• Published 3rd Dec 2012
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Myths and Birthrights - Tundara



Twilight has to deal with new powers and troubles as an Alicorn.

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Book One: Chapter Seventeen: Sacrifice

Myths and Birthrights
By Tundara

Book One: Awakening and Arrivals
Chapter Seventeen: Sacrifice


Magic crackled up the walls of Leviathan’s chamber, curving over the intricate wards etched deep in aurichalcum until converging at the ceiling, right over where Twilight stood fuming.

“Game? Game!” Twilight shouted, her chest heaving with ire and rage. “These are ponies’ lives, and you want to bet on who lives and dies while you taunt that I can help them but at the cost of my stars or my friend? That is sick!”

Her grin spreading, Leviathan’s wings rolled in a long, wave-like shrug. “Twilight, I do not care whether they live or die in the slightest. They are as inconsequential to me as the mosquito is to a dragon.

“So, as I told you before: you are free to go. Race off on wings of thunder and sparkling fire. Visit your wrath on all threats to those you love. Smite them with your celestial magic. Crush them underneath hooves of steel and vengeance. Hurl fire and stars from the heavens as if they were rain. Have your blood sing with the cry of steel and battle and magic to save those you hold dear.

“Or don’t. If this game bores you then we can find something else to play. You could come back in a year or two when some new pieces have wandered onto the board. Are you interested in a war between traditional armies, with all that valour, pillaging, and rape nonsense? Maybe a good, old fashioned plague? Pustules and boils, blood seeping from the eyes, with wagons of the dead carted off to mass graves or funerary pits. Mmm, that takes me back.” A shiver ran up Leviathan’s spine, from her tail to the tips of her wings, along with a giggle as accompaniment. “I see both on our horizons, but which would you prefer? It makes little difference to me.”

Twilight let out a long breath to keep her rising disgust in check. She darted a quick look to Sirius, the Firestar sizzling, mirroring her own anger. A hundred spells lept to mind. Destructive and terrible evocations mingled with potent wards and teleportations. Spells capable of halting localised time fought for dominance against beams capable of carving through hills or even mountains. It would have been so easy to follow her emotions and pull the necessary runes out of the depths of her mind.

More spell-formulae, unknown to her and far more potent than she’d ever seen, came in a flood, forced onto her fully formed and ready by Sirius. An entire tome’s worth of spells hovered in Sirius’ mind, tantalizing and calling to her through the bond she shared with the star. Too many for her to appreciate the subtleties of each, she grabbed at the most powerful seeming and slotted it into her repertoire.

Not that any of the spells would prove more then partially effective within the chamber’s dampening effects. It would have to be enough.

“No! You will return everything right this moment. The stars are my responsibility. Pinkie is a pony, and it’s her choice to leave or stay. Faust—”

Leviathan’s hoof smashed down, echoing about the chamber and causing another minor avalanche. “She will remain here! That was the price she paid for my abstaining from Celestia and Luna’s battles against Discord. Faust is mine; now and until the Quus properly awaken and time is shattered. As for your stars and Pinkie…” Her lips pulled back to show off her fangs. “You are in no position to make demands. This is the seat of my power, linked to my realm beneath Tartarus. Here my word is absolute. Here, I am the only god of consequence.”

“So much for not being the villain then.” Twilight smirked, already queuing up her most potent spells.

Green aether igniting along Leviathan’s horns in tandem. “Oh, please. I’d sooner keep a yapping dog than have your menace of a friend remain in my home a second after your departure. My interest in those three irritating fireflies extended no further than making you believe there were consequences. Pinkie annoys me, but I found it humorous to take the bearer of Laughter. Now, since you’ve made your choice, they are all inconsequential. Come, Twilight, let us do battle if that is your wish.”

A thrill sprang along Twilight’s back, up her neck, and crackled like lightning through her mane. It was a familiar pulse of excitement that had preceded other battles. Nightmare Moon the first. Discord, Trixie, Chrysalis, and others over the years, each accompanied by a similar rush.

Clamping down on the excitement, she shook her head. “I don’t want to do this, but you must be stopped!”

She took a deep breath in anticipation of Leviathan’s response, certain she’d made the right decision.

“Stopped? From what?” Leviathan cocked her head. “Warning you that those you care about are in danger and need your help? Yes, I am such a big, bad menace in need of a good smiting.”

“And what about threatening my family?” Twilight scuffed a hoof.

“I told you, I had nothing to do with your family’s troubles beyond taking advantage of them for my own amusement. Even if you should win by some fluke and banish me back to Tartarus, it will have no meaning. I can return at my choosing. You do not have it in you to kill, nor can I be stopped. Make an enemy of me at the disc’s peril. There are other worlds I can use to partake my enjoyment.”

Snorting, Twilight extended her wings and lowered herself, ready to charge. “And now you threaten to destroy the disc? So much for being innocent. You sound just like Nightmare Moon, upset that ponies wont play with you, and so you’ll just destroy everything they love.”

“I…” Leviathan blinked a few times then cursed. “I suppose that was a rather petulant response. Damnation, I despise it when I do that.” Dismissing her readied spells, Leviathan waved a hoof and snapped her wings shut. “Nevertheless, I gave you a fair and honest deal.”

“You stole from me!” Twilight ground her teeth, aether popping along her horn where it had built too far. “You stole my stars and foalnapped my friend. And this is on top of whatever you’ve done to Faust.”

Rolling her eyes, Leviathan let out a long, dismissive snort. “Faust is here of her own volition. As for the stars, they attacked me, if you recall. As did Pinkie. I’ve every right to protect myself. Honestly, all things considered, I’ve been rather compromising, I think.” She began to pace in a wide circle, framing the Seer’s Windows with her wings as she did so. “The game still stands. You have only a few more minutes to choose. So who will it be? Your friends or your family?”

“I told you, I’m not playing your games!”

“But you are! Don’t you see? You must play the game. There is no other option. Stay or go, go or stay; this is a binary choice. I know you so love those sciency terms. Even standing there so defiant and certain that I am the evil one, you play the game.” Rubbing her cheek up against the mirror onto Sparkledale, Leviathan let out a long purring laugh. “I’m trying to help you, Twilight. Don’t you realise that?

“Take this; your foster mother is going to pay a price to undo another’s mistake. Sacrifice her life for that of Tyr. Celestia and Luna will be complicent in her death, as will you. You have the power to stop it. To save them both. But you refuse to act because I was the one who told you of the danger? Because you don’t trust me?”

Leviathan’s laughter only further set Twilight’s teeth on edge. She couldn’t figure out why Leviathan was antagonizing her so openly. What was the demon after? What was her end game?

Deciding that it didn’t matter, that she’d allowed things to progress too far already, Twilight cast the spell gleaned from Sirius. With a tone like the ringing of a gong, the runes came together, but sloppily, the formations hesitant underneath the dampening effect of the chamber.

Leviathan had more than enough time to counter the fire that drifted from the tip of Twilight’s horn. An intense, spiralling black conflagration around a lavender core, the spell should have torn across the room, rather than its almost lazy flight towards Leviathan. She did not counter in the way Twilight expected, swatting the flames aside with a wing in much the same way as she might shoo away a fly. Undiminished in intensity, the flames impacted the old stove. Wrapping around its ancient cast-iron body, they melted it into a pool that smoldered and snapped with lingering green-violet tendrils of smoke.

Mouth falling open, Leviathan gaped between Twilight and the smoking remains for a long time. “You actually attacked me,” she eventually said. “This is the thanks I get for trying to help? I didn’t have to warn you about any of this. It would have been far easier for me just to let you sail past.”

Her own mouth dry and thoughts reeling as she tried to piece together a way to counter the dampening of her magic, Twilight couldn’t form a response.

Throwing back her head, Leviathan let out a long, ruckus peel of laughter and trotted away from the mirrors. The sound had a manic, twisted edge that curled around Twilight’s ears in viperous tendrils hinting at madness hidden just beneath Leviathan’s veneer of calm. Wings tense, Twilight waited with wards at the ready for Leviathan’s counter.

In a breathy, almost jubilant voice, she said, “This is perfect! Celestia’s prized protege and cousin, the famed hero Twilight Sparkle, going straight for the throat. I haven’t been this surprised and impressed in an epoch. This deserves a reward, I think. Does it? Yes, it does. Very well, I return what I borrowed.”

Flashes lit the room as the seers windows were closed and the cage containing Twilight’s stars deposited on the nearby table. Wasting no time, Twilight crossed to the cage and wrenched it open. Immeasurable relief washed over her the moment the trio latched themselves onto her, their tiny bodies clinging to her neck like foals hugging their mother.

“There, happy now?” Leviathan flopped into a chair, her grin wide and tail flicking every few seconds in her amusement.

Making sure to place the stars securely behind her ears, Twilight glanced around and asked, “What about Pinkie Pie?”

Sighing, Leviathan massaged her temples. “What of her?” She then snapped her head up higher. “Wait, where is the cotton candy menace?”

“Right here,” Pinkie called out as she bounced into the living area.

Behind Pinkie, rubbing sleep from her eyes, moved Faust in the wobbling way of those yanked from a deep, encompassing dream.

As with all good young nobles, the cornerstones of Twilight’s social norms came from the lessons in the Book of Names and the Book of Sol. To see Faust, not as a painted statue or motionless on some bed, but walking as if out of the mists of forgotten history, was a moment as profound as defeating Nightmare Moon, discovering she was an alicorn, or when she’d found her cutie mark. Twilight’s mouth fell open, and she was certain that for a second there was such silence in the room she could hear the crackle of Sol’s flames above the disc.

Faust’s crystal blue eyes—eyes identical to Luna’s—swept over to Twilight, and her mouth twitched into a smile.

Leviathan’s eyes morphed from emerald into burning ruby pitts, while her face darkened into the colour of ripe puce beneath her coat. She trembled and thrust out her wings with such force that the walls of her horde tumbled in miniature avalanches. Rage slammed into Twilight with the force of a tidal wave. Boiling water dripping from her mane and tail, Leviathan slowly advanced, her gaze locked on Pinkie.

Flaring her own wings, Twilight channelled magic to create a buffer for Pinkie and Faust to hide behind.

“What did you do?” Leviathan loomed over Twilight and Pinkie, and her voice echoed with the power of a hurricane within the chamber.

“I figured that Faust would like to meet her niece, so, of course, I had to go wake her up” Pinkie replied with genuine confusion. “I mean, they are family, and family should at least come out and say ‘Hi, thanks for coming to visit. Did you try the cake? It was a lovely cake. We should do this more often and go camping or have picnics or visit a cake museum’. I mean, who wouldn’t want to go visit a museum filled with every type of pastry ever made. It’s the perfect day-trip.”

Pinkie wore her usual smile, while Leviathan stared at her as if seeing a pony for the first time.

Leviathan sputtered, unable to get her words out around the rage building in her throat. At its apex, her restraint failed, and the whole island felt its crumbling through their hooves as she roared and lashed out at the source of her ire.

Twilight’s shield offered no protection from Leviathan’s attack. A green whip of pure aether slashed from between the demon queen’s horns, curling around Twilight’s wing to reach her target. Pinkie screamed, crimson spraying from where the tendral licked her face, and reeled back, hoof flying to the gash. Blood soaked into her fur, turning it a dark, cherry red and spreading at a distressing rate. Six more whips joined the first, giving Twilight no reprieve to check on her friend. All her power channelled into a protective bubble barely held off the enraged queen. Sparks danced across the shield’s surface with each blow. Cracks radiated outwards like angry spiderwebs, then mended just in time for the next barrage.

Kneeling down next to Pinkie, Faust directed a spell towards her. Ruby aether flowed from her horn over Pinkie’s face, drawing a fresh yell that twisted at Twilight’s heart. “Hold still, dear child,” Faust commanded, a hoof used to hold Pinkie down.

Pinkie’s thrashing lessoned, then stopped, and she breathed a long sigh of relief.

Wishing she knew precisely what was happening, Twilight was forced to direct all her attention ahead. Cracks began to form in her shield under the relentless assault, every blow reverberating within her horn and through her hooves.

“I could use a little help here.”

Faust didn’t look up from her work at Pinkie’s side, instead simply saying, “You do not require any more of my assistance.”

“And now you refuse to chose a side?” Leviathan’s chest heaved and the whips were dismissed. “Why Faust? Why am I not good enough for you? I betrayed everything for you, and still you despise me? You give your devotion to those who neither sought nor deserve it when I have bared my heart to you time and time again.”

“Because, you are Envy, and an antithesis to my Harmony.” Faust gently stroked Pinkie Pie’s mane and extended a wing over the unconscious mare. “‘Seventh among the Great Sins is Envy. For she who covets what others possess is as dangerous to herself as she is to others.’”

Stiffening, Leviathan’s eyes shrank into bloodshot pinpricks.

Twilight tensed in anticipation. She could feel the shift in the air, that moment just before a fight so familiar and unsettling.

“I don’t think quoting the Book of Sol is a good idea right now, do you?” Twilight shot over her withers, using the reprieve to buttress her barrier and come up with a new plan.

In this place, she could never match Leviathan’s power. Had she a moment, she would have been a little proud that her barrier lasted this long.

Sensing her need, Ankaa, Phad, Antares, and Sirius rose up and began to orbit her. Magic from the four flowed into Twilight, infusing her with more and more aether. It was as if they were rivers glutted by fresh storms, their banks overflowing as magic rushed into her own reservoirs, filling her to the brim with power.

From Sirius came fire and passion, enough to make her mane transform from a starfield into a dry forest filled with howling flames. The remaining three worked in tandem. Their magic held surety of purpose and resolve. With them her coat went from dark to light, turning a brilliant white that stung to gaze upon.

Still kneeled next to Pinkie, Faust said, “I am glad that at last things will be settled between us. My only regrets are that so many had to be hurt to reach this day, especially my daughters.”

“So, you placated me these last two thousand years? Lied and manipulated? Weaseled and wormed like a lawyer, or snake?” Leviathan laughed loudly, the sound harsh like iron being torn in half, and stamped her hooves in a wild dance. “You would make a very good demon, Faust. This is why I love you so much! Ha-ha! This is perfection, indeed.

“Very well, who am I to disappoint?” Leviathan scuffed a hoof, gouging a deep furrow in the stone. Aether arced in crackling green bolts between her horns, building into a rapid crescendo of deadly energy. “I will not let you go, Faust. All these plans you spin, all the ponies you betray and toss into my path to be devoured, all of it is pointless. I know what you have been plotting with Tyr. What a cruel mare you’ve become. Why, I’d actually be proud if I wasn’t so furious for not thinking of tormenting the filly first. But, now you wish to abandon me, my love? Again! Petulant though it may be, if this is truly our final goodbye then you must die.”

“But, that makes no sense!” Twilight fought to keep pace with the charge emanating from Leviathan. “If you love her then shouldn’t you want what is best for Faust?”

Leviathan smirked and began to advance. “I do love her. I do! That is why I can’t let you have her. She is mine. Mine! Once you are destroyed, every aspect of your existence expunged from creation, she will have no reason to leave. Faust will stay here with me, and we will be happy. Look at the home I have built for us?” Wings cast out wide, Leviathan spun to indicate her mangled and disrupted horde.

“I am afraid that nothing of the sort is going to happen this day.” Faust stepped up to Twilight’s side. Nestled between her wings, Pinkie rested in a magic induced sleep, the remainder of a faint glow over her wounded face. Magic still glowed around Faust’s horn in a corona like the sky at the last moments of sunset. The aether emitted made Twilight’s wings tingle in an almost pleasant manner. “You’ve not been alone in planning for this day, Leviathan.”

Concern flitted through Leviathan’s bloodshot eyes. She took a half-step back, neck craning to take in the entire breadth of the dome.

The aurichalcum runes inscribed into the domed ceiling glowed with a fury to match the battle below. Engorged by the energies cast by Sol and Selene’s unseen movements above the disc, the runes hummed to greater life. Lightning shot from the base of the latticed structure to the pinnacle of the dome, and back down again. With a crackling groan like a grime encrusted door opening, the sigil overhead began to spin.

Picking up speed, the hum turned into a howl that drowned out all other noise. The queen snarled and diverted her attention from Twilight to Faust.

“Of course; the eclipse! This was your plan all along? Ha-ha-ha! This is brilliant. Traps within traps, lies hidden behind sweet truths, and a dagger obfuscated by smiles at all times.” Leviathan shook with dark delight, then fixed the two alicorns with her most withering glare. “When did you learn the spells? When did you begin this plot?”

“The day I looked into the Weave and saw my daughters.” Faust stood her ground, defiance mingling with disgust and rigid fury in her eyes. “I’ve always known the spells. I helped make this chamber, Leviathan. For all the knowledge you fed the Marlantians, they did not have the sheer power to rend the barriers between realms necessary to allow your escape.”

“Neither do you! It took you and Iridia to… oh. Oh! Ha-ha-ha! Into your trap I have pounced headfirst and blind.” Leviathan threw back her head as she boomed with laughter.

Ruby magic gracing her horn, Faust began to advance towards Leviathan. “Twilight, I need your help. Lend me your strength as I have lent mine to you in the past.”

Twilight didn’t hesitate, a simple teleport bringing her beside Faust. At once she poured every ounce of magic she retained into her aunt’s spell. Rainbow magic identical to that of the Elements of Harmony bloomed around Faust in a shimmering flower of irresistible beauty.

A feral curse thundered from Leviathan, the queen covering herself in a protective green dome. “I will return, Faust. Tartarus failed to contain me once, and I will break its bonds again and again. Nothing will keep me from you. Nothing!”

“You fail to comprehend, Leviathan. I am not banishing you, I am containing you. May you spend twice the number of years as you have kept me prisoner trapped in unwavering slumber.”

Trembling from the effort needed to maintain the flow of magic, Twilight wondered if they could succeed.

Leviathan fell to her knees under the strain of fending off Faust and Twilight’s combined power. “This is only a temporary defeat. I will dream, and through my dreams I will call to those loyal to me, those whose hearts are filled with envy. You are blind, Faust, to the true horrors I have abstained from spreading. My blinders are off, and when next I stir the reckoning this world will suffer will be primordial and terrible. Three thousand years is nothing to our kind.” Leviathan then turned to Twilight, her grin growing even more wicked and delighted.

“It is a shame I will not be able to see your face when you learn the price for your victory here. Sleep well if you can, Goddess of the Stars, knowing the sacrifices made.”

The sigil overhead flared with a final, blinding blast of energy that sent shockwaves through the island. Twilight’s eyes rolled into the back of her head, the strain of accessing so much aether finally overcoming her. She blacked out for just a moment, her magic sputtering away, and then rebounding backwards like a tidal wave striking the unyielding walls of a cliffs, flooding back through her connections to the stars. Faust was there to keep her from falling, her touch gentle and comforting.

Twilight’s next memory was of running to escape the chamber, chased by Leviathan’s shrieks and taunts. She stumbled, and then was beyond the chamber and all the disc came back in fullness. A cacophony of prayers and noise swarmed across her mind making her stumble again. Dimly through the haze, Twilight heard the voices of her stars offering comfort and congratulations.

Wet leaves slapped against Trixie’s face in her directionless gallop through the forest. Trixie’s body ached. It ached more than she’d ever known. Though the limbs and leaves were a constant hindrance, the uneven ground threatened to permanently end her flight. Already, she’d taken a number of hard falls in the dark, the emergent welts on her flanks stiffening and making painful her every stride. With dawn nearing, she had to find someplace to hide, or make their stand.

Beside her, Shyara moved with a boundless energy, keeping pace despite having little more than a few minutes rest here and there throughout the night. An intense gleam lit the filly’s eye, her ear twisting about this way and that at noises Trixie could not perceive over her own panting breaths.

Through a gap in the trees Trixie spotted the ruins of the castle overlooking the village and at once changed direction.

Atop a squat hill, the ruins had never been much beyond some stout fortifications and a small keep even at its height. Now, blackened scorch marks marred the stone walls in many places, the southern tower lay broken and scattered, half buried by decades of untended growth, so too, a long section of nearby wall barred none from passage, hindered only by slick, moss covered stone.

“Quick, inside,” Trixie gave Shyara a hard shove towards the break in the wall. “We will make our stand inside where the beast can only come from one direction.”

They rushed across dew covered grass, neither giving voice to the dread lodged in their throats. Up, up towards the castle with hardly a look behind to check for their pursuer. Both knew the doshaa was close. His presence was all around them, drawing out the shadows of the trees so they were like spined fingers reaching to grasp the fleeing pair.

A flock of ravens circled overhead, covering the parapets in a feathery, obsidian carpet. Trixie knew better than the think them some portent. Still, their shrill caws sent electric shivers up her spine.

Breathless, Trixie only slowed to help Shyara over the broken section of wall. She took a moment to glance over her shoulder just as their pursuer strutted from the woods with antlers held high.

For a few seconds, Trixie’s heart plummeted. Mountain was clear as could be, as was the dark magic flowing from his antlers down his neck like a cloak. Trixie was certain that she could not fight him. Not out of any sentimentality, though her spirits were lowered at the prospect of having to fight somepony she actually liked. Rather, the huge bull could crush her without breaking a sweat, demon or no.

No, a straightforward confrontation was a sure death, which suited her just fine.

Swallowing her fear, she gripped the edge of the broken wall and pulled herself up and over. Spring had yet to touch the courtyard. The ground was naught but dry dirt and tufts of spiky weeds that Trixie and Shyara passed quickly on their way to the empty archway where great doors had been. Once more she grabbed Shyara, running, now, straight for the main keep.

A small whisper of a memory, or an idea, assured that old castles always had secret escape routes for the nobles to use in times of trouble. She shoved aside the logic that any such tunnel would have long since collapsed, and she had no idea where to begin looking for it in the first place.

The castle predated the War of the Sun and Moon, which meant the most likely location was one of the rooms between the main hall and the bedchambers. There it would have been accessible, but away from any entry points by invaders.

Hooves skidding on the dust covered stone, Trixie had only started to crane her head around, looking for a way out of the main hall, when Shyara broke her from her thoughts with a trembling voice.

“Trixie…”

Following Shyara’s gaze, Trixie started. Foals. The far side of the room was filled with them. More than two dozen in number, they stared straight ahead with open mouths and milky eyes. Chains bound them to the floor, woven through manacles that seemed far too large for little fillies and colts. From the way the foals didn’t so much as twitch at their entrance, Trixie wondered if the chains were even necessary.

“By Celestia!” Trixie took a step back towards the door, then halted.

Across the floor, filling the air with the iron stink of blood, spread a ritual circle, formed of interlocking lines with a conjuration triangle at the eastern edge. A Tartaran light hummed from the circle, hellish and green and flecked with sickly purple.

A trap! The castle had been a trap the entire time.

“Shyara, find someplace to hide,” Trixie growled the orders as she backed away from the door. “Once Trixie has the doshaa’s attention, you run. You run and you do not stop until you reach Canterlot or the princesses find you. They have many agents across Equestria.”

Shyara began to protest, but after a half-hearted start clamped her mouth shut and darted off to the side where the shadows were thickest and she could hide behind a toppled column. Thankful that for once there’d been no argument, Trixie called on her magic to conjure a solid illusion of Shyara. Not trusting her magic alone after the previous fight against the demon, Trixie picked up a stout stone block that had in years past been part of a balcony overlooking the entrance hall. The block served a second purpose, obfuscating the nature of the magic burning along her horn.

She did not bother to check on the chained foals. Whatever had been done to them she could not undo it without both effort and time. Too many possibilities popped into her head, though the one most likely was that their magic was in some manner syphoned to power the circle. Praying to Celestia that that was the case, as they’d recover in time naturally, Trixie and Shyara awaited the doshaa.

They did not have long before a dusky shadow filled the doorway.

“You do not run nor try to hide?” a distorted mockery of Mountain’s voice asked coldly as he stopped at the threshold. “Curious. What do you plan to do? Your death is inevitable. Some last act of defiance before I crush your spirit along with you body once and for all? How pointless.”

Scalp prickling at the unnatural resonance in his voice, Trixie refused to parley with the demon who had stolen her friend. Aura gripping the stone tighter, she narrowed her eyes and set her shoulders. All Tartarus was about to break loose, and in the depths of her heart, Trixie knew that this was her last adventure. Whether she survived or not, there was no way she’d be able to return to her wandering ways.

The moment the doshaa stepped through the doorway, she unleashed the stone, not at the demon, but at the cracked wall to his side.

Twisting around as the stone impacted the wall, Trixie grabbed the illusion Shyara and leapt away. Behind her the old wall crumbled. Granite blocks each the size of a pony smashed down on Mountain in a thunderous din that shook Trixie to her core. Thick plumes of dust rolled over her in a choking cloud, stinging her eyes until muddy tears rolled over her cheeks.

Shielding the illusion, Trixie looked back at the pile of rubble, and the sun held in the open arms of the new hole in the keep’s walls.

Nothing moved. Trixie did not allow herself to feel remorse for Mountain, crushed beneath the stones, nor relief. The wall couldn’t have been enough to slay a demon. In the corner of her eye she noted Shyra skulk a little closer to a side exit.

Mountain cast off the rubble and stone. Steel flashed in his eye, a consuming rage for life, love, and the light perpetuated by his demonic puppeteer. He threw himself at Trixie, and she saw not her friend but a frothing beast.

A hard shove sent her illusion to the side. Her quickest spell rang out, a simple beam of piercing energy, and struck him on the antlers, where it shattered uselessly. She ducked down quickly beneath the sweep of his bladed antlers. Trixie wished she knew more defensive spells, rather than the plethora of illusions and parlour tricks used for her stage shows.

This was not a fight of equals. The odds had never been in her favor, but the sheer heights to which Mountain stood over her even without the doshaa struck home how hopeless her position. He was bred and trained for combat, tested against the ferocious beasts that roamed the far northern forests. A mere illusionist like her could do little more than avoid being crushed under his hooves.

With such hopelessness, Trixie reverted to her earlier mindset and snatched Shyara’s illusion up. The illusion did little more than offer a surprised squeak. Willing herself to move faster, Trixie dashed for the far side of the hall where a door stood open.

She made it only a few strides before a wave of force knocked her hooves out from beneath her. The illusionary Shyara bounced out of her grasp and came to a stop on her back at Mountain’s hooves.

Rolling back onto her hooves, Trixie summoned all her strength to fight just long enough for Shyara to escape. Behind Mountain, Shyara saw her opportunity. Keeping herself low, she darted towards the door. Where it lead mattered little. All Trixie could do was offer a small prayer that it would lead to the escape tunnel, or some other means of escape.

Before Shyara could reach the door, it slammed shut, and a heavy bolt latched, bending so as to never open again.

“It was a nice ploy, but did you think I could not tell an aetherial construct from a true alicorn?” Mountain rumbled like a volcano just waking from an ancient slumber. He was implacable. Unstoppable. A force of unyielding nature.

Powerful magic gripped Trixie by the neck and yanked her towards the giant with a strangled oath. Hooves kicking useless in the air, she scraped and dug at her throat in a futile bid to break his grasp by some means. Her magic sputtered along with her breath, the illusion cracking, and then shattering before vanishing entirely.

“Let her go!” Shyara yelled, running half-way across the room before coming to a stop. “Let her go, or—”

“Threaten all you wish, we both know there is nothing you can do to challenge me. An alicorn filly, all alone on a strange world, bereft of her guardians, easy prey for even fool mortals. As Sombra the Betrayer stole Namyra’s immortality for himself, I will have your power Shyara. I will become a duke among Leviathan’s court. One far more fit than the likes of Tirak, Moloch, Witiko, Amon, or even Hetahtin to receive the queen’s attentions.”

Ire flashing across her face and cheeks puffing out, Shyara shouted, “Actually, I was going to do this; Celestia, hear me, I require—”

The remainder of Shyara’s prayer ended in a heavy thud as a blow cracked across her muzzle, and her head struck a nearby column.

Hacking and coughing, Trixie fought harder to free herself. Only one method existed, and she shut her eyes in preparation of what she were about to do. Injecting her own aura into that which held her she at last broke the grip about her throat. At once her magic rebounded, cracking with in her horn and sending her thoughts reeling, uncertain in direction as a drunk in the middle of a long night.

Mountain hoisted Shyara back up, and pulled her towards the now fiercely glowing circle. He paused, however, as a new shadow darkened the rubble where the keep’s entrance once stood.

“Demon! We were not finished.” River took deep breaths, her robes sticking to her where she’d worked herself into a thick lather. Beside her hovered her sword in a deathly tight aura that, were the sword not magic itself, would have surely crushed the hilt and crossguard.

Behind River, Selene and Sol still shared the sky the former beginning to cross in front of the later. Had she time, Trixie would have marvelled at the celestial display.

“I dealt with you once already, priestess,” Mountain dismissed River, not even turning to look at her and instead continue to drag Shyara towards the casting circle. “Run back to your halla, those that yet live. I am busy.”

Trixie and River’s eyes met, and both saw the others thoughts written plain. From where she lay, Trixie aimed her horn and shot a bolt of magic at the casting circle as River charged.

In a spray of brilliant sparks, the circle was sundered and rendered inert, all its magic sent outward in a blinding rush.

Eyes bulging Mountain spun towards Trixie, his rage such that he forgot River entirely. He trumpeted loudly, hooves kicking the air and then crashing down on Trixie with all his weight. She screamed. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head, bones snapping, and her breaths became thick and wet.

Then it was Mountain’s turn to howl as Llallawynn drove hilt deep into his side. Tears ran freely down River’s face, the priestess yanking the sword free with a vicious twist. Sagging against a pile of debris, Mountain did not glare at River, but thanked her silently with his eyes, their normal blue lustre returned.

From Mountain’s shadow the demon sprang, rising over the ponies on spindly, torn wings. It was impossible to discern the doshaa’s true form, except that it was vaguely ponylike, but twisted and sickly, formed of nightmares and madness. Fog and shadow both emanated and flowed into the demon, hiding all but his glowing green eyes and the far-too long curve of its mouth.

With a wing he struck River, snapping the priestess’ head sharply backwards and flinging her among the foals.

Floating to Shyara, the doshaa grabbed her by her mane with a long, taloned thumb on her wing. Spitting scornfully at the foals and still priestess, he said, “No matter. You merely condemn another village’s foals to death.” The doshaa grinned wide, a thin slice of yellow in the black. “Storms gather, and I will be prepared to meet them head on at the side of my queen and future bride.”

Through the hole in the wall and above the demon’s head, Trixie could only watch as the eclipse reached its peak. Whether an omen or not, Trixie did not care. She grinned with blood stained teeth as the heavens turned to night though the sun remained high, marvelling in the spectacle of the goddesses at work, and resolved to give her last.

Coughing, Trixie prayed as she hadn’t done since she was little. “It’s been years, and I’m not certain if you listen or not, but if you are, I could use your help. Celestia, Luna, Faust, heh, or even Twilight; please, lend me a little strength to save her. Help me protect her.”

At once power flowed into Trixie, filling up from somewhere deep within. Her veins both burned and chilled with the aether flowing into her. She’d never realised just how much power she possessed for such magic to answer her call. All she knew was that her prayer had been heard. A spell unlike any she’d encountered appeared within the surging magic, informing her how best to direct its flow.

She did not stumble over from where the spell had emerged, so intent was she on saving Shyara.

The doshaa turned its glare on her, Shyara dangling limp within his grasp, sensing the magic pulsing from her. His eyes widened at the cone of twisting aether around Trixie’s horn.

Before he could act further, there came a furious bellow as Mountain rose up with bloody spittle frothing from the corner of his mouth. He drove his antlers into the doshaa’s side, and though they pierced fully, they could not deal any lasting harm. With the sweep of a wing, the doshaa shattered Mountain’s antlers and hurled him against the far wall.

Mountain’s attack served its purpose, giving Trixie time to finish her spell.

A purple, spiralling spear parted the air and pierced the doshaa, splitting him from neck to navel and continued on, shattering the walls behind the demon and flew until striking Mount Hackleberry four hundred miles away. There it left a deep, pitted crater of glowing molten stone.

Shyara fell from the demon’s grasp, while the demon itself burst into smoke and oil as he struck the ground, a shadow burnt into the stone where he landed.

Trixie had only a moment to exult in her victory before the surge of magic receded, and with it, all her injuries and exhaustion redoubled their effects. Eyes rolling back into her head, Trixie collapsed into the waiting darkness.

“Trixie!” Shyara scrambled across the floor to Trixie’s side, grabbing her tight. “You fool, why’d you do that? Don’t you leave me too. You’re a champion. You’re the Great and Powerful Trixie, slayer of the doshaa. You can’t die. Not now. Not when you really are a hero.”

Shyara held Trixie’s body for some time, face buried into her guardian’s blood encrusted neck.

Great Ioka ceased her endless swim through the void; the ever churning winds above the disk slowed to a crawl and the ocean waves paused, poised to break upon the shores; a sepulcher silence gripped even the birds and bugs as all attention turned to the isolated clearing deep in the Everfree Forest. Sol vanished behind thick clouds, and the forest plunged into shadow.

Fluttershy stared towards the grey heavens, lustrous blue eyes faded and empty. Head, limp and lifeless, rested upright only by the support of Applejack’s hooves. The weight, so light as to be a cloud, paralyzed her, held her rooted in place as Rarity vanished into the hungry void.

Sweetie Belle shrieked, a slow note foundering in a lazy warble. She dashed towards the chasm, legs outstretched in languid bounds, mane and tail floating just beyond reach. A shadow passed over Applejack, stripes of black and white drifting in chase. Leila landed, falling into a crouch, her legs trembling before springing into a sluggish gallop. Teeth clamped onto a fluffy tail so, with a fluid yank, the filly was brought to a halt, then made to tumble away from the chasm’s edge.

Fluttershy was pulled into a tighter embrace. Applejack became aware that she was taking deep, ragged breaths as if she’d just raced from one side of the farm to the other and back again. Somepony was trying to talk to her, the voice distorted and warbling at first but gradually morphing into Apple Bloom’s familiar twang. Turning Applejack barely registered her sister and Scootaloo standing uncertain next to her.

Tears ran down the fillies faces, and it was that sight more than anything else that finally catalyzed Applejack.

Carefully, she laid Fluttershy’s head down in the grass and gently closed her friend’s eyes, before saying, “Girls, stay put.”

Pulled three ways from center, her first priority was their safety, and Sweetie was the most in need. The small filly still struggled against Leila’s restraining hoof, drawing a feral and frustrated growl from the zebra.

“Sweetie, calm down. Calm down,” Applejack said as she approached, her own voice strange, empty and devoid of emotion. Pulling the tear stained and wailing filly free from Leila’s hoof, she no less trapped her in an embrace, soft, calming sounds echoing from the back of her throat.

“Sh-She’s…. I… We have to get to Rarity.” Sweetie hiccuped and tried to squirm out of Applejack’s grip, but couldn’t overcome the strength the farmer possessed. “She’s alive. I know it. We have to save her.”

“Sweetie, she—”

“No!” Sweetie struggled harder, a small hoof flying up to strike Applejack on the jaw. The blow was entirely without effect. “She can’t be gone. Rarity wouldn’t leave me.”

Applejack said nothing, for what could she say?

The gorge was a hundred metres deep, jagged edges like grasping talons sprouted from the walls the whole way down, ending only in shark’s maw of broken stone shards cloaked in smoke and shadow. Nothing lived in that desolate chasm where Sol’s light never touched, not even weeds. It was a dead place, and had been since the War of the Sun and Moon a thousand years prior when Celestia had carved the disc open in a desperate bid to save it.

Sweetie didn’t need to know that Rarity was gone, not yet. At the same time, Applejack was loathe to offer sweet-rotted hope.

So, she continued to just hold Sweetie, saying nothing in words, as Big Mac had for her so long ago.

His legs had been so strong even then, and through him she’d felt safe from an uncaring disc of darkness and danger. How long had they sat there in the old orchard that distant fall day? Applejack no longer recalled. Long enough for her tears to be spent and her anger flag until she was drained of energy.

Sweetie pressed her face deep into Applejack’s chest, her small body convulsing with silent sobs. They were joined by Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, the two throwing themselves around Sweetie. Together the friends drew comfort from each other and Applejack.

The crunch of gravel underhoof reminded her that they were not alone in that field.

“Lady Apple, we must leave this place. The forest grows aware of our presence, and she is angry.” Paumuut and Leila both scanned the edge where the glade ended and the forest resumed, worried grimaces at the corner of their mouths.

Applejack didn’t share their concerns. For all the Everfree’s dangers, it was incapable of feeling, and certainly not aware. Monsters may stalk her tangled floor and wild magic permeate her trees giving them twisted, disfigured aspects, but that was the extent of the Everfree’s powers.

And yet, an unease prickled along the back of Applejack’s neck unconnected to the loss of her friends. The air was far too still and the silence not an illusion of grief. No insects chirped; no wind ruffled the tops of the trees; nothing, save the six of them appeared more animate than a painting. She could feel eyes watching them from the shadows. Hungry eyes connected to salivating maws filled with curved fangs.

A shake of the head banished the grim thoughts, though not entirely.

Slowly getting to her hooves, Applejack cast a last glance around the glade before she started towards Fluttershy. “We’ll take the girls and Fluttershy to Zecora. She don’t live too far from here, I think.”

“What about Rarity!?” Sweetie began to wail, renewed tears filling her eyes. “We can’t leave her.”

“I won’t sugarcube, but she’d want me to make sure you were safe before looking for her…” Applejack almost added ‘body’, but caught herself in time. Or her throat closed of its own accord, unwilling to say the words for fear of them irreversibly becoming true.

Bending down to slide Fluttershy onto her back, Applejack wondered where that little acorn of denial had found root. She knew better than to give it any attention, and yet there it was, growing at the fringe of her heart. Rarity was dead. She had to be after such a fall. And yet…

Applejack stared hard at the chasm and almost put Fluttershy back down. One friend was gone, but the other… was equally gone.

Closing her eyes, Applejack uprooted that acorn and tossed it away. The truth was the truth, and she’d lost two friends.

“Girls, let’s…” Applejack’s voice faded away as a bitter wind hissed across the Everfree and parted the clouds. Her mouth fell open, and for a second time her mind rebelled against what it was seeing.

Paumuut and Leila turned towards her and then followed her gaze up to the sky where Selene began to eclipse her sister. The wind picked up, the hiss growing into a feral howl that tore at the treetops and sent branches flying and threatened to take Applejack’s hat with them. Bracing her hat with a hoof, Applejack shouted with far more urgency for the Crusaders to come.

“What’s going on?” Scootaloo yelled, her small wings abuzz with anxiety.

The howling of the wind grew and grew until it was not the wind but the trees that were crying out. Applejack felt the forest’s pain echo up her hooves and lurch into her gut, doubling her over with phantom agony to mirror that which ripped through the Everfree.

Out of the chasm burst a wave of spectral force, tendrils of gold-black energy whipping up into the air like the arms of ghostly squids.

The crusader’s screamed and were sent tumbling away through the grass. Applejack reacted without thinking, dropping Fluttershy and leaping to grab the trio. Through the roaring wind and howls, a sharper wail emanated from the depths of the disc and pierced Applejack to her marrow. She trembled and tried to put herself between the fillies and whatever demon was clawing its way from the chasm’s depths.

A hoof, white and polished, cracked and bloody, gripped the ledge and stole a sharp gasp from Applejack.

There was no moment of relief on seeing Rarity emerge from that pit. Her movements were wrong, unnatural and perverse, sharp, halting motions performed in ways a body should not have bent. Bloody wings dripped from Rarity’s back, feathers more akin to spines thrusting from the taught pallid flesh. Ichor and worse covered the right side of her face, an ember burning where the eye had been while the other stared, murky and empty, at the ground. Bones jutted from her side where it had been crushed flat, every slight motion making them grind and squelch.

On the precipice of retching at the sight, Applejack barked, “Girls, close your eyes.”

They might have protested, but never had Applejack given them so forceful an order. Trembling and more frightened than they’d ever been, they clamped their eyes tight and pressed hard against her.

“Thief. Murderer. Betrayer!” the abomination rattled through broken teeth and loose jaw in a voice like a wind drifting through gravestones. “Give me my foals. Return to me my Muses.”

“You do not belong here, revenant!” Paumuut shouted to be heard over the cacophony.

The zebras said nothing more, acting in concert. Liela charged at Serene while Paumuut clapped her hooves together and began to chant. Kicking off an overturned stone, Leila transformed, her striped fur giving way to a swirling nexus of embers and smoke in the shape of a large lion. A roar ripping from her mouth, Leila impacted against Serene, and was cast away as if she’d been a mewling kitten.

In the blink of an eye Serene was atop Paumuut. Applejack couldn’t even follow the abominations movements they’d been so fast. It was more like she’d teleported, but without the flash of magic, than physically crossed the intervening space.

Paumuut yelled for her partner, and then screamed as her legs were wrenched apart. The snapping of bones grated against Applejack’s ears and the screams were quickly silenced.

Abandoning Paumuut, Serene lurched towards Applejack and the crusaders. All around the revenant, the ground trembled and tore open to reveal shambling dead, leathery, hairless skin taut over dried and rotted bones. Rust eaten ancient armour clung to these wretched things, emblems of Sol and Selene just barely visible on a few peytrals or tattered heraldry.

The dead encircled the ponies, pressing together to form a hungry wall.

Warmth swelled up through Applejack, rising from the same place as their earlier pain, and flowed out down into her hooves. The dead shambled to a halt, the hungry green glow filling the empty sockets of their eyes shrinking away. Even Serene stopped, her body trembling and wings shaking as she strained against an invisible harness connecting her to an immovable stump.

Behind Serene, Fluttershy twitched, and with growing dread Applejack watched as her other friend rose to her hooves. Wisps of silvery-pink magic coiled around Fluttershy’s wings, legs, and mane. Unlike the other risen, she didn’t stutter in her movements, each step carrying an almost unnatural grace.

Applejack could only stare as Fluttershy shook her head, small petals falling from mane and tail, and turned towards Serene.

The revenant ceased her struggles, and instead spun to regard Fluttershy.

“Sister,” she hissed.

“S-Serene?” Fluttershy blinked, eyes darting between Applejack clutching the crusaders, the fillies hooves pressed over their ears and faces scrunched tight, and the dead clogging the field. She took a step backwards, retreating behind her mane and in a whisper asked, “What have you become?”

“What the Fates decreed!” Serene broke down into a cackling fit of laughter, further dislodging her broken jaw, then hurled herself at Fluttershy.

Wreathed in silver light like a beacon on a stormy coast, she met Serene’s charge and forced her back with a burst of untainted aether. Issuing a challenge, she unleashed The Stare. Fluttershy’s voice came in a garbled flow of indiscernible syllables, but the ancient power of her voice was undiminished. Her word carried such power that it shook the ground. Sparks of magic shot from the tips of Fluttershy’s wings, and she seemed to grow taller, filling the entire clearing with her presence.

The revenant, a creature of pure, undiluted malice and hatred for all things living, backed away. It twisted and writhed, hellish screams ripping from its throat. Out swept a skeletal wing, ripples of foul magic extending like talons to tear apart anything in their path. The lesser dead were shattered as if they were made of brittle glass and Applejack tensed in anticipation, only for the magic to sweep around her and the fillies, deflected by the same barrier holding the dead at bay. Fluttershy didn’t blink or shift a muscle, The Stare cutting through the revenant’s attack undiminished. In desperation, it flung itself at Fluttershy, only to be driven further towards the chasm.

The lesser dead things filling the field were no less affected. They howled and shook, then retreated back into their earthen tombs, the ground closing up, leaving only small patches of upturned soil to mark their passing. .

Fluttershy’s voice, cast in the pitches and trills of song, began to overcome the howling winds. Of the words, nothing could be discerned beyond the trembling, sorrowful notes, a dirge dredged from the depths of mourning. Whatever the lyrics, the song amplified The Stare’s power, driving the revenant back until it writhed at the chasm’s edge.

Again, in one last, desperate act, it flung itself at Fluttershy, screeching its defiance and malice.

Before she reached Fluttershy it was too late. The revenant slumped forward, head coming to rest against Fluttershy’s shoulders, and she grew limp and dead once more.

‘’Fluttershy?” Applejack managed after gaping in blank incomprehension. “How? You… you were dead, ain’t two ways about.”

“I… I was…” Fluttershy staggered, and fell hard to her knees, Rarity’s twisted corpse sloughing off her shoulder, hitting the ground as nothing more than a limp bag of flesh and bone. “But she saved me. We were at Lethe’s banks, and one of us had to stay behind… I am so, so sorry.” A hysterical sob wracked Fluttershy. She gasped and clutched hoof and wing tight to her body as more magic began to leak from her like water from a sieve.

Releasing her grip on the crusaders, the trio at last looking up and cracking open wary eyes, Applejack took a few steps towards Fluttershy.

“Stay away!” Fluttershy attempted to hop into the air, but her position was all wrong and her wings tangled together so she instead flopped onto her back. “I’m dangerous, Applejack. I… I don’t know what…”

“Fluttershy, it’s okay. I understand, I truly do. That weren’t Rarity. Couldn’t have been her. You did what… what you had to.” Applejack had to fight hard to keep her voice from cracking and the tears out of her eyes.

Holding out a hoof, Fluttershy again shouted for Applejack to stay back.

As with Twilight months before, a dome of magic burst from Fluttershy, encapsulating her whilst driving Applejack back to the crusaders. Fractures rent the ground, splintering out from the dome’s edge. Wind buffeted Applejack from every direction, filling her mouth and eyes with dirt and clawing at her tail and mane. Lightning crackled along the dome, spitting towards the sky in vivid, iridescent bolts.

Terrified and more confused than ever, the crusaders huddled beneath Applejack.

A pulse of magic shoved Applejack hard on the collar bone. Her hooves scraped across the bare ground as it pushed her and the crusaders away. Determination tightening her jaw, Applejack used herself as a break to keep the fillies sheltered from the tidal surge of energy emanating from Fluttershy.

Petals began to join the dust in splashes of red, pink, white, and blue. Their numbers grew filling the entire field in a riot of colour as thick as any fog. Staccato flashes, blinding even through the sea of petals, stung Applejack’s eyes and brought whimpers from the precious trio held tight to her barrel.

All at once, the winds died, the flashes ended, and the pressure vanished making Applejack stumble. Slowly at first, then in a rush, she opened her eyes in shock.

The field was no more. New trees, not with less than ten years growth, swayed all around them, leaf covered branches blotting out the sky and shading them from the final moment’s of the celestial phenomenon overhead. Flowers and verdant grass sprouted between thick roots, swaying ever so slightly in a sweet breeze that wafted over them carrying the unmistakable scent of spring. At the heart of this new life was Fluttershy, cradling Rarity’s broken form in her hooves.

“Are you okay?” Applejack released the fillies, and waited for them to check themselves over and nod before turning towards Fluttershy and asking the same question. Fluttershy did not respond, or even seem to move. Taking care incase any more strange magic decided to wreak havoc on the day, Applejack and the crusaders approached Fluttershy. “Please, say something.”

Fluttershy looked up, her mane parted just a little by a slender horn. She didn’t smile, and crystalline tears rimmed her eyes. “I’m okay, Applejack. Just… sad.”

“Fluttershy, is that you?” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo gaped, while Sweetie Belle just stared, her eyes locked onto the body of her sister.

It took a long second before Fluttershy gave a slight nod, her hooves gipping Rarity tighter and wing extended to hide the gruesome sights. Applejack cringed knowing what was beneath that soft yellow feathers. It also reminded her that there were others who’d been hurt.

Leaving the crusaders with Fluttershy, she found Paumuut leaning against one of the new trees. Pained breaths sucked in through her teeth, the zebra rolled her eyes towards Applejack as she approached. “It’s as Her Majesty foresaw.”

“You going to be alright?” The question was cursory. Applejack could see that Paumuut would be in the hospital for weeks and the odds of her being lame were teetered on the edge of absolute certainty.

Paumuut tried to wave off Applejack’s concern, brought only brought a fresh hiss through her teeth. “I will mend, as will Leila. We’ve suffered worse in service of our empress.”

“Where is she?” There were no signs of Leila, and Applejack soon learned that there was no point in searching for the second zebras.

Lurching forward with Applejack’s help, Paumuut slid up onto on offered back. “Leila is fine. She is an ifrit and has returned to her home of fire, ash, and smoke. When I am better I will summon her back to me.”

Applejack tilted her head wondering if she was being made game of, though who’d joke about losing a friend? She picked up no sign of deception. Letting it go for the moment, she shrugged and went to collect the others. It was a long trek back to Ponyville and they’d be moving slow.

Spells crackled like cannons, tiny suns shearing the morning gloom with vivid violet flashes, slamming into the golems charging the sailors’ hastily formed lines. Rainbow Dash, perched high above the battle, poised as if at the startline of a race, eyes flickering across the plaza, sorted through the chaos, searching for her opening. The weaknesses in the sailors lines eluded all but an instinctive grasp of the situation.

A strong flick of her wings hurled her off her cloud. Wind whistled through her mane and stung her cheeks, her heartbeating like a snare drum in her ears. She reached the summit of her ascent, and the world seemed to slow. Twisting more like a cat than a pony, body arched into a backwards curve, she was weightless, then falling back toward Ioka, and the sounds of battle. Behind her magic crackled along her tight, taught wings leaving a rainbow trail that grew longer as her speed bypassed the limits of a mere fall. Pressure built against the tips of her outstretched forehooves, resisting her, challenging her to go just a little faster, to push just a little harder. And she could have, had she wanted. Instead, her wings cocked a fraction, sending her into a corkscrew, flashes of static sparking off the ridges of her feathers and working down her legs.

She grinned, triumph exploding from her lungs in a wordless warcray.

The largest golem on the line had just enough time to lift its head. Rainbow struck, her hooves barely feeling the contact as the stone shattered. She didn’t slow to admire her work, not yet. Already, she’d veered to the left, laughing and howling as she lined up her second target without wasting the smallest fraction of momentum. Once more, the sound of her cries reached her foe mere moments before her hooves, leaving far too little time to react. Three more golems fell before her loss of momentum forced her to pull back and regroup, resettling on her self-made perch.

“Applejack is going to kick herself for missing out on this,” she laughed through excited gulps of air, her wings stretching and pumping, ready for another go.

Only a couple moments were spared to survey how the battlefield had changed. In the few minutes of her attack, the right flank had become hard pressed, only to be bolstered by the arrival of Fleur and her magic spear. She stood there still, in the midst of fire hardened clay and the smoldering remains of the golems she’d felled, allowing Timely and his apprentice to tend to the wounded while the other sailors rallied.

As with the previous night, Polished and his marines held the center. Rainbow snorted and rolled her shoulders as she watched the captain of the marines. He cut a handsome figure, alternating between commanding his soldiers and casting powerful spells.

Far in the distance, the Bellerophon could be seen peppering another group of golems with cannon fire from her starboard broadside. Between the ship and the secondary battery, set up on a hill overlooking the beach, nothing came close to the few seamares guarding the eventual retreat of the expedition at the palace.

The approach of a shadow put an end to her observations. Darting back, she narrowly avoided a large stone hurled by one of the biggest golems she’d yet seen. Bouncing twice, the stone landed amongst the wounded ponies with a rattling crunch.

Temper flaring, Rainbow shot towards the source of the attack. As she raced across the ruins, something else caught her eye.

Atop the remains of a tower stood a great, three legged wolf. Within his owlish face glowed eyes of such piercing cruelty that she missed a beat of her wings. A serpentine tail lashed behind the creature, each time a new crack added to the stone on which he rested.

“Told Fleur there would be a boss monster around,” Rainbow growled, slowing marginally so she could inspect the newcomer at greater length.

He stared at Fleur, beak pulled back in amusement to show jagged, black teeth. Carving the thick white marble on which he stood as if it were damp loam with his remaining forepaw, the other limb a malformed thing where it had been hacked in two at the knee, excitement rolled off the him in waves.

At the back of her mind, a name tried to be applied to the observer, but failed to find purchase. She was certain she’d heard or read about such a creature before. Not in the Daring Do books. If he was in them Rainbow would have recalled at once.

Unable to spare any more time on the creature, Rainbow dashed down to the stone hurling golems.

She landed, crouching in their midst, a lioness pouncing among a herd of gazelles, upper lips pulled back in a fierce snarl, magic sheathed wings at the ready. The golems barely had time to react to the pony before she attacked. Aiming low, Rainbow took out their legs, toppling the golems into each other until only one remained standing. Without slowing, she struck it with a flurry of blows to the chest and neck.

Unlike the others, this golem did not fall, runes glowing across the surface in long spirals from where her blows landed against the construct’s flanks. There binding wards flared bright then dulled.

“Guess there are some of you worth a few extra kicks after-all.” Rainbow grinned, bouncing back a few lengths and drawing on more of her magic.

The sound of a double-shotted cannon called her attention to the south where a series of flares rose up in the call to retreat. Biting her tongue at the futile protests that came unbidden to mind, Rainbow bounded up into the air and away from the protected golem.

On her way back to the camp, she took note that the wolf-like creature had vanished from his perch. A small pang of worry pinched the corner of her heart. To make certain that the creature was not preparing some ambush, she circled the camp twice in a wide circuit. Seeing that he was well and truly gone, or just so well hidden that mere sight could not detect his passage, Rainbow landed next to Polished Armour.

“Take only those not beyond your power to snatch from death’s clutches, doctor,” Polished ordered between directioning sailor and marine alike to close ranks. “We have only one shot at breaking out of here and cannot be slowed down by the invalids if any of us are to survive.”

Timely bristled and made to protest vehemently, but checked his rebuttal and instead extended his magic to the nearby wounded.

Looking around the camp, Dash saw far too few mares still standing.“What’s going on? We’re not leaving Twilight, are we?” She demanded, already knowing the answer.

Leaning heavily against her spear, weariness weighing her eyes down, Fleur nodded solemnly. “Oui, mon amie. We must retreat while we still remain able. The good captain and Athena are in agreement.”

A second look around showed Rainbow that the pair were correct. While there were certainly more golems destroyed than ponies lost, the number of casualties was shocking. At best, it seemed only half the original expedition remained standing. As if to further their point, the island trembled.

Torn in her duty to Twilight and to the crew of the Bellerophon, Rainbow hesitated to protest further. She could not imagine leaving Twilight behind, but at the same time she recognised that staying was pointless. There was nothing they could do exposed in the palace square.

“Right, I’ll take point,” Rainbow growled, taking a last, lingering look up at the palace doors in a vain hope that they would open and Twilight and Pinkie would emerge. No such thing happened, and Rainbow took off to lead the retreat.

Unlike the grueling slog to reach the palace, the retreat was hurried and frantic. Beneath the black cloud of ash, they moved with singular purpose, knowing that such a short distance away lay relative safety. At every turn, they were presented with more golems in their path

In this retreat, the differences between Rainbow and even the marines became apparent. Her energy was unwavering, her reserves seemingly endless, and strength unflagging. Zig-zagging along the line of retreat, she kept the ponies ever moving forward. While the sailors and marines began to stumble from exhaustion, Rainbow continued to brim with energy.

“Come on, we’re almost there!” She called down, hoof thrust towards the ponies defending the beach.

The ponies ahead cheered wildly as the first of the expedition appeared from between the ruined buildings. A few of the smaller guns, the eight pounders and swivel guns, had been set up behind an earthen rampart. These guns kept the beach clear of the golems, dozens of the constructs littering the grimy sand.

Rainbow felt more then saw the coming of the eclipse. All at once, flight became difficult, the air heavy as if filled with a sudden miasma. The day, already sullen and grim with the ash cloud spewed by the volcano, fell into a darkness as great as a the depths of the deepest cave.

At the same moment, a cry rose up from the back ranks of the column. Doing her best to spin around, the movement lopsided and faltering in the altered aether permeating the air, Rainbow saw the wolf like creature from before had returned.

He emerged from one of the buildings, tearing through its thick walls to pounce on Fleur and bear the ambassador into the opposite structure. Fleur attempted to drive Pallas into his side, but the spear was swatted aside as if it were an insect. Claws pressing her into unyielding marble, the creature opened his beak wide and took a deep breath.

Fleur thrashed and screamed with all her might, as light blue aether was torn from her and consumed by her attacker.

Rage blossomed in Rainbow’s heart, and even with the air so thick, she tore across the short divide. At the last instant she was forced to divert, lest she be struck down by a crushing swat of his lithe, powerful tail.

Chipped stones and fish bones clattered around Rainbow’s hooves as she skidded to a stop, body crouched low as she prepared to lunge again.

Rushing breathless towards Rainbow and Fleur, Polished fired off a quick trio of spells. Each burst into little motes of useless aether against the fiend’s side. Clacking his beak shut, he lifted his head and turned towards the pair.

“You mortals need to learn your place,” he screeched, staring balefire at Rainbow and Polished Armour. “To challenge me? Amon? I struck Celestia from the sky; you are less than insects. Perhaps I shall cover you in chocolate before I peel the meat from your bones. That sounds rather delicious, actually.”

Much like the his appearance, the name tickled something within Rainbow’s memories, but failed to bring up anything of greater use. The name had more meaning to Polished, who sucked in a sharp breath, his face paling beneath his fur.

“Release Fleur, or I’ll—”

Rainbow never finished her threat. Amon narrowed his small, dark eyes and struck with his tail with far more force than before. There was an instant of realization of his intent. Her wings began to flap, tips of her feathers aglow with the sudden rush of desperate magic to get her aloft. She’d barely started to move when Polished hit her in the side, having noticed Amon’s intent first. Polished shoved her, hard, with no delicacy.

Amon’s tail hit the ground with a blow that left the ground shaking and sent up a great cloud of dirt and ash.

Pulling herself up, ears ringing with the impact, she saw through the cloud of ash Polished laying in a new indent left by the blow. His legs twitched, and he coughed up blood along with a ragged gasp of breath.

“Polished!” She yelled, leaping over to his side and cradling his head. “Come on, you’re too self-centered and stubborn to go out like this.”

He didn’t respond beyond a hacking cough, the slightest of smiles, and a long wheeze. Polished’s eyes grew glassy as the last vestige of life vanished.

Gripped by a formless, cold fury, Rainbow laid his head back down. Calling on those endless supplies of magic, she flew away from the writhing form of Fleur. Snatching up Pallas, she altered her course, rising above the island until her wingtips brushed the bottom of the ash cloud. Amon paid her no attention, his every fibre focused on Fleur.

Tucking her wings tight to her barrel, Rainbow dove faster than she’d ever gone before. Pallas extended in front, effortlessly slicing a path through the miasma. The rainboom shattered the darkness the same instant Amon looked up from his prey. His eye grey impossibly wide. Pallas was driven into his side. All the energy of the rainboom entering Rainbow flowed from her into into Amon with a devastating roar through Pallas.

Amon was flung towards the rumbling volcano in a howling scream of agony and unequaled rage. He was not slain, of that Rainbow was certain. It was her experience that villains like him rarely suffered such permanent losses. But, as AK Yearling would have written in one of her books, he’d been ‘lain low and desperate, his defeat utterly complete in that it was to one so much less than he subscribed himself as being.’ The thought brought a momentary grin to Rainbow.

Blinded by the blast, Rainbow bounced and skidded before coming to a stop a considerable distance away from Fleur and Polished. Bruised and sore, Rainbow laid on her back for some time, at last utterly exhausted and unable to move. She stared up at a long gouge in the cloud hanging over Marelantis, watching Selene float away from Sol, daylight returning to the disc.

She could barely muster the energy to roll her head at the heavy thud of somepony collapsing beside her. Breathing heavily, Fleur silently mouthed the words ‘thank you’, before her eyes fluttered shut. The faces of Jill Plaice and Fighting Spirit briefly blocked out Sol, the later urging the seamares with her to take care lifting Rainbow and Fleur. Underneath their hooves the island began to rumble, and then sink as they hurried for the boats.

The seamares passed Rainbow, Fleur, and to her surprise Polished’s remains up into the cutter.

It was from the gunwall half-way back to the Bellerophon Rainbow saw Twilight emerge from out of the city flying on broad strokes of her wings, Pinkie draped over her back and Faust at the princess’ side. Smiling at the spectacle, Rainbow drifted off into deserved sleep as Marelantis, at last, sank once more beneath the waves.

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