The summoner party walked along the bluff as they inspected everything that was going on. Down below, several hundred Crusaders were down on the shore, many of them on chocobos as they prepared to call Sin. In a large cage, there was a gigantic fiend held captive, obviously a spawn of Sin. It was an amazing feat that someone was bold and dumb enough to keep a Sinspawn alive, the ponies forcing the smaller fiends Vinyl and Octavia were pulling earlier to feed it.

"You've got to be kidding me? They actually kept a Sinspawn alive?" Rainbow questioned as they heard it roar out, banging the cage to try and escape.

"It won't work," Rarity said. "The only thing that can defeat Sin is the Final Aeon. They're all going to die for nothing."

They continued on their way to the command center as Rainbow watched more Crusaders and Al Bhed finishing preparations. What horrified her was that there were young colts, probably no older than ten years old, and they were going to fight alongside the adults. They shouldn't even be forced into doing something like this, or even by their own will. Their lives will end too soon before they could even reach adulthood, which only made the pegasus loathe this future more than ever.

Reaching the entrance to the command center, they saw Vinyl standing guard, pouting as she stood at attention. "Everypony check all your equipment before the operation starts," she said in a monotone voice.

"You alright?" Rainbow asked.

"No! You think I sound alright!?" she shouted. "I don't know why the hay my dumb bosses can't put me done out there with Octavia! Screw rules! Screw protocol! Screw all of this!"

"If you want to be proven as an experienced Crusader, do the jobs you've been given instead of acting out of line," Rarity scolded the ignorant unicorn mare.

"It's not that!" Vinyl argued. "I've known Octavia ever since we were fillies, and we've been inseparable. Then, a few years ago, she decided to be a Crusader, and was stationed out in Besaid. So, I decided to become a Crusader so she doesn't go and get herself killed!"

"I think it's the exact opposite," Rarity countered.

"She's not a fighter. You don't know 'Tavi like I do...She can't do this on her own down there..." Vinyl drooped her head, kicking the dirt under her hooves. "...She was happy to see me when I decided to join the Crusaders, practically crying with joy...If one of us goes down, we both go down..." She sighed, taking off her purple-tinted sunglasses. "But...I should obey commands given to me...I'm just afraid of losing my best friend..."

"...I see..." Rarity rested a hoof on the unicorn's shoulder. "There may be a slim chance she could make it out alive."

"...Against Sin?...I doubt it." They walked into the command center, leaving the blue-haired unicorn Crusader to herself as she stayed at her post.

In the wide space that made up the command center, they saw Blueblood overlooking the beach along with a pale gold earth pony mare, her mane a cobalt blue with light azure stripes. The Guado maester alerted her of their presence, her eyes widening in surprise as she focused all her attention on Rarity.

"Rarity! I though Blueblood was joking when I heard you were around after a whole decade!" The mare approached the guardian, pulling Rarity into a friendly embrace. "Marefriend, you have got to tell me what you've been up to!"

Rarity gently shoved the mare back, an unamused expression on her face. "I'm not exactly in a good mood, Sapphire Shores. I should be asking you what you're doing here."

"Hmm...Well, you seemed to have missed out on everything the last ten years," Sapphire said. "I just so happen to be a maester of Faust."

"...You? A maester?" The mare nodded. "...Pardon my enthusiasm, but I believe they chose the wrong mare to be one of the four maesters that lead Spira. Need I remind you how you were lucky to even be a part of the warrior monks if I wasn't around to help you?"

"Well, here I am now, girl. A maester of Faust, in the flesh." Rarity grumbled, despising her old friend's attitude.

"Maester Sapphire!" One of the Crusaders alerted her to his presence, saluting to her. "The troops are all ready by your command, ma'am!"

"Seeeensational! Dismissed!" The stallion headed back down to the shore, Sapphire smirking at Rarity. "Along with being maester, I also command the warrior monks AND the Crusaders."

"This little operation is going to get them all killed," Rarity said.

"I know it won't. We'll let them dream for a little bit longer." The guardian growled, her glare intensifying. "Now, tell me, Rarity. Have you seen Zanarkand?"

Rarity didn't feel like talking with Sapphire Shores, walking away as she scoffed. The maester headed back to Blueblood while the white unicorn kept her cool before she lost it.

"The hay was that all about, Rares?" Rainbow asked, a little curious of their relationship as friends.

"Nothing important," she replied. "Just an old friend's shell that was left behind after years of arrogance and an ego that makes her think she's better than others, rotting her heart until she turned into the fiends that plague Spira."

"...So, you used to be friends, and now you're not. Got it." Rainbow looked over at the maesters, glaring at Blueblood as he began to stare at Fluttershy again.

Operation Mi'ihen was about to begin, the cage holding the Sinspawn rising up into the air as everyone waited for what would be a fight to their demise. Soon, the cage began to shock the fiend inside, making it screech out in agony, calling on Sin to save it. It began to bang into the steel walls of its prison, finding some way to escape. It managed to, breaking down the door as it wasn't sealed up properly, leaping out of its cage and onto the bluff and making the ponies around the command center scatter in fright.

The Sinspawn was a large, almost centipede-like fiend. It had two large arms shaped like shields on its sides, a mouth on its torso, the same height as the shield arms, and an upper head on top, leering down at the party as they prepared to fight it off. It was mad, and now that it was free, it was going to get its revenge on the ponies that trapped it and shocked it.

"Well, so much for that plan!" Rainbow shouted. The Sinspawn began to move its upper head erratically, building up something from inside it. "Uhh, what's it doing!?"

"Rainbow, Twilight, Applejack, attack the head!" Rarity ordered. "Spike, you and I will take out the arms and body! Fluttershy, you stay back!"

"Might as well take out mah anger on somethin'!" Applejack threw her blitzball hard into the upper head, nearly snapping its neck back at the sheer force, but it did stop its erratic shaking.

Rainbow Dash took to the air and flew into the top head, slashing at it with her sword while avoiding its small set of teeth. Rarity and Spike rushed forward, splitting up to take an arm to themselves and hacking through them, destroying the protective hands it had. With its natural shields gone, they began to strike its body, avoiding its swiping legs and large mouth.

As Fluttershy watched from a distance, knowing she was being protected by her guardians, she took a glance at Twilight, who was struggling to try and cast a spell. The lavender unicorn was so distressed, she couldn't concentrate enough to even keep her horn glowing for more than a few seconds.

"Twilight? What's wrong?" Fluttershy asked, greatly concerned at the unicorn's trembling body.

"I-I can't...I can't focus..." She strained to fire something, anything, just to do something to help, but nothing would come. She eventually gave up and sat down, Mog and Smarty Pants trying to motivate her to get back up and keep trying. "T-They just...keep coming back...M-My..."

"Twilight, stop standin' around and help us!" Twilight flinched and pressed her ears into her skull, hearing Applejack shout for help. The earth pony kicked her weapon hard at the upper head as it began to move again, stopping it and turning its red face gray. "For Faust's sake, shoot some fire! Rain lightnin' down! Freeze the Sinspawn! Anythin'!"

She looked up at the earth pony, her teary eyes widening as the Sinspawn began to charge at the mare. Unable to see it coming, Applejack was smacked hard by one of its arms, having regenerated to the others' surprise, sending her tumbling across the ground. Just from seeing her friend lying on the ground, her hat knocked off her head, getting more injured than ever in the last few days made the unicorn snap.

Her horn glowed brightly as her eyes began to turn white, practically glowing as her magical aura began to grow powerful by the second. Mog and Smarty Pants backed away, feeling their owner's magical power growing far more intense than ever before. Twilight turned her head in the Sinspawn's direction, screamed at the top of her lungs, and began unleashing her power.

The fiend was hit by a barrage of powerful magic spells, and they were the strongest of spells any magic caster would wish to learn to destroy the monsters that threaten to kill them. The Sinspawn was buffeted by Firaga, Thundaga, Blizzaga, and Waterga spells, powerful explosions of flame, compressed blasts of lightning, giant ice pillars striking underneath, and its body encased in large spheres of water to suffocate it, all of them greatly damaging the powerful fiend. After one last Firaga spell blasted its torso, the Sinspawn screeched as it fell over, passing out from the sheer pain.

The fiend was still alive, not dead like it should be, the others slowly turning to face the lavender unicorn in sheer awe. Twilight's horn began to go dim and her eyes turned back to normal, panting heavily in exhaustion as she unleashed so much pent up power. Her eyes rolled up into the back of her head, passing out as she hit the ground, Mog and Smarty Pants rushing up to her to see if she was ok.

"...Holy horsefeathers," Rainbow finally said as the bluff went quiet. "Since when could Twilight do that!?"

"An emotional magic surge." The pegasus looked at Rarity, landing back down next to her as she questioned what she meant. "Do you know about unicorns with uncontrolable surges, Rainbow?"

"No...Is it dangerous?" she asked.

"In a way, it can be, depending on the magical potential a unicorn has." As Rarity explained, Applejack was back on her hooves, limping over to Twilight after getting hit by the Sinspawn hard. She was just as surprised as the others when she woke up to see her unleashing powerful spells on the fiend. "As foals, unicorns can't control their magic when they're born, having uncontrollable surges that are relatively harmless. However, if one who dedicated their life to studying and increasing their magical potential, like Twilight, they can unleash the most powerful of spells in their repertoire on their foes."

"Wait, so she knows that level of magic and didn't use it to help us earlier!?" Rainbow asked. "She could have easily taken out the machina back in Luca when Fluttershy was kidnapped! Why was she holding back all this time!?"

"Traumatic emotions," Rarity said, silencing Rainbow's further complaints. "Twilight seems to be a sensitive mare, just from one glance. If you look at her eyes, you can see a lot of pain she's kept bottled away inside of her, haunting her for years. Lose control of your emotions, and you may risk losing control of your magic." Rarity looked down, lost in thought as she continued explaining. "Even when depressed or highly stressed, our magic might not work due to the conflicting emotions running through our hearts or minds, lacking the focus to cast anything. That's why she hides her pain and force herself to feel nothing: to do her duty as a guardian, and to keep herself from losing control with what power she has."

"...So, losing Applejack's brother was that strong?" the pegasus asked as she looked at the unconscious unicorn.

"Possibly...Or it could stem back further in her life, when she was a filly." As much as Rainbow wanted to find out what had happened to Twilight, it was better not to ask and wait until she felt comfortable telling everyone her past.

Suddenly, everypony in the area heard a low rumbling growl come from the sea. Wondering what was going on, Rainbow Dash flew up to investigate, her jaw dropping as Sin's silhouette appeared under the water's surface. The massive being of destruction rose up from the water, and as soon as it appeared, the cannons around the bluff fired, hitting the fiend's barrier. Small Sinspawn fell out from its body as it was struck, the small fiends swimming up the ocean, the militia of Crusaders charging toward the sea to slay the spawn.

"They're just making things worse," Rainbow muttered as she saw thousands of Sinspawn rushing in from the ocean.

Sin suddenly shed its outer shell, a sphere of energy forming around it as the artillery fire was eradicated by the barrier. "LOOK OUT!"

Applejack quickly lifted Twilight onto her back as everypony ran for cover. Sin soon expanded the energy it created forward like a beam. A blinding flash stunned the party as they managed to flee just in time, the unlucky Crusaders down below were vaporized by the attack.

A moment later, the smoke cleared and the flash began to fade, Sin's energy having destroyed most of the bluff, leaving behind a massive crater. Fluttershy began to wake up from her daze, staring in horror at the damage that was made. Her ears perked up when she heard scuttling behind her, turning around to only gasp as the Sinspawn they just fought earlier was still alive and caught its second wind. Catching sight of her, it charged right for her as she squealed in terror, curling herself into a ball.

Blueblood swiftly ran up to Fluttershy out of nowhere, pushing the fiend back before it managed to sink its torso mouth into the pegasus. When she looked up, she was surprised to see the maester had saved her, showing his incredible strength nopony knew he had. With a powerful grunt, he managed to shove the heavy Sinspawn back a few yards, giving them some distance from it. As Fluttershy readied her staff to fight, Rarity walking in having survived Sin's attack, Blueblood held his hoof out to stop the two mares.

"Ladies, stand back. I shall deal with this fiend for you." Reluctantly, the young summoner nodded as the stallion pulled out a collapsable staff, forming it together with his magical aura.

The Sinspawn's upper head began to move, but Blueblood wasn't going to let it stay moving for long. Thrusting his staff like a spear, it lodged into the fiend's head, making it screech in pain. Smirking, the Guado's horn glowed, casting a powerful Thundaga spell into the staff. The electricity began coursing through its body, immediately killing the upper head and destroying the shield arms. While it was stunned, Blueblood charged into it, leaping up to snatch his staff back and fell back down to the ground.

With his weapon back, he cast a Firaga spell on the end of his staff, thrusting it forward until the magic was in the fiend's mouth. The flaming spell blew up inside its mouth, making it screech in agony as it died, disappearing in a flurry of lights, leaving nothing behind. As it faded away, Blueblood walked back to the two mares, fixing his mane as he grinned in victory. Fluttershy was highly impressed while Rarity wasn't, her leer on him still resided.

"Oh my..." Fluttershy soon gasped, looking around to find no sign of Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Applejack, or Spike. "Where are the others!?"

She ran over to the cliff's edge, Sin still around as it began to face the tower on the other end of the shore. The cannon on top of the structure began to spark, charging up to unleash a powerful stream of electricity, point blank into the massive fiend. Its energy barrier held it back as both the stream and shield fought for dominance. Blueblood stood behind Fluttershy as they watched the fiend struggle with the Al Bhed machina weapon. Unfortunately, their hopes had faded when the machina was about to breach Sin's barrier, only for the monster's energy to slash through tower, causing it to blow up as the explosions and crumbling structure killed the Al Bhed stationed there.

Rainbow's ears perked up as she heard the explosions, groaning in pain as she woke up on the debris filled beach. As she got up, she checked her surroundings, staring in pure horror at the dozens of dead bodies littered along the shore, even the colts that were up on the bluff just moments ago. She slowly walked along the sands, unable to look away from the dead ponies, her breath shakey as she had witnessed more deaths from the monstrosity known as Sin.

She soon saw Vinyl Scratch, lying face down in the sand. "Vinyl!" She ran up to the unicorn, rolling her onto her back, fearing the worst. Thankfully, she was still breathing, her glasses broken on her face, though she was relatively unharmed. She began coughing heavily, spitting out the sand that got in her mouth as she sat up. "Oh thank goodness..."

"Urgh...My head..." Rainbow helped the dazed unicorn on her hooves. "...W-What happened?" Vinyl looked around, her pupils shrinking as she looked around at the carnage in a panic. "N-No...Please no! 'Tavi!? Octavia!?" She looked all over, her eyes resting on a gray hoof that was sticking out from under a large boulder. The unicorn ran up to the boulder, using her magic and her hooves to lift the heavy rock out of the way, but it was too late to help Octavia. "...N-No...Octavia, no..."

The gray earth pony was already dead, unmoving, crushed under the boulder along with her hind legs vaporized by Sin's energy barrier. Vinyl wept as she mourned the loss of her best friend, burying her face in her mane as she sobbed. Rainbow's body shook with anger, sorrow, and hatred, her hearing lost to her as Fluttershy attempted to try and summon an aeon to stop Sin. Blueblood stopped her, telling her it was not worth it, her strength as a summoner too weak to take on the fiend.

Rainbow looked out at the ocean, watching Sin, her father, begin to laugh, having caused enough damage as if she was deliberately taunting her. "Where do you think you're goin!?" she shouted at the fleeing beast. "Why don't you just finish the job, huh!? Come and fight me, you coward!"

The pegasus sprinted out to the sea, diving into the water and chased after Sin. Sin was far too fast for her, even if she poured in all her adrenaline swimming after him. She didn't care. She wanted to kill him. She wanted to get revenge for those that have lost their lives by this indestructible monster. Her energy began to waver after losing sight of him, her vision going white as she seemed to have passed out.

As Rainbow Dash woke up, she found herself in some strange realm, the environment looking like it was made out of crystal as the sky spiraled wildly above her, almost making her feel nauseous. She then soon saw all the Crusaders and Al Bhed who were a part of the operation, wandering around as they faded in and out in this place. Octavia soon walked past her, not even noticing her as she shook her head, knowing full well she had died.

Before she felt sick to her stomach, the pegasus saw the same dark cloaked kid she kept seeing walk toward her. He shook his head, turning to leave as a blitzball flew straight at her face. Blinded by the spinning ball, she soon found herself back in Zanarkand, her boat home. She wasn't in control of her movements, but she recognized the hooves she was "walking" in; they were her father's. She saw herself as a filly on the upper deck, pouting at the city to avoid his gaze.

"What's with that look?" Jet said, his voice loud and clear as if it was her own voice as she spoke.

"They say you're gonna retire...cause you don't practice," the filly sourly said.

"Psh. Let them talk." He lifted his head up as he chugged down an alcoholic beverage held in his wing, Rainbow cringing as she practically tasted the foul liquid.

"It's because you drink all the time." He looked down at her, leering at his disrespectful daughter.

"I can quit anytime I want, you little brat!" He finished down his drink.

"Then do it." Jet nearly spurted out his beer, looking down at the filly pegasus. "You said you can, so just stop!"

"...Hmph," he shrugged. "Maybe tomorrow."

"Why not today?" Rainbow asked.

"Why do today what you can leave for tomorrow?" Those words hurt Rainbow, both past her and now. To her, it was a double meaning: his drinking and his life with his wife and daughter. Every time he got drunk, he turned into a jerk, making her hate him more as he insulted her and ruined her self-esteem. And his faith was immediately broken with her mother when she actually saw Jet with other mares, several times, and his wife was never the wiser. Filly Rainbow ran away from him, tears rolling down her cheeks. "There she goes crying again."

Her vision faded again as everything turned white, the sting of her father's words painful than any injury she had ever received in her life.

As Rainbow Dash woke up once again, she was back on land, feeling the sand of the beach on her back. She was in another part of the Djose Shore, but the carnage could still be seen in the distance. The pegasus sat up, seeing the many bodies that were recovered from Operation Mi'ihen's losses, Fluttershy dancing as she performed the sending.

"That was a stupid thing for you to do." Thankfully, her attention was turned away from the pegasus summoner as Rarity stood next to her. "Many stories have ended today. Yours still goes on."

"...I'm in no mood for your stories," she mumbled.

Rarity was right about Sin; Rainbow did feel her father was somewhere inside of that fiend. What was word in that strange dream she had was the pain that she felt in her heart was not only hers, but his as well. She had no idea if that was the case. All she wanted was to go back home and forget the despair Spira suffers from. Next Chapter: Chapter 20: Road of Defeat Estimated time remaining: 9 Hours, 3 Minutes