The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi

Sunset Showdown

After hours of caves and claustrophobia, and days before that of green canopies and oppressive jungle heat, the dam bridge at the pinnacle of the Water District was more open than nothingness itself. Starlight stared into the open depths with swimming eyes, the cold atmospheric breezes of the cloudless sky soothing her horn and lessening the pangs of dizziness it sent spiraling through her with every heartbeat.

The dam top itself was wide enough for four wagons to pass side-by-side, with crenellated edges and artistic brick patterns carved into the white rock surface. Vents of warm air piped all the way from the Flame District were periodically placed, preventing the bridge from growing truly chilly or icing over. The right edge, near which Starlight rode, dropped away into a forested valley east of Ironridge, overwhelming in its scope with miles upon miles of pristine trees and mountainsides and harkening back to her travels through the southern mountains' upper reaches. The left edge saw a short drop before a shimmering lake of arctic water that spanned the entire footprint of an absent mountain, another dam's silhouette bordering it in the great distance... and far beyond that, distant mountain peaks from the west side of Ironridge and then Yakyakistan. The sun hung low over them, minutes away from touching the tips of the mountains, leaving the entire sky orange in anticipation of the battle to come. And ahead, the bridge connected to the Water District's lone northern mountain, a lonely lighthouse visible at the very peak... and a squad of ponies moving like ants down the stairs to the bridge surface. It was time.

Maple, Valey and Gerardo stood out of rank behind a jumpy, bristling wall of pegasi. Maple still leaned against Gerardo, but had insisted on carrying Starlight for herself, not wanting to be separated from the filly. Once again, Valey stood on her own yet hovered near, concealing her limp and her bruises as best she could in front of the army of pegasi. None of them were focused on her, regardless.

"I see them," Selma muttered from nearby, floating a spyglass in his aura. "Two to three dozen. Is that all they could scrounge up? Hmmph." He shook his head. "All carrying loads. Explosives, no doubt. It looks like their leader is a stallion; I can't see that metal mascot of theirs anywhere. No doubt waiting with the rest of their forces for a sneak attack. Fortuitous that we split the guard between here and below."

"Sir." A huge red pegasus with hooves that looked meant for crushing boulders stepped up next to him and saluted. "The stallions are as ready as they'll ever be. We're waiting on your orders."

"Very good, very good..." Selma put the spyglass away, a familiar black sword hilt sticking out next to it in his uniform. "Squad Leader Blast Furnace? Rejoin rank and wait on Herman's orders. This may be my Defense Force, but right now, I wouldn't dare steal his show."

"Sir." Blast Furnace bowed, stomping back to the line of pegasi.

Suddenly, Herman was beside them, nodding appreciably. "Continue to hold. Selma, can you make out individual features on the ponies there?"

Selma reached back for his spyglass. "Mane and coat colors, yes, but I wouldn't be able to accurately identify mere acquaintances. Give that less than a minute, at the rate they're moving."

"Hmmm..." Herman rumbled. "With me. Along with Valey and her squad. Now."

The pegasi parted as he strode in front of the line, Selma at his side. Gerardo glanced at Valey. "Well? Is this the time to dig in and remain in the back?"

Valey bit her lip. "I'm not getting any more danger than passive hostility from the Defense Force... Let's, uhh..." She straightened her neck. "Bananas. Let's go with him. Hope for the best..."

Herman checked over his shoulder, and they were following. Starlight could feel the tension beneath Maple's coat. She had missed something while unconscious, she could tell, and the group's earlier assertions that they had a plan utterly failed to convince her: she knew what trapped ponies felt like. With nothing but open sky and dozens of pegasi all around, there was nowhere they could run even if Valey's wings worked. The rest of the group was possibly as battered as she was, too, if not even more. Her horn was hurt and her magic exhausted, but aside from her head, her body felt fine. It almost made her wonder if she should have been helping carry one of her companions instead of getting a ride.

"That will do," Herman said once they were several meters in front of the pegasi. "Form a line. Let the Sosans see you."

No protest was raised. Selma stood to the yak's left, Gerardo to his right, and the others right of that, with Valey waiting as far away from Herman as she could get. Seconds passed like averted catastrophes, slowly eroding the distance between the sun and the mountaintops. The Sosans drew closer. The pegasi shuffled nervously. The wind blew, gentle and cold.

Flash!

Shinespark appeared in a burst of sapphire light, dashing towards Maple and Starlight with her horn still glowing. She reached to make contact...

Crack!

Reacting seamlessly, Herman threw something at the ground that exploded in a wave of magical energy. Starlight felt the shock ripple through her, concentrating on her horn, repressing it and separating it from the rest of her body until it was just a dull stub of bone. Some sort of magic suppressor? It actually alleviated a large part of her headache, disconnecting her from the dizziness that poured down through her head.

Then Shinespark crashed into them, knocking Maple over and sending them sprawling in a heap. Starlight was thrown wide, while Maple and Shinespark fell together in a tangle of limbs. Maple yelped; Shinespark gasped and scraped a hoof at her forehead. "What!? I can't teleport! My horn! My magic! We never made anything that could do that! I... I can't..."

Herman suddenly loomed over them. "A Varsidelian anti-magic grenade," he purred. "Sosa is not the sole supplier of weapons in the world."

Down the bridge, the Sosans broke into a run.

Shinespark glared up at Herman, climbing off of Maple, then looked to Starlight, her eyes widening. "What are you three doing here? This is the last place you belong! I told you to get where it was safe...!"

"Acting as bait for you," Herman rumbled, then turned to Valey. "And you performed your final duty admirably. Congratulations, little bat. Now take your friends, fly away, and never return to Ironridge. Or stay, if you would like to watch. You no longer matter."

Starlight glanced between Herman and Valey as she rushed back to Maple's side. Did Herman not know Valey's wing was injured? They couldn't run! Not without going back through the Water District, at least. And where would they go from there?

"What do you want from me?" Shinespark hissed, taking a defensive stance, her horn sparking fitfully as the anti-magic grenade suppressed her attempts to light it. "You plant bombs on this dam, threatening to destroy my entire home, and now try to make hostages of ponies critical to Sosa's future? What do you want!? Tell me!"

Herman shrugged. "You, as an audience."

Gerardo had already helped Maple up, and together they stared Herman down, backing slowly away as Starlight and Valey joined their side, putting themselves firmly between him and the advancing Sosans. "Be ready to make a break for it," Gerardo whispered. "Something tells me he is serious about letting us go."

"So the Sosans can spot me and turn me into a puddle?" Valey rolled her eyes. "Remember, I'm wearing the enemy team's colors to everyone but you three right now. Including Sparky. Or did you want to go back through the Water District and freeze our rears off crossing the snowfields at night? We're not in immediate danger right here, right now."

"We are not leaving Shinespark." Maple gritted her teeth. "We need her, she needs us, and I don't like this one bit!"

"Maple..." Starlight nudged her. "We can't do anything! My horn is useless and you and Valey can barely stand!"

Valey flicked her with her tail. "I can stand perfectly fine, thank you very much."

Meanwhile, Shinespark continued staring Herman and Selma down. "My audience?" Her coat bristled. "For...?"

Anyone with half an ear would have been hard-pressed to miss the sudden desperation in her voice. Herman smiled broadly, then turned to the west. "This."

The sun touched the horizon.

Suddenly, a yellow corona lit the air. Framed by the setting sun, a dark shape glinted out of the horizon, long and thin and streaking on a burning trail out of the mountains. Leaving a fading trail in the air born of impossible velocities, it hurtled east, preparing to pass by to the south... before taking a sudden dive, vanishing and impacting the snowfields between the skyport and the southern mountain wall with the sound of distant thunder. Shinespark gaped. "What was...?"

"That?" Herman finished for her. "A signal."

Like that, the air filled with pegasi, the entirety of Selma's division blazing overhead in a swarm of evasive maneuvers, piercing the blanket of tranquil space that remained between them and the Sosans. Cannonfire rang out in response, great masses of magical energy flying back into the pegasus cloud. Most missed. Some hit. Pegasi crashed to the bridge, injured or worse.

Shinespark took off running, racing to rejoin her soldiers. Herman watched with amusement from behind her... and then he was gone.

Wind whistled as a great shadow passed overhead, briefly plunging Shinespark into darkness. Reflexively, she looked up, before being knocked off her hooves as the dam shook from the impact of Herman landing. The great yak blocked her way, his broad face smiling invitingly. "Going somewhere? Stay a while, and watch the battle. I insist."

Shinespark gritted her teeth, scanning for a way around. In response, Herman raised a hoof... and misty energies swirled around it, coalescing into a gleaming silver double-edged axeblade studded with rubies and garnets and edged with diamond. If he had held it himself, it would have taken two hooves even with his enormous size, but it floated freely, hefted as if by telekinesis with a flat, runic ring of light around the handle where a horn's aura would normally grasp. It wasn't sized for fighting ponies. It was sized for fighting mountains.

"Are you sure you want to fight, my little pony?" Herman asked, the axe hovering next to him with its bizarre self-levitation, stepping aside to reveal the cracks his jump had chipped in the surface of the bridge. "This battle will go more in your favor if the leaders sit it out."

Starlight could feel Valey's shiver from were she stood. "Don't fight him!" the batpony urged. "I'm serious! Herman is bad news!"

Shinespark didn't attack, but she didn't back off, either. A twinge of pain ran down from Starlight's horn, and she fought to keep from wincing as her brain reminded her what it had just been put through: the anti-magic grenade was wearing off. She didn't doubt the other unicorns knew it, too.

At the center of the bridge, the pegasi and Sosans met, the fray intensifying into a melee. Somehow, Selma's forces hadn't gotten completely mowed down by artillery fire during the approach, and the air rang with bursts from stun grenades as ponies yowled and fought for their homes and their lives. Shinespark stared at the mass, shaking. "...Why?" she asked, teeth gritted.

"Why bring them to blows?" Herman glanced behind him at the battle, shrieks and screams filtering out through the air. "Why should I tell my methods to you? I act in the name of the glory of Yakyakistan. My goals are all that matter."

Shinespark lit her horn, pressing through the dregs of the anti-magic grenade's effect. "Get out of my way," she sobbed, red mane tossing in the wind. "Get out of my way! If you won't tell me why you're hurting my friends, at least let me help them!"

"No." Herman loomed down at her as Starlight and the others remained frozen, able neither to help nor simply leave her. "If you join the fight, then I will too, and I do not need pegasi to turn your entire band to dust. We can both sit here and observe, or we can both fight."

Shinespark's horn crackled louder, and Herman grinned. "We can also duel, one against one or with however many seconds you desire." His axe pointed at Valey and Gerardo. "A battle until surrender. Unlike those forces, you are quite useful to me alive."

Fighting to focus through her intensifying headache, Starlight suddenly saw what Shinespark saw. Next to Herman, outside of his field of vision, Selma's horn was also glowing, his ice-blue aura gently wrapped around the hilt of Gerardo's sword. He slowly inched it out, Shinespark's blazing horn covering the noise of his own... and winked. He was about to betray Herman.

The sword floated free, swiveling in midair, angling itself toward the yak. Herman smiled, staring steadily at Shinespark... and then his eyes suddenly met Starlight's, following her gaze to Selma. In a flash, his hoof shot out, taking hold of the weapon and plucking it effortlessly from his grasp. "Thank you for arming me," Herman rumbled. "Well. I suppose, if you really wish a fight, there is no need to hold back..."

Like woolly lightning, he flung the sword as a skewer, straight for Shinespark's heart. She teleported in the blink of an eye, dodging the projectile and appearing directly in front of his face, horn charged and leveled to blast a stream of burning energy. Herman sat back, raised his forehooves, and gripped her gently like a doll, forcibly turning her head and sending the attack soaring harmlessly into the sky.

Shing! The flung sword hissed past Starlight's head, brushing her fur with wind as it whistled by. Time suddenly seemed to stop, and she turned her head to follow its path one heartbeat at a time.

Its hilt was protruding from Maple's chest.

Beat. Her pink eyes widened in surprise, and she stood on all four hooves. Had they always been pink? No... Beat. She opened her mouth to say something, and nothing came out. Then she was on the ground. Beat. The sword disappeared, pocketed by her cutie mark, leaving no trace of a wound. She wore a shocked, defiant smile, like she had done one last thing to be proud of even while helpless.

Gerardo blinked at her. "Now see here," he thundered, taking two steps toward Herman, "you can't just-"

The mirrorlike axe swooped in out of nowhere, its flat side hitting Gerardo and punting him clean into the frozen reservoir lake with a mighty splash. Shinespark hung with terrified eyes from Herman's hooves, well aware that a single twitch of his muscles could crush her entire body. Selma still stood at his side, unable to hide the look of chagrin on his face. Valey just shook her head, muttering, "I told you so."

Herman laid Shinespark down, patting her head as Gerardo climbed back onto the dam, gasping and sputtering. "An acceptable duel," the yak rumbled. "Though I am far out of your leagues. Shall we continue to spectate, or is it time to bring this to a close?"

Starlight wasn't paying attention, the events between the others passing like a haze through her mind. Gerardo had talked about what his sword did to ponies and she had shrugged, but then, it wasn't real. Having it happen here and now to a pony she cared about and loved, there was no doubt in her mind that that sword was evil. She pressed against Maple, feeling for the movement of her chest, lowering her ear for a whisper from her muzzle, anything. The mare was breathing... barely. Her eyes could move. That was all.

"Yes!" Shinespark shook, trembling, her resolve allowing her to remain rooted in place. "Stop this! Stop the fighting! Go back to Yakyakistan and leave Ironridge alone! And don't hurt my friends!"

"Stop the fighting?" A smile danced across Herman's face, no more pleasant than any of the other times he used it. He reached into his uniform and pulled out a small black box adorned with two buttons. "Are you sure that is the wording you want to use?"

Shinespark gasped. "No! That's... Is that a detonator!?"

"It is." Herman was stoic, oblivious to the still-raging battle behind him. "One wired to both dams. Should the Defense Force somehow prevail in this fight? Sosa will become victim to the corrupt and heinous 'protectors' of the Stone District, their heroes tragically sacrificing their lives to prevent destruction that was inevitable. They will have nothing left to lose, and the force you left in Blueleaf will fight for vengeance until their dying breath. Better, should the Spirit win... and my weapons contract has stacked the odds heavily in your favor... the defenders of the Stone District will have fallen to the terrorists everyone knew Sosa to harbor, who evacuated their own before unleashing destruction on all of Ironridge and annihilated the most visible monument of progress in the name of repressing the rest of the economy to their level. Either outcome creates an Ironridge in which two armies will fight with all their strength until one is dead and the losing side has been ravaged and plundered. They will become unstoppable. Nothing in this city will be able to stand against their wrath."

Shinespark looked sick, her ears going limp and her face pale. "You... You can't! What do you even gain from that, you monster? What do you want? I'm at the table, here!"

"For the record," Selma drawled, "I still have the mines on the eastern dam frozen. Herman could have other ways of removing the dams... say, underwater mines inside the lake... and I did warn you of that possibility. Or maybe he doesn't, and is bluffing. I did everything reasonable and more to avert this."

"Is it not obvious?" Herman's eyes hardened, ignoring Selma. "I have need of a war. Here." He set the detonator down, shoving it and sending it sliding across to Shinespark.

She blanched away from the thing. "Why are you giving me this? What are you trying!?"

"So many questions..." Herman shook his head. "I thought I would let you choose the fate of your ponies. The top button will remove the west dam; the bottom, the east. I have spares, so disposing of this will do nothing to stop me. Let the battle finish, and I will remove the dam of the losing side. Or, if you are feeling merciful, you can cut their battle short yourself."

Shinespark stared at the detonator, shaking. Herman looked at her, bemused. "Remove the west dam, and obtain a bigger war in which both sides have reason to attack, as well as the loss of many lives in the Earth District. Remove the east dam, and your little war party will suddenly find themselves without ground to stand on. Literally."

"I can't..." Shinespark was frozen, unable to move. "No..."

As she stared and Herman patiently waited, Starlight huddled against Maple's fallen form, hugging her and whimpering frantically. Half of it was from her headache, and half the shallowness of Maple's breath. "Please be okay... Please be okay... Please be okay..."

A dripping Gerardo dragged his way over to them, leaving a trail of moisture on the bridge that was only prevented from turning to ice by the dam's internal heating. "Brrbrrbrr..." He shook, ice crystals forming at the tips of his feathers. "Regrettably, I don't think I'm going to be capable of flight or complex combat stunts until my wings thaw slightly..." Taking in Maple and Starlight, he sighed. "She's going to be all right, judging by every past experience I've bothered to observe. Don't worry."

Maple's pink eyes focused on him, silently pleading for reassurance, and he nodded. "I'm well aware that it's terrifying. But you are going to be okay. Provided, at least, we make it out of this..." His gaze wandered from her and Starlight to Valey, who was standing on her own. "Our team is now completely comprised of invalids who can barely move, possibly plus one unicorn who appears to find herself in a highly unenviable dilemma. That does not bode well for escape options."

"I'm not an invalid." Starlight sniffled, rubbed Maple's neck one last time, and stood up. "I can stand. My horn hurts, but I can probably use it. And I hate Herman. I'm going to find a way to make him pay."

She could practically feel Maple's disapproval at the mention of using her horn. In truth, she doubted she could; the pangs of dizziness were just barely at a level where she could still talk. But the smoldering she felt at the image of that hilt protruding from Maple's chest burned even hotter.

"Don't. Try. Anything. Rash," Gerardo hissed urgently, pulling her back with a shivery, ice-cold wing. "We are on the thinnest ice of our lives, right now!"

As they huddled, Valey stepped forward, finally approaching Herman, Selma and Shinespark. "Hey."

Shinespark didn't respond, still staring in shock at the detonator.

"I said hey." Valey nudged her side, keeping weight off her burnt hoof. "Listen. I'm going haywire with danger right now. Something really big and really bad is coming, and since I'm pretty sure fat old Herman here has better things to pick on than me right now, I've got a feeling that means the Sosans are close to winning and are about to head this way."

Shinespark swallowed, her eyes fixed on the detonator. Herman and Selma just watched.

"Look, I don't care for you and you probably despise me, what with all the secrets I threaten to spill and how often I steal your old stuff." Valey rubbed the golden pendant around her neck for emphasis with her good wing. "But right now, you seriously might wanna listen to me. If they win, that western dam goes boom. You heard Herman. You think he's lying? I know you've got fancy simulations and stuff that'll show what happens. The east dam goes? Bye bye Sosa, underwater Gnarlbough, and maybe landslides in Copsewood, all of which you evacuated. The west dam? There goes the entire Earth District. No more water backing up draining and creating floods and all that, it's basically dropping a mountain. All those refugees you spent so long evacuating? Herman says they'll be fine while the rest of Ironridge suffers; I bet they'll be toast. Same with Blueleaf, Grand Acorn, the western towns..." She sighed. "Either someone blows up the eastern dam right now, or tens... maybe hundreds of thousands of ponies are going to get blicked, just like that. It's not even a choice."

At that, Shinespark's eyes unfroze, and hovered out to the battle, which to a trained eye might have been starting to diminish. "But these are the ponies that have been counting on me to keep them safe..."

Valey shrugged. "Yeah, and they're also the ponies who basically knew this could very well be a suicide mission and are still here, aren't they? They've accepted that they could die tonight. The ponies down in the Earth District who are tucking themselves into bed right now, wondering why the districts hate each other so much when they're just trying to get by, hoping things will be better when they wake up and not even considering that they might not wake up? What about them?"

"I can't..." Shinespark rasped. "I can't kill them, though! I can't..."

"...Fine." Valey snorted. "You're lucky I chose today to grow a conscience. I'm probably going to hate myself for this like nothing else later..." She reached a hoof out to stomp the detonator.

With a well-disciplined snap of movement, Shinespark caught her before she could make contact, catching Valey's body with her own and holding her high enough that her forehooves couldn't reach the trigger on the ground. "No!" As Valey struggled, Shinespark twisted her legs, locking them around Valey's and completely preventing the batpony from reaching the device. "There has to be another way! Please let there be another way! There has to!"

Herman grunted in bemusement. Valey shifted, trying to wriggle out of Shinespark's grip. "Leggo! Your worldview is too pretty, Sparky! I dig cute and innocent but nasty stuff happens and you can't stick your head in the ground and hope it goes away when you get a choice with no perfect options! Now stop hugging me and go blow up your friends!"

"No!" Shinespark struggled back, fighting to keep Valey away from the detonator. "I'll fight Herman again... stop him from using whatever backups he has... There has to be a way to save Sosa!"

"Bananas... Just cut your losses, already! We'll need your help to get out of here ourselves at this rate!" Valey pushed harder, making Shinespark give a step as Herman twirled his axe in anticipation. "Didn't you always go on about ignoring the few in favor of the many!? Why is this so hard for you? Why are you... ugh... making me fight so hard to do something I don't wanna do either?"

Shinespark's grip softened, and she gave another step. "Because you're asking me to destroy my home, which I've spent all my life fighting for!"

"Then you'll be able to join the club, because I've never had a home to fight for!"

Finally close enough, Valey snaked out a wing, aiming for the east dam button. Shinespark kicked it away with a hind leg, sacrificing her balance and sending both her and Valey over in a heap. The black box skittered across the bridge, coming to rest squarely in front of Starlight.

Herman glanced to her in interest.

"I..." Starlight swallowed, staring at it. Gerardo made no move in any direction, and Maple couldn't. If she decided to touch it, everyone else would be too far away to stop her.

In the distance, the battle dwindled. Starlight watched as another Sosan keeled over, taking two pegasi with him. They had pushed down the bridge as they fought, leaving in their wake a road full of stirring, injured ponies, some better off and others worse. Neither side had surrendered, but it wouldn't be long before they wouldn't be able to.

Why did this have to fall to her? Why not... She blinked, ending that line of thought. Shinespark couldn't destroy her own home. Starlight had just watched her fail. Valey's reasoning seemed sound, yet she could read the batpony's reluctance to pull the trigger. For someone worried that they were a monster, it wouldn't be an easy thing to live with after the fact. But herself? Ever since the moment when she had arrived in Ironridge, the city had been hammering at her and her friends, with mud pits and bandits with cannons and giant hillsides and evil guards and foalnappings and cursed artifacts and oppressive weather and dozens of other maladies that made her boil inside just thinking about. And the city had gotten Maple stabbed. That was the last straw if there ever was one. If some catastrophic property damage and the lives of a few zealots were what she had to pay to stop a worse fate than hers from befalling hundreds of thousands of Earth District residents, that was a price that, for a few critical seconds, she didn't mind paying.

The last rays of the sun plunged beneath the mountaintops, throwing the bridge into shadow. "Sorry, Maple and Shinespark," Starlight whispered, taking the detonator in her hooves and picking out the east button. "I hope you won't be mad at me for doing this myself..."

Click.

---

Far to the northeast, in a corner of the Steel District that sat outside the Ironridge crater and was carved into civilization out of the badlands by proximity to the Yule and necessity, a stallion stood in an airy metal watchtower, afforded a broad view of the eastern Water District dam through a spyglass held in his shaky aura. His coat was black and wrinkly, he had a once-vibrant red mane that had faded mostly to gray, and his cutie mark was obscured by a lopsided cloak that seemed custom-tailored to his frame, but he stood with pride and determination, unwavering in his vigil as he stared toward the top of the dam.

"Mobius..." A short, plump mare a third of his age stepped up alongside him, holding a canteen in her aura. "The evacuation is complete. We've checked and triple-checked. The sun has set and it won't stay warm. Please, let me teleport you to Karma Industries? Dorable and Nimwick are already there. I know you want to be the last pony to leave, but we are the last. Everyone needs you. Please, let's go."

"Nonsense, Secretary," Mobius harrumphed, not even blinking as he focused on the bridge between the still-sunlit peaks. "My daughter is risking her life up there to protect our great district, and I will not retire until she is safe and sound!"

"My name is Hestia, sir. Please try to remember it?" She straightened her mane with a hoof, a prim business suit wrapped around her shoulders. "You went through the applications and hired me yourself. Just because I'm your personal secretary doesn't mean-"

"Yes, of course." Mobius interrupted her with a wave of a hoof. "I don't care. Put it on my schedule, Secretary. I'll get to it when things quiet down a little, as soon as we get an answer to the power plant activists. Can you see my daughter?"

"Sir?" Mobius was easily twice her height, but Hestia looked up at him with a sternness that could quell even the naughtiest foal. "With all due respect, I don't think being out here stressing is good for your mind. Let me teleport us... Huh?"

The distant sounds of the city gradually vanished, replaced by a swelling roar that grew and grew until it sounded as if a hole had been blown in the sky and the entire atmosphere was being sucked out into an eldritch dimension. The eastern dam lit up, crisscrossed by a web of lines that blazed brilliant orange for an impossibly long second. Then, they went dim... and the dam fell out of the mountain.

---

The world turned into a vertical shockwave that, even from the dead center of the walkway, lifted Starlight's mane and tail straight up and threatened to fling her off her hooves. First, the dam was whole, and then it wasn't, great fissures separating the bridge into islands that lifted and moved in a wave rolling out from the center. The fragmented architecture launched into the air, upwards and outwards, spinning, soaring... and began to fall away.

Herman paid her no attention whatsoever as the detonator slipped from her limp hooves, clattering against her section of ground. The water in the reservoir boiled, sucked by powerful currents as a way to relieve its massive gravitational potential presented itself, pressuring the dam and widening the rift that had been torn in the center. Crumbling stone and the raging lake formed a maelstrom of noise in her head, and it was only with a sharp jolt that she realized what the yak had: as close as they were to the edge of the dam, it wasn't close enough. The stone she was standing on was about to join millions of tons more on a journey down the mountainside, and diving off a waterfall with an overtaxed horn was an experience she had no desire to repeat.

Valey and Shinespark, still locked together from their struggle over the detonator, had slipped beneath the shadows newly created by the set sun, and were visible as a ripple streaking south toward the entry into the mountain. Herman dashed past, his huge legs making incredible time as Selma fled after him. Maple... couldn't move.

Starlight gasped as the cracks of destruction moved closer, like a train on a bridge she had no way down from. Gerardo was trying to move her, but his frozen limbs weren't having any luck.

"I'll get her!" Starlight shrieked over the din, hurriedly appearing at Maple's side. Digging at the ground, she started to lift, then got her head under Maple's barrel, then rolled the mare crosswise onto her back, all four hooves dragging along the ground. She struggled to lift her, back and legs complaining against the heavy load...

Crack! "Let go of me!"

Behind her, further from the door, Valey and Shinespark were no longer progressing. Shinespark had somehow escaped the shadow sneak and punched Valey, and was racing toward the chasm and newly-formed waterfall. She reached the edge with her horn flaring, leapt... and disappeared over the edge in a streak of orange and blue.

"Guh... idiot... Owww..." Valey groaned, curled up, and didn't move.

"...Aaargh!" Snarling, Starlight set Maple down, racing back to Valey. The rock shifted under her hooves as she reached her, tumbling imminent. "Don't make me carry you... Come on, get up!"

Valey groaned, rolling over, and her eyes widened as the section next to them fell away, leaving them at the very edge. The ground groaned harder, tilting, a fissure widening between it and the surviving dam structure. "Oh bananas!" She hopped upright with a hiss of pain, staggered, fell again, climbed to two hooves, grabbed Starlight... and their chunk fell, flinging them out into the watery night.

---

Not again!

For the second time in her life, Starlight fell without end, caught by a watery nightmare and sent hurtling over a cliff a mile off the ground. For the second time, she was left with her horn at its worst, burnt out and unable to defend her as she fell. For the second time, she wanted to scream, and the wind battering against her tumbling head was too great for her to even open her mouth.

But this time was also different. The dam was an ordinary tall cliff, not the roof of the world, and her fall would be over in seconds rather than minutes. It was dark out, making it harder to see the ground. There were rocks in the water: huge ones, parts of a blown out dam, and no deep lake below. And instead of being alone, she had an injured batpony, and they clung to each other like it was the end of the world.

How did she solve this last time? Encase herself in crystal and land in water to survive the fall? That was what she wanted to do, but her horn had been too far gone... and still not nearly as gone as it was here. She had gotten her blanket from her packs, made a parachute, somehow slowed her fall enough... and for some reason, even though she was sure Maple had been carrying them in the Flame District, she was wearing her packs then and there. Her blanket might still be inside. She could do this.

Swooosh! Valey's wings shot open and caught air. Their momentum didn't break, but it ever-so-slightly started to slow. Starlight's heart rose with it. They could fly! This wasn't going to be a disaster like last-

Valey swerved to avoid a chunk of bridge that was falling faster than they were, and something pony-shaped plummeted past them. It was Maple.

"No!" Starlight screamed, struggling. "Valey! Hurry! Fly down and catch her!"

"Are you nuts!?" Valey flapped, wincing. "I'll be lucky if I can save myself! Carrying you is practically suicide! If we grab her too I might as well be a boulder!"

"I don't care!" Starlight howled back, throat already raw. "If we're dead anyway then it won't make a difference! I'll think of something; I've done this before! Just get her!"

"Bananas..." Growling, snarling, Valey stopped flapping and angled her wings forward, pressing Starlight to her chest and becoming more aerodynamic. "This is duuuumb!"

Together, they shot forward, propelled as Valey swam through the air, gaining on the falling chunks of dam. Starlight's eyes strained, searching in the darkness... There! She pointed, and Valey flew, Maple coming into reach. The mare was tumbling horribly, unable to right herself or even move, the mere sight of it making Starlight's stomach churn. She reached out, careful not to get kicked by Maple's limp, flailing legs, and after a near dodge finally closed her forelegs around her target just like how Valey was hanging onto her. "Got you!"

"Yeah, great, what next!?" Valey tried to flap again, and gave up after a single gasp, able to do no more than angle them further from the falling water and rock and prevent them from spinning as they fell. "I'm at 'certain death' levels of danger right now! I can't lift this!"

The reality of their dead end sank in as Starlight tried fruitlessly to fumble with her saddlebags; they were hard enough to manage with hooves when her forehooves weren't both occupied with holding a mare who was as good as unconscious. Last time, she had survived through resourcefulness, creativity, determination and dumb luck. What did she have this time that she didn't then?

That was simple: a very good reason to keep living.

Starlight brought her horn to life. That was like lifting a mountain in and of itself; the appendage didn't want to be used. Pain drilled down into her skull as her magic complained and rebelled, but she pushed past it. Anything would be worth it to survive and protect her friends. Anything.

...Flash! It lit up with a flare of angry teal, sending sparks of energy flying everywhere. Her entire body crackled as the unformed energies crackled back against her, sending arcs of light bouncing across her coat, stabbing everywhere they touched. Many hit Maple and Valey too, causing the latter to yowl. "Owowoww! What are you even doing!? That hurts!"

Of course it hurt. It probably hurt a lot less than it hurt to keep her horn glowing in the first place. But Starlight pushed past as her vision fuzzed, forcing the spell to take shape around them, locking the three of them inside a solid crystal prism. Would there be water at the bottom? Rocks? Something else? She didn't know, and as they started spinning again, she wouldn't be able to tell. But the crystal would keep them safe. It would have to.

The shield struck something. It cracked, spun, and held, the shock of the impact feeling like it would tear Starlight's horn off. It cracked again, and still held. And again.

Then it bounced, and that turned into rolling, converting Starlight's horn into a jackhammer against her head. Her perception started to drop, the rolling faded from her consciousness, and she suddenly realized she would pass out again before reaching somewhere safe...

And then an explosion of midnight blue tore all sensation from her, and she was gone.

---

A chill night wind arced across the ruins of the Water District entry, the last glint of sunlight vanishing from the top of the lighthouse. The lake was empty; the destruction was done. Gerardo had pitched himself over the edge after his friends with spread, icy wings, and only Selma and Herman remained to survey the aftermath.

"You really went through with it," Selma remarked, standing shortly back from the edge. "Impressive. And, knowing you, not in the least surprising."

Herman glowed with satisfaction as he stood at the edge of a stable chunk, staring into the depths. "I merely set up the underwater charges and provided guidance. They were the ones who went through with everything."

"You did, didn't you..." Selma breathed softly, staring at the wet underside of the west dam, an array of mines visible against it, blinking in the distance.

"Leave me," Herman instructed. "I have succeeded in my mission and wish to bask in the glory of Yakyakistan. You, on the other hoof, have inevitable vengeance to head off. Unless your plans involve watching the Stone District burn as well, which would be unnecessary but permissible."

"Actually, I felt like doing some basking of my own," Selma drawled, voice suddenly loud. "Yakyakistan's glory, and all that? This does remind me of the homeland..."

Herman said nothing. Selma didn't give him a chance to. "All these high cliffs and cold winds? Very nice, very much appreciated... Now that Valey is gone, we're the only two important natives left in Ironridge. Also." He cleared his throat. "As a unicorn, I can teleport. The Defense Force will survive without me for five more minutes, and when I wish to arrive, it will be instantaneous."

"Selma, cease rambling," Herman growled, cutting him off.

Selma smoothly interrupted back, leaving absolutely no dead air. "What were you planning, anyway? Exterior redecorating? A show of superiority? War for war's sake? I think I've earned knowing what we're fighting for by now, don't you?"

"Selma-!" Herman whirled... and saw Selma's horn glowing, the unicorn's noisy talking covering up the shimmer of magic. Wasting no time, he lunged away from the edge.

As he did so, Selma's horn pulsed brighter, pouring all his energy into the bridge beneath Herman's hooves. It was fractured, the chunk precariously perched, and ground under his tug... then slipped backwards, downwards and away, leaving Herman in midair flying toward the bridge, his momentum considerably less than it could have been if he had jumped from stable ground.

Flash! Selma's telekinesis intensified again, gripping Herman and shoving downward as hard as he could. The yak soared toward the intact edge before dropping far faster than under normal gravity, barely scraping the clifftop with his hooves. Herman glared at him as he stepped closer, still straining down and away with an ice-blue field that matched Herman's uniform. Both sweated; neither spoke.

Herman lost his grip.

Without so much as a roar, his hairy mass plummeted away, losing itself in the darkness of the chasm. Selma stared over the edge, a broad smirk splitting his face. He was alone.

"Yeeeeesss!" He reared back, punching at the darkened sky. "Yesssss! At last, they're both gone! 'Ambassador Herman destroys Steel District in petty nonsensical plot; Selma delivers vengeance! Commander Valey too cowardly to assist; flees city!' I win, and I can hear the news already! All the pieces have fallen, and I win everything! I'll be famous, and I win!"

He danced back from the edge in exuberance... and tripped on an abandoned silver handle. Grumbling, he rose to his hooves, dusted off his face, and stared at Herman's magic axe. The faintest feeling that he was forgetting something crossed his mine, but he shrugged it off. He didn't have any part of Herman's body as proof he was dead, but a weapon that could be summoned by its owner at will should be good enough. Hefting it in his aura, almost staggering under its silver weight, he strode through the door to the Water District, a chill wind blowing against his back.

Comments

[alamais]

Glimglam and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

[ZanyZapper]

Oooh, super mega XXL sized chapter! Nice!
"More to read! Yay!"

What the heck is Herman trying to accomplish? Weaken Ironridge so the Yaks can move in? Must have something to do with the castle underground and the fact there's one under the yak capital as well. Does having a war in Ironridge somehow funnel some sort of magical power to the yaks via the castle and the tree's root system? And what of the device that was attached to the tree that our heroes destroyed? He didn't even seem to care.

Dang it, Selma! You HAVE to see the body. Never assume a villain is dead! Still, props for at least trying to do in Herman. Even if it was mainly to make you look good.

[Boopers]

Yay, another waterfall!
Now we just need more crates for Starlight!
Oh, Selma, you forgot that Shinespark is still standing over there, and she looks a little pissed!

[HURTBOTPEGASUS9]

I'm still wondering what the yaks were try to do to that Tree of Harmony and it fit in to Hemans plan that Valey destroyed it? Why bother to set up the device in the first place?

[Davidp1522]

This is a good chapter. The interesting things happend and I liked it.

[Sypher]

Damn, one hell of a climax.

[Cold Bolt]

"Never count a yak as dead until you see his body. And even then you can make a mistake."

[Phoenix Kitten]

I recall the bad end to Ultra Despair Girls.
"What I saw after that... was fireworks. Fireworks heralding me... as a saviour. Yeah... a saviour. The saviour of Towa city...
I became hope. The hope of the adults who were treated so cruelly...
Fireworks... blessing me. It's all...thanks to me...
Everything... is all my fault."

[sploopy slooder]

none of this feels satisfying at all. the author forced things so many times to get this exact scenario to happen that it feels unnatural and lame.