Twilight fired a beam of light into the time stopped zone from her horn, drilling a hole though the grey toward the tip of Maskia's spear.

"Are you sure this is a good idea Twilight? We have no idea how that weapon will react once it's re-exposed to time." Cadence said with some apprehension in her voice.

Twilight pulled her horn up, stopping her spell and panting heavily. "W-well, the other options are we leave all our friends and loved ones time frozen for eternity or I try to diffuse the possible bomb in the center."

"I still don't understand Twilight, how is it a bomb again. This time try to explain it in terms a filly could understand." Celestia said as she scratched her mane.

Seriously? She can move bodies thousands of times her own size yet doesn't know basic quantum theory?

Twilight sighed, why was it she was the only pony to ever read into things. "Okay so, the spear runs off the souls of whatever it absorbs right?"

"Yes, at least that's what our historians had to say on the matter." Celestia replied.

"Imagine for a moment that the weapon radiates pure magical energy at all times, normally this radiation would be unseen and harmless but what happens when you bottle it up?" Twilight was moving her hooves to show the shape of a bottle.

"You contain the energy but not indefinitely."

Twilight pointed to the grey time stopped zone around the weapon. "Exactly, the time stopped zone is a massive jar but it's far worse than that. The tip of the weapon itself isn't time stopped and all the energy it is radiating is building up between the time stopped layer and the layer where time is still passing."

"So it's a time bomb...literally."

Twilight rubbed her head as she fired another shot from her horn into the time stopped zone. "Worse, my estimates shows the initial explosion would obliterate everything from here to Canterlot but that's hardly the worst of our troubles."

"Wait...that's not the worst part?" Cadence said in a worried voice.

"Nope, The explosion would radiate out by the time freeze will radiate inward. Any pony know what happens when two quantum forces, one compressing time space and matter and the other one freezing time space and matter collide?"

Cadence and Celestia stared at one another as if Twilight was speaking gibberish.

"No idea Twilight." Celestia replied.

"Neither do I, both are technically concepts of infinity. A unmovable body meeting an unstoppable force if you will but I have a theory; If all time, space and matter are compressed into a single point and no time exists outside of it while said matter is trying to expand from its own energy...well, remember the big bang theory?"

"Wait, you're not saying..."

Twilight wiped her brow. "Every living thing within a radius of at least eight billion light years will be exposed to heat wave in the trillions. Not even counting what the birth of another universe within this one would actually do." Twilight collapsed on the ground, panting hard. "We have to drill a hole to release the energy in a controlled direction before it reaches critical mass. Either that or find some SPF one trillion sunscreen real quickly."

"Can we help?" Cadence and Celestia said anxiously.

"You can but I want you to take it slow on the path I'm digging though, no telling what will happen if Unicorn...or Alicorn magic touches that thing directly."

Imani, I can't stop her. I can't even get a warning to her, astral projecting doesn't work if you are trying to project through a area with no time. I want to say Zecora's friends are competent enough to know the dangers of making a high power quantum wormhole but...If her magic ruptures the end of the weapon it will be the end of all things.

"I understand. How much time does Zecora have before they get to the spear?"

Judging by how exhausted the magic seems maybe five hours....make that three, Celestia is helping her now.

Imani shook her head. "My daughter, it would seem fate does not give you any breathing space today. If they burrow though the time frozen zone before you can trigger this weapons destruction from within...let's just say more than just Canterlot will have a bad day."

Zecora kicked the ground. "No pressure, eh?"

"I will bring as many as I can to the edge. Maybe if some of the others trapped here cheer you on-"

"No." Zecora interrupted. "I need to handle this alone, a crowd cheering me on will break my focus."

Zecora stepped up between the pillars, the eyes on both sides opening up; one gold the other blue. "Wish me luck..." Twin beams of light struck Zecora on either side, in an instant, she was gone.

Imani sat on her haunches, staring sadly at the red glow far above her. "Keep you wit's about you young one. If you fall to despair, anger or hate then all is lost."

Zecora could feel her entire world turning inside out. Colors of all kinds swirled in front of her as her body tumbled around. She felt a bit ill at this sudden flash of color and light but what was more unnerving was the whispers in the back of her mind, whispers that made her hair stand on end.

Are you kidding, I would never date a freak like you!

You will fail and everything you know and love will be my eternal plaything!

Zecora could make out the voices. The first was Fluttershy, although much angrier than she had ever heard the yellow Pegasus. The other was unmistakably Maskia. The swirling colors slowly faded and Zecora found herself in a Forrest, the same Forrest she was in when Maskia stabbed her. Her vision slowly focused from her motion sickness and she spotted a familiar scene.

Maskia was tumbled over on her haunches, staring at her weapon; a look of shock on her face. Something was weird however, the entire area around her; including Maskia was grey.

"This must be the time stopped zone, but...why am I outside the spear?" Zecora scanned the area and spotted Twilight, Cadence and Celestia. Twilight was sweating profusely as her beam slowly made it to the tip of Maskia's weapon.

"No, Twilight! Stop!" Zecora charged forward to tackle the mare down but ran right through her as if she was a ghost. Maybe I'm incorporeal? Zecora thought as her front legs went right through Twilight's neck.

"No, maybe this is a vision? Of what might happen or already has happened?"

Zecora sat there, watching the beam slowly inch its way toward the tip of the spear. "But what if it isn't a vision?" Zecora's eyes lit up as she tried spell after spell to try and communicate with any of the ponies near her, each one failing to get their attention. No matter what spells she cast nothing seemed to get any ponies attention.

Zecora plopped on the ground, exhausted from her rapid spell casting and watched as Twilight's spell made contact with the spear. For a moment all seemed well until a beam of light fired from the weapon and through the hole Twilight had created, unfortunately it seemed the hole wasn't big enough and it began to expand.

Twilight frantically tried to keep the hole stable but it was too late, with a flash of light everypony was gone. Zecora reflexively shielded her eyes bracing herself for an impact that never came. When she opened them there was nothing left for miles and miles around. There was nothing but the remains of a tree cinders, rubble and fire. Even the once mighty cliff-face that held up the Capital city of Canterlot was no more.

"Fluttershy? Our daughter?" Zecora stared at the spot where her mate and foal once were, nothing but ash and a single singed yellow feather remained.

"N-No, this cannot be!" Zecora collapsed on the ground, crying. "Please, this cannot be true! I-"

Zecora heard something that sounded like a low whimper. Her ears perked up as she stood, moving around like twin mini radar dishes, trying to find the location of the sound. Zecora walked around the charred remains of the Forrest when she came upon the ditch in the ground, the very same one that she barely remembered Fluttershy escaping from. Zecora looked into the hold only to find her friends, squirming in the throes of death. The only one that seemed to be still capable of rational thought was Nurse Red Heart.

The mare was crying, using whatever supplies she could in the medical kit she had to treat the other ponies in the pit.

"Class three radiation burns, I don't have anything in my kit for those!"

Nurse Red Heart worked frantically to save each pony but one by one they all slipped away from her, the last one alive, Rainbow Dash wiping a tear from her eyes as she spoke her last words.

"Thank you...for easing my pain." Rainbow Dash's burned hoof fell to the floor with a light thud, the vast vestiges of life leaving her body. Red Heart stood up, her tears still staining the torched remains of Rainbows once vivid mane.

"I...will be joining you all shortly. I don't want to die out here, not alone, not of radiation poisoning." Red Heart searched through her med-kit and pulled out a large bottle of morphine, typically used for after surgery relief. Red Heart then pulled out a syringe and stabbed it into the top of the container, drawing the fluid up to the point where it was leaking out the back.

"I wish I could have fulfilled my oath to save lives but...I am sorry. I will be able to tell you that myself in a few moments." Red Heart jabbed the end of the syringe into her neck and pushed the entire contents into her jugular. She then tossed the syringe aside and then laid on the floor by the others. Slowly her eyes dropped, her breathing slowed and moments later she lived no more.

Zecora stood there above the ditch, tears falling on the corpses of her friends when she felt a jerk on her midsection and a swirl of color, landing her on green grass, right at the point where Twilight's beam was about to strike Maskia's spear.

"No, Stop! You mustn't!" Zecora yelled but nopony seemed to hear or notice her, just like last time.

The beam of light struck the end of the spear but instead of exploding like last time a dark ball appeared at the tip.

"Twilight, what is that?"

Twilight just stared, flabbergasted at the black anomaly she just created. "I...made a black hole?"

The point began to violently pull everything near it inside. Ponies, tress, Maskia and even Celestia herself couldn't escape its pull. Zecora watched as each of her friends were pulled into the hole, only to seem like they stopped at the very edge, as if frozen in time themselves. It didn't take long for the black ball to move into the ground, growing ever so larger as it ripped up the earth.

"Please stop, I can't bear to watch anymore." Zecora cried.

But the vision kept on going, at first the hole drew in objects around it slowly but as it got larger it became far more ravenous, quickly pulling in mountains, cities and eventually Canterlot itself. Within minutes Zecora was floating in the black void of space, the black hole moving toward the sun and consuming its fire from a distance.

"Why am I being shown these things? Are they possibilities if I fail or just to antagonize me?"

Zecora felt her body move and colors swirling again, her hooves landing on the soft grass once more. "This is getting on my last nerve!" Zecora said as she tried to get her bearings.

It was the same Forrest as the last two times but this time Twilight was laying in the grass, sweating profusely while Celestia was busy drilling though the time stopped zone.

"This one is different but the outcome will most likely be catastrophic, just like the last two."

Like before, Celestia's magic hit the tip of the weapon, however there was no explosion. Only a brief silence before the Grey in the time stopped zone began to fade. The ponies inside began to move about again, somehow aware that they were frozen for a moment. Maskia sat there, staring at her spear when a burst of light enveloped her body. Fluttershy, seizing the opportunity, ran through the bushes where she looked for a quick way to get around to Celestia.

The light swirled around and around until with another flash the light faded. Where Maskia once stood was a cloud of smoke and something Zecora and any other magically attuned pony felt. Power, power so deep it hurt.

Celestia gritted her teeth and pushed both Cadence and Twilight back with her wings.

"GO! This is no battle for mortal ponies!" Celestia shouted.

Twilight and Cadence nodded obediently and ran off into the Forrest, quickly passing into an open grassy meadow.

"Show yourself, there is no use hiding in that dust cloud, any Unicorn for miles around can feel your presence."

A voice much unlike Maskia's came from the dust cloud, it was far closer to that of Queen Chrysalis but worse, every word she spoke felt like a thousand cold needles penetrating Zecora's heart. "You have no idea what this feels like...such power, every fiber of my being radiates with it. This must be what it felt like to be you Celestia, when you were much younger. Not just power either, I can know thoughts just by looking at a pony and the knowledge, so much magical knowledge. Spells lost but part of the souls this weapon has absorbed."

Celestia began radiating magical energy, far more that Luna did, far more than what Zecora thought was possible. Celestia's eyes became like molten salt, her wings flared out, becoming bright orange like wings of a phoenix, her once flowing rainbow mane turning to bright red fire. "Show yourself fiend, show yourself and face the full fury of the sun!"

"My, my Celestia, what an outstanding light show, but I can see your thoughts as well. You doubt yourself, you can feel just how massive our power difference is. You know you can only manage to delay me, possibly damage me." The dust began to clear and what Zecora saw chilled her to her very core. Maskia was covered in her silver armor but this time it wasn't tattered and broken. Large curved spikes bent backwards, the once damaged spear now a trident but with twin axe like blades of silver on either end of the outside forks. Lastly her mask was silver but bore a mark that looked oddly like that of her mothers but red, a blood red spider.

"Your thoughts betray you, you plan on delaying me long enough for the elements of harmony to rendezvous with each other and formulate a plan of attack. I now know the center piece of the elements from looking into your past. I don't have to hunt them all down...just one."

Maskia leaped into the air and Celestia took of with one powerful beat of her wings, right for her.

"Silly Alicorn, I know you wanted to make her one like yourself someday but ..."

Celestia slammed into Maskia with all of her might in mid-air, the flash of sun fire brightened the sky as if it were day but when the flash of light cleared Maskia had not budged so much an inch from the impact. Celestia was pushing with all of her might, her wings like that of a humming bird.

"Not good enough." Maskia raised a hoof and with one swift slug across Celestia's face sent her rocketing into the ground, her body leaving a long trail of rubble, ash and fallen trees.

Maskia focused her attention to the fleeing Arch mage and her Alicorn cohort, ignoring the other ponies below her running to the aid of Celestia. "I could just absorb her soul remotely but...no, she deserves an honorable death." Maskia pointed her trident at Twilight and fired an arc of lightning in her direction.

The lightning danced across the sky, ripping off the tips of trees on its way to its intended target. Twilight felt the spell coming however and turned to defend herself. She looked as if she was going to put up a barrier but she must have known it would be futile. She fired a bolt of magic with everything she could muster, allowing the arc to strike her in the chest. Twilight Sparkle fell on her side with a thud, her mane draped over her face, her body unmoving.

"Twilight!" Cadence ran over to her little sister and turned her over. Cadence brushed Twilight's mane only to stare into a pair of dull listless eyes. There was no breathing, no heartbeat, not even a pulse, only the cold body and petrified stare of a once living family member.

"Twilight? Twilight!" No, please don leave me!" Cadence hugged Twilight's cold unmoving body, streams of tears drenching her indigo mane.

Twilight's last spell managed to graze Maskia on the cheek, drawing blood.

"I'm glad I killed her when I did, if she ever became an Alicorn she would be quite the pest." Maskia wiped the blood from her cheek, the wound quickly sealing itself.

Twilight's brother helped Celestia out of the debris when he saw his sisters body clutched in the forelegs of his wife, her screams of sorrow giving away what had occurred.

"You monster! It wasn't enough to nearly kill Luna, torture and kill innocents and kill your own granddaughter but you had to kill my little sister as well!" Shining Armor eyes glowed black with rage. He quickly scaled some trees and after a brief moment to put his trademark shield up, was ready to fight Maskia to the death.

"Oh, the little solider wants to take on a god? What ever shall I do!" Maskia chuckled as she feigned helplessness.

"S-stand down, I will handle her. Your mission as of now is to rally the military, protect the remaining elements and hide my sister." Shining armor moved toward Maskia, his anger overpowering his obedience when an angry glare from Celestia made him rethink his actions.

"As you wish." Shining Armor jumped down from the tree and immediately began to round up the other elements of harmony, all except the conspicuously absent Fluttershy.

"Get your hooves offa me you big jerk! I'm gonna make that monster regret every laying a hoof on Twilight!" Rainbow Dash was giving Shining Armors group some trouble, the fiery Pegasus wanted revenge, everyone could see it in her waterlogged eyes.

"Let it go y'all, we can come up with a plan later, right now we need to get the heck outta her." Applejack was trying her best to reassure everypony, despite a torrent of tears coming from her as well.

"Planning on finding another element of magic are we? I cannot allow that now can I?" Maskia pointed her trident at the group of ponies below her and fired and arc of lighting only to have it explode mid-air when it collided with a ball of fire from Celestia.

Celestia spread her wings, her body glowing white hot fire, her vigor renewed. "I may not be able to kill you but don't think I will not try anyways." Celestia charged into the air once more but Maskia was faster, she kicked Celestia in the ribs and quickly stabbed her though the neck with her trident.

"A pity, but you soul will feed a greater...power?" Celestia's body vanished into ash, reassembling behind Maskia, Maskia failing to notice the obvious ploy.

"Surprised?" Celestia said but her voice was coming from everywhere. The ash behind Maskia formed into a solid flame outline of Celestia. When Maskia turned around to take another stab she was met with a rather nasty point blank exploding fireball to the face, sending her reeling across the sky.

Maskia shook off the hit and fired a ball of light from her trident which went right though Celestia as if she were a ghost. The ball kept traveling, Zecora somehow unable to focus on anything else, she soon noticed why.

In the distance Fluttershy had managed to get into the air while carrying their foal, headed toward Cloudsdale. Zecora did a small double take and realized the ball of light was headed right for her.

"Fluttershy, get on the ground!" Zecora shouted full well knowing that Fluttershy couldn't hear her.

The ball continued on its path and Fluttershy turned her head just seconds before if hit her, her face frozen in fear. The ball struck Fluttershy in the back, the electricity vaporizing her body and that of their foal. The only thing that remained was a couple yellow feathers and ashes.

"No, please stop. This cannot be true. I ..." Zecora was breaking down. All the emotional trauma of watching her friends and loved ones die over and over again was weighing on her heavily. Her entire emotional state was fluctuating, in turmoil, feeling everything at once. Sadness, regret, hatred, anger, all of them a blur of emotion that she could not control.

"No...please don't let that become true..."

The scene around her began to grow dark, leaving only Zecora floating in a void of sorrow.

Pant*Pant*Pant* Twilight wiped her brow and nodded to Celestia. "Your turn, I'm pooped." She pulled her horn up and the spell burrowing into the time stopped zone ended. Twilight laid there on the grass content with her work but so drained that she didn't even have the energy to find a more comfortable spot.

"Well done Twilight, I'll take over from here." Celestia walked up to Twilight's side and focused on the hole they were slowly making to the tip of Maskia's spear.

"I think we are almost there, maybe ten more minutes or less." Celestia fired a beam into the hole Twilight and her have been making for the past couple hours. "Just a little bit more and we will be finished."

Twilight busied herself with nibbling on some of the grass by her front hooves while Celestia worked. Cadence took notice and being bored herself decided to lay down in the grass beside Twilight.

"Hungry I see. Normally you are not so keen on raw grass, I remember it giving you gas something fierce when you were just a filly."

*pa-tuu* "Yuck, this grass is stale too, like it hasn't seen water in awhile." Twilight contemplated eating some of the bark off a nearby tree. "I'm so hungry I could eat Rainbow Dash's spinach bread surprise...and not even gag."

Cadence giggled. "I know the feeling, that whole Sombra incident left me famished. Maybe we can scrounge up some food when we get back to Canterlot though that might be a bit difficult will all the refugees. The palace only keeps so much food in storage."

"Doesn't matter to me, I would even eat one of those bland ready to eat meals my brother carries. On even those terrible high energy rations the scouts eat." Twilight thought back to the time she tried one of the bars of food the Wonderbolts carry on them, the mere thought of its flavor nearly making her gag.

"Something wrong Twilight?" Cadence said, noting the green look on Twilight's face.

"You know what, scratch that last part, I would rather eat boiled socks than those scout rations."

"Never had them, what do they taste like?"

"Charcoal mixed with spoiled radishes."

"I hate to break up the sleepover girls but I'm almost to the spear."

Cadence and Twilight both stood up and walked to Celestia's side, each with a broad grin on their face.

"Once the time stop is down I'll hit Maskia with a binding spell, Cadence I want you to get as many ponies away with a mass teleport as possible."

Cadence kicked the ground. "I'm sorry Twilight, I don't know that spell-"

"I'll handle that." Celestia said, a grin on her face. "Twilight, Cadence stopped her magical education when she got married to your brother. She is however almost a class S physician."

Celestia's beam creeped ever so closer to Maskia spear when a blue light fired from something inside the time freeze, colliding with Celestia's beam.

"Twilight, what is that!?" Celestia said, trying to break the connection.

Twilight's ears shot up as she stared into the time stopped zone."I think it's coming from...Fluttershy?" Twilight walked up to the time stopped zone, the glow wasn't coming from Fluttershy but something under her. "It's...coming from Fluttershy's foal?"

Celestia looked anxious as the blue beam coming from Fluttershy's foal slowly pushed hers back.

"Something wrong Auntie?""

Celestia watched the spell slowly push her own back. "I can overpower that spell with ease but..."

"You're afraid of the backlash, afraid that you could hurt the foal, even though time is frozen." Twilight said while watching the beam.

"Not just that, if I over do it I could hit the spear and the wrong angle, firing that pent up energy layer right at us." Celestia tried to break the spell by jerking her head, but he foals spell just hung on tightly, keeping the connection going. "I can't break it either."

Twilight watched the beam as it left the time stopped zone and slowly moved toward Celestia's horn. "Move back a bit Princess, I need a little more time to study it." Twilight examined the energy stream but its true meaning kept escaping her.

"Anything you can glean from watching it Twilight?"

"Nothing. I have seen many different kinds of shaman magic but this wave format is so much more complex than the ones I have studied. Typical shaman magic looks controlled but underneath it's barely being kept in check but this..." Twilight scratched her mane. ""Is something else entirely, it's entirely smooth. No variations in format, no rough edges, extremely efficient magical structure."

"Twilight, enough with the over-analyzing, what should I do?" Celestia seemed a bit on the panicked side. Her only encounters with shaman magic outside of Zecora being extremely violent.

"Just calm down and let it hit you. It still has to follow the same principles of regular unicorn magic. It's only a foal, whats the worse that could-"

The blue beam of magic struck Celestia in the horn and she collapsed on the ground, twitching wildly.

"Happen?"

Twilight and Cadence ran to Celestia's side, Twilight holding the larger mare down as Cadence performed a medical scan with her horn.

"Can you-ow, hurry it up Cadence, she's three times my size and these hoof kicks don't exactly tickle!" Twilight was holding down Celestia with all her body weight on Celestia's ribcage, getting random kicks to her side from the princesses back legs.

"She seems fine. I think it was a dream spell but I can't risk waking her, just get off her for a moment." Twilight took a few steps back, receiving a kick to the head for her efforts as she retreated.

"You okay?" Cadence said with some concern as she watched the sweat fly from Twilight's face upon impact.

"I'm fine, nothings broken, it will probably swell up though." Twilight rubbed her right cheek with her hoof, she could feel the swelling just under the skin. "At least it isn't broken."

Both ponies watched as Celestia kicked in her sleep, her face contorting in both rage and sadness, tears flowing freshly from her eyes.

"Did the foal give her a nightmare spell?" Twilight asked.

"No, I don't think so. Something closer to a subconscious message. Something she needed to be in a dream state to experience properly."

"But what could a less than one day old foal have to possibly tell Celestia, stranger still how did the foal cast a spell while time frozen and-" Cadence put a hoof over Twilight's mouth.

"There will be time for that later, we don't need you going into one of your obsessive compulsive fits right now."

Twilight frowned, she knew that she could get out of hoof at times but hated when other ponies pointed it out to her when she was doing it. Twilight pushed Cadence's hoof from her mouth and breathed deeply.

"Fine, but explain why the foals eyes are still glowing."

"No idea Twilight, we will just have to leave that puzzle unsolved. There no way we can reach it from here to inspect."

Twilight sighed heavily, watching her mentor twitch on the ground with some apprehension. The only thing she hated more than being helpless was being unable to solve a puzzle. Just the mere thought of an unsolvable phenomenon made her want to tear her mane out.

Celestia's eyes shot open, her body drawing in a few ragged breaths as she sniffled and wiped her eyes.

"Are you okay Auntie?" Cadence said as the pair walked over to her.

"Oh, Twilight!" Celestia dived into a hug, catching the smaller unicorn by surprise as she pulled her into a bone crushing hug.

"Oh, Twilight, it was horrible. I watched us all get incinerated, crushed, and worse; I saw you get killed by Maskia while I was powerless to stop her." Celestia was bawling her eyes out when she heard a faint voice say the word 'air'.

Celestia immediately set Twilight on the ground, the unicorn nearly blue in the face from lack of air.

"So, so sorry. I- I just couldn't help myself. The thought of losing you, that terrible vision was just too much."

Twilight held a hoof up, trying to catch her breath. "Okay, so explain it to me this time while my ears are not ringing from asphyxiation."

"Twilight, that spell the foal cast was..."

Zecora sat there in the darkness. All she could feel was sadness, the same visions from earlier playing over and over in her mind, paralyzing her from moving forward. The darkness just seemed to keep closing in on her, amplifying her sorrow while far above she could feel nothing but regret and rage.

"Wret?"

Zecora's ears perked up. "Could it be? Here?" Zecora looked around until she noticed a blue dot in the distance. Zecora got to her feet and ran towards the dot. As she approached she noticed something different. Her foal was glowing blue all around her and she was standing up, her magnificent black and white wings spread wide.

Zecora walked up to her daughter, the foal rubbing up under her neck affectionately. "I am so glad you are safe, your grandmother said you were but I had to see it with my own eyes."

"Wret?"

Zecora couldn't make out what she was saying; her just being born recently but in this place she could feel the emotions behind the speech. The vibe she was getting from her daughter was something along the lines of a cheer, encouragement even.

"Wret, wret!"

The next words held hint of excitement and pity. Her daughter seemed sad that they were apart and was wondering what was taking Zecora so long to finish what she needed to do.

Zecora thought for a moment, if the visions of what she saw were to happen, they would only occur if she didn't move forward. "You are right little one, I should have already finished my work here so I can be reunited with you and Fluttershy." Zecora remembered that they have yet to name their foal, something Fluttershy had regulated to her but she had forgotten to do in all the chaos.

"I forgot to give you a name when you were born my daughter. Something that I should have done but was preoccupied with keeping your mother and you safe. Traditionally it is the mother that gives the foal her name but since Fluttershy has left that job up to me I thought I would give you something that fits."

Zecora drew her cutie mark in blue magic high above her head. "This is what my cutie mark represents, the morning sun, just like Celestia's." Zecora draw three butterflies with yellow magic flying far below the sun above.

"This is your mothers cutie mark, it represents kindness, understanding and the power to communicate with any animal."

Zecora drew a flower far bellow the sun and butterflies, it's bud closed. The foal leaned over to inspect the object, leaning over it curiously.

"Go ahead young one, touch it and claim your name."

The foal reached out and poked the bud with her hoof. The flower bloomed in vibrant yellow and pink center with vibrant black and white petals.

"I have named you Ayanna, a name which means 'Blossom'."

The foal nudged the flower again, the magic fading away, leaving the foal puzzled.

"You will understand what it means in time my daughter."

The foal pointed up at the sky, a red crystal was resonating with a yellow and blue light on either side.

"Malfunction: Extra entity detected"

The blue light had formed into a powerful stallion, his voice booming across the void.

"Unknown contingency detected, attempt to override failed. Destroy participants?"

The yellow light formed into a mare with a long flowing yellow mane. her voice a complete polar opposite to the blue stallion's ;so sweet and demure.

The blue stallion looked at the yellow mare and spoke in his booming voice. "Subject of original test failed. Lockout system aborted due to detection of outside entity.

The yellow mare looked right at Ayanna. "Scans indicate intruder is of foremost level. Programming unable to execute purge system due to family lines protocol."

The blue stallion nodded his head. "Unable to purge. Activating purification system of failed subject. Body disintegration in 3,2,1..." Both the blue stallion and yellow mare fired Blue and yellow beams of light at Zecora, the heat from each setting the very air on fire as they approached.

Zecora watched the beams slowly moved toward her, her body frozen in fear. She looked at her daughter and how the beams were coming toward her. Her daughter was too close, if the beams were designating her as a target it could her her daughter if she was too close when they inevitably destroyed her. Zecora started to gallop away from Ayanna, shouting behind her. "Leave this place, it's too dangerous to stay!"

The beams trailed behind Zecora, just a mere few meters behind her.

Ayanna didn't seem to budge an inch. She was staring up at the lights above as if hypnotized by them.

Got to get these things as far from her as possible...

Zecora looked back and watcher her daughter spread her wings, hints of blue magic flying across the tips. What is she doing? I told her to run!

Ayanna spread her wings and with one powerful flap was airborne. Ayanna darted around the beams, coming excessively close to hitting them, turned around and nearly grazing them again.

The blue stallion spoke. "Subject must not interfere with purification program. We are not programmed to do harm to foremost."

The yellow mare chimed in also. "Cannot ascertain interfering entities trajectory, moving to shutdown mode."

The blue stallion on the other hoof disagreed. "Foremost interference irrelevant. If interfering entity is accidentally purifies itself then protocol is not breached. Continue purification sub routine."

The yellow mare pulled her beam away from Zecora and toward the blue stallions beam.

"Protection protocol, morality and ethical nodes engaged." The yellow mare's beam struck the Blue stallions beam, canceling it out.

"Moral node is complacent, increasing fire rate. Targeting interloper for termination."

Zecora felt her heart skip a beat as the blue stallion turned to Ayanna, his eyes aglow, ready to fire.

No!

Zecora's eyes glowed hot white as she moved light lightning, her body coming between the stallions beam and her daughter. "To touch her you have to go through me!" Zecora closed her eyes as the beam struck her, but something was off. She felt no pain, no burning or even the singing of her belly hair. Just a warm embrace slowly pushing her to the ground. Zecora opened her eyes and saw the red and blue beams cradling her, slowly pulling her toward the ground.

The blue stallion spoke. "Baiting sub routine successful. Awaiting query from subject before shutdown."

The yellow mare also spoke. "Subject passed. Subject showed high moral character, sacrificing self to save a loved one. Conclusion: class 1 subject, full shutdown access granted.

Zecora righted herself off her back as the beam let her down gently. "Do you mean to tell me this was all a test? That you threatened to kill my daughter to see what kind of pony I am? That's silly, any mother would do anything; even die to save their children. How does following basic instinct make me any different?"

The blue stallion raised an eyebrow. "Many Questions, enumerating answers and splitting processing with other core. processing." The blue stallion seemed to take forever to speak again.

"What's taking so long?" Zecora said angrily.

"Extra question added to processing. Query full." The yellow mare said.

"This was a test of subjects bravery in face of catastrophic situations. To test if subjects mental state was not damaged and reacted according to database specification of undamaged mentalities." The Blue stallion finished, the yellow mare taking over.

"Foals insertion was unexpected event. Subroutine not programmed to handle unexpected interference. Normal protocol is to purge interfering entity from test but unable due to foremost protocol. Creative core AR097 came up with automatic code to deal with intruder."

The blue stallion began to speak again. "First test was to calculate emotional efficiency. conclusion: pass. Second test was created by sub core to judge moral character. Due to foremost entity interfering the original filed test 0878B was not used."

The yellow mare spoke again. "Data shows that test subject is normal in every way. Following base instinct was crucial, test subject could have let yellow mare core deal with blue core but took it upon herself to deal with blue cores actions. Of all the possible actions test subject picked the correct one."

The blue Stallion began to talk once more. "Enumerating last query. Answer calculation core is limited to the power of one saltine cracker in terms of processing power. Original answer core was shutdown do to a09000e FFFF error. Subject may know error by laymen term 'Blue Screen Of Death'."

"I understand, how do I shutdown the core of the weapon once I reach it?"

"Enumerating answer: last answer, core overloading. Smells like burned baked goods."

The yellow mare stepped in as the blue stallion faded. Smoke coming from his ears as he faded. "Subject will only need to touch the bottom of the core after shattering or removing the bottom control crystal below the main core. Sub routine will handle the rest. Warning...error...possible...dea...t...hhh."

The yellow mare faded away, the black void around her as well. Leaving Zecora on the silver platform leading up to the core. The two statues behind her in a pile of rubble.

"Welcome back, you have been gone quite some time."

Zecora turned around. Imani was standing on the platform opposite of hers, a crowd of ponies gathered behind her. Zecora spun around in place, looking for her daughter but found nothing but a empty starry void. Before she could ask Imani if she had seen her daughter the low roar of the crowd behind her drowned her line of thinking out.

"Do you see that? She's passed the guardians!"

"I know, it's this exciting, maybe we can finally get out of here. I would love to be able to plant flowers again."

Zecora could barely make out a few spare conversations over the low roar of the crowd.

"Silence!" Imani yelled and the crowd fell silent immediately. "I need to have words with her, then you can all go about making future plans that may or may not happen."

One of the larger warriors in the back of the crowd yelled angrily. "Speak for yourself, when I get out of her I have a family to catch up with."

"Yeah, no pony here believes your crackpot theories Imani. Not everything is doom and gloom."

Imani looked at Brennen and Eleena, both of which wore somber expressions on their faces. They knew exactly what Imani was going to say, they just didn't like hearing it.

"You're just angry that the only thing you get to go home to is a criminal investigation for magical tampering. Or did you think we forgot about your mis-enchanted flying carpets you sold before you were trapped here?"

"Shut your face Black Fade!" Imani's eyes went red with anger, something Zecora had only ever seen her do a few times in her life.

"Only a handful of you are trained in shamanistic arts, so only a few of you have any credentials to say what is going to happen. Think about it for a moment. Some of you were near death when you were stabbed with the spear. Some of you have compound fractures, lethal bleeding, ruptured organs and dismemberment damage your mortal bodies floating in the void up there."

Eleena closed her eyes, she knew what was coming.

"Take Eleena for example. Her injuries were most likely fatal BEFORE she was impaled through the chest with the weapon. We cannot move her body from the void above us but we do know that damage never healed. It never had the power to do so without a soul to help power it, to be alive."

The ponies started to whisper among themselves. Some of them in blatant disregard to what Imani was saying.

Imani raised her hoof to silence the crowd once more. "The fact of the matter is most of you were killed, sometimes brutally. And even those that were stabbed with only minor injuries will most likely perish from soul leak. The soul can only remain outside the body for so long before the body rejects them entirely. Some of you may get lucky but you all have to realize that there is a very real possibility you will all pass on."

"You don't know that will happen!" Yelled a zebra with a badly done half- Mohawk.

"That's the thing, we only have math to go by. We are at the limits of what shamanistic magic and unicorn magic alike can predict. Everything could be fine and dandy if the weapon time introverts in on itself, but any other self deactivation will...most likely not be pleasant."

The crowd finally seemed to grasp the severity of the situation.

"Does that mean I won't get to see my mom or my sister?"

"Worst case scenario, every pony here without a functioning mortal body will end up in whatever afterlife awaits all of us." Imani finished somberly.

"I...I don't want to die! I would rather stay here. Maybe find a way to get out alive."

Imani shook her head. "And leave everypony else trapped here? Are you that selfish? Even if every pony or dragon-ling here wanted to stay you would all eventually perish anyways, but in a far worse manner."

"Explain then, Oh smart one." A particularly burly teen dragon blurted out sarcastically.

"I could do without the patronizing but very well. Souls as we know them are not immortal, at least not in once piece indefinitely. If a soul does not move on or has a mortal body to inhabit for a long period of time it begins to split up into energy. Energy that will only recombine with the original structure later on."

"That doesn't seem so bad."

"In a closed environment maybe, here such things can occur but you would recombine in a few centuries. But what happens when this prison eventually breaks down while you are in that form?"

The dragon teenager seemed lost for words as he scratched at a bit of acne on his chin.

"Nothing? No sly remarks?"

"N-no Imani, ma'am."

"Good. Imagine for a moment your mind being everywhere at once but nowhere in particular and you will remain that way until the very end of the universe itself. Possibly even longer. A fate far worse than death itself. That is the price you pay for tampering with the natural order of life."

Zecora raised her eyebrow. Imani was actually lying though her teeth. Soul scatter hypothesis was disproved centuries ago, she was intentionally misleading them. Zecora opened her mouth to counter but felt a tingle in the back of her mind.

Now is not the time to debate this my child. Sometimes a white lie can be used for good reasons.

Zecora closed her mouth. It wasn't exactly the most clever way to handle a crowd, using fear of a fate worse than what they were already fearing as a motivational tool but at least it got the job done.

Fine but if you end up on the other side, expect fallout from this. Zecora replied with her thoughts.

Imani smiled and nodded to Zecora. What are they going to do to me? Souls cannot feel pain nor be destroyed or converted in any known way. The best they could possibly do is bitch at me, thankfully I know the self deaf spell for that.

I hope you know what you are doing mother, I won't be there to help with the fallout.

Imani raised her hoof at the increasingly hostile crowd. "I need to speak with Zecora for a moment." Imani turned her attention to Zecora. "Listen closely. Once you deactivate the core it will be gin to implode in on itself. I suggest you get as far away from it as possible."

Zecora could have sworn her mother just said the word implode. "Wait, no one mentioned anything about implosion. How unstable is the core? How long do I have?"

"Maybe a minute's head start, if you start running after it's deactivated you should be well outside the implosion zone."

"And if I'm not?

"Not much, just a very excruciatingly painful death."

Is that all, I was thinking it would turn my coat permanently blue or something. Zecora thought as she rolled her eyes.

Save the sarcasm for later child. I am de- very serious about you getting away. I do not want to leave my granddaughter with only one parent.

Zecora nodded her head and began to trot up the incline leading up to the spears power core. She moved along at a brisk pace when something inside her told her to stop. She felt a cold wash of fear flow over her, shaking her to the very core.

Mother, what was-

Ignore it, there is much pent up negative energy in the core. You may even have illusions pop up but remember it's not real, only your mind playing tricks on you.

Anything else you need to tell me last minute mother?

Yes, beware of the giant armored vorpal pie.

Zecora took two steps forward before looking back at her mother with a confused look.

I'm joking, get going already!

A green Pegasus in gold armor swooped down from the sky and landed in front of Celestia, saluting her before approaching. "Your majesty, I have crucial new to...report?" The Pegasus peeked to Celestia's side to see the grey time stopped zone behind her. "Isn't that the war criminal Maskia?"

"Yes, yes it is. I'll explain in a moment, report first."

The solider saluted and pulled out a notepad from a pouch on his side. "Ahem, news from the Canterlot emergency hospital is that princess Luna is stable but in critical condition. The doctors are sure she will make a full recovery but it will take months of therapy to fix the trauma her body has sustained and even longer to properly regrow her wing."

Celestia breathed a sigh of relief, cadence patting her on the back as the solider continued.

"A grand total of twenty five soldiers, thirteen ground and twelve air centurions have been found with suggestion...wait that part is crossed out. Dominance orbs inserted into their minds. Progress indicates that as of now eighty percent of your ground and air forces have been scanned for this affliction."

Twilight's ears popped up. "Eighty percent? It's been less than a day. We don't have that many medical personnel that can detect it do we?"

"Arch mage Twilight Sparkle." The solider gave a little salute which Twilight didn't seem to care for. "One of the shaman in our care knew of a spell to mass detect the orbs and has helped tremendously in our search for them. I believe her name was Veria Whisperwind."

"Oh, Wait she was a shaman?"

"Not exactly sure but she knew a few spells. Personally I can't tell the difference but her spell turned all the afflicted ponies bright glowing neon purple. We are....still trying to get rid of the glow at the moment however."

"We can deal with that later." Celestia said in a hurry. "I want every single shock trooper, air centurion, battleship and grunt surrounding this area within the hour. Extra medical staff are to finish up scans of any uncleared personnel. Any Class A or above are to report to the front lines."

"Y-your majesty, that is total overkill! We would leave Canterlot wide open to attack!"

Celestia's eyes glowed a hot white. "That was not a suggestion, that was an order."

Twilight put a hoof on Celestia's shoulder, catching the seething Celestia by surprise. "You need to calm down, a little insubordination, well, not really insubordination; more like a suggestion, isn't worth getting all riled up about."

Celestia's eyes went back to normal as she Spoke with Twilight. "I'm...You will understand later. Solider, you have your orders, carry them out."

The solider swallowed, gave a quick salute and flew off to deliver Celestia's orders to the rest of the royal army.

"So, Celestia, do you want to explain to me why you are in such a bad mood all of a sudden?"

Celestia sighed, her heart still heavy from the visions she saw earlier. "I'm a bit on edge. I saw what Maskia was going to do, what she was capable of if we do not stop her here. I watched helplessly as she struck down one of the most important ponies in my life."

"Luna?" Twilight blurted out.

"No, the vision didn't go that far but I'm sure she was next on the list. She killed you my dearest Twilight."

Twilight's eyes widened. "You didn't speak that specifically before. I guess anypony would get angry if it was somepony they felt was close."

"That's why I have concluded that she must die. Not capture, not prison camp or incarcerated in solitude, death."

"Celestia' I-"

"No, Twilight. I will not hear objections in this matter. The life of one murderous insignificant Zebra is not worth risking everything I have labored to build, the bonds I have worked hard to forge. The second that time stopped zone dissipates I will end her life myself and rid her evil from this land once and for all!"

Twilight frowned at Celestia for a moment but then sighed in defeat. "Mandatory counseling for everyone after this is all over with."

Zecora jumped from one platform to another, taking care to not slip off and fall into the bottomless void below her. Zecora looked up into the distance, the shroud of hazy black now covered the entirety of the sky and the once speck of red was now larger that the Canterlot palace. Just wrapping her mind around it's enormous size was starting to make her feel dizzy. Where did her ancestor dig up something so massive, something that felt so ominous.

Zecora continued her climb until she felt something touch the back of her mind, something seething with hate, not dark but perpetually angry.

"Turn back."

The voice echoed though her mind but it somehow felt familiar, like along lost friend crying for help kind of way.

"W-who or what are you?" Zecora asked.

"I...don't remember, been so long since I have been trapped. Turn back, only eternal anger awaits those that come near here."

Zecora felt only briefly what the voice was talking about. Anger like she never felt before, not just anger though, other emotions like pity, regret, sorrow. For just a brief moment her entire body felt like it had been in a constant state of emotional turmoil for years. Her body almost wanted to turn back but the thought of all the ponies that would be trapped her, including the thought of never seeing her daughter or mate ever again pushed her forward.

"I cannot turn back. Thousands of trapped souls in this place rely on me. I cannot fail them!."

The voice was eerily silent for a moment, Long enough that Zecora continued further up toward the large red shard above her.

"You must go back. I know of the souls trapped here but their fate is insignificant compared to what will happen if you touch the core. This fate I feel is mine and mine alone for my past transgressions. Transgressions that must have been terrible to seal me here."

Zecora felt another torrent of negative emotions pour onto her like hot, boiling water. "No, I will not fail everyone. I will release them and release you. No pony deserves that kind of torment." Zecora climbed a few more edges until she found herself a few yards from the base of the red crystal. Zecora could feel all the negative emotions emitting from the crystal, her body nearly collapsing from the sheer weight of them, her legs shaking violently as she approached the edge.

Zecora stared into the deep red of the crystal. Something... green was trapped at it's base. As she moved closer the green object inside shouted.

"No! Stay back! Please, do not share my fate!"

Zecora managed to get a good look at whatever was inside. It was Alahla, the depiction on the wall from earlier was a dead ringer for the emerald queen. Zecora walked right up to the edge of the core but avoided touching it.

"I know who you are." Zecora said as she pointed at Alahla.

Alahla stared at Zecora for a moment. "Do you? I do not know who you are but then again, I don't remember anything."

"You are the emerald queen. I am...I guess your very, very, very great granddaughter."

"The emerald queen? Was I royalty or was that a title?" Alahla looked down at her dress, pondering if emerald was a reference to how she dressed.

"Your birth name was Alahla. You were the first foremost shaman to be born into our family. You also brought the Wind Runner clan together and forged an empire of equality and fairness, in an age of strife, sexism and xenophobia."

Alahla kicked the ground below her. "I vaguely remember doing such things. I dunno, it has been so long but I faintly remember doing something so horrible that trapped me here. That this place was to be my eternal prison for the horrible deeds I have wrought."

Zecora rubbed her head trying to figure out what Alahla could have possibly done to think she deserved all of this.

"I think I have an idea as to why you feel that way but I cannot fathom how anyone can want to suffer eternally for something that wasn't entirely their fault."

"I..do not remember what I did wrong just that I deserve to be here in eternal turmoil."

"My ancestor, you are the maker of the very prison you feel you deserve to be trapped in."

"This is a weapon?" Alahla looked above her, not understanding what Zecora was talking about.

"Long ago you were commissioned by the council of the three greater tribes to forge them a weapon to use against predatory dragons. The council modified the weapon long after you were done, modifying it to trap and potentially use the souls it traps as a power source."

Alahla smiled. "It is confirmed then, I am a monster and deserve to-"

"No, do not interrupt me." Zecora said sternly.

"No, you should not be making excuses for me, for my terrible creation that I so ironically became trapped within."

"Listen, you put protections on this weapon in an attempt to stop any misuse of it's powers. You even had a remote destruct system put in place but it was circumvented by the council. They perverted and corrupted your enchantments to help enforce their brutal and sexist views."

"I created it and therefore responsible for all the pain it has caused."

Zecora ran her hoof down her face in frustration. "This weapon is a tool, it is not the toolmakers fault if it is misused. Even more so that you intentionally put protections of it to prevent such things."

"What reason did I make the tool, was I to gain from it?"

Zecora knew what Alahla was trying to do, trying to bait Zecora so she could continue to blame herself. "I will not say but know this; if I touch this core with my hooves then the entire weapon will collapse in on itself. Even if you blame yourself for all the damage you have done you can at the very least let those poor souls move on. Self torture is selfish when you can atone by releasing all the poor trapped souls below."

"But I-"

"No. I am breaking this accursed weapon once and for all!" Zecora slammed her hooves into the side of the core. At first nothing seemed to happen but small cracks began to form along the surface of the core, quickly spreading upwards into the black sky.

"What have you done! I'm a monster, releasing me will only cause-"

*smack*

The core had degraded enough to allow Zecora to reach in and slap Alahla right across the muzzle. Alahla just stood there, shocked at Zecora's actions as the very fabric of space and time started to collapse in on itself. Alahla looked down shaking her head somberly.

"I have been a fool haven't I?" She said as she rubbed her cheek.

Zecora sighed. "Maybe not entirely, the effects of this...prison seemed to fool around with your mind. You are much less a fool and much more a pony with impaired judgement."

Alahla watched as the shard began to fall, becoming ethereal and falling though her.

"You do know that destroying it in this manner will kill anything that still has flesh, right?"

Zecora slapped her hoof to her forehead, she had completely forgotten to run away. "It's too late isn't it?"

Alahla rubbed her face. "For me perhaps, I still have a mortal body but for you..." Alahla's eyes glowed brightly, a powerful aura surrounded Zecora and flung her with incredible force from the collapsing core and into the bottomless void below .

Zecora watched as tears fell from Alahla's eyes.

"Tell my descendants I am proud of them, proud of how strong they have become." Alahla turned around, and walked further into the collapsing core, her body fading from view as bright bolts of red electricity started to crack what Zecora thought was an endless void around her.

Zecora began to feel dizzy, the sensation of her body was being stretched and contracted rapidly wearing heavily on her. The loud breaking sounds and the weird sensations were too much to bear, she quickly blacked out as the entirety of the space around her flashed with brilliant white light.

Wret? Wret!