"MMmmmmm, so many little souls that are willing to become my sacrifices just to protect their loved ones." Mona stated in a sultry tone as she walked slowly in front of the massive crowd of ponies.

"W-why are you doing this?! Why won't you just go away and leave us alone?!" A young mare stated nervously as she pressed out of the crowd of ponies to in front of them all.

The Twilight Princess came to a halt, an evil smile creeping slowly across her face as she turned and took a few steps closer to the young mare. The mare backed up a couple of steps, her back pressing against a few others that were now trying to press backwards into the ever tightening crowd of ponies.

"Why am I doing this?" Mona repeated as she leaned down quickly causing the ponies to whimper. They had already watched her tear an entire regiment of guard apart with just a flick of her wrist and was not about to become her next target.

"I am doing this so that I can put your precious little royals to death before taking over as the ruler of this world. Then find another suitable host that can wield magic. This host is quite boring, along with her taste in clothing." She sighed out as she tugged at the dress that felt as if it were form fitting and didn't give any extra room for movement. "Sadly, in order to do that, I must have you pitiful ponies become hostages so that your leaders will give themselves up willingly. But...." She trailed off causing the crowd to look on in worry.

"If you all tell me that you would be willing sacrifices to my cause, I will let you and your foals go." She smiled evilly causing them all to whine out in worry.

"What do you mean, sacrifices?" The young mare asked as she cocked her head a little in confusion.

"Just say this phrase and you're all welcome to go free." Mona giggled softly before speaking again. "I sacrifice myself to the Twilight Princess."

The ponies all looked to one another in further worry as tension began to build. The air became thick with the worried mumbles of everypony that was being held captive at that moment, however it came to a halt as Mona spoke up once again.

"Just say the damn phrase and then you can get the hell back to whatever you were doing before I showed up. I honestly don't want to have to rip another pony apart just to get my point across. Unless one of you want to be ripped apart?" She giggled madly as she stepped closer to one of the members within the crowd but pausing as the young mare spoke up once again.

"NO! No, it's fine. I don't understand why you just want us to say that, but if it means that our foals and us can go free without injury or death, then I guess you've made the decision for us." She sighed, lowering her head as she spoke out one final phrase.

"I sacrifice myself to the Twilight Princess." She stated quietly before rest of the ponies within the large crowd spoke out the same phrase as well. After a minute of standing in silence, Mona smiled widely as she pulled her arms up and apart, looking as if she wanted a hug. She quickly swung her arms forward, clapping her hands hard and sending out a load shockwave over the crowd causing them all to scream out in pain as her bracelets began to glow brightly.

"Thank you all for you aid!" Mona shouted as a beam of light shout out from her bracelet on her left hand and surrounded everypony within the crowd. The screams all came to a halt, each pony falling to the ground before slowly turning to a vapor and being pulled into the glowing bracelet. After a few seconds, Monas eyes shot open as a bright glow quickly faded within them. A shuddering breath leaving her as she began to feel the power resonate through her entire being.

“Not bad, seems as if a few innocent ponies resided within that crowd.” She hummed softly to herself before stopping as something occurred to her. “Innocent........ponies.” A devious smile began to form on her face as she turned to another group of ponies that were all watching the scene that had unfolded before them. These ponies however, were nothing but foals and children. The very offspring of the ponies that had just been consumed into the Twilight Princess.

“If a few innocent ponies can give me that much power......... What will an entire crowd of foals do to my power level?” She continued to grin widely as she began to walked toward the crowd of whimpering ponies.

“All platoon leaders advance! We need to save those foals under any circumstance. Lethal force has been authorized. If you get the chance to kill that bitch, do it!” One of Midnight’s clones shouted as all of the platoons of ponies began to race forward toward the large group of children that were a thousand feet away.

The pegasus regiment all began to fly fast toward Mona as she continued to walk toward the crowd of foals. Only for her to come to a stop as she heard the massive quake of hooves hitting the ground from a distance. She turned in time to see the pegasus regiment closing in on her faster than she would have thought.

At the lead of the pack, a clone of Midnight whose horn was alight with magic as the bolted from the sky toward the ground below.

“My my..... Such a naughty stallion we are.” Mona tittered as she raised a hand toward the flying group of pegasi that were headed toward her at break neck speed. “But utterly useless.” She cackled as a bolt of energy shot from her right hand, heading toward them. The light beam spreading outward and engulfing every pony for a few seconds before it began to dim. Mona’s evil grin turned to that of somewhat shock when the light dissipated, revealing all of the pegasi still intact, but Midnights clone was nowhere to be seen. Before she could react, a horn managed to impale her from behind, going straight through her chest and making her scream out in pain. She turned her head just in time to see Midnights clone giving a smirk before she attempted to pull herself off of his horn only to stop as a searing pain ran through her body.

“Sorry, but you aren’t going anywhere!” The clone shouted as his horn lit up with what was left of his magical reserve.

Mona turned her head forward to see the pegasi all separating and quickly flying around her, making their way quickly to the foals and picking them up before bolting back to where they came from. As the pegasi flew back toward the direction they came from, the earth pony and unicorn regiment had just made it to the frontline where the Twilight Princess was being held forcibly, still impaled by Midnights horn.

The unicorns all began to power their magic up as several earth ponies came forward impaling the human with several runed lances. Each glowing brightly as they penetrated through her body on several areas. One even going far enough through her to impale the clone who winced in pain for just a moment.

“I... am going... to kill you ALL!” Mona growled out as her bracelets began to grow brighter and brighter, her screams of pain growing louder and louder as each second passed.

“Hurry up! You’ve only got a few seconds left!” The clone shouted as the glow from his horn began to dim.

The human females cries of pain stopped as her hand shot up, grabbing the horn that had impaled her and snapping the tip of with a loud crack that resonated all around her. The horn quickly began to glow brightly before disintegrating into a white glowing dust that fell toward the ground, disappearing before it hit. She looked back to see the pained expression on the dark Alicorns face before he too turned to dust.

Turning her head back around she grinned evilly as she watched the ponies staring at her in utter horror. several more bolting forth with more runed lances, but stopping short as she raised her hand quickly in an uppercut motion. Rock spikes erupted from the ground, impaling several of the stallions while many of the others jumped out of harms way.

A few of the stallions launched the lances toward her, two hitting her square in the chest and driving their way through her and quickly burying themselves into the ground below. Further locking her in place.

“Whip Lash! Get that magical rune up! Unicorn guard, get your flanks in gear!” Another clone of Midnight shouted as he landed quickly to in front of the regiment, his horn quickly filling with his magic as he awaited the rune to be placed.

Whip Lash bolted forward as he pulled a scroll from his saddlebag and unfurled it in front of him. His eyes bolting across the page, reading the spell softly from his lips as his horn began to glow, several lines of runes began to slowly cover the ground below the Twilight Princess, causing her to gasp at seeing something she had seen only one other time in her life. That moment was when she had been placed into a diamond prison by the Griffon King many millennia ago before her long slumber.

“You won’t.... imprison me again!” She screamed out before her entire body began to glow brightly.

“HURRY!” Midnight shouted out for a moment before the light being emitted from the human blinded everything in white.

“DAMMIT!” Midnight shouted out as he released his magic, surrounding the human as the white engulfed everything around. “Everypony retreat!” Was the last thing that was heard as the earth pony and unicorn regiment bolted back toward the direction they had came from just as a loud crack was heard.

Midnights clone winced in pain as the shield he used to surround the Twilight Princess cracked. A loud scream no escaping from within it before another crack split through it.

“Clone two to Midnight. We’ve failed in suppressing the enemy! The foals were rescued, but the adults were all taken. Request for immediate evac of the area! AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!”

Midnights clone managed to barely get out the information he needed to send before the shield shattered from around Mona, the white light engulfing him and quickly moving toward the retreating parties.

“UNICORN REGIMENT! SHIELDS UP! PROTECT THE THE OTHERS!” Whip Lash shouted as many of the unicorns began to stop in several lines before quickly using their magic to pull up a shield to deflect the incoming wave of magic that was being emitted from the Twilight Princess.

The entire platoon winced as their magic was forced to the limit as the wave of energy was deflected into the sky above like a wave of light bouncing off of a mirror in the middle of the night.

Another deafening scream erupted from Mona as the wave intensified, causing the unicorns to take a few steps back. Whip Lash took a quick glance backwards to see that the platoon of earth ponies had made it past the clearing and down the back of a large hill that they had bounded from earlier to surprise their enemy.
“Unicorn regiment! Initiate code Sigma!” Whip Lash shouted as one line of the guard from the back of the pack bolted forward to the center of the long lines of unicorn guard. Energy bubble shields quickly enveloping everyone of them as they floated within its center. The forward shield dropped a moment later as the energy wave broke through hitting everypony and causing them to shoot like a rocket backwards and over the top of the hill and bounce to a stop at the bottom before the orbs burst, releasing them.

“Everypony initiate emergency teleportation procedures!” Whip Lash shouted once again as each pony pulled out a scroll, unfurling it and placing it on the ground. Each pony consisting of a single guard and up to four other ponies with them that had been rescued or were injured guard.

A heavy echo erupted as they all quickly stomped onto the scrolls causing them to burst forth in a bright green fire that quickly engulfed them all. The Twilight Princes managing to fly just over the top of the hill to see the green flames vanish right before her eyes.

The young woman landed in the middle of the small field that had just been occupied by a mass of ponies before letting out a furious scream that shook the very earth.

“I’ll kill you all before I’m done with this planet! DO YOU HEAR ME?!” She continued as the very ground cracked outward from her.

A bright flash of green fire erupted from within the Canterlot Cathedral as a mass of ponies appeared. Many cries and whines of pain coming from many of those ponies as the guard that had not been injured quickly began to exit the Cathedral as many of the medical staff began to file in to take care of the injured and frightened individuals.

After a short time, Midnight, as well as the two princess’ arrived within the cathedral to help with estimating the damage caused by the Twilight Princess. A few minutes had gone by before they had located the head of each group and had taken a copy of several forms that listed the injured guards, and the surviving number of ponies from HorseShoe Bay.

“This is bad.” Midnight whispered as he looked the list over. Celestia and Luna coming forward as they gave a disheartened sigh.

“Three hundred and six foals, now orphans. Some of them had elder siblings that can take care of them. But the others now must face life without parents. This is terrible.” Luna stated softly as she looked around to the various children that who were all crying or passed out from utter exhaustion.

“Tia, we need to find out if there is a way to get those ponies back. Otherwise we are going to have a lot of ponies being placed into the orphanages around Equestria.” Midnight sighed as he looked around the Cathedral. His eyes resting on many different ponies that had been injured, or foals that were being held to keep them from crying.

“Sir!” A pegasus guard shouted as he hovered above Midnight and the two Princess’. “We need your assistance! Come with me, quickly.” He stated as he bolted toward the exit. Midnight hot on his heels.

Once the two had made it outside of the Cathedral, they landed just as the pegasus guard began to speak.

“Sir, information has just arrived from several scouts in Equestria.” He spoke out nervously.

“Well? What do they have to report?” Midnight asked as his brow furrowed in worry.

“The Twilight Princess is on her way to Canterlot. She is bowling through every blockade without hesitation. Her ETA in Canterlot is two hours.” He choked out.

“Dammit....... Alright, you know what to do. Notify every guard of the coming fight. Have every single guard start prepping for a hard assault. I’ll prepare for the coming battle.” Midnight stated out in a forceful tone causing the stallion to salute and take off into the sky toward his intended targets.

“SHIT!” Midnight shouted as his wings flare out, his mane erupting into an inferno. “This isn’t going well. I’ll do my best to make sure that that bitch doesn’t survive her encounter here though. Even if it means having to sacrifice myself in the process.”