Katrina showed her fangs in a wide grin while getting into the light.
“Well, well. Look who´s finally here. At last, the Wind Warrior. Or should I say, Gusty.” she chuckled when she saw Gusty snarling more. “Who would have thought, huh? That a pathetic frightened slave turned out to be Grogar´s supposed demise.” she started circling the unicorns. “I´ll admit though, I admire you for outsmarting him. Such a femme fatale move from your part.” she teasingly nudged her.
“Don´t get near her!” Fizzy interposed between Gusty and Katrina.
Katrina rolled her eyes.
“Ugh, you again. You know, I´ve had enough of you, you waterbender.” she mocked her. “Fortunately, I get to meet the entire band!” she glanced at Buttons, Lancer and Glory. “Hm…” she examined them closely, which caused the three unicorns to walk backwards. “I only recognize you.” she booped Lancer´s nose, angering him. “The rest of you seem to be nobodies like the waterbender. And talking about nobodies, I see you brought company!” she said while looking at the earth ponies.
“It´s over Katrina. We won´t let you oppress no more!” Moochick said firmly as he pointed his sword towards her.
“Oooh, I´m so scared!” Katrina raised her paws mockingly. “Nah, without magic you´re nothing against me.” she lifted Moochick´s chin. “However, she is a problem!” she yelled while looking at Gusty.
Before she could react, Katrina trapped Gusty with her magic. The unicorns tried to attack Katrina, but she pushed them with a magical beam, giving her enough time to throw Gusty to a window. She broke the window and landed inside a room.
“Gusty!” Buttons exclaimed concerned.
Slowly, Gusty got in fours. Thankfully, she only had a few cuts on her body due to the window´s glasses, but they were superficial. Still, that didn´t mean that they didn´t hurt. She felt like she had a thousand blades in her body. A few moments after, her friends reappeared by her side.
“Are you ok?” Glory asked concerned as she helped get up.
“I´m fine. Thank you.” Gusty reassured her with a smile.
As soon as she was standing up, everypony lit their horns. Each of them walked around different parts of the room, preparing themselves to defend against Katrina, who wasn´t around at the moment, but could appear when they least expect it. As they watched out their surroundings, they deduced which room they were in. The walls were of a soft golden colour, the ceiling was very decorated with golden, dark blue and red motives There were even words with a message. At the front, there laid a big, elegant sit: the throne. They found themselves in the throne room.
“Aargh! No matter what I do, your little friends are always beside you.” Katrina complained. “They´re like pests.” said Katrina. “But if I have to fight them in order to get to you, then I gladly accept it.”
The fact that they could hear Katrina indicated that the cat was in somewhere in the room. However, she was invisible.
“Show yourself!” Gusty commanded.
“If you say so.” Katrina replied behind her back, ready to attack her with a magical sword.
Fortunately, Glory noticed Katrina.
“Gusty, watch out!” Glory cried, allowing Gusty to disappear before Katrina´s sword could touch her. When she reappeared, she pushed her with a gust of wind.
“Oh hoh hoh.” Katrina laughed. “I see you want to play hard. Ok, so be it.” she said while getting up.
She electrocuted Gusty afterwards. The unicorn whimpered in pain. As a response, Buttons teleported to Katrina´s side to kick her face.
“Yeah, you go Buttons!” Fizzy cheered her.
But Katrina returned that kick by tossing her out of the window. Buttons landed on some earth ponies.
“Sorry…” she apologized to them. “I´m ok!” she told her friends. “Maybe you should come and help.” she advised the earth ponies.
“You heard her! Let´s go!” Moochick ordered his followers.
They nodded and left the garden.
In response to what Katrina did to her friend, Fizzy trapped Katrina with a water stream and dragged against a column.
“I am gonna bust you up gatita, and stop you once and for all!” she yelled at her.
“Like I said, I had enough of you.” Katrina zapped her, sending her backwards.
Much for Buttons´ misfortune, she reappeared just in the spot Fizzy was darting towards.
“Ha ha! I´m baAAAAAAAAH!” she yelled as Fizzy crushed against her, falling once again through the window. “Oh, come on!” she complained.
Katrina chuckled in amusement. Lancer tried to hit her with his sword, but having her flawless feline hearing, she dodged it and used magic to make him trip so she could have time to conjure her magical sword. Lancer´s quick reflexes allowed him to avoid the point of Katrina´s sword and started battling her. Meanwhile Glory checked on Gusty.
“Are ye ok?” she asked her.
Gusty tried to get up but she would only end up in the ground.
“I can´t move much.”
“Worry not, I´ll stay by yer side to protect ye from any attacks.” Glory reassured her while getting on a defensive pose against Katrina.
Gusty looked at her horn. She wasn´t sure if the electrocution also affected her magical abilities. She closed her eyes to focus better on casting a light. She gasped in relief when she saw light around her horn.
“Glory, I have magic!” she informed her.
“That´s wonderful! But how are ye going to use it?”
“I think I have an idea.”
After closing her eyes, a small wind started circling Katrina. Katrina and Lancer stopped fighting, estranged by the sudden breeze. They looked at Gusty. Lancer smirked, as he knew what she was planning to do. Katrina, on the other hoof, since she didn´t know how Gusty´s magic worked, she didn´t take it seriously. Instead, she laughed.
“Seriously? You´re doing this after sending me away? Please.”
But she would stop laughing once the wind had enough strength to make her float in circles non-stop. Much to Katrina´s horror, the potion was slipping from her neck. Gusty smirked. But she would quickly realize that her strategy wouldn´t work. A big ball of energy started forming inside the tornado. Soon afterwards, Katrina brought the tornado to the ground. She struggled to undo it. As a response, Gusty intensified the winds all she could, surpassing all the limits she knew in regard to her magic. Unfortunately, no matter how hard she tried, Katrina ended up winning. The tornado turned into a blast made of Katrina´s magic, sending Gusty away against a column. Katrina approached her.
“Nice try…” Katrina said to her, full of resent.
Luckily, something hit her before she could hurt Gusty in any way. She turned around, and saw Buttons surrounded by a stream of water.
“Ha ha! Now you won´t be able to throw off the window!” Buttons said to her.
“Buttons, give this to Katrina from my part!” Fizzy said from the garden. Then, she threw a raspberry.
Buttons winked at her.
“Fizzy wants to tell you something.” she threw her a raspberry.
Katrina frowned and tried to attack them but was stopped by Glory´s magic, who smirked from the right. And when she was about to hit her, Lancer stepped forward from the left, and then Gusty from the middle. Katrina understood that they had circled her. But she could play that game as well, even if she was outnumbered. She laughed as she disappeared. Everypony looked around panicked. Suddenly, they were surrounded by various Katrinas. Gusty slowly turned around to face the Katrinas, since she noticed her muscles waking up little by little, permitting more range of movement. She shot at one of them but the vanished in a poof.
“You missed!” she teased them as she reappeared, shooting her a beam of magic, which Gusty stopped with a forcefield. She looked worried at her friends.
“Does anypony know what´s going on?” she asked.
“That´s some illusion magic for you, mares and gentlecolt. Just something that I have on my sleeve. Little parlour trick, don´t worry.” Katrina falsely reassured them. “All you have to do, is get to the real me, but beware the illusions can attack with real magic as you´ve previously witnessed.”
Lancer furiously shot at one of the Katrinas, but she turned to be an illusion.
“Missed again!”
“I really wish Starswirl was around here!” Buttons commented.
Then, various Katrinas started to attack the ponies from various side, so the ponies only could defend themselves. Katrina laughed maliciously as she watched them helplessly trying to protect themselves and each other.
“HELP ANYPONY, HELP!” Posey banged the door.
At the same time Posey was asking for help, Starswirl looked up to the ceiling. He was very surprised by how easily one could hear what was happening in a room far from you. He was hearing magical zaps but he wasn´t sure if they came from Gusty or another friend, or from Katrina.
“Gusty!” he muttered worried.
He knew that he needed to get out of the dungeon as soon as possible but he would receive a reminder of the business he had to face before helping Gusty. Two of the tentacles holding Amina stretched, which got her attention. She quickly figured out what was happening.
“Beware!” she managed to speak, despite getting weaker. “The tentacles!”
But it was too late. By the time they heard her, the tentacles had already snagged their legs, carrying them towards the rest of the tentacles. Starswirl´s first instinct was to zap at the tentacle, which freed him. Starswirl widened his eyes in realization.
“Of course! The tentacles are dark spirits.” he muttered.
“Heeelp!” Posey yelled.
Unlike Starswirl, Posey was nearer the rest of the tentacles. She was trying to hold on the floor to avoid getting closer, but it was no use. And the closer she got to the other tentacles the more tentacles held on to her. Starswirl gasped scared and immediately zapped at the tentacles. But when the tentacles disappeared, new ones held on to Posey´s body. So, he had no choice but to push her towards him.
“Hang on!” he told her.
Amina widened her eyes. Although, she couldn´t she felt something she hadn´t felt for a long time: the need to protect. A force ran throughout Amina´s whole body, which gave her enough energy to use her tail to slap the tentacles holding Posey without realizing it, freeing her in the process. Starswirl offered his hoof to her, helping her to get away.
“Are you ok?” he asked her.
“Yeah…” she mumbled.
The tentacles tried to reach them again, however, this time Starswirl had time to react. He put himself in front of Posey and began battling against them. As much as she liked to help, Posey knew this wasn´t a battle she could fight. All she could do was stare at Starswirl, the tentacles, and Amina. She watched horrified at how the latter´s few light she had was slowly fading.
Posey knew it wasn´t Starswirl who had freed her. Firstly, because she felt that the strike came from behind her and Starswirl was in front of her. And secondly because she felt something comforting softly brushing against her back. This brushing brought her back to the day she almost drowned, since that sensation was similar to what she felt when something held her out of the river. It was then that she knew how she was freed but she also had a deeper realization of who Amina truly was. And by knowing who she was, she knew how to help.
“Amina!” she called her. “I know who you are. You are a guardian spirit. And not just any guardian spirit, you´re the one that saved me from the river than night.”
“A guardian spirit?” Starswirl wondered aloud. Although he was busy fighting, he still had an ear for their conversation.
Amina opened her eyes. She stared at Posey, realizing that she was indeed the filly she saved years ago.
“Ja´” she weakly smiled. “Yes, it is you…” her smile slowly turned into an expression of sadness. “But I was no guardian spirit when I saved you. I haven´t been for a long time... Thanks to Fizzy I want to be who I am once again but…” she whimpered as she flickered. “I don´t think I´ll ever be.”
“Yes, you will! I know you can free yourself.”
“If you are a guardian spirit, that means that you fight against dark spirits and defeat them. Those tentacles are dark spirits!” Starswirl informed her.
“They are? I didn´t recognize them.” Amina´s breath fastened in panic. “I let the dark side of me take over me for so much time that it had affected my true powers. That´s probably why I couldn´t destroy Katrina´s barrier nor attack the tentacles and or recognize them.”
After speaking, she gasped. The sensation the tentacles around her body gave her could be compared to a thousand leeches taking blood of creatures if the leeches´ grasp and bite were like the snakes´. Posey noticed horrified that her light was flickering and was weaker afterwards.
“Amina, your light is fading!” she warned her.
“That´s because they want to drag me to their realm. The tentacles appear around a portal. They take the light off their victims in order to do that. And I cannot escape.” Amina struggled to speak. “I´m sorry, I failed you! I can´t save you nor your friends.” Dark tears started falling from her eyes. “I wish I could have had time to amend my mistakes!”
“No, you didn´t! It´s not over for us nor for you. You still have a chance to free yourself and help us! In fact, you just helped me! You freed me from the tentacles!”
Amina widened her eyes surprised.
“I did?”
“Ja´!”
Amina gasped in realization.
“My light is coming back… But perhaps now I can…”
She closed her eyes and focused to radiate light. Slowly, a light her whole body was surrounded by a soft light that turned brighter and brighter. But it wouldn´t last, as it would flicker again. Amina tried various times, yet she had the same results.
“I can´t!” she said between pants. “I can´t.”
“Yes, you can.” Posey encouraged her. “You´ve done this before. You´ve fought fearlessly against dark spirits and ended up being victorious and you will now and until the end of times! Inside your eyes, there´s still that fire and it keeps growing. You might have pain inside you but your light doesn´t give up and keeps growing. Just take a deep breath and walk again. Take a deep breath and go back to who you really are.”
Amina stared at the ponies. Posey smiled tenderly at her. Starswirl, although also supportive of her, was too busy fighting the tentacles. She realized what was the key to her power: remembering who she was fighting for. The whole reason that she existed was to protect every element on earth, including ponies, who despite some of them being evil, some really paid respect to nature and the other ponies. She frowned in determination and closed her eyes again. Like Posey said, she took a deep breath and started again. The light she formed was far brighter than before, to the point of blinding Starswirl and Posey. The light could have easily destroyed all the tentacles in just a flash. If it wasn´t for something else.
Suddenly, the light turned softer, turning into just a shield to protect herself from the tentacles. She looked down constantly, as if there was something between the tentacles that caught her eyes. From her observation, Posey deduced that Amina was seeing something important, as she was panting intensely, but not because of exhaustion. Rather, it was due to worry.
“Wha-What´s going on?” Posey asked confused.
“I sense fellow spirits in the realm of dark spirits.”
Starswirl widened his eyes when he remembered something Moochick said about the Great Seedling when they first met.
“Unfortunately, he hasn´t come ever since Katrina came.”
“The Great Seedling!” he exclaimed. “He could be there. Moochick told us that he mysteriously never came back after Katrina took over.”
“He is.” Posey confirmed. “I heard her saying that. And Katrina´s cubs must be there too. And many other spirits related to nature, which we earth ponies are so dependent on. You have no idea how many problems we have had to grow our crops.”
“That´s grave.” Amina shook her head. “Without spirits there´s unbalance, and that has given you the serious consequences you have been facing.” she looked down. “But perhaps they can be reversible.”
Starswirl and Posey widened their eyes after understanding what her intentions were.
“Wait, you´re not thinking on crossing the portal, are you?” she asked scared.
“It could be the solution.”
“But can you come back from there?” Starswirl asked her concerned. “I haven´t heard a single legend of anypony nor spirit escaping from the dark realm.”
“In the case of spirits maybe it´s because they have lost all their light. But if I could transfer some to them, maybe we could open a portal and escape.”
“And what about the mortal souls taken dark spirits? Katrina used them against us when we were trying to get into the city.”
“Death is death. It´s in its nature to be irreversible. But maybe I can liberate them from that realm so they can go to the corresponded one.”
“But you´ve never done that before, have you?” Posey started shaking her head. “What happens if you can´t escape or your plan doesn´t work? What if you turn into a dark spirit forever?” as she talked, tears formed in her eyes.
“I might not know what will happen. It´s not in my abilities to read the future. But what I know is that if I don´t do anything, the spirits and souls will be trapped there forever and there will never be balance. Fortunately, you can help me.”
Posey widened her eyes.
“Tell us what to do!”
“If you break Katrina´s potion, it´s possible the dark spirits will come for her as she has nothing else to offer, opening a portal to do so. And if we´re fast, we could escape. That´s the only way she can be stopped.”
Though still unsure, Posey nodded.
“Starswirl, get us where we first met!”
“On it!” he started igniting his horn.
“Wait! Before you go, what´s your name?” Amina asked Posey.
“Posey.”
“Posey…. How beautiful. Matiox. And thanks to you too Starswirl.” She turned to the grey unicorn, who nodded in return.
Posey sniffed.
“Kerik´a Amina. Goodbye.”
Amina smiled back.
“Kerik´a.” she replied.
She took a deep breath before immersing through the portal, closing it in the process. Thus, the tentacles disappeared. Noticing her worry and sadness, Starswirl laid a hood on Posey´s shoulder.
“Don´t worry. She´s tough. I´m pretty sure she knows what she´s doing.” he reassured her. “Now, if you don´t mind, we have a mission to accomplish.”
After drying her tears, Posey nodded with a confident smile.
“Now, hold your breath. This will be just a second.” he said while lighting his horn.
Though she didn´t understand why he asked her to do that, Posey took a deep breath. Then, they disappeared in a flash.
“Do you think they´re ok?” Knightshade fidgeted with his hooves nervously as he anxiously watched the castle.
“Even if they weren´t, you know what the orders are: The two of us must stay here until Magic Star comes. Then, we´ll guide her to the golden room.” Alonzo reminded him gently.
“I know, but what if they need our help and we´re not there for them?”
“Knightshade.” Alonzo held his shoulders. “They are five unicorns with magical powers like Katrina, and Moochick is accompanied by a big group of earth ponies. I´m sure they´ll do fine without us.”
Unfortunately, he would quickly realize that his words didn´t match reality. The sound of magic forced them to turn their heads and watch Katrina´s beams more often than the unicorns´, which scared Knightshade more and worried Alonzo.
“Ok, maybe they do need our help.” he said before he and Knightshade threw their swords.
“Whoah, whoah.” Shady blocked their way. “Nopony is leaving until Magic Star´s arrived.”
“But have you seen the chaos going on?” Knightshade asked her.
Shady turned around and witnessed the same image Knightshade and Alonzo did. She pressed her lips.
“Yes…. But she cannot be that far.”
“Something´s coming!” an earth pony called his comrades.
Knightshade, Shady and Alonzo ran back to the battlements. In effect, Magic Star was approaching. The expression on her face and the speed of her running indicated that she was just as anxious as them. She curbed just in front of the gates. She panted heavily.
“Magic Star! I´m so glad to see you.” Shady greeted her in relief.
“Open the gates!” Alonzo ordered everypony.
Magic Star widened her eyes when she heard Alonzo.
“No, no no!” Magic Star shook her head violently. “Pass me a ladder, quick!”
Everypony shared glances a bit confused. Alonzo shrugged.
“Well, maybe it´s faster. And fast is what we need right now.” he reasoned.
If helping Moochick wasn´t enough reason to be fast, they would soon receive another one, most specifically, Magic Star´s reason. A mass of cats was noticed soon after Magic Star appeared. Everypony whimpered.
“Pass me the ladder! Pass me the ladder!” Magic Star begged desperately.
Luckily, by the time the cats were noticed, the ladder was almost ready. As soon as it touched the ground, Magic Star went up the ladder and it was removed at a lightning speed. This was mostly thanks to the cats´ shock of seeing their comrades tied up. Everypony took the captured cats´ bowed and pointed arrows at the cats.
“We have taken over the castle. Surrender and you will not be harmed.” Alonzo told them.
“What do we do?” Odile asked the cat captain.
She wasn´t the only one looking at the captain in despair. All the cats were. After taking some time to think, he frowned in determination.
“Oh yeah? Have you defeated Katrina yet?”
“No. But we´re on it!” Knightshade replied.
“Then you still haven´t taken over.” he said while preparing his bows.
The last thing the cats wanted to do was fighting for Katrina, but what other chance at survival would they have? So, they imitated their superior. Before a big fight broke, Bandit arrived. Seeing what was going on, he took a ladder nearby and climbed it in a second. Once he at the top, he meowed, shaking his paw to get both the ponies´ and the cats´ attention. The cats´ left ear twitched.
“Bandit?” said every cat, even the muzzled ones.
The ponies somewhat entered in panic, as he could easily free the other cats. Well, everypony, except Shady. So, before everypony could redirect the arches at him, she spoke.
“Wait a minute, I know you! You´re the cat that accompanied us to the castle.”
Everpony stared at Shady estranged. Bandit nodded. He pointed at the battlements.
“You want to go here?” she asked him to make sure she understood well.
Bandit nodded.
“Do you think he´s to trust?” Magic Star whispered in her ear.
“Well, he hasn´t done anything to us while he was on Gusty´s back…” Shady replied in her ear.
Bandit walked to the battlements to communicate to his comrades.
“Bandit! Where were you?! We thought you got captured!” the cat captain scolded him.
Bandit pointed down.
“What do you mean with lowering our weapons? Don´t you see that they mean to attack us?” Odile asked upset.
“Meow!”
Every cat gasped shocked. The cats started muttering. The cat captain dropped the arch in shock.
“She what?”
“I can´t believe it.”
“Apricot….” the cat captain muttered in shock.
Despite her shock, Odile didn´t waste time. She ran to the gates and started banging them.
“Open the gates.” she ordered emotionless.
The ponies looked at each other, not knowing how to proceed. Odile banged harder in fury.
“OPEN THE GATES, YOU PONIES!” she yelled full of pain. “Please…” Afterwards, she dropped on her knees, with tears on her eyes.
“Odile…” a female cat approached her.
“I´m sick of her…” she sobbed. “She takes us from our home, uses us a sacrifices and now straight up stabs one of us? What else is gonna happen?”
Never in a million years ponies thought that they would feel sympathy for one of their enemies. Yet there they were, witnessing how the enemy was feeling the same grief, anguish and anxiety of knowing that a friend is hurt and being too far from them. They didn´t seem to be acting, this was genuine worry and pain. Alonzo sighed.
“Ok, you may enter. But you´ll be scolded by the four of us.” he signed at himself, Knightshade, Shady and Magic Star. he turned backwards. “Open the gates! And untie the cats.”
The cats watched surprised and in gratitude at how the ponies untied them and opened the gates.
“Thank you. Thank you.” Odile ran through the gates as fast as she could.
Despite what they had just witnessed, the cat captain was still.
“Captain, captain!” a female cat touched his shoulder. “They have let us enter.”
“Huh? Oh, right.” he said emotionless before running.
Starswirl and Posey reappeared just where Moochick and his earth ponies were running towards. He and the ponies closest to him jumped back from the fright.
“Gah!” Moochick took a deep breath when he recognized who was in front of him. He puffed in relief. “It´ s just you. Where were you?”
“We had to deal with some affairs. We´ll explain it better at a better time.” Starswirl smiled nervously. “How are they doing?”
“Not sure. Katrina dragged the Wind Warrior to the throne room and her friends went to aid her. Since we can´t do what you can do,” Moochick said with some resent. “we have to get there on hoof.”
“The throne room?” Posey asked. “It´s not very far from here. Follow me!”
But just when she was about to take the lead, they heard steps. But they did not sound like hoofsteps, which alerted everypony of cats´ presence. They took their weapons out when they were visible, though they would soon see that it wouldn´t be necessary. Odile gasped horrified when she averted something behind the earth ponies.
“APRICOT!” she yelled in tears.
The earth ponies turned around, discovering a pale unconscious orange cat´s, with one of his paws covering what appeared to be a wound. The cats pushed the earth ponies to make way. Behind the cats were Alonzo, Knightshade, Shady and Magic Star. Odile bent and started to shake his body. The other cats stared in shock.
“No, no, no! You must wake up, you must wake up!” her cry was choked.
“Come on, you can´t leave us, friend.” the cat captain´s eyes started getting watery.
But no matter how they yelled or shook him, he wouldn´t wake up. Every creature understood what this meant. Odile yelled in pain and grief before burying her head on his paws. Bandit walked to Apricot and laid his head upon his lap, silently crying and grieving for his fallen comrade. Everypony felt empathy for the cats, but especially the most experienced soldiers. Sadly, these moments were not odd in war. Friends, family, and other loved ones could stop being around you forever in just a second. Starswirl was reminded of his lost friends at the monastery.
As much as they wanted to stay by Apricot´s side, there was no time. The cat captain lifted his head, and noticed Katrina´s magic, as well as the ponies. His ears went backwards, his eyebrows formed a frown, his eyes narrowed, he could feel his teeth clenching and his tail pumping up.
“You… YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!” he said as he took out his sword.
He ran ahead without any warning.
“Captain!” Odile called him.
“We´ll grieve him once we´re done with her! Come on!” he ordered furious.
The cats hid their tails in fear. They knew his anger was not directed towards them, but they had never seen him that enraged, no matter how grumpy he was with them, because in those moments he acted like a parent that took care of his kittens. Now, he was about to turn into a beast out of control. But deep down, every cat had the same feeling in their hearts. Their insecurity disappeared and decided to follow his boss. Everypony followed them as well.
Meanwhile, the unicorns were still fighting Katrina´s illusions. They were sweating and panting in exhaustion.
“My, my… It seems like you´re enjoying this game a lot.” Katrina meaningly teased them. “But I got bored of it. How about an aiming game?!”
She threw beams at them, but they all disappeared before being hit. Katrina grunted in frustration. First, she looked through the window, knowing that Fizzy was holding Buttons from there, but none of them were there. Then, she walked around the room, ready to attack at any moment.
“Playing hide and seek, huh? Whose idea was this? Gusty´s?” she forced a chuckle. “You want to make me think that you´re the pathetic coward little slave I met at Grogar´s castle but I know you want to do a surprise attack! Well, I´m afraid it won´t work.”
She noticed something moving her hair. She turned around and saw small breezes from behind a column. Katrina smirked.
“Of course, you would ruin your own plan…”
Little did she know that Glory was wielding her sword with magic, approaching it to the necklace to untie it. When she saw Katrina was too near Gusty, she nodded at Lancer, who was on an invisible spell. He stretched his hooves before making noise with them, making her turn around so she wouldn´t notice Glory´s sword.
“You were planning on to attack me off guard!” she said to the invisible enemy.
She started zapping everywhere in the room. For the unicorns´ misfortune, Katrina hit a column near Glory. As it was falling in her direction, it forced her to jump away, dropping the sword and making herself visible in the process due to fear. The other unicorns covered their mouths while holding their breaths when they saw Katrina turning around. Glory tried to reach the sword but Katrina picked it up before she could.
“Oh, is this yours?” she asked in a fake worry. “Turns out you´re more dangerous than I thought, since you´re the assassin of the group!”
Unpredictably, she threw the sword at Glory, with the help of magic so it would target correctly, like an arrow. It was so fast that Gusty nor Lancer could do anything to help. Glory raised her forelegs and closed her eyes. Unconciously, her horn activated and threw a bit of magic in front of her, creating a crystal that stopped the sword from hitting her. Katrina and the unicorns widened their eyes in surprise. Glory sighed and slowly opened her eyes. She bent backwards scared when she saw what she had done, almost falling on her back. As shocking as that event might have been, there were still more surprises in store.
“KATRINAAA!” a voice called, getting every creatures´ attention.
They saw the cat captain entering the throne room full of fury, unsheathing his sword. He was accompanied by his other comrades, some of whom had swollen and red eyes from crying, such as Odile. Still, they were standing with conviction and very mad at Katrina.
“Captain. I suggest that you shield your sword right now.” she commanded in a passive aggressive tone.
“We know what you have done. We will not ignore that!” he defied her.
Knowing what they were talking about, Katrina stayed quiet before coming up with the best answer she could. She put her paws together while taking a deep breath.
“Look, this is all for the greater good. It´s that simple: if you obey me and help me get rid of the unicorns and the earth ponies, then you will be rewarded and unharmed. But if you don´t, I´LL GIVE YOU THE WORST DEATH SENTENCE THAT EXISTS!”
“We´d rather choose death than serving a queen that doesn´t care about us and sacrifices us for her own benefit and kills one of us cold-boodedly!” Odile spoke.
Fizzy gasped. Although she was outside the throne room, she could still hear everything.
“Apricot…” she looked down sadly. “Pobrecito…”
“Then so be it.” Katrina sentenced while conjuring up magical swords.
She and the cats started a deathly duel. Though they outnumbered her, Katrina was more advantage due to the use of magic, so the cats had a rough time resisting her attacks. Meanwhile, the unicorns levearaged the moment to reunite, Buttons and Fizzy included, the latter being responsible to bring themselves up with water.
“Should we help them or what?” Lancer asked everypony.
They would soon receive the answer. A voice called them from their backs.
“Psst! Guys!”
They turned around and saw Starswirl poking his head from the door. The unicorns smiled, glad to see them him ok.
“Starswirl!” Gusty exclaimed before teleporting herself and her friends by his side.
Once they reappeared, Gusty hugged Starswirl, catching him in surprise and leaving his heart fluttering even faster, if it wasn´t beating fast enough.
“I´m so glad you´re ok.” she told him.
Starswirl didn´t answer, as he was still processing what just happened. Then, Fizzy hugged him once Gusty undid her hug, making it even tighter.
“Starswirl!” she greeted him very joyfully. Afterwards, she and every other unicorn would notice he was accompanied by every earth pony, including Posey. “Posey!” she waved her hoof at her. “Did you manage to free Amina?” she asked her and Starswirl.
“Well… Sort of…” Starswirl answered, as he scratched the back of his neck.
“She went to the dark spirit realm.” Posey continued.
Fizzy gasped.
“She was absorbed?” she asked terrified.
“No, she willingly went there to get to free the captive spirits.” Posey explained. “Spirits Katrina offered to the dark spirits in exchange of powers.”
The earth ponies gasped.
“I knew she made the spirits disappear somehow!” Magic Star crushed her hooves against each other.
“Will she get them back? Will our crops grow again? Will nature be ok again?” Shady asked her.
“She thinks she can, so I guess I´ll trust her.” Posey simply responded.
“What about our fallen friends? Can she bring them back too?” Knightshaded asked.
“If everything goes well, she´ll get them out but she can´t bring her back to us. You can´t reverse death, you know?” Posey felt so sorry saying those hard words.
Moochick and the earth pony soldiers inhaled and exhaled sadly.
“I suppose the same goes for the poor Apricot.” Fizzy guessed.
Posey nodded sadly.
“Is that why the cats are fighting Katrina? Does that mean that they´re on our side?” Buttons asked.
“We don´t know that for sure.” Moochick responded. “But the cats turning against Katrina is certainly an advantage for us. They won´t be able to defeat her but if they resist for some time, they might weaken Katrina physically.”
“Not only physically, magically as well, since the two are closely connected.” Starswirl added. “Apart from the cats, we also have another important advantage. Amina, the spirit we helped, told us how to defeat her.”
Everypony listened intrigued.
Katrina brushed all the cats off and took their swords away from them. But as Moochick predicted, she seemed to be more exhausted. She panted as she approached her ex-subjects.
“You cannot defeat me. It was a foolish of you to turn against me.”
Bandit shook his head with a smirk. Afterwards, he looked to the right, watching in satisfaction at how everypony finally intruded the scene. The earth ponies circled her and pointed swords at her, except for Magic Star, who took two potions, ready to throw them at any time; and Shady and Posey, who were willing to fight despite lacking weaponry. The unicorns ignited their horns. Katrina felt some panic, as she was really outnumbered this time. She frowned at Gusty as she walked to her.
“We may not be as powerful as you, Katrina. But it is you against all of us!” she told her sternly.
“We have taken over other cities from you before, Katrina.” Moochick spoke, as he joined Gusty. “You know that we aren´t nobodies and what we´re capable of. Do you yield?” he advanced his sword against her.
Katrina inhaled and exhaled furiously and a bit nervously before replying. She closed her eyes to think better. When she decided her next course of action, she chuckled, but it was different than what the earth ponies and cats were used to. Normally, her chuckle resembled confidence but this time it resembled frustration and exhaustion, as if she was about to completely lose her mind.
“Well…” she stretched her claws “I´ve always loved a little challenge.”