Harmonia fired a bolt of lightning from her horn at a group of undead ponies where it struck the closest one to her. The arms of electricity jumping from one pony to the other, frying their insides with thousands of volts and leaving behind a charred corpse. Harmonia galloped past the many bodies, undead or her military, that littered the rooms and into the next room. The walls were made of carved stone bricks and the ceiling of wood as well the floor. She slowed to a stop at a doorway and stared at the darkened figure before her.
Iron Claw, Son of the Third Griffin King, Redtalon, and Commander of the Gryphonia Imperial Superior Army, was sitting on a throne of carved gold at the back wall of the room. His feathers were a very dark grey and his once yellow claws were darkened and cracked while his eyes were completely blackened, shrouding his pupils and radiating a dark mist from the corner of his eyes.
"Ah, Queen Harmonia, I was expecting you to perish slowly in a couple of rooms ago," he said with a smirk, "How did you manage to get past the Corrupt? I'm genuinely curious, they should've reduced you to a pulp," he asked as he observed her. He could tell that she took a hard beating judging from the long gashes and cuts that covered her once white coat and the countless dents in her titanium armor, the runes that would prevent those were long gone. Her mane, which used to be a beautiful flowing mixed light blue, purple, and pink, was now still, spilled haphazardly onto her shoulders and losing their radiance. Iron Claw knew he was weakening her.
She coughed violently and then glared at him, "Release my friend from your wicked grasps Redtalon," she seethed at him.
He only darkly chuckled as he pushed himself off of his throne and tilted his neck to the side as he stood on his rear legs, earning him with a few cracks and pops, "He willingly accepted his fate when he came running back to me after you kicked him out. But from the looks of this, you must want to end this quickly, we'll get right to it then, shall we?" he asked as his claws gave off a dark sinister glow as he conjured two blackened swords, dripping with dark residue.
Harmonia pulled her titanium halberd off of her back with her magic. It was covered in golden linings along with many glowing runes. The top was shaped like a long spearhead and on one side was an axe blade covered in runes and behind it was a long spike, "We shall, monster," she said emotionlessly as she readied her combat stance. Iron Claw quickly made the first move to catch her off-guard.
His form turned to a black mist as he lunged forward and resurrected a couple of surrounding undead ponies and griffins that failed to stop Iron Claw. Harmonia's horn glowed brightly as she jumped backward to avoid the mist and she shined an immense burning light onto his shadow form. Iron Claw immediately dove for cover from the light, "Where did you learn that?! Nothing is supposed to be able to stop that!" he yelled in disbelief.
Harmonia swung her halberd and cleanly sliced off a closing in undead's head, "You learn a couple of things from the war," she stated with a smirk but then turned serious, "Now fight me, coward!" she shouted at where he was taking cover behind some rubble. Instead of waiting, she charged up a spell and shot it towards the rubble. It exploded and Harmonia shielded herself with an armored wing but when she looked back, there was nothing but a smoldering crater and a couple of charred undead bodies that were too close to the blast, Much too easy..." she muttered until she heard a soft creak of claws on wood.
She quickly spun around whilst raising her halberd as two swords came down on her. They clashed uselessly onto her halberd's strong titanium shaft. She shoved the swords away and swung her halberd towards the darkened griffin. He jumped backward but underestimated the length of the halberd as the spearhead grazed his armored chest and blackened blood seeped out but then quickly healed along with the armor repairing itself. This only made him angrier as he threw one of his swords off to the side, making it whirl through the air and curved it in an arc towards Harmonia as Iron Claw disappeared into the shadows. She swung the bottom of her weapon upwards to parry and it bounced off the shaft and embedded itself in the far wall. There was the sound of air splitting to her left and in front of her and she swung her halberd in a great arc to parry a second incoming attack. A flying sword in front headed for her bounced off harmlessly as she used her momentum to keep the halberd moving towards the left. A shower of sparks lit up the dark corners of the room as the two combatant's weapons clashed once again.
'This is taking too long...' she thought. The more time she took fighting him, the survival chances of her kingdom became slimmer by the minute. Charging up her horn she fired another bolt of destructive magic towards the griffin. Like earlier, he became his mist form again and quickly relocated. Harmonia predicted where he was as she quickly activated an invisibility rune on the weapon and propelled her halberd into the darkness. Iron Claw didn't see or hear the slitting air until it was too late. The long spearhead sunk into his armor like butter and he coughed blackened blood onto the wooden floor. He fell to his side as his swords fell uselessly to the ground and faded away into the floor as his vision darkened. The halberd was absorbing his life essence and dark magic, breaking his body's defenses and making its way towards his vulnerable soul. Harmonia walked up to him and looked down at him sadly, "What went astray Iron?"
"I...I'm sorry," he wheezed. With a final breath, his eyes rolled back and became lifeless as he stared off into space. His form was engulfed in flames and all was left were ashes. She sighed and picked up the halberd with her magic. She could feel the immense power of Iron's corrupt soul radiating from the halberd. The halberd should've turned the dark magic into usable alicorn magic but it seems that the runes are destroyed or heavily warped. She was about to release his sad life essence into the air until an armored pony burst into the room.
The pony was a unicorn in a similar titanium armor to hers and he had a dark red coat, "Your majesty, Sergeant Night Force of the 29th Division! I bring urgent news!" he yelled as he promptly saluted.
"What is it? Speak quickly," Harmonia said as she set the weapon on the floor to deal with it later.
"We've managed to get most of the civilians into the underground bunkers and the griffin subjects are being scanned for any dark residue along with memory checks right now but a new problem has arisen. The griffin king has shown himself and is now a lot more powerful than he was during the Third Wave and is now attacking the bunker with sheer force," he said quickly, his breath ragged.
"Is the shield up?" Harmonia worriedly asked.
"Yes, but it won't hold for long. All of the battle mages and any voluntary civilians are feeding their magic into the main conduit but I don't think it's enough."
Harmonia paused for a moment and considered her options. She knew that she wasn't ready to face the king again, especially in this state. She got off lucky during the Third Wave and managed to defeat him but he escaped. Now that he has returned with more power, their kingdom was to surely collapse now.
"What should we do?" he asked expectantly and patiently but was fidgeting. He knew the more time they spend in here, the shield becomes weaker.
She sighed and sat down on her haunches, rubbing her pained face, "I...I do not know."
His face went from surprised to serious, "But my queen, there must be a way! We can't just sit here and mope while that monster destroys your lands!"
She looked at him, "What do you expect me to do? Run in there like some fairy tale hero and fight him in this state? That's suicide and you know it. Not everything has a happy ending I'm afraid," she said dejectedly.
He looked around more a moment and saw the pile of ashes along with a glowing halberd, "Wait, you've defeated his son, correct?"
"Yes. What are you suggesting?" she asked cautiously.
"Your halberd was designed to gather up a defeated opponent's power and convert it into usable magic if I'm correct. Couldn't you use his magic? It would quickly replenish your power," he stated.
Harmonia grasped the halberd in her magic and lifted over to him, "Does this look like usable alicorn magic to you?" she asked politely whilst raising an eyebrow.
He stared at the weapon in deep thought, noticing that the runes required for magical conversion had been destroyed or heavily deformed. He huffed, "This very well may be the end of our era but I'm not going down without a fight," he gave a salute, "Farewell, your majesty. May you find a way to help us prevail from the darkness," he turned around and galloped away to the entrance.
Harmonia didn't stop him. She stared sadly at the spot he was just at and then averted her gaze to the halberd for a moment, considering an idea that she hoped from the very beginning that she would not. She knew what she had to do. But should she do it? Was the protection of her subjects worth it? What would happen? Will she die?
So many questions surfaced and pelted her endlessly. A distant explosion boomed and rocked the building she was in. Loose stones and dust fell from the ceiling. She was running out of time.
Without hesitating, she lifted the halberd up and pointed the bottom towards her armored chest and closed her eyes, "Forgive me my companions."
<><><><><>
Sergeant Night Force galloped through the flashing and rippling shield towards the conduit located at the bottom of the mountain. Around him was the rubble from collapsed houses that littered the streets. Ahead of him were hundreds of the queen's subjects headed for the underground bunker and a mix of military and militia guards posted everywhere. He looked up and saw hundreds of airships, both the Gryhonia Imperial Superior Army and the United Federal Sovereign Defense forces firing their magic-powered cannons at each other. Some were on fire while some were descending quickly as creatures jumped off or launched floating lifeboats. He reached one of the abandoned and destroyed checkpoints and quickly ran through it, a few turns later and he reached the conduit which was a massive crystal emitting magic upwards into the air. It was connected to various machines which monitored the power. Ponies and non-ponies ran around, yelling orders or headed for the bunker. Lots of ponies were donating as much magic they could offer to the conduit.
A dark blue pegasus in armor galloped up to him, the two quickly traded salutes, "Where's the queen?!" he yelled over the commotion.
"She's in the makeshift holding building figuring out a way to stop the griffin king!" Night yelled.
"Well, she better hurry before―" there was a massive explosion that shook the ground they were standing on. Everyone looked up towards the sound and saw what they feared. A colossal crack had appeared on the shield and behind that was the griffin king, Redtalon, high in the dark smoke-filled sky. Night could almost see the king smirking as he charged up another powerful attack with his claws. The griffin airships quickly started to focus their fire on the shield to quickly bring it down.
Immediately, the commotion became louder as ponies desperately fled for the bunker or fed their power into the conduit, slowly resealing the more prominent cracks on the shield. All of the allied airships focused their sustained fire on the griffin king, forcing him to bring up his shield and to back off. Night looked around and noticed there were fewer subjects and military forces around the conduit. They all must be at the bunker by now. He thought.
"Hey!" he yelled up to a guard posted in a ruined building. The guard was a changeling wielding a salvaged UFSD magic-based bolt-action rifle who had heard him and turned to look at him, "How many do we have left in the surrounding area?" he yelled.
The changeling looked through his scope and around for a moment, "There's only about a couple of groups left around here and the airships will teleport out to an alternate entrance a couple miles from here when the bunker is sealed!" he yelled back as he pulled the bolt of the rifle back and a greyed gem was ejected and he inserted a glowing blue gem.
Night nodded and then faced everyone around him. He used his magic to amplify his voice, "Everyone! Start packing up and head for the bunker! The shield is going to go down any minute!"
Everyone heard him and quickly started packing up their gear. The changeling marksman from earlier heard him and quickly slung his rifle over his neck and flew towards the bunker. Most ran for the bunker while some loaded equipment into carriages or abandoned them. Night quickly caught up to a group of civilians headed for the bunker. He looked behind him to see the conduit flashing wildly and losing power and now with no one to power it, it would soon go down. Above him, the shield violently rippled and flashed as the griffin firepower rained down upon it. He looked ahead to see everyone cramming themselves into the bunker entrance. Around him were only a couple of groups left so if they were fast, they should be able to seal the bunker quickly and get out of this carnage.
A massive explosion rocked the ground again as many ponies and non-ponies tripped and fell. There was a loud shattering sound as Night looked up. The shield exploded at a point and quickly shattered and crumbled down like broken glass. All that was left were airships in the background and one very dark griffin charging up another deathly attack. Night's pupils shrunk and he quickly pushed himself up but not before helping others get up. He brought up his own shield as explosions rained down upon them and around him, some groups were hit and some died from the blast. There were screams of death and cries for help. He galloped as fast as he could but when he reached the bunker, there were still tons of civilians headed into the bunker. He looked behind him and only saw hundreds of bodies that littered the streets and griffins flooding into the city.
There was a loud booming as he looked up and saw his death before him. Everyone looked up in horror at the massive ball of energy the griffin king had accumulated in his claws. Everyone was frozen in their tracks, they all knew that they couldn't seal the shelter in time before the dark magic hit them.
A UFSD airship diverted its route and focused its fire on the griffin. In a blink of an eye, a dark beam shot out of the ball and struck the airship on the side. There was a loud explosion as the airship split in two and quickly fell back down to the ground engulfed in flames where it made two distant disquieting booms.
The flying griffin only smirked at his work and thrust his arms forward, sending the colossal ball of dark energy towards the bunker's entrance. This was the end.
Until there was a loud pop as a flash of white and black appeared before Night, obstructing his view of his impending doom as he covered his eyes with a hoof. He lowered his hoof and saw a tall alicorn in front of him. He could feel both dark and harmonic magic she was radiating. Her eyes now had a black mist coming off them and her irises, once a beautiful sky blue, was now a bright hellish red and her horn was charged with a darkened aura. He knew what she did.
Harmonia flared her armored wings and swiftly pointed her battle-scarred halberd towards the ball of darkness. Channeling both her dark and harmonic magic through the shaft, she fired a swirling beam of light towards the ball where it struck the sphere dead-center and resulted in a massive explosion that stretched outward in every direction. Harmonia quickly rose her shield spell and covered all of the guards and civilians from the shockwave and griffin fire.
She turned to everyone and from her appearance, everyone could only stare in awe and horror, imagining what she could've done to look like this. Night unmistakably knew what she had done, "Everyone head for the bunker! Quickly now before the griffin king attacks again!" she yelled. Everyone cut their gaze off of her and immediately ran for the entrance, following their queen's orders. Night could only look up at his queen, frozen in horror, "What are you doing? Go on before my shield falls," she spoke in a soft tone but strained from the GISA's sustained fire from both the ground and air units.
"You're...you're corrupted now..." he said slowly.
She sighed, "It was the only way. Now go, quickly," she spoke with a sad smile. Outside, the griffin king screamed with rage and fired many spells and attacks at the shield.
"What...will happen to you?" he asked hesitantly, ignoring her request.
"I will die Night. No point in sugarcoating it. Now please go before I decide to let someone else join alongside me in Tartarus," Harmonia said darkly.
"I am not moving, my queen! You cannot die and leave us to fend for ourselves! We need a ruler and―"
In the back of Harmonia's head, a low whisper echoed through her head. Slay him for disobeying orders. She forced the thought away.
"You'll have to find another one then," she quickly cut him off, "Besides, I have both harmonic and dark magic in my system. Those two don't get along very easily, I can feel it," she stated.
Before Night could reason with her once more, a final explosion sounded and the shield shattered as Harmonia turned around to face the griffin king. He was now giving off a hatred for Harmonia and her subjects. He almost had them all annihilated until Harmonia showed up.
Redtalon gathered energy into his claws and propelled a steady beam of darkness towards the two. Harmonia countered by firing her own beam but instead of light and darkness like earlier, it was now pure black, 'I wonder what the outcome will be,' she mused as the two beams smashed into each other and rippled the world with deadly shock waves that could've split the planet in two.
Harmonia turned her head towards Night who was worried, "Go before your life is wasted Night. Please make this easy for me," she finalized and focused on the king.
Night obeyed and backed up, keeping his gaze on the queen before turning around into a full gallop towards the entrance. Harmonia watched from the corner of her eye as the last few ponies head into the entrance and then lastly, Night. The entrance's operators were confused to why Harmonia hasn't moved but she saw Night explaining it to them and their grave faces which were averted to her standing in a charred and rubble covered street and keeping the griffin's beam at bay. One of the operators gave a slow nod and hesitantly tapped on a console. Harmonia watched as an extremely thick door made of iron and covered in magic dulling runes slowly slide into place.
The griffin king saw what was happening and signaled for a squadron of griffin to quickly fly in and stop the mechanism. Harmonia saw the griffins and fired a volley of deadly dark magic bolts at them. They all were struck by the hundreds of undodgeable bolts and reduced to screaming corpses falling to the ground where they turned to ash.
Harmonia heard a loud hiss and a metallic thump from behind her, the bunker was sealed. She looked up to see her remaining airships teleport away from the battle in bright flashes. Leaving her alone against all of the GISA forces. Reverting her gaze back to the beam she managed to keep up without any strain, it was still a stalemate. The griffin forces started to storm the kingdom with full force now that nothing was stopping them, searching the abandoned houses and looting the bodies. But the majority were headed straight for Harmonia, she noticed that they were all wielding non-lethal weapons to make an attempt at capturing her.
Not today. she said to herself as she cut off her magic.
The voices within her head became louder, now more difficult to ignore. Don't be a coward, fool. Fight till the end. Make them all suffer for what they've done to you.
The griffin king realized what she did and tried to stop the flow of his magic but it was already too late. The powerful beam of darkness raced towards the queen at unimaginable speeds. Time for her slowed as memories resurfaced. The times of the past when she had once feared that one day, her rule would be forever terminated. Seems like my worse fears are coming to be. She mused. Maybe this was meant to happen. Because I failed miserably to protect my nation. How can I call myself queen when I can't even protect my own nation? Perhaps I'll get another chance in another life. A single lonely tear slid down her cheek as she gazed at her imminent end.
As her final thought ended, time reverted and the beam struck her dead-on and everything went black so fast in a blinding flash that she didn't feel anything. No happiness or joy, no sadness or despair. Just relief.
A long needed break from her demanding duties and sorrowful pain.
Every day we go into battle.
Every day, they rely on me to encourage them to persevere, to bring hope during dreadful times.
Every day, I give them my all as they give me theirs.
They fall in battle.
And I mend their wounds and pick them up again.
I fall in battle.
All that was left was a smoking crater and an intact bunker entrance.
Only silence.
