While the assembled immortals talked tactics on how to best utilize their resources to defeat the threat King Sombra posed to the world Nightmare shivered slightly. She was sitting at the far end of the table, near the windows so she could stare out at the night whenever she wanted, and there were no fans blowing over her head. Nor were there any air vents hanging over her head, which meant that she had the pleasure of not having some damp air blowing down on her head and ruining her mood even further. She was slightly surprised that Discord wasn't messing with her, but she suspected that Celestia had a say in keeping him away from her. As the others talked amongst themselves she cast a look at her sister, who returned her gaze and nodded slightly so no pony else would notice.
They had both felt it; Tirek had arrived on Earth and had already taken out the army they had been planning on taking out for the last three hours.
"Nightmare," Chrysalis said, drawing the mare's attention away from the window, "What do you have to add to our plan? We need all the help we can get if we're to defeat the threat Sombra's causing."
Nightmare sighed and looked into the window again, casting a second, and infinitely more meaningful, glace back at her sister, who was staring at the glass as well. A few moments passed before Celestia gave her a nod, giving her the okay to reveal what they had both felt.
"We're in deeper trouble than before," Nightmare replied, staring out at the stars for guidance, "Sombra's forces have been drained of all of their magical energies and are now wasting away in their military camp. I'm afraid that Tirek has escaped from his prison and he's bent on gathering all of our magic."
"Just perfect," Chrysalis spat, apparently enraged by the fact that they had just wasted three hours on a worthless plan, "Cerberus has left his post and now we face the greatest threat that Equestria has ever known. So what do we do with out plan now?"
"Is it not obvious?" Nightmare asked, almost as if the answer was clearly in front of them, "We fought and defeated Tirek the first time, so now we must draw on our powers and fight him again. We'll have to pour a large amount of energy into sealing him back in Tartarus, but there's no telling when he'll arrive to try and take our magic from us. We must draw our forces together and attack him directly, hopefully giving us enough time to blast him into next week."
While all of this was going on Christen stared out the window and gazed upon the city that was laid out before him, trying to figure out where Sombra's camp had been so they could pinpoint where Tirek was. He had never heard of such a creature, but from what he could gather from what the others had said Tirek seemed like a ruthless monster that existed to drain the magic from others before trying to conquer everything. If that was true then he was somewhere out there, absorbing the magic of anypony that foolishly got in his way, before he made his move to attack all of them. He began to turn his head away from the window, but then spotted a small red, yellow, and black centered ball centered between the main street and two rows of buildings.
"Um, guys?" Christen said, unsure if the small spot was really worth the attention of four immortals, "That spot right there isn't a bad sign, is it?"
Celestia looked up from the blueprints they had been working on for the last couple of hours and stared hard at the spot that Shimmering Glory had mentioned, barely noticing the orb to begin with. When she saw the orb she immediately recognized it and knew exactly what was coming their way if they didn't leave the building as past as they could.
"Everypony get out of the building," Celestia shouted at the top of her lungs, enough to awaken anyone else in the area as she drew her armor onto her body, "We've got a few moments before Tirek starts his attack!"
The moment the words left her mouth did everyone in that room feel the pressure of Tirek's magic as the orb was released, causing the suspended energy to come screeching towards their hotel building. Everybody who was in every room on the two sides of the street heard the noise and opened their blinds to see the magic racing across the night sky as it drew closer to them. Christen knew several of the abilities he had gifted to his ponysona, the prince of defensive battle magic, and shifted through what he knew to find something that could protect the room before they were hit. He knew one spell off the top of his head that could protect them and a large amount of people in the surrounding rooms, but it would require a swift incantation for him to perform it.
"Gate of the eight setting stars," Christen shouted, his horn lighting up as eight white balls of energy gathered in front of them and two other levels of the building, "protector of the innocent souls, gather together and shelter the powerless from harm!"
The eight orbs formed a large barrier in front of their level, the one directly below them, and the one directly above them. White lines darted out from each orb, connecting the balls together as it formed the outer shape of an octagon, while red lines darted out and connected them together in the center of the barrier. Christen knew that it would hold the full force of Tirek's attack, but it would have been an wasted effort if the demon had gathered more strength before coming after them.
"Barrier of Protection Number Three," Christen continued, feeling the spell lock into place as he braced for the coming impact, "Innocent's Shield."
Precious seconds ticked away as they waited for the impact that would be the result of Tirek's spell hitting Shimmering's barrier head on. Celestia knew that he was certain that the one barrier could protect them from the blast, but she wasn't sure that it could withstand anymore than the blunt of the attack. Before she could consider moving away from the room they were in the beam struck the barrier head on, branching outwards until it cut threw the levels that were two floors above and below them. They could feel the entire building shake as the unprotected floors below them were erased from existence, causing the upper half of the building to buckle before beginning to fall. Before they were consumed by the raging fires everypony leapt from the room, crashing through the window and coming to a floating position as Tirek's spell and Shimering's barrier broke apart.
"Soldiers of the Changeling Hive!"
"Soldiers of the New Lunar Republic!"
"Soldiers of the Solar Empire!"
The moment those three forces were named ponies and changelings began to pour out of the various buildings that were scattered all across Las Vegas, those that could fly were taking to the skies while those that couldn't filled the streets. Discord had to admit, once he saw how many ponies his enemies had assembled in the one city he was glad he didn't have to fight all of them and Sombra's Black Crystal Empire. They needed to pool all their powers together if they wanted to have any hope of beating Tirek, something that even Discord wasn't sure that they could do.
"You have dared to test our wrath Tirek," Nightmare shouted, her voice ringing out across the city as she spoke to the foul demon, "Now we shall put you down before you can cause any more harm to these innocent people."
"Ah, the Nightmare herself has returned." came a taunting reply, followed by a laugh as the demon appeared from the night sky, "Such potent magic that the ponies of Equestria wield, magic that should belong to me. I suppose that you find this humorous? Keeping my magic from me will result in the destruction of everything that all of you care for. I will erase this puny planet and the ants that call it home, but first I will take what is mine back."
Discord was the first to react, taking the instant Tirek started talking to get behind him and unleash the unrestrained power of chaos right on his backside, hoping that he could at least stall the demon while somepony came up with a plan to defeat him. Before he could move to a much safer distance so he could form another attack Tirek reached behind him, grabbed Discord out of thin air, and tossed him straight into a nearby building, crushing the glass and scaring whoever was near the windows. He was surprised that the demon had focused on him so fast, while he had been busy taunting the others into starting a fight with him. Before Tirek could deliver another crushing blow to him three beams of energy crashed into his side, knocking the demon backwards just a tiny bit and focusing his attention of the alicorn sisters and the changeling queen.
While Tirek focused on the enemies that flew around in front of him the ponies gathered around him, darting around and loosing all manners of spells and new world technology against their sworn enemy. The earth ponies would jump onto his gigantic legs and pound on them with as much strength as they could muster before they were thrown off by him moving around. The unicorns and changelings poured their magic together and cast dozens upon dozens of spells at any moving part of Tirek, intending to weaken him while their leaders figured out how to seal him away. They had to move quickly, otherwise they would share the same painful fast as Discord had suffered not moments ago, and it was quite hard to cast high level spells when they were constantly moving around.
Tirek didn't seem to care about the fact that they couldn't cast their greatest spells and were constantly moving around, as all he had to go was allow his energy to gather between his horns before he released it in every direction in front of him. The bases of several buildings were blown wide open, causing them to tumble over and crush anyone that was unfortunate enough to be standing in their way as well as hurting everyone in the buildings. The ponies that were caught in the blasts were simply teleported into a giant holding orb that floated somewhere behind Tirek, which allowed him to absorb their magic without having to pause during the fight. The orb rested in Sombra's fallen camp, which meant that if they wanted to weaken Tirek they had to somehow slip behind him and get there without the demon noticing their movements.
One foolish changeling decided to try flying under the cover of a shadow spell and flew right past Tirek's chest, only to be on the receiving end of his giant fist and crash right into the side of a building. Somehow he had known where the poor changeling had been and had simply adjusted himself so he could take down whoever was coming his way. Ponies fell left and right as Tirek ignored the three buzzing beings that would soon be drained of all their magical energies like the reast of the ponies he was collecting. Eventually Celestia couldn't bare to see more of her beloved ponies and the citizens of earth fall to their ancient enemy, so she immediately sounded the horn of retreat so their forces could withdraw as fast as possible.
"Enough of this foolishness Princess Celestia," Tirek called out, already knowing who had the courage to make the ponies retreat before he captured them, "come and face me so I can drain you magic. Once I have all the magic from Equestria I will conquer the world and return my empire to what it once was. Not even you nor your precious sister can escape the fate I have in store for the two of you."
The moment the words left his mouth a barrier, exactly identical to the one Shimmering had used earlier, appeared just a few feet in front of Tirek's location, causing the demon to raise an eyebrow. Directly to his right a second barrier phased into existence, this one almost looking like it was a giant turtle shell that was void of its owner, while a third one, shaped like an iron shield, appeared on his left. He twisted his head to look behind him and noticed a stormy type of barrier come into existence, while a flaming circle appeared directly above the tips of his horns. Before he had a chance to discover what each of the barriers did a black box appeared around him, each barrier placed on one of the five walls that surrounded him and the ground. Once the huge sealing barrier was in place Tirek finally noticed the small figure of Shimmering Glory standing on the top of one of the buildings that hadn't fallen over yet, holding his hands together.
"So you think you can seal me with this?" Tirek shouted, pressing his hand against the front barrier, "Please, once I have enough power these barriers will be like twigs in the wind."
"Barrier of Protection Number Seven," Shimmering said, his voice carrying as he looked over his work, "Gods Bulwark. I never said that this barrier was meant to seal you away Tirek, as it does something much more than you could ever realize."
That was when Tirek noticed the glowing yellow orbs that sat in the direct center of each of the barrier walls, though he could feel the power of the sun coursing through the five orbs. He barely had any time before the magic was released on him, filling the entire box with a blinding light that seemed to contain the intensity of the sun itself. By the time the magic died down all they could see was a large wall of smoke from each direction in the barrier, though Shimmering could see several large cracks at the seems between the walls.
"I am amazed that it could withstand the power of the sun," Celestia commented, landing beside her knight as she surveyed the damage, "but leave it to you to come up with a combination barrier that could withstand the sun's brutal power."
"Not quite," Shimmering replied, "I misjudged the pure power of the sun and it seems that the walls are cracked, but it doesn't matter as the barrier served its purpose..."
That was before the barrier shattered in a fury of magic and Tirek emerged from the ruins, half of his body covered in burns and telling that he had suffered some damage after all. Before Shimmering could erect another barrier a blast rocked the building they were standing on, forcing them to take to the air to prevent themselves from falling to their deaths. It was painfully clear that Tirek was going to destroy everything in his path just to take all of their magic, even going so far as to fill the sky above them with a huge red and yellow orb like the ones he used. Shimmering knew what he was going to do; Tirek was going to obliterate Las Vegas just to conquer his enemies.
"I guess its no use," Shimmering said, closing his eyes as he considered what he needed to do, "I'll need to resort to the Eleventh Barrier, the Equalizer."
"You don't mean what I think you mean?" Celestia asked, fearing the worst for her knight.
"I do," Shimmering replied, "I must absorb the dark power of Tirek and equal his power, monster to monster. The power of the clash could potentially reverse everything that has happened to everypony and take all of us back home, to Equestria."
Before Celestia could talk him out of taking the suicidal path to saving both worlds he was gone, flying towards the energy ball as Tirek concentrated on gathering as much power as he could. Instead of placing a barrier around the orb Shimmering just flew right into it, allowing the magic to overtake him and course throughout his entire being. The moment he had a firm grasp on the magic he severed the connection between the orb and Tirek, causing the demon some concern as he stared up at him. Shimmering took a brief moment to draw in the remainder of the orb, preparing to release it on the demon the moment he began charging up his own attack.
The moment Tirek drew out his own magic Shimmering did the same, pressing his hand against the air as an identical colored orb appeared before him. When they both released their magic the beams rocked towards each other, cutting open the sky itself and causing the darkness to rain down on everyone in the city. Before either of them could put any pressure on the other they were both overtaken by the darkness, falling down until neither of them remembered nothing more.