Chapter 13
Lyra shackled Applejack's forelegs to the wall first, than her hind legs, and then left her hanging while she trotted into a room attached to hers to retrieve a leather case of questioning tools that Faltos had given to her in case she'd need to 'encourage' someone to give her information. Her first 'informant' had died before she could get any useful information from him, but after that incident she took things slower, and with a bit of practice followed at the end by a memory wipe followed by a healing spell that targeted the worst of the damage she'd done and a trip to a random back-alley she could make it seem as if the ponies she'd abducted had been mugged rather than tortured. She didn't like doing it, but if she were going to learn enough about Human anatomy to feel confident enough to try a full-body transformation, then she needed to. And if this Lighthand-guy really can use magic, then I'll get the best of both races! Minus the shorter lifespan, of course, but this did not bother her.
While she gathered her things the being that had tailed Lyra and Applejack picked the lock that Lyra had turned, and then pushed her way in and looked around, still invisible. She noted Applejack, who was too busy struggling against her bonds to notice the door's opening and closing seemingly on its own, and quietly shut and re-locked the door behind her and waited.
Lyra trotted back into the room, the leather case in her mouth. It disgusted her to think that she had an animal's hide in her mouth, but using magic took more energy than this method did, and she might need that energy if Applejack had a low tolerance for pain. Most earth ponies were rather resilient when exposed to physical abuse, but there had been exceptions that she'd run into, her first murder being one of them.
Lyra placed the tools on a Human stool and pulled it closer to Applejack, again with her mouth.
“Juz' you wait 'til I get free! I'mma shove yer pointy head so far up yer plot you'll think yer being plowed by a Manticor!!” Lyra's face turned a little red at the image that conjured, but pushed it aside and opened the case. Inside were several sharp cutting tools of two blade lengths meant for precision slices, two syringes with metal needles that could be attached to the ends of the syringes, a few vials of different colored liquids, a small jar about the size of a baby-food container, a two-inch round saw that she could spin with her magic for clean-cut dismemberment, a hooked instrument that had an extension handle lying next to it, ten solid-needles with small barbs on them for easy entry but painful removal, a roll of sandpaper, and a chisel and small mallet.
Lyra let Applejack get a good look at the case's contents, and then put on an unpleasant smile.
“Getting much-needed information can be a messy business, which is why, if you notice, my carpeting is red.” To Lyra's satisfaction Applejack glanced down at it and gulped. Hopefully this would be much easier than she expected. “I'm not going to ask you for information because I've already done that and you've quite stubbornly refused. So, since we have already established what you don't want to tell me, I think we shall instead focus on what you do want to tell me!” Lyra, without looking at the case, selected a scalpel with a curved blade and levitated it to Applejack's lower left hoof (from Lyra's point of view). “Did you know that some of the most sensitive areas on an Earth pony such as yourself are your legs?” Lyra dragged the end of the handle slowly along Applejack's leg. Applejack shivered and stifled a giggle. “This is why,” She pulled the tool away from her when it reached her thigh. “when your kind's legs are injured they take longer to heal than those of a Pegasus or Unicorn. Inborn-magic has nothing to do with it.” Lyra traced a spiral on Applejack's stomach. Applejack frowned at her, but did not react otherwise. “Now that we both know this, I believe that we should begin with something not quite so sensitive, but still close. Hmm...let me see now...”
Lyra slowly paced in front of Applejack, tapping the scalpel against her horn. “Ah! I know!” She declared, stopping suddenly and turning to her with a forced bright smile, which Applejack noticed was forced. “Let's begin with your ears, shall we?”
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
When I could move once more I rubbed the spot with the index and middle finger of one hand but found nothing out of the ordinary. I looked around the room for the woman that had attacked me, but as with before I saw nothing but the motionless statues. Then it hit me: the reason I failed to see them before was because they had coated themselves in some sort of make-up or perhaps a costume of sorts that made them appear to be one of the statues that surrounded me. I raised one of the axes and tapped the nearest statue to me. The metal rapped against stone. I guess I could just lift all the statues and then drop them to the ground and break them. The killers would scream in pain. Well, maybe.
A familiar whistling sound drew my attention and I raised a half-inch thick barrier of stone around my body as high as my eyes. If they were going to 'play' with me, it was unlikely they would blind me so early into the game. Two faint tinkling sounds met my ears and then I dropped the walls and got moving, dodging around the 'dancing' statues until I'd reached the overseer. I leaped up onto the pedestal and then jumped down behind it.
“Run all you like, grandpa!” came the male's voice. “The further you go, the more to our advantage!” Laughter from both him and his sister followed his statement and I wondered what he meant by that, but found out as soon as I turned my face forward again. Before me stood dozens of statues, again in various poses, and there were no more torches to light the area. Not that it matters in my case! I plunged into them without hesitation and then regretted it when I heard the sound of my foot once more landing on a pressure plate. This time, however, I did not know how I could safely dodge when the sprung trap could hit me from anywhe-
BA-BOOM! Two explosions went off ahead of me and slightly to my right, shattering the statues the explosives had been attached to and showering me with debris both large and small. I dropped the axes and clutched at my arm where half a head had crashed into it, gritting my teeth and grunting in pain. I didn't know for sure if it was broken, but it certainly hurt. I brought to mind the image of how a Human's arm-bone structure was supposed to be, and then cast a healing spell and then flexed my arm. It still hurt, but nowhere near as much as it had. Perhaps it had simply been a fracture rather than a break, but either way healing magic didn't get rid of the dust that now filled the air, and now I was choking on said dust.
“I warned you, old man!” Came the man's voice again, followed by two stabs of pain in my left arm at the shoulder and just below the elbow to one side, which fell limp. My vision fell on my arm and I quickly moved to pull them out when another I heard more whistling sounds. Okay Lighthand, remember your ninth lesson from Luna: above all else, stay calm and if your enemy has the upper hoof, don't let them know it. I didn't have hoofs, but the reasoning was still sound. Another lesson she'd taught me was that if I had any advantage over my enemies, if they were deadly enemies, and meant me harm I should take advantage of it. Luna, I've been fighting like a fool. No more mercy. I gritted my teeth and jumped, then used my magic to push me higher so I'd be able to see the area that I'd need to fill with my next spell. Quoting the Bible, I yelled
“Let there be LIGHT!” And cast a mass-light spell which illuminated the entire Labyrinth all at once. It gave me a slight headache given that I'd not had any sleep for the last twenty four hours, but I'd survive, and the headache would eventually go away on its own so long as I kept magic-use to a minimal for the next half hour.
Below me, the two Hunter-Humans shielded their eyes and cried out at the sudden brightness that pained their eyes. I removed my night-vision seeing as I no longer had any need of it and drew fire from the still-burning torches and flooded the lower area with flame. There was nowhere for them to to escape the flames, and so they burned. They burned and they screamed in agony. At least, they did at first. After the first four seconds of screaming in pain the pair of them began laughing, to my bewilderment.
“Finally!” the female voice screamed up at me. “Finally someone has the ability to kill us!”
“Indeed, sister! Tonight, we dine in the Underworld!”
“We've certainly...killed too many....for.....Heav...en....” The sister toppled over into the pond-sized inferno I'd created, and a second later, so did the brother. To be safe, I let them burn awhile longer, but after four seconds I quenched the flames and lowered myself down to a hover two feet above the floor. Brief though the fire had been, the floor and what statues remained after the explosions were hot, and I did not wish to ruin my shoes.
I scanned the corpses of the charred siblings and claimed their keys. The keys were still hot, so whilst I waited for them to cool off I considered heading back to the entrance to try the lock with the keys I had obtained. I already had 4, and one was supposedly destroyed when miss stumpy stepped on a landmine, which meant that there was a chance that I already had what I needed. If it turned out that I did not I, then would have lost nothing, and if I did have the right key, then I would not have to waste time dealing with the remaining five Hunter-Humans.
I lifted the last key and inserted it into the lock. At least this one actually fit! The others were either warped or too large. Alas, this one did not turn in the lock when I twisted my wrist to attempt obtaining freedom. I growled and dropped the key on the floor to join its sisters. I wonder how the king would react if I just blasted the door off its hinges...no, I shouldn't do that. I want to keep the king in the dark a little longer about me. I lowered the torch I'd taken form the statue room and set it on the floor. Then again, if I just pick the lock with magic and claim that one of these keys worked, will they actually check to see if it fits? I picked one of the discarded keys back up again and stared back and forth between the keyhole and key. If they did check, then I'd have to come up with some sort of excuse as to how I'd been able to open it. Unless, of course, I smiled a little. I stuck this key in and then bent it on purpose to get it stuck. Then I could get out of it.
This proved to be both the simplest and best solution, and the guard on the other side accepted it after a brief attempt to remove it from the lock, but the look on his face when he saw that it was me that opened the door was highly amusing. Seeing the king's expression later was absolutely priceless.
The guard keeping watch at the door sent for a servant, who led me to where the king was speaking with a Hunter-Human wearing a brown leather shirt decorated with several colored cords, and his belt, also made of leather, but black this time, was decorated with several skulls.
The two of us stood still and silent for a good five minutes before the king finally took notice of us and lifted his head with a frown on his face and a mouth partially open to ask what the purpose if his visit was, and then his eyes popped open as wide as they could go and his jaw dropped, making him look quite undignified. A muscle under one of his eyes twitched, and the king whispered something that I could not understand from where I stood, the blood from my earlier injuries now dry. I had considered healing them whilst still in the labyrinth, but if I came back with no injuries whatsoever that would seem downright suspicious.
“Shall I come back at a later time?” I asked while he stared at me in still-shocked disbelief.
The king quickly composed himself and addressed the man standing near him and informed him that their discussion would have to wait until later. The man bowed and left without a word.
“Guard, leave us.” The guard saluted, and spun around and left as well, leaving me alone with the king, who sat down in a chair. “Who are you, old man? Who are you really?” I said nothing, and only looked at him. He put pushed the chair back from the table that he and the man had stood next to and put his feet up on it. “You're obviously not the average old man. You survived a confrontation with one of those big blue bears without a scratch, you earned your freedom from the second trial faster than I myself did and with far fewer marks on your body, and you're challenging me not for your own gain, but for a girl barely above half your age.” Closer to a third, but you'd never believe that. “What town or tribe were you born in?”
“I was born in the same town that Miss Darkfist was, your highness.” He shook his head.
“No, you weren't. Their town is not a town that is famous for their fighting or hunting skills, they raise cattle. I suppose it's possible that you were simply lucky for the second portion and you got the key on your first or second try, but I felt the vibrations from the exploding traps. Most people would be in much worse condition than you, if they even came back at all.”
“If you beat me later, then I'll tell you.” He chuckled. I raised an eyebrow and asked what was funny.
“Now I know that you're not a normal subject of mine.” I was confused.
“Because I said that I'd tell you if you won?” He shook his head.
“No. Because you're not the least bit intimidated by me even though I'm in better physical condition than you by far even if we ignore that I'm not injured and younger than yourself. You're not the first person to fight me for my throne, but you're the only one that has stayed completely calm when I spoke to you after the conclusion of the second portion. I look forward to beating you.”
“And I look forward to knocking you down a peg or two. Pride is always greatest before you take a fall. You know where to find me when you're ready.” I turned around and, without his permission, left.
__ __ __ __ __
Lyra blinked, lying dazed against her bedroom wall. One minute, she had been just about to slice off half of the orange pony's ear, the next, she was thrown across the room and slammed into a wall.
“Trixie!” Applejack exclaimed. “What in the hay are you doin' here?! And how'd you get in?!”
“The Great and Powerful-”
“Can you please skip that part and get on with getting' me outta here first?” Trixie huffed and grudgingly unlocked Applejack's lower manacles first, and then the second, but rather than catch her, Trixie let her fall flat to the floor.
“Oof! Why didn' ya catch me?!” Trixie turned up her head.
“Perhaps next time you will be more polite to Trixie!”
“Perhaps next time you'll get my hoof upside yer head!” Applejack said, angry as she rose to her hoofs and threw a look at Lyra. “Is she out?”
A bolt of energy slammed into Trixie and threw her against another wall. “I guess not!”
Lyra had pushed herself up on her front hoofs and was glaring at Trixie, who peeled off the wall and flopped onto her backside. Applejack leaped across the distance between her and the torture tool table and closed the case. Lyra gave her a questioning look, but it turned to shock-fear as it hurtled at her face and smacked into it and knocked her against the wall again, this time with her head hitting it first. Lyra had stars orbit her head for two seconds, and then she fell over. Applejack trotted over to her and spit on her face.
“Traitor.” She said scornfully, and then trotted to Trixie and helped her up. Trixie set a hoof against her head and blinked a few times. “You alright, Trixie?”
“Trixie...will be. What of the blueish-green one?”
“Out like an unwanted bar customer. I've got a few ideas of what we ken do with her, but I'll need some help doin' it.”
“The Great and Powerful Trixie would be happy to assist you!”
Applejack dropped Lyra on the hard floor in the room that she, Jacob, and Jackylin were staying in and then gagged her snout with a strip of what was left of Jackylin's bed sheet. Jackylin herself was not present.
“So how long have you been followin' us, Trixie?”
“Trixie has been following you since Ponyville! I have the Human woman's permission to be here.”
“Why were you following us?”
“Trixie is grateful toward the older Human for restoring her magic to her and wished to show her appreciation. He refused to take her along, so Trixie spoke to the woman as well.”
“And you followed along invisibly.” Trixie nodded, smiling with pride.
“You never even suspected that you were being followed!”
The door opened to admit Jackylin, who asked first why Trixie was not invisible, and second where the other Unicorn had come from. Applejack brought her up to speed, and then had to explain it all over again when Jacob came through the door not ten seconds later, to her annoyance. Jacob himself was not happy to find out that Trixie had gone behind his back and gotten permission from Jackylin to come along, but other than a frown directed at Jackylin and a glare at Trixie, he did nothing.
“So we have a Unicorn that's a traitor to her species, we don't know who she's working for, and she attacked and captured Applejack and was about to torture her with no hesitation, which means she's probably done this sort of thing before.” Jackylin frowned. “We have to find out who she's working for so we can find out just how much trouble we're in.”
“But ah didn't tell her anythin'!” Applejack protested, not understanding.
“That's a good thing, but you also said she knew about Jacob and our people's deal. That means she's probably been in Ponyville, which means she probably also knows, or at least suspects that that Jacob uses magic. Depending on who she serves, we-”
A knock came to the door and she frantically waved for Trixie to hide herself behind the bed, which she did. Meanwhile Applejack and Jacob shoved Lyra underneath the bed. Once that was done Jackylin inquired who it was and asked also what they wanted. It turned out to be a messenger from the king, who had declared that he was ready and would be waiting for Jacob and Jackylin to join him outside the castle grounds in the tournament area that had been set up.
“Inform the king that we shall be along shortly. You may go.” Jackylin looked at Jacob, who was unable to hold back a yawn.
“Are you ready?” Jacob shrugged as he finished yawning and lowered his hand to his side.
“As ready as I'll ever be after not having slept or ate for a day and then having to wander around in an underground labyrinth.” Jackylin suddenly smiled slyly and walked to Applejack's cot and began digging through a bag next to it that was not Applejack's saddlebags.
“Hey! Wat'cha diggin' through my food satchel fer?!” Applejack demanded to know as Trixie came out once more from her hiding place.
Though the Hunter-Humans of this world ate only meat, they had acknowledged that Applejack was off-limits and that she required other means of sustenance and the king had been generous enough to have his servants go out and collect some of the local produce as food. A moment later she tossed a orange fruit with purple spots the size of a pear and shaped like a peach Jacob's way.
“We feed this fruit to out cattle back home in Boarborne as a treat for being well-behaved. Try it.” Jacob gave it a hesitant look, and then sank his teeth into it. Juice squirted around his teeth and dripped down his chin. His hesitant look became one of delight. He completed his bite and chewed a bit, then swallowed.
“This tastes like a big blackberry!” He took another bite and another until it was gone. “I wish we had these things back home!”
“Ah! Trixie understands! The locals don't know that you're not one of them, so they won't know that you can eat what we ponies can eat!” Jackylin nodded and tossed him another, which he also ate.
“If yer fixin' to eat all mah food, then ya'll are gonna be treatin' me tah lunch when we get back to Ponyville!”
“Oh, don't worry, Applejack. If he eats too much then it will only slow him down. That's the last bit he's getting until after the fight.”
__ __ __ __ __
Luna bucked a Griffon in the face, snapping its neck, and then twitched her head slightly to knock aside a thrown javelin with her magic.
As she had said, with the first rays of the rising sun Luna and her forces struck the once-castle now inhabited by Humans. At first things were easy and they managed to secure the stone bridge that the Humans had built as a more permanent solution to the rotted rope-and-board bridge that had fallen several decades earlier rather than simply putting in place another bridge of the same type, which allowed her ground forces to move in and assault the mostly-ruined walls of the castle and enter it while the Pegasi flew over the walls whilst carrying her Unicorns for protection as well as deployment within the walls as well. Shortly after their entering the castle grounds, however, a bell began to toll and more Humans began pouring out of the keep and Griffons began leaping out from the watch tower windows to assault them.
Even when the better-armed and armored Humans (and Griffons as well) joined the gray while the not-so-armed ones retreated to better protect themselves it was not much of a fight with Luna bringing her magic to bear to deflect almost every attempt their enemies made at harming herself and her soldiers. Still, though her magic protected them from weapons of steal and wood, it did nothing to prevent claws or beaks or fangs from causing damage, and as a result her forces were still suffering the occasional casualty. Angered at this, Luna focused her energy and blasted the watch tower and took pleasure in the screams from Humans and Griffon alike as the upper half of the tower rocked and then toppled backward, taking whomever was still within to a crushing death when the upper half slammed into the ground and broke apart. This action stunned Humans, Griffons, and ponies alike for a moment, but a second blasting attack from Luna against the wall of the keep renewed their efforts of killing one another.
“Surrender, murderers of ponies! You cannot defeat us!” Luna declared with her Royal Canterlot Voice.
“Really?” One voice called up to her from the walls of the keep. It was a Human, standing side-by-side along the wall with forty others, all of them older than those fighting in the courtyard and along the outer walls. “Because it seems to me that you're the most powerful one here. If we should capture or kill you, then the others will soon follow after!”
“And how do you intend accomplish such a feat when you are not even armed?” Luna asked, impaling a foolish young Griffon that had charged her from one side, and then she bucked another with one hind leg that had tried hitting her from the other side at the same time.
“Like this!!!” The old Human, in tandem with the other forty reached down for a white handle extending up from a knife sheath and drew it out, revealing not blades of iron, bronze or steel, but spikes of ivory with a spiral running up their shafts. Luna's face became contorted with rage as she realized what they were. They desecrate our dead! Luna readied her magic for another blast of magic, but after launching it at them was horrified to see it deflected off a hazy-black barrier of magical energy. “Get her!”
Multiple blocks of rubble from both the ground below them as well as discarded weapons and even the bodies of the dead were lifted from the ground and in an unending barrage were hurled at Luna, who formed a barrier of her own to deflect the hurled debris and dead.
How?! How?1 How?! Luna repeated over and over in her mind. How are they doing this?! At some point a torch was hurled amongst several barrels of lamp oil and after burning at the sides enough oil gushed from the barrel and ignited, flooding the nearby area around it with fire and fumes. Shortly after a second and third barrel also ignited and the fire spread more. Seeing the fire several of the magicians had the idea of lifting a still-intact burning barrel and hurled it at Luna. The barrel burst apart on impact and the liquid within ignited, engulfing Luna in molten flames.
Her soldiers cringed inside at the sight of a miniature sun hanging in midair and knowing it to be their night-princess, but Luna was not harmed in the slightest by it. Those beneath and around her however were another story, and their screams as the still-burning liquid dropped on their bodies echoed and bounced off the stone and (after some repairs on part of the Hunter-Humans had been affected) wooden walls. Wait...Tia wrote of this same thing being done by that flat-toothed Human...the horns! That is why they were keeping Unicorn horns after removing them! But why have they not been using them against us until now?
Luna blew away the flames with a conjured wind and then assaulted the older Humans on the walls by collapsing their footing beneath them. Most of them fell screaming to the ground where they died either from the fall itself or from being buried or crushed, but a few had enough time to get to safer ground and began retreating into the remains of the castle. Luna pursued them and landed on what was left of the causeway so she could enter the building.
Meanwhile on the ground those of her troops that had seen their enemies using magic and understood the how of it began gathering up all the stolen horns they could and once they had grabbed them tossed them into the ravine over which the bridge stood so there would be no chance of their foes recovering them before the assault was over, much to the dismay of their biped enemies, and so the clash continued.
Luna ran through her old home's corridors, slaying Humans were she found them, and deflecting or redirecting magic when the need called for it, which was not often. Most of the Humans inside that attacked her were armed with normal steel or wooden weaponry or perhaps only their clawed hands, but all of them fell before her and then were forgotten by Luna as she continued her rampage. In time she passed by the throne room and then slid herself to a stop to come back to it. There's a door here now... Luna tired to push it open with a hoof, but it was barred from the other side. Luna snorted and placed a spell on her side as well so that whomever had barred the door would not escape, and then left to finish the fight with her subjects.
Once the last of the Humans had either been killed or driven off and the old castle grounds secured Luna returned to the throne room not through the door, but through a hole in the wall, much to the dismay of the three Humans that had locked themselves inside. Behind where they stood with weapons now drawn were five crates that were three feet by three feet by two, and and were enforced with iron bands, save one, which was open and the lid on the floor.
“Your people are either dead, or have deserted you!” Luna declared. “Surrender!”
“And have you kill us anyway?!” The one male in the group spat on the floor in Luna's direction. “I'd rather die with honor and weapons in hand than as a coward!” He turned to the box, dropped his long sword and reached into his, drawing from it two different-colored Unicorn horns and turned back to Luna, driving both fists forward, shoving. Luna, taken off guard, was pushed back and out of the hole, feeling like she'd been bucked by one of her guards. While she righted herself outside the other two did the same and prepared themselves to die well.
Luna came back in, thoughts of mercy gone from her mind. She gathered her will and flew back into the room, trapping one of them in an airtight shield, another she crushed its chest and it let out a gurgled scream before dying. The last one did the worst thing she could have done, she took off her shoes and jumped into the crate, hoping to get a boost powerful enough to match Luna. When the soles of her feet touched three and four more horns each, her body spontaneously combusted, and her ashes dropped to the ground mostly in one large pile, which sifted down through the spaces between the horns until finally settling on the bottom.
The last Human female, quickly running out of oxygen (though not aware of it), and having witnessed the deaths of her two companions, and not really having much experience in the use of magic herself but not lacking imagination focused her will on the floor beneath her, and escaped into a lower room, leaving the shield behind. Luna, still in shock over the one Human that exploded into flames, only noticed the last one's escape as the top of its head, dropped below the floor. Annoyed at her lack of vigilance, Luna teleported into the lower room and found it to be the dungeon; a room she had used several times before her banishment, and not always just for holding criminals.
Luna shuddered from the old memories at once she had once allowed to happen or had done herself, but pushed them to the back of her mind as her eyes swept the almost-black room. Nothing. Where did she go? The exit had collapsed, which meant the only way out of this room was through the hole they'd gone through from the room above. Luna frowned, and lowered herself to the floor, her hoofs touching the dirty stone floor the only sound other than the heavily-muffled sounds of battle from outside. Stepping out of the light to make herself a more difficult target Luna sniffed, searching for the too-familiar scent of a Human. It was present, but not strong enough to lead her to her unseen enemy, not that Luna wanted to be lead.
Deciding to speed the end of this little bout of hide-and-seek Luna gathered the light that entered the room up and shone it around the room like a searchlight. There were several other piles of debris where parts of the ceiling had dropped from a wall of dropped from the ceiling without adding more holes to it, but none of them were large enough to hide something the size of a full-grown Human. Where is it? Luna wondered after having swept the room twice.
Luna whinnied in pain as she suddenly felt two sudden pains in the back of her hind legs. She spun to see the Human that had escaped fade into the dim lighting and vanish like a phantom in the wind. Invisibility?! Who taught them how to use that?! Who would betray us in such a way!? Luna winced as the pain in her legs became more pronounced. Just above my hocks! A bit lower, and I'd be on the ground right now! Quickly Luna healed herself and lifted herself into the air with a few beats of her wings; she'd not be struck like that agai-
This time the attack did not miss, and also this time Luna noticed her own blood coating two short cone-shaped objects hovering in midair. Luna smiled even through her hurting as she spun around a second time and quickly pushed herself forward, impaling something with her horn.
The Human woman became visible once more, but something was wrong. Even though the Human was clearly in pain, she did not try to extricate herself, and instead dropped one of the Unicorn horns shed been holding in favor of grabbing Luna's and gripped it tightly.
“So much more-!” she whispered, her expression one of awe. Then her eyes focused on Luna and a triumphant grin spread across her face. Luna was visibly confused.
“Why are you-”
The ancient royal castle's windows emitted a bright light, and then the entire structure imploded on itself, crushing or at the very least, burying everyone within it in just under six seconds. Once more Luna's soldiers stared in horror, but this time there was no immediate response.
While the few remaining Humans fled the scene, the ponies ran to the pile and frantically began trying to dig their leader out.