Sigil of Souls, Stream of Memories

by Piccolo Sky

Daybreak: The King of Despair, Part I

Author's Note:

Finally, the first part of the fight. I meant to do it in two parts, but as it turned out when I finally finished part one is was way too long so it's going to be at least three.

The ladies, predictably, gave rather shocked responses.

“Are you mad?!”

“Are you crazy?!”

Fluttershy let out another nervous whimper.

“I’ll help!” Pinkie cheerily offered.

Twilight let out a sigh. “It was going to come to this sooner or later, everyone. We might as well do it now. We don’t have a choice anyway.”

“But how in tarnation we s’posed to beat him, Twilight?” Applejack shot back. “He’s nothin’ but a bunch o’ smoke!”

“The situation hasn’t changed. He still needs energy from other living things in order to sustain himself. And look!” She swept her arm at the landscape south of us. “Everything’s barren here for miles! If he runs out of spiritual energy here, there’s nowhere for him to go and no one else for him to feed on! That’s the real reason he’s throwing everything he can at us! Don’t you see? He knows if he loses here he’s finished!”

That gave the ladies pause. They looked back downhill—seeing the horde continue to approach slowly but relentlessly. Yet the eyes themselves held back. And while they grinned, they let the controlled army do most of the intimidation.

“I…suppose that does make sense,” Rarity reluctantly admitted. “And Twilight is the only one of us that saw how to defeat him…”

“Uh, extra, extra, read all about it, everyone!” Dash butted in. “There’s an entire army out there!”

Twilight answered by quickly summoning her two Anima Viris in rapid succession—transitioning from her original form into the role of the Scholar in moments. After that was done, she turned again to the approaching army. Sombra’s ghastly visage continued to grin at them the whole time.

Then, the teeth parted.

“…flaaaaank…theeeeem…”

In response, the army began to split at the sides; clearly meaning to surround them as they approached. This made the ladies tense up a bit more. “Twilight…”

“Alright,” she spoke up firmly and quickly. “To control all of these creatures and people at once he’s spread himself pretty ‘thin’. He can’t direct them all individually with any type of order so he’s formed these eyes and mouth to be able to direct them as one. So he’s having to exert effort both to control them all and command them at the same time. We need to strain that to the breaking point. Rarity, use the Prodigy and that power you learned to try and give us some fortifications and funnel them in. Fluttershy, you use the Minstrel to try and put as many of them to sleep as possible. Pinkie, you distract them using the Dancer. Sombra will have to waste energy trying to overcome the effects. The rest of us bombard his eyes and mouth with everything we got. Focus as much as we can on him—leave the people and animals alone if you can.”

That made the group pause again. Applejack frowned, and Dash scoffed at the same time. Rarity looked rather nervous.

“Twilight, dear…I know we’ve practiced a bit with them, but…Applejack doesn’t have more than one Anima Viri. And as for the rest of us, I don’t think we can manage more than a quarter of an hour at most in battle…”

The mage exhaled, but shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. We’ll have to anyway.”

“Um…Twilight?” Fluttershy spoke up uncomfortably. “What if we…end up having to attack the people? And the animals…?”

She winced. She looked back down the hill, and saw the first of the army had reached the ascension. Her face grew grim and regretful.

“We don’t have a choice. We already saw what Sombra did to the people he seized. We just…have to hope there really is no way to save them now.”

Fluttershy didn’t like that answer. No one did. Even Pinkie’s happy bouncing slowed a little. However, no one ended up protesting it.

“One last little detail,” Dash spoke up again. “Let’s say we do stop him. Who’s the lucky lady who makes him their new Anima Viri?”

Rarity, Fluttershy, and even Applejack looked aghast at the thought. Twilight winced nervously once again. “I…already got the one from Nightmare Moon, and I don’t think it’s a good idea for any of us to have two…”

“Oh, oh! Pick me!” Pinkie said excitedly. “I’ll do it!”

Twilight and the others looked to her; their expressions a little uncomfortable as the memory of what they had learned in the quarry. However, after staring at her own blissfully unaware expression, Twilight finally exhaled and nodded. “Alright then. Everyone, get ready…he’s coming at us fast.”

“…gooooo…”

Twilight had scarcely finished saying her plan when the two flanks rushed at them; charging up the hill from either side. Pinkie Pie quickly pulled out her two Anima Viris and transitioned into the role of the Dancer while Rarity did the same for the Prodigy. Fluttershy, after some hesitation, put on the role of the Minstrel.

As for Applejack and Rainbow Dash, they both turned into the Warrior and the Disciple respectively. As soon as Applejack was done, she quickly took out her lasso and began to tie it to the end of her Warhammer.

Dash glanced at her with a frown. “You’re not really thinking you can take him out with just that thing, right? He can just float over it!”

Applejack glared back. “Well on that note, I see ya’ still ain’t put on your second Anima Viri.”

She flushed a little. “I said I’ll do it when I need to!”

“And now ain’t a good time?! You yell at my hammer, but you ain’t gonna get him with your fists!”

Dash clenched her hands into fists, but Twilight shouted out before she could retort. “Rainbow Dash, we really need every advantage we can get right now!”

The Huntsman growled, but looked back out and saw how dire the situation was getting. To all sides of them were enemies now, and they were rushing in fast. The malevolent visage of Sombra loomed closer and closer.

She practically let out a yell. “Fine! Member of my house, I command you to come to me! Sky Clipper—Soarin!”

Dash’s aura explosion was so strong that even Applejack, fortified with her own single Anima Viri, was nearly blown off of her feet. When she was able to recover and look back, she saw Dash standing in her new role. Her head now bore a cap on it with a plume of a feather the same iridescent hue as her hair, while the rest of her was garbed in outdoor leatherwear with a hood. This was in addition to a quiver along her back tipped with dozens of fletched arrows. In particular, her forearms were padded and her fingers clad in special gloves to let the tips of her fingers through.

Once done, Dash looked over herself a moment only to snort. “Great…on top of everything else, I’m the same role as Sunset…” Her fist lashed out, snapping the signpost for the end of the track. She instantly seized it and bent it—transforming it into a longbow in the process and going for the first arrow. “Anyway, I told you I could do it when I needed to…”

“Alright everyone!” Twilight shouted. “This is it! Let’s go!”

As the army continued to close, Fluttershy swallowed once, but then closed her eyes and began to sing her lullaby. It was soft at first, allowing them to draw as close as around 100 meters. Then she managed to increase her volume, and with the wind on her back her voice carried over the field and the effect went into action. All within earshot immediately slowed. Despite their controlled states, their arms and shoulders drooped and their faces relaxed. While there were thousands behind them that remained unaffected, the nearest few hundred that could hear her soon provided a bulwark against the rest.

Unfortunately, it didn’t stay as effective for as long as they wished.

“…hoooooowl…”

From among the zombie-like crowd came a chorus of animal like screams and shouts. The humans in the group that weren’t affected began to bellow and roar in terrible, nearly grotesque ways. While there were plenty of actual twisted animals to join in, even their shouts seemed otherworldly and nightmarish. Soon a horrid, spine-tingling cacophony of noise began to shout over the sound of Fluttershy’s singing. And as it did, the ones who form the “barrier” began to loosen up—raising their heads and their arms again. Not long after, they began to advance…

But before Fluttershy could lose her nerve in the wake of this change, their own “next wave” joined in as Pinkie Pie hopped out to the forefront of the ladies and began to engage in a festive, jubilant dance. The moment the swarm laid their eyes upon it, human or beast, howling or silent, they again fell still and became transfixed upon it. Soon the crowd was halting again. Sombra’s mouth parted and he shouted another order, but this time it fell on deaf ears for much of the horde was still howling and drowning out their master as well as Fluttershy.

It was at that point that the true assault began. As Sombra’s mouth opened wider to yell louder, it was suddenly scattered—like a reflection on water dispersed by stones—courtesy of Dash’s archery. While she was brand new to the form, she was taking to it well as she made the air sing with two more arrows in the span of one second—these ones to scatter either eye of Sombra. The shadow shifted, as if it had turned into a cumulonimbus cloud, and quickly reformed the eyes and mouth, only for them to immediately scatter again as Twilight hurled three different balls of fire at them. This time, the heat blasted them away and left holes in the shadow in their wake.

Again, the cloud shifted, and reformed the visage again—this time resembling an annoyed look. The mouth opened and half a syllable escaped before Applejack’s impromptu weapon swung out and swept across the mouth; this time making it look like fresh paint that had been smeared. A growl seemed to be heard on the wind as the face reformed and this time ascended higher, dodging Dash’s latest arrows long enough to open its mouth and shout louder.

“…staaaaaampeeeeeede…”

Dash and Twilight rapidly scattered the face again, but as they continued to assault it they quickly became cognizant of the ground rumbling even louder than expected by the thousands around them. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie looked up in the middle of their bewildering moves and saw in the closing darkness a terrible sight. Amid the swarms approaching them, dozens of individuals were being thrown into the air on all sides, but from five specific directions all surrounding them. The ground shook louder and the noise grew further before the group realized the reason—the larger, stronger minions were combining their power and driving themselves forward in an attempt to crush them on all sides. Soon they began to emerge from their brethren—a host combined of nightmarish horses, twisted stags, rhino-like beings, and all matter of other creatures turned into living engines…

But then they were quickly hidden again as Rarity exerted her stolen power from Sombra himself. The area was quickly surrounded by a palisade of sapphire-like crystals bursting from the ground. In moments, the six were protected on all sides save for three small, narrow openings. An instant later, the ground thundered one last time as the stampeding creatures connected with the crystal, only to do nothing more than crush themselves against it uselessly. For a moment, Sombra’s jaws curled into a snarl before Twilight scattered them with a fiery column big enough to ravage his entire face in one blast.

The back and forth continued, but as Twilight and the ladies fell into a sort of rhythm Sombra found himself unable to gain any headway. While he was able to pull back enough to avoid Applejack’s swings, he could never clear himself of Twilight or Rainbow Dash, and he needed to be closer to shout immediate orders. With the palisades in place restricting the flow of the army, they could only attack from three angles that remained squarely in front of Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity. The crystals were too sheer for them to climb, and Sombra’s attempts to use the flying creatures among them to subvert the obstacle only gave them a bird’s eye view of Pinkie’s dance. They fell to the ground like stones as their ability to fly was arrested.

For about two minutes, it seemed as if they could actually keep him at bay. Applejack nearly called out how long Twilight thought it was going to be before Sombra would start showing signs of weakness.

That, however, was when the cloud reformed its mouth only to quickly pull itself back—narrowly missing the latest attacks. Before Dash could shoot an arrow into it, it managed to call another order. “…tuuuuuunneeeeeel…”

“What in tarnation did he mean by that?!” Applejack shouted as she readied her weapon for another swing.

“Who cares so long as he can’t get us!” Dash yelled as she kept firing arrows into him. “Let’s just…”

She paused, blinking once.

“Just…just hang…”

Her breathing suddenly changed, becoming more labored. The bow faltered in her grasp, allowing Sombra to reform both eyes as he swept forward again. Twilight quickly blasted them out again with a branching bolt of lightning, but she looked to Dash only to see her heaving and letting her arms fall all together.

“Rainbow Dash?”

“What’s gotten inta’ ya’?” Applejack called.

“I…”

That was all she managed to get out before her eyes rolled and she fell to the ground. Right before impact, she managed to extend her arms and stop herself on her hands and knees, but there she remained afterward. Her aura died out rapidly—returning her to her base form.

“Ain’t no time for jokes or sleepin’ on the job, Dash!” Applejack shouted back as she swung her hammer out to try and rip away Sombra’s teeth…only for him to pivot them upward and out of range. Twilight again had to blast them away. “Get on up now! Quit foolin’ around!”

“Oh dear… She’s not fooling, Applejack!” Rarity shouted back. “She never trained with two Anima Viris at once!”

“J-J-Just…g-g-give me a minute…” the Huntsman muttered.

Sombra’s face spread into a grin as he loomed closer, forcing Twilight to quickly increase the potency of her spells to make up for the loss. Applejack groaned as she spun around and started swinging again. “We ain’t got a minute! We’re fightin’ a damn army!”

“Twilight!” Rarity called back. “Is there any way that I can heal her to make her recover faster?”

Twilight was rather busy trying to keep the pressure on Sombra, but managed to call back. “I don’t think it works that-”

The mage was silenced by an eruption…not of a bomb or fire but of dirt directly below Fluttershy. She let out a muted shriek as she was cast into the air before toppling to the ground rather roughly. While such an assault was nothing to her current body, she soon scrambled back in shock and alarm along with everyone else at what was in her wake.

A large muddy hole was now in the ground, and crawling out of it was an eight-foot, solidly-built monstrosity. It came to the surface and began to lumber forward on nubby, thick legs. It arms were stocky and stubby with long, curled, pick-axe-like claws, and its face was elongated with massive rodent-like teeth that seemed to protrude from outside of its mouth. Its eyes were so tiny that they were nothing more than green and red dots, but its snout was filled with fleshy, worm-like protuberances that thrashed and swished about as if feeling the air.

It let out a deep growl as it staggered forward, before opening its monstrous jaws and letting out a bellow. It spun around to the nearest target: Pinkie Pie. She was still dancing away just as rapidly as before, but the beast ignored that—apparently unable to see it clearly. Still bellowing, it dashed right at her and gave a swipe with its claws for her head. She managed to dip under it and shoot back quickly enough, but it had done what Sombra no doubt intended—interrupted her dancing.

A moment later, Twilight paled as he confirmed it beyond all doubt.

“…chaaaaaargeeeeee!”

At once, all three openings were flooded with a living deluge of possessed bodies. Raging like monsters they flowed in; distorted, ugly, and filled with hate and darkness. They savagely ran for the nearest target looking ready to eat her alive—who happened to be the still fallen Rainbow Dash.

Gritting her teeth, Applejack swung about as she yanked her hammer back to her and seized it by the hilt before running to her aid. “Goll damnit!”

“Applejack, no!” Twilight shouted between incantations. “I can’t keep Sombra busy without-”

She cut herself off, seeing it was too late. The nearest attacker, wielding a crude axe made out of scrap metal, nearly cleaved into Dash’s head when Applejack arrived in front of him. Her hammer swung out horizontally and caught him by the arm and the side, not only breaking the bones and driving them into his torso but flinging him back into the crowd of rampaging maniacs to hold them at bay momentarily. That was good because the next stream immediately ran up to her, starting with a monstrous dog leaping for her throat. She answered by swinging upward and catching it under the jaw, shattering half of its skull and sending it flinging, before she threw all remaining caution to the wind and charged the flood right back—striking down one after another with threshing-like swings.

Yet the third stream was still flowing in and the first one was recovering. They quickly moved to swarm over the sole attacker. Twilight quickly glanced over the others. Fluttershy was still recoiling in fear; struggling to find her voice again. Pinkie was, at least, keeping the giant mole creature busy, but she was also being kept busy in turn. That left Rarity, who after hesitating was able to run in with her rapier.

Twilight cried out to her. “Seal the barrier!”

Rarity instantly ground to a halt, turned back to Twilight for a moment as the command clicked, but then nodded. She turned back to the crystal wall and used her power again. In moments, the barrier was sealed in all three places. However, over a hundred were already inside and struggling to swarm Applejack.

Worse yet, Twilight was again stunned long enough for Sombra to give more commands.

“…flyyyyyy…buuuuuurroooooow…”

Twilight nearly cursed herself as she realized what was coming soon. Having no other choice, she called. “Everyone but Pinkie! Switch to offense until she can get dancing again!”

Rarity blanched a little. “But…the people…”

“We don’t have a choice! We can’t restrain them all!”

She didn’t seem to be comfortable with that, but also realized Twilight was telling the truth. With that in mind, she took a deep breath and dashed forward—putting herself between Applejack and one of the streams of enemies. Her sword angled forward, and a moment later she went to work. She nimbly stepped in, and with three lightning-fast jabs struck down the first three attackers, before moving to slashes that hit the next three each in the vitals. She continued to advance as the maniacs turned their attacks to her, but amazingly she still outperformed them. She evaded a club only to counter with opening a neck artery, dodged a claw swipe from a monstrous beast beyond it before driving her sword tip into its eye socket and the brain beyond, and nimbly backflipped twice from a pair of assailants slashing at her before giving one slash of her own to cut both throats at once.

Twilight was pleasantly surprised—noting that two Anima Viris seemed sufficient for disabling most of Sombra’s legions. Her eyes quickly turned to Applejack afterward, however, trying to see how well she was doing. For a moment or two, she noticed her raw fury seemed to be stemming the tide on the nearest attackers…

But then she saw the second wave about to hit her, and that in the lead were three colossal wild boars bearing their tusks and in full stampede.

“Applejack!”

She heard the warning and turned her head, but that was all she had time for. She watched them plow into her with sufficient force to rip her right off of her feet and grind her still-airborne body right into the opposing flood. They didn’t stop there but kept bearing her onward until they crashed right through the crowd and smashed her right into one of the crystalline walls. The mage was aghast. Nothing short of a train engine could have made an impact that bad. Even with an Anima Viri, she couldn’t have walked away unscathed…

And now, both swarms, heedless of the damage to them, turned around and began to pile on top of where she had landed with renewed ferocity.

Twilight, still shaken, looked skyward to Sombra and readied to blast his mouth again, only to see he was doing nothing more than snickering. However, his eyes were right where Applejack had fallen. Realizing he directing them there while his mouth gave commands, the mage quickly snapped her arms up and unleashed another bolt spell to split and pierce in either eye. It worked, but with only one assailant he already began to form new eyes in other parts of his cloud the moment she blasted him. She fired again, but the bolts themselves had less effect compared to the rest of her powers and he recovered even faster…

Meanwhile, Fluttershy, having heard Twilight’s command, reluctantly gulped before releasing one of her Anima Viris…reverting her into the role of the Rogue. Although she clearly didn’t feel as comfortable with it as Pinkie, she clutched her own small dagger and got back to her feet. She moved up behind the giant mole creature as it continued to swing at Pinkie and chase her around with savage fury, but quickly yelped and leapt back every time it half-glanced in her direction or simply planted her feet in fear.

Eventually, she managed to make her way up behind it while it was still unguarded, but nevertheless hesitated again—clearly nervous about striking out at a living thing, even a monstrous one. At last, however, as it was chomping at Pinkie and trying to catch her in its monstrous jaws, she closed her eyes and reluctantly drove her dagger toward its back.

In spite of having short hair and what seemed to be normal skin, the dagger almost harmlessly glanced off—unable to even leave a scratch in the mole creature’s hide. However, it instantly halted where it was. Its head spun about and leveled its beady eyes at Fluttershy. A low growl came from its throat.

She looked up at it in a mixture of innocence and fear. “Oh…I’m sorry, Mr. Mole… I-I-I didn’t mean to-”

Again, she was cut off as the monster backhanded her with its hooked claw so hard that, even though she was struck at an angle, she was smashed into the ground loud enough to echo through the palisade. She sprawled flat, and though she was able to pick her head back up again after a moment she was clearly dizzy. She got enough of her wits just in time to look up and see the monster ready to impale her with the same claw—prompting her to give a panicked squeak as she shrank back…

The claw never came, however. Spike, who had held back until now, took the moment to dive in and give the monster a bite on its Achilles’ tendon. A rather sharp one too, sinking its teeth in and yanking back hard enough to actually give the monster pause. Forgetting Fluttershy for the moment, it snapped around and swiped at him instead—although he used the moment to leap back and give it a series of snarls and barks. Unfortunately, it didn’t hold its attention that long as Sombra had to be directing it to kill the girls, but it did give Fluttershy the moment she needed to stagger to her feet and run away.

As for Dash, she managed to pry her head upward, looking angry all over again; and on seeing the situation she let out a sneer. “To hell with this…”

A moment later, one of her Anima Viris was recalled, returning her to the role of the Disciple. Forcing herself back up to her feet after that, she vaulted three steps forward before leaping out and giving a knee to the back of another possessed madman’s head. The sound of the neck breaking was audible as he spilled forward into his companions, but soon she landed and began to savagely punch and kick with bone-shattering force at those swarming over Applejack.

In spite of this, Twilight still called out to her. “No, Rainbow! We still need the Archer!”

Her cry seemed to fall on deaf ears—although it could have just as easily been her struggling to survive as the attackers soon began to spin on her and started flooding her as well. With her one Anima Viri, she was having to focus to punch and kick them away. Unfortunately, just as she began to do this, the hammer fully dropped.

A renewed flood of flying creatures, mixed of birds, bats, insects, and a number of other horrors, suddenly ascended over the palisade wall and came at Twilight like a living river. Gasping, she quickly turned to them, redirected her latest fireballs, and sent them flying at the incoming cloud. She watched as both sailed into the swarm of death and ignite—either one killing dozens or even hundreds of attackers. Not that it mattered, however. Ten times as many swarmed over the eruptions and swallowed up the fire and smoke before billowing out still for her. In panic, she frantically made an ice spell and pointed it at the ground…

An instant later, a wall of frozen spikes formed a shield in front of her. It was nearly too late. Several of them ended up entombed in the ice, but even with the barrier she soon cried out in pain as the sheer number of them meant the swarm curled around and still managed to land bites and claws against her. Both of her arms were soon tagged with over a dozen small lacerations from their wild attempts to rip her to pieces.

This was just the beginning. As she struggled to survive the attackers long enough to counterattack them, she looked back to the crater that the giant mole monster had emerged from. The ground was heaving and splitting around it as things from beneath the earth were pushing up and out. Soon after, all manner of foulness and fierceness, covered with mud and hissing and spitting, started to push out to the surface. The monster hadn’t just infiltrated them; it had made a tunnel for its companions. Now they began to chase after Fluttershy who was still fleeing from her life from the mole monster as Spike desperately tried to get its attention.

Worse yet, she could see the edges of the palisade, and saw more maniacal legions were clawing at the top of it. Unable to get over the barrier on their own, the hundreds and thousands surrounding it were beginning to form living mounds against it for their companions to ascend. They were less than a minute from being totally overwhelmed.

Fluttershy was continuing to shrink and cringe from the giant mole creature, too afraid to get any nearer to it. She saw that everyone else was getting pressed on in danger, but was too nervous to move out after them and leave herself open to attack. She could only stand there and whimper as Spike snapped at the monster’s stubby legs in an attempt to get it to move back. In response, the monster swung at him repeatedly with his own giant claws, much to Fluttershy’s dread, but missed him each time.

Finally, however, he did something different. As Spike tried to move in from one side, he didn’t slash at the dog, but rather reared one of his legs up. As Spike went in for a bite, he lashed out and audibly connected with him right in the face. A yelp went out as the dog was knocked across the field.

“Spike!” Twilight cried.

Fluttershy, however, gaped in open-mouthed shock at what had just happened—especially when Spike lay flat and did not snap back up. She lingered for a few moments before she looked back up. As she zeroed in on the mole creature her look turned from terror to anger to fury.

“How…dare…you!”

Finally bringing the speed and agility of the Rogue to bear, Fluttershy vented bravery and passion unlike any she had shown in the battle so far as she charged. The mole creature turned to face her and tried to sweep a claw out for her. She answered by not only easily vaulting over it but landing on the monster’s bulky forearm; running all the way to the top, reaching its head, and doing a springing handstand over it to land on its back.

Giving a tiny war cry, she held on with one hand while furiously beginning to stab with the other with her eyes closed. In spite of her renewed spirit, this didn’t seem to do any more damage than her more half-hearted stabs, but it did at least annoy the mole creature into rearing back, roaring, and then furiously try to get the nuisance off of it.

As a result, Pinkie was finally free to dance uninterrupted. A good thing too, for at this point both Dash and Rarity were getting swarmed by the attackers and the flock of flying creatures was coming around to attack Twilight from behind. Fortunately, a mere five meters before they could land, they began to fall from the sky again.

Twilight gasped in relief as she stepped out from behind her barrier and looked out to the field. Some of the land-based attackers were getting entranced by the dance, but there were more still pouring out of the hole and ones were beginning to come over the top of the palisade like a pot beginning to boil over.

“Rarity! Seal us off!”

The woman turned to Twilight on hearing that, but that was a bad move. At that moment, a monstrous-looking bear-like creature that might have once been a raccoon snapped forward, sunk its enlarged claws into her sword arm, and followed up by biting down. She screamed in alarm and agony as the horde around her bellowed, rushing on her and beginning to swing with their blades and hatchets to try and rip her apart…

Somewhere, in the midst of the chaos, Dash caught a glimpse of this while three of the maniacs had seized her. Gritting her teeth, her muscles tightened before she bellowed.

“Get…off of…me!”

Snapping her head one way and the other, she smashed her skull into the heads of those on either arm so hard that sickening cracks were heard along with eruptions of blood. As those two faltered, she ripped her arms free and proceeded to slam both of her palms against the side of the head of her third captor—smashing the skull in between her hands. Venting her full power, she proceeded to lean up and deliver two more palms to the faces of two more maniacs rushing in, causing more crunching before they fell back, and then followed up with an elbow slam to the head of a monstrously-distorted deer so hard that it snapped its antlers along with its neck. After delivering two final blows in the form of forward kicks, nearly decapitating two of the same hedgehog beasts that had attacked Twilight and Stygian days earlier, her way was free.

Breaking out of the crowd, she rushed over to Rarity, leapt into the air, and brought down an axe-kick on the raccoon monster’s back that severed its spine. A follow-up roundhouse kick knocked away most of Rarity’s captors—allowing her to wrench free and quickly run to one side. Though she was clearly agonized by her bleeding arm, she managed to hold up her other hand and quickly use her spells again. In moments, the crater was sealed—crushing a few monsters that were trying to worm through in the process—and the palisades increased in height and arched over.

By now, most of those remaining were either being torn apart by Dash’s ferocity or were getting entranced by Pinkie’s dance. Twilight glanced over the battlefield for a moment, before, behind the ranks of multiple entranced individuals, she caught a glimpse of Applejack’s hair lying on the ground. There was no telling how badly she was hurt, but Fluttershy was still futilely trying to kill the mole monster.

Gritting her own teeth, Twilight turned to it as it staggered around madly slashing, before she risked chanting a stone spell. Soon after, a missile of jagged rock erupted from the ground right for the mole beast; only to break on contact without making it do much more than roar.

She groaned. “We have to take that one out!”

“Oh, why didn’t you say so?” Pinkie instantly cheered. A moment later, she began to reach for her Promethian Sigil.

“No, Pinkie! Don’t-”

It was too late. She proceeded to drop her newest sigil—which in turn caused her to don the same flamboyant red with a wide-brimmed hat that Rarity’s first Role had been. Clearly the Magician. Not wasting a second, she hopped and leapt right up to the rampaging beast. By now, Fluttershy was crying again as she weakly tried to get it to stop, but the monster itself slowed on seeing someone new approaching it.

It orientated itself toward her to attack, but before it could she waved at it. “Hey there, Mr. Mole Man! You’re looking pretty worked up, so I’ll help you cool off!” She pointed the end of her own knife-turned rapier to him and proceeded to draw an arcane symbol on the air. “And…there you go!”

The sigil executed…and a moment later, to the sound of a soft “poof” in the air, the mole monster’s head was enclosed in a block of ice. It was unclear whether or not Pinkie had intended it to be that effective, but it apparently executed a brain freeze or lack of oxygen because the monster’s arms dropped almost immediately. A second later, much to Fluttershy’s surprise, the beast fell to the ground like a ton of bricks.

“Oh my…”

“Fluttershy!” Twilight shouted. “Take care of Applejack!”

She nodded and began to rise, changing Roles as she did so. Twilight couldn’t risk seeing anymore, because she quickly had to generate a bigger, thicker ice spell around herself as the birds—now freed from the control Pinkie had them under—began to furiously bombard her from all sides. She managed to get the ice up, but they drove themselves so hard against it in an attempt to fracture it to bits that soon her surroundings were getting covered with blood as well as cracks as they bashed their own brains in.

As she frantically continued to regenerate the ice, she looked out and saw Rarity, in spite of her injury, trying to fight off the remaining maniacs who had gotten inside. Between her and Dash, Fluttershy was free to move toward Applejack and get down at her side. In another moment, she would have called out to Pinkie Pie to focus on the flying creatures as well, but before she could she heard another monstrous sound.

“…draaaaaagoooooon…”

As Dash, panting now, punched out one of the last “ground-bound” threats, she looked to the sky with a tired expression. “Tell me he didn’t just say ‘dragon’…”

To be continued...

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Just how many chapters long will this story be?

[Piccolo Sky]

11579361
It's hard to say, but the "Daybreak" portion of the story should take no more than four or five more chapters.

At that time, the story will be at the midpoint.