The battle began at dawn. Coming full speed along the railway, the battle train was unmolested its entire trip through the Crystal Empire. No Caribou had recognized the fact that Equestrian forces, whom they only regarded as rumors by addled garrison troops fleeing from some kind of phantom, could possibly have a working train. Those outposts the train passed were quickly wiped out by following half-track regiments, their magic and machine guns silencing the wooden structures before they could send runners to the rest of the Caribou army. With the train moving as fast as it was, it would not have mattered much had they made it anyway.

The Caribou siege line had been in place for years now, fed by near daily shipments of food and gunpowder from the Caribou capital, and manned mostly by the newest recruits in the artillery battalions, learning their stock and trade before being sent out to test their mettle against the Griffin armies. They lived a life of schedules, tedium, and routine, waiting for a Crystal pony raiding party or, if they were lucky, a breeding battalion rotation through their camp. That day, a train had been due from the ruins of Equestria, supposedly laden with booty and captured ponies. Eager for the spoils, the Caribou at the train station had been quick to clear a path for the incoming train, hundreds of unarmed recruits lining up to get a crack at the first of the treasures. They were the first to die, screaming as they were hacked down by a horde of fire-eyed ponies.
******************

“LET THEM HAVE IT!”

Applejack roared as loud as her undead lungs could allow as she stood at the top of one of the full-speed half-tracks firing pits, grabbing ahold of the HMG-1 positioned near the front and squeezing hard on the hoof-triggers. The heavy machine gun sounded like she felt, a roaring chatter of vengeance rising in her skull as bullets ripped into the camp ahead of them. The lead half-tracks, such as her own, had been fitted with heavy dozer blades at their front, allowing them to smash a path through tents, quarters, and supply depots and create a pathway for the more troop-laden vehicles behind them.

The battle train was doing its job damn well; smoke and flames were rising up from the train station, and cannon shot sang out of ports in the train cars to tear gaping holes in the terrified Caribou camp and lines. Sporadic fire cracked against the armored vehicles, but not a one could pierce their iron hides. One bullet blasted through Applejack’s head, tearing out an eye and blowing off an ear in a mist of red. The pain was horrific, but nowhere near what the mare had suffered at the hooves of the Caribou when she was alive. Besides, Twilight’s magic flowed through her mere seconds later, restoring her vision and hearing to normality. She flipped the HMG to her left, snarling in glee as the bullets ripped through a line of stunned artillery Caribou trying to bring their cannon to bear.

A younger Applejack would have been horrified at herself, the rictus grin plastered on her muzzle, the gunpowder and dried blood on her dark grey uniform. The older Applejack didn’t care. She could feel regret for this later. Tearing apart Caribou like those that had obliterated her family and friends was very cathartic, she found. Glancing off to her left, Applejack nodded slightly as she saw Twilight and several dozen of her Knights, Mages, and other soldiers rushing towards the shield wall in between the battlefield and the Crystal Empire.

Good. Sooner we can get the Heart, the closer will be to returnin’ Equestria to its old self.

She smirked as a burst from her gun ripped through a Caribou battlewagon, igniting the ammunition inside and leaving it a popping, smoldering wreck.

Mostly.
*******************

Twilight Sparkle frowned deeply as she approached the shield, her eyes widening slowly as she extended her magical senses. Something exceedingly powerful had recently pierced the shield, that much was true. However, it certainly wasn’t Caribou: the cut was absolutely clean, and several dozen illusion spells had been weaved together to fool the casual magical probe by a curious soldier. Whoever had woven the spell was a skilled magic-user, and incredibly powerful, enough that it made even Twilight momentarily pause. The magical residue was… somewhat familiar; close to her love necromancy, but darker, more primal. It left a shiver down her horn and spine that even she struggled to hide from her soldiers.

“Follow me,” Twilight commanded as firmly as she could muster, stepping through the shield with her head held high.

Only for her body and mind to freeze in utter, complete shock. Twilight had walked into a magical battlefield; two alicorns stood opposite one another, pink and dark red magic hissing and snarling as they battled for supremacy feet above the duelists. One alicorn was undoubtedly Cadence; her face and eyes looked haunted and drawn, her body encased in crystalline armor that shown brilliant pink in the light of her magic. A red and white cape flowed past her wings, which were spread wide in a stance of power and strength. Behind her stood a legion of Crystal Pony soldiers clad in crystal armor all their own, muskets, halberds, and captured Caribou weapons levelled against the ponies arrayed before them.

The other alicorn was smaller and younger than Cadence, her head held defiantly. Her fur was a sky blue, but was mostly covered by a robe of the purest red and deepest blacks. It hugged against the mare’s form tightly, trailing off to streaks of silk in the back that flapped and fluttered in the magical breeze. Her mane, a deep silver that ran down to the small of her back, was beginning to move on its own, and streak with red. This close to the magic, Twilight could finally place it: blood magic, but… different than blood magic, all the same. Where the darkness usually glared out from the magical core like a hideous sore, this core had been replaced by a blazing light of duty, of honor. This alicorn had found Twilight’s secret to banish the corruptive influences of the dark magic, and it nearly brought tears to her eyes. Behind this new alicorn stood hundreds of ponies; they, unlike their Crystal counterparts, cheered raucously, leaping and howling and begging for Cadence to stop. They were all clad in dark metals and robes, their eyes covered by strange masks and all radiating various degrees of dark magic.

Ears perking, Twilight could catch their conversation, strained and shouted over the din of their conflicting magics.

“Please, stop this, Princess! I don’t want to fight you! It doesn’t-” The new alicorn cried out as she struggled to stop a particularly vicious assault, “I-it doesn’t have to be this way!”

“Suffer not the Sanguinist to live!” Cadence responded hotly, and Twilight paled in horror at the mad change to her former babysitter’s face, “For they corrupt the innocent! They mock nature and its order!”

“I only did this to save my ponies, damnit!”

“There is always another way in the Light of the Su-!”

“YOU THINK I DIDN’T THINK OF THAT!?”

With a growing sense of wonder, Twilight stared at the showdown, eyes focused on the new mare. Or perhaps, not quite as new…

“I knew the risks! I went through every other bit of magic I could sense and think of! NOTHING. ELSE. WOULD HAVE. WORKED!”

“ENOUGH!”

Twilight’s magic was very powerful, but she didn’t dare attempt to outright overpower the built-up magic in the center of the duel. That kind of blast could be… very detrimental to the mortal ponies clustered around them. Instead, she went for the simple approach; a pebble, flicked at both of their sides. While Cadence squeaked, her magic tapering off with a few errant sparks, the new alicorn twitched to the side, honed reflexes smashing the pebble out of the air… and revealing her face to the stunned love necromancer. Trixie had changed much in the twenty years since Twilight had last seen her. Her face was lined with pain and stress, of horrific sights burned into her mind. Red lines had begun to creep down her horn, mirroring those black stripes on Twilight’s own so much that she could help but shiver faintly. Her purple eyes, so like Twilight’s own, slowly widened in mirrored shock.

“Twilight Sparkle,” she whispered faintly, a slow smile playing across Trixie’s thin lips, “You did survive.”

“As did you, Trixie,” Twilight replied, smiling back at her, “I have to say, despite everything… it’s really good to see you.”

“Likewise.”

“Twilight Sparkle.”

Cadence’s tone was icier than Twilight had ever heard before, even during Chrysalis’ masquerade in her body. It was… wrong, somehow; such a tone could not belong to Twilight’s memory of Cadence. Steeling herself, the Empress of Equestria coldly turned towards Cadence, nodding once.

“Cadence.”

The Princess of Love glared at Twilight with bitter disgust, tail flicking back and forth agitatedly. Twilight’s trained gaze caught her body’s trembles, and she could tell that Cadence was near her breaking point, stress practically killing her. It took everything in Twilight’s power to not attempt to run to her and hug her and tell her it would all be alright now. Twilight doubted Cadence would take it well.

“It’s Princess Mi Amore Cadenza to you, monster,” Cadence snapped back, “You are not my Twilight. My Twilight died the day you decided that necromancy was the way to save Equestria! The day you decided to control our friends and family!”

“I’m not controlling anyone, Cadence,” Twilight replied, determined to keep her voice calm and collected, “I gave them their free will and souls the second I brought them back.”

“That’s not what I heard. A pony escaped from your clutches and made it to the Crystal Empire two nights ago. I know about every abomination you’ve committed!”

Cadence stomped a hoof angrily, crystalline spikes rising up from the ground around her, raging eyes completely missing the stupefied look on the Empress’ face.

“My… clutches? Who…”

“Hello Princess.”

Of course…

Slowly bristling, Twilight turned her glare towards the pony rising up at Cadence’s side. Her silver mane tied back in a bun, the emerald furred unicorn smirked darkly at Twilight, lightly scuffing the priestess medallion hanging about her neck.

“Purity.”

Cadence snorted heavily, draping her wing protectively around Purity as Twilight took a furious step forward.

“I know why you’re here, Twilight,” Cadence growled faintly, “You want the Crystal Heart to raise the rest of Equestria as slaves for this... “

Her lip curled in disgust, “Empire. What would Celestia think of you?”

Stomp.

“Do not bring her into this,” Twilight hissed out; Celestia was still a raw wound in Twilight’s heart, “I’m doing this for her. For all Equestria!”

“You killed Equestria!” Purity snapped, and every ounce of Twilight’s patience snapped like a taut string.

“The Caribou killed Equestria, and I AM SAVING IT! GIVE ME THE HEART!”

Twilight’s teleport launched the Empress past Cadence’s army and to the resting place of the Crystal Heart, just beneath the palace base. The crystal, once a brilliant gleam of the purest blue, was now a merely shadow of itself, swirling with black, pink, and little blotches. As Twilight approached, red began to fill the heart, shining like her magic. As she needed to do was infuse the heart, and Equestria could be risen. And once they took the Elements of Harmony back, Twilight could- Only her magical senses saved Twilight; Cadence roared as she teleported behind her, a crystalline blade hissing at it scraped against Twilight’s steel longsword. Fiery pink eyes glared into Twilight’s cold violet.

“Shining died to save us,” Cadence hissed, and pressed Twilight back as she stepped back from the emotional body blow, “I will die before I see you desecrate his body for your ambition.”

“D-don’t… don’t do this, Cadence,” Twilight whispered, a faint note of pleading in her tone, “I have to bring back my family. My… my b-brother. We’re sisters… please…”

“My family are not monsters!”

With a grunt, Cadence shoved Twilight away, a stun spell rippling from her blade’s edge. A small pentagram appeared just inches from Twilight’s stricken muzzle, disappaiting the magic before it could take effect. The Empress of Equestria gazed sadly at her former sister-in-law, heir to a dying kingdom. Her blade slowly rose, saluting Twilight’s opponent.

“I’m sorry, Cadence… I really am. But I have to save Equestria. I will make this quick.”

“The Light of the Sun guides me, monster. What guides you?”

Twilight’s ear twitched once, and she turned her sad smile off towards the battlefield, and her friends battling for their future.

“Love.”
*******************

Cadence certainly had not been slacking off and hiding behind her shield for the past twenty years, and Twilight Sparkle was a uniquely skilled fighter all her own, that much was certain in the first few minutes of their duel. Cadence’s crystalline blade was razor sharp, singing and whirring through the air as she hacked and stabbed ferociously at her smaller opponent. Trixie was… actually fairly fearful of the damage such a weapon could cause, even with her blood magic protecting her. When Twilight had teleported to the Heart, and Cadence following with a rage-filled snarl, Trixie had quickly shadow-stepped after them, appearing in a swirl of shadows along the edge of one of the crystal supports.

Trixie wasn’t quite… sure, who to be rooting for in this fight. On the one hoof, if Cadence was right, then Twilight Sparkle, her nemesis, was attempting to use the Crystal Heart to bring all of ponykind back from the dead into zombie servitude. If Twilight was right, then she was attempting to bring ponykind back as zombies… but soulful zombies. A bit of a difficult choice, really. But Trixie Lulamoon had made her career as a stage magician, and as a budding mass murderer in the camp, by being able to read ponies quite well. And if she had to pick a more stable pony at that moment…

Twilight Sparkle was beginning to slowly back away from the raging Princess, her longsword twirling and spinning in her telekinetic grasp to batter away Cadence’s blade. Despite her talk of duty, Trixie’s trained eye could spot the hesitance in Twilight’s eye, the slowness of her gait and unwillingness to strike at obvious openings in Cadence’s technique. It wasn’t the battle style of a petty tyrant. Beneath the power and jaded appearance, Twilight Sparkle the humble, loving mare was still present. And so the blood mage acted.

Blades attached to her wings sliced thin lines down Trixie’s side; hardly enough pain to break through Trixie’s casting stance. Her blood rose up like thin tendrils, hissing softly in the grip of the dark magic before launching forward, gaining mass and momentum as they flew. Cadence had locked their blades together, the larger crystalline blade bearing down against Twilight’s guard.

A single tear was slowly falling down Twilight’s cheek.

“Please, Cadence… d-don’t make me… don’t make me do this.”

“You will not defile… his mem- Mmf!”

Stronger than any steel, the blood wrapped around Cadence’s muzzle, horn, and wings with a fiery grip, breaking her concentration as she was thrown to the cobblestones. Cadence was immediately casting counterspell after counterspell to break Trixie’s bonds, but Trixie’s power was absolute once it pierced Cadence's flesh, drawing its power directly from her soul. She had her.

“Do it now, Sparkle. Don’t make me regret this.”

The Empress and Blood Mage locked gazes; one stunned, the other expected. Glancing at Cadence, Twilight’s shoulders drooped, but she determined turned towards the Heart, took a step forward… and the world went white.

Author's Notes:

Phew! That took a little bit of work there.