• Published 9th Dec 2012
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Succession - Helrael



Twilight awakens in a world beset by eternal night, caused by the death of Princess Celestia and Luna and the destruction of the Canterlot palace. Can Twilight bring back the sun, save Equestria, and bring history's most vicious murderer to just

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7 - Separation

Succession

Chapter 7 – Separation


The train bound for Manehattan slowed to a halt with an unpleasant screech, enveloping the Ponyville station and the six ponies standing there in a cloud of steam. Despite it being late summer, chilling gusts of wind buffeted the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, driving away the swirling mists around them as they said their farewells.

“And you’re sure you have to go?” Twilight asked in an almost pleading tone.

“We have been over this already, Twilight,” Rarity replied, tears starting to well up in her eyes as she gazed at her hooves.

“I know, it’s just… last time you left…”

“You know I regret what happened, Twilight, but it’s not like we’ll see a repeat of that this time around, will we?” Rarity pointed out, a single tear falling to the ground as unpleasant memories bubbled to the surface. “Fashion is drawing me away this time, not… personal matters.”

“No one’s running off to Dragoncrest this time, no,” the lavender unicorn granted, but still persisted. “But… it still isn’t right, Rarity.”

“I can’t run my business in Ponyville anymore,” the fashionista explained as she had done so many times before. “None of my regular customers live here, and while transport was never a problem earlier, you just can’t imagine how expensive it has become lately. If I don’t move to Manehattan... well quite frankly, I’ll go bankrupt. Besides, it’s been a while since I last saw my family... and... there’s the matter of these beastly creatures acting up all over Central Equestria. I fear Ponyville is no longer safe. I really wish you girls would come with me.”

“Well, ya know Ah can’t just pack up,” Applejack sighed in response.

“We belong in Ponyville,” Rainbow Dash said. “That’s something I’ve realized after eighteen months with the Wonderbolts. You belong here too, Rarity. Pretty sure you said that yourself two years ago.”

“Please don’t be that way, Rainbow,” the unicorn pouted. “Fleur de Lis has generously offered me quite an attractive position in her little business. Actually, she’s been asking me about it for a whole year now.” Rarity chuckled nervously. “I’d say it’s about time I finally obliged.”

“Ya’ll be careful out there, then,” Applejack warned the unicorn, drawing the fashionista into a tight embrace. “Ponyville may be full o’ mean-spirited critters, but Manehattan has its fair share of, err, ‘ruffians’.”

A sharp whistle echoed throughout the almost empty platform, indicating that the train would depart in a matter of seconds. Rarity was quickly swamped as all of her friends hugged her tightly, wishing her luck and safe travels. The white unicorn boarded the train, and Twilight used her magic to help her with the luggage.

With another great hiss and several loud clanking noises, the train slowly set into motion, carrying away the fashionista as it had done two years ago.

“So many years we’ve lived together in Ponyville,” Twilight said to herself, but loud enough for the others to hear. “I mean, she’s left before, but this time it’s... different. I can feel it. It’s like it’s just the beginning of something.”

“The beginning?” Rainbow Dash frowned. “Come on, Twi, it’s not like we’re all just gonna pack up and leave just because Rarity did.” She threw a critical glare at the unicorn. “Right?”

“All I’m saying is that it’s more likely,” she defended herself. “She was right about the animals, though; the smaller towns are more at risk than cities like Manehattan and Las Pegasus. What if a pack of timberwolves wanders into town?”

“The wolves ain’t that tough,” Applejack said. “Besides, Ponyville’s got the Elements of Harmony and a score o’ guards to defend it. We’re safe enough ‘slong as we don’t go wanderin’ off by ourselves.”

“But Rarity just left!” Pinkie Pie, on the verge of tears, pointed out. “And she’s all alone! We were finally all together again, and then she just left!” The pink earth pony pouted and gazed at her hooves. “That’s not fair at all...”

“She’ll be alright,” Rainbow Dash assured her friend. “If she stayed here, she wouldn’t be, right?”

“She... she could have stayed with one of us,” Pinkie Pie suggested, lightening up a bit. “We could have sleepovers every day of the month!”

The ponies were silent for a few moments before Fluttershy finally said what was on everypony’s mind. “I... I don’t think she’d like that, Pinkie Pie... at all...”

“Have you ever tried lending her money?” Twilight asked the pink pony. “You’d have an easier time convincing her to stick her head in a trash can.”

“Ooh! I did that once!” Pinkie Pie shouted with glee. “I bet I could get her to come back here, too! I’ll write her a letter!”

“But she’s already...” Twilight tried, but the party pony had already left the station. “She’s gonna be disappointed,” she sighed.

“Better later’n now, Ah s’ppose,” Applejack pointed out. “If anypony can let ‘er down easy, it’ll be Rarity, right?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash agreed, taking to the air. “Sorry for bailin’ on you all, but I’ve got another Wonderbolts meeting in, uh, fifteen minutes! Better get going!” In a multichromatic flash of light, the pegasus was gone; putting Ponyville behind her in less than ten seconds.

“I should go too; I think one of my rabbits caught a cold the other day,” Fluttershy whispered almost apologetically. “Oh dear, they might all have caught it by now...” Still muttering quietly to herself, the pale yellow pegasus flew off in the opposite direction of the Wonderbolt.

“It’ll be weird not havin’ Rarity around,” Applejack sighed after she and the lavender unicorn had left the station. “You’re right, too; it’s different this time. Ya think she’s ever gonna come back?”

“Maybe...” Twilight replied somberly. “Once all of this blows over, she might come back. If it blows over.”

“Speakin’ o’ which,” the farmer said, chuckling teasingly as she attempted to lift the mood. “Ah bet y’all are off to blow up some more suns, right?”

“I don’t try to blow them up…” the unicorn grumbled. “But... maybe work will help take my mind off of all this. Besides, none of this will blow over until I make a sun.”

“Ah guess you’ll be accompanyin’ me to the Acres, then?” Twilight nodded again, and the two ponies plodded on for some time, eventually reaching the outskirts of town. Beyond the apple orchards, the long, drawn-out howl of a timberwolf called out a warning to all potential prey in the area. Both friends shivered slightly. “So, come up with any bright ideas ‘gardin’ the animals?”

The lavender unicorn shook her head, looking toward the source of the howl. “I don’t claim to be an expert on animals. If anything can calm them down, I bet it’s Fluttershy, but, well…”

“…ya ain’t ‘bout to send ‘er into a pack o’ bloodthirsty timberwolves alone.”

“Nope,” the unicorn concurred.

“And yer suns? How’re they holdin’ up?”

“No longer in a dead end.” Twilight allowed herself a small smile. “I found out which of my spells is interfering with my solites. Now I’m working on replacing it. You’ll probably be hearing quite a few explosions,” she giggled at herself. “But it won’t be long now. Soon I can make a lasting solite, and then it’ll just be a matter of scaling up the spell.”

And defeating Nightmare Moon,” Applejack reminded her. “Ah hate ta say it, but we’re only halfway. Or, well, Ah guess you are halfway. Ah haven’t been to much help, have Ah?”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it, AJ. Even if you were a unicorn, solar magic is some pretty advanced stuff. Even Rarity couldn’t do anything to help.” She paused for a while before continuing. “And like you said, creating a sun is just one step. We’ll need all the Elements of Harmony to defeat Nightmare Moon.”

“So where are those Elements anyway? You’d think they’d just give ‘em to us what with all the disasters we need ta take care of all the time.”

“They were still inside the palace by the time of The Great Tragedy, I think,” Twilight said. “In Celestia’s enchanted chamber. But the council must have recovered them before… leaving Canterlot…”

“Y’alright, sugarcube?” Applejack frowned, looking with concern at her friend. “Canterlot still buggin’ ya?”

“Yeah,” the unicorn admitted. “I mean, you’d think they would at least try to hold onto the capital! To my home!”

“Ah can’t imagine ever abandonin’ Sweet Apple Acres,” the farmer said, stopping as the two ponies reached the crossroads where their paths split. “Ah could leave it in the care of Apple Bloom or Big Macintosh or one o’ mah cousins, but abandonin’ it all together?” Applejack shook her head and put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “You just come talk to me if’n you need it, alright?”

“Thanks, AJ.” The unicorn smiled, giving the farmer a small hug. “See ya later.”


It wasn’t long before Twilight arrived at the burnt field she would usually practice her solite construction in. Hovering just within her sight were the lights of Ponyville and Sweet Apple Acres, far enough for no ponies to be overly disturbed by her experiments, but close enough for Twilight to get back safely should she encounter any threats.

Alright, so I need to improve the containment constituent of my spell, she thought. The three subspells I used from the beginning formed some unforeseen synergistic effect that destabilized the solite. Every combination I’ve tried seems to be either too weak or too strong. I might be able to calculate which spells I need and how to apply them, but… no, that would probably take at least two weeks. I guess nothing’s left but the good old trial and error method.

Her horn glowed brilliantly, and the air in front of her promptly turned into a raging inferno. Acting on a split second’s notice, the unicorn managed to erect a nearly impenetrable magenta wall in front of her.

More containment. Definitely more containment.

Twilight tried again, this time producing a smaller and more intense explosion.

Far from what I want, but better.

Again and again the unicorn lit the air in front of her with powerful solar magic, resulting in both explosions and implosions. No matter what spell she tried using, every experiment seemed to end in failure. Twilight practiced her fusion for several days, and although every solite burned for but a few seconds, she told herself that each failure was a step closer to success. Had it not been for her dedication to the goals of defeating Nightmare Moon and bringing back the sun to Equestria, she might very well have given up.


A week of trial and error. Almost there. I have the right set of containment spells, and I should have the necessary level of intensity for each of them. Unless my containment spells aren’t the only problem, this next solite should hold for quite some time.

Like it had done so many times for the past week, the lavender unicorn’s horn was wreathed in what looked like magenta flames as her magic surged into a patch of air not far from her. The air rippled and began glowing until a large fireball appeared in front of Twilight. The glow in her horn only intensified as the many spells of stabilization, efficiency, preservation, burning, light, and heat rushed from her and into the glowing orb before her.

The unicorn soon began panting as the exertion and the heat radiating from the solite threatened to overcome her, and her knees began shaking violently. A good sign, she supposed, as she rarely made it this far.

After ten whole minutes, Twilight had finally cast the last spell upon her solite. Although the glowing orb had collapsed to the size of nothing more than a hoof, the fires still burned brightly, gracing her and her surroundings with heat and light much akin to that of Celestia’s sun.

Ten minutes of burning. No visible signs of destabilization. That’s a new record. But will it keep burning? Once I break our connection, will the solite remain?

While the unicorn considered her options, her decision was very abruptly made by somepony else.

A huge bang behind Twilight broke her concentration and caused her to lose her grasp on the solite. To her luck and vast satisfaction, however, the solite remained hovering and burning in the air in front of her. After having made certain that her sun was no longer in danger, she turned toward the source of the noise behind her.

Twilight!” came the scream of Rainbow Dash as she approached the unicorn at an inconceivable speed, trailing a glittering rainbow behind her. The pegasus flared her wings and looped around Twilight once before coming to a skidding halt.

Noticing her friend’s panicked expression, the lavender unicorn quickly grew very worried. “R-Rainbow? W-what? What is it?”

“Fluttershy!” the pegasus half-gasped and half-screamed. “You need to come quick!” Saying nothing more, the star flyer of the Wonderbolts grabbed Twilight and yanked her off the ground, lifting her into the air with incredible ease. The unicorn’s world lurched as Rainbow Dash spun around the way she came, and Twilight soon found herself flying through the air at what she could only imagine as being near supersonic speed.

“Rainbow! What’s going on!?” the unicorn demanded, though she felt her words being driven straight back into her lungs as soon as she spoke. Her mane whipped mercilessly against her neck in the wind and the areas on her forelegs where Rainbow Dash was holding her were screaming with agony.

“Timberwolves!” was all the pegasus could manage as she beat her wings furiously, rapidly approaching Fluttershy’s cottage.

Twilight’s heart went cold as she laid her eyes upon the shy pegasus’ home. Not a single torch or lantern was lit, plunging the whole scene into a darkness broken only by the bursts of magic from four of the unicorn guards of Ponyville. The guards, however, were nowhere near the cottage, driven back by a pack of twenty or more timberwolves. While Rainbow Dash came in for a landing, the unicorn was quick to avert her gaze from the large, fenced-off area behind the cottage, where there seemed to be nothing but bared fangs and gore.

The two ponies touched down upon the ground a few feet behind the guardsponies, and the pegasus promptly collapsed from exertion. The unicorn noticed quite a few cuts and even a bite mark on the Element of Loyalty. “We don’t know if Fluttershy’s in there,” she panted, motioning toward the besieged home.

Letting the pegasus rest, Twilight ran forward, passing by the four guards. Although she had just spent ten minutes on fabricating a small sun, the unicorn found that her powers came easily to her, spurred on by the fear of losing a friend.

A crackling bolt of electricity struck a timberwolf square in the chest, sending it hurtling into the walls of the very house it attacked with a crunch. A second and third wolf were grabbed by the power of the Element of Magic and tossed like ragdolls into the Everfree Forest. As two more of its members were struck down by lightning, the pack’s attention turned to the lavender pony challenging it.

A small bubble of magenta light appeared around the unicorn as the first of the timberwolves approached, providing ample protection for Twilight. She ignored the crowd of predators gathering around her and the bloody canines scraping at her barrier, focusing instead on the edge of the Everfree Forest. Twin trails of purple fire erupted from there and quickly began approaching the unicorn. When the flames finally passed by Twilight, they converged, surrounding herself and her attackers with fire, but leaving a path going straight into the Everfree.

The unicorn teleported out of her own force field and began manipulating the fire to drive more than a dozen timberwolves back into the forest where they came from, setting their tails on fire for good measure.

With the help of the four unicorn guards and Rainbow Dash, it took only an additional few moments to clear away the rest of the wolves.

“Is that the last of them?” Rainbow Dash panted as the remaining timberwolf melted into the brush of the Everfree, limping and whimpering.

“I think so,” one of the guards replied, sighing with relief. “Thanks for the…” The pegasus galloped toward the dark cottage, threw open the door and vanished inside before Twilight or the guards could even move.

“Fluttershy!” the purple mare heard the desperate Wonderbolt cry out from somewhere upstairs as she entered the house herself. “Twilight, she’s not here!”

The interior of the animal caretaker’s home was almost pitch-black, lit only sparsely by the few windows in the living room. Twilight flinched and then shivered as she stepped on something sticky and decided to provide the house with illumination herself.

The glow from her horn, however, soon faded away as quickly as it had been summoned, and with a horrified whimper, the unicorn backed out of the living room and out through the front door.

“Twilight!?” She turned her head weakly to see Pinkie Pie rushing up to her. As the pink pony came to a halt, Twilight noticed a thin trail of blood running from the earth pony’s nose, one of the worst signs the Pinkie Sense had been known to produce. “Wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-what happened?”

“Timberwolves,” she whispered, fearing that she might break down sobbing any minute. Inside the house, Rainbow Dash’s voice grew steadily more and more desperate, calling out for the pony that obviously was no longer there.

Pinkie Pie’s eyes grew wide and her hair deflated completely when she saw the red stains on the unicorn’s hooves, and before Twilight could do anything to stop her, the pink pony joined the pegasus inside. Before long, the unicorn guards recovered from the fight with the wolves enough for them to enter Fluttershy’s home as well. The lavender unicorn averted her gaze as the ponies inside, provided with the light of the guards, discovered the grisly scene in the living room.

It didn’t take long before Twilight was bowled over by Rainbow Dash, followed by Pinkie Pie, who pulled each other into a tight, comforting embrace.

“How could they do that!?” the pegasus sobbed into the unicorn’s mane.

“So… much… blood…” Pinkie Pie whispered, too shocked to even cry.

“And yellow feathers… her feathers…” The lavender unicorn shuddered. While the guards investigated the area, the three ponies held onto each other desperately, the pegasus, the unicorn, and the earth pony shedding their tears together.

“She’s… gonna be heartbroken,” Rainbow Dash whispered after her own sobbing had calmed down. “All of her pets… Angel too, I think. Gone.”

“Dash,” Twilight began in a worried tone after a minute more of crying. “Fluttershy… She’s not…“

“No!” the pegasus screamed defiantly, breaking out of their embrace. “She’s not dead! She got away! She’s hiding somewhere!”

The unicorn opened her mouth to try to reason with her friend, but thought better of it.

This isn’t much different from when Celestia died. Rainbow Dash won’t accept it... and perhaps... maybe she’s right? We only saw her feathers. Unless she was torn completely apart or dragged into the Everfree, she might very well have escaped. She must have.

“What’s... What’s your Pinkie Sense say?” Twilight asked the pink pony, fearing the answer.

“S-s-s-somepony died..!” Pinkie Pie muttered, wiping her nose with a bloody hoof. “B-b-b-b-b-but i-it wasn’t her... It can’t have... No! I’m... I’m sure... she’s still...”

“Okay, Rainbow,” Twilight surrendered as the earth pony broke down sobbing. “We’ll search for her. I’ll go get the Apple family and go through Sweet Apple Acres, Pinkie, you go to Ponyville and get as much help as you can. Search the town. Rainbow, you go to Cloudsdale.”

The pegasus saluted solemnly and blasted off into the air, the crack of a sonic rainboom following not long thereafter. As the pink pony galloped off in direction of the town, the unicorn vanished in a flash.


“She ain’t here, Twi,” Applejack sighed as they, Big Mac and Apple Bloom met in the middle of the dark Sweet Apple Acres. “Ah know these parts like the back o’ mah hoof and so does Macintosh. If’n we can’t find her in five whole hours, she either ain’t here or she’s hidin’ from us fer some reason.”

“Eeyup.”

“I guess you’re right.” The unicorn shook her head sadly. “Let’s head on back to Ponyville. Somepony might have found her there.”

The four ponies exited the dense orchard and started down the path leading to town. The entire area was ablaze with lanterns, torches and flashlights moving about frantically both inside and outside Ponyville, and Twilight could hear the search parties’ shouts from several miles away. What looked like the entire population of Ponyville was marching about in the fields and woods south of town; a swarm of fireflies calling out the name of the missing pegasus.

“They haven’t found her,” Twilight concluded despondently.

“Can’t say Ah expected much else, really…” Applejack shook her head sadly.

“She’s gonna be alright, ain’t she?” Apple Bloom whimpered from behind the two leading ponies. The question went unanswered.

As the unicorn and three earth ponies drew near one of the closest search parties, coincidentally led by Pinkie Pie, a rainbow seemed to grow out from the southern horizon in the direction of Cloudsdale. The rainbow zigzagged violently as it lengthened, the Wonderbolt scouring a huge area as she returned from her search.

After only a few seconds, Rainbow Dash landed in front of Twilight and Applejack, panting heavily. As a throng of ponies gathered around the cyan pegasus, she shook her head. “Not a sign of her in all of Cloudsdale. I don’t think she’s anywhere between here and there either.”

It wasn’t long before every gaze turned to Twilight, the recognized master of organization and planning. “What do we do now?” Pinkie Pie asked, and the unicorn sighed.

“I think we’ve looked everywhere Fluttershy would run off to if she was in danger. It’s time we focused on the places somepony or something would take her to.” With that, the ponies’ gaze turned from the lavender unicorn to the dark reaches of the Everfree Forest. “If we find her anywhere tonight, it’ll be in the Everfree.”


Once again, Twilight found herself standing before the twisted trees of the huge forest. This time, however, a good third of Ponyville stood behind her, though for some reason, it did not seem to make up for the absence of Rarity and Fluttershy.

The lavender unicorn and her three friends led the search party through the odd border that surrounded the forest and soon hundreds of ponies fell silent all at once.

“So what?” Rainbow Dash whispered to the unicorn after some time. The speedy pegasus was very uncharacteristically walking beside her friends instead of hovering somewhere above them, limping slightly on the leg where she had been bitten by a timberwolf. “Do we head over to Zecora’s first like last time?”

“It’s a start…” Twilight replied, gazing off into the darkness ahead of them. Behind her, the Ponyvillians were starting to liven up once again. “To be honest, I don’t think we’ll find her out here, Rainbow. At least not alive.” She waited for a reply, but none came. “I want to believe she’s okay, Dash, and something tells me she isn’t gone, but evidence seems to point in the opposite direction.”

“I know, I know,” the pegasus muttered dismally. “But we can’t just give up on her, can we?”

“O’course not, sugarcube,” Applejack interjected quickly. “We’ll keep on looking for her as long as we can. What Ah think Twi’s sayin’ is just that… well, y’all shouldn’t get your hopes up.”

“At this point, no news is good news,” Twilight agreed.

The four ponies stepped into a small clearing, and Twilight frowned. Even through the darkness of the Everfree, Zecora’s house should have been in sight by now, but the unicorn could see nothing.

“Don’t worry about it, Dashie!” Pinkie Pie encouraged the pegasus with a smile. “I’m sure Fluttershy is alright. We just need to find her! Of all the ponies I’ve ever met, Fluttershy must be the very bestest at hiding, so it might take a while, but we’ll find her for sure! Besides, the Pinkie Sense says she’s just fine! Oh wait, I feel something coming on now… My knee’s getting pinchy!”

“Uh, girls?” Twilight began while the pink pony underwent one of her clairvoyant spasms, the lavender unicorn’s voice on the verge of breaking. “Please tell me I’m the only one seeing this.”

Before the four ponies were the remnants of Zecora’s home. The giant hollow tree had been squashed flat by something huge, and splinters and branches littered the entire clearing. The unicorn shook her head in disbelief, tears coming to her eyes as she once again felt her world being turned upside down.

That was the nosebleed... Not Fluttershy... How many tragedies can happen in one night? First Fluttershy, and now Zecora…

“It’s her!” Pinkie Pie sobbed, confirming the unicorn’s beliefs as her optimistic attitude melted away in a split second. “Nononono! Not Zecora!”

“Mah stars…” the farmer pony muttered as the friends approached the ruin. Behind them, the rest of Ponyville was slowly entering the clearing, gasping at what they saw. “What could’ve done somethin’ like this?”

A loud, earth-shuddering yawn answered Applejack’s question. Everypony in the clearing turned to their left and saw a huge area of trampled trees. In the center of that area was what could best be described as a massive chunk of the night sky. The hill of slightly translucent and starry purple heaved mightily, and limbs extended from the ethereal mass, digging into the ground as the creature fought to rise to its feet.

“Ev-everypony…” Twilight stammered, taking a step back. “Everypony!” she yelled. “Get back! Back to Ponyville! Run!”

At first, nopony seemed to heed her warning, but then the ursa major rose and turned to face the ones who had interrupted its slumber. The beast’s lips parted in a savage snarl, and growled loud enough to once again shake the ground beneath Twilight’s hooves.

“I-is that an ursa major!?” Applejack half screamed as she started backing away as well.

“It’s more than a hundred feet tall!” somepony behind them shouted, and panic broke out among the Ponyvillians.

The enormous ursine reared up on its hind legs, reaching a terrifying height of more than two hundred and fifty feet and let out a guttural roar that threw half the ponies off their hooves and sent the rest into a mad stampede.

“Applejack! Pinkie Pie!” Twilight shouted over the roar of the crowd. “Get everypony out of here! Rainbow and I’ll keep it distracted!”

Before the farmer could say anything, the Wonderbolt took off, flitting about the giant’s head and stopping it in its tracks. She did, however, manage to stop Twilight as she took a step forward.

“That thing’s got toes the size o’ six o’ us! You don’t stand a chance!”

“I defeated Inferno, the leader of the Blazebringers,” Twilight tried reassuring her friend. “He was actually a little bigger.”

“Y’all had your brother and half o’ Manehattan behind ya then!”

“Just go, AJ!” the unicorn hissed as she wrestled past the farmer. The ground shook once more as the ursa major fell down upon all fours again. “We don’t have time to argue! We’ll be fine! Go make sure everypony else is too!” Seeing the earth pony hesitate, Twilight quickly added, “That’s an order!”

Applejack rolled her eyes at this, but left her nonetheless, an angry scowl set into her face.

“Come back, okay?” After giving her friend a final hug, the pink pony galloped off to join the farmer.

Twilight returned her attention to the problem at hoof. The ursa was rearing up on its hind legs again, attempting to swat away the annoying cyan pegasus in front of its face. The unicorn gulped as she sized up her opponent. The bear was at the moment so tall that it blocked out the moon, its pale glow passing through the translucent creature to bathe Twilight in a purple spotlight. Her stomach lurched as one of the bear’s razor-sharp claws came within mere feet of slicing apart the pegasus.

“Be careful, Rainbow!” the unicorn screamed desperately, but was answered by an almost maniacal laughter.

“Are you kidding!? I’ve seen quicker moves from Tank! This guy’s got nothing on a Wonderbolt!”

“Try to get behind it!” the unicorn suggested, quickly forming a plan. “I’ll try to knock it out of balance!”

Rainbow Dash quickly dove beneath one of the ursa’s flailing limbs and managed to get around the giant creature, positioning herself a few feet from its shoulder blades. As Twilight had suspected, the beast twisted around to face its pest, and as it tried to reposition its legs, the unicorn summoned all of her powers and focused them into a single powerful telekinetic blast aimed at her opponent’s hind leg.

Although the limb only budged slightly, it was still enough to bring the ursa out of balance. With a frustrated roar, it toppled over, landing with a mighty thud on its back. Twilight fell to her hooves as the ground once again shook violently, and Rainbow Dash cheered triumphantly, hovering above the dazed giant.

Not wasting any time, the lavender unicorn summoned her remaining powers and drew a crackling chain of magenta light across one of the bear’s forelegs, trapping it against the ground.

The ursa major’s eyes sprang open, and its red pupils locked onto Twilight. The unicorn could have sworn there was some sort of recognition in the look the ursa gave her, but she had no time to dwell upon it as the bear yanked its foreleg upwards. Instead of being restrained by her magical chain, the ursa major uprooted a huge clump of earth, flinging it at the unicorn as it rose to its feet once again.

Twilight yelped in surprise and managed to dodge the enormous projectile by teleporting, cancelling her chain spell as she did so to conserve her dwindling magic reserves.

“Rainbow!?” she called out nervously as the hundred foot tall creature began barreling toward her with unrestrained fury. “Help!

Right on cue, the cyan pegasus swooped down in front of the charging giant. Working with blinding speed, the Wonderbolt grabbed a splinter of wood the size of a small tree and heaved it up into an upright position, managing to escape just before the ursa brought down its paw upon the improvised stake.

Yowling in pain, the bear twisted around and took a surprisingly quick swipe at the pegasus at its side as it crashed to the ground. For a horrifying moment, as the pegasus fluttered about wildly in the air, Twilight thought the Wonderbolt had been hit, but she seemed to have instead dodged in between two of the ursa’s claws, escaping without a scratch.

Although it was no longer running, but sliding along on its side, the giant creature’s momentum was hardly disturbed as it now came plowing through the ground straight at Twilight. Something hard smashed into the unicorn’s side, and she soon found herself being hoisted into the air by Rainbow Dash, narrowly avoiding being crushed between the surrounding trees and the ursa major.

“I haven’t got much magic left,” the unicorn panted as the two ponies made their way to the opposite end of the devastated clearing.

“And I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up,” the pegasus admitted, panting as well. “Kinda wish I hadn’t done three sonic rainbooms and fought a pack of timberwolves before going up against that monster.”

Behind them, the ursa major was already getting to its feet again. “I don’t think we can do much else than try to knock it down like we did the first time and making a run for it,” Twilight suggested, and the pegasus nodded as they landed in the edge of the clearing. “I don’t have enough magic to do it right now, though, so you’ll have to distract it for a while.”

“Sure,” Rainbow Dash replied, still a little out of breath. “You can count on me.” She flapped her wings lazily a few times before lifting into the air.

Not wanting her friend to be near the enraged giant longer than absolutely necessary, Twilight tried summoning as many of her powers as she could as quickly as she could. Her concentration was broken, however, when a sharp light in front of her caught her attention. The star-like insignia on the ursa’s forehead had taken on a bright white hue, and as the beast roared, a shaft of what looked like pale moonlight shot forth from the star. The pegasus, halfway between Twilight and the ursine, dropped out of the air as the light fell upon her. The bear’s odd magic faded away as quickly as it had appeared, and Rainbow Dash hit the ground with an audible thump, lying on the ground unmoving. She hadn’t even braced herself as she crashed. Slowly, the ursa major approached the downed pegasus, licking its chops greedily.

“Twilight!” the Wonderbolt screamed desperately, the fear of death overcoming her. “I can’t move! What’s going on!?”

“No!” Twilight screamed at the top of her lungs, abandoning all plans, reason, and judgment as she began charging the ursa major recklessly. “Don’t you dare hurt her!”

Suddenly, the stars above her winked out, and the ground she ran upon melted away into darkness. The broken trees around her turned pale, varying in shade from black to white, and red fleshy clumps and rainbow-colored trees holding multihued lanterns appeared out of nowhere.

Finally, she felt her body fade away as she entered the odd realm of her dreams where nothing but herself existed. In her absence, many more of the broken pillars had been reconstructed by the chaotic cascades of sparkles; by now, there were almost more of the magenta pillars than there were of the monochromatic ones. Some of that which had once been red also seemed to have grown purple, eradicated and rebuilt by her powerful and barely controlled magic.

My magic.

Celestia… Shining Armor… Cadance… Fluttershy… Zecora… So many ponies… Not..! Not Rainbow Dash!

She reached out to a mass of sparkling magenta and grabbed it tightly, ignoring the burning sensation it caused in her invisible limb. She gathered up another cascade and another and another, bunching it together in a huge blazing ball much akin to Celestia’s glorious sun. And still she kept collecting every scrap of magic she could find within herself until there was nothing left, forming a huge vortex of magenta in the very center of her being. Exerting force beyond her own imagination, she threw the sparkles upwards and through an invisible surface, every single ounce of her latent powers made suddenly manifest.


Twilight opened her eyes which were now blazing white-hot with barely contained energy and quickly noted that she had made it to the immobile pegasus, somehow paralyzed by the ursa’s magic. The bear itself stood only a few feet from Rainbow Dash, its jaws opening slowly to welcome its easy meal. Every hair on the unicorn’s body stood on end, crackling with electricity, as she leapt over her fallen friend and faced the beast that was easily more than a thousand times her own size.

Twilight kept running until she was directly underneath the ursa major’s chest. Her horn sparked to life, flaring with white fire and crackling with purple lightning that arced all across her body, burning at her fur and scorching the ground beneath her hooves. Soon, the white flames enveloped her body as well, creating a blaze that reached up to tickle the bottom of the ursine’s chest.

The earth quaked violently as the unicorn was lifted into the air by her own magic, and the ursa stumbled slightly. “I said: Don’t you dare hurt her!” Twilight screamed as the ground exploded upwards, energy in its purest form erupting from beneath her and pounding into the titanic beast with inconceivable force.

Deafened by the sound of the explosion, Twilight saw the two hundred and fifty foot tall creature being catapulted into the air by her own magic. The beast seemed to flip backwards in slow motion as it ascended and hung in midair for several seconds before falling to the ground again. Only now did the unicorn realize that she was falling herself; a shallow crater had appeared beneath her, formed by the earth she had displaced when unleashing her unbridled magic. She landed hard on her back and gasped in pain, and then bounced violently and was thrown to her side as the ursa major smashed into the ground head first almost a hundred feet away from her, making the earth heave violently one last time. The bear slumped down, just as dazed as Twilight, its left hind leg brushing by dangerously close to the unicorn.

Twilight struggled to move, but found that she couldn’t, too drained by her massive release of energy; it was all she could do to remain conscious.

“Twi? Y’alright!?” The unicorn fought to turn her head toward the sound of the apple farmer’s voice, but found that even such an exertion was beyond her. She soon felt herself being scooped up and slung across Applejack’s back as if she weighed no more than a pair of saddlebags. “Just hang tight, sugarcube. Ah’m gonna get us outta here.”

Twilight was carried away from the hind leg of the great ursa major, which had begun to spasm slightly as the creature started to regain consciousness. She felt the farmer’s head dip again as Rainbow Dash was picked up and slung across her back like Twilight. With a grunt, Applejack set into a gallop, carrying the two ponies east, away from the huge bear and toward Ponyville.

“Wh-wh-what th-the hay was that!?” Rainbow Dash gasped as they exited the clearing. The pegasus was shivering violently, a sign of her paralysis wearing off.

“Which one?” Applejack grunted. “The ursa’s weird beam-thingy or the fact that Twilight just tossed and flipped over somethin’ a thousand times bigger ‘an herself?”

“B-both!” Rainbow Dash stuttered, but nopony seemed able to answer her.

As her adrenaline finally abated, Twilight was overcome with exhaustion. She closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep to the rhythmic pounding of her friend’s hooves.