***

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."
Frank Herbert, Dune.

"Arise! Arise, riders of Theoden! Spears shall be shaken! Shields shall be splintered! A sword day! A red day! Ere the Sun rises!"
Theoden, King of Rohan, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

***

Scottish Archives, January 30th, 2030 - 'Avatar' Earth

Rupert Giles took his glasses off and cleaned them, before rubbing his forehead with his hands, trying not to feel slightly overwhelmed. In front of him on a screen was General Anderson and Prince Blueblood of the Governing Council, both of them looking surprisingly pleased with themselves.

"You want me to what?" he asked again, trying to wrap his head around their request.

"The Iron Clad program," Anderson said, looking mildly irritated at having to repeat himself. "It's being reopened. I want you to see to it personally."

The Iron Clad program… he remembered that one. It was a theoretical program that had been commissioned in the early days of the war by the Council to create power-armoured, genetically, hormonally and magically enhanced super-soldiers - this had been shortly after the reveal of Earth magic, and the government wanted to explore all the defensive options available. Though the Archive research groups involved had managed to reach the prototype stage in terms of some of the technology they had to hand, they had never progressed further with it.

"I don't understand," Giles said, frowning. "The Iron Clad program only produced three prototype Paladin armours, and we never began the augmentation procedures on any subjects. We don't even know if it will work!"

"Then you'll just have to make it work, Mr Giles," Anderson said.

"In addition to that," Prince Blueblood added, looking deadly serious, "we want more aggressive research into other offensive and defensive capabilities we can muster and employ. Anything we can get, am I clear?"

By that, Giles knew they meant all the various things the Archives could muster. Magical assaults, experimental weaponry (a lot of which would not be workable for anyone but the Iron Clads), the GG3…

"This is going to take considerably more resources than I have previously been allocated," he pointed out, taking his glasses off and cleaning them.

"We understand that," Anderson said. "But we've been given a unique opportunity. This lull might not last forever, but for however long it lasts, I want us to be building anything we can to combat Solamina's armies when they come back."

Ah yes, the "lull" - the common word going around describing the pulling back of every Solaminan army unit in Britain. Giles didn't know what to make of it, but he knew he didn't like it. There was something behind it, something… more.

"You'll have all the resources you require," Blueblood added. "We're raiding the emergency stockpiles on this one - we want to give Solamina a nasty surprise when she comes back."

"I'll do what I can," Giles said, sighing. "I should have preliminary reports within the next two weeks."

"Good," Anderson said. "We're relying on you, Giles. Your team just became the top R&D department in Britain for weapons."

"Hooray," Giles said idly. "No pressure."

***

Boston, November 16th, 2023 - 'Spectrum' Earth.

There was a pause - the briefest of things - before hell was unleashed. Elliot had been in battles with hundreds of soldiers under his command. He had fought through streets, had held lines, and had been in London at the height of the battle. In all that time, he had only rarely been so deafened as he was now by gunfire. It sounded like the crack of thunder going off in his ear, a thousand times over. He was fortunate to be able to find cover from the deluge.

And the Tyrant… just weathered everything.

She stood, an impassive expression on her face as this firestorm rained down on her. All around her was a golden shield of magic, spherical and impervious to anything hitting it. Bauer and Trixie had been blown backwards and Discord and Luna had vanished.

He knew very well that this was not his Tyrant - this was Celestia: she had a different name, and a different history. The presence of the Elements with her was just another hint that this world and his were very different places. A small part of his mind said that this wasn't his fight, that he should leave this to those who knew this Tyrant better.

Bollocks to that, he thought. No idea how I got here, but I'm not here to cower like a baby.

He frowned as the hail of fire slowly wilted, the firing troops surrounding the area apparently realising that they'd just wasted their ammo. He stood up, looking around, before seeing his hand-cannon lying near him. He grinned, and quickly picked it up, checking it for damage.

He looked up, and raised an eyebrow. Bauer had charged the Tyrant from somewhere, the man's sword clanging on the shield as he struck again and again. He seemed to realise the predicament he was in, a half second before Celestia reacted: her horn glowed for a single spell, impacting against the armoured man's chest. Elliot was about to curse at the man's death… but then he blinked in surprise as the spell splashed harmlessly across Bauer's chest, not even a single twitch of the arms to indicate pain.

'Is that what Clad armour was supposed to be like?' he thought idly, considering the similarities from his abstract perspective. 'Pity we could never get the resources together to make it work…'

"Do not believe I am a one trick pony!" Celestia yelled, loud enough to be heard across the area. "Your smug attitude will be your downfall. Now, begone from my sight and lay on the ground like a good human!"

She flared her wings out and brought them down in one great maneuver, a gust of what must have been magically enhanced wind flew out, throwing Bauer backwards into a car. That done, Celestia looked around, speaking loudly enough to be heard.

"Now then, humans of this city, I come for two beings that believe to be my sworn enemy and younger sister. I wish to take them away before they give you false hope in this 'war'. Try to see it from my view. You wander in the dark, lashing out at anything that is different or befriend anyone that would hurt you."

'Hypocrite,' Elliot growled. He made sure the hand-cannon was loaded and cocked, and then he started walking toward her.

She didn't pay attention to him as she continued. "I only wish to help you help become better. To become more than what you have. To finally walk down the street without fear. I bring Harmony to you all. I only desire one thing… Your absolute trust in me to guide you to a better life."

As she spoke, Elliot reached a decent range and brought up his gun, before firing. Suddenly, the only sound in the entire area was the sound of the heavy-frame revolver firing. The Tyrant looked at him, raising an eyebrow. He grinned as he imagined what it must be like from her perspective - Bauer looked impressive, walking around in battle-armour like a - well, a knight. Elliot was well aware that he didn't look nearly that impressive. If anything, he looked more like he'd walked out of a pub brawl by comparison.

'All that is gold does not glitter,' he thought, grinning harder.

The final round lanced out, impacting uselessly on the shield. Elliot heard the click of the hammer landing on an empty chamber, and calmly holstered the handgun. The Tyrant paused, clearly uncertain how to react, and the Elements behind her were equally silent, apparently waiting for her cue.

"Hi," Elliot said quietly, waving at her with a slightly sheepish grin. "Sorry, needed to get your attention. Thought wasting ammo would work for sheer audacity, and to be fair it's not like they don't have better guns here anyway for me to replace this old thing with if I want."

The Tyrant laughed, a cold, cruel sound. "And who are you, little man?"

"I'm the Avatar of Albion," Elliot replied simply, subtly moving one hand out away from his body.

"And what does that ridiculous title mean?" Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It means I'm the vengeance of a nation," Elliot replied quietly. "I came here to kill somepony called Astra Solamina Maxima - but you know what? After everything I've heard about you, I've decided. You'll do just as well."

The Tyrant grinned, and then she laughed again, longer and harder.

"Oh, that is amusing," she said. Her horn glowed, and she dipped her head slightly. "It's almost a shame to kill you -"

Before she could finish, a bullet sheared through one of her ears, grazing past the Elements and making them jump. Elliot blinked, raising an eyebrow.

'Some jammy bastard just shot her ear off,' he thought, feeling oddly detached from the sheer impossibility of that happening in his experience - he didn't know of a gun that could do it where he was from. 'Ok. That's a thing now. I should probably adjust to that.'

Celestia's face turned red, raw anger filling her face at the impudence of the humans in daring to strike her.

Elliot took this as his cue. He closed his eyes, and the power came, just as Celestia's horn glowed.

***

"It ends," Celestia called out, feeling out the trail left behind by the bullet that had blasted her ear off. While Earth appeared to be all but non-magical, that was wrong. Magic was everywhere, even on this dirtied world. It was nowhere near the same amount as Equus, but it was still there. Not that she was going to tell the humans that, after all, it was the entire reason she kept them out of the barrier. Following a trail of nullified magic was as simple as following a dirt line for her. Her horn flared before launching a single devastating spell at the building that was the source of the bullet. "NOW!"

Her spell lashed out, and there was a golden flash - but it wasn't from her. Her powerful spell impacted something that had come between her and her target, said something being blown backward a good twenty metres through the air, before stopping in the sky, and floating gently to the ground.

It was the human - the one she hadn’t known, the raggedly dressed one… except he wasn’t so ragged now. He wore silver armour, ornate and styled like ancient knightly armour, quite unlike the ceramic armour that the Knight of Germania had worn. His hair was longer, blowing in the wind. In his left hand he held, quite balanced, a massive Zweihander sword, glimmering and ornate, the silver blade shining with a cold light. The chestplate of his armour was scored where her spell had impacted it, but other than that he seemed to have shrugged the blow off.

What was more impressive - not to mention annoying - was that he was radiating magic. It was of a kind unknown to her, and the feeling of not knowing was… mildly aggravating. Still, her rage dissipated as she suddenly felt a wave of amusement float over her.

'A human with magic is like a monkey with a typewriter. He's more likely to cover it in his own faeces than do anything useful with it.' She smirked. 'This should make an… amusing distraction.

He strode toward her, his expression oddly calm and full of purpose.

"Sun Tyrant!" he called out. "Prepare to meet thine end!"

Celestia grinned. 'Ah - ye olde Equestrian speak, or something like it. Makes me nostalgic for Luna.'

She fired off a spell at him designed to stop him in his tracks. To her surprise, though, he simply batted it away with his sword, the thing moving faster than it had any real right to. She fired a stronger spell, and with some apparent effort he blocked it. A third spell yielded the same results. She growled and flapped her wings, intending to blow him back, but he simply braced himself, held out a hand and withstood the gust, a soft golden bubble of magic protecting him.

'Alright, fine,' she thought. 'Maybe not wiping his faeces on the typewriter just yet. Clearly this one just needs a special touch.'

Now she was interested: she thought of this human as a treat, a fight that would provide her with more fun than a normal human was capable of. She gathered a spell, and fired at the ground in front of him, blasting debris into his face. He held up a hand to shield his face, only for her to throw another spell right at him, blasting him backward through a building.

'Better,' she thought. "Now," she added aloud. "Where was I?"

*Slap.*

She stepped backward, raising an eyebrow. large black sphere hovering in air, with a claw reaching out through it, a rolled up newspaper in claw. It had smacked her across the face, not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough to irritate.

"What is -" she began, but the claw whacked her again, this time with a little more force as it caused her to stagger somewhat away from the floating hole.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," a new voice said. "What are we going to do with you?"

Celestia looked up to see the grinning face of Discord, as the Draconequus looked down on her, floating above her head. His claw arm was resting behind his back and a knowing smile was on his face.

"I mean really," he continued. "Acting like a spoiled foal is really unbecoming of you. Especially because even that bratty little filly from Ponyville never committed genocide when things didn't go her way, although to be fair that was more because she couldn't. Case study for 'why you don't give little brats super-powerful magic', I guess."

"Discord," Celestia growled, narrowing her eyes at him. "You have the gall to compare me to a filly?"

"Crazy Whorse," he replied with a smirk. "I'll compare you to far worse things if you give me half a minute and a crayon."

Her eye twitched. 'Today exists only to irritate me…’

“Unfortunately, I only intend to give you death,” she said, as calmly as she could.

“Ah, and here I was hoping for a red bicycle,” he said with a faux-unhappy tone. Just then, a red bicycle landed amongst the Elements of Harmony, shocking them - Fluttershy jumped into the air with an ‘eep!’

Celestia’s eye twitched again. Just like the humans - It's so disorderly! No wonder Discord allied with them…why?! WHY CAN'T THEY ALL JUST OBEY AND LISTEN?!’

No. She had to keep calm… it was unbecoming for a princess - no, a Queen to have outbursts like that, even mentally. This… this was nothing.

Of course that wasn't going to last long.

***

Five minutes earlier, somewhere else.

Discord released Luna and looked down at the explosions as they all-but eradicated the area the two of them - and the Tyrant - had been standing in moments ago.

"Still want to take our chances in making them angry?" he asked the Diarch. She shook her head, eyes wide and transfixed by the destruction.

"No," she replied softly. "I believe they made their statement quite clear that they were in charge of our talks the entire time."

To Discord's consternation, if not exactly surprise, there was a sudden appearance of a golden shield of magic, protecting Queen Celestia and the Elements she had brought with her from the deluge of firepower. He raised an eyebrow. They had apparently weathered everything - more powerful than he had been hoping for, but that shouldn't have been surprising.

"Well now," he said, smiling. "Isn't that interesting? Today's becoming a day for surprises."

"What do you mean?" Luna asked, looking at him with a confused expression.

"I mean not only is there that rather intriguing case of the fellow with internalised magic under his admittedly plain exterior, the one that Marcus didn't mention," Discord said, "but there's definite traces of chaos magic within that shield. Faint, but definitely there."

"A… wait, chaos magic?" Luna said, torn between the first of his statements and the second.

Before they could continue the conversation, they saw an armoured human charge out, a blade in hand as he struck at the Tyrant's shield.

"Should we help? It would cement our image to the humans and their allies," Luna said, watching as the human hacked away at her shield with little progress.

"No, humans are a suspicious bunch. I should know, I ran into scores of them in my travels. They would hold us at an arm's length, with hundreds of gun barrels held in our faces until they were completely sure of our intentions. Us showing up with information on Marcus and the Tyrant innocently showing up a few minutes later…" Discord shook his head as the human was thrown back, tumbling into a vehicle at bone breaking speeds. "They would label us as threats, keep us away from anything important, and probably keep us restrained till it was too late. It's nice to assume that in wartime someone would trust us, but the humans are a paranoid lot."

"Then wh -" she began, but then the crack of a human weapon distracted her. She raised an eyebrow, as she saw the shabbily dressed human who had accompanied Bauer march across the ruined area, firing a large pistol at her shield to no effect. "What in the name of all that is sacred is he doing? He'll be obliterated!"

Discord narrowed his eyes at the man. "You know, somehow I don't think he will."

He watched as the two figures, the man and the Alicorn, exchanged words, before something - a human weapon - impacted the Tyrant's ear, shearing it off.

"Ouch," he murmured. Celestia was suitably irritated, her horn glowing as she prepared to obliterate the shooters…

And then it happened: there was an explosion of entirely unfamiliar magic, the kind that he had sensed before from the man, and suddenly there was an armoured warrior in place of the shabbily dressed man, a massive Zweihander in his grip. Despite how heavy the armour was, it moved like cloth on the man, not restricting him at all, and the sword - easily as long as him - seemed light as a feather in his grip.

"Oh," Discord said, grinning as he watched the warrior advance on Celestia, "now… that's definitely a thing."

"What is that?" Luna asked.

"No idea yet," Discord said with a grin. "Gimme five minutes, and watch for Twilight - take her down the minute she appears."

And suddenly, he vanished, only to reappear moments later.

"I thought you said five minutes," she pointed out.

"I did," he replied. "I'm only a clone. Real me's going to go do a thing."

"What 'thing'?"

"Just a thing," he shrugged. "Anyway, plan. Right now, we have so little information about the Tyrant and her plans that I actually think we’re into minus numbers on that…”

“Less of the hyperbole, thank you,” Luna said shortly.

“Yeah, not gonna happen,” the Discord clone grinned. “Anyway - I need you to go out on a teeny, tiny information stealing spree."

"Is this truly the time to be playing around?! Lives are at stake!" Luna yelled, watching the human below as he withstood another attack, only for the Discord clone to grip her by the jaw and force her to look at him.

"I'd truly love to be in a happy mood. I really would. I'd love to laugh as someone kicked one of the Elements so hard they went into slow motion, but it just… hasn't been the time for that, and something's up. The real me thinks it was too easy for the crazy queen to show up in person, in the middle of a city with dangerous weapons at the human's fingertips," Disclone muttered to her. "Anyway, when the time comes, track down Sparkle and rummage through her mind a bit. Don't be gentle- she doesn't deserve that mercy, and it's not like you'll be damaging anything that the Bag hasn't already."

"What do you mean?" Luna asked. "Twilight -”

"- is not in control at the moment," Disclone finished. "I have memories of being inside her mind. Trust me on this."

Luna sighed. "Fine. What is your plan now?"

"The boss just got an opening," Disclone said with a smirk. "Suffice to say, I think he's gonna use it."

***

Stephan had not been idle. He had no idea how Elliot had become an armoured warrior, but the man had taken the hit meant for his team in the building and Stephan wasn't going to waste this chance. He was already jogging out of what was about to become the centre of a blast zone, Trixie by his side.

"Alicia, Daniel, get out of the building now!" he yelled into his radio.

"Already moving," Alicia replied. "What the hell was the thing that stopped that blast? One of ours?"

"As if we know," Trixie muttered.

"It'd take too long to explain, talk later," Stephan said. "Right now, pull back as far as possible. We're gonna drop missiles on the Tyrant, see if she's still smirking then."

"Gotcha," she said.

Stephan switched his radio to HQ's channel. "HQ, it's Bauer. I need that strike - distance from my position is about… fifty, maybe fifty five metres due south and extending. Wait til I'm at least eighty clear then launch. Cruisers should do the trick."

"Roger that Major," a voice replied. "Estimate two minutes to impact from current position."

"That's not a lot of time," Trixie commented, frowning.

Stephan swore. He hoped that would be enough time for everyone. "Two minutes to impact, everybody move!"

"What about Elliot?" Trixie asked. "He - whatever the hell he is - is still back there!"

"He's on his own," Stephan said with a frown. He found himself hoping that Elliot - or the armoured figure he had become - could get clear. If he couldn't… well. It was a shame, he was a good man, but this was not the kind of war where you could hesitate for one good man.

"Good luck, du verrückter idiot," he said. "You're going to need it."

***

Celestia threw a glance over her shoulder. "Twilight. Leave."

The Element of Magic bowed, and a moment later she and her friends were running, dashing off down a side-alley and away from Celestia and Discord.

"You know, that might not be the best idea you've ever had," Discord said with a smirk. "And that's really saying something."

"Quiet," Celestia said, scowling at him. "It was a very poor decision on your part to come here, Discord. Did you believe I would not notice you coming to this world? Even you are not so stupid as to believe such a foal of me."

"Frankly, I don't care." Discord stated as he walked up to her shield, examining it with some interest. "I find your power play to be overrated at best. All this talk about perfection and what not is ill-suited to you. It's simply trading one annoying goddess for another, and to be honest… I like the old Celestia more."

"Says the being that enslaved the minds of thousand and caused anarchy across Equus," Celestia pointed out, narrowing her eyes at him.

Discord blew a raspberry at her, scoffing at her accusations.

"You believed your own hype about me? Huh, shouldn't be too surprised at that. Feeding yourself your own manure can't be healthy." Discord raised a single small hammer, a frown on his face. "I didn't enslave anything, I discorded a dozen or so ponies, and most of a village, but they were so… annoying! 'Ah! It's the monster! Ah! It's going to eat us! Ah! Eating all the cheese!' Bah! They went back to normal after I left, and there were ponies in Manehattan that didn't even notice! Besides, I wanted you off your throne and making you look incompetent would have served that purpose. Either way, I don't really care about that."

"Oh, and what do you want?" Celestia asked.

"To do this," he said, smacking the shield with his hammer and grinning. A moment later, cracks spread across the shield. "Not bad, eh? Might be an idea if you don't use my magic next time."

Celestia's eyes widened. "You little…"

"Tyrant!" a different voice yelled.

A moment later, a great, armoured, silver blur struck the shield, and the Avatar of Albion was back, growling as he smashed into the shield, breaking it apart with his sword.

Discord raised an eyebrow. "Not what I was expecting, but ok."

***

'Son of a taint,' First Lieutenant Winston thought, his 'magic' eye peering over towards the scene of what appeared to be the Solar Tyrant herself, fighting that Elliot character from before. The man was now clad in some kind of shiny knight get up, and he was fighting the Tyrant along with some kind of Frankenstein looking creature.

Now, the part cajun may not have been a genius in academic terms, however he had enough common sense to know that nothing in the PHL could have created something like what Elliot was doing now - the closest they had was Commander Renee's runes, or Bauer's Armor and fancy sword; that was it.

Whatever this Elliot is, he could not have been from around these parts, or even this planet planet - it just didn't match up with anything Winston knew about.

"Sir," a voice cut through his thoughts, Winston looking to see two of his unit members - Corporal Leonard Snart and Sharp Horn - approach him.

"Do you think we should go help?" Sharp Horn asked, her voice unsure considering the reports of two figures that should either be dead or stoned. "This may be the chance to take out the Solar Tyrant for good."

"That's not some good thinking," the First Lieutenant said plainly. "There's too much going on down there that we don't know, hell we'd probably get wasted before we get a single shot in."

"But -" Corporal Snart was going to interject, but he was interrupted.

"Why would the Tyrant come here?" Winston asked. "Why would she come here of all times? It doesn't make a lick of sense for her to do that - it's like Commander Renee jumping into a portal to her throne room without a second thought or a plan in mind; it'd just get him killed before he could even do his deed."

"Well, what are we supposed to do then?" Sharp Horn inquired.

"Best thing… hmmm," Winston began to contemplate until his radio crackled to life.

"The Elements of Harmony have been sighted! Repeat! The Elements of Harmony have been sighted! All units report in!"

"I think we have our answer," Winston observed, he then turned to his two subordinates "Get the others, we need to go hunting. Now."

Both Sharp Horn and Snart saluted before going off - the First Lieutenant refocusing on the fight in the distance while picking up his radio.

"Save Pinkie for me!" Kraber's voice crackled over the radio.

"Just don't go postal, Kraber…" Major Bauer said.

There was a brief pause. You could practically hear Kraber raising an eyebrow.

"He's not going to listen, is he?" Major Bauer sighed.

"Have you met me?" Kraber asked.

"Hey now Kraber, don't get the party without my team - I wanna have some… words with that Applejack horse," Winston said, his attention still on the battle between titans.

***

The Avatar of Albion was angry. Queen Celestia was dodging his attacks, though barely, looking at him with a face halfway between amusement and irritation.

"Thou craven, cowardly wretch!" he screamed at her, swinging Excalibur down in a particularly brutal arc and nearly slicing her face off. "Face me like a -"

A spell from Celestia smashed into his face, sending him somersaulting head over heels. Deftly, he used his hand to backflip and move back into an attack stance, but she dodged his charge, taking off into the air.

"She's not gonna sit still, you know!" Discord yelled at the Avatar, somewhere between annoyed at being interrupted and impressed by this human's tenacity. He had mostly been watching for the last few moments - this 'Avatar' was interesting. There was power, there was skill, but mostly he seemed to be relying on his sword.

"Good," the Avatar called back, "because nor will I!"

He bent his legs slightly, before launching into the sky, his blade swinging as he deflected another attack from the Queen, grunting in exertion.

“Huh,” Discord commented from the ground. “He can fly.”

"What in the name of Harmony are you?" Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow. "What is this magic of yours?"

"It is vengeance!" the Avatar yelled. "The vengeance of -"

"Oh, spare me," Celestia cut him off, sending another spell at him that bore him to the ground, where he smashed with a heavy crash. She looked up - only to be punched in the face by a bright red boxing glove that was floating in mid-air. Another launched a vicious cross at her jaw, and she pushed back through the air to dodge it.

"Still here," Discord said, waving a claw and grinning. He looked down at the Avatar, who had gotten to his feet with a scowl on his face. "Hey, knight boy, thanks for the distraction."

In response, the Avatar launched a spell upward, a massive bolt of golden energy that rammed into the Tyrant and threw her further up the in air - right through a giant target Discord had set up. Somewhere, a bell rang.

"And ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!" Discord said, suddenly standing next to the armoured man. "What'll your prize be, son?"

"The head of the Tyrant on a plate," the Avatar responded with a growl.

"Man. Downer," Discord muttered, though he took note of the projectile spell. If he used a few more like that, maybe we'd be getting somewhere - or if she’d stay still long enough for him to hit her.

The Avatar ignored the Draconequus, his eyes fixed on the sky.

"Come down, Tyrant!" he bellowed. "Face death with some honour, at least!"

A bolt of fiery light smashed into the ground near him, knocking him off his feet and blowing Discord away, though the Draconequus soon steadied himself. Celestia landed, her face a mask of cold fury.

"I think you pissed her off!" he commented to the Avatar. He snapped his claws and his body was suddenly surrounded by… rockets. Big red rockets, each marked with a message: "To my dear tyrannical Celly, love from Dissy. Hope this hurts."

"Hey Celly! Present for ya!" he yelled, snapping his claw again.

The rockets shot towards her, too many and too quickly for her to shoot them down, and they impacted with large, bright explosions. He knew it would do little but slow her down, but hopefully it would do something. He snapped his claw again, this time appearing near the Avatar, who had gotten to his feet again, scowling even more than before.

"Gotta say," the Draconequus said, "you're not doing so badly."

"This Tyrant," the man replied shortly, "is irritating."

"You should try having a debate with her, instead," Discord said blithely. "Watching her get all riled up is…"

A bolt of light smashed into the Avatar, throwing him backward through another building. Discord leaned slightly to see where he'd gone, and raised an eyebrow.

"… pretty funny," he finished. He looked back at Celestia. "Do you mind? I was having a conversation."

"I don't care," Celestia growled. "I will burn you - utterly obliterate you!"

"Really?" Discord asked. He sensed something, and grinned. "Bet you won't."

"Why, you little…" Celestia began, but then Discord vanished - right before several dozen missiles impacted, obliterating the area where Celestia was standing.

***

The Avatar groaned as he pulled himself from out of the rubble. The blast that had hit him had thrown him through several buildings, and wherever he was now, he couldn't see the Tyrant at all…

"Blasted Tyrant," he murmured. There were so many struggles he'd undergone in Britain. Hordes of Convies, PER infiltrators, just barely keeping the isles afloat… he had fought Crystal Golems and armies, Element bearers had fallen to his blade but this… this was something else. The Tyrant was relentless in her assault and no matter what he threw at her she returned it with even more fury than before. And that was before one took into account everything else…

'Am I good enough for this? he thought to himself. Am I strong enough to meet this challenge?'

He shook his head, clearing these thoughts from his mind and steeling his will for the fight.

'It does not matter what there is here. There could be fifty Tyrants, a thousand Avatars each stronger than me, and ten thousand guns with the power to slay them all, and it would make no difference to me. As long as there are enemies before me, my duty is clear. I will fight.'

He grabbed Excalibur and brought it into a guard stance, before closing his eyes, trying to sense where his enemy was.

A moment later, the barrage hit.

The shockwave of the missile impact threw him off balance slightly, but the Avatar had been blasted far enough away that it hadn't had much effect beyond that. Still, the sheer amount of ordnance was impressive.

He could still sense the Tyrant though. The missiles, mighty as they were, hadn't done a thing except anger her. He closed his eyes, following the sense of the magic. He found it a moment later.

"Right then," he said. "Let us see if she finds Excalibur so easy to shrug off."

***

The minute the corrupted Elements of Harmony had moved, Luna had seen, and she had followed. It had taken a simple illusion to convince them to split off, and now she was confronting them face to face, her magic holding them in place.

"Elements of Harmony," she said as she reached them. "I have need of your services."

"Luna." Twilight growled, seeing Rainbow Dash in her magical grip as she tried to free herself. "You traitor! Let us go!"

"Nay, I shall hold onto you for the time being, Twilight Sparkle," Luna only tilted her head, her ears swivelling as she listened to them struggle.

"Where are the humans, Luna?" Twilight demanded, glaring daggers at her. Luna only smiled, chuckling softly at her question.

"There are no humans, a mere illusion spell I created after seeing the impressive display outside." Luna walked over to a nearby pillar, the damage it 'sustained' melting away to reveal a perfectly undamaged piece of masonry. "See? They certainly know how to make war…"

"What do you want with us?" Rainbow grunted as she flailed a bit before falling still, giving Luna an annoyed look.

"To be perfectly frank, I only desire one of you," Luna stated calmly as she walked away, Twilight floating away from the rest of the group. "The rest of you I have no concerns with."

"Well little missy, we have a bit of a problem with ya taking Twilight without her say so," Applejack growled, her teeth clenching tightly against one another. Luna only smiled at this, looking back to her with a knowing smile.

"Perhaps you should be more concerned with your own survival," she said offhandedly, slowly melting into the darkness.

"You would kill us?" Fluttershy whimpered, only to see it hardly had any effect on the Alicorn.

“If it became necessary,” she said simply.

"Just how corrupted have you become because of humanity?!" she shouted, attempting to give Luna the Stare. Luna herself just rolled her eyes in response, dignifying that sentence more than it deserved.

"In this case, you should not fear me," Luna's horn flared for a moment in the darkness, "The humans will not be so forgiving."

"When are they ever going to be forgiving?" said Twilight angrily through gritted teeth.

"Perhaps this time, it might bring you good fortune if you ask?" Luna said, before she threw the other mares out the glass windows. "Ask nicely! Oh, and by the way… on the way here, I met this interesting human with a rifle. Granted, he was most displeased with my appearance, but he was still following me with some gusto."

"I'll stare him down!" Fluttershy yelled.

"I doubt that will work," Luna said, as she faded into the darkness. "Say hello to Mr. Kraber."

"Un sekai nerahma safah!" someone yelled, and Fluttershy looked down to see a small coffee can rolling along the floor, a smiley face painted on it.

The floor exploded.

"SHOWTIME, MOTHERFOKKERS!"

***

The combined forces of forces of Stabsunteroffizier Viktor Kraber and First Lieutenant C. Winston conducted battle against the Elements of Harmony (well, except their leader Twilight Sparkle - lord knew where she was) and out of all the humans and ponies there the two who had it out for two of the Elements the most were Kraber and Winston.

For Kraber, it was Pinkamena Diane Pie - he'd invited the fokking mank genaaide bergbok to plan a party for his kids and she'd returned it by zombifying not just his family, but a lot of the kids of his hometown. It had been near his birthday, too.

For Winston, it was Applejack - reason wasn't too personal like Kraber's vendetta against the barrier of laughter, but it was the fact that Winston and Applejack had similarities to them; what with their unique speakings, a dislike of fancy northern folks, and folks assuming that them being country types makes them dumber than a sack of bricks… yet they also both are stubborn to an extent, rash, headstrong and (as the First Lieutenant had been told once) a great deal of connect to their respective families.

Now, one might have assumed that Winston's vendetta was about the fact that he and Applejack shared similarities… and one would have been right if it wasn't for the fact that Winston despised Applejack's apparent hypocrisy (Element of Honesty his ass) and also her more recent could behaviour to her own kin; that's when it went personal for the part cajun.

And of course, Kraber didn't like Applejack either. Not for any personal reasons, but about a year ago, he'd befriended her cousin and hadn't liked what he'd heard.

To make matters simple, Kraber despised Pinkie Pie for ruining his life and Winston hated Applejack for being a hypocritic of the highest caliber and not respecting her family.

Would they get any satisfaction during this hunt?

"You monster!" screamed one newfoal. "Do you enjoy hurting other-"

Kraber shredded the newfoal with his shotgun. "Yes."

Aegis raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"What? You wanted me to give some complex psychological answer? He trotted right into that!" Kraber protested. "Besides, I'm kak at psychology?"

"Hey now Kraber," Winston began, "you may wanna save your ammo for that Pink horse, newfoals are a waste." As he spoke, he threw throwing a knife and pinned a Pegasus to the wall by its wing before it was shot by Staff Sergeant Jenston.

"Nah. I got plenty of ammo. What do you think the LMG's for?" Kraber asked. "Lookin' forward to a good ol' hosedown like with dad and his old Galil."

The First Lieutenant just rolled his eyes at Kraber, before focusing on tracking down one of the Elements - Fluttershy was both a difficult horse and yet an easy one, reports say that she couldn't fly worth a damn, and yet there was that insane look of her's. Rainbow Dash would be a hard sell, hopefully Air Blitz would be able to find her first and ground her. Rarity… well, shoot, he didn't know anything about her so… best to just shoot her horn or somethin'. Applejack was going to be a special case and he'd have to make sure to have a 'heart to heart' with her, one country bumpkin to another someone would call it… except he was from Louisiana and all - idjits.

The two units continued forth, Steel Forge, Aegis and Anvil at the forefront while Air Blitz and Sundiver hovered nearby - Sharp Horn and Verdant Tract where behind them; Kraber and Winston trailing with their respective human soldiers behind besides them/behind them and attending to their flanks.

Sylvia Garcia clutched her battered G36, aiming it in every direction he could imagine to hide any imperial forces. "Hey, Bossman," she called out to Kraber. "Any idea what signs to look for?" You could tell he was looking forward to using the bola launcher he'd attached underbarrel. Johnny C had inspired him back during the siege of Defiance, it seemed.

"I think we'll know when we find it," Kraber said, ignoring what most commanders would consider insubordination. He'd been - and still was, to some degree - that way once.

Staff Sergeant Jenston took point with Petrikov, the former's FN P90 Submachine gun let out a few rounds in a quick burst - taking out a newfoal Unicorn that attempted to gallop into hiding.

"Where are the damn Elements?" Jentson wondered, as Petrikov dwelled on a nearby corpse. "If Discord is the 'Spirit of Chaos' then wouldn't the Queen want to use them on him immediately?"

"Well, I wouldn't know," Petrikov drawled. "But from what I hear, the Elements ain't exactly… work ready. From what I can tell, the fancy necklaces're disagreeing with some of the stuff their mannequins have been used for."

Jentson looked at him, confused.

"Sounds about right," Kraber agreed.

Jentson just looked at both of them, still confused.

"What? We're fokkin weapons testers!" Kraber explained. "We might not understand it, but we hang out with people that do."

"Never been in the mood to argue," Aegis said. "The thing that pink bitch did to you… that can't count as laughter."

"That's a good a point," Corporal Snart agreed, his own experimental weapon - the 'cryoprojector' aka the 'cold gun' they called it - hummed slightly as its magicks charged up for a blast. "Fluttershy's whole staring trick isn't kind at all, have you heard about what happened in the last evacuation of the UK?"

"I heard that Commander Renee was there, helped get the Royal Family and Lyra out on the last flight." First Class Private Carmichael chimed in. "I take it wasn't good?"

"She looked at Royal Marines, forced them to drop their weapons and drink the potion just by staring at them," Snart expanded. "Rumor has it that the Commander would have torn himself apart had Lyra not intervened."

"Well then, that just means they're all hypocrites that don't deserve what they're holdin'," Winston intervened, his eyes looking ahead as the two units walked on.

"Sir, maybe we should try to… take the Elements from them," Sharp Horn suggested, looking back to her commander and to Kraber, "If we do then we could figure out what happened to Commander Renee and find some way to use them on Twilight Sparkle and the others."

"Horn, that isn't a good idea," Air Blitz reprimanded, hovering overhead. "Even then, before we had no idea on how the Elements worked; the closest were fables in a book - Luna knows what Celestia has done to them and frankly, I don't want to know what she's done to their bearers."

"Got a plan?" Garcia asked.

"Find em. Kill em. Cut a head off the war machine," Kraber said. "The Major was non-specific as to how many have to get bliksemed."

"And by that you mean how many get put down?" Winston asked dryly, looking to Kraber at the side of his eye.

"Ja. Here's a funny thing, though," Kraber said. "I remember some of the stories about something Rarity did before the war. Aegis, how many did Heliotrope say they sent after her?"

"Enough you'd think they were trying to kill off a crystal empire holdout," Aegis said.

"She tried to run away right?" Iron Forge asked, "She and Sparkle's dragon right? Did a… what was it called?"

"They tried to elope, if that's what your train of thought is," Carmichael interjected.

"That ain't the point," Aegis said. "Thing is, with all the stuff that came after Rarity, she's valuable to the Empire. If we kill, I don't know, Pinkie Pie-" (He tried not to see the smile on Kraber's face) "-Then I don't know what happens. I don't think Element Bearers are common, though."

"How about this then, we find the Elements, Kraber kills the Pink horse like he's always wanted; we capture the Flutter horse, Rarity and… the hyprocrite - if the other two give us trouble, we kill them too." Winston suggested with a scowl on his face

Kraber held up a hand. "Ssssh."

He stared down the reflex sight of his massive LMG. The average pony couldn't rightly understand why the 'L' stood for 'Light'.

"Got you now, jou fokkin kontgesig…" he smiled.

"Wait. Don't do it yet," Aegis whispered. "If we attack them on the street, that means Rainbow or Fluttershy can fly away. We need to box them in first."

"You kidding? Flutershy can't fly worth a bit, everypony knows that." Tempest whispered to Aegis, "Though we should be careful about Rainbow Dash…"

"She's right," Air Blitz whispered, silently landing next to Sharp Horn and Anvil, "we don't want to screw this up."

"But I'm with Aegis," Kraber said. "I don't want to take the chance."

"Fine," Winston began, "Kraber, since you like being loud you lead your boys and girls in to push them back-"

"Is this a pincer movement?" Aegis asked.

"Yes, now as I was saying-"

"I like the sound of that," Kraber smiled, wishing he could do something dramatic with the MG2023 he'd taken from the PHL armory while listening to Elliot.

"Will you idjits let me finish?" the First Lieutenant scowled. "Kraber, you take your troops in front - be as loud as possible and force them back; my men and mares will go around and cut them off, if you kill the Pink horse then I'll buy you a bottle; you kill the hypocrite, then I'll smash a bottle in your face, clear?"

"Ohhhhhhh shit," Tempest hissed over the comms.

"What? What's-"

"It's Princess Luna," Tempest hissed. "She does not look happy with the Elements. Looks like she's chasing them, and-"

Can you provide a distraction? I can help with your 'pincer movement'

Winston, Kraber, and their respective units all looked alarmed; Jenston and Petrikov trying to find the source of the voice… though Winston's eye was scanning all across ahead of them.

"I think that's Princess Luna," Kraber said. "Voice sounds familiar. Alright - looks like she's forcing them into that department store."

"How do you even know what her voice sounds like?" Petrikov asked.

"It's a long story," Aegis said. "Like… 13 chapters long?"

"More like 17," Kraber disagreed.

“Maybe even 24,” Aegis added.

"Whatever," Winston snapped. "Kraber, you do your thing with your unit; we'll come around and ambush them… just remember, try to take three of them alive for questioning - for kicks let's try Horn's idea, if you kill one make sure to steal their jewelry… might be able to be used if we bring it to Cadence or the Doctor. Ready?" he asked, bringing his gun up.

"Absofokkinlutely," Kraber said, a smile on his face.

"Alright! Everyone and pony, get your feet in gear!" Winston ordered, the groups splitting off with Winston's unit heading right and into the store while Kraber and his unit proceeded directly into the store and through its front door all the while tall, lanky Afrikaner had a big grin on his face.

"SHOWTIME, MOTHERFOKKERS!"

***

"Hm, I thought so." Luna shrugged as she moved deeper into the darkness, ignoring the sounds of gunfire while she floated Twilight behind her. "Now then Twilight Sparkle, you shall tell me everything you know about your dear Tyrant."

Much as Luna had grown to like Twilight, and as intrusive a violation as the spell she was planning on, it made sense. Twilight would be the one the Princess had trusted the most. Twilight would be the one that would have been brought to the cause first, as the Tyrant's most eager researcher.

Twilight would know the most. And something told Luna that her mind would be the most palatable.

"Don't call her that!" Twilight shouted in rage, kicking out her legs uselessly. "She is Queen Celestia of Equestria, the rightful ruler of Equus and Earth, Saviour of ponykind and all species!"

"Hm, how shall we put this?" Luna mused to herself before looking to the floating mare. "Tell me, how would you like it if a species declared itself better than your own and began wiping you out down to the last child?"

"But there is no species better than us Ponies!"

"So you could never see the irony of the situation?" she sighed. "I see it was foolish of me to engage in this pointless conversation with you. Very well, let's get this over with."

Luna's eyes and horns flashed with blinding light in preparation of a spell.

"Torturing me will get you nothing," Twilight hissed as she continued her struggles, but her statement caused Luna to give a hollow chuckle.

"My vicious little creature of hate," Luna chuckled softly, a vindictive smile on her face. "You truly forgot who I am."

"What?!"

"My name is Princess Luna, Diarch of Equestria, Princess of the Night, Caretaker of the Moon and Stars," Luna proudly proclaimed, before leaning in close to Twilight, a vicious smile on her face. "Defender of Nightmares. Or in this case for you, Bringer of Nightmares, and I never said anything about torture, you abomination."

Luna's horn flared once before the spell impacted Twilight's skull. Twilight's will to remain awake was no match for the thousand year old Alicorn's might, falling asleep within seconds of contact.
"I just want to see what's inside…"

Luna dropped the mare on a nearby bed display, looking around to ensure the area was secured enough to perform the Mind Delve spell. It was the only way she could bypass the mental barriers without killing any pony immediately from trying. It was a reason why there wasn't many spells to begin with, as any attempts made ended badly for the user and target. And there were strange, disturbing tales about what happened to ponies that were subjected to it by inexperienced unicorns, tales where the moral boiled down to "It does more harm than good." Still, Luna was an alicorn, so she would probably be fine.

Before entering Twilight's mind, she set up a shield spell, which would last about an hour, barring any unforeseen attacks. The humans she'd seen, particularly the one with the very large gun, seemed to have kept the twisted elements at bay.

***

Discord hung in mid-air, his arms folded as he waited for Queen Celestia to arrive. He looked at a non-existent watch on his arm and raised an eyebrow.

"Discord!" a demented sounding voice yelled.

"Ah, right on cue," he said. He held out a hand, and in it materialised a baseball bat, the words Ashley Bat printed on it in bold letters, with smaller writing underneath in handwritten script saying 'happy purifications, from the Batter'. A moment later, a streak of white light shot toward him, fiery and full of the promise of death.

"Purification in progress," he murmured, and he swung the bat right as she was about to connect with him, sending her flying off into a nearby building with a loud crash and a scattering of rubble and debris, the bat breaking in two from the effort. He looked at it with a sad smile. "Home run. Thanks, Batter."

A moment later, she burst from the ruins.

"I will tear you apart," she growled.

"All talk and no plot," he replied. He tilted his head, angling as if to look at her rear. "Correction - there’s lots of plot. Too much cake, Celly?"

Yelling, she barreled into him again, and forced him through a building, before throwing him to the ground in a heap with another spell.

"Ok, don't mention the cake," he said quietly, dragging himself from the ground. "Alright, Celly, enough games."

"Really?" she said, landing near him. "This from you, the king of games?"

"Ahem," Discord said, raising a clawed finger and pointing upward. "I am a Lord, not a King. Judging from your ample figure, being an actual monarch would be bad for my general fitness. Is that the cake aga -"

He found himself blasted backward again, smashing into a building.

So I lied about not mentioning the cake, he thought to himself. So sue me. It's a good berserk button. The angrier she gets, the more strength she burns. She's like a child throwing around a flail, there's only so long before she gets tired or hurts herself.

Celestia's eye twitched as she moved near him. "Why won't you die?"

"I don't feel like letting you get the drop on me again," Discord replied.

"Aga - oh," she said, narrowing her eyes at him. "I understand now. Your final attack in the Crystal mines… you hid yourself in my student's mind."

"Not quite. But does it matter what I did?" Discord asked, smiling evilly at her. "I prefer to live in the moment. And at the moment…"

Before he could finish speaking, a giant mallet appeared from nowhere behind Celestia, smashing her into the ground before pounding at her repeatedly.

"…at the moment, I'm enjoying beating you down," he finished with a snigger. "It's remarkably therapeutic. I'd do it more often, but I do intend to kill you, so I suppose I won't get the -"

The mallet evaporated in a flash of magical energy, Celestia obliterating it.

"… chance," he finished, trailing off. "On the other hand…"

"Tell me something," Celestia asked, scowling at him. "The human with that strange magic - is he one of your experiments?"

"Knight boy, you mean?" Discord asked. "No, I'm honestly as surprised as you are. Which is nice, really. Not often you get to say something surprises you when you can do this."

He snapped another finger, and there was a gleam in the sky. Celestia looked up, raising an eyebrow.

"What in the name of all that is…"

A moment later, a giant grand piano landed on her head, another Discord tapping away at the thing.

"You ruined the middle C," he yelled over at the Discord who was grinning at the scene.

"Sorry!" Discord replied.

A moment later, the piano (and the playing Discord, another clone) was obliterated by a flash of energy. Celestia barreled out, slamming into Discord, and threw him through another building in a flash of power. He barreled back out almost as fast, punching her in the jaw with his tail as he went, before front flipping and landing further away from her, before spinning and preparing to unleash another attack.

"STOP! PLAYING! GAMES!" Celestia screamed. She turned, her horn glowing, but she was struck in the face by a small object. Frowning, she looked down at it - only to find herself staring at a small ball.

"What?" she said, raising an eyebrow. She looked up, only to find a bat smacking her in the face. She shook her head, and another smack threw her upward into the sky.

"Another home run!" Discord yelled. "Enjoying this now!"

Celestia snapped her head down to look at him, and a spell flashed, a bolt of fiery energy streaking toward him and narrowly missing him as he pushed himself back from the explosion. He scowled.

"Why won't you die?" he asked, snapping his claw. A curved sword appeared in his lion paw, and he spun it, before snapping his paw finger, another sword appearing in his griffon claw. He flipped backward, spinning both the blades and smirking.

"Swords are no use here," Celestia grinned, landing nearby and flapping her wings.

"I think we know an armoured human or two who'd disagree, but I digress," Discord said, grinning. He aimed one of the swords at her - and suddenly a bolt of fiery energy lashed out, slamming into her and throwing her through a building.

"You pick up a lot when you go about the multiverse," he said with a grin. "I got that move from a bad tempered pirate. Come on Celestia, pull out your big guns! You've been handed plenty of smaller ones, just drop them down and say 'Won't be needing th-'"

He was blasted back by a sudden blast of energy, slammed through another building, and then found another bolt of magic bearing down on him, smashing him through three metres of concrete and then leaving him groaning in pain.

"… ok," he murmured. "Those were big guns."

He pulled himself out of the crater he'd been left in, and scowled at Celestia, who was stood nearby.

"Do you ever get bored of your childish antics?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Not… really," he said, groaning. He held up a clawed finger. "Gimme a minute."

"No," she said. Her horn flared and another spell blasted him through another building. "You might not get bored of this ridiculousness, Discord, but I do. I've been patient enough. It's time for you to lie down and die!"

"Really?" Discord laughed, and suddenly an old, bearded stallion with an autoshotgun in his assault saddle and a green mohawk stood atop a building.

"MUCKLE DAIRMED HORSE GOAD, AIR YE BE KEEPIN ME WEE NAMBLIES?!" he screamed, shotgun discharging an almost literal torrent of pellets in Celestia's direction.

"Like that would do anything?" she laughed, as the pellets quite literally bounced off her. "Your tricks, your visual gags… you're getting desperate, Discord. I will always win out. Always-"

"Says the mare that turned her little utopia into a cesspool on par with the worst of 20th century humanity's dictatorships," Discord said. "And by the way? The old stallion up there wasn't aiming at you."

"TOAD YA AH APPRECIATED TH VALUE AY POINT BLANK ANNIHILATION!" the old stallion laughed.

"Seeya, Henderson!" Discord laughed. "Hey, before we split, one question. How high would you say this ranks on your scale?"

"Two."

"That is impressive," Discord said. With that, his body dissolved into a thick, sticky substance, that-

"Gum?!" Celestia laughed. "You expect to hold me with-"

"A COURSE AH DINNAE!" the old stallion yelled. "STILL, AH THINK AH SHOOD C4 MAHSELF!"

And everything exploded. Smoke drifted everywhere.

“Ah, everypony loves a pun,” Discord said with a smile.

The smoke cleared, and Celestia was suddenly standing less than four feet from him, and his smile disappeared.

“In that case,” she said, grinning maliciously as her horn glowed, “prepare for your punishment.”

***

Stephan scowled as he took stock of the troops he had with him. There were about two and a half dozen troops running around, all of whom had pulled back from the missile blast zone. There was no count on how many had been lost - units like Kraber's and Winston's were still out there. He saw Trixie helping organise another squad, and smiled slightly.

"Kellman!" he called to the Lieutenant, who had come out with the forces and was organising them into something resembling order. "What's the situation?!"

"We have troops pulling back from the fighting," Kellman replied, looking harried. "From all accounts, the Tyrant is still active out there."

"Fuck!" Stephan swore. This was bad - if the missiles hadn't done anything, then…

"Look out!" someone yelled. Suddenly, a mismatched figure landed amongst them, groaning as he pushed himself to his feet. A moment later… she arrived, glowing slightly, her eyes full of the promise of excruciating death - if you were lucky.

Immediately the half dozen troops opened fire on her, but she raised a shield and ignored their bullets, and none of them could bring anything heavy enough to kill her to bear before she retaliated by throwing a spell out, knocking a half dozen men to the ground and obliterating several in a fiery conflagration. Some of them, apropos of nothing, simply split in half, their blood spilling across the ground. The rest cowered, not sure how to react to this.

"Stay out of my way," she advised them. "I will get to you presently."

A single gunshot rang out. Incredibly, Kellman was aiming a pistol at her, scowling as he fired the thing to no effect. She laughed.

"Stupid fool," she said, her horn flaring up.

Her spell lashed out, but before Kellman could be obliterated, Stephan had pushed him out of the way, taking the blast himself. He was thrown backward, but the armour took the worst of it. Still, it had hurt.

"Stephan!" he heard Trixie call out.

"Retreat!" he managed to call out, pulling himself to his feet. "Everyone retreat!"

"Cute," Celestia said as the human and pony fighters followed the order, watching them go with a slight smile. "But at the very least, I do love a moving target…"

Her horn glowed again, but Stephan had already launched himself at her with a yell, slamming into her side before bringing his sword to bear. She dodged him with an arched eyebrow, and sent a quick spell into him, knocking him to the ground.

"What is it with humans with swords today?" she mused aloud. "Is it 'sword day' or something? Should I be keeping an eye out for more of you? Or is it just that you ran out of every other weapon you had to fail against me?"

"Fuck you," Stephan growled, before lashing out. Celestia dodged back, but her mane was caught by the blade, several locks of hair falling away. She growled.

"Impudent wretch!" she snapped. "I will -"

There was a flash of light, and suddenly Stephan found himself, along with his surviving troops, in Fenway Park, far away from the battle. Dozens of medical personnel surrounded them, looking confused.

"Bauer!" his radio crackled. "Report on the Tyrant! Bauer!"

He sighed as he replied. "HQ, the bitch is still going. Throw everything we have at her!"

"What do you think we've been doing?!" the woman on the other end yelled. "Sorry, Major. Why are you in Fenway Park?"

"I'm guessing Discord teleported us here," Stephan said wearily. "Doesn't matter. We're still going after her. If she gets beyond…"

He imagined the woman on the other end of the radio doing the same as him and trying not to imagine what'd happen. Maybe she could get brought down (maybe!) after taking enough damage, but at this moment, Boston was perhaps the largest repository of shield disrupting weaponry, or PHL newtech in general.

If that couldn't stop her, he'd be surprised if anything could.

"Contact the evac personnel," he said. "Increase the evac radius, get everyone out of the state if possible."

***

"You only delayed their inevitable end, you know," Celestia said to Discord, who was glaring at her, a single claw outstretched, having teleported away the entire complement of human and pony fighters before the Tyrant could cause further harm to them.

"Maybe," he said, grimacing in pain, "but I'm not done with you yet."

"Look at you," she said with a sigh. "You're injured and bleeding, and you still think you have a chance. It's almost funny."

"I promise you this," Discord retorted, grinning. "By the end of this, you won't be the one laughing. You will die in a puddle of your own blood, with a human looking for enough of your skull to piss in."

Before Celestia could reply to this remark, there was a flash of golden energy. A moment later, a blade lashed out, its wielder appearing near Celestia with a look of calm fury upon his face. The first blow missed, barely, and a reverse swing was blocked a golden shield of magic.

"Hello Tyrant," the Avatar of Albion said, grinning viciously. "Had you perhaps forgotten me?"

"Little, insignificant man," Celestia growled. "Go away!"

Her horn glowed, but he deflected the spell with a sharp movement of his sword. Growling, she flapped, forcing him off balance for a moment as she took to the sky, and her horn glowed again, this time firing a larger spell at him. He was blown back and rolled away from the explosion, landing a few metres away on the ground, his armour taking the brunt of the damage, and with a snarl of effort he pushed himself off of the ground.

"Did you really think bringing a sword was enough to take me down?" Celestia asked with a raised eyebrow. "Is it just something your species DOES?!"

"Swords are cool," Discord said from where he was standing. "Who am I to go against his taste?"

The Avatar raised the blade, only for there to be a flash of light. A moment later, he found himself behind the Tyrant. Wasting no time, he brought his blade down and fired the bolt of energy he had been massing within the blade at her back, throwing her forward and into the ground where she impacted with a loud crack of breaking concrete.

There was a burst of orange, and the Tyrant disappeared from the crater the two of them made.

The Avatar looked around, and saw Discord giving him a wave.

"She'll attack in a few more seconds. Still, thought you might appreciate the hand," he said with a wink, then a grimace as he felt some pain lance through him.

"My thanks, Lord Discord," the Avatar said shortly. "Tell me, the man Bauer - does he live?"

"I got him and most of his troops out of here," the Lord of Chaos said with a smirk. "Leaving me the privilege of killing this one."

"Tis good Bauer lives. He is a good man. I trust you do not object to my giving thee 'a hand'," the Avatar smirked. "But fighting the Tyrant is my destiny, and I would not be kept from it. Perhaps fighting together against the mad mare, we may have better luck."

Without waiting for a reply from the Draconequus, he raised Excalibur to the sky, the blade flashing with power, and he brought it down, pointing it at the Tyrant just as she pulled herself up. The blast blew her back into a building, and Discord clapped.

"Well, you're not bad," he complimented. "Could maybe do without the whole 'dost mother know thou wearest her drapes' dialogue, but…"

He was interrupted by a large white explosion of energy as Celestia blasted apart the ground, flapping her wings once and flying into the air.

"You… little… insects!" she screamed. "I'm going to take great pleasure in tearing you apart!"

The Avatar snorted, bringing his blade back into a guard stance. "If thou thinkest I will fall so easily, Tyrant, then come at me!"

Her reply was a blast that threw him backward into another building, through it, and into another. Discord raised an eyebrow.

"Overkill?" he asked.

Celestia's response was another spell lancing toward him. He snapped his claw and appeared above the area, watching the explosion with a scowl.

"Overkill it is then," he said, snapping his fingers again. A giant anvil appeared over Celestia's head, and promptly dropped, but she noticed it and sheared it in two before it could impact her. A quick spell lashed out, smacking Discord in the shoulder and stunning him, and then suddenly she was in front of him, grinning. He gulped.

"Hello," she said softly. "Goodbye."

Her horn glowed again and a blast of magic threw Discord into the sky until he became nothing but a small gleam not unlike a star.

"Finally," she muttered.

A golden flash of energy appeared behind her, and she turned in time to have a spell lance from Excalibur into her face, blasting her through the air. She spread her wings and brought herself to a dead stop, and growled as she saw the Avatar pointing his blade at her in challenge, a small smile on his face. There was no sign he was any worse for wear other than the cut already healing on his face and the scuffed nature of his armour. A moment later there was a glow and the armour restored itself.

"Might it be an idea for thou to try something less survivable, Tyrant?" he said. "That trick appears to not…"

Another spell smashed into him, and he blocked another with his blade, barely managing to keep himself from being knocked backward again. Grimacing, he dodged the next blow, before pushing off of the ground and leaping toward the Queen, bringing his blade up for an overhand strike just as she raised a shield…

Smash.

The golden shield spell shattered as he brought the blade down on top of it, a shockwave lashing out across the ruined streets of the city. Celestia dodged backward, but the tip of the blade managed to nick her shoulder, and she staggered slightly as she did so.

Landing heavily, he immediately capitalised on his hit by spinning in a low cutting motion, but she jumped up, dodging and forcing him to brace against the wind from her wings, and he was forced to bring Excalibur up to block another spell.

The Queen flapped again, landing a short way away from the Avatar, her horn glowing orange and a growl forming in her throat. The wound on her shoulder was healing, but only very, very slowly - clearly, Excalibur had more bite than she had thought. The Avatar raised an eyebrow, sensing the power building in her, and closed his eyes, raising his sword into a high Ox-guard and waiting.

"I am done humouring you, little man," she hissed, spreading her wings and taking off into the sky. "Ashes of Solaris!"

There was a flash of light and a wave of impossibly hot, dry air that lashed out, melting the ground and ossifying anything it touched… a moment later, Celestia was left alone, floating above the battleground and scowling down at where he stood. For a brief second, she thought that it must have managed to finally kill this insect.

But no.

He was stood where he had been standing, a bubble of energy dissipating all around him. His armour was scorched and blackened, smoke rising off of it, and when he looked up she saw a glow as his face was healed of scorched and blistered flesh, becoming once again whole and undamaged. He was breathing heavily, and as she watched he reached behind him and tore off the tattered remains of his cloak, throwing it away from him. He coughed onto his gauntleted hand and scowled at whatever he saw, before looking up at her.

"Is that it?" he asked, spreading his arms wide. "Where is your vaunted power, Tyrant?"

If he expected a growl of concern, frustration, or even an attempt of mockery, he would be disappointed. Instead, perhaps even more disturbingly, he got something else entirely.

Laughter.

"My power?" she asked with a large smile. "I only just started to show you my power!"

***