Snow crunched loudly as Sunset pushed through it. The stuff reached up to her thighs by now, making her wonder just how heavy winters usually were in this world. She almost wished that the Vertibird could have dropped her off closer to the Citadel, but that risked making Unity even more suspicious, so Sunset was forced to deal with forcing a path through the deep snow and hoping that she didn’t trip over something. Ruining the mission by doing something as stupid as breaking an ankle would just be too much.

Thankfully, the fact that the Brotherhood had been working to maintain the road between Project Purity and the Citadel meant that all Sunset really had to worry about was the end of the bridge over the Potomac. Getting down the slope in thick snow proved to be a nerve-wracking experience, requiring her to grip the remains of the old wall tightly and move down one step at a time to avoid slipping onto her ass.

Following the road up to the Citadel was just as unpleasant. The snow wasn’t quite as thick as it had been on the bridge, possibly due to heat rising from some sort of generator in the sewers below, but every step closer made it that much more likely that Unity was watching through her sentries’ eyes.

Sunset could feel the Citadel looming over her as she trudged up towards the gate. No clamor rose to indicate that her approach had been noted, but there was every chance that she had been spotted and the guards were just remaining silent, all warnings and orders transmitted telepathically by their controller. As if to confirm her suspicions, when she reached the entrance Sunset saw that the gate had already been raised. Either she was expected, or Unity didn’t care about security in the slightest. Both options seemed equally plausible.

The snow had mostly been cleared from the Citadel’s entrance corridor, though whether that was a good sign or not was up for debate. As she cautiously walked through the eerily silent entrance towards the doors at the end, Sunset checked her Pip-Boy, hoping that the others had infiltrated the Citadel without being spotted; Lily and her Praetor from the south, Horrigan from the north. Two simple lines of Enclave code flashed up on the screen. The others were in position.

Sunset paused by the door. She quickly checked over her equipment, making sure that she had everything she needed, then finally took a deep breath to calm herself and pushed the door open.

An army was waiting inside.

Dozens of Brotherhood Knights were arranged in the courtyard, many of them taking up defensive positions behind large metal crates, makeshift barricades, and even the assault course. Scattered amongst them were hugely-muscled emerald humanoids that might have once been Super Mutants dotted around the courtyard, suits of animated Enclave power armor that shone like volcanic glass, a handful of ruby Deathclaws that towered over everything else and, terrifyingly, a giant radscorpion that glittered like a diamond in the dim light. There were even a few human-looking former Enclave personnel that, if Horrigan’s report was to be believed, were also secretly crystalline monsters. As if that wasn’t enough, there were easily fifty of the dreaded Revenants prowling or crawling around, many of them missing limbs. Even so, the foul trail of contaminated stone and concrete they left behind as they moved showed that they were not to be taken lightly.

Unity was standing proudly right in the center of the courtyard, on top of the trapdoor that Liberty Prime was raised and lowered out of, looking infuriatingly smug. The Rainbooms were all lined up behind her, as if to spite Sunset. Rainbow’s tight expression showed that she was trying to fight her mind control, but it was a futile effort on her own.

“Sunset Shimmer,” Unity called out sardonically. “I was wondering when you were going to finally show up.” She lazily waved a hand. “Kill her.”

“W-wait! I’m not here to fight!” Sunset exclaimed quickly as the Knights all raised their weapons.

Unity raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Are you here to beg for my forgiveness, or are you here with some feeble trick to try and rip your friends from my protection?”

“I don’t have any tricks up my sleeves,” Sunset replied half-honestly. She placed her plasma rifle on the ground, followed by her Nova Pistol, knife, and a couple of grenades, then calmly stepped over them with her hands raised. “I’m just here to talk.”

“That’s rich,” Unity scoffed. “The last time I tried to talk to you, you shot me in the face. Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just repay the favor right here.”

Sunset swallowed anxiously. Unity was holding more of a grudge than she had expected. “Look, I know we got off on the, uh, wrong foot, but I’m here to fix that mistake.”

Unity rolled her eyes theatrically. “You can keep your ridiculous lies. Have you got more invisible Eyebots hovering around? Or are you preparing to bombard the Citadel with Vertibirds? Perhaps Horrigan is about to burst through a wall and throw something at me?” She snorted loudly. “Not that it matters. All you’ve earned by coming here is a quick death.”

The Knights raised their weapons again, prompting Sunset to step back and hold her hands out. She desperately hoped that the others were ready to jump in. “Hold on, you at least have to tell me why you’re doing all of this.”

“I don’t have to tell you a damned thing.” Unity threw a hand forward and Sunset felt her whole body lock up in the grip of potent psychic power. “Enough of this, just d- what on Earth?”

Unity and Sunset both looked up as a flurry of tiny black wisps erupted from seemingly nowhere. The wisps spread out over the courtyard, then suddenly lanced down and speared into each of the lurking Revenants. The monsters all twitched and shivered as the magic entered their bodies. Barely a split second later, the air beside one of the emerald Super Mutants rippled and the Praetor materialized out of thin air, viciously biting the head off the Mutant before it had even finished appearing.

Sunset felt the power gripping her wane, but before Unity could react further, a huge shadow leapt from the roof of the Citadel.

Horrigan grunted as he landed right on top of Unity, flattening her beneath his feet. His armor blazed into life the moment he hit the floor, acid-green mist pouring from his joints and eldritch script covering every inch of him as emerald flames seethed around his legs and feet, scorching the ground. “Your turn to burn, bitch!”

The courtyard instantly erupted into pure bedlam. All of the people and creatures crammed into the round space reacted with immediate violence as they regained control of their minds, and within a heartbeat the courtyard was filled with a chaotic melee.

Sunset whipped around and snatched up her plasma rifle, snapping it up defensively. Not a moment too soon, either, as a former Enclave officer charged at her, gem-like claws erupted from its fingers. Sunset fired several shots into the creature’s chest but it just kept coming. Just as she was about to dive aside, something bright blurred past the creature and it fell to the floor, its head bouncing away disturbingly.

“You’re fucking insane, you know that!” Rainbow exclaimed loudly from next to Sunset. Flashburn was blazing merrily in her hand. “Right, what’s the plan?”

“Horrigan kills Unity, we kill everything else!” Sunset replied as she quickly gathered up the rest of her weapons.

Rainbow looked over to Horrigan, who was grinding his flame-wreathed foot into whatever was left of Unity. “Looks like he’s got his part down.”

Just as Sunset opened her mouth to agree, a thick crystalline tentacle emerged from the ground behind Horrigan and smacked him away from Unity. He landed and rolled to his feet just as Unity rose from the smoldering crater he left behind.

Horrigan grunted with effort as he rolled to his feet. That hit had been a lot more powerful than he had expected. He was both annoyed and impressed to see that Unity was already standing back up, her burns and injuries disappearing as she regenerated.

“Well played, you treacherous brutes, but you’ve already lost,” Unity hissed coldly. She raised an arm towards Horrigan, and he felt himself slowly lift into the air as his armor was tightly compressed. At the same time, the crystal monsters and the Knights nearby suddenly became more sluggish and docile.

It was such a feeble effort that it was honestly insulting. “Pathetic.” Horrigan made sure that none of his allies were in the way, then thrust his arms forwards and sent twin jets of green fire screaming towards Unity. The sudden assault broke her concentration.

Horrigan didn’t give her a chance to recover. The second his feet touched the ground, he launched himself into a sprint. Unity didn’t even realize the danger she was in until he was already upon her. With a triumphant shout, Horrigan wrapped his blazing fist around her scrawny body and raised her up high, then slammed her into the ground as hard as he could. Concrete shattered beneath the devastating blow. He lifted her up and rammed her into the ground again, but before he could finish the job he spotted another crystal tentacle forming out of the corner of his eye.

Just as the tentacle swung at him, Horrigan squared his stance and snapped the hand holding Unity out at it. The hapless mutant was walloped by her own weapon, shattering it in the process. “Nice try!”

Horrigan chuckled and tossed Unity in the air, then caught her by the legs and slammed her into the ground again. He repeated the trick, flailing her around like a little ragdoll and slowly digging a crater in the floor, then used her to slap aside a Super Mutant that got too close. “Playtime’s over!”

“For you.” Horrigan yelped as something wrapped around his leg and pulled him off balance. A second later something solid slammed into his side and knocked over, making him lose his grip on Unity. Horrigan looked up just as two crystal tentacles lanced down and wrapped themselves around his arms. Tearing them apart was child’s play. Seeing that Unity was pushing herself to her knees nearby, Horrigan surged to his feet and threw a mighty punch at her head just as she held a hand out.

Horrigan’s fist stopped in mid-air.

Unity slowly turned to look at him. “You want to see what I’m really capable of?” She twisted her hand, and Horrigan’s arm was wrenched around painfully. Unity raised her other hand and he found himself lifted into the air again. “You’ll regret this.” She thrust her free arm forward and a freight train of psychic power slammed into Horrigan.

The world spun as Horrigan was hurled through the air. He landed hard, tumbling end-over-end. Blood, metal, and shards of crystal obscured his vision as he plowed through warriors from both groups before finally sliding to a halt. Before he could move, Horrigan felt his armor locking up around him. It creaked worryingly as he was once again pulled into the air. A mass of crystal tentacles burst out of the ground and grabbed him, snaring each of his limbs and holding them fast.

“The stories about you are true, you really are a powerful opponent.” Unity grinned. “Too bad it’s not enough to save you.”

“You talk too much.” Horrigan opened a hand and focused his magic into his palm, causing a ball of emerald fire to spark into life. He flexed his shoulders, easily breaking the tentacles’ hold on him, then hurled the ball at Unity. She cupped her hands, caught the magic with her power barely a foot away from her chest and, with a strained grimace, fired it back. Anticipating the move, Horrigan flicked his other arm forward and hurled a second magical attack at her, this one a razor-edged disc of fire. The disc easily sliced through the ball and struck Unity square in the chest.

The ensuing explosion rocked the whole courtyard.

The tentacles holding Horrigan all slackened, and he didn’t waste any time tearing the last of them off as he was lowered to the ground. A quick glance revealed that Unity had been blasted into the wall of the Citadel. Her arms and one of her legs had been completely blown away, and what was left of her body was covered in burns, but she was regenerating astonishingly fast.

Horrigan noted sourly that tiny tendrils were reaching out of the ground and connecting to Unity, pulsing as magic was transferred into her battered body. He grimly realized that there were probably buried magical crystals all over the courtyard for her to manipulate. That was unexpected, but nothing that he couldn’t handle.

In an effort to strike before she could fully regenerate, Horrigan broke into a sprint towards Unity. Unfortunately, she saw him coming, and swept her remaining arm in a wide arc. Razor-sharp stalagmites burst out of the ground in front of Horrigan, but he slapped them aside, bulldozed a grappling Revenant and former Enclave officer that got in his way, and hurled himself at Unity just as she finished regenerating.

The ground quaked as Horrigan and Unity continued their duel. Sunset swore and skipped aside as a chunk of concrete was dislodged from the Citadel wall and crashed down right where she had been standing. She risked a glance upwards to see if anything else was likely to fall, then broke back into a run and skidded to a halt behind a pile of crates. “If those two keep that shit up they’re going to bring this whole fucking complex down!”

“You wanna try and stop them?” A nearby Paladin called out sarcastically as he lobbed a grenade at a squabbling group of Revenants.

“Fuck no!” Sunset peeked around the crates to see if she could see her friends. Rainbow could be seen as a blur, darting around and hacking wildly at enemies, while pink explosions all over the place showed that Pinkie was up and fighting, but there was no sign of the others.

Turning her attention to the battle overall, Sunset could see that things were hanging in the balance. The crystal monsters were outnumbered and fighting each other as much as anyone else, but the laser weapons used by most of the Brotherhood were utterly useless against them, forcing the Knights to resort to their fists or whatever else they could get their hands on. The ruby Deathclaws in particular were reaping a grim harverst. To Sunset’s surprise, and sincere relief, she spotted the crystal Radscorpion hauling a dead Super Mutant into the Citadel’s interior. Apparently, it wanted to eat its meal in peace.

That was when Sunset saw it; a flash of purple magic by the assault course, followed by a ball of crumpled black metal getting launched across the courtyard. “Stay safe, Paladin!”

“You too!” He called back as Sunset broke out of cover and sprinted towards the assault course. She vaulted over a dead Knight, narrowly avoided getting squashed by a suit of possessed armor that Horrigan had slapped aside, then swerved around a wooden climbing wall and almost ran headlong into Rarity, making her jerk back in surprise.

“Good grief, I almost killed you!” Rarity exclaimed.

“Maybe next time,” Sunset gasped as she looked around. A Super Mutant was writhing on the floor, encased in Rarity’s magic, while Twilight was using her magic to compress a pair of Revenants together into a ball. Alarmingly, Applejack was sitting with her back against a crate, sweating profusely. Fluttershy was crouched next to her, one hand clasping her blade and the other checking AJ’s pulse. “Is she okay?”

Rarity nodded, though her face was tense. “It’s just a panic attack, brought on by seeing him again.” Sunset didn’t need to ask who she was referring to.

“I’ve dosed her with Psycho,” Fluttershy added. She flinched as a magical bolt struck the ground next to her. “It’s not ideal, but in a life-or-death situation.”

“Drugs are better than death,” Twilight said flatly. She tossed the thoroughly crushed Revenants away and reached out an arm to tear the Super Mutants head off with her magic.

Fluttershy nodded grimly, then her head snapped up and she hissed in warning. “Get away from the wall!”

Sunset and Rarity both darted away from the climbing wall on reflex. Mere seconds later, the two were forced to cover their eyes as something smashed the wall to flinders. Ignoring the splinters in her arm, Sunset looked again quickly, then barely dove aside in time as a ruby Deathclaw raked the ground she had been standing on. Sparks flew as it gouged deep furrows into the concrete.

The Deathclaw let out an ear-piercing roar and rounded on Sunset. She fired desperately up at it from the ground, but even her plasma rifle barely scratched it. The beast raised its claw again just as a yard-long crystal spike struck it in the side of the head.

It didn’t even flinch.

Sunset gritted her teeth and kept firing even as the claw descended. Just before it hit, the Deathclaw was caught in a purple aura.

“That’s my friend you’re fucking with,” Twilight snarled. She hauled the Deathclaw away from Sunset and pressed her hands together, trying to crush the monster in her magic.

“Break its neck!” Sunset yelled.

“That doesn’t work on these things!” Twilight shouted back. Sweat dripped down her face as she strained to kill the struggling Deathclaw. With a snarl, the creature slashed its claws across the ground, flinging grit and chunks of concrete at Twilight and breaking the deadlock.

Free of Twilight’s magic, the Deathclaw screeched furiously and hurled itself at her, only for something massive to ram into its side and knock it sprawling. Sunset couldn’t resist a grin as she recognized their savior.

Crimson mist boiled from the joints of the Praetor’s armor as it let loose a thunderous growl.

The ruby Deathclaw got to its feet and roared in challenge, brandishing its claws, before lunging at its new opponent.

The Praetor met it head on. Sparks flew as the two clashed horn-to-horn, and the ruby Deathclaw was forced backwards. Quick as a flash, the Praetor slammed its head into the Deathclaw again, then wrapped a claw around its throat and yanked it down. Spines all down the Praetor’s back began to glow scarlet as it opened its jaws. With a piercing shriek of superheated air, the Praetor spat a blinding beam of coruscating magic down the Deathclaw’s throat, melting it from the inside out. Within a few heartbeats, all that remained of it was a bubbling lumpy mess on the floor.

“Holy shit!” Sunset exclaimed loudly.

With its opponent thoroughly destroyed, the Praetor simply turned, spotted its next target, and bounded off after it.

“What the fu-” Rarity’s question was cut short by a thunderous crash. A quick glance showed that Unity had managed to hurl Horrigan against one of the interior walls, bringing down a deluge of masonry.

Twilight grimaced and used her powers to put together a makeshift barricade using crates and pieces of the assault course. “Is he going to be alright against Unity?”

“He’s fine,” Sunset replied as a foul green fireball erupted out of the mess and knocked Unity clear across the courtyard.

“Darn it all, what the hell is goin’ on here?!” The girls looked back to see Applejack clambering to her feet and readying her minigun. “Where’s that mind-screwin’ bitch?! Ah’m gonna rip her arms off an’ shove ‘em so far up her ass she’s chokes on ‘em!”

“That job’s taken already!” Sunset took cover behind the new barricade and fired off a shot at a possessed armor harassing some Knights. She swore and ducked as it returned fire with a laser rifle. “Alright, girls, shoot anything that looks like it belongs in a morgue or Rarity’s jewelry box!”

As one, the others hefted their weapons and added their firepower to the fight. Their help was sorely needed; despite the number of Knights and crystal monsters initially present, there were now only a handful of fighters left, concentrated around the outskirts of the courtyard to try and avoid Unity and Horrigan. A gruesome carpet of shattered crystal and gore-soaked metal provided a grim reminder of what happened to the rest of them.

Sunset had just taken down a stubborn suit of possessed armor when her Pip-Boy’s new radio crackled into life, “Knight-Captain, this is Lily. I’ve reached the morgue, but we have a problem.”

A quick tap of the microphone under her armor let Sunset reply. “What’s going on?”

“It’s a mess down here,” Lily replied. “Most of the Scribes and Squires inside the Citadel are already dead. I’ve raised everything I can, but I’m going to have to use them to escort the survivors out, there’s just too many crystal things down here.”

“So, no reinforcements?” Sunset asked, trying not to picture corpses of Squires, or the zombies created from them.

“I’ll come back with the zombies once the survivors are safe, but getting out of here in one piece isn’t going to be as easy as getting in,” Lily told her. “You’ve got one coming up to you, but somehow she’s ignoring my commands, so I can’t say for sure that sh-”

Her last transmission was cut off by a terrific explosion as someone dared to fire a Fatman, sending debris and shrapnel everywhere. Sunset swore and ducked back behind a crate. “Get back here with the zombies as quick as you can, we’re dropping like flies out here! And repeat what you said about the last zombie!”

Another loud crash drowned out the first of whatever Lily was saying, but the last of it came through clearly, “-ound her in stasis in some secret room in the morgue, could be hostile! She’s in the courtyard now, over by some sort of hammer under a plaque!”

“A hammer?” Sunset frowned, bewildered. “That sounds like the memorial fo-” Her jaw dropped as she looked over at the memorial in question. “That’s impossible! We were told that she was cremated!”

“Well, someone lied to you!” Lily countered.

“Get down, you twit!” Sunset got a faceful of fluffy hair as Pinkie tackled her to the ground, just in time to avoid a stray bolt of plasma. “What were you even looking at?! What-” She glanced over to where Sunset had been staring and gasped loudly. “Holy shit, is that Cross?!

As the girls watched, Star Paladin Cross gripped the haft of her hammer and swung it in a wide arc before settling it on her shoulder. Her skin was pale and sunken, her armor was heavily patched, and her eyes were entirely jet-black, but there was no mistaking the old warrior. Glancing around, Cross spotted the girls, scowled, and broke into a run towards them. A crystal Super Mutant tried to intercept her, but a quick swing of the hammer shattered it into tiny pieces.

“Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?” Cross growled as she approached the pair.

Sunset flinched as the ground beneath their feet shook. “That’s a long story, involving mind control.” She snapped off a shot at a former Enclave technician before continuing, “For now, just kill anything that isn’t Brotherhood, Horrigan, or a power-armored Deathclaw.”

“Right.” Cross looked around at the battlefield impassively. “Where’s Elder Lyons?”

“In the Great Hall with Sarah. Unity wanted to make a big show of organizing a new council once the Enclave had been beaten back,” Pinkie replied.

Cross nodded and turned away. “You deal with this circus, I’ll get the Elder.” Before anyone could stop her, she sprinted off towards the nearest door, bashing aside any enemy that got in her way.

“I wish this was a circus,” Pinkie muttered as she turned her attention back to the fight.

“Yeah, me t-” Sunset’s agreement was cut off as another colossal boom shook the Citadel.

Horrigan was flagging. He was giving his all, but it just wasn’t enough. No matter how many times Horrigan tore Unity apart, smashed her to pieces, or incinerated her crystalline body, he could never keep her down long enough to finish the job. It stung his pride, but this was a job for Liberty Prime. Unfortunately, even getting her outside the walls was proving beyond his abilities.

Almost on cue, Unity snatched a dead Knight in her power and hurled it at Horrigan. He sidestepped it and launched a fireball at her before diving into a commando roll. Unity caught the fireball, but before she could throw it he rolled to his feet and hit her with an almighty uppercut. The blow pitched Unity off her feet.

Horrigan followed up by diving at her, aiming to grab Unity and hurl her clean through the walls of the Citadel. She countered by thrusting her arms out and hitting him with a wall of solid air. Horrigan floated in place for a moment, then was thrown back as her power overcame his. He was back on his feet in a second, but so was she.

Unity snarled and raised her arms out to her sides. Horrigan balked as chunks of masonry floated into the air, along with the corpses of the dead Knights, metal crates, and the broken remnants of barricades and assorted debris in an awe-inspiring display of psychic power. “It’s time we ended this farce,” Unity hissed.

“Bring it.” Unity huffed and thrust her arms forward, hurling everything she had at Horrigan. There was no way that he could dodge it all, so he didn’t bother trying. Instead, Horrigan lowered his stance and tried to simply weather the assault. He slapped away anything he could, pulverizing car-sized slabs of concrete, but some of it got through. Every hit that Horrigan endured felt ten times heavier and harder than it should have. Eventually, the devastating barrage came to an end.

Pain wracked every part of Horrigan’s body. He lowered his arms, but Unity was nowhere to be seen.

“Behind you!” Rainbow yelled in warning.

Horrigan reacted too slowly. He tried to whip around, but invisible power swept his legs out from under him. “Now, you’re mine.” Unity hissed in his ear. She used her power to haul him to his knees, then yanked his arms out to the side and pulled them back in some perverse imitation of a crucifixion. Horrigan fought against her grip, but dozens of crystal tentacles burst out of the ground and wrapped around his limbs and neck, keeping him down.

“I don’t know what my mother did to keep you from my righteous embrace, but you should never have let her do it,” Unity spat. “Your armor may be tough, but let’s see what happens when I mess with what’s inside.”

A sensation of creeping cold spread throughout Horrigan’s insides. He strained to free himself, but his muscles weren’t responding the way he wanted them to. Agony tore through him as psychic power gripped the joint where his spine met his legs and twisted. Horrigan grunted and tried to flail around, desperately attempting to escape, but there was nothing he could do. As the pain mounted, Horrigan roared in agony and impotent rage.

All of a sudden, the power released Horrigan and the tentacles snapped away, letting him slump to the ground.

Fighting through the pain, Horrigan looked back at Unity. A rainbow-colored blur was attacking her from all directions faster than the eye could see, each pass leaving another burnt gouge in Unity’s body. The wounds were healing as fast as before, but the blur was striking so quickly that her regeneration couldn’t keep up, chipping away at her piece by piece.

“Enough!” Unity flung her arms out to the side and a wave of force blasted out from her in all directions, knocking away everything anywhere near her.

Horrigan could feel the power wash over him, but it was too weak to move him. The one who had been attacking Unity, however, wasn’t so lucky, and Horrigan was surprised to recognize Rainbow Dash getting blown away.

“Ungrateful wretches!” Unity snarled. A searing beam of magic scythed through the air at her, but she spun around and caught the beam in her power, straining as she gathered it all together into a crackling ball. With a harsh grunt, she hurled the magic back at the attacker. The flash of impact briefly illuminated the Praetor before it was blasted through the Citadel wall.

“Is this the thanks I get?” Unity hissed, her voice dripping with venom. “I’m offering a world free of war, free of pain, free of despair, yet all you knuckle-dragging meatsacks do in return is fight against it like spoiled children!” She straightened up and lifted her chin arrogantly, the very image of Senator Lily when she was younger, and something began to glow softly on her chest. With a jolt, Horrigan realized that it was a Geode. “Fine. If you don’t want peace, then feel despair!”

The Geode flashed, and an awful feeling of crushing depression seized Horrigan. All of his thoughts shut down, the darkness closed in around him, and the sucking feeling in his chest was so intense that it was painful. There was no point in fighting. There was no point in doing anything.

“You see? This is what my fellow experiments felt, entombed beneath Raven Rock. Their misery, their pain, their shattered hope, it all trickled down to me,” Unity intoned in a haughty voice. “This is what I am trying to remove from the world. This is what you misguided fools are trying so hard to defend. Stand with me, and I will take away your pain. Join me, and I will take away your sorrow. Submit to me, and I will make this torment end.”

“I call bullshit,” Sunset called out clearly. Horrigan slowly raised his head at the sound of her voice. Her and Pinkie were the only two still standing aside from Unity. They were both clearly bone-tired, but they were on their feet. The rest of the Rainbooms and the remaining Knights were all either slumped on their knees, or completely prone on the ground. Even the crystal monsters were down, their color fading as if it were being leeched away.

“You aren’t interested in taking away people’s sorrow or their pain, you’re just using it as a tool,” Sunset continued implacably. “You said it yourself; submit, and you’ll stop hurting people. You’re not an altruist, you’re a tyrant.”

Unity gave her a glare that could curdle milk. “What does it matter? I am offering an end to all human suffering, you feeble mortals should all be begging me to rule you!”

“We’d prefer our freedom, thanks,” Pinkie replied. “Sure, this world has some serious issues, but turning people into mindless drones isn’t the answer. Suffering is part of being human.” She smiled sadly as her Geode glowed and she ponied up. “Sometimes, you just have to smile through the pain.”

Sunset nodded and ponied up as well. “You find yourself a reason to keep going. Something that gets you out of bed in the morning.”

“Just keep moving,” Applejack said through gritted teeth as she got to her feet, ponying up too. “Put one foot in front of the other, one step at a time.”

Somehow, incredibly, each of the other Rainbooms slowly stood up, each of them taking on their magical forms. Even Rainbow tottered to her feet. Blood was leaking from her ears, but her stance was steady as she glanced at the others and let her wings out.

Unity scoffed and clasped her hands, seizing all of the girls in her power. “Did you really think I was just going to stand by and let you do whatever it is that you’re building up to? Unfortunately for you, keeping you girls under control is just too much hassle, but please, if you have any other ideas for ignoring your pain, do feel free to enlighten me before I squash you like bugs.”

Horrigan clenched his fists. He didn’t particularly like the girls, but their sheer stubbornness was impressive. There was no way he could let it end like this.

Pressing his face into the ground, Horrigan cast his mind back to the last time he had felt such despair; back when his mother had died, and her drunken excuse for a husband had managed to weasel his way out of accepting responsibility for it. Horrigan had found a way to get himself through that darkness, and deliver much-deserved retribution. “You find something bigger than yourself, and dedicate your life to it.”

“What?” Unity looked back over just as Horrigan surged to his feet and lunged at her. Her eyes widened, but Horrigan was on her before she could react. He dove on top of her and wrapped her in a bear hug before forcing out as much of his power as he could, wreathing his entire body in an emerald inferno. Unity screamed and tried to use her power to knock him away, but Horrigan held on firm as his armor heated until he felt his own skin begin to blister and char.

As Unity writhed in his grasp, Horrigan looked over at Sunset Shimmer. “Do it! End this once and for all!”

Sunset nodded grimly. All seven of the girls’ Geodes glowed so brightly it was painful, then brightly colored beams arced out from each one and merged in the air high above the Citadel. The magic swirled and coalesced until it was a shining orb of glittering rainbow-lights. Horrigan fancied that he could see angelic wings stretching out from it. Unity flailed and screeched desperately, but she couldn’t escape this time. Finally, the magic finished building and lanced down towards the ground like a thunderbolt from heaven.

“For the Enclave,” Horrigan whispered as the bolt struck home, and plunged him into darkness.

Elder Lyons coughed wetly and sagged in his chair. The Squire who had been left to attend to him was cowering behind the chair, and all but one of his bodyguards were dead. Eden, meanwhile, was anxiously tapping his legs on the desk in front of Lyons; the only crystal being that hadn’t attacked as soon as Unity’s grip was broken.

Over by the door to the Great Hall, Sarah was firing into the corridors with a pair of plasma pistols, desperately holding off the marauding crystal monsters. The Elder wished that he could help her, but even standing up was beyond him at the moment.

“Okay, the coast is clear, for now at least.” Sarah glanced back into the room, and Lyons winced at the sight of the jagged cut running down the side of her face. “Squire, I need you to help get my father to the infirmary.”

“No, we-” Lyons couldn’t even finish his sentence without coughing up specks of blood and phlegm.

Sarah gave him a look that was both anxious and stern. “We’re getting you to the infirmary and I am finding you a medic. Elder or not, that is not negotiable.”

The sounds of combat out in the corridor made the three flinch. Sarah cautiously peeked out, then skipped back as a crystal Super Mutant went flying past in pieces. She raised her pistols and the Elder gripped the arms of the chair tightly as they waited for a new threat to make itself known.

“Elder! Sentinel! Am I glad to see you both alive!” A familiar voice rasped as a figure appeared in the doorway.

“Star Paladin?!” Sarah exclaimed incredulously. “I didn’t think the medics had finished putting you back together yet!”

Cross shook her head. “I don’t think they did, but you’ll have to ask the Enclave or Knight-Captain Shimmer for details later. Right now, our priority is getting the Elder to safety.”

Both the Squire and Sarah nodded in agreement. “We need to get him to the infirmary,” Sarah said quickly. “Hopefully there’s at least one medic still alive down-”

“N-no!” Lyons insisted. “My office. Get me to… my off…”

“You need medical attention! Unity has pushed you so far it’s a miracle that you’re still alive!” Sarah snapped.

Lyons shook his head, ignoring the way it made his vision swim. It was imperative that he made them understand just how much danger they were in. “My office, or… or the wasteland i-is… doomed.”

“He is right, our fate is hanging by a thread,” Eden put in.

Sarah looked like she was going to argue, but Cross cut across her, “Unless he’s going senile, then we must follow the Elder’s orders. Sentinel, you help him walk. Squire, carry Eden and keep an eye on our rear.”

Hearing Cross take charge gave Lyons a warm feeling of nostalgia, despite how much his bones ached. Unfortunately, the feeling only lasted until Sarah helped him to his feet and put his arm around her shoulder, at which point his left arm exploded into agony, as if it was being squeezed in a vice. Lyons knew enough to realize what was most likely happening to him, but he did his best to hide the pain as his daughter half-carried him out of the door. “H-hurry.”

The corridors were, thankfully, clear save for the corpses of crystal beasts and Brotherhood personnel alike. Elder Lyons felt a dim sense of grief at the sight of so many dead Knights, Scribes, and even Squires, but pain and urgency left little room to mourn their loss. Those few survivors they encountered were ordered to get out of the Citadel and rendezvous at the bridge or, in the case of any crystal monsters, smashed by Cross.

“Something is happening outside,” Eden said suddenly. “It seems that the Rainbooms have struck Unity with a particularly powerful magical attack.”

Sarah glanced back at him curiously. “How do you… never mind. If the Rainbooms are all engaging her together then the battle is as good as won, which means we can get you to the infirmary,” she added with a glare at her father.

“No,” Lyons insisted, the effort making him cough up wads of blood and sputum. “My o… office.”

“Why are you so adamant on going to your office?” Sarah asked in exasperation. “You’re too old to keep pushing yourself like this, you need a med-”

“The Rainbooms aren’t going to be enough to stop Unity. I don’t think there’s any being on Earth that can, not even Liberty Prime,” Eden interrupted. “She has a backup plan, one that she couldn’t resist sharing with the good Elder and I as the so-called ‘leaders’ in her new regime. Our only hope of stopping it is for Elder Lyons to contact the Enclave, and it has to be him, no-one else. I just hope the transmitter isn’t broken.”

Sarah frowned, but she didn’t respond as she started putting the pieces together.

A short walk later, the group finally arrived at Elder Lyons’ private office. Cross shoved the door open and strode in with her hammer held high. “It’s clear,” she called a second later.

The others quickly followed Cross in. Lyons directed Sarah to sit him in his chair and enter the password on his communication terminal. “Thank… you…” He said quietly when she was done. “Now… y-you must… g-go.”

Sarah shook her head vehemently. “I’m not leaving you here! Contact the Enclave, then we’ll-”

“Sarah… please,” Lyons cut in. He finally gave into the pain and clutched his left arm tightly before giving her a pleading look. “Yo… you are the E-elder, now.”

Her face fell as she realized what he was saying. Or, perhaps, as she finally faced what she had been trying to deny. “You’re not planning on saving the Citadel.”

“It honestly pains me to say this, but it is beyond saving,” Eden said softly. “Could you pop me on the table, please. I shall stay as well. I should have died beneath Raven Rock. It seems fitting that I pay my dues here.”

“If you want to pay your dues, then live and pay them,” Cross said simply.

Lyons nodded slowly, though the effort nearly made him fall off his chair. “G-go. Get as f-far away from… the Citadel as… as you can.”

Sarah shook her head again stubbornly. “No. No! There has to be someth-”

“If there was, we’d be doing it, but the wasteland must come first.” Cross grabbed Sarah and shoved her out of the door, then did the same with the Squire and Eden before looking back at Lyons. “Elder Lyons, it was an honor.”

Lyons watched them leave with a mixture of sadness and relief, but he didn’t have time to wallow. The pain in his arm was more intense than anything he had ever felt, his vision was darkening, and simply remaining conscious was taking an effort of sheer will. Time was running out.

A simple press of a button activated the encrypted transmitter that the Enclave had installed. Lyons was afraid for a moment that the battle outside had damaged it, but after just a couple of seconds there was a crackle as the recipient answered. “Elder Lyons?! This is President Shoichet, is everything alright over there?!”

“Activ-vate… Skyfire… P-protocol,” Lyons forced out weakly. “Br… Bradley Hercules… Code… Grogar.”

“Bradley- are you serious?! Elder Lyons, please confirm status!” Becky yelled into the radio. “Elder? Elder Lyons, please respond! Damn it, what the hell is going on over there?!”

The courtyard was oddly quiet now. A thick pall of dust had been kicked up by the Rainbooms’ magical attack, making it hard to see more than a few meters in any direction, but Sunset could just about make out the outlines of surviving Knights climbing to their feet. The last of the crystal monsters were lying on the ground, apparently lifeless.

Unity and Horrigan were completely obscured from sight in the middle of the courtyard.

“Is it over?” Pinkie asked anxiously.

Sunset shook her head slowly, her shoulders still tense. “I sure hope so, but I’m not calling it until I see what’s left of her.”

“Of course it’s over, ain’t nothin’ that can stand against our magic when it’s like that!” Applejack exclaimed brightly. “Mark my words, she’s either dead, or curled up in a ball and cryin’ like Sunset was back when we hit her with the magic of friendship!”

The reminder of that old incident grated on Sunset’s frayed nerves, but she kept her mouth shut and glanced over at Rainbow. The trickle of blood from her ears was anything but reassuring. “Hey, Dash, you okay?” Sunset called out.

Rainbow didn’t reply. She raised a hand to her forehead, then touched her ear gently. She seemed surprised that her fingers came away bloody and started clicking them loudly next to her ear, an expression of mounting horror forming on her face.

A sudden sound of shifting masonry made Sunset spin around, but it was just the Praetor clambering out of the hole in the wall where Unity had blasted it, red light still pouring from the joints in its armor. “Damn, that thing is tough.” She flinched and swore as her Pip-Boy radio crackled into life a second after she relaxed.

“Sunset, are you there?!” Becky asked anxiously.

“I’m here, what do you need?” Sunset replied.

“I just had an emergency transmission from Elder Lyons, and he did not sound good. He didn’t say much, apart from giving me a highly sensitive code, and now he’s not responding at all,” Becky explained quickly. “Is Unity behind this? Is she still standing?”

Sunset turned back to where Unity and Horrigan had been. “We hit Unity pretty hard. I think she’s done for, but we’re waiting on visual confirmation.”

Metal clinked as Fluttershy stepped forward and raised her sniper rifle. “She’s not.”

“She’s not?!” Sunset glanced sidelong at Fluttershy, then snapped her plasma rifle up as the dust cleared enough to reveal a figure in the center of the courtyard.

Her whole body was pitted and charred, but Unity was still upright. She had her arms stretched up and out, as if she had tried to ward off the blast, and her legs had morphed into a tangle of spindly stilts, drawing power out of the crystals in the ground. Horrigan was lying unconscious behind her.

“She fuckin’ tanked it?!” Applejack blurted out incredulously.

“Hit her again!” Sunset yelled.

Unity snarled and threw her arms out in a wide circle. Her body pulsed with light and a wave of invisible power rippled out from her, knocking everyone in the courtyard off their feet. Looking around with an expression of pure hatred, Unity raised her hands and clenched her fists, lifting every broken shard of the dead crystal monsters in her power and drawing them closer.

Sunset watched in horror as Unity started absorbing the dead beasts; her body twisting and mutating into an immense amorphous mass as she added their mass to her own. “Horrigan is out of commission, but Unity is not down, I repeat, she is not down,” Sunset yelled into her Pip-Boy. “We can’t stop her! Liberty, we need you in here!”

“No, we have another option!” Becky countered. “I’m firing a the full payload of the Bradley-Hercules platform, so get the fuck out of there! You’ve got one minute!”

The blood drained from Sunset’s face as she realized what code Lyons had given the Enclave. “Everyone start running! Get the fuck away from the Citadel, right now!”

“You’re going nowhere!” The voice seemed to dig itself directly into Sunset’s mind instead of her ears. Looking up, she saw a misshapen head push grotesquely out of Unity’s body. Everyone else in the courtyard shivered and twitched, then turned to stare at her and raised their arms in forced adoration. “You belong to me, you all belong to me. The Wasteland shall have a new Master, and my reign shall be eternal.”

Sunset sagged and let out a defeated sigh. She had given it her best shot, but Unity had come out on top. As her gaze dropped, Sunset noticed that Unity had grown right on top of the trapdoor that Liberty Prime was usually raised and lowered out of. She grinned wildly and raised her Pip-Boy to her mouth as one final idea popped into her head. “Hey, big boy, I need a basketball dropped directly through your old hoop. Capisce?”

A quiet affirmative was the only response. Unity was still monologuing, assured in her own superiority, when the mini-nuke arced up into the air, reached its peak, and dropped down in an almost perfectly straight line directly onto her head.

The ensuing explosion shook the Citadel to its core. Searingly hot air washed over Sunset and made her Geiger counter squeal in protest, but the bomb had done its job. The ground under Unity, already battered and weakened by her fight with Horrigan, cracked and, with a crash that almost matched the sound of the mini-nuke, finally collapsed. Unity let out a piercing mental shriek of shock and rage as she dropped into the Citadel’s basement laboratory. The courtyard shook from the impact as she hit the ground below.

“Fucking run!” Sunset screamed. She got a brief glimpse of the Praetor loping towards Horrigan’s body before she turned and pelted towards Rainbow. Sunset didn’t bother speaking, she just pointed at Twilight and jabbed a finger towards the gate. Rainbow nodded and disappeared in a blur of color, leaving Sunset to sprint to the exit.

Knights on all sides joined her in a mad dash to escape. They didn’t know about what was coming, but Sunset knew that seeing her running like hell would inspire the lot of them to do the same just as a precaution.

One of the Knights got to the doors first and rammed them open with a shoulder. Everyone else piled in behind and belted down the exit corridor, grabbing and dragging up anyone who fell. Sunset paled as she remembered the waist-high snow outside, but the Knights simply charged straight into it, using their power armor to bulldoze a path and spraying snow everywhere.

Sunset felt a twinge of relief as she sped out of the Citadel. The other Rainbooms were ahead of her, following the road down towards the bridge, and for a second she dared hope that everything was going to be fine.

An impossibly loud scream tore through the air, driving spikes of pure agony into Sunset’s mind and driving her to the floor. She looked back instinctively, half-expecting to see Unity smashing through the gate, but instead she saw the Praetor speeding towards her with Horrigan over its shoulder. The Praetor snatched Sunset up as it passed. The impact drove the wind out of her, but as it lifted her she got a perfect view of hundreds of bright lights blazing in the sky above; the Citadel’s doom writ large above the world.

Sunset’s stomach lurched as the Praetor suddenly dove forward. The first missile streaked down into the Citadel just as she plunged into ice-cold darkness.

Next Chapter: Chapter 148 - Pyrrhic Victory Estimated time remaining: 11 Hours, 60 Minutes