“Friend of yours, Traev?” Ashen Blaze asked his double as the bipedal, chimeric rock monster pulled itself out of the hole and towered over the town square.

“I don’t recognize it,” Traev answered, “but those eyes might be indicative of the Emerald powering it. And here we are, with most of our teams gone and I can’t do magic.”

“Maybe the stress of battle will awaken it,” Ash suggested.

“Or maybe you could finally give me the skvetchte Diamond,” Traev snapped.

Ash took another look at the rock beast, which had finished climbing out and was orienting on Trixie as she and her troupe tried to find cover. “All right, point,” he conceded. He started to cast out with his magic, and then realized something. With a face-hoof and a chagrined smirk, he said, “I left it behind at the library. Pinkie! Do me a favor and go get the Diamond from the training area, please?”

“Okie dokie,” Pinkie responded, galloping away. With a satisfied nod at that, Ash turned his attention back to the rock monster and sketched a few quick lines on the ground. His horn and gemstone necklace flared, and bolt of energy fired out at the monster’s eye and exploded, grabbing its attention.

“Defend, distract, and buy time,” Ash said to Twilight, “unless you’re tough enough to beat that thing now.”

Twilight opened her mouth to answer, but the monster swung one tree-trunk thick arm toward them, so instead she cried, “Watch out!” and threw up a hasty force-field. The blow connected and broke through, only to meet another, slanted orange barrier that deflected it to the side. The ground shook and rippled under the impact, throwing Twilight and the stallions off their hooves. A sound like a distant rockslide came from the creature, and it punched the ground with its other hand, cracking the earth and causing it to buckle and rise up in sharp ridges. One of the ridges rose up beneath the Lirin, and the ship rolled over noisily, ending up on its back.

“Skvetch!” Ash swore loudly, springing to his hooves and making a beeline for his ship.

“Ash, what are you doing?” Twilight cried after him.

“Sorry Twi,” Ash called back, “have to see to this; potential danger. Explain later.” Twilight made to run after him, but a rain of rocks from the monster’s arms as it moved forced her to stop and put up another shield. Ash dodged and deflected the rocks and reached the Lirin, calling out the command to open and trotting in place anxiously as the hatch unsealed and struggled to open against the pull of gravity. As soon as it had opened enough for him to see inside, he teleported in and called out to something. A moment later, Twilight watched in horror as he tumbled out of the ship with some sort of black shadowy thing wrapping around his head and spreading down his neck. He wrestled with it for a moment or two, managed to get most of his face free, and then rolled to his feet and took off in the general direction of the library.

“What just happened there?” Traev asked, dumbfounded. “He abandoned us!”

“He’ll be back,” Twilight said, trying to sound confident, and failing. She fired a few bolts of magic at the rock creature, leaving small craters in its side and drawing it attention toward her and the impotent grey unicorn. “I just hope it’s soon.”

Come on now, be a good boy and submit. We could work so well together.

“No deal, Noctus. You aren’t ready yet.”

“Not ready?” Who are you to judge me? I’ve existed far longer than you.

“Our individual goals don’t mesh yet. Besides, I’m not planning on letting you loose on this world, of all places.”

This world? You don’t perchance mean… Let me see!

“Nnng. Stop…”

Oh! Ha ha ha ha ha! I see. And you are trying to find another bottle to trap me in, aren’t you? Well, I refuse.

“Noctus, you can’t leave. I forbid it.”

Try and stop me, little pony.

Ash’s heart lurched painfully and his legs gave out beneath him, which sent him tumbling painfully along the road. As he rolled, the shadow around him tore itself free and flew away like a snake through the air. Ash tried in vain to rise, and his vision became blurred. The last thing he recalled seeing clearly before blacking out was the sinuous shadow starting to fray as it passed through the window of a nearby clock shop.

Twilight grunted as another boulder bounced off her shield, and then grabbed it and catapulted it back at the monster, striking its arm and creating another small crater and web of cracks that slowly started to fade. The wounds from her initial magic barrage were already gone, and it was all she could do to keep adding more to hold the monster’s attention while protecting Traev, who seemed content to stick around and offer only somewhat useful advice. “It’s drawing in mass from the ground itself,” he said. “As long as it’s in contact with its own Element, you’re not going to be able to overwhelm it on your own.”

“Well I could lift it off the ground,” Twilight replied through gritted teeth, “but I can’t focus enough magic into that on top of everything else right now.”

“One distraction, coming up.” Three firework rockets appeared and flew toward the rock beast. Two were intercepted by flying boulders, but the last hits it target and chipped the monster’s canine teeth. Twilight glanced toward the source of the rockets and saw Trixie standing nearby with four more floating around her. “Work fast Sparkle,” she said, “these are all I have left.”

As Twilight prepared to cast a large-scale levitation spell, and as the colossus turned itself to face Trixie, there was a shout from down another street and a beige glob flew up and struck the creature’s back. A split-second later, Rainbow Dash zoomed up in the glob’s wake and delivered a solid kick to the impact site, penetrating a good few inches and creating a large web of deep cracks all over the monster’s back. The creature staggered and roared like an avalanche, and Rainbow easily pulled her leg free and looped down to join the yellow and brown group of ponies that were galloping into the square and heading right for Twilight. Gale led the charge, with Carrie right behind her trying to reload the Gel Launcher on the run, and then Johnten, Gold Heart, Fluttershy, and Soul Mage, who was carrying a large sapphire in his spirit tendril. “Need some help?” Gale asked as she came to a stop next to Twilight and turned her gaze and PC’s scanners on the rock monster.

“Yes, thank you,” Twilight answered, grinning with relief.

“Where’s Ash?” Heart asked.

“Something from your ship got him,” Traev answered, gesturing to the over-turned Lirin.

“Noctus,” Soul said grimly. “Well, one disaster at a time. Here Traev, try putting this to use.” He flung the sapphire at the ash-grey unicorn, and it stopped short of his face as an orange aura of magic engulfed it. Traev started to snap at Soul, but then did a double-take and glanced up at his horn, which was also glowing orange.

“Huh,” he said.

“All right,” Gale said, taking charge, “this thing’s got some major magic centered around the head that seems consistent with a Chaotic Gem. Twilight, you get it into the air to cut it off from the reserves we’re standing on. We’ll try to lighten your load. Spiriters, take out the arms; Carrie, you and Dash work on the legs. Traev and Johnten, do whatever works for you and try not to interfere with us.”

“Ok,” Johnten said, quirking an eyebrow and looking at Heart and Soul, “but soul energy doesn’t have much effect on soulless constructs. Are you sure they can handle their part?”

“Just watch us, solo-soul,” Soul Mage responded. He linked his magic to Heart and gave her a nod as their auras formed. “Go get ‘em sis.”

Heart took to the sky and flew at the rock monster, which was starting to recover from the magebane Rainbow had driven into its back. She brought her hooves close together in front of her, focusing her energy between them into a spinning disc. As it grew, the ethereal blue was joined by red, yellow, and green lights, and then Heart spun herself around and launched the disk, crying, “Element Wheel!”

Johnten’s eyes had grown increasingly wide as the Heart prepared her attack, and when she threw it and it enlarged further and cleaved the monster’s right arm off at the shoulder, his jaw dropped. He recovered a moment later and smirked, giving himself a light smack to the forehead. “You know, that actually makes perfect sense,” he said, and then ignited his own horn with a toss of his head. Raising his eyes to the sky, he called out, “Let’s pull our weight, shall we, Seroh? Sola beend, and let him have it at full power. Element Wheel.” Soul eyed him curiously, and a few seconds later his jaw fell open as a multicolored disk of spirit energy formed in mid-air high above Johnten’s head and flew out to remove the monster’s other arm just above the elbow.

Meanwhile, Carrie was proving her earlier claim of being a crack shot, peppering the monster’s leg with Magebane gels fired from the Gel Launcher, and each strike was followed up by a buck from Rainbow Dash to take advantage of the momentary lack of magic holding the leg together at that point, and at the same time Traev was tapping into the elemental Water power of the Sapphire to assault the other leg with high-pressure jets of water and instantly freezing any water that got into the joints and other cracks. Both legs gave way at roughly the same time, and Twilight managed to take the full weight of the colossus in her magic before it toppled over onto somepony. The ground gave way slightly under her hooves as she fought to lift the dismembered monster, and once the debris of the destroyed legs finished falling away she was holding it steady well above the roofline of the buildings surrounding the square.

“Fantastic work everypony!” Gale called out encouragingly. “Carrie, stop with the Magebane so you don’t disrupt Twilight’s spell. Everyone else, keep cutting that thing until we find the- Whoooooaa!” The earth shook violently, and thick tendrils of green light shot out from the rock monster’s stumps, reaching down to the ground and tearing it up to create replacement limbs. The town square began to split apart into little islands of rock and dirt, and the smallest of them quickly crumbled into nothing. The quaking and upheavals threw up a choking cloud of dust.

“Hey, no fair!” Rainbow Dash protested.

“This doesn’t seem like typical behavior for a stone golem,” Traev shouted over the noise of the quake as everyone tried to back away from the spreading destruction. “There’s a real intelligence behind this!”

“What, like something’s inside that thing, driving it?” Gale shouted back.

“Yeah, I’m with Traev on this,” Soul called out. “That thing’s got a brain!”

“Lovely,” Gale muttered, and then called to Heart. When the golden-yellow pegasus flew over to her, she passed PC to Heart and said, “Get as close as you can and see if PC can find any life in that thing.” Heart nodded and put the computer on her head, but before she could fly off, Johnten held up a hoof and shook his head.

“We’ve got this,” he said. “I’ll send one of my ghost partners, and if he finds anything alive inside he can knock it out and shut the whole golem down.”

“Be quick about it then,” Twilight shouted, the strain of holding the monster aloft visible on her face, “this thing is heavy!” Johnten nodded, and then turned to speak to something beside him. The others couldn’t hear him over the din, but after a brief moment there was a visible ripple in the dust cloud that seemed quite distinct from all the other swirls and eddies. Everyone followed it with their eyes as long as they could as it traveled to the nearly invisible rock monster reassembling itself at the center of the earthen maelstrom. Tension mounted quickly, and the group had nearly reached the utter edge of the square trying to stay on solid footing, when suddenly everything went still. The dust cloud dispersed, and the rock monster began to rapidly disintegrate, its component stones reduced to dirt that trickled out of Twilight’s magical grip. A large emerald burst out of the head and flew toward Traev, seemingly under its own power, although the grey unicorn took it as if accepting it from the hands of another being. The monster finished breaking apart, and all that remained in Twilight’s levitation spell was an unconscious red unicorn stallion with an unkempt purple mane and tail. She brought him over to her as she retired with the rest to a more stable patch of ground down the street.

Ponies swarmed around the Order-naries, their doubles, and the rest, thanking and congratulating them on their victory. Those nearest the heroes were quickly upstaged when Trixie and her troupe pushed their way to the front, and stared gob-smacked at the red pony was holding.

“Tremolo?!” Harlequin exclaimed furiously. “He was behind this? Why that… I oughta break his horn off for this!”

“You know this pony?” Heart asked.

“He’s only the biggest thorn in the side that Trixie has ever had to deal with,” Trixie said, fuming. “He’s been harassing me and disrupting my shows for years now, ever since I formed the Traveling Thespians.”

“How did he even manage this?” Maggie Pie asked. “Trixie only managed to trick him out of the alicorn amulet yesterday, and today he turns into a… rock monster to attack us!”

“Vanatos,” Traev said gravely. “I can’t quite fathom why, but I’d wager Vanatos gave him the Emerald. Maybe he was hoping to divide our attention, or just cause some wanton destruction and murder.”

“And maybe he’ll have the answers,” Twilight said, gesturing at Tremolo. She whistled shrilly, and pair of ponies in the uniforms of an emergency response team emerged from the crowd. Setting the unconscious Tremolo at their feet, she instructed, “I want this pony locked up with a magic restraint. Come and find me when he’s awake and ready to answer questions.”

“Yes, your highness.” The unicorn in the pair picked Tremolo up, and the crowd parted for them as they left.

“I keep forgetting that you’re a princess now, Twi,” Soul Mage said, appreciatively.

“Sometimes, I do too,” Twilight admitted.

Pinkie Pie came running up through the gap in the crowd with the Diamond of Light nestled snugly in her mane and an expression of great concern on her face. “Finally! Ash is in trouble!” she exclaimed quickly, only slowing down enough to turn around safely before taking off again. Twilight, Heart, Soul, Gale, Fluttershy, and Rainbow followed her, and the crowd parted more to allow them all to pass.

They found Ash laying in the road near the clock shop, down the road from the library. He was curled up and motionless, both forelegs wrapped around his head in an attitude of pain. He didn’t respond to anypony’s voice as they called out his name, and nudging his shoulders received little reaction either. Finally, Heart and Soul combined their powers and laid glowing hooves on his head, gently pouring their energy into him. Ash snapped awake with a gasp, and then uncurled and sprawled out on his back.

“Are you ok?” Heart asked.

“I’m… actually, I am not fine,” Ash said. “Skvetchte construct flipped my ship, and Noctus’s flask broke. I tried to contain her again, but she got away.”

“Who’s Noctus?” Twilight asked.

“The Nightmare,” Ash answered. “When I had to extract it from Princess Luna, some figments of personality came with it; mostly the extreme ambition and jealousy. I’ve been trying to rebuild that personality into something more pleasant, or at least convince her to use her powers to an end that benefits the both of us. Haven’t made very much progress yet.”

“So, the evil spirit that wants to bring about eternal night in Equestria is on the loose?” Rainbow Dash asked in exasperation. “Geez, first the Gems, now this. What’s next?”

“She can’t get far without a host,” Ash said. “Unless she’s in a container magically prepared to sustain her, she’ll expend her personal energy and dissolve quickly without bonding to something with the right kind of mindset to feed her. Jealousy, ambition, anger… I think just about any emotion that can be exploited will do.” He groaned and rolled onto his front. “Judging by everyone’s presence and the relative lack of noise, I assume we’ve stopped the rock monster?”

“We got the Emerald out of it,” Soul said, “along with one dangerously insane pony.”

“Good,” Ash said. “Those Gems should still take priority, but let me know if anypony in town is found to be missing. If Noctus is smart enough to know she needs a host, she’ll have grabbed someone. If possible, I’d like to get her back intact.”

“Can I ask why?” Twilight asked suspiciously.

“She may be the key to solving a personal problem of mine back home,” Ash answered. “Don’t make too much of it though; I would like her back, but if she dies I can just cope.”

Twilight sighed and rubbed her eyes. “Let’s get everything cleaned up, repaired, and inventoried before we worry about anything else,” she said. “And somepony find Spike. I think we’re going to need another Princess or two around.”

Are they gone yet?

A dark figure, in shape very similar to a typical undisguised Changeling but with softer edges, bright teal eyes with vertical slit pupils, and with a short, mane-like aura made of the night sky flowing from the back of its head, peeked around the back corner of the clock shop until the ponies gathered in front split up to go back to the town square or toward the library. Once the coast was clear, the altered Changeling turned into a wisp of sparkling mist and flew away, out of Ponyville and toward the one destination all Changelings had in their memory.

That’s right. Take me to your leader.