“Allen! Heads up!” my father cried from my right, and I ducked just as an undead soldier’s blade swept inches above my nose. I quickly straightened my self and stabbed through my attacker with my bladed arm, throwing them aside into another enemy. I looked over to see my father rapidly swinging his blade in a flurry of strikes as he pinned a group of enemies against a wall. I was too focused on fighting to see what happened next, but I’m sure those guys wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon.

“You know, most dads would take their kids to the batting cages!” I shouted as I threw my sword at a zombie pony like a throwing knife, hitting it in the side, and tore through it as I ran past and retrieved my weapon.
My dad shrugged and stabbed behind him, stopping the soldier trying to sneak up on him, and then spun around, slicing several surrounding enemies in half.

“Would you really prefer the batting cages over this?” he said, quickly raising a questioning eyebrow.
I blocked a downward swing with my crystal-encased arm and glanced over my shoulder to see Luna, her mane blowing dramatically as she whirled her halberd around her, knocking down enemy after enemy as they tried to get a clean hit against her.
“Not in a million years,” I said happily, swinging upward at my attacker and running to my father’s side.

It was only a few moments later we found ourselves surrounded by a group of changelings and undead soldiers. One of the changelings stepped forward and stood on its hind legs, taking on an exact imitation of my armored form as it did.
“Surrender, and we might let you live,” it said in a cold, emotionless imitation of my own voice.
I glared and held my weapons in a defensive stance, and saw my father holding his rapier straight forward and at the ready.

“Never,” I growled in a convincing brave tone, but I knew there was a good chance we were done for.
Just then, my doppelganger was reduced to a pile of ashes after a blast of blue light hit him dead-on. I looked over to see Shining Armor’s mech aiming its arm cannon at the group.
“Back off,” he said as the canon flashed and fired several blasts, thinning the numbers that surrounded us as we broke from the group.

“Thanks!” I called as Shining followed us with long, heavy steps.
“No problem!” he replied as a massive pillar of smoke slammed into him. I saw a pair of monsterous hands emerge from the cloud and hold down the mechs arms, and King Sombra’s face peered out and stared right at the cockpit with immeasurable hatred.
“YOU!” he bellowed as he tried to tear the mech’s arms off. I ran to his aid, but a familiar face stepped in my path.

Sanguis held his massive sword straight in front of him and pointed it at me.
“You are mine,” he growled, and charged at me with his huge blade at his side.
I held my sword and blade-arm in an X-formation, catching the weapon as Sanguis swung down, and quickly pushed it aside as I got some distance between myself and the warlord.
“Have you no honor?!” he bellowed mockingly, “come and face me!”

I ignored his attempts to psych me out, and instead focused on more of the soldiers that swarmed the streets. Sanguis still pursued me, pushing aside anything that stood in his way uncaringly.

Eventually I ended up in the same spot I started my escape in, where Shining Armor was still grappling with Sombra.
“Okay, I’ve had enough of this!” I heard the mech’s loudspeakers shout as a panel on the front of the cockpit slid away, revealing a massive cannon aimed right at the demon-pony’s head.

Sombra had literally one second to widen his eyes before he was blasted with a beam of white light that would impress the artists of Dragonball Z.

“All right!” I shouted, pumping a fist towards Shining. He returned the gesture, and suddenly threw his sword in my direction. It stabbed into the ground right next to me, blocking a swing from a previously-unseen Sanguis.

“You want Allen?” Shining shouted as he threw a massive punch that the warlord dodged, “you’ll have to go through me first!”
I retreated to a safe distance as Sanguis smiled cruelly. “Very well, then!” he bellowed as he threw his sword behind him and held out his arms, which were sparking with black lightning.
Shining rushed at Sanguis for another punch, but the warlord simply held out his hands and caught the mech’s fist, stopping it in its tracks.

“Do not deny me my vengeance!” he cried as a surge of energy traveled from himself up the mech’s arm, right into the cockpit. I heard a pained scream come out of the loudspeakers as the mech jerked violently and fell over.

The glass covering of the cockpit folded away, and I saw Shining Armor struggling to stand inside the metal shell, but his legs wouldn’t listen as he collapsed with his upper body hanging out of the mech.
“Shiny!” Cadence cried from behind me, and I turned to see her struggling to cut through a crowd of enemies so she could aid her husband.

I turned back to the wounded unicorn and heard a robotic voice sounding through the speakers.

[SYSTEM OVERLOAD. SELF DESTRUCT IMMINENT.]

“SHINING!” I shouted as I ran through the crowd, either pushing or slicing any enemies that stood in my way. As I drew near, I saw Shining slowly pushing himself up; there was no way he could stand, let alone get out of there, but I knew what was happening. And I didn’t like it.

Shining Armor looked me in the eyes and smiled comfortingly through his immense pain. It was a smile that told me he accepted what was coming next.

“NO!” I shouted moments before a massive explosion from the mech’s core knocked me backwards, sending me spinning and any soldiers nearby flying away from the source. My armor helped me survive the collision with a building, but it didn’t keep me from feeling sore.

I looked up and saw Sanguis standing over me, blade held at his side.
“No one, human or pony, defeats Sanguis Cruciatus,” he said as he raised his sword high in the air, the moonlight glinting off the edge.

Suddenly, a gunshot rang out, silencing the fighting and causing Sanguis to violently jerk his head to the side. I turned and saw my father standing several yards away, holding a revolver in his right hand with a dead-serious look on his face.

“Get the fuck away from my son,” he said plainly, and continued to fire.

Sanguis marched over to him, dragging his sword behind him as he approached.
“DAD! NO!” I shouted as I got to my feet and staggered after the warlord, but I could only watch helplessly as the gunshots turned to clicks, and Sanguis drove his blade through my father’s chest.

I watched in horror as he withdrew his sword, letting the limp body fall to the ground. He turned back to me, all of the taunting that had been in his expression before was gone; he was pissed now.

Then again, so was I.

I threw my sword aside and held up the crystal Flash had given me, causing my armor to fade away and the crystal to turn to dust. My advance on Sanguis started as a tense walk that eventually became a growling jog, and eventually became a screaming sprint.
I drew back my hoof as I drew near, which I just noticed was glowing a bright white, and slammed it into the warlord’s chest, sending him crashing through several buildings and flying in the direction Shining had sent Sombra earlier.

Luna and Cadence stood behind me as more and more enemies surrounded us.
“Find Twilight and the others, and get to the Archives,” I said in a low voice, “I’ll hold them off and meet you there.”
Luna started to protest, but I turned to her, giving her a good look at my now-glowing eyes.

“I said, run.”

She turned and ran for the castle with Cadence following close behind as I faced my attackers blankly.

“I’ll give you all one chance to retreat before I destroy you all,” I said, my voice vibrating from the energy that my anger had awakened.
One of the changelings laughed and tried to leap at me, but I simply grabbed it out of the air, pinned it to the ground, and snapped its neck without a single word.

The rest of them gasped at the sight, and a few of the more cowardly ones turned and fled, but the rest charged at me all at once.

I swept my hand in front of me, causing a wave of white magic to slam into the attackers and knock them away. At this point, several other enemies had noticed what I had done, and I alone faced the near-entirety of Sanguis’s army.
I held my hoof high in the air as it glowed white, and with tears streaming down my face and a violent scream, I slammed it into the ground, causing everything around me to vanish in a sea of blinding white light.

When my vision returned, there was no sign of the attackers. The guards that had survived the onslaught looked around, confused at their enemies sudden disappearance, but suddenly cheered at their victory.

I dropped to my knees, unable to process everything that just happened. Shining was dead. My father was dead. What else was I going to lose?

Just then, A shadow fell over me, and I jumped back an instant before a massive blade struck the spot I had previously occupied. Sanguis had recovered from my attack.

I stood up and made a mad dash for the castle, slamming the doors behind me as I entered. I knew it wouldn’t hold him back long, but I needed all the time I could get.

“Cadence! Give me the crystal!” I cried as I sealed the doors to the Archives. Cadence wasted no time in levitating the evil gem into my hands, and the others gave me a questioning look.
“Okay, I have no idea if this is going to work, but it’s worth try,” I said as I gripped the crystal tightly and focused on my friends that surrounded me.

“What do you mean, ‘it’s worth a try’? What are you doing?” Rainbow Dash demanded as my eyes started to glow again.
“I’m getting as much energy from this crystal as I can. Twilight, you’re good at teleportation spells, right?” I asked quickly as a loud cracking sound came from the door.
The purple alicorn looked confused. “Yes, but why?” she asked slowly.

I gave the door a panicked look, and then turned back to my friends. “We need to teleport back to Canterlot, NOW!” I shouted as I wrapped my arms around Twilight, causing the excess energy I had absorbed to flow into her. My eyes faded as hers glowed brightly, and everyone in the room became surrounded with a violet aura.

Just then, Sanguis exploded through the door, a look of pure rage on his face.
“You will not escape me!” he screamed rushing towards me at full speed.
I saw a dark-blue blur fly into my plane of vision as Luna tackled the warlord, sending herself and Sanguis into the far wall of the room.

“Luna, NO!” I cried as I ran to help her. I leapt at Sanguis, who held the lunar princess by the neck, but just as I could land a solid hit I was transported to the Castle Canterlot throne room. I hit the marble floor with a thud as Celestia ran to see what had happened.

“Allen! What are you doing here?” she cried as she helped me to my feet, and saw my changed appearance. “Why do you have a horn.. and a wing? What has happened to you?” she asked worriedly.

I looked at my feet sadly. “That disturbance you asked me to check out was-” I began, but Applejack’s worried yell cut me off.
“Uh, Allen? You may want to save that for later; it looks like we had an extra passenger on our trip!” she cried as she pointed a hoof to my left.

I looked over to where she was so worried about, and my heart stopped. I saw a familiar figure groaning as he got to his feet, and he looked around as he ran a hand through his shoulder-length blonde hair. He smiled viciously when his green eyes fell on me.

“Well, isn’t this a surprise,” Drayke growled in a mocking tone as he cracked his knuckles and telekinetically called his crystal to his hand. “So what is it, Allen? You ready for round two?”