Magic of the Heart

by Pegasus Rescue Brigade

Chapter 19

Many miles away, in an airship hangar belonging to the Royal Equestrian Navy, a big pinto earth pony and his wiry batpony companion crouched behind a large stack of crates.

Pipsqueak eyed the docked airship from his hiding place. During his hoofful of months in the navy, he'd only been aboard one once, for over-land transport between two far-off naval bases. The one here was far more impressive, though. For the most part, it was built like a sailing ship, with sturdy wood sanded and varnished to a polished sheen. But instead of sporting masts like the ships the stallion had spent most of his first assignment on, this one was suspended by a few ropes that tethered it to a massive, ovular balloon. Fin-like metal structures were fixed to the sides, with a rubber webbing stretched tightly across them, adjustable from within the craft to catch the wind and change course in midair. Two large propellers sat still and silent at the ship's stern, though they looked like they could generate a lot of momentum if one were to get them running. Compartments beneath the bow concealed heavy weaponry; this was definitely not a ship built with pleasure cruises in mind.

"Pip, dude, I just want you to understand how crazy this plan is..." Scoville whispered, closing one eye and peering between the crates with the other.

"Are you backing out, then?" Pipsqueak asked, trying to keep his large frame confined to the shadows as much as possible.

"What? No! Are you kidding?" Scoville cackled. "This is like, the most badass thing I've ever seen anypony try to do, and you know I'm two-hundred percent on board with excessive badassery. You always seemed like a model cadet though, so I'm making sure you're aware of the consequences this is gonna have. If you pull this off, they're gonna court-martial your sorry butt faster than you can say dishonorable discharge. Just lookin' out for you, bro."

"Scoville, all of Equestria is in danger, and the navy is paralyzed by political red tape since there are no princesses to approve any sort of operation," Pip reminded him. "Not to mention, Dinky and her friends are in danger, and they're going to need all the firepower they can get."

"Yeah that's fair, saving your girl is a good motivation," Scoville said, nodding sagely. "I'd do some crazy, stupid stuff too if I needed to rescue a pony with a butt as great as hers."

Pip resisted the urge to give his crewmate a shove, but only because he knew the sound would probably get them caught. "Focus, Scoville," he hissed. "All I need you to do is create a diversion. Make it obvious enough to draw the guards away for just a few moments, but not so obvious that they realize you were connected with what I'm about to do. Just get their attention in a normal, boring way; you just have to keep them occupied for a matter of seconds."

"I am neither normal nor boring," Scoville declared, flashing a lopsided, toothy grin. "So that might be difficult, just a smidge."

Pip frowned. "Well, if they realize we're working together, you could end up getting court-martialed too," he pointed out. "Reign it in a little, mate."

Scoville stretched his leathery wings and worked each of his knees, like he was warming up for a workout. "Alright, alright, I'll put on a convincingly boring performance just for you, mate," he agreed, playfully imitating Pip's Trottingham accent. "Don't screw this up, buddy. Oh wait, how do you ponies say it? Don't muck this up, old chum."

"Just go!" Pip growled.

Scoville clambered out the same window they'd both snuck in. A minute or so later, he entered again through the main door, in full view of the guard.

"Excuse me!" the guard captain, a gruff-sounding stallion in front of the airship, barked. "This is a private Equestrian military installation. You can't just barge in here!"

"I understand that, sir," Scoville replied, saluting the higher ranking pony as he waited for permission to come forward. "Sorry for not announcing my arrival through the proper channels. I'm Scoville Scale, a cadet of the twenty-third Royal Naval Division, with an urgent message from my commanding officers."

The guard stallion relaxed a bit. "At ease, cadet," he instructed. "What's the message?"

"The troops stationed nearby need to be aware of new risks, sir," Scoville continued, surprising Pip with his confident tone. "There is reason to believe the situation in Canterlot may be changing, and it could pose a threat to ponies beyond the city. If you'll step outside with me for a moment, I can show you the—"

"A description will suffice," the ranking officer interrupted, not moving from his post.

Scoville flinched. "Err... well sir, it's a bit hard to explain," he stuttered, more hesitantly than before. "I think it would be easier for both of us if we—"

"You shouldn't need to explain a thing," the guard captain said angrily, cutting the batpony off once again. "If you have a message from your commanding officer, you would've been told exactly what information to relay. Now do you have information, or not?"

Pip bit his lip. The guard had called Scoville's bluff.

"I... w-well, yes sir, of course," he mumbled. "Y-you see, there's... um..."

At that moment, a strange rumbling began to fill the air. In just a matter of seconds, it grew much louder. Pipsqueak looked out the window behind him and watched in shock as churning red clouds, pulsing with pink lightning, quickly cloaked the whole evening sky.

"What in Tartarus is that!?" the guardpony gasped.

"Uh...the thing I've been trying to warn you about!" Scoville cried, pointing outside the hangar. "Some kind of magical storm is building fast! We don't know what's causing it or how dangerous it is, so you need to get your troops to cover! Now!"

All the guards rushed to the main doors to get a better look at the chaos unfolding above. Recognizing his chance, Pip dashed as quietly as he could across the hangar and galloped up the ramp onto the airship. Mercifully, the interior was laid out just like a sailing ship, and he found his way to the bridge in moments. Peering out the window in front of the wheel, he saw a few of the guards starting to make their way back into the hangar.

"No time to trifle about, then," he muttered under his breath. "Let's go."

The young stallion slammed a hoof on the button to send the signal to open the roof of the hanger, and quickly began to turn the crank to retract the boarding ramp. A blaring alarm sounded outside the ship, and he heard a few of the surprised yells of the ponies below as well.

The ceiling parted, its two halves sliding back on wheeled tracks and revealing the open sky. Pip stared, dumbfounded, at the supernatural storm swirling above, and as the ship began to rise, was even more stunned to see that it had spread from horizon to horizon. With a grunt, he gave the vessel's wheel a spin, bracing himself as the floor leaned slightly to one side. The nose of the ship slowly turned to face the glowing pink sphere in the sky that contained Canterlot. It was clearly the epicenter of the storm; the red clouds billowed out in all directions from directly above it, and the rose-colored lightning flashed around it almost constantly.

The world fell away as the airship reached cruising altitude. Pip glanced at the hangar far below, and tried not to think about the emergency messages concerning an airship hijacking that had probably reached numerous other naval installations in just a few minutes. There would be time to worry about the fallout of his actions later; ponies lives were in immediate danger, and given the spreading storm, it was obvious the action in Canterlot had already started.

"Hold on just a mite longer, Dinky!" Pip cried as he pushed the throttle lever as far as it would go, and heard the propellers roar to life behind him. "Help is on the way!"

---

The rumbling of magical thunder, and the distant cries of ponies in the heat of battle, echoed throughout Canterlot.

Honeydew was oblivious to all of it. At this moment, the whole world was this tiny, ruined courtyard, and the young stallion panting weakly as he lay sprawled on the cobbles.

"S... Scuffle, w-why did you..." she rasped, trying to find the words. "You knew you would get hurt if... I mean, maybe Dinky could've..."

"There wasn't time," Scuffle answered, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I noticed at the last second. Dinky was fifty pony-lengths in the air. I didn't think about what might happen to me. I just knew I needed to save you."

Honeydew bit her lip. "W-well, maybe it's not so bad," she ventured. "I know it's a deep cut, b-but I could try a healing spell and—"

Scuffle snorted, and apparently immediately wished he hadn't, judging by the wince that followed. "It's a bit more than a cut, Dewey," he replied, with a clearly pained tone to his voice.

"How can you be so sure if you won't let me see?" Honeydew whimpered, motioning again for Scuffle to roll over, but afraid to actually touch him for fear of hurting him more.

She was met with a blank stare. "You saw what happened," he said flatly, still keeping his underside against the ground as he lay there. "Healing spells are for cuts or bruises or minor illnesses, or maybe small fractures if you're really good. That spike damn near went right through me and out the other side. Nopony is gonna be fixing that."

"Then... j-just lie still, and save your strength," Honeydew continued frantically, trying to ignore the growing pool of red slowly extending out from beneath the colt and staining the cobbles. "Dinky and the others will stop Animosity, a-and then we can get you t-to the hospital. One o-of the surgeons can probably—"

"Honeydew."

Scuffle was barely audible, but his voice stopped her mid-sentence. Something about hearing Scuffle use her real name instead of the usual affectionate nickname always managed to command her attention.

"Y-yes?" she stuttered, meeting Scuffle's gaze and realizing his face had grown alarmingly pale.

Scuffle shakily slid a forehoof forward and tapped the ground, signaling her to sit. She did so, crouching down so their faces were close together.

"It's over," Scuffle said, his voice weaker than before. "You know it. I know it. So instead of pretending we're gonna fix this... can we use these last few minutes to say goodbye?"

"But—"

The colt looked at her pleadingly. "...Please?"

Something broke within Honeydew. She sank to the ground, tears streaming down her cheeks as she lay beside her fading friend.

Though it seemed to take great strength on his part, Scuffle lifted a hoof, petting her mane softly. "Dewey, I really have to thank you, you know," he murmured.

Honeydew tried to wipe her face, but new tears replaced the old ones immediately. "F-for what?" she sniffed.

Scuffle smiled faintly. "For being the thing that helped me become the pony I was meant to be," he replied. "When we were foals, the only thing I wanted was my brothers' respect. I never questioned why; growing up in a rough town with inattentive parents, their respect was really all I had to strive for, and if pickin' on ponies was the way to get it, then that's what I had to do. Dinky and Clarity wouldn't have made a difference themselves; when I fought them, they fought back. They continued that cycle of conflict that I thought was normal. I never would've known anything but that cycle if somepony didn't come along and break it."

"Dinky and Clarity were much faster to offer their friendship than I was..." Honeydew pointed out.

Scuffle coughed, and Honeydew winced as the colt's whole body reflexively seized up in pain for a moment. "N-not the point," he continued. "When I saw how I was upsetting you back then, it really woke me up. You were the pony who made me realize that I had the power to make my own decisions, that I could choose not to terrorize ponies just because somepony told me to. And that gave me the freedom to decide for myself what made me happy. So... yeah, maybe it all ended a little earlier then I planned, but... at least I got to spend a couple years being my own pony, instead of just a miniature copy of my brothers. And on top of that, I got to spend it with a pony I ended up really caring about."

Honeydew sobbed. "I d-don't want you to g-go..." she stammered. "I only j-just started to understand how I really f-felt about you, and how you felt about me. I kept thinking how great things were going to be once this crisis was over, and now..."

She choked back her tears long enough to lock eyes with Scuffle again. The colt was still giving her a bit of a sympathetic smile, although his chin was resting on the ground and the look in his eyes was growing more distant.

"...Now you can make sure you make it out of this and go be the best pony you can be," he finished for her. "Surround yourself with friends, put all those crazy magic talents to good use, stuff like that. You'll find plenty of happiness out there, I promise."

Honeydew had nothing to say to that. She re-positioned herself herself to lie next to him, unconcerned about the creeping crimson stains he left on her coat. For a few moments, she remained silent beside him, listening to his slow, ragged breathing, and feeling the warm foreleg still gently holding her.

"Y'know, there's something else I need to say," Scuffle mused. "I don't think I've said it in the proper words yet, so I better do that now."

"What's that?" Honeydew mumbled morosely.

Scuffle managed to lift his head, although the simple action made him shake with strain, like he was trying to move hundreds of pounds. Trembling, he leaned over and gave her the faintest of nuzzles as he whispered in her ear.

"...I love you, Honeydew. Even death won't change that."

Honeydew's breath caught in her throat. She looked at the colt, wide-eyed, with tears still wetting both cheeks. After a moment, she leaned forward to give a nuzzle of her own, first on Scuffle's cheek, then forward to his snout. It became a bit more than just a nuzzle as their lips came together, slowly and carefully, but lovingly all the same.

The kiss lasted only seconds, but Honeydew felt her heart thundering in her chest by the time it was over. She managed a sorrowful smile as they parted.

"Love you too," she whispered back.

In spite of everything, Scuffle grinned a bit as he returned his chin to the ground. "M-man, that was... p-pretty sweet," he mouthed, barely able to make the words anymore. "N-not a bad note... to go out on..."

Honeydew leaned against him, gently enough not to move him. There was another small moment of quiet.

"I... just wish we could've had more time for things like that," she confessed softly.

She waited for Scuffle to agree. He didn't comment.

"...Scuffle?"

Silence.

"...No... no, not yet..." Honeydew pleaded. "J-just a f-few more minutes! Not yet!"

Scuffle did not respond. Panicked, Honeydew put her head in front of his face. His eyes were closed, and though breath still came faintly, those breaths were growing more feeble and further apart.

Honeydew leapt up and placed her ear against the colt's side, listening. There was a pulse, but it was weak, a heart struggling to pump when it was running out of blood. Scuffle's consciousness had failed, and in a minute or two, everything else would as well.

The filly stood over her coltfriend, tears falling freely on his coat. Utter helplessness consumed her thoughts.

Is there really nothing I can do? In a moment, he'll be gone, and...

She thought about Scuffle's last words to her, and gazed upon the vague smile completing the surprisingly peaceful expression on his face. Even if he hadn't really had time to think about it, he'd laid down his life for her in a split-second decision, and didn't even seem terribly upset.

A new feeling of determination filled her.

Why am I just giving up!? she asked herself angrily. Even if I can't succeed, I've got to try!

Green light sprung up around Honeydew's horn as she prepared a healing spell. No healing spell she'd ever heard of would've come close to repairing this kind of damage, but suddenly, that seemed to be an insignificant detail. Although she knew it almost certainly wouldn't work, a sense of duty filled her mind.

He saved my life. I owe it to him to at least attempt to save his.

Honeydew extended her spell into the colt lying at her hooves, waiting to establish a magical connection with him. When it came, it instantly overwhelmed her.

Pain. No, agony. Her mind was quickly filled with the sensations of her friend, experienced remotely through the spell. She nearly lost her lunch as the shroud of weakness and injury washed over her senses and made her feel immediately vile.

Though the fact that she could feel anything at all meant Scuffle was, however briefly, still alive.

Honeydew grit her teeth and forced her mind to accept and adjust to the information being transmitted through the spell. She had to connect with him completely in order to do anything useful.

As she adjusted to the unrelenting pain, another, more subtle feeling struck her. In bizarre contrast, it was a warm and cozy sensation.

There's so much love and happiness in his heart, she realized. Even in these final few minutes, it stayed strong. Because... because of me?

Scuffle's heart said more to the young mare than his words ever could. She shook her head, trying to focus.

Now's not the time! Tend to the wound!

Honeydew's magic spread throughout the comatose colt's body, exploring the damage. The further she probed, the more horrified she became.

The flesh wound was hardly the problem. Deeper within, she sensed severed blood vessels, still spilling their contents with each struggling beat of Scuffle's heart. A lung had been grazed, a hole was punched clear though the upper stomach and at least one endocrine structure that Honeydew didn't have time to carefully identify, and the liver was shredded to the point that it was ripped nearly in two. Everywhere she probed, there was damaged, dying tissue, so much more than she could tend to at once.

I don't care! I'm not giving up!

Healing magic was special, even among unicorn spells. As a branch of life magic, it's effectiveness was based on how closely the target's heart was linked with the caster's. Honeydew focused on the feelings Scuffle's heart had communicated to her, and the ones her heart held for him. It worked to her benefit; when the healing energy began to flow, it was more robust and vibrant than any other time she'd cast the spell.

Even so, it was a losing battle. Much of the tissue was badly torn up, resisting the young mare's attempts to bring it back together. Multiple regions called for urgent attention at once, and none could afford to wait. Scuffle teetered at the very brink of death, as Honeydew desperately tried to prevent him from toppling over it.

No! It doesn't matter what it takes! I won't let you die!

A second cone of green light formed around Honeydew's horn, encasing the first one. A third, yet bigger cone, soon engulfed the second as well. Wisps of dazzling pale green encircled Scuffle, and he began to slowly rise up to eye level as Honeydew poured every ounce of her magic reserves out at once. She struggled to split her attention more ways, to apply her spell to more structures simultaneously.

Bits of tissue here and there were mending, but too slowly. Honeydew marveled that Scuffle was still alive at all; had she opted not to attempt the healing, he would certainly have passed by now. She held on to the faint connection with his heart for all she was worth. If she let it go for even an instant, she feared, it would disappear into the abyss and be lost forever.

And then, to her horror, the spell began to wane. Try as she might, she couldn't increase the power any further; there was only so much magic a pony could use without taking some time to recuperate, and her limit was fast approaching. The warmth of Scuffle's heart began to fade.

I... am... not... stopping!

Honeydew called upon every inch of her own body, drawing out whatever energy she could to create a little more magic. Pain began to build at her extremities. Not the vicarious, synthesized pain from Scuffle, but real pain in her own body as she taxed it to its very limit.

Her legs began to quiver, and sweat trailed down her face, mixing with the tears, but the glow around her horn grew brighter once again. She continued pouring magic into the pony in front of her, with an intensity unlike anything she'd ever dared to cast.

Her body began to fiercely object.

The pain rapidly grew more ferocious. Soon, it felt like every nerve she had was on fire, as her own body tried desperately to cling to the energy she was siphoning out of it to convert to more magic. She squeezed her eyes shut as her skull was filled with searing pain. The smooth, shining aura around her horn sputtered, occasionally fading for a moment and then surging back with a flash of green sparks as she slowly lost the ability to keep the spell steady.

"P-please!" she screamed to the empty courtyard as the burning pain stretching from her horn to her hooves grew white-hot. "H-hang on! Please! Scuffle!"

She cried out as the spell destabilized completely, breaking apart in a tremendous blast of lightning and green sparks that hung in the air for a moment, glittering like emeralds. The aura vanished in an instant, and Scuffle's levitating form dropped to the cobbled ground, limp and unmoving. Honeydew swayed in place, disoriented and overcome by pain, her eyes shut tight and her horn fizzling with sparks of a spell that had ripped itself apart.

Her thoughts faded into hazy emptiness. As she tilted sideways, her coltfriend's name, just a helpless whisper, escaped her lips one more time.

"Sc-Scuffle..."

With a soft thump, Honeydew fell beside the colt. As chaos continued to rage all around the capital, two ponies lay still and silent in the ruined courtyard.

---

"From your left, Ditzy!"

Ditzy jumped into the air as a snarling earth pony lunged at her. Her attacker landed off-balance, and Watt zipped in and gave her assailant a swift buck, knocking him over long enough for their small team to make their escape.

Cloudcover and the secret service were presumably holding off the tide of hate-stricken ponies somewhere behind them, and the rest of the group had broken off as well, leaving Ditzy, Breeze, and Watt searching for a safe haven to decide what to do next. It was beginning to seem fruitless, though; Canterlot's residents, under Animosity's control, seemed to be everywhere.

"We need to find somewhere out of sight, and off the beaten path," Breeze said as he quickly slammed a brass gate that was the only thing separating them from a furious, slavering unicorn that growled at him like a mad dog. "A cellar or something where they won't think to look for us."

Ditzy nodded quickly. "Canterlot's shopping district is up ahead," she pointed out. "I'm sure there are storerooms full of nooks and crannies there, where we can—"

"Ack! Ditzy, above you!" Watt squawked, jabbing a hoof skyward.

Ditzy caught sight of three pegasi dive-bombing her. At the angle they were coming in, there was no space in the alleyway for her to evade. Using the only route available to her, she leapt into an open window, slamming it behind her and galloping through some forlorn lobby before jumping out another window on the opposite side. Cautiously, she peered over the sill to see if she'd been followed.

Kaboom!

Pinkish lightning struck the parapet of the building looming above her, dislodging a large hunk of its facade. The pegasus jumped back as it crashed down in front of the window she'd just exited, blocking off her route back to Watt and Breeze. For a moment, she considered simply flying over the building instead, but the churning, low-hanging storm just overhead made that seem like a suicidal option.

I guess I'll have to find my way around it...

Keeping to cover, Ditzy scurried down the street, her heart pounding as she tried not to think about how much danger her loved ones all around the city were probably in.

As she tried to dart across a wide garden dotted with marble fountains, a familiar voice, positively dripping with malice, made her drop dead.

"Well, well. It's Ditzy Doo."

Ditzy spotted the glowing pink eyes first. Two pairs of them, watching her from the shadows. She tensed as two unicorns she knew very well stepped out of the darkness.

"Glow. Bright Spark," she acknowledged, slowing opening her wings to try to make a break for it as her two old nemeses began to circle her like sharks.

"Shut it Ditzy, you pathetic old nag," Glow snapped. "No matter how I try to exact my revenge, everything continues to work out for you! If I have to destroy you myself, I'll do it right here!"

Her old rival seemed oblivious to the situation that had befallen Canterlot, but Ditzy supposed that was to be expected. Animosity had wrapped these two up in their own hate so completely that they were blind to everything else. A pair of pawns in a chess master's game.

"Let's teach her a lesson now, and then go after that horrid abomination she calls a daughter!" Bright Spark declared.

Ditzy couldn't help but feel a little amused at the idea of a pair of thoroughly regular unicorns overcoming Dinky's power, but her mirth quickly vanished when Bright Spark cast a spell, encasing the pegasus in a binding aura. She struggled against the ethereal bonds as Glow approached her, horn glowing ominously.

"This is for all the misery you've caused me," Glow sneered as an attack spell began to grow, just inches from Ditzy's face. "Let's see if Breeze still likes you once I rearrange that face a little more!"

From the edge of the garden, a blast of pale purple magic burst from the darkness, aiming right for Ditzy's captors. Bright Spark quickly erected a shield to block it, but had to release Ditzy in the process, just before Glow could strike. All three ponies attention turned to the source of the spell, where a pink and purple pony stood in the gateway, glaring.

"Sparkler!"

"Two on one? That's hardly fair," Sparkler commented as she strode confidently into the open area. "Mrs. Doo, leave Bright Spark to me. She may be washed-up, but she was a brilliant unicorn mage once, and it'll take another unicorn mage to keep her at bay. You should be more than a match for my mom and her amateur spells, though."

Glow looked positively outraged. "You disrespectful little louse!" she shrieked. "How dare you talk about your mother that way!"

Sparkler calmly lit her horn, and a shimmering wall flickered into view, separating her and Bright Spark from Ditzy and Glow. "Good luck, Mrs. Doo!" she called. "Not that you'll really need it, trust me."

She turned and galloped away from the dividing wall she'd created, with Bright Spark hollering insults as she gave chase. Cosmic Glow watched them disappear, before turning back to Ditzy, red-faced.

"You've even turned my daughter against me!" she bellowed, lowering her head and scraping a hoof like a bull ready to charge. "That's it, Ditzy! You're dead!"

Glow released a volley of beams from her horn. Ditzy knew enough about magic from living with Dinky to recognize that they were too weak to cause any real damage, but they'd still be painful if they made contact.

In the past, she would've scrambled out of the way, wings beating madly as she tried to dive clear of the attack. Instead, she recalled what she'd learned in her combat training less than a day before.

Don't waste your energy. Make sure each movement has a purpose.

Ditzy sidestepped, letting the spells whiz past her. Glow clearly hadn't expected to miss, judging by the gawking stare the gave the mare across from her.

"Don't do this, Glow," Ditzy warned. "I'm not a violent pony, but if I have to defend myself—"

Glow screamed incoherently and leapt forward. Ditzy ducked low to the ground, dodging under her, and then spun around, ready to strike if need be. Glow scrambled to keep her footing as she whirled around and charged again. Ditzy stepped aside at the last moment and kicked out her back legs, feeling the hollow thump as her buck connected with Glow's side and knocked the unicorn over.

"Stop it! This is stupid!" Ditzy insisted.

Glow responded with a few more easily-evaded lasers. Ditzy took to the air and shook her head.

It's no use; Animosity's magic won't let her see reason, she realized. All she wants to do is fight, so I guess I have to fight back.

Glow released an arc of fire from her horn, but Ditzy swooped under it easily, flying with perfect precision thanks to the helmet correcting her vision. Moving how she'd been trained to at the base, she dove down to Glow's level and delivered a punch with her forehoof. Backed by the momentum of her flight, the blow sent Glow reeling. She was back in the air again by the time the unicorn got her bearings.

"Is that all you've got?" Glow barked. "As if some defective pegasus could actually punch me out! You're gonna have to try harder than that."

Ditzy waited for the next bolt of energy, and then angled her wings to the side to evade it. She stopped flapping, but kept her wings spread, controlling her trajectory as gravity took over and she dropped, hind hooves first, toward the ground. She had only a fraction of a second to see the shocked look in her opponent's eyes before she delivered a diving kick right to her jaw.

Glow hit the ground hard. For a moment, Ditzy hoped she would stay there, but the unicorn got up again, working her sore jaw as the pink sheen of Animosity's hatred flickered brighter than ever in her eyes. Past the point of talking— or for that matter, strategizing in any way— she simply opened fire with her horn once again, blind rage overshadowing all else.

It quickly became a pitiful display; between Ditzy's improved vision and her recent training, the "fight" was really nothing more than a repetitive cycle of dodge-and-retaliate. Glow's magic skills were feeble compared to those of just about any of the many Academy-trained unicorns Ditzy knew, so she simply evaded each well-telegraphed spell and responded with a strike that hit home every time.

Here was the unicorn that had tried, time and time again, to ruin her life. The same unicorn that had sabotaged her workplace, threatened her daughter, and nearly prevented her marriage. If anything, a chance to finally let out her frustrations and even the score should have been welcome, but Ditzy found no satisfaction in the blows she was landing. This wasn't justice, just a beating that she had no choice but to deliver.

Soon, Glow was ragged and bruised. Any sane pony would've given in, but it seemed she had no intention of doing so. She limped forward, growling, as her horn sputtered to life again.

Ditzy waited for the right moment. Just as the next sphere of magic was sent flying her way, she jumped into the air, flapped just once to close the distance, and dropped back down again, delivering a powerful right hook. She winced as she heard something crack.

Glow yelled, this time more in pain than fury, and collapsed, curling up as she hit the ground. Ditzy stood beside her, shaking her head.

"You're finished, Glow, at least for now," she said, leaning low to speak to the furious, injured mare. "It sounds like the hatred in your heart is the reason Animosity started to gain power in the first place. You deserve what you got... but I'm not the vindictive type, and neither are the ponies I care about. I won't leave anypony to suffer, not even a pony like you. If we can find a way to break Animosity's hold on you, we will. "

Glow scowled, but flinched when she attempted to move. She'd broken something for sure; she wasn't going anywhere.

Ditzy returned to an upright position. "Now, if you'll excuse me," she continued as she took to the air to pass over Sparkler's dividing wall, "your daughter just got me out of a sticky situation. I need to go repay the favor."

"Don't waste your time with that sniveling rat!" Glow spat.

Ditzy paused. "Despite your best efforts to ruin her, that 'rat' is ten times the pony you ever were," she replied.

Caught completely off guard by the insult, Glow could only stare. But Ditzy didn't take the time to meet her gaze; she was already on her way to help her friends, leaving her old nemesis alone in the darkened garden.

---

"What the matter, Bright Spark, can't keep up in your old age?"

A streetlamp to Sparkler's right exploded in a shower of sparks and metal as the old mare pursuing her continued to attack. She reminded herself that while Bright Spark was too elderly to be much of a physical threat, her magic was still very much so.

Not that it mattered. Her goal was to lead the ex-dean away and prevent her from hurting anypony. And continued taunting seemed to be working wonders in doing just that.

"Missed me again," she calmly pointed out as she ran. "I thought professors at the nation's most accomplished magic school were supposed to be good at aiming spells."

The distinctive "pop" of a teleportation spell reached Sparkler's ears, and she stopped short and encased herself in a powerful shield just as the old mare reappeared. "You think you're better than me?" she raged. "My school made you what you are today. I'm the only reason you can even claim you're any better than any of the other pathetic brats that ever studied there. So if you think you're such a pro, stop running and fight!"

As she finished her sentence, she released a magic-cancelling wave that quickly disintegrated Sparkler's shield. Accomplished though she was, Sparkler wasn't sure if her skills measured up to those of a pony with so many years of experience with high level spells. She swallowed her fear, determined not to give Bright Spark the pleasure of basking in her uncertainty.

"Sure, I'll duel you," she replied, standing her ground. "You first."

Bright Spark tossed her grey mane as her horn began to glow. Several large orbs of light formed at the tip, floating into the air like bubbles that hovered around the arena. Sparkler prepared to shield herself, watching the lights warily, but they didn't seem to be hostile. In fact, they didn't even radiate any particularly powerful energy signature.

"...What's this?" she asked finally.

Bright Spark smiled darkly. "This is the reason I can defeat just about anypony, even those who have more powerful magic than I do," she proudly explained. "Ever heard of a Localized Multipurpose Teleportation Matrix?"

Sparkler had heard of a great many things, especially when high-utility magic like teleportation was concerned, but this wasn't one of them. She slowly shook her head.

"I thought not. Only a hoofful of ponies in Equestria can even cast one," Bright Spark continued, looking increasingly menacing as the dozen or so spheres slowly circled the two mares' makeshift duel arena. "And oh, I'm going to enjoy using it to squash you like a bug!"

The old mare arched her neck, touching the tip of her horn to the nearest orb. Faster than Sparkler could blink, she was on the other side of the circle, launching an attack spell from an unexpected position.

Sparkler's quick reflexes saved her, and she stopped the energy blast with another shield. "That's it?" she asked skeptically. "It's a ring of drifting teleport nodes? Seems pretty useless in such a small scale. Why don't you just teleport the normal way?"

Rather than answer, Bright Spark tapped into one of the spheres again. This time, she didn't just move from one sphere to another; in the span of barely a second, she changed position ten times, spending a fraction of an instant at each of the many different points before finally firing a spell from one position at random.

Sparkler couldn't possibly predict it, and she was nearly knocked off her hooves by the ex-dean's attack. Bright Spark puffed out her chest triumphantly.

"For an Academy graduate, you're really an idiot," the old mare taunted. "Teleportation itself is instantaneous. It's the act of casting a teleportation spell that consumes a moment of time and draws upon one's magical reserves. But in this case, I've placed all the teleport magic ahead of time, and neurologically linked it all to myself!"

Sparkler instinctively raised a forehoof in a defensive posture. So it completely eliminates the startup time? she realized. Interesting... but not unstoppable.

She blocked a few more of her attacker's spells with what was left of one of her shields, watching closely as Bright Spark changed position again and again, searching for a pattern.

Sure, she couldn't guarantee her enemy's position at any given moment... but she could make a prediction!

There was a loud crack as Sparkler finally fired a single, focused attack from her horn, with as little preparation as possible, with the hope that Bright Spark wouldn't have time to perceive its position quickly enough to mentally adjust her course. It nearly worked; the spell missed by inches, but gave Sparkler the impression that the ex-dean definitely wasn't untouchable.

...At least, until her slightly-off-course spell disappeared into one of the shining orbs, and struck its caster in the hindquarters half a second later.

"Wait, what?" Sparkler gasped, wheeling around as if expecting to see another pony behind her.

"And here we have the best part," Bright Spark explained, sounding yet more sadistic. "I did say this is a multipurpose teleportation matrix. I don't just control my position with it. I can mentally reposition anything that enters it, including your spells!"

Sparkler's jaw dropped. She'd never seen teleportation magic used for anything of this caliber before. She suddenly felt a bit like a mouse, trapped in a cage as its cruel owner teased and prodded it as they pleased.

"That wretched Dinky Doo will always be the worst pony in my eyes..." Bright Spark growled, "but you, Sparkler, the Overseer who betrayed me in favor of that meddlesome wraith at the last moment, are a close second. Even if I can't get rid of her, at least I can take it out on you!"

She filled the air with spells of all kinds. Lasers and fireballs sailed through the air in all directions, disappearing into the various nodes of the teleport matrix, and exiting again from whichever angle Sparkler was not currently in position to defend against. The pink and purple filly was battered by an avalanche of attacks.

Gotta get away! Now!

Sparkler ran, and to her horror, the ring of floating orbs (and by extension, Bright Spark), moved with her, so that she always remained right at its center. Her assailant continued to fire off spells indiscriminately, and while some slipped between the teleport matrix and struck the surrounding buildings, most were swallowed up by it and redirected at Sparkler, who was rapidly running out of ideas to defend herself. Any spell she used to try to strike back missed its target as Bright Spark blinked effortlessly to a different position in the ring, before being hurled right back at her at her opponent's whim.

Sparkler's senses seemed out of control; the ex-dean seemed to be everywhere she looked, and a cacophony made up of the crackling of spells and the constant rumble of the magical thunder above made it hard to even think. A powerful laser, one she had never even noticed, let alone attempted to block, struck her in the side, and she toppled, feeling the wind knocked out of her as she hit the street. Gasping for breath, she gazed up blearily as the hateful mare loomed over her, preparing to attack at point blank range and looking oh so proud of herself.

"F-fine, you beat me," she panted. "Finish me off if you want. I'm not the important one here. Dinky's still more than a match for you, and she'll stop Animosity too, and save everypony whether you like it or not."

"I'll take what I can get," Bright Spark hissed, her horn glowing ominously as she pointed it at Sparkler. "Any last words?"

At that moment, out of the corner of her eye, Sparkler spotted somepony launch over the top of one of the nearby buildings. Though the pony was silhouetted against the angry red sky, their identity was still unmistakable. She grinned.

"Just two. Nighty night."

Bright Spark raised an eyebrow uncomprehendingly. "Nighty—"

Thwack!

With incredible momentum from her aerial dive, Ditzy delivered a flying kick that sent Bright Spark hurtling several pony-lengths across the square. For all her magical ability, she was still a physically old and frail pony, and by the time she landed in a heap on the street, she was already out cold.

The teleport matrix blinked out. Sparkler chuckled darkly, though she was still trying to catch her breath.

"Nice timing, Mrs. Doo. I take it mom wasn't much of a threat?"

"She's hurt, but she'll be alright," Ditzy said quickly, extending a forehoof to help the filly up. "Are you okay?"

"I've been worse," Sparkler dismissed as she staggered to her hooves. "I might've underestimated Bright Spark, just a little. If I had Presto backing me up, we would've managed."

Ditzy beamed. "Aw, look at you!" she cooed. "When I met you last winter, you never would've admitted aloud that you would be better off with somepony by your side! You've come such a long way."

Sparkler felt a rare feeling of warmth and realized a bit of a blush had crept into her cheeks. She quickly turned away to lead the way out of the plaza, changing the subject as she did so.

"So, are we finally even now?"

Ditzy's ear twitched. "Huh?"

"All year you've been going on and on about how you owe me for saving Dinky twice," Sparkler pointed out with a bit of a smirk. "Even after you helped me find Presto, you still said you're in my debt. So now that you just got me out of a real tight spot there, can we just say we're square and put this silly exchange of favors to bed already?"

Ditzy appeared to think about it. "Alright, alright," she conceded. "We're even. Now let's find Breeze, Watt, and Cloudcover before something else—"

The fur on the back of Sparkler's neck suddenly stood on end, and she silenced her companion with a forehoof as she felt a source of power approaching. "Stay still," she commanded, cloaking them both in an invisibility spell.

Several tense seconds passed, and then a chorus of eerie chimes reached the mares' ears. An imposing figure descended from the storm clouds, scanning the landscape as she gave off a haunting melody with each flap of her lattice wings.

"Animosity..." Sparkler whispered.

After a moment, the spirit of hate turned and flew off in search of her next victim. Sparkler ended her spell and noticed Ditzy looking at her worriedly.

"Glow and Bright Spark are one thing..." she pegasus mumbled, "...but how are we gonna beat her?"

Before Sparkler could answer, she sensed another source of magical power: one that felt almost as vile to all her senses as Animosity's did. She had only just enough time to look up before a dark-furred shape rocketed by overhead, leaving a trail of churning, inky smoke in the air in its wake.

"We can't beat her," the unicorn replied, watching the unmistakable being pursue Animosity. "But, if there's even a chance that Celestia was right... maybe Dinky can."

---

If the very earth itself could've shied away from the aura radiating from Dinky, it probably would have.

The wraith shot through the air like a rocket. The strange, malleable layer of darkness that Scorpio's pilfered power allowed her to create clung to her skin like a tight garment, except of course behind her, where it branched out to form two broad, black wings. Her crescent horn hissed and sputtered with dark magic, eager to be set loose. Smoke billowed off her body in waves as all the excess dark energy tried to find an outlet to leave her, and the shining violet mist pouring from the twin abysses that were her eyes left matching shimmering contrails for several pony-lengths behind her as she flew.

It had been less than a day since she'd first taken to the air of her own power, but the whimsy of the miracle of flight was no longer registering in her mind. The fabricated wings were a tool that she controlled with finely-honed magical skills, and right now their only purpose was to propel her toward her target.

Fear and uncertainty had vanished; blazing fury burned in Dinky's gut, and seemed to flow upwards and outwards through every pore in her body. The mountainous stores of darkness inside her thrashed and twisted like never before. Vile, corrupt energy that would effortlessly dissolve the tissue of any other type of creature pulsed in her veins. Imagery of the crystal spire piercing Scuffle's flesh replayed itself again and again in her mind, and her magic grew more and more restless with each repetition.

As she swooped low over the rooftops, she noted with casual interest that she was exuding a malignant aura, just as she had been when Animosity's meddling under the guise of Wishing Star had forced her to flee the Academy. The white stone that composed so many of Canterlot's buildings turned ashy and blackened as she passed. Trees dropped their leaves all at once, which curled and died before they even reached the ground, and branches twisted into unnatural, disjointed forms. Anything within several pony-lengths of her reacted as if it was exposed to some terrible, corrosive substance.

There was one difference between this time and the last, she noted. With so much of Scorpio's power now an inextricable part of her physiology, her dark magic was not out of control, not in the slightest. It was fully within her range of ability to rein in the deadly aura she was emanating.

But at least for now, she had no plans to do so.

As Dinky climbed higher into the air, soaring toward the swirling red storm clouds and blatantly ignoring the flashes of pink lightning striking all around her, she couldn't help but notice how clear her next move felt. Her pony consciousness was furious that her adversary had the gall to strike down her unsuspecting friend right in front of her. And similarly, her wraith instincts were really, really savoring the idea of ripping somepony limb-from-limb to vent her frustration.

For once, she realized, with a flicker of an ironic smile, conscious and subconscious are in agreement.

The churning blackness on Dinky's curved horn grew more unruly. Rather than silence it, she cultivated it, pouring her sorrow and anger into her magic as she rose into the sky. Purplish sparks and blanketing smoke spiraled around her like some kind of aberrant firework.

Way up here, ponies should be free of any collateral damage she might cause. Up here, she could cut loose. Not in the way she had in dark magic research with Professor Surge, or while honing her skills aboard the Black Seahorse. For the first time in her life, she felt truly ready to hold nothing back.

She tried not to think. This was no longer a time for thinking. It was time to end this before any more needless loss of life occurred. It was time to let her natural penchant for destruction take the wheel, because that's what it would take to set things right.

It was time for Dinky Doo, the pony, to step aside and let Dinky Doo, the wraith, into this battle.

She finally spotted her target, hovering near the zenith of the great spherical barrier that contained Canterlot, just below the lightning-addled clouds. A strange mish-mash of shimmering fur and glinting pink crystal, the being surveyed the besieged city, searching for her next victim.

"ANIMOSITY!"

Through some magic she hadn't even consciously employed, Dinky bellowed her opponent's name. Her voice's usual sinister hiss was amplified until it was more like a dragon's roar. The cry echoed through every corner of the city, bringing each and every pony, friend or foe, to a halt. All eyes turned skyward. For a moment, even the dull rumble of thunder seemed to quiet down a bit.

Dinky took a moment to scan the city below her. Many of the streets were filled with Animosity's hate-stricken puppets, but after a moment she spotted her allies, clustered in small groups around the capital. Breeze, Watt, and Cloudcover stared at her from the safety of a fallen pillar shielding them from the horde. Ditzy and Sparkler peered out from a narrow side street. After a moment, she even spotted Clarity, peeking out from some behind some rubble, with Inkwell still clinging for dear life to her back. Only Honeydew was nowhere to be seen, but that came as no surprise; Dinky suspected she was still right at Scuffle's side, although the doomed colt had expired by now for sure.

But there was no time for distractions now. She looked back up just as Animosity slowly pivoted in the air to face her.

"Oooh, somepony's grumpy!" the strange being mocked, putting on a fake pout. "What's wrong? Is the little wraith gonna throw a tantrum because I made her little friend into a shish-kebab?"

Her lighthearted tone made Dinky seethe. "Animosity, I'm going to give you exactly one chance," she growled through clenched teeth, holding herself back one last time. "Release the princesses, free the citizens of Canterlot from your control, and return the city to the ground, now, or Tartarus will look like a vacation paradise compared to what I'm gonna do to you."

"Oooh!" Animosity chirred, wiggling her hooves like a giddy schoolfilly. "I didn't know it would be this easy to bring out the monster in you! I wonder if you'll get even madder when another of your friends drops dead?"

She peered down at Dinky's few allies, holding their positions out of reach of the sea of ponies under her spell, and began to point at each with a forehoof.

"Eeny, meeny, miney..."

Dinky's temper, and her magic, boiled over. Black energy begged her to be set free, and she was more than happy to comply.

Animosity, of course, had been expecting an attack. What she hadn't been expecting was a beam of searing blackness the size of a train to explode out of Dinky's body. There was a thunderclap, not from the storm raging above, but simply from the force of air being pushed aside as the spell barreled into the malicious spirit. It sailed over the castle courtyard and struck Canterlot castle's highest tower, the impact blowing the whole upper portion of the spire apart and raining dust and rubble on the ground far below.

Dinky hovered in the sky, flapping slowly as she watched the haze of debris slowly settle. She was still bursting with energy, even though the laser she'd just produced was most likely the strongest dark spell Equestria had seen since the days or Scorpio. But somehow, she knew it probably wasn't enough. Not when it came to a being like this one.

The rubble lying atop what remained of the tower suddenly stirred. A few big bricks slid aside, and Animosity climbed out. She gave her lattice wings an experimental flap, listening to the eerie chime, and then rose slowly back into the air. Her giddy little smirk, Dinky noticed with some degree of satisfaction, was gone. She scowled as she floated closer.

"You've been busy since you left the Academy, I see," she snarled. "When you attacked me in the courtyard earlier, it was clear you'd gotten stronger, but I didn't realize how much stronger. So I hope you're prepared to suffer; if it's a real fight you want, it's a real fight you'll get!"

She turned to the city below her. "I didn't say stop!" she barked at the zombie-like masses. "Destroy them!"

Dinky had only a moment to see the hate-stricken ponies resume their march on her allies before the object of her fury was suddenly in motion. The wraith flapped hard and narrowly avoided a beam of jagged, reddish energy that shot from Animosity's crystal horn. It cleanly sliced the corner off one of the taller buildings downtown. There was no cracking, no blast, no debris; the triangular hunk of masonry simply slid off, as smoothly as a sharp knife through a ripe fruit, and crashed against the ground.

It wasn't the first time Dinky had steered clear of a clearly lethal spell, and she knew it wouldn't be the last. She also knew she couldn't afford to worry about it, even as she heard the panicked cries of her allies below, calling to her to be careful.

If I let this turn into a game of cat and mouse, that just gives me more chances to die, she thought grimly. I have to hold my ground and fight.

As she twirled in midair to face Animosity, Dinky recalled Scorpio's lesson in the Realm of Stars, and her practice sessions with her friends. Scorpio was a devious snake, but one piece of her advice had definitely proven true; the best way to come up with creative dark spells was simply to corrupt normal unicorn ones.

Alright then, Dinky thought, her lip curling up to expose her fangs as she grinned. Let's try a little dark transformation magic.

Dinky didn't dare try anything involving self-transformation; she usually couldn't even cast the typical version of such a spell, and even if she could, there weren't many options for her to transform into more deadly than a winged wraith anyway. Instead, she waited for one of Animosity's slicing spells to cleave another hunk of brick off a building as it tried to hit her. She grabbed it in her aura as she swooped by, and then turned sharply and ascended almost vertically.

"There's no escape!" Animosity yelled. "Hiding in the clouds won't save you! If the lightning doesn't get you, I will!"

Dinky disappeared into the storm, paying careful attention to her senses to avoid anywhere that energy was building into a bolt of lightning. With only seconds until the villain tracked her down again, there was no time to lose; she poured dark magic into the chunk of stone she carried, slowly modifying its molecular structure to allow it to contain the energy, rather than crumble to dust from its corroding effects. She dumped more and more energy into it, while strengthening it just enough that it was always just barely strong enough to hold its shape and not be overwhelmed by the explosive magic within it. When she finished, the otherwise ordinary block gave off a dull humming. She could feel dark magic, tons of it, just below the surface; it didn't look it, but the hunk of masonry was now extremely volatile.

She chuckled darkly. I've made a bomb.

Though she couldn't see through the gloom, strange melodies in the air signaled that Animosity was catching up. Wasting no time, Dinky tucked her wings against her sides and dove downward, out of the cloudbank and back into the airspace above Canterlot. She spotted Animosity just a fraction of a second before her opponent spotted her, and that was all the time she needed. She flung her hoof-crafted grenade across the sky, and braced herself. The spirit of hate spotted the crude projectile a second before it reached her and swung a forehoof at it to swat it away.

Or at least that was the plan, until her hoof made contact.

All the magic was released at once as Animosity's smack disrupted the delicate physical structure holding it back. An explosion of burning blackness detonated in midair, releasing a shockwave that sent Dinky tumbling backwards in the air and sent a shockwave throughout Canterlot, causing friend and foe alike to cry out as everypony below was knocked off their hooves by the pressure wave.

Animosity was thrown with such force that her body punched through the side of a white stone building, burst out the other side, and then through the side of the adjacent one as well. A trail of shattered flecks of pink crystal hung in the air where she had been an instant before. Dinky shook her head to clear the ringing in her ears and slowly floated closer to the ground. Though she could hear the others talking below her, she never took her eyes off the smoldering hole left by her opponent.

"That had to have done it, right?" she heard Watt ask. "I'm an expert at running into things at high speed, and even I wouldn't have lived through that."

"Any pony would have been pulverized," Cloudcover said warily. "Animosity, however, is no pony."

There was a shiver of movement in the wall that had swallowed up Animosity. "It's not over," Dinky called to her companions as she gained elevation again. "Stay alert down here. I'm not letting her hurt anypony else."

As she glided toward the half-imploded building, the spirit of hatred climbed out of the ruins. The impact would've reduced any typical pony to an unrecognizable pile of blood and bone, but she only looked lightly bruised, and seriously angry. Her crystal wings, however, were badly mangled.

She's grounded! Dinky realized. This is my chance!

Before Dinky could act, the skin on Animosity's sides and back began to ripple and bulge unnaturally. Pink crystals pierced through the flesh, though no blood or tissue followed behind them. They rapidly slid along the crisscrossing skeleton of her wings and affixed themselves wherever they were needed, repairing the damage. Realizing what was happening, Dinky unleashed another laser, but too late; Animosity returned effortlessly to the air as the building below her was vaporized by dark magic.

"You won't be getting rid of me that easily, Dinky!" she exclaimed. "Now let's see if you're as resilient as I am."

She waved a hoof, and Dinky gasped as an entire small shop from the fashion district was effortlessly pulled from the ground, raining clods of soil as it floated into the air. Another wave, and the whole establishment was hurled right at her.

Dinky's horn surged, using magic to power her wings as quickly as she could. She managed to avoid the massive projectile, which crashed down somewhere behind her, but Animosity was already in the process of throwing another. Given her position, there was no way to evade this one.

Instinct took over. Just before she was crushed by many tons of brick, Dinky's body completely dematerialized. The building passed harmlessly through the swirling cloud of smoke that remained before it coalesced back into a solid being. Animosity's eyebrows rose slightly.

"You're not getting rid of me so easily, either!" Dinky shouted as her body became whole again. "You can regenerate your crystals, but I can turn incorporeal! So I guess we're both gonna have to get more creative!"

Animosity continued to pelt Dinky with entire structures yanked from the city below, which admittedly did buy her time; the cost of dissolving into smoke meant momentary loss of access of spellcasting or any other ability that required a body. As she blasted through some of the flying buildings and dematerialized to evade others, Dinky desperately considered her options.

I don't know yet how extensive her regeneration abilities are. Maybe I need to try a spell from a subtler field of magic like... like magical biology!

Dinky turned to smoke a second before a sizeable statue of Celestia that had been tossed through the air passed harmlessly through the space her gaseous form occupied. She slipped through the air in amorphous form, sliding under and around and even through airborne debris until her black cloud of a body situated itself behind Animosity. Restoring her physical form as fast as she could, she tapped into a familiar spell to create a mental connection with the being in front of her before the latter could react. The mind-link necessary for magical biology spells was quickly established, though Dinky made sure not to delve too deeply into her target's mind. If Animosity really was a being of pure hatred, joining their minds too intricately was probably a bad idea.

There wasn't time to explore anyway. Dinky knew she had to strike before Animosity could sever the mental link.

If unicorn magic can cast healing spells through this channel, dark magic should be able to do the exact opposite!

In a fraction of a second, Dinky prepared the magic for a healing spell and poisoned it in her horn, saturating it with blackness until its nature was entirely reversed. Animosity barely had enough time to recognize what was happening before Dinky began pouring a horrific degradation spell into her body. The hate spirit screamed in a chilling mixture of pain and fury as she fell to the nearest rooftop.

Dinky's mind, and its decidedly pony sympathies, tried not to think too hard about what she was doing. Dark magic in its base form wasn't necessarily deadly; a unicorn's horn could channel it and the magic stores in one's head could contain it.
This spell, however, could definitely kill a normal pony, quite slowly and painfully as darkness seeped into their tissues and caused the cells to degenerate, literally un-healing the victim and eventually eating them away from the inside out.

Animosity thrashed on the rooftop, and finally broke the connection, but the damage was obvious; her fur had dulled and her body had withered, like she'd aged many years in a matter of seconds. She stared blankly at Dinky with bloodshot eyes. Dinky stared back, holding her fire for a moment and wondering if she would still try to fight.

"Vile little wretch," Animosity rasped. "I didn't think you had it in you to be that cruel. Impressive."

Dinky's wraith aspect felt a little surge of satisfaction. While she shuddered at the thought of using that spell on a pony, she couldn't deny that she craved vengeance for Scuffle's death, and seeing her opponent in a faded heap seemed to somewhat placate her more bloodthirsty subconscious.

At least, until the damage started to reverse itself.

Too stunned to move, Dinky watched the sheen return to Animosity's fur, and saw her withered limbs become strong and vital once again. She stood, smirking.

"What? Did you think I could only regenerate the crystal parts of me?"

"Wait, bu—"

Animosity fired a slicing spell at close range. Dinky couldn't completely get out of the way, wincing as it clipped her shoulder, leaving a deep gash. A few drops of black blood sizzled as they struck the rooftop. She flapped her wings as Animosity spread her own, and the two combatants rocketed back into the sky.

"Alright, fine!" Dinky barked, the sharp pain in her shoulder causing her simmering fury to begin to boil again. "That's the last time you'll see me hesitate. Let's see you regenerate when there's nothing left of you!"

She sailed under the crystalline monster and launched a beam of darkness upwards. Animosity avoided it, but the way it pushed the storm clouds above outward as it impacted the roof of the Canterlot barrier was a testament to the brutal power behind it. She released spell after spell, each with enough power behind it to incinerate a whole herd of ponies, but Animosity blocked or evaded every one. Fortunately, Dinky was equally good at avoiding the hot pink bolts of slicing spell being thrown in retaliation.

"Nimble little thing, aren't you?" Animosity growled. "You're awfully good with those wings for somepony who's not even a pegasus. Maybe I need to turn down the power in favor of something a bit harder to escape."

She raised a hoof skyward, and the blood red stormclouds began to swirl and writhe more than ever. Something began to precipitate; for a moment, Dinky thought it was rain, until she saw a red glint and realized the truth.

Tens of thousands of long, narrow, razor sharp crystals fell from the clouds, conjured with some spell Dinky couldn't begin to guess. They were upon her in an instant, and while they weren't nearly as deadly as Animosity's slicing spells, they were everywhere. She instinctively tucked her legs close to her body and kept her head down as the crystal rain left dozens of stinging nicks and cuts in her skin.

Don't panic! she urged herself. This is easy to deal with!

Dinky encased herself in a spherical field of dark magic, disintegrating each crystal as it passed through, and showering her with flecks of faintly reddish dust. "You expect to beat me with something this basic?" she asked, refusing to back down.

Animosity shook her head. "No, but I might finish off a few of your little friends," she said casually.

Dinky's stomach turned as she looked down at the ponies far below. Animosity was right; she was protected, but the others weren't!

The wraith turned tail and dove down, glancing over her shoulder in case her adversary attacked from behind. As she neared the ground, she saw the other unicorns take action.

"Over here!" Sparkler called, motioning frantically to Breeze, Watt, and Cloudcover as she erected a powerful shield around herself and Ditzy. The aforementioned stallions tried to cross the courtyard to the relative safety, but the crystal rain was upon them long before they got there.

"Keep low! Protect your face, wings, and other sensitive areas!" Cloudcover instructed.

Breeze tucked his wings as tightly against his sides as he could. Watt, whose thin cuts showed up well against his bright yellow fur, tried to hunker down as much as possible.

"They're not gonna make it!" Ditzy cried over the sound of shattering crystal hitting the stone. "Sparkler, can't you extend the shield?"

"I'm trying!" Sparkler insisted. "But the further I stretch it, the weaker it becomes. It it gives out under the strain of blocking those crystals, we're all done for!"

"No you're not!"

Dinky flew overhead, keeping her distance to avoid affecting anypony with her darkness, and hovered above the three stallions, her disintegrating field acting as an umbrella as the ponies below it crawled under Sparkler's shield and promptly collapsed.

"Ditzy, old friend, if you could please administer some first aid," Cloudcover said weakly. "There are bandages and ointment in my bags."

As Ditzy set to work helping her coworkers minor injuries, Clarity rushed over as well, keeping herself and Inkwell encased in a glowing dome of her own.

Animosity floated down slowly. The crystals seemed to change course in midair as they fell to avoid hitting her. She gradually approached, obviously savoring the cowering group of ponies for a few moments before her inevitable attack.

"Sparkler, Clarity, listen," Dinky hissed once everypony was safely under a shield. "No time to explain. Put Scorpio's rune on as many of these crystals as you can."

Sparkler looked at the thousands of red crystal shards lying in the street. "Huh?"

"Do it!"

"Listen to her," Clarity agreed, already using a spell to rapidly carve the small symbol into dozens of crystals. "She knows what she's doing."

Dinky stepped forward, keeping Animosity's attention off her allies. The hate spirit looked at her, shaking her head.

"You're a strange little wraith, aren't you?" she chided, as the crystal rain slowed and finally ceased. "I don't know much about dark magic, but I don't think most wraiths waste effort on helping ponies. That's going to be your downfall, Dinky. You can't save them from me, and if you expend too much energy on them, you won't be able to save yourself either."

With efficient magic, Sparkler and Clarity had added runes to hundreds of crystals in less than a minute's time. Dinky slowly floated up to face her opponent, showing no fear.

"You're wrong. These ponies are the reason I will beat you," she countered. "Just look at what I'm capable of when they help me!"

Dinky swept up hundreds of crystals in a great flurry of magic, so they orbited her like tiny asteroids circling a star. With a single, wide-reaching spell, she enchanted them all with dark energy.

"What do you plan to do with those?" Animosity asked skeptically, crossing her forelegs as she floated overhead. "If they couldn't stop you, what makes you think they'll fare better against me?"

Dinky's horn flickered, and a few of the crystals were whipped through the air at lightning speed. They stuck in Animosity's flank like darts, and each immediately discharged a burst of dark magic into her. Her body jolted as the malevolent energy zapped her, causing small arcs of black electricity to dance up her coat. She turned and blasted into the sky where there was more room to evade, but Dinky persisted, launching dozens of corrupt crystals in quick succession, many of which hit their target. The projectiles raced through the air, chipping Animosity's wings, tearing at her mane and tail, and afflicting her body with painful doses of darkness.

But it didn't seem to matter. Additional crystals slid out from under the monstrous mare's skin, repairing any damage as quickly as Dinky could deal it.

"Don't give up, Dinky!" she heard Clarity scream from below. "Regenerating like that is obviously consuming magic, which means she can't keep it up forever! You just have to outlast her!"

Animosity suddenly whirled around and released a shockwave of fiery energy. Dinky managed to shield herself, just barely, but all her remaining ammunition was reduced to glittering dust.

"Enough of this!" the malicious entity cried. "You're much fiercer than I could've anticipated, but even you can't endure something like this!"

Animosity threw back her head, pointing her horn skyward. The paranormal storm clouds overhead began to swirl like a hurricane. Dinky backed off out of necessity as a huge bolt of pink lightning descended from its center and struck Animosity's horn. It didn't vanish after a single strike, either, but created a sustained arc, as if energy was flowing between two electrodes. Animosity's whole body began to glow as the crystal elements of her anatomy filled with captured light.

"You're sturdier than the average pony," she growled, pointing dramatically at Dinky, "but there's not much you can do if I hit you with enough energy to rip every molecule in your body apart!"

She fired a spell from her crystal horn that absolutely dwarfed every one prior; it caused a deafening thunderclap simply by springing into being so quickly and fiercely. Desperately, Dinky tried to move to the side. She got her body out of the way, but the hot pink energy tore through one of her wings, annihilating it and sending her into an unplanned tailspin. Quickly manipulating the layer of darkness clinging to her body, she formed a replacement and righted herself, just in time to avoid another high energy attack. She winced as the spell she dodged sailed to the ground and set off a fiery blast that destroyed half of Canterlot's fortunately vacant train station.

I gotta stay high up, she realized. If she aims her attacks downward and misses me, the ponies of Canterlot are gonna be killed by collateral damage!

Flying in a wide half-circle, Dinky threw spell after spell at her target, narrowly dodging Animosity's attacks, and trying to keep calm while knowing she was done for if even one connected.

"You're really gonna see this through to the end, aren't you?" Animosity laughed between bolts of energy. "It's a pity I have to vaporize you. I would've loved to watch your reaction when I wipe out the rest of your loved ones. Watching you fly into a rage over silly little Scuffle was even more fun than watching Ditzy and the other matchmakers mope about after I poisoned that senile old stallion, Candyfloss."

There were several loud cries of outrage from far below. The spirit of hate grinned devilishly. "That's right, that was me too!" she chuckled proudly. "I could never have spread enough hatred to regain my true power with him still around; he was onto me before I even met any of you! And now that I have... those of you who are still somehow resisting my influence are next in line. If you won't lose this last pitiful glimmer of hope, you'll lose your lives instead!"

Dinky couldn't contain herself any longer. This vicious entity in front of her was single-hoofedly responsible for basically every hardship that she and all her loved ones had faced in the last year. The fears and betrayals, the crises and needless deaths... Animosity was pulling the strings for all of it.

She was not about to let it continue.

Self-preservation forgotten, Dinky screamed with unchecked anger as she hurled herself toward Animosity, tipping her body to avoid incoming blasts of lightning by mere inches. She swung a forehoof, hoping to catch the villain across the jaw and stun her, but Animosity flitted backwards at the last second, and Dinky missed.

Or at least, she thought she did. So she was caught a bit off guard when her opponent was sent tumbling anyway, and judging by Animosity's cry, she was equally shocked.

Dinky brought herself to a halt, looking at the hoof she'd tried to strike with. The thin layer of darkness surrounding it extended out a pony-length or so beyond the end of her foreleg, forming a quivering protrusion of darkness, exactly like the ethereal tendril Scorpio had used to reach through the portal and lift up her body just a few days before. It was created in the same way as her wings, though she'd managed to form it without even trying in order to land her blow.

Animosity got her bearings, and rushed at Dinky again. The wraith jetted higher, this time kicking out a hind leg, and made another almost tentacle-like construct of darkness reach out from the end, ramming into her foe and forcing her to tumble downwards.

With just her will, Dinky drew the dark tendrils back into the layer surrounding her. A moment of experimentation made it clear that she could form similar tendrils, or even other, more complex structures, from any part of her body, though doing so made the layer of magic thinner until they were re-absorbed. It made sense, she supposed; if she could fashion the malleable coating of dark energy into pseudo-wings, there wasn't a reason to assume other forms were off-limits. She channeled her energy, to specific regions of her figure, causing three more inky black protrusions to emerge from the smoky coating flowing down the side of her body.

"Great," she muttered under her breath, as the magic structures awaited her command. "Being some kinda wraith alicorn wasn't weird enough. Apparently I get to add 'eldritch abomination' to my résumé now."

Animosity started to recover from the unexpected blows. Dinky retracted all the excess limbs, save for her wings, and then dove downward. Shaping the dark layer into a flat, solid surface like the head of a hammer beneath her, she rammed her body into her stunned opponent like a piledriver. Her victim fell like a meteor, landing on her back with enough force to shatter most of her crystal wings.

Now's my chance!

Dinky absorbed her wings the moment her hooves hit the ground, and repurposed her black shroud into ten shadow tendrils that emerged from all over her body. There was no available material to make any more; the act made her outer layer become paper thin. Animosity, who'd had no time to regenerate, only managed to gasp before Dinky smashed her further into the ground with a blow from one of the black tendrils, causing a series of cracks to spread through the cobblestones.

"That was for Scuffle!" she shouted. "And this—" she delivered another blow with a different smoky tentacle that broke even more rock beneath the hate spirit's body, "—is for Dr. Candyfloss! And how about a few hundred more for everypony whose life is falling apart right now because of you!"

Animosity squirmed, but she couldn't right herself in time. Controlling each of the ten projections of darkness individually, Dinky began to pummel her with unbelievable speed. The indent in the ground quickly became more of a crater as soil and rock were forced aside by the sheer force of Animosity's body being slammed into the ground repeatedly.

Dinky delivered hundreds of blows in a matter of seconds, before suddenly retracting all the shadow tendrils. Aiming her crescent horn into the pit where her opponent lay, she unleashed every ounce of power she had left in a point-blank beam of searing darkness. It engulfed Animosity entirely, assaulting her with so much energy that the rock within the crater began to glow red, then orange as it began to melt. Only when a bubbling pool of magma filled the basin did Dinky finally relent. The black aura on her horn faded as she stood at the lip of the crater, panting, her vast stores of magic almost completely spent.

And finally, there was quiet, save for the ominous rumble of thunder overhead.

"G-go ahead," Dinky breathed, glaring down into the molten rock. "Try and regenerate from that."

Seconds passed. After a short while, Dinky heard the sound of hoofsteps behind her. She quickly reined in her caustic aura to avoid hurting anypony as Ditzy stepped up next to her.

"Is... is it over?" her mother asked.

Dinky felt the burning rage inside her finally cooling, replaced by simple fatigue. "I can't see how any creature, no matter how strong, could live through that," she admitted between gasps for breath. "Now we just have to fight off those hate-stricken ponies long enough to get into the castle and free the princesses, and... I guess everything will go back to normal?"

Slowly, a particularly large bubble formed on the surface of the lava. With a gentle 'bloop', it broke, carrying a whisper on the wind.

"Wrong."

Dinky bristled, glancing at Ditzy to confirm that she wasn't imagining things. "Did... did you just hear..."

The magma began to churn, forcing both ponies to step back. Like an abomination creeping out of a portal to some twisted realm, a jointed projection of pink crystal rose from the depths. Only when it got purchase on the edge of the pit did Dinky realize it was a foreleg.

Slowly, a roughly pony-shaped skeleton, made entirely of gleaming pink crystal rather than bone, climbed out of the crater. It was picked clean of any organic material, and much of the remaining crystal structure was shattered, yet it somehow continued to support itself. A near-blinding sphere of pink magic hovered in the center of its ribcage.

As soon as the crystal construct had all four hooves on solid ground, the shining core began to swirl. Dozens of crystals slid out of the light and began to inch along the skeleton, repairing the breaks and fractures. A sticky-looking goo was produced as well; it slid up the bones, and Dinky watched in absolute horror as it began to form into flesh.

"You just don't understand, do you?" Animosity asked calmly as soon as her lips and tongue reformed. "You seem to think you can damage me badly enough to win this, or run my power down far enough that I can't restore myself, so I can only assume that you believe my abilities come from my own internal magic.

Neither Ditzy nor Dinky replied, so Animosity continued while her body rebuilt itself.

"It should've been clear from the beginning, little ponies; my power is gained externally. The stronger the hold that contempt, fear, and hatred have on the land of Equestria, the more limitless my strength becomes. Even Dinky herself has been contributing to it, with her burning desire to destroy me, but it seems her hatred has yet to dominate all her senses. Its irrelevant, of course; thousands of other ponies are fueling my strength."

Dinky tried to light her horn again, but the darkness barely crackled. Just as she feared, she was just too spent to fight back without some time to recuperate. She watched helplessly as Animosity's wings, horn, and body become pristine, as if they'd never fought at all.

"Something has been bothering me, though," the spirit of hate continued, her tone casually conversational. "There are still a small hoofful of ponies who haven't given in to the pall of hatred spreading across Equestria. Even here in Canterlot, there's still a few that haven't given up, which is astounding. I've realized that, even without the princesses, there are a few hearts across this land that are so strong that they can save the ponies closest to them from my influence. And as long as those ponies still stand against me, the Magic of the Heart can't be stifled entirely, and I can't be truly indestructible. Your little rescue team still hopes to beat me, so there must be a strong heart or two keeping them from giving in. Hearts that they rally around. Hearts that give them hope, as long as they remain in the fight. Now I realize those hearts belong to you two."

Dinky suddenly found herself bound tightly in a pink aura, and heard her mother squeak in discomfort as the same happened to her. "You're mistaken, Animosity," the wraith growled. "Whatever is motivating me to fight back, its not that."

She paused, not sure if she could muster up the will to continue aloud. "Scorpio told me... I'm fighting for my friends because it's the only way I know" she admitted. "My will to fight you must be based on revenge, not righteousness, because... because I have no heart. Darkness swallowed it up long ago."

Animosity laughed. "Then for all her expertise, it seems Scorpio is mistaken," she replied. "I can feel your heart's magic in everything you do and say, flowing out of you and Ditzy and forming the lifeblood of this little party's will to fight back. But we can stem that flow right now."

Still unable to move in the monster's magical grip, Dinky watched as a complex circle of symbols formed on the ground below her. The air began to shimmer, and slowly, an enormous pink crystal formed around her and her mother. The vice grip loosened, and she dropped to the floor of its hollow interior.

Just like the princesses, Ditzy and Dinky were imprisoned.

---

After a brief flash of teleportation magic, Dinky found herself in a new location. A quick look around revealed to her that Animosity had placed the crystal prison atop the ruined tallest tower of Canterlot castle, a spot that was visible from everywhere in the city.

"Don't bother trying to call out to your allies," Animosity advised. "Sound only passes through those crystals one way. You can hear me, but nopony can hear you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to inform the masses of their downfall."

She floated away, wings clinking melodiously. Giving in to both exhaustion and despair, Dinky quickly reverted to her unicorn form, and leaned against the inner wall of the prison, trying to process the situation. She felt her mother's wing drape across her back.

"M-mom..."

She felt Ditzy hold her a little tighter. "It... it's okay," the pegasus whispered. "Maybe the others can still find a way to stop her..."

Dinky could tell by her tone that she knew that almost certainly wasn't true. She changed the subject.

"Mom... this year, Honeydew discovered that she can't detect my heart anymore," she confessed. "And then... while I was training with my friends, I, um... found a way to speak directly with Scorpio. She told me that my heart is gone, and my actions are just learned behaviors. Could... could she really have been wrong? Do I still have a heart after all?"

In spite of the dire situation, Ditzy smiled gently. "Of course you have a heart, muffin," she replied. "Anypony with half a brain can see that. Learned behaviors, my hoof; nopony would go to the lengths you have to save your friends, your family, and the whole nation unless you really, truly cared about them, deep in that big, vibrant heart of yours."

Dinky tried to return the smile, but found she simply couldn't. "Too bad it didn't matter in the end..." she mumbled. "Even if our hearts are still intact, the magic in the hearts of most of the rest of Equestria has gone out, and that means Animosity's power is almost unlimited. By the time we got here, it was already too late to stop her."

Both prisoners watched as Animosity rose slowly into the sky above the crystal. The gaze of everypony below, allies and hate-stricken citizens alike, was fixed on her.

"Attention ponies!" she boomed. "Your last heroes have fallen. Equestria is doomed. Give in to your despair and anger. Succumb to hatred, or die resisting it!"

Far below, Dinky could just make out the glow of magic as Clarity and Sparkler's horns lit. Breeze and Cloudcover spread their wings. Watt lowered his upper body, like a cat preparing to pounce.

"No!" Ditzy urged, rearing up and pounding on the pinkish glass. "She's too powerful! You'll all be killed!"

"They can't hear us..." Dinky said morosely. "Mom, it's over. We... we couldn't save everypony..."

"We can't give up!" Ditzy insisted. "Not while our loved ones are still in danger!"

"Then we need a miracle," Dinky deadpanned.

She hung her head, trying to block out the thoughts of what was still to come. After a moment, she felt her mother tap her gently on the shoulder with a wingtip.

"Um, Dinky?"

"I don't want to know, mom," Dinky muttered.

"But—"

Kabooooom!

Dinky's head shot up as a resounding blast echoed throughout Canterlot. She wheeled around, searching for the source of the sound, and her jaw dropped.

A massive aerial warship slowly approached the great sphere of magic that encased Canterlot. She watched, transfixed, as the dual cannons protruding from compartments in the bow realigned and fired again.

Boom! Boom!

While the magical shield was strong enough to keep out unicorns in most circumstances, even it wasn't that solid. The cannons continued to strike the same spot, eventually breaking a jagged hole in the spell like a baseball through a pane of glass. Floating just below the stormclouds, the airship slipped through the opening and entered Canterlot airspace.

Animosity watched, slack-jawed. Clearly, she was just as amazed as her captives were.

But the real shock for Dinky was not the airship's arrival. It was the big pinto stallion that stood at the helm, with a Royal Equestrian Navy cap on his head and a look of relentless determination on his face.

"Oi, you! Yeah you, the crystal-looking twit," Pipsqueak called to the villain floating above the castle. "You look a bit gobsmacked; what's the matter, not expecting the reinforcements to arrive?"

Dinky watched the scene unfold in utter disbelief. "W-what... Pip... how?"

"You have one heck of a coltfriend there, hun," Ditzy commented.

"Now, you've got one chance to let Dinky and Mrs. Doo go," Pipsqueak continued, as the cannons locked on to Animosity's position. "Would be a bit daft not to, frankly; I've got a lot of firepower here, and the balloon's coated with an element that resists most magic."

Animosity grinned. "Really?" she asked, feigning innocence. "Sounds like fun. Let's see what your little toy is capable of."

"Right then," Pip said with a shrug as he disabled the safety switch on the control panel. "Nice knowing you."

Dinky winced as the tremendous sound of cannon fire filled the air again. Twin cannonballs, each the size of a pony, hurtled toward Animosity, but the evil creature flitted around them and returned fire. One of her lightning spells carved a long gash in the wooden side of the ship.

"Ah, speedy, are we?" Pip asked, spinning the ship's wheel to angle it toward his target. "Cannons might not cut it by themselves, then. Good thing there's some state-of-the-art magic-based tech on this vessel!"

Another hatch opened, right at the front of the craft, and a long metallic coil extended forth. A rainbow of colorful energy swirled up its spiral structure. Able to feel the power it produced from afar, Dinky realized that it must've been powered by some kind of battery that could store unicorn magic.

Animosity shot the hull again, blowing another hole through it, but the airship was surprisingly resistant to attack. Pip threw a large lever, and a narrow beam of light shot from the magic coil much more quickly than anypony was expecting. Upon reaching the spirit of hate, it instantly bound her limbs and wings against her sides, immobilizing her in midair.

"What is this?" she cried, squirming furiously but unable to unbind herself.

"And that's that, then," Pip chuckled, fixing the cannons' trajectory on her position. "Ta-ta!"

The next volley of cannonballs hit their target dead-on. Animosity screamed with rage as the projectiles carried her across the city, finally detonating on impact with a faraway tower, raining white brick across several city blocks.

"Bullseye!" Pip cheered, slowly turning the ship toward Ditzy and Dinky's crystal prison and cantering out onto the main deck. "Don't worry, love, I'm sure with the others' help, we'll have you out of there in a jiffy."

"Wait, no!" Dinky cried, waving her forelegs frantically. "Pip, it's not over! She can regenerate!"

Pip cocked his head. "Can't hear you, Dinky," he confessed.

Dinky looked down frantically, but to her dismay, her other allies were too entrenched with defending themselves from Canterlot's vicious citizens to realize what was happening, and Pip appeared completely unaware that he hadn't yet neutralized the threat.

There was a glimmer of pink in the smoking hole left by the cannons. Animosity jetted out and made a beeline for Pip, who had left the relative safety of the ship's helm.

"No! No! Pip! Look behind you!" she screamed.

Noticing her wild pointing, Pip paused. Confused, he turned around, just in time to see the near-invincible being stretch out her crystal wings as she whizzed by, slicing through all the ropes tethering one side of the ship to the balloon keeping it aloft. He whinnied in shock as the deck dropped out from under him, frantically scrabbling against the smooth wood for some kind of hoofhold.

With only one side of the airship still connected to the balloon above, the whole vessel dangled sideways in midair, its deck now perpendicular to the ground. Pip managed to hook a hoof around the metal guardrail at the edge of the deck as he fell. He kicked his hind hooves uselessly, trying to find a way to pull himself up onto the rail, the last solid object between him and the cobbled street a hundred pony-lengths below.

"Maybe your balloon can resist magic," Animosity chuckled darkly, "but it looks like those geniuses in the navy didn't stop to think what might happen if you cut the ropes manually, huh?"

"H-how?" Pip gasped, as he quite literally clung to the rail for dear life. "I shot you down! I saw it!"

The spirit of hate ignored him, floating lazily toward Ditzy and Dinky instead. "This silly little stallion... he's your coltfriend, isn't he?" she asked Dinky playfully. "It was awfully admirable of him to burst in here, guns blazing, to try to save his sweetheart. Ooh, I wonder if it'll finally break you when you watch him splatter all over the ground?"

Dinky chanced a glance down below to see if anypony was aware of Pip's plight. The pegasi were much too far out of range to attempt a rescue, and the unicorns were preoccupied with a nonstop flurry of shields and evasive teleports. If her coltfriend fell, he really was done for. She considered trying to break loose with dark magic now that her strength was beginning to return, quickly shelved the idea; in such a confined space, a rebounding dark spell was a death sentence for the pegasus right beside her. She'd couldn't remember a time since acquiring her dark powers that she felt so utterly helpless.

Animosity turned to the doomed ship. Never taking her eyes off Dinky, she gave the railing a tug, wrenching it free from the ship, and the dangling earth pony with it. She held it in the open air, locking eyes with her prisoners one last time.

Then she relaxed her hoof, and let it go.

"Pipsqueak!"

The stallion screamed for help as he fell out of the sky alongside the long railing. Dinky watched him plummet for a moment or two, then squeezed her eyes shut, unwilling to take in the inevitable grisly scene. One last time, she wrapped a hoof around her pendant, desperate to keep its warmth from fading.

She heard the echoing clatter of the railing hitting the street far below. She considered it a blessing; the loud clang had probably drowned out the sickening smack of flesh on stone. For one terrible moment, her mind tried to come to terms with the sight that awaited her when she opened her eyes.

She felt her mother urgently shaking her. "Dinky... look!"

Wincing, Dinky gingerly opened one eye. She did not see what she expected.

A very surprised Pip hovered in a dazzling, aqua-colored aura just inches above the ground. It was unmistakably unicorn magic holding him aloft; somepony had caught him at the very last second.

But... aqua? Dinky thought, bewildered. I don't know anypony with an aqua aura...

"Yo, Pip, you gotta be more careful dude," came a male voice from somewhere below. "Dinks would be pissed if you get yourself killed over her."

To Dinky's utter astonishment, a brown stallion with an unruly tan mane stepped out of the darkness of a nearby alleyway. He looked exactly as he always had, with two notable differences: the deep brown scar on his underside, which looked as if it had healed shut weeks ago, and the unusual new hue of his eyes and aura, both a vibrant aqua instead of the typical slate blue.

"Oh, Scuffle, thank Celestia," Pip gasped as the other stallion placed him on his hooves. "I owe you one, big time."

Within the crystal, Ditzy cast Dinky a quizzical look. "I thought... didn't you say Scuffle was—"

"He is!" Dinky insisted. "I saw him get impaled! I saw him bleeding out right there in the courtyard!"

As Scuffle stepped fully out of the shadows, another surprise followed; Honeydew was draped limply across his back, her legs dangling off either side of him and her long mane trailing on the ground. She was completely motionless, but her build was slender enough that Scuffle didn't seem to have much trouble carrying her.

Animosity simply hovered high in the air, staring down at the scene unfolding below and looking every bit as stunned and confused as Dinky was.

"Anyway, you guys gotta stop bothering with these small fries," Scuffle called out, calmly creating a whole network of sturdy, aqua-colored shields that quickly separated almost all the hate-filled ponies from the rest of the allies. "We gotta focus on getting to Dinks and Mrs. Doo, so we have a shot at stopping Animosity. Clarity! Sparkler! Hurry up, let's teleport the whole gang up there."

"R-right," Clarity managed, shaking off the shock of the colt's reappearance. "Everypony, come on!"

In seconds, all of Ditzy and Dinky's allies gathered in a huddle. Scuffle, Clarity, and Sparkler's horns all lit up, and in a series of bright, colorful flashes, the whole team appeared atop the ruined castle tower, right in front of the crystal prison.

"Scuffle's right, we have to free these two!" Cloudcover agreed. "Those of you versed in magic, any ideas?"

"Excuse me!" Animosity snarled, snapping out of her disbelieving stupor. "I don't know what's going on here. I'm not sure how you pests keep escaping your inevitable fates, but I'm certainly not going to stand by and watch you work. If you're still going to stand against me, even with the two strongest hearts among you sealed away, then I'll just incinerate you all at once!"

At her command, the storm clouds began to grow more fierce again. As she had in the duel with Dinky, she threw her head back, and allowed her horn to absorb a powerful bolt of pink lightning. Scuffle urgently tried a few different types of battle magic on the hollow crystal, but as expected, they had no effect. Sighing, he turned to the others.

"Well, looks like it's time for the last stand, then," he mumbled. "Anyone wanna surrender, or are you all cool with going out fighting?"

"Ditzy and Dinky risked everything for all of us," Breeze reminded him. "No matter how hopeless it seems, I'm doing the same for them."

"No! No!" Ditzy wailed, though her voice didn't travel through the pink glass. "Fly away! Save yourselves!"

"You can't outfight her!" Dinky added, her input also unheard. "You have to buy some time!"

Animosity cackled as she aimed her shimmering horn at the platform atop the tower. "So long, my little ponies!" she cried. "With you gone, Equestria will, at last, know only hopelessness and hatred!"

The gigantic spell, a laser wide enough to engulf everypony at once, exploded from her horn. Blinding light filled Dinky's vision as what were sure to be the final seconds of everypony's lives expired.

And then... everything stopped.

The tremendous beam of energy froze, just a tiny fraction of a second away from impacting the ruined tower. The storm clouds overhead became perfectly still. The clamor of the furious citizens of Canterlot below disappeared. Even Animosity's maniacal laughter went suddenly and completely silent. Yet the ponies gathered around the crystal prison remained unaffected.

"Uhh... what happened?" Watt asked, breaking the stifling silence. "Did I finally achieve warp speed?"

"I... I have no idea," Breeze admitted, staring at the frozen world all around him. "Everything just... stopped."

"That's because I stopped it."

Everypony turned to the speaker, who was none other than Sparkler. Purple light swirled around her horn. "So, here's the thing about time spells," the young mare continued, frowning at the rest of the gathering. "Even on the slight off-chance that somepony actually learns to cast them, it's generally accepted that every unicorn only gets to manipulate time once in their life. If you do it more than once, you risk causing the original time stream and the offshoot time stream you created to collide, which can create alternate timelines, splice separate timelines together, or, y'know, cause a paradox that rips the fabric of time and space apart. But since I am one such pony, and given that every single one of us was about a quarter-second from death there, I figured it was time to use mine."

The rest of the ponies exchanged surprised glances. "Whoa, nice save, Sparkler," Clarity complimented.

"There's no reason to celebrate," Sparkler said flatly. "I can maintain this time bubble around the tower for... oh, maybe fifteen minutes? If we can't get Dinky and Mrs. Doo free and come up with some kind of counterstrategy in that time, we're done for."

"Alright, first things first," Cloudcover announced, taking command again. "Is everypony in one piece? Do any of you need medical attention?"

"The cuts from the crystal rain aren't very deep," Breeze pointed out. "You, me, and Watt already bandaged up the worst of 'em."

"Bright Spark banged me up pretty good," Sparkler confessed. "I don't think anything's broken, though. Don't worry about me."

"Err... a bit shaken, but unhurt," Pip chimed in. "Kind of a close call, there."

"Inkwell and I are fine," Clarity added, as the pinto filly clinging silently to her back slowly nodded in assent. "But Scuffle... what in Equestria happened to you and Honeydew?"

Scuffle bit his lip, fidgeting a bit to adjust the position of Honeydew, who was still draped limply across his withers. "Y'know Clarity, that's a damn good question..." he said finally. "Animosity jabbed a crystal right through me. Dinky was there, she can vouch for that. I remember spending a few minutes saying goodbye to Honeydew, and then I started to get real sleepy. I figured that was it... but then I had a real nice, peaceful dream, and woke up in that same courtyard, lying next to Honeydew. The wound's all closed up, but I can't imagine how. She couldn't... she couldn't have actually healed it, could she?"

"It's not likely," Clarity admitted. "I don't know too much about her field of magic, but I know ponies can't generally repair injuries like the one you described."

"Anyway, every attempt I made to wake Honeydew up failed, but she doesn't seem to be injured," Scuffle continued. "She's nice and warm, her breathing and pulse are normal... she's even been mumbling in her sleep a little. Not sure what's going on there, but I don't think she's in any immediate medical danger."

"Not to be rude, but there's no time to solve that mystery," Sparkler cut in. "The point is, all of us are somehow still alive, at least for the next few minutes. The question is... now what?"

"Now we need to figure out how to get into this crystal!" Breeze announced, pressing his hoof against the glass, which prompted Ditzy to place her own on the other side. "It seems like they can hear us in there, even if we can't hear them. Maybe there's something Dinky can do to break it?"

"Um... I really doubt that..." Inkwell whimpered, dangling her hind legs for a moment as she carefully slid off Clarity's back and onto her hooves. "When Wishing Star... err, Animosity, took over the city, she had all the princesses sealed in crystals just like this. If even an alicorn can't get out, what chance do we have?"

"Get brainstorming, then," Sparkler urged, as her expression began to become a bit strained. "The longer we take, the harder it gets to maintain the time bubble."

The group quickly broke into a frantic back-and-forth, discussing every sort of spell they could think of, and even some theories on breaking the glass with physical force. Several dark magic based ideas were posed and then discarded; there was simply no way to apply dark spells that even had a chance of breaking through without a high probability of dealing great physical harm to Ditzy.

As the ponies on the other side of the glass talked, Dinky slowly sunk to the floor of the crystal, placing her hooves over her face and breathing a defeated sigh. "This isn't gonna help..." she muttered, knowing only her mom could hear. "The moment Sparkler's spell gives out, Animosity's gonna obliterate all of them. I don't wanna give up, but... it's starting to seem like we're just delaying the inevitable."

She felt her mom place a hoof on the small of her back gently. "Dinky, you fought so hard for us..." the pegasus whispered. "Everypony is still alive because you did everything you could to keep everypony out of harm's way. You and your friends are brilliant mages; there must be something you can come up with..."

Dinky slowly slid her hooves off of her face, blocking out the sound of the clamor of voices as she tried one last time to think of a viable option. Lying with her muzzle so close to the wall of the crystal had fogged up the glass. She stared listlessly through at the blurry shapes on the other side. The hind leg of somepony trotting anxiously by. The hazy outline of a nervously flicking tail.

And a blurry symbol, that looked a bit like a tall, U-shaped object, with a dark, wavy line crossing it horizontally.

All at once, images flashed through Dinky's mind of her visit to the Realm of Stars. She recalled the impossible, starry expanse, the firm yet comforting presence of Sagittarius... and a rune he'd shown her that apparently held great importance.

Dinky hastily wiped away the fog of her breath. The vague symbol she was staring at came clearly into view, and she realized it was something she'd seen all year long, on a daily basis: a little green bottle of ink, with a wavy black smear running across is from left to right.

Little Inkwell's cutie mark.

With a tremendous gasp, Dinky leapt to her hooves, startling her bewildered mother as she frantically motioned for the other ponies' attention. She caught her coltfriend's eyes immediately.

"Oi, hush for a minute!" Pip barked. "Dinky's got an idea!"

Clarity hurried over to the crystal. "You have a plan?" she asked hopefully.

Dinky exhaled, creating another foggy spot on the glass. With the tip of her hoof, she drew the symbol exactly as Sagittarius had shown her.

Clarity smiled sadly. "Ophiuchus?" she asked. "I mean, it would be great to try that now that all else has failed, but that doesn't do us much good, since we don't know who Ophichus's heir is."

With an almost manic expression, Dinky gestured toward Inkwell.

Clarity raised an eyebrow. "What's Inkwell got to do with this?" she asked. "She's good with runes, but just drawing Ophiuchus's rune won't make him suddenly—"

"W-wait, Dinks is right!" Scuffle gasped, cutting her off. "That symbol! It looks just like Inkwell's cutie mark!"

Clarity glanced at the startled little filly. Her eyes went wide.

"I fear we're missing some context here..." Cloudcover ventured. "Care to fill us in?"

"Preferably quickly..." Sparkler added, gritting her teeth as she fought with the time spell.

"While Dinky was studying up on her dark powers, we came across a tidbit of information about a secret thirteenth member of the Zodiac," Pipsqueak explained. "He's a pony who has the potential to 'unlock' magic... to make it as it was eons ago, easily accessed by all types of ponies, and channeled in ways even modern unicorns can't. But if we want to awaken his dormant spirit, we need to find his heir. Dinky thinks... perhaps we just have."

"M-me?" Inkwell stuttered, turning to look at her cutie mark as if seeing it for the first time. "I've never even heard of Ophiuchus! Maybe it's just a coincidence?"

"That's a possibility too," Sparkler grunted. "But it's all we got. So are we trying this or aren't we?"

"Hang on!" Clarity interjected, stepping between Inkwell and the others. "Let's say it turns out that Inkwell really is the heir of Ophiuchus. If we awaken his spirit... what happens to her?"

Everypony looked at Dinky for answers. Knowing no more than they did, she could only shrug helplessly.

"Exactly," Clarity said. "What if... what if Inkwell has to stop being... well, Inkwell, in order to be Ophiuchus? We might be sacrificing her in favor of somepony that we're hoping can help us more! I'm not asking that of her. It's not her fault she got wrapped up in this mess; there must be another way!"

"I understand the risk, but what choice to we have?" Breeze asked, ruffling his wings uncertainly. "If we don't have a solution in the next two or three minutes, we all die."

"Then we come up with something in those two or three minutes!" Clarity insisted desperately, lighting her horn as if expecting to be attacked. "Please, we've got to!"

"Clarity..."

The tiny voice made Clarity stop dead. Cautiously, Inkwell stepped out from behind the Overseer, shuffling her hooves nervously.

"Inkwell..."

"They're right," Inkwell suddenly declared, making her braids swing as she nodded fiercely. "I don't know anything about the Zodiac, but if there's really a possibility that something I can do can save everypony... then I want to try."

Clarity bit her lip. "But Inkwell—"

"Bella and Top are somewhere down there in that city, full of Animosity's unstoppable hate!" Inkwell cried. "When I realized they couldn't control themselves anymore, when they could only be nasty toward each other, and toward me, that was the worst feeling! And all around Equestria, there are ponies like that, ponies who can't feel love and friendship, or any of the Magic of the Heart anymore! So I'm begging you... let me try to help them!"

Tears formed in Clarity's cinnamon eyes. "You... you're right," she said hoarsely, bending down to hug the little pinto filly tightly. "You're a brave pony, Inkwell. No matter what happens next, I'll make sure everypony knows what you were willing to risk for Equestria."

"O-okay, so let's do this. P-preferably right now," Sparkler panted, as the aura on her horn began to flicker dangerously.

Clarity whispered the instructions in Inkwell's ear. Ditzy and Dinky watched from within their prison as the filly walked to the center of the group and clambered onto a small pile of rubble.

"Here goes nothing," Dinky mumbled, earing a solemn nod from the pegasus next to her. "Either this works... or we're all done for."

Inkwell turned in a small circle, giving a last glance to all the ponies surrounding her. Closing her eyes, she sucked in her breath, and spoke in a loud voice.

"Ophiuchus! Hear my plea! Manifest yourself... through me!"

White light engulfed everything. Dinky could feel the sudden surge of magic even from inside the crystal, and while it was perhaps not the most powerful energy she'd ever sensed, it had a feel to it like nothing she'd ever encountered.

Inkwell went limp, her tiny legs hanging beneath her as she floated slowly into the air. Her expressive eyes became obscured by the bright light radiating from them. For a few excruciating seconds, she hung in midair, just half a pony-length or so off the ground.

An outline of somepony much bigger began to form around her, which slowly filled with translucent color as the apparition took shape. The hazy image of a wizened old unicorn stallion appeared, with grey-green fur and a brownish mane tinted faintly with orange like late-autumn leaves. A scraggly goatee hung from his chin. In sharp contrast to the dull colors of his fur, his eyes were the same striking yellow-orange as Inkwell's own.

But as the specter continued to form, something far more abnormal came into view. While the flickering vision's upper body and forelegs were those of a typical pony, his anatomy changed abruptly at the waist. Where his flanks and hind legs should've been, there was instead the huge, muscular body and tail of a coiled serpent. Many of the members of the Zodiac, Dinky recalled, sported features of non-pony animals, but none so pronounced as this.

As the white light faded, the ghostly hybrid-stallion looked at his surroundings curiously. Inkwell continued to float within his translucent chest, with magic slowly flowing out of her being to keep the projection from fading.

"Well, would you look at this," the newcomer said, in a deep, smooth voice that almost gave Dinky a chill. "I didn't think Equestria would ever invoke me again, all these centuries later. To what do I owe the honor?"

"You... you're Ophiuchus, right?" Scuffle asked shakily. "The pony who sealed Equestria's magic to prevent Scorpio from obtaining unlimited power?"

"And they know my history!" Ophiuchus laughed, sounding impressed. "And yes, the very same. Who are all of you?"

"Mr. Ophiuchus, sir, there's really no time for introductions," Sparkler managed, as her body quivered with effort. "To keep it short, the physical manifestation of hatred and contempt is trying to extinguish Equestria's latent magic, and everypony's doomed unless you can help us."

Ophiuchus turned around and finally noticed the enormous death ray, frozen in time just inches from Sparkler's time bubble. "Stars above, looks serious," he gasped. "We're gonna need a moment to sort this out."

He lifted the end of his reptilian tail, and for the first time, Dinky noticed it had a rattle on the end. He gave it a brief shake, causing a few twinkles of light to appear around it. The time bubble did not disappear, but Sparkler suddenly looked like an enormous load had suddenly been lifted from her shoulders.

"What... did you do?" she asked.

"Broadened your capacity to channel your magic," Ophiuchus replied with a casual shrug. "You should be able to maintain that spell for hours now, if necessary, but we won't need that long. Lucky for us my gracious host was willing to cooperate. Can't exactly do much without her now, can I?"

Pip furrowed his brow. "Who, Inkwell?"

"Yes, little Inkwell's in charge of this partnership, as she should be," Ophiuchus replied with another hearty laugh. "I may be one of the ancient creators of magic, but let's be fair here: I'm dead. Long dead. Sure, I've exploited a loophole by allowing my spirit to be bound to modern-day ponies, but even I can't cheat death entirely. I can speak with you, and even share my powers with you, but only because my little heir here is kind enough to allow me to do so through her."

"S-so she... she's alright in there?" Clarity croaked, wiping her eyes. "You haven't overwritten her personality or something like that?"

"Goodness, no!" Ophiuchus chuckled. "Though I suppose it might appear that way, with how she looks now. Inkwell, dear, let's break the telepathic link so we can talk to your friends normally, shall we?"

Instantly, Inkwell was no longer comatose. Though she still floated within the apparition of Ophiuchus, and her eyes were still nothing but glowing white lights, she smiled and waved a forehoof.

"I'm okay Clarity, don't worry!" she called. "Great-grandpa Ophi has been talking to me in my head while you all were talking out here. He's very polite!"

Clarity visibly relaxed, and Ophiuchus beamed as he returned his gaze to the assembled ponies. "Now, this isn't the first time I've been called upon to help save Equestria," he declared. "Tell me, what can dear Inkwell and I do to help?"

Still sealed in the crystal, Ditzy and Dinky waited as their allies explained everything that had happened, describing Animosity's powers and the gravity of the situation Equestria was facing. Ophiuchus listened patiently until the whole tale was through.

"Well, the intent is noble, but your idea was a little misguided," the ghostly stallion admitted. "Imagine, destroying a being who thrives off negativity by using some of the most violent, hateful magic known to ponykind. I don't mean to undermine Dinky's abilities; I'm sure she's found many ways to use old Scorpio's vile spells for the betterment of others, but when it comes to beating a creature like Animosity, it's just not going to work."

"That's why we were hoping you could come up with something better!" Watt chirped. "You've got all this secret power. You can grant us some kind of super special magic, can'tcha?"

Ophiuchus snorted with mirth. "I can't grant you any such thing, my friends," he replied. "The magic that flows through Equestria is so much stronger than any one pony, me included; I don't decide how much magic is within you. I never have. What I can do— if dear Inkwell wills it, of course— is return to you the abilities that your distant ancestors once had. I can allow you to utilize the full breadth of the magic already filling your hearts, but how strong those hearts are, and what you do with that magic... that part is on you, not me."

"What are we waiting for then?" Breeze asked. "Let's do it! Let's unseal the magic!"

Ophiuchus looked again at the filly at the center of his form. "Inkwell, how would you like to proceed?" he asked calmly.

"You restricted Equestria's access to magic for its own protection, right?" Inkwell asked. "You allowed each of the tribes to control it in different ways. If we restored Equestria to the way it was back then... another pony like Scorpio might someday abuse that gift, right?"

"It's entirely possible, yes," Ophiuchus said with a nod.

Inkwell tapped a forehoof to her chin, pondering as she floated idly in the apparition's core. "Restore full access to magic to just the ponies standing here with us," she said finally. "And after they beat Animosity... take it away again, okay? I think Equestria is better the way it is right now; if everypony had the power to do almost anything by themselves, we might lose sight of the value of our bonds with others. And if that happened, the Magic of the Heart would weaken over time, restrictions or not. At least... that's how I see it."

Ophiuchus nodded sagely. "Wise beyond your years, little one," he complimented. "I knew you were chosen to be my modern embodiment for a reason. It shall be done as you described."

He rattled his snakelike tail again. From within the crystal, Dinky felt her body fill with a euphoric sensation she couldn't quite put into words. It was like she had developed a new sense, one she didn't know she was missing because she'd never experienced it before, like a pony suddenly able to hear after a lifetime of deafness. Judging by the amazed expressions of all her companions, they were feeling the same.

"Dinky, th-this... is this what your m-magic feels like?" Ditzy stuttered.

"Yes, but even more so!" Dinky answered, unable to hold back a smile as something that felt like sheer potential ran through her being. "And to think, this is what was in our hearts all along! Ophiuchus is just helping us let it out!"

"We might really have a shot at beating Animosity," Ditzy said confidently, eagerly working her wings like she was about to race through the skies. "She can't stop us! Not if we all work together!"

"Right!" Dinky agreed. "Even her prison can't contain our hearts, right?"

"Right!"

And it couldn't. No sooner had mother and daughter agreed that they could still fight, they could still win, the hollow crystal began to disintegrate. In seconds, the prison was nothing but glittering pink dust on the wind. Ditzy was immediately inundated with cheers and hugs from her three coworkers, and even Sparkler's normally level expression was clearly full of joy and relief. Likewise, Dinky's friends practically bowled her over, thrilled to be reunited. Even Honeydew, who was still sleeping peacefully while slung across Scuffle's back, mumbled happily as if lost in a pleasant dream.

"Now, don't get too confident," Ophiuchus warned, waggling a forehoof. "You can all call upon your inner magic as Equestrians of yore once did, but you're still just ponies, and Animosity is still a near-onmipowerful being. If you play your cards right, though... I think you've got the upper hoof now. Don't let me down."

"Thank you, Ophiuchus," Ditzy said appreciatively. "We'll do everything we can."

Ophiuchus glanced down at the filly beneath him. "Inkwell, dear, why don't we get you somewhere a bit safer before time resumes?" he asked gently. "We wouldn't want you to get caught in the crossfire."

Inkwell nodded. "Be careful, okay everypony?" she pleaded. "I'll see you all soon."

The group of allies all nodded in unison. "Be safe, Inkwell," Clarity responded. "Leave the rest to us."

The ancient specter teleported, and Inkwell vanished with him. Dinky, Ditzy, and all the others turned to face Animosity's still-frozen beam of magic. Scuffle tentatively cast a defensive spell, and as expected, the resulting shield was far brighter and grander than any that even he'd normally be capable of.

"C'mon, mom," Dinky invited, as she added a golden layer of shield to Scuffle's aqua. "You don't have a horn, but you don't need one right now! The power of your will is enough; let magic flow straight from your heart into the world around you."

Uncertain at first, Ditzy slowly raised her head and spread her wings. Her body began to glow, and a new yellow shield, its shade slightly different than Dinky's, reinforced the ones already cast. The pegasus laughed in disbelief when she saw what she had done.

"The rest of you, too!" Scuffle called. "There's not gonna be any time to dodge that beam coming at us. If we all work together, we can deflect it!"

Clarity's cinnamon aura and Sparkler's cool purple added to the multi-layered shield quickly enough, though both were noticeably brighter and stronger than normal. The earth ponies and pegasi tried to follow Ditzy's lead, and sure enough, four more layers of magic appeared; Breeze's emerald green, Cloudcover's deep grey, Watt's sunny orange, and Pipsqueak's gentle brown.

"I'm going to drop the time spell now," Sparkler called, staring at the frozen spell beyond her bubble nervously. "After that... we all need to give a hundred percent. Is everypony ready?"

Dinky nodded, and saw all her friends do the same.

"Alright," Sparkler sighed. "Here goes nothing..."

The instant her spell faded, the stillness was replaced with chaos. Animosity's spell thundered against the great rainbow shield, and though it began to crack slightly under the strain, the combined power of the many ponies sustaining it was enough to keep it from shattering entirely.

After several seconds, the laser finally ceased, revealing Animosity behind it. The triumphant look on her face was quickly replaced by one of confusion. Then, as her gaze moved to Ditzy and Dinky, to one of outrage.

"You!" she bellowed, jabbing an accusatory forehoof at her former prisoners. "How did you escape my crystal? Not even the princesses can escape my crystals!"

Dinky smirked. "Maybe our hearts are even stronger than you realize!" she taunted.

Animosity scowled and gave her lattice wings a frustrated flap, creating a threatening cascade of high pitched tones. "You're all managing some unexpected saves, but you're wasting your time!" she assured them. "It's far too late for even the brightest hearts to stand up to my power. One way or another, I'll stamp them all out!"

Cloudcover spread his wings. "Everypony, spread out and attack whenever an opening is created!" he commanded. "This is our last chance. We've got to do this!"

At once, almost everypony was in motion. The pegasi took to the air with more speed and grace than normal, while the unicorns teleported to various rooftops. Pipsqueak turned to Dinky, looking uncertain.

"And how am I supposed to get down?" he asked.

"Jump!" Dinky laughed, pulling him to the edge of the broken tower. "We'll be fine, you'll see."

She leapt out into empty air. Even in her unicorn form, she seemed to almost glide downward, until her hooves landed on a rooftop far below as gently as an alighting pegasus. Pip, appearing to visibly fight every instinct of self-preservation, did the same. By the time Animosity managed to attack the tower again, everypony had left their lofty perch.

"This is bloody brilliant," Pipsqueak chuckled as he touched down next to his fillyfriend. "Even without wings, we have a bit of pegasus magic now, I suppose."

"Well, you don't have wings," Dinky giggled as she shed her unicorn disguise, her faux-wings bursting from her back the moment her wraith form took shape. "We gotta spread out. Hit Animosity with something whenever she's aiming for somepony other than you. We gotta wear her down!"

"Got it, love. Careful now," the stallion called as she took to the air.

Dinky sailed into the sky, and took in the unfolding scene, and Ditzy quickly soared over to hover beside her. Her friends swooped and jumped and teleported all around Canterlot; it seemed Animosity no longer had only one real opponent, but ten.

Well, technically nine. Dinky felt a pang of worry in her stomach when she spotted Honeydew still draped limply over Scuffle. There was no telling what was wrong with her, but as always, her coltfriend was pouring every ounce of his effort into keeping her out of harm's way.

"Stand still!" Animosity barked, throwing a ball of bright pink energy at Watt as he hopped from rooftop to rooftop.

"Stand still? Have you met me?" Watt asked, sidestepping the attacks with even more supernatural speed than usual. "I can't help but notice you're staying pretty still though. That might be a bad move."

Animosity blinked, and turned around just in time for the tornado that Cloudcover and Breeze had whipped up with just a few flaps of their wings to engulf her, spinning her violently before hurling her through the wall of the Canterlot post office. She emerged from the hole her body had left, crystals already sliding out from under her skin to repair the damage to her wings, but before she could retaliate against the pegasi, a blast of orange lightning struck her from behind. Watt, cackling with mirth, bounced between the nearby buildings with magically-enhanced agility, using his new powers to convert the static in his fur into little bolts that he whipped at his opponent.

"Pew! Pew!" the earth pony joked, rubbing his hooves together to create more charge. "Target locked! Set phasers to stun!"

"Do you think this is a game!?" Animosity roared, throwing an explosive attack that proceeded to take out most of a building, but not before Watt had already sped well out of its range.

"Maybe we do!" came another voice, as an invisibility spell suddenly dissipated to reveal Clarity. "Especially since it seems to be annoying you. Let's see what you think of this next game!"

Clarity began to form illusory copies of herself, as she had in her duel with Dinky earlier that term. But with her magic unsealed, she didn't stop at ten. Animosity instinctively escaped upward into the air as about forty identical images of Clarity stared her down.

From high above, Dinky shifted her attention again, and grinned as she noticed Scuffle on an adjacent rooftop. The colt had produced a wide gravity field, and was using it to hold a pair of powerful fire and ice spells. Scorch and Frosty's signature moves, condensed inferno and condensed blizzard, were usually beyond even Scuffle's capabilities to cast, but Ophiuchus's magic seemed to have solved that problem. The colt forced the opposing spells together into a single, extremely volatile sphere, and chucked it at Animosity while her attention was still on the army of Claritys.

Considering the very same spell had blown up about an acre of forest at the Academy a few years earlier, Dinky covered her ears. Wisely, as the resulting concussive burst of fire and frost sent Animosity hurtling halfway across the city. Furious, she sailed back into the fray, casting deadly spells at random in hopes of catching somepony, anypony, off-guard.

Unfortunately, the desperation move worked. Sparkler rounded a corner and only narrowly avoided a surge of pink lightning, but the resulting blast hurled the young unicorn through the window of a nearby shop. Dinky spotted a flicker of purple at the last moment, and realized Sparkler had managed to at least partially shield herself from impact.

"Got one!" Animosity cheered.

"I don't know about that," Dinky taunted from above. "That's not just any building you just threw her into. That's a jewelry shop."

Animosity raised an eyebrow. "Any why in Equestria is that significant?"

Dazzling purple light poured from the broken window, and Sparkler strode out. Just as Dinky expected, her old Overseer had also reprised a strategy from their duel years earlier: she was now clad head-to-hoof in enchanted armor, made from hundreds of jewels joined together.

"Maybe because you've given one of Equestria's best enchantresses a few new toys to work with?" she asked.

The physical and magical upgrades that enchanted gemstone armor could provide were scary enough, as Dinky remembered only too clearly. Combined with Ophiuchus's boon, they were simply ridiculous. Sparkler leapt into the sky with a single bound, effortlessly deflected Animosity's next energy bolt with a wave of her armor-clad hoof, and intercepted the spirit of hate in midair, kicking her downward with unbelievable force. Animosity fell like a meteorite, headfirst, shattering her crystal horn and probably much of the glittering skeleton inside her when she smashed into the ground.

Pipsqueak galloped into the plaza where she'd landed, his hooves glowing with magic. He reared up and stomped the ground, and earth magic tore through the bedrock, resulting in a pillar of rock that burst up beneath Animosity like a compressed spring suddenly let loose. The villain screamed in shock and fury as she was catapulted up and up and up, until she disappeared into the red storm clouds. Dinky heard a dull, satisfying thud as she finally smashed into the roof of the city's barrier somewhere far above.

There was a lapse in the action. While Ditzy and Dinky continued to float together in the center of Canterlot, warily watching the sky, Sparkler and the ponies from Equestria Speedy Shipping Services gathered on a rooftop to Ditzy's left, while Pipsqueak and the trio of Academy unicorns convened to Dinky's right.

"Well, it certainly seems like we've got her on the ropes more than before, but how do we finish this?" Breeze asked. "We all saw what Dinky did to her before. No matter what we do, she'll just regenerate!"

Scuffle pawed angrily at the brickwork beneath him. "We've gotta do something!" he insisted. "Otherwise it's only a matter of time until she lands a good hit and wipes one of us out. She's still way more powerful than any of us are. Sure, we can work together with coordinated spells, but its not like we can actually combine all our magic."

"Combine... our magic?"

Ditzy and Dinky were struck with a revelation at the same moment. Mother and daughter met each other's gaze with identical expressions.

"Actually... maybe we can," Ditzy said slowly.

"No," Dinky corrected. "Maybe we already are."

Ditzy smiled as yellow magic swirled around her. "Then you know what to do, right?"

Dinky grinned back, letting a few black sparks loose from her horn. "Sure do, mom."

Slowly, an opening appeared in the roiling red clouds. A rather mangled Animosity slowly descended, as eerie pink magic straightened her broken limbs and newly formed crystals repaired her horn and wings. She stopped once her altitude matched Ditzy and Dinky's, her body once again restored and her expression simply livid.

"I never would've imagined even one of you would be stupid enough not to give in when they realized what they were up against, let alone all of you," she snarled. "Don't you get it? Your princesses are powerless! Your fellow citizens are consumed with my hatred! Your nation has given in to despair, and I have become like a god! How are you still standing against me!?"

"We're not going to surrender, Animosity," Ditzy said firmly. "You haven't truly won until your power claims the hearts of every last pony in Equestria. And with all of us supporting one another, our hearts are impenetrable to even you."

"A minor setback," Animosity pointed out. "Perhaps I can't extinguish your hearts the way I have for all the others, but you can't overcome me with your attacks either. Hatred runs rampant and unchecked in Equestria, so I can continue to regenerate. At best, we're at a stalemate... at least until I kill all of you off. Why are you fighting a war you cannot win?"

"I was beginning to wonder that myself," Dinky admitted. "In fact, when you sealed us in that crystal, I almost gave up hope. But now we've realized we were simply going about this battle the wrong way."

"In a way, you were right," Ditzy continued. "We can't beat you with any amount of force. We can't even destroy you with dark magic. But we don't need to. You said it yourself; you can't stamp out the magic in our hearts."

"Alone, none of us can beat you," Dinky added. "But then again, when has anypony ever saved Equestria alone? This is a land united in friendship and kindness, where ponies help and trust one another because their hearts are overflowing with goodwill. When those hearts are joined in a common goal, the whole becomes much greater than the sum of its parts. Working together, trusting in one another's abilities and ideas and strengths, they are so much stronger than any threat."

"The terror and loathing you've created is widespread, but even that can be reversed!" Ditzy exclaimed. "Because as long as just a few hearts are united against you, they have more strength than you ever will!"

"Now," Dinky chimed in, her voice almost giddy, "let's see what happens when your hatred goes head-to-head with bonds of love and friendship so strong that even you can't destroy them!"

One by one, each of Ditzy and Dinky's eight allies began to rise up, as the deepest magic of their hearts was brought to the surface. Emerald green energy flowed from Breeze as he gave Ditzy a smile full of unfailing love. Cloudcover's grey and Watt's orange shone out from their bodies, as their hearts expressed their years-long friendship with their coworker. Sparkler floated into the air beside them, with a very genuine smile on her face as her boundless appreciation for everything Ditzy had done for her shone through.

On the other side of the group, the same thing was occurring. Clarity's cinnamon red burned brighter than ever, as her unshakable friendship with Dinky ignited in her heart. Pipsqueak floated beside her, his comforting brown aura full of unflagging determination, and willingness to face any trial for Dinky's sake. Scuffle's aqua was full of the feisty power of a long and friendly rivalry, and a softer emotion as well: his trust in her whenever he needed a confidante to share things with. Even Honeydew, though she continued to sleep, had a peaceful smile on her face as she rose up, the pale green light emanating from her conveying her comfort in Dinky's presence, something she had for only a few select ponies.

Eight shining beams, each carrying the purest magic of one pony's heart, joined at the center, bathing Ditzy and Dinky in a rainbow of warm, beautiful light. Hoof in hoof, the two of them began to glow so brightly that they could be seen through all of Canterlot.

"What is this!?" Animosity screamed, as fear replaced the malice and fury in her expression for the very first time.

"This is the reason Equestria will never fall to the likes of you!" Dinky shouted back.

"When Dr. Candyfloss was still alive, he took solace in his work, because he knew the bonds he was helping to create were strengthening hearts all across Equestria," Ditzy added, as the intermingling colors grew still brighter. "And he told us something we should've remembered all along."

As ten unshakable hearts joined as one, Ditzy and Dinky spoke in unison, repeating the departed stallion's words.

"There is no magic greater than the Magic of the Heart!"

A tremendous beam of dazzling white light burst from Ditzy Doo. In the same instant, an equally powerful ray of utter blackness exploded forth from Dinky. The two opposing forces did not clash or cancel one another, but flowed together in harmony, twisting into a double-helix of light and dark. Different though they were, both were fed not only by their own hearts, but by the hearts of the ponies surrounding them.

Animosity didn't even have time to move before the magic engulfed her, bombarding her with the antithesis of everything she was. Her rigid horn and wings began to break apart, and her outer body was quickly dissolved away, revealing the glittering crystal skeleton and the glowing pink core at its center.

"You... you can't destroy me!" she somehow called over the noise. "Maybe Equestria cannot truly crumble as long as there are hearts full of such magic... but there are two sides to that coin! As long as corruption and hatred lurks in the heart of even a single pony, I will never truly cease to exist! One day, my power will grow again!"

"And when that happens, Equestria will be ready to overcome it again," Dinky responded. "The hearts of ponies will always be enough to stop you, Animosity!"

Animosity cried out, but the twin beams of light and dark did not relent. As the group of allies watched, the burning pink core hovering in her chest decreased to a dull glow, then to a flicker. With one last sputter, it went out entirely.

The spell ended. For a moment, what was left of Animosity hung in the air. Then, as if in slow motion, the inert crystal skeleton fell to the streets below, shattering into thousands of shards on impact and causing an eerie ringing that sounded almost like a final, hate-filled cry.

Clearly, the contract laid out by Inkwell had been fulfilled, as Dinky almost immediately felt Ophiuchus's power begin to seal her magic again. She watched as all her loved ones' hooves returned to the rooftop, and their glowing bodies dulled until they were once again normal fur. For a few terrible seconds, she felt almost suffocated, able to sense the immense magical potential within her that her body could no longer fully channel, but the sensation quickly faded; it seemed that not only had her unrestricted access to Equestria's magic been removed, but her ability to comprehend such power had as well. Which was just as well; she wasn't sure she'd ever be able to be satisfied with her normal magic again if her brain had been able to hold onto the memory of what it had felt like to connect with the world's latent magic so completely. For a few moments, the group stood in stunned silence.

"We... we really did it, didn't we," Clarity breathed, shaking her head slowly.

"It seems so," Cloudcover said with a sigh of relief, pointing to the ponies emerging from the buildings below. "Look, the citizens of Canterlot seem to be coming out of the almost hypnotic state they were in, now that Animosity's influence is gone. I imagine that means the prisons holding the princesses somewhere within the castle are disintegrating right about now as well."

A sudden, bright light made Dinky squint, and for a moment, she feared more unexpected magic was at work. After a few moments though, it became clear that the source was something much simpler.

"...Sunlight?"

The red thunderstorm began to thin, and only when the first rays of light shone through did the ponies realize that morning had broken. Under the pall of supernatural clouds, there was no way to tell, but now, bright autumn sunlight lit up the streets of a city that had been dark for so long. The rays on Dinky's face were warm, but much warmer was the hug that Ditzy pulled her into.

"It's over. It's finally over," the pegasus mumbled happily, as the other ponies gathered around the two of them.

Dinky could only smile as she watched the last of the clouds disperse, and the huge, spherical barrier around Canterlot begin to fade away.

...Wait a second.

Diky opened her mouth to speak, but didn't get the chance. The ground lurched beneath her, inciting gasps and screams from the disoriented citizens below.

"What... now what's happening?" Pip stuttered, as the ground itself seemed to angle a few degrees sideways.

"The barrier!" Sparkler gasped, watching the pink energy rapidly disappear. "Defeating Animosity is cancelling it out!"

"What does that mean for us?" Ditzy asked nervously.

A shudder like an earthquake ran through the streets. Damaged portions of several nearby buildings collapsed in a heap of rubble.

"So, uh, guys," Watt piped up. "I just thought of something. You remember Tango Trot's prediction, 'the fall of Canterlot is inevitable'?"

The other ponies nodded. "Yes..." Breeze answered slowly.

Watt twitched, flicking his tail nervously as he spoke up again.

"You ever think maybe we were supposed to take that literally?"

The other ponies had just a second or so to process this before the ground dropped out beneath their hooves. Helplessly, the ten of them, and hundreds of other citizens, spun through the air as the whole city, no longer supported by any magic, started hurtling toward the ground far below.

The true fall of Canterlot had begun.

Comments

[Emotion Nexus]

Wow, what a finale! This entire chapter had me on the edge. I honestly don't have to much to say because a lot of my talking points are usually based on fun character interaction rather than the epic action.

That doesn't mean I don't have nothing to say though. Regarding the Inkwell twist; I knew it! I figured it out pretty much the chapter it was introduced as a plot point.

Tango's prediction was hilariously accurate and inaccurate at the same time.

Anyways, probably the biggest thing to talk about aside from the action is Honeydew. You really flipped the switch, taking the dying character and passing the fading torch over to her. Technically, we don't know if she's actually dying, but at the same time, we don't really know anything at all.

Wonderful chapter and final battle, but this definitely isn't over. I await the last chapter excitedly and patiently.

[Pegasus Rescue Brigade]

10609085
Anticipation of the eventual Inkwell twist was the reason I decided to include an illustration of her much earlier in the book, too!
Stop by chapter 6 and look at her cutie mark.

If you like the character interaction, you'll really like chapter 20. Its about 10% action, 90% characters.

[DreadedCandiru2]

Well, things look dicey right now but I have faith things will work out.... mostly because I can count to nine.

[Thought Prism]

Well, that was good! While the broad strokes were pretty much as I expected, the individual beats were not. Inkwell's role, Animosity being immortal, Equestrian naval technology actually being pretty significantly developed, etc., were all surprises to one degree or another.

With the Honeydew/Scuffle situation, I can see one of two things having happened to put Honeydew into a bit of a coma there. First, that in order to heal Scuffle, she had to burn out her power entirely, such that she won't be able to use unicorn magic anymore. Which, while tragic, might help her smooth things over with her terrible parents a little. The second is that she tapped into dark magic again to enhance her spell, despite her prior revulsion, and she's now at risk of turning into a wraith like Dinky, with Scuffle also possibly being undead now and nopony noticed.

Hopefully we get some more weddings for the two couples, some royal recognition, and a very large Pinkie Party to end on.

[Olden Bronie]

This was just amazing! Honeydew sacrificing herself to save Scuffle, the back and forth of the battle, Pips brave attempt to turn the tide. I began to realize that fighting Animosity with battle magic wasn't going to defeat her, but what was going to help them?

A little filly and ancient magic, of course! And as so often it is in Equestria, magic of friendship, love and kindness, the magic in everyponies heart and spirit saved the day.

This chapter was thrilling and inspiring!

Of course, now they have to safe themselves and Canterlot!

I too urgently await the next chapter!

Thank you, PRB!

[Magthere]

Showing the light within the Equestrian heart while preventing a city drop, yep this is turning into Char's Counter Attack...

[Pegasus Rescue Brigade]

10609927
I don't know what that is but I'm sure those topics aren't especially unusual fiction tropes.

[Magthere]

10609932
Oh not criticizing, just laughing at the comparison, Char's Counter Attack is a movie in Mobile Suit Gundam's Universal Century Timeline. Long story short after 14 years of on and off conflict (with those on's being other gundam series and films) the antagonist decides that the only way to save humanity and earth is to drop asteroids and space colonies on earth until its uninhabitable for humanity and forces the survivors to leave for the remaining space colonies.

The Light within the Equestrian (or in the case of Gundam human) herat is a reference to one of the more fantastic elements of the series, Newtypes, humans who have gained certain enhanced abilities among them, the ability to reach greater understanding with those around them. But the full details are another can of worms that I won't go into here.

[Pegasus Rescue Brigade]

10609942
Oh ok, thanks for the info!

Hope you're enjoying the fic, by the way. Just one last chapter (and an epilogue) to go. They'll be released together in a single update.

[ShadowLDrago]

This chapter was intense. I about figured magic powered by hate couldn't destroy a being made of hate, but seeing Dinky pummel Animosity a la Star Platinum was immensely cathartic.

[62861]

Loved it. These chapters keep on getting better and better in quality. This is my favourite story on this site

[SommeOne]

I didn't realize I hadn't read this chapter yet... This was so awesome! I usually get bored in fight scenes but everything was SO CREATIVE AND COOL!!!

Side note: How did you make such an intense cliffhanger so darn hilarious?!

[Pegasus Rescue Brigade]

10650942
Probably because Watt's the one who actually said what was happening out loud, and he's a comic relief character so he tends to word things in a kind of funny way.

Also because Tango's predictions are weird like that. They always end up being something that nopony would really guess. I don't think, when he made that prediction in chapter 15, that anypony thought the "fall" of Canterlot meant literal falling.

[n8dagr8088]

"Great," she muttered under her breath, as the magic structures awaited her command. "Being some kinda wraith alicorn wasn't weird enough. Apparently I get to add 'eldritch abomination' to my résumé now."

dinky is op pls nerf