//------------------------------// // Twilight vs Screwball // Story: A Witch in Broad Daylight // by Epsilon-Delta //------------------------------// Twilight’s eyes went to Pinkie Pie, still trapped inside the hourglass. Screwball had already passed it off to a black and white pony, or at least Twilight thought he was a pony. She’d never seen one with stripped fur or such an odd build. He wore a mask, one side white and the other black. She could sense the danger of it, that it was having some effect on the area already. It was likely an artifact created by a god. This pony, or whatever he was, took a step back. Flames came from the black half of the mask that soon consumed him and Pinkie, but Twilight followed easily enough. They both reappeared at the top of what Twilight remembered as the tallest waterslide in the world. The bars that made up its base served to cage in about half the island until it got too short to be seen under the other structures. Twilight could see the island split into two halves. The one in front of her was a carnival, dominated by the water slide and an enormous Ferris wheel. Behind her, on the side not caged in, was Screwball's actual stronghold. Something halfway between a bunker and a castle jutted partially up from the earth. Just beyond that, along the coast, stood steel towers surrounded by barbed wire and what was likely to be enormous guns on top. Yet very few ponies seemed to be around. They weren’t too far from the mainland. Twilight had been to the mountainous and zombie-infested terrain of the eastern continent once before. Its mountains were visible beyond the water slide but blurred by distance and haze. Most of this wouldn’t still be standing soon, but if this was Paradise Island Twilight wouldn’t have to worry so much about hurting any bystanders save Pinkie. Three witches, four other ponies, each equipped with an artifact Twilight suspected to be of similar divine origins to that mask, who scattered immediately. Hopefully, the latter wouldn’t be much of a threat. Though there was liable to be many more around. “And just so we’re clear,” said Screwball. In the distance, Pinkie’s cage began flowing down the slide. “You have until Pinkie reaches the bottom to try and free her.” Getting there wouldn’t be easy. Twilight kept her focus mostly on the three witches – Embermoon who walked slowly to Twilight's left, Screwball to her right, and Eclipse who sat calmly. Twilight didn’t dare make the first move, not with so many targets around. At last, breaking the tension, Embermoon, the half-pony, half-insectoid creature, charged forward, a storm of green flames and lightning growing behind her as she went. Embermoon’s speed surpassed that of the other two witches Twilight had fought. She was relatively close to Twilight in that regard. The spells came rapid and relentless. Every flap of her buzzing wings brought torrents of green fire, each beat enough to bring down a small building in its own right. She punched her forelegs at Twilight with a ravenous look on her face, casting a new spell each time, forcing Twilight’s focus on responses. Twilight managed to match her beat for beat, breaking the more devastating spells apart before they could affect Twilight and blowing back the display of force with her own blasts of wind and ice. Nothing got through Twilight’s defenses. She went for a few obvious ways to try and remove Embermoon from the fight as quickly as possible. She tried opening a long-range Z-gate portal to merely push the witch far away for now but… something, one of those artifacts prevented the spell from going off. Twilight suspected it was that mask, given the change in the air that emanated from it. She’d be limited to shorter-range portals until then. Petrification was the next easiest option. Embermoon began turning to stone but quickly ended it halfway through. The witches hadn’t decayed that much yet. At this intensity, Embermoon was able to keep up with Twilight. Twilight could tell she didn’t have Trixie’s boundless endurance, though. In a one-on-one fight, Embermoon would tire out enough for Twilight to crush her before long. Fighting Embermoon by herself would be no big deal. But with a time limit and two more witches nearby, Twilight had to be ready. Embermoon’s wings glowed briefly, through one single flap, rather than firing off another heavy attack. This was it! Twilight knew at once that Embermoon was about to hyper-cast, but more importantly, she knew it meant one of the other two was about to attack. Twilight took the brief pause to glance at Eclipse and Screwball, rather than to prepare properly. Eclipse watched silently, unimpressed so far. Screwball made a slight twitch, a mistake at the last second! Far behind Embermoon formed a wide ring of green fire. Something not unlike a meteor would be flying out through that ring in just a moment. Meanwhile, Screwball kicked off the ground, reaching Mach speeds as she flew at Twilight from the other side. Twilight cast her own spell, keeping her eyes on Screwball. A ball of air, a concentrated hurricane with wind so intense it may have well been as solid as bricks, formed just before her. She turned and punched towards the meteor of green flames that appeared in the blink of an eye. The tornado exploded out, pushing back the flames with enough force to both extinguish them and throw Embermoon out of the sky. It also rocketed Twilight back, straight into Screwball. Twilight was faster and swerved away from the punch, then created an ethereal blade and slashed into Screwball from behind with full force. The blade tore through her but, as Twilight had been banking on, she cast the partial murder spell and escaped by sacrificing a foreleg at just the last moment. Twilight looked up at the escaping crow. This would be a good time to strike but… Twilight saw Eclipse as she spun through the air. The elderly pony still wasn’t moved to react. She hummed but still didn’t take the opportunity to attack. Could she tell Twilight still had a bit of strength to spare after all that? Secretly, Twilight hadn’t used all of her wind sphere. Screwball hadn’t noticed but… Twilight decided this was the most experienced of the three. As much as Twilight hated Screwball, she began to think Eclipse was the biggest immediate threat. Changing plans at the last second, Twilight pulled back, acting like she was about to launch her attack at the escaping crow. At the last moment, Twilight teleported down in front of Eclipse, the ball of wind ready to blow her away. If her body was as frail as it looked… Eclipse made no effort to dodge, though she had a split second to make some move. Did she decide there was no time to avoid the attack?! Or– A pony teleported in front of Eclipse. A small filly! Twilight pulled her attack at the last possible second to avoid splattering the foal. A torrent of wind formed a small tornado as it tore upward through the air, but the filly was unharmed. “Hm!” Eclipse smiled again and slashed at Twilight with a suddenly formed arcane blade. Twilight had overreached just then. Her blade made a small cut in Twilight’s chest as she fell backward. Embermoon was on her in an instant, slamming her hooves into Twilight wildly, breaking the ground beneath her. This was a bad position where Twilight was forced to only block. It wasn’t something Twilight had ever been forced to do before, but she cast a shorter-ranged z-gate below herself then the murder spell. Embermoon fell through the portal along with half the crows, while the other half escaped. One of them got to safety and turned back. That was too close! Twilight needed to be more cautious from here out. “Curious!” Eclipse grabbed the filly by the scruff, holding her between the two of them. “You won’t attack a filly, will you? I knew you’d be useful, Luster Dawn.” Twilight spared her only a glance before turning to the filly in exasperation. Luster Dawn didn’t look like she was being held hostage at all. She had her forelegs spread defensively and a look of determination on her face. “You’re seriously willing to be her meat shield?” Twilight asked Luster. “Eclipse is the only path I have to get the power I need.” Luster Dawn threw a hoof to the side. “Society considers me worthless. I have no other option.” Damn it! How many ponies like her were there in this world?! They just kept coming and coming… Twilight didn’t have any time to disagree with her. Instead. “I have more power than her.” Twilight stood back up. “If you give up this madness, I’ll teach you instead. I know more than her and–” “And let me guess, you’ll shove your stupid morals down my throat? Tell me what to do with my strength?” Luster Dawn ground her teeth together and stepped closer. “I’ve had enough of hypocrites like you trying to ‘reform’ me! Eclipse will let me do whatever the hell I want whether it’s right or wrong!” “You can’t possibly compete against the lure of freedom from morality,” Eclipse warned. “But no need to worry just yet. I’m not in quite as much of a hurry to attack as the others. I can take my time until I understand things a tad better. But perhaps I should get a better view.” Eclipse cast the murder spell. Her crows spread out, landing on various parts of the island, surrounding Twilight. Any one of those old crows could revert at a moment’s notice, meaning an attack could come from any angle. Twilight had options. She could– Screwball was behind Twilight! The pirate wound up to punch as hard as she could. Luster Dawn moved around Twilight’s other side, spreading her forelegs out, making it clear that if Twilight dodged, it would mean the death of the filly, risking her life to force Twilight to take the hit. What was wrong with this kid?! No other choice! Twilight created a portal and bucked Luster Dawn into it. Screwball’s punch came in a moment later. She did hit hard! Twilight struggled to keep her shield up against the massive blow, the shockwave tearing through the ground around Twilight. Truly, if a foal had been standing behind her it’d be over for them. But it was too large of a swing. Twilight moved to take advantage of Screwball’s overexertion. A second, even worse attack came out of nowhere and slammed into Twilight from the side! The incredible blow carried Twilight off. Despite her last-second reaction, a spear had dug into Twilight’s foreleg just halfway through the tip. Incredible magic surged through the weapon, enough to overwhelm Twilight’s own. Like a blight, searing white light spread from the wound, attempting to slowly vaporize Twilight’s foreleg. But it wouldn’t get far. She took stock of the situation as she tried to pull it out. Twilight found the blue pegasus who had thrown it, now hovering high above the island. And where was Embermoon? Twilight was moving away from the water slide and Pinkie! She needed to create a portal to get over there but before she could do that, she had to get the spear off. The spear pushed her out to the ocean before Twilight could knock it away. Then it vanished in a burst of lightning. Back to the pony who threw it. She was over the water, the towers on the shore opening fire on her but not with enough fury to be a serious threat. Twilight first created her small army of ethereal weapons to attack the ponies in the tower. With any luck, it would be enough to force any but the most serious of combatants to retreat. Recognizing that weapon as a serious threat, Twilight returned fire at the blue pegasus. An orb of electrical energy primed to explode would have taken that pony out in an instant. The attack vanished in midair. It hadn’t been blocked by anything, merely vanished. Possibilities ran through Twilight’s mind. Then it came to her. She remembered that technique from long ago. That mirror! One of the objects Flash Sentry stole from her. Twilight had almost forgotten it was here but now that she saw it, she wouldn’t let it escape her grasp. She could use this to her advantage, even, being the true master of that object. The spear, the mirror, the mask. There was only one more extra Twilight remained unaware of. Twilight noticed something wrong. Moving over the ocean at this speed, water should be spraying all around her. Twilight spun around once to see the ocean beneath her gone, bearing nothing but mud and naked coral. Meanwhile, walls of water began to rise around either side of Twilight as the ocean parted around her. She could see the pony responsible for this. A blue unicorn near the shore with a staff, the blue stone at the top of that connected to the tides.a Twilight landed in the newly formed canyon and Screwball came in seconds later. She dug her hooves into the ground and a yellow energy coalesced around her as she drew up the magic from the ground below. Screwball’s body tensed. She twisted and punched at Twilight with supernatural force. Too much. Enough to break her own foreleg. But just as she began, Screwball cast a spell to create an echo of herself an inch in front of Twilight. The echo spell could create a phantom copy of anything, even yourself, but only for a second. Screwball had found a way to make full use of it. Such a wild punch would been suicide under any other circumstance. Of course, Twilight could do the same trick. Twilight’s own echo clone clashed with Screwball’s with just enough force to cancel one another out before vanishing. Twilight continued forward creating a second clone, whose attack forced Screwball to use the partial murder spell. Screwball reformed and swung at Twilight with a second clone, making Twilight respond in kind. They clashed repeatedly, moving in a circle, dodging one another’s blows with echo clones and partial transformation. It quickly became apparent Twilight would soon overpower Screwball, despite Screwball going all out like this. But even still the elation on Screwball’s face at their little dance was more than obvious. “Hahaha!” Screwball laughed wildly, full of life. Then the water came crashing down on both of them. Or rather, on Twilight. As she swam against the immense torrent, struggling with the weight of the ocean pushing into her, Screwball stood perfectly calm and unaffected. The pony controlling the tides made sure she’d get her own bubble while Twilight felt the rush of a repeatedly churning ocean. Screwball lunged forward with unimpeded speed. Twilight flailed about and froze a wall of the water solid to block the punch. Screwball kept up the flurry of blows, going all out against the encumbered Twilight. They resumed their circle only now it was her slowly gaining on Twilight. She could try the elemental resonance spell but… That spear came hurtling through the water again! Twilight was certain the spear would always hit its mark as it pierced through her shields a second time and stabbed her other foreleg. She’d have to remember the best she could do was mitigate the inevitable damage. It went in a bit deeper this time, but Twilight just barely managed to pull it out. And she’d come up with a better idea to escape in the meantime. As Screwball jumped up to come punching down at Twilight, Twilight created a ball of plasma, an orb so intensely hot that the water around her began to boil and soon she was surrounded by steam. Only then did Twilight cast the water resonance spell and fly to the surface, leaving Screwball to slam into the ground below. Still inside a cloud, she’d have a second of peace before the next move. She’d intended to beat Screwball at her own game, just like she had with Minuette and Trixie, but that clearly wasn’t possible here. No time was left. Twilight decided to go for the pony wielding the mirror. She shot fire behind her to rocket down at where she suspected their location to be, hurtling at them in an overly dramatic fashion. She caught only a brief look at them, a small, grey stallion who hid behind the circular mirror about the size of a pony’s head as though it were a shield. Seeing Twilight coming right for him caused him to predictably panic and he used the mirror on Twilight. Just as she had hoped. She was the one who created the mirror and knew exactly how it worked. The other side of the mirror looked much like the surrounding area only, well, mirrored. You couldn’t go too far in any direction before you’d wind up back where you started, though. At least, that’s how it seemed to somepony who didn’t know how it worked. This place was made out of reflectivity itself. And there was more than one way out. Any sufficiently reflective surface in the area could serve as an exit, just as it did with that attack. Twilight took a moment to regain her Barings, found the exact right spot, and cast her spell to twist the reflection just right so… Twilight emerged from a reflective surface on the bottom of Pinkie’s hourglass! Twilight appeared just behind her. Being this high up gave her a vantage point. She could see ships retreating from the coast of the island. It seemed her barrage of dancing swords forced most of the island to retreat, or perhaps they did so for some other reason. And damn this slide was fast! The water carried her on almost as fast as that torrent before, air rushing past her as they rushed down the slide, perhaps halfway to the bottom already. It was a good thing Twilight was already soaked. “Twilight!” Pinkie called out to her as she sloshed around in the dry, dry sand. “Watch out for the zebra!” Is that what the striped pony was called? Twilight might have actually missed that an invisible pony was riding on top of the hourglass. His mask was what was preventing her from using long-range z-gate portals, Twilight was now certain. This would be a huge win. Black fire engulfed a strip of the slide just before Twilight, melting it. Jumping over that was easy enough. A pillar of black flames followed, and Twilight shielded herself before jumping over a second gap on the water slide. Finally, she crouched down and made ready to lunge forward in earnest. An enormous tidal wave rose high above the already large apparatus and crashed into Twilight’s half of the slide, uprooting it and carrying it off like a toy. It was that staff again! She watched as Pinkie kept speeding downwards, unable to get free from the immense weight of the water. Most of the smaller buildings were similarly ripped up below Twilight, but she did manage to ride it out and land in barrel-deep water. And once again an enemy was upon her in a second, never giving her a moment’s rest. One of the crows turned back into the elderly pony, Eclipse, who brought a bolt of lightning crashing down on Twilight. So now it was Eclipse’s turn… She could tell their strategy now. They kept switching out and pushing as hard as they could until Twilight became exhausted. That would take a long while, but it might work. Time was against Twilight here. Out of all of them, this pony was playing the longest game, using nothing but the most generic elemental blasts, giving away nothing of her actual fighting style. Twilight could have easily matched and exceeded her ferocity… were that annoying filly not around, standing in front of Eclipse as a willing meat shield. That damn spear again! It flew in fast, demanding her attention. Twilight was more ready for it, but with so many other threats… Just as she went to block it, the spear stopped in midair, surrounded by blue, psychic energy. Twilight recognized that! Pinkie landed next to Twilight a moment later. “What?! Pinkie?!” Twilight could only spare her a glance before she had to intercept another attack. “Don’t worry! The tidal wave broke me out!” Pinkie nodded, then turned to face the other direction. “I’ve got your back.” Maybe the force of the waves had been enough? Something was off here… she really shouldn’t have been able to stop that spear. But Pinkie was surrounded by the familiar blue psychic energy. It had to be her. “Keep anypony else off my back for a second while I deal with Eclipse.” Twilight turned to the elderly. Being able to concentrate on just one of them for even a minute would be enough to turn things around. Not to mention having the time limit off her back. “Right!” Pinkie nodded as Twilight turned her back. “Now.” Pinkie grabbed Twilight’s neck with her telekinesis and threw her forward. Twilight saw a twinkle of white light on the horizon as Pinkie slammed her down to the ground to pin her with that same telekinetic strength. Screwball appeared on the far side of the mountain, laughing to herself. She hadn’t felt this alive in so long! To fight a master witch like this! Building anything over here was a risky proposition. Those griffon zombies were too stupid to fly but there were so many of them that they piled on top of one another to make waves of undeath. Only steep cliffsides were safe to build into. One such face, not far from being a sheer wall, had two such tunnels dug into its side. Inside one was Screwball’s experimental weapons, not unlike the fusion cannon Rarity put onto her robot. The problem? It didn’t work. Thing could fire off one powerful shot, but it would melt itself in the process. Solution? Screwball had her echo spell. It’d create a copy of the fusion cannon in the second hole. She could only hold a copy of an object for a second or two but that was all it needed. She could even shoot it multiple times by looping it near the end of its fire sequence. Screwball watched the battle unfolding through a telescope. Embermoon would be able to catch Twilight off guard exactly once with her special ability. And that would be the best possible moment to go all out. Screwball smiled as ‘Pinkie’ grabbed Twilight and threw her into position. This was it! The laser charged up until it was within a moment of firing. Screwball was the purple light pouring out from the cavern next to her. At the last moment, she filled the empty cavern with a copy of the hulking monstrosity of a barrel. Just as the first one began to wind down, the first one fired off. That brief Twinkle was the only warning Twilight got! A purple laser fired from the mountain down at Twilight’s position, one large enough to consume her completely. She just barely managed to create her strongest shield, an orb of plasma, around herself. But not fully and completely. She buckled under the force of the laser. The shockwave of the collision was big enough to throw ‘Pinkie Pie’ aside. Green flames consumed her, causing her to revert to her true form, the half-pegasus half-bug creature. It had been Embermoon all along! But what kind of transformation was that? Not the sort Twilight knew. Even Twilight didn’t recognize it. If the beam had lasted longer than a second or two it would have done immense damage, but it stopped just as suddenly as it began. The echo spell again? Twilight staggered back to her feet. Her pouch just barely survived, along with it the root she’d taken from Smarty Pants. She could feel a burn wound on her flank and needed a minute to recover. Between that and the few other wounds, she was more injured than she’d ever been before. That was the worst hit she’d taken since… It was already time for round two! Twilight saw the flash a second time. Something out in the mountains was attacking! Most likely a machine given its similarity to Saccharine’s fusion canon. But it was far away, and the mirror could stop any projectile in midair. But that wouldn’t be the only one this time. Embermoon transformed again! Green flames enveloped her, only this time she transformed into Twilight! Her body glowed, ready to hypercast, ready to imitate Twilight’s plasma spell just as she had Pinkie’s psychic abilities. Eclipse also rose a hoof and got ready to hypercast. A far larger bolt of lightning would be dropping on Twilight in just a second. All three of them were about to hit Twilight as hard as she could while still staggering. Twilight could teleport or use a portal, but she wouldn’t get far enough away from such huge attacks that quickly. And worst of all… Pinkie had but seconds before reaching the bottom of the slide. Twilight let out a breath. There was no choice now. They pushed her too hard! The restraint Twilight normally had, even through all this, she let it drop for just a moment. The three other witches unleashed all of their firepower on Twilight. Twilight drew in deep and slammed her hoof into the ground, creating a far more intense ball of plasma around herself than she normally would have. Every nearby structure collapsed. Every window on the island shattered. The ground beneath Twilight burnt off into the air. If any but the witches were nearby, they would have been sent flying. A blinding light filled the island, surely stunning anypony who was left. With a shout, Twilight managed to overcome all three attacks. They hit hard, but she forced all of them back. Without Twilight having to do anything, Embermoon turned back to her true form, coughing and wheezing. It appeared that, while Embermoon could imitate anypony completely, the stronger they were the more strain it put on her. She hadn’t managed to follow the attack all the way through, which was why it had failed after just a second. And the cautious eclipse already reverted to crows and made a hasty retreat. Doing that twice in a row wasn’t easy. Twilight’s body ached but she couldn’t let up. Everypony but the witches were likely blinded momentarily by that. Even with the mirror, she’d be able to fire off a long-range attack. She staggered back and hurdled an explosive orb at the location the laser fired from. She had no time to wait to see it go off but rocketed herself off with a torrent of fire toward Pinkie’s location. The support beams of the remainder of the water slide were half-melted now and the whole thing teetered. The spear impacted Twilight harder than before this time, but she ignored it for now. Instead, she blasted the zebra off of Pinkie and landed in front of her, just before the edge of the slide where Twilight found a heap of explosives waiting. She created a z-gate portal at the end and jumped on top of the hourglass herself. Just as they neared the end, another tidal wave rose up and came sweeping down at them. They got through the portal just in time but didn’t travel far away enough to escape the immensity of the wave. It swallowed the ensuing explosion and carried off what was left of the slide. It also sent Pinkie and Twilight slamming into one of those metal towers, now abandoned. This time it really did break Pinkie out. The real Pinkie scrambled to get the helmet off of her while Twilight pulled the spear out of her leg yet again. It left a huge gash this time, but it was nothing Twilight couldn’t handle. She looked up to the mountain where that laser came from. The smoke from an explosion rose up over it. She’d finally managed to take a step toward victory… but going that hard really was dangerous. The laser exploded behind Screwball. “Heheheheh!” Screwball’s smile faded. “Heh…” And then she clenched her jaw as she watched Silverstorm ‘struggle’ against her magic artifacts. She’d been having such a good time too. Her sister… Twilight… that bitch! She hadn’t been taking Screwball seriously at all, had she?! Screwball really thought she’d been pushing a master witch to their limit this whole time but that wasn’t the limit. This was the limit and yet Twilight refused to use it on Screwball! She wouldn’t stand an insult like this. No matter what happened. One of them was going to take this fight dead serious. Screwball dropped down to the bottom of the cliff where a small communication station still stood. Screwball did have one ultimate ace. Years of research went into this. At six points around the planet, she had stored six divine objects, even more valuable than the ones here. It would consume all of their magic, but in exchange, Screwball would be able to cast one ultimate attack, enough to kill even a god. Against a master witch, it’d be overkill. The phone led to her second in command, leading the Equestrian invasion. “Batton Pass,” said Screwball. “We’re going to use the azoth spell on my sister. Get ready.” There was a pause. Screwball had to press the phone against her ear hard against all the chaos behind her. “What? We agreed to only use that against Nightmare Moon,” Batton Pass’s voice was shaky, being so far away. “I changed my mind. Starlight and Nailbat both have a shot at killing that monster. We’ll just have to trust them to take care of that for us. This pony is just as big a threat to the cartel.” There was a longer pause. “No.” Screwball frowned. She needed the cooperation of six ponies to cast the azoth spell. If even one of them refused… “No? Are you sure that’s a good idea?” “It sounds like you aren’t going to win this fight. If either of them does destroy Nightmare Moon, I’ll be the one to use the azoth spell as a bargaining chip. And frankly, I’ve always kind of hated you. This seems a good time to take over.” “You realize if I win this fight, you’ll be begging me to kill you by the end of the week. And not just you. I’m going to hunt down and exterminate every last one of you bat-winged freaks.” Batton Pass had already closed the line. Screwball never should have allied with those sketchy bastards. But on the plus side, if Batton Pass was this confident it meant the Cartel was doing great over in Equestria. Screwball closed the communicator. She’d have to find some other way. Eclipse looked like she had some sort of plan. That wasn’t necessarily a good thing. No. Screwball was done with games for once. She was going to win this in her own way. She made another call first. Pinkie jumped onto Twilight’s back. Being a good deal smaller it wasn’t that hard to carry her around. They’d worked out a system where Pinkie would warn Twilight of incoming danger by tapping her. Together this would be more survivable. Twilight wouldn’t have to risk going to extremes again. Maybe. “Pinkie, do you remember that mirror I mentioned before? One of these ponies has it out.” Twilight could only glance in that pony’s direction, but Pinkie’s perception meant she could guess the right one. “Er. Mentioned it before what?” Pinkie asked. “Pinkie, this was only a few months ago!” “It was years from my point of view! I don’t remember a–” “We need that to survive in the outer realm, destroy Discord, and undo the curse of undeath!” “Oh! Right! There was just so much other stuff that–” Embermoon was upon them, going hard a second time with a renewed blitz. With Pinkie at her back, it was easier to hold up against this time. But still, she was a bit drained already after all that. She’d just have to get the picture that they couldn’t destroy it. Had to retrieve it somehow in all of this chaos. Twilight had so many things to keep track of. Maybe if Twilight could get that, break the mask, escape… Then… Screwball landed just beside Embermoon. But she didn’t look like she was about to attack. “What the hell are you doing, Twilight?” Screwball asked her. “I know you can fight harder than this.” “What the hell are you doing?!” Embermoon demanded. “We agreed to wear her out slowly! That’s the only way.” “Shut up!” Screwball barked at her, then turned back to Twilight. “Don’t you care about your friends, Twilight? Do you have any idea what’s happening to them right now? I do…” Twilight paused. Was that…? “Don’t listen to her, Twilight,” Pinkie assured her. “We have to focus on getting out of here.” Twilight nodded. Get the mirror and the mask… that was it. Pinkie nudged her in the direction of the mirror and they ran off, much more able to dodge attacks than before. “My ponies invaded Rarity’s castle already!” Screwball called after Twilight. “You had Sunset Shimmer there, right? She wasn’t enough. It’s been burned to the ground.” Twilight closed her eyes. It would be okay. She just had to… They managed to come at the pony with the mirror from behind. He was certainly the weakest of the ponies involved in both nerves and ability. Guy ran off the moment Twilight grabbed it from him. She got the mirror! But the others… They’d surrounded her. Eclipse and Embermoon attacked from either side as another wave dunked Twilight. She tried to get a target on either of them, but Luster Dawn kept teleporting to either side! All the while, that zebra was moving around the island too fast! It was all so… “Rainbow Dash tried running north but Starlight found her.” Twilight bit her lip in frustration. It felt there was so little she could do next, even with all this support. She used a portal to escape from the water. The spear stabbed Twilight’s foreleg again! Screwball took the opportunity to come in from the side and punch Pinkie off of her. Even with Pinkie protecting herself, it left Pinkie badly wounded as she tumbled to the side. “These ponies are a huge weakness for you. You’re not going to get out of here with any of your friends alive, Twilight.” Screwball trotted forward to Twilight. “Are you putting their lives behind mine? And that of these other ponies?” Twilight trembled. She had Screwball so much! She hated all of this. “It’s already too late for you! Rainbow Dash… is already dead.” Screwball crouched down next to Twilight. “All of them are going to die, Twilight! All because you didn’t take this seriously! Because you didn’t fight back hard enough! Because you weren’t fast enough!” Twilight trembled for a moment. She’d finally had enough of all of this. Screwball wanted her to fight for real. “Because you – !” Twilight got up with a flash, sending Screwball sliding back. The pirate queen smiled again. “Twilight!” Pinkie held up a hoof. “Twilight, we have no idea if anything she’s saying is true. Don’t–” “I’ll let you out later.” Twilight held the mirror up to Pinkie, trapping her inside. Twilight put the mirror on her back. A tidal wave came crashing into the island again. Twilight turned to face it. Everything on this island was already destroyed anyway. She pulled back and fired a kinetic blast that crashed into the wave, parting it aside. The pony with the staff that controlled the tides stood at the other end of the water, stunned that Twilight had managed to part such a huge mass. Twilight charged straight for him. Luster Dawn teleported in to try and force Twilight to pull back. Twilight was done with that. She did stop briefly in front of the filly, but this time grabbed Luster who suddenly didn’t look like she wanted to be here anymore. Twilight created another orb of wind, not enough to splatter the foal but enough to get rid of her. Twilight had been hesitant to use this trick until now, uncertain if the filly would be okay being blown away so far. But it was the only way now. Twilight threw Luster Dawn into the air, then blasted her with a torrent of wind. Luster screamed as she was rocketed far out of sight. It would take her far up into the atmosphere. She’d probably managed to land safely. Somewhere. Eventually. Then she turned back to the blue unicorn, scrambling to reform the water. Her brought another tidal wave to Twilight from behind. Twilight grabbed him, ripped the staff out of his grip, and threw him into his own wave, letting the water knock the wind out of him. Soon the vicious water carried him far out to sea as Twilight parted the water around herself, then put the staff onto her back along with the mirror. Two more down. Eclipse and Embermoon both came at Twilight from either side, firing off more shots at her. They weren’t her next target. Twilight broke into crows, reformed, and then broke a second time to weave her way out of their attacks. There he was! Twilight found the zebra, still invisible and hiding behind his mask. When he noticed Twilight approaching, he tilted his head and the world tilted along with him, the light blurred and arced to warp Twilight’s vision. Spatial distortion would not nearly be enough to stop her. Twilight grabbed him with her magic, spun him around in a wide circle, and smashed him straight through one of the few remaining towers on the island. But the mask didn’t break. She lifted him again and spun her whole body to smash him into the ground harder a second time, then even harder a third. He had already passed out from the blows, but Twilight needed to break the mask! It wasn’t until the seventh blow that the mask cracked! Twilight could feel the change in the air. She ripped the mask off the now comatose zebra and threw him through a long-range z-gate portal. That option was back. But she wasn’t leaving just yet! Next was! Embermoon came crashing down on Twilight like a meteor, trying her standard torrent of attacks. This time Twilight didn’t hold back or pace herself. She unleashed an even greater fire and fury that quickly pushed Embermoon back. Until finally Twilight lunged forward and grappled her. “Don’t turn back this time,” Twilight warned. She opened the portal to the moon, air rushing into it, the ultimate technique she’d learned from Minuette. Embermoon took one look at her destination and decided to take Twilight’s advice. This time, the witch made no effort to stop the petrification spell. Her body turned to stone and bounced along the surface of the moon in wide hops before Twilight closed the portal. She didn’t actually know how dangerous such a technique was but… Twilight turned to her remaining opponents, winded but still able to press on. Eclipse’s face remained unreadable. She cast the murder spell and flew off in every direction. It was too much to hope for a retreat but… Only two remained now! The blue pegasus with the spear was the only distraction between her and Screwball. The weaker of the two opponents had no confidence left. She hadn’t dared throw the spear in some time and now held it in a feeble grip. The spear, though still dangerous, trembled. Twilight had several gashes on her body now and most of them came from that thing. The spear-bearer slowly turned her eyes from Twilight to Screwball. She braced herself… then threw the spear at Screwball and flew off into the mountains as fast as she could. Screwball used the partial murder spell to survive the spear stabbing through her chest. She cast a disdainful look at the final defector but Twilight was on her in an instant. Twilight tried slamming into Screwball only for her to dodge out of the way with another partial murder. She swung again and was met with an echo clone. Screwball danced around Twilight’s wild blows like that, just barely able to keep up as Twilight’s frustration built. “You wanted to fight me!” Twilight demanded. “Stop running!” “Come on, Twilight!” Screwball spat. “You know there’s only one way. One way to make it so I won’t retreat!” Twilight knew exactly what Screwball wanted her to do. There was nopony else left now. Twilight teleported high into the air. Her body glowed bright with magic and she summoned all of her strength. Screwball stared breathlessly, then smiled and laughed again. “Yes!” Screwball’s body began to glow a brighter and brighter yellow. The land around her died as she drained all the energy and magic against it. She drew so much energy from the ground that even the mountains in the distance began to crumble. Her muscles tensed Screwball pulled back her fist. Both ponies got ready to strike with absolute force at the other. “Yes! Let’s do this!” Screwball screamed at the sky with elation. Twilight cast her spell and Screwball punched forward to meet it. Featherbangs held his telescope up to his eyes, looking over the rocky water to where Paradise Island should be. It was now the tiniest speck in the distance. Their battle sent out huge waves rippling across the water, but their boat had held up so far. Plenty of ships left the island, but Featherbang got out with a fleet of the best three. Three big old ships loaded to capacity with treasure! “Okay.” Featherbangs at last relaxed. “The island is almost out of sight. We should be safe now. We made it, boys!”” A cheer went up through those who escaped with Featherbangs. Some of them jumped into the pile of loot, a pile of platinum coins and rare gemstones, throwing them up into the air in jubilation. He’d kind of miss Screwball but having this much money would more than make up for it. “Should be smooth sailing from-” A bright white flash consumed the world for half a second. So intense was the light that it burned his eyes and left the world dim and reversed in colors afterward. He staggered for a moment before even thinking to look back to the horizon. A sphere of light rapidly expanded, consuming the entire size of Paradise Island in a fraction of a second and growing ever larger. The size of whatever happened over there… was completely incomprehensible. Nopony on board had any reaction but to blankly stare. The sound of that cataclysmic force had yet to reach them. It was like living in a dream, watching that silent apocalypse. And slowly realizing it was headed toward you. “Oh no.” Featherbangs stepped back. “We’re not safe.” Next came the biggest wave Featherbangs had ever seen, already big enough to destroy an island, growing taller and taller as it approached at unreasonable speeds. Featherbangs could see the shockwave of air traveling just above that, ripping apart and gathering the clouds into a wall as it rushed towards him. “We’re not safe at all!” Everypony finally screamed and began panicking. Some took to the air, others rushed into the hull of the ship. “Don’t worry!” One of the MSC ponies called out to them. “We have a safety protocol for this! It will um… maybe work!” Featherbangs had no idea which course of action was better. The doomsday tsunami had already grown so large and so near that it blocked out the sun, the entire eastern half of the world. His time to decide was already over! The wave hit the ship. The treasure on deck was thrown clear off the deck. The entire ship was thrown into the air and sent spinning. Featherbangs too was thrown into the air, spinning, screaming flapping in a desperate attempt to gain any semblance of bearings. Twilight coughed. She landed on the nearby mountain, breathing heavily. Blood and singed fur ran along the length of her right foreleg, where she clashed with Screwball. Her head pounded as blood and sweat dripped down her forehead. The area was already hot, but now it was sweltering. She trotted forward with a slight limp. The shoreline had receded out miles, past where Paradise Island, now an immense crater, had once been. And just beyond that… There looked to be a second, blue mountain range off in the ocean, only this one was moving. The combined attacks had created an immense tsunami. That wave would eventually crash into Equestria’s east coast! Something like that would severely damage entire cities! Only then did it register to Twilight what she had done. She stumbled briefly, hopeless at her carelessness and negligence. Was there really nothing? The artifact she’d taken! Twilight scrambled to take the staff off her back. She pointed it at the wave and with all her might began to pull the water back towards her. She felt as though she were trying to pull a mountain toward her. But slowly the wall of water did begin to diminish. It slowed, then began to reverse course toward Twilight. The tides were easier to control than Twilight had feared at first and soon water came rushing in the opposite direction. A wave swept past the valleys beneath the mountains, but not much should be living there. The zombies had taken care of everything but the moss. Twilight plunged the staff down and with another moment of struggle, the water became still. There might still be a residual tidal wave, but nothing cataclysmic. She looked back to the hole that once was Paradise Island. Waterfalls rushed to fill the gaping hole. Beneath the mountains, the entire area had flooded to the point the mountains appeared to rise from the ocean. Those mountains themselves weren’t spared either. It looked as though somepony had taken a spoon and carved out large, smooth cavities inside them, the closets to the blast having the largest chunks missing. Not only did this particular mountain have the largest piece scooped out, but the top had been severed and thrown back into the newly expanded ocean. This was where Screwball had landed. Twilight threw down the staff. She coughed again and trotted to the pillar of smoke where Screwball lay. The younger witch lay on her back, eyes upturned to the sky with a comatose look as she twitched. Screwball’s right foreleg was gone. Blood pooled beneath her scar-riddled body. She had survived Twilight hitting her with full force. Twilight had never hit another pony as hard as she could before. Now she could only wonder as to the state of her mind in that final moment. It felt like it had to be done but now? “I–” Despite it all, Screwball struggled, then succeeded, in taking back control of her eyes. She turned them to Twilight, standing relatively unscathed above her. Screwball tried to talk, coughed something up, then tried again. “I won,” Screwball spoke while barely moving her lips. “I did it…” Twilight swallowed. She slowly nodded with tears in her eyes. She knew what Screwball meant. “Yeah.” Twilight took a bell out from her saddlebag and dropped it down before Screwball. Of all the ponies to give this to... “I… I acknowledge you as a master witch.” With some renewed life, Screwball took the bell into her remaining foreleg. Screwball just barely held onto the bell. Though not magic in any way, it seemed to restore her health. She sat up, looked at the bell with a smile, then let it fall to the ground. Twilight’s lips quivered before she spoke again. “Why did you want me to do this to you so badly?” Twilight asked. “What was the point of any of this? You could have just…” “The way you feel about Rainbow Dash. What is that like?” Screwball absently looked down at the bell, the ultimate treasure lying worthlessly on the floor. “I thought I loved my father. I was always his favorite. But when he died, I felt… nothing. I didn’t care about him, about my siblings. There’s always been this numbness in my heart, a void where it’s supposed to be and…” Screwball moved a quivering hoof over her heart. “I don’t get it. When ponies scream and cry when… when somepony they care about is hurt. I just don’t get it. What do they feel that I… can’t? I killed ponies important to me, I put myself through every extreme, even this, all just to feel… something… anything… even this pain is… is wonderful to me. It was worth it because in that one second, I felt alive, Twilight.” Is that really how it was? “Heh.” Screwball’s head lulled back, allowing her to look at Twilight once more. She cocked the smile of a pony who just played a prank and laughed once more. “You really believed that? That was all just a lie… I didn’t even make that story up myself. You’re an idiot… sis.” “You know I’m not really your sister,” said Twilight. “Rainbow Dash isn’t actually dead. She’s…” Screwball couldn’t quite finish. Screwball didn’t seem quite as near death as Twilight feared at first. Maybe. Maybe… A black arrow glowing with red energy tore through Screwballs’ chest. She’d been shot from behind! As Screwball fell limp to the side, the arrow came right at Twilight. The arrow lodged itself in Twilight’s shoulder. This one went deep, worse than the spear ever managed to. Her fur rapidly blackened and fell out as the death energy inside it radiated through her. She clamped down on it with her magic, blowing the energy off of it slowly. She knew how deadly this spell was, one of her most dangerous. It’d be too difficult to remove until she’d gotten rid of most of it, but she pulled hard with her free hoof so as to not lose a second when the threshold was crossed. The wound from this would be severe! Before she could process what happened, a bolt of lightning followed from the same direction as the arrow. It was intense compared to what a normal pony could produce, yet Twilight still managed to deflect it. A shot of fire, then ice came from the same direction. Twilight knocked both of them out, before finally seeing Eclipse trotting towards her, the source of the spell. Then it all clicked with Twilight. “You!” Twilight grits her teeth. The source of the arrow couldn’t possibly be anypony else, but to think she’d seriously do something so heinous. “Did you just–?!” Twilight flicked her eyes to Screwball, now completely limp, then back to the last remaining witch. “All that power and knowledge and yet still you are so naïve.” Eclipse slowly trotted forward, still probing Twilight with a blast or two more of fire. “Yes. I knew exactly how to catch you off guard. The one thing you’d never dream of. Killing one of my ‘friends’ just to get a single hit on you. I had planned to use Luster Dawn for this, but such a grand opportunity presented itself.” “She was on the same side as you!” Twilight gave the arrow a particularly fierce tug, unable to accept standing by another moment. Not in the face of such cruelty. Yet it wasn’t time and the arrow refused to budge. “How could you do that to her?!” “Sympathy for her now? After all she did to you and so many others?” Eclipse gave a tut of her tongue. “To think somepony so pathetic would be a master witch. Do you not see how that fragile heart is your undoing? I couldn’t possibly have defeated you otherwise.” Screwball squirmed just a little, giving Twilight the briefest moment of hope. Somehow, through all this, she regretted all of it. She redoubled her efforts to pull out the arrow in hopes of somehow stabilizing her opponent. She’d send the pony to prison forever, but she didn’t want to cross the line and have any part in killing her! Twilight could tell it was already too late looking down at her. The light was quickly going out from her eyes. Screwball looked up at Twilight, not truly seeing her. “Hehe. I guess I lied,” Screwball gasped for one final bit of air. “I don’t… I don’t actually have any friends. Do I?” And then… Twilight closed her eyes and pulled on the arrow with all her might! Already her foreleg was going numb, but she could fix that! She had to get at Eclipse right now! “I really do need to acknowledge your strength. Even now, with this surprise attack, I truly do believe you’d have enough left over to defeat me.” Eclipse sat down and rose a single hoof. A disc of blackness began to form above it. “I only have one option left to kill you. I was studying you carefully. You have something… interesting on you.” Eclipse pulled the heart of Smarty Pants out from Twilight’s bag! “No!” Twilight got the arrow to budge just a little. “Oh, were you going to do something important with this?” Eclipse smiled. “Perhaps… banish somepony to the outer realm? Something like this?” The world went dark. The stars appeared, turned red, and began to bleed. And the light from that blood began to twist and coalesce around the root until a swirling red portal had formed. It was a gate to the outer realm. Normally that would be death. Maybe Eclipse didn’t know about the mirror… Twilight could survive the trip! But how to get back? “This won’t be enough!” Twilight warned. “I’ll get out! And I’ll find you again!” “And what? Get cold feet at the last moment before you kill me? Don’t make me laugh.” Eclipse pushed Twilight through the portal. For a minute there, Luster Dawn thought she’d end up on the moon. Not even teleporting downward seemed to get her out of that thing. But eventually, she fell to the ground. The landscape had been so altered she thought she’d landed a hundred miles away. The shore was gone with battered mountains rising above raging waves. But that weeping hole in the ocean made her decide this was the right place. That, Luster Dawn decided, was what true power was. She found Eclipse, her master, on top of one of those mountains. The true master was nowhere to be seen. Luster watched as the old hag trotted slowly to Screwball’s body and picked up the spellbook, looting her as casually as one might pick up a penny. She looked down at Screwball’s body. Had Twilight done this? Auntie Eclipse seemed so sure Twilight wouldn’t kill, even to save her own life. A hole had been torn through Screwball; a wound Luster recognized. “Did you…?” Luster asked her mentor. “Take this lesson well, child,” said Eclipse. “To catch the master witch off guard, I had to sacrifice her life, yes. It was the only thing she wouldn’t have seen coming.” She’d killed one of her allies so easily. Not even the tiniest shred of remorse could be found within a mile of Eclipse. Luster Dawn couldn’t deny it was tactically sound in this case. Yet she felt her hooves trembling and her breath quickening as Eclipse turned back to her. Despite being so much stronger, Twilight hadn’t managed to bring her to the same state of shock Eclipse had. And the latter had done so again and again, never ceasing to prove herself ever more terrifying. Seeing Luster Dawn shake at last gave her an emotion, however slight the disapproval. “You’re still weak if that fills you with worry or empathy,” Eclipse chastised her. “You hardly deserve this book, yet for facing down a master witch and having no other peer, I grant you it anyway. You are now a fifth bell.” She threw the book down at Luster Dawn’s feet. A spellbook like that and the power it contained was everything Luster Dawn had ever wanted in life. Even as a filly, there’d be few who could tell her no once she picked it up. Hardly any ponies in the world would have the strength to force their morals upon her. And yet it wasn’t zero. If it wasn’t zero, she still had to be afraid. So instead she swallowed and looked back up to Eclipse. “You killed Screwball without hesitation.” Luster Dawn looked at the body again “She was on our side, wasn’t she?” “A witch must follow their teachings to the very end. That means being willing to betray your allies whenever advantageous and expecting them to betray you in kind.” “Doesn’t that mean…” Luster Dawn rubbed a hoof over the book. “That one of us will eventually kill the other one day?” “Yes,” said Eclipse. And she smiled when she did. “I will kill you if it’s ever worth it to do so. I won’t begrudge you or tell you you’re wrong to do the same to me. In fact, I think having one of my students betray and murder me is the only way I could ever accept death. I’ll be disappointed if you aren’t the one to end my life.” Eclipse took the book at a distance and levitated it be eye level with Luster Dawn. “Witches are free from morality,” said Eclipse, “but not from consequences. I wouldn’t recommend trying to stab me in the back or to flee while you are still so young and weak. You will die in either case. But you are free to choose. Always.” Luster Dawn looked down at the first volume, then back up at Eclipse. She wasn’t nearly strong enough yet. “Yes, ma’am.” Luster Dawn bowed her head and held the book close tight. “Thank you.” “Good.” Eclipse’s smile was thin. “I still have much I’d like to teach you before one of us is to die. There are still matters we need to take care of. I really should start by finding a way to get Embermoon back to this planet.” Eclipse looked up at the sky and hummed. She already had some plan. And another after that. If it went too far, her plans would be the death of Luster Dawn.