//------------------------------//
// Inside and Out 
// Story: Dark Matter 
// by moguera 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 34: Inside and Out

"Where am I?"
Twilight blinked and looked around.  It took her a moment to realize that she was having trouble thinking.  The back of her mind was working furiously, numbers and equations, accompanied by symbols and information dredged up from her memories dancing through her thoughts continuously.  Twilight's impulse was to lose herself in and analyze the information that was flowing through her consciousness.  However, she realized that something was compelling at least part of her mind to focus on the constant stream of knowledge.
"What was I doing?"  She blinked again and realized that she didn't feel anything.  No...that wasn't quite right.  She didn't have eyes or eyelids to blink.  She didn't actually feel anything at all.  Her mind was sending reflexive signals to body parts that didn't exist in this space.
If they don't exist then...am I dead?
No.  That didn't feel quite right.  Twilight didn't exactly feel alive, but she was sure that she wasn't dead either.  If that was the case, then her mind was currently segregated from her physical functions.  In this space, if it could even be considered a space in the normal sense, she existed purely as a being of intellect.  Here, she had only her mind.  Her body, her horn, even her magic were beyond her reach right now.
What am I doing here?
Recalling her most recent memories was an uphill battle.  Twilight had to battle through the loss of focus caused by the constant deluge of information running through her mind as it worked through calculations and deciphered information automatically.  Finally, she was able to piece together the sequence of events that had led her here.  She remembered Wight Shade, she remembered fighting him.  She remembered losing...
Wight Shade captured me then.
Now it all made sense.  Her current state, the busy state of her mind as it was flooded with information concerning Dark Matter, the fact that it was working furiously of its own volition, without her conscious input; Wight had captured her and had apparently linked her mind to his array.  He was having her run the numbers for the final steps leading up to its full activation.  He was using her knowledge and her mental capabilities to speed the process along.
Swift Stride warned me that Wight Shade would probably do this, she thought bitterly, He was even willing to kill me to stop this.  He was right all along.
"Maybe," said a taunting voice, one that sent shivers down Twilight's nonexistent spine.  It was a voice she remembered all too well, from one of the most difficult crises she had faced since taking up the Element of Magic.  "For a given value of 'right,' of course," continued the voice, "That stallion has always been clever about finding ways to make an answer the 'right' one."
With a sound of snapping fingers and a pop, there he was.  His figure was an asymmetrical hodgepodge of mismatched parts, from dragon to pony to goat to eagle and so on.  The gleefully amused look in his yellow eyes and his low, cackling chuckles made the hairs of Twilight's coat (again, nonexistent) stand on end.  "Discord."
"In the flesh...or not," said the draconequus with a shrug, "Technically, I'm still imprisoned by the stasis field that he put around my body.  Of course, he's operating on the idea that he can isolate me from the chaos he is unleashing by treating chaos as a particular energy value.  He figures that if he can maintain my immediate surroundings in a constant, static state, he can keep me from getting out."
"And can he?" asked Twilight.
Discord raised an eyebrow and gave Twilight a flat look.  "You know, Twilight Sparkle, it's much easier to converse with you as a pony, not some disembodied intellect.  Why don't you give yourself...something...a body...I don't know."
"My mind is the only thing in here!" she snapped.
"Then how are you talking to me?" deadpanned Discord, "I mean, you don't have a mouth...or lungs...or vocal chords...or a throat to keep them in.  But you're talking to me now."
"That's-"  Twilight cut herself off as she thought about the situation.  Again, it was difficult to remain focused with the flood of information always threatening to overwhelm her mind.  But she began to reason through her predicament.  Even before Discord had posed the question to her, her mind had generated sensations from body parts that did not exist in this space.  It was all in her mind, which meant that her current state here was all in her mind as well.
Concentrating, Twilight remembered her body, the feel of her limbs, the blood flowing through her veins, the muscles and the skin over them.  It took her a moment, but soon she was actually standing there as herself, as a unicorn, not merely as a disembodied mass of consciousness.
"Much better," said Discord, looking her over and smirking approvingly, "It's so much nicer to have somepony to talk to instead of just somebrain."
"Back to what you were talking about earlier," said Twilight, "Can you get out?"
"Maybe," said Discord, "Chaos is not some kind of energy that I can be isolated from.  It's a status of existence and my link to it is hardly effected by such silly notions as physical space and time.  Given what that stallion is doing, I'll probably have a hard time staying imprisoned, even if I want to."
"You want to?" asked Twilight, "I thought you'd love to get out.  After all Wight's careful planning and organization, you should throw it all into shambles."
"I'd considered that," said Discord, scratching his chin idly with one eagle-clawed hand, "But then I looked at his ultimate aim.  That stallion is pushing the limits of reality itself, delving past the bounds of what could ever be considered sane or safe.  He's taking us to a point where the laws that govern the world and reality will break down, unleashing even I don't know what on the world.  It's practically the ultimate kind of chaos.  What more could I want?"
"You mean you want him to succeed?" demanded Twilight.
"Maybe," said Discord with taunting grin, "It would be fairly amusing to see him trip over his hooves and watch everything he worked for crumble to the ground as well.  Either way, I'll get what I want out of this affair if I just sit back and watch.  You ponies are amazing that way.  You do realize that I get most of my strength from your kind, don't you."
"Strength?" asked Twilight.
"Of course," said Discord, "You ponies are half-chaos by nature.  Most sapient beings are.  You couldn't survive without it after all.  It's the driving force behind innovation, that spark that goads you to try new things, and the switch that causes you to realize possibilities that you'd never considered before.  Your precious Elements of Harmony wouldn't work without it."
"But the Elements of Harmony imprisoned you," protested Twilight.
"Because I represent an extreme," replied Discord, now idly considering his lion paw, "I'm chaos all the way.  Harmony isn't about enforcing order over chaos or anything else.  It's all about balancing opposing forces, maintaining equilibrium, like trying to balance on a high-wire in the middle of an earthquake."
"Thanks for that cheerful image," grumbled Twilight.
"Let me put it this way," said Discord, leering at the lavender mare, "You were perfectly happy and content with your life as Celestia's perfect little student.  You could read your books day in and day out.  You learned your lessons, mastered your spells and so on...You were perfectly content with your status in life and had no need to branch out.  Your life was perfectly orderly.  That being the case, what in the world compelled you to go out and make friends?"
"That's easy," said Twilight, "I found out about Nightmare Moon's return and Celestia sent me to Ponyville-"
"-to make some friends," finished Discord, cutting her off, "not to prepare for the return of her wayward sister, not to find the Elements of Harmony, but to oversee the preparations for her little festival and 'make some friends.'"
"But she did that be-" began Twilight, only to be cut off by Discord as he spoke again.
"But you certainly had no interest in that.  You wanted to prepare for Nightmare Moon's arrival anyway.  You didn't want to bother with all the ponies who approached you, who spoke to you, who tried to get to know you.  You wanted to shove them all to the side as quickly as possible and get back to what was important."
"Yes...but..."  Twilight struggled to answer him.  After all, that wasn't as important as what happened afterwards; the challenges they'd endured as they made their way through the treacherous Everfree to the Castle of the Royal Sisters to uncover the Elements, how those challenges had brought them together.  Those things had forged a bond between her and the ponies that she would consider her friends.
"But that's not quite the case," said Discord, as though he'd read her mind, "After all, they were able assistants to help you along your way.  But that wasn't what was important.  Defeating poor little Luna was.  Those ponies were just stepping stones, boxes on a checklist.  Why did they matter to you?"  His smile widened.  "It's because of that spark of chaos that led you to do something you'd never even considered before.  You ended up embracing the idea of friendship, something you should have had no time for."
"That's..."  Twilight sighed.  She supposed Discord had a point.  "What are you getting at anyway."
"Me...I'm just passing the time," said Discord, abruptly throwing himself back and resting the back of his head on his folded arms, reclining in empty space, "The show can't start until you finish Wight Shade's calculations for him, so I'm just staying occupied."
An angry snort burst out of Twilight's nostrils.  However, she thought about it and realized that she might've had a chance here.  "Of course," she said, "I figured you might say that."
"Hmm?"  Discord raised an eyebrow.
"Whatever else I can say about you," said Twilight, wearing a smirk of her own now, "At least I can say you're consistent."
"Consistent!" barked Discord, sitting upright and glaring at Twilight, "I am the Lord of Chaos and Disharmony.  I am never consistent!"
"But never being consistent makes you consistently inconsistent," said Twilight, taking her turn to taunt Discord.
"I-"  Discord froze, his mouth working silently for a moment, one finger raised as though he were going to deliver an important point.  Then he began to vigorously shake his head.  "No!  Oh nonononoonono Miss Sparkle.  Don't you dare try to logic-bomb me!"
"Why not?" asked Twilight slyly, "It's true, isn't it?"
"Enough of that!  I'm not going to help you and that's that!" replied Discord stubbornly, folding his arms and pouting like a foal angry that he'd been denied a treat.  The sight made Twilight giggle.
The sound of her laugh caused Discord to drop his disgruntled expression and look at her in confusion.  "And just what is it that you find so funny?"
"Just that you don't seem like such a terrible creature," said Twilight after she recovered from her bout of good humor, "It almost makes me think we could be friends."
That clearly surprised Discord and he actually spent a moment goggling at her.  Finally, he let out a sigh.  "I honestly don't know why I'm doing this.  I'm probably going to regret it and miss out on the most chaotic thing I've seen in ages.  But I suppose this existence would be much poorer without ponies like you in it."
He leaned down and gently tapped her forehead at the base of her horn.  "You have everything you need to get out of this little predicament right here.  You just have to finish what you started when you were captured."
"That's it?" asked Twilight.
"It's not so easy," said Discord, "I'm sure you've noticed that your mind is a little busy right now.  If you want to stop your enemy's work, you're going to have to finish it and then take control of it.  But he isn't going to let you and he's watching to make sure that you don't try to."
"Then I can't," said Twilight.
"Not by yourself," said Discord, "Something is going to have to happen to distract Wight Shade, to draw his attention completely so that he has none left to focus on you.  You're going to have to take advantage of that opportunity to take control of his Dark Matter."  He gave Twilight a taunting grin.  "Come now Twilight Sparkle, surely it isn't asking so much to suggest that you have faith in your friends."
He pulled back.  "But why quibble?  This is going to be a lovely show and I simply must have the best seat in the house to see how it all turns out.  Ta ta."  With a snap of his fingers, he vanished with another pop, leaving Twilight alone.
Grumbling about draconequi who thought too highly of themselves, Twilight turned her thoughts inward to analyze the stream of information passing through her mind.  As she suspected, it all pertained to Wight Shade's Dark Matter, particularly the Dark Matter his array was composed of.  This is it, she realized, If I can analyze this information, I can work out how to stop the array.  Then it's just a matter of putting it to work.  But to do that, I need to come up with magic that will let me actually take control.
It wasn't going to be a easy.  A substantial portion of her mind was already forcefully occupied by the calculations needed to activate the array.  Twilight would be forced to use what was left of her cognitive abilities to develop the new magic she needed to turn things around.



Dawn Lightwing could only stare.  It wasn’t the scattered remains of Terra Heart that held his attention, nor the unfamiliar unicorn cowering off to one side of the throne room, nor was it the column and the hazy figure of a unicorn imprisoned within.  It wasn’t even the massive stalactite of polished crystal that seemed to hang from nothing in the center of the large, open room.  No.  What held Dawn’s complete and total attention was the pony standing in front of him, the pink unicorn with a mane going through shades of orange and yellow, the color of the sky at sunrise.
“You?” gasped Dawn.
Wight Shade looked around in confusion, apparently not realizing that Dawn was focused on him.  “Me?” he asked tentatively, gesturing to himself.
“You don’t look like Wight Shade,” said Dawn, his eyes narrowing.
It took Wight a moment to process Dawn’s words.  Then he blinked and looked down, having forgotten that he’d changed his appearance.  “Oh!  Right.  Of course.  I’d forgotten that I’d done this for Terra’s sake.  These are the colors I had as Morning Star.”  He blinked for a moment and stared at Dawn again, tilting his head to one side with a quizzical expression, as though he was trying to recover a half-forgotten memory.  “That’s right.  I’d forgotten that we’ve met already.  You’ve gotten so big since the first time I saw you.”
Dawn pursed his lips.  "You were lacking a horn back then.  I think I remember it just being a stump."
Wight bobbed his head in acknowledgment.  "So it was.  That was back before I'd figured out that I could supply myself with this," he gestured to the off-white horn, sheathed in what looked like crystal that he now sported, "I was still working on developing the theory for that."  As he spoke, his coat, mane, and tail seemed to glaze over and flake off, as though it were snakeskin.  The flakes left behind his brown coat and off-white mane, leaving him the colors of Wight Shade once more.
"So you were with the Cult Solar, even then?" asked Dawn.
"Technically, I was the Cult Solar back then," said Wight, "As I told Celestia a few weeks back, the Order was practically extinct when I found out about them.  I figured that revitalizing them would give me the helpers I needed to finish the array in a reasonable period of time.  Back when we met in that village, I was forced to do much of my own recruiting.  Your arrival actually proved fortuitous to me."
Dawn's eyes narrowed dangerously.  "You lied and told everypony I was a monster.  You insisted that I was the one behind every misfortune in their lives."
"Yes," agreed Wight, "Even though I didn't have much practice as a liar back then, even I knew how effective repetition could be.  Isn't it amazing how it works?  Even if it's a lie, even if nopony believes you, if you say something often enough...ponies will ultimately begin to be swayed."
Dawn stalked forward.  "You made my life a misery," he said, "And you did it solely for the sake of your project."
"True," said Wight, "I'm grateful for your assistance in that respect, however unwitting and unwilling it was.  If it's any consolation, it's Terra Heart whose remains are currently scattered around the room.  I think that, this time, assuming nopony else comes and tries the same thing I did, the Cult Solar will die off for real this time."
"That is hardly encouraging," said Dawn, "You still have to answer for your crimes and you need to be stopped."
Wight sighed and looked down.  "I tire of this conversation.  So stop me already."
Dawn vanished.  His hooves kicked off the floor and he arrowed down the length of the room, heading straight for Wight.  At the last second, Dawn's instincts screamed that he was in danger.  He kicked out in front of him, bringing his charge to an abrupt halt.  As he did so, he channeled all his forward momentum into his wings, sweeping them forward, drawing the air around him and turning it into a powerful blast that rushed towards the unicorn in front of him.
Wight's wings had already burst from his back again and blurred to intercept Dawn's attack.  Had Dawn not checked his rush, the wings would have intercepted him as well.  As it was, the feathers of three of the wings seem to dissolve into a swirling cloud without any real form.  The burst of compressed air slammed into them and then scattered.  The remaining three wings lashed out at Dawn, seeming to expand and extend across the distance between them.  Dawn skipped sideways as one slashed downwards at him, then darted upwards so that the second cut through the air below him.  The third aimed to catch him as he went upwards, but Dawn kicked out and twisted, sending his body into a roll that just barely carried him over the arc of the wing's swing.  As he did, he whipped one wing out, spreading the feathers out and holding it like it was a large blade.  He swept it across, seemingly drawing a line in the air in front of him.
The crescent-shaped blade of air whistled faintly as hit headed straight for Wight Shade's head.  However, once again, one of Wight's wings swept up and intercepted the blade, which seemed to simply vanish against the feathers without touching them.
Wight's eyes darted about, trying to track Dawn's movements.  As it was, the colt was moving far too fast for him to actually see.  Were it not for the automatic responses built into Wight's wings, Dawn would have killed him with the first strike.  "Very interesting," said Wight as the wings on his right side whipped out to intercept another blast of air, "I'm impressed that he can press my defenses this hard.  He's certainly faring better than Terra Heart did."
Dawn's attacks seemed to come at him from all sides, the colt a black blur as he rushed about the room, launching blasts of wind, vacuum blades, and even bolts of lightning from every conceivable angle.  Wight's wings were a blur of motion as they whipped about his body, fending off those attacks and not letting a single one through.
So it seems he isn't going to let this end easily, thought Dawn, Those wings far surpass my reflexes.  The only option I have is to use the same skill I used against Perlin and Flash Spark.
As he moved, Dawn closed his eyes, letting his body move automatically.  He abandoned attacking for the moment, simply letting himself dodge whenever he sensed Wight's wings going on the attack.  He took as deep a breath as he could under the circumstances and let his mind go blank.  He let the anger he felt at facing the stallion who had been the ultimate author of most of the misery he'd suffered throughout his life bleed away from his thoughts.  His anger would give his attacks power, but he couldn't let it control him.
"I don't think so," said Wight abruptly.  His horn uncoiled into a helix.  There was a flash from the base, channeled up through the center of the helix.
Dawn's instincts screamed a warning at him again.  There was no disturbance in the air, nothing to indicate an attack was coming.  He knew where all of Wight's wings were, so there was nothing that could presently hit him.  All the same, Dawn felt as though he was in severe danger.  However, he had no notion of how to evade the attack.  His ears filled with a sound like a large balloon collapsing.  His lungs briefly felt as though they were packed with cement and it was as though his body was seized in a minotaur's massive fist and squeezed tightly.  Dawn was briefly beset by the feeling of being squeezed out of his position like toothpaste from a tube and slammed into a wall.
The fall to the floor was just short enough that he didn't have time to recover and catch himself, and just far enough to be painful in its own right.  Collapsing onto his stomach, his entire body trembling, Dawn gasped for breath, feeling faint trickles of blood running from his nose and ears, the latter of which rang incessantly.
"I got to watch your battle with Perlin," said Wight, "You impressed me a great deal.  Performing magic that surpasses physical laws is supposed to be the purview of unicorns.  I suppose, since magic is ultimately magic whoever uses it, it is within the capability of even pegasi and earth ponies to do the same in their own way.  I never imagined that you would invoke a force that could harm Dark Matter I tailored for combat."
Looking up, Dawn could see Wight Shade approaching.  Though his vision was swimming too much to make out Wight's expression, Dawn imagined it was something approaching pleased interest in the subject before him.
"Perlin impressed me as well," Wight said, "By the end of that fight, he was finding uses for his wings that surpassed my original design for them.  I suppose that is how it goes for warriors like you.  I find it endlessly fascinating that ponies like you and him can continually exceed my expectations to such an extent.
"It disappoints me to dispose of such an interesting subject.  However, you are a little too dangerous to be allowed to interfere with my work.  It's too bad, Dawn Lightwing.  I originally had no intention of killing you.  But, for the sake of my work, you need to die."
Wight's wings rushed in, their feathers driving forward like daggers, aiming to burry themselves into the colt's flesh.  Still reeling from Wight's magical assault earlier, Dawn's body nonetheless reacted automatically.  His hooves kicked off the floor and, sweeping his wings downward in a tight arc, Dawn shot upward just as Wight's feathers pierced the floor where he'd been lying.
Once he was off the ground, Dawn shot forward, the course of his flight taking him directly above Wight's back.  As he did so, he snapped his wings downward, launching several bolts of lightning off his feathers, aiming, not for Wight, but the ground around him.  Though Wight's wings whirled about to protect the stallion from attack, only a few of Dawn's bolts were apparently determined to be dangerous enough to actively deflect.  Even those were simply batted off to the side slightly.  However, when they struck the floor, they exploded, launching shards of marble everywhere and, more importantly, filling the air with several claps of thunder that assailed Wight from all directions.
Though Wight's vision and hearing were cut off by the flash and boom of the attack, his wings continued to work flawlessly, swatting down any fragments of marble that came near him and keeping his body untouched.  Wight blinked and smiled.  Ordinary ponies would have found themselves reeling in pain from the cacophony of the thunder and blinded by the light.  However, Wight's eyes and ears, along with the rest of his body, were Dark Matter as well.  They were different from the durable, inorganic Dark Matter that formed his wings, but they were considerably tougher than the physiology of a normal pony.  This kind of attack, utilizing the ambient effects of another attack, wouldn't disable him so easily.
Wight also knew that Dawn had to be aware of that on some level.  Dawn hadn't been aiming to beat Wight with that attack, but distract him.  Wight knew that Dawn was aiming to try and summon that shining wind that had proved so effective against Perlin and Flash Spark.  This amounted to little more than an attempt to buy time.
Up above, Dawn was indeed attempting to once again clear his mind and enter that thoughtless state that allowed him to unleash his full power.  However, even as he took a deep breath, it was driven from his lungs by another magical assault, this one making Dawn feel as though he was being turned inside out and pulled at from a variety of directions.  Whatever the spell's nature was, it drove him up against the throne room's ceiling with enough force to make his spine pop before he ended up dropping down again.  Spreading his wings, Dawn barely managed to abate his fall.  At the last second, he threw himself clumsily aside to avoid being slashed by Wight's wings.  The dodge sent him skidding across the floor and coming to a stop against the wall again.
"Quite persistent," said Wight as he approached.
Groaning, Dawn struggled to his hooves, preparing to take off again.  However, Wight's helix-shaped horn flashed again, the unknown magic blowing the colt off his hooves and slamming his head into the wall hard enough that Dawn saw stars.  Squirming weakly, Dawn tried to get up again, but Wight's next magical assault drove him down against the floor.
Trembling, Dawn's legs bent as he tried to get them underneath him again.  However, they ultimately refused to obey him, instead pushing and sliding on the cracked and broken marble.  The only thing Dawn's body seemed to want to do now was get as far away from Wight Shade as equinely possible.
"Ah...finally..." said Wight, "I'm very impressed.  It only took two hits for Princess Celestia to unconsciously give up on fighting me.  You should be proud that it took twice as many blows for you.
"Normally I would deem this a sufficient outcome and leave you there.  But you have proven time and again that you are far more formidable than I could possibly predict.  So I will finish you off here."  Wight's wings rose up, poising to strike down at Dawn...
...Only for one of them to blur across Wight's side to swat a small object that was flying at him.  It exploded violently, flooding the air with fire and smoke.  Dawn momentarily forgotten, Wight Shade turned to regard the source of the weapon that he'd just blocked.  "Ah...I figured that you would be here sooner or later."
Simply lifting his head hurt.  But Dawn raised it anyway, trying to see what Wight was seeing.  Swift Stride stood at the entrance of the throne room, looking bruised, battered, and cut.  His clothing was tattered and torn and his worst injury was a long gash running down his left flank, drops of blood soaking into his clothes and then dribbling onto the floor.
Swift grinned, though said smile was shaky and weak.  "I'm not a pony to disappoint," he said blithely, "I was planning on killing Twilight Sparkle before you could use her, but that plan looks like a wash now."
"I'd like to thank you for that," said Wight, "The idea hadn't even occurred to me until the first time you'd tried to kill her.  I'm monitoring her work even now and what she's accomplishing in minutes what would have taken me hours on my own."
Dawn blinked.  It was for a fraction of a second, but he'd noticed the barest upturn of Swift's lips, a sign of him grinning even wider than before, before he'd stopped the change and kept his normal expression.  Wight hadn't noticed, mostly because Swift's default expression was typically a grin of some sort.  What is he planning?
"That so?" said Swift, "Well...it looks like it's back to Plan B then, killing you before you can finish up."
"That's going to be difficult for you," said Wight.  His horn was coiling back up into its normal configuration.  "Your fight with Arkenstone has clearly left you worse for wear.  I don't think you're in any position to challenge me.  Besides, it's not as though any of your explosives or poisons could harm me.  My current body doesn't react to mundane toxins."
"You might be right," said Swift, "But if memory serves, I managed to one-up your Dark Matter once before."
"Those were explosives improvised from my Dark Matter itself," countered Wight, spreading his wings, "You used them to damage the focus of my array.  Granted, it was an impressive feat, but without those resources, you don't have the means to harm me."
Swift chuckled dryly.  "You mean you thought that I only helped myself to enough of your leftover broken parts to pull off that one trick."  He held up another object in his hoof.  This one was a cylinder, off-white in color, a shade matching Wight's horn actually.  "I took all that I could carry and I spent the past few weeks working on making a few bombs specifically for you."
Wight's eyes narrowed.  For the first time since Dawn had ever seen him, he saw something approaching genuine frustration in Wight's expression.
"Catch!" shouted Swift, lobbing the cylinder at Wight.
Wight's wings reacted instantly, curving forward to intersect in front of him, forming a solid, curved wall of feathers between him and the approaching bomb.  The projectile smacked into Wight's feathers.  The stallion behind them tensed, preparing for the blast...only for nothing to happen.  The bomb didn't go off, but instead dropped to the floor with a small clatter.
"Sorry, but I lied," said Swift with a cackle, "I hope you're not too attached to that focus of yours, 'cause it's about to go boom!"
Even as Wight had prepared to defend himself, Swift had waited until Wight's view of him had been cut off thrown a second white cylinder, this time aiming for the array's central focus, hanging, unprotected in the center of the throne room.
"No!" shouted Wight, displaying genuine shock and surprise for once.  Spinning about, he focused on the cylinder.  In less than a second, his horn uncoiled again.  There was another flash and the cylinder seemed to suck in on itself, disappearing in mid air.  There was a brief instant of silence, then a low, muffled exploding noise.  Colorless light flashed out from the point where the bomb had disappeared.  Dawn was blown up against the wall, cringing and groaning as the shockwave washed over him.  Even Wight was driven back, his hooves skidding across the floor.
The explosion had barely faded when Swift spoke again.  "Sorry, but I was lying about lying," he said, "I learned some pretty useful things about your Dark Matter, how to fashion bombs...and how to delay the explosion."
Wight's eyes immediately went to the bomb resting near his hooves, his eyes going wide, a note of panic in them.  Light blazed out from his uncoiled horn yet again.  However, the bomb was already in the process of exploding.  Far faster than the stallion himself could react, Wight's wings crossed in front of him, creating a barrier between him and the explosion, even as his magic tried to remove the source from existence.
This much closer to him and with Wight being delayed in his reaction, the bomb's explosion blew him off his hooves.  Dawn could see the feathers of his wings scattering through the air, many of them broken and shattered, as though they were made of glass.  Knocked backwards, Wight's wings worked furiously to try and right him.  However, one of them was almost completely broken, a shattered stump trailing fragments of feathers as it flapped awkwardly through the air.  Another one looked as though it were a glass sculpture that had been struck by a hard object, for all that it was still moving.  Black cracks criss-crossed the feathery surface, displacing pieces of some feathers.  The remaining four wings seemed whole and undamaged.
As Wight landed, Dawn saw something else that surprised him.  The fur beneath Wight's nose was damp, some sort of clear liquid draining out.  Dawn wondered if that was what passed for blood in Wight Shade's body.
Landing on his hooves, Wight went skidding back back, his hooves pushing through the broken parts of the floor, making him stumble slightly.  Barely managing to remain upright, he looked up at Swift with a grimace.  "That hurt," he said.
Swift didn't answer him because he was already on the move.  The distance between him and Wight vanished in an instantly.  However, even as Swift reached Wight, the unicorn's wings were already blurring into motion, two crossing to intercept Swift's hoof before it could touch their master, whilst the other two struck at him from either side.  Swift jumped, flipping over and to the right, his flip carrying him over the wing on that side.  Even as he did so, Swift scattered several small spheres in his wake.  One of the wings that had been defending Wight whipped outward, knocking the spheres away, scattering them into the air around the two combatants.  The orbs burst like firecrackers, filling the air with flashing sparks of light and noise.
Swift's hooves had barely touched the ground when he sank down so low that his belly was nearly scraping the cracked and broken marble.  Somehow maintaining his absurdly low posture, he launched himself back at Wight, the movement coming so quickly that even a well-trained martial artist would have been completely off-guard by its abruptness and logic-defying appearance.
Wight Shade was no martial artist.  Nor, it seemed, did he need to be one.  His wings reacted automatically even as Wight turned his head, looking for Swift's location.  They were already blocking Swift's strike as the black-garbed earth pony drove upwards from his low position, thrusting his shoulder at Wight's barrel.  One of Wight's wings seemed to shrink in size so that it could move in close, intercepting Swift's blow.  There was a clap of noise and the force of the blocked attack managed to actually lift Wight's hooves clear of the floor again.
Turning about, Wight reared up, all four of his undamaged wings thrusting down at Swift, trying to spear him with their feathers.  Swift went from his upward attack into a downward roll that carried him past the wings' point of attack, barely escaping as they smashed the floor where he'd been standing.  As his roll carried him onto his back, Swift kicked upwards with all four of his hooves, driving them towards Wight's chest.  This time, it was the two damaged wings that moved to intercept the strikes, the impact actually driving Wight back further.
Two of Wight's wings flapped to keep him airborne and moving as he fell back from Swift Stride's onslaught.  Swift followed, pressing the offensive, always keeping his body low to the ground, whether on his hooves or on his back, striking upward, bracing himself against the earth to deliver the full force of his strength into even the most awkward-looking blows.  Swift's movements were halting, awkward looking, and unpredictable.  He would seem to stumble one way then lurch another.  His strikes hurtled upwards at Wight's chest and belly from below, a position where, if Wight had been a pegasus or an alicorn, his wings could have been hard-pressed to shield him.
However, Wight's defense did not falter.  His wings were white blurs around his body, intercepting each strike and striking in return with just as much force.  However strong he was, Swift apparently didn't trust his strength to ward off the wings' blows and focused on evading them instead.  The wings bent and articulated in ways that the wings of pegasi and alicorns could not, often moving as though they were simply masses of feathers, lacking any kind of bone or muscle structure, allowing Wight to defend parts of his body that would normally be left completely vulnerable.  What was more, even though Wight's eyes moved frantically, betraying that he was utterly unable to keep up with the pace of the exchange, his wings, nonetheless, continued to defend him flawlessly.  The mysterious magical intelligence that controlled them worked more swiftly than even Wight Shade's own mind and senses could.  The battle, it seemed, was a complete stalemate.
Then Wight's uncoiled horn flared again.  The air filled with that hollow, bursting noise and Swift's body was blown backwards.  Dawn, who'd been feeling a vague sense of hope as the battle continued once again felt despair creeping back into his gut.  Even Swift Stride can't figure out a way to fight him.  Then, to Dawn's surprise, Swift turned his backwards tumble into an arcing flip that allowed him to land on his hooves once again.
However, even as Swift landed, Wight's horn flared again.  This time, Dawn sensed something else.  He felt the tugging sensation of the world tilting towards Swift, the ground beneath him actually creaking.  He wasn't sure what Swift had done, but the stallion had assuredly done something.  Swift's body seemed to tense and he crouched slightly.  That bursting noise sounded again...
To Dawn's eyes, Swift's form seemed to double, triple even, the kind of sight that generally occurred only when a pony's eyes were failing.  It was also similar to how Dawn and other ponies, even Swift Stride himself, sometimes left afterimages if they moved quickly and abruptly enough.  However, this was no illusion due speed, nor was it a sign of Dawn's own eyes going bad.  Rather, it was as though the space around and within Swift Stride had distorted briefly.  It lasted only an instant and then Swift looked normal once again.  He sagged slightly and coughed.
He defended! thought Dawn in shock, It doesn't seem that there's a way to evade the attack, but he managed to find a way to abate its force somehow.  A trickle of blood leaked out of Swift's nose.  It looks like he wasn't completely successful.  But that means that defense is possible.
The trembling feeling that had suffused Dawn's body began to quiet and he felt his muscles relax.  The revelation that there might be a way to block or deflect Wight's seemingly impossible magical attacks had apparently been enough to convince the Dawn's unconscious instincts that battle was still possible, that there might be a way to win this fight.
"Truly remarkable," said Wight with a smile, "I hadn't though it possible to block my magic in that manner.  Do you think you could manage it again?"
"If it's all the same, I'd rather not find out," said Swift grimly.  Though he was still smiling, it was clear to everypony observing that he was not in the best of shape.  The blood continued to drip down from the gash that he'd received from Arkenstone.  His legs trembled, clearly having trouble holding him up.
"Unfortunate then," said Wight.  His horn flared again.
Dawn heard Swift's intake of breath and only felt the beginnings of the stallion drawing upon the earth's power before Wight's spell hit.  This time, Swift was driven straight down into the ground, clearly not blocking the spell even half as well as he had the last time.  Wight didn't mince words, instead attacking again...and again...and again...and again...  His horn flared repeatedly, each time, his spell driving Swift down into floor harder and harder.  The marble cracked and groaned, then broke and sagged, as Swift sank down into a crater that grew deeper with each successive blow before Wight's spell slammed him through the floor completely and Swift fell down into one of the corridors running beneath the throne room.
Even then, Wight did not let up.  His horn continued to flare again and again, the hollow bursting noise sounding out from below the floor as he hit Swift over and over again, clearly taking even fewer chances than he had with Dawn, methodically doing absolutely everything in his power to ensure that Swift Stride did not get up again.
Dawn was only vaguely aware of this.  Realizing that this was his chance, he had calmed his breathing and had begun to empty his mind, doing his best to completely relax himself.  Right now, while Wight Shade was distracted by Swift Stride, was the best time for him to try and rally himself to attack.
An ordinary attack wouldn't do.  Wight Shade's wings, even the ones that were heavily damaged, could ward off even the mightiest blows of the Gale King's more mundane techniques.  As for the damaged wings, Dawn hadn't failed to notice that they were beginning to repair themselves.  During that furious exchange with Swift Stride, those wings had continued to shed the broken pieces of feathers until only the undamaged ones remained.  Then, the feathers began to replenish themselves, the wings slowly growing back to their previous span.  Their speed and precision was uncanny, allowing them to defend from attack even when Wight Shade couldn't follow it, even if he wasn't aware of it.  What Dawn needed was a force that would pierce through that defense and strike the stallion beneath it.
Even as he realized this, Dawn knew that he would have only one chance.  His own body wasn't in much better shape than Swift's had been when Wight had started pummeling him.  Dawn's energy was mostly spent, his fights with Flash Spark and Perlin Bluestreak having drained his reserves.  Fighting Wight Shade only a few minutes earlier hadn't helped.  The brief reprieve offered by Swift Stride's interference hadn't been nearly enough for Dawn to replenish his depleted reserves.  On top of that, his body was battered, both inside and out.  Even as he tried to calm his mind and prepare, his body protested, sending Dawn incessant reports about pains in everything from his bones to his inner organs.  Even the breath in his lungs rasped dryly, stinging his throat.
Enough of that! Dawn thought crossly at his own body, Even if you hurt, you're still in working order!  You can quit after the important work is done.  Even as he thought that, Dawn winced at his own foolishness.  Scolding his own body wouldn't help in the slightest.  What mattered was accepting the pain and acknowledging that, but not letting it distract from what he needed to do.  Determined, Dawn continued to sink deeper into a thoughtless state, letting his own feelings of pain flow through him, accepting them as the consequence of his battle and moving on.
Everything hinged on his next strike.  And he needed to make that strike before Wight Shade turned his attention away from grinding Swift Stride into a bloody pulp.



Fluttershy squeaked and ducked her head against Rarity's side, trembling as the corridor rattled.  It was dark back here, the lamps that had once provided illumination having burned out or broken over the course of the several battles that were apparently taking place in the throne room beyond.
"What should we do?" asked Rarity, looking around at their assembled group.  Pinkie Pie was no longer smiling, an uncharacteristically nervous expression decorating her face as her eyes continually flicked to the door that led to the throne room.  Applejack was conscious again, but her eyes were glazed and unfocused, barely managing to roll in Rarity's direction when she spoke.  Rainbow Dash remained silent and unmoving.
"I don't know," said Pinkie, "But I have a bad feeling.  I think something bad happened to Twilight."
"I feel it too," said Fluttershy, nervously glancing at the door, "But what should we do?  We came back here because Twilight needed to fight without us being in the way.  If something...if she's...what can we do without her?"
"I'm afraid I haven't the slightest notion," admitted Rarity, "We're in sorry shape as it is.  I don't believe that we are in any position to help or hinder Twilight."
"But..." said Pinkie, pausing as the throne room rumbled again, "...it sounds like somepony is still fighting over there."
"Yes...but if we go, we might only get in their way," countered Rarity, "Rainbow is the only trained fighter amongst us and, as we can all see, she's not in any shape to be doing anything."  Looking around at the battered group, Rarity gritted her teeth.  "Oh dash it all!" she shouted in frustration, "We're the Elements of Harmony.  We're supposed to be the ones Equestria looks to when all hope is lost.  How can we be cowering back here and praying that somepony else succeeds where we've failed?"
Fluttershy nodded.  As frightened as she was, she too felt a great deal of frustration at their predicament.  She had never once enjoyed the risks they had taken while facing down threats like Nightmare Moon and Discord.  Even the thought of facing them again was enough to give Fluttershy nightmares at times, along with the fear of what monstrous forces they would have to face down in the future.  It wasn't just the scary things themselves that frightened her, but the thought that so many ponies, their lives and happiness, rode on the shoulders of a cowardly, weak-willed mare like her, a pegasus who could barely fly competently.  She was no great warrior, no mighty hero.  She was just an ordinary, very frightened pony.  If there was anything that could have been said to have been truly extraordinary about her, it was how extraordinarily scared she could be.
In fact, much of that could be applied to the group as a whole.  Rarity was a seamstress, a dressmaker.  She had no business fighting or facing down apocalyptic threats.  Applejack was a farmer who, for all that she had a buck that could split a tree in two, was more content tending her orchards than she would ever be wandering hither and yon on adventures.  Pinkie Pie's life revolved around parties, making other ponies happy and their lives richer.  It was completely at odds with the idea of a fighter, struggling against mighty foes.  Even Twilight Sparkle, the pony who led them, was a scholar, rather than a warrior.  She was more at home rooting out tomes from the dustiest shelves of her library than she was adventuring.  Of all of them, only Rainbow Dash truly had a hero's inclination and she was fixed on doing that through the Wonderbolts.
In a sense, none of them belonged here.  Despite that, here they were.  However, now they were simply hunkered down and waiting for the noise to stop, having no idea what was going on on the other side of that door.  Wight Shade's array could have started up already.  The end of the world might very well have already begun whilst they sat and waited.  The only thing that Fluttershy did know for sure was that somepony had taken up the battle.
She felt a strange, comforting warmth seep into her skin from the wight around her neck.  Looking down, Fluttershy gazed at the Element of Kindness that she wore.  The pink butterfly gem was glowing faintly.  Seeing it lit like that somehow seemed to ease her fear and slowly rebuild her courage.  Looking over, she noticed that Rarity's Element was glowing as well.  So was Pinkie's.  Even Applejack and Rainbow's Elements were beginning to shine as well.
Another thunderous boom echoed from the other side of the door and Fluttershy was struck by inexplicable knowledge.  She couldn't say how.  Maybe it was the Element's power, but she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Dawn was out there and he was fighting.  That realization snuffed out the remainder of her fear ruthlessly.  Fluttershy stood up, her expression firm and determined.  There was no way she would cower back here while her son was out there, fighting the very pony that she and her friends had come to stop.  Several times already, Fluttershy had found herself waiting at home while Dawn was out fighting some kind of battle in some other place, putting his life at risk for the sake of other ponies.
Not this time, she thought, I'm not leaving Dawn alone this time.
"Fluttershy?  What is it?" asked Pinkie, looking at her quizzically.
"We need to go," said Fluttershy, "I'm not sure what we can do, but we can't keep hiding back here."
"I was just getting the same feeling," admitted Rarity.  Beside her, Pinkie nodded in agreement.
Abruptly, the Elements around their necks flared brilliantly, the light of their power filling the hallway and washing away the darkness.  The warmth that had been seeping into Fluttershy increased and she felt herself slowly growing hotter and hotter, until she was certain that she was about to burst into flames.  The warmth filled her all the way to her core, washing away tiredness and fatigue.  She felt fresh as a daisy, as though she'd just come off of a good night's sleep and a hearty breakfast.  Her fear was gone and she felt ready for anything.
"Ugh...wow..."  Looking over, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie saw both Applejack and Rainbow Dash getting to their hooves, the two of them looking fully awake, as though they'd never been blown away by that powerful magic Wight Shade wielded.
"Dashie!" shouted Pinkie, immediately tackling the cerulean pegasus, "You're okay!"
"I feel better than okay, Pinkie," said Rainbow with a laugh, "I feel totally awesome."
"Ah'm feelin' a good bit better mahself," said Applejack, looking herself over, "Ah guess these Elements are good fer more than just decoration."
"I should say so," agreed Rarity.
Fluttershy looked around at her friends.  "We know what we need to do, right?"
"I think so..." said Rainbow hesitantly, gazing down at the lightning bolt of her own Element, "Twilight...I think we need to get to her...right?"
Fluttershy nodded.  "We need to hurry.  I think Dawn is out there, fighting."
"Dawn!" shouted Rainbow, her eyes going wide, "No kidding then."
"Ah sure as hay ain't gonna protest," said Applejack, tipping her hat, "But why do ya think we can use the Elements on that Wight Shade feller again.  Ah don't think they're gonna do much."
Fluttershy stared pensively down at her Element for a second.  "Because...I don't think we're supposed to use them on Wight Shade.  I think we need to use them on Twilight.  At least, that's what I feel we need to do."
"Landsakes," said Applejack, "Ah hope yer right 'bout that.  The last thing Ah wanna do is put Twi in stone for a thousand years."
"If it's any consolation, I don't believe the Elements work quite that way," said Rarity, "The Elements are more like a tool, one that has different uses, depending on the situation.  I think Fluttershy is right about us needing to use them on Twilight."
"Well let's not waste anymore time!" said Pinkie, her upbeat demeanor returning with a vigor, "Let's got find Twilight and share all the love and friendship we've got!"
"You said it!" agreed Rainbow with a gusto.
The others nodded in agreement, heading for the door.  Much to their surprise, it was Fluttershy who led the way.