April 1st, 71 BNM
Evening
Nokotaford, Royal Palace
Throne room

“Your majesty, I tried to stop him but-.”
“You let the Princesses go on alone!?”
Starswirl’s bellow caught Queen Nova’s attention, as she strove to make sure she received any and every detail from the battlefield unfolding far away in Tartarus. The black robed, pale furred Alicorn saw Starswirl hobble in, a faint wave of blue magic shoving the infirmary maid back in a gentle, but forceful shove. The generals around her backed off as the Wizard came within a few metres of her, to which she stood her ground in her usual cold manner, though she betrayed her own tension at her decision.
“Believe me Starswirl, I urged them not to, but they volunteered for the task of using the new weapon against the army. Even I couldn’t have stopped them.”
“That weapon will not save your daughters from the beings Siral has made to bring about the end of Alicorns forever! And those he enslaved have their own reasons to see Alicorns fall as well, as some of them already did to your husband!”
As he began to vanish in a blue light, Stasrwirl called out to the collection of assembled Generals and the Queen:
“The Nationalists are as much in danger as you all are, they are not the enemy!”
The blue flash lit up the throne room, as the Wizard vanished from sight. Whispers of Starswirl losing his mind began to run rife, and by what they saw, one couldn’t blame them.
“Clearly the fever has made him delirious…”
But Queen Aurora was quiet, it was too specific to have been delusions of conspiracy. Siral, the wizard Starswirl said had been plotting in secrecy.
Hesitating, she turned back to look over more reports from the battle.
But by the delay of even magic messaging, what news they received was not immediate to what was occurring.

Mid-Western Equestria, Mountain Range
Tartarus prison fortress
Battle plains

The remaining 2 Stone Giants fired back, but they were badly wounded. Even so, their hulking forms were enough to protect the retreating army.
Nationalist clad Unicorns and Earth Ponies didn’t bother with the siege engines, they were left wrecked on the plains and valley floor, along with remnants of the 3 other Stone Giants on the main valley, shattered by the super weapon or by overwhelming assault.
On the opposing side, the Royalists forces, heavily reduced but still hard fighting, jeered as the Nationalist army pulled back, stray volleys of arrows and spells hurled from both sides as it became clear the main battle was ending.

Valley, southern mountain ridge

Disassembling the flag signals, the Nationalist generals peered out to the mountain itself, where the surprise weapons and Stone Giants to the north were making an effort to salvage something from this siege.
“Letter from Nationalist command, correspondence from the Citadel. Destroying the Tartarus superweapon and possible salvage now priority.”
“Good, if we can’t win the day, a draw where we learn the secrets of that immense power will suffice. Any gains to be had are welcomed.”
“But, with all respect sir, we failed, and we lost two Alicorns.”
“I know. That weapon, turned that Stone Giant it bred from the corpse of another against us. All the more reason to even the playing field later, when we won’t face as much cost.”
The older General’s words were the hard truth of the day. Both sides had fought and lost hard, but the victor seemed to be the Royalists. But for now, their ‘elite’ units did battle while the main armies came to an end of their conflict.
It seemed the strange creatures from the Citadel, along with the 1 remaining Stone Giant from the north, and that strange one just in front of the main gates, were doing their part to destroy that weapon.
But in it all, the deceit of the strange 7th being, masquerading as a possessed semi stone giant, and killing the 2 Alicorns in the main army, had worked. The Nationalists believed the giant had been turned by the weapon, against the Nationalists.
It would only explain why Aubelles was in such a heated battle against it, but the strange figure with the sword beside him was not known, except as a long disappeared Salamander who was a friend of Aubelles.
Much strangeness had unfolded today, and much was yet to come.

Tartarus, peak weapon platform

The shield the two sisters collectively held up shimmered the yellow and blue of their magic, while the Unicorn team around the alter recovered the incantations and magic to get the spell ready once again. The protective barrier glistened as the yellow blasts rained down from above, as the draconian-centipede creature made another pass.
The wind howling as Golmov flew overhead, Celestia glared at the creature as he flew away, the first time she’d ever truly hated a being. Beside her though, Luna strained with the magic to a lesser extent, having not been overwhelming in one on one combat against one of Siral’s beings.
“It’s almost ready, but the army is falling back!”
RRRNNNN
As Luna shouted the words over the shimmering magic barrier and the sounds of battle from those outside on the mountain peak and slopes, the last of the northern stone giants came upon them, its lizard like appearance showing its long, more slender build.
The stone clawed hand rushed towards the barrier, to which Celestia and Luna collectively surged it, the massive hand reeling back as the stone was melted at its touch.
Slumping, the massive giant reared up its stony head, its twin silver eyes glinting as it began to charge a beam attack at point blank range.
With a fountain of white sparks flying off the shield, its twin eye beams began to bore into the shield, the giant’s rumbling bellows rising from its chest as it did so.
Overhead, Golmov caught a glimpse further down the battlefield, as he saw a familiar scorpion like creature finishing off the last dozen guards.

Tartarus peak, slopes

A green shockwave sent Slickhooves reeling back, as another of his Earth Pony guards was hurled skywards and struck with another round magical lightning to roast him alive, like too many other guards against this creature.
A bellowing rumble of the stone giant further up the hill distracted Slickhooves, as he glanced around with a rare look of despair adorning his narrow face, the black Pegasus grimacing as that monster of scorpion and ape like make, shot her hand out to a pair of guard ponies firing at her enough to irritate her.
Teal’s magic formed the rocky mountain ground into a sandlike material, locking the Unicorns in place as she charged them, both her lower scorpion claws locking around their necks while she then gripped their heads in her ape hands.
The claws clenched, and she hurled the heads of both guards far away, incinerating them in green fire as she did so.
Blinking at the sight, as Teal Quirt turned to gaze at him from afar, Slickhooves began to back away slowly.
High above, the wind roared as a yellow glowing creature began to dive towards the guards behind Teal Quirt, Golmov’s centipede like legs clawing the ground with their massive size to send a shower of dirt over the remaining guards and crushing one as he flew back to the skies. As he flew up, the one guard Pegasus he missed began to fly upwards as if to challenge him. But casually, a single yellow beam flew from Golmov’s wing, curving in the air to shoot through the pegasus’s chest and send him spiralling to the ground, a corpse in armour crashing to the mountainside.
As the being of greed flew up and around, he turned his gaze back to the shield as the Stone Giant’s twin eye beams blasted it, the two Alicorns and Unicorn team inside struggling to set up and keep themselves safe.
Down on the ground, Slickhooves sighed, as he picked up a nearby sword form one of his incinerated guards, holding it aloft in challenge to the slowly advancing scorpion/ape creature that was Teal Quirt.

As she advanced, green magic glowing in her claws and hands and four horns, Teal saw a blue glow suddenly appear for a moment between her and the defiant black Pegasus, before a voice like a thunderous gust of wind bellowed at her, and sent a shockwave of blue magic to repel her a few dozen metres back.
“VADE!”
The old tongue, spoken aloud only in the most powerful of magic usage, rang from Starswirl’s mouth as he teleported into battle on the mountainside.
A blue shockwave blasted her back, her green shield flickering as she landed, a claw digging into the ground as she righted herself, already readying her own attack, green still in her claws and hands as she saw Starswirl still keeping his leg she’d cut easy, clearly favouring his other 3 limbs.
“You heal fast…”
“You and your fellow creatures should leave now, before I put you down for good. One shall suffice to end Siral’s treachery.”
“Like your little fish swordsman tried to do? He’s a little busy if you’re wondering…”
Sparing a glance sideways, Starswirl glimpsed down towards the battlefield below, as a half sized giant swung its wings down yet again around a bronze armoured Alicorn and-.
“Chack…”
A green glow nearly caught Starswirl off guard, as Teal tried to sucker punch him with a blasting spell. His blue shield defelcted it off to the side, as he bellowed to Slickhooves:
“GO!”
With a nod, the warden of Tartarus began up toward the barrier sealed alter atop the mountain, as the Stone Giant reared back, recovering after its eye beams had worn off. But constant bombardment with long yellow beams from high above caused the blue and yellow shield of the sisters to flicker.
Inside, the Unicorns rushed the spell almost ready.
Down below however, the Seventh of Pride, and the Being of Wrath incoming, were converging. Unable to fly, Odi-Viscer had only just arrived, as a red hued figure landed on the slopes in a crater forming crash.

Tartarus, front gate slopes

As the semi giant’s 50-metre tall frame blasted by in another leap, purple magic shots rained down on all sides, each shot causing splash like spells to rain out that burned on contact.
Aubelles darted about, his shield deflecting these irritating splash spells, while Chack seemed to use that strange green blade to deflect it with his own, unbelievably, green magic. And enchanted blade to compliment is old one, where he got it was a mystery to be discussed another time.
The bronze Alicorn charged from high, his magic burning across the purple hued giant’s rocky body to leave deep scorch marks. Down below, swift slashes and cuts from Chack’s green blade, his normal blade still sheathed, cut into the creature’s ankles.
Kicking out an ankle, ‘Gaudium’ hurled Chack across the plains, his giant form spreading the stone wings to leap upwards, smashing Aubelles aside and into the far away walls of Tartarus’s fortifications as he did so. Coming down feet first, he prepared to crush the Salamander in a single landing.
Slashing the air before him, Chack was consumed in a green flash as the giant’s feet landed. At that same moment, a hundred metres away, something red hued crashed into the ground on all fours.

Staring across the slopes, and up towards the peak high above that was the centre of the more focused battle, Odi-Viscer saw this new ‘ally’ crush the Salamander in a green crushing motion.
But at that same moment, a bronze Alicorn launched from the walls behind, consumed in bronze light as he flipped in midair, his magic forming a spinning, serrated disc that sliced through one of the semi-giant’s large wings.
“YOU DARE!?”
A bellow escaped the giant’s ‘mouth’, which Odi recognised as Gaudium’s, and something else, like Siral’s own voice coming through as well.
DESTROY THE PEAK!
The voice that all but shrieked in Odi’s own mind was definitely Siral’s however, but that was an order he was all too happy to follow.
As the unknown ally of his writhed, slamming the other wing down to crush the bronze Alicorn that fired spell after spell at the giant head, Odi’s red magic hued as he slammed his two rear feet into the ground, planting himself, as he then stared at the mountain, his eyes turning more red than ever before, his stone growing like spikes from his body as he raised both his grey, stone and flesh covered hands to face the mountain peak high above.
Red light filled his joints, and the earth itself began to tremble around him, cracking under the pressure that built.
At that moment, Chack reappeared in mid air, green sword out from teleporting, launching right at ‘Gaudium’s’ head.

The green blade plunged into Gaudium’s left eye, earning a massive bellow of rage from him as Chack pulled the blade out, landing roughly on the ground far below with some help from Aubelles’s magic catching him. In a blind fury, Gaudium’s stone form swung the last of his wings down, laced with more purple hued magic than ever before.
“Catch it!”
Chack’s bellow came as the blade was about to land upon Aubelles, as the Salamander thrust out the green blade in a bid to slice. But the Alicorn’s eyes glowed a brighter bronze, as he raised his wings, each reinforced with magic armour akin to the hardest metal, and caught the bladelike wing over ten times his size, the ground cracking under the impact. As sparks flew, the giant was then encapsulated in a bronze hue.
Hurling him overhead, roaring at the strain, Aubelles saw Chack leap out, his green sword glowing a brighter colour as he stuck it into the bronze magic hue, some sort of energy imbuing.
As the massive giant was hurled over the Alicorn’s head, Chack swung the green blade in an upwards arc, the blade imbued with magic borrowed from Aubelles’s own granting it extra power. A long energy blade thrust out, and with a swipe, the blade sliced the giant from head to tail down the centre as it was slammed down onto the ground.
Both halves collapsed on the ground, falling by the wayside as the black and purple mist began to fly upwards, forming a smoky figure of a lanky shape and mismatched limbs before them, purple eyes glaring at them for a moment.
But Gaudium turned his eyes towards Odi, who had been charging his impending attack.
“Time for an improvement.”
Before they could stop him, the mist vanished, shooting towards the stone skinned and grey fleshed apelike being they only just noticed now, the source of some of the tremors around them. Further beyond, the armies had been forced back, even if a great number of the Royalists had turned to swarm their way.
But the mist entered Odi-Viscer’s nostrils, at which the red glow seemed to darken, but grow intensity.
Eyes snapping open, Odi’s fiery red eyes now glowed a dark ruby red, and the energy in the palms of his hands began to gather much more readily.
“So ends the Royal line!”
Charging towards the now possessed being of wrath, both Aubelles and CHack were hurled backwards as a red shockwave rippled out, right before a colossal beam of pure red magic fired from the ground, lighting up the evening skies as it streaked upwards.

Tartarus peak

“Sister, below!”
Hearing Luna, Celestia saw a new figure far below, glowing more red than anything she had seen, about to fire what appeared to be a beam attack of immense scale right at them.
Glancing up at the Stone Giant, charging its eyes to attack their barrier one last time, she exclaimed to Luna:
“On my mark, do as I do!”
Right as the Giant prepared to fire, the Unicorn team reinforced the barrier one more time. Yet as soon as it reared its head back to fire its silver eye beams, as Golmov circled overhead the whole time, and Teal Quirt battled what appeared to be a newcomer they didn’t yet know, Celestia shot her magic out to encapsulate the Giant.
Luna followed suit, as the 100-metre-tall, lizard like beast as engulfed in yellow and blue magic, and like a mace, swung around and thrown off the mountain.
Mid-air, the immense red beam met the lizard like giant halfway down the cliff and walls, detonating in a massive cloud of debris and light that sent a shockwave through the air for all to feel.

Seeing the blast, Golmov shielded himself with a yellow aura, but even that didn’t stop him from being knocked upwards a hundred feet.
Far below, as she duelled Starswirl, Teal Quirt saw the red hued explosion’s shockwave in time to dig in her claws and hands, sliding back a few feet as the pulse hit her.
His blue shield holding firm, Starswirl was unfazed by the blast, and used the chaos to survey the situation. Looking upwards to the peak’s ‘alter’, he saw Slickhooves arrive at the alter amidst the chaos, as the shockwave caused the shield to falter for a moment.
Right as the Unicorn team began gearing up the spell for another blast.

“Is the spell ready?” Slickhooves demanded, as he came up to the alter. As Luna and Celestia put up the shield again, the Unicorn mage leading the team replied:
“Charged and ready, it just needs a-.”
“User to release it, yes. That is all I needed to hear. Now, leave, while we have this chaos to our advantage!”
At Slickhooves’s demand, Celestia turned in outrage:
“Abandon the mountain? We can-!”
“They won’t take the mountain, but I will ensure this weapon does one more round of damage before it is ended. The spell can be reused, but I refuse to let Tartarus fall.”
“As your Princess, I order you to stand down!” Celestia barked, unwilling to let Slickhooves go through with what he proposed. Nearby, Luna strained as Golmov unleashed a new barrage of yellow magic on high, having already recovered from the shockwave.
Staring at the princess, Slickhooves saw Starswirl appear, the Wizard having apparently heard it somehow.
“Feel free to tell the Queen I disobeyed orders, but my duty is to Tartarus, even in death. Now GO!”
Wandering over to the alter, Slickhooves placed his hoof upon the ‘alter’, his black wings splaying as he felt the energy he would be a conduit for.
“You’ll die, you’re not an Alicorn, you’ll be destroyed as it goes off!” Luna exclaimed. Slickhooves resisted the urge to rebuke the younger princess, as Starswirl then interrupted:
“You will be remembered for this, all of you.”
As Starswirl’s blue magic engulfed the two Princesses, Celestia tried to lunge to prevent Slickhooves, or any of the Unicorn team left behind, from doing this, while Luna merely looked away as the three of them vanished in a blue light.
In that instant, the blue and yellow barrier vanished around them.

Tartarus lower slopes

Recovering from the shock wave, Odi-Viscer, possessed by Gaudium, reeled down in both anger and exhaustion.
“Again, just another shot agai-.”
A bronze hued metal door was flung through the air at him all of a sudden, as one of the massive wrought metal gates of Tartarus had been hurled by Aubelles right at the stone/ape creature. Like a gigantic fly swat, Odi-Viscer was crushed beneath the massive door as the bronze magic slammed it down atop his form, the only evidence being a small dent in the door’s frame from above.
Further back, as he flew down, Aubelles heard Chack walk over, having recovered from the shock wave himself. The Alicorn looked at the Salamander for a moment, giving a slight scoff at the blade:
“It seems we have a great deal to talk about concerning your absence, and your allegiance to a Royal Wizard.”
Not changing his expression, Chack then stared up at the mountain, suddenly wary as a flash of blue he recognized consumed the top. Turning to Aubelles, he urged:
“Go to your army, warn them, help them. Things could get worse from here on out. Now go, before they turn the weapon on you as well.”
Staring up at the mountain himself, Aubelles then heard the door he’d slammed atop Odi-Viscer audibly move, groaning as the creature shifted off his half buried body beneath it.
With a brief stare at Chack, who turned away to slash his green blade into the air to teleport from here, Aubelles saw a white light building atop the peak before he too vanished in a bronze flash. He didn’t want to be here when that weapon went off again.

Tartarus, alter peak

The white light built, as Slickhooves felt his form about to go. But he would literally give his all, if anything to make it as destructive as possible to the creatures around the alter, and the one below it and anyone aligned with them.
The Unicorn team shrieked as the feedback, a result of there not being enough magical power between them all including Slickhooves to handle it, began to consume their bodies. Electrical arcs blasted them apart as a natural forcefield suddenly expanded from the alter, while Slickhooves’s own black pegasi form was consumed by it. Fur exploded off his body in painless heat, while in a moment he saw his skin peel away to his skeleton, and then that too turned to ash as he was consumed, energy for the last use of this particular weapon.
The spell itself could be replicated, the alter had been a crude means of unleashing it for the first time. Crude, but effective. Later uses would see no need for ‘alters’ or things beyond the ponies involved.
But no event involving this spell, save one that would define history for a millennium afterwards, would ever eclipse the power unleashed in one fell swoop.

Hurling her shield up, Teal Quirt felt like a thousand fires were upon her as she was hurled back, nearly blacking out from the speed and power slamming into her. The scorpion/ape/pony hybrid was thrown backwards off the mountain, a green sphere amidst a sea of white energy arcs that scorched the land and cracked mountains asunder.
Higher above, Golmov punctured the cloud cover as the burning white light hurled him skywards and away, the draconian-centipede hybrid vanishing into the dark late evening skies.
And on the ground, as he just about had the massive gate door of Tartarus off him, Odi-Viscer, and Gaudium possessing him, shared the pain of the force of the blast both heating and pressing the door down upon them. In desperation, they burrowed down, as they were spared the worse of the blast.
Across the peak of Tartarus, as both the royalist army that had stopped short for its own safety, and the Nationalist army now over a mile away, they witnessed the force at work, as a faint shockwave of air hit them even from that far away.
A white blast consumed Tartarus, the bare bones of the mountain like a silhouette among the light, some mountain ridges alongside it being sliced and scorched all the time this went on. Lightning arcs unlike any seen before struck the earth asunder where they fell, and across the night sky, the very stars themselves seemed to flicker, while the half-moon overhead visibly dimmed in brightness for a moment as this cataclysm was unleashed.
As the air and light finally settled, what remained of Tartarus was a daggerlike triangle of a mountain, much of the rest not reinforced by old magic having been blasted away.
The land was scorched black on the slopes surrounding the mountain itself, the damage stopping just half a mile short of the Royalist forces moving to re-secure the mountain. Now, the fortress intact, but empty, surrounded by a recently created no man’s land that still glowed orange hot in the night.
All army members stayed far from the scorched lands of Tartarus, even as the white glow from what would become known as the Hellfire Aurora lit up the night sky.

10 minutes later

Blearily snapping her eyes open, Teal Quirt dragged herself from the crater of rock and dirt she had landed in, wincing at the immense pain she felt in one of her ape arms, likely sprained or worse.
Glancing out to the darkness slowly creeping over Tartarus, now 2 miles away, she gasped as pain finally set in.
High above, a familiar set of mutated wings flapped as he landed, Golmov’s yellow eyes a sight for her own sore green ones.
“Was the weapon destroyed?”
Golmov bitterly remarked: “It took itself out, in a last blast that could have killed us if we were lesser beings. Even now though, I don’t think any of us walked away unscathed.”
“No, and for that reason, more must be done.”
A voice sounded in their heads, as a rushing noise from overhead came with Odi-Viscer roughly landing on the ground from a series of long jumps, having come from the front area of Tartarus. Even in the dim light they saw the burns on his body were healing already.
But as Odi stumbled, a black/purple mist came from his nose, and formed beside him to reveal that same, lanky mismatched being sporting an animal antler ‘crown’, and traits similar to Gaudium. The new being, the seventh they were promised, spoke clearly, though he too had been forced to experience the physical pain Odi had with the blast.
“The Citadel, now. If they are willing to go this far, we shall go further.”
As she stared at Odi-Viscer however, Teal Quirt found herself thinking that something was not right with this seventh being. Something seemed, off about him. But she just could not comprehend what it was, she was so tired right now.
So much had happened today, the battle itself a draw, but one with their abilities tested in many ways. They had proven stronger than any lone Alicorn, but too many surprises had emerged.
Elsewhere, the sacrifices to ensure Tartarus held strong against the most powerful solo beings in Equestria were to be felt in force by the royalty and Wizard, and the Salamander who went to reunite with him after too long.
Secrets would come to a head on all sides it seemed.

Author's Notes:

The end of the Battle of Tartarus, and a precursor to a greater cataclysm that occurs with much direr effects for the world. Enough said.