Darkness Before Dawn

"Through the hedge maze!" Luna shouted over the cascading booms and shattering magic caused by the Rainbow of Twilight. "The dragonfly isn't too much further!"

"I just hope somepony knows how to pilot that whirly-bird," Applejack added, "especially if we have to fight our way out of Canterlot!"

"As if we need more problems!" Rainbow said. "Canterlot's a complete wreck, Princess Aria's impaled and bleeding on a rock, her force field straight up exploded, and now Tirek's a robot demon thing with an evil magic rainbow coming out of his head! This day could not possibly get any worse if it tried!"

"The dragonfly!" Fluttershy gasped, sliding in her tracks to a complete stop.

"And it just got worse," Rainbow facehoofed.

Jaws dropped before the sight of the fallen dragonfly, its rotors and cockpit smashed and broken, its rear section severed by the remains of the firefly Phoebe. Bluish-white flames and reddish-black smoke engulfed and gutted the machine amid their ascent into the rusting sky.

"That's it, then," Rarity dejectedly proclaimed over the sound of flames and distant, whispering thwacks. "There's no escape."

"Does anypony else feel a pair of blue robot eyes tickling the back of their neck, or is it just me?" Pinkie asked to the bewilderment of all but the four princesses processing the cold, synthetic stare of their nemesis.

"That's awfully specific," Twilight remarked upon sighting Tirek menacingly hovering above the ruined city before an impaled and horrifically burned Aria, whose blood continued to run down the mountainside, coalescing into a violet-pink river upon entering an abandoned mine shaft several feet below her smoldering tail.

"Go," Pandora ordered.

"What?!" every other pony exclaimed in shock.

"Go. Escape while you still can. I'm the one Tirek wants."

"Dori, you can't-- " Minerva protested.

"I'm the one he's always wanted, Min," Pandora calmly replied, never once breaking her gaze into Tirek's cold eyes. "For countless eons and through many incarnations between us, I have been the prey in Tirek's eternal hunt.

"That hunt ends here, and it ends now," her wings unfurled toward her eternal adversary, glimmering with scythe magic at the ready.

Upon her declaration, a shower of rockets rained down from the western sky, followed by a flurry of blasts smothering the mechanical draconequus within their violent embrace.

"No way!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"Yee haw! Looks like the cavalry's arrived!" Applejack said.

"We're coming, everyone!" Firestorm declared. "Punch it, Star Tracer!"

"Hang on!" Star Tracer replied.

The lead dragonfly's rotors shattered into numerous flashes of blue neon, dissipating in the white heat generated by the craft's turbojets as quickly as the disintegration occurred. Spike sunk his claws deep into Firestorm's seat back, hanging on for dear life amid the relentless alarms and structural vibration triggered by Star Tracer's semi-controlled emergency extraction operation.

"This landing might be a bit rough; brace yourselves!" she warned.

"What in tarnation are those crazy Atlanteans doin'?!" Applejack yelled.

"She's coming in too hot!" Rainbow added. "Everypony get back!"

As those words left her mouth, several small rocket boosters fired simultaneously in conjunction with the dragonfly's air brakes, abruptly halting its rapid descent into the charred hedge maze. The hard landing drove the Atlanteans violently against their harnesses, while Spike bounced to a stop near the back of the craft.

"Doors open!" Firestorm commanded the dragonfly, gasping for breath as most of the ponies rushed to board the beaten craft.

"Spike!" Twilight cried upon boarding, nuzzling and hugging the still-delirious dragon.

"Tw-Twilight!" he said, shaking off the fog in his mind to return the affection. "I'm so happy to see you alive!"

"I'm happy to see you alive, too, Spike!" she said. "Looks like you took a quite a hit, though," gently rubbing his head.

Star Tracer interrupted the reunion. "Is everyone aboard?"

"Not everyone," Celestia said, giving a sad glance toward the enraged Shepherd standing before Tirek and Aria.

"What?!" Firestorm growled, still wincing from the abrupt landing.

"It's just you and me now, Tirek!" Pandora hissed. "And this time: I. Won't. Miss."

Through a guttural howl, she unfurled the strongest scythe within her against the mechanized adversary, drawing upon all of her might and magic to deliver the killing blow.

The scythe magic effortlessly passed over Tirek as would a sunbeam, its cutting edge stopping short of dissecting Aria completely.

"How amusing," he coldly proclaimed as the resurrected princess floated lifelessly toward the battered city, violently cut down from her stone pike.

"Aria!" she cried in horror. The earth quaked and thundered upon impact, every street in Canterlot drenched in liquid Etherium from the phoenix's breast and belly.

"The hunt does end here, and it does end now, dear Shepherd...

"But it ends for you and the Elements of Harmony," Tirek remorselessly declared, palladium razors bared and glimmering in the bluish-white glare of another oncoming barrage.

The draconequus ensnared the dragonfly clan's firepower within the Rainbow of Twilight, flinging the concentrated energy charge directly toward the shocked princess with a flick of a tail.

"Princess Pandora!" a familiar voice shouted.

Two walls of fire clashed within the hellscape where once the royal garden bloomed. The resulting blast wave swept away the remains of the fallen machines, revealing an enraged Firestorm protecting her princess behind the pyrokinetic firewall.

"I am Princess Pandora's and Princess Minerva's living shield! You will have to do far more than your best to break through me!" she bellowed for all of Equestria to hear.

"Soldiers! Unleash everything you have! Give no quarter to the behemoth before you!"

On cue, the clan came unhinged, unloading every last missile, rocket, and ion beam upon Tirek as he drew within the dark rainbow's cocoon to weather the storm.

"F-Firestorm?!" Pandora stammered, awed by her general's nearly sacrificial act.

"You will not fall, Your Majesty," Firestorm coughed. "Not when you have us. Now, let's get going. Our ride's here."

She softly smiled. "Lead the way, General."

"Tirek is one tough hombre, that's for sure," Applejack said, watching the one-sided firefight from behind the cockpit windshield.

"I don't call hiding in an evil rainbow bubble 'tough,' AJ," Rainbow replied.

"Hmm," Twilight pondered, interrupted by Pandora's and Firestorm's arrival.

"Doors... closed," Firestorm collapsed.

"Dori!" Minerva cried, hugging her sister tightly from worry.

"Oh my! Are you both okay?" Fluttershy asked.

"I think the sudden landing bruised my ribs. Nonetheless, Princess Pandora is safe aboard," Firestorm replied.

"Speaking of our landing, ma'am," Star Tracer reported, "the crash knocked out a lot of power, including the propulsion system needed for blade generation and forward movement."

"Whatever shall we do now?" Rarity fussed.

"The dragonfly can restore the necessary systems needed for our escape," Firestorm explained while regaining her footing. "So long as the clan maintains their assault -- thus, distracting Tirek -- we'll be able to blow this banana stand within the next few minutes."

"Something's not right, though," Twilight said. "Tirek is absorbing every attack through the Rainbow of Twilight thus far, yet-- "

"The jerk's not fighting back!" Rainbow interrupted. "He's just floating there in his little rainbow bubble as if nothing was happening!"

A wave of panic swept through the dragonfly upon realizing Tirek's strategy.

"Stand down immediately!" Star Tracer shouted through the radio. "Get out of there now! Withdraw! Withdraw!"

"All prey shall be led to slaughter, no matter how insignificant they are to the hunt."

Tirek let slip the newly amplified Rainbow of Twilight upon the clan, vaporizing all aboard as the now-disabled dragonflies spiraled to their deaths at the foot of the mountain. Bursts of energy bounced against the rocks, their booms disappearing into the air still thick with acrid smoke and toxic winds.

The dark rainbow returned, its master's savage eyes framed the remaining dragonfly within the ruin.

"We need to leave before any more lives are lost," Luna said as Pandora briefly flickered, catching Fluttershy's eye while everypony else gazed upon the chaos outside.

"Wake up already!" Star Tracer growled, frustrated with the dragonfly's still-recharging propulsion system while frantically diverting every ounce of power left to activate it in time to avoid a similar fate.

"Firestorm," Minerva began, "are you able to use your magic to defend us?"

"I am, but it may not be enough this time, Your Majesty."

"Then leave it to me," Aria telepathically declared.

"Aria?" everpony gasped.

Aria's cutie mark burned away the crimson clouds, its purifying light shining upon the broken dragonfly.

"Celestia, Luna, I will always love you."

"We love you, too, Mother," the princesses quietly replied.

A blue force bubble washed over the dragonfly and its occupants.

"My sword is now yours to wield, everypony. Use it well."

"We will, Princess Aria," everypony replied.

The dragonfly's blue neon lines gave way to those matching the princess' colors. The ethereal shades flowed seamlessly into each other, outlining the craft with a glow as bright as the moon.

"We have full power!" Star Tracer announced.

"Get us out of here!" Firestorm ordered.

Turbojets roaring to life, the remaining rocket boosters forcefully propelled the dragonfly skyward. Star Tracer arced the craft to the northwest, fighting through its forward momentum to get enough distance between her charges and Canterlot as quickly as possible.

Tirek dropped from the sky before Aria, demolishing several buildings upon landing. Etherium covered his limbs and belly with every step forward, yet his thoughts were focused solely upon his old adversary.

"Delaying the inevitable," he said mockingly, lifting Aria's disfigured face to meet his soulless gaze. "I wouldn't expect any less from you, dearest Aria."

"I'm not delaying the inevitable, Tirek," she spat back. "I'm keeping a promise."

The stars in her eyes became hypernovae for the final time. Their immense collective energy escaped from Aria's hemorrhaging heart into the flooded streets, blazing a path into the abandoned mine through the remaining rivulets from the princess' earlier impalement.

Before a blink of an eye, Canterlot, and the mountain upon whence it rested, ceased to exist.

* * * * * * * * *

The hellscape of Equestria's defiled heart gradually gave way to smoldering peaks dotting the Unicorn Range. Veins of blue raced through the woods north of Vanhoover moments later, black rain failing to extinguish their ravaging light. Ghostly howls and thwacks bounced off the reddened Crystal Mountains soon after, ultimately silenced by the bitter winds and ashen snowstorms of the Frozen North sporadically rattling the dragonfly.

Yet, no matter how far the Atlanteans and the Equestrians flew from Canterlot, Tirek's essence followed, drowning earth and sky in rust, obsidian, and blue fire in his wake.

"This cannot go on," Minerva quietly said to no one, her haunted eyes gazing past the wipers sweeping away the poisoned flurries toward the ever-reddening horizon ahead.

"Huh?" Twilight asked, startling the princess out of her trance.

"Look out before us, Twilight. What do you see?"

"A reddish grey sky, snow mixed with ash... at least, I think it's snow... "

"I see life entering its twilight," Minerva remarked. "An age of harmony and love, consumed by creeping death and absolute hate with every furlong between ourselves and the abomination."

"But Tirek's dead, though," Pinkie chimed. "R-right?"

"No," turning to face the two ponies before her with weary eyes. "Tirek is still with us... with me. He's always been with me ever since I tore his spirit from his flesh all those years before, anchored to my heart by a single thread of nightmare energy. Even now, I can feel his corrupt heart feeding upon the windigos which haunt this forsaken place, augmenting his magic and changing him in ways utterly terrifying and eldritch.

"Our adversary is far from defeated, Pinkie and Twilight," Minerva sighed. "But I don't need to tell you this, not when one look at my sister flickering in and out of phase with this realm for every soul left behind to be slaughtered" -- bowing her head in resignation -- "is proof enough."

"Princess... ," Twilight meekly replied as Minerva returned to staring through the fading whiteout ahead of Star Tracer and Firestorm.

Near the back of the dragonfly, Pandora lay with her goddaughters and the rest of the group, her metal wings and limbs darkened by red lights which, like her, flickered every so often as the craft pushed through the turbulent storms. Though most were too busy processing the chaos experienced back in Canterlot to notice, the Shepherd's phasing did not escape the eyes of one curious pegasus.

"Um, Princess Pandora?" Fluttershy asked. "Is everything okay?"

"Having hooves on both sides of existence presents its own quirks, Fluttershy," she calmly proclaimed with a knowing glance. "What you've caught me doing is bending time to perform my duties as Shepherd alongside those as Princess of Atlantis... a rather taxing act as of late, to say the least."

"Oh," Fluttershy understood.

"Anyway, I wanted to apologize for scaring you at the hospital earlier. I didn't mean to frighten you away, especially since you were only helping Rainbow Dash come back home. I had no idea my stare could unnerve you so much."

"Apology accepted, Fluttershy," Pandora gently smiled, hugging the pegasus gently with her right wing. "You have a wonderful gift, my dear. Each and every one of you," turning to address the rest of the ponies now listening to the conversation. "Your unique gifts have carried you all through challenges great and small, individually and together as one.

"May your gifts continue to benefit all life beyond our darkest hour to come," she declared to the agreement of all around her.

"Speakin' of gifts," Applejack began, rising to her hooves and walking up to the front of the craft, "Princess Minerva, ever since the day Rainbow Dash landed in the hospital, I wanted nothin' more than to knock some sense into the pony who put her there."

"Oh, um, Applejack, please don't fight-- " Fluttershy tried to dissuade.

"I'm not fightin' her, Fluttershy. I just want-- "

"I'm listening, Applejack," Minerva gently interjected, catching the group off guard. "And you're right. I should have some sense knocked into me, be it through a lecture, or a left hoof to the face."

"Princess Minerva?" Firestorm and Star Tracer barely gasped.

"Believe me, Princess, I want to give you that left hoof" -- deliberately approaching Minerva until she was almost muzzle to muzzle -- "but I won't, because I've had a long time to think about everything. And ya know what?"

Everyone's eyes widened, fear and anxiety running through the group.

"I don't care."

"You... don't?" Minerva asked through a look of a confusion.

"No, Your Majesty. Although the way you asked for our help was dumber than a pack of timberwolves bakin' zap apple pies inside a burnin' barn, I know you and your sister care for your people like our princesses care for all of Equestria; you was only lookin' out for us all," placing a reassuring hoof upon the princess' left shoulder.

"Anyway," Applejack concluded, "please promise us the next time you and your sister need our help, and you're the one put in charge of gettin' the word out, you come to any one of us, instead of sendin' dazzlin' speed suits powered by unstable liquid magic."

"Of course," Minerva replied, nodding in agreement.

"I don't mean to interrupt," Celestia began, "but where exactly are we going?" directing with her eyes to the view outside.

"To where it all began, Princess Celestia," Firestorm solemnly declared.

"And that would be where, General?" Luna added.

"Palladia," Star Tracer quietly proclaimed.

* * * * * * * * *

The snowstorm vanished at last, revealing a bleak, oppressively grey, barren landscape disfigured by glass scars, decorated with fossilized obsidian trees, and walled off from the rest of the world by distant, imposing mountains whose peaks were devoid of snow despite their great height. Lifeless cloud feathers brushed against the cold, vacant sky, racing to the desolate horizon south of the still harbor waters at the foot of Palladia's crystallized heart.

The last of Aria's gift diminished, the now-lifeless dragonfly glided into the remnants of a walled space thrice the size of Canterlot's royal garden, black sand cushioning the landing.

"It's like the rock farm back home, only greyer!" Pinkie chimed upon exiting the deceased craft with the others.

"Your optimism knows no bounds, Pinkie Pie," said Applejack.

"A pity Princess Aria's colors faded from our dragonfly," Rarity declared. "They were quite fetching, especially against all of this endless grey and black."

Fluttershy placed a hoof upon a panel where the dragonfly's heart laid. "I can't feel anything."

Star Tracer walked over to investigate. As soon as she removed the panel with her magic, fine crystalline sand spilled onto the palladium glass beneath her hooves.

Her head met the side of the deceased dragonfly in utter disbelief.

"I can't believe this is where Atlantis and Equestria were born," Twilight said, looking upon the melted palladium pillar in the center of the walled ruin. "What happened here?"

"Hatred," Minerva replied. "A hatred so immovable, those few who still believed in harmony had no choice but to sentence Palladia to death by divine fire," sad eyes gazing up to the vacant sky.

"Always sunshine and rainbows with you," Applejack quipped as snow unexpectedly began falling.

"It hasn't snowed here in three millennia!" Pandora gasped, rolling thunder and sadistic laughter perking everypony's ears.

"Did the sky become less dreary and more colorful all of a sudden?" Rarity asked, pointing to the developing shades of twilight falling into the thin white light in the distant horizon separating the churning black waters from the heavens.

"Oh, my," Fluttershy said upon viewing veins of blue fire erupting from the harbor, her mane now whipped by the thundergust charging from the south.

"Did Atlantis explode again?" Rainbow shouted over the winds. "That white light over there seems to be moving awfully fast!"

"Hang on, everypony!' Twilight said, casting a defensive bubble over everypony with reinforcement from the five alicorns as the wall of white fire embraced Palladia.

The wall coalesced upon the vanquished pillar's foundation into a towering column linking earth and sky. Wind and snow funnelled around the cold fire as it formed a ring of light around the oppressive black moon hovering ominously overhead, filling everypony's heart with overwhelming awe and terror.

"What the hay is going on?!" Star Tracer angrily yelled.

"Open your eyes," Tirek contorted voice telepathically boomed.

Icy blue eyes framed in white metal emerged from the withdrawing flames, locked upon the Shepherd with a merciless stare. The reflection of terrified faces could be seen in his sinister smile of exposed palladium razors. Skeletal, mechanical claws burned frozen footprints into the black sand with every step forward. Thin, long, jewel-like tentacles covered the limbs, spine, head, and tail, their colored light fluctuating into other colors constantly. Elastic steel tendons highlighted his every movement. A heart of white darkened his ribcage, pulsing in time with the now-white fire ruby still embedded in his forehead.

"I-i-is-is th-that T-T-Ti-Tirek?!" Spike stammered.

Tirek let out a metallic shriek not unlike the sound of a million glasses shattering in succession, his tentacles standing straight on end.

"Yes, and no," Pinkie declared, finding no disagreement among the rest of the group.

"What do we do now?" Twilight asked.

Minerva, Pandora, Firestorm, Celestia, and Luna looked into each other's eyes, finding quiet determination among their spirits before turning their gaze back upon the mechanical abomination.

"We fight," the five alicorns confidently declared in unison, their unfurled wings shimmering with their most powerful magic aimed upon their implacable adversary.