//------------------------------//
// Act IV - Ch. 39 Betrayer's Folly 
// Story: Justice Itself 
// by Autocharth 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 39 Betrayer's Folly


***


Wood gave way, supports splintering as the makeshift sheets of iron fell. The gate came down, hurried work dissolving into melted ruin. Slag gave way to heavy hooves, leaving a trail of cloven hoofprints pressed into molten metal behind Tirek as he advanced into the vault.

Each step echoed. He wanted to take his time, but the weight of the Sisters above pushed him on, past relics of dark sorcerers and artifacts of evils long past. It brought an ironic smile to his face to lay eyes on the place that had housed his weapon for so long.

Tirek’s hand strayed to the sack at his waist. A pulse ran up his arm, bringing a sigh from his lips. Patting it, Tirek strayed his gaze across the hall. One by one, he eliminated each item with wards still intact. A few, he noted sourly, were useless now. Why they remained here, he could only blame on the paranoia of Celestia.

At least, so he thought until his eyes fell on a rather out of place object. It sat on a pedestal, the dim glow of wards ringing the strange ball of tightly bound cloth. Behind the wards and the cloth, he felt the warmth of the power within.

“Yes…” His eyes widened in understanding. “Oh, oh yes. Thank you very much, ‘Princess’.”

He laughed at the angry energy surging against the binding above. Of course, she withdrew like a beaten dog as soon as his attention turned to reinforcing the seal, which brought a smug look to the demon’s face.

Thrusting a hand out, a torrent of shadows consumed the wards. He brushed them aside, fingers biting into the gathered fabric. Great wads fell away as he tore into it. The twine that held it in place burned against his chin, golden magic fading away with each handful. 

At last he held his prize above. It gleamed in the darkness, a thick hunk of jagged metal. Strange designs were engraved across one side, though their meaning was lost to time due to the loss of the rest of the artifact. He ran a thick red finger along the edge, smiling at the sharpness of the jagged rim. Blood, rich in colour and pungent in odour, dripped along the old bronze metal.

Tirek brought up the sack, the dirty material at the mouth stretching. Vaster than it ever had a right to be, the sack had little trouble devouring his new toy. A plume of fire was his gift in its place. Rocks crashed and fell, a cloud of dust and stony debris rushing in his wake. He couldn’t have something being found in there to be used against him, unlikely as it was.

Tirek emerged from the palace, basking in the scent of terror drifting from the city. Shadows rushed beneath his hooves, blackening the earth beneath him. Rising from the ground, dark energy took physical shape that lifted him into the air on a platform. With ever increasing speed its form became distinct, until Tirek’s hand lay on the edge of his chariot. The other rose, clutching his sack. The seething darkness within thrashed, fattened with pillaged loot.

“Come forth!” His voice tolled like a funeral bell. SIx shadows burst from the sack to strike the earth before him. They rose with shrieks of protest, fury filling ancient, half-real features. Bowed before Tirek, six dragons glared hatefully in ancient chains of slavery.

“Rise.” His gaze travelled the twilight-lit lands. He snorted. “Rise, slaves, or back you go!”

Hisses and snarls answered him, until the reins snapped. The beat of leathery wings grew as draconic visages twisted in fury and hate. His chariot lurched into the sky.

“Onward,” he howled into the twilight. “Onward, to Ponyville!”


***


Panic, panic, panic. That’s all the inhabitants of Ponyville seemed to know how to do lately, and what did it accomplish? Did any of them so much as take a moment to consider going to their duly elected mayor about the latest impending disasters? Granted, usually she panicked as well, but not always. She certainly hadn’t those times whatever trouble plagued had been cleaned up by a certain six mares, and any of their little hanger-ons.

It was in the midst of these thoughts, and several more of roughly the same sourness, all born from the same dread that gripped the heart of everypony in Equestria, that Mayor Mare heard the knock at her office door. Leaving the various folders of possible evacuation plans, she hurried past the suddenly very reassuring mountains of paperwork. Let it be known that paperwork, at least, never tried to curse you or eat you or do anything nasty.

At least, not yet.

With that disturbing thought, she opened the door to find the second strangest reptile in town. Spike, fortunately, lacked the vacant yet somehow piercing stare of Pinkie Pie’s peculiar pet, even if he did set things on fire when he had a cough.

“Hello, Spike, is there something I can- oh!” She seized the scroll being shoved at her. Once it was in hoof, she looked down. “Thank you, Spike, but what is- wait, where are you going?”

“Sorry!” Spike waved an apologetic claw at her, his rapid run barely losing momentum as he bolted for the door. “That’s from Twilight! I have to do something! Bye!”

She watched him leave. Perhaps she should have asked him for help. He had probably picked up some skill at paperwork from Twilight. She should have asked what was going on. But then, of course, she had this scroll from Twilight. Surely she would know! Learning about the plan, because there had to be one, from paperwork was probably easier than learning it from a person.

Mayor Mare was aware that she was not in her right state of mind right now. Of course, the sky wasn’t in its right state either. She was just a mayor. She couldn’t do anything about the sky, about their immortal princesses seemingly occupying rather elevated positions above them, but she could arrange the town for the aftermath. She could do her paperwork, keep everypony calm, and organise emergency relief. She, Mayor Mare, could do her part and show the citizens of her town that all you needed to survive was to be calm, prepared, and never let circumstances drive you to losing control of yourself.

Three minutes later, Mayor Mare swore loudly enough to bypass every wall around her, and harshly enough to peel paint. Time Turner, passing her door with a frantic expression and a wide range of official Ponyville time-keeping devices, paused. A moment later, her door creaked open.

“Er...Mayor?”

The scroll fell into a pile on her desk, followed shortly by her forehead.

“...uh…” He glanced this way and that uncertainly.

“One thing. Twilight Sparkle has given me a detailed, well-planned yet simple evacuation procedure, and all she asks is one thing.” She answered the unspoken question without looking up.

“...right. That’s good, but I’ve sort of got to get back to Dinky and D-” he began.

The mayor continued as though he hadn’t said a thing. “All she asks is that I keep Spike here, and make sure he leaves with everypony else. She even has half a dozen ways to convince him without letting him realise she’s getting him to safety.”

Ponyville’s premier timekeeper gave her office a small glance. The distinct lack of baby dragon was quite apparent. It was a lot more apparent than usual, in fact, despite a lack of baby dragon normally being an unremarkable, in fact, an expected, circumstance.

“I,” declared Mayor Mare, getting up. “Am going dragon-hunting. Because if I don’t, when Twilight Sparkle and her friends defeat this demon, I’m going to be sent to the moon.”


***


All through the town, in the minutes after Spike’s delivery, ponies began to move. Unlike the previous panicked mobs, this time they moved with purpose. At least, some did, enough to get the rest clued in. The Mayor stalked the streets, searching for the baby dragon, getting one or two of the more responsible townsfolk to watch for him, and keeping the civilians moving. Only a few noted the relevance of being sent to the edge of town furthest from Canterlot.

In the one place where the evacuation was going slowly, Spike slipped through clinically clean, medical halls, pausing every now and then to make sure he wasn’t seen and herded out by any nurses. It had already happened twice, and he wasn’t really in the mood to start all over again.

At last, however, he reached his destination without being returned to the checkpoint at the start of the level. Spike peeked into the room, a grin appearing at the sight of the orange filly yammering away at a rather irate looking griffon. His grin was more to the fact that Gilda, like far too many others, assumed any member of the Cutie Mark Crusaders was capable of detecting subtext. A large, clear sign was the only real way to be sure they knew what you meant, and even then, neon lights were a very useful addition.

“Shouldn’t you guys be getting evacuated?” he asked by way of greeting. Spike wasn’t as nearly as good at reading beaks as he was at reading lips, but even he could tell that Gilda was mouthing a praise of thanks to whatever force was up there.

“Spike?! What are you doing here?” Scootaloo spun in place to peer at him. “Is it our turn to go? The nurse said we had to do it all organised, so we have to wait.”

The way she said ‘wait’ might as well have been dipped, figuratively speaking, into liquid disdain and frozen in the freezer of contempt. Waiting was not, clearly, a particularly cool thing to do.

“Please tell me we get to leave now,” Gilda demanded with a growl hidden in her voice. “Kid, I will name my first hatchling after you if we can go.”

“Like that’ll ever happen,” he muttered under his breath. Her glare sharpened abruptly, and Spike cleared his throat nervously. “No idea. Rainbow Dash was getting worried about you, Scootaloo, since she hasn’t seen you much.”

A bright smile came to the filly’s face, while a frown came to Gilda’s.

“And she was worried about you too,” Spike added quickly, lying through his toothy smile. “So I came looking for you. Also, so the Mayor wouldn’t make me evacuate like Twilight wants.”

“Why the hell are we even evacuating?” Gilda crossed her arms, tapping a talon on the metal bar. “What’s going on?”

“We’re leaving in a hearse, or we’re stealing the nurse!”

Gilda scowled at the half-asleep minotaur. “Gods, when will he shut up?! How much stuff does he need pumped into him anyway?”

The big motivational speaker turned in his drugged slumber, huffing and mumbling some more less than sane words. She resisted the urge to throw something at his big fat head.

Hesitating, Spike looked at her uncertainly. “Uh, you know...what happened? The...the thing that did the...s-shadow, thing?”

“The one who turned you into monsters?” Scootaloo looked between them, wincing at the looks on their faces. “Sorry!”

Gilda’s scowl became a less harsh frown. Her gaze sought out Spike’s. “Wait, wait, that happened to you as well?”

He gave a weak nod. “Yeah...I, uh, I made the holes down by the front door…”

“Oh.” 

They watched Gilda hesitated, then, unexpectedly offer Spike a sympathetic look.

“It’s rough, huh?” She coughed, awkwardly fiddling with her bedsheet. “If, you know, you need anyone to...to talk to, about it, I could help, or something. Or not, if you don’t want to, I don’t care,” she added quickly.

Spike blinked. “...uh…”

She crossed her arms, looking away with a sour expression. “Not that I care.”

“Sure. Just not right now. Because that big monster guy? His name is Tirek, he’s why the Princesses are in the Sun and Moon, and he’s coming here.” Spike scratched his chin thoughtfully before holding a claw up. “Oh! And Princess Cadance and Shining Armour couldn’t stop him, so they sent us back to work out a way to do it.”

The room vanished. The dragon, the filly, the big sleeping idiot, they all faded away from Gilda. She stared blankly ahead, a pounding in the back of her skull. Tirek, the sound, the thought, bounced around inside her. She could see it, him, for just a moment. She saw the monster with its towering horns and blood red skin. The black fur that drank in the light around it. For just an instant, Gilda remembered him.

The shriek of fabric tearing in half tore Gilda from her trance. Her talons rose. Through the tear in her sheet, she saw the concerned looks on their faces. Embarrassment filled her, but the spark of anger had already laid its claim on her. Anger turned to confusion at the loud thump across the room.

“Iron Will knows that name!” His bed creaked, and he staggered upright. Iron Will pointed, though no one was quite sure what he was pointing at, since the direction wavered. “But….I don’t. Huh. Never recognised a name I’ve never...heard…”

The tension was somewhat broken when he slumped, a bang resounding from the floor as his horns hit it. Snores from the mighty minotaur.

“...what the hell are they giving him?” asked Gilda, her voice dull with faltering anger. She shook her head and pushed back her sheets. “Ugh, whatever, I don’t care. Where’s Tirek coming from?”

The way she spat ‘Tirek’ like a curse should have warned Spike.

“Paladin says he’ll be coming straight from Canterlot, but- wait, where are you going?” Spike trailed off into a yelp, a leonine tail curled around him and lifting him onto Gilda’s back as the griffon stood on slightly unsteady feet. “...are you dragonnapping me?”. 

Scootaloo pouted. “Nopony ever bothers to foalnap me,” she mumbled sourly.

Gilda resisted the urge to introduce her face to her palm. She pointed at Scootaloo. “Okay, you, kid, you need to talk to Dash or somepony, because being jealous of that is really weird. As for you, kid, I’m taking you back to your owner.”

“I don’t have an owner!” Scootaloo protested.

“What? No, I meant small and purple here-”

“But you called me kid, then you said it again,” the filly pointed out.

Spike nodded. “You kinda did. If you call her kid once,it sounded like you meant her the second time.”

A strangled, frustrated groan nearly got free of her beak. It was held it only by deadly willpower.

‘Hanging them from a pole or pranking them with something explode-y would piss off Dash,’ Gilda reminded herself, aching for the simplicity of not caring about others, but far more for the comfort of a friend. She shook it off with a scowl.

“I meant you, dragon-kid, not her, and I’m not hatchling napping you. I was taking you back to your friends, then I’m gonna go show that piece of chicken drek what you get when you piss me off!” She said it with rather more bravado than she really felt. Gilda dropped Spike next to Scootaloo. She was not putting up with that while getting him somewhere safe. Besides, hospitals were plenty safe. “Now, I’m just gonna leave you in here. The big guy can look after you.”

Scootaloo rubbed her forehead. “What’s chicken drek?”

Pursing his lips, Spike looked thoughtful for a moment. “I think its another way of saying chicken cr- hey, come back! I don’t think you’re supposed to go anywhere!”

His call went unheeded, and he looked to Scootaloo worriedly. The filly joined him, watching Gilda storm from the room.

“The nurse said to wait here until they came to get us. She even said not to go out on our own,” Scootaloo tried. She shared a nervous look with Spike as Gilda just kept on going.

“Sorry, dwe- kids. You stay there, and be, you know safe. Someone has to keep that big idiot company.” Her wings brushed the walls, and the window whined faintly as she pulled it open. Fresh air rushed through the corridor, the feeling of its running through her feathers making the griffon sigh. “I’m going monster hunting.”

She went from griffon to brown and white blur in an instant. Unfortunately, she quickly became a downward blur, wings beating awkwardly and frantically.

“I’m fine! I’m alright!” Gilda rose, panting. She didn’t deign to look back, certainly because she was embarrassed at nearly falling, and definitely not in an attempt to retain what dignity she had left. “Stupid beaten up wings...”

“...”

“...”

Spike exclaimed, “We have to stop her!”

“We have to help her!” exclaimed Scootaloo at the same time.

They blinked.

“...help?” Spike asked wearily. He grimaced. “I’m pretty sure a demon is kind of out of her league.”

Shaking her head, Scootaloo’s wings buzzed as she pointed after Gilda. “But maybe it’s not.”

“But it is!”

“But it’s not!”

“It could be!”

“It’s not!”

“Oh, come on, give it a shot!” she whined.

“Even if we wanted to, the moment they see us running around on our own, somepony will try to get us to evacuate with everypony else. I’m sure the Mayor’s read Twilight’s letter by now.” Spike frowned, tapping his chin. “If we go out to stop or help her, somepony will see. I don’t want to be stuck leaving town, I want to help!”

“Me too! And if we help Gilda, that’ll be like we’re helping.” Leaning closer, Scootaloo gave him a conspiratorial look. “Imagine how impressed everypony will be if we help Gilda defeat some big nasty monster.”

She could see the resistance begin to crumble, but Spike rallied. “It doesn’t matter,” he insisted. Spike shrugged. “As soon as they see us, we’ll get sent to somepony. It’s happened like three times on my way here. If the Mayor is looking for me, I doubt telling the guards Twilight sent me on an errand is a going to work again.”

“We can do it, we just have to be stealthy, or smart!” The filly began to plot, nodding to herself.

Spike gave her a considering look. For some reason, he could visualize when the Crusaders had attempted to get their genius cutie marks. It had ended in fire, much like their sneaking cutie mark attempt, and their aquamancer cutie mark attempt. 

“Maybe you should leave those to me,” he remarked, adding. “You can provide the craziness.”

“I’m not crazy! Besides, I know how we can get out to look for her without being evacuated.” Her grin was wide and proud, that of a filly who had struck gold. “We need an adult.”

“...and do you have one on you?” Spike rolled his eyes. “I forgot to bring along a spare adult.”

Her expression fell. “It’s not like you’re suggesting anything better for helping-”

“Stopping!”

“-helping Gilda!” Scootaloo scowled.

“Just because I don’t have an idea doesn’t mean your idea isn’t crazy. Nopony is going to just help us look for a griffon who is trying to find the big monster!” He ran a claw along his spines. “Ugh, why can’t things be simple lately? I want to give that big monster a kick right in the face too, but I’m not going off to get in his face.”

Iron Will rose up to his knees behind the bickering pair, one hand going to his skull. He swayed, eyes crossing until he shook his head. Neither noticed, too absorbed in their argument, not even as he settled one hand on a bed and stood further.

“Ow!” He pulled the piece of tile off his horn, studying it with a confused look in his eyes. “Did I drink the goats’ moonshine again?”

After a few seconds of silence, Iron Will looked down to the pair. They were staring up at him with wide eyes. He gave a small wave, quizzical expression still in place as he returned the stare with one that was slightly less focused.

“...Iron Will is definitely going to stop drinking.”

Ignoring him, the pair grinned at each other.

“Ha!” Scootaloo rubbed her hooves together. “Guess we do have an adult.”

“I only said nopony, so I’m not wrong. Minotaurs aren’t ponies.” Spike grinned as much as she did before turning his grin back to Iron Will. “Hey, uh, Mister Will...”

“Please, call me Iron Will.” He was remarkably calm for having woken in a strange place, but that might just be the drugs.

“Okay, Iron Will. I’m Scootaloo, this is Spike, and we really need your help,” began Scootaloo.

“I bet its really confusing, but we have to do something really important,” continued Spike. He gestured at the window. “Our friend went looking for this, well, this demon called Tirek-”

A strange expression broke through the painkiller’s haze in Iron Will’s eyes. His teeth clicked shut, his eyes darkened, and his muscles tensed in preparation for violence. They stayed back, watching him snort furiously.

“Tirek! That name makes me think of… did Iron Will really…” Iron Will’s wrathful glare faded, his hands shooting to his face. “The shame! By the Bells, how could I nearly do that?!”

His voice trailed off. Iron Will stared at nothing, eyes peering where only he could see. The memories were all too fresh, if distorted, and he groaned quietly in guilt. Living in a land surrounded by ponies, all so much smaller and easier to hurt, he prided himself on his control. He could hurt ponies, so very easily, but he didn’t. Even now, assertion without aggression meant he needed his strength even less.

Iron Will peeked out between his fingers, peering down at the sudden sharp poke on his knee. The strange little lizard looked up at him, teeth visibly chewing against his lip.

“...Spike, right? Iron- I need some time. Personal time. Maybe you two should find another room, in case I- in case something bad happens.” His tone surprisingly gentle, Iron Will pushed Spike back. “If you can’t control yourself, console yourself. Or maybe chain myself up, but that doesn’t rhyme.”

“Rhyme? Why does that matter?” Scootaloo cut in. She looked sheepish when Spike glanced back at her. “What? It’s weird, and we need his help.”

“Rhymes stick in the memory. Catchy and witty, that’ll make sure everytaur remembers. I want to help, kids, but I need to remember my own lectures. I did something very bad, and it’s not safe here. You need to go away, now,” ordered the minotaur. He flicked a finger at the door.

“I know this is a bad time, I really do. I…” Spike fidgeted, almost losing the nerve to continue. “I got possessed too!”

A heavy frown settled on Iron Will’s face, trying to hide his surprise and disbelief.

Spike went on before the insufficiently hidden disbelief in Iron Will’s eyes could manifest into words. “I know that feeling, w-when he...he made me feel all alone. Like no one would ever be there for me. It’s hard to remember it all, but I felt like I was being hollowed out, made all empty and helpless until all that was left was...I know what it feels like, and Tirek is coming here. Gilda was possessed too, and she’s gone out to find him on her own.”

Sitting up, Iron Will’s eyes narrowed. “He’s coming here?” he echoed, tone dark, voice thick with a deep, bitter anger. “How do you know?”

“Yes! He’s coming here because we can stop him, so where else would he go? But Gilda can’t, and she’s being really stupid. If she’s actually out there to find him when he arrives, she’ll be helpless. We need you to help us find her. It’s super dangerous, and I know how hard it is after you realise what happened, but you’re huge and strong, so you can help us get her away from him.” Spike clutched at his leg, looking up at Iron Will with a pleading look. He was getting desperate. Gilda was mean, but she didn’t deserve whatever Tirek would do to her.

Iron Will just watched him for a few seconds, blinking for a moment. “You’re asking me because I’m big?”

“And nice!” came Scootaloo’s help. “I remember Fluttershy saying you look big and scary, but you’re actually really nice. Come on, you can help us!”

In the face of two pleading expressions, Iron Will’s will trembled. He should just say no, and stay here. He was dangerous. What if he wasn’t in full control yet? What if it happened again? What if….what if he said no, and a pair of children ran off and got themselves hurt? What if everything they said was true, and there was a foolish griffon who had suffered just as he had, too angry to control herself, about to get herself killed?

Iron Will snorted. The bed creaked in relief, his weight leaving it with the groan of buckled metal.

“When someone doesn’t do what’s right,” he declared, rising once more to his full height. “You better be prepared to fight! Let’s go save your stupid friend!”

Crack!

“...after I get my horn out of the light bulb.”


***


“So…” Applejack raised an eyebrow. “...yer sure it won’t hurt nopony?”

Rainbow Dash punched the air, along with a plate of silvery metal that was flying past that resumed its course towards Twilight’s work. “Just Tirek! We’ll lay the hurt on him.”

“Sing it!” Vinyl cheered. She grinned at the irate pony next to her, ducking under a haphazardly floating bundle of wires. “Not, you know, literally. Unless you’re drumming it into his face with your hoof. Then you should sing it.”

“Ah’m just concerned. Not fer yer magic, Twilight, Ah’m gonna trust ya on that, but the only time Ah’ve seen ya do much with machines other than this one is that weird one Pinkie likes to tell us about,” Applejack went on without batting an eyelash at the interruption.

“The one you tried to use to work out what my Pinkie Sense is. Ooh, she’s twitching!” A clang followed Pinkie’s giggling, a curved plate of metal landing on her head.

Twilight tried not to sigh too loudly. “I am not twitching,” she said firmly, very deliberately turning away from Pinkie to hide her twitching eyebrow. “I’ve mostly dabbled, Applejack, but I’m trying to use material foci to help the spell along. Like if I was trying to cast a spell with the Elements, they would serve as the material and spiritual foci.”

Grunting from the effort of precision, Paladin looked up from the bars he was forcing to bend into a smooth, perfect ring around the centre of the strange ‘device’. When Applejack looked his way, he nodded.

“Ardleon reforged his weapons with Equestrian materials. With more Equestria materials as the material foci, Twilight needs only use the bonds between you as spiritual foci,” he explained calmly to the nodding farmer.

“Right, right, Ah think Ah’m followin’ ya.” She cast an eye on a black board covered in chalk drawings. “An’ that…?”

“Angelic runes,” Paladin answered. A grunt escaped him as his hoof came down on a particular dent, his blow leaving it smooth. “Only a few. Letters in the tongue of the Heavens, wrought of mortal materials.”

With each passing moment, the device was less and less of a device. Twilight and Paladin worked with forced patience, dismantling the shell bit by bit. Eyes were covered as Twilight once more took a plate from the undone side of the device and melted it before their eyes. She forced raw heat into the unresisting metal until it became malleable.

“I’m still using the device to help, since it worked before,” Twilight huffed, short of breath but working on. “But I’m stripping it down for what I need. I hate to do it, but I need the materials.”

Rarity could spare a thought from her own work keeping Photo Finish contained to sympathise. The device was ugly and strange, but she could understand the pain of destroying what had been made with love and dedication. For a moment, she thought she could offer a word of sympathy.

“Ze light is not good enough! Zere must be better lighting!”

Burying a sigh of frustration in a polite smile, Rarity attempted once more to soothe the irate photographer. “I know, darling, I do, but this is very important, and not really the time for a photo shoot.”

“Yes, yes, I know!” Photo Finish sniffed haughtily. “I am a fashion photographer, but zere are magicks in ze making of history! Vot else is the Princess’s protege doing, but making history?”



“Of course,” went on Photo Finish blithely. “If only she was a bit slimmer, with a dress to match, ze magicks would be much stronger!”

“Oooh,” Vinyl snickered. “She just called Twilight Sparkle fat.”

“Vinyl! This is serious!” Octavia’s hoof rapped Vinyl gently on the side. “Don’t go making trouble. You’re lucky Miss Sparkle didn’t hear. Nopony else is-”

“Hey, Twilight, Photo Finish just called you fat! Ha!” laughed Rainbow Dash.

Octavia didn’t look at Vinyl. She, quite distinctly, made sure not to look at her friend and the grin doubtless on her face.

“Well,” she said primly. “So long as I’m here, you won’t say such things to anypony’s face.”

“Worth it,” admitted Vinyl. She watched Octavia shiver as Vinyl slipped her tail around hers. “Very worth it.”

“N-not now,” Octavia hissed, her cheeks red. “We’re going to talk about it once this is over.”

Silence answered her for a few seconds. When Vinyl’s voice came, it was unusually sober and soft.

“And if we don’t get the chance?”

The shiver that ran down Octavia’s spine wasn’t as pleasant as the last. She looked to the unicorn, biting her lip.

“Then…” she struggled for words. “Then...we won’t know what we missed.”


***


Big Mac stopped in the middle of the road. This was particularly notable because when Big Macintosh stops in the middle of the road, so does everypony behind him. This would have been more of a problem if anypony was willing to make an issue of it with the living detour, but they had rather more interesting things to make an issue of.

“Is she over there?”

“Nope! Is she over there?” Scootaloo squinted hard.

Spike raised his hand to his eyes, scanning the horizon from his vantage point. “No. Maybe she’s gone that way?”

Iron Will frowned, trotting along with more care than usual. “Iron Will,” he declared soberly. “Did not expect to be used as a lookout tower.”

Smiling, Scootaloo took her hoof from his horn to give the minotaur a pat. “It’s alright, you’re doing really well at it. I bet you’d get a cutie mark for it if you were a pony.” She paused. “Hey, Spike, you think I could-”

“No,” he answered, rolling his eyes. “I can’t see Gilda at all. Somepony must have seen her somewhere. It’s not like there’s any other griffons in town.”

Big Mac’s frown grew. The guilt of eavesdropping dug its roots in for a moment, but with a shrug he dismissed it. This was a public street, after all, and he trotted across it to them.

“‘scuse me, sir.” Rarely did he have to look up, making the experience an unfamiliar one. “Ah need to talk to yer passengers.”

“Sure thing! Iron Will’s the name, helping ponies is my game!” boasted the minotaur.

Mac raised an eyebrow. “Ah thought it was makin’ meek little mares go mad with power.”

Wincing, Iron Will nearly knocked the children off with an embarrassed shrug. “That time was, uh, a bit weird. Some ponies just take to it too well.”

“Eeyup.” Macintosh eyed the pair as they were lowered. He said nothing. The big stallion just raised an eyebrow at them.

“We’re looking for Gilda! She’s gonna beat up the monster that turned you into a monster,” Scootaloo volunteered cheerfully. The look in Mac’s eyes went unnoticed as she continued on cheerfully. “Oh, I just had a great idea! We should go get Rainbow Dash, so she can do it as well. I bet it would be awesome.”

Spike gave the filly an annoyed look. “We’re actually trying to find her to stop her. This guy is a big deal, and we’ve spent like the last hour looking for her. If she tries to fight Tirek, it’ll rain griffon giblets!”

“Ew!” It was Scootaloo’s turn to look annoyed. “That’s gross, and it would so not happen like that.”

Iron Will leaned down, tapping Mac on the shoulder. He waited for the pony to turn, and nodded to himself when he saw the look on Macintosh’s face.

“The little filly said ‘you’? Did it happen to you too?” He gave a thumbs up. “Don’t you worry! Iron Will knows what its like, and Iron Will intends to pay it back for that. You should join us!”

Mac’s brow drew together, a deep frown etched on his features.

“Come on, big strong pony like you, we’ll show him what’s what!” Iron Will proclaimed, flexing his muscles.

A queer expression came over Mac. “...what’s what?”

Iron Will blinked. “What?”

A loud cough cut them off. Spike glared up at the pair. “Guys, we can’t stand around here! Someone is about to get hurt. I know Gilda isn’t exactly nice, but what if she does find him? What if he does...does that again?”

Macintosh looked away, eyes closing as his features screwed up painfully. When they opened, he was looking at Spike’s worried expression.

“Sorry,” said the little drake. “I didn’t mean to make you think of that, but, well, he did it once, to all four of us, he could do it again.” He hugged himself, shuddering. “T-the thought of that, happening again…”

Scootaloo looked between the three, a familiar and unwelcome feeling flooding her. She was being excluded. Not on purpose, and certainly not from something pleasant. Yet still she was being excluded, again, and this time they were right in front of her!

‘Would Rainbow Dash be upset like this? No she wouldn’t!’ Nodding to her thoughts, Scootaloo nuzzled her scaly friend. “Are you alright?”

He managed a weak smile. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

Scootaloo gave him a Look.

“I am!” Spike added defensively. He crossed his arms. “I’m completely fine, but Gilda won’t be if we don’t find her first.”

Mac grunted noncommittally. He made it clear in just that grunt that he was thinking about it, and nothing more. ‘Ah need to find AJ and Apple Bloom an’ find out what all this nonsense is about. The griffon’ll be fine, Ah’m sure.’ 

“Spike, Ah wanna help, but Ah gotta make sure mah sisters are fine,” Macintosh said at last, shaking his head.

Shaking his head, Spike tried his own version of the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ ‘I’m a child, you can’t say no to me!’ look. “They’re with Twilight, doing magic stuff. We’d get in the way, so maybe we should go find Gilda first.”

“Come on, help beat up the monster!” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Alright, Spike, fine. Help us ‘stop Gilda’.”

The sarcasm dripping from each word got a glare from Spike, and she made a face back at him. Iron Will coughed, for once the voice of reason, interjected.

“First we gotta save her. Come on, be a stallion and help us save the girl! Yeah!” Iron Will posed heroically, muscles bulging.

Passing on his way out of town, a pegasus was irresistibly drawn in to add his own “Yeah!” to the shout. Iron Will turned, giving his unexpected chorus a thumbs up.

Despite the words of encouragement from Iron Will that would surely win over any uncertain heart, Big Mac still looked towards the library. It wasn’t far, if he maybe just ran over, he could check on them. He had to know they were fine. Granny was safe, at least for now, but he had to know all of his family were alright. His close family, at any rate. 

Spike saw the look. “We can go there afterwards, when we know Gilda won’t be getting herself turned into a monster again.”

‘After all,’ hissed a voice, dripping with malicious mirth, from the depths of his memories. ‘That would be a betrayal.’

Deep, throbbing aches pounded against the inside of Mac’s head. Burning, hateful eyes. Something old and powerful, a voice deep and dark, howled in the shadows of faded memories. Macintosh felt it again, the weight of flesh and scales crashing through his beloved farm, his body acting through the will of another.

Mac sighed. “Y’all know what’s goin’ on with all this sun an’ moon business, right?” 

Spike nodded, a grin appearing on his face. “Yeah! I can tell you everything!”

“Ah s’pose Ah’d just get in the way…” Mac gestured down the road. “Well find Miss Gilda, keep her from gettin’ herself in trouble, then we’ll go see my sisters.”

A dark feeling struck him as the children cheered, and Iron Will slapped him on the shoulder. Mac glanced around, lingering on the shadows. The street was empty, the herd of ponies being moved out of town long since passed.

“Let’s get lookin’.” Still he kept watch, looking for the source. “Start talkin’, Spike.”

Nodding, Spike clambered onto Mac, letting Scootaloo return to occupy Iron Will’s shoulder alone. His doubts began to fade, reassured by the presence of Big Mac. Big Macintosh was reliable. With his help, nothing could go wrong!


***


Gilda peered down at the group, talons digging into the cloud. Her frown deepened as she watched. With gentle beats of her wings, she set the cloud floating gently along above them as they set off, looking for her, she knew.

‘Idiots. A pegasus should know to look up.’ 

She tried to put venom into the thought, but the memories of the smiling filly chattering happily away at her made it hard. Gilda wanted to hate Scootaloo, and by all rights it should have been easy. She was annoying, and loud, and...and friendly…

“Uuuuugh.” She flopped onto the cloud, talons over her face as she strangled the groan before they could hear her. “Why don’t they just go with all the other evacuating dweebs?”

‘Why am I talking to myself?’ Gilda scowled at the sky, which utterly failed to respond in any satisfying way. It also failed to give her any answers, but then, it never had. It was the sky. Wide, open, free. Always there, always the way out. Responsibility, arguments, friends, she could dump all of them by just taking off. In the sky she was free of everything.

Except, she was becoming aware, the painful throb of guilt in her chest. With each beat of her heart it stabbed at her. It weighed her down, left her too weak to just fly away. All her angry words had become so much dirt as she had soared away. In the place of anger, as she gazed across the town, she had felt a cold knot of fear take shape in her gut.

‘I’m not afraid.’

Gilda really had thought she was a better liar. Apparently not. Even she wasn’t buying it. Her talons bit into her cloud.

‘I’m not!’

“I’m not!”

Her eyes screwed shut. Her wings pressed tightly against her back, tail lashing so hard it was breaking tufts of cloud from the edge. Try as she might, she couldn’t stop shaking. The red, sneering face loomed at her, ingrained on the inside of her eyelids. She could see him reach forward, laughing, ready to use her again.

‘You belong to me.’

“I don’t,” she croaked, shaking her head. “I don’t, and I’m fine. I’m alright, damn it, go away!”

‘Obey.’ She had heard the order so many times, given in a voice that dug into her down to the bone. She couldn’t escape from it, not as it compelled every inch of her corrupted body to attack her friend, not as it sent her shrieking at Rainbow Dash with claws bared. The command that turned her into a monster. ‘Obey, slave.’

‘Shut up shut up shut up shut up!’ She fought down rising bile. The cloud tore in her grip.

“Are-”

Gilda froze. For a moment, she could have sworn she heard…

“You-”

She snapped her head down, peering where the voice had come from. There was nothing there. Just the empty sky.

“Okay?”

It came from the other side this time, but again, there was nothing. Pulling herself up, Gilda stuck her head over the edge, glaring down at the town in confusion. She was rewarded by the sight of something orange and purple soaring towards her. Wide eyes met wide eyes for an instant.

With a squawk of surprise she pulled back just in time to avoid getting a faceful of Scootaloo. Her beak fell open. The faint buzz of tiny wings beating filled her eyes. 

“Hi!” Scootaloo’s smile was strained but genuine. “I-”

Her wings gave way. Gilda was frozen for an instant, her gaze fixed on the empty space. ‘She’s falling.’ The thought sent her bursting into action, throwing herself off the cloud. She cleared it, adjusting into a slender, aerodynamic shape. ‘Keep those wings out, kid, so I can...’

She trailed off. Below, his arms held out, Iron Will caught Scootaloo and, cocking his arms back, threw her!

‘... oh what the- ack!’ Gilda twisted midair to avoid the filly-bullet that came flying her way.


Bzzz! “-was worried we’d never-” Bzzz…

Gilda couldn’t help herself. She watched Scootaloo fall back into Iron Will’s waiting hands, the swing, and up she came again.

Bzzzz!

“-find you any-”

Bzzz!

“-where and you’d-”
        
Bzzz!

“-get hurt because-”

Bzzzz!

“-you fought a-”

Bzzz!

“-demon on-”

Bzzz-zat! Her wings went still, hanging in the talons holding her aloft.

“Stop! Holy hell, are you crazy? Is that idiot crazy?!” Gilda glared, eye twitching dangerously. Her fingers dug into Scootaloo’s forelegs as she held the filly up. “What if he missed? Dash used to do some stupid stunts, but you must be an all new kind of crazy!”

Scootaloo beamed. “Thanks!”

Gilda’s eye twitched again. “That wasn’t a compliment,” she growled..

Turning her head on an angle, Scootaloo frowned as though this didn’t quite make sense. Coming up blank, she did the next best thing to a rebuttal; she changed the subject.

“Are you okay? We were all really worried about you, even Spike. Actually, I think he was even more worried.” The cheer fled Scootaloo’s face, an open expression of confusion and concern taking its place. “He gets all shaky and scared, when he talks about the monster everypony is going to fight. When he thought you had gone off on your own, he said we had to stop you.”

Scoffing, Gilda released the filly onto the cloud. “No way. Nopony is going to stop me, kid.”

‘Obey!’

“Nobody! No one!” Cloud tore in her grip, and she punched the fluffy whiteness. She hoped it would hide the shakes. “I’m my own griffon, and no one, pony or demon, is going to tell me what to do.”

“But we just want to help!” Scootaloo glared at her, standing as though she was moments from leaping into battle. “And we are going to help!”

When she looked, Gilda didn’t see Scootaloo. Orange fur was replaced with blue. The purple was but a single shade of the scruffy mane, and magenta eyes pierced her with a look of righteous determination she hadn’t seen in far, far too long. Then she blinked, and it was gone. She was gone.

For a long moment, Gilda didn’t say anything. The certainty in Scootaloo’s eyes faltered, the strange stare unsettling her. She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.

“Uh, Gil-?”

The sharp snap of opening wings cut her off. She only got a single look at Gilda’s eyes as the griffon turned away, taking the pain not quite hidden in them out of Scootaloo’s sight.

“You’re alright, kid, so I’ll be level with you…”

Gilda’s wings jerking, beating, and her paws kicked off the cloud. Only vapours remained, and a single island of cohesive cloud that began to drift down. Scootaloo called out, reaching up, trying to grab anything she could to keep Gilda from getting away. The next words nearly broke her heart, and all Scootaloo could do was float sedately to the ground, those haunting words lingering in her ears.

“I’m not worth the effort.”


***


“T-that’s not true, right? She didn’t mean it, she couldn’t have!”

Rage gripped the heart of Big Macintosh. He wasn’t even sure who it was directed at. Gilda, for her callous self-loathing that hurt the filly who so wanted to be her friend? Himself, for not stopping Iron Will and Scootaloo’s insane idea for reaching the shrieking griffon?

No, he decided as he looked down on the saddened expression. Whether it was his fault or Gilda’s, the blame began and ended with one creature.

‘Tirek.’ Even thinking the name made him angry. Big Macintosh was no stranger to anger, but rarely did it have such a hold on him. Never had it made him consider violence the way he was at this moment. The thought of wrapping his hooves around any creature’s skull and squeezing had never been so empty. Though this fury swelled, the only look he gave Scootaloo was a reassuring pat on the shoulder and a shake of his head.

“Nope,” he heard himself say confidently, his mind too busy with thoughts of strangulation and bucking to the moon to give Scootaloo the attention she deserved. “Ain’t true at all.”

Iron Will had already fallen into life coach mode. “Everypony is worth the effort! If there’s anything I’ve learned in all my seminars, it’s that all anyone needs is a good kick in the backside to get them going! This griffon is just the same. I say we find her, and we make this girl realise she is that A! Who’s with me?”

Spike and Scootaloo cheered, though it had to be said it was slightly confused, if positive, cheering.

“Who puts the A in effort? She does!”

“Yeah, Gilda puts the A in….wait, there’s no A in eff-” Spike scratched his chin.

Cutting him off, Scootaloo repeated the chant, her teary-eyed expression fading. “Gilda puts the A in effort!”

“That’s right! Look at all the effort she put into shouting. Deep down, she wants to have her life affirmed. Why else would she shout and call out when we were right beneath her with no idea?” Iron Will rested his fists on his hips, looking proud of his deduction.

Mac decided not to voice his doubts, though he was definitely not going to hold it in after this was over. Cultural differences aside, he was fairly sure Iron Will should know better than to just throw a filly into the sky simply because she asked.

...he hoped Iron Will knew that, anyway.

“We needa follow her,” was all he said. The farm pony set off down the street. Between the claws on his neck, and the eerie, empty streets, Macintosh was feeling decidedly out of the ordinary.

“I think I left my scooter in a backyard around here…” Scootaloo mumbled. She scanned the sky from Iron Will’s shoulder. “Where did she go? I can’t see her anymore.”


***


From every direction, they poured towards Ponyville. Great columns of dark clouds stacked upon each other in the strange twilight, racing to be the first to cover the town in true darkness. An invisible will pulled them not merely in his wake, but pushed ahead of him, his presence twisting the world around him.

The chariot skewed around the town, turning to soar over the Everfree Forest. Tirek stared at it for a moment. The sack bounced on his belt, pulling away from the forest, until he stayed it with a forceful thought. Still it trembled, the power within straining to escape. To his rising hand, he called shadows that dwelled within the hostile wilds. Resistance answered him, and he fought to control the rush of energy.

For the barest of instants, uncertainty warred in his eyes. His brow drew together, and Tirek bared his teeth. ‘Soon enough.’

Down the chariot flew, lumbering shadow-dragons skidding to a halt on the outskirts of Ponyville. Tirek stepped down, through the dissipating chariot, into the wreckage of his last slave’s rampage. A snort of amusement escaped him, crushing a brick underhoof. 

“Seek them.” The dragons rose, trailing hisses and snarls into the sky. Tirek watched until they were gone,which was when he became aware of the shape speeding towards him. Confusion marred his expression before resolving into amusement.

The heat of her glare as she came in for a hard landing was like a refreshing shower. It just felt so right, and the way she put all of her fury and shame into the glare just made it all the sweeter.

“Alright, you big ugly monster.” Her fingers flexed, talons digging into the dirt. “Anything to say before I gut you like a fish?”

He raised a hand to his chin, a comical look of thought on his face. “Ah, slave! I had wondered where you went. Welcome back.”

Her ravenous anger was such a wonderful little reward for his efforts. A little nonchalance, talking as though he was speculating on favourable weather, and her emotions ran hot.

“My name is Gilda, and I’m not your slave. I’m going to make you pay for what you did to me!” Yet despite her words, she didn’t pounce. She circled, watching as though she might spot some fatal flaw in the demon’s form. “You remember, right? Twisting me into a monster, using me against Dash!”

“Not particularly,” he admitted with a chuckle. Tirek leaned forward, brow furrowing in mock-confusion. “Not my slave? Why do you think you returned to me?”

Confusion replaced anger for just a moment, and her attack stilled a moment from release, tensed muscles freezing.

“Why else do you think you feel such a burning need to find me? Did you really think anger was all that pushed you to come after me, when I am so far above you?” Tirek boomed with laughter, his chest heaving with mirth.

“Shut up. You have to remember. Admit it. Admit what you did!” Shrieked the griffon. Her eyes burned once more, but he watched the shifting tension. Flight, then fight. Fight, then flight.

Tirek let his voice become a sibilant hiss, sinister voice striking deep. “You can feel it in your bones, slave. You still serve me. You think they saved you? You, slave, will never be free. You are mine.” He grinned, teeth bared in a horrible, mocking expression. “Maybe this time you’ll do your job, and kill Loyalty.”


***


Twilight didn’t notice when Paladin stopped in his rune-shaping to murmur to Vinyl Scratch. She had no time to realise the superfluous unicorn had left, her attention too focused on the magic. Her head raised, her horn aglow, Twilight Sparkle breathed the magic that swamped the room.

“Is everypony ready?” Her magic reached out, pushing Rainbow Dash a few inches across. “Right, that should be good.”

Dash grumbled, “Do we all have to be exactly in these spots?”

“Yes!” snapped Twilight.

“No,” said Paladin. “Technically. But doing so makes this easier. It is symbolic.” He pointed from Fluttershy to the reworked device that housed the remnants of Ardleon, and to Photo Finish standing behind her. “The bond between Ardleon’s essence and his blades, straight through each of you. It was Photo Finish who Fluttershy helped, and so they form one link of the chain.”

Rarity tapped her hoof against the floor, nodding. “I see. Symbolic, so we make this correspond to the pony each of us has a connection to. Sweetie Belle and I, Applejack and Apple Bloom-”

“Me and Tank?” interrupted Rainbow Dash. She pointed at the quite empty space behind her. “Shouldn’t you put the doll there since you put his in that?”

Sighing, Twilight tried not to be irritated at the interruptions. Before her, like a cage designed by a madmare, the bars formed angelic runes around the blade and woolen Ardleon statuette. Already she could feel the very reality of those runes drawing power to them. She had yet to run a single bolt of magic through them, and still they had power.

“As Paladin said, I don’t need you all standing that way, but it makes it easier. Five is better than nothing.” Twilight glanced back at Trixie. “Are you alright, Trixie?”

Trixie nodded. “Trixie is fine, stop asking! Just because she- I was a mental patient does not mean I’m going to fall apart at the drop of- kya!”

Paladin looked down at the mare hiding behind Twilight, and moved so his shadow was no longer cast over her spot. 

“As I was saying,” Trixie continued, cheeks flushed. She went back to her spot meekly. “I’m not going to fall apart. Perhaps scream a tad, but Trixie does not fall apart!”

Raising a skeptical eyebrow, Octavia remained silent. Little had passed her lips even before Vinyl vanished up stairs, and nothing since. She steeled herself for whatever would come, or so she was attempting to do when something poked her. She looked down, pursing her lips at the stick being gently jabbed at her leg.

“Yes, Pinkie?”

“Are you alright? I thought- oh, darn, did it again.” Pinkie frowned for a split instant before swallowing the expression. “I thought you looked a little sad, and maybe worried.”

Raising an eyebrow, Octavia studied the pink mare before her. “I’m fine.” In the wake of this outright lie, Octavia pushed on. “Actually, I was worried about you. You seem to keep doing that without meaning to.”

Pinkie looked at her blankly. “Do what?” 

“Please, Pinkie,” scoffed Octavia. “I live with a mare who lies about not doing chores every day. That simply will not cut it.”

“Cut what?”

She twitched. “Repeating part of what I said back at me won’t work either. Your voice is what i’m talking about. You keep accidentally using this strange ‘superpower’ of yours.”

There! She saw the flinch, and marvelled moments later at how well Pinkie buried it. For such a bubbly, open mare, she was quite adept at pretending she had no negative emotions. Octavia hadn’t thought Pinkie would be capable of hiding anything, much less emotions.

“None of this is any of my business, well, not how you use it, and I don’t know anything about how all this magic works, but I do know how music works. Even if I don’t sing, I’ve picked up a few things.” As she spoke, Octavia glanced around the room. Everypony else seemed absorbed watching Twilight preparing, save Paladin. She frowned, but there was no time to wonder why he stood so protectively at the door.

“My singing is a little off, but don’t worry, I’ll have that fixed in a jiffy! “ promised Pinkie with a wide, very nearly genuine smile. “I just need to practice more, because my voice is weird and I don’t like it and oh I’m just gonna get a drink reeeeeeal quick-”

“Pinkie, stay where I told you!”

Twilight’s magic dragged Pinkie back from her attempt to escape her slip of the tongue. Octavia watched without comment for a few moments, content to revise her opinion on Pinkie’s ability to conceal emotions again. The almost fearful look on Pinkie’s face was none too pleasant to look at.

‘Of course she’ll feel bad. I barely know her, and she already cares so much about me being happy, she’s probably guilty for letting that slip out.’ Octavia grimaced slightly. “Pinkie Pie, I don’t know you very well. For most of the time I’ve known about you, I’ve had...ungenerous thoughts.”

Pinke didn’t say anything, just looking at the ground.

“But,” Octavia hurried on. “I do think I can offer some little bit of help. I don’t know about magic, but I know about sound. I don’t think I could play very well, if my ability to hear changed. At least, if everything sounded different, I’m not sure I’d recognise my own music.”

“Problem solved! I don’t play instruments. Well, aside from the trombone. Oh, and the kazoo, and the drums. I can rap too, wanna hear?” There was the nearly real grin again, slightly shakier this time, as Pinkie tried to divert the conversation.

Octavia continued as if she had heard nothing. “I like to think I would still recognise it anyway, even if I fear I wouldn’t. Because when I play, my music is a part of me. When I was young and could barely play, it was a part of me, and just because I’ve gotten better that doesn’t mean it was any less me when I was a terrible, ear-hurting filly. It doesn’t matter how it changes; your voice is still you, and you can say what you want with it and...and oh, I’m probably just spouting nonsense.”

Turning her head, Octavia bit back a sigh. She was trying to get something across, but words escaped her. She just wanted to tell Pinkie that nothing about her changed, even if she heard it all so differently, but how to say it properly? To make it clear and…

Octavia blinked.

“Pinkie, stop hugging her and please go back to your spot!” Twilight called in frustration.

“Um, Pinkie?” Looking at the pink pony latch to her so fiercely, Octavia blinked again. She hadn’t even heard Pinkie move. “Why are you hugging me?”

Pinkie beamed up at her. “Because you were so angry at me once, but now you’re doing your best to give me super-nice advice. I think I even understood some of what you said! Even if I don’t sound like Pinkie to me, I’m still Pinkie, so Pinkie’s voice is Pinkie’s voice, not another voice, even if its not Pinkie’s voice.”

“I...yes?” Trying to follow that with a squeezing pink limpet proved a tad more than Octavia was capable of right now, so she defaulted to nodding and smiling. That worked, at least enough for Pinkie to return to her spot.

A deafening bang shook the lair. The walls trembled, dirt cascading down amidst shouts and confusion. Magic blasted through the room, to the surprise of most Rarity’s glow, gathering the dirt in a ball off to the side.

“What the hay was that?” Rainbow Dash glanced at the ceiling. “I should check it out-”

“No!” Paladin’s voice cracked like a whip. He stood before the door, one wing spread across it. Vinyl , unusually frantic of expression, was nearly lost from sight as she stood behind it on the stairs. “Everypony has to stay here. We need to complete this. Twilight, the time has come. We have to cast it, now.”

He ignored their stares, staring at Twilight. The mare watched him with a faint look of accusation in her eyes.

“He’s here, isn’t he?” she asked, quite voice suddenly the only sound in the room.

Paladin nodded. “Yes.” He spoke on, ignoring the crash of voices filling the silence. His voice rose only slightly, deep tones cutting through the noise. “I felt his arrival only moments ago, and he is delayed. If we are to succeed, you must begin now.”

“Now? But...but what if something goes wrong? I need to make sure I know how the runes work, I need to-” Twilight went still, her eyes widening. The warmth she felt was not the emotions of a single mare. She looked to Fluttershy, and felt from all sides the radiating trust and confidence.

“If anypony can pull off some crazy magic, it’ll be Twilight Sparkle.” Applejack titted her hat back, smiling at Twilight.

“That’s right!” chimed in Apple Bloom. “We trust ya.”

“Rarity always says you’re the best pony at magic,” Sweetie Belle added.

Rarity leaned down, nuzzling her sister. “I do, and I can’t imagine you letting us down when it matters.”

“Come on, Twilight, you’re awesome, you’ll be fine!”

“I already have our victory party planned, and a surprise cake with your name on it! The surprise is that you think I’ll try to surprise you with something else, but I’ll really do what I said, which will become a surprise because you won’t expect the surprise you were told about!”

“I trust you.” Fluttershy blushed. “Well, I could say more, but...I trust you, and I think its what you need to hear.”

Everywhere she looked, Twilight saw and felt the confidence and trust. They filled her like twin suns that burned with unearthly power. Her eyes became a solid white glow, her horn a spear of light.

“Alright.” She breathed out, slow and steady. “I’m ready. Let’s begin.”

None noticed Vinyl hurrying back upstairs. She ran a hoof through her mane when she reached the top, resolve firming. Paladin was the only one, glancing back at her for a moment, hoping she would simply do as he had asked, his request whispered as Twilight’s confidence was built

“‘Just watch’, my fine flank. This pony isn’t going to just sit around waiting uselessly,” she growled to herself. Vinyl trotted to the door, heart set, her will iron. “Let’s get this party started, ugly.”


***


His hand closed around her throat, slamming the griffon into the ground mid-pounce. A thunderous boom rang out, dark magic blasting through her to pulverise the dirt beneath the foolish griffon as she screamed in pain.

“Or maybe,” he growled, a chuckle in his deep rasp. “I was lying.”

“Let go!” Thrashing, she screamed and lashed with everything she had. Her beak dug a furrow in the dirt, claws biting into it as she tried to kick him. When she hit, it was more like attacking solid steel. “I’ll kill you!”

Her threats trailed off into a squawk of pain. Tirek pulled with one hand and pushed with the other. Dirt sprayed from her head while pain radiated from the wing he stretched up. His fingers pressed against the bones inside painfully.

“You could not even grasp the number of times I’ve heard that. You’re hardly the most impressive.” His grip tightened, cutting off threats with pain. “A weak little griffon who can barely entertain me. You should feel flattered that I am spending such time on you.”

Hot tears cleared dirt from Gilda’s eyes as she writhed. Her shouts of defiance became a groan of pain when one of her flailing paws slammed straight against one of his legs.

“It’s been so long. Oh, so tempting…” A shiver ran down Tirek’s spine. His tongue slithered out to wet his lips. “Perhaps I should break your body first. Plucking each feather, replacing it with a salt-soaked needle. Or should I start with your mind? Would that be too easy? Silly me, of course it would.”

“I-I’m going to kill you!”

Tirek didn’t bother to respond. The demon peered down at her with much the same look as a lion might give a limping gazelle. Pain made her squirm, wing twitching frantically against his hold. His gaze lingered over the feathery appendage for a moment before a grin spread across his face.

“I know. I’ll break your wings now, then leave you to writhe on the ground like the worm you are. Once I’m done killing the Element bearers, I’ll come back, and see what I can turn you into. “ One of his forelegs rose, the thick hoof sitting atop her skull as his hand joined the other on her wing. He ran a finger through the feathers, poking occasionally. 

There were no more words from Gilda, her beak buried too deep in the ground. She could barely breathe, and the hoof atop her head was giving no quarter as he ground her into the dirt.

“I’ve done this so many times. I rather consider myself an expert. Don’t you agree?” His hoof jerked forcefully for a moment. “Of course you do. I could break your wing cleanly. A single snap, a nice, clean break. It would heal rather easily.”

His finger pushed against a bone, slipping along with increasing pressure until it found a joint.

“Or,” he purred, his mouth stretching in a horrible grin. “I can grind your bones to splinters.”

A finger became a fist, wrapped around the joint.

“Such a precious little collection of bones, so hollow and so easily breakable.” She screamed. The sound of her pain, his fist slowly tightening, brought a sigh of pleasure to his lips. “That’s right. Can you feel them grinding together? I wonder which one will break first. So many, so thin. What will become of you when I turn them to paste? ”

“St-ack! Stop!” Gilda’s neck burned, her head trembling as, for just a moment, she found the strength to push up. The moment ended with her beak rammed back into the dirt, her talons scrambling at his hoof as it pushed her down.

“You’ll be ever so useless. What is a griffon that can’t fly? Just a feathered cat with useless, ugly wings. Have you ever seen what happens when such a messy break - well, less break, more a crushing - heals badly? I assure you, it will. Your wings will be so much ugly, lumpy scars. You will never fly again. You will never be more than you are now; a worm, grubbing in the dirt beneath me.” The world around him had vanished to Tirek. His blood pounded, a maddened smirk growing wider and wider with every passing moment. 

Gilda turned her head, just enough to peer up with one frightened, angry eye. “F...fuck you, ugly,” she spat 

The weight atop her head vanished. In all the second she had, she looked straight up, just in time to see his hoof come back down.

Tirek’s voice exploded around her. “I am the Lord of Betrayal! I am the master of this world! I will devour the Heart that birthed this plane, and ascend! Beyond demon and angel, beyond Anu and Tathamet! I will rule the totality of creation! I will not!” He stomped, her scream not enough to satisfy him. “Be mocked!” He squeezed, her torment insufficient to please him. “By a mortal! You are as worthless, as useless, as you are alone and friendless, and you will die that way. In agony, and uncared for, the refuse of this world abandoned by all!”

His hoof rose a final time.

Her eyes closed. Whether it was tears or blood that wet her cheeks, she was in too much pain to notice. 

‘...I don’t want to be alone...’

“Fastball special!”

Tirek’s head jerked forward, His brow furrowed, and he turned to behold the minotaur down the street.

“Special delivery, that is,” said a voice in his ear. Green fire belched forth. From the curve of his horns to his chin, Tirek’s head vanished in the expanding cone of boiling draconic fire. Spike dug his claws in until he ran short on breath, feet swinging out into the air as the demon stumbled.

“Ragh!” His fist struck, bouncing the dragon off his head. Smoke rose, blinding him, but the blaze of Tirek’s eyes cut through the haze. “You dare-”

Bzzzz! “Yoink!” Scootaloo darted past, scooter bouncing. Spike landed in the little red cart, claw fastening onto the edge, and the pair rocketed away. He looked up from where he lay, watching with dazed eyes as a big, blurry red shape scooped up Gilda from beneath the demon and promptly galloped after them.

Big Mac skidded to a halt as they rounded a corner. He plucked Spike up, piled Gilda onto the cart, and dropped him on top of her.

“Get goin’,” he ordered. “Get her to the other side’a town, should be other ponies there.”

No sooner had he spoken than they began to protest. “We can’t just leave! Have you seen that guy? He’s like twice as tall as you!” Spike scrambled upright, wincing at the groan Gilda made. “Sorry!”

“She’s gonna need lookin’ after,” Macintosh pointed out. He looked back, his voice growing rushed. “Listen, Ah know ya don’t wanna go, but ya gotta trust me. Ya’ll’ve done yer part, now get her to safety.”

Scootaloo’s wings fluttered uncertainly, not quite buzzing again. “What about you?”

The crash of thunderous hooves grinding dirt hit them, just in time for Iron Will to round the corner. He waved his arms frantically.

“Go!” Mac grabbed the scooter and pushed, shoving them away. “Get gone!”

“You’ll suffer, mortal filth!” Again Tirek bellowed hateful words at the sky. “I will kill you slowly, over years, until you are little more than screaming sacks of flesh, driven mad by torment!”

Her wings kicked into gear, the images his words drove into her imagination sending a spike of fear and adrenaline pumping through Scootaloo. She watched windows zoom past as she sped down the street, hoof slipping down to add kick-power to wing-power. Even slowed down by Gilda, Scootaloo was fast.

Iron Will ripped a metal mail box post up and roared, leaping around the corner of the house they had hidden behind. After a moment, his roar faded away and he lowered the bar. He turned back to Macintosh, scratching his forehead.

“I don’t know how to say this, but he’s gone.” Iron Will waved his post at the empty field of rubble. “This town have caverns or something under it? Maybe he burrowed.”

“...” Mac spared only a moment to give Iron Will a confused shake of his head. He found no more sign of TIrek than the minotaur did. It made no sense to either, and dread gripped Big Macintosh.

The scream of tearing wood and crumbling bricks exploded down the street, nearly enough to cover Scootaloo’s scream as debris rained around her, half a brick slamming the handles from her hooves. Spike yelled, but his cry dwindled following a solid thunk!

“Got you,” hissed Tirek. The ruined house fell around him, had proven no more a barrier to him than the merest of mists. He closed a fist around the filly’s back legs, and raised her into the air. “Thought you could flee, little one? I think no-”

The first ball of green fire simply shot passed Tirek’s eyes, but the second hit a horn and exploded around him. Unperturbed, Tirek swung his gaze down on the swaying dragon. Shattered wood lay next to Spike, the remnants of a support thrown up in Tirek’s through-house charge that had discovered dragon scales were more than its match. The little dragon drew in another breath unsteadily.

“Put her down,” he ordered, pointing a shaky finger at Tirek. “I mean it.”

The demon really rather did the opposite, grabbing Spike in his other. He held the pair like a shield at Big Mac and Iron Will. Their charge to the rescue came to a hold as a smug smirk spread across the demon’s face. A faint groan from below gave away Gilda’s presence, once again trapped beneath one of Tirek’s hooves.

“Now now, you wouldn’t want me to squeeze a little too hard, would you?” Tirek gave Spike a little squeeze for emphasis. “Listen to that scream. Imagine what it will be like when I squeeze so hard his organs turn to pulp. I can probably do it without damaging his scales, you know. I’d have a scaly little sack full of liquid meat.”

Big Macintosh winced, holding out a hoof. “Don’t,” he pleaded. There was nothing near Tirek he could use, no conveniently placed, pointy-tipped wooden supports they could use as a weapon. Iron Will wouldn’t even have time to use his makeshift club before Tirek went through with his threat.

“Now, and bare in mind that the wrong answer is all it takes for me to desire a new dragonscale belt, or maybe a feathery snack, tell me where the Bearers of the Elements are. Tell me, and you can have one of these back until I’m done with the Bearers.” The demon stepped from the ruins, his hostages held aloft. “I’d offer the griffon, but who would want her?”

Mac fought to show calm. Normally content to just stroll through life with no more ambitions than to keep the farm alive and his family happy, Mac’s eyes darted to and fro, searching. He had to find a way to get them out of Tirek’s hands. Indecision at the impossible choice tore into him, turning his eyes into windows into chaos.

‘What do Ah do? There’s gotta be something...’ There had to be, he knew it.

Iron Will glanced Mac, but the pony wasn’t looking at him. The minotaur was still fairly unclear on the details, but what he knew quite firmly was that this monster had turned him into an abomination, and Fluttershy had saved him. He snorted, fists clenching, the urge to charge nearly overwhelming, held at bay only by the innocents in Tirek’s hands.

“I tire of waiting, mortals.” Tirek gave Scootaloo a shake, smiling at the squeak he got. “Perhaps I’ll start with her.”

 Creeping quietly, each step landing on dirt or grass, Vinyl navigated the debris littered ground. She caught a flash of red between the dark pillars that were Tirek’s equine legs, each as tall as a pony. She winked at Mac, raising a hoof to her lips.

‘What’s she doin’?’ Mac tried to keep from looking at her. He stared at Tirek, the constant urge to look at her again straining his eyes. “Wait, wait! Don’t!”

Tirek grinned horribly. “Oh, ready to talk? Who is it you’re going to kill? The Bearers or these two? Come now, don’t be shy.” His nostrils flared as he leaned his humanoid torso forward. “It’s thrilling, isn’t it? You get to decide who lives and dies.”

Mac couldn’t help it. He snorted in disgust. “Thrillin’? There ain’t nothin’ thrillin’ about it. Yer the one who wants ta hurt ‘em, not me.”

Metal creaked in Iron Will’s fist, the bar swinging back and forth. He could just imagine slamming it into the demon’s face. It was so hard not to do it, at least until Spike made a little sound of pain. Iron Will’s hide was drawn tight over his knuckles.

“Only a monster gets a thrill from that,” Iron Will exploded, voice bouncing through the devastated street. “And this minotaur doesn’t ignore a monster when he sees one. Give up the kids and get off the griffon, or Iron Will is gonna get primeval on you!”

The demon’s eyes turned to Iron Will, piercing him. “Primeval?” Tirek scoffed. “You don’t even understand what that means. I saw that primeval age, when the Brothers were born and waged war endlessly, the twisting forces of ever-changing life defying the stagnant march of undying order. I came to this world and saw, you impudent mortal filth.”

Fire flashed from between his horns. Mac scrambled to the side, but Iron Will wasn’t so lucky, the minotaur grazed by the attack as he nearly threw himself out of the way.

“You don’t even understand what made you, you dirty, thin-blooded little things! How dare you be born of such power that will not bend to my will? How dare you!” It wasn’t simple fury that flared in Tirek’s expression. 

It was insanity.

‘He’s out of his mind!’ How was he supposed to delay the insane? Yet as quickly as it had come, Mac found a cold mask of control in place over the demon’s expression once more. He pushed himself up, panting, and his hoof nudged the brick half-buried in the dirt closer.

“You vex me, mortals. You tax my control.” His breath ragged, the demon glared coldly. “Tell me now. No more delays No more banter.” One hand dropped to his side to attempt to caresse the sack, as Tirek stared down at them. Scootaloo, her senses returning to her, yelped in the face of the writhing burlap until he held her up. “Tell me. Now.”

Instead of answers, he heard the blaring of an airhorn, and a shriek, and more, a dozen sounds so loud they could blow eardrums. A shimmering globe of strobing magic appeared around Tirek’s head. Disco fireworks exploded inside it, brilliant flares in time with the noise. The full fury of a rave compressed into an area just large enough to cover his ears and eyes exploded at him.

Dirt sprayed, Mac’s hooves smashing through anything unfortunate enough to be in their way as he spun. His makeshift projectile rose a few feet before falling into the path of his buck. It shot away, and Iron Will swore as he charged that it passed straight between his horns.

Scootaloo felt the impact, and the fingers on her jerking open enough to slide out as the rock shattered against ironhard hide. Her wings flapped frantically as she tumbled down. Hooves stomped around her, the massive treads of Tirek as he staggered under full musical assault.

Clang!

The pipe shuddered in Iron Will’s hands. He pulled it free, staring at the curved, bent pipe of cast iron, then at the unbroken hairy leg. 

“Huh.” Clang! The pipe broke this time, forcing Iron Will to dodge out of the way of the end that spun past him. The back of Tirek’s hand struck him across the side, still loaded with its scaly prisoner. The minotaur bounced across the ground, but not alone; he gripped Spike’s tail, the dragon pulled free as they were catapulted by the blind attack.

“Ha! So much for the big scary demon!” crowed Vinyl. Her horn glowed with the strain of maintaining her one-mare rave. “Come on, grab that griffon and get outta there!”

There were few other options, but even as Macintosh watched the bubble of magic shatter, he was galloping under Tirek to haul Gilda away.

“Insects! Annoying, blasted insects! You sting and annoy and vex me, and achieve nothing! For all your pointless aggravations, you have done nothing but enrage me!” Tirek’s blood sung with fury, the pulse of power beating in time with voiceless cries of despair echoing from his sack, heard only by him. The heat of his fury grew, and with it he called to his slaves above. One by one, he drew back the darkened souls, until only one remained.

The shadow-dragon circled above the library. Its cry shook the sky, turning his rage to the thrill of triumph. It too faded, dissolving with a scream of fear as it was sucked back into its prison.

“You sought to delay me, and you have failed,” howled the demon. “The end has come!”

Bricks, metal, fence posts, anything Vinyl could find was swept into her magic and thrown at Tirek. Desperation powered her, and the mare fired off every bit of magic she had, the arcane, sonic assault mixed with debris bounced from Tirek’s thick hide and dark coat, drawing a sneer from him.

“Desperation won’t-”

“Rragh!” Iron Will slammed into Tirek’s back leg, locking his arms around it. Muscles quivering, nostrils flaring, he strained to pull the demon back. “When you gotta block, show them that you rock!”

“Get off-”

A rock the size of a pony’s head shattered against Tirek’s chin mid-word. Shards of splintered rock bounced across his face, harmlessly striking off his enraged expression. Another followed, and Mac was already finding another projectile.

“Wretc-”

Green fire interrupted him this time. It did no more harm than the rocks or the magic, it disabled Tirek as ineffectively as the futile struggles of the minotaur. All it served to do was fuel that rage that bubbled to the surface. Spike breathed a constant stream of emerald fire, straining himself, putting everything he could into the flame.

“Enough….”

Tirek breathed in, slow, heavy, hateful.

“Enough!”


***


All she felt was the song. The physical world vanished. Twilight swam in the endless depths of the Lightsong, and she exulted in it. It filled her every sense, from scent to touch to taste to sound, every sensation was caught within the grandness of the Lightsong. It was not just music, and she couldn’t help but feel terrible for ever believing it to be so simple. Her body had limited her, but now, she beheld the truth of the Lightsong and it was glorious.

‘Focus. I need to reach into the Lightsong, and connect the shattered essence,’ she reminded herself. As she had before, only on a greater scale, Twilight forged into the slender bond between each fragment of the shattered angel.

As she spread herself into it, the Lightsong spun around her did the same. It touched not merely the energies that twisted in her soul, but called to the surface those memories she had sealed away.

War, endless battle, exploded through her mind. The scenes she had been tortured with by Ardleon surged into life with a vengeance, bringing the weight of millenia down upon her. Demons charged in numberless droves, falling on the blades of precisely coordinated warriors. Angels of unspeakable beauty cried out in pain as agony stripped them of their serenity, until they were silenced by death or salvation. Roars in tongues that warped sound and distorted the very air around the speaker bellowed at her.

Twilight screamed. It rang out, a wave of spiritual pain she lacked the words to describe or the willingness to remember. She saw victories and defeats, traps and plots within plots, the spinning of countless cogs that drove forward unerring plans for the destruction of chaos. In her mind she saw the vast ocean of memories, but only as she sunk into it. 

They came from nowhere, hooves that held her aloft. The waters of another’s time began to recede. They pushed Twilight up until she hung above the glittering ocean. She imagined, for a fleeting instant, the beat of wings on her back joining the hooves before the sensation faded.

“Twilight,” rang a voice, then another, and another, her name repeated until she felt all six around her. One, deeper, older - ancient, yet somehow so young - spoke on. “Twilight, the spell. Finish the spell!”

‘Right...the spell...’

The trembling energies thrummed. All she had to do was connect them. They were so close, yet so helpless. They wanted her to join them. 

‘Wait, no, I came here to...not to join them, we need them to empower us...’ Twilight forced herself to remember the plan. She could feel her body again, and with it the pounding of her skull. ‘First things first. Get them out, then empower the Elements.’

The beacon of the Lightsong surrounded Twilight, the ringing of the power of the swords and doll. She grasped its call with one thought and the six angelic fragments that answered it.

‘Like calls to like.’

She opened the way. Her spell coursed from her in a burst of light. In the realm of flesh, a pure white glow began to draw from the five possessed ponies. Twilight smiled through the effort of it all, and with another burst of light, pulled them free. First the perfect order of creation, the refinement from the crude into the beautiful. Then the voice of the Heavens that spoke of purpose, and made all other voices mere whispers. The music of the Angels, the song that gave them their wholeness and made them into who they are. One by one, Twilight called them free, leaving their hosts untouched, until they stood free and ready, six blazing cores of an angel around the beacon formed of his weapons and the essence within the doll and they….

Twilight blinked. 

‘Wait, six?’


***


“Enough!”

Dark winds swirled in a vortex, for an instant. The next it vanished in a blast that threw up earth and enemies as one. Mac pulled his back legs in, tucking the children under him as he hit and bounced across the ground.

“You will delay me no longer.”

His voice rumbled from his mouth into their hindbrains, pulling up the voices of instincts that told them only to flee. Light gathered. Heat flared, igniting what little grass remained beneath him. Tirek strode forth, hellish light trailing him, until he stood clear of the disaster area of his attack.

“B-buck...no…” Vinyl pushed a plank off her leg and fought her ailing body, ordering it to stand with every ounce of willpower she had. Her eyes flashed with fear, seeing the demon. “He’s got a shot! Stop him! No!”

Her horn spluttered and sparked. She heard Iron Will pushing through the rubble that entombed him. She saw Mac trying to stand and shelter the kids at the same time. She even saw the griffon literally clawing across the ground towards Tirek. Vinyl Scratch saw everything, and knew that none of them could stop it.

Molten hellfire roared between Tirek’s horns. There was no colour left in his eyes as he fixed them on the library, only the depths of the shadows he absorbed from his sack. Not a word left his lips, not a single gloating line of mockery, no taunts, only the constant glare of a being so native to hate that he knew nothing else.

“No!” she screamed. Hellfire roared. Mac shouted. Bloody red light flared, blinding them.

A cruel smile came to Tirek’s face. He could feel it, despair mortal and divine. He felt the Princesses fighting to distract him, throwing their power against their seals. They could do nothing as hellfire streamed into the library, a burning blast that struck the tree.

The world turned white. Then, it turned blue. Steam obscured the library. For a few seconds, the only sound was Vinyl’s tortured sob of failure. Mac stared, not a flicker of emotion on his face. Gone. His sisters, gone, taken, and the only comfort he had was that he couldn’t see it. His eyes stung.

Gilda just cried. 

“What?” Tirek’s hoof slammed into the ground. His eyes bulged with fury and confusion. His fists balled into knuckles with such force that blood dripped from them. “What?!”

A voice came from the mist, ringing with notes too balanced, too perfect, untouched by the weak medium of vocal cords or the corrupting passing of lips.

“I am reborn, Betrayer.” Frozen blue fire burned the mists away around the tendrils that appeared. “Born from shattered essence and a mind left to drift. I have returned to atone!”

Tirek’s eyes bulged, hissing, “No.” His clenching fists tightened as he heard all his plans falling apart. Demonic blood boiled into the dirt below his hands, splattering as his rage made him tremble.

Blue fire blazed. The mist fell away, the last vestiges of hellfire quenched with it, and Ardleon stood tall. His blades held crossed before him, his armour’s glow faded slowly as his magics withdrew to his body.

“...impossible.” The word dripped with venom, and rage twisted Tirek’s expression. Even the ground beneath him trembled. “You are dead. Your essence was sundered.”

“Nearly,” conceded the angel. Contempt laced his voice as he eyed the demon, though there were no eyes to be seen in his helm. “Unlike you, Betrayer, I found mercy in this world. I saw my folly, and so I survived, though I was little more than a wisp of thought bound immaterially. You will not have even that.”

Ardleon gestured. Ice-mist exploded around him, tendrils striking out. Sprouting around Tirek’s would-be foes, bands of ice sheltered them and drew them towards the library. He ignored their confusion, holding his blades towards Tirek, point first.

“Surrender now, demon.”

Tirek heaved a great sigh, and with it his confusion faded. His burning eyes found Ardleon’s helm, locking on unseen eyes.

“Tyrael is not here to save you now, angel,” he snarled. The mouth of his sack widened, enough for his fist to delve into it. Faint cries, little more than echoes, rose as he reached in and pulled. Further and further, the mouth widened as he wrenched forth a shard of metal, his prize. “Your deathknell will ring across this land, Ardleon, as the herald of my rise!”

Shadows followed the shard, mixing and entwining into a shaft of blackened wood. It fit in his hand, shaft joined to shard. The butt slammed to the ground, light gleaming from the head of the makeshift axe and its jagged, gleaming edge.

“Go inside, mortals. Keep...Paladin inside. This battle will not be safe for you.” Ardleon strode forward, angelic boots crunching on frosted grass.

“Wait, who the buck are you? How did- where…” Vinyl looked between the strange figure and the prominently undestroyed library. For once in her life, she fell silent. For a few seconds anyway. “Hey, tall, shiny and weird! Thanks!”

Iron Will stuck a hand up from where he lay, giving a tremendous thumbs up. A second, small thumbs up joined his at the end of a scaly purple arm. Mac looked up from Gilda, his worried frown dropping for a moment to look at Ardleon and give silent expression to his gratitude.

The sound of hooves pounding from within the library reached them. The angel launched into the air with frantic speed, throwing himself at Tirek. His blades cut through the air, sweeping chill winds behind them. Angelic steel clashed with the dark axe, glancing off and leaving a slash of frozen earth to the side. A pulse ran through his wings, tendrils strobing with stunned light. 

A savage grin spread Tirek’s mouth wide. “Surprised?” He struck, hard and fast, axe lashing out with all his vicious weight behind the blow that knocked the angel back. “Do you think I left the Conflict for nothing? Do you think I would pillage a world with nothing of worth?”

Metal bent, denting from the blow of the hoof that struck out and launched Ardleon into the air. Scootaloo jumped out of the way. Chips of wood sprayed from the tree and leaves rang down as the tree shuddered.

“Get back! This foe is not for you, mortals.” Ethereal tentacles pushed them towards the door. “I will pay my debt!”

 The dreadful axe led Tirek’s charge, the demon roaring as he swung it towards Ardleon. The angel leapt forward, twin blades shining in brilliant arcs. Mac grunted as he bounced into the library, the chill gust leaving him shivering as he helped the others stand.

“What the….” Gilda wrapped her talons around her head, groaning. “I don’t know what’s going on anymore. I just have no idea….”

“I- whoa!” Thick red legs pushed them all away from the door. The sudden crack was the only alarm they got, the faint glint all Mac saw. He held his breath as the frosty cover spread until a thick glacial wall shone before them.

“....huh. Guess he meant it.” A chair gave way under his weight, lowering Iron Will to a somewhat more comfortable height. He felt guilty for breaking the chair but relieved to have some headspace. The library shook again, and he grimaced. “Iron Will thinks we’re missing out on something big...but Iron Will is also alright with missing out on it, just this once.”


***


The world spun, filled with light and noises and cold. It crept up his limbs, icing his breath and crunching between his feathers. Paladin’s eyes snapped open, blinking rapidly. The world swam into focus, the soft crunch of snow filling his ears.

“Ardleon…” He blinked again, yet the marr on his sight persisted for a few more moments. It shimmered as if it lived, light scarred into the world. Arms outstretched, wings brilliant in their arching formation, Paladin fought to keep it in place, to commit it to his memory.

Dust rained on the frost room, the walls shuddering. Applejack yelped, rubbing blood from her cheek and glaring with unfocused eyes at the root jutting from the dirt wall.

“What was that?!” she demanded, shaking sense back into her head. “Ah coulda sworn Ah heard-”

“Ardleon!” Twilight’s voice bounced off the walls, loud enough to almost drown out the boom from above. “That was- he was- he never died! How is that possible? How is he here? I don’t understand!”

Ice glittered on Paladin’s hoof. He stared into it, his gaze lost, until a hoof on his wing roused him.

“Paladin, dude, snap out of it and talk! That freezy arsehole interrupted Twilight’s fancy spell, we have to do something!” Rainbow Dash shook him, her expression frantic. Her ear flicked, clearing dust from her mane. “He’s stomping around up the-ah!”

She bounced against the wall, becoming a blur and the source of yelps and whins of pain going up the stairs. Paladin didn’t notice the weight he was dragging along. When it vanished at the same time as a particularly loud “Ow!” and the creak of wood under assault, Paladin simply took advantage of the lowered weight.

Rainbow Dash whimpered, checking for splinters with one hoof as she glared between the door frame and the pegasus disappearing from sight into the library.

“We should- Oh! The angry pony!” Iron Will jabbed a finger at Paladin. “Good timing! This time there is a demon, and we need you to break down another door!”

Paladin stared blankly at Iron WIll. His gaze barely lingered on the others until it fixed on the frozen door. Then it kept on going, and without a word, he jumped. The unicorn bust rose from the table in one hoof before its imminent release upwards.

“Whoa!” Iron Will threw an arm over the others, but the spray of shattering glass exploded outwards. “Hey, wait-”

He didn’t wait. Paladin was gone, following his projectile through the window before the glass had even hit the ground.

Thump!

Rainbow picked herself up, rubbing her head again. “Geez, that loon….where did you guys come from? I swear, somepony better explain what the buck is going on!”

Her glare was met with a shrug from Big Mac, though her glare didn’t last long once it found the griffon.

“Gilda!” Dash was there in an instant, elbowing the big stallion out of the way. “What happened? Who did this?!”

“Tirek!” The exclamation drew Rainbow’s eyes back to Scootaloo, the filly looking down shamefaced. “We couldn’t stop her! I’m so sorry, we tried but she got away and now she’s hurt bad and… and I’m sorry!”

Torn between injured friend and sobbing filly, Rainbow Dash felt the first stirrings of real, proper hate. It wasn’t the dislike for somepony who just annoyed her. It lacked the bitter note of anger at somepony outdoing her. It was so much more cold and furious. a chilled rage born from a child’s tears.

“It’s not your fault, squirt.” Gathering Scootaloo in her forelegs, Rainbow Dash ignored the stampede coming up behind them. She nuzzled the filly’s mane. “I know you did your best. Gilda is really lucky to have a friend like you, and so am I.”

Gilda cracked opened an eye, focusing a watering, weary eye on the pair of pegasi. A smile of all things came to her face, that unique ability among griffons to smile even with a beak, and a sigh of utter relief slipped out.

“Y-you’re fine…” she muttered. He eyes shut again, going limp with relief. 

“Yeah, I am.” Rainbow Dash forced a cocky smirk onto her face. “Can’t say the same for you, G. Picking fights again?

A dry croak of laughter emerged from Gilda, trailing off into a groan of pain. Rainbow came to her side even as the door behind her was filled with rushing ponies. Exclamations filled the room, the two groups converging.

“Spike!” Bypassing crowds was an often underused advantage to teleportation. Twilight had the dragon off the floor and in her hooves before the flash had faded from the others’ eyes. “What are you doing here? What happened? Where did Paladin go?”

“Whoa, hold up, give me a chance to answer!” Spike held his hands up as she did her best to crush him against her. “I wasn’t letting you just send me away, not when you’d need me.”

“Spike, I was just doing what was best for-” Twilight’s words were lost in the blast that shook the library. The sound that was not lost was the scream of pain from outside.

Fluttershy’s eyes shot wide open. “Paladin!” she shrieked. Her wings beat with no care for those around her, launching her through the broken window.

Rubbing her wing-battered face, Rarity ran until she was below the window. Her frustrated expression grew by the second, turning to glare at the ice-bound door. Light focused in her eyes, and power built in her horn.

“Everypony get away from the door!”

“Ooh, Rarity’s using her super powers!” squealed Sweetie Belle. She watched with rapt attention as she was dragged back by Mac, unable to take her eyes off the needle-like beams of magic that lanced into the door at seemingly random spots.

Cracks spiderwebbed out from each point. Seeping into the miniscule gaps, Twilight’s magic ripped chunk after chunk out. Her horn flickering, Twilight barely maintained the spell over the ice that simply didn’t register to her magic.

“T-thanks, Rarity. I’m too tired, this ice, I think its anti-magic. Why did he- how-” the exhausted mare rubbed her eyes, trying not to groan. “I hate not knowing what’s going on, but come on, we have to go help Paladin and Fluttershy!”

Steel pounded against the floor, ice crunching under Applejack’s armoured hooves. “Already on it! Mac, keep everypony inside!” Applejack charged outside, leaving Twilight blinking, unsure when the armour had appeared.

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. She pushed Spike firmly at Mac, gave her charge a stern look that told him he’d better be exactly there when she got back, and joined her friends.

“And if anypony comes out and gets hurt, aside from us, no victory party for you!” added Pinkie. Her head popped back through the door a second later. “Okay, well, you can come to the victory party, but you’re only allowed two cups of Gummy-Punch. Just. Two.”

She drew slowly back out of sight, or started to. Rainbow Dash appeared next to her, pushing her friend with a loud complaint.


***


No sooner had Paladin emerged than cold wind lashed him. His wings worked to keep him stable until his hooves hit the ground. There was no issue of trying to find Ardleon; subtlety was playing no part in this fight.

Swathes of ice drenched the road, curving broadly or straight as an arrow, adding glistening, pointed danger to the demon as he charged through them. Ardleon skidded back as the axe fell and ice shattered and sprayed. Gravity held no sway over the angel, etheral wings holding him above the ground in stark contrast to the pounding of Tirek’s hooves.

Axe met blades, the demon catching the angel with a strike from above. Ardleon’s feet slammed into the ground, his crossed blades screeching, metal against metal, as he held the axe up. Tirek snarled victoriously and kicked a hoof up.

Though he lacked a face in any real sense of the word, there was nonetheless the impression of a smirk when the hoof struck and metal gave way to ice. Ice shattered into mist that swirled past Tirek as the demon’s weight and momentum, suddenly no longer opposed by the angel’s might, sent him toppling forward.

“Ha!” Mist became ice and ice became angel. Ardleon struck from behind. Black blood sprayed into the air, flicked off Ardleon’s blade as he attacked again. Mastering a skill natural to all horses and ponies, even Tirek proved able to direct a buck that scored Ardleon’s armour.

“You’ll pay for that, angel,” snarled Tirek. As he turned to face Ardleon, movement caught his eye. The rage in his eyes was supplanted by glee. “Sooner than I imagined!”

Air shrieked, burning between Tirek’s horns. He lined up the shot on the suitably surprised Paladin. The pegasus checked his charge, eyes wide at the expanding ball of fire blazing its way towards him. His wings flared, too late to avoid.

Fire met frost and became steam that blew in every direction. Ardleon crashed to one knee, a grunt of pain escaping him. Smoke curled up from his breastplate, but his aura of frost had cooled the heat bloom and endured the strike.

“Ardleon!” Paladin reached up, but his hoof was knocked away.

“Get back!” Shame and anger coloured Ardleon’s voice. “I will not see you endangered again, Tyrael. I will atone!”

Not another word left Paladin’s mouth. A sword rammed into the ground, and too late he saw Ardleon’s empty palm pointed towards him on the other side of the hilt, and he had no chance to evade as a miniature blizzard sprung to life. His flared wings caught the chilling winds and stinging motes of snow that exploded around him. Cold as it was, it felt like no more than a chilly autumn wind, yet Paladin could not move. Shielded, but trapped.

Ardleon rose from his knee, turning away from the pony trapped in the blizzard to clasp both hands on the suddenly lengthened hilt of his remaining sword. He didn’t float this time as he faced Tirek.

“You will not touch him. Your darkness will end at my hand, as it should!”

Tirek paid him no mind, his eyes fixed on the barely-visible Paladin. “Tyrael....impossible! I heard you, angel! I heard you call the pony Tyrael. The Archangel of Justice has truly been reduced to such a thing?”

“Be silent!” Ardleon sprang forward, blade leading in a swift horizontal slash that rang against Tirek’s defense.

“I knew an angel had been bound in mortal form. I knew it felt of Justice, but to find Justice himself here, trapped like that…” Tirek’s shadows rose, coating his arm in ephemeral armour in time to deflect a blow, and he returned with a shockingly fast swing that sent Ardleon reeling. A deep chuckle shook his chest. “I don’t know how this happened, but isn’t it delicious?”

With a roar, Tirek threw himself at his foe. Shadows surged around him, growing into spikes that darted at the angel. Forced back, Ardleon caught most of them, blade whirling as he fought to keep up as miniscule scores were carved into his armour. One lanced through a joint, a drip of liquid light falling before he cut it out with a swing, but the damage was done. When the axe fell, Ardleon side-stepped a moment too late and paid the price.

The Bearers of the Elements emerged in time to hear the cry of pain. Ardleon lurched away from Tirek, the once-bright tendril that had been shorn from his wing hitting the ground limply. Shadows clung to it, forcing the energy to take physical form as it died.

“He’s fightin’ Tirek alright, but Ah don’t think he’s winnin’.” Applejack set her hooves to charge. “We gotta help him!”

Fluttershy was already at Paladin’s side, or as close as she could get. Her hoof tentatively touched the dome of blinding winter winds. She yelped, pulling it back in time for Rainbow Dash to reach her and pull her further from it.

“In a second! Fluttershy and...Paladin? Is that him in there?” She squinted at it. “I thought Ardleon was on our side now or something? Why else would he be fighting Tirek?”

“Because that’s what angels do, and they hate each other,” Twilight said shortly as she came up to the dome. She glanced at the dueling….divines? Gods? Monsters? Whatever they were, they were fighting with unsurpassed fury. “I don’t know if Ardleon is on our side, exactly, but he’s definitely trying to stop Tirek, so we’ll let him do that. Rarity, can you-”

“No, darling, I can’t. Whatever this dreadful dome is, he made it too well. There’s no flaws I can just aim at, unfortunately, because any that appear vanish too quickly.” Rarity’s Sight bored into the dome without success. “Its meant to keep Paladin there, and safe, and-”

“On the ground!” Pinkie’s voice bypassed their brains and went straight to their legs, which obediently gave way and sent the group tumbling to the ground just in time for a scything wave of fire to pass above them.

The fire hit the dome in a perfect display of futility. Where flame met blizzard-wind, the heat vanished. Paladin didn’t even feel it as he fought to escape, raging at Ardleon’s misplaced attempt to protect him.

“Everypony up!” It took every ounce of self-control Pinkie had to resist adding ‘and shake it all about!’, throttling the words in her throat. “Girls, I really think we should help Ardleon. I know he was a big meanie before, but he’s getting hurt and he is trying to help.”

“I’ll get Paladin out. You help him.” Fluttershy raised a hoof before they could protest. “We can’t just abandon either of them. Pinkie is right. I don’t know why Ardleon is here, but he’s trying to protect us. Not just Paladin, but us as well. He’s so guilty, so angry at himself, we have to give him the chance and the help he needs.”

Her empathic senses crowded in on her more mundane senses as she spoke. Fluttershy blinked rapidly, her chest aching as she was torn in too many directions. For all the talk of angels lacking mortal emotion, the auras of guilt and self-loathing emanating from Ardleon took her breath away. She gently removed Rainbow Dash’s hoof, fighting the impulse to sweep away her friend’s own guilt. Now was not the time, and if they made it out of this, there would be all the time in the world to help two old friends reconnect.

“She’s right, we gotta help. An’ if y’all’ll excuse me, that’s what Ah’m gonna do!” Applejack galloped towards the battle, her armour bright in the dusk light. The gouts of flame and reflected glow from angelic ice turned her reflective plate into a riot of colours the closer she got.

“If the Elements won’t work, we’ll just have to do this the hard way!” Wings burning with light, Rainbow Dash leapt into the air. Her light sparked, and she was gone, appearing behind Tirek and hitting the back of his head with a buck that sent shakes up her legs. 

“Ow! Meddlesome insect!” growled Tirek. The fire that spawned from his horns reached backwards blindly, a gout of flame that swept the air and would have fried any pegasi unlucky enough to lack teleportation.

“Woo, he’s a hot-head!”

Ardleon inclined his helm to look at the pony hovering next to him, smirking at herself in satisfaction.

“I still don’t like you, but I’m willing to let you go until after this guy is gone. You should feel totally lucky,” she went on, serious for a moment. “But don’t get used to it!”

“Get back. This is no battle for mortals,” he warned, forgoing the immediate, vicious response that occurred to him as he parried a shadow-spike and riposted. Ice snapped across the shadow, covering the ground, and shattered an instant later with the shriek of dissipating magic.

“This is no battle for you, mortal,” sneered Tirek. His axe hammered down at Applejack as she charged, leaping aside at the last moment and swept off her hooves by a wave of darkness that erupted from the weapon. “You are but a minor entertainment. My power has grown beyond your reckoning!”

Molten magic exploded from the air between his horns in a wide cone. Ardleon reformed to one side, ice forming a spike in his hand that flew at the demon with vicious purpose. A twitch of Tirek’s fingers brought his shadows up to grasp it, but the projectile disappeared in two flashes of light so close together they seemed as one.

Pain hissed from his maw, cold agony creeping up his leg from behind. Tirek swung his whole body, fire and shadows boiling beneath his body. The deadly icicle evaporated, but Rainbow was gone long before her co-opted weapon gave way.

“Hot air and lies as always, Tirek. Thousands of years, and you’re just the same.” Contempt envenomed Ardleon’s voice, his swinging blade undisturbed by the back and forth. “A traitor to his own foul kind, too weak to stand on his own, too treacherous to stand with others.”

Axe met sword, and sword lost. Though Ardleon kept hold of his weapon, his guard was broken, thrown off and left exposed for a blow that carved a wound across his chest.

“As I recall, I won last time.” Tirek’s axe swung again, but where the angel had been was not just mist that split and evaded before he could rend it apart. “And Tyrael can’t save you this time. But perhaps you can return the favour for ‘Paladin’s’ little friends before you die.”

He felt the magic before it struck, and Tirek raised his axe to catch Twilight’s beam of raw energy as it came roaring towards him with nary a warning. His other hand delved into his sack, grasping something and pulling it out. Purple energies pulsed against the light-drinking metal until the power passed from it.

“I’m afraid this fight is exclusive, mortals. You’ll have to wait your turn. In the mean time…“ Screams and shrieks, a thousand voices and more, pounded on their ears. The sticky shadows swelling in his grasp began to break apart. Each fragment that broke free began to wriggle into a shape. Earth pony, unicorn, pegasus, griffon and more, they grew into full sized, three dimensional silhouettes. “I brought along some slaves to help.”

Uncoiling, the shade of a dragon roared. The horrible sound rang in their ears, bile rising. Rage and terror mixed, spiced with pain and despair, turning emotions into a pervading wave of nausea that struck them all.

All except one, however.

Applejack snorted, rolling back onto her hooves. She shed the last of Tirek’s shadows with a shake and promptly shut the dragon up. Its ethereal jaw snapped shut, half-real eyes widening at the pain suddenly blazing from its leg.

“Ah’ve seen bigger,” drawled Applejack, kickings its leg out from under it. “Ya couldn’t scare a lil’ colt, ya ugly monster!”

She would have been swept away again, this time in the swing of its tail, but Applejack was jumping when it began to turn, and came down moments after its attack had passed. She slammed a powerful hoof down on the tail, grinning inside her helmet at the surge of angelic strength flooding her. Adding her other forehoof, Applejack pulled with all her might.

“....A~aaaaaaaaaawesome... “ Rainbow Dash couldn’t tear her eyes away from the spectacle. The dragon might have been barely the height of a cottage, but this didn’t make it any less effective as a wide, wild flail. The shadow-creature mowed down its kin of all kinds, the silver-clad pony at the centre of the vicious whirl picking up momentum with every passing second.

Pinkie was hardly one to be left out. In the light show of precise faint blue blasts that marked Rarity’s delicate magic and the strobe of magenta and purple with each pulse of arcane force around Twilight, the party pony was surprisingly hard to see.

“Hi!” Pie to face, blinding one creature until it stumbled right into Applejack’s deadly dragon spin. “Bye!”

“Hi!” A banana skin, treated with special comedy chemicals, sent a shadow-pony slipping into another two, and all three failed to evade the blast of unicorn magic. “Bye!”

“Bye!”

The shadow-pony’s mournful expression broke for a moment, confusion barely discernable on its hard to see features as its legs reversed and it left Pinkie where she was. Control returned, though there wasn’t much to gain from that when a slender ray of blue magic passed through its head.

Into the chaos came one flash, then another, and another, and another. They flared up one after the other in the space of seconds, leaving the field somewhat depopulated for a few seconds until the problem solved itself. Rainbow Dash smirked, internal counter rising as shadow-pony landed on shadow-pony with the force you could only get from a hundred foot drop.

Yet as the five mares fought, the battle waged endlessly at the conflict’s heart. Ardleon struck and faded, dissolving into mist one moment and returning the next with a bloody-minded determination that saw him retreat only when another light leaking wound marred his armour.

“No teleporting? How unlike you!” Tirek spoke unfalteringly, his voice untouched by exertion despite the swings of his weapon and the rapid reactions. “It seems even an angel can change his tactics, given a few thousand years. Or is it just this realm, chaining down its invader?”

“I don’t see much from you,” snapped Ardleon, though he said it with considerably more signs of exhaustion.

A dozen minor breaches leaked across his body, and even as he redirected an attack that would have cut him in two with a clever twist of his blade, his wounded wing pulsed in pain. He withdrew, forming half a dozen razor tipped icicles in the air around him. The frozen missiles sailed forth to bounce from the shield of writhing shadow formed over Tirek’s arm.

“How does it feel to be bested by mortal magic?” There was no exhaustion in that sneer though.

“How does it feel to survive because of mortal magic?” Tirek shot back. He grinned horribly, pointed teeth glinting. “I’m so glad the angel pony turned out to be Tyrael. I don’t need you anymore!”

Confusion distracted Ardleon, and he was too slow to get his sword into position. The angel moved at the last instant, taking his weapon from a simple direct block, to veer out of the way. He summoned ice and mist to cloak his side and deflect the blade on with one hand, and struck back with the other even as black metal sheared through his fingers. He got the satisfaction of watching blood well up on Tirek’s shoulder before the pain hit him. Strands of light and faint chords of his Lightsong drifted from the stumps as he fell back, hand clutched to his chest.

Tirek continued, brushing away the blood with a shadow. “No one needs you anymore, angel, not even me. Not to say you haven’t been so wonderfully useful already. Distracting them all with your little tantrum was the nicest gift, my old enemy. Though I doubt even the power of my sack would have been enough were it not for your betrayal.”

A roar of anger shook Ardleon. He threw himself forward. “You dare!”

“I dare! I felt it, Ardleon, when you raised your weapon against him! I thought he was merely your kin, but no, the truth is so much more delicious!” Weapons clashed, sparks flew, and Tirek bellowed with laughter. “You freed me, angel! You gave me the strength to break my chains at last when you betrayed your master! How does it feel? How do you live with yourself, traitor?”

Each word fueled the fury blazing in Ardleon’s heart. He struck and slashed at a maddened pace. His sword became a blur of silver, his wings burning with his passion, and the bubbling sensation of the verge of triumph filled him as Tirek was forced back. He pressed on, righteous satisfaction growing at each cut and scratch that littered his foe, no matter how minor.

“Ask yourself, Lord of Betrayal!” howled the angel with a laugh of victory. “Because you have little enough time left to ponder it!”

The flashing silver slammed to a stop, skidding from the edge of the black axe.

“Well then, I had best take somepony with me.” Tirek stepped back,and Ardleon finally realised how far they moved through the raging combat. “I suppose it should be someone important. Not to me, but perhaps...oh, I know!”

His axe came down, a heavy feint that left the angel open to a blast of shadow that sent him sprawling back.

“I wonder if you’ll be able to look Tyrael in the eye after I kill his mate?” 

Too late did realisation dawn. Ardleon ripped free from the clinging shadows too slowly, and his shout of warning came too slow. Fluttershy turned from the dome, her eyes widening at the charging figure that filled her vision. Her alarm flooded the bond in the instant she had. Shadows she hadn’t seen clung to her, binding her in place for the seconds of life she had left.

The world slowed, for an instant. Ardleon’s body melted into mist, but his mind whirled. He saw it, Tirek’s open back, where a single thrust could end it. A single life for a single strike, and it would be over.

“Fluttershy!” cried five voices, her friends turning in futile attempts. Shadow-ponies struck, breaking their attention for that frozen instant.

All she could see was Tirek. The axe fell, a trail of shadows curving through the air in its wake.

Ardleon met it. Mist swirled into shape at the final moment.There was no time for a parry, no chance for him to redirect the brutal stroke, so he met it head on. A blade forged of angelic steel and mortal frostiron clashed against iron wrought of primordial evil. They met and held, for an instant, and in what passed for an angel’s ears, Ardleon heard a faint, indistinct ring, the beginnings of a bell’s chime.

Scrrrrk!

He gasped, feeling it before he saw the splinters scatter. They pinged from his armour, embedding in the ground. Ardleon’s hands and the empty hilt rose as the resistance of blade against blade vanished. Where his blade had held for a moment, Ardleon’s armour simply parted. Pain and violation invaded his senses, a sour note of agony rising from the gaping, glowing wound that stretched from shoulder to halfway down his chest.

There were no words for the pain, but he did his best with a scream of agony that ripped through the dusk light.

Tirek raised his axe, and brought Ardleon with it. With a broad swing, the angel came tumbling free of the embedded axe head. The hilt fell free of his limp hand, joining the rest of his shattered blade in ignominy on the ground. Light streamed from the gaping rend in his form, leaking in rivers and glowing in rays that lit the ground around him.

“How predictable. Push a few buttons, remind you of your guilt…” Shaking his head, Tirek turned from Fluttershy without bothering to acknowledge the horrified, speechless mare. He gave a flick of his fingers and more shadow-ponies grew from his sack to hold the frantic Bearers at bay. “Almost disappointing.”

“A-argh...ah…” No words came to him in response. Ardleon writhed, trying to rise. ‘Get up….get up...’ “I...I-I….”

“You failed.” Molten power gathered. “Our long war ends today, Ardleon. I’m sorry I had to postpone it a few millennia, but it ends here.”

Struggling, pain wracking him with each movement, Ardleon reached out. His own light-blood dripped, and his vision turned hazy, lit by a sudden red glow. The world began to fade, but all he saw was the dome dissipating.

“Tyrael…” His foot caught on something, and he collapsed. “I’m...sorry…” 

It wasn’t Tyrael he saw extending their hoof to him. They were so far, too far, but he felt her touch even so far. It was the last thing he saw before the world became a raging inferno, and the heat that grasped him was nothing to what he felt from...not just her. All of them.

Forgiveness.

His last bonds broke, and Ardleon vanished from Ponyville.

The earth smouldered. The fight paused.

And Tirek laughed.

Paladin crashed to the ground, gasping and rolling back to his hooves. He staggered, as much from the prison as the sight of Fluttershy crying. He felt her shock and sorrow wrapped in guilt.

“N-no...no!” He collapsed only moments after getting up. It was impossible to stand with the knot of pain that grew inside. He knew what had happened. Yet still denial slipped from his lips. “No!”

“Ah…” It was a slow, deliberate ‘ah’, the sort of sound a connoisseur makes when discovering they had forgotten a bottle of their favourite wine. It was so small, so brief, and yet so deep with meaning. Tirek’s dark, smug eyes fixed on Paladin. “And now, Tyrael, for you…the game is over.”

Fluttershy fought past the river of grief that seemed to pour in from every direction. She strained for control of the tide, but she could do nothing as grief became rage in Paladin’s heart.

“You!” A maddened snort and a snarl of fury erupted from Paladin. This time he rose not with determination keeping him up, but with pure, simple rage. His wings propelled him in great beats, hooves outstretch as if to throttle Tirek. There was nothing so complicated in Paladin’s heart, though, only the fury born of grief and the pain born of a friend’s suffering.

”Yes. Me.” Tirek’s hand rose, spread wide

“Urk!” His charge arrested, Paladin hung in Tirek’s grip, thick red fingers curling around his neck. 

“The time for games is done. This struggle has amused me enough. You have fought and you have failed. Let the Age of Tirek begin in earnest! To me, my darkness!” Axe in one hand, Paladin in the other, Tirek raised his arms. “My power here is endless!”

Agonised shrieks rang out, The streets ran black with shadows. Rarity drew back, recoiling from the shadow-pony reaching out to her even as it melted. She followed the flood that ran to Tirek, curling around the haft of his axe until they began to soak into the blade.

Just laying eyes on the axe was vile. She saw no metal, only death made physical, souls pressed together and mixed into a nightmarish alloy that brought the acrid taste of bile to the back of her mouth. Were it not for Pinkie’s unexpected presence at her side, Rarity was certain she would have fallen.

The kick of flailing hooves and the glare of his captive were lost on Tirek. He raised the axe, laughing, bellowing with insane laughter.

“What a treasure! Look down, Celestia! You should have made a better lock, alicorn! Oh yes!”

“Quickly! We have to stop him!” Twilight didn’t waste time on subtlety or masterfully woven magic. Her eyes became fields of white, windows into endless plains of eternity. Great chunks of earth wrapped in magic tore themselves free around her, crushed by telekinetic force and moulded into heavy missiles that tumbled at Tirek.

Her makeshift flail long since melted away, Applejack caught a momentary lift from the pegasus that blazed past her. The world changed before her, replacing the firm ground beneath her hooves with empty air and the vision of Tirek below, the butt of his axe falling to the earth.

Her package deployed, Rainbow Dash flittered away from the falling comet of Applejack with a burst of teleportation that brought her to Paladin’s side.

“Gotcha!” 

“Too late,” Tirek corrected her.

The axe haft hit the ground. There was no delay this time, no vortex of magic. All light simply vanished. The world transformed into a mere blaze of darkness and force.


***


“You idiot!”

Vinyl winced, rubbing her forehead. “Oooooow.”

Octavia’s withering glare didn’t falter. There was no room in her expression for anything but sheer, overwhelming disapproval, and perhaps another bop on the head.

“You absolute, empty-headed, insane idiot! What were you thinking?!” shrieked the musician.

Glancing past her friend, Vinyl spared a moment to give Iron Will hard look. The minotaur shrugged impatiently, tapping his hoof as he waited for the bandaging to be finished.

‘Thanks’ she mouthed, rolling her eyes. ‘Big loud mouth...’

“Finish already,” Iron Will demanded, turning his attention from the domestic despite. In his experience, every couple had to decide how comfortable they were with the other throwing themselves into dangerous, violent opposition of ancient demons for their loved ones. “There’s a big monster that needs a crushing, and Iron Will has the….something that rhymes! I’m under a lot of stress, okay?!”

“What stress? So zere iz a monster, it vill pass. You can go hurt yourself more, if you stop moving! You are lucky to be bandaged by me! Why, zhey will be...magical!” declared Photo Finish. She glared up at him. “So long as you stop moving long enough for me to put zem on!”

In the midst of the chaos, Big Mac held his little sister in one hoof and her friend in another, trying to keep an eye on the third. He needn’t have bothered, he knew, glancing only for a moment at the griffon and her little orange guardian. 

“Tavi’…”

“You could have been killed! Really, what were you thinking? Or were you just not thinking again?! Clearly you weren’t!”

“Tavi’…”

“What was the monster like? Was he red like Trixie remembers?”

Vinyl twitched. On one side, she heard Octavia’s endless fretting and fussing. On the other, Trixie was nattering on, demanding to know everything to prove herself right. At least she could shut up one of them with some unexpected mouth-to-mouth, and Vinyl Scratch was well on her way to doing so when the shadows came.

They curled around ankles and came up with up, seizing every creature inside. Despite the screams of shock, shouts of protest and promises to inflict payback, the library was emptied in seconds. Mac fought the whole way, his hooves around the fillies, and saw Gilda doing her feeble best. What the injured griffon lacked in strength, Scootaloo made up for it with sheer determination. Not to say it was any more help, of course.

Vinyl wrapped her hooves around Octavia as they were dragged out, feeling her ‘friend’ clutch her in return. They bounced across the ground, emerging into the battlefield, and found that whatever hopes they had were futile. 

The Bearers of the Elements hung, bound in shadows. A constant flow ran from the sack at Tirek’s waist, the faint cry of lost souls whispering from the writhing shadows as they clung to the ponies.

“Twilight!” Spike cried, reaching out in vain. His cheeks bulged, a bolt of fire belching out. Even as it hit the shadows and fizzled out, another mass of sticky darkness wrapped around his mouth. Claws restrained, mouth sealed, he could only struggle in utter futility. 

When at last they all hung bound, Tirek threw Paladin to the ground. His captives were dragged into a circle. Muffled cries as their mouths were gagged besieged Paladin as he rose to unsteady hooves. Rarity had even been blinded, eyes forced shut and swathed in shadow.

“Tirek…” Paladin glanced around him, at the faces of his friends, and his anger renewed. “Are you trying scare me? To cow me into submission?”

Tirek chuckled. “Not at all. Even reduced to a mortal, I’m sure you won’t give in so easily.” He grinned mirthlessly. “I could bind you as I have the rest. But I don’t want to. I want to make you suffer!”

He lashed out, crossing the distance between them in an instant. Pain exploded through Paladin as the butt of the axe knocked him back, his shoulder screaming at him. He rolled away when he landed, feeling the vibration as the next blow landed where he had been. Rather than retreat, he shot forward, between Tirek’s legs.

“What are you- damnation, stop moving!” fumed the demon as he stepped away. His expression fouled, pain contorting his face for a moment when Paladin’s hooves slammed into his leg.

Tirek wobbled for a moment, but he cleared Paladin from his vulnerables with a blast of shadows. His breath knocked out, Paladin’s back hit the wall. Fear and worry from above brought his head up. Fluttershy peered down from her prison, her emotions as obvious on her face as they were through their bond.

“Hold on, I’ll-”

The shadows under him lurched into his back. The pegasus was thrown forward, across the ground, and Tirek waited with a hoof poised. It came down and the crack of a bone snapped make Tirek smile.

“You’ll do nothing! I’m going to break you, Tyrael. I’m going to break every bone in your body, inflame every muscle with agony.” He casually sent Paladin flying with another swing of his axe’s shaft. “When your body is ruined and your pain without end...I’ll rip your soul apart.”

The cry of pain escaped Paladin despite his efforts to remain quiet. He groaned, Tirek’s hand closing on the back of his head and pulling it back.

“Don’t you feel lucky? I thought, when that fool Ardleon reformed, that I would have to change my plans, but no, here you are.” He gave Paladin a shake, twisting his head painfully. “Angelic power diluted by a mortal’s form. You aren’t even strong enough to drive me off if I rip it out now. I had to wait for you to extract his essence, but not with you.”

“Wha-” Paladin interrupted himself with a hacking cough, his breath weak and ragged. “What?”

Tirek sighed. This time, his kick was almost lazy. He turned from the downed pegasus, the pleasure gone from his face.



“You’re...mad.” His legs screamed at him to stop, to just fall over. It was hard to even look at Tirek, though not merely out of disgust. The swelling around one of his eyes was making it hard to look at anything. “This world...will not fall to you…”

“It already has!” A chunk of earth served the same purpose as another kick, and Tirek didn’t even need to move with his magic assaulting Paladin. He snorted, dragging the recumbent Paladin towards him. “The Sisters are bound. The Elements are useless against me, and you don’t even know why! You. Have. LOST!”

He yanked Paladin into the air and kicked. He struck the pegasus with the back of his hand. Bruises grew. Blood began to drip from broken skin, turning Paladin’s coat even darker.Tirek rained blow after blow on his foe until, at last, he threw him to the ground like little more than trash. The pegasus lay limp, body giving in even as his will tried to force it to move. The effort only sped the closing grasp of unconsciousness.

“Behold, mortals! Behold my triumph!” The shadows began to writhe and cry out, lost souls wailing in despair as his voice boomed out. Tirek looked to the sky, at the sun and the moon, and laughed. “What force can stand before me? What might can defy mine? Who is left to stand against Tirek, Lord of Betrayal?”

Unnoticed, his back turned and his head raised in exaltation, Tirek didn’t see Paladin’s eyes crack open. He didn’t see the glow within, or his cutie mark fade in a faint white light.


* Only moments earlier… *


The heart of the Everfree. The true heart, a castle, overgrown, lost, and nearly forgotten. The still water that may have been a river once long ago, sat with the same quiet, untouched stillness of water at rest. It was dark. It was grim.

And, without warning, it froze.

Ardleon hit the ground smoking, and for a minute he didn’t move. He had been rather certain he would never move again, so when he finally made his first slow, painful movement, it was nearly a relief. Not quite fully, because the pain that comes with having your torso hewn into is somewhat hard to ignore.

When at last he moved, he still had trouble believing he was more than a vaguely angelic mound of slag. 

‘Too much..energy...’ thought the weary angel. ‘Too much on this plane, yet...I...’

The call that prompted his first steps passed almost unheeded. It permeated the forest, a soft song that rang through his beaten form. It called, twisting the tides of reality towards it, and he was drawn in by the summons.The angel stepped into the cave, past old magic, and here he heard it. There, he saw it. Understanding made its way past the pain, confusion vanishing the moment his eyes came upon the Tree. 

All. Everything. Totality.

At last, everything made sense in the angel’s mind. A harsh, mournful laugh burbled from him, beholding the ancient wonder with none of the reverence demanded by it.

“The Heart,” he spat. Another step, and the song grew. It was wrong, but...not unnatural. The angel shuddered, hearing in this song not just harmony and order. It was All. Each note was different, a thousand, a million in endless numbers that comprised everything.

Before Ardleon stood the totality of this world. It glowed with inner light that traced its branches, glimmering with ethereal energy. Staggering forward, he lurched at the last moment as much to catch the bark as to hold himself up.

Angelic blood dripped from opened fingertips, dotting the roots until the streams from shorn, bloody wounds that began to grow with each passing moment.

“The Eye, to bring forth worlds where none existed and fill the empty void with beauty beyond reckoning…”

He pushed in, intruding his song into the endless natural choir. Love and laughter, pain and loss. Sorrow and tragedy giving birth to determination and vicious self-control. More and more stretched before the angel as he fell into the song, tracing the patterns. There were too many even for him, a note for every life, a chime for every decision. 

“The Spine, from which the Heavens were built, and from which we are born to guard against decay…”

Through the entwining song Ardleon went. Had he not been in such pain, he wondered in a delirious moment, would it be so hard? Would his focus tremble and his mind buckle so dangerously? Would he, unharmed, unhurt, sacrifice his pride to copy the spell of a mortal?

“The Heart of Anu,” whispered Ardleon. He locked his feet in place, hand pressing firmer against the bark of the Tree of Harmony. “That which lets all things live in harmony, breaking all barriers. His final gift.”

More threads, more songs, a song for every soul that reached through the ether. The heart of this world stood with defiance that had never died, since the first day dawned upon it, and in it were reflected all things of this mortal plane. It was the first and it would be the last of this world it had spun from opposing essences, weaving angel and demon together to create a world of neither.

At last, his fading awareness brushed them. Those who held his essence, marked forever, threaded through the songs of the Bearers into a new choir of fate and life. From them he jumped, grasping lines to six souls.

Pain, defeat, despair. Their emotions intruded. There were none to hear the scream that filled the cave, nor to see the angel slump weakly. A minor relief, at best, to his pride.

“Tyrael…” He touched the last soul. From them he found it, the young song sung with old notes, and finally, the very last piece of the puzzle fell into place. It was a choice, but not one that could be ever answered in any other way. Not by him, not now. In his ears he heard the whisper of Fate, such a short time ago;

His return is inevitable. Yours is not.

“Return, Tyrael.” The fading light of his wings reversed. The cave was bathed in frozen blue light, a chill fire that burned with the brilliance of a star. He stiffened. His breath left him. Ardleon hesitated, on the crest, riding the wave…

The light faded. All that remained were stains of luminous blood and empty, battered armour.


***


“Who stands against me? Who stands against Tirek, Lord of Betrayal?”

Tirek’s howl echoed. His primal roar of triumph rose.

Behind him, dusk became light. Half-night transformed. A song, old, strong, reborn, hummed just beyond mortal hearing. And a voice rose to make the demon’s heart tremble with the flare of wings and the burst of light that dispersed the shadows.

His answer shook the earth. Two simple words. Conviction and strength belied the simple statement that blazed from the figure rising in divine light.

So declared Tyrael, Archangel, warrior, guardian...

“Justice Itself!”