Kaiscillius left his estate quite quickly after he discovered the ordeal he had been plunged into, and the subsequent furious planning session. The messages had been sent, the golems knew their task, and soon the castle would become a bastion of mistrust and suspicion.

As his carriage rocketed down the mountainside towards Canterlot, Kaiscillius felt his midsection clink and jangle, and he grimaced at the upcoming pain he would have to endure for his plan. The things one did for one's mother.

The long winding road that linked Kaiscillius's private abode with the rest of Canterlot turned into a side street when it hit the main city, and then opened up directly onto the thoroughfare that led to the castle gates. The blue dome that surrounded the city looked peaceful enough as it shimmered away, but Kaiscillius could see and hear the furious battle now raging over his head. Wave after wave of blood red energy poured over the mountain, reaching higher than the peak, and slammed into the city, crashing with a deafening boom and shower of sizzling red sparks that rained down upon the land like meteorites. Luckily Kaiscillius's golem could see these, and swerved to avoid them when possible. As they neared the dome, Kaiscillius had a moment of doubt, was his plan too risky? Would it fall apart right at the end, as this one had? Would he become paste against the shield wall before he could even begin anew? Kaiscillius braced for impact and waited for the answer.

He let out a relieved sigh as the carriage hurtled straight through it, meeting no resistance whatsoever. Kaiscillius had theorized that this was the case, but he had theorized many insane things these past few hours.

Stop, he commanded the golem, and slowly his carriage rolled to a halt, just outside Main Street.

All the preparations had been made, the risks had been calculated. The battle was about to begin. With a deep breath, Kaiscillius exited the vehicle and strolled confidently down the high street of Canterlot, palace directly before him. Shops and large buildings crowded in on his left and right, their occupants trembling as his footsteps thudded against the stone road.

Kaiscillius still wore his Blood Diamond guise, but he had added a few things to prepare him for the fight ahead. Beautifully crafted black armor covered every inch of him, adorned with spikes and wailing faces that shifted into different pictures across it's surface. He wore no visible helm, though the air around his perfect head was thick with invisible shield spells. Even his wings were armored, each feather covered by its own silvery light weight metal shroud. And in his hand was the shining centerpiece of the upcoming carnage.

Seven feet long, with its black serpentine blade and magnificently adorned hilt, was New Moon. It had been a thousand years since the massive broadsword had last tasted blood, and it radiated its own aura of power, separate from its master. The blade was hungry, it had been forged to drink the souls of its foes, to serve its master unfailingly on the field of battle, and all things living felt themselves as much drawn to the sword as they were repulsed by it.

Now that Kaiscillius had bypassed the large blue shield around the city, it not being a physical barrier anyway, meant only to hold Ultimatum at bay, he approached the castle. As he drew nearer its gates, much more corporeal threats presented themselves. There was the much smaller and thicker dark blue shield for example, which Kaiscillius Sight told him belonged to Luna, then there were the outer walls of the castle. These fortifications were ancient, their stones thick and weathered with age, so old they had nearly developed emotions and minds of their own. Lastly, and most definitely least, were the forty odd thestrals on the other side of the castle's iron gate. Kaiscillius hated thestrals, they had always been his mother's favored children, despite the nighdra's obvious superiority. He had once commanded an army of them, and found them the least capable soldiers he'd ever known. Barely worth anything during the day, and so busy giving praise to the moon at night that they never got anything done. Seeing them all lined up like bowling pins with only two measly barriers between them gave Kaiscillius shivers of joy.

"Halt! In the name of Princesses Celestia and Luna, you are under arrest! We have you surrounded and outnumbered!" The thestral with the most bedazzled armor, presumably some sort of lieutenant, called out to him from behind the gate. Kaiscillius glanced left and right, seeing two guards on each side with crossbows trained on him. He stopped walking forward, a few inches from the shield, and spoke.

"In the name of Nightmare Moon, surrender the castle! You are outmatched and outgunned!" Kaiscillius's voice reverberated off of every surface, and shook the very ground. Several of the guards behind the gate clamped hands over their ears. Pathetic, he hadn't even yelled.

In his panic, one of the guards to the left of Kaiscillius loosed his bolt, and the missile shot towards the lone stallion's torso with a bloodthirsty whistle. Kaiscillius didn't even bother blocking, the serrated metal tip of the crossbow bolt disintegrated micrometers away from hitting the armor, leaving the wooden haft to snap like the twig it was against the black covering.

A hush fell around the battlefield, and a faint, "Oops," could be heard from the man hastily hiding his crossbow.

And so it begins.

Kaiscillius leapt into action immediately, appearing before the offending crossbowman and ramming New Moon straight through his face, before turning sideways into a backhand slash which cut clean through the other guard's midsection like paper. Both of the bodies crumpled as the sword touched them, compacting and disassembling into raw magic that flowed through the blade to Kaiscillius, making him stronger and faster than he already was. Both bodies tumbled to the ground continuing to stream power into Kaiscillius though the sword had departed their corpses, as he covered the sixty foot distance between him and the other set of two guards in a single magnificent leap.

He landed hard, blasting the stone around him into fine powder, and sending both of his opponents flying. Before they could even hit the ground Kaiscillius separated New Moon into two shorter blades and, with a dash, drove them through the bodies of the falling stallions, piercing one's liver and severing the other's spine. They convulsed as magic ate their bodies and more rushed in to fill the void. With a flash of light, Kaiscillius stood once more before the gate, four piles of deforming meat feeding him energy, the whole exchange having taken no more than six seconds.

Kaiscillius reformed the full broadsword and drove it into the blue shield, which sputtered for a moment, before sinking into the blade. The sword guzzled the magic like eggnog on Hearthswarming, and the bubble began to tear and rip apart, before fading from existence entirely with an audible scream of pain tearing loose from somewhere inside the castle. Behind the gate, the soldiers all had readied their arms, but stood slack-jawed at the being before them as he shredded through the Princess's defenses.

The lieutenant snapped out of it first, "Alright men, be ready for when he takes down the gate!" he called out. Perfectly sensible advice, except that the only reason Kaiscillius had destroyed the shield was because he couldn't teleport through it. With neither a light nor sound he appeared behind the formation of men, and laid into them all with gusto. Three fell before anyone knew what was happening, two more before they knew what to do about it, and then the real fun began.

Kaiscillius didn't bother to block, he laid about himself with sweeping strikes, his enormous blade passing through enemy flesh and armor as though they were air. There was no blood to this fight, all that poured from the gaping wounds he inflicted was converted into power. All the bone, muscle, and viscera of those he struck down became fuel. His strikes were faster and faster, more accurate, more devastating, and his enemies could not touch him. Though it was not from lack of trying, they parried and thrusted and swiped as well as any other man. Unfortunate for them, then, that they fought a master of thaumatics.

As their blades touched his enchanted armor, a field of magic broke the metal down into stone, a second destabilized stone to dirt, and a third divided the dirt into dust. Those who scored a hit and lived long enough to pull the offending weapon away found themselves suddenly without a blade, it having dematerialized into fine powder faster than they could blink. Under such conditions, it did not take long for panic to set in.

Kaiscillius roared with glee as he tore through his enemies like tissue paper, at least a dozen streams of hazy darkness flowed to him from decaying corpses, and more were soon to join them. He concaved one man's chest with a gauntleted punch before spearing him through the skull, driving the blade true into the soldier standing behind the man's chest. With a heave the blade carved it's way free and cut clean through another's abdomen. With a spin Kaiscillius elbowed an unfortunate stallion in the face, snapping the man's neck, and buried New Moon into the eye socket of the guard next to him.

Those closest to Kaiscillius quickly realized that they wanted to be nowhere near this untouchable monster of whirling flesh and metal, and backed away into their fellows standing behind them, who urged them on, while the men who had been expecting to be the front line were still slightly confused as to where their enemy had gone.

Screams began, and were cut off almost as quickly by New Moon. This battle was eerily quiet. The blade moved through armor and bodies as easily as through water, and thus no clanking was heard from it. Those who were struck down made no sound, as all of their noise was drawn to the point of impact and converted, so there were no wails from the dying. And all the swords that fought back were turned to dust, so there was no sharp contact of metal on metal. The only sounds were labored breathing, the shuffling of terrified feet, and the whistle of the black blade as it hurled towards new foes.

Kaiscillius extended the blade to nine feet long as those around him fled, and cleaved five with one sweep, even the scratch he grazed a sixth with proved fatal in time as his life drained away. Half of those left charged forward with a yell, while the others froze with indecision. Three swipes and one face-to-gauntlet reunion later, and there were only eight left standing of the original forty. These men were the ones he was supposed to have fought first, the front line. They stared in horror as their friends were slowly consumed by darkness, and what had been taken funneled towards their enemy, who grinned from ear to ear. Kaiscillius took a step forward, and then grunted as he was held back.

Around his body appeared a dozen different magical auras, and a glance backwards told him that the Battlemages had finally arrived. Twelve highly trained and incredibly powerful unicorns stood about a hundred feet away, on top of the secondary gate into the castle, each one's horn glowing brightly with telekinesis in full effect. The soldiers in front of Kaiscillius looked incredibly relieved that backup had arrived, which only made Kaiscillius chuckle. With a mental command, New Moon flowed up his arm and molded around his body, then it did what it did best.

Agonizing cries of pain ripped from the throats of the mages as their magic was pulled out of them, devoured by the material that suddenly covered Kaiscillius's form. Within seconds they fell to the ground, clutching smoking horns in their hands, and leaving Kaiscillius free to move about the courtyard once more. The eight remaining soldiers valiantly raised their weapons again, and Kaiscillius saw them smile as he heard the distant grinding of the metal gate, no doubt signaling more reinforcements. They didn't make it in time.

With a flash Kaiscillius teleported next to the line of men and punched through each of them in succession with a tendril of New Moon. Though the wound was only the size of a penny in each man, none were able to hold their feet, and they collapsed to the ground shivering and writhing in agony as darkness overcame them.

"NOOO!!!" He heard from behind him, followed quickly by a choked sob. As Kaiscillius turned around, his eyes passed over the smoking corpses of his enemies, and he felt a surprising twinge of regret. These men could not have harmed him, he need not have killed them if not for the sake of appearances. Perhaps if he had known more about what Luna knew, they could have been spared. Maybe the reason he felt this way was because of their souls. They were still there, without the sword being present for the entire exchange all but the last of the beings touched by it were burnt away, and now they floated, all forty, over the killing field. Different colors, all, each bearing the cutie mark of their recently deceased body. In the olden days, in the times of thaumatics, these ponies could have been brought back, the soul would have been enough. Flesh and sinew could be rebonded, memories remade, but now...

Damn you for this, Thrassimund. So many needn't have died today if not for you.

Then he remembered that they had been thestrals, and Kaiscillius shook off the moment of sentiment and returned to the battle at hand. Another squadron of twelve troops had arrived, wielding longspears and high tower shields, each bearing the standard of Luna. It seemed that his work demoralizing the guard had not been without some payoff, he should have been facing a lot more resistance. Not that it would have done any good. He'd been toying with the other set of soldiers, he didn't even have to touch any of these ponies to strike them down.

Now what was the formula for poison... Kaiscillius looked into each of the soldiers slowly advancing towards him, he didn't need to go any deeper than the musculature. In each of them he saw the heart, where water and life flowed out in rhythmic beats. It was with the barest of efforts that he slipped in another element to the mix. It did not take more than four seconds before a thick green stream worked it's way around through the heart and out into the body. One of the soldiers in the back of the phalanx formation they had taken doubled over and began hacking and wheezing, blood flecking the ground underneath him. Kaiscillius calmly walked up to them as one by one they fell and began to cough and vomit, some unfortunate enough to start foaming at the mouth. With a few quick strokes he ended their misery, and their heads did not stay long upon the ground before being devoured by the blade's effects.

By this point three of the more willful battlemages had managed to stumble to their feet, and all, seeing that this horrifying juggernaut was nearing the gate, shot a myriad of offensive spells in rapid succession. Fireballs, rays of frost, and lightning bolts galore rained down upon his head, and all were cheerfully devoured by New Moon as Kaiscillius, with unholy speed, struck them from the air one after the other, until the unicorns panted for breath, staring uncomprehending at the force of reckoning in front of them.

"My turn," Kaiscillius said and, with a well placed tug and cracking of bone, tore the horns from the head of every mage, standing or not. They were such flimsy things, he wondered why they put so much stock in them. The mages were unconscious instantly, their bodies having felt more pain than they had any right to, which left the castle, the princesses, and Kaiscillius's traitorous brother Thrassimund, utterly defenseless.

Luna breathed slowly in and out, trying to keep her nerves in check as she awaited the battle to come. She had heard the screams from outside, and had the sinking feeling that her guards had failed. How her heart cried to go out and join them, but she forced herself to remain as the last line of defense. The only thing that stood between her and this "Kaiscillius" was her Lunar Guard. Her elite. If they failed... well, then she would face her creation. Luna sat currently in the throne room next to Blueblood, who had his arms outstretched, horn aglow, with a look of intense concentration on his pale face. She'd been there for some time, waiting for her foe. She and Blueblood had agreed that Kaiscillius, with all of his plans beaten, would be forced to confront Blueblood and slay him personally to bring down the shield. It was Luna's duty to both her friend, and her people, to make sure that Kaiscillius's goal was not accomplished. So she sat, heart pounding, blood boiling, and teeth grinding in anticipation.

There was a shout from the hall outside, and Luna was instantly tense, her ears pricked for any sign she could hear of the battle. She wouldn't have to wait long. There was a loud explosion, followed by muffled grunts and cries of pain. A weapon clattered against the floor. Somepony shouted her name, as if in defiance, before the entire castle fell silent. Luna stood, magic at the ready, as she stared down the double doors leading to the throne room, her heart hammering in her throat.

Footsteps. One set, approaching the door. They were loud, clad in metal, and steady, unhurried. Luna charged a bolt of magic as she surveyed her own personal armaments. Her armor was made of enchanted silver by the best smith in Equestria thousands of years ago, her sword had killed more horrors from Tartarus and other foul places than anypony could ever had guessed, and her shield had saved her skin more times than she cared to admit. Seeing these things, assembled again after so long, it gave her a sort of resigned confidence. A relief that this battle was no longer being fought in the shadows. The knowledge that whatever this was, and however it ended, it would end today.

After a few tense seconds of dead silence, the doors flung open, and the sight behind them made Luna gag. Corpses littered the hall, all of them smoking like the last mournful embers of a fire long dead. Blackened flakes and tendrils of inky fumes drifted towards the creature in the doorway, the being known as Kaiscillius.

He's... he's beautiful, Luna thought with surprise. Her enemy, this... monster of a pony, was not at all who she'd envisioned. She'd imagined some dark masked figure with black smoke pouring off of him trying to fill her mind with visions of things that didn't exist, that wasn't the case... in fact she recognized the pony in front of her.

"Prince Blood Diamond?" She said, confused, but knew it could be no other. He stood at least a head and shoulders taller than her, clad in beautifully crafted black armor that fit him like a second skin. His ruby red eyes shone with mirth and mischief, if the door had been closed she never would have guessed that he'd just murdered a dozen ponies in cold blood.

"Why hello Princess!" He said, waving with a playful smile, taking a few steps down the stairs into the room.

So off-putting was his cheerfulness that Luna briefly wondered if this was a minion of the beast, and not Kaiscillius itself. And then he looked at Blueblood. Luna almost stumbled backwards as the most intense look of hatred she'd ever known blazed across the pristine visage of the prince, before his eyes snapped back to her with another smile. This one, however, was far more predatory than its predecessor. Luna raised her blade and shield before speaking, "Your name is Kaiscillius, is it not? Blueblood has told me much of you, do not expect that you can simply roll over me like you would a common citizen."

Luna blinked as Kaiscillius shuddered in place, a genuine smile lighting his face as his eyes crossed slightly, "Oh mother..." he breathed (was that a tear in his eye?), "it is so good to hear your voice again. Worry not, I will have you out of that wretched thing in no time! Just a little longer mother, I promise."

His tone chilled Luna's blood, it was wavering, on the border between depressed and manic, "There is no more Nightmare Moon, Kaiscillius. She was ended when the Elements destroyed her! I am Luna, Princess of the Moon! And I give you one chance to back down and surrender. Or be destroyed."

The ruby eyes stared at her. There was a noise, a slight wheezing, before Kaiscillius began to chuckle. The chuckle built into a laugh which, though low at first, rose and rose in volume, until the dark warrior threw his head back and cackled louder than a thunderclap, eyes and mouth wide.

By the stars he's... he's mad! Luna stepped to her right, shielding Blueblood with her body, when the laughter stopped, and Kaiscillius disappeared.

"What the?" Luna was baffled. Where had he gone? One moment he was there, and the next he wasn't! There was no spell, no magic, no movement, just... vanished!

"You have lost your edge Princess." Luna screamed and swiped as his voice came from directly next to her. Her blade stopped in mid air, along with her arm, and she stared directly into the face of Kaiscillius.

For a moment, everything went still. Confusion bled across his expression, before a light dawned in his eyes.

"Oh... OH! You don't remember!" he cried, a shark's grin splitting his maw, "Oh Princess you don't remember! I will have such fun with you!"

Luna grunted as a force shoved her backwards, but she caught her feet quickly and lunged at her foe, her blade only missing by an inch as he swayed out of the way.

Got you now! She thought, and fired an enormous beam of magic straight into his chest. She felt a moment of triumph before her entire body went cold. There was a sharp pain in her horn, and an unnatural tugging sensation, like someone was yanking the appendage free of her skull. Within milliseconds she realized she had another serious problem, the beam wouldn't turn off. Magic poured out of her, strong enough to turn the stones of the castle to magma and blast away entire legions, and she couldn't stem the tide. She gasped as all of her muscles locked up, pain raged through her body and she felt exhausted.

You... will... MOVE! She wrestled control of her body and slashed the beam of magic with her sword, physically cutting off the spell. She dropped to one knee, but was immediately up again thanks to a helpful uppercut to the chin that sent her flying across the room, pulverizing the section of wall she crashed into. She'd lost her grip on her shield, but now it was her turn to laugh.

"If you think that some magic absorption and a punch are going to beat me, then you are sorely mistak-" Luna stopped gloating as her vision cleared. Blueblood stood unguarded, unaware of his surroundings, as Kaiscillius loomed over him, a seven foot broadsword of eerily dark metal held over his head, about to strike. Without thinking, Luna stepped forward, tossed her sword into the air, caught it, took aim, and threw in one smooth motion. The blade flew end over end straight at her enemy, and struck true, piercing deep through the armor into Kaiscillius's back.

"GAAAAGH!!!" he gargled, dropping to a knee and cracking the marble underneath him.

How heavy is that armor? She wondered as she dashed towards him. She heard him mutter, "... not be made of metal alone," before she delivered a devastating kick to the back of his skull. A loud CRACK rang out as he faceplanted into the floor. She wrenched her sword from his back, and struck at his exposed neck, but the creature rolled away from the blade before it could strike true.

Luna readied her stance again as Kaiscillius blurred to his feet, standing as though nothing had happened. Luna glanced at her sword which dripped with a black liquid which felt... off. It wasn't the right consistency for blood. More like water. And it had no reflection, almost like no light shone upon it at all. She realized too late that taking her eyes away from her foe was a mistake, and look back just in time to see a metal fist crash into her stomach. All the air was driven out of her lungs as she skidded backwards again, carving deep grooves into the floor as her pointed boots scraped her to a halt. Luna ducked under a follow up jab and swung her sword at Kaiscillius. With another blur of motion she found that her blade had been caught it mid air, with the stallion looking at her with a ghost of a smile about his face.

He's just playing with me! She realized, before there was a deafening thud and she couldn't see for a few moments. She blinked a few times and found herself on the ground next to Blueblood with a loud ringing rattling around in her skull. She managed to stumble to her feet, but felt off balance, and struggled to raise her sword at her incoming foe. She gave a halfhearted swipe which he slapped away with a gauntlet, before diving a knee into her sternum. Luna doubled over as pain crashed through her chest, she could feel a few ribs crack, and felt bile rise in her throat as her vision swam slightly. She felt pressure on her back, and was heaved into the air, the world spinning around her, before she crashed back down to the floor. She'd lost her blade. That wasn't good. She felt really dizzy, and struggled to climb to her feet again.

It was almost the same as last time, with Kaiscillius standing triumphantly above Blueblood, about to deliver the killing blow. With a roar, Luna squeezed out a teleportation spell and drove herself into the metal behemoth with an alicorn's strength. She screamed in pain as she drove him to the ground, hearing her shoulder crack, but she managed to topple him. She heard a growl, and felt a blinding pain shoot across her face as her head whipped backwards. Blood poured from somewhere. Her nose, it was broken, that didn't matter right now. Luna balled a fist and made a return blow on the monster pinned beneath her, and gasped silently as her fist connected hard with some sort of invisible shielding around Kaiscillius's face, cracking all of her knuckles and jamming them horribly.

Kaiscillius twisted underneath her as she pulled her hand back, and bucked like a rodeo bull, sending her soaring over his head and landing hard on the cold stone floor.

After this fight... the repair costs will be immense, Luna thought tiredly, jumping to her feet somewhat more assuredly as her ears stopped ringing. She turned quickly to face her opponent, to find with horror that he had again turned to strike at Blueblood.

My ribs and nose are broken... I can't use magic on him... and I've lost my sword... time for the secret weapon, Luna charged, and pulled a large black orb out of her pocket as she did. In moments the ball molded, shifted, and elongated until it too stood in the proud shape of an impractically long two-handed blade. With Kaiscillius's back turned, he never saw her coming. She gripped the weapon with both hands, and rammed it as hard as she could into the enemy's back.

Kaiscillius grunted and stumbled forward, nearly knocking into Blueblood. All fell still for a few moments.

Is that it? Is it over? Luna stood, breathing hard through the blood from her broken nose, hearing her heart pound in her ears as she waited for the sword to work it's magic. Instead she heard a sound she never wanted to hear again, the sound of Kaiscillius laughing.

"Haha... hahahaHA... AH HAHAHAHAHAAA!!! Foolish girl! Do you know what it is you hold?!" The sword began to melt in her hands, and she quickly dropped it, her brain automatically thinking that it must be hot enough to melt when really it was ice cold. The dark material flowed through the crack in Kaiscillius's armor she had made earlier, and another blade formed in his right hand, the old one clutched in his left. He regarded the newcomer with a nostalgic look, almost loving in a way.

"My oldest friend... wherever have you been all this time?" He whispered to it, seemingly enamored. Before he was clocked in the back of the head by the hilt of a sword. Luna snatched her blade from the air with a flourish, having used telekinesis to launch it at him. She'd hoped desperately that it would strike blade-first, but beggars can't be choosers. She didn't hesitate this time, and went into a blinding flurry of attacks, moving faster than the normal pony eye could follow. Unfortunately her opponent also knew this trick, and had twice the swordpower. She was able to land nothing more than glancing blows at best, and even those, she was almost sure, had been let through because Kaiscillius knew they could do no real harm. Though the stallion was a beast, and had tried to destroy her kingdom, she could not help but respect his fighting style. His form was fluid and graceful, he fought with those two massive cleavers as though they were the most tempered of rapiers. He danced along with her strikes, never missing a beat as he parried every blow effortlessly, though she struck with unerring accuracy each time.

Eventually he must have decided that it was time to show her who the real master was, and went on the offensive. Luna immediately lost ground as she was pushed backwards towards Blueblood, her enemy moving so fast he was nothing but a dark smudge on the fabric of reality. A thousand years of training and muscle memory, perhaps with the tiniest bit of luck, were the only things that kept her alive through the vicious onslaught. It seemed that her luck had run out, though, when Kaiscillius landed a hit on her wrist guard and caused her to drop the sword. It clattered to the ground, and Luna in that moment compared the sound to that of the castle bells ringing at a funeral, for it most certainly spelt the end for her. She could see it in those red eyes, while it may have been fun to toy with her at first, she'd now become an annoyance, a thorn in his side.

Well, I suppose I- wait... wait a minute... he- he can't kill me! A smile split Luna's face as she remembered the most important aspect of this fight, the entire reason for it having happened, Kaiscillius wanted Nightmare Moon, and he couldn't do that if she was dead.

Kaiscillius looked at her confused as he raised his blade and she laughed at him, "What are you laughing about?"

Luna snorted and replied, "You can't kill me! You want your mother, so I have to live for that!"

Her smile faded at Kaiscillius's grin, "Truly, you are ignorant of the ways of thaumatics," and with that, he brought the sword down.

Stars, I wish I had my shield, she thought, strangely calm about her impending demise. And it was in that moment that something clicked. She did remember something from thaumatics, she remembered when the concept had first been explained to her somewhere in her 700's. A very bright young unicorn had been terribly excited by his discoveries of what he called the, "Key to the Universe". He'd said all things were made of six elements, Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Order, and Decay. Through the combination of these six, theoretically anything was possible, but one of the most fascinating facts was that these elements were self-sustaining, requiring no constant magical flow to keep them running. One effect of this would be the usefulness in advancing magical shields, as they were one of the easiest things to create using the six elements, and thaumatic shields did not require a continuous cast. All it took to make a thaumatic shield was one of each of the six foundation, or "primal", elements bonded into a layer around the object to be shielded.

In what were almost certainly her final moments, Luna wrenched from the murk of her memories the power of a magic long dead. It felt like pure magical muscle memory as she assembled the six elements into a shell around herself, and forced the warring pieces to bond into an unmatchable state of balance. It took nearly no effort, and as soon as it was done she felt disconnected from her creation, although there was no doubt she could alter it if she could only remember how. Time slowed as the swords plunged toward her heart, and she made another shield. And another. And another, faster than thought could process she created ten, twenty, a hundred, five hundred, two thousand! Each as thin as a sheaf of paper, yet as strong as if it were two feet thick. Her body began to feel tired, and her horn grew intensely sore as power poured out of it at an enormous rate, and she prayed her last desperate gamble would work.

The sword broke the first shield, she felt the snap as the bond between elements disintegrated. She felt as it broke the second, and so on as it plunged through the layers of power she had erected around herself, slowing it's progress further as it moved through the barriers toward her. Until finally, it stopped dead in the air at shield 1,279, unable to continue forging ahead. Luna sighed in relief, and then fell to her knees, the immense toll of all that expelled magic catching up with her. Her body was lead, her mind was syrup, every part of her ached with pain. She heard a voice.

"Well now, it seems you've not forgotten everything. A decent attempt, Princess, but I doubt you've much left. Goodbye."

Luna looked up, swaying on her knees as she saw the swords arc down towards her face. She tried to move an arm to stop it, but it could barely reach halfway up her chest before the effort became too much for her.

This is it, she thought, I'm going to-

BOOOOOOOOM!!!

Luna was thrown to the ground as a blinding white light seared her retinas, and waves of pure heat rolled across her back. Somehow she knew that she wasn't the one who'd borne the brunt of the attack. She forced her now dry eyes open and looked back across the throne room to the staircase that led to the upper halls of Canterlot Castle. And there, standing leaning heavily against the marble door frame, was her sister.

"Celestia!" She cried out in joy (though it came out as little more than a hoarse croak), tears springing to her dry eyes as she saw her sister safe and well. The mare in question gave a big, warm smile that invigorated Luna down to her bones, and gave her the strength to stand again, though she suspected for the last time. She hobbled over to her sister, but the warm feeling vanished as a harsh laugh rang out across the hall.

"HA! I should have known you'd wake up!"

Luna turned around to see a smoking black crater carved into the throne room floor where Celestia's sunbeam had hit, and standing at the other end of it, blackened and singed, was Kaiscillius.

"Surrender demon!" Celestia yelled, standing straighter and readying a second beam, "You have no chance of defeating two of us!"

Kaiscillius gave another spine-chilling chuckle and replied, "I suppose two heads are better than one. But what's better than two heads I wonder?" He took another breath, as if to continue, when a ring of purple magic blasted outwards from him, taking Luna and Celestia by surprise, and knocking both of them to the floor.

A black smog filled the room as horrible cracks and rips reached Luna's ears, like the sound of a hundred corpse being mangled. The noises became louder and louder until an earthshaking roar echoed through the palace. And through the thick black smoke, Luna saw six shining eyes, and a galaxy in the shape of a monster.

Celestia had woken from her room in quite a sorry state. Not having anything to eat or drink for the past few weeks had taken a serious tole on her body. Luckily, due to an alicorn's natural hardiness and her own powerful well of magic from which to feed, she was not as dead as most ponies would find themselves in her situation. It had taken her many long grueling minutes to shakily make her way through the palace halls, hearing screams and explosions from outside, until all went dead silent for a few minutes. Shortly after, she began hearing the same things, except echoing through the corridors of the castle itself now.

Finally, she had reached the throne room, leaning heavily against the door frame and sucking air in and out of her lungs like an iron bellows. Much to her horror, she'd arrived precisely as Luna was about to be beheaded, and unthinkingly fired the wrath of the sun at the dark invader about to claim her sister's life, and, while her sister had been saved, Celestia was in no shape to fight. She was weak and delirious, and her despair grew as she saw the pony transform into the beast that now stalked toward them. Something about it pulled at her memory, but right now the whole picture was not yet clear, and she was distracted by the power she felt radiating from it. It was unlike normal magic, which one could feel like static electricity, like lightning in the air. No, this power was felt in the bones, in the determination of a stance, in the hardness of the eye. This was the power she had felt in the presence of the Grey 600 years ago.

By the sun... if this thing can use thaumatics then I don't know what I can do, Celestia lied to herself. She knew what she could do, but it would leave her sister vulnerable, possibly comatose, but if it came down to that or both of them being dead...

"Luna," she croaked, her voice a parched whisper, "please, come here, quickly!" Luna blinked in surprise, and stepped closer to her sister. Out of the corner of her eye, Celestia noted that the shadowy creature paused in interest as Luna approached her.

I just need it to stay back a little longer, then I can defeat it, Celestia's current beam of sunlight she held over her head was a complete bluff, there was no way she'd be able to do another one of those until she had more power.

"What is it, sister?" Luna asked, and Celestia's heart missed a beat as she saw the horrible state of her Lulu. Blood poured from lacerations all over her body, but two notable flows ran from her broken and heavily bruised nose. It was clear at least two of her ribs were cracked, and several of her fingers were broken. Bruises were thick on almost every inch of her body, several pieces of armor had been either shattered or smashed into unrecognizable shapes, and Celestia could see her awareness of the situation flicker on and off in Luna's eyes, no doubt she was incredibly disoriented. Celestia steeled herself, and grabbed Luna's horn.

There was still a large well of magic left in the princess of the night, so much so that Celestia wondered what had prevented her from using it all. With a brief, "I'm sorry, I'll explain later," she emptied Luna of her power, using it to fuel herself. In Luna's condition, she was in no state to combat the unexpected assault, and slumped to the ground a final time, her eyes sliding shut, and breathing a peaceful sigh as she drifted off to sleep.

Celestia cast a brief pained look over her sister, before turning back to the massive beast in the room. She was running at about half a tank now, which was more than about thirty battlemages put to- was that Blueblood?

Celestia did a double take and looked in shock as she confirmed that Blueblood standing in the middle of the room, completely unaware of the towering behemoth behind him. In fact, Celestia now recalled seeing Luna shielding him bodily as she was about to be cut down. So whatever he was doing, Luna had thought it more important than her own life.

"Princess Celestia, a pleasure," three slightly different voices rumbled through the smoke, each deep as a thunderclap, and almost as loud. The room shook at the force of them, and Celestia heard the cracking of stone as the gigantic thing lumbered towards her. She smelled a pungent odor wafting through the room, though she could not place her finger on the exact scent. Nevertheless she quickly ripped a piece of cloth from her gown and wrapped it around her mouth and nose, not knowing whether the scent was some kind of poison or not, "Beware, creature, I am the Princess of the Sun! And should you fail to surrender, you will feel my wrath."

The throne room quaked as the thing chuckled, "I highly doubt it," and the beast vanished. Eyes, starry silhouette and all. Gone, without a whiff of magic.

Damn I hate thaumatists, she cursed to herself and, by pure instinct, dropped to the floor. A roar of air shortly followed as the air she had, until recently, occupied was cleft in twain by a massive five-toed claw that took out one of the support columns like it wasn't even there. Celestia quickly rolled onto her back and saw the monster. It resembled a hydra of the Everfree, but it was definitely larger, and most definitely varied in coloration. Entire galaxies and nebulae wheeled across it's massive chest and legs, extending all the way down it's long forked tail. It's three heads drooled a viscous black liquid, and it's six eyes shone with a deadly intelligence that seemed proportional to it's size. Celestia took great pleasure in watching those eyes widen in pain as she fired the second ray of light into it's chest. Such a large target at such close range, how could she possibly miss?

The creature's triple-throated wailing pierced Celestia's ears like jagged glass, and shattered all the windows in the surrounding 500 yards, knocking loose stones from the walls and ceiling, and causing the beautiful chandelier that hung in the room (specially commissioned from Saddle Arabia at a ludicrously high price) to explode like multi thousand bit prismatic firework. Still Celestia poured it on, unrelenting n her assault of searing heat. The entire castle shone with light at the power of the blast, and the heat of it scorched the rock of the hall around her black. With a final keening shriek, the beast disappeared again, and Celestia's ray cut it's way through the roof of the castle in a nanosecond, leaving a gaping smoking hole halfway through the mountain.

Instantly she was on her feet, scanning the area. The smoke had been burned away by the fire, and now the beast huddled, clutching at it's chest, in the corner of the room, shivering. A twinge of pity punched Celestia in the gut as her eyes fell upon the mewling creature. Black blood poured like oil from it's body onto the cracked ground around it- wait. No, the black liquid looked far too thin for blood, almost like water. And it was coming from the cracks in the ground. Celestia took a step back as more of the stuff pooled all throughout the room, dripping upwards into the air in void-like globes of darkness, disobeying the laws of gravity.

"Hahahahaha... haHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" The creature leapt to it's feet with unholy speed, it's eyes ablaze with darkness, laughing in a hollow, manic fashion. More and more of the liquid flowed into the room, up the creature's body, and into it's three mouths. Pulsating orbs of dark energy hovered in all three sets of jaws as Celestia created a shield around herself, all the while the hollow, sickly, crazed laugh built until-

GROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHRR!!!

Darkness engulfed her. A halo of light, so feeble against the inky cold, flickered around her body. Her shield. Kaiscillius was using his last attempt. He was nearly beaten. He had one trick left. The Last Laugh. Designed by his mother to be used as a suicide maneuver. When he was done half the castle would be missing or engulfed in a black flame that burned on anything, even water, even magic. Celestia would live of course and, he hoped, so would he. This was the gamble. This was for all the marbles. Had his guesses been correct? Would they buy the act? Would he live through it? He didn't know. His bones were burning, his eyes and throat were dry. His body ate itself alive, but there was no stopping the spell now.

Kaiscillius fell. It was hard to see. It was so dark in this place, but not black. Above him, a mighty storm roiled and thundered. Lightning flashed amongst the clouds, illuminating the black sea below. Jutting from the white-tipped frothing waves and wrenching tides, was a single island of jagged razor sharp rock. Kaiscillius tumbled, end over end, battered by freezing rain and hurricane winds, tossed around like a piece of cloth, but always staying above that small rock. He'd clung to this island before, he'd been smashed by those icy waves, he'd been struck by this lightning. But never had these things, this place, claimed him. His mother didn't know. He hadn't told her what he'd seen. No one who came here survived. No one survived overdraw.

Suddenly it all vanished. The sky, the sea, the rock. Everything was white, and a soft hand guided him back to the world of the living.

"There there Master. Let's get you back on your feet."

Author's Note

Kaiscillius's desperate gamble has been set loose. Defeated by the Sisters of Day and Night, he now stands at their mercy. Or does he? What plans has he made? What means of deception has he already set in motion? Find out, next time.