NOIRE POV

With my sense and will restored, I felt a new power rise from within me, waiting to be released. I looked over to Tidal who had new wounds: a broken arm and fractured rib "She's handling it well but she's in terrible shape. We need to end this quickly." I thought as I placed a hand on her chest. She was caught off guard at first but noticed my hand glowing a royal blue and her wounds began to repair themselves. Once I was done, I turned back to my opponent who was gaining his bearings after my attack.

"Colour me intrigued. What new trump card have you pulled out of your ass this time?" He asked as he fired three magic blasts at me. I simply raised my hand and all three disappeared. He grunted in frustration and went for a swing at my head with his remaining sword, but I ducked under his attack and kicked him straight in the gut. He reeled from the shock and fell to his knees.

"I said so before. I have found my way, my code, once again. You have a code avatar for a master so you should know this power well enough," I said calmly before changing my sword back to its base form and began slicing Shining's armour and flesh at blinding speed. I finished my assault by stabbing him in the chest and throwing him back several feet "This is a complete unbound form. All my abilities are at their current peak so why don't you surrender? Despite all that has happened, I still want you to come back to us." I walked towards Shining, battered and bruised on the ground. He tried desperately to get up but his legs weren't fully healed, having been cut at the tendons "Both you and your queen are victims to Grim's influence but it doesn't have to end like this: with one of us dying. Just let us help you. Both of you." Shining looked at me with sickly eyes but instead of the malicious glare I expected there was a slight grin.

"You remind me of me when I was in the academy. So full of dreams and the ambition to protect everyone. I'll put an end to them. GRIM!!!" He yelled at the top of his lungs and the ground began to shake and crack up as Tidal and I raced to each other and surrounded ourselves in a magic dome. The ground burst and out appeared a dragon. Its appearance was ,in simple terms, horrifying. With faces of ponies and humans alike imbedded in its skin and metal tubes protruding from its flesh. It gave out a mighty roar, with traces of human screams in its tone, and the skeleton began falling apart. I teleported the both of us away from the wreckage to see the carnage the beast had caused. The skeleton had collapsed like a house on fire, and the bipedal dragon chimaera had risen from the bones of the past like a phoenix. Shining sat atop the dragon as its tamer and looked down on us confidently "You like? This one of Grim's newest experiments. Genetic modification with Ignius' bones and his usual chimaerification process created our sure-fire way of ending both you and all of Equestria!" e announced. Tidal seemed unimpressed.

"How far the mighty have fallen. It's clear you're just throwing a hissy fit now. It honestly made me think why I ever admired you in the first place," she said before re-summoning her weapons. We could see how powerful this thing was, oozing with the magic of so many ponies and humans with the addition of the power of a dragon. I focused my power into my sword and slammed it into the ground.

"Final Decode: Encode Boost!" A blue wave of energy burst forth and covered the battlefield. Tidal became covered in its glow, empowering her abilities dramatically. In her heightened state, she would be much safer. We both charged at the beast, attacking it from both sides. Tidal summoned several water chains to hold it down while I sliced the dragon's tendons. However, it easily shook of the chains and was not fazed by my attacks. We needed another approach "Hit the kneecaps with all you got. That should stun it long enough,"
I told her mentally. I summoned the Gardnablade and levitated it at the dragon's kneecaps while Tidal summoned two large tridents.

"GRAND TIDE'S TRIDENT!"
"GARDNA IMPACT!"

Both our attacks struck the chimaera but nothing happened. It remained in its place while Shining laughed at our futile attempt "If you're done. I think I'll have my turn now." That was all he said before the faces opened their mouths and started unleashing a barrage of attacks. We couldn't stop all of them and they sent both of us back. I was left in awe of the chimaera's power, unable to move due to the pain. I looked to Tidal a few metres away from me in the same state, but it looked like she was about to throw up and pass out at that moment "You look a lot worse than Noire over there. I hope the egg hasn't been giving you too much trouble." She was confused by what he meant but shrugged it aside, determined to beat him. I too began to get to my feet with renewed vigour "Never mind, I guess you have a lot more to worry about like how you're going to survive," the faces opened their mouths once again and fired another barrage. However, I teleported to Tidal and used to Gardnablade to shield us. I punched the sword in frustration, angry that even though I had gained a significant power increase, it still wasn't enough to put a dent in the chimaera.

"Noire, Look at Shining." She pointed at Shining, who was still grinning ear to ear but upon closer inspection, I could see him sweating and panting profusely "He needs magic to regenerate but is feeding his to the chimaera to keep it moving. At this point, he should be able to manage one more attack with that thing. As soon as it stops, go straight for Shining. I'll cover you." I gave her the thumbs up and she moved out of the Gardnablade's protection. I moved in the opposite direction and began making a final charge towards the chimaera. It swiped at me with its claws, but I leapt over them effortlessly.

"It's getting slower. I ducked under another swipe and levitated the Gardnablade to block a descending fist.

Meanwhile, Tidal was attacking the mouths to prevent them from launching another barrage "87 mouths. This should be enough," she said as she created several balls of condensed water surrounding the chimaera at all sides. She simultaneously launched them into every mouth on the beast's body, excluding its head. The balls quickly froze and turned into ice, leaving the mouths useless.

Shining visibly became even more frustrated by this and gave up the last of his magic to the chimaera. The beast got on all fours and opened its maw to unleash a laser breath attack. I barely blocked the attack and it moved me back several feet. I was about to lose my ground and succumb to the attack when Tidal teleported behind me and pushed back with all of her remaining magic. With her help, we outlasted the plasma breath and resumed our final attack. I transformed my sword into the Duoblade and threw them both at the disabled Shining. With no magic to heal himself or the strength to stand, he was completely open to the attack. The force of the swords pierced him and knocked him off the dragon's head and onto the hard ground. Without its source of power, the chimaera fell to its knees, the green light in its eyes fading. Once we were sure it was over, we took a deep breath, with Tidal falling from the exhaustion. I picked her back up and assisted her to where Shining was. Fortunately for him, the swords only hit his shoulders, but he was definitely going to be out of commission for a while.

"We should bring him back with us. We could get a lot of information from him," Tidal proposed between pants.

"What happened to killing me, huh?" Shining barely managed to utter in his half-conscious state. Tidal stared at the bound man with a static look of indifference.

"That's still not off the table," she stated simply. Shining chuckled hoarsely at this "What's so funny?" she asked.

"You'll have to wait a bit longer to kill me." He mustered the last of his strength to pull a device from his pocket, a small remote-like device. He pushed it and a column of light surrounded him. I tried to go through it, but it burned at the touch "I'll be back for my tie breaker," he said before the column quickly consumed him and vanished, leaving us alone in the landscape. Tidal and I looked to each other and to our side, where a destroyed skeleton remained.

"Who do you think Ignia's going to kill: Shining, Grim, or us?" she said with a hint of fear. I couldn't blame her: I was asking the exact same question. I didn't have time to answer as I could an orange drake high above us.

"Ask her." I said, sweating buckets.

TWILIGHT POV

I took off, leaving a crater in my place as I stood face to face with Tirek for the first time. HIs hulking figure stood metres over me to the extent that I had to fly up over the trees of the Everfree and even higher just to meet his eyes. "Tirek!" I yelled furiously "I will defeat you and I will take back all of the magic you've stolen from Equestria!" After my bold proclamation, he laughed before uttering in a slightly distorted tone.

"Just try, puny whelp." While this did disturb me, I did not back down, firing a powerful beam at him. He countered with one of his own, resulting in a clash that shook the Everfree with the shockwaves emanating from it. Both our attacks dissipated, giving me the opportunity to fly behind him to blast him in the back. However, he created a shield, blocking my attack. I tried again with more power, but he stretched his hands outward, causing the shield to explode. This explosion sent me back miles away and into the side of a mountain. I coughed a bit and saw a collection of blood spurt out of my mouth. My observation wasn't wrong after all- Two alicorns, while powerful, wasn't enough to conquer this tyrant. The centaur came charging at me with horns pointed at me, charging another blast of energy.

"WINDY PHOENIX BLAST!" An arrow hit Tirek in the side of the head, knocking his head back a fraction away from me but enough for his blast to miss me by an inch. I looked in shock at the hole left in the mountain while Windy distracted him with a barrage of arrows. Tirek merely walked towards to pegasus without even flinching.

"Is this all Equestria has to offer me? A fledgling alicorn and a weakling pegasus. I'm almost ashamed to admit it took me this long to conquer all of Equestria." A red, black, and green struck Windy and siphoned his magic, causing him to fall from the sky and onto the ground. He looked down to find all my friends rushing to my defence "More pests," he said as he did the same to them and trapped them all in bubbles with little effort "I know about all of you and the tricks you were planning to use. Some power of friendship or something. It's a good thing I had a little friend to tell me all this." He said as he summoned another bubble with Discord inside, crouched in shame "What a little traitor, betraying his friends in an instant when promised something greater." He levitated all of them in front of me. It was like dangling keys in my face, enticing me to reach out to his incoming offer "You can't move and I'm feeling nice, so I offer this one chance at survival. Give me your magic and all your friends will be freed. Deny me and they can easily be crushed" He offered. He confirmed his threat my slowly closing the bubbles in on them.

"Don't do it!" I heard all my friends yelling through their confinements. All except for Fluttershy, who looked at Discord with tears in her eyes.

"Discord..." she said, tears beginning to stream.

"I'm sorry, Fluttershy..." was all he could say. I was left paralysed by the weight of my decision, but I already knew what I had to do. I looked down at an unconscious Windy and began to tear up.

"Just take it." Tirek grinned as he shot his magic draining beam at me and began taking all my magic. All my mentors magic. Cadance's magic. I imagined them both looking at me with such saddened looks "I'm sorry, Princess. I failed you. Cadance. I wish I could apologise to you for treating you so badly. You were suffering just like me but I made you the monster just so I could vent out my own suffering, I was terrible sister to you. I'm sorry. So, so sorry." Once he was done, I could feel myself loosening from the mountain's cold grip as I fell. Luckily, I was caught by my friends, who were all released from their bubbles. All except for Discord. "All of them." Tirek looked at me in slight confusion before shrugging, releasing Discord.

"Now that that's been settled... Die." He prepared a large blast, ready to destroy all of us. We all huddled together to go out together. I even allowed Discord to join in our embrace as the ray began to consume us.

"Are you all okay?"

I opened my eyes, clenched shut from the fear, to see Noire, standing over us with Tidal on his back, fast asleep. He had blocked the attack with a giant sword. Tirek stepped back in shock of the human's power. I was as well: I didn't remember Noire being this strong before "W-We're okay..." I said with shaky breaths "but Tirek. He has all the magic in Equestria right now. I don't know if we can beat him." Noire looked at me with a confident and determined look. He gently set Tidal on the ground.

"Then I guess I won't hold back," he said before reverting his sword to its base form and pouring all his magic into it "Final Decode: Phantom Excalibur!"

Author's Note

The next chapter will be the finale of this battle so I will see you all then (Sorry for such a short AN. Too tired )

Stay dizzy. Wuzzy out.