105. Strike of the Riptide

SHANGHAI, CHINA, THE LAND OF DRAGONS

Despite much mumbling and grumbling, the soldiers stationed at Tong'an were persuaded to get up and get moving in the middle of the night in order to gain ground on Shan-Yu. At first, they too thought the notion that the enemy ship would try anything on a city specifically fortified against pirates was insanity. But soon they were convinced when they realized that by being the least likely place a pirate ship would strike, it was the most likely target after all.

Yao had asked what their plan was to avoid another incident like Tong'an happening. Shang and Mulan had kept quiet about it. They knew their plan lay with "Dusk Shine."

As Twilight had put it, "My friends and I have a certain power that I think can help us. We can stop them from getting more explosives into the city if we can just beat them there."

Twilight, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie had brought Spike along with them, but Rarity was nowhere to be seen. Many of the soldiers believed it the last they'd see of the civilian they'd heard about who had run in, bow and arrows blazing, on the beach. But those who should have known better did.

As the army approached the beautiful, sprawling port of Shanghai, Shang mentally remarked on how they must have looked on entry. They were all tired from the overnight journey. Their numbers had been thinned by a few due to the last bomb, and Shang dreaded having to report this to the other officials who would be present, hating to relive the memory, taking the tallies of who all had been lost. They may not have been particularly close friends to him or Mulan, but they had been good men all the same.

They also lacked heavy artillery. Khan had made his way out of the last blast, but the wagon of explosives had become lost somewhere in Tong'an, probably going up in sparks. Only one cannon had been retrieved, and an odd one at that. The official story was that Bubble Berry had found the single blue cannon with wheels attached somewhere in the heart of the wreckage, and due to that fortunate find, he had the honor of carrying it.

Those who should have known better did.

They held the Imperial banners high as they marched upon Shanghai, and soon, a small party on horseback, also bearing the Imperial standard, was dispatched to greet them before they reached the border, having seen the incoming flag and been made aware of approaching troops.

Mulan inwardly flinched when the welcome party came into view and it was clear that Chi Fu was its leader.

"General!" he barked, stunned to see Shang at the lead of the troop. "We were not expecting your division here! No messages arrived!" His horse, as well as the horse of the recruits' captain and the three other soldiers they'd sent as representatives, drew to a halt.

"None were sent," Shang admitted.

"None were SENT!" Chi Fu repeated, disgusted at the lack of protocol, simultaneously encountering a creeping feeling that the reason for such a lack was ominous.

"Between repairs and strategy, I didn't have time to put together an official report," Shang explained. "And we had to get on the move quickly if we wanted to beat the enemy ship."

"What HAPPENED in Tong'an?" Chi Fu asked, now certain there had been a terrible incident.

"There was…a bomb," Shang stated, his voice dropping a decibel. "The enemy ship brought explosives into the city and detonated them during our battle. We spent the day making reparations as best as we could."

Chi Fu found himself at a loss for words then.

"We think the enemy is going to strike here next," Mulan said firmly. She considered bringing up the certainty of their hypothesis, or mentioning Shan-Yu, but figured both subjects were best left aside for the moment for the sake of preserving credibility. "We had to get here as soon as possible to stop that ship from bringing more – "

That brought Chi Fu's voice back. "You will not speak out of turn!" he snapped at Mulan. "Do you really think that just because you have earned the Emperor's gratitude, you can simply outrank the General as you please? You may be considered a war hero, but you are still only a foot soldier!"

"Then I give her my permission, as General, to speak when she likes," Shang said sternly. "Does that satisfy you?"

"I suppose I cannot argue with that," Chi Fu relented.

"We don't have much time," Mulan emphasized. "We have to get down to the shore and launch our own ship."

"And what makes you so sure this will be the place?" Chi Fu asked. "Shanghai is heavily fortified! There's virtually no chance of an attack here! That's why the recruits are stationed here!"

"That says a lot about the faith you have in your recruits," Shang pointed out. "Need I remind you that many of the men and the woman in this very troop were only recruits when we made our decisive victory over the Huns?"

"They know we think this place is safe," Mulan went on. "That's why they'll come here next. They've probably figured out a way over that wall. You KNOW they have weaponry that you don't currently understand."

"Then what is your grand plan to stop them from entering the city?" Chi Fu challenged.

"We meet them in the water," Shang explained, "and Dusk Shine has a plan to fortify the wall."

"And who exactly is this 'Dusk Shine'?" Chi Fu asked with a raised brow.

Twilight flinched. What if she were recognized? Her heart pounded ever more quickly.

"Another soldier in our rank," Shang explained. "He proved his intelligence and battle skills were good enough to fight among our veteran troops."

Twilight felt all eyes turn upon her. She stepped forward, bowing her head respectfully. "Sir," she greeted.

When she raised her head, Chi Fu couldn't help but think there was something familiar about this soldier's face. However, when he looked at her alone, separated from her friends, he made no connection, not having remembered the minutiae of her face from their brief meeting. He saw a male soldier, albeit one who sounded precocious. "And THIS is the one who's going to somehow make Shanghai's walls better defended than they already are?"

"I also give Dusk Shine permission to speak when he wants," Shang snapped. He knew there had to be rules and rankings in order to prevent chaos, that not everyone could just start yelling things at once and expect to be heard, but it seemed to him that so far, everyone who Chi Fu had interacted with should have been an obvious exception to the rule. But if the system demanded he use rank in order to let them speak, he would play the game.

"Just…trust me," Twilight said. "We don't have a lot of time left. Our enemy is traveling by boat. We have to go NOW."

Shang nodded, breaking into a brisk walk; Mulan was right beside him as they moved past the welcoming squad. "We'll be securing a ship," he informed Chi Fu. "Bring as many of the recruits as you want to take part in the battle as soon as you can."

The rest of the troop followed, and Twilight fell into step, her heart rate finally slowing. She figured it was about time to focus on some of that deep breathing Chien-Po and Fluttershy had been so insistent on.

"What IS our plan, anyway?" Ling asked Twilight once they were out of earshot of Chi Fu.

"It's…hard to explain," Twilight answered. "I really can't describe the first stage to you. All I can say is that the weapons our enemy is using aren't that different from things I've seen before…and I know how to counter them."

The Riptide did not sail straight toward Shanghai from Tong'an. Shan-Yu had wanted to make sure that the ship absolutely was not pursued, and so the vessel had gone out to sea for a while, putting some distance between it and the Chinese shore before heading back on a beeline for Shanghai.

The men had asked about bombs. Shan-Yu was no fool. He knew asking others to go in on what they now knew would be a suicide mission would be asking for them to balk or revolt. None of them were loyal enough to die for him if asked. Shan-Yu was confident he could put down a mutiny quickly and violently, but he would rather it not come to that; losing the Riptide crew would put him out by a lot of resources and manpower. He didn't need their love, and he had built his foothold on their fear, but their hate would impede him. Therefore he had to walk delicately.

There would be no bomb. Shan-Yu did, however, want the crew to gather their remaining explosives in the hull. There would be some use for them somewhere in the city: a use that didn't involve conscious self-sacrifice.

The walls of Shanghai came into view over the deck long after Shang's division had arrived in the city.

...

Shang's troops busied themselves with a ship that had been acquired through the permission of the local magistrate, boarding it and preparing it for takeoff.

"And how do you know that the enemy hasn't already gotten inside the walls, if you're so sure they can get through?" Chi Fu barked.

"We don't," Mulan told him. "That's why we need people to stay here inside the walls in case we were wrong about our timing."

"There's something you need to know," Twilight broke in. "The precautions we're using to keep the enemy from getting in won't let you be able to get out, either. So anyone who stays back is really staying back."

It was agreed upon that the recruit troop should stay within the city walls, and several of Shang's troop agreed to accompany them. Chi Fu also opted to stay back, though as much as he claimed it was to keep an eye on the recruits, Mulan suspected he wanted to rely on the safety of the wall. The troop going aboard the ship included Shang, Mulan, Yao, Ling, Chien-Po, Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. Spike and Mushu would also be aboard, though not counted among the numbers of soldiers.

Once divisions were made, Twilight announced, "We're going to go put up the defense. It's going to look…a little weird. You just have to trust us."

Mulan nodded. "We know you've got things under control."

"Wait," Yao interjected. "Weird…how?"

But by that time, Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash had moved away from the docks and out of sight, carrying one object between them. Spike was hot on their heels.

"What did they need the cannon for?" Ling wondered out loud before forgetting about it and fitting his new bagh naka on his fingers.

...

Once the Equestrians were out of sight, they backed off from the party cannon. "Okay," Rainbow Dash announced, "you can come out now!"

Rarity crawled out of her hiding place within the cannon. Once she'd spilled out onto the shore and righted herself, she reached into the cannon and plucked out of it several blankets and pillows that had been packed in with her for comfort. "I know you told me the cannon was bigger than it looked," she remarked, "but I'm still having trouble believing it!"

By the looks of it, the cannon wasn't even half as big as Rarity. Yet the previous night, when Pinkie Pie had instructed her to get inside it to hide, the doubting Rarity had been surprised to slide into quite a roomy chamber, with confetti packed in at her feet. She'd been about to complain that it was uncomfortable, but then Pinkie had passed in the pillows and blankets, and somehow those too had fit perfectly inside the cannon.

"Now," Rarity went on, brushing out the creases in her black and white gown, "shall we?"

"Let's do it!" Rainbow Dash affirmed with a pump of her fist.

The six women joined hands as Spike looked on. The white glow surrounded them, shining bright; their amulets glittered through armor. As twelve feet lifted gently off the ground and levitated, it wasn't just an ordinary rainbow that burst from the sphere. An enormous rainbow wall that stretched out from side to side as far as the eye could see rose from the ground, stretching up into the sky, covering the existing stone walls of Shanghai.

"Whoa," Spike whispered as the protective rainbow wall towered over the entire city.

...

"Would you like us to prepare cannons to fire upon the outer wall?" Itsuki asked Shan-Yu.

"That won't be necessary," Shan-Yu told him. "I'll break that wall with my own – "

The rainbow shimmered into view then, and Shan-Yu could hardly believe what he was seeing. It took him a good moment of silence to ponder it before he made a connection to the last time he'd seen a magical rainbow that prominent.

"The soldier from Tong'an," he grunted, thinking of Rainbow Dash.

"Captain…?" Itsuki said gingerly.

"Cannons won't work on that wall anyway," Shan-Yu told him. It was only a guess, but one formulated on how well mortal weapons seemed to work on his own Dark power. "Bring me to it, and I'll open the way."

...

"So that's what they meant by 'weird,'" Yao remarked as the other soldiers gaped at the bright multicolored light.

When the Equestrians came back to the docks, Rarity was among their number. "Hello!" she said with a wave. "I assume that ill-mannered official is long gone by now."

"Probably wondering what THAT is," Mulan teased, gesturing toward the wall.

"How are YOU so calm about this?" Ling asked Mulan incredulously.

"Let's just say I've seen a lot of strange things," Mulan replied vaguely.

"You, too?" Ling questioned Shang, noticing that the general was only slightly fazed by the giant rainbow wall.

Shang nodded in affirmation. "It's more or less what I was expecting." He then addressed the army at large: "That wall is what we have to protect. It's what keeps Shanghai and the ocean apart now. If our enemy is out there, we're not going back without a victory, even if that means we don't go back at all."

Though the others would have liked an explanation for the new wall, the fact that their general approved of it went for miles.

"And you're right," Mulan told Rarity. "There's nobody to stop you from hitching a ride."

"A WOMAN?" someone at the back of the crowd called out.

"HEY!" Yao snapped back at him. "You got a problem with her bein' here? That means you got a problem with Mulan bein' here, don't it? And if you got a problem with Mulan…" He smacked a meaty fist into his open palm. "That means you got a problem with ME."

"There will be NO infighting!" Shang cried out hurriedly. He gestured to Rarity; "This woman is protected under my order. Now, everyone get on board!"

...

As the ship set out to sea, Twilight took her place before the others, reminding them of the plan.

"As soon as we get within range of that ship," she said, "we all get on it except for Butterscotch and Chien-Po. They stay back here and defend our ship. Once we're on that boat, it's all or nothing. We fight until we win, however that ends up happening."

"And what exactly stops all of them from jumping on our ship as soon as we jump on theirs?" Yao blurted.

"We have a few more tricks up our sleeves," Twilight said. "I think you've guessed by now that my friends and I aren't your average warriors. We put up that wall, and we can do a few other things, too. We're going to cloak the ship so that no one will WANT to jump on. Butterscotch and Chien-Po will take care of anyone that does, but not just by charging at them. We're going to lay a trap."

"In fact, we've already laid it," Rarity announced, holding up the end of an Extendable Ear. They'd been stretched from the edge of the ship to belowdecks. "With these, Butterscotch and Chien-Po will be able to hear anyone that comes across. Like an alarm system, if you will."

"There's one more thing." Twilight produced the thick rope net she'd woven the night after the Tong'an bombing. "We have to get this over the captain. When you see him…you're not gonna like it. But this net should be able to counter the…black fire. I'm going to start out with it, but we'll pass it to whoever is in the best spot to get the captain."

"Um…how?" Ling was baffled.

"The same way the wall, the cloaking, and the alarm system work," Twilight offered.

"I know it sounds strange," Mulan said, stepping in next to Twilight, "but we have reason to trust that Dusk Shine's plan is going to work."

Shang nodded affirmatively.

"All you have to worry about is making sure we win this fight," Mulan went on. "And I know we can. I've seen most of you help win our last victory. And as for everyone else, I've still seen what you can do. We ARE strong. And we're swift. As swift as…well, as a coursing river."

"Indeed we are," Chien-Po affirmed, and Fluttershy nodded.

"We have the force of a great typhoon," Mulan went on.

"You betcha!" Rainbow Dash cried.

"Yeah!" Ling punctuated.

"We have the strength of a raging fire!" Mulan emphasized.

Yao whooped as Applejack gave a "YEEEE-haw!"

"And we're mysterious as the dark side of the moon!" Mulan announced.

"Well, that much is true!" Twilight laughed, and Shang moved to take his place at Mulan's other side.

"Now let's show THEM that!" Mulan cried.

"FOR CHINA!" Shang drew his sword, hoisting it into the air.

A host of blades glimmered beneath the sun as the others followed his example. "FOR CHINA!" was the chorus that went up from everyone.

"Erm…not to be a bother or break up the party," Rarity pointed out, "but I believe THAT is the vessel we are looking for."

Twilight, Mulan, and Shang whirled to see the Riptide on a direct course for them.

"All right, everyone," Rainbow Dash said, taking a fine black powder from her pocket. "Let's show 'em what we're made of!"

Fluttershy, Twilight, Pinkie, and Applejack produced handfuls of the same substance, and all five held it high. "READY?" Rainbow Dash called out.

"READY!" the others chorused.

Before any of the soldiers could ask what the five were planning on doing with the "gunpowder," the quintet flung their handfuls of Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder onto the deck, and soon, the naval ship was covered in impenetrable blackness, cloaking its passengers from enemy eyes.

When Shan-Yu saw the ship making its way toward him, recognizing the armor of those onboard, he very nearly laughed. "And here I thought they were smart enough to seal themselves away," he remarked. "Apparently they wanted to put themselves at a disadvantage."

"At least you can't say they're cowards," Itsuki remarked.

Shan-Yu bristled at this remark. "Gather the men. We're going to board that – "

The artificial darkness blossomed, obscuring everything on the Imperial naval deck from view.

This returned Shan-Yu's good humor. "That's more like it," he chuckled. "I was afraid there wouldn't be a challenge to it."

"Shall we proceed to board?" Itsuki asked.

"They'll have something waiting for us in that darkness," Shan-Yu told him. "No. Let them come. We will defeat them on our deck, with our might alone."

The naval ship and the Riptide were then parallel, the jet-black of the air of the former vessel looming high and speaking volumes more than any standard could.

"GO!" Shang yelled, and all but two leapt off the darkened deck into the light, onto the planks of the Riptide.

Fluttershy and Chien-Po felt their way to the stairs that led downward, retreating into the heart of the ship, where all the ends of the Extendable Ears converged like veins.

The pirates of the Riptide were ready to face the onslaught. They brought out their weapons in a flurry of silver and bronze, and foe met foe, metal ramming hard into metal.

Yao and Ling did not, however, immediately join the battle. When they landed on the deck, they had been gung ho, striking their respective battle stances – Yao clenching his fists and drawing them back while Ling stood in a manner more reminiscent of an arabesque, showing off the glimmering tiger claws on his knuckles. No sooner had they done so than they saw the captain, and they froze in horror.

"This seems familiar," Shan-Yu taunted, staring them down.

"No," Ling moaned. "Nnnnnnnooo…" He began to shake, dropping his stance. "You're dead…you're d-d-d- "

Yao too was shocked. However, as confused and horrified as he was, his battle instinct was quick to take the wheel in his brain. "What he said," he grunted. "YOU'RE DEAD MEAT!"

Yao charged Shan-Yu point blank, aiming a fist for his stomach. Shan-Yu was easily able to grab Yao's wrist with both arms and flip the short warrior over onto his back. Shan-Yu's boot was planted on Yao's chest to keep him down, and the captain drew his sword, holding it high so he could plunge it down into the unfortunate soldier's body.

But by holding his sword so high, he'd left himself exposed. Ling spun into Shan-Yu, kicking him deftly in the chest, knocking the captain backward. While Shan-Yu quickly stepped to regain his balance, Ling offered Yao his hand, quickly pulling him back to his feet. Yao's broadsword came out to greet the battle in a shimmer, and the duo charged in unison.

Shan-Yu only laughed, the Dark aura rising around him and his blade. He kicked Ling aside as he parried all of Yao's frantic blows. Ling tried to charge at him again from behind, but Shan-Yu's perception was no slouch; a meaty, gray hand was flung backward, catching the skinny soldier in the stomach and throwing him aside.

When Twilight landed on deck, she stared directly into a familiar face. "Back for more?" Itsuki taunted.

"Why do I always end up facing off against the snarky ones?" Twilight muttered as she drew her sword, cradling the bundled-up net in her other hand.

"What's that?" Itsuki asked, gesturing toward the net with the point of his blade.

"None of your business," Twilight told him.

"It looks like something you don't want destroyed," Itsuki observed with a smirk. He slashed directly out at it.

Twilight used her free hand to hoist the net up out of danger, serving it like a volleyball across the ship. "BUBBLE BERRY!" she screamed.

Pinkie Pie leapt up to catch the net, drawing it close to her chest before somersaulting across the deck. Suddenly struck with an idea, Pinkie kept on rolling about like a ball, knocking into the knees of pirate after pirate and sending them all toppling. "COMING THROOOOOUGH!" she yelled by way of warning her allies.

Itsuki whirled to try and stop her, but Twilight stepped in time with him, placing herself in front of him and mentally thanking Thor for teaching her to dance; she might not have been able to position herself so swiftly without knowledge of the box step. "Your fight's with me," she insisted.

"If you insist." Itsuki stabbed outward, toward Twilight; she lodged her blade against his, shoving it away from her body. The grinding of metal on metal created a solitary spark.

A duo of Riptide crewmen by the name of Taiki and Xun decided they were not intimidated by the cloaking darkness aboard the other ship. In fact, they mused, that was a dead giveaway that the ship contained valuables worth the plunder. They ran through the battling crowd, Taiki having to nimbly leap over the still-rolling Pinkie Pie, and made a great jump onto the deck of the borrowed Imperial vessel. Once there, they found themselves surrounded by pitch blackness; they couldn't see their own hands in front of their faces.

"What kind of sorcery is this?" Taiki asked.

"It's like the captain's," Xun observed, "but less…aggressive."

Down belowdecks, Fluttershy and Chien-Po listened in with the Extendable Ears. The sounds of two sets of boots hitting the deck was suspicious enough, but those voices definitely did not belong to their allies. Quietly, the pair moved up the stairs and onto the deck, careful not to make so much as a thump of a too-hard footfall.

"How are we supposed to find anything here?" Xun complained. "I can't see worth – "

He was cut off when Chien-Po knocked him out with a single strike to the back of the neck.

Taiki heard the fall of Xun's unconscious body to the planks. "Xun?" he called out. "What happened?"

He was met with silence.

"XUN!" Taiki insisted. "ANSWER ME – "

Fluttershy knocked Taiki unconscious with one skillful hit to the side of the head.

Once they were sure both threats had been neutralized, Chien-Po and Fluttershy made their way quickly back to their retreat below the deck. Once they could see each other in the hall below, Chien-Po remarked in a whisper, "They might have been harder to find if they did not talk so much."

Fluttershy nodded.

Zhong was perhaps the strongest man onboard the Riptide outside of Shan-Yu. Determined to put a stop to the chaos of the rolling Pinkie Pie, he ran toward her and kicked her hard like one would an actual ball. This set her off course and sprawling out on the wooden planks.

It was a quick scramble for Pinkie Pie to get up on her feet. Once she was there, she gave a piercing cry of "BLITZ!" and dropped the net onto one foot before punting it across the ship. She then drew her blade, ready to deal with Zhong. "All right! Up for a dance?"

Hearing her alias called, Rainbow Dash turned just in time to see the net hurtling at her at top speed. She grabbed and unfurled it, running full speed at Shan-Yu, who still had his hands busy with Ling and Yao. She was absolutely certain she had the perfect window to throw it over him as he was distracted.

It was only a stroke of luck, as well as one of the sword, that saved Shan-Yu, for he was unaware Rainbow Dash had set her sights on him. Sick of the Imperial duo battering him, Shan-Yu put his energy into a blow of Darkness, bringing his sword down hard on the deck. The wooden planks cracked when the blade hit them and the Darkness exploded from it. The wave of Darkness threw Yao and Ling to either side and weakened the floorboards around it. As soon as Rainbow Dash set foot on those floorboards, they cracked and gave way, and she fell through to the storage room in the hull with a cry of surprise. She let go of the net; it floated through the air.

Mulan quickly snapped the net into her grip with one hand, rolling it back up into a ball before she and Applejack found themselves back-to-back, striking outward with their swords like a dual-pointed machine.

In the storage room, Rainbow Dash, having landed on her back, needed a moment to regain her perception. When she was fully aware of her situation, it became clear that she hadn't landed on the floor, but on top of a heap of fireworks. She twitched, gasping. The bomb in Tong'an had only been a portion of the explosives the pirates had amassed in their lootings. She was looking at enough firepower to reduce Shanghai to rubble. That was, if it could penetrate the Elements' wall, which it probably couldn't. In fact, she was sure that one of Twilight's own deflection shields could contain an explosion of that magnitude, if no Dark magic powered it.

The idea struck.

Rainbow Dash hurried to find the stairs that would take her back up to the battle.

Taking care to step around the great chasm in the floor, Shang swiftly approached the captain, calling out, "SHAN-YU!"

Shan-Yu obliged, turning to face him. "You weren't the one I wanted to kill the most today," he informed Shang. "But you'll do for now."

A blast of the Dark fire came rocketing outward from one punch. Shang dropped to the floor, rolling out of the way before getting up and carving a new path toward Shan-Yu.

When he finally made it, he was met once more with Shan-Yu's increased speed via Darkness. Their swords bit at each other nastily, each time almost sliding dangerously out of collision. All it took was for Shang to miss once, and Shan-Yu's sword was suddenly plunging at him.

But his hand was stayed when a golden rope wrapped around his wrist, stopping the sword from traveling all the way to its target. Shan-Yu tugged at the tether a couple times before turning to see Applejack holding the handle of her whip, the other end of which was wrapped around Shan-Yu's wrist.

"I ain't gonna let you get away with that," Applejack said sternly.

One more blast of Darkness emitted from Shan-Yu's other hand, out toward Shang, striking the general square in the chest. Wracked with pain, Shang toppled into the crevice, landing on the pile of fireworks not too long after Rainbow Dash had left that room. Upstairs, Shan-Yu turned and grabbed the rope of the whip with his free hand, giving it a massive tug to bring Applejack stumbling toward him.

Seeing Shang knocked aside filled Mulan with dread. She kicked her opponent aside for just long enough to be able to run toward the site of his fall, but in her haste, she let go of the net.

"Oh, I KNOW that isn't good!" Mushu cried before leaping down onto the balled-up net, landing on top of it. He then used his feet to propel it, rolling across the deck while using the ball as a vehicle. "HEY, SPARKLE-ARROWS!" he yelled upon spying Rarity, who was busy firing said sparkly arrows upon the crowd.

"What?" Rarity turned to see Mushu rolling at her.

"CATCH!" Mushu jumped down, kicking the ball. It launched into the air at waist height, and Rarity caught hold of it.

"WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THIS?" Rarity cried indignantly.

"I DUNNO!" Mushu yelled, figuratively at the end of his rope. "GET IT OUTTA HERE!"

"Out of here…" Rarity looked up to the ship's mast. From higher ground, she could make more effective use of her projectiles. She only lamented that she knew no way to climb the mast.

On the run from Shan-Yu, Ling stumbled toward the mast. "Gotta get OUT OF HERE!" he cried in a panic, as though repeating Mushu's suggested course of action for Rarity. In all the chaos, one of the barrels of the pirates' goods had been knocked over and open, spilling several silk scarves onto the deck. Ling swiped one of these, flinging it around the mast as Mulan had given him the idea to do when they'd confronted Shan-Yu at the Emperor's palace. Forming a loop with the scarf and his own arms, he started to shimmy his way up the mast.

"What are you DOING?" Rarity barked at him as Yao slid in beside her.

"GET BACK DOWN HERE!" Yao added.

"HOW ARE YOU OKAY WITH THIS?" Ling called back down. "WE ARE FIGHTING A GUY WHO CAME BACK FROM THE DEAD! AND HE HAS MAGIC!"

"YOU DIDN'T SIGN UP FOR THIS ARMY TO RUN AWAY!" Yao roared. "COWARD!"

"MAGIC OR NOT, HE IS ATTACKING YOUR FRIENDS!" Rarity added. "YOU CAN'T JUST RUN AWAY NOW! YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO DO SOMETHING! OR WAS ALL THAT POSING WITH THOSE CLAWS JUST FOR SHOW?"

Ling was snapped out of his lapse in judgment by their words, sliding back down off the mast. "You're right!" he resolved. "I'm gonna show these guys what happens when you mess with us!"

Yao slapped Rarity on the back. "Now that was a man's advice!"

"It was a woman's advice," Rarity countered confidently. "However…that did give me an idea." Recalling Ling's method of climbing the mast with the scarf, she threw the net around the pole, using it to climb.

"YOU WERE THE ONE WHO TOLD ME TO JUST COME DOWN FROM THERE!" Ling yelled at her, offended by her hypocrisy.

"YES I WAS!" Rarity grunted. "BUT I CAN FIGHT BETTER FROM UP HERE! TRUST ME!"

By then, Zhong was advancing upon Yao and Ling, trying to corner them against the mast, and they abandoned chastising Rarity in order to duel him.

Once Rarity reached the top of the mast, she extended the net, tying it around her waist to bind her to the wooden post. She lent it a little magic to telekinetically hold it and herself in place so that she could have both hands free to summon her bow. From that height, she began to pick out foes in the crowd below, sending draining arrows at each enemy she spotted.

Skidding to a halt at the edge of the hole in the floor, Mulan looked down through it and called out to Shang, "ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?"

"I'M FINE!" Shang called back up, getting his bearings and standing. "JUST KEEP – "

"I GOT IT!" Mulan cried before leaping over the crevasse and charging Shan-Yu.

A jet of green flame suddenly severed the rope of Applejack's whip, breaking the tie between her and Shan-Yu. Applejack was able to fall into a somersault on the deck, finishing off with a direct kick upward to Shan-Yu's jaw before landing on her feet. As Shan-Yu fell flat on his back, Applejack looked around to locate her savior. Spike waved nervously to her.

"Great goin', Spike!" Applejack called out.

Shan-Yu was hardly about to let an embarrassment such as that get by. He didn't bother getting back up; instead, he spun, swinging out a leg to try and trip Applejack up. She leapt out of the way; Shan-Yu jammed the point of his sword into the deck to use as leverage to stand once more. It was then that Mulan slid between him and Applejack, staring Shan-Yu down.

"It's me you want, isn't it?" she asked coldly.

"How did you guess?" Shan-Yu replied before slashing at her. His sword met the edge of hers with a CLANG that echoed across the ship.

Rainbow Dash charged toward where Twilight and Itsuki were locked in fierce combat. "DUSK SHIIIIINE!" she called out, swapping out her standard issue broadsword for her larger blade as she ran. The shining blade spun and slashed, and a jet of lightning forked toward Itsuki, jolting him and forcing him to the ground.

"We gotta talk," Rainbow Dash said, grabbing Twilight by the arm and dragging her toward the stairs. "NOW."

On their way downstairs, they passed Shang running back up. When Itsuki recovered from the electric blow, he made to follow Twilight and Rainbow Dash, but was met with resistance from Shang, who could tell where Itsuki was headed. Shang and Itsuki were soon locked in battle.

"Okay," Rainbow Dash said, gesturing toward the amassed explosives. "I have a plan."

"Including all THIS?" Twilight asked incredulously.

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash confirmed. "I'm gonna need you to put a barrier up around the lower half of the ship."

"Rainbow Blitz," Twilight practically gasped, "you're not – "

"Gonna do the same thing to them that they did to us? Of course not! But I do wanna break their boat. And this is how. I just need a barrier around it from you to make sure the only thing that gets hurt is the actual boat."

"How are you going to set all this off?"

"We gotta time it just right." Rainbow Dash removed from a pocket a certain item: yet another that Twilight had grabbed from the Starlight along with the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder and the Extendable Ears. "We start these moving, get our guys off the boat and back onto ours, and once these get down the stairs, you close it off with a barrier."

"That's going to be really close timing to get down, Rainbow Blitz."

"I know. You don't think we can do it?"

"Actually…I think we can," Twilight realized. "But if we aren't off the boat in time, I'm going to destroy all of those before they can get down here. We'll have to find another way if that happens."

"Got it."

The two turned to charge back upstairs.

Shan-Yu and Mulan were fairly well matched when it was only swords at work. However, during Mulan's focus on blocking Shan-Yu's sword, she momentarily forgot the magic he had at his disposal, and that was something he was counting on. His free hand balled into a fist charged with magic, slamming into Mulan's stomach.

With a cry of pain, Mulan fell away and rolled backward. Shan-Yu advanced, ready to skewer her on his sword.

He was blown aside with a great BOOM.

Mulan struggled to get up and look back at the naval ship. At the edge of the cloaking darkness, she was able to make out the fuzzy outline of Fluttershy aiming the party cannon. Fluttershy gave a nervous wave, which Mulan returned enthusiastically.

Twilight found Shang and Itsuki still engaged in the dance of battle. Realizing she needed to get Itsuki out of the way quickly, she threw caution to the wind and blasted him with a magenta plasma bolt. Itsuki was thrown against a gathering of barrels, all of which toppled and opened, spilling silks and pearls of all sorts over him.

"Shang," Twilight said urgently, "order a retreat."

"Why?" Shang barked. "We said we wouldn't go back without a victory! We can't just let them go free!"

"We're not letting them go free. Blitz and I have a plan."

As Twilight explained the plan to Shang, Rainbow Dash had found Applejack and Pinkie Pie to explain it to them. "…then we all get back on our first ship," Rainbow Dash elaborated, "and by that time, the De – "

Zhong had thought to take advantage of the three soldiers' idling to rush them. However, he was nowhere near the level of strength he usually boasted. He'd taken several hits of Rarity's arrows, and as he braced his sword to try and slash through Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, he was hit by three more in succession. He toppled to the deck with a thud.

The noise alerted Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie. They whirled to see Zhong lying prone on the boards; Rarity fired one more arrow into him for good measure.

"Rarity…" Rainbow Dash realized. "We have to get her down from there!" She took off running.

"Well, you heard what Blitz said!" Pinkie asserted.

"Only the first half of it!" Applejack reminded her.

"But that's all we need to know!" Pinkie cried. "TO THE RAILING!"

They moved to take their position where Rainbow Dash had specified: at the edge of the deck, near the railing.

"RETREAT!" Shang called out as he barreled back toward the naval ship.

"WHAT?" Yao and Ling cried in surprised synchrony.

"YOU HEARD ME!" Shang yelled. "RETREAT, AND THAT'S AN ORDER!"

Twilight ran to overtake him, passing Applejack and Pinkie Pie and pressing into Applejack's hands the object from her pocket identical to the ones Applejack and Pinkie were readying: a black horn with two tiny feet. Leaping nimbly back onto the deck of the cloaked ship, Twilight sheathed her sword, calling up the staff of Yggdrassil into her hands. "VERDIMILLIOUS!" she cried, hoisting the staff up into the air.

The green light that flashed succeeded in making it look more like the ship was only surrounded in a dark fog. Twilight scowled. She had wanted to light the way for the others to jump back without fear. Perhaps a different spell would do the trick. Holy was a spell made for attack, not merely light, but it was far more powerful. Twilight decided just to run with it and hope for as few adverse effects as possible. "HOLYJA!" she screamed, holding the staff up high.

This time, the light was bright white, penetrating the Darkness Powder and illuminating the deck of the ship. Twilight kept the spell going, focusing all her energy into it, not ready to let it go until all were aboard. Beads of sweat formed on her brow. The whirling spell rippled the sails of the ship, and Twilight could hear boards creaking slightly.

"RARITY!" Rainbow Dash cried, skidding beneath the mast. "GET DOWN FROM THERE!"

"WHY?" Rarity yelled. "AND A BETTER QUESTION: HOW?"

"Uhh…" Rainbow Dash had to think about that one for a moment. There was, however, no time to really think. "OH, FORGET IT!"

In a glimmer, her armor vanished, replaced by the magical clothing that represented her witch state. All who could see her got a clear view of the fact that "Rainbow Blitz" had a female figure, and, furthermore, blue wings, as Rainbow Dash spread them in order to take off into flight. She sped upward, parallel to the mast, until she was next to Rarity. Rarity quickly untied the net from around the mast, letting herself fall into Rainbow Dash's arms; Rainbow Dash zoomed over onto the deck of the Imperial ship where Twilight still held the Holy spell brightly in place.

Mulan and Shan-Yu stood to face each other, bracing for round two. Shang interrupted them by grasping Mulan's hand and running in the opposite direction, taking her along. "Where are we going?" Mulan asked in surprise.

"I don't really know!" Shang admitted. "But Dusk Shine does!"

He and Mulan made the leap onto the brightly illuminated ship.

Enraged, Shan-Yu slammed his sword into the floorboards again, and even more crumbled down onto the lower level. This included where Zhong lay unconscious; he fell down below.

Yao and Ling jumped onto the deck of the Imperial ship at the same time that Rainbow Dash landed with Rarity. "You're a GIRL?" Ling cried in shock.

"WHAT the – " Yao added.

"We'll talk about that later, okay?" Rainbow Dash's armor returned. She sprang back onto the Riptide, producing a black horn from her own pocket as she fell in line with Applejack and Pinkie Pie.

"BLITZ!" Fluttershy's voice rang out from across the gap between the two ships. Rainbow Dash turned to see Fluttershy aiming the party cannon right at her. When the cannon fired, a single black object – a two-footed black horn that Fluttershy had stuffed into it – came sailing across the gap, and Rainbow Dash caught it nimbly. Now she had all five.

The purpose of the Decoy Detonators from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes had merely been one of diversion. They were designed to run on their tiny feet for a distance away from the one who'd set them down, then explode. It was only a tiny explosion, one lacking any real firepower, which in a school setting would have about the same effect as a stink bomb. Amongst a packed powder keg of fireworks, however, their effect would be much larger. Rainbow Dash set all five Decoy Detonators into motion, and they began to jog on their tiny black feet as the last of the Imperial troop crossed onto the boat.

"AFTER THEM!" Itsuki yelled, scrambling to his feet.

Spike rushed toward Applejack, Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash. "WE GOTTA MOVE!" he cried.

"WE KNOW!" the trio yelled before picking him up with three pairs of arms and making a great jump over onto the Imperial ship.

As soon as they landed, marking the last of the troop to board the ship, Twilight was able to relinquish the spell.

Itsuki and a band of other pirates had been on the move to follow the troop onto their vessel, but once the cloaking darkness went back up, he halted, and so did his cohorts, as he thought better of trying to attack the enemy in the dark.

There was only one loose end of the plan to take care of. Twilight made one last leap back to the Riptide, determined to make sure none were caught in the area she was about to barricade, as well as ensuring the Detonators had made their way down the stairs before the barricade could be put up. As soon as her feet touched the planks, she found herself surrounded by Itsuki's small band.

"HOLYJA!" Twilight slammed the staff of Yggdrassil into the floor, and the shockwave of white bowled over all the surrounding pirates. She charged for the stairs, nearly tripping over the five Detonators. The tiny objects hadn't been noticed by the crew, and were beginning to march their way down the steps.

As Shan-Yu readied to charge after her, Itsuki beat him to the punch. "She is MINE!" the first mate growled.

Shan-Yu relented, letting Itsuki have his chase, but not without a warning: "FAIL AT YOUR PERIL!"

Twilight skidded to a stop in the hold, spying Zhong lying prone on the pile of fireworks. The Detonators were on their way. Twilight quickly focused on Zhong, surrounding him in a magenta aura.

Itsuki leapt down from above through the hole in the ceiling, breaking Twilight's concentration as he brandished his sword toward her face.

"DON'T!" Twilight yelled in a panic. "I have to get him out of here!"

"You don't get to touch any of my men," Itsuki growled.

"You don't understand!" Twilight cried. "He'll die!"

"WHY WILL HE DIE?" Itsuki roared, stepping close enough to press the sword against Twilight's neck.

"Please…" Twilight begged, her hand gripping the staff in case she needed to make a desperate move. "I'm not your friend. I AM trying to stop all of you. But I DON'T want any of you to die."

Itsuki's instincts told him something was amiss about the situation. This soldier seemed to be convinced that Zhong would perish if she didn't do something. The troop had obviously set up some kind of trap, and they'd given Itsuki no reason to believe they were trustworthy.

All the same, he couldn't escape the creeping suspicion that inaction would in fact lead to the death of one of the few of his crewmates that Shan-Yu hadn't already trampled on his road to conquest. Why else would the soldier come back here? Was this one really that much of a soft-heart? Itsuki wanted to simply plunge the sword into his foe's neck…but if that one spoke the truth, then how would Itsuki be able to avoid the trap?

He lowered the sword and backed away.

Twilight surrounded both Zhong and Itsuki in magenta, lifting them up out of the hold. She followed, teleporting onto the deck, to make sure they were situated safely.

Step by step, the Detonators marched toward the great pile of fireworks.

By then, Twilight was incredibly drained. It felt as though she had been running for miles. Sweat slicked off her face. She needed more magical energy in order to create the barrier. It was either that or hurry back down to destroy the Detonators.

But so long as there was still a chance…

Her armor glimmered out of view, replaced by the blue and black of her witch garb. She took a run for the Imperial vessel.

Shan-Yu was only momentarily stunned by the transformation. Another woman. After the last time he'd been tricked in such a manner, he hardly expected to see such a thing again. And judging by the sudden ensemble change, he gathered that she was powerfully magical. Perhaps not as much as Maleficent, but still of quite a high level. It reminded him of an odd swordsman he'd met once, one he'd dueled on the steps of the Emperor's palace during the second time he'd lived out the first war.

With a roar, Shan-Yu charged her, striking outward with his sword, and a great shockwave of Darkness arced toward Twilight. The crewmen danced out of its way, careful not to fall belowdecks.

Twilight swept her own staff in an arc before her, calling upon another burst of Light.

The two magics collided, and the recoil sent the ship reeling. The blows had somehow canceled each other out. Twilight had only seconds to wonder why they had done that instead of merging into the odd, dusky aura she and Mozenrath had created.

Then Shan-Yu was directly before her, sword held high.

Twilight vanished, and Shan-Yu brought the blade down onto empty air. She teleported directly behind him, keeping on course. As she launched into the air, just as the Instant Darkness Powder finally began to dissipate on the Imperial ship and reveal the deck, Twilight turned mid-leap and cast the barrier spell around the lower half of the ship, keeping the fireworks and the pirates firmly separated by magic.

The Detonators landed in the amassed explosives. Then they did what they were built to do: detonate.

The sound of the explosion was heard all the way from the limits of Shanghai. The bottom of the Riptide was completely blown out, and the water rippled into waves that rocked the Imperial vessel; all of Shang's troop had to find something to hold onto in order to regain balance. Twilight, only having just landed, fell completely over onto her back.

"HOW MANY GIRLS ARE THERE IN THIS ARMY?" Yao yelled, flabbergasted.

"Three more than ya think?" Applejack suggested sheepishly.

It took Yao a moment to realize the implications as he thought over the circumstances under which the two newly revealed women had arrived at camp with three other "men," all of unknown background.

When Twilight hit the deck, the barrier spell dissipated, but it was no longer needed. The deck of the Riptide hit the sea surface and shattered into pieces, but all the men onboard were safe. Itsuki waved a cohort, Jun, toward him to help him keep Zhong's head above water; the wood of the Riptide's deck, as well as the mast, was sinking fast, and the men were forced to tread ocean.

A great cheer went up from Shang's forces as they looked out over the broken ship.

Shang and Mulan finished tying up the still-unconscious Xun and Taiki before rushing to the edge of the deck to look over the side at the wreckage. "Take them all into custody!" Shang ordered.

"DOES SOMEBODY WANNA EXPLAIN WHAT'S EVEN GOING ON?" Yao protested.

"Later?" Mulan suggested. "We kind of have prisoners to take."

The Imperial troop gathered ropes and chains, diving overboard to round up the disadvantaged and rather shellshocked pirates. Mulan nearly joined the fray, but she held back, a feeling of dread creeping through her.

"Uh…Mulan?" Mushu asked, taking his place on her shoulder. "What's goin' on?"

"Are you quite all right, dear?" This inquiry came from Rarity, who had also remained on deck. Spike stood loyally by her.

"I'm fine," Mulan answered. "I just wanted to be sure Shan-Yu was where we wanted him." As she spoke, her eyes scanned the water. "Why are you still here?"

"Well, it seemed there were enough forces assigned to this task without needing my help," Rarity offered. "And besides…this dress was NOT made for swimming."

"And I don't know the first thing about taking prisoners," Spike offered. "I'd probably be less help and more – "

Mulan was by that point no longer listening. Looking over the water, she was able to spot everyone she recognized in her own troop and all of the pirates she remembered the faces of…except for Shan-Yu. He couldn't simply have disappeared. She ran to the other side of the deck, looking back toward Shanghai and the rainbow wall, and her heart skipped a beat.

Shan-Yu was swimming as fast as he could toward the shoreline.

"He's making for Shanghai!" Mulan cried, taking a few steps back in order to get a running start.

Rarity, sensing what Mulan was about to do, reminded her, "But we put up the wall! He won't be able to get past that!"

"That's what we thought about him before," Mulan reminded her before charging toward the edge of the deck and swan-diving off the ship. Mushu clung onto the back of her tunic, giving a brief scream as he was brought along for the ride.

"It seems this dress will have to do for swimming after all," Rarity lamented before following Mulan over the edge and down into the ocean to give chase to Shan-Yu.

"RARITY!" Spike called after her. "Aw, man…I was supposed to look after her! I can't just let the three of THEM take HIM on all alone!" He inhaled deeply, gathering his courage. "Well…here goes nothin'!" Spike cannonballed over the edge, into the water, and paddled after Mulan, Mushu, and Rarity.

Shan-Yu soon reached the shallows, able to switch from a swim to a full-on run. Looming before him was the great rainbow wall that the Elements had put up. He tapped it a couple times with his fist. It was quite solid. His hand came at it again more slowly, now surrounded with flickering Darkness.

As soon as Shan-Yu's palm made contact with the rainbow wall, a hole was burned into it, the Darkness eating outward until it had created a tear in the barrier large enough for Shan-Yu to run through. And so he did. He had a very specific goal in mind. After all, he had just lost all of his resources except for his own magic, his sword, and the jewel Maleficent had given him. It was almost time to start over.

Mulan, Rarity, and the pair of dragons hustled onto the shore, stunned by the sight of what Shan-Yu had done to the shimmering rainbow wall.

"But…the Elements…how could he?" Rarity sputtered.

"We don't have time to figure it out!" Mulan was already dashing into the city after Shan-Yu, with Mushu desperately clinging onto the back of her shoulders. Rarity hastily followed, with Spike bringing up the rear.

All Shan-Yu was looking for was high ground. A watchtower situated amongst several average-sized shops caught his interest. When Shan-Yu turned toward it, a pair of guards crossed their spears in front of the door.

Both guards were immediately stricken with a bad feeling once they saw the smirk on Shan-Yu's face.

By the time Mulan, Mushu, Rarity, and Spike arrived, they found the guards' bodies sprawled out on the street, their spears cleaved in two pieces each, and a Dark barrier, similar to that the Elements had created except for its solid black color, magically held over the door.

"Can you break it?" Mulan asked Rarity.

"I can try!" Rarity drew her bow, loosing an arrow. The arrow disappeared against the barrier in a shower of sparks.

"Got anything better than THAT?" Mushu practically shrieked.

"He brought down a barrier made by all six Elements of Harmony!" Rarity reminded him. "I'm doing the best I can here!"

Shan-Yu clambered out the window of the topmost level, hoisting himself onto the roof. "BOW TO ME!" he roared, his voice echoing throughout the city.

Those who heard it were not frightened. They were more confused than anything. Why should they bow to any random voice that called out? Surely the authorities would be along to silence the dissenter.

As Rarity tried again and again to unsuccessfully penetrate the barrier over the door, Spike even adding a powerful jet of flame that did nothing to the Dark wall, Shan-Yu scanned the streets below. Just as he'd wanted, Chi Fu came riding right up to the base of the tower to discover the source of the commotion, and shortly after him came the local magistrate.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF – " Chi Fu's rage melted into utter shock as he laid eyes on the man atop the tower. "B-B-B-B-B-B-B-BUT HE'S – "

"Dead?" Mulan supplied. "Not as much as we thought."

"STAND BACK, EVERYPONY!" Rarity ordered, her caution with pronouns thrown to the wind as she glittered from black gown to the pink ruffles of the Mahou Shoujo. Briefly wondering how much of a toll her gem was taking from the combined stress of last night's confession and the use of two ultimate attacks a day apart, she drew back her bow, and the hundred arrows of the Diamond Rain materialized around her.

"WHAT?" Chi Fu sputtered. "WHA…WH…WHAT?"

Rarity let the arrows loose, focusing them all on the Dark barrier. However, when her pink garb sparkled away, leaving her clothed in black and white, and every single arrow had hit home, there wasn't so much as a crack in the Darkness, just as there hadn't been in Shan-Yu's personal deflection shield on the Tong'an beach.

When he was sure he had the attention of all he wanted, Shan-Yu produced the bright red gem from his pocket, hoisting it up into the air so that it glimmered crimson beneath the sun. "THIS WEAPON HAS THE POWER TO UNDO ALL THE VICTORIES YOU HAVE WON!" he bellowed.

"HOLY – " Mushu cried in horror. "THAT'S A RESET!"

"A Reset?" Mulan repeated. "The thing that made us live out the first war twice?"

Frantically nodding, Mushu elaborated, "IF HE HITS THAT THING, WE ALL GET BROUGHT BACK TO SQUARE ONE! And I don't KNOW how far back he's got that baby set to go! But you can bet he'll remember everything we did while we don't have a CLUE about him!"

"I WILL GIVE YOU ONE CHANCE," Shan-Yu called out. "SURRENDER THIS PORT TO ME, AND I WILL PUT DOWN MY WEAPON."

Rarity and Mulan placed themselves before Chi Fu and the magistrate. "You have to listen to me," Mulan begged. "That jewel is a weapon even more powerful than the bomb Shan-Yu set off in Tong'an. You can't let him use it!"

"I don't see how a single jewel can possibly be a weapon," the magistrate said simply. "It is obviously a bluff. He knows he is running out of strategies."

"Please, you don't understand!" Mulan emphasized. "Shan-Yu was supposed to be dead, but he came back. You've already heard reports of him using powers you still don't understand. Just because you don't think it looks dangerous doesn't mean it isn't!"

The magistrate shook his head. "We cannot surrender Shanghai. You know this as well as we do."

Mulan did know that. "There has to be another way…we have to figure out how to get up there…"

"DON'T JUST STAND THERE!" Chi Fu ordered several of the recruits from the training camp, who had gathered to see the scene. "GET UP THAT TOWER! I DON'T CARE HOW!"

The young men began searching out footholds and beginning a clumsy ascent.

"They won't make it in time!" Mushu realized.

"Man, if only I could just get up there!" Spike lamented. "I might be able to do SOMETHING! Even if I could just take the Reset away from him and…" His eyes widened as he realized the possibility.

Mulan was also hit with a realization. "Maybe we can," she mused. "Dragons have thick skin, right?"

"Uh…yeah," Spike replied. "We even bathe in lava. Why are you asking?"

"Rarity," Mulan ordered, "help me find a rope and some kind of counterweight!"

The magistrate strode toward the center of the street, in plain view of Shan-Yu. "WE KNOW YOU ARE BLUFFING!" he announced. "WE SHALL NOT SURRENDER SHANGHAI! YOU SHALL BE ARRESTED IN THE NAME OF THE EMPEROR!"

Shan-Yu just grinned. "So be it." He placed the Reset gem on the roof, raising his sword high to strike.

Rarity and Mulan had quickly fashioned Spike a harness out of spare rope found on the streetside; the rope trailed back a long way off the harness, tied to a barrel at its other end. "Ready?" Mulan asked Spike as she and Rarity grasped the center of the rope.

"Ready!" Spike affirmed.

Mulan and Rarity took three steps forward in unison before throwing the rope, the way Twilight had thrown the discs of strength and discipline. Spike and the barrel went twirling round and round in the air as they climbed higher, and from Spike, a cry of "AAAAAaaaaAAAAAAaaaaaaAAAAAAAaaaaaaaAAAAA!" was heard.

Just before Shan-Yu could bring the sword point down onto the Reset, Spike landed across the roof, sliding over its surface. He gathered the gem up into his small arms as he glid past Shan-Yu, and the sword jammed down into the wood of the roof.

"NO!" Shan-Yu roared, turning to look at where Spike had skidded to a halt.

Spike's claws severed his rope connection to the barrel, and the young dragon stood, taking a better look at the gem in his arms. When he laid eyes upon it, it filled him with revulsion. Looking deep into its magical center made him literally nauseous, and he had to fight the instinct to gag. It was something incredibly volatile, perhaps poisonous.

But Shan-Yu was already advancing, and Spike knew what he would have to do.

He put the entire Reset gem inside of his mouth, crunching it to shards with two massive bites before swallowing the entire thing.

The instant the gem passed through his gullet, Spike was overcome with a heavy wave of sickness, his stomach churning, his head light. Faint, he collapsed onto the roof, curling up with his arms pressed beneath his chest. His skin was wracked with painful shivers, and he wondered if he was truly dying.

Shan-Yu realized that his last ticket to victory had just been utterly destroyed. His only desire at that moment was to kill the dragon who'd stolen his chance from him.

In the meantime, down below, Rarity unfolded the net at last. "Now that Spike bought us some time, perhaps we can think about how to get this net around our target! If we could send up Spike, perhaps we can just send this net as well…OH, WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT EARLIER!" Rarity tried to summon her bow; it crackled into existence briefly before fizzling away. Her magical energy was spent. "I need a bow and arrow!" Rarity cried. "In fact, two would be better!"

While many of the recruits had taken Chi Fu's orders right away, there were some who had been too afraid of the madman atop the tower to act, and still more were filing in from the byways, not sure what was going on in the first place. Figuring there must be at least two bows and arrows between the lot of them, Mulan turned to them: "We need bows and arrows! Now!"

All of these young men had heard tell of Fa Mulan, hero of China. They were not about to deny her request. No fewer than five bows were offered up.

Spike's vision was reduced to colors and shapes, but still he could see the shape of Shan-Yu coming toward him, and he could make out the object in his hand – the sword – that was coming toward him, this time slashing rather than stabbing to get the job done more quickly. In desperation, Spike summoned up as much fire as he had the energy to breathe, and he let it loose.

Shan-Yu would have been ready for an attack on his person, but not on the sword itself. The heat of the green fire traveled up the metal blade, through the hilt, catching the man off guard and searing his hand. With a cry of pain, Shan-Yu dropped the sword.

It slid completely off the roof, landing with a clang on the street below.

Rarity and Mulan had each taken an arrow, attaching one end of the net to each arrow. The arrows were loaded into the bows, nocked, aimed upward at the tower, drawn back, and then released. They coursed up high, the net ballooning out between them.

As Shan-Yu looked after his fallen sword, he was suddenly aware of the net careening toward him. It enveloped him as the arrows fell and stuck into the roof. Shan-Yu was sent rolling, and the net tangled around his body.

He meant to destroy the offending rope in just one burst of dark flame, but the moment he tried to cast it, all he felt was recoil into his own body, eliciting a scream. That didn't stop him from trying again and again. It was only after the third cast had rebounded onto his own essence, wracking him with pain, that he realized the ropes were inhibiting his magic, rendering him unable to use the Darkness externally.

By that time, the recruits Chi Fu had commanded had finally struggled their way to the top of the tower, surrounding Shan-Yu, pointing their blades at him.

"WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T LET HIM GET OUT OF THAT NET!" Rarity yelled from below.

Looking around at the multitude of sword points aimed at his own neck, unable to cast so much as the tiniest flame of Darkness, Shan-Yu realized that he had lost.

...

Chapter 105:

· First of all, I know epickirby/Dr. Freeman is not a reader, but I really need to give him a special thank-you. He helped me find inspiration music to listen to both for the Tong'an battle ("The Final Antasma Battle" from Paper Mario) and this one ("Winged My Steps" from Half Minute Hero). He's kind of a wizard at always finding music, especially from video game soundtracks, to fit ANY mood my friends or I can come up with (we have tested this!), and music is super important to me when I write, so I just wanted to give him some accolades.

· The original title of this chapter was "The Riptide's Last Stand." That was removed for being too spoilery.

· Question: is Chi Fu the most universally hated Disney character? Does anyone out there like him? I realized I know absolutely no one who doesn't want to stab him to death with a blunt fork. I got mad writing him and I'm the one who put him here.

· You know that party cannon is bigger on the inside. Don't tell me it isn't.

· Itsuki was meant to basically be a fill-in character to give Shan-Yu more manpower. He has since his inception decided on his character arc down to the letter and will be making a return when we make our second trip to this world in the somewhat distant future.

· Rereading some old chapters (I might have already said this) I was rather embarrassed to come upon the Diagon Alley chapter and note all the prank stuff the Mane Six bought that NEVER ended up being useful. So I figured…why not make it useful here? And there's your big crossover. Winning a war in the world of Mulan…with Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

· Also, I just want to say I had too much fun firing every Chekhov's Gun I had on the mantle in this chapter. If I may toot my own horn. Toot toot – WAIT THIS HORN IS A DECOY DETONATOR HELP

· By the way, I realize that canonically, a Detonator is really just supposed to make the noise and emit some smoke. I took a sliiiiiight dramatic liberty. I've done worse in this fic.

· I feel like the swordplay is some of the worst I've written. I apologize. Not for the rest of the battle – just the amount of times I used the phrase "their blades clashed." Thankfully, the next storylet is gonna give us a break from swords.

· Itsuki. No. Stop trying to ship yourself with Twilight. Please. Don't pull a Mozenrath on me. You are not Mozenrath. I ALREADY HAVE A SHIP PLAN FOR YOU ANYWAY

· Why didn't Twilight and Shan-Yu's clashing light and dark magic make twilight magic? Because they aren't in love. Okay, I kid. Moz and Twi aren't really at the stage where I'm fit to call it "True Love" yet. At all. But I did want to highlight that those two have particular magical resonance with each other due to their bonding, while Twilight and Shan-Yu are plain old enemies who go together like oil and water, so their magic does the same. Lovers or potential lovers combining their magics to create something new and more powerful is sort of a favorite device of mine.

· I knew from about midway through this storylet that Rarity, Spike, and Mulan herself would have to be the ones who made the instrumental final moves to end the conflict.

· I did worry that in real life physics, my counterweight plan might just have choked the breath out of Spike. That concern was rather ignored here.

· I also had meant to draw attention to it earlier that Spike regularly eats gems in canon – something well known on the show, but I have a couple readers who aren't regular MLPFIM fans. I also was originally going to have a convo between him and Mushu about how dragons can eat weird things in general to amplify their magic (Fairy Tail hint hint), but that should have gone at least one chapter before this and then it was too late so yeah.

· The next chapter will be the last one in the Land of Dragons for now. Tying up loose ends before the adventure moves on to a new world!