“Hey Twilight!” The voice hollers, with Twilight now recognizing it as Spike.

“Spike!” Twilight cheers, “What happened to Mecha Spike?”

“I’m what they called Mecha Spike,”

“And I’m your Spike,” the other replies, “Wait, what DID happen to you, you handsome alternate version of me?”

“It’s still a bit of a blur, the last thing I remember was the metal head I was being controlled in rolling around on the ground before coming to my senses.”

“So wait,” Twilight nervously asks, “then how is this thing flying?”

“The hippies helped us!” An unknown voice shouts in the distant front of the flying machine.

“What?” Out from behind the dragon’s thick back spines, emerges a brown Earth Pony with full platinum armour,

“A bunch of ponies from up north rebuilt this thing, now we have a floating battle station.” Twilight looks to her left and her right once more and sees the mares and stallions of all colours and races simultaneously stamping their hooves into small holes at the edge of the metal monster. “No idea how it works, but the ponies seemed to knew what they were doing.” As the airship soars through the thunderous dark clouds, the ponies that just escaped Midnight one-by-one come to their senses, except for Boris. Until a minute later, Rainbow Dash hears a low groaning over the rushing of the wind roaring in her ears. She turns to see Borris, with the Mork helmet still crammed to his head, twitching.

“Borris?!” She softly exclaims as she looks over the grey body.

“Rainbow Dash…” The weakened pegasus mouths. His eyelids barely lift to expose the white of his eyes to the world.

“You’re okay!” She then begins to ramble, “I knew that on our way to help Pinkie Pie after we heard her singing in the throne room, you were acting a bit tired. Yet, I didn’t know you’d take a beating that bad. At least you’re okay. Is my talking helping, or should I stop,”

“Hail, the empress,”

“What was that? Yes or no?” The stallion then gets up on his hooves as Twilight and the others stop viewing the clouds to see that Borris is now awake. Major Borris hollers loudly,

“All hail Empress Midnight!”

“BORRIS-” Rainbow Dash is immediately cut off by a loud continuous boom rattling through the skies. A massive red beam of magic, nearly as large as the headless robot, pierces the black sky above the pony’s heads.

“It’s Midnight!” Applejack shrieks with terror as the armoured empress emerges from the beam after it dies down. Twelve green fans of energy, projected by six wide arms, obscure the moon over the gathered ponies.

“Press into those button thingies!” Atlas chants at the base of the missing neck of Mecha Spike, “lose her!” The free ponies follow his orders and press the their hooves into the pumps faster and faster, causing the two large wings to flap faster as well. Midnight dives to right behind the beast and grabs the tail with her magic, only to quickly have the connection broken by Twilight. Meanwhile, Borris and Rainbow standoff at the center of the aircraft, circling each other slowly. The princesses and the other ponies not doing anything circle around the two, ready to kick the Mork off if Rainbow snap him out of it.

“Borris!” Rainbow exclaims, “I know you’re still in there, snap out of it!”

“You’re petty words will not bend who I am.”

“You are Borris Thunder, member of the AWE and the RAEM, a leading rebel against the empress.”

“That was who I was when I was corrupt, now by the empress’ guidance, I have become a soldier of the new order.”

“Remember all the lives you’ve destroyed as a Mork the last time, don’t be that again.”

“A meager sacrifice to continue the many, of this world, your world, and the next worlds.”

“That is Empress Midnight’s twisted talking, not you, please Borris, I know you.”

“Enough of this foalishness, time to fulfill my duty.” With that said, the Mork leaps into the air and takes off into the thick of the storm clouds. He soon dives back down and lands in front of Dash, with electricity crackling in his wing plates. He then strikes his wings onto the metal floor, creating a large shock in everypony’s hooves. A collection of shrieks of pain echo across the ship as it slows to a stop midair. Midnight accidently rams into Twilight and the two go soaring forward as the dragon quickly falls down. The wings of the airship start to fold as the entire airship bends to into beelining straight to the ground. Borris and Dash get caught in a ball and are flung off of the rapidly descending dragon.  The fighters separate and regain stability before Rainbow Dash flies away into the ravenous storm, shortly followed by the mind-controlled Borris in hot pursuit.

“Pull up! Pull up!” Atlas screams at the top of his voice, with him and the others clinging on the bladed spines for dear life. A scale panel rips off of the deck and flies away as a group of eight cloaked ponies fight against the upward force with ropes tethered to the inside of the dragon tied around their waists. They then proceed to jump, launching themselves off the sides with half and half flying up from each side. As they ascend to the rear of the falling hunk of metal, their thick ropes get caught on the wings. Just before the airship hits the burnt forest below, the eight ponies activate shield projectors in their mouths, producing eight green shields as parachutes. A jerk rockets across the dragon as the wings are forcibly opened and the ship rapidly slows down. Soon, the dragon pulls up and levels and the ponies on desk quickly resume positions and begin pumping their hooves into the pumps, reanimating the wings. Atlas hits the metal floor with a loud thud upon the aircraft stabilizing and sees the cloaked ponies high above with the ropes and shields still attached to them. “So, they’re not only geniuses, but also extremely acrobatic air ponies…”

“Makes me wonder why they put you in charge of this crew, hey Atlas?” A cheeky voice echoes from inside the gut of the dragon.

“Ha, ha, very funny Aaron, I’m obviously very trustworthy.”

“Or they just have seen you the longest inside their home.”

“Ah, shut up.” Aaron then laughs while Atlas rolls his eyes.

“Wait!” Spike exclaims, noticing several ponies are now absent on the aircraft, “Where are Midnight, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Borris?” Another massive ray of destruction beams down from the sky, skimming the left of the dragon’s wing. A loud explosion is heard below as everypony not operating the wings looks over to see a massive crater where the beam struck.

“Wasn’t there a mountain where that crater is now?” Applejack stutters in awe and shock.

“We have to get back up there and help the others left behind!” Celestia barks at Atlas, still looking down at the carnage below.

“We can’t!” The other Celestia replies, “Midnight’s too powerful and we saw that Borris has turned. The two will take down this dragon-thing and all of us for sure.”

Meanwhile, high above the dragon and in the heat of the thunderstorm, Twilight is zipping through the black clouds with Midnight not too far behind. Like oars of a great ship of the sea, the empress’ wings paddle her closer and closer to her rival. Upon reaching her front claws to grab her, Twilight disappears in a flash of light. Midnight swiftly turns around to see Twilight appear several meters in front of the black monster, flying straight towards her. Midnight aims her horn down at her, but is pulled up by the last second by Twilight’s magic. A solid red beam of magic erupts from the tip of the sharpened horn, obliterating the clouds instead of Twilight. Twilight then proceeds to blast Midnight in the face with her own, bright pink and purple beam of powerful magic. Although significantly smaller than Midnight’s doom rays, they cause the armoured alicorn to fall down in discombobulation. This doesn’t last long, as Midnight also teleports in a flicker of a black light, only to reappear right behind Twilight. Twilight reacts by trying to hold by the empress’ arms, but her power is too little against her enemy. Thirty blades for fingers encase the purple pony in a sealed prison of metal as the two begin to plummet back to the earth. Midnight’s horn glows a bright red and an even brighter glow soon illuminates the folded fingers.

“Gotcha!” The empress cheers, but then untangles her claws to find Twilight surrounded in a protective bubble. The six arms form into fist and pound into the shield one by one, with the last one shattering it to dust. Twilight opens her wings and quickly ascends into the sky and leaving Midnight to fall.

I have to get away! I have to get away! I have to get away! Twilight’s mind races with those four words as she flies through the rain and dodges the bolts of lightning dancing around her. Her wings beating rapidly nearly cause her joints to burn from the work and friction, but Twilight knew she had to keep going. The growing pain caused her mind to forget about teleportation and her friends, leaving her alone with the monster that is herself.

“Where are you!”  Midnight’s scream echoes across the chaotic night sky. A wave a panic strikes Twilight and her wings stiffen. Twilight enters a passive hover as fear and imminent death wash over her. A dark shadow, even darker than the smog skies, flies right past the purple unicorn. She catches the shadow in the corner of her eye and gasps. Another shadow zips past the other corner of her eyes.

She’s found me! Twilight quickly aims her horn at the black blur and fires a fireball, striking whatever was producing the shadow from behind the cloud. A mare’s shriek of pain roars and Twilight realizes she had made a terrible mistake. The cloud disappears and reveals that the shadow was Rainbow Dash, now with small burns etched across her underbelly. “Rainbow!” The blue pegasus groans in pain as she slowly continues her flight. Twilight tries to bolt over and help her friend, but is caught off guard by Borris slamming into her back from above. The electrocharged wings dig into Twilights back as hundreds of volts of lightning are being blasting through her entire body. The Mork, greatly stronger than Twilight, doesn’t let go of his prey and digs his wings and his hooves deeper into Twilight as they tumble into a thick of clouds. Screams of pain barely escape Twilight’s throat. Her life is flashing before her eyes in bolts of energy flooding her vision.

“Hey!” A voice yells towards the Mork and Twilight, “if you want her, you’ll have to go through m-ow!”

“R-R-Rain-n-b-b-bow! H-Help!”

“On it!” Rainbow Dash tries to hold in the pain from Twilight’s fireball attack and attempts to charge into Borris, but is cut off by a large multi-armed figure.

“And where do you think you’re going?” The figure booms, “You say you want a fight?”

“Midnight,” Yet before Rainbow finishes her bold statement, she makes a sudden hairpin turn and quickly flies away, “try and catch me!”

“Borris! I think that pony’s had enough, get Rainbow!” The Mork gives a quickly glance to Midnight and immediately lets go of Twilight. As the paralyzed pony continues to fall, Borris and Empress Midnight leave her and begin to chase after Rainbow Dash.

“You’ll never catch me!” The pegasus’ words echo through the storm and soon hit Twilight’s ears. Her eyes, barely open, manage to catch a brief glimpse of Rainbow Dash, Midnight, and Borris, racing in the clouds above, before passing out.

“Twilight!” A male voice yells. All Twilight sees is black upon her senses returning to her. “Twilight!”

“Ugh…” She groans, the sharp pains of the electricity and Borris’ massive strength still resonate inside her. She felt like going back into unconsciousness, but the voice beckons once more,

“Twilight, wake up!”

“Gruncle Boris?” She eyelids slowly open as she gazes upon the silvery eyes and cracked monocle of her dearly beloved great uncle.

“Twilight, are you okay?” The other Boris cuts in front of the first one and grabs Twilight’s body before shaking it a bit. “Please tell me you’re alright.”

“I’m, mostly, alright. Where’s Dash? Are we dead? Is this Heaven?”

“Just the opposite, you’re back on the Mecha Spike airship. We haven’t seen Dash since Borris sabotaged the ship.” Twilight’s senses soon kick back in as she looks around to see the Applejacks, Rarities, Pinkie Pies, Spikes, Raindrop, the six princesses, and several other ponies staring at her.

“W-We gotta go help her!”

“What?!” The Applejack of Midnight’s world hollers, “We can’t do that. We’ll be turned into a pancake in ten seconds flat.”

“But we have to do something-”

“Twilight,” the Celestia of Midnight’s world somberly responds, “This has grown into something we cannot stop. What you and your friends have done was considered impossible, and I am eternally grateful for your help. But you need to know when to stop before you end up killing us all. We have to get out of this place and destroy the Tree of Harmony in your world, so that Midnight will never be able to terrorize us ever again.”

“But what about Rainbow Dash, a-a-and Borris, what about them?”

Jack replies, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of two ponies me lass. We have to leave them behind for the safety of the ponies still with us and the ones in your world.” Jack and most of the ponies from Midnight’s world turn away from Twilight to continue their lookout for Midnight.

“…But what about the other worlds.” Jack turns stiff and turns his head back towards the small alicorn. “What happens to them if Midnight is still around?”

“From all of this convoluted talk of these other worlds and that other stuff,” Marshal Apple answers, “maybe there’s alternate world where ponies are strong enough to take Midnight on?”

“Maybe, but what about the worlds weaker than us? Think of all the ponies that will become subject to Midnight’s destruction.”

“But what can we do? Midnight has both Alicorn Amulets and can sic Borris on this tub at any sec-” At that moment, another red beam of magic blasts across the sky, but this time, it was right underneath the massive dragon. “She’s back!” A blue streak of blurred fur and a rainbow trail jets in front of the aircraft into higher altitude.

“Rainbow Dash!” A sharp pinch then erupts in everypony’s hooves, causing a collective squeak. Another shock strikes, followed by another, and another attacks the airship. Daniel from below deck yells,

“What in Equestria is causing this? Wait, was that Borris below me?”

“Engage serpentine!” Atlas announces to the ponies operating the wings, but they all respond with a unified groan of pain and tiredness. Although they were still pumping their hooves onto the buttons, the electrical attacks are putting them on the edge of unconsciousness. It also didn’t help that their super armour the clocked ponies gave them during the rebuilding of Mecha Spike was highly conductive to electricity.

“Ah! It’s the empress; she’s going to cut us off!” Twilight runs to the front of the airship and sees Midnight flying just below her. As Midnight begins pull up, Twilight grabs the entire ship with her magic and sharply veers it left. The black alicorn’s back of the head is met with a powerful slam by the right wing. Midnight falls back to the tail of the dragon, only to be met by the six other alicorns at the back of the deck, each aiming their horns at her. A barrage of fire, magic, energy, and other beams and charges they can create launch from their horns. Midnight reacts quickly by using the front four wings to create a shield in front of her while the back two keep her flying. The attacks hit the eight shields, only to deflect in every direction away from Midnight. The barrage comes to a stop and the empress immediately attempts to latch onto the waving tail, only for one of her arms to yank her entire mass away from the vessel.

“Twilight!” Empress Midnight shouts upon her arm being let go from the mare on the dragon. Rainbow Dash flies above Midnight, but didn’t seem to notice. Borris soon follows behind, still chasing the pegasus. Midnight decides to give up the distracting chase with the dragon for now and follows Borris. The two villains quickly catch up to Rainbow, her tail whipping the rainwater into Borris and Midnight’s helmet, but doesn’t deter them. Dash takes a quick peak back and sees the Mork and the massive monster of a pony gaining massive distance towards her. She attempts to bob, weave, corkscrew, and roll, but the two pursuers maneuver along her as if it was some sort of sick performance.

In a last ditch attempt to return her friend to normal, Dash begins to scream, “Borris!”

“Don’t listen to her, finish her! She’s too fast for me to get a grip on her.”

“Borris, I know you’re still in there, you can fight it!”

“Borris, take the shot!”

“You hear what I’m saying, don’t let Midnight control you!”

“Finish the game!”

“Do it for Equestria, do it for all the ponies that have lost their lives because of Midnight,”

“She’s hurt, do it, now!”

“Do it for me, I, I forgive you.” In a matter of seconds, the Mork pulls up and hides in the above storm clouds, giving Midnight a clearer view of Rainbow Dash.

“Fine, I’ll finish the game…” Midnight’s horn glows a crimson red, charging her beam to be even larger than the previous, intending for the small pony to not escape her this time. Suddenly, a massive ball of swirling storm clouds, water, and electricity drops from above and strikes Midnight right in the head. The charged magic erupts from Midnight’s horn into the sky by accident in a series of flowing rapids of intended raze and destruction. The two mares look up to see the streams being swirled into a giant ball by Borris before being kicked back down. Midnight deflects the ball behind her with her four wings, but doesn’t notice the grey stallion diving towards her. Rainbow’s jaw gapes open as she tries to fly away from the incoming collision. Cracks form on Borris’ new visor as his speed exponentially grows, forming a vapor cone around his face. A lightning bolt strikes his wing plates, but it does not faze him the slightest. With electricity now pulsing through every vein of his body, the stallion increases more and more in speed, aiming dead center on the distracted Midnight. His visor soon shatters, with pieces of red glass raining onto Borris’ face, blinding him once more. Just as Midnight looks up to see Borris charging right at her, she hears him say his final words,

“I fight for Equestria!”

“NOOO!!!” Upon impact, a large ring of energy and electricity burst from the collision and expands across the night sky, wiping out most of the clouds. A bright yellow plasmoid explosion engulfs the two as Rainbow is temporarily blinded by both the Sonic Rainboom and the explosion. Her eyes slowly adjust to the light continuously illuminating from the blast, catching a glimpse of what appears to be a pair of black, wing plates, falling from the explosion into the abyss below, gone forever.

“Borris… No…” Streams of tears start to flow from pony’s eyes and onto her reddened cheeks. A gargantuan, silvery, headless dragon flies up to Rainbow Dash’s side and enters a hover several hooves behind her.

“Rainbow Dash,” Applejack calls out, “what the hay was going on out here? We first saw Midnight chase you, then two enormous balls of sorts, then some sort of electrical Sonic Rainboom, and now this light! It’s blinding us?!” Slowly, the pegasus hovers up to Applejack leaning off the front and sees everypony on board looking at her.

“Borris, he, he…”

“Is Borris,” Fluttershy asks, “okay?”

“He broke from Midnight’s control, and… Sacrificed himself to save me. He’s gone now, I saw his wing plates fall from the explosion.”

“What about Midnight?” Boris adds, “Is she still alive?”

“No, Borris has defeated her.” A loud cheer roars from the crowd of ponies, including the wing operators and the eight cloaked ponies still in the air with the shields and ropes. The metal floor rattled with the hundreds to maybe thousands of hooves clopping against it. A small smile grows on Dash’s face, but begins to fade as she looks back at the heavenly light having not dimmed a bit. She makes her way above the cheers and celebration to the back of the ship all alone. She looks into the distance and takes a moment to think what has unfolded throughout her time here.  During her blank gaze to the distance, a white unicorn with a curly purple mane and a golden pendant approaches to her side and sits with her. The mare speaks,

“Rainbow Dash, I’m sorry, for causing your friend, to die.”

“Alternate Rarity,”

“Yes?”

“Do you hear that?”

“Hear what? The party about to unfold by the Pinkie Pies,”

“No, no, that… hum…” A disturbing realization soon hits the two ponies as they squint forward towards whatever was making the mysterious sound. “It’s…” A black figure forms from behind the dark cloud, a figure with six long branches protruding from its sides. The ponies scream out in unison,

“Empress Midnight!”