//------------------------------// // 3. Point of No Return // Story: The Return of Tambelon // by RainbowDoubleDash //------------------------------// For the barest moment there was little but heat and light and the absolute certainty on Ditzy’s part that she was going to die – but then… Ditzy opened one eye, then the other. She was holding onto her friends tightly, and they were holding onto her. Something felt off, though…like she was looking at a dream… She and her friends looked between one another. “We’re…okay?” Trixie asked. “I don’t know…” Ditzy said, putting a hoof to her chest. “Everything seems – ” She saw movement out of the corner of her eyes, and turned quickly – then gasped. They were in a city. A full, intact city, with tall buildings made of stone and decorated with gold and gemstones, with roofs that were either sloped and tiled to catch rain water, or else topped with domes shaped like upturned onions. And this city was bustling, alive – equine beings trotted back and forth and all around, dressed in long, multicolored, intricately woven robes and with their heads wrapped in turbans and the poorest amongst them wearing more jewelry than Ditzy had ever seen in one place. They weren’t quite pony in shape – they were a little taller, with longer ears and muzzles, thicker fur, and a slight tendency towards bucked teeth – these were donkeys, talking and trotting and buying and selling and looking vibrant and alive. “E…excuse me?” Ditzy asked, reaching out for the nearest one, a jenny, “Excuse me, where are we – ” Ditzy’s hoof passed straight through the jenny like she wasn’t even there. Ditzy yelped, backing away – right into, and through, another donkey. She beat her wings in panic, taking to the air, and saw that Raindrops had done likewise, her own eyes wide in shock. Ditzy’s land-bound friends, meanwhile, had bunched back together in shock, even as the donkeys of the city street continued to trot through them like they weren’t even there. “What’s happened?” Cheerilee demanded, grabbing onto the nearest pony, Lyra, tightly. “We’re not – we’re not dead, are we? Not ghosts?” “I have a pulse,” Trixie said, one hoof at her neck. “My heart’s beating…I don’t think I’m dead…” she looked around a few moments, eyes growing somehow wider. “These are donkeys…this is a city full of donkeys. I…I don’t think we’re the ghosts…” Ditzy swallowed at that, flying higher to get a look around. She saw that the city was behind four sturdy, broad walls, and that beyond it was settled farmland, a dozen farming villages in easy sight, and beyond them, the sea, blue water stretching for miles in every direction. Ditzy let herself fall back down to the ground, to her friends. “This is Tambelon,” she said. “Tambelon, how it used to be.” “But why are we – ” Carrot Top began. She was interrupted, however, by a sudden loud shout, a proclamation of some kind. The six turned in its direction, and saw that the ponies on the street were beginning to part, getting out of the way for a procession of some kind of guard, marching ahead of a golden, covered palanquin, and ahead of the guard a herald of some kind. “Ngasilaken!” the herald was calling. “Ngasilaken kanggo pangeran!” “What’s he saying?” Ditzy asked. With the street around them clear, the six at least no longer had donkeys walking straight through them. “I don’t know, I don’t speak Donkey,” Cheerilee said. None of the others did, either – donkeys weren’t very common in Equestria’s central or northern reaches. Not that it likely would have mattered, as all six had accepted that this was Tambelon as it had once been. Two thousand years of language evolution would have stood between them and intelligibility. “Pangeran kang?” one of the donkeys, a jack, asked the herald as he approached. “Bray,” the herald returned. He was wearing a very forced smile on his face, and clearly had little joy in telling the donkey whatever he had. The jack, for his part, sniffed a little, a look of displeasure coming over his features, then turned and trotted down a side-street and away from the procession – though not before stopping to use his hind hooves to kick some dirt in the way of the procession. None of the donkeys noticed, save the herald, who simply let out a sigh, then continued. The covers of the palanquin were opened, and the six ponies got their first look at whoever it was that was inside. He was a donkey, though that was hardly surprising, and was the most overdressed, wealthiest one they had seen yet – his turban was studded with rubies, his clothing looked woven from gold and diamonds, and he wore a bright red sash tied about his midsection, into which was tucked a curved, ceremonial-looking knife. He waved to the crowd, but the smile he wore was even more forced than that of his herald, and seemed to hide great disgust for everything he saw around him. “Sugeng enjang, warga saka Tambelon!” He called from the palanquin. The donkeys waved and bowed before him – though rose quickly when he was no longer looking at them. The palanquin-bound donkey seemed to pay them no mind, instead holding up a hoof. “Ana wong aku kaya sampeyan ketemu…” The donkey waved a hoof at something behind his palanquin, which had been out-of-sight of the six ponies. That something now stepped into view, and Ditzy found herself wondering how she could have missed it. He was a ram – the tallest ram that Ditzy had ever seen, easily as tall as Corona, if not slightly more. His coat was the white of snow, his beard elegantly trimmed, his horns curved and well-polished and filed. In stark contrast to the sheer wealth and grandeur of all the donkeys surrounding him, he wore nothing save for a plain, if fine, travelling cloak, a collar from which hung a brass bell, and a pair of travelling bags that looked laden with books. His eyes were green and sharp, taking everything in. Ditzy’s first thought, on seeing the ram, was to think that this was Grogar. But he looked nothing like what Ditzy had been expecting – nothing like the necromancer responsible for the deaths of thousands. He looked less like an evil overlord, and more like he belonged hoofing out presents to foals on Hearth’s Warming Eve. The palanquin-bound donkey waved a hoof over the ram, who bowed to the crowd. “Iki,” the donkey said, “Grogar.” “What?” Raindrops asked. “That – no. That can’t possibly be Grogar.” “Looks aren’t everything…” Cheerilee began. Even as she said that, however, the world began to grow indistinct and fuzzy. Ditzy felt herself swooning, and she looked to her friends, who were similarly beginning to stumble, and fall, and… And Ditzy woke up lying on her side, a shimmering blue field around her holding back thick, black smoke, and silhouetted within the smoke, something black, alicorn-shaped, and with glowing white eyes. --- Celestia’s wings were tensed and horn already glowing, ready and waiting to strike at the first sign of trouble as she orbited around the column of smoke that marked where she had set off a fireball right on top of her sister, a fireball that had been supplemented by a blast of Solrath’s own breath. The two were making long, lazy circles around the blast area She had no doubt that Luna had survived – but what of the corrupted Elements…? There was a gust of wind, and the black smoke from Celestia’s fireball was dissipated, revealing an alicorn with a single wing spread, covered head to hoof in black soot, though the force of another wing-sweep brushed all the detritus off of her and into the wind. Luna glared upwards, at Celestia and Solrath. At her hooves, the six Element-bearers were encased in shimmering sphere of blue magic, fallen but unburned, and still breathing. They were slowly coming-to, in fact, and beginning to stand and take stock of the situation. “Again!” Solrath exclaimed, inhaling, then letting loose a straight line of flame hotter than the surface of Celestia’s Sun. Luna’s horn glowed and conjured a shield before the Element-bearers, blocking the fire; then, in another moment, she was there, beside Solrath and driving her hooves into his sternum. The dragon roared in pain as he was sent flying away. Celestia wasted no time, however – her telekinesis reached out and wrapped Luna in a white glow. Her younger sister cried out as Celestia turned and beat her wings, flying away from Tambelon, dragging Luna after her. She could banish her sister to the Moon easily enough, but it would take time – time enough for the Elements to gather power to be used against her. Conversely, she could not focus solely on the Elements, for last time she had tried, they had protected their bearers against everything she had thrown against them while they gathered power. One problem at a time. Celestia stopped over the open ocean, drew Luna close, and then bucked her sister down. The column of water that rose stretched a hundred feet into the air as Celestia dived after her sister. Luna could breathe water, of course, but the transition from air to liquid was never a pleasant one and it would distract her – A blue-tinged hoof connected solidly with Celestia’s face and sent her flying from the water and into the air. Rather than spending a few seconds choking on water, it seemed, Luna had just held her breath. Celestia checked her ascent, reaching out with telekinesis again. A burst of Luna’s own telekinesis collided with Celestia’s horn, however, disrupting her magic. Celestia lashed out with flame, but Luna teleported out of the way, and sent a sharp gust of wind Celestia’s way that would have hewn stone in half. Celestia rolled out of its path, then dove forward, driving her front hooves into Luna’s chest. Luna cried out in pain, but brought her own hooves down on Celestia’s neck. The white alicorn plummeted from the sky and into the water. Rage gripped Celestia then, as the flames of her mane and tail and, indeed, her entire body, flash-boiled the water around her as she rose, launching a beam of fire and heat straight up. Luna avoided it, but only barely, and her feathers were singed on the way. Celestia once again reached out telekinetically, and managed to snag Luna again. She slammed her into the water’s surface – at these speeds, with this much force, the water might as well have been stone – then lifted her, then brought her down again, then a third time, before holding her atop the water. Celestia grinned slightly as she spread her wings wide. “This is familiar, sister,” she said. “Half a year ago we stood as we do now – you, helpless like before…and next…” Celestia began to gather power, power enough to force her sister into her Moon. Luna’s horn glowed midnight in response as a look of panic overcame her features, and she forced herself to her hooves despite the telekinetic aura, began to strain against it – and Celestia’s eyes widened in shock as Luna broke it, then dove down, into the water. “What?” Celestia demanded, pushing off from the ocean and ascending into the sky, glaring down at the water below. Luna had never been strong enough to break her telekinesis before – how had she… The pop of a teleporting body was all the warning Celestia got, but it was all she needed as she willed herself to teleport as well, only a few feet, but out of the way of Luna’s descending hoof. She lashed out with her own hoof, but Luna teleported again – then Celestia, again, as Luna again tried to strike her from behind, and Celestia responded in kind. The distances they teleported grew, neither able to land a blow on the other as they descended down, then across the water’s surface – into the beach of the island. Celestia’s last teleport carried her not into the air, but under the sand. When Luna stopped to try and find her, she rose quickly, fire and hoof striking Luna’s stomach and sending her into the air. But Luna, though caught by surprise, managed a strike of her own, bucking Celestia’s face, then, when she stopped her ascent, lashing out with a bolt of pure magical force that sent Celestia sprawling. --- Luna set herself back down on the beach while Corona picked herself back up, quickly taking up a position of standing tall and wings raised high. Luna’s own position was stooped down, ready to move, wings spread wide and out. Neither alicorn was breathing particularly heavy yet – they had not even begun to fight. Corona took a step forward to stand at an angle from Luna, as the flames on her mane and tail flared. Already the sand beneath her hooves was beginning to melt and burn, becoming blackened glass. Luna gave ground at Corona’s advance, keeping the same distance between them – both alicorns were too old, knew each other too well, to want to try and look tough in front of the other. The white alicorn was sneering, but Luna knew that the sneer was covering concern – she had expected to be able to banish Luna with no problems, but Luna had against all odds resisted the attempt. Corona would talk, therefore, buy time to come up with a plan. Luna had to keep her mind focused elsewhere… Corona opened her mouth. “I have a daughter. An alicorn daughter,” Luna interrupted before Corona could speak, trying the only thing she could think of: reaching out to her as her sister, setting aside title and rank and responsibility and simply trying to appeal to the bond they shared. “You’re an aunt.” Whatever Corona was going to say was lost at that. For a second - just a second – the glow of power left her eyes in surprise. “Impossible,” she declared at length. “Long did we try to produce children. Both of us. It never worked. The meek seed of a mortal stallion can find no purchase within us.” She leaned forward slightly, eyes narrowing. “You speak of the imposter sitting in Cavallia, no doubt. A mere shadow of a true alicorn – probably some hybrid creature you somehow endowed with immortality.” “She wasn’t born…normally,” Luna admitted, gritting her teeth and trying to let the slights against Cadance slide. She noted that Corona wasn’t using archaic Equestrian anymore – a good sign? She couldn’t tell. “The circumstances of her birth are…are complicated.” Luna glanced down for a moment. “She owes her existence to me, though, and she was once a part of me, but now isn’t. She was born from me. She’s my daughter by any measure, a true alicorn, strong and beautiful. Your niece.” Corona stared for several long moments, one eye narrowing slightly. “That explains her name,” she said. “Cadenza…Cavallian for Cadance. You wished to name any daughter of yours Cadance, I recall.” Luna felt a flutter in her chest. She remembered! More to the point, what she was saying – she believed when Luna said that Cadance was a true alicorn. Corona had listened to her. “Yes,” she said. “That’s...that’s her name. Cadance.” “She claimed to be me,” Corona said, stomping a hoof. Luna cast her mind back nearly a thousand years, remembering the one time that Cadance had met Corona, when the latter was still locked in the Sun. “She thought she was,” Luna tried. “I…didn’t raise her. She had been brought up thinking she was you, reborn. I told her the truth.” Luna took a step forward. Corona didn’t give ground – maybe, that was another good sign? Luna kept herself at the ready, regardless. “I…I only just recently told her that I was her mother. A mistake – I should have told her a thousand years ago. Like I should have been there for you, helped you when you needed it. I’ve made so many mistakes, but I’m starting to put them right.” Luna took another cautious step forward. “I want to help you, Tia.” Corona was silent for several long moments more, before turning her gaze once more to Luna, eyes narrowing as she shook her head. “When I have reclaimed my rightful crown, traitor, I shall afford her mercy, offer her a subordinate position to my throne. If forced, I shall banish her within the moon. I shall not slay her. But she will not stand in my way!” Luna blinked as the flutter in her chest turned rock-solid. Sometimes, she wasn’t sure why she let herself feel hope anymore. Her thoughts turned instead to the six ponies in the center of the island. Solrath would soon recover from the blow that Luna had landed upon him – and Luna had no idea what other surprises Corona had in store. Luna could afford to wait no longer. Her horn glowed, and she attacked. --- Trixie hadn’t even picked herself up when Luna had disappeared from her field of view in a flash. Overhead, Corona and a red dragon circled, but as Trixie watched, Luna appeared next to the dragon and landed a blow in the dragon’s sternum, the cracking sound reaching Trixie’s ears a second later and as loud as thunder. “Corona?” Raindrops exclaimed as she picked herself up, her and Ditzy’s wings both beating as they fought against their pegasus instincts to fly away, though they couldn’t stop themselves from launching into the air and hovering in place near their friends. For that matter, Trixie realized she was hopping from one leg from another as her own hindbrain inquired as to why she wasn’t running, either. As the six watched, the dragon began to fall, roaring in pain, while Luna had only a moment to turn to regard Corona before she was wrapped in a white aura, and dragged out of sight suddenly. They had little time to panic, however, as the dragon righted himself in the air and spread his wings wide, not in time to fly, but quickly enough to slow his fall. He still landed with an earth-shaking crash, one claw clutching at his chest where Luna had bucked him and not paying any attention to the ponies. Even from where he had landed, nearly halfway across the dirt field, he was huge – hundreds of feet from snout to tail-tip – and gradually, the look of pain on his face was turning to one of anger. “That, uh…” Raindrops noted, “that doesn’t look like Spike.” “Twilight said that Spike left Corona,” Trixie said, as the six began backing away very slowly from the dragon. “I…I guess Corona found a new dragon.” She remembered her saddlebags, and remembered that her Element of Magic was still in hers, due to it not being the lightest thing in the world to wear. She took it out and set it on her head now, though. “I think we should – ” “No, wait,” Cheerilee said. “Corona’s still around, and remember what happened the last time we used the Elements? We were knocked out for Stars know how long. We use these on him, and even if they do anything, if Corona comes around – ” “The Queen is not whom you should fear,” a new voice said, “when other threats lie so near.” Trixie froze, then glanced behind her. She found herself looking at a zebra, clad in a brown, hooded cloak, and with a staff with one crooked end slung over her back, and holding a pouch in one hoof. Before any of the six could react, Zecora flicked the contents of the pouch into the open air – a blue, sparkling powder that seemed lighter than air. She exhaled then, blowing it towards them, washing over them before they could do anything. They coughed at the dust, but Raindrops and Ditzy additionally let out cries of surprise as their wings suddenly froze up, and they fell to the ground. The powder dissipated in moments. Carrot Top and Trixie helped Raindrops and Ditzy back to their hooves. Each of them were looking to their wings in shock; they trembled, but couldn’t move. Even as they did, Zecora unslung the staff on her back, holding it in her front hooves as she reared back. Trixie noted that her cloak had several pockets in it, which looked filled to the brim with powders and potions. Raindrops tore her eyes from her wings, and glared at Zecora, starting forward, but Trixie stopped her with an outstretched hoof as she looked behind her. The dragon had gotten all four claws under him again, his breathing having returned to normal and his golden, blank eyes gazing in their direction. “No fighting, just running,” Trixie decided. Her friends needed little encouragement. They broke apart quickly, Trixie, Cheerilee, Raindrops, and Lyra moving to Zecora’s right, and Carrot Top and Ditzy to her left, confident that Zecora couldn’t possibly stop them. The six all knew what direction Tambelon’s main gate lay in, and they ran with all speed – A bottle of something red flew over Trixie’s head, towards the gate. Her other friends skidded to a halt just as the bottle touched down before it, shattered, and a red, hissing mist burst free. Trixie was slightly slower in stopping, and the tip of her tail hairs were caught in the edge of the mist – and began to burn, red licks of flame starting up. She let out a cry of fright at the sight, quickly wrapping her cape around her tail’s end and smothering the flames before they could start to burn something more than hair. She didn’t have time to do anything else as Cheerilee grabbed the collar of her cape and began dragging her backwards and away just as another incendiary bottle touched down right where she had been standing. Getting her hooves under her, the two of them managed to outrun the mist that spread from that attack as well. A glance at Zecora showed what the crooked end in her staff was for – she was using it to hold potions, then sling them with surprising accuracy. “Can’t run,” Cheerilee noted. The gate was completely blocked by incendiary mist. Trixie glanced at the dragon, who was now lumbering forward. “Can’t fight,” she responded, looking around. All the rest of her friends were still alright, but she didn’t have any chance to run up to them as the dragon began to inhale. Letting out a cry of fright, Trixie picked a direction and ran, Cheerilee going a different way. With a roar, the dragon exhaled a line of flame. Naturally, it struck the ground right behind Trixie, and began to follow her as she ran. She could feel the heat of it, and just knew that her tail was getting singed – nevertheless, she somehow managed to remain just ahead of it as the dragon finally ran out of breath, though not before it had left a hundred-yard line of charred earth following Trixie. With another roar, it charged after her. Trixie eeped as her horn glowed, and she flashed out of sight and changed direction. To her horror, however, the dragon didn’t slow down or seem fooled in the slightest – it could see through her invisibility as it swiped a claw. Trixie threw herself to the ground, front hooves holding her hat and the Element of Magic to her head as she did, and the claw missed her by mere inches. She rolled over just in time to see it raise its other claw and bring it down towards her, but it stopped suddenly, roaring in shock. It didn’t take Trixie long to see why – somehow, a certain magenta earth pony had climbed onto the dragon’s back and was even now scaling it, taking time as she did to drive a hoof down as hard as she could into its scales, apparently with enough force just enough to hurt it, however mildly. Trixie shook her head as she dispelled her apparently useless invisibility. One day, Cheerilee would have to tell her a little more about whatever it was she did before she was a school teacher. Standing, Trixie’s horn glowed brightly, and she launched illusory fireworks at the dragon’s right eye, then shielded her own eyes and set off one of her magnesium-flare spells right in front of its left, which was opposite Cheerilee. The dragon, however, didn’t even seem to notice, beyond glaring down at Trixie again with its blank, golden orbs – No, Trixie realized. Not quite blank; there was a vague outline of iris and pupil. Trixie’s eyes widened. “You’re blind!” she exclaimed. The dragon let out a slight grunt. Cheerilee had reached his shoulder, but he simply heaved himself backwards, then threw that shoulder forwards. Cheerilee went flying with a cry of fright, and it was all Trixie could do to use her telekinesis to slow her down so that, when she collided with the ground and skidded a further twenty feet, it was only painful, not bone-breaking. The dragon glared at Trixie – its eyes having no problem locking on to her. “Not entirely, little pony,” it rumbled, as Cheerilee picked herself off. She wobbled slightly, but otherwise seemed fine. “I can see you!” His head snapped forward, jaw open and exhaling flame. Trixie barely dived out of the way, then set off running again, Cheerilee close by. Trixie looked to her. “How’s everypony else doing?” she asked. Cheerilee glanced around, but a very large dragon was blocking most of her field of vision. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Trixie – remember what I said about the Elements?” Trixie offered a grim smile. “You take it back?” “I take it back,” Cheerilee confirmed. Both skidded to a halt – surprising the dragon pursuing them – and began running in the opposite direction, barely avoiding the dragon’s lashing tail. Zecora had been tying down the other four Elements with disheartening skill. Ditzy was stumbling from a cloud of green mist, coughing up a storm, while Carrot Top had stopped next to Lyra, who lay prone on the ground, breathing, but hooves on her ears and curled up like she was trying to withdraw herself from the world. Sheer numbers had apparently prevailed, however – as Trixie watched, Raindrops leapt at Zecora as the zebra tried to ready another, violet potion in her staff; she brought the staff up to block Raindrops’ blow. It didn’t break, but whatever potion she had been loading fell to the ground, though its container remained unharmed. From there, Zecora swiftly found herself on the defensive as Raindrops lashed out again and again with her hooves, occasionally angling to use her hind, but mostly sticking to her front. Zecora lashed out with her staff several times in her own attacks, but Raindrops managed to roll with nearly all the blows – and the one solid blow that did land, squarely against Raindrops’ shoulder, only made Raindrops stumble slightly. The pegasus’ lips were curled back in a snarl already; at Zecora’s blow, she let out a shout of rage and simply lunged bodily at Zecora, heedless of any potential counter-blow. The zebra wisely elected to retreat instead, getting as much distance as she could from the pegasus. Raindrops might have continued to chase after her, had Trixie not reached her then. She made sure to approach from the front, in clear view of Raindrops; even still, the pegasus nearly lashed out at her before she saw who it was. Raindrops joined them in galloping away from the dragon and back to their friends. Lyra was picking herself up, but seemed unbalanced; Ditzy was recovering from her coughing fit, while Carrot Top had dashed over to and retrieved the bottle that Zecora had dropped, glanced quickly at it, and then threw it at the dragon as it charged. It didn’t slow down or even acknowledge the bottle, but the liquid inside spread beneath its claw and created a wide area of some kind of slippery substance. The dragon’s eyes widened and it roared in surprise, wings flaring, as it slipped and came crashing down to the ground. It was up in moments, but the slight delay had bought the six time to regroup. A glance at the main gate of Tambelon showed that it was still glowing with an incendiary cloud. “Elements?” Lyra asked. She needed Ditzy’s help to stay steady. “Elements,” Trixie confirmed, as the six turned to face Zecora and the dragon. Trixie closed her eyes, focusing on the Element of Magic that sat atop her head, while her friends began utilizing their own foci. The power of the Elements of Harmony lay buried within each of them, it was only a matter of digging down and accessing them, bringing the power to the surface and – The ground began to shake. Trixie opened her eyes as the six of them struggled to stay on their hooves – and failed, in Lyra’s case, as she tumbled to her knees and hocks, though she was swiftly joined by the rest of them. Trixie glanced, and saw that Zecora and even the dragon were similarly shaking, though the dragon beat his wings and took to the air, eyes wide in surprise as he soared into the sky. The sky, however, didn’t look like it was much more inviting – storm clouds began to gather from nowhere, arcs of lightning streaking across the sky and peals of thunder deafening all who stood within the city’s walls. Trixie almost asked what was going on, but checked herself. The answer was obvious – in their life-and-death struggle with the minions of Corona, the six of them had completely forgotten their reason for being here in the first place, and Luna’s warning that they had had only a few minutes to go. The earthquake stopped, but the return of Tambelon from Shadow continued unabated. Mist suddenly began to creep over the walls of Tambelon, a fog thick enough to be cut by a knife. It washed over the six friends quickly, and each of them gasped at the fog’s unnatural chill. Soon, it was too thick to even see each other, though they huddled close together. Gradually, however, forms began to take shape in the mist – dim outlines, slight mars in the grayness. The first thing they were able to see was each other, but soon thereafter they picked out large shapes nearby – buildings like those they had seen earlier, that seemed to gradually be unveiled from the mist, or perhaps created by it. The dirt beneath their hooves had changed, being replaced by cobblestone streets. But this was not the city they had seen that was being created before their eyes. There were signs of battle and chaos everywhere – collapsed roofs, holes in walls, craters in the streets, detritus and refuse gradually unveiled. This was a city that had seen a war. And apart from each other, they could see not a single other creature – living, or otherwise. Lyra looked to the other five. “Grogar,” she said. “Princess Luna said that Grogar would be waiting for us in front of the palace gates. We have to use the Elements on him – then after that, we can hide from that dragon in the city.” “Well, where’s that?” Raindrops demanded sharply. She was still quivering with barely-contained rage, lips still pulled back in a snarl, though she was careful not to look at any of her friends lest they think her anger was directed at them. Ditzy glanced around. “We’re on the main street,” she said, pointing. “I recognize that building – what’s left of it, anyway – from, from that whatever that happened to us. Meaning…” she pointed. “This way.” --- The battle between Luna and Celestia paused yet again when the sky began to roil and the earth began to shake. The two looked at each other, knowing what was coming. “Celestia – ” Luna began. Celestia’s wings snapped quickly, however, propelling her forward and against her sister, slamming her shoulder against Luna’s side. The blue alicorn cried out in pain and went flying; she sailed even further when Celestia caught up to her and bucked her with all the force she could muster. “I do not have time for your lies!” Celestia proclaimed, catching up another time and bucking her sister yet again. “I will not let you ally yourself with Grogar! He dies this day!” Celestia’s horn glowed gold, then, and she teleported, to a thousand feet over the former city. Mist filled its walls, though the mist was dissipating, leaving behind buildings, roads, streets, sewers, parks – all of them ruined, all of them broken, from when Celestia and Luna had a thousand years ago stood up to the demon ram. The mist was all folding into a single point in the city’s southwest – the front gate of the former palace. Celestia dove. Even as she did, she saw six mares running down the former main street of Tambelon, towards the palace – the bearers of the corrupted Elements. They had already reached the bridge that stretched across the palace’s moat. One of them – the gray pegasus – chanced to glance up, and saw Celestia. She let out a cry of fright, and the six of them all stopped, looked up, and saw the white alicorn descending. Celestia’s eyes widened, and time seemed to slow, as she saw the Elements begin to glow. They were working their dark magic now – to strike out at her? To finish whatever ritual it was that was returning Grogar? Celestia didn’t know, couldn’t know. If it was her, then there was little she could do. She could not personally harm the Elements, at least not with magic, and the corrupted bearers would have all the time they could want to summon Grogar. For the briefest instant, she considered fleeing, striking at another opportunity; she was far too old to consider such a move cowardice. But there would not be another opportunity – Luna would see to it. Grogar would be squirreled away somewhere, to work his dark magics, to prepare for a final strike against her by Luna. She had to risk it. For Equestria, for her ponies, she had to fight, not run. --- There hadn’t been time for a choice, and even if there had been, it wouldn’t have mattered. Even with the mist roiling and coiling towards the gates of the palace, even with all they knew of Grogar, seeing Corona, the Tyrant Sun, descending towards them, would have meant that the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony would have dropped anything. Their fear of her was simply too ingrained, a thousand years of terror burned into their minds. The Elemental foci responded to their pleas without hesitation. Trixie’s eyes glowed white as she felt herself lifted off of the ground, her friends likewise, while the foci flowed brightly and pure magic caused a windstorm around the six. Corona let out a roar of denial as she descended like an angry solar flare, her entire body alight, but in the end, it proved to be for naught – the Elements of Harmony ignited, a rainbow of pure magic and harmony lancing upwards and coiling around Corona before she could even think to avoid it. Everything went black. Trixie wasn’t sure for how long, but for some reason, she suspected it was only a few moments before she woke up on the ground, surrounded by her friends – and staring at the prone, unconscious, but still breathing form of Corona, her mane and tail no longer animate fire, but instead normal, pink hair, and her form having shrank down somewhat – still taller than most ponies, but now no longer looming over even Princess Luna. Trixie gasped, scooting herself backwards and away from her. Trixie glanced around. Her friends were all coming-to as well, and backing away from Corona’s fallen form. Around them was the ruined city of Tambelon, while overhead, the sky was blocked from view by a gray-tinged, yet transparent, shimmering field, looking like it was large enough to encompass at least the entire city, if not the island as a whole. Then Trixie looked to the palace, and let out another gasp of surprise. Standing on the bridge were a dozen constructs – golems of some kind, a part of Trixie reasoned, made from sticks and cloth and bone and stray bits of metal, held together by stitching and little else, each shaped like some kind of hulking ape, with long claws and hunched stances. Their eyes were glowing gemstones, and whoever had built them had seen fit to give them wide mouths full of sharp, pointed teeth made of glass, metal, or whatever else had been lying around. Despite their ramshackle appearance, they seemed expertly made for what they were. But despite that, it was not because of the stitched golems that Trixie found herself suddenly screaming. It was the being they were flanking. Staring at the six of them was a ram – a ram that rivaled Corona at her full power for height, and whose broad shoulders and powerfully built body suggested more than double her weight. His horns were curled and black, his coat the gray of soot, and his eyes glowed pure red. His mouth appeared to have fangs, and clasped around his neck was a bell, a bell that looked more than a little familiar – it was the same one as had been worn by the white ram that the six of them had seen earlier. But this ram looked otherwise nothing like him. This ram matched exactly what Trixie had imagined the demon ram, the speaker-to-the-dead, the necromancer Grogar, to look like. Grogar raised a hoof, and his horns glowed bone white as he closed his eyes. “Verborum modernorum.” Trixie let out a gasp as she felt something reach out from Grogar, and touch her mind. From the sound of her friends, the same thing happened to them. Before she could say or do anything else, however, the touch withdrew, and Grogar opened his eyes, glancing yet again at them. “Interesting,” he said, his voice deeper than even the dragon’s had been. He glanced to the golems that stood on either side of him. “Kill the alicorn. As for the ponies – take one alive. I don’t care which.”