Luna delicately lifted a cup of tea to her lips with her hoof. The action felt novel. She couldn’t remember the last time that she hadn't used her magic for such a trivial task, but with her horn completely focused on the creation of the enchantment before her, she had very quickly relearned how to multitask using her other appendages.
Her enchanted cloak was so near completion that she refused to allow anything to distract her from her goal. This was easier said than done though, as the storm raged violently outside her trailer.
A bright flash of nearby lightning flooded through her windows, followed by the rolling roar of its thunder, threatening to break her concentration. Her focus held firm though. If she released her magical grasp from the enchantment before it was structurally sound, then it would collapse and hours of work would be lost.
However, despite the high-stakes nature of the task, it was a mind-numbingly boring ordeal. It strongly reminded her about why she had chosen to specialise in dynamic magics, like illusions and battle spells. The matrices of bespoke enchantments like these had thousands of nexus points that needed to be structured and connected before they could even function. That's not even including the thousands more that needed to be added on top of that to achieve any sort of redundancy or durability.
As she began to connect one of the last sequences of the enchantment structure, she allowed her mind to drift off into thought and she considered her time over the last few days.
She hadn't travelled very far from Valley Dale in the three days since her departure. With no clear objective or destination in mind, a bunch of preparations to make and an abundance of newly found free time. Luna had been content to travel at a leisurely pace. Making her way slowly through the vibrant meadows and ravines of the gorgeous valley, simply drinking in the sights and sounds of nature. Her fully resupplied trailer had all of the amenities she could want. It was a wonderful time, something like a holiday for the former ruler.
Once the storm that had loomed menacingly over the valley finally struck in full force and conditions became too muddy and wet to continue travelling, Luna decided to finally set aside the time needed to properly enchant her cloak.
Her Starry Night disguise spell had always been a temporary solution. There were so many things that could have gone wrong and broken her manually cast spell, thus compromising her identity. With this permanent enchantment, hopefully her false identity would become far more robust.
As the last pieces of the enchantment matrix fell into place, Luna's heart raced as she became laser-focused on her project. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead as she connected the very last nexus point. Once it was done, she gave the entire matrix an intense examination, looking for any mistakes or points of weakness.
Taking a deep breath and hoping for the best, Luna extinguished her horn and gently relinquished her magical hold on the enchantment matrix, letting its structure handle all the strain of the magical energy pumping through it.
To her delight, it held firm with no leakage or warping. However, there was still one more test to conduct before she could celebrate.
Swiping the cloak off of her workbench, Luna approached a full-length mirror that was tucked into a corner of the trailer. In it, she observed herself: a tall, slender alicorn with midnight blue fur and a starry mane.
Using her telekinesis, she draped the cloak over her body and clasped the metallic buckle around her neck. As it clicked into place, her reflection started to shimmer and before her eyes, her entire image transformed. Her fur grew lighter in colour until it resembled a light azure, her mane ceased its movement and was dyed a blueish-platinum blonde.
In the span of less than a second the visage of an entirely different mare appeared in the mirror and she didn't have to maintain a single spell to achieve it.
A massive grin broke out on the alicorn's face as she saw the experiment come to fruition.
“Huzzah!” Luna cheered loudly as she reared up on her hind legs in triumph.
However, her celebration was soon cut short when her head exploded in pain as the tip of her horn harshly struck the roof of her trailer. The dense and sensitive nerve endings of the bony appendage punished her for her lack of spatial awareness as she collapsed onto her belly.
“Ow, ow, ow, ow…” Luna whined as she massaged the base of her horn with her hoof, trying to ease the pain. She did not have to suffer for long though as her superior alicorn biology soon kicked into action and her throbbing migraine swiftly faded as any damage was quickly repaired.
She had forgotten how tall she had grown since she last lived in Starswirl's caravan.
Using her forelegs to push herself into a sitting position, Luna took a moment to reflect on her surroundings. Her new/old home was exactly as she remembered it. From the warm fireplace in the corner, to the miniature library on the opposite wall, to the two small cots by the door.
To live inside these walls once more after so many years have passed, after so much has changed, after she had changed. It was strange and slightly disquieting.
Familiar, yet so alien.
She cast her mind back to the days of her youth. So long had passed since she…
BANG
BANG
BANG
Luna almost leapt out of her skin at the sudden and urgent banging of somepony outside her door.
BANG
BANG
BANG
She swivelled her head around and was about to call out to whoever was outside, however they spoke first.
“Starry are you in there?! Please, I saw your lights as I flew and I didn't know what else to do! They came, Starry and I couldn't fight. I had to run and I… please Starry open up!” The desperate and hysterical pleading of a familiar voice called out.
“Windy?!” Luna gasped. The alicorn quickly leapt to her hooves and rushed towards the door. In a flash, her horn unlatched its deadbolt and threw it open.
The filly, who had been pressed up against the door, stumbled inside. However, she quickly regained her balance and lunged at Luna, wrapping herself around the chest of the larger pony in a death-grip of a hug while sobbing profusely.
The former princess stared down with immense concern at the distraught pegasus. Her first instinct was to comfort the filly, but if Windy had sought her out in such a desperate state, then the situation must be dire.
Luna needed answers now.
Using her magic to gently separate the two of them, she gripped Windy's shoulder with one of her hooves and bent down to become closer to eye-level with the filly.
“Windy, what has happened?” Luna asked softly but with an edge of urgency to her tone.
The young pegasus tried to collect herself but did not succeed. She stuttered her reply through sobs. “They came back, Starry… it's so much worse this time… I couldn't find my mom and I couldn't hide in time…”
“Who came back, Windy?” Luna almost demanded, her own anxiety growing by the second.
The young filly could barely manage to reply through her tears. “Las Pegasus… they're burning everything…”
Colour drained from Luna’s face as she let go of Windy and rushed through the open door of her trailer. A proverbial wall of frigid rain and howling wind impacted her as she took a step outside of her magically insulated home. She gazed intently in the direction that she knew Valley Dale to be in, though the tall canopy of the forest obstructed a direct view of the town, Luna's heart sank when she saw an ominous, orange glow on the horizon. It reminded her greatly of the distant forest fires that she would observe from her tower in the Everfree Castle.
The shock and horror soon wore off after a moment and rage filled her mind. The ponies of Valley Dale had treated her with a tender kindness that she hadn't experienced in literal decades.
They didn't deserve this.
She would not allow such an atrocity to go unanswered.
“I'm going back with you.” Luna heard Windy declare resolutely.
Turning back to face the filly, she saw that the young pegasus had managed to compose herself somewhat. Windy's image of steadfast determination was somewhat undermined by her puffy eyes, red from crying, and in her trembling limbs. However, the stubbornness and tenacity that the alicorn had come to admire in the filly was still there for all to see.
That didn't change the fact that a battlefield was no place for a filly, no matter how brave.
“Absolutely not,” Luna stated firmly.
“It's my home,” Windy stressed. “I-I can't just abandon it.” She implored emotionally as tears threatened to return to her eyes.
“You are a filly, Windy. Perhaps the bravest filly I've ever met, yet a filly nonetheless. I will not lead you to your death. I will not lead you into a warzone. I refuse.” Luna reiterated with impatience.
She could appreciate Windy's desire to help. She herself had many embittered arguments with Starswirl over his insistence to shelter the young alicorn at the College's tower, rather than let her help her mentor combat Discord. However, time was of the essence and ponies were dying while she was standing here arguing.
“I can help!” The filly pleaded in desperation. “I know the layout of the town, I saw how many raiders there were…”
“...Windy…”
“...I've been practising my magic every single day and I've gotten really good at it…”
“...Windy…”
“...my mother is still there, I can't just do nothing and…”
“WINDY!” Luna eventually shouted using her Royal Everfree voice. The filly flinched and then cowered at the wall of near-deafening noise that impacted her.
The look of fear in the young pegasus's eyes was like a dagger to Luna's heart.
Looking at her now, the alicorn couldn’t help but notice how small the filly was. In the short time that the former princess had known her, Windy had always walked with her head held high and possessed a maturity and outsized personality that made it easy to forget just how young she truly was.
However, with her now curled up cowering on the ground, on the verge of tears. Luna recognised Windy for what she was, a scared and traumatised child who had just witnessed her home destroyed in front of her and only wanted to help.
She didn't deserve Luna’s wrath.
‘Well done Luna!’ The former princess thought to herself with self-loathing.
‘You found a traumatised filly on your doorstep and managed to somehow traumatise her even further. Truly, no pony could ever accuse you of having charisma or high emotional intelligence.’
Luna wanted to reach out and comfort the pegasus, but she had no idea what to say. She was certain that any sort of clumsy attempt at reconciliation that she did try to make would only make the situation worse.
There is a reason that Luna spent so much of her time as a princess leading the Equestrian army. For a self-styled poet and painter, she had an unfortunate habit of destroying everything she touched.
Turning around, Luna faced towards the direction that she knew Valley Dale to be in.
“Stay inside, Windy. I will go and confront the raiders. I will bring your mother back to you.” The alicorn promised in a quiet voice, still not facing the filly.
Powering up a powerful teleportation spell, Luna disappeared in a flash and crackle.
Re-emerging outside of Valley Dale's entrance gate, Luna took a moment to observe her surroundings and regain her bearings.
The thick wooden gates, as well as some of the town that lay beyond, lay in ruin. The central market district and upper-class residential area bore the worst of the assault and thick plumes of smoke bellowed into the sky as several buildings burned.
The rain was considerably lighter over the town than it was in the surrounding countryside. A hard drizzle compared to the monsoon in the rest of the valley. Likely the work of the raider pegasi to prevent their arson from being extinguished.
Gazing upwards, she narrowed her eyes at the source of the folding misery. It was difficult to make out through the storm clouds and rain but Luna could clearly see the foreboding silhouette of the massive raider fortress that hung low over the smouldering town, like a carrion feeder circling a corpse.
Intermittent flashes of lightning briefly illuminated dozens of armoured pegasi that buzzed over Valley Dale like a swarm of flies… like pests.
Luna sneered at the sight of the bandits. As princess, she had spent years cleaning up the aftermath of the butchery of these elusive raiders. However, now it went beyond that, now it was personal. The ponies of this town had welcomed her with open hooves and for the first time in a century, she felt like she had value as a pony for more than just the crown that she wore.
They didn't deserve this and the longer she watched the town laid to waste before her eyes, the more that her heart filled with rage.
Between her long-held malice towards the raiders of Las Pegasus, her revulsion at the horror of the attack that they were currently perpetrating and her self-loathing over her conversation with Windy, Luna was currently in a murderous mood.
Striding with purpose through the ruins of the entrance gate, the former princess’s horn ignited with an ominous glow and the vast reserves of her magic almost seemed to hum within her veins, eager to be unleashed.
The residents of Valley Dale scurried to and fro between the burning ruins, all desperately trying to either find shelter, extinguish the flames engulfing their homes, or rescue those still trapped inside the infernos.
She dearly wanted to stop and assist them, but any aid that she offered would only be temporary and superficial. She needed to eliminate the source of the problem…
“No! Please, stop!”
Crash
‘Speaking of the source of the problem…’
Just ahead of Luna, a badly beaten earth pony was thrown through the storefront window of a relatively unburnt goldsmith shop. He landed roughly and then tumbled across the street. The earth pony did not move, beyond letting out a quiet whine of agony.
Five armoured pegasi strolled out through the wrecked building's wooden door. Clad with hardened leather armour and armed with wingblades, short swords and crossbows. They moved with military discipline but their step held a swagger that belied their confidence, almost arrogance in their control over the unfolding raid. A frazzled, small mare scrambled out after the group of bandits, pleading with them to stop.
The largest and most well-armoured of the raiders with plated steel armour and sporting a red-plumed helmet, presumably the lieutenant of the small assault unit, grabbed the barely cognizant goldsmith by the mane and drew him up to his eye level.
“What is the code to your safe?!” The large stallion demanded from his victim.
‘Looters and thieves? The lowest form of banditry.’ Luna snarled as she approached the group of pegasi unseen.
“Leave him alone!” The earth pony mare yelled, trying to pull one of the raiders away from her husband.
The pegasus snapped their wing outwards and viciously struck the mare with the armoured top edge of the limb. The earth pony collapsed to the ground, nursing a bloody head injury. However, the bandit would not get the opportunity to land any follow-up strikes as their head was suddenly vaporised in a death-beam of pure magical energy.
The other pegasi recoiled in surprise at the abrupt demise of their comrade. Spinning around to face in the direction of the assailant, they spotted a unicorn that had previously gone unnoticed in the general chaos of the attack. A towering pony clad in a billowing cloak, whose horn glowed menacingly. Her face was a visage of malice and rage made manifest.
Luna, despite her anger, couldn't help but feel a certain level of glee at how quickly their swagger and arrogance vanished into fear and uncertainty. Not giving them a chance to react to her presence, the disguised alicorn dispatched another raider with a blast from her horn
The last three pegasi, finally snapping out of their shock and surprise, scrambled to take to the air, narrowly avoiding a third death-beam that was directed their way.
“Evasive manoeuvres! Mage Protocol!” The apparent leader of the small unit began to bark orders for his remaining two subordinates.
However, one of the younger bandits, likely a new recruit, lost her nerve and fled from the battle. Flying as fast as she could directly towards the floating fortress.
“NO! DON'T TURN YOUR BACK!” The lieutenant tried to warn the mare. It was no use though, as Luna was quick to punish the recruit's lack of discipline.
Flying in a straight line, without making any attempt to evade, made it almost trivial for the former princess to line up a shot on the fleeing raider and let loose a fourth beam of supercharged magical energy.
Her aim was slightly off, however as the beam merely severed one of her wings without killing her outright.
“Aaaahhh!” The pegasus screamed as she plummeted to her doom. Frantically flapping her one remaining wing as though hoping that she would be able to gain lift from the solitary limb. It did nothing and her cries were soon silenced a few seconds later as she impacted a cobblestone alleyway.
Luna had no sympathy.
The bandit’s screams of fear and pain were only one among a chorus of suffering and despair as her compatriots terrorised the town.
The two remaining raiders, evidently more experienced veterans, were noticeably rattled by the sudden extermination of more than half their number in less than ten seconds. Nevertheless, their discipline and training overrode their stunned shock and they quickly reorganised themselves.
Luna attempted to fire half a dozen more beams of magic in quick succession, however the pegasi were now well-prepared for her attacks and dodged with ease.
She tried to vary her attacks, alternating between death beams, arcane lightning, pillars of conjured fire and telekinetically thrown objects. None landed.
The two pegasi flew in almost perfect synchronicity. Circling her on opposite sides, ensuring that at least one of them would always be out of her line of sight. Whenever she focused on one pegasus in particular, the other would line up a shot with their crossbow and force Luna to shield herself rather than press her attack.
The same strategy prevented her from using her more advanced and powerful spells. Anytime that she would try to form a bigger spell that would surely kill the two pegasi, they would force her to defend herself, disrupting her focus and stopping her from effectively employing more advanced combat spells.
It was an excellent strategy. One perfectly designed to counter a powerful unicorn.
Had Luna not possessed prodigious alicorn magical senses, thus being able to monitor the pegasi at all times, even when they were behind her, she might have been in a lot of trouble.
Evasion, Distraction and Harassment.
It was the exact same strategy that she had taught her own Night Guard and as loathed as she was to admit it, these two raiders might be as well-trained, if not more so than most of her own soldiers.
Luna lamented her decision to not take her armour with her she fled the castle. Its built-in, enchanted forcefield would be of tremendous aid at the moment. Giving her enough time to launch much more devastating spells.
Pressing forward nevertheless, the alicorn sent an enormous pillar of flame towards the leather-clad pegasus, forcing them to take cover behind the roof of a nearby building and keeping them out of the fight for a few seconds.
Quickly wheeling around to face the lieutenant, Luna unleashed a rapid flurry of spells at the pegasus. Each one closer to hitting him than the last, pushing the raider to the very limit of his agility.
“Gaah!” The steel-clad pegasus yelped as one of her magical beams glanced off his shoulder pauldron, seeming to throw him off balance for a moment. He would not be able to dodge the next one in time and Luna smiled as she released the lieutenant's final death blow.
She had him dead to rights now.
However, as the beam closed the distance towards the pegasus, the raider leader flourished his wings and zipped to the side at a physically impossible speed.
‘Advanced pegasus magic…’ Luna grimaced. ‘As if there weren't enough complications in this fight already…’
She tried to redouble her efforts to strike the lieutenant, but the moment of opportunity had passed and she could sense that the other pegasus was diving towards her on a likely strafing run.
Luna erected a shield just as a glass bottle, with a lit fuse coming out of the neck, impacted. The flammable liquid inside splashed over the translucent dome before igniting into an inferno. The former princess expelled the barrier outwards, so as not to have the burning fluid fall on her as she dismissed it. However she was careful to avoid the liquid touching the earth pony couple as the mare desperately tried to drag her unconscious husband to safety.
The alicorn attempted to grab the pegasus within her magical grasp but they had already fled out of her effective telekinesis range before she had the chance.
Luna stamped her hoof in frustration. Her standard array of battle spells was not working against an enemy that was clearly so well-trained to counter them. They were too quick, too elusive and too well-prepared.
If she had her weapons and armour, then she could take the fight to pegasi and render the battle trivial. However, limited only to long-range spells and with no way to effectively close the distance between them, her current strategy wasn't working.
She was used to being a 'shock and awe' battering ram that would break enemy formations with powerful spells and allow her Night Guard to encircle and flank them. She didn't have a platoon of her soldiers waiting in the wings this time. She needed to find a way to close the distance herself.
Luna mulled the idea of teleporting closer to the raiders but with the level of speed and reflexes that the pegasi have shown, she would likely not be able to regain her bearings and prepare a spell before they had a chance to react.
She needed to change her approach. She needed something different.
A flash of inspiration struck her at that moment. The former princess didn't normally include illusion magic in her combat repertoire, but an idea was beginning to take root in her mind.
Looking around the ground for the perfect piece of debris to implement her plan, the former princess eventually spotted a large, rusted sawmill blade sticking out of an overturned and abandoned refuse cart.
‘Perfect’ Luna grinned.
Shielding herself against an oncoming crossbow bolt from the lieutenant, the alicorn feigned undivided focus on him while she waited for his subordinate to launch another strafing run.
Once they were committed to their attack, Luna cloaked the sawmill blade in an invisibility spell and threw it into the oncoming pegasus's path with her considerable telekinetic might.
Had the blade been visible, the raider might have had the opportunity to dodge, but it wasn't, so they didn't.
The bandit likely never knew what had struck them as they were suddenly bisected in midair.
The remaining raider appeared stunned, however his expression soon turned wrathful.
“YOU WILL PAY FOR THAT, BITCH!” The lieutenant shouted in rage at seeing the last of his subordinates slain by the mysterious unicorn.
He hovered in midair for a moment before lightning began to arc between his wings.
Luna only smiled.
She was very familiar with this pegasus spell and knew that it required the caster to remain in place for several seconds while they cast.
The lieutenant had survived the fight so far by relying on his superior speed and agility. By choosing to forsake his advantages in a moment of fury, he had inadvertently sealed his own fate.
“DIE!” The raider yelled as he unleashed a powerful bolt of lightning towards her.
However, by the time the bolt reached her position, Luna had already disappeared in a flash of teleportation.
Reappearing on a roof directly under the lieutenant, he was still hovering in place as he recovered from the exertion of the spell.
At such a close distance, he was well within her telekinetic range.
Luna flared her horn and grasped the pegasus tightly in her magical aura. The raider's eyes widened in panic as he realised the precariousness of his situation. He struggled for a brief moment but the alicorn's grip was firm.
“WAIT, NO!” The lieutenant shouted, almost pleading.
Luna would hear none of it though. Her grip tightened and the pegasus was crushed within his armour.
After dropping a spherical ball of metal and meat, roughly half the size of the original pony, Luna let out a weary sigh.
It had been a very long time since she had gone into battle alone. She normally had a squadron of her Night Guards to ambush and clean up any remaining opponents after she broke their formations with her spells. No such luxury existed now.
She wasn't close to dying at any point in this battle but she needed to play things smarter from now on. She is facing down an entire army and doesn't have her guards to back her up. She would take to heart the lessons learned in this brief battle and not make the same mistakes.
Teleporting back down to the main street, Luna resumed her search for more raiders. She fully intended to keep her promise to Windy but without knowing where the mayor was and without enough time to effectively search for Wind Chill, her only option to save the mare was to force the raiders into an early retreat and hope that the pegasus had survived the carnage thus far.
With her excellent alicorn senses, she heard the sounds of commotion and violence down the street, though with the rain and smoke it was difficult to make much out at a distance. Picking up the discarded sawmill blade as she walked, the former princess set out towards her next battle.
Despite her proficiency in the discipline, Luna normally spurned the use of illusion magic in battle. The greatest advantage that her Night Guard possessed in battle was their superior coordination and tactical cohesion compared to the raiders and bandits that they often battled. Introducing chaos onto the battlefield only served to nullify their advantages.
For example, having invisible, flying sawblades zipping around in combat, sounded like a fantastic way to kill your own soldiers.
However, now that Luna was alone and didn't have to worry about leading her Guards or fuss about getting in their way, a lot more options just opened up to the disguised alicorn.
Another group of five raiders soon revealed themselves as Luna wade through the smoke. Using the lit bottles of flammable liquid that the alicorn had spotted earlier, they torched the surrounding buildings. The thatch and wooden structures caught fire easily. The numerous banners, tarps and flags that had been such a delightfully iconic feature of Valley Dale, now served as a liability as the street was slowly engulfed in flames.
Cloaking herself in invisibility, Luna silently teleported close to the group before launching her attack.
The steel-clad lieutenant was beheaded with a powerful beam of magical energy. His surrounding subordinates froze with predictable shock at the unexpected death of their leader. This gave Luna the perfect opportunity to launch her saw at such a vector, to kill another two pegasi.
The remaining pair of survivors realised the immense peril of their situation, even if they didn't know exactly where they were being attacked from or by whom, and promptly fled.
They did not get very far at all though, as a bolt of arcane lightning dispatched one and a telekinetic crush took care of the other.
‘Much better.’ Luna thought to herself with delight.
Her job was far from done though, and after taking a quick moment to douse the flames of the raider's arson, she resumed the hunt.
After silently wiping out another two teams, Luna noticed a problem with her strategy. She had killed at least twenty pegasi but there had been no identifiable change in the behaviour of the rest of the attackers. Her stealth was backfiring on her. The raider commanders likely would not notice the deaths of several teams until they did a headcount at the end of the raid. However, with many dozens or perhaps even hundreds of raiders left, she would never be able to slay all of them before they had completed their mission of razing the entire town.
It was risky but she needed to be bolder, more brazen and more open with her killing. She needed to make it known to the bandits that a powerful opponent was fighting against them. Convince them of the untenability of their raid. Even if she couldn’t force them to retreat, she hoped that she could at least alleviate the suffering of the town somewhat by having the pegasi focus on her.
Exercising her new strategy on the next squadron that she came across, the invisible alicorn took a few moments to charge up a powerful blast spell before unleashing it upon the group. The spell impacted the ground near the centre of the pegasi formation and exploded into a concussive blast that sent the raiders flying. A few died instantly from the cobblestone shrapnel, but most survived with injuries ranging in severity from minor to utterly grievous.
The sound of the blast also rang out across the town, cutting through the thunder and chaos. It looked like it caught the attention of several squadrons of flying raiders that began to veer towards her direction.
Luna had avoided using such ‘area of effect’ spells so far because of their complexity to cast, low accuracy and relatively low guarantee of lethality. However, if she wanted to use a more brute-force method, then few other spells would serve her better.
Using a quick death-beam to slay one of the oncoming pegasi, Luna swiftly teleported to a different street, halfway across the town. She would have loved to stand her ground against the large group of bandits. However, as her first battle of the night had proven, without her armour or weapons, she was far too vulnerable to being swarmed by the raiders.
She needed to keep mobile and only engage in targets of opportunity. Force them to actively search for her, hunt her.
With her adjusted course of action now set, Luna began to wage her shadow war in earnest. Ambushing, killing and injuring raiders as she went. Teleporting somewhere else the moment that the tide of a battle began to turn against her.
With less of a concern about not leaving survivors, the former princess could engage and harass much larger formations of bandits from greater distances and not have to worry about getting pinned down while trying to mop up the remnants, as she did in her during her first fight.
It began to look like her tactics were paying off. More and more pegasi took to the skies to fly search patterns in the hunt for her. Luna would occasionally unleash a volley of magical beams towards those lurking raiders. Although, this had mixed results.
Even in the best of times, it's difficult for a unicorn or alicorn to accurately aim their horn, especially at long distances against fast-moving targets. As such, the former princess missed more often than she hit. However, it was mostly effective in keeping them off balance, disrupting their coordination and slowly thinning their numbers.
After teleporting away from her most recent ambush, Luna's chosen point of destination was the main street near the market square where she had given her performance a few days ago.
Closing her eyes, the alicorn magically expanded her hearing. Hopefully, the sounds of combat and commotion would lead her to more raider units. Without any way to properly reconnaissance the town, it was the most that she could do without aimlessly wandering the town and hoping to run across more Las Pegasus raiders.
“You bastards!”
Luna froze at the sound of the distant shout coming from the direction of the market square.
Wind Chill?
The distinctive voice of the mayor was unmistakable and with haste, the former princess set off in a sprint towards the square, cloaking herself in invisibility as she went.
A General Store, that flanked the entryway to the market, was engulfed in flames with the fire rapidly spreading. Smoke bellowed out and engulfed the street, obscuring her visibility, so it was only once she breached the curtain of smoke that she could behold the scene before her.
The large market square was flanked on its perimeter by rows of permanent buildings that housed businesses of all sorts, from stores like the scorched one behind her to trades-pony establishments like masons and blacksmiths.
The stage on which she had performed, had long since been dismantled and in its place now stood dozens of wooden stands, merchant carts and tents ringed the centre of the square, forming a transient marketplace for travelling merchants and small local businesses.
Some sort of battle had taken place, judging by the numerous bodies littering the square. Both raiders and Valley Dale guards lay strewn. Looting and combat had wrecked much of the market. Stands were destroyed, produce carts were overturned, rolls of fabric lay smouldering and clay pots of wine were pilfered or broken.
Luna didn't have to put much effort into speculation of the outcome of the battle however, as a dozen or so armoured pegasi stood unchallenged in the open clearing in the centre of the square.
Most of them appeared to be ordinary rank-and-file soldiers, similar to the ones that she had spent the past hour dispatching.
However, the four pegasi that stood in the centre of the cadre immediately stood out to the alicorn. Each for their own unique reason.
The pony who stood behind the others was simply enormous. Surely one of the largest stallions that Luna had seen in her long life. A titan of muscle and steel that stood only slightly shorter than herself. He wore heavy, thick, plated armour that almost entirely covered him. Carrying not only a massive, spike-tipped warhammer but also folded wingblades the size of broadswords.
In front of him was a pair of more reasonably sized ponies, a mare and a stallion. Their identical grey coats, magenta eyes and dark blue manes marked them out as probable twins. Although their light, mobile, sparse armour wasn't nearly as robust as their looming companion, even at a cursory glance Luna could tell that it was of far higher quality than the lieutenants that she had fought earlier.
All three of them were clearly enforcers or bodyguards to the final member of the group, who was easily the most eye-catching of them all. The black-furred, silver-maned, crimson-eyed stallion that stood in front of them donned an extravagant set of gleaming, golden armour. Reflections of the fires from the surrounding buildings danced in the polished plates of precious metals. It looked like the sort of battle attire worn by pony emperors of old.
Her magical senses informed her that while all of their armours were heavily enchanted to a certain extent, the plate and mail belonging to their apparent leader bore such an obscenely high level of enchantment that Luna’s jaw almost dropped in astonishment.
Yet, with all of this considered, somehow the pony apparelled in armour very much equivalent to her own or those once worn by the Masters of the College was not Luna’s greatest source of concern in the scene before her.
Mayor Wind Chill kneeled before the leader of Las Pegasus. She was badly beaten and her posture was limp, yet she was prevented from collapsing by two of the regular soldiers, who strung her out between them by her forelegs, presenting her to their superior.
“You went back on our deal.” The black-furred raider said to Wind Chill. His accent was typical of that of High-Born Cumulus Pegasi.
“The last attack was merely a warning. Yet, you still dared to peddle us a counterfeit. Did you really think that we wouldn't notice your duplicity?” The leader berated as he threw a small object to the ground and smashed it beneath his armoured hoof. Luna was too far away to see the object as she tread carefully across the debris-strewn market, trying to creep as close as possible.
Wind Chill lifted her head and scowled at the pegasus in defiance. “A deal made at sword point is no deal at all. It will never be yours. You have no right!” She spat with venom.
The raider struck out and hit the mayor across the face with his armoured wing. The mare's head lashed backwards and blood spurted from her broken muzzle and split eyebrow.
“It is you that has no right! You're a disgrace to your ancestry! To think that the once vaunted Wind Family has fallen so far.” The raider seethed.
He stepped forward and grabbed Wind Chill roughly by the mane, lifting her head and forcing her to meet his eyes.
“By the Divine Authority vested to me by the Mantle of Debellator, I, Overlord Reverberating Infamy, Supreme Ruler of all pegasi, demand that you give me what is RIGHTFULLY MINE!” The warlord shouted into the mayor's face. “Do it or I will burn this pathetic town to ashes!”
“Reverberating Infamy? Did you give yourself that name?” Wind Chill mocked. Her words half slurred by her broken, swollen muzzle.
“Where is it? Tell me now.” The raider, apparently named Reverberating Infamy, whispered in a dangerous voice, not impressed in the slightest with her quip.
The mayor's simple response was to spit a mouthful of blood directly into the Warlord's face, who was still holding her at eye level.
Dropping her head before trying to wipe the bloody spit from his eyes, the pegasus's body started to shake in indignant fury as he raged.
Turning to one of his underlings, who stood off to the side of the confrontation, he spoke in a snarl. “Where is the bitch's runt? We'll make her talk one way or another!”
That comment was the last straw for Luna. She had bided her time to get closer to the group unnoticed, staying hidden beneath her invisibility, even as Wind Chill was assaulted. However, the overt threat of physical harm against the filly that she had grown so fond of, was beyond the limit of what she was willing to tolerate.
Diverting a massive amount of magical power into her horn, Luna unleashed a devastating blast of magic, an order of magnitude more powerful than the ones that she had thus far used.
The beam of pure destruction impacted the side of Reverberating Infamy and launched him over a dozen metres across the market square, smashing through wooden produce stands. The alicorn's invisibility evaporated from the sheer magical discharge of her spell.
The rest of the pegasi in the square froze with shock at the assassination of their leader, some even dropping their weapons in astonishment at the Mage that had suddenly manifested into existence amongst them. Luna was about to begin her assault on the two raiders who still restrained Wind Chill.
However, instead of being annihilated as she had hoped, the Warlord of Las Pegasus stood shakily back onto his hooves. His enchanted armour steamed as it tried to dispel the accumulated heat that had been conducted by her spell. The network of enchantment matrices that laced its steel glowed incandescently in exertion as its defensive measures were strained to near-breaking. A faint shimmer in the air immediately surrounding the pegasus indicated the presence of a powerful shield deployed by his armour.
‘Fuck!’ Luna cursed to herself. ‘So close.’
Reverberating Infamy began to walk forward, though carrying a heavy limp. Panting deeply, he strode forward with as much dignity as he could muster. The other pegasi in the market regarded Luna warily. However, they seemed to await further instruction from their leader before taking any action against her.
“So, you are the Mage that has been running amok? Well, at least now I don't have to expend the effort to go look for you.” He snarled through gritted teeth.
Turning to the twins in his employ. “Rain Shadow, Storm Shadow. Show this Mage the supremacy of pegasi magic. Destroy her!” He barked.
The two ponies wordlessly nodded, before using gusts of pegasi magic to zip straight up into the air. Luna barely managed to erect any sort of shield in defence of the powerful bolt of lightning that surged towards her in an instant. The weak, rushed shield collapsed under the attack and the kinetic impact sent Luna sprawling to the ground.
The alicorn didn't even get an opportunity to stand up as her magical senses alerted her to another incoming bolt. Using the considerable strength of her earth pony muscles, Luna quickly rolled out of the way of the impact, stumbling back onto her hooves as she did so.
She was more prepared for the next lightning strike and her newly cast shield held firm.
Then another bolt impacted a second later…
Then another…
And another…
And another…
And another…
Luna could barely think. Each strike was not only deafening on its own but also rang her shield like a bell.
Realising that she would never gain the upper hoof by allowing herself to get pinned down, the former princess vanished in a flash of teleportation and reappeared on the far end of the market.
She immediately flashed her horn and cast a powerful spell using a mixture of her unicorn and pegasi magic. The effect of which was similar to a smoke bomb going off. Clouds of bellowing fog erupted from her horn and soon engulfed the entire courtyard.
Taking a moment to catch her breath, Luna tried to come up with a strategy to overcome her current circumstances.
The two pegasi were quick. Quicker than the former princess could have fathomed. Both in terms of physical speed and magic. The rate at which the two could fire off lightning spells had taken her by surprise.
While Luna was certain that she and her sister were marginally quicker and more skilled at pegasi magic than either of these twins. The raiders’ combination and collaboration of attack, made for a particularly withering barrage of spells. The likes of which Luna has never before experienced, not alone at least.
Sensing a flare-up of pegasi magic from above the market, the alicorn noticed the wind picking up drastically as her fog was slowly being blown away by the two pegasi.
Not long now until Luna would be forced to resume the battle. She might have bought herself some time and space to plan, but time was not on her side.
The Overlord was likely expecting his two elite bodyguards to make short work of Luna and the longer that she survived, the more likely he was to order more of his soldiers to join the fray.
Right now the former princess only had to deal with the twins and she was confident that she could beat them… maybe. However, if the half-dozen other soldiers swarmed her, then she would be forced to flee or die.
Leaving Wind Chill to suffer the abuses of her captors was not an option. Leaving Luna’s only choice to be offensive. She needed to end the battle and move on to the other pegasi as soon as possible.
She could retry her ‘invisible blade’ strategy, which had been an effective tactic so far. However, she doubted that she could bait either pegasi into a foolish strafing run and her chances of accurately striking such speedy and nimble targets, from far away, with a telekinetically thrown object were doubtful at best. Not to mention that their enchanted armour would deflect anything that was not perfectly aimed at an opening in their steel plates and mail.
Luna needed an infallible plan, something surefire. This might be the only respite that she would get in the battle from the oppressive speed of the twins’ spell-casting. Her attack needed to be a guaranteed victory. She could not rely on chance.
As the smoke began to clear and the former princess became more aware of the buildings around her, a plan began to form in her mind.
Luna lit her horn and cast a specialised mining spell over the blacksmithing workshop next to her, sensing the locations of every scrap of metal inside.
“There she is!”
One of the twins called out above her.
‘Now or never!’
Using the information provided to her by the Metallurgic Location Spell, the disguised alicorn telekinetically grabbed everything that she could.
She sensed an incoming lightning attack. However, instead of disrupting her spell-casting to shield herself, Luna did nothing and the bolt struck her in the back with the force of a warhammer. She almost collapsed to the ground as her electrocuted nerve endings lit up with horrendous pain. Somehow, she kept her focus on her spell. Relying on her earth pony constitution and alicorn fortitude to save her from a lethal blow.
The second of stunned disbelief from the male twin was the perfect opening that she needed. With all of her might, Luna launched a swarm of metal debris at the baffled pegasi. A dark swarm of swords, sickles, hammers, knives, nails and axe heads.
The raider quickly realised the grave danger that he was in and used his pegasus magic to dart to the side. However, the cloud of sharpened steel was too broad to avoid and he was soon cut to pieces. His armour blocked most of the incoming projectiles but enough found openings in the plate that it hardly mattered.
“NO! BROTHER!” The pegasus's twin screamed as she rushed to catch her sibling's falling body.
With the raider's back turned and no opportunity to dodge, Luna used her telekinesis to pick up a hammer that she held back in reserve from her attack and threw it with incredible speed at the mare.
Her aim was true and the impact shattered the shoulder blade of the pegasus's wing. Sending her crashing to her doom as well.
Luna felt a twinge of guilt at seeing the overwhelming amount of concern that the raider had for her sibling and exploiting that to slay her.
‘Would Celestia have ever risked her own life to save me?’
Shaking the thought from her mind, the former princess tried to refocus on the battle.
Doing a very hasty, mental calculation of the parabolic, ballistic trajectory of the falling metal debris. She teleported across the market square to put herself back into telekinetic range.
Grabbing all of them within her magic once more, Luna funnelled the cloud of metal into a narrower column before hurtling it towards Reverberating Infamy, who had been watching the whole battle with wide eyes.
Seeing the storm of steel that was rapidly descending upon him, the Overlord of Las Pegasus extended a wing over his head to shield himself. Unlike most wing armour that only covered the top edge of the wing, his armour covered the entirety of his wing, feathers included. Allowing it to effectively act as a shield.
However, the efficacy of the Kinetic Absorption enchantments of his armour was soon put to the test as a shower of metal rained down upon him. Hundreds of projectiles bounced off his translucent magical shield as he strained beneath the force of the impacts.
Just as it looked like the raider leader would survive unharmed, the very last object finally stuck. A massive steel anvil, approximately the mass of an adult pony.
“Gah!” The pegasus yelped as a sickening crack echoed and his broken wing fell limply at his side.
“Thunder Hoof, Destroy her!” The raider ordered through gritted teeth.
The enormous, heavily clad pony simply nodded before summoning a powerful gust of wind with his pegasus magic to propel him towards Luna.
Not expecting him to charge directly at her, the former princess could only manage to raise a hasty, weak shield in her defence that promptly shattered under the heavy blow from Thunder Hoof's warhammer and sent Luna reeling.
Micro-teleporting a few metres away saved the disguised alicorn from a follow-up slash by the raider's wingblade.
Undeterred, the heavily armoured raider surged towards Luna’s new position. However, the former princess was more prepared this time and an intense flash of white light detonated from the tip of her horn, blinding Thunder Hoof and causing his hammer strike to miss widely.
Luna tried to grip him in her telekinesis but her magic failed to find purchase on his enchanted armour and simply slipped off, as though he was covered in grease.
Snorting in irritation, the disguised alicorn resorted to a more physical approach as wound back her hoof before using her earth pony strength to deliver a devastating blow to the side of the disorientated raider's head.
CLANG
The impact rang out as her metal shoe dented the pegasus's helmet. That strike would have killed a lesser pony. However, Thunder Hoof's immense fortitude and enchantment meant that the punch merely staggered and concussed him.
Not allowing a golden opening to go to waste, Luna unleashed a point-blank magical blast at the raider's torso and sent him sprawling a dozen
metres away.
“ANSWER ME! WHERE IS IT?”
SLAP
The former princess heard the Overlord yell from across the market as he continued his interrogation and struck the mayor across the face once more.
Luna couldn't help her though. She had more immediate issues. Such as three of the pegasi soldiers who broke rank upon seeing one of their superiors laid low and were now rushing to join the fight.
The alicorn aimed her horn and sent a lethal bolt of arcane lightning towards the first raider killing him. The other two hesitated, giving Luna all the opportunity she needed to unleash a death-beam and a telekinetic crush.
Turning around to finish off the final member of the Overlord's elite guard, Luna froze upon hearing a voice that she instantly recognised.
“LEAVE HER ALONE!” Screamed Windy as she falcon dived from on high and tried to tackle Reverberating Infamy away from her mother. However, the air around the Overlord shimmered and most of the force behind the filly's attack was dissipated by his magical shield. The golden-armoured stallion staggered to the side but suffered no real injury from her attack.
Windy saw the condition that Wind Chill was in and gasped.
“Mother?”
Enraged, she launched herself at one of the pegasi restraining her mother. However, with a twirl of his functional wing, Reverberating Infamy caught Windy in midair inside of a magical vortex and slammed her into the ground.
The filly tried to stand back up but the stallion placed his hoof on her withers and forced her back down to the ground, pinning her in place.
“You will not lay a hoof on her, or else!” Wind Chill threatened as she fought against the grip of the soldiers holding her.
Reverberating Infamy grinned smugly as he unfurled a windblade from his uninjured wind and placed its tip to the back of Windy's head.
“Or what? I've already won.” He challenged mockingly.
The adrenaline-fueled rage that overtook Wind Chill at that moment was a sight to behold as, with physical strength that belied her battered body, she tore her wing free from the restraint of the soldier on her right. With masterful control over her pegasus magic, she froze the tips of her primary feathers in hardened, sharpened ice and slashed the raider's throat.
The pegasus released Wind Chill, grasping at his bleeding neck. She instantly whirled around to slash at the face of the soldier holding her on her left, causing him to howl in pain and release her as well.
With not a second to lose, she flicked her wing at Reverberating Infamy, launching the sharpened icicles at the blade held to her daughter's neck, knocking it aside.
The Overlord looked surprised and angry at the unfolding events but not particularly scared as he simply reached into the folds of his armour and retrieved what looked like a metal baton with a pointed tip.
“WIND CHILL, DON'T” Luna shouted at the mayor in warning.
The former princess had been beset by the remnants of the soldiers guarding the market square and unable to help the mother and daughter. However, now that she pushed them and turned her full attention to the battle between Wind Chill and Reverberating Infamy, her blood turned to ice at the information that her magical senses related to her.
The enchanted weapon held by the Overlord was not as it appeared.
The mayor either didn't hear her warning or was too furious to care and launched herself at the stallion with a ferocity only achievable by an enraged mother trying to protect her child.
Reverberating Infamy merely smiled as he triggered the extension mechanism on the retractable spear, causing the weapon to extend to tenfold its length in an instant, impaling the charging mare.
“NOOOOOOO!” Windy screamed in anguish as the spear retracted and her mother fell to the floor, nursing grievous injuries.
Luna saw red as she lowered her horn and prepared to unleash a devastating blast of concentrated magic onto the Overlord.
However, the moment before she fired, a bone-shattering impact from a warhammer sent her reeling. Her spell went wide and obliterated the second floor of a building on the far side of the market.
“Forget about little old me?” Thunder Hoof inquired in a sickly-sweet, mocking tone.
Standing up despite the pain of several cracked ribs, Luna lit her horn menacingly. She didn't want this battle to continue for a second longer than absolutely necessary, so she decided to employ a slightly riskier strategy involving illusions.
With a flash of her horn, Luna engulfed the market in a bright flash of light. When Thunder Hoof's vision returned to him, twenty clones of the irritatingly powerful Mage surrounded him on all sides.
Knowing that he couldn't allow the unicorn time to cook up a more potent spell, he surged forward like a tornado of steel and cut down illusion after illusion that vanished upon impact with his hammer or wingblades.
Slashing through the final clone, he didn't see the invisible alicorn as she stabbed her horn into a gap in the stallion’s neck armour and fired a magical beam that decapitated him instantly.
Dismissing her invisibility, Luna rounded upon the Overlord.
The golden-armoured stallion stood ready to face her, a small crossbow in his hoof. Further away, Windy was restrained to the floor by two raiders as she sobbed and angrily shouted obscenities at them.
Luna started to walk towards him, her horn igniting with immense power. The lowly soldiers looked afraid and ready to flee but Reverberating Infamy bore an insufferably smug grin that boiled her blood.
“Nowhere to run now,” Luna stated with malice.
“Why would I flee from my impending victory?” The Overlord asked in a gloating tone.
The alicorn's horn flared as pooled at least twice the magic that she had used in her first attack against him.
The pegasus made a mistake when he allowed his guards to drag Windy away from his proximity. There was no reason to hold back now. It wouldn't matter what sort of armour he wore or what enchantments he had.
Luna would obliterate him.
Chuckling, Reverberating Infamy simply raised his crossbow and aimed. Loaded was a bolt of blackened steel, whose slick reflection almost seemed to shine with iridescence.
Alarm bells erupted at the back of Luna’s mind at the sight of the arrow. However, her memory failed her as to why.
Trusting her cautious instincts, the alicorn diverted magic away from her ‘Obliteration’ Spell and created a powerful shield in front of her. The strongest that she had erected that night.
The bolt knocked loose and flew towards the former princess, impacting her shield. However, instead of being stopped, the black bolt punched through her shield as though it didn't exist and embedded itself in Luna’s chest, piercing multiple vital organs.
The alicorn gasped in shock as she collapsed onto her haunches. Staring down in disbelief at the half of the bolt protruding out of her chest.
“I was saving that Quellium Steel bolt for a rainy day. It was my only one, you know. You should feel honoured that I deemed it necessary to use it on you, they are very rare and I would have much preferred it if…” Reverberating Infamy started to gloat but Luna stopped listening after a few sentences.
Quellium Steel…
The famed magic killer from the days of the Pony Imperium. Its alchemical recipe, lost to time. She should have recognised it sooner.
Fear started to set in as her shock wore off and she could feel the blood soak into her fur as it poured from her wound. She tried to telekinetically pull the arrow out but her magic couldn't grip the Quellium Steel and more concerning was the pain that flared in her horn when she tried to cast magic.
Flakes of Quellium were already leaching into her blood, polluting the biological pathways that transferred magical energy within her body and inhibiting her magic. Her cracked ribs erupted in agony as her magical, earth pony fortitude began to wane.
The bolt was poisoning her. Poisoning her body. Poisoning her magic. Soon it would kill her.
She needed to get it out…
She needed to get it out!
Get it out!
Get it out!
GET IT OUT!
GET IT OUT!
Fear turned into panic as the gravity of the situation started to dawn on Luna. Forgoing any magic at all, the former princess grasped the bolt with both of her hooves and physically tore the accursed thing out.
Luckily, the unbarbed tip came out easily. However, a deluge of arterial spray flooded from the open wound as soon as she did so. She desperately tried to cast a healing spell on the wound but the Quellium Poisoning already saturated into the surrounding flesh prevented any magical healing. She resorted to quickly pressing one of her hooves against her chest to stem the bleeding, but that accomplished little except drenching her hoof in blood.
‘It must have struck an artery!’ Luna thought with no small amount of fear.
A mere unicorn would have been killed by the strike. However, even diminished by poisoning, the regeneration capabilities of alicorns were immense. So long as she didn't bleed out, she would be able to heal… eventually. Her body could filter out the toxins and repair internal bleeding, but unless she stopped rapidly haemorrhaging, she would die.
“You're looking a bit pale there, little unicorn. You probably don't have much time now.” The Overlord laughed in mockery. Windy looked on with abject horror.
Luna’s resolve hardened at the taunts. She would not give him the satisfaction of watching her bleed out in the street like a lame dog being put down.
Fueled by rage and defiance, she moved her hoof away from the wound and focused her attention on the metal horseshoe at its underside. The former princess ignited her horn to create a spell matrix. However, the act of funnelling magic to her horn felt like she was trying to push molten lead through her veins. It was agonising.
Nevertheless, she managed to cast her spell and soon her horseshoe began to glow an incandescent red as it heated up to immense temperatures. Specially enchanted for extreme durability, the steel shoe held its shape, even as it started to sear the unfeeling keratin of her hoof.
Steeling her nerves, she stamped her hoof against her chest to cauterise her wound.
“Nnnnhhhhhggggg!” Luna whined pitifully as the metal scorched her chest.
Peeling her hoof off of the blackened, U-shaped scar that had been branded into her skin, Luna set it to the ground, almost igniting a broken plank of wood under her in the process.
Panting in pain and exertion, the alicorn stood up onto trembling hooves. Her fractured ribs made the action almost unbearable but she endured regardless.
Luna took a shaky step forward and lit her horn with a menacing glow, trying her best to ignore the feeling of hot knives being driven into her skull as she did so. She didn't bother with any sort of structure or matrix, she was too angry and in too much pain to care.
As an alicorn, she had an immense amount of magic at her disposal at all times. Far beyond the pale of regular ponies, even if she didn't always have the time or space to properly form a spell to harness it. However, magic didn't always need a spell structure to be utilised. Sometimes uncontrolled brute force was a valid strategy.
As the swirling maelstrom of magical energy pooled around her horn, Reverberating Infamy took a step backwards in retreat. He had been frozen, watching with dread and befuddlement as the supposedly doomed unicorn rose and marched towards him with murder in her eyes. Pegasi had drastically less developed magical senses compared to unicorns but even he could feel the power that was rapidly accumulating around the horn of the unicorn.
For the first time in a great many years…
…the Overlord of Las Pegasus felt afraid.
Standing a dozen paces before him, the impossibly tall mare seemed to loom over him like a dark goddess of destruction and ruin.
“You should have aimed for the head.”
And with that, Luna unleashed her magic upon the raider. The formless, directionless mass of magical energy bent to the imperious will of its wielder, directing it towards a singular goal:
The complete and utter annihilation of the being that lay before it.
Every pony in the market was blinded by the glaring flash that erupted from Luna’s horn as a bolt of lightning larger, hotter and more potent than any before witnessed in the history of pegasi kind, crossed the distance between the two rulers in a blind of an eye and impacted the Overlord with the force of an erupting volcano.
His armour’s enchantments lit up in a vain attempt to shield him before they crumpled beneath an unrelenting avalanche of energy. There was no possible defence as the pegasus was consumed by the magic.
As the blinding light cleared, the only thing that remained of the raider leader was a twitching, wheezing pile of flesh and melted gold that only superficially resembled a pony.
The resolve of the remaining soldiers finally broke as they abandoned their positions, retrieved their fallen leader, as well as any wounded comrades they could and fled to the safety of their cloud city.
With no pony restraining her, Windy rushed over to her mother's body, cradling it in her grasp as she sobbed.
Utterly physically, mentally and magically exhausted, Luna's legs gave way and she collapsed to the ground.
Drifting in and out of consciousness as she struggled to catch her breath with blood filling her slowly healing lungs, the disguised alicorn faintly noticed as the intensity of the rain increased tenfold. With the fleeing pegasi no longer maintaining control of the weather over the town, the storm bore down upon Valley Dale in full. Fires were drowned beneath the deluge and the blood staining the streets was washed away.