Haze filled Tercio's vision as the world snapped into view with a flash of light, his mind spinning at the strange experience. No longer in the confines of the hidden library room, he now felt the breeze of a warm night as it whispered between the pine branches of tall trees. Creatures howled and roared in the distance, the night feeling uncomfortably dark.

"Lacarius, you must be sure to keep your stallions near by. The forest is dangerous enough without the deer stalking us. Word has it these ones are particularly fanatical."

The strange sensation of words leaving his mouth, but not of his own voice, was like a shock to his system. He realized he was looking through the eyes of Celestia herself as his gaze was cast downward, the Princess giving a check to the golden armor that covered her forelegs. A long, shimmering weapon floated in front of him, the very sword that had been lost to the assassin in the crystal cave. Metal segments quietly rustled as she walked, as if every inch of her armor was custom made to fit her perfectly. All around her were stallions in purple Praetorian and blood-red Legion cloaks with matching crests, several of them carrying or floating torches at their sides to pierce the oily night. A joint operation, a true rarity in Tercio's day.

"We are less concerned with the deerfolk than we are with the human creature, sister. You would be wise heed my words."

Celestia looked to her right, where Luna trotted beside her in black and dark blue plate mail, decorated with swirls of silver and shining runes. A long lance floated at her side, and a sword was tucked into a scabbard at her waist. Nocturne?

"I am fully aware of his capabilities, Luna. We will find him, and when we do, we will save him from the foul influence of the whitetail."

"As you say. Far be it from us to question the wisdom of the 'Sun Goddess'."

Somehow, Tercio had expected the banter between the royal sisters to be more familiar, more comforting, but he only felt a sense of unease between them. How far back had Luna's resentment reached, he wondered. It was difficult to watch Celestia keep glancing over to her sister, who had not done anything but stare straight ahead for the entire time.

"Luna...I know we are at odds over this human's fate, but promise me you'll give him the opportunity to surrender himself to our care. He could still make something of himself. He can be free. Everyone deserves the chance at a good life."

"He slaughtered the citizens of Windfall Withers!" Luna snapped back, finally making eye contact. There was none of the confidence or comfort in her eyes that he'd always seen in Celestia; only anger and spite. "Do not think to lecture us on second chances when you have seen the mutilated bodies of foals lying in the fields!" He wondered if the soldiers were looking at them. "No creature, no matter its circumstances, deserves to live after such an act! 'He', as you call it, is no better than a hydra in its single-minded pursuit of violence. At least we only have to cut off one head to kill the beast this time."

Minutes passed, the Legion soldiers all around keeping their heads on a swivel and bracing their shields at every rustle or unknown sound. As he watched through Celestia's eyes, Tercio wondered just how powerful this human really was. In all his years of service he had never heard of the Princesses taking matters into their own hooves, not when it came to combat. Defense, not offense, was their way. Things must have been very different two centuries ago to warrant putting their own lives in danger.

"Halt the formation," a soldier wearing the gold-striped crest of an officer said in a loud whisper. An uneasy silence filled the void. Every few seconds Celestia would check on her sister, and for the briefest of moments she could see a shadow of doubt and worry cross Luna's face.

"We will be fine, fret thine own safety instead," she insisted. Celestia was about to reply when a snap of branches pulled her attention away. She turned just in time to see a flicker of motion. Whatever it was, the Legion was already acting, a pair of pegasi darting forward and lifting off without a spoken order needed. They disappeared into the dark expanse of trees just as the Praetorians quickly formed a circle around the Princesses, their tower shields forming a rough dome that menaced with spear points.

"A deer scout, hidden in a bush," Imperator Desius said quietly as his Legion soldiers formed into a three-tiered formation that created a semi-circle around the dome.. "No doubt the whitetail will be upon us in short order. Prepare yourselves."

Celestia gulped and looked herself over once more, her breathing unsteady and her heart pounding in her ears. It was either her first time in a combat situation, or something about the impending fight was making her agitated and nervous.

Within a scant few seconds the two pegasi returned in a skidding halt, one of them bleeding from a gash along his left foreleg. "They're here. Whitetail. Just ahead," one of them said between heavy breaths.

"How many?" Desius asked.

"Forty at least, perhaps more. Difficult to say."

"Right, then. Your wound, is it severe?"

The pegasus turned his foreleg and pulled a length of cloth from a saddlebag, quickly drawing it tight around the bleeding cut with a yank of his teeth. "It will not slow me down." Satisfied, Desius motioned to his stallions.

"First and second contubernium, stay with the Princesses. Keep that wall tight and don't break off unless you have to. Third and fourth, you're up front with Centurion Lacarius. I don't care if you're Praetorian or Legion -- we are all Equestrians, and I expect you to act as such." Amid the practiced flurry of motion, Imperator Desius took his place at Celestia's side. "Don't worry, Your Highness, we are here for you until our dying breaths."

"Then let us hope it does not come to that," Celestia said. In the distance a war horn sounded, followed by shouts of deertongue combat orders. It would not be long now.

"Luna. Look at me." Her sister's teal eyes stared up from her midnight armor, the first clear sign of fear evident in her wavering jaw. "It will be alright. Stay with me, just like we practiced, okay?"

Luna could only nod weakly, but still she set her lance at her side and readied herself.

Tercio could only guess at the things that must have been going through Celestia's mind at that moment. The nauseating mix of fear, determination and hope were all intimately familiar to him. They never went away, no matter how many times he faced off against another in combat. And yet, he had to marvel at the courage it took to leave the safety of the palace, and see to it that a grave threat to her nation was eliminated. Even if it was a human.

"Honor to Equestria! Honor to the Legion!" a soldier at the front line shouted, echoed by his compatriots. At the rear of the formation, a stallion stood defiantly with the Legion signifier on a tall pole that had been spiked into the ground, the golden letters of "EQ" glinting in the light of nearby torches.

"Honor to the Princesses! Praetoria Victor!" another stallion replied, the battle cry echoing through the forest as the others joined him. As one the soldiers stomped their hooves on the ground, Legion and Praetorian alike. "Hah-ooh! Hah-ooh! Hah-ooh!"

The finest of Equestria's soldiers bristled with pent-up energy, their rallying shout readying them for war. A rolling thunder sounded before them, the stampeding charge of Whitetail's own mixing with deep horns and a sustained yell of soldiers eager to kill for their cause. In the thick forest it seemed as if the whitetail were all around them, and Tercio could feel Celestia's heart beating like a drum.

"We fight as one," she said to Luna, angling her magical sword to take advantage of her superior height. "Remember what Father taught us: together, we are the very pillar of Equestria's strength."

"Let us hope he was right. If this 'Second' is as strong as they say, we will need every bit of it." Luna thrust her elegant lance, curved at the end like a crescent moon, between the shields of two Praetorians and nodded in approval.

The pounding of hooves grew closer. Not long now.

"Remember, brave stallions, that you fight not only for yourselves, but for everypony in Equestria." Celestia's words were calming and captivating despite her own true feelings, the mark of a truly extraordinary leader. "Luna and I are honored to stand beside the finest soldiers this land has ever known. After tonight, there will be no more slaughter. We will plant ourselves in the good earth and move for no one, and when the dust has settled the good people of Equestria will speak of your names in admiration. History will remember you this day."

The roar of Whitetail's warriors became a cacophony, and in the glow of torchlight the first deer appeared in smooth, crystalline armor. A dozen galloped to either side of him, thin, triangular banners of Whitetail flying from their necks. A second row joined them, then a third, forming a dense wall of blades.

"Hold the line!" the Legion commander shouted, digging his hooves into the ground and drawing his gladius in a cloud of shimmering blue magic. "You do not move from this spot!"

The whitetail were so agile to Tercio's eyes, faster even than those he had fought outside Canterlot, effortlessly jumping over fallen logs and flowing around broad trees like water. The Legion and Praetorian Guard were in for a fight. And yet, there was no sign of the human.

"Brace!"

The charging bucks crashed against the Legion's shield wall with an almost deafening sound, striking with long quinn-blades and lightning-quick knee daggers in a furious, lethal blur. They were met by the thrusting spears and deadly pila of the second and third Equestrian ranks, and for the moment it was impossible to tell who had the advantage.

"Triarii, move right and push through their flank!"

As the Legion maneuvered to gain an advantage against the attacking deer, a second force of whitetail bounded in from the east and rushed directly for the shield dome. Does in light armor stood back behind the cover of trees and telekinetically hurled metallic darts across the gap at a blistering pace, the small but heavy projectiles thudding into shields and embedding themselves in armor.

Desius gritted his teeth as a dart struck him in the shoulder, finding a gap in the protective wall. Nearly twenty deer had approached them unopposed, their segmented, interlocking shields clashing with Equestrian swords.

On his command the wall split open for a brief second, allowing the second ranks, including Luna, to strike with their long weapons. The Princess of the night withdrew her lance, finding its tip covered in blood, and readied herself once more. "It is not so difficult," she said just before an arcing bolt of magical lightning sent the closest pony flying back, his coat singed and smoking. "Sister! To our right!"

"I see them," Celestia yelled back. A flash of yellow burst from her horn, and in an instant a glittering barrier was in place that covered the entire flank. Time and again it was struck by sizzling bolts of arcane energy. The whitetail females were strong in the ways of magic, but they could not hope to pierce Celestia's protective spell. It did not, unfortunately, stop the hail of solid missiles from getting through, and the Princess reeled back in horror as a Praetorian dropped to the ground at her hooves, clutching at a neck wound that was spraying blood in an arterial fountain with every beat of his heart. It spattered her armor and dripped down her forelegs, and she tried desperately to administer aid, yanking a cloth from her saddlebag and pressing it against the stallion's throat. His struggling lasted only a moment longer, and then he was silent.

"Sister! Celestia!" Luna shouted, knocking an armored hoof against Celestia's shoulder. "Do not tarry upon the dead, lest you seek to join them!" Another shouted command by Desius, and Luna lashed out with her weapon, finding her target with the ease and dexterity granted by her powerful magic. Just as quickly she withdrew back to the safety of the shields, her eyes darting between the gaps to find the next deer who dared to challenge her and her new-found confidence.

A short distance away, the Legion had managed to carve into the whitetail force using superior tactics, and were now in the midst of finishing off the second row of attackers, leaving only a solitary group of deer to oppose them. But those last stags were powerful in their own right, veterans of foreign wars, and they would not relent. The fighting became bogged down, with neither side able to gain an advantage over the other.

"Damnation," Desius swore, lashing out and missing with a pilum. A pair of deer sprinted in from the south, heading directly for Celestia with their long blades in front of them. "Praetorians, to the rear!"

The whitetail were in range before most of Celestia's guard could turn. The first, a younger buck, stabbed his weapon forward, its menacing point scraping a gash into her armor. Celestia yelped in surprise and sent a blast of magic in his direction, sending him sprawling back and knocking his companion to the ground.

"Please, surrender," she said in the deer language, but the soldiers ignored her entirely, scrambling back up with shouted swears. Once more she knocked them away, repeating her plea, and only when they attacked her a third time did she finally plunge her sword into their bodies. The sword wounds sizzled and glowed orange-hot as the deer fell limp at her hooves, where they were finished by a trio of death blows from the Praetorians. The smell of blood and burnt flesh turned her stomach as she quickly wiped her blade on the grass in a futile attempt to clean it.

"Your first of many kills," Luna said approvingly, and the smirk that tugged at the corners of her mouth made it clear that she was enjoying herself.

Celestia saw the death and destruction surrounding her, heard the screams of the dying and the wounded, and from his place of view Tercio could almost feel the disgust in the pit of her stomach. "Do not hesitate to strike, Celestia, else you may cost the lives of those sworn to you. Ours is a necessary barbarity this night."

Tercio couldn't be sure how much time passed before the deer started to thin out in numbers, but eventually they seemed to fall back, leaving a large number of dead behind. The Equestrians had paid for their stalwart defense with nearly a third of their number killed or seriously wounded. When the last deer disappeared into the forest, the weary soldiers began the process of seeing to their injuries and tallying the dead for both sides.

That was when he heard it; the familiar elegance of distant deertongue words, but harsh and deep. Celestia and Luna both looked up at the sound, as did many of their soldiers. Resolutely they hefted their shields and weapons again, many groaning at the effort required of their tired muscles while others remained with their bleeding comrades.

"Fal'naas Equestrii faraniin!"

Slaughter the Equestrians without mercy. A phrase so terribly familiar. There could be only one explanation: the human was out there, no longer of his own free will.

A different voice, commanding and powerful, echoed around them like a tolling bell. There came a roaring shout. The whitetail were returning.

Imperator Desius waved his gladius and rallied the soldiers around him. "Defensive formation around the Princesses, all sides! Drag the wounded to the middle, leave the dead!"

Luna stood at her sister's side with her bloodied lance and quickly took a drink from her water flask. "He is here. Is your conviction in doubt?"

"Of course not, but I will not strike him down unless I must. Give him the chance to prove himself, sister." Celestia raised her voice. "That goes for all of you! If the human is truly upon us, then I must ask you to hold back from ending his life if at all possible. Disarm him, but do not think him a monster. I believe him to be merely a victim of foul whitetail magics, and I will do everything in my power to save him. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Princess!" her soldiers shouted as one.

"Very well. May you fight bravely."

For a second time the whitetail powered through the forest, but now it was different. The deer had formed into a wedge, three deep and ten across, that was on a collision course with the Equestrian position. Someone shouted for the Praetorians to shore up the northern flank, and as the ponies scrambled to strengthen their formation Celestia caught a glimpse of something else, taller than deer that surrounded it. The creature raised an arm in the air, fully encased in glinting armor with a large battle mace or hammer clasped in its hands. The human had arrived, the centerpiece of a newly reinvigorated whitetail attack. Some of the Equestrian soldiers gasped and muttered to each other at the sight. No one had ever seen a warrior so imposing.

"Hold your ground!" Desius commanded. The deer came at them like a wave, deftly going over or around those who fell to precise pila impacts. "Brace!"

But instead of charging directly into the shield wall, as they had last time, the front row of deer leapt into the air, suspended in clouds of crackling energy, and dropped directly onto the third line of Equestrian defenders. Within seconds the formation was in chaos with the whitetail attacking from multiple directions at once, dividing the Legion and Praetorian Guard's attention. Celestia and Luna fought back against those who had the courage and gall to face them directly, their movements becoming a blur of practiced strikes and dodges. Celestia had found her confidence in combat, perhaps driven by desperation and a will to protect those around her, and together with Luna they brought down half a dozen bucks in short order.

Celestia had just turned back to face the brunt of the attack when a dreadful yell caught her attention. Above the confusion of battle she saw a large, glimmering mace head, like a smoothed boulder made of crystalline steel and covered in blood, rise up before smashing down at a nearly unbelievable speed. Even with the sound of desperate combat she could hear its impact, a wet crunch of snapping bone and shearing iron. A gout of blood shot into the air, and that was the moment she saw him clearly for the first time.

The human was massive in size, taller by a head even than herself, with thick, powerful arms and legs. From head to toe he wore the glassy armor of the whitetail, leaving only a slit for his eyes, and in the instant that Celestia made eye contact with him he seemed to go into a frenzy, his green eyes narrowing at the sight of her. He hefted the huge weapon at his side, more of a hammer than a mace, and charged at her with all of his might, roaring like a blood-crazed beast. Pila bounced off his armor, and the shield wall quickly filled in their gaps to form a solid line of wood and iron between him and the Princesses.

From his place of sight beyond sight, Tercio marveled at the human in a mix of awe and horror. Next to this man, this mountain of strength and fury, he might as well have been a child. The whitetail had chosen their Second wisely.

"Everyone, move out the way!" Celestia shouted, but no one regarded her in all the commotion. "Please, you have to move! I must speak with him!"

It took only a few seconds for the human to close the distance. A swing of his war hammer ripped the shields from two soldiers and shattered their forelegs before an overhead swing pulped their heads in sprays of bone and brain matter.

"What are you doing?" Luna shouted. "This creature is not one of ration or thought! It is a murderous weapon!" With a flap of her wings the Princess rose above the battle and set off on her own, her lance clutched against her side. "If it is our blood you seek, monster, then come and take it!"

The Second raised his weapon with a shout in deertongue and ran straight for her, ignoring ineffectual sword blows as he rushed past the Praetorian Guard.

"Luna! Get back in the formation!" Celestia yelled, but it was of no use. Her sister had already begun to move in for her first strike, diving low over the grass with her weapon poised for a killing blow. "Desius, have your stallions support the Legion! Go!" She quickly unfurled her wings and took to the air, even as the Imperator called for her to come back. She had to help Luna.

A wide, crushing, horizontal swing narrowly missed its target as Luna lifted herself above the human warrior and thrust her lance against its neck. The sharp blade merely caused a jagged scratch as it was deflected, and she swore as another powerful stab bounced off its armor. A third attack, this time under the arm, a traditional weak point in most armor, was equally ineffective.

She hardly had time to recover before a powerful kick sent her sprawling back, tumbling into the grass. The Second was immediately upon her, shockingly fast for its size, and it roared in untold rage as it hefted its hammer over its head. Luna quickly raised her lance for defense; it shattered into a dozen pieces with a flash of magical energy, completely destroyed by the overwhelming force of the human's weapon. Just as the war hammer was about to finish her, a gout of yellow and orange light slammed into the human and staggered him back.

"Are you alright?" Celestia asked as she landed, brandishing her sword in front of her.

"We have lost but a weapon. Your assistance was not necessary."

"Now is not the time for pride. Have you wounded him?" Another beam shot out from her horn, and the Second fell to a knee for a brief moment.

Luna scowled as she yanked Nocturne from its sheathe. "No, its armor is thorough and strong, we--"

"I told you to stay with the Guard," Celestia said firmly. "You would have been killed had I not come. No more foolish attacks, we fight as one." Stepping forward, she raised her voice and stomped a hoof on the ground. "Stop this senseless slaughter!" she yelled in deertongue, the human gazing at her with unfeeling eyes. "We are not your enemies! You can be free of the whitetail! All you have to do is lay down your arms!"

Her answer was a crystalline hammer head smashing into a tree where her neck had been only a second earlier. Chips of rough bark showered against her armor as Luna sprinted forward, slicing diagonally with her magical sword to no effect.

Celestia pleaded for the human to stop. "You can be more than a weapon! You can have a life of your own!" A vicious punch passed by her close enough to toss her mane to the side. She quickly stepped back, and when she looked into the human's eyes she could see tendrils of pure, dark magic, like dead and gnarled vines.

"Vond'wyyl kara shai'dor, Vaal en'driis faralaan! Fal'naas Eqestrii!" he shouted back in a deep, rough voice.

The human slapped his closed fist against his chest and stomped defiantly, as a whitetail might do. For a time Celestia was at a loss for words; perhaps she hadn't expected the human to speak in return, much less with such dire hatred and conviction.

Through your deaths, I am given purpose. Slaughter the Equestrians.

"What did the creature say?" Luna asked, cautiously staying just outside of his range.

"Brainwashed threats, nothing more. There must be another way..."

Frustrated by his inability to destroy the ponies before him, the Second lashed out at a nearby deer, bringing his weapon down hard enough to shatter crystalline armor and snap the buck's spine like a twig. Then, with a surprising burst of speed, he grabbed the murdered soldier's quinn-blade and hurled it like a javelin. Celestia barely had time to throw herself to the ground before it passed over her, grazing her horn and scraping against her golden helm. The momentary distraction was all the human needed to close the distance with a blood-thirsty shout, his war hammer slamming into the ground beside her head as she rolled out of the way in a panic.

Luna threw herself bodily at her sister's attacker, slamming into him with the full brunt of her armor and knocking the giant weapon from his grasp. Powerful flaps of her wings propelled them both along the ground, kicking up a trail of soil and grass, as she stabbed her sword into its armor again and again in a relentless assault. There had to be some weak point, some small gap that she could find and exploit, yet as her magical weapon furiously searched for it she succeeded in nothing more than gouging small holes in the smooth, steel-like crystal. Even its visor was seemingly impregnable, too narrow to allow a blade to fit through. They slammed into a dead tree with a loud splintering of wood, Luna's assault unwavering as Celestia brought herself back up and rushed over to help.

The human grabbed at Nocturne and succeeded in getting a gauntlet around it, pulling on it with all of his might. Luna's horn glowed brightly with a second layer of sparking magic, and she shouted curses for him to release her blade. Just as she managed to wrench it free, both of his large, powerful hands clasped themselves around the armor on her neck, and with an animalistic war cry he bent back the steel and iron plates through sheer strength. Luna panicked and thrashed as her only means of protection was slowly peeled away and twisted, revealing her exposed throat.

Celestia landed roughly beside them, using her momentum and her magic to pull Luna free of the Second's death grip. "Are you alright?" she asked, uncoupling the damaged armor segments with a quick thought. They clattered to the ground, broken and deformed, as the human rose to his feet.

"We will live," Luna said angrily, yanking her fallen sword from the dirt and floating it beside her again.

Behind them, the Legion and Praetorian Guard fought on with the whitetail. The Equestrians had strength in numbers, but the deer were tenacious and well-trained in their own right. For every buck that fell, another pony joined him. Celestia saw Imperator Desius looking over in concern, and she signaled that everything was fine with an upturn of her sword.

"We will join you as soon as we can!" he shouted to her.

The Princess had just turned back when a quinn-blade scraped off her armor with a loud, grinding squeal. Luna's sword deflected the human's weapon away, allowing Celestia to step back and refocus.

"Have you a death wish, Celestia?" Luna spat in anger. "Keep thy focus on thine enemy! A pathetic display of combat prowess from one so learned as thyself."

The human had drawn a long, stabbing sword from a sheathe across his back, and in his left hand he held a vicious looking short axe that bristled with jagged teeth at the end of a heavy, chopping head.

Celestia pointed her sword at the Second, leaving a trail of orange energy as it floated. "I am offering you once last chance to surrender yourself to us. Please, I beg of you, do not resist further. I seek only to help you. The whitetail are not your allies; they think of you as nothing more than a tool to be used against us." Her pleas in deertongue were met with silence.

"As we said, this creature is naught but violence and blind obedience. Tis a shame to see such magnificent power wasted so."

"I would hardly call it magnificent, Luna. Whatever is being used to control him has no place in our world."

"Only because he is not strong enough to use it," Luna muttered under her breath. "We must put an end to this creature. Join us, or stay out of our way." In an instant she'd spread her wings to their full size, an aura of immense magical power radiating from her. Crackling bolts of energy crawled over her body and sank into the ground. "You have had your chance, monster!" she said with the full force of her augmented voice that bellowed forth like the winds of a great storm. "Come, then, and show us what passes for fury among your misbegotten kind!"

In the blink of an eye Luna closed the distance with the Second, using her great speed and sudden rush of power to stagger her opponent with a magical barrier. The human lashed out with his weapons in a barrage of deadly blows, but none of them could match the speed of Luna's assault. She circled him like a whirlwind, plunging her sword into anything she thought might be a weak point. Once or twice she even managed to draw blood, and the human roared in pain and anger as he sought to crush her head in with his hand axe.

Celestia was nearly driven to inaction by the awe of her sister's sudden, unexpected power. Where had she learned such a thing? She had either trained her magic extensively, or, more dangerously, she was using nearly all of it in a single bid. Such a thing would leave her drained and helpless if she had to keep it up for too long, and that would mean the end of her life at the human's hands.

Shutting her eyes, Celestia drew upon the primeval forces of the world. She could not afford to hold back, even if it meant she'd be weakened for days to come. Luna was right -- the human had to be stopped, as much as it pained her to admit.

Taking to the sky she raised her head and drew forth every bit of magic she could muster. A small glow gathered at the tip of her horn, then rapidly grew until it resembled a roiling ball of fire. The forest glowed like mid-day for leagues around, and stallion and buck alike shielded their eyes as Celestia's eyes turned to fields of pure white. Down below her, not too far off, the human had barely taken notice, still locked in combat and exchanging sword clashes with his enemy.

"Luna! Grab his hammer! Now!" she demanded in her most imposing royal voice. With only a moment's hesitation Luna did so, flying away as fast as her wings would carry her. Celestia could feel the power flowing through her body, harsh and primal. She gritted her teeth at the building pain in her head that cascaded down through her muscles. It was too much magic, too quickly, for any one mare to handle. She would only have one chance to get it right.

The human yanked a pilum from a tree and hurled it at her, and in a flash she disappeared, the forest suddenly plunged into darkness. A heartbeat later she appeared directly in front of him, her hooves planted firmly and her body wracked with pain, and with a yell of desperation, suffering and remorse she let loose with the most powerful spell she'd ever summoned. A searing, white-hot beam erupted from her horn in a conical blast that shook the very earth and erupted a great swath of trees into flames, tearing limbs and branches away with the sheer force of a magical assault that even her far more powerful father had hesitated to use in his day. An unfortunate pair of whitetail were caught in its path and incinerated to burning, withered husks. The remaining whitetail turned and fled in a panic as the Second disappeared in the middle of the blazing maelstrom, his angered shout lost in the overwhelming din of magic not seen for centuries.

Celestia collapsed onto the ground as the spell faded. Nearly the entirety of her horn smoldered like a blown-out candle, blackened and burnt, and she lay on the cold ground huddled against herself as the torment came over her in earnest. Tears rolled down her cheeks while she sobbed like a sickly filly and her body twitched and convulsed.

That was when she heard the human. She was barely able to look up, yet what she saw twisted her stomach. The human had survived her magic, but only just. His crystalline armor had heated to the point that it was glowing orange and red. Globules of melted crystal and iron backing dripped and sizzled as they splattered against the soil. In several places it had fused with the human's flesh in a grotesque amalgamation. But worst of all, his helm had been reduced to practically nothing. For the first time she could see his face, darkened and cracked as it was by her spell. Lighter, fairer skin showed itself as he struggled to pull the mangled helm from his head. Blood seeped from his wounds, and where once green eyes filled with anger had stared back at her, now only empty, black holes of burnt flesh met her gaze. He pawed at his tortured face and screamed, not in rage, but in unknowable suffering as he meekly rolled on the ground.

"A most impressive display. Father would be proud that you've taken his teachings to heart." Luna set herself down with a thump of the human's glossy hammer. "Art thou injured, sister?"

"No," Celestia answered weakly.

"It seems this weapon is no longer necessary, then. We must commend you on your quick thinking."

"No, it's not--it wasn't to defeat him, Luna. You...you must use it to..." Celestia doubled over in pain and retched on the ground. "To put an end to his agony. Please. Grant him a merciful death." The human had given up struggling, and Celestia watched him with pity in her heart as he wept to himself, his charred lips moving in the words of a language she'd never heard before.

"Mutter. Mutter..."

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Celestia said in a faltering voice as tears freely dripped down her face. She placed a hoof in his twitching hand and looked away.

A terrible exhale of blood spurted from his mouth as Luna brought the hammer down on his chest, cracking his melted armor into sprays of black-green crystal that exploded outward in a sparkling shower. An agonizing moment passed, and again the hammer landed. This time the crunch of armor gave way to the wet cracking of bone and the tearing of flesh. The human convulsed for only a second, a pitiful gurgle his final act before he lay still.

"It is done," Luna said, plunging her sword into the heart of the human to be sure of the kill. "We have slain the Second." She stared at the body in...contemplation? Anger? "We have succeded where Mother and Father failed, sister. There is little more we could ask for. Our citizens may once again sleep without fear." Luna pulled the helm from her head, its dark exterior spattered with blood and dirt, and dropped it at her hooves. "Upon returning to Canterlot we shall begin walking among the dreams of Equestria's commoners. The sleeping mind does not lie, nor does it speak condescendingly in words couched in flowery platitudes. We grow weary of such things, for it is the words of liars and deceivers that have led us here."

She yanked Nocturne from the body with a trail of white magic sheathed in sparkling midnight. "We cannot allow this to happen again, no matter the cost. Swear to us, dearest sister, that such a tragedy shall never befall Equestria again under our watch."

Celestia managed to raise herself to her knees with a groan. "You know I would do anything in my power to--"

"Swear it!" Luna shouted as she took a step forward and glared with barely-contained anger. "If we should find those responsible for this monster, we shall see every last one of them driven unto the blade! Never again shall a human creature walk these lands!"

"That is not our way," Celestia insisted.

"Then perhaps our ways should change."

Luna's contemptuous scowl faded into darkness.