"Now… To finish what I started."

Teleporting off in a haunting laugh, Harmony disappeared from sight in a flash of light.

The message couldn't have been any clearer, and Twilight knew where she was needed.

"She's going after Peter!"

If Harmony was going after Sniff, then all the wounded outside were just as vulnerable, and Cerb could already start the body count if that were the case. Calculating how ineffective even a shotgun was against Harmony, he'd have to sacrifice some of his strongest to deal with her. Not an easy call to make when he didn't know the limits of these new arrivals, but it was one he was willing to make.

"Twilight, take your group outside. We'll take care of the rest here. Go!"

It felt wrong for Twilight to leave, but with six humans, two alicorns, most of her guard, and the rest of the royals, along with additional forces? That had to be more than enough. Right?

"Stay safe! We'll make this quick!"

In another flash, Twilight, Ovens, Swifty, Cutter, and Celestia were gone, then right back in the group.

"Gah!" Twilight grunted before she could take another step forward. "That bitch blocked us again!"

Sure enough, new crystal vines had grown around the exit. Further complicating things, the Echoes were advancing on their flanks, and Rainbow knew their only way out for them.

"Swifty! You can cut your way out like you did in the throne room. We'll hold them off!"

From there, the forces who were to remain, divided in four directions. Each section’s goal, neutralize the Echoes and save the kids.

Discord had different targets in mind and called out his support to encourage the others.

"They're no longer alive! Crush them like The Pony of Shadows!"

Cerb took the lead, charging, hopping an alicorn wouldn't hit any harder than Helix did. His thought process wasn't even finished when a buzz landed a dull thud upon his chest. It was a solid hit that he didn't even see coming, but it thankfully felt like little more than a warm slap.

He was back in the fight, ax ready, his girls at his side, and a small team to lead.

“KILL 'EM ALL!”

His first targets were a pair of Twilight Echoes holding shields over another Celestia charging her horn. He had to imagine they were confident with the defenses, blanket smiles over all three, even as a spinning blade, graced with Rarity’s aura, pierced their barrier. No change in their stance or expression, still dutifully holding their ground.

A second spinning blade followed under the first, receiving far less resistance from the construct supporting the barrier which fell. A clear line of light shining through its head split down the center of its still smiling facade, it collapsed.

To Cerb’s left, Fluttershy crashed against the remaining barrier, hooves first to clear the path by means of dive tackling the second Twilight.

With the patch clear, Cerb pushed through the beam attack that was wider than his frame, swinging his ax into the chest of the fake Celestia, while ignoring the growing pain through his body.

There was far more resistance than that of the Timberwolves. Chunks of pristine pearly crystal dropping to the floor, with only a shooting grunt from the duplicate ruler of Equestria.

Lunging in front of him, Thunder swung her heavy halberd down on another Twilight copy. Sparks flew from the blade and horn, discharging a violet beam that erupted on the stone wall.

“This isn’t exactly like what you taught me at the party!”

Two more beams came from behind. One white, one blue, both landing broadside of the double, sending her crashing back into a column of doubles trying to process what they just witnessed. It cleared enough breathing space for Cerb and to answer.

“No time! We’re improvising!”

While the collection of Echoes were pulling back, regrouping for a new strategy, Cerb turned back to find Fluttershy with her unwilling wrestling partner in a rear-naked chokehold.

Unlike Cerb's demonstration of the move, Fluttershy leaned back, squeezing her gauntlet-like boots around the Echo's neck. Popping and hisses creaked out as the internal crystal structure fractured.

The Echo's body went limp, relieving Fluttershy of the task of continuing the submission, kicking the construct up into Ember's claws.

Ember gave the construct's corpse another toss-up in front of her, wound her staff back like a Louisville Slugger, batting the body away into a stalactite.

The body split apart, breaking the rock formation off from the ceiling, raining stones and boulders down on some of the retreating constructs.

[Benny's team, at the split.]

"They're no longer alive! Crush them like The Pony of Shadows!"

Benny ran up the center, ready to take another shot to test his weapon.

His first target? This Shining Sword character with the giant blade looking straight at-

Flash!

He was gone, but a Celestia double was battle-ready, charging her horn behind a shield in front of him where he was aiming.

BOOM!

A round of buckshot broke through the first magic barrier in front of him. From the spidering cracks, a Luna double collapsed with an equally large cavity in her chest as the barrier started to shatter.

Seeing the opening, Rutherford barged through the fractured shield, head butting a Celestia double.

Clang!

The Celestia double skid back in the loose, wet, soil. A crack leading up the bridge of her nose was turned back upon her attacker. No smile upon her face, more akin to something empty, emotionless. A stone-cold killer, slowly lifting into the air in short trust, accompanied by the sound of rope being drawn tight.

The double swung her head over her shoulder to see the rope, which had somehow been tied around her, raising her up.

Pinkie, contributing the way she does best, gave another yank on the rope, finally reaching the desired height.

"Good hit, Prince! Now! Once more with vigor!"

Jumping ahead, Octavia spun mid-air, swinging her crowbar high.

Smash!

Striking a blow at the top of the double's throat, the blunt trauma decapitated the construct. The quickly dispatched double allowed the group to move up, but not without passing commentary from Octavia scampering off to catch up with Benny.

"Nice pinata, Pinkie, but you forgot to give him the stick!"

Vinyl was less than a second behind with a follow-up.

"Good job, Pinks. I'll hold the next one for Tavi!"

Rutherford caught up quickly, a bit of a ringing in his head, but a stronger desire to make up for the missed kill taking priority.

"That lousy pinata! No candy inside! Find better one myself!"

In a panic, Pinkie let loose the rope to catch up with her war party. The crystal corpse crashed, falling to pieces… much like her joke.

"Come on, guys! That was a great setup!"

Losing sight of the double who had to be their leader left Benny spinning to locate him. A task done in one spin, finding the double approaching Shining’s group. This double had even teleported past Discord, Trixie, and the new Trixie double, all currently bickering and thus, putting them all in the line of fire.

Thankfully, Shining standing his ground with Cadance, was already on it, shouting out to urge Benny to go on.

“We got this one! Keep going!”

Coming up on Benny’s far right side, Big Mac gave his mallet a solid swing to another Twilight double.

Crack!

The mallet broke just under the hammer portion, stunning both the double as well as Big Mac, who didn't expect this much resistance

"Uh… Luna?!"

The Twilight double snapped her attention back to Big Mac. A look of blankness, perhaps surprised by surviving the attack, but with a hint of insult.

“That was pointless.”

Rushing past his side, Kelly charged in, taking the double by the horn and thrusting her knife into the construct's pristine crystal neck.

“How’s this for a poi-Whoa!”

Even with a blade lodged in her body, the double shook and tried to jump back. Her attempts to free herself were like that of an angry child in human hands. Kelly’s anger and now a damaged form significantly weakened her resistance, yet still, she fought.

“Damnit! Mac! Fucken help me here!”

Big Mac could see his primary means of attack had just been lost, but he could still help Kelly and jumped in to take the double to the ground.

He wrestled the bucking double as best he could, which came easier than he thought it would, allowing Kelly to continue her jabs into the downed construct. With each stab, the struggling died down until his tight grip was crushing the body, cracking its exterior, finally ending the double.

“Woah,” Kelly sighed in relief. “Okay… That was harder than I thought it would be-GODDAMNIT, GET DOWN!”

Another Celestia double descended down on them, unleashing a blast of magic that Kelly managed to shield Big Mac from.

The Celestia double finished her pass, doing no damage to Kelly, but invoked the wrath of Luna, who body-checked the double mid-flight.

“HOW DARE YOU!” Luna shouted, watching the double tumble into the dirt while drawing magic into her horn. “SUFFER A THOUSAND DEATHS, YOU EVIL BITCH!”

A dark beam ripped from Luna’s horn, striking the double before there was a chance to recover. The duplicate was engulfed completely, the beam erupted in a blast that cratered the ground where it once laid.

Another blast was heard overhead, followed by a thud from Seaspray crashing next to Kelly and Big Mac. His body bounced after his rough landing, showing the broken spear handle still in his front talons.

“Gah! Even their eyes are indestructible.”

A Cadance double landed in front of him, standing tall and looking down upon him with what might have been mistaken as pity. The voice she spoke with loomed out with all the vacancy of Harmony’s tone that had introduced her.

“Had you stood down, you would not have been harmed. You have a role to play in the upcoming war.”

Seaspray froze, on top of being unable to get up on his own. If he was being mocked, it came from such a vastly superior being that the benevolence was all the more terrifying. If she was being honest, then knowing his fate may yet still be sealed had his courage leave him entirely.

“War?” His voice shook. “What war?”

Somewhere behind the pho-emotionless exterior, pity flashed for all of but a moment.

“The Storm King grows impatient. Soon he will-HUCK!”

CRACK!

Two cannonball-charged rear legs, coated in red, extended and retracted where the Love Princess Double once stood. Only a few shards of her exterior that had been broken off remained flickering in the air, spinning as they fell in a shower of shards and dust.

Big Mac brought his hooves down, only to wince and lift his back left hoof up to inspect.

“Damn it! Kel… I think I’m down a hoof.”

Kelly, not wanting to risk another splinter threat, pulled a pink shard of crystal from Big Mac’s hoof. Only a little blood, but more than enough for her to toss in the towel.

“Fucking… Shit… Why couldn’t they make armor in your size?”

Seaspray, lagging behind in his thought processes, now understanding that it was a buck from Big Mac that had removed the double from endangering him. Another delayed reaction left his eyes searching for who had struck him down, which led him to find her remains embedded in the wall.

Lifeless, limbs missing, and the entire right side of her body broken, she was finished before the warning could be given. Yet, in front of him, the battle raged on, with him being ignored by any of the doubles that could have taken any pop-shot they wanted at him.

“The… The Storm King is still out there?”

“Hey!” Kelly shouted, now kneeling down to his side. “You okay? Can you move? Are you… Just stay down. We’ll keep you safe. I think we can let them take care of the rest.”

Big Mac turned to see the fight going on without them. Even over the chaos, Pinkie was doing her part, holding up a pie for another Twilight double and disrupting their lines.

Pinkie's cheerful voice overpowered the double’s. The double's pleas for Pinkie to surrender appeared to be reverting her back into the norm of things.

“If you’re really a Twilight, can you guess the flavor by just looking at it?!”

The Twilight double continued backing up, raising her voice even higher, failing to rationalize with the Pinkie through the pie getting shoved closer and closer in front of her face.

“These humans do not belong here! Pinkie!The future of Eqes-”

Crack!

Pinkie’s armored hoof punched through the pie, cratering the fake Twilight’s face, drawing a deep and vengeful voice from the party mare.

“IT WAS PAIN!”

Disappointed, Big Mac sighed, now stuck on the sidelines, under the floating foals.

“Just hold tight, Kel. I still got three good legs if any get too close.”

So, the next few parts to this will come out ever day to every other day, as fast as I can put them together and have them edited. Part 2 will be submitted tomorrow, and Part 3 won't be far behind.

Essentially, with so many characters fighting around each other, to keep things manageable and readable, I had to break this battle down into smaller sub-chapters.

Sorry that this one was so short, but the next one will be larger and have a greater emphasis on one of the protagonists, and a fight that will be well worth the wait. But, to find out who that will involve, and who's blood will be spilt, tune in tomorrow for: