It was time. Silver looked down from her perch to where ponies came and went from a tall building. They looked so innocent. They looked so cheerful. Silver wanted to walk up to one and strike up a conversation. They were ponies... They had to be scared.
She fanned her wings out wide and nodded to Night before she stepped free and let gravity seize her, plunging her through the air with her legs ready to catch her. She pumped magic into her limbs, preparing to absorb the shock, but making no move to slow herself. They were noticing. They were noticing and backing away. Some pointed, others screamed. All stared at her as she became a falling star.
The spell came to her, and her horn pulsed with a surge of power as she became wreathed in blood red magic that began to fizz and crackle before exploding outwards into a grand display of symbols that held importance to her. The night sky, scribbles of unformed words, bats, and ephemeral surges of magical ribbons of light.
There was little mistaking her approach. Wind was howling in her tufted ears. She was about three quarters of the way down. There wasn't much time. She turned the magic internal, her throat glimmering. "I have come for my child. Surrender him and I will leave in peace. Keep him away and know a new level of suffering."
She struck. Her magic went crazy and her vision whited out a moment as her body struggled to absorb the impact of striking the pavement. Tiles to either side of her exploding upwards, flipped and tossed to the side by her violent impact. Ponies scattered, but none were struck by cement. Good. She took a step free of the hole she'd made, moving calmly from that crater towards the building. "I'm coming inside. My foal had best be waiting for me." He wouldn't be, of course. There was no way it'd be that simple.
Silver thrust a hoof out as she reached the door, earth magic rending it free of its hinges on the jarring impact and sending it skidding inside ahead of her as she took slow and measured steps. "Well?" She had expected resistance earlier than that. Were they that frightened?
Her thoughts came to a quick halt as two heavy-looking earth ponies and a unicorn emerged from an elevator, scowling and ready for a fight. She smiled at them. "Last chance." The earth ponies fanned out to the left and right. The unicorn's horn began to glow with preparing magic. The chance was over.
She selected the one to the right as magic pooled in her lungs and legs. She was ready to meet an earth pony on equal terms. With a push off against the ground, she launched forward. wings folded tightly to herself as the pony seemed to rush back at her in the intense speed. She arrived at him and snapped out a hoof. She had never learned advanced forms of interpersonal combat, but sheer power had a grace all of its own. He clearly hadn't expected her to come at him so quickly, and by the time he had his own swing ready, her hoof was crashing into his shoulder and driving him down into the ground, laying him low. She vaulted over his body and came down with her hind legs on his own, driving her hooves deep into the tightly muscled flesh until she heard twin cracks. That pony was out of the combat. With deliberate slowness, she turned to the other two with her wings unfurling wide. "I am Prince Silver Stars. You may not respect me, but you will fear me. Return him now."
A unicorn trembling behind a secretary's desk shook her head. "Aren't you a princess?"
The combat sorcerer raised a hoof and several staplers rose from their desks and popped wide, aiming themselves at Silver. She brought up her silvery shield just in time to catch a barrage of sharpened bits of metal, each striking with potentially lethal force. Some even punched through the shield, only stopping when the back of each staple laid flat against the bubble. Silver scowled at the fellow magic slinger, but there wasn't time yet to deal with him, for the other earth pony came barreling down at her with his hoof held high, apparently hoping to return the favor for her sudden dash at his friend.
She dipped her head as if readying to receive his charge, only to vanish a moment before he arrived and appearing behind him. She bucked out with all the fury, and earth magic, of Applejack, without the restraining magic that stopped apple trees from exploding into splinters from such violent bucks. Bereft of the benefit of such magic, the pony howled and collapsed with several broken ribs and a hip. He wouldn't be a threat. She turned to look at the sorcerer. "I've faced death itself. You're just a mewling foal in comparison. Spare us both the indignity of your defeat."
He sneered at her and made a sudden flick of a hoof, sending a stapler hurtling towards Silver. She waved back at it, conjuring her silver hand to grab it from the air and crush it to so much metal. "Time's up." She conjured the other hand and raised them as any human would ready to box. "Let's see how you are on defense." With the speed of thought, the fists soared for the unicorn. He couldn't see them as Silver could, and didn't know what was coming until it suddenly bowled him over backwards. Silver battered down on him, slapping him around like a discarded toy as he cried and shouted, but she didn't stop until he begged for mercy. With a brutal twist of a fist, she snapped his horn off, high enough that he may eventually recover, but there would be no magic until then at best.
Without looking at him, Silver turned to the secretary that had spoken before. "Call whoever you call a boss. I am not leaving without my foal."
"Y-yes ma'a--" She paused at Silver's withering look. "Sir! Yes sir." She picked up a phone quickly, but she needn't have done so. The elevator opened to admit a minotaur that had to stoop to even fit in the elevator.
The minotaur clapped his hands together. "It fills my heart with sorrow to have to battle a progenitor this way, but your wickedness proceeds not one step further." He made a strange symbol in the air with his fingers and a sphere burst into fiery brilliance around him. "Come."
Silver felt power from this one. He had physical strength, and arcane might. Overpowering him directly might not be enough, but she had to show no weakness. It was time to call in the first wave. She flashed a brilliant silver light as she reared up onto her hind legs. The window to the road shattered as Night soared through it, gleaming in her armor and jewels. "Any battle against Silver Stars is a fight you bring to his family. Prepare to suffer, or stand aside."
The minotaur's confidence waned, as if he could sense their combined might. Even Silver wasn't sure exactly how powerful Night had become as she grew more skilled with her collection of artifacts. It was time to find out. Silver tried to backhand the minotaur with a silvery hand, but he swatted it aside, and it vanished before his touch, dispelled with seemingly no effort. Night was on him even as he made the motion. She dove through the fire without pause, though her fur singed slightly with the smell of burning hair. With an abrupt turn, she punched straight through one of his horns, shattering it violently. It was a move meant to inspire fear, not cripple him, yet.
He grabbed her with a sudden burst of speed, grabbing her around the neck with one hand and the barrel with the other. Both hands sparked wildly with electricity as he hefted her up and hurled her. She howled with anger, not pain, and righted herself in the air, wings easily holding her aloft, ready to rejoin the battle.
Silver couldn't help but want to learn more of the minotaur. His immense power and skill were something to be respected. There was no time for respect, however. She brought up her first shield and charged for the minotaur. "You think you can throw me so easily? You couldn't even lift me from the ground." He didn't believe her claims, and swung in a wild overhead slam, but the motion distorted as his hand pressed through that terribly dangerous shield. His fist and arm began to come apart, threatening to explode. It was through sheer will that he held himself together and finished the swing, knocking Silver to the ground and yanking his hand back. Blood ran freely down his furry arm. He was hurt, badly, but he hadn't exploded, not like others had.
Night was on him as he tried to recover and she sank her teeth into his neck. His eyes shrank rapidly as he was filled with the horror of combat, the pure fear that she held at bay, of Silver becoming hurt, or their foal being killed. It filled him and left him trembling as he tried to grab for her, but his hands wouldn't cooperate fully. He sank down to a knee under her weight and his rebelling body.
Silver rose to her hooves and shook off the blow. "Give up. You fought well. Give up." He grunted and struggled against Night, getting his uninjured hand on one of her wings and starting to pull as if to sheer it off. Silver wouldn't allow that. She grabbed the minotaur's magic roughly and inverted its words. Some of them were alien to the unicorn alphabet, so she ignored them. It turned on him, and he began to cook roughly inside his own sphere. She held tightly, fueling it with her own power. There was no way for him to turn it off casually. "Give up. Bring my foal to me."
Night suddenly wrenched her fangs from him, leaving a horrible gash where she made no attempt to make the bite clean. "You're delicious, and defeated. Nothing is stopping us." She kicked off him, sailing away as he collapsed under his own shield. When he went limp, Silver released the magic. The minotaur was a bloodied and charred mess.
Silver turned back to the secretary. "Well?"
Nefertari suddenly appeared beside the secretary, bashing her head into the desk before letting her slump to the ground, knocked out. "The pathetic girl was attempting to reach the authorities, not her boss." She looked to the other ponies, smiling wickedly. "One should listen to Silver's requests. They are quite reasonable." She made a gesture of having her eyes on them before vanishing from sight.
Another pony, an earth pony stallion, raised a shaking hoof. "I-I'll do it, promise." He grabbed up a phone in his shaking hooves, almost dropping it and was soon talking into it. "Yes, yes... yes... please..." He hung it up, trembling terribly. "He said he'd be sending down... an escort. Please don't hurt me."
A soft chime of the elevator announced the arrival of all four elevators. Stepping from them were about ten ponies in heavy armor and crossbows strapped to their forelegs. They raised them in union, aiming them at Silver and Night. They didn't ask questions, they just fired.