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// Part 2, Chapter 12 
// Story: The Discordian's Daughter 
// by Pumpkin Patch 
//------------------------------//

	Celestia and Luna kept flying higher and higher as Despise gave chase. This was not without purpose. It was forcing Despise to scale taller and taller buildings to keep up with them. Not only would this keep her away from the majority of Canterlot's citizens on the ground, but most of the city's taller buildings were thin towers with rounded or pointed tops. Despise couldn't fight if she couldn't keep her balance.
The two royal sisters decided on one tower in particular, whose roof was teardrop-shaped with a needle shooting skyward from its tip. They circled in the air high above the needle's point, taunting the enemy. It wasn't long before one of Despise's long, vine-like hair strands fired upward and wrapped itself around the needle, hoisting Despise up to it like a grapple. As soon as she reached the top, though, she attempted grip her hooves on the roof of the tower. She failed. Her hooves slipped and her face slammed in the upper part of the roof. Her body dangled from the needle like a torn flag.
"Now, sister!" Luna cried out. 
Both Alicorns fired beams of magic from their horns. Luna's made contact with Despise first. The monster screached in agony as the beam hit her in the back and she reflexively turned herself around. Inadvertently, this opened her stomach up to Celestia's magic, which hit it so hard that it sent Despise spinning around the roof. 
A small smile was forming on Celestia's face. The monster almost looked like a tetherball as she swung around and around the needle, suspended to it by a single strand of hair. But then the Princess realized that this wasn't all the result of her attack. Despise's hair had rebounded. It was wrapping itself tighter and tighter around the tower's top. Then more hair started shooting out from Despise's back and clinging to the pole. Once there was a solid enough grip, the hair locks lifted their master upwards. Despise wrapped her hooves around the point of the needle and she perched herself on it like a an oversized bird of prey. Despite all the strands of hair required to stay wrapped around the pole to hold her up, Despise had countless more available. Several of them danced around her head like the tips of a flame.    
She grinned at her attackers. "Nice try!"
Two strands fired out at the two Princesses. Both of whom narrowly dodged them. Two more strands fired, then more, and more. The Princesses evaded all of them by the skin of their teeth. It was a struggle stay in the air. Finally, once the two Alicons' bodies were aligned horizontally, Despise formed multiple strands into one very large, very long extension. She then cracked it and whipped Celestia with it right in her midsection. The white Princess's body was thrusted into Luna's and the two were sent flying into a neighboring tower. The top of it broke off with the impact, sending it collapsing to the ground along with the Alicorns. 
Despise dismounted from the top of the tower and her hair swung her in the direction of the damaged building. She landed on the ground with a powerful boom that damaged the ground even further than the splintered tower already had. Her hooves marched forward and stood before the large pile of rubble that was her handiwork. A wide grin spread over her face as she spotted the two Alicorns amongst the debris. 
Both Princesses were half buried in the fallen tower and only partially visible. Upon Despise’s approach, however, Luna burst out of the broken stone and fired a beam of magic at the monster. This time, instead of striking Despise, the magical light wrapped around the mad pony, encasing her in a bubble. Luna lifted her off the ground. 
Despise’s eyes widened as she shifted back and forth inside the bubble. Her hair was in chaos, poking at the inside of the sphere from every direction in an effort to break it. Her intolerable screaming could only be faintly heard through the magical shell. 
Luna narrowed her eyes as she stared at her opponent. “Let us see how you enjoy being thrown!” 
The dark Princess raised the captured creature in the air and fired her into the distance like a rocket. The bubble dissipated upon launch, but Despise’s screaming could only be heard briefly before she was out of earshot. 
Princess Celestia had now risen from rubble. “That was very quick thinking, sister. However, I think your aim might have been slightly off.”
Luna’s eyes were still fixed on her airborne adversary and it was quickly apparent what her sister was saying. Despise’s trajectory sent her straight into the top of the royal palace. Crashing through one of the stained glass windows outside the throne room. 
The night Princess’s face turned uncharacteristically sheepish. “I...intended her to hit the mountains…”
“Looks like we still have a fight on our hands,” said the day Princess as she spread her wings. “Come, we must get to her before she can do any more damage.”

Six palace guards rushed into the throne room upon hearing one of the stained glass windows shatter. Three of them flinched in surprise at the sight of the cause. Despise rose from the floor and shook off her landing as if it had been a mere stumble. Four of the guards gaped when her hair started moving on its own. Once she turned her malicious gaze over to them, all started shivering. 
Finally, the two farthest away turned around to flee. Two locks of hair shot out. Each grabbed one by the neck and yanked them back. The hair strands pulled them through the first four soldiers, knocking them on their faces. Finally, Despise, flung her two captives through the window next to the one she entered from, the ponies’ bodies making the same shattering sound she made on impact. 
The four guards Despise had toppled with their own comrades had now risen to their feet and spread out, attempting to surround her. Their eyes were still full of fear. Despise had no trouble surprising them with four more strands of hair firing in each of their directions. Each strand wrapped around its target like a cobra. The guards’ fear manifested in full-on screaming as the hair locks waved them around in the air. 
From the large open door to the throne room, Despise could see many more soldiers approaching, too numerous for her to count in fact. Even so, the monster showed no sign of worry. One by one, her hair lowered her captives to the ground and thrusted them forward. They rolled towards their brethren like bowling balls, knocking several down like pins. The sight of the impact made many of the other soldiers hesitate to approach any further, but still there were those who persevered, waded through the fallen ones and charged into the chamber. 
In a rare moment of grace, Despise allowed the guards to enter the room and surround her. She simply stood silent and bared her mischievous grin until the room was filled with Canterlot’s finest. Finally though, one guard charged at her from the side and a strand of hair shot out at him, slamming directly into his face like a battering ram. The guard flew backward and hit the wall behind him with a crash that sounded just as painful as it looked. 
What happened next could only be described as pandemonium. The guards charged at once from all sides. None of them could lay a hoof on the monster. Despise’s impenetrable mane saw to that. It grabbed two on the left by their necks and slammed them into four ponies on the right. Her tail fired one out of the window after the other. Even more joined the first one in getting slammed into the walls. It wasn’t long until only three guards remained standing in front of the unstoppable brute. That’s when Despise’s hair reached out, grabbed Princess Celestia’s throne itself and ripped it off its foundation. 
She raised it upside down and backwards over her head. “Time for some royal pancakes!” she screeched. 
The guards screamed as the enormous chair began its rapid descent onto them. There was a loud crash, but not the one the guards anticipated. At the last second, a blast of magic came through the window and hit Despise in the side. Her hair released the chair which fell to the ground right next to the monster herself. 
Princesses Celestia and Luna flew through one of the several now broken windows. “Pancakes? Why, it’s far past breakfast!” Luna scowled. 
Celestia turned to the rescued guards. “Leave us,” she commanded them plainly. The three relieved soldiers obeyed without hesitation, as did the few injured ones that were still somehow conscious. 
No sooner did they make their exit that Despise arose. Her hair once again grabbed the broken-off throne. Faster than Luna could blink, Despise broke Celestia’s own chair across the her sister’s face. Celestia moaned in pain and stumbled in place. In an instant of rage, Luna lunged at the monster, but more hair broke off of the mane and ran straight into her neck. It then pushed her back and pinned her to the nearest wall. The locks of hair that had used a chair as a weapon not a moment ago wrapped around Celestia’s horn, picked the Alicorn up by it, turned her upside down, then slammed her into the ground. The Princess’s body bounced slightly on impact, but was then motionless.
“Sister!” Luna screamed before another strand of hair slapped her across the mouth. 
Despise approached the pinned Alicorn. “Now, you and I have some unfinished business!”
“So do we!” shouted a voice from behind. 
Despise turned around to Spike riding on top of Twilight Sparkle. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Fluttershy were right behind them, carrying the antaxium needles in their mouths. 
“Why you—”
Before Despise could even finish her quip, Spike pitched his satchel right into the creature’s face. A strand of Despise’s hair blocked it, but that only released the bag’s contents. The monstrous pony’s face was engulfed in a haze of glittering powder. Despise let out a violent sneeze. 
As soon as she sneezed, Despise’s hair released Luna and the Princess dropped to the floor. The monster convulsed and stumbled over the room. She was wheezing and gasping for breath. 
Twilight looked behind her. “Quick, girls, the needles!” she shouted
Her friends all reared back, ready to charge, but then Luna cried out “Wait! Look, Twilight!”
Her friends halted their charge as Twilight turned back around and looked at Despise. While she was writhing in pain, something peculiar was happening to her body. It was flickering, changing colors back and forth. Every other second, it would switch from its usual green color to a very flat grey and then back again. After seeing a few flashes of the grey color, it started looking strangely familiar to Twilight. 
“Hang on, everypony! I know what to do!” said Twilight as her horn lit up. 
“Wait!” Luna called out again. As Twilight held her magic in her horn, Luna rose to her hooves and release a stream of magic from her own horn. The stream wrapped around Despise’s head and the monster screamed briefly before resuming her coughing fit. 
“Now, Twilight!” Luna commanded. 
Finally, Twilight released the magic from her horn. It completely engulfed Despise. Everypony else was blinded by a flash of white light.