Chapter 21

“Head-On Collision”

    The soft glow of her horn dimmed, and finally vanished.

    Luna cracked an eye warily, and was pleasantly surprised to find that nothing had changed. No one had attacked while she was focused on setting the sun and raising the moon. The guards were all still there, most staying by their posts and watching carefully for approaching Gryphons, though a few were shaking off their fascination at watching the Princess perform her celestial duty. The dark alicorn smiled grimly; she truly expected that any attack would have occurred in those moments of sundown. Instead, she was still standing in the parade field, the night flowers starting to glow their gentle blue, unharmed and unmolested. Two of the three guard captains were posted nearby, where they received a constant stream of runners delivering messages to and from hastily assembled posts all over the city.

    For a brief moment, déjà vu overwhelmed the princess. Instead of the guard, she saw soldiers of the Lunar Republic, clad in cobalt blue armour and awaiting her orders. Ancient crests and dragon-inspired designs swam before her in row upon row, and she stood proudly, overseeing the battlefield as its conqueror. Luna shook her head, dispelling the memory of a life long past, of a time when she wore different armour and called herself Nightmare Moon. She may not have been in full command of her faculties while infected by the Nightmare, but she had been a willing participant. All from a time she let her fury with Celestia, who saw success and accolades pile up simply for raising the sun every morning, cloud her vision.

    “Princess, all quarters report clear,” one of the Captains informed her, the unicorn’s voice piercing the lingering fog of her thoughts.

    “Thank you, Captain,” she answered, letting the memory slip from her hooves. It wasn’t important right now.

    “However, I am receiving an odd report from one flyover of the city,” he continued uncertainly. “It might be nothing but… With permission, I’d like to have Captain Storm send a pair of flyers to investigate.”

    “What is it, Captain Light?” Luna asked, and the pegasus captain winged closer to listen himself. Only the earth pony captain was absent presently, and that was because he was overseeing the positioning of some siege weaponry in the field. An unnecessary addition, Luna hoped, but she’d rather be over prepared than under.

    “The runner coming from the far side of the city noted that the city appeared… empty. I’d normally just say that the citizens were becoming aware of the tensions and cleared the streets but he noted a line of ponies leaving from the far gate. It’s just a trickle now, but....”

    “But you’d like to find out what is going on. I understand, Captain. Captain Storm? Please send a pair of your fastest flyers to investigate,” Luna ordered.

    “Yes, Princess!” the pegasus answered smartly, and winged up a few dozen feet to call on a couple of pegasi. Luna only paid attention long enough to notice that he’d tapped two of the Wonderbolts, currently in their guard attire instead of their show-pony suits, for the “mission”. Satisfied it would be handled appropriately, she turned her attention to her sister. Celestia stood rock still before the statue of Discord, her head lowered and eyes tightly closed. Her horn glowed and brow furrowed with intense effort, even as a small crumble of stones fell from the cracked leg of the statue. Discord was still winning, it seemed.

    “The quiet before the storm,” the unicorn guard captain muttered to himself, his eyes carrying an odd, far-away look.

    “We feel it too,” Luna answered, unbidden, “the air itself feels charged. Something is coming, something big. Given our luck, it may already be here.” Luna’s eyes slid back to the statue of Discord, and a shiver ran down her spine.

    It seemed almost prophetic that the wall of the palace behind her would suddenly ring with an echoing boom, as though it were the membrane of some massive bass drum. Mortar and stone showered loose from the wall, and cracks rushed along the surface as the Princess, the Guard Captains, and a large portion of the guard turned to look in surprise and curiosity. Unfortunately, whatever caused that sudden impact decided to repeat the performance, and this time the structure was not up to the task of absorbing it. Cracks turned into openings, and mortar exploded onto the field, stretching outward with long grasping fingers towards…

    “Princess, look out!” the unicorn captain cried, leaping before her as his horn flared, a mystic shield coalescing about him. Luna knew it was too little, too late, and reacted with the speed only her incredible powers allowed her to. She curled her wing and scooped it about the unicorn, sweeping him to the side and out of danger. Her horn flared a cool silvery glow as pure moonlight slashed down and through the incoming mortar. The blade of light bisected the rock easily, barely lasting long enough to register on the eye, before the stone scattered about the Princess harmlessly.

    “No sacrificing thyself this day, Captain,” Luna stated, ignoring the astounded looks directed her way, “Our ponies still need you.” She set the surprised unicorn down and wheeled around, looking for the cause of the now massive hole in the side of the palace, which allowed her to gaze directly into the throne room. Unfortunately, the cause of this new opening hit the ground to her right, a female gryphon who tumbled with the motion as she crashed onto the turf, metallic wings tucking against her back to roll smoothly back to her claws. Filigree hissed and flared her wings, so focused on her battle that she never even noticed those about her. Many guard ponies stared at her in shock, and a number of them readied their weapons.

    A stony gray Diamond Dog clad only in a simple leather vest stepped through the collapsed wall, following the gryphoness. He casually brushed dust from his coat, and then crossed his arms, eyes locked on Filigree. He waited until she recovered fully, oddly patient, before reaching out a hand and motioning with his fingers. He was taunting her, Luna realized, calling for the gryphoness to attack.

    “P-princess?” the Captain asked more than said, even as Luna stared at the tableau before her. She recognized the description of the canine, but how could it be? Filigree didn’t wait for the Princess’ consideration, instead roaring in a way that made a number of guard recoil and launched herself at the Diamond Dog. The moment the first slab of rock launched itself up to block the attack, which crumbled under the ferocity of the gryphon’s assault, Luna was positive of his identity.

    “Junkyard,” she all but spat. “It appears that we were wrong, Sister, Kaos has come, and at a most inopportune time. Captain, form a perimeter. Keep watch for any invaders from outside Canterlot and the Palace, and try to keep these interlopers isolated. Do not engage under any circumstances. Allow our team to handle these interlopers. No offense, but these specials would deplete too much of our resources to make fending off the Gryphons, should the attack come, viable.”

    “Yes, Princess!” the unicorn guard answered, but the pegasus captain frowned.

    “What are you going to do, Princess?”

    “We are going to help our team thrash these upstarts,” she answered flatly, “and We are in no mood for these games.” With a resolute stride, she began to stalk towards where Junkyard and Filigree were locked in a contest of strength.

    “Sister!” an anguished cry sounded, and Luna stopped in her tracks.

    “Celly, you have impeccable timing,” the Princess of the Night sighed. Luna momentarily entertained the thought of ignoring her sister, and coming back to help when she was finished with Junkyard, Kaos, and whoever else the damned Zebra might have with him.

    “Luna, please,” Celestia cried again, pain lancing her voice, “I need your assistance!” Luna sighed at her sister’s tone and realized there was no way Celestia would last, and turned on a hoof.

    “Princess?” the pegasus captain asked cautiously.

    “No change in orders,” she stated as she trod past, “form a defensive perimeter. If you can spare the ponies, use them to place a shield over the fighting to keep their battle isolated. Do not move to assist unless you can do so without calling any attention or danger upon yourselves.”

    “Understood, Princess,” the unicorn captain noted, and watched Luna as she trot over to where her sister stood and, with a sigh, lowered her head, touching her horn to her sister’s. Her body went rigid a moment later. “Stormy? It looks like we’re on our own.”

    The pegasus countered with a rakish half grin, “just like old times, eh?”

    “I wish we were still that young,” the unicorn snorted, before calling to his troops, “Corporal Diamond, Corporal Shell, front and center! I need a shield facing inward to keep those specials fighting in check. We do not want their battle spilling into our ranks! When one tires, the other of you is to take over, and work in that cycle for as long as you can.”

    “Yes sir!” the pair, one mare and one stallion, answered smartly and trotted away a short distance. After a brief discussion between them, the mare stepped forward and began to focus, and a glowing pink shield formed over the palace and a portion of the parade field, separating the specials from the guard.

    “Will that hold?” Captain Storm asked worriedly.

    “I hope so…”

    She didn’t even notice the rock until she struck it with her claw.

    Not that it offered much resistance, despite the fact that the impact would have shattered the claw of a lesser gryphon. To Filigree, it was just a minor pain that she ignored as the force of her blow shattered the rock in question with a loud echoing boom. Another rock leapt up to take the place of its fallen brother, and she reenacted the event with her other fore-claw. In an odd way, it sounded almost like she were beating on a drum as she tried to pummel her way through the constantly replenishing wall of stone that Junkyard defended himself with. She caught tantalizing glimpses of him, silently taunting her to do better, before he’d vanish behind another sheet of rock. But she dare not stop… her side still hurt from the last time he pushed the attack, so it was better to keep the canine on the defensive. Still, she needed a better strategy that to simply keep throwing herself at his defenses while he tried to distract her.

    Filigree casually flicked a wing, bisecting the rock that launched itself at her. She was slowly coming to realize that he required line of sight in one form or another, thus forcing him to keep a wall of defense up was preventing him from launching any sort of close in attack, which forced him to launch rocks from where he could see the ground around her. Fortunately steel trumps rocks, and her wings were easily able to defend against the assaults…

    The sudden urge to smack herself in the head nearly overwhelmed the gryphoness. She was so focused on getting her claws on Junkyard that she ignored the alternative completely! She struck another rock and watched it shatter with her claw, letting her frustration be discharged and clearing her mind. Their eyes met briefly before another rock leapt up before her. Her wing flicked through it, cutting the rock out of the ground near the bottom as she locked her talons into it to heave it upwards.

    “Surprise,” she growled, and hurled the rock into his chest. She couldn’t help but watch in satisfaction at the momentary look of surprise before he was launched back through the opening they had made in the palace wall, disappearing through the haze of dust that acted like a veil over the hole. A sweep of her wings parted that veil, and she could see the throne room again, and the ongoing battle within. She was far enough removed that she could not hear the gasps of those ponies who also watched from beyond the hastily thrown up shield. They could see the destruction and chaos that filled the normally calm and orderly seat of royalty for all of the pony lands…

    Glowing light flickered through the dusty air, blue-white countered by angry red-yellow flashed like lightning. The air itself seemed to shudder as an inequine scream tore across the battle. Glows and colors of multiple types flared through and over the combatants, shielding or attacking as the wieldier commanded. Individuals were lost, even with as few as there were, amidst the ebb and flow of battle. A five on five battle royal, ten ponies that somehow possessed enough power to make the very foundations of the palace shake with their ongoing combat.

    Filigree then took a deep breath and roared. With that announcement she dove in, increasing the count by one, two if you count Junkyard’s forced re-entry. A sweep of her wing deflected a glowing bolt from aimed at her flank, a timely duck under a flying body she didn’t immediately recognize as a teammate, to finally grasp the neck of Zilch and yank her back and out of the portal she was using. The suited mare flailed in mid air as she was easily tossed, hitting the wall hard enough to momentarily stun her. She remained stunned long enough for Filigree to leap at her prone form, but not long enough to prevent Zilch from responding, and she intercepted the gryphoness with another portal, sending her clear across the room and out of her metaphorical mane.

    Pupil-less eyes scanned the chaos surrounding her, mind whirling with ideas and perspectives and half formed concepts. One of those solidified as a series of blue-white bolts lanced out at her, and the white clad pony ducked left and right through her portals to avoid the majority of the hail, only catching the final blast in a portal and re-routing it towards one of the armoured mare’s allies…

    The beam cut through the dust like a hot knife through butter, barely missing enemy and ally alike as it arrowed towards its intended target. Only a lucky glance from the rainbow maned pegasus saved her from a direct impact, twisting in mid-air to avoid it. The move seemed impossible, even to the mare doing it, but her body responded with acrobatic precision as she spun away from the beam, wings flaring as it passed close enough to color her white coat blue.

    Then the instant passed, and Spectrum landed unharmed, but not out of danger. She spun laterally, wings still flared, under a spread of orange-yellow bolts from the large power armour before her. But Professor Burner was a step ahead, and he slammed a foreleg down atop her, forcing her to fall back and catch his power-assisted claw with all four hooves as she struggled to hold it off her. Burner put the armour’s weight atop the leg, forcing it slowly down as the mare struggled to keep him from crushing her. Motors whined, geared cranked, and something hissed almost imperceptibly as Spectrum fought a losing battle to hold back the leg intent on crushing her like a grape.

    An explosion of pink interrupted the armoured stallion’s certain victory, and his clawed leg slammed into the floor, destroying the checkerboard marble beneath. Burner picked the leg up carefully from the newly created hole, tiles falling from the mechanized claw as he regarded his prey’s savoir.  Flourish answered with a broad grin, and promptly vanished in another cloud of smoke. It was all Burner could do but flail about as he tried to catch up with the unicorn while she teleported seemingly at random about him, his shields flaring as she tested her horn’s mystic rapier against them. The result surprised even Flourish, as she watched the armour’s shields struggle to keep up with her attacks, energy coalescing at her last attack point to reinforce it, often a split second too late and weakening his shield to a new attack from another angle. Burner’s flailing attempts to catch her, which only wasted more power, allowed her to duck and weave about the large armour and further frustrate the stallion who built it…

    The shriek of sound caught her off guard and sent the teleporting mare tumbling away. She staggered comically where she did manage to land, shaking her head even as the white gryphon prepared for another blast, only to make a choking squawk as a band of lavender clenched his neck. The avian choked and struggled, scrabbling at the telekinetic band that was choking him, only barely able to twist his head and spot Galaxi’s eyes glowing. Alto offered a weak smile, not at all caring for the much darker grin he got in response.

    Fortunately for him, whatever Galaxi had planned never came to pass when a sudden blast of air sent her tumbling head over hooves across the floor and right into a waiting whirlwind. Galaxi never had the chance to regain her hooves as the mini-tornado whipped her about, staggering her with dizziness that refused to stop even when she cried out, certain she was about to lose her non-existent lunch. Galaxi staggered visibly when the wind released her, only teasing her mane as she tripped over her own hooves and fell hard on her chin. When she felt the wind pick up again, and she clenched her eyes shut and whimpered…

    Thankfully the tornado didn’t materialize when the pegasus controlling the winds was forced to flee. Armour of green and gold fired a series of blasts after him, which Crosswind only just barely avoided. He responded by hurling his wind at her, creating wind shear, and starving her of air… all of which the armoured mare ignored and powered through. This forced the pegasus into an uncommon and uncomfortable defensive role, and he had to use the wind to boost his speed ahead of the pursuing mare. Blue-white plasma screamed through the air about him, stubbornly refusing to be deflected and forcing the pegasus to weave and dodge the incoming fire, cutting tight turns around the one remaining chandelier still clinging to the ceiling over the throne room. But try as he might, she was still gaining!

    Clockwork frowned at her displays. He was fast, fast enough to avoid her fire, but she was starting to identify his habits. He reflexively dodged to the left first then would cut back right. He would make tight sharp corners to the right, but he would duck down slightly when he banked left. He preferred to climb than to dive, which he did with astounding speed thanks to the control in air pressure and wind. She was so engrossed in cataloging her target’s every move that she never noticed the chandelier begin to move when they zipped by it for the second or third time. She was made forcibly aware fourth time they rounded it, for it reached out and grabbed her with limbs far stronger than should have been possible. Golden filigree and soft lights generally couldn’t restrain the Dragonfly armour, but the entire thing had twisted and woven itself into something that resembled a giant spider, and was creating chains that stuck to her like webbing, which it used to drag her in with. She struggled and flared her engines, but that only made her situation worse as it added more of the mystic chains about her, starting to almost literally cocoon her in them!

    Grinning from below, Kaos’ eyes glowed as he controlled the magically altered light fixture to capture one of the more annoying “flies” of the opposing team. It seemed rather fitting, if he could say so himself. He didn’t notice the surge of magic until it was too late, and what looked like a giant flyswatter took aim at the animated chandelier and crushed it against the ceiling, rendering it a useless and twisted series of metal tines and broken lights. Chains returned to normal and, now unable to hold the combined weight of the broken chandelier and armoured mare, broke free of its anchor and plummeted to the floor, making ponies from both teams scatter to avoid it. The zebra, however, turned an annoyed eye to the unicorn mare who bested his creation so easily. His gaze fell on the confident form of Trixie casually wiping a hoof on her coat, and her arrogant smile could only have one response…

    Fortunately, Kaos wasn’t the one who needed to make it. The floor beneath Trixie seemed to come loose under her hooves and rocket her upwards on a growing pillar. Trixie glanced up at the approaching ceiling and cringed, her horn flaring as she barely had the time to create a weak shield before impacting against it, which was easily crushed against the ceiling, the unicorn herself launched into the upper floors of the library over the throne room. Junkyard watched, and waited for the pony to come back down…

    To his surprise, the pillar of stone stopped responding to Junkyard’s control, and tipped towards him like a toppling tree. Marble and wood from the floor suddenly lurched upwards, Kaos’ eyes glowing as he formed it into a giant claw to catch the pillar. The stone then shattered near the base from a sharp impact, the remainder sliding forward through the prop and out over their heads, but Junkyard was fast enough to arch a line of marble stones up to it to reassert control and cause the entire pillar to fall away to their side harmlessly. Unfortunately for him, that’s exactly what they wanted…

    The pair were already past Kaos before it even registered upon him that they had passed, first Spectrum, followed by Filigree. The duo caught Junkyard between them, alternating attacks with a series of pounding blows that bounced him back and forth between them. Junkyard was disoriented, and the pair had no intention of letting him recover, forcing Kaos to step in… or he would have if a lavender bubble didn’t appear about him and yank him back towards the far wall at a much higher rate of speed than he was comfortable meeting such a hard object at.

    Spectrum landed one final blow as Filigree ducked her body low, then jumped upwards to land her claw just under his chin, launching Junkyard several feet into the air. With a shared look, both femmes flattened themselves to the floor, and the air above them exploded in a scream of powerful engines as Clockwork caught the canine mid “flight”. She yanked him out the open wall of the palace, and upwards into the air. She took a spiraling flight path that drew the eyes of the wary guards that were trying, and mostly failing, to ignore the battle raging behind them. She came as close as she was willing to the shield and stalled her engines, rolling over backwards in a way that made the diamond dog panic and flail his arms and legs futilely.

    A sudden series of impacts rocked Clockwork’s suit, throwing off her trajectory, and forcing her to lose her grip on the diamond dog… It took her a moment to realize that Burner was rapid firing into Zilch’s portals which aligned his aim into the side of her armour, keeping up the pressure to prevent her from recovering the canine. Alto swooped in easily after that, grabbing the plummeting diamond dog and flaring his wings to level out. He finally dropped Junkyard onto the ground, who in turn stood up to his full height, eyes blazing under his heavy brow.

    “Good,” Filigree said as she stepped through the dust, her eyes locking with his, “we can stop all these games and get to the real fighting.”

    Junkyard let slip a low, guttural, growl, and leaned forward. Filigree responded in kind, her beak low to the ground as she eyed him. Junkyard seemed to positively radiate fury as he took a step forward, dirt and rock clinging to his foot by its own volition. Strangely, it only seemed to make the gryphoness smile wider.

    Suddenly, the diamond dog slammed his fist into the ground, and the firmament heaved under Filigree. Before she could take to the air, a large rock slab arched upward from each of Filigree’s sides, rushing in to crush her between them. The parade field echoed with the impact, and Junkyard’s eyes widened with the realization of what he had just done. Another victim to his rage, another fallen from his anger… he felt ill, and clenched his eyes shut. A low rumbling growl gave him pause, and his eyes slowly opened, then widened in shock. He saw the gryphoness standing between the two stones, forelegs spread and holding them apart, her talons sinking into them. Her body trembled with the effort, her beak gritted as she poured every ounce of strength she had into holding those stones apart. For a moment Junkyard could only watch in surprise, then his resolve strengthened and he clenched his hands into fists, willing the ground beneath her to strengthen, to tighten about her until she was crushed between them. The gryphoness wavered, and the rocky vice slowly began to tighten. Her forelegs were almost folded completely when he saw her eyes pop open. He expected to hear her squawk in defeat when her beak fell open.

    Her roar echoed about the parade field, badly startling some guards and rocking Junkyard back on his heels. Tapping some unknown reserve of strength, her forelegs forced the rocks apart as widely as she could. Her wings separated the rocks from their bases before Junkyard could redouble his efforts, and one after the other, she hurled the slabs at the diamond dog. Junkyard frowned, and deflected the first with his arm, his hand glancing along the side of the stone before his fingers caught on the holes her talons had punched into it. Grasping at the idea he sunk his own fingers into the rock, letting its momentum spin him around so that he could grasp the other stone she’d hurled in the same manner with his other hand. Once more he let the momentum spin him, both stones now clutched in his hands as he evenly regarded the gryphoness leaping for his apparently open chest.

    His growl deepened into a roar of his own, and with a herculean effort he wrenched the massive stones forward. The gryphoness seemed to hover in the air before him, mid leap and steel coated wings spread, only millimeters away from her talons sinking into him. For a brief moment, their eyes met, rage matching rage. Then the stone slabs crashed shut over her, clapped shut like a massive trap. The rocks fell from his hands even as he stumbled back, gasping for breath from the effort.

    “Okay, that hurt,” Filigree rumbled after a moment’s pause and spat some blood from her beak. She sunk one claw into the ground and began to force her way up again, deliberately pushing past the pain as loose gravel fell away from her. Junkyard dropped back a step and answered with a low rumble of his own, leaning forward with anticipation…

    “Clockwork,” a voice shouted over her headset, “get your flank to the center, we need to regroup!”

    Green and gold armour seemed to pirouette in mid air as it avoided another series of blasts from the heavy manticore-like armour. “If you can get Burner off my back for twenty seconds, I’d be happy to oblige.”

    “That’s the problem, we need targets!” Spectrum answered, weathering a blow from Zilch with a grunt even as she lashed out at Kaos, driving him back from his hastily erected barricade of floor tiles. Unfortunately the tiles, upon falling back to the ground, turned into an oversized mouth with checkerboard lips, wooden splinters for teeth, and a whip like tongue that immediately caught one of her wings and began to pull, painfully trying to reel her in.

    There was a sudden surge of magic, and a giant pacifier appeared over the open mouth, dropping down and forcing it to release Spectrum. Both pacifier and mouth vanished in the moment after, Kaos looking mildly annoyed and straightening his tie as he stared intently at the unicorn. Trixie smiled smugly in response, before sharply turning to face the incoming attack from Zilch. The pair’s eyes met through the portal, and gave Trixie just enough time to create a blinding flash of light with her horn, sending Zilch staggering blindly along the far wall before Alto was able to steady her.

    “How did you..?” Spectrum asked, and Trixie tapped her horn.

    “I studied some magic identification techniques after we got back from the Northern Reaches,” she answered smoothly as she ducked a barrage of laser fire, “and so I can identify the magic used in teleporting. Mind you, it doesn’t give me much more than a split second warning, but every little bit helps…”

    “Less talking, more fighting!” Flourish called at them, and soundly bucked Kaos in his side, sending him staggering.

    “Says little miss comeback!” Trixie answered with a comfortable grin, her horn flashing as she sent a series of bolts into Alto’s side…

    “Banter is completely different!” Flourish began, but unfortunately she was grabbed by a sudden curl of wind that twisted her about in place, sending her escape teleport severely off course, and right into Burner’s line of fire. Trixie’s horn flared in an effort to rescue her teammate, but Kaos chose that moment to have the floor beneath her inflate and pop like a giant bubble, flinging her skyward again.

    Fortunately for Flourish, Galaxi was able to create a telekinetic bubble about her. However, she quickly found out the lasers passed right through her psychic shield, and yanked Flourish out of there before she could be hit more than once or twice. “Since when can they shoot through my shields?!” Galaxi demanded, forced to yank a mirror off the wall to protect herself and the gray unicorn.

    “Watch the angle, Galaxi!” Clockwork called as she buzzed overhead. “It looks like his weapon is light based, which means anything light can get to, his attacks can get to.”

    “Which means this mirror…” Galaxi mused, rubbing her chin with a hoof.

    “Exactly.”

    A smile spread across Galaxi’s face as she held the mirror tightly in her telekinesis, anticipating the next volley of attacks from Burner. Fortunately, he either hadn’t anticipated the problem with mirrors or had discounted it as negligible, and Galaxi was able to bring it to bear. She reflected a series of attacks back to the large armour, whose reflective plates simply deflected most of the attack, splitting the rays far too much to do any damage.

    “Aim more to the left,” Flourish suggested, and Galaxi caught the next volley of shots from the approaching manticore armour and sent them hurtling towards Crosswind, who yelped as he was hit squarely, momentarily falling from the air. Zilch teleported in for the catch, laying the partially conscious pegasus on the floor behind Kaos and Alto.

    Galaxi cheered, but found herself yanked aside and rudely teleported, causing her to stagger as Flourish escaped with her mere milliseconds before the massive armour crashed a foreclaw down through the space they vacated, shattering the mirror.

    “That’s seven years bad luck,” Clockwork interjected, and swooped in to set Trixie down on the ground. Burner growled and turned, the blaster on his tail spinning up for a moment before he abandoned it, opting for a different sort of attack.

    “Enough iz enough,” the professor growled, and the shoulders of his armour shifted, a panel sliding back and other mechanisms pushing forward and locking into place.

    Spectrum frowned at the foam and round membranes that filled the openings. “What is he doing?”

    “Speakers,” Clockwork answered from above, and took a pair of shots, focusing on the forming speaker on the left shoulder, only to find his shield easily able to compensate and keep the newly created structure safe.

    “Clockwork?” Galaxi asked questioningly, remembering the last time the short mare had to deal with speakers and sonic attacks from Burner. To her surprise, Clockwork just chuckled.

    “You laugh?” Burner asked sharply. Clockwork responded by landing, her wings folding… forward? It looked odd to her teammates, but a small panel just behind her wings opened and a post pushed out and upwards from it. When it had extended several inches, the tip extended an arm, which it drew around in a circle and quickly filled with foam of its own. Only when that was finished did her wings return to normal, but Clockwork stayed on the ground.

    “I came prepared, Burner,” she answered evenly.

    There was a moment of hesitation from the orange armour clad unicorn, a brief second of uncertainty, before he hit the switch. A thrum could be felt more than heard across the throne room, and even outside. Dust whipped about as if alive and forced itself flat to the ground from the thrumming vibration that crashed through the room, and every window that was left whole shattered in an explosion of glass powder.

    And yet, his intended target stood steady.

    “I did my homework too, Burner,” she answered with a pained hiss. It wasn’t perfect, she’d have to make some adjustments for next time, but the pain was dull and faded enough that she could deal with it. “Some research found a small deformity in my skull that lets me hear things the way I do. It acts like an echo chamber, magnifying specific pitches and frequencies that would normally be outside of pony range of hearing, and amplifying others that are easily heard but generally so soft they are unnoticeable. But there is a frequency, that frequency, which causes an intensely painful feedback loop. Since I feel it as a vibration, it can’t be blocked out by just stuffing my ears. So I had to develop a counter….”

    “You are ztill in pain, Mizz Key,” Burner retorted, “zo your counter is vorthlezz

    “You brought a bit more power to bear than I expected,” she agreed, “but I’m still functional. All in all, I’d say the first field test of my Frequency Dampener is a success. It creates a counter frequency to the one you are producing, thus nullifying it.”

    “Very clever, Mizz Key, but I have better rezourzez zan you. You vill loze,” Burner noted, arrogance seeping into his voice.

    “If I were alone, you’d be correct,” she hissed. “Flourish, target his hindquarters and tail.”

    “Vat?!” was all Burner managed to get out before the first impact registered on his armour. His hooves flew across the control panel as he tried to rescind the programming he built into the Manticore, but it had already altered the shield frequencies to reinforce the last point of attack. “NO!” His eyes snapped up to confirm his worst suspicion as Clockwork reared up on her hind legs, both the fore-hoof plasma ejectors blazing with power. She fired them simultaneously, the metallic sound echoing about the chamber, and Burner knew exactly what she was targeting.

    He barely heard her second shot as the first powered through the weakened shields, causing them to fizzle out. The shot continued, unhindered, and slammed into the first speaker, decimating it completely. “NO!! You little…!” Burner choked as the sound was nullified.

    “I’m no fool, Burner, I knew you’d use that again,” she growled, and turned away, facing the rest of her team. Unfortunately, the sound she heard from the crazed unicorn was not the ranging anger she had expected, but laughter of his own.

    “You’re not ze only vun vith backup planz, Mizz Key,” Burner said, the suit making him sound positively demonic. Alto seemed to almost materialize by his side, stepping from the shadow of the armour and causing the group of mares to frown.

    Without a word, the gryphon opened his beak and let out a scream… a scream at a very specific pitch. The physical brunt of the attack crashed into the group, scattering them. It caught Clockwork squarely and pinned her to the wall, the counter speaker on her back struggling with the spike in intensity before it gave up the ghost and gave out a series of popping noises, the final one ejecting it altogether from her armour to smolder on the floor to her side. Clockwork screamed herself, and was crushed into the wall by the force of it, unable to move or escape the barrage.

    “Enough of that,” a voice stated, and a purple band appeared about the gryphon’s neck once more, silencing him. Galaxi frowned darkly at the choking gryphon, before she was forced to release him as Kaos hurled parts of fallen chandelier at her, his odd magic changing them to giant staples in mid flight. Thankfully none of the sharp tips pierced anything Galaxi was intimately connected to, but she did find that all four of her hooves, plus her neck, were literally stapled to the wall behind her.

    One quick teleport later, and Flourish extracted Galaxi before she could be choked by the metal bands. Trixie turned her attention to Kaos in that moment, intent on counter-attacking. She was so focused that she almost missed the sensation, and jumped suddenly to the side. But she could only avoid the decoy portal Zilch had set up, and she leapt literally into the suited mare’s bucking hooves, knocking the wind from her.

    “Clockwork! Now would be a good time!” Spectrum shouted over the headset as she swept in to shield Trixie. Flourish was thankfully quick to distract Kaos.

    “Uh… er… I don’t know,” Clockwork answered, her head flicking back and forth and still dazed from the sonic assault. It took her a moment to climb to her hooves and reinitialize the energy wings, as well as get her bearings and take to the air again. “Okay, uh… okay. Trixie, see if you can nullify Kaos… when you’re back on your hooves. Flourish, you’re on Zilch. I’ll take Burner… no wait, I’d better take Crosswind. Galaxi, can you handle Burner? “

    “How the buck did you manage as a coordinator for years?” Flourish teased as she dove at Zilch, who seemed oddly collected and teleported away just as the mare got close.

    “I didn’t do it while I was under fire!” Clockwork cried, exasperated. Further hysterics were cut short as a number of portals opened up around her, and through them she could see Professor Burner’s armour, or more specifically, the tail of his armour. “Oh cra--!”

    Red beams lanced out and through the portals, working through a well practiced rhythm that struck her from all sides before culminating in one final blow, which blasted her out of the air. Her friends rushed to help her up, but were unable to touch the still smoking armour, the heat radiating from her driving them back.

    “We’re not out of the fight yet,” Spectrum hissed, and Galaxi used her telekinesis to start lifting the stunned armoured mare up.

    “We need Skillet, like, right now,” Trixie complained.

    “Now is our chance, gentlestallions” the Prince’s voice purred into the ear of Kaos and his team. “They’re disorganized, so this is the perfect time to single each one out. Burner, hang back, you can pick up Clockwork once the others have been peeled away. Junkyard and the gryphon are already engaged with each other. Is Crosswind on his hooves yet?”

    “I’m up, I’m up,” the pegasus answered, climbing to his hooves. Kaos nodded, watching the mares try to help Clockwork, the psychic mare hovering her slowly to the floor outside of the destruction her impact had made.

    “Good. Crosswind, take out Flourish. Spin her up and keep her disoriented,” the Prince ordered, “Zilch, you are on Galaxi. Push her back and keep her from focusing; the moment you see her eyes glow, hit her with everything you’ve got.”

    Crosswind spared a glance to Zilch, their eyes meeting for but a brief moment. A single nod was shared between them. That wordless moment began the chaos anew, as Crosswind dived at Flourish, forcing her to teleport away and making the group of mares yelp in surprise. Galaxi’s eyes began to glow in an effort to catch the pegasus, when a pair of hooves caught her shoulders and pulled suddenly. The psychic mare vanished from the moment even as Flourish reappeared, only to find the wind whipping about her. She teleported away again, but staggered on arrival, which gave her assailant time to catch her in another whirl of wind…

    “Trixie,” Spectrum ordered, ignoring the burning pain to rap her hoof on Clockwork’s helm, successfully stirring the armored mare, “get the pegasus. Clockwork will relieve you once she’s cooled down…”

    “Alto, on Trixie before she can cast!” the Prince shouted in the gryphon’s ear.

    Sound ripped through the scene, making the dust dance and swirl in a thinning veil before being chased away by the sudden burst of sonic energy. Trixie may have heard it, but far too late to react, and the wall of sound crashed physically into her and drove her tumbling across the destroyed throne room. Trixie could only shake her head to clear it and look at what had halted her tumbling retreat. She couldn’t help but reflect on the irony of colliding with, and using to help climb back to her hooves, the very throne of her mentor. Such irony was lost on Alto, however, as he stalked towards her.

    “Kaos, your turn.”

    Spectrum scowled darkly, her wings snapping out and flaring before she launched herself into the air. Unfortunately she found out quickly that she had a new addition when something began to pull at her tail, a heavy industrial elastic band tied in a firm knot that pulled tighter the further she pulled from where it was anchored… under the hoof of Kaos. She frowned, and flapped harder, intent on simply forcing the band out from under his hoof, but found quickly that was not working, especially when she reached the limits of her wing power. With a snap, the band recoiled, yanking her back with it. Kaos was smart enough to stand aside as she crashed into, and through, the floor. The zebra seemed surprised by the damage, and looked down the hole after the mare. Then, with a wordless smile, he dropped through after her.

    “Hello Mizz Key,” a menacing voice said, and the still addled Clockwork Key turned her head. Thankfully she had enough padding and cooling systems to prevent herself from cooking after the lasers had gotten done super-heating her armour, and all internal systems read nominal. She must have gotten lucky and they must have been tough enough to have resisted melting, but she generally doesn’t trust to luck. Unfortunately, as she looked upon the looming Professor Bunsen Burner and his M.A.N.T.I.-core armour, it was obvious the complete diagnostic she ordered her system to do would not have a chance to finish. That belief was verified only a second later, as a swipe from his oversized tail launched her through one of the side walls of the throne room and into the gardens outside, a number of small fires catching from her still hot armour amongst the flowers. Several rare species were lost in that moment…

    A dozen flashy pegasi circled Flourish, taunting her, as she stumbled. She would have lost any lunch she had were she not so acrobatically capable, not that it showed while she was all but falling over her own hooves. Unfortunately, that wasn’t good enough for her tormentor, who delighted in adding still more spinning to the regimen he assailed her with. Line of sight teleportation, it turns out, isn’t very useful when you’re so dizzy you can’t see straight. It didn’t stop her from trying, but after the third attempt saw her falling about a dozen feet and knocking herself out on the floor that leapt up at her, she decided she wasn’t going to try again.

    “The winner… and still heavyweight cham-peeeeeeeeon of the world… Crosswind!!” the pegasus cried, hovering over his unconscious “victim” and mimicking a cheering crowd with his mouth, all the while posing for non-existent ponies.

    Galaxi fared little better, even as she used shield after shield to try and stop the suited mare, but she moved like a ghost. Her telekinesis threw everything that wasn’t nailed down at the approaching mare, but Zilch simply vanished the moment anything came close. Every time Galaxi tried to shield herself, Zilch would strike from an unprotected angle. Galaxi was getting desperate, and bruised, as the silent mare bucked her side again. She continued to backpedal, clutching her hurt side and unable to quite catch her breath, as Zilch approached in a steady gait.

    A scream ripped through the air between them, forcing Zilch to pause, looking crossly in the direction it originated from. Trixie was covering her head with her hooves, where she had barely ducked under the sonic assault from Alto. Alto looked slightly out of breath, when Galaxi had an idea.

    “Trixie, tag out!” Galaxi called. Three things seemed to happen all at once in the next blink of an eye. A lavender band formed about Alto’s neck, choking off his next scream and yanking him up off the ground. Trixie turned, her eyes wide and horn beginning to glow as she searched for her target. A portal appeared not near Galaxi, but near Trixie’s side, and a white pair of forelimbs reached out and grabbed the unicorn about the neck before she could jump clear. Time seemed to hover there for the merest of seconds, before suddenly resuming, and Trixie was yanked back through the portal. Galaxi didn’t know where she had gone until a heavy weight crashed down on her from above, Trixie having been dropped a significant enough distance to crash down into the psychic mare and almost knocking her unconscious. Trixie fared little better, only barely able to lift her head from where it had collided noisily with the marble floor, and dread filled her as consciousness fled…

    “Get. Away. From. Me,” Spectrum growled as she ducked under another flying frying pan. From the moment she saw Kaos drop down into the kitchen, everything within had come alive. At first the cabinets and shelves swatted and harassed her but, as Kaos asserted more control, items about the kitchen drew inwards to form a creature made completely of pots, pans, and silverware.

    “I’m afraid I can’t do that, Miss Star,” Kaos answered, straightening his tie almost casually. That’s about the time that the frying pan thing decided to swing at her with one of the large iron kettles, creating a mare sized hole in the floor that Spectrum barely managed to avoid. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder about his chosen tools. There were a number of knives and forks and other sharp implements lying about, why focus on bludgeoning her?

    “You’re not trying to kill us,” Spectrum stated with a sudden flash of insight. When Kaos’ eyebrow lifted she knew her guess was right.

    “Why should that matter?” he asked simply, as the golem creature took the heavy kettle and slammed it down over its “head” like an oversized helmet. The thing seemed to grow as more pots and pans joined the mix, and spoons unfolded to form fingers on its “hand”. Of course the first thing it did was try to grab at her with the new appendages, forcing her to dive out of the way. The thing screeched, somehow, in frustration as it missed and grabbed hold of a nearby oven, which it promptly ripped out of the wall and hurled at her.

    The rainbow maned mare ducked around the thrown oven, only to feel something land square on her back between her wings, shoving her to the floor with its weight. She tried to roll to the side, and found she had been blindsided by an old-style wooden stove, which battered at her hooves with its long chimney pipe. It didn’t take her too much work to rip it loose, throwing it to the side in frustration, but she realized very quickly that it was just a distraction.

    “Checkmate,” Kaos said softly, and Spectrum’s eyes grew wide as she looked up. The golem created of pots and pans slammed its “hand” back down on her.

    “Ztand ztill!” the voice roared from behind her, and Clockwork juked to the side, dodging yet another stream of bolts from the pursuing armour. Armour that massive should not be this fast! Clockwork’s mind crashed through formula after formula, trying to sort out how such a feat was possible, or if he’d come across some incredible new power supply. Between the rocket propulsion and bat-like wings, it was able to fly in a straight line every bit as fast as she could… at least short of breaking the Rainboom Barrier. But that wasn’t practical here; she needed to stop him, not run away! But… how?

    For now, that meant simply dodging and weaving, “What’s the matter, Professor? Can’t keep up?” she taunted, even though she didn’t feel as confidant as she sounded. His armour was easily twice the size of hers, so it should be approximately half the speed! How the buck was he keeping up with her so easily?!

    “Maybe…” she muttered to herself as an idea formed in her head, even as she rolled to one side to avoid another blast from the tail of that beast. Her eyes fixed upon the guard mare who was resolutely casting a shield to keep them separate from the rest of the field. Smart move, all things considered. But she’d bet that Burner couldn’t turn that monstrosity on a dime…

    She punched more power into the engines, dismayed that her power reserves were already starting to run low, and here she was stuck in a game of cat and mouse. With no sunlight to recharge her batteries, she needed to end this as soon as possible! Clockwork arrowed herself towards the wall of the shield, ignoring the almost panicked expression from the guard mare as she tried to pump more magic into it, and checked her scanners to make sure that Burner was right on her tail.

    Clockwork shut off her engines at the last second and tumbled her body, landing all four hooves against the shield. She let herself drop down about a foot from that position, flared her wings for stability, and reactivated her engines to rocket her away along the wall of the shield. The guard mare looked relieved, until she saw the beast following the power armour, and she grit her teeth and tried to reinforce the shield spell.

    She wasn’t successful. The mare let out a scream as the Manticore armour plowed into the shield, causing it to crack like glass before shattering apart. The heavy armour hit the ground, having lost too much momentum against the shield to stay airborne, and skidded to a halt. Burner shook himself off and carefully made his way back to a standing position, towering over the guard mare as she passed out from her effort. Her partner rushed over to the mare’s side and valiantly threw a shield over himself and the unconscious guard. The Professor looked down at the pair for a long moment, and the rest of the guard held their breath, at once fearful of and preparing to attack this monstrosity. They almost leapt in to attack when a wide beam from one of armour’s eyes spread out over the prone form. The scanning beam swept over her from hoof to her horn, and only when it was done did he lift his head to regard the guard protecting her. “Zhe’z juzt out cold from ze magical backlash. Zhe vill be fine,” he intoned. He took several steps around the incredulous guard and the mare he protected before turning to pursue Clockwork again. He’d only just gotten airborne again before he was blasted back to the ground by a series of well placed plasma bolts targeting his wings.

    “Blazt it!” Burner swore as the armour crashed to a halt, forcing him to shut off the jet engine and look over the number of warning lights now on his display. The most troubling of which indicated the wings were “offline”, the base joints completely destroyed. With a sigh, he touched a button and the armour jettisoned them, closing a panel over the spot they used to attach. “Zat vas a cheap zhot, Mizz Key, but I am not out of zis fight yet!” he cried into his microphone, and the barrels on his tail tip began to spin, tracking software locking on to that annoying Dragonfly armour before unleashing another volley.

    “Wait, there are rules to this combat now?” Clockwork asked incredulously as she wove her armour about the incoming volley. “No offense, Burner, but my top priority is stopping you and minimizing the damage you can do to any innocents! You almost eliminated an entire village of ponies when we last met; I am not giving you the chance to do it again.”

    “Duly noted, Mizz Key,” he answered with a sneer and reared up on his back legs. A trio of panels opened on the chest of the suit and, with a scream of tiny engines, and a flurry of mini-missiles launched streaked from the open panels.

    “Oh buck…” Clockwork whimpered, ears wilting as her system struggled to lock on to each individual missile. She pulled back, giving her system as much time to work before she came almost to one of the spinnerets arching up from the tower. Only then did she feel confident enough to unleash, changing the firing mode on her plasma ejectors. She swept both hooves before her, solid beams of energy intersecting as many of the little missiles as possible, and creating an arc of explosions before her. Unfortunately their explosive potential was larger than she anticipated, and it slammed her back into the tower. Worse, after ricocheting off the stone tower, Burner unleashed a hail of fire that drove her right back into it again. Her weakened shields and low energy failed under the assault, and metal ground directly against stone, tearing furrows in the pristine white marble. She scraped her way down part of the tower before falling free, warning lights flashing across her helm as she found her flight systems completely offline.

    Burner watched from his position as the dragonfly armour struggled to recover from the long crashing fall, finally breaking its descent with sustained output from her hoof blasters, allowing her to land heavily on the ground. She craned her neck and frowned at the damage on her back, the generators for her wings mangled beyond recognition from the collision. Between the low power and the destroyed flight surfaces… the realization she was grounded left a sour taste in her mouth, especially as she turned to face the larger armour before her.

    “Karma iz a bitch, ya?” Burner asked in a mocking tone. Clockwork reared back to fire her hoof blasters, only to get knocked over backwards by a swipe of Burner’s tail.

    “Mental note,” she groaned to herself as twisted herself away from the massive armour, “shoulder mounted blasters, the hoof ones are a tactical vulnerability in close quarters.” With a groan she got to her hooves and frowned up at the larger armour. “Okay, Clockwork, you handled the Nightmare herself, you can handle this....”

    “I zee ze problem now,” Burner noted almost conversationally, even as he swiped a massive foreclaw of the armour at her, sending the smaller mare skittering back and out of reach, “you came up vith one working verzion, and never innovated beyond zat. Zis iz practically ze zame armour you fought ze Nightmare vith, izn’t it? You ztopped inventing!”

    “I didn’t stop!” Clockwork shot back, shying to one side, than the other, but unable to skirt past the larger armour.

    “I vould hardly call zat little zonic toy ‘innovation’,” he noted, sounding like a professor Clockwork once knew in school.

    “I didn’t stop, I just had… other concerns,” Clockwork admitted, “the Nightmare was gone, so the Dragonfly wasn’t a priority and… and then other things came up that are, frankly, not something I’m going to discuss with you!”

    Burner growled and caught Clockwork along her side, “I zhould humiliate you here and now. I created a veapon to ztop you, to take you on at your bezt. Inztead you mock me by not even taking me zeriouzly az a threat!!” He swiped at Clockwork again, and she once more ducked back, but this time he followed up with a back-claw swing that caught her side and sent the mare tumbling across the field. Clockwork shook her head, and was just starting to rise to her hooves when Burner leapt his power armour at her, landing squarely on her and pinning her to the ground.

    “I’m not out of tricks yet,” she growled in response, and lipped a switch. With a screech of metal, the “jaw” of her helmet fell open, revealing the blazing power crystal at its back.

    “Yez, you are,” Burner answered, and clamped a powerful claw about the jaw of her helm, forcing it closed once more. The power crystal gave a low pitiful whine before shorting out with a pop. A deft twist of his claw, and the helm tore, twisting the “mouth” shut and immobile, and even causing a long tear that exposed the mare beneath. One green eye, not the glowing eye of her armour, but her real eye stared up at him as he raised his claw. “It’z over, Mizz Key,” he told her, ready to crush the life from her. But something… something stopped him… that eye staring at him. It was full of anger, hate and… fear. It reminded him, just for a second, of another eye that once bore through to his soul. The foal, whose corpse had stared through him like a thousand daggers, and now…  He lifted his claw again, intending to strike, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it… to finally end it. Instead he lowered the claw to the ground…

    “It’z over,” Burner said softly and turned his back on the mare.

    A light flared from behind him, Zilch’s teleportation, and brought with her the rest of the team and the mares they defeated. “Damned right it’s over! We whupped ‘em!” Crosswind cried. Burner looked at the pegasus crossly, his rather light-hearted attitude echoing hollowly in the empty chasm his victory left inside him.

    “No, it’s only just beginning,” a voice whispered in their ears. Only the gryphoness and Junkyard continued to fight, trading blows back and forth. Kaos frowned, gathered the mares in one place, and left Burner, Alto, and Crosswind to stand guard over them. Not that they should have any trouble. Flourish was out cold, Trixie and Galaxi would both need some sort of medical attention, Spectrum was still stunned for the moment, and Clockwork’s armour was completely useless in its present state, and he doubted she could move at all. With that settled, Kaos trotted over towards where Filigree and Junkyard fought to a near stand-still.

    “Maybe that match up wasn’t one of my better choices,” the Prince noted thoughtfully.

    “Junkyard, stand down,” Kaos called, catching both combatant’s attention in one call. “Filigree, you have fought well, but your team has lost. I ask you yield; I do not wish to bring my entire team to bear against you.” The gryphoness looked terrible, now that she stood still long enough for him to examine. She was bleeding from her beak, had a black eye, and he was sure that some of the bruises along her coat had left lingering injuries underneath. Junkyard looked deceptively good in comparison, but only because he could heal himself from the earth itself.

    “Buck you…” the gryphoness hissed.

    “Please,” Junkyard said, startling Kaos. “On my honor, you and your teammates will not be harmed.”

    The gryphoness looked sharply at the large Diamond Dog and sucked in a shuddering breath. It was obvious to Kaos that she was in pain, and he turned to regard one of the guard. “Captain,” he called to the watching unicorn, sure he had been just waiting for the opportunity to order the guard to blindside his team. “Do you have a medic you can spare? Some of the fillies were hurt in our combat.”

    The unicorn frowned darkly for a moment, smoothing a hoof over the stylized armour of his position before reaching up and taking off his helm. “Captain Storm, would you take over for me?”

    “This isn’t a good idea,” the pegasus warned, “we can send one of our medical types…”

    “I won’t put one of my ponies in a position that I would not put myself,” he answered simply, and stepped towards the zebra. “I’m an old medic, but my certifications are up to date. I’ll look them over myself.”

    “Are you sure, Captain?” the zebra asked, looking genuinely concerned. “You have other ponies to coordinate.”

    “I’m sure,” he stated simply. “I won’t comment on how honorably your team may or may not have fought, but seeing to the wounds of your opponents is not something that should be ignored.”

    “Very well, we are keeping them over there,” Kaos pointed, and the old soldier just smirked.

    “I know, we all know,” he stated, “and were it not for the Princess’ order, we would be fighting to free them.”

    “I am fully aware of that, Captain. The Princess made a wise decision,” Kaos said softly. “Your forces will be needed very shortly.” The unicorn looked at him curiously for a moment, and then looked past him to Filigree.

    “I’ll need to look you over too, Soldier,” he told her, then turned his back and trotted towards where the fillies were being kept. Kaos followed him, if only to oversee the treatment of the wounded mares. Filigree blinked at the guard’s back, and then moved to follow, much to the relief of Junkyard, who followed himself.

    “You zeem to know more zan you are telling uz,” Burner said to Kaos as the Captain started to check Trixie’s pupils. “Vhat iz it you know?”

    “You will know what the Prince has foreseen shortly,” Kaos said softly, and held up a hoof as a door on the side of the castle burst open. “Right on cue…”

    “We came as soon as we…  What th--?!” came the cry from Professor Relic. He and Quagga braced the ever large Skillet between them, and were followed by a pair of worried looking maids, Honey and Thyme, who happened to be present at the wrong moment and were co-opted to help carry a quartet of orbs...

    “What is going on here?!” Captain Storm demanded, diving down the bodily block them from coming any further. “What are you civilians doing here? What are you prisoners doing here?!”

    “A guard rushed into our chambers,” Quagga answered evenly as the guard captain all but shouted in their faces, “and insisted the Princesses needed us to come immediately to the parade field. She… he… it was difficult to tell, insisted that we must come and bring the orbs we have with us. Your guard even co-opted the maids there to assist. I am sure they would rather have evacuated with the rest.”

    “All the pieces are in place, Kaos,” the Prince whispered into the zebra’s ear, “the guest of honor is due to arrive any minute.”

    The pegasus continued to block the progress of the five newcomers. “And who the buck demanded that?! I’ll have them court marshaled!”

    Captain Light chuckled softly at the other Captain before motioning to Clockwork, “I need you out of that armour before I can look you over.”

    “You’ll need to move the others a few feet away from me then,” she told him. She yelped when she suddenly fell through the ground, but thankfully it wasn’t that far a drop when she landed on the grass some twenty feet away. She glanced up at Zilch standing over her and sighed, realizing what happened. “Push on the helm some, “she instructed the suited pony, “I need to reach a switch, and I can’t with the tear in the helmet.” Zilch frowned, looking up to the others of her team. But something Clockwork didn’t notice went between them and she finally nodded, and started to push on the helm to bend it partially back in place. “A little more… just a bit… got it! Now step back, these could hurt…” Zilch teleported back a few dozen paces.

    For a moment, a few soft whines could be heard from the armour, then nothing. Burner was just about to ask if the system had failed when a series of sharp pops followed by a hiss of escaping air echoed about the field. The mare encased in armour then shook her foreleg, and the armour literally fell off. Step by step she got to her hooves, shaking off the armour as it shed away like so much junk off her body. She finally tugged off the helm and frowned, looking at it almost forlornly. “You can’t protect me from this,” she told it in a soft voice before setting it down with the rest of the fallen metal. The now naked Clockwork was able to trot back to the group, followed by Zilch, who paused to look at the helm curiously.

    “Zat zeemed… draztic,” Burner said as the mare returned.

    “After getting stuck in my armour when fighting the Nightmare, I installed explosive bolts,” Clockwork answered softly, forcing herself not to look at the pile of armour she’d left behind. “Fortunately, I have a second suit still available. Always have a back-up…”

    The unicorn Captain nodded to Clockwork, and after a quick examination of her sighed, “Clockwork seems alright. Trixie has a mild concussion, as best as he could tell, but that doesn’t make sense given what I’ve been briefed on regarding her abilities. Flourish seems unhurt outside of a big lump on her noggin, and should wake up soon. Galaxi will be limping for a while, she twisted her foreleg. I can’t see anything wrong with Spectrum, but she’s not being very cooperative. Filigree… you should be on a stretcher. I believe several of your ribs are broken, and any major exertion runs the risk of puncturing your lung. How you lasted this long, I’ll never know. I’ll need a full team to help you.”

    “I fear we may not have time for that, Captain,” Kaos said softly, and interrupted any attempt to query him with a point of his hoof northward, where a scout was flying back like her tail was on fire.

    “Stormy!” the Captain shouted, interrupting the other Captain’s demanding interrogation of the newcomers on the field. The pegasus turned, angry until he saw the concerned expression on the unicorn. He turned to face where he was pointing, just as the mare hit the turf before them, hooves churning up the grass in a desperate attempt to stop her momentum.

    “Easy there Sergeant,” Captain Storm said and used a foreleg to help stop her, “what’s your report?”

    “T-they’re coming!” she gasped.

    With an uncertain glance back at the zebra, Captain Light yanked his helmet on and began issuing commands. “Teams one and three, you’re up! Get that shield up over the Palace! Team two, set up your inner shield over the Princesses themselves. Everyone on your guard, they’re coming.”

    “N-not just gryphons!” the pegasus managed to squeak out, drawing a questioning look from her two superiors.

    “What do you mean, Sergeant?”

    A roar shook the palace and set every pony’s mane on end. Only the eldest among them knew that sound…

    “T-they’re riding… D-dragons!” she cried, and the clouds over Canterlot seemed to rip away, shredded by dozens of huge scaled forms with gaping maws and broad wings. They were huge, even for dragons, but had stubby and blunted heads and noses that made them look like cruel pugs or dogs, and less like the sleek and angular dragons any pony had seen in the history books. The shield that sprung into existence before the dragons looked positively pitiful by comparison, but the dragons came to a stop before it.

    “By order of King Goldtalon, you will surrender!” a gryphon shouted to them through the shield.

    “Your king’s demands have no place here,” Captain Light answered, his horn glowing to amplify his voice. “Leave these sovereign lands peacefully, by order of the Sister Princesses.”

    “The King does not recognize your Princesses’ authority,” the gryphon answered, to the surprise of no one, “surrender or be destroyed!”

    “You have violated our sovereign lands and we will exercise our right to forcibly remove you,” the Captain answered back, his compatriot already motioning with a hoof. Unicorn archers and rows of Pegasus spear-ponies readied their attack, and the pair could hear the ballistae and catapults being maneuvered into position and aimed. Much as expected, the Gryphon commander did not answer, but what did happen next the ponies didn’t expect. A single white dragon, much smaller than the rest, flew in from behind, carrying a single rider. This gryphoness’ eyes began to glow brightly, and the shields melted away from where she sat, creating a hole the unicorns could not close.

    “FIRE!” Captain Storm bellowed, and a volley of projectiles announced the first shots of the oncoming battle. Those shots never reached their intended targets as a large black dragon dove through the opening, absorbing and knocking a majority of the projectiles from the air as it arrowed over the heads of the ponies, only to extend its claws as its true target became apparent…

    The scream of a Princess echoed about the almost supernaturally quiet field. The black dragon had crashed into and through the shield protecting the Sister Princesses, its massive foreclaws extended to rend at the very flesh of the elder sister, Princess Celestia, and sent her tumbling to the ground with large bloody tears discoloring her pure white coat.

    Her sister screamed, as much from the pain of being wrenched from the spell as the fury of what she saw. Luna’s eyes glowed darkly, and weapons of solid moonlight lanced at and into the dragon, tearing through its scales like paper until the beast itself collapsed onto the parade field, gasping its last breath of air.

    “WHO DARE ATTACK MINE SISTER?!” she bellowed in a supernatural voice that could be heard all the way to Cloudsdayle.

    “I do,” a dark figure answered calmly, standing up from the shadow of the massive dragon. Dark hooves dipped in the blood of the fallen dragon heedlessly as it stepped forward. He had a coat of pure black, with an eye that was a sharp slice of the moon itself. Broad wings flared across his back, and his horn glowed with a dark menace as he approached, his flank decorated with the mark of the sun being eclipsed by the moon.

    “Nightmare,” Luna hissed, and glanced to her team. They were in no position to lend aid, she quickly assessed. She would normally be disappointed that they had been defeated, but right now, a bigger problem stood before her.

    “I’ve chosen to go by Eclipse now. It’s much more fitting, don’t you think?” he asked tauntingly. His eyes swept over the battlefield for a moment, drinking in the array of ponies ready to fight him. “This brings back memories, doesn’t it? All those times we fought your big sister, all those wonderfully bloody and destructive wars…”

    “I do not believe they were very wonderful,” Luna hissed in response. “Now I understand why the gryphons were so bold…”

    “Like it? Stumbling over a well hidden cache of dragon eggs was the real kicker, I must admit,” he shrugged. “I do remember how easily a dragon could best us if they got their claws on you… and your big sister made such a tempting target. Too tempting to pass up, I will confess. It’s a shame I only got a grazing shot, or we might have finished her in a single blow. I suppose that just means I’ll have the pleasure of doing it myself. It’s not like your team could assist much, could they? No repeat performances by the Elements of Harmony…”

    “You underestimate them.”

    “Perhaps, but it looks like their vanquishers are standing right there,” he noted, smiling to Kaos and his team. “I could use some generals for when I take over the Ponylands… what do you say? Join me, and I will make you more powerful than you could ever imagine.”

    The team in question looked surprised by the offer, and they paused to look to one another. The mares they had beaten, those awake to hear the “offer”, groaned softly. Clockwork just frowned darkly, huddled in the grasping leg of a protective Galaxi. Spectrum frowned herself, anticipating the need to renew the battle with the stallions. Filigree hissed softly, flexing a claw as she mentally prepared herself for another round with Junkyard.

    Kaos smiled warmly and took a step towards Ecplise. “I believe the answer would be apparent, Prince Eclipse…” he answered formally, and looked back at his team, giving an almost imperceptible nod to Crosswind.

    “Yeah, I got your answer right here,” the pegasus grinned, “SCREW YOU! You can take your fancy wings and your little horn, and stick ‘em up your flank, ‘cause we are going to kick your ass!”

    Eclipse blinked, taken aback by the coarse rebuff. Luna grinned and the guard exploded with cheers as this unknown group stood firm against this new threat. “Simply because we do not agree with these ponies does not mean we are turning against our homeland,” Kaos added with a smirk. “We will not leave the Ponylands or its Princesses wanting.”

    “This is our home,” Junkyard stated firmly, the ground trembling beneath his feet.

    “Ze Dragonfly iz not ze only technological terror zat can kick your flank,” Burner added, the gun on his tail beginning to spin.

    Zilch stepped forward and simply nodded, unable to voice her thoughts, but eyes glowing with power. Only Alto looked uncertain, and faded back a step nervously.

    “Galaxi, take Trixie, and Flourish and get to Princess Celestia,” Spectrum ordered and pushed past Alto, “Filigree, stay with the Princess and protect her. See if you can get that group of civvies under the shield as well. Clockwork, summon your spare suit and join me as soon as you can, Kaos and his team won’t stand alone.”

    “You DARE?!” Eclipse thundered and swept his wings wide, and a wave of energy drove back those guards closest to him. “No pony shall stand when we are finished! ATTACK!” Shrieks filled the sky as dragons poured through the opening in the shield and down at the parade field of ponies.

    “Chaos,” Celestia whimpered, taking in a pained breath, “it’s all descending into chaos…”