Golden Dawn: Dusk of an Empire

Twilight was awoken by the blaring of a horn outside. Her eyes snapped open - it was still rather early in the morning, evident by the lack of light peering through the leather flap that covered the tent's opening. The Magicite gems in the tent poles shone to life as her friends were roused, banishing the darkness and chilly air with light and heat. She wondered if there would be a breakfast of some sort before they all went off to the front lines, although she still felt perfectly sated from the night before.

After they had all donned their armor, the group of friends shivered as they left the warmth of their tent. Elven soldiers were leaving their tents and gathering in groups led by their superiors, who then instructed a Battlemage to teleport them away, most likely to the other edge of the forest just before the Crystal Mountain. After a few minutes of searching they found Princess Rael'ia and Archmage Aternus, both in full armor, making a few last minute orders to various commanders.

"Good morning, friends," Rael'ia spoke as the last commander left for his squadron. "Did you sleep well?"

"Ah was out like a light after that supper," Applejack yawned and stretched. Twilight and the others agreed.

"Good, good," Aternus nodded. "The Officer's Banquet is as much preparation for the coming battle as it is for morale. Now, any last things you all need to do before we leave?"

"No, I don't believe so," said Rarity.

"I'm good, let's get going!" Rainbow Dash grinned as she cracked the joints in her neck and wings in anticipation.

"Very well," Rael'ia spoke as the shield spell on the exposed parts of her helmet activated. "All of you just stay with me, and we'll get through this together." She took a final glance around the camp before teleporting the nine of them away.

They reappeared, as Twilight predicted, at the other edge of the forest. They knelt to the ground as quickly as they could to keep out of sight. Not fifty feet away was the artificial clearing Rael'ia had spoken of: only grass grew on the flattened grounds before the first Human fortress, which was still a good thousand feet away from their position. The Magicite on her armor glowed faintly brighter as her horn glowed, followed shortly by her eyes. Now she could see their defenses, the tens of cannons peeking out from pillboxes along the top of the seemingly-infinite walls, most of them unmanned at the moment. Reddish blobs of light denoted where Humans currently slept or stood watch. The vast majority of them were still asleep.

She ended her spell and looked behind her, quickly wondering how in the world the Humans were still sleeping. Among the Elven infantry, Orcs were preparing for battle with no consideration for volume level. Many warriors were talking to their companion animals, hyping them up and sending them into howling, hissing, braying, cawing, trumpeting frenzies. Orc commanders were shouting various warcries and chants in their native language to raise morale, followed by drummers slowly beating the large, loud drums strapped to their bodies - deep brown with tanned hides stretched taut across their openings, decorated with warpaint and hollowed, rattling bones. Something like a high-pitched brass instrument made itself known just paces away; Twilight's eyes widened to see what appeared to be an armored grey mammoth half as tall as the fifty-foot trees surrounding it, covered in various splotches and squiggles of brown and green paint, tusks covered in multiple bladed, metal spikes. Strapped to its back were wood and leather platforms that allowed perhaps ten Orcs to stand atop the great beast. Three of the Orcs appeared armed with ranged weaponry, while one sitting on a chair strapped to the back of the beast's head seemed to steer it with ropes attached to the bases of its tusks. The rest were carrying various musical instruments, mostly drums and horns with a few stringed instruments thrown in, and were in the process of testing them... or more accurately, their ability to make as much noise as possible.

"Lovely... Orc-kin song magic is just what I wanted to start the battle with," Aternus groaned.

"I see the Warsingers over there," Rael'ia pointed to a small clearing to the left a couple hundred feet away. "Let's hope the Orcs let them cast their spells first."

"How are we not waking everything up in a ten-mile radius of here?" Rarity cringed as an Orc in the distance made what sounded like fart noises from an Ursa Major with his horn.

"Sound dampening spells from our best Battlemages. Otherwise, yea, this wouldn't be much of a surprise attack," said Aternus.

"The sun will rise soon," Rael'ia spoke softly as she took note of the faintest amount of light peeking out from below the horizon. She touched the right side of her helmet where her ear was covered, activating the Magicite communicator underneath. "Is everyone ready to proceed?" Only a moment passed before she heard voices in reply.

"The Orc-kin are ready to move!" Warmaster Dovah's voice boomed.

"The Harpy-kin are in the skies, ready for your signal," Skymaster Skrye's voice answered.

"The Siren-kin await your signal," Ocean Mistress Morganna's voice hissed.

"Alright. On the Archmage and I's signal. Stand ready." Rael'ia and Aternus stood up, taking a few slow breaths. After a few seconds had passed they began preparing their strongest magical attacks. The great sun of five runic rings appeared behind the Elven Princess, unaffected by the surrounding trees as they phased through the wood, while the Archmage's hands glowed so brightly with combined magics that daylight may as well have already come.

"Twilight, could you lend a hand? Er, hoof?" Aternus asked the lavender Alicorn. "Help us blast some holes in that wall." Twilight nodded and assumed a casting stance, her horn and all the Magicite on her body glowing with pink light. The power she felt within her horn was nearly untameable; it felt as if it had a mind of its own and was throwing itself against the walls of her skull in an effort to escape. But she knew she had full control over it. Rael'ia and Aternus then faced their palms towards the Human fortress, and Twilight lowered her head.

"All units... GO!"

The dampening spells were broken instantly to the sounds of triumphant shouting as the forces around them charged. Twilight let the energy loose within her horn as Rael'ia and Aternus fired, almost losing her footing from the sheer recoil of her attack. The beams of light and magic shot over the field with dizzying speed, meeting resistance against the Nullium walls of the fortress for only a moment before pushing through. They allowed themselves to rest after a few more seconds of sustained fire, Twilight gasping at the destruction they had wrought. She and Aternus had drilled two massive, gaping holes through the walls, while Rael'ia's scattered shots had formed hundreds of smaller holes that could still fit a few bodies at a time through them. That had certainly woken the Humans up.

"Alright, friends, it's time. Let's go!" Rael'ia cried out above the noise. She and Aternus glowed with Arcane magic and flew off towards the fortress. Twilight made a mental note of whether she could summon the Sapling of Harmony to her side where she was; after a quick confirmation in her head she flapped her wings and took off, the others following closely. Rainbow Dash easily kept up beside her in the air, as did Applejack on the ground underneath. Pinkie Pie happily skipped her way across the field slightly behind them, while Spike had jumped onto Rarity's back as she galloped beside Pinkie. Fluttershy gulped as her body began to simmer, the Chameleon effect activating as she flew a short distance behind them all. All around her, Elves and Orcs stampeded towards the fortress - many ran, many Elves flew, their bodies alight with Arcane magic, others teleported rapidly in succession, leaving behind copies of themselves that lasted only a fraction of a second. A klaxon began blaring from the center of the fortress, ensuring that all the Humans were now awake and rushing to their positions.

She looked behind her to where a group of maybe twenty Sirens were leaving the cover of the forest. Four of them on their outer perimeter had their hands aglow with blue light, waving them around gracefully and purposely. Water materialized from thin air around and above the Warsingers, forming the shape of a phonograph's horn pointed in the general direction of the battle. Their conductor shuffled out in front of the group and raised her baton, the jewels on the Warsinger's throats began to glow like hot embers, and their mouths opened. One swish, and one of the Sirens began to perform beatboxing, if Twilight remembered the term correctly from her admittedly-lacking knowledge of musical genres. As the beat was established, a perfect harmony of A Capella music followed soon after, the sound amplified exponentially by the watery projection above and sweeping over the battlefield in vermilion waves, drowning the klaxon out entirely. The tune was haunting, yet as it crashed into and through her she found herself feeling energized and invigorated, angry without feeling anger, almost goading her into feeling like she wanted to punch something in the face. The beatboxer among them intensified his craft, the percussion rattling like machine gun fire, and the melody became choppy, harsh, even discordant, yet still seemed to make sense. She took a moment to watch as the infantry charged ahead. They ran faster, shouted louder and fiercer as the sound waves pushed them along. The front line collided with the first of the Human forces pouring out of the holes in the fortress walls and attacked with great ferocity, slashing and smashing with great speed and agility. The armored animal companions of the Orcs joined in the hunt, tearing at the enemy's limbs, clawing at eyes and trampling underfoot. The music drove them all into further bloodlust as it reached the chorus, a futuristic array of vocalized reverb, synthesizer laser sounds and staccato she would have expected from a DJ-Pon3 concert. The Siren song-magic she had encountered in the past had been deeply alluring, even intoxicating, but the display of magic here was truly... well, interesting.

Rainbow let out a whoop of excitement. "C'mon, AJ, let's go buck some Humans!"

"Yee-haw!" Applejack took off running, covering the ground with blazing speed. Rainbow followed after her in the sky.

"Hey! I said 'stick by me', guys!" Rael'ia shouted after them to no use. They were both already dots in the distance. "Well... as long as they make it to the top of the mountain, I guess," she sighed. Glowing banners reading "Caution!" appeared in the HUD of Twilight's helmet, along with multiple arrows pointing behind her. She whipped her head around to see what looked like hundreds of boulders and cannonballs cloaked in purple fire soaring through the air, high over her head and crashing into the fortress walls and the ground within it. While the magic of the cannonballs had no effect on the Nullium-plated walls, the force of the impact itself was enough to leave deep craters and pockmarks in their wake, as did the plain boulders. The cannonballs that landed on the ground inside the fortress exploded into miniature mushroom clouds, tearing the earth apart and propelling shrapnel into the enemy forces. In the midst of it all, the Warsingers had reached a quiet interlude in their song, and the Humans finally began lining the tops of the walls and filling the pillbox rooms, rifles loaded with belt magazines and wildly firing at the approaching army. They popped shield enchantments with ease, shattering into multiple fragments that pierced Elven and Orc-kin armor alike. Rael'ia stopped her flight abruptly, gazing in shock at their effectiveness, gasping when she heard the screams and saw so many of her people cut down at once.

"Oh gods, no... no!" she cried. "They're falling so quickly!" A stray shot met Aternus's magical wards; though he was able to ultimately deflect it, Twilight watched as the muddy-green bullet slowed to a stop uncomfortably close to his chest.

"Oof... that packs a punch!" he groaned as the bullet fell harmlessly to the ground below. "Our highest priority should be getting rid of those rounds!"

"Um, guys?" Pinkie pointed to the cannons peeking out of the fortress walls. All were manned now, and all were moving to aim at various targets: some at larger clusters of their infantry, a couple at the Warsingers, many further back into the trees where their own siege weapons were located, and a few directly at them. Twilight felt her heart sink as she realized the horrible danger she and her friends were suddenly in... with her heightened magic and senses, she could feel the same within her friends as well.

Fluttershy's mouth opened, but no sound came out. Time seemed to stand still as deafening thunder rang out among them... mostly because Twilight willed it so. Her gem-covered body glowed like a star as she prepared many spells at once: enhancing her sight to see every individual missile fired, including the fifteen headed their way; slowing all incoming artillery fire; raising a shield that would protect herself and her friends; emitting a pulse of magic that would hopefully neutralize them all. With her newfound power, it only took a moment. She raised her luminous horn high, arching her back, and as she cast her spells, the Warsingers coincidentally entered into a new crescendo as the power exploded out of her.

For a moment, the land was illuminated with blinding pink light that outshone the now-rising sun. The artillery fire, slowed to a crawl, now drastically picked up speed - only to detonate against a massive pink shockwave that expanded outward from a sphere of magic encircling Twilight and her friends. Though the artillery on the extreme ends of their line of fire had not been affected, the vast majority of them had been destroyed before reaching their targets. Seeing her opportunity, Rael'ia's outstretched hands glowed with swirling purple and green. Ten horizontal rifts in the fabric of space opened like eyes beside her, spitting out boulders the size of carriages at high speed towards the cannon pillboxes. The boulders smashed and demolished them, crushing the small fortifications and whatever lay inside.

The Elven Princess exhaled. "Well, that's taken care of for now." She would have continued if not for the ground suddenly shaking. The song of the Warsingers reached its climax as the fields erupted with Tunnel Tanks; one Siren shrieked a extended high note as the tanks opened and Human forces poured out of them. Fluttershy screamed again as Tunnel Tanks tore apart the earth she, Pinkie, Rarity and Spike were standing on, the former two disappearing from Twilight's sight amidst the chaos. While Twilight cried out to her friends, Rarity's body glowed like rime as her crystals shot and pierced the enemies closest to her, while Spike hissed as he lashed out with his fiery claws and dragon breath. Rael'ia struck from above, raining down numerous bolts of sudden lightning and swift icicles as she glowed with the colors of morning.

"I'm going to go find their armories and destroy them," Aternus yelled as a beam of his Arcane magic tore a Tunnel Tank in half. "I will need cover."

"Go! We will assist you!" Rael'ia shouted, getting Twilight's attention. "Your friends will be fine, but not for long if we don't get rid of the Humans' Nullium ammunition quickly!"

"We are right behind you!" Rarity called out, glancing away for only a moment before sending her crystals through another Human body. Twilight frantically searched the fields with her eyes, hoping- no, begging to catch a glimpse of yellow or pink, but could see only greens, browns and bipedal bodies. Her heart ached as she feared the worst, but she quickly shook the thought out of her head as Humans mounted on dark-colored, Nullium-armored griffons began to overflow from the fortress like a fountain.

"Let's go!" Her wings flapped and she continued her flight towards the fortress, Rael'ia and Aternus behind her for only a moment. The three of them rained down destruction as they approached; Twilight focusing her magic into powerful beams and blasts much like Aternus, Rael'ia assaulting those in her path with astonishing arrays of fire, lightning, rocks, ice and Arcane magic. She felt a pit form deep within her belly as their attacks swatted the Humans and their mounts out of the sky - these griffons weren't like the ones back home, were they? Were they sentient like those from the Griffon Kingdom? Had they willingly allied themselves with the Humans? Her fears were assuaged somewhat as she heard only animalistic squawks and screeches from their beaks as they swooped and plummeted. Rael'ia and Aternus had no problem with shooting them down. High above them, she heard the bird-of-prey warcries of the Harpies as they swooped from the clouds and descended upon the griffon riders, slashing and stabbing with their halberds and wingblades, grasping Humans in their talons, ripping them off their mounts and releasing them to their deadly fates below. The skies began to rain red with blood from clouds of bodies and feathers, the cries of the combatants and the screams of the defeated their thunder. As they finally breached the walls of the fortress, Twilight heard the final notes of the Warsingers' call - for some reason, the words "all stats increased by 30%" slid through her mind like a ticker sign.

Once she laid eyes on the fortress interior, her hope for quickly locating the main armory was dampened. The walls extended all the way around the mountain as far as she could see. No less than twenty large, muddy-green buildings were arranged in even rows immediately before her, with hundreds more in clusters within the walls, each with at least one anti-air cannon on its roof. More cannons lining the walls on the far side of the fortress quickly swiveled around to aim inward, and each building was surrounded by Nullium-armored Humans with bayonetted firearms, swords and grenade belts. Their armor was formed into a suit resembling a marriage between the plate mail and modern military gear the Humans from her parallel universe wore throughout the ages, the forest camouflage-painted metal dulled to a matte finish as to not reflect light. While the armor was "extremely resistant, if not entirely unaffected" by the various types of magic all Magikin could cast, Twilight and her friends had learned from Rael'ia that Nullium armor was susceptible to blunt force trauma; bladed as well if you knew where to look. Not only that, but Nullium armor was also not watertight.

As she surveyed the compound, a low din of horrendous noise grew from whence she came, growing gradually louder. If she had to guess, it sounded like someone had taken all of Equestria's brass, percussion and woodwind instruments, gathered them into one place, and then they were all caught up in a 1000 Wing Power-rated tornado. And then hundreds of wolves joined in the cacophony with their howling, and a hundred cats with their yowling, and hundreds upon hundreds of other beasts added their voices to the pandemonium. Looking behind her, she saw the might of the Orc-kin army and their companions charging the shattered walls alongside Rael'ia's forces, with all manner of screaming, yelling and pounding of drums, blowing of horns and baying of animals. The war mammoth she had seen before crashed through a weak spot of the wall and broke it open, unleashing a mighty trumpet while sweeping the ground with its tusks and trampling a pair of unlucky Humans underfoot. A few seconds later, Rarity and Spike appeared through the rubble, both wincing and covering their ears, desperately trying to drown out the racket.

"Oh my Celestia, that's Orc-kin music?!" Rarity screeched indignantly. Rael'ia and Aternus gazed at the two in sympathy. The ground suddenly quaking forced them to use their hooves and claws to steady themselves rather than protect their hearing.

"Oh, no," Rael'ia breathed. A loud siren echoed in the mountain air. Twilight turned her attention to a nearby rectangular field of concrete between the gaps in the building clusters, at least a hundred feet long and fifty wide. A perfectly horizontal crack opened in the middle, slowly growing wider until the concrete disappeared, revealing those horrible automatons. Twelve muddy-green Angels rose from underground on a large metal platform, hissing and emitting steam as they activated. Six had new additions to their armored bodies: great wings of metal tubes, plates and feathers as big as the bodies themselves, glowing with jet engine fire and screaming a shrill noise. These were armed with glaives the size of trees, the blades as large as the broadswords the land units held in front of them. The platform came to a clunking halt, and the Angels remained motionless for a few seconds before moving all at once. Three of the six winged Angels took off higher up the mountain, and three of the land unit Angels followed them from below. One of each flew and stomped off to the northern face of the mountain, and the remaining four came forward. Twilight watched, equal parts anxious and intrigued as one of the winged Angels shot up to meet her, the other flying directly towards Rael'ia. The two land Angels below slowly made their way towards Spike, Rarity and the approaching Orc hordes.

However, once the Angels had passed over what appeared to be a sewer manhole, it erupted with a powerful spout of water, causing the ground to crack and spray out more water, and the two Angels to turn around. A company of Sirens swam and leapt from the deluge, and while some summoned up their Water magic to encapsulate and drown their enemies, most drew their spears, tridents, nets and ribbonlike swords and went to work against the surprised Human forces. Ocean Mistress Morganna appeared from the spray moments later, her ribbon sword coiled loosely around her feet.

"Ugh, how undignified," she growled under her breath as she removed a scrap of rubbish from her helmet. She then whipped her outstretched sword hand to her side, taking a couple steps forward so the metal ribbon did not slash her feet. As Humans moved to surround her, her mouth flashed with grinning shark teeth.

"Urumi, let us tear them to shreds!" Morganna snarled, her ribbon sword glowing a bright turquoise. She spun her arm and body around gracefully, sending Urumi's fifteen feet of razor sharp mythril slicing and soaring through the air like an eel darting between rocks in the depths of the ocean. It looped and zigzagged and fluttered like a expert gymnast's routine, blocking and parrying the swords and machetes of the Humans with the first half and slitting, slashing and lacerating flesh with the second as it passed by not a moment later. Cries of valorous fury quickly turned to shrieks and gurgles of agony and terror as limbs were severed or ripped open to the bone, and throats were cut with nightmarish speed and accuracy. The blood dripping to the ground around her was quickly washed away by the weakening torrent of the sewer, coming to rest in stagnant pools of reddish-brown ooze that stank of garbage, bodily waste and iron.

Twilight's eyes were frozen with transfixed disgust. She only noticed the approaching winged Angel when it fully blocked her vision of the bloodbath below, glaive poised to strike. Her mind snapped back to reality, and her horn briefly flashed as she teleported a short distance away just as the weapon swung at her neck. But the massive, necromancy-powered armor turned on a dime and lashed out again and again, quickly closing the distance every time Twilight teleported. She wondered what poor soul lay locked inside.

On the ground, Rarity and Spike trembled as the two land unit Angels approached. One made a sudden turn to the right to engage the Orc forces, but the other kept marching towards them. At the sight, some of the Orcs began to glow with Nature magic; stones and boulders rose from the ground, alight with that same magic, and levitated for only a moment before forcefully slamming themselves into the bodies of those Orcs as they stood firm. More and more rubble coated their bodies until they were covered in thick stone armor. As soon as the stone solidified into a perfect defense, the Orcs charged, shouting with feral rage. The ground shook and cracked with every weighted step. Rarity watched out of the corner of her eye as the two forces clashed, her heart quickened as she saw stone bodies flying despite their preparation.

Spike shouted out a warning and leapt towards Rarity to push her out of the way of the approaching Angel, his small body seemingly transforming into a flaming boulder. A sound of protest left her mouth upon impact, quickly quieted by contact with the ground. The little dragon landed just under her belly and scrambled to help her up. "Sorry... guess I don't know my own strength," he chuckled nervously. Though she was ultimately unhurt, Rarity opened her mouth again to chastise Spike but decided against it as the Angel turned and trodded closer. Her body glowed a blinding, icy blue as magic funneled into her horn, and her eyes closed as she focused a portion of that power into each and every crystal shard that floated within her aura. It was as if she were controlling hundreds of threaded needles into sewing together fifty dresses at once: an impossible feat before, but now a rather simple thought to play with. And play she would.

"You brute!" she exclaimed as her horn and body pulsed, sending a storm of crystal shards at the Angel's face and body. While some of them managed to pierce and slash through some of the armored hoses that helped to power it, many of the shards sunk a few inches into its armor and remained stuck. Rather than waste energy trying to pull them out, Rarity then refocused her magic into her gem-finding spell, searching deep within the earth for Magicite. Her remaining shards drilled into the ground in a whirlpool motion, tearing apart and softening a patch of soil about a meter wide. The ground shook slightly as the patch soon produced a boulder of gleaming white Magicite, the shards following it out of the ground and quickly shattering it into more pieces. Within seconds, all of her crystals were replenished. The Angel hesitated while this was happening, seemingly taking into account its damaged, steaming hoses and recalculating something. Rarity focused her magic and linked about three-fourths of her crystals into the shape of a rapier, her legs bent in preparation. After what seemed like forever the Angel charged, but at Spike instead.

But the little dragon wasn't caught off guard. Spike hissed and leapt at his enemy, body aflame and magically grown heavy. He clunked against the Angel's head, knocking it slightly off kilter, giving him the opportunity to latch on with his sharpened claws that melted and pierced the Nullium armor just enough to gain a good grip. He inhaled deeply, bent over the Angel's forehead, and with all his might breathed bright green and yellow dragon fire directly onto its face. Both dragon and pony could hear the bubbling and cracking, smell the scent of chemicals and molten metal as the Angel's head glowed like a hot coal. It stumbled for a few moments before grabbing Spike and hurling him away hundreds of feet into a swarm of warring Humans and Orcs. Rarity cried out for him as she lost sight of the little dragon, worried for his safety. She then turned back to the Angel, eyes fixed into a furious glare, burning cold with rage.

"How dare you! I'll tear you into pieces!" she roared and lunged towards her enemy. The Angel hefted its sword and swung, only to be parried by Rarity's own crystal rapier. She attempted to stab it in its rapidly-cooling face, but found herself having to block far more often than she would've liked. The Magicite gems in her armor glowed brighter and brighter as she poured more and more energy into the fight; swinging, stabbing, blocking, parrying, evading, ducking, flourishing. Sweat began to run down her forehead as she focused her magic to swing faster. Her rapier chipped and split with every hit, and she worried that it might soon shatter entirely. But finally, as a group of Humans approached her flank she saw an opening in the Angel's defenses. Her mind burned with exertion as she fired some of her loose crystal shards at them while leaping forwards to run through her main enemy's weak point, smiling to herself as she hit her mark and heard grunts of pain and thuds on the ground to her right. A twist of her rapier, and as it shattered from the force the Angel's left arm was separated from its owner. Thick reddish-black liquid poured out of the wound along with a rush of steam, splattering it all over the pristine white Unicorn, who recoiled and gagged desperately to get a few drops of it out of her mouth.

Above, Twilight flew a loop and a twist, placing herself behind the winged Angel in pursuit. Her neck arched backwards as she charged her magic, and she fired a volley of bright pink bolts as the flying armor performed a banked turn around. It avoided most of her shots, but a few managed to hit and blast a few chunks of metal off its wings. As it turned she discovered the source of its flight: the base of the wings were sticking out of a pair of jet engines on the Angel's back, the wings rotating around the engines to direct where it flew. Twilight blinked as she heard small explosions from the Angel's back as it blasted forward to attack. Her eyes narrowed as she ascended abruptly, almost leaping in midair over the enemy, which turned around quickly to guard its back as if it knew what she had seen. In her mind she flipped through the pages of hundreds of spellbooks she had read and memorized throughout her life, searching for the perfect strike to end this.

Again the Angel charged, and an idea formed in Twilight's mind. This time she teleported past it, flying away and upwards into the sky. The Angel followed, just as she had hoped. Once she and her quarry reached the clouds above, she banked sharply down, back towards the earth below. The Angel followed once again, and a smirk grew on her face. She focused on flying as swiftly as she could downwards, her body aglow, empowering her wings to fly ever faster. Her horn streaked through the air like a shooting star as she prepared to cast her spells. Just as she saw the combatants below her begin to scurry out of the way, seeing her and her adversary rapidly approaching the ground, she closed her eyes, focused her mind and exhaled deeply. Her eyes shot open a moment later, and she inhaled sharply as she teleported behind the Angel, reappearing behind it and still traveling at a breakneck speed. She then fired bolts of magic at the Angel's back before it could correct itself, striking it right where she intended - the Angel's jet propulsion system. It exploded into a satisfying cloud of fire, smoke and shrapnel; unable to stop its descent, the Angel slammed into the earth, shattering, shaking and compressing the ground into a crater around it. Large cracks ripped their way through its armor, emitting steam, splattering reddish-black liquid onto itself like blood from severed arteries. Twilight slowed herself into a stationary hover, then rose again into the sky as she prepared a massive ball of pink energy as radiant as the sun on the tip of her horn. She felt the raw magic within her flood into the orb, felt the magic slosh and froth and churn within her finishing blow. Just as the Angel rose to its hands and knees, her spell finished charging, and she allowed the orb to simply drop onto its destroyed, wingless back. A bubble of shield magic formed around her as she watched the orb dig itself into the cracked armor, pulse violently and detonate. The resulting eruption of magic and metal parts tore through the very air, knocking over those who hadn't run away in a 100-foot radius. Fire and smoke and liquid and sharp, jagged objects flew every which way onto the battlefield, pelting the fallen with debris. A small mushroom cloud rose from the Angel's broken, blown-out form as it finally lay still.

Below, Spike emerged from the fracas within a plume of green and yellow fire, running on all fours as he moved to assist Rarity. Channeling all his enhanced strength he threw himself at the land unit Angel as hard as he could, his meteoric form slamming into its right shoulder. The Angel spun around as it fell from the force of impact, landing supine. Spike rolled along the ground and quickly picked himself up, scrambling to the open wound where its left arm used to be. Claws glowing with fire, he began to burrow into the Angel's artificial flesh, shredding and tearing at the inner workings of the beast. Tubes, circuits and other important-looking bits were pulled out, punctured and ripped and melted beyond repair, and a flood of reddish-black liquid came slopping out beneath him. The Angel, moving slightly erratically now, reached over with its right hand and grabbed the little dragon's tail, prompting him to breathe fire within its chest cavity before being forcibly removed. Spike hung from the Angel's grasp flailing wildly, spraying more fire at the offending fist in an attempt to free himself.

"Unhand my little Spikey-wikey... right now!" Rarity ordered. Having gathered more Magicite shards, she willed all of them into a gigantic sword as tall as the Angel itself and as thick as a club. It was ornately formed, with elegantly-formed notches and sweeping holes within the blade to allow it to swing faster, bladed on both edges and sparkling like the brightest and rarest of gemstones. White wisps of smoke and light deliquesced from its form as she swung it backwards. The Angel shakily stood up and took a few limping steps towards her, still holding firmly onto Spike's tail. With righteous fury growing within her heart, Rarity's horn and body glowed a brilliant ice blue. Her mind focused harder than ever to prepare and channel a hundred spells simultaneously. She felt quiet rumbling from deep within the earth, and her muzzle formed an evil grin from a snarling frown.

"Fine then. Have it your way," she uttered. Her mouth slid back into a snarl as her body burned with magic and the rumbling within the earth intensified exponentially. Suddenly, large, lance-like spires of white Magicite erupted from the ground, trapping the Angel's remaining limbs in crystal pincers and immobilizing it. It struggled within its bonds, quickly causing cracks to appear in the crystal, only to be met with even more shooting up from below. The spires grew thinner as Rarity focused on the Angel's weak spots, and now they pierced and ran the armor through. As hoses popped open and steam rose and liquid dripped from the armor's cracks, the Angel lost motor function and soon dropped Spike, who quickly scurried away. Her favorite dragon now safe, Rarity dashed towards her enemy and leapt gracefully into the air, her sword darting towards it in a pose to swing from below.

A most unladylike roar left Rarity's mouth as she twirled, her sword of a thousand diamonds cleaving upwards between the Angel's legs. As the Angel was torn in half, the Magicite piercing its body scraped against the sword, shattering with explosive force and tearing the Angel into pieces. Liquid-stained crystal and metal shrapnel rained down, which bounced harmlessly off of Rarity's own shield magic. Spike disintegrated the bits coming towards him with his flame breath and made his way to the white Unicorn.

"That was amazing, Rarity! You're the best!" he beamed before shrinking back. "...Don't tell Twilight I said that."

"Oh, that was nothing," she chuckled, flapping a hoof dismissively. "Thank you for the assist, my dear." Rarity then put her hoof around Spike's shoulders and pulled him in for a friendly hug and a cheek nuzzle. A dumb grin spread across Spike's face, growing hot as if his flame breath had backfired on him. So it took him by complete surprise when he suddenly burped up a neatly-sealed scroll from Princess Celestia. He coughed a little as Rarity broke the wax seal with her magic and read the contents.

Dear Spike,

You must be in the middle of a battle, considering how many charred remains of what I assume to be Humans have suddenly been piling up in my throne room. Do you think you could possibly refrain from sending them here? Three of my staff have already fainted from the sight of such gore, and one of my maids has quit on the spot. I truly cannot say I blame her, have you seen what your flame does to these creatures?

Anyway, I am sure you, Twilight and your friends are "kicking flank", as they say. Please stay safe, I await your next message and your eventual safe return. Good luck!

Princess Celestia

"Spike! Rarity!" Twilight called out as she landed beside them. "Are you two okay?"

"Just fine, darling," replied Rarity. Spike gurgled out an affirmative as he coughed out the last of his surprise from the scroll. Behind them and up above, something exploded. They turned around to see the remains of another winged Angel falling from the sky, accompanied by the remainder of a barrage of Arcane, Lightning and Nature magic raining down, firing up and swirling all around it. About thirty feet away from the mess, Rael'ia hovered in midair, breathing heavily, her armor appearing a bit scuffed up.

"Hoo, that's one down," she sighed before shouting to the three below. "How are you guys doing? Great job on those Angels! I knew you could do it!" Before anyone could reply a thunderous roar from above echoed throughout the mountain range, louder than anything Twilight had heard before. She gazed upward and her eyes widened; five monstrous Dragons soared across the sky in a V-shaped formation, the largest of them in the front. They broke apart and flew in different directions: a red one and a green one flying alongside the Harpies and turning the clouds into fire, their flame engulfing the Humans and their mounts entirely and leaving nothing but ash in the wind. Two more, a blue one and a silver one swooped down into the distance, their landings accompanied by a distant rumbling of the earth. The final and the largest flew swiftly to the ground beside the two ponies and little dragon, landing gently with care and grace, yet still causing the ground to shake so violently the three stumbled and fell anyway. Twilight gasped as her eyes struggled to comprehend the sheer size of the native Fae Dragon before her: it stood as tall as Princess Celestia's own castle, with thick, banquet platter-sized scales of shimmering, shining gold. A pair of horns the size of the tallest, thickest trees in the Everfree Forest sat on its head above its eyebrows pointed backwards; black as night in color and polished to a mirrorlike finish, as were its claws large enough to crush a house with a single digit. Black spines lined the creature's back and stuck out from the joints in its wings, which were leathery, cream-colored with a slight shimmer and as thick as a hundred tapestries. Its untamed eyebrows, mustache and beard were long, flowing streams and rivers of silver hair, each strand as thick as a pebble. It's belly was covered in a white-gold sheen, and it's eyes glowed a fierce, bright gold.

"Dragon Lord Vulcan, it is good to see you on this field of battle!" Rael'ia shouted as loudly as she could. The massive beast let out a low growl, smoke billowing forth from his nostrils and clenched teeth.

"If you are to take this mountain, little Elf-kin," Vulcan spoke without moving a single muscle in his jaws, as if telepathically, "then you will need all the help you can get." He then opened his mouth, exposing row upon row of teeth as long as an Orc was tall. "This Human scourge has gone unchecked long enough! Dragon-kin, let us show these swine how easily they burn!" He let out a roar so powerful Twilight felt her very bones threatening to shatter; she glanced back at her surroundings to see the vast majority of Humans in the area flee in terror, the few foolish enough to stay behind were still engaged with other combatants or wounded on the ground, wishing they were already dead.

Vulcan trodded forward, his steps forming craters in the ground as he went. He sent his tail hurling into the walls that still stood, crumbling them like they had been made of graham crackers. The Elves, Orcs and Sirens in his path quickly teleported away or sank themselves into the ground as he approached, leaving him free to trample and crush the few Humans caught in the open. Twilight cringed at the popping and squelching of flesh and blood beneath his claws, the screams of agony quickly cut off, the streaks of gunky, crimson-stained giblets left behind as his claws scraped the ground. He approached a cluster of buildings and came to a stop, inhaled deeply and slowly, then opened his mouth wide to breathe a blue-hot flame. Even from a few hundred feet away, Twilight could feel the inferno singe her fur, the air roasting her lungs, steaming her eyeballs and boiling her blood until she summoned a shield spell around herself, Rarity and Spike. Magma drooled from his jowls as the Nullium plating of the buildings melted away like butter just before everything caught fire. The last nearby Angel came racing back from the battlefield, sword raised, and slashed Vulcan along his right flank in the blink of an eye, barely letting any time pass before chopping and cutting deeper into the wound. Vulcan roared angrily as his head turned to his assailant; before Rael'ia, Twilight or anyone else could move to help, the Dragon Lord unleashed a torrent of flame along his right side. A few seconds later, the scales the fire had touched were covered in soot, his wound was pink and cauterized shut, and the Angel was a cherry red, molten shadow of its former self. It shuddered and struggled to move as Vulcan stomped it flat. As they stared in fear and awe of the Dragon Lord's power, a distant building exploded, followed by a chain of more explosions further down the fortress' lengths. A moment later Aternus reappeared within Rael'ia's shield bubble.

"The Main Armory has been taken care of!" he yelled over the destruction Vulcan wrought. "Just a bit longer and most of them will have to resort back to their older ammunition. Still have to find the rest of their stashes to get rid of it all!"

"Good, good job," Rael'ia shouted. Twilight, Rarity and Spike did the same.

"Go, little ones, to the summit!" Vulcan growled. "I will take care of things here."

"You've been hurt!" Rael'ia protested. "You need to retreat to our camps, the Battle Menders must tend to your flank!"

"Bah. I may be thirteen centuries old, but I did not earn the title of Dragon Lord because of my age!" Vulcan spat a blob of magma onto another building, the liquid rock quickly sinking into the metal and wood and setting the whole thing on fire. "I will be fine." Rael'ia looked ready to argue with the massive beast, but sighed and shook her head.

"Stubborn as always," she muttered. "Well, Twilight, Rarity, Spike? Shall we continue upwards?" They nodded in reply, not ones to argue with a dragon of that magnitude. Vulcan made his way to the fortress wall on the opposite side of the fortress, knocking a huge segment of it down with his tail as he swung his body around.

"Come, Humans! Face your doom!" Twilight cast a spell on her ears to counteract the tinnitus echoing in her brain as she and Rael'ia flew past Vulcan and the inner wall of the mountain fortress. Rarity and Spike followed close behind on the ground, soon helped by Aternus grabbing them in his field of magic as he flew after the two princesses. A burst of searing heat and light erupted from behind Twilight, gradually cooling off as she ascended the mountain. More fights were sure to come as they came closer to the summit, but only one thing was on her mind.

She hoped her friends would meet her there.