//------------------------------// // Chapter 32: It Only Takes a Spark... // Story: The Impossible Choice // by FireMaster //------------------------------// ~ April 22nd, 1020 ME ~ ‘3:37am‘ Luna had been in a standstill with the Nightmare for too long. Her attention continued to be split by Timberwolves that she flung aside with her magic and her main foe that kept throwing lies at her. “You’ll never be as strong as Celestia.” The Nightmare cooed. “You're not even any different from when you and I were together.” “Your friends can’t keep fighting forever, they’ve already given up on you coming to help.” “You know-“ “No more,” Luna bellowed in the royal Canterlot voice. “Despite what you may think, I have changed! I do have friends that have shown me what it means to be honest and loyal!” Luna threw another snapping timber solve that was charging at her into a nearby tree. “I know that I don’t have to always be as strong as Celestia because we can lean on each other and support each other. And you know what? I know that your power comes from the weakness of others, but you won’t demoralize me. I shall fight with everything I can until my last breath.” “What a speech.” The Nightmare sarcastically spoke with its cold voice. While the space filled with the Nightmare's mist was visibly smaller, the Nightmare still was quite formidable. “The moon now tries in vain to assure itself of its value. Since you won’t simply give up, I have no choice.” As soon as the sentence was concluded, Luna felt as though some of her mental energy was slowly being drained. The Nightmare was using an ability to affect her psyche indirectly. If Luna had felt pressure to end things quickly before, now that had gone up three-fold. If not for the Timberwolves it’s possible she could have attempted to take the fight to the dreamscape, especially considering that the Nightmare was a magical construct without much form, but that would have to wait. Luna needed a plan before she would inevitably lose the ability to focus and become lunch for the wooden wolves. Luna took to the air to make space between her and the Timberwolves. A blue glow emanated from Luna's horn as she created a shield around the space the Nightmare stood. The shield was colored to match her magic but the properties of the space inside the shield were nothing like the average protection spell. Luna had created a pressure vessel within the confines of her spell and was pressing in the shield's boundaries. The Nightmare's misty figure didn't take well to the spell. This time rather than the mist passing through the shield, the space the Nightmare existed in continued to be compressed around her. Soon the space was hardly big enough to fit the outline of the mare in the mist. The Timberwolves tried in vain to jump up and grab hold of Luna's hooves to break her concentration. The Nightmare pushed back against the confines of the chamber, but it was too late. The demon Nightmare in the center of the super compressed air disappeared. Luna released the spell and the particles rapidly dispersed leaving no trace that a magic spirit had existed in the park at all. Luna let out a huge sigh of relief that she didn't know she had been holding in. After clearing out the rest of the Timberwolves and adequately spreading their remains to keep them from regenerating, Luna was ready to move on. Time to rejoin Tia, Luna thought. She had just started to fly away from the park when the tension she had released immediately returned. "Checkmate." The Nightmare, whose presence had been masked moments ago now sounded like she was speaking from all directions. Luna had let her guard down, failing to recognize that the Nightmare had not only escaped the barrier, but also spread her magic thin enough to avoid detection. She felt herself becoming instantly tired and couldn't even force her eyes open long enough to land. Luna crashed out of the air, tearing up a stretch of dirt as she passed out. Celestia was doing her best to keep track of how her ponies were doing while also fighting Chrysalis, but the disguises made it impossible to tell. A full retreat could have been necessary, and she wouldn't have known it. The Queen of the Changelings was giving her a hard time yet again, and unfortunately, she was fighting alone just like at Cadance's wedding. The one advantage that she had this time was knowing what she was up against rather than finding that out after having been deceived. The white alicorn sent a magic blast at the fake white alicorn who responded with a blast of her own. The waves collided in midair and pushed against each other continuously. Neither one could gain ground on the other. After many seconds of the mana equally colliding, it exploded between the two creating a bright flash. Celestia was temporarily blinded by the light but caught a glimpse of white in her peripherals. She moved back at the last second watching the fake Celestia fly in front of her, Chrysalis missing the blow by a fraction of a second. If two Celestias weren't enough, Celestia created a projection of illusionary Celestias surrounding the impostor. As one they all began to fire up their horns preparing to blast Chrysalis with alicorn level magic. Chrysalis returned to her true form, her body covered in chitin armor and holes. She also flared up her magic and pulled it all into her horn. The Celestias surrounding her fired as one, the blast of white magic getting closer, and closer, and closer to Chrysalis. There was no escape. The changeling Queen released her own magic blast just before she was hit, perfectly countering the real Celestia's magic, having located her by focusing on the swirling emotions of the ponies. The illusions didn't carry Celestia's emotions with them. The magic beam started with Celestia's white magic nearly contacting Chrysalis, and very little of the green from Chrysalis' horn visible. This time though, the magic was not evenly matched. Just like when Celestia had been bested at the wedding, Chrysalis' magic slowly overwhelmed Celestia's and struck her, knocking her to the ground. The princess of Equestria was slow to rise, her face filled with both worry and determination. After returning to her hooves, she took stock of her surroundings. Chrysalis was diving towards her, wings tucked, and hooves outstretched. She couldn't let this be the end. She had to be the last one standing. There was no choice. Equestria didn't have a future without it. Nightshade and the 3 Lunar guard platoons were outnumbered. So far, while casualties were low, the changelings' advance had continued to push them closer and closer to the castle wall. She was currently locked in combat with two changelings wielding spears and she could hardly keep up. She constantly felt herself backing up to dodge blows. She couldn't do this forever. If they got backed into a corner it would be game over. They needed to regroup and thin down their attack to start pushing back. With numbers not on their side they were to spread to make headway in any one area. "Retreat to the castle gate!" Nightshade hollered. A new formation was established at the castle gate. Worst case they could retreat into the building. As they fought on, trying to turn around a losing battle, there was a shift. Something was disrupting the middle of the advancing changelings. They were falling over paralyzed by stun spells. A light flashed several times behind Nightshade but a quick glance back and nothing was visible behind her. Just what was going on? A tall figure suddenly became visible covered in clothes. It had removed a band from its arm, holding a stun gun in one hand and it wore the princesses seal around its neck. A young dragon walked out of the castle shortly after. "I need you to help us clear a path to the train station!" Blazing was shaking from the adrenaline, but he managed to make his request. Before Nightshade had a chance to respond, another oddly shaped being materialized out of thin air. The draconequus made his grand entrance with fireworks launching into the air. "Why yes I can clear a path." Discord replied. "After all, it has been long enough since I last helped you by stopping the changelings during your prison break. They really didn't like running into an invisible wall and I thought everypony did!" Nightshade was very confused about what was going on, but she knew the urgency of the situation. Every moment her attention wasn't on the battle more ponies could fall, including herself. "Save the chat! We will help if we can manage to make any ground." Nightshade couldn't decide if she was happy to see the Lord of Chaos or not until she both heard and saw his next move. "Oh, I can make some ground." Discord snapped his finger and the ground under the changelings' hooves started taking on the properties of quicksand. Those that didn't start sinking right away lost their footing, giving the Equestrian forces an opportunity to take the upper hand with their spears. "Sorry, I can't stay and chat. I must be off before my sister gets too upset with me. She thinks I'm favoring you too much, but I secretly think she likes you more. Siblings, am I right?" Discord vanished just as quickly as he'd come. After he left, the ground solidified again leaving a majority of the changelings half stuck in the pavement on the streets. Blazing was given no directions yet again and Discord had only partially helped create a way to get to the train station. Why can't things ever be as easy as, I can help, just let me teleport you there? Blazing thought. Despite his internal complaints the 1st-3rd platoon was now moving farther and farther away from the gates and he was able to follow behind them. This small success felt huge. It meant they had a chance. The army under Nightshade felt a little strength return to them. The source of this strength was hope. "To the train station!" Nightshade cheered.