High Moon Ch. 52:

Pride & Sacrifice part three; Warriors

“Mister Dragon?”

Spike quickly blinked his eyes several times, sure that he was dead. Instead, he found that he was still standing in the medical ward of the castle, the filly still wrapped around his neck.

But that couldn’t be right. He could remember facing Blueblood and sacrificing himself for Twilight. He could remember the feeling of Angel's magic tearing through his body, the void of blackness that came after. His crying twin above him, and him doing what little he could to comfort her.

But none of that seemed to have happened. At least, not yet.

He was alive, and everything was still exactly the same as Spike remembered. Not a single thing was different. But he knew that everything he’d experienced had actually happened. He could still feel everything, from the chilling rain, the burning strain of having ran another three miles, the excitement and fear from keeping up with Blueblood’s wild attacks...the agony of dying.

‘H-how am I-I…?’

“Mister Dragon,” the filly again said as a faint purple light began fading away from her horn. She pulled away from Spike’s neck to meet his questioning gaze. As the filly looked into Spike’s green eyes, a worried frown came to her face. She reached out one hand to his cheek, looking like she was about to cry. “Please don’t go, don’t leave me.”

Spike was left in shock at how hard the little filly’s word hit him, but when he thought about it, it made sense. He already knew that he could die if he went out there - he’d already lived through it.

However, that just meant he knew how to avoid it.

Spike gave the filly a confident smile that he only half-felt, but he wanted to reassure her as much as he could. “Don’t worry,” he started, “I’ll come back, safe and sound. I have to help my friends and sister, too.”

“But you’ll die,” the filly replied, eyes large and starting to form tears.

Spike shook his head and took her small hand off his cheek, his smiling getting wider. “Nah,” he chuckled, “you showed me what not to do. I’ll come back and make sure you’re taken care of, promise.” He emphasized the promise with a kiss on the back of the filly’s hand.

The filly gave Spike an oddly serious face for such a small child, and he thought it looked strange on her. As he was about to say something, the filly threw her arms around his neck again, crushing herself against him.

In a shaking tone, the filly let out a choked, “E-everypony else that’s been nice to me has…” she trailed off with a loud sniff, arms somehow tightening more around Spike’s neck.

Spike was silent a moment before he hugged the filly back, pressing his cheek against hers. “I’ll come back, I promise. We all will.” Spike held the filly until she stopped trembling, and pulled back with a sniff.

“Besides, you have somepony to tell something to, don’t you?” the filly giggled, wiping away a tear.

Spike’s eyes went wide. “You… could hear my thoughts?”

The filly nodded. “Just in the magic-thing, and not that often. It only seems to be with strong thoughts.”

Spike looked at her for a moment longer before a smile slipped onto his face. “But yeah, I have somedragon to tell something very important.”

The little filly giggled again. Then she took a deep breath, and said, “You better come back. I’m gonna be real upset if you don’t.” The serious look on her face was so cute Spike found himself chuckling.

Spike smiled and stuck his tongue out at her, replying, “You’ll be the first I come to see after we make sure everyone’s safe, silly filly.” The filly giggled again as Spike moved to find a nurse or doctor that he knew would take care of her. He found the same light-tan pegasus mare from the vision, and handed the filly to her, explaining that the filly needed to be put in the emergency care unit. The pegasus nodded before taking the filly off towards that section of the medical ward.

With the filly taken care off, Spike ran to go find his sister and friends.

Once Spike reached the entrance of the castle, he found everything the same: Quill was being held back by Dusk, while a stallion was shouting out nonsense about how Frost was an evil changeling. ‘Time to see if I really can change things.’

“Hey! What’s going on here?!” Spike demanded in a no-nonsense tone of voice, getting everyone’s attention, and giving Quill the chance to break free from Dusk. Just like Spike knew she would, Quill rushed at the stallion, slamming him against a wall and quickly placing her blade against the stallion’s neck.

“This asshole tried to attack Frost!” Quill shouted at the unicorn stallion, obviously not paying attention to the fact that Spike had - for once - a commanding tone in his voice. “After she risked her life to save this already-lost city. You should be thanking her, you fucking miserable colt!”

Seeing the opportunity to change this event, Spike pulled Quill off of the stallion. Somewhat similar to what had happened in the vision, the stallion tried to thank Spike. This time, however, it was the drake that slugged the stallion, knocking him out cold. Everyone was surprised by Spike’s sudden move, especially Obsidian, who had been thinking of doing the same thing. Obsidian hadn’t thought the drake to be very aggressive.

“That’s for threatening my sister’s marefriend, you self-absorbed jerk!” Spike shouted at the unconscious stallion, ignoring the numb feeling in his hand. Spike looked around at the other soldiers eyeing him warily. “The invasion was over three years ago, and not a single pony died. So get over yourselves! We have bigger problems to deal with right now. But if you can’t get over it, just stay here while we risk our lives to save your home. And that goes double for anyone else here that has a problem with trusting Frost.”

Quill’s anger quickly vanished at the sight of her twin brother defending her marefriend. Holy Luna and Nightmare… Spike really has grown a pair,’ Quill thought to herself as she sheathed her sword.

Frost stepped forward, wrapping her arms around Spike in a quick hug. “Thank you Spike. It means the world to me and Quill that you feel that way,” she said before letting the drake go, stepping back to Quill’s side.

“Of course, Frost. I’m the one that should be thanking you, really,” Spike said as he nodded to the scorpio mare and his sister.

Obsidian nodded his head to himself, revising his opinion on the drake. Then he turned his mind back to the matter at hand - saving what was left of Canterlot. “Spike’s right, we don’t have time for petty stuff like this. You don’t like the help that we’re receiving, we don’t need you getting in the way,” Obsidian said, regaining control of the situation before he walked in front of Spike. “Report in, Drake.”

Spike surprised Obsidian again when the he gave the dog a hearty salute, almost as if he were a soldier in the Guard. “Sir, the filly is now in the emergency care unit, being treated as we speak,” Spike said with a straightforward tone of voice, furthering the Guard-like impression.

“Good work Drake, at ease,” Obsidian said, waiting for Spike to drop the almost-salute before turning to the rest of the group. “Okay everyone, listen up. Our enemy is the same group that is responsible for several disappearances throughout Equestria. Our mission is simple. Head to the central plaza, and take them down. I want everyone to pair up in teams of two. Remember, either disarm the enemy and take them into custody, or go for the kill if that’s not possible. If there are no further questions, let’s move out!”

Just as before, the twenty-one large group left the castle, with the same patterns as before. This was another chance for Spike to change something. “Quill, Frost,” Spike started, stopping to grab a metal staff that was on one of the destroyed sentinels. Why he hadn’t grabbed a weapon the first time around he’d never know, but he wasn’t going to make that same mistake. “I’ve got a plan.”

“Well, let’s hear it,” Quill said, picking up another sword and sheath from the battlefield outside the castle. Even Frost had decided to equip herself with a heavily strung fullmetal bow as they continued to follow Obsidian and Verdite’s lead towards the plaza. That was something else that hadn’t happened in the vision. Maybe Spike really could come out of this alive.

“Frost, do you think you could freeze that mad stallion in the plaza with some of your magic?” Spike asked, not wanting to give too much information out. He didn’t want to tip off that he knew what was going to happen. It wasn’t that he wanted to keep everyone in the dark, but that would lead to a talk that they didn’t have the time for. “Quill and I will keep him busy. You just worry about gathering enough magic to do the spell.”

Frost nodded her head, as she recalled a new spell she had learned the other week. It was time to put it to use. “Yes Spike, I can do that. In fact, I have the perfect spell to test for this sort of situation. I will need a few of the sentinels’... bodies to quicken the process, however.”

“Okay Frost, we’ll see what we can do,” Quill said as their group was quickly growing and shrinking with each battlefield they tore through. Every time they passed one by, they both gained and lost allies, some going to aid the wounded, and others continuing their duties as soldiers. Along the way, Frost was able to siphon some of the excess magic from the sentinels and add it to her own with the spell she had learned from Blaze.

It wasn’t long before the group, which had grown to thirty-two strong, able-bodied soldiers reached the central plaza. They found that it was still overrun by the sentinels, still combating the unknown unicorn. Knowing that there would be wounded, Obsidian began giving orders for a part of their unit to tend to the injured, and for another part to defend the medics. However, as he was going to engage the mad attacker, a sentinel caught the stallion off-guard, shattering his mask in two. As it fell to the ground, everyone, with the sole exception of Spike, was shocked to find that Blueblood was the one behind the mask.

Frost began to take aim at the Blueblood, but was stopped by Spike reaching out to her forearm and lowering it down. “Not yet, wait for my signal first,” Spike said in a low whisper, just loudly enough to be heard above the sounds of the crashing rain and lighting. Frost raised an eyebrow at Spike, but after him seeming so confident in spite of everything happening so far, she decided to trust his judgement.

“Well, Prince Blueblood,” Obsidian started, walking further towards the mad stallion, armed with his two spell-pistols that he was mostly used to using now. “Why am I genuinely not surprised that you were behind this? Celestia is going to be very interested in hearing about this.”

Blueblood’s eyes, now wild and nearly feral, glared at the diamond dog, snarling with the hatred and anger that leaked from every inch of his body. “Who do you think you are speaking to, mongal mutt?!” the mad prince screamed, saliva dripping from his mouth. The once-regal pony had a distorted and crazed smile that stretched from ear to ear. The sight was horrendous, and it made everyone questioned Blueblood’s mental stability.

“I am the Prince Blueblood, I do not answer to anyone!” As he continued to speak, Blueblood began waving his free hand wildly, causing his tattered robes to move around. “Not to mutts like you! Not to savages like those dragons! And not to that blind and incompetent mare! I am the rightful ruler of this land, I am the one that should hold ALL of the power, I am the rightful KING of Equestria!”

Blueblood began maniacally laughing at his own unhinged goals. His rant only served to inflame a sense of duty in the group. Not willing to let him continue, and having justifiable cause, Obsidian took aim at Blueblood’s head. “You DARE point that pitiful weapon at me?! You worthless mongrel, I will-”

Obsidian pulling the trigger ceased Blueblood’s ranting, but not his life as three more masked unicorns appeared, one of them having defended Blueblood with a magical shield. They were accompanied by a larger sentinel that resembled the one Dusk fought in Ponyville.

‘I knew it, he wasn’t alone in this. No one can plan an attack like this that far gone. Then again… one has to be insane to even think of doing this,’ Obsidian thought to himself as he he eyed the three new unicorns and their bulky sentinel bodyguard. “Everyone, attack!” Obsidian and unicorns that were armed with spell guns began unleashing a hail of bullets at the group of masked unicorns.

However, all of the bullets only landed on the massive sentinel as it used its body to shield the four unicorns. As one of the unicorn occultists, Spike thought it was Angel Wing, began charging her magic to fire back at the soldiers, Dusk and Rogue rushed at the masked group, disappearing in a tempest of wind.

The two half-breeds disappearing frightened Saint for a moment before Dusk and Rogue reappeared on either side of the occultists. Before any of them could react to the two’s speed, Rogue swept all of the unicorns off their feets with low-sweep of wind-magic. Dusk followed Rogue’s attack up with a grab at the unicorn he knew was Saint, throwing him clear over a building’s rooftop.

“Come on Rogue, we’re gonna show this punk what happens when you threaten little fillies,” Dusk muttered, his blood boiling as he took off after Saint, Rogue close behind him. As they for their battle, Verdite charged towards the massive sentinel titan, each of her fast and heavy footsteps breaking the cobblestone street. The titan didn’t have time to react as Verdite stomped her final step in front of it, sending fragments of stone at the faces of the masked unicorns. She drew her fist all the way behind her back and slammed it down into the helm of the titan, forcing it to cave in as the leftover momentum forced in into the ground, kicking up more earth and dust.

Her raw power was far more than enough to bury an entire side of the titan’s body in the ground, shocking the three unicorns even as the half-breed prepared for another attack. Verdite’s set her sights on the largest of the three, her hand pulling back to get ready and uppercut Silversteel. He saw this coming but he knew there was no time to counter. Even though he was forced to take the hit, he still tried to block some of it.

Verdite’s monstrous power was able to overwhelm Silversteel easily. The back of his hands slammed into his chin, breaking part of his mask as he was hurled into the top edge of a building. Angel and Blueblood were going to attack the mighty half-breed, but both were stopped by Twilight and another unicorn soldier firing bolts of magic at the two of them, distracting them long enough for Verdite to jump away from them.

As Verdite leapt after the stallion, Silversteel had already stopped himself from falling off the building, preparing himself for a counterattack on the roof. He was unprepared, however, when Verdite came crashing down on top of him with the heel of her reinforced work boot.

Silversteel was sent straight through the roof of the building from Verdite’s furious attack, leaving him staggered on the ground floor. Grunting, Silversteel slowly got up, mostly unscathed due to both his magic and form-fitting, metal armor. Verdite wasn’t done with him, though, as she charged at him again, ducking underneath his fist to bring hers to Silversteel’s midsection. The force of the impact knocked some of the wind out of the stallion’s lungs, and the stallion himself into the front doors of the donut shop building.

Verdite looked through the large hole she had created, spotting Silversteel using a countertop to get up from the tile floor. ‘Well, there might be more to these unicorns than I first thought… interesting,’ Verdite thought to herself, a dark smirk on her face as she cracked her knuckles.

The fact that the stallion was still breathing, let alone standing, led Verdite to believe that he was either doing something with his magic to protect his vital organs, or that he was wearing a suit of armor underneath his robes. “Well, mountain dog? Are you coming or not?” Verdite called out, turning back towards Obsidian, who was currently engaged with two of the normal sized sentinels.

Obsidian thought that Verdite was acting like his fallen friend before sidestepping underneath one of the sentinels’ axes He used the frame of his black gun to sweep the blow up into the air as he stood up with the motion. Obsidian whirled around on his heel to aim his silver gun, shooting the helm of the first sentinel off before he took aim at the second charging sentinel.

After emptying a barrage of bullets into the second sentinel’s chest, Obsidian quickly began moved towards the donut shop, holstering his onyx colored gun to reach for a smoke bomb in a small light-tan pouch on his belt. Throwing it on the ground as he ran past Blueblood and Angel, Obsidian drew his obsidian dagger. He followed Verdite into the shop, leaving the twins, Frost, Twilight, and Rainbow to handle the two remaining and coughing unicorns.

After putting on a small portable gas-mask she had been issued, Rainbow swooped down towards Angel before the smoke fully cleared. She wielded her two blades, a pair of nearly-matching short swords. One had a long, double-edged blade with a chain attached to the hilt, a lightning bolt symbol on the end of it. The other was a slightly curved blade with one edge, with a cloud on the end of the chain of the hilt.

Still blinded by the stinging smoke, Angel used her magic to manifest her wings to escape the gas while Blueblood ran out coughing and wheezing. However before Angel could regain her sight completely, Rainbow was already in front of Angel, her straight sword ready to deliver what she hoped to be the first and last blow.

Her strike connected, but only barely. Angel had managed to fumble away from the blade, so that just the tip of it grazed against her cheek. The mare screamed more from the outrage than pain of having her face scarred by Rainbow’s sword.

Angel brought a shaky hand to her bleeding cheek to feel at the gash, looking down at her bloody fingertips. Suddenly, her rose colored eyes shrunk down to pinpricks before she let out a loud screech of horror.

“Wh...what have you done?!” Angel shouted at Rainbow, whipping around to see the mare behind her, still at the ready for any attacks Angel might try. “You jealous tramp! Must the little flies like you stoop so low as to ruin the face of beauty?”

Raising an eyebrow, Rainbow scoffed, “Oh I’m sorry, I hate to tell you how wrong you are. Nobody finds crazy attractive, you whackjob.” Rainbow continued to laugh at Angel as the unicorn’s expressions grew from horrified to utterly outraged.

Angel bared her teeth, soaring straight for Rainbow, only to miss when the mare skillfully flipped over her head, whispering, “You fat cow.”

That was Angel’s breaking point. The enraged unicorn let out another wailing screech before turning her body around to wildly fire bolts of her magic at Rainbow, missing every shot as the pegasus mare easily dodged them. One of Angel’s bolts was interrupted when Twilight teleported right in front of Angel, her wooden staff pressed against the crazed occultist’s stomach.

“You brought this on yourself,” Twilight said in a dark tone as her magic quickly gathered at the curved tip of the shaft. Before Angel could think of how to counter the alicorn’s attack, Twilight released her magic into the mare’s body, sending her flying backwards and screaming at the top of her lungs.

As the two mares continued to engage Angel, Spike and Quill kept the deranged Blueblood busy while Frost gathered as much magic as she could while waiting for Spike’s signal. “Spike, you go right, I’ll go left,” Quill said before charging at Blueblood, Spike following using his water-surfing technique, which achieved speeds close to double its normal thanks to the continuous downpour of rain. Both twins were ready to attack, one armed with two curved swords, the other with a metal staff that had been enhanced with a widely curved scythe-blade of high-pressure water.

Blueblood was able to jump over Spike’s low-sweep, but this left him open and allowed Quill to slash his left side. The dragoness’ attack was able to knock Blueblood down, as blood poured from the open wound. Slowly, he got to his feet, only for Spike to whirl his scythe around and knock Blueblood’s lance out of his hands.

“How dare you attack me, King Blueblood, you savage dragon?!” Blueblood prepared to attack Spike with a bolt of magic. Before he could fire it off though, Quill suddenly came up behind Blueblood, slamming the hilts of her swords into the center of Blueblood’s spine. All of the wind was forced out of the stallion as his mouth went wide in a soundless shout of pure pain, mistakenly shooting his bolt of magic into the sky.

“Frost, now! Quill, move!” Spike ordered, seeing this as the best opportunity to take the stallion down quickly so he could help Twilight and Rainbow with Angel. As Quill flew into the sky while Spike surfed away from Blueblood, Frost created a super chilled arrowbolt, drawing the heavy-metal bowstring as she continued to charge the arrow with wind-magic. Frost’s wind-magic began manifesting into a slender, but concentrated, vortex around the head and shaft of the arrow.

She focused entirely on Blueblood, who was just now recovering from Quill’s attack. He saw Frost let the bowstring go, and nothing else as the arrow tore through the air and into his chest. Blueblood opened his mouth to let out a cry from the chill feeling racing into his body.

“Ventus erat constringitur,” Frost hollowly intoned as her ice-magic trapped in the arrow released, quickly reacting with the natural magic of the world and the rain water. Suddenly, Blueblood’s cry of pain and agony reached a new pitch as his body was slowly encased in ice so cold that it burned the fur off his body.

Blueblood screamed and thrashed about as he tried any method he could think of to remove the spurting shards of ice from his body; his magic, his own hands, but nothing worked. When he tried blasting it off with his magic, the ice would break, sending some of it onto the wet cobblestone ground, but that only allowed it to grow quicker, like a sharp and jagged weed. When he used his hands, the white fur on them froze so quick that it felt like they were on fire.

He tripped and stumbled as his body temperature had already dropped like a lead stone from the stratosphere. Blueblood had already lost all rational thought as the ice continued to eat at his body, but he was able to focus on the ones that had done this to him.

As he stared at the twins and Frost, Blueblood’s head began shaking from a heated anger, the only heat he’d ever feel again. All the dying prince could do was utter, “This changes NOTHING! Do you think you’ve WON?! Equestria will never be a home for monsters like you! Unicorns will take their rightful spot as the RULERS of this pitiful land, and you can’t s-” before ice began crystallizing inside his mouth, forcing it to stay open as the rest of his body became imprisoned in the ice. Due to the great difference in temperatures, steam started to come off of the large icy structure from the rain pouring down on it.

Landing beside her lover, Quill sheathed her swords while Spike skidded to a stop on Frost’s right side. “Good job Frost, the world owes you a favor now,” Quill said, gazing at the statue of ice.

Not willing to take any chances with the mad unicorn, Quill walked out in front of Frost, raising her right hand at the prison of ice. Quill then started to gather her own fire-magic, causing a small purple and black fire ball to appear in the space of her hand.

While Quill began to gather her magic, Spike did the same, preparing to move to Twilight’s aid at a moment’s notice. Though, something felt off. The sentinels weren’t acting the same as they had in the vision, and that was worrying Spike again.

“See ya, you prick,” Quill said as threads of white hot flames began encircling the fireball that had quickly doubled in size. “Parva nigra.” The fireball shot out from Quill’s hand, soaring through the air before colliding with the icy structure. A massive steam explosion erupted, slowly fading away to reveal that Blueblood had shattered into pieces.

Once the steam evaporated, Quill turned her attention to Angel, who was left horrified by what she had just witnessed. On the one hand, she was glad to be rid of that annoying colt, but she knew that she was now greatly outnumbered.

“One down, one to go,” Quill said, pulling her swords from their sheaths while Frost nocked another frozen arrow and Spike began spinning his scythe around. Angel turned to flee from the battle when she was cut off by Rainbow Dash delivering a roundhouse kick to her left side, knocking her down on the cold hard ground in the center of the battlefield.

Angel gritted her teeth in pain as she forced herself to get back up from the ground. The mare winced as she doubled over in pain before placing her hands onto her left side of her ribs to use her magic to heal herself back up. She would never admit it, but at this moment, Angel couldn’t help but feel trapped, with nowhere left to turn.

And her enemies knew it.

“Just do yourself a favor,” Quill said as she pointed one of her swords at Angel, igniting it with her fire-magic to make it more menacing. “Give up, and I might not burn your mane off your head.”

“And surrender to the likes of you? Never!” In spite of her words, Angel shuddered lightly, fear creeping into her heart at the sudden turn of events. She searched for some way to escape. However, she had already made the costly mistake of revealing who she was, and the even more costly mistake of believing that Blueblood’s insane plan would work. “I will never give in. Do you honestly believe that I got where I am today by giving up to foals like you? You're no threat to me.”

‘Now’s my chance.’ As the mare was going to continue her pointless rant, Spike hurled his scythe at Angel in the hope of taking the mare out before she could be a threat to Twilight. However, as the rotating scythe flew toward its intended target, the same sentinel that had attacked him in front of the castle suddenly appeared in front of Angel, deflecting the scythe with a single sweep of one of its blades.

Everyone watched in collective shock as the drake’s weapon flew through the air before the watery blade embedded itself into the ground. No longer being held by the drake, Spike’s magic faded away, leaving the scythe nothing more than a metal staff. Spike caught the unamused look on Quill’s face. Her eyes were all he needed to tell that was his first, and possibly only, mistake.

“Uh, whoops?” Spike lamely said, scolding himself for forgetting that the sentinels would still be functioning until Dusk and his sister had defeated Saint. “Would you believe that it slipped? Heh…”

A deep scowl formed on Angel’s face, directed solely at the drake that had tried to kill her while she was talking. “Why you disrespectful reptile… Kill him, kill him now you suit of tin cans!” Angel ordered the elite sentinel, her magic creating a pair of wings that came out from her lower back and orbs of silver light as she took flight.

Before anyone could move, the sentinel charged towards Spike, drawing another of its swords as it rapidly approached. Quill was barely able to intercept the elite’s path, blocking his downward strike with her two swords. Gritting her teeth, Quill twisted her body as she fought back the elite’s twin blades, stepping in front of Spike to get better footing.

Though the sentinel’s strength was something Quill could handle, or at least manage, it was the sentinel’s speed that was getting her. “What are you doing? Hurry up and find something Spike!” Quill hissed through her teeth before she pushed back the elite back from her. “This guy is mine. Frost, you help Twi and Rainbow. Don’t worry about me, I can handle him.”

“Very well Quill, please don’t do anything too reckless,” Frost said before dashing off with the same water-surfing technique as Spike’s to assist the two mares, not seeing the smile on Quill’s face.

‘Heh, like I’m gonna lose to this thing.’

Elsewhere, Dusk and Rogue were pressing Saint hard as the stallion had already drained most of his magic by raising the sentinel army. He hadn’t expected having to deal with foes that had this sort of power. Especially considering one of them was the same hybrid that had defeated him earlier, and already shaken his sanity.

And on top of that nearly unstoppable force of lighting, his other opponent was a sadistic ghost.

Rogue had already managed to open up several deep cuts on Saint’s arms. His entire right arm had been rendered useless when Dusk had managed to sneak up on him and grab his arm. The half-breed had proceeded to slam his elbow down on the shoulder joint.

Saint had already tried to escape the pair a few times. However, every single time Rogue seemed to be three steps ahead of him, cutting him off without fail.

One attempt had rewarded Saint with Rogue clotheslining him using her leg, leaving him open for a follow up attack by Dusk, which had left his horn chipped. If Saint had known beforehand that the two siblings had been training with each since their cub years together, Saint might have fled before the battle had even started.

The stallion had managed to get in his own hits, however. Dusk had sustained injuries to his right midsection from a sword Saint had conjured. Rogue also had a few scrapes from Saint merely getting lucky. And collectively, the two were just about out of magic, not unlike their unicorn opponent.

Yet Saint, on the verge of passing out, drained of all magic, and finally losing the little control he had left over the remaining number of sentinels, was still worse off than the two combined. By this point, he had given up any hopes he had for defeating the two hybrids.

“Wha-what are you waiting for?! Why are you keeping me alive? You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?!” Saint shouted at the two half-breeds, blood at the corners of his mouth. When both of the half-breeds remained quiet, Saint took it as a sign of them mocking him, causing him to let out a bloody scream before he charged at the two.

Both easily sidestepped the deranged stallion’s wild swings, ducking and moving out of the way, doing their best not to get caught off-guard. “St-stop it...Stop making a FOOL OF ME!” Saint bellowed as he continued his fruitless attacks, knowing that he had long since been drained of his magic.

What he didn’t know was that Rogue’s combat knife was specialized to fight magical creatures like him. Thanks to secret blacksmithing methods of the changelings in the Republic Guard, the blade itself was manufactured with a special ore that allowed the wielder to make their target actually bleed out magic, while trapping some of the raw energy in the blade.

Saint had no way of knowing why he was losing magic faster than he should have been. He had assumed that keeping the sentinel army under his control had been draining his magic faster than originally planned. He had long since waved off the small half-breed taking small swipes at him as her way of leaving him open to the larger hybrid.

“Do you realize what you’re ruining?!” Saint bluttered out, taking another failed swing at Dusk, nearly falling over. He managed to keep standing, and even continue to swing at anything that looked like the half-breed that had been tormenting him, his mind finally having cracked. “Do you know how hard it was for me to get where I am now? DO YOU?! The things I’ve had to do! The lives that I’ve RUINED! The families I’ve RIPPED apart with my own hands!”

Saint paused to take a heavy breath, placing one hand on his knee to keep himself from falling over. “I… I could’ve help bring order to all of this,” he cried, waving his hand out before he stood back up to look towards the two hybrids. “I-I could’ve… Oh th-that little filly. I have done so much, and I’m not going to be finished by some fucking MUTTS!”

As Saint lifted his sword above his head, Dusk had had enough of the stallion’s ranting and moved to end it for good. “Oh will you just shut the fuck up!” While the stallion was open, Dusk rammed his fist into Saint’s lower midsection, resulting in the stallion letting out a gasp of breathless air.

Saint dropped his sword as he slowly fell onto the wet ground on his back. Without his magic to protect his body, Saint was just like any other unicorn, and it was evident by Saint’s painful wheezing.

While Saint was fading in and out of consciousness, Dusk reached down to the collar of Saint’s robes, dragging him over to a wall where Dusk propped him up on his feet. There were a few moment of blackness for Saint, during which he could faintly feel that his hands were being bound together by something that felt like robe or even a metal cable from a building. “Wh-what are you going to do with...me?” Saint demanded in a weak voice as Dusk placed one of his hands on Saint’s shoulder and the other on the middle of his chest.

As Saint’s vision remained blurry, Rogue pulled out her knife, flipping it to the sawtooth side that was made for cutting through bone. All types of bone. “You are going to call off this army of yours, now,” Rogue said, placing the edge of the sawtooth side against Saint’s horn, the knife’s guard meeting the dark-gray stallion’s horn. “I may not look like it, but I am a Lunar soldier. I know how to remove a unicorn’s horn. It’s like cutting open a fish, one clean stroke.”

Saint’s eyes widened at what the half-breed told him, and from the feeling of the cold dagger placed against his horn. He had already lost, and now these half-breeds were going to remove his horn. “N-no please...n-no, yo-you can’t. NOT a-after what I-I’ve been through!”

“Then call off these walking trash cans,” Dusk growled at Saint, wanting to do nothing but fry the stallion's nerve system to kill him and be done with it. But Rogue was likely right, keeping the stallion alive was probably the smarter idea, since he was the only one able to stop the sentinels from destroying Canterlot. “C’mon man, at least do some good.”

“Fuck you! I-I’m far too gone,” Saint said with a hollow laugh and a crooked grin on his face, no longer caring about losing to the two. “Besides...haha, I don’t have the magic keep control of them anymore. So you’re fucked. This whole miserable city is fucked. Everyone is fucked!”

Dusk growled at the stallion, toying with the idea of electrocuting him, but he was somehow able to hold himself back. Rogue growled at the stallion as well, moving the guard of her knife flush against Saint’s horn, charging the silver steel blade with a small bit of wind-magic. “Then you’re fucked too,” she said before she moved the knife across Saint’s horn, cutting through it effortlessly.

The cut was so clean and quick that Saint initially didn’t even feel the steel cut through. But suddenly, he felt a wave of pain rush down from the top of his head, going down his spine. Saint let out a mournful cry of pain as his body thrashed around, pulling at the bindings on his wrists while he tried to escape Dusk’s grip.

Soon enough, though, Saint eventually passed out from the excess of excruciating pain coursing through his body. Dusk let Saint slump to the ground after he passed out, sighing afterwards as Rogue put away her knife.

“What now? It’s not like we got the magic to keep going,” Dusk quickly said, finally allowing the strain of the hard-fought battles to catch up with him. He leaned against the wall, one hand holding himself up as he willed his knees to not give out. Rogue was going to respond when she suddenly collapsed against his chest from overexertion. Dusk looked down at his little sister before placing his hand on top of her head. “Hate to say it, but our fight is over.”

Meanwhile, as her siblings were battling Saint, Verdite and Obsidian continued to engage the stallion that Obsidian had identified as a wealthy entrepreneur named Silversteel. After being identified, Silversteel abandon all thought of escape as it would only cause him further problems later. So instead, he attacked the two canines with all the power he could bring to bear.

However, due to Verdite’s destructive earth-magic and Obsidian realizing the stallion had a magically-enhanced armor on, Silversteel found himself at a disadvantage. The stallion’s only saving grace was that he was able to use his magic to regenerate his body and armor.

However, Silversteel was quickly running out of magic from all the damage his body and armor was taking. It wouldn’t be much longer before his magic would give out and he would either die or be captured. All because he had listened to that annoying colt.

“Blueblood!” Silversteel roared up to the black skies as the rain continued to pour down on Canterlot, swinging his blade up at the skies above in anger. “Is this what you had planned for us?! Were you trying to get us all killed?! Even now you continue to be a thorn in my side you fucking piece of shit! You miserable colt!”

Neither Obsidian nor Verdite spared the stallion any remorse as they both charged him. Silversteel, dazed from blood loss, couldn’t keep up with the two fast moving canines and took a blind swing in their general area, only to horribly miss. Obsidian ran to Silversteel’s open right side, and fires one of his pistols at close range, the gun nearly flush against Silversteel’s arm. The magic bullet tore through the armor and shredded the entirety of his upper arm, far past what his magic would be able to heal. Verdite slid under the stallion’s open legs, only to stand up behind him and to ram her foot into the back of one of Silversteel’s knees, forcing him to the ground.

Obsidian followed the half-blood’s move by placing his black gun against the back of Silversteel’s head, finger on the trigger. “Silversteel, this is checkmate. Surrender,” Obsidian said as he pressed the muzzle of his gun against Silversteel’s skull to get his point across. “Make a single move, and you’ll be meeting your creator in the Tartarus.”

“Do it…” Both canines flinched for a moment at what the stallion had just said, causing Obsidian’s finger to press down further on the trigger. “I said do it...I-I’d rather die by th-the hands of a-a rea-real fighter, then li-live in a wo-world that would allow monsters like me to...w-walk free. Do it. It-it’s your job as a-a soldier.”

“And if I say no? What can you possibly do?” Obsidian questioned as he removed his finger from the trigger, but kept the gun against Silversteel’s head. “You’ve already lost this fight, I see no point in killing you in cold blood.”

Silversteel began weakly laughing at Obsidian before coughing up blood. He watched it hit the ground, the rain quickly washing it away. “Y-you do-don’t get it y-yet, do you?” Silversteel questioned, moving his hand to the space where the bullet hit his arm, trying to stem the flow of blood. “I-I’m going to die ei-either way th-this goes. S-so it’s yo-your duty as a soldier to s-see me off with an honorable death. S-surely you can understand that…”

For a moment, all Obsidian could do was stand in the rain with the dying stallion’s words in his head, prompting old memories to come back. “Sometimes mutt, death is the only answer. Sometimes, your opponent wants to an end to their existence. And sometimes, they are too weak to do it to themselves. This is what a mercy kill is. And sometimes...you have to deny this salvation.”

“Fine,” Obsidian said, mostly to the voice of his old friend’s voice echoing his head than the request of the stallion in front of him. “If this really is your final request…” Obsidian began charging the gun with a shot of fire-magic while Silversteel closed his eyes and leaned back into the gun, ready for his miserable life come to an end.

Back in the central plaza, the final occultist and the elite sentinel were still putting up a hard fight. Quill was having a hard time confronting the elite sentinel, as she was beginning to tire, which allowed the sentinel to keep up with her speed. However, she kept strong, refusing to let something seemingly without a soul to beat her.

On the other side of the plaza, Rainbow, Twilight, Frost, and Spike were having troubles with Angel. She seemed to be more powerful than an alicorn. Getting close to her was troublesome in itself, and to make matters worse they still had to deal with the remaining sentinels and titans. Spike did his best to keep what happened in the vision from repeating itself, but it still seemed that was one event that was going to happen regardless of what he did.

Spike didn’t remember the sentinels still working after this long, leading him to believe that something he did changed one of the others’ decisions. Which in turn was leading back to the same situation from the vision.

As he continued to fight alongside Frost, Spike did everything in his power to make sure that they were able to defeat the sentinels quickly. However, the titans were something different; their sheer size and power made it almost impossible for Frost to seal them in ice. This forced Spike and Frost to fight them off one by one while Rainbow and Twilight continued to face off against Angel in an aerial battle.

During their battle, more of the vision came true when Twilight’s barrier shattered, knocking her into Rainbow before they fell to the ground. The force of the fall knocked Rainbow out, while Twilight had appeared to have injured her wings.

Angel capitalized on this as she began unleashing a flurry of magical bolts at Twilight. The alicorn princess was barely able to summon up another barrier to block the barrage, knowing that she was nearly out of magical power. As Angel got ready to end the mare, this time seeming to charge up a magical beam, Spike’s body started to move on its own yet again, only this time, he knew what was going to happen when he get in front of the attack.

And he didn’t care.

Twilight, admittedly at fault for several things, was the mare that hatched and technically raised him and Quill. Spike couldn’t leave the mare for dead knowing that he could have done something to help. This time he was choosing to sacrifice himself, because Twilight was his friend, and Spike had vowed to protect everyone close to him.

“Twilight!” Spike shouted as he skidded to a stop right in front of Twilight before the the beam of magic could reach her. He held up his metal staff to hopefully block or even deflect the beam. He tried to focus as much of his water-magic into the staff as he could, trying to reinforce it. Spike’s hopes were partially realized when the metal staff was able to hold against the blast, but the force of it started to push Spike back.

“I-I won’t le-let you hu-hurt the ones close to me,” Spike hissed through his teeth as he strained to push back the beam. Unknown to Spike, Twilight’s staff had begun emitting a blue and purple light that soon began flowing to the fire-stones on Spike’s black gloves, causing them to shine the same color as Twilight’s staff. “I-I refuse to...I-I refuses to allow the likes of you…”

Just as the lights on Spike’s glove began to reach a peak, the metal staff began to split into two, but Spike refused to give in. Angel, shocked that the drake was holding her back with a simple metal pole, doubled the force behind her magic, causing Spike’s staff to snap in half.

A massive explosion erupted around Spike, kicking up rain, stone, and dirt in the air. For a brief moment, it looked like Spike and possibly Twilight had been consumed by it. Soon, however, there appeared to be some force swirling smoke around where the two had disappeared. As the smoke thinned out, it was revealed that Spike that was the one causing the whirlpool. His metal staff was now broken in half, and each half had a scythe blade on one end.

Spike made for an impressive sight as he stood guarding Twilight and Rainbow, his two ghastly weapons held at the ready. The blades were large and curved almost all around, like a raven’s talons. They had a spiked tip at the top of the blade, which glimmered darkly. The blades were an opposing dark purple and a bright blue that looked like waves of the ocean, constantly shifting. Even Spike’s black gloves had changed, becoming wavy with lines of blue in them, circling around the blue and purple gems in Spike’s gloves.

“I refuse to allow the likes of you to harm my friends!” Spike roared as he took up a fighting stance. His right hand was held low with his scythe blade pointing towards the ground while his left hand raised to eye level, aiming the inside of the blade at Angel's neck. “I am Spike Sui Dragul! And your evil ends now!”

Angel let out a hiss at Spike, hardly believing her ears. She found it hard to believe that this dragon still thought he could defy her. “Don’t think because you got lucky with that new power that you will be able to beat me!” Angel shouted at Spike as her magic created wings stretching outwards, her hands and eyes glowing a bright silver. “Have you forgotten that I have an army of sentinels at my bidding?” As the mare said this, the remaining squads of sentinels and titans moved in front of Angel, catching Spike off guard when he thought about having to fight all of them. “You are nothing to me, lizard. I have already-”

Suddenly, all of the sentinels shook violently before freezing up. “What are you doing, you walking tin cans?! End this wretched lizard already!” Still, the sentinels refused to move from their spots. Spike thought, hoped that it meant that Dusk had finally dealt with Saint. However, he discarded that idea when he heard Quill and the elite sentinel sheathing their swords. If the elite was still moving...

“What in the world is going on?” Spike asked, still trying to understand which change he caused that had allowed the sentinels to still be functioning for this long.

Both Quill and the elite began walking over towards the other sentinels and Spike, still keeping an eye on each other. “I think I know what’s going on, Spike,” Quill said as she glared into the elite’s ethereal blue eyes. “Dusk was able to beat the occultist controlling these guys, and now the elite is in charge. Isn’t that right?”

All the elite did was continue walking besides Quill before they came to a stop in front of their respective allies, never breaking the stare he had on Quill. “Dusk set you guys free, and you still want to fight me, huh? Fine by me, I’ll take you on.” Quill’s fists began clutching at her sides, not in anger, but excitement.

Until today, Quill had never felt so alive, and during her short battle with the elite sentinel, she had learned so much just by fighting it. The same way with she had Wolf, Dusk, Frost, and even Spike. This is what Quill and Spike were striving for; the chance to protect everyone, the chance to prove themselves. And after witnessing her brother become an Element from risking his life for Twilight, Quill felt a new flame rising in her chest.

“We’re not going to run away just ‘cuz you outnumber us. We’re not going to quit because you have more power than us. We’re not going to give up just because we’re tired. We’re not going to hide from the world. We’re not going to let destiny pick our course for us.” Quill grabbed the handle of her sword with her left hand, slowly pulling it from its sheath as the elite sentinel did the same.

At the same time, both sentinel and dragoness pulled their other sword from its sheath, quickly swiping the tips of the blades to down to the ground, causing some of the water on the ground to move. “We’re going to keep fighting. We’re going to keep getting back up no matter what. We’re going to live to see tomorrow. We’re going to move on to the next fight in our lives; big or small. We’re going to continue to live our lives the way we want to. With pride in our hearts!”

Her friends felt their own surge of pride at what Quill was saying. Off to the side, Rainbow was helped onto her feet by a canine she knew as Shadow Star. She let out a grunt as she saw a noticeable amount of blood coming out of her left side, and from the burning pain in her two wings. She knew that she was out of the fight, but she also knew there was something she could do to keep helping. “Hey Quill, catch,” Rainbow said before ripping off her Element from her neck, and throwing it to Quill, who caught it after glancing at the mare.

The moment it hit Quill’s hands, the rose-red gem inside Rainbow’s Element began shining in a bright purple and silver light, momentarily blinding everyone from the intensity of the it.

Once the bright light had faded, everyone was shocked to see that Quill’s swords, pendant, and armband had all changed from the power from the Element of Loyalty. The once pure-black sheaths had changed to a bright red, with a hard line of purple cutting through down to the tip.

The grips on the swords had changed as well; two round tips were added to the rounded-square guard of the sword, now decorated with a pair of purple and black feathers like the ones on Quill’s arm-band. The blade itself changed from its jet black to a bright reflective silver with a purple edge trim.

Quill moved her sword up to her face to look at the blade, seeing her eyes looking back at her, tinted slightly around the edges with silver. She then moved it to sneak a look at Spike’s eyes behind her, only to find that they were glinting with a slightly dull-red. Something told her that it wasn’t blood coloring his eyes.

“Thanks Rainbow,” Quill said, moving her sword tip back down to the ground, knowing that Rainbow was entrusting Quill with her Element’s power to continue the fight. “Don’t know how you knew that was gonna work, but I really don’t care. Frost,” Quill called, turning towards Frost on her left side, seeing the mare behind Spike. “Can you give this back to Rainbow for me? And treat her and Twilight’s injuries? Me and Spike can handle this.”

“Okay Quill, if that is what you wish,” Frost said as she sparked her horn to take the necklace out of Quill’s hand, feeling proud to be Quill’s marefriend right now. After Rainbow’s Element was in her grasp, Frost turned to Twilight, kneeling down to the alicorn while Shadow brought Rainbow over. “Princess Sparkle, I must say, you’ve raised those two quite nicely.”

Twilight looked away from the changeling half-breed, who had busied herself with her dragon magic in order to heal the alicorn’s injuries. Twilight watched the twins as they got ready to shoulder the weight of the rest of the battle. “No...they raised each other,” Twilight said with a soft smile on her lips, proud at how far the twins had come in the short time since they’d left Ponyville.

“Nonsense…” Angel spat as she watched a squad of sentinels back away from the battlefield, some jumping on top of nearby buildings while the titans remained on the ground, all prepared to merely watch the final battle. “This is utter NONSENSE! How...how are you doing this?! These tin cans can’t think for themselves! So how?! HOW?!”

“Why don’t you shut up and learn?” Quill shouted at Angel, before bringing up her other sword and charging at the elite sentinel. The two’s blades clashed as the sentinel had already drawn his swords to defend from the dragon’s attack, crossing his two swords to catch Quill’s. However, this left him open for another attack from Quill, who capitalized on it by kicking the sentinel in the chest.

Recovering quickly, the sentinel and Quill began clashing blades with each other, pushing each other back. Even as storm still raging on, sparks and flames flew from Quill’s swords as she continued to clash blades with the elite, with her somehow gaining speed.

Not wanting to see if the dragoness was going to make good on her promise, Angel tried to make her escape by air, only to met with a bladed lance from one of the winged sentinels, as if they weren’t going to allow her to leave. “MOVE! I will NOT die here!”

“Then give yourself up,” Spike said, taking a step towards the mare as she whipped around. Spike, tightening the grip on his scythes, glared at the mare as she began panicking. “You’ve already lost, so there’s no reason to keep this up. Just give yourself up, and come peacefully.”

“Are you mad?! I will not give myself up to a pack of monsters like you!” Angel roared as she sparked her horn, prepared to fight for her life. Spike moved himself back into the fighting stance he’d taken before. Seeing that his sister was already infusing her magic into her Element, Spike did the same. Thin, high-pressure threads of water flowed onto his scythes’ blades, creating a saw-like effect on them. “No matter what trickery you use, lizard, I will not fall to the likes of YOU!”

“And I won’t let you harm my friends. Aquam filo,” Spike said before dashing towards the mare with his water-surfing technique, quickly opening up by swinging his right scythe over his head and sending out a blade of water at Angel.

Angel quickly took to the air with her wings to avoid Spike’s attack, laughing at the wingless dragon. Angel quickly shot out several bolts of magic at Spike while she continued to hysterically laugh at him. Spike easily moved around the blasts of magic, dashing and diving out of the way as he again gathered water onto his right scythe.

“Aquam filo.” Spike sent another overhead blade of water at Angel, which she dodged while laughing. However, in the mare’s laugher, she failed to see the second slash of water Spike had sent out with his left scythe. The slash slammed into Angel’s midsection, knocking her out of the air and towards the edge of the semicircle.

Before the mare could recover, a titan sentinel reached up to catch the mare by her leg, slamming her onto the ground within the semicircle. Angel cried out in pain from the unexpected attack, trying to get back on her feet before the drake could take advantage of the situation.

Spike noticed the move that the titan made, realizing that they weren’t going to allow either of the combatants out of the battle. Quickly forming a plan to put a quick end to the fight, Spike rushed the mare as she got up from the ground.

Angel saw the drake coming and fired a bolt of magic at him. Spike swerved to the left side of the shot, quickly coming up on the mare’s left side before she had a chance to attack again. Spike brought his left-hand scythe down to sweep Angel off her feet before kicking her at another one of the sentinels.

The mare managed to stop herself from getting close to the circle of sentinels by digging her hand into the cobblestone ground. “I am no pushover, lizard,” Angel said as she slowly stood up from the ground, her hands covered in an ethereal silver glow, while her horn shone brightly. “And I will not be defeated so easily!”

Spike frowned at the mare as he brought his left scythe in line with Angel’s neck while his right one moved to point at the ground. “Yeah, I figured that much,” he retorted just above the sound of the pounding rain that he fed into his weapons. “But, Angel Wing, it would be a heck of a lot easier and better if you did, though.”

“Well I’m sorry to disappoint, but I didn’t do the things I’ve done to be stopped here,” Angel said, creating a whip and sword from the magic she had gathered before manifesting her wings again. “Prepare yourself, drake.” Angel quickly dove towards Spike with her ethereal purple sword raised above her head.

Spike quickly backflipped away from the mare’s downwards strike before surfing away from her. As he made distance between himself and Angel, Spike used those few moments to determine what the best chance of attack was.

He knew that the sword was for close combat and while the whip was meant to disarm him from a distance. With his scythes being close range, and his magic long and short ranged, Spike quickly formulated a plan.

Starting with a blade of pressurized water at Angel - which she dodged - Spike whirled around on his right foot, gathering more water into his left scythe before launching the watery missile at Angel. “Mari unguem,” Spike said as the water missile quickly shot towards Angel, just grazing her hand that held the whip.

In spite of the glancing hit, the sheer blunt force of the blade forced Angel to lose her grip on the whip as it went flying against a building, where it vanished into thin air. Angel quickly turned her head back towards Spike, only to find a literal buzzsaw of water flying straight for her.

She reacted quickly as she met the spinning blades with her sword and began to fight it off. Yet the power of the rapidly rotating blade forced the sword out of Angel’s hands as the buzzsaw deflected back to its owner.

Spike caught the spiraling scythes with his left hand in the center of the elongated staff, before he used his right hand to pull the two apart. Angel tried to recover from having her weapons forcefully knocked away from her.

“Hey, guess what? That time, I meant to do it,” Spike said with a small chuckle, watching Angel’s face contort in anger. If there was anything he’d learned through all this, it was that both Angel and Blueblood had the same inferiority complex. “I’m not doing so bad for just a lizard, huh? But please, continue to demonstrate your almighty power, Princess. You’re doing a fantastic job of it.”

“Rah, that is IT! I will not be made a fool of!” Angel cried over the sound of the thunder in the background. Her horn started arcing in a furious white-hot light, creating another magic-construct sword in her hands before she blindly charged at Spike.

Spike easily avoided the charge, using the wet ground to dash away. Angel tightly circled around to attack the drake from behind, only to miss when Spike used the water to launch himself in the air. As he flipped around, Spike quickly struck at Angel’s sword with his left scythe, which forced Angel to counterattack.

The attack resulted in Spike planting his tail on the ground to balance himself, before delivering a quick kick to Angel’s side, which sent her flying into the ground. “Please, stop this already,” Spike said as the mare tumbled and rolled on the hard cobblestone ground, eventually coming to a stop.

“This doesn’t have to happen, you know.” Spike slowly got off of his tail while Angel was still struggling to regain her feet, coughing as her senses returned to her. Spike had started to take pity on Angel, seeing her in pain.

‘It would be a lot easier if she wasn’t a mare,’ Spike thought to himself. ‘I’d be fighting as hard as Quill is, otherwise.’ Spike risked a quick glance at his sister, turning his head to see the two other combatants clashing blades while landing furious strikes on each other.

A wheezing cough from Angel directed Spike’s attention back to her, watching the mare shakily stand up from the ground. “Just turn yourself in, cooperate with the guard and help them put an end to all of this madness. What are you trying to achieve from all of this, anyway?” he asked with a small shake of his head, still trying to understand this mare’s motives for joining in with the occultists. “You are the Angel Wings, one of Equestria’s premier supermodels. Everything you could ever want was handed to you on a silver platter, while others had to struggle throughout their entire lives just to scrape by.”

“D...do you think that I am any different?” Angel questioned before continuing in a yell, “I want to know what it means to hold something of my very own in my hands. I am sick of every single pony I meet trying to get something out of me. Do you know what it feels like when everyone wants something from you? DO YOU?!”

Spike was quiet for a moment as he lowered his eyes, feeling nothing but sorrow for the mare. Everything and more had been given to her, and yet the one thing she wanted was to be known for herself, and not just for how beautiful she was.

Spike closed his eyes as he let out a small sigh, answering, “I do, actually. I was too young to understand how I really felt about it, and maybe I still am. But… I was needed then, and I’m needed now more than ever.” Spike opened his eyes, burning a bright emerald-green, that seemed to pierce Angel’s heart.

Those bright green orbs were hands-down the most beautiful things Angel had ever laid her eyes on before. They looked like the most priceless jewels she’d ever seen. And she had visited the most famous showrooms, fashion shows, and art galleries. It sickened her to no end.

“No,” she breathed out, turning her head away from Spike, no longer able to look him in the eyes. “No...A beast like you can not possibly understand what I’ve been through. I refuse to believe it.” Angel gripped the sides of her mane as she clenched her eyes shut, muttering repeatedly, “No...no, no.”

“Stop it,” Spike boomed in a roaring voice, getting the mare to jump as she stopped her unhinged mumbling. Yet she still refused to look at the drake, for fear of seeing something else she had been missing for all her life; a protector. “There’s need to do this any more. You can put an end to all of this now. You can finally set yourself free. Fly without your wings.”

A bloody shriek from Angel as her body arched up towards the leaden skies, firing massive bolts of magic the storm clouds above. The result was an angry roar of thunder and lighting as if in response to the mare’s desperate cries of agony.

All Spike did was sigh as he closed his eyes, lowering his head towards the ground. It was a true pity to see the mare let loose all of the anger she had built up over the years. While he had his eyes closed, Spike didn’t see Angel create yet another double-edged sword, slashing straight towards him.

He didn’t need to.

As the now-insane mare raised her sword high above her head, Spike took in one small, deep breath, time seeming to have been slowed down for him. In this instant, all of Spike’s senses were heightened further beyond what they normally were.

Every rain drop, every gust of wind, the singing of Quill and the elite’s swords clashing, Twilight and the others calling out his name, Angel’s scream and the blade whistling through the rain. All of this, and far more Spike could hear clearly. It seemed like he finally understood what Dusk had said about him finding a warrior’s life.

In spite of the raging battle around him, he felt peaceful.

Spike’s eyes snapped open, catching Angel’s downward stroke with one of his scythe’s blades. A massive bolt of lightning lit the skies as Angel’s mind slowly caught up with what had just happened, but by then it was too late.

“You brought this on yourself,” Spike said. His right hand clenched into a fist around the metal staff of his scythe, gathering high-pressure threads of water. “Undo fulmen.” Spike wrenched Angel's sword out of her hands as his water-enhanced fist exploded against her midsection, sending her flying from the blunt force of the blast.

Angel was stupefied as she was propelled into the semi-circle of sentinels, her eyes locked on the frowning drake. ‘He...he didn’t want to hurt me,’ she thought to herself before her flight was cut short by another titan sentinel.

This time she was caught by the neck before being tossed back over Spike’s head, landing on the ground, rolling due to the extra momentum before finally stopping. ‘This. Ends. Now,’ Spike thought to himself before he sped over to Angel before she had the chance to get up.

As Angel moved to get back up, Spike placed a foot on the mare’s back, forcing her down onto the ground where her neck met the inside of one of his scythes. A large lump caught in the mare’s throat as she could almost hear the blade whispering her name. “Now... are you going to give up?” Spike asked, pulling the scythe’s blade against Angel's neck, not relaxing just yet as the mare could still try something. “Because if you’re not…” Spike tugged at the scythe, causing Angel to painfully arc her head further back. “What happens won’t be my fault... please, don’t make me do it.”

Angel wanted to glare up at Spike with her pink eyes, not believing that she had been defeated by a dragon. Tears of defeat and pain began flowing down her face. She had given up on holding back any composure, defeat having finally broken her.

“Wh-why? Wh…why are you s-showing me mercy?” she slowly asked as she began choking on her words, no longer having the will to fight. “I-I do-don’t deserve it...th-the things I’ve done...no, no, no, NO! This is not what was to ha...happen. I wa-wasn’t supposed to lose!”

“What are you talking about?” Spike asked, confused why Angel didn’t know why he would show mercy to an enemy that had clearly surrendered. He almost dropped his guard, but quickly snapped out of it. “You’re not gonna trick me by making me feel sorry for you! That’s p-”

“What trick are you talking about?!” Angel shouted in a choked voice at Spike, straining to turn her head back to the drake to look him in the eyes. Spike quickly realized the look of true sadness in the mare’s eyes, knowing now that she wasn’t trying to trick him. “I h-have lost! Even I can see that, lizard! K-kill me, please...”

Spike was left speechless at the mare’s words, not believing that she wanted to die before she was captured. He was going to speak again when Spike heard the clanking sounds of heavy, metal armor behind him. Spike turned to see a titan flanked by two spear wielding sentinels.

He realized that the sentinels were there to collect the losing party. Slowly, Spike withdrew his scythe from Angel’s neck, stepping back. The titan sentinel bent down after he was out of the way, moving to pick Angel off the ground, not caring about the mare’s injuries.

Once the titan picked her up, it crossed its arms over Angel’s busty chest, leaving her legs to dangle mere inches from the ground. Suddenly, the two spear wielding sentinels rattled to life as well, instantly snapping the tips of their curved spears to Angel’s neck, making sure the mare got the point of her defeat.

As Angel was picked up, she groaned and hissed in pain but did nothing to stop the sentinels. Not that she could at this point, anyway. All the mare could do was hang her head in shame as she sniffed.

“Why?” Spike questioned, eventually getting the mare to look up to him. “If you knew that dying was the only way out...then why would you do any of this?! Answer me!” Spike shouted at the mare, wanting an answer for all the pain she had caused up until now. “You had everything you could want, so why do this?”

“Be-because...on-once you have it all,” Angel weakly laughed, knowing she was in no position to make any sort of demands, or complain about the way she was being treated. “You want more, and more, and more. It-it’s like a drug, on-once you have some of it, yo-you want all of it, until you know you’ll die trying to get it.”

“Then haven’t you ever consider doing something else?” Frost questioned as she had already finished healing both Twilight, Rainbow, and Shadow’s injuries as much as she could, walking towards the captured mare with the other three following. “There is more to life than just power and respect. Peace, honor, fellowship, pride, redemption. All of that and so much more. What is wrong with striving for that?”

Angel began laughing at the changeling mare, surprised that the mare was actually trying to understand her. “That would be something to go after, wouldn’t it?” Angel scoffed with another weak laugh, before she began coughing. “I-I never ha-had someone to tell me that. A-all my li-life, I had to claw away at others. Power was all I’ve ever known.”

“And now it is your own downfall,” Frost spat, not to the mare, but to the life she’d had. “It’s never too late to change you know. Spike spared your life for this very reason, surely you will make good on this gift from him.”

“No,” Angel slowly breathed out with a slight shake of her head, looking at the ground. “There’s no doubt that I’ll will be charged with high treason, and a whole list of other crimes. M-my life is over, nothing I can ever do will save me from this fate.” Angel began hollowly laughing at herself, her tears joining the rainwater. “I’ll be lucky if I’m not banished to the Badlands.”

Frost closed her eyes as she turned her back on the mare and started to watch Quill’s battle, barely turn her head back before continuing, “If you really believe that is your fate to be doomed to, you have no one to blame but yourself. We are all in control of our destinies. Power only comes to those that have the will to take it in our hands.”

“That’s what we were trying to do.”

“Yeah? Well guess what, you did it in the worst way possible. That’s why you’re here now,” Spike said before he hurried over to Frost to follow her towards the slowly forming circle of sentinels around Quill’s fight.

Quill and the elite were both in a heated deadlock, with their blades again clashed with each other. Each of Quill’s attacks had been matched by the two swords the elite was using. It had yet to even draw out its third blade.

Quill went for an overhead strike, but the elite easily blocked it by crossing his swords to catch Quill’s blade. Gritting her teeth, Quill tried to push down to break the elite’s guard, but the suit of armor wouldn’t budge.

As Quill added her second sword to her first, the elite suddenly twisted his blades to the right side, jerking Quill in that direction. Before the dragoness could recover, the elite pivoted on his left foot to deliver a punishing roundhouse kick.

Quill was sent flying from the sudden kick to her face, recovering by using one swordpoint dug into the ground to eventually stop her momentum. The moment she landed, Quill was forced to block the elite’s charge, her two swords meeting its.

After locking blades again, Quill slashed both of her blades down to the ground, breaking the elite’s attack so she could slam both of her feet on top of its chest. Quill kicked back from the elite’s chest, flipping around before landing on the ground, charging back towards the elite the moment her feet hit the ground.

Quill pushed herself to go on the offensive as she began rapidly attacking the elite, trying to find some chink in its defence. Ducking underneath a horizontal slash from the elite, Quill swept her right sword at the sentinel’s legs in order to trip it off its feet.

However, the thing barely budged, causing Quill to curse at herself for forgetting that her opponent most likely couldn’t feel pain. She took flight just before the elite drove it’s sword into the ground, right where she had been crouching a moment before.

“Damnit, how am I supposed to kill something that’s not alive?” Quill snarled as she watched the elite’s movement. Realizing that he was about to jump towards her, Quill began to dive down to the ground, banking left to flank the elite.

Thanks to her flight being curved slightly, Quill was able to dodge the sentinel's charge, countering with several volleys of fire from her mouth. Some of Quill’s shots missed, while others were blocked by the elite’s blades. However, one of the more explosive ones was able to break elite’s guard, sending one of his swords spinning out of his hand and towards the ring of other sentinels.

“Ha! About time this got to even ground,” Quill said. The elite didn’t appear to mind losing of one of his swords as he got into a two-handed stance with the one in his hands. Quill furrowed her eyebrows at the elite as he raised his sword above his head, watching the elite prepare to charge her again. “Wait, how come you’re not…”

Quill’s question was left unanswered as the elite threw his sword straight at her. The elite’s blade flew so fast through the air that Quill swore she heard it cutting the air itself. She had barely half a second to react, dodging away before it could impale her chest. Quill knew she hadn’t dodged it fast enough when she felt a searing pain lance across the left side of her face.

Trying to ignore the pain burning her face, Quill failed to keep track of the elite. It was already dashing towards her, drawing its third sword from behind its back. Keeping her left eye shut, feeling the blood pouring down her face, Quill had mere seconds to react as she went to block the black silver-trimmed sword with her blades.

Yet the elite’s momentum was far greater than her ability to block while airborne. The elite shoved his blade against Quill’s, breaking her guard and sending Quill plummeting to the ground. Quill recovered by pushing off the ground with one hand to stay airborne.

‘Great, just great. I...he can do things like that, just fucking awesome,’ Quill growled, snapping her jaw in mild anger. However, in spite of that setback, Quill had learned that explosive damage was far more effective on him than anything else.

Turning around while midair, Quill inhaled deeply, embers glowing at the edges of her mouth. “Flamma erupit.” Quill whipped her head down towards the elite, opening her mouth just slightly, forcing the volatile flare in her mouth to compress before shooting out.

The sentinel tried to divert the fiery burst with his remaining sword by attempting to cut it in half. However, instead of exploding upon impact like it should have, the ball of fire pressed against with the elite’s blade, pushing him back.

Quill quickly took a chance and flew right behind the elite, already charging up her magic for a second attack. The elite was far too busy fighting off the fireball that refused to change its intended course to do anything about the dragoness landing behind him and placing her sword at the top left side of his back.

All it could do was turn its head back to see the determined look in Quill’s sharp purple eyes. As she locked her eyes with the sentinel's orbs it presumably used for sight, Quill noticed that they were starting to change just slightly, going from the pale-blue to a faded light-purple.

After noticing this, Quill continued to ignite her sword with the purple and green flickers of her fire-magic before saying, “Flamma erupit.” again, this time causing a small explosion from her sword as she slashed down the elite’s back.

The initial explosion pushed the elite into the fireball in front of him, causing a second one to happen within mere seconds of the first. Dust and rain water was kicked up from the two ground-shaking explosions before Quill and the sentinel were seen rushing out of the cloud side by side.

The two exchanged a flurry of blows with each other before they came to an abrupt stop, their blades were locked with one another. As Quill continued to push down against the sentinel’s block, she glared into its ‘eyes’ again to see that they were turning into a darker shade of purple. A quick smile came onto Quill’s lips as she pulled back her left fist, dropping one sword and charging a dose of her fire-magic, before her fist crossed flew over the swords to connect with its metal helm.

The explosive punch held enough force to knock the sentinel back, allowing Quill to gain the upper hand as she resumed her onslaught of attacks, grabbing her dropped blade as she charged. The elite soon recovered from the fiery punch, however, the sudden rush of attacks forced him to go fully on the defensive.

During the onslaught, Quill noticed a very small moment where the elite’s defenses would break every so often. She continued the wild flurry of attacks until she saw that moment again. For a barely noticeable moment, after the fifth strike, the elite’s right knee would give out just a little, causing him to lean closer to Quill by a bare few inches. Taking the opportunity, Quill pulled back her left sword, charging it with the same explosive power as her punch, before swinging it at the elite’s right sword.

With his final blade gone, Quill quickly followed up by kicking the elite’s leg hard, forcing it down to a knee. Quill wasted no time celebrating as she brought both of her swords above her head before slamming them down on the side of its neck.

A whirlwind of water was blown away from the attack that would have easily cut most living creatures in three. Yet the sentinel elite remained on its knees, for it knew what had happened.

For a moment, Quill stood there, panting heavily, not claiming victory just yet. She needed to see it in the elite’s eyes. She had to know whether or not it was going to accept defeat. Oddly, Quill finally felt something pulsing inside the sentinel that seemed missing from the others: a soul.

“You lost, now you have to do whatever I say. Got it?!” Quill shouted the elite, crossing her swords over the empty space of his neck, and tilting them up a bit. When the elite made no move, Quill took that as an answer of acknowledgement from him.

“Good,” Quill said, slowly sliding her blades from the sentinel's neck as she stepped away from him. As Quill placed them back her sheaths, they turned into purple and silver lights, the lights flitting straight into Quill’s pendant around her neck.

The fire-stone and purple gem pendant Blaze had given her had been changed slightly, with silver now in the center. “Well, that makes things easier,” Quill said as the elite slowly bowed his head. Suddenly, a loud rattling sound came from most of the sentinels as they too got on one knee, minus the ones holding Angel captive, and a few of the medium sized ones that had left to retrieve the elite’s swords.

As the three sentinels returned with the elite’s swords, Quill and everyone looked around in awe at the sentinels. However, Quill was brought out of her amazement when one of the three sentinels came to her side on its knee, presenting the black silver-trimmed sword to her. Quill slowly picked up the sword, finding it to be quite heavy for its size.

Looking over at Frost and Spike, Quill let out a small giggle when Spike’s scythes began shining a bright blue and purple light before entering the gems on his gloves. That’s when she turned her attention back to the elite in front of her.

“Heh,” Quill chuckled at the idea that entered Quill’s head. However, the moment was far too good to pass up. “I, Quill Ferox Dragul, hereby proclaim you to be no longer a walking tin can.”

As Quill finished speaking, Dusk, carrying his younger sister on his back, with Saint tucked underneath his armpit still unconscious, returned to the central plaza. Obsidian and Verdite dragged Silversteel through a nearby store, spotting the rows of kneeling sentinels. Both groups were perplexed about why that was happening. “From here on out, you will be known for your badassery with a name that fits; Rydder the Knight.” Quill touched Rydder’s sword on each of his shoulders, officially naming the elite sentinel. “Stand, all of you.”

Rydder raised his head as Quill turned the handle of his sword to him, causing the tip of the blade to be pointed to Quill’s heart; the ultimate sign of trust. Rydder took the sword away from Quill as he stood up from the ground. He then raised his blade above his head, causing the rest of the sentinels to raise their weapons in salute as well.

Looking up at the buildings around them, everyone saw that even more sentinels were beginning to show up along with other squadrons of soldiers. Each of the new sentinels started to raise their weapon in the air, as if to show that they were allying with Quill and the others, marking victory as the rain finally ceased.

“So,” Spike started, looking around in amazement with the others, none thinking they would see something like this. “I’m guessing that we won?”