The world was on fire.
Twilight Sparkle, alicorn and ruler of Equestria stood there helpless. Creatures were scattering in pure terror. Heroes of past, present, and future all looked to her for guidance, for some glimmer of hope. The healed bell lay at their hooves, dull and forgotten. Grogar in his new form laughed with glee, raining carnage. Mechanized ponies roamed the land, destroying homes and causing general chaos. On the horizon, in four different directions, cracks of blue light split the sky, depicting similar looking worlds on fire.
You failed.
Several of the heroes were crying, looking around in terror. Twilight, Posey, Sweetheart, Rainbow Dash, Starlight Glimmer, and Pipp were trying to comfort them, casting worried glances with each other.
Everycreature will die.
Glory and Rainbow Dash were both struggling to get out there and fight Grogar and those robots. Applejack was holding both of them down.
Grogar won.
Gusty, Starlight, Pinkie, Sunburst, and Zipp were huddled and talking low. They looked like they were trying come up with a plan. Meanwhile, Sunny and the rest of her friends were all looking at Twilight weird, and deservedly so. She failed them all.
Time to lie down.
“Twilight. Things look a bit dire, don’t they, darling?”
“Couldn’t agree more. Ah sure wouldn’t want to be out there.”
“Yepperooni! I’ll make sure to host a party for us later.”
“Right! When we kick their flanks to next millenia!”
“yay!”
Twilight looked up from her twisting thoughts and stared in the faces of her smiling friends. They didn’t look happy, yet their eyes and mouths said something else. And for a single split second, it was small, but it was exactly what she needed, Twilight felt hopeful.
“It’s just like all the other times, isn’t it?” She smiled, a warm feeling spreading all over her body.
“But of course, darling. Like we would let that beastly beast win.” Rarity flicked her hoof through her mane before striking a pose.
“Darn right it is. Time to give that Grogar a rodeo he won’t forget.” Applejack yeehawed, rose to her backhooves and pinwheeled her front ones.
“We’ll drop a giant cake on top of him! With extra dark chocolate!” Pinkie Pie cackled like dark chocolate was the most devious thing in the world.
“Yeah! And we’ll do all of that in ten seconds flat.” Rainbow Dash boasted with an incredibly smug grin, her wings buzzing keeping her aloft.
“I believe in us!” Fluttershy said with such determination, everypony looked at her surprise. She then noticed the attention and hid behind her mane once again.
“You’re right. You are totally right, girls! We got this!” The Princess of Friendship rose up and lifted her head up high. When she needed it most, her friends got her back. Now it was time for her to have Equestria’s back. “Listen up, everypony! Our enemy is Grogar and whoever is making those robots.”
“His name is Sprout.” Sunny interrupted, looking shy and apologetic that she just interrupted her hero. Twilight just smiled serenely and nodded to her.
“What we know is that Hitch went after him and I know that one pony can’t do it alone, so, I need volunteers to go after him and together, with the power of friendship, defeat Sprout and his robots.” Twilight paused, gathered her thoughts while she watched Zipp, Firefly, Patch, and Applejack moved up. “Right, I need to know what those blue rifts in the sky are and what they do. If they’re dangerous, I don’t want anypony trying to go in.” She looked into the eyes of everypony present, making sure they knew she was serious. “I need volunteers.” Surprise volunteered almost immediately. Scootaloo was next, Cheerilee sighed and volunteered too. Rarity and Izzy as well. “The last group will be mine. I’m going to face Grogar. I don’t expect many of you to come with me and that is perfectly okay, but any help will be helpful. Is that okay?”
There was a moment of silence in the room before everypony who was left took a single step forwards, determination in many different forms in every face. Terrified, hopeless, tired, anger, sad, happy, even indifferent. Twilight was taken aback and was touched. She smiled gratefully before spreading her wings and took off, straight towards the creature who caused this Tartarus on Equestria. Behind her, everypony charged with her. Flying, teleporting, bouncing, galloping, hovering, plants pulling ponies along. These were the heroes of past, present, and future. Gathered together to fight one being. It was poetic and beautiful if Twilight thought a lot about it.
***
Grogar spotted something on the horizon and looked up. To do so, he had to temporarily stop his carnage with his newly acquired alicorn fire. The world beneath him looked tiny from his swelled up perspective. He squinted to make out the figure but before he could get a good look, a purple blast him right in the face. The alicorn/ram hybrid stumbled backwards in shock more than anything.
Instinctually, Grogar puffed out his purple wings and spread them out wide and he snorted. His three horns sparked with hybrid magic. The world shook as Harmony was unbalanced. Discord, who was also following Twilight, collapsed onto the ground. His magic spasming, the unnatural and darkened chaos was too much for the draconaquus, leaving him incapacitated.
“Attack! Protect your fellow pony, give friendship when needed, and above all, do NOT lose hope!” Twilight gritted her teeth and blasted again.
The impassioned roar that resounded after her battle cry was so loud that Grogar had to step back again from shock.
Twilight got there first with her ability to teleport. She chanted “I wish, I wish, I wish…” and materialized on top of Grogar. A few problems with his unnatural ascension was the sensitivity. Being an alicorn was no joke and when a pony landed on top of his skull, it rattled his brain. The ram threw his head back, dislodging the unicorn and sending her flying. Pipp got to the screaming mare and caught her before anything bad could happen.
Sweetie Belle yelled out loud and put a sudden burst of magic to her horn. The beam unleashed was massive and devastating. Even Twilight had to marvel at the sheer power this unicorn had. Seeking her chance, the enraged Glory was up next and released a powerful blast of her own. With the combined might of two very angry unicorns, Grogar fell. His massive bulk crushing trees and cracking ground. But he wasn’t out.
The many, many earth ponies finally got close enough to start using their hooves. Without needing to talk, every earth pony lined up next to Grogar and prepare to buck. When Starlight counted to three, the resounding kick was heard all the way to Mount Aris. As for Grogar, he was sent to the otherside of the Canterhorn by nothing but anger and sheer earth pony might.
Twilight and co. charged after the ram, determined to end this once and for all. The alicorn looked back at the heroes and was surprised to see that the group nearly doubled in size. Some of her subjects had joined in, rallied by the fighting spirit of these strange looking ponies and Twilight’s actual participation in the eventual defeat of this monster. Equestria as a whole has faced too much to be scared of yet another monster.
Then everypony stopped when Grogar stood back up with nay but a scratch and glared at them. There was a collective gulp as everypony tried to calm themselves, force themselves to face this monster head on. Then the ram roared, fire spewing from his mouth, lighting up the fractured sky, creating an eerie landscape.
“My turn.”