//------------------------------// // Chapter 13: Confrontation // Story: The Equestrian Intelligence Agency // by General Soarin //------------------------------// Laurence Royal Palace, Canterlot, Equestria 6 Hours After Launch Of Operation Harmony (Mitsubishi) Holding back a surprised gasp, Celestia turned to face Laurence fully. “Well, we finally meet, Laurence. You DO know that official meeting times are over?” she stated with a superior tone in her voice. Laurence just snorted before starting to chuckle. His chuckling got louder and louder until he was fully laughing at Celestia. “Do you still think you can pull this with me, Celestia?” he taunted. Then his demeanor started to get slightly different...like he just became a predator just waiting for his prey to be captured and killed. “You know how easy it was to make this meeting here happen? Nopony around, and you are as harmless as you ever will be, simply perfect.” Starting to frown at Laurence’s laugh and only frowning deeper and deeper with his words, Celestia stood up. “So you think I’m defenseless just because I’m taking a bath? Or because there are no guards around? Don’t you forget who you are talking with!” She rose to the air with a few flaps of her wings, conveniently aligning herself with the rising sun. The sun seemed to shine brighter behind her, blinding Laurence for a moment, as Celestia dried herself with the rays of her sun. Then she leveled a cruel smile towards Laurence. “You know,” she began to boast “it has been such an awful long time before somepony was dumb enough to simply attack me. I hardly get any chance to fight anymore. I should thank you. How about you choose the way you die afterwards? Do you want to die like your parents by unicorn squad? Or perhaps something exotic like being fed to Cerberus?” Quickly getting outraged, Laurence shouted “You will pay for that! Do you think I didn’t prepare? I will show you that your powers are worth nothing against my rage!” He then smiled evilly and pushed a button on his belt he wore. Suddenly Celestia felt weaker. Like a lot weaker. Her form began to shrink forcefully until she was just as big as anypony else and her powers...her powers! They were leaving her! Falling to the ground she managed to wheeze out “How did you...?” while glaring at Laurence. If there was one thing she despised it was being weak! How dare that little unicorn do that to her? “How fitting. An alicorn, all sprawled before me on the ground. Tell me, Celestia, how does it feel to be weak? To be powerless? That nothing what you do matters? Right now you are feeling what I felt. The same hopelessness. The same weakness. Do you like that? That was the result of your actions. You didn’t like the Lau-theory? Well, right now you are getting weaker because of it!” Laurence slowly trotted closer, enjoying this situation immensely. Finally he could act on his revenge! Closing in on her he lowered his head to her ear “You know, I have all the Elements in my hoof now. Did you know how easy it was to break Twilight? All the colts at the barracks greatly enjoyed her efforts she provided for us. She even stopped crying after a few days. You should see the look in her eyes. Nothing...as if her mentor simply abandoned her. And you know what? You did. If you had taken better care of your student, this would never have happened.” The princess of the sun was seething. How did this...this peasant talk down to her? And what he did to Twilight was inexcusable! Seeing him so close she tensed and after his last word her forehoof stuck out and caught him at his throat. While that bastard staggered back coughing, Celestia struggled to stay up. This...Lau energy draining her felt terrible but if one thing was certain then this: Laurence was going to die today. Celestia drew all her energy into her horn, before charging up a large beam of magical energy to launch at Laurence. The black unicorn recovered, and quickly charged up a beam of his own. Both ponies shouted, and launched their magical beams at each other, both beams connecting violently, as it became a battle to overcome the other’s magical energy. However, it didn’t take long for Laurence to overpower her, and she felt herself flying towards the bathtub, crashing violently into it and spilling a lot of water over the floor. A huge wave of pain washed over the Princess, and her breaths started coming out in shallow breaths. Laurence slowly walked over to Celestia, before laughing again. “Did you really think you could win, you whorse?” Laurence boasted proudly. He reared back to finish Celestia with one last shot before he was suddenly tackled from the side! Neighing in surprise and groaning as he hit the wall, Laurence shook his head. What had happened just now? All he saw was blue... Snapping back into focus he finally saw a wheezing but incredibly fierce looking Rainbow Dash on him, with a hoof prepared to strike. Snatching the Pegasus in his magical aura before the hit connected, Laurence couldn’t help but smirk. The final element was finally his! Preparing a teleportation of Dash got interrupted as Laurence had to strike a bolt of lightning! Looking up he frowned as he saw a rain cloud drifting over him. Looking back down above it was Spitfire. But just as Laurence started shooting his magic at that annoying mare, he was hoofed from his side. Apparently Celestia had struggled to launch one final attack and then fell over, knocked out. The now released Rainbow Dash walked over to her princess, and checked if she was okay. And just as Laurence was ready to attack the two of them, Spitfire rammed him from behind. Tumbling into the two other ponies, all Laurence could make out was a flurry of yellow and blue hooves. He was actually a little hurt right now. Using an aggressive blast, he forced all the other ponies off him. Celestia got thrown at a wall and Rainbow Dash and Spitfire flew into the next room. In that room stood an incredibly enormous bed in which Dash was crashed into. Spitfire wasn’t so lucky - she crashed against a nightstand. Groaning, the Wonderbolt stood up and still dodged the next three magic shots from Laurence’s horn. The fourth though caught her and hurled her against the wall. And then she was blasted by magic over and over again. Spitfire saw Laurence talking something but through all her pain and the black haze of his magic, she was unable to hear anything he said. As he let up, Spitfires whole body screamed of pain. Every muscle seemed torn and her wings were bent at unnatural angles and some of her fur was missing. Before she was finished sliding down the wall, Laurence’s magic caught her again, this time with Dash at her side. Laurence’s laugh was malicious as he looked at the two broken mares. “And now we see how much pain you can really endure.” he told them. Both mares braced themselves, when they suddenly heard a crash. All three ponies turned to see a pegasus dressed in black armor crash through the balcony window, before landing with a thump on the floor. The newcomer was silent for a few moments, before suddenly unsheathing their hoofblades. “Time to die Laurence.”