Fight Club

by xTSGx

Midnight vs. Justice (Part 2)

For copyright/disclaimer information, see the prologue.

Chapter Eleven: Midnight vs. Justice (Part II)

A suit of armor collapsed to the ground when a gray blur crashed into it. Midnight poked her head out of the pile of tarnished silver. She didn't really know what to expect from the long abandoned castle, but a virtually untouched snapshot of pre-Nightmare Moon Equestria was not it. She scrunched up her nose in the reflection of the armor's helmet before batting it off her chest with an annoyed huff.

The armor's silver helmet. Night Glider had just kicked her into something worth more than her cottage. Something that had been sitting around collecting dust for centuries. She looked around the corridor. Its high ceilings and rotted wooden chandeliers held suit of armor, after suit of armor. Shields, pikes, crossbows. All arranged like a showcase to show off the Princesses wealth and power to ambassadors and emissaries.

All a thousand years old and worth more than probably all the Benefactors combined. She snorted in frustration. All those fights, all those sleepless nights, all those Garbonzas—and all she had to do was come here and sell what she found at one of those fancy auctions. She would have made a killing.

She looked over her shoulder at the hallway's entrance. Night Glider had kicked her in here but there was no sign of the pegasus. As she walked forward, she felt her hoof sink down into the carpet, as if it had pressed something. Her eyes widened as she heard something above her. The chandelier broke free, revealing a comically over-sized anvil that plummeted toward her.

She rolled out of the way just as it slammed into the ground with an explosion-like noise. Bits of stone and dry, dusty carpet filled the hallway. Midnight flapped her wings and hacked as the dust settled, revealing the anvil embedded several inches into the stone floor. She gulped in relief. A second slower and she would have felt how comfortable it was to be under that thing.

“Drat. I thought that might work.”

“What?” Midnight turned around from the anvil to see Night Glider standing at the hallway's entrance.

Night Glider walked into the room, admiring the suits of armor, “Oh, you don't know that much about the castle, do you? Princess Twilight thought you might try something like this—what with the weather factory, the warehouses, and the military base. You do love those scenic locations—so she filled me in on this place.”

As Night Glider steadily approached, Midnight backed away cautiously, being sure to step around the iron anvil, “That's great and all but I'm not here for a tour,” she turned from the mare and ran toward the opposite opening of the hallway.

“I'd just be careful if I were you. The princesses had a thing for pranking each other back in the day. And what with being immortal and all, those pranks could get rather unique.” Night Glider gestured to the anvil. Midnight slowed to a stop. That would explain the anvil and pressure plate, “And once Nightmare Moon happened, Princess Celestia made sure to activate each and every one to discourage greedy souvenir seekers from drudging up the painful memories of the past.”

So much for taking the suit of armor, “Well, then. You should probably be careful and not try to catch me, if that's the case.” Midnight flapped her wings and flew off, narrowly slipping past the chipped archway at the end of the hall. Booby trap pressure plates couldn't very well activate if there wasn't a pony standing on them, now could they?

Night Glider grit her teeth. Of course Midnight would still run. That's all she ever did. Run, and never face the music for what she did. The dark blue pegasus took off in pursuit. Twilight hadn't told her everything about the castle, least of all the location of the traps, and Midnight did have a good strategy for avoiding them. Assuming they were all based around pressure plates, that is.

-----

“Gah!”

“Yikes!”

Midnight and Night Glider corkscrewed through a pair of french doors, having just barely avoided a large wooden beam and pile of rubble that lay in front of the doors. Neither could control their flight and they both skipped across the floor before they crashed into the stone brick wall at the far end of the large room.

Midnight kicked the sprawled out pegasus from off her and glared at her, “I could have easily avoided that if you weren't so obsessed with trying to catch me.”

Night Glider wasted no time picking herself up and tackling the bat pony, “And you wouldn't be in this mess in the first place if you had just accepted your punishment.”

The two rolled around the large, empty room, wrestling and punching each other. On the far side, the windows had long ago shattered and the cold Everfree wind hollowed in from the courtyard, “Punishment for what? Not letting myself get stuffed into a bottle by forbidden magic? If Princess Twilight didn't want her friend tightly crammed into a bottle for Luna knows how long, she shouldn't have put the enchantment on it in the first place!”

Night Glider slammed Midnight against the cold, cracked stone floor, “The fact remains you broke the law. Why is that so hard for a greedy pony like you to understand?”

Midnight kicked Night Glider over top of herself and stood back up, “What law? The fighting league was perfectly legal. Sports Weekly even had a whole section devoted to it for Luna's sake.”

Night Glider jumped into the air and used the cavernous room to her advantage by zigzagging around like a fly. Her eyes stayed fixed on Midnight, “A Canterlot grand jury and the Attorney General think differently. If it was all legitimate, then just turn yourself in,” she smirked, “You'll have no problem showing you did nothing wrong.”

That mare's aerial acrobatics were growing tiresome. Midnight flexed her wings and took off in pursuit, “Yeah, right. I'm sure the Star Chamber is all about proof and innocence,” the two mare's bobbed and weaved around each other. While the room was large, it was still far too small for two ponies to have a dogfight, “You'd have an easier time proving Luna doesn't raise the moon than you would somepony's innocence there.”

One of Midnight's wings decided now was the time to murder her and clipped one of the chains that hung from the ceiling which had formerly supported the light fixtures. She winced as she tumbled to the stone floor. Even though there was a very lovely, if faded, Saddle Arabian rug there, it still was incredibly unpleasant when she skidded across it and into the hallway.

“Ouch,” she rubbed her back before picking herself up. Unlike other sections of the castle, this hallway was devoid of anything. No armor, no rugs, not even some pictures or shelves on the walls. It was just gray stone the whole way down. Either looters had ignored the booby traps and picked it clean, or time really had taken its toll on the castle.

“You really need to just give up,” Midnight didn't look behind at Night Glider but just rolled her eyes, “I'll even put in a good word with Twilight if you do. Sure, she's angry with you for what you did, but she's not unsympathetic. She'll be a little understanding, I'm sure.”

Midnight walked a little ways into the hallway before turning around, “I'm not giving up. After all the horseapples I've been through—all the sore muscles and desperate fights—I'm not just going to give up and hope that maybe Twilight will be a little 'understanding' over some Lunadamned thing that wasn't even illegal in the first place!”

“The only way I'm seeing that purple freak is if you peel my flattened body off a castle wall and take me there,” she slammed a forehoof down onto the stone floor, “Do you understand?” A click echoed through the hallway as the hoof sank down into a button. The bottom dropped out of Midnight's stomach. Why did she have to tempt fate like that?

Night Glider smiled, “Perfectly.”

Midnight flailed herself away from the button. She flapped her wings haphazardly, desperately trying to get every bit of extra speed, while her hooves struggled to grip the slippery stone bricks, just as two sections of the hallway's stone walls slammed together with several tons of force.

Night Glider's smile only widened as the dust settled to reveal the wafer thin gap between the two brick sections. It really was fitting that a mare like Midnight would end up like that. Somepony might even call it poetic justice. Now she just had to figure out how to scrap Midnight off the wall and she could present the pancaked bat pony to Twilight.

The sound of panting spoiled her thoughts. The two walls retracted with the metallic sound of chains clanking to reveal Midnight sitting on the other side, perfectly three dimensional. She wiped her forehead and sighed in relief, “That was close,” She looked down. So close, it had gotten her tail. Its flattened purple form stuck out straight and rigidly from behind her. The poor thing had been through so much the last couple days.

Night grit her teeth in annoyance. Midnight was far more lucky than any pony had any right to be. After everything she'd done, somehow she was still getting away with it. She always thought karmatic field theory was a load of unicorn nonsense and Midnight was living proof that her assumptions were right.

Midnight frowned. Despite her best efforts, her tail remained stubbornly two dimensional. She really needed a comb or some water to dampen and fluff it back out. Her thoughts on proper tail maintenance were interrupted by a grunt from Night Glider, who charged at her—being mindful of the button that activated the wall trap.

Midnight took that as an opportunely to jump into the air and race down the empty hallway as fast as her leathery appendages could flap. While the hallway had seemed long, it quickly sped by. Ah, the joys of flight. Night Glider had given chase and was right behind her. She looked anxiously at the stone walls. Her wings had a few feet clearance on either side, but it was still unnerving going so fast in such a confined space.

She slowed as she reached the hallway's end. Left or right? It was a split second decision. She pivoted in midair and sped to the right, Night Glider still behind her. A large, broken window caused her to immediately regret her decision. At least it was already broken. She'd been able to avoid getting cut by glass so far and she was keen to keep that record going right along side the “not being flattened into a doormat” record.

She briefly tucked her wings in as she slipped through the window and into the castle's courtyard. It was amazing the castle was still standing. The Everfree Forest unrelentingly besieged it. Huge gusts of wind battered the crumbling stone battlements. Tree limbs, small rocks, and other debris targeted the few still sturdy portions of the walls and towers. The clouds overhead constantly swirled and twisted around in seeming anger that the monument to pony civilization and the Princesses' order and harmony still stood defiantly in the midst of the untamable wilds.

Her speed slowed dramatically as she fought against the turbulent winds and occasional tree branch. A sudden bolt of lightning suggested this was just a prelude to a storm. “Suggested” because she just couldn't tell whether this was the beginning of a violent storm, or just another ordinary day in the Everfree Forest.

Midnight turned her head back to see Night Glider. The mare was having an even harder time in the howling wind and debris. Her wings struggled to keep her stable and she constantly shifted altitude as gusts came and went. A twinge of sympathy was ruthlessly imprisoned and executed. This was the mare that was trying to capture her, after all.

A gasp from Night caused her to jerk her head back around just in time to see a massive tree branch fly right at her. There was no way something of that size could have been kicked into the air. She didn't have to time to dodge and could only tighten her muscles in anticipation as the branch painfully crashed into her.

*********

Midnight opened her eyes to the sound of a torrential downpour and rumble of thunder. She lifted her head from off the wooden floor and looked around. A flash of lightning caused her blurred vision to focus in on the window high above. A window with a distinctive bat pony shaped hole in it. Outside the hole, she could see the rain and wind continue to pound against the castle, confirming her suspicion about a storm.

She sat up and flexed her muscles. Once again, it seemed she had avoided broken bones or bloody cuts. Despite her current predicament, she had to admit she had been remarkably lucky through it all. No broken bones despite all the crashes. No cuts for all the broken windows. No torn tendons or sprained wings with all the excursion. Now if only her luck could only get her as far away from Ponyville as possible.

With no injuries aside from a few tender spots on her forelegs, she looked around. The room apparently lay at the top of one of the castle's towers, if the high pointed ceiling above her and circular layout of it were any indication. It had a definite library feel to it. Shelves of books and scrolls wrapped around the room from a circular indentation in the center.

She stood up, causing the wooden floor to groan in protest. She cast a worried glance at the floor. A thousand year old decrepit castle probably wouldn't have the sturdiest of flooring, would it? She took several cautious steps forward, gently pushing against the stained oak boards with a hoof before placing her full weight down.

A flash of lightning briefly illuminated the bookshelves. The distinctive crescent moon cutie mark of Princess Luna was carved into each one. High above, a chipped and faded mural of the night sky was painted onto the domed ceiling. She gazed in newfound wonder at the tower's dusty interior.

It had to be Princess Luna's old library.

Who knew what lay on those shelves. Bat pony history was shrouded in myth, legend, and mysterious fires—which could never be conclusively linked to the Night Guard—that burned all traces of records. Did Luna create them during her “eternal night” phase to be loyal servants? Was it Discord twisting and warping anatomy? Were they there all along and were just tucked away in the shadows of the history books?

Maybe one of those scrolls or scraps of paper held the answer. The very expensive answer. Midnight smiled as she gazed over the bookshelves. Those nationalists would give her just about anything for solving the origin mystery—especially if it linked to Luna creating them. Then they could finally print that Lunar Goddess pamphlet they kept on talking about.

Surely Princess Celestia wouldn't get upset if one tiny, little book happened to leak out? It wouldn't even relate to Nightmare Moon. She'd make sure it was just about bat ponies. No painful memories to be found. Just a history book worth its weight in bits—multiple times over. She'd never get to collect her bounty, but this was the next best thing.

She flew over to the nearest bookshelf and grabbed a scroll to examine it. Another flash of lightning was quickly followed by a crash of thunder that shook the whole castle. She had to be quick. Not only was that storm getting nasty, but Night Glider was likely honing in on her location. There's no way a mare like that would have just given up.

Entranced by the lure of bits, she failed to notice the cutie mark engraving on the bookshelf and the elaborate rune carved into the floor in the center of the room light up in a dark blue aura when she grabbed the scroll from off the shelf.

-----

A small pile of books, scrolls, and parchments sat next to one of the bookshelves. Frustration built within Midnight. Frustration that was increasingly being supplemented with hopelessness. There were dozens of bookshelves here and thousands of books. She let out a bitter sigh. It could take her weeks to sort through it all. It didn't help it was all written in some foreign language. It didn't matter if it was just Old Equestrian, it was still foreign to her.

Once again, it looked like getting out of debt and having some bits to spare was just out of reach. She was so close. All she needed was a little time, and maybe a degree in ancient Equestrian linguistics. But she didn't have either of those. She needed to cut her losses and get out of there before Night Glider popped in.

One last book was tossed onto the pile before she stretched herself out. Her back and several joints let out satisfying cracks. The wind and rain that continued to buffet the walls and windows reminded her that the storm hadn't let up one bit since she started her little reading session. She looked to a large set of carved wooden doors on the far side of the room, one of which had been knocked off its hinges and teetered precariously against the other.

She could make her way out through there and then try and sneak out of the castle on hoof. If luck were on her side, Night Glider would be stuck wandering the castle for hours looking for her and she could make her get away. She stood up and walked toward the door, only to suddenly freeze mid-step, “What the—”

She looked down at her chest to see a dark blue aura around her, “What?!” There was a unicorn here now? Since when? She tried to break free of the telekinesis but just like with Magic Spell, it was a futile gesture. In fact, it felt much, much stronger than the yellow unicorn's. She was lifted into the air and floated over to the center of the room, where the large rune that was carved into the floor pulsed and throbbed with a blue light.

Midnight tensed up, an icy feeling sinking into her core. A rune? And a very complex one at that. Or at least, it looked complex with all the stars, crescent moons, and strange symbols that were carved into it. She couldn't move her head but was able to glance over at a few of the bookshelves. The Luna cutie marks on them pulsed in rhythm with the rune.

Oh no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. She gulped. This couldn't be one of the traps. It just couldn't be. She hadn't triggered anything! No pressure plate. No lever. No nothing. The telekinesis forced her into a sitting position but still held her a foot or two over the rune. No matter how hard she tried to move, she couldn't budge an inch.

The telekinetic force slowly started to tighten around her body. She gasped, “No, no! Wait! Y-you gotta stop!” She didn't really know who she was trying to plead with. It was a rune that was created centuries ago—probably by Princess Luna herself if the dark blue magic was any indication. It's not like it had any thoughts or sapience. It would squash her flat and there wasn't a thing she could do to stop it.

No! She'd reversed Night Terror's efforts. She'd compacted Rainbow Dash into her own bottle. She'd stopped a whole Night Guard force complete with dirigible. She'd... never been under this much pressure before. She groaned as her muzzle started to scrunch down against her face from the force of the telekinesis.

She flexed her lean muscles in an attempt to buy time. She could fight against the magical force for only so long—especially if it was Princess Luna's magic—before it finally overcame her. An alicorn powerful enough to move the heavens definitely could squash a pony like her as flat as a sheet of paper in no time at all.

But she bought herself precious seconds. Seconds she could use to craft one of her trademarked crazy plans that somehow succeeds against all odds. Her muscles certainly weren't happy about it, but they'd just have to live with it. It was either a little strain, or become a floppy flat bat pony, and she wasn't about to become the later.

She shifted her increasingly panicked gaze down at the rune. There had to some way to disable it. Maybe she could somehow hit it with something. Her eyes darted around before she winced. The telekinetic force continued to build and her muscles were already starting to strain in the fight against it. She could feel her legs start to compress from the intense crushing pressure.

M-Maybe Night Glider would walk in? She groaned, both from the pressure and from her own false hopes finally imploding in like her body was about to. Who was she trying to fool? She couldn't move at all, her muscles were in a futile battle against alicorn magic, and if Night Glider did walk in, she'd just sit and laugh while spouting about how her greed had been her undoing—which it had been, but that was beside the point.

The telekinesis had now fully flattened her muzzle against her face and, seemingly satisfied that it had flattened part of her out, refocused its full crushing force onto her forelegs. She tried to move them, pull them free, even just twitch them a little. Anything to try and save them from getting turned into a pair of muscular, light gray ribbons.

She grunted as her forelegs, from the hooves right up the shoulders, were effortlessly squashed flat and the telekinesis once again refocused onto her hindlegs. The pressure quickly increased and she winced as she felt her leg muscles wave the white flag and join their foreleg comrades in cardboard thinnness. Was it really doing this? Slowly squashing her flat one body part at a time? It couldn't just get it over with in one crushing move?

As if to answer, her lean stomach and back were the next targets of the rune's alicorn magic, “Urrrgh,” it had to be several tons of force. There was no way that wasn't thousands of pounds of pressure. She futilely flexed her abdominal muscles to try and fight against the dark blue magic, but her stomach and bellybutton were flattened out with little effort on the part of the rune.

Without skipping a beat, the tremendous pressure slowly shifted up her increasingly flat body and acted like a roller. The rest of her stomach and lower back crumpled down under the pressure and joined the rest of her new, two dimensional body. Relief momentarily washed over her as her leathery wings were tightly pressed and flattened against her back. They were just too sensitive to be flattened out sprawled wide open.

Her fluffy gray chest and shoulder blades were slowly flattened out as the magic continued to creep up her body and toward her head. Finally, her shoulders folded up and were flattened out by the telekinesis and her entire body was now pressed flat. She'd put up the best fight she could, but it was no match for ancient alicorn magic.

In one quick motion, the force slammed down against her head, “Heerggh!” The purple bangs of her mane were neatly pressed against her face, while her amber eyes glazed over from the several tons of pressure that was now pressing against her whole body. Her mouth was open in a toothy, fanged smile that was just as flat as the rest of her body.

Why wasn't it stopping? She could very clearly feel that several tons of alicorn magic had effectively down their job and she was just as flat as any of her opponents had been. She'd be lucky if she could wobble away when this was all done. So why was it still squashing against her? If it kept up for much longer, she'd be so flat, she could effortlessly slip between the cracks in the wooden floor.

It was going to stop, right? This wasn't one of those manually deactivated traps, was it? She may be weak and in a daze from the pressure and new flatness, but the thought of being trapped under that much force for days or weeks shot right to her heart. Her body couldn't take this kind of pressing force forever.

After a few more moments of pressure, the rune seemed satisfied that it had flattened every part of the bat pony that dared steal from its Princess's library. With no more pony to flatten, it deactivated and the blue glow faded away. Midnight was released from the pressure and telekinesis.

With her wings tightly flattened against her back, she gently fell forward and flapped toward the wood floor below her. Her body wobbled and bent as it glided through the air before it rocked back and forth softly. She slide underneath a table and landed face down onto the cold hardwood floor. Her gray and purple body resembled a flat, soft throw rug.

“Ouugghhhh,” Midnight had just enough energy to peel her flat head off the floor momentarily. This had all gone wrong. So, very, very wrong. She looked around briefly before she let her head gently settle back onto the floor. She could sort this all out later. Right now, she needed to rest for a few minutes. Several tons of force will do that to a mare. No wonder most of her opponents didn't put up much a fight after they were flattened.

-----

“Where are you, Midnight?” Water dripped from her still soaked blue wings onto the shredded rugs that she ran over. She grit her teeth in frustration as another lordly hall was as barren and lifeless as the rest of this Celestia and/or Luna-forsaken castle—it wasn't Twilight-forsaken since she had just recently come there, and while it was Cadance-forsaken, nopony ever seemed to mention the pink princess.

“Where are you!?” It should have been easy. The mare could have only been hit in one direction by the tree branch, but with the wind, and all that debris—then there was just that. That horrible feeling the Everfree Forest just oozed out. All that made finding where the mare crashed almost impossible. It didn't help that the castle was old and beaten down. She couldn't tell whether something was a bat pony shaped hole or just another thousand year old siege scar.

She raced down another endless corridor full of gray stone, cracked glass, and secrets long since forgotten. So she guessed and picked a building Midnight might have been knocked into. She really should have brought backup. It would have made this whole thing so much easier Why didn't she? Why did she go chasing after this mare when she could have just brought in a whole battalion of Royal Guard?

She stumbled over a tripwire before springing back up, “Oh, no.” A rumble caused her head to dart in the direction of the noise. A large, presumably incredibly heavy stone wheel rolled down the hallway, gaining speed as its inertia carried it forward. Night Glider wasted no time fumbling to her hooves and taking off. She wasn't going to let it end like this.

“Midnight!” When she found that bat pony, she was going to make her wish she had been flattened by that stone wheel.

-----

Midnight slowly peeled her flattened head off the wood floor. How long had she been out for? Her squashed tufted ears twitched at the sound of rain still beating against the castle walls. Evidently not long enough for the storm to pass. As nice as it was being a gray doormat, she knew she needed to get out of there. The longer she rested, the more likely Night Glider would discover her and take advantage of her flat and floppy state.

Her forelegs were neatly folded up against her chest. She pulled them out from underneath her and lifted up her flattened body from off the floor, before she crumpled against the underside of the table. She snorted in irritation before she wobbled her way unsteadily out from under the table. Today just hadn't been her day.

Now she could survey the damage. Just how doomed was she now that she was thin as a pancake? She bent her flattened head down and looked at her side to see just how flat the rune had made her. It was a little hard to tell due to the gray fur, but her body appeared to be around a quarter inch thick. She looked up and down the thin gray line that made up her body. It also appeared she was pretty uniformly thin. She sighed in slight relief. With the amount of pressure that magic had put her under, she half expected to find herself so flat she could slip between the cracks of the floor.

As she looked down her flat body, her eyes came to a rest on her orange flower blossom cutie mark. What a memory that was getting it; although, much to her dismay, to this day she couldn't identify exactly what flower it was. Unfortunately, both her flank and the cutie mark that was on it weren't spared the crushing weight. She was so flat, that her cutie mark had been flattened onto both sides of her body. Half on one side, half on the other and a small quarter inch wide part stuck in the middle on what little thickness she had left.

Her hindlegs hadn't been spared either and had been flattened out in the sitting position that she was currently in. She bent them slightly and was relieved to find that she still had her mobility. The rune may have crushed her flat, but it hadn't turned her into an immobile bat pony poster. She wasn't quite ready to leave just yet—both due to still being in a daze from the flattening and from the fear that she wouldn't have the strength to do it. Best to just rest for a few more moments.

Her attention was next focused on her lithe belly. She slide a ribbon-like hoof against it. Her abdominal muscles had been just as flattened as every other muscle in her body. She was a little relieved to find her innie belly button still intact, albeit significantly shallower and flatter than it had previously been. With her lack of depth, she wouldn't have to worry about belly button lint again. Think positively, that was key at this point.

She bent her flat head up a little and looked at her gray chest. Her athletic build had always meant she was flat chested, but she had never thought it would be quite so literal. She noticed the subtle movement of her chest as she breathed. It rose and fell shallowly with each breath she took. Not even several tons of telekinesis and probably some sort of alicorn rune thing could stop her diaphragm.

Much to her growing frustration, neither her squashed shoulders nor her now ribbon-like forelegs and been spared the rune's pancaking power. She had hoped maybe some part of her body had withstood the alicorn magic. She looked over her shoulder and at her back, bending around her flat chest and upper body in the process. It seemed her body was considerably more agile and flexible than it had been before. Just like Spitfire had been.

While her back arch was still mostly intact, her back was no thicker than her belly and chest had been. Her leathery wings had been tightly pressed against her back like some kind of leather upholstery. She figured they'd be useless anyway. Flying would be next to impossible in her flattened state. She'd be at the mercy of the wind and would just flutter around like a sheet a paper.

She looked down from her flattened wings and noticed that her purple tail had been firmly pressed against her back by the force of the telekinesis She reached down a flat hoof and scrapped it's tip off her back. Once the tip of it was off, she grabbed it and peeled it off of herself. Her tail fell to the ground and gently settled onto the stone surface.

She had to admit she was tempted to mimic her tail and let herself float gently to the ground as well. Night had pretty much already won. She was flat as a pancake and there was no chance she could defeat somepony in that state. She shook her wafer thin head and straightened back upright. That was a horrible plan—even worse than turning herself in. Even if she had no chance, it was still better than waking up from her rest neatly rolled up like a rug on Night Glider's back, bound for a meeting with the Star Chamber.

She sighed in resignation. Every part of her—from her tufted ears, to her fangs, to her purple tail—had been squashed flat. There wasn't a single part of the athletic mare that had been spared. She was just as flat, maybe even flatter, as all her opponents had been. Even if she was able to escape Night Glider's grasp—a near impossible feat at this point—she'd be stuck as bat pony cutout.

At least she made for a pretty good looking bat pony cutout. She smiled slightly. Who knows? Maybe somepony would be willing to rent her as a sign or something. Signs were highly sought after and she'd be of the highest resolution possible. Not to mention bat ponies were all the rage these days. Her days as a fighter may be over and she'd never get her bounty but there was always opportunities to make some extra bits. She might yet be able to pay off her debts. Who ever said things couldn't turn out positively?

The old wooden door that was propped against the other one crashed to the ground in a cloud of dust, “Where are you, Midnight?!” Oh, right. The crazy brainwashed pegasus did.

End of Chapter Eleven

Author's Note:

And so, the moment has finally arrived. The moment the protagonist is finally flattened. I passed over several opportunities to flatten Midnight earlier in the story just so this would have a little more impact. Hopefully it was worth it. It's also quite a bit longer of a descriptive scene than any of the other flattening scenes as a result.

Alternate chapter title: “Midnight vs. Everfree.”