April 1st, 71 BNM
Evening
Mid-Western Equestria, Mountain Range
Tartarus prison fortress, northern mountain rim

The Giant reeled in agony as the multitude of joint effort magic beams penetrated its rocky hide, footfalls crushing entire trees underfoot or sending miniature landslides where it staggered away.
Arrows and weapons fired from the non-magic users into the wounds, what would have been ineffective now like adding tiny needle pricks to an open wound, suddenly causing pain to these immense beasts.
Yet Celestia still noticed that 6 of them had reached the main valley, and distant shots of magic were peppering them from the main battlefields as the Nationalists had fallen back to reinforcements, normal or stone giant, arriving on the battlefield.
A few pegasi had flown in retreat there, to spread word to concentrate fire to even be able to harm the creatures, but them with the normal army was not as easy a force to overcome.
3 Giants were limping, one fully out of action, but two more roiled like angry beasts further back, shoving aside some of the incapacitated creatures to storm up the shallow mountain slope towards the army they came with.
Casting her gaze towards the peak, Celestia flew to Luna as she fired another heavy blast at a slowed Giant far below, calling to her:
“We must go, the weapon should be ready by now, if not soon!”
“About time!” Luna agreed, as she saw the two furthest back giants come to the forefront, beginning to drive their army into a slow retreat west across the mountain front. Clearly the giants and the army had no idea what was atop Tartarus, so focused on seizing its interior.
Turning to make a last pass of orders to the army commanders of the remaining 2000 or so ponies 1000 feet below them, a faint yellow light flashed outside of Luna’s vision. On instinct, the sister flashed her blue magic, and both she and Celestia teleported a few dozen feet away.
A yellow beam, burning and hissing as it seemed to slice through the air itself, arced past where they’d just been flying. The beam burnt into the mountainside, a few of the soldier ponies far below having to raise their shields, magic or not, against a faint shower of dust it threw up from the slopes.
Turning around, Celestia saw their aerial attacker, as something quickly emerged from some cloud banks that had rolled in overhead, large and imposing.
But it was no Stone Giant that emerged.
Erupting through the clouds at speeds unnatural for most dragons, a 200-foot-long dragon, black and night and with glinting golden stripes and an underbelly, roared through the skies above in a dive, his mouth glinting with another intense yellow mouth attack.
Darting sideways, the two sisters split off from each other as the dragon tore through the air between them. But as Golmov tore past the two sisters, he flared his wings out, and purposefully fired his attack from his mouth at the army below.
The sisters could only glance in horror as at least two dozen ponies were reduced to nothing by the energy attack, while the dragon’s purposeful skidding landing on the ground crushed a handful more. Taking flight amidst the purposeful crash landing, Golmov’s face turned as he rose to view the distant Alicorn sisters.
From behind them, a few beam attacks from the two still capable Stone Giants nearly hit them, but Luna deflected them back with her magic. Celestia sternly spoke to Luna, as she wondered why the Dragon was even here:
“Luna, I’ll handle this dragon. Slow them enough and get to the weapon…”
“But-.”
“Do it!” Celestia wouldn’t let Luna finish, as the young white Alicorn princess flew forwards, her own magic shield raised as the dragon noticed her approaching, coming to a taunting hover before her, far above the army slowly retreating as it fired on the 4 wounded Stone Giants and 2 capable ones Luna was helping wear down.
“What do you want!?” Her bark, raised in authority by her royal voice, didn’t intimidate Golmov in the slightest.
“You won’t intimidate me with words Alicorn welp, not this time…”
As battle sounded around them and below, Celestia angrily spoke, gesturing to the carnage:
“Have you anything to do with this? What do you gain from this?”
“My honour, something you took from me when I was a lesser being, along with MY crystal heart! I was humiliated by you and your ponykind, seeing it fall to ruin with me a leading role in it is enough to restore my standing in life.”
Celestia was quiet, as she finally recognised the dragon, the one who so long ago had seized the Crystal Heart for his own, whom she intimidated and humiliated into hiding with words, albeit powerful ones, alone.
“Your greed risked an entire Empire, you had to be stopped.” Celestia spoke, absolute conviction in her voice. With a scoff as he hovered before her, wings beating as his body began to slowly glow a toxic yellow colour:
“You can try and do that again here and now. Though for your sake, and that of your other family…”
A yellow flashed filled the air, and as she stopped squinting, Celestia stared in horror at the creature that hovered in the air before her.
From afar, as she fired off another beam into the eye of a Stone Giant, Luna glimpsed the creature too, eyes fixated on something not even her nightmares could conjure.
Hovering before Celestia, as the army pulled back, the Giants behind and below them pressing forwards slower than before but always forwards, Golmov spread his multitude of legs wide.
His serpentine body writhed in the air as his four wings beat hard, two of them sporting ‘hands’ that began to glow a fierce yellow, as well as segmented armour like a centipede’s that glowed yellow at the rims as he charged his magic.
“Pray that you fare better than your father did!”
Her magenta eyes widening at the hissed curse, Celestia almost zoned out as Golmov fired. The triple yellow beams missed as she teleported far below, but her vision filled with the grief she’d buried and settled with over her father’s death. Grief, turned to rage, as her vision tunnelled upon Golmov.
Hovering just above the terrain, Celestia’s tears evaporated as her horn turned a fierce yellow, before she launched skywards in a meteoritic form towards Golmov.
His own yellow shields going up, Golmov’s multiple legs extended outwards as she crashed into his body on high with a thunderous crack, his legs flailing as they glowed his toxic yellow to fire controlled beams outwards. Not burning beams, but they acted like gigantic tendrils that seized Celestia’s glowing form like a ball and hurled it towards the mountain side far away like a slingshot.
As Luna glimpsed from afar, seeing the creature tear after her sister, she glanced at the state of the army they’d come with. Every Stone Giant of the 6 was slowed, limping for their size, no longer such an immense threat. She didn’t even need to fly down to the army commander to see that they could contain the threat enough.
Turning towards Tartarus’s peak, she glimpsed her sister flying back from where she’d managed to avoid being smashed into a mountain side, slice like shockwaves of raw magic flying from her in a rage fuelled attack pattern she’d never thought possible from Celestia.
But the creature seemed to shrug off every assault, its almost insect like legs and wings firing its own yellow beams, be they burning energy beams, magical limbs to grab, smash or even flick Celestia aside.
Heading towards the peak, Luna knew that if there were any more like that here, the weapon was their only hope.
As she came to land at the ‘alter’ like place, where the Unicorn team had nearly finished, she glimpsed the battlegrounds before Tartarus’s plains.
The 6 Stone Giants here ran amok, as those Royalist Unicorns who worked together to penetrate the skin were too often overwhelmed by incoming charges by regular forces. Siege engines had been destroyed, but they seemed redundant with the Giants here.
Within the carnage, as night began to creep in, the flashes of the magic and fire based weapons on use had turned the valley into a glowing sight to behold, orange and red to match the sunset drenched skies overhead.
A blood red sunset.

Tartarus prison fortress, peak
Evening/Sunset

At a nearby stairwell, a secret, hidden passage that acted as a narrow entry and exit point, the hatch opened up, disguised among the rock and scrub grasses to be indistinguishable.
Clambering out, Slickhooves already saw the Unicorn team readying the weapon, as well as Princess Luna of all ponies standing there, devoid of another Alicorn he was promised.
“Princess Luna, where is your sister?” Slickhooves politely demanded, to which Luna turned her gaze north, to a distant battle of 6 limping Giants pursuing a shrunken army. More specifically, to a pair of battle yellow lights high above, one noticeably brighter than the other, the smaller one often being knocked backwards like a prey animal warding off an attacker.
“We must get this ready as soon as possible, or else she might die.” Luna urged. To this, Slickhooves turned his gaze south, remarking bluntly:
“The Giants there wreaking havoc on the army, if they’re not stopped hundred more will die and Tartarus will fall. They’re priority if we want to win this battle.”
“I will not let my sister fall to that creature if it can be helped!” Luna replied coldly. Sensing the difference in their opinions, Slickhooves grew some nerve and strode up, the black Pegasus giving Luna a harder look than he’d normally allow himself to a princess:
“Forgive the disrespect, but Tartarus is more important to the War than a single Princess.”
“Hold thy tongue Commander!” Luna shrieked, to which Slickhooves had to backstep an instinctive flare of her magic. The Unicorn team of magicians responsible for getting the weapon alter ready nervously shifted in their incantations, while Slickhooves stood his ground.
“If this place falls, then the War is-!”
Rumble…
An earth tremor shook the mountain, cutting off Slickhooves as he sensed something wrong in the depths of the prison and fortress. Glancing to the guards that came up with him to remain here, he turned to Luna one last time as he began to head for the hidden stairwell:
“Your sister is doing the right thing, keeping the worst away while this is readied. If you wish to help, do the same there, and return as soon as this is ready! They are trying to seize the mountain from the inside somehow!”
Slickhooves gestured to the immense battlefield to the south, where the thousands of soldiers on each side and the Giants duked it out, fires and flashes of magic lighting up the already body strewn valley floor.
Glancing out, Luna turned back to see the black Pegasus tearing out of sight, into Tartarus’s depths through the hidden stairwell.
With an aggravated sigh, praying to any gods there might be, she took off, her eyes training on the Stone Giants in particular. As they charged like elephants among ants through the ranks, she tore through the Tartarus barrier and down into the valley’s skies, her blue beam beginning its first burning arc across the plains, slicing into a Giant’s immense shoulder, the bellows of pain joining the multitude of other battle-cries.
Inside Tartarus, a smaller, but no less fierce battle unfolded, though one side was clearly outmatched.

Tartarus interior, prison depths.
Chasm

Far below, in depths unseen, flooded by an underground river that their magic let them endure, the beings of Wrath and Envy had navigated the deepest tunnels from the defensive crevice before Tartarus, and entered the immeasurably deep cavern from its lowest point.
Stretching up like a gigantic natural well, a hundred feet across, the hole stretched down into darkness, massive chains and gears acting as the prison’s elevator system for transporting imprisoned creatures of many sizes, most too big for the service stairwells that ran in a circle up the chasm from the 9th level up to the ground.
Atop one of the levels, as the creatures had gone nothing but up, not once even pausing to release any prisoners as feared, guards inside the prison area fired spells and arrows at the twin creatures, what blows that missed reflecting or clattering down into the endless depths far below perch.
A stoney grey form leapt up, one blow of his arm shattering the loading bridge to send the Earth ponies falling to their deaths far below, while flying up the chasm further, a multi legged creature swiped its scorpion forelegs at the chains that ran up the tunnel. A green glow filled Teal Quirt’s pincers, and with a single snap the chains were cut.
The platform that had been rising above her fell, he sole Earth Pony falling past her screaming, while the 2 Pegasi guards flung themselves airwards to fly up to the gate. The sole Unicorn guard leapt sideways, his hooves grabbing a chain that still dangled in the chasm, struggling to hold on.
Her green magic hovering her up past him fast, Teal Quirt flicked her 4 horned head once, and the chain the Unicorn guard now far below her held onto wrapped around him like a snake, entangling him. He would not fall, but he would be there for a long time.
Finally, Teal Quirt reached the first level, noting the immense doors before her, and the sealed off first level for the least sentenced offenders in Tartarus, most of them war prisoners or thieves.
The darkened caverns, a very slight brown and red tinge to them now that the darkness of the chasm depths had faded somewhat, stood in contrast to the wrought iron gates that were undoubtedly enhanced by magic.
Running her scorpion claws and ape hands over the door, green magic glowing in her palms, Teal stood back as she sensed what they would have to get through. A sound of something heavy landing behind her answered her need.
“It opens into the prison, so pull, don’t push.”
“Do not tell me how to open a door…”
Odi Viscer stomped past, his apelike frame’s stone armour flexing as he gripped the immense double doors, straining to pull them apart. A slight red glow filled his eyes as he strained, pulling hard.
A few seconds passed, as Teal Quirt stood by unimpressed, a single scorpion foot tapping impatiently. As he eased up, Odi-Viscer’s eye twitched slightly at the door, before he grit his teeth and pulled even harder, the enhancements meaning his anger was literally causing him to grow another foot in stature.
Her own green magic affecting the door, Teal Quirt mumbled aloud:
“A few spells, just keep pulling… And…”
The doors actually creaked audibly, as Odi-Viscer felt them give at last. Groaning under the weight of it, he pulled the immense doors backwards, opening them enough to fit his head in the gap.
But roars of outrage, and something else, filled the prison as he slowly pushed the gates shut, forcing a single shoulder against them while turning to Teal Quirt.
Arrows and spell burns slightly scarred his face, and whatever had roared had covered his face in saliva.
She noticed the glow in Odi’s eyes, as she urged him to wait for a moment as she got behind him:
“Go ahead, but remain focused.”
Cracking his neck, a red glow completely consumed Odi-Viscer’s body, his whole frame shaking as he mustered every bit of anger he could draw upon in his current state without becoming blinded by it as Siral warned.
The ground cracked as he lunged at the gate, and whatever volume of roar he let loose was drowned out as he met the inner gates of Tartarus with both fists outstretched crashing into them, blasting the doors off their hinges in a direction they were not designed to turn.
The entire mountain shook from the impact, rocking it from peak to base, as the entrance atrium of the prison filled with screams and roars.
The doors flattened dozens of guards as their immense iron hulks crashed into sentry posts positioned nearby, while Odi charged at the creature that roared as he cracked open the doors first time.
Snarling at this escapee of its ‘den’, regardless if it didn’t recognise it as a guard or a prisoner it knew, Cerberus charged, its mouth and magic enhanced strength and ferocity meeting this creature head on.
Wrenching out his fists, the being of Wrath wrestled with two of Cerberus’s heads in a hand each, full on headbutting the middle head before spinning the massive dog over in midair with a twist of his seized outer heads, the entire atrium rocking from ceiling to floor as the two immense creatures did battle.
The guards fired at the other, but green beams shot out, hitting enough guards that they actually turned to fire weapons at their superior officer. The Envious being’s magic included turning subordinates into traitors.
As they fired on their commanding officer, the Scorpion legged creature continued unabated up the stairwell, knowing the main gates were the key. Far above, all she had to contend with were normal guards, while Odi-Viscer continued to wrestle with the gigantic dog.

Rolling, his stone skinned hands only scratched by Cerberus’s many teeth as they bit down, Odi-Viscer winced as the third head’s mouth engulfed his own, and the 3 heads then pulled, trying to tear his arms off from his torso, likely a favoured tactic of the dog if death was called for.
But he pulled back, his fists and head glowing a fierce red as the 3 heads collided hard enough to stun the guard dog to release him. The jaws going slack, he gripped the teeth of the 2 outer heads, his own massive arms still holding them that way, as he spun around to hurl Cerberus through the doorway he’d crashed through half a minute ago.
The massive dog’s claws scrambled as he whined and snarled, the rear legs slipping over the chasm’s lip before he stopped. Stomping up to the massive guard dog, who was still scrambling to climb back up, the being of Wrath let the dog let out an immense roar at him with all 3 heads as it lunged at him, not quite clear of the lip.
Swiftly uppercutting the middle head, Odi-Viscer roared back as Cerberus tumbled down the immense chasm, claws scrambling helplessly the whole way down until he saw Cerberus scramble to grip the 4th level doorway with its claws and teeth, a painful whimper actually echoing up the chasm as Cerberus clung to the wall for his dear life.
Ignoring the now trapped Cebrarus’s whimpering, Odi-Viscer turned to march back out of the now door-less gates, as he saw Teal Quirt had already gone on ahead of him, a few sounds of magical combat alerting him to some guards still putting up a fight between them and the main gate.

Tartarus interior, main entrance hall

A guard pony was smashed into the wall with a metallic crash in his armour, while a green glow caused a pillar to shatter and fall atop another with a single wave of her clawed hand.
Approaching the massive doors before her, the scorpion/ape/pony hybrid sized up the gargantuan double doors. Knowing what they’d seen outside, she heard the commotion behind her as Odi-Viscer came stomping slowly behind her. Scuttling her feet as she turned, she pointed a clawed lower arm to the door:
“The bridge is up, and even if not the doors aren’t going off their hinges as easily as the inner ones.”
Narrowing his eyes, his fists relaxing slightly, Odi gazed about, his stone ridges ears perking up at a noise:
“We have more coming, higher levels, few dozen, maybe more.”
“Keep them away, I’m going to contact outside, we need one of the giants here to work the bridge and doors from outside while I work on the enchantments.”
As her 4 horns on her head began to glow, a faint green beam engulfing the doors as she focused, Odi-Viscer slowly approached the main stairwell he saw, his heavy footsteps actually cracking the ground as he traversed the stairs.
As the large apelike, stone bodied being of Wrath gazed about, ears alert, a hidden Salamander wielding a pair of swords, one enchanted, gripped the upper column he was hanging onto for dear life, his breathing calm and quiet. Thankfully, echoes of the battle beyond the doors filled the room enough for Odi-Viscer to stomp by 50 feet below without sensing him.
Slowly climbing around, he shuffled ever so quietly down towards the floor, knowing stealth was key to a much easier time for him.

Tartarus, valley battlefield.

A collective beam attack from a few dozen brave Unicorns finally cut through the massive creature’s arm at the shoulder joint, and with a thunderous boom the 100-metre-tall stone giant slumped over in a heap, now missing one of its 4 legs. Rocks and debris rained down on the Nationalist soldiers using it as cover, many fleeing as it crushed a fair number of them.
Surging forwards, as he dove through the dust risen from the collapsing giant, Aubelles’s fired bronze beam hit the lead Unicorn right in the head, but with a spread of his wings and enchanting them with a bronze magic, he gave a flap, and ad hoc pegasi magic sent a hurricane force wind to blow the Unicorns and a few Earth ponies nearby over onto their backs.
Flying forwards into the fray, Aubelles felt a few arrows clang off his armour and magic shields, as he full on tackled a large Royalist Pegasus soldier and reared up, his hind legs glowing a bronze colour in an attack spell.
But he felt a jerk, as his wings were seized by a few Unicorns that noticed him surging into the fray, away from the troopers staying in formations. But not letting them get the upper hand, Aubelles spun, flinging the Unicorns away as their magic grip was turned against them. Whirling around, he stabbed down with his forehooves, the bronze hued magic stabbing into the ground with each stompe like a gigantic tent pike.
Rolling, the Pegasus dodged each blow, before he kicked out violently, earning a grunt from Aubelles. Spinning, the Pegasus bravely thrust his sword out, aiming at Aubelles’s exposed face.
But in a bid of battle rage, Aubelles’s shield flared up, and the sword melted into a puddle of metal within 3 inches of his face, the Pegasus dropping in shock as Aubelles then retaliated, a bronze beam engulfing the Pegasus and proceeding to vaporise a long path into a few dozen oncoming Nationalist ponies up to a few dozen metres behind.
Panting from exhaustion, the Alicorn gazed around before he took flight swiftly, pulling back to the nearest formation. But as he looked, he saw one of the Stone Giants had turned, slowly plodding up the hillside to Tartarus’s gates itself. And only a few hundred brave ponies were there to try and intercept it.
Knowing where he was needed, Aubelles took flight, leading those hundred or so Nationalist troopers escorting the Rhino shaped Stone giant’s 100-metre-tall frame to the Gates of Tartarus, nearly having reached the oil slicked hillsides.
Surging down onto the hillsides, Aubelles carved a line before the advancing Royalist ponies, most of them Earth ponies. As he tore down towards them, a sight made him hesitate briefly, as he saw a large number of them, most Earth Ponies who looked more scared then determined, suddenly turn and try to run.
Simply hovering there higher above, Aubelles saw the Nationalist troopers engage the Unicorns, Pegasi and Earth Ponies who had chosen to fight, before he glanced towards the Stone Giant continuing behind them, towards the massive gates.
Having gone into lockdown, very few arrows and spells rained from the walls, and the Giant was about to come up to the barrier unopposed.
Shaking his head, Aubelles soared down towards the fleeing troopers, his horn charging.
Carving another hole across the ground around them, the bronze Alicorn landed before the fleeing troopers, who backed up as he approached:
“Surrender now, you’re smart enough to earn your lives if you knew you couldn’t beat me.”
At their cowering faces, Aubelles saw them lower their heads, removing their helmets to kneel down in surrender, though he saw that many heads glanced backwards, seeing the dozen or so other soldiers who had fought being struck down by the 50 Nationalists fighting them, and the gargantuan creature that only they had been left to deal with hopelessly.
He pitied the Royalists in this battle, at least those that had died.
Forming a bronze shield over the surrendered troopers, Aubelles wandered up towards the soldiers he came with, who divided their attention between the prisoners Aubelles had captured and the Giant rearing back to begin assaulting Tartarus’s barriers.
But two things happened at once that made Aubelles gaze in awe across the battlefield in the valley below, and elsewhere.
High above, a pair of yellow streaks flew, one pursuing the other, to swiftly turn and crash into the mountain slopes half a mile from them to the West, along the mountain ridge of Tartarus. With his keen, enhanced eyesight, Aubelles saw a white Alicorn as the smaller streak, and a creature he’d never glimpsed before attacking her.
“The princess, here?” A murmur rose from him as he gazed, but then as he looked around at the battlefield in the valley, he saw the full extent of the costs on both sides.
Thousands dead from both sides, siege engines destroyed and ablaze, lighting up the red skies of the evening. Of the Five Giants still in the valley itself, 2 were wounded with legs shattered or broken, while the others mowed their way through the Royalist forces, assaulted from above and below by Pegasi and Magicians with Earth pony weapons aiding them. Hordes of ponies clashed among their massive feet, while some Nationalist troopers used the giants as mobile fortresses, raining death upon the Royalists.
But the blue and white of the Nationalists outnumbered the Royalists 2 to one, without the giants too. Despite the magnificent bravery the Royalists displayed, garrison and reinforcements, Aubelles couldn’t help but think of this being the last big battle. But he felt the Stone Giants, and whatever that creature and others rumoured were, was overkill. The enemy had no chance, thus there was no fight, no honour in there being no mercy given against a foe destined to lose.
“This isn’t battle, its slaughter.” He mused, shaking his head. Turning his gaze towards the massive walls of Tartarus, he mused aloud as he heard some Nationalist troopers coming over to help keep the prisoners in check:
“At least there will be a place left standing after these strange creatures are used. No more Canterlots…”
“You have a point there sir, this war’s pointless with no spoils left to be had.”
At the Earth Pony’s lieutenant’s words, Aubelles couldn’t help but nod in agreement, knowing his sentiment of the war beginning to go overboard were not solely his own.
“Spoils, fegh.., things we had no say in having to give up…”
A murmur from one of the prisoners caught Aubelles’s ears, as he saw an Earth Pony, dirt and blood stained on his face, staring at him with a hard expression. Arching an eyebrow, he waited for the pony to finish:
“You preach about this war’s costs while you heartily fight and kill. Too many of us, we had no choice in joining, our livelihoods claimed for ‘the war effort’. My Earth pony kind, Pegasi who aren’t as militant, Unicorns not as eager to battle… Don’t you preach of loss before our faces, while others are still dying for the ambitions of greedy leaders.”
“What is your name Earth Pony? You’re no warrior, what did you do?” Aubelles asked, approaching the weary looking Earth pony of faint yellow colour:
“Stout Shoethrift, I made horseshoes as per my family name… My lordship forced me to fight when my business was claimed to make weapons, an Alicorn grown fat off mine and others land he owned…”
As he spat the word Alicorn, Aubelles knew all too well this pony was one of many across Equestria. Among Nationalist armies he was respected, but outside, his Alicorn status made him beholden to certain ‘higher’ standards his kind were held to.
“Your fighting days are over Shoethrift. And if your wisdom to surrender is as your shoemaking, your talents will be welcomed when peace returns… The same to the rest of you.”
As he spoke to the prisoners, they only half listened, too weary to hear his attempt at making sure they didn’t try to rebel, or saw that they held no ill will towards those who merely were grunts in the army.
DUUUMMMM!
At that moment, as a distant crack sounded between the battling Alicorn princess and the larger, centipede/dragon like creature, the Tartarus barrier fizzled and crashed, the Stone Giant surging forwards to ram it head first.
“Get them away, towards the rear lines. Best not be here when we start moving in. I’ll watch our living battering ram.”
Aubelles ordered the other Nationalist ponies to escort the prisoners, paying only a passing heed to Stout as he was led away, a last gaze at an insight into the toil of the common ponies in this war.
DUUUMMMM!
Another crash, and the barrier fractured like glass, its translucent, smokelike colour giving way under the massive creature pounding on it, as from the inside, faint green microfractures also laced its power. Magic working from the inside to weaken it enough to break more easily.

Tartarus peak

The weapon was nearly ready, as the energy was gathered, but Slickhooves had not yet returned. Having gazed at Celestia battling that creature, Golmov, in the skies and across the mountain tops, Luna resigned, painfully, to having to use it herself.
The mountain rocked as the Giant beat on the barrier of Tartarus, the fractures spreading upwards to their level.
But down below, a mighty crash, louder than the others, shook the entire mountain enough to make Luna wobble on her feet. The barrier shattered like glass over them, as the barrier finally gave out.
“How long!?”
“5 minutes!”
Staring out across the battlefield, Luna knew they may not last as long if anything caught wind of what they were doing.
But down inside Tartarus, the battle changed suddenly.

Main Atrium

The fortress shook as Teal Quirt reeled back from the main doors, the barriers fully shattered from her weakening spells and the Giant’s massive force from the outside.
But at that instant, she heard shaking from upstairs.
Rock and sounds of battle echoed, before a single Pegasus came crashing down the steps into a wall, too fast to recover, as Odi-Viscer’s bellowing roar filled the hallways.
Surging out of smaller passages, a flock of guards fired back as Odi burst out from the upper levels, down into a level further down the stairs from the main atrium beyond where she watched. A black Pegasus in particular gave a wide berth, firing his larger than normal crossbox carefully as Odi-Viscer shrugged off blows from the other guards hopelessly trying to fight him off.
As she watched, a green glint suddenly caught the corner of her gaze, and she heard something whistling through the air towards her. Acting on impulse, her magic teleporting her, she felt the blade graze her cheek as she barely avoided it, skidding to a halt further back from the doors, and her attacker.
Materialising out of thin air, a red armoured Salamadner stood, a normal sword in one hand, and a strange looking green sword of similar shape in the other. The Ronin, Chack, he was here.
“YOU!” Teal hissed, her claws extending outwards and glowing a toxic green, and her four head horns glowing a similar colour.
Beyond the doors, the Giant shuffled, out of sight as it moved to grip the outer draw bridge. Raising his enchanted sword, Chack pointed it at Teal Quirt, speaking calmly with some self-reprimanding in his tone:
“I must be getting slow in my age.”
“You won’t have the chance to get any older once I’ve finished with you…”
Crouching, Teal focused, and with her eyes alight a toxic green, opened fire. Swiftly sidestepping the blast, Chack’s enchanted blade shot out in an arc, slicing into the beam as it fired to then swing towards her as she stopped, a wave of green energy sent back like a hail of darts towards her.
Firing out her magic once again, the hail of reflected magic darts exploding in green aura, Teal then saw Chack swing the green sword in midair, and vanished as the air itself seemed to be cut asunder.
Off to her right, the air ripped apart, and Chack leapt, his normal sword raised up to strike her head.
Scorpion claw wrenching out, she grabbed the sword he held onto before thrusting out her other claw, which he tucked his legs up to avoid and kick away, before he brought the green blade around to point at her chest and fire a beam of energy.
Recoiling backwards, her scorpion feet cracking the concrete as she slid, she stared angrily at the Samurai, who merely flicked his twin blades around in challenge.
“You were Nationalist mercenary trash, why betray your employer? Or did Starswirl not pay you enough to go under cover anymore?”
Teal’s scathing words struck no chord in Chack, who simply readied his dual stance with a plain retort, while further beyond Odi-Viscer hurled a Pegasus guard upwards into the ceiling to shatter a ceiling support arch, killing the guard instantly.
“I came here to kill only one of a select few. And seeing as you volunteered, I don’t think we should waste any more time.”
He sliced the air with his green sword, another teleport ambush.
Spinning around, she saw him fly from above her, swords crossed in an attack, her own claws met, and they clashed.

Lower atrium

The monstrous, ape-like being hurled another guard across the stairwell, shattering him inside his armour, while from on high Slickhooves ran out of Crossbow bolts. Getting desperate, he knew he’d run out of the special weapons he always kept on hand if this dragged on.
Seeing Slickhooves, Odi-Viscer’s red eyes narrowed, glowing a fierce red as he lunged upwards. The Pegasus darted away, the being crashing into the support archway with enough force to send part of the ceiling crumbling onto the staircase below.
A half dozen guards continued to fire, though as the ape/stone creature landed, he swatted them aside as if they were flies. Sparing a glance towards the main atrium, Slickhooves saw a sword wielding Salamander of all things fighting another strange creature, a scorpion/ape/pony hybrid that did battle physically and magically with him.
Turning back, Slickhooves urged his troops:
“Leave it, the creature is mine! Secure the prison!”
Without a word, the guards flew away as Odi tried to seize them, the being of Wrath noticing the Black Pegasus goading him on from a crumbled stairwell. As he turned however, Odi noticed Teal Quirt in combat with the Salamander, surprised she was having trouble with him. He was fast, but he was no match for her raw power.
Taking a step to help her, a crossbow bolt stuck a small part of his shoulder armor, the bolt a magically enchanted one to cause intense pain that would immobilise even a Minotaur.
All it did was make Odi angry at the Warden and Commander that fired it.
“I decide who enters or leaves Tartarus! NOT YOU!”
Hovering backwards after his threat to the much more powerful creature, Slickhooves flew up the passage he and too many now dead guards had come down, as the being crashed his way up in a single leap, tearing and pulling asunder the tunnel that was too narrow for his enlarged form. Red beams erupted from his eyes, which Slickhooves darted up the tunnel in flight, skimming the tunnel walls painfully as he let the creature chase him further up, towards the passage to the upper levels.
He only hoped the weapon was ready by now.

Tartarus, exterior front

At the main gates, another crash came as the Stone Giant had damaged the massive bridge enough to begin moving it, the 100-metre-tall, rhino shaped being craving apart the stone ramparts with ease, as whatever help form the inside had slowed for some reason.
Stood nearby, Aubelles kept clear, while he was there merely to ensure the Giant did its work. Elsewhere, the strange creature continued to chase the White Alicorn princess like a cat and mouse, one clearly outmatching the other in power and determination to kill.
Across the valley, and north of the mountain, thousands still battled thousands on the ground and in the air, pony or Stone Giant, while inside Tartarus, the smaller battles raged as fiercely as the ones outside.
All the while though, atop the mountain, the weapon lay just about ready to use, beginning to power up with the Unicorn team and sole Alicorn princess there knowing the time was soon.
By now, the sun had set, and night had fallen over the now ablaze and roaring plains of the battle. No nightfall would quell this battle.

Author's Notes:

No non-reflective material can withstand an intense enough laser, or multiple ones focused together. Similar principle applies with magic attacks.
Golmov chose Celestia over Luna, because she was the more directly ‘scolding’ of him enough to make him cower in his ‘lesser’ days. Dragon pride and honour does that to him. Though it quickly devolves into a game of cat and mouse, even he enrages Celestia by mentioning he slayed her father personally.
Clearly Slickhooves would prefer Tartarus to not fall over Celestia living, though things get out of hand before this causes too much of a rift between him and Luna, heat of battle and all that.
An inside infiltration of Tartarus goes smoothly, until a certain Salamander gets involved, and the local Commander tries to lure the more temperamental Being to the roof for a hopeful attack by the weapon.
And Odi-Viscer takes no abuse from any three headed dog and lets it slide.