The cells had once been quarters for the monks that had long ago abandoned the Abbey, allowing it to fall into disrepair until Zugzwang’s contacts had purchased and reopened the temple for “renovation” and to allow for worshipers. It had been an excellent hiding place for Zugzwang after his fall nine years prior, and for his trusted lieutenants ever since. Not to mention the donations provided ample funds.

Nevermore and two of his assistants walked down the narrow hallway, checking the one-way windows in each of the reinforced oak doors as they passed. Each of the prisoners was right in their cells where they were supposed to be. Luna and Celestia were both huddled up in the corner, having received their respective treatments for the day. Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy were also cowering from the doors, no doubt wondering what was in store for them. Shining Armor was pacing his narrow cell, while Rainbow Dash and Applejack were futilely trying to kick their doors down.

“Going to have to do something about those two,” Nevermore commented as they passed. “But I’ve been planning this one for a long time.”

They paused outside the last cell and beheld its sole occupant. Twilight Sparkle was sitting in the center of the tiny room, staring at the door. Nevermore could smell her fear, her anticipation through the door, and it was delicious.

Extracting the cell key from his belt, he inserted it into the lock and opened the door. Twilight looked up at the sound, instinctively flinching from the light as it invaded her darkness. “Take her,” he ordered. The two assistants moved in and seized Twilight, efficiently binding her hooves and placing a blindfold over her eyes.

“No! Let me go!” she cried, struggling as they dragged her from the cell.

“Anesthesia,” Nevermore instructed nonchalantly. One of his assistants grinned and brought a club down onto Twilight’s skull, knocking her out. They carried her down the hallway to the room that they had set aside for the doctor’s use. A large table was set in the middle of the room, surrounded by tables of medical equipment, shelves of tubes and flasks, and other sinister tools. The assistants strapped the unconscious Twilight down onto the table, then exited at a signal from the doctor.

Lenore fluttered down onto a perch to watch, cawing softly. “Indeed, Lenore, this is long overdue,” Nevermore agreed, turning on a switch. The microphone system over Twilight’s head whined to life, as did the connected speakers in each of the captive’s cells. He wanted them to hear him breaking their beloved princess.

Twilight groaned as she started to stir. Nevermore switched on the heart monitor next to the table and placed the electrodes on her chest. Twilight gasped in surprise at the sudden icy touch as the monitor beeped to life, marking her steadily increasing heartbeat.

“You are of excellent health, Your Highness,” he hissed, leaning in close enough so that she could smell his reeking breath. She flinched instinctively, testing her bonds. “It should allow you to last a little longer than most.”

He turned to peruse the various chemicals waiting before him. All the different colors of the rainbow, offering a wide sampling of terrors. Perhaps he’d start with good old agoraphobia? Or maybe the classics, arachnophobia, entomophobia, and ophidiophobia? It’d be fun to watch the little pony squirm…

“Is this supposed to scare me?” Twilight asked.

Nevermore paused. Her voice held no trace of fear or hesitation, none of the usual trepidation that he was used to hearing in his patients’ tones. It was strong and forceful, penetrating like a drill.

“What did you say?” he asked, slowly turning around. Twilight’s face was turned towards him, and he could feel her glare even through the blindfold. She was no longer shaking, and the heart monitor let out a steady, rhythmic beep to measure her calmness.

“You kidnap me and my friends, all just so you can play with us like this?” she taunted, her jaw clenched. “Inject us with your chemicals to make us afraid? Well, you know what I think of you and your toxin? I think you’re a joke!”

She hurled the word at him with such force, with such anger, that Nevermore actually flinched. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he dimly remembered that her voice was now being broadcast into the ears of her friends, rejuvenating them, inspiring them; foolish courage had the annoying tendency to be highly contagious.

“Your pathetic costumes, your elaborate haunted house attractions, trying to scare us like we’re little fillies,” Twilight continued unabated. “And you have to use drugs to cover up a fact that should have been blatantly obvious to us all from the start!” She sneered at him, baring her teeth at her captor. “You’re not even scary! The truth is, underneath all this facade, you’re just a foalish colt, messing around with a chemistry set his father gave him to screw with others. You're bucking pathetic!” She lifted herself up as much as the restraints would allow her. “So if you think you’re going to make me cry, make me beg, well you can kiss my ass!”

“Shut up!” Nevermore roared, swinging his hoof into Twilight’s stomach with a mighty blow. Twilight doubled over, coughing and sputtering, but her exhalations quickly turned into mocking laughter.

“Are you really so big a coward…” she snorted, “that you can’t even take on...a filly like me...without tying her down first?” She sneered at him. “C’mon. Fight me fair. Prove you’re a stallion!”

Rationally, Nevermore knew that he should not rise to her bait. He should just calm down and continue with the experiment, perhaps see how this new variable went into the testing.

But emotionally, he did not care. She had humiliated him, emasculated him. He would show them! He would prove to them all that he was to be feared!

And so, huffing and snorting in fury, he unbuckled her restraints and threw her to the floor. She tumbled into a pile on the floor, then slowly began to pick herself up, undoing her blindfold and facing him with a gleam in her eyes.

“Well? I’m waiting, colt,” she said, raising her foreleg into a guarding position.

Nevermore launched forward, giving her no time to prepare, and sent his hoof flying at Twilight’s head. She bobbed beneath the blow and countered with a basic punch at his ribs, but he redirected his punch into a grab, seizing her foreleg and pulling her past him, causing her to crash into the examination table. She stumbled, then leapt at him, clinging desperately to his cloak as she scrabbled for balance.

He wrapped her in a bear hug and repeatedly rammed his knees into her gut and ribs, relishing the feeling of her soft flesh yielding beneath his blows as she tried desperately to fight back in panic. Seizing her mane, he slammed her face down onto a table, then threw her to the floor. She curled up into a ball, trying to shield herself.

“No, please! I’m sorry!” she begged.

Nevermore gave her one more kick for good measure, then backed away, panting. Twilight lay still, whimpering.

The doctor growled. He couldn’t proceed with his planned experiments now, not when he’d confounded the data like this. And certainly not when he had gotten so emotionally invested.

“Get back in here,” he called out through the door. His two assistants appeared at his call and took Twilight by the forelegs. She did not struggle as they carried her out of the laboratory, not even bothering to bind her again. Nevermore remained in the lab, bent over the table.

“I have to give them credit,” Bumblebee commented as the team watched the ancient stone structure from the abandoned cottage across the street. “No one would’ve ever thought to look for the great criminal mastermind in an active church.”

“I worship here,” Gold Dust seethed quietly. “I always wondered why most of it was always under renovation. They blaspheme this sacred place!”

“I see snipers on the rooftop, at least three,” Ruby Eye reported, scanning the building through his goggles. “That, and there’s the obvious reinforcements on the front.”

The reinforcements in question included a dozen more ponies, all bundled up against the cold and armed with rifles, and two gatling guns, each facing in opposite directions up the street.

“And like all alicorn temples that were built during the Alicornistic Genocides, this building’s surrounded by protective enchantments,” Polaris added. “Between that and the guards, I don’t think we’re going to be able to sneak in there.”

“Except there’s an obvious weak spot,” Daring said with a grin. She pointed at the front door. “It’s the best way in.”

“And how exactly do you propose we get past those guards?” Gold Dust asked dryly.

Daring thought for a moment, then turned to Gold Dust. “Think you can follow the trail to the truck?”

Gold Dust blinked at her. “...you can’t be serious.”

The black crystals in the chalk rune glowed brightly as the dark magic coursed through them, recharging the dome that kept the city and all of its citizens under his control. Zugzwang tried to focus on the spell, but his thoughts kept wandering back to earlier. He shouldn’t have been so arrogant, shouldn’t have lowered his guard around Phillip; he had allowed his desire to see his adversary broken blind him to the fact that he might have been simply acting.

“You, like anypony, saw only what you wanted to see.”

He gritted his teeth. His own taunt had come back to haunt him.

A jolt of pain suddenly ran through his head and he grimaced, clutching his temples. Damn these headaches! Ever since he had absorbed Sombra’s horn, the insufferable migraines had come and gone, and nothing he had done was enough to prevent them. Growling to himself, he stood and exited the bare room, locking the chamber door behind him.

He walked down the hallway, his head bent beneath the weight of his thoughts. As he turned the corner, he looked up to see Scarlet Letter standing in front of him, her brow creased in concern. Crimson Prince was held in her magical grasp, fussing and whimpering as she nestled him against her breast.

“Zugzwang, I—” she started to say.

“Not now,” he snapped at her, brushing past without a second look. She stared after him in stunned silence.

“Madame, you should get back in your room,” Laurier instructed, opening up her pepperbox to ensure that all eight chambers were loaded. “We may have trouble soon.”

Crimson began to whine loudly, demanding his nightly feeding. Scarlet nodded solemnly, lightly bouncing her son as she retreated into her chambers.

“Monsieur, are you certain that Daring Do and the others will attempt something?” Laurier asked.

Even without turning, Zugzwang could see the derisive snarl on her face. For a moment, he wanted very much to kill her for her insolence; what could a servant like her know of his machinations, of the plans that he had spent years constructing? But no, such pleasures would have to wait; he still needed Scarlet Letter on his side.

“I did not get where I am by being optimistic,” he replied, looking out the window onto the street below, observing the sentries at their post in front of the door. “Their escape is an annoyance, but it should be corrected—”

He paused as a faint, strange noise reached his ears: a low rumbling that seemed to be coming from the street.

“Quel est ce bruit?” Laurier asked, joining him at the window as they both searched for the source of the sound as it steadily grew louder.

There was a sudden clamor from the sentries below, and they all started pointing up the road. Zugzwang and Laurier followed their gazes and quickly spotted the source of alarm.

“Oh,” Zugzwang groaned, a bitter taste rushing up to his mouth. “This could be a problem.”

Leaning back in the seat so she could still see out of the windshield without exposing herself to enemy fire, Daring pressed the accelerator of the truck all the way to the floor, steering the great behemoth right towards the Abbey’s doors. They had been lucky that the truck was parked nearby, lucky that one of the few, inattentive guards had the keys with him. And luck would only take them so far.

The teams manning the gatling guns swiveled the great cannons to face her, but a volley of four bolts sped through the air, dropping all of the gunners where they stood. Feathered Flight, flying alongside the truck, grinned as she opened fire on the other sentries, who dived out of the vehicle’s way as it sped towards the doors.

“Hang on!” Daring shouted, bracing herself for impact. For a brief moment before the crash, she reflected on the irony; this was the same truck that the Scorchers had used to invade the castle.

Then with a tremendous crash that shook the foundations of the holy house, the truck burst through the doors and tore into the foyer, swinging around with a screech of brakes and coming to a halt at the foot of the sweeping staircases. The few enemy soldiers that weren’t crushed by the truck quickly recovered and opened fire.

One of the truck’s back doors swung open and three silver balls were tossed up into the air, catching the lamplight as they flew upwards. Every eye instinctively tracked the movement, which quickly turned to be the undoing of the defending force. The flashbang grenades detonated like three brilliant white fireworks, blinding the observers.

The doors burst open at the detonations and Polaris, Prowl, Bumblebee, Gold Dust, Ruby Eye, and Screecher burst out, unleashing a devastating counterattack. One after another, their enemies fell, brought down by crossbow bolts, bullets, offensive spells, and calculated thrusts with spear and sword.

“Team two, into the sanctuary!” Polaris barked, removing his lance from the body of a thestral stallion. “Team one, follow me!”

Feathered Flight, Daring, and Screecher flew after Polaris as he raced up the stairs to clear the second floor. Prowl, Bumblebee, Gold Dust and Ruby Eye stacked up behind a set of double doors that led into the sanctuary. Gold Dust and Prowl both lit up their horns and nodded to each other.

“Go!” Gold Dust shouted. Bumblebee and Ruby Eye bucked the doors open, then jumped aside as the unicorns dashed in, projecting a shield of crackling blue energy in front of them.

The sanctuary was a grandiose room with a wide, arcing ceiling, from which multicolored chandeliers dangled. Great, stained glass reliefs on the walls depicted the great alicorns—Faust, Amore, Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Twilight Sparkle and Flurry Heart—staring down benevolently upon the visitors. A gilded gold altar stood at the head of the room, beneath a great banner of the Equestrian coat of arms; an intricately carved tabernacle was placed into the wall near the door. The pews were stacked up as barricades, and more than a dozen enemy soldiers hid behind their cover, weapons at the ready.

They opened fire immediately, assaulting the shield with bullets, arrows, and magical spells. Prowl and Gold Dust both grunted as the impact struck their shared barrier, but maintained the shield spell. Streams of energy ran from the shield into the horns, which began to glow and crackle as the kinetic force of the impacts were translated into raw power.

“Ready!” Prowl reported, straining to contain the energy.

Gold Dust grinned. “Our turn,” she grunted. As one, both unicorns dropped the shield and with a great shout, fired a wave of crimson energy back at their adversaries. The pews flew backwards and the windows shattered as their enemies screamed in pain, falling backwards to the floor. A sudden silence dropped down over the room. The twisted forms of their adversaries lay still amidst the mess, smoke faintly rising upwards from their scorched skin.

“Let’s keep moving!” Gold Dust ordered, shaking off the momentary fatigue. The team moved forward, pushing through the sanctuary and into another door.

Twilight allowed herself to be dragged down the hallway back to the cells by the two stallions who were tightly gripping her forelegs.

“Doc was really messed up,” the one on her left commented.

“Yeah, I’ve never seen him lose control like that,” the other agreed.

Suddenly, the entire building was shaken by a great crashing from above and the ponies stumbled. “What was that?” the one on her right cried, looking up.

This was the chance that Twilight needed. Grounding herself, she thrusted her elbows back, ramming both of her captors in the chest and doubling them over. Pushing the one on her left aside for the moment, she hit the one on the right with a backhoof punch to the groin and a twisting elbow strike to the jaw, then kicked the other one in the stomach, knocking him down and leaving him vulnerable to a finishing kick to the jaw.

She stood there, panting as she ensured that the guards were properly unconscious. With a smile, she raised a hoof to her mouth and spat. The key that she had stolen from Nevermore dropped into her hoof. Hurrying over to the cell next to hers, she started to insert the key into the lock. She was aware of the sound of distant explosions and shouts of combat from above.

A sudden caw and a woosh of feathers was all the warning she got. She ducked just in time as Lenore flew inches over her head, her razor-tipped talons slashing through her mane. Looking up, she saw Nevermore approaching, his face twisted into a hideous icon of rage beneath the wide-brimmed hat. The knife blade in his hoof gleamed menacingly as stalked towards her, his tattered cloak swirling as he moved to make himself appear larger than he actually was.

Twisting the key in the lock, she threw the door open, pushing it into Lenore’s path. Rainbow Dash jumped out of the cell, her furious eyes taking in the situation at a glance.

“You!” she bellowed, charging at Nevermore. He tried to sidestep and slash at her head, but she ducked beneath the blade and bucked backwards, striking him in the side. He turned to engage her, making calculated cuts with the blade. Rainbow dodged and ducked, unable to hit back.

Lenore swooped around, aiming to attack Twilight with sharpened talons and beak. Twilight placed herself in front of the open cell door, her eyes on the bird. At the very last second, she dodged to the side, causing Lenore to fly into the cell. Twilight quickly slammed the door shut on her and removed the key, then turned to help Rainbow. Spotting a cudgel hanging off of one of the belt of one of the assistants, she snatched it up and swung it at Nevermore.

Hearing her approach, Nevermore feinted a low back kick at her knee, then snapped his wing at her face, striking her across the jaw. At the same moment, he staved off Rainbow’s punch with an upwards cut to her chin, drawing blood. Rainbow grunted in pain and flinched, giving Nevermore time to use his wings to pass the knife to his other hoof, cutting at Twilight’s neck and forcing her to duck.

Rainbow reengaged Nevermore, but he used his wing to bat aside her punches and lashed out at her, forcing her to retreat. He simultaneously engaged both Twilight and Rainbow, easily switching the knife from hoof to hoof, holding them both at bay.

Dropping to a crouch to avoid a whirling kick at his head, Nevermore cut a deep gash into Twilight’s leg, causing her to fall over with a yell of pain. With one opponent momentarily out of the picture, Nevermore focused entirely on Rainbow Dash. He knocked aside her kick, forced her away with a slice at her ribs, then charged forward and rammed her against the wall with his shoulder. Grinning, he gripped the blade in an ice pick grip, preparing to bring it down in a finishing stab.

And then Rainbow lunged up and grabbed the brim of his hat, yanking it down over his eyes. Momentarily blinded, he roared in fury as he felt her slip out from his grasp. Her wing slapped against his hoof, knocking the knife from his grasp. Lifting the hat off his face, he beheld Rainbow’s cold expression, her eyes as hard as stone, inches away from his own face.

And then he felt something cold penetrate his chest. He drew in a gasp and found it hard to breathe, his body going numb. Looking down, he saw his own knife hilt-deep in his chest, his blood trickling out of the wound and staining his cloak.

“Not so scary now, are you?” Rainbow Dash hissed, releasing her hold on him. He fell back onto the floor, the light slowly fading from his eyes as an expression of bewilderment and fear melted onto his face.

Rainbow Dash tore off a large piece of Nevermore’s cloak and hurried over to Twilight, using it to bandage her wound. “I’m all right,” Twilight insisted. “Go get the others out.”

Within a few moments, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Shining Armor, Celestia and Luna had been freed from their cells. Shining immediately hurried to his little sister’s side and helped her stand.

“We have to find Flash and Phillip, and then we have to get out of here,” Twilight said, leaning against Shining and limping on her wounded leg.

“Then let us move!” Celestia declared, standing up straight and proud for the first time in days. The group exited the hallway and started moving upwards, heading for the sound of battle above.

The carved crystal necklace bounced off of Daring’s chest as she ran after Polaris, Feathered Flight and Screecher. The thestral was regularly opening his mouth and letting out a soft click-click-click sound, always waggling his ears after every click as the sound waves echoed back to him.

“Nopony down here,” he reported, moving past another hallway. They continued down their pathway, searching for any hostages. Several roving enemies attempted to stop them, but were quickly cut down, barely even slowing their momentum.

Suddenly, Screecher signalled a halt at a corner. “There’s a big group waiting for us around the corner,” he reported. “At least a dozen. Shields and rifles.”

“Private Flight, flash bolt,” Polaris ordered calmly.

Feathered Flight grinned and loaded a bolt with a white crystal embedded into the shaft into her crossbow. Peeking around the corner, she saw more than a dozen ponies standing in the hallway, crouching behind a set of riot shields and aiming their weapons in preparation for attackers.

A pale green unicorn with a sandy brown mane and mustache and glaring blue eyes spotted her. “There!” he shouted, his rumbling voice carrying a trace of a Mareish accent. The soldiers under his command turned to aim at her.

Holding her crossbow out from around the wall, Feathered fired the bolt into the floor at their enemies hooves, causing it to detonate with a blinding flash, stunning the gunponies. The Guards charged around the corner. Screecher took in a deep breath and let out a loud, piercing, high-pitched screech that deafened their adversaries. Polaris’ spear swept the legs out from under three of them in one strike while Screecher’s, Feathered’s, and Daring’s swords struck down the rest.

“I’m guessing they didn’t want us to go this way,” Daring commented, retrieving her sword from a the body of a pegasus mare.

“That means that we go—” Feathered’s suggestion was cut short by a clicking sound. Looking around, she saw that the green unicorn was still alive, glaring up at them. Her eyes darted down to his cutie mark of a suitcase full of bits, then to the silver metal sphere that he was extracting from his belt. The sound of a pin being pulled was the only warning she received as the live explosive clattered to the floor.

“Grenade!” she screamed, diving on top of the bomb. The other three sprinted two steps away and dropped to the ground, covering their ears.

The explosion came a split second after, the shockwave rippling through the ponies. When the smoke finally cleared, all that remained of Coin Toss, his comrades, and PFC Feathered Flight was a red stain spread over the walls and floor.

Polaris gritted his teeth in fury. “C’mon, let’s keep moving.” They continued down the hallway, pausing in front of a set of double doors with carved alicorns on them.

Screecher’s ears waggled. “There’s five ponies in there,” he hissed. “Four hostiles, and one hostage on the bed.”

“If you motherbuckers try to come in here, Finder’s getting a hole through his head!” one of the hostiles taunted through the door. “You hear me?!”

The trio stacked up on the doors, Daring on the right and the Guards on the left. “Two on the left side, one on the right with a gun on Finder, one to the right of the door,” Screecher reported, taking his sidearm out of his wing holster.

Daring slid a stolen revolver out of her pocket. “All I needed to know.”

Polaris’ horn lit up with magic. “On three,” he commanded. “One. Two. Three!” He sent out a blast of magic, immediately reducing the doors to splinters.

Almost before the doors had crashed open, Daring was moving, raising her pistol and aiming down the sights. The first thing she saw was Phil, bound and muzzled, lying on the bed. The four sentries inside had been momentarily stunned by the crash, covering their faces from the hail of splinters. Daring immediately spotted the unicorn next to the bed, his weapon flying from his hoof. Calmly, she squeezed the trigger and sent a bullet flying into her target’s skull. The two Guards were right on her tail, already taking down the other three enemies before they had a chance to fight back.

Rushing over to the bed, Daring quickly cut Phillip loose and removed his muzzle. “You came,” he smiled weakly.

“Of course I did,” she replied, allowing him to lean against her for support.

“Let’s go!” Polaris shouted, already heading out the door. The group exited the room and turned to make their way back.

But as they turned the corner, they suddenly found a wall of smoke facing them. “Move!” Phil barked, pulling Daring to the side. Polaris dived in opposite direction as the smoke surged forward, enveloping Screecher. His howl of pain was cut off after only a moment; when the smoke moved past him, his body collapsed to the floor in a red puddle, his flesh flayed off his bones.

The smoke surged upwards and raced towards Phil and Daring. They turned to try to run, but Phil stumbled and fell to the floor. Knowing that they couldn’t outrun the cloud, Daring dived on top of Phil in a futile attempt to protect him, closing her eyes as she prepared for the end.

A golden light suddenly pierced through her eyelids. Opening her eyes, she looked down in surprise at the crystal necklace, which was suddenly glowing like a small star. A golden shield of energy projected around her body and golden wings blossomed from her shoulders, enveloping Phil in their protection. The smoke tried to wrap around them, but the golden energy flared and the smoke withdrew with a grunt of pain. The cloud descended to the floor and reformed into Zugzwang, who was staggering and shaking his head. With a snarl, he lit up his horn and prepared to hurl a deadly hex at Daring and Phillip.

Suddenly, a shield of white energy descended between Zugzwang and his would-be victims. “No, Zugzwang,” Polaris said calmly, approaching Zugzwang as he unhooked his spear from his back. “If you want to hurt anypony else, you’ll have to get through me first.” He created another barrier behind him, trapping him inside the shields with Zugzwang, and then fired a pulse of magic into the spear, which began to glow and hum with energy.

Zugzwang frowned and adjusted his tie. “I admire your courage, Captain, but not your intelligence,” he declared. A column of smoke swirled out of his horn, which quickly formed into a saber made of black and red crystal. He snapped the blade up, then down in a sharp salute.

“Run,” Polaris ordered, not taking his eyes off Zugzwang. “Get downstairs and regroup with the others.”

“Captain, we—” Phillip started to protest.

“Run!” Polaris shouted as he launched himself at Zugzwang. Their enchanted blades collided with a great ringing of metal.

Daring pulled Phillip to his hooves and they ran down the hallway, leaving the two dueling stallions behind.

Gold Dust, Prowl, Bumblebee, and Ruby Eye hurried down a narrow brick hallway. “Where is everypony?” Ruby Eye wondered, his head swiveling from side to side as he took up the rear of the group.

“Shh!” Prowl suddenly hissed, stopping. “I hear something!”

A faint, sobbing voice could be heard from a wall next to them, coming out through a small hole in the fresh brickwork. “Somepony...please...let me out!”

“Flash?” Prowl shouted. “Hold on!” His horn glowed with power and fired at the wall, causing the bricks to tumble down with a clattering to reveal Flash, still chained to the wall.

“Oh, thank God,” he gasped, his eyes streaked with tears. “Get me out, get me out!”

“Hold still, old friend,” Prowl instructed, using his magic to unlock the chains. Flash collapsed into Bumblebee’s forelegs.

“Can you stand?” Bumblebee asked.

“I...yeah, I think so,” Flash nodded, standing up. “We need to find the others.”

“Flash!” a voice shouted from up ahead. The Element Bearers, Shining Armor, and the Princesses rushed up to the group. Twilight pulled Flash into a relieved hug. “You’re okay!”

“We’re not gonna be okay if we stay here for much longer!” Gold Dust barked. “Get back to the truck!”

The group started to hurry back the way they came, racing up a set of stairs. A solid oak door was the only thing that stood between them and the sanctuary.

“Ruby, the door!” Gold Dust called.

Ruby Eye raced up, pushed the door, and immediately halted at the threshold. “Oh, fu—!”

His curse was cut short by a volley of gatling fire that ripped through his body, sending his corpse tumbling down the stairs. The mass of the enemy forces had gathered in the sanctuary, cutting off their avenue of escape.

“Back! Back!” Prowl shouted as the ponies turned and started to head back. The sound of pursuing hoofsteps clattered after them.

The three City Guards paused, turning back. Each of them took position in the hallway, weapons up in a guarding position.

“What are you doing?” Luna called after them.

“Fulfilling our oaths,” Gold Dust replied, grim determination in her voice. “Keep going. We’ll hold them off!”

“No! We’re not leaving you!” Rainbow Dash insisted, trying to pull Bumblebee after her.

“Our job is to keep you safe!” Bumblee barked, shaking her off. “Get out of here!”

The pounding hoofsteps cut off all argument. With a final look back, the ponies hurried onwards.

Wordlessly, without looking around, Prowl held out his hoof to his longtime partner and friend. Bumblebee instinctively took it and shook firmly. “It has been an honor, my friend,” Prowl said.

“Likewise,” Bumblebee nodded, tightening his grip on his sword as the first enemies rounded the stairwell.

The former hostages ran for all they were worth, leaving the sounds of battle behind them. “Where do we go now?” Rarity cried.

“I know a way out! This way!” Celestia ordered, leading them down another subterranean hallway. “This temple was meant to be a place of safety for citizens,” she explained, studying the carvings on the dimly-lit brick walls. “When it was first built, I ensured that it had a way out, one that only the priests knew about.”

“Sister, here!” Luna called, pointing to a faint relief of a star in a discolored brick. Celestia rushed over to the wall and began to press the bricks in a certain pattern, muttering clearly in ancient Equestrian.

After a moment, the wall behind them shifted, then slid aside to reveal an underground tunnel.

“Wait!” Rainbow Dash called. “Where’s Phil and Daring?”

There was the sound of hoofsteps clambering down a nearby set of staircase, and Daring and Phil appeared.

“C’mon! Time to boogie!” Pinkie called to them, gesturing frantically. Not even pausing to question their good fortune, both of them hurried forward and into the tunnel.

But Flash was backing away from the exit, his knees trembling. “No! N-no way!” he protested, shaking his head.

“Flash, look at me!” Applejack shouted, gripping his shoulders. “I promise, if you stay with us, you will be okay!”

Flash locked eyes with her. “You sure?”

“Would I lie to you?” Applejack asked, her voice gentle in spite of the urgentness of the situation.

Flash swallowed and nodded. Applejack took him by the hoof and guided him into the tunnel.

“You keep going!” Celestia ordered Rarity and Pinkie Pie, pushing them into the tunnel. She could hear the sound of approaching hoofsteps: too close to shut the door in time. She ducked into the tunnel last, pausing partway inside. The stone walls pressed close on her sides, ensuring that she would only have to face one.

A large earth pony wielding a broadsword, with more weapons dangling from his belt, appeared before her, his girth blocking off the tunnel. With a roar, he thrusted his blade at her. Celestia almost smirked: the attack was sloppy, the blade too large to be of much use inside these close quarters.

She easily sidestepped the attack and punched her attacker in the foreleg, striking a nerve cluster and causing his arm to spasm, dropping the sword. She followed up with a double punch to the solar plexus to wind him, then seized him by the throat. He gagged and choked, writhing pathetically in her grasp.

“This is for my city,” she hissed, then kicked him away, knocking him down across the threshold. Instantly, she reared around and started to run. The earth pony scrambled back to his hooves to give chase.

Too late, he noticed that she had taken something from him. The pin to the grenade on his belt.

The explosion tore through the tunnel, shaking the walls and the ancient foundations. Rocks tumbled down behind Celestia as she ran to catch up with her friends, blocking off the tunnel behind her and ensuring their escape.

Zugzwang deflected the spear thrust at his chest and ducked beneath a swipe at his head, but his calculated riposte was interrupted by the blunt end of Polaris’ lance ramming him in the knee. He grunted and fell back, dropping his saber, then quickly rolled out of the way of what would have been the finishing thrust, the spear head ramming into the stone floor instead.

Polaris snarled in frustration and thrust again, sending a jolt of magical lightning towards Zugzwang. Zugzwang screamed in pain as the lightning enveloped him, causing him to fall back to the floor. With a victorious shout, Polaris pinned Zugzwang beneath his hoof and aimed the tip of his spear towards his throat.

Suddenly, a great pain pierced his chest, causing him to jolt back in shock. Looking down, he was shocked to see the crimson blade of crystal piercing his armored chest, Zugzwang’s saber having pierced his cuirass as easily as if it were made of paper.

Pushing his hoof off, Zugzwang stood up, panting heavily as the magical walls entrapping them fell. “You fought valiantly, captain,” he commended his dying opponent as Polaris dropped to his knees. Calmly, he reached out and extracted his saber, snapping the blade down to flick the blade off.

Polaris coughed heavily, black blood bubbling from his lips as he dropped to all fours. “You...won’t win…” he wheezed, glaring up at Zugzwang. With a final choke, he collapsed to the floor and did not move again.

Zugzwang looked up as Laurier ran up. Blood stained her normally pristine coat and smoke still wafted from the barrels of her pepperbox.

“Monsieur,” she reported. “The six City Guards are all dead, but almost a third of our soldiers are dead or wounded...including Doctor Nevermore. And the hostages escaped.”

Zugzwang’s face did not change as his saber unraveled back into smoke. “Then we need to get out there, find them, and kill them before they prove to be more of a problem. Call in the Scorchers. Now!”

Laurier grinned darkly. “Oui, monsieur.”

Zugzwang nodded and turned to face out the window into the dark, snow-blanketed city as Laurier rushed away. “As of this moment, Phillip Finder,” he spoke, knowing that his adversary could hear him. “You have my permission to die.”

Author's Notes:

RIP Captain Polaris, Sergeant Gold Dust, Corporal Screecher, Corporal Ruby Eye, Corporal Prowl, PFC Feathered Flight, PFC Bumblebee. Your sacrifice was not in vain.