The skies of Equestria was shifting. Once there had been a clear open, red, sunny sky. Yet now, turmoiling clouds were billowing forth from the Everfree Forest. As a testament to the wild spirit of the forest, its weather was just as unpredictable as the plant and wildlife. And even as the dark clouds carried themselves over the scorched fields and hills, the two alicorns beneath them, looked upon one another.

One was as black as midnight, both mane, tail and fur. He taller then any known equine, armed in armour of blackest of iron, a long handled battle axe floating by his side. His name was Maleficus Victoria, and even if he held a calm and serene smile on his face, was he actually distressed within his own thoughts as he faced his opponent. This had not been how he had wanted things to turn out, yet there was nothing he was willing to do to change it, he was too stubborn. *I wonder what my parents would think of me like this... No. Better not think of it. I made my choice. Now I got to live with it. One way or another, this will not be over. Should either of us win, it will not be over. Not like we are now. We are too damaged, too stubborn... too stupid. I know this. I think she does too. And yet, here we are. About to lock ourselves in a conflict that might not ever end.*

Opposite of Maleficus was an alicorn mare as white as the snow, her mane and tail floating like clouds of solid rainbows, her body covered in rune engraved plate armour, a large golden pole axe, held by her magic. Her eyes glared upon her hated foe, her fury causing her multi coloured mane and tail to flare up with intense heat and light. She was Celestia, the Princess of the Sun, Eldest Daughter of Queen Laura Faust, current sole ruler of Equestria, and her thoughts were just as frantic and distorted as her appearance showed. *This be it! We shalt avenge thee sister! He shalt regret ever harming thee! Our fury shalt burn him to cinder! We do not care about what may happen to us as long as he pay!*

The billowing clouds furrowed over the sun, covering its crimson rays. Even as the darkness began to cover the land bellow, the battlefield was still lit up by the ambient energies of the two alicorns, their rising powers causing a soft glow to emit from not just their bodies but their very surroundings as well.

As the clouds completely covered the sky, was a soft sense of moisture filling the air, a heavy taste of iron filled it as well. And then even as rumbling emitted from the clouds and flashes of light began to emerge beyond the Everfree Forest, a single drop of water fell down from the skies, and struck the soil between them.

What followed, was a clash that would shake the very land itself.

Maleficus was far less experienced when it came to the body movements of an alicorn with his mere year and a half compared to Celestia who had around two centuries worth of experience. Yet while he lacked experience in the natural movements of his body, was his instincts and combat movements, far sharper.

Even as they both sprang forward, axes raised to strike, he had aligned his body to get as much impact as possible. His head was lowered, his horn shifted into the form of a thick blade that suddenly changed direction about three inches up and changed into a upside down crescent shaped blade pointed forward, the tip ending two inches above and five inches in front of his nose. This gave him not only a sharp edge for the charge, but a form of protection as well.

So as their hooves beat the soil, kicked up grass, ash and dirt, their axes were swung at the speed of sound. The resounding crack of metal striking metal echoed across the field as lightning split across the sky. And then a loud scream of pain and anger filled the air as the two alicorn slammed into one another. Celestia aiming to skewer her opponent's skull upon her horn, and Maleficus, to defeat her without being too injured himself.

Celestia's golden armour covered the most vulnerable points of her body, yet left many areas unprotected, most of them being joints for maximum flexibility. And this was not a good thing for this battle, because Maleficus took advantage of these weak points in her armour. Rather then letting her get a chance to strike at his head with her horn, the black alicorn suddenly hunched his entire body before springing upwards headfirst. His hunching made her miss her intented target and left her wide open as Maleficus slammed his horn into her chest. The blade of his horn sliced into the unguarded space between her left foreleg and body, cutting a deep gash into the pit of her left foreleg and launching her entire body into the air by the sheer force behind the impact.

Celestia had screamed out in pain and anger as the horn of her foe sliced up her flesh. Yet she focused through the pain and, even as she flew into the air, she charged her horn with a powerful energy before unleashing a beam of solid light at Maleficus.

Flinching the black alicorn stopped his charge and turned his head to the side as to not get the intense energy into his eyes. The intense heat of the beam scorched his front armor until its black mass had turned into a cheery red glow, the scent of scorched flesh and burnt fur filling the air. Maleficus let out a growl at the aim but it was not as painful as it could have been, his armour was layered so thick that only a small area had been burnt.

The energy beam faded as Celestia landed on her side on the ground, grunting slightly in discomfort as her already healing injury stung painfully from the impact. She sprung up on her hooves instantly and readied to charge again when the flat side of a large black battle axe slammed into her left armour covered cheek, the force of the weapon slamming into her head and the resonance of her helmet left her head ringing.

Maleficus let the distorted Princess recover while he took two rapid backward leaps as to get some distance, then his horn began to glow as a sphere of blue energy appeared in front of him, it was the size of a football at the beginning but then began to condense as he focused, showers of intense sparks of yellow and blue shooting off it.

As Celestia's head recovered Maleficus reared his head back before making a headbutt into the air, and the sphere detonated into a lance of lightning. Celestia hastily put up a magical shield in front of her, yet the power behind the magic was enough to overload the energy shield she tried to hold up and it exploded. Her entire body twitched as it was once again sent into the ground.

She recovered quickly however and to up from the ground with a powerful flap of her wings. The Princess did not bother to stay still and charged at Maeficus who was charging up another lightning lance. She summoned her own magical powers and a stone rode exploded out beneath Maleficus and struck his armour covered stomach with a loudly resounding clang, the force behind the blow send him stumbling on his side.

The downside of this was that the lightning he had gathered exploded out uncontrollably. The arcing lightning stunned and blinded her as the ozone smelling plasma struck at everything nearby, including her.

Struggling up from the ground Maleficus shifted his entire body, popping his bones back into their proper order. There was a large crack in the center of his barrel's plate armour. His injuries were mostly internal but just like with Celestia, they healed too rapidly to be much of a bother.

Celestia rubbed her eyes, and once her vision cleared, glared at Maleficus who returned it with a serene smile, said smile turned a bit feral when the two of them charged one another once more. Maleficus' axe slammed into her own, sparks exploding at the incredible forced behind the two magically wielded weapons. Then the two alicorns were the ones to clash.

Maleficus kept his vulnerable parts away from Celestia's horn and instead sought to tackle her to the ground. However, Celestia had anticipated this and instead enforced her forelegs with magic and raised up her hooves into his chest and physically halted his tackle. As the two large ponies impacted one another a great physical struggle began. Maleficus was far larger and physically stronger then Celestia, yet she was far more able to absorb his strength with her legs since she knew how to properly handle it from her spars with her many sparing partners and trainers.

The stalemate could not last and it did not as Maleficus figured out what to do about his current situation. With a sudden heave of his forelegs and spine, he stood up on his own hind legs and pressed his hooves against Celestia's front, mirroring her own stance. Smirking he spoke to her, for the first time since their fight started. "This is most fascinating! I have learned a lot from you so far Celestia! And I know that I still have much more to learn!" Then with a heave he pushed her.

Celestia almost fell on her back when the force behind the push made her fall backwards, yet she managed to push herself up with her hind legs and then flapped her wings to flip upright so that she could once more land on her hooves. A bright white glow filled the air suddenly and she felt a freezing chill as the black alicorn fired a sphere of blue ice at her. With a jerk of her neck she swung her horn upwards and a curved energy slash erupted from her horn and sliced the iceball in hall.

Lowering her head she fired a golden beam of magic at him, he retaliated with a beam of his own, only red. The two struggled for a bit until the clashing energies dispatched in a bright flash. Maleficus then fired a bolt of lightning, which was absorbed by a stone spike summoned form the earth by Celestia.

The black alicorn then decided to try something different and rushed forward, his body glowing in a red coloured aura, his movement blurring as he suddenly jumped into the air. Celestia barely had time to teleport out of the way as the super sonic alicorn slammed into the area she had been standing on, a fifty meters long and three meters wide trench taking shape from his miss with the jump kick.

Appearing ten meters away Celestia sought to target her foe before he could take on the initiative again. Once more her horn was engulfed in a golden aura before arrows of fire exploded out from the air around her. The javelin shaped fire projectiles flew like whistling arrows towards Maleficus, yet the male alicorn stomped both his foreleg hooves into the ground and a six feet tall wall of soft stone rose up. While the projectiles were stopped by the flimsy looking wall, was said wall destroyed in the process.

Yet that did not matter, as Maleficus charged straight through the cloud of smoke and flames and head butted Celestia's muzzle with his forehead, his horn shifted into the shape of a mandible once more, scratching a deep gash into the forehead portion of her helmet. It felt like she had been hit by a war mace and she struggled to recover from the impact when a pair of powerful hooves grasped her by the neck and suddenly threw her like a sack of carrots into the ground.

Gasping out in pain Celestia released a powerful bright light from her horn, blinding her attacked. As Maleficus' rubbed his eyes she shifted her body around, getting free from his grip and then she bent her hind legs and kicked him straight in the chest, sending him rolling onto the ground a good couple of meters away.

The two alicorn pulled themselves up and glared/smirked at one another. This time their horns glowed far more intense and the two Warlords spread their legs to brace themselves and aimed their horns towards one another. Physical combat was over for the moment, now it was time to cast some high tier magic.

"WE SHALT END THEE MONSTER!!" Celestira roared as she fired a sphere of blue light at the stallion who retaliated in a similar fashion. "THIS IS FAR FROM OVER!!" The blue sphere was meet with a single beam of black energy that pierced through it, both spells detonated and released an intense light while freezing the ground in black frost.

Maleficus charged another spell and this time spread his wings apart, the black feathers sparking with energy as well. *Okay let's see if I can get this right. Charge up my wings with magic, activate the spell pattern through the power surge from my wing tips, as well as the tip of my horn. Then link the spells together through a triangular pattern in the air so that they connect as a pointed focus, then I need to reverse the flow the the point of impact to create the singularity. By creating a point of joint impact at the moment before the singularity I will create a link between them that will create a denser energy flow.*

Even as his thoughts processed the way he was constructing the spell was the very air around him starting to shimmer and shift as if reality itself was shifting. His thoughts still focusing on his spellcrafting, he spared this no mind.*By focusing the point at the tip of the triangle pattern will I be able to aim the focus point in a focused pattern as to make sure it does not back fire or explodes before it does its thing. Now the difficult part will come up. I need to charge up, shape the magical pattern within my wings and horn, then fire them at the same time and then inverse the flow at the point just before impact to get the reaction I want. Then I need to stabilize it while I charge it up before firing it.*

Celestia's spell was a bit more flashy, a ball of fire was summoned into the air, the size of a boulder. But she was not finished, the fire ball was shrunk down further and further until its crimson flames had turned bright blue, almost white. *Focus! Charge! Compress! Intensify! Maintain Stability! Prepare Activation! We Shalt Not Lose!* The intense heat of the sphere was making the air steam while the ground beneath her started burning and melting.

Maleficus' wings was shifted up wards, his head lowered, and as the magical energies began to surge he activated his spells. and horn fired a bent arc of glowing red energy, each of the arcs was gathering in front of him in a curved pyramid slash triangle like pattern, the tips of the arcs were pressing against one another, gathering into a fluctuating sphere of crimson energy. The sphere had grown to the size of a football when the energy of the arcs dispatched and all that was left was a glowing red sphere, that was black within the core.

It was as if the sphere was swallowing all light and darkness around it, dragging it into its shape.

Celestia's own spell was by now the size of a baseball but was glowing with the intensity of a sun. But even that bright light was being swallowed by the crimson black sphere.

Glaring at her hated foe the Alicorn Princess shouted out a wordless cry of hatred and fired her spell. While Maleficus did the same, without the shouting.

With a sudden rush of energy the spheres were fired like cannon balls. The energies containing them in the air were cut off with a loud crack, causing the backlash of the spheres themselves to move forward. Their spells were near identical, only difference was in how they had made them and with what manner of energy they had used.

And then as the black and white sphere connected. There was a bright light that swallowed the land, before the intense light was swallowed by an even greater darkness, then the light rose from the darkness with an ever more intense brightness, until the darkness swallowed it again in an even deeper void, and so they kept struggling and growing. The ponies on the hills were forced to lock away as the intense brightness and darkness erupted. And then, as the struggle between the two forces of reality reached it peak, a calamity was born.

It came without a warning, the struggling darkness and light suddenly pulled into a single central point the size of a needle. Maleficus had only time to stare in horror as he realized what was going to happen. And Celestia was only able to stare in confusion. And then, then the small unstable black hole filled to the brim with the energy of a small star, exploded into a small super nova.

Weak Guts and Rough Stock both gaped at the sight in front of them. The Princess of Equestria was fighting like a goddess of war against the monstrously strong Maleficus. The sheer physical strength, the magical power, it was making them feel rather... inadequate to act as the soldiers of this powerful being. Yet then again, it made them feel proud and delighted that they were entrusted such a responsibility by her.

Weak Guts got an uncomfortable feeling when the two alicorns started charging up their magic. The atmosphere felt heavy, the very air around the two deities was heating up and shifting, making it seem like reality itself was starting to bend and shift. He tapped his Sergeant on the shoulder and spoke up in a nervous voice. "Eh Sarge, We do not think this be safe."

The older pony nodded and stood up from his seat on the hill and shouted out at the watching army. "Oi! Listen up ye lot! This may be gettin' ugly! We better be backin off!" It might have been a bit slow of a reaction but the ponies got off their asses and began to move away from the battlefield, moving so that they could lean over the edge of the hill top to watch the battle from safety. The line of ponies peeking up from the hill side looked very silly.

Then the clash of light and darkness crashed. An intense brightness mixed with shifting nerve wrecking darkness blinded the pony soldiers. And then the struggling forces of light and darkness began to implode into one another, disappearing into a single point of intense energy, before it broke and released its unrelenting force. The light made it feel as if the air was on fire, and then the ground began to rumble, before a powerful wave of destruction and heat began to mow down towards the hills like an unstoppable behemoth.

Soldiers, officers and volunteers of Equestria, all felt helpless by this. Some of them even going into shock as the memories of the Green Star began to surface.

A bright flare of intense white light blinded the world. It was a light like no other, so bright that no shadow could be seen within its center, there was not even anything visible except for the intense bright whiteness. Even as the light burnt the world of its darkness was an intense rumbling emerging. It was as if the very earth was being shaken. And even as the light still shone, came a perfectly shape circle out of the wave along the earth.

The powerful wave of force expanded from the central point and within it, perfectly contained by the circle like edge of the expanding circle of force, was the entire battle field being torn asunder into particles. And inside the edge of the circle was the kinetic and vibrating forces within moving hard enough to break apart the ground into sand. Then just mere meters behind the crumbing earth, was the sand particles melting into dripping glass and ashes by the intense light that was following the shockwave.

It was a wave of compressed air behind the kinetic force wave, compressed and heated up so much that it was was flash melting it into ash and glass mere meters behind the first wave. Yet before this monstrous explosion of force and heat could touch the terrified exhausted army of ponies, something happened.

The shock wave suddenly stopped, a crimson and gold aura surrounding the outer rims of the expanding explosion, containing it. It stayed still for what felt like forever, the destructive forces held at bay only by the mixture of gold and red energy holding it back. Then the glowing field of red and gold became more compressed and began to apply pressure by starting to compress against the explosion.

There were only two ways the explosive force could travel with its sides surrounded by a force field, and of those two ways, was one far less resistant then the other. And even as the magical force field pressing against it groaned, as it began to struggle against the forces of destruction, the explosion went form a snail pace expansion, into rapid volcanic like eruption.

At first the half sphere shaped explosion seemed to just flow out of the force field's top, but then as soon as the energies containing it were removed at the upper portion of the field, it escalated upwards. With a loud thundering crack the powerful explosive power erupted upwards into the sky. An almost solid looking pillar of light and heat vaporized the clouds, leaving a circle shaped hole in the sky, as it flew out into the empty void above the atmosphere.

Even the crimson sun shining through the hole seemed far less brighter then the destructive energies which were being diverted upwards into the heavens. It seemed like the explosion would force itself to expand further as the force field struggled to contain it. Yet as cracks and groans were heard from the force field, the rising beam of destruction seemed to become dimmer, until it suddenly seemed to fade. Then it suddenly cut off from the bottom, as if cutting its loses, before disappearing upwards into the sky, disappearing.

Silence was all that was heard for a while. Then the dark rain clouds swallowed the hole that was left within the sky, and the sound of rain hitting the ground replaced the silence.

Rain fell harshly upon the battle field. Beneath the dark clouds laid a perfectly circle shaped crater about two hundred meters wide and thirty meters deep at the center. It looked like some enormous giant or god had taken the largest cigar in existence, took a smoke, let it burn a little, before deciding to press it into that exact spot before removing it.

Ash and molten glass covered the smoldering crater, and within the center of its bowl like shape laid a small lake of molten glass, earth and ash, glowing an eerie red as liquid rock and glass flowed down the sides of the crater and down towards it core. Even as the rain began to pour down could not its cooling drops not even impacting the molten ground as it was too hot for it to even reach the ground before evaporating into steam by the heat one foot above the ground.

The droplets of water fell without end, the darkened skies fighting against the overflowing heat left by the intense explosion. Even as steam filled the air and cooled int oa layer of mist the rain kept on pouring even as the warmth of the crater kept evaporating it.

Even as water began to flow down the crater's edges it barely managed to reach further then five meters before the condensed heat within the crater mad the pouring water evaporate into steam. For the uneducated it was almost as if the pouring streams of water disappeared into thin air.

Yet even the intense heat of the crater would have to give sooner or later, for with the air growing cooler by the pouring drops of rain chilling the heat of the air was winning over the temporary intense heat of the crater. Even if took far longer then one would assume, was the rain winning and the crater, now filled with a cloud of mist and steam, was growing colder.

Even as the crater slowly began to cool there were no movements from anywhere within it. The ponies were too frightened to move closer to examine the landscape of hell that had been left from the clash between Celestia and Maleficus.

Yet what they feared mattered little for within the crater, as soon as the lake of molten glass and earth hardened, there was a loud resounding crack as something moved out of the hardened mass.

The center of the crater had been turned into a blackened solid mass of glass and melted earth,. As the rain water began to flow across the surface, slowly filling it up, there was a sudden noise of glass cracking as a spot in the crater began to buckle and shift. A loud resounding crack erupted in a steady five second interval, each time the glass and melted earth buckled upwards, shards and fragments exploding off the surface as the cracks spread across it.

Then in an eruption of melted glass and earth a black stained foreleg split apart the crackled surface and slammed its hoof into the ground before starting to push itself against the surface. Cracks spread across the surface around the hole, then the hardened mass of glass and melted earth bulged upwards before erupting in a spray of glass and still liquid earth.

Pulling herself out of the hole was Princess Celestia, covered in molten glass and earth, coughing and gasping as she got free of the confinement of the hardened mass. Staggering upright she wiped away the still burning hot glass and melted earth off her body. The rain fell upon her black stained body, washing away the grime and the soot, revealing her clean white fur beneath. Her golden armour was gone, melted into slag in the explosion, she was exhausted and extremely strained.

When the explosion had occurred she had been in intense pain. Yet the pain had stopped after a few seconds. So she took the opportunity to use her magic to stop the explosion before forcing it upwards into the sky. It had been exhausting, far more then creating the powerful spell that had been half of the reason of the cataclysm in the first place. She was dangerously low on magical energy and even if she was an alicorn was there a limit to how much energy she could spend within one day without negative side effects. Even if she recovered would it take far longer then it normally would.

Blowing out a nose full of dirt filled snot the princess took a deep breath before looking up at the raining heavens. The cooling rain drops making her prismatic mane fall limp as it got wet, the cooling sensation was wonderful for her tired body. *We art exhausted... can not cast another spell... at least that fiend hath perishe-*

A loud crack resounded through the air, lightning arched across the sky and the wind grew more intense. Celestia's eyes were open wide in shock as she heard that loud crack and slowly she turned her head to look at where it had come from. And felt despair as she saw a skeletal limb explode out of the hardened mass of molten glass and earth, burning with green flames, before pressing down hard into the ground with its hoof before pulling itself out of the hardened mass.

Out of the blackened mass of earth and glass rose a skeletal figure of burnt flesh and green fire. A figure that awoke horrid memories to the princess and those ponies who could still remember it. A chrome like skeleton, tattered burnt flesh regenerating beneath the burning green flames still licking the flesh. Organs and intestines hanging out from the torn open stomach, being pulled inside, even as the green flames burned around them.

As muscle tissue began to expand out of the bones like tendrils of meat, the creature was standing upright, a burning alicorn skeleton covered in regenerating flesh and green fire. Only this time the hole upon its forehead was covered by a mandible like horn and its flesh was regenerating at a far faster rate. The creature raised its skeletal heal and even as its throat regrew and as furless skin began to expand over nerves, veins and fat, it screamed.

This was the skeletal phantom that had haunted the ponies of the Everfree Forest after it fell from the sky as the Green Star. It was the zombiefied spectre of nightmares and horrors, it was the source, the symbol the very essence of their fear, hatred, despair and madness. It was the Stallion of Torment.

Or as he had told them, Maleficus Victoria. And even now as this screaming ghoul regrew its fur ,as his black mane, tail and red eyes became whole, as his screaming voice grew silent. Upon his regenerated flanks rested a three eyed demon like face of dark green flames, two eyes of red and one of the brightest green upon the forehead. The Ponies of Eqeustria knew now for certain, this Alicorn, was the source of all of their torment, for the last one hundred years.

And all that this figure had to say as his regenerating body was restored was this. "Well. That was painful."

Celestia's left eye twitched while most of the older ponies of the Equestrian Army, felt a burning sensation of unrelenting rage, fill their bodies. This fight would draw to its close soon, yet they all knew. Win or lose, the ponies would not stop their pursuit of justice until he had paid for his crimes.

Maleficus shifted his neck, left and right, shifting stiff bones and fresh tendons and nerves into proper order. He made no big show of it, but it had been painful, it had been so much like the time he suffered as a living purgatory. The alicorn stallion was only grateful he had not endured it for too long and that he had managed to endure most of the pain.

But he had no time to mentally recover, not that he had much energy left. He had spent most of his energy shielding Celestia when the explosion went off and also aiding her in containing the explosion before sending it skywards. It had taken a lot, Celestia had handled most of the containment of the explosion, while he aided in it had he mostly focused on shielding her. Why? He might be a bit of an asshole or vengeful when put in a nasty mood, but he would not want to make someone suffer like he had suffered, maybe not someone who deserved it. But Celestia was not someone who deserved such an experience, no matter how much she pissed him off.

Anyhow, back to the presence, there was a battle still on going and he was not going to admit defeat just yet. "Now then. I doubt either of us have the energy to keep casting around magic and using weapons. Both of our armours have been destroyed, so there's only one way to go from here. Unarmed Combat."

Celestia just glared at him, the rain fell upon their bodies like a waterfall, yet neither of them were bothered by this. Even as the blackened crater was being filled up by the torrent the two stood there, facing one another.

"You know... the whole long dramatic pause thing is getting old. So let us just get to the fighting." Maleficus said after a minute.

The princess blinked before she held back a snort, before returning to her angry stare in mere milliseconds, she had been surprised by the humorous situation but she would not let this fiend make her relax or laugh. She would bring him to justice. "We agree fiend! Let us end this!"

Celestia then entered the stance known as the Heavy Stomp and prepared to fight. She would show this cretin the might of the martial arts she had been taught and mastered.

Maleficus also assumed a stance, only his stance was far more... different then any she had ever seen, read or heard about. He stood upright on his hind legs, both of them slightly spread apart diagonally for stability, at odd angles, his spine was bent so that his upper body was straight and he had his right foreleg held up in a 'come on' motion, while his left rested in a low position near his flank.

It looked... unnatural for a pony to assume such a stance. Had a pony been trying to stand like that, they would have injured their spine. And even then would the pain have forced them to lower themselves on all four before they could even reach half of the height that Maleficus' spine was arching now. It was giving her chills of how wrong it looked.

But the time for concerns about such trivial matters was long gone, it was time for action.

A soundless signal was given and then the two rushed towards each other. Celestia started off the fight with a furious jump, her forelegs aimed like battering rams for Maleficus' torso. The black alicorn turned out of the way and tried to use his momentum to side kick Celestia in the head. She ducked and tried to buck kick him, he moved to the sided and slammed down his left foreleg towards her spine. The princess avoided the attack by kicking the ground with her left hind leg and foreleg, making her jump lightly away from his attack.

Now Maleficus was on the offensive. He stomped froward in heavy strides while swinging his left and right forelegs in a mixture of lightning quick jabs, swift cross punches and short upper cuts. The manner of fighting was completely alien to celestia but she was able to rear back and block most of his strikes with her own forelegs. Most of. A powerful swing from his right hoof came far too quickly for her to dodge or block and she took a heavy blow to the muzzle. A loud resounding crack was sounded as blood flew through the raindrops in the air.

Stumbling backwards Celestia regained her bearing before she spat out spit, blood and a tooth. Even as he muzzle regenerated she retaliated by suddenly launching a stomp into his left kind leg. She kicked with enough force to break metal. Yet as her hoof struck his leg, she felt as if she had tried to crack a diamond as a loud echoing clong resounded from her kick hitting his leg. Her hoof actually ached from the impact.

She had no time to react as Maleficus suddenly roundhouse kicked her in the side before grabbing her tail as she was about to fly off into the ground and swung her like a flail into the ground. Celestia let out a gasp and spat out a gush of blood as her body struck the ground. But she was not down for the count. Her hind legs kicked up and struck Maleficus straight in the face. Another resounding clong was heard yet Maleficus felt the impact, rearing back and clutching his nostrils and eyes where her hooves had hit him.

As her hated foe recovered Celestia got up on her feet again and entered the stance of the Piercing Dance, her wings flapping and swaying as she spun around in a half circle before kicking Maleficus in the gut. His stomach looked like it was being crushed by the force of the impact. even as he kept his mouth closed blood forced its way out like a small fountain. The stallion's hooves left the hold of gravity as the kinetic force of the impact made him fly like a rag doll about seven meters before he hit the ground. Maleficus' body went stumbling into the earth and he rolled around for around sixteen meters before he managed to stop his momentum. He stopped upright, if bent forward, with his hind legs bent down, kneeling, his forelegs grasping the earth to steady himself.

Standing up on his hind legs once more Maleficus spat out a large amount of blood and spit on the ground. He took a breath to steady himself before he let it out slowly, his body seemed to relax after a while and he opened his eyes and looked at the glaring princess. His own eyes seemed to burn with some sort of inner fire, a fierce look within them as he smiled before resuming his stance. Things were starting to get fired up in this battle.

It echoed like thunder as hooves slammed into flesh and bone, the two powerful immortals had straight out slammed their hooves into each other's faces, sending blood flying. And even as their flesh regenerated, they reared up their other forelegs and punched each other in the gut.

Wide stances, no grace, no dodging, no blocking. Only wide and powerful punches into each other.

The fight had turned from an extravagant fight of grace, dexterity, strength and skill into a plain slug fest of powerful blows. Neither of the alicorns were keen on showing off, neither of them wanted to waste energy and neither of them cared about anything else but punching the shit out of each other.

Celestia roared out in pure utter anger as she released her pent up frustration and rage upon her hated enemy, blood was flowing out of her mooth and several of her teeth were regenerating only to be punched out. Yet she kept on going.

Maleficus was screaming out in utter glee as he meet her anger with a wild ferocity that was more like a wild beast. Even as his flesh was torn by her hooves, even as his flesh swelled and blood flew out of his mouth, he did not stop.

The rain poured down upon them, and exploded off them as the sheer strength of their punches caused their bodies to discharged the energy through their bodies and out into the air on the other side. This made the sweat, water and dirt on their fur to explode out like small eruptions of kinetic force.

Even as he slammed a upper cut into her gut he laughed like crazy, like he had discovered his purpose in life. Even as Celestia's own hoof slammed into his left side he kept on laughing and shouted out with glee.

"Ahahahahaha! This! Is! Awesome!"

Celestia grit her regenerating mouth in anger and slammed both of her hooves upwards into his jaw. A loud clang resounded from the impact and she promptly ignored the stinging sensation in her hooves as she struck his metal like bones.

"We Shalt Not Let Thee Win!"

Maleficus shifted his upper body and slammed a right hook into her shoulder, creating a loud crack as the bone beneath his blow either fractured or outright broke. And yet Celestia did not even seem bothered with this as she slammed a straight punch into his throat, even as he laughed.

"That is what I want to hear! It would not feel right to win without a proper challenge!"

Celestia howled out in pure rage and rapidly punched his head back and forth with rapid side way going punches. The sound coming from the impacts was almost like that of a church bell. She kept this up repeatedly, making his head slam side to side, making his flesh swell and bleed as she tried to tenderize his face.

"Shut thy trap and fight!"

Slamming his forehead against her left hoof Maleficus broke her barrage of blows and punched her four times in the face, making her rear back as her teeth and parts of her skull were broken. Yet she retaliated by slamming a down ward angled flail like punch into his skull as her skull and teeth regenerated.

"That's the spirit!"

Hearing his words Celestia punched him in the gut two times with a rapid uppercut, screaming at him for mentioning such a foul subject.

"We art not drinking! We art fighting!"

Maleficus froze for a few seconds, letting her rain more blows onto his gut, before he grinned and laughed even as he slammed his left foreleg's elbow into her shoulder, dislocating it.

"...Hehehehehe! Even if that pun was lame, the fact that you did not realize it, makes it funny."

Frowning Celestia grabbed her dislocated foreleg and shifted it back into place before slamming her horn into his neck with an angry shout. This stallion was making her infuriated!

"We doest not know what this 'pun' thing is, but we know thou art mocking us!"

Pushing her away from him, the stallion just stared flatly at her before turning his neck left and right, the hole in his throat regenerating completely as he began to speak. His tone was rather flat and the earlier humour was gone, his smirk lost.

"...Okay that was just sad. Let us just beat the tar out of each other, okay?"

And yet again he did not seem to quite get it that Celestia did not understand the idioms and quotes of humanity. Not that it should surprise him, yet when you are on a battle high with a powerful opponent for the first time in your life? Yeah details get lost.

"We doest not have tar inside us thy disgusting deviant!"

Of course that did not stop him from frowning at her furious shouting as she gut. Even as blood spewed out of his mouth her frowned, his ears folding back and his eyes' fire seemed to grow a bit dim.

"... I am going to shut up now and return my focus to the fight."

He then suddenly reached out, grabbed her outstretched foreleg and slammed his free hoof into her face three times. Each of his blows were heavy and fractured her face, he had actually not really notice how much damage he was causing her with his blow until now. His battle high was wearing off and he was gettign a bit disgusted with himself right now. Even as she slammed her own free hoof into his throat, muzzle, cheek, neck and left eye.

"Finally! Something that We both may agree upon!"

*Yeah... I don't think we do actually. Now that I am thinking a bit more straight... Yeah. I better end this before both of us are traumatized for life. Well... more then we already are.* He thought to himself before releasing her fore leg. Maleficus hefted both of his forelegs upwards and then he swiftly punched his right hoof forward with a lightning fast jab, the strike was aimed at a specific point on her head, the left ear.

The blows grazed her skull and tore off her ear, causing her to feel dizzy and disoriented as her sense of balance got very messed up by the blow. Her body felt heavy and unfocused, she was starting to loose the concentration to keep herself standing on her hind legs, her spine was starting to ache something fierce as well. *No! We art not defeated! We shalt not let this villain win!* She narrowed her eyes and forced herself to remain upright, trying to stop his light blows by punching him in the face and the gut.

But Maleficus pressed on, a swift blow to her left cheek, then one to her right, then one to the base of her neck. Then one to her throat, followed by two bows to the side of her skull. A powerful jab into her muzzle and then a powerful strike at the base of her horn. It was meant to be a light blow ,something to cause her nausea and disorientation. Maleficus had no idea just how much of a beating the horn of a unicorn, or alicorn in this case, could take. Celestia had been charging powerful magic through it for more then a few hours, it had been hit several times and used as a physical weapon more then once. And even an alicorn's horn could only take such wear and tear at such a short period of time.

So when his chrome coloured hoof struck the base of her horn, there was a loud resounding crack erupting through the entire battlefield, not even covered by the rumbling of the skies. And then the horrifying, spine chilling, scream of agony of a female pony filled the air. Celestia had fallen, and fallen hard. The white pelted alicorn laid curled up the ground, clutching her skull, crying out in agony as blood leaked down her head and into the water rising up to their knees.

Upon the ground between them, floating upon the rising water, laid the broken horn that had once been part of Celestia's skull. The blood leaking from the middle of the horn only showed just how much painful it must have been.

Maleficus just stared in silence, he was stunned. He had no idea that the horn was so fragile. His own horn was nothing like Celestia's, and he remembered how Starswirl had tried to kill him with what had been his original horn, which had been broken off when he fell from the skies. He was not sure if Celestia's horn could recover itself or if it could be restored. The stallion was not even sure that his own horn was something unique or common. But he would try to help her recover from this, even if it had been a brutal fight, was he not comfortable knowing that he might have crippled her because of this.

But he could not show his anxiousness, he had answered her challenge and he would not show himself vulnerable. But that did not mean he was an complete asshole, he knew things had gone too far, but there was little he could do but to try and make things easier for her. So all he could do was to try and restore her horn, hopefully restoring it to its former strength.

He lowered himself down on all four and gently lifted up Celestia from the water and put her on his back. Lowering down his head he lifted up her horn with his mouth, gently as to not damage it further. He then proceeded to climb out of the crater. The battle was over, hopefully the ponies would learn from this and not mess things up like they had done this time.

*Wonder if the next fight will be as strange as this one was... Oh for fuck's sake! I am even considering doing something like this again! I must still be crazy to even consider doing something like this again.* He thought to himself as he climbed over the edge of the crater and stepped onto the wet ash covered ground next to the crater. Carrying Celestia a bit further from the edge he slowly lifted her still curled up and crying form from his back and lowered her onto the ground.

He let her lay there for a bit while he inspected her horn, the break looked like it had been clean, yet there were signs of tearing on one side, it would at least make it easier to see how to properly put it back in place. But he would have to improvise a bit on repairing it once he tried. *Hmmm... if I would try to combine a mending spell and a healing spell I should be able to restore both the structure of the horn and the inside as well. Yes... although I would have to do the mending first then do the healing, or I might deform the interior of the horn if I am not careful.*

Sighing a bit the stallion pondered if he should try to do what he was considering. He had fragmented knowledge and information, he was no real healer. But if he did not try to repair the damage soon he was not certain how long it would take for Celestia to recover, if she even could. He had not recovered his own horn into an able shape and it had apparently taken him from fifty to a hundred years for his mandible like horn to grow.

This was not something he could allow to happen to Celestia, she would be unable to properly use her magic and he was fairly certain that many backstabbers and glory seekers would see this as an opportunity to take control over her Kingdom in her weakened state. No, he had promised her mother to help her, he had failed both her and her sister, not intentionally but he still felt extremely guilty about it. He would not allow it to happen again, no matter how much she may despise him, he would still help her. It would be bit of an effort to try to restore her horn now, with his magic so drained. But he would have to try and hope for the best, or things could go very wrong, very quickly.

Sighing again Maleficus held the horn with his telekinesis and slowly reached down with his right foreleg. The Princess flinched as he touched her hooves as she clutched her bleeding wound, her cries of pain buried in tearful sobs. "Shhh Celestia. I do not mean harm. You need to show me the wound so that I may try to heal it."

She shook her head, not willing to put her faith in the hooves of the one who had harmed her so. The stallion sighed, again, before he gently grasped her forelegs and pulled them apart from her forehead. She tried to press them together but his strength was greater then her own. Slowly he lowered his head and examined the wound. bloud was pouring out fro mthe snapped off base of the horn, but he could make out the shape of the breakage and compare it to the broken end of the horn.

Slowly he lowered the floating horn onto the stump, pressing it against the wound as to put it back into its proper position. The Princess cried out in agony and tried to flail her head but her held her head still with his hooves gently, but firmly, holding both of her hooves against her cheeks.

"I am sorry to say that this is going to hurt quite a bit, but hopefully this will restore your horn." A crimson light emerged from his horn and flowed towards Celestia's own horn. The energy engulfed the broken pieces and they seemed to turn into clay at the broken area, flowing up to meet one another like some sort of liquid glue. It was as if the broken hor nwas being regenerated.

This was a mending spell, a spell meant to repair broken lifeless objects. And a horn, while containing blood, was not a living object. But it was still being reconnected to the nervous system of her skull and Celestia howled and screeched as the pain grew even louder. It took around five minutes, yet it felt like hours and days for the two alicorns.

As the horn's structure was restored the other phase of the restoration began as Maleficus encased the horn in a healing spell, one meant for repairing damage to living tissue. The inside of the horn was being restored by his magic, reconnecting veins, nerves, blood vessels, mana clusters and other vital parts. As the final pieces were put back into place Maleficus inspected the horn carefully, it looked fixed, it did not give off any sign of damage and from what his scans could tell was it a bit tender but completely repaired.

Nodding he looked into the red puffed eyes of Celestia glaring at him and gave her a small smile. "Your horn has been repaired, it will be a bit tender but that should subside with time. I would suggest you do not cast magic with it until then, I do not know if there are any sort of issues that I may have missed, you should have a professional healer examine it." He then released her hooves and head and stepped back.

Celestia still laid there, rubbing her aching horn with her left hoof, staring at him with silent contempt. Maleficus just sighed, the rain pouring down upon them without stopping.

"This is my victory Celestia. Now you have gotten a taste of war. I hope for you and your people's sake that you will put a stop to this foolish endeavor. But if not... I will face you again, and next time, things will be far different then they were now. I know that you have learned from this Celestia, even if you have not learned to stop this foolish crusade so have you and your subjects learned from this fight. And you will learn even more the next time, and the next. And after each battle, no matter if you win or lose, you will do better." At his words Celestia just grit her teeth and glared at him, she wanted justice for her sister, she wanted vengeance for her ponies and her mentor. She wanted revenge for what he had done to her. And yet she could not help but feel a slight grudging respect at him for keeping his word of not killing, and for restoring her horn, even if he was a monster was that still worth a little respect from her.

The black stallion gave her a little look before he turned away and began to walk away. Even as the army of Equestria moved in to aid the princess he did not look back, even as Celestia shouted out at him that she would have justice for his crimes, he did not look back. His hooves carried him from the burnt out battlefield and into the grassy plains. Upon the grassy field he moved further and further away even as a shroud of thick mist rose from the earth.

Not once did he turn back, not seeing the stare or the glares, as the white clouds of the mist swallowed up his shape more and more until he had disappeared from sight.

The Ponies of the Army of Equestria were marching back home. Their aching bodies, lowered heads and solemn eyes showing that their mission had been a complete failure. Yet even as they dragged their hooves and pulled the carts of wounded towards Canterlot, were some of them, even if less then a quarter, finding comfort in their experience from the battle with Maleficus.

Celestia was being examined by several medics and healers, all of them astounded by how her horn had been repaired. It had never been done before, a broken unicorn horn had always been treated like a crippling injury. It had happened in the past that Celestia and Luna had broken off their horns during their fights with the evils of the land. But their horns had regrown within a month's time.

It was clear Maleficus had, had no clue about this when he had taken the time to restore her horn. No one had ever managed to repair a broken horn before, not even the Princesses or Starswirl the Bearded had managed to restore a broken off horn, even on the Alicorn Sisters And yet so had Maleficus managed to restore and repair Celestia's horn perfectly. It was even stronger then it had been before the battle.

One of the healers was an earth pony mare with a green and blue coat with yellow mane and tail, her cutie mark was in the shape of a bottle of leeches and a clear glass bottle of yellow liquid. Her name was Bloody Healer and she was ecstatic by the repaired horn. She may not have the magic of a Unicorn but he had a talent to examine injuries and restored body parts with but a touch, sure it was touch and go with the theoretical parts, but she knew what she was doing for the most part. "This be incredible! The horn's structure was reconnected somehow before the interior of the horn was repaired! Hath he done the reverse he may hath caused severe damage that would hath slowed down the Princess' recovery by a year! It obvious that this process be painful and yet it hath strengthened the structure and density of the horn by at least one third!"

Not exactly something Celestia wanted to hear, that her horn had not only been repaired but improved by her own enemy. And yet she saw an opportunity with this. If her horn had become stronger, there might be a chance that she could handle far more magic then she had before. She was not willing to go through with the operation again, no amount of strength was worth that kind of suffering.

She looked out at her troops and knew that their morale was an all time low. It was not difficult to see why they would feel like so. Maleficus had not only defeated the entire army on his own, he had quite literally broken down their battle plan and the spirit of their soldiers' morale. It would take time for her ponies to recover from this, but she would make sure that they did. *After all, We hath yet to obtain justice for Mine sister.*

Unnoticed to her or the healers, was her pink eyes glowing green for a few seconds as her thoughts darkened.

The gates of Canterlot opened as the army returned. What would follow from the failed crusade was a solemn yet determined people of ponies who went to recover their strengths before attempting again, in the future, their next assault upon the Stallion of Torment. They would recover, they would learn from their mistakes, and they would return ever so much more stronger then they had before.

Maleficus knew nothing of the ponies' determination for justice and plans for vengeance. He was enjoying himself far too much to care about the world around him. It had been a long time since he had been able to just enjoy himself.

The rain was pouring downs and Maleficus was enjoying his new found freedom. He ran through the grassy plains with gleeful laughter, even as the rain fell down upon him he did not care. With powerful leaps he let the wind carry him before he landed with a soft tumbling, rolling around on the grass fields like a child, rubbing his body into the grass with a childish glee. And then he got up and repeated it.

He passed the rain clouds and was greeted by the bright red sun as it was settling in the distant mountains. It was a beautiful sight and one that made his childish rolling in the grass even more enjoyable. "Ahahahahahaa! The sensations of wet grass! The smell of moisture! The taste of rain drops! I never thought I'd miss it so much!"

After two hours he had run and stumbled around like a kid several miles. He laid down to rest beneath a large tree near an old abandoned shack in the fields. The tree looked far more tempting to rest beneath then the ratty little hut. But before he slept he encased himself in magic and changed his appearance from a large black shaggy looking alicorn, into a red pelted pegasus with orange mane, wing feathers and tail.

It was for the best to not let others see him in his true form. With the war he had just fought in was he certain that the ponies would not enjoy watching him walk down the road. And he was far too tired to bother with such things so soon after the battle. *Yeah this is for the best, plus, this way I won't risk harming anyone by head butting them if someone wakes me up rudely.*

Laying down by the tree he conjured a blanked out of a shroud of magical energy, he was not sure what season it was, but going by the slowly discoloring leaves of several trees, it was at least autumn. So rather then sleep through a possibly cold night, even if the weather was nice and warm, he would instead wrap himself up in this nice large blanked and sleep nice and warm.

Folding his forelegs over one another the pegasus lowered his head and slowly fell sleep. Even as his large shape breathed softly beneath the street were the stars and moon glittering in the sky above. And then something shone upon the moon's surface. With the burning specter gone from its surface was it impossible to notice, and yet had the eye of the Mare of the Moon, started to twinkle.

Sighing in contentment Maleficus rolled over in his blanket, hoping to stretch his spine a little to ease some of the tension he was feeling in his back. When he did that however he found himself rolling over the edge of something before feeling like he was not moving at all. Opening his eyes he saw that he was floating in the middle of what could only be described as a star filled darkness, he looked behind him and saw a small floating island with grass and a large tree, his blanket was still on him. "Okay... what the heck?"

A weak voice echoed through the darkness, it was almost like a soft breeze, yet with the echoes he could make out the words. "Thou art asleep."

"Who is there? Where am I?" He asked as he floated around in the void, he then noticed something, a twinkling light i nthe far distance.

"We art Princess Lu-"

Realizing something he interrupted the barely comprehensible voice with his own."No wait, I think I get this. This feels like when I was confronting that Nightmare chick before. This must be a dreamscape... or is it mindscape? I dunno. Let me just try to adjust it a little."

He closed his eyes and suddenly there was a heavy sound of water, earth and wind flowing togethe like a mixture of storms, landslides and floods. When he opened his eyes had the empty void been transformed into a large beach by the coastlien of a large ocean and a clear blue sky with a warm sun shining down upon it. On the opposite side of the sea laid a open field with a large medieval castle on top of a hill around one hundred meters away from the beach. "There, that's better. Now then, I assume that you are Luna?"

As he asked this he turned his head to look at the foal sized alicorn who was sitting five meters to his left, who was currently trying to find her voice as she stared in shock at how easily he had manipulated his dream. Waving his hoof in front of her face the stallion managed to break her out of the shock and she sputtered a little before taking a deep breathe, calmed down, and spoke up.

"Y-yes We art Princess Luna. Ho-how did thee do this?" She asked in a shaking voice as she tried to figure out just what had happened.

"This is my dream right? And since my dream is part of my mind. I can change it to my desires as much as I want to. Dreams are only limited to your imagination and there are no limits to imagination."

"Ah... that... that doest explain it. We... hath no idea dreams were so... interactive." Snorting at the Princess' tone the former human just rolled his eyes and summoned a beach chair and laid down on it.

"Yeah well. You ponies have, had no real way to interact with others except yourselves. So I highly doubt you could get many opinions and ideas with such a limited population. although that is partially my fault I guess." He muttered a little before summoning a parasol from the earth that gave him some shade.

Luna flinched a bit, but swallowed her anxiety and spoke up again. "Aye, We know about thou origin and of thy... actions... and We know of Our mother's error in judgement. We saw pieces of Our mother's encounter with thee."

"Huh... guess you also know that I boned your mom then."

The sound of a glass window breaking echoed in the distance as the Princess of the Moon's eyes went blank or a few seconds, then she opened her mouth, closed it, then she opened it, and closed it. And then she finally jumped up onto his stomach and grabbed him by the neck with her tiny hooves and made him blink in surprise when she managed to shake his head like a rag doll while screaming like a fog horn into his face. "THOU DID WHAT WITH OUR MOTHER!?"

*Huh, I guess she did not know then. Perhaps the alcohol prevented it? Or did she just not notice it?* He though to himself while the furious foal sized princess screamed at him for sullying her mother's body with his dirty advances.

Not all that bothered by the raging little moon princess Malefius just calmly let the tiny princess release her anger upon him. After she finished screaming she physically lifted him and threw him out of the beach chair and into the wall of the castle. As he laid there in the wall, embedded into the the stone of its surface, upside down, he thought a but more as the little Princess flew over to him and screamed at him while slapping his face. *I can definitely see the resemblance between her and her sister. Makes me wonder if they take after their fathers or their mother... huh... that's a scary thought. Hopefully it is not Laura they take after, it is hard enough to deal with two hot tempered princesses. I'd rather not deal with a hot tempered queen of all things.*

Author's Notes:

Staadnauthursil: And that is a wrap. Wow, that took a lot less effort then I thought. The fight between Celestia and Maleficus felt a bit lacking in detail, it was actually my first fighting scene written with such details.

Pinkie: Great work Staady!

Staadnauthursil: Thank you Pinkie. And also, I would like to thank Mix-Up for his splendid work on the New Cover for the story. It really gives you a feeling for how things went wrong for both the Ponies of Equestria and Maleficus when he crashed into the nameless town surrounding the Castle of the Royal Sisters. A very good piece of art and I am happy that he made it for me. I will be adding a Link for his Deviant Art Account and his Fimfiction Account on this note, on the Chapter Description and on a separate Blog Post.

Pinkie: Wohooo! Mix-Up he is our pony! Ask for him when you need something bony!

Staadnauthursil: ...Hahaha. Yeah... Bony, because my Self Insert is a bloody chrome dome skeleton on the Cover, brilliant pun there Pinkie... not.

Mix-Up's Fimfiction Account: https://www.fimfiction.net/user/195663/Mix-up

Mix-Up's Deviant Art Account: http://amalgamzaku.deviantart.com/