The world stretched and warped in unnatural ways as Luna's teleport spell executed. The two mares locked in mortal combat were wrenched bodily from their physical moorings and cast into the void between worlds.
RF?
"Not enough." Luna muttered to herself, her concentration fraying as the spell cycled through potential destinations that matched her initial request.
FO?
"That would help her. No," She groaned. Her attack spell was losing strength. She only had a few seconds to choose a target and ground the teleport before Theta overcame her meagre defences and snatched control of the spell.
HR?
"That one Detached ages back. Why in Tartarus is it still in the list?"
NV?
"Not lethal enough."
CI?
Luna blanched. "The last thing anyone needs is for her to get my beacon. No."
UP?
"They'd help her as well. No."
OB?
"Still No. Come on."
RW?
"Not quick enough."
EF?
"N- Wait." Luna paused the destination feed. It could work, provided they landed close enough to Canterlot to get spotted on landing. It was a risk.
"I'm co-ming to ge-et you widdle Woona," Theta taunted in a sing-song voice, her attack beam closing steadily on Luna.
EF?
It was an acceptable risk. Luna gave her affirmative to the spell.
Confirm EF?
She groaned as she gave the final confirmation. So typical for the Exterior's spell library to have everything ridden with safeties and confirmations. It was something she'd have to remedy when she got back. If she got back.
The spell grounded, the reflective interior event horizon vanishing to be replaced by a panorama of Canterlot. Luna dove to the side as her attack spell failed and Theta's beam of doom lanced past her, clipping the tip of her horn and sending a lance of pain flashing into her mind as she felt it crack.
A nearby building exploded as the beam lanced into it before Theta could shut the spell down. The sound of screaming ponies echoed throughout the city as flames and smoke rose into the sky.
"Oh you naugh-ty little fil-ly," Theta sing-songed, bouncing over to where Luna laid, cradling her cracked horn. "You made me blow up a building!"
Luna cried out as Theta grabbed her crippled horn, sending lances of white-hot agony searing into her brain.
"Naughty fillies get punished!" Theta growled, twisting the cracked appendage, sending a spiderweb of fractures scurrying away from the initial crack, eliciting another howl of pain. "Beg! Beg for mercy!"
"You first," Luna spat, channelling the last reserves of her energy and igniting her horn.
Theta jerked her hoof away with a yelp, the contact point smoking slightly from the intense electrical discharge.
"Is that all you have? Really?" Theta remarked with amusement, licking the burn. "I take it back, you don't need to beg for mercy when you're already broken."
Luna chuckled.
"What's so funny?" Theta demanded, narrowing her eyes. "Come on, I like a good joke as much as the next mare."
Luna looked up and muttered a single, venom-laden word. "Broken."
The spell slammed home an instant later, fired by a gold-and-iron-clad guard. Theta was lifted bodily and thrown into a nearby shopfront, glass and splinters of wood flying everywhere. Luna dragged herself to her hooves, limping out of the line of fire.
"You cheeky little..." Theta muttered as she pulled herself free of the wreckage. "That hurt."
The guard shifted his stance, lowering his centre of gravity and levelling his horn at Theta. Lines of power ignited along his armour, highlighting a plethora of runes and wards inlaid in the metal.
"Ooh, pretty!" Theta squealed. "I want it!"
"On the ground, filly!"
"Not even going to sweet-talk me?" Theta remarked, sneering. “I’m not that easy a mare.”
The guard fired, sending a bolt of yellow magic towards her. She deflected it easily, bouncing the ball into yet another building, throwing even more debris into the air. Growling, she counterattacked with a storm of her own magic bolts. The guard's armour flared as they impacted, absorbing the attack and harmlessly shunting it away.
"On the ground!" The guard repeated, forcefully.
"I. Said." Theta repeated. "I'm-"
The comeback was ripped from her mouth as another attack, far larger than before, slammed home. The shop disintegrated in a cloud of shrapnel and smoke, sending what few spectators that had stuck around scurrying from the scene. The rhythmic beating of heavily encumbered hoofsteps accompanied a further trio of guards running down the thoroughfare towards the disturbance.
Luna cowered behind an overturned wagon, fishing at her neck for her necklace's clasp. She had mere moments left to get it off and trigger the beacon inlaid on the reverse face of the band.
What was left of the store's ruins exploded as Theta discharged an immense kinetic pulse, clearing away the wreckage and affording her a clear line of sight to both the guards and the cowering Outsider. The guards seemed obviously surprised that she was somehow still standing.
"You dun’ goofed," She remarked with a giggle, air around her horn rippling with barely-controlled magic. "My turn."
Theta ignited, her mane switching from its usual poofy pink affair to an uncontrolled inferno of light. Heat spiralled off her wings as the energy output intensified, setting fire to nearby shopfronts.
"Ah ah ah!" Theta admonished, pointing at Luna as she fumbled with her beacon. "I'm going to need that. No leaving without me!"
Theta fired a mild kinetic pulse at her, knocking her into a wall and the beacon flying to land between her and the guards, lodging on the sign for a speciality store Luna didn't recognise. She groaned, trying to ignore the aching pain in her everything.
"And now for you." Theta turned back to the guards, only to have her head nearly taken off by a sword wielded by a creature she had never seen before. It was large, almost unnaturally so, with horns sprouting from its head like an elk, only larger and more complex. Pseudo-electrical arcs bounced between the branches in a crude mockery of unicorn magic, a similar cracking aura surrounding the wavy-bladed sword.
"Oh, that's cute." Theta remarked, pulling her own sword from the aether, a pointlessly showy neon-pink affair with a hugely oversized blade easily five times as long as she was, ribbons and streamers flailing from the blade's trailing edge. "Mine's better."
"Ha!" The creature growled, bringing his own blade overhead for a strike.
Theta blocked the strike with ease, showering them both with sparks as the two magic blades struggled for dominance over each other. An unholy screech echoed throughout the square as the thaumic discharge intensified, washing over the two combatants.
"Surprise!" She yelled, lowering her horn and firing a blast point-blank into the creature's face.
*
Luna dove for her beacon at the same moment as one of the guards, sending them both tumbling sideways in an undignified tumble of hooves and horns. The pain in her horn flared again as it slammed against the ground repeatedly. She pulled her hind hooves up, slamming them home into the guard's barrel. A high-pitched moan confirming that her hasty aim had been true.
She rolled back to her hooves, only to stop when the remaining three guards turned to face her, spears raised and aimed. With her horn in its current state, she could barely cast simple spells without the pain crippling her. Outright magical combat was impossible at this point.
She hollered like a madmare, lunging forward in the hope that her frenzied attack would put the guards off-balance and give her at least a slight advantage.
It didn't. The closest guard swung his spear around toward her face in a strike that Luna was barely able to dodge. She slid beside him, hooking her hindlegs around the back of his neck as she pulled his front hooves out from under him, slamming his face into the ground with a sickening crack.
Using the now-downed guard as leverage, she pulled herself into a standing position, catching the first guard's fallen spear with her tail and tossing it at the second guard, granting her a critical opening as he moved to block it. In a single smooth movement, she flipped forward, pirouetted, and bucked the second guard in the face, knocking him out cold.
Her rampage was swiftly cut short as the final guard slammed the shaft of his spear against the back of her head, sending her sprawling into the dirt. She groaned in agony, fumbling at her hooves, trying to regain her footing.
"Surprise!"
She looked up to see Theta blast the elk-like creature in the face ineffectually, the magical strike flowing over its face like so much water. Theta's eyes went wide, clearly surprised at this turn of events.
The creature simply punched her in the side of her face, sending her tumbling sideways. His sword slashed down again, cutting clean through Theta's magical construct blade as though it wasn't even there.
Theta, off-balance and unprepared, slowly backed away from her opponent, attempting to charge another spell. It too was snuffed out as the creature swung his weapon at her, the flat of the blade slamming into the side of her face. Luna winced as something cracked and Theta was again knocked sideways, her face badly bruised and a thin trickle of blood leaking from one nostril.
"Give up?" He asked in a gravelly voice, aiming his sword point-first at Theta's face.
Theta looked up at him with a gaze of mixed hatred and amusement. "If you wanted to play rough, you should have just asked, big boy."
The creature snorted, slipping the tip of his sword under her chin, lifting her face up level with his. "After they get through with you, you'll be begging for this to ease your suffering, princess."
"Yeah, I don't take suffering," Theta sneered. "I dish it out."
She grabbed the blade with her magic, yanking it free of the creature's grip. He stumbled backwards, Theta spinning the blade around to face him, a look of pure malevolence painting her features.
"Like this."
The blade fell from her grip with a thud, falling ineffectually to the ground. She stared at it in surprise, trying repeatedly to reignite her magic and lift the blade again before noticing the silvery-grey band locked around the base of her horn.
The fourth guard backed away wearing a smug look on his face, having snuck up behind Theta and slipped the suppressor band on.
"Oh, that's not fair." Theta whined.
The creature fired an arc of lightning into her face. Theta's body dropped like a brick, unconscious.
Okay, now or never. Luna thought to herself as the guard turned to face her. She ignited her magic, calling what vestiges of energy she had left in a last-ditch attempt to teleport far enough away to give her a chance to trigger her beacon and get home.
Her horn exploded.
Luna shrieked in agony as fragments of horn fell to the ground in front of her. Her brain felt like it was on fire, waves of pain radiating away from where her horn used to sit atop her head.
"Well, that will make our job easier."
She turned her gaze up into the face of the creature, eyes blurred with tears of pain.
"You will not find me easy to break, monster."
"Oh, I should hope not, Princess." He remarked. "I don't know how you managed to escape, but rest assured it won't happen again. You will be taught the lesson that your kind deserve."
Luna sneered. The creature was too close for her to escape cleanly if she triggered her beacon now, and she couldn't let them have access to it, lest they discovered the secrets it held.
She spat in his face, masking her bringing her fetlock down on the beacon and shattering it. He glared back, saliva dripping down his face.
"You'll regret that."
"Oh shut up and get it over with."
"Happily. Flash?"
She turned just fast enough to see the butt of the final guard's spear slam into her face before the world went dark.