The enhanced Stallion

by Shenzy

Moment of madness

Tall Tale probably was the most moderate town you could ask for.

It was about the size of Batlimare, but lacked the picturesque coast and harbor.
It had a couple of skyscrapers, but not even close the jungle Manehattenhad to offer.
It had some beautiful parks and a lot of green in between its simple apartment blocks, but wasn't a small town like Ponyville anymore, despite it's lack of landmarks.

A grown town of humble pony's, trusting the princesses to protect them from evil.

Speaking of which, one just entered the town.

However, it's route wasn't directly going from A to B, but rather weird and seemingly unfocused. Sticking closely to a zigzag path across streets to once again quickly vanish into shady alleyways. Narrow path's in between houses, running through all of town like veins inside your body. Simple passages in which garbage cans dominated ground level, while clothesline's above been taut from side to side. A good place to have a moment for yourself or having chatted with the neighbor living next window... - but just like a virus in your blood, crooks and criminals were always attracted by the opportunity of a hidden approach, leaving only two streets and a smudge of grass between him and destination. Leaving the dim hideout, the sun tried to blind him for a moment, but it wasn't too big of a deal. He didn't even bother slowing down, while steel-blue eyes adapted to the sight of the empty streets ahead. A path in which nopony could hope to stop him!

Once these sturdy legs gathered top speed, he would simply smash chariots, break through doors and push aside whoever dared to get in his way to then... to then... to... then... stop.

Standing in the middle of a crossing, an overlooked detail became unmissable.

A candy-store to his left had a sign with -open- hanging between treats, but not a single foal asking for a gumball?

Malls without mares trying to find the latest fashion... -not even a hustle over the bargain bin ...and a cafe with thirty empty seats, standing lonely beneath umbrellas.

As the horse spun around to search for a possible ambush... spun again!

… checking the sky... backing quickly into the alley he came from...

Barely a hundred meters further, Luna protested stomping “This is foolish! We should be out there and hunt it down!”

“Be patient my dear sister, it is only a matter of time till it will come to us.”

“Yes, he should send it here soon” Twilight agreed “I'm pretty sure he wants this artifact”

“Than we should destroy it and not serve it on a silver platter to our enemy!” Luna countered.

“No... than it wouldn't work” the mare shook her head “We don't know if somepony else is involved... if he finds out the artifact was gone, he has no reason to come”

The blue alicorn could see the logic behind that, but would rather make sure that the item was destroyed if there was even the slightest chance, that this was indeed the next target.

Luna stomped out of the room, she had to get some fresh air!

“Did I... say something wrong?” Twilight wondered.

“You have to forgive her, she never could accept, what happened.”

“... because you had to retreat?”

Celestia shook her head “It is the time before that, which is haunting her...” the princess stepped up to the wide glass front, which allowed for a good sight onto the museum below, as well more of the city and the land behind that “You have to know, most pony's try to forget what happened back then...when King Sombra ruled relentless above the empire. He forced pony's into slavery's to dig for riches ...punished the smallest violation of his rules harshly... and there were even reports, he did some of this for his amusement.”

“I read about this, but it wasn't your fault.”

“Twilight, you don't understand... it isn't about what he had done, but forhow long...”

Celestia's voice had become wild mix of anger and sadness, which was like a stab, into her former student's heart “He holds the empire hostile for over a year, while we couldn't do anything, then listening to news reports of his cruelty to come in... while even our own subjects began to doubt us.”

“I didn't...”

“Every day we tried to help the Crystal Pony's, show them, that somepony cared about their fate so that they wouldn't give up hope. We used our troops to sneak in additional food to help out on the Empire's spare supplies... and soon we even tried to sneak out citizens, mostly young ones... but it was just too many to bring all to safety... and when hefound out - he punished their parents, for ourdoing” she had to pause here, since it wasn't a welcome memory- it never would “We wanted to stop this suffering, not cause even more! ….and Luna... she hurt herself even more, with every failed attempt... but, she kept trying... and I... i did something horrible my self, I fear...”

Twilight tried to get eye contact, but the alicorn refused “...did you tell her to stop?”

Whispering both sorrowful and bitter “No... I helped her”

Just minutes later, an explosion tore them back into here and now! Flames and smoke rose towards the sky - a blue blur rushing straight for the source!

“It is here!” Twilight said excited and spun around, but was stopped by a white hoof.

“It's just a diversion” Celestia said, pushing aside those old feelings quickly. Emotions couldn't get in the way when so much was at state. A calm mind, would lead to victory.

“A diversion?”

Her mentor didn't move, keeping eyes on the objective while Twilight tried to adapt and think two steps further “... but Luna?”

“Don't worry about her”

Twilight walked back and forth a few times but tried to calm down to get on Celestia's side. A glance upwards revealed a stoic, face which didn't look familiar on the white mare.

For now, there was no time to worry about such trivial things, so both mares observed their objective closely when barely a minute later somepony caught their attention.

The purple snout pushed against the glass, while a black stallion ran into their general direction! …but ...it wasn't so much running at the museum... as much passing by in a hurry. The guard should have brought all of to safety... - a possible straggler? Could it be!?

“This looks like a civilian, just a second!” with that the mare teleported down, right in front of the pony coming to a sliding standstill.

“Hey there! Calm down! I will bring... y-ou...” this was when Twilight realized: his fur, had been blackened “!”

A hoof hit full force, half a second after the barrier-spell was up – letting the princess crashed painfully through several buildings behind -dunf!- pchhh- duchh! ...getting buried inside a toy-shop, beneath a shelf's worth of plush copy's of herself.

All of which having the wrong eye color.

The intruder took a look to the left and right, but nopony else bothered to show up, causing a quick motion towards the real goal nearby. In and out, sticking to the plan.

The museum looked like any other, as if there was only one way to built those.

An entrance room with free brochures trying to lure another visit before this one even had begun, followed by a long floor framed by thick stone pillars, connecting oversized rooms painted in plain white. A glass ceiling whenever possible let natural light onto the exhibits beneath, all of which behind thick glass and scattered across the room with no sense of order or aesthetic. On the further back there was also a gift-shop with a all sorts of kitsch one had to wonder who bought this kinda nonsense.

However, he wasn't here for cheap keychains or bobbleheads of Star Swirl the bearded.

Neither for highfalutin “art” or whatever the sculpture in the corner was supposed to be.

The real goal seemed a lot more common to the untrained eye. A stone exhibit... for kids.

Made for children to teach them the difference between crystals, gems and other minerals, using a bunch of examples to show them first hoof how they looked like.

Not just weren't some not labeled, but the main event was put next to a label reading sapphire. Sapphire!? Celestia allowed such a pressures crystal to lay basically in the open, hoofed from foal to foal and -degraded by a label fitting onto anything but!?

The vitrine got broken and the blue stone swallowed at once.

A shadow gave away the incoming attack from above! Throwing himself immediately to the side, while the vitrine, the stones and the ground below were molten to a puddle of slag – shreds send flying through the room like shrapnel's, getting stuck in whatever they hit!

He kept rolling two, three four times more, before jumping up again and dashing forwards, while white beams of light kept piercing the ground behind in an attempt to let the same happening to him.

His way lead straight through a wall to break the line of sight with the mare above when the second one appeared on his front out of nowhere! Shooting a purple charge towards him under which he barely managed to slide through across the marble floor, before ruffling up again a couple of meters in front of her – but the mare had learned her lesson and vanished right after with a -puff puff- noise to reappear on his side with more distance, going for another attack, but parts of a stone pillar were already thrown into her general direction, forcing Twilight to break off the attack and relocate once more.

After being shown the metal stallions for the first time and despite Luna's accurate description of their abilities, Twilight had never thought one of them could move this fast! They looked so bulky and heavy, causing her to expect them to behave more like Applejack'sbrother BigMac. The red farm pony also was big and bulky... and given; he could gather a decent speed on a straight line, but only after a couple of seconds passing by.

No. This stallion was nothing like that! Instead: quick as a grasshopper! Jumping, rolling and running without any delay in between, like Applejack at a rodeo!

It turned out, that not giving into her friend's protests had been a really wise decision since they had been in too great of a danger being near something like this.

The stallion burst outside, Celestia took a look above her shoulder and danced through the air in a half-circle to get crossfire going, while Luna just had returned- going right into a flat angle in front of him, approving collateral damage onto the building behind.

Twilight found herself in Luna's line of fire- reflecting missing beams with a forcefield while trying her luck with own blasts onto his back; but way more careful than her blue ally.

Celestia might tell her, that it didn't matter, if parts of the town would be destroyed, since everypony had brought to safety... yet she still tried to hit nothing else than him; forcing the alicorn to take aim longer than necessary, using smaller charges as well which didn't show any effect other than a bright flash bursting on his flanks.

Just a couple shots later the bookworm changed tactics, using a more creative approach.

Purple hooves got into a stance, the horn charged up and touched the ground.

The magic shot away in three blue purple bursts; jumping wildly over the ground, crossing one another, to leave slick spots behind wherever they hit – dancing beneath and around the stallion - jumping another gap of ten meters and vanishing into the concrete, after which out of nowhere a giant ice-wall shot straight up out of the ground, right in front of his snot, leaving no time to avoid it!

The stallion braced for impact and smashed right into the cold barrier, after which the spot was rained down on with spears of magic, melting the ice within seconds and setting the concrete beneath partials to flames.

At this moment Twilight realized, that if they were wrong... and this stallion wasn't who they thought... “STOP! - STOP FIRING!” it shouted to the big confusing of Celestia and Luna, which took a couple of seconds to react, holding huffing their fire, giving one another a curious look, why Twilight was asking for them to stop.

At first there was just a thick cloud of steam and dust... and which each second, the purple stomach felt the need to twist itself further, giving the feeling they just done something horrible – then everything seemed happening in slow motion.

Steam and dust swirled around and were pulled away in a draft, following the thing jumping out of its middle. Dust stuck in his brown mane and lost itself when hooves made contact with the ground. The blackened fur looked ravaged, with even more black and gray in between, wherever it had been burned off - revealing the dull metal skin.

From the shredded fur hanging from his snot, up to a bunch of lose wires, which were the leftovers of his tail... it was perfectly clear, that this wasn't a pony... but a THING!

This moment didn't even take a hoof-full of seconds and the thief was almost gone, rushing into an alley and out of sight, but Luna wouldn't let him escape this easy, being the first to fetch herself and continuing the attack!

“Luna wait!” her sister warned since Twilight just had become airborne and this wasn't going as planned. Their best chances were to fight him on open field, where they could use their range advantage and wear him down... – this was madness!

The night princess made a swift move between mid-sized buildings in order to cut it off- hopefully literally. Searching quickly along the ground for this loathsome monstrosity, luck shuns upon the moon, casting a sinister shadow of misfortune upon the fool beneath.

Huffing and coughing the four-legged anvil made its way quickly through town, head hung deep like a charging bull. Of course, the huffing was nothing more than a trick of the mind, a cause of habit... and sign that concentration slipped elsewhere... ughhhfff... otherwise one had noticed that shadows became a lot longer and sharp around the edges since Falling Stars was cast upon him!

A rapid scatter-fire consistent of flimsy, yet highly concentrated beams, flung hissing upon the ground. Shooting upwards from the horn, performing a high bow, to then land simultaneously onto the target area: covering the howl widths of the road. A spell made to surprise and devastate enemy's before they even knew what hit them!

Catching up with the furious pony, her friends couldn't see a thing; blinding flashes were wrapped in a thick cloud, allowing only for short blinks to overlook the situation.

Spraying blindly the entirety of the street with high energy charges; destroying stores, houses, windows, chariots and hydrants, street signs, lamps – everything and a kitchen sink in the process... the princess hold this rapid paste till her gasping body couldn't hold the tension anymore, breaking off the attack as sudden as it started, giving cramped wings a moment to relax. Salty sweat burned in her eyes and the mane kept getting in the way, but even without seeing a thing through smoke columns... she knew this was over!

“I will cast a wind spell!” Twilight announced, on which Celestia agreed “do so!”

Magic lit up once more, yet this time to propitiating the street with a strong breeze... and... it looked like two thousand blistering needles had sunk into the ground, leaving a landscape of tiny glowing holes, hissing being filled with water from nearby sieves, which used to be hydrant's. All of which causing steam, whenever those red edges were touched by the cooling liquid.

While eyes scanned the area for a puddle of molten metal, living-room window of a tidy mare exploded in shards above the surprised princess! - a monster sailing at her with swinging hooves! - swhoof! -barely missing the surprised princess which frantic tried to gather height, when the opposing building was used to change direction for another -SWHOOF! to deliver a devastating -DUNF! – sending a blue flash right into the Happy-Horse Motel, breaking through three floors! Two-UGH! One-GnAh! - crashing into the basement -unf! while chunks of ceiling followed on the way down, layered with the noise of raining concrete.

Losing no time to check the result, the construction bounced off the first building side and WHOMP!- landed hard, leaving an imprint on the perforated street to make a quick exit.

“LUNA!” Celestia was simply shocked for a moment “Princess! You follow him! I get your sister!” Twilight snapped - losing no time to hurrying into the ruins to find the victim jammed between concrete plates, which probably were a floor at some point “Hold still” she said gentle and teleported both out of the building, moments before the rest crumbled down onto the spot they just had been. Nearly creating an infamous urban tomb.

Luna seemed badly hurt... but managed to pull herself back onto her hooves.

Her right shoulder and leg were injured, which was shown by the fact she couldn't put weight on it and her wings hung deeper as they used to. The head also had a twitching to it – might be caused by a neck wound “Don't pity me! Keep fighting!” she announced stubborn and flew wobbly away “You are welcome!” Twilight shouted and followed quickly after.

Celestia meanwhile stood on the stallion's tail, but without engaging him on her own.

A glance over furrowed shoulders revealed the grace of Equestria was glued to his hooves, following everywhere, no matter how often he switched directions or broke through walls in order to create shortcuts concealed from purple eyes... but without to much of a success.

How!? -hammered in his head “How couldn't pony's see them for who they were!?” while heat seemed to reach the point, on which he basically crawled through the open desert, the sun literally following in his back “gah!” another beam hit the neck, causing the rushing hooves to tilt into a pole “powwwwnnn!” flattening it and stumble, which allowed for another zup zup zup! Of white fire to be cast; hind-leg, shoulder and barely missing an ear!

Celestia's aim had about a thousand years more practice then Luna's -and it showed!
Every strike either let her target either stumble or hit directly on whatever she assumed to be weak points, mostly going for joints and the head – zup!

“GHN!” - another mark by self-righteous royals! “Gnnr-rwwwWWWAAAAAAH!”

A skyscraper was charged head first, rushing through the entrance-hall and several thinner concrete walls like hoof-ball players tearing through paper banners on the start of a game.

Breaking free, the horse flung around immediately to go for it again! Head first hitting the thick wall to smash even more dust and debris onto a stack of tables nearby, which then were knocked aside as the raging bull aimed for pillars in the middle of the room...

Princess Celestia didn't bother to point out the obvious towards her arriving friends. Chunks of glass flung rattling onto the street, as rubbish landed on the street. Stacks of wood and pieces of fabric flew in random directions, making it rather easy to follow the horse moving around, trying to chew through the building like a termite, leaving it ramshackle. A fact one could easily miss, but not for long.

Twilight gained distance, opposing to Celestia, nearby the shaky sister, when a growling noise echoed through the nearby streets “Huh... what was that?”

At first it was hard to notice, but then the office tilted more than a meter sideways and sped up in its decline, trying to gather speed as it happened “Oh no you don't!” but purple magic countered the process immediately, yet there was already an eight meter gap and the noise beneath signaled that it wouldn't get any easier. Twilight had to pull it back! ...or at least slow it down somehow! “Gnnhhh!”- using big chunks of energy to prevent the impossible, if only... the others... would help... to...

“Let it fall!” Celestia shouted.

“... but t-he City!” Twilight squeezed out.

“Let it FALL!” she repeated even more strict!

“-if I could ju-...” she tried to argue with flickering magic. Tons of concrete tried to slip away, while a glance revealed the angry expression on her mentor's face.

“NOW!” Celestia shouted – and the light vanished.

Twenty-two floors rapidly tilted – smashing minor houses nearby flat as pancakes, under constant rambling and dirt being thrown upwards; creating the perfect escape route, flooding nearby streets with a constant expanding cloud of dust, like a mudslide.

Despite the moderation, Twilight didn't let take it from her to cast another wind spell however, but adding a twist to it: instead of blowing the howl mess from A to B, air was pushed straight downwards alongside every bit of dust -instantly clearing the area within a hundred meter radius... for a start. This way he couldn't hope to sneak away in any direction.

A first glance checked right around the cleared radius, but instead of finding the horse running or even sneaking at its edge, the dull gray construction stood right in the middle of the crumbled skyscraper!?

Starring upwards, as if these steel-blue eyes tried to get into their heads.

The alicorn's circled slowly above, while sight followed the ones passing by in front. Like a duel on sunset, everypony waited for the opponent to do it's first move and it was once again Luna to go for the draw!

A beam of blue light shot down with a harsh hissing sound, which was quickly avoided and replied with a huge chunk of thrown concrete – forcing the mare to make a quick maneuver in order to avoid a devastating impact; followed by more charges of Celestia and Twilight with similar result; forced to dodge or vaporize whatever came flown at them. Stone, steel, wood and even bureau articles, such as a plastic plant!?

The war-machine didn't hold still for an instant, running zig-zag, performing jump roles and picking up whatever touched hooves; throwing it at them and rushing behind crumbled walls, while pesky alicorn's used a rapidly increasing amount of magic to blast everything to dust and ashes, while Twilight kept performing this handy wind spell once in a while, whenever the battlefield was to clocked up to see a thing.

“We have to corner him!” Celestia shouted, since for every three beams fired, only one or two actually hit. Continuing like this, they would be out of breath and magic long before they could rain on his parade, which meant either a lot more of his kind or something even worse they didn't want to find out! As much they knew; this could already be stallion two or even five! They were look-alike, so it wouldn't come to much of a surprise when another one would show up out of thin air, pushing the envelope to finish this quickly.

Then the tormented anvil slipped once more inside the remains of the skyscraper, after which all mares ceased fire, not willing to waste another drop of magic on concrete. All of which look at their sweaty companions, trying to fetch their breath.

“You fough-t them be-fore, do they... have any weak-nesses!?” Twilight gasped, but Celestia shook her head “-no, but maybe we can creat-e one!” the wise alicorn suggested “Twilight, I want you to cast Black Ice directly at him, after I used Phoenix Flame-” an idea which instantly made sense towards the student! The metal would stretch, retract and crack! If done right. Once the metal was through, they sure could destroy whatever kept this thing going, ending this nightmare for good. A thought causing both of which to smirk confident.

“ENOUGH!” Luna shouted enraged, unwilling to put up with magic-kindergarten “THIS- ENDS- NOW!” with that said, the mare got into a spiral diving motion, landing near where they had seen this piece of scrap last.

Legs were spread into a battle stance, one of which had to be dragged into position, as she prepared herself to cast a spell of her own. Not just any spell, but thespell!

The night-princess had created it just for this reason but never came around to actually use it in battle. Back then her all-knowing-sister talked her out of it, claiming it was “to dangerous” since you couldn't it cast on the fly... -the built up was too lengthy... -it would leave one open to attacks... and many more empty phrases coming from a mare, from which she clearly couldn't learn any more.

Crackling static began to dance around the younger sister, causing all her wounds and marks burning painful as if hooves worth of salt were rubbed into them “Grhn!” it grunted, despite strained efforts to contain such pitiful noises. Salty sweat running into her eyes didn't help either, but this too was ignored... trying to hold this stiff pose, while searching for signs of movement – feeling how might and vengeance built up in her horn!

It felt like an upcoming storm, which once it arrived, would tear her enemy's to SHREDS!

“Come to your sense sister! You are taking it to far!”

“Sacrifice has to be made” Luna mumbled in reply.

“What is she going to do?” Twilight wondered, irritated by Luna's stubborn behavior.

“She will cast Crescent Light, an incredible destructive spell!”

“... then... she can stop it?”

“She will destroy everything – not just him!”

Celestia didn't waste any more time for explanation's and told Twilight to keep guard from above, before going down herself in order to talk, once more, sense into her sister.

“Luna! It's enough! I won't let you cast it!”

“Than sto-p me...” the mare replied bitterly through teeth, before eyes wandered back to the ruins, searching for signs of the tin-can.

“You will burn this town to ashes! We will find another way, but what you are doing is wrong!”

“...”

“Luna! Listen to me!”

No response.

“Princess!” a warning echoed from above, when they noticed the stallion, slowly stomping outside the ruins into the middle of the ravaged road.

“Yha!” Twilight shot a purple beam at his side! Spoof! - bursting harmlessly in strokes of blinding light, some of which leaving burn marks on the road.

The horse, however, didn't even flinch.

It was in this moment when magic flashed before the princess's eyes, she saw it!

For a fraction of a second, the world around the white mare turned black. The concrete beneath became a burned meadow. There were icy hills on the horizon, partial hidden behind columns of smoke, causing the air all around to be thick and rough. A soldier nearby cried a comrades name in vain, as the flickering mirage caught Celestia's attention. The Crystal Empire. It would be the last time before they wouldn't see it for another thousand years, when a sinister last laugh was given from the defeated King, laying it's shadow upon the land... - to vanish at the blink of an eye.

Thousand's of pony's torn out of existence.

Celestia often had felt that they could had done more to protect them.

Acted sooner, more distinct. The way Luna told her to... a mare, her sister... which too would fall to her struggles... turn into a monster... and vanish. It truly was her fault!

“Luna is right... there has a line to be drawn” it whispered assertive, as burning hatred charged forwards! “GYAAAH!” Celestia answered in the form of Prismatic-Lightning!

A wild mixture of magic; wattled into a single stream of constantly swapping colors, every one of which having another effect “-zush!” it hissed, as a first stroke hit like a flaming whip, causing sparks to fly in every direction “-zuosh!” metal has been covered in ice all of a sudden “-zuw-ush!” to be hit by flames again, shot away in crackling lighting to cover the horses entire body “-and this line shall be ME!” blue strokes caused a massive shortcut to unleash the built up electricity in a lightning strike to the sky!

Flashes of light being observed by pony's holding on to one another, hiding as told far away from town, as even the smoke columns couldn't hide the unleashed energy “I can't believe this is happening” a co-worker told a friend “Man, I wish I could down there...” another mumbled, feeling muscles tense “You have to stay here” a hoof gently reminded, bringing attention back to the son “I guess you are right...- and I bet they will show this monster” the last line was directed towards the young pegasus, with a rumble of the mane.

The purple mare landed next to Luna, quickly creating a powerful forcefield in order to shield them from collateral damage such as flying debris and misguided magic strokes, trying to break through the purple bubble and twist the pony's nature inside out!

Yet the horse kept fighting itself through this barrage of blinding lights, having to break free from the ground turning back and forth, as the color-swapping beam liquefying tar, racing strokes of light left behind strokes of quicksand framed by bushes of grass and made the horse walk across broken shards, when sand dissolved bubbling into Quicksilver and hardened! “GAAAHHHH!” just before Celestia's magic began to cancel itself out! -the beam-swapping gray – rainbow and black in an instant, blasting everything behind the metal rump into oblivion! Letting everything within a meter radius simply sees to exist, as the beam shot in a flat angle into the ground before fading a hundred meters beneath, trying to bury another monstrosity refusing to be buried and forgotten...

“I....c...ann't...” Celestia gasped, before she had to let go all of a sudden and swap to more conventional magic instead: quickly picking a four-meter steel beam out of the ruins and smashing it into his sides from left to right, like she was about to swing a baseball bat, till he got a hold on it and tore it out of the exhausted magic grip, throwing it right back at her- wiping the older sister of her hooves and against the forcefield, which broke upon impact “PRINCESS!?” Twilight shouted, kneeing herself to put her hooves around the mare “-p...pro-ect- .una...” it muttered.

He was not even ten meter's away, wading through the tar-pit, which Celestia had created, yet already getting quicker again, when a glance revealed Luna seemed almost ready!

Eyes shun bright white; a testimony of uncontrollable magic built up inside!

“ASIDE!” Luna shouted, as the purple alicorn did as told and vanished alongside the sister in a burst of purple sparks, leaving Luna on her own – his dirty hooves about to rise...

She had to cast it -now!

Luna was twice.

Once to the head – breaking the spell in a burst... and once to the chest! - sending the mare hard to the ground, causing fragments of the charge to be released in a rapidly expanding ring. A black ring with blue shimmer, harmlessly passing through everything like a ghost... leaving nothing more than fine slits... and scratches... followed by a flimsy whistling, carried away by the wind.

The stallion felt far more than pleased, grinning victoriously at the unconscious alicorn!

Finally! He had faced those monsters and defeated them! By the lights! This had to be the greatest moment of his life... -HA! … a thousand and three years he had waited for this... giving payback! GAH! … - nopony could conquer what he and his friends had built!

Laughable that a mare like... like this... c-coul... cou-l-l-ld treii to... t- his head lowered in a stuttering motion towards his chest, when the whistling from before returned, laying layers of noise over one another, like the first waves of a Tsunami approaching... to ramp up into a high-pitched shriek, which got through his skin all the way shaking metal bones, while all around things began to move by themselves.

A street sign began to glow bright red in its middle, after which the upper half tilted and fell rattling to the ground. Wooden pieces spontaneous caught fire. Buildings burst around the lines as if they were packed full with explosives and crumbled to ruins, while the high-pitched shriek echoed along with the noise of destruction, as the howl district sank into the ground beneath thick layers of smoke.

Every window in town had been shattered as the magic wave slowly dissolved outwards, reaching the town's borders, cutting unnoticed single blades of grass, before vanishing completely. The only sound after this was the ongoing roaring of buildings which weren't done collapsing, burying many memory's along with them... except the one supposed to.

After a while, the dust clouds slowly became thinner, giving away the dimension of destruction to everypony nearby. The entire area had been brought down to ground level.

Not one stone still stood on the other... behind that, many buildings leaned tilted at one another. A single skyscraper had been hit diagonal, slid a third along the cut line, but luckily stopped afterward. A third of Tall Tale ...mere ashes.

In the middle of it, a bulky hoof rose in disbelieve, touching the impossible.

There was... a deep cut in the middle of his chest, running almost all the way to his left foreleg!? She had... damaged him!? - HOW!? His outer skin... it was magic proof!?

He could feel the caused damage; this numb burning on the still red glowing edges... the broken parts inside... lose of liquids, pumping out of his artificial veins into a hollow chest... and worst of all, the realization to fail his mission, because of them...

- no, it wouldn't end like this! It couldn't end like this! No! Nonoo! NOT AGAIN!

The stallion huffed stertorous, while raising forelegs as high the jagged bones allowed, like a jumper from a set of chess, readying to bring down his entire weight in one stomp to set this mare: check-mate.

“Don't!” a voice reached his ear, freezing the body in motion, declining his every command.

“Gnaahh!” pain suddenly followed, like a sting piercing head and chest, causing the brown body to lose control, as it crumbled motionless onto the white abyss “GARKkkksh....” pain!? Metal couldn'tfeel pain...! This body wasn't... “Ghnn!” … couldn't be!

“... don't h-urt me...” - the voice returned shivering, as his own laid on the twitching on its side “!?” the sight rose, pushing away the pulsating agony, which kept kicking.

Eyes widened, as the second impossible moment happened in front of his eyes... “M-muse!?” it stuttered, as a hoof rubbed along the brown snot “It c-an't be!?” it gasped, starring at a shivering white body, with brown mane and blue eyes... ! IT MUST BE HER!

As joy washed across his face to see her again “How is that even possible!?” as the head sunk again “Hnng!” trying to deal with those unexplained impulses rushing through this realm they sat in “Don't go~ just... gimme a moment” it coughed, as he felt afraid to leave her out of sight, as the anguished face pressed onto ground. This was so exciting! How long he had waited for this to happen!? And now it just did! ... all without magic or machines or anything like that!? A miracle! Just keep your eyes on her, so she can't vanish again! – was a constant mantra going through his head. Repeating like a broken record.

Last time he had heard this voice, it was... when was it? ... so long... it must be... yes, after they gave the plans to Sombra's administrative... just before they would hoof over the prototype and... Muse would... did... was gone...- “Gnnn~!” the pain came back even stronger, as he glared upon the mare sitting idly nearby. Muscles tensed painfully, enough to press imaginary air out of the horse's lounges, as well coolant out of the real body “Muse!?”

The call was ignored.

It looked like the otherwise helpful mare drowned in self-pity... fears and... didn't care at all about his suffering... “Muse!? Wh~y!?” it gasped, trying to hold on to the though. The picture of this mare, the most selfless and strongest pony he ever met. He missed her so much, wished so hard to see her again... listen to just a few words. Advice. Direction. Anything!? … how could that be her then!? It was just a shell, an empty shell like himself!

“Y-ou ain't her!” Tenet barfed “The-real one... never woul~GARGg...” his jaw grinds to add a hissed “You ain't real- a me-mory... a fake!” adding a silent “...just like me”

“S~ister, where are~you!?” Muse whined, except that... Muse didn't had a sister.

A huffed “I knew- it!” was pressed out. It was just another one of THEIR tricks!

The head now tried to take focus away from the fake, searching for the endless horizon.

The picture was grainy, the colors were muted and the world seemed deaf.

Tenet could see the blue mare still laying in front of him. Dazed and barely able to hold eyes opened, mumbling nonsense and names, just like the fake did! A marionette!

Probably an attempt to get under his skin. Literally... “Twi-light!?”

- suddenly a bright flash let another one appear out of nowhere, yelling at him in anger and sorrow, before crackling magic let the mare vanish, taking the other with her.

“Ughhh...” as the pain faded away within seconds, allowing for the brown mechanic to pull himself onto his flanks. What a relieve! ... two hooves pressed onto the face to gather himself for a second “How- could they!?” it sighed “Lights be damned...”

“Huh?” hooves lowered to get on all four.

The fake, it was still here? It didn't give a sound, but it still sat there... silently. No strings attached. “Hey... you?” an attempt was made, which felt curious. Kinda like talking to your reflection.

Which was not too far away from the truth actually, given nopony else should be able to enter this realm... probably? It was, in fact, something they never tested. Why would they? Making it work had been tricky enough, even without trying risky nonsense, like sticking two pony's into one element. Might as well pour water and oil together! Lovely thought.

“You think this is funny!? You got any ideawho this was!?” anger rose quickly.

It was one thing to do what they did, but messing with his memory's – these in particular...!? Far over the line! As if those pony's hadn't the slightest decency in their body's! Torturing the ones he had loved the most... - MONSTERS!

“HEY! I'M TALKING TO YOU!” it barfed, frustrated that this thing wouldn't crawl back to it's master ...or subconscious – whatever! Just out of his sight! “I said...” “-Hahaha!” echoing laughter cut him off, as tone and mood changed drastically “WE SHALL- DESTROY YOUU!” it announced exactly like this darn princess! “Oh no you don't!” Tenet backed up a step, as the puppet already turned... “What in the -stars name!?” it gasped in horror.

Whatever it was, it had the night princesses face... yet slick like a snake, lacking many of the fine lines which would define this pretty face of hers... featuring black eyes and sharp green pupils, while fur began to ooze like oil of its body into a puddle beneath, like rotting off its flesh - disgusting! A stitched-together monstrosity- “RWAAAH!-AAH!” that suddenly jumped at the stallion, which snapped back and hooves upwards – feeling a sting as sharp teeth buried into damaged foreleg in an attempt to tear it off like a wolf, shaking head from side to side to the point green blood was splattered onto the concrete bits “GAHH- GET OFF ME! GET OFF!” his mighty hoof tried to bash the thing's head in, slamming against the metal surface “Pung! Pung!” while its body wound itself all around him like a snake would – causing rolling over the ground and smashing his back into concrete chunks! -punk,chrrk, ponk, chrrk- noise, before shuffling panting on his stomach for a couple of meters through half liquid tar... eventually coming to a halt “-what in the!?” brown eyes scanned all around, as did the steel blue ones in an attempt to ape his motions.

Left – right!? Two heads turned delayed to one another... - finding... : nothing. White concrete. A horizon of muffled – black? Gray? White? Wait, what? Why black all of a sudden... where did that come from!? Did he see double or tripled or what!? A motion scratched along his head, revealing shortly more of the gray horizon, which then went black again. All of which going vertical and split in half. As if... on his side?

“Ugh... piece of junk” it mourned.

At some point, they should have improved senses. Knowing that half your face was buried in boiling tar could been- maybe, just maybe- a useful information!? As if being cursed hadn't been bad enough... there were so many conflicting ones had to be aware of at all times.

The horse pulled itself upon the remaining pillars to give another glance all around.

Inside, as well outside... checking nervously for any sort of attack or twisted appearances.

These sick pony's! ...apparently, nothing was sacred... one just had to look at what they did to their own land! Turned to dust! Not to mention what they had done to his land... or him... his friends... maybe even... King?

It baffled his mind how these ponies could decent to such lows and be called rulers of anything! Being praised!? Celebrated and hold up as symbols of -what again!? Lights sake! This land was full of crazy idiots! He had to get out of here! Yesterday!

Gathering speed as fast as three hooves allowed for, admitting defeat, yet keeping sanity!

Author's Note:

Yikes o-o This spell makes mane cuts redundant!

Anyhow, one detail i gotta smirk a bit about, you can find in the MLP movie.
It is the first instance in which (as far is i can recall) you can see magic proof metal in action for the first ime! => Twilight's cage!
Certainly, Tartarus has cages too, but you never saw how the magic actually 'glistered off' ...- so seeing this, i was like "no way!"

Kinda a big deal to me personally, because until then all i have seen/read about were either just cuffs or magic inhibitor (rings).
Just to make one thing clear: no, i don't think i was the only one thinking of something like it and it was kinda obvious to be part of the MLP universe lore (given the number of magic users)... not trying to take credit or anything :p

Just saying it was kinda cool to see something like this suddenly on the big screen, the way it was imagined so long ago- knowing that someone had the exact same picture in his/her head ;3

-and in order to get back to the story: only Twilight seemed to remain level headed, while even Celestia let herself get dragged into a head-on battle they clearly couldn't win. Not without stepping over some serious lines! ... but that's anger for you i guess.

Not saying i never done something dumb myself, when mad... or in general :x