spells such as teleportation.
Opting instead to fly, Celestia shot into the air. She wanted to at least get a better view of this new gigantic opponent. Yet her path was traced by the head of the giant robot as a compartment on its shoulder opened to produce a rack of missiles. Each one of the missiles shot out of the robot's shoulder in rapid succession, darting after Celestia and seeking after her like a pack of angry hornets.
In the course of a second, five missiles detonated within two feet of Celestia. The alicorn blasted into the ground, crashing with a slam that echoed throughout the forest.
The immortal alicorn pulled herself up, surprised yet still determined. She was immortal and undefeatable. Without powerful magic, Dexter couldn't truly defeat or kill her.
She would have to outlast him. A simple strategy, one which all immortals could fall back on against any mortal that challenged them.
At least that’s what she told herself.
---
Post-Chater A/N:
Should be releasing the next 16k words remaining in the chapter in 24 hours.Leave a comment! :)