Atlas Strongest Tournament

by Bico

Hoof of Legend: Fearless

"We're almost there," Wavedancer said over her shoulder as she and Scales ascended the hidden staircase they had found within the Everfree. "I can feel... the ocean!"

"The ocean?" Scales echoed. "This whole space-time dimension thing is pretty snazzy. This would be great for vacations. Wonder how much the queen bee would be willing to sell it for..."

Wavedancer rolled her eyes. "I don't think she's going to be in the mood for bargaining, no matter how many gems from your hoard you're willing to pay." She snorted. "Changelings don't seem like they'd be interested in a bunch of shiny minerals, anyway."

With a grunt, Scales continued on behind her slithering companion. Light broke over Wavedancer's head, and the ever-present droplets in her mane sparkled, causing Scales to squint as they emerged onto an expansive beach. "Whoa... reminds me of home."

"Yeah," Wavedancer agreed, her eyes darting around suspiciously. "There's only a few other tournament members who could be here. In a place like this, I have a pretty good idea of who..." She gasped and sprang toward Scales, knocking her to the ground as a wave of sand rushed by them. "Beach Comber!"

The changeling in Beach Comber's form stood at the edge of the water, a trench dug into the sand. He gave them a wicked grin, his black eyes glaring murderously at them. "It'll be nice to finally be rid of the Princess' Pet. Always getting that poor, impressionable Sealight into trouble and then getting a free pass... it makes me so..." He snarled and stomped the ground with his hooves, sending a plume of sand at the pair once more.

Scales stepped in front of Wavedancer and reared onto her hind legs, crossing her arms and wings in front of her. The stinging blast of sand struck her, but she stood firm, the grains failing to pierce her hard scales. She turned her head and gave Wavedancer a wink. "Heh, this guy ain't so tough. I've got this. Maybe... maybe you should go and take care of Spike."

Wavedancer hesitated, her face flush with emotion. "R-really? But... I thought you wanted to..."

"Hey," Scales said with a grimace. "Come on, now, there'll be time for that later. We're the only two left right now, and somepony's got to save all those fighters. Besides, I'm way better than you, so I'm the one who should deal with this guy."

Wavedancer crinkled her muzzle, but gave her friend a soft smile. "Alright... I won't let you..." She cut herself off with a deep gasp, and she shot a stream of seawater from her mouth, intercepting a white-hot fireball that had been coming right for Scales from above and behind them.

"Whoa!" Scales said, panting and eyes wide from the surprise. "That... that was probably unnecessary since I'm fireproof, but thanks. That actually looked hot enough to hurt a little bit."

"Thank you," Spike's changeling said with a sadistic smile on his face as he stood atop the cave they'd just exited. "It was Ran Biao who helped me to refine my fire breath."

"As you can see," Beach Comber said, slithering from the bank. "You have a little more on your... hands... than just me. Might want to reconsider sending your little friend away, dragon."

Scales rolled her eyes and snorted, crossing her arms and turning to Wavedancer. "Anyway, speaking of fire breath, you notice anything weird about Spike's?"

"What?" Wavedancer said. "No, it seemed like perfectly normal dragon breath. Except... well... a little hotter than normal."

"Hey, are you going to just ignore me?" Beach Comber's copy barked angrily as he drew his trident.

"Exactly," Scales said, gesturing with her index claw. "His fire's usually some weird green color."

"Huh," Wavedancer said, putting her hoof to her chin thoughtfully. "You're right. I wonder what that's about. I thought these changeling larvae could imitate the ability of anypony they copied, whether it be natural or learned."

Spike landed on the ground behind Wavedancer and roared. "Hey! Stop chatting and fight us!"

Wavedancer turned to look at the clone of Spike with tears shimmering in her eyes. "Spikey!" she sobbed. "Y-you don't have to yell at me..."

The wisps of smoke rising from Spike's black eyes dissipated as he drew back. "What? I..."

"You just make me... make me..." Wavedancer choked, trembling with emotion. She gulped, ducking her head.

The changeling Spike began to panic, waving his arms frantically. "No... no, please don't start with the waterworks. I can't..."

Wavedancer raised her head and opened her mouth, and a large bubbled emerged, enveloping Spike's clone completely. Grinning she turned her fishy tail to the fake Spike and whipped it against the bubble, bouncing it off the cave wall and letting it soar over Scales' and Beach Comber's heads and toward the sea. "Boost me!" She shouted, galloping forward and onto Scales' interlaced hands. With a push upward from her friend, Wavedancer leaped into the air, following the bubble in which she had trapped the changeling Spike.

"You foal!" Beach bellowed as he stabbed at the distracted Scales with his trident. Without looking, she weaved out of his way and delivered a mighty blow to his jaw, sending him skipping across the sand.

"Kicking your tail is going to be fun," Scales decided as she took to the air with a beat of her wings. She soared over the beach and spat a few fireballs after her changeling opponent. The attacks were thwarted by swift sidewinding which threw up shields of sand to absorb the flames. She was even forced to dodge waves of sand that were being kicked up even as high as she was. "Rodi's round rear, he's annoying," she complained. "What am I even doing? It's sand. I should just go in and smack him around. Though... he does seem a little stronger than when we last fought..."

"What's the matter, Princess?" Beach Comber's clone asked with a gleam in his dark eyes. "What are you... tuna?"

Scales' eyes pinched together into a hard glower and she blew smoke from her nostrils haughtily. "Nopony... calls me... tuna." She dropped into a steep dive, mouth filling with fire and sharp claws bared.

Under the waves of the nearby ocean, Wavedancer took full advantage of her naturally aquatic nature, using her speed to hit and swim Spike's clone mercilessly as she kept him submerged in a whirlpool. Good thing, Spikey's never been a strong swimmer. She winced as the changeling Spike nicked her with a claw, and then backed away in surprise as a black flame spewed from his mouth. It hung in water, still burning as it rose to the surface. That's not normal, she thought, but she shrugged as her foe sank into the dark depths. She reasoned that he had wasted his last breath on that futile attack, and had lost consciousness.

Wavedancer had turned back toward the surface when she felt a pulse come from below. She paused, a cold feeling settling in her gut. Another pulse rocked her, and she turned back to the spot she had seen the fake Spike disappear. A moment passed, and her hackles began to settle, but then what she at first mistook as green coral began to rise from the murk. She quickly realized her mistake when the purple scalp to which the "coral" was attached became visible, as well as the soulless eyes and mouth full of sharp teeth below it. The rapidly growing Spike opened his mouth, and a roar audible even through the density of the water sounded as black flames poured from his gullet. "Uh, oh," was all she could say, a mouthful of tiny bubbles escaping her lips as she did, before she turned to tear through the water as fast as she could toward the bright ceiling above.

Back on the land, Scales gasped as Beach not only dodged her attack, but caught her on the jaw with a very solid clump of sand. Disoriented, she was ill-equipped to counter the false Beach Comber's follow-up combination of punches, and when he thrust his trident into her gut, she only caught it after one of the points had managed to wedge itself between her stomach's plate scales. She hissed as blood welled up from the wound. "It's... it's just a flesh wound," she evaluated.

"Let's see if we can fix that," Beach Comber's copy said with a cruel chuckle. He twisted the trident, throwing her to her knees as he retracted it and threw across her throat as he seized her from behind. He pulled back on the weapon, his grin widening as he heard her choke. "There's no way you can—"

Wavedancer emerged from the water and arched through the air as a pillar of dark fire exploded from behind her. She hit the sea again and made for the shoreline while Spike's giant head rose from the water. She made it to the beach and began to gallop in the general direction of Scales and her changeling opponent. "Crazy dragon! Crazy dragon!"

"What? I'm busy!" Scales wheezed as she tried to pull the trident away from her throat. She looked from Wavedancer to the enormous dragon that had now made its way close enough that his entire torso was out of the water, and he was approaching fast. "Oh... oh! That crazy dragon. That's not good."

"Wave... dancer!" the giant Spike rumbled, reaching out his claw for her. "Spike want!"

"That Darkness that's powering these changelings," Wavedancer shouted to her friend. "It must be supercharging this Spike's greed. He's growing like a common dragon!" She stopped and turned as she came even with Scales and Beach. She turned to them, her eyes suddenly widening as she finally realized the position Scales was in.

"Even common dragons don't grow that fast," Scales protested. "But you're right... his greed..." A shrewd smile crept across her features. "That's it!" She twisted herself around so that her muzzle was pressed against Beach Comber's and the trident was holding them tightly together. She then threw her own arms around his wide barrel and sighed. "Oh!" She said far too loudly. "I never thought that such a handsome, strong hippocampus would ever want to sweep little old me off her feet."

Spike paused as his massive foot squished a deep print on the edge of the beach. His eyes shot toward Scales and the changeling Beach, narrowing threateningly.

"What are you...?" Beach Comber's copy started to say before being cut off by another impassioned declaration.

"Oh, this big, stallionly stallion wants me all to himself," Scales cried. "And nopony... or dragon... named Spike will ever have me if he succeeds in claiming my tender, fragile, pure heart!"

"Sssscales!" Spike growled, stomping toward the two entangled combatants. "Is Spike's!" He lunged for them, his hand outstretched.

Beach Comber gasped and released his hold on Scales, who promptly dashed away. The changeling Beach, however, emboldened by the Darkness running through his body, brandished his trident and bounded onto the incoming arm, slithering up the long limb and jabbing the points right into Spike's snout. "For the hive!" he bellowed.

Spike arched his back and roared into the heavens as he started to slap at himself. The tinier changeling Beach was too swift for him, however, constantly prodding at him in a futile effort to bring the giant down.

"Wow," Wavedancer said. "This is... entertaining."

"Yeah," Scales agreed, tossing some popcorn into her mouth. "Maybe they'll just finish each other off?"

Wavedancer turned to Scales with pinched brows. "Um... where did you get that?"

"What, this?" Scales asked, gesturing to her bag of popcorn. "I keep some kernels on me at all times... y'know, in case of popcorn emergency."

"Can I have some?" Wavedancer asked.

Scales scratched her chin throughtfully, but then shrugged. "Sure."

The needles that Rarity wielded were precise, but the seeds that Sweetie Belle's Appling gun issued were legion. Welts raised on her pristine flesh as the seeds that her tiny hoard of metallic stingers simply weren't fast enough to intercept battered her. Even so, the spray of the Appling gun was wide and Sweetie was panicked and inexperienced, meaning that by focusing only on the projectiles she knew would strike her and ignoring the rest, she was able to provide herself with decent enough protection that the assault didn't halt her advance.

"Stop, Rarity!" Sweetie pleaded. "I'm your sister. You don't want to do this. Don't you love me?"

Laughing snidely even as she bolted behind a nearby tree for cover, Rarity responded with contempt while her back was pressed firmly against the cool trunk and her ears swiveled warily. "Thanks to the Darkness my queen has infused within me, all I feel of your sister is her negative emotions. And believe me: she has plenty of negative emotions for you... what with your incessant bothering, your insufferable naïveté, and that toned young body you flaunt while in a few years I'll be 20, at which point my body will begin to decay at an ever increasing pace until I look like that one paper you leave in your pocket when you wash and dry your clothing and I'll never be able to find my special somepony...!"

Sweetie Belle's brows pinched together as she heard her sister's clone degrade from haughty arrogance to hysteric melancholy in the space of a single sentence. "B-but... most ponies wait a while to get married unless they're nobility or farmers, and even they don't usually set the wedding before they hit double digits. Mom didn't even marry dad until she was in her 20s."

"That's because our father is so generous!" Rarity's copy cried. "Where do you think I got it?"

Shaking her head and rolling her eyes, Sweetie replied. "I thought you got it from Rarity. You know... being a changeling and all?"

The changeling Rarity blinked. "You're right," she said with a small gasp. A confident grin spread across her face and she hit her front hooves together in resolution. "I'm a changeling, and my queen wants me to destroy you. And destroy you, I shall!" She turned to emerge from her cover once more when she heard a click and found herself staring down the barrels of Sweetie's Appling gun. "Oh... my..."

Sweetie pulled the trigger.

Big Mac's clone's ear twitched as he heard the renewed discharge and a scream from his partner, but he didn't allow himself to lose focus. He had already removed his weighted harness, and was tearing up the fields with his swift hooves. Apple Bloom's proficiency with her weapon, however, was negating the advantage he had against her. She was even using the environment to her advantage, riccocheting her apples off the branches and trees to attack him from new angles. If he tried to get too close, she didn't even have to take time to aim to take him down.

"You ready to give up, Mac?" Apple Bloom asked in a tauntingly saccharine voice. She cocked her rifle for emphasis.

McIntosh looked at her massive front hooves and his eyes narrowed. He looked back at his original's little sister and black determination burned in his eyes. "Nope." He decided to charge her. Even as she fired her weapons, reloading with frightening speed, he punched the apples out of the way, though the force of the impact made his hooves ache with every strike. It was certainly better than being shot in the head.

Apple Bloom began to sweat as her brother's clone came within a double arm interval with her, but she didn't let the stress of the situation make her panic. She dropped the muzzle of her rifle down for an instant and fired before moving it back up and firing a second time, having reloaded the weapon at almost the same moment the chamber was being emptied.

The changeling Big Mac batted the apple away and cocked his other hoof back to bash Apple Bloom's head as he came in range. He swung, and his hoof came a hair's breadth away from the brim of Apple Bloom's hat when he went rigid, a low whine issuing from his lips. The apple that Apple Bloom had riccocheted off the ground dropped from between his hind legs, and he crumpled to the ground, groaning. "Worse... than... head..."

Apple Bloom laughed and cocked her rifle, pointing the muzzle at the fake McIntosh's head. "I sure do like how I'm old enough to get why that's funny." She squeezed her pastern on the trigger, but hesitated as she heard what sounded like a high pitched alarm in the distance getting louder. "What in tarnation is tha—" Her sentence was cut off as a white blur collided with her and sent her and what felt like a toned young body tumbling over each other on the grass. They came to a halt some distance away and Apple Bloom blearily looked up into a pair of pale green eyes. "Sweetie Belle?"

A soft groan escaped Sweetie's lips. "I think I just made her angry."

A pair of crystal hooves tapped down on the ground in front of Big Mac's copy. Rarity set her back hooves down on the ground and looked imperiously at the two young fillies. "I am no longer capable of such an emotion as 'anger.' In fact, I am no longer capable of any emotion at all."

"So..." Apple Bloom ventured. "I guess that means you got no reason to wanna fight us, right?"

"On the contrary," the changeling Rarity corrected quickly, but with a dead tone. "I have orders from my queen and must obey. Your weapons are now useless against me. It would behoove you most substantially to surrender now."

"Uh..." Apple Bloom hesitated, hoofing her rifle self-consciously. With Rarity's diamond-hard coat, she realized that it certainly would be an uphill battle. She wracked her brain for something she could do to tip the fight in their favor.

A pitiful sniffle escaped Sweetie Belle, and her eyes welled up with tears. "Wh-wh-why are you being so mean to me, Rarity?"

"Cease leaking your bodily fluids," Rarity said as she glanced at Sweetie Belle. "You are merely wasting valuable water that your body will require later. Further, attempts to manipulate my feelings are moot. As I mentioned, I am without emotion currently."

Sweetie Belle squeezed her eyes shut, tears spilling down her cheeks. "I know that... I just... I just... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH...!"

Rarity's ears fell flat and Big Mac, who had just been struggling to get back up, hit the dirt again, covering his head. Apple Bloom had to cover her ears as well, and looked at Sweetie Belle with shock. She noticed that Sweetie's horn was glowing verdently and a light haze of magic was wafting over her throat and mouth. Apple Bloom opened her mouth. "—"

Sweetie suddenly stopped and turned to her friend with a bright smile. "Sorry, what was that?"

"I said...!" Apple Bloom shouted at the top of her lungs before realizing that it was quiet once again. "I said you were usin' that sound amplification spell."

"Yeah," Sweetie said waving her off with a hoof. "When all else fails, that trick always got Rarity to cave like... well... magic."

Apple Bloom looked back at the two changelings, who were still shaking off the attack. She couldn't blame them. Her ears were still ringing faintly and she had been behind Sweetie Belle. Her eyes narrowed as she noticed something new. "That crack... that wasn't there before."

Rarity looked up and brought her hoof to her face, analyzing its surface until she came to the uneven groove on her cheek. "I... see. Minor structural damage... nothing that will hinder me."

Ears perking up, a smile bloomed over Apple's face. "I got it! Sweetie, you keep 'em busy. I gotta go get somethin' from the cellar. Hopefully this is as faithful a representation of Sweet Apple Acres as it looks."

"Wait," Sweetie squeaked. "You want me... to hold them off?"

"You're right," Apple Bloom conceded with a sigh. She tossed her weapon to Sweetie. "Here, take my apple rifle. You got magic, so it won't be nearly so hard to use." With that, she turned and galloped away. Sweetie looked back to the changelings and gave them a nervous grin. "Hi, guys." She saw Big Mac take a step for her and she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and screamed, her magic glowing brightly as she amplified the sound to ear-splitting levels. After a minute, she ran out of breath and collapsed to her barrel, panting.

Rarity and Big Mac were both lying on the ground, the former calmly guarding her ears while the latter moaned and rolled around the grass, pitifully clutching his bleeding ears. Rarity rose to her hooves first and waited for her partner to finally wobble up. "This won't do, Big Mac. This sound is rather distracting. Be a dear, would you?"

"Eeyup," the false Mac responded, rearing up and placing his hooves on top of her back.

Sweetie's eyes bugged out. "Wh-whoa! I... I admit I thought it would be cute at one point, but I'm right here." She took another deep breath and began to scream.

Big Mac's clone flattened his ears as he hoisted Rarity off the ground and spun her around, using all his strength to fling her at Sweetie Belle before collapsing with his hooves pressed firmly over his ears. The changeling Rarity hurtled like a spear at her original's little sister, her hoof reaching out for her. She was unprepared for the large sack of apples that struck her from the side, slamming her into the ground.

"Whoo-ee!" Apple Bloom called as she trundled to Sweetie's side on her wooden, treaded monstrosity. "I sure am glad I didn't scrap this here thing. It was s'posed to be an apple harvestin' machine, originally, but after I installed the applepult I got a little carried away." She pulled two levers and brought two of the Appling guns mounted on the top to bear on Big Mac. "Alright, now we're ready."

Sweetie Belle broke off her banshee-like screech and galloped to the tank, climbing up the side and into the cockpit as Apple Bloom provided cover fire. "So... what are we going to do now? Do you think this thing can take them both out?"

Apple Bloom frowned and shook her head solemnly. "Nah. But I had this idea a while back about firin' fertilizer out over the fields. You can see here," she clanged her hoof against the long, fat iron tube that stuck out the front of the tank. "I constructed the cannon, but... well, turns out explosions and fertilizer don't mix so good."

"Sooo," Sweetie Belle prodded expectantly, giving Apple Bloom a slow, circling "go on" gesture with her hoof.

A bang from the front of the tank caused both fillies to look up sharply. They found Rarity clinging to the muzzle of the tank's cannon, her eyes narrowed dangerously as she lifted her head above the top to stare at them. Apple Bloom smirked and opened the cannon's breech. "Do not think this contraption will save you," Rarity warned, her voice echoing loudly from the other end of the cannon. "My diamond flesh is impenetrable by your provincial weaponry."

"It's got great acoustics, don't it?" Apple Bloom asked her friend with an easy smile.

A grin broke out on Sweetie's face and she lowered herself to the breech. "Hey, Rarity," she called and took a deep breath. When she saw Rarity lower herself back to regard her, Sweetie let loose with the very loudest note she could muster. The sound waves bounced along the walls of the tubes, concentrating into a concussive force that blew the changeling Rarity away.

Big Mac's clone had just gotten to his hooves, though he was still rather wobbly, when he heard the discharge of sound. Looking up, his eyes widened as he saw a crystalline figure rapidly approaching. "N-nope!" he declared, and attempted to move out of the way, but his disrupted equilibrium caused him to stumble, and his partner's body hit him full force.

Rarity was back on her hooves the next second, ignoring the false Mac for the moment as she turned her attention back to the cannon that was still pouring high frequency waves at her. With a snap almost as loud as Sweetie's enhanced voice, the chink in her face widened, and she noted that cracks were starting to appear on other parts of her body. But how can this be? She didn't have time to find out, however, and it would do no good anyway. She knew that she would have to block off the source of the noise, and fast. She grabbed Big Mac's clone and with her sharp eye tossed him straight toward the cannon. The force of the scream slowed him down, but Rarity was already leaping behind him, and she kicked him hard into the muzzle as she flew upward.

Sweetie continued screaming into the breech for a few more moments before she realized there was an unconscious stallion blocking the opening. She poked her head out of the turret and looked questioningly at Apple Bloom, who was wide eyed and staring into the sky with her apple rifle at the ready. "Hey, what's going on? Why's your brother in—"

Rarity's copy delivered a roundhouse kick to Sweetie, sending her flying off of the tank before she dodged a point-blank shot from Apple Bloom and disarmed her, sweeping her onto her back with a well placed kick. She planted her front left hoof firmly on Apple Bloom's throat, squeezing meaningfully. "I'm getting rather tired of these games," she said as she tossed her purple mane out of her face. The hairs stuck to the blood that oozed from the cracks in her diamond skin, however, and she glowered. "The fact that I even have to fight like this is most... frustrating! I am a lady, and for the past month I've been forced through emotional manipulation and outright coercion to engage in behaviors that have been most unladylike."

"Uhh," Apple Bloom mumbled as she saw the crystal balls of Rarity's eyes soften into azure irides set in white sclera, black pupils dilated wide. "Rarity? Y-your eyes're..."

"What's that, Darling?" Rarity's clone asked as she revealed a set of needles from beneath her tongue. "Do speak up if you want to be heard before I show you the deadly power of the dreaded Kiss of the Dragon."

Apple Bloom pouted. "Hey, th'only one's getting the kiss of the dragon is my friend, Scootaloo. You don't deserve it!"

The changeling Rarity's face reddened. "Wh-what? No, no... Darling, that's not what I... you're the one getting the Kiss of... that is..." She shook her head vigorously, sending a spray of red from her now-soaked fur. "I'm going to end your existence in one of the most horrid manners possible, is what I mean!"

"That's all I need to hear," came a voice from behind, and with a clang Rarity went rigid. Her eyes rolled up into her head and she collapsed on top of Apple Bloom. Standing over them both was Lyra, her dented instrument floating in her magic aura. "Sorry we're late." She turned her head. "Hey, you okay down there, girl?"

"Don't worry," Babs' voice came from the base of the tank. "I caught Sweetie. She's okay."

"Well," Apple Bloom said shakily as she pushed Rarity off of her. "I guess we ought to get out of here before they wake up."

The dented lyre descended back into its saddlebag as its owner narrowed her eyes. "Yeah... and... hopefully Princess Twilight will catch up soon..."

Twilight unleashed an explosive volley of spells at the oncoming changeling impersonating her brother. He juked to the side, avoiding the attack, and she readied another spell to trap him when he came into range. She gasped when he unexpectedly kept galloping away.

"See ya, Twiley," Shining's clone said with a laugh and a toss of his mane. His rose-colored aura surrounded him and crashed through a wall.

"Dam," Twilight swore, and she took wing. She knew that the fake Shining Armor would attempt to link back up with his partner so they could combine their offensive and defensive powers together, and she was fairly certain that with the power up they had received they very well could overwhelm both her and the pony helping her, who she had ascertained to be Luna's operative, though she wasn't entirely sure who that was. Not many it could be, if it wasn't Argent... I wonder if it's... Her heart leaped into her throat, but she forced herself to calm down. "N-no," she said aloud. "It was pretty suspicious that she was dressed as some kind of neighnja master, but that doesn't mean she's the one working for Luna..."

Sighing, Twilight shook her head and brought her focus back to the task at hand. She needed to impede Shining's progress. She summoned a powerful tornado, knocking some of the taller buildings into his path. She couldn't attack him directly with that powerful shield of his, but she could certainly slow him down and perhaps even immobilize him completely.

Twilight. She faltered as her head jabbed with pain. The remote communication spell definitely had its drawbacks, but it had allowed her to make contact with Luna's operative after she'd noticed an extra unicorn's shadow at the very beginning of her conflict with Shining and Argent. She did wish its covert option didn't make the "voice" vibrating into her head through her horn sound like a buzzing locust, too. Argent is distracted for now. Need to lure Shining back. Have a plan.

Twilight's horn tingled as she activated the spell, but only the faintest discoloration from her aura indicated what she was doing. "I'll do it. Just let me know what I need to do." She kept her eyes focused on the evil copy of her brother as she listened to her counterpart's plan. Her face lit up when the pony on the other end concluded. "That's a good plan." Seeing that her brother had finally picked his way through the rubble, she went into a dive.

Not far away, Trixie carefully placed her hat upon a meticulously arranged pile of torn up concrete. A red aura surrounded it as her eyes began to glow the same hue, and she pushed it into the incendiary cloud that surrounded and concealed Argent Javelin. A throwing star floated silently beside it as well, and once it reached the edge, she pushed on the weapon with her magic, tossing it randomly into the smoke.

Argent's response was immediate. A silvery light exploded from the interior of the cloud, blowing Trixie's careful craftsmareship away, though she was quick enough to knock her hat out of the path before it, too, was disintegrated. Trixie also fired a barrage of throwing knives toward the source of the Silver Bullet spell, and was rewarded with a cry of, "Buck! Bucking... buck!"

Trixie laughed quietly to herself as she crept along the perimeter. "That's what you get for messing with the Great and Powerful..." she trailed off as angry red magic began to seep from her eyes. She clenched her teeth as she felt a flood of Darkness filling her. "No... no, I won't do anything like that. I'm not that mare. When I had the Alicorn Amulet... that was somepony else, and I won't let her back in."

Relaxation finally washed over her and she slowly continued her way toward her next checkpoint. She'd had a bad feeling about that spell Chrysalis had decided to cast, which was why she had left her post to observe the rescuers' progress. Even though she had escaped capture, she still had a psychic connection with the changeling that was going to replace her, and it was apparently through that connection that she was now receiving a huge boost in power, but also in darker emotions.

Of course that spell was going to be bad news, Trixie thought, as she stopped and planted a parabolic dish on a pole into the ground, adjusting it as she eyed a similar one some distance away on the other side of the cloud. It required Chrysalis to make a wheel. Everypony knows wheels are up to no good. She blinked and shook her head. "I have to keep my head together." She leaned toward the dish and spoke loudly. "Looks like you don't do so well when you're the one on the defensive. Hurt, much?" She cackled maniacally.

A barrage of spells emerged from the smoke, destroying the dish in the distance as well as reducing several buildings in the general direction to dust. Trixie ululated and threw a pair of razor-edged rings into the cloud from different angles, and was rewarded with a hiss of pain from the changeling Argent within. The cloud rose into the sky, dissapating as the spell came to an end, and the false Argent stood bloody and boiling black mist from his eyes. "Your Moon Blindness spell has worn off, too, I'm afraid. Now I can destroy you properly."

Trixie pulled a set of blades from her saddlebags almost as long as she was, and unfolded them into an even more gigantic fan-like throwing star. "That'll be fun to watch." She threw the star as she set off a burst of smoke and it whizzed right toward him.

Argent snorted and casually leaned his head to the right, allowing it to fly right by his face. "Ahh, what a refreshing breeze that was..." He gasped when he saw, too late, another star flying right at him, having been hidden from view by the first being directly between it and his line of sight. He cried out as the weapon slashed at his armor enough to draw blood from his side.

"Oops," Trixie said from behind Argent's copy as she caught the giant star and neatly transferred the momentum, throwing it right back at him. "Looks like my aim was off."

Argent turned and blasted the star out of the sky, his lips curled back with rage. "You're going to pay for that!"

The conflict was interrupted when a burst of magenta light exploded between them. Twilight swooped to the ground, placing herself in front of Trixie protectively. She blasted a spell at Argent, but it was intercepted by the murky rose-colored shield erected by her brother's copy, who was now galloping to his partner's side.

"You're finished, now," Shining said. "There's no way you can break through my shield, and Argent's attack will wear you both down, eventually."

Trixie put a hoof on Twilight's withers, biting back the urge that came from deep within to jump on her and take her apart. "Twilight... get ready..."

Twilight nodded, her face pink and eyes somewhat glazed. "I will... I mean... I am!" She clenched her eyes together and cleared her mind, focusing on the task at hand. "Let's go."

Argent began to fire Silver Bullet spells at them, and in a flash Trixie and Twilight disappeared, teleporting around the battlefields as he adjusted fire. The openings Shining created in the shield to allow his attacks through were so precisely sized and timed, that none of the two unicorn mares' counters were getting through. Argent chuckled as they kept teleporting. "Oh, Twiley, how quickly we forget."

Trixie and Twilight both vanished from sight in clouds of smoke as Argent fired one more spell. They appeared near each other a short distance away, but it was enough for the Phase Bullet to be wrenched from its path and hurtle straight for them. Trixie gasped as it passed Twilight by and flew straight to her. She summoned a pink shield to surround her, but at the last moment Twilight jumped in front of her, taking the blast full on. Her smoking body rolled across the ground and she came to a halt, unmoving.

"Twilight!" Trixie called, galloping to her side. She put her ear to her barrel and tears began to form in her eyes. "Sh-she's not breathing. I can't hear her heartbeat." She pulled herself up and rolled Twilight over, pumping her hooves on her chest. "Don't you die on me!" she screamed before she opened Twilight's muzzle and sealed their mouths together, breathing hard into Twilight's lungs.

Argent and Shining's clones exchanged three and a half glances as Trixie broke down into a blubbering mess. "Wow," Shining said. "I didn't think your power had been increased by quite that much."

"Uhh..." the false Argent responded hesitantly before plastering a smug grin on his face. "O-of course! I mean, my power didn't really increase by that much, you've just never really seen me cut loose." He swaggered over to the edge of the shield.

Shining's copy wrinkled his nose, but followed, moving his shield along with them until they were right next to Trixie and Twilight. Shining's horn glowed brighter and he closed his eyes. Part of the shield bulged and engulfed the body of his original's sister, pushing Trixie off. His breath caught in his throat.

"Wh-what are you doing?" Trixie exclaimed, batting at the shield. "Get away from her! Don't you have any respect for the d-d..."

"She's dead," Shining confirmed. "I couldn't detect any heartbeat or breathing."

"Well, that's too bad," Argent said. He leered at Trixie. "Looks like you're all alone, 'Double-Oh Zero.'" He cackled at the tears that ran down her cheeks.

Shining allowed his shield to resume normal dimensions, Twilight's body passing inside of it.

"I won't let you win!" Trixie declared as she drew a trio of throwing stars.

"Too late for that," Argent said with a snort. His horn flashed and he began to fire once more at Trixie, who was forced to resort to physically dodging and rolling to avoid them. However, one finally struck at her hooves and she was knocked high into the air. Argent gave toothy smirk as he saw her go flying and shot another Silver Bullet at her, knocking her higher. "Too easy," he said as he shot her once more, sending her even higher. "It's like shooting fish in a barrel." With several more shots, Trixie was now just a speck in the sky. Argent began to charge his horn, filling it with malevolent power. "I'll give her a little breather, and then I'll turn her to ashes with one last shot."

"Sounds good," Shining said with a nod. He squinted as the form high in the air became more and more distinct. "You'd better make that quick. Doesn't it seem like... she's falling too fast?"

Twilight's body jerked up at that moment, and she tugged with her horn, fine threads that lay on the ground, attached to the various throwing knifes and stars strewn about, wrapped themselves about the two changelings' legs, glowing an angry red. "That's the funny thing about letting a pony with wings freefall. They tend to overdo it."

"Wings?" Shining's clone said as his mind attempted to comprehend his sister rising from the grave as a zombie. He looked up to see that, sure enough, Trixie seemed to be flapping a pair, and building up a sizeable magenta flight aura. He looked back and his eyes bulged from his skull. "Trixie!"

"You win," Trixie said as her red aura crackled through the threads, sending lightning coursing through the two changelings' bodies. Argent's building magic cooked off, shattering Shining's already fading shield from the inside. Trixie laughed madly as she pumped more and more power into her spell.

In the air, Twilight had shed her blue and silver disguise and was struggling to push against her own flight aura. Her horn flared, and she began to pump her unicorn magic into the shell in front of her. With a forceful push, she sent the shell of unicorn and pegasus magic flying down faster, the force stopping her in midair. The aura deepened into a dark purple and pink and began to sparkle as it set like a sun onto the three below.

Trixie winced as she felt her magic being pressed upon by the massive amount of power lowering on her. "Ooh, this might hurt if..." She disappeared in a flash of magenta the moment before impact.

Finding lavender arms wrapped around her as she literally floated, boueyed by the force of the explosion below. Trixie looked up to see Twilight, who was smiling fondly down at her. "Huh... thought it was the dashing hero who was supposed to save the beautiful princess, not the other way around."

Twilight's hind hooves touched down lightly on the top of one of the remaining standing buildings, and she gingerly let Trixie down, though they still clung to each other's arms. "Well... everypony knows that trope's a dead—"

White flame tore the two mares apart, and Twilight screamed as her fur blackened from the heat. When the flames died down, she looked around, but couldn't see Trixie anywhere. However, she did see a crowd of familiar ponies. Rather, it was a crowd who looked like familiar ponies, with Ran Biao and Lao Wu standing at their head.

"Now that was dead horse," Lao Wu said, looking at the edge of the building. "Long fall for wingless pony." He looked behind him, where an unconscious and fabulously dressed Derpy was being held upright by Applejack and Rainbow, who both looked as if they had been through a war, and Tom the rock loomed over a pile of changeling cocoons, out of which Twilight could see Pinkie turn toward her, smile sheepishly, and shrug. "We have room for only one more, anyway."

Twilight struggled to her hooves, body spent but mind enraged. "Don't underestimate me, Lao Wu... or... changeling who looks, acts, and fights like Lao Wu! You may be one of the strongest martial artists in all the continent." She flared her wings and stomped on the rooftop, cracking it with her earth pony strength. "But I'm a princess of Equestria, and you've hurt my friends." She narrowed her eyes and curled her lip ferociously. "And that's terrible."

To be continued...