Blightwell

“Still sane, Exile?”

The witch wryly smirks at the familiar greeting, silently raising a hand to Zana, Master Cartographer. Behind and around the necromancer rumbles a veritable army of undead, milling about in what might be construed as eagerness should they possess a shred of autonomy. Listless eyes gaze in every direction, though no enemy resides in the witch’s hideout of rough stone and vine-crusted walls.

“There’s something special about this one.” Zana motions to a circular golden table set in the center of the hideout. The globe inside rotates on several axes, interlocking hoops slowly spinning about. She withdraws a golden scroll from next to her scabbard and solemnly places it atop a circular pool next to the map device. The mechanism begins to hum with power as it accelerates, projecting a colorful map into the air above.

The witch allows a thin grin to her tight-lipped mouth, the only facial feature visible under her bone helmet aside from her cold, black eyes. “An Untainted Paradise?”

“It was, but no more. I wish I knew how.” Zana solemnly shakes her head as she motions above the table. A solitary continent is shown, bounded by oceans on the east and west, barren desert to the south and frozen mountains to the north. The view slowly zooms in on a central location surrounded by river and forest, the lonely mountain to the east slowly getting larger before it too disappears off the edge of the map. It ends on a rustic village.

Zana continues, “Blight has gained a foothold. It must be contained as elsewhere before it can spread.” She motions to a huge metal contraption at her side, full of oiled gears and insidiously large needles connected to foul smelling tubes.

“Cassia is there?” the Exile asks offhandedly, inspecting the contraption though she makes no effort to take it. It is the Purification Pump that Sister Cassia uses to destroy the Blight’s fungal growths.

“No,” Zana replies simply, wresting the contraption onto Niko’s Crawler. The overblown mine cart, lit by everburning candles, crackles with electricity. It, too, stinks to the heavens, though from sulfur and powdered Azurite. The cart barely sags under the weight of the heavy contraption. “You must find another who shall run the pump.”

The witch looks on indifferently.

A simple wooden arch erupts from the ground. Hanging from the top beam is a single yellow light, bright even against the twilight haze. Zana continues, “Your mission is to defend Ponyville from the Blight. Watch your step out there, Exile.”

“For Wraeclast,” the witch merely says, stepping through the archway with the cart. She disappears as if into thin air, her minions piling against each other as they mindlessly follow.

“Not this time,” Zana corrects, though the necromancer is no longer around to hear. “For Equestria.”

Meanwhile, in Equestria

“Celestia!!” Twilight Sparkle screams, her purple wings beating against the air. She strains to stay aloft, the rope connecting her to Applejack threatening to snap at any moment. Her horn is lit in a bright raspberry, holding up two ponies. Rarity fearfully whinnies as Pinkie Pie giggles madly despite the destruction around them. “Ready!!”

The white alicorn drops to the broken ground on the southern edge of Ponyville, sending shockwaves rippling through the earth. It barely fazes the dozens of black beings rumbling towards them along a raised ridge of ground, wicked black thorns and grasping tendrils threatening anypony who gets close. Celestia’s horn lights a blindingly bright gold, an aura of power channeling through her hooves.

And yet the creatures continue their implacable rush. That is, until the very ground underneath them grows a molten gold. Their shakes and contortions might have been indicative of silent screams of agony as they wither, evaporating into black dust blown away in the wind, yet none feel any remorse for the abominations.

The white alicorn collapses to a knee, breathing heavily. She can barely spare the strength to glance upwards, yet another wave of the mindless monstrosities mustering at the border of the Everfree. The extended border, the forsaken forest having pushed closer to Ponyville after their ill-fated attempt at diplomacy. A bulge in the ground travels from the forest towards the town, and so far the invaders have stuck at least close to it.

“Sister!” Princess Luna calls as she hovers above the recovering diarch. Around her, Twilight Sparkle and the two pegasi drop to the ground, everypony struggling to ready themselves for the next wave. “Cadance continues the evacuation, yet more come! What shall we do?!”

“We’ve been holdin’ ‘em for hours now!” Applejack yells with a worried glance towards Sweet Apple Acres, the deserted orchards visible far in the distance. Her coat shows numerous signs of struggle, with minor cuts and scrapes all over. “Ah’m not sure how much more’a this we can take!”

Princess Celestia’s eyes blaze with fire as she staggers to her legs. She bellows, “Discord!”

The draconequus in question appears, standing in a bathtub and lathering himself with suds. He disapprovingly states, “Now, Celestia, I thought you agreed to give me a heads up before you summoned me! Honestly, I can understand not listening to me, but do you not even listen to yourself?”

“These creatures!” Celestia shouts, ignoring his recrimination as she motions to the advancing horde. “Are they your doing?”

“Hmm,” Discord mutters to himself, pulling out a monocle that he stretches into a telescope. He sweeps across the battlefield, resting on one of the creatures. “Nope!” He goes back to scrubbing himself with the telescope, whistling a tune eerily reminiscent of ‘Winter Wrap Up’ but in a minor key that grates on everypony’s ears.

“Please! Help us defeat them!” Twilight calls out, her horn joining Luna’s in sending bolts of fiery magic streaking towards the horde. They wither and fall, only for more to take their place as the inexorable tide continues.

“Yeah!” shouts Rainbow Dash as she maneuvers a fresh black cloud above a small section of the horde. “Or did your ‘reformation’ not really take?” She goes from making air quotes with her hooves to slamming into the roiling storm cloud. Bolts of lightning strike the ground, shocking everycreature underneath. None of the beings fall, though their bodies shimmer with pulsing light.

“Ladies, ladies, I’m innocent!” Discord objects, though the way his mouth continues to contort itself between a giddy smile and back to abject contriteness ruins any attempt at subterfuge. “Would I lie to you?”

“Yes!”

Discord sighs as all of the ponies, except for Fluttershy, turn to glare and point their hooves at him. The yellow pegasus cowers above Rainbow Dash, shaking her head in support of Discord. He huffs, “I’m insulted at the insinuation!”

“Then are ya gonna help us figure out who is?!” shouts Applejack as she charges the closest creature set aglow by Rainbow. She bucks hard, her hooves splitting it apart and sending cascades of twisted black shrapnel into the horde. It knocks them down, briefly stunning them. But all too quickly they get back up, their vengeance turned upon Applejack as one gets close. A swipe of a spiked tendril leaves a long line of red marring the orange earth pony’s flank. She yelps as she backpedals, gritting her teeth at the pain.

“Not with allegations like that!” Discord says, ignoring Applejack’s plight as more of the creatures approach her. He sighs, shaking his head, “It appears we have reached an impasse. Perhaps friendship will save you in the end!”

With that, Discord snaps his claws, and he, his bathtub, and suds disappear.

Rarity’s hastily conjured shield around Applejack briefly stems the assault as it slows the attackers, but the strain quickly gets to the unicorn as the black beings pound against the light blue walls. “Twilight!” she yells, a frantic look in her eyes, her horn crackling. “Help!”

A blast of red energy scatters the attackers, but still more come. Frantic eyes turn to Princess Celestia, but the white alicorn cannot help them, not so soon after her last expenditure. They slowly gather together, fearfully backing up as the horde advances not only towards them but the defenseless town behind them. Princess Luna raises to the air, a black void surrounding her horn and the ponies underneath. Any of the approaching horde that touch it dissolve into nothing, yet far more stream around them.

A deep rumble from beneath them draws worried looks. Pinkie Pie glances over from the imitation ponies she has hastily constructed all around them, eagerly saying, “This is gonna be good!”

Up from the ground, in the middle of the approaching horde, springs a simple wooden arch. A solitary globe of light hangs from the top.

The horde merely shambles around it, their approach not slowed in the slightest.

“Oh.” Pinkie Pie sighs as the first of her duplicates gets ripped to shreds by one of the shamblers, her poofy mane starting to sag. At least their assault on the town has been delayed. “Well, that was disappointing.”

Then the air under the arch shimmers, and what might have been a young, unassuming girl, were she not festooned in skulls, steps through with a rough metal cart. She looks around with not surprise but utter disdain at the beings surrounding her.

And the battlefield erupts into chaos.

“How do I keep ending up in such lovely places?” she asks nopony in particular as her skin shimmers a ghastly green. She casually waves a hand. Eight skeletons appear from nothing, wreathed in flames that set ablaze not only their own bones but everything around them. They care not as they disintegrate into ash, only that their burning swords find a home - however temporary - in the flesh of their enemies.

A dozen fleshy zombies stream out from the arch, clad only in ragged patches of skin that barely cover their powerful muscles. They charge the closest of the black beings, lifting their arms high above their heads before slamming down and sending shockwaves radiating out that leave deep impressions in the ground. The surrounding attackers blast into dust, the zombies quickly forming an expanding ring of destruction around the girl.

Behind them roars two golems, the first crackling with electricity. The living storm whirls in place, sending jagged bolts of lightning that arc from one creature to another. A burst of power illuminates everyminion in a shimmering glow, their own attacks now sending miniature shocks wherever they strike.

The second golem, a monstrosity of rotting carrion that towers above all despite its hunched posture, leaps high into the air. It slams into a pack of viney beings, spearing its two pointed spikes for arms into the ground. Jagged columns of bone erupt in front of it, impaling the attackers.

Four spectral females come through the arch next. They look much like the young girl, except that their arms are cruelly contorted behind their backs. Long, many jointed limbs have replaced their hands that spread from behind them like warped wings. Twisted faces contort in rage as they rock their bodies back and forth, each shake sending forth a barrage of dozens of jagged spines that cut down everycreature in their path.

Last comes a floating suit of armor wielding a dull blue staff half formed of skulls emitting their dying breath. Empty yet somehow held aloft, brown and blue boots clash with the red body armor. Instead of a head floats a pink and white mask made of stitched flesh, casting a ghastly leer. As soon as it comes through the arch everything around it seems to move a little bit faster, hit a little bit harder, yet it stays near the girl.

Luna drops down, her void shell disappearing as she pants, trying to cover her exhaustion. Twilight joins Rarity in casting shields around the group, the huddle of ponies able to watch in awe as the fresh arrivals beat back the tide. Their caution proves necessary as, every now and then, one of the marauding zombies rushes directly at them, only to pull away at the last second. An unnerving deadness gleams in their lidless eyes, a complete lack of empathy, as if they cared not if they were cleaving through steel, or stone, or bone.

All too quickly the sounds of the one sided battle retreat to the edge of the Everfree Forest. The creatures still pour out of the woods but are immediately cut down by the patrolling zombies, leaving the girl struggling to remove the contraption from the cart.

The eight ponies nervously glance at each other until Twilight Sparkle takes to the air.

“Excuse me!” Twilight Sparkle calls as she lands near the girl. Her muzzle stretches to as wide a smile as she can muster, given how close they had come to losing everything. When she doesn’t get a reaction, she continues, “Thank Celestia that you were able to save us! My name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship.”

That gets a half-smile and snort while the girl manages to lift the gear-filled contraption. She grunts as she turns, dragging more out of the cart and threatening to throw herself off balance.

Twilight gets her first good look at the newcomer. Bipedal, like the girls from the mirror universe, but with none of the carefree attitude. A grimy black mane spills out from the back of the spiked helmet of bone surrounding her head. Black eyes, like the zombies, haunted and devoid of emotion. A thin, waifish body, at least what is visible, clad in armor shaped like a macabre black skull. Unimposing forelegs that end with twisting mesh gloves studded with two each of blue and red gems. She wields a short mace topped by a caged skull in one arm, a pulsing shield of blue strapped to the other.

“Would you like some help with that?” asks Twilight, not waiting for a response as her horn flares. Her aura surrounds the contraption, gently setting it on the ground at the end of the mound. The girl gives a slight raise of her head in thanks, but nothing else. Twilight inspects the gears closely, fascinated by the unknown purpose. She tries again, “Thank you for saving us. I don’t know what we would have done without you!”

“You might have died,” the girl replies with a callous shrug, her raspy voice rattling out of burned lungs. Twilight takes a step backwards in shock. “Or you might have fled, and condemned the land to a similar fate.”

“Now wait an apple-buckin’ minute!” Applejack shouts as she stomps over. “Condemned the land? ‘Sakes, we ain’t gonna let that happen!”

“Exactly!” Twilight glances back to her companions; they have dropped their shields and warily approach. “Even so, we owe you a debt of gratitude, Miss?” She offers another smile, more genuine this time, though she can’t help but nervously look at the minions patrolling the forest’s edge.

The girl ignores the question as she pushes levers along the device. She spares a glance to look over each of the ponies, ending on Twilight. “Are you the most powerful magic user among you?”

“Who, me?” Twilight says, briefly taken aback. “N-no, that would be Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna.” She reverently motions towards the alicorns, though the harsh glare in her mentor’s eyes surprises Twilight.

“These abominations you bring,” Princess Celestia states through gritted teeth, her eyes ablaze as she motions towards the rampaging zombies, “will not be tolerated! A necromancer once threatened all of Equestria, and I will not condone another doing the same!”

“I care nothing for your objections,” the necromancer states flatly. Her two golems menacingly circle close to her. A large balloon, sickly yellow and pulsing with ichor, inflates along one side of the contraption. “You may join my sisters if you wish, but that would just make life... complicated.”

Princess Celestia snorts, twin wisps of smoke pouring from her nostrils. Her eyes lose none of her glare, but she settles back slightly, contenting herself with carefully watching the necromancer.

The witch says slightly louder, “My mission is to defend Ponyville from the Blight.”

“I’m sure we can make an exception just this once,” Twilight states diplomatically, glancing worriedly between Celestia and the necromancer. “After all, you’re here to help Equestria!” She nervously looks Celestia in the eyes. “Right?”

“I require the most powerful of you to run this,” the girl says, again ignoring Twilight’s question. “It will draw the Blight from the surrounding forest, absorbing and neutralizing the corruption. The faster it is done, the better for all.”

“And the rest of us?” Applejack asks warily.

“You will defend her.” The necromancer appraisingly looks between each of the ponies.

She frowns.

“Hey!” exclaims Rainbow Dash, buzzing right next to the girl. She menacingly points a hoof at her face. “We’re not worthless!”

“But you will interfere if you try to fight the mycelium on the ground.” The necromancer brusquely brushes past Rainbow Dash, leaving the pegasus gaping. “They are mindless, yet will engage with anything living that comes between them and their quarry.”

“I know how we can help!” Pinkie Pie exclaims, pronking up and pulling out six small devices colored purple, green, blue, yellow, orange, and tan. “We can use Friendship!”

The Exile is briefly taken aback, then gives a disbelieving shake of the head. None of Pinkie Pie’s companions look like they took the assertion any better.

“I’m serious!” Pinkie Pie pulls a butterfly net from her mane and pronks around the area, quickly filling her net with dust from the fallen enemies. “We can use the Elements of Harmony along with the dust the fungus leaves when it goes away to build towers of our element, helping defend Princess Celestia and Luna as they channel aaaalll the bad magic into that purifier! And we can upgrade our towers to get a bigger, more powerful effect, or more range! And when we get them to level four we get even better abilities!”

The witch shrugs. “Do as you wish,” she eventually states.

Pinkie Pie passes out the other devices. Applejack gets tan, Rarity blue, Rainbow Dash yellow, Fluttershy green, and Twilight orange. Each inspects their device with more than a little trepidation. Pinkie Pie disappears in a burst of confetti, returning just as quickly with a jewel encrusted box. She opens it over Twilight’s objections about how she managed to get it so easily, quickly passing out each pony’s Element of Harmony.

“Sooo… what exactly are we supposed to do with this?” Rainbow Dash asks skeptically, inspecting the trinket. It pulses with electricity, every now and then sending minor jolts into her hoof. “And why didn’t you bring them out before?”

Pinkie Pie manages to pat Rainbow Dash on the back reassuringly despite the pegasus hovering in midair. “Oh, silly! We didn’t have enough dust! That’ll let you build towers that shock the enemy with lightning! They just duplicate what you were doing earlier to hold the mycelium back!”

“Sweet!” Rainbow Dash exclaims, concentrating on the trinket. A cylindrical yellow tower springs from the ground, crackling with electricity. “Awesome!”

“Um,” Fluttershy says, awkwardly scratching one foreleg against the other, “I don’t know if I can hurt anycreature…”

“It’s okay,” Pinkie Pie says confidently. “Your towers will boost everypony else’s! So we should try to cluster around where we think they’re going to come from.”

“Which is... where, exactly?” Applejack asks, motioning towards the mound of earth. “Just here? Seems a bit easy ta me. Too easy.”

“They were coming along one ‘lane’ before.” The necromancer holds up a glowing sphere to Celestia and Luna. “Channel your power through this, drawing as much as you can.”

They take it cautiously, studying the mechanism. “Thaumaturgy?” Celestia asks darkly, getting a nod in return. “There is a reason I have eradicated this form of magic from Equestria.”

“Yet there is power there,” the witch says dismissively, “and this device stolen from god and his harlot may yet save you.”

Celestia frowns, yet takes it after a brief inspection.

“Speaking of power,” Rarity says, trying to diffuse some of the tension, “It seems like you are easily dealing with that ‘one lane’. How many lanes can you defend?”

The necromancer pauses. “Five? Eight? It depends how tightly they are clustered.”

“Woo-wie,” Applejack says, fanning herself with her hat. “Sounds like this’ll be a walk in the park. How many lanes you expect there ta be?”

“Dozens,” the necromancer replies without a hint of emotion.

“Dozens?” everypony cries out.

She nods. “As soon as your Princesses start this, and they must begin soon, more and more of the mycelium will be dispatched until the threat is contained or their forces are exhausted. And, judging from that forest, they have had a very long time to build their forces.”

“But… but… what if we fail?” Rarity asks, her voice strained. She looks around for a couch to faint on. None spring forward, and there’s no way she’s taking a nap in the dirt. “Have you ever failed?”

A grim look comes across the necromancer’s mouth. “It has happened before,” she responds coldly.

“But we won’t fail here!” Twilight exclaims confidently, rising above everypony and holding a hoof up. “Let’s do this!” She grins as her five friends draw close, each raising a hoof to meet hers.

“Time is of the essence,” the necromancer states somewhat impatiently.

“I hope this works,” Celestia says to herself as her horn starts channeling. Luna joins her, cobalt and gold surrounding the globe. It begins to rotate rapidly, and the balloon pulses with energy as it draws the corruption out of the ground. The loud clangs of grinding gears echo throughout the clearing, sending hairs on end as they wait.

Nothing happens for a few seconds, briefly allowing the hope that perhaps this whole threat was overblown. That hope is shattered just like the earth as four long lines of dirt bulge out from the ground, mounds leading circuitous routes from the Everfree Forest to the pump. The zombies spread out haphazardly, ending with two or three to a lane and able to contain it with some difficulty.

“Hey, leave some for the rest of us!” Rainbow Dash shouts, grinning and winking at the necromancer. She returns a cold stare that sends shivers down Rainbow’s spine. The pegasus turns back to the forest with a shudder, distracting herself by counting the dust that seems to automatically gather.

“Let’s see what these towers can do!” Twilight concentrates, a tall tower topped by a fireball sprouting from the ground near the edge of the forest. It launches a single fireball towards the invaders, disintegrating one, and several seconds later launches another.

“That’s nothing!” Rainbow Dash claims, building her own at the forest’s edge. Lightning rapidly strikes at anycreature that emerges, somehow knowing to spare the zombies patrolling back and forth.

Princess Celestia and Luna, horns ablaze, continue drawing more and more of the corrupting energy into the device. The balloon shudders as it periodically inflates and deflates, as if the land itself draws breath through it. They offer each other wry smiles, that perhaps they have a chance to make it through this, the boisterous attitudes quite infectious.

Only for four more mounds to bulge along the ground, though none of them originate at the border of the Everfree Forest. Instead, they start in the middle of the clearing, each coming from a different direction and aimed straight at the pump.

“Well, that hardly seems fair!” shouts Rarity as she pulls back, hastily constructing a crystalline tower. Razor sharp shards slash into the emerging creatures, crippling and slowing two of the newly opened lanes. Pinkie Pie takes the other side, her balloon tower sending blow-up duplicates of herself into the fray. While short-lived they draw the attackers’ attention, stalling them and bunching them up.

“But what’s the best combination?!” Twilight exclaims worriedly, frantically tugging at her mane. “Do we disable them first, and try to bunch them up with minions and slowing? Or just do as much damage as possible? There’s too many variables and not enough time! We need more testing! Can we pause this? I need to-”

Twilight’s rant cuts to a close as Applejack slaps her in the muzzle. “What ya need is ta focus! Ya gotta pick somethin’, ‘cause doin’ nothin’ll work as well me makin’ dresses!”

Twilight rubs her twinging jaw and upgrades her tower, sending volleys of three fireballs into the packed creatures. “It’s working!” Her limbs shake with worry as she watches the already chaotic battlefield expand. “But it’s not enough! And we’re too low on dust to build more towers!”

Twilight’s breath catches as five brightly colored ponies appear on the ground by the invaders closest to Celestia, coupled with a strong sense of wrongness. Her mind instantly connects colors of coats and manes with ponies she knows. But that can’t be! They were safe, back in Ponyville! They-

Then the bodies explode into the nothing from which they came, a white sheen covering the zombies and specters that charge the spot. They quickly clear through the clustered enemies, though the undefended outermost lanes begin to fill. Twilight, still somewhat in shock, watches as the necromancer begins a destructive ballet, her minions alternating between packed areas that fill nearly as soon as her forces leave.

At least the dust is pouring in. Twilight shakes her head to clear the images, yet they remain burned into the back of her eyelids, a hideous reminder any time she blinks. “Applejack, Rainbow Dash! We need some of your towers to defend the inner areas!” Twilight motions to the areas where Pinkie Pie and Rarity are stalling the incoming forces, not wanting to split the necromancer’s attention any more than necessary as yet another four mounds burst from the ground, many of them almost on top of other lanes.

“On it!” the two ponies reply as they pull back from the edge of the forest. Both have a tally going, and are neck and neck as far as Twilight can tell, though by her own count she is ahead of each. Not that it matters, the important thing is defending this together!

The sound of trees shattering draws their attention to the south.

“What is that!?” everypony shouts as a massive fungus breaks out of the Everfree. It towers twenty feet in the air, two arm-like limbs spread out from the middle. With every ponderous step two small creatures sprout from the limbs, leaping out to rush forwards.

“A Propagator!” the necromancer shouts, a hint of worry in her voice. “One of the Blight’s elites! It must be stopped!”

“What do we do?” Applejack hurriedly upgrades a tower in front of the boss, but it easily absorbs the blows even as the smaller creatures are blasted to dust. “It ain’t stoppin’!”

The necromancer grits her teeth, turning away from the several lanes she is defending, and points a single mail-clad finger. A ghostly green mark appears above the boss, and every zombie instantly turns from wherever they were engaged and rush forwards. The massive creature weathers the blows, ignoring the zombies that surround and pound it. Ragged chunks of mycelium flesh are torn off and cast aside, and after far too many seconds the boss gives a loud groan and collapses into dust.

“We did it!” cheers the ponies, though their exuberance turns to a grim determination as the horde relentlessly approaches from the other lanes. Skeletons are hastily conjured, the zombies rushing over, but two of the creatures manage to slip through the defenders.

Wicked black vines lash against Princess Celestia’s side, leaving angry welts marring her coat. The alicorn grits her teeth against the pain yet continues channeling her magic into the purifier, the balloon above continuing to expand.

“Princess Celestia!” Rarity shouts as she bounds over, her horn blasting the creatures apart. “Are you all right?”

“I will survive,” Celestia says quietly, concentrating on her mission and ignoring the seeping wound. “Though I don’t know how many more of those blows I can take.”

“No time to spare!” Twilight says, horn shining. The boss’ death and the terror of the moment freezing them meant that their dust stores have built up considerably. Several upgraded fireball towers spring up, and they slowly push the waves back. “We have to keep fighting! We’ve got this!”

“But my duplicates just get ripped to shreds!” Pinkie Pie cries, huffing loudly as she vehemently shakes her hooves at the invaders. “They’re rebuilding as fast as they can, but it isn’t enough!”

“Change of plans!” Twilight Sparkle bellows. “They’re ignoring the towers completely, so we don’t need the front line of defense! Pinkie Pie, you’re now the back of the formation; try to catch any stragglers! Applejack and Rainbow, take the front, soften them up as much as possible! Fluttershy and Rarity, you’re in the middle; I’ll be in the back. Damage towers upgrade first, then support. Pinkie, only upgrade if we’re leaking and we need them stopped.”

“Okay!” the other five chorus.

Twilight turns to the necromancer, “We need you to clear out a lane for us to build, then go back to your normal routine.”

“Understood,” she replies. She disappears in a burst of smoke, a trail of fire leading to her new location in the middle of the action. Her skin shimmers green as she waves a hand, and every golem, specter, and zombie disappears from their other engagements to teleport next to her. They spread out as before, quickly clearing a wide opening, though it leaves the other lanes undefended.

The six ponies rush forwards, each quickly constructing their towers. The attackers find themselves shocked as they approach, only to be stunned by vicious hits and blasted apart by fireballs. Any lanes the ponies build on stay cleared by the combination of towers, and even help out the nearby lanes, allowing them to duplicate their strategy on each of the closest corridors.

“It isn’t often I’m rendered superfluous,” the necromancer remarks to Twilight as the approaching hordes are cut to shreds, allowing a thin smile to her mouth. “It appears your Friendship is strong, after all.” Her minions now swarm around her, a fast response team waiting for something to break through.

“Might want to hold that thought,” Twilight says jocularly as not one but three bosses emerge simultaneously, along with four new lanes. A grin spreads to her muzzle as one of her towers upgrades to a flamethrower, sending out constant streams of fire and setting the first boss ablaze. “Let’s show ‘em what we’ve got!”

After what feels like hours, but is probably closer to five minutes, a loud whistling rings through the battlefield as a fireball cuts the last of the invaders down. The balloon pulses its last, deflating and limply collapsing as the grinding comes to a halt.

“Is it over?” Rarity cautiously asks as everypony nervously glances around, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Then the balloon explodes, a veritable loot pinata that showers hundreds of items in every direction. Each of the mounds behaves likewise, littering the ground with suits of armor, weapons, and jewels. Rarity lifts a glittering ring, her eyes going wide as she realizes there are dozens just as beautiful scattered around.

“It’s over!” everypony raucously cheers, hooves beating a gleeful cadence against the ground. Twilight rushes to Celestia and Luna, embracing both, quickly joined by the rest of the ponies. “We did it!”

“What’s all this stuff?” Rainbow Dash says, grabbing an orb made of three heads sprouting from each other. Her head cocks to the side as she inspects it, trying to figure out the purpose. She looks at the witch. “You want anything?”

The witch merely picks up a single sheet of paper, an odd red marking scratched on the surface. “Keep it,” she says with a smile, heading back to the simple wooden arch. She glances back to the ponies, holding up the map. “Though you are welcome to come along.”

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