Magic, and Mayhem, and... Murder? Oh my...

by Invictus

Chapter 17.1: Foil to the Sun

Huge thanks to RandomEncounter and 00Lizard for pre-reading this chapter for me and putting up with my constant asshattery. You guys rock.

In the last episode of Magic, and Mayhem, and... Murder? Oh my...:

Shawn Spencer, Pinkie Pie, Soft Speech, and Wavedancer arrive at Grizzly's fortress to find that the kidnapped griffon they've agreed to retrieve is none other than Gilda. Unfortunately, the team of misfits is immediately captured by the executor's elite diamond dog troopers.

Outside of the fortress, the rest of the Elements and Aegis (fresh from putting out fires and dealing with general Rex) are drawn into battle with Grizzly's guards. Soon, they make their way into the fortress, and arrive just in time to save their friends from losing their heads... literally.

Their celebrations are cut short, however, when The Shadow finally makes its appearance, reveals itself to be a remnant of the dreaded Nightmare Moon, and proceeds to attempt to finish what Grizzly started. It is during this, their darkest hour, that the small, red pebble in Shawn's pocket (thought to be a joke-gift from Celestia) burns its way out of his pants and summons an enraged princess of the sun.

We join our heroes in the aftermath of her initial assault on The Nightmare.

Twilight coughed, waving her hoof in front of her face to try to clear away some of the massive quantities of dust that choked the air.

She'd thrown up a half-dome shield by reflex, which had ended up doing nothing but deflecting a few errant chunks of rock and lending the brilliant light that had temporarily blinded her a purple tint.

"I didn't do it!" a familiar voice coughed out from nearby on her right, "It wasn't me this time- ow!"

Shawn stumbled into view, and she instinctively stepped forward, lending the bedraggled alien some support before he tripped again and actually hurt himself.

"We know, Shawn." Twilight rolled her eyes, but couldn't help smiling as he continued to wave his injured hand around, the way she'd been waving her hoof, while using his other arm to lean on her withers.

"What in tarnation was that?!" Applejack stepped into view, also coughing. "An' why was it in your pocket, of all places, consarn it!?"

Whatever Shawn's response might have been was drowned out by a strong blast of wind, which carried the dust out of the room through the newly created hole in the wall. Although, Twilight supposed it might not be truly accurate to call the new form of egress a 'hole'...

The ponies, and others, around her gasped as they saw the aftermath of the fireball. Everything forward of where the princess had been standing was simply gone. The edges of the blackened stone ending in still-glowing lumps of hardening magma. Outside, the sun shone brightly, though not enough to hide the flashes of light flaring from between the trees, while ominous peals of thunder rolled past the stunned group.

Dash flapped her wings one last time, blowing the last remnants of the dust cloud away, and landed to stare wide-eyed in the direction of the battle.

Fights between ancient beings of immense power tended to catch a pony's attention.

"What was that, Shawn? Ah couldn't hear you over that war ya'll started." AJ glared at the human.

"Applejack, don't be that guy that always shows up to parties late and complains that the punch needs more vodka." Shawn replied.

"Oooo, yeah, Applejack... you don't want to be that guy." Pinkie added, sagely, "Actually, you should probably try not to be a guy altogether!"

"Me?!" AJ exclaimed, indignant, "Ya'll are the one who's been stampedin' 'round Equestria doin' who knows how many bits in damage! Ya'll are like a... uhh..." the farmer paused. "Twi, what's the word for equinoid, but for him instead?"

"If I had to guess, I'd say it's probably humanoid." Twilight replied.

"An' give me a word for a real nasty natural disaster. Preferably somethin' that tends to do a lot o' property damage."

"Errm... typhoon?"

"Thank ya kindly, Twi." AJ nodded pleasantly at her, then turned back to glare at Shawn, "Ya'll are like a humanoid typhoon!" she accused.

Twilight glanced over her withers at Shawn, who appeared to be concentrating more on catching his breath than whatever her friend had to say. After a few moments, the human heaved himself up and met Applejack's stare.

"Typhoon? Really? Personally, I feel like I'm more of a hurricane. The rockin' type, not the deliciously candy-like alcoholic beve-"

"Where did you get that artifact from, Mr. Spencer? And what was it? For that matter, what the hay is going on?" Aegis cut in, rather curtly.

Twilight looked over to see the captain, along with the minotaur, the unicorn mare with the weird mane, and...

"Gilda!?" She gaped in astonishment at the familiar griffon.

"Hey, lame-o's," Gilda rasped, and Twilight couldn't help but notice how much more ragged and scrawny the abrasive griffon looked now than when she'd visited Ponyville. Where before Gilda had oozed smug pride, now she hunched, as if trying to retreat into her own feathers, which themselves drooped with exhaustion. Even her attempt at an insult had been half-hearted.

"Whoa... Gilda, what are you even doing here?" Rainbow Dash piped in, floating forward in concern for her old, ex-friend.

"Shawnee-boy," the grizzled unicorn spoke up at the same time, "ye still got some explainin' to be doin'."

Suddenly, everypony was talking. Some yelling at Shawn, others yelling at the ones yelling at Shawn. Others, like Pinkie, simply yelling about some creature called a 'bat-man'... whatever that was. Twilight glanced around, becoming increasingly agitated at the growing chaos.

Her princess had just popped out of some sort of magical artifact, and was now fighting against the same eldritch abomination that had nearly upended their entire civilization. If somepony didn't do something, the situation would only continue to deteriorate. She drew in a breath...

"All of you SHUT UP!"

... and nearly choked on it as captain Aegis's deafening shout left everyone's ears ringing and plastered to their skulls. The guardspony waited for a few moments in the ensuing silence, seeming to almost savor it, before continuing.

"Shawn, what was princess Celestia doing in your pants?"

Twilight, along with everyone else there, looked to Shawn expectantly. It looked like the biped was choking, bent over his stomach as he was and with his shoulders shaking from some unknown strain. Had he gotten something stuck in his throat? Concerned, Twilight stepped forward.

"Shawn... are you alright?" She noticed tears leaking from the corners of his eyes as she set a comforting hoof on his shoulder.

Of all the reactions she expected, debilitatingly explosive laughter was not one of them.

-------------------------------------------

Celestia rushed through the air, forming the magical barrier around herself into a teardrop shape to aid in her flight. She trailed a wind storm in her wake as she quickly accelerated to her maximum speed in pursuit of the shadow creature.

The Nightmare.

It left a bitter taste in her mouth that she had not been able to recognize her unknown assailant until Shawn had literally dropped her at its hooves. A terrible mistake come back to haunt her. A mistake that she would not allow to continue plaguing her subjects. Not anymore.

Her eyes, enhanced by half a dozen varieties of perception spells, saw through the clouds, trees, and even the ground below her. In spite of this, the precise location of The Nightmare eluded her piercing gaze. It merged with the shadows, jumping from one to another, splitting off decoys, and generally doing everything within its not-inconsiderable power to avoid a head-on confrontation.

A confrontation it could not hope to win, incomplete as it was.

When The Nightmare had split off from her sister, under the assault of the Elements, it had taken a large portion of Luna's power with it. Even now, years later, the moon princess had not yet regained the full measure of her true strength, which had once been nearly the equal of the regent of the sun. Close enough, at least, to present Celestia with a difficult choice... no, an impossible one. In the end she did not regret lacking the will to destroy her own sister during their last battle. After all, a thousand years was far preferable to an eternity.

Now, though, she had a chance to put an end to all of it. To burn away the sentient negative energies that arose from Luna's brief bout with insanity. Energies so intricately bound to Luna's psyche that even the Elements had only been able to banish them, rather than destroy them completely. Or, perhaps the Elements themselves were incapable of such an act. Being representations of Life itself, it stood to reason that they simply might not have the capacity to end one, regardless of how terrible it was.

Celestia, however, had no such compunctions this time. The moon had not held The Nightmare. Tartarus would not hold it. Twice, it had escaped banishment. She had no choice. The Nightmare could run forever, if it wanted. She was as tireless as it. Eventually, she would catch it, and sear away every fiber of its essence with the power of her sun.

I must. In the back of her mind, the ferocity of the thought surprised even her.

She jerked to a stop as tendrils of darkness rose from one of the trees below her, seeking to envelope her within her shield. It was a futile effort, barely putting a dent on the reserves of her shield's spell matrix as they were burnt away. Still, it gave Celestia pause, and caused her to briefly lose sight of her foe.

Are you running or fighting, dark one?

Its tactics were strange. She would have suspected that it was drawing from Luna's memories of some of the more cunning creatures they'd done battle with before unifying the pony nations, but the sisters had always fought side-by-side, back then. This was unlike anything she, and therefore Luna, had ever seen. A new strategy born from recent experience.

A many-fanged beast made of darkness, seemingly crafted to have as terrifying a visage as possible, rose from the shadow Celestia had cast on a nearby cloud. Its many mouths latched on to her shield, further depleting its energies before dissipating under a focused blast of light.

It finally occurred to Celestia that The Nightmare had, in fact, not just been running. It was trying to confuse her. Intimidate her. Slowly eat away at her defenses until it could tire her out and deliver a decisive blow. All while keeping itself hidden and its avenues of escape open. It was a brilliant strategy, one uniquely suited to bringing down a more powerful foe with minimal risk to oneself.

The Nightmare had claimed that it had spent a decade in the human world, and its very nature would have pulled it to the darkest, most conflicted regions of Shawn's dimension. Had it learned how to fight like this from its time there? What else had it learned during its exile?

Celestia shook the thoughts away as irrelevant. Given time to prepare, and with her sun at its zenith, she was by far the more potent combatant. Maybe she couldn't pinpoint its location, but she could tell that it remained within this area. All she had to do was remove its sources of cover and power, flush it out into the open, and force it into a fair fight. A fight she would win.

"This ends now, creature!" she shouted, channeling strength into her horn.

The alabaster focus shone with magical fury, generating a vortex of fluctuating energies at its tip. With a deafening crack, the flames of her sun licked forth, trailing an actinic line of light to the forest below. Nearby clouds dispersed from its heat, rocks and trees turned to ash, and the very ground became glass at its touch. Celestia traced her most powerful offensive spell from shadow to shadow, obliterating every standing object beneath her as she sought to fight darkness with fire.

"It must end," she sobbed beneath her breath.

---------------------------------------------------

It took a few minutes, and a lot of glaring from the gathered menagerie, but Shawn was finally able to bring his laughter under control.

"What's so funny, Spencer?" Aegis growled.

"Aaahh... haha..." As Shawn finished one last chuckle, he caught a glint of red out of the corner of his eye. He glanced up, noting that the ponies were mostly glancing at each other in confusion, and scooped up the dropped pebble, disguising the motion with a stumble as he straightened.

This'll probably come in handy, later.

"Sorry, sorry... it's not important, cappy, just a little adult humor. I'll tell you all about it when you're older."

"I'm 52," the cap'n growled between gritted teeth.

"Wow," Shawn blinked, "really? You don't look a day over 60."

The cap'n's ears dropped in horror, "I said fifty-two not sixty-two..."

"Oh... well, now, this is awkward. You should really learn to enunciate better. Also, you should look into some face-cream for those wrinkles. I bet Rarity can hook y-"

"Shawn!" Twilight admonished past a sudden coughing fit that sounded suspiciously like a chortle.

Captain Aegis gaped at him for a minute, before sighing deeply and bringing a hoof to rub lightly at his temple. "Just once. Just this once... can you take things seriously and get to the point? Please?"

Satisfied that the mood was sufficiently lightened, Shawn nodded, "Alright, alright. But only because you asked so nicely."

"What are you talking about? I always ask nicely."

"Y-... uhhh..." Shawn paused and looked around, but shaking heads and averted eyes told him none of the other ponies seemed to want to take that one. With a shrug, he continued, "Right. The... artifact the princess popped out of."

His mind's eye stitched the scenes together for him as he talked.

Disconsolate, Shawn stopped and picked up a flat, red pebble, bouncing it up and down in his hand a few times before chucking into a nearby hedgerow.

"Oh!"

Or maybe through a nearby hedgerow. Shawn grimaced before calling out through the apparently-not-so-impenetrable wall of green, "Sorry!"

"It's quite alright!" A voice, melodic in a sweet and matronly sort of way, called back. It could have belonged to a young mare or a mother in her prime. There was a sort of... unknowable quality to it. As if he'd forget what it sounded like the moment he stopped hearing it.

"Funny enough, it was actually a little... gift I gave her, right before our dinner in Canterlot. Didn't know she was the princess at the time, though."

Shawn couldn't deny it... the princess was good. She also looked much better than she had before, having regained much of her color and vibrance in the brief time since he'd last seen her.

"I'll get you for this." he muttered under his breath.

"I look forward to seeing your best efforts." Celestia didn't even try to hide her smile this time as she magically flicked something small and red into his hand. It seemed to be a pebble of... some... sort...

Oh... right. Shawn pocketed the smooth, little stone, as a symbol of her official declaration of prank-war.

"Now," she continued, "I believe we were going to discuss your... behavior during the Gala?"

In hindsight, she had kept that pebble for quite a while before she'd given it back to him. Shawn suspected that some of that time she'd spent in seclusion, supposedly magically searching for the diamond dogs that nearly killed him, had actually been spent doing whatever it was that had allowed her to pop in as she had.

"She gave it back to me right before she sent us off on this little adventure. Probably used it to track me and Pinkie, waiting for the right moment to show up and give The Shadow... Nightmare... the surprise of its life."

Twilight looked mortified at the revelation, "But... princess Celestia trusts us! She trusts me! Why would she keep such an important part of her plan secret from everypony? And why would she give you something so powerful without even telling you what it is!?"

Shawn shook his head, "Can't tell you that one, Sparky. You'll have to ask her when she's done beating the tar out of The Shadow Nightmare."

The lavender unicorn turned to face him, head tilted and one ear down in a quizzical expression, "The Shadow Nightmare? Really?"

He shrugged back, "It fits. I'd like to see you come up with something better."

The distinct sound of a minotaur clearing her throat cut them both off, "Soft Speech is sorry to interrupt, but she believes you still owe us an explanation, too."

Soft Speech stood there, using one massive hand to support Gilda's thin frame. It looked like the griffon was at her limit just staying conscious. Wavedancer also stood nearby, head tilted and observing every exchange with a wary, though bemused, expression.

Shawn looked at them for a moment, somewhat at a loss on how to quickly get everyone on the same page. A floating, blond pegasus caught his attention and he snapped the fingers of his left hand in sudden inspiration, "Pinkie, fill them in while I talk shop with the cap'n and the planeteers..." he looked back at his right arm, still weighed down by a massive sword attached to his cast, "and Twilight gets this thing off my arm..."

"Oooo, a recap!" Pinkie beamed as she zipped over to the Cauldron denizens, "I love doing recaps! Almost as much as I love chocolate, but not quite as much because, let's be honest, chocolate! Anyway, it all started when Shawn blew up the embassy..."

---------------------------------------------------

Celestia surveyed the land below her. Where once there had been a forest, thick with trees, streams, and hill-sides, there was only a flat, blackened wasteland. In many places, the ground gave off an unnatural shine from where layers of dark, glassy stone had formed in jagged lines that traced the path of her spell. It had pained her to cause so much destruction, but the land would recover eventually. Unless the resurrected Nightmare brought about eternal night.

Another shadow creature rose up from the ground, but was quickly dispatched by a blast of light from her horn. The things had been getting progressively weaker and rising less frequently, leading Celestia to believe that Nightmare was reaching the end of her- its strength.

Still, the monster would likely hold some of its magic in reserve for when Celestia landed to search it out. It probably knew she would have to land, eventually. That blast of Sunfire had thrown up a lot of debris, and distorted the magical fields in the area to the point where Celestia's detection spells were having a hard time pinpointing the Nightmare in spite of its lack of direct cover.

No point in delaying the confrontation, she thought to herself as she banked, filling the air with even more ash and dust, stirred by the flapping of her wings.

In truth, she was also wary of what new tactics the creature might come up with if she gave it enough time to think.

Her gold-shod hooves touched down on the scorched earth, her right one cracking a dark blob of fused quartz and sand as she put her armored weight on it. It was a scar left by her spell, upon which nothing would be able to grow for years to come. This was not the first time she had been forced to take a step into darkness in order to vanquish the evils it spawned... to protect her subjects.

Likely, it would not be the last. But, who else was there to do so?

Celestia peered around, motes of latent raw magic distorting the atmosphere. The effect on the ground was even stronger, though she could at least perceive the Nightmare's general direction. And with no nearby darkness to hide within or draw power from, the threat it presented was small enough to warrant the risk.

"Come out, Nightmare!" she shouted once more. "You cannot avoid me forever. Soon, you will be nothing but a memory. A bad dream that vanishes before the light of the morning sun!"

"Pretty words," its voice whispered from behind Celestia.

The sun princess turned, focusing her detection spells and coming that much closer to distinguishing The Nightmare's magical signature from the noise. She only needed it to speak a little more.

"Merely the truth." Celestia continued, eyes searching, "You cannot hope to win here. Your power has waned, and I control the field of battle."

"Perhaps... but we shall have to see whose power has truly wa-"

There! Her spells suddenly focused, pinpointing the source of the magic that was projecting The Nightmare's voice. With a flap of her wings, Celestia launched a wall of flame in its direction, hoping to catch the creature off-guard.

However, The Nightmare's magical signature disappeared, then instantly reemerged somewhere behind her.

Teleportation? Celestia turned, lashing out with fire a second time, only to "see" the magical signature jump once again. It was a wasteful tactic... there was no way her foe had enough energy left to keep that up.

"How rude, princess!" The Nightmare chuckled, trying but failing to hide the strain in its voice, "Very... uncharacteristic of you, the gallant and eternal protector. The alabaster goddess who shields her ponies from the dirtiness of reality, yet remains pristine herself."

This time, Celestia didn't bother to respond. Instead, she teleported forward herself, whipping her fiery mane and tail at the figure before her. It dissipated, taking with it the magical signature she'd been sensing. Celestia readied herself... if there was any time for The Nightmare to spring her trap, it would be now.

Dust swirled as Celestia's own shadow, faint from the lack of direct sunlight, darkened and swelled, enveloping both her and her shield.

"Want to know what I think?" The Nightmare's whisper came from everywhere, "I think they see only a gilded facade, unsuspecting of the loneliness, frustration, and... dare I say... anger that lie behind it. The stains beneath your pure, white coat, so to speak? We are not so different, within those stains, Celestia. Today, on this field, we are both driven by vengeance. Nothing more. Nothing less."

Celestia glowered at the swirling shadows. "I seek only to protect my subjects, and correct an old mistake."

This was not about vengeance. It couldn't be. True, she did hate The Nightmare for all the pain it had caused. But she loved her ponies... her family... more.

"Truly?" it laughed. "Is that truly what you think? Is that what you thought as you encased Discord and a dozen other 'enemies' in stone? As you damned your own sister to a thousand years of nothingness?" A mocking smile formed beneath a pair of slitted pupils.

A spark within the princess, unnoticed before, flared into a full-blown wildfire at the taunt.

"I had no choice!" she screamed, pouring power into her shield. The carefully balanced matrix collapsed, causing a cascade of magical energies to fluctuate out of control and explode outwards in a radiant blast of light and heat. The Nightmare's enveloping darkness boiled away entirely before the onslaught, the eyes within it widening as the mouth below them opened in a soundless screech of surprise.

When it was over, Celestia stood, panting, upon the center of a large circle of charred earth. Yet another scar that would need time to heal.

Her armor sat heavily on her withers, and her mane and tail had returned to their natural, pastel shades. But The Nightmare was gone.

At last, the bad dream was over.

Celestia smiled, genuinely relieved. Her detection spells could see no trace of the creature, but she would need to have her guardsponies comb the area, just in case.

"Never hurts to be too careful," she panted as she took her first step back towards the fortress. Glassy stone crunched beneath her hooves, while her hair prickled with cold. A cold that spiked deep into her heart as living shadows writhed up from the cracks left by her passage.

"There is no such thing as true purity, princess." The voice... that dreaded voice... spoke, all traces of fatigue gone, "And darkness dances within every crack."

No!

A tendril of darkness wrapped itself around Celestia's neck, dragging the alicorn down to her knees.

Not like this!

The laughing eyes and lazy, psychotic smile were the first of the monster's features to reappear. "See? I can say pretty words too. Really, the poetic irony of the whole situation would be tragic, if it wasn't so amusing."

"H-How?" Celestia croaked.

"How?" The Nightmare mocked. "This whole time, you've done nothing but chase shadows. Shadows and illusions. And I got to watch as you ran yourself ragged doing it."

The ground... the princess berated herself, It hid within the ground the whole time. And I was too desperate to stop her to notice.

The Nightmare, its body now having finished forming, loomed over Celestia's prone form, and spoke. "Speaking of pretty words: The humans have a saying, back in their world. 'She who fights with monsters should take care, lest she herself becomes one. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.'"

Celestia shuddered as an old fear was given words. That fear was accompanied by a vile presence, writhing its way into her mind. A presence she could not expel, without magic to fight it.

"There will be no eternal night this time, princess." The Nightmare leaned down, looking directly into the magenta of Celestia's irises. "Instead, we will wreathe the world in your flames... and I will make you watch it burn."

Princess Celestia closed her eyes, then her mind.

---------------------------------------------------

Shawn traced a finger along the crack in the thick cast that covered his right forearm. The sword itself had been easy enough to remove through a minor exertion of Twilight's magic. The cast, however, would have to stay on, unless he wanted to run around with a broken hand flapping about.

That never sounds any less painful, no matter how many times I think about it. He shuddered.

Perhaps more ominously, the unicorn didn't have enough strength or time at the moment to renew the protection spells that had been on the cast before. So, the next time Shawn used his arm as a shield would likely be the last time he used that arm at all. The most she could do was mend the cast itself in the magical equivalent of slapping on some duct tape, which she was currently in the process of doing.

Applejack, meanwhile, had been put in charge of updating him on what the ponies had been up to. Probably because she'd been the most vocal during his abridged retelling of what he and Pinkie had done so far.

"So... 13 warehouses, huh?" he asked again.

"Uh huh," Applejack repeated dryly.

"In my defense, that's more of a problem with the city's fire code than me. And it's not my fault the owners didn't pick up insurance for their hundred-year-old fire traps."

"Now listen here, Shawn, Ah don-"

"Applejack, this isn't helping," Twilight interrupted, looking up from her finished task, "We'll deal with Shawn's debt to the crown later."

"Whoa... debt? Uhhh... do you guys take credit? I'm pretty sure I've still got Gus's card around here somewhere..."

Twilight only rolled her eyes and continued, "The princess is out there right now, fighting The Nightmare's Shadow-"

"Shadow Nightmare."

"Shawn!"

"What!? It's way cooler!" he asserted.

"He's right," Dash agreed. "It is way cooler."

"Ugh, we don't have time for this!" Twilight protested, then sighed, "Fine. She's out there fighting The Shadow Nightmare while we're sitting around arguing about a silly name! We have to do something!"

Rarity, treading lightly, moved forward. "Yes... but what, dear?"

Twilight only looked at her, ears back in confusion.

"What I mean is..." The fashionista bit her lip, clearly trying to think of the right wording, "Princess Celestia is, by far, the most powerful mage in Equestria. And The... Shadow Nightmare has shown itself to be in a league above our own. With the Elements back in Canterlot..."

"Rarity... what are you saying?"

Shawn groaned, even the minor effort of standing up getting to him, "She's saying you couldn't help the princess, even if she wanted you to."

"What?" Twilight raised a hoof, looking utterly horrified at the implication. The others, except for Rarity, simply looked disbelieving.

"Think about it, Sparky. If she wanted help, she would have brought the Elements with her and told you to blast the baddie right in its stupid, see-through face. She didn’t, so she obviously thinks this is something she needs to do on her own."

"But... but the Elements were the one thing that defeated Nightmare Moon last time! Why wouldn't she want to use them again!?"

Sighing, Shawn continued, "You're still not thinking about it. The Shadow Nightmare told us what happened last time you used the Elements. You think Celestia wants to send that thing to some other dimension every couple of years 'till it decides to give up trying to come back?"

Twilight looked down at her hooves, dejected, "No... I suppose not..."

"None of us can help with what she needs to do. I'm only surprised she didn't bring her sister along."

"No, that one makes sense," Twilight responded, ears still down and eyes fixed on the ground. "The creature is an unstable, sentient magical construct spawned by princess Luna's fractured psyche. Princess Celestia was probably afraid that if it got too close to Luna, it would be able to remeld itself to her mind and control her again."

Dash winced, "Yeah... we definitely don't need another Nightmare Moon on our hooves."

"Yeah, from what you told me, I wouldn't want another... wait..." A thought suddenly struck Shawn, "It's not the same."

"Uhh... what're you on about, Shawn? Yer makin' less sense'n a cow up an apple tree." AJ stepped close, eyeing him curiously.

For his part, Shawn brought a palm to his face. Well, he tried. Unfortunately, that palm happened to be covered in a cast at the time, which he ended up smacking himself with. A brief shake of his head to clear it later, Shawn started pacing and talking.

"The creature you guys fought last time... Nightmare Moon. You told me she was princess Luna, grown jealous of the ponies' love of the day, and frustrated at their disinterest in the night, right?"

The ponies all glanced at each other, then nodded.

"But that's not the Luna I met. I mean, yeah, she's clearly looking for ways to fit in, but she wasn't megalomaniacal... erm..." Shawn paused to stare a Twilight.

"What?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"I was just... you know... it felt like you were going to correct me or something..."

"On what? You used the right word. For once."

"Really? Huh... usually I end up using a malapropos at least once by-"

"Malapropism." the librarian corrected automatically.

"There it is." Shawn finished. Feeling somewhat relieved to get that out of the way, he continued, "Anyway, The Shadow Nightmare isn't just a creature created by Luna's emotions getting mixed in with bad ju ju magic. It's a living chunk of her personality."

Captain Aegis, who'd been sitting quietly at the edge of the group so far, tilted his head and spoke up, "What's that got to do with anything?"

Shawn's mind flashed with white hot pain, as a memory forced its way through The Shadow Nightmare's magical haze.

Maybe it was the nature of the place, or maybe it was the sheer presence of the being that communicated with him, but The Nightmare's emotions were palpable. Shawn felt like sandpaper made of hatred was being shoved down his throat.

Ok, I get it. You're very angry and very crazy... He paused, wryly noting that he was holding a conversation with a voice in his head, What do you want from me?

Want? The Nightmare laughed and contempt washed over him like acid rain, There is NOTHING I seek from you. You are a bug, beneath my notice and easily crushed. However, your presence on this world will change things... Things that are vital to my VENGEANCE. The desire in that final word seethed and burned in his center.

As if triggered by the flash, the rest of the memories the creature had locked away came back to him in a rush. The chase through the hallways, its shadowy form, the portal, the dreams it used to threaten his life... to subtly influence his emotions and actions during the day.

"Every person-... pony-... being is different. Everyone wants different things. When you banished the chunk of Luna's personality that was making her crazy, along with the corrupted magic that was keeping it in control, you created an entirely new being. A creature whose whole personality was based around Luna's negative emotions. Her jealousy, her frustration... her spite. It’s... it’s incomplete. It doesn't know anything else... that must be why it got drawn to the worst people from my world when it was banished there... but it doesn't have her need to be accepted! That emotion's still in Luna!"

Shawn looked around at all of them, willing them to understand, "It doesn't want an endless night anymore! That was what Nightmare Moon wanted... what her need for acceptance led her to want! The Shadow Nightmare wants something else... and my guess is it wants to get back at the one common source for all of the negative emotions it got stuck with."

"Princess Celestia..." Twilight breathed out, understanding finally dawning on her face.

"This was never about taking over Equestria, or destroying the Elements, or even usurping the throne," Aegis muttered. "It was all about the princess. Everything was designed to hurt her... to lure her out into the open. This whole takeover was all an elaborate trap."

"We have to warn her!" Fluttershy not-quite shouted. Her sort-of outburst drew everyone's attention, causing her to squeak and retreat behind her mane.

"She's right," Applejack asserted and tipped her hat. "We cain't just stand by an' wait fer the princess t'do all the work. 'Specially if she don't know what she's actually fightin'."

"... 'and that's how Equestria was made!'" Pinkie shouted as the rest of the group approached, "... is what I would have said, normally... but everypony keeps telling me that joke's lazy and overused, so now I just say, 'git 'er done!', because nothing's funnier than a catchphrase in a silly accent!"

"Yer friend makes no sense, Shawnee." Wavedancer complained.

In perfect sync, Twilight and Shawn both shrugged and said, "You get used to it."

Twilight shot him a startled glance, which was met by an amused chuckle from him.

"So," Shawn slapped his hand and his cast together, making a disappointingly dull thud instead of the sharp clap he expected, "Now that we're all up to date on what we're up against, we have to decide on what to do."

"What do you mean?" Soft Speech asked.

"The Shadow Nightmare was out to snuff the princess from the getgo, which means it might have a nasty surprise or two for her hidden up its sleeve. We need to go warn her, but we're going to need help... if you guys are feeling up for one more adventure."

The minotaur and sea-mare looked at each other, before gaping back at him.

"Ye lied to us 'bout who ye be." Wavedancer started.

"You nearly got us killed. More than once." Soft Speech continued for the mare.

"Ye led us on a wild goose chase an' set 'alf the city on fire."

"And you toppled a good chunk of the social and governmental order while you were at it."

"Don't forget the parts where I started a war and forced an ancient evil into battle with a sun goddess," Shawn interrupted. "So, you guys in, or-? Ow!"

Shawn rubbed the back of his head where Twilight had leaned up and smacked him, returning her glare with sullen indignation.

"An' now ye want us ta fight through an army o' city guards, just ta reach a pissin' match 'tween an alicorn an' a demon?" Wavedancer finished.

Somewhat awkwardly, he nodded, still poking at the tender spot where Twilight's hoof had met his skull.

The two Cauldronites stared at him for a while longer, before bursting into wild grins.

"Ah, what the hay. I got nothin' better t'do."

"Soft Speech will go, but only because you look cute when you beg for help."

"I'm equal parts touched and horrified, guys," Shawn replied. "Thanks."

"What are we waiting for, then!?" Dash shouted, clearly excited at the prospect of making her mark on an epic battle of historic proportions. "Let's do this!"

"Whoa! Slow down there, Leroy!" Shawn reached out and grabbed her tail, getting dragged several feet forward before she noticed and stopped. "We're gonna need a plan."

"A real plan, or one o' yours?" Applejack asked, one eyebrow raised.

"I'm insulted, AJ! My plans are awesome! But no... I think we should consult the expert on this one." He looked over at Aegis, who'd been scowling quietly since the revelation that his princess might be in trouble.

"As much as I absolutely hate to admit it... the chimp's right. We need to get to the princess, but the ponies I brought with me won't be enough to hold the city guard at bay once reinforcements arrive. We're going to need a plan of action..." The captain suddenly paused, the corners of his mouth rising into a terrifying grimace only a few would recognize as a grin and thoroughly disturbing everyone in the room.

"And I think I just came up with it."

---------------------------------------------------

Uuuuuugh...

Strom Front's mental groan was followed by a real one, as his mind did its best to try to pull itself together. The last thing he remembered was floating outside the fortress, intently watching for any sign of movement from within. Then... a burst of light, followed by an intense shock-wave that knocked the air out from his lungs and under his wings.

He didn't remember hitting the ground, but it obviously must have happened at some point, as that's where he was currently lying.

"Ponyfeathers that hurt..." A complaint and a few grunts later, he was back on four hooves. Like any good guard would, the first thing he did was check himself for injuries.

When he found none, he checked his armor. "Aaaaand there goes my helmet," he muttered sullenly.

There was a large dent on the gilded head-piece where a flying chunk of rock had clearly struck him. A dent large enough, in fact, that it no longer sat properly over his mane. With a sigh, he discarded it as the dead weight it now was.

That fact that he wasn't dead or in a coma meant that he probably hadn't been knocked out for more than a few seconds. Not an unexpected side-effect of falling from that height. After all, pegasi might be naturally resistant to heavy impacts and high g-forces... but hitting the ground after a hundred span fall was going to do some damage. At least he'd fallen on the outside of the wall, so he didn't have to worry about city guards falling upon him en masse.

A clap of thunder drew his attention back toward the forest. He had a brief moment to wonder at the noise before a line of light, stretching from a random spot in the sky to the ground below, burned itself into his retinas before he could look away. About five seconds later, the sound hit him: A continuous rolling thunder, not unlike that which could be heard during a massive lightning storm.

While he'd never seen it himself - no living, mortal pony had - Storm Front was familiar with the histories. That was Sunfire... princess Celestia's most devastating spell, and an undeniable sign that the Regent of the Sun had entered the fray. A million questions vied for his attention, but he quickly discarded them.

That display of power had drawn the attention of every Royal Guardspony in the area. They would know what it meant, as well.

A shrill trumpet call assaulted his already sensitive ears, signalling the arrival of reinforcements from the city guard, likely more of those loyal to Grizzly. Even the Royal Guard would not be able to hold out against this... not if they were pinned between the fortress and the fresh enemy forces. Not without help.

Worse, not even the Wonderbolts could conceivably hope to reach them all the way from Canterlot in time to make a difference.

Honestly, it was a veritable miracle that nopony had been killed yet, but the number of royal guards with injuries grave enough to remove them from the fight grew by the minute. Injuries that would prevent the main body of guards from maneuvering or retreating without abandoning their comrades... which they would never do.

Swearing, Storm Front took to the air, dodging a badly aimed crossbow bolt in his rush for altitude.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

The thought lent his wings strength as he turned toward the North shore.

-------------------------------------------

"This sucks," Shawn stated loudly... again, just in case anyone hadn't heard him the first four times.

Dash turned to look back at him over her withers, her initially amused smirk now having become an annoyed glower. "Dude, you're getting a lift from the awesomest pony in all of Equestria. What's there to complain about?"

Shawn grunted noncommittally as he looked around the wreckage that used to be an office/throne-room hybrid. Grizzly and his dogs had been stuffed into the cage that previously contained Gilda. The griffon herself was looking decidedly better, after having received some first aid and food from one of Pinkie's bottomless saddle-bags. She would need all the strength she could get for what they had planned.

Which, of course, brought Shawn back to his current situation, perched atop Dash's back and trying not to get in the way of her spread wings.

"I think it might have something to do with my hand getting broken the last time you gave me a ride..."

"Buh... what?!" Dash sputtered. "You jumped off and punched a diamond dog in the jaw! How is any of that my fault?!"

"Clearly, you're failing to understand something very important here," Shawn responded, giving her head a condescending pat.

She narrowed her eyes in response. "And what's that?"

"Nothing's ever my fault."

Rainbow Dash tried to hold her glare, but eventually had to shake her head as she broke out into a wide grin, "Don't worry, we're not going to be going all that fast this time... not when I have to carry you and help Cappy with your giant friend over there." She nodded toward Aegis, who was assisting an embarrassed Twilight get adjusted on his own back, while Soft Speech stood by looking nervous.

The fact that Dashie had referred to Aegis as "Cappy" did not escape Shawn, or the captian's, notice.

Shawn grinned and shook his own head. The plan was actually fairly simple: The fliers carry the non-fliers over the wall and into the forest as quickly as possible. After all, when princess Celestia decimated the back portion of the castle, she'd caused quite a ruckus. Honestly, it was a miracle none of the guards had shown up to investigate... though with the intense fighting that was still ongoing at the front gates and in the skies, they probably didn't have any spare soldiers to send to check out what might have only been a stray bolt of magic from one of the attackers.

Of course, the whole thing was complicated by the fact that they needed to get a massive mountain of minotaur muscle over a wall that seemed taller every time Shawn looked at it. To that end, he and Twilight - the lightest non-flying members of the group - were perched atop the two strongest fliers, who would be cooperating to lift Soft Speech over the obstacle.

And so, Shawn found himself sitting on Dash, who was now floating just over Soft Speech's head with her front hooves hooked under the minotaur's right arm.

"I still don't get why we can't just go one at a time..." Shawn complained.

"Because the moment we get over the wall, those griffons up there are going to be on our flanks. We won't get a chance to come back and pick anypony else up," Aegis responded automatically from his spot at Soft Speech's left arm, as if he'd already given the answer so many times that he'd passed the point of annoyance and into unthinking reflex.

In all fairness to the cap'n, he probably had.

"Don't worry, Shawn. I'm gonna give you the smoothest ride of your life." Dash asserted confidently, throwing a reassuring wink his way for good measure.

After a moment's careful consideration, Shawn mentally collected himself and responded the only way he could in that situation. "Do you people actually listen to yourselves?!"

Apparently, they did not, because Dash only shrugged - nearly throwing him off with the motion - and started flapping her wings harder. One dual grunt of effort from her and Aegis later, matched by a nerve-wracked groan from Soft Speech, and they were rising slowly into the air.

Shawn looked up from his death grip on Dash's mane to see Twilight staring at him.

"Did you just yelp?" she asked.

"... nope. That was clearly Fluttershy," he lied.

He followed Twilight's gaze as she turned to look at the yellow pegasus, who was struggling to keep up while lifting Wavedancer by her forehooves. In contrast, Dash and Aegis were already halfway up the wall. Pinkie, who was carrying AJ, floated nearby, keeping an eye on both Fluttershy and Gilda. Of everyone there, those two were the least likely to manage the flight. The griffon, in particular, looked like she was really struggling with even Rarity's relatively light weight.

"Uh huh..." Twilight raised a single eyebrow at him, a corner of her lip upturned in a smirk.

"Sparky, I don't yelp," Shawn continued with a roll of his eyes. "I laugh in pleased surprise." To demonstrate, he drew in a breath and started letting out a high pitched chuckle.

He might have pulled off the fib, too, had Dash not chosen just that moment to wobble as she reached the top of the wall, turning his fake laugh into a squeak of abject terror.

Twilight's little smirk immediately became a full fledged giggle, which earned her a dirty look as the whole group began an easy glide in the direction of the tree-line.

"See?" Dash grunted, sweating with effort. "Nothing to it. Just a short flight to the forest and an even shorter walk from there to the princess. We'll be there in no time."

"Don't let your guard down yet," Aegis muttered, his own face red from the strain. "Griffons have even better eyesight than we do. We could've been spotted already and we'd never know it."

"Better than you, maybe. I've got eyes like a hawk. There's no way I'd miss- mmph!"

The mare turned to glare at Shawn, who'd reached over and clamped his hand around her muzzle, being careful to avoid blocking her nose.

"Don't. You'll jinx it." His statement was met only with further glaring. Probably because all of her limbs were otherwise occupied at the moment.

"Phew! Thank goodness! I didn't think I was gonna make it... and then I didn't! But, it turns out I didn't need to, because Shawn totally stopped her from saying it!" Pinkie's white-coated form, wings abuzz, flitted up from behind them, dragging Applejack along beneath her. The farm pony's face was locked in an expression of patient tolerance, even as her excitable friend's antics and motions whipped AJ about like a lasso at a rodeo.

The noises from the battle had been getting gradually quieter as the wall shrunk away and the forest got closer. So much so, that Twilight's voice seemed to ring in the silence following Pinkie's statement.

"What are you two going on about?"

Pinkie turned to face her, nearly taking Shawn's head off with AJ's rear hooves as the farm pony was swung around. "Well, since it's such a good opportunity for dramatic irony, everypony knows that it's bad luck to say anything along the lines of 'what could possibly g-?'" She suddenly gasped, wide-eyed, and tried to shove her hooves in her mouth in an effort to interrupt herself. However, she seemed to realize that she couldn't use her own hooves, since they were busy holding Applejack's forelegs at that moment. So, instead, she used her friend's.

"Ew! Pinkie, get mah hooves outta yer mouth! That's disgustin'!"

The party-mare's only response was to cringe away from some invisible horror in the sky, while Shawn looked around nervously, his hand still clamped over Dash's muzzle.

For her part, Twilight only raised an eyebrow. "Really? That's what's got you two so scared? That's just a silly superstition. You can't cause things to go wrong just by saying 'what could possibly go wrong?'"

Shawn only caught a glimpse of a small, brown blur as it clanged heavily against the cap'n's helmet, eliciting a curse and nearly causing him to drop Soft Speech. They all turned to see a group of several griffons diving down from some nearby cloud cover, crossbows aimed at their slow, vulnerable formation.

"Oh, come on!" Twilight shouted at the pursuing soldiers. "That doesn't count, it was out of context!"

"Everypony drop down, now!" Aegis yelled over her, following his words with a steep dive toward the approaching tree-line.

Several more crossbow bolts lanced down after them, but broke against Twilight's hastily erected half-dome shield.

Aegis and Dash didn't slow down much as they approached the ground, forcing Soft Speech to run along as they set her down. In tandem, the two pegasi landed, sliding to a stop on the grass just before the trees. Twilight and Shawn hopped off, the latter nearly falling on his face as he scrambled off of Dash.

"Go," Aegis shouted to the rest of the group as they caught up. Gilda fudged the landing and came to a rolling stop alongside Rarity, who had managed to miraculously keep her mane intact throughout the ordeal.

"B-But... what about you?!" Fluttershy asked, past her heavy panting, as she set herself and Wavedancer down.

"I'll hold them off. The princess needs you far more than she needs me right now, anyway." The guard captain looked up past the flickering-purple shield at the circling griffons, who were making sure to stay up high and, presumably, out of range of telekinesis. The altitude also meant their crossbow bolts didn't lose speed as they fired them straight down at the group.

"We're not just going to leave you here," Twilight protested.

Having finished dusting himself off, Shawn stepped forward before the cap'n could say anything else. "Sparky, we can't help him here. If we stick around, we're just going to end up giving him more things to worry about protecting besides his own sorry butt."

The cap'n paused, giving Shawn an odd look before simply nodding. Twilight still looked conflicted, but acquiesced after taking a moment to think the situation through. It seemed that she was starting to learn something about making tough calls.

The group took a moment to catch their breath before walking to the edge of the forest, which just happened to coincide with the edge of Twilight's shield. Shawn stopped and looked back, noticing that Dash was still stubbornly standing next to the captain.

"What-?" Aegis started to ask, but Dash cut him off.

"Maybe they can't help you here, but I sure can."

"You-"

"Stuff it. Nopony's going to get left behind to fight alone as long as I'm around," she interrupted again.

After a moment's consideration, the cap'n shrugged, the corners of his lips turning up into what could be recognized as a genuine grin.

Never thought I'd see that today.

Shawn looked over to Twilight, ready to step in again in case she wanted to protest, but the mare only smiled and looked back toward the forest. Dash's bravado was clearly boosting the whole group's morale... it was probably best not to mention the nervous shaking in the pegasus's rear knees.

"Ready, everyone?" Twilight asked, confidence oozing from her tone.

Each member of the group nodded, Aegis and Rainbow Dash spreading their wings, ready to spring out the moment Twilight dropped her shield.

"Go!" she shouted. The group took off, and Shawn looked back just in time to catch trails of rainbow and gold, intertwining through the sky as two consummate fliers bowled their way through a very surprised flock of griffons.

-------------------------------------------

On the North shore of Cauldron, a very startled general was roused from his nap as an armored pegasus crashed through his window.

-------------------------------------------

They were running through the forest, the thick tree cover slowing everyone down to a pace that even Shawn could keep up with. Soft Speech had taken the lead, using her massive strength to clear away obstacles and make a slightly more traversable path for the rest.

Almost there, Shawn thought to himself, just before a familiar series of howls coming from their left nearly startled him into stumbling. Had they incidentally run into enemy reinforcements?

"Sounds like company." Applejack muttered just loudly enough for them all to hear.

Soft Speech simply grunted and started to speed up, but was stymied when a squeaky shout reached her ears.

"Wait!" Fluttershy called out from the rear of their line. She and Rarity stood over Gilda, who was laying motionless against the roots of a tree.

The minotaur immediately turned and ran to her friend, checking the griffon's pulse, then eyes. "She's out cold. Exhaustion, probably."

More eerie howls, much closer than before, raised the small hairs on the back of Shawn's neck.

"There be no way we're outrunnin' a pack o' diamond dogs like this," Wavedancer pointed out, her features set into grim lines.

Applejack stood up from where she'd set her ear to the ground. "That's a mighty big pack comin' our way."

Soft Speech stood up slowly and looked to Wavedancer. "Looks like it's our turn this time."

"Aye," the sea-mare nodded softly.

"I-I... I'll stay too. Somepony needs to watch over her." Fluttershy murmured from her spot at Glida's side.

Her friends oggled at the soft-spoken mare, who cringed away from the sudden attention. Soft Speech nodded, gratefulness evident in the motion.

Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Applejack glanced at each other, then looked to Twilight, unsure of what to do next.

The de facto leader bit her lip, ears lowering as the howls started up again, now accompanied by excited barking. "We only need to deliver a message. So long as at least one of us makes it, we'll win."

"I'll go," Shawn offered, feeling a little out of place in such a serious situation. "It's not like I'd make a difference here, anyway."

Twilight smiled at him gratefully, but shook her head. "No, we'll both go. You'll need somepony to shield you from stray combat magic. And two of us means double the chances of success."

At her friend's words, Applejack tipped her hat with a hoof, a determined look crossing her face. "The others an' Ah'll stay here an' help. You two make sure ya'll get to the princess."

"Right." Shawn nodded and turned to follow Twilight, but was stopped when Applejack continued.

"Oh, an' Shawn... don't go gettin' mah friend killed or nothin'..." A pause, "or yerself," she added with a grin. "Now git!"

Grinning, Shawn gave her a thumbs up and ran after the purple unicorn, who'd already started cutting a path through the forest with her magic.

Applejack watched them go, before turning and walking over to stand with the minotaur and sea-mare. "Come on, lil' doggies," she murmured as the snarling dogs burst through the underbrush, spears first.

-------------------------------------------

"Just like old times, eh Sparky?" Shawn gasped as he struggled to keep up with the cantering mare.

Twilight turned to look back at him, confusion on her features, "What the hay are you talking about? You've only been here a week!"

Shawn paused, startled. "Really? That's it?" He shook his head. "It feels more like a year..."

"It kind of does, doesn't it?" Twilight giggled in spite of herself.

"Sure puts a hamper on my plans for an 'I'm too old for this shit' comment."

The unicorn sighed in mock exasperation, her smile suddenly faltering. "Shawn..."

"Yeah?" He didn't miss the light shake in her voice.

"Do you think they'll be alright? I mean... I made the right choice, didn't I?"

Shawn didn't hesitate, "Absolutely. Your friends can kick butt with the best of 'em."

"Flank," she corrected.

"I've heard it both ways."

She laughed, a little more genuinely this time, and leaned forward, her horn glowing brighter as she increased her pace through the foliage.

All at once, they burst into a clearing, hooves and feet crunching on some sort of glassy, black stone that lay where there had once been grass. Both of them had to stop, nearly choking on the dust and ash that floated along with the breeze.

"Whoa," Shawn breathed past a cough. Through watering eyes, he could see that this entire portion of the forest had been turned into an arid wasteland. Even the air had become noticeably less humid. "What happened here?"

Twilight looked around, horrified. "Sunfire..." she whispered. "I've read about it in books about the early history of Equestria, when the demons of Tartarus roamed free. It was said that princess Celestia called down the flames of her sun against her most powerful foes as a last resort... but that the lands she used that spell within were often left barren for years afterward. You-"

Whatever she was about to say was interrupted by a crunch, and she leaned down to inspect the black chips her hoof had kicked up as she stepped forward. "Fulgurite," she muttered.

"You're a fulgurite!" Shawn rebutted, still trying to catch his breath.

"Wha-?! I don't... Oh! That's not an insult, Shawn, it's the stuff that's made when sandy earth gets super-heated very quickly. It normally only ever forms when lightning strikes near a beach... but I guess that must be what the books referred to when they mentioned her spell 'scorching the land black'." Twilight shook her head. "Now's not the time for lectures. We need to find princess Celestia quickly. If she's using this spell, that means she must be getting desperate. The Shadow Nightmare might have already sprung whatever trap it prepared for her."

Shawn nodded and followed her, keeping an eye out for any sign of movement... or impending fiery death.

It took a few minutes of wandering before they finally spotted a shape among the dust clouds. It was tall and horned, with a long wavy mane that flowed unnaturally, and impressively large wings to match. There was a glint, as a stray beam of sunlight reflected off of polished golden armor.

"Princess!" Twilight shouted joyfully and rushed forward.

Shawn smiled in relief, then paused. Something about this felt horribly off, forcing a shudder from him as his breath misted in the cold...

It was cold.

"Twilight, wait!"

He was too late. The mare was suddenly snatched up by claws made of shadows, black as the darkest night, writhing and flickering in a mockery of the flames that had earlier composed an enraged Celestia's mane. A mane that was normally a soft rainbow of light, but now seemed to be comprised of a total absence of it. Her coat was a deep blood-red, contrasting the still-golden sun of her cutie mark.

"Twilight, my little darling!" the monster that had once been Celestia cooed. "You're just in time..." She smiled, showing long fangs that, combined with her newly golden eyes, lent her the look of a predatory cat. A hungry one.

Shawn froze. What was he supposed to do here? What could he possibly hope to do here?!

To her credit, Twilight struggled against the umbral bonds that held her, glaring at the creature that was once her loving teacher and mother-figure. "Leave her alone, you demon!"

The Shadow Nightmare cocked her head, "Hmm... I was really expecting your curiosity to take over, Twilight. I'm a little disappointed. Don't you want to know what you're just in time for?"

Twilight growled, still squirming. Her horn began to glow, but the nascent light was quickly snuffed by black flames.

"The end of the world..." Shawn muttered.

The Shadow Nightmare turned to face him, a look of mild surprise crossing her features, "You're still here? I would have expected you to run... not that it would do you any good, mind, but you've been a coward about everything else so far." She then shrugged, clearly dismissing his presence as she turned to face Twilight once more, "He is right, though. I'm going to make you and your teacher watch the rest of the world burn to ashes around us. Then, when I'm done, I'm going to make her watch you burn. Slowly," she giggled.

Wings spread, the sun demon rose into the air, Twilight in tow, as her eyes were consumed by the same shadows that held the Element of magic hostage.

Before Shawn's eyes, the sun crashed down toward the ground, while the moon rose to meet it. The whole sky began to turn red as one celestial body eclipsed the other. From his point of view, it seemed as though the sun had gone out.

"You may call me Eclipse!" the monster shouted joyfully. "Tremble, little mortals, as your world is consumed by The Black Sun!" Then, she began to laugh.

Her celebration, however, was suddenly interrupted by a violent seizure, which choked off the peals of increasingly maniacal cackling.

Twilight fell from her grasp, teleporting at the last moment before she hit the ground and reappearing on her knees at Shawn's side. The unicorn was shivering and struggling to keep from hyperventilating.

Eclipse slammed into the ground, its body regressing from the perversion of Celestia's shape to a more solid version of the androgynous, transparent form it had taken before. Its expression was fixed into one of deep confusion as it pushed itself back unto its hooves. It was so confounded, in fact, that it didn't notice Shawn had been walking forward until he was right in front of its face.

"'The Shadow Nightmare's' still way cooler," he said. Then he punched it right in the jaw.

Dark, slitted eyes slowly turned to meet his own.

Oh...

Author's Note:

Hello again, everyone... I must apologize for the excruciatingly long delay between the last chapter and this one. Especially after the horrible cliff-hanger I just left you on when I told you this chapter would contain the full measure of the climax. You see, the full chapter was getting a bit on in length... far too long, for my tastes, in fact. So, I decided to split it into two parts (as you may have deduced from the title).

However, let it not be said that Invictus leaves his readers wanting for more. As both a special surprise and apology for the wait, I am happy to inform you that Part II of this climactic chapter is already quite finished!

You may then be wondering why it's not up yet. Well, posting both halves at once would kind of defeat the purpose of not posting the whole thing as one chapter, now wouldn't it? Hence, Chapter 17.2: Rest for the Wicked shall be posted tomorrow at precisely 12:00 PM EST. Tune in then for the thrilling conclusion (minus Epilogue) of Magic, and Mayhem, and... Murder? Oh my...

Sincerely,

Invictus

Comments

[Invictus]

Sorry again for the long wait, everybody... but I really wanted to do this right. Perhaps go out with a bit of a bang, even. If you read the author's note, you know what I mean.

Hopefully, the wait will have been worth it for all of you. In the meantime, and as always: rate, review, and enjoy!

Thank you all once again for your patience, and for keeping up with this story (and my antics) for so long.

Sincerely, and with much love,

Invictus

[Giant Robot]

Shawn has learned the way of the bad-ass.

[Red Does Reviewing]

shawn is awsome in this love it so much

[DavidReinold]

This story has been around for 40 weeks... why am I just finding out about it now?!

Upvoted, Faved, added to read-later list because I know I'll forget.

[CookieMonstar]

Aww, it's almost over. Shaping up to be a great ending, though.

[Beyond the Horizon]

. . . Frak. A fragment of an immortal adapting the best of human combat tactics to suit her needs? Bad. Very very bad.

And also. .. SHAWN PAWNCH!

Seriously, Eclipse is the best it could come up with? And its been hanging around humans how long? I am disappoint.

~With regards, the Current Student of the Second True Magic.

[Deamon]

Because the sensible thing to do when confronted with a corrupted goddess about to bring about the end of the world is to deck her in the face.

Seems legit.

[HIEfan]

Shawn in Equestria is a concept to cool for mere fragile mortal minds!!!!

[Nealend86]

WHAT!? You're making me wait until tomorrow for the next part!? RAGE!

Seriously though. Great chapter and I eagerly await the conclusion.

[UseFistNotMouth]

Ha ha. She just blocked her own power by eclipsing her patron sun. Not to mention giving Luna's patron precedence over hers. What an idiot.
(Unless that's not what happened and I'm jumping to conclusions again.)

[Lithl]

Ya'll are like a humanoid typhoon!

Shawn Spencer, the Humanoid Typhoon, the 60 billion bit man! Wanted dead or alive!

imageshack.us/a/img824/3186/trigunvashthestampedewa.jpg

[Impoxdragon]

I completely forgot what had happened last chapter. Thanks for the recap Author!

[Kurohitsugi]

I started watching Psych because of this fic and I like it!

[TJAW]

Thanks again for letting me use the concept of Cauldron in one of my fics, Invictus! If you ever feel like seeing how I handled the concept, check out my Crysis crossover.

[Prime 2.0]

First, an error:

The altitude also meant their crossbow bolts didn't lose speed as they them fired straight down at the group.

Secondly,

"Just like old times, eh Sparky?" Shawn gasped as he struggled to keep up with the cantering mare.

Twilight turned to look back at him, confusion on her features, "What the hay are you talking about? You've only been here a week!"

Shawn paused, startled. "Really? That's it?" He shook his head. "It feels more like a year..."

I had to go back and look at when the first chapter was posted after reading that... December 17th, wow. Pretty nice joke.

[Cody MacArthur Fett]

1349106
Not the first time this has happened. The titular All-American Girl did it in that story, and if the two are at all similar then Shawn will soon be howling on the ground in pain after The Shadow Nightmare Eclipse Whatever breaks his arm in multiple places while monologuing.

Also, author, why in the world did the Mane Six and Friends not notice the magical equivalent of a nuclear bomb going off, and why can Storm Front still see if he looked directly at it without eye protection? Doesn't seem quite plausible to me.

[nemryn]

"Oh, come on!" Twilight shouted at the pursuing soldiers. "That doesn't count, it was out of context!"

Seriously, what kind of narrative doesn't respect the use/mention distinction?

[dbanksischillin]

And so because of Twilight they had to separate. Way to go.

And sso Shawn chooses to deck the evil goddess in the face. this must have been going through his mind. LLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYYYY
JJJJJJJJJJJJEEEEENNNNNNNNNNKKKKKKIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
And so it comes down to the final battle. Shawn vs. Eclipse(yeah like beyond the horizon im very dissappointed at its naming ability) And so shawn saves the day by doing something crazy stupid yet completely awesome. Good job bro.

[Invictus]

1352055

Those two details were meant to kind of tell the more discerning readers that the princess' plasma beam wasn't actually that huge. She just spent a bit of time running a thinner beam over a lot of area. So, Storm Front was nearly blinded - after all, just a momentary glance left a massive afterimage on his retinas - and the Elements simply dismissed the thunder as more noises from the battle raging just outside.

As for why Twilight doesn't sense the magical distortions? She's not covered in advanced magical detection and sensory spells.

But more than all of that: you can chalk it up to a combination of plot convenience and author incompetence. My knowledge of high energy physics is depressingly lacking, unfortunately.

[The Gargoyle]

Awsome first half!

[MariusIoannesP]

"Shawn, what was princess Celestia doing in your pants?"

That might just be one of the funniest things I've ever read!

"What are we waiting for, then!?" Dash shouted, clearly excited at the prospect of making her mark on an epic battle of historic proportions. "Let's do this!"

"Whoa! Slow down there, Leroy!"

RAINBOW JENKINS!

"You may call me Eclipse!" the monster shouted joyfully.

Sure her name's not Corona?

[GoldenCyclone4]

Trope overload! Among the highlights are Twi's Tempting Fate Stock Quote, and Shawn's Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu? And I prefer Nightmare's Shadow, but that's just because I've been playing too much Kingdom Hearts.

1349106 It's actually surprisingly effective...

[PresentPerfect]

Ho dang.

So I realize a large portion of this story is about Celestia trying to redeem herself from her past sins mistakes. Not just the Nightmare, but Cauldron too. That's pretty awesome.

Also what's up with that "last time" blurb at the top? <.<

[SweetCaptain77]

PLEASE tell me there is a sequel series with Gus?!