Everyone was excited to be visiting Canterlot after all this time. They were even more excited to share the information with Twilight and the others about the return of somepony they knew. Sure, they may not be happy right away, but when they saw that she wasn’t bad anymore, they’d come around. Sunny could barely contain herself as she looked through the window she was sitting by, watching as the landscape passed more and more. There was still the matter of who had attacked Canterlogic in the first place and why they had stolen Midnight’s magic, but they could cross that bridge when they got to it.
Speaking of bridges, the train was coming up on one in just a few minutes, then they would be another few miles closer to Canterlot. Sunny looks away from the window when she hears yawning and she smiles and looks to see Izzy yawning and stretching while Hitch, Sparky, and the two young alicorn fillies had fallen asleep, leaving Pipp on a video chat with Violet, Jazz, and Rocky, who were currently at Pipp’s Beauty Salon, Mane Melody. And Zipp, who was looking down at what must’ve been a discarded blade belonging to the masked unicorn that attacked Canterlogic. Sunny tilts her head then gets up and walks over to Zipp.
“Hey Zipp. Whatcha got there?” Sunny asks, sitting next to the pegasus who looks at her before looking back at the blade.
“I picked this up when we were at Canterlogic investigating. I’ve managed to make a discovery. The weapon the unicorn was using… could've been made and given to them by an alicorn.” Zipp says, gaining a shocked and scared look from Sunny and almost immediately, she realizes the reason or reasons this scares her so much. “Whoa whoa. Relax, it’s not Midnight, she’s still very much dead. If there is an alicorn behind this, we’ll stop her. Besides, if she wanted to bring Midnight back, she would’ve done it already.” She says and Sunny sighs and nods, smiling at her friend.
“I hope that’s the case… Midnight nearly tore us apart in more ways than one… She took so much from us. I just don’t want any of that to happen again. We were barely able to stop her.” Sunny says before Zipp puts a hand on her shoulder then hugs her.
“And yet, you did in the end. You proved that no matter how powerful a villain is, there will always be at least one good pony to rise up and stand against them. You inspired all of us more than you already did before and I find myself thinking that more with every day, month, and year that goes by.” Zipp says and Sunny smiles and hugs her back.
“Thanks Zipp…” Sunny says before they both suddenly hear something. It sounds like… thunder? They look through the windows to see a storm. What was weird was… purple lightning flashing through the clouds. Everypony goes wide-eyed, especially Sunny when she senses a sort of familiar dark presence in the magic that’s causing this storm. At this point, the train is now crossing the bridge when suddenly lightning strikes the center of the bridge, causing an explosion that causes that part of the bridge to collapse, destroying the tracks in the process and causing the train to slide to a stop, just narrowly avoiding sliding off.
Once everypony recovers from the rough stop, Sunny and her friends all look around frantically and are about to get out and see what happened until they feel the train shift. They look outside to see that it’s engulfed in purple magic, being lifted into the air. Sunny and Izzy look at each other and nod before teleporting to the top of the train, looking around before using their magic together to force the train back down, struggling against the dark magic picking it up until the dark magic suddenly disappears and the train is forced back down to the ground violently, causing Sunny and Izzy to tumble off the roof and Izzy tumbles to the side of the bridge, going over the edge but grabbing on just in time. Sunny slowly gets up and is about to go and help her until she’s punched by something or someONE moving faster than the eye could see.
Sunny tumbles backwards from the unseen blow to her face and rolls to a stop before getting blasted in the back with purple lightning, causing her to scream in pain and her clothes to slowly start catching on fire. Sunny looks through the opening under the train and sees Izzy about to pull herself up until a unicorn in black armor walks in front of her and stomps on her hand, causing her to yell in pain. This angers Sunny and she screams in anger as her body glows golden, right before her wings and horn appear with a powerful shockwave that knocks the pony behind her away and knocks the unicorn near Izzy off the bridge. Sunny suddenly flys up then lands in front of Izzy and pulls her up.
As soon as she does though, the Unicorn suddenly swings back up and kicks them both into the train then throws magical knives towards them but the knives get blasted with green and pink electricity. The unicorn dodges another blast of the same color before being hit and stunned by purple and golden ring blades then sent flying back by a sonic scream. Once she recovers, she sends Sunny and Izzy's friends outside the train, ready to help. Great, just great. But honestly, this was expected.
Hitch aims his guns at her and speaks with a firm tone. “Don’t move. Put your hands behind your head and get down on your knees.” He says and the Unicorn smirks behind her mask and slowly puts her hands behind her head before quickly moving them just a bit lower and taking out multiple glowing purple throwing stars and sending them towards the group of friends. Sunny's alicorn empathy goes off and warns her that the throwing stars are explosive so she quickly teleports in front of her friends and makes a shield that takes the brunt of the explosion but the train also takes damage and so does the bridge.
In hindsight, Sunny should’ve made a shield around the throwing stars instead, but she’d be sure to do that next time. By now, the bridge is barely holding itself together, some of the cables holding it up starting to weaken and break. As Sunny notices this, she truly starts to realize the severity of the situation… They had to end this fight soon or else so many innocents were gonna die on this bridge. As soon as she drops the shield, her alicorn empathy goes off again and she makes another shield behind them that deflects the blades that were coming at them. The pegasus appears in a purple flash of lightning, catches the blades then bursts through the shield, sending Sunny and her friends tumbling forward.
Zipp immediately is the first to recover and she uses her own speed to deliver a powerful lightning kick to the face of the pegasus that causes her to fall and tumble right into her unicorn partner. The unknown pegasus gets up and glares at Zipp before slowly pacing from side to side, never taking her eye off her.
“You’re faster than I thought kid. No one’s ever caught me off guard like that. Not bad.” She says but Zipp pays no mind to the half hearted compliment. The unknown female pegasus just scoffs in return for the silence, still pacing. She can sense the anger Zipp was feeling… and it is immensely satisfying. “What? A speedster can’t compliment another speedster?”
“I don’t make small talk with monsters who are willing to sacrifice innocent lives for their own selfish gains.” Zipp says and the pegasus laughs when she hears that and Zipp wonders what could possibly be so funny. “Ummm… is something funny?” She asks but the Pegasus continues laughing before answering.
“Yes. You. I mean, I knew you were stuck up and a bit of a high horse but… I didn’t think you were a hypocrite.” She says, peaking Zipp's curiosity. “Oh please princess. Don’t play dumb. I know all about how you felt after your mother was killed, your sister was hurt, and your kingdom was taken over. You would’ve done anything to get back at the monster who caused you that pain. No matter who you had to sacrifice, you would’ve done it. When you actually got to him, you didn’t care that ponies and other creatures were getting hurt and dying all around you, you just wanted your revenge.” She says and Zipp is shocked that she knows so much.
She’s about to deny it until the pegasus suddenly talks first and more storm clouds roll in. “Now let’s play a game. It’s called 'Can your friends save the innocents from the collapsing bridge while you stop me before I build up enough distance, power and speed to punch right through this train!'” She yells before lightning strikes the other side of the bridge, another explosion damaging it and causing that part to collapse. This causes everyone to lose their balance and Zipp sees the pegasus run off at lightning speed so she gives chase after her but she’s surprisingly much faster than Zipp. Zipp puts a comm in her ear and talks into it.
“Guys! Help everyone off that bridge however you can before it collapses, don’t worry about stopping it. Just get them off the train and the bridge and do it fast!” Zipp says and everyone nods before Sunny and Izzy start trying to distract the pegasus while Hitch and Pipp start getting the innocents off the train and helping them across the gap in the front of the bridge. Solaris and Sky Blazer eventually start helping to get everyone off the train as well. Soon, the unicorn teleports to the top of the bridge and starts using her magic on the cables or at least some of them. She starts disconnecting them then sending them down towards the ponies below. Izzy teleports out of the way but Sunny flys straight into them, maneuvering her way through them, dodging and teleporting around them, managing to avoid getting hit before she uses her own magic on the cables and sends them towards the unicorn with a yell.
The unicorn teleports above them, using her magic to push them down a bit and they end up hitting the top of the bridge, causing more damage. Sunny sees a few pieces of it flying towards Pipp, Hitch, and the innocents so she flys under it and makes a magic barrier to catch it and set it aside before she also sees Izzy freezing a few areas to delay the bridge’s full collapse. The unicorn tries sneak attacking her but she dodges and counters her attack, sending her back with a wave of magic in the end, making her tumble backwards before sliding to a stop.
They both stand up straight and take out their weapons, starting to rush at each other until the bridge starts moving around a bit violently as the ice that Izzy made starts shattering. Sunny notices that there are still plenty of innocents on the train, including Solaris and Sky Blazer. She’s about to go help until they combine their magic and teleport the innocents off the train and to where the others are. She smiles as she sees them get off the train and attempt to fly to the other side. Izzy sees this and pulls a smooth maneuver on the unicorn before teleporting to the other side of the bridge to wait for them. Suddenly a sonic boom can be heard right before the pegasus from earlier speeds past everyone, flying straight into the train… and going all the way through it, blowing it up but coming out completely unscathed.
Everyone looks on terrified as she flys high into the air while what’s left of the bridge collapses. They hear Solaris and Sky Blazer scream and see them falling out of the sky. Before they can fall too far, Zipp comes out of nowhere and catches them both, a bit out of breath from giving her all to try and catch up to the pegasus while running and flying halfway across the world and back. Zipp lands by everyone else and gently places them down before taking a moment to catch her breath. Pipp and Hitch both check on her while Sunny and Izzy keep their eyes on the pegasus and unicorn who were both glaring down at them all, the pegasus up in the sky and the unicorn on top of what little remains of the bridge.
With anger at the forefront of her mind, Sunny gets ready to attack again until everyone hears something and look behind themselves to see half of a blade coming from… seemingly nowhere. This confuses them until that confusion turns into surprise when the blade cuts open a portal of purple and blue flame and the masked unicorn that attacked Canterlogic walks out with a tall, muscular, scary looking Earth Pony following closely behind.
“That’s enough you two! Time to go!” The Earth Pony yells and the other unicorn and pegasus both make their way to the portal before starting to fire at Sunny and the others halfway there and they all protect the innocents before Sunny and Zipp start attacking, not wanting them to get away and hurt anyone else. The pegasus blasts Zipp and tackles her, pinning her down by her throat. Sunny goes to help but gets hit with the Earth Pony's huge hammer, getting sent flying with a ringing in her ears and a dislocated shoulder. Sunny takes a bit to recover and she can hear fighting so she looks to see Izzy trying to fight off the big Earth Pony to protect her. She tries to get up when she sees Izzy losing.
Izzy suddenly gets sent flying towards Sunny who catches her with her good arm before teleporting her shield to her and using it to shield them both from the next swing of the Earth Pony's hammer. Sunny notices that the hammer is slightly glowing purple… figures. Some of Midnight's magic was in the hammer. It was starting to overwhelm the bits of her own magic that was in her shield, especially since the swings were so devastating themselves. Sunny keeps giving her all to protect herself and Izzy until she feels the shield crack on one particularly powerful swing. She recovers, but too late as the next swing completely shatters her shield and sends her flying. She tumbled away until she stops and slowly sits up with her vision blurry. She can see the earth pony walking towards her and she quickly tries harder to get up.
The Earth Pony picks her up by her throat with one hand and holds her up while glaring at her with anger and disappointment.
“Pathetic. This is the alicorn that defeated Midnight Starkiller? I expected better. If you can’t even handle something like this, I doubt you’ll be ready to protect your friends or anyone else from what’s coming. Especially that baby dragon or little alicorn of yours. And your marefriend? Oh trust me when I tell you… we have real plans for them and anyone else close to you.” The mare says and hearing all this, Sunny's blood starts to boil… almost literally as her entire body heats up and her magic starts to come out. Her mane starts flowing a bit and gains a fire-like aura as her eyes glow a darkened gold color. She suddenly slams her fist down on the Earth Pony's arm, causing her to bend her arm and move Sunny closer by accident.
Sunny immediately headbutts her, causing her to drop her and so Sunny reels back and then delivers a powerful punch to her face, sending her flying back straight into a mountain, the shockwave forming a cloud of dust around the area. Sunny then screams in unadulterated rage, the shockwave and loudness behind it getting everyone's attention. The Earth Pony slowly walks out of the cloud of dust and has some excitement in her eyes.
“Now that’s more like it!” She yells before laughing and charging at Sunny as her purple eyes glow more. Sunny charges back and jumps at her, throwing another punch, but this one is blocked before Sunny gets tackled and slammed. The Earth Pony then takes out her hammer and spikes come out of a few areas before she slams it onto Sunny only for it to get caught and pushed back by her. Sunny then blasts her backwards or tries to but she starts fighting her way through the blast and she kicks Sunny down into the ground a bit.
Sunny instantly tries to recover as she sees the Earth Pony above her, bringing down the hammer. Suddenly the hammer is caught again but not by Sunny or any of her friends… it’s caught by Twilight who shoved the Earth Pony back with a powerful burst of magic, an angry look on her face. Twilight's friends show up one by one, aiding against the four villains attacking them. Soon, they’re forced to retreat and the masked unicorn with the blade cuts open another portal.
“You won’t get away with this… Mark my words Twilight Sparkle, your days are numbered.” The Pegasus says before going into the portal, followed by the silent unicorn and tall Earth Pony. The masked unicorn is the last one to leave as she seems to focus her glare on Sunny and her friends before walking through the portal, allowing it to close soon after.
Twilight, after recognizing the magic and pondering the words she had just heard, turns to Sunny and her friends with a concerned look. She’s about to ask if they’re alright until she sees that Sunny is exhausted… and she senses new… raging magic coming from her… and it was almost overwhelming.
“H-Hi Twilight… sorry you had to come… all the way out here but… we actually have to talk to you.” Sunny says weakly, leaning against Izzy who was helping her up. Twilight looks towards where the portal was, looks at the tons of ponies and other creatures that were on the train, then looks back at Sunny and her friends and sighs.
“I need to talk to you too… there are a few things I should explain… but first… let’s figure out what to do about this mess.” Twilight says and after looking around at all the damage, everypony agrees.
“So… did you get him?” Opaline asks as her minions come walking into the throne room with Titania carrying something like… some sort of metal advanced casket.
“Just as you requested. There were a few bumps but we finally got him here.” Misty says as she takes off her mask and takes out the hairpins, undoing the puffy buns that she had tied her mane into. After electrocuting the casket, Stormcutter backs up, allowing it to open, revealing the frozen body… of Ragnar. Opaline smirks and walks forward.
“Good work. With a monster like this by my side… I will be even closer to becoming more powerful than I was before… and Equestria… will. Be. MINE.” Opaline says before she takes out the container with Midnight's magic inside it and opens it, starting to release the magic into his body. Slowly, his body starts to thaw out and he is once again given life. Opaline starts laughing as she sees his eyes glow and throughout the castle, the only sounds that could be heard were magic, laughter… and a monstrous roar that promised revenge and suffering.