Author's Notes:

Warning: Chapter 23 features depictions of gore and decapitation. I have provided a review of this chapter for those who do not wish to read it.
Raiden and company decide to use the orb, and become much more daring in combat due to Cadence being able to resurrect them for five minutes. They defeat the wall of Garge's, just to have the Og Nag infantry use the massive shaven trees as makeshift ladders.
Cadence eventually runs out of magic and uses her last reserves to teleport back to the Crystal Empire to try and use the Crystal Heart.
As the Og Nag pile up, they do their best to remove as many bodies as possible. Raiden has all his troops maxed out, as they're either part of the defensive line guarding the right side of the wall, or the main ramp leading out to the field
The Og Nag set up a tree on the left, and Raiden knows they can't hold all three as it is. Celestia and Luna use most of their reserves to teleport King Hurrand, General Versa, and the fifty troops they kept at Taraska to the fight. Versa holds the left wall, but they begin facing the issue of too many bodies piling up.
Luna uses every ounce of strength she has to clear all the bodies from the field. Raiden has her carried away in case they lose ground.
The ramp gets clogged and the Og Nag are able to climb over their dead and spill over to attack the left and right defensive lines. They begin to lose ground and Raiden almost orders a retreat.
From what they can tell, Cadence succeeds, and the control over the Og Nag is broken. Standing around confused and uncoordinated, the Og Nag are cut down by the Taraska infantry. Upon celebrating, Zaran shows himself across the field.
A horrific booming shriek snaps us all out of our spirits. I stand up, looking around for the source. It was far away, and sounded like a cross between thunder and a hawk. Where the Og Nag came from, rose the most despicable creature I had ever seen. It towered above everything. It had to be several hundred feet tall. It looked like a centipede from your worst nightmares.
It was jet black, and around 10 meters wide. It was easily a few miles away, but it had these two massive eyes on the sides of its head. They were angled just enough to where I could see them. They glowed orange, with a stare so full of rage; I could feel it all the way from Canterlot. I knew it was Zaran. Black smoke rises from its body. It seemed as if it was roasting in the sunlight, or maybe it was from the crystal heart. Whatever it was, staring me down took priority apparently.

After a few minutes, it slithers back into the ground. I see it dematerialize, passing through the dirt as if it was fog.

Lucretia and Emeris share a glance for a bit, before staring at the orb again. Part of me wanted nothing to do with the thing, considering what it did to my world. On the other hand, we were out of options and almost out of time. The Garge’s slowly start to regain their composure. Luna shoots them a sharp glare, before flying above us and hitting them with another wide blast of energy. Luna lands panting.

“Raiden, I’m still worn out from the teleport. Cadence’s original plan can still work but we wanted to try the orb as well. I dare not take energy from it for myself.” She turns to face me.
“It is up to you. Will you use it or not?”

I curl my lips inwards with both pride and anger. The idea of using this...this thing, was disgraceful. Why not dig up our dead and use them as shields why we're at it. Emeris walks up to me, his eyes bulging with uncertainty.
“So what’s more dangerous, seven Garge’s in a small, confined area or one hundred immortal Taraska for five minutes?”
When I turn to Luna, I can't help but allow my face to scrunch up with scorn.
“When this is over, we’re having a long talk about who made those orbs, and where I can go to kill them.”
Luna cocks an eyebrow with a slight smirk.
“Save our palace and you can have whatever you want.”

My face goes blank for a moment before I look over at Cadence.
“When you say immortal…”

Cadence inhales with uneasiness.
“To be blunt, you will have to die and endure the expected pain of your injuries. But I can resurrect you and restore you to full...after roughly ten seconds.”

Lucretia’s mouth hangs open.
“So...we’ll have to feel death and having our limbs chopped off?!”

We all stare at Cadence in shock. This was going to suck.

The Garge’s are almost to their feet. My soldiers look at each other; no one wants to be the first experiment. I sheath my sword, toss it to Emeris and walk towards the garges. They're so close, I can smell the rotting flesh splatterd over their armor. As they get up, they stare down at me with hatred. I cross my arms, and wait patiently. It took everything I had to act apathetic. On the inside, I was a child hiding under their bed. Without hesitation, a Garge on my left grabs me around my midsection. My heart pounds in my throat. Every instinct screams at me to flee, to fight, to do anything. Being a leader means setting a good example. They didn't cover being a desert tray.
I do my best to keep eye contact with the beast. In one swift motion, he shoves my head in his mouth.

I’m blinded by pain. I feel his teeth crunch through the bone in my neck. I feel the skin separate so easily under his massive jaw. I had heard rumors that even once decapitated, the human brain lives on for six minutes. I have the unfathomable horror of verifying this fact. The world spins around me, as the Garge spits out my head, throwing my body to the side. My helmet flies off and skips across the palace grounds. I can’t move my face, as the pain completely consumed all my senses. My brain screams for oxygen, trying to tell my lungs that aren’t there to pull in more air. The horror of every last warning signal from my brain going off, overloading me. My mind becomes primitive, seeking only to survive, and having no way to do it.

I look up at my men, whose eyes are wide and petrified. They squirm as my mouth autonomously moves up and down slightly. I had never experienced such pain before. Every part of my brain screams to do something, to run from the danger, but there’s nowhere to go and no means of fleeing.
Run. Breathe. Eat. Don’t move. Danger. Agony. These are the single words my brain produces to tell me. I stop comprehending the world around me. My vision starts to go out and I feel myself drifting away.

Cadence’s horn glows pink, as I’m whisked back to my body. In just a few seconds of being attached, the pain leaves and I feel my limbs once again. The nearest Garge watches me. It picks up my body before I’m ready to move. It grabs my chest and legs, before bending me backwards. I let out a blood-curdling scream I’ve never heard before. I feel several things in my back break. Shards of bone ram themselves into various organs, and I feel a rush of hot liquid inside me. I start convulsing. Blood sprays from my mouth as my arms flail helplessly out of pure instinct. The beast holds me by my legs and throws me back at my forces. I skid across the ground motionless. The blood pouring inside me swishes around my insides as I tumble across the floor.

Upon opening my eyes, my brain can't quite figure out of I'm alive or dead. It sends me contradictory signals, one moment telling me to lay still, the other moment it screams for me to run from danger. No creature was ever meant to experience this. I feel my heels scraping the back of my chest armor,a s they're currently forced the wrong direction. I hear multiple screams erupt from our forces, along with Luna. A third of my soldiers, including Emeris, vomit on the ground. I get back up gradually, no longer being in pain as that soothing warmth once again spreads over me. My brain is still trying to comprehend everything. My temples pound at the unnatural experience I just went through. I do the only natural thing I can: I push it out of my mind, grab my sword from Emeris who still gawks at me, and order my men forward.

The first Garge ahead of me brings his ax up. As he brings it down, I turn my body sideways. The ax collides with the ground just in front of me. With a quick upwards swing of my sword, I lob off its mighty hand. Seeing as how death wasn’t an issue, being a bit more bold was in order. There was a lot of theories I could finally test, but didn’t want to risk before. I’m sent flying by a hit to the back from his ally. I know Cadence will wait to heal me until I hit the ground. My back cries out, and I can no longer feel my legs.

I shake profusely and scream, unable to take the pain of my spine being in pieces again. A glow comes over my skin. The pain subsides and I stand up. I’m dizzy and I feel something inside my head start to snap. An Og Nag runs over to me, sword above his head. At the last second, I step to the side and dodge him completely. I grab a leather strap on his back, and use his momentum to send him flying over the cliff. He shrieks until he hits the ground.

As I turn around, another Og Nag plunges his sword up and under my armor starting at my waist. My mouth hangs open. My body automatically wants me to vomit out the foreign metal object but I’m unable to. I do my best to think through the pain. I hold onto his hand so he can’t pull it out. With the last ounce of my strength, I lob off his head. I stand there, unable to resist staring at the sword. I reach behind me and feel the tip stick out an inch, scraping against the inside of my chest piece.

I pull out the sword, and wait a few seconds. A horrible empty feeling consumes my gut, as blood pours from the wound, filling up my boots gradually. The familiar pink warm glow covers my body. I feel the wound seal up. The blood pooling all over the ground is all I can stare at. Had any being ever seen so much of their own blood in one day? My brain gives me the bizarre sensation of telling me I need to lie down and rest from my injury, but I also feel fine. I do my best to ignore my basic survival instincts and get back to fighting. That was the only part of my training that mattered at the moment.

The first Og Nag I see gets the extra sword I’m still holding thrown into his face. I look around for Emeris, who sends arrow after arrow into every oncoming Og Nag. My soldiers slowly begin to surround the Garge’s but it’s not going well. Limbs are getting hacked off left and right. I watch my soldiers scream right before being crushed with a Garge’s axe.
I cup my hands and call out to Emeris.
“We need to focus our efforts on the Garge’s!”

Emeris places his hands around his ears and yells for me to repeat myself. Before I holler, a loose Garge's ax lobs off Emeris’ head and hands. It's impossible not to stare as his body that's still standing. I knew he would be fine, and at that same moment my entire world felt like it was crashing down around me. I bolt towards him, desperate to do everything in my power to save him. His body stays upright for a few seconds before falling backwards out of sight. Slaying a few more Og Nag on my way, I can't resist screaming cries of protest followed by Emeris' name. As he regains consciousness, he gets up and jogs over to me. As if a ghost from my past had come back, I hug him with all my might, making him choke on his words. I let go and blush as he purses his lips.
“We need to take out the Garge’s immediately! I need you to try and blind them; they’re just cleaving through our units too quickly! Start with the ones on the end, so we can gradually surround them!” Emeris nods. I go for the first Garge. He sees me and readies his axe. With his attention on me, he’s an easy target. An arrow plows into his right eye. He howls in rage, grabbing his head with both hands. I run up to him and jump, grabbing onto his front chest piece to get the height I need. My sword runs easily through his head. As I drop down, he begins falling towards me. I’m able to roll through his legs at the last second.

As I go to stand up, an Og Nag jams his sword through my collar bone. Before I can cry out, I get another sword through my left eye. Everything goes black. My eyes open again, seeing the bottom of Lucretia’s boot pressed against my face, as she’s apparently just pulled out the sword from my skull. It makes a sickening suction sound as it leaves. A few crimson drops roll off the sword’s tip and kiss my cheek. I wipe the blood from around my eye. She helps me up and takes an arrow through her neck. She instinctively cups her hands around it, gurgling and spitting up blood. The friend in me wants to scream and hold her in my arms, but the logical part of me knows to shrug it off. The constant war of emotions within me is distracting to say the least.

I whirl around and deflect a sword swipe to the left. Before he can recover, I ram the points of my helmet into the Og Nag’s head, killing him. With his weapon free, I charge the archer that shot Lucretia. I either barely dodge or block each arrow with my swords. As he reaches for his quiver, I hurl my spare sword into his chest, making him fall backwards in a lifeless heap.

The Garge’s are still preoccupied with slaughtering my soldiers in front. I dash behind them, slashing ankles, calf muscles, anything I can cut through. A chorus of beastly howls is heard, as they fall to the ground. Some fall forward, supporting themselves with their arms. A few others fall backwards, clawing madly like a child during a temper tantrum. It takes only a few seconds for my units to dive in, piercing and lashing anything they can get their hands on.

Occasionally, a soldier goes flying, struck or grabbed by a Garge. I watch some of my units take out years of pent up aggression, constantly hacking at the massive corpses, carving off whatever they can. I hear one in particular sobbing as hard as he swings his sword. I leave them be. Best to get it out now, than take it out on each other later.

The random bits of Og Nag soldiers are quickly dispatched. I grin as over half our units have decided to savor the moment, by using their hands to beat Og Nag to death. Lucretia joins me as we cut through dozens of foes to get to the wall. Our units easily make their way to the ramp and hold it, as wave after wave of Og Nag come rushing to us. They’re tossed over the side of the mountain. Cadence has an easier time simply restoring the stamina of our soldiers. The Og Nag have nothing but a thirty meter wide ramp to run up, and are met with a wall of shields and overly confident enraged Taraska infantry who have nothing to fear.

Lucretia chuckles as we look across the land, surprised just how quickly we’re dispatching their numbers. If our units weren’t part of the shield wall, they used hooked spears to pull bodies over to the edge of the mountain and toss them over. Emeris runs up, out of breath, with an oddly concerned look on his face. He’s unable to speak, and points to the other wall across the ramp to the right. The Og Nag have started using teamwork to lift the large shaven trees, and leaned them up against the wall.

Lucretia drives her palm into her face in embarrassment. We had completely forgotten about the shaven trees, thinking the whole thing was a distraction for the changelings. They served a dual purpose apparently. A swarm of Og Nag starts pouring over the wall to our right, climbing the trees like ladders.

Multiple soldiers automatically form another wall of shields and spears and do their best to block them off, but they swarm quickly with impressive numbers. Something eats at me. I do my best to get a good view of the trees. The Og Nag were strangely coordinated and skilled. Had Zaran been practicing with them? Could he actually improve an Og Nag in combat permanently? Could he really train an Og Nag, then have that Og Nag retain the skills it’s learned even after Zaran stops controlling them?

Luna calls out to me, then points at Cadence. Cadence’s mane is all over the place, sticking to her face from all the sweat. Luna shakes her head slowly at me when she sees me staring. The orb is almost empty as well. I call out to my men that Cadence is out of the picture. They go back to being almost perfectly coordinated, having to reserve every last bit of energy. Even with our invaluable choke point, did we really have enough stamina to cut through another few thousand Og Nag?

Lucretia clamps a hand on my shoulder.
“Raiden, Cadence needs to go do her thing now! If it works, we might get an advantage!” Our right side was lacking a bit, so I run over and start moving soldiers around to the right spots. I motion for Emeris to give us covering fire. I grab one other unit and signal him to come with me after I grab a spear and shield lying on the ground. We hug the wall, keeping shields and spears in front of us. I impale a crazed Og Nag straight in the face, then shield bash him off my spear. Arrows whistled over our heads, as Emeris tries to nail every new Og Nag that comes over the wall on our side.

I quickly realize I’ve pushed too far, as I’m almost unable to keep up with all the Og Nag that stop to take swipes at us. “Cor hor!” I yell at the top of my lunges, signaling our right side to push and push now. They let out a roar as the wall of shields is rammed forward. The soldiers in front drop their weapons, and brace the shield with both hands, as the unit directly behind them help shove and slay the loose Og Nag who don’t die from being trampled.

We push to the wall and start hacking at the wood. Half our units use their swords to chop, as the other half use spears to kill arriving Og Nag. A loud crack fills the air as Cadence teleports away. Unfortunately, we only take down two of five trees before the Og Nag set up their remaining trees on the left wall. I yell in anger, not having enough soldiers to hold the ramp and both sides. My eyes dart around nervously.

We were losing ground fast. Each soldier who did their best to keep the shield wall up has that one pesky unit who clings onto their shield. I've never seen Og Nag do that. They always just try to blindly swipe at you. They sacrificed themselves, knowing our soldiers couldn't take the weight of an Og Nag on a shield. In the time it took them to kill the grasping creature, another enemy would run up and have to be slain on the spot. It wore everyone out immediately. I started seeing occasional gaps in our lines, as small annoyances become larger issues.

We couldn't fall back and lose the ramp, that choke point was giving us a huge advantage. After everything we just went through to hold it, there's no way we could lose it now. We couldn't stay here because we were about to get overrun. My head involuntarily snaps to the left and right. One soldier holds up his shield as an Og Nag leaps onto it. He has no choice but to let himself fall to one knee. As he does, another Og Nag runs up and puts a sword in his neck. He lets go of his shield and tries to grab hold of the blade. The first Og Nag runs a dagger into the soldier's stomach.

Another one of my men has an Og Nag on his back. He turns in circles, trying to throw it off. A second Og Nag runs up and slices the tendon on his foot. He goes down and gets stabbed several times up the back of his armor. A small hand clamps onto my gauntlet and tries to pull me into the tide of Og Nag. I'm almost about to topple over the stone wall when one of my soldiers grabs my other hand and pulls me back. I let out a sigh.

"Thank-" The soldier takes two quick arrows into the throat and falls backwards gurgling.

Then I hear another flash of magic, followed by the most joyous sound of all: a Taraskan warhorn. A loud, deep trumpet cut through the sound of battle: it was Versa. I turn around and see the fifty units that stayed with King Hurrand running towards the left wall.

I catch Luna’s eye; she smiles and nods at me. Celestia stands next to her, both pant furiously. Celestia staggers around a bit; her eyes are unfocused. Did they seriously teleport King Hurrand, General Versa, and the last of our units up here? It didn’t matter, we needed the reinforcements. Having random alicorn pwoers save the day, was now probably out of the picture. Every last thing we had, was in play. Every last unit, every last ounce of magic, there wre no other trump cards to use. Even if Cadence's Heart broke Zarans' control, could we possibly have enough to finish them all off? Versa charges the wall, filled with rage.

A larger Og Nag is the first over and the unluckiest. He runs at Versa, sword in the air. When he’s almost to ideal swinging distance, Versa dashes forward and closes the few meters he has instantly. Before he can react, Versa reaches across her body with her right hand, grabs his arm so he can’t swing, then whirls around in the same move to slam her elbow into the Og Nag’s face. She twists his arm around as he falls to the ground, locking his elbow. With a precision swing, she makes him cut off his own head, also forcing his elbow to snap completely. She picks up his body with ease and hurls him at the nearest tree, knocking it over.

Another Og Nag comes in to try and impale her. She turns to the side, and grabs his right arm with her left hand. His sword barely scrapes her chest piece as he flys by. She drives her other elbow into his, making it break instantly. The Og Nag bends over a bit. She grabs the back of his head and holds it still, as she drives a knee spike into his forehead. She shoves his dead body away.

She gets a few more paces before an additional adversary tries their luck. Just like the first one, he lunges at her, ready to bring down his sword. Versa dashes the short distance, and grabs his right swinging arm with her left hand. She grabs his throat with her free hand, picks him up, and slams him by his throat into the ground. She angles his body back so he takes all the force on the back of his head.

She quickly overtakes the left wall. The dead build up fast, and our units with hooks work overtime to clear away the bodies. They can’t throw them back over the wall or the Og Nag might have a way to climb up. They start slowing down as their stamina begins to drain. Lucretia does her best to swap out units in our defensive line with the hook crew, but it’s not quite enough. Bodies begin to litter the ground, and our troops start tripping over them.

That cold feeling begins creeping up my skin, as I start to see a problem occur that I can do nothing about. I look around for a solution, but every soldier is either a vital part of the defensive line, or exhausted. Versa literally has her hands full pummeling Og Nag. Lucretia tries to hold the middle, while I hold the right. Emeris provides ranged support for whoever needs it. but he's only one person.

The bodies start creating hazardous mounds, and soon the ramp becomes a problem. Og Nag are able to start climbing over their dead, and go around our defensive line. I do my best to slay a many as possible, but I’m forced back by the sheer volume. Arrow after arrow starts pounding the group at the ramp. The Og Nag see their chance, and begin cramming every unit into the ramp, attempting to overwhelm us. I want to call out orders but there’s none to give.

If we fall back now, we’ll lose our only choke point. Things were tense enough, but actually retreating while keeping your shields up isn’t a reliable tactic. Even if we fall back, it will be complete chaos at that point. Emeris calls out to me.
“Raiden! I’m out of arrows!” I grit my teeth. My eyes twitch with panic. I open my mouth to give the one order I don’t want to give. I see soldiers look around, slowly losing their nerve. I start to see gaps in our defensive line; we were on the verge of a full-blown retreat. I had to rally them, but there was nothing I could do.

I turn and face the shield wall.

"Fall back! We'll take them on in the city!" The words are eerily familiar. The burning buildings of Taraska flash into my mind. The same thing had happened to us. Now it was the Equestrian's turn to share the same fate. Everyone starts backing up immediately, but several units stumble as they do. Plates behind the knee made walking backwards difficult and it took a lot of focus so your legs don't lock up.

"We'll use the buildings in the cities as new choke points!" There was a chance that holding them back at the buildings could work, but we'd inevitably get stuck upstairs, with no way to retreat. Also the Og Nag would be left to run around the city and go for the palace if they can't find a target. It really was the final tactic and it's never worked. That was also assuming we made it back there. It was almost a mile walking backwards with Og Nag pounding on the shields of our fatigued infantry.

Suddenly, every Og Nag in view looks behind us towards the sky. They stop running and stand still. My head snaps around to see Luna flying in the air, a mere twenty feet above us. Celestia stands behind her a ways, with her head bowed. A stream of light erupts from her horn, flowing into Luna. Were they combining their magic?

My question is answered as a fearsome beam rushes over our heads. The sound is deafening. I can no longer hear the yelling of my soldiers, or the clanking of armor and weapons. The sound could only be described as putting your ear to the ground during an earth quake. The only other thing I can hear is Luna's sharp, angry screams. The bright purple light forces us to shut our eyes. All my senses burn. I feel massive amounts of heat pounding my face.

As it hits the Og Nag on the ramp, they're blown back. Most of our units are thrown to the ground. We're unharmed, but in complete shock. Our soldiers cheer upon seeing dozens of Og Nag being thrown hundreds of feet in the air, back towards where they came from. Everything on the ramp had been disintegrated. It was coated in ash, and molten metal. I had never seen such power before. I see small amounts of steam flowing from the side of my armor that was facing the blast. I look back at Lucretia who stands behind me, still coddling her ears.
"They could turn metal molten from a single blast?! Just how strong were these alicorns?!"

An odd combination of both Celestia and Luna's voices fill the air in a thunderous roar.
"If you wish to be free, then go and take it!" is all they say, and all they need. A chorus of cheers erupts as our soldiers get to their feet, rallied by a new sense of strength. This was it, the final push.

Every corpse on the ground is surrounded with a purple glow. They lift into the air only a few feet, before being swept over the cliff. I cheer out in reflex. Glancing around, I see Luna behind our defensive line, horn glowing purple. As all the bodies are flung over, she wobbles a bit, before collapsing. Her body shakes slightly and her legs go rigid. I look back at the right side I need to hold. Lieutenant Cy has been keeping an eye on me.
“Go, I can hold it!” He yells to me. I nod to him in gratitude, and sprint to Luna.

I slide to the ground, stopping right next to her. I place my hands on her shoulders, looking her over. She weakly looks into my eyes.

“I’m...I’m fine, I’m just tapped out I haven't felt this way since Tirek stole our magic.” She coughs as she smiles. I motion to a few pony guards in the back. They come jogging over immediately.
“Make sure the princess is safe. Get her back if you can.” They nod and kneel next to her, doing their best to wrestle her onto their backs.
I watch her being carried away. She looks back at me with concern. I know she wants to keep fighting but she's already done her best. I hear Lucretia walk up behind me.
“If she keeps this up, we will have to make her an honorary Taraskan.”

Several soldiers call out my name. I dash to the front and witness what can only be described as doom. Every last Og Nag runs to the wall. Was Zaran waiting for Luna to exhaust herself before throwing everything he has at us? Lucretia and I can do nothing but stare. We were exhausted, worn out, and we had no other trump cards to play. This is what Zaran wanted. He had no idea what we had, so he sent only what was necessary to barely overwhelm us, so if we did have a massive trump card to play, he would only lose the bare minimum of units. Zaran wasn't just evil, he was a tactical genius as well with an army of mindless minions to control. They say you never escape Nova.

As if hearing our cries, a massive rainbow erupts through the sky, annihilating every cloud in its path. A strange warmth passes over us; it felt like we had already won the war, despite our predicament. The Og Nag stop in their tracks, looking around confused. The blank looks they had before are replaced with bewilderment.

“Raiden!” I hear Celestia call out.
“Cadence has done it! Whatever evil was driving them before is gone for the moment!” I don’t waste it. I pull out my sword and charge down the ramp, beheading every Og Nag I can in full sprint. My abs burn and I could easily pull something at any moment. My soldiers follow me down. We are a tidal wave of metal and death. We don’t stop to consider the idea that maybe the Og Nag are victims now. They may even be harmless at this point. We can’t risk it, and there honestly wasn’t a part of me that even cared. If I was a murderer now, I’d gladly save them a seat in hell.

In just a few minutes, we sweep through the last thousand effortlessly. They all stood there, not knowing what to do, not even raising their weapons. The last hundred or so attempt to flee, but are coated with arrows. Not one escapes. My soldiers cheer and cry out. A few moments ago we had stood in the face of mortality itself and held our ground.

Vicious clangs of armor on armor echo all over the battlefield. Everyone cheers, slapping each other on the arm, jumping up and down, slamming chest plates together. And most of all, we wouldn’t be hearing from the Og Nag for a while. Our scouts had verified that all other groups of Og Nag were only a few hundred, and the Wonderbolts would be happy to use them as target practice to keep them from grouping up, as well as entertainment

I gradually walk my way up the road to Canterlot, planning on talking with Celestia about our next move. She meets me half way to my surprise. I’m about to speak when she gently tackles me to the ground. She embraces me in an awkward hug due to our difference in species. I don’t care. We lay on the ground, both happily laughing that our nations were safe for the time being.
I lay there, laughing in relief. Even if the war wasn't over, we had time to breath.

A horrific booming shriek snaps us all out of our spirits. I stand up, looking around for the source. It was far away, and sounded like a cross between thunder, a hawk and a bear. Where the Og Nag came from, rose the most despicable creature I had ever seen. It towered above everything. It had to be several hundred feet tall. It looked like a centipede from your worst nightmares.

It was jet black, and around 10 meters wide. It was easily a few miles away, but it had these two massive eyes on the sides of its head. They were angled just enough to where I could see them. They glowed orange, with a stare so full of rage; I could feel it all the way from Canterlot. I knew it was Zaran. Black smoke rises from its body. It seemed as if it was roasting in the sunlight, or maybe it was from the crystal heart. Whatever it was, staring me down took priority apparently.

After a few minutes, it slithers back into the ground. I see it dematerialize, passing through the dirt as if it was fog. Celestia and I exchange bewildered and concerned glances. The walk back to the palace was silent.

I decided to ask about the orbs another day. I needed a break; we all did.