Stronghooves sat in the converted study, poring over heavy books of arcane lore by the light of a nearby fireplace. A worried frown crossed his face as he looked from one tome to the next, never finding the answer he was looking for. With a sigh, he slammed one of the books shut and cast it aside. Trying to get anything useful out of the library at this time of night was completely impossible.

So frustrated was he that he didn’t hear the knock on the door at first. It was only when Daybreak got frustrated and broke the lock open that he rounded on her, perking his ears.

“You have a way of shutting yourself away from the world,” Daybreak said with a slightly tired smile. “It’s like you’ve got all of life’s answers in that head of yours and you don’t wanna share them.”

Stronghooves scoffed, collapsing back into his chair and smiling back. “I only wish that that were true. All I can do is my best.”

Daybreak trotted into the study, looking around at the polished oak shelves laden with books, the great big warm fireplace, and the high-backed armchairs. Eventually, she elected to curl up in front of the fireplace, perking her ears up and looking up at him with her bright yellow eyes.

“Well, forgive me for prying, but it kinda looks like you’re missing something,” she said, fluffing herself up in the warmth of the fire. “Come on, Hoovesie. Maybe I can help you with it. We’re a team, remember?”

Stronghooves regarded her for a moment, looking into her big honest eyes and seeing the most sincere compassion there. She gave him an expectant look, crossing her forelegs in front of her and laying her head down on them.

“Fine, I’ll humour you,” Stronghooves chuckled, getting to his hooves. “I’ve...begun helping Sky psychologically, as you know. We’re making good progress with electroshock therapy and mental reconditioning, but...that’ll only change her mind. I’ve been looking for ways to turn her into a unicorn...you know, give her a fresh start.”

“Sounds dangerous,” Daybreak notes, feigning surprise and raising her eyebrows. “And let me guess, you don’t know how to do it?”

“Well, I do. It’s actually quite a simple procedure, albeit painful,” Stronghooves said, shrugging. “The difficulty I’m having is with finding a powerful enough focussing gem for the procedure. The ones we’ve been using to enhance ourselves aren’t capable of channelling that kind of energy...at least without killing either herself or me.”

To his surprise, Daybreak grinned.

“I think I know how to solve that little problem,” she said with a wink. “Of course, it involves some travel.”

“Wait, you know how to get a powerful focussing crystal?” Stronghooves asked, raising an eyebrow.

That’s got his attention. Now, let’s reel him in…

“There’s a place under Canterlot that not many ponies have heard about,” Daybreak explained. “It’s called the Crystal Caverns. Some kind of magical trap that Sombra built centuries ago to trap greedy unicorns, but that’s not important right now. What’s important is that those crystals are easily powerful enough to channel as much magic as you need. Hell, they were designed to!”

“And how do you know about this place?” Stronghooves asked, immediately suspicious.

“Daybreak Junior told me! Apparently dragons love gems, and they have an innate sense of where they are in large concentrations!” Daybreak said, beaming hopefully. That was a downright lie, but it did seem to be working.

“So...if I were to get one of these gems and bring it back here...I could perform the procedure safely…” Stronghooves growled, stroking his chin with a hoof. “That little pet of yours just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t he?”

“Tell me about it!” Daybreak said, giggling. “See, I have great ideas, sometimes!”

“Well, you adopting that dragon was an amazing idea,” Stronghooves chuckled, hopping out of his chair and giving Daybreak an enormous squeezy hug. She hugged him back, grinning faintly at nothing in particular as she nuzzled his cheek. “Where is the entrance to the Crystal Caverns?”

“He said something about the floor under the foyer of the chapel in the Royal Palace,” Daybreak said quietly. “You might wanna start looking there.”

“Of course...maybe the catacombs under the chapel will lead there…” Stronghooves said, pulling away and frowning. “I can probably ask the priestesses if they can show me the way through, lend me a map...if I tell them it’s guard business…”

“Hey, Hoovesie? You know, you’re gonna have plenty of time to think about this when you’re on the train on the way back to Canterlot,” Daybreak giggled, giving him a good-spirited punch in the shoulder. “You should get that firm, sexy ass of yours in gear and get yourself one of those gems!”

“You’re right!” Stronghooves laughed, pulling his armour on feverishly as he got ready to leave. He spared a moment to kiss Daybreak on the muzzle, grinning from ear to ear. “Thank you, Daybreak. You don’t realise how much this means to me. I was so worried that you wouldn’t see the truth, that you wouldn’t support me…”

“Sweetheart, it’s fine,” Daybreak said dismissively, fighting the urge to recoil from him. “Look, you’re the best judge of what’s best for Sky, and if you believe that it’s this, then I’ll support you every step of the way. I promised, didn’t I?”

“Yes...yes, you’re right...you did…” Stronghooves said, nodding briskly. “Look...thank you...and when this is over...if you want to...you know...go on more dates and see me more often...I’d love it…”

“We can have a family playdate,” Daybreak suggested. “You could bring your sister, I could bring mine. Sound good?”

“That sounds perfect,” Stronghooves said, giving her one last hug. “I love you, Daybreak…”

“I love you too, Hoovesie,” she whispered back, giving him one last pat on the rump. “Now, get moving! Your sister’s waiting for a little salvation, here!”

Stronghooves drew away, giving Daybreak one last happy look before turning tail and galloping down towards the underground platform. He just barely remembered to grab his sword before heading out, boarding the first train he could operate and shovelling coal into the engine.

Daybreak watched out of the window as Stronghooves’s locomotive steamed away from the platform beneath the facility, winding its way down the track towards the distant mountain city of Canterlot. Though the sun had long since gone down, the palace still glowed a warm orange on the horizon. She waited until his train was long gone before letting her smile drop, turning her head towards the door and letting out a low wolf-whistle. A moment later, Silver crept into the study.

“Shield’s asleep,” he announced, grinning. “Did you get rid of Stronghooves?”

“He’s gone back to Canterlot, just like you said,” Daybreak replied, nodding. “This is gonna be too easy.”

“Yeah, that’s what I used to think every time I started a new operation,” Silver huffed, crossing his arms. “Come on, let’s get that convicted felon out of containment so we can start pissing everypony off.”

“You’ve got it,” Daybreak said with a grin, giving Silver a little nuzzle on his scaly cheek before trotting down the stairs towards the detention level.

Every floor in that facility was a pure, sterile white, wrought from concrete or cut into the stone of the mountain itself. If Daybreak were to be particularly liberal, she’d describe it as utilitarian, but given that she wasn’t in a kind mood, she could only describe it as cold and soulless. Still, finding Sky’s containment chamber was easier than she’d first thought. It was the only one where the white concrete floor outside had been stained red with the poor pony’s blood.

Daybreak grasped the bulkhead and heaved with all of her might, spinning the tumblers into an unlocked position and hauling the heavy door open with a strained grunt. The door was well oiled, making barely a sound as it swung open, though a great deal of light flooded into the darkened cell.

Sky didn’t move beyond closing her eyes a little tighter at the sudden influx of light, turning her head away as if expecting immediate punishment.

“I’m sorry…” she muttered dully. “I’ll try to be good...I’ll try to...be...good…”

“Sky,” Daybreak whispered, trotting into the cell and nearly slipping on the pegasus’s blood. “Sky, it’s Daybreak, the mare from the candy swamp, remember?”

Sky cracked an eye open, giving Daybreak a cursory look before turning her head away again.

“What do you want?” She croaked.

“I’m here to get you out of this place,” Daybreak whispered. “Look, Rat spoke to me when I was captured, and he was right about you. He was right about Stronghooves and me and everything else.”

“Where’s...Stronghooves?” Sky asked, blinking a couple of times and letting out a defeated sigh.

“He’s gone. I sent him to the Crystal Caverns to look for something. Shield’s asleep. I can get you out of here, but we have to go now!” Daybreak whispered with increasing urgency.

Sky’s eyes opened all the way, looking into Daybreak’s and seeing only honesty there. That meant that she wasn’t part of some elaborate ruse set up by Stronghooves, at least.

What’s the point, though? Sky thought. What, I get out of here just to piss off another bunch of ponies, to get caught by him again? I don’t even have a little sister to take care of, anymore...what’s the damn point?

“I’m okay here, thanks,” Sky muttered weakly. “I’m good here. Nopony can get hurt by me as long as I stay here and do what...do what my big brother tells me...I’ll be better soon…”

“Hey, the Sky I know wouldn’t ever say something like that!” Daybreak growled. “She’d be kicking my ass out of the way and running like the Celestia-damned wind...even if she would get her big meaty flanks stuck in the bars.”

Sky smiled a little. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

“Come on, Sky. Let’s see that confidence again. I know you’ve got it in there somewhere,” she pleaded.

“Daybreak...everypony’s gotten hurt because of me…” Sky whispered. “Shadow’s gone, Rat’s gone...hell, even Stronghooves got hurt a little, and my mum and dad didn’t even want me. Why...why the hell should I keep doing this? What’s the damn point?”

Daybreak considered this, ears splaying back against her head. For a moment, it looked as if she, too, was totally stumped.

“Well, look...I never really got the opportunity to meet Shadow and Rat...guess I was on the wrong side of the law for that,” she said after a while. “Still, I’ve got a question for you, Sky. Did you love them? Did you respect them?”

Sky gulped, nodding a little.

“Rat was easily old enough to make his own choices, and Stronghooves told me a little about Shadow...so I know that she was in her early teens, right?” Daybreak went on. “That means that they both knew what they were doing. They’d had time to assess what you were worth to them, and whatever it was that got them both killed by Stronghooves, they knew that you were worth the risk.”

“I don’t want anypony else to get hurt, Daybreak…” Sky whispered.

“Neither do I,” Daybreak said with a grin, “that’s why I’m busting you out of here. See, Sky, you mattered to them to the point where they gave their lives so that you could hold onto yours, to your freedom. If you really respect them, then you have to understand that they made their own choices, that they’ve made all of these sacrifices because you’re a good pony deep down, and that all they wanted was for you to keep being that pony they both cared for. That’s the best way to beat Stronghooves, the best way to make sure that you honour their memories and never endanger anypony else’s life. Keep being you.”

“Maybe...maybe you’re right…” Sky admitted, frowning deeply.

“Of course I’m right. It’s my job to be right about these sorts of things!” Daybreak said, as if such a thing were completely obvious. “Look, those ponies thought you were fucking awesome and worth dying for, so you’d better believe that they wouldn’t want you to stay in the doldrums. Grieve for them when you’re free and when all of this is over, but for now, I need you to be the mare you used to be...and so do they.”

Daybreak offered a hopeful smile, staring into Sky’s eyes and bobbing her head pleadingly. Sky’s mouth twitched.

Well...maybe it wouldn’t hurt to pretend for a while…

“There’s that pony,” Daybreak said with a grin, as Sky smiled back. “Come on, let’s get you out of those chains. Can you stand?”

“I...don’t know…” Sky whispered, as Daybreak yanked the chains out of their brackets and tore the cuffs from her hooves. When she set Sky down on the ground, her legs shook underneath her, and she had to spread her wings for added stability. After a quick assessment, Sky was at least satisfied that her legs were in one piece. The trouble with stability was probably a result of heavy blood loss.

“You’re starting to look more like that mare from the sewers already,” Daybreak said, helping to hold her up. “Come on, let’s get your stuff and get you the hell out of here before Shield wakes up.”

As Sky leaned on Daybreak for support, the earth pony rounded on Silver. “You head up to Shield’s bedchambers. Give me a shout if he’s coming. I want to know if he’s gonna be a problem.”

“You’ve got it,” Silver growled, saluting and running off as quickly as his little claws could carry him. Daybreak peeked out of the cell, half-leading, half-carrying Sky with her as she made her way to the armoury, where Sky’s captured gear was kept.

“What’s...gonna happen to you…?” Sky asked, looking up at Daybreak as she strained against the large armoury door.

“Still working on that bit. I’ll take Shield out so that you don’t have to worry about him, but first priority’s getting your ass out of here.” She growled, heaving the heavy portal open and letting Sky inside.

Within, the little pegasus spotted her hood and cloak along with her saddlebags and equipment laid out on a nearby workbench. The enhancement-suppressing darts were still there, but her crossbow was in shambles. Letting out a frustrated huff, Sky put her armour and cloak back on.

“I’m going after Stronghooves,” she announced.

“Erm...are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean, you should probably go into hiding or something…” Daybreak suggested.

“Like I said, I’m not letting anypony else get hurt,” Sky snarled, pulling her burglar’s mask on and putting her hood up. “If that means taking him out of the game completely, then I’m gonna make it happen. I’m sick of this. I’m sick of ponies getting hurt and killed because he’s got fucked-up ideas about love.”

“Sky...you realise that he’s got control over other ponies with these enhancements. If you go to fight him...I can’t help you.” Daybreak said quietly.

Sky hesitated, looking down at her hooves for a few moments. “I...understand.” She said slowly. “I’ll need a weapon, though.”

“Got you covered,” Daybreak said, pulling her repeater crossbow off of the rack and passing it to her. “It’s a bit big, but you can probably cut off the stock and it ought to do the trick.”

“That’ll be fine,” Sky agreed, slinging the weapon over her back and staggering a little under its weight. “I’ll get back to Canterlot and get some energy back before I hunt him down. Where is he?”

“He’s in the Crystal Caverns,” Daybreak explained. “It’s a diamond labyrinth underneath the palace chapel. You can get into it through the catacombs, I think.”

“Right,” Sky muttered. “Um...look...Daybreak...I dunno what caused the change of heart here, but...thank you. I won’t forget this, okay?”

“I don’t appreciate being lied to by ponies I thought were my friends...especially the ones who said they loved me. Your brother’s bonkers, sweetheart. It’s my pleasure to be the spanner in the works,” Daybreak said with a devious smirk. “Now come on, you’re burning moonlight, here.”

“Is there a quick way back to Canterlot?” Sky asked, thinking back to the platform that she and Rat had infiltrated the facility through.

“There are still some trains back downstairs you can use,” Daybreak nodded, leading the way down towards the atrium. “Just make sure to not run into ol’ Hoovesie. He probably wouldn’t be thrilled to find out that you’ve escaped.”

“Got it,” Sky said with a nod, as they trotted down the stairs to the platform.

Sure enough, several locomotives sat idle in their turntables at the back of the platform, prepared to leave at a moments notice. As Daybreak led Sky towards the nearest one, a great big dragon roar sounded out from upstairs, before being cut terminally short.

“Shit,” Daybreak muttered. “He’s awake. Come on, we haven’t got much time.”

“Are you sure you don’t wanna come too, Daybreak?” Sky asked, as the earth pony hoisted her up into the cabin. “I don’t want you getting hurt, too.”

“Sky, what did I say about respecting the dignity of a pony’s choice?” Daybreak scolded. “Now get shovelling. If you can get that boiler going, you can probably get the hell out of here before Shield turns up. Either way, I’ll hold him off.”

“But…”

“Go!” Daybreak half-shouted, drawing her sword and slamming her helmet onto her head.

As Sky started feverishly shovelling coal into the boiler, still shivering like crazy from her own blood loss, Daybreak threw a salute to nopony in particular, steeling herself.

“Come on, then…” she muttered, eyes fixed on the door in front of her. “Let’s have you…”

Sure enough, as Sky stuffed the boiler full of kindling and hurled a lit match into it, Daybreak felt the ground move beneath her hooves. A moment later, Shield appeared at the top of the stairs, his irises and pupils replaced by solid red orbs.

“DAYBREAK!” he boomed. “WHERE’S THE PRISONER!”

“She’s not coming back here, Shield,” Daybreak said calmly, raising her sword over her head and rearing up onto her hind hooves. “Stronghooves can’t hurt her anymore, and neither can you.”

Shield snarled, charging down the stairs towards her. Though he was unarmed, Daybreak knew that her armour and weapon might as well be made from tinfoil for all the good they’ll do. He lowered his horn, letting loose a blast of magical energy that swept Daybreak off of her hooves and slammed her into a wall on the far side of the cavernous train depot. A spider’s web of cracks ran up the pale white concrete, spreading out from the point of impact as the building began to lose stability.

Shield glanced at the locomotives, eyes tracing over each one as he searched for the would-be escapee. As the first puffs of smoke hissed from the nearest steam engine, he allowed himself a devilish grin.

“Got you…” he growled, leaping down to the railway in front of it and tearing the metal rails up from the ground. He bent the iron in his grip until it was unrecognisable, a derailment waiting to happen. Sky, who was still in the process of heating the engine up and trying to release the brakes, hadn’t yet noticed.

His victory was short-lived, however, as Daybreak came barrelling back across the tracks to slam into him with her full significant body weight. Shield was lifted bodily and hurled against the wall himself, slumping for just a moment as his bones knitted back together. Taking advantage of the momentary lull, Daybreak grasped the controls for the railway tracks and searched feverishly for a track-switch lever. Sky’s locomotive slowly inched forward, the boiler finally hitting a high enough temperature to produce forward thrust. Daybreak didn’t have much time.

The earth pony growled, pulling one lever after the other, letting out frustrated huffs as each one failed to switch Sky’s track to a different rail. As Shield hauled himself to his hooves, standing up at his full impressive height, she finally got it, pulling the lever right back and yanking it right out of the mechanism. Sky’s track switched to a rail adjacent to the one that Shield had destroyed, giving her a safe passage out of the platform.

“NO!” Shield shrieked, hurling himself forward in the hopes of stopping Sky’s train with his bare hooves. Still, strong as he was, he was no match for the locomotive’s forward momentum, and he rebounded off of its cowcatcher with a pained grunt.

“STAY SAFE, DAYBREAK!” Sky screamed to the mare over the sound of the engine. “I WON’T FORGET THIS!”

“MAKE IT WORTH MY WHILE, SKY!” Daybreak screamed back, giving her one last smile and a wink as the train picked up speed. Before Shield could pick himself up and give chase, Sky was already gone, accelerating down the rail off towards Canterlot. His prisoner had escaped.

“You’re a dead pony, Daybreak,” he growled, rounding on her and slamming his forehooves together challengingly.

“Better a dead pony than an evil one,” Daybreak argued. “I don’t know what Stronghooves did to you, but it’s turned your head to mashed potato. The Shield I know wasn’t like this. Yeah, maybe he was an alcoholic, but he wasn’t a torturer. I know that much.”

“Stronghooves opened my eyes,” Shield replied, as the two ponies paced around one another.

“Looks more like he removed them,” Daybreak chuckled, raising the iron lever like a baseball bat.

Shield stood resolute, giving Daybreak an opening to slam the bar into his head. He didn’t even flinch, appearing unable to register pain or even accept react to the impact. He kept a strange smile on his face, almost as if he was amused at her attempt to injure him. Daybreak snarled, taking wide swings at his head with the lever until it was nothing more than a twisted piece of metal, completely unusable.

Daybreak dropped the twisted rod, grabbing Shield by the foreleg and swinging him into the platform wall. With her natural strength amplified by her enhancements, she found it easy to send the stallion crashing through solid concrete into a laboratory beneath the atrium. More cracks shot up the walls, the platform barely able to support the weight of the bomb-proof roof by this stage, but the ponies kept fighting even as the structure cracked and groaned.

Shield got up before Daybreak could follow up on her attack, grabbing her by the neck and slamming her head first into the ground. He drew back a hoof, bringing it down on her head with all of his might and smashing her muzzle against solid concrete. The floor shattered around the point of impact, the sheer force behind the blow being too much for the architecture to handle. Though this facility had been built with these enhancements in mind, it didn’t make it indomitable.

Daybreak brought her tail around, wrapping it around Shield’s hind legs and pulling them out from underneath him. Unbalanced, the stallion collapsed onto a nearby lab table, shards of glass going everywhere as he sent conical flasks and beakers flying. Strange chemical formulas splashed across the floor, making the half-lit lab that much more slippery. As Daybreak raised her head, her face struggled to heal itself, a bright orange light engulfing her head as her muzzle reset and her teeth grew back.

Shield struggled to his hooves again, shards of broken glass falling out of his flesh as his body rejected them. He grappled with the mare, slamming her into one wall after the other before finally hurling her through a fume cabinet. Broken pipes hissed and split, filling the lab with white smoke and obscuring both ponies’ vision for a time. When Shield stepped forward to follow up on his attack, Daybreak was nowhere to be seen.

“Daybreak…” he said quietly, pacing around the destroyed laboratory. “You can’t hide from me. I know that you’re still here!”

Sure enough, before he had the opportunity to whip his head around, Daybreak launched herself at him once more, jamming a shattered test tube squarely into his neck. As he gulped and wheezed, blood pumping out of the cavity in his jugular vein, the mare grabbed him around the midsection and slammed him into every available surface she could reach. She crushed tables, destroyed benches and obliterated counters using his whole body as one big bludgeon, his regenerative abilities making him completely and infuriatingly immune to mere blunt trauma. Daybreak herself couldn’t tire, carrying on her assault until every surface in the room had been beaten to a pulp.

Shield looked around at her, ripping the shards of the test tube from his neck and punching her square in the nose. That single impact had enough force behind it to knock her back into a storage room behind the lab, taking shelves down with her and dousing her in huge bottles of acid. Even as hydrofluoric acid burned holes in her body, her enhancements worked to repair them, gaping wounds sizzling and whining as she repaired injuries as quickly as she attained them. Daybreak looked down at her body, eyes widening as she spotted her own ribcage through the holes in her torso, but she didn’t have time to do anything about it. Shield paced towards her, charging his horn and readying another blast of magic meant specially for her. Thinking fast, Daybreak kicked another glass bottle labelled “HF” right into the unicorn’s path. The spell flew straight into the bottle, detonating it right in front of Shield’s face.

The stallion let out an agonised scream as he reeled back, clutching at his horn and face. The acid, powerful as it was, ate into his flesh and bone, though strangely enough his horn didn’t recover from the damage.

As her enhancements finally won the battle against the acid, Daybreak struggled to her hooves and advanced on him yet again. Her armour was dented and burned away to the point where it was unrecognisable, scraps of gold clinging to her body that would’ve looked more at home in a junkheap than anything else. Shield, however, looked even worse. As he drew his hooves away, Daybreak recoiled.

The stallion stood upright, his enhancements still working to fight the burning concentrated acid, but he was a complete mess. Enormous holes were burned into his head, completely putting one eye out and leaving the other as a red orb swivelling in a completely bare side of his skull. Flesh fell from his face as the acid burned it away, leaving the bone of his skull pockmarked with little smoking holes that simply wouldn’t heal. His horn itself had turned a pale bleached white, clearly damaged by the acid in a more permanent way. Nonetheless, his one remaining eye stayed focussed on Daybreak, and he took another step forward to get back into the fight.

Shield swept a hoof out as Daybreak advanced on him, knocking her legs out from under her. Before she could even roll away, he drew back and slammed his forehooves down into her midsection, again and again. The floor cracked underneath her body as he put more forced into the blows, shattering ribs and crushing organs. Finally, with an enormous crash, the two ponies plummeted through the floor and into what must be the generator room. Canisters and bottles from unbalanced shelves followed them, smashing and clattering all around as they continued to grapple for supremacy.

Daybreak took Shield’s forehooves in her own and brought her hind legs up, kicking him in the stomach and launching him off of her before crawling away.

There’s no way that this is going to work… she thought to herself. There has to be a way to kill him off quickly…

She looked around, from the enormous humming generators to the white-hot conductive rods that led away from them, deeper into the chamber. As Daybreak forged forward to follow them, her hoof hit one of the little canisters. She took only a moment to glance down at it, before scooping it up and carrying it with her.

Liquid nitrogen...well, assuming it hasn’t already gone everywhere, this ought to come in useful…

Smoke billowed down through the hole in the ceiling, obscuring her vision for a time as she followed the metal rods. Finally, at their convergence, she saw where they were headed.

This whole place is built over a lava field… She thought to herself. That’s geothermal power.

Sure enough, the rods led all the way down into a deep pit with lava at the bottom. Other machines hung overhead, extracting pure magic from the depths of the earth for use in a thousand unmentionable experiments.

Daybreak only had a moment to take all of this in before Shield was on her once again, slamming into her and launching her into the pit. The canister clattered away across the floor as Daybreak struggled to cling to the edge of the aperture, looking up at Shield with pure malice.

“You can’t win, Daybreak,” Shield whispered. “I’m bigger, stronger and more powerful, even with these enhancements.”

“You...you know I only wanted to distract you so...so that Sky could get away…” Daybreak snarled, looking up at his deformed, pockmarked face. Though his magically enhanced strength and durability still remained, Shield’s face was all but burned away, little more than a skull with hundreds of tiny holes burned into it. That single red eye remained fixated on her, torn muscles in what was left of his mouth struggling to produce something akin to speech.

He charged his horn once more, aiming it squarely at the mare’s temple. That shot would undoubtedly knock her down for long enough for the magma to do its work, and Daybreak doubted that she could survive a plunge like that. With no other options, she reached up with a hoof and grabbed his horn, pulling him back to try and drag him into the pit as well. Shield, failing to anticipate the move, pitched forward and only just managed to grasp onto the edge himself as Daybreak pulled herself up.

“YOU ARE NOTHING!” He screamed. “YOU CAN’T WIN! I HAVE MAGIC! I HAVE POWER!”

“No, you’re nothing,” Daybreak snarled, backing away a little and glancing up at the magic-collecting machines overhead. “Shield never gave a damn about any of that power and magic shit. He just wanted to collect a paycheck and be a good friend. That voice...that’s not yours. It’s Stronghooves’s. He’s taken over your whole mind and turned you into...well...him.”

Shield charged his horn once again, advancing on her.

“But you don’t really have any of your mind left, do you?” Daybreak asked, sighing as she strode towards him, too. “I’m sorry, Shield. You were a good friend. I’m...I’m really sorry about what he did to you.”

With that, she grabbed the unicorn’s head and pulled it up at the very moment that he let the spell fly. It struck the ceiling, disconnecting the tethers holding the magic collectors in place. Those enormous harvesters, little more than great big pumps loaded with raw power, groaned in their harnesses and finally came free, slamming into the edges of the pit and widening it into a vast trench. The floor cracked and broke beneath their hooves as it threatened to come away and plunge them into the magma. Daybreak didn’t know what would happen when those magic collectors hit the mantle deep below, but she didn’t imagine that it would be good for the foundations of the facility.

As the two ponies wrestled, her hind hoof hit the canister once more. She glanced back at it, then up at Shield’s damaged horn, and grinned a cheeky grin.

“Hey, asshole. Think fast!” she said, taking the canister in one hoof and slamming it into his head with the other.

The pressurised container burst under the impact, concealing Shield’s face for a moment in a bright white mist. Daybreak herself felt the most incredible pain as her hoof flash-froze, her nerve endings becoming incredibly sensitive for a few moments before dying completely. When the mist cleared, her fur was frozen to her body and her hoof stuck to the remains of the canister. She let out a quiet sigh, realising that there probably wasn’t going to be much chance of her getting away from this.

Shield himself was no better off, his skull and horn completely frozen in place, even as his frost-crusted eye tried to swivel in its socket. His flesh had turned bright blue, but as Daybreak watched in horror, he began to move once again.

“Oh no you fucking don’t…” she muttered, swinging her broken canister around like a hammer.

Brittle metal struck his head, and everything exploded at once. Her hoof and foreleg shattered into a million pieces, as did what was left of the little canister, and finally, Shield’s horn and half of his skull disintegrated as well. As Daybreak watched, his body stopped regenerating itself completely, the acid burning ever-larger holes in his torso. Through his broken skull, Daybreak could see his brain and tongue quite clearly indeed, such that when he let out an ear-splitting scream, it was all the more horrible.

He grabbed Daybreak by the neck and slammed her into the floor, even as cracks appeared around his frozen eyeball. He roared and screeched and ranted and raved as the floor fell apart beneath them, finally driven past the breaking point. All Daybreak could do was hang on with her one remaining hoof to make damn sure that wherever she went, he’d come with her.

“Sorry that I couldn’t help you…” She whispered, as the two of them plunged deep into the magma pool. The impact was harder than Daybreak had imagined, more like dropping into molasses than water, but then again it was molten rock. Shield screamed even louder as the intense heat burned his flesh clean off of his body, unable to regenerate himself or even move his limbs to escape. The best he could do was keep his head above the surface to prolong what remained of his life even more.

Daybreak’s own enhancements buckled under the heat and the raw power of the earth’s mantle, unable to sustain their regenerative cycle as quickly as the magma burned her flesh away. She looked up at the facility one last time, as the first of the magic harvesters plunged into the magma around her. Though this was undoubtedly the most intense pain she’d ever known, Daybreak was at peace. She’d done the right thing.

Good luck, Sky… She thought to herself, as the harvesters detonated all around them.

The force of the blast shook the foundations of the building to their breaking point, and finally the facility sank into an ever-growing hole in the mountain. The platform was the first to collapse, the high concrete walls already stretched to their limits by the borderline seismic fistfight that had taken place minutes prior. Slabs of concrete and stone fell from the tortured ceiling, crushing locomotives and twisting rails beyond recognition. Steam engines plunged deeper into the facility, falling all of the way down into the magma below. The floors above the platform were the next to fall, residential levels and laboratories all shattering and collapsing under their own weight. With each passing moment, the gap in the earth widened, swallowing more and more of the facility. Studies, the armoury, the detention floor and the atrium all suffered the same fate, pulled into hellish oblivion by sheer inertia.

Finally, the magical curios chamber, containing Sky’s phylactery and the crystals themselves, fell. Set atop the tallest tower in the building, its plummet was ponderous and gradual, like a crashing ocean liner. The stone shattered into little more than gravel and dust, the arcane scrolls within burned to a crisp as candles went flying. The moment that magma touched the first of those little crystals, they all went up with the force of a small nuclear warhead.

The mountain itself cracked and shook from the force of the explosion, enormous tendrils of pure energy reaching up into the night sky like a lightning storm. For just a moment, the whole world looked up from what they were doing to watch the pyrotechnics at play, watching the death of a mountain and a place of horror and torture in real time.

All except one little pony, sitting aboard a train speeding towards Canterlot. One little pony with a loaded crossbow and a score to settle.