Chapter 22

“Throw Down”

    “Is it too late to apologize?”

    Crosswind dove out of the way of an incoming lightning bolt. Only his mastery of air and wind allowed him to move fast enough to avoid the blow, even if his wing feathers still got lightly singed.

    “I vould zay zo,” Burner answered  coolly, the tail of his armour coming up and drawing a line of fire across their opponent’s chest, which seemed to do little more than annoy the dark alicorn. Their fight ignored the larger one swirling about them, as dragons circled and attacked the emplacements below, sending guard ponies scattering from their futile attempts to break the line. Oddly, the dragons and their gryphon riders seemed only focused on the siege weapons that could hurt the mythical lizards, and were otherwise intent to hang back and let Eclipse do the bulk of the work. Not all ponies were content with that, however…

    Lightning gathered about the alicorn’s horn when a sudden blow struck his blind side, sending the bolt careening off into the sky. Eclipse turned his head, furiously looking for who dared to strike him, and his eyes fell on a stout guardsman with a broken lance. “Fool,” he rumbled, and a whip of dark magic lashed out from his horn at the earth pony.

    The cry of pain was music to his ears, and he smiled down at what he expected to be the bloody corpse of the guard pony. To his surprise, Junkyard had interceded, pushing the guard behind him, the lash wrapped about his forearm. The Diamond Dog looked back at Eclipse with a defiant growl, the lash cutting into his flesh and blood seeping down into his fur, but he held his position. Eclipse’ shock turned to fury, and with a yank of his head, pulled the magic sharply.

    There was a moment of resistance before the lash pulled loose, and the howl of pain from the one known as Junkyard gave him a surge of satisfaction. “Stand in my way, cur, and I will sever your neck as well,” he growled, looking back over his shoulder at the canine, whose stance had slumped visibly, his oversized paw covering the stump of his forearm. At his feet rested the severed arm, already rotting from the foul magic that tainted it.

    “Junkyard!” the flyer shouted, and dove for his friend. Eclipse waited, once that pegasus got close enough…. His attention was forcibly removed from the scene as something, or more technically a large number of somethings, stabbed his backside. He simply turned to look back, only mildly surprised to see his flank had been turned into a pincushion by pony archers. A simple wave of his wing, and the arrows fell harmlessly to the ground.

    “Foals!” he shouted. “You cannot harm me! None of you can!”

    “Thy mouth is too big, allow Us to shut it for thee,” a low voice, at once soft and piercing, cut through the din of battle. Eclipse had barely turned when an arc of moonlight slashed down at him, forcing him to canter back a step. Another blade of moonlight struck out at him, only to be intercepted by a curved blade of pure starless night.

    “Ah, Princess Luna,” Eclipse sneered, “I wondered if you’d have the courage to face me.”

    “We hath much to repay thee for,” she answered, lashing out with multiple magic daggers of pure silvery light.

    Eclipse laughed as he deflected her attacks, “I can feel your anger and hatred. Good, let it consume you… it will give me another meal before I slit your throat!” His single, dark blade ripped through Luna’s daggers, pushing the armoured princess back as he pressed the advantage. He swept a wing idly to swat away the annoying fire from the manticore-like armour. A simple shake of his ethereal mane dislodged the shafts of the many arrows raining down on him. Fear danced across his prey’s eyes as he pushed her back, her attacks growing steadily more desperate and less focused.

    It caught him completely by surprise when a hoof slammed into his cheek with enough force that it could have fractured stone. His head snapped with the force of the impact, which caught him just below the patch covering his scarred eye, before swinging his head around to face the source of the impact. Blinding white light accompanied another blow that forced him away from the Princess another step, but he anticipated the third strike and was able to snap his foreleg to catch the attacking hoof and yank the owner to him. He was only mildly surprised when he reeled in Spectrum through the glowing portal, Zilch hanging off her midsection. He grasped the pegasus by the neck before him with a growl, her wings fluttering helplessly as she tried to pull free, magic gathering from his horn as he prepared to obliterate the figure.

    ~NO!~ a voice cried in his head, a voice Eclipse thought was dead, and his shot went askew. Spectrum dropped both her forehooves hard on his nose a millisecond later, driving him back a step to free herself, and the pair vanished into another portal.

    “Attack!” somepony shouted, and a multitude of male and female voices cried out in anger. Some shouted “For the Princess!”, but the majority shouted wordlessly as guard ponies surged past the specials from all directions. Arrows briefly clouded the sky to pepper their target ahead of the wave of ponies from all directions. Lances mounted on earth ponies, unicorns wielding handle-less blades, and pegasi with wing blades, all dove at Eclipse. For a moment, the dark alicorn was lost under the crush of ponies, stallions and mares alike, in their attack.

    A sudden burst of magic sent the ponies flying every way. “INSECTS!” Eclipse bellowed, his form radiating with dark power in the aftermath of the magical wave. “You are not worthy to lay a hoof upon me!”

    “Zilch, Crosswind, catch as many as you can!” Spectrum shouted, even as a series of blasts ripped past her and into the seemingly vulnerable Eclipse. Her wings blurred as she herself rushed to catch at least three guard ponies, but could only watch in dismay as another dozen thudded to the ground around her as she put the trio down. Crosswind managed to soften the ladings of a number of them, and Zilch shortened their trip as much as possible to minimize their impacts, but there was simply no way to save all of them. She winced at some of the more audible crunches on impact…

    The alicorn’s body was little more than a shadow as he charged the armoured stallion. Professor Burner met Eclipse almost eagerly, the clawed forelegs of the armour meeting the alicorn’s hooves with enough force to create a shockwave. Unfortunately the contest of strength was shorter than the orange unicorn might have hoped, as the alicorn physically wrenched the armour off its feet and tossed it a dozen feet or so.

    “Your toys can’t stop me…” Eclipse sneered, stalking towards the recovering stallion.

    “I don’t know, I did a pretty good job last time,” a mechanized voice put in, wrenching Eclipse’ attention from Burner to the hovering green and gold armour.

    “You…!”

    “Me,” she answered, and a stream of fire unleashed from her forehooves at the dark alicorn. The alicorn’s form blurred once again as it dove to attack the armoured mare, but found his approach blocked time and time again by her attacks. “Anytime Burner….”

    “Gladly,” he answered, and from behind Eclipse, unleashed a series of rapid-fire blasts from his tail, drawing his fire over the dark alicorn’s flank. With a roar more of anger than of pain, Eclipse’ horn flared and magically grabbed Burner and his armour, and flung him at the annoying Dragonfly.

    “Why do you persist?!” Eclipse asked tauntingly as he stormed towards the temporarily downed armoured ponies. “You cannot win! Even together, you cannot win! What do you hope to accomplish?”

    “We beat you once,” Spectrum answered from behind, halting his progress, “and even if we hadn’t, we wouldn’t surrender to you now.”

    “Why? Is a quick and painless death so objectionable to you?”

    “Do you really think that will work? I mean, really?” Crosswind asked, perplexed.

    “He tried it last time too,” Flourish put in, appearing in a burst of pink smoke by Spectrum, “and I wondered that very thing too.”

    “Seriously? So you’re saying that this Eclipse character is so dense, that he can’t even learn from his past mistakes?” the stallion asked with a raised eyebrow.

    “I’d have thought that was obvious,” Flourish joked, “after all, this is his second attempt against us.”

    “ENOUGH!” the dark alicorn bellowed, and the ponies scattered to avoid the mystic assault that left the ground scarred. “I will NOT be taunted!”

    “Boy did you pick on the wrong group then,” Crosswind mocked.

    “I am going to tear those wings off your hide and stuff them down your throat,” Eclipse growled, and darkness lashed out at the fast moving pegasus.

    “Oooh, big talk from the scary pony,” the pony called back as he dodged the attack.

    “We need to get coordinated,” Spectrum grumbled softly as Crosswind tore away from the pursuing alicorn. She then noticed Kaos and Junkyard in the backfield, the latter of which was flexing his… severed forearm? She had to look for a moment to realize the Diamond Dog had fused a bit of hard stone to the stump, and molded it into an echo of the one he lost. Admittedly it was a superior solution to trying to recover the severed part, which was a black and rotting lump that was barely recognizable as an arm anymore. Shaking off her curiosity, she dashed over to them, “Kaos, can your headsets be reprogrammed to use our frequency? Or is there a way to set ourselves to your frequency?”

    The zebra blinked as he looked up, and for a moment was oddly hesitant. “No… no they can’t be reprogrammed like that, the signal is extremely long range so that we can gain the assistance of our coordinator. We’re also using a mystic frequency, thus are incompatible with your current design.”

    “Rats… wait, would you have a problem with swapping out headsets mid-fight?” she asked. Kaos frowned, and seemed about to reject the idea when he stopped and touched his headset. Whoever was on the other end countermanded his initial impulse it seemed.

    “The Prince doesn’t have any objection to that idea,” the well dressed zebra answered.

    She nodded, shelving concerns about who the “Prince” might be for now, to touch her own headset. “Flourish, get over here, I’ve got a mission for you”

    “Are you sure this is the right time for that?” the gray unicorn asked, exploding into existence beside Spectrum. “I mean, we kinda have our hooves full here.”

    “Positive. You know where your buckfriend keeps the spare headsets. We need at least six, if not more, all charged and ready to use,” she explained. She could see confusion turn to realization across her teammate’s face.

    “You want to get these colts on the network with us? Can do!” Flourish cried, and vanished into a puff of smoke, leaving Kaos and Junkyard to watch with various levels of confusion etched on their faces.

    “Interesting girl,” Kaos noted first, shaking the stupor off first.

    “You don’t know the half of it,” Spectrum answered with a thin smile. “Come on, we have to buy her some time.”

    “And then what?” Kaos asked softly as Junkyard pushed his way to his feet, his new paw crackling as he clenched it into a fist.

    “I wish I had an answer for that,” Spectrum admitted. “For now, try not to die.”

    “Easier said than done.”

    “Alright now, where did you put them…?”

    The normally orderly room was in disarray from her search. State of the art radio equipment, monitors, scanners, and even radar systems filed the usually darkened room. With the lights off, it was an impressive display of glowing amber and blue lights that looked important and ominous all at once. With the lights on, as they were now, the gear looked like out of date metal husks that were far too big and noisy for their purpose. A number of worn cushions rested about the room as well, far more numerous than similar rooms would usually have, primarily to ensure Skillet was never far from a place he could sit down and rest as needed.

    And yet, despite knowing this is where all the gear they used was kept, the mare was having little luck in finding the elusive headsets.

    “I swear the blasted things are hiding from me!” she cried in frustration, pounding her hooves on a desk.

    “Did you try the drawer to the left there?” a voice asked.

    “Drawer to my… left?” the teleporting mare asked, and reached her hoof over. A quick tug at the handle there exposed a drawer with a number of headsets like she had in her own ear, all ordered and sorted on small racks custom made for it. “Awesome! Thank you!”

    “Uh… sure,” the voice chuckled as Flourish simply took and dumped them all into a small bag, figuring Skillet could sort them out once she got them down. Only then did the gray mare turn to face the owner of the voice. The white gryphon blinked wide amber eyes as she all but bounced up to him and shook his claw.

    “Thanks! Now I gotta get these to my beau and get back to the battle,” she called, and started to trot away… before stopping. “But, y’know… and I hope you don’t mind me askin’ this, why are you here in the palace?”

    “I… er…” the gryphon stammered.

    “I mean, I’m pretty sure your teammates will miss you at the battle there, Alto,” she continued, not turning to face him.

    “I… I don’t know,” he admitted, “I doubt they’d miss me. I was the weak link right from the beginning. I mean, I could handle the idea of fighting you mares, no offense, but going against that… that thing out there? Are you insane?!”

    “Well, probably. I mean, we did chase Nightmare to her hideout on the moon,” Flourish answered, and the gryphon’s eyes bugged out with the admission. “So you’re looking for the way out then?”

    “Y-yeah,” he admitted sheepishly, “but I got lost. That and…”

    “…and?” the unicorn pressed when he faded off.

    “I swear I’m hearing things,” he answered after a moment. “I keep hearing sobs, like a little cub crying, and I keep trying to find it. But it always goes quiet the moment I get close.

    Flourish frowned and perked her ears, trying to catch even a hint of the sound. To her surprise, she heard it, that soft sob and whimper that sounded every bit like a foal. “I hear it… Sounds like, this way?”

    Alto nodded and clicked his beak. “That’s what I thought too, but every time I get close…” Almost as if on cue, there was a soft gasp and whoever owned the childish voice caught their breath and went silent. The mare frowned and, after waving Alto back, began to stalk forward silently, her hooves not even clicking on the hard marble floor. After a moment, the soft voice picked up again, even as Flourish worked her way carefully down the hall, pressing her ear to each door as she snuck along. At the third door, the second one on the left, she pointed her hoof at it. The gryphon wasn’t sure why she’d tell him, but she then opened the door.

    “Everything alright in here?” Flourish asked, keeping her voice as friendly as possible. The room was just a bland meeting room, still in decent shape given all the fighting. She had no idea who used it last, but it was dominated by a large central table surrounded by cushions and chairs. If it weren’t for the fact the large floor to ceiling window on the far wall had been shattered inward, it would have looked downright normal. Flourish ducked her head down to look under the table, and spotted a rather bedraggled looking little filly who had wrapped the curtain about her. She was clutching a teddy bear that, for some reason, had its tongue sticking out. The little purple filly looked at her with wide, tearful, eyes, gasping as she tried to pull further into curtain to hide.

    “Is she alright?” Alto’s voice came from the doorway, causing the little filly to cry out. He looked abashed at the response to his presence.

    “Physically,” Flourish answered, “at least from what I can tell. But I think she’s seen what the gryphons are doing and… she’s probably a bit scared of you.” Alto snorted, but didn’t answer, leaving the mare to slowly move closer to the filly. The little foal inched closer to the burst window, but said nothing, her eyes wide as she stared at the white gryphon, almost not seeming to notice the mare until she carefully wiped some glass away and sat down next to her. “Nice view of the fight from up here, isn’t it? Got a name, sweetie?”

    The young filly sniffled and rubbed a hoof over her nose before answering, “I-indigo.”

    “Indigo… pretty name,” Flourish answered with a gentle smile. “You get lost?”

    “I dropped my teddy and… and then I couldn’t find Momma,” she sniffled, “every pony was running around and... and…”

    “So you just hid here?”

    “No, I found Momma,” she crowed happily, and at the gray mare’s confused look, pointed down at the glowing bubble containing the Princess. Flourish had to squint to see her pointing to the quartet of ‘civilians’ that were with Skillet. “I can’t figure how to get down there… I… I tried but I keep getting turned around. And then the glass burst and…” She held up a hoof with a small shard of glass in it. It was minor, but Flourish winced anyway, the filly managed to cut herself pretty good right in a sensitive spot of the hoof. That had to be painful.

    “Well, fear not, little Indigo, Flourish is here! Y’see that big stallion near your Momma? The one with the really broad chin?” Flourish asked, and waited for the little filly to nod before continuing. “That’s where I’m going. I was fetching something we needed, and was about to go rejoin him when we heard you.”

    “Really?” the filly asked, her ears perking. The look of hope on her face warmed the former guard’s heart, “Can you take me with you?”

    “I don’t see why not! Besides, there are some nice medical ponies down there that can help with that hoof of yours,” she answered with a grin.

    “Thank you!” Indigo cried, throwing a hug about the mare’s middle. Even Alto had to smile from the doorway.

    Given their perspective and the distraction of the hug, the pair of ponies never saw the errant blast coming until it crashed into the wall below them, through the floor behind them, and into the ceiling as it continued on its way. Flourish barely managed a startled shout, pulling Indigo towards her as debris sprayed her.

    “Look out!” Alto cried, but it was too late, and a large chunk of stone interrupted the mare from her attempted teleport, stunning her. She fell over senseless, the little filly screaming as the wall made a rather distressed rumble. To the gryphon’s horror, the entire thing seemed to pull free from the structure, starting a slow tumble forward as it separated from the palace itself.

    Everything seemed to slow to a crawl before his eyes. He could see, clearly, what he could do, what he SHOULD do. How he could rush forward and grab both, leaping through the window and out into the air. The bulk of the debris had fallen; he’d be able to get through safely. His claws twitched, muscles tensing as he almost rushed forward… then another audible crack that sent him skittering back and away from it, ducking fearfully back around the doorway as his mind was suddenly crowded with all the ways it could go horribly wrong.

    He watched with wide eyes as the window and it’s “passengers” slipped further, only the little girl’s screams bringing any attention to their predicament. He realized he could scream too, get help… but his beak refused to open, he just watched with wide eyes as guilt hammered away at him.

    “I have it!” a metallic voice shouted from below, and something thudded into the wall of the palace. It was accompanied by crunching sounds as the heavy Manticore armour scaled the wall with its claws, and physically braced against it, slamming its body and making the little girl scream even more when the leonine head came over the edge. “Relax, little filly, I vill not let you fall.” Only then did he notice Alto.

    “Ah, zere you are. Come, I need your azzizztance,” he called, yet Alto still ducked back in the doorframe. “Alto, I need your help, I can only braze zis for zo long!”

    “I-I can’t…” the gryphon squawked nervously, another crack coming from the wall and showering the crying filly and her would be savior with dust. Fear surged across his features, causing the suited unicorn to frown.

    “Vhat haz gotten into you? You’ve never been zis zkittizh before…” Burner mused, but was interrupted by a sudden alarm and a warning light. His hooves went to work, flying across the controls. “No time, zis vall iz about to give way! Alto! I need your help now, or ve vill all fall!”

    “B-but…” Alto stammered, pushing forward through the doorway, but shying back every time a new crack or crunch sounded from the damaged architecture.

    “NOW!” Burner shouted, making Alto jump visibly. For a moment, Burner thought he pushed too hard and the gryphon would turn tail and run, but to his immense relief, Alto instead rushed forward. It was not lost on the unicorn that his gryphon teammate’s claws were shaking as he gathered up Flourish’s limp form under one foreleg, and the filly’s stiff and terrified body under the other.

    The superstructure gave way under the power armour’s claws, dropping all four of them into the air. The gryphon looked apologetic at the falling unicorn as he flared his wings and took to the air, ducking out of the fall of debris, and barely dodging around several large blocks of stone with his “payload”.

    Burner rolled his armour away from the wall, trying to emulate the motion of a cat as his fore-claws struck ground first. Unfortunately the back half of the armour was too stiff to turn like he was attempting to, and the rear legs caught on their side and sent him down to the ground with a thud. Still, it was far more gentle a landing than he deserved… and then he looked up. Those very stones that Alto had deftly avoided were bearing down on him. He might be able to destroy one or two of them, but the entire thing threatened to bury him!

    A scream shattered the air above him, and the unicorn watched as the sonic wave shattered the stones, leaving only a rain of small pebbles and dust to fall down on him.  Quickly he rolled to his hooves, or at least his armoured claws, and stood up. He watched as Alto pulled up short of the protective shield, setting Flourish down. She was unsteady on her hooves, but was shaking off the effects of her braining, and leaving Alto to guide her through the shield bubble.

    “Kaos, I found Alto, but I zink zomthing iz wrong…”

    “You’re behind all of this, I just know it…”

    The conviction in her voice belied the condition she found herself in. Princess Celestia, the ruler of the Ponylands, and the once ruler the Equestrian nation, now lay helpless and wounded in the battle to determine the fate of the lands she protected. She was destined to be the first casualty of this war, it seemed. It had not been the first shot, that belonged to her ponies, but she was the first wounded. And yet the Princess still had the strength and conviction enough to curse the statue she now rested in the shadow of. How long he would remain a statue, she could not say, but for now she could only lie in repose and attempt to heal.

    The statue was an imposing presence that loomed over her, and Celestia blamed him for every moment of this battle. The Draconequus had been captured in what looked like a writhing contortion, struggling against the slow progression of stone as it had rendered him naught more than a statue. Now that stone surface was cracking, with a large gash in the stone over one leg, and hairline fractures spider-webbing out from it and over his leg and hips. Celestia guessed it would be only hours, if not less, before Discord would be free once more. Maybe he would run rampant over the gryphons if they should win this battle, Celestia mused, managing a pained smile at the thought.

    Celestia ignored the slight sting from the healer’s spell and sucked in a breath. The dragon had narrowly missed a killing blow. She had been mauled and would likely be hours trying to heal the damage, perhaps slightly less with the assistance of her ponies. The dragon technically did far more damage than the Solar Princess would ever admit, if only to prevent worry. She could heal the wound, she was immortal after all, but time was needed. Time was one thing they didn’t have a lot of now, but with her foreleg completely missing and her wing shredded she was in no condition to assist. Every scrap of her magic was taken with the slow process of healing and keeping herself alive, and she could only spare the briefest of spells for anypony other than herself. That angered her perhaps more than the fact she had been injured so easily, that she could not assist her ponies as they fought. It had been many millennia since she had been wounded so severely, perhaps not since the first battle of the Lunar War. Celestia could only suppose she’d grown soft from the years of peace. Maybe Luna was right, she should have worn the armour before rushing to the statue.

    A lavender bubble kept her from the rest of the battle, and the blind pony who created it sat near the edge closest to the battle with an expression the Princess could not read. Galaxi held her foreleg gingerly against her chest, the sprain obviously bothering her, but she did not move from her vigil. Behind her, almost literally on her tail, Trixie lay unconscious still. Attempts to rouse her, to wake her, had failed. Concerns that her injuries might be more severe than the unicorn Captain’s initial assessment were carefully left unsaid, especially given the nature of her immortality. Celestia felt an old pain lance through her heart at the thought of loosing yet another pupil, especially one so recently taken under her wing. Filigree stood near, almost in vigil over the wounded Princess, even though she was obviously in pain herself. Celestia longed to relieve her and tell her to lie down, but she knew the gryphoness would not so long as the battle raged. The medical ponies had used their magic to lessen her pain, but she refused their attempt to put her under to prevent further injury to her ribs, and her blue eyes watched the battle carefully. Towards the back of the bubble Skillet sat attentively, his eyes watching the fight with intense scrutiny as well, and the Princess could see his hoof itch to help in some way. Still, she was thankful he’d taken charge of the “civilians”, even if she did not yet understand who the guard was that felt they were needed there on the field. She of course knew Relic and Quagga, the former looking confused and the latter stoic in the face of battle. Thyme was all but whimpering, the poor cook hardly suited for this sort of excitement, but Honey was keeping her as calm as possible.

    “Delivery!” a new voice cried, and Flourish led a white gryphon carrying a trembling filly into the bubble. He refused to put the filly down, even as Honey rushed forward to hug the little one tightly, almost bursting into tears at the sight of her daughter. A small bit of hope shining in the bleak field of battle, Celestia realized, but little hope is better than none. Flourish corralled one of the medics and pointed out the foals bleeding hoof, and they laid the small girl down and began to extract the shard of glass.

    With Indigo rescued and in the hooves of her mother, Flourish turned to her own beau and, after a quick nuzzle, hoofed over the bag of headsets. The burly stallion smiled broadly when his eyes fell upon them and, after listening to Flourish, nodded his understanding and quickly began testing and sorting which headsets were working. Once sure he was off and running, she quickly kissed his cheek and vanished in a puff of smoke, rejoining the battle.

    It was in that moment the shield opened and allowed another pony to enter. Spectrum quickly trotted across the shielded area, offering the wounded Princess a nod of respect on her way to Skillet. She had been followed by the suited zebra, who paused at the edge of the shield to regard Galaxi through the lavender tinted magic. She didn’t look back, not that her blind eyes could, but the shield seemed to form a bubble on the surface, encompassing him before the shield before him opened to allow him entry. The bubble disappeared after he entered, leaving only the smooth shield behind him.

    “For a moment, I didn’t think you’d allow me access,” Kaos noted with a half smile.

    “I almost didn’t,” the mare responded flatly. Her tone of voice left little doubt what she thought of him, and with an understanding nod, he moved past her. He quickly trotted over to Spectrum, who immediately took the hoof full of headsets from Skillet and handed them to Kaos. The zebra stallion, in turn, called for Zilch over his own headset, who appeared almost instantly, hopping out of her own portal.

    Celestia couldn’t help herself, she stared. Zilch… the very individual she’d searched for years to find, standing almost right before her. The Princess would have reached out a hoof to her, had her leg still been attached, as a wave of sadness washed over her. All those years, those failures she hadn’t been able to apologize for, everything she needed and wanted to say… It all vanished when the suited mare glanced over her shoulder. She had no pupils, like Galaxi, but the Princess could feel her eyes upon her. Then, it was over. The mare shook her head, just the barest of motions, before looking back to Kaos.

    Anger flooded through Celestia, unbidden and yet equally justified. This… this stallion, he dares to turn her beautiful dream into a nightmare! He orchestrated events, even as Discord slowly fought to free himself of his prison, she could only lie beneath him, a helpless sacrifice! To her shock, Kaos stepped away from Zilch, moving near her to sit on his flank, watching as Zilch started to reach through her portals, collecting the oddly shaped headsets his team was using, and replacing it with the more streamlined version Luna’s team used.

    “This is your fault,” she accused. Instead of answering the zebra adjusted his tie. “All of this, you orchestrated it.”

    “No,” he answered after a long pause, “I only followed his orders.”

    “’Him’ who?” she demanded.

    “You will find out shortly, Princess,” a new voice answered. Even Kaos was startled by the new voice, and turned to try and find the very feminine sounding voice. “It will not be long now, I assure you,” the voice continued, but Kaos was surprised to see who spoke it. One of the few guards to stay with the Princess under the shield, a muscular stallion with a shining white coat and wearing the regalia of the Princess’ guard, had the voice of a young mare it seemed.    

    “You… I do not know your name,” Celestia said simply, something that caused those guard who had stayed close to bristle, the trio surging forward to form an impromptu barrier between the Princess and this fake. Even the wounded Filigree stepped forward to interpose herself between them, despite the medic’s objection. The stallion just smiled and took off the guard helmet, carefully avoiding his horn, and set it on the ground.

    “There’s little need for further deception at this point,” the “stallion” said, and smiled. His form began to waver, colors surging over the form in oddly random patterns before settling on dark red coat with a warm orange mane and tail. The pony was also now very much a filly. “There, that’s better. It’s so difficult to force what form I take.”

    “Who are you?” Celestia asked simply.

    “The Amazing Mare-Do-Well,” she answered with a smile, “at least, that’s what I go by. I don’t recall what name I used before that anymore. But I do know the Prince is coming.”

    “You know the Prince?” Kaos asked, surprised.

    “Prince who?” Celestia asked almost simultaneously, and then shot a glare at Kaos.

    “The parts of the puzzle are almost complete, Princess,” Mare-Do-Well answered with an infuriating certainty, primping her curled bangs that only barely hid the stub of a horn. “You won’t like the answer, I’m sure, but your enemies will like it even less.”

    “You’re the agent the Prince sent, aren’t you?” Kaos asked simply.

    “No,” she answered simply, “but he did contact me to do some work for him.”

    “Why?” Celestia asked, her voice pained. “You are a hero! You gave hope to those ponies in regions of the city I could not hope to send the guard!”

    The mare’s expression went dark for a moment. “You didn’t even try,” Mare-Do-Well stated firmly, “you and your guard hid in your ivory towers and pretended we didn’t even exist. You turned a blind eye to organized crime, atrocities, and horrors no pony should have to even know existed.”

    Celestia sighed softly, “No, we did not turn a blind eye to it. But I had enacted laws, and those laws apply as much to the enforcers as they do the rest of the populace. To violate that would be to violate the trust my ponies place in me every day.”

    “Pretty words,” the other mare snorted, “but that isn’t much consolation to the mare being pimped out, or the victim of blackmail, or even --”

    “Ladies, please,” Kaos interjected, “now is not the time. We have a battle on our doorstep, and events are accelerating out of control. We’re only just now getting on the same page, and apparently my lost member has now been found. That said, I’m sure this battle could use the help of every pony who is capable.” He looked pointedly at Mare-Do-Well.

    “I’m not sure how much help I’d be,” the mare offered with an apologetic shrug. “Ask me to fight organized crime, no problem, but a villain the power of Eclipse over there? I’m not so sure I’d be up to the task.”

    “One does not have to fight to be of help,” Celestia said softly, “if you know the appropriate spells, we need healers.”

    “Yes, you do,” the mare snarked.

    “No, not for me,” Celestia answered smoothly, “for the rest of the ponies sheltered here. Anything that can be done for them would be welcome.”

    “I’ll… I’ll see what I can do,” Mare-Do-Well answered.

    The Princess and the zebra watched her move away, talking briefly to one of the medical mares, even as the guard slowly relaxed, not that they weren’t carefully watching the fake guard that had snuck in. Their first inclination was to arrest her, but the Princess was still in charge.

    “Kaos,” the Princess said softly, “I may have misjudged you. You have flown to our side when this invasion came, and I fear I am not showing appropriate gratitude.”

    “I wouldn’t have shown me much gratitude either,” the zebra admitted. “We knew this invasion was coming, Princess. The Prince said he sent warnings, and they were ignored, so he took action. He knew your sister’s team could not handle the incoming threat. Technically, we cannot either. But only by freeing one you consider to be the greatest threat could this new threat be stopped.”

    “I see,” Celestia answered, her voice tightly controlled against her roiling emotions, “and how did you know this information?”

    “Your gryphoness will want this knowledge…”

    “Me?” Filigree asked, hobbling forward. “What would this have to do with me?”

    “Now is not the time to go over all the details,” Kaos noted simply, “but my team rescued a young gryphoness who had been tossed into the desert by Eclipse, via a portal of some sort. She carried with her much of Eclipse’ plans, including the clutch of eggs he found, and plans to ally with the gryphons. Said gryphoness goes by the name of Verdigris --“

    “VERDIGRIS!” the gryphoness cried grabbing the zebra painfully on his shoulders and picking her up. “I swear, if you’ve hurt her…” she growled.

    “She is in good health,” Kaos choked out, “but Eclipse left her with a number of wounds. We brought in a healer to handle the worst of it, though she still has a bit of a limp from a sprain. Once we’re done here, I will be happy to reunite you, though I am unsure how happy the reunion will be.”

    “Why is that?” Celestia asked calmly, before Filigree could demand it far more forcefully.

    “We discovered she is a Special as well,” he noted simply, then yelped as he was dropped from the numb claws of Filigree.

    “Thank you,” Celestia said for the stunned gryphoness. “She won’t admit it, but she’s been worried sick about her little sister.”

    “We can save all that for after the fight,” Kaos answered, straightening his tie, “I need to get back out there.”

    Kaos vanished through the opening in the shield before Filigree could recover, possibly a good thing, since the medic ponies had a fit when she whooped and almost literally jumped into the air. Celestia giggled at the exuberant celebration from the stoic gryphon, even as she was forced to lie down, when her eyes fell over Mare-Do-Well, who was tending to Galaxi’s sprain.

    “You shouldn’t exist,” she said softly. For a moment, she didn’t think the mare heard her, but a thin smile told her otherwise.

    “Why is that, Princess?” she asked as she nodded to the psychic mare. Galaxi still couldn’t put the leg down, or put any weight on it, but at least it didn’t seem to pain her as much.

    “There is only a small group of ponies who would know that name,” she answered, “and a majority of them have passed away.”

    “Really? Huh… I could have sworn I read it somewhere,” Mare-Do-Well noted with a frown.

    “Even fewer ponies could make that claim…” Celestia answered, her eyes narrowing.

    Mare-Do-Well shrugged, and started looking over Trixie, letting Celestia stew in her own suspicions…

    She barely heard the explosion over the stinging sensation that gathered in her chest.

    Nor did she hear the shouts, as pain exploded where the tingling started, and hurled her backwards and off her hooves. Her wings felt numb and refused to respond, not that she could tell which way was up, and her sight was still filled with blinding blue-white. It took her mind a second to piece together that was what must have happened, even as she felt the sensation of flight, and of falling. Her mind refused to focus on what she was about to hit.

    “Oof!” someone grunted, and the mare only belatedly recognized the feel of… something catching her. “You need to lay off Skillet’s dinners, you’re gaining weight!” the unknown figure cried, and the mare smiled. It had to be Flourish…

    “Is she alright?” another voice asked, one she didn’t know well, but it had a nice husky sound to it with just a trace of bass. A little too raspy to be a singer, but one of those wonderfully deep voices she could listen to for hours, even if the language was slightly stilted in an odd way.

    “She’ll recover,” the first voice noted and as she was lain down on the ground. She recognized the smell of grass and the cool feel of it against her coat and wings. She tried to move, to shift her head, but only managed a slight spasm… her muscles still refused to respond.

    “We’ve been spotted,” the handsome voice noted, and she found herself wishing that she could see the owner. Maybe he’d be a nice, attractive stallion. “Get down, I’ll warp the ground to shield us. Crosswind! See if you can distract the bastard, Spectrum is down.” She couldn’t hear the answer from Crosswind, but the scent changed, a more earthy scent replacing the grass.

    “Watch after her, I’m gonna try and distract him. It’ll take a few moments for her to recover, I hope. She may be resilient, but a lightning-bolt like that would hurt any-pony,” the other voice said. She heard the stallion agree, followed by what sounded like a sudden inhalation of breath. Only a sweet smell drifted across her nose afterwards, one smelling of peppermint and… something. She couldn’t place it, but it was familiar.

    A hoof pressed gently on her chin, lifting her head up slightly. She tried to open her eyes… wait, they were already open? She tried to focus then, but found it difficult; everything still looking washed out and faded. Still, she could make out some black smudges on him, sort of like stripes. How exotic! Yet that rang a bell somewhere in the depths of her mind, something not so nice or comforting. She wanted to ignore it, but it started to push its way forward, shoving stray thoughts out of the way undeterred.

    “Ka…os?” she managed, her tongue feeling fat and clumsy.

    “Good, you’re starting to come around,” he answered, before a loud thud interrupted him. He shouted something she couldn’t quite make out, the darkness swirling around her for a moment before being drowned out by light… so bright she had to clench her eyes shut.

    Fortunately there was no tingling this time, at least, not the same sort of tingling. She did feel slightly disoriented, and she felt like she was lying on something hard now, but she definitely wasn’t struck by another lightning bolt.

    “Good timing, Zilch,” Kaos said from the side, and she could make out a white blob next to the striped one in the corner of her peripheral vision. Then the white blob seemed to fall through the ground as the other approached her. “We need to get you on your hooves as soon as possible, Miss Star.”

    “Wha… what happened?” she managed to stammer. Her tongue didn’t feel so heavy anymore, but it was still hard to talk.

    “The short version? Eclipse let loose a lightning bolt at point blank range, right into your chest,” he said softly, or maybe worriedly, “I… we half thought he killed you. I’ve never heard of a pony outside of Ultrapony surviving a blast like that.”

    “He wash… was my father,” she answered, and twitched a hoof. Feeling was starting to return to her extremities even as her mind seemed to slowly recover from the attack. “I’m not as powerful as he was but… I’m pretty tough. I think Filigree is probably tougher…”

    “In this case, it’s probably a good thing that she wasn’t out there,” a new voice, metallic and strange sounding, could be heard. Thankfully, it was one she knew. “Those metal wings of hers would’ve acted as a conductor and made it worse, possibly even arcing it to a nearby pony.”

    “What’s your status, Clockwork?” Spectrum asked, finally managing to lift her head a bit and look to the mechanized and armoured pony. She frowned at the flickering eye of Clockwork’s helm.

    “Could be better,” she admitted, “my back-up armour is holding up, but now I remember why I took it offline; it needed repairs.”

    The zebra asked, “Will you be alright for this battle?” That echoed the very question Spectrum had been about to voice.

    “It will protect me,” she answered with certainty, and both Spectrum and Kaos were surprised when the flickering eye blazed to life in full, almost twice as brightly as its twin. Clockwork didn’t give the pair a chance to ask, her wings snapping to life and lifting off in a streak of blue.

    “Your team,” Kaos noted softly as he watched Clockwork streak away, joining Professor Burner in laying down a near constant barrage of fire on Eclipse, “is at once haunted and blessed. I do not know how else to describe it.”

    “Luna’s team,” Spectrum corrected, forcing her shaky legs to support her, and she climbed off the stone bench Kaos had placed her on. “I am just supposedly the field commander.”

    “Supposedly?” Kaos asked carefully.

    Spectrum shook her head, her voice weak, “I haven’t been doing much leading. I just sort of let the Princess and Skillet do all the work.”

    “Now is not the time to start doubting your ability,” the zebra noted with a lopsided smile. “You have gotten us all online with each other, and now is hardly the time to let doubt drag you into the mire. I have been defaulting to you, due to your experience, and Skillet is not on the line. There were not enough headsets for him.”

    Aching wings spread wide, and Spectrum nodded. “You’re right,” she said softly, “my team needs me right now. I can worry about that later…” With a powerful stroke, the wings bore her into the air. She quickly looked over the field of battle, drinking in every detail she could. It was an odd bit of focused action, one that confused her at first. The dragons and gryphons hadn’t attacked beyond taking apart the siege weapons that the Earth Pony battalion had erected in the field. Anything that could potentially do damage to the dragons was systematically torn down and destroyed, but nothing else. Instead, they simply circled above, with two dragons, one white with an odd gryphoness and the other gold with a very imperious looking gryphon watching and hovering above all. She guessed the latter was Goldtalon, and the gryphoness was quite probably “godkiller”, given the way she forced the hole into the shield before. She also noticed that other than the small shield protecting the Princess, the dragons had destroyed any attempt to erect another magic shield. They were focusing on demoralizing the guard.

    “Alright, I have an idea,” Spectrum said into her headset, “listen closely, this will take precise timing…”

    “Go.”

    The order galvanized her, and the engines thrummed as she rocketed forward. Her wings flared wide as she arced herself skyward, bringing all four of her hoof ejectors to bear. Clockwork grinned under the helmet, and using an alternating pattern, she unleashed at his head. Predictably, Eclipse instinctively turned against the flow to protect his face.

    “Junkyard, go.”

    The diamond dog nodded at the command over the headset and surged forward, moving quickly in on the alicorn’s blind side. It didn’t matter that the alicorn’s head whipped back around to face him, the canine felt anger welling up inside him and his newly acquired stone hand cracked as it tightened into a fist… which he slammed right into the face of Eclipse, shattering the stone with the force.

    “Flourish, Zilch, go.”

    With a roar of anger, Eclipse surged forward at Junkyard. The Diamond Dog faded back out of reach and placed his trust in his teammate, and just before the alicorn overtook him, his horn glowing with a horrible light, a glowing white portal appeared and yanked the canine sideways through it, pulling him out of harm’s way…

    …and put Eclipse right into the line of attack from the erratic unicorn known as Flourish, who slashed at the alicorn’s good eye with the glowing blade from her horn. The stallion ducked his head to the side, barely avoiding the strike with an angry snort.

    “Princess…”

    The lunar princess needed little prompting, her moonlight daggers flashing through the air towards the turned head. Eclipse seemed to panic for a split second, his eye growing wide before a wave of magic shattered the daggers and forced both unicorn and Princess back away from him.

    “Burner, open fire. Clockwork, make it rain.”

    The alicorn roared out in anger, wings spread widely. “What do you hope to --“ he started, when the dual line of fire slammed into him, one salvo from above, and the other from in front, and both seeming to aim for his head… his eye.

    “Enough!” he roared, and lightning sprung from his horn, firing upward at the flying armour.

    “That’s your cue, Crosswind.”

    The lightning never reached its intended target, intercepted by the cocky pegasus with a dark cloud that seemed to absorb, bounce the lightning around, and send it back at the caster. Eclipse had to canter back, else take the full brunt of his own lightning bolt.

    “Kaos, Zilch, go.”

    The ground shook as Eclipse stomped his hooves in anger. His horn flashed, finding whatever target happened to first catch his eye. The almost glowing figure of Zilch was the first to attract it, and the dark spell lashed out at her. Zilch ducked sideways, through the portal, and avoided it entirely. He frowned, and tried again, and again, and again! Each attempt drew more of his ire as the filly simply ducked through her portals. In one case she didn’t even MOVE, just intercepted his shot with a portal!

    He growled angrily at the impudent filly, his focus intense as he tried to attack her. He didn’t even notice the others had shifted from his line of sight… or the “thing” above him. A thing made of two nearby statues, a bench, and a hoof-full of flower bushes. The stone flagpole made an interesting weapon for the cobbled together golem, especially when it tried to stab the tip at his eye.

    “My turn…”

    Eclipse cantered back from the golem and turned away from the stabbing flag tip, which was being wielded by the mishmash of statues and parts like a spear. It continued to push him back until Eclipse seemed to remember himself, and his horn glowed when he stomped his hooves, the shockwave shredding the stone and shrubbery alike until it fell useless to the ground.

    With a smirk, the alicorn turned to face Kaos, preparing to turn him into a bloody smear on the grass. That’s when it hit him…

    Technically, that’s when she hit him, and hit him hard. Her hoof caught him across the face with such force he was almost literally spun around. Had he not flinched she would have contacted his eye square on, and even as it was she cut the forehead above the eye with her hoof, and blood dripped down, partially blinding him.

    “You…” he seethed.

    “You’re one eye from midnight,” she answered evenly, “and it’s time to punch your clock.”

    “One eye from…?” Eclipse asked, and barely managed to turn his head when she followed up.

    “Flourish!” she called, and the teleporting unicorn flashed into existence in his face, slashing at him. “One eye from midnight… it’s a gryphon saying. It means you’ve lost an eye… you’re half blind, and at a tactical disadvantage. It means we have a target.”

    Flourish barely managed to duck the riposte, her mystic blade met the alicorn’s horn. A quick twist from the stronger stallion sent her flipping away before she vanished in a cloud of teleportation. She was quickly replaced by Zilch, who struck her hoof at the eye from the safety of her portal.

    “Like that matters,” Eclipse noted with supreme confidence, the wound over his eye vanishing before their eyes, “even if you are lucky enough to blind me, I’d heal quickly enough.” He lashed out a hoof at the next portal that formed, catching the leg that stuck out and bending it in a painfully awkward direction.

    “How long would it take you to heal?” Spectrum asked, and battered his nose with a pair of quick strikes, forcing him to release Zilch. “A minute? Two? How long do you think it would take Princess Luna to destroy you?”

    “What?”

    “You made a big deal the last time we met about how your former connection with Luna weakened her to your attacks,” Spectrum stated, slamming her hoof at his eye again. Eclipse moved, and it caught his cheekbone with enough force it would have shattered the bones of a lesser pony. “I’m willing to bet that the reason you focused on her is because you are as vulnerable to her as she is to you…”

    As if to prove the point, daggers of pure moonlight swept towards Eclipse and forced him to duck, his blade quickly reforming to parry them away. A sudden blow to his gut caused Eclipse to come up short for a moment, cantering back, only to be followed by the pegasus. He barely ducked his head away at the incoming strike.

    “Enough…” Eclipse said, his single eye glowing with fury.

    “No, it’s not,” Spectrum countered, and struck her hoof at his face.

    The shockwave of the impact rocked every pony back on their hooves, Spectrums’ attack blocked by the alicorn’s foreleg. “I said… ENOUGH!” Power burst from the alicorn, his body turning into a streaking shadow as he struck back.

    The dark form flew towards Spectrum, who crossed her forelegs in defense, only to feel the breeze as he passed her and slammed into the heavily armoured form behind her. Burner cried out as he went airborne, then blasted in mid air by a lightning bolt. Unfortunately Clockwork had been trying to stabilize him, so both armours went down at once.

    “You are NOTHING!” Eclipse shrieked, his form darting for Flourish and Zilch. Both began to teleport away from him, being pushed back as the dark form seemed to teleport himself, the shadow vanishing and reappearing at will. Spectrum could only hear the clashes as they fought, the trio of forms nothing but flickers against the sky. Zilch hit the ground first, then was plowed into by Flourish just as she started to get up.

    “You are WEAK!” he bellowed, striking out at Junkyard, rocking the massive canine back on his heels. Then he was a whirlwind surrounding the Diamond Dog, striking him from all sides and bouncing him around even as the dog tried to cover himself with his arm and endure the assault. Finally, the dog simply collapsed to the ground.

    “You are PATHETIC!” His horn glowed with lightning, and he fired it off at Crosswind. The pegasus was quick enough to catch it in the cloud, but before he could send it back, Eclipse sent another, and another, and another. Crosswind struggled to catch the bolts as the streaked at him… until the cloud exploded with lightning. With a scream the pegasus plummeted to the ground.

    “You are nothing but INSECTS!” he raged, and lashed out at Luna this time, his dark blade intercepting her daggers as he lashed out with his hooves, pummeling her with loud clangs against the armour. At first it seemed to do nothing, until the Princess’ eyes widened, and the realization that he was striking the armour and creating shockwaves that penetrated into her. She crumbled to the ground, gasping painfully and hugging her forelegs about her chest.

    Kaos moved forward to try and protect the Princess, but found himself grasped and hurled across the field, getting stuck head first in the shrubbery. Only then did Eclipse turn to face Spectrum.

    “And you… you will DIE!” he screamed, and Spectrum braced herself. She didn’t shrink, she didn’t blink; she met his eye evenly, staring into the rage and fury held there, right from his soul.

    She met him with almost a detached calm as he bore down upon her.

    “It’s time.”

    Almost no one inside Galaxi’s shield heard the statement. Their attention was riveted on Eclipse and what just happened. For one brief, shining moment, it looked as if Spectrum’s plan would work. Then Eclipse turned into a monster, a wraith of the battlefield, and tore through every player with seemingly little effort. He simply destroyed them. Their cheers turned to silent horror.

    Only one heard the voice, and she turned to look. She called herself Mare-Do-Well, but when she woke that morning she knew she was part of something more. Now, those discarded headsets from the stallions all but beckoned to her. Slowly she moved towards them, where she heard the voice come from, her expression one of confused curiosity.

    Celestia’s eyes were drawn from the horrible scene as the shape-shifting mare moved passed her. She recognized the expression, and the answer teased her from the back of her mind. But it wasn’t until she saw one of the headsets move, its earpiece curling almost as if it were a living thing towards the mare’s hoof, that the answer leapt to her mind.

    “No…” Celestia whispered in a tiny voice.

    She screamed.

    It didn’t matter how hard she tried not to, but she couldn’t help it. The pain was too much. Eclipse slammed into her again, driving her down into the ground with his forehooves. The ground seemed to shake with the stomps, but there was no-pony to help her now, she had to fight back.

    “I’m gonna…” she tried to threaten, but another stomp interrupted it.

    “You’re going to do nothing,” he taunted, “because I’m going to kill you. Oh yes, I’m going to kill you slowly, painfully. I’m going to make it last. I’m going to crush each of your legs, one at a time. Break every single bone in each leg before I RIP IT OFF!” he shouted into her face, any hint of sanity lost in his fury and rage.

    She slammed a hoof into his nose, but it was far too weak to push him back. He responded, by batting it wide… and slammed his hoof down on it, forcing another scream from her.

    “I’m going to tear each one of your legs off, like a bug, yes, like a bug. Make you roll around like a damned insect while you can only helplessly watch the blood drain from your body…” he taunted. She struck with her other hoof, which he batted wide again, slamming his hoof down on that leg as well, forcing them spread and leaving her helpless.

    “Why?” she managed to strangle out.

    “Why? I’d think that’s simple…” he noted, and reared back slightly before stamping both legs down on hers, drinking in her pained scream, “I’m the villain.”

    “Why me?” she asked painfully, struggling against the tears and the pain. “You’ve been focusing on me, even ignoring Princess Luna to come after me, why?”

    “Because of HIM!” Eclipse shouted in her face, forcing her to turn away from his putrid breath.

    “Him?”

    “Ultrapony,” he hissed, drawing a startled look from the mare. “Do you know how I survived your little assault last time? I absorb other ponies, and Ultrapony thought he could take me on himself. Even in my injured state, the fool all but gave himself to me, thinking he could control me from the inside. Now the last vestiges of who he was exists still within me, and I’m going to delight in torturing him until he finally is absorbed and perishes. He’s inside me now, screaming at me, shouting at me, almost literally begging me to stop. And his misery only makes me STRONGER!!”

    Spectrum’s eyes widened at the realization. For a moment, the leader and battle worn veteran vanished, and only the eyes of a filly remained. “Daddy…” she whispered, and tears fell from the corners of her eyes… Then she clenched her eyes shut, and with a growl, began to force her legs up, and Eclipse with it.

    “Awww, isn’t that cute, you think you can fight back,” Eclipse taunted, and stomped with his legs again. Spectrum screamed once more, but she started again. “What could you possibly hope to achieve?” he taunted.

    “Get off her!”

    Eclipse recoiled and a streak of lavender impacted his chest, driving him off the prone Spectrum. His eye blazed as he looked up, and limping towards him between the fallen ponies, a single pony approached him. Her coat was pure white and her eyes blank slates, but fury etched her very features and her mane blew in the false wind of her power. Lavender energy coursed over her form, like sparks thrown from a broken piece of machinery, and poured from those blank eyes. The star shaped mark on her forehead glowed even brighter with intense energies, which once more reached out for him.

    Eclipse growled and loosed his own magic back at the lavender tendrils, and darkness met them midway. Both pony and alicorn shuddered with the impact as magic coursed and crashed into each other. One psychic pony versus one magic alicorn, as the powers clashed and fought against one another.

    “G-galaxi?” Spectrum asked, surprised as she looked up at the figure. The other pony paid her no heed, focused entirely on Eclipse.

    “Let us fall back,” another voice told her, and she felt a cool, soothing magic grip her as the pegasus was drawn back. Only then did she spot Luna, still clutching a foreleg over her chest, as she hobbled back towards her sister, levitating Spectrum with her.

    “Over here!” Kaos called, half catching Spectrum as she was set down before rushing to support the Princess. A medic rushed over to the Princess, only to be waved off and redirected to Spectrum.

    “Galaxi can’t hold her off forever,” Clockwork put in as she landed, dropping Zilch and Flourish down to the grass, “I’m going to give her a hand.”

    “Wait…” Spectrum called, “I know who Eclipse is.”

    “I’d have thought zat vaz obviouz,” Burner noted as he came up, supporting Junkyard with his shoulder and an unconscious Crosswind on his back. The Diamond Dog looked more concerned about the pegasus than himself.

    “It’s… it’s more than just Nightmare,” she said softly, “It’s also my father.”

    Dead silence filly the area for several moments as that information sunk in. “Ultrapony?” Luna finally asked. “Eclipse is the Nightmare possessing Ultrapony?”

    “That… that’s bad,” Clockwork said softly. “It also explains why we aren’t hurting him. Ultrapony is damned near invulnerable to everything! If the Nightmare is inside that….” She didn’t have to finish the thought, the ponies present simply shuddered. “Regardless, he can be hurt. I’ve done it once… and Galaxi needs help.”

    “No, hang back,” Spectrum ordered, and let out a cry as the medic managed to seat her dislocated shoulder. It was only by some miracle that they weren’t broken. “I think… my father is still in there, still fighting. Eclipse said my father was inside him, yelling and begging and shouting for him to stop hurting me.”

    “You think you can draw your father out enough to help us fight Eclipse?” Luna asked simply.

    Spectrum yelped as her other shoulder as pushed back into place, and then forced herself to stand up, nudging the medic pony away as she did. “I have to try.” She didn’t wait for a response, instead turning to charge at the larger Alicorn as fast as her exhausted wings could manage.

    Clockwork normally wouldn’t have been able to tear her eyes away from Galaxi, the urge to rush in and help overwhelming, but an odd figure caught the her sensors with an odd surge of unidentifiable energy. “Who’s the mare?” she asked, arching her head towards the partially adorned guard mare.

    “She said she was Mare-Do-Well,” Filigree stated.

    “Mare-Do-Well?” she asked, surprised, and trotted closer to her. “What are you doing --“

    “Clockwork!” Celestia hissed, and the mare saw it too, the headset touching the shape-shifting mare’s hoof.

    “I finally… I know… I remember!” the mare cried out happily. “Clockwork! I finally remember and… and… oh no.”

    “That doesn’t sound good,” the armoured mare stated.

    “That’s because it isn’t,” Celestia answered, “she’s a lie.”

    “She’s lying?”

    “No, she is a lie,” Celestia corrected. “She doesn’t exist, not as her own pony. I should have realized it after she told me that she read about Mare-Do-Well somewhere, but I pieced it together too late. There were only two places she could have done that: in Ponyville’s local paper, or the friendship reports I used to receive from Twilight and her friends, this one written specifically by Lady Dash.”

    “Then you know…” Mare-Do-Well whispered, as she picked up one of the headsets. “She’s right; I’ve been living a lie. I didn’t know it but… but being reunited with a part of myself has allowed me to remember. I mean, I knew what I had to do when I woke up this morning,” she noted, picking up another headset, and another, while she talked, “but I only now know why I knew.”

    “What’s this ‘part of myself’ garbage?” Clockwork asked, a tightness entering into her voice.

    She held up a headset, which curled like a living creature. She wrapped it into her tail and picked up the final headset in her hoof and spoke gently, “Some of you wanted to know who the ‘Prince’ is… but he’s right here. He didn’t send these headsets, he is the headsets. He is….” And with a gasp, she lost the word as the headsets began to glow, blurring the air about her and flowing over her form, stretching and changing it.

    “He is Discord…” Celestia finished.

    “You cannot win.”

    Galaxi shuddered visibly, and finally collapsed onto the ground. She had matched the alicorn stroke for stroke, pitting her psychic power against his mystic one, but in the end it became a contest of endurance. A mere pony could never hope to achieve the sheer dominance of an alicorn, no matter how well trained they were. Magic coalesced about his horn, and he planned to erase one more insect from the world, a thorn in his side. She was, after all, the element of magic. Old wounds twitched with the thought of vengeance…

    “You’re fight is with me!” came the shout, and the hoof caught him across his blind-side. He was really growing annoyed with the abuse of his blind quarter. Still, even through the impact he forced himself to turn into the attack, grinning madly at the pegasus.

    “You again?” he asked, and sidestepped her next attack, slamming a spell into her chest. “Give up already, you cannot win.”

    “You have my father,” Spectrum growled in return. Her white coat smeared with mud and grass and blood. “I won’t give up, not now… not ever.”

    “Have it your way,” he answered, sounding almost bored as he turned and slammed both hooves into the hovering mare, launching her back into a nearby bench, which shattered under the impact. “I enjoy the hard way much more anyway.” His wings spread, and he launched himself at the pegasus, landing his forehooves into her chest.

    “Stop it!”

    “Oh shut it, you had your chance,” Eclipse retorted.

    “You’re hurting my daughter!”

    “That’s the point!” he answered, and stomped his hooves again, grinning satisfied at the scream it forced from his victim.

    “I said stop!”

    “Daddy?” the voice below asked, and suddenly Eclipse realized that for once, the voice wasn’t in his head. Eclipse frowned, his expression darkening.

    “What do you think you’re doing, Sunset Sparkle?” he taunted. “You’re nothing more than a dead stallion by now, this body is mine…”

    “The body was mine,” the stallion known as Ultrapony roared, “and I won’t let you hurt my daughter anymore!”

    “You don’t sound pleased to see me, Celestia.”

    “I’m not,” she hissed and a trio of guard-ponies stood between Celestia and the diminutive figure. His mis-matched eyes and goat like head swiveled to face each of the staring ponies in turn, the long whip-thin neck and mismatched limbs indicated he was exactly who the Princess claimed he was. His scaled tail lashed the air behind him, even as he seemed to be a small copy of the statue that towered over them. In fact, the only difference she could see is that he was slightly shorter than a pony.

    “I’m hurt! No really, I am. I went through all this trouble to try and save your kingdom, and now you turn on me,” he offered in a hurt voice.

    “After what you did to Lady Fluttershy you’re lucky I didn’t have you drawn and quartered!” the Princess growled uncharacteristically.

    To her surprise, the diminutive Discord sighed and looked down, “I never meant to hurt her. When I split myself into copies, as I’d done bazillions of times before, I was caught off-guard by a new wrinkle. Each separate part of who I was housed some part of my personality. It didn’t show immediately, but the longer I was split, the worse it got and… well… In the end, I ended up with me, the low power but smart half, and him, my high power but cruel twin. Maybe I should have given him a goatee or something; you might have noticed he was evil then.”

    “Not to rush things, My Prince, but is now the time for extended introductions and explanations?” Kaos asked, looking worriedly back at Spectrum and Eclipse.

    “No, I suppose it isn’t,” the Draconequus answered. “But, I have to wait until my darker half decides he’s ready to come out. I mean seriously, it’s rude to keep a gentleman waiting.”

    “I’m going to help my friends,” Clockwork growled, and turned her thrusters on.

    Discord watched her rocket away for a moment and sighed, rubbing his feline-like forearm. “If that part of me had known about this, I never would have befriended her…”

    “Yet another Fluttershy,” Celestia noted pointedly, making Discord wince.

    “Get off my friend!”

    Eclipse’ head barely whipped around in time to even see who shouted it. His attempt to flinch away was stymied by what felt like a physical force holding him still, only able to watch the attack home in, the blue white beams filling his vision before slamming into him, knocking him off his hooves.

    “Come on, Spectrum,” Clockwork answered, nodding as Kaos rushed up beside them.

    “Not yet,” she managed to hiss, and somehow her wings bore her aloft again. “That bastard has my father!” She somehow managed to push free of Kaos’ attempt to help and charged Eclipse again. Despite how slow her exhausted body responded, her hoof still caught him across the face, and his blazing turquoise eye fell upon her.

    “You little rat, I’m going to… ARGH!” Eclipse screamed.

    “Rainbow, please, run!! I can’t hold him for… nnggg… long,” the stallion answered in a long familiar voice.

    “Daddy… father… I’m sorry,” she said softly.

    “No offense, but this really isn’t the time!”

    “I may not have another chance…” she said softly, and spun in mid air, bucking Eclipse solidly on the nose, rocking him back on his hooves. “…and I will tear Eclipse apart with my teeth if I must to free you!”

    “And you von’t do it alone…” Burner stated, his armour clomping up behind Clockwork. Junkyard chuffed as he stepped up himself, flexing another replacement forearm. Crosswind fluttered overhead as Flourish and Zilch appeared to flank the group.

    Eclipse/Ultrapony looked over them for a moment, and then smiled. “Do it.”

    “That’s not going to work.”

    “What do you mean?” Celestia asked carefully. Her guards were still positioned between him and her, but he was sitting in the shadow of himself while waiting patiently for himself to break out… a thought which hurt her head just to consider. Still, he’d watched when Clockwork collected Galaxi and brought her back, then dove into the fight with Eclipse, followed shortly by every pony capable. Only those too injured to fight, incapable, and Alto for some reason, still resided near the Princess now that the shield was down.

    “Fighting Eclipse physically won’t work,” he said softly, “but the pieces are not quite in place. Some things are moving too fast and others too slowly.”

    “I would send the Elements against him, but your team knocked Trixie out cold,” Celestia noted pointedly, “and now Galaxi has overstrained herself as well.”

    “Yes, Clockwork brought her back here before jumping in to fight herself. Regardless, it wouldn’t have worked anyway,” he noted simply.

    “Why not? It worked on you…”

    “Pardon me, I misspoke, those elements wouldn’t work. Eclipse absorbed the energy from them once, and you know how that went. You need a similar, but different, energy,” Discord noted.

    Celestia blinked as pieces clicked into place. “Wait, you don’t mean…?”

    “Do you understand now, my dear Celestia? He would have just brushed your little ponies off; you needed Elements he’d never encountered before.”

    “So you… you knew all along? Did you set Relic up too?” she asked, nearly gasping at the scope of his plan, unsure if she should feel awed or sick at the wide net he had cast.

    “Not exactly,” Discord waved a hand, “but I did know some pony would search for them. I set out a few lures, put a few tantalizing clues in some esoteric places that would attract just the right sort of pony… and voila. We got two of them, not just one! And then, I had to make sure the arrogant one got his hooves on the one element….”

    “The missing element,” Celestia noted, closing her eyes. Her eyes opened halfway a moment later as if she could stare into the diminutive draconequus’ soul. “You made sure Eclipse found the Element of Sacrifice.”

    “No, I made sure Ultrapony found the Element, who himself went and in a fit of ego tried to control the Nightmare,” Discord corrected.

    “Why?”

    “Well, you know how uncontrollable Rainbow Dash’s son always was…”

    “Not that,” Celestia corrected, “why did you need him to find the element?”

    “You know I can’t reveal that yet, Celestia,” he winked, tapping the side of his goat-like nose with a gryphon claw hand, “the elements require a measure of innocence for their true natures to work, as I recall.”

    “I am surprised you’d even bother to know that.”

    Discord chuckled softly, “Just because I like to break the rules doesn’t mean I don’t know them.”

    “And what of the gryphons? Please tell me they are not part of your plan,” she begged softly, “I do not think I could forgive you if they were…”

    “No, dear Celestia, I’m afraid not,” he admitted. “I may embody chaos, but that does not mean I cannot be taken by surprise myself at times.”

    A loud “crack” interrupted further conversation. For a moment, the ponies around Celestia thought perhaps it was due to a particularly harsh shot from Junkyard on Eclipse. But instead, it was Discord who saw the truth.

    “Speaking of surprises… Finally! Do you have any idea how long we’ve been kept waiting on you?” the small figure asked his much larger twin, who growled darkly in response as he shook off the now loose fragments of marble.

    “Well well, what a nice little sacrifice for me,” he rumbled, reaching towards the solar princess.

    Discord interceded, throwing his small body in front of the grabbing claw, “Hold up! Stick to the plan! You remember, don’t you? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten the plan?”

    The larger discord grabbed the smaller and lifted him up in his clenched fist, “Plan? What plan?”

    “Oh for the love of… the PLAN! What we did all of this for! Come on, you can’t tell me I’m that thick!” the smaller Discord cried in frustration.

    “Oh, that plan,” the larger rumbled, and shrugged, “I gave up on that plan decades ago.”

    The smaller’s jaw fell open with an odd clanging sound in shock, and cried, “What?! How could… how could you just abandon it?”

    “Because you abandoned me!” the larger Discord roared, clutching both hands about the smaller and squeezing harshly. “You left me to rot here, trapped inside a statue!”

    “If you hadn’t --” the smaller one tried to squeak, but his large twin seemed little inclined to listen.

    “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been here?” he demanded, shaking the smaller copy about like a toy. “And now, NOW you want me to stick to the damned plan?! No! The hell with your plan, I’m out. I’m going to take my sacrifice, destroy every pony, gryphon, and other here on this field, and go find something to do for entertainment.”

    “No no no NO! You cannot do --” the smaller screamed, but was interrupted as the larger quite literally bit his head off. The ponies screamed, and Honey hid Indigo, as they stared wide eyed at the dark draconequus. The larger Discord tossed the now limp and blood spraying smaller version of himself into his mouth, chewed noisily before swallowing, and then turned to Celestia.

    Discord growled happily, licking his lips, “Now then, on to that sacrifice.” With blood still painting his face and dripping from his claw, he reached for the Princess, who refused to cringe but turned her head away from him. Only when the claw didn’t grasp her did she look, and was surprised to see Discord’s entire body shuddering. His eyes started to spin for a moment before a small “ding” sound rang out and his eyes fixed upon her in an oddly goofy expression. “Oh… oh! I thought I’d never manage to pull myself together again. I didn’t expect that side of myself to have become quite so… violent. Hello again, Princess, did I miss anything?”

    “Just a rather bloody end to yourself,” she pointed out, frowning up at Discord. “What just happened?”

    Discord scooped up some of the sprayed blood with a feline paw and sniffed it… then licked it. “Hmm, ketchup…. What happened? You mean that you’ve never heard the saying ‘you are what you eat’?”

    Celestia groaned, “I should have known better than to expect a straight answer from you.”

    “You really should have,” he grinned, “but that said, it’s almost time for the main event. Professor Relic, do you have the Elements I asked you to bring?”

    “M-me?!” the unicorn cried, startled.

    “Yes, we have them, Spirit of Chaos,” Quagga answered for his friend.

    “Now there’s a title I’ve not heard in a while,” Discord mused, then clapped his hands together, “get them ready, gentlestallions, it’s almost time.”

    Quagga frowned. “Dare we ask for what?”

    “You’ll see…”

    “This isn’t working!”

    “He heals too quickly,” Kaos pointed out to his pegasus teammate.

    “Yeah, on top of the fact he’s nigh invulnerable, super strong, magic that would make a Princess cry, and… Oh yeah, and the fact he keeps attacking us at random!” Crosswind retorted, barely ducking out of the way of another energy bolt.

    “I’m trying! He’s fighting back and… nnnggg” the alicorn started, his voice changing mid growl, “I WILL CRUSH YOU ALL!” Eclipse suddenly twisted, his horn impaling the Manticore armour trying to pummel him down by sheer weight, and with a sharp yank of his head, ripped it open and revealed the pony beneath. “Now I see you!”

    “And now you don’t!” Clockwork shouted, and she landed all four hooves squarely on the top of Eclipse’ head, shoving it down and refocusing his attention.

    “Mizz Key?”

    “Get out of there Burner!” she shouted. “Stick to ranged attacks if the armour can manage it, if not, fall back for emergency repairs!” The orange unicorn nodded, but rather than pull back, grasped for the alicorn’s horn with a large claw and wrenched it aside. Lightning surged along it, lightning that was originally destined for the mare and her armour, instead went up the leg of his armour.

    Pain lanced through him, but he clenched his teeth. Components popped and smoked around him, warnings blared in his ears, but he ignored them. Eclipse fought him, and the pair wrestled over the Alicorn’s horn. He didn’t even notice when his armour left the ground, only to be hurled over his back and landing in a crashed heap of smoking metal behind the alicorn. Eclipse gave a derisive snort and muttered at him before turning back to the fight, “Ponies and their toys.”

    “Burner, are you okay?” he heard call to him.

    “Alto?”

    “Come on, we need to get you out of here!” the gryphon said hurriedly, ducking his head when the alicorn’s attention even showed a hint of turning their way.

    “Ze armour iz offline,” Burner noted softly, “I am trapped.”

    “Hold on,” another voice told him, and be barely caught a glimpse of the rainbow maned pony as she grabbed the edges of the split Eclipse caused in his armour and wrenched, forcing it apart, and enough room for the unicorn to wriggle out. “Alto, get him back over to Celestia.”

    “S-sure thing,” the gryphon said and grabbed the unicorn, pulling him off his hooves as he winged towards the grouping.

    “Vat iz going on?” Burner asked quickly. “And I do not mean ze battle. Vhy are you acting zis vay?”

    “W-what way?” Alto asked hurriedly, though the look in his eyes told the unicorn he knew exactly what was meant.

    “You are acting like a zmall colt zcared of hiz own zhadow,” Burner noted.

    “I… I…,” Alto started, and then his face collapsed and he looked down at the ground, “I know. I just can’t… all those gryphons looking down at us. It’s… I’m… I was almost one of them! I tried to get Filigree’s claw and… and almost became part of Goldtalon’s big invasion. He was going to turn me into a spy!”

    “But zat never happened…?” Burner asked softly, forcing himself not to judge. That was harder than it sounded… which surprised the stallion.

    “It almost did,” Alto said softly, guiltily, “and Verdigris was right, it was my fault she was in chains. All of that was… was my fault. And now, all those gryphons up there, staring down at us… Every last one of them considers me a traitor to our race, and the ponies consider me a traitor as well. I just…  It’s…”

    “Alto,” Burner said softly, “I promized I vould lizten ven you vere ready to talk. I vill honeztly zay zat now iz not ze time for a full confezzion, but know zat ve vill get through zis. But none of zis ztopz you from doing ze right thing.”

    “That’s not exactly what I signed up for,” the gryphon responded softly.

    “Neither did I,” Burner agreed, nudging the gryphon, “but life iz unpredictable.”

    Clockwork screamed as the lightning finally found her, her armour giving several pitiful pops as the systems overloaded once again. She had withstood multiple attacks, but the armour was near giving out from the strain of handling the power surges. That one even bypassed the safeties to shock her! “We can’t take much more of this,” she noted tiredly.

    “Fall back if you must,” Spectrum hissed, “I won’t leave my father to suffer. Not so long as I have breath in my body…”

    “Is that all it will take to stop you?” Eclipse laughed mockingly, and blocked Spectrum’s attack with his foreleg, pushing it aside. His head dipped and shoved forward, the length of his horn impaling into the mare’s chest.

    Time seemed to stop, horror sweeping through every pony and individual watching. Shocked eyes could see the first blood trickle along the spiral groove of the dark alicorn’s horn, beading upon his forehead. They could see the widening maniacal grin on his face, and the pained expression that flowed over Spectrum’s, unable to even cry out.

    “NO!”

    Light gathered from inside Eclipse, spreading along his horn and yanked and pulled and the very darkness that formed the alicorn’s flesh. Eclipse’ gleeful expression turned to one of fear as the horn momentarily vanished and Spectrum dropped to the ground, wings and legs held askew as blood pooled in the grass beneath her. The dark face continued to vanish, peeling back and away as a pure ghostly light shown through, revealing the haggard face of Ultrapony. Anguish was etched across his face, eyes locked upon the prone form of his daughter. “No, sweet Celestia, please….”

    Discord nodded to himself. “Now it’s time.”