NOIRE POV

The flight back to camp was a blur as I recalled every soldier I saw getting absorbed into that monstrosity. The fear, sorrow, and desperation mixed into one long wail from the chimaera. That I did not need to recall as I could still hear, see it in the distance, mocking my utter failure. Luna practically dragged me the whole way back. Back where we started, with defeat hanging in the air. As I felt the ground once more, I sat on the ground, head hung low.

"I'm sorry," I said, forcing the words out of my throat.

"It's not your fault. You did what you could." I heard Gilgamesh approach. I raised my head.

"How many did we lose?"

"We haven't been able to do a full count yet, but easily half of our forces."

The weight of that word, half, hit all three of us. We had barely left Griffonstone and now we were forced back with our tails between our legs. My head was returning to the dark inside myself, but Luna grabbed me by the collar and lifted me up, so my feet were dangling above the ground. As I was forced to face Luna, my mentor in swordsmanship, I saw her tears for a second time. Her teeth were gritted in a look of pure rage, but softened, then resharpened into a burning gaze of conviction. "If thou art looking for an escape, thou shall find none here, child. Thou hast chosen to come here, to fight amongst thine allies and reclaim what was lost. And failed. Is that what thou wanted to hear? You failed half, possibly more, soldiers, and they died because of it. So did I, and so did the prince. We failed them, Noire." Every sentenced threatened to destroy me but she was unrelenting. She turned and pointed to the best miles away from us. It was moving.

Her gaze turned back to me "Dost thou see that. The beast is moving. Towards the second half of our troops. Towards the town we swore to save, and the people beyond who need us. Prince Gilgamesh and I shall re-engage with what remaining troops that can fight, and we need you. So shall you fight, or flee?" I felt the tears I was about to shed burn away as I took in her words. I had to fight. I levitated out of her grip and into the sky. Once I had a good look at the chimaera, I found some glimmer of hope. Hundreds of tiny specks of light, of magic, of souls, still fighting the assimilation. I lowered myself back to the ground.

"The chimaera is slowly absorbing the soldiers it took into its body, but a lot of them aren't yet a part of it. If I can sever Chrysalis' hold on them, we should be able to save a few hundred of them." Luna placed her hand on my shoulder, looking out to the beast as well. I could tell she wanted to compliment me, but we had little to no time for that. Those lights, while numerous, were fading with each second that passed. "I can do it, there was just the issue of Chrysalis using that spell again."

"Gilgamesh and I shall distract it while you get in close. I have faith in you." With that, Luna took Gilgamesh into the air with her. I followed close behind.

"Just you wait, Chrysalis. We'll turn the tide in just one attack."

WINDY POV

It was the worst-case scenario. We were attacked while transporting the refugees out of the town, and at the forefront of this assault was the same faceless mare that I encountered in Manehattan, backed by a small squad of faceless look-a-likes. "This Grim just loves getting weird with his help, doesn't he? " I thought as I shot another arrow into the throat of a faceless soldier. The lackeys seem like small fry compared to the leader of this squad. She, somehow, was effortlessly keeping up with Burning in hand-to-hand combat.

Burning a barrage of punches at her, but she dodged with small movements and retaliated with jabs at his heart, head, and gut. She was tiring him out. I threw caution to the wind and prepared a Bazooka Arrow. With one shot, every lackey was blown away, and I shot another at the mare. She was too occupied with Burning to see it and was launched back a few feet. "She's too dangerous to handle one-one-one." I said as I shot at her again. She managed to catch it, but was grazed by Burning's fist, which she barely dodged. Taking out a longsword from her back, she cracked her neck and got into a stance that I remembered. I didn't have the time to react before she blitzed past Burning and came straight for me. I blocked with my bow but struggled as she executed a series of slices at my arms. I flew up to get a height advantage but was caught off guard by what happened next. She threw the sword behind me and with her outstretched hand, I saw it. A mouth.

"gaRdNABlaDE." The sword transformed behind me into Noire's massive greatsword. I slammed into the flat of the blade, making me miss a key beat in the fight. She took this moment and called the sword back to her, making me fly into her range as well. Once I was close enough, she pulled out a secondary, shorter, but sharper blade and did a spinning slash. I felt time slow as the blade inched towards my neck, ready to take it straight off, however, I was not out of the fight just yet. I rolled in the direction the blade was coming from, managing to just barely escape from the trap, just in time for Burning to deliver a powerful punch to her face.

We could not give her a moment to recover. I took to the sky and aimed my bow at her head while Burning got into his Dragon stance.

"WINDY PHOENIX BLAST! "

" ULTIMATE BURNING FIST: DRAGON!" As both of our attacks landed, a large explosion formed, but not by us. As it reached us, I noticed the smell of chemicals.

"Shit! She-" by the time I opened my mouth, I was already falling to the floor. My sight was obscured, but I could see Burning on the ground as well, and a figure stumbling away. Our attacks must have forced her to retreat. Recognizing this as the safest time to keep moving, I mustered the last bit of strength in my wings "Come on wings. I need you now. " I flapped my wings as hard as I could to disperse the smoke away from all of us before darkness overtook me. I noticed the other guards approaching us through a clearing I had made.

"God, I hope Noire and Cadance are having a better time than us."

LUNA POV

The beast was proving to be a nuisance as it fired a series of lasers at us as soon as we entered Chrysalis' sights. With Gilgamesh hanging onto me, it was harder to evade all of them, causing a stray beam to take a piece of my leg. Gilgamesh looked back at my wound worriedly. "Princess! Drop me onto the back!" I saw his look of determination and let go of him, letting him fall. I used the freedom to rise even higher and shoot a large beam of light down at Chrysalis herself. In response, she summoned a hexagonal shield to deflect the ray. In that moment of distraction, Gilgamesh landed on the back with no obstruction. He got into a stance, stamping his foot on the back of the beast, causing a golden ripple to move over the body completely. Gilgamesh charged at Chrysalis with incredible speed. She, however, noticed him the moment he landed and summoned tendrils and sent them towards him like spears.

Gilgamesh looked completely in the moment as he dodged every single one of them. It was as if he knew where each one was coming from and how much force to put into every movement. Chrysalis grew more frustrated as the griffon prince evaded everything she threw at him until he was face to face with the queen. "This is the power of ki. The power to understand yourself and your opponent enough to predict their movements." Gilgamesh's fist glowed a radiant gold as he threw a punch at the queen, but unfortunately, she moved her shield just in time to defend herself.

Chrysalis seemed angry that someone got that close to her and pushed the shield back, sending Gilgamesh back, and off the beast entirely. She yelled "You worms still think you can win! You can't even touch me!" and deployed several more shields until her main body was surrounded in a bubble.

"She really loves her safe space," I murmured to myself as I descended to meet her head on. She wasn't the only one with access to the arcane stage of magic. I crossed my hands, so my blades made a moon shape. The skies began to darken, as if night had descended early. My eyes glowed a bright white. "Congratulations! You have pushed me to join the likes of Noire and the generals. I have something just for you!" My blades glowed a bright white and grew. From a distance, you would compare the sight to seeing a crescent moon in the sky. "Crescent Moon's Punishment" With a swing of both blades. The crescent moon descended on Chrysalis and her shield collided with it. Chrysalis was struggling, witnessing the bubble begin to crack. She responded by layering the shields. I wasn't giving her any sense of safety as I flew past her and took the same position. "CRESCENT MOON'S PUNISHMENT!" Another moon wave came at her from behind forcing her use half of her shields to block. She looked desperate as she was sandwiched between the two moons. I landed on her beast, right in front of her, with my blades held to her throat. I did not hesitate as I swung them right at her head. Time slowed to a crawl as, in the peripheral of my sight, I could see the back of beast glow green. Streaks of energy converging on Chrysalis as she began to lower herself, into the beast. My blades nicked her horn as two moon shaped waves of energy zoomed past her. A rumbling began from inside the beast, but quickly turned into laughter.

"Aww~ The princess was so close to beating me, but in her folly, she forgot one, ver simple fact." Tendrils sprouted from the ground and wrapped around my arms and legs before I could fly out of her range. In my entanglement, she lured towards the face of the chimaera. Its maw opened to reveal the fallen queen, hanging upside down in the mouth. "A queen is always one step above a princess."

I couldn't help myself from letting out a chuckle "You know, I was hoping I would get to fight you one-on-one after you embarrassed my sister at my own niece's wedding. I wanted to see the conniving fiend who almost ruined what was supposed to be a day of love, but all I see is a broken husk. One that is not above killed her own subjects to get what she wants. You are no queen. You are a pawn that's out of her depth. A glutton whose satisfaction is more important to her than her own people's lives and most importantly, a fool who couldn't notice her own undoing underneath her very feet." Chrysalis gritted her teeth in anger until she processed my words: the face she made was one only I saw and would relish for the rest of my days. "FINAL DECODE:" The royal blue glow was blinding her, burning her as I could sense her magical hold on every soldier, she assimilated inside of that body snapping. Including her.

"BLAZING EXCODE!" Chrysalis fell out of the chimaera's mouth, barely catching herself from falling with her wings. With new freedom, I flew up to meet her. From beneath her, I could see Noire rising with his Longblade. Chrysalis flew as hard as she could to escape, but her left leg found itself falling to the ground. She screamed in pain as green ooze gushed from the wound.

"You fucking wastes of space! I'll destroy you myself!" She gestured towards the chimaera "COELESTIS ASSIMILATION!" The defeated chimaera's mouths opened once again and released another wave of beams, ready devour us whole. I flew down, evading beams to collect Gilgamesh and all three of us flew as far away as we could but the beams were about to reach us. With less targets to focus on, they were even faster. Hope seemed lost as green consumed us.

"KEEP AWAY FROM MY FAMILY!"

CADANCE POV

Frustration. That was all I could feel as I saw everyone fighting a large chimaera. From the war veteran Luna down to the mere foot soldier, they were all fighting. Then all I could below me were injured soldiers mourning their lost comrades. We had enough people to surround the entire front wall, now we had enough just maybe defend the front gate. Noire, Auntie Luna, and Gilgamesh were still out there, fighting, and I was just here. Doing nothing. Fed up with being safe, I got down from my perch, and to the closest soldier in need, a griffon soldier with a broken leg. Using healing magic, I managed to mend the bone and torn muscles.

"Princess Cadance. You're supposed to be on the wall."

"And your leg isn't supposed to be broken. So, I guess we're partners in crime." That got a chuckle from him before he winced a bit from the pain. "What's your name?" I asked.

"Quill of the Bronzebeak."

"Quill of the Bronzebeak, you fought well. Now rest." I gave him a peck on the forehead and stood up and addressed the rest of the soldiers "Bring all of our wounded to the wall and get every unicorn with healing magic. I will tend to as many of you as I can." Everycreature got straight to work establishing a medic tent. We had at least over fifty wounded and eight medics. I was informed by a soldier that, unfortunately, most of them were consumed in that last attack. With that I sought to heal every single pony and griffon I could, praying for my family's success. With the help of the remaining medics, we managed to get all of them in a stable condition but were still in no condition to fight.

I tried looking out into the distance, where Auntie was and found her, Noire, and Gilgamesh flying away from the same attack that devoured our army. Instead of frustration, there was desperation growing within my chest. A longing to help them just this once if I ever had to. I took off towards them at full speed. No more watching, no more being the victim, no more being the one that gets consoled, and coddled, and protected. I was going to save my family this time. "KEEP AWAY FROM MY FAMILY!" I yelled from the very depths of my heart as I released my magic all around me. A bubble appeared around the three, shielding them from the rays. Not only that, but I could see Chrysalis being repelled by my explosion of magic.

"NO! NOT THIS TIME, YOU WANNABE PRINCESS!" she said as she pushed back. I felt love coursing through my entire body. I still had more to give. My love for my aunties, for the generals, for my citizens, for the griffons, for Noire, it all came out.

"That's the difference between you and me. You love to live. I live to love." With one last push, I managed to push Chrysalis back, sending her flying back. As soon as she was out of sight, I let out a sigh as the last bit of magic left my body. I couldn't help but laugh weakly "Did anyone else get a sense of Deja vu?" I felt myself fall, but quickly found myself in the arms of my beloved. "You see that? I can fight too." Noire kissed my forehead.

"You sure can, Cadance. You sure can." That affirmation was all I needed as sleep consumed me.

WINDY POV

When I came to, I found myself in a tent, lying on a blanket on the floor, and my head spinning like a top. I carefully got on my feet and stumbled outside. Once I was out, I could see that the sun was beginning to descend upon Guilatea Town. I felt relieved that we made it to our destination. Many tents were already set up to house the refugees. Nearby, I could see Burning, banged up but conscious, being tended to by a medic. I was quickly taken to him by another medic to check my injuries. Turns out that mare's final effort was a powerful drug, explaining the drowsiness. Turns out our encoded armor came in handy as I took the brunt of our damage. It didn't take too long before we were back on our feet.

Burning came up to me once we were up and about with an update of what happened while I was out. "We've gotten all of the refugees situated, and the griffon guards that came with us have proposed to stay with them for protection. I wanted to wait for your input before we regroup with the others."

"It would be best. We don't know how many guards are stationed here and how many are on Gilgar's side. We should cover all our bases."

Burning nodded in acknowledgement and went off to inform the troops, giving me a small moment to myself. Griffonia, the land of griffons, brought back a lot of memories for me. I had never been here before now, yes, but it made me remember my younger days. When I scavenged, and sometimes stole, to feed my mother and I. How my desire to save us from our terrible life made it even worse. My home, with my mother in it in the blaze of society's greed, mine included. My saving grace was a griffon that taught me how to use my exceptionally powerful wings to my advantage, how to shoot a bow like no other, and most of all, how to abandon self-loathing and greed to make room for genuine compassion. I only knew him for a month before he left but his impact had led me here, and I will always be thankful for it. I began to walk back to the troops but as I passed a group of griffons, I caught a glimpse of an old, grey feathered griffon being praised by the others in the crowd. From the talk amongst them, he led them all here when we were knocked out. I decided to go over to thank him for his help, but he caught me first.

"Windy! It's nice to see you up and about again!" That cheerful expression. The scars along his left eye and beak. The bow that he swore by for decades. No doubt it was him.

"...Dad?"

Author's Note

I know. I know. It's been months since I've updated but you know the drill. Uni has ruined my sleep schedule, I have several other writing projects, etc. etc. I can offer no other apology other than posting this chapter. The next one will be an interlude so hopefully you all don't have to wait nine months for another chapter.

Stay dizzy. Wuzzy out.