Twilight didn’t fall for long before she landed on a leathery surface. Below her, where an instant before there had only been jagged rocks and sparkling waves, there was now a full-grown dragon soaring over the ocean.
What’s going on? she thought desperately. Where had this dragon come from?
Twilight lost her balance upon landing on the huge purple wing and tumbled down toward the center of the dragon’s back. She rolled to a stop next to a line of triangular green spines and her jaw dropped in shock.
“Spike?” she asked.
The dragon craned its snakelike neck around to look at the tiny pony on its back.
“Twilight!” it replied, and Twilight’s suspicions were confirmed, however ridiculous they were. “Rarity’s okay! And we found the princesses! They’re in a magic force-field cage deep under the palace dungeons. I tried to save them and got trapped too, but Luna sent me into your dream to save you!”
“Spike, I don’t believe it!” Twilight exclaimed. “You’re a full-grown dragon!”
At this, Twilight thought she detected a blush appear in Spike’s purple cheeks.
“Uh, yeah…” he replied sheepishly, “sometimes I dream I’m all grown up.”
“But Spike,” Twilight continued, “you shouldn’t have come. I have to sacrifice my life to save Ponyville.” She attempted to stand up and run to the edge of Spike’s wing, but Spike raised the tips of his wings and Twilight couldn’t help but trip and roll back to the center of his back.
“Twilight, stop it!” Spike snapped. “I can’t let you die! We have to defeat Styxon!”
“Spike, there’s no way to stop him!” Twilight protested. “I’m clearly no match for him, and I know you’re a full-grown dragon now, but you’re like a butterfly compared to an ursa major!”
Spike gave an offended sniff, and then said, “Come on Twilight, I thought you would’ve been able to figure this out. Who here has enough power to defeat an ursa major?”
Twilight was silent for a long moment before she answered, “Styxon?”
“Right!” Spike said. “Maybe we can’t defeat him, but we can make him destroy himself!”
Twilight was silent for an even longer moment. Finally she said, “Wow, Spike. I wouldn’t have expected to hear that from you.”
Spike curved in a huge arc over the ocean, back toward the furious ursa major. “Twilight, it’s our only choice. If we don’t stop Styxon, it’ll mean the end of Ponyville as we know it!”
“Okay, okay!” Twilight said. She had heard that phrase more times in the past few hours than she would have liked.
Spike began swooping toward and darting away from the ursa major, attempting to draw it closer to the edge of the cliff. The massive bear stood up on its hind legs and swiped at Spike with paws the size of the royal palace towers. Although it continued to miss, the resulting air currents caused Spike to tumble through the air. Twilight clung to his back, fearing she would be flung off.
Styxon was nearing the edge of the cliff, but even in his rage toward Spike and Twilight, he seemed to be keeping his footing in mind.
“We’ve got to distract him somehow!” Spike yelled over his shoulder.
“I’m thinking!” Twilight yelled back. How could she use what she knew about Styxon against him? What had Luna told her that could be of use? In the dream world, Styxon has the power to change his form. You should be able to shapeshift too…
Twilight got an idea.
She would have liked to have had time to practice before attempting a skill she had never tried before, and her entire plan rested on something she only suspected about Styxon, but under the circumstances, she could come up with no better ideas.
“I’ve got an idea!” she announced.
“Then do it!” Spike shouted, diving to avoid a building-sized paw. “You’re our only hope!”
Styxon Stones was furious.
The second-most powerful unicorn in Equestria was going to escape. It was impossible! He had the huge advantage of size and immense power. He had not expected Twilight to be willing to sacrifice her life for the sake of Ponyville. It definitely wasn’t something he would have done. But thanks to her foolish selflessness, he would be unable to capture her and command her power.
As Twilight leaped off the cliff, Styxon scrambled to a stop and let out an earth-shaking roar of frustration. A moment later, he watched in surprise as a large purple dragon soared up from below the edge of the cliff, with Twilight riding on his back. No doubt this was some incarnation of the irritating little dragon who had mistrusted him from the very beginning.
Styxon no longer cared about capturing Twilight alive. His most base animalistic instincts took over, and he decided that he wanted nothing more than to kill this nuisance of a unicorn, and her little dragon too.
Spike was a large dragon, but he was still no bigger than one of Styxon’s massive paws. He was no more a threat to an ursa major than a hummingbird would be to a normal-sized bear. With one well-placed swing, Styxon would be able to break every bone in the dragon’s body and send him and Twilight plummeting into the ocean.
Styxon swiped at Spike, claws outstretched. But the dragon was nimble, and managed to dart out of the way before swooping in again. This continued for a while, and Styxon became increasingly frustrated.
He glanced down to make sure both feet were still safe on the multi-colored grass, and when he looked up again he could not believe his eyes. Twilight was no longer riding the purple dragon. In her place, there was now another unicorn, a unicorn who couldn’t possibly be there, a unicorn with snow-white fur and eyes the color of the evening sky.
The one unicorn he couldn’t bring himself to harm.
Rarity.
Styxon couldn’t tear his gaze away. How could she be here? It was impossible!
He took a reflexive, longing step forward to follow the beautiful unicorn, and in his lingering shock, neglected to watch his footing. The edge of the cliff crumbled under his immense weight, and he lost his balance, toppling forward over the edge.
It was a fall of a hundred thousand feet to the choppy waves below. As the surface of the water rushed up at him, the reflected sunlight filled his vision, becoming the flickering flames of the fires of his own creation, from which there was no escape.
***
Twilight and Spike watched the ursa major lose its footing and slowly topple over the edge of the cliff like a mountain crumbling into the sea.
“What did you do?” Spike asked.
“I became…Rarity,” Twilight murmured.
“You did what?” Spike exclaimed, craning his neck around to get a glimpse of Twilight.
“He actually cared about her…” Twilight said softly.
Then she was hit by an intense fear that was not her own. It filled and overwhelmed her mind to the point of becoming unbearable, until with a massive explosion of a splash, the ursa major hit the water and the sense of fear suddenly left, replaced by a glorious emptiness. Twilight only now realized how wrong it felt to have somepony intruding in her mind, and welcomed the sense of freedom that came when the intruder’s mind winked out of existence.
Meanwhile, Spike was flapping madly in an attempt to rise beyond the erupting geyser, but the water soon overtook him. Twilight lost her grip on Spike’s back and tumbled through the air. She sputtered as she fell, trying to breath what was no longer air. And then all she knew was water.
***
Pinkie Pie emptied a bucket of water over Twilight’s face.
“Pinkie, no!” Fluttershy protested. “Isn’t there a nicer way to wake her up?”
Her concerned face soon broke into a grin as Twilight awoke, coughing and sputtering.
“Twilight! You’re alive!” Fluttershy exclaimed.
Twilight raised her head, eyes still shut tight. She wasn’t ready to take in the reality that just a few yards away lay the body of a unicorn she killed.
“I killed him,” she mumbled.
“What are you talkin’ about, Twiligh’?” Applejack’s voice asked.
“Everything will be okay now,” Fluttershy said softly. “You saved Ponyville.”
“She saved all of Equestria!” Pinkie Pie piped up.
Twilight cracked open an eye and immediately wanted to shut it again. Beyond her giddy circle of friends, she caught a glimpse of Styxon’s form sprawled on the ground.
“Hey, she’s back!” Rainbow Dash remarked. “It’s about time!”
“What happened?” Fluttershy asked tentatively. “How did you survive?”
“I killed him,” Twilight repeated softly. “He had one redeemable quality, and I used it to destroy him…”
“Yer talkin’ crazy, Twiligh’,” Applejack said. “He woulda killed ya if you didn’t get ‘im first. Yer lucky t’ be alive.”
“We have to give him a proper burial,” Twilight said.
“What?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “He tried to destroy Ponyville! We don’t owe him anything!”
“Call me crazy,” Twilight continued, “but as heartless as Styxon may have seemed, I think he genuinely cared about Rarity, and instead of trying to bring out that side of him, I turned it against him.”
After a brief pause, Rainbow Dash said bluntly, “You’re crazy.”
“Please, listen to me,” Twilight entreated. “For a moment in there, our minds were connected. I felt his fear and his passion, and I felt him die because of me. The least I can do is to give him a proper burial.”
“The least you can do is nothing—“ Rainbow Dash countered, but Fluttershy interrupted her.
“This is Twilight’s decision,” Fluttershy spoke up. “If she wants to bury Styxon, then we should let her. And then we can restore Equestria to how it was before."
***
The sphere that imprisoned Celestia, Luna, and Spike dissolved and disappeared. After falling a few yards, the princesses opened their wings and Luna plucked a drowsy Spike out of the air. Celestia and Luna then joined Rarity, and began to ascend the long stone staircase. Finally they arrived in the palace dungeons, where they discovered a baby phoenix rising from the ashes.