• Published 5th Apr 2013
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Ever After - Mixer



The sequel to the Mixer Chronicles

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Fight to the Finish

“How are we doing on ammunition?” Quicksilver asked, firing another round towards the shades below.

“Fifteen more rounds!” Solid Gear called, counting the remaining shells.

“Well, we’ll have to make them count then,” Quicksilver grunted.

“What happens when we run out?” Violet Runner asked.

Quicksilver gave a little laugh, “Then we have to either land, or run. And I don’t intend on turning this boat around.”

“You’re going to land down there?!” Violet exclaimed.

“Define landing...”
--

Celestia had predicted that Darkstar would come out to fight himself, but she didn’t account for his power.

Darkstar had been pursuing Celestia since he had first joined the fight, and she had been only just eluding him.

“What’s the matter? Don’t you want to welcome back your nephew back to Equestria?” Darkstar jibbed, diving through the air after Celestia.

Their flight path took them directly in between Red and Flicker.

“Whoa!” Red shouted, flying backwards to avoid being hit by either alicorn.

As Celestia flashed by him, Flicker took the chance to teleport behind him and send him tumbling down towards the ground.

“Keep your eyes on me slowpoke,” Flicker taunted.

Red recovered from his spin and came at Flicker like a shot.

Flicker simply laughed and teleported out of the way.

“You’re going to have to be faster than that,” he taunted.

Red gritted his teeth.

Throughout his fight with the hot shot pegasus, Red hadn’t managed to lay so much as a hoof on him.

Red continued his assault, trying to hit his cocky opponent, but each time only connecting with empty space as he teleported out of the way.

“Hold still!” Red growled.

“Why don’t you make me?” Flicker snorted.

“You’ve got a big mouth,” Red growled. “It’s time somepony shut you up!” he roared, channeling his natural affinity for lightning into his front hooves, making them crackle with electricity.

He redoubled his speed as he continued to go at Flicker.

“Whoa, I think you almost hit me with that one,” Flicker taunted, narrowly avoiding a punch from Red.

“Just you wait!” Red bellowed, going after him again.
--

“What are we supposed to be looking for?” Frost asked, looking wearily in the direction of Celestia and Darkstar’s most recent clash.

“I guess we’re lookin’ for anypony that’s not supposed to be here,” Applejack replied, hastening her pace.

“Yeah, I got that, but where are we supposed to look?” Frost asked.

“That bar where we found you?” Braeburn suggested.

“Why there?” he asked.

“Well, it’s a place to gather right? Besides, it’s the only lead we got,” Braeburn replied.

“Let’s see if they call us hicks this time,” Apple Bloom growled.

“Only one way to find out...” Frost sighed.

“Eeyup”
--

Chaotic Note had had an easy time dealing with the relatively few shades that had attacked him, quickly dispatching them with one of his enchantments.

But now, he was facing a tougher opponent.

“So we meet again,” Grape Vine said, standing directly in Chaotic’s path.

Chaotic got into a fighting stance, “So it appears.”

Grape Vine dropped into his own fighting stance, “I’ll let you know that the last time we fought, I went easy on you.”

“Good to know,” Chaotic said, readying a fire enchantment.

Grape Vine smirked, “That trick won’t work on me twice.”

“We’ll see about that,” Chaoitc said as he advanced on his opponent.

Grape Vine’s horn glowed briefly, as Chaotic found himself tripping over his own hooves.

“Like I said, I was going easy on you last time,” Grape Vine said.

At that moment, Soulless teleported in between them.

“Excuse me,” he said as he jumped backwards, avoiding Dhanthas’ scythe.

“Get back here pipsqueak!” Dhanthas roared, chasing after his flighty foe.

“I’d really rather not,” Soulles said, teleporting again.

“Savages,” Grape Vine snorted, watching the two black ponies disappear.
--

Elyl huffed, wiping some blood from the side of his face.

“You’re barely putting up a fight,” Britt said, a little disappointed.

“You could hardly call this a fight,” Spearhead called.

Enfield had taken a spear, and decided to have a “duel” with Elyl.

“Do shut up,” Britt called back.

“You could have at least given him a weapon,” Spearhead shot back.

Elyl didn’t have any chance to escape. The only reason he wasn’t either captured or dead was because Britt wanted to duel.

“Hmm, maybe you’re right,” Britt said. “Toss him a spear,” he called to one of the shades.

The shade tossed a spear on the ground in Elyl’s direction.

“Now you just have to get it,” Enfield said, readying his spear.
--

“Watch out Dash!” Lightning called to his friend.

Lightning and Dasher had been on the run from Dark Flame since he put a crater in the street.

Unlike their last encounter, Dark Flame was now an unstoppable juggernaut, shrugging off any hits that Lightning was able to make without being caught.

“Thanks,” Dasher said, just getting out of the way of Dark Flame.

“How are we supposed to stop this guy?” Lightning questioned.

“Do you mean without getting flattened?” he questioned back.

Dark Flame was about to lunge at Dasher when a whirling scythe passed in front of him, followed promptly by Dhanthas.

“Stop hiding behind your dummies!” he roared.

“Don’t get in my way again,” Dark Flame said darkly.

“Save it,” Dhanthas shot back, taking off in search of his prey.

Dark Flame let out a roar when he looked to see that Lightning and Dasher had disappeared.
--

Luna and Sombra had continued to carve a swath through the sea of shades that surrounded them, even after their son had joined the battle.

“I’m getting tired of being a distraction,” Sombra snorted, sending a group of changelings flying with a crystal spike from the ground.

“The others wouldn’t be able to handle this many shades on their on,” Luna said, cleaving through a fresh group of shades.

“Can you at least take over for a bit?” he asked.

“If you insist,” Luna sighed.

“Thanks honey,” Sombra said, using a crystal to batter his way free of the crowd.

“Sombra, we need some help,” Lightning said, rounding the corner.

“Hmm?” he questioned.

“There you are!” Dark Flame bellowed, charging them.

“I see,” Sombra said, erecting a wall of crystal to temporarily stop him. “Why don’t you help out Luna.”

Lightning and Dasher nodded, wading into the crowd of shades towards Luna.

Sombra looked back as the wall begin to crack.

“This looks like fun.”
--

“Breeze, why are we still just sitting around?” Flit asked his friend.

Violet and Treble were sitting at another table, playing cards as Flit and Breeze sat at another.

“I have this feeling...” he trailed off.

“You always have a feeling...” Flit countered.

“I know, but I have a feeling that if we wait, the answer will come to us,” Breeze explained.

“Well, I can’t argue for staying put. Even from this far, the fighting sounds intense,” Flit said.

“It’s more than that though...” Breeze began, “Almost like...”

He was stopped by the sound of the door swinging open.

“Well, what do we have here?” Applejack asked.

“Would you look at that, you were right,” Frost said, poking his head through the door.

Breeze, Flit, and the other were on their guard instantly.

“Looks like they had a bit of a scuff too,” Braeburn said, appraising the unconscious patrons.

“But, that makes them interesting,” Applejack said.

“Eeyup,” Big Mac agreed, filling the doorway.

“Well, looks like something came to us alright,” Flit said, annoyed.

“You reckon that they’re some of the Element bearers?” Apple Bloom asked.

“If I had to guess, I’d have to say that at least one of them is,” Frost said.

“Who are you?” Breeze questioned the posse of black garbed ponies.

“For you, trouble,” Frost said.

“There’s only five of them, we can take em,” Violet said.

“Do you see the red mountain over there?” Treble questioned.

“Wait, is he carrying somepony?” Flit questioned, seeing Char on Big Mac’s back.

“Eeyup,” he replied.

“I think we just found what we were looking for,” Breeze said.

Frost looked at Char, then to the ponies before him.

“I think we found more than one,” he laughed. “Let me guess, you’re all Element bearers?”

Breeze shifted.

“Eeyup,” Big Mac confirmed.

“So, that means all the Element bearers are right here,” Applejack said.

“Do ya think Darkstar knows?” Apple Bloom asked.

“I hope not...” Applejack said.
--

“What are you doing?!” Twilight shouted to Quicksilver.

After running out of ammo for the cannon, Quicksilver had returned to the helm, and now was tilting the nose of the airship downwards, and giving the engines more power.

“Getting Payback for Scroll, and Vigilant, and everypony that died at Van Hoover!” he shouted, giving it full throttle, bearing down on a large group of shades.

“Brace for impact!” he called to the few crewmembers, a few seconds before the airship crashed to the ground in a grating of metal and splintering of wood.

The airship came to rest after passing several houses, and flattening scores of shades.

Sombra hopped up onto the deck of the ship, “Are you alright?”

“Alright?! Quicksilver just crashed the ship!” Twilight fumed.

“Well, you did land on Dark Flame,” Sombra said, pointing down.

“What?” Twilight said quizzically.

There was a sound of groaning metal.

“Will nothing stop him?” Sombra questioned.

Quicksilver went below decks to see Dark Flame tearing the few remaining Lunar Guards apart.

“You!” Dark Flame growled, dropping a heavily beat Violet Runner.

“What?” Quicksilver questioned.

“You killed Marksman and Red Bow,” Dark Flame growled, moving towards the white earth pony.

“Marksman and Red Bow... they were the ones who killed Scroll?” he questioned.

A crystal spike erupted from the floor, stopping Dark Flame.

“Run Quicksilver!” Sombra commanded, coming below decks.

“Why?” Quicksilver demanded. “He’s one of the ones that killed Scroll and the others.”

“Now’s not the time to get killed over a vendetta,” Sombra said, creating more spikes to box Dark Flame in.

“I’m going to make him pay,” Quicksilver said.

“No you’re not,” Twilight said, picking him up with magic, “We need as many ponies alive as possible.”

“Let me go!” he protested.

“No,” Twilight said, and took him back to the deck, along with Solid Gear.

“Solid, your friends are fighting with Luna right now, so you can go help them out. Quicksilver, I want you to go and find Chaotic and Elyl,” Twilight Commanded.

“What about you?” Solid asked.

Twilight spread her wings, “I’m going to help Celestia fight Darkstar.
--

Chaotic was bruised and beaten, while his opponent didn’t even have a scratch on him.

Every punch he tried to throw at Grape Vine ended up coming right back and hitting himself in the face.

“Ready to give up yet?” Grape Vine asked.

“Not even close,” Chaotic huffed.

He put an earth enchantment on himself for strength and slammed the ground sending a small shockwave towards Grape Vine, unbalancing him. Then, he used a wind enchantment to increase his speed, rushing up before Grape Vine could compose himself, and struck him square in the jaw, staggering him.

Chaotic continued this assault for a few good swings until Grape Vine finally got enough composure to block his attack, and then tripped Chaotic, sending him tumbling to the ground.

“That was a clever trick, but tricks don’t work twice on me,” Grape Vine said, huffing.

As Chaotic went to stand up, Flicker impacted into the wall next to him.

“Ow...” the pegasus groaned, sliding down from the pony shaped imprint in the wall.

“Gotcha!” Red said triumphantly.

Flicker got shakily back to his hooves.

“I’m not done yet,” he said, gritting his teeth.

“You look like it to me,” Grape Vine said, forcing Flicker’s head to meet with the pavement.

Flicker’s wings twitched once before he sprawled out on the ground.

“Good riddance...” Grape Vine snorted.

Red swooped down and landed beside Chaotic.

“Need some help?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Chaotic said.

“Then you can sit back and rest, I got this,” Red said, turning to face Grape Vine.
--

Twilight fired a blast of energy at Darkstar.

Darkstar barrel rolled to avoid the blast and turned to face Twilight.

As he was about to send out a tendril of shadow he was hit in the back by a blast from Celestia.

Darkstar growled as he twirled around, “Can’t beat me yourself, so you use your apprentice,” he spat.

“I am not her apprentice any more,” Twilight growled, sending another blast towards him.

Darkstar created a veil of shadow and disappeared, only to reappear away from the two.

“It doesn’t matter, I can still defeat both of you,” Darkstar said, sending out two tendrils of shadow towards Twilight and Celestia.

Celestia matched his tendril with a blast of golden energy, and Twilight did the same with her own blast of purple.

“Not like that you won’t,” Twilight said.
--

Dhanthas and Soulless had been playing cat and mouse for the entire fight, and Dhanthas was sick of it.

“Come out and fight me coward!” he bellowed, scanning the area from a rooftop.

“Self preservation isn’t cowardice,” the voice of the flighty unicorn said from behind Dhanthas.

The shade turned around to see Soulless standing on the top of the roof, a little ways away.

“There you are,” Dhanthas growled, brandishing his scythe. “Finally ready to stop running and die?”

“I’m ready to stop running, but I’m not going to be the one dying,” Soulless retorted.

The unicorn’s horn glowed with magic and three copies of himself coalesced around Dhanthas.

Dhanthas gave a little laugh, “This trick again?”

He swung his scythe and decapitated one of the clones, leaving it to dissolve into a small puddle of water.

“Oh, that’s only my opening act,” Soulless said as he produced six more. “Oh, and you might want to watch where you step.”

Soulless dissolved out of visibility, leaving the nine remaining clones with Dhanthas

“These clones won’t save you,” Dhantas said as he decapitated another.

“We’re more than a match for you,” The voice came from all of the clones.

The clones all got into ready stances with blades extended.

Dhanthas went to rob another clone of it’s cranium, but instead of taking the blow, it dodged the scythe.

A nearby clone tackled Dhantas, knocking him sideways, but unable to knock the shade over.

Dhantas knocked the clone away and took a step back, but found that the edge of the building gave way underneath him, sending him tumbling down to the street below.

One of the clones went to the edge of the building and looked down at him.

“Remember, watch your step,” it said mockingly.

Dhanthas growled and flew back up at the clone, sending it flying as he rammed into it.

“Which one of you is next?” Dhanthas growled.

“You really think we’re stupid enough to attack one at a time?” they questioned.

“All take you all on, and still kill all of you,” Dhanthas said.

The clones got ready for another charge from Dhanthas, but the battle was interrupted by a bright flash of sunlight from Celestia.

Dhanthas covered his eyes from the blinding flash, but in the same moment, felt a blade bury itself in his gut.

He looked down to see Soulless with his hoof flush against his stomach, the blade completely hidden inside his stomach.

“Damn you...” Dhanthas gasped, a small drop of black ichor forming at the edge of his mouth.

“Got you,” Soulless said coldly.

Dhanthas swatted Soulless away and tumbled backwards over the building’s edge.

Soulless turned back to his clones and dismissed them, letting them evaporate, “Looks like that takes care of that.”

He was about to jump off the building and join the fight with some other pony, but something bugged him and made him turn back around.

He turned around just in time to barely avoid Dhanthas’ scythe.

“I’m not dead yet!” Dhanthas bellowed, the wound in his gut still bleeding.

Soulless teleported down to street level and attempted to use the fighting to conceal him and give him time to come up with a new plan.

Unfortunately for him, Dhanthas had easily identified him and was making a beeline for the black unicorn.

“Feathers...”
--

Breeze and Frost were staring at each other, huffing and covered with bruises. Applejack had hogtied Flit, holding his head against the floor. Braeburn and Apple Bloom were both being held down by Violet. Big Mac had Treble pinned to the floor, unable to fight back.

“Well, this is a surprise...” Frost huffed.

“Why?” Breeze questioned.

“I figured that we’d be done by now,” Frost replied.

“Well... looks like a tie to me,” Breeze huffed.

“That’s exactly my point. I didn’t expect you to fair this well,” Frost said.

“We can’t lose now... it’s as simple as that,” Breeze replied.

“Can y’all hurry it up over there?” Applejack snorted.

“Hurry with what? We’re all about done,” Frost retorted.

“Nope,” Big Mac said.

“Mac’s right, we’ve still got two more to take care of,” Applejack said.

She got up off of Flit and started to make her way towards Breeze and Frost.
--

Crystal had made her way to the dungeons in the palace and found Shining Armor and Cadence.

“Shining Armor, you’re needed outside to help with the fighting,” she commanded.

“Can’t you handle it?” he questioned indignantly.

“Darkstar’s orders,” Crystal said curtly.

Shining gave a sigh and began to head out of the dungeon.

Crystal looked into the cell where Cadence was being held and saw that she had no restraints on.

“Darkstar neglected to restrain you...” Crystal said out loud, emphasizing “neglected”.

“Huh?” Cadence said, looking up.

When she looked up, the changeling queen was gone, and the door to her cell was hanging open.

“Let’s go,” The voice of Shining Armor said.

“Shining?” Cadence asked, standing up.

“Come on, we don’t have much time.”

Cadence stepped out of the cell and saw that Shining Armor was waiting for her.

“Come on, before somepony sees us,” Shining said.

“What?” Cadence asked.

“I’m getting you out of here,” Shining said, taking her hoof.

“Where are we going?” Cadence questioned.

“We’re going to find somepony to get us out of here,” Shining said, dragging her through a doorway.

Crystal wasn’t sure if her plan was going to work, but she hoped that Cadence wouldn’t catch on before they got clear of the palace.
--

“Give up Darkstar!” Celestia bellowed, meeting a large tendril of shadow with a blast of golden energy.

“Words of a losing, aging, monarch,” Darkstar snarled.

“You can’t beat both of us!” Twilight yelled, sending a volley of purple bolts of magic at him.

A black void absorbed the bolts.

“No, it’s you two that cannot beat me,” Darkstar sneered.

“What about three of us,” Luna said, her crescent blade slicing the air in front of Darkstar.
Darkstar growled and looked at his three opponents, he knew he could beat each one individually, but he was outnumbered, putting him on the defencive.

“I’ll still beat you,” he growled, and disappeared in a twist of shadow.

“Come get me if you dare!” Darkstar roared from the top of the Palace.