//------------------------------//
// Confrontation 
// Story: Legion of Shadows 
// by Strythio 
//------------------------------//

Celestia had parted ways with Luna, intending on taking care of the intruder while Luna held down the situation at the rally. She was not surprised that all of this was happening at once, but she was a bit startled on how bold Trixie and Lightning Dust had been. Standing in the open without any sort of disguise? The two apparently had intended on being spotted, as otherwise it would make them seem rather dim. 

Their efforts in the Crystal Empire proved that they were not dim in the least. Upon entering her throne room, Celestia found that it was in oddly good shape, a familiar alicorn standing and staring at the glass stained windows, awe struck. However, the pink alicorn was Princess Cadance, and that certainly did not add up. 

"Cadance?" Celestia cautiously ventured, her senses entirely wired to her surroundings at this point. "What are you doing here?"

"Cadance" whirled around wide-eyed, as if caught in the middle of a shameful act. The necklace she bore, a pink-blue heart shaped gem with a golden chain attached, had an odd twinge to it. "Cadance" smiled. 

"Ah, so you still do not recognize me-" 

"Queen Chrysalis," Celestia corrected, slowly stepping towards her, "I should have known that you would get involved in this somehow. Did you set this all up as some elaborate payback plot?"

Transforming back to her natural form, Chrysalis gawked, but kept her distance from Celestia. Despite having the amulet, Celestia noted, Chrysalis did not seem eager to engage her as of yet. That was fine, she till had some answers to get before she sent the changeling to her final resting place. 

"You could say that, but naturally, my priorities have always rested with dealing with my situation." Chrysalis found herself backed to the throne. She dared not take a seat, but she seemed more confident in being a few steps up, and thus being slightly above eye level of the tall standing Celestia. "After all, I have always despised my current kind with a resentment that landed me quite the trouble." 

Celestia stopped moving, now more confused than fulfilled with the answer. "You despise changelings? What about feeding your subjects-" 

"I did not actually expect to be able to overpower you back then," Chrysalis pointed out, noticing that Celestia had ceased advancing towards her. "All I wanted to do was to get rid of the last of the horde." 

Now Celestia felt a deep pang of sickness in the pit of her stomach. To purposely throw away the lives of her very own, and seemingly enjoy it? "How wicked of you to take pleasure in such." 

Chrysalis frowned, and for the first time since seeing it, Celestia noticed the jewel radiating, as if it were a magical relic of sorts. "I never claimed to take pleasure in it. Reversing this curse, I tried everything. I led the horde's army across foreign lands, conquered and destroyed entire races, experienced many defeats, two particularly crushing and both involving you in some way or another, and even attempted to mate a lesser of my old kind. And yet, I still remain the very monster I once persecuted in the streets." 

Celestia channeled magic into her horn, having heard about enough of this rambling queen. "You stopped making sense the moment you mention a curse. However, if you want the curse to be ended so badly, why not just ask the caster?"

"Well, seeing as you blew him to several hundred pieces, that is not exactly possible." 

A changeling smirked, and an alicorn once again stopped, pausing in thought. Chrysalis was going somewhere with this conversation, and there were not alot of ponies that had been blown to bits in recent times. 

"When did Sombra get the time to curse you?" Celestia was unsure of whether the changeling would speak the truth, but after her little interrogation of Fleur, she felt confident that she could discern truth from fiction rather well. 

"Well, simply put, he did not appreciate an exiled alicorn meddling in his affairs," Chrysalis spoke, taking a step forward, "Nor did the changelings appreciate my most noble crusade. Put those two together and I was doomed before I confronted the tyrannical king." 

Celestia ran through her rather short list of exiled alicorns, and quickly ascertain the character Chrysalis spoke of. However, it made no sense that she spoke as if she and that pony were one in the same. It was not possible to permanently change a creature's species so easily as to curse them. 

Then again, Sombra had sent the Empire into a different dimension for a thousand years (Or propelled it into the future, she often pondered that possibility), so it would not be that far of a stretch for him and a changeling to together do such a thing. But it still seemed very far-fetched, and certainly not in the mood to be lied to, Celestia resumed charging magic to her horn. 

"Do you have any last words before this begins? I am not in the mood to be deceived." 

Chrysalis laughed bitterly, tossing her mane through the air in a gesture some would argue exemplified how uneasy she was. Celestia did not care, she had been prepared for an execution that morning anyways.

Chrysalis merely put on a small smile. "So be it." 

Without another word to be passed between the two, Celestia sent a bolt of magic forward. Chrysalis leapt from her place, dodging the attack. Celestia's thrown room promptly went up in flames, revealing the type of spell that Celestia had in mind for dispatching the changeling queen. 

Chrysalis then sent a blast of magic forward of her own, to which Celestia met with her. The two cancelled each other out, and it immediately became clear that Chrysalis had come to this fight once again charged with love. The only question was, from what source? last time it had been Shining's great love for Cadance. However, with their deaths, it could not possibly be from that. 

This display of magical blasting went on for several minutes, each attempting to best the other in force. However, finding that she was gaining no ground with this direct path, Celestia instead began focusing her magic on less direct assaults. The morning sun through her windows responded with a scorching heat, one so intense that Chrysalis was forced to the carpeted middle section of the throne room. In response, Chrysalis charged straight towards the alicorn. 

The light soon went from the smoking floors and mildly sinking windows to Celestia's horn, causing Chrysalis to fire a beam of magic. Not being so easily deterred, Celestia leapt into the air, using her wings to gain just the leverage to have the attack come quite close to grazing her underside. She then let loose the bright light in a flash of sorts, completely blanketing the room in a bright yellow haze. 

Temporarily blinded herself, Celestia heard the less than pleased cry of Chrysalis, as she was no doubt struck by the literally blinding attack. Screeching in agony, the sound of Chrysalis rolling on the floor announced that she had hit her mark. Returning to the ground, Celestia blinked a few times, shook her head, and found her vision returning to normal. Chrysalis on the other hand writhed in a fashion akin to the crystal ponies all those years ago when Solaria had used a very similar move. 

Celestia lowered her horn towards Chrysalis, only to find a tan-gold bubble shield erected over her form. While this no doubt would have been a pointless effort against Celestia's magic, her curiosity got the  better of her in finding the castor of the spell. To her surprise, a white stallion dashed up to Chrysalis' form, concern written all over his face. The blue mane and blue eyes were very much a give-away, though the three crown cutie mark cast any remaining doubt as to the stallion's identity. 

Fancy Pants of all ponies was attempting to help Chrysalis? As if this was not baffling enough, he looked at Celestia as if she had committed some sort of crime. "How could you?" 

How could she? She hadn't even permanently scarred the creature yet. Better yet, what was Fancy Pants even doing here? 

Fancy Pants shifted so that he would be between the still agonized Queen and Celestia. "Dead is a relative term. Only Kings stay in Equestria." 

An interesting point, but not one that would avert the necessary measures. Despite Celestia's attempts of attempting to get a clear shot of Chrysalis, Fancy Pants constantly moved himself in the way, likely knowing that his bubble shield would hardly stop an attack from Celestia herself.

Mild frustration began to set in when it became clear that Fancy Pants would not simply stand down on the matter. "Step aside Fancy Pants, changeling, whatever you are. Chrysalis is my target, not you." Granted, anyone helping Chrysalis would have to be eliminated anyways, but she would reserve that for after she had dealt with the main threat, whom by this point had stopped writhing in pain. 

"No!" Fancy declared, embracing Chrysalis so that his back was to Celestia, "I would rather burn a thousand times than allow you to destroy my beloved Chrysalis!" 

"Fancy Pants, you are not making sense!" Celestia at least could not make sense of this behavior. Even when Shining Armor had been under the influence, he had been far less apt to defending Chrysalis, and more apt to just standing around like a mindless zombie. 

"Love does not have to make sense." Fancy nuzzled the queen affectionately, causing the breakfast contents to nearly escape Celestia's belly in a rush. Fancy then narrowed his eyes towards Celestia. 

"I guess I have no choice then." Although it was not in her best of wishes, Celestia was determined to get rid of Chrysalis by any means necessary. She let loose her blast of magic, despite Fancy refusing to move. The searing magic cut through Fancy like a hot knife through butter, though Chrysalis had by now recovered enough to roll out of Fancy's grasp and just out of danger's path. Her mane, however, caught afire, and with a swift cut with magic, Chrysalis had dropped the flaming hair directly atop of Fancy. 

Fancy howled in distress as the flames scorched at his face, sending him sprawling back into Celestia's front legs. A less sturdy pony would have been knocked back, but Celestia held firm as her foe blinked rapidly, barely able to stand on her four hooves. Fancy had bought her time, that Celestia had to admit. But it was only time. 

Time that was very rapidly running out. Once again Celestia prepared a blast of magic, but before she could let loose, Fancy sunk his teeth into Celestia's right leg in some desperate attempt to stall her yet more. 

Startled to say the least, Celestia yelped and reflexively kicked forward, sending Fancy flying across the throne room and directly atop the remnants of the throne. 

"This ends now!" Celestia declared. Chrysalis shook her head, and leapt back. Of course, Celestia had yet to fire her magic, and assumed that Chrysalis had just made the assumption because of her statement. Time could not be drawn out any longer though, as it was clear that the Queen was slowly, but surely, recovering from the earlier attack. 

Once again aiming her horn, Celestia let loose a stream of magic. Chrysalis did the same, and for just a moment, the two clashed once again. This time however, there was no clear winner for several minutes, or so it felt like. Surprised that Chrysalis could hold out for so long, Celestia analyzed her foe one last time, noticing the gem radiating almost violently as Chrysalis pumped whatever strength she had left into this attack. 

In that moment, it became clear now what was going on. "The alicorn amulet," Celestia scowled, "How could I be so blind? What else could you have possibly been using to power yourself? Cadance's love magic." 

"About time you figured that out." Chrysalis cringed and grunted, showing some signs of wearing out, "It is unfortunate that you need love for it to work properly. Manipulation and force can only get you so far." 

"Forcing ponies to have affections for you is not love." Celestsia began stepping towards Chrysalis, adding onto the queen's strains. "That is a kind of tyranny that even Sombra is not guilty of." 

"Heh." Chrysalis was to her knees now, the combined blasts edging progressively closer to her horn. "Seems like I am not going to win this. Remind Aunt Luna that crystals do not readily lose their sha-" 

The blast at last overwhelmed Chrysalis, sending her hurdling. Rather than smacking into the wall, she went through it, completely smashing through the wall as if it were made of paper. A rather loud crash could be heard as she made her landing. Celestia estimated that it was somewhere in the kitchens. 

She galloped in that general direction, wanting to ensure that the job was finished. After all, assumptions is what allowed the Queen to return in the first place, and she was not a fan of repeating past mistakes. At least, not if she could help it. As she passed by her throne's former place, she cast a look towards the rubble, seeing a small horn poking from underneath it. Despite her desires to get rid of Chrysalis, the princess relented and used her magic to lift some of the rubble from Fancy Pants. 

The poor stallion had blood trickling from his nose and enough bruises to change his coloration to a dark blue-ish color. His eyes fluttered open, his eyes still completely unfocused. "Mmh, what was that..." 

While Celestia might would have stayed for his mutterings a tad longer, as the stallion was still alive and at least conscious, she did not want to delay any longer. She leaped through the hole that Chrysalis had made, using her wings to control her motion through the air, just in case the Queen managed a second wind somehow.









Lightning Dust had not wanted to fight against Luna. But for some reason, Sunset and Flash Sentry were determined to do so. And had somehow, without speech, convinced Gilda and Trixie to join in as well. Even before the two sides clashed, Lightning knew that she would need to avoid taking on Luna directly, and instead focus on the guards. After all, she could perhaps knock them out; taking on Luna was madness though. 

When the guards clashed, neither side had weapons. By the time Lightning had swiped and missed her first punch, spears entered the fray. The pointed ends were being swatted around in an attempt to clear space in the air and ground for the night guards to fit in some form of order. And it was oddly working, as Lightning was spending more time trying to dodge the spear than actually helping in the fight. This futile effort continue for some time before Lightning distanced herself from the fight by flying higher in the air. 

Already they had been outnumbered before, but with her absence, the difference was beginning to show. With Trixie and Sunset focused on fighting Luna, that left Gilda and Flash to handle the other ten guards on their lonesome. The two were in bad shape, and with the spear wielder in the mix, no doubt it was only a matter of time before one went down. 

However, from above, she also noticed a rather strange sight. Royal guard members were fighting among each other, as well as other unmarked ponies. A few other griffons and dragons were added into the mix, though they seemed to be mostly spectators.

It was this moment that the absence of a certain pegasus bothered her. She did not have to ponder for long on where she went, the cyan hoof connecting with her jaw likely belonging to Rainbow Dash. The force sent her spinning, but she managed to remain in flight long enough to see the rainbow streak coming for another blow. Much more prepared this time, Lightning timed a punch just as the blur looked to overtake her. 

Feeling satisfied as her connected with center body, Lightning watched as Dash veered up a few feet, and then swerved back down to face Lightning head on. "That was for getting me kicked out of the Academy you bitch!" 

Dash came in for another punch, but Lightning dodged it, although she did not expect Dash's wings to deliver a sucker blow to her face. 

"What's coming is for nearly killing my friends back at the Academy!"  

Lightning growled, and before she knew it, she was in a duel not quite of blows, but of sheer speed. In flight, everytime she or Dash attempted to land a blow on the other, they either connected with each other or veered off and dodged, neither scoring a hit. This was an indecisive manner of going about this, but Lightning felt that she could outlast Dash, matching her punch and buck. As this went on, the two did a swoop pass of each other, Lightning going for a full body tackle. 

Dash apparently had the same idea, and their combined momentum ended with them running smack into each other, their heads colliding with enough force to produce a brief blackout. When the lights came back on, Lightning felt a powerful migraine dominating her thoughts, the pain radiating throughout her skull. Her body refused to rise from its place, and her disorientation only served to add injury to insult  as she crashed landed atop some equine body. 







Using fireworks, invisibility, and whatever stray objects had landed in the fight, Trixie had been holding her own incredibly well; she would surely boast of it later, but she certainly felt that she was doing most of the work in this fight. Lighting Dust had ascended to do whatever it was she was doing, the ten guards would have surely overwhelmed them by now had Trixie not been intervening this entire time. 

Unfortunately, it did not help either Sunset or Flash. Though at first it seemed that they could hold their own against the princess, it was becoming increasingly clear by how Luna was smacking them around - quite literally - that those two were not going to last much longer. And it seemed that everytime Trixie knocked down one of the night guards, some more just took its place. Unlike the Crystal Empire, however, these night guard ponies just kept getting back up, rather than they were being replaced. 

Lethal force might would have helped with that, but that would have also fortified the others even more; Trixie did not want to risk it. She could note that they would have also been overwhelmed by now had it not been for the disorder among the rest of the guards caused by what appeared to be defectors among the group. Defectors was probably the wrong choice of word though, as it was more likely that they were former Market members than they were working for a separate country altogether. 

Trixie dodged yet another spear thrust from that one night guard member who had actually brought a spear to a hoof and horn fight. As annoying as he was, Trixie had yet to be able to disarm, largely because everytime she focused in his direction, he forced her to move by thrusting the spear at her. The irritating guard had finally thrust one time too many when Trixie finally took her attention from the rest of the fight just to seize the spear with her magic. 

The stallion, once forcibly disarmed, found himself being smacked with the blunt end, which seemed far more effective than the hoof beatings he had gotten earlier, and this time when Trixie brought the pony down, he stayed down for a good five minutes. Five minutes would have ran forever had Luna not taken the chance to buck Trixie in the side. Her breath knocked from her, Trixie rolled a few feet until she hit the base of the stage. Before she could recover, Luna stomped a hoof onto her, horn pointed point blank range at her face. 

The bright glow of her magic made it clear that Trixie had become the next target. Rather than striking immediately and ending it, she instead pressed harder on Trixie's side, eyeing the alicorn amulet around her neck. "Where did you get that?"

Though it was hard to even breath with Luna pressed into her side, Trixie still managed to get out, "Zebrack." 

Luna lifted some of her weight, allowing Trixie to gasp for air. The horn mere inches from her forehead, Trixie understood that that apparently would not suffice as an answer. Since Luna's guards were more than likely dealing with the rest of the group, Trixie also figured that Luna would press her for the answer, and then finish her off, having more than enough time to spare. 

"Shortly after being bested, Trixie tracked down that zebra to her hideaway in the Everfree Forest. We had a brief chat, and Trixie went on her way without the amulet. Came back later with Lightning Dust and bargained for it." 

"Bargained?" Luna seemed confused, rightfully so, as the idea of Zecora bargaining for the alicorn amulet seemed unlikely. After all, it was not just an ordinary relic. "What could you have possibly bargained for that would have gotten that zebra to just hoof over the amulet?"

"Why she got to keep it is the better question." Trixie cackled, but Luna did not seem amused. 

"Take off the amulet. I am not above reducing you and the amulet to pointless pieces of ash and jewelry, respectively." 

Trixie, beginning to feel sweat drip from her forehead, inquired, "Well, I have to take it off willingly, and you are kind of pinning me down-" 

"Your horn mare." Luna had a no-nonsense increase in weight on the hoof keeping Trixie pinned. 

"Just out of curiosity, why not just kill me and take the amulet then?" Trixie knew she was stalling for time already borrowed, but it sure beat giving up the amulet and getting reduced to ashes anyways. 

"That would send the magic back to the creator of the amulet. Presuming the creator is dead, I believe it would return to the source of the magic in the first place. Either way, you would not get out alive with that option." 

It seemed like a lose-lose situation. After all, there was nothing binding to Luna that she would not waste Trixie after the amulet is surrendered. After all, the alicorns had been prepared for an execution or two today, it would hardly be any different in practice. Then again, at least if she surrendered, there would be a chance of escaping this unscathed. Despite her mind screaming for her to take her chances, Trixie reluctantly began taking off the amulet, wrapping her magic around the clasp.

Just as the amulet clicked, a shadow overtook Luna. Hardly a second later, the alicorn had been slammed by the falling Lightning Dust with Luna's beam of magic shooting from her horn, giving Trixie a very close shave and the stage a shallow trench. 

Trixie, putting a hoof to her head with the feeling that she had gotten overtly lucky, delayed re-donning the amulet just long enough for the same fate to befall her, Rainbow Dash dropping atop of her like a dead weight.