As soon as I woke up to the smell of a poorly cooked breakfast and the sound of a tin tray sliding into the cell, I put the aviators on. Mei promptly gave me a status report. “Morale boosting was successful, and everyone’s putting on an act for the droids. Pinkie Pie. . . She’s definitely strange. Asked for something called Candy Crush. No idea what that is. Assurances and discussions satisfied everyone else. I gave Twilight a teaser for what you found, and have already negotiated with her. You will have no problem selling her the artifacts.”

“Well, that’s good to know.” I picked up the breakfast and heated up the tray, cooking the meal a bit more. “Is there hay or grass in this?”

“It doesn’t look like there is. Allergic?”

“Yeah.” I took a chance and ate the food. I didn’t taste any grass in it, and it seemed to settle okay in my stomach, so I wasn’t too worried. “So, do you think I could cause a breakout, get some chaos going, and bottleneck the droids?”

“Right up until they use grenades and indirect methods. But if you TDR your weapons, that will cause a distraction, and you can use that time to break out. Also, the prisoners here have various restraints on them, digitally locked and controlled. At your command, I can release the digital components so Twilight can safely remove them. Her plan.”

“Do it as soon as we’re clear.”

“Of course.”

It felt like forever, but finally, Mei gave the all clear, and the plan was a go. As soon as my shotguns and swords started appearing, I heard an explosion from up above. I broke down the cell door with a single explosive kick. I didn’t wait to see Twilight free everyone. Instead, I made a beeline for the doorway.

A single droid was about to go down the stairs when I slashed it in half down the middle with a gun. I did not stop there, running towards the biggest concentration of droids. Before rounding the corner to meet them, I quietly apologized to Twilight, jumped towards a wall, and explosively kicked off of it, flying over the droids. Repeatedly, I jumped off the walls, zigzagging my way through, and soon having every droid in the castle on my trail, as I’d hoped, laughing at the thrill all the way.

“I’ve located Grievous, Red, White, and VSX,” Mei informed me. “They’re planning to take a train to Canterlot, and are at the station now. Chances are that they think. . . Nope, they’ve been updated on the breakout and are preparing to hunt you down.”

“Let them,” I said. “Grappling hooks would be sweet right about now. Swing up high, then rain lead down upon them.”

“VSX seems to be the biggest threat of the four. Take him out first.”

“Noted.” As I left the castle, I kept my momentum going, flying around town. Droids poured out of every building in pursuit of me, and the citizens followed, but not going too far from their homes. As soon as Mei confirmed that every droid in town was after me, including Grievous and the three unique ones, I flew off, luring them somewhere with less chance of property damage.

I landed in the diamond dog territory, safely away from town. Some dogs popped up, saw me, screamed, and went underground, filling the holes they came from, then filled in more holes. "Okay, they're safe. I'm sure they can handle any battle droids that fall into their tunnels."

It wasn't long before the army arrived. Mei was busy doing a thing as Grievous walked up, flanked and backed by the other three. "You got your weapons back and staged a successful breakout. I'm honestly impressed." He clapped his metallic hands for a few seconds. "I'll give you an offer: join me and we can take over the world. Anyone who's wronged you can-"

"Those guys have been taken care of," I preempted. "Some got stripped of their titles, power, and wealth. One of the others is a business partner now. The rest seem to have learned their lesson. But you know what? Now that I think about it, there is someone who's wronged me, though you can't help me with them."

"I would personally make sure they were dead."

"So you would destroy your army and off yourself?"

"Now that you tell me that, no. It's clear that we have to fight now."

"I gave peace a chance." Mei gave me a thumbs up and I opened fire at the quartet. They scattered, the twins going one way, Grievous another, and VSX just stood there tanking the gunfire.

The battle droids opened fire and I moved to the side. Mei assured me that every shot from them would go wide, thanks to her tampering with their aim a bit, but it still wasn't fun to get shot at.

The twins opened fire, their guns releasing a huge volume of laser fire. I returned fire with my real guns and they retreated behind the battle droids, which got shredded.

VSX unleashed a volley of fire of his own from a foot cannon, arm cannon, and a minigun, and I kept moving, adding in explosive kicks and wishing I had more explosive shell bands. He only stopped firing when I dove into the droid forces, slashing at them with the guns indiscriminately.

Grievous jumped in from above, and only a warning from Mei got me out of range from his clawed foot aimed at my head. The droids moved back from me for their own safety. "This fight has been amusing," Grievous admitted. "But it's time to end this." He picked the four lightsabers from his hips and lit each one. Two green, two blue. He started spinning two of them in front of him, and I opened fire. Some of the shot got past the lightsabers and didn't damage him. The shot that got melted by the blades did a little damage, but still seemed ineffective.

Rapid fire lasers caught me off guard, and I turned around looking for it. "Pay attention!" Grievous shouted, which was all the warning I had to get away from a lightsaber swing.

After the swing, my head felt much lighter. I felt a breeze on the back of my neck, and I slowly turned around. There on the ground was over half of my hair. "Rip and tear."

"Hm?"

I started radiating heat as my anger rose. "Rip and tear. Rip and tear. Rip and tear. Rip and tear." Arcs of flame danced over my armor. "Rip and tear. Rip and tear. Rip and tear." A corona of fire framed my eyes. "Rip and tear. Rip and tear! Rip and tear! Rip and tear!" Everyone took a few steps back as the area around me heated up. "Rip and tear! Rip and tear! Rip and tear! Rip and tear! RIP AND TEAR!" A drum beat, fit for war, filled the air. RIP AND TEAR RIP AND TEAR RIP AND TEAR! RIP! AND! TEAR! UNTIL IT IS DONE!"

I tossed aside the scorched and partially melted faceplate as a west pointed sunflare rose from Grievous's body and exploded. All around me were melted and broken robots, scorched earth, and the occasional crater with a bit of melted rock in it. Waves of heat rose from the earth as my temper only started to cool down. I was still incredibly furious.

“Yang?”

I turned to the voice and charged at the source, not caring who it was. I missed and looked around, trying to find who it was. A lavender, silver, and gold glowing barrier suddenly filled my vision. It was too close for the shotguns, so I punched it with all my might. The only thing that happened was the buckshot falling to the ground in front of me.

“Yang, calm down!” I ignored the voice, focused solely on trying to break the barrier. I paused when something tingly hit the top of my head, then went back to punching the barrier. “Yang, I fixed your hair! You can stop now!”

“RIP AND TEAR!”

“There’s nothing left to destroy! Everything’s fine now!”

My punching slowed down, and my breathing started getting a bit heavier. “RIP. AND. Tear!”

“I think she just needs to get it out of her system,” another voice said. “All three of us can hold the barrier while she does that.”

“I wish it was as simple as that hair fixing spell,” a third voice said. “It was an excellent idea, though.”

“Rip! And! Tear.” I felt pain in my everywhere, and I was slowing down, but I had to break the barrier.

“I think it actually worked,” the first voice said. “I think we’ll be able to talk to her soon. In fact, I think she might have enough control now to not attack us on sight. Reduce the opaqueness.”

The barrier started clearing up, and I saw Twilight, Luna, and Celestia through it. All three were concerned and looking at me as I delivered one more punch. “Oh, hi,” I said before collapsing onto the inside of the bubble. “It is done,” I whispered before closing my eyes.

Author's Notes:

Quick battle is quick and full of fire, fury, and metal. Also a degree of laziness on my part.