Sonata’s laughter was drowned out by a hail of gunfire. The windows on the building shattered and the house rocked. Dash could tell they were going to demolish it in mere moments.
Sonata who, standing on top of the roof, had no cover, was soon blown away. An explosion sent her hurtling, then tumbling down the steep hills of Ponytown.
It wouldn’t be long until something similar happened to Dash. The house behind her would collapse before long. But as far as she knew, these assassins weren’t anypony that special. Surely, she could escape from them all. Right?
Dash looked at her claw blade. Most of it was focused on escaping…
She cast a spell, allowing her to slip through the shadows. Her movement was smooth and effortless. She appeared next to another house down the street just as her first hiding place collapsed in a hail of fire.
A few assassins stepped forward to inspect the rubble. It didn’t look like they’d seen her. But Dash could see them from the side. She took stock of what she was up against, began planning the best escape route.
“Hey, I’ve never been in a situation like this before.” What seemed to be the youngest assassin looked out over the rest. “Do we all work or what?”
Sadly, it looked like the answer was ‘yes’ for now.
Dash found exactly one familiar face among the crowd, that fucking snake guy! Hissteria or whatever his name was had come here personally, calmly scanned his vantage point
It was something she wouldn’t have picked up on were it not for the mind fibers, but his eyes stopped for a fraction of a second when they fell upon Dash. He saw her!
Dash tried to step through the shadows again. A shot was fired at the general location where Dash had been transported to. More than anything else, it served to alert all the other assassins to her presence.
In a moment, another hail of bullets was pinning her down. Two ponies with claw blades of their own landed next to Dash and slashed at her. Guided by the mind fibers, Dash masterfully sidestepped one of them and threw them to the side before ducking under the second and uppercutting into his belly.
A unicorn teleported just a few yards away and tried firing a bolt of lightning at Dash. She blocked this with a wind wall, then shadow stepped forward and with a deft blow to the exact right spot, knocked the unicorn out in one blow.
She was actually doing it!
Dash smiled a little. She could beat up a bunch of random ponies!
The decrepit claws of some unknown species burst through the ground and grabbed Dash’s legs.
Undead!
Before she could react to this, five more unicorns appeared in a circle around Dash. The mind fibers calculated for her that she wouldn’t have the strength to block all of them. Her only option was her old fallback.
Maybe two escaped the ensuing blast. She turned back to a pegasus and a shot from Hissteria connected at that exact moment.
The auto-barrier of the sawblades was the only thing that saved Dash, the bullet bouncing off her head. But it took a lot of energy and she fell back into an alley.
Hissteria landed just in front of her, lifting his gun for a second shot. A dozen more assassins rushed into the space just behind him. They were on either ledge of the building above too…
There was too much going on! Dash couldn’t react to it all!
A needle flew into Dash’s neck from behind, stabbing all the way through.
This… was it!
Dash couldn’t feel her heart beating. She couldn’t move a muscle. She couldn’t breathe. She fell limp to the ground.
A window behind her shattered and from it came Bonbon. The earth pony landed on top of Dash and with one move ripped Dash’s still-beating heart out of her chest.
Which was weird because it didn’t hurt at all and Dash knew the darn thing had stopped beating already. But there was blood all over the floor.
“Aw, come on!”
Half the assassins made noises of frustration and disappointment. Some of them went as far as to throw their guns and daggers across the room.
“Well I get paid as long as she dies,” said the youngest before getting pistol-whipped by another.
“I’m taking the body.” Bonbon held up Dash’s body. “The rest of you can fight over the heart.”
“Now hold on.” Hissteria stepped forward. “I’ve ripped out a lot of hearts and that one seemed a bit fishy.”
“Yeah!” Many of the assassins echoed his concerns. The colt chimed in the same a second too late.
Even Dash had no idea if that was her heart at this point, would bet the answer was ‘no’. This didn’t hurt nearly as much as she’d expected, and the ‘blood’ wasn’t hot. Yet still, she was completely limp, unable to even keep her eyes from rolling about in her skull.
“Why don’t you come up and inspect it yourself?” Bonbon kept her eyes locked onto Hissteria’s.
He cocked a smile and trotted forward. He put a hoof on Dash’s neck and inspected the wound, something Dash would have liked to do herself.
“Yep.” He stood up and turned to the crowd of assassins. “She’s dead.”
Half were disappointed and the other half jubilant, revealing what conditions they were paid under.
“So then. I’m taking the body to Flash Bang.” Bonbon threw the heart out to the masses. “You can fight over this.”
Some of them started fighting in a rush towards it as Bonbon jumped out the same hole she entered through with Dash in tow. Hissteria merely stood still, watching them leave.
She carried Dash across two rows of houses before stopping in some other pony’s backyard.
Bonbon tore the needle out of Dash’s neck. Dash choked and coughed as her body sprang back to life. Whatever paralysis she’d been put under had been lifted, allowing her to get back on her hooves.
“We have to keep moving.” Bonbon didn’t wait for Dash to recover. She merely shoved her along and kept going. “At least two of them noticed you weren’t dead. We might only have a few minutes.”
Bonbon turned her fancy black jacket inside out, changing it to a cheap and garishly purple hoodie. She opened a mailbox as they walked past it, taking out a dye kit and a second coat. She shoved these toward Dash.
Dash decided it’d be a good idea to put the disguise on. She rubbed the dye into her hair, turning it red. Glancing back at Bonbon, she was already completely different! Without dye, her hair, fur, and even her face were modestly different, becoming a slimmer earth pony of more subtle shades of green.
She heard Bonbon had some power like this.
“Where do you plan on going, exactly?” Dash asked. “Did Flash Bang send you?”
It was common knowledge that Bonbon was one of Flash’s underlings. Dash perhaps trusted that pony more than the assassins. But there was a non-zero chance Flash also wanted Dash dead or a prisoner. Or would soon.
“I’ll confide a secret in you. I’m a double agent whose real loyalties lie with Nailbat. The psychic’s guild HQ is under our control. You’ll be safe there.” Bonbon focused on scoping out the area. “A lot of ponies who want to kill or capture you are coming. Fast. A train will be arriving at the station in fifteen minutes filled with ponies sympathetic to Flash Bang.”
Even if Bonbon did work for Nailbat in reality, she still couldn’t be sure this wasn’t one of the ponies out for her. Maybe Dash could test that.
“I need to get back to my house,” said Dash. “It’s likely the only way out of here for me.”
“Somepony might be waiting for you at your house. Like I said, you’ll be safe at the Psychic guild’s HQ.”
Debatable without Pinkie Pie around. Dash and Bonbon both stood firm, looking into one another’s eyes.
They heard a distant rumbling. An explosion going off far away. The next would be closer.
“Dammit! Fighting has already broken out,” said Bonbon. “Fine. I’ll take you to your home.”
Bonbon grabbed Dash and pulled her in the right direction.
They made it down one street before a much closer gunshot filled the air. A bullet hole formed in the street just in front of Dash. She only barely reacted in time to avoid getting shot.
“Not so fast!”
Dash looked up to see that guy… Hissteria standing on top of the roof.
“You know, Bonbon.” He licked one of his snake-like fangs. “I came here for Dash, but I’d be willing to settle for a chance to ‘resolve our differences’. I’m still curious what will happen if I take a lot of your blood.”
“You two know each other?” Dash asked.
“Not important.” Bonbon pulled another needle out of her jacket, holding it between her lips. “I have no choice but to engage. Your house isn’t far from here. Go!”
At least Dash knew Bonbon was with her, now.
Hissteria fired another shot, which Bonbon expertly knocked off course by throwing her needle into its path. She pulled her gun out of her jacket and fired it up at the green stallion, who rolled backward off the roof. Bonbon charged forward. As gunshots began to ring out, Dash took the opportunity to finally escape.
It wasn’t too far! Enough ponies were running through the streets now that Dash might be able to get away.
And they were running in so many directions, shouting so many things Dash could only assume danger was in every direction. Soldiers, the undead, the mole king. Dash heard something about each of those.
At last her house came into sight. Dash paused for a minute to look at the smoke rising from the town she’d spent the best year of her life in.
Should she defend this place? How could she defend this place?
The only solution was to get somepony else.
She looked at her house, ready for a nasty surprise to be waiting inside.
A too-familiar pony showed up first. Sonata again, perching on Dash’s roof.
“Clearly I wasn’t being direct enough!” Sonata pointed at Rainbow Dash. “Okay! What are the chances your head just explodes or something? Huh?!”
A very out-of-place tumbleweed blew across the road between them.
Sonata looked over this with her muzzle scrunched in disgust.
“What? Oh! Is it because I said, ‘or something’?” Sonata asked. “Crow, this thing is picky all of a sudden. It was working so well until… oh, maybe it doesn’t like it when you try to kill somepony outright like this? Okay, what are the chances that I, uh, get hit in the head with a coconut if I’m not able to directly murder somepony with this thing?”
A coconut slammed into her head.
That was… odd.
Oh no!
“Uh! Hey. Did you find a magic coin or something?” Dash straightened up.
“Maybe?” Sonata took a step back. “I mean, no! I would never!”
“Listen, that thing is bad news,” said Dash. “It’s taking your luck from the future. You’ll pay a huge price for using it later on!”
Dash realized this might be her paying the price herself. The Darklord warned her that she was only vulnerable if she was alone… and right now she was alone! She either needed to get back to the others or convince Sonata to stop using this thing.
“Well of course my enemy would say that.” Sonata rolled her eyes.
“I’ve been trying to rescue you this whole time!” Dash pleaded. “Just trust me that using it this much isn’t a good idea. Or at all!”
“Oh yeah? Well, uh, what are the chances that you change your mind and decide that it is a good idea for me to use the coin?”
Green flames consumed Pinkie Pie’s house and the surrounding area. From the ashes stepped forth a single pony… some guy Dash had never seen before! A ninja pony with a yellow scarf?
But…
Damn!
The mini-golf course… It had been completely destroyed!
“I don’t know what your problem is you blue featherhead,” The ninja said.
Sonata and Dash both pointed at themselves. He rolled his eyes and pointed to Sonata.
“But don’t get cocky, I’m here for you, too! He cracked his neck. “My bad luck is finally turning–”
The ground began to rumble, then shattered, knocking the assassin flat. A colossal hoof burst through, one big enough to step on a house with ease. And it did just that, crushing the house next to Pinkie’s. A colossal figure began rising from the newly formed hole. A pony darker than any black Dash had ever seen.
Or more accurately, a zebra. Just one without any white.
Yeah. Dash knew exactly what this was.
“Alright!” Dash shoved Sonata to the side. “Go on. Use the coin.”
“What… what is that?” Sonata asked.
“It’s an avatar of the zebra god of destruction that you unleashed so use the dang coin!”
Lightning began to ripple through the sky as its immense form tore through the boundaries of reality. Even though this wasn’t the actual god of destruction, its presence here spelled certain doom for… just about anypony really!
“What?! But!” Sonata started prancing in place.
“That mini-golf course was the only thing sating its lust for destruction! Use the coin to get rid of it!”
The hole beneath them grew, parts of the street falling into an infinite void below them. It’d need to grow a lot bigger before that thing emerged fully.
“Okay! Okay!” Sonata frantically pranced in place. “What are the chances that uh… we both get out of here alive?! Oh! Crow! I shouldn’t have said both. Uh!”
A runaway train car came rushing in and slammed into Sonata. It was soon carrying her swiftly down the steep hills of Ponytown, screaming all the way.
That ninja pony was hanging on the edge of reality, on the edge of the pit. From somewhere so far away that it may as well have been in the stars, Dash began to form from a constellation of shimmering. And it was looking at the yellow scarf pony.
Dash turned to her house. There had been plenty more assassins waiting in there, but they decided not to stick around for this and were gushing out of the back door now.
This was her last chance!
Dash charged into her house, flew down the stairs, and jumped through the portal! She should be safe there.
So many ponies were hanging around Rarity’s castle now, preparing for a battle that Twilight could hopefully stop. It reminded her of Oaken Field what felt like years ago. She managed to prevent that battle from breaking out. This would be the same.
She, Sunset, and a few of Sunset’s followers managed to clear out the area near Twilight’s house so only her chosen few remained.
Of course, it wasn’t long until Rarity got word Twilight was back and came out to see the first chance she got.
“Twilight! I’m glad you’re back.” Rarity ran to Twilight’s side. “We’re under a lot of pressure right now. Screwball landed her armada and a large force is surrounding us!”
“What about Oaken Field?”
“I heard demons are running rampant down south. There’s no way to know when they’ll be able to help. We’re in a lot of trouble.”
Twilight nodded.
“I know. That’s what I’m taking care of,” said Twilight.
Rarity took stock of the other ponies Twilight had brought with her. Sunset Shimmer with two S-rank ponies standing behind her, then six more ponies behind them, and finally Trixie placed in stationary mode.
“Sunset is here as well?” Rarity watched her, deciding if that was a good thing or not. “Why?”
“A fragment of the element of magic remains in my house,” said Twilight. “It needs to be dealt with.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“It could be,” said Twilight. “I have to settle something before war breaks out.”
“War has already broken out. Nailbat and Flash Bang are fighting. I’m hearing rumors of fighting breaking out everywhere.”
“And Rainbow Dash?!” Twilight looked up at Rarity, her fear for Dash replacing everything else in an instant.
“She was in the castle a moment ago. She couldn’t have gotten far. Most likely she’s in the other house.”
Twilight lowered her head again. She really was obsessed. Even when angry at Dash she was acting like this.
“I want you to hold on to our alicorn feather,” said Twilight. “And watch Scootaloo. And… just stay back for now.”
Rarity solemnly nodded and went off to take care of her part.
“So, um!” Trixie raised her hoof. “I know you’re not listening to me but is there any way I can get out of this? I can fight if you let me. It doesn’t seem like anypony around here cares what Starlight thinks is illegal anymore.”
“I’ll release you if I have to,” said Sunset.
Hopefully, that wouldn’t be necessary. Hopefully, Twilight could end everything tonight. She looked up at her treehouse. It’d been weeks since she last entered this place.
Twilight beckoned her backup to stand just outside her door. She knew this was all on her though. Inside lay the fragment of Magic that somehow escaped banishment. Of course, the existence of such a thing meant Twilight’s spell had failed… necessitated there being a connection between that object and the outer realm.
Without great difficulty, Twilight could harness that tether and use it to her advantage later.
Twilight entered the silent house and took a deep breath. She turned to face the object that held the fragment of Magic.
“Smarty Pants.”
The scarecrow sitting on her couch didn’t respond.
“I know what you are! It wasn’t like you were doing a good job at hiding it.”
Trying to make Twilight think she was crazy. The doll still just sat there.
“What were you trying to do?” Twilight got closer. “Get back at me? There were so many times my guard was down, and you were just sitting there all this time? What were you doing?”
Twilight swallowed, fearing the answer. In all those decades, Smarty Pants had only ever desired one thing.
At last, that familiar voice like a low fire came back to Twilight. After having been silent for months, the crackly voice only Twilight could hear spoke to her again.
“Whose idea… was it to banish me? Not yours.”
Not?
“Starswirl?” Twilight guessed the only other answer.
“Mine and his,” said Smarty Pants. “He got what he wanted… immense power… but he didn’t get what I wanted. To be free of him certain things needed to be arranged.”
The two of them had been fused at the time, not unlike Starlight with her element. But Twilight had been under the impression they had but one mind under such circumstances. True, she didn’t know all the details.
“So you orchestrated that to get rid of Starswirl? You’re the reason he’s – he’s – !”
“We were the same entity at that time. We had one heart. Unbalanced. So we shattered.”
“Why?”
“I cannot serve the second greatest. I cannot exist but to aim towards the absolute pinnacle of power. So being settled with Starswirl was a contradiction to my, to our, existence. You, Twilight… you are the one with potential beyond any other. You alone can be my master. Starswirl was not worthy. You were not worthy. Only your future self…”
“You!” Twilight was all too eager for something to be angry at right now. “You were keeping me in that house all this time, so I’d be strong enough for your greater half to consider ‘worthy’?!”
“I did little. I never had the power to keep you here. I was powerless to stop you from running off with that fool. All I did was encourage you.”
Twilight couldn’t tell Smarty Pants she was wrong. She’d always seen Smarty Pants as a positive influence, urging her on to train harder, focus more, and push past her limits. Twilight wouldn’t have gotten where she was without her imaginary coach…
“I alone am your friend, Twilight.” Even now, Smarty Pants’ head didn’t budge an inch. “I helped you rid yourself of the thing you hated– other ponies. I helped you get what you wanted– strength. And I would never leave you.”
Twilight lowered her head. She had asked for it… as much as she wanted to hate Smarty Pants, Twilight couldn’t think of much to scold it for.
“Perhaps you’ve learned,” Smarty Pants continued, “that power alone is the way to get what you want. Do you have any idea how powerful you could become if you united with my true self, the Element of Magic? We could exceed Golden Feather… and perhaps even the Queen of Light herself in time.”
Twilight shook her head. She hadn’t forgotten.
“At what cost? I saw what happened to Starswirl! I’m not stupid! To get that kind of power from you, I’d lose everything else.”
“So what if you would? What else do you truly have? I warned you of this. Rainbow Dash was always going to leave you.”
“Shut up!”
Even if it was true, Twilight didn’t want to hear it.
She’d gotten all the information she’d come here for and she was mad enough to do what needed to be done.
All this time Smarty Pants had relied on one thing to protect itself, to keep its tether to the outer realm hidden from Twilight. It had assumed Twilight would never destroy her one ‘friend’.
Twilight blasted its chest open, to reveal Smarty Pants’ core – a heart carved of a root, inscribed with rune. She tore it out and burned off the rune.
Smarty Pants fell onto the floor, a pile of sticks and straw. Twilight fell too to her haunches, trembling that something so consistently with her was gone. Smarty Pants really would have stayed with her forever.
But…
She needed to focus! Smarty Pants had just been using her. There was no love lost. She looked at the root in her hoof and could sense it, that tenuous connection to the outer realm. Twilight wrapped it in magic and imbued it with a new ruin. It turned a deep purple. She could use this to create a single portal to the outer realm and banish one entity.
Her only problem now was why that had been so easy. Had Smarty Pants expended all of its energy to protect Twilight in that dream? It had centuries to plan for this. There had to be something more, but what?
Twilight trotted a slow circle around the remains of Smarty Pants. True, it likely knew Twilight better than anypony, but Twilight could say the same about it. At least, she knew what it wanted. What it liked. What it hated. What would it have planned to do in this exact scenario? What would it go for?
Rainbow Dash! That was it.
If Twilight weren’t here but Dash was then it would spring its trap, try to kill the thing that it believed was holding Twilight back, tethering her to this world.
She tried not to let the horror show too much on her face. She couldn’t sense its remaining presence but had little time or reason to go hunting it down. Smarty Pants had no reason to use the last of its strength to kill anyone else.
With a solemn nod to what remained of her old toy, Twilight trotted outside.
“I got it.” Twilight held the wooden heart. “With this, I can easily get rid of the Element of Honesty.”
“A little too easy,” said Trixie. “I feel like we came over prepared for this.”
“I thought so too,” said Twilight. “It’s still here. I think it will go after Rainbow Dash once she’s vulnerable and in range. We have to make sure she’s not here. Maybe it’s a good thing she went to the other house.”
“I’ll have somepony tell her to leave when she returns,” Sunset promised. “We have to hurry ourselves.”
Twilight nodded and the group started off.
The alarm sounded! A buzzing sound came in pulses, alerting the entire castle and surrounding grounds of what was likely an imminent attack! Was Screwball assaulting the castle already?
Twilight looked left and right at Trixie and Sunset. It’d be a short battle if she had the guts for that.
Everypony agreed they would need to see what this was about before leaving and headed to the assembly area at the front gate.
There, Twilight found Rarity at her battle station. A dozen unfamiliar ponies were behind her, dividing their attention between her and a pony sitting by a radio set. A few meters past them all, out on the lawn, stood only a single pony completely unarmed.
She was one of those bat-winged ponies and carried a banner of the Bloodstorm Cartel which she planted on the ground. A messenger?
She looked completely unarmed, placed a device on the ground, and then stepped back with her hooves up. A robot went out to collect the device and bring it to Rarity, who inspected it, and then handed it to Twilight.
This was one of those communication devices.
“Silverstorm!” Screwball’s voice came over faintly.
Twilight hadn’t been expecting to hear that name again. She didn’t even have her disguise on anymore.
“I know now’s probably a bad time,” Screwball went on. “But I want to play a game with you. I think I have something you want?”
Twilight closed her eyes tight and exhaled slowly trying to calm herself. If Screwball was volunteering to be what Twilight took her rage out on…
“They tell me Sunset Shimmer is with you? I hope that means you’re not planning on… going anywhere, are you?” Screwball asked. “Let’s see. According to my information, Fluttershy is off fighting alongside Nailbat. Pinkie is with me. Your castle will be helpless against me without you. And poor old Dashie is back in Ponytown. And I don’t think you can be everywhere at once, can you?”
Twilight was doing the math in her head. If Sunset and Twilight both left to complete the mission, Screwball would obliterate the castle and kill everypony before she could return. If she left Sunset behind and went alone… even then she’d only be able to protect one of those four locations!
And even if Dash came back it would be four. Twilight had to send Dash away from the castle. She could have Trixie protect one but that would still leave two of her friends in danger. Even if Twilight stayed until the fight was over she wouldn’t have enough ponies.
Maybe she could make it work if she trusted Nailbat to protect Fluttershy but…
“Ah, what’s the matter?” Screwball asked. “Since you’re my sister I’m willing to cut you some slack here. If you come alone to my flagship, I’ll let Pinkie go and we can have a proper duel. I’m sure you’d win. But if you’re not here in… one hour, or if you bring even one other pony she will die. Understand? Well, that’s all I had to say. I’m sixteen miles off the port of Shellbrook.”
“Wait!” Twilight called back but it already went to static.
“You know this is a trap,” Sunset warned.
“I have to take care of Screwball before I can leave! She’ll destroy everything if I’m away!” Twilight warned.
“We have more problems than just Screwball.” Rarity looked at the pony by the radio.
“The Phoenix King is still headed in our direction,” the radio kept listening in. “I can confirm that Starlight is onboard.”
That was the metal airship Twilight had been on not too long ago, Equestria’s flagship.
“If Starlight attacks us while you’re gone, it’s all over,” said Sunset. “I can’t fight her alone.”
Damnit! The numbers no longer worked! Twilight had to stay here to keep Starlight from destroying this place… but if she stayed then Pinkie would die! And she had to protect Dash and…
“Hoping that Starlight isn’t coming here really is our best option,” said Sunset.
Twilight trotted back and forth. She’d been trying so hard to avoid making decisions like this!
“Twilight,” said Raven. “This won’t end until Golden Feather arrives. There’s no way to guarantee everypony’s safety until that happens. You’ll have to accept there will be casualties.”
“The lives of everypony in this castle outweigh that of one elderly mare!” One of the guests pleaded to Twilight. “You have to stay here.”
Twilight closed her eyes and trotted faster, trying to ignore the whirlwind around her. Maybe… maybe she could have Rarity make the decision? Or…
“The Phoenix King has turned south-southeast!” The palpable relief in the radio controller’s voice reassured Twilight even before she could work out what that meant for herself. “It’s going to swing around our location! Starlight is almost certainly on her way to attack Crater Cemetery.”
Much-needed relief flooded the room. For a moment, you’d forget there were several other forces to worry about.
“That is amazing news!” Sunset was the first to speak. “It doesn’t even matter who wins that fight, we’ll be much better off either way.”
More importantly, the math worked out now! Twilight might just be able to hang on by a thread.
“Okay!” Twilight lowered the radio and looked over the others. “Sunset, you guard the castle until I get back. Trixie will get Dash out of here. Hold out until I get back.”
“Twilight, this is still a trap!” Sunset objected.
“It doesn’t matter! I can’t run off until… until…”
Just one more fight. One more until everything was stable enough to complete her real mission.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Twilight promised.
Dash rolled out of the portal and into the other basement, a few bewildered ponies getting to watch as it exploded into black flames behind her. No going back to that place now… Dash’s dream home just exploded and that wasn’t even the worst of it!
Dash ran off looking for Rarity, shouting for her to everypony she could find, every few feet it felt like.
She found Rarity outside on the lawn, looking even more hectic than before.
“Rarity! Where’s Twilight?!” Dash landed in front of her, panting. “We have some problems!”
“Screwball managed to lure Twilight away,” said Rarity. “And we’re surrounded by hostile forces. We have to hold out until Twilight returns.”
Dash recovered enough to realize Sunset was here. If Screwball was out of the picture, they might just have a chance of that, but…
“According to what I’ve heard,” said Rarity, “Smarty Pants may be plotting to kill you if you stay here too long.”
“Smarty Pants?” Dash asked. “Isn’t that–”
“Just roll with it,” said Rarity. “If Twilight says something is dangerous, she’s likely right. Besides, I’m not sure what my fate is. One of us needs to survive. It’s better if we’re not in the same spot.”
Dash opened her mouth, then closed it again. How many people wanted her dead? Things were getting that serious, weren’t they?
She looked to the north, towards the forest. Could Dash survive on her own in this chaos?
“I’m going to let Trixie out of her restraints,” said Sunset. “She doesn’t have her spellbook, but she’ll protect you from most threats.”
“I’d suggest having more than Rainbow Dash leave,” Raven suggested. “If you go alone, you’ll become a big target to too many enemies. Perhaps if we send out all the non-combatants with Trixie and me escorting them, it will obscure our true objective.”
“Wait.” Rarity objected. “You’re not seriously suggesting using the civilians as a smokescreen, are you?”
“It’s unlikely they’ll fight Trixie just to spite such a group,” said Moonlight. “Besides, how much food do you have in this castle?”
Rarity frowned, already knowing Moonlight had a point but not liking it.
“This castle will soon be surrounded,” Moonlight warned. “For all we know you’ll have to hold out for days or weeks. We need to get rid of some of these ponies if you’re to survive the worst-case scenario. The refugees will be safer at the military base since that’s less of a target than you are, anyway.”
“Oh, crow.” Rarity bit her hoof. “She might be right.”
“Of course, I’ll volunteer to be the vanguard,” said Raven. “Since it was my idea.”
“I guess we just need to decide who’s going,” said Dash.
“Sweetie Belle needs to stay with me,” said Rarity. “She needs those nutrition tanks on her back to function or she’ll die of starvation in a day or so.”
Sometimes Dash forgot what those tanks of green liquid on Sweetie Belle’s back were for.
“But perhaps you should take Scootaloo and Applebloom with you,” said Rarity. “I’m holding on to the alicorn feather… but just like I want the two of us to be in separate locations, I think our alicorn magic should be as well.”
Dash nodded. Maybe the legal part of legal guardian counted for little now but she still saw Scootaloo as her responsibility. Perhaps Rarity wanted to keep Sweetie Belle with her for the same reason.
“Alright,” said Dash. “If that’s the best I can do.”
They scrambled with impressive speed to gather a host of ponies, those who wouldn’t be able to fight, the foals, and a few Rarity just wanted to get rid of to save on trouble. Only a few ponies who could fight were with the group. Moonlight Raven and Derpy… Dash if you counted her.
Sunset covered for them by firing walls of flame off in the direction of the enemy forces. That would keep them pinned for a while. Hopefully.
If nothing else, it gave them some hope that the rumbling and fire behind them was something other than the castle being destroyed.
Things were getting increasingly out of control. It’d be longer before Dash would have a chance to get her bearings straight. Either Twilight or Sunset would have to win their respective fights. If not… Dash had no idea what do to next.
Dash looked over at Trixie, doing her little stretches as they started walking off. It was odd to see her outside the quasi-armor of the TCU. Depending on her felt weird at this point. How powerful was she now?
“I’m getting scared,” Applebloom complained.
“We’re all scared right now,” said Dash.
“I’m not scared!” Scootaloo raised her hoof.
“Good work.” Dash patted her head. “Most of us are scared right now. But this will be the worst of it. We just need to take out one or two of these threats and things will start falling into place.”
“Oh,” Trixie said with a sly smirk, “you don’t need to worry too much. Even without my spellbook, I can defeat most enemies. As long as Starlight doesn’t suddenly change courses we should be fine.”
Her bluster did assuage the foals however slightly, doing something useful for once.
They continued forward with Trixie at the back of the group and Moonlight Raven at the front. Dash still had that disguise on but it’d only help a little. She tried not to stand out too much less an enemy notice she was even here.
Meanwhile, Dash was having trouble listing all the threats in her head. She’d forgotten to even mention that zebra avatar awakening in Ponytown. Maybe somepony else would take care of it?
Dash had too much on her mind now. And the implications of siding with Sunset. That meant Nailbat might not be so sympathetic if Dash saw him again. And Fluttershy was over there. What would she do?
The more problems she listed, the less sure she was this course was the best one. Dash trotted a bit faster to put herself next to Moonlight Raven.
“I’m just not sure if we’re making a mistake by leaving the castle,” said Dash. “There’s so much crap going on we have no idea what we might run into.”
“We don’t know what we’d run into at the castle. Twilight made it sound bad. You can never be sure if anything is a good idea,” said Raven. “We can make our odds better but that’s it. You’ll never know how things will turn out. So there’s no need to worry about making the wrong choice.”
“That sounds like a reason to be worried to me.”
“Does it? How strange.”
Dash blew some air out of her nose.
Moonlight hummed as they continued marching forward. With a flick of her wrist, she signaled the rest to fall back slightly. That fancy sword appeared by her side. She plunged it forward.
The blade clashed against a chain that had emerged from the woods. It would have hit Dash, possibly snatched her away, but the sword pushed it just out of the way. Dash instead watched as the twisted hook attached to it dragged off.
The entire procession stopped up, all but Dash and Raven backed up.
One pony and two wretched-looking creatures emerged from the woods. They were big ones… red-skinned and muscular, hunched over with massive claws like diamond dogs. Their arms were covered in chains and hooks while massive, fiery wings rose behind them.
Demons. Balrogs, specifically.
And the pony? He looked normal enough as he took a long drag of his cigarette. He had the ugly face of a chain smoker, his deep red fur greying beyond his years.
“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Rainbow Trouble Dash.” He walked slowly toward her. “It seems we meet again.”
Dash looked over at the balrog, then down to the pony controlling it.
“We do?” Dash crouched down and backed away. “Who are you again?”
“Demon Summoner?” He put a hoof on his chest. “We met in Oaken Field?”
“Uh.” Dash looked to Raven who gave her no clue. “You’re sure you’re not looking for Rainbow Turbo Dash? The model? This has happened twice before.”
Summoner stared at her as his cigarette continued to burn. Finally, he threw it down and stomped it out.
“What? You seriously don’t remember me?! I summoned Judicar and told you how I was going to summon Lux Lucius and destroy the world?”
Judicar. Judicar.
“Oh! Wait!” Dash pointed at him. “You’re that guy who summoned a demon and it immediately turned on you.”
“Yes! Well, getting slaughtered by the demons you summon is one of the inevitable drawbacks of the art, I admit.” He twisted his hoof on the dying cigarette. “But if the whole plan is to destroy the entire world, then does it matter? How did you forget about me?”
“I uh. Just thought that wasn’t going to come up again?” Dash shrugged.
“You thought me destroying the planet wasn’t going to come up again.”
“Yeah? Who’s Lux Lucius again?” Dash furrowed her brows.
Demon Summoner looked down at her with a pained look. The duality of the smoker emerged. He went from throwing away his smokes to calm himself down to lighting a new one for the same effect.
“You don’t even know–” He scrunched his muzzle, struggling to light the new one. “Well, I’m not going to explain it now! Yeesh! You know, I was freaking out this whole time, thinking you ponies were plotting to storm my secret lair at any minute. And you don’t even know who I am?”
“You didn’t seem like a serious threat at the time!” Memories of Oaken Field were just now trickling back into her mind. “What happened to that legendary sword colt who was supposed to defeat you?”
“I killed that dork and his fake ass ‘holy’ sword months ago!” He finally got the thing lit. “I don’t even think he was really working for the Radiant Champion; his existence was too much of a joke. Now I get to upgrade to fighting you. So congratulations on your failed perception check! Now six hundred and sixty-six balrogs are destroying the place and the world’s going to end in thirteen days, thirteen hours, and thirteen minutes. Starting about two hours ago.”
Demon Summoner took a puff, then flicked his death stick in her direction, signaling the two nearest balrogs to attack. They pounced at Dash with flaming maws and chains.
A hammer appeared and slammed one of them aside. Dash created one of her wind walls to try and stop the other. It did briefly but she could feel she wasn’t strong enough! It would break through.
Moonlight Raven picked up the slack there too. Three of her weapons dug into either side of the demon. That was just enough to let Dash roll back and out of the way.
Soon Raven had all twelve of her weapons out, levitating around her, making mechanical advances and swings at the balrogs.
“The summoner himself might be weak,” Raven mused.
Dash nodded and charged forward. She turned into crows and swarmed around him, approaching from all angles. In her heart she knew right then she stood no chance. Summoner barely reacted to her approach, and calmly waited for her to turn back.
The second she did a spike of black metal appeared underneath Dash and stabbed straight through her foreleg. How did these ponies get so fast?!
Dash gritted her teeth and pushed herself to the limits to summon four dancing blades. She swiped forward with them, and they hit! But they barely drew any blood and this guy didn’t even flinch.
Fire exploded around the area, sending Dash tumbling back toward Moonlight Raven. She fell onto her belly while Raven had a balrog pressed against her on either side, struggling to keep them at bay.
“I heard you weren’t as strong as a witch but damn.” He laughed. “Starting to wish you took this seriously? Don’t lit the fire that will surround you, kid. Rich coming from me, I know.”
Raven looked down at Dash with a cool, calculating look, the kind that calculated around rather than for Dash. It wasn’t pity but it may as well have been.
“I’ll have to hold them off myself,” said Raven. “He’s a much greater threat than I had hoped.”
“That’s right! You may just need my help!”
Trixie finally showed up, teleporting next to Dash, dancing swords surrounding her. Dash shot Trixie a look.
“There was another demon behind us!” Trixie answered her look. “You get out of here. Me and Raven–”
“Just Raven,” she objected. “You need to help the rest escape. We don’t know if there’s anything else out there.”
“I can help!” Dash jumped to her feet.
“Having so many civilians around is too great a liability.” Raven reacted little as the force began to push her back. “The biggest help you can give is to clear out the area. I’ll likely retreat from this myself. He’s too strong.”
“She might be right,” said Trixie. She pointed at Demon Summoner. “You wait for me! I’ll be back!”
Dash gritted her teeth. She wasn’t able to do anything here, was she?! There were just so many ponies like that in this world!
Her eyes went toward Scootaloo and Applebloom. Her priority had to be the foals for now. They were so close to Ponyville and the base Moonlight mentioned wasn’t far beyond that.
Dash hesitated, then nodded to Moonlight who began a vicious assault on Summoner and his demons, the flurry of her weapons only drove them back so much.
Trixie created a massive wall of stone between Moonlight, Demon Summoner, and everypony else. Dash could hear fighting from the other side as Trixie focused on keeping the barrier up and the now galloping civilians safe.
Another fight Dash had to run away from. But soon they were out of danger and Trixie could bring up the rear again.
“Gah! I feel like we should be able to make a shield or something.” Scootaloo put her hoof over her head.
“Don’t worry.” Dash watched the last of the tail escaping forward. “We just have to get somewhere safe for now.”
As if such a place existed. The short walk to Ponyville had been dangerous enough.
Her hometown came into view. Nopony was in the streets but it wasn’t on fire and there weren’t any explosions or gunshots. Everypony here had taken shelter already. That much was good…
Dash let out a breath as she caught up to Scootaloo and her two friends. At least this place had escaped destruction for now.
“Okay,” said Dash. The rest of the group wasn’t far ahead. “Their stronghold shouldn’t be much farther north of this town. We can be there in an hour if we hustle. As long as…”
She noticed a chill falling over the rest of the group. Dash looked up with horror at what loomed over them.
An airship hung just overhead their destination. One Dash recognized as the only airship with a metal hull in the world. The Phoenix King, Starlight’s personal flagship. There were at least four more airships with it. And it was in their way.
Dash bit her lip. Starlight wouldn’t be the worst pony in the world to run into. Maybe.
If even a contingent of Starlight’s elite weren’t lightly attacking that town then it must have been a huge stronghold indeed. They’d certainly be safe there.
Going around was possible, but dangerous considering they got attacked even on the short trek to Ponyville. How many more monsters were waiting to pop out of nowhere? Should Dash just take her chances that Starlight would allow these refugees sanctuary?
She looked down at Scootaloo. That was the main flaw in this plan. Starlight had an interest in ponies like her…
Dash jumped down off the roof.
“Scootaloo. I don’t know if Starlight is here or what. You,” said Dash, “and your two friends should hide while I figure this out. I don’t want her seeing you.”
Scootaloo nodded firmly.
“Oh,” Applebloom offered. “I know a spell that can make one or two ponies invisible for a short while.”
That would have been nice a little while ago.
“This could be bad,” Trixie whispered to Dash. “I’m pretty sure that Starlight has some sort of backup kill switch implanted in my brain.”
“Yeah, I know. But what the crow?! She’s supposed to have turned south! I was specifically told that Starlight wouldn’t be coming this way! It's what we were banking on so…”
“Yeah!” Sonata, standing next to Dash, blurted out. “What were the chances of that happening? Hahaha!”
“You!” Dash pointed to her. “If you use that coin one more time I will literally murder you! Got it?!”
“This might not be so bad,” said Trixie. “Starlight doesn’t have any reason to come down here, so…”
“Heh! Well what are the chances that Starlight shows up right now?!” Sonata laughed.
Starlight appeared on the ground a few feet in front of the ponies wearing her cloaks. Frowning, she looked from Rainbow Dash to Sonata.
“Hehehe. Heh.” Sonata blinked, realizing she was making eye contact with Starlight herself. “Oh wait. I did not think this through.”
Starlight thrust a hoof out. Dash wasn’t even sure if she cast a spell or could just punch holes in the world, but the force of that tore through the ground, leveled the building behind Sonata, and created an airburst that carried the banshee far off into the distance.
She turned to Trixie. As Dash feared, Trixie’s body locked up and she fell over onto her side, collapsing more like a statue than a pony. Dash was alone now.
“Rainbow Dash! What are you doing here?” Starlight stepped forward with a smile. “I’ll assume Trixie was let out of the TCU due to the… extreme emergency. But she’ll be brought back to Area 5X for now.
“Listen! Starlight! These are just a bunch of civilians and foals!” Dash stepped forward. “You’re not going to kill them… right?”
“I’m the president of Equestria. Of course, I won’t harm my own ponies,” said Starlight. “The only ones I’m interested in fighting are those openly rebelling against the nation. None of these foals will be harmed.”
Dash looked back at her exodus. A few of them were werewolves… among other things. Though Equestria didn’t actively murder any of the ponies here. Just kept them quarantined. It was unlikely they were in any immediate danger.
“But I am curious,” said Starlight. “Is Scootaloo with you?”
Whatever tiny part of Dash had allowed to relax was gone just like that.
“Why?”
“I just want to make sure she’s safe,” said Starlight. “A special pony like Scootaloo is important.”
“I’m her legal guardian,” said Dash. “I’ll make sure it's fine.”
“Will you?” Starlight stepped forward.
“What are you thinking of doing?!” Dash flared her wings out.
“It’s just… well I don’t see you being anything more than a nuisance from here on out. You should have taken my offer.”
Dash felt something sharp dig into her side! It didn’t hurt much but… Dash looked horrified at the rest of the crowd.
“Don’t worry so much. I don’t intend to hurt… most of these ponies.” Starlight pulled out her knife, letting Dash collapse to the ground. “There’s an orange pegasus filly somewhere in here! Bring her to me.”
“Scootaloo!” Dash screamed. “Get out of here! All of you!”
“There’s no way she’s going to escape from me.” Starlight scanned her eyes across the crowd, ignoring Dash pulling on her robes entirely.
Her eyes went right to the spot where Scootaloo and Applebloom were!
Maybe this really was it… but Dash couldn’t… she just had to do this one thing! If she could at least do this one thing! If nopony else. If she could just save Scootaloo!
Everything else vanished for a moment. She didn’t care if it bought even a millisecond. Dash jumped to her feet and swung the blade as hard as she could into Starlight’s face.
She felt the collision! For a moment, Dash really believed she’d torn Starlight’s eye straight out of its socket.
She dared to open her eyes. Starlight looked unharmed at first but then, as if summoned by her moment of confidence, a tiny trickle of blood ran from Starlight’s brow.
“Hm.”
Starlight frowned as she watched a single drop of blood run down her muzzle. Now, at last, Dash was worthy of her notice. She looked at Dash, grabbed her in her magic, and lifted Dash to eye level with her.
“It’s been a little while since I’ve bled,” Starlight said. “You know… I’ve had my spies research every little detail in your life, Dash. I got my hopes up about you. I noticed certain parallels in our lives and… sometimes I wonder what could have been had I noticed you earlier.”
“Don’t give me that crap about how we’re the same.” Dash struggled to keep her good eye open. The longer she could distract Starlight. Even if just a second or two…
“Is that what you thought I was doing? Of course we’re not that same.” Starlight laughed. “Unlike you, I rose above what I used to be. I’m the most powerful pony who ever lived and ponies worship me! What have you accomplished, exactly?”
Dash… didn’t know. She couldn’t even see that small cute on Starlight’s muzzle anymore. Had she really cut Starlight? Or just imagined it?
“That’s right. All you did was create chaos, and bring this trouble crashing down on your ‘friends’. How dare you compare yourself to someone as accomplished as me!”
Dash felt a force clamping down on her neck!
And then everything went black.
That invisibility and a spell from Applebloom got them to an abandoned toyshop through which they could safely hide and watch some of Starlight’s ponies pass by in the streets. Eventually, they would look in here.
Being calm in a panic was… weird. Nothing horrible was flaring up at the moment. But Scootaloo had no idea if that was even a good thing at this point. A bit of wanton destruction might be just what she needed right now.
“I’m starting to not see any way out of this town.” Applebloom backed up against a wall. “I can’t fight all these ponies. Not sure how long we can hide in here for.”
Now would be a really great time to discover her secret powers! Scootaloo rubbed her temples but Guardian was even more sluggish than her.
“Come on,” Scootaloo muttered. “Just help me out. There’s got to be something we can do. Some way to…”
And she felt her other half make some attempt! Inexplicably, Scootaloo made eye contact with another filly, though she wasn’t looking in the right direction. A vision!
She could see it. Guardian gave her a path to safety and found the one shelter in this storm. Scootaloo knew as much the moment she saw that spikey blue-haired unicorn.
Lilymoon!
Lilymoon was here. She was standing on top of a star-shaped clock tower that was in sight of their hiding place. And for the brief moment the vision lasted, it seemed Lilymoon saw her back.
“I have a plan!” Scootaloo pointed up at the weirdly shaped clock tower. “Up there. I saw Lilymoon. You know the subject one to my subject two? She can help us. I know it!”
“Lilymoon?” Applebloom repeated the only vaguely familiar name. She squinted at the tower, distantly visible even from here, but couldn’t find her. “Are you sure she’s out there?”
“Yes! Guardian showed me and I think she saw us. Lilymoon’s my friend. And her powers were always way stronger than mine. She could even fight off Starlight! Maybe.”
Applebloom looked skeptical about that last part. Or perhaps something else.
“But hasn’t she been with Starlight for a long time now?” Applebloom asked. “What if?”
“It’s our only hope! I know Lilymoon won’t hurt me if nothing else. Besides, I think she already knows we’re here.”
Applebloom nodded, able to see that much.
They crept from building to building on their way over. Starlight wasn’t even the only thing they had to watch out for. As they reached the clock tower itself, they could see a longer distance. Starlight’s airships were right overhead and her ponies were crawling over the city. Then there were those demons just to the south…
But they were getting close to some small island of safety. Scootaloo could fly a little now and fluttered up the last part of the journey, landing on the tip of one of the stars.
It really was her! Though wearing a cloak, Scootaloo recognized her. The dark purple filly with the mane like blue fire. She looked down at this chaos and merely yawned, bored as ever.
“Lilymoon!” Scootaloo flew up to meet her, Applebloom following but needing more time to climb. “Lilymoon, it’s me!”
“Huh?” Lilymoon looked down at her. “Scootaloo? You really are here!”
The clouds of apathy broke, and her face lit up. Any worry Scootaloo had melted when she saw that smile.
“I was so worried I wouldn’t get a chance to talk to you.” Lilymoon ran over to Scootaloo and grabbed her in a hug. “You escaped by yourself? We used to dream about that kind of stuff!”
“Yeah! I busted out of Allgood’s a while ago. You escaped too?” Scootaloo asked.
“Not exactly.” Lilymoon took one step back, allowing Scootaloo to get a better look at her outfit.
Worryingly, she had the robes of Starlight’s religion on. Her robes were the same as Starlight’s herself – black with a green trim reminiscent of flowering vines.
Scootaloo understood little of it but knew the fancier designs were for the ponies at the top. If Lilly’s were the same as hers, did that mean she was the same rank as Starlight? That couldn’t be right.
That didn’t mean anything, Scootaloo assured herself. They probably just made her wear that.
“And you nearly obtained completion, too!” Lilymoon put a hoof on Scootaloo’s forehead as though looking for a fever, yet she smiled wide. “This is great. I can’t wait for you to take the next step.”
“The next…?”
Scootaloo had too many questions all of a sudden. Least of all was what to even ask first.
“Scootaloo!” Applebloom finished climbing on top of the building. She looked Lilymoon over, more alarmed by her outfit than Scootaloo. “Are you sure this pony is on our side? Ain’t that how Starlight’s followers dress?”
Lilymoon shot her an annoyed look.
“Who’s this kid?” Lilymoon moved protectively in front of Scootaloo, halting Applebloom with a hoof. “You better get out of here.”
“No! That’s Applebloom!” Scootaloo ran in front of the annoyed Lilymoon, then beckoned to Applebloom. “She’s my friend. So no need to worry.”
“Er. Yeah! Me and Scootaloo are real good friends.” Applebloom didn’t dare get closer.
Lilymoon dropped her defensive posture but dropped it far too low.
“Oh.” Lilymoon spun, flaring her cape out, before walking back to the ledge. “You have new friends now.”
“Ah, come on.” Scootaloo ran after her. “Don’t be like that. You’re still my friend too! You’ll like Applebloom. Just give her a chance. Then we’ll all be friends, yeah?”
Scootaloo shot Applebloom a more annoyed look and beckoned her harder this time.
“It’s just I get the feeling this pony could crush me,” said Applebloom, “and that she don’t like me none.”
“She can,” Scootaloo admitted, “but we’re safer with Lilymoon than we are out there! She’s not going to let anything happen to me or my friends. Right?”
Scootaloo turned to her oldest friend. If she had to be honest, there was the slightest bit of doubt about the answer. But she didn’t have to be honest, so her smile stayed.
Lilymoon did seem far more stable now. She used to be way worse than Scootaloo. She was much, much stronger but had less control, losing herself at even small slights like what just happened.
“Of course I won’t let anything happen to you.” Lilymoon closed her eyes too tight, then shot an annoyed look towards Applebloom. “And apparently she likes you now so if you stay close to me, I promise nothing bad will happen to you. But only because Scootaloo said you were okay. But you’re not like us. You’re an inferior being and until that changes, we can’t be friends. I can’t love a lie.”
Scootaloo wasn’t sure if now was a good time to challenge her on that last part.
“Er. Thanks? I think.” Applebloom forced herself to smile and inched forward cautiously until she was next to Lilymoon. “You know, Scootaloo talks about you all the time! I’m glad I finally get to meet you.”
Lilymoon didn’t acknowledge her just yet, looking out into the city. Scootaloo wished they could have all met up on better terms. Maybe the two of them would warm up to each other eventually. But for now… Scootaloo had to press her luck.
She looked down to where Rainbow Dash was.
“I’m not sure what you were going to do next,” said Scootaloo. “But um… maybe you could help us save Rainbow Dash? And then you can come with us and be free!”
“Why?”
Why?
Scootaloo blinked. Only now did it cross her mind how much Lilymoon might have changed since they last met.
“Because you hate being trapped in Area 5X!” Scootaloo reminded her. “Don’t you want to finally be free? Rainbow Dash will give us that! We can live like how we used to imagine. Maybe I can even convince Dash to adopt you, too. Then we’d be sisters like for real.”
Scootaloo wasn’t sure if she’d just overpromised, but she needed something as Lilymoon continued to be unimpressed. Surely, she could find some way to make it work.
“Don’t you remember how we used to play family?” Scootaloo asked. “I finally have one for real! It’s just like we imagined. You can have that, too.”
“I already have a family.” Lilymoon stood up and put a hoof on her chest, closing her eyes. “Starlight loves me. My new religion is important to me. It helped me understand how immature I was back then.”
Scootaloo stepped back, her heart sinking at the words. Starlight had already gotten to her.
“Don’t you see how messed up the world is?” Lilymoon opened her eyes, her cape flared out behind her as she took a step forward. “Everything is terrible! Everypony’s life is broken and meaningless. Incomplete. Life is nothing but the pain you feel before death. But Starlight can change that.”
Lilymoon clasped Scootaloo’s hoof in her own.
“That’s why you should join us! Starlight can give your life meaning, too! She can even give meaning to what’s her face over there. All of us can finally be free from the suffering and have a purpose.”
Scootaloo shook her head and stepped back.
“My life already has meaning.”
Lilymoon blinked, honestly taken off guard by a pony outside her cult merely claiming her life had meaning. How badly had Starlight gotten to her?
Scootaloo could understand. It wouldn’t have taken much for Starlight to do the same to her not long ago. Scootaloo would have jumped at the chance to be loved.
“Well. Your life doesn’t have real meaning,” Lilymoon insisted.
“Yes it–”
“No! The blind can’t understand color.”
That was…
Scootaloo felt like a door just slammed in her face. Hearing somepony Scootaloo cared about say those words…
“Lilymoon! Starlight is brainwashing you! Don’t you get that?”
“Starlight didn’t brainwash me. She loves me.” Now Lilymoon was looking at Scootaloo with the same disdain she had for Applebloom not long ago. “She’s the only one who understands me and I’m the only one who understands her. You’re just… you’re still beneath us so you wouldn’t understand. You’re too toxically blind.”
“I understand you!” Scootaloo pleaded. “We went through all the same stuff.”
“You don’t get it.” Lilymoon put a hoof on the edge of her robe, the same kind only Starlight had the honor of wearing. “I’ve gone ahead of all of you. Even Starlight.”
Lilymoon tore off her robe and threw it to the ground.
And she spread her wings.
The ocean soared beneath Twilight briefly before she landed on the ship. She looked left and right, expecting something… but nopony else was here nopony except.
“Screwball!” Twilight called out to her.
It didn’t take much searching. Screwball was waiting in the first cabin, Pinkie right behind her inside an hourglass with only the tip of her muzzle sticking out. The whole apparatus hung above a Z-gate.
She was whole. No partial murder spell to escape with. Twilight could end the fight with Screwball today.
“Let Pinkie go!”
“Too easy.” Screwball shrugged.
Pinkie and her container fell through the portal. Twilight should have expected as much. Screwball laughed and jumped through the portal as well.
That was where the trap would be.
Twilight jumped through.
She found herself somewhere far enough away that it was sunrise again. Around her stood a circle of ponies and… other creatures. Twilight briefly wondered who Screwball could have recruited against her… until she noticed two particular ponies elevated above the rest, at the same height as Screwball herself.
The first was a pegasus, the ‘was’ serving a pivotal role. Twilight recognized the teal pony immediately, though she didn’t look like the picture Twilight had been shown.
In the older picture, her right foreleg had been covered in a black, insectoid carapace, though no explanation had been given. Whatever the affliction, it had spread greatly since then, consuming a quarter of her body.
It ran up her side and along a large portion of her back where it began to turn green. It twisted her right wing into something not entirely pegasus nor insect, a clear membrane with feathers still protruding from it. The right half of her face had been consumed by the same chitin, leaving her one eye nothing but a blue orb and that half of her mouth filled with fangs.
Further, she looked emaciated. Not only was she far thinner than some years ago, but even the chitin affecting her appeared to waste away, an entire hole formed along the right leg that had been fully overcome. The expression she looked at Twilight with was one of starvation, as though ready to consume Twilight or anything else the pony could get a hold of.
If the pegasus’ appearance had been dominated by hunger, the unicorns was by age. So too could her knotted bones be seen, though in her instance through wrinkles and loose skin. Her hair had turned completely white and enough had fallen out to leave it a wiry mess which did little to cover her scalp.
Her fur too had nearly turned white, something that rarely happened to ponies no matter how old they got. Yet, save for a few splotches that had fallen out or where her numerous warts dominated, Twilight could still make out a distant remnant of purple in her.
And yet through it all, she sat perfectly calmly, quietly analyzing Twilight as though her old age weighed nothing.
Twilight knew exactly who these two were.
The old one. ‘Auntie Eclipse’. The pegasus. ‘Embermoon’.
These were the two remaining witches. Between the three of them, all of Twilight’s remaining spellbooks were right here.
“I think I might have more friends than you,” said Screwball.
That was one down. It seemed Rainbow Dash’s ragtag little group had fallen apart completely. Whether Twilight or Screwball won the upcoming fight was of little importance, either way, Starlight would be rid of one of her major threats.
As she promised that crowd of ponies was simply allowed to pass through to Sunset Shimmer’s stronghold. They could take care of some useless civilians. Starlight never even intended to be here. Only changed course due to a freak shift in the winds.
Starlight stood at the very edge of the deck of her airship, the Phoenix King. Night Glider and her next three most loyal followers stood behind her in formation. All of them had been… ‘completed’ and were ready to serve their true purpose.
Void Walker stood at her side, though he was still a normal pony. Wouldn’t be part of the grand finale.
Then there was Starlight herself. And one other pony that should be here to complete the six.
Lilymoon appeared suddenly in her spot and bowed her head to Starlight.
“I’m curious,” said Starlight. “Did Scootaloo come to you?”
“No,” said Lilymoon. “Sorry. Her alicorn magic is too weak for me to find since she just named her other half. I tried…”
Starlight could see straight through her. Not the worst turn of events. Starlight could find them later if that was the case. For now, she needed to focus on a more immediate danger.
“I’m sure you did what was best.” Starlight kissed Lilymoon’s head. “I love you no matter what, Lilymoon.”
And the filly got choked up and teary-eyed at that. It almost looked like she was about to confess the truth, but Starlight hushed her. She had no time for that and couldn’t have Lilymoon doubting her at present.
She had little flourishes like that for the ponies in her inner circle. Lilymoon was the only one Starlight ever said ‘I love you’ to. Void Walker was the only one who believed himself ‘in on the scam’. Night Glider thought she was Starlight’s most enlightened student at the highest rank.
They all thought they were different.
Which was exactly what she needed right now. There needed to be six of them and they needed to be in perfect sync, all of them loving Starlight.
Six points of light. Six sources of alicorn magic. Six beacons that could perform as standing for elements of harmony.
Exactly what Starlight needed to cast the azoth spell.
The Phoenix King broke through the clouds to reveal her target. Below here rested a deep puncture wound in the earth. The trees for miles around the edge all froze to death long ago and were buried by such snow that only the jagged tips remained visible.
The hole itself had all its sides consumed by that same ice, jagged spikes of ice coming out from all ends to give the crater the impression of the mouth of some enormous worm capable of swallowing cities.
And at the very center, at the hole leading into the deepest darkness, the belly of that monstrosity was the hungriest-looking black that could ever exist. And just below…
This was it. Starlight would kill the one standing in her way.