A loud retort and the sound of shattering ice brought Pestilence's whole mind reeling back to his present reality. His orbs lit once more, but their glow was dim enough to be seen only at extremely close quarters. He couldn't feel much of anything, however—save his still-beating heart and vines, which both worked tirelessly, even now, to pull his body back together. He could barely hear the movements of flesh and writhing plant matter, much less the wingbeats and still-active magic that drew closer and closer. Once hooves hit the ground, however, his vines gave up and flopped within their cavities.

A hoof jabbed him in the shoulder, not even receiving a muscle spasm in response. He could hear that damnable Envoy pipe up, "I think that did him in."

"That was a stunt I don't think even Rainbow would attempt," Twilight agreed. Pestilence could almost hear the nod in her voice.

"I wouldn't either, that's for sure. Besides, my wings ache right now," Lance chimed, the guttural growl in his voice completely gone save for the faintest undernote.

A careful sniffing of air, followed by a gruff harrumph, pierced the air. "Regardless, he is in a position most unenviable," Fenrir remarked. "I think it is best to bury this wretch, before whatever dark magics that ail him set to work on relieving him of this grievous damage."

Even with his face split vertically in two, Pestilence managed an internal smile. Of course! How could he have forgotten! As vines started pulling his brains back together into one entity, dark thoughts coursed the gamut of his mind as he remembered his trump card. That was, before he felt another blade piercing his skull, this time lopping the top halves of it off in one fell swing. The vines stilled again, though he could no longer hear anything. He could feel the earth being worked at, the vibrations so close yet miniscule he could not pinpoint what was going on.

Of course, he wasn't really in a position to do so. Dark magics or not, one didn't exactly come out from having their brain quartered entirely unscathed. Without ceremony, celebration, or even the faintest bit of concern, he was dragged into a hole after some moments had passed. How many, he couldn't parse; it wasn't long before the dirt was thrown onto him with diligence, grace, and not one iota of respect.

Just like that, in the quiet coldness of the dark, he'd been left to rot. Even so, magic pulsed across his body as he faintly felt his adversaries tottering off. To where, he knew not—not even the earth could tell him that much. Magic weaved around him and through him, the curse once more working to undo what was done to him.

As his brain pulled itself back together with the aid of vines and eldritch tendrils of shadow, darkened thoughts once more ran his mind. Rage screamed in what little blood remained in his body, and his heart began pumping erratically as bark started growing outward from its wound. His split horn crackled as more wood sealed the crack between the halves, overflowing with hellish energies that accelerated his healing—if it could be called that.

One part of his mind screamed that he should deal with that challenger, whilst another howled for Lance's blood to water the trees of tomorrow. A third, tiny voice suggested he bash that Envoy into the ground for having the gall to stab him in his heart. Many other such ideas flitted hither and thither, taking their seconds in the spotlight before passing it onto the next in an endless dance that did naught but strengthen his anger.

Underground, in what was once sun-touched soil, that inner darkness began to take over. Underneath the Void, and his own prison, one could hear him cackling—assuming anyone was presently above him. The sound grated at the soil, cracking it as it gargled in his recovering throat. Vines pushed up and out, wriggling without rhyme or reason. In disarray they spread, parting the stirred, scorched earth as they pulled his mangled body up and out.

From his claws, roots grew, laced the ground beneath him and spread their fell power. From his back, where his wings were, branches arced upward with heaves and ripples that further sundered his flesh. All his body could do was to contort itself in order to assume a new, more grotesque form. Wood spread out over what remained, growing and towering as a crown of branches replaced the scorched leaves.

Pestilence marched forward, the crown swaying with his movements. It drooped around his face, sprouting flowers that spit out seeds with each step. The seeds sizzled and popped, vanishing in puffs of black smoke at his roots. The ground trembled beneath him, the tremors shaking his branches as they grew more flowers across his backside. Dim though they were, his orbs scanned the landscape as best they could.

His roots, however, did a far better job at letting him know where he was going and what he was walking on. In a way, they pulled him along towards suspect indents in the ground that were half-ovular and with domed imprints therein. Some were flat, though, and littered with tiny splinters. Onwards he went, smiling crookedly as he felt magic coursing through his body. "One can't have it all…" he muttered to himself, hoarse and quiet amidst his own thundering steps. "If I have to be part of the new forest… then so be it."

However long it would take, he swore, he would see it done.

As he marched with purpose, he could sense a growing power in the indeterminate distance. He could not discern its name, its source, or even its magical signature—but his roots did notice, stringing him along by his wooden snout and beckoning him to follow. His magic merely fueled his movements, no matter how twisted his body grew. Even past the threshold where he should have died, he could do little else but heed that growing nagging in the back of his mangled skull.

Would it be his own undoing? He knew not. Rage still howled through his body, demanding he do something as it drowned out rationality, so he moved faster—entirely heedless of that tiny skeptic in his conscious, sounding alarm bells and screaming that he would be led into another trap. The ground began tearing as he broke out into a stumbling gallop, sending shards of earth around and behind him as he went. Thoughts echoed through his head with each step, rebounding with no way to cast themselves upon his cursed tongue.

"Can't hear."

His body lurched, tilted, swayed in a wind that felt fierce enough to topple him. His branches rattled, but the Void was unusually quiet now—only vibration answered to him. He almost landed on his face, pulling himself up only once the entirety of the gale had passed.

"Can't see."

His sight grew more and more hazy until only darkness remained, even as he resumed that stumbling gallop. Light, what little of it could exist in the Void, was meaningless. Contrast was the same; he couldn't discern lighter black from darker black, and so continued to amble on.

"Roots feel. Roots guide…"

And, indeed, they did. The shuffle grew more awkward with each movement, each lash pawing desperately at the earth before ripping it asunder to pull him forwards. Each root seemed to tug him in separate directions; first left, then sharply right, then due north without any care whatsoever. He swayed again, barely steadying himself only as he came to a complete stop.

"Wind's trying to stop me…"

Another gust rattled his branches, and his swaying turned into a collapse that sprawled out all of his roots as he toppled. His crown drooped around his face, obscuring all of it save his protruding horn. With an unholy exertion of will, he stood back up, only to lurch again as a third blast of wind tried to knock him back down.

"What… is that power?"

Even now, as he struggled once again to start walking, he could taste a noticeable change in the ash-blighted air around him. It started faint at first, a little note he couldn't place. At that moment, he wasn't sure if that was his imagination getting to him in his current state. But that distant power grew and grew, and he couldn't glean why—but it did, and once again whispered for him to come. His roots turned and pulled him towards it once more with force, though the distance seemed to lengthen with each step.

"Must… kill… challenger…"

The mere thought of the interloper made what was left of his blood boil. His heart thundered in his chest, threatening to break free of its confines. Magic lashed from his horn, but it had nowhere to go save the ground beneath him. It washed over his body in its passing, and summoned vines and pikes of bamboo that sent him stumbling to the ground.

Pestilence pulled himself up, but his branches shook with the effort. One almost strained, wood splintering as he twisted it wrong, before he managed something resembling steady. He felt pain, but forced himself to ignore it as he pressed onward. The Void was powerful, despite being so empty and vast, and only those steps within ashen soil could guide him now.

"That… damned pegasus…"

With renewed vigor, Pestilence managed something that wasn't quite a crawl, but more a multi-limbed hobble as that distant power continued to climb. Oh how he wanted to tear Lance several new holes with his branches… though, there was no telling where that pegasus went now. Pestilence tried flapping his backside branches to fly, but could not even lift himself an inch from the ground without breaking his delicate balance. He nearly fell again, but stabilized by spreading his backside branches in a way that distributed his weight a little.

Why, why, why did that pegasus have to bring that Envoy with him? The thought made the cursed alicorn grasp his head with a forebranch, clutching feebly in an attempt to sort out whatever rationale that decision called for. Alas, he was unable to find or conjure an answer to justify it.

No matter how hard he tried to search within himself, he could not place himself in Lance's horseshoes. The opportunity was long lost the moment that damned challenger dared show her face and use his power to reverse the seeding.

Lance's voice, scathing and damning, echoed into his head. "If not one has left Ashwood… then were they, perhaps, forgotten? Or… deliberately left to its own devices?"

The more he dwelled on it, the more sense that seemed to make. Perhaps the challenger was forgotten, Pestilence mused. Then again, it shouldn't have been easy to forget her—she had his power, after all. She was probably marked too, now that he thought about it. Surely, one of Greenwood's villagers would have noticed that much… wouldn't they?

His mind made itself up in that moment. He marched to the still-climbing power, idly hoping it could lead him to that village. He could kill two birds with one stone, and set the whole lot of miscreants straight once and for all. Then, only then would he rest—as soon as this heaping kerfuffle had been sorted out and everything was back in its proper order.

Of course, given what was done to him, he'd have a lot to repay those miscreants for. Dark thoughts still swam in his head, further fueling his flame and making him pick up his pace. In his eagerness to rend flesh, he tore up the trail he followed, caring not for where it led. It did occur to him, however, that maybe that growing power in the distance was something the group had angered—and it would direct its fury onto them. The practical glee at the notion served to hasten his movements, and a laugh he could only feel tore its way from his throat to echo soundlessly in the Void.

It was a pity he couldn't see or hear what he was getting into, only feel his way to that damned hellhole. He would have screamed if he could do either.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The villagers, all surrounded by the First Unified Army, were escorted back to the fire-shredded Greenwood. The younger villagers eyed their escorts warily, whilst the remaining elders had gazes and horns and mana trained on the group that lingered in their premises. The lot flinched when they saw what was left of their leaders, and ears folded back as their owners turned to Natalie for an explanation.

One of the older mares pushed her way through the crowd, her greying green mane framing her face in loose coils as she shouldered past pregnant mares and armed stallions alike. Her horn crackled in a sickly light, eyes flashing red for the barest of instants. "What did you do?!" she demanded.

Natalie's eyes narrowed as the elder's eyes flashed once more. "Separate her from the others, immediately," she said coolly. The soldiers nodded, and a changeling and gryphon moved in to grab the mare by her front legs and drag her towards their superior. Natalie gestured to Greenwood with a wing. "This, I didn't cause." She then pointed at the leaders' remnants. "Those guys, though, I scorched through and through."

Leaning in to peer into the elder's eyes, she added in a low voice, "And in fact… I know who did torch your little village."

"Who?!" the elder spat, struggling in the two-prong grip for a moment before the changeling used his magic to make her hold still.

Instead of answering, Natalie turned to Sarah, then to Rainbow Dash. A silence settled, then Natalie turned back to the elder after considering everything carefully. "So… there was mention of some immortality ritual, from the three stooges who told you to haul ass no less…" she began darkly, her own eyes flashing red at the mention. The elder recoiled, as did the rest who hadn't been separated from the village herd. She gestured to Sarah with a wing and asked, "Tell me… what goes into the ritual to make it work?"

Sarah wilted, wings sagging and head lowering as Natalie turned to her again for an answer. She flinched when she felt a wing drape itself across her back, and looked up to find Rainbow Dash staring at her. "It's okay. Whatever bucked-up stuff they did won't happen again on our watch," Rainbow said softly, but firmly. She turned to the soldiers and nodded to them. "Not on their watch, either."

Sarah didn't speak. Instead, she lifted her claws to her false horn and tugged sharply, splintering the wood. She pulled again, jerking her head before Lazarus lit his horn and willed his magic to stop her cold. "No, we're not going to be mutilating ourselves," he said firmly.

Natalie turned to the couple who had the jewel on the makeshift stretcher. Her lips pursed when the gem began to crackle with blue and red arcs of miniscule lightning, rattling just enough to startle its carriers into jumping. She turned back to the elder that was before her, ears twitching in their wait for an answer yet to come. She prodded her with a wingtip to make sure she was still conscious, but jerked her limb away when the elder turned to try and bite at it.

"What goes into this 'immortality ritual?'" Natalie repeated, eyes narrowing in impatience even as her gut clenched in a shiver of disgust.

"Why should you know, Cleansing Crystal?" the elder snapped, eyes twitching as she glared defiantly at Natalie.

Natalie turned to the jewel, still crackling with a rage that belied its seeming immobility. "I think I'm not the only one who wants to know," she said, gesturing to the jewel when the elder raised a questioning brow. The elder turned, noticed the jewel, and paled upon seeing those dual-colored arcs of lightning streaking its surface—notably, without burning the stretcher it lay on.

By then, the rest of the villagers, and Natalie's group, had noticed the jewel's erratic behavior. The soldiers, on the other hoof, barely did little more than bat an eye in its direction. Sarah paled and dropped her claws from her false horn, eyes widening as she stared at the jewel. The first words she spoke were hushed, yet their weight cast aside all rage from her system merely through reaching her own ears, "Is… is Godcat…"

Natalie turned to the Void itself, spread her wings, and gestured up at it with them. "I think a certain Someone has been keeping Her eye on this place since we dropped here," she said ominously. She turned her attention, once more, on the elder mare before her. "So if you don't spill the beans, you're probably going to have a very nasty afterlife waiting for you." She shrugged idly before leveling the tip of her staff at the villager's throat and lightly tapping her chin with its crystal.

The elderly mare trembled, and not just at the crystal at her neck. She swallowed and licked her lips, but no sound came out even as that staff started pressing into her throat. She flinched when she heard the sound of yet more trotting hooves hitting the soil, and tried to peer around Natalie and the soldiers to see where the sound was coming from. "Y-you can't… She…" she stammered, pupils dilated and trembling even as her irises flashed that insufferable red once more.

Natalie gravely nodded, face hardened into a stony mask that had little emotion in its slight tilt. "Godcat told me and my friends… on the day we bested Her, that She would watch Fantasia even as She searched for another world…" she muttered, eyes gleaming in some vestigate of emotion that the trembling elder could not place.

Her face barely twitched as she snorted, and her head shook slowly and pityingly. "Truth be told… if the Void is here, then I don't think She likes what's been going on here—but that's just a hunch," she said bluntly. "Either spill the beans, while you're on the mortal coil… or spill them and face Godcat's wrath in the afterlife."

The elder continued to shake, before the crackling jewel began to float up from its stretcher. All eyes, even Rainbow's and Rarity's, trailed after it as it continued to spark fitfully and move unaided. It levitated, of its own accord, to the ruined altar set near the village gate, and set itself gently upon the torched bark. Lightning coursed across the ashen bark, swirling about it in a vortex of currents that popped and crashed against itself as pieces flaked away in motes of ash.

Layer by layer, the altar peeled itself away until only a hideous hunk of charcoal remained. The ashes swirled above the jewel, a small cloud at first before more flitted from the collapsed buildings. Then, still more came from the ruined forest, in thick shrouds that flew to gather around the stump and join in with the first. First came unidentifiable things, hanging low above the jewel in a cluster of four that hovered in pairs mere inches apart from each other.

From there, towers formed, spiraling up as they pieced themselves together. The cloud distorted briefly when the wind blew, but resolidified and picked up where it left off to complete the cylindrical structures. Two round shapes, a slender yet bumpy bridge holding them together, formed between all the towers before anchoring itself to them seamlessly. Another tower formed up front, thicker in diameter yet requiring more layers to complete as a lashing object formed on the opposite end. Finally, another round shape formed atop that last tower, before reshaping into something with ears and a muzzle that were both featureless and distorted thanks to the swirling motes making up its body.

All watched as the cloud seemed to solidify into something vaguely equine, with limbs in appropriate locations and the head and tail where they should have been. A horn jutted from its head in seconds as the flow of outside ash waned to a faint trickle, but besides that, its features were blank—as a cloud, it couldn't be anything but. Natalie, Sarah, and Lazarus recoiled upon seeing it, and their ears turned back as jade orbs lit upon the vague approximation of its face, topped with a glowing maw that split into a toothy smile.

Even now, though the flow had weakened, more ash came in to add to its body, compacting tenfold in an effort to complete itself even more. Lightning arced around it in red and blue increments, especially around the legs and horn as it floated against all possible logic. Silence reigned for a minute or two as it hovered there, seeming to take in its surroundings with an air of expectancy about it.

Its orbs then swept across the village, making all shiver as it made eye contact with every face present. It had no lungs or vocal chords, yet still it laughed a hollow series of notes that grated against all ears. It seemed to have no sentience, yet its orbs sparkled with ill intent. Though it had no life to call its own, it was present—it was here, perhaps born of some will from beyond. Though it had no magic to will, its horn started to glow crimson-green, the sinister aura swirling around its head, throwing it into stark relief without illuminating any of its features save the mouth and orbs.

"What… is that?" Rainbow asked uneasily, wings spread and twitching.

The elder mare balked and turned to Natalie, eyes glistening in pleading. "The Tormentor! The Penance of Sin!" she cried, struggling once again in the two-pronged grip that held her tight. "One of Godcat's enforcers! We're finished! Done for!" She kicked as much as the magic holding her would allow, which wasn't very much given her advanced age. "It has come to collect!" She turned to the other villagers. "Run!!" she implored, before a cloud of ash parted from the new arrival and rushed to her head.

The ash went into her nostrils and throat, swirling around her skull as she continued to thrash. She screamed, but her cry devolved into a gargle as motes of vortexing darkness continued to assail her. Natalie whirled around and grasped the elder's head with her magic, trying to remove the ash—but it kept swirling, howling in its own tempest against her aura as though she hadn't cast at all.

Within minutes, the elder started to suffocate, whinnying and whining as the sable stole her life away piece by piece. Her body started reacting instantly; vines and bark tore through her flesh in an effort to fight off her bitter end, reaching up to swat the ash away to no avail. Her cries weakened, and eventually, so did her struggles. Even then, she was scratching at her own throat, tearing flesh out to try and cast the ash out.

Her blood spilt, dribbled down her neck as she scratched fruitlessly, succeeding only in mutilating herself further. The other villagers watched, reeling and whimpering in horror as she ripped her esophagus out. The gargling whines devolved into choked gasps, then watery wheezes as her hinds went slack. Blood stained the ground beneath her at an alarming rate, forming a pool that made the soldiers holding her let go.

She did not drop, continuing to tear herself apart as the ash cloud held her suspended on the spot. Vines wrenched her body further apart, only to then de-root and flop on the ground in writhing imitations of sentient life as they withered. Bark peeled away, curling on itself as if it knew how futile this struggle was. The will to live, and the light of fight, weakened ever so steadily upon the ash-struck victim, who gave one last choked sob as her stained fronts dropped to her sides.

Only when she slumped, glassy-eyed and limp, did the cloud pull away and return to its master. The Penance grinned wickedly, licking its lips as though it could taste the spilt blood. As it licked its chops, Lance and his group arrived upon the scene, eyes widening at what they beheld. Anna was unusually quick to cast her magic over herself, making her outfit vanish in flashes of light as soon as she had seen the creature floating above the sparking, lightning-spitting jewel.

Natalie noticed that Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Applejack were now sporting golden jewelry with singular gems on their necks, and on Twilight's head in her case. Twilight summoned the jeweled box with her magic, opened it, and willed her power to fashion two similar necklaces onto the necks of Rainbow and Rarity. The Tormentor turned to Lance as he demanded, "What happened?!"

Natalie pointed at the ash-creature with her staff and answered, "That killed somepony!"

The Tormentor rose higher in the air, crackling and cackling more than it had a right to. Its horn lit up in sickly green that changed hideous red, and its magic seized the remaining elders of the village, leaving the younger and middle-aged members untouched. It lifted them into the air to its height, its sickly and horrible smile widening. It tossed its head, and more ash rushed from its body to suffocate more victims.

The groups watched as the elders were strangled, forcibly transformed, ripping their own throats out in an attempt to stifle their agony, only to instead prolong their suffering. Screams, muffled and pained, echoed in the Void as elder after elder met their agonizing end before the entity dropped them and let them splatter upon ruined houses with nothing more than a flick of its ashen tail.

Its head then turned to Sarah, then Anna. Both flinched as that accursed gaze bore into their souls. For the first time, the Tormentor spoke in a voice that made even Lance flinch at its familiarity; hollow and hissing was its tone, and damning was its singular utterance, "Sinners… prepare for repentance… for your silence is as sinful as what was done to you..." With that, its foul magic it seized Sarah, hefted her up to its eye level, as all the while the Void rumbled ominously. Anna was swift on the teleport, however, and vanished before the magic could grab her.

She reappeared next to the altar, only for the Tormentor to redirect its assault and launch ash towards her new location. Once more she vanished, causing the ash to swirl where she stood. The Tormentor scanned the area, waiting for her to reappear as its ash moved to sweep the village. An arrow sailed past it, narrowly missing Sarah and stirring the corporeal form into wisps with its flight. Slowly, the creature turned around to find its quarry standing on a ruined house's jutting branch, bow in claw and loaded with another arrow.

The Tormentor smirked. "Why do you keep running from your sins, you wretch?" it taunted, once more preparing to snag her. Instead of answering, Anna teleported before it could make its move, taking her weapons with. The fiend glanced around, Sarah struggling in its grasp, the villagers watching hawkishly as it turned to them in its pursuit of prey. Another arrow sailed from above, lancing clean through the creature's head only to harmlessly strike the ground below it, the ash misting about before recompacting.

It twisted above, and seized a levitating Anna by her legs as she loaded another arrow into the drawstring. She shrieked as she was pulled down to its level, ash swirling about her horn in a ring that constricted and cut off her magic. The visible darkness around them all compacted onto itself, destabilizing before swirling around the three in increments that let light through.

More parts of the Void fell, compacted, went to join the central mass, taking with it whole chunks of earth and rock and burnt trees with its passing. The Tormentor rose into that concentrating darkness, dragging the twins with it, before entering the mass with a ripple as they cried out in dismay. A moment later, they too followed it, their fruitless struggles rippling across the surface as the darkness swallowed them up.

"What's happening?!" Twilight asked, her mane and the manes of everyone else lifting upwards before she realized she was feeling an intense wind blowing throughout the area that rushed to the growing sphere. Purple veins exploded across its circumference, becoming more and more erratic as the Void continued to collapse. More of it fell away to reveal night had come, and the moon was full and dark crimson, washing the land in a light that cast itself onto that sphere most of all. Some of the solidified sable reached to Lazarus and grasped his horn.

Lazarus struggled, but his horn flashed of its own accord. The halberd and harp reappeared, and the darkness seized both before pulling them into itself. A growl of thunder shook the area, causing all to tremble save the airborne mass that should not have formed. The whole lot turned to where the halberd and harp had gone, shuddering as the sphere absorbed them with an unnatural ripple and pulse of purple veins darting across its otherwise smooth surface.

The shadows continued to break and rendezvous, the once-silent wind guiding them along in their hastening journey to form something more compact above that burnt town. The villagers began to whine and whinny, some rearing up as panic took hold. Shouts of "We're done for!" and "The end has come!" echoed from them, and before long all broke out into harried gallops that sent them tumbling into soldiers and burnt houses alike. The soldiers took to the air to avoid collisions, scrambling after the villagers as they ran in various directions in an attempt to keep some semblance of order. Further still, the darkness concentrated upon itself, forming a secondary dome around the town before anyone could make it much farther than the village parameters.

One stallion went horn-first into it, only to bounce back and land on his hinds with a frightened nicker. A pregnant mare put her hooves on the dome, trying to wrench it apart, only to scream as the sable grew a tentacle to shove her backside-first towards the ashen remnants of an unlucky structure. A soldier had to grab her to keep her both from crashing into that building and harming herself and her unborn child, and got punched in the face for his trouble. A foal clambered on top of a semi-steady collapsed house and tried to jump upwards into the wall with a wail, but was likewise smacked down into the waiting claws of another soldier that scratched him on the descent.

A ring of shard-like fragments, all sparkling like glass despite their glossy black finish, broke around the top of this dome, letting the sickly light of the eclipsed moon shine upon the chaos. It formed a ring of light around the sphere as well as letting the smaller, compact entity float in the middle of the hole. In this halo of dim red light, the sphere looked absolutely demonic, harkening loose fragments of the barricade into itself to grow just that little bit more. Those shards swirled in a slow, graceful dance that made it seem as if the very sky itself had broken apart to reveal a black canvas between them.

Lightning crackled around it and the dome that trapped everyone inside, discouraging escape and only adding to the pandemonium as villager after villager tried to leave through every possible means they had at their disposal—all without success. Twilight looked on with worry gnawing at her. She turned to the crackling jewel, which started to exude shadows that then raced to reinforce the barrier. Her attention went to Lance immediately afterwards. "Let's see if the Elements can fix this!" she declared.

Lance nodded. "Make it snappy!" He spread his wings and took to the air with that command. "I'll work on trying to calm everypony down!" He flew about, trying to stop ponies from attempting to run and crash into each other without rhyme or reason. Matt, Lazarus and Natalie snapped out of their trance and rushed about to help, chipping in with magic, focusing on the pregnant mares and foals while Lance went after the panicking stallions and the small minority of unburdened mares.

"Alright girls, let's give it everything we got!" Twilight ordered. At once her friends gathered around her, closing their eyes in concentration as the Elements of Harmony began to glow.

None of the panicking villagers took notice of them, even as they ran hither and thither. The darkness that was the Void did not, either. It didn't seem to care either way, assuming it could even have that capacity at all.

Even charging the Elements, the six wondered if Anna and Sarah would make it out of the shadow-sphere alive and intact.