Filly Fluttershy: Uprising

Chapters

Heads of the Hewdraw
The Reaper's Line of Sight
Chrysalis' Labyrinth of Deceit
Dark Shy
The Seafloor Palace
The Space Pirate Ship
Nightmare Moon's Final Battle
The Wish Seed
Luna, Goddess of Nature
Wrath of the Reset Bomb
The Lunar Sanctum
Lightning Battle
The Parasprite Brain
The Ring of Chaos
The Lightning Chariot
Celestia's Temple
The Chaos Vortex
Scorched Feathers
Lord of the Underworld
The Three Trials
The War's End
The End...
The Return of Celestia/Applejack and the Dark Lord
Mysterious Invaders
The Parasprite Hive
The Lightning Chariot: Part 2

Heads of the Hewdraw

Chapter 3: Heads of the Hewdraw

Fluttershy galloped as fast as she could through a dark, narrow hallway. Her hooves pounded rapidly against the cold stone floor, though she could barely hear them over her heart pounding in her chest and the feeling of anxiety in the pit of her stomach.

“Hurry, Fluttershy!” Celestia said.

“What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked. Daylight permeated the end of the hallway where a set of double doors swung open. Fluttershy stopped in her gallop and skidded on her hooves, slowing down in front of the doors. She jumped through the open portal, her wings spread out and bathed in a bright yellow aura of magic, and flew out into the afternoon sky. Dusty yellow clouds floated beneath her, though some were high enough and thick enough to pile up at her altitude, while a mostly clear sky hung above her. She barely had the chance to survey the surrounding clouds when several harpy creatures flew past, almost running right into her.

“Nightmare Moon is launching an attack on our realm,” Celestia said. “Her forces are invading Skyworld!”

More of the harpy creatures, known as Syrens, emerged from the surrounding clouds. Fluttershy watched anxiously as they along with numerous Monoeyes swarmed the skies around her, some even breaking away from the rest to fly after her. “Oh no. She must be getting back at us for our attack on Dark Lord Pinkamena,” she said. She reached into her tunic and pulled out a fiery orb. The orb flickered brightly in her hoof, and wisps of flame circled around it in a ring. It was the first weapon she saw when Celestia told her this was an emergency, and she’d grabbed it in a hurry.

“Maybe so,” Celestia said. “But I know you’ll push back their assault. I have faith that you will.”

“I-I’ll try,” Fluttershy said, still holding the hastily chosen weapon in her hoof. She took the orb, known as the Burning Palm, and pressed it into the sole of her right hoof. Flames erupted from her hoof and rose up the length of her foreleg. The Burning Palm spread through her leg with it, giving her fur and flesh a bright orange glow as if turning them into fire. The flames stopped when they reached Fluttershy’s shoulder, not spreading any further or even burning any part of her.

Now equipped, Fluttershy aimed her hoof at a nearby group of Monoeyes. Flames erupted from the sole of her hoof, rapidly building onto each other until they formed a fireball almost the size of her body and launched itself forward. The fireball shot through several Mononeyes in its path, incinerating them as it went. Fluttershy turned her aim toward a couple of Paramushes, thin white monsters with orange mushroom-shaped parachutes attached to their heads, and a stream of smaller fireballs shot from her hoof.

But while Fluttershy was shooting at one group of monsters, a larger Underworld enemy consisting of a giant nose, a pair of glasses, and what looked to be a mustache emerged from the clouds to her left side. The creature was called a Specknose, and as it tilted itself back, two spherical black bombs flew out of its nostrils. Fluttershy spotted the bombs coming toward her out of the corner of her vision and jerked right, barely avoiding them. At the same time, another group of Monoeyes and Syrens fired their own attacks at her. Two of the Monoeyes’ blasts struck her, one in the shoulder and one in her chest.

A third attack by one of the Syrens struck her directly in the chest, throwing her back and knocking her wings out of their rhythmic beating. Fluttershy fell a few feet, but she felt her wings spring into action and flap harder to keep her airborne. Clutching her chest with her free hoof, she aimed her weapon hoof at a few of the Syrens.

“If you’re struggling with a large group of enemies, you can use a Special Attack,” Celestia said. “Just tap a blue circle on the touch screen to launch one. It’ll take out enemy fire too.”

Fluttershy stopped for a moment as she was aiming at a couple of Paramushes. “Celestia, what’s a touch screen?” she asked.

Celestia herself paused at the question and tried to recall her own words. “Was I just referring to the game’s controls?” she asked back.

“I think you were,” Fluttershy said while shooting at a group of Monoeyes.

“This is likely the author’s fault,” Celestia muttered. “When this is over, someone needs to tell him not to copy the game’s dialogue verbatim.”

“Okay…” Fluttershy murmured. “I’m not sure how that helps me now.”

A large fireball from her weapon burned through a pair of Syrens. Fluttershy looked around at her surroundings, but when all she saw was blue sky and thick clouds, she lowered her weapon. Seemingly, those were the last Underworld troops nearby, and as she was guided around the clouds by Celestia’s magic, she couldn’t discern any more enemies in the skies. That changed a moment later when she flew over one of the clouds and saw three creatures that resembled seemingly innocent orange flowers. Behind these three Daphnes, she could make out even more enemies flying in the distance.

“There’s more of them?” Fluttershy panted. She fired a blast from her palm at the Daphnes.

“At this rate, the power of flight will expire before they do,” Celestia said.

“What?!” Fluttershy said. “But what happens then?”

“At that point, you would have to fend off the remaining Underworld forces on land,” Celestia answered. “That won’t be easy.”

“Uh-oh,” Fluttershy murmured. She surveyed the clusters of visible monsters, wondering how long they would take to clear out. Her attention then turned toward the surrounding clouds, and she worried how many more troops there were that she still couldn’t see. It was then that a thought came to her mind. “What if we went after their commander?”

“That could work,” Celestia said. “But there’s something you should know. Their commander is Hewdraw.”

“Hewdraw?” Fluttershy asked.

“Think of it as a three-headed hydra, only much more serpentine,” Celestia said. She angled Fluttershy toward the right, in the direction of a small, distant cluster of Underworld enemies “And fortunately for us, there he is.”

Amongst the other Underworld troops, Fluttershy could discern a much larger serpent monster. The creature had three heads just as Celestia said, but what caught Fluttershy’s attention was that it was flying along with the rest of its forces despite lacking wings or any apparent means of flight. “He can fly?!” she said.

“I think the only one who can’t fly by herself is you,” Celestia replied.

Fluttershy’s thoughts turned for a moment toward her wings and the magic flowing through them. Rather than saying anything in response, she quietly frowned at Celestia’s comment.

“Don’t sulk, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “But you’re right. Attacking the leader is our best option.”

The aura around Fluttershy’s wings flared. Her wings began to beat faster, propelling her toward the Hewdraw. Little by little, the monsters that flanked the Hewdraw broke off from the group and flew in her direction. Fluttershy fired her weapon at an oncoming Specknose. She then turned her aim toward a few Syrens and sent a stream of fireballs. Most of the creatures sped right by her as the power of flight kept her moving forward, giving her little chance to attack them at all, and with more enemies ahead, she didn’t chance a peek behind to see if they were taken out.

Before long, Fluttershy was flying just a short distance from the Underworld commander. Up close, the Hewdraw had purple scales covering much of its body, with white scales covering its underside. Red fins spread out at a few points on either side of its body, and its tail flared out into another red fin at the end. As for its heads, only the center one shared the purple hue of the rest of the body, while the head on the right was covered in blue scales and the one on the left with red. Each of the three heads had a small horn on its snout and a thin, bladed crest at the top of its head. Fluttershy flew out ahead of the Hewdraw, drawing the attention of all three heads.

“Hello there,” said the blue head on the right, speaking in a deep, brutish voice.

“It’s snack time,” the purple head in the center chimed in.

“Mm! What a tender little morsel!” the last head added in a somewhat nasal, elderly-sounding voice.

“Uh, let’s not be so hasty,” Fluttershy said nervously. She hovered a little further back from the heads, away from their massive jaws. “I’m not really a piece of meat.”

“What did you say?” the head on the left asked.

“Technically, you are,” the purple head said.

“Just come a little closer,” the blue head added.

“Get ready,” the center head said, “because it’s time for—”

“Total annih…”
“… -ing destruction!”
“Face-stomping…”

Aside from the rhythmic flapping of Fluttershy’s wings, everything fell silent. Fluttershy blinked a few times, while the Hewdraw heads turned to glare at one another. It seemed that the heads had all shouted their respective battle cries at the same time.

“It was my turn to have the last word!” the center head shouted.

“Oh, give it a rest,” muttered the blue Hewdraw head.

“Let’s not argue in front of company,” the red one implored.

“I'm so sick of you guys.”

“Me?! What did I do?!”

Before long, the three heads started talking over one another, making it almost impossible to hear any one head over the other two, let alone make out any of what they were saying. Meanwhile, Fluttershy continued to watch bemused as the heads argued amongst each other.

“This looks like a bad time,” Fluttershy said. “Should we come back later when they’re not bickering?”

“Did I mention I’m starving?!” one of the heads could be overheard saying.

“This is never going to end,” Celestia said, shaking her head. “Just go ahead and attack.”

Fluttershy held up her right foreleg in Hewdraw’s direction. She aimed her hoof at the blue head, and was about to fire when…

“EVERYONE SHUT UP AND FOCUS!” all three heads shouted at once.

Before Fluttershy knew what was happening, one of the Hewdraw heads opened its maw and lunged at Fluttershy. Fluttershy veered left, avoiding getting caught in its jaws. She shot several fireballs from her palm, but another head fired a volley of blue energy shots, and both volleys collided halfway.

A thin blade of energy fired from another head struck Fluttershy from the side. Fluttershy grunted softly and placed a hoof to her injured side. But when she looked up at the Hewdraw again, one of the heads took a deep breath, opened its mouth, and spat out a massive fireball. Fluttershy swerved left, getting out of the fireball’s path. Meanwhile, the center head opened its jaws, and a harsh yellow glow radiated from deep within its mouth. Fluttershy aimed her weapon hoof and shot a large fireball directly into its mouth. The fireball exploded on impact with the roof of the purple Hewdraw’s mouth, throwing its head backward and leaving it dazed. Fluttershy continued firing at it with a stream of smaller fireballs.

“You’re running out of time!” Celestia called out abruptly. “The power of flight is going to run out soon.”

“They weren’t this well coordinated when they were arguing with each other,” Fluttershy said. She flew up when one of the heads lunged at her again, pulling her legs in so they wouldn’t get caught in its teeth. “What do we do?”

“I’m preparing my Solar Flare spell,” Celestia said. “Once the spell is ready, I’ll unleash it on Hewdraw.”

Fluttershy descended sharply, dodging yet another lunge by the center Hewdraw head, and fired back with a blast to the creature’s throat. Her attack tore through its neck and took off the left head, causing it to fall from the rest of the body. Wide-eyed, Fluttershy looked from the charred yet surprisingly clean stub of its neck down to the severed head as it fell beneath the thick clouds, and then back to the main body. While her wings pulled her back, the other two heads didn’t seem bothered by the loss of the third head. The one on the right was already getting ready to attack, its mouth open and a yellow glow emanating from inside.

Fluttershy fired at the right head, but her shots collided with a stream of blue energy shots spat out by the left one. Once the right head finished charging its attack, it expelled a powerful stream of flames at her. The magic in Fluttershy’s wings quickly pulled her to her right, away from the searing flames. She then aimed the Burning Palm at the left head, which was about to spit out a fireball, and fired. The head recoiled back and Fluttershy followed with a stream of fireballs, eventually burning through its neck and severing its head.

The remaining Hewdraw head finally stopped exhaling fire, but when it turned toward the other two, it only saw the stubs of their necks. “Ah! I’m the only one left!” he yelped.

“Well technically, you were on the right,” Fluttershy said timidly.

“No biggie,” he said, sounding a bit more contented. “In fact, I feel great losing all that deadweight.”

“If you feel that way, then maybe you wouldn’t mind going home and promising not to hurt anypony?” Fluttershy suggested, perhaps a bit too hopefully.

“Aw, you’re so cute I could just eat you up,” the Hewdraw head cooed. “In fact…”

Fluttershy squeaked as her wings pulled her back, escaping another lunge from the surviving head.

Suddenly, bright yellow light shone on the Hewdraw from up above, growing in intensity and spreading across its entire body. “Fluttershy, I’m now ready to cast the Solar Flare spell,” Celestia said.

“Um, Princess Celestia?” Fluttershy stammered, watching as the ray of light expanded. “Maybe I shouldn’t be so close to—”

She was interrupted when an enormous beam of light struck the Hewdraw from above. The blast of light expanded, completely swallowing the Hewdraw, and Fluttershy screamed as the entire world around her was consumed in bright yellow and white. When the light faded away a few moments later, the Hewdraw’s body had become completely charred. The Hewdraw fell beneath the clouds while Fluttershy remained hovering in the air, pale, trembling, mouth agape, and taking short, shallow breaths.

“Y-You could have killed me with that!” she stammered.

“Oh... was that a bit excessive?” Celestia asked. With her magic, she tilted Fluttershy downward, bringing her into a descent. “Two of the heads escaped. You’ll have to pursue them.”

Fluttershy flew through the cloud cover on her way toward the ground. Past the clouds, a number of various Underworld enemies were moving in the same direction she was. Most of them were far ahead of her, and the ones that reached the ground flew off in one direction.

“W-Wait,” Fluttershy said. “What did you mean when you said two of the heads escaped?”

“Hewdraw heads can live without a body, Fluttershy,” Celestia started to explain. “So even though we’ve stopped their attack on Skyworld, those two heads are still alive somewhere on the earth below.”

“Oh no,” Fluttershy said. “And their army’s going with them too. If they find an earth pony town…”

“That’s why we’re going after them,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy pulled up from her descent as soon as she came close to ground level, going into a hover. A few Underworld monsters were lingering just above the ground around her. She aimed her right hoof at a Monoeye, only for it to fly off before she could fire. She tried to fire at another enemy, but each one she aimed at flew off in the same direction as the first. Even the few that spotted her paid her little attention and went with the others. She looked in the direction they were traveling, and to her dread she saw an earth pony town in the distance. Smoke billowed from several places behind its stone walls, and both Hewdraw heads could be seen flopping about like fish on land, throwing up dust and debris from any unfortunate buildings in their way.

“Uh-oh,” Fluttershy said. “This is bad.”

“Let’s hurry,” Celestia said.

With the power of flight in her wings, Fluttershy flew toward the town. She shot down a Specknose along the way with a fireball from her hoof and fired a stream of smaller fireballs at a few Monoeyes and Syrens. With very few hills or trees dotting the land, and the handful of monsters, Fluttershy quickly reached the town walls. She pulled up into an ascent, her wings flapping harder, and she soared high above the town. Her flight path circled above the town as she looked for the Hewdraw heads, but even from a bird’s eye view the only sign of them she found were the damaged and burning buildings left in their wake. She couldn’t even find any of their troops, except for a few Syrens flying below her which she soon fired at.

“I don’t see the Hewdraw heads anywhere,” Fluttershy said.

“They’re somewhere in the town, but you will have to search on hoof,” Celestia said. “The power of flight will run out soon.” She angled Fluttershy’s flight path down toward the heavy wooden doors that made up the town’s southern entrance and prepared to set her down.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy came to a rough landing just inside the town, her hooves skidding on the cobblestones as she touched down. As the bright yellow aura surrounding her wings dissolved and she folded her wings at her sides, she looked around at her surroundings. Rectangular yellow brick buildings stood close together on either side of the streets. Very few trees, flowerbeds, or any kind of ornamentation adorned the streets and buildings, giving the town a cramped, uniform appearance. A few of the houses had taken damage during the attack, and debris was scattered around them. Except for her, not a single pony was outside.

“Looks like everypony’s gone into hiding,” she said.

“They should be safe, but you need to find those Hewdraw heads before they cause any more damage,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy moved from the south gate and started down the main street. It didn’t take her very far before she stopped at a burning pile of rubble that blocked off the street. She turned right into a narrow alley, where two Gyrazors were shooting at the side of a building. She shot down one after the other and continued down the alley, which led her into a small courtyard.

A set of stairs led up from the other side of the courtyard and continued onto another narrow street. Near the top of the stairs, Fluttershy saw two Underworld monsters floating above the ground. Their bodies were both round, transparent and blue, with a gelatinous appearance that gave them a resemblance to jellyfish. Three red nuclei were visible inside their bodies, though instead of a jellyfish’s tentacles, four sharp mandibles extended from their undersides.

“Ranged attacks won’t harm those Komaytos,” Celestia said. “You’ll need to attack them from up close… for whatever reason.”

Fluttershy watched as the Komaytos floated down the stairs toward her. “Can’t I just use the Ice Beam and fire five Missiles?” she asked.

“Wrong game, wrong franchise, and you don’t have an Ice Beam,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy backed away as the Komaytos moved toward her. Her mind lingered on what those mandibles might do to her if they latched on, and the prospect of attacking them at close quarters did not appeal to her at all. She took a deep breath, steeling herself as best as she could, and charged. Her weapon hoof slammed into one Komayto, flames magnifying across her foreleg on impact.

Fluttershy slid to a stop on her other hooves, then turned around and threw a fiery punch at the other Komayto. Both creatures’ bodies burst on impact, and Fluttershy breathed a small sigh of relief. “That wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be,” she thought out loud. She went up the rest of the stairs and continued her search of the town.

“You seem to be more comfortable using a palm weapon,” Celestia said.

“Oh, yeah,” Fluttershy said. “I don’t even have to carry anything, so it’s a little more convenient.”

“Palms are somewhat different from other weapon types,” Celestia said. “They’re designed to fit your foreleg like a tattoo or sleeve, and their magic feeds off your life force whenever they’re used.”

Fluttershy stopped dead in her tracks. “Feeds off my life force?” she said, looking down the length of her emblazed leg until she reached the palm embedded in her hoof. “Are you saying the more I fight with this thing, the sooner I’ll die?!”

“No, not at all,” Celestia said calmly. “You may use the palm as much as you like without any ill effects, I assure you.”

Fluttershy frowned, and then set off on hoof again. “If it’s alright with you, I’d like to find those Hewdraw heads as quickly as possible,” she said. Despite Celestia’s reassurances, the first thing she wanted to do after this was over was remove the palm from her hoof. She doubted she would ever want to put it back on.

Fluttershy’s search brought her to the front gate of an enclosed circular courtyard. An alleyway to her right led around the courtyard, while the gate in front of her was closed and locked tight. She turned into the alley and continued her search.

“Stop right there!” Celestia called out.

“Huh?”

Suddenly, one of the Hewdraw heads crashed through a wall ahead of Fluttershy and landed in the alley. Fluttershy screamed and jumped back. One of her hooves stumbled, causing her to fall onto her haunches. The Hewdraw head crashed into the house in front of it, demolishing it in the process, and continued on its path.

“It appears we’ve found one of the Hewdraw heads,” Celestia said.

“Th-That came out of nowhere!” Fluttershy said, still trembling on the ground.

“We’ll need the head to stay in one place,” Celestia said. “Find a way into the courtyard. I may have something in mind.”

Fluttershy stood back up and approached what was left of the demolished house. The Hewdraw head was already gone by then, and peering past the skeletal remains of the walls only showed her the rows of houses on the adjacent street. Gingerly, she stepped over pieces of debris strewn about in the wake of the destroyed structures and made her way through the alley. She reached another gate leading into the courtyard, this one having been left wide open, and stepped inside.

“Okay, now what?”

“Now we lure the Hewdraw here,” Celestia said.

Soft fuchsia light began to fill the space of the courtyard, blotting out the rest of the town and the skies above. Some of the light wafted around Fluttershy, coalescing into small, glowing dots that rested on her coat like bright, colored snowflakes. The light dissipated from the courtyard a few seconds later, including the dotlike particles that had stuck to her coat. Fluttershy blinked a few times, unsure what if anything just happened or what to make of it.

“Um… what was that?” she asked.

Suddenly, a powerful crash reverberated against one of the surrounding walls, shaking the area slightly. The crash sounded again, and one of the Hewdraw heads smashed through the wall and landed in the courtyard. Fluttershy yelped and ran toward the other side of the courtyard as the head flopped toward the center.

“That was a monster pheromone spell,” Celestia said. “Monsters are irresistibly enticed by it, and now it’s all over you.”

“What?!” Fluttershy yelled. “Are you trying to kill me?!”

“Did you do something with your mane?” the Hewdraw head asked. “You’re suddenly looking very attractive.”

The head jumped forward, springing off its lower jaw while trying to bite after her. Fluttershy recognized the nasally voice, and from its red scales she could tell that this was the left Hewdraw head. She ran along the edge of the courtyard, trying to get out of its path, and shot a fireball at it.

“Fortunately, the pheromone only attracted one of the heads,” Celestia said. “I was worried that you would have to contend with both of them.”

“And you still went through with it?!” Fluttershy said. “They would’ve killed me for sure!”

The Hewdraw head tried to rotate itself in Fluttershy’s direction, though with some difficulty. Fluttershy shot another fireball from her palm, throwing the Hewdraw head into the air, but when it landed back on the ground, it found itself facing her. The head roared and charged after her, jaws biting down with each jump. Fluttershy galloped out of its path, causing it to slam into the wall instead.

“I have a special treat for you,” the Hewdraw head said, turning itself back around to face Fluttershy. “But you have to come get it!”

“I wouldn’t trust him if I were you,” Celestia said.

“Why shouldn’t she?” he said. “Look at this face! I’m totally trustworthy!” The head jumped forward again, slamming its jaws together hungrily.

Fluttershy kept her distance from the Hewdraw head as it flopped after her. She fired at it again, but even as her blasts scorched the side of its face, the head kept coming after her.

“I may have to make some modifications to the monster pheromone spell,” Celestia said. “It’s difficult to tell if the Hewdraw head is exhibiting lust or just bloodlust.”

“I don’t think either one is better right now,” Fluttershy whimpered under her breath.

She shot another fireball at the Hewdraw head. Seemingly unfazed, the head roared and lunged across the courtyard after her. Fluttershy ran to the side, letting it slam into the wall instead, and sent another fireball behind her. The head flew back a few feet and landed on its side with a thud, mouth hanging open and not moving. Fluttershy watched it for a few moments, waiting for some movement or sound to come from the head, but it lay completely still. Her weapon hoof ready, she slowly took a few small steps toward it. After a few steps, she could smell the pungent odor of its burnt flesh, but she hesitated to go any closer.

“You can relax,” Celestia said. “This one won’t be getting back up. And I don’t think I’ll be using the monster pheromone in the future.”

Fluttershy breathed a deep sigh of relief. “I would hope not,” she said. She turned around and went toward another gate that led out of the courtyard.

“What I mean is I won’t need to use it,” Celestia said.

“You won’t?” Fluttershy asked.

“No, because I’ve located the other head,” Celestia said. “Go to the lake outside of town. It will be there regenerating its body.”

“It can do that?”

“Yes, and that makes it all the more vital that we find it soon.”

“Okay,” Fluttershy said. Once outside the courtyard, she traced her path from the south gate in her mind. From her brief flight over the town, she remembered there being a lake outside the northwest wall. She turned northwest, and seeing the town wall off in the distance, she started in that direction. “You said Hewdraw was supposed to be like a hydra, right? Isn’t this the exact opposite of one?”

“I suppose it is,” Celestia said. “But would you really rather fight a headless Hewdraw?”

“At least there’d only be one of it…” Fluttershy said. “And if it was headless, I’d be done by now.”

She came up to a shallow stream that seemed to cut through a section of the town. Though quite shallow, the current flowed swiftly enough that she would have trouble if she tried wading through it. However, it was moving toward the lake, the same direction she was heading. Fluttershy felt a sense of anxiety building in her chest as she followed the tributary downstream, realizing what was waiting for her at the end. She wondered how long it would take for it to regrow its body, and what she would have to deal with. “You don’t think it’ll have three heads again, do you?” she asked. “The Hewdraw, I mean.”

“I would hope not,” Celestia said. “Their bickering was intolerable.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was worried about…” Fluttershy murmured.

The stream eventually led her near the town’s northwest wall, where it flowed through a tunnel that was built into the lower wall and sealed off with iron bars. Off to the left, one of the roads led to a side gate not too far from the stream. Fluttershy started toward the gate, but only reached a circular intersection in the street when three Underworld troops appeared directly in her path: a Daphne, a Komayto, and a third enemy that consisted of a large, fleshy red ball covered in spines, known as a Minos.

The Daphne’s orange petals opened, and it released a cluster of purple flowers and thorns. Fluttershy jumped away from the slow-moving mass, letting it pass by and detonate in a fiery explosion behind her, and fired back with her Burning Palm. Her attack hit the Minos, and as flames splashed over its body, it swelled to nearly twice its size and started flashing white. Fluttershy backed away worriedly, and when the Minos began pulsating, she turned and ran back. She took cover in an alley behind the nearest house. Moments later she heard the Minos’ body burst and saw several of its spines shoot across the street.

When she emerged from the alley, the three monsters that were there before were gone. In their place, two Ganewmedes stood on either side of a towering bivalve monster known as a Mega Mussel. The two halves of the third creature’s shell were held open by a sinewy purple pillar, around which three pink pearls circled. Fluttershy approached the three enemies, but stopped when she noticed a grenade much like the one she found in an earlier mission lying at her hooves. She took the grenade into her hoof and tossed it at the Mega Mussel. The grenade exploded on impact, wiping out all three monsters in the resulting blast.

Two more items lay on the ground at the intersection: a small, round, dark gray rocket with a white arrow drawn on its side and a fairly large yellow shield just big enough for a pony to hide behind. Fluttershy walked over to pick up the rocket first, but as soon as she placed a hoof on it, it abruptly fired off and launched into the air. Bemused, she did little more than blink and watch as the rocket disappeared into the sky.

After a while, Fluttershy turned her attention to the shield, but when she touched it with her hoof, it spun around and floated behind her. She tried to turn around, but the shield moved with her, always staying behind her haunches. Realizing that the shield was meant to protect her backside, she left it alone.

Another Underworld enemy, this one resembling a totem pole, rose out of the ground in the center of the intersection. The creature, known as a Stackjaw, consisted of a scaly green top segment with eyes and four metal blue segments each with an open mouth on the front. Two more monsters dropped into the intersection from above: a Syren and a thin purple creature wearing what looked like a straw skirt and giant eyeballs on the ends of its arms.

A drumbeat began to play at a fast, repeating tempo, seemingly coming from nowhere, as the third monster moved its hips and danced in place. Fluttershy stared at the bizarre creature, her eyes totally fixed on its strange appearance, its swaying hips, and the shaking of its eyeballs as if they were pompoms. She turned away from it, and she managed to catch a glimpse of the Stackjaw as its bottom three segments rotated and fired lasers from their mouths, but she found herself gazing at the dancing monster again. She tried to focus on anything else, especially the other two enemies, but found it impossible to tear herself away from it.

A strong, spiraling gust of wind launched by the Syren slammed into Fluttershy, lifting her off the ground. She fell back down, but was hit by a sweep of the Stackjaw’s lasers before hitting the ground. She brought her hooves under her and stood back up, but the sound of the drumbeat echoed in her head, and before she knew it she was staring at the dancing monster again.

“Something’s wrong,” Fluttershy stammered. “I-I can’t take my eyes off that thing!”

“That is a Merenguy,” Celestia said. “Its peculiar dance has a hypnotic effect on those near it. You won’t be able to look away from it as long as it keeps moving, nor will the Back Shield you’ve found be of any use.

Fluttershy aimed her weapon hoof at the Merenguy, deciding that she needed to take it out, when she heard a soft, high-pitched whistling in the air above. The whistling grew steadily louder with each passing second until a rocket crashed into the ground, exploding on impact. The heat and pressure hit Fluttershy as the explosion enveloped the entire intersection, yet even as the flames swirled around her they didn’t burn or even singe her coat or tunic, leaving her completely unharmed.

Eventually the explosion subsided, and when the air around the street cleared enough, Fluttershy took a look around. The Merenguy that had so hypnotized her earlier was nowhere to be found, as was the Syren that had been flying around, both wiped out by the flames. It dawned on her a moment later where that rocket came when she remembered setting off the rocket with the white arrow a minute earlier.

However, the Stackjaw in the center of the street had also emerged relatively unscathed from the blast and was still rotating in place. Fluttershy turned away and tried to take cover as it made another sweep with its lasers, but was surprised when they passed by her harmlessly. Turning her head back, she saw the yellow Back Shield still hovering behind her flanks and still intact.

Fluttershy brought her attention to the Stackjaw, held up her weapon hoof, and fired. The first large fireball from her palm blasted apart the topmost column, and the next column under it crumbled after a stream of smaller fireballs. She spun around as the Stackjaw made another sweep, letting the Back Shield take the hit from its last remaining laser, and fired back.

After another volley from the Burning Palm, the last few segments of the Stackjaw’s body crumbled away. Fluttershy lowered her weapon hoof and walked down the street toward the northeast gate. The Back Shield flashed for a brief second, and by the time she turned her head back it had already faded away. Continuing on, she saw a wooden sign posted a couple of feet away from the gate. A thick arrow carved into the face of the wood pointed forward in the direction of the lake, which according to the sign was named…

“That Burning Lake?” Fluttershy read aloud. She raised an eyebrow. “Is the lake actually on fire?”

“Nothing like that,” Celestia answered. “The lake is simply named after this adjoining town.”

“This place is called ‘That Burning Town?’” Fluttershy said, her tone just as incredulous as it was before. She turned to look back at the rest of the town, where smoke still billowed from several locations.

“As difficult as it may be to believe,” Celestia replied. “Evidently it’s to set this town apart from That First Town, which you visited during an earlier mission.”

“Which was also on fire,” Fluttershy added, thinking back to Nightmare Moon’s attack a few days ago.

Fluttershy turned her head back toward the gate. After a brief pause, she pushed the gate open and started down the footpath to the lake.

* * * * * * * * * *

Past the northeast gate, beyond the winding footpath that snaked between a few thin trees, Fluttershy had arrived at the shore of the lake. The third Hewdraw head, its body fully regrown and mostly submerged beneath the calm blue water, rose above the lake’s surface and faced Fluttershy.

“So you finished off the others, eh?” he said.

Fluttershy stared back at the face of the monster, not saying a word. She drew in an anxious breath and exhaled, then gulped.

“Then you’ve saved the best for last,” he roared. “Let’s get down to business!”

The Hewdraw’s roar washed over Fluttershy in galelike fashion, blowing her mane and tail back while prompting her to duck her head and shut her eyes against it. Fluttershy looked up once the roar ended, only to run as the Hewdraw spat out several fireballs one at a time. She leapt out of the way of the last fireball and fired back with a blast from her palm, hitting its lower jaw.

The Hewdraw’s head recoiled from the impact of the flames, but it responded by letting out another powerful roar. Fluttershy ducked her head again as the gale-force roar beat against her, blowing back her mane and even making her slide back on her hooves. Once the roar ceased, she aimed her hoof and fired another blast at the Hewdraw’s snout. The Hewdraw jerked back as flames singed parts of its face. It shook off the attack and dipped downward, diving into the lake.

After waiting for the Hewdraw to resurface, and a few moments’ hesitation, Fluttershy stepped closer to the lake’s edge. Two glowing orange spheres appeared where it had once been and began to drift left and right over the water’s surface. The Hewdraw swam directly beneath them, staying completely submerged and barely visible from where Fluttershy stood on the shore. Fluttershy followed its movement with her hoof and sent a stream of fireballs from her palm, but her shots only sent ripples through the water surface, barely going any deeper.

“Aim for the spheres of light hovering over the lake,” Celestia said. “They may be a more suitable target.”

Fluttershy turned her attention to the glowing orbs and aimed her palm. But the Hewdraw swam closer to water’s surface, letting its body briefly break the surface, and two large, pointed scales detached from its body and hurled themselves at Fluttershy. The first scale collided with a fireball from her weapon, causing the fireball to burst in midair, break apart, and fall to the water. The second scale homed in on her and slammed into her left wing, sending a sharp pain through her wing and knocking her to the ground.

Bringing her legs underneath her, Fluttershy pushed herself back up onto her hooves just as two more scales came off the Hewdraw’s body and flew at her. She ducked under one of the projectile scales, sidestepped away from the other, and lifted her hoof to fire at one of the orange spheres. One of her shots hit one of the two spheres, dislodging it and causing it to drop into the water. Seconds later, an explosion detonated beneath the lake’s surface, sending up a massive column of water into the air. Droplets of water rained back down on the shore while Fluttershy squinted out at the lake, looking for the Hewdraw.

Suddenly a powerful crash sounded directly behind Fluttershy, shaking the ground and causing her to jump. She skittishly turned around and was about to back away, only to see the Hewdraw lying in a half-circle along the shore, dazed and squirming on the ground. Calming down a bit, she fired at the creature, first with a single large fireball and then with a continuous stream of smaller shots.

The Hewdraw lashed about on the ground, startling Fluttershy enough for her to stop firing, and eventually slithered back into the water. It didn’t emerge from the water again, and instead another two spheres of light appeared and hovered over the lake: one orange like the previous two, and one purple. Fluttershy shot at the glowing orbs, hitting only the purple one. But instead of dropping into the water, the sphere burst into several smaller beams of light and flew at her. Fluttershy jumped to the side to avoid the oncoming projectiles. As they shot past her, another purple orb of light appeared over the lake to replace the first one.

“It would be best if you targeted the orange spheres only,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy raised her hoof, this time aiming at the glowing orange orb. “At least we know the purple ones are coming from the Hewdraw,” she said.

“Actually, I’m sensing that both of them are being generated by the Hewdraw,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy paused in mid-aim. “Wait, why is it making the orange ones if they hurt him?”

Suddenly the Hewdraw emerged beneath the orange sphere and swallowed it whole. Light emanated from within its mouth, and beams of energy shot out and barraged Fluttershy in a massive salvo, throwing her back and sending her sliding painfully across the ground.

“That might be why,” Celestia said, almost audibly wincing.

Fluttershy grunted as she pushed herself back off the ground with her hooves. “Ow,” she said, still feeling the sting from many of the energy shots. The Hewdraw had dove back into water, and another orange orb appeared to replace the last one.

Aiming her palm, Fluttershy fired at the orange sphere, dropping it into the lake. Just as before, it detonated underwater, sending a column of water and the Hewdraw up into the air. The stunned Hewdraw crashed onto the shore with a loud thud, while Fluttershy took the opportunity to fire at it.

The Hewdraw writhed and thrashed about violently, not managing to slam into anything yet prompting Fluttershy to stop shooting. It pushed itself along the shore and slithered back into the water. Fluttershy watched the surface of the lake cautiously, waiting for something to happen, but apart from the small waves and ripples that moved across its surface the water remained still and quiet.

Eventually the Hewdraw’s head rose wearily out of the water, swaying from side to side as it faced the shore. Fluttershy held up her weapon hoof and kept it steady, but didn’t shoot. Her heart pounded in her chest, and she exhaled sharply, but she just continued to eye the Hewdraw.

The Hewdraw didn’t try to attack either. If anything, it looked like it could barely hold itself upright. Burns were visible on the scales of its head and body, and its head sagged heavily as it gazed at Fluttershy. “Look how far you’ve come, Fluttershy. I’m proud of you,” he said. The Hewdraw fell back and collapsed into the lake. Moments later, another explosion detonated beneath the lake’s surface, sending a column of water into the air again.

Fluttershy lowered her hoof back to the ground as droplets of water gently fell on her, and she let out a sigh of relief. “You don’t normally meet such nice monsters,” she said. Blood trickled from under the plumage of her right wing, which throbbed painfully. Her chest and sides felt sore from many of the hits she’d taken, now more noticeable as she felt the adrenaline wear off, and she bent down to rest on her knees.

“Relatively speaking, of course,” Celestia said. The last droplets of water finally settled, and a rainbow formed over the lake. For a moment, Fluttershy thought she could see a pony’s face in the rainbow, but before she could double-check, a ray of yellow light shone on her and she was taken back home.

The Reaper's Line of Sight

Chapter 4: The Reaper’s Line of Sight

“Here we go,” Fluttershy said before starting her mission. Clouds floated above and below her as she flew out, but this time there wasn’t any lightning in the sky around her. “So, what’s our mission this time?”

“How much do you know about Reapers?” Celestia said. “From the Underworld?”

“Aren’t they the ones that always freak out and call in their little Reapettes?” Fluttershy asked. "I get scared just thinking about them…”

“Anyway, they have a fortress near the entrance to the Underworld in Reaper Valley.”

“There’s a place called Reaper Valley?” Fluttershy said incredulously.

“Of course,” Celestia said. “So named because of the many Reapers that live there.”

“And we have to go there, don’t we?” Fluttershy said anxiously. “You wouldn’t have mentioned it if we didn’t have to go there.” Celestia fell silent for the next few moments and declined to answer. Instead, she used the power of flight to send Fluttershy through the clouds and toward the ground. Her silence convinced Fluttershy of what she was dreading; that she was being sent into the Reaper Fortress. “Will you at least tell me why you want to go to a place crawling with Reapers?”

“I’m trying to find another one of Nightmare Moon’s commanders, Chrysalis.”

“The goddess of disaster and calamity?” Fluttershy said. “That Chrysalis?”

“Oh, so you’ve heard of her too,” Celestia said as she brought Fluttershy’s flight to a steady altitude above a wasteland. “She’s currently residing in the Labyrinth of Deceit. However, some force in the Reaper Fortress is obscuring the labyrinth’s location. I can’t find it, not even with my all-seeing Eye of Celestia.”

“Wait, if you have an all-seeing eye, why can’t you see Chrysalis’ location?”

“Because of my slightly botched laser eye surgery.”

“Wait,” Fluttershy said quizzically, “you, the goddess of light, got laser eye surgery to fix your all-seeing eye?”

“No, I had laser eye surgery to receive an all-seeing eye.”

“You’re messing with me, aren’t you?”

“Constantly,” Celestia said. “Regardless, your mission is to infiltrate the Reaper Fortress.”

“Um… o-okay,” Fluttershy murmured as she flew over the wasteland. There weren’t any Underworld troops nearby, at least not yet, but that only made her more nervous about her mission. After a few moments, Fluttershy noticed dozens of small lights off in the distance. “What are those red lights?”

“Are they…” Celestia said. Suddenly, lasers started to shoot out from each of the red lights and point in Fluttershy’s direction. “Reaper eyes?”

For every laser aimed in Fluttershy’s direction, three Reapettes flew toward Fluttershy. Within seconds, the Reapettes were swarming her. “Th-This is really bad!” Fluttershy stammered.

“We need to find you a safe route,” Celestia said.

The light around Fluttershy’s wings shone more brightly, and she quickly turned around and flew back. Looking behind her, she saw over a hundred Reapettes chasing her. She focused on her weapon, a pair of Fairy Orbitars floating above her shoulders, and fired at the Reapettes. Fortunately, the Reapettes were relatively weak enemies, and a shot from either orbitar was enough to take one down. She took out as many Reapettes as she could while Celestia guided her toward a ravine.

“Down there is your only option,” Celestia said just before sending Fluttershy into the ravine. “This ravine should take you to the Reaper fortress, but it’s tight, so be careful. If you get stuck, I won’t have time to get you out.”

Several rocks projected out on both sides of the ravine, and Fluttershy was forced to fly around them. She panicked when one rock came at her and just barely avoided crashing into it. “If you’re worried about me getting stuck, then wouldn’t it be better to slow down a little?!” she said nervously.

“We have to make every second count while you’re flying,” Celestia said. “If anything, we should be going faster. Here, let me help.”

“Uh-oh,” Fluttershy whispered. Almost immediately, she started accelerating through the ravine. If her heart was already pounding before, she could feel it racing now as each rock became more difficult to avoid. Each near miss was quickly followed by another, and it was about to get worse once Fluttershy saw some enemies emerge from the rock formations ahead of her. She attacked several Monoeyes and Syrens, preventing them from trying to attack her, but the distraction brought her within feet of another rock before she noticed it. She quickly ascended to dodge it, with only her hoof banging against it.

“Is that a windstorm up ahead?” Celestia said. “Hold on!”

“Ah!” Fluttershy hadn’t yet noticed the strong wind current up ahead, and by the time she looked up, Celestia guided her right into it. The force of the wind slammed into her and briefly sent her spinning out of control, but Celestia quickly righted her orientation and kept her going.

“Don’t be such a baby,” Celestia said. “It’s only wind. At least it’s not poisonous or acidic, then you’d be in real trouble.”

“That’s easy for you to—ow!—say!” Fluttershy said. She fired at a Wave Angler while trying to avoid the rocks, but was hit by one of the Wave Angler’s attacks. “I’m risking life and limb here while you’re sitting comfortably back in Skyworld…” Almost immediately, Fluttershy realized what she had said. “Oh, I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean that! I’m just under—”

“It’s alright, Fluttershy,” Celestia reassured her. “But remember that I’m not just sitting here leisurely. I am controlling your flight path after all.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” Fluttershy said. She flew through another windstorm, this one just as strong as the last one. She made a sound between a grunt and a squeak, but flew through it unharmed. Looking to her right, she noticed an opening in one of the sides of the ravine.

“You’re heading into a cave now,” Celestia said as she led her into the opening. “Be careful.”

Fluttershy quickly noticed that this cave was a more favorable route. While it was much narrower than the ravine, it was mostly a straight path, and she didn’t have to avoid any rock formations jutting out from both sides. She quickly flew out of the cave and found herself flying in the ravine again. Several Shrips and Syrens appeared, but Fluttershy quickly defeated them. The rock formations were appearing less frequently and the walls of the ravine were becoming smoother, but more enemies were appearing ahead of her. Monoeyes and Syrens appeared around her, Shrips flew ahead of her and tried to tackle her with bladed heads spinning, and Handoras crawled along the ravine’s walls while trying to shoot at her.

“There are many enemies up ahead,” Celestia said.

“Yeah, I kind of noticed,” Fluttershy said anxiously while firing back at the Underworld monsters. She dodged two shots from a pair of Gyrazors, but a Mik suddenly flew in front of her and lashed her with its tongue. Fluttershy recoiled in pain, but continued flying and defeated several more enemies. Soon, she reached the end the ravine and stopped. Monoeyes and Miks appeared from above and surrounded her, and she struggled to dodge them while firing back.

“This looks like a dead end,” Celestia said. “There must be a way out. Hm…” She searched around the ravine while keeping Fluttershy in midair. The ravine was supposed to lead to the Reaper Fortress, but there were multiple forks in it and numerous caves that led to dead ends. Because of its labyrinthine appearance, even Celestia was having trouble navigating it. Meanwhile, four Shrips had flown down to attack Fluttershy, each one carrying a Mik. Fluttershy fired at both enemy types, but had to quickly dodge two bombs thrown at her by two Daphnes. “Down there!” Celestia said, directing Fluttershy to a cave below. “I’m getting you out.”

Fluttershy saw a narrow beam of red light running in front of the cave’s entrance. Recognizing it as the gaze of a Reaper, she started firing at it while Celestia sent her toward the cave. She couldn’t hit the Reaper in time, but Celestia was able to guide her past the monster’s gaze without being detected. Eight Handoras appeared ahead of Fluttershy, but she managed to quickly shoot them all down before flying out of the cave and into another ravine. However, she heard several chirps just seconds after flying out. Unfortunately, a Reaper was watching the area ahead, and when she flew into its field of vision, it summoned three Reapettes to attack her.

“The Underworld forces are a lot more organized than they were before,” Fluttershy said. She took out the Reapettes and killed a third Reaper up ahead.

“I doubt these underlings would have managed it own their own,” Celestia said. “It’s a sure sign that Nightmare Moon is back in power.” Fluttershy flew into another cave, taking out ten more Handora’s before flying out the other end. When she emerged, a Wave Angler and three Minos appeared ahead of her. She killed the other three monsters, but barely avoided a shot from the Wave Angler. Celestia guided Fluttershy into another tunnel, this one having smoother walls than any of the previous ones. “You’re almost there!” Celestia said. Fluttershy noticed a light at the end of the tunnel and quickly headed toward it. “Three… two… one… contact!”

When Fluttershy reached the end, she saw the Reaper Fortress. A large defensive wall in the shape of an animal’s spine stretched around the structure, except for its front entrance. The façade was adorned with what appeared to be the skulls of monsters, and several massive formations towered behind the fortress, all modeled in the shape of rib bones. The barren earth and dreary atmosphere around the area only added to the Reaper Fortress’ macabre appearance. Fluttershy approached the structure, ready to land within a few seconds, when two red lasers suddenly shot at her from it.

Celestia quickly pulled Fluttershy up to avoid the lasers, but several more lasers fired from the surrounding walls. She frantically guided Fluttershy away from the fortress as dozens of laser beams fired. Meanwhile, Fluttershy was absolutely terrified as each successive laser came closer and closer to hitting her. Under any other circumstances, her wings would have folded at her sides and locked in place. Even if she could fly on her own, she’d never be able to unfurl them unless she could calm down. However, thanks to the power of flight, Celestia was in full control of Fluttershy’s wings and kept her in flight.

“There’s no chance of getting in from above,” Celestia said as she brought Fluttershy away from the Reaper Fortress. “You’ll have to break through the front.”

Fluttershy flew down to the end of a wooden bridge that lead to the front entrance. A Reaper was patrolling the area in front of the bridge, but Fluttershy took it out with her Orbitars. She apprached the fortress again, this time flying just above the wooden bridge. The lasers fired again, but they all aimed too high to reach her as she flew toward the Reaper Fortress and crashed through its front doors.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy was lying on the ground just inside the entrance to the Reaper fortress. “Fluttershy, are you alright?” Celestia asked.

“I… think so,” Fluttershy said as she slowly stood up.

“Then let’s get moving,” Celestia said. “The force obscuring Chrysalis is deep within this fortress.”

Up ahead, Fluttershy saw the blade of a guillotine slam into the ground and slowly rise back up. The blade didn’t extend from wall to wall, so she was able to walk around it. She turned right and found another guillotine blade. This one extended along the entire width of the path, so she had to run through it at the right time to avoid being bisected or decapitated. Fluttershy approached the guillotine anxiously and stood right in front of it when the blade slammed into the ground in front of her. She flinched at first, but quickly ran through when the blade rose up again.

“Remember that there are going to be Reapers up ahead,” Celestia said. “They may look evil and crazy, but there’s a good reason for that. They are evil and crazy. But they won’t bother you if you stay out of their sight.”

“So I should try to sneak around to get past them?” Fluttershy asked as she walked through a door. She turned left and found a Reaper patrolling a corridor. The Reaper was walking in the other direction, so it wouldn’t see her until it turned around. After working up the courage, Fluttershy moved into the corridor as quickly and quietly as she could and hid inside an alcove on the right. She hid in a corner of the alcove and waited for the Reaper to make its sweep of the corridor. As the Reaper passed by, she tried to keep her heavy breathing as quiet as possible. Fortunately, it passed by without detecting her, and Fluttershy ran to the other end of the corridor and walked through the door. “That was close,” Fluttershy said, her heart still racing.

“Luckily for you, there aren’t very many Reapers here right now,” Celestia said. “There must be a soul harvest going on somewhere.”

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy said as she continued searching the fortress.

“Reapers are soul carriers,” Celestia said. “When a being dies, they take its soul to the Underworld. The earth ponies probably started another war, which means a lot more souls to deal with.”

“Why are they always fighting?” Fluttershy asked. “It’s so sad and pointless.”

“Yes, but we gods fight too. And when we do, earth ponies are always caught in the middle.”

“So this war against the Underworld Army is causing the Reapers to work overtime.”

“I’m the one who should be working overtime,” Celestia said guiltily. “Then there’d be less soul harvesting. Ponies get frustrated, even destructive, when we gods don’t provide for their welfare.”

“Don’t say that,” Fluttershy said. “Everyone loves the goddess of light. You know that. And I’m sure you try your best.”

“Thank you, Fluttershy. Now then, let’s proceed.” Using her magic, Celestia created a pair of rails in front of Fluttershy. The rails were parallel to each other and extended through part of the fortress.

“What are these?”

“Those are grind rails,” Celestia said. “I’ll try to put these in to help you move around.”

Fluttershy hesitated for a few seconds before eventually hopping onto the grind rails. Almost immediately, the magic within the rails flowed into her and carried her along them. “Whoa…”

“It beats walking, doesn’t it,” Celestia said. “This will lead you into the courtyard.”

Fluttershy jumped off once she reached the end of the rails. She walked back into fortress and made her way through one of its hallways. At the end of the hallway, she found herself in a circular room lined with blue torches, As soon as she entered the room, a bipedal, cyclopic monster jumped in. The creature had purple skin, wore a blue robe, and held a mage's staff in one hand.

“An Eggplant Wizard,” Celestia said.

“At what?” Fluttershy asked. The monster threw a bomb at Fluttershy, but she quickly jumped out of the way.

“If you get hit by one of its bombs, it will turn you into an eggplant.”

“That’s… um, I don’t know what to think about that…” Fluttershy fired a pair of charge shots from her orbitars followed by several smaller shots.

“Trust me, that’s not a good thing,” Celestia said. “If you get turned into an eggplant, you won’t be able to attack. My magic can turn you back into a pony, but it’ll take a while. Until it does, you’ll be completely defenseless.”

“Oh… that actually is a bad thing,” Fluttershy said. After one more pair of charge shots, the Eggplant Wizard was killed and Fluttershy moved on. She went through the door and found herself standing on a walkway above the next room. Two pendulum blades swung across the center of the walkway.

“Watch out for those blades and be careful not to fall,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy carefully approached the blades and ran past the first one after one of its sweeps. However, a Shelbo, a spiked green shell with a large purple mouth, appeared behind the other pendulum blade. It opened its mouth and tried to suck Fluttershy in. Fluttershy turned around and galloped, trying to get away from the monster that was pulling her toward it. Unfortunately, her hoof slipped on the edge of the walkway and she fell down into the room below.

“Fluttershy, are you alright?” Celestia said as Fluttershy struggled to stand back up. “Don’t panic, but there’s a Clubberskull nearby.” Fluttershy looked around at the room she had fallen into. The dungeon was littered with spike pits and pools of strange purple liquid, and there was a skull twitching at one end of the room. “It’s trapped for now, so I suggest leaving it alone. It’s one dangerous enemy.”

Fluttershy backed away from the creature and was about to turn around when a Zuree, a ghostly monster with hooked red claws, suddenly lunged at her. Fluttershy whimpered and jumped back, firing a pair of charge shots at the same time. One of the charge shots killed the Zuree, but the other shot past it and struck the Clubberskull. As soon as the shot made contact, the lower jaw separated from the rest of the skull. A giant red and purple heart emerged from the skull with two grotesque arms attached to the upper and lower jaws.

“The Clubberskull’s loose!” Celestia said. “Get out of there!”

Fluttershy frantically searched the room for a way to escape. She found a door at the other end of the room and galloped toward, but it refused to open for her. She could hear the loud thumps on the ground as the Clubberskull quickly crawled toward her on its arms. Fluttershy started panicking and knocking on the door, but it still refused to open. The Clubberskull was closing in on her, and she looked around for another way out. Seeing a circular pad on the ground, she decided to test her luck and galloped toward it. Unfortunately, the Clubberskull reached her and struck her with one of its arms. The impact threw her off the ground into a wall, and when she dropped back down, she fell into a pit in front of the locked door. However, instead of being impaled by spikes, Fluttershy landed in another room beneath the Clubberskull. Despite having woken up the monster, she had been lucky enough to find the only pit in that room that wasn’t a spike pit.

“Fluttershy, are you hurt?” Celestia said.

Fluttershy groaned as she slowly stood back up on her hooves. “I-I can still walk,” she said. She placed her hoof on her head and tried to recover from what just happened. When she opened her eyes, she found herself standing in front of a familiar shaft of light. “Celestia… I think I found another Zodiac Chamber.”

“I think you’re right,” Celestia said. “This certainly wasn’t the best way to find one of them, but you’re still lucky to find it. Go in and take the weapon inside.”

Fluttershy walked into the shaft of light and entered the Zodiac Chamber. This one looked identical to the first one, but as she approached the other side of it, a different weapon appeared, the Taurus Arm. The weapon, resembling a silver gauntlet with long, curved horns attached to it, vanished as soon as she picked it up, ready for her to use in a future mission, and she quickly exited the chamber. Now that she had the second Zodiac treasure, she had to get back to her mission. She found another circular pad, much like the one in the Clubberskull’s dungeon, several feet away from the Zodiac Chamber's entrance. She examined the pad for several and was about to place her hoof on it.

“That’s a jump pad,” Celestia said. “It’ll catapult you to a set location. You found one earlier when that Clubberskull attacked you, and it should lead you back to that walkway.”

As soon as Fluttershy stepped onto the jump pad, it threw her into the air and onto a ledge above it. She turned around and found a doorway nearby. The door closed behind her as she stepped through it, and when she looked around, she realized that she had just stepped through the locked door from earlier. Trying to shake off her irritated thoughts, Fluttershy found the other jump pad and ran toward it. The Clubberskull was sealed away again in the exact same position she had found it, and she had no trouble reaching the jump pad and getting back onto the walkway.

The Shelbo was still at the end of the walkway, and when Fluttershy got past the first pendulum blade, it opened its mouth to suck her in. Fluttershy fired a pair of charge shots into the Shelbo’s mouth, causing it to close again. Fluttershy continued to attack with continuous fire at its lips, eventually killing the monster.

“What do you think of those orbitars, Fluttershy?” Celestia asked. “I notice you’re using them for this mission.”

“It’s weird how they just float there,” Fluttershy said after running past the second pendulum blade.

“Orbitars are physical manifestations of divine protective powers,” Celestia said. “While they can be used to attack, they were originally created to defend.”

“Defend?” Fluttershy mused while exploring more of the fortress. “Well, since they float above my shoulders, I can move more easily with them.”

“They do allow unimpeded movement while you’re shooting with them, which is one advantage they have over other weapon types,” Celestia said.

“Are any of the other weapon types hard to carry around?”

“Hmm… Out of the ones you haven’t used yet, I find it hard to imagine you carrying three of them.” Celestia examined the Fairy Orbitars that Fluttershy was using. They resembled glass figurines with wings, bodies, and heads with no facial features. One of them was purple with red dotted eyes while the other had blue eyes and an aquatic color to its body. A mischievous idea came to her, and she decided to use her magic to perform a little ventriloquism. “Hello?”

“Hmm?”

“Hey!”

Fluttershy looked up at one of the orbitars above her. “A-Are you talking to me?”

“Listen!”

“What is it?”

“Hey! Listen!”

“I’m listening…”

“Hello?” Fluttershy looked up at the other orbitar, thinking that she heard it speak as well. “Hey!”

“Listen!”

“I am listening,” Fluttershy said, starting to get a little annoyed. “What are you trying to tell me?”

“Watch out!”

“Huh?” Fluttershy said as she walked into another room of the fortress. When she turned her attention away from the orbitars, she saw a Reaper patrolling the room. Fluttershy squeaked and ran out of the room. She looked back into the room she had just run out of. There were two Reapers patrolling it, and she would have to sneak past them. She walked back in the room and made sure she knew where the Reapers were. Once she decided that she could sneak in between their shared patrol route, she quietly crept up behind one and kept her distance.

“Hey! Listen!”

Fluttershy was startled when she heard that voice again. “Shh! They’ll hear you!” she whispered. “Please be quiet!”

“Watch out!”

“Hey! Listen!”

“Be quiet!” Fluttershy hissed. “Are you trying to tell them where I am?”

“Hello?”

"Watch out!”

Fluttershy was too busy pleading with her orbitars to see where she was going, and she accidentally bumped into one of the Reapers. The Reaper stumbled a bit, and when it turned around, it saw Fluttershy standing behind it. Fluttershy jumped back when the Reaper swung its scythe at her. She ran toward the next room while the Reaper summoned two Reapettes and chased after her. Fluttershy ran through several rooms trying to lose them, all the while hearing voices from the two orbitars above her. Eventually, she managed to escape the Reaper and found herself in another room within the fortress.

“Hello?”

“What do you want from me?” Fluttershy said angrily. Unbeknownst to her, three Paramushes were dropping into the room. “You almost got me killed. You haven’t shut up since you started talking. If you have something to tell me, then tell me!”

“Hey! Listen!”

“Watch out!”

Fluttershy looked around and quickly dodged an attack from one of the Paramushes. All three of them had landed on the ground and were running around. Fluttershy tried to aim at them with the orbitars, but they were moving too erratically, and she had to keep dodging their attacks.

“Hey! Listen!”

“Not not!” Fluttershy growled. “I’m busy!” Fluttershy saw two Octos appear in the room and fired at them. She managed to take out one of them, but was blindsided when a tripedal tortoise monster, Tortolunk spun into her, throwing her into a wall before she landed on the ground. The voice coming from the orbitars kept going, making Fluttershy angrier as she struggled to get back on her hooves.

“Hello?” “Hey! Listen!” “Hey! Listen!” “Hey! Listen!” "Watch out!” “Hey!” “Listen!” “Hello?” “Hey! Listen!”

“SHUT UP!”

As soon as Fluttershy’s outburst echoed throughout the room, everything changed. Any monsters in the room that she hadn’t killed were frightened off and ran away. The orbitars were now completely silent, and Fluttershy was standing in the middle of the room, still panting and fuming after being tormented for so long. “Is something wrong, Fluttershy?” Celestia asked, holding back a chuckle. She had temporarily cut off her telepathic link earlier so that Fluttershy couldn’t hear her chuckling to herself.

“Yes there’s something wrong!” Fluttershy said. “These orbitars must be broken or something. They keep talking to me and they won’t shut up or leave me alone.”

“I don’t know how to tell you this, Fluttershy,” Celestia said, “but I’ve been watching you this entire time, and I haven’t heard any voices except your own.”

“… Wh-What?”

“Look, you’ve been through a lot these past few missions,” Celestia said. “I recommend you get some rest when you come back to Skyworld. I’m sure that you’ll be just fine after you get a chance to relax.”

“Thank you, Princess Celestia,” Fluttershy said.

“Don’t thank me yet,” Celestia said. She created a pair of grind rails leading up to a door at the top of the room. “You still have a mission to complete.” Fluttershy hopped onto the grind rails and rode them up to their destination. Celestia watched as she jumped off the rails and found an elevator in the next room. ‘Maybe I’ve been too hard on Fluttershy lately,’ she thought. ‘I should get her a gift to cheer her up. But what can I get her?’ Celestia thought about it for several seconds. She knew she had to consider this decision carefully. After all, Fluttershy didn’t like the last gift she had given her at all. ‘Oh I know! I remember seeing this cute little pair of orbitars once. I’m sure she’ll just love them! Now if only I knew where to find them.’

The elevator reached its destination and Fluttershy stepped out of it. Searching the immediate area, she found three passages leading from the elevator. She checked the left one first and discovered, to her delight, a pool of steaming water at the end of it.

“Well, well,” Celestia said. “It appears that this place is equipped with some hot springs.”

“Um, Celestia?” Fluttershy said hopefully. “Would it be any trouble if I got a little R and R right now?”

“Of course not,” Celestia said. “But are you stepping into it wearing that tunic again?”

“Shh, can’t talk now,” Fluttershy said shortly after walking in. “Hot spring.” She sat down and spent the next few minutes lounging in the hot spring, letting the warm water and steam soothe her aching joints and wounds. Celestia watched as her army captain relaxed in the water. The orbitars were still hovering above Fluttershy’s body, and Celestia was briefly tempted to repeat her recent prank. She quickly decided against it, and watched as a look of contentment spread over Fluttershy’s face.

Minutes later, Fluttershy stepped out of the hot spring and walked back to where the three paths branched off. The one on the right had a Reaper at the end of it, so she decided to take the middle path instead. She slipped past two more guillotine blades and found a large door at the end of it.

“You’re closing in on the force that’s obscuring Chrysalis’ location,” Celestia said.

“I figured the evil lighting wasn’t just for show,” Fluttershy said, noting the red lights that illuminated the door and surrounding area. The door opened as Fluttershy approached it, and she stepped through it, feeling ready to take on whatever was behind it.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy ran into a hall deep in the Reaper Fortress. At the center of the hall was a Reaper taking a leisurely scroll. The Reaper turned to notice Fluttershy come in and started chirping, much like any other Reaper. But this one didn’t chase after her, and instead a bright light filled the room. Within a few seconds, this Reaper grew in size and towered over Fluttershy.

“Wh-What is that thing?!” Fluttershy stammered while stepping back.

“That Great Reaper must be the one who’s hidden Chrysalis’ Labyrinth of Deceit,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy continued backing away from the monster and accidentally stepped onto a jump pad. “Eep!” she whimpered while being tossed off the ground and onto a balcony above.

“This area is split into two levels,” Celestia said, “so just switch levels depending on how it attacks.” The Great Reaper slammed its scythe onto the balcony, sending out waves from its blade. Fluttershy ran along the balcony to avoid the waves and fired a pair of charge shots at it, hitting its chest. The Great Reaper responded by shooting lasers out of its eyes. The lasers struck Fluttershy in the chest and knocked her back. “Those aren’t just flirty looks coming from the Great Reaper’s eyes.”

“Let me guess,” Fluttershy said, placing a hoof on her singed chest. “They’re death rays.”

“In a nutshell,” Celestia said. “And if you get hit, it’ll summon Reapettes.” Fluttershy noticed five Reapettes appear around the Great Reaper and fly toward her. “That Great Reaper has quite the evil eye.”

“How can you make puns at a time like this?” Fluttershy muttered while shooting the Reapettes.

“The same way that I can make small talk with you while you’re on a dangerous mission.”

“I really wish you’d stop doing that,” Fluttershy said while firing a pair of charge shots at the Great Reaper’s head.

“You still have another twenty-one missions left, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “I suggest you get used to it.”

The Great Reaper placed the blade of its scythe parallel to the balcony and prepared to swing it across. Fluttershy saw a set of stairs leading to the lower level and ran toward them. By the time the Great Reaper’s scythe swept across the balcony, she was halfway down the stairs and took the opportunity to fire another charge shot at it. The charge shot struck the Great Reaper’s eyes, causing it to stumble back and place its hand on its face.

“I think I’ve found the Great Reaper’s weak points,” Celestia said. “They’re its head and little toes. Targeting the head should be more effective.”

“Um, right!” Fluttershy said as she ran back up the stairs. She fired another pair of charge shots at the Great Reaper’s head and dodged another series of waves from its scythe.

“It looks like you’re making progress,” Celestia said.

“This isn’t as hard as I thought it would be,” Fluttershy said while firing a few shots.

“I think the Great Reaper might actually be less troublesome than any of the regular Reapers,” Celestia suggested. “Probably because this one is so slow and cumbersome.” The next two charge shots cracked the Great Reaper’s head, just above the eyes, causing a light to pour out of it. “Now, finish it!”

“Right!” Fluttershy aimed for the light and fired two more charge shots. The Great Reaper stumbled back after getting hit and clutched its head before falling to the ground. Fluttershy briefly watched as its body faded before she turned and walked away. “You know what, Princess Celestia?”

“What’s that, Fluttershy?”

“Even though I almost died, I’ve really enjoyed our time together.”

“Aw, you poor thing,” Celestia said. “You really need to make some friends.” Fluttershy was slightly taken aback, but she smiled and gave a quick wink before Celestia extracted her. “Now let’s go find Chrysalis.”

Chrysalis' Labyrinth of Deceit

Chapter 5: Chrysalis’ Labyrinth of Deceit

Fluttershy galloped through a darkened hallway until she reached a familiar set of doors. The doors opened before her, and the yellow aura of Celestia’s magic surrounded her wings as she jumped out and took flight. “You’re destination is Chrysalis’ Labyrinth of Deceit,” Celestia said “The Reapers certainly hid it well.”

Fluttershy looked around, but couldn’t see anything around her except for the clear, open sky. “What are you talking about?” she asked. “I don’t see anything.” A second later, she found what appeared to be a crack in the sky. The anomaly started to expand when she approached it. A second later, it suddenly opened up, revealing a spatial rift in the middle of the sky. “Whoa!”

“And here we have a space pocket,” Celestia said. “In you go!”

“O-Okay…” Fluttershy murmured as Celestia guided her into the rift. The blue sky was replaced with green as she flew through the rift and into what appeared to be a tunnel. In a flash, the green was replaced with a netlike pattern of black and white. The patterns undulated above and below her like waves on the ocean’s surface. “This is getting weird.”

“The goddess of calamity has always been weird, bizarre even,” Celestia said. “She even looks bizarre. It’s no surprise that the path to her would be as twisted as she is.”

Fluttershy watched three Komaytos floating ahead of her as they flew into the undulations above. Almost immediately, three Monoeyes appeared from the very spot that the Komaytos had flown toward. “I’d say unhinged is more like it,” she said. Attached to her foreleg was an orange cannon with a dog's head acting as the muzzle. Several bones and two flames decorated the body of the cannon, and a curved tusk was equipped to the right side of the mouth. Fluttershy aimed her weapon, the Twinbellows Cannon, and shot down the three Monoeyes. After another bright flash, the scenery changed again, and Fluttershy appeared to be flying in the middle of an aurora. Two Monoliths hurtled toward her, and six more Monoeyes flew out from behind one of them to attack her. Fluttershy dodged two shots from the Monoeyes and shot down all six of them with continuous fire. Once the last one died, an octagonal tunnel formed at the center of the aurora. “What’s that?”

“Chrysalis’ Labyrinth of Deceit,” Celestia said. Fluttershy flew toward the tunnel, and when she reached the end of it, the labyrinth stretched out ahead of her. Three dimensional shapes and objects extended from the walls and floors around her: Pyramidal objects jutted out of the floor, boxlike polyhedrons emerged from the left walls, and tubes extended from the right and led into the ceiling. “This is not what I expected.” Celestia sent Fluttershy into the labyrinth. None of the objects extended too far out of the walls, so she didn’t have to worry about Fluttershy running into anything.

Fluttershy kept flying through, taking out several Monoeyes along the way. However, some of the objects ahead appeared to move toward her in a peculiar way. Suddenly, she stopped in midair just as the path ahead seemed to pop up right in front of her. Fluttershy extended her left foreleg and felt out in front of her. Her hoof touched against something flat and solid as she moved her foreleg up and down. “Whoa,” she said, realizing that there was a wall in front of her painted to look like the path that she was on.

“Tricky tricky,” Celestia mused out loud. “A false path. Chrysalis is trying to psyche you out.” She noticed that there was a real path on the right and turned Fluttershy in that direction.

Meanwhile, the labyrinth’s geometric design was starting to confuse Fluttershy. Everything around her seemed to blend in, almost as if she was getting lost in a hall of mirrors. She passed by several corridors along the way and hoped that Celestia knew where she was going. Each of those branching pathways could have been a dead end, or even a convoluted mess of a route that just went around in circles. Then again, those pathways could have simply been painted onto the walls. Because of the simple geometric shapes and shading effects, Fluttershy wasn’t sure she could tell the difference. “How does Chrysalis come up with this stuff?” she asked.

“Messing with ponies is what she does best,” Celestia said. She led Fluttershy down the corridor, but was forced to stop when the path popped up in front of Fluttershy again.

“Not again.”

“Yes, another psyche out,” Celestia said, turning Fluttershy left this time. Along the way, Fluttershy fired at groups of Handoras, Monoeyes and Miks that hovered along the walls. She eventually reached the end of this hallway, but instead of a false path, she saw a hole in the floor. Celestia guided Fluttershy down, wondering what would come next. From the moment they entered the Labyrinth of Deceit, there were arrows pointing down each pathway. It seemed like Chrysalis could trap her victims in an infinitely convoluted construct of a reality, but instead she seemed to be leading them to her. She couldn’t help but wonder if Chrysalis was doing this for entertainment or if she had something sinister planned.

Fluttershy flew down the shaft, shooting down several monsters along the way. Three trapdoors appeared at the bottom of the shaft, and one of them opened as she approached them, leading further down. Even though the other two seemed to lead in the same direction, she wondered if they would have sent her deeper into some other part of the labyrinth. Three more trapdoors appeared further down, and Fluttershy flew into the one that opened up.

“The path branches up ahead,” Celestia said. “I’ll let you decide which way to go this time.”

“Wait, does that mean you don’t know the way?” Fluttershy asked. The only response she received was silence as she approached another set of trap doors, but this time, two of them were open. The possibility that Celestia was having trouble navigating the labyrinth made Fluttershy even more worried. “Um… let’s go right.”

Celestia directed her toward the right trapdoor, only to find that the path ended only two seconds later. “Hmm, a dead end,” she said. “And it looks like you’re trapped.” Fluttershy turned around and saw four Syrens behind her. Two of them fired at her, but she dodged them and defeated all four with a charge shot. Now that the way out was clear, Celestia guided her back to where the path branched and into the trapdoor on the left. “Oh my!” she gasped. As soon as they reached the end, they saw that this path had taken them somewhere else. Instead of the geometric patterns and false paths from before, Fluttershy was now flying inside an enormous tube. The walls of the tube were transparent, and she could see the outside of the labyrinth through those walls.

“We can’t let her get to us!” Fluttershy urged while maneuvering past five Monoliths. “I have to hurry to Chrysalis before the power of flight runs out.”

“That would be… problematic,” Celestia said. “I can’t extract you if Chrysalis’ powers are still active.”

“But if that happens,” Fluttershy said anxiously, “does that mean I’ll be… trapped here forever?” She fired at a group of twelve Monoeyes ahead of her while waiting for a response.

“Not forever, but indefinitely.”

“That doesn’t sound any better.”

“No, it doesn’t.” Celestia directed Fluttershy toward the end of the end of the tube and into a massive room. “It’s a Handora ambush!” she said as dozens of Handoras scurried along the walls and shot at Fluttershy.

“What?” Fluttershy said. “It’s Pando—no wait, we’re calling her Chrysalis in this.” She fired back at as many of the Handoras as she could.

“Besides, I said Handora. You know, the… hand… monster.”

“Hmm… I have to agree with Pit,” Fluttershy said. “For a master of deceit, that’s not a very good play on words.” She continued firing at the Handoras. Eventually, another trapdoor opened at the bottom of the room. “A way out!”

“Now’s your chance,” Celestia said, guiding her toward the hole and out of the room. Fluttershy flew down the passageway, shooting down any Handoras that went in after her. At the end of the passageway, she was enveloped in a bright light. When the light subsided, she found herself looking up at a cloudy sky.

“Wait a second…” Fluttershy said. "I’m outside now?” She looked down and saw a grassy plain and below her. In addition to the grassland, there were several lakes nearby and a mountain range off in the distance. She seemed to recognize the area, almost as if she had flown through here recently.

“This could be another trick.”

“But it all seems so real…” She spotted a huge Belunka flying ahead of her and decided to shoot at it. The Belunka didn’t turned back when it was pelted by Fluttershy’s attacks. Instead, it regurgitated several smaller Belunkas. Fluttershy turned her attention to the smaller ones, but didn’t have time to finish off the bigger one before everything suddenly went black around her. Seconds later, she found herself flying through the labyrinth again; through the same kinds of geometric patterns from before. “This is so confusing.” A Monolith flew in front of her, and when it passed by, five Monoeyes appeared from behind it.

“It isn’t called the Labyrinth of Deceit for nothing, Fluttershy,” Celestia pointed out.

“The name is the only straightforward thing about this place.”

“The path branches again,” Celestia said abruptly.

“Huh?” Fluttershy looked ahead and saw two paths at the end of the corridor. “And I have to pick one again? Uh… left!” She flew into the left pathway, only to reach the end of it three seconds later. “Don’t tell me this is a dead end.”

“Let’s go back before the power of flight runs out,” Celestia said. She turned Fluttershy around and guided her out. A few Monoeyes and a Ganewmede appeared, but Fluttershy defeated them all before flying into the other pathway. However, this path also ended abruptly.

“Is this a dead end?”

The uncertainty in Celestia’s voice was evident as she pulled Fluttershy out of that passage. “Yes…? No…? Uh…”

“We’re losing our grip here!”

“No, I just need to think…”

“Could you think a little faster please?” Fluttershy pleaded after shooting down several Gyrazors and an Octos. When she emerged from the passage, she found herself in the middle of an enormous chamber. Within the chamber, she saw several crystal columns ahead of her.

“I’m-I’m getting a handle on things now,” Celestia said. “Okay, watch out for the columns around you. They’ll reflect your fire.”

Fluttershy flew around the columns as she passed through. Several Reapettes and Shulms appeared, but she decided to fly around them instead of risking shooting at the columns. Moments later, she went into a tunnel at the end of the chamber, but when she emerged from the other side, she appeared to be floating in outer space. She saw thousands of stars and a few nebulae off in the distance, along with a hoofful of asteroids nearby.

“This is hurting my head,” Fluttershy moaned.

“I believe we’re close to our target,” Celestia said. Looking around, she noticed a group of Monoeyes moving into an arrow-shaped formation. The arrow pointed down at two jump pads on the surface of an asteroid. ‘She’s definitely leading us to her,’ she thought.

Fluttershy flew toward the asteroid and stepped onto the jump pad on the left. The jump pad launched her into another asteroid, but instead of colliding with it, she noticed the environment around her change again. She was now flying in between two walls with grid patterns drawn on them. After fighting through a group of Monoeyes and Splins, she flew into a tunnel in between both walls.

“We’re nearing the landing spot,” Celestia said.

“You’re sure it’s not another illusion, right?” Fluttershy said as she flew down toward the ground.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy landed on the ground and scanned her surroundings, only to realize that there weren’t any doors around her. She wondered where she was supposed to go when the world around her seemed to invert. Suddenly, her hooves lifted off of the ground and she fell upward, landing on the ceiling above her. She got back on her hooves and stood back up again. As she stood, the mouth of her Twinbellows Cannon opened up and slid back, exposing her front right hoof and allowing her to stand on it.

“Quite the thrill seekers, aren’t you?”

“Chrysalis?” Fluttershy said, responding to the second telepathic voice she was hearing. She entered through a door in front of her and found a Bluster and two Skuttler Cannoneers in the next room. Her weapon slid back into place as she lifted her hoof and aimed at the monsters.

“The goddess of calamity,” Celestia said. “We let ourselves in. I hope you don’t mind.”

“Oh please. Make yourselves at home,” Chrysalis said. “Doesn’t bother me. But you should know that the whole ‘goddess of calamity’ was really the old me. The new me leads a more grounded life. Yoga, macrobiotics, reflexology.”

“Macrobiotics?” Celestia said. “Last time I checked, you fed on the emotions of other ponies.”

“How dare you take that tone with me?” Chyrsalis said coldly. “Especially since calamity is really more your domain these days. It’s really quite insulting.”

Fluttershy moved toward the next door after taking out the monsters in the room. Her legs were shaking from the lingering effects of one of the Bluster’s attacks, but it would wear off after a while. As soon as she entered the next room, she found herself in front of five nearly identical doors. “There are so many doors,” she quietly remarked.

“And I’m sure there are just as many tricks,” Celestia said.

“What else would you expect?” Chrysalis said snidely.

Fluttershy studied each door carefully, but from a distance. While they all looked the same, each door had a number of bars drawn onto the wall next to it. “I’m not sure which one to pick,” she said. “Isn’t the author going to tell us which way to go?”

“Actually, I think I remember him leaving us a cheat sheet,” Celestia said. Fluttershy flexed her wings and scuffed her hoof on the floor as she stood by, idly waiting for Celestia to get back to her. It wasn't until a few seconds that Celestia spoke again. “My mistake, it’s not a cheat sheet. It just says to defeat Chrysalis as quickly as possible, preferably before she starts singing Disneigh… What an odd request.”

“I'm guessing he doesn't like The Little Mermare,” Fluttershy said. Eventually she turned right and decided to try the door marker with one bar. This door seemed to lead into a hallway, but when Fluttershy looked closer, she noticed that the walls and floors seemed to take on a lighter hue halfway down. After a while, she realized that it was actually a wall and that this was another false path. She took a step forward to examine it more closely, but when she placed her hoof on the ground, a trapdoor opened up in front of her. Deciding that there was nothing in this direction, she turned back and went through the door marked with two bars.

The next room looked much like the one she had been in earlier, with five doors around her to choose from. However, this room had a Merenguy in the center and two Monoeyes moving along the walls. She killed the Merenguy with a charge shot and a melee dash, then took out the Monoeyes with continuous fire. Now that the room was clear, she turned her attention back to this set of doors. Just like in the previous room, these doors were all numbered one through five going right to left. She decided to try the first door again, but when she stepped in front of it, he heard a buzzer sounding. Suddenly, the door flung open, knocking her back and tossing her onto the ground.

“That’s one of the oldest tricks in the book,” Celestia said. “Why not try door number two again? It worked before, didn’t it?”

Fluttershy stood back up, feeling annoyed at the situation she was in. Celestia’s suggestion was hardly reliable, but since she was trying each door in numerical order, she decided to try the second door anyway. “Where are we?” she asked as she stepped into another hallway.

“The Hall of Marvelous Moving Walls,” Celestia deadpanned, noting that the walls on either side were closing in on Fluttershy.

“You’re delivery stinks,” Chrysalis said. “Say it with feeling. This isn’t public radio, you know.”

Fluttershy trotted to the other end of the hallway. The walls never completely closed in on Fluttershy, but instead left her plenty of room to walk between them before moving away from each other. The next room was a dead end, or it appeared to be until the wall at the end of it moved back, revealing a longer hallway. It continued moving back as Fluttershy stepped in front of it.

“Be careful with that moving wall,” Celestia said, noticing a U-turn in the hallway.

“We’ve got a delicious pony panini on the menu today,” Chrysalis said.

Fluttershy moved around the U-turn and reached the end of the hall. She entered a massive chamber filled with various ramps, barriers and tracks. “Look, an Exo Tank,” Celestia said, pointing out a bronze vehicle with three hornlike blades on the front. “It’s a vehicle of the gods. Why don’t you take it for a spin?”

Fluttershy jumped into the Exo Tank and started driving it. Since the exit was on the other side of the room, she only drove it for a few seconds before climbing back out. “What am I doing here again?” she asked. “You know, aside from taking out one of Nightmare Moon’s commanders?”

“Chrysalis has the Mirror of Truth, making her Nightmare Moon’s most valuable commander,” Celestia said.

“What’s the Mirror of Truth?”

“The Mirror of Truth has the power to replicate anything that stands before it,” Celestia said. “It copies what’s in your heart and creates beings identical in nature. So what Chrysalis possesses is a way to create monsters on a catastrophic scale.”

“That’s one way of looking at things,” Chysalis said, almost tauntingly.

“Then it has the potential to create entire armies for Nightmare Moon,” Fluttershy said. “We have to destroy it! But wait, does the mirror copy the soul too? Or just the body?”

“That’s a good question,” Celestia said. “Maybe Chrysalis will tell us.”

“Do I look like a strategy guide? In case you haven’t noticed,” Chrysalis started before breaking into a yell, “this isn’t the Ask Auntie Chrysalis hour!”

“Eep!” Fluttershy squeaked, wincing at Chrysalis’ outburst.

“She makes a good point,” Celestia said, “especially when she yells.”

When Fluttershy reached the next room, she saw several platforms floating above a massive pit. In between each platform was a solid ring oriented so that Fluttershy could stand on its interior edge. However, the rings were rotating about an axis parallel to the direction that the platforms were leading. “Whoa, how do I deal with this?” Fluttershy asked.

“Get a sense for the timing and jump from platform to platform,” Celestia said.

“O-Okay,” Fluttershy said anxiously. She watched the platforms and rings carefully, whispering something about a hop, skip and jump before each bound. At the end of the room was an Octos firing at her, and she had to wait for its smoke rings to pass around her before moving to each of the other platforms.

“Having fun there?” Chrysalis mocked.

“Chrysalis certainly has…” Celestia started before switching to a whisper, “interesting ideas about interior design.”

“Rude, rude, rude!” Chrysalis said. “You don’t see me breaking into your home and criticizing your style.”

When Fluttershy reached the last ring in the chamber, they saw that it was actually broken up into multiple platforms. “Those platforms seem to spell something.”

“Is it a secret message?” Fluttershy asked.

“It says C-H-R-Y… S-A-L-I-S… There’s not much to decode here.”

“You’re just jealous of my knack for interior design and my flair for spelling,” Chrsyalis shot back.

“Yes, I’ll never have powers like yours,” Celestia said while rolling her eyes.

Fluttershy finally jumped to the last platform and made her way to the door at the end of the room. Behind that door, she found yet another hallway. Seeing nothing of interest in this hallway, Fluttershy decided to gallop across it and move on. However, despite her running, she didn’t seem to be getting much closer to the next door. “The exit’s moving away!” she said.

“Maybe you should stop running in place then,” Chrysalis taunted.

Fluttershy continued galloping toward the exit despite what little progress she was making. After running about three quarters of the way to it, she was forced to stop to catch her breath. She panted for a few seconds before looking back up at the door, which was still right there in front of her. Relieved that the room only moved when she did, she trotted the rest of the way and left the room. The next room she entered had an enormous track winding through it, and when Fluttershy walked in, she noticed an Exo Tank to the side.

“This must be some sort of Exo Tank racetrack,” Celestia said. “You might as well try it out since you’re here.”

Fluttershy jumped into the vehicle and drove onto the track. She made a turn on the track, and after seeing three Skuttler Cannoneers ahead of her, she tried to swerve around to avoid hitting them. She managed to drive around the first two, but wound up running over the third one, killing it with the blades on the Exo Tank’s front. Fluttershy looked back at the creature, slightly remorseful for having run it down, before shrugging it off and continuing her driving.

“A ramp has appeared next to the starting point,” Celestia said when Fluttershy was halfway through the first lap of the track. “Take it up to move forward.”

“You know I appreciate your help,” Fluttershy said. “But you don’t need to hold my hoof so much. I mean, if that’s okay.”

“That’s right. Hoofholding is strictly prohibited here,” Chrysalis said. “Not to be rude, but I have to project a certain aura of toughness.”

“We understand,” Celestia said. “Rules of being a boss.”

Using the ramp, Fluttershy reached the second floor above the racetrack. She jumped out of the Exo Tank and left through the nearby door. However, when she reached the next chamber, she saw that there wasn’t any floor to stand on. She looked down at the drop, but it was too far down to see if there was even a floor at the bottom. “Is this a dead end?”

“Hmm, I guess you’d better turn back,” Chrysalis said.

“No, it’s a trick,” Celestia said. “There’s an invisible path you can walk on.”

“Do you have to ruin everything?!” Chrysalis shouted. “Honestly now, I just said no hoofholding.”

Fluttershy looked down, wondering how she was going to find an invisible path. She placed her right hoof forward, and realized that she had her cannon with her. The cannon’s mouth slipped back into place over her hoof, and she fired at the abyss below her. The shots that hit the path bounded off of it, much like they did whenever they hit a wall or a floor, and the path in front of her momentarily became visible. This meant that she wouldn’t be able to stand on her front right hoof until she reached the end of the chamber, so she stepped forward on three hoofs while firing at the invisible path.

“How are you liking that cannon, Fluttershy?” Celestia asked.

“It’s very hard to move around with,” Fluttershy said. “But it’s nice taking out lot’s of enemies with a single blast.”

“That does seem convenient,” Celestia said. “Besides being extremely powerful, cannons also have a large blast radius, and their shots tend to detonate when an enemy gets close. Still, I’m surprised that you chose that particular cannon.”

“It was either this or the Fairy Orbitars again,” Fluttershy said with a shudder. “Although this one looks a bit familiar…”

“Some weapons are modeled after certain bosses that you’ve defeated,” Celestia said. “Sometimes they’re even crafted from the remains of that boss.”

Fluttershy stopped and stared at her weapon in horror. “So this cannon is…”

“No, no, no. That cannon is only modeled after Twinbellows, although you might remember him as Cerberus. I assure you that no monsters were harvested in the creation of that weapon.”

“Oh, well that’s… still a bit disturbing.”

“Nevertheless, Chrysalis is just up ahead,” Celestia said, noting that Fluttershy was approaching a door at the end of the invisible path. “It’s time for you to destroy the Mirror of Truth.”

* * * * * * * * * *

In the deepest corner of the Labyrinth of Deceit, Chrysalis heard hoof beats behind her and turned around to see Fluttershy run in. “You made it,” she said. “Yay.”

“Chrysalis!” Fluttershy said. One second later, she did a double take and stared at Chrysalis curiously.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Huh? Oh!” Fluttershy said while coming out of her confused state. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude. I just didn’t expect you to be so… badly decomposed.”

“Badly decomposed?!” Chrysalis shouted. “What is that supposed to mean?!”

“Well, um…” Fluttershy trailed off. “You have holes all over your legs, your wings look horribly tattered, your body is so thin and frail, and your color looks an awful lot like gangrene.” Chrysalis’ jaw dropped as she stared back at Fluttershy, utterly flabbergasted. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“How dare you?!” Chrysalis bellowed, causing Fluttershy to flinch. “Maybe you should look at your own appearance before judging anypony else’s.” Chrysalis flew over to the side, revealing a large mirror behind her. A bright light shone from the mirror’s surface and enveloped the room. Fluttershy held a foreleg over her eyes to avoid being blinded by the light.

“That’s the Mirror of Truth!” Celestia said. “Fluttershy, you have to destroy that mirror! Fluttershy, now!”

After hearing Celestia’s orders, Fluttershy ran toward the mirror and jumped, preparing to shatter it with her hooves. As she approached the mirror, she noticed her reflection in its polished surface. At first, the mirror reflected her appearance perfectly, but within seconds, a black aura formed over the reflection and she saw its eyes flash. A second later, her back hooves slammed into the mirror, shattering it as she flew through its frame. However, another figure emerged from the mirror’s frame as well, flying in the opposite direction.

As soon as Fluttershy landed back on the ground, she turned around and looked at the figure that emerged from the Mirror of Truth. “What the…” What she saw was another pegasus, but with a cyan body. Her mane, cut much shorter than Fluttershy’s, displayed all the colors of the rainbow, and her clothing, while similar to Fluttershy’s tunic, was colored black instead of white.

“Hey,” said the cyan pegasus, expressing the same aloofness in her voice, her rose colored eyes, and her body language in general.

“Let’s get right to introductions,” Chrysalis said as she landed next to the cyan pegasus. “This here is Dark Shy. She’ll be your escort out of this life.”

Suddenly, Dark Shy turned to face away from Chrysalis and kicked her with both hind legs. Chrysalis yelped as the kick hit her in the chest, tossing her back several feet. “Speak for yourself,” Dark Shy said smugly.

Chrysalis stood back up and glared at Dark Shy. “You fool!” she shouted. “You were created to serve me! Your opponent is over there!”

“You’re a boss, Chrysalis,” Dark Shy said. “But you’re not my boss.” Just like Fluttershy, she was equipped with a Twinbellows Cannon over her right foreleg. She aimed her weapon, which slid into place over her hoof, and fired at Chrysalis.

“Wait, so was creating Dark Shy part of Chrysalis’ plan all along?” Fluttershy asked.

“Having a pegasus can be helpful,” Celestia said. “And she’s quite the little scrapper, isn’t she? Use that to your advantage and take down Chrysalis together.”

Chrysalis shot several green fireballs at Dark Shy with her horn, but Dark Shy maneuvered past them and used a melee dash attack. The attack threw Chrysalis across the room, but she recovered and lifted off the ground using her wings. “The Mirror of Truth is just that,” she said. “It reflects the truth. It seems that under that cute veneer of yours, Fluttershy, you’re actually quite ferocious.”

“You don’t know anything about me!” Fluttershy said, firing a charge shot at Chrysalis. The shot ricocheted off the ground and exploded when it hit its target, but it had little effect. Using her magic, Chrysalis burst into flames and sunk into the ground, leaving behind only a few green flames to give away her location. The green flames traveled along the ground toward Fluttershy. Fluttershy tried to avoid them, but she couldn’t get away quickly enough. Once she was close enough, Chrysalis emerged explosively from the ground. The blast threw Fluttershy several feet back, tossed her onto the ground and singed parts of her coat.

“It doesn’t seem like you’re doing much damage to Chrysalis,” Celestia said as Fluttershy tried to stand up again. She watched as Chrysalis created three bombs with her magic and scattered them around the room. “Throwing her bombs back at her will be more effective. Try that.”

While Fluttershy had just gotten back on her hooves, Dark Shy thought of the same idea and used a melee dash attack to toss one bomb at Chrysalis. The bomb’s explosion threw Chrysalis back and left cracks in her body, but she quickly recovered and turned angrily toward Dark Shy. The green magical aura around her horn suddenly turned red, and she conjured up a whirlwind to pull Dark Shy toward her. Dark Shy tried to run away, but Chrysalis was following her movements. Her magic was about to pull Dark Shy in when another bomb suddenly collided with Chrysalis. The explosion interrupted her spell, knocked her down, and spread even more cracks throughout her body.

Fluttershy ran over to the last bomb and sent it toward Chrysalis with a melee dash attack. Chrysalis’ plating shattered as the last bomb detonated, and parts of her now lifeless body caught fire. Her remaining magical energy leaked out of the stub that remained of her horn, hovering just above her remains in a green cloud. Fluttershy stared at Chrysalis’ remains, her cannon aimed at what was left of the goddess of calamity. “And that’s that,” she said, allowing the weapon to slide back before lowering her hoof.

“Took you long enough,” Dark Shy muttered quietly. Her eyes looked from Chrysalis’ remains to Fluttershy, and she started galloping toward the latter. By the time Fluttershy noticed, she was too late to stop Dark Shy from charging at her and kicking her in the side. The kick threw her across the room, making her tumble when she landed on the ground.

“Fluttershy!” Celestia called out. Her attention turned from one pegasus to the other as she angrily addressed Dark Shy. “What did you do that for?!” Dark Shy responded with a defiant ‘hmph’ before turning and galloping toward Chrysalis’ remains. Chrysalis’ magic still hovered over what was left of her, and when Dark Shy was close enough, she leapt into the cloud of green magical energy. “What are you doing?!” Celestia said as Dark Shy landed on the ground.

A green magical aura swirled around Dark Shy’s body for a few seconds before concentrating around her wings. “Just making sure Chrysalis’ power doesn’t go to waste,” she said as she spread her wings. With a few wing beats, she lifted off of the ground and hovered in the air.

“She can fly?” Fluttershy said. She watched as Dark Shy turned and flew off, leaving the labyrinth.

“If she has Chrysalis’ powers, she could be allied with Nightmare Moon,” Celestia said as she began to extract Fluttershy. “We need to follow her.”

Dark Shy

Chapter 6: Dark Shy

Bright orange light shone through the doorway up ahead as Fluttershy galloped down the otherwise dark hallway. She slowed down as she approached the double doors, planted her hoofs, and leapt out through the portal. Her wings unfurled, and a bright yellow aura radiated off of them as she took flight.

“I’ve located Dark Shy,” Celestia’s voice sounded in her ear.

“Where is she?” Fluttershy asked. Before her eyes could search the skies around her, he felt something barrel into her. She grunted, but the power of flight kept her aloft, and she looked up to see Dark Shy herself hovering in the air above. In Dark Shy’s hoof was a version of the First Blade, but with a black metallic blade instead of a white one.

Fluttershy swerved as Dark Shy fired, dodging two shots from the weapon before soaring up to meet her. She reached for her side and grabbed the weapon she had magically affixed there: a canelike wooden staff with a bent golden handle and two golden wings adorning the shaft. A barbed steel tip sat at the end of the staff, and a steel hook extended just past the handle, pointing down the length of the weapon and resembling the sight of a gun, Fluttershy swung her weapon, the Insight Staff, but Dark Shy swerved to dodge. Both ponies flew at each other with weapons in hoof, clashing them once, twice, and then a third time. Fluttershy lunged forward for a fourth swing, but Dark Shy hung back, turned, and flew off.

“Look who finally caught up!” Dark Shy called out behind her. She fired a charge shot back at Fluttershy, followed by several smaller shots. Fluttershy veered right to dodge.

“What is your problem?” Fluttershy said through gritted teeth. She fired a single purple shot from the staff, followed by a series of shorter yellow shots. Dark Shy banked slightly to dodge the charge shot, then rolled out of the way of the other shots and continued on.

The setting sun cast an orange glow on the cloud cover beneath them, competing with the creeping purple of the night sky behind them. Tornadoes rose above the clouds all around them, and the two pegasi maneuvered around them as they continued their chase. Dark Shy glanced back and fired a series of shots behind her, but Fluttershy wove her way around them and pressed on.

“Are you with the Underworld Army?” Fluttershy asked. “Is that why you’re attacking me?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Dark Shy said, firing a few more shots. “I just don’t like the idea of somepony copying my act.”

“What?!” Fluttershy shouted. “But you’re a copy of me!” She lunged forward and swung her staff, but Dark Shy blocked it with the First Blade. Fluttershy pushed against her with her weapon, but Dark Shy just smirked at Fluttershy while pushing back.

“Come on, think about it,” Dark Shy said. “If I was a copy, why would I kick my own flank?”

Dark Shy landed a kick to Fluttershy’s chest with her hind legs, and then flew off again. Massaging her chest, Fluttershy watched as Dark Shy sped off and flew straight into one of the nearby tornadoes. She flew after her, reaching the edge of the tornado, but stopped when she saw numerous energy shots caught in the swirling winds. Despite Fluttershy’s hesitation, Celestia was still controlling her flight path, and after waiting for a pause in between the flurry of projectiles, she guided Fluttershy through the winds and into the eye of the storm.

Dark Shy was hovering far below them in the center of the tornado, firing her weapon into the swirling winds. When she saw Fluttershy flying over her, she lowered her weapon and broke into a dive. Fluttershy dove after her, and the two of them flew below the windstorm and through the underlying cloud cover.

Wide patches of grassland interspersed the rocky wasteland below, with a scattering of mountains and ridges breaking up the otherwise flat terrain. Far ahead, Fluttershy could see a break in the cloud cover as the sunset bathed the landscape with an orange glow. She could also see scores of Underworld monsters dotting the sky ahead of her.

“The Underworld Army’s here too?” Fluttershy said. She flew after Dark Shy and fired at her with her Insight Staff, but only managed to shoot down two Shrips when Dark Shy ascended to dodge.

“You’re a real go-getter, Dark Shy,” Nightmare Moon’s voice rang. “I like that.”

“Is that right?” Dark Shy said nonchalantly.

“Yes,” Nightmare Moon replied. “Though I am curious how you plan to best your doppelganger. Of course, destroying Fluttershy would be a simple task with a little help from me.”

“Don’t make me laugh,” Dark Shy said.

“Did I say something funny?” Nightmare Moon retorted.

“You’ve got me confused with Fluttershy,” Dark Shy said. “This pony is no pawn. I’ll deal with her, but I’m coming after you too!”

Dark Shy flew off toward a group of four Monoeyes floating around a small blue imp. The imp, a Shildeen, raised its hands when its saw Dark Shy approach, and a spherical barrier formed around the five Underworld enemies. Dark Shy swung her First Blade into the shield, causing it to flicker. She swung her weapon two more times, shattering the barrier, and fired a charge shot, blasting all five enemies at once. She then sped off again, flying toward the oncoming Underworld forces.

“Hmm…” Nightmare Moon thought aloud. “Now this is a little bizarre.”

“Indeed,” Celestia said.

“The Mirror of Truth created Dark Shy,” Nightmare Moon said. “So her allegiance should be to the Underworld Army.”

“Fluttershy destroyed the Mirror of Truth at the same time Dark Shy was created,” Celestia said. “Perhaps the mirror didn’t have a chance to complete its copy.”

“So that explains it,” Nightmare Moon said.

“That could also explain why her manestyle and colors are so different,” Fluttershy suggested. She fired her staff at several Handoras, including a giant one, as they scuttled along a plateau below her. “I mean, you have to admit, for an evil twin, she looks nothing like me.”

“That also sounds possible,” Celestia said.

“But if Dark Shy isn’t with the Underworld Army, does that mean I don’t have to fight her?” Fluttershy asked.

“It may not be that simple,” Celestia said. “You’ve seen how destructive she can be in the short time she has been loose. She’ll attack anything.”

“She does seem very aggressive…” Fluttershy said.

“She was created from you, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “She could very well be manifesting your… dark side.”

“My dark side?” Fluttershy said.

“Her very existence is unnatural,” Celestia said. “She must be eliminated.”

Fluttershy furrowed her eyebrows. Princess Celestia was right about one thing. From the moment Dark Shy had come out of the Mirror of Truth, she had attacked just about every creature she’d met. But something didn’t seem right. Even though the Mirror of Truth had created her, it was hard to believe that she could be this evil twin of Fluttershy’s. After all, the two seemed nothing alike.

She eventually managed to catch up to Dark Shy, who was firing on a group of Monoeyes led by a much larger one. If she was really evil, then why attack Nightmare Moon or the Underworld Army? It was one thing for Dark Shy to attack her and Princess Celestia. But she had rejected or outright betrayed anypony she could have feasibly sworn loyalty to. Maybe she was that unstable? If that was the case, Fluttershy decided, then she would have to stop Dark Shy before she hurt anypony.

“Okay, if you say so, Princess Celestia,” Fluttershy said. The remaining patches of grassland gave way to more rocky wasteland as Fluttershy flew on. Syrens, Miks, and Monoeyes circled around her as she went, and she opened fire on as many as she could with her weapon.

As Fluttershy passed over a low rocky hill, she spotted four Underworld creatures, each consisting of a round blue head with four white hands, perched on the hillside. The creatures, called Petribombers, launched themselves into the air, each flapping two of their hands like wings to fly after Fluttershy. Two of them used their other two hands to produce glowing hot rocks. Fluttershy aimed her Insight Staff and fired, shooting down three of the Petribombers. The fourth accidentally dropped its glowing rock on its head, blowing itself up in the process.

Fluttershy frowned. “Let me get this straight,” she said. “The Underworld was using the Mirror of Truth to make copies of their monsters. But now that it’s broken, they can’t create new troops, right?”

“If that were the case, their numbers would be shrinking,” Celestia said. “But that’s not what I’m sensing.”

“Then where else could Nightmare Moon be getting reinforcements from?” Fluttershy asked.

“I’m not sure,” Celestia said, “but there’s something very strange about these creatures in particular.”

Monoeyes emerged from behind the surrounding hilltops. Handoras crawled along a series of cliffsides along her left. And above the Handoras, Kerons hopped to and from the higher ledges while spitting their energy shots at her. Fluttershy scrutinized each and every one of them and frowned. Back in Skyworld, she had dozens of animals in her care, from squirrels and chipmunks to birds and even a few bunnies. She could tell each and every one apart, and even knew them all by name. But she couldn’t tell any of these Underworld creatures apart. To her, these monsters looked like the same Underworld cannon fodder she’d been fighting the past week or so.

“They don’t look any different to me,” Fluttershy said.

“I’m talking more about their interior,” Celestia said. “Specifically, their souls.”

“So how do we get to the bottom of this?” Fluttershy asked.

“Nightmare Moon is still the cause of all this," Celestia said. “And we need to find out where her armies are coming from. But for now, Dark Shy presents the more immediate threat. We need to focus on her first.”

Fluttershy shot down the last of the Kerons and continued on. She caught up to Dark Shy, who flew over a nearby mountain ridge and descended into a canyon, and kept her pursuit. Five Syrens descended into the canyon ahead of them and flew toward them. Dark Shy stole a quick glance behind her. She seemed to linger on Fluttershy for a moment, but turned back to the Syrens. She fired two shots at the Syrens and then darted forward, maneuvering around the Underworld enemies. Fluttershy aimed her Insight Staff at the Syrens and started firing.

“So you two defeated Chrysalis,” Nightmare Moon sneered.

“You don’t seem very upset that we eliminated one of your top commanders,” Celestia said.

“Chrysalis may be gone, but her power lives on in Dark Shy,” Nightmare Moon said. “I can sense it in her wings.”

“Nice one,” Dark Shy snarked. “How long did it take the supreme leader of the Underworld to figure that one out?”

“My, aren’t you prickly,” Nightmare Moon said. “Even so, your power of flight seems to outlast Celestia’s.”

“I’m not surprised,” Celestia said. “The five-minute limit is inherent to the power of flight spell. But with Dark Shy using Chrysalis’ stolen magic as her own, she doesn’t need that spell.”

“How long has she been in the air?” Fluttershy asked.

“Almost nonstop from the moment she escaped the Labyrinth of Deceit,” Celestia said.

“Wait, but that was hours ago!” Fluttershy said.

“Indeed,” Celestia said. “We’re fortunate that I was able to track her after all this time. Even so, that doesn’t mean her power of flight won’t eventually run out.”

“Who’s to say that it will?” Nightmare Moon said. “Chrysalis’ power isn’t going to expire any time soon, and Dark Shy seems to be handling it quite well, at least while she still has it.”

As Fluttershy exited the canyon, she took aim at a group of Gyrazers and Monoeyes that emerged ahead of her. She banked left, dodging a laser from one of the Gyrazers, then dove under a blast from one of the Monoeyes, and then fired back. A stream of yellow shots peppered the Underworld creatures, shooting them down one by one.

A deep gouge in the earth lay before Fluttershy’s flight path as she left the mountains and ridges in her wake. The wasteland below had begun to level off, with a large, flat expanse of land stretching out before her surrounded by a series of mesas on either side. Three Petribombers flapped toward her from up ahead, and she caught sight of several Splins hovering up from the gouge below.

Fluttershy fired on the Petribombers first, shooting down two while the third prepared a hot, glowing rock in its free hands. Two of the Splins vibrated, and then each one split into two identical creatures before hurling themselves at Fluttershy like shurikens. Fluttershy swerved right, evading two of the Splins, and dove to dodge the other two. The third Petribomber hurled its rock at her, but she rolled left and fired back. More of the Splins vibrated and divided in two, but each was shot out of the air by her Insight Staff.

The power of flight steered Fluttershy to the right, in between two mesas and into another expanse of mostly flat land. A number of buttes stood spread apart from one another, and in the middle of that stretch of terrain was Dark Shy. Dark Shy swooped low, circling around and behind a cracked stone pot that lay there on the ground. Fluttershy recognized the pot as the home of a Zurret, an Underworld monster that functioned as a stationary turret. Sure enough, Dark Shy reached into the pot and yanked out a tall, rubbery white creature with a single red eye and two squidlike tentacles on either side.

“What is she doing with that?” Celestia asked.

The Zurret fired a stream of red energy blasts at Fluttershy. Fluttershy veered right, flying out of the path of the creature’s fire, but saw that the Zurret was turning—or rather, being turned—to aim at her. “Using me for target practice!” she said.

“Not bad,” Nightmare Moon said. “Not bad.”

Fluttershy sped toward the ground, taking cover behind the closest butte she could find as the Zurret’s fire followed her. She managed to hide safely behind the rock formation, but could still hear the Zurret’s barrage pelting the rock from the other side. After a moment, the attack seemed to cease. Fluttershy tried to peek from behind the butte, but ducked her head back when she saw the Underworld creature open fire again.

The creature’s stream of fire came to an end again, and after a second, Celestia’s magic guided Fluttershy from behind the butte and out into the open. Fluttershy could see Dark Shy behind the Zurret’s body, her weapon hoof and First Blade directly behind the creature’s back. No sooner had the two pegasi spotted each other than did Dark Shy jab her weapon into the Zurret’s back. The Zurret’s eye widened, and a stream of blasts fired from the creature’s eye. Fluttershy darted ahead, making her way toward another butte. Along the way, she fired a shot from her Insight Staff, but could only hit the Zurret’s body instead of Dark Shy herself.

Fluttershy could hear the Zurret’s shots pelting the other side of the rock formation. When the sound stopped, the power of flight guided her from behind the butte and out in the open again. Taking aim, she fired another charge shot at the Zurret. The creature’s body flung back, and then slumped down like a heap of dead weight in Dark Shy’s hoof. Dark Shy looked over the creature’s body, then dropped it on the ground and flew off. Fluttershy followed her, soaring through a gap in the cliffside at the other end of the wasteland.

A vast ravine met Fluttershy on the other side of the rock wall. A mountain loomed over the ravine, and beyond the mountain lay another vast stretch of wasteland. As Fluttershy drew closer, she could make out a number of buildings and structures along the mountainside, as well as four circular platforms that floated high above the base of the mountain.

“What is this place?” Fluttershy asked.

“They look like ruins,” Celestia said. “The power of flight is about to run out. I should set you down soon.”

“And I should deploy reinforcements,” Nightmare Moon said.

“Okay, but do you really have to?” Fluttershy said just before Celestia’s magic led her into a descent.

* * * * * * * * * *

The power of flight faded from Fluttershy’s wings as she touched down at the base of the mountain. The chasm that surrounded the mountain on one side lay behind her, while a rocky, uneven trail snaked its way up toward the ruins. Fluttershy looked up and saw a swarm of Underworld enemies hovering above the side of the mountain. Monoeyes, Miks, Paramushes, and Daphnes scattered into smaller groups and descended into different areas of the ruins.

“Somewhere within these ruins is Rainbow Dash,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “Who?” she asked.

“Rainbow Dash,” Celestia said. “Otherwise known as Dark Shy. It’s a fitting nickname for her, don’t you think?”

“You mean because of her mane colors and how fast she flies,” Fluttershy said. She placed her Insight Staff over her right wing, locking it in place just as she had with the First Blade, and made her way up the trail. “So, the plan is to find Rainbow Dash and take her out?”

“Correct,” Celestia said. “She knows that your power of flight has run out. She could have flown away if she wanted to, but she hasn't. She's preparing for a fight, so be careful.”

Fluttershy nodded. The trail led her to a paved stone circle with a dried up fountain at the center of it. The stonework beneath her hooves was old, and erosion was just starting to eat away at it, but the pavement blocks had held up well. There weren't even any weeds poking from between them, or any roots pushing them up, leaving the circle perfectly flat and smooth. Come to think of it, Fluttershy hadn't seen any plant life along the mountainside, and the fountain in front of her looked like it hadn't seen any water in years.

Four other paths led away from the fountain to different parts of the ruins. Rainbow Dash could be down any of them. As Fluttershy thought about where to search first, she saw a Monoeye floating down toward the fountain area. She began to reach for her weapon.

“Wait, don’t shoot it,” Celestia said.

“What? Why not?”

“The Underworld troops are probably searching for Rainbow Dash as well,” Celestia said. “They’re none too pleased with her for absconding with Chrysalis’ power, and following them might lead you to her.”

Fluttershy crept back toward the unpaved trail she had come from, staying out of sight and watching the Monoeye. The creature hovered around the fountain and floated down the path on Fluttershy's left. Fluttershy followed the creature on hoof.

The road wound its way around several rock formations and ended at a ledge. At the bottom of the ledge lay a wide stretch of flatland. Fluttershy jumped down from the ledge and surveyed the area. She could see the ravine past the edge of the flatland, and a scenic view of the hills and mountains that stood beyond it, but the flatland itself was mostly empty. A charcoal gray machine of some kind lay to one side. On the other side stood Rainbow Dash.

“There she is,” Fluttershy said.

Rainbow Dash galloped toward Fluttershy. She no longer held her recolored First Blade, and instead there was a soft, swirling rainbow light surrounding her right foreleg. Fluttershy recognized the light as a palm weapon, the Violet Palm to be exact. Rainbow leapt in the air and fired an iridescent fireball from her weapon hoof.

“Go to that machine over there,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy rolled to dodge the fireball and fired back with her Insight Staff. “That one over there?” she asked.

“Yes,” Celestia said. “It's called a Cherubot. Get into the cockpit and use it to fight her.”

Fluttershy galloped, evading a volley of smaller multicolored fireballs from Rainbow Dash's Violet Palm as she ran for the machine. Rainbow eyed her as she went and spotted the Cherubot at the end of her path.

“Oh no you don't!” Rainbow said. A green aura enveloped her wings, and she took flight, beelining for the Cherubot and cutting off Fluttershy's path to it. She shot a multicolored fireball from her palm weapon, but Fluttershy flipped to the side, firing back with her Insight Staff as she dodged. Rainbow swerved right to evade, but in that moment, Fluttershy made another run for the Cherubot. Rainbow fired a volley of iridescent fireballs, but Fluttershy darted around her and leapt for the Cherubot's cockpit.

The machine came to life as soon as Fluttershy entered the cockpit, standing on two stubby legs at first, then hovering off the ground when it rose to full height. Two heavy arms were connected to the Cherubot’s main body by broad, spherical shoulders, with a small cannon on the left arm and a heavy iron ball at the end of the right. Fluttershy scrambled into the seat of the machine and placed her front hooves on a glowing red orb in front of the cockpit, working the controls.

Rainbow Dash aimed her weapon hoof and shot at the Cherubot's body. Her Violet Palm's fireballs splashed against the vehicle's main body, but seemed to do little if any damage. Fluttershy moved her left hoof, aiming with the Cherubot's gun arm, and fired. A barrage of shots pelted Rainbow Dash, knocking her out of the air and dropping her to the ground. Fluttershy steered the Cherubot toward Rainbow.

“Whoa, this is amazing,” Fluttershy said.

“The Cherubot is both armor and weapon,” Celestia said. “Even its jump is powerful.”

Working the controls, Fluttershy made the Cherubot hop off the ground. When it landed, a shockwave issued from the machine, tossing Rainbow Dash into the air. Fluttershy moved her right hoof, beckoning the Cherubot's other arm to punch Rainbow in midair. Rainbow hit the ground and tumbled for several feet before finally landing on her side.

“Has this always been here?” Fluttershy asked. “I wish I could take a Cherubot into every battle.”

“Unfortunately, it's not that simple,” Celestia said. “I can’t grant the power of flight to a Cherubot, and they are not easy to summon from Skyworld. Even if they were, placing them on the battlefield comes with risks. Imagine if Rainbow Dash had taken control of the Cherubot before you could.”

“Oh…” Fluttershy said.

A fireball struck the body of the Cherubot. Fluttershy looked at Rainbow Dash, who was aiming her weapon hoof at the machine. She fired from the Cherubot's gun arm, but Rainbow rolled out of the way. Rainbow’s wings spread out, and she took to the air and flew toward the ruins.

With her hooves at the controls, Fluttershy piloted the Cherubot back toward the path to the fountain. She came to a stop at the ledge she had jumped down from the road. She beckoned the Cherubot to jump, but its hop was too low to get atop the ledge.

“I can’t get out of here!” Fluttershy said.

“You’ll just have to abandon the Cherubot,” Celestia said.

“Aw,” Fluttershy said. “But I was really starting to like the Cherubot.”

“And I’m sure he likes you back!” Rainbow Dash called out. Fluttershy looked up to see her hovering overhead, her power of flight keeping her out of reach of the Cherubot's gunfire. “Sorry, Flutters. Performance issues. Happens to a lot of ponies.”

With that, Rainbow Dash flew off. Fluttershy scowled.

“She hasn't left the ruins just yet, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “I sense she will be waiting for you at the end of a trail.”

Fluttershy looked down at the ledge from the Cherubot's cockpit, then at its two weapon arms. “Wait, I have an idea,” she said. Manipulating the Cherubot’s right arm, she threw a punch at the ledge. The mech’s arm left a dent in the rock, as well as numerous cracks. She then made the vehicle jump, and the resulting shockwave shook apart what was left of the ledge. Smiling, Fluttershy drove the Cherubot up the crumbled ledge and onto the paved road above.

Three roads remained when Fluttershy piloted the Cherubot back to the fountain. As she looked from one path to the next, she noticed a Daphne hover above the fountain area. The creature floated down the path on Fluttershy's left, and Fluttershy followed it in the Cherubot.

Sections of stone wall stood before Fluttershy as she made her way up the path, which had grown wider as she left the fountain behind. Further on, the trail sloped upward and twisted around the side of a rocky hill up ahead. An even larger hill stood next to the first one, looming over Fluttershy and the nearby ruins. Fluttershy kept her left hoof ready at the Cherubot's gun arm as she went, her eyes checking the road ahead as well as behind the wall.

A flash of light shot past Fluttershy's eyes, and a metallic crunch could be heard beneath her. She looked down and saw a hole through the Cherubot's main body. Smoke was rising from the hole, and she could see the controls flashing under her hoofs.

“Uh-oh,” Fluttershy said.

“You had better get out of it now,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy jumped out of the cockpit and ran, taking cover behind one of the nearby sections of wall. Seconds later, she heard an explosion coming from where the Cherubot stood. Fragments of scrap metal flew overhead, and the Cherubot's gun arm clattered away from the source of the explosion.

“W-We have more of those at home, right?” Fluttershy asked.

“Eight of them, last time I checked,” Celestia said. “But I dare not commit any more of them to the field. Not when Rainbow Dash destroyed this one so easily.”

“She did that?” Fluttershy asked.

“I believe she is at the top of the hill, aiming at you with a sniping staff,” Celestia said. “The only way to reach her is up the path.”

Fluttershy peeked her head out from behind the wall. She glanced past the smoking heap that was left of the Cherubot and up the side of the two hills before ducking back. In an instant, a yellow beam struck the ground next to her, making her flinch. Steeling herself, she stepped out from behind the section of wall.

Rainbow Dash stood at the top of the taller hill, her weapon aimed down at Fluttershy. A metal sheen ran along the weapon's purple body, except for the tip of the muzzle and a pair of what looked like stiff wings on either side of the sight, both colored yellow. From where she stood, Fluttershy thought she could make out a ball of cyan light at the weapon's sight. Fluttershy had never seen that weapon before, but from the length of the barrel and the bent handle, it was unmistakable as a staff weapon.

Fluttershy ducked behind the section of wall again. Another shot from Rainbow Dash's weapon, the Dark Pit Staff, struck the ground where she had stood. She gazed up at the path, making a mental note of every broken wall, column, or anything she could take cover behind along the way. She then looked down at her Insight Staff, her own long range weapon.

“I think I have an idea,” she said.

Fluttershy emerged from behind the wall, aimed her Insight Staff, and fired. Rainbow Dash jumped back, taking cover on the other side of the hill. Fluttershy remained still, her eyes scanning the two hills and the path leading down from them, but her weapon still trained on the top of that hill. The high ground gave Rainbow Dash an advantage, but the hill only had one sniping position.

Sure enough, Rainbow Dash returned to the top of the hill, and before she could see Fluttershy aiming back at her, Fluttershy fired. The shot struck Rainbow in the chest, eliciting a yelp from her as it threw her off the side of the mountain. She didn't fall very far before Chrysalis’ magic flared through her wings and she righted herself with a few wingbeats. Rainbow clutched her chest and glared down at Fluttershy, then flew back toward the rest of the ruins.

Fluttershy lowered her Insight Staff. Returning the weapon to her side, she turned and headed back toward the fountain. She cast a forlorn glance at the wreckage of the Cherubot, but continued back on the pathway.

“Good work with that staff,” Celestia said.

“Hm?” Fluttershy said. “Oh, thanks. It's not the easiest weapon to use, but it packs a punch, especially from afar.”

“Staffs have the longest range of any weapon class, so they are best suited for sniping,” Celestia said. “But back to the problem at hoof. I’m sensing that Rainbow Dash is hiding in the dark. There may be a path by the fountain that leads somewhere underground.”

A Specknose was floating on the other side of the fountain when Fluttershy made her way back to the circle. The monster traveled down the road directly across from her, to the right of the rocky trail she had come from when she first landed at the ruins.

Breaking into a canter, Fluttershy made her way around the fountain and followed the Specknose. The road brought her to an open area, where the remains of yet another structure lay. Large sections of wall remained standing, as well as a number of stone columns surrounding the foundation, but any roof that this structure may have once had was long gone. Aside from the fountain behind her, it was the best preserved structure Fluttershy had found here thus far. At least she could tell it used to be a building.

“What was this place?” Fluttershy asked.

“There must have been a temple,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy furrowed her eyebrows. There were no clear symbols or relics to indicate which god, if any, this temple was built to honor. Not even a statue, or the remnants of one, stood nearby.

“Ponies turn to the gods in times of need and forget them in times of prosperity,” Nightmare Moon sneered. “They really are a fickle bunch.”

“Nice of you to join us, Nightmare Moon,” Celestia deadpanned.

“But if there used to be a temple here, wouldn’t there have to have been a town here as well?” Fluttershy asked as she approached the structure. “The Earth ponies wouldn’t just build a temple here in the middle of nowhere.”

“I think you're right,” Celestia said. “Nothing would have been built here unless this land was once habitable to Earth ponies. If they abandoned their home, then something must have happened here. Their patron god may have turned their back on them, or worse, turned on them.”

“Either way, it looks like that god finally did the sensible thing,” Nightmare Moon said.

Making her way around one of the surviving walls, Fluttershy came across a hole in the floor. Peering into the hole, she saw an underground tunnel beneath the structure. Rubble lay scattered at the bottom, suggesting a cave-in, and sections of the floor surrounding the hole were at risk of collapsing as well.

Gingerly, Fluttershy jumped down into the tunnel. The cave-in had blocked one section of the tunnel, but the other led to a chamber. Round stone columns were spaced evenly throughout the chamber, supporting the ceiling above her head. Despite the condition of the ruins outside, the underground chamber had held up remarkably well. Not a single crack could be found anywhere on the chamber walls, or on any of the support columns. The only sign of damage or disrepair was in the collapsed ceiling in the tunnel nearby.

“Hey there, pegasissy!”

Fluttershy turned to her right, where Rainbow Dash was hovering above the ground, a green aura flowing through her wings. In her right hoof, she held the iron handle of a crude stone club with metal spikes sticking out of it.

“You do know that you’re a pegasus too, right?” Fluttershy shot back.

“Yeah, but I'm pegas-awesome!” Rainbow said with a smug grin.

“That… was terrible,” Celestia said. “Like something Pit would have said.”

“Wasn’t his role going to go to her at one point?” Fluttershy asked.

“It was,” Celestia said, “but the author decided that the role should go to somepony who has as much trouble flying as Pit does. He also thinks putting her in the role would be too straightforward, and that he could do more with you instead.”

Fluttershy narrowed her eyes. “Well I'm glad I could help,” she deadpanned.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and looked on at Fluttershy, waiting for her and her goddess to shut up so that they could fight. She glanced at her foreleg, as if checking a watch she wasn't even wearing, then looked back at Fluttershy.

“Screw it,” Rainbow muttered.

She swung her weapon, the Ogre Club, and a huge ball of red and black energy lumbered forth from the club's body. Fluttershy looked up to see the slow-moving charge shot and ran out of its path.

Rainbow Dash flew at Fluttershy, both hooves dragging the Ogre Club as she went, and swung the weapon. Fluttershy rolled to the side, dodging as the club slammed into the wall behind her. Rainbow Dash pulled, but the Ogre Club was stuck, embedded in the wall.

Seeing her opportunity, Fluttershy aimed her weapon and fired at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow yelped in pain, then bristled at Fluttershy. She yanked her weapon, wrenching it loose from the wall, and swung it in Fluttershy's direction. Another ball of red and black energy slowly launched itself from the Ogre Club. Fluttershy took cover behind a nearby support column, but the energy ball simply passed through the column and barreled into her.

The energy ball slammed Fluttershy into a wall before dissipating, and she hit the ground in a heap. Fluttershy groaned as she rose to her hooves. She looked up, and her eyes widened as she saw Rainbow Dash fly at her again. Rainbow lifted up her Ogre Club for a downward swing, but Fluttershy rolled out of the way again. Reaching for her Insight Staff, Fluttershy aimed at Rainbow Dash and fired. The shot hit Rainbow in the chest, throwing her to the ground and knocking the Ogre Club out of her hooves.

Rainbow grunted as she rose to her haunches. She glanced at her weapon, which had fallen just a few feet away. She then turned her gaze to Fluttershy, whose weapon was trained on her and ready to fire at the drop of a hat. Rainbow stared at her as she looked for an opening, any chance to outpace Fluttershy’s trigger hoof and make a dash for her Ogre Club. She was surprised when Fluttershy secured the weapon to her side instead.

“Look, can we talk about this?” Fluttershy asked. She took a few steps toward Rainbow. Her tone was a bit brusque, betraying a hint of annoyance at the rogue pegasus, but the plea was there all the same. “Maybe we don't have to fight like this. I know you don't like me, but I know you’re not siding with Nightmare Moon either. So maybe you and I can talk this out, or at least call a truce? I mean, if you want to…”

Hesitantly, Fluttershy extended her hoof toward Rainbow Dash. Rainbow glanced away for a moment, then stared back at Fluttershy without saying a word. For an agonizing moment, the two pegasi continued like this: one with hoof outstretched in a show of peace, the other scrutinizing both the gesture and the offer behind it.

Eventually, Rainbow Dash raised her right foreleg toward the outstretched hoof. Fluttershy smiled, holding back a sigh of relief. She grabbed Rainbow’s hoof, but as she tried to pull her up, she met with resistance.

Before Fluttershy knew what was happening, Rainbow’s grip on her hoof tightened. She pulled Fluttershy in, leaning back and catching Fluttershy’s body with her hind legs. As Rainbow Dash rolled onto her back, she let go of Fluttershy’s hoof and kicked with her back hooves, throwing Fluttershy behind her.

As Fluttershy landed on her back, Rainbow Dash scrambled to her hooves and ran toward her dropped weapon. Grabbing the Ogre Club, she beat her wings, lifting off the ground again, and swung the weapon at Fluttershy. Another charge shot issued from the club, slamming into Fluttershy and pressing her into the ground. A shallow crater was left behind when the attack dissipated, with Fluttershy lying in the middle.

“Fluttershy, are you alright?” Celestia asked.

Fluttershy groaned as she rose to her haunches. She rubbed her chest and barrel, still sore from Rainbow’s attack. She then looked around the chamber, but Rainbow Dash was nowhere to be found.

“As I said before, you’re here to eliminate Rainbow Dash, not reason with her,” Celestia said.

“I think I’ll remember that next time,” Fluttershy muttered as she rose to her hooves. She looked around for the hallway she entered through, but instead noticed blue light coming from a different hallway. She followed the hallway, and found a glowing runic circle on the ground with a ray of light shining in the center and a sigil over it. A Zodiac Chamber.

Fluttershy stepped into the circle, and with a flash of light, she found herself standing on one end of a long platform. She walked to the other side, where a pedestal and a ray of yellow light waited for her. As she approached, a set of blue and silver orbitars appeared within the ray of light, together resembling a pair of theater masks, one for comedy and one for tragedy. A wing-shaped ornament adorned each orbitar on opposite sides of the masks’ foreheads.

Fluttershy touched the new weapon, the Gemini Orbitars, and in a flash of Celestia's magic, the orbitars disappeared. Turning back, Fluttershy left the Zodiac Chamber and found herself back in the underground chamber in the ruins. She found the entrance, climbed back out, and made her way back to the fountain.

Only one path remained unsearched when Fluttershy returned to the fountain: a road on her right leading up the mountain. A Mik was already following the road from above. But as Fluttershy began her approach, she spotted something at the base of the fountain. Three plates rested on the ground: one with an apple on it, one with a slice of cake, and one with a doughnut.

“Where did this food come from?” Fluttershy asked.

“From Skyworld’s kitchens,” Celestia said. “I thought you could use something in between these bouts with Rainbow Dash.”

“Oh, thanks,” Fluttershy said. She started with the apple first, taking a few bites, and then picked up the slice of cake. After finishing the cake, she turned and headed toward the last road.

An altar stood at the top of the hill where the road ended. A massive roof was built over the altar, held up and buttressed by four enormous stone segments at its corners. Fluttershy had been wrong before; the altar was the most well-preserved structure in the area. Despite the wear and damage throughout the rest of the ruins, the altar and its roof had remained largely intact.

Fluttershy had almost reached the top of the hill when she started hearing sounds coming from the altar. Suddenly, a Handora and two Skuttlers launched from the top of the hill and fell toward her. Fluttershy grimaced and froze in place, but the monsters flew past her on their way down, hitting the ground and tumbling down the hill for a few feet. She looked at them in confusion as they lay motionless for a moment and then vanished in a puff of purple smoke. Still hearing the sounds from earlier, she cautiously made her way up the rest of the hill.

Within the altar, Rainbow Dash was fighting against more of Nightmare Moon’s troops. A large, boxy white cannon with a flared cyan muzzle and a teal blade along its side was fitted over her foreleg as she hovered over the ground in flight. She aimed the weapon, the EZ Cannon, and fired a blast from it at a nearby Skuttler. The creature was thrown back by the blast radius, while Rainbow turned the weapon on a pair of Handoras and launched several fireballs. A Skuttler charged at her from behind, but she glanced back, spun around, and struck the monster with the body and blade of her cannon.

With the last enemy slain, Rainbow Dash turned and scowled at Fluttershy. “What the hay took you so long?” she asked. “Is that cake frosting on your muzzle?!”

“Um, yes,” Fluttershy said, wiping her muzzle with a hoof. “Princess Celestia sent me some food. And I found a new Zodiac weapon.”

“Oh, cool!” Rainbow said. “What did you get?”

“Gemini Orbitars.”

“Lame,” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes. She aimed her EZ Cannon and fired at Fluttershy. Fluttershy sidestepped the shot as it bounced past her, wincing when it exploded behind her, and fired back with her Insight Staff. Rainbow swerved to dodge, and then dove at Fluttershy, bringing her weapon to bear. Fluttershy raised her staff, and the two weapons clashed against each other. But with Rainbow Dash’s speed and the weight of her cannon, Fluttershy was thrown back and sent tumbling down the hill. Rainbow Dash fired another blast from her cannon, catching Fluttershy in its explosion and sending her further down.

Fluttershy’s body came to a stop partway down the hill. Groaning, she began to get her knees underneath her. She didn't have much time before several explosions rocked the ground around her. She rolled to the side, evading a few more shots from Rainbow Dash's cannon, rose back onto her hooves, and fired back. The shot struck Rainbow Dash in the shoulder, knocking her out of her flight and tossing her to the ground several feet ahead of Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash rose back on her haunches. She winced at the fresh injury to her shoulder, but the green aura of Chrysalis’ stolen magic flared through her wings, and she lifted off the ground again regardless. Fluttershy fired at her with her Insight Staff, but Rainbow dodged one shot and blocked two more with the body of her EZ Cannon. Rainbow lunged at Fluttershy again, bringing the weight of her cannon for another swing, but Fluttershy rolled out of the way. The two mares turned to face each other again and fired their weapons at one another. The two attacks collided, but Fluttershy’s shot punched through Rainbow’s, nullifying the EZ Cannon’s blast and nearly grazing Rainbow’s side.

Rainbow flinched at the near-miss from Fluttershy’s weapon, and then glared back at Fluttershy. After a moment, she turned and flew down the hill, leaving Fluttershy looking on.

“She’s headed for the area by the fountain,” Celestia said. “Stay on her.”

Fluttershy affixed the Insight Staff to her side and walked back down the hill. A set of grind rails lay at the base of the fountain when she made her way back, starting from the ground and spiraling upward. Looking up, Fluttershy saw a set of four circular platforms floating high above the ruins.

“I never would've thought the Earth ponies could make something like that,” Fluttershy said, furrowing her eyebrows.

“It must have been left behind by the god this temple was built to serve,” Celestia said. “Regardless, Rainbow Dash is up there right now.”

Fluttershy hopped onto the rails, letting their magic carry her along. As the rails led her up into the air, three Monoeyes and two Syrens appeared from the surrounding ruins and flew after her. Reaching for her Insight Staff, she aimed and fired at the monsters, dispatching each one with a few shots. She lowered her weapon, and then looked up again at the platforms.

As Fluttershy drew closer, she saw that the platforms were arranged close together in a square, except that one floated higher than the other three, while the one diagonal from it hung lower than the others. Once the grind rails carried Fluttershy above the platforms, she could see Rainbow Dash standing on the highest platform. The rogue pegasus was gazing out over the ruins, with a half-eaten doughnut in her hoof.

“Isn’t that the doughnut I left by the fountain for you earlier?” Celestia asked.

“It is,” Fluttershy murmured. “I was saving it for later.”

“Leaving it behind for an enemy to find may not have been the best idea,” Celestia said. “Not that it matters. You still have to defeat her.”

* * * * * * * * * *

The set of grind rails made a final circuit around the four platforms before reaching their end above the highest one. Fluttershy hopped off of the rails at their highest point and landed at the center of the highest platform.

At the edge of the same platform, Rainbow Dash was staring out over the ruins and the mountains below. She had seen the grind rails form around the floating platforms, and she glanced back when she heard the sharp clop of Fluttershy’s hooves landing behind her. She turned around and gazed at Fluttershy, who was already glaring back at her with Insight Staff in hoof. Attached to Rainbow’s foreleg was a stringless blue bow with bladed silver limbs, the Silver Bow.

With one quick roll of her hoof, Rainbow Dash flipped the Silver Bow off of her foreleg and into her grip. “Let’s do this!” she called out.

Within a split-second, Rainbow raised her weapon hoof and fired an arrow at Fluttershy. Fluttershy raised her staff, blocking the shot with the shaft of her weapon, but Rainbow was already closing the distance on her hooves. She held up her weapon, blocking a downward swing from Rainbow Dash's bow. Rainbow swung horizontally, but Fluttershy turned her staff to block again.

Fluttershy pulled back her weapon and swung at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow ducked under the attack, and then held up her bow to block a downward strike from Fluttershy’s staff. Deflecting the staff, she swung her bow up at Fluttershy, who sidestepped out of the way. Rainbow moved for a horizontal slash, which Fluttershy ducked under. Seeing an opening, Fluttershy swung her weapon at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow separated the Silver Bow into its two bladed limbs, tossed one bow limb into her other hoof and parried Fluttershy’s strike with it.

Holding back Fluttershy’s Insight Staff with one bow limb, Rainbow Dash moved to slash at Fluttershy with the other one. Fluttershy hopped back, disengaging from their weapon clash to dodge Rainbow’s swipe. Rainbow lunged with one of the bladed limbs. Fluttershy raised her weapon vertically to block. She deflected a blow from the other limb as Rainbow swung again, using Rainbow’s own momentum to send her stumbling forward.

With both front hooves occupied, Rainbow Dash nearly hit the ground. She managed to roll on her back, recombine her bow, and land on three hooves. The two mares turned around, weapons aimed in each other’s directions, and fired. Their weapons missed, both firing past the sides of one another’s heads, but close enough that both pegasi winced, stumbled from the near-miss, and massaged their own heads.

After a moment, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash recovered. They opened their eyes, gritted their teeth, and swung at each other with their weapons again. Rainbow separated her bow, catching one limb in the other hoof, but Fluttershy caught Rainbow’s hoof with her own before she could move for a slash. The two ponies pushed against each other, staff clashing against one bow limb while Fluttershy’s hoof held back the other.

“Bring it, puppet!” Rainbow said.

“Who are you calling a puppet?” Fluttershy retorted.

Rainbow headbutted Fluttershy in the snout. Fluttershy stumbled back, releasing Rainbow Dash as she winced at the blow, while Rainbow scrambled to toss both bow limbs in one hoof and catch herself in midfall with the other.

“Celestia says jump, you jump,” Rainbow said. “She says fight, you fight. It sounds pretty sweet, doesn’t it? For her, that is.”

Fluttershy fired a shot at Rainbow with her Insight Staff, which Rainbow dodged by craning her neck. “It’s called loyalty!” she said. “It’s called having faith! What would you know about faith, you treacherous blackheart?!”

Fluttershy lunged forward, bringing her staff down on Rainbow with both hooves. Rainbow raised her Silver Bow, recombined again, and blocked. Their forelegs twitched as the two struggled against each other, but Rainbow Dash still managed a cocky smirk.

“The Mirror of Truth doesn’t lie,” Rainbow said. “I’m you, Flutters. The real you. So maybe your faith in Celestia isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

Fluttershy bristled. With a surge of strength, she pushed Rainbow back with her staff. As Rainbow stumbled, Fluttershy struck her in the chest with the butt of the Insight Staff. She then flipped it around, aiming it at Rainbow Dash’s chest, and fired. The shot tossed Rainbow back a few feet and landed her on her back.

“I have absolute faith in Princess Celestia!” Fluttershy said, still aiming her weapon at Rainbow. “She always guides me the right way! That’s why I follow her. And that Mirror of Truth you mentioned? It’s nothing more than a pane of lies! Chrysalis was just using it as bait!”

Rainbow Dash rose to her haunches. She massaged her chest with a hoof, only to pause as her hoof ran along a tear in her tunic. Pulling her hoof back, she noticed a streak of blood and smirked.

“Looks like I touched a nerve,” she said. “Who are you trying to convince, me or you?”

Fluttershy scowled. She fired, but Rainbow rolled out of the way. A burst of fiery green magic rushed through Rainbow’s wings, and she took to the air again.

“Okay, fine,” Rainbow said. “Do what you want. Or rather, keep doing what she wants. But I won't be anypony’s puppet. These wings take me wherever I want to go.”

“Not if I take you down first,” Fluttershy muttered. She fired a shot from her Insight Staff. In an instant, Rainbow Dash swung her bow, deflecting the staff’s shot right back. Fluttershy grimaced and stepped back as her own shot struck the ground near her hooves, and then scowled back up at Rainbow Dash.

The green aura around Rainbow’s wings flared. For a moment, Fluttershy thought she saw the aura extend through Rainbow’s foreleg and envelop the Silver Bow before she shot up into the sky. She could see Rainbow soaring up in the air, going faster with each passing second, and then a vapor cone forming around her.

Several things happened all at once after that. An explosive boom echoed throughout the canyon. A spectral shockwave radiated across the skies above, lighting up the twilight sky in a brief flash of daylight. And in that moment, high above the temple ruins, Rainbow fired her weapon. The lone magic arrow didn't seem to go anywhere, its energy instead resonating with the rainbow shockwave and Chrysalis’ stolen magic. And then a hundred points of light flickered throughout the circle within the rainbow shockwave.

Fluttershy looked on in trepidation at the spectacle above. She took a few steps back as the points of light hovered in the air and then fell in quick succession. She turned and galloped toward the edge of the platform, making a run for the next platform as a volley of arrows rained down. The platform cracked with each arrow strike, and then broke apart as Fluttershy leapt over the edge. She could hear the platform crumbling behind her as she landed flat on her belly on the next platform.

Fluttershy rose to her hooves, glanced back at the empty space where the platform once floated, and then looked up. A vivid rainbow contrail traced its way across the sky above. She began to follow it with her eyes, but barely had time to trace its path before she was tackled from the side and over the edge of the platform. Her hoof caught the edge before she could fall, leaving her dangling from the platform for dear life.

Before Fluttershy could try to hoist herself up, a set of hooves could be heard touching down on the platform. Fluttershy froze. She heard the sound of hoofsteps on the ground above her, and then an abrupt stop. Panicking, she lifted her weapon hoof, angled it over the surface of the platform, and fired.

A yelp sounded from the platform above Fluttershy, followed by the thud of something hitting the ground. Fluttershy breathed a quick sigh of relief, then thought about how she was going to get back on solid ground. She considered climbing back up, but Rainbow was still up there and wouldn't take long to recover. She then glanced to her right, where the lowest platform hovered close by. She swung her body towards it, but it wasn't enough to make the jump. She swung the other way, and then swung back. She let go of the ledge and landed on the next platform.

As Fluttershy rose back to her hooves, Rainbow Dash hovered over the platform in flight. Both her front and hind left legs had visible scorch marks. The two pegasi fired at each other, but their shots collided in midair and canceled each other out. Rainbow fired several smaller arrows from her bow, but Fluttershy rolled to the side and fired back with a few shots from her staff. Rainbow swerved to dodge, and then dove at Fluttershy. Fluttershy sidestepped, parrying the Silver Bow with her staff. She turned, aimed at Rainbow, and fired.

Fluttershy’s shot hit Rainbow before she could turn around, and Rainbow fell from the air and crashed onto the platform. Her bow still in hoof, she began to rise back onto her hooves, but her left legs protested when she tried to put her weight on them. She flipped around, sitting on her haunches instead, only to see the muzzle of the Insight Staff mere inches from her head.

Fluttershy glared silently at Rainbow Dash, all the while aiming her weapon point blank at Rainbow’s head. All she had to do now was fire, and it would be over. She and Princess Celestia could move on, go back to dealing with Nightmare Moon and the Underworld.

“Her very existence is unnatural. She must be eliminated.”

Rainbow sat there, frozen in place as Fluttershy kept her weapon pointed at her. She had been nothing but trouble from the moment she was created. Attacking her at the Labyrinth of Deceit, taking Chrysalis’ power for her own, and fighting her up and down these ruins. If Fluttershy let her go now, she would only cause more trouble.

“You’ve seen how destructive she can be in the short time she has been loose. She’ll attack anything.”

Fluttershy’s eyes narrowed, albeit subtly. She had tried before to spare Rainbow Dash. Talk things out with her, make peace. And Rainbow had thrown it back in her face. She wouldn’t make that same mistake again.

“She was created from you, Fluttershy. She could very well be manifesting your… dark side.”

Fluttershy lowered her weapon. She continued to glower at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow glanced at the weapon, now pointed at the ground, and returned a glare back at Fluttershy. For a while, an uncomfortable pause lingered between the two pegasi. Not even Celestia broke the silence between them.

A green aura enveloped Rainbow Dash’s wings, and she took off from the ground before Fluttershy had a chance to react. “I went easy on you this time!” she said before twisting around and flying off.

At that moment, Fluttershy jerked forward and reached out with a hoof. “Wait!” she called out.

“No, let her go,” Celestia said. A shaft of yellow light shone down on Fluttershy from above, and she could feel the familiar weightlessness as Celestia’s magic began to call her back. “She’s headed for a fall, and we need to focus on stopping Nightmare Moon.”

In an instant, Fluttershy vanished from the platform. The shaft of yellow light winked out as well as she returned to Skyworld, and the quiet and darkness of night settled on the ruins below once again.

The Seafloor Palace

Chapter 7: The Seafloor Palace

Fluttershy galloped through the familiar dark hallway and jumped out of the portal that opened for her. Now that the recent Rainbow Dash incident had been resolved, at least temporarily, she was now about to begin what she expected would be a less unusual mission. Of course, she didn’t know that for certain, especially since Celestia rarely gave any proper briefing until she was already in the air. Once she stepped out of the portal, she found herself flying over an expansive desert. Her flight path dipped downward, and she descended from the cloudless sky toward the desert below.

“We need to refocus our efforts on Nightmare Moon,” Celestia said, “so today’s target is Tanatos, god of death.”

“Tanatos?” Fluttershy asked as she leveled out and flew over the sands just beneath her. “Do I need to know anything about him?”

“When I last fought Nightmare Moon, Tanatos took the form of a purple sea serpent alongside her,” Celestia said. “He’s quite the shapeshifter, you see, and that was his… ‘look’ back then.”

“Great fashion sense,” Fluttershy deadpanned. Six Monoeyes swarmed ahead of her while a group of Paramushes slowly rained down. Equipped to Fluttershy’s foreleg was the Electroshock Arm, a bronze-looking weapon worn over the leg with a yellow and blue muzzle that fit over her hoof. She aimed her weapon at the monsters and took them out with a few electrical shots. “If he’s the god of death, he must be pretty important in the Underworld Army.”

“He possesses a key to the Underworld, and he’s leading Nightmare Moon’s invasion of the sea.”

“So I’ll be fighting his forces in the sea? How am I supposed to do that?”

“Just use your gills,” Celestia said. “Tell me, Fluttershy, how are you with branchial respiration?”

Two Shildeens and a Mega Mussel flew in front of her, along with a Gloomerang, a creature with a large, crescent-shape blade over its head. But Fluttershy was too shocked to notice them. “It’s finally happened,” she said. “You’ve finally gone insane.”

“Okay, just hold your breath then… for about two hours.”

“I don’t want to do this mission anymore,” Fluttershy murmured. The other monsters drifted away, but five Monoliths floated into Fluttershy’s path and hurled themselves at her. Fluttershy started paying attention again just in time to see and evade them. As soon as the last Monolith passed her, the smell of salt water reached her. “Ah, I can smell the ocean.”

“We’re heading to Tanatos’ base, the Seafloor Palace,” Celestia said.

After flying over a large sand hill, Fluttershy finally saw the shoreline, now less than half a mile away. “Y-You were kidding about holding my breath, right?” she said. “Please tell me you were kidding.”

“Watch and learn, my little pony,” Celestia said. “Witness the true power of the Goddess of Light!” Within the next few seconds, Fluttershy reached the shoreline and saw a furrow in the ocean, extending from the shoreline to the horizon. The furrow started to deepen and expand, and within seconds, the ocean was separated by a massive trench as far as she could see.

“Whoa,” she whispered almost inaudibly. “You’ve outdone yourself, Princess Celestia.”

“Next stop, the Seafloor Palace.” With the power of flight, Celestia guided Fluttershy into the trench. Six Komaytos appeared ahead of her and lunged at her one by one, but she swatted each one with a swing of her weapon.

“This is amazing,” Fluttershy said. “I didn't know you could do anything like this."

“What can I say?” Celestia laughed nervously. “I’m an overachiever.”

“Ho, now!” a voice echoed between the walls of seawater. “Just one second there, lassie!”

“W-Who’s that?”

“Oh, I didn’t think you’d be listening,” Celestia chuckled. “Fluttershy, this is Poseidon, the god of the sea.”

A number of Zurrets were positioned up ahead, each one several yards away from the last. Fluttershy dodged their spiraling shots until she was close to shoot each one down. “So that sea-parting business was…”

“’Twas obviously my doing, silly foal,” Poseidon said.

“To pull off an attack on the Seafloor Palace, I went to the sea god himself,” Celestia said.

“Now that makes sense,” Fluttershy said.

“I wouldn’t allow anyone else to part my ocean,” Poseidon said, “In fact, I’ve half a mind to put it back together.”

“No!” Fluttershy said. “Please don’t do that.”

“He’s only joking, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “We gods like to have a little fun. Why else would I have lied about parting the seas?”

“Oh… okay,” Fluttershy murmured. Up ahead, a group of Octos and Gyrazors went into formation in between the walls of water. Each Gyrazor fired a multitude of thin, needlelike shots across the trench to block Fluttershy’s path while the Octos blew smoke rings at her. Fluttershy flew through each ring and fired at the monsters, making sure to shoot the Gyrazors first.

After taking out the last of the Octos, Fluttershy reached a deep chasm in the ocean floor. She found herself looking down the chasm, but the further she looked, the darker it became. After a certain point, what little sunlight was reaching into the trench couldn’t reach the bottom of the chasm. Any anxiety that Fluttershy felt as she stared deep into the abyss intensified when her body was angled into the chasm.

“We’re going deeper now,” Celestia said. She guided Fluttershy into the chasm just as five Komaytos emerged from it. They reached her one by one, only to be struck by her arm when they came close. However, despite going deeper into the abyss, the lighting did not grow dimmer. If anything, the chasm was now well illuminated by a soft yellow light. The light flickered against the walls with each flap of her wings, making her realize that she had actually brought this light source with her.

Fluttershy used to light to survey the trench around here. There was very little to see outside the trench. The rushing waters on either side made it too difficult to see through them. In front of her, the walls of the chasm occasionally revealed alcoves. Inside each alcove, she could make out a few stone columns before descending further. At the bottom of the chasm, Fluttershy entered a large cavern, only to be ambushed by Underworld monsters. To her left were a platoon of Miks, Gyrazors, and a Minos. To her right were Monoeyes, another Minos, and a few Commylooses, orange cephalopod creatures that had already produced missiles to fire at her.

“Despite your mischievous ways, you should know you have my full support,” Poseidon said. “The dark forces were trouble enough when they were contained in the Underworld. But extending their reach to my sea is completely unacceptable. Forcing back the Underworld falls under your jurisdiction, Goddess of Light. Do not disappoint me.”

“You have my word,” Celestia offered. With the last Gyrazor destroyed, she guided Fluttershy out of the cavern and across the ocean floor. Fluttershy surveyed the area as she flew over it. Numerous columns and stone structures were strewn about, and on closer inspection, she found that the ground appeared to have been paved a long time ago.

“I guess this used to be a city?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yes, but I sunk it long ago,” Poseidon said.

Fluttershy paused. “You... what?” she asked.

“Celestia, I do hope your mortal soldier isn’t questioning a god of my station,” Poseidon said. “These Earth ponies made the very same mistake, and I was forced to put them in their place.”

“Fluttershy, we have out priorities,” Celestia said. “Our mission is the Underworld.”

Fluttershy remained silent. She soared over the ruins of the sunken city, all the while hoping that she could put it behind her as quickly as possible. Her attention was pulled from the ruins when a Zuree lunged in front of her. The monster’s sudden appearance caused her to flinch and inadvertently fire at it. A few seconds passed before she realized that it wasn’t attacking her, and she looked up to see where it had gone, only to kill a second one that suddenly appeared in front of her. By the time she looked up again, Celestia had finally led her away from the sunken ruins.

Beyond the ruins, patches of coral grew along the ocean floor and were now exposed by the partition made in the sea. Fluttershy gazed at each patch as she flew, though she tried to ascend a bit to avoid crashing into the first few. “This coral is so beautiful,” she said quietly.

“True, but don’t forget the old saying that every rose has its thorn,” Celestia said. “Try to avoid barreling into them.”

“Um, could you maybe let me fly a little higher so that I don’t crash into them?” Fluttershy asked. “I mean, it’s just…”

“If they’re in your way, you can always try shooting them to clear a path,” Celestia added.

Fluttershy angled slightly left to avoid another close call with a coral patch. “Y-You don’t have a vendetta against coral, do you?”

“No, not at the moment,” she joked.

“O-kay…” Fluttershy had very little time to question Celestia before she was finally led past the last of the coral. After breathing a sigh of relief, she reached the very bottom of the sea and continued on her flight path.

“We’ve arrived at the ocean floor,” Celestia said. “Only a little longer until we reach the palace. From there, we’ll defeat Tanatos and take his key to the Underworld.”

Blocking Fluttershy’s path were three Monoeyes each sitting on a Monolith and a Snong, an elephantine monster consisting of a head and two front legs. The Snong levitated its legs toward her, the pads of its feet facing each other. Fluttershy focused on this monster first, firing at it while trying to swerve away from its legs. Moments before the Snong’s legs could catch her between them, she finally took out the creature, causing the two legs to idly float away. Fluttershy was about to turn back to the other monsters when an attack from one of the Monoeyes collided with her. She winced at the attack, and a second shot struck her side, causing her to spin off course. Fluttershy nearly crashed into one of the walls of water, but managed to regain control and flew back on course. She fired a charge shot at the first Monoeye, two shots at the second, and dodged an attack from the third one before killing it. The three Monoliths retreated without their riders, and within seconds, a structure became visible in the distance.

“Look!” Celestia said.

“So that’s the Seafloor Palace,” Fluttershy said. She flew over the building and circled around it. The Seafloor Palace was a rectangular building with four arched structures extending to its pointed roof, apparently put in place for aesthetics instead of support. Despite residing deep within the ocean, the teal edifice retained a smooth, polished appearance. “I thought it’d be covered in barnacles and kelp, but it’s actually very nice.”

“I will be closing up the sea now,” Poseidon said. “It should wipe out any Underworld stragglers.”

“Just give us one more moment,” Celestia said. She quickly guided Fluttershy toward the entrance of the Seafloor Palace.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy landed softly in the main hall of the Seafloor Palace. The doors were already sealed shut behind her, which had quickly been followed by the sound of rushing water against the palace exterior. “The sea is closed now,” Celestia said.

“My work here is finished,” Poseidon said. “Good luck, you two.”

“Thanks for your help,” Fluttershy murmured. A Wave Angler fired at her, but she dodged to the left and returned with a charge shot. She fired a few more shots to finish it off and started to explore the hall.

“Oh, goody! Guests!” a voice exclaimed throughout the palace. “Protecting an impregnable fortress can get awfully lonely.” Fluttershy listened in on the voice, which distracted her from a nearby Snowman. The icy, bipedal monster unleashed a blast of cold breath at Fluttershy, encasing her within a layer of ice.

“Is that you, Tanatos?” Celestia said.

“Actually, I go by Thanatos now,” the voice echoed.

“Let me guess,” Celestia said with an eye roll. “The extra H is for… h-amazing.”

“Actually, leaving out the H was a twenty-five year-old typo,” Thanatos said. “You can blame the translators for that.” Within the main hall, Fluttershy had managed to thaw herself out. She shivered while looking around for the Snowman. “Ooh, is this your little helper, Celestia? I’m sure you’ve told her all about me.”

“Uh, no, not really,” Fluttershy said. She fired a charge shot at the Snowman and galloped toward it to shatter it with her arm.

“Oh! I’m wounded! Truly I am! I know it’s been a while, but surely you haven’t forgotten your old foe?”

“I have many old foes, Thanatos,” Celestia said. “Some more memorable than others, and many of whom we’ve already crushed. You know that, so just give us the key to the Underworld, and we won’t be forced to harm you.”

“Impatient as always, I see!” Thanatos said. “But since you’ve come all this way, wouldn’t you like to stay and catch up for a bit? Oh, pretty please?”

“So you’re not going to give up the key.”

“No need to get all huffy now,” he said. “I’ll have you know that I much prefer honey to vinegar! And I prefer witty repartee to any condiment!”

Fluttershy made her way up a set of stairs and made her way to the second floor balcony of the main hall. “This is getting nowhere,” she said. “Our goal here is to track down Nightmare Moon, right?”

“Yes, Thanatos is basically Nightmare Moon’s second in command,” Celestia said. “That’s why he has the only key to the Underworld.”

“I have no such thing!” Thanatos insisted. “None whatsoever! Honestly, honestly.”

“How did this guy get to be Nightmare Moon’s second in command?” Fluttershy muttered.

“Seniority?” Celestia suggested, equally uncertain.

“Helloooo?” Thanatos bellowed. “It’s rude to exclude!”

“If Thanatos won’t give up the key, we’ll have to take it from him, right?” Fluttershy asked. At the top of the stairs, she walked through a door and entered a long rectangular hall on the second floor. The hall was mostly empty, but on the right side, she saw two Wave Anglers and a Gyrazor lined against the wall.

“The longer we wait, the more we have to lose,” Celestia agreed. “We need to strike soon.”

“Yoo hoo! Can you hear me?” Thanatos interjected. “I’d like to be a part of this conversation please!”

“Shut up already,” Fluttershy said.

“Me?! But you’ve been talking this whole game!” On any other day, Fluttershy might have offered to be quieter from that point on. However, in addition to Thanatos’s demeanor, she was also busy attacking two Shemum urns that had appeared after she defeated the other three monsters. After clearing the hallway, she found a door at one end of it, to the left of where she had entered. On the other side of the door was a set of stairs that lead down.

At the bottom of the stairs was a small chamber with a platform in the center of the floor. Fluttershy stepped onto the platform, which immediately rose out of the ground. The platform passed through a circular hole in the ceiling and stopped when it reached the next floor, which just happened to be in the middle of the main hall. “I think I just went around in a circle.” she said.

“Yes, but you’ve also unlocked a door in this hall,” Celestia said. “Keep exploring the palace.”

There was a door on either side of the main hall. Both doors were locked when Fluttershy first entered the palace, but the door on the left was now unlocked. Fluttershy left the main hall through the door on the left, and almost slipped when she entered the next room. Beneath her hooves, the entire floor was covered in ice. “Whoa, slippery.”

“Isn’t skating just delightful?” Thanatos said.”

“I wish my domain had a skating rink,” Celestia mused.

Fluttershy fired at a Snowman in the center of room while listening. “Uh, yeah…” she murmured. “That would be… great.” Two large blocks of ice were embedded in the center of the room. Fluttershy gingerly moved across the ice toward the blocks, but hid behind them when she saw two more Snowmen on the other side. Neither one had seen her yet, which she confirmed when she peeked from behind the block. She stood carefully on three legs and aimed her arm a few inches to the right of one of them. Her charge shot homed in on its target, maneuvering around the corner of one of the ice blocks and hit the Snowman from behind. Fluttershy waited for her weapon to charge up and fired again.

Fluttershy’s attack caught the attention of both monsters, and she hid again while they headed toward her. Before they could turn the corner and find her, she jumped out, punched them with the Electroshock Arm, and ran past them. Both Snowmen were thrown back by the attack, and by the time either one recovered, Fluttershy had already slipped through the door at the end of the room.

Fluttershy entered the palace’s main elevator, which started to ascend as soon as she stepped onto it. The elevator rose slowly, and while she waited, she noticed that the elevator shaft reached up to the palace's third floor. “Now approaching… the second floor,” Celestia said. The elevator rose up to the second floor and continued on. “Now passing… the second floor.”

“This play-by-play really isn’t necessary,” Fluttershy said.

A few more seconds passed. “Now approaching… the third floor,” Thanatos chimed in. Neither pony responded. Fluttershy quietly stepped off the elevator when it stopped. “Are you two ignoring me?”

Fluttershy entered through the next door and found herself on the third floor balcony overlooking the main hall. The area was fairly empty, except for a Shelbo floating in her path. She waited for the monster to open its mouth before firing a charge shot at its eye. A few more shots killed the creature before it could pull her in and she continued on.

“How do you like that weapon, Fluttershy?” Celestia asked.

“It’s okay, I guess,” Fluttershy said. “But I really wish it had a longer range.”

“Arms are primarily designed for close-combat,” Celestia lectured. “Their short range and powerful melee attacks are a testament to that. Fortunately, they don’t reduce your agility, despite their size.”

Fluttershy stopped to examine her weapon. The arm wasn’t much larger than a piece of armor and fit over her entire foreleg. Joints were fitted into knee and shoulder to minimize any loss to her leg’s range of motion. “It doesn’t seem much bigger than any other weapon I’ve used.”

“That’s because the author had to scale down some of its dimensions. Most of these arms are actually larger than your entire body, and he was certain that you would tip over if you were forced to wear the original.”

“Is that why it took him until this chapter to feature one?”

“More or less. Now let’s keep moving.”

Halfway across the balcony, Fluttershy noticed two treasure chests. She remembered a previous conversation about treasure lying around in plain sight, and examined both of them from a distance. The first one was placed off to the side, and she could easily continue on without going anywhere near it. The second one was placed directly in her path, and she’d have to walk up to it whether it was a trap or not.

Fluttershy slowly approached the second treasure chest, but she didn’t get very close to it before she noticed something strange about the floor. There were lines on the floor directly in front of the treasure chest. They extended across the width of the balcony, but they were barely noticeable unless she looked at just the right angle. “I think there’s a trapdoor here.”

“So there is,” Celestia added. “It looks like it’s positioned directly above the second floor balcony. You’ll have to drop down from here to continue on.”

“Actually, it doesn’t seem that far across,” Fluttershy said. “If I can jump far enough, maybe I can make it across and skip half the level.”

“The author tried that once, using the Jump Glide power,” Celestia said. “Unfortunately there’s an invisible boundary on the other side of the trap door, and he slowly floated down through the trapdoor anyway.”

“So should I just walk into the trap and pretend to be surprised?” Before she could get an answer, the trapdoor fell open, even though there was nothing standing on it. Fluttershy looked down into the gap in the balcony, not looking particularly impressed.

“I wouldn’t bother at this point. Just jump down and keep going.” Fluttershy peered down at the balcony below. After a few seconds of hesitating, she dropped down and landed on the second floor. “About the Jump Glide,” Celestia added. “Has the author introduced the game’s customizable powers in any of the chapters yet?”

“No, not yet.” There was very little on the second floor balcony as well, aside from two Commylooses. At the end of the balcony, Fluttershy entered the next room and found three more enemies, two Octos and a third monster consisting of a shell and two arms. The third monster appeared to be sucking in air through a hole in its shell, but Fluttershy didn’t feel any sort of pull from it.

“That mollusk-like enemy is called a Vakloom,” Celestia said. “It absorbs the energy of ranged attacks and fires it back as a laser. Until it fires at you, its head is protected by that armored shell.”

The two Octos fired rings of smoke at Fluttershy, but she stood still, allowing the rings to pass around her. The idea of making it attack her to expose its weak point made her uneasy. However, she also noticed the two limbs extending from the monster’s shell. The two Octos fired at her again, and after cowering on the ground the avoid getting it, she galloped past the Vakloom and struck one Octos with her arm. Another melee attack killed the second Octos, leaving only the Vakloom for Fluttershy to attack.

Fluttershy moved toward the Vakloom, opting not to fire any shots at it. The Vakloom’s two limbs swayed from left to right as it floated around, and Fluttershy had to duck to avoid getting whacked in the head by one of them. Once she could bring herself to attack, she swung her arm three times at the monster’s limbs. Each strike sent a powerful electric current through the Vakloom’s body, electrocuting it by the time the third attack connected. The Vakloom vanished upon dying, and with the room cleared of enemies, a small platform started glowing on the other side of it. Fluttershy approached the platform, which also rose out of the ground once she stood on it.

“Keep on trooping, little trooper!” Thanatos announced, finally speaking after an unusually long period of silence.

“I’m curious about something, Thanatos,” Celestia said.

“Yeeess?”

“You are the god of death, are you not?” she asked. “And if the Underworld is the land of the dead, why don’t you outrank Nightmare Moon?”

“I’m not really interested in climbing the corporate ladder,” he said. “You wouldn’t believe the amount of overtime you have to put in. Plus, that sort of strict hierarchy isn’t the Underworld style.”

“You’re avoiding my question.”

“Uh, what was that?” Thanatos said. “Y-You seem to be cutting out! La la la la! I can’t hear you!”

“It’s hard to get a good read on him…” Fluttershy said. “I can’t tell if he’s weird or just dim.”

Thanatos didn’t seem to hear her, instead opting to repeat certain utterances in an attempt to drown out the conversation. “A-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa.”

“The two aren’t mutually exclusive,” Celestia said.

The platform finally stopped after reaching a different floor. Fluttershy stepped off the platform and looked around. To her left, there was a circular platform with a light surrounding it. As she approached the platform, she also noticed a treasure chest near it, as well as a gap in the floor behind the chest. She realized that she was on the third floor balcony again, only this time she was on the other side. She continued to approach the treasure chest, only more slowly this time. If it turned out to be a trap, she was ready to jump onto the circular platform, which was likely to be another elevator.

Fluttershy reached around the chest and grabbed the lid. She opened the lid, slowly at first, but then pulled it back and jumped away. After a few seconds, she walked back to the chest and checked its contents. Inside the chest was an Atlas Foot, an item in the shape of a foot with a dark cloud just above the shin. She took the item with her and walked toward the platform, which brought her up to the fourth floor.

Fluttershy stepped away from the elevator and entered another chamber. Three Shemums dropped from the ceiling and slithered toward her along with two Ziks, pink serpentine monsters with bladelike horns sprouting from their heads. Behind them, a Zak, a large pink snake with demonic horns, directed the two Ziks to attack. “Thanatos should be in the throne room up ahead,” Celestia said. “Finish off the last of his forces before moving on to him.” Fluttershy aimed her arm at the monsters and fired. Two Shemums were already killed, and when the surviving monsters came close, she jumped back and fired, producing a high-voltage electrical field that expanded over the rest of the monsters. “Aren’t you going to use that Atlas Foot?”

“Oh, um… I actually wanted to wait until later,” Fluttershy said. “If you want me to use it now, then—”

“The game’s programming doesn’t normally let you fire your weapon if you have an item equipped,” Celestia said. “But since you’re still able to use your weapon, I don’t see the harm in keeping the Atlas Foot for now.”

Fluttershy took out a Skuttler Cannoneer and a Stackjaw, using one of the hall’s support columns for cover while firing at them. Two more monsters appeared at the end of the chamber. The first one was a Shelbo, but the other one was a Bumbledrop, a seemingly harmless creature resembling a pudgy mask. Fluttershy focused on the Shelbo first and fired when it opened its mouth.

While Fluttershy was killing the Shelbo, the Bumbledrop fell onto its ‘face,’ revealing a large shell on its back in the shape of a dragon’s head. The monster slid across the floor and slammed into her, tossing her into the air. Fluttershy hit the ground with a hard thud. She stood up again and saw the Bumbledrop on the other side of the room. The Bumbledrop was standing upright again, and by the time it could fall onto its belly, Fluttershy had already galloped toward it and fired a charge shot. With the last group of Underworld troops killed, the path to Thanatos was clear. Fluttershy made her way up a small flight of stairs at the end of the chamber and approached the throne room.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy galloped into the throne room of the Seafloor Palace. Across the room, a sea serpent with purple scales and an orange mustache and hair lounged on the throne. The sea serpent let out a mighty yawn when he saw Fluttershy enter. “I must have dozed off there,” Thanatos said. He lifted himself up from the throne and stretched out his body. “Waiting around is such exhausting work.”

“Oh, um, I know I should have come here sooner,” Fluttershy said. “I’m sorry to keep you waiting for so long.”

“Fluttershy,” Celestia said, “you’re here to eliminate him. You don’t have to be polite about it.” Fluttershy aimed her weapon at Thanatos, who now moved from his throne and stood on the other side of the room. “Thanatos is a skilled shapeshifter. Don’t be surprised if he changes into different forms to attack you, like a spider or a scorpion. Or a cockroach, a tick, a…” Fluttershy listened absentmindedly to the list of possible transformations that Celestia listed. At the same time, two purple flames appeared over Thanatos’ hands. Each flame fired a stream of blazing purple bats. Fluttershy dodged the attack and fired a charge shot at Thanatos. However, the shot dissipated before it could make contact with its target. “a centipede, a bat, a snake, or… a cat.”

“Um, Princess Celestia? I don’t want to be rude or anything, but…” Fluttershy trailed off. A few seconds later, she switched from her usual speaking voice to a whisper. “Maybe you shouldn’t give him ideas?”

“I’m tempted to reach for my book of snappy comebacks,” Thanatos said. “But maybe I should just show you? And a one, and a two, and a one, two, three!” Pink smoke formed around Thanatos as he spun around in the center of the room. The smoke expanded over his entire body for a second, and when it cleared, a gigantic equine foreleg appeared in the center.

“A hoof?” Fluttershy said.

“Really?” Celestia said. “How much harm could—”

“Ever heard of athlete’s hoof?!” Thanatos interjected.

“No,” Fluttershy said. “But I do still have this Atlas Foot.”She reached for the item with her left hoof and held it up in the air. The Atlas Foot twinkled for a second before vanishing, and a large mass of clouds appeared over Thanatos. Thanatos tried to move toward her, but before he could get within smashing distance, a giant foot appeared from the clouds and stomped him into the ground.

“AGH! No fair! You can’t bring those items into a boss fight!” Thanatos yelped again when the foot stomped on him a second time.

“Maybe not in the game, but this is fanfiction,” Celestia said.

“Alright fine!” Thanatos yelled. Pink smoke formed around him again, and when it dissipated, there was now a purple egg-shaped doll in the center of the room. The Atlas Foot emerged from the clouds again to step on the doll, but when it pulled away, the doll was completely unscathed.

“What’s this?” Fluttershy asked.

“It looks like he turned into a doll,” Celestia said. Fluttershy backed away from the giant doll, which made a single hop toward her. However, she noticed a small red gem in the center of the doll and fired at it. The doll broke into two halves, and a slightly smaller doll emerged from it.

“There’s something inside the doll!”

“So Thanatos turned into a nesting doll?” Celestia said. “I wonder if they sell these in the gift shop.” The two halves of the larger doll reattached to each other, and both dolls hopped toward Fluttershy. Fluttershy spotted the same red jewel on the smaller doll and fired at it. The doll split open, releasing a third doll from inside it. She kept some distance between her and the dolls while continuing this pattern, releasing a fourth and a fifth doll.

When she finally broke open the fifth doll, a miniature version of Thanatos emerged from it. “There he is!” Fluttershy said. She fired at the miniature Thanatos, and despite some interference by the other five dolls, Thanatos finally transformed again. The pink smoke swallowed up all of the dolls, and in their place appeared a large greatsword and six spears. One of the spears hurled itself at Fluttershy, embedding itself in the ground near her hooves.

“Slicety slice,” he shouted. “Dicety dice! Stabbity stab stab stab stab!”

“No need to sound so gleeful!” Fluttershy said. She jumped backward while firing her arm, hoping to keep her distance while continuing her attack. The arm produced a high voltage field which did nothing to the spears, but seemed to cause damage to the sword. Another spear hurled itself at Fluttershy, and she squeaked when it struck the ground just inches away from her. She ducked underneath the sword when it swung at her and galloped away from the weapons.

“Maybe you can get the sword to hit the spears when they’re in the ground,” Celestia said.

“I think I’d rather keep my distance for this one!’ she stammered. She fired a charge shot at the sword, but one of the spears surrounding the sword blocked it. Another spear hurled itself at Fluttershy, who jumped back from it. The sword swung horizontally at her, but instead of hitting her, the blade slammed into the embedded spear. Fluttershy swung her arm at the rattled sword three times, and jumped back while firing a charge shot. She generated a few more electrical fields with the Electroshock Arm, catching the sword in each one.

Before long, Thanatos had finally had enough and transformed into a large bat. “Keee! Keee!”

“That’s not even what a bat sounds like,” Fluttershy muttered.

“Woop woop woop woop woop!” Thanatos said as he fired a stream of pink fiery bats at her.

“And neither is that!” Fluttershy said, dodging the attack. “This is getting really annoying really fast!” She dodged another stream of bats and fired a charge shot at Thanatos. Once the shot connected, pink smoke surrounded him again, and he turned into a swarm of ordinary bats. “Uh-oh,” Fluttershy galloped as the swarm of bats chased after her. A few bats crashed into her while a few others tried to bite her. She tried to dodge the swarm, and even tried attacking, but was unable to harm any of the bats.

By the time Thanatos reverted to his larger bat form, Fluttershy had a few new bruises and at least a dozen tiny bite wounds. Her legs, neck and wings stung, but more than anything she was now annoyed. She dodged a stream of fiery bats and fired a charge shot at Thanatos. She ran into him with the Electroshock Arm, followed by three more melee attacks, and jumped back while firing another charge shot.

Pink smoke covered Thanatos again. When it cleared, he had transformed into a floating, ornate purple urn. “Whew, I’m just going to catch a few z’s here,” he said. “By the way, your attacks are useless.”

“There must be some way to hurt him,” Celestia said. She and Fluttershy studied the urn as it floated around. After a while, the urn shook, and five skulls shot out of the urn. “Oh, I know. Why don’t you try hitting those skulls back at him?” Fluttershy noticed one of the skulls fall near her and swung her arm at it. The skull shattered on impact with the urn, leaving behind a large crack. The urn tipped over and dumped five more skulls in Fluttershy’s direction. Fluttershy knocked two more skulls back at the urn, spreading even more cracks throughout it.

The urn vanished in a puff of pink smoke. Two scaly purple arms appeared in their place, and a second later, Thanatos reemerged as a sea serpent. He fired two streams of bats at Fluttershy, who dodged and hit him with a charge shot, followed by a stream of continuous fire. Fluttershy ducked under two more streams of bats and struck Thanatos’ three times with her weapon. The third strike was followed by a charge shot, which threw him into the wall behind him.

Fluttershy aimed her arm at Thanatos, holding it steady as he lurched back. Thanatos’ body swelled, starting from the tail and reaching toward his arms, neck and face until he finally exploded. A vortex formed beneath him, ensnaring what was left of his body and pulling him into it. “Farewell!” he yelled before finally vanishing, leaving behind a transparent pink gem.

“Pick up that gem, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. Fluttershy walked over to the gem and grabbed it with her mouth. She placed the gem on her left hoof, examining it while keeping it balanced. “This is our key to the Underworld.”

“And I just have to hold it?” Fluttershy said, rolling the gem on her hoof and grasping it in between her hoof and fetlock.

“More or less,” she said. “But first, we have to get you geared up for the final battle.” Yellow light shone down on Fluttershy from above. Fluttershy stashed the gem in her tunic before being extracted from the palace.

The Space Pirate Ship

Chapter 8: The Space Pirate Ship

Fluttershy galloped toward the portal that was to take her to her next mission. She slowed down as she approached and eventually came to a stop just short of the double doors. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves as much as she could, and quietly exhaled. “Let’s go,” she muttered to herself. The portal opened before her, and she flew out into a mostly clear sky. The sun was setting over the world, giving the sky a vivid orange color. “With Nightmare Moon’s commanders out of the way, we’re getting to the battle of battles, aren’t we?” she said. She spotted a Wave Angler and three Monoeyes flying by and aimed her hoof at them. Fitted to her front hooves was a pair of braces each with three long, slender talons extending from them, the Hedgehog Claws. She aimed at the monsters and fired a barrage of talons from her claws, taking out all four enemies. However, once she defeated them, she noticed that she was actually ascending in her flight. “Wait, this isn’t the way to the Underworld. Where are we going?”

Celestia didn’t respond to her at first. A few seconds passed in silence while Fluttershy waited for an answer. “I’m a little embarrassed to say,” Celestia finally said.

“What is it?”

“How much do you know about the Three Sacred Treasures?”

“The Three Sacred Treasures?” Fluttershy said. “Those are the weapons you used when you first fought Nightmare Moon. The Mirror Shield, Bow of Light, and Alicorn Wings, right?”

“Yes,” Celestia said. “After I defeated her, I hid them in case of an emergency, to prevent them from being stolen.”

“That’s a good idea,” Fluttershy said. “So where did you hide them?”

“I’m getting to that, actually,” Celestia said. “See, there’s also this space pirate ship…”

“Wait, what?”

“You know, a pirate ship,” Celestia said. “In space. Its crew travels the Galactic Sea, robbing the heavens of constellations.”

“Well that’s horrible,” Fluttershy said, “but what does that have to do with…” It was at that moment that Fluttershy put the pieces together, and a look of dread formed on her face. “No… you didn’t.”

“… I did.”

“So the pirates stole the treasures along with the stars?”

“I’m afraid it gets even worse from there,” Celestia said. “The Underworld Army has gotten wind of it. They’re attacking the ship even as we speak.”

Although her body was ascending in flight, Fluttershy’s head and forelegs slumped down. “Great,” she muttered.

“Which brings us to today’s mission,” Celestia said. “Raid the pirate ship and retrieve the Three Sacred Treasures.” The aura around Fluttershy’s wings intensified, and she accelerated in her ascent.

“Isn’t there some other weapon we could get to fight Nightmare Moon?”

“Hmm…” Celestia though quietly to herself, trying to recall any other artifacts, power sources, or allies that might be powerful enough. “Well, rumors have been circulating lately about a powerful wish-granting item,” she said. “How do you feel about traveling to an active volcano and slaying an immortal phoenix?”

“I think I’d rather fly into space and attack a pirate ship,” Fluttershy murmured.

“Good call.” After a few more seconds, Fluttershy flew up beyond the planet’s atmosphere. Celestia maintained Fluttershy’s speed and continued to guide her through space, toward their destination.

Off in the distance, Fluttershy spotted a number of Remoblams, large mechanical eyeballs with two orange spherical antennae. Surrounding each Remoblam were three Remoblamings, similar to the Remoblams except they each had a single blue spherical antenna. Fluttershy focused her fire on the Remoblams once she was within shooting range of them. After taking enough damage, each Remoblam self-destructed, as did the Remoblamings that surrounded them.

“The Three Sacred Treasures must be pretty old now,” Fluttershy said. “Are you sure they still work?”

“They’ve grown more brittle with age,” Celestia said, “but they’ll likely last a few more battles.”

“That’s… not very reassuring.”

“Not to worry,” Celestia said. “I'm sure the Three Sacred Treasures will carry you through your fight with Nightmare Moon. With any luck, you may not even need them.”

“If you say so,” Fluttershy said. “I just have one more question.”

“What is it?”

Fluttershy looked around at the distant stars and clusters of space debris as she flew through space. “How am I breathing if there’s no atmosphere in space?” she asked. “Or even talking for that matter?”

“Bear in mind that your wings need to push off of the air around them for you to fly,” Celestia said.

“So we’re just going to hoofwave this as magic.”

“And to think how worried you were about breathing underwater in the last chapter,” Celestia said.

Before long, the environment around Fluttershy began to change. The stars were no appeared as distant objects in the sky, and she was actually getting closer to all the constellations now. From up close, she could see threads of purple light connecting each of the stars together, forming the patterns that so many stargazing ponies saw in the night sky. As she flew, she saw a very liquid, very watery substance underneath her that extended as far in every direction as she could see. Part of her noted that Celestia had been surprisingly literal when she called this the Galactic Sea, but that thought was mostly ignored as she stared in awe at the environment around her. “Wow, what a sight,” she said.

“We’ve arrived at the Galactic Sea,” Celestia said. She guided Fluttershy across the sea and in between the threads that connected the constellations. Both of them looked around the sea, though Fluttershy had to stop to attack a Belunka and the four Gyrazors that it spit out. “The pirate ship should be around here somewhere.”

“Where?”

Meanwhile, far off to Fluttershy’s right, something appeared deep within the ocean. The object rapidly moved toward an unaware Fluttershy as it made its way to the ocean’s surface. It had almost reached the ocean’s surface when Celestia saw the object. She took control of the power of flight and pulled Fluttershy back just as the object emerged from the seas.

“Eep!” Fluttershy’s flinched as the object, a massive blue nautical vessel, launched itself out of the ocean and toward her. Her wings fought against the power of flight to reflexively snap shut at her sides, but Celestia firmly maintained control and kept her in flight. After hanging in the air for a few moments, the vessel landed in sea again and sped off. Four Syrens flew in pursuit of the vessel. “Was that the ship?”

“Yes, and it’s moving very fast,” Celestia said. “Stay on it!”

The power of flight picked up again and Fluttershy accelerated in pursuit of the ship. The ship had just about disappeared beyond the horizon formed by the Galactic Sea, but Fluttershy was now gaining on it. She quickly caught up to the three Syrens and shot them down, along with four Gyrazors and six Monoeyes that were also pursuing the ship. Several more enemies, mostly Monoeyes and Syrens, appeared along the way, though most of them were too busy chasing after the space pirates to notice her, making it easy for her to shoot them down as well.

Before long, Fluttershy was able to spot the ship off in the distance. Underworld troops were surrounding the ship, though a group of Commylooses broke off from the rest of them and leaped out of the sea to attack Fluttershy. Fluttershy fired at the Commylooses with her claws, occasionally having to shoot down a missile that one of them launched at her. “I think I see the ship!” she said.

“It’s under attack by Underworld forces,” Celestia said. “That means the treasures are still on board.”

Fluttershy flew closer to the pirate vessel. As she approached it, she could see a multitude of lasers being fired at the Underworld soldiers from its port and starboard sides. “Maybe if we help defend the ship, they’ll just give us the Three Sacred Treasures.”

“I don’t think they’ll be so accommodating,” Celestia said. “Plus, just think how lonely the sky would be without constellations. Don’t hold back!” She guided Fluttershy portside of the ship, maneuvering her through the ship’s laser cannon fire. Fluttershy slashed at five Komaytos with her claws before flying ahead of the ship. Two Gyrazors pelted her with a barrage of needlelike shots, but she managed to swerve away from them and take them out.

Meanwhile, the pirate vessel dipped briefly before launching out of the ocean. Fluttershy got one look at the ship when it lunged at her. “Eep!” She flinched again as the ship loomed directly over her, but Celestia pulled her away from it and brought her next to its starboard side.

“I’m looking for an entrance,” Celestia said. “Hold on.” She maneuvered Fluttershy around the ship’s stern and back to its portside. They both scanned the side of the vessel. Fluttershy dodged the barrage from its cannons as she flew around the ship and ahead of it. A group of Shrips noticed her and flew toward her, spinning their bladed heads as they went. Fluttershy fired at them one by one while Celestia guided her back around the ship’s starboard, over its deck, and near its portside. “Found one! Get ready to go in!” Channeling her magic into the power of flight, Celestia sent Fluttershy flying toward the back of the ship’s hull and crashing straight into its interior.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy crashed through the ceiling of one of the rooms in the ship and hit the ground with a hard thud. Smoke rose from her wings and hoofs for a second as she lay on the ground. After a while, she picked herself up and managed to stand up on her hooves again, the talons on her Hedgehog Claws having retracted to let her stand on her front hooves. “Not that I’m complaining or anything,” she groaned, “but could you please be a little gentler next time?” Her head ached after smashing her way into the ship, and she lifted a hoof to her temple.

“Sorry about that…” Celestia said. “Are you alright?” After a while, Fluttershy shook herself off and found the door leading out of the room. As she moved to the next room, a loud, masculine voice could be heard blaring throughout the halls of the ship. The voice was being broadcast through the ship’s intercom, and was boisterously and rather obnoxiously trying to rally the ship’s crew to fight back against its attackers.

Fluttershy made her way her way to the next room, which appeared spacious enough to be a meeting area. Two stout, bipedal creatures, one wearing yellow armor while the other wore blue, were already in the room, and Fluttershy’s entrance caught their attention. “So those are the space pirates?” she asked, backing away as some of them approached her.

“I must admit, I wasn’t expecting them to look so cartoonish,” Celestia mused. “The space pirates in Metroid Prime are far more intimidating.” One of the pirates wearing yellow armor curled into a ball and rolled itself at Fluttershy. It tossed her into the air on impact and kicked her across the room. “Then again, they appear to be tougher than some of the Underworld forces. Be careful.”

Another pirate, this one wearing blue armor and with a rifle attached to its arm, fired at Fluttershy in a scattershot pattern. Fluttershy rolled away from the Pirate Sniper’s fire and got back on her hooves. She aimed her right claw at the yellow-armored Space Pirate, who was now running toward her, and jumped back while firing a charge shot at it. The charge shot, consisting of several long needles, pierced through the pirate’s armor and body, killing it instantly. Fluttershy turned back to the Pirate Sniper, who was now lying prone on the ground with its gun pointed at her. She sidestepped when it fired a beam at her, galloped toward it and quickly killed it with another charge shot.

Fluttershy left the room and made her way through the next hallway. She turned left at a corner, but found another pirate waiting for her at the end. The pirate, wearing green armor and a grenade launcher on its arm, took aim at her. Fluttershy stepped back nervously, eventually running back when the Pirate Commando fired a grenade at her. She was well outside the grenade’s blast radius when it exploded, and once the explosion subsided, she galloped toward the pirate. Her legs felt remarkable light and nimble, and she was surprised to reach the pirate so quickly before slashing through it with her right claw.

“Wow, I’ve never run this fast before,” Fluttershy said.

“Different weapon types can make you move faster or slower,” Celestia said. “Claws, for example, allow for the quickest movement of any weapon type. They’re primarily designed for those who favor fast attacks and movement.”

Fluttershy looked down at the brown pair of claws she had as she galloped along. “Well now that you mention it, I am feeling a bit more energetic too.”

“Right now, you’re wearing the Hedgehog Claws,” Celestia said. “Even among claws, they feature quicker movement, firing rate, and charge time. Apparently, they were inspired by hedgehogs.”

“But hedgehogs aren’t normally very fast creatures,” Fluttershy said. “If that’s true, then maybe these claws should have been blue instead.”

The next room Fluttershy entered was dark. There was no lighting inside, though the captain could still be heard shouting over the intercom, and the room was illuminated only by the glow inside a large glass tank in the center of the room. “This is the generator room,” Celestia said. She closely examined the tank and the glow inside it. “This is where energy from the Galactic Sea is converted to propulsive power. As long as the ship remains in the Galactic Sea, it can run indefinitely.”

“Should we try to shut it down?” Fluttershy asked.

“No, that’s not what we came here to do,” Celestia said. “Just be careful while you’re in here. One false move in here and the explosion will be enormous.”

“Sounds painful…”

Three pirates were also in the room, presumably either to guard the generator room or maintain it. Two of them, a Sniper and a Commando, aimed at Fluttershy when she walked into the room, but she was standing close to the tank and neither one fired at her. Fluttershy fired a charge shot, taking out both of them, but didn’t notice the third one before it charged at her and punched her to the ground. The pirate then curled up into a ball and tried to run her down, but she managed to roll out of the way. As soon as she stood back up, Fluttershy looked at the Space Pirate. This one’s armor was yellow, and just like the last one she saw with yellow armor, this one was unarmed and favored close combat. Fluttershy took out the Space Pirate with a charge shot and finally left the generator room.

Fluttershy made her way through the next hallway and entered another dimly lit room in the ship. Up above, walkways had been installed that spanned the second and third levels of the room. Dozens of giant, ornate glass orbs were scattered and piled around. The glass orbs gave off a yellow light, providing the only illumination for the entire room.

“Oh, I see,” Celestia said.

“See what?” Fluttershy asked. Off to one end of the room, a Pirate Commando and an Underworld Snowman were fighting each other. The Snowman was on the verge of attacking when the Commando launched a grenade at it. The grenade flew over the Snowman’s blast of frigid air, destroying the Snowman in its explosion while the Commando was frozen solid.

“This must be a storage vault for the stolen constellations,” Celestia said. “They’ve all been compressed for easy transport.”

“And what about the Three Sacred Treasures?”

“Unfortunately, they don’t seem to be here,” Celestia said. “I wonder if the pirate captain has them.”

“But those are our weapons against Nightmare Moon!” Fluttershy said. “If the captain’s wearing them…”

“You’re right, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “This makes our current situation increasingly dire.”

After shattering the frozen Commando, Fluttershy noticed a jump pad on the ground. She stepped onto the jump pad, which catapulted her onto the second-level walkway, and continued along. At the end of the walkway, she noticed another door at the bottom of the room. This door had several constellations stockpiled around it, blocking it off from the rest of the bottom level, but she was able to jump down and walk through it. The next room was very small, with only a shaft of blue light inside, and when Fluttershy walked into it, she found herself standing in another Zodiac Chamber.

“Hmm, of all the places to find a Zodiac Chamber…” Celestia mused. At the end of the chamber, Fluttershy found the Cancer Claws, a pair of weapons modeled after crab claws and designed to fit like gloves. Once Celestia took them for her, Fluttershy returned to the storage vault. The pirate captain continued to blare over the intercom as Fluttershy found another jump pad to bring her back to the second-level, and then a third one to bring her to the third level.

Fluttershy reached the door at the end of the third-level walkway, only to find herself looking out over the Galactic Sea when the door opened. She stepped out onto a pathway that extended outside the ship’s starboard side. Fluttershy gazed in awe at the scenery around her as she walked along the platform, making her way to another door leading back into the ship. Beneath her, the vessel cut through the oceans as it sailed through the Galactic Sea. Thousands of tiny stars twinkled in the distance. Adding the image of the fantastical ship she was on, Fluttershy imagined this view on a postcard before walking back into the ship.

Stepping back inside, Fluttershy entered another corridor within the pirate ship. There was a door directly in front of her, and the rest of the corridor continued to her right. On the other side of the first door, she found a warm, comfortable pool of water in the center of the room. She smiled and breathed in deeply, taking in the warm, moist air within the room. However, a Pirate Commando was already lounging in the pool of warm water, and her smile disappeared when she noticed the pirate.

“It looks like you found the ship’s hot spring,” Celestia said. “Unfortunately, someone else made it here before you.”

“In that case, I should probably go.”

“Are you sure? There’s probably room for one more in there.”

“No,” Fluttershy said, turning the leave the room. “I wouldn’t want to impose.” She walked back into the hallway and continued to search the ship. “That was really more a hot tub, wasn’t it? You can’t really have a natural spring inside a ship.”

“That’s a valid point, but the game refers to all of them as hot springs,” Celestia said. “But back to the matter at hoof. I’ve set up a pair of grind rails for you outside the ship.”

Fluttershy reached a door at the end of the hallway. The door led outside, and there were two parallel rails of light beginning just outside the doorway. She hopped onto the rails, allowing their magic to carry her across them. “Where do they lead to?”

“I’m very limited in where and how I can place grind rails, but they should lead to the ship’s control room,” Celestia said. “I think that’s where we’ll find the Three Sacred Treasures and the pirate captain.”

The rails carried Fluttershy around the ship’s bow and over its decks. Fluttershy continued along the rails, shooting at several Miks as they stopped attacking the ship to pursue her. Surprisingly, she didn’t see any laser fire from the ship’s side cannons as the rails brought her around the stern. Not many Underworld monsters were outside the ship either. Most of them had likely been killed during the attack, but she expected a few of them to be in the ship now, attacking from the inside.

The grind rails finally reached a door leading back into the ship, and Fluttershy jumped off of them and into the control room. Two Pirate Commandos were fending off a Tortolunk. Both pirates fired missiles at it, but the Tortolunk flipped over and started spinning on its shell. The missiles exploded on impact, but did very little to the Tortolunk as it spun into the Commandos, throwing them across the room in different directions. Fluttershy took the opportunity to finish off both pirates with a few shots. She then turned back to the Tortolunk, which had fallen over on its side, and ran toward it. She slashed it with one claw, then the other, then spun around to kick it with her hind legs, and finished it off with a slash from each claw.

Fluttershy continued onto the next room, where two Pirate Snipers were fighting a Clubberskull. The Clubberskull’s seal had already been broken, and despite the fire from the two Snipers, the Underworld juggernaut was making its way toward them. Fluttershy lifted a foreleg at it and fired a barrage of talons from her claw. Neither pirate was going to survive, nor did she expect them to, but she did expect the Clubberskull to start attacking her once it was done with them. It spun its arms into the Snipers, crushing one of them against the wall while fatally slamming the other one across the room. The Clubberskull then turned around to face Fluttershy, who was still firing at it. It showed no sign of fatigue as it charged toward her, each step pounding against the floor. Fluttershy’s heart pounded as she backed away from it, eventually backing up against a wall.

The Clubberskull was within a few feet of Fluttershy before it finally stopped in its tracks. The monster collapsed to the ground, finally succumbing to the damage it had taken. Fluttershy remained huddled against the wall, breathing heavily as the Clubberskull’s remains vanished and the room was clear. She took a moment to compose herself, and after a while, she felt calmer and ready to continue. The pirate captain yelled over the intercom again as Fluttershy started toward the end of the room. Past the next door, there was a small platform in the ground, big enough for her to stand on.

“This elevator will take you to the pirate captain,” Celestia said. Once Fluttershy stepped onto the platform, it rose out of the ground and toward a hole in the ceiling.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy stepped off of the elevator and onto the deck of the pirate ship. The pirate captain, a large minotaur with a silver nose ring, was shouting once more over the intercom to his crew. “Come on, pirates!” he shouted. “Iron Will shaped you up to be marauders of the Galactic Sea, not so you could be marauded!” He noticed Fluttershy step onto the deck and focused his rant on her. “And you! How dare you raid Iron Will’s ship and attack his pirates! If you don’t turn flank, I’ll make you walk the space plank!”

Fluttershy took a step back and started to look around nervously. Apart from the minotaur, the only other thing she saw on the deck was a large rectangular case. The Three Sacred Treasures were most likely inside it, but the case was being kept right beside the minotaur, meaning that Fluttershy would have to get past him first. “Oh no, not the space plank,” she murmured.

Suddenly, the entire ship started to shake. Fluttershy and the pirate captain stumbled for a moment and started looking around, both uncertain of what was causing the ship to shake. Four red tentacles emerged from around the ship’s sides and towered over the deck. One tentacle reached onto the deck and grabbed the pirate captain, lifting him off of the ship. The tentacle tossed him into the air and into the waiting mouth of a giant cephalopod. After swallowing the pirate captain whole, the cephalopod peered over the ship’s deck at Fluttershy.

“What the—” Fluttershy said. “What’s an Octorok doing in a Kid Icarus game?”

“That’s a space kraken, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “The Galactic Sea is home to all sorts of creatures.”

The kraken lowered its head behind the side of the ship, but kept its tentacles in place to attack Fluttershy. “So it’s not affiliated at all with the Underworld Army?” Fluttershy asked.

“No, but you still need to do something about those tentacles,” Celestia said. Fluttershy sidestepped when one tentacle lunged at her. Another tentacle slammed onto the deck, and Fluttershy ran to avoid it. “Although, when prepared correctly, octopus is actually quite delicious.”

“Wait, you’re a pony,” Fluttershy said. “Since when do you eat seafood?”

“Just kidding.”

Fluttershy groaned and did a facehoof. Another tentacle slammed onto the ship’s deck. Fluttershy avoided it and looked around. The other three tentacles were still poised to attack her while the fourth one lifted itself back up, but Fluttershy noticed one other thing still nearby. The rectangular case still stood at one end of the deck, untouched after the minotaur was eaten by the space kraken. “The Three Sacred Treasures are in that box, right?” she asked. “Couldn’t we just take it and leave?”

“Well, that would make sense, but I think the readers are expecting some form of boss fight, and…” Celestia paused for a moment. “On second thought, you’re right. Take the box and I’ll extract you.”

Fluttershy galloped toward the case, leaping over a tentacle that swung over the deck to grab her. A yellow beam of light shone down on the case, lifting it just off the ground. Within the next few seconds, Fluttershy reached the case containing the Three Sacred Treasures and Celestia extracted both of them, leaving the kraken alone with the space pirate vessel.

Nightmare Moon's Final Battle

Chapter 9: Nightmare Moon’s Final Battle

A large, rectangular box stood before a set of double doors when Fluttershy reached the end of the dark hallway. She approached the box, turned, and kicked the box with a back hoof. The box, however, didn't move. Fluttershy frowned and kicked the box again, this time with both hind legs. Her kick was still too gentle, and while the box rocked back and forth, it did not open.

A stray gust of wind blew through the hallway, knocking the box over and popping the latch open. Three beams of light shot out of the open box, spiraled up in the air, and rained down on Fluttershy. The first light surrounded her entire body, and pieces of bronze armor formed around her: a crested helmet over her head, greaves around each of her legs, a peytral to protect her chest, a croupiere to protect her flanks, and a mirrored shield attached to her left foreleg.

The second beam of light fell over her wings and condensed into a magenta glow over her wing shoulders and coverts. The third beam of light shone down on Fluttershy’s right foreleg, and a large, bronze-colored longbow formed over the cannon of her foreleg, with shafts of magenta light resembling feathers extending from the bow’s limbs.

“Okay, um…” Fluttershy murmured. She looked over her new equipment, then at the two halves of the open box lying on the floor before shaking it off. “Equipped!” The portal opened next to her, and she jumped through, a yellow aura forming around her wings as she took flight. Pitch-black clouds blanketed the skies all around her, casting her surroundings in a thick darkness, except for a red glow that permeated through the cloud cover below. It looked like she was flying into the thick smoke from a raging inferno, until a bolt of lightning flashed across the clouds ahead, causing Fluttershy to flinch.

“Are you ready for the final battle, Fluttershy?” Celestia asked.

“A-As ready as I’ll ever be…” Fluttershy murmured. Monoeyes began to emerge from the surrounding clouds, some already firing at her. Fluttershy banked to avoid their blasts as they came.

“For this final battle, you’re equipped with the Three Sacred Treasures,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy aimed the Bow of Light and fired at the Monoeyes. As she aimed, her eye caught a glimpse of the aura coming off her wings. “And you activated the power of flight too?” she asked. “Isn’t that what the Alicorn Wings are for?”

“We can’t be certain that the Alicorn Wings will be reliable after a thousand years,” Celestia said. “For now, they’ve been deactivated.”

Dozens of monsters—Monoeyes, Paramushes, and Syrens—all emerged as Fluttershy dove through the clouds. Fluttershy veered as they opened fire on her, and then fired back with her bow. The Arrows of Light struck their targets. One of them turned sharply to hit another enemy behind the first one, earning a stunned look from Fluttershy. She didn't think any weapon could have such a strong homing ability. Another volley of attacks came from the approaching Underworld enemies, snapping Fluttershy out of her thoughts, and she swerved to dodge.

“There sure are a lot of Underworld enemies around here,” Fluttershy said.

“That’s no surprise, given how close we are to the Underworld,” Celestia said. “So even though the Arrows of Light are very powerful, keep your guard up.”

Before long, Fluttershy broke through the cloud cover, where she saw a deep chasm stretch across the barren, dark gray wasteland below. Miks, Gyrazors, Monoeyes, and Shrips swarmed out of the ravine, and Fluttershy angled past their shots as she tried her best to shoot them down.

“This ravine leads to the Underworld,” Celestia said. “I’m taking you in.”

Fluttershy fired at the Monoeyes and Gyrazors in her path. She flew past the spinning blades of several Shrips and dodged a tongue lash from each Mik along the way. All the while, the power of flight flared across her wings, and she dove straight toward the ground. She didn’t even look back at the enemies she rushed past as she flew into the ravine.

The yellow aura from Fluttershy’s wings cast a faint glow against the rock walls around her, her only source of light in the foreboding darkness of the ravine. She scanned the surrounding walls for any enemies lying in wait, holding down the feeling of trepidation as best as she could. Even so, not a single monster could be found ahead.

Before long, Fluttershy saw a blue skull wreathed in purple flames deeper in the chasm. Two short, curved horns jutted out of the skull’s head, and what looked like four eye sockets stared back at Fluttershy when it turned to face her. The monster let out a roar, revealing a batch of colored pony skulls that clattered within its mouth.

“Watch out for Ornes ahead,” Celestia said.

“Are you talking about that floating skull?” Fluttershy asked as she aimed the Bow of Light.

“Yes,” Celestia said. “The slightest touch from one will annihilate you.”

“That sounds as horrifying as it looks,” Fluttershy said. She fired an arrow at the Orne, striking the creature’s head and vaporizing it in a flash of light. Fluttershy blinked.

“Ornes are normally invulnerable to any weaponry,” Celestia said. “Between that and their deadly touch, they have a reputation as both a symbol and harbinger of death. Fortunately, they’re no match for the Arrows of Light.”

Two more Ornes appeared further down the chasm. Fluttershy fired another arrow, which pierced through the first Orne and struck the second behind it, destroying them both. The chasm soon led into a deep tunnel, with crystal formations lining the walls. The crystals gave off no light of their own, but reflected the light from Fluttershy’s wings as she passed, as well as the purple glow of two more Ornes further down. This time, the Ornes hovered next to each other, circling around each other as if to block the way through.

Fluttershy fired an arrow at one of the Ornes, destroying it instantly. She fired a stream of smaller arrows from her bow, shooting down the second one. Three more Ornes floated in a tight circle further ahead. Fluttershy paused, waiting for her bow to charge, and then fired another arrow. Her arrow struck two of the Ornes, wiping them out, and she fired another stream of smaller arrows to finish off the last one.

The rock walls surrounding Fluttershy disappeared behind her, leaving only the crystal formations lining the tunnel around her. Even the crystal formations began to thin out as she went, and it felt like she was flying through the “suggestion” of a tunnel running through an endless black abyss. Suddenly, a rose-colored light shone from underneath her peytral.

“Thanatos’ gem is shining!” Fluttershy said.

“That means the entrance to the Underworld is up ahead,” Celestia said. “Get ready.”

A bright, white tear opened up in the darkness at the end of the tunnel, widening into the shape of a giant eye. A black and purple circle pulsed with energy at the center of the “eye,” with a tiny white “pupil” at the center of it. Time seemed to slow down as Fluttershy approached the portal. The white light grew brighter, consuming the darkness of the abyss around her. Fluttershy shut her eyes and covered her face with her hooves, but Celestia guided her flight path through the portal all the same.

When Fluttershy opened her eyes again, she was met with the sight of a stepped wasteland as far as she could see. Barren, leafless trees dotted the landscape below, and a deep orange sky bathed everything around in its light. A dozen monsters—Miks, Monoeyes, and Gyrazors—were already nearby to meet her, and in the distance, hundreds more were scattered across the horizon.

“The Underworld,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy fired a barrage of arrows from her bow, shooting down three Monoeyes, five Gyrazors, and two Miks. Syrens and Gyrazors swarmed in to take their place, and a Vakloom hovered behind them.

“There are a lot of enemies here,” Fluttershy said.

“We’re in their domain now,” Celestia said. “Brace yourself for the worst.”

Fluttershy soared through the air, shooting as many creatures as she could. Octos, Syrens, and Paramushes descended on her, and hundreds of dots in the sky—each one an Underworld monster—began to converge on her. Fluttershy fired on them too, but was struck in the chest by a beam from a Gyrazor. A whirlwind attack from a Syren struck her right side, followed by a shot from a Paramush. She started to fall, and two Syrens dove after her. Fluttershy winced from the hits, but moved her wings to try to regain her flight rhythm. She swerved in midfall, dodging a whirlwind attack from one the Syrens.

Celestia’s magic flowed through Fluttershy’s wings, and with a few wingbeats, Fluttershy was flying again. A Monoeye fired a blast at her, but Fluttershy raised her left foreleg. The attack struck her Mirror Shield and bounced off, almost hitting one of the Syrens. She aimed her bow and fired back, shooting down Monoeyes, Paramushes, Syrens, and Gyrazors. The horde of monsters retaliated with their own attacks. Fluttershy banked, dodging several blasts from the creatures. Another volley of enemy attacks followed, and Fluttershy raised the Mirror Shield. Her shield caught their projectiles and reflected them back, striking several enemies in the process. She raised her bow again and fired, her arrow piercing through several creatures at once. With their numbers thinned, Fluttershy flew on.

Three Underworld enemies descended in front of Fluttershy’s path, each one bearing a thick black metal plate with red markings that obscured their entire bodies. Fluttershy fired at one of them, but her arrow splashed against its metal plate without so much as a scratch. The three monsters floated in a circle ahead of her, and three Gyrazors and a Gloomerang soared in from behind them.

“The metal backs on Boogities resist everything,” Celestia said. “Even the Arrows of Light.”

A multicolored streak briefly traced across the sky to Fluttershy’s left, but she barely noticed it as she turned her attention away from the Boogities and fired at the Gyrazors. The Gloomerang spun its head, hurling its crescent-shaped mask at her. Fluttershy swerved to the side, dodging the sharp metal mask. One of the Boogities turned around, revealing a masklike face with sharp, pointy teeth, two oversized green hands, and two stunted legs—all embedded in the back of the protective metal plate. Fluttershy aimed at the Boogity, but Celestia’s magic yanked her to the side as the Gloomerang’s mask changed course and nearly hit her from behind on the return trip.

The Boogity spat a missile from its mouth. Fluttershy shot the missile with her bow, but the Boogity had turned back around by the time she shot the missile down. The second Boogity turned around, and Fluttershy shot it down before it could launch a missile of its own. A blast of purple energy flew at her, and she barely saw it in time to dodge. Monoeyes and Gyrazors swarmed in from behind the Boogities and opened fire on her. Fluttershy banked left and soared over the oncoming barrage, then fired back with the Bow of Light.

The third Boogity turned around and spat a missile at Fluttershy. Fluttershy shot the missile down, then dodged a whirlwind blast from a Syren. Several more Syrens began to circle around her. She began to aim her bow at them, but caught sight of the Gloomerang hurling its mask at her and swerved out of its way. She fired her bow, first at the Syrens, then at the Monoeyes and Gyrazors.

All the while, her eyes darted frantically from one group of enemies to the next, then to the Boogities and the Gloomerang. There were too many of them. It was all she could do to keep her weapon leg from shaking as she aimed her bow, and a slew of questions ran through her mind. Why was she doing this? Didn’t Princess Celestia have an army of ponies she could send to fight this battle. She was the Goddess of Light, an alicorn. Couldn’t she fight this battle instead. Why was Fluttershy fighting this whole army by herself?

Suddenly, a rainbow shockwave erupted in the sky above the Boogities and the Gloomerang. The force of the shockwave tossed enemy troops about, including the Gloomerang and Boogities, while the shockwave itself expanded above Fluttershy’s head for almost a mile. Electric currents of all colors raced across the sky for a moment, and then came down as bolts of lightning, frying every single Underworld enemy nearby. In the aftermath of the shockwave and its resulting lightning storm, a rainbow streak raced by Fluttershy, and an all too familiar blue pegasus flew alongside her. She no longer wore her black tunic, revealing a cutie mark in the form of a cloud and a tri-colored lightning bolt, but she flashed a cocky smirk at Fluttershy all the same.

“Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy said.

That cocky smirk vanished in an instant. “What did you just call me?” Rainbow scowled.

“Oh, um…” Fluttershy said nervously. “What are you doing here?”

“Same thing you’re doing,” Rainbow said. “Fighting Underworld baddies.” A grin spread across her face as she glanced at three Syrens and two Monoeyes approaching. Without taking her eyes off Fluttershy, she aimed her black First Blade and shot them down. “I’m just way better at it than you.” She flew off and slashed through two Komaytos with her blade, while Fluttershy fired at a group of Miks with her bow.

“Maybe you also sensed that Fluttershy could use your help,” Celestia said.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Please, I could take these guys myself if I wanted!” she said. “In fact, the way you panicked back there, I bet I could swipe the Three Sacred Treasures off you and go after Nightmare Moon on my own.”

“Please don’t,” Fluttershy muttered flatly.

“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow said. “I’ll let you have your win.” She flew off, rushing to meet another group of Underworld creatures moving toward them.

“Nice of you to show up,” Fluttershy muttered with a scowl. “But I can handle this on my own… I think.”

“You’re not on your own, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “You have me.”

“Oh, of course,” Fluttershy said, a tinge of rose forming on her cheeks. “What would I do without you?” Her flight path dipped as she approached a river and a group of Monoeyes floating above it. She shot down several of them with her bow, and then swung her weapon at the remaining Monoeyes as she flew past.

A cliffside loomed over the other side of the river. Her flight path climbed up, and she ascended up the rock wall. As she soared, the sounds of battle became muffled in the distance, and then died down. The flapping of her wings became more audible, and the light around her became more and more faint. At first, she thought that the cliffside was blocking the deep orange light of the Underworld sky, but when she finally rose above the cliffside, she found herself in total darkness. She began to look around for any sign of the Underworld landscape, its troops, or Rainbow Dash, until a giant, glowing pair of cyan eyes opened in front of her.

“So, you’ve made it this far.”

Above the pair of eyes, a bright cyan glow came alight around a long, spiraling near-black horn. The glow illuminated much more of Nightmare Moon’s body, revealing the pale blue helm that covered most of her head, the peytral that covered her chest, and silhouettes of her legs and wings. A starry blue and purple mane seemed to billow behind her head, almost threatening to reach out and engulf everything around it.

For a moment, Fluttershy was taken aback by Nightmare Moon’s size. Then she remembered why she was here, the things that Nightmare Moon had done to innocent ponies, and she glared right back. This wasn’t the real Goddess of Darkness; just a projection created by the real thing’s magic. A lot of gods and goddesses could project much larger versions of their forms to the rest of the world. She’d seen Princess Celestia do it before, and she’d seen Princess Celestia at her real height. This wouldn’t scare her, and even if it did, it didn’t matter.

“It’s over, Nightmare Moon,” Fluttershy said, raising her weapon hoof.

“Isn’t that just precious,” Nightmare Moon said. Her catlike eyes narrowed as she peered down at Fluttershy. “It must be all that hot air that keeps you flying, just like that evil twin of yours. You are darling, but you’ll need more than bluster to defeat me!”

“This isn’t bluster, Nightmare Moon,” Fluttershy said. “In the name of the Goddess of Light and all the ponies she protects, I will defeat you.”

Nightmare Moon’s form faded away, as did the darkness that surrounded them. When the aura of Nightmare Moon’s magic faded, the Underworld came into view again, and ahead of Fluttershy, Nightmare Moon’s castle. Giant rib bones lined either side of the roads that led to and around the castle structures. Spiked fences made of wrought iron stood in between the guard towers and along the ledges of each level of the hill that the castle stood on. And looming over it all was the central keep, a twisted, shell-like structure with spikes protruding from its sides like curved horns.

Before Fluttershy could approach the castle, a purple dome of electrified energy surrounded it, and a sleek, white, mechanical figure rose in front of her path. The figure’s sides opened, revealing two pairs of wings, one white and one black. Three golden triangles, arranged to form a larger triangle, were on each wing, and the heavy white wings were equipped with bright orange gunports.

“What is that?” Fluttershy asked.

“The last line of defense for Nightmare Moon’s castle,” Celestia said.

A barrage of fireballs issued from the cannons on the Underworld Gatekeeper’s white wings. Fluttershy swerved to the side to dodge them. “Can’t we just fly past it and enter the castle?” she asked.

“Not with that barrier in place,” Celestia said. She pulled Fluttershy out of the way as two missiles were fired from the heavy wings. “And I don’t think we can outmaneuver this machine so easily.”

Fluttershy aimed at the gunport on her right first. The triangle patterns on the Underworld Gatekeeper’s wings fired at her in pairs, but Fluttershy easily maneuvered past the blue shots. She fired back, first with one arrow, then with a stream of smaller arrows. Smoke erupted from the gunport as it took damage, and Fluttershy turned her attention to the other one. All the while, a red jewel in the center of the machine’s head began to glow.

A pair of circular green screens issued from the Underworld Gatekeeper and hovered toward Fluttershy. Fluttershy fired, but the screen on her left took the arrow and shattered. Undettered, she hovered out of the other screen’s path, kept her aim, and fired at the remaining gunport.

The glow from the Gatekeeper’s center jewel grew brighter, and Fluttershy felt the power of flight yank her out of the way as the jewel fired a powerful laser at her. Led by Celestia’s magic, she circled around the Underworld Castle and the barrier that surrounded it. The machine followed her with equal speed, tracking her with its laser as it went, and Fluttershy dove and soared to evade the attack. She aimed her bow again, trying to line up a shot in mid-pursuit, and fired. The laser stopped before her arrow struck the second gunport, and Fluttershy stopped to see both gunports damaged beyond use.

A ring of fiery white light launched from the Gatekeeper’s lower body. Fluttershy braced herself, only to realize that the ring was large enough for her to simply pass through. She flew into place, letting the ring pass around her as she fired on and damaged the two triangle patterns on the machine’s white wings. She turned her attention to the two remaining triangles, but before she could aim for either one, the machine’s wings folded, and the Gatekeeper flew up. Fluttershy watched the skies above, trying to track the machine as it flew overhead. In the blink of an eye, the machine angled itself and dove straight down. Fluttershy veered to the side, barely dodging the Gatekeeper as it rushed past and then flew back to its position in front of the castle’s barrier.

The Gatekeeper unfolded itself again, and the red jewel in its head began to glow. Fluttershy aimed and fired, shooting an arrow at the jewel. Fire and smoke erupted from the Gatekeeper’s head when her arrow hit. A diaphragm closed over the smoldering jewel, concealing it behind a bronze mask. The two remaining triangle patterns fired at Fluttershy. Fluttershy dodged, aimed for the mask, and fired a stream of arrows, but her shots didn’t leave so much as a crack or dent in the mask. She adjusted her aim, firing at other parts of the body, but the Bow of Light’s arrows did little damage to the Underworld Gatekeeper.

“Why isn’t this working?” Fluttershy asked. “The Three Sacred Treasures should be strong enough.”

“I’m not sure,” Celestia said. “The Three Sacred Treasures were made to defeat Nightmare Moon and the gods of the underworld. They should have vanquished a boss like this by now.”

“It’s not even a boss,” Fluttershy said. “It’s a miniboss.”

Two more screens issued from the body of the Underworld Gatekeeper. Fluttershy fired, shattering the screens with the Arrows of Light. She turned her attention to the two remaining triangles, but before she could shoot another arrow…

“Hi-yah!”

Rainbow Dash dove at the Gatekeeper from its left side, turned around, and kicked the side of its head with both hind legs.

“Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy said. She watched as Rainbow’s kick threw the Gatekeeper into its own barrier. The barrier’s energy surged across its body in arcs of purple electricity, ripping through its metal and leaving flames behind as it went. An explosion tore through the back of the machine, followed by a second explosion in its head, before the Gatekeeper fell away from the barrier, its burning body coming apart as it hit the ground.

Fluttershy looked up from the wreckage to the castle, its barrier fading away into nothing, and then to Rainbow Dash, who hovered between them. “And that’s how you take out a boss!” Rainbow said, her eyes closed and her hooves crossed in front of her chest.

“Miniboss,” Fluttershy corrected.

Rainbow opened her eyes and gave Fluttershy a smug grin. “Sure,” she said, “a miniboss you were having trouble with. You sure you don’t want me taking the Treasures and doing this for you?”

Fluttershy could only glare at Rainbow Dash. Then Rainbow’s expression shifted, and she seemed to glance at something off in the distance behind Fluttershy. Fluttershy could hear it, the sounds of the Underworld Army rushing toward them.

“Fine,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. “You get in the castle and finish off Nightmare Moon. I’ll make sure her troops don’t bother you while you’re in there.”

“There’s just one thing before you go,” Celestia said. “How exactly did you make it into the Underworld?”

“I just followed you in here through that portal,” Rainbow said with a shrug.

“A portal that we needed Thanatos’ key to open,” Celestia said. “And one that has no doubt closed by now.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened. “Hold on,” she said. “Are you saying I’m stuck here?”

Fluttershy could hear Celestia sigh. “Because of Fluttershy’s presence here, my magic now has a toehold in the Underworld,” Celestia said. “I can send her in and out without the aid of Thanatos’ key. Fluttershy, if you would?”

Fluttershy reached into her peytral and took out Thanatos’ key. She tossed the pink gem to Rainbow Dash, who caught it in her left hoof.

“Consider this a thank you for your help today,” Celestia said.

Rainbow looked the gem over in her hoof, then tightened her grip around it. “No problem,” she said. “Now get in the castle before I change my mind about letting you get the win.”

Rainbow turned to face the oncoming horde of Underworld enemies, while Celestia’s magic led Fluttershy toward Nightmare Moon’s castle. “Thanks for your help, Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said.

“Stop calling me that!” Rainbow called out behind her.

Celestia’s magic guided Fluttershy toward the castle. A long, sloping path stretched below her, lined on either side by giant rib bones and split down the middle by what looked like a long spinal column, before finally reaching the central keep. The look in Fluttershy’s eyes hardened, and she steeled herself as she approached the castle’s front doors.

* * * * * * * * * *

The front doors of Nightmare Moon’s castle slammed shut behind Fluttershy as she landed on the floor of the main hall, her wings folding at her sides and the yellow aura around them vanishing. The room was dimly lit, with only a few torches lining the walls at eye level. A set of double doors stood on each side of the hall, a torch at either side of the doors. But the most striking feature of the main hall was a trio of stone statues that stood in a circle around the center, each one before one of the doorways.

Fluttershy stepped toward the statues and examined them. On her right was a statue of a three-headed dog, while the one on her left depicted the head and neck of a serpentine creature. Fluttershy walked past these two and stopped at the third one, which showed a tall equine figure with a gnarled horn, insect wings, and holes in her hooves.

“Chrysalis,” she said. “And the other two are Cerberus and Hewdraw.”

“Three statues,” Celestia said, “each with a corresponding doorway.”

Fluttershy looked past the statue of Chrysalis to the door behind it, then turned to look at the other two doors. With a look of determination, she stepped past the statue of Chrysalis and made her way toward the doors behind it. The doors swung open, leading her into a large octagonal room. Unlike the entrance hall, this room was very well lit, with lilac-colored walls and floors. A pink stripe ran along the boundary between the walls and the floor, and three of the walls had sharp, pyramidal spikes jutting out of them.

“The Labyrinth of Deceit,” Celestia said.

“I wish I could forget this place,” Fluttershy said. She looked around the room, but there didn’t seem to be anywhere she could go. She turned around, only to find that the doors she had entered through had disappeared. With no way to turn back, she studied the room again. The two spiked walls on her left and right were both orange, but the one at the other end of the room had yellow spikes. She approached the third spiked wall, raised her bow, and fired. Her arrow passed through the spikes and disappeared. She then drew closer to the wall and raised her hoof. It too passed through the spikes, and with her suspicions confirmed, she stepped through the false wall. A doorway stood at the end of the new room, and Fluttershy crossed the room and through the doorway.

Several platforms extended from the walls of the next room, hanging over a large chasm. The platforms were too far apart to even try to jump between, and the only other thing on the platform Fluttershy stood on was a circle of light at the other end. She approached the circle, and after a moment of hesitation, stepped onto it. A bright flash illuminated the entire room for a moment. When Fluttershy could see again, she furrowed her eyebrows. The platform she stood on was larger now, wrapping around one side of the room like a horseshoe instead of just a corner of it. She looked further down and saw that the entire room was different as well.

“Where am I?” Fluttershy asked.

“You are still in the same room,” Celestia said. “Check your surroundings.”

As Fluttershy surveyed the room, she spotted several misshapen blocks positioned above the platforms. The blocks were the closest thing the room had to a ceiling. Apart from them, the walls stretched as far up as the chasm went down. On Fluttershy’s left, the closest block had a doorway at the other end, one that looked just like the doorway she’d entered through. She followed the block and saw that it led directly above her head.

“Am I upside down?” Fluttershy asked.

“In a manner of speaking, yes,” Celestia said. “You seem to be alternating between the floor and the ceiling.”

Fluttershy made her way down the platform. She found another circle of light at the end of it and stepped into it. Another flash of light engulfed the room, and Fluttershy found herself standing on another platform. A door stood at the end of this platform, and she made her way through it.

The next room was much smaller, octagonal in shape, with another door on the opposite side. A Cherubot sat inactive near the center of the room. Fluttershy climbed into the mech’s cockpit, sat down, and placed her hooves on the orb in front of her. The Cherubot came to life, rising to its legs and hovering above the ground.

With her hooves at the controls, Fluttershy piloted the mech into the next room. Gyrazors and Shrips descended into the room, and a third enemy—a bulbous, pink, one-eyed slug with fins—dropped down from above. Fluttershy aimed the Cherubot’s gun arm, shooting down the Shrips one at a time, while piloting the mech toward the Gyrazors. Working the mech’s right arm, she punched the closest Gyrazor, then turned the gun arm on the other Gyrazors in the room.

With the other monsters slain, she aimed at the slug creature. But when she fired, the creature—a Nettler—flattened its body against the ground. Fluttershy aimed down with the Cherubot’s gun and fired again, killing the creature. A second Nettler dropped down next to Fluttershy. This time, Fluttershy brought the mech’s right arm around and punched the Nettler. She fired with the gun arm, finishing off the monster.

With the room now clear, Fluttershy piloted the Cherubot toward the next door, only to find that it was only large enough for a pony to fit through. She lifted her hooves from the controls and hopped out of the Cherubot, the mech collapsing and coming to rest as she landed on the ground. With the Bow of Light in hoof, Fluttershy made her way through the door.

Two things stood out to Fluttershy as she set hoof in the next chamber, a room she remembered all too well. The first was a large but simple mirror that stood on an altar at the far end. The second, and more pressing concern, was the buglike equine figure that stood in front of it.

“Chrysalis!” Fluttershy said.

Chrysalis lowered her horn, which lit with a green aura as she launched a volley of green fireballs at Fluttershy. Fluttershy sidestepped in between the fireballs, raised her bow, and fired back with several arrows. The arrows struck Chrysalis, who barely reacted to them. Chrysalis raised her head, her horn still aglow with magic, and three spherical black bombs appeared around the chamber.

“She’s not as responsive as the real thing was,” Celestia said.

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked as she galloped toward one of the bombs.

“I mean that is not Chrysalis,” Celestia said. “That’s just a soul made to resemble her.”

“How clever of you, oh Goddess of Light,” Nightmare Moon’s voice echoed.

“I can’t believe you would stoop to exploiting souls like this,” Celestia said. “Is nothing sacred to you?”

Fluttershy leapt behind one of the bombs and kicked with both hinds legs, catapulting it toward Chrysalis. Not stopping to check the damage, she ran toward the second bomb. Taking just a second to check where Chrysalis was, she gripped the Bow of Light with her hoof, leapt at the bomb, and swung, batting the bomb at Chrysalis with the side of her bow. The bomb exploded on contact, tossing Chrysalis back and spreading cracks throughout her black exoskeleton.

Not giving Chrysalis a chance to recover, Fluttershy raised her bow and fired. Her arrow shattered Chrysalis’ body, and an explosion of white light emanated from where she had stood, spreading across the entire room. Fluttershy raised the Mirror Shield in front of her, instinctively shutting her eyes as the blinding white light filled the chamber.

When Fluttershy opened her eyes, she was standing in the castle’s entrance hall. Three sets of double doors stood before her, each with a statue in front of it. Except no, only the two doorways on either side of her had statues. The third statue had crumbled to pieces on its pedestal.

“Back here again,” Fluttershy said.

“Which means two more to go,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy looked between the two remaining statues, Hewdraw on her left and Cerberus on her right. She let out a sharp breath and headed left, passing through the doors as they swung open. A stone pathway lay before her on the other side of the doors, and beyond them, the defensive walls of the fortified town she now stood in. A white haze hung over the stone, rectangular houses that stood underneath the pathway on either side, and ash gray clouds drifted through the green skies above. It all gave the town a bleak, ghostly look. Even so, she recognized the town.

“I remember this place,” Fluttershy said.

“This is where we fought the Hewdraw,” Celestia said.

“Oh right, That Burning Town,” Fluttershy said. She aimed her bow and fired at three Miks that had descended from the sky. “But this isn’t the real town. It’s just an illusion, right?”

“It’s as real as I am,” Nightmare Moon interjected. “I built it myself using your and the Hewdraw’s memories.”

“She can do that?” Fluttershy asked.

“Nightmare Moon may very well have the power to enter a pony’s dreams,” Celestia said. “It’s not far off to assume that she can bridge a connection to their thoughts and memories.”

Fluttershy all but shuddered at the thought. She looked across the town and spotted groups of monsters waiting for her in the streets and alleys. She then turned her gaze toward the walls surrounding the town, and a thought occurred to her. “We fought Hewdraw outside the town, didn’t we?” she said. “Down by the lake. So wouldn’t the Hewdraw be in the same place, outside the town gates?”

“That would make sense,” Celestia said.

“Then can’t we just leave through the gates and fight it now?” Fluttershy asked. “We don’t have to make our way through the town and fight Nightmare Moon’s forces, do we?”

“It’s a sound idea,” Celestia said. “No sense fighting through her forces when we don’t have to. And if the last chapter’s boss fight is any indication, the author will make any excuse to cut corners.”

“You forget where you are,” Nightmare Moon said. “You’re in my domain now, and you’ll play by my rules!”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. She glanced once more at the Underworld troops roving the town’s streets. None of them made a move toward her, at least not yet. Then she looked at the defensive walls, and the town gate awaiting her. Her mind made up, she stepped toward the town gate. She winced as Nightmare Moon’s voice boomed in her ear in protest, but ignored it as she pushed the gate open with her hooves and stepped out of town.

Beyond the dirt road that led from the town, through the sparse trees, Fluttershy made her way to the foot of the lake. The Hewdraw, thankfully with only a single head, rose out of the water to meet her. Hewdraw spat several fireballs at Fluttershy. Fluttershy rolled to the side to dodge, then fired back with an arrow from her bow. The arrow struck Hewdraw’s jaw, but the creature barely reacted to it as it dove into the lake.

Two orange spheres of light formed above the lake’s surface and began to drift back and forth. Fluttershy shot at one of the spheres, dislodging it and sending it into the water. An explosion erupted beneath the lake’s surface, followed by a column of water that launched the Hewdraw into the air. The creature’s body hit the ground and sprawled out along the shore. Fluttershy wasted no time, firing a stream of arrows at the beached Hewdraw’s body.

Before long, Hewdraw’s body writhed, and the creature slithered back into the lake. Fluttershy raised her bow and waited. When Hewdraw’s head breached the surface of the water again, Fluttershy fired. The creature’s head flung back, but froze in place before it could fall back into the water. A harsh white light began to envelop the lake and the skies above. The Hewdraw’s body vanished, while Fluttershy held up the Mirror Shield to protect her eyes as the white light spread across the lakeshore and consumed the trees and town behind her.

When the light faded, Fluttershy was once again standing at the castle entrance. Across the entrance hall, the Hewdraw statue had crumbled into a pile of rubble on its pedestal, leaving only the statue of Cerberus standing.

“Two down,” Fluttershy muttered to herself.

“Only one remains before you face Nightmare Moon,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy made her way to the right side of the castle’s entrance hall. She passed the statue of Cerberus, and when the last set of double doors flung open, she stepped through the doorway. Wide cobblestone streets and houses lay before her on the other side of the doorway. Many of the houses bore distinct features, from the shapes of their roofs and second stories to the color of their brickwork. Some even had a tree or two growing between them and the neighboring houses. It was a stark contrast from That Burning Town, where all of the houses had the same sand-colored brickwork and nearly the same blocky shape. Up above, the skies had turned a deep red, with dark clouds drifting overhead.

“This was the town where I had my first mission, right?” Fluttershy asked.

“You’ve come a long way since then,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy began to make her way through the streets. Rubble was strewn about from the remains of several demolished houses, blocking off some of the roads. Fluttershy continued on, and came to a stop in front of a dried up fountain in the center of one of the town’s main streets. To the left of the fountain, a gaping fissure had torn through one of the nearby roads. The remnants of several houses stood near the chasm, some half destroyed, some teetering over the edge of it. For a moment, Fluttershy had forgotten that this “town” was a recreation by Nightmare Moon and wondered how many houses might be at the bottom of the fissure.

Fluttershy continued past the fountain, and up a massive set of stairs that led up to a coliseum. In the original town, this was where she encountered Cerberus. ‘Encountered,’ not ‘fought,’ she realized, when she remembered how her encounter with the Underworld beast played out. A feeling of unease set in as she made her way up the stairs. Not the weight in the pit of her stomach, or a sense of trepidation that would normally make her balk or shy away, but a feeling of unease that she couldn’t quite describe.

A group of four Skuttlers waddled their way down the steps, pulling her out of her thoughts. She shot an arrow at the first Skuttler, then turned her aim to the next one and fired several smaller arrows. The third one lunged at her with its bone club, but she parried the blow and slashed at the enemy with her bow’s bladed limbs. She then turned her bow and fired at the fourth Skuttler, shooting it down as well.

Shemums began to slither down the steps toward Fluttershy, as well as up the sides of the staircase around her. Fluttershy shot down one of the snake creatures as it came down the steps, and then another. She turned her aim toward another Shemum that crawled up the side of the stairs and fired, and then kept climbing up the stairs, shooting down Shemums as she went. By the time Fluttershy had killed the last of the Shemums, she had reached the top of the stairs and was facing the entrance of the coliseum. With the Bow of Light in hoof, she entered through the coliseum’s main archway.

Fluttershy passed through the tunnels of the coliseum and stepped out into the arena, where Cerberus was waiting for her. All three of Cerberus’ heads growled at her as she approached. Fluttershy just smiled at him. She reached into her tunic and pulled out three dog treats.

“Here, boy!” she called out, tossing the treats toward the giant, three-headed dog. “Ready to learn some new tricks? If you’re good, I’ll take you for a walk!”

Cerberus snarled at Fluttershy again. He stepped toward her, heads lowered, crushing the treats under one of his paws.

“Um, and I’ll give you a bath?” Fluttershy stammered. She kept an uneasy smile on her face, even as she backed away from Cerberus. “I’ll even give you some more treats.”

Cerberus lunged at Fluttershy, swiping at her with his claw. Fluttershy eeped as she leapt out of the way.

“I don’t think you and Cerberus will be racking up any Nintendogs trainer points together,” Celestia said.

“I don’t even play Nintendogs!” Fluttershy said, frantically shooting an arrow from her bow. Her arrow pierced one of Cerberus’ heads, but the head shook off the hit as he rose back onto his paws.

“Really?” Celestia said. “That’s surprising.”

Cerberus spat several fireballs at Fluttershy from two of his heads. Fluttershy stumbled back for a second, then raised her shield foreleg in front of her face. Her eyes squeezed shut as the fireballs struck the Mirror Shield, each fireball jolting her from the force of impact but leaving her unscathed. “I have real animals to take care of!” she screamed. “I don’t need a sim!”

Fluttershy raised her other hoof and shot another arrow from her bow, piercing another of Cerberus’ heads. The head recoiled, but Cerberus breathed in with his center head and blew a stream of fire at Fluttershy. Fluttershy galloped around the edge of the arena, dodging as Cerberus followed her with his fire breath. She leapt forward, flipping in the air as she quickly aimed her bow and fired back. The Arrow of Light struck Cerberus’ center head, throwing his head back and interrupting his fire breath. He stumbled back and slipped on his back paws, collapsing to the ground as Fluttershy hit the ground and rolled on her side. Fluttershy was the first to recover, rising to her knees and aiming the Bow of Light again. She paused, waiting for her bow to charge, and shot another arrow at Cerberus.

Cerberus’ head jerked for a second when Fluttershy’s arrow struck, but then the arrow’s light grew brighter and began to spread. The light consumed Cerberus’ body in a matter of seconds, and spread through the arena, the coliseum’s empty stands, and the red skies above. Still kneeling, Fluttershy raised up her shield leg, shutting her eyes and hiding behind the Mirror Shield as the explosion of light made its way toward her.

When the light subsided, Fluttershy opened her eyes again. She was in the castle’s front entrance. Her heart still racing, she took a moment to catch her breath before rising to her hooves. “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to fight him this time either,” she panted. “Do you think he was mad after the first time?”

“I think Nightmare Moon had your gift with animals in mind when she created this imposter Cerberus,” Celestia said. “But now that you’ve slain him, the last of the statues has crumbled.”

Fluttershy looked across the entrance hall to find a pile of rubble standing on each of the three pedestals. “Then it’s time to go after Nightmare Moon, right?”

“Yes,” Celestia said. “The path to her is right behind you, through the castle’s front doors.”

Fluttershy blinked. “What?” she asked. She spun around and walked over to the pair of front doors. The doors swung open on her approach, but instead of the deep, bright orange skies and the bleak, dead landscape of the Underworld, she was met with a dimly lit, circular room. A series of lit braziers around the edges of the room provided the room’s only source of light. Skuttlers and Shemums stood together in the center of the room, surrounding a Skuttler-shaped suit of armor.

Fluttershy raised her weapon leg almost on reflex, the question of how the castle’s exit doors took her deeper into the castle having vanished from her mind. She shot an arrow at one of the Skuttlers, followed by a stream of smaller arrows at the snakelike Shemums. One of the Skuttlers lunged at her, but she dodged and slashed it with her bow’s bladed limb. She hopped back from an approaching Skuttler and fired an arrow at it, followed by a stream of smaller arrows at the next two Skuttlers.

The suit of armor hopped once toward Fluttershy, startling her as it hit the ground with a heavy crash. She eyed the armor, watching it for movement. She noticed a large red eye behind the slits of the armor’s visor.

“It looks like one of the Skuttlers crawled into a suit of armor,” Celestia said. “Its back is still exposed, so move around it and attack from behind.”

The Suit of Skuttler hopped toward Fluttershy again. Fluttershy galloped past the creature, leapt, flipped in midair, and quickly aimed and fired at its back. The Skuttler itself faded into purple mist, while the suit of armor fell forward and collapsed on the floor. Fluttershy rolled when she hit the floor and rose back onto her hooves. With the room clear of enemies, she turned and headed for the next door.

An underground tunnel met Fluttershy on the other side of the door. Torches lined the walls, providing the only illumination as she made her way down the passage.

“I find it ironic that you would call yourself the Goddess of Light,” Nightmare Moon’s voice echoed bitterly in Fluttershy’s ear. “After all, it was you who turned me into a monster. It was you who hunted me down.”

“You shouldn’t blame me for that,” Celestia said. “I only reflected in your appearance what I saw in your heart.”

Fluttershy listened in on their conversation as she explored the underground passage. The two goddesses had once worked together in the distant past, that much she knew. That ended with their falling out roughly a thousand years ago, and though she wasn’t sure how Celestia felt about it, Nightmare Moon was clearly still resentful.

“And what about your heart?” Nightmare Moon asked. “I can only imagine what resides there.”

“Why just imagine it?” Celestia taunted. “Don’t you have the power to make it a reality?”

“There’s no point,” Nightmare Moon said. “We all know it would be some sort of hideous creature.”

“You shut your mouth, Nightmare Moon!” Fluttershy snapped. “Princess Celestia is nothing like you! Who poisons the rivers and reduces cities to rubble? Who condemns earth ponies to total darkness? And who’s leading the Underworld destruction of the land and heavens? Not Princess Celestia. You’re the one responsible for all this. But what I don’t get is how you managed to resurrect yourself in the first place!”

“I suppose…” Nightmare Moon trailed off. “I don’t really understand how that happened either.”

“What do you mean?”

“I… I don’t remember what happened,” Nightmare Moon said. “My memories aren’t what they were.”

“You’re slipping, Nightmare Moon,” Celestia said. “Your mind isn’t all there anymore, and I can sense that your life force is weaker than it used to be. Cerberus, Hewdraw, Chrysalis, and Thanatos have all been defeated, but if you withdraw your army and promise to stay in this castle, I will spare you.”

Nightmare Moon laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she scoffed. “It hardly matters how I returned. What matters is why: to exact revenge on you! I think I’ll start by turning your little pegasus to stone. Then I’ll set my sights on you.”

“Threaten all you want,” Fluttershy seethed. “You don’t scare me. I will defeat you. I’ll return to Skyworld victorious!”

Nightmare Moon’s laughter echoed in Fluttershy’s ears, but Fluttershy continued on. She shot an arrow, piercing through one Skuttler and hitting a second one behind it, and fired several smaller arrows at a third Skuttler. She then galloped forward, rushing past a Suit of Skuttler and shooting it down with the same flipping maneuver she had used on the first one. The tunnel soon led her to an enormous cavern, as well as a great chasm that spanned much of its length. A pair of rails formed in front of her hooves and extended over the chasm.

“I set up a grind rail, but I had to get creative,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy jumped onto the rails and allowed them to carry her along. The rails circled around a rock pillar several times as they rose into the air and looped around the remains of a bridge. Fluttershy almost stepped back as the grind rails approached the first loop, but their magic kept her hooves in place. Along the way, she fired her bow at several Monoeyes, Shrips, and Octos as they pursued her.

“I can sense you getting closer, Fluttershy,” Nightmare Moon said. “I’m very much looking forward to your arrival. I almost feel like a damsel in distress waiting for her knight in shining armor.”

“I hate to break it to you, but you’re not exactly getting a happily ever after,” Fluttershy said.

“And you’re not exactly a brave hero,” Nightmare Moon shot back. “Yet somehow, the thought of our confrontation fills me with anticipation. So hurry to me, Fluttershy. I’ll strip you of your wings and sever you from the heavens forever! Or maybe I’ll let you live long enough for you and Celestia to see each other one last time before killing you in front of her?”

“Are you done?” Fluttershy said. “I already told you. You don’t scare me.” She hopped off the grind rails and landed on a platform. Three Monoeyes hovered at the other end of the platform, and she fired at them with her bow. When the last Monoeye fell, a rose colored path of light appeared at the other end of the platform and stretched further across the chasm. The path was wide but thin, with ornate patterns like a carpet, and twisted and undulated above the chasm as it went.

Fluttershy stepped onto the path of light and walked along. She glanced over the side of the path and paused for a moment. Trying not to think about how far down the fall would be, she pressed on. The path of light brought her to another platform, where two Miks and a Gyrazor waited for her. She fired an arrow at one Mik, shooting it down. The second Mik lashed its tongue at her, but she hopped over it and fired a volley of smaller arrows, shooting down the two remaining enemies. A second carpet of hard light extended from the platform across the chasm when the last enemy fell, and Fluttershy stepped onto it.

The path led Fluttershy to a third platform, where three Shrips hovered down from above. She shot down one Shrip with her bow, then leapt to the side as the second Shrip flew at her, its head and bladed beak spinning like a circular saw. She fired an arrow at the Shrip, then turned her bow to the third Shrip as it began to spin its head and shot it down with a few smaller arrows.

Another hard light path formed at the end of the platform. Fluttershy made her way along the path, which brought her to the other end of the chasm. A set of stairs led up to a pair of doors that bore an image of the moon and an alicorn’s head. Fluttershy headed up the set of stairs and reached the doors at the top. The doors swung open before her, and she made her way through.

* * * * * * * * * *

Laughter echoed through the darkness in one of the largest chambers deep beneath the Underworld castle. A set of doors lay open at the very foot of the chamber, the dim torchlight from the previous room barely casting any light through the doorway. Hit by the sheer size of the chamber, the vast darkness before her, and the thunderous echo of the laughter, Fluttershy trepidatiously set hoof inside, stepping only as far as the torchlight would illuminate. She made it as far as a balcony with a low-hanging sandstone wall before a light began to shine high above her.

Nightmare Moon’s form loomed high above Fluttershy and the balcony she stood on, her horn aglow with a cyan aura, her starry mane billowing behind her, and even her eyes alight with a harsh glow. Even the pieces of barding on her legs, chest, and head gave off a harsh light, though whether they were casting their own light or reflecting the glow from her horn Fluttershy wasn’t sure. “We finally meet face to face, Fluttershy!” Nightmare Moon said.

Nightmare Moon took a step toward the balcony, her hoof shaking the ground as it landed. The light coming off her barding flashed across the ground as she moved, cutting through the darkness around Fluttershy with its harsh, almost searing glow. “S-She’s huge!” Fluttershy stammered, taking a few steps back from the balcony.

“What’s wrong, my little pony?” Nightmare Moon said. “I thought I didn’t scare you.”

Fluttershy stopped backing away. Sure, she wasn’t expecting Nightmare Moon to actually be this size. But Nightmare Moon’s remark hit her with a flash of realization. She thought back on all of Nightmare Moon’s atrocities, the two towns she had attacked and the ponies she had terrorized, including Applejack and Pinkamena, and the war she had started against Celestia. No, she wasn’t scared. She was angry, and she glared up at Nightmare Moon.

“No, you don’t scare me, Nightmare Moon,” Fluttershy said. “In the name of Princess Celestia, the Goddess of Light, and everypony she defends, those who hide in the darkness will be made to face the light!”

“Activating the Alicorn Wings,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy spread her wings to their full extent. The magenta glow that had emanated from her wing shoulders and coverts ever since she was equipped with the Three Sacred Treasures now flared out, emitting a sound like howling wind as it extended several times past the tips of her wings. The light flexed and almost formed into the shape of wings larger than Fluttershy’s own body, but then receded and condensed, concentrating around her wings in a brilliant, blazing aura of magic.

“Go now, Fluttershy,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy soared into the air and flew toward Nightmare Moon, her bow ready. Nightmare Moon eyed her as she approached. The aura around her horn flared, and Fluttershy was flung far across the other size of the chamber. Fluttershy’s body tumbled, bouncing across a body of water and skidding along the water’s surface before the magic in her wings regained control. With a few powerful wingbeats, her wings regained control, and she flew back the way she’d come, toward the platform at the water’s edge where Nightmare Moon stood.

Several rifts tore in the air ahead of Fluttershy, each with an eye in the center of them. Each one opened fire on her, but the Alicorn Wings pulled her out of their way as they carried her along.

“I’m going to try to get you closer,” Celestia said. Fluttershy grunted as her body was yanked out of the way of a spray of projectiles from one of the rifts. “I know it’s tough, but don’t give up.”

Fluttershy raised her bow and fired back at one of the rifts. The eye within the rift snapped shut, the rift disappeared, and Fluttershy flew onward, guided by the Alicorn Wings’ magic. She climbed upward as she approached the platform, rising above Nightmare Moon. Nightmare Moon eyed her as she circled high above the edge of the platform.

“You’re still too far away,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy banked toward the center of the platform. Nightmare Moon spread her wings, and two of her feathers popped out and launched themselves at Fluttershy. Fluttershy swerved left, then dove to dodge the feathers, and fired an arrow back. A flash of cyan light consumed Nightmare Moon’s body, and she vanished before the Arrow of Light could get close to her. Another flash of light glared from across the other side of the platform, and a second later, Nightmare Moon’s body flickered back into existence.

“It must take a lot to teleport that huge body like that,” Fluttershy said as Celestia guided her toward Nightmare Moon again.

“Who are you calling huge, you insignificant little thing?!” Nightmare Moon bellowed.

“Eep!”

Two more feathers launched at Fluttershy from Nightmare Moon’s wings, followed by a blast of magic from her horn.

“Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “Once you get close enough, aim for Nightmare Moon’s helmet. Destroy that first.”

Fluttershy banked right to dodge the blast of magic, then maneuvered past the two feathers as they homed in on her. She fired another arrow from the Bow of Light, striking the left side of Nightmare Moon’s helmet and putting a crack in it. Nightmare Moon teleported in another flash of light, reappearing across the platform. She fired a blast of magic from her horn and disappeared again, teleporting to the center of the platform. Another blast of magic, and then Nightmare Moon teleported a third time, appearing on the opposite end of the platform and firing a third blast from her horn.

Fluttershy dove under the first blast of magic, angled to the side of the second, and soared to sail over the third. She aimed her bow, but a stray feather from Nightmare Moon’s wings caught her flank, exploding on impact. Fluttershy jerked forward and grunted in pain, but the Alicorn Wings kept her aloft. Gritting her teeth, she raised her bow again, while Celestia’s magic guided her.

Nightmare Moon’s starry mane rose and fanned out around her helm. Locks of shimmering hair clumped together, taking the form of serpents, and lunged at Fluttershy. Fluttershy swerved up and down, dodging each serpent as she circled around Nightmare Moon. She aimed and fired an arrow at the back of Nightmare Moon’s helmet, putting another crack in it. She followed with a stream of smaller arrows.

“Enough!” Nightmare Moon shouted. Fluttershy froze in place as a cyan aura wrapped around every inch of her body. Forcefully, her body was flung around Nightmare Moon’s head, coming to a stop in front of her face. She squirmed against the Underworld goddess’ magical grasp, trying to move any part of her body. Her neck had some range of motion, but her legs were held in place, preventing her from aiming her bow. Not even the Alicorn Wings could break loose, as her wings were frozen in place as well. “Are you still watching, Goddess of Light? Because everything I do to her, I will soon do to you!”

Almost at once, a magenta glow radiated from the armor pieces on Fluttershy’s body. The light spread across her, snuffing out the blue aura of Nightmare Moon’s magic. Fluttershy’s wings began to flap again, and she lifted her front hooves up in front of her, looking on in wonder as the magenta light faded from every part of her except her wings.

“What?!” Nightmare Moon said. “How?!”

“Fluttershy is protected from your magic by the Three Sacred Treasures,” Celestia said. “As small and insignificant as you think she is, you can’t harm her so easily. But I’m not so restricted.”

Chains burst forth from the ground around Nightmare Moon. One chain wrapped around Nightmare Moon’s left hind leg, holding it in place. Another chain wrapped around her left foreleg and pulled back. A third pierced through the cannon on her right hind leg, bursting out the other side and wrapping around. The fourth chain wrapped around her right foreleg and yanked it to her right, and she collapsed to her knees.

“Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “I’ve chained Nightmare Moon’s legs in place for you. Now you can get close to her and attack.”

“You’ll pay for that!” Nightmare Moon shouted.

Fluttershy shot another arrow at Nightmare Moon’s helmet, putting a crack in it above her eye. Nightmare Moon snarled and fired back at her with her horn. Fluttershy rolled out of the way and fired a stream of smaller arrows at the helmet. Nightmare Moon’s mane whipped around, taking on the form of a giant snake, opened its maw, and spat venom at Fluttershy. Fluttershy grimaced as she swerved to dodge the venom spray. She fired an arrow at the snake construct, breaking it apart and throwing Nightmare Moon’s mane back. She then aimed at the helmet again and fired a few smaller arrows.

The helmet broke into several pieces. Nightmare Moon’s head fell and she shut her eyes, the broken pieces of her helmet dropping to the ground. A dark aura emanated from her face. The strands of her mane morphed into snakes once again. The dark aura faded and Nightmare Moon raised her head, revealing a single giant, slitted eye with red sclera where her two cyan eyes and her snout used to be. Fluttershy looked on in bewilderment.

“Now this is the Nightmare Moon I remember,” Celestia said.

“Sh-She hideous!” Fluttershy said.

Nightmare Moon’s head twisted off of the rest of her neck. Leaving the rest of her body chained to the platform, it rushed at Fluttershy in the air. The aura around Fluttershy’s wings flared, and she darted out of the way.

“This whole time, she’s been using part of her magic to hide her true self with that helmet,” Celestia said, guiding Fluttershy as Nightmare Moon’s head pursued her around the chamber. “Now that she’s fighting at full strength, this is a battle we cannot lose.”

Fluttershy flipped around in midair, allowing her wings to propel her as she stared at Nightmare Moon face to face. Several snakes leapt from Nightmare Moon’s head and lunged at her one by one. Fluttershy swerved to dodge each one and returned fire with her bow. The aura around Nightmare Moon’s horn intensified, and Fluttershy flipped back around, her eyes facing the flight path ahead of her with the occasional stolen glance back at Nightmare Moon. She banked hard to avoid the beam of magic that shot from Nightmare Moon’s horn, then swerved as the beam followed her through the air. She craned her head back, aimed the Bow of Light behind her, and fired.

Nightmare Moon’s head tumbled back for a moment and let out a sound between a gurgle and a gasp. Abandoning its pursuit of Fluttershy, it flew back to its body and landed on its neck. The chains around Nightmare Moon’s legs broke, and she spread her wings and began to rise back to her hooves.

“Now, Fluttershy, the eye!” Celestia said. “Before she escapes!”

Fluttershy rushed forward, the Alicorn Wings flinging her through the air toward Nightmare Moon. Her eyes furrowed, she raised her weapon leg, aimed as best as she could for Nightmare Moon’s eye, and fired.

The Arrow of Light pierced its target, and Nightmare Moon’s head flung back. Fluttershy hovered in the air, her bow still trained, and watched as Nightmare Moon stood frozen in place. The ground below started to shake, as well as the entire chamber around them. A ray of yellow light shone down on Fluttershy, and after a moment, she vanished. Nightmare Moon’s body began to disintegrate, turning into dust and spilling down to the ground, starting from the tip of her horn and ending at her hooves.

Outside the castle, an earthquake shook throughout the Underworld. Not a single Underworld soldier remained in the skies, and even Rainbow Dash was gone. Piece by piece, the Underworld castle began to break apart. Walls, gates, and towers crumbled away to nothing, and before long, the entire castle was reduced to rubble.

Fluttershy reappeared at the threshold of Celestia’s temple back in Skyworld. Her hooves touching the ground again, she looked to the temple entrance, where the Goddess of Light stood smiling at her. Elated, she galloped toward her, barely noticing as the Three Sacred Treasures transformed into bits of light and shot deeper into the temple, leaving her wearing just her tunic. For her part, Celestia walked toward Fluttershy at a more relaxed pace.

“We did it!” Fluttershy said, wrapping her hooves around Celestia’s neck in a tight hug. “We really did it!”

“Well done, Fluttershy,” Celestia said, placing a gentle hoof on Fluttershy’s withers. “I know it wasn’t easy.”

“But it was so worth it,” Fluttershy said. She broke off the embrace and trotted back outside the entrance, coming to a stop where the sunlight could wash over her. “It’s finally over. The Underworld’s been defeated, the Earth ponies are safe, and the world’s at peace. Even the sun feels warmer now.”

Celestia let out a chuckle as Fluttershy closed her eyes, spread out her wings, and took in the sun’s rays. She approached Fluttershy, placing her hoof on her withers again as she looked up at the sky.

“Now wait just a second.”

Fluttershy opened her eyes again. Her smile faded and her wings folded at her sides as she scanned the area around her. “Did you hear something?” she asked.

“I said wait just a second,” the voice repeated.

Celestia continued to gaze up at the sky, but a look of concern had made its way onto her face as well. “No,” she said. “That can’t be…”

Suddenly, a giant lion’s paw appeared in the sky out of thin air. Its claws literally dug into the air and slashed through it, tearing the sky asunder. What remained was a fiery backdrop, and a massive figure loomed over them, one with a slender, snakelike body with brown fur and several mismatched body parts: a lion’s paw and eagle’s talon for forelimbs, hind legs from a lizard and a goat, one wing each from a bat and a pegasus, and a scaly brick red tail with a tuft of white hair at the end. Its head was more horselike, but with gray fur, a goat horn and a deer antler, and sporting a goatee.

“Discord?!” Celestia said.

“Who’s Discord?” Fluttershy asked, taking a step back.

“The true master of the Underworld,” Celestia said. She stepped forward and spread her wings. One wing was extended in front of Fluttershy, firmly putting herself in between the pegasus and the Lord of the Underworld.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Discord said. “But now that I’m here, let’s get this party started! Welcome to my Underworld, Flutterbutt. You too, silly Celestia.”

“I’m… honored you know who I am,” Celestia said, keeping a hardened expression on her face.

“So this little pegasus took down big, bad Nightmare Moon all by herself,” Discord said. “What an accomplishment! Goodness, you should put this on your résumé! But before you do, you should know that I whipped up that Nightmare Moon especially for you.”

“Wh-What?!” Fluttershy stammered. “B-But how?”

A blender popped into existence in front of Discord. “Add a pinch of memories to a ton of souls,” he said, sprinkling something granular into the blender with his talon while dumping a sack of potatoes into it with his paw, “put them in a blender and hit frappé!”

Without placing a lid on, Discord pressed a button on the blender. A coarse grinding sound emanated from the blender and smoke rose from inside. Discord raised an eyebrow, then reached in with his talon, pulling out a pony-sized ceramic Nightmare Moon.

“Huh, so that's what was wrong with the blade,” he said.

“Explain yourself!” Celestia said, glaring at Discord.

“Her thirst for revenge was so great, it seemed a shame to let it go to waste,” he said as he petted the ceramic figure, getting soot on his paw. He then licked the soot off his paw and gave a delighted smile. “Oh, silly Celestia. You must have done a real number on her.”

“I did what I had to,” Celestia said sternly.

“But she’s old news, and old news bores me,” Discord said, tossing the ceramic figure away while the blender dropped like a stone. “We must look to the future, and that future is me, the true leader of the Underworld! Next to me, little Miss Nightmare Moon is going to look like a sweet, cuddly bunny.”

“What are you planning, Discord?” Celestia said, her eyes narrowed.

“I must bid you adieu,” Discord said, taking a bow. He snapped his talons, and vanished with a pop. The tear in the sky steadily shrunk, as if mending itself, before it finally closed up.

But even as all traces of Discord’s appearance faded away, neither Fluttershy nor Celestia moved. Fluttershy looked up at Celestia with frightened, pleading eyes. Celestia looked down to give an assuring look, but her eyes betrayed the feeling of worry she had, and she gazed back up at the sky.

Author's Note

Well, this isn't the first time Fluttershy has had to deal with a sweet, cuddly bunny. There, I said it.

Also, the boss rush actually does make you go in a circle before fighting Hewdraw. I’m not kidding. Play the chapter and see for yourself. And yeah, if Thanatos’ gem is the only key to the Underworld, then how did Dark Pit get in? And how does he leave? Did Pit leave the door open on his way in or something?

The Wish Seed

Chapter 10: The Wish Seed

“I can’t believe Discord was behind the entire Underworld invasion,” Fluttershy said. Several days had passed since the defeat of Nightmare Moon, and the lord of the Underworld was finally making his move. Fluttershy jumped out into a gray, cloudy sky, a yellow aura of magic flaring around her wings and the Optical Blade, a sword with a green hard light blade that also functioned as a gun barrel, in her hoof.

“And he created Nightmare Moon to distract everyone,” Celestia said.

“What do you think Discord’s really after?”

Using her magic, Celestia led Fluttershy down through the cloud cover. “Something big,” she said. “He hasn’t just overstepped his realm; he’s kicked down the door. What I do know is that Underworld forces have assembled at a volcano nearby.”

Beneath the dark gray clouds, the ground was covered by a layer of solidified volcanic rock. Though much of the rock was black in color, several glowing fissures were visible in the ground, indicating that much of the rock hadn’t yet solidified, much less cooled. “What could there be in a volcano that the Underworld would want?” Fluttershy asked. “Magma?”

“No, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “Discord wants the Wish Seed.”

“Oh… what’s that?”

“From what I’ve heard, it grants any single wish,” Celestia said. “Rumors started circulating about it shortly before Nightmare Moon attacked. As you can imagine, it’s quite sought after.”

“Could you imagine if we had the Wish Seed instead?” Fluttershy said. She leveled out roughly one hundred feet above the terrain and continued flying, taking out a few Monoeyes, Petribombers, and Syrens with her Optical Blade. Lava burst forth from several spots in the ground, and Celestia guided her away from them along the way. “My wish would be to fly by myself.”

“That’s a surprising choice for you,” Celestia said. “Do you enjoy flying?”

“Maybe a little, but also because I don’t want to worry about my wings burning up during a mission…” Several Magmoos jumped out of the ground ahead of Fluttershy. She aimed her blade and fired at the amorphous, superheated blobs while dodging a few of their fireballs. “Or falling from Skyworld.”

“Unfortunately, the Underworld forces seem to be very interested in the Wish Seed as well,” Celestia said. “Your mission today is to make sure Discord doesn’t obtain it for himself.”

Fluttershy flew above the volcanic terrain, avoiding the lava that gushed forth intermittently. A cave came into view in the side of a nearby hill, and Celestia guided her into it. A path made of solidified rock extended through the underground cavern, starting from the cave’s entrance. To Fluttershy’s right, a fiery, skeletal, serpentine creature flew through a nearby alcove. She fired a charge shot at the Fire Wyrm, destroying the hindmost segment of its skeleton, followed by a series of small green shots. One by one, the segments of the creature’s body were destroyed until she finally defeated the monster.

Fluttershy continued to follow the path as it extended through the cavern. The path led her to a tunnel at the top of the cavern, which finally took her outside the cave and into the heart of the volcano. An immense sea of lava met Fluttershy as she emerged from the mountain. The thick clouds of smoke above her shone with a bright orange light, which reflected from the glow given off by the molten rock below. Pillars of lava rose out of the sea at angles, each forming an arch as they peaked and fell back down. “This is incredible!” Fluttersay said, staring in amazement at the sea of molten rock before her.

“Yes, the volcano’s guardian puts on quite a show,” Celestia said. She led Fluttershy across the sea of lava, careful to avoid a few of the arches that rose up. A few Monoeyes and Syrens spotted Fluttershy and tried to swarm her, but were unfortunate enough to get caught by a pillar of lava.

“Who’s the volcano’s guardian?”

“The immortal bird who lives there, the Phoenix,” Celestia said. “Which reminds me… Phoenix eggs make the most divine omelets… or so I’ve heard.”

As Celestia veered off topic, Fluttershy noticed a dip in her altitude. She pulled her legs closer to her body to avoid contact with the lava and even swerved away as a nearby pillar rose up. “What does that have to do with anything?! And could you please pull me up?”

“It means that I could benefit from a snack right now,” Celestia said, complying with Fluttershy’s request. “Guards, report to the kitchens and tell the chefs to bake a cake. Tell them I’m in the mood for marzipan… and mascarpone… and meringue.”

Fluttershy’s altitude rose again, and she reached several rock formations within the sea of lava. Some of the formations were in the shape of arches, indicating that the molten rock had solidified while rising out of the sea. “Um, Celestia?” Fluttershy said. “I’m not sure how I feel about you indulging your sweet tooth while I’m on a dangerous mission.”

“Not to worry,” I’ll leave you a slice for when you return,” Celestia said. “Unless you want a smaller cake for yourself.”

“I-I don’t want to trouble anypony.”

“Nonsense. Double chocolate chip, right?” After guiding Fluttershy through many of the volcanic rock formations, she found an enormous fissure within the sea. She sent her into the fissure, in between the walls of partially solid rock and rushing lava. “How are you holding up there?”

Fluttershy breathed heavily as she flew through the intense heat within the fissure. Several Magmoos leapt out of the lava around her, and she fired at them with her blade. “I’m… very sweaty,” she panted.

“There’s an alternate tunnel route that might be cooler, but it will take us a little out of our way,” Celestia said. She lifted Fluttershy out of the fissure and directed her toward a large island made of volcanic rock. “I’ll let you decide which way to go. We can either take the direct route on the right or detour through that tunnel on the left.”

Fluttershy looked to the right, where she noticed a substantial amount of volcanic activity. She then looked to her left, at the entrance of another cave. “If I take the longer route, I’ll still have time to land before the power of flight runs out, right?” she asked.

“Probably, but we’ll take the shorter route instead just in case.” Celestia turned her toward the right and lead Fluttershy on the direct route.

“H-How hot can it be?” Fluttershy said nervously. Dozens of mountains lay around her, as well as a few rivers of lava that flowed in between them. A Fire Wyrm flew by on Fluttershy’s right, and she fired at it with her blade to get rid of it. Meanwhile, one of the nearby mountains erupted, spewing molten lava into the sky. “Whoa.” Fluttershy finished off the Fire Wyrm and spotted four Petribombers ahead of her. Two of the Petribombers produced explosive rocks with their hands and tossed them at her. She dodged them, took out three of the creatures with her weapon, and finished off the fourth before it could hurl a rock at her.

Several more mountains erupted in the area. More Petribombers flew toward her, and a few Magmoos emerged from the rushing lava. Fluttershy killed the Magmoos first, but was almost blindsided by an explosive rock from one of the Petribombers. She then started shooting down the Petribombers, focusing on the ones that were about to attack her. Meanwhile, lava continued to erupt from many of the mountains, some of them close to Fluttershy.

“This is some heat,” Fluttershy said. Sweat was pouring down her face, and she was still panting.

“If it weren’t for my power of cooling, you’d be burned to a crisp by now,” Celestia said. “I sometimes forget just how flammable mortal ponies are.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Fluttershy interjected. “You have a power of cooling? Then why am I worried about my wings burning up?”

“Are you suggesting that I use my power of cooling to ward off the effects of overusing the power of flight?”

Fluttershy swerved to avoid a torrent of lava from a nearby eruption. “I certainly wouldn’t mind if you did!” she said frantically.

“Unfortunately, I can’t do that,” Celestia said. “But I assure you there’s a perfectly good explanation.”

Fluttershy swerved away from another column of erupting lava. A few Syrens and Monoeyes, and even a Komayto, attacked her, but while she took them out, Celestia stayed quiet. “Maybe you’d like to give me this explanation?” Fluttershy asked.

“No,” Celestia said simply.

Fluttershy continued to fly through the area despite the increasing volcanic activity. Soon, most of the mountains in the area were erupting, including a few near her. Magmoos leapt at her as they emerged from the rushing lava. Fluttershy shot down six of them, and then evaded several spouts of lava as they surged around her, or on rare occasions, at her. She swerved away from two Magmoos before they could hit her and ascended when lava rushed diagonally at her out of a spot in the ground. The eruptions grew more frequent, and Fluttershy found herself maneuvering through numerous torrents in her way. She swerved around three eruptions, flew over several that spewed lava at an angle, and continued through the volcanic activity around her.

Eventually, she made it past all of the erupting volcanoes in her path and started to fly over a large hole in the ground. However, before she could pass over it, Celestia pulled her back from the hole and away from its edge. Suddenly, a massive column of lava erupted from the hole, almost catching Fluttershy before Celestia moved her even further back.

“That was a close one,” Celestia said. “Good thing you didn’t go through that tunnel.”

“Wait, that’s what was in that alternate route?” Fluttershy said. She paused to stare at the column of molten rock, still startled by its eruption. “Yeah, that would’ve been bad.” Celestia moved her around the column and guided her further through the volcano. Three Petribombers flew ahead of Fluttershy to intercept her. Fluttershy fired a charge shot to take out two of them, then a few more shots at the third one while it prepared a rock to throw at her.

“Get ready to land soon, Fluttershy,” Celestia said.

“Y-You’re sure my hooves won’t melt or anything, right?”

“You’ll be fine,” Celestia said. “Power of cooling, remember?” She guided Fluttershy further through the volcano. After finding a suitable landing spot, she lowered her down toward the ground.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy made her landing in the volcano near several pools of lava. Still carrying a lot of momentum from her flight, she slid along the ground when her hooves touched down and kept going toward a ledge. However, she wasn’t decelerating quickly enough, and by the time she was about to stop, her front hooves went over the edge. Losing her balance, she stood up on her hind legs and turned around, hoping to place her front hooves back on the ground again. Unfortunately, she leaned back too far when standing on her hind legs and, after flailing her forelegs for a moment, she fell backward off of the ledge.

Fortunately, instead of falling into a pool of lava, Fluttershy landed on the ground just seven feet below the ledge. She flipped off of her back and got back to her hooves. “Take it easy,” she groaned.

“The Underworld Army has already reached the Phoenix,” Celestia said. “Fortunately, they’re facing severe resistance.”

“So that gives us time to reach the Wish Seed before they do?” Fluttershy said. She walked on the solidified rock beneath her, watching out for pools of lava around her. Two Magmoos and two Petribombers met her along the way, and were defeated with her blade’s ranged attacks.

“Yes, but to obtain it, you’ll have to defeat the Phoenix.”

“Oh…”

“Don’t worry. He’s the Phoenix,” Celestia said. “He’ll come back to life.”

“That’s not exactly what I’m worried about…” Fluttershy murmured. She moved past the pools of lava, but barely went much further through the volcano before another voice spoke out telepathically.

“Well, hello there. Glad to see you made it!”

“Discord!” Fluttershy said.

“Settle down there, Flutters,” Discord said. “No one likes a high-strung mare.” Discord turned his attention to Celestia while Fluttershy was attacking two Porcuspines, spiny one-eyed monsters that were crawling on the ground. “So the good guys covet the Wish Seed too. Tell me, goddess, what do you wish for? Is it all friendship and rainbows, or is it something more… interesting.”

“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours,” Celestia replied.

“Thanks so much for asking!” Discord said. “I just have this one humble, little wish. You see, there’s this one little filly, red curly mane, boring white coat. Unfortunately, both her parents are dead. Awww… There was an unfortunate accident, if you know what I mean.”

“Y-You murdered them?!” Fluttershy said. After defeating the Porcuspines, as well as a pair of Petribombers, she continued walking through the volcano, but was still listening in on the gods’ conversation.

“It was a simple case of distracted chariot driving,” Discord said. “I shouldn’t have been doing my mane. Anyway, I was hoping to use the Wish Seed to bring back her parents. Can you think of anything more joyous than a family reunion?”

“Won’t their bodies be badly decomposed?” Fluttershy asked while firing at a group of Miks. “How long have they been dead?”

“Minor detail, she’ll get used to it,” Discord said. “Then after that, they’d strike it rich, like rolling-in-dough rich! And then we’d slap crowns on them and make them royalty! That’s the general gist of my wish. Pretty noble, and not at all evil, right?”

“Am I the only one that finds this hard to believe?” Fluttershy asked.

“If I understand correctly, you, the lord of the Underworld, want to revive the dead,” Celestia said. “That somewhat conflicts with your mission statement, wouldn’t you say?”

“Don’t tell me the goddess of light hasn’t heard of altruism before,” Discord said. “My intentions are pure. As lord of the Underworld, you have my word.”

“That just makes me even more suspicious,” Celestia said.

“How cold of you,” Discord moaned. “Your words pierce my heart like an icicle.”

The conversation came to an end after that. Soon Fluttershy reached a valley with two Shulms, a Petribomber, and a purple, slime-covered enemy up ahead. The creature hopped toward one of the Shulms and, after opening its mouth wide, swallowed it whole.

“Fluttershy, do you see that Underworld Guttler?” Celestia said.

“Yeah, what about it?”

“It devours both friends and foes alike, growing stronger in the process,” Celestia said as the Guttler consumed the Petribomber, becoming larger as a result. “If you see one, defeat it quickly.”

“It eats its friends to get stronger?” Fluttershy said as she lifted her blade and fired at the Guttler. “Talk about a monster.” She continued to fire her shots at the Guttler, even as it ate the other Shulm and grew even larger. The Guttler turned and started hopping toward Fluttershy, but it was too slow and she managed to kill it before it reached her. Fluttershy started to move on, but stopped when she noticed a blue light coming from her left. She turned to her left to find another path leading down to a blue circle of light in the ground. “Look, there’s a Zodiac Chamber over there.”

“Hmm, I suppose we could spare a minute to retrieve its treasure,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy walked down the path and entered the Zodiac Chamber. A blue and silver cannon made in the likeness of a lion’s head materialized at the end of the chamber. Fluttershy picked up the weapon, the Leo Cannon, and once Celestia took the weapon, she left the chamber. “Princess Celestia?” she said. “Why didn’t you give me the Three Sacred Treasures for this mission? I mean, this weapon is okay and everything, but…”

“Remember that the Three Sacred Treasures are very old weapons,” Celestia said. “Though they’re very powerful, they’re not as durable as they used to be. For now, we should save them for when they’re really needed. In the meantime, I noticed that you’ve tried nearly all of the available weapon types.”

“Yeah, I’m still trying to find the weapon that’s right for me,” Fluttershy said. “I liked a few of them, but I’m not really sold on anything just yet.”

“That can take a while,” Celestia said. “Weapons vary widely among their attributes, even among those of the same type. Blades, for example, tend to be well rounded, making them very user-friendly.”

“What sort of weapons does the author prefer?”

“Staffs, claws, bows, and the occasional blade,” Celestia said. “Though he seems to loathe arms.”

“Which means he’ll probably use the last few chapters to feature his most preferred weapons,” Fluttershy said.

After backtracking toward the valley, Fluttershy continued exploring, eventually reaching the bottom of several ledges. Lava trickled down each of the ledges and formed pools on each of the platforms above and below them. Each ledge had a path leading through the pools of lava, and jump pads were placed to allow movement from one platform to the next. Fluttershy fired a charge shot at a Magmoo and several shots at a Petribomber before reaching the first jump pad and jumping to the next platform.

“Oh, Celestia! Silly Celestia!” Discord said in a singsong tone. “Can you hear me?”

“What is it, Discord?” Celestia said disinterestedly.

“You never told me your wish,” Discord said. “Even after I bared my very soul to you.”

“Right, your wish?” Celestia said. “I don’t buy it. In fact, it makes me doubt this entire story. Answer me this: does the Wish Seed even have the power to grant wishes?”

“You’re a sharp one,” Discord said. “How’d you guess?”

“Wait, the Wish Seed is a fake?” Fluttershy said.

“It’s so obvious to me now,” Celestia said. “The idea of a Wish Seed is pretty absurd. An item like that could make anypony more powerful than the gods.”

“But if the Wish Seed doesn’t work, why’s the Underworld Army going after it?” Fluttershy said as she took out a Magmoo and a Porcuspine near the top ledge.

“To make everyone, us included, believe that it’s real,” Celestia said.

“Can’t get anything past Princess Celestia, now can I?” Discord said. “If there’s one thing you can predict about earth ponies, it’s their greed. It’s impossible for earth ponies to resist the allure of a wish-granting item.”

“And since they can’t get the Wish Seed from the Phoenix to see it’s a fake…” Celestia thought out loud. “You need them to think someone has made off with it.”

“At which point, they’ll drive themselves to extinction battling for it,” Discord said. “And that’s good for my business. An ingenious plan, if I do say so myself.”

“But what if nopony gets the Wish Seed?” Fluttershy asked. “If we just defeat the Underworld Army here and leave the Wish Seed alone, nopony’s going to go after it.”

“I wish it were that simple,” Celestia said. “Unfortunately, the Underworld Army has likely been attacking the Phoenix under the pretext of obtaining the Wish Seed. If the Phoenix is set loose now…”

“Then he could attack the earth ponies himself,” Fluttershy said, maneuvering around a Suit of Skuttler to attack its backside.

“Exactly,” Celestia said. “We have no choice but to defeat him. We’ve fallen right into Discord’s trap.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere, my dear,” Discord said. “Actually, scratch that. It will get you a hot date with the Phoenix.”

“He makes a good point,” Celestia said. "Even though Discord was behind this plan, the Phoenix won't be happy to see you. Be careful.”

Fluttershy arrived at a mountain trail overlooking much of the volcanic landscape. Ahead of her, the trail moved along the mountainside and into a cave. Two Syrens appeared flying several feet from the ledge Fluttershy stood on, and she fired at them with her blade. “What’s the Phoenix like?” she asked. “Is he anything like Philomena?”

“Actually, I’d say he looks more like Ho-oh,” Celestia said.

“What’s a Ho-oh?”

“Fluttershy, haven’t you ever played a Pokémon game before?” Celestia asked.

Fluttershy was in the middle of attacking four Shulms with her blade. She stopped after slashing through the third one’s body. “You mean those awful games where you enslave creatures and force them to fight each other?!” she asked.

“Slow down, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “What do you mean?”

“In those games, you raise those creatures to fight and hurt each other for sport,” Fluttershy said. “It’s like what would happen if dog fighting was legal.”

“You’re right that they’re fighting for sport, but I wouldn’t equate it to dog fighting,” Celestia said. “Those Pokémon battles are never to the death, so they’re more analogous to boxing or wrestling matches.”

“Have you ever seen a boxing match where the two opponents try to burn, poison, electrocute, slash, freeze, crush or paralyze each other?” Fluttershy asked as she fired at four Monoeyes.

“Admittedly, no,” Celestia said. “But you have to keep in mind that those games operate on cartoon physics. None of the injuries sustained in those battles are permanent, so it’s not really a fair comparison.”

“Well, I guess that’s a good point,” Fluttershy said. She reached the end of the trail and entered the cave, where several Skuttlers, including a Skuttler Mage, and two Shulms were waiting for her. “But that doesn’t excuse capturing them in the wild to make them fight these battles. Not only that, but those creatures attacked you before they were captured, and once they’re caught, they instantly obey you. They’re not just being enslaved, they’re being brainwashed.”

“Not necessarily,” Celestia said. “Within the games, recently caught Pokémon generally dislike their trainers. It takes some time before the two of them actually form a bond. I’ll agree that the method of capturing them is questionable, but in truth, none of the other games’ elements are quite as dubious.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” Fluttershy said. “But I still wouldn’t want to play any of those games.”

“Honestly, I’m surprised,” Celestia said. “I thought you did play them.”

Fluttershy found the cave’s exit soon after defeating the Skuttlers and Shulms. Once outside the cave, she saw a path leading up to a large circular platform. Two Wave Anglers floated on either side of the path. One of them fired a bladed beam horizontally at Fluttershy, who jumped over it and fired a charge shot at the monster. She fired several smaller shots in quick succession to finish it off and dodged an attack from the second Wave Angler. She fired at it as well, eventually killing it before moving on.

“The Phoenix is up ahead,” Celestia said.

“Go die now,” Discord added.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy reached the circular platform and found a large seed floating in the center of it. No other creatures were on the platform with her, and she took a moment to examine the seed. “The Wish Seed looks real enough,” she said. Before she could pick up or even touch the Wish Seed, she heard a bird calling out loudly. “The Phoenix!”

A massive ball of fire struck the other end of the platform. When the flames dispersed, a massive red and green bird stood in its place. A Skuttler fell from his wing when he landed and was promptly incinerated by fire, while another Skuttler was crushed between his talon and the ground. The Phoenix looked down and screeched at Fluttershy.

“He’s not going to let you go without a fight,” Celestia said. Fluttershy gazed up at the Phoenix as he screeched at her. Holding her Optical Blade in her hoof, she brought it to her left side and secured it. She placed her hoof back on the ground and slowly walked toward the Phoenix. “Fluttershy, what are you doing?”

The Phoenix flapped his wings, sending two sharpened feathers on a straight trajectory toward Fluttershy. Fluttershy ducked, letting the feathers shoot over her head, and continued to walk toward the Phoenix. She stopped directly in front of the Phoenix and looked directly up at him. The Phoenix breathed in deeply, causing small flames to spurt out of its nostrils. Fluttershy lifted her foreleg up to his body.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” she said as she stroked his chest with her hoof. The Phoenix did a double-take, standing still, but still holding its breath. “You poor thing,” Fluttershy cooed. “Did those awful monsters come here and attack you?” The Phoenix stood still, and Fluttershy continued to gently stroke his chest. After a while, he slowly exhaled, taking care not to ignite his breath as he did so. At the same time, a Syren flew up from below the platform. Fluttershy noticed the Syren and, taking her blade, fired a charge shot at it. Her shot struck the Syren’s wing, and it plummeted back down below the platform. “It’s okay now,” she said, securing the blade to her side. “They’re all gone. I’m not going to hurt you.”

Fluttershy nuzzled the Phoenix’s chest. The Phoenix folded his wings at his sides and adopted a less aggressive stance. Meanwhile, Celestia watched, slightly awed as Fluttershy pacified the Phoenix.

“Mr. Phoenix, I was wondering if you would let me take that seed over there,” Fluttershy said. “Those monsters that attacked you, they were trying to take it from here. I’m sure that if you give it to me instead, they’ll leave you alone.” The Phoenix uttered a soft cry, but did little else in response. Fluttershy took it as a yes and walked back toward the Wish Seed. “Now that we have the Wish Seed, we can show it to all the earth ponies and tell them that it doesn’t work. We can stop Discord’s plan.”

“Excellent job, Fluttershy,” Celestia said.

“I think not!” Discord said. Before Fluttershy could reach the Wish Seed, bright lights flashed behind her, coupled with the crackling of thunder and a pained screech. She turned around and watched in horror as Discord’s magic attacked the Phoenix. “So this is what happens when the author doesn’t think his casting choices all the way through. No matter. Only a minor setback for me.”

When Discord finally cut off his powers, the Phoenix momentarily stumbled. As soon as he saw Fluttershy again, he let out an angry screech, almost hurting Fluttershy’s ears. “M-Mr. Phoenix, please calm down!” Fluttershy stammered in a muted tone. The Phoenix didn’t listen to her, instead beating its powerful wings to take flight. The force of his wing beat and take off blew Fluttershy back, throwing her onto her back near the edge of the platform.

“I don’t think you’ll be able to reason with him anymore,” Celestia said. “That was a good effort, but unfortunately you have no choice but to fight him now.”

Fluttershy hesitated for a moment, a look of sorrow on her face as the Phoenix circled around her. The Phoenix spat out three fireballs, which all turned to aim themselves at her. Fluttershy sidestepped the fireballs, causing them all to hit the ground instead. She shook her head, and then picked up her blade to aim at him. The Phoenix produced three explosive rocks within his talons and tossed them at her. She ran to avoid the rocks and fired a charge shot at him. However, before her attack could hit its target, the Phoenix’s body erupted in flames. Her shot had no effect on the Phoenix, who then cried out and dove at her. Fluttershy ran to the side, avoiding his fiery talons and dive attack.

The Phoenix stopped at another edge of the platform. The flames around his body died down, and as soon as they disappeared completely, he was struck in the back. He turned back around to face Fluttershy, who pelted him with a stream of shots from the Optical Blade. He launched two more burning feathers at Fluttershy. Fluttershy sidestepped the feathers and hit him with another charge shot. The Phoenix, undeterred by Fluttershy’s attacks, flapped his wings to launch several whirlwinds at her. Fluttershy ran to avoid each whirlwind that was sent after her, and after they had passed, fired another charge shot at the Phoenix’s chest.

The Phoenix started to circle around the platform again and tossed three more explosive rocks at Fluttershy. Fluttershy avoided the rocks’ explosions and fired a charge shot at him, taking care to lead her target with her blade before firing. The Phoenix retaliated by spitting three fireballs at her, which she dodged, and engulfed his body in flames again. He dove at Fluttershy, but she evaded him again and fired a charge shot. He then turned around and landed on the ground, generating three waves with his talons.

Fluttershy stepped around one of the waves, while the other two traveled in different directions. She turned her attention back to the Phoenix, who was now breathing in deeply. Flames rose from his beak and nostrils as he prepared his attack. Fluttershy fired a charge shot at him. Her attack connected with his chest, causing him to fall back and collapse on the ground. Taking the opportunity, Fluttershy galloped toward the Phoenix and slashed his chest with her blade. She followed her attack with three more slashes before he stood back up and used its wings to hover above the ground. The Phoenix launched two more feathers at Fluttershy, but she dodged them and fired one more charge shot at his chest. He stumbled back after the last shot and leaned forward. After a while, he finally fell backward onto the platform without getting back up.

Upon falling to the ground, the Phoenix’s entire body burst into flames. The flames rose up, forming an enormous bird-shaped beacon with outstretched wings that towered over the platform and rose up to the clouds. The flames quickly consumed the Phoenix’s body, leaving nothing but a large pile of ashes, but the beacon remained above them.

“Now, Fluttershy!” Celestia said. “The Wish Seed!” Fluttershy didn’t respond. Instead, she stared at the Phoenix’s remains, not thinking of anything else as she lamented his demise. “Fluttershy, the Phoenix will revive itself eventually. Right now, you have to secure the Wish Seed.”

“Oh… right,” Fluttershy said. However, by the time she turned her attention back to the Wish Seed, a Skuttler Mage and a Magmoo had already reached it. The Magmoo held it in its mouth while the Skuttler Mage whacked the seed with its staff. “Wait, get away!” Neither monster listened to her. After a few more strikes from the Skuttler Mage’s staff, the Wish Seed suddenly exploded, killing both the Magmoo and the Skuttler Mage while leaving only a few small pieces of the seed remaining. “It just blew up. That proves it’s a fake.”

“Oh, please,” Discord said. “The beacon tells the earth ponies of the Phoenix’s defeat, and that will make them think that someone has taken the Wish Seed. Now I’ll just give them a little nudge.” Afterward, Discord’s voice echoed throughout the sky, loud enough to be heard throughout the world. “EVERYPONY, THE WISH SEED HAS BEEN LIBERATED! NOW’S YOUR CHANCE TO FULFILL YOUR WILDEST DREAMS! ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS CONQUER ANYONE IN YOUR WAY!”

“The earth ponies will not be so easily deceived,” Fluttershy said. “Um, that is true, right, Celestia?”

“I wish it was, but I foresee major bloodshed,” Celestia said as she began to extract Fluttershy. “This is all my fault.” After a few seconds, her magic lifted Fluttershy from the volcano, leaving behind the broken fragments of the Wish Seed and the still burning beacon.

Luna, Goddess of Nature

Chapter 11: Luna, Goddess of Nature

Without saying a word, Fluttershy reached the end of the hallway and leapt through the portal to her next mission. Gray, cloudy skies hung above her as the power of flight took hold of her wings, and she could feel the cold air rushing against her face and seeping through her tunic. Several days had passed since her and Celestia’s failed mission in the volcano, the Phoenix’s demise, and the setting of Discord’s plan into motion. She didn’t have to look any further than at the ground below to see the fruits of his schemes.

“The Earth ponies have gone to war with one another,” Celestia said. “They’re killing each other over Discord’s fantasy.”

Mountains and ridges were spread across the horizon in every direction, but the terrain below was flat for miles. Nestled among the mountains on one side of the flatland was a walled city, while a second walled city stood at the other end. In between the two cities, tens or perhaps hundreds of thousands of Earth pony soldiers charged at each other. Trebuchets, breaching towers, and other siege weapons were built behind the battlelines, with the trebuchets hurling fiery stones across the battlefield as ponies fought in the middle.

Fluttershy raised a hoof to her muzzle. “Oh no,” she said. “It looks like entire nations are fighting each other.”

Smoke billowed into the air as several fires raged among the houses in both cities. The armies couldn’t be laying siege to either city, Fluttershy thought, not while they were still fighting outside the walls. Maybe the townsponies were turning on one another within their own cities, all for that fake wish. Fluttershy’s gaze turned up toward the skies, where a swarm of Underworld enemies circled the battlefield overhead.

“The Underworld Army is here to gather souls,” Celestia said. “Clearly they expect many casualties. We can’t stop a war of this magnitude. Focus on the Underworld Army.”

“I’m on it,” Fluttershy said.

Equipped to Fluttershy’s foreleg was a cannon barrel made of rushing water seemingly contained within a golden frame. The gold around the cannon’s muzzle flared back, resembling a crown. Fluttershy aimed her weapon, the Poseidon Cannon, at five Monoeyes and fired. A high-pressure burst of water launched from the cannon, exploding on contact with one of the Monoeyes with enough force to wipe out all five. Fluttershy aimed at another group of Monoeyes and fired, shooting them down with a barrage of smaller jets of high-pressure water. Syrens and Miks descended toward the warring ponies, and Fluttershy opened fire on them as well.

“This is going just as Discord planned,” she said.

“He spread the rumor about the Wish Seed, and the Earth ponies were fooled into believing it,” Celestia said. She guided Fluttershy’s path toward a group of Underworld monsters as they descended on the Earth ponies. “I asked a few gods and goddesses to urge the ponies not to chase after it, perhaps even threaten to rescind their divine protection if necessary. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough.”

“If only we had a chance to tell them that the Wish Seed was a fake,” Fluttershy said. She blasted a group of Monoeyes with her weapon, then surveyed the battlefield once more. Burning rocks exploded as they landed amid the battlelines, tearing through troop formations and the Earth ponies within them. A cavalry charge made its way through the warzone, each pony wielding a polearm as they went, while a hail of arrows soared through the air above their heads. “Now look at them. It’s like they’ve lost their minds.”

She fired a barrage of water jets at a pair of Miks. A group of Syrens flew down from the clouds above, turning their attention to Fluttershy herself instead of the war below. Fluttershy aimed the Poseidon Cannon at them as they began to circle her, shooting down a few with the weapon’s rapid fire.

Suddenly, Fluttershy heard a gasp from Celestia. She felt her body being wrenched away from the battlefield as the power of flight took hold, even as a scattering of Underworld monsters descended from the clouds. A moment later, a harsh light seemed to burn its way through the cloud cover.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I have to pull you back, now!” Celestia said.

Before Fluttershy knew what was happening, the light grew harsher, and then a burning object pierced through the cloud cover and hurtled to the ground. The object struck the middle of the battlefield, followed by a blinding white flash, and then a massive explosion that emanated from the impact site. Fluttershy’s wings beat harder, pulling her away from the explosion as it engulfed the battlefield, then the two walled cities, and finally the surrounding mountains.

Celestia’s magic brought Fluttershy to an eventual stop as the explosion slowed and eventually subsided. Fluttershy turned around, and her breath caught in her throat. A pink glow shimmered and radiated off of the clouds as they swirled around the impact site, except for a massive hole in the cloud cover directly above it. Strong winds emanated from the site, carrying dirt and debris across the ridges and valleys with that same pink glow. And at the center of the impact site, where there should have been an enormous crater, there was instead a massive dome of what looked like roots and branches all woven together, all radiating that same glow.

“Wh-What was that?!” Fluttershy stammered.

Laughter echoed across the land, and the image of a dark blue alicorn loomed over the landscape and stood next to the glowing dome. A black tiara rested over the alicorn’s starry blue mane, and a black chestpiece with a white crescent moon adorned her chest.

“Superb aim, if I do say so myself,” she said, before her tone of voice changed to a booming shout. “GOOD RIDDANCE, EARTH PONY SCUM! THE WORLD IS BETTER OFF WITHOUT YE!”

“That was the Goddess of Nature, Luna,” Celestia said as the alicorn’s image faded away. “Fluttershy, go investigate.”

“I-I’m on it,” Fluttershy said.

Led by Celestia’s magic, she flew toward the impact site. Small dots emerged from the dome and spread through the surrounding skies. As Fluttershy drew closer, she could make out a group of large chestnuts, each with a single yellow eye and a pair of insect wings. A few surviving Monoeyes rose up and began to engage the chestnut monsters, known as Nutskis.

“So thou art the esteemed Goddess of Light, Princess Celestia,” Luna said. “Thou hast been busy, so I have heard.”

“And you’re Luna,” Celestia said. “Ruler of the earth and all living things.”

“I see my reputation precedes me as well,” Luna replied.

“Why have you done this?!” Fluttershy asked. She flew past the Monoeyes and Nutskis as they exchanged fire with each other. A couple of blue pods, each with an exposed orange core underneath its rocky shell, hovered toward the creatures. One of the pods—called Trynamites—exploded, releasing three fragments of its core that each hurtled at one of the Monoeyes.

“Earth ponies are driven by selfish desires,” Luna said. “They think not of anything but themselves. What was it that they were killing each other for? A wish?! A FAKE WISH?! THEY’VE STRAYED TOO FAR FROM THEIR INTENDED PATH! THUS WE HAVE DEPLOYED OUR RESET BOMBS, TO RETURN EARTH TO ITS NATURAL STATE!”

A few surviving Syrens circled the skies in front of the dome, trading fire with a group of creatures with green, stalklike legs and bodies. The creatures, called Bladers, soared on bladed leaflike arms and fired beams at the Syrens from their single large yellow eyes.

“But aren’t Earth ponies living beings too?” Celestia asked as she guided Fluttershy closer to the dome. “Yet you think nothing of exterminating them?”

“Ironic, coming from thee,” Luna said. “Thou seemst to have no qualms slaughtering Underworld forces.”

“Th-That’s not the same thing,” Fluttershy murmured.

“We’re defending the earth and heavens from those who seek their destruction,” Celestia said. Her magic brought Fluttershy up to the outside of the dome, and then led her around it. A glowing pink haze swirled around the dome’s surface, partially obscuring the tangled mess of roots that formed its exterior. Before long, they found a gap in the roots that led inside. “Let’s take a closer look, Fluttershy.”

Guided by Celestia’s magic, Fluttershy flew in through the gap, taking care to avoid the haze that flowed out. The pink glow that radiated from the dome and everything for miles around it also permeated everything inside. A network of branches extended all throughout its interior, with bunches of vines wrapping between them like cobwebs. As Fluttershy looked on, she could even find the occasional chunk of stone that had been skewered by a branch and now lay suspended in the air. But there wasn’t a single animal roaming around inside, and if there was any sign of any green plant amidst the overbearing pink glow, Fluttershy couldn’t find it.

Instead, she found more of Luna’s troops. Dibble Dops, which resembled hovering pitcher plants with a yellow eye on their top leaves, floated by, while several creatures that looked vaguely like uprooted tree trunks crawling on their roots rested on nearby branches. The latter creatures, called Pew Pews, each bore a chunk of rock that was hewn into the shape of a cannon barrel, with a section of log whose rings resembled a bullseye over their faces. The Pew Pews turned along their roots, seemingly to keep facing Fluttershy as she flew by, which elicited a shudder from her.

“This is a pretty twisted version of nature,” Fluttershy said.

“EARTH PONIES DECIMATE THE TREES AND EXPLOIT BOTH THE LAND AND ITS CREATURES!” Luna bellowed. “THEY ARE THE TWISTED ONES! THEY ARE ENEMIES OF LIFE ITSELF!”

Fluttershy winced as Luna’s voice boomed in her ear. She then raised an eyebrow when Luna spoke again, this time in a normal tone.

“Tell me, Celestia,” Luna said, “why do they deserve special treatment?”

“Because, of all creatures, ponies are closest to the gods,” Celestia said. “And unlike the unicorns and pegasi that serve us, Earth ponies are bound to the land by a special connection. Despite their faults, they work to maintain the earth that they live on. Gods cannot intervene in their affairs as you have, Luna. You have no right.”

“No right?!” Luna said. “Earth ponies trample over the rights of all other living things! Should I do nothing and allow them to continue destroying the earth?! No, I must exterminate them all before it is too late!”

“There’s just no reasoning with her,” Celestia’s voice whispered in Fluttershy’s ear.

“I have to admit, she makes a good point,” Fluttershy said. “But wiping out the Earth ponies? That can’t be the answer. It’s just not right.”

“I agree completely, which is why I’m authorizing you to engage her troops,” Celestia said. “Luna, you’ve given us no choice but to oppose you.”

“Brave of thee,” Luna said. “But I must warn thee. The Forces of Nature are nothing like the Underworld troops to which thou art accustomed.”

Four Nutskis emerged from behind a tree branch ahead of Fluttershy. Fluttershy flinched, and accidentally fired a blast from her cannon. The charge shot missed the Nutskis entirely, but struck a tree branch and exploded, throwing a nearby Pew Pew off. The Nutski’s shells opened, and each one spat a large seed at Fluttershy. Fluttershy swerved to dodge, then fired back with a barrage of water jets. Bladers and Dibble Dops emerged from behind the surrounding branches, along with another creature consisting of a stout, uprooted tree with a thundercloud for a canopy, called a Zert. She panicked, flinching at each new enemy as it appeared and turned her cannon on each of them.

A seed from one of the Nutskis struck Fluttershy in the chest. She grunted in pain and raised her weapon, but another seed hit her barrel, followed by a third one to her left shoulder. A fourth seed grazed her wing, and the rhythm of her wingbeats faltered. She fell for a few feet before the power of flight reasserted itself, and her wings flapped frantically to keep her in the air. Her chest and shoulder still sore, she aimed the Poseidon Cannon and fired. Her weapon’s blast struck a Nutski and exploded, hitting several more within its blast radius.

A Blader fired a beam at Fluttershy from its eye as it flew past. Fluttershy swerved to dodge, aimed her weapon, and fired back with a jet of water. Another group of monsters floated down in a circle around Fluttershy, each one resembling a four-legged water strider. The creatures, called Parashooters, sported a single yellow eye on their bodies and scythe-like blades on their forearms, while their slender, vinelike hind legs held onto a large leaf like a parachute. Fluttershy aimed the Poseidon Cannon and opened fire, shredding their bodies with its barrage of jets.

“WE ARE AMAZED THOU HAST SURVIVED THIS LONG, FLUTTERSHY!” Luna bellowed. “PERHAPS THOU SHOULDST MEET THE WARRIOR WE HOOFPICKED TO DEPLOY WITH OUR RESET BOMB. COME FORTH, BIG MACINTOSH!”

Fluttershy’s eyes darted from left to right, checking behind every branch and every vine. She turned, aiming the Poseidon Cannon as she looked for any more of Luna’s forces. A yellow light caught Fluttershy’s eye from up above, growing brighter with each passing second. She looked up, only for a falling object to rush right past her on its way down. The resulting turbulence sent her tumbling through the air, and she screamed as her body spun out of control.

“Fluttershy!” Celestia called out.

The yellow aura around Fluttershy’s wings flickered and then winked out, and Celestia could only watch as Fluttershy plummeted toward the depths of the Reset Bomb’s forest, her body tumbling through the air on its way down.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy’s body slammed into a tree branch as she plummeted through the forest. She hit another branch underneath it, and then tumbled through a mesh of vines that hung from the lower branches. Her body hit a third branch, and then landed on her barrel on a fourth branch below it. Her backside slid from the branch before her forelegs could hold onto it, and she fell again, hitting the ground and landing on her back. She lay still for several moments, letting the throbbing pain wash over her and waiting in case the ground beneath her gave out and sent her into another fall.

“Are you okay, Fluttershy?” Celestia asked.

“O-o-oww…” Fluttershy croaked out. Every part of her ached. If it wasn’t an impact from one of the tree branches, it was one of her legs or wings having been painfully yanked by the vines she had fallen through. She groaned as she rolled onto her side, and then again as she brought her hooves under her. She was going to have a few new bruises, but nothing felt broken or twisted as she started to stand back up, putting more weight on each of her free hooves. She could at least be grateful that the forest above broke her fall; it could have been a lot worse.

“FLUTTERSHY, THOU ART THE CAPTAIN OF CELESTIA’S GUARD, CORRECT?” Luna’s voice boomed. “WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING HOW THOU FAREST AGAINST BIG MACINTOSH.”

Fluttershy winced again at the sound of Luna’s voice in her ear. She could swear that the pain from her fall was helping blunt the pain of Luna’s shouting in her head, but she still didn’t need either right now.

“Be careful, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “We don’t know what else Luna has in store, and without you, all I have are the Centurion guards.”

Fluttershy looked around at her surroundings. Branches and tree trunks wove their way along the earth around her as they rose up into the sky, with the trunk of one tree seemingly splitting in two as it twisted around the path in front of her like an archway. She began to walk through the arch, raising an eyebrow at a pair of fuschia crystal formations that grew out of either side of the tree’s trunk.

“I’ll do my best,” Fluttershy said. “But why does Luna keep… speaking like that?”

“That depends on what you’re referring to,” Celestia said. “Believe it or not, languages evolve over time, and what may have sounded normal centuries ago can sound alien to ponies today. Of course, we gods have very long lifespans, and because Luna doesn’t get out very often, at least compared to other gods, her speech remains a bit… antiquated.”

“Excuse me,” Luna said. “What right dost thou have to judge my speech?!”

“Quod erat demonstrandum,” Fluttershy muttered.

A large hole sat at the center of the ground ahead of Fluttershy, with the trunk of another tree rising out of it. Fluttershy stepped toward the edge of the hole, peered down, and then quickly took a step back. The forest continued down for what must have been hundreds of feet, and she couldn’t even see the bottom of the forest floor through the hole. She glanced around at the ground she was standing on. A large outcropping sat to her left, with roots snaking along the ground under it and spiked crystal formations growing out of the roots. It occurred to Fluttershy that the “ground” she was standing on had been uprooted from the earth, either by the explosion or the forest growing underneath it.

“H-Help,” a voice groaned.

Fluttershy looked further along the outcropping and saw an Earth pony trapped against it by a group of vines. The pony was lightly armored, and Fluttershy could see a light brown coat, a brown mane, and an hourglass cutie mark. His body was slumped against the mesh of vines, too tired or weak to pry himself loose, but he managed to stretch out a hoof toward Fluttershy.

“Look, there are survivors!” Fluttershy said.

“Impossible!” Luna said. “My Reset Bomb should have left no trace.”

“They are more stubborn than you realize, Luna,” Celestia said. “Set free any of them you find, Fluttershy. I’ll use my magic to send them somewhere safe.”

“Stubborn indeed,” Luna said. “Like roaches they are.”

Fluttershy raised the Poseidon Cannon, aiming it at the vines ensnaring the Earth pony, but then stopped herself. She pointed the weapon several feet away from the Earth pony, toward the ground, and fired. A blast of water launched from the cannon’s muzzle, exploding when it hit the ground. Fluttershy then aimed back at the vines trapping the Earth pony and fired a stream of water jets from her weapon. Her shots tore through the vines, releasing the Earth pony, who then collapsed to the ground.

The Earth pony took a moment, then began to struggle to his knees. “Thank you…” he managed as a shaft of yellow light shone down on him from above. The shaft of light vanished, taking the Earth pony with it.

“At least they’re grateful,” Fluttershy murmured before making her way past the outcropping on three hooves.

“GRATEFUL?!” Luna shouted. “HA, WE HAVE NEVER KNOWN GRATITUDE TO MEAN SEEKING A WISH BEHIND THE BACKS OF ONE’S PATRON GODS!”

Fluttershy squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth as the sound of Luna’s voice boomed in her skull. “Why are you…” she started to say, then gave it another thought. “Why is she yelling?”

“Another holdover from the distant past,” Celestia muttered. “Often gods would use it either to address their subjects or to talk down to mortals. And I suspect Luna had some trouble mastering speaking through divine telepathy.”

“What did I say to thee about mocking me?” Luna seethed.

“I’ll consider it if you can speak normally to Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “Like you said, she is the captain of my troops. That entitles her to a certain amount of respect.”

“She is an underling, Celestia,” Luna said, “and I shall address her as such.”

“I wouldn’t call the pony who vanquished Nightmare Moon an underling,” Celestia said.

“A feat she accomplished with the aid of an alicorn goddess and a set of divine armaments tailor-made for the task,” Luna replied. “Consider me unimpressed.”

Giant roots and branches wrapped around the ground on either side of Fluttershy’s path as she went. Considering how high up she was, she began to wonder if they were cradling the ground she stood on, until she saw a section of stone wall at the end of the path. She couldn’t tell if the section of wall belonged to the outside city walls or a castle, but was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a groan to her left. Another Earth pony was trapped between a rock formation and a mesh of vines, trying to break free. Fluttershy aimed the Poseidon Cannon away, firing off a blast of water that exploded in the distance. She then aimed her weapon at the vines and fired, tearing through the Earth pony’s restraints. The Earth pony slumped to the ground, with barely a second to recover before a shaft of light shone down and she disappeared.

Fluttershy continued toward the stone wall, where she noticed a tunnel that had been built into the base. She dropped into the tunnel and began to follow it. “There are still some buildings here,” she said.

“This must have been one of the cities caught within the blast,” Celestia said.

“Reset Bombs will not harm wildlife or natural habitats,” Luna said. “Their only purpose is the obliteration of Earth ponies.”

Fluttershy paused for a moment and glanced back toward the opening of the tunnel behind her. “I don’t see any wildlife here,” she muttered.

“In just mere years, this land shall be completely covered in green,” Luna said. “Flowers will bloom, trees will grow, and the natural food chain will reassert itself. It will be the Earth ponies’ winter and the beginning of Nature’s spring!”

“Nature?” Celestia said. “As in the natural order or your own realm? You wouldn’t be the first god or goddess to expand your influence by trampling mortalkind underhoof. Detonating a weapon with such force? There is nothing natural about that.”

“Thou thinkest me so selfish, Celestia?” Luna said. “So hungry for power? Thou seemst to be forgetting thy plea to the gods. Five of them threatened to rescind their protection and gifts to the Earth ponies at thine request. It seems that the Earth ponies prefer their wish—their own power—over their gods’ blessings, and yet thou side with them.”

Fluttershy reached the end of the tunnel and paused as she surveyed the chamber before her. Stone wall and wood paneling stood along some sections of the chamber, while rough, gray stone and dirt surrounded the rest, and even made up the ground she stood on. Giant roots tore through earth and masonry alike as they wove through the chamber, lit with a purple hue by the glowing, spiky crystal growing from some of them. The Reset Bomb had blown apart so much of the land and towns, it was getting harder to tell what used to be what.

A mesh of roots and vines wove their way through the room, dividing it in two, and a Zert hovered closeby. Fluttershy aimed her cannon at the creature and fired. The blast of water detonated, smashing the Zert’s body apart and tearing through a section of the vines. Fluttershy walked toward the destroyed section, peeking through the gaps in the vines where she could. A Pew Pew stood on the other side of the vines, along with another Zert. Fluttershy aimed her weapon through the opening in the vines and fired at the Pew Pew, blasting it to bits. The thundercloud above the Zert’s head sparked, and a field of electricity expanded from the creature. Fluttershy leapt back from the electricity and fired a stream of water jets from her cannon, shooting down the creature.

Fluttershy looked back and forth from one side of the chamber to the other, and then glanced back at the half of the chamber behind her. With the chamber clear of enemies, she moved forward on three legs, heading toward another tunnel at the other end of the chamber. “Princess Celestia?” she asked, looking down at her weapon. “Where did you find this cannon?”

“It was a gift from Poseidon,” Celestia said. “He wanted to thank us for eliminating the Underworld presence in his sea. What do you think of it?”

“I’m not really sure,” Fluttershy said. “It’s a nice weapon, but cannons are always so slow and unwieldy.”

“It’s not the easiest class of weapon for a pony to use,” Celestia said. “Even so, it won’t be long before Earth ponies devise something like it.”

“What?!” Luna shouted. “They cannot be trusted with this technology! They would shoot at and destroy everything in sight!”

“Does anypony else see the irony in that?” Celestia said.

Fluttershy replied with a muted “yes,” but was drowned out by a “no” from Luna.

The second tunnel led into another seemingly underground chamber. To the left side of the chamber, a set of stone steps led to a section of city wall. Cobblestones lay between the foot of the steps and the wall, and a crumbled well sat at the center of it. Fluttershy continued through the chamber and stepped through a hole on the other side. More cobblestones lay at her hooves, leading into what appeared to be the inside of a silo. She cocked her head at the sight of the structure around her. The surrounding walls looked weathered and cracked, despite being on the interior. Even so, roots and branches tore through the structure and snaked their way up the length of it.

A jump pad rested on the ground in front of Fluttershy’s hooves. She stepped onto it, and it catapulted her up the silo and onto one of the branches above. Looking around, she spotted a hole in the silo’s ceiling, several more branches leading to it, and a jump pad on each of them. She stepped onto another jump pad, which bounced her to the next branch, and then took the next jump pad afterward. She landed on a branch directly underneath the hole, and next to the last jump pad. The last jump pad took her through the ceiling, and she landed on a massive chunk of earth. Two Nutskis flitted above her, while a Blader circled the air, and a fourth enemy resembling a large flower stood across from her. The flower sported three pink and orange petals, with a single yellow eye in the center of them, while its stem split apart into four stubby legs.

The flower monster—called a Lethinium—spotted Fluttershy, and a laser shot out of its eye. Fluttershy stumbled out of the laser’s way, then galloped as the Lethinium turned on its legs, tracking her with its laser. She leapt behind a nearby outcropping, taking cover behind the chunk of rock as the laser swept over it. The Blader soared overhead, and she fired the Poseidon Cannon at it. She then glanced up as the two Nutskis flitted over the outcropping, aimed her weapon, and shot them down with a barrage of water jets.

The Lethinium’s laser stopped firing, and Fluttershy emerged from behind the rock. She fired a blast of water at the Lethinium, which exploded on contact and destroyed the creature. She glanced from side to side as she kept her weapon leg raised, checking for more enemies while taking in her surroundings. Glowing purple vines grew along the sides of the surrounding rock walls, and above her head, Fluttershy could see massive branches rise up into the air. A raised wooden walkway rose above the chunk of earth she stood on, and a nearby ramp led up onto the walkway.

“Thou enjoy eating, dost thou not, Fluttershy?” Luna asked.

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow and frowned. “What are you implying?” she asked.

“Well, everything thou eatest comes from nature,” Luna replied. “So if nature nourishes thine body, WHY ART THOU USING IT TO FIGHT OUR FORCES?!”

Fluttershy flinched and then froze in place, hit by both the boom of Luna’s voice in her skull and the goddess’ scolding tone shaking her to her core.

“WELL?!” Luna demanded.

“I-I mean,” Fluttershy stammered. “It’s not like I’m eating your army or anything!”

“Actually, I’ve heard that the Forces of Nature are quite tasty,” Celestia said.

“WHAT?!” both Luna and Fluttershy shouted.

“Apparently, they’re especially delicious when paired with a hard cheese,” Celestia added.

“That is entirely untrue!” Luna said. “DO NOT BELIEVE HER LIES!”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow, then shook her head and headed up the ramp. She followed the wooden walkway, which led to another Earth pony—a gray mare with a cutie mark depicting a treble clef—trapped against the rock wall by a mesh of vines. She aimed the Poseidon Cannon away and fired, once again letting the weapon’s charge shot explode away from the ensnared pony. She then aimed the weapon at the vines trapping the mare. The mare’s eyes darted from the explosive blast of water to the muzzle of the cannon now aimed in her direction, and she shut her eyes and flinched. Instead, the Poseidon Cannon fired a series of water jets, tearing apart the vines and freeing her. The mare collapsed to the ground. After a moment, she opened her eyes and looked down at the ground, then back up at Fluttershy, before a ray of light shone down on her and she vanished.

Something caught Fluttershy’s eye, and she leapt back when she spotted a Dibble Dop and a Zert floating about her. Frantically, she fired the Poseidon Cannon at the Zert. The blast of water exploded and destroyed the Zert, but the Dibble Dop swerved away. Its body expanded, and it spat a burst of water of its own from its mouth. Fluttershy sidestepped the burst of water, which erupted into a geyser when it hit the ground. She then fired several water jets from her weapon, shooting the monster down.

The wooden walkway led onto a ledge that overlooked the rest of the uprooted landmass. Fluttershy stepped onto the ledge and continued on, but came to a stop when she saw a Trynamite hovering ahead of her. She started to back away, but the Trynamite broke apart, releasing three fragments of its core that then hurtled toward her. Fluttershy jumped to the side, and the three pieces crashed into the ground. She then heard a crackling sound behind her and spun around to find a Zert generating an electrical field. She hopped back, aimed her cannon, and fired a burst of water. The charge shot passed through the Zert’s electricity and exploded with a rush of water, destroying the creature.

Fluttershy’s eyes traced the path from the ledge back to the walkway, her cannon raised as she glanced up at the air for flying enemies and back down to the lower ground. She turned around, keeping her weapon leg up as she looked down the path ahead for more of Luna’s troops, and then breathed a sigh of relief. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, but continued down the length of the ledge. She reached the end of the landmass, where a pair of grind rails were waiting for her.

“You can’t go any farther, so I created a set of grind rails,” Celestia said. “The trees tangle together from here, but I was able to wind the rails around them.”

“Calling thee a snake would be an insult to snakes!” Luna said. “But thou art crafty.”

Fluttershy looked out across the landscape ahead, then hopped onto the rails with her three free hooves. As the rails carried her, she could see the ground far below, or at least a much larger chunk of uprooted landmass. All around her, the trunks of massive trees rose up and entwined with one another. The Reset Bomb had grown them less than an hour ago, but from the thickness of them, they could’ve just as easily been thousands of years old.

Several Nutskis emerged from behind the trees and moved toward Fluttershy in a swarm. Fluttershy raised her weapon, but as the grind rails wove their way around the tree trunks, she spotted several more converging on her from behind. In a surge of panic, her hooves fidgeted, as if trying to find somewhere to back away to, but the magic in the grind rails kept them firmly in place. She fired her weapon, first launching a burst of water that exploded amidst several Nutskis, then firing a stream of water jets at the others. A pair of Zerts lunged at her from behind a nearby tree, and two Pew Pews were perched on the branches around her, the sections of log covering their cannon barrel faces splitting open and flipping upward. Fluttershy shut her eyes, firing blindly at the enemies as they emerged.

Through the telepathic void, Fluttershy could hear the slap of a hoof against somepony’s forehead. “Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “I was relieved when I saw that you were no longer frightened by the Underworld forces, and it’s a bit disconcerting to see you startled anew by Luna’s army.”

Fluttershy opened her eyes. She looked around, but found no sign of any of Luna’s troops. “I’m sorry,” she squeaked.

“Just press on for now,” Celestia said. “I will find it more comforting when you are no longer flinching at cannon fodder.”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow and glanced down at her weapon. “What are the odds you would say that when I’m using a cannon?” she asked.

“The author seems to enjoy terrible puns,” Celestia said. “I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“My forces are not cannon fodder, Celestia,” Luna seethed.

“Well of course not,” Celestia said. “They’re food.”

“I will only say this once, Goddess of Light,” Luna said. “Do not eat my troops!”

The grind rails came to a stop, dropping off Fluttershy on a stretch of cobblestone road that was cradled between the branches and trunks of what looked like several trees. The road led onto an earthen halfpipe structure that seemed to slope and twist like a giant water slide, but at the center of the road rested a golden gyroscopic device. The device’s thick horizontal ring housed a smaller gyroscopic control module on its front, with two wings made of light spreading out from it. The thinner vertical ring looped on the inside of the outer ring, crossing the outer band on its left and right sides.

“An Aether Ring?” Fluttershy said.

“It’s strange to find one here,” Celestia thought aloud. “We may as well make use of it.”

Fluttershy approached the Aether Ring, ducked her head under its horizontal ring, and climbed into it. Her hind legs had barely had a chance to enter into the device when her body floated off the ground. She let out a soft “eep!” as she was pulled into the center of the Aether Ring, facing forward with her forelegs in front of the control module, and the device hovered off the ground. She glanced at the Poseidon Cannon covering her right foreleg, but placed both free hoof and weapon leg on the module, and the Aether Ring began to move forward.

Fluttershy drove the device onto the halfpipe, which began to twist to the right almost as soon as it sloped downward. The curve was gentle at first, but quickly became a sharper turn, and Fluttershy found herself hitting the sides of the halfpipe as she tried to navigate the curve. Thankfully, the Aether Ring bounced harmlessly off the wall and continued down the slope, and though Fluttershy was a bit jolted, she continued along with it.

A pair of Zerts hovered inside of the halfpipe ahead of Fluttershy. Fluttershy moved her hoof along the control module, which fired a stream of energy spheres, shooting down the Zerts. The halfpipe curved left, and a pair of Nutskis and a Pew Pew waited for her around the bend. One of the Nutskis spat a large seed at Fluttershy. Fluttershy tapped the control module with her hoof, and a blue barrier formed around the outside of the Aether Ring. The Aether Ring’s controls locked, but the device still carried enough momentum and slammed into the two Nutskis. The barrier turned off after a few seconds, and Fluttershy worked the Aether Ring’s controls, taking out the surviving Pew Pew with a few energy spheres.

A mostly flat stretch of earth met Fluttershy at the end of the halfpipe, with a rockwall surrounding nearly every side of it and forming a sort of basin. A single raised ledge rose on the left side of the stretch of earth, and looming over the entire basin was a massive tree that rose high into the Reset Bomb forest’s sky. Part of the trunk broke through the ground at the far end of the ledge, and Fluttershy could see the tree’s root network wrap around the basin’s rockface on either side. A group of Nutskis and Bladers flew over the area, and Fluttershy worked the Aether Ring’s controls, aiming and firing at them.

“What’s an Aether Ring doing here anyway?” she asked.

“That’s a good question,” Celestia said. “Luna?”

“WE… I deployed it for my army to use,” Luna said. “But none proved capable of piloting the device.”

“I’m not surprised,” Celestia said.

“You didn’t think of that before?” Fluttershy asked as she fired at a Lethinium.

“AND WHEN, PRAY TELL, WOULD WE HAVE HAD TIME TO CONSIDER THAT WHILST THOU ATTACKED OUR FORCES?!” Luna bellowed.

Fluttershy winced, but then raised an eyebrow. “We attacked?” she murmured. “But you’re the one who dropped the Reset Bomb.”

Fluttershy shot down the last Nutski and then piloted the Aether Ring to the other end of the basin. A short ledge rose above the ground, too high for the Aether Ring to float onto but low enough for her climb even with the Poseidon Cannon on her foreleg. She pulled her hooves from the control module and placed her free hoof on the Aether Ring’s horizontal bar. Yanking herself toward the bar, she slid hindlegs first through the bottom gap in the Aether Ring, landing on her back the moment gravity took hold of her body again. She rose back onto her three free legs and then climbed onto the ledge.

The path ahead took a left turn, and rocky ground once again gave way to cobblestones. To the right, Fluttershy could see the dome of roots and branches that enclosed the Reset Bomb forest, and even some of the horizon beyond. The sky was still a bright hot pink, and bits of white light in the shape of petals swirled up into the air all around, as if caught in an updraft that spanned the entire forest. It was a pretty sight, Fluttershy thought, forgetting for a moment what caused it in the first place. She stepped closer to the edge of the path and looked down, and she felt her stomach drop. It was still a long way down, but at least now she thought she could make out the shape of a crater at the bottom.

Fluttershy turned left and continued down the path. A section of circular stone wall stood to the side on her left, and at the base of the wall sat a large pond. Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she approached the pond and saw steam billowing up from it.

“Look at the size of this hot spring,” Fluttershy said. She waded into the middle of the spring, found a spot where the water reached up to her belly, and lied down. She let out a sigh as the water soaked through her fur and its heat seeped into her muscles. Her body still ached from her injuries against Luna’s troops and the fall she took, but she could feel the pain from them melt away.

“Celestia,” Luna said, sounding perplexed. “Is it normal for the captain of thine army to lie down in the midst of combat?”

“For a hot spring, yes,” Celestia said.

“I fail to understand the appeal,” Luna said.

“You’ve never been in one before?” Fluttershy asked.

“It depends on who you ask, Luna,” Celestia said. “If you ask Pit, your answer is best found doing some light research on Japanese culture. In Fluttershy’s case, try visiting a spa.”

After a few minutes, Fluttershy stood up. She stepped out of the hot spring, wrung out the water from her tunic with her free hoof, and continued back on the path.

“You’re getting close to the center of the forest,” Celestia said. “Big Macintosh will be in the crater that the Reset Bomb left behind.”

“That’s the hoofpicked soldier Luna sent in, right?” Fluttershy asked. “Do you know anything about him?”

“I know very little about Luna’s army to begin with,” Celestia said. “What I do know is that they are called the Forces of Nature. As you can see, many of her troops are made of natural materials, like plants and rocks. As far as I know, Big Macintosh could be a sentient rock, or a tree, or maybe even another pony.”

Fluttershy passed through a stone archway and found herself standing in the remnants of a cobblestone road. To her left, a torn section of the same road sat balanced on top of a tree branch. Further ahead, she could see the broken, teetering remains of several massive stone arches that rose from the crater below. She began to approach the broken arches, but came to a stop where the road ended. Peering down, she could see the crater below, but it was still a long way down.

“Now would be a good time for another pair of grind rails,” she said.

“Unfortunately, I can’t set any rails in this particular location,” Celestia said. “Do you have any powers equipped that could help you down?”

“You mean on my weapon?” Fluttershy asked. She looked at the Poseidon Cannon, scrutinized a tiny 6x6 grid that was etched into its golden frame, and then stared down into the crater. “Jump Glide.” She jumped down and spread her wings. Tiny white sparks drifted from her body, especially from her hooves and wings, and floated from her like stardust. Instead of falling like a stone, she gently floated down.

“I’m amazed that you waited until now to use one,” Celestia said. “Every weapon you’ve taken into battle has a six-by-six puzzle board carved into it. Certain powers can be equipped to it to grant additional abilities when you’re battling on land.”

“On land?” Fluttershy asked. “I can’t use them in flight?”

“Unfortunately, the power of flight overrides any powers you may have equipped,” Celestia said. “Also keep in mind that the powers you can equip vary in shape and size, so you won’t be able to fit all of them onto one weapon.”

Fluttershy gave a light shrug. “Knowing the author, he’ll probably just make it up as he goes along.” she said.

“I’m sure he will,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy looked down at the crater and felt a nervous feeling in the pit of her stomach. She was still high up, and the Jump Glide was taking its time lowering her to the bottom of the forest. She hoped the effect would last long enough to let her down safely. And then there was the large rock sitting in the center of the crater. That could only be Big Macintosh, she thought to herself. She lifted the body of the Poseidon Cannon in front of her and stared at the rock as she slowly continued her descent.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy’s hooves touched down on the ground after nearly a minute of floating down. The center of the crater was smooth and flattened out, though broken cobblestones littered much of the ground around her. A stone archway stood behind her, and the shattered remains of stone walls, archways, and columns surrounded the center of the crater in a perfect circle. And right in the middle of it all, the single large boulder stirred, shook for a moment, and then crumbled into pieces. Standing amidst the debris was a stallion. Rocks still covered and clung to parts of his body, almost like pieces of barding. He was tall, even for a stallion, and his red coat and orange mane were still visible, though parts of his coat had a pale, sickly color to them. But what caught Fluttershy’s eye was the lack of a horn, or even a pair of wings.

“Big Macintosh is an Earth pony?!” Fluttershy said.

“He was an Earth pony,” Luna said. She started chuckling to herself, but in seconds her chuckling turned into maniacal laughter.

As Luna’s laughter rang in her ears, Fluttershy took a closer look at Big Macintosh. His eyes had an empty, glassy appearance to them, one that matched the cold, expressionless look on his face. The discolored patches of his coat looked decayed, almost moldy, and when Fluttershy looked closer, she realized that his fur had fallen out of those patches. Fluttershy’s blood ran cold as the realization crystallized in her mind. She froze in place, staring in horror at the thing in front of her. She wasn’t staring at an Earth pony. She was staring at what was left of one.

“Y-You… monster,” she murmured.

“I don’t think ‘monster’ is a strong enough word,” Celestia said bitterly. “First the Reset Bomb, and now this?”

Fluttershy started shaking. The look in her eyes hardened, she gritted her teeth, and the blood in her veins started to boil as the horror she felt gave way to an entirely different emotion. “You… MONSTER!”

A rock formed in Big Macintosh’s hoof as he lifted it up, and he tossed it at Fluttershy. Fluttershy rolled to the side to dodge and fired back with a burst of water from her weapon. The charge shot struck his chest, exploding on contact, but did little to faze him. Rocks began to fly toward Big Macintosh, clinging to his body and forming an almost spherical boulder around him. The boulder rolled after Fluttershy, but Fluttershy ran out of its way. The rocks crumbled away from Big Macintosh’s body, and he turned to face Fluttershy, but was struck by another blast of water. Unfazed, he stomped his hoof, sending three shockwaves at Fluttershy. Fluttershy sidestepped in between the shockwaves and fired back with a barrage of water jets, but to little effect.

“Splendid, is he not?” Luna said. “Strong yet silent, just as he was in his final moments.”

“How can you joke about this, Luna?” Celestia said. “What sort of abomination have you created now?”

“Big Macintosh is the prototype for an experimental weapon of mine,” Luna said. “Dost thou see the molds growing over his body? They are of a fungus that I have been devising, one that infects the remains of Earth ponies. It takes control of their bodies, bending them to my will and turning them into the perfect, obedient soldiers. And once their bodies have decayed beyond use, the fungus will release its spores, infecting the remains of any Earth pony within a mile.”

“Given the strength of the Reset Bomb’s explosion, I doubt you’ll find anything to infect in this forest,” Celestia said.

“Perhaps, but I have not yet had the chance to assess Big Macintosh’s combat prowess until now,” Luna said. “Thy little pegasus can scarcely harm him, and the enchanted stones I placed on him grant both protection and power.”

A layer of rock formed over the front of Big Macintosh’s body, and he rose off the ground and launched himself at Fluttershy like a missile. Fluttershy dodged to the left, and Big Macintosh crashed into the ground behind where she had stood. She turned to aim at him, and saw a hole penetrating deep into the back of his head.

“Fluttershy, the back of his head!” Celestia said. “That should be a weak point!”

“What?!” Luna shouted. “Where?!”

Fluttershy fired a charge shot at the hole in Big Macintosh’s head. Big Macintosh’s head jerked forward as the blast detonated. He stumbled for a moment, but turned around to face Fluttershy.

“That should not be there!” Luna shouted. “Dost thou realize how difficult it is to engineer a lifeform that can reanimate the dead?!”

“At that point, why not just drop the pretense and resort to necromancy?” Celestia scolded.

“I am the Goddess of Nature, Celestia,” Luna said. “The ruler of all life. I would not taint my hooves with forces so vile and unnatural.”

“Luna, there is nothing natural about this,” Celestia said.

“Thou shalt find that this is quite natural,” Luna said. “Many lifeforms feed on the dead, and there exist parasitic fungi that control their hosts.”

Fluttershy fired a stream of water jets into the hole in the back of Big Macintosh’s head. Big Macintosh turned, and a ring of large boulders encircled his body, protecting him from every side. The boulders shot out in every direction, but Fluttershy ducked and rolled underneath them. Big Macintosh’s hooves rose above the ground, and his body floated toward Fluttershy. He hovered over her, and then his hooves crashed into the ground, but Fluttershy rolled out of the way. Rising back to her hooves, Fluttershy turned around, aimed her weapon, and fired a charge shot.

The blast of water detonated in the back of Big Macintosh’s head, causing his head to explode. Bits of rock, bone, brain tissue, and fungal matter flew forward from his body, and a viscous mixture of water and congealed blood splashed onto the ground around him. The body stumbled around for a few seconds before its legs gave way and it collapsed.

Fluttershy kept her weapon hoof raised, her cannon trained on the body. Her breaths were deep and heavy, even through gritted teeth, and her eyebrows were still furrowed in a look of barely restrained fury. Luna’s form appeared in the pink sky above, against the backdrop of the dome of roots and branches that enclosed the Reset Bomb forest. Fluttershy’s weapon leg lowered as she cast a murderous glare up at the image of the alicorn goddess.

“A pity,” Luna said. “Even in death, he was useless. But thou shouldst know that the next Reset Bomb is very nearly complete. Now where shall I drop it this time?”

“I can think of a good place,” Fluttershy seethed, aiming her weapon up at the projection of Luna. The projection vanished, and a shaft of golden light shone down on Fluttershy from above.

“This is not good,” Celestia said. “Discord was trouble enough, but now Luna? We need to regroup.”

The shaft of light vanished as Celestia’s magic carried Fluttershy away.

Sunlight filtered in through the stained glass windows on either side of the throne room of Celestia’s temple, casting rays of multicolored light as it illuminated the entire hall. Smooth white marble columns stood along the walls in between the stained glass windows, each one holding a torch that lit the room when the sun went down. A red carpet stretched from the ornate wooden doors at the entrance to the throne room all the way to the foot of the dais where Celestia’s throne stood. A shaft of golden light shone on a spot on the carpet for a moment, and then vanished as Fluttershy appeared in its place. Still fuming, she marched toward the dais, where the Goddess of Light herself stood, her horn aglow with magic.

“Send me back out!” Fluttershy said.

“No,” Celestia said.

“What?” Fluttershy’s eyes narrowed at the white alicorn.

“Fluttershy, I understand your anger,” Celestia said. “But I’m afraid there’s nothing more we can do at this time. Luna is preparing to drop another Reset Bomb, and we need to find out where and stop her.”

“So we’re just going to do nothing?!” Fluttershy said. “Didn’t you see what she did?”

“Yes, I did, Fluttershy,” Celestia said sternly.

“Then send me out!”

“It’s not yet safe for you to use the power of flight.”

“Then I’ll use the Three Sacred Treasures.”

“The Three Sacred Treasures are not as durable as they once were,” Celestia said. “Discord is the more formidable threat. We have to save them for him.”

“Then what are we supposed to do?!”

“FLUTTERSHY!”

Fluttershy flinched. She glared back up at Celestia, only to falter when she saw the stern look Celestia gave her in return. Celestia gave a breathless sigh.

“I saw everything that Luna did in that valley today,” Celestia said. “Her Reset Bomb killed hundreds of thousands of Earth ponies. Not just the soldiers fighting each other, but mares, stallions, foals—entire families wiped out in the name of her genocidal campaign. And I saw what she did to Big Macintosh. I realize that he must have had a life of his own before Luna killed him, and loved ones who may not even know where he is or what happened to him.”

“Then why aren’t we attacking her right now?” Fluttershy asked.

“Because a direct attack on the Forces of Nature won’t accomplish anything at a time like this,” Celestia said. “Luna is preparing another attack as we speak, and we cannot afford to be caught off guard when she drops the next Reset Bomb. Our best option is to wait for her to make her next move, find out where, and then stop her.”

Fluttershy stared down at the ground. Then without saying another word, she gave a curt nod, turned around, and walked out of the throne room.

Wrath of the Reset Bomb

Chapter 12: Wrath of the Reset Bomb

Celestia stood alone within her temple. A faint, almost imperceptible glow hovered around her horn, and a glimmer of light occasionally passed over her eyes. Every so often her eyes would move or she would blink, but apart from the steady movement of her chest as she breathed, she stood very still. This had become very familiar to her, something that she found herself doing more and more frequently in the past several weeks.

Using her magic, she scanned the earth below, as well as the heavens, looking for any activity from the Underworld or the Forces of Nature. Two days had passed since Luna dropped the Reset Bomb and declared war on the earth pony race. Luna had promised a subsequent attack, one involving another Reset Bomb, but there was no telling where or when she was going to strike next. Celestia was searching above and around every densely population region she could find, hoping to find any significant movement by Luna’s forces. Every once in a while, she even checked Skyworld, in case Luna was planning a preemptive strike against her and Fluttershy.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy wasn’t handling the situation very well. The day before, she came to Celestia’s temple several times, each time waiting to be sent on the next mission. She seemed very distracted during the day, even when she was caring for her animals. She was still outraged after seeing what Luna had done to that innocent earth pony, and unfortunately she couldn’t direct her anger toward its source. Unfortunately, Fluttershy wasn’t the only one affected by what happened to Big Macintosh. Looking over Big Macintosh's life, Celestia learned that he had been married to a schoolteacher and had two foals: a filly and a colt. He was abducted by Luna nearly a year ago, and to this day, his family still didn’t know where he was or what happened to him.

The last two missions Celestia sent Fluttershy on hung in her mind, both catastrophic failures and both with catastrophic consequences. If there was any solace to be gained, it was that Luna’s opening attack put an abrupt end to the wars earth ponies had been waging against each other. Amongst their race, there was no longer any talk or mention of the Wish Seed, and nations seemed to have ceased quarreling with one another. Apparently, there was something about two gods declaring war on them that made warring with each other seem less appealing. Unfortunately, Discord and the Underworld were still at war with them. With that in mind, Celestia was searching the skies above an earth pony city, one with numerous islands floating in the skies above it, for both Luna’s and Discord’s forces. Now that he and Luna shared a common goal, she was worried they would forge an alliance, at least until…

The glow around Celestia’s horn brightened as she focused on an additional spell. “Fluttershy!”

“What is it?” she heard Fluttershy say back.

“It’s time to start your next mission,” Celestia said. “We have an emergency on our hooves, and an opportunity to hit Luna where it hurts.”

“I’m on it!” Still maintaining the telepathy spell, Celestia watched as Fluttershy galloped toward her personal armory. She started to prepare two more spells, allowing one of them to complete, but keeping the other one on standby.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy stood inside her armory, looking over the weapons she had available for the mission. Her eyes eventually rested on a heavy golden polemace with a long handle. Bright yellow bands of light encircled the weapon end of the polemace, some forming symbols while others were just rings. Using her mouth, Fluttershy grabbed the weapon, known as the Halo Club, by the handle and pulled it down from its rack. She left the armory and turned toward an unlit hallway to her left, dragging the heavy club on the ground as she went.

The portal to Fluttershy’s mission opened as soon as she reached it. She jumped through the portal, the power of flight materializing around her wings, and transferred her club from her mouth to her hoof. Lakes and mountains, each suspended on individual islands, floated amidst the clouds around her. Ahead of her, she spotted a Blader and three Monoeyes.

“The Underworld Army and the Forces of Nature are engaged in battle,” Celestia said. No sooner did she say this than the Blader fire a beam at the Monoeyes, killing one of them. Three Komaytos swarmed the Blader in retaliation and latched onto it, but were all killed when a second Blader dove into them.

“What?” Fluttershy said. “Why are Discord and Luna fighting?” More Bladers and Monoeyes appeared and fired at one another, killing each other while ignoring Fluttershy.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Luna said.

“You again,” Fluttershy muttered.

“These brutes have a complete disregard for life,” Luna said. “They are worse than earth ponies!”

“You’re one to talk, little goddess,” Discord chuckled. “At least I give the ponies you kill peace after death.”

A Belunka flew below Fluttershy along with a platoon of Monoeyes and Wave Anglers. The Monoeyes and Wave Anglers flew ahead, not bothering to defend the Belunka when four Nutskis fired at it. The Nutskis turned their attention to Fluttershy next, but were killed when Fluttershy fired a charge shot, consisting of several rings surrounding a star-shaped projectile. As she soared over the lakes and mountains, several Monoeyes, Bladers and Nutskis flew ahead of her and fought one another.

“Fluttershy, we have an opportunity here,” Celestia whispered. “Let’s use this chaos to our advantage.”

“What’s my target,” Fluttershy said.

With the power of flight, Celestia led Fluttershy higher up, even as Syrens and Bladers appeared and fought each other. “Luna is planning to drop another Reset Bomb in this area,” she said.

“What? Where exactly?”

“I’m still not sure,” Celestia said.

“But with Discord’s army after them too, the earth ponies don’t stand a chance,” Fluttershy said. “We have to do something.” Ahead of her, several Parashooters and Bladers were being tongue lashed by a few Miks. Fluttershy fired a charge shot at them, killing two Parashooters, a Blader and a Mik. She flew past them and continued her ascent, using her club to bludgeon two Petribombers along the way. Three Parashooters floated down toward her and swung their bladed arms, sending blades of air spinning at her. Fluttershy deflected each projectile back at them with a swing of her club, killing two of them.

Fluttershy made it past the bulk of the clouds and was now flying above most of the floating islands. She could see the sun shining above her, as well as a few more clouds, but tried to look for any sign of the Reset Bomb. Nearly all of Discord’s and Luna’s troops were back down in the clouds, still battling each other, though there was still a huge mass of clouds floating at a higher altitude off to Fluttershy’s left. Scanning the skies around and above her, she eventually looked up at the mass of clouds. There was nothing else there at first, but after a few seconds, she saw a far off object falling from above the cloud mass.

“There’s the bomb,” Celestia said. “We’d better hurry!”

The aura around Fluttershy’s wings flared. She gripped the Halo Club tightly between her hoof and fetlock as she accelerated toward the bomb. “That bomb won’t be resetting anything when I’m done with it,” she said.

“What mischief are the two of thee planning now?” Luna said. “RISE, CHILDREN, AND LAY WASTE TO THAT PISSANT!”

Fluttershy responded only with a “hmph” as she continued in her rapid ascent. Four Trynamites detonated ahead of her, each one hurling three pieces of its core at her as shrapnel. Further above them, roughly a dozen crystalline objects fell from the cloud mass. After Fluttershy evaded the Trynamite shrapnel, she noticed the objects split in half. Each one generated an arc of energy between its two halves as they fell toward her. Fluttershy readied her club, gripping it more tightly as she flew toward the creatures, known as Badoots. As soon as she was in range, she swung her club, slamming it into both halves of a Badoot. Another swing took out only one half of another one, but it ended the arc of energy between the two. One by one, Fluttershy struck the Badoots with her weapon, destroying at least one half of each one.

As soon as Fluttershy flew past the last Badoot, she made it above the cloud mass. The Reset Bomb was still above the clouds, but was falling fast. Staring up at the bomb, she remembered seeing a large earth pony city back on the ground. The bomb roared past her, descended into the clouds and continued to plummet toward the earth.

“The Reset Bomb is going to wreak havoc if it hits the ground!” Fluttershy said. She felt Celestia’s magic take hold of her wings and angle her downward in pursuit of the bomb. “How do I stop it?”

“Be careful,” Celestia said. “The bomb could explode if you shoot at it indiscriminately.” With the power of flight, she guided Fluttershy next to the Reset Bomb and around its exterior. Together, the two mares studied the red, almost rust colored surface of the bomb, which closely resembled a seed. Large purple vines covered the seed coat, but offered no means of defusing the bomb. Celestia flew Fluttershy underneath the bomb and saw that this side of the seed coat was blue. It had a rougher texture than the red portion of the coat and had the same purple vines covering it. However, the vines all connected at the tip of the bomb and spread out equidistantly across the blue coating in five directions. Five large green nodes were embedded in the blue covering, each one where the vines met the red portion of the coat. “Oh, I know,” Celestia said. “Destroy those green nodes on the blasting cap to dislodge it from the bomb.”

Fluttershy eyed one of the nodes on the blasting cap and launched a charge shot. The charge shot collided with the node, causing it to crack. Celestia guided her in a slow circle around the Reset Bomb as it plummeted, but Fluttershy didn’t fire at it. After a few seconds, the Halo Club was charged again and she fired at another node. Unfortunately, the charge shot missed and harmlessly struck the red portion of the coat.

Celestia continued to move Fluttershy around the blasting cap. However, Fluttershy’s weapon didn’t have any range attacks other than the charge shot, and she was stuck waiting for the weapon to charge up. Celestia noticed this and tried to move her closer to the bomb, hoping the bomb wouldn’t crash into her as it fell. Now within range, Fluttershy swung her club into one of the nodes. The node cracked on the first swing and shattered away on the second, crumbling away from the blasting cap. Another charge shot was ready and Fluttershy fired, but the shot missed and flew off into the sky.

“Hurry, Fluttershy!” Celestia said. “You’re running out of time!”

Fluttershy glanced down at the ground. She and the bomb had already fallen through most of the cloud cover, and she could already make out the roads and buildings in the pony city below, as well as a river that ran through it. Another charge shot was ready, and she used it to crack the next node on the blasting cap. However, she was still stuck waiting for the next charge shot. With most of the nodes in place and two of them still intact, Fluttershy began to think that she wouldn’t defuse the bomb in time. Panicking, she tried to think of some other way to stop the bomb.

“Celestia?” Fluttershy said. “You said something about a special attack during one of my other missions? How do I use that?”

“The Special Attack?” Celestia said. “Focus on the magic flowing through your wings! Let it flow into your weapon, and unleash it!”

Fluttershy did what Celestia told her. She felt the power of flight running through the muscles in her wings, all the way out into the tips of her feathers. She imagined a fraction of that magic being siphoned into her club. Tightening her grip, she swung the Halo Club around her. The skies darkened around her for a moment, and four twisters formed around the Reset Bomb, cracking the nodes around the blasting cap and shattering the ones that were already cracked.

For a moment, Fluttershy was in awe of the attack she had just unleashed. After a few precious seconds passed, she remembered what she still needed to do. Another charge shot was ready, and she fired it at one of the cracked nodes. She was flown toward the other node and slammed her club into it. With all five nodes destroyed, the blasting cap broke off, revealing the inside of the Reset Bomb. A glowing yellow orb sat in the center of the bomb, held in place by a thick collection of vines.

“The core’s exposed,” Celestia said. “Now break apart the secondary explosive in the center!” She brought Fluttershy directly underneath the bomb, giving her a clearer shot at the secondary explosive.

Fluttershy gripped the Halo Club tightly in her hoof again and focused on Celestia’s magic. She swung her club around, briefly generating four more twisters around the bomb’s core. The yellow orb cracked and started to come loose from the vines. Fluttershy fired another charge shot, causing further damage to the yellow orb. It would take a few more seconds for her weapon to charge up again. Fluttershy took the time to glance down at the earth below. By this point, she and the bomb had already fallen through the clouds. She couldn’t see any earth ponies on the ground, but she was certain that if any of them looked up, they could see the Reset Bomb falling toward them.

The Halo Club finished charging up, and Fluttershy launched a charge shot at the cracked yellow orb within the core. The attack broke apart the orb, completely dislodging it from the vines inside. Celestia pulled Fluttershy out from under the bomb, and the two of them watched as it flipped around in its descent. The broken pieces of the yellow orb spilled out of the core and exploded in midair as the bomb flipped upside-down. Now that they were no longer inside the bomb, the bomb couldn’t fully detonate, and the exploding fragments were no more dangerous than an afternoon fireworks display.

“I don’t believe this!” Luna said.

“I know, isn’t it wonderful?” Celestia said.

“Yes, now the only victims will be anyone unfortunate enough to be crushed by the bomb casing when it lands,” Discord added.

“Ever the optimist, Discord,” Celestia said. She turned Fluttershy back around and guided her back up through the clouds. “But we can’t rest yet, Fluttershy. Luna has a Reset Bomb factory that we need to shut down. Once it’s gone, that will be the end of these horrid things.”

Fluttershy soared up into the air, quickly shooting past the clouds again and reached the clear blue sky. As soon as she breached the cloud cover, she saw several Nutskis and Bladers flying above.

“CHILDREN!” Luna said. “WE MUST PROTECT THE RESET BOMB DEPOT!” Her troops started shooting at Fluttershy, and were soon joined by additional Nutskis and Bladers. Lasers fired down at Fluttershy, but wherever they were coming from, it was too high up for her to see. Celestia guided her through the laser fire while she swung her club, deflecting enemy shots back at the Forces of Nature.

“It won’t work, Luna,” Fluttershy said. “I’m going to shut down your bomb depot. Then I’m coming after you and making you pay for the destruction you’ve caused.”

“This is new,” Luna said. “A bit brazen for thee, little pony, but I think thou shall find thyself the destructive one.”

The laser fire quickly stopped, but in addition to Nutskis and Bladers, several Badoots fell toward Fluttershy from a floating island that came into view. Fluttershy deflected the projectiles of the Nutskis and Bladers and struck any enemies that came near her, especially the Badoots.

Before long, Fluttershy flew up the side of the floating island and rose above it. Several buildings were scattered across the island, as well as a few isolated groups of tall crystal structures. Many plants grew on the island, ranging from flowers, trees and grasses to vines, ivy and moss, making the terrain extremely diverse.

“We’re approaching the Reset Bomb Depot,” Celestia said. “I’ll look for a place to land.”

Celestia guided Fluttershy around the Reset Bomb Depot. Several Trynamites floated up from the island, hurling pieces of their cores at Fluttershy. Fluttershy evaded the shrapnel and flew around the island’s perimeter. The island had plenty of flat areas that she could land in, but Celestia had her pass over them, apparently looking for the best location to attack the depot from. Six Bladers moved to attack her, though two were struck with her club when they flew too close. Fluttershy fired a charge shot at another two, and the last two were killed by their own deflected shots.

Eventually, Celestia brought Fluttershy to an area above the island, about half a mile inland. Apart from the clusters of crystal and exotic flora, Fluttershy could also see a nearby lake. “Prepare for landing,” Celestia said. “It could get a little rough.” Celestia’s magic flared throughout Fluttershy’s wings, causing her to soar up into the air above the bomb depot, and then rapidly plummet back down.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy lay in the middle of a small landing platform on the surface of the Reset Bomb Depot. She brought her hooves underneath her and stood back up before placing a hoof on her aching head.

“Strolling in without reinforcements?” Luna said. “Brave, but foolish. RISE, CHILDREN! POLITELY DESTROY OUR GUEST!”

“Princess Celestia, why did you have to crash me into the ground like that?” Fluttershy said, still holding her hoof to her head. “You used to give me such smooth landings.” Her Halo Club lay on the ground next to her. She picked it up with her teeth and started along the platform, dragging the heavy weapon along the way. Three Nutskis rose from beneath the platform and floated ahead of her. Transferring the club from her mouth to her hoof, she swung the weapon, sending a charge shot at the three of them. The shot struck all three of them, and Fluttershy moved her club back to her teeth.

The path from the landing platform led to a small square terrace with a single tree in the center. As soon as Fluttershy walked into the terrace, a spherical bomb with two wheels and a faceplate dropped in. Fluttershy cocked an eyebrow at the object as it wheeled itself toward her, fuse already lit.

“What’s that?” Fluttershy asked.

“That’s a Bumpety Bomb,” Luna said.

“Cute name,” Celestia said. “It almost feels wrong to destroy it.”

Fluttershy continued to watch the Bumpety Bomb as it rolled toward her. As soon as it was within swinging range, she belted it with her club, tossing it into the tree in the middle of the terrace. The creature exploded on impact with the tree, but a second one dropped in before the smoke could even clear. Fluttershy then slammed her club into the ground, releasing a charge shot that knocked the Bumpety Bomb off of the terrace. She heard the Bumpety Bomb explode below the terrace and then moved on.

“I brought a Cherubot for you,” Celestia said. Fluttershy looked ahead and spotted the vehicle a little further down the path. She quickened her pace as much as the Halo Club would allow and jumped into the cockpit. She placed the club down in an empty space in the cockpit and placed her hooves on the controls. The Cherubot came to life immediately, standing upright and hovering an inch of the ground.

“I can’t imagine that pile of metal is very fuel efficient,” Luna said.

“Actually, it’s powered by my magic, which is completely renewable,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy piloted the Cherubot into a courtyard, where two Urgles stood on guard. The Urgles, mobile treelike creatures with gangly arms, noticed Fluttershy’s arrival, but before they could attack, one of them was shot from behind by a Skuttler Cannoneer. Two more Skuttlers stood by the cannoneer before running toward the Urgles.

“Discord!” Luna said. “Get thy filthy troops out of my bomb depot!”

“You’re awfully cute when you’re flustered, moondrop,” Discord said.

One of the Urgles rushed at the three Skuttlers and placed its arms underneath one of them. Cradling the Skuttler in its claws for a second, it then tossed its arms up, throwing the Skuttler into the air and over the courtyard’s walls. Fluttershy then fired at both the Urgle and the remaining Skuttlers, taking them out with the Cherubot’s gun. The second Urgle ran toward the Cherubot and placed its claws underneath it, but Fluttershy punched through the creature’s wooden body with the Cherubot’s other arm.

The path leading from the courtyard continued over a raised ledge. Unable to get the Cherubot to jump onto the ledge, Fluttershy took her Halo Club and climbed over herself, abandoning the vehicle. Continuing along, she eventually reached an electrified fence in the middle of road. The fence, made into an X shape, rotated about its center like a revolving door. Fluttershy approached the revolving fence, but stopped just outside its reach. The only way forward was to slip between the individual fences, but she was certain that the weight of the Halo Club would slow her down.

Taking a second to steel herself, Fluttershy picked up her club with her mouth and watched the fence rotate. One of the fence’s arms passed by her as she stared at it. She waited to properly time her run through, even as the next arm passed by. When the third arm passed in front of her, Fluttershy jumped in, dragging her weapon along. She started lagging behind the moment she ran into the trap, cutting a straight line through its section of the path. Quickly rushing ahead she reached the other side, even managing to pull her club away before the fence caught it.

Past the electrical trap, Fluttershy reached a wall surrounding the entrance to a building. A section of the wall opened for her, allowing her into a circular enclosure where two Skuttlers were fighting one of Luna’s soldiers, a Boom Stomper.

“More Underworld forces!” Luna said in exasperation.

The two Skuttlers ran toward the Boom Stomper, a tall rock with two stubby legs and a single leaf on its head. Fluttershy swung her club, sending a charge shot at the Boom Stomper while the Skuttlers attacked it with their bone clubs. “I get what Luna has against Discord,” she said. “He’s destructive and evil. But what does Discord have against Luna?”

“I think you answered your own question,” Celestia said. “This is fun for him.”

“Five points for the squares,” Discord said. “It’s true. This is just my idea of a good time. Not that you serious ladies would know anything about having a good time.”

The Boom Stomper deliberately fell onto the two Skuttlers, crushing them under its weight. It tried to stand back up, but Fluttershy fired a charge shot at it, finishing it off. “Don’t you dare compare Princess Celestia to that monster!” she said.

“That's 'Goddess of Nature' to thee,” Luna said with a scowl.

Fluttershy ignored Luna and stepped into the building nearby. Once inside, she stepped onto a small blue platform in the floor, which started taking her underground.

“You’d think the lord of the Underworld would be too busy to spread mayhem,” Celestia said.

“Oh, no,” Discord said. “Spreading mayhem is one of my principle responsibilities.”

After a few seconds, Fluttershy reached the bottom of the elevator shaft and found herself in the middle of a huge cavern within the Reset Bomb Depot. She stepped off the platform and found that she was standing on one of several stone walkways suspended in the air. Light shone through several holes in the cavern walls, dimly illuminating the walkways and walls with a blue hue. In the center of the cavern, an enormous stalactite extended from the ceiling down to the very bottom, above another large illuminated hole. She moved away from the elevator and started traveling down one of the walkways. Two Nutskis flew down to attack her, but were intercepted by the attacks of two Monoeyes that had also made their way inside the depot.

“We’re approaching the bottom of the fortress,” Celestia said.

“Everything seems to be made out of natural materials,” Fluttershy said, her eyes still scanning the underground caverns.

“Reset Bombs must grow like fruit,” Celestia said.

“Organic fruit,” Luna interjected.

“And when it’s ripe, it falls off the vine and just organically destroys everything in its path?” Discord said.

“That’s not exactly right.”

“But I’m in the ballpark, aren’t I?”

“Nature dictates that all life must eventually break down,” Luna said. “This is but an accelerated version of the process.”

Fluttershy continued exploring the inside of the bomb depot. Along the way, a Dibble Dop tried to intercept her, but was attacked by an Underworld Daphne. Fluttershy didn’t seem to pay it much mind. She was here to destroy the Reset Bomb Depot and strike a painful blow to the Goddess of Nature. As long as it made her mission easier, she didn’t care what the Underworld forces were doing.

Celestia, however, noticed a pattern to the Underworld’s activity around this depot, and her interest was piqued. Though her attention was partially divided, as she was also observing the skies while watching Fluttershy’s progress, she couldn’t help but notice that the Underworld troops were distracting the Forces of Nature. Whenever any of Luna’s troops tried to converge on Fluttershy, Discord’s forces would appear, drawing them away from her if they couldn’t kill them. ‘Odd, why would Discord throw the weight of his army behind this mission?’ Celestia thought.

Fluttershy reached the end of the walkway and found a glowing blue strip of hard light leading away from it. She hopped onto it from the walkway, and as soon as her hooves touched the hard light surface, they started moving along it. Magical energy spread from the surface to her hooves and carried her along in the same way that a grind rail would. Fluttershy continued forward without saying a word, traveling across much of the cavern. Eventually she reached the end of the strip of hard light and landed on a second walkway.

Meanwhile, Luna was also tracking Fluttershy’s progress through the depot, and despite her frustration, something about what she was seeing was a bit peculiar. “Celestia,” she said. “A word?”

“I’m listening,” Celestia said distractedly.

“Dost thou not find thy pegasus’ demeanor a bit strange?” Luna asked. “Two days ago, she was this frightened little pony, and now she acts like she’s out for blood.”

“Luna, you didn’t really think that you could attempt genocide on an entire race without making any enemies, did you?” Celestia said.

“It seems that our dear Loony has brought out the foaming-at-the-mouth side of Fluttershy,” Discord chimed in. “Good luck with that one!”

Before long, Fluttershy reached the end the second walkway, where she found a large platform and a Boom Stomper. Before either one of them could attack the other, the Boom Stomper was pelted by attacks from three Monoeyes. Fluttershy added to the assault by firing a charge shot at the Boom Stomper.

“CHILDREN, FOCUS ON THE PEGASUS!” Luna shouted nervously. “IF THIS FORTRESS FALLS, IT WILL BE THE END OF ALL RESET BOMBS!”

“That’s right,” Celestia said. “Ready yourself, goddess of nature.”

Fluttershy sidestepped the Boom Stomper as it tried to fall on her and finished it off with a swing of her club. Two of the Monoeyes still remained, one of the three having been shot down by a stray charge shot from the Halo Club. Rather than leaving, they both fired at Fluttershy. Fluttershy dodged both of their attacks and launched a charge shot at them.

With the platform clear of all enemies, Fluttershy began to hear a humming sound. Seeing an elevator descend toward the platform, she initially thought it was coming from there. However, she could also hear the same sound coming from behind her. Turning around, she noticed a second elevator appear from below the platform. Cautiously, she approached the second elevator, which brought her down as soon as she stepped on it. The elevator brought her to a platform next to the large stalactite she had seen earlier. Looking at it more closely, Fluttershy realized that the stalactite was actually a plant structure, possibly a root, vine or branch. In addition, an alcove had been carved into the structure, where she saw the entrance to another Zodiac Chamber.

“Why did an elevator in Luna’s bomb depot lead me to this?” Fluttershy asked.

“Probably to delay us,” Celestia said. “This shouldn’t take us too far out of our way, so go ahead and claim the weapon.” Once inside the Zodiac Chamber, Fluttershy found the Virgo Palm, a blue orb with a green design on it floating above the ground. Celestia used her magic to secure the palm, and Fluttershy left the Zodiac Chamber. “While we’re on the subject of weapons, it looks like you’ve finally brought a club into battle. What do you think of it?”

Fluttershy dragged the Halo Club back to the elevator, which took her back up to the higher platform. “It’s very different,” Fluttershy said.

“They do require a different skill set from other weapon types,” Celestia said. “Though they can’t fire continuously, their charged attacks can pass through solid objects, and it’s easier to deflect enemy projectiles by swinging a club compared to other weapons.”

“I always forget how big clubs are,” Luna said, chiming in on the conversation.

“But they’re not as heavy as they look,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy had the handle of the Halo Club in her mouth as she dragged it to the other elevator. “I disagree,” she said, dropping the handle momentarily to speak. She picked up the club again and hauled it to the other elevator, which carried her up from the platform.

“Bigger isn’t always better,” Luna said.

“Small things please small minds,” Celestia said.

“The best things come in small packages!”

“So do small potatoes.”

“Great oaks from little acorns grow!”

“Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

“Are you two still talking about clubs?” Fluttershy asked.

“Not now, Fluttershy,” Celestia said dismissively. “We’re having a sibling rivalry moment.”

“Oh,” Fluttershy said. “Okay then.” The elevator finally stopped its ascent, bringing Fluttershy to a small circular room. Fluttershy opened the door, and her eyes were immediately strained by the light that poured in from the other side of the door. She brought her foreleg to her eyes, shielding them from the harsh yellowish light.

A few moments later, after her eyes adjusted to the light, she looked out at the circular platform that lay on the other side of the door. Various exotic plants grew around the platform and beyond it, and when she looked up, she saw a cloudless blue sky above.

“I’m outside now?” Fluttershy said, sounding a little irritated.

“The path ahead will take you to the heart of the depot,” Celestia said.

“Then why didn’t you land me here?” Fluttershy said. “We could have skipped the entire land battle section.”

“I assure you that there’s a perfectly good reason for that, one that I’m not yet ready to divulge,” Celestia said. “But if it makes you feel any better, I moved the Cherubot to your location.”

Fluttershy noticed the Cherubot off to the side of the circular platform. She jumped into the vehicle, put her club down on the side of the cockpit, and placed her hooves on the controls. Several Nutskis and Dibble Dops rose up from the sides of the platform and surrounded her, but she used the Cherubot’s weaponry to eliminate all of them.

After clearing the platform of enemies, Fluttershy piloted the Cherubot along a winding path. The path ended in front of a tower in the middle of the depot. When she reached the tower, a large enemy in the shape of a fish skeleton floated off to the side. The enemy was a Lurchthorn, and each segment of its skeletal body had a brittle covering with a cannon embedded into it. The cannons started shooting at Fluttershy, some of their attacks pelting the Cherubot she was in while others exploded on impact. Aiming the Cherubot’s gun arm, Fluttershy returned fire, breaking three of the Lurchthorn’s cannons. She then moved to the creature’s head, and after a few seconds of fire, the Lurchthorn was quickly destroyed.

Since the Cherubot was too big to fit through the door, Fluttershy left it behind and entered the tower on her own. Despite being the tallest structure in the depot, the only thing inside the tower was an elevator, which took her underground when she stepped on it. When the elevator stopped, Fluttershy walked through a door in front of her.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy walked into the energy generator room for the entire Reset Bomb Depot. Large flowers grew along the walls, and a single pod rested in the center of the room. The pod was attached to a much larger orange flower growing on the ceiling, keeping it suspended above a hole in the floor. Yellow light shone from the hole, illuminating the pod and providing the rest of the room with light.

“Fluttershy, destroy the Reset Bomb Pod to shut down the entire depot!” Celestia said.

Fluttershy transferred the handle of her Halo Club from her mouth to her right hoof.

“Not so fast!” Luna said. “GUARDS! AWAKEN AND REPORT FOR DUTY!”

A howl echoed throughout the generator room. Fluttershy looked around the room, hearing the sound of wood striking against the ground. Four creatures ran around the hole in the ground, stopping just in front of the Reset Bomb Pod. They appeared to be wolves, but instead of being flesh-and-blood creatures, they’re bodies were made of twigs and various pieces of wood. They’re eyes glowed green, and they snarled at Fluttershy.

“Thou should not have gotten a filly involved in a war with the gods, Celestia,” Luna said. “Perhaps thou should extract her before she is torn limb from limb by my Timber…” She stopped in midsentence and did a double take at what was happening inside the generator room.

The four Timber Wolves Luna had stationed to defend the Reset Bomb Pod were sitting obediently around Fluttershy. Two of them had their wooden tongues hanging out, and a third one was being petted by Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy has an uncanny way of taming even the most feral creatures,” Celestia said. “Did I neglect to mention that?”

“Rrgh, I should have sent more soldiers!” Luna said. “More competent soldiers!”

“Sorry about that,” Discord said. “I’m afraid they’re busy fighting my guys.”

“Now would be a good time for you to look away, Luna,” Celestia said. “I don’t think you’ll like what’s about to happen.”

Fluttershy pulled her hoof away from the Timber Wolves and reached down for the Halo Club. “Quick Charge,” she said. Blue light flashed over her body for a split second. One of the Timber Wolves started to look up, only to be struck when Fluttershy swung her weapon. A few pieces of wood came loose from it, but the bulk of its body was thrown into the Reset Bomb Pod. The Timber Wolf slammed harmlessly against the pod’s hard, metallic shell and then fell into the hole underneath the pod.

An explosion was triggered within the hole underneath the Reset Bomb Pod, causing the metallic shell over it to pull back. With the shell gone, the soft, glowing pink pod was exposed. The other three Timber Wolves were taken aback, but none of them acted quickly enough to stop Fluttershy from firing a charge shot at them. The charge shot threw one of them off the ground and into the Reset Bomb Pod, driving pieces of wood into the pod and spreading cracks through it. Fluttershy slammed her club into the third Timber Wolf, and then the fourth one.

The Halo Club’s next charge shot was immediately ready, and Fluttershy launched it directly at the pod. With numerous cracks and fragments of wood already embedded into its surface, the pod broke apart after Fluttershy’s charge shot, causing fragments of it to fall into the hole underneath. The ground underneath Fluttershy’s hooves shook violently, causing her to stumble for a moment. Yellow light shone down on her, and within a few seconds, Celestia’s magic extracted her from the depot.

Back outside, an explosion rocked the base of the tower, causing it to tip over. Large chunks of rock and crystal crumbled away from the island, and the Reset Bomb Depot began to fall from the sky.

“My depot!” Luna said. “Celestia, this is not over!”

“I know, Luna,” Celestia said. “Just like I know about your second Reset Bomb Depot, floating approximately 732 miles southeast of the one Fluttershy just destroyed.”

“What? How dost thou know about my other…” Luna froze in midsentence when she used her magic to find her second bomb depot. What she saw instead was a floating island crumbling in midair, crystal spires shattering due to extreme heat, and a massive fire consuming every single plant on the surface of the island. “What happened to my other bomb depot?!”

“That was my Solar Flare spell,” Celestia said. “I knew you couldn’t have a second Reset Bomb ready so soon after detonating the first one, not unless you had more than one factory to grow them in. So by sending Fluttershy to attack one of your Reset Bomb Depots, I distracted you long enough to search for the second one myself.”

“Bravo, Celestia, bravo,” Discord said. “Except that there’s one detail you overlooked. You see, Luna has a third Reset Bomb Depot.”

Before either Celestia or Luna could respond, a fourth voice rang out through the telepathic connection. “Oh, the horror! The horror! I can't even bear to watch!”

“Wait!” Celestia said. “Was that…”

“Oh, my mistake,” Discord said. “She had a third one.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Celestia said. “Why would you help me attack Luna?”

“Were you expecting me to ally with her?” Discord said. “Just because she and I have a common goal and a common enemy? I thought about it, and some of Luna’s toys do look fun. Unfortunately, her Reset Bombs stopped the earth pony war I worked so hard to create, and as much as it pains me to say, the earth ponies are much better at killing each other than Luna and her army. As you can see, I just can’t have that.”

‘And if it means harvesting a few thousand souls from the Forces of Nature, it’s fine by me,’ Discord thought. He chose to keep that last musing to himself.

“Forget the earth ponies!” Luna said. “I have three new enemies to kill now! And once I find out who destroyed my third bomb depot, I’ll hunt him down too!”

Celestia cut off her connection to the telepathic call. Today’s mission had ended successfully, but stopping now would waste a valuable opportunity to further weaken Luna’s forces. Tonight, she and Fluttershy would proceed with the next phase of her plan.

The Lunar Sanctum

Chapter 13: The Lunar Sanctum

Fluttershy cantered through the halls on the way to her next mission. Eyes closed and with a smile on her face, she quietly hummed a pleasant tune to herself as she jumped through the portal, a yellow aura enveloping her wings. She felt the gentle breeze and the brisk night air around her coat and opened her eyes. Though it was a cloudy night, Celestia’s portal had taken her directly above the clouds, giving her a clear view of the starry sky.

“Why are you humming?” Celestia asked.

“Oh, um…” Fluttershy murmured. “I didn’t think you were listening.”

“I’m always listening, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “I also see that you found the orbitars I left for you.”

Floating above Fluttershy’s head were a pair of orbitars that resembled cat paws, one yellow and one calico. “I think they’re the most adorable little weapons I’ve ever seen,” she said.

“I thought you might like them,” Celestia said. “They’re called the Paw Pad Orbitars. After everything that’s happened, I’ve been searching for a suitable pair, hoping they would cheer you up.”

“Oh, thank you so much, Princess Celestia,” Fluttershy said.

“You can save the gratitude until later, but right now we have to contend with Luna’s forces,” Celestia said. “Specifically, Fancypants.”

“Is he one of Luna’s commanders?”

“Yes and tonight is the perfect opportunity to launch an attack on his fortress,” Celestia said. “The Forces of Nature are still licking their wounds after the destruction of their Reset Bomb factories, and another attack would catch them completely off guard. Now, do you see the moon?”

Fluttershy looked up at the night sky. There was a full moon that night, and the moon shone brightly overhead. “Yeah, it’s really pretty tonight,” she said.

Celestia angled Fluttershy slightly to the right, showing her another section of the night sky, as well as a second object nearly identical to the moon. This object was the same size, shape, and color as the moon, but was brighter by comparison. “And what about that?” she asked.

“Like I said, they’re… pretty,” Fluttershy said. “Wait, there are two moons?!”

“They’re like eyes watching you.”

“Oh, I wish they wouldn’t,” Fluttershy said. “I get stage fright.” Celestia turned Fluttershy away from the moon on the left and started flying her in the direction of this second moon. Suddenly, the moon on the right flashed with a bright white light and appeared to be splitting into two halves. Something remained in between the two hemispheres, keeping them attached to each other. “What? What kind of moon is that?!”

“That’s no moon,” Celestia said. “It’s a space station.”

“Celestia, was that really necessary?” Fluttershy muttered.

“In a few seconds, the music here is going to resemble a John Williams composition,” Celestia said. “Whether you like it or not, this is the Star Wars chapter. And that is Fancypants’ Lunar Sanctum. Clearly, there’s more to it than meets the eye.”

“Is it a robot in disguise?” Fluttershy asked. Before anyone could answer her, a massive laser fired from the center of the Lunar Sanctum, shooting just below Fluttershy. “Aah! Okay, I won’t say anything else about Transformers!” The massive laser fired at her again, shooting only a few feet to her left. “Eep!”

“We’re going in,” Celestia said. Her magic flared throughout Fluttershy’s wings as she increased her flight speed, sending her up toward the Lunar Sanctum. The fortress’s laser fired at Fluttershy every few seconds, and Celestia maneuvered her flight path away from the laser’s fire to the best of her ability.

Nutskis were stationed outside the Lunar Sanctum. When they saw Fluttershy, they descended from their posts to intercept her. Fluttershy fired a charge shot, consisting of a pair of round, bouncy, catlike projectiles at four Nutskis. A group of Parashooters floated down toward her, two of them sending blades of air at her. She dodged the blades and fired pawprint-shaped shots from her orbitars.

The Lunar Sanctum’s onslaught only intensified as Fluttershy approached. In addition to the enormous blue laser it regularly fired, the fortress also fired several smaller shots at her. Nutskis continued to move toward her, as well as a number of Trynamites. Fluttershy swerved to avoid two shots from the Nutskis and returned fire with the Paw Pad Orbitars. By now, she was close enough to see that the Lunar Sanctum’s laser was being fired from a lens situated in between its hemispheres. The inner surface of each hemisphere had a golden color, and the smaller shots being fired at Fluttershy came from several guns on each surface.

“I’m getting close,” Fluttershy said.

Celestia pulled Fluttershy to the right side of the Lunar Sanctum to avoid its laser. Some of the smaller guns could still aim at Fluttershy from an angle, and she continued to maneuver her to dodge their fire. Eventually, she guided her over one of the hemispheres to survey the exterior of the fortress. Three Bladers flew from in between the hemispheres to pursue Fluttershy, but she shot them down with her orbitars. “I wasn’t expecting the Lunar Sanctum to be so heavily fortified,” Celestia said. “With all this firepower, Luna and Fancypants must be preparing a massive attack.”

“Why on earth would I be attacking?” a male voice said in a dignified tone. “I’m far too busy… defending, my dear.”

“Eep!” Fluttershy passed over a crater as she flew above the Lunar Sanctum. She swerved right to dodge two attacks from a group of Bladers.

“You must be Commander Fancypants,” Celestia said.

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Princess Celestia,” Fancypants said. “And yours too, Miss Fluttershy. I’ve heard tales of your prowess from our Mistress Luna.”

Fluttershy flew over a few more craters in the surface of one of the Lunar Sanctum’s hemispheres. Bladers, Nutskis, and even a few Zerts attempted to pursue her, and she returned fire with her orbitars. “Well, that’s… oddly nice of her,” she said.

“However, I am on orders to maintain the Lunar Sanctum,” Fancypants said. “As such, I must not let your attacks spread chaos here of all places. Before you cause a most unnatural harm, let us sit down for a chat.”

“I might consider it,” Celestia said, “if you withdraw your forces and band with us to face the Underworld Army together.”

“Those decisions fall to the will of Mistress Luna,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s entirely out of my purview. I do hope you understand.”

Three Lethiniums were situated within one of the Lunar Sanctum’s craters. They each fired a laser from their stamens, sweeping through the area to aim at Fluttershy. Fluttershy descended and veered right to avoid them. She then dove over the crater toward them, taking out one with a charge shot and the other two with her orbitars’ pawprint shots.

Celestia guided Fluttershy away from the Lunar Sanctum’s rocky exterior and in between its two hemispheres. She led her over the lens, allowing her to explore the area without having to worry about the fortress’s laser. Four Nutskis floated ahead of her along with a Mahva. The Mahva, which despite being based on a flower looked more like a bed sheet ghost with eyes, had generated a barrier over itself and the Nutskis. The Nutskis fired at Fluttershy, their projectiles passing through the barrier. Fluttershy moved left to dodge and fired back, but her shots were stopped by the barrier. Meanwhile, a second Mahva appeared with four more Nutskis and produced its own barrier around them.

“Fluttershy, remember that you can still use your Special Attack during flight,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy dodged a few more attacks from the Nutskis and concentrated on the magic in her wings. Turning her thoughts toward the orbitars floating above her, she then willed them to fire. Several fireballs were shot from the orbitars in a spray pattern, vaporizing the Mahvas’ shields and incinerating every monster nearby.

“In addition to helping you fly, the power of flight also augments the abilities of any weapon you’re carrying,” Celestia said. “This includes attack strength, range and charge time, but it also transmits some of the spell’s magic to your weapon over time. At most, your weapons can store enough magic for two attacks, and while the nature of the attack depends on the weapon type, they are generally very powerful.”

“And all that for only five minutes of flight,” Fluttershy thought out loud.

Fluttershy continued to fly over the lens, dodging fire from the small guns while looking for an entrance into the Lunar Sanctum. Suddenly, the lens pivoted until it aimed directly at her.

“Fluttershy, watch out!” Celestia said. She quickly tried to lead Fluttershy downward.

“Huh?” Fluttershy said. The laser fired at her immediately, just missing her as it shot over her head. “Aah!”

“We can’t stay here much longer,” Celestia said. “I see a corridor we can enter through.” A trench was built into the rim of one of the Lunar Sanctum’s hemispheres. Using her magic, she guided Fluttershy toward the rim of the hemisphere and inside the trench.

There were no guns within the trench Fluttershy was flying through, but before long, two Lurchthorns began to fly alongside her, just outside the trench. Fluttershy fired a pair of charge shots, which separated from each other and each destroyed a segment on one of the Lurchthorns. However, both creatures started attacking her with the cannons on their remaining six segments. While she avoided many of their projectiles, some of them struck Fluttershy in the shoulder, side, and legs, knocking her off course. An explosive projectile shot above her and detonated, nearly tossing her into one of the trench’s walls.

“It’s not much safer in here!” Fluttershy said.

“As I mentioned earlier, the Lunar Sanctum is very heavily fortified,” Celestia said. “But a victory here could help us contain all of Luna’s army.”

In addition to the Lurchthorns, two Bladers flew outside the trench and pursued Fluttershy. Fluttershy began focusing on the magic within her wings again and launched another Special Attack. The orbitars fired another group of fireballs in quick succession, destroying the Lurchthorns’ cannons and wiping out all four enemies. With them gone, Fluttershy quietly flew through the trench. After a while, she found a tunnel at the end of the trench and made a left turn into it.

“It looks like their defenses are thinning out,” Fluttershy said.

“I’m still detecting enemies, so be careful,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy flew deeper into tunnel, but no enemies seemed to appear from anywhere. Suddenly, three green, gelatinous creatures with blades attached to their arms appeared ahead of her. “Aah!” Fluttershy yelped, inadvertently firing a pair of charge shots at them. Each charge shot struck one of the enemies, but the third one vanished before she could fire at it.

“Let me introduce you to the Flages, the covert-ops specialists for Luna’s army,” Fancypants said. “Do they strike your fancy?’

Two more Flages appeared ahead of Fluttershy, much closer than the previous group. Fluttershy fired several pawprint shots at one of them, but the second one disappeared. “Um, no, not really,” Fluttershy said.

“Between you and me, I’m quite fond of them,” he said.

The last Flage reappeared again, this time directly in front of Fluttershy. It raised its arms up, ready to slash her with them. “Eep!” Fluttershy squeaked. Her two orbitars each slammed into the creatures head, stunning it momentarily, and allowing her to fly past it. “Well that makes one of us!”

“Oh, yes,” Fancypants said. “I almost forgot.”

“Forgot what?” Celestia asked.

“To close the gates,” he said. “And the gates go shut!”

As Fluttershy reached the last stretch of the tunnel, several lockdown doors began to close ahead of her. The power of flight flared up around her wings, and she felt herself accelerated toward the closing gates.

“The power of flight is running out!” Celestia said. “We have to hurry!”

One by one, Fluttershy shot past each of the doors ahead of her before they could close. Several enemies were stationed in between each gate, and Fluttershy shot down a pair of Dibble Dops and two Lethiniums along the way. She took out two Trynamites with the pawprint shots of her orbitars before making it through the last gate. Now past the gates, Fluttershy was now flying through a vast, dark area of the Lunar Sanctum’s interior. Several metal structures were built throughout the space, and she flew in between some of them while looking for a place to land. Before long, she flew near a large ventilation duct. Controlling the power of flight, Celestia lifted her up over the duct and crashed her straight through the grating.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy burst out of another gating in the ventilation duct and landed on the ground. She still carried some speed from her flight, and she slid on her hooves until she came to a stop. “Celestia, please,” she said, rubbing her sore muzzle with a hoof. “I can’t even remember the last time you gave me made a soft landing.”

She stopped rubbing her muzzle and looked around at her surroundings. She was standing in what appeared to be a street, except that all of the streets and buildings around her were built from solid gold. Even though she was inside the fortress, there also appeared to be a gold colored sky above her.

“Wow, who knew that the Lunar Sanctum would be so nice?” Fluttershy said. She started walking down the street, exploring the city she appeared to be in.

“It’s like a whole other world,” Celestia said. “I could almost imagine living here myself.”

“I’m deeply flattered by your gracious compliments,” Fancypants said. “But the Lunar Sanctum doesn’t have room for any… more guests.”

“That’s alright,” Celestia said. “After all, we only came here to dismantle it.”

“I understand,” Fancypants sneered. “You have no regard for other ponies’ property.”

Fluttershy eventually saw three Nutskis hovering above the street as she walked along. She fired a pair of charge shots at them, but her attack passed through one of the Nutskis, only killing one of the other two. One of them opened its mouth to attack her, but it didn’t launch any projectile. Instead, Fluttershy was blindsided by a shot from the other Nutski. She took that one out with several pawprint shots before turning to the first one. Fluttershy shut her eyes and shook her head for a moment, but when she looked again, the creature was still there. “Are my eyes playing tricks on me?” she asked.

“Fancypants seems to have a penchant for visual trickery,” Celestia said.

“It’s just a little something I whipped up to whet your appetite,” Fancypants said.

Suddenly, the remaining Nutski turned green and became transparent, confirming it as a hologram. “You should be able to recognize the real enemies from the holograms now, Celestia said. “I’ve also placed markers throughout the Lunar Sanctum to guide your way, in case Fancypants tries to obscure your route.”

Fluttershy noticed a green arrow pointing at a wall in the middle of the street. She walked up to the wall and placed her hoof against it, only for her hoof to pass through. She pulled her hoof back and then walked through the wall in front of her, which brought her in front of a door.

“Now how did you manage to place those here?” Fancypants said. “It seems you’ve infiltrated the Lunar Sanctum’s control core, Celestia. That leaves me relatively defenseless. I’d best rectify that posthaste. If you’ll excuse me, I must go gird my loins for your arrival.”

On the other side of the door, Fluttershy reached the edge of a cliff. The cliff overlooked a canyon in the area, and a number of solid gold buildings were built on either side. A blue pair of rails materialized in front of Fluttershy, leading across the canyon. Fluttershy jumped onto them, allowing them to carry her along. “Celestia?” she asked. “What Fancypants said before… Is he actually a pony?”

“Yes, a unicorn to be exact,” Celestia said.

As Fluttershy rode along the grind rails, several enemy troops around the canyon tried to converge on her. Many of them were actually holograms exposed by Celestia’s power, but she found a few real monsters among them. She focused her Paw Pad Orbitars on four of them, two Nutskis and two Dibble Dops, and fired at them. The pawprint shots tended to scatter rather than aim at them, but one by one, the four enemies were shot down by them. “And my mission here is to…”

“Your mission is to neutralize the Lunar Sanctum by any means necessary,” Celestia said. “Even if you have to terminate Fancypants. Will that be a problem?”

“I-I’m not sure I can go through with that,” Fluttershy murmured. “I mean… do we have to shut down this place?”

“Fluttershy, you saw the firsthoof the firepower that the Lunar Sanctum has at its disposal,” Celestia said. “On its own, the main laser dwarfs Reset Bombs in terms of destructive power. If Luna calibrates it for long range fire, she could fire it on the earth ponies back on the planet.”

The grind rails dropped off Fluttershy at the entrance to another building on the other side of the cliff. Fluttershy walked inside and found herself in a hallway with a mirror at the other end. However, she found nothing else inside the hallway after looking around.

“Look carefully at the mirror’s image,” Celestia said. “You’ll notice some inconsistency.”

Fluttershy walked to mirror at the other end of the hall and stared up at it. The mirror reflected everything in the room, from the large gold squares in the floor to the door leading back out. However, the mirror also showed a corridor in the right wall, but when Fluttershy turned to look at the real thing, she only saw a wall. She walked up to the wall and passed through it, confirming it to be an illusion.

Fluttershy found two green buttons built into the floor in the next room. She stepped on each one, pushing both of them into the ground, but nothing happened. Another door stood off to the side of the room, but even with the two buttons pressed, the door didn’t open. Fluttershy noticed a mirror along one of the walls in this room. She looked into the mirror and saw the door and both buttons reflected by it… as well as a third button behind the first two. She turned around, but couldn’t see the third button behind her.

Looking back and forth between the mirror and the floor, Fluttershy walked slowly toward the spot where the third button was supposed to be. She placed a tentative hoof over the spot on the ground and pushed down. She felt her hoof press against something and, after bringing it down completely, she heard a click at the door. Fluttershy walked toward the door, which opened for her, and left the room.

The next room was a large square room with support columns lining the walls. This was the control center for the Lunar Sanctum, and while the room was mostly empty, a large blue sphere lay in the floor in the center. However, a familiar sky blue pegasus stood in front of the blue core.

“Rainbow Dash?!” Fluttershy said.

Rainbow Dash smirked back at Fluttershy, her wings outstretched and her Silver Bow attached to her foreleg. Her smirk faded when she took another look at Fluttershy, or rather, at the pair of weapons floating above Fluttershy. The grin on her face grew wider, and she quickly started giggling at her. Fluttershy cocked an eyebrow, but it did little to stop Rainbow from giggling, much less from bursting into laughter.

“Seriously?! She sent you out with Paw Pads?!” Rainbow laughed. “I knew it! She is trying to get you killed! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

Fluttershy glowered at Rainbow, who held her hoof against her head and continued to laugh out loud. Eventually, she turned her attention to the twin objects of Rainbow Dash’s derision, the Paw Pad Orbitars. Fluttershy fired a pair of charge shots, which bounced on the ground and made their way toward Rainbow. Rainbow Dash didn’t have time to notice before the two bouncing projectiles slammed into her, picking her up off the ground and smashing her against the Lunar Sanctum’s control core. The control core, which was designed to retaliate against any damage caused to it, registered Rainbow’s collision with it as a short range attack. A quick series of beeps sounded from the core, and a second later, several explosives detonated around the core, blowing Rainbow Dash back onto the ground.

“Alright, that’s it!” Rainbow said, quickly getting back to her hooves. “That’s the last time you’re getting a cheap shot off of me!” She fired a charge shot at Fluttershy from her Silver Bow. Fluttershy sidestepped the arrow and fired back with a pair of charge shots from her twin weapons. However, Rainbow dodged rolled away from the attack, and the bouncing shots hit the control core instead. Registering damage from a ranged attack, the core fired a guided magic missile at Fluttershy. Fluttershy tried to move away, but the retaliatory attack exploded when it hit the ground, catching her in the blast radius and throwing her in the air. Rainbow Dash fired another charge shot, hitting Fluttershy in midair and throwing her against the wall.

“Fancypants, did you call Rainbow Dash here?” Celestia asked.

“I most certainly did,” Fancypants said.

“She’s not usually one to follow orders,” Celestia said. “How did you persuade her?”

“It was quite simple, actually,” he said. “Just the mention of Miss Fluttershy’s presence was enough to send her twin running here.”

“Rainbow just isn’t happy unless she’s fighting someone,” Celestia said.

“Hey, that’s not true at all!” Rainbow said. “Not that it’s a bad thing.”

“You stay out of this, Rainbow!” Fluttershy said. She dodged three small arrows and fired back with a pair of charge shots. “Don’t you realize that you’re helping Luna by fighting me here?”

“Luna?” Rainbow Dash said after dodging the charge shot. “Isn’t she the one who nuked all those earth ponies?” A smirk formed on her face again. “Heh, alright then. As soon as I’m done with you, I’d be happy to trash this place.”

“WHAT?!” Fluttershy screamed. She fired another pair of charge shots, followed by a barrage of pawprint shots from her orbitars. Rainbow Dash jumped away from the twin charge shots and fired one of her own, hitting Fluttershy in the side.

“Oh dear,” Fancypants said. “I certainly did not anticipate this.”

“It seems that you didn’t think very thoroughly about your choice of mercenary,” Celestia said.

“It won’t matter in the end,” Fancypants said. “Seeing how fiercely these two ladies are fighting each other, neither one will have the strength to battle me when they are done.”

By this point, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy both had their share of cuts, bruises and burns. Rainbow dodge rolled away from another pair of charge shots and lunged at Fluttershy. Fluttershy tried to block her with her orbitars, but was thrown back anyway. Rainbow separated her bow into blades and tried to slash at Fluttershy with them. Fluttershy stepped back from the first slash, but the second one left a shallow cut in her chest and tunic.

Rainbow Dash was about to slash a third time with both blades, but was stopped when one of Fluttershy’s orbitars conked her on the head. The other orbitar descended and struck her across the face, sending a mixture of blood and saliva out of the corner of her mouth and onto the floor. Fluttershy then leapt back while releasing a charge shot from her Paw Pad Orbitars. The result was a doubly large pair of catlike objects appearing from the orbitars and crushing Rainbow Dash against the ground. Instead of bounding off like they normally did, the twin charge shots inched their way across the ground from a few seconds. When they disappeared, Rainbow Dash was sprawled face-down on the ground.

“And you told me these orbitars weren’t good weapons,” Fluttershy said.

“You know, those things remind me a lot of those other orbitars you had,” Rainbow Dash said as she stood back up.

“You mean those haunted Fairy Orbitars?” Fluttershy said.

“Yeah, those things were haunted,” Rainbow Dash said sarcastically. “I mean there’s no way that could’ve been a goddess whispering in your ear the whole time.”

“Wait, you’re saying that was Celestia?” Fluttershy asked. “No, that’s impossible. Princess Celestia would never do something like that. Right?”

“Well…” Celestia trailed off.

“Right, Celestia would never make you think you’re orbitars were talking to you,” Rainbow said sarcastically. She and Fluttershy continued to fire at each other with their weapons. “Just like she would never risk burning you to ashes just to blow up a third of a Hewdraw. Or just like she’d never risk siccing two Hewdraw heads on you with that pheromone stuff.” Rainbow’s smirk faded away, and was replaced with a scowl. “I’ll bet she got a real good laugh out of it too!”

Rainbow Dash galloped toward Fluttershy. Fluttershy fired a pair of charge shots, but Rainbow sidestepped them and kept going. Instead, the twin charge shots slammed into the control core in the middle of the room. Rainbow Dash separated her bow and lunged at Fluttershy. Fluttershy stepped back as quickly as it could, not noticing the magic missile that aimed at the spot she had been standing it a few seconds earlier.

The missile hit the ground and exploded, with Rainbow Dash just in front of it when it landed. The explosion hurled her into the air, but Fluttershy had been too far away from the blast. Fluttershy ran under Rainbow as she sailed through the air, and when Rainbow was about to hit the ground, she slammed both orbitars into her. The orbitars collided with Rainbow Dash’s sides, sending her tumbling along the ground when she landed. Fluttershy then fired one more pair of charge shots, hitting Rainbow again before she could stop tumbling.

Rainbow Dash lay on her side at one end of the room, bruised and hurting. She tried to stand back up, but Fluttershy was already standing in front of her before she could get to her hooves.

“Now what, Rainbow?” Fluttershy seethed.

Rainbow Dash rolled onto her stomach, and spread her wings. She aimed her bow at one of the doors leading out of the room and fired a charge shot. The arrow tore the door down, revealing an elevator on the other side of it. “Just wait till next time,” Rainbow said before taking flight. She flew through the doorway and up the elevator shaft.

“Now destroy the Lunar Sanctum control center,” Celestia said.

The control core did not take much effort to destroy after that. Since it could only defend itself with the same predictable counterattacks, Fluttershy just kept moving in one direction while shooting at it. “Celestia, tell me the truth,” Fluttershy said while attacking. “Those voices I heard coming from the Fairy Orbitars, was that you?”

“Yes, that was me,” Celestia said.

“Why?”

“Because I found an opportunity to amuse myself during what I perceived to be a low-risk point in the mission,” Celestia said.

“Low risk?!” Fluttershy said. “I was in the middle of the Reaper Fortress, scared for my life. I was chased by one of those Reapers because of you. That wasn’t funny! That was cruel!”

“I understand, Fluttershy, and I’m truly sorry if that was a traumatizing experience for you,” Celestia said. “That’s why I did not attempt it a second time during the rest of the mission.” By now, Fluttershy had destroyed the control core and walked toward the elevator, which ascended when she stepped onto it. “If you wish, we can discuss the incident after you neutralize the Lunar Sanctum. Though if it’s any consolation, I followed through with the practical joke because I thought you could handle the situation, and my faith was not misplaced. Despite the danger involved in attacking the Reaper Fortress, you did successfully complete the mission.”

“Well, it wouldn’t the first time you added a little levity to a mission, even if it was at my expense,” Fluttershy said. “Okay, I think I can forgive you for it.”

The elevator stopped in the middle of a gray, rocky landscape. Up above, Fluttershy could see thousands of tiny stars against a dark backdrop. Stepping off the elevator, Fluttershy realized that this was either another one of Fancypants’ illusions or the path to him actually led her back outside.

“This really is like the surface of the moon,” Fluttershy said. She noticed an Exo Tank sitting near the elevator and jumped into it. Several of Fancypants’ troops were already ahead of her, including Nutskis, Pew Pews, and Zerts. Fluttershy fired the Exo Tank’s guns while she drove, shooting down the two Nutskis while the running into one of the Zerts.

“Why was the Lunar Sanctum built in the first place?” Celestia asked.

“That information is highly confidential,” Fancypants said.

“That only makes me more curious,” Celestia said.

“Curious or not, I took an oath of silence, and I intend to honor it,” he said. “As such, I cannot tell you the reasons why this sanctum was built. All I can say is that it runs on my powers. Without me, it’s just a husk, an empty shell, an orbiting house of cards.”

“I don’t think you’re giving us the whole story,” Celestia said.

“You’re in no position to demand explanations,” Fancypants said. “I am beholden only to Mistress Luna, and you two are thorns in her side.”

“You’ve made your allegiances quite clear,” Celestia said.

“No he hasn’t,” Fluttershy interjected. She continued driving across the landscape, shooting two Lethiniums and maneuvering around two Bumpety Bombs along the way. “Why are you serving Luna at all, after everything she did to the earth ponies?”

“What Mistress Luna does on the planet is not my concern, and even if it was, it is not my place to question it,” Fancypants said. “My duty is to maintain and defend the Lunar Sanctum, nothing more.”

“Unfortunately, it’s not that simple, Fancypants,” Celestia said. “Because of your position in the Forces of Nature, every single war that Luna starts is your concern, especially when you’re at the helm of a weaponized satellite fortress.”

Fluttershy brought the Exo Tank to a stop near another elevator in the area. The elevator was on a raised platform, preventing her from driving the vehicle onto it. She stepped onto the elevator, allowing it to take her back down. “I’m sorry, Fancypants, but you’re not leaving us much choice,” she said.

“Very well, then,” Fancypants said. “Princess Celestia, Miss Fluttershy, I will be expecting you shortly.”

Moments later, the elevator came to a stop. Fluttershy stepped off and approached a large door at the end of the hallway. “Fancypants’ quarters are directly ahead,” Celestia said. The door opened, and Fluttershy walked through.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy stepped onto a large, circular platform inside a massive chamber. The only lighting in the entire chamber was focused on the platform, so Fluttershy couldn’t tell what, if anything else was in the room or even how high up the platform stood. What she did see was a unicorn stallion with a white coat and light blue mane standing in the center of the room. The stallion wore a black suit and had a monocle over one of his light blue eyes.

“Welcome. Please make yourself comfortable,” Fancypants said, taking a bow before Fluttershy. “It is my great honor to represent Mistress Luna and the Forces of Nature.” As he brought himself up from his bow, the pupils of his eyes briefly glowed red.

Fancypants floated toward the left side of the room and launched a spray of shots from his horn. Fluttershy ran left to dodge them and fired a pair of charge shots at him. The twin charge shots struck their target, but he floated off to the left. Using his magic, he generated a vortex on the ground that moved toward Fluttershy. Fluttershy galloped around the platform, trying to avoid the vortex, and hit Fancypants with another pair of charge shots.

The charge shots rammed into Fancypants’ right side, knocking him to the ground and making him lose control of his magic. “I say!” he grunted. With his focus momentarily lost, the vortex on the floor stopped moving, and spikes shot out of it. Fluttershy galloped toward Fancypants and, when she was close, spun the Paw Pad Orbitars in front of her. As she ran past him, her orbitars struck him in the side of the head. She turned around and fired another pair of charge shots, but he stood up and floated away before they could hit him. “Very impressive, Miss Fluttershy,” Fancypants said. “But it’s time to reveal the true extent of my power!”

Fancypants’ horn glowed a bright golden yellow, but a second later, the magic aura around his horn changed to a deep black. Suddenly, all of the light that illuminated the platform started to drain from the chamber.

“I-I can’t see!” Fluttershy said.

“Focus, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “Pay attention to where Fancypants’ attacks are coming from.”

Fluttershy stood in total darkness and looked around the room frantically. By now, Fancypants could have easily moved to another area of the room, and if he had, he had done it silently. Seconds later, Fluttershy noticed light flashing behind her. She turned around, only to see several glowing blue spheres moving across the floor. She tried to either step over or around the ones that zigzagged toward her, but a few wound up hitting her legs, causing her to fall on the ground.

Fluttershy scrambled back onto her hooves, but then noticed a yellow ring spinning above the ground. The edges of the ring were sharp, and before long, the ring was hurled at her. Fluttershy squeaked as she jumped away, barely missing the ring as it shot past her. She wondered where Fancypants was going to move to now and briefly mused to herself that the battle would be easier if the platform was still illuminated. That gave her an idea, and she lifted her right foreleg up in the air.

“Celestial Firework,” Fluttershy called out. Tiny, colorful lights spread from her hoof and surrounded her in a sphere. The tiny spheres glowed with some light, but did nothing to illuminate the chamber, and vanished after a few seconds. “That was underwhelming,” she murmured nervously.

“I don’t think any of your powers will make an effective light source,” Celestia said. Three lights shone above one area of the platform to Fluttershy’s left. Fluttershy saw the lights and sidestepped them when they shot at her. She then fired a pair of charge shots in that direction, and was delighted when she heard them collide with something. “Even in the dark, Fancypants’ attacks are still visible. As long as you pay attention to your surroundings, you’ll know exactly where he is.”

Fluttershy stood in place and looked around the entire room. Before long, she noticed several lights hovering above the platform. The lights scattered briefly and then homed in on her, but Fluttershy dodged to the side and retaliated with a pair of charge shots. As soon as the shots hit their target, the platform became illuminated again. Fancypants had fallen to the ground, and Fluttershy took the opportunity to shoot at him again. Her bouncing charge shots threw him across the platform on impact, but Fancypants quickly recovered and hovered to another section of the platform. Darkness surrounded his horn, and the chamber went completely dark again.

A few seconds later, Fluttershy noticed a ring spinning in another area of the platform. She fired a pair of charge shots in its direction, but her attack didn’t hit anything. Before she could react to it, several blue spheres traveled across the ground, coming from another area of the platform. At the same time, the ring split into three rings, and all three were hurled at her. Fluttershy ducked, allowing the rings to shoot over her, and then ran around the room to avoid the blue spheres.

As soon as she dodged the blue spheres, Fluttershy fired two charge shots in the direction they came from, this time hitting Fancypants. She waited for him to move to another part of the platform and prepare another attack. Before long, she noticed a large green ball gathering energy behind her. She ran around the room, avoiding a laser that fired from the ball of energy, and returned fire with her orbitars. Her attack stunned Fancypants again, causing the lights to turn back on. Fluttershy launched one more pair of charge shots, which slammed into Fancypants and threw him off of the platform.

Fluttershy stood still on the platform, waiting for something to happen. A few seconds later, the lights in the chamber flickered and turned off entirely. Fluttershy anxiously looked around the platform, expecting another attack, but nothing else happened.

“Fancypants said that his magic powered the Lunar Sanctum,” Celestia said. “With him defeated, everything in the Lunar Sanctum has lost power.”

“So then it’s over?” Fluttershy asked. “Fancypants is—”

“Yes,” Celestia said. Both of them were silent for a moment. Yellow light began to shine down on Fluttershy. “It needed to be done. Who knows what Luna would have done to the earth ponies with the Lunar Sanctum’s arsenal? You understand that, right?”

“Yeah… I know,” Fluttershy said. Seconds later, she was extracted from the Lunar Sanctum. When she reappeared again, she was standing in the middle of Celestia’s temple, directly in front of Celestia herself. “So what happens now?”

“I’m preparing a spell to completely obliterate the Lunar Sanctum,” Celestia said. “It will take some time to destroy a fortress of that size, but this will ensure that Luna can’t send another commander to replace Fancypants.” Celestia was about to draw on more of her magic, but before she could begin to cast a spell, her eyes widened.

“Celestia?” Fluttershy asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Something just escaped from the Lunar Sanctum,” she said.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know,” Celestia said. “I can’t find it anymore. Whatever it was, it flew off very quickly.” Celestia looked down at Fluttershy and noticed the worried expression on her face. “I’m sure it’s nothing urgent. For now, Luna’s forces are still a threat, so be ready for another mission in the next few days.”

Fluttershy looked away from Celestia. Even after the night’s mission ended, a lot of things were still on her mind. Eventually, she turned around and left the temple.

Author's Note

Did anyone play Dark Pit's theme during the Rainbow Dash miniboss fight? No? Well, never mind.

Lightning Battle

Chapter 14: Lightning Battle

Fluttershy galloped through the dark hallway leading to her next mission. She reached the portal, which opened for her as soon as she stopped in front of it. “Moving out,” she said. But before she could jump out, a laser shot at her from the other side of the portal, making her jump back and yelp. The laser shot past and hit the wall behind her, starting a fire inside the hallway.

Stepping back from the fire, she leapt through the doorway and started her mission. Now that she was outside, the power of flight spread through her wings and she flew above the clouds. Dozens of cyclones spun in the skies around her, each one pulling a fraction of the cloud mass into itself with its winds.

“Is the door broken?” Fluttershy asked.

“The door is the least of our concerns,” Celestia said. “Discord has rejoined the fray.”

A few Syrens and Bladers flew around Fluttershy and attacked one another, along with some Monoeyes and Nutskis. In addition, many more monsters from both factions dotted the skies. “Oh, no,” she said.

“Oh, yes,” Celestia said. “Now we have both his and Luna’s forces wreaking havoc.”

Three Monoeyes spotted Fluttershy and flew toward her. Behind them, three Badoots floated in a group, each one still closed. Attached to Fluttershy’s front hooves were the Raptor Claws, a pair of animal-like, three-taloned claws that fit over her hooves. Fluttershy fired a charge shot, consisting of a pair of large, spinning talons at the Monoeyes. She then fired a stream of smaller talons at the Badoots, which were now splitting in half and generating arcs of energy between them.

“The Underworld Army and Forces of Nature are out for blood, each other’s and yours,” Celestia said. “On the Underworld side, Discord has put Thanatos back into play as commander.”

“Thanatos?!” Fluttershy said. “He’s still alive?!”

“Apparently,” Celestia said. “And leading the Forces of Nature is Rarity.”

“Rarity?” Fluttershy said. She noticed two Shrips emerge from the cloud cover and spin toward her. Aiming her Raptor Claws, she fired a charge shot at both of them.

All around her, Bladers and Syrens were flying after one another. Below her, Monoeyes and Nutskis circled around each other while exchanging fire. Fluttershy was deciding which group to attack first, but stopped when she saw a light blue bolt of electricity streak across the sky. The bolt shot through every Underworld soldier nearby, taking them out one by one. Meanwhile, two Monoeyes approached Fluttershy, attempting to attack her while she was distracted. Before either one could fire at her, the bolt of lightning changed direction and flew at them. The bolt came to a stop in front of Fluttershy, who could now see the unicorn mare hovering inside it. The unicorn mare had a white coat, a curled indigo mane, and a light blue magical aura that matched the electricity it produced.

“Yes?” Rarity said. “You called?”

“So you’re commanding the Forces of Nature?” Fluttershy asked.

“We’re in the middle of something here!” Thanatos shouted as he rocketed through the sky. His already serpentine body was wreathed in a much larger field of yellow energy. He barreled into every Nutski and Blader nearby, using the energy that flared around him to incinerate them. “Can this wait?” Thanatos rushed after Rarity, who flew off ahead of Fluttershy.

“So Thanatos was resurrected as… a glowworm?” Fluttershy said.

“I’d say that’s more of a glow dragon,” Celestia said.

Thanatos and Rarity continued to fly ahead, deciding to engage each other one-on-one. Two Nutskis, a Wave Angler, and Two Monoeyes, floated ahead of Fluttershy, apparently too interested in the clash between those two to actually fight each other. Rarity flew around Thanatos with ease as the latter snaked along after her. Eventually, the two combatants turned to face one another and charged at each other head on. The force of their collision spread across the sky, generating a spherical shockwave that tore a hole in the cloud cover below and tossed back every monster within half a mile. Rarity and Thanatos, also knocked back by the blast, fell through the hole they had made in the clouds.

“Wow, this is crazy,” Fluttershy said.

“It’s the Underworld versus Nature, their commanders locked in fierce battle,” Celestia said. She guided Fluttershy toward the location of the collision and sent her down through the hole. “I’m ready to pull you out if it gets out of control.”

Fluttershy found herself flying within the clouds, among a cluster of barren islands floating in the sky. Three Nutskis fired upon a single Monoeye ahead of her, only to be killed themselves by tongue lashes from two Miks. “I can’t believe Thanatos is still alive,” Fluttershy said, shooting down the two Miks.

“And quite perky, apparently,” Celestia said.

“But why does he get a second chance?” Fluttershy said. “It’s not fair.” She saw Thanatos flying over one of the floating islands. He maneuvered around the laser fire of five Lethiniums as he searched for Rarity. As soon as he passed over the island and made a right, Rarity streaked across the sky and followed him.

“Hmm” Celestia mused. “Thanatos, Chrysalis, Hewdraw… Discord revived them all from the old days. It must have taken some effort to resurrect them.”

“But this is Thanatos’ third time around,” Fluttershy said. She dove at the five Lethiniums on the island, dodging their lasers while firing a stream of talons at them. Once she reached the end of the island, she made the same right turn that Thanatos had.

“Thanatos is a bit of a… special case,” Discord said.

Fluttershy finally found Thanatos and Rarity fighting ahead of her, but she raised an eyebrow at Discord’s comment. “What kind of ‘special’?” she asked.

“He is the god of death, after all,” Discord said. “So he gets perks like evil powers and health insurance. And free soda.”

“Resurrected from the dead?” Celestia said. “That’s some health insurance!”

Another head-on collision between Thanatos and Rarity sent them crashing through another floating island, splitting it in half. Rarity was the first to recover and slammed into him from the side. She flew off in another direction while the stunned Thanatos kept falling. Fluttershy descended through the sundered island to keep up with them, but Thanatos recovered as well and flew after Rarity, almost barreling into Fluttershy along the way.

“Whoa!” Fluttershy said, pulling back when Thanatos rushed right by her. She watched as he charged at Rarity, only for Rarity to shoot off in another direction. Undeterred, Thanatos flew off after her. “He’s fast. Must be all that free soda.” Led by Celestia’s magic, she continued to follow the two of them as they fought. Rarity slammed into Thanatos again, throwing him into another floating rock. She rose up again, preparing to slam into him. However, Thanatos recovered and flew away from the rock, causing Rarity to crash into it.

“Lovely little Rarity’s no slouch in the fighting department, either,” Discord said.

“Would you stop trying to flatter all the mares, Discord?” Celestia said. “It’s quite revolting.”

“There is nothing wrong with compliments,” Luna said.

“Luna?” Fluttershy said. “Where did you come from?”

“But Commander Rarity must also be respected for her power,” Luna added.

“Anyway, Fluttershy, just keep following Rarity and Thanatos,” Celestia said. “Once they’ve weakened each other, we should be able to eliminate the winner with ease.”

“That seems a little underhooved, doesn’t it?” Fluttershy asked.

“Maybe so, but the alternative would be to fight them both at the same time,” Celestia said.

“And we all know how that would end,” Luna said.

“Almost makes you take pity on our little pegasus,” Discord said.

As Fluttershy passed by another group of floating rocks, a Lurchthorn started to hover alongside her. At the same time, four Paramushes floated down on the other side of the Lurchthorn. The Paramushes opened fire, causing damage to the Lurchthorn’s cannons. Fluttershy used her claws to finish off the cannons and then fired at the head. Once the Lurchthorn was destroyed, Fluttershy flew up through a hole in the cloud cover. Now above the clouds again, she looked around for any sign of Thanatos and Rarity. While she didn’t find Rarity at first, she did notice Thanatos flying a bit sluggishly to her left.

“Thanatos, are you okay?” Discord asked, pretending to be concerned.

“Oh, yes!” Thanatos said. “I’m just peachy!”

“He doesn’t seem peachy,” Celestia said.

“With her exceptional power and speed of lightning, I’d expect nothing less from Commander Rarity,” Luna said.

Suddenly, Rarity rose up out of the clouds and struck Thanatos. Thanatos was thrown back for a moment, but recovered and continued to attack. He lunged at Rarity, but she shot away from him before he could even get close. With her speed and midair agility, Rarity flew around Thanatos with ease, thwarting his attempts to chase after her. Backing up from him for a second, she slammed into him at full speed a second time.

Meanwhile, two Miks and two Nutskis floated in front of Fluttershy, not to attack her or each other, but to watch the battle between Rarity and Thanatos. Fluttershy noticed them in her peripheral vision and fired a charge shot at the Nutskis, followed by a stream of talons at the Miks. With the monsters gone, she went back to watching Thanatos’ attempts to attack a constantly moving Rarity. For a moment, the battle between them seemed less like a fight to Fluttershy and more like a hopeless game of tag. It seemed that way until Rarity turned and slammed into Thanatos one last time.

Thanatos remained motionless in the air after the last attack from Rarity. At the same time, Rarity moved back a comfortable distance from him and watched as the yellow energy flaring across his body faded away. Shortly afterward, Thanatos dropped from his position in the sky and plummeted through the clouds.

“Bravo!” Luna said. “Bravo!”

“Oh me oh my,” Discord said. “Now whatever shall I do?”

“That was amazing,” Fluttershy said. She watched as Rarity moved across the sky a few hundred feet at a time and disappeared into one of the larger tornados in the sky. “Also, how do you think she gets her mane and tail styled like that? I mean, with her lightning powers, wouldn’t that be hard?”

“Interesting question,” Celestia said, sending Fluttershy toward the tornado to pursue Rarity. “But I don’t see how that’s relevant.”

“Whatever,” Discord said. “We’ll just keep fighting without someone out there giving orders.”

“Are you saying it makes no difference whether your troops have a leader?” Celestia said.

“They’re all idiots,” Discord said. “Seriously, I don’t even know if any of them have actual brains.”

After circling around the tornado and shooting down several Paramushes and Parashooters that were caught in it, Fluttershy flew off and started exploring the skies around her. “Where’s Rarity?” she asked.

“She must be recharging after her battle with Thanatos,” Celestia said. “Now’s your chance. Let’s find her before she fully recovers.” With the power of flight, Celestia led Fluttershy through the skies. Soon, she brought her in front of the largest, most turbulent tornado in the area. Lightning flashed throughout the clouds caught in this tornado, further indicating the power of this particular storm. “Rarity is in the middle of those clouds.”

“Persistent, aren’t we?” Rarity said.

Fluttershy hovered around the tornado for a few seconds. She started wondering how she was going to fly through an extremely violent tornado, but then noticed a channel opening up through it. The channel was being formed with Celestia’s magic, and once it was large enough, Fluttershy flew into it.

The tornado’s winds and cloud matter flowed around the channel, but even with Celestia’s magic holding it open, lightning still arced across it. Fluttershy maneuvered around the electricity as it flowed across, only to find herself dodging Trynamite shrapnel along the way. Two Flages also appeared in front of her, only to receive a charge shot when they startled Fluttershy. However, more Flages started to appear further ahead, as well as over a dozen Bladers and Nutskis.

“Hold on as best as you can,” Celestia said. “Rarity is definitely at the end of this path.”

“Nope,” Rarity said. “There’s nopony here.”

“We can hear you,” Fluttershy said.

“That’s because I’m speaking to you through telepathy,” Rarity said.

“Telepathy that I can trace to the eye of this storm,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy concentrated on the magic stored within her Raptor Claws. Holding her forelegs out to her sides, she performed several aileron rolls in quick succession to trigger her claws’ special attack. As she spun, her claws sliced through the air, producing sharpened air currents that spread throughout the channel. The sharpened currents shredded every Flage, Nutski, and Blader they reached, quickly clearing the channel of enemy monsters. With the path ahead of her clear, Fluttershy kept flying forward. A few seconds later, she reached the end of the channel and flew out of the storm.

On the other side of the channel, Fluttershy found herself flying within the eye of the storm. For the first time in this entire mission, she could see the clear blue sky above her. Even though she had been flying above the clouds for much of this mission, the tempestuous conditions in the skies had still managed to color much of the skies in unpleasant grays and oranges, except for within the eye of this one tornado. A small island, consisting of nothing but a temple complex, floated in the center of the eye.

“This is the Thunder Cloud Temple,” Celestia said. “It’s been abandoned since ancient times.”

“Here already?” Rarity said. “I didn’t even have a chance to take a shower.”

Fluttershy circled around the Thunder Cloud Temple, surveying the grounds as she began her approach. “I supposed you’d like us to give you a few minutes then?” Fluttershy asked.

Though no one could see her within the temple, a tiny smirk formed on Rarity’s face. A spire towered above the roof of the temple, and Rarity began to feed her magic into it. “Well, if I’m going to take a shower…” she said. “I also need to restyle my mane and tail, apply some eyeshadow, get my hooves done…”

Suddenly, lightning shot across the sky from the temple spire. “Eep!” Fluttershy squeaked, swerving away as the electrical current swept at her.

“I guess she’s not completely exhausted after her fight with Thanatos,” Celestia said.

“It’s just one fight after another,” Rarity said. She continued to feed her magic to the temple spire, which then continued to sweep an electric current after Fluttershy. “Today is not my day.”

Seven Zerts floated from the temple and started to approach Fluttershy. Fluttershy ascended to dodge another sweep from Rarity’s attack and fired a charge at one of the Zerts. She then fired a stream of talons at three more Zerts and slashed at two of them with her claws when they came close. After taking out the last two with a charge shot, Fluttershy flew directly over the Thunder Cloud Temple. The temple spire’s electric current started chasing her across the sky, but by this point, Celestia had found a suitable landing spot and started leading her down.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy landed in a courtyard near the edge of the temple grounds. A path extended from the courtyard to the main building at the center of the complex.

“Rarity is using her magic to supply power to this temple,” Celestia said. “Some of the walls and pillars are electrified, so tread carefully and cut off the supply wherever you can.”

As Fluttershy made her way through the courtyard, she realized what Celestia meant about the nearby structures being electrified. Electricity was visibly coursing through four lone pillars in the ground. She passed by them, taking out three Nutskis and a Pew Pew along the way, and reached a narrow alleyway. An electric current ran through the walls on both sides of the alley, forcing Fluttershy to stay in between them. Making sure that no part of her body so much as grazed the walls, she eventually made it through the alley and reached the entrance of the main temple.

Once inside the main temple, Fluttershy found an elevator leading up to the second floor. She stepped onto the elevator, but as soon as it began to ascend, the edges of the elevator became electrified. “This mission would be much easier if everything here had better insulation,” she said, stepping as close to the middle of the elevator as possible.

“It’s not my fault you conduct electricity so well,” Rarity said.

On another side of the room, Fluttershy noticed a second elevator moving level to the one she was on. Two large, four-legged beetles scurried around the other elevator. Fluttershy fired a charge shot at one of these Skreetles, allowing it to home in on its target, and fired a stream of talons at the second enemy. Meanwhile, the elevator reached the second floor, and current stopped running through its edges. Fluttershy stepped off the elevator and saw a blue orb sitting in the center of the room. High-voltage electricity coursed through the orb, as well as through a metal door that stood behind the orb.

“That orb is supplying power to certain areas of the temple,” Celestia said. “Destroying it should allow you to move around more freely.”

“Sure, go right on ahead,” Rarity said.

Fluttershy fired at the orb with her Raptor Claws, first cracking it with a charge shot, then breaking it apart with her continuous fire. Before long, the orb had been shattered to pieces, its fragments littering the floor and the door behind it no longer charged. “Aren’t you going to put up a fight?” Fluttershy asked as she continued through the temple.

“What do I care?” Rarity said. “This isn’t my home. Although if it was, I would definitely do something about the décor.”

“So you’re basically squatting in this abandoned temple,” Celestia said. “Dignified.”

“Not squatting,” Rarity insisted. “Repurposing! Besides, I shan’t be staying here too long.”

“Why’s that?” Fluttershy asked.

“Because the refined and elegant Rarity isn’t one to overstay her welcome,” Luna said. “Like some vagrant. Nevertheless, I’m currently busy with the Underworld Army, so I’ve ordered her to defeat thee.”

“Why would somepony like Rarity take orders from you anyway?” Fluttershy said. “What sort of awful things have you ordered her to do?”

“Oh, you mean like slaying the god of death and second-in-command of the Underworld Army?” Rarity scoffed. “Oh no, how awful! Somepony should stop me!”

“If that’s how you’re going to act about, then fine,” Fluttershy muttered.

“Ooh, what bluster, what bravado,” Rarity said. “I guess I can’t back down now.”

Fluttershy walked into a tower within the main temple structure. A walkway spiraled around the interior of the tower, leading up to a higher floor. As soon as Fluttershy started to climb up the tower, a Bumpety Bomb dropped in from above. She fired at the enemy, eventually throwing it off the walkway and causing it to explode, but a second Bumpety Bomb dropped in at a later part of the walkway. Fluttershy continued to ascend the tower, taking out Bumpety Bombs as they appeared one by one.

“Even though she’s supplying power to this temple, Rarity is also recharging at the temple’s center,” Celestia said. “You need to reach her before she fully recovers.”

“Absolutely, Princess Celestia,” Fluttershy said, already halfway up the tower and firing at a pair of Dibble Dops.

“Ugh, you’re such a yes-mare, Fluttershy,” Rarity said. “It’s a good thing you’re so cute.”

Fluttershy cheeks turned a shade of pink, and she stopped firing at the second Dibble Dop. “You’re… you’re not just making fun of me, are you?” she stammered. The Dibble Dop tossed a high-pressure water grenade at her, which she managed to avoid before it landed near her.

“Aw, you’re turning red,” Rarity said. “That’s just adorable!”

“She embarrasses easily,” Celestia said. “Don’t mind her.”

“Oh, don’t give it a second thought… ma’am,” Rarity scoffed.

“Did you just call me ‘ma’am’?” Celestia said with an amused smirk on her face. “Are you trying to start something?”

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Rarity continued to scoff. “You’re much too young to be called ‘ma’am’.”

“You know as well as I do the lifespan of gods,” Celestia said. “And how about you? What’s your age?”

“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me you tell me yours!” said both Rarity and Celestia.

“Um, I don’t mind being called ‘Miss’,” Fluttershy murmured. “If that’s okay with anypony.”

“Yes, well, as much as I’d like to continue this delightful chat, I have things to do,” Rarity said.

“I know it’s difficult when she’s teasing you,” Celestia said, “but remember that she’s the enemy.”

“R-Right,” Fluttershy said. As soon as she reached the next floor, she entered through a door at the end of the walkway and proceeded to the next room. Fluttershy stood at the edge of the room, which was semicircular in shape. Two platforms rose above her and divided the room into three levels, each one raised higher the closer it was to the center. A set of stairs led up to each platform and a door stood at the top level, leading to another room.

Two Lethiniums were stationed on the second level while two Nutskis floated above the ground. However, what Fluttershy took note of most of all were three electrical currents, one on each level. Each current was aligned with the door at the center of the upper level and slowly swept across the semicircular arc of the room. “Pay attention to the movement of those electric currents,” Celestia said.

“I think it’s fine to touch them,” Rarity said. “Trust me, they’re perfectly safe.”

Fluttershy shot down the two Nutskis above her and turned to look at the current that moved along her level. This current was moving toward her from the right, while the stairs to the next platform were on her left. She ran toward the stairs and walked halfway up, making sure that the currents on neither level could touch her. One Lethinium stood at the far left end of the second level, and Fluttershy fired a charge shot at it, allowing her shot to home in on its target. After that, she waited for the electrical current on the second level to sweep past the stairs and move toward the left end of the platform. Once it did, she climbed to the second level and moved right toward the next set of stairs.

After taking out the second Lethinium, Fluttershy climbed halfway up the stairs to the topmost platform. With less space to cover, the third electrical current moved back and forth across the platform more quickly. A single Dibble Dop floated above the platform, and Fluttershy aimed at it. However, when she fired a charge shot, it struck a Flage that had been moving toward her instead. A second Flage moved past it and lunged at her, losing its stealth ability as it prepared to attack. Fluttershy, startled after seeing a bisected Flage suddenly pop up in front of her, jumped backwards, managing to dodge the second Flage’s attack.

After missing Fluttershy, the Flage reactivated its stealth ability. Fluttershy jumped back again, this time firing a few talons in the direction that the Flage had been in earlier. The three talons spread out from each other after being launched, and the one that moved right took out the Flage. Fluttershy dodged a water grenade from the remaining Dibble Dop and returned fire, taking it out as well. Now that the path was clear, she moved toward the door and to the next room.

Another orb sat at the end of the next room, and just like the one before it, this one was supplying power to parts of the temple. Fluttershy stepped within range of the orb and fired at it. As soon as the orb was destroyed, a trapdoor opened up in the middle of the floor. A pair of blue rails materialized in front of the trapdoor and led down into it.

“I placed a set of grind rails for you to use,” Celestia said.

“Grind rails, hmm?” Rarity said. “… I wish we had the budget for something like grind rails.”

“It’s not too late to switch sides,” Celestia said. Fluttershy hopped onto the grind rails and rode them down the trapdoor. The rails took her outside and carried her underneath the temple. After a short trip, they dropped her off at the bottom of a walkway that spiraled underneath the island. “This path leads to the center of the temple,” Celestia said. “Be careful. The route looks treacherous.”

Up ahead, Fluttershy found a Megonta, a giant creature resembling a pill bug, crawling on the platform. Since most of its body was protected by a spherical shell, she aimed and fired at its unprotected legs and eyes beneath the shell. The Megonta retracted into its shell, protecting itself while attempting to roll down the walkway and into Fluttershy. However, instead of rolling down the path toward her, it wound up rolling off the edge and fell toward the ground far below.

As she went further along the walkway, Fluttershy saw a Lurchthorn flying toward her from the other direction. The creature’s side cannons wouldn’t have a clear shot until it came closer, and since its head was facing her, she fired at it with her Raptor Claws. Within a few seconds, she defeated the Lurchthorn, only for a second one to pull up behind her.

“What do you think of those claws, Fluttershy?” Celestia asked.

Fluttershy shot at the second Lurchthorn’s cannons and quickly destroyed the first one. “I think I like these,” she said. The three remaining cannons fired their own projectiles at her, but she galloped back to evade. She jumped and did a side roll to dodge the last few shots, launching three talons at the cannons before going into the roll. “It’s almost like they bring out a whole other side of me. Like I’m part pegasus, part animal.”

“But then what kind of animal would you be?” Celestia asked. “Perhaps a squirrel… or maybe you’re more like a little kitten.”

“Um… what?”

“Wait, I know,” Celestia said. “Since you’re flightless, you’re like a penguin.”

“Um… penguins don’t have claws,” Fluttershy said. She had already defeated the second Lurchthorn, and now resumed walking up the spiraling pathway.

“As a pegasus, thou art already an animal,” Luna interjected. “BUT THOSE CLAWS ARE NOTHING COMPARED TO OUR HOOVES! OUR HOOVES CAN DISPLACE ENTIRE RIVERS AND LEVEL MOUNTAIN RANGES!”

“Okay…” Fluttershy said.

“OUR HOOVES CAN EVISCERATE THE ENTIRE CORE OF THE EARTH!”

“Okay, okay!” Fluttershy said. “Stop… stroking yourself.”

“WE ARE NOT STROKING OURSELVES!” Luna shouted.

“WITH HER HOOVES…” Celestia bellowed. “That would be painful.”

“Oh, silence thyself, troll,” Luna muttered.

Fluttershy entered the temple again through a door at the top of the walkway. A jump pad lay in the middle of the floor, and above it, there was a hole in the ceiling. The jump pad sent Fluttershy through the hole and into another room.

“Rarity is just ahead,” Celestia said, noting a door on one side of the room.

“Here so soon?” Rarity said.

“You did have plenty of time to take that shower,” Fluttershy said.

“Actually, I already did, and I even started on a hooficure,” Rarity said. “But I still need to finish my back hooves.”

Looking around, Fluttershy noticed a doorway on the other side of the room. Electricity ran through the doorway, seemingly forming a curtain over it, but she could still make out the entrance to a Zodiac Chamber on the other side. “Princess Celestia?”

“Yes, I see it too,” Celestia said. “Which means Rarity gets an extra minute to finish her personal grooming.” Fluttershy started to approach the entrance, but stopped in front of the electrified doorway. “Now we need to figure out how to pass through this doorway.”

“Oh, I know!” Fluttershy said. “Brief Invincibility.” Green light shone around Fluttershy’s body, either as sparks of magic that radiated from her or rings that rose from her hooves and encircled her. She harmlessly walked through the electrified doorway and entered the Zodiac Chamber behind it. Once she was inside the chamber, the protective magic faded from around her. “Hmm, it only lasts three seconds. Oh well, I get two uses out of it, so I’ll just use it again when I get back.”

When Fluttershy reached the other end of the Zodiac Chamber, a thin yellow box with rounded white edges materialized in front of her. The capital letter omega appeared to be written on the box’s lid, right above a solid line. Grasping the box with her teeth, Fluttershy realized that the Zodiac treasure inside it wasn’t a weapon but a power, the Libra Sponge. Fluttershy left the chamber as soon as Celestia took the item off of her hooves. She used the Brief Invincibility power a second time to get past the electrified doorway and headed toward Rarity.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy stepped onto a large circular platform in the center of the Thunder Cloud Temple. Rarity stood in the middle of the platform, smiling at her while holding a spark with her horn. “Hello there!” Rarity said.

Fluttershy tried to take a step forward, but stopped when she felt static electricity rush through her foreleg. “M-My coat feels all tingly!” she stammered. Sparks started running through her mane, her tail, and even through her wing feathers.

“The air in here is electrif…” Rarity started to say, until she took a second look at Fluttershy. “Oh dear!” Fluttershy was standing petrified in the same spot she was in before. The electrically charged air inside the room was causing every single hair on her body to stand on end. Her coat, and especially her mane and tail, had blown up as a result. She realized that Rarity and Celestia could see her right now. She could even hear some snickering from Luna and Discord, and she wished more than anything that she had a place to hide.

Even Celestia felt embarrassed at the moment, both for her sake and Fluttershy’s. “Something tells me that I should have anticipated this,” she said.

“Oh you poor, poor dear,” Rarity said. She stepped toward Fluttershy, making her feel even more uncomfortable. “We need to fix this right away. Come on Fluttershy, I’m treating us both to an impromptu spa date!”

“Rarity, thou hast her right where we want her!” Luna said. “I order thee to kill her immediately!”

“Luna, please,” Rarity said. “Have a heart.”

Rarity spent nearly half-an-hour treating herself and Fluttershy to an improvised spa session. During that time, she was able to finish the other half of her hooficure, among other things. By the end of it, Fluttershy was looking like her usual self, if not a bit more radiant. More importantly, her mane and tail had returned to their usual flowing style, and the hairs in her coat were kept down as well.

“Feeling better, Fluttershy?” Rarity said.

“Yes, a lot better,” Fluttershy said. “I’m not sure how you did it.”

“All it takes is the right conditioner, darling.”

“Wow, I… I really don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything,” Rarity said. “After all, a lady must always look her best.”

“Eep!” Fluttershy jumped back, just barely avoiding three bolts of lightning that struck near her hooves. She looked back at Rarity and saw light blue electricity running through her horn.

“And now that you’re looking marvelous again, I can kill you with a clean conscience,” Rarity said. She sent three electrically charged spheres in a spread pattern at Fluttershy. Fluttershy jumped to her left to dodge and fired a charge shot, but Rarity shot across the platform before she could get hit. She looked around to find Rarity again, but before she could, she was shocked from behind by several electrical shots.

“Just look at them go!” Luna said.

“And I thought the fighting outside was exciting,” Discord said. “But it looks like the real action is in here.”

“Fluttershy doesn’t stand a chance!” Luna added.

“Glad you’re enjoying the show, oh divine peanut gallery,” Celestia said.

“I, for one, am honored to have you all in the audience,” Rarity said. She launched a slow-moving ball of electricity toward Fluttershy before moving to another part of the arena.

“Who’s the yes-mare now?” Fluttershy said. “Kissing up to management won’t help you, Rarity!” She sidestepped the ball of electricity and started galloping toward Rarity. Rarity fired several shots directly at her, but Fluttershy sidestepped them and kept running. Now close enough, Fluttershy tried to slash at Rarity with her claws, but Rarity jumped back very quickly. Instead, Fluttershy fired a charge shot at her. The two large, spinning talons hit Rarity before she could attack again, leaving a gash that extended from her left shoulder down her barrel. Fluttershy galloped toward her again, this time successfully executing a melee dash attack that slashed the right side of Rarity’s body.

Rarity held her hoof against her right side. She looked herself over and saw the blood stains along her white coat, fresh drops of blood falling on the floor, and the slash wounds across both her sides. Finally, she noticed one more thing lying on the ground: a lock of indigo hair. She moved her hoof over to her mane, confirming her suspicions. Her teeth gritted and her hooves shaking, she turned and glared at Fluttershy, who was now firing another charge shot at her.

Rarity shot across the room to avoid the charge shot. She then reappeared next to Fluttershy and, using her magic, unleashed an immense discharge of electricity around her. The discharge knocked Fluttershy off of her hooves and threw her across the room. “Oh, that is it!” Rarity shouted angrily. She moved to the center of her room and charged her horn. Electricity shot from her horn and concentrated around four lampposts above the platform. She then directed the electricity from the lampposts to strike Fluttershy all at once.

“I understand now,” Luna said. “Their ‘spa date’ was neither a kind nor generous gesture. It was a stall tactic. Rarity used the time to recover from her battle with Thanatos. Thou may have underestimated her before, Celestia, but once Fluttershy is gone, nothing shall stop Rarity from leading an attack against you.”

Rarity used her horn to send a current up toward the ceiling. From the ceiling, her attack struck the ground as four separate bolts of lightning that moved across the ground. Three of the lightning bolts went in different directions, but the fourth one passed directly over Fluttershy, electrocuting her as it went by. Once the attack passed over her, Fluttershy’s legs started to feel numb, and she collapsed on the ground. She looked up to see Rarity levitating over her, preparing another attack with her magic.

“Bumblebee,” Fluttershy said. Her body started to glow blue just as Rarity’s horn sent a spark toward the ground in front of her. The spark spread out in three directions when it hit the ground, the center one going toward Fluttershy. But before the attack could reach its target, Fluttershy suddenly disappeared. Rarity stared at the ground, wondering where Fluttershy had gone. She started to look around when a pair of large spinning talons struck her from behind, slashing her just above the flanks. She winced at the pain and spun around to look behind her. Fluttershy was standing there aiming a Raptor Claw at her, now recovered from her earlier numbness and a blue glow still around her body.

Rarity charged up the four surrounding lampposts again, and then sent their current at Fluttershy. Before they could converge on her, the effect of the Bumblebee power brought Fluttershy directly behind Rarity again. It wore off immediately after activating a second time, but that didn’t stop Fluttershy from attacking. She slashed at Rarity’s back with the right claw, then the left, and spun around to buck her with her hind legs. Fluttershy spun around again, slashing with the left claw, and finally swiped with both claws simultaneously. She jumped back and fired another charge shot, slashing Rarity’s left side and causing her to hit the floor. Finally, Fluttershy galloped at Rarity again, dealing one last slash across Rarity’s chest as she passed by.

Rarity lay on the ground, pressing a hoof against her bleeding chest. Blood stains covered much of her white coat, all the result of the many wounds across her flanks, sides, chest, back, and even a few on her legs. She could see Fluttershy across the room, panting, glaring at her, and with blood covering those wretched claws of hers. “I take back what I said before,” Rarity said. “You’re not cute at all!” Electricity coursed through her body, and she let out a pained cry as she levitated in the air.

“This can’t be happening!” Luna said.

Electricity crackled violently throughout Rarity’s body as she rose higher in the air. Eventually, her body was completely obscured by the energy surrounding her, and she smashed through the ceiling to escape.

“I’m coming for you next, Luna!” Fluttershy muttered. “Aah!” She jumped back as a section of the ceiling crumbled, landing right in front of her. The floor beneath her began to shake, and all around her, the room and even the entire temple was falling apart.

“This place is going back to the dogs without lovely little Rarity,” Discord said.

“Smarm while you still can, Discord,” Celestia said. “We’ll be after you soon enough.” She began to extract Fluttershy from the Thunder Cloud Temple. Light shone down on Fluttershy, and even as the rest of the building crumbled and fell around her, she floated in place within Celestia’s magic. Seconds later, the light vanished and she was taken from the area.

The Parasprite Brain

Chapter 17: The Parasprite Brain

“Let’s finish the Parasprites once and for all!” Fluttershy said. Her hoofbeats echoed against the floor as she ran toward a portal at the end of a hallway. The portal opened, leading to her next mission, and her wings began to glow with a yellow aura once she jumped through. Her wings, aided by Celestia’s magic, kept her aloft as she flew far above the earth’s atmosphere. Off in the distance, she could see about two dozen floating islands and a massive, spherical, mechanical structure, all hanging in low orbit.

“Commencing Underworld assault on the Parasprite central nervous system!” Discord announced.

“CHILDREN!” Luna bellowed. “OUR FINAL TARGET IS THE CENTRAL COMMAND OF THIS INVASION, THE PARASPRITE BRAIN!”

Fluttershy watched as several Gyrazors and Monoeyes, followed by Bladers and Nutskis, flew past her and lead the charge. Some of the Underworld and Nature forces destroyed a few Tribytes on the way. Above her and to her left, Trixie charged ahead as well and gathered her magic through her horn. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is onstage and ready to deliver her greatest performance yet!” she shouted. A beam of pale magenta magic fired from her horn, reaching as far as the spherical structure up ahead. Once her attack subsided, she descended to avoid a laser from one of the Parasprite’s battleships and continued on.

“With all of us gods—er, and Trixie—united, the Parasprite Brain doesn’t stand a chance,” Celestia said. Using her magic, she guided Fluttershy toward the spherical structure, as well as the scattered group of islands and small air fleet stationed in front of it.

Fluttershy flew past the remnants of the Parasprite’s air fleet, avoiding a laser from another battleship. Hovering above her shoulders were the Shock Orbitars, a pair of blue-green orbs with orange winglike projections extending laterally. Electrified projectiles fired from her orbitars, shooting down a number of Quoils that launched themselves at her. “It’s kind of crazy,” Fluttershy said. “The biggest egos in the universe working together?”

“Drive the intruders back into space, minions!” Discord commanded.

“WE CANNOT LOSE!” Luna said. “OUR PLANET’S VERY EXISTENCE IS AT STAKE!”

More Monoeyes and Nutskis flew past Fluttershy and joined the assault. Up ahead, Trixie was hovering above a small island and charging her horn. A second later, several blasts of magic rained down from her horn, covering the entire surface of the island with pale magenta flames.

“Everyone seems to be in good spirits, though,” Fluttershy said.

“Or they’ve finally lost their minds,” Celestia said. Two Kolmas were positioned ahead of Fluttershy, each one carried by a Parasprite Monoeye. Fluttershy fired a pair of charge shots from her weapons, destroying one of these pairs, and moved right to dodge the protective plates thrown by the other pair. A few smaller shots took out the other Kolma and Monoeye pair, and Fluttershy flew on ahead. Slipping past the fleet of airships and flying in between the islands, she began to approach the spherical structure. “Now that we’ve defeated the Parasprite Hive, we need to destroy that fortress.”

Fluttershy gazed at the mechanical structure in awe. The fortress was massive, gray in color. Though its overall shape was spherical, its entire surface was broken up into blocky pieces, many of which jutted out of the surface of the structure more than the others around them. In addition, several enormous projections also extended out of the fortress’s surface, and a few openings leading inside were barely discernible amongst the blocky sections forming the exterior. Most of all, Fluttershy noticed the sheer size of the fortress, which dwarfed that of the Parasprite Hive. “It’s huge!” she said.

“It houses the Parasprite Brain, which controls every single Parasprite unit,” Celestia said.

“How do you know that?” Fluttershy said. As she approached the fortress, she fired at several Parasprite enemies that attempted to intercept her, including Tribytes, Monoeye copies, and Jyoks.

“Trixie told me.”

“Trixie?” Fluttershy said. “She sure knows a lot about them.”

“That’s because I spend a lot of time of Divinipedia,” Trixie said as she moved in and grouped with Fluttershy.

“Divinipedia?” Fluttershy said. “I’m not sure what that is.”

“That doesn’t matter,” Trixie said. “The time for learning has passed. Attack the Parasprite Brain!” She flew on ahead again, discharging a few blasts of magic at a pair of Parasprite Miks, but ignoring a Rezda and four Parasprite Monoeyes that moved into position in front of Fluttershy.

Fluttershy swerved to avoid the shots fired from the Monoeye copies and returned fire with a pair of charge shots, destroying the Rezda that protected them. She then followed with a few smaller shots to destroy the other four enemies. Guided by Celestia’s magic, she reached the exterior of the fortress and began to fly over its surface, following Trixie’s lead. After shooting down a few more Jyoks and Monoeye copies stationed around the fortress, Fluttershy came across a recess in its surface. A battleship appeared to be emerging from it, but she flew around the vessel and made a left turn toward a small tunnel within the recess.

The power of flight intensified around Fluttershy’s wings as she flew into the tunnel and inside the massive fortress. The tunnel was small and unlit at first, but after a few seconds, it opened into a much wider channel leading toward the center of the fortress. Much like on the outside of the fortress, several blocky sections of the surface of the channel pushed outward. In addition, some of these projections gave off a luminous cyan glow, bathing the entire channel with their light. As Fluttershy flew through the channel, three Sios, enemies formed from clusters of blue and green bars, and four Claxes, floating enemies that seemed to resemble alien symbols, hovered ahead of her. She dodged a series of shots fired from the rotating Claxes and swerved away from a slow-moving miniature black hole launched from one of the Sios before returning fire with a pair of charge shots.

Trixie rejoined Fluttershy once again and flew with her through the channel. She fired a blast of magic from her horn, destroying one of the Sios. “This path will take us directly to the Parasprite Brain,” she said. “It’s time for us to take this space junk to the space dump!” Trixie flew on slightly ahead, throwing a few magical blasts at two Claxes, and began to lead Fluttershy through the channel. Fluttershy used another pair of charge shots to take out the last Sio, which tried to rapidly spin its body into her. She dodged a missile from one of the Claxes before firing at them, taking them out with smaller shots.

With the channel cleared of enemies, Fluttershy and Trixie continued on ahead. Some of the channel’s architecture reached across from one side to the other, partially obstructing their path and forcing them to maneuver around as they made their way through. After a few seconds of flight, they finally reached the end of the passageway, which brought them to an enormous chamber within the center of the fortress. The surrounding walls, gave the chamber a rounded shape. Interconnecting lines adorned the walls, and light rose up the walls every few seconds in a ringlike pattern around the chamber. At the center of the chamber was a large translucent orb with several blue-gray rings around it. A glow emanated from within the glassy orb, seemingly contracting toward the center of it. The blue-gray rings, some of which were closed and some open, formed concentric circles around the orb. Additional sets of concentric rings were set away from the orb, though their edges came into contact with the set of rings surrounding the center.

“So this is the Parasprite Brain,” Fluttershy said as she approached the orb at the center. Focusing on the orbitars above her, she opened fire on the structure. At the same time, Trixie hovered around to another side and began to attack the Parasprite Brain with her magic. One by one, several sections of the orb would start to glow. Holes formed in each of those sections, and Parasprite troops emerged from these holes to defend the Brain.

Fluttershy concentrated on the magic flowing through her wings, and started to channel it through her orbitars. A second later, she unleashed that power, and several fireballs launched from her weapons. The fireballs spiraled in their trajectory, colliding with and destroying several Rezdas, Tribytes and Jyoks before hitting the Parasprite Brain itself. A small smile crept on Fluttershy’s face, and she followed her Special Attack with a pair of charge shots and a barrage of smaller shots. So far, it seemed that the only defenses the Parasprite Brain had were the standard Parasprite troops, and she was having very little trouble shooting them down. In fact, between short spurts of dealing with Parasprite grunts, she was getting quite a few hits on the Brain itself. She briefly glanced at Trixie, who seemed at bit distracted, but was also managing to attack both the Brain and the enemies coming from it. At the rate this was going, Fluttershy thought that she might be able to complete this mission early. With Trixie’s help, she even might have been done before the power of flight ran out.

On the other side of the Parasprite Brain, Trixie stared in astonishment at Fluttershy. She had seen, and narrowly avoided, the stream of fireballs that had both decimated all of those Parasprite troops and damaged the Brain. ‘Of course,’ Trixie thought to herself as she looked back on the last twenty four hours. ‘She destroyed their invading force back on the planet, and she destroyed their Hive. If this keeps up, she’ll destroy the Parasprite Brain too… and where will that leave me?’ After destroying another three Tribytes, Trixie turned back to the Brain, where she noticed a glow around a section of the central orb. ‘No, I must take matters into my own hooves.’

After taking out another two Jyoks, Fluttershy resumed firing at the Parasprite Brain again. Surprisingly the Brain was still operational, even after taking a lot of damage from both her and Trixie. Estimating that she had a little over two minutes of flight time left, she wondered if she should try another Special Attack. The power for one was still stored in her Shock Orbitars, and the power of flight would eventually give her enough for a third one. Off to her left, the only other enemy around was a Plixo, a harmless collection of multicolored squares that periodically assembled into a different pixel image. Despite the lack of other enemies, she decided to unleash the next Special Attack. But before she could focus on it, she saw Trixie making her move.

“It’s brain-frying time!” Trixie shouted. Gathering as much of her magic as she could, she flew around the Parasprite Brain, barreling through the lone Plixo as she moved toward a hole that was opening in the central orb.

“What are you doing?!” Fluttershy said.

It was one of those moments when time itself seemed to slow down. Fluttershy watched, unable to do anything as Trixie charged at a hole leading directly into the Parasprite Brain. The hole closed up the moment that Trixie entered, almost as if it was accepting her into it. But Trixie was still visible through the transparent orb, and with a smirk on her face, she unleashed all of her gathered magic into casting a spell.

The central chamber began to shake. Individual Parasprites fell around as pieces of the walls and ceiling came loose. Trixie was no longer visible inside the Brain, not through the flash of pale magenta light that emanated from within.

“Hold on, Fluttershy!” Celestia said. “I’m getting you out!” Turning Fluttershy’s body around, she fed more of her magic into the power of flight just as the Parasprite Brain started to explode. She guided her as fast as she could out of the chamber and back out through the channel. Fluttershy looked back for a moment, only to wish she hadn’t as the explosion of Trixie’s magic rushed after her, consuming everything in the channel that it passed over. She flew past a few enemies, enemies that were consumed as they fell behind, as she approached the narrower tunnel that she had first entered through. “Just a little farther!” Celestia said. With one last push, she managed to pull Fluttershy out of the fortress and veer her left just before the explosion shot out of the passage as a fiery stream of magic. The battleship Fluttershy had passed on her way in was still there, and was blasted by the stream.

Fluttershy could feel her heart beating through her chest as she stared back at the fortress. “I don’t even know what happened in there,” she said. “Did Trixie make it out?” Suddenly, she began to hear Trixie’s laughter telepathically. The laughter grew louder, even as she flew further away from the fortress. When she looked back, she saw Trixie’s magic forming in front of the fortress. The magical energy shaped itself into a massive equine form, and when it was done, an enormous hologram of Trixie was being projected in front of the fortress. “Trixie?”

“Nicely done!” Trixie said. “Thanks to you, Trixie has leveled up! Trixie is no longer just a goddess of magic! Ultimate power is now Trixie’s!”

“What are you talking about?”

“This is what I’m talking about!” Trixie said. As her hologram vanished, two Taklaxes, Parasprite troops resembling metallic white chocolate chips, positioned themselves in front of Fluttershy. Each Taklax opened its body, splitting in half with both halves still connected at its vertex, and revealing six cannons on its inside. However, instead of the black and binary green normally associated with the Parasprite troops, their insides glowed with a pale magenta.

Behind the Taklaxes, Fluttershy saw several flashes of magenta light. Those flashes were revealed to be Quoils, which shot at her one by one. Fluttershy jerked left as one Quoil shot past, and found herself frantically dodging all of the others. The Quoils were quickly joined by the Taklaxes, which fired a series of shots in her direction, and Parasprite Miks which lashed at her with magenta-glowing tongues.

“The Parasprite troops changed color?!” Fluttershy said. She descended to avoid the assault, and fired back with twin charge shots, taking out the Miks and one Taklax. However, even as she took care of the other enemies, she was also set upon by Tribytes and Blits, which had changed to pale magenta as well.

“Trixie’s pulling the Parasprite’s strings now!” Trixie said. “Not even the combined power of the gods can stop me!”

“Oh, snap,” Discord said. “Poor Flutters got duped.”

“This might not be the best time to rub salt in the wound,” Luna said.

“You tricked us?!” Fluttershy said. “What kind of pony are you?!”

“What was that?” Trixie said. “The Great and Powerful Trixie can’t hear you over her newfound power!”

Even after shooting down dozens of Parasprite troops, Fluttershy was still struggling against wave after wave of enemies. She frantically tried to evade a barrage of fire coming from Tribytes, Blits, and copies of Monoeyes and Miks while returning fire from her orbitars.

“So, anyone have any bright ideas on how to take her out?” Discord taunted.

“I suppose we have no choice,” Luna said. “This is it, my single remaining jewel.”

Fluttershy looked up and saw something that looked like a comet streaking above, on a collision course with the fortress. “Wait a second,” she said. “Is that a Reset Bomb?!”

“Time to let nature take its course,” Luna said confidently. The Reset Bomb struck the fortress from above, and a rose-colored flash radiated from the impact site as it exploded across a section of the fortress’s surface. The force of the explosion knocked back several Parasprite enemies. Within the impact site, a rose-colored haze formed, and a massive collection of vines, branches and bramble materialized, forming a dome.

“This is out of control!” Fluttershy said.

“Who’s great and powerful now, Trixie?!” Luna said. As seconds passed, the dome rapidly expanded over the outer surface of the Parasprite fortress. The one-part weapon, one-part terraforming device appeared to be performing its task, and it seemed that the Reset Bomb would overtake the fortress and the Parasprite Brain in a matter of hours.

Unfortunately, Trixie’s laughter echoed a second time through the telepathic link. Before long, the impact site of the Reset Bomb stopped growing, and pale magenta flames erupted throughout the plant-based dome. “Is that really all you’ve got?” Trixie said.

Luna watched in utter disbelief as the flames spread across the entire dome. “How could this happen?!” she said. Within seconds, the flames completely incinerated all of the plant matter created by the Reset Bomb, leaving nothing behind at its impact site.

“Yes, who would’ve thought that a plant-based weapon would fail to stop a pyro?” Discord mocked.

“I hate to be the bearer of more bad news,” Celestia said, “but the power of flight is running out.”

“So now what?” Fluttershy said.

“I’m sorry, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “I have to pull you out.” Using her magic, Celestia began to extract Fluttershy from the Parasprite fortress. A ray of yellow light shone down on Fluttershy, just as she was shooting down a group of Tribytes and copies of Miks and Monoeyes. However, something felt odd about the spell to Fluttershy. Normally, Celestia’s extraction spell levitated her for a moment, but she was still being carried by the flight spell. Seconds later, the light faded away, and Fluttershy was still there. “Oh no!”

“What’s wrong?” Luna asked.

“I can’t extract her,” Celestia said. “I don’t understand why.”

“Sounds like the Goddess of Light has a lot to learn about telepathic interference,” Trixie said.

“Are… Are you blocking me?” Celestia said.

As Fluttershy fought off more of the Parasprite forces, her wings became increasingly warm. The aura around her wings flared and changed from its usual yellow color to a bright orange-red. “My wings are getting hot!” she said.

“I’m sorry,” Celestia said. “I can’t carry you any farther. I have to cut off the power of flight.” Nearly a dozen Quoils positioned themselves ahead of Fluttershy, behind the energy barrier of a Rezda. But before any of them could shoot themselves at her, the aura around Fluttershy’s wings vanished. She fell from her position in the sky, screaming as she plummeted toward the planet. “Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy looked down as she hurtled toward the planet. All those years she had spent living above the clouds, unable to fly, always worried about falling from Skyworld. Those fears came back to her all in an instant, all she immediately shut her eyes. “Somepony, help me please!” she yelled. “This isn’t how I wanted to die!”

“Pull thyself together,” Luna sighed. “I have this under control.”

“Luna?” Fluttershy said. When she opened her eyes, she saw two Bladers circling around her. Using the talons on their legs, each Blader caught her by one of her hind legs. They slowed in their descent and began to carry her toward a small rock platform. Meanwhile, Fluttershy found herself hanging upside-down as the Bladers carried her by the hind legs. She could see her Shock Orbitars, which would normally hover dutifully above her shoulders, below her head and following after her. Before she knew it, the Bladers unceremoniously released her above the platform, and she grunted as she landed on her back.

Celestia breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad that you’re alright,” she said.

Fluttershy slowly rose onto her haunches. Looking around her, she saw that she was on a small platform. Two Nutskis were underneath the platform, using their bodies to push it in the direction of the fortress. “Why did you save me, Luna?” she asked. “I don’t get it.”

“There’s nothing to get,” Luna said. “Just be quiet and prepare to fight!”

Fluttershy stared up at the Parasprite fortress. The area surrounding the fortress was peppered with sporadic explosions and laser fire, telling her that the Underworld Army and Forces of Nature were still fighting. “By invading our world, the Parasprites have declared war on all of us,” Celestia said. “And with Trixie on their side, they’ve become even more powerful.” Small groups of Tribytes and Blits moved toward Fluttershy’s platform. Fluttershy stood back up on her hooves and fired at them with her orbitars. “If don’t defeat them today, we may not have a tomorrow.”

“Celestia is absolutely right, even if a bit overdramatic,” Luna said.

“If you want me to lighten the mood, perhaps I should bring my twenty-sided dice and x-ray glasses,” Celestia quipped.

“I… I know not how to respond to that.”

More and more enemies, particularly Tribytes, Jyoks, Blits, Quoils, and Monoeye copies, moved to attack Fluttershy. Fluttershy stood her ground, willing the Shock Orbitars to fire upon the advancing forces. The electrical shots from these weapons seemed to diverge from one another as they traveled, but because of the number of enemies she was dealing with, most of them still took out something. At the same time, a few enemies managed to fire a shot back at her. Fluttershy either ducked or sidestepped to dodge, but every time she evaded an attack, she found herself stepping very close to the edge of the platform. “This isn’t much space to fight on,” she said.

“Hmm,” Luna said. “I will see what I can do.” After a few seconds, Fluttershy noticed a larger platform ahead being carried by three Nutskis. The two Nutskis underneath her picked up speed, moving her current platform toward the second one.

Both platforms collided, tossing Fluttershy off of the smaller one and onto the larger one. Her new platform gave her roughly twenty feet to move around in any direction, and she took a few steps around. “Thank you, this is much better,” she said.

“Luna has also donated some of her forces to carry the platform,” Celestia said. “But since this platform is bigger, there is more room for enemies. Stay on your guard.”

The two Nutskis that had carried the first platform grouped with several more Nutskis and Bladers and flew elsewhere, attacking Parasprite enemies as they went. Meanwhile, the other three Nutskis continued to push Fluttershy’s platform toward the fortress. Fluttershy began defending the platform, taking out a Zaurum and Parasprite Skuttler that appeared on it as well as several surrounding Tribytes.

One of the ships in the Parasprite air fleet flew ahead of Fluttershy. Fluttershy noticed the ship flying overhead, and kept an eye on it as she shot down Blits, Quoils, Parasprite Miks, and a Taklax. After a while, the ship descended, positioning itself directly ahead of Fluttershy’s platform. “What is that ship doing?” she asked.

The ship began moving toward Fluttershy’s platform. An opening leading into the ship was visible, and with the ship’s trajectory, the platform would soon go in through that opening. “Strange,” Celestia said. “It appears to be attempting to swallow your platform. Luna, can your troops carry Fluttershy away from it?”

“No, that ship is moving too quickly,” Luna said. “But there is path leading through it.”

“In that case, you will have to go through,” Celestia said. “We don’t know what trap the Parasprites are setting, so keep your guard up, Fluttershy.” Three Tribytes hovered directly ahead of Fluttershy as her platform was pushed toward the narrow passageway through the ship. The passageway was just wide enough for the platform to fit through, though the walls on either side glowed a bright orange-red. “Be careful, Fluttershy. Those walls are extremely hot.”

Fluttershy shot down the Tribytes, but two Rozzes and two Rezdas were positioned behind them, blocking the path. The Rozzes hurled themselves at Fluttershy, forcing her to dodge them, while the Rezdas floated in place one behind the other, their energy barriers cutting off much of the path forward. Fluttershy shot at the Redzas’ centers, destroying one after the other and allowing her to advance. The Nutskis pushed her platform forward, but as the passageway snaked through the ship, they often brought it too close to the walls. Fluttershy backed away from the edges of the platform when this happened, keeping as far back from the superheated walls as possible.

Soon, Fluttershy reached the end of the passageway and emerged from the Parasprite ship. The ship did not try to pursue or attack her afterward, and her platform continued to move further away. “I made it out of the ship,” Fluttershy said.

“Good, but there are enemies closing in from all directions,” Celestia said.

“That unicorn must have a thing for you, Fluttershy,” Discord said.

“Of course she does,” Luna said. “Fluttershy’s the only one that lunatic considers an equal.” Fluttershy continued to defend the platform as it made its way toward the fortress, shooting down Tribytes and Parasprite Miks as they approached the platform from all sides. But even as the platform drew closer to the Parasprite fortress, a few of their ships were still moving around her.

Suddenly, one of their destroyers positioned itself ahead of Fluttershy, causing her platform to slam into it. The platform tilted during the impact, throwing Fluttershy off of hooves and making her slide toward the other end. She was stopped from falling off the edge, but only when a second destroyer rammed into the other side of the platform, leveling the platform, but trapping it between both ships.

“You’re being sandwiched between those two airships!” Celestia said.

Fluttershy got back on her hooves, but in addition to the two ships, several more enemies were moving toward her. Four Tribytes and a Taklax positioned themselves on another side of the ship, while a Rezda moved in front of them as protection.

“Ah, the old sandwich tactic,” Discord said. “How delectable!”

“Be quiet, Discord!” Luna shouted. “FORCES OF NATURE! PUSH THAT PLATFORM UP AND OUT OF THERE!” Fluttershy rolled to the side, dodging the Taklax’s shots while her orbitars sprayed two of the Tribytes with electrical projectiles. The Rezda had already been destroyed by a pair of twin charge shots, and the spray of smaller shots took out the Tribytes. But before she could focus on the remaining enemies, the platform shook underneath her. A second later, the platform came loose from between the two ships and shot upward. The two destroyers slammed into each other a few seconds later, crushing the Parasprite troops in between them.

Now past most of the air fleet, Fluttershy was getting closer to the Parasprite fortress. Several Quoils positioned themselves ahead of her platform, along with another Rezda. But as Fluttershy started shooting at them, she heard Trixie laughing through the telepathic link. “I see you’re hard at work,” Trixie said.

“Trixie!” Fluttershy muttered.

“I believe that hard work should always be rewarded. Which is why I have a present, for me, to destroy you.”

“Huh?!” Fluttershy said. Pale magenta light shone from a narrow opening on the surface of the Parasprite fortress. The light grew brighter, and after a few seconds, Fluttershy that it was rushing toward her and her platform. “Uh-oh!”

“Hold on!” Luna said. Less than a second before Trixie’s beam of magic reached Fluttershy, the front side of the platform tilted upward to meet the attack. Fluttershy stumbled again, causing her to fall from her hooves just before the beam struck the platform’s underside. Fluttershy dug at the platform with her hooves, struggling to keep herself from sliding down. Wisps of pale magenta flames kissed the edges of the platform, and Fluttershy held her head down, feeling the air around her heat up as Trixie’s magic surrounded her. “Fluttershy, stay strong!” Luna shouted.

After a few seconds, the flames died away, and Trixie’s magic ceased its assault. The surface of the platform became level again, and Fluttershy slowly stood back up again.

“See?” Luna said. “Thou art unharmed. Though I cannot say the same for my troops that were carrying thy platform.”

“Our Forces of Nature allies made the ultimate sacrifice,” Celestia said. “Fortunately, I’ve called for reinforcements.”

Suddenly, the platform crumbled beneath Fluttershy’s hooves. Fluttershy cried out as she found herself falling again. As she fell, she saw a few of the reinforcements that Celestia had referred to. Several ponies, some unicorns, some pegasi, but all equipped with golden barding, flew around her. “Centurions?” Fluttershy said. From among them, two pegasus stallions flew toward her and caught her with their hooves. Carrying her by the forelegs, they brought her down to another platform. They released her soon afterward, and she touched down safely onto the platform.

“Glad to see you’re safe, captain,” one of the Centurions, a gray unicorn, said. Using his magic to levitate both himself and his bow, he turned his attention toward the Parasprite forces. Over a dozen Centurions were already fighting, firing arrows at oncoming enemies.

“The Centurions are in way over their heads!” Fluttershy said.

“They mean well,” Celestia said. “They’re just not very effective.”

“Harsh words to describe thy own troops,” Luna said.

Two pegasus stallions, one with a dark gray coat and a cyan-gray mane styled in a mohawk, and the other with a gray coat and a dark brown mane, appeared at the front of the platform, each wearing a harness. Their harnesses were attached to the platform, and they pulled the platform with them toward the fortress. Meanwhile, Fluttershy stared up at the rest of the Centurions as they fought. Though they had already shot down a few enemies, their rate of fire with their bows was slow, and more Parasprite troops were moving in. “Pull them out!” Fluttershy said. “I don’t want them to get hurt!”

“Then how do you plan to make it to Trixie?” Celestia asked.

“I don’t know,” Fluttershy said. “I’ll think of something!”

“Captain, your mission is to defeat Trixie and eliminate the Aurum forces,” said another Centurion unicorn. “We dedicate our energy and resources to helping you reach that goal.”

While Fluttershy thought about it, three Parasprite Monoeyes and a Claxis appeared ahead of the platform. With a pair of charge shots, a barrage of smaller electrical projectiles, and some help from a Centurion’s arrow, she took out the four enemies. “Okay, fine,” Fluttershy said. She turned to the rest of the Centurions and pointed toward the Parasprite fortress. “Then charge, soldiers!”

Except for the two pegasi pulling the platform, the Centurions stayed a distance away from Fluttershy to deal with the oncoming enemies, though close enough that she could also fight and give orders. Along the way to the fortress, they shot down Blits, Tribytes, and Kolmas that approached them. Before long, they were directly in front of the Parasprite fortress.

“It seems as is our previous path into the Parasprite Brain is, well, aflame,” Celestia said. Fluttershy looked up at one of depressions in the fortress’s exterior and saw flames raging throughout a small tunnel inside it.

“You can thank Trixie for that,” Discord said.

“You’ll have to go around,” Celestia said. The two pegasi pulled the platform away from the blazing tunnel and around the outside of the fortress. Several Quoils and Parasprite Monoeyes moved to attack, but Fluttershy fired at them with her orbitars. “I see you’re trying the orbitars again.”

“Oh, yeah,” Fluttershy said. “I like how they handle, but it’s hard finding a pair you can bring into battle. And I’m still not sure why they float in the air.”

“Would you like a set of saddlebags to carry them in?” Celestia said.

“Um, no… that’s not what I meant,” Fluttershy murmured.

“If thou like those, thou should try the orbitars I made from my troops,” Luna said.

“… You meant for your troops, right?”

“No, these orbitars are made from my troops, so they are all natural,” Luna said. “They are very energy efficient and 100% compostable. And if thou are hungry, they are also edible.”

“That sounds nice,” Fluttershy said. “But if you’re at a point where you’d eat an orbitar, wouldn’t you already be doomed?”

“Hmm… good point,” Luna said.

Fluttershy soon reached another entry point on the other side of the fortress. “Going in,” said the dark gray pegasus. He and the other pegasus pulled the platform toward the entry point and into the Parasprite fortress. Fluttershy moved toward the back of the platform, where one of the Centurions, a pegasus stallion with a caramel coat and a brown mane, was positioned.

“Um, excuse me,” Fluttershy said. The pegasus turned to her and gave her an annoyed look. “Oh, um, I just wanted you to tell most of the troops to stay by the entrance.”

“Right, and that’s how you’re giving orders to one of us, Captain?” the stallion said. He emphasized the word ‘captain’ with a sneer.

“Well, I need a rear guard to keep the Parasprites from attacking us from behind and…”

The pegasus stallion squinted at Fluttershy, still unimpressed. Eventually, another pegasus stallion with a brown coat and a white mane approached them. “Come on, Hoops,” he said with an eyeroll. “This is Fluttershy you’re dealing with.” Both stallions flew toward the rest of the Centurions to relay Fluttershy’s commands, while Fluttershy gave a deep sigh. After a moment, most of the Centurions stayed behind at the entrance, though the two pegasi she had given the orders to remained with the platform as it went into the tunnel.

Very few enemies attacked the platform as it made its way through the tunnel. The Parasprites didn’t have any forces stationed within the tunnel, and the only ones that made it past the rear guard were two Tribytes, a Jyok, and a Parasprite version of the Fire Wyrm. Both Tribytes were shot down by the two pegasus Centurions, while the Parasprite Fire Wyrm was taken out with Fluttershy’s Shock Orbitars. However, the Jyok moved ahead of the two pegasi pulling the platform, and began to open itself up. Fluttershy noticed what it was doing, and she fired several shots at it, shooting it down.

As soon as the Parasprite enemies were taken out, a massive lockdown door slid into place ahead, blocking off the rest of the tunnel. “There’s an obstacle ahead!” said the dark gray stallion nervously.

Fluttershy looked at the door up ahead and noticed a glowing node embedded in the center. “Keep moving forward,” she said. “I’ll take care of it.” As soon as the platform came close to the door, Fluttershy fired a pair of charge shots at the node, blasting a large hole through the center of the door. Several more lockdown doors slid into place ahead, attempting to seal the tunnel, but Fluttershy shot through the center of each of them using her orbitars. With the doors shot down, the pegasi pulling the platform accelerated. They soon reached the end of the tunnel, which opened up into a larger passageway within the fortress.

“We are closing in on Trixie,” Luna said.

“I hope she’s decent,” Discord said.

Suddenly, the walls and structures within the passageway started to glow, bathing the entire area with a pale magenta light. The two pegasi pulling the platform came to a stop, and Fluttershy and the Centurions looked around nervously. Parasprite enemies appeared in the room and moved toward the platform. “Fluttershy, destroy those enemies now!” Celestia said. “Do not let anything happen to the Centurions!”

Fluttershy shot down a Rezda and two Parasprite Monoeyes with her weapons, but a Jyok and a Parasprite Fire Wyrm quickly took their place. “I’m trying my best!” she said.

“A certain some-goddess needs to go through leadership training,” Luna snarked.

Fluttershy fired at the Jyok first, and then turned her attention to the Fire Wyrm copy. However, she could only destroy a few segments of its body before it reached the gray pegasus at the front of the platform. The Parasprite Fire Wyrm came into contact with the stallion, electrocuting him on contact. Fluttershy destroyed the rest of the enemy seconds later, but by then it was too late. The pegasus lost consciousness in midair. He fell out of his harness and plummeted toward the bottom of the passageway.

“Oh, no! We’ve lost a Centurion!” Fluttershy said.

“If you lose them all, you won’t be able to proceed,” Celestia said.

“I’ll be more careful, I promise,” Fluttershy said. She shot down another Jyok that positioned itself in front of the platform. Behind her, the other two Centurions were also busy with Parasprite enemies. Fluttershy fired twin charge shots and a few smaller shots at a Kolma and two Tribytes, but two Claxes took their place and hovered in front of the platform. A barrage of projectiles from her orbitars destroyed the first Claxis, but when she turned to the second, it had already started shooting at the dark gray pegasus. She hastily fired another barrage of shots, destroying the second Claxis. Though she saved the dark gray stallion, he still had several wounds and energy burns on his body, and he clutched his hoof against his wounded chest.

Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief, but then noticed a Parasprite Skuttler rushing toward her. She rolled sideways to dodge its attack and returned with a pair of charge shots, only for them to strike a Parasprite Urgle that was rushing toward her. A second Skuttler copy had also dropped onto the platform, and both rushed at Fluttershy. Fluttershy jumped back, firing several smaller shots and taking out one enemy. The second reached her and attacked, but Fluttershy sidestepped it. She then willed her orbitars to strike the Parasprite Skuttler, taking it out with a few melee attacks.

Two more Tribytes and a Rezda appeared, along with one more enemy, a large flying saucer with a nozzle on its underside. Fluttershy recognized the enemy, a Dohz, having seen one of its kind during the initial Parasprite invasion. She first destroyed the Rezda with twin charge shots, followed by the Tribytes with a barrage of smaller shots. But as soon as she turned her attention to the Dohz, it sent out a beam of energy from its underside. The beam aimed downward and struck the dark gray pegasus, slamming him into the platform behind him. The pegasus’ harness came loose, and his body fell down toward the bottom of the passageway.

“What have I done?!” Fluttershy gasped. “All the Centurions are…”

“Actually,” Celestia said, “we still have the two behind you.”

“Oh…”

“But these are the last of them, so be careful this time,” Celestia said.

The Dohz launched three more beams from its underside. Fluttershy sidestepped each one and retaliated with a pair of charge shots, destroying the nozzle underneath it. Fluttershy continued to spray the Dohz with smaller shots from her orbitars, and with a few arrows from the remaining two Centurions, the Dohz’s body finally began to crumble. The Parasprite enemy came apart as its remains fell, clearing the path for Fluttershy to the center of the fortress. The remaining two Centurions flew in front of the platform and, fitting the harnesses to themselves, began to pull the platform forward.

“Trixie is right up ahead,” Celestia said.

“Halt. Halt,” Trixie said. “Stay. Away.” Trixie’s tone was much different from what it usually was. Her speak was a bit delayed, and her voice seemed to come across as a robotic monotone.

“Does something seem a little off about Trixie?” Fluttershy asked.

“How can you even tell?” Celestia said.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy finally reached the center of the fortress, where both Trixie and the Parasprite Brain resided. Now that she was here, the two Centurions removed their harnesses and hid under the platform. Rather than carrying the platform forward, their task was now to keep it rotating around the Parasprite Brain.

Pale magenta flames coursed through the Parasprite Brain, with hundreds of individual Parasprites swarming underneath. Trixie’s body was now bound to the Brain, her hind legs and front hooves embedded within the clusters of Parasprites moving around while the rest of her body, covered in bright blue and white lines, stuck out. She barely seemed to notice Fluttershy when she appeared, and a vacant expression was visible on her face as she uttered a long sequence of numbers in a robotic monotone. “01101011011010010110110001101100 (KILL)…”

“Trixie!” Fluttershy said, a horrified look on her face as she stared up at Trixie. “What are you doing?!” Trixie’s head jerked a few times as she spouted the sequence of numbers. As soon as she was done, bright blue markings formed around the Parasprite Brain. The markings extended from the Brain at four points and connected to four green orbs of light at the corners of the chamber. As Fluttershy continued to stare up at Trixie, the look of horror was replaced with a look of determination. “Are you controlling the Parasprites, Trixie? Or are they controlling you?!”

For a moment, Trixie’s eyes reverted to their original violet color, and she struggled against the Parasprite Brain. “I… I… I will not be controlled…” she said. She stopped struggling a second later, and her eyes changed to a bright neon blue before she spoke again, this time with a robotic monotone. “We will not be controlled.”

A long trail of Trixie’s magic began to snake its way from Trixie’s horn and toward the platform. Fluttershy sidestepped away as it moved across and looked back at Trixie. “Oh boy,” she said. “What’s she gotten herself into?”

“It’s just as you suspected, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “The Parasprite Brain has overtaken Trixie.”

“Intruder must be purged,” Trixie said. “We must consume all.” She launched three fireballs at Fluttershy. Fluttershy moved left to avoid them and returned fire with a pair of charge shots. But instead of hitting the Parasprite Brain, her attack stopped at the blue markings surrounding it. She fired a group of smaller shots, but they too were stopped at the blue markings.

“Just like bugs, the Parasprites are powerful as a swarm,” Discord said, “but not very bright.”

“The Parasprites may have been drawn to our conflict, but they live only to consume and destroy,” Celestia said.

“We will multiply,” Trixie said. “We must be all.” Fluttershy focused on the blue markings surrounding the Parasprite Brain. Her eyes followed them where they extended from the Brain, stopping where they connected to the four green spheres of light. She shot at one of the spheres with her orbitars, destroying it. Her platform was moving toward another sphere. She moved across the platform to get closer and shot it down as well.

“In that sense, they are like any other living creature,” Luna said. “They are concerned with their own survival and propagation. Each species influences many others, thus the cycle of life. But this…” A scowl formed on Luna’s face, and her tone filled with disgust. “This is too much. It is too destructive and too unnatural.”

“Well, they are an alien species,” Celestia said. “Of course they’re not natural.”

“They’re an invasive species,” Luna countered. “We must uproot them, before they consume everything.”

As soon as Fluttershy took out the fourth glowing sphere, the blue markings vanished, exposing both Trixie and the Parasprite Brain. Trixie tossed four magically charged spheres, scattering them across the platform. Fluttershy kept her distance from the objects and fired a pair of charge shots, which collided with the Parasprite Brain.

“Fluttershy, you may be able to cause more damage by attacking Trixie rather than the Parasprite Brain itself,” Celestia said.

“Are you sure?” Fluttershy asked.

“Not entirely,” Celestia said. “But at the moment, Trixie is the one attacking you.”

Fluttershy stared up at the vacant, emotionless expression on her face. Trixie’s head continued to twitch, leaving Fluttershy feeling uncertain and guilty. “I’m sorry, Trixie,” she said. “But in a way, you did have this coming.”

Fluttershy fired another pair of twin charge shots at Trixie. The shots collided with Trixie, sending a powerful electrical current through her and the Parasprite Brain. “Ow,” Trixie said, still in the same robotic voice. Fluttershy followed with a barrage of smaller shots, each one hitting Trixie directly. “Receiving pain.”

“One does wonder how long Trixie was planning to betray us,” Celestia said bitterly. “Perhaps this was her plan all along, and she has been using us ever since the invasion started.”

“That depends on how long it took for the Parasprites to take over her,” Discord said. “You remember her last words before she flew into the Parasprite Brain, don’t you? Maybe she was planning to take control of them. Or maybe she was trying to light them up and take all the credit for defeating the Parasprites for herself.” Discord’s tone then became more gleeful, even mocking. “Not that it matters. Either way, she failed miserably.”

“Leaving us to clean her mess,” Luna seethed.

Fluttershy dodged three fireballs from Trixie. She then fired one more pair of charge shots. The charge shots struck Trixie, electrocuting her once more. Trixie’s body slumped after the electricity finished coursing through her, and her attacks finally stopped. Fluttershy approached the edge of the platform, staring up at the barely-conscious Trixie. A second later, Trixie’s eyes opened wider, revealing two violet irises. Magic charged through her horn, and the chamber began to shake as she prepared her spell.

“What’s she doing this time?” Fluttershy said.

“I need to extract you, now,” Celestia said.

Underneath the platform, the two Centurions put there harnesses back on. They turned back toward the passageway and flied as quickly as they could, carrying the platform out of the chamber as a wave of magic exploded from Trixie. “This seems familiar!” Fluttershy said, staring at the wall of magical energy rushing toward her.

“We’ve been doing this a lot,” Celestia agreed.

The Centurions quickly reached the end of the tunnel and exited the fortress. They carried Fluttershy as far from the fortress as possible, shortly before Trixie’s magic shot out of the tunnel. The force of Trixie’s magic turned the Parasprite fortress on its side, and then began to propel it away from the planet.

“With any luck, Trixie will push the Parasprites to the other end of the galaxy,” Celestia said.

“She finally does something useful,” Luna said.

Celestia channeled her own magic, focusing it on Fluttershy and her Centurions. Within seconds, she had them extracted back to the planet. “Luna,” she said. “Now that the Parasprites have been dealt with, we can turn our attention to the real enemy, the Underworld Army.”

“How can thou be certain that I will maintain an alliance with thee?” Luna said. “Discord and I do see a common foe in thee and the earth ponies, Celestia.”

“Maybe so, but over the course of this invasion, Discord has proven to be our least cooperative ally,” Celestia said. “And you said yourself that the Underworld Army is worse than the earth ponies.”

Luna paused for a moment to think. “Very well, Celestia,” she eventually said. “We will continue our temporary alliance and join forces against Discord.”

Author's Note

With that, the Aurum/Parasprite subplot now draws to a close. Which means we're finally past the most blatant filler in the entire story, and... most of the story's filler. Stay tuned for the next few chapters, where the story will definitively earn the Dark tag its been trying to justify ever since Chapter 1.

The Ring of Chaos

Chapter 18: The Ring of Chaos

‘Uh… where am I,’ Fluttershy said. ‘Princess Celestia? Can you hear me?’ Total darkness surrounded Fluttershy. She couldn’t feel anything against her body, almost as if she was suspended in an empty, weightless void. She tried to move and look around, only to realize that she couldn’t move, feel, or even see her body either. All she could hear was the sound of her own voice in her mind as she wondered where she was and how she had gotten here. ‘The last thing I remember is defeating the Parasprites. But then… Ugh, my head feels so foggy right now. And why is the name Chaos Kin stuck in my head?’

Suddenly, a giant face appeared directly in front of Fluttershy’s vision. The face startled her, but because she couldn’t move her hooves to step back or her head to flinch, she had little way of reacting to it. The face, yellow in color, belonged to a female earth pony. A big pink bow decorated the earth pony’s red mane, and her orange eyes stared at Fluttershy with curiosity, fascination, and a little bit of joy.

‘Is that a filly?’ Fluttershy said, staring up at the little earth pony’s head. ‘But why is she so… big?’

The filly opened her mouth and moved her head toward Fluttershy. Fluttershy grew anxious again, though she still couldn’t move or flinch. She could only watch as the filly used her teeth to seemingly grasp her, place her on her hoof, and push her up her right foreleg. A moment later, everything in Fluttershy’s vision changed. She was now staring down at a pair of forelegs, the same ones that belonged to the yellow filly. Only now, there was a gold bracelet hanging loosely around the right leg.

‘Does this mean… that I’m the bracelet?’ Fluttershy said.

Fluttershy wanted to see more of the bracelet, to examine it for herself. The filly’s foreleg moved in front of her vision, revealing several crimson symbols that were engraved in the bracelet. The foreleg rotated, showing Fluttershy more of the engraved symbols. As she looked at the strange symbols, she silently noted how convenient it was that the filly was moving to show her the bracelet. Then another thought occurred to her, that the filly was doing exactly what she wanted it to do, and nothing else. The filly’s body abruptly froze. Fluttershy stared at her foreleg, and after a few seconds, she tried to take a step forward. The foreleg moved forward and set itself on the ground, a step ahead of the filly’s left leg.

‘She’s moving… I’m moving her!’ Fluttershy said. ‘So I can control anyone who wears this bracelet?’ Fluttershy took a more few small steps with the little filly’s legs. ‘I hope she doesn’t mind if I borrow her hooves for just a little bit.’ She was standing in the middle of a field of clover. Behind her was a lake, and on the other side of it stood a stretch of forest. The skies above were overcast, with the sun barely peeking out through the clouds, and a mountainous path lay ahead of her. ‘I have to find out what happened.’

Fluttershy took another step, but had to stop when the bracelet began to slide down the filly’s leg. The bracelet, which was a little oversized for the filly, was worn loosely around her leg. Fluttershy pushed it back up and carefully ambled onto the path, making sure that the bracelet didn’t fall too far down with each step she took. She wasn’t used to the filly’s short legs or stature, which made walking that much slower and difficult for her.

Two figures hovered in the sky further along. Squinting at them, Fluttershy recognized that they were both ponies. One was a unicorn and one was a pegasus, but they were each holding a bow, and both were equipped with gold barding. ‘Are those centurions?’ Fluttershy said. She saw the centurions descend into a town underneath them. Smoke rose from several places inside the town and many of its buildings were either charred or damaged. ‘That town looks like it’s in trouble. Princess Celestia must have sent troops in to help. I’d better head there and find out what’s going on.’ Fluttershy took another step forward, but soon noticed the little earth pony’s legs underneath her. ‘I hate to put this little filly in danger, but other ponies in the town might need help, and I still need to know why I’m stuck inside this bracelet.’

Halfway toward the town’s front gate, Fluttershy reached an open area in the path. A damaged stone outpost stood by the side of the path. Nopony was stationed inside it, and there were no other signs of ponies nearby.

‘Hello?’

‘Hm?’ Fluttershy stopped in the center of the open area. For a moment, she could’ve sworn she’d heard someone speak.

‘What do ya want with me?’ the voice spoke again. It was a young voice, one with a southern twang.

‘Are you the filly that this body belongs to?’ Fluttershy asked. She didn’t get a response. ‘What’s your name?’

‘... Apple Bloom.’

‘Okay, Apple Bloom. I’m sorry for taking control of your body, but I’m here to help, and I need your help to go to that town over there.’

‘No, we cain’t go there!’ Apple Bloom said. ‘Celestia’s soldiers are there. It’s not safe!’

‘I know it’s dangerous, but I need you to be brave,’ Fluttershy said. She realized that Apple Bloom was scared. With the town in ruins and the centurions on patrol, she couldn’t blame her. At this point, all she could do was try to gain Apple Bloom’s trust. ‘You told me your name. Mine is Fluttershy. I’m the captain of Celestia’s army, and if I can get to that town, I can—’

‘You’re one of them?!’ Apple Bloom gasped. Her voice filled with a mixture of fear and anger, much to Fluttershy’s confusion. ‘Let go of me! Ah won’t let ya hurt anypony, and Ah won’t ya use me neither!’

Before Fluttershy could try to calm her down, and before she could keep going, two of Apple Bloom’s leg jerked from underneath her. The rest of her body didn’t budge, causing her to stumble forward. Fluttershy hit the ground, falling on the filly’s chest and muzzle. But the last thing Fluttershy felt, after the awkward landing and the ground against her muzzle, was the gold bracelet sliding from Apple Bloom’s leg. ‘No!’ Fluttershy said as the world around her quickly disappeared. Almost instantly, the path, the overcast skies, the town, and the filly’s body all vanished. ‘No, no, no, no!’ Fluttershy could no longer feel, move or see anything, not even the bracelet as it rolled away from Apple Bloom. Once again, she was stuck with nothing but her own thoughts. She hoped that Apple Bloom would pick up the bracelet again, but after a while, she realized that wasn’t going to happen. It disappointed her, but at the same time, it didn’t make any sense. Celestia would have sent her forces to defend the town and its ponies, yet Apple Bloom was horrified when she learned who Fluttershy was.

Suddenly, a set of jaws appeared in Fluttershy’s vision, surrounding her and closing down around her. The next thing she knew, she was standing in the middle of the path again. She tasted something metallic in her mouth, and looking down, realized that she was holding the bracelet between her teeth. But something felt different about her mouth. Her jaws were different, definitely not belonging to a pony, and she could even feel a few canine teeth. Her coat, or rather the coat of the animal she was in now, was brown with a few white patches, and its legs were more wiry.

‘I… guess I’m a dog now,’ Fluttershy said. A few more observations told her that she was in the body of a female dog; a border collie if she knew her breeds right. ‘But where did Apple Bloom go?’ Looking around, she saw that she was the only pony around. The sun, which was still barely visible through the clouds, had moved across the sky a little. To Fluttershy, it felt like Apple Bloom had dropped her only a minute ago, but from the sun’s position, at least half an hour had passed. ‘She must have run off. I’m sure she’s okay somewhere. And I still need to go to the town.’

Getting a feel for the dog’s legs, she started running down the path. The bracelet was still in her mouth, and after what happened before, she decided to be careful not to drop the ring. That meant she couldn’t breathe through her mouth, nor could she try to bark. And she definitely couldn’t eat any delicious garbage off the ground. She wasn’t sure where that last thought came from, but she kept it in mind anyway.

Fluttershy quickly reached the town’s walls. The front gate was up, allowing her to easily enter the town and explore. From up close, the town was just as heavily damaged as it appeared to be from a distance. Several streets were blocked by rubble from the surrounding buildings, many of which had been damaged, leveled, or burned down.

Fluttershy made her way down one of the streets when a pegasus mare flew overhead. The mare’s colors were all gray, but Fluttershy recognized several of her other features. She had a flowing mane that draped down the side of her face, long enough that she could actually hide her face behind it if she wanted to. Not only that, but she also wore a white tunic and a gold laurel crown, the same one’s that Fluttershy wore on at least a dozen missions.

‘Hey, that looks like… like me!’ Fluttershy said.

Despite the gray colors in place of her usual yellow coat and pink mane, the pegasus was nearly identical to Fluttershy. Attached to her hoof was the Darkness Bow, a stringless black bow with two gems embedded in its arms, one glowing pale purple and the other glowing orange. Aiming her bow, she fired several arrows in quick succession along a different street. Fluttershy stared up in horror, but she eventually hid in an alley to her left, hoping that she wouldn’t be found. After a while, her body stopped shooting and flew off.

‘Who was she… who was I attacking?!’ Fluttershy said. ‘And who’s controlling me?!’ It was possible that her body was attacking Underworld troops, but she hadn’t seen any since she’d arrived. ‘I hope I’m not attacking the town or any earth ponies. But if I am… What am I supposed to do? Take myself down?’

Fluttershy continued through the alley, making a right turn and reaching one of the town’s main streets. The street was a few feet wider than most of the others, and a small fountain stood at the center of it. Smoldering debris covered most of the intersecting streets, blocking them off, but three centurions, all unicorn stallions, still patrolled the main road. Two of them eyed Fluttershy as she walked by the fountain. There was something in their stares that made Fluttershy uncomfortable, a cold, merciless look in their eyes, and the way they raised their bows upon seeing her. They turned away disinterestedly and returned to their patrol.

‘Good thing the centurions are on patrol,’ Fluttershy said, mentally breathing a sigh of relief. Smoke rose from the damaged and demolished buildings throughout the town, mixing with the air. The smell of smoke and soot reached the nose of the dog Fluttershy was controlling, as did another unpleasant odor, one that she thought might’ve been the smell of blood.

Another smell reached the dog’s nose as she passed the fountain. It was a bit old, but more pleasant than the others, and something that she could only describe as savory. Fluttershy sniffed at the air a few times, paying little attention as the dog’s legs moved closer to the source of the smell, which emanated from behind a wall.

‘Is that garbage?’ Fluttershy said. ‘Beef garbage?’ Sniffing a few more times, she became more aware of the hunger pangs coming from the dog’s stomach. ‘Whatever it is, it smells really good. And I am really hungry.’ A second later, Fluttershy came to a stop in front of a wall. The wall stood in her way, or rather the dog’s way of getting to the source of the aroma. But more importantly, she began to wonder just what exactly she was doing. ‘Why am I craving beef garbage? I mean, I know why I’m craving beef… but why garbage?’ It was at that moment when Fluttershy noticed moisture oozing around the dog’s jaws and dripping from her muzzle. ‘Oh no, please stop drooling. Please stop drooling! Oh, I hope this doesn’t make the bracelet slip.’

Fluttershy tore herself away from the smell, regaining control of herself and continued down the road as quickly as possible. Because of all the wreckage in her path, the road quickly came to a dead end. Looking around, she found a hole in the base of a wall to her left. The hole was just big enough for her to crawl through, and after making her way inside, she found herself standing inside a building. The building appeared to be a hall, but from the looks of it, it too had seen better days. A few of its pillars had collapsed, as had sections of its roof. Daylight shone down from the holes in the ceiling, revealing how filthy the hall had become. The floor was covered in grime; all but obscuring the checkered tile pattern underneath, as well as a few maroon-black patches of what Fluttershy could only assume was dried blood. A set of stone doors stood at the far end of the room. The doors had been tightly shut, but cracks spread throughout both of them, indicating an attempted forced entry.

‘What happened here?’ Fluttershy said. She walked up a set of stairs to the balcony above. Sections of the balcony had also crumbled, but she navigated across and reached a wall at the end. There was another hole at the base of this wall, the only other way out of the building, and she crawled through. When she saw what was on the other side, she couldn’t believe it.

An earth pony stood in the middle of a town square, surrounded by three centurion unicorns. The earth pony, a mare, had a blonde mane and an orange coat, though most of the latter was covered by a faded black leather outfit. Fluttershy couldn’t see a cutie mark on her, not with the leather obscuring it, but she knew she had seen her before.

‘Applejack?’ Fluttershy said.

Unlike the Applejack that she remembered, the orange earth pony didn’t have a Stetson hat, and she wore her mane and tail loosely instead of tying their ends with hair bands. The leather outfit that covered her body was certainly the most notable difference in her appearance, as Applejack hadn’t worn anything but those few accessories. But from her blonde mane, her orange coat, and the massive greatsword she held in her hoof, Fluttershy still recognized her.

Suddenly, Applejack swung her greatsword into the shoulder of one of the centurions. Fluttershy gasped as she saw the blade slash through the unicorn’s neck, quickly decapitating him. ‘But why is she killing the centurions?’ Fluttershy said. She watched in horror as Applejack turned her greatsword toward the other two centurions, bisecting the second one with a downward swing and slashing through the neck of the third one.

Applejack lifted her weapon onto her shoulder and back, keeping it balanced with her hoof on the grip. The bodies of the three centurions lay around her, blood pooling from them and surrounding her. A few drops of blood had stained her face and neck, though more of it had found its way onto the front of her leather attire, and even more covered the blade of her weapon.

Off to her right, Applejack noticed a dog looking on at her. Her face, which had retained a serious expression both during and after the fight, softened, and she allowed a soft smile to form. The dog wasn’t as happy to see her, and backed away timidly from Applejack.

“Relax, girl,” Applejack said. “Nopony’s gonna hurt ya. Not while Ah’m here.” Slowly, so as not to scare her off, she walked over to the dog and began petting her.

Fluttershy flinched at the contact at first, but stood still and allowed Applejack to touch her. On one hoof, she remembered Applejack from their previous mission. She had been gruff, and focused more on their target than anything else, but she also spoke honestly. She seemed scary at the time, but Fluttershy still felt she could trust her. On the other hoof, Fluttershy couldn’t help but notice the fresh blood both figuratively and literally on Applejack’s hooves.

While stroking Fluttershy, Applejack noticed something in between the dog’s jaws. “What d'ya got there, girl?” she asked. Moving her hooves toward the dog’s muzzle, she gently coaxed her jaws open and removed a gold bracelet from between them. Suddenly, the dog’s demeanor changed, and she cheerfully licked at Applejack’s face. Applejack winced at the abrupt display of affection, and watched as the dog scampered away. “Strange dog,” she said. “Ah hope she doesn’t get hurt out here.” She then turned her attention back to the gold bracelet in her hoof.

Meanwhile, as soon as the bracelet was released from the dog’s jaws, the world around Fluttershy faded away for a second time. The dog’s body vanished, and Fluttershy could neither feel nor move her muscles anymore. The square disappeared as well, and the only thing she could see was Applejack as she scrutinized the bracelet.

‘Wait, Applejack!’ Fluttershy said, suddenly getting an idea. ‘Put the bracelet on! You have to tell me what’s happening.’ She watched Applejack as she scrutinize the bracelet, turning it in her hoof and staring at it. ‘Come on. Please put it on.’

Applejack shrugged. Lifting her hoof, she tossed the bracelet behind her back. Fluttershy could feel herself getting flung over Applejack’s shoulder as she discarded the bracelet, and seconds later, Applejack faded from her vision entirely. She didn’t even feel the bracelet as it landed on the ground, nor would she have seen Applejack begin to walk away.

‘No! Pick it back up!’ Seconds passed, but Applejack did not seem to return, leaving Fluttershy alone. ‘Don’t go. Applejack, don’t go! Put the bracelet on! You could always sell it later. It’s a little slobbery, but I’m sure it’s… worth a lot… Please Applejack, I’m begging you. Take the bracelet.’

Fluttershy couldn’t be sure how much time passed while the bracelet lay on the ground. To her, in the empty black void she seemed to be in, it only felt like a few seconds. In reality, she may have been there for minutes or even an hour. Then again, it may have been only a few seconds before Applejack reappeared in front of her and placed the bracelet around her leg.

A second later, Fluttershy was standing in the middle of the square again. Though she couldn’t feel a pair of wings at her sides, she could feel four equine legs underneath her, and she could even see two of them in front of her, both with orange fur, and one with the gold bracelet around it. ‘Yes!’ Fluttershy said. ‘Thank you!’

‘Did Ah just hear a voice in my head?’ Applejack said, her thoughts echoing in Fluttershy’s mind as well as her own.

‘… Applejack?’

‘Wait,’ Applejack said, raising her voice. ‘Are you that pegasus?!’

‘Yeah! It’s me, Fluttershy! And we can talk to each other too.’

‘Alright, just what’re you doin’ inside my head?,’ Applejack said harshly, her voice still raised. ‘And why can’t Ah move my legs?!’

‘I’m sorry, but I had to take over your body with this bracelet,’ Fluttershy said. She lifted Applejack’s leg to demonstrate. ‘But don’t worry. I’ll be extra careful with your body.’

‘Right, and why exactly are ya in my body instead of your own?’

‘I don’t know,’ Fluttershy said. ‘I just woke up today as this bracelet, and before that, I was getting ready to fight the Underworld. It seems like only yesterday when you and I were fighting together.’

‘Yesterday?’ Applejack snorted. ‘Try three years, partner.’

‘What?! Three years?’ Fluttershy said. ‘That’s impossible! Please, you have to tell me what’s going on!’

‘How’s this fer starters?’ Applejack said, just as harshly as before. ‘You’ve become the enemy of all ponykind!’

‘Wh-What?’ Fluttershy murmured. ‘No… no, that can’t be right.’

‘So this is news to ya?’ Applejack said, her tone softening a bit. ‘Do ya remember the war between the Forces of Nature, Underworld, and Celestia’s army? Just when it seemed like the war was over, everypony in Celestia’s army vanished.’

‘Vanished? Where did we go?’

‘How should Ah know?’ Applejack said. ‘But without you to protect us, the Underworld kept attackin’ us earth ponies. Then y’all reappeared.’ Applejack’s tone shifted again, becoming angrier, more direct. ‘But instead of helpin’ us, y’all started goin’ after us too!’

‘So then…’ Fluttershy said. She craned Applejack’s neck, taking another look at the charred, damaged buildings around. ‘This town? The destruction?’

‘That’s right,’ Applejack snarled. ‘Now we earth ponies have the Underworld and Celestia’s army tryin’ to wipe us out! No one knows what happened. Did your goddess suddenly lose her mind?!’

‘I don’t know,’ Fluttershy said. ‘I can’t even talk to Princess Celestia right now. There must be some way we can reason with her.’

‘Well maybe you can,’ Applejack said. ‘Ah’m not even sure if she’s controlling her own army anymore. And now you’re in two places at once?’

‘You’re talking about that pegasus attacking the town, right?’ Fluttershy said. ‘That’s not me.’

‘So let me get this straight,’ Applejack said. ‘Your mind is here, but your body is over there destroyin’ everythin’? Isn’t that convenient? Tell that to everypony your body just killed.’

‘Killed?’ Fluttershy whimpered. ‘I-I didn’t mean to…’

‘Look, that doesn’t matter right now,’ Applejack said. She was growing impatient, and if she could roll her eyes, or move any part of her body for that matter, she would have. ‘You’ve got my body. So you have to take care of the other Fluttershy. Funny, that’s why Ah was here in the first place.’

‘Wait, you were going to…’ Fluttershy started to say. Her attention turned to the blood-stained blade of Applejack’s greatsword, which had been struck into the ground to hold it in place. She then recalled seeing herself flying over the town, raining arrows down on the buildings. ‘I guess you didn’t really have a choice.’

‘One other thing,’ Applejack said. ‘Be careful with my body. Ah’m gonna need it after you’ve sorted this all out.’

Fluttershy moved toward the greatsword to pull it from the ground. She glanced at the blood-soaked ground at the other side of square and stopped. Her eyes moved up the pool of blood and focused on three motionless figures.

‘If you’re gonna use my body, you’ll have to fight any centurions in our way,’ Applejack said.

‘I’m not sure I’m up to that,’ Fluttershy murmured. ‘I mean, Underworld monsters and the Forces of Nature are one thing, but… other ponies? Centurions?’

‘Fluttershy, there are tons of ‘em,’ Applejack said. ‘Nopony’s gonna notice if a few centurions go missin’. And don’t you forget that it’s my hide on the line here.’

‘I know, but…’ Fluttershy trailed off. ‘Maybe we could just avoid them? Or maybe if we try to reason with them, we might reach—’

‘Fluttershy!’ Applejack snapped. ‘Ya see what they’ve done to this town?! Ya think none of us earth ponies tried reasonin’ with them, or prayin’ to Celestia?! There’s no other choice here, Fluttershy; it’s either them or us!’

Neither one spoke for several moments. Applejack’s body remained still, and in the tense silence that followed, she wondered what Fluttershy could've been thinking. Eventually, Applejack began to hear a few sniffles, along with sharp, shallow gasps for air. She soon realized that the sounds were coming from Fluttershy, and that Fluttershy was crying.

‘I’m sorry,’ Fluttershy sobbed. ‘I just… I can’t do it.’

Applejack let out a deep, heavy sigh as she listened to Fluttershy’s sobs. She knew that Fluttershy wouldn’t be able to do what needed to be done. At best, Applejack could have gone after Fluttershy’s body herself, like she had planned to from the beginning. But to do that, she first needed to remove the bracelet from around her hoof. Applejack considered asking her to take the bracelet off for a second, but then another idea came to her. She turned her attention toward her body and tried to move. Her forelegs felt stiff and rigid, like they were held in place, but despite the resistance, she managed to lift her right hoof off the ground. Her other legs encountered much less resistance as she took a few steps, and before long, she was able to effortlessly move her body.

Applejack smiled. She walked toward her greatsword and, grasping the handle with her mouth, pulled the weapon out of the ground. ‘Ya don’t have to worry ‘bout that. Ah’ll take over everythin’ from here.’ Fluttershy looked back toward Applejack. She sniffled and took a few more sharp breaths, but Applejack’s assurance started to calm her down. ‘Ah’ll even try to get ya back to your body,’ Applejack added. ‘Pinkie Promise.’

‘Th-Thank you,’ Fluttershy sniffled.

‘Sure thing, sugarcube,’ Applejack said. Holding the grip of her weapon with her mouth, she made her way toward an alley at the side of the square. ‘Jus’ try to look the other way or somethin’ while Ah’m fightin’ the centurions. Last thing Ah need is fer ya to move any part of me at the wrong time.’

‘Okay,’ Fluttershy said. She stayed quiet as Applejack walked through the alley, initially resigning herself to letting her do her work. ‘Applejack? What’s a Pinkie Promise?’

‘… Never mind.’

Applejack entered a small, circular courtyard. An arched wooden door stood at the other end of the courtyard, where three centurion unicorns were on patrol. Fluttershy began tuning out the rest of the world, distracting herself while Applejack charged at the soldiers. Applejack reached the three unicorns and spit her weapon out, bringing it to her front hooves. By the time any of them had their bows ready, Applejack swung diagonally, her greatsword carving through flesh, bone, and armor alike as it cut through the neck and shoulder of one of the centurions. She wasted no time in attacking the next centurion, decapitating him with a horizontal swing. The third centurion had an arrow nocked on his bow and fired, but Applejack sidestepped his attack. She then dropped her weapon and turned around, making sure her front hooves were planted before extending her hind legs back. Her back hooves made contact with the centurion’s muzzle, forcefully slamming his head against the wall behind him.

Once she was done, Applejack picked up her greatsword again and made her way toward the door. She gave one last glance to the two centurions on her right before leaving the courtyard, as well as the third one to her left, whose body lay slumped against the wall. Past the courtyard, Applejack reached a small side street with a bridge intersecting above it. Two centurion pegasi patrolled under the bridge, hovering back and forth beneath the support columns.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy was still diverting her attention from what Applejack was doing. She no longer heard the sounds of battle around her, and after a few seconds of only hearing Applejack’s hoofbeats against the ground, she wondered if it was okay to look. When she did look, she noticed Applejack moving slowly toward the patrolling centurions. Unlike the previous centurions they had seen, these two each held a halberd in one hoof and a shield in the other. ‘Those are centurion knights,’ Fluttershy said. ‘You know, you could just try to slip past them without getting noticed.’

‘Good thinkin’,’ Applejack said. ‘No need to go in with guns blazin’.’ She tiptoed toward the centurion knights, moving along the wall of a small house to avoid being seen. The knights passed by each other along their patrol routes before disappearing behind the bridge’s columns, and Applejack sprung forward. She quickly trotted down the road, her hooves quietly hitting the ground to avoid making too much noise. Neither pegasus noticed her, and Applejack turned a corner and entered a narrow alleyway.

Without any centurions around, Fluttershy had a chance to observe Applejack’s surroundings and see where she was going. The alley itself was fairly uninteresting: narrow, empty, and dull in its colors. Up above them, the sky remained a dark ominous gray, the clouds all but blotting out the sun. However, Fluttershy did not see anypony flying overhead. In a way, that filled her with a sense of relief. but at the same time, it also left her feeling confused. She would have expected at least some of the centurions to patrol from above. More concerning, she hadn’t seen her body fly overhead lately, and wasn’t sure where it had gone. Turning her attention back to Applejack, she wondered if the latter knew where to find her body, or if she even knew where she was going in the town.

“YEAH!”

The alleyway led to another small circular courtyard, where Applejack had heard a shout coming from. In the middle of the courtyard, a centurion pegasus was pacing back and forth. Or at least Applejack assumed he was a centurion. This pegasus, white with a dull yellow mane, was huge compared to most ponies. Bulging muscles covered virtually every part of the stallion’s body, including his legs, his shoulders, his barrel, and his barbell-adorned flanks. In addition, this centurion was unarmed, and instead of wearing the usual golden barding, he only wore a helmet on his similarly enormous head. Ironically, the only two parts of this muscle-bound stallion’s body that weren’t huge were his wings. Compared to the rest of his body, they actually seemed imperceptibly tiny, and they may have even been smaller than a normal pegasus’ wings.

“YEAH!”

‘I liked it better when the centurion strongarms were on my side,’ Fluttershy said. ‘Some of them are practically all muscle.’

“YEAH!”

‘Even their brains are muscle.’

Applejack raised an eyebrow at the centurion strongarm’s two wings as he paced about the courtyard. ‘Looks to me like the one place he doesn’t have any muscle is where it oughta be in the first place,’ she said. ‘Are we even sure he can fly with those things?’

“YEAH!”

‘I don’t know,’ Fluttershy said.

‘Either way, his shoutin’ is startin’ to get on my nerves,’ Applejack muttered.

Fluttershy took this as her cue to look away, and by the time Applejack had begun cantering toward the stongarm, she had already shut herself off from the world around Applejack. There was one last “YEAH!” from the strongarm, which abruptly became an agonized yell when it cut off by a powerful slash. After that, the only thing Fluttershy heard was Applejack’s hoofbeats as she walked through the courtyard.

Applejack continued making her way through the town, climbing up a set of stairs and reaching a plaza right by the town walls. A small, dry fountain stood at the center of the plaza, and off to the side, two Skuttlers were fighting against a unicorn centurion knight. One of the Skuttlers charged at the knight and struck his shield with its bone club. The impact warped the metal face of the shield, leaving a large dent and fracturing its wooden frame, though the Skuttler stumbled on its stubby tentacle limbs and fell in the process.

Applejack silently remarked to herself on the Underworld presence in the town. At the same time, she also noticed a raised path that led from the plaza and continued along the side of the wall. Applejack ascended the last few stairs and trotted through the plaza, avoiding the nearby enemies as she headed toward the raised path. The centurion knight had slain one of the Skuttlers, and the bone club of the second Skuttler managed to destroy the knight’s shield by splintering its wooden frame, but by then, Applejack had already left them and the plaza behind her.

Suddenly, two explosions boomed directly above the path. The explosions were soon followed by the sound of stone fracturing. Applejack looked up, where she saw numerous cracks within a stone arch that rose ahead of her. Several sections of the arch collapsed, falling from the damaged edifice and crumbling even more upon hitting the ground. Further ahead of the collapsed arch, at the far end of the raised path, was an automated siege weapon. The weapon hovered a few inches off the ground and consisted of a large stone bucket with a bearded face depicted on the front. Two long, gold limbs led from the sides of the bucket, each leading to a small, adjustable catapult.

‘Last I knew, Juggernauts were still in the design phase,’ Fluttershy said.

‘Well, they look real enough now,’ Applejack said.

‘We started developing them as a defensive measure after the Hewdraw attack,’ Fluttershy added. ‘I never thought they’d be used for evil.’

Two glowing orange stones rolled from the center bucket and loaded themselves into the Juggernaut’s catapults. The catapults flung both stones one after the other, hurling them directly at Applejack. Applejack jumped to the side as they reached their peak and fell toward her. Unfortunately, the stones exploded on impact with the ground, catching her within their blasts and throwing her off the ground. Her body slammed into a nearby wall, and she grunted as she hit the ground again.

‘Applejack!’ Fluttershy said. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Yeah, just fine,’ Applejack groaned as she started to get back on her hooves. She tilted her head down to pick up her greatsword, which had come loose from her grip. Two more stones rolled down the Juggernaut’s limbs, and were hurled at her as soon as they were loaded into the catapult. The stones flew over her head however, as Applejack galloped toward the Juggernaut. She didn’t notice, or even care, when they exploded far behind her, since she was already in front of the machine. She brought her weapon from her mouth to her hooves, raised its blade in the air, and brought it down on the Juggernaut’s left limb, slashing right through it. She delivered another slash horizontally to the bucket, throwing the machine back and knocking it to the ground.

Once the Juggernaut was destroyed, Applejack reached the end of the raised path. A set of stairs led down from the path, bringing her to two parallel tunnels lying adjacent to the town walls. She approached the two tunnels, but before she could look down or enter either one, she heard a series of loud, sharp, banging sounds coming from them, like rapid gunfire. At the same time, two streams of bullets pelted the wall on her side of the tunnel. After a few seconds, the gunfire came to an end, and Applejack peered down in the direction they had come from.

At the other end of the two parallel tunnels, a second Juggernaut hovered a few inches above the ground. This one was a slightly different version from the first, equipped with machine guns on its limbs instead of catapults. Two simultaneous clicks echoed through the tunnels, and Applejack stepped back just before another round of gunfire started.

‘Horseapples,’ Applejack said. ‘Ah don’t think Ah’ll be able to get by here, not without gettin’ torn up by those guns.’

‘Um, actually…’

‘There must be some way around that thing,’ Applejack continued.

‘You could use that…’

During another lull in the Juggernaut’s fire, Applejack looked back in the direction of the two tunnels. A golden shield with a purple gem embedded in its center floated in place just before the entrance to the tunnels. ‘What’s that thing?’ Applejack asked.

‘That’s a Back Shield,’ Fluttershy said. ‘Its magic makes it float behind you when you pick it up. I’ve used one of them before, and they protect you from getting attacked from behind.’

‘That might just get us past that contraption,’ Applejack said. ‘Ah just wish ya told me ‘bout it sooner.’

‘I tried,’ Fluttershy murmured. ‘It showed up about a minute ago.’

Applejack barely heard Fluttershy. At the moment, she was eyeing the Back Shield while waiting out another round of gunfire from the Juggernaut. After a while, the loud continuous banging stopped echoing through the tunnel, and bullets were no longer whizzing past her. Applejack hastily cantered out and made her way toward the item. A small metallic click sounded as soon as she touched the Back Shield, which immediately spun around her. She turned her head to see the Back Shield positioned directly behind her haunches.

Another metallic click echoed from the two parallel tunnels. Applejack looked up, and the Juggernaut opened fire again. Two streams of bullets shot by on either side of her, and she found herself boxed in between them. The distance between the two tunnels was wide enough for her to stand in between the two streams, and though it was a bit cramped, she waited again for the gunfire to pause. Once the Juggernaut stopped, Applejack darted forward, going down the left tunnel. Her legs kept only a cantering pace, prepared to stop and turn as quickly as possible. At the other end, she could see the Juggernaut’s right limb, as well as the right half of its head.

Applejack reached the halfway point of the tunnel when she heard another metallic click. She came to a stop and turned around, facing the Back Shield toward the Juggernaut just as it opened fire again. Gunfire pelted the shield behind her, but the shield held strong, neither sustaining any damage nor being pushed up against her backside by the barrage. The Juggernaut soon stopped again, and Applejack whipped around. She galloped toward the machine and attacked it with her greatsword, slashing through its limb with one swing and smashing into the side of the Juggernaut’s head with a second.

Applejack stepped over the wreckage of the Juggernaut and stepped away from the two tunnels. Ahead of her stood a fort built into the town’s walls. The fort also served as a gate in and out of the town. Applejack intended to confront Fluttershy’s body in the immediate outskirts of the town, past this side entrance. Once she stepped inside the fort, Applejack found herself at the top of a walkway that spiraled around the interior walls. Six centurions hovered at the bottom of the walkway, surrounding an Underworld tank. The tank drove on massive caterpillar treads and was covered with thick off-white armor, with the exception of its top and the sides of its treads, which were covered with a pleated yellow armor.

‘Those centurions are fighting an Underworld Crawler,’ Fluttershy said. ‘I guess this means Princess Celestia is still battling the Underworld.’

‘So at the very least, Discord hasn’t taken over Celestia’s army,’ Applejack said. She kept her eyes on the skirmish below as she made her way down the walkway. The Crawler had already shot down two centurions with its side turrets. The remaining centurions fired back with their bows, but their arrows couldn’t penetrate the Crawler’s armor.

‘Then who does that leave?’ Fluttershy asked. “And where is Princess Celestia anyway?’

‘Ah think we should wait to answer that until after we figure out how to take down a tank,’ Applejack said.

‘There should be a big red weak spot on the back of it,’ Fluttershy said.

‘A big red weak spot?’ Applejack said skeptically. ‘If Ah didn’t know ya, Ah’d say you were jokin’.’ As she neared the bottom of the walkway, the Crawler rotated on its treads until it faced the remaining centurions, who were now down to three. It then charged forward, slamming into the centurion and smashing its body against the wall. In the process, Applejack caught a glimpse of a soft, red, almost fleshy object on the back of its body. ‘Would ya look at that? Anythin’ else Ah oughta know ‘bout those Crawlers?’

‘Well, normally you want to stay as far from them as possible,’ Fluttershy said. ‘When you destroy one, it explodes. Violently.’

‘Huh,’ Applejack said, a little taken aback. ‘Well that’s good to know before ya fight somethin’ like that.’

Just as Applejack reached the bottom of the walkway, the Crawler fired its side turrets, shooting down the last three centurions one by one. With its weak spot still in her sight, she charged forward. The Crawler stood still, and orange light began to shine from beneath its pleated armored top. Applejack veered left, avoiding its cannon fire. She then ran straight for the Crawler’s back and attacked, tearing into the Crawler’s weak spot with her weapon. Her next slash came down vertically, causing the tank to collapse from its treads. Several explosions went off one by one, fracturing sections of its armor, but Applejack had already pulled her weapon from its backside and started toward the fort’s exit.

Applejack passed through the town’s side gate and continued down a dirt road. This side of the town stood at the edge of a steep hill, overlooking a grassy flatland at the bottom of the cliff. To Applejack’s right, the dirt road continued up a raised path that extended from the cliff and lead to a mesa high above the flatland. Several stone columns formed a circle around the mesa. It wasn’t clear what the mesa was used for before the town was besieged, but to Applejack, that didn’t matter. She was expecting Fluttershy’s body to be there, and that’s where she was going too.

‘Hey, there’s a hot spring over there,’ Fluttershy said.

While the raised path and mesa were to the right of the dirt road, directly ahead of the gate was a small hot spring. Applejack had been too focused on her goal to see it earlier, but now that Fluttershy pointed it out, she could see the steam rising up from the spot. ‘Ah guess we have some time before findin’ you’re body,’ she said. ‘And Ah could use a little break.’

Applejack placed her greatsword by the edge of the water and sat down in the hot spring. She didn’t normally wade into hot springs, or see what was so relaxing about them. If anything, she found the water to be too hot for her liking. Her leather attire didn’t seem to help either; rather it only made her feel hotter. Still, after having fought her way through much of the town, she shrugged off those inconveniences.

‘Maybe you should have taken those off before going into this spring?’ Fluttershy said. ‘This hot water can’t be good for your leather.’

‘If Ah remember correctly, you didn’t want to take your clothes off in a hot spring,’ Applejack chuckled. ‘Now you’re tellin’ me Ah should undress.’

‘Oh, um…’

‘I get it,’ Applejack cut her off. ‘And besides, this outfit’s gotta be as old as Celestia herself. Ah’m not that worried about it gettin’ ruined. But Ah do want to find some place to towel off before headin’ out.’

‘We’re by the town, so there should be one nearby,’ Fluttershy said.

After another minute, Applejack stepped out of the water and picked up her weapon. She walked toward a small abandoned building to the left of the dirt road, where the two of them expected to find towels. Instead, they found a single empty room with only a blue circle light on the floor.

‘A Zodiac Chamber,’ Fluttershy said.

‘A what now?’ Applejack asked.

‘If you go in there, you can get a weapon of the gods, like the ones Celestia always has for me,’ Fluttershy said. ‘It might be stronger than the weapon you’re using.’

‘And these… Zodiac Chambers,’ Applejack said, stepping toward the entrance to the chamber. ‘They’re just lyin’ around waitin’ to be found by anypony?’

‘I don’t know,’ Fluttershy said. ‘I’ve found a lot of them, but I don’t know where they appear or why.’

Applejack stepped into the circle of light, and the room vanished around her. In its place, a long platform appeared underneath her hooves, just like it did for Fluttershy whenever she entered a Zodiac Chamber. A shaft of yellow light shone down on the other side of the platform. Within that light, a thin orange box materialized and hovered above a small altar. As she approached the box, Applejack noticed a symbol of a ram’s head on its face.

‘This is s’posed to be a weapon?’ Applejack said.

‘No, that’s a power,’ Fluttershy said. ‘It’s supposed to fit on your weapon like a puzzle piece and give you some special magic. But I don’t think it’ll work on your sword.’

‘Ah might as well take it anyway,’ Applejack said. ‘Ah’m sure you’ll know what to do with it when ya get your body back.’

Applejack took the Aries Armor power into her hoof and stashed it in her clothing. She exited the Zodiac Chamber, returning to the small building outside the town gates, and walked back toward the raised path outside. A few of Celestia’s troops were visible at the far end of the path, just before the mesa. Applejack did a brief headcount of the enemies—one centurion unicorn, two pegasus strongarms, and one Juggernaut—before starting down the path.

‘We should be gettin’ close,’ Applejack said, trying to assure Fluttershy.

Applejack galloped across the raised path, quickly closing in on the enemy troops and the mesa behind them. She reached the centurion unicorn first, cutting through his barrel with a diagonal sword swing. Then she turned toward the two strongarms, both of which had already noticed her. Neither one was as muscle bound as the one she had killed earlier, and both of them actually had reasonably sized wings. However, both of them were clearly strong, as one of them demonstrated by producing a massive barbell, lifting it with his forelegs, and hurling it at Applejack. Applejack ducked underneath it and charged at them, while the second pegasus galloped toward her.

Suddenly, a pair of explosions went off in between Applejack and the strongarm. Both ponies were thrown back, and Applejack lost her grip on her weapon as she landed backward. While both of them were knocked down by the explosions, the other centurion charged at Applejack. Lifting her off the ground with his forelegs, he flew up for a moment before slamming her into the ground.

Applejack slowly began to stand back up, managing to get to her knees. She looked up to see one of the two pegasi, the one that had been hit by the explosions, coming toward her. He tried to grab her as well, but Applejack rolled out of the way, turned away from him, and bucked him in the side of the head. The stunned pegasus fell off the edge of the path and went plummeting to the ground below while Applejack turned her attention back to the first strongarm. This one had already begun to lunge at her a second time, but Applejack sidestepped and ran past him.

Two more explosions went off several feet away from the remaining strongarm. Applejack realized they were coming from the Juggernaut, but she ignored it as she picked up her weapon again. She went after the strongarm first, slashed into his chest with a horizontal swing, and shoved him off the path with her hoof. Finally, Applejack turned her attention toward the Juggernaut. She maneuvered around two more rocks hurled at her by the machine’s catapults, and once she reached the Juggernaut, tore through its left limb with her sword. She then cleaved the other limb with a second slash and swung at the Juggernaut’s head, causing the machine to collapse and fall to the ground.

With the last few enemies gone, Applejack started up the rest of the path. However, before she reached the mesa at the top, pain shot up through several parts of her body, and she stumbled.

‘Applejack!’ Fluttershy gasped. ‘What’s wrong?’

Pain throbbed in Applejack’s forelegs and chest, both of which were at edge of the blasts from the last centurion’s attacks. The adrenaline in her body was also beginning to wear off, making her injuries even more apparent to her. ‘Ah’m fine,’ Applejack grunted. She took a few more steps forward, but more pain flared in her back and sides; a result of the centurion strongarm’s attack. ‘Those centurions just did more of a number on me than Ah thought.’

‘This shouldn’t have happened to you,’ Fluttershy murmured, pity and remorse building up inside her. ‘This shouldn’t have happened to any of you. I should’ve been here to fight for you, and so should’ve Celestia.’

‘Don’t worry ‘bout it,’ Applejack grunted, finally reaching the edge of the mesa. ‘We earth ponies gotta fend off the Underworld all the time, with or without Celestia. Besides, Ah’ll live, and Ah can still get ya back to your body.’

Fluttershy started to protest, but before she could say a word, a small orb of light descended toward them from above. The two of them watched as the orb reached the ground next to Applejack and began to take shape. The light formed into a bottle made of crystal, with two outstretched crystal wings on its sides and a doughnut-like hole through its center. The bottle was filled with a red liquid, which Applejack stared curiously at.

‘That’s a Drink of the Gods,’ Fluttershy said. ‘Celestia says it’s like a well-aged wine, but for us mortal ponies, it can heal almost anything: open wounds, illness, burns, broken bones, and occasionally dismemberment.’

Applejack put her sword down and picked up the bottle with her hoof. ‘Occasionally?’ she said.

‘Well, it’s not always perfect, and some injuries are worse than others.’

Applejack shrugged and brought the bottle to her lips. As soon as half of its contents were gone, she felt the effects of the drink spread throughout her body. The pain from her injuries dulled, and the more she drank, the more the pain faded away from her body. When she finished the last drop, she was completely healed. ‘This stuff actually worked!’ Applejack said. ‘But where’d it even come from?’

It came down from the heavens, just like the Back Shield did a while ago,’ Fluttershy said. ‘One of the gods must be watching over us. Maybe it’s Celestia.’

‘At least there is a god still watchin’ over us, whoever it is,’ Applejack said as she stepped onto the mesa. ‘And if it is Celestia, she’s got a lot to answer for.’

* * * * * * * * * *

After less than a minute of waiting, the sound of wingbeats above the mesa signaled to Applejack that something or somepony had come. On the other side of what was about to be an improvised battlefield, she watched as a pegasus lowered herself and touched down. To Fluttershy, this pegasus had the same grayed mane and coat that she’d seen almost half an hour ago. Applejack, however, saw Fluttershy’s normal colors on the pony’s body, as well as the Darkness Bow equipped to her foreleg. Nevertheless, both of them saw the same dull stare in the pegasus’ eyes as she stood up and gazed at them.

‘Hey, that’s my body!’ Fluttershy said.

Fluttershy’s foreleg lifted up, her bow being readied by whatever or whoever was controlling her body, while Applejack brought her sword to her hoof. ‘We’ve gotta take her down,’ Applejack said. She readied her sword for the fight, only to do a double take when she noticed how she was holding it. She flipped the sword’s grip between her hoof and fetlock, ensuring that she would only swing with the blade’s blunt edge. ‘… without killin’ her.’

Fluttershy’s body immediately opened with a charge shot from her bow. Applejack sidestepped the arrow and moved toward her opponent. She swung, but Fluttershy’s body dodged and countered by slashing with her bow. Applejack stepped back from the attack, but the Darkness Bow’s bladed arm still managed to connect and leave a long, shallow scratch on her foreleg. Both mares swung again and clashed their weapons, but because of Applejack’s strength and the size of her weapon, she managed to throw her opponent back. Fluttershy’s body made a rough landing when she hit the ground again, but not before firing three small arrows in midair back at Applejack.

‘Ah don’t remember ya being this tough when we last met each other,’ Applejack said.

‘I’m sorry,’ Fluttershy said.

‘Nah, it figure’s you’re the only member of Celestia’s army who can carry her own weight,’ Applejack said, swinging at Fluttershy’s body again. ‘Don’t even get me started on the centurions.’ A charge shot from the Darkness Bow hit her at point-blank range, striking her left shoulder and tossing her back several feet.

‘They’re grunts. What do you expect?’ Fluttershy muttered. ‘There’s no incentive for them to toughen up. Celestia rarely sends them into battle, so even the competent ones don’t bother to make an effort.’

Applejack swung the blunt edge of her sword at Fluttershy’s body, but Fluttershy’s body parried the attack with her bow. Trying another tactic, Applejack reoriented her sword and swung at the Darkness Bow, this time with her blade’s sharp edge. ‘What about you?’ she asked. ‘If Celestia’s army is just a bunch of slackers, then what made ya decide to be the odd one out?’

‘Well…’

‘Never mind,’ Applejack said, dodging a charge shot. ‘You can tell me later.’

Applejack’s blade connected with the Darkness Bow a second time. Putting more of her strength into her forelegs, Applejack pushed the bow back and caused Fluttershy’s body to stumble. She swung her weapon again, this time with the blunt edge, and this time slamming it into Fluttershy’s side. Fluttershy’s body tumbled across the ground for several feet before coming to a stop on her side. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, and her shoulder moved more stiffly, but she still quickly stood up and gazed at Applejack with a blank yet menacing expression.

Immediately after striking Fluttershy’s body, Applejack felt a sudden twitch in her head and forelegs. She struggled for a moment against the apparent spasm. ‘Fluttershy,’ Applejack said. ‘Ah’d appreciate it if ya’d look the other way fer this one too.’

‘Sorry,’ Fluttershy murmured. ‘Be careful, though.’

Applejack sidestepped another charge shot and lunged at Fluttershy’s body. Her weapon’s edge clashed against the Darkness Bow. She pulled back her blade and swung at the bow again. The last blow broke the bow’s upper arm in two and tore the bow loose from Fluttershy’s foreleg. Fluttershy’s body stumbled back while the two pieces of the broken bow landed behind her. Applejack tossed her own weapon aside, flipped around to face away from her opponent, and kicked with both of her hind legs. Fluttershy’s body was thrown across the improvised arena, and she was out cold by the time she landed on the ground.

‘Okay, let’s get this bracelet on ya,’ Applejack said as she started walking over to Fluttershy’s body. She sat down on her haunches beside Fluttershy and lifted her up into her forelegs. A number of fresh cuts covered Fluttershy’s body, and two hoof-shaped bruises were beginning to form, one on her left cheek and another on her chest. Applejack briefly hoped that she hadn’t broken anything as she removed the golden bracelet from her own leg. She then slid the bracelet up Fluttershy’s right foreleg.

Light spread across Fluttershy’s body from the bracelet. The bruises on her face and chest lightened, and the cuts along her body closed and disappeared as the bracelet’s magic washed over them. The bracelet contracted and faded away, as if it was being absorbed into Fluttershy’s leg. The last of her wounds finished healing, and once the bracelet disappeared entirely, the light around her body subsided as well.

Applejack gently shook Fluttershy’s body with her forelegs. “Fluttershy,” she said. “Come on, wake up.” Fluttershy’s eyes opened, and she looked up at Applejack. Suddenly, Fluttershy stretched her forelegs up and lunged at Applejack. “Whoa, nelly!” Applejack said, stunned as Fluttershy wrapped her forelegs around her neck and grabbed her tightly.

“Thank you,” Fluttershy said.

Applejack felt Fluttershy’s grip tighten around her. As she let Fluttershy rest her head against her shoulder, she began to notice some wetness on her neck. She moved her own forelegs around Fluttershy’s back and returned the hug. “Easy there, sugarcube,” she said, patting Fluttershy’s back with her hoof. “It’s been rough on all of us. But now that you’re back, we’re countin’ on ya to find Celestia and fix this mess.”

Fluttershy lifted her head from Applejack’s shoulder. She used her foreleg to wipe the remaining tears from her eyes and gave her a smile. Applejack let go of Fluttershy, allowing her to stand up and walk around on her own legs again. However, when Fluttershy looked up at the skies, her smile disappeared.

“There’s only one thing,” Fluttershy said. “How am I supposed to get back to Skyworld?”

“You're a pegasus,” Applejack said, raising an eyebrow. “Ya could just fly.”

Fluttershy’s wings fidgeted and her eyes shifted toward the ground. “That’s just it,” she said. “I can’t fly that well on my own. Princess Celestia always lent me her magic for that.”

At that moment, Fluttershy felt a sensation in her body. She shut her eyes and opened her wings as the sensation traveled to her barrel and concentrated in the feathers and muscles of her wings. A ray of blue light shone down on her from the skies, and leaves began to appear at her hooves and swirl around her body. Fluttershy extended her wings as much as could, and the light gathered around her wings while fading from the rest of her. All the while, Applejack stared in awe as the magic concentrated itself within Fluttershy’s wings.

Suddenly, an object struck the ground near the two of them. A cloud of dust formed from the impact, and Fluttershy and Applejack shielded their eyes with their forelegs. Once the dust cleared, they turned and approached the fallen object. Embedded in a small crater was a large club in the shape of a tall, spiraling stone tower. Fluttershy grasped the club’s thin, rod-like handle with her mouth and pulled back on it, removing it from the earth. A ring of clouds appeared around the other end of the club, circling the top of the tower.

Fluttershy’s wings started to flap, lifting her off of the ground. She transferred the handle of her new weapon, the Babel Club, from her mouth to her left hoof and looked at Applejack.

“Looks like Celestia found ya,” Applejack said. She reached into her outfit and pulled out the Aries Armor power, holding it out to Fluttershy. “If this is goodbye fer now, ya’d better take this. Ah think it’s better off in your hooves then mine.”

Fluttershy extended her left foreleg and took the orange box into her own hoof. She slipped the box into her tunic and tapped it with her hoof, making sure it was secure. Her wingbeats lifted her up a few feet higher as the power of flight began to carry her away from the mesa. “Good luck, Applejack!” she called out. “I hope we meet again after all this!”

“Good luck to ya too, Fluttershy!” Applejack called after her. She kept her eyes on Fluttershy as she rose above the mesa and finally flew out over the town. Her gaze drifted down to the plumes of rising smoke as Fluttershy flew past the town and continued on. “Whatever’s happenin’ out there, Ah hope ya fix this soon,” she said.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy gave one last look at the smoldering, desolate buildings below as she soared past the town. She flew past a small skirmish between Underworld troops and centurions, not bothering to attack either one as she flew into a rainstorm. The centurions were shooting down the Monoeyes and Shrips easily enough that she didn’t feel the need to help them, and she couldn’t bring herself to attack the centurions themselves. “I missed you, Princess Celestia,” Fluttershy said. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”

“… Right, about that…”

“Huh? Luna?!”

“That’s right,” Luna said. “I’m the one controlling your flight path.”

“But how is that possible?” Fluttershy asked. “And where is Princess Celestia?”

“Celestia’s power of flight spell is not very difficult to replicate,” Luna said. “I assure you that I am just as capable of casting it as she is.”

“Does that mean I still only get five minutes of flight time?”

“Yes.”

“But what about Celestia?” Fluttershy asked. “Will you at least tell me what happened to her?”

“Even better. I’ll take you to Skyworld and show you,” Luna said.

A storm raged on above the mountain range up ahead. Fluttershy’s flight path began its ascent, even as her face and coat were buffeted by rain and increasingly high-speed winds. Off to her right, another group of centurions had shot down four Monoeyes and were now aiming at a Belunka. However, what she was more concerned with were the two twisters in the middle of the storm, one right next to the other.

“I don’t really have a choice here, do I?” Fluttershy said.

“I’m afraid not.”

Fluttershy flew over several mountaintops, passing by a group of centurion unicorns as she continued toward the twisters. She weaved through a volley of arrows fired at her by the centurions, as well as a few charges by some unicorn knights, but she kept her own weapon lowered. The centurions moved to pursue her, but when they saw Fluttershy approaching the twisters, they ultimately stayed back.

The tornados’ fierce winds pulled on Fluttershy’s body, threatening to suck her into either one. Fortunately, the power of flight kept her from getting sucked in as she flew in between the twisters and began a sharp ascent. The winds did however pull in a small temple, as well as a number of Monoeyes, Miks, Gyrazors, and a Wave Angler. The Underworld monsters hurtled up the spiraling columns, none of them able to escape, though all surprisingly unscathed. The temple however was torn apart by the powerful winds, some of its columns torn out of the floor and ceiling, and even the columns themselves snapped in pieces.

By the time Fluttershy rose more than halfway up the height of the tornados, many of the Underworld monsters and temple debris had reached the tops of spiral columns. They were soon released by the gale force winds and sent flying in every direction, even directly down at Fluttershy. Fluttershy twisted to evade a Gyrazor and Monoeye and drifted to her right as a particularly large section of temple wall plummeted toward her. Many more monsters and chunks of stone columns hurtled at her, and she swerved to avoid several of them. Tightly gripping the Babel Club, Fluttershy swung at an oncoming Wave Angler. She swatted away a few more enemies, mostly Miks and Monoeyes, as she continued in her ascent.

The last of the temple, with its floor and ceiling still attached by its few intact columns, fell from one of the twisters and plummeted toward Fluttershy. Fluttershy brought her hooves and club in front of her, doing more to flinch at the oncoming building than to try to evade it. Her wings took a different approach. Controlled by Luna’s flight spell, her wings carried her in between the pillars of the temple and safely maneuvered her through its interior.

Fluttershy emerged on the other side of the building through two broken pillars, and now that she was near the highest sections of the two twisters, Luna’s magic began carrying her away from them and toward the blanket of clouds above. She could see a few scattered groups of centurions at this altitude, as well as a few Juggernauts hovering around them.

“We’re approaching Skyworld,” Luna said.

“I’m praying that Princess Celestia is alright,” Fluttershy said.

“You’re praying?” Luna asked. “To who?”

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t seem to understand the purpose of praying to the gods.”

Fluttershy wanted to ask Luna what she meant, but she dropped the subject when she breached the cloud layer. The air felt frigid as she passed through the clouds, and cold droplets of water began to accumulate on her legs. The clouds themselves were thick, making it difficult for Fluttershy to see more than a few feet ahead of her, but the power of flight continued to carry her onward. Eventually, the clouds grew thinner, and Fluttershy could make out the bottoms of a few floating islands in the distance. She emerged a few seconds later and continued to fly upward, finally rising high enough to see the top surfaces of the islands. What she saw of the islands of Skyworld made her heart feel weak.

“What?” Fluttershy said.

Before her eyes lay a Skyworld in ruins. Houses, public squares, and many other buildings were in disrepair throughout each and every one of the islands. Even the buildings that remained standing had turned a dull, ashy gray, and the land on each island had become barren. Fluttershy stared in utter shock at the ruins of Skyworld. She didn’t even notice when her right hoof loosened and the Babel Club fell from her grip.

“What happened here?” Fluttershy said weakly. “It used to be so beautiful.”

“Look what’s become of it,” Luna said somberly. Her magic carried Fluttershy over the islands of Skyworld one by one, showing both of them the extent of the destruction. Gone were the gardens and trees that once added color to Skyworld’s scenery, as well as the ponies, both undressed and armored, that once flew and ran about. Even the skies above were dark, barely letting the sun’s light through, and it made the scene all the more dreary as Fluttershy gazed at her home, or what was left of it. “Celestia has gone berserk and destroyed Skyworld in the process. She’s still fighting the Underworld Army, but she’s ponykind’s enemy now too.”

“And to think, I was so worried about her,” Fluttershy murmured.

“Fluttershy…” Luna said. “There’s something else you should see…” She turned Fluttershy toward the far end of Skyworld, showing her its largest island. A sprawling temple complex covered the entirety of the island, featuring Skyworld largest and most grandiose temple structures. At the center of the complex, perched on top of the largest temple building, stood a massive statue of Celestia, the goddess of light. The statue stood with its head held up and its horn prominently raised. Its wings were outstretched, spreading out with a wingspan wide enough to cover the entire island. Sadly, much like the rest of Skyworld, the statue and temple complex had also been become a dull, gray, damaged shadow of its former self. “Celestia’s temple.”

“It’s all beat up,” Fluttershy whimpered.

Light shimmered and fluctuated in the air behind Celestia’s temple, quickly forming into a titanic image of Celestia herself. The image looked down at Fluttershy, not with the calm, serene expression that the latter was so used to, but one of contempt and disinterest. “It’s been a while, Fluttershy,” Celestia said harshly.

“It’s like the entire world’s been turned upside-down,” Fluttershy said. “What’s going on?”

“Everything changes, Fluttershy, even gods,” Celestia said. “And to be frank, I’m tired of fighting for those ungrateful earth ponies.” Her hologram turned its gaze slightly toward an island floating off to Fluttershy’s right. The entire island spun on its axis and began to rise dozens of feet higher. “And I’m especially tired of dealing with you!” With a powerful thrust from Celestia’s magic, the island flew directly at Fluttershy.

“No!” Fluttershy said.

Controlled by Luna’s magic, Fluttershy’s wings pulled her upward from the island’s trajectory. As the island passed underneath her, flipping over as it went, centurion troops began to respond and flew toward Fluttershy.

“You heard her,” Luna said, pulling her away from the attacking centurions. “This is real.”

“She’s being manipulated,” Fluttershy said. She jerked left to dodge two of the centurions’ arrows, but kept her eyes on Celestia’s image. “Somepony else is pulling the strings.”

“No,” Celestia laughed, “you’re the only puppet here.” She had a second island, off toward Fluttershy’s left, held in her magical grip. She then hurled the island, which quickly flipped during its trajectory as it flew toward Fluttershy. Luna was forced to quickly pull Fluttershy back to prevent her from colliding with the overturned island’s surface. Meanwhile, several centurion knights flew after Fluttershy, as well as a few strongarms.

“I have to help her,” Fluttershy said. “Luna, send me in!”

“That would be ill-advised,” Luna said.

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked. “What else can we do about her? Panic?”

Celestia began to prepare a third island to throw at Fluttershy, this time one that was particularly close to her temple. As the island spun along its axis, a few of its more damaged buildings crumbled from the rotational force. Pieces of debris ricocheted and rolled off the surface of the spinning island, some falling in the direction of Celestia’s temple. But before the rubble could land anywhere near the temple buildings, an iridescent bubble suddenly formed around the temple complex, stopping the debris in midair.

“As I was about to say, her temple is protected by a force field,” Luna said. Blue light shone down on Fluttershy from above, and a flurry of leaves materialized and swirled around her body. “You can’t penetrate the barrier at this time, so there is nothing more we can do here.” A second later, Fluttershy disappeared from Skyworld’s airspace, having been extracted by Luna’s magic.

Fluttershy soon reappeared in a different place, and was gently set down on her hooves. Luna’s magic ebbed away from her wings until the blue aura surrounding them was gone. Fluttershy folded her wings at her sides and looked around at her surroundings. She stood in the middle of a dimly lit corridor. Roots and vines grew along its walls, and orange light shone through several openings in the walls and ceiling, bathing the corridor in the light of the now setting sun. Fluttershy turned to look ahead, where Luna was standing a few feet away.

“Where am I?” Fluttershy asked.

“I’ve brought you to my own domain,” Luna said. “After Celestia began terrorizing the earth ponies, I took over some of her duties as the goddess of light. Likewise, until we return her to her senses, you’ll be accepting missions from me.”

Luna turned around and began walking down the corridor, motioning with her wing for Fluttershy to follow. Fluttershy followed along, but only at a slow pace as she shuffled her hooves along the ground. She let her head hang low as she went, letting the foreign surroundings drift by her as her mind reflected on everything she had seen that day, and for the first time since she could remember, she had never felt so alone, so far from home.

“When you begin your next mission, you’ll go through the portal at the end of this corridor,” Luna said. “There is also a small weapons cache next to the portal for you.” She stopped by a doorway on the left side of the corridor and waited for Fluttershy to catch up. “This is where you will be staying. I’m sure the accommodations will be to your liking.”

As soon as Fluttershy entered the doorway she stopped in her tracks. Over two dozen sets of eyes met her own, and her mouth fell open a bit as several small, furry heads turned and looked in her direction. “Are those…” Fluttershy started to say.

Throughout the room, dozens of small animals all stared back at Fluttershy, including squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, and birds. The youngest animals remarked her with curiosity, but most of the older ones immediately recognized her and wasted no time excitedly gathering around her.

“When Celestia left Skyworld in ruins, she displaced all of the woodland animals in your care,” Luna said. “I sheltered them here as a favor to you.” Fluttershy was barely listening to Luna as she tended to her animals. As she listened to a few chipmunks in front of her, and allowed a small white bunny to take its place on top of her head, a small, warm smile found its way on her face. “It will be hours before you can safely use the power of flight,” Luna continued. “Until then, you may stay with your animals and prepare for your next mission.”

“Luna, before you go,” Fluttershy said, looking up from her animals. “You sound… different.”

“You mean my speech no longer sounds so archaic?” Luna said. Fluttershy nodded back at her. “It’s been a long three years, Fluttershy.” She stepped back into the corridor and left the room, leaving Fluttershy with her animals.

Author's Note

I hated this chapter on 9.0 Intensity. Why the hell did they have to restrict us to just Magnus’ melee attacks? Would it have killed them to let us use Powers for this one? Or at the very least a ranged weapon with an ammo count?

The Lightning Chariot

Chapter 19: The Lightning Chariot

Invasive plant life grew throughout and overran the length of one of the side hallways in Luna’s domain, from the heavy tree roots that bored through the stone floors to the slender vines and tiny purple flowers that clung to its walls. The rampant vegetation served to dampen the echo of Fluttershy’s hoofbeats as she ran through the passage. Toward the end of the hallway, on her right, was a pair of large, ornate doors wreathed with thick, thorny vines around its frame. She ran past those doors and came to a stop several feet away, in front of a much less assuming door leading into a walk-in closet of sorts. She opened the door and looked inside at the numerous shelves and compartments, some of which were empty, while others contained various weapons waiting for her to try.

“What to wear?” Fluttershy wondered aloud. “What to wear?”

She skimmed the shelves one by one, looking over the available weapons. She reached into one of the compartments with her hooves and pulled out a palm weapon. Pink thorns and heart-shaped rose petals swirled around the luminescent orb in her hooves, which for some reason depicted the image of a young blonde girl.

Fluttershy scrutinized the weapon, the Viridi Palm, twisting it in her hooves for several seconds before shaking her head and placing it back in its compartment. She reached into a second shelf and pulled out another weapon, a pair of tough, woody claws. A purple flower adorned the backs of both claws, and each of the woody talons on them took on a blood-red tinge towards the tip. Fluttershy studied the pair of claws, the Viridi Claws, with curiosity, though she eventually placed them back in their compartment.

The next weapon Fluttershy picked up was a jagged, purple blade. A red slit for an eye was carved near the blade’s tip, and a sharp tooth jutted out of its edge, making the weapon’s appearance resemble that of a venomous snake. A rattling sound began to emanate from the weapon. Fluttershy blinked in confusion, and then moved her hoof to try to touch the blade. A few gentle caresses from her hoof eventually calmed the rattling, and Fluttershy returned the Viper Blade to its shelf.

Finally, Fluttershy picked up one more weapon from the small armory, a somewhat jagged stringless bow made entirely out of crystal. Most of the bow was carved from a smooth, lustrous, yellow crystal, while the grip and sight were made from a rough, teal crystal. Fluttershy held the bow’s grip with her hoof and fetlock. She aimed the Crystal Bow down the center of the corridor, and a large blue gem shot forth from the bow’s arrow rest. The gem hurtled through the air for about a hundred feet, only to vanish abruptly in midair.

Fluttershy frowned at the short range of the Crystal Bow’s charge shot. She looked down at the bow, and then at the other three weapons she had tried out. After a few more seconds, she made her decision. She took the Crystal Bow out of her hoof and placed its grip against the cannon of her foreleg. The bow held in place, magically attaching itself to her leg.

The pair of doors behind her opened, leading out to what would be her next mission. “Okay, I’m ready to roll,” Fluttershy said. She galloped toward the portal, and as she jumped out, she spread her wings to take flight.

“Then let us rescue Celestia!” Luna said. Her magic spread throughout Fluttershy’s outstretched wings, enveloping them in blue light, and she guided her above a vast, hilly grassland on the other side of the portal. A full moon hung in the night sky, illuminating the scenery below and reflecting off of the many small lakes that lay throughout the grassland. Fluttershy’s eyes scanned the hills, lakes, and air, and she kept her bow ready for any Underworld troops that might have been in the area.

“Where do we start?” Fluttershy asked. “Do you have a plan to rescue her?”

Neither one said anything for several seconds. Fluttershy continued to watch for enemy troops, waiting for a response from Luna.

“First, we must break the force field protecting Celestia’s temple,” Luna finally said. “To do that, we will have to borrow the Lightning Chariot.”

“The Lightning Chariot?” Fluttershy said. “What’s that?”

“It is a high-speed battle carriage that travels the galaxy,” Luna said. “And it’s pulled by two very powerful unicorns.”

“And… that’s what I’m going to use to break through the force field?” Fluttershy said, a tinge of concern in her tone.

“Precisely.”

“So, you’re basically telling me to crash a horse cart into a brick wall.”

“If you wish to put it crudely, then yes.”

“Which means I might die…”

“Yes, that is a possibility.”

“Does the Lightning Chariot at least have airbags?”

“Airbags?” Luna asked. “What are airbags?”

“I change my mind!” Fluttershy murmured. “I don’t want to do this mission anymore!”

“I see,” Luna said. “So you have no intention of saving Celestia after all.”

Fluttershy groaned. She could feel herself being torn between rescuing her trusted goddess and avoiding a dangerous, high-speed crash with a powerful magic barrier.

“She could be in agony at this very moment,” Luna pressed on. “She could be trapped within a dungeon of madness, waiting, hoping, pleading for you to come and rescue her.”

“Okay, okay, fine!” Fluttershy said. She sighed. “I guess if this is the only way to save her, I don’t have any other choice.”

“My point exactly,” Luna said.

Fluttershy’s flight path continued beyond the disconnected grouping of small lakes, past a grass-covered valley, and over a patchwork of fields and sparse forest. Her altitude remained steady, ebbing only slightly with the rolling hills and the treetops on the ground. She looked up to see the scattered clouds in the night sky, and a slight frown formed on her face when she realized that she wasn’t flying any closer to them. She wasn’t getting any further from the ground either. “You said this was a galactic chariot, right?” Fluttershy asked. “So shouldn’t I be flying higher to reach it?”

“You should,” Luna said. “Unfortunately, this is not made any easier by those chicken wings of yours.”

Fluttershy scowled. “Celestia never had a problem whenever she flew me into space,” she said. “Are you sure it’s not your power of flight that’s keeping you from flying me up.”

“That’s not relevant,” Luna muttered. “And I do have other means of sending you into space.

“Have you ever attended the circus, Fluttershy? I have, and it is one of the few things in earth pony culture that I’m fond of. A favorite act of mine is the equine cannonball. It is quite the spectacle: so suspenseful, so exhilarating.”

“I don’t like where this is going,” Fluttershy said. Beyond the hills and trees, she caught a glimpse of a massive gray structure built over nearly an entire acre of flat ground. As she drew closer and got a better look at it, she saw a pair of pegasus statues with wings spread out as if in midflight, their hooves supporting a gargantuan cannon on either side. The cannon was aimed up at the sky, and much to Fluttershy’s dismay, the barrel was wide enough for a fully-grown pony to fit inside. “Oh no! No way! Absolutely not!”

As Luna led her up to the cannon’s muzzle, Fluttershy reached out with her forelegs and pressed them against the lip, pushing herself away from the cannon as hard as she could. Her front knees buckled as they fought against her beating wings. She soon added her back hooves to the lip, pushing back from the hollow artillery tube with all four legs. She felt her wings flap more fiercely as Luna channeled her magic through them in an attempt to load her into the cannon.

“Fluttershy, this is the easiest way to send you after the Lightning Chariot,” she said, gritting her teeth.

“Couldn’t you just open a portal somewhere above the atmosphere?” Fluttershy grunted.

“It is not that simple, but I assure you this is completely safe,” Luna said. “Now where is your sense of adventure?”

“Not in the barrel of a cannon!”

At that moment, Fluttershy’s wings reoriented and gave two strong beats, suddenly working with her legs and pulling her back from the cannon. Fluttershy felt confused seeing her hooves slip away from the muzzle and float back, but in the moment she lowered her guard, her wings propelled her into the cannon. Her body rolled several feet down the dark, hollow tube before stopping partway down. Unable to see, she moved her hooves in an attempt to stand up, hoping to climb back out. Gravity shifted for her as she felt the cannon tilt to a steeper angle, and she tumbled down the rest of the barrel.

“Three! Two! One!” Luna shouted. “Fire!”

A powerful, deafening blast sounded as Fluttershy rushed back up the length of the cannon and shot into the sky. Her body hurtled through the air, and the earth and sky spun around her in a blur of purple and dimly lit green. Her legs and wings were clasped tight to her body, and she refused to move them as her body rolled. If she was screaming, she couldn’t tell. Her ears were ringing from the blast of the cannon, and she shut her eyes to stop the world around her from spinning.

Eventually, the spinning began to slow down. Fluttershy’s wings unfurled and started flapping, slowly reorienting her in the air until she reached a stable hover. She opened her eyes, but everything in her vision still spun, even after she had stopped. Shapes and images blurred in her vision, and in her dizzy state she could barely feel her legs as she tried to move them. “I don’t feel so good,” she mumbled.

It took some time, but Fluttershy’s vision eventually returned to normal and she looked around. Blue and yellow bands stretched, twisted, and glistened as far as she could see. Some of them were wide, while others were narrower, more condensed. The translucent bands curved left and right, appearing as waves or air currents in space. Fluttershy peered through them and saw a sea of soft, glittery light rolling and fluctuating, like waves in an ocean.

“What is all this?” Fluttershy asked.

“These are patterns formed by galactic particles,” Luna said. “Beautiful, aren’t they?”

Underworld monsters floated in small groups through much of the area, each of them paying little mind to the scenery as they hovered in one direction as a whole. Fluttershy aimed her bow at them, taking out two Monoeyes with a charge shot. She fired several medium-sized yellow gems from her weapon, shooting down three Miks and another three Monoeyes. As she fired, two distinct clouds of purple mist drifted through the vacuum in her direction. Fluttershy caught sight of the clouds and eyed them patiently. They eventually condensed and changed color, each one forming into a white, spectre-like Zuree, only for her to promptly shoot both of them. She then turned her attention and aim back toward the multitude of enemies, her wings carrying her steadily forward.

“The Underworld presence is very strong,” Luna said. “I sense many more of them.”

“Do you think they’re after the Lightning Chariot too?” Fluttershy asked.

“Wait!” Luna interrupted her. “There it is!”

Before Fluttershy could respond, a flash of white light twinkled off in the distance, then grew in size and intensity as it drew closer. In the blink of an eye, it shot across the heavens, crashing through patterns of space dust and scattering particles in its wake before disappearing almost as quickly as it had appeared.

“Whoa!” Fluttershy whispered. “It’s fast.”

“The chariot is returning to its home base,” Luna said. “We must pursue it.”

The Lightning Chariot reappeared and made another pass through the void, streaking by like a bright white comet. A bright blue vortex opened at the end of its path when it disappeared a second time, leading into a hollow, gaping tube. Several dozen Miks and Monoeyes converged on the newly-formed tunnel. They all passed through one after the other in pursuit of the Lightning Chariot. Fluttershy shot down several Miks with her bow before they could fly in, and with Luna’s magic flaring through her wings, she flew into the vortex.

Blue light shone off of the surrounding cylindrical walls, swimming by Fluttershy in a blur as she raced through the tunnel. The walls themselves appeared fluid if not completely intangible, as if one could slip through the boundaries and be ejected outside, wherever ‘outside’ just happened to be. The tunnel curved and bent into several twists and turns as it went along, all of which Fluttershy navigated while staying within its bounds. She managed to catch up to a few enemies, mostly Miks and Monoeyes, and shot down each with a yellow gem from her bow. Most were still much further ahead however, and she continued to fly after them and the Lightning Chariot.

“Well, hello again, friends!” droned a familiar, mocking voice.

“Discord!” Fluttershy said.

“Not you again,” Luna muttered.

“Just look at the two of you sneaking around behind Celestia’s back,” Discord said. “It’s classic.”

“What do you want, Discord?” Luna asked flatly.

“The Lightning Chariot, of course,” Discord said.

“Begone, Discord.”

“What? I can’t have an eye for a sweet ride?” Discord said. “It’s a veritable goddess magnet, don’t you know?”

“Goddess magnet,” Luna repeated sardonically. “Don’t think for a second that I or any self-respecting goddess would set hoof in it.”

“Well at least Fluttershy likes it. Don’t you, Flutters?”

“Is that why you’re here?” Fluttershy asked accusingly. “You found out we were looking for the Lightning Chariot, and now you’re getting in our way?”

“Oh please. My intentions are always honorable,” Discord said. “You know that.”

“Just ignore him, Fluttershy,” Luna said, showing very little patience for Discord. She steered Fluttershy past a few more Monoeyes and through the last few twists and turns of the tunnel. The end of the tunnel finally came, depositing Fluttershy into a dark, empty void in the middle of space. A mass of heavy clouds, purple and dark blue in color, swirled beneath her as a massive vortex around a single point of light. Fluttershy looked out at the light, where she saw a solitary island, a bright bastion rising above the eye of a storm.

Fluttershy glided toward the island, even as Underworld troops began to surround her. Monoeyes, Miks, Syrens, and Gyrazors all hovered in the air ahead of her. Behind her, three Komaytos emerged from the tunnel she had just come from. Before long, many more Underworld troops circled around Fluttershy as she approached the island, including Miks, Monoeyes, Octos, Gyrazors, Commylooses, Wave Anglers, and Komaytos. Fluttershy gave them all a cursory glance, then turned her attention back to the island. Underneath the island lay a massive, almost mazelike network, visible through the transparent floor. A tower stood high and needlelike in the center, with a magenta beacon shining from its highest point. Several wide, massive spikes jutted out of the ground around the tower and folded inward toward it, partially closing over its base. They might have looked like flower petals if they weren’t so flat and rigid, and if they didn’t barely reach halfway up the tower’s height.

“Both the Lightning Chariot and its master are in that tower,” Luna said. “I will set you down on the ground floor. From there, you must make your way up and find the Lightning Chariot.”

“Okay,” Fluttershy said, giving a quick nod.

“I should warn you though, the tower is very tall,” Luna said. “Expect an arduous climb.”

Fluttershy concentrated on the Crystal Bow attached to her hoof. She felt Luna’s magic flow from her wings and through her foreleg, and she raised her bow up in the air. An arrow of white light fired from her bow, shooting upward for a brief moment before exploding into a powerful shockwave. The wave spread for nearly a mile in every direction, and hundreds of arrows of white light rained down wherever it expanded.

It was another few seconds before the volley of arrows came to an end and Fluttershy finally lowered her bow. The skies around her, once teeming with Underworld troops, had been cleared by the rain of arrows, and when she looked back at the island, there was nothing left standing between her and the tower at the center. “Okay, I’m ready,” Fluttershy said. The power of flight flared through her wings, and she flew over the surface of the island and toward the base of the tower.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy’s hooves touched down on the smooth, glassy floor of the tower’s entrance hall. The blue magical aura faded from around her wings, and she took in her surroundings. Blue-tinted marble formed the surfaces and structures of much of the circular hall. The entrance stood directly behind Fluttershy, and on the other side of the room, at the top of a small set of stairs, stood a pair of heavy blue doors. The room offered very little else in décor, and Fluttershy had already taken a few steps forward in the direction of the doors.

“Who dares trespass on my domain?” a deep, gravelly voice boomed throughout the walls of the chamber. “Leave before you get hurt!”

Fluttershy let out a sharp yet soft gasp and stopped in her tracks. Her eyes searched the room a second time, looking for the source of the voice. “Who’s there?” she asked.

“I’ve had many names in my life,” the voice echoed again, “but now I am called the Chariot Master.”

“Oh, then you’re the one I’m looking for,” Fluttershy said, her ears perking up a bit along with her voice. “Listen, um, I…” Her voice demurred as whatever confidence it had quickly drained from it. “… I need to use your chariot for a little bit, and I was hoping you wouldn’t mind letting me borrow it… please?”

“Your foolishness is matched only by your rudeness,” the Chariot Master barked. “How dare you charge in here, flinging unreasonable requests at me? I have half a mind to turn you into galactic roadkill!”

“Eep!” Fluttershy squeaked.

“I doubt you’ll be able to acquire the chariot through diplomacy,” Luna said.

“I have to meet this Chariot Master face to face, don’t I?” Fluttershy said. Steeling herself, she lifted her hooves and began to make her way to the end of the room. The pair of heavy doors flung open on their own as soon as she reached them, and she found herself standing outside. A transparent, glassy walkway extended to her right, rising up the side of the tower. Fluttershy stepped out onto the walkway and gazed upward. Unfortunately for her, the tower rose high above her, and even after taking a few more steps out, she still couldn’t see the top of it. It was impossible to tell how many floors it had, and she dreaded the thought of walking each and every one of them. “I don’t suppose there’s an elevator in this tower,” she said.

“No, this is the only way up,” Luna said. “I suggest you get started.”

Fluttershy let out a deep sigh and frowned before starting up the tower. Two Miks and a Skuttler appeared over the walkway one by one, only to be shot down as she made her way up. The walkway stopped at the second story of the tower, where Fluttershy reentered through another door.

The second floor contained a large circular chamber similar to the entrance hall of the floor below. The only difference between them was a number of holes in the floor of this room. Three Octos rose out of the holes and faced Fluttershy. Two of them immediately spat rings of acrid black smoke at her, but because of the size and trajectory of the rings, Fluttershy harmlessly passed through the center of them without moving an inch in any direction. A large blue gem fired from Fluttershy’s bow in retaliation, taking out one of the Octos. The other two were shot down similarly seconds later. A Wave Angler and four Miks emerged from the holes to replace them. They hovered around the room, but lasted only a few moments before Fluttershy shot them down and made her way to the end of the chamber.

Once Fluttershy was outside again, she started up another walkway that ascended along the side of the tower. Already her hooves and knees were beginning to ache, the journey up taking its gradual toll. Three Monoeyes hovered ahead of her along the way, but she had much less trouble with them as she fired at the first two. The third Monoeye fired a shot back at her, but she jumped left to dodge and fired back. With the third Monoeye down, she continued to make her way up.

On the third floor, Fluttershy stood on a ledge overlooking a huge gap in the floor. Another ledge was built into the other side of the gap, where the exit was. But without a bridge or any proper flooring, there was no way to reach the other side of the chamber.

“You will need to take that platform to the other side,” Luna said.

Fluttershy turned to her left, where she noticed a flat, square platform hovering nearby. She walked over and stepped onto the platform, which shuddered beneath her hooves as it began to move to the other end of the room. Two Skuttler Cannoneers and a Ganewmede appeared on an elevated balcony off to the side. Fluttershy took aim with her bow, shooting one of the Skuttlers. She sidestepped a beam of energy fired by the second Skuttler and fired another gem from her bow. Her shot knocked the second Skuttler off of its platform, but four more Skuttler Cannoneers appeared out of thin air to take its place. “How did Discord get so many of his troops here?” Fluttershy asked, dodging fire from all four cannoneers. “We’re only on the third floor.”

“What concerns me more is the tower itself,” Luna said. “There don’t seem to be any proper defenses.”

“Any riffraff can just waltz on in,” Discord chimed in. “After all, Fluttershy here had no problems. But I must admit I adore running amok in other people’s homes.”

“Another uninvited guest?” the Chariot Master growled. “Very well, at least show your face… so my Lightning Chariot can erase you from existence!”

As soon as her platform made it to the other side of the chamber, Fluttershy headed for the door, ignoring the remaining Skuttlers. Like before, she made her way up another walkway that spiraled up the side of the tower. She took a second to fire a charge shot at an Underworld enemy in her way before continuing up. By the time she reached the next floor, her legs were feeling a little tired. She lifted her hoof to wipe a few droplets of sweat from her face before going back in the tower.

The flooring of the fourth floor chamber was evenly divided down the middle, with blue panels on one side of the chamber and red panels on the other. Fluttershy walked onto the red side when she entered the chamber. She could see light flashing underneath the blue panels on the other side. A second later, electricity crackled across every blue panel, sending sparks into the air of half of the chamber.

“That current will alternate between one half of the floor and the other,” Luna said. “You must move accordingly.”

Fluttershy turned her attention toward two Splins hovering above the floor. Holding up her bow, she shot down one of the floating creatures with a large blue gem. She turned her weapon toward the other Splin and fired a few smaller yellow gems.

As soon as Fluttershy shot down the two Splins, an Underworld Shelbo appeared above the center of the room. Fluttershy also caught sight of a purple mist floating around the room, telling her that a Zuree was nearby. Meanwhile, current stopped running through the blue floor panels, and the red panels underneath her started flashing. “It doesn’t do much to enemies that don’t touch the ground,” Fluttershy said. She quickly made her way toward the blue panels on the other side of the floor.

“That’s a known issue,” the Chariot Master interjected. “It’ll be resolved in the next version of the tower.”

“Um, next version?” Fluttershy said, raising an eyebrow. Electricity surged through the red floor panels, but it had no effect on the floating Shelbo. The Zuree was also unharmed when it emerged from its mist, though it was promptly shot by Fluttershy and her bow. “I think somepony needs a better QA department.”

“I am no pony, little mare,” the Chariot Master said.

The Shelbo opened its mouth, revealing rows of sharp teeth and its single large eye, and sucked in air to pull Fluttershy toward it. Fluttershy fired at its exposed eye, cutting off its attack and tossing it back. She headed toward the end of the chamber, making sure to avoid any electrified floor panels along the way.

As usual, she walked up the ascending walkway outside the tower to reach the next floor, taking out three Miks along the way before reentering. Several rectangular pillars rose out of the ground of the fifth floor chamber. Numerous cracks spread throughout the sides of each pillar, and it looked like any one of them would collapse with enough force. Fluttershy noted the cracks in the unstable pillars before turning her attention up, where two Zurrets were perched on top of them. She aimed the Crystal Bow at one of the Zurrets and fired.

While her shot took out the first Zurret, the second one fired three spiraling energy shots down at her. Fluttershy ducked under the shots and ran toward the pillar the Zurret stood on. She split her bow in two at the grip, and with a sharpened bow limb held in each hoof she stabbed the pillar’s side. She quickly pried both halves of her bow out of the pillar, dislodging several chunks of stone debris. As soon as her bow was recombined, Fluttershy scurried away from the pillar. The base of the pillar fell apart first, while the rest of the structure collapsed downward. The Zurret at the top swayed for a moment before eventually falling backward. Fluttershy shot a blue gem at it, making sure it was defeated before leaving toward the end of the chamber.

As soon as she stepped out onto the next walkway, Fluttershy stopped for a moment to prop her hoof against the tower’s exterior wall. Her legs were beginning to noticeably ache, and she spent a few seconds trying to catch her breath. She looked up at the sky, but the tower continued to rise high above her without any visible peak. Even after five floors of climbing, the top of the tower didn’t seem any closer than before.

“I really didn’t train for this,” Fluttershy panted.

“Aw, someone sounds like she wants a piggyback ride,” Discord mocked.

“Um, how tall are you?” Fluttershy asked hesitantly. “I mean, if you’re really offering… never mind.” Her voice trailed off by the end, and she decided to just drop it and continue up the walkway.

On the sixth floor, Fluttershy stood at the bottom of a walkway suspended over the rest of the chamber. The walkway sloped gently up toward the chamber’s exit, making a few 180° turns along the way. Fluttershy traced its path, noticing a circular jump pad in the middle of one straight section, before looking over the edge. Instead of a solid floor, or even the fifth floor, a thick pink haze blanketed the area below.

Before she could wonder what was down there, a crash sounded from higher up on the walkway, causing the rest of the walkway to shake. When Fluttershy looked, she saw a giant boulder rolling toward her. She jumped back from the boulder’s path, letting it roll past her, off the edge of the walkway, and into the haze below. A few seconds later, Fluttershy watched another boulder land on the walkway and follow the same path as the first.

“Rolling obstacles…” Fluttershy scrutinized out loud. “… and jump pads. Something seems familiar about this.”

“I guess the Chariot Master has played Donkey Kong,” Discord said.

Fluttershy waited for another boulder to roll past, and then headed up the walkway. She came to a stop in front of the jump pad, and as soon as the next boulder crashed onto the walkway, she stepped onto the jump pad. She catapulted high off the floor, enough for the boulder to roll right under her. She landed back on the walkway and continued up, eventually reaching a turn in the path.

The rest of the walkway was split into two sloping segments connected by a 180° turn. Jump pads lay in the middle of both segments, and just as before, boulders rolled down either section of the walkway before falling into the haze below. Fluttershy walked up the next section of the walkway, using the jump pad to leap over the oncoming boulder. She did the same thing for the last section of the walkway and reached the door at the end of the chamber.

After a brief climb along the outside, Fluttershy reached the seventh floor of the tower. Inside, the entire floor of the chamber was covered in a solid layer of ice. Though initially surprised, Fluttershy began to take a few cautious steps onto the ice. She held up her right hoof, trying to aim at a Tortolunk and an Underworld Snowman at the other end of the chamber. Unfortunately, her other three hooves slipped on the ice, and she nearly hit the ground as she scrambled to keep her footing. She tried to aim at the Underworld troops again, frowning at the icy floor while checking her footing.

“There’s an Aether Ring nearby that will let you hover above the ice,” Luna suggested.

Fluttershy spotted the inactive Aether Ring floating above the floor, off to the side of the chamber. Carefully, she made her way across the ice. “Why does the Chariot Master have a vehicle of the gods?” she asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” the Chariot Master said.

“Are you saying you’re a god?” Luna asked.

“I’m not saying anything,” he answered.

“Then why raise the subject?” Luna muttered.

The Aether Ring activated as soon as Fluttershy stepped inside and placed her hooves on the controls. She aimed its short-range gun and fired at the Snowman and Tortolunk, easily shooting down both. The Aether Ring hovered above the ice-covered floor without any issue, and Fluttershy piloted it to the chamber’s exit. The vehicle was too wide to fit through the door however, and when she tried to bring it through, it jammed in the doorway instead. With a small sense of disappointment, she gave up on the Aether Ring, disembarked and continued up the tower on hoof.

As Fluttershy made her way to the next floor, she peered over the edge of the walkway. After climbing nearly seven floors, she could barely make out anything on the ground below. The entrance to the tower was completely invisible from where she stood. She turned away from the walkway’s edge and once again stared up the side of the tower. As usual, the tower seemed to rise up almost endlessly. “Are we there yet?” Fluttershy said.

“No, you’re not,” Luna said, rolling her eyes. “You are nowhere near ‘there yet.’”

Fluttershy let out an exasperated sigh. She headed up the rest of the walkway and went inside the next chamber. On the eight floor of the tower, Fluttershy saw two Syrens circling around the chamber, as well as another Zuree hiding within a cloud of purple mist. Four glowing red devices were placed on the floor in a large circle around the center of the chamber, completely undisturbed by the monsters that occasionally flew over them.

“Take care not to step on any of those land mines,” Luna said.

Fluttershy paused while taking aim at one of the Syrens. She looked back toward the four red devices on the ground. “Those are land mines?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t they be buried so that nopony can see them?” Fluttershy looked up to see a Syren hover directly over one of the mines. She fired her bow, taking out the creature. She then glanced at the second Syren as it too flew over a land mine.

“They don’t respond to airborne foes either,” Luna added.

“Yes, yes, I’m quite aware of that,” the Chariot Master responded.

“Defense isn’t really your strong suit, is it?” Discord said. “Oh well. Defenses are for the weak and insecure.”

As soon as the Zuree emerged from its purple mist, Fluttershy shot it with a blue gem. With the other Syren having already been taken out, she walked toward the other end of the chamber, stepping around two of the land mines along the way. Once outside, she saw a pair of blue rails extending from a section of the walkway and ascending up the side of the tower. In fact, the rails appeared to be there in place of the walkway, much of which wasn’t there to begin with.

“Oh good, grind rails,” Fluttershy said. She hopped on to the rails, eager to let them do the climbing for her and give her legs a quick break. Sure enough, the rails’ magic spread to her hooves as soon as she stepped onto them, and she was carried up along the side of the tower. As she went up, she saw several chunks of what may have once been the original walkway still holding in place. There was little if any sign of damage to this side of the tower, so it was hard to tell if the walkway collapsed on its own or from an attack. Fluttershy looked below the grind rails, toward the nearest walkway underneath. Any rubble from the walkway’s collapse had long since been cleared away.

Before long, the grind rails came to an end and deposited Fluttershy at the entrance to the ninth floor. She headed inside, where she found herself standing on a balcony above a largely empty chamber. An incline led from the balcony to the lower level, and at the top of the slope rested a huge, black, spherical boulder. Fluttershy cautiously approached the boulder. She traced its likely path down the slope, where it led to six Underworld troops standing perfectly still and arranged in a triangle.

“This room seems to lack defenses of any kind,” Luna mused. “Though Discord has donated some of his forces for use as bowling pins.”

“My troops are a worthy sacrifice for the sport of kings!” Discord said. “But I suppose Fluttershy can play here too.”

Fluttershy turned her gaze from the Underworld enemies and looked up at the enormous boulder towering over her. She wondered for a moment how much it would take to push the boulder, and then worried that it might roll after her instead, especially if she was on the ramp.

“I don’t really bowl,” Fluttershy said. She gingerly stepped around the boulder, making sure not to nudge or disturb it in any way. As soon as she took a few steps down the incline, she took a nervous glance back at the boulder. Not wanting to spend too much time in its path, she moved toward the edge of the ramp and jumped down to the lower level. Ignoring the Underworld enemies still posing as bowling pins, Fluttershy continued toward the door at the end of the chamber.

As Fluttershy continued up the walkway to the next floor, she came across a large gap in the walkway that rendered it impassable. The gap was largely uneven, and pieces of the walkway’s crystalline building material still hung from the structure, indicating that this section had crumbled away. However, there was also a jump pad placed in front of the gap, right next to where Fluttershy stood. She stepped onto the pad, which propelled her over the gap and onto the other side. She then made her way up the rest of the walkway, using another conveniently placed jump pad to clear another collapsed section, before going back inside the tower.

On the tenth floor, Fluttershy found herself standing on a ring-shaped walkway suspended over a large chasm in the chamber. Gale force winds blew through the center of the chamber, blowing in from one side of the chamber and cutting across two sections of the walkway before going out the other side. A second walkway was suspended above the rest of the chamber, with the winds blowing across a section of it.

Fluttershy’s gaze shifted from the upper level walkway and turned toward two Skuttler Cannoneers that were running against the winds on the lower level. The Skuttlers managed to fight the headwinds for a while, only to slip and be tossed backward. They nearly flew off the edge of the walkway, but managed to get back up and start running again.

“You will have to overcome those winds to reach the end of this chamber,” Luna said. “Try not to fall.”

Fluttershy scanned the lower level walkway. After it crossed the path of the winds a second time, she noticed that the walkway continued up a set of stairs to a raised platform. The platform did lead back to her starting point, but only after dropping down a ledge that was several feet high—too high for a pony to climb.

“Sky Jump,” Fluttershy said. One of the powers equipped to her Crystal Bow activated, propelling her into the air and landing her on the platform. She found a jump pad in the center of the platform, and as soon as she stepped onto it, it launched her onto the upper level.

Three Monoeyes floated above the upper level walkway, directly in the path of the winds. Just like the Skuttlers on the lower level, the Monoeyes were traveling against the wind toward the other side of the chamber. Fluttershy watched as they came close to reaching that side of the chamber, only to be tossed back one by one to the opposite side and start all over. Though initially bemused, she brushed it off and started down the walkway.

The winds buffeted Fluttershy from the side as soon as she walked into their path, pulling her mane with it and pushing her toward the edge of the walkway. Fluttershy ducked her head and picked up the pace, breaking into a gallop to fight against the winds. Her hooves almost slipped a few times, but before long she reached the end of the walkway and exited the chamber.

Outside the tower, the path leading up to the next floor was gone, instead replaced with a pair of grind rails. Fluttershy hopped onto the rails, allowing them to carry her up the side of the tower. As she went, she saw a few pieces of the original walkway still hanging from the tower’s side, two of which were large enough for Skuttler Cannoneers to stand on. Fluttershy lifted her right foreleg off of the rails and fired her bow at the first Skuttler, knocking it off of its ledge.

“I don’t suppose these rails will take me up more than just the one floor, will they?” Fluttershy asked. Even though she didn’t realize it while directing her aim at the second Skuttler, Luna narrowed her eyes at her in that moment. Fluttershy fired a few smaller gems from her bow, taking out the other Skuttler.

Sure enough, the grind rails dropped Fluttershy off at the entrance to the eleventh floor. She went inside, where she saw that this chamber had a much different layout from all the previous ones. Instead of an exit door on the other side of the room, a large, spacious ramp sloped up along the walls and led back outside. At the bottom of the ramp sat an Exo Tank.

“The Chariot Master has an Exo Tank too?” Fluttershy said.

“It’s possible that he collects these vehicles,” Luna said.

“Then that would make this tower his garage,” Discord chimed in. “Think he’ll let us use it?”

Fluttershy climbed inside the seat of the Exo Tank. She placed her hooves on the controls, and as soon as it came to life, she pressed on the accelerator. She drove up the ramp, steering left along the road until it led through an opening in the wall. Once outside the tower, the ramp led out onto a path of lustrous blue light. The path was solid, easily supporting the Exo Tank as Fluttershy drove onto it, but was largely uneven with several sharp turns in it.

“A road made of hard light,” Luna mused out loud. “What an intriguing design flourish.”

“No, it’s a practice track for the Lightning Chariot,” the Chariot Master said. “It’s not for amateurs!”

Fluttershy banked sharply left as she navigated a 180° turn in the track. Almost immediately after, the road took a sharp right turn. Fluttershy steered right, trying to pull out of her left turn, only to overcompensate and steer toward the edge of the track. She would have driven off the road, but instead the Exo Tank hit an abrupt stop at the edge and bounced harmlessly back. Fluttershy looked over the vehicle, her eyebrows furrowing as she stared at the boundary. “Are you sure this track isn’t for amateurs?” she asked. “I mean, it has invisible walls.”

Fluttershy backed the Exo Tank up a few feet, and then tried to take the right turn more slowly. She navigated along the path’s bumps and turns much more slowly, even going gingerly around a sharp left turn to avoid a collision with one of its boundaries. Before long, the road led back toward the tower, this time one level higher than where the road initially started. It took Fluttershy to a small balcony at the end of the room, where she finally stepped out of the Exo Tank. Leaving the vehicle behind, she headed toward the door and left the chamber.

As she headed up the next walkway to the next floor, Fluttershy once again found herself gazing up the side of the tower. After climbing up about a dozen floors, she was dismayed that she still couldn’t see the top of the tower, and that the end of her climb was still nowhere in sight. It was hard to remember how long ago she had arrived at the foot of the tower, whether it was half an hour ago or much longer. It didn’t help that Fluttershy herself had lost track of how many floors she had traveled since arriving. “Are we there yet?” she sighed.

“You’re not going to repeatedly ask that question, are you?” Luna asked irritably, her voice gaining a considerable edge to it. “No, you are not there yet, and bemoaning your climb will not help you reach the top any sooner. I assure you if there was some means to hasten your progress, I would have tried by now!”

“About that…” Fluttershy said. “When you dropped me off at the bottom of the tower, you said that the Chariot Master was at the top, right? And half of the climb up has been on the outside. So wouldn’t it have made more sense to drop me off on a higher floor? Or maybe on the roof?”

“I…” Luna stammered.

“Even if the Chariot Master was on a lower floor, it still would’ve been easier to climb down then up,” Fluttershy added.

Luna let out a frustrated groan, and for a second, Fluttershy thought she heard her smacking her hoof against her forehead. “Very well,” Luna said, sounding exasperated. “Complain as much as you like.”

“Actually, that was all I had to say,” Fluttershy said.

Fluttershy reached the next floor of the tower and reentered. Inside, she saw a round blue pillar rising from a hole in the center of the chamber. The pillar continued through a second, equally large hole in the ceiling, and when Fluttershy looked closer at it, she noticed a white jewel protruding from its side.

“What’s that gem supposed to do?” Fluttershy thought out loud.

“Well don’t shoot it or anything,” Discord said. “It’s not like that’s what you always do these days. Oh, but before I forget. Elevator’s out of order. Sorry, Flutters, looks like you’ll have to come back another time.”

Fluttershy spotted a Monoeye floating around the pillar. She lifted her right foreleg and fired a blue gem from her bow, shooting down the creature. She then turned her aim toward the jewel in the pillar and fired a yellow gem. The force of her shot pushed the jewel further into the pillar, inserting it into a slot in the pillar’s side.

Almost immediately, the pillar dropped further into the floor, coming to an abrupt stop after several feet. With it came a second Monoeye, which floated around the room just as the first one had. After taking a second to shoot it down, Fluttershy walked around the pillar, keeping an eye on it as she went. Her search led her to a second white jewel behind it. She pushed it into place with a shot from her bow, causing another section of the pillar to fall.

A third jewel hung from another side of the pillar when it came to a stop. With it, a Mik hovered down from above the ceiling and floated around the chamber. Fluttershy fired at it with her bow and made her way to the jewel. She shot the jewel into place, causing another section of the pillar to fall. When the pillar slammed into place again, the hole in the ceiling was closed by a circular platform that had fallen along with it. The platform also pushed a Specknose down into the room. Fluttershy fired at the Specknose and searched around the pillar again, where she found one more jewel.

With the last jewel pushed into its slot, the platform dropped from the ceiling, crashing into the floor and closing up the hole in the center of the chamber in the process. Fluttershy took a few steps forward, scrutinizing the new addition to the chamber floor. As soon as she walked into the center, the floor momentarily shook. The platform slowly came up from the floor and began to rise toward the ceiling. Above her, Fluttershy saw a tall, cylindrical shaft spanning just a few floors. She took a deep breath and exhaled as the platform took her further up the tower.

Celestia's Temple

Chapter 20: Celestia’s Temple

Three lights shone above Fluttershy’s head, one on each of the walls of a small armory within the late Chariot Master’s tower. The lights provided the room’s only source of illumination, which spilled out into the darkness of the adjoining hallway. The armory was more of a walk-in closet, with shelves and compartments containing divine weapons not unlike the ones she normally wielded. Each of the weapons had belonged to the Chariot Master—Fluttershy had been told—all part of a collection that he had built and maintained, and that she now had her pick of. Standing in this room felt like one of the most mortifying things Fluttershy had ever done in her life, as if she was looting the pockets of some poor dead pony’s corpse. She’d been here a few hours earlier with the Lightning Chariot unicorns, who told her that she could choose from any of these weapons for their mission to Skyworld, despite her protests that she already had a bow. Shining Armor insisted it was okay. Twilight Sparkle looked like she wanted to stab her.

She reached into one of the compartments and pulled out the first weapon, a dull green cannon designed to be worn and equipped over a pony’s foreleg and made in the likeness of a dragon. The body of the cannon was sleek, smooth, and metallic, in contrast to the rough reptilian scales of an actual dragon, but the design was unmistakable, if a bit stylistic. A pair of red-orange horns stuck out from behind the cannon’s muzzle, which was modeled after a dragon’s head and maw. Two yellow eyes were carved beneath the horns, and two large teeth jutted from its upper jaw. Fluttershy weighed the Predator Cannon in her hooves, examining it for a few more seconds before returning it to its proper shelf.

The next weapon Fluttershy picked up earned a look of surprise from her. It was an arm weapon, also designed to be worn over its user’s foreleg, but what surprised her was that it too resembled another creature in its appearance, one that she recognized. Narrow green slits for eyes stared back at her as she twisted the round, salmon-red weapon in her hooves.

It took her a while to remember the creature whose head it was made to resemble: the Galactic Fiend Kraken she had briefly encountered so long ago. She hadn’t even bothered to fight the creature at the time, instead letting it tear apart the Space-Pirate Ship while she escaped with the Three Sacred Treasures. She wondered how the Chariot Master could have possibly obtained such a weapon and what happened to the real Kraken, even as she placed the Kraken Arm back into its compartment. Her thoughts drifted to the doomed pirate ship, and the stolen constellations that had remained onboard. Neither Fluttershy nor Celestia had taken the constellations from the ship before it was attacked, and Fluttershy found herself hoping that they had somehow found their way back to their rightful place in the night sky. Hopefully they weren’t shipwrecked at the bottom of an ocean in space, strange as that last thought might be.

Fluttershy pulled another weapon, a crystalline blue staff, from the armory’s shelves and handled it by its grip, regarding it with curiosity. The tip of the staff forked into two long, bladed prongs, the top one a few inches longer than the other, and three sharp spikes extended from the butt of the staff, behind its grip. Fluttershy stared down the scope attached to its body, aiming at one of the empty shelves on the other side of the room. With a flick of her hoof, she flipped the staff in her foreleg and gripped it with the butt end facing forward. Even though it was a staff, it felt more like a deadly lance than any long-range sniping weapon.

Fluttershy tentatively placed the Lancer Staff on the floor in front of her and picked up one more weapon, a heavy, ornate gunblade. Gold trim decorated the hilt and crossguard of the sword, and blue light ran through the middle of the thick, black blade. Oddly, the length of the blade had no edge to it, instead consisting of a rectangular slab of metal, and seemed to be more suitable for bludgeoning than slashing or thrusting.

Fluttershy weighed the weapon, the Crusader Blade, in her hoof and swung. She was stunned when blue light shot from the end of the blade in midswing, forming into a solid, razor-sharp cross shape as it cut through the air before dissipating at the end of her swing. She regarded the blade in her hoof, and then turned her attention back to the Lancer Staff on the floor. Looking from one weapon to the other, her eyes finally settled on the Crusader Blade. Fluttershy placed the blade against her side, letting it magically stay in place, and returned the Lancer Staff to its proper shelf. She left the armory, pausing to give one last forlorn glance, and headed down the hallway.

When she reached the end of the corridor, Twilight and Shining Armor were already there waiting for her, standing in front of a pair of large metal doors with the Lightning Chariot already hitched to them. They were speaking to each other about something, though Fluttershy only caught a few snippets of what they were saying as she approached. Despite the clip-clop of her hooves against the hard, smooth floor, neither of them heard or noticed her as she walked up to the chariot, climbed inside, and grabbed the reins in her hooves.

“Twilight? Shining Armor?” The two unicorns ended their conversation and turned to face Fluttershy. Shining Armor gave her a neutral expression. Twlight glowered at her. “Um…” Fluttershy shrank at the combined stares of the two unicorns, even though she technically stood over them in the chariot, and only Twilight looked at her with any contempt. She could only manage an awkward smile and a slight flick of the reins. “Giddy up?”

Both unicorns rolled their eyes, though Twilight did so more irritably. Magenta light enveloped the two doors in front of them, which promptly swung open. Twilight’s and Shining Armor’s horns lit, and their magic glowed around their hooves as they turned to face the portal before them. They stood, rearing onto their hind legs for a moment, and shot out through the doorway at an incredible speed, causing Fluttershy to fall out the back of the chariot.

Fluttershy held on to the chariot’s reins with only one hoof as the rest of her dangled in the air, holding on for dear life as the Lightning Chariot left the tower far behind and raced through the surrounding void. Her other hoof pawed at the air in front of her, reaching to grab onto the reins. After a few false starts, her hoof caught on, and she hoisted herself up with both arms. Her back hoof made purchase with the floor of the chariot, the other hoof soon following, and she stood safely inside the speeding vehicle.

Ahead of them, a path of fuchsia light spread far into the distance, giving Twilight’s and Shining Armor’s hooves a path to gallop on before it dissolved in the wake of the chariot. The old tower and the solitary island it stood on shrank and soon disappeared behind them as they raced through the infinite starry reaches of space, heading back to Fluttershy’s home—back to Celestia’s temple.

“The Lightning Chariot will pierce the force field surrounding Celestia’s temple,” Luna’s voice echoed in Fluttershy’s ear. “You’ll reach a warp tunnel in just one minute. From there, it won’t be long before you return to Skyworld.”

“Got it,” Fluttershy nodded.

Scores of Underworld monsters – Monoeyes, Miks, and Shrips especially – dotted the skies ahead of the three ponies. Even as the Lightning Chariot bore down on them, closing the distance in mere fractions of a second, they clustered into groups and prepared to launch an attack. The glow around Twilight’s horn brightened. She tilted her head down just a bit, aimed her horn at a group of enemies ahead, and fired a powerful beam of magic. She followed with a stream of smaller blasts that peppered at least a dozen others as she and Shining Armor sped on by. Fluttershy took a hoof off the reins and reached for her weapon, hoping to offer her help in the fight.

“Keep your hooves on the reins, Fluttershy!” Twilight shouted back. Another blast from her horn seared through the bodies of several Shrips. “I can handle these things. The last thing we need now is you falling off.”

Fluttershy’s hoof stopped short of her weapon’s grip. She placed it back on the reins, holding tightly onto them but never manipulating them. Twilight and Shining Armor surely knew what they were doing pulling the chariot, and she didn’t feel comfortable giving them commands.

Several Monoeyes and Shrips grouped ahead of the chariot’s path. They flung themselves forward, the Shrips’ bladed heads spinning wildly, hoping to batter the Lightning Chariot and the two unicorns pulling it. The creatures all crashed one after another into a rose-colored barrier that flickered around the two unicorns, splattering into a mess of purple mist and rapidly dissolving monster pieces while the barrier itself remained unharmed. Fluttershy looked on from behind Shining Armor’s barrier as Underworld enemies, both those left alive and those shredded by the unicorns’ magic, zoomed past.

“Twilight Sparkle was right when she said she could manage Discord’s forces,” Luna remarked. “Her magic makes short work of them, and Shining Armor’s barrier prevents them from coming anywhere near the two.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t expand the barrier to cover the chariot itself,” Shining Armor said. “Not at the speed we’re going, and not if you want this barrier to hold.”

“Unfortunate, yes,” Luna said, still speaking to Fluttershy and apparently perturbed that Shining Armor had overheard her. “Even so, your speed combined with Twilight Sparkle’s magic and Shining Armor’s shield should be more than enough to penetrate Celestia’s barrier. Until then, you must take care not to let anything strike you in the chariot.”

Fluttershy tightened her grip on the chariot’s reins and glanced at the enemies on either side. So far, getting hit inside the Lightning Chariot wasn’t an issue. Shining Armor’s shield spell had the unintended benefit of protecting her from any frontal assault, and the speeds she was traveling at made hitting her from any other angle extremely difficult. What concerned Fluttershy more was that these monsters were even here at all.

“I thought the Chariot Master… I mean, I thought Spike defeated the last of Discord’s troops. What's the Underworld doing here?”

“Discord has sent more of his forces to the Chariot Master’s tower,” Luna said. “He must be trying to intercept us on our way to Skyworld.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Twilight said, her expression crinkling into a half-frown. “If we destroy the barrier around Celestia’s temple, Discord can come in from behind us and invade Skyworld. Why would he try to stop us?” She fired a barrage of magic from her horn at a couple of Syrens ahead of her.

“I doubt it matters to him one way or the other,” Luna said. “If the Goddess of Light should perish, and one of the few lingering thorns in Discord’s side be eradicated, then he wins. Yet if Celestia lives to massacre the earth ponies, then he still wins. More likely, he is sending his forces to cause us as much chaos and strife as he possibly can.”

The Underworld presence thinned, and the warp tunnel came into view far off in the distance, first as an unusually bright blue twinkle amid the stars and monsters, then rapidly growing as the three ponies fast approached. Once they were inside, the tunnel rushed by at hundreds of miles an hour, making it nearly impossible to see anything outside the chariot. Not that there was anything to see. Fluttershy had been in this warp tunnel before. The mix of darkness and flashing blue in the walls was mesmerizing in a certain way, but there was little else to look at. The only real difference this time was that the tunnel went straight ahead, instead of bending and twisting like it did the last time she was here. There were even a few Underworld monsters in the tunnel with her. Monsters that were hovering just yards away to her right, just yards to the right of the Lightning Chariot…

Fluttershy did a double take. Five Gyrazers floated in a tight circle within reach of her and the chariot, despite the speeds they were traveling at. Shining Armor and Twilight stole a glance at them too, but kept their gait as the monsters began to spin around each other in their circle. “Um, Luna?” Fluttershy asked. “You said the Lightning Chariot was supposed to be super fast, right?”

“Pulled by two of the fastest creatures in the galaxy, yes,” Luna responded.

Twilight and Shining Armor swerved hard to the left as the Gyrazers all opened fire, each firing a stream of needlelike shots outward from the circle. “Then how are these enemies keeping up with us?”

“I’m wondering that too,” Twilight cut in. “These things didn’t seem very fast when we were shooting past them a minute ago.” She and Shining Armor dipped down, maneuvering out of the path of enemy fire as they banked hard back to the right. The ring of Gyrazers rotated with them as it spun, firing more of their barrage in their direction.

“I guess it’s a video game thing,” Shining Armor suggested. “There wouldn’t be much of a level if we didn’t have enemies to fight.”

“What level?” Twilight asked. “What video game?” The two of them pulled several feet in front of the Gyrazers just as another group of them appeared far off to their left. Magic charged through Twilight’s horn, and she shot a powerful blast at the first group, incinerating them all at once. She and Shining Armor steered left toward the second group, which was now forming into a circle of their own. “And if these monsters can travel at these speeds, then why do you need us to break this barrier in the first place? Why not just capture a few dozen of them and shoot them out of one big cannon?”

“Because that would make sense,” Fluttershy muttered under her breath.

Enemy fire poured from the ring of Gyrazers as the Lightning Chariot steered closer. The two unicorns weaved around streams of shots coming from the creatures, which rotated around one another as they tried to zero in on their targets, while Twilight herself readied her magic. Juggling both the acceleration spell cast on her hooves and the light bridge spell she and Shining Armor were maintaining, she took aim at the group of Gyrazers, concentrated her magic through her horn, and fired. Her blast pierced through the five of them, scattering them for a brief second before they burned to a crisp and vanished into purple mist.

With the last few enemies gone, Twilight and Shining Armor steered toward the center of the warp tunnel. They would reach the end soon, barring any more Underworld forces that came in from the other side. From there, the Earth, Skyworld, Celestia’s temple, and the barrier protecting it would all be seconds away. The unicorns kept their pace, anticipating the end of the tunnel ahead, even as one last object became visible ahead of them. The object grew larger, clearer, and more distinct the closer they got. Fluttershy was the first to recognize the three connected towers, the stone edifice, and the numerous spinning propellers.

“When did the Underworld start using old timey windmills in their army?” Shining Armor asked.

“Fort Oink!” Fluttershy called to them over the lip of the chariot. “Underworld troop transport! Shoot the pig’s face!”

“What pig’s face?” Twilight shouted back. Suddenly, the wooden shutters over the central keep flung open, and out came the creature’s grotesque, scowling porcine head. Twilight and Shining Armor regarded the bizarre spectacle, complete with a pig's squeal, with bewildered incredulity. “Oookay, that pig’s face.”

The front gates over the Fort Oink’s central keep burst open, and five Monoeyes spilled out. Twilight and Shining Armor swerved as the Monoeyes fired a volley of energy blasts from their eyes, while Twilight gathered her magic and aimed her horn for a counterattack. Fluttershy ducked a bit into the chariot, the reins still held tightly in both hooves as she nervously eyed the Underworld monsters. Her thoughts turned to the Crusader Blade still secured to side, waiting to be picked up and fired. Meanwhile, Luna watched everything that transpired, from the fighting against the Fort Oink and its troops to the Lightning Chariot’s progress through the warp tunnel, and what lay ahead at the end of it.

“Fluttershy…” Luna spoke. “If I may speak with you privately, there is one more thing I need to tell you before we reach Celestia’s temple.”

“What is it?”

“Discord,” Luna answered. “When you were ascending the Chariot Master’s tower, Discord held you responsible for all the chaos that has wracked our world.” Luna paused for a long, uncomfortable moment. Solemnly, she continued. “Fluttershy, he was telling the truth. You are responsible for all that has happened. You and Celestia.”

It didn’t make sense. It didn’t make any sense at all. How could she and Celestia have possibly caused what was going on? The destruction of Skyworld, Celestia turning evil, her mind being trapped in a bracelet while her body rained death and destruction on innocent earth ponies—there wasn’t anything she and Celestia did in their wars against the Underworld, Luna, or the parasprites that explained any of this. “How is that possible?”

“Do you remember the Lunar Sanctum you destroyed three years ago?”

“The Lunar Sanctum?” Fluttershy said. The memory of that night slowly returned to her—of that one extra mission after demolishing Luna’s Reset Bombs. “Fancypants’ moon fortress?”

“Fortress? Who told you it was a fortress?”

“Princess Celestia did, when she sent me to attack it,” Fluttershy said. Bits of wood and stone from the Fort Oink flew past her in the corner of her vision, escaping her notice. “She said you were aiming it right at the planet.”

“That was no fortress, Fluttershy,” Luna said. “It was a prison. And by destroying it, you freed its prisoner: the Chaos Kin. You have been told about the Chaos Kin, have you not?”

“Not really…” Fluttershy murmured, feeling increasingly uneasy. “What is it?”

“It is the most… On second thought, I’m afraid it will have to wait,” Luna said. “We are almost upon Celestia’s temple.”

Fluttershy stammered. “B-But wait! You have to tell me what’s going on!”

Luna shot her down with just a few words. “Fluttershy, it is time. Prepare yourself.”

Several things happened within the span of a few short seconds. The planet exploded into view as the Lightning Chariot burst out the other side of the warp tunnel. The chariot and its three ponies entered its atmosphere, and Skyworld came into view amidst a sea of gray clouds. Shining Armor’s shield spell flickered around him and Twilight. Magic blazed through their horns, and the shield tapered to a thick, sharp point at its nose while stretching back to cover Fluttershy and the chariot behind them. And then they reached Celestia’s temple.

By the time it was all over, Fluttershy stumbled but regained her footing as the chariot jolted from the impact. The barrier around Celestia’s temple didn’t shatter so much as it completely disintegrated into stardust and tiny yellow embers of alicorn magic. And the two unicorns pulling the Lightning Chariot galloped on completely unencumbered, as if the barrier they had shot through was less a powerful magical shield and more a speed bump. They steered right, turning back toward Skyworld at a wide arc.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy stared intently over the side of the chariot at the temple. Her hoof and fetlock tightened, and her eyes set into a rare look of determination. Luna was right about one thing: it was time. Time to face whatever nightmare waited for her in the halls of her home and sanctuary.

As they headed straight for the island that housed Celestia’s temple, the magic enveloping Twilight and Shining Armor’s hooves dissolved. The two unicorns stopped running, and their hooves slid across the hard light bridge, catapulting Fluttershy out of the chariot. She launched toward the floating island, somersaulted in midair, and hit the ground on all four legs, skidding to an eventual halt. With her eyes set firmly on the temple grounds ahead, she brought a foreleg to her side, gripped the Crusader Blade in her hoof, and unsheathed it.

A deafening explosion thundered behind Fluttershy, snapping her out of her resolve. Her eyes widened in shock and a small gasp escaping her throat, she spun around to see the source of the sound. Standing next to Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor, and the Lightning Chariot—amidst a few residual crackles of blue electrical magic—was a third unicorn, a mare with a pristine white coat and an expertly curled and coiffed indigo mane. The mare glared venomously at Fluttershy.

“Rarity?” Fluttershy said.

“Oh please, don’t meander on my account,” Rarity said, her icy tone overshadowing the polite veneer of her words. “You go on ahead. I’ll stay with our two guests.”

“What are you doing here?” Fluttershy asked.

“Don’t get the wrong idea, Fluttershy dear,” Rarity said. “I’m not here to help you.” She turned to the other two unicorns, and instantly her demeanor brightened, from the now musical tenor of her voice to the welcoming smile. “Now where are my manners? I haven’t even introduced myself. I am Rarity, commander of the Forces of Nature and one of Mistress Luna’s most trusted liaisons for divine affairs.”

Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor didn’t reply. Instead their eyes wandered over the floating islands as they took in the ruined, desolate state of Skyworld. Charred, collapsed stonework remained where buildings and columns once were, and debris littered the broken roads and squares in between. Many of the structures that still stood, including Celestia’s temple, were badly damaged and eroded, as if they had been under siege. Some of the islands themselves were in bad shape and looked in danger of crumbling away and falling to the earth below. The surrounding dark, gray clouds seemed to drain any color from the islands and structures, only adding to the bleak picture around them. And as for ponies… there were no other ponies around as far as any of them could see. “What happened here?” Shining Armor said.

“This place looks like a warzone!” Twilight added.

“Hello again, Fluttershy.” Celestia’s voice sent a shudder through Fluttershy’s head and body as it echoed in her ears. It contained none of the warmth, gentleness, or reassurance it normally had, and instead made a sense of coldness and dread crawl through her.

“Princess Celestia?”

“Now how did you make it through my barrier?” Celestia sneered. “It seems you’re not the helpless, sniveling, cowering little thing you were before!”

Fluttershy flinched at the remark. “Princess Celestia, listen to me. You have to stop attacking the earth ponies.”

“No,” Celestia said. “Don’t you see, Fluttershy? This is my atonement for my greatest sin. I let the ponies grow arrogant and betray the heavenly order.”

“Have you just now come to that realization?” Luna interjected.

Fluttershy shook her head. “No,” she said. “I don’t believe you. The Celestia I know would never say something like that!”

“Don’t be so naïve!” Celestia retorted. “Mortal ponies cannot truly know gods.”

Fluttershy stepped back, struggling to find the words for a response. “H-How can you say that? I trained under you, learned from you. All this time, I could’ve stayed out of the fighting and spent all my time caring for my little animals, but I didn’t. I practically became your soldier in the war against the Underworld, going on missions, following your orders. I can’t even count the number of times I almost died for you!”

“Sentimental foal,” Luna quipped.

Tears began to well up in the corners of Fluttershy’s eyes. “I trusted you, Celestia,” she said. “I trusted you because I thought you cared about all the ponies who were suffering on the surface.” Fluttershy shook her head. “This isn’t the real you.”

“Someone cue the strings…” Luna sighed.

“Luna!” Fluttershy snapped. “Would you shut up already?!”

“Fluttershy, watch your tone!” Rarity reprimanded. “You are speaking to goddesses.”

“Stay out of this, Rarity!” Fluttershy shouted, turning back and glaring daggers at the unicorn. “Can’t you see what’s at stake here? Look around you! The Goddess of Light has turned dark. Skyworld is destroyed. And I’m trying to fix all of this, so if you’re not going to even try to help out, then leave!”

The two mares glowered at each from afar. Fluttershy panted heavily after her outburst, and her gaze was much angrier. Rarity was more reserved. Eyes narrowed and forelegs crossed in front of her, she stared back at Fluttershy more calmly, but with more contempt in her eyes.

“You never change, do you, Fluttershy?” Celestia scoffed. “You’re just as naïve as ever.”

“I’m not naïve!” Fluttershy growled through gritted teeth.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Celestia went on. “I appreciate how easy you’ve made things for me over the years. But you have to understand that the past is gone.”

“Fine,” Fluttershy said bitterly. “If that’s how you really feel, then I guess I have no choice. As the captain of your guard, it’s my duty to save you from what you’ve become. And if saving you means defeating you, then I’ll…”

Fluttershy hesitated as the weight of her words dawned on her. If it came to that, then it would mean she’d failed. The Goddess of Light would be gone. The earth ponies would still be in peril. Her home would still be destroyed. But she couldn’t let Celestia continue her reign of terror. The earth ponies on the surface were counting on her. Applejack was counting on her. She had to see this through, even if it meant killing Celestia.

Defeated, she hung her head, and another tear fell down her cheek. “Then I’ll do what I have to do.”

Behind her, Twilight narrowed her eyes. With her horn alight, she stepped forward to march toward Fluttershy, only for Shining Armor to put up a hoof to block her. She turned to him to protest, but Shining Armor shook his head and mouthed a few words to her. Twilight seemed to relent, but Shining Armor pointed a hoof up at the sky and whispered a few more words. Clusters of Underworld troops dotted the skies around the floating chain of islands, emerging from the surrounding clouds as they descended upon the island that housed Celestia’s temple. The two unicorns exchanged nods and lit their horns. Where Celestia’s barrier once was, rose-colored magic spread around the island, forming a protective bubble. Once complete, magenta light flashed across the bubble’s surface as Twilight’s magic layered onto Shining Armor’s barrier spell.

Fluttershy headed down the cobblestone path in front of her, stepping over the fallen and fractured stone columns strewn along the ground. A small building stood at the end of the path, her first stop on the way to Celestia, but before she could reach it, three ponies in golden barding floated down. She aimed her Crusader Blade at the group and prepared to shoot, but stopped. Her aim lingered as she looked at the faces of the ponies she was about to shoot, faces she knew and recognized, and what little resolve she had left broke. Two of the ponies drew back their bowstrings, arrows nocked and with none of Fluttershy's hesitation.

A blast of energy slammed into one of the ponies before she could fire, while a stream of needlelike shots pelted the other one. Fluttershy turned toward the source of the surprise attack: two Monoeyes and a Gyrazer that had slipped past the unicorns’ barrier. The three ponies flew to avoid their attacks and went after the monsters, taking their attention away from Fluttershy. Fluttershy turned her blade and aimed it at one of the Monoeyes, but hesitated again. If she helped take out the Underworld monsters, Celestia’s troops would go after her again. She wasn’t sure she could handle their blood on her hooves. The Underworld gave her a distraction, and after a moment of trepidation, she decided to use it.

After placing her weapon back at her side, Fluttershy made a run for the building's entrance. She told herself that the Centurions would be fine as they and the Underworld monsters fought above her, and she soon slipped through the front door. Once inside, she found herself standing in a small entrance hall. Statues of six ponies, three on either side, lined the hall from one side to the other. A door on the other side led past the entrance hall, but a pegasus stallion standing guard at the door noticed her. Wings outstretched, he flew at her. Fluttershy jumped to the side to dodge him, and then ducked as he turned and raised a hoof to punch her. The stallion’s hoof plowed through one of the statues, and Fluttershy jumped back before the stonework could fall on her.

Once she managed to put some distance between them, Fluttershy got a better look at the stallion. He was one of Celestia’s strongarms: unarmed and barely armored, but with a large frame and well-toned, powerful muscles to make up for it. Fluttershy grabbed her weapon from her side and aimed it at the stallion as he turned toward her. Her hoof trembled with each moment she pointed her blade at the other pony. The stallion lunged. Her eyes shut, she turned her head, and a large, neon blue, crossed-shaped shot fired from the muzzle of the Crusader Blade.

The stallion stumbled as Fluttershy’s shot struck him dead on, but still slammed into her and sent them into a statue behind them, smashing it and toppling it over the two of them. Fluttershy groaned as she picked herself up from the surrounding debris. The Crusader Blade lay several feet away. The Centurion was already on his hooves and made a beeline toward her. She dashed forward, ducking past the other pony. The Crusader Blade fell into her hoof, and she pointed it at him.

There was a flash of neon blue, and everything froze. A razor-sharp hard light cross shot out of the tip of Fluttershy’s blade, piercing deep into the stallion’s chest. The cross disappeared, and the stallion’s body collapsed lifelessly to the floor. Fluttershy dropped her weapon and stumbled back from the body. Hyperventilating, and eyes wide in horror, she stared at his unmoving body. Her gaze moved from the blood-stained wound in the pony’s chest to her weapon, and then to her trembling hoof.

And she cried.

She spent a minute crying alone: about the dead stallion, about Celestia, about her ruined home, about Spike, about everything that had happened to her ever since she woke up yesterday outside a war-torn earth pony town.

She eventually returned to her hooves. She wiped her eyes with a foreleg and gazed back at the body and her weapon.

“You understand that there will be more of Celestia’s ponies, do you not?” Luna said. “If you cannot bring yourself to slay the ones in your path, you will never reach Celestia.”

Fluttershy took the Crusader Blade into her hoof, giving it a depressed, hollow look before placing it at her side. “Can you reach out to Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor?” she asked. “I need them to lower the barrier around the temple. Let the Underworld Army in.”

“Fluttershy, if the Underworld is allowed to enter Celestia’s temple, they will destroy it. Do you realize what you are asking?”

“If I run into any more Centurions, I’m going to have to kill them all,” Fluttershy said. “At least this way, I can slip past them without hurting anypony.”

“And Discord’s forces will not?”

“We are talking about Underworld cannon fodder!” Fluttershy snapped. “The Centurions will be fine!” Fluttershy froze. She felt a bitter taste in her mouth left by the words ‘cannon fodder.’

“I…” Fluttershy paused. “I just need them to distract Celestia’s forces.”

“Very well,” Luna said. “I will try to convince them.”

Fluttershy left the room and continued down a narrow corridor. The corridor took her past a long, square room with a low ceiling that could have served as a small garage and eventually brought her outside again. Several groups of Underworld monsters were already fighting with pegasi and unicorns on the inside of Shining Armor’s barrier, which prompted a double-take from Fluttershy when she realized it was still there. The barrier was thinner and more transparent than it was earlier, and as she scrutinized the surface of the bubble, she noticed a few cracks and gaps that were quickly mending themselves. A flash of light blue raced across the rose-colored surface every few seconds.

“They were not pleased to hear your request,” Luna said. “But they did offer a compromise. I advise you take advantage, lest there be more bloodshed than necessary.”

Fluttershy silently agreed and moved down the path before her in a hurried trot. Above her, a few armored unicorns circled around and traded blasts with Underworld monsters, both sides too preoccupied to break away and attack Fluttershy. “What about the blue magic in the barrier?” she asked.

“Rarity offered her magic to electrify the barrier,” Luna replied. “It won’t strengthen the shield spell, but it has returned some harsh feedback to those who strike the force field.”

Fluttershy came to a stop next to the charred, burning wreckage of a small vehicle. She examined the cracked, smoldering dashboard, the blackened, mangled chassis and back wheels, and the three broken horns that jutted from the front of the vehicle.

“Is that an Exo Tank?” Luna asked.

“It was,” Fluttershy said. “This used to be an Exo Tank track.” Her eyes traced the path of the track as she saw the extent of the damage. The spectator seats that had been built around a sharp turn ahead were gone, having crumbled away and fallen through the clouds. A few discrete chunks of landmass, all with a flat surface and aligned so one might easily confuse them for a trail of platforms, were all that remained of the entire second half of the track, which was meant to loop back to where Fluttershy stood. “Luna, you said something about the Chaos Kin before we got here?”

“Yes, of course,” Luna said. “Chaos Kin is but one name by which the creature is known. Others call it Sombra. Little else is known about the Chaos Kin, what it is, or from where it spawned. All we know is that it takes its victims back to its nest in the Chaos Vortex, where it consumes their souls.”

“And Princess Celestia and I released this thing, right?” Fluttershy asked. “But what does that have to do with what’s happening right now? Did the Chaos Kin eat her soul?”

“No. Net yet, at least. And it has everything to do with what is now happening,” Luna said soberly. “The Chaos Kin’s most frightening power is its ability to control the soul’s owner.”

“So then Princess Celestia is being controlled by the Chaos Kin?”

“It is very likely,” Luna answered. “I see no other way Celestia could have changed so drastically. And as for who turned you into a bracelet—who would be capable of such a thing? You yourself admitted that Celestia has put you in some very dangerous situations.”

“She must have done it when she was under the Chaos Kin’s control,” Fluttershy said, hanging her head in guilt. “I thought I was going to have to kill her. I thought I really lost her.” A tear rolled down the side of her cheek. “I can’t believe I lost it like that.”

“That matters not, Fluttershy,” Luna said. “Now you know what has happened to the Goddess of Light, and what you must do to free her.”

Fluttershy gave a slow, uncertain nod. “You’re right,” she said before breaking into an uneasy canter. Her gait turned into a hurried trot and then an almost-gallop as she headed down the length of the Exo Tank track. She passed by a platoon of Centurions, including a few unicorns and pegasi in Centurion Knight armor, and a mechanical Juggernaut as they opened fire on Syrens and Daphnes, and took the track’s sharp turn. Predictably, none of them spotted her, and she had just about sneaked past them.

A condensed mesh of thorns and flower petals, launched by one of the flower-like Daphnes, clipped the wing of a pegasus Centurion, exploding on contact. The blast threw the pegaus and sent him plummeting below the island. Fluttershy gasped in horror. She galloped to the edge of the island, but the fallen pegasus was gone from sight by then. Pulling out her Crusader Blade, she opened fire on the Underworld forces. The first Daphne was hit by a large, cross-shaped blast of light. She also managed to shoot down a Syren with a barrage of tiny crossed-shaped shots before the rest of the combatants noticed her.

Fluttershy stepped back, her weapon lowering in her grip as monster, pony, and Juggernaut alike stopped fighting one another and moved toward her. She turned tail and galloped down the rest of the track as Centurion arrows, Syren whirlwind blasts, and Gatling gun fire from the Juggernaut chased after her. After jumping down a ramp, she reached a building at the end of the track and slipped in. Turning one last time to face the sturdy iron door behind her, she mentally thanked video game logic that the enemies couldn’t chase her through doors before heading deeper inside.

Fluttershy followed several sets of stairs down to the entrance of a wide corridor, which led into a large, circular chamber. Torches lined the walls, illuminating the hall well enough, but exposing the dull, dusty gray color of the stonework. Fluttershy crouched low, sticking to the shadows as she scanned every corner of the room. Luckily, there were no ponies around. But something else bothered her about the room. She could have sworn she had been here before, but the architecture and interior were completely different from what she remembered.

“You seem confused,” Luna said. “Have you never seen Skyworld’s prison?”

Fluttershy paused and furrowed her eyebrows. If confusion wasn’t already written on her features, it was now. “Skyworld doesn’t have a prison.”

“Evidently, it has one now,” Luna pointed out. “I sense a dungeon beneath you as well. You may wish to search both levels.”

Frowning, Fluttershy continued down the hallway still keeping to the shadows as she went. Once she was at the edge of the circular chamber, she noticed two passageways: one heading left and one heading right. She was about to head right, where she could see a row of cells lining the wall, when another voice echoed in Fluttershy’s head, making its owner’s presence known.

“Sorry I’m late! Thanks so much for clearing the way for me, Flutterbutt.”

“Discord!” Fluttershy muttered irritably.

“So thrilled you could join us,” Luna said acidly.

“Can’t a god of the Underworld drop by for a social gathering?” Discord said with feigned innocence. “Honestly, you fillies never even sent me an invite. Anyway, I just want to get this out there. The Chaos Kin and I aren’t allies. We’re not even buddies. Too much difference of opinion…

“Or at least there would be if he had the mental faculties to form opinions,” he said quietly to himself. “I swear he has the personality of a rabid dog.”

“That’s nice,” Fluttershy said dispassionately. “You can go now.”

“Oh is that the thanks I get for distracting Celestia’s troops?” Discord said. “I know you’re using my army to get out of killing anypony. Even when I’m helping, you’re rude.”

“I’m sure your assistance was completely unintentional to begin with,” Luna said.

“Well just because it’s not intentional doesn’t mean it’s not genuine!” Discord argued. “And besides, this one’s not even my fault this time; it’s Fluttershy’s. She set Sombra free. That demonic little horse is quite the handful, even for me!”

“Then why hasn’t anyone killed it yet?” Fluttershy asked. “I don’t understand why anyone would let such a horrible creature live.”

“We tried to destroy him, Fluttershy,” Luna said. “When we first captured the Chaos Kin, we subjected him to the most powerful magic and the most destructive weapons at our disposal. We incinerated him. We tore his body apart piece by piece. We subjected him to poisons and pestilence, both natural and magical. We tried everything imaginable to eradicate the Chaos Kin from existence.”

“And he survived all that?” Fluttershy asked.

“OF COURSE HE SURVIVED!” Luna shouted. Fluttershy cringed. It wasn’t just Luna’s outburst, but something else about it that made her anxious. The more she listened, the more she noticed something off about Luna’s shouting. It wasn’t anger or frustration or even annoyance. It almost sounded panicked. “There was a point when we reduced him to nothing more than a fanglike horn and a few pieces of shattered armor,” Luna said. “He was whole again by dawn of the next day. Sombra will not die!”

Fluttershy was starting to panic. If Luna was right, then there was no way she could destroy the Chaos Kin. Even Discord himself said that the Chaos Kin was difficult to contain. “Then how are we…” she murmured. “How am I…” She thought she was here to save Celestia, but now she wasn’t sure it was even possible.

“Why do you think the Lunar Sanctum was built in the first place?” Luna went on. “This was more than some mere prison fortress, Fluttershy. It was heavily armed and fortified, to ensure that nothing could ever go in or come out. It was the size of an entire moon, so that no creature could hope to navigate its interior. And it was fully automated, so that one unicorn could singlehoofedly direct all of its functions through its control center, with only a token security force to patrol its halls. All of this, so that the Lunar Sanctum might imprison Sombra for as long as possible, to deprive him of even a single soul to feast upon for hundreds, even thousands of years. We were hoping he would starve!”

And there it was. Underneath the volume and apparent outrage directed at her for freeing Sombra, Fluttershy noticed the shaking in Luna’s voice. It wasn’t just Fluttershy that was scared; Luna was scared too.

“My goodness!” gasped Discord a bit too dramatically. “Who made you two ladies the final arbiters of which creatures live and which ones die? The Chaos Kin might not be as soft and cuddly as you, Fluttershy. But you can’t just wipe out every living thing that doesn’t suit your liking.”

“And who are you to make such righteous platitudes?” Luna countered. “Every single one of us has crushed countless lives beneath our hooves, especially you.”

Fluttershy froze at that last remark. Another pang of guilt spread through her.

“Well these aren’t actually hooves, but I suppose you have a point,” Discord said.

“Even so,” Luna said, her voice taking on a pang of remorse, “if anyone should bear responsibility for Sombra’s escape, it is I. If I had known Celestia would target the Lunar Sanctum, I could have intervened. Or Fancypants should have explained the matter. But you know how secretive he was.”

“We asked him what the Lunar Sanctum was for,” Fluttershy said. “He wouldn’t say anything. We thought it was another weapon, like your Reset Bombs.”

“The Lunar Sanctum was a highly classified secret,” Luna said. “Commander Fancypants was neither willing nor authorized to divulge that information. I am more perturbed that he did not inform me of your invasion. He was to send a distress signal through the Lunar Sanctum’s control center if there was an emergency.”

“We… might have destroyed the control center when we were there.”

“Might have?!”

“It was the first thing we blew up when we got there!” Fluttershy squeaked.

“Your attack on the Reset Bomb Depots dealt us a serious blow, and we were fighting a war on two fronts. The Parasprite invasion distracted us further. By the time I realized what happened to the Lunar Sanctum…” Luna paused, and then took a breath. “It is not important. There is nothing more we can do about the past. Your objective is to engage the Chaos Kin and rescue the Goddess of Light.”

Fluttershy continued on, but with a nagging sense of anxiety and trepidation. Somehow, everyone was to blame for the Chaos Kin’s escape; that much they’d clearly established. But that didn’t ease her guilt over setting the creature free in the first place. More importantly, one troubling question remained unanswered, one that Fluttershy couldn’t bring herself to ask: how? How was she supposed to save Celestia from the Chaos Kin if the Chaos Kin couldn’t be destroyed?

She turned down the corridor on the right, to the rows of jail cells. Her eyes lingered on each cell—some locked, others wide open—as she passed them two at a time. They were all empty, but something about them made her shudder. Even after everything that had happened to Celestia and Skyworld, it still wasn’t clear what these cells were for, and the fact that they were all empty wasn’t reassuring.

Fluttershy stopped in front of one of the cells and regarded what was inside. Shining on the floor of the cell was a bright blue circle. A shaft of light shone up from the center of the circle, and a glowing sigil hovered within the shaft of light.

“This is a portal to a Zodiac Chamber, is it not?” Luna asked. “Even with all that’s changed in this temple, I would not expect to find one here.”

“I bet the other Zodiac Chambers weren’t always there before I found them,” Fluttershy mused as she looked over the cell. There was no lock on the door, and a quick glance at the nearby walls and floor did not reveal any buttons or switches. “I don’t see a way in.”

“I sense an illusion spell at work,” Luna mused. “Perhaps there is a false wall leading into the cell, maybe from within one of the other—”

A cross-shaped blade of light shot out of the tip of Fluttershy’s weapon, already in her hoof, as she swung it at the bars of the jail cell. She swung her weapon a second time, the hard light blade slicing through the iron bars, before pointing its muzzle at the door and firing. The cleaved segments of metal flew out of their places in the cell door and clattered all over the ground.

“… Or you could simply destroy the door,” Luna said.

Stepping over the remaining stubs of the bars, Fluttershy entered the prison cell and stepped into the circle of light. The room, the corridor behind her, and the adjoining chamber all vanished in a flash, replaced by the familiar dumbbell-shaped platform and the black void she’d seen in other Zodiac Chambers. She headed to the other end of the platform, where a circular altar bathed in yellow light awaited her. The altar shone brightly for a moment when she approached, and the newly materialized Zodiac weapon hovered a few inches above.

Fluttershy grasped the weapon, a heavy silver club, in her hoof and carefully pulled it toward her. The new weapon’s weight became apparent the moment she took it from its altar, and it nearly dropped to the ground as she stumbled back and struggled to manage its weight. Letting it fall more gently to the ground, she took a moment to regard it. Two curved goat horns extended proudly from the top of the club’s head, and a green gem was embedded in between them. A silver plate with deep blue trim seemed to be fused to the face of the club, with the horns and gem sticking out of it, and a beard was embossed into the silver underneath the plate, giving the entire ensemble the appearance of a goat’s head.

Transferring the handle from her hoof to her mouth, Fluttershy dragged the new weapon, the Capricorn Club, back to the portal and out of the Zodiac Chamber. Once she was back in the prison cell, she laid the club on the floor.

“Do you intend to carry both weapons,” Luna asked.

Fluttershy shook her head. “Clubs are too heavy for me anyway,” she said. Using her front hooves, she pushed and rolled the Capricorn Club to one of the cell walls. “I’m just putting it here to keep it safe. Celestia used to take these off my hooves whenever I found one, but she can’t really do that now.”

“I could do the same for you,” Luna said.

Fluttershy gripped the handle of the Capricorn Club with her mouth. With a grunt, she pulled the handle over to the side, turning the heavy weapon over to the other wall. “That won’t be necessary,” she panted. “It’ll be fine here.”

She was about to step back from the Capricorn Club, but paused when something caught her eye. Her left foreleg, along with her left wing now folded at her side, were disappearing through the stone wall at the cell’s rear. She retracted her foreleg, which emerged harmlessly from behind the wall, and took a step back, glancing up and down the wall with a cocked head and an air of curiosity and mild bewilderment.

“A false wall,” Luna said. “So there is an illusion spell in this dungeon.”

“Then that makes this a little easier,” Fluttershy said. She moved behind the Capricorn Club and crouched, pressing her head and shoulder up against the heavy weapon’s body. With a heave and a grunt, she shoved the club, rolling it on its side until it passed through and disappeared behind the illusion. She took a few steps back and gave the wall one last look, making sure the club had completely disappeared behind it. “I’ll come back for you later,” she finally said before turning around and leaving the cell.

As Fluttershy left the cellblock and headed back to the chamber proper, a realization struck her. Remembering back to the destroyed city where she’d met Applejack the day before, she fished into her tunic and pulled out a thin orange box with the symbol of a ram’s head on it. She was leaving behind one Zodiac treasure, but she could still make use of the one she and Applejack found: the Aries Armor power.

Fluttershy reached for the Crusader Blade and examined its body. A tiny 6x6 grid was etched into the crossguard. She tapped the tiny grid, which exploded into a hologram large enough for her hoof to tap the individual squares. She then pulled off the lid of the orange box, revealing an L-shaped puzzle piece made up of interconnected squares. Normally, she would equip powers before starting a mission, but a cursory glance at her surroundings revealed no enemies Underworld or otherwise, and she had a feeling this power would be helpful. The Aries Armor power levitated from its box, and Fluttershy pushed it onto the grid with a hoof. The puzzle grid—with newly equipped Aries Armor—shrunk back into its weapon’s crossguard, and once the now empty box was stuffed back in her tunic, Fluttershy returned to the main chamber and went down the corridor on the left.

Several flights of stairs later, Fluttershy emerged from the darkness of Skyworld’s dungeon into the dreary gray daylight outside. The main temple complex—and Celestia’s palace within—stood off in the distance, marked by the massive statue of Celestia herself that loomed over the entire temple grounds. On any other day, the statue with its enormous, gleaming outstretched wings would have been a beacon of hope and light, instead of the dark symbol of dread it was now.

The unicorns’ barrier flickered in and out against the dark, cloudy sky in rose, magenta, and light blue. Cracks and fissures were clearly visible in the protective bubble’s surface, and as Fluttershy looked more carefully, she could see swarms of Underworld creatures assaulting the barrier. Fluttershy turned her gaze down from the sky and looked straight ahead at the damaged path of bridges and platforms that led to Celestia. Gale-force winds buffeted the bridge ahead, tossing about three Monoeyes and two Centurion pegasi that had been caught in them.

“I don’t suppose Twilight and Shining Armor’s barrier will catch me if I fall,” Fluttershy said uncomfortably.

“Even if it does, Rarity’s magic would surely electrocute you,” Luna said.

“It would be such a shame if you were swept off by the side winds,” Discord taunted. “My, my, Flutters! Celestia must hate you even more than I do!”

“She’s not doing this,” Fluttershy said, shaking her head. “She wouldn’t.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Celestia chimed.

Fluttershy was stung by the blunt, almost mocking tone in Celestia’s words. She shut her eyes, shaking her head in fierce denial. “You’re not her!” she said. She trudged forward, steeling herself for the powerful winds ahead.

“Isn’t she?” Discord said. “Hasn’t it occurred to you that everypony here—me, Luna, Celestia, Rarity, Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor—that we all hate you?”

“Celestia doesn’t hate me,” Fluttershy insisted. “Not the real one. And what about Rarity?”

“What about me?!” Rarity seethed. “Did you forget what you did to me in the Thunder Cloud Temple, you savage brute?”

“Commander Rarity was severely injured during your battle in the Thunder Cloud Temple,” Luna said. “The claws you wielded cut her deep, almost to the bone. She lost a fair amount of blood, and her wounds became terribly infected. Even with our remedies and healing magic, she is lucky to have survived.”

“I’m lucky my scars aren’t visible through my coat!” Rarity snarled. “And you! You’re lucky Mistress Luna told me to stand down, or else I’d return the favor!”

If Fluttershy had any sympathy for Rarity in that moment, the look on her face would’ve said otherwise. She stopped just short of the wind currents that assaulted the bridge, her eyes narrowed and an irritated expression across her features. “Are you done?” she said flatly. “You have no right to complain about what I did to you when you were going to do the same thing to me. You tried to kill me too at the Thunder Cloud Temple, so don’t think for a second that I feel bad about butchering…”

Fluttershy froze. For the second time, a word hung on her mind and on the tip of her tongue. She had tried to kill Rarity at the Thunder Cloud Temple. She had nearly killed Rarity, the same way she had killed Fancypants at the Lunar Sanctum. It was one thing to call Underworld monsters ‘cannon fodder,’ to gun down dozens of them without a second thought, but these were other ponies, and up until now, she hadn’t felt any remorse for what she did. And then there was Spike… When did she turn into a killer?

“You really are a monster, aren’t you?” Twilight said.

The remark wounded Fluttershy, and she cringed as Twilight’s words sunk in, but had little chance to react before Luna interjected. “Just as I thought!” Luna said. “You two are listening to our conversations.”

“Of course we are,” Twilight deadpanned. “We’ve been eavesdropping on you ever since we got here.”

“Twilight figured out how to listen in on telepathic magic a long time ago,” Shining Armor said. “It’s not that hard once you know the right spell.”

“Be that as it may,” Luna said sternly, “I suggest you stay out of this. This is none of your concern.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m pretty sure this became our concern when you barged into our home and asked for our help,” Twilight shot back. “Especially after you told us such a lousy story. You didn’t think we’d trust you when you asked us to break Princess Celestia’s defenses to ‘save’ her, did you?”

“But I was telling the truth,” Fluttershy stammered. “You heard Princess Celestia, didn’t you? She’s not herself.”

“Yeah, I’ve been listening to what the princess has been saying,” Twilight said. “I also remember what Shining Armor told me before we agreed to help you.”

“You’re joking, right?” Twilight said. She stared incredulously at Shining Armor, who stood with her on the roof of the Chariot Master’s tower.

“No, that’s exactly what she told me,” Shining Armor said. He glanced at the hard light racetrack that wound around the roof, where Fluttershy stood gazing uncomfortably back at them.

“You don’t actually believe she’s telling the truth, do you?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Even if she is, tearing down the barrier around Skyworld is a huge risk. We don’t know how many enemies the Goddess of Light has. Any one of them could attack Skyworld while its defenses are down.”

“And what about her?” Twilight asked, jabbing a hoof in Fluttershy’s direction. “We don’t know who this mare is or her connection to Princess Celestia. For all we know, she could be trying to assassinate the princess. We could be putting her in danger!”

“That’s a good point,” Shining Armor thought aloud. “We don’t even know why Princess Celestia put a barrier around Skyworld in the first place, and we have no way of finding out why or what Fluttershy has to do with it from here.”

Twilight nodded in affirmation. She began her march to the racetrack where Fluttershy stood. Her mind was made. She was going to tell Fluttershy to leave. They were not going to help her reach Skyworld, and if something was wrong with Princess Celestia, she and Shining Armor would find out themselves.

“… What if we’re there to stop her?”

Twilight stopped in her tracks. She shook her head in utter disbelief, and then turned back to face him. “Wait, you’re not actually considering…”

“Fluttershy says that we’re strong enough to destroy the force field around Princess Celestia’s temple,” Shining Armor continued. “That means we should be able to take its place if something goes wrong. And we’ll be in the perfect place to keep an eye on Fluttershy.”

Against her better judgment, Twilight weighed the idea in her head. They were talking about breaching Skyworld’s defenses, leaving it vulnerable, and letting a pony they didn’t trust near the Goddess of Light. It sounded utterly insane, and yet…

“That… actually makes sense.”

Shining Armor nodded. “If Fluttershy’s telling the truth, then we’re helping her save Princess Celestia. If she’s lying to us, then we’ll be the one’s saving the princess from her. And if something else tries to attack Skyworld, we’ll be right there to stop it. Either way, we endear ourselves to Princess Celestia. You love the Goddess of Light, right?”

Twilight smiled at the thought. “I do,” she said. “And what about Fluttershy? What do we do with her if she’s lying?”

“If Fluttershy turns out to be a threat to Princess Celestia…” He paused for a moment, and his features hardened. “Then I won’t stop you from doing what you have to. She’s all yours.”

Twilight nodded, and she allowed a slight smirk to cross her lips. “Then I’m in,” she said. “To avenge Spike.”

“To protect Princess Celestia,” Shining Armor said, nodding his head.

“You lied to me,” Fluttershy said, her voice cracking. Hurt and disbelief were written on her face, and tears welled up in her eyes at the realization that the two ponies she thought she could trust were ready to turn on her at a moment’s notice.

“No, we didn’t,” Shining Armor said. “You asked us to get you through the barrier into Skyworld, and we did. I told you that Twilight wouldn’t trust you, and I told you I’d try to convince her to help. If that means agreeing to put you down if you threaten the Goddess of Light, then so be it. We did our part, Fluttershy. The rest is on you.”

Fluttershy looked down the path ahead of her, past the treacherous winds that blew in front of her, where Celestia’s palace stood casting its dreadful pall over Skyworld. A few Centurions hovered a distance away as they fought Underworld troops—ponies that Fluttershy knew and trained with, who would attack her if they saw her now. Celestia, her trusted goddess, was waiting for her up ahead, and would receive her with the same hospitality. And Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor had all but abandoned her. Never had she felt so alone.

“If it’s any consolation, I do believe you,” Shining Armor added. “I’ve heard enough to know that you were telling the truth.”

“But I don’t,” Twilight said. “For someone who says she desperately wants to save the Goddess of Light, you seem to be taking your sweet time doing it. You did not need to take a detour to loot a ‘Zodiac Chamber.’ And can you explain to me why you asked us to lower our barrier and let the Underworld Army invade Skyworld?”

“I need the Underworld Army as a distraction,” Fluttershy said. “If you hadn’t let them in, I would have to kill every single pony in my way.”

“And how many ponies died because you told us to let Discord’s troops in?” Twilight countered. “Have you seen the Underworld Army? They’re like a swarm of locusts!”

“Twelve, thus far,” Luna interjected. “And I see two more who are on their last legs. That number would surely be greater if Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor had not wisely proposed to simply weaken the barrier.”

“Oh, come now. Let’s not be too harsh on Flutters,” Discord chimed in. “It wasn’t her idea to park the Lightning Chariot at the base of the temple and cut a path of death through the temple grounds. If you go in through the front gate when you could easily start at the front door, you’re going to have to shoot a few guard dogs along the way.”

Twilight stammered. “Hold on a sec—”

“Fifteen,” Luna announced. “Fluttershy, you are being distracted. If you wish to prolong this argument while your fellow soldiers die, I cannot stop you. Your objective is up ahead. I suggest you follow through on it.”

Fluttershy cringed. Once again, she looked down the path ahead of her. Luna was right. Celestia was still under the Chaos Kin’s control, and each second Fluttershy wasted endangered not just Celestia’s soul but the lives of her fellow ponies. She stepped forward, the force of the winds pulling on her mane as they pushed her body toward the other edge. She fought against the winds, even as her hooves began to slip on the weathered stones beneath her. At the very least, Luna’s blunt words silenced everyone else. Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor hadn’t spoken a word. Even Discord was quiet, though Fluttershy wondered whether he had taken some cruel joy out of their disharmony.

Putting the wind currents behind her, she approached the main temple complex. She ascended a set of stairs and stepped onto a raised square, the palace and the statue of Celestia with its massive wingspan rising high above her. A mixture of relief and apprehension washed over her all at once. She was almost there. Just a little further, and she would be face to face with a powerful alicorn goddess and the monster possessing her.

Bright yellow magic rose along the edges of the square, forming a wall of magical flames that trapped her on all sides. Four bright flashes of multicolored light later, and four Centurion unicorns hovered at the other end of the square, soon joined by a pair of pegasus Strongarms. Darkness fell over Fluttershy, and she pulled her weapon and turned to aim it at a Juggernaut hovering behind her. Her eyes darted between the Centurions and the Juggernaut, and she frantically searched the skies in vain for any Underworld enemies.

The unicorns fired their bows, and Fluttershy rolled and sidestepped as a volley of light arrows flew at her. One of the Strongarms produced a massive barbell and flung it at her. Fluttershy jumped back, narrowly avoiding the barbell as it crashed into the ground in front of her. She heard a heavy sound behind her, like a massive object being swung, and turned her head to see the Juggernaut’s catapults hurling two burning stones at her. She galloped out of the way, hearing the explosions of the fiery stones behind her ring in her ears. Another volley of light arrows whizzed past Fluttershy as she ducked her head and kept on running. She rolled forward, slipping past one last arrow, and pointed her Crusader Blade at the Centurions. Her aim hovered over each of her fellow ponies, her hoof shaking as she aimed from one familiar face to the next. Even as the unicorns readied their bows to fire, their faces showing no reluctance or warmth, she was too scared to shoot any of them.

One pegasus rushed headlong at her, forelegs outstretched and ready to grab her. Fluttershy flinched, but ducked and sidestepped around the charging Strongarm, her Crusader Blade’s hard light edge materializing and vanishing in an instant before she turned around and fired a cross-shaped blast. As the pegasus collapsed to the ground, she stopped in place, her weapon hoof still directed at his unmoving body and shock washing over her as she realized what she had done. That moment was cut short when a stabbing pain pierced into her right flank, followed almost immediately by one in her side when a light arrow struck her just beneath her wing and a third one in her right shoulder. Fluttershy turned back to the source of the arrows, where one unicorn mare still had an arrow trained on her. She fired her weapon at the mare, who recoiled back and fell as the blast struck her face and horn.

Fluttershy looked wordlessly from the body of the downed mare to the four remaining ponies, all ready to attack. Grief and remorse weighed on her over the unicorn mare, as well as the pegasus behind her, but there was no way around it. Defeated, she slowly shook her head and gave up. There wasn’t anything else she could do. She aimed her weapon at the remaining three unicorns and fired a stream of tiny crossed-shaped shots, tearing though their barding and shooting all three down. She turned her attention to the remaining pegasus Strongarm, dodge-rolling to the side to evade another thrown barbell, and fired back with a blast from her blade. The pegasus fell to the ground, and Fluttershy rushed at him, slashing with the Crusader Blade as she ran past.

A metallic click rang out behind Fluttershy, and she turned to face the Juggernaut hovering at the other end of the square. She jumped left, stepping in between the twin guns on either side of the Juggernaut as they fired a stream of bullets at her. She returned fire with her own weapon, firing at the siege weapon’s arms. The Juggernaut drifted to the side, moving to catch Fluttershy in one of its streams of gunfire, while Fluttershy matched its movements.

Before long, the Juggernaut’s arms broke off of its center head, and the entire thing collapsed. Fluttershy lowered her blade, while the fiery magic barrier enclosing the square flickered and receded. Fluttershy turned back toward the temple complex, the path now clear.

“Go now, Fluttershy,” Luna announced. “It is finally time to save Celestia.”

“‘Save Celestia?’” Discord said. “Don’t you mean ‘crush Celestia?’”

Fluttershy looked from the edifice of Celestia’s palace to the bodies of the six ponies lying before her. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she returned the Crusader Blade to her side. “Go to hell, Discord,” Fluttershy said as she started toward the temple entrance. “Just go to hell.”

* * * * * * * * * *

The Goddess of Light stumbled as she made her way across the threshold of her temple. She regarded Fluttershy, standing at the far end of the temple entrance, with a cold, piercing glare in her once kind light fuchsia eyes.

“So, you’re here to fight me, Fluttershy?” she asked.

“No…” Fluttershy said, taking a step back. After a moment, she shook her head, shaking a tear off her cheek, and stared back at Celestia, her resolve and courage returning to her. “No. I’m here to save you!”

Celestia’s horn lit. The ground shook under Fluttershy’s hooves, causing her to stumble as she felt it push against her. All around her, the temple complex, from the surrounding columns and arches to the main palace, began to fall below the circular platform they stood on. Celestia’s wings spread out, and she lifted off the ground with a series of slow but powerful flaps. Fluttershy reached for her weapon and aimed at her.

“Stop!” Luna said. “Do not fire upon Celestia.”

“Wait, why not?”

“The Chaos Kin lurks somewhere close by,” Luna said. “It controls Celestia from afar. You must find it and sever its connection to her.”

“So the Chaos Kin isn’t inside Princess Celestia?”

“Not in any literal sense. If you attack Celestia, only she will come to harm. Find the Chaos Kin and destroy it, and take care not to wound Celestia.”

An intense blast of magic fired from Celestia’s horn. Fluttershy rolled to the side, letting the attack pass her, and scanned the impromptu arena for any sign of Sombra. The main palace and the temple grounds lay below them, their arena in the midst of Celestia's great statue, but Fluttershy saw nothing else out of the ordinary. She ducked as another three bolts of magic shot at her. Celestia’s horn charged again, and three balls of yellow magical fire shot down at her from the sky. Fluttershy leaped out of the way, but was caught in the explosions they made on impact. Her body hit the ground and rolled for a few feet before stopping. When she looked up, Celestia’s horn was lit, and the Goddess of Light fired a beam of searing magic at the ground. The beam scorched the ground on its way to Fluttershy, and Fluttershy rolled out of its path before it could reach her. She quickly got back to her hooves and looked back up at Celestia.

Something caught Fluttershy’s eye. Floating above Celestia’s head were a few curls of shadowy black mist. They faded away, only to reappear a moment later, and they flickered around a specific point in the air, as if something was at its center.

“There!” Luna said. “Above her!”

“No,” Discord chimed gleefully, “you don’t need to look up there.”

Fluttershy jumped to the side as another bolt of magic fired from Celestia’s horn. She aimed her weapon up, pointing the gunblade’s tip at the aberration, and fired. The blade’s cross-shaped blast struck something solid above Celestia’s head, and the dark, smoky wisps shuddered. Celestia was unfazed, and she fired another powerful beam of magic. Fluttershy sidestepped the blast and returned fire, hitting the shrouded object a second time. The black smoke vanished, and an armored creature appeared in its place before falling to the ground. Fluttershy looked closely at the downed monster: a demonic unicorn with a gray coat, black mane, and a curved, smooth, blood-red horn. Silver-plated barding covered the legs and chest of the Chaos Kin, and a tattered red cape, which may have once been a splendid royal garment, was draped over its body.

The Chaos Kin opened its eyes, scarlet red with even deeper red irises and bright, sickly green sclera, and snarled at Fluttershy like a feral beast. It rose off the ground and hovered toward the far end of the arena, away from both her and Celestia. Fluttershy stared silently back at the creature, her teeth bared slightly and her hoof clenching the grip of her weapon. She ducked under another bolt of magic from Celestia’s horn and darted after Sombra, dodging and ducking under Celestia’s magic as she went. Sombra opened its mouth, releasing a cloud of noxious purple gas and projecting it at her. Fluttershy circled around and fired her blade, hitting the creature a third time.

Fluttershy heard Celestia groan behind her, along with the sound of hooves collapsing on solid ground. “Princess Celestia?” She turned to find the Goddess of Light kneeling on the ground, eyes shut and a hoof pressed against her head. She watched hopefully, waiting for her to fight off the Chaos Kin’s control, only to be dismayed when she opened her eyes. Purple mist emanated from the sides of Celestia's eyes, and she looked at Fluttershy with that same cold, heartless stare.

Celestia rose off the ground and shot another beam of magic from her horn. Fluttershy dodged and turned back to the Chaos Kin, only to jump back as another noxious cloud rolled toward her. Her attention darted from the toxic cloud back to the Chaos Kin, which flew off to another point over the platform, and then back to Celestia, whose magic aura radiated from her horn. It was the last thing she saw before recoiling back painfully as the yellow aura became an intense, blinding flash. She stumbled back, putting a hoof to her burning, watery eyes. She tried to open her eyes, but couldn’t see past the indelible blob left by Celestia’s flash in her field of vision. Her neck and chest were struck by three scorching blasts, and she fell back. A fourth blast hit her chest in the form of a powerful beam, throwing her off the ground and sending her back several feet.

Fluttershy opened her eyes, her vision now recovered, only to see a swirling tower of yellow magical flames barreling toward her. She rolled out of the way and rose onto her hooves, scanning the arena for both Celestia and the Chaos Kin. Celestia remained at the center of the platform, her magic charging as before, while Sombra hovered off to the left, eyes narrowed at them. Fluttershy dashed left, ducking and sidestepping past a barrage of Celestia’s magic, and fired her weapon. The Chaos Kin fell backward, but remained in the air and returned an animalistic growl. Fluttershy kept firing with a spray of tiny cross-like shots from her blade, but the Chaos Kin had already flown off in Celestia’s direction. Its body dissolved into black smoke as it wrapped around Celestia’s barrel and neck, its head peering from behind Celestia’s while its hooves and phantasmic body held onto her.

Fluttershy tried to aim at the Chaos Kin, but couldn’t get a clear shot. Its head hung too close behind Celestia’s head and continuously beating wings, and she couldn’t aim at the creature’s legs for fear of shooting Celestia. She jumped aside to dodge another blast of magic, as well as another toxic cloud spat out by the Chaos Kin, but when she aimed her weapon again, she still didn't have a shot. “Get off of her!” she said, growing increasingly frustrated.

“Do not grow impatient,” Luna said. “You must wait for an opening.”

Fluttershy craned her head, trying to get a better angle of the cowardly monster using Celestia as a shield. The Chaos Kin was hiding behind Celestia, so it made sense that she could get a better shot at it from behind. She darted forward, cutting the distance between them before circling around Celestia. Celestia let loose her magic, sending bolts of sunfire from her horn at Fluttershy, all of which Fluttershy jumped over and sidestepped. Getting ahead of Fluttershy, the Goddess of Light directed her magic at the ground, sending up a wall of magic fire in her path. Fluttershy skidded on her hooves, only to get blindsided as a blast from Celestia’s horn struck her side, throwing her back several feet before she hit the ground near the edge of the platform.

Fluttershy let out a pained grunt as she tried to bring herself to her hooves, her wing and side burning and throbbing from the impact of Celestia’s spell. She opened her eyes, only to see Celestia’s aura swell across her entire form. The arena, all of Skyworld, and the surrounding clouds illuminated as the Goddess of Light’s iridescent mane and tail and her magnificent wings and legs erupted in intense, fiery magic, and she became almost as bright as the sun itself. In all of the fire and bright light, Fluttershy noticed something else: Sombra jumping off and reshaping itself to escape immolation by Celestia’s flames.

Wings beating, Celestia bore down on Fluttershy. Fluttershy rose back to her hooves and scrambled out of the way, galloping around her and charging after the Chaos Kin. As soon as she was close enough, she lifted the Crusader Blade and fired, then skidded to a stop. With her weapon still directed at the Chaos Kin, she glanced back at Celestia, whose horn was pointed at her and ready to fire another spell. Fluttershy leapt out of the way, at the same time firing a pair of small homing shots.

The bright blue shots struck Sombra one after the other, the first piercing the barding on its chest while the second collided with its horn, sending the creature falling to the ground. Behind her, Fluttershy heard Celestia groan a second time. She turned back, seeing her collapsed on the ground with her eyes squeezed shut and a hoof against her head. The aura and flames that covered Celestia’s body had dissipated, and she swayed to the side, as if disoriented. Fluttershy approached her with slow, tentative steps, her blade still trained on the Chaos Kin and a look of concern on her face.

Suddenly, Fluttershy’s body seized up, and she felt herself lifting off the ground as a yellow aura spread across her entire body. Panicking, she struggled to break free, or even move her weapon hoof, but found every part of her body below the neck trapped as her arms were forcibly spread out and her body raised above the center of the platform. She looked back at Celestia, who hovered off the edge of the platform, her horn glowing brightly. Fluttershy’s gaze turned upward as the surrounding area grew bright, and horror gripped her to her very core.

A harsh, burning yellow light penetrated the clouds directly above Fluttershy. Recognizing the light, Fluttershy looked back to Celestia, but her fearful and pleading eyes were met only by a remorseless gaze as the Goddess of Light prepared her spell. She could faintly hear Celestia as she muttered a few words. “Time for a sacrifice.”

“Aries Armor!” Fluttershy cried.

The Solar Flare spell burned through the clouds and slammed into the arena like a fiery torrent, consuming every inch of the platform. Waves of fiery magic overflowed from the blast, crashing into the statue of Celestia and the temple grounds below. When the spell subsided, the arena was reduced to a smoldering wreck. Cracks and fissures formed in the outer regions of the platform, where sunfire had baked the earth. Toward the center of the platform, the rock was just starting to solidify after having partially melted and bubbled, and still retained a red-orange glow. Concentric rings of yellow flame encircled the epicenter of the blast. At the center of it stood Fluttershy, a deep orange glow over her body and the sign of Aries emblazoned on her chest.

“Fluttershy?” Luna said. “Are you unharmed?”

Despite the damage done to the platform by the Solar Flare, Fluttershy had emerged mostly unscathed. Underneath the aura of the Aries Armor power, she couldn’t see or feel any new injuries, not even a first-degree burn. “My coat’s a bit singed,” she murmured. Fluttershy was frozen in shock, even after the Solar Flare spell had ended. The Celestia she was fighting was not the caring Goddess of Light she knew, but a helpless puppet of the Chaos Kin; that much she already understood. But she couldn’t shake the sight of Celestia trapping her and looking her in the eyes while she brought down on her the same spell she used to incinerate the Hewdraw and demolish a Reset Bomb Depot.

Fluttershy was snapped out of her thoughts when a ball of bright yellow magic slammed into her and exploded. Uninjured, she looked up to see Celestia hovering above with her horn charging. A flurry of magic bolts rained down on her, pelting her body for several seconds before she jumped and rolled out of the way. She would have a few extra bruises later, but until it wore off, the Aries Armor would protect her from the worst of Celestia’s magic. Fluttershy scanned the arena, her head whipping around and her eyes canvasing the air above. Sombra had vanished, having escaped Fluttershy’s watch in the chaos of the Solar Flare spell. She searched for any sign of the monster, all the while making a slight effort to dodge Celestia’s spellfire.

Her eyebrows furrowed when she turned to a particular point in the air and noticed the telltale wisps of black smoke. She aimed her blade and fired, hitting the Chaos Kin head on. The Chaos Kin rematerialized and fell, collapsing on the ground in a heap. Gripping her blade tightly, Fluttershy charged forward, dodging blasts from Celestia’s horn as she closed in on Sombra. The weapon’s hard light edge caught the creature’s neck, burying itself in armor and flesh as Fluttershy swung, before yanking the creature’s head and snapping its neck. The Chaos Kin’s body rolled and slid along the ground like a ragdoll, while Fluttershy slowed her gallop and came to a stop ahead of it.

Celestia cried out and flailed her limbs as black, smoky mist escaped from her body, pouring out especially from her wings, legs, eyes and mouth before dissipating in the air. She fell to the ground and collapsed with her limbs splayed. “Princess Celestia?!” Fluttershy said. She galloped to her, running past the Chaos Kin’s smoldering body. She bent down and placed a hoof in front of Celestia, a look of concern on her face. “Are you alright? I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Celestia looked up at Fluttershy. She gave a weak smile and placed a tender hoof on Fluttershy’s face. Fluttershy returned the smile and sniffled, tears in her eyes.

“Fluttershy!” Luna shouted. “Behind you!”

“Huh?” Fluttershy turned back in time to see Sombra, his body partially dissolved and shrouded in black mist, zoom past. Time seemed to slow down around her in those next seconds. She could only watch in horror as Sombra’s horn flew behind Celestia and stabbed into her back. Celestia’s face contorted in pain, and her legs spasmed under her. The horn yanked itself out of her back, white light shining from the torn open wound as Celestia was pulled onto her hooves, reared onto her hind legs, and let out a strangled, agonized scream. Her scream cut off as she froze eerily in place, and her body turned to stone.

Fluttershy looked past the petrified Celestia to the Chaos Kin, whose smoky form hovered at the far edge of the platform. Its head was perfectly straight above its body, as if Fluttershy hadn’t broken its neck a minute ago, and held in its black, smoky hoof was an orb of breathtakingly radiant white light. A few iridescent notes shimmered along its surface, and as Fluttershy looked closely, she could make out the image of a sun glimmering in the center of the orb—Celestia’s cutie mark.

The rest of Sombra’s head dissolved into black smoke, while the horn rose up several feet and slashed through the air, ripping a large gash in the sky. Through the tear, Fluttershy could see into a different world, one with a deep orange sky. The Chaos Kin reformed its body, snarled at her, and flew inside with Celestia’s soul in its grasp.

“It’s escaping into the Chaos Vortex!” Luna said.

The rift suddenly contracted, already starting to close. Fluttershy sprung forward, wings unfolding at her sides. “Luna! You have to help me fly right now!”

Blue light flared across Fluttershy’s wings, and she lifted off the ground. She soared up to the portal, only to crash into it as the rift shrunk into a tiny tear too small for her to fit through. The blue aura around her wings burned out, and she fell back onto the platform. Picking herself up, she looked back up and watched helplessly as the portal closed.

“Out of the way! Coming through!”

Fluttershy recognized the voice. “Rainbow Dash?” Hearing hoofbeats above her, she turned just in time to see the Lightning Chariot streaking toward the platform like a pink comet. It collided with the portal, shattering it open in an explosion of glasslike shards that threw all three ponies back. Rainbow, Twilight, Shining Armor, and the now dented chariot all crashed into the platform. Blue electricity flashed a moment later, and Rarity stood over them. She grimaced at what she saw.

Blood ran freely from numerous gashes on Twilight’s and Shining Armor’s bodies, both of whom lay unconscious on the ground. In many of their wounds, pieces of the shattered portal dug into their skin like shards of broken glass. “Oh dear…” Rarity said. “Mistress Luna, these two need help. Perhaps we should bring them back?” A flurry of leaves swirled around the three unicorns as blue light shone on them. They floated off the ground, and a second later, they were gone.

Fluttershy turned back to Rainbow Dash, who was struggling to stand on her hooves. Though Rainbow wasn’t as severely wounded as the other two, shards of the portal cut into her legs and body, and blood seeped from her injuries into her coat. “Oh my goodness!” Fluttershy said. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Rainbow grunted. “We’ve gotta help Celestia, now.”

Fluttershy stared back at her at a loss for words, a mixture of concern for Rainbow’s injuries, despair for Celestia’s soul being stolen, and general bewilderment overwhelming her. “She is right,” Luna said. “But you cannot go just yet. Skyworld is defenseless without Commander Rarity and the Lightning Chariot unicorns to maintain the barrier. We must remain for now, lest Discord lay Skyworld to waste.”

Rainbow lifted her right hoof, studying the Silver Bow equipped to her leg. “Health Recovery.” A tiny square on one of the bow’s limbs shone as she activated an equipped power. White sparks flew off of her coat and swirled around her. Her breaths, quick and shallow, became calmer as the cuts and gashes on her body began to heal. As each of her major cuts closed up, the shards of shattered portal were pushed out and fell to the ground, disintegrating instantly. Rainbow Dash spread her wings, a green magical aura spreading across them, and took to the air. She flew into the Chaos Vortex alone, while Fluttershy looked on from below.

The Chaos Vortex

Chapter 21: The Chaos Vortex

Fluttershy stood at the far end of the main sanctum of Celestia’s temple, gazing at a small armory behind the throne. The place had seen better days. No longer did it have the same serenity and warmth that Celestia exuded when she was still here, in happier times. Now it seemed dark, desolate, ruined, and most of all lonely.

In the half hour since Sombra escaped with Celestia’s soul, not a single centurion pony had roamed the halls. Most likely, they were either lost without Celestia to give orders or trying to find refuge somewhere in Skyworld. Fluttershy wasn’t even sure how many were still alive. Shining Armor and Twilight Sparkle were gone too, badly wounded after breaking open the portal to the Chaos Vortex and taken to Luna’s realm for medical care. Rainbow Dash had gone after Sombra on her own, not even bothering to stay with Fluttershy for even a minute. Discord had left too now that the Goddess of Light was gone and Skyworld was all but destroyed. Luna had remained only to shore up what was left of Skyworld’s defenses, and to wait until Fluttershy was ready to enter the Chaos Vortex.

Fluttershy looked back, casting a somber glance at the dark, empty chamber, before turning back to the weapons in front of her. On one of the middle shelves sat a massive club, or at least it was technically a club. The salmon-colored blade attached to its body made it as much a greatsword or a broadaxe as a true club. She didn’t immediately recognize the weapon, or else she would have realized that the club’s purple, scaly body and the blade resembled one of the horns of the Hewdraw she had fought years ago.

Turning away from the Hewdraw Club, Fluttershy was surprised to discover a certain bow resting on one of the other shelves. The bow’s limbs were a deep blue, much like the Silver Bow that Rainbow Dash used, only instead of silver, the bow’s blades were gold in color. A closer look revealed that this bow was incomplete: a silver sheen still permeated one of the golden blades, the other blade was still detached from its limb, and the grip and bowsight were still under construction.

Fluttershy left the unfinished bow alone and looked into another shelf containing a pair of orbitars. The orbitars were made to resemble a pair of lightly armored cherubs each aiming a golden bow and arrow nearly twice their size. She reached for the pair of Centurion Orbitars, but a pang of guilt hit her in the chest, and she withdrew her hoof. The gilded helmets, leather armor, and weaponry made the cherubs look too much like Celestia’s centurion ponies.

Pulling her hoof back, Fluttershy turned toward the last available weapon in the armory, a pair of translucent, platinum-colored braces. She picked up one of the braces, apparently a set of claws, and put it on her hoof. She held out her hoof, and a pair of blue-white lasers shot out of the brace, forming a pair of nine-inch talons. Feeling the heat from the Beam Claws licking her hoof, she allowed the talons to retract, equipped the other brace to her other hoof, and set out from the sanctum. She didn’t get very far before she stopped at an intersection in the hallway, where a pedestal stood in the center. Eight sigils formed a broken ring above the edge of the pedestal, each one of the Zodiac signs, with four empty spaces in between them.

“This must be where Princess Celestia is keeping the Zodiac treasures,” Fluttershy thought out loud. She thought back to the Capricorn Club, which she left behind in one of the prison cells under Skyworld. She still had the Aries Armor power with her, but that still left two missing treasures.

“Maybe one of the Zodiac treasures would help,” Fluttershy said. “There has to be a reason that Princess Celestia wanted me to find all of them. The Capricorn Club is too heavy, but the Aries Armor saved my life earlier.”

Looking over her options, she turned down the Taurus Arm, the Leo Cannon, and the Cancer Claws. They were all too bulky and would make it harder to use the Beam Claws. She wasn’t even sure how anypony was supposed to wear the Cancer Claws. She also passed over the Virgo Palm, still remembering what Celestia told her about palms draining the user’s life force. As much as she wanted to save Celestia, she didn’t want to sacrifice her own life. It hadn’t come to that yet. She prayed it never would.

Fluttershy also knew what the Libra Sponge power did and rejected that too, for the same reason as the Virgo Palm. That just left three choices. She considered the Scorpio Staff for a second, but then turned it down, unsure of how much good poison would be against a monster like Sombra. She briefly raised an eyebrow at the Gemini Orbitars before settling on the last weapon left, the Sagittarius Bow. Reaching her hoof into the sign of Sagittarius, Fluttershy waited as the bow materialized in her hoof. She separated the bow’s limbs and placed them against her foreleg, allowing them to magically attach before finally setting out.

Fluttershy broke into a gallop down the remaining hallways, taking a few sharp turns as she made her way to the exit. She’d lost enough time as it was, picking out her weapons and waiting for Luna’s power of flight spell to recharge. She hoped that Sombra hadn’t eaten Celestia’s soul by now. Reaching the front entrance to the temple, Fluttershy made a hard right turn and spread her wings. As Luna’s magic enveloped her wings and she took to the air, she glanced down at Celestia’s petrified form. “Hang on, Princess Celestia!” she said. “I’m coming for you!”

4:59…

4:58…

4:57…

Fluttershy looked on anxiously as she approached the shattered portal and the Chaos Vortex’s unnaturally orange sky came more and more into view. She took a deep breath, trying to relax the feeling in the pit of her stomach in the face of what was about to come.

“Dark Shy has gone ahead,” Luna said.

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “Who?” she asked. It took a second for her to remember the name. “Oh, her! Actually, we’ve been calling her Rainbow Dash for a while now. I think she even likes the name.”

Numerous towers, castles, and structures floated in the air in varying orientations, as if they were ripped from the earth and doomed to float and twist weightlessly in oblivion. Rifts tore open in the space around Fluttershy, and within them giant eyes stared at her. Luna’s magic flared through Fluttershy’s wings, and she gaped at the bizarre scenery as she flew through the environment.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Fluttershy said. A group of Monoeyes floated ahead of her in procession. Aiming her Beam Claws, she fired a volley of white-hot needles at them, taking out the whole group.

“That is to be expected from the Chaos Vortex,” Luna said.

Another line of Monoeyes flew ahead of Fluttershy. Fluttershy aimed her weapon again, firing a white laser at them, only for them shift several feet away a split second later. Fluttershy frowned and moved her foreleg to aim at them again, but hundreds of giant eyes opened in the sky and gazed at her. Fluttershy let out an eep and threw her hooves up in front of her face. She lowered her hooves a second later and looked back up to see the giant eyes gaze in different directions and eventually close. She could hear Luna clear her throat, and she gave a sheepish smile.

“Um… sorry,” Fluttershy said. “They sort of came out of nowhere.”

“Once again, welcome to the Chaos Vortex,” Luna deadpanned.

A group of Komaytos floated ahead of Fluttershy in a spiral formation, only to double back toward her. “I mean, I saw something like this in the Labyrinth of Deceit,” Fluttershy said. She flew on through a broken stone bridge and a cluster of houses spinning in the air, readying her claws to slash at the Komaytos. “But that was all an illusion. Are you telling me this is all real?”

“All too real, yes,” Luna answered, guiding Fluttershy over another broken, twisted stone bridge and toward a flying mountain range. “Sometimes I think Discord would be at home in this realm if he didn’t already rule the Underworld.”

4:32…

4:31…

4:30…

A dark, shadowy arm reached out in front of Fluttershy, causing her to nearly crash into it. Luna guided her flight path around the arm, only for Fluttershy to come to an abrupt halt as another arm blocked her way. Fluttershy looked ahead to see a multitude of hands stretch from behind the floating mountains.

Fluttershy kept going, pushed forward by Luna’s magic despite her own hesitation. She maneuvered around the shadow hands, suffering one close call after another as the arms all tried to grab her or block her. With one last swerve to the right, she managed to dodge the last of the hands. Fluttershy turned back, only to see the hands reach after her, blurring together into a mass of darkness. They overtook Fluttershy, surrounding her in shadows, and when she opened her eyes, she only saw darkness. She could still hear her own wingbeats and the shimmer of alicorn magic in her wings, which brought her some comfort.

“Um, okay…” Fluttershy murmured. “Who turned out the lights?”

“Do not be concerned,” Luna said, cautiously guiding Fluttershy through the darkness. “There must be a way through.”

“How do you know?” Fluttershy asked.

“I’m certain of it,” Luna said a little too forcefully. She paused for a moment. “Relatively certain.”

3:55…

3:54…

3:53…

Gale-force winds bombarded Fluttershy, pushing her back as she flew through the void. Fluttershy pushed on through, gritting her teeth and beating her wings as the winds pulled back her mane and threatened to send her hurtling deeper into the darkness. As the winds finally subsided, she could see light spilling out of a doorway ahead.

“There’s a way out,” Fluttershy said. She flew on ahead, passing through the doorway, and found herself staring at the same orange horizon as before. But the shadows still covered her entire body, and she looked down to see her once yellow coat, her white tunic, and even her pink mane completely blackened by darkness. “Luna? We can fix this, right?”

“Settle down, Fluttershy,” Luna said. “I’m certain we can restore your normal colors.” She steered Fluttershy right toward an upturned castle, a rotating coliseum, and a floating mountaintop with a waterfall of steaming water that cascaded into the orange abyss below.

“Is that hot spring water?” Fluttershy asked.

“I believe it is,” Luna said. “I have an idea.” She sent Fluttershy through the waterfall, drenching the pegasus in the hot waters. Almost instantly, the shadows washed off of Fluttershy, and her coat, mane and tunic returned to their usual yellow, pink, and white. “Do you see, Fluttershy? You have returned to normal.”

“Well at least we solved that problem,” Fluttershy muttered, inspecting one of her hooves. “Are we getting closer to finding the Chaos Kin?”

“I hope so,” Luna said. “I can sense his presence drawing closer, but I have no way of knowing if the Chaos Vortex is interfering with my power to track him, or to what extent.”

Several Syrens flew in front of Fluttershy’s path, turning back to face her. Fluttershy held up her foreleg, aiming her Beam Claws at one of the Syrens, when a Monoeye flew toward her from the left and hovered right behind her. Fluttershy glanced back at the Monoeye, giving the creature a scowl. “Hey! What are you doing?!” Fluttershy snapped. She turned back to the Syrens just in time to duck under a whirlwind blast from one of them. Another Syren fired another whirlwind at her, and she barely had time to steer left to dodge it. When she glanced back again, she saw a second Monoeye hovering behind her. “Would you get out of my way?!”

“Fluttershy, what is the matter?” Luna asked. “Those enemies are not interfering with you in any way. However, they are making it more difficult for me to guide your flight path through the Chaos Vortex. Hold on.”

A blue aura enveloped the two Monoeyes, and a second later they were catapulted in opposite directions. They smashed into two different islands, lying in their own craters for a moment before fading into purple mist. Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief, then turned her Beam Claws back toward the Syrens and fired on them.

“Whew. Thanks, Luna,” Fluttershy said. Fluttershy kept going, soaring over one floating island with a few stone houses and in between two castle keeps that were twisted sideways.

3:19…

3:18…

3:17…

“We are getting close to the Chaos Kin,” Luna said.

“Good,” Fluttershy said. Fluttershy scanned the area, looking for any sign of Sombra in the skies, on the buildings, in the alleyways between houses, and on the undersides of every island. It wasn’t long before she spotted the demon unicorn glaring at her from one of the nearby roofs. “There he is!” She pointed her claws at the monster. A spray of white-hot needles burst from her weapon, skewering the armored unicorn and making him fade into black mist, when a second Sombra leaped onto the roof of a nearby house. “No wait, there he is.” One by one, three more Sombras emerged from behind the islands and flew at her. “Wait, which one’s the Chaos Kin?”

“All of them,” Luna replied, her voice faltering.

“I don’t understand,” Fluttershy said, firing on as many Sombras as she could while more appeared. One of them fired a bolt of dark magic at her. Fluttershy dodged and tried to aim again, but could barely get another shot before the Sombras opened fire on her.

“Neither do I. The spell I’m using to track Sombra is identifying all of them as the real thing. Could it be that the Chaos Kin is dividing?”

“It can do that?” Fluttershy asked. She rolled left to dodge two blasts from the Sombras. She fired on one, dissipating it into a cloud of black mist, only to fly back as one of their shots nearly hit her head. “But how are we supposed to find the real one? Only one is real, right?”

“This is the Chaos Vortex,” Luna said. “Technically, they are all real. But only the original will have Celestia’s soul. Good thinking, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy began to pick up speed. She fired at more of the Sombras as she went, but as she flew past, they stopped coming. She glanced back for a second to see a few more emerge for windows and alleys, but none dared pursue her. The castles and houses gave way to a spiraling tunnel of crumbling stone columns and temple ruins. She felt her wings change direction, steering her through the tunnel of floating wreckage and away from the Sombra copies.

2:54…

2:53…

2:52…

Broken columns and crumbling buildings flew into place as the spiraling tunnel extended further out. Fluttershy continued down the tunnel when a black figure flew past her. As the figure turned around to face her, she could make out a pair of flapping wings, four hooves, a mare’s body, and a flowing mane and tail. The shadow pegasus didn’t have any color to it, but to Fluttershy it was unmistakable.

“Is that me?” she asked. Two more shadow pegasi joined the first one, and as Fluttershy got a closer look, she realized the three of them each had different weapons.

“In a manner of speaking, yes,” Luna said. “They appear to be your shadows.”

Fluttershy fired at one of the shadow ponies, with her claws, and it faded into black mist. Another shadow lifted its hood to aim a blade at her, but she slashed it with her Beam Claws before it could fire. “My shadows?” she asked. “So when those arms swallowed me up before…”

“Possibly, yes,” Luna answered. “But that would be too logical for this realm.”

Fluttershy fired a white laser from her claws, burning through two of the shadows. She spotted another shadow pegasus with a cannon attached to her foreleg and flew at it, slashing through it with her claws before it could attack. “I don’t even use cannons anymore,” she muttered under her breath. She aimed her claws and fired a spray of needles at another shadow pegasus armed with a pair of orbitars, and then pointed her hoof at the next two shadows and fired a laser at them.

By the time Fluttershy shot down the last shadow pegasus, she was being pulled out of the tunnel of spiraling rubble. To her left, there were no more floating buildings or rubble. Only a single massive rock hovered in the horizon – a misshapen black heart at the center of the Chaos Vortex. Fluttershy caught sight of a figure flitting about in front of the rock. Squinting her eyes, she saw the armor covering its equine body, the curved blood-red horn, and the black haze emanating from its eyes.

“There!” Luna shouted. “That Chaos Kin is the real one!”

The Chaos Kin flew into the black heart, disappearing into a massive crevice that extended from one side of the rock to the other. “Where do you think you’re going?!” Fluttershy said. The power of flight flared through her wings, and she rocketed toward the chasm in the heart. Rows of stone dwellings came into view on either side of the chasm, giving Fluttershy the impression that she was flying into a maw with giant teeth, but she kept on going, darting over buildings and between alleyways in pursuit.

2:07…

2:06…

2:05…

For the second time in less than ten seconds, Luna’s magic surged through Fluttershy’s wings. She could swear that she saw the blue aura of Luna’s magic even without looking back to check her wings. Her wings felt stronger, unburdened as they propelled her at breakneck speeds into the depths of the heart-shaped rock. The brutal winds and g-forces were less kind to the rest of her body. Her mane and tail felt like they were dragging her back more than any other time she had flown before. Her head and legs felt like they would snap at every turn. “My face feels like it’s blowing off!” she complained.

“Do you wish to catch the Chaos Kin or not?!” Luna shouted back. “Stay on it!”

Within moments, Fluttershy caught up with the fleeing Sombra. She chased him through twisting caverns, her body protesting with every turn and every burst of acceleration. Sombra tossed back a purplish-green blast, hitting Fluttershy in the chest and sending her in a spin. Flames spread across the front of her tunic from where she was struck. She pawed frantically at the flames with her hoof, trying to put them out, and flew after him.

The skies tore open when she reached the end of the caverns as several giant eyes opened in space ahead of them. Sombra flew into the pupil of the nearest one, and Fluttershy flew in after him. The skies turned from a deep, foreboding red-orange to an otherworldly blue-white, and numerous mountains and islands floated around her. Fluttershy recognized the chain of islands, remembering back to the day she attacked the Reset Bomb Depot as she soared over solitary mountains and lakes and veered in between islands. She lost Sombra in all the chaos as Monoeyes and toxic fungal Shulms emerged from the surrounding islands. Fluttershy ducked past the Monoeyes’ blasts, fired back with her own claws, and flew over the Shulms as she surveyed the skies for the dark unicorn.

Sombra appeared moments later from a cloud of black haze, his horn alight with magic. He shot a magic blade from his horn, slicing Fluttershy across the left shoulder and wing as she tried to dodge and sending her spinning off course. Fluttershy nearly crashed into the side of a mountain before her wings took control again. She flew after Sombra again, speeding past Monoeyes and Centurion ponies and weaving through an airborne fleet of Exo Tanks as she pursued the Chaos Kin.

1:36…

1:35…

1:34...

Fluttershy followed Sombra into the pupil of another giant eye and found herself inside a dark chasm. Sombra warped back to face her again, his horn emitting a purplish-black glow. Fluttershy swerved to dodge the magic blade from his horn and fired back, hitting him with a volley of white-hot needles. She closed the gap, but before she could swipe with her claws, Sombra disappeared into black smoke and flew on ahead.

“I almost got him!” Fluttershy grunted.

“Fluttershy, you have to turn back!” Luna warned. “You are running out of time!”

“Don’t worry about the power of flight!” Fluttershy said. She fired at another purplish-green blast from the Chaos Kin, detonating it from a distance. “I just need a little more time!”

“No! You do not understand!” Luna shouted back. “You are too deep in the Chaos Vortex. If you don't turn back now, I will not be able to recall you. You will be trapped in the Chaos Vortex… forever!”

“F-Forever?” Fluttershy echoed. The thought filled her with dread. If she failed here, she would never go back home. She would be stuck in this twisted place with no way to get back. She would never be able to save Celestia. ‘Princess Celestia…’ That last thought lingered with her. If she failed here, there wouldn’t be a home to go back to. Skyworld would be in ruins, and there would be nothing left to stop Discord. Fluttershy shook her head. “If we stop now, we’ll never save Princess Celestia. Just keep me in the air!”

1:19…

1:18…

1:17…

Fluttershy darted in between crumbling sections of the chasm as she chased after Sombra. The two of them flew into another giant eye, taking them back to the red-orange skies and the crumbled temple structures from the beginning of the Chaos Vortex. The building fragments seemed to fly more wildly throughout the void, and Fluttershy ducked under broken towers and squeezed between temple columns as she kept after Sombra, barely noticing a multicolored streak in the distance.

Splins, Syrens, and Monoeyes all rushed at Fluttershy. She maneuvered past the creatures, firing back at them with her Beam Claws as she passed by. Another purplish-green blast hurtled toward her, and she fired at it before it could explode in front of her. Sombra materialized in front of her again, his horn glowing. Fluttershy dodged another blade of magic and slashed with her claws, but Sombra ducked under her swipe and flew left over the remains of a temple wall. Fluttershy fired a barrage of needles from her weapon, missing Sombra as he fled, and raced after him.

0:59…

0:58…

0:57…

“You are running out of time!” Luna nearly screamed.

“I’ve almost got him!” Fluttershy protested back. She shot another volley of needles at Sombra, missing again, and then fired a laser at him from her claws. Sombra swerved around her weapons fire, turning to face her once again, and sent another blade of magic at her. Fluttershy steered left to dodge, but Sombra let loose another blade, and she twisted right as the second one nearly clipped her wing. She blasted Sombra with her Beam Claws, but the dark unicorn shifted aside to avoid her attack. Sombra turned to flee again, only then noticing a sky blue pegasus with a rainbow mane lunging at him from behind, arms outstretched and a blade in each hoof.

The blue pegasus landed on Sombra with all of her weight, her blades plunging deep into his head and the side of his neck. The Chaos Kin growled and gnashed, struggling against the pegasus with all his might. The pegasus held on, keeping him at foreleg’s length with her back hooves planted on his stomach and her front hooves gripping her blades tight.

“Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy said. The pursuit now over, she stared in awe as Rainbow Dash pinned Sombra down. Rainbow said nothing, her eyes narrowing as she stared the writhing monster dead in the eyes.

“Fluttershy, now!” Luna cut in. “Shoot him!”

Fluttershy snapped out of her thoughts. Aiming her claws, she fired a volley of white-hot needles at Sombra. Rainbow Dash pulled her blades out of Sombra’s head and neck and kicked off of him with her hind legs. The needles from Fluttershy’s charge attack pierced through Sombra’s form and grazed Rainbow’s mane as the latter backflipped in the air, recombining her blades into the Silver Bow. Rainbow spread her wings, righting herself with two powerful wingbeats, aimed her bow, and fired an arrow straight through Sombra’s heart.

Black smoke spilled from Sombra’s wounds as he fell, hurtling toward a lone circular island. Rainbow Dash grinned and gave a hoof pump with her weapon hoof. “Yes! We’ve got ’em now!” she exclaimed. “Come on, Fluttershy!” Angling herself downward, she dove after Sombra.

“We actually did it,” Fluttershy said, still hovering in place. For the first time in what felt like too long, she felt elated. “We might have a chance this time.”

“Yes, let us finish this,” Luna agreed. With the power of flight, she guided Fluttershy into a descent.

* * * * * * * * * *

Sombra’s wounded body plummeted toward the island below, with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy in hot pursuit. Rainbow Dash was closing in much faster, her Silver Bow separated and one blade gripped in each hoof. Sombra hit the ground with a resounding crack before either pegasus could intercept him. His body began to melt into the ground, black ooze seeping into the rock as crystals sprouted from his dissolving form.

Rainbow recombined her bow and dive-bombed the dark unicorn, spinning and skidding on her hooves as her bow slashed at him. She was too late though, and when she looked back, she had only sliced through the crystal shards. “Ponyfeathers,” she cursed under her breath.

Fluttershy landed just a few feet away, the blue aura evaporating from her wings as her hooves touched down gently on the ground.

0:31…

0:30…

Crystal shards sprouted from the ground in patches, surrounding the two pegasi. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash backed up toward the center of the island, their weapons raised and their eyes darting from one patch of crystals to the next. Their flanks bumped into each other, and their heads spun to meet one another, their eyes meeting for one lingering glance. For a second, they both let their guards down, only to turn forward again to face the crystals.

The crystal shattered around them, and from inside, monsters emerged. Underworld Shulms and Corals rose from the crystal fragments while parasprite Tribytes hovered above them. Rainbow Dash sprang into action first. She shot a Tribyte with a magic arrow and charged at the ground-based enemies, slashing one of the Corals and spinning to slice through one of the Shulms.

“I don’t get it,” Fluttershy said. “Where are these enemies coming from? What happened to Sombra?”

“The Chaos Kin is in hiding,” Luna said. “I suspect he is creating them himself. There are very few other beings with such power in this place, but I cannot be sure where he found the inspiration for them.”

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked.

“Underworld troops, parasprite constructs, even the odd Centurion pony,” Luna said. “And it is not just that. From the moment we set hoof here, the Chaos Vortex has taken the form of places that the Chaos Kin could have never seen.”

“The Chaos Kin has Princess Celestia’s soul, right?” Fluttershy suggested, as she fired a volley of needles at one of the Tribytes. She slashed one of the Corals with her claws, and then spun around it to swipe at two of the Shulms. “So maybe it’s pulling them from her memories. But if you’re right and the Chaos Kin created them, then won’t it just make more and more of them?”

“Yes, but not for very long,” Luna replied. “If these monsters are real enough to attack you, then it must take some magic to create them from nothing. Not even the Chaos Kin has the power to do so indefinitely. If you can endure long enough, you should draw him out.”

“Not a problem!” Rainbow Dash said. She shot down an Underworld Boogity with her bow, and then fired a few smaller arrows at a group of Monoeyes. “We can take them, right Flutters?”

Fluttershy smiled back at her. Aiming her Beam Claws, she fired a laser at another group of Monoeyes. Once the last few enemies were defeated, a blue treasure chest materialized in the center of the island. Fluttershy eyed the chest warily as she walked up to Rainbow Dash, who had just noticed the chest herself.

“It looks like a trap,” Fluttershy said.

Rainbow shrugged. “Who’d be dumb enough to leave treasure lying around?” she said with a smirk.

Fluttershy almost smiled at the familiar bit of wisdom, but her eyebrows furrowed. “What do we do?” she asked.

“Easy,” Rainbow said, her grin growing wider as she aimed her bow at the treasure chest. “We spring it.”

An arrow shot from her bow, striking the treasure chest’s lid and blowing it open. A gust of wind issued from the box. Rainbow and Fluttershy both shielded their faces with a foreleg, and when they looked again, new monsters had appeared. Rainbow moved first, shooting another magic arrow at a parasprite Rezda and a smaller arrow at a Handora. Fluttershy fired at a few nearby Handoras, all the while keeping an eye on the Orne at the center of the island and the Rezdas orbiting it like moving shields.

Before long, the other enemies were vanquished, and the Orne vanished on its own. More crystals emerged from the ground and shattered, and from them more monsters emerged. A few plantlike enemies with crab claws for flowers and an eye peering from their stalks hopped around the island, and Tribytes hovered in the air above them. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash fired at the Tribytes, but they both missed. The Tribytes had shifted, and were now several feet away despite not having moved at all. The two pegasi aimed again, but the Tribytes shifted again and were now another few feet away.

“Weird,” Rainbow said. “Those parasprite troops are doing their best Game and Watch.”

“Game… And Watch?” Luna said quizzically. “No, ignore the parasprite foes. Prioritize the Cacaws.”

“I don’t see any birds,” Rainbow said. One of the Cacaws hopped up to her. “Just these weird plant things.”

The Cacaw raised its stems and opened its claws. An ear-splitting shriek blasted from the creature, and Rainbow Dash fell to the ground. She couldn’t feel her legs, much less tell if she could even move them anymore. The Chaos Vortex faded away as her vision blurred and turned grainy. The only thing she was still aware of was the stabbing, searing pain of the Cacaw’s screech in her ears. The sound felt like a vice around her skull. Her instinct was to cover her ears with her hooves, but she didn’t know if she could move her hooves, let alone if it did any good.

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy gasped. She fired her Beam Claws at the Cacaw near Rainbow Dash and galloped toward her twitching body. One of the Tribytes fired a yellow oscillating blast of energy at Rainbow. Fluttershy leapt, swung at the projectile with a claw, and deflected it away. She stood over Rainbow, putting herself between Sombra’s monsters and the defenseless mare, and fired back at the Tribytes. The Tribytes shifted again, evading Fluttershy’s charge shot. Fluttershy adjusted her aim and fired again, incinerating the enemies one by one with her claws’ laser beam. Another Cacaw hopped toward the two. Fluttershy spotted the troublesome plant monster and blasted it with her weapon, then turned her aim to another Cacaw.

Behind her, Rainbow Dash groaned. She slowly brought her legs underneath her and stood back up. “Urrgh, what happened?” she asked, massaging her head. “How long was I out?”

“Not long,” Fluttershy replied. She turned around to help Rainbow up, placing her hooves on Rainbow’s shoulder and foreleg. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, fine,” Rainbow grunted. “Did that freaky plant do that to me?”

“Yes,” Luna said. “The Cacaw’s screech impairs neural signals in any foe who hears it. Normally it only disrupts motor responses, but the effect seems to have been more severe in your case.”

“You mean that’s one of your guys?!” Rainbow said. “Why would you put an enemy that annoying in your army?”

“For the same reason other armies use flash grenades,” Luna answered flatly. “But enough about them. The Chaos Kin has summoned its fourth wave.”

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy looked around. Two Belunkas hovered around the edge of the island at opposite ends. They both opened their maws, and two identical monsters rolled out onto the island. The monsters rose onto their legs, each one wearing a tough, doglike mask with curved horns and spikes protruding from its face.

“Not good,” Luna said. “The Belunkas may spawn Armins indefinitely if you do not destroy them soon. But the Armins are too deadly for you to ignore.”

“Then we’ll double team ’em!” Rainbow said. “Fluttershy, cover me while I go after the Belunkas.”

Fluttershy nodded and watched as Rainbow galloped after one of the whale-like creatures. She turned to one of the Armins and pointed her hoof at it. Her claws fired, but her attack bounced off the Armin’s mask. She shot a laser at the creature, but its mask took the attack. The Armin growled at Fluttershy and took a few steps toward her. Fluttershy heard another growl behind her, and when she looked back, she found herself trapped between two monsters. “N-n-n-nice… doggies?” Fluttershy stammered. “They are doggies, right?”

“Does that matter?” Luna asked. “You’ve somehow angered both of them.”

“Eep!” The ground shook as both Armins charged at the same time. Fluttershy jumped out of their way. Her hoof stumbled, and she fell onto her haunches. The Armins collided with each other just a few feet away, stumbled back, and collapsed on the ground dazed. From where she sat, Fluttershy got a side view of the Armins. They were protected from both the front and back, but their sides were exposed, and Fluttershy could see their thin legs and bodies. For a second, she marveled at them, wondering how their frail bodies could hold up such heavy shielding. She waved off that thought, pointed her hoof at one of the Armins, and fired at it with her Beam Claws. Leaping back to her hooves, she sliced through the second Armin.

Further away, Rainbow Dash had shot down the last Belunka with a magic arrow. “Ha, too easy!” she said. As she turned to head back to Fluttershy, five enemies dropped onto the island from above. Four of them were small, purple batlike creatures. They formed a circle above the center of the island, seemingly perched in midair. The fifth was a little creature with large hands and a sack on its back. The creature hopped from side to side, inching closer to Rainbow with each hop. “What the hay?” Rainbow asked. “Is that an Underworld enemy?”

“Yes, it is called a Pluton,” Luna said. “If you let it come near you, it will steal your weapons. You had best attack from afar.” Rainbow and Fluttershy lifted their weapon hooves and aimed. “Stop! Don’t shoot! The Shootflies will react to your fire.”

Fluttershy lowered her weapon and glanced up at the Shootflies. “Then what should we do? Shoot or don’t shoot?”

“Do not open fire,” Luna said. “You will have to slay the Pluton from up close. Use melee attacks and be careful not to have your weapons stolen.”

“Melee, huh?” Rainbow Dash said, a smirk forming on her face. “Alright, I got this.” A bright green aura spread through her wings, and she shot into the air. Separating her bow, she went after one of the Shootflies and sliced it in two. She rolled in the air, angling toward the next Shootfly, and slashed it with the other blade. Recombining her bow, she spun around and fired an arrow at the third Shootfly, shooting it out of the sky. The fourth Shootfly stirred, opened its wings, and darted for Rainbow. Turning toward the Shootfly, Rainbow Dash held out her weapon hoof and twirled the Silver Bow in her hoof, spinning it like a pair of propeller blades and shredding the Shootfly as it flew at her.

Rainbow Dash landed back on the ground and pumped her hoof in triumph. But when she looked up, she saw Fluttershy aiming her Beam Claws right at her. Fluttershy’s mouth moved for a brief second, too quick and muted for Rainbow to hear, but she thought she made out the words “get down.” Rainbow ducked just as Fluttershy fired a laser from her weapon just over her head. She turned her head back just enough to see the Pluton caught in midair by the laser. The Pluton flailed its arms against the laser as it was pushed back, sailing over the edge of the island and falling into the abyss of the Chaos Vortex. Rainbow Dash looked up at Fluttershy just as she lowered her weapon. The two shared a smile, until they both noticed another Pluton drop in. Raising their weapons, they took the creature out with a pair of charge attacks.

Black crystals sprouted from the ground around them, a few small patches surrounding a much larger crystal in the center. The outer patches shattered, releasing two Tribytes into the air and three Bumpity Bombs on the ground. The giant crystal split in two, and a Boom Stomper rose up from inside as the crystal fragments fell at its sides and vanished.

“A Boom Stomper and Bumpity Bombs,” Luna thought aloud. “It was only a matter of time before the Chaos Kin reproduced my forces.”

Rainbow Dash could barely suppress a chuckle. “Boom Stomper and Bumpity Bomb? You come up with those names yourself?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Luna said. “Those names were not mine to give them.”

“Huh, okay,” Rainbow said. She swung her bow at one of the Bumpity Bombs as it rolled toward her, sending it spinning off the ground. She uppercut the enemy into the air with her bow’s bladed limb and shot it with an arrow, detonating it in midair.

“Although… I’ve grown quite fond of their names,” Luna mused. “I could not think of a more endearing name for them than Bumpity Bomb.”

“Sure, they roll right up to your face and try to blow you up,” Rainbow muttered. “So adorable.”

Fluttershy uppercut one of the Bumpity Bombs with her Beam Claws, tossing it in the air and blowing it up with a spray of needles from her claws. She did a sideflip off her left hooves, avoiding an oscillating energy shot from one of the Tribytes and shooting back with three short laser blasts in midair. The Boom Stomper jumped up and struck the ground, sending out a shockwave on impact. The shockwave hit Fluttershy, throwing her into the air and slamming her sideways into an outcropping. Her side hurting, she lifted herself back on her hooves. “Ow,” she said.

“You alright, Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked.

“I’m okay,” Fluttershy grunted. “That Boom Stomper just really hurts. Doesn’t it have any weak points?”

Rainbow Dash looked the Boom Stomper up and down. “It’s probably the little tree on its head,” she said. A green aura flowed across her wings again, and she soared up to meet the Boom Stomper’s head. She sliced the sapling on its head twice, aimed her bow, and shot it point blank. The sapling burned away, and the Boom Stomper’s rock body crumbled as it fell over.

A Shildeen floated down into the center of the island, guarded by two Underworld Monoliths circling around it. A Syren floated down alongside the Shildeen just as it raised a barrier around the four of them. Outside the barrier, several parasprite Quoils dropped down.

Fluttershy fired her claws at the Quoils, keeping her distance as she shot them down one by one. “The Chaos Kin must really like the Parasprite troops,” she said.

“Do you think so?” Luna asked. “I see far more Underworld forces.”

Rainbow Dash sidestepped around a whirlwind blast from the Syren and shot at the Shildeen’s barrier with her bow. “Well yeah, Discord’s guys are all over the place these days,” she said. She slashed at the barrier with her weapon, twirling the bow in her hoof to cut through the barrier like a saw. “I just thought we’d get more of your troops. You kept him locked up all these years, right?”

“True,” Luna said. “But consider this. The Chaos Kin was freed during our war with Celestia and Discord. It could have struck at any time, but it waited through our war and through the Parasprite invasion, until Skyworld was at its most vulnerable. It is a far more cunning enemy than any of us knew. Perhaps it spent those few days in the shadows, biding its time and studying our armies.”

With one more shot from her bow, Rainbow Dash shattered the Shildeen’s barrier. She leapt over a whirlwind blast from the Syren, briefly landing on her left hooves before jumping aside and shooting another arrow back at the Syren. “So Sombra spent a few days creeping around Fluttershy and Celestia,” she said. “Big deal. We’ve got him cornered now. Let’s just pound him into the dust and take back Celestia’s soul.”

Fluttershy fired a charge shot at the Shildeen while it was down, finishing the creature off. The Monoliths disappeared along with the Shildeen. In their place, Komaytos descended on the island, and an Orne materialized at the other side of the island.

“You make it sound so simple,” Luna said. “This is the eighth wave, and I do not sense any fatigue in the Chaos Kin.”

“It’s just a few Komaytos,” Rainbow shrugged. Gripping her bow, she started off after one of the enemies when a Zuree appeared from thin air in front of her. “Whoa!” Rainbow fell back on her haunches. The Zuree raised its arms, about to bring its sharp claws down on her, when its body was shredded by a spray of short laser blasts. The Zuree’s body dissolved into purple wisps, and in the distance Fluttershy stood, her hoof raised. Rainbow was about to thank her when she spotted a Komayto hovering over Fluttershy. The green aura flared through her wings again, and she rocketed toward the Komayto, slicing it in half with a swing of her bow.

Rainbow and Fluttershy smiled at each other. Rainbow Dash nodded at Fluttershy and flew across the island, swerving past the Orne and slashing a Komayto with her bow. Fluttershy looked around the island and spotted the purple veil of another Zuree in hiding. The mist moved toward her, taking form, and the spectral creature raised its claws to attack. Fluttershy lifted her own Beam Claws, shooting down the Zuree in one blast. She then spotted the last Komayto and galloped after it, slicing through it with her weapon. With the other Underworld creatures slain, the Orne vanished from the island without a trace.

The ground shook underneath Fluttershy and Rainbow’s hooves as a Crawler landed in the center of the island. Two Urgles dropped down along with it, one on either side of the Underworld tank. Rainbow charged at one of the Urgles. Skidding on three hooves, she twirled her bow by the grip, sawing through the Urgle’s wooden body with the weapon’s bladed limbs, then leapt in the air and shot an arrow at the creature. Landing on her hooves, she sprinted around the Crawler toward its backside. The Crawler turned with her, guarding its rear from the rainbow-maned pegasus, and fired three three purple laser shots from under its armor. Rainbow outpaced the first laser, sidestepped the second, and jumped over the third, and then kept running.

As the Crawler moved to keep up with Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy tiptoed in the other direction completely unnoticed by the tank. She found the weak point on the tank’s rear, aimed her hoof, and fired a charge attack. She kept her hoof up, firing a laser at the Crawler’s back. A light flashed on both sides under the Crawler’s shell, and the ground under her hoofs glowed in a fiery orange-yellow. Fluttershy lowered her weapon hoof and ran, even as the glow under her hooves followed her. A cannon under the Crawler’s shell fired. Fluttershy heard the cannon blast and jumped, narrowly avoiding an explosion behind her.

The Crawler’s treads spun madly. It stopped turning, even as the giant tank continued to rumble. Rainbow kept running, but instead of running around, she dashed out of the tank’s way as it rushed forward. She turned back, spotting the Crawler’s weak point, and fired an arrow back. The Crawler’s treads fell from the fuselage, clattering and scraping against the ground as the main body slid over the edge of the island, explosions tearing through its armor as it fell into the abyss.

Two parasprite Urgles dropped down on the island, reinforcing the one surviving Urgle left. Rainbow Dash sprinted after one of the Parasprite enemies. Fluttershy looked from the Crawler’s wreckage to Rainbow Dash and smiled in a mixture of relief and confidence. That smiled disappeared in seconds.

“Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked.

No response. She had asked too quietly.

“Rainbow,” she said again, a little more sternly.

“What’s up?” Rainbow responded, even as she severed one of the parasprite Urgle’s arms and cut a deep gash through its body.

“Not to be rude or anything,” Fluttershy started. “Well, I appreciate how much you’re doing for us, but… why are you here?”

“What do you mean?” Rainbow said. “Where else would I be?”

“Well,” Fluttershy hesitated. “It’s just that you haven’t always been so willing to help. Usually when you show up, you pick a fight with me and Princess Celestia. And I know she’s not really your favorite goddess, so why are you going through so much trouble just to save her from the Chaos Kin?”

“Hey, it’s not just Celestia,” Rainbow shot back. The other parasprite Urgle ran up to Rainbow Dash, slid its arms under her and catapulted her into the air. Rainbow sailed above the island, flipped as she reached the height of her trajectory, and dove back down. Clasping her bow’s grip in both hooves, she jammed her bow into the parasprite Urgle’s eye upon landing. She retrieved her weapon as the creature’s body faded away. “The whole world got screwed up ’cause of Sombra. That’s why you’re here too, right? Beat the bad guy, save everypony. That’s what heroes do, right?”

Fluttershy stared at her blankly. “You’re… supposed to be a hero?”

“Yeah! Why? What did you think I was?”

Fluttershy glanced away, averting her eyes from Rainbow. “Well…”

Defeated, Rainbow let out a sigh. “Fine,” she said. “Something happened to me when you got turned into a ring. It was like I wasn’t there anymore. Like I wasn’t me anymore.”

“What does that mean?” Fluttershy asked.

“It means we’re connected because of that stupid mirror!” Rainbow snapped. “If something happens to you, it affects me somehow. So yeah, I’m doing this because I’ve got to look after you to cover my own flank. And if that means saving Celestia’s flank, then so be it.”

Fluttershy gazed back at Rainbow Dash, giving her a solemn, almost sympathetic look. “Oh…”

Rainbow’s ears flattened against her head, and she almost couldn’t bring herself to meet Fluttershy’s gaze. “You’re not disappointed, are you?” she asked.

Fluttershy was taken aback, but she brought a hoof to her muzzle and thought for a moment. “That depends,” Fluttershy said. “Are you going to drop kick me off the island when we’re done with Sombra?”

“What?! No, of course not!”

“Good,” Fluttershy smiled back. “Then I’m not disappointed.” She lifted her hoof and fired at the last Urgle.

Rainbow Dash flinched at the remark, only giving passing notice as crystals grew out of the ground and broke apart, summoning more monsters. “Ouch,” she muttered. “I didn’t set the bar that low, did I?”

“You and I have much to discuss,” Luna replied. “But for now, you need to defeat the two Guttlers. They become more powerful the more they eat, and they will eat anything, friend or foe.”

Rainbow spotted one of the Guttlers falling over and swinging its purple, gelatinous body, swallowing a Pew Pew in one gulp. “That reminds me,” she said, aiming her bow at the purple blob. “You think Sombra’s gonna copy any more Nature enemies? I’m starving.”

“For the last time, my forces are not food!” Luna grumbled.

“I don’t think they’d be very filling anyway,” Fluttershy said as she fired at the second Guttler.

“Huh?” Rainbow said. “Why not?”

“Video game logic,” Fluttershy replied. “Enemies disappear when they die.”

“What?! Aw, come on!” Rainbow threw her hooves up and shouted. “Like it’s so much to ask for a midbattle snack!” She noticed another enemy crawling on the ground and shot it with her Silver Bow, then let out a sigh and grumbled to herself. “But noooo, we wouldn’t want to overwork the graphics engine.”

Fluttershy put a hoof to her muzzle, trying to stifle a giggle. She pointed her hoof at another Pew Pew and fired, taking the creature out.

A Gyrazer floated down over the island, and another patch of crystals rose from the ground and shattered, releasing another monster. For a second, Fluttershy thought it was a Handora, but it looked different. The two hands were green instead of blue, and instead of an eye in the palm of its hand, it was holding a giant gold amulet in its fingers by a small chain. The amulet had an a single lidded eye in it, and unlike the usually skittish Handoras, this creature was more comfortable standing in place and letting the amulet’s eye peer at them.

“The eleventh wave,” Luna said. “I can feel the Chaos Kin growing tired.”

“Well at least someone’s keeping count,” Rainbow said.

“I’ve never seen that monster before,” Fluttershy said.

“It is called an Igniot,” Luna responded. “The amulet it holds can turn you to stone if you are caught in its gaze. Best you take cover when it opens its eye.”

“Most gods and goddesses have enough power to break you out if you get petrified,” Rainbow said. She shot an arrow at the Igniot, cracking the amulet. She jumped aside as the Gyrazer shot a purple-black laser at her and returned with another arrow, shooting down the Gyrazer. “Also helps if you stole another goddess’s magic. Most earth ponies aren’t that lucky.”

The Igniot lifted up the amulet, aiming the eye in Rainbow’s direction. The eye opened, and a dark purple laser shot across the island toward her. Rainbow galloped out of the Igniot’s line of fire and took cover behind a small rock formation. The Igniot continued to blast the rock, trying to hit her on the other side, but to no avail. Fluttershy fired a burst of greenish-white needles at the Igniot, breaking the amulet and vanquishing the creature.

Another patch of crystal sprouted from the ground, and a second Igniot emerged from inside. A Monolith materialized near the Igniot and began to circle around it as a shield. Rainbow Dash aimed her bow, paused as the Monolith passed by, and fired when she had an opening. Fluttershy fired her Beam Claws at the Igniot, finishing off the enemy. As the second Igniot vanished, the Monolith hurtled across the island toward another patch of crystals. A second Monolith joined the first, and the two flew around a third Igniot as it came out of the crystals, forming a close, protective orbit around the monster.

Fluttershy fired a charge attack, but the spray of needles bounced off of one the Monoliths. She shot a laser from her Beam Claws, but the beam hit the Monoliths instead, only breaking through for one second at a time as they orbited the Igniot. In the corner of her eye, she noticed a Shrip flitting down nearby. It unhinged its shoulder joints, spinning its head and bladed beak, and lunged at Fluttershy. Fluttershy rolled out of its way, firing off three short laser blasts from her claws in midroll.

Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash gave a cocky smirk to the Igniot and spread her wings. The two Monoliths could protect it on the ground. They couldn’t protect it from above. A green magical aura enveloped her wings, and she took to the air. Soaring directly over the Igniot, she shot an arrow down at it and dove back down for a landing. Her shot wiped out the monster, with enough force to toss the Monoliths away before they vanished from the area.

“The twelve wave is here,” Luna said. “It is only a matter of time now.”

As she said this, two Megontas crashed on opposite sides of the island, facing each other. In between them, a Trynamite slowly floated down over the center of the island.

“It doesn’t matter if he throws a hundred waves at us,” Rainbow said, shooting an arrow into one of the Megontas. “We can take whatever he’s got!”

“And I hope for all of your sakes that the Chaos Kin does not force your bluff,” Luna remarked.

Fluttershy studied the enemies more closely. The Megontas were stationary, balanced on the backs of their shells. Occasionally, they would leap into the air, circling around the center of the field until they hit the ground. “That’s strange,” she said. “Those enemies don’t usually do that.”

“It’s the Chaos Vortex,” Rainbow said with a shrug. She fired another arrow into the same Megonta, wiping it out. “I figured the Chaos Kin would do more trippy stuff with everyone’s enemies.”

“Just look on the bright side,” Luna snarked. “He has copied more of my troops. Bon appetit, Rainbow Dash.”

“Are you nuts?!” Rainbow said. “That’s a giant pill bug!” The Trynamite in the center of the island exploded, and three chunks of its body flew out of the explosion and toward Rainbow Dash. Rainbow jumped back as they smashed into the ground near her hooves. “And that was an aerial shrapnel mine!”

“Just think of the Trynamites as rice krispies,” Luna said. “They pop in your mouth.”

“Yeah, unless you swallow them,” Rainbow said, shooting another Trynamite as it descended on the island. “Then they blow a hole in your stomach.”

“Rice krispies aren’t even that good,” Fluttershy said. “They’re too bland.” She fired at the other Megonta, sending it rolling back on its shell before it disappeared.

Skuttler Cannoneers emerged from under the sides of the island, all standing on Monoliths as they hovered over the ground. Some of them circled around the island’s edge and aimed their cannons at the two pegasi while others cut a path straight over it, trying to bash into them with their moving platforms. Fluttershy turned around frantically, trying to keep track of the gang of Skuttlers, while Rainbow tightened her grip on her Silver Bow and darted her eyes from one enemy to the next.

“We’ve reached the thirteenth wave,” Luna announced. “This may be the final one.”

“Then it’s time,” Rainbow Dash said. She fired an arrow at one of the Skuttlers, throwing it off of its platform.

“Time for what?” Fluttershy asked.

“Time for our pre-boss battle rallying cry!” Rainbow shouted, raising a hoof in the air.

Fluttershy gaped at Rainbow Dash. “Um, what?” she murmured. Even the Skuttler Cannoneers exchanged glances between each other.

“Filth of the land, hear our words!” Rainbow cried out, raising her hoof again. Fluttershy just blinked. Rainbow facehoofed. She bent her hoof and spun it in a circular motion, then mouthed a few words to Fluttershy, as if say “Roll with it!”

“Oh, um…” Fluttershy stammered. “I am Fluttershy, servant of the Goddess of Light!” She shot down one of the Skuttler Cannoneers with her claws.

“And I’m Rainbow Dash, servant to nopony but myself!”

“And together we will rain death on you!” they both shouted.

“So if anyone wants to die…” Rainbow paused as one of the Skuttler Cannoneers raced toward her on its Monolith. She jumped at the Skuttler and swung her bow, bisecting it with her weapon’s blades, and landed on three hooves. “Step right up!”

“And anyone who doesn’t want to die,” Fluttershy started. “Um… uh.” She watched as one of the Skuttlers rode its Monolith around the edge of the island, quite a ways off from where she was. She fired her Beam Claws at the creature, throwing it off of its platform and over the edge of the island. “Too bad!”

“Aw yeah!” Rainbow Dash said with a hoof pump.

“Truly a riveting call to arms,” Luna deadpanned. “Was this rehearsed? Or did your link to one another inspire it?”

“Hey, don’t knock it!” Rainbow retorted. “I spent hours thinking that up.”

“Well, it’s not that much of a link,” Fluttershy said. “I mean, I didn’t even know it was there until…” She shook her head and raised an eyebrow at Rainbow Dash. “Wait, what?”

“Okay fine, I did have to ad lib a few things,” Rainbow said, shooting her bow at a Skuttler in the corner of her eye. “Mostly because of the whole team up with you.”

“So you mean, the whole thing?” Fluttershy said.

“Look, it doesn’t matter,” Rainbow said. She pointed a hoof up at the sky, where a parasprite Dohz hovered down over the edge of the island. Two Bladers flew out from the port on the Dohz’s underside, and an Underworld Snowman dropped down on the island. “This is probably the last wave before Sombra. I’ll take the mothership, you go after all the little E.T.’s.”

Rainbow flew up, her power of flight coursing through her wings. Three balls of light dropped from the Dohz’s underside, hovered in place momentarily, and then shot at Rainbow Dash as three short laser blasts. Rainbow soared over the first, barrel rolled to dodge the other two, and circled around the flying saucer. She fired an arrow through the port on its underside, destroying it.

Fluttershy galloped as one of the Bladers flew overhead, sweeping the ground with a laser from its eye. A blast of cold air issued from the Snowman, and Fluttershy leapt behind a rock for cover. She ducked her head as the Snowman’s blast hovered over the rock, forming a thick layer of ice over its surface, and shot down the Blader with her claws as it made another pass. The second Blader landed nearby and lunged at her with its scythe-like arms. Fluttershy ducked under a horizontal swing and sidestepped as the Blader went for a vertical slice. “So is this still wave thirteen?” she asked. “This feels like a different wave.”

Fluttershy caught one of the Blader’s arms in her claws as it went for another slice, but the Beam Claws’ bluish-white talons cut through the Blader’s arm. Fluttershy’s eyes went wide for a moment as the Blader stumbled. She blasted the creature with her claws’ laser, then slashed it in half.

Rainbow Dash shot an arrow through the hull of the Dohz. The Dohz keeled over, falling over the side of the island as explosions blasted through it. Rainbow dove at the Underworld Snowman, slashing it in half with the Silver Bow as she landed, and then firing an arrow through it.

As the Snowman dissipated into purple haze, Rainbow Dash trotted over to Fluttershy with her bow tightly gripped in hoof. Fluttershy stepped out from behind the frozen rock, which was now beginning to thaw, and walked over to meet Rainbow. They both looked around. No more crystals were sprouting from the ground. No more enemies were descending from the skies or emerging from the abyss below.

“Is it over?” Fluttershy asked.

Black crystals rose from the ground at the edges of the island, all the same distance from one another. The crystals shattered as new ones rose next to them, only for the newer ones to break apart as even newer ones sprouted from the ground. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash’s gazes darted back and forth as each of the crystal growths traced a path around the island, slowly tracing their own paths to the center of the island in a spiral pattern. The crystals soon found their way to the center, and a giant crystal sprouted, shaking the island as it rose into a great translucent obelisk.

The great crystal split apart at its sides, falling apart like a four-petaled black flower in bloom. At the center, the dark unicorn himself stood on a flat, raised crystal stage, peering down at the two pegasus mares with animalistic fury. His eyes emanating a black haze, he roared at Fluttershy and Rainbow.

Fluttershy took a step back and raised her hoof, aiming one of her Beam Claws. Rainbow Dash twirled the Silver Bow in her hoof before tightening her grip, ready to either slash or shoot with it. “It’s game over, Chaos Kin!” she shouted.

Sombra growled at the two ponies again. His body faded into black smoke, leaving behind only its curved horn and its red eyes. The horn and eyes turned, and with the shroud of black smoke, the Chaos Kin shot toward the other end of the island. It didn’t get far before a bolt of lightning struck the horn, permeating through the black smoke and obliterating every crystal left on the island. A dome made of blue magical energy flickered over them. Sombra’s body reformed again, leaving the dark unicorn’s body sprawled on the ground and seething at the two pegasi.

“There! That should help!” Luna called out. “Now the Chaos Kin cannot run away!”

“Awesome!” Rainbow exclaimed. “There’s nowhere left for him to run!”

“Except right at us!” Fluttershy squeaked.

“Huh?”

Before Rainbow Dash could look, she and Fluttershy were thrown across the island as Sombra rushed at them. The two rose back up and saw Sombra on the other side of the island, letting out a feral growl at them.

“Wow, he’s fast,” Fluttershy murmured.

“Yeah, so what?” Rainbow shot back, her wings spread out. “I’m still faster!” Her wings glowed with a green magical aura, and she took off after Sombra. The Chaos Kin warped past her as she swung her bow, and then shifted back as she went for another slash. Rainbow fired an arrow at the dark unicorn, but he evaded her and retreated across the island.

A blue magical circle glowed on the ground next to Fluttershy. Six toothlike spikes jutted out of the ground around the circle, and a bright blue orb with three spikes hovered high above it.

“I have set a trap for the Chaos Kin,” Luna said. “The trap is keyed to the Chaos Kin’s magical signature. Just lure him in, and the trap will do the rest.”

Fluttershy fired at the Chaos Kin, but missed him as he moved across the battlefield at incredible speeds. “That’s easy for you to say,” she said. She fired again, but each time her claws missed by several feet.

Sombra tossed back two purplish-green blasts as it flew. The first went wide, but the second hit Rainbow Dash head on, exploding on impact. Rainbow hit the ground, rolling forward until she came to a stop in a heap. Sombra turned sharply and lunged at Fluttershy. Startled, Fluttershy stumbled back, managing to fire a laser blast from her claws before falling on her haunches. Sombra rolled aside to dodge and tackled Fluttershy, pinning her to the ground.

Black haze rose from the corners of his eyes as he stared down at her, and he bared his teeth and growled hungrily. Fluttershy whimpered. Her eyes squeezed shut and she turned her head away as she tried to lift up a foreleg and fire her weapon. The Chaos Kin bounded off of Fluttershy just as a volley of needles shot from her claws. He almost pounced on her again, but moved back when a magic arrow flew in his direction. Sombra retreated again, with Rainbow Dash in hot pursuit.

Fluttershy crawled back onto her hooves and looked on, her eyes darting across the island as Rainbow Dash and Sombra continued their chase. “He wasn’t this fast last time!” she stammered.

“The Chaos Kin was in control of Celestia in your previous encounter,” Luna said. “No doubt manipulating an alicorn goddess must have taken a great deal of his focus. That is no longer the case now.”

Sombra sailed over an outcropping and spat a toxic purple cloud at Rainbow Dash. The dark unicorn stopped in its tracks, then turned and went after Fluttershy again. Fluttershy rolled out of the way, then quickly stood on her hooves and turned to face Sombra. The Chaos Kin launched a volley of bright purple shots down at her. Fluttershy rolled out of the way again, this time firing back with three short blasts from her Beam Claws. Sombra swerved out of the way, only to be struck through the barrel with a magic arrow. He took a smaller arrow to the jaw, but managed to leap back and evade two more arrows.

Sombra and Fluttershy turned to the source of the arrows: a rainbow-maned pegasus hovering in the air with a cocky grin on her face. Holding the Silver Bow in one foreleg, Rainbow Dash put her free hoof in the empty space between its limbs and drew it back. A thin, green strand of magic formed in her hoof, connecting the ends of the bow’s limbs to each other, and a second later, a magic arrow flared across the strand and the bowsight.

Fluttershy looked on in confusion. Like any of Fluttershy’s past bows, the Silver Bow could be fired just by pointing the weapon and willing it to fire. The bows could be made to conjure an arrow and bowstring and drawing them back to aim like a normal bow, but none of it was necessary. All the while, Rainbow Dash kept that grin on her muzzle, as if she was mocking Sombra or taunting him.

Fluttershy did a double take. Standing right behind Rainbow Dash was the trap that Luna had placed a minute ago. Sombra took the bait. Roaring at Rainbow Dash, he shot across the battlefield after her. Rainbow relaxed the tension in the “bowstring” and soared up in the air. Sombra stopped right at the edge of the trap and turned up toward Rainbow. What it found instead was the Silver Bow’s arrow, aimed straight down at his hooves, pull upward due to its homing properties and strike him in the chest, knocking him into the trap.

A purple bolt of lightning came down from the orb above, passing through the Chaos Kin and hitting the center of the blue circle. Magical energy pulsed from the point of the lightning bolt’s impact, radiating into the six spikes, and firing back at the Chaos Kin as six blue lightning bolts. The dark unicorn roared, writhed, and gnashed against the trap’s magic, but the trap held, and the magical tethers held Sombra in place.

Fluttershy stood in awe. The monster that caused so much destruction and suffering these last three years, that caused her so much grief in just one day, was now immobilized and vulnerable. Her fear and anguish gave way to anger and fury. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Fluttershy stepped forward. With the Beam Claws’ magic coursing through her four legs, she galloped at Sombra with inequine speed. She leapt at Sombra, slashing into his side with one of her claws. Landing on her other front hoof, she hopped off of it, using her leftover momentum to flip in the air, and fired a volley of needles from her claws before landing on all four hooves.

“You’ll pay for what you’ve done, Chaos Kin!” Fluttershy shouted. She lunged forward again, slashing into Sombra with her claws and tearing into him with a series of fast, brutal swipes. She flipped around, bucking him in the barrel and shoulder with her hind legs, then slashed him with a upward slice and then brought both of her claws down. She jumped back, letting off three short laser blasts into the dark unicorn.

Rainbow Dash dove at the Chaos Kin, skidding on three of her hooves upon landing and twirling the Silver Bow in her fourth. She held out her weapon hoof, letting the spinning blades of her bow slice through the dark unicorn’s peytral and chest. She separated her bow, catching the other blade in her free hoof, and stabbed both blades into the dark unicorn’s jaws. The trap’s electricity surged through Rainbow’s body through her forelegs and the bow’s limbs, but she shrugged it off as she stared Sombra right in the eyes. “I’m with Fluttershy on this one,” she said. “Attacking a goddess is one thing, but stealing souls? Eating them? That’s messed up.”

With her Silver Bow’s limbs still in Sombra’s jaws, Rainbow Dash swung her hooves out, slashing through the dark unicorn’s face. She hopped off the ground, letting the power of flight in her wings carry her as she flipped over, bucked the Chaos Kin in the muzzle, and kicked off of him with the strength of her hind legs. Still flipping in midair, she aimed her bow and fired an arrow into the creature’s head.

With Rainbow Dash out of the way, Fluttershy leaped forward again. But Sombra’s dark magic seeped into the magical tethers holding him in the trap, reaching the spikes in the orb above and the circle below. The spikes shattered, destroying the trap and allowing Sombra to retreat back from Fluttershy’s attack. Black smoke seeped from the many fresh wounds on his form, but Sombra’s body remained intact in spite of them. He narrowed his eyes at the two pegasi who dared oppose him, seething at them with animalistic fury. Rainbow and Fluttershy glanced at one another and exchanged a curt nod. Rainbow spread her wings, taking off after Sombra again. Sombra flew off again, and the chase began anew.

Fluttershy raised her hoof and aimed for the Chaos Kin. She felt a change in her perception as her eyes tracked Rainbow and Sombra. The Beam Claws did more than just make her faster on her hooves. She could see the two ponies more clearly: every turn they made, every deviation in their path, every shot they took at one another, and every evasive move they took. Claw weapons were designed for speed, and Fluttershy felt fast enough to target Sombra.

“Fluttershy,” Luna said. “There is something I should tell you. Even after Celestia was possessed by the Chaos Kin, she resisted being consumed for nearly three years. To hold onto her soul for so long must have taken a great deal of will. As much as it must have pained you to see her in such a state, know that she used every last bit of her strength to resist.”

Fluttershy lowered her weapon hoof. “She must have suffered so much…” she murmured.

“She was waiting for you, Fluttershy,” Luna said. “She had faith in you. She still does, and after all that I’ve seen, I understand why.”

“Yeah, now how about we take every bit of suffering this jerk caused and pay him right back?” Rainbow Dash said. “Not just for Celestia, but for everypony!” She caught up to Sombra and swung her bow twice, but he proved too agile and moved further back. She shot an arrow at him, but he jerked left to dodge and charged at her. Rainbow swerved out of the way. Sombra turned back around, his horn aglow in dark magic, and he fired several reddish-black shots back at Rainbow. Rainbow dodged with a few beats of her wings, and when she looked back at Sombra, she saw him being blasted by a bluish-white laser. Seeing the laser coming from Fluttershy’s Beam Claws, she rushed at him, slashing into his barrel and haunches with her bow.

“Fluttershy, I have set another trap on the field,” Luna announced. “You know what you need to do.”

Fluttershy spotted the new trap across the island and ran toward it. Standing in the center of the trap, she lifted her hoof and aimed for Sombra. She fired a laser at him, hitting her target and stunning him momentarily. Rainbow Dash swung her bow, but the dark unicorn rolled away from her and spat a cloud of toxic purple haze at her. Sombra’s horn charged with magic, and he shot two purplish-green energy blasts at Fluttershy. Fluttershy rolled to the left, dodging his blasts but stepping out of the trap’s circle. Sombra snarled at her as the purplish-black aura around his horn spread across his entire form, and he charged at her. Fluttershy rolled to the left again, leaping out of his way and firing a volley of needles from her claws as he passed by.

The purplish-black aura retreated from Sombra’s body, pooling and swelling around his horn as he spun around and fired a barrage of bright purple shots at Fluttershy. Fluttershy sidestepped his fire, while Rainbow Dash charged at him and swung her bow. Sombra dodged, only to get blasted from behind by a laser from Fluttershy’s Beam Claws. Rainbow swung again, slicing through his chest with a vertical and a horizontal slash. She kicked out with both hind legs, pushing Sombra back, and fired an arrow into him, throwing him into the trap. Lightning struck down from the orb above the trap, pulsing throughout the blue circle of magic and into the six toothlike spikes before hitting Sombra as six blue magical tethers. Fluttershy struck first, jumping at Sombra and slashing into his barrel with a series of claw swipes. She leapt back, firing a barrage of needles into Sombra as Rainbow Dash swooped in. She slashed into him with her bow, then separated her bow into dual blades, not noticing as Sombra’s dark magic leached into the trap’s electrical tethers.

Before Rainbow could get in another swipe with her bow’s limbs, the trap’s spikes cracked and shattered, the magic circle dissolved, and Sombra lunged at her, knocking the bow’s blades out of her hooves and pinning her to her ground. The demonic unicorn growled menacingly at her, opening his jaws as he stared down at his new prey. Glaring back at him and gritting her teeth, Rainbow Dash freed her hind legs and kicked out at him. The force of her kick lifted him off the ground, and a spray of needles from Fluttershy’s Beam Claws pelted him from behind, throwing him off of her. Crawling back on her hooves, Rainbow spread her wings and flew after her bow.

Sombra’s horn charged, and two purplish-green energy blasts hurtled at the two mares. Rainbow Dash barrel-rolled to dodge as she picked up the Silver Bow’s limbs, recombined them, and fired an arrow back at Sombra. Fluttershy dodge-rolled as the second energy blast shot toward her and fired back with a volley of needles. Their two attacks struck the dark unicorn at the same time, and his body exploded in a plume of black smoke and dark magic. When the explosion cleared, Sombra’s body was destroyed, leaving behind broken, smoldering pieces of his armor and his curved red horn.

“Yes!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, her wings lifting her off the ground in a sort of ecstatic jump as she rapidly spun her bow in triumph. She swooped down next to Fluttershy and gave her a cheerful, harder than intended punch on the shoulder. “Now that was a rain of death!”

Fluttershy’s reaction was more reserved, but even she couldn’t help cracking a smile as she massaged her shoulder. “Heh, yeah,” she said back.

A flash of light erupted from the center of the island, making both pegasi cover their eyes with a foreleg. An orb of intense white light rose up from the ground and floated in place, as if with nowhere to go. When Fluttershy looked, she saw iridescent streaks shimmering back and forth along its surface and an image of the sun in its center: Celestia’s soul.

A shaft of blue light shone close to the soul, swirling with leaves and ivy, and Celestia’s petrified body appeared. Almost instantly, the soul gravitated to its rightful owner, passing into Celestia’s chest like it was finally returning home. White light broke through the newly forming cracks as polished gray stone turned to pure white fur and flowing aurora mane. Now freed from stone, Celestia’s hind legs gave out from under her, and she collapsed on the ground.

“Princess Celestia!” Fluttershy cried. She rushed to Celestia as fast as she could, placing a hoof on her shoulder and looking up at her. Celestia returned her gaze and gave her a weary, yet warm and gentle smile. “You’re okay…” Fluttershy said, the worry on her expression washing away as joy welled up in her. Tears forming in her eyes, she wrapped her forelegs around Celestia in a tight hug and buried her face in her chest. “You’re okay!”

Celestia returned the embrace, wrapping a foreleg around the sobbing Fluttershy and cradling her as tears dampened her coat.

Rainbow Dash looked on at the two of them, letting a smile creep onto her face. She moved a hoof to wipe the corner of her eye, only to shake her head and swallow her smile back down. ‘Let them have their sappy reunion,’ Rainbow thought to herself. ‘My work’s done here.’ A green aura spread across her wings as Rainbow turned to leave, not noticing something stir behind her.

The charred remnants of Sombra’s armor and horn stirred on the ground. Black haze spilled out from them as they came to life, lifting off the ground and hurtling at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow yelped as the Chaos Kin’s remains wrapped around her and knocked her off the island.

Fluttershy looked up when she heard Rainbow’s cry, only to find that both Rainbow and Sombra’s remains were both gone. “Oh no! Rainbow Dash!” Breaking away from Celestia’s embrace, she galloped off the side of the island and dove after Rainbow. When she saw Rainbow, she saw her struggling against Sombra as his dark magic and his remains swirled around her. The black haze wrapped around her body in tendrils, resisting her as she tried to pry them off while batting away the broken pieces of barding with her hoof. She tried to fly, but the haze wrapped around her wings and choked off the green aura around them until it withered away in a futile gasp. “Luna, I need to fly!”

“I’ve already used the power of flight,” Luna said. “If I cast it again now, your wings will catch fire!”

“The Chaos Kin is going to kill Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy said. “Can’t you see what’s at stake here? I don’t care if my wings catch fire!”

“Then let her fall!” Luna shot back. “She knew the risks, and we cannot afford to sacrifice you too. I’m extracting you now!”

A ray of blue light shone on Fluttershy, and she felt the familiar weightlessness as she was being pulled away. “No! Stop!” she pleaded. “If we don’t save her now, we won’t have another chance. I’m begging you, please! Let me fly, now!”

“Rrrgh, fine!” Luna shouted. The shaft of light disappeared. “But whatever happens to you is not my fault!”

A bright magical aura flared across Fluttershy’s wings, blue at first, but turning a fiery orange in a near instant. Her wings felt hot, as if they were already on fire, but she propelled herself after the falling Rainbow Dash.

0:29…

0:28…

0:27…

The black, smoky tendrils of Sombra’s magic wound themselves around Rainbow’s hind legs, tying them together. Rainbow Dash kicked out with them as best as she could, trying to fight against it. She pulled against another tendril with a hoof as it tightened around her chest. Her other hoof tried to knock away a piece of Sombra’s leg armor, but it clamped down on her foreleg. Her leg went numb, and she watched in horror as deep black veins spread across her leg. “Help me!” she cried out.

Fluttershy’s wings felt hotter with each second that passed, the unbearable heat practically seeping into her muscles and searing her primaries. She saw as the Chaos Kin’s magic constricted around Rainbow Dash, threatening to take her over. She flapped her wings as fast as she could, reaching out with her hooves as she cut through the distance between them.

0:21…

0:20…

0:19…

Rainbow Dash felt the Chaos Kin’s magic taking over with each passing second. His armor pieces and even the blood-red horn swarmed around her. Another tendril wrapped around her throat. She coughed painfully as the two tendrils squeezed around her chest and neck, forcing the air out of her lungs. She realized now that the Chaos Kin wasn’t trying to take her over. It wasn’t trying to kill her either. It was trying to do both.

Desperately, she flailed out with every part of her body she had left. She knew how aerodynamics worked. Drag, air resistance, a pony flailing around in freefall would fall slower than a pony in a straight dive. If she was lucky, it would save Fluttershy a few extra seconds. Even if it wasn’t enough to help Fluttershy catch her in time, it would mean her wings would burn a few seconds less. Maybe her wings wouldn’t burn that long. Maybe the damage wouldn’t be as bad…

0:13…

0:12…

0:11…

Fluttershy gritted her teeth in frustration and desperation. It didn’t make any sense! Rainbow was hurtling through the air in freefall. She was in a straight dive. Her wings were propelling her forward, fueled by alicorn magic. She should have caught up to Rainbow by now. She should have caught up to her right away. She was closing the distance between them, but it was taking too long.

Fluttershy then realized in horror that it made perfect sense. She remembered where she was and what she was dealing with. This was the Chaos Vortex. Things only worked here the way Sombra wanted them to work. And if he had enough power to possess Rainbow Dash, then he still had enough power to bend space between them, to make the distance between them nearly insurmountable. Sombra was trying his best to keep Fluttershy away from his new prey as long as possible, in spite of Fluttershy’s speed advantage, and it was working.

0:07…

0:06…

0:05…

Fluttershy’s wings pumped harder. She pushed the limits of her body and the power of flight spell as much as she could. Any second now, her five minutes would expire. Her wings would burn. And they would both be dead.

She reached out to Rainbow Dash with a hoof, and in Rainbow’s tumbling through the air, she saw her reach back. She was inching closer to Rainbow with each wingbeat. Just a little more time, and she would be able to reach her.

0:03…

0:02…

0:01…

Rainbow Dash watched as the aura around Fluttershy’s wings changed to a sickening red-orange. She watched as flames erupted underneath the aura, starting at the base of Fluttershy’s wings and engulfing every inch of them in an instant. She could hear Fluttershy scream in brutal agony as the flames ripped through flesh and plumage, feathers charred and peeling off before incinerating into nothing. She tried to call out Fluttershy’s name, but the tendrils around her neck stopped her from even drawing a breath.

Desperately, she reached out with her one remaining hoof. She saw Fluttershy do the same, even as tears streamed from her eyes at the pain. Mere inches away, each one tried to grab the other’s hoof, only to miss each other. Rainbow's vision blurred. She felt herself blacking out as the Chaos Kin mercilessly strangled the life out of her. They reached again, finally catching each other, and pulled each other closer. The last thing Rainbow remembered was weightlessness and a blue light surrounding her. She didn’t hear Luna calling out to the two of them. She didn’t feel the Chaos Kin’s grasp on her suddenly release as Luna’s magic pulled the two pegasi from the Chaos Vortex, leaving the broken fragments of the monster to fall into the abyss alone forever.

* * * * * * * * * *

Above Skyworld, the clouds that smothered the skies for so many days had finally parted. The sun had begun to set and dusk was falling over the world, bathing all of Skyworld in a bright, tranquil orange. It would have been a pretty sight if it wasn’t reminiscent of the bleak, perpetual twilight of the Chaos Vortex.

At the foot of Celestia’s Temple, Rainbow Dash groaned as she regained consciousness. Her limbs and body were free of Sombra’s holds, and she began to stand up. Her throat was tender and sore, probably badly bruised, but she could breathe. As she opened her eyes with a grimace and moved her hooves under her, she asked only one thing. “Is Fluttershy okay?” When she opened her eyes and looked up, she froze. Her blood ran cold, and she felt sick.

Fluttershy lay unmoving on the ground, just a few feet away. Her wings were gone, two charred stumps all that remained of them. Scorched bone poked out from underneath their remains, and a few blackened feathers fell away, turning to ash as they hit the ground.

“She…” Luna said, choked up. “She is not well. She can’t fly. She is barely breathing.”

Rainbow bit down on her hoof, fighting back the tears and the sobs. She noticed a bright yellow flash as Celestia teleported in and stepped toward Fluttershy with a somber look on her face.

“Celestia?” Luna asked.

The Goddess of Light picked up Fluttershy’s body and held it in her hooves. She looked down at Fluttershy, from the remains of her immolated wings to her face. She thought back to every failed attempt Fluttershy made to fly in her years, every time she’d wanted to take to the skies. Closing her eyes, she knelt her head and cradled the dying young mare in her hooves.

Scorched Feathers

Chapter 22: Scorched Feathers

Rainbow Dash stood at the foot of a bed. Off to one side of the bed, there was a simple nightstand and a large wooden cabinet. On the other side stood a dresser and mirror, and further away a martial arts dummy and two doors, one for the bathroom and the other for the closet. A few birdhouses hung from the ceiling above her, and tufts of nesting material were tucked away in coves along the walls and on the support beams above.

To Rainbow Dash, this room always seemed to be having some kind of identity crisis. The room was one part bedroom, one part haven for small animals, and one part personal training dojo. And yet everything in here was kept perfectly tidy and organized: everything from pictures and articles of clothing to animal feed to weaponry and pieces of equipment had its own neat little place in this room, and the room was more than big enough to accommodate everything inside it.

Today, Rainbow wasn’t interested in the room’s decor. Her eyes glanced past the heart-shaped bedpost finials in front of her, past the butterfly-patterned comforter that had been pulled to the foot of the bed, and under the butterfly-engraved headboard to the pegasus who lay comatose in that bed. Rainbow walked around to the side of the bed to get a better look at its occupant.

Fluttershy had been moved to her own room in Skyworld after they had all returned from the Chaos Vortex. Her tunic, damaged by the flames, had been removed, exposing her chest and barrel. What was left of her wings were now wrapped in bandages. Normally, Fluttershy would have been placed in Skyworld’s medical wing, but even the doctors agreed there was very little they could do for her anymore. She hadn’t woken up since she was brought here, and neither Celestia nor Skyworld’s doctors were sure that she would.

Rainbow Dash moved from Fluttershy’s bedside to the cabinet and stared at her own reflection. The bruising around her neck had healed after a quick Drink of the Gods, but she could still remember the feeling of Sombra’s form binding her, strangling her. She lowered her head and closed her eyes, unable to look at herself. ‘I screwed up,’ she kept thinking to herself. ‘I took my eyes off him for one second, and now… Now Fluttershy…’

Eyes squeezing shut and holding back tears, she lifted a hoof and punched straight through the glass. The entire door shattered, and she could feel shards of glass rain down on her foreleg. When she opened her eyes, she saw blood dripping from the numerous fresh cuts in her leg. She looked down into the bottom of the cabinet, down at the hundreds of glass shards as if trying to find her reflection in them again. Instead, she found something peculiar among them.

Poking out of the sea of broken glass was a pair of weapons in the shape of cats’ paws. Rainbow recognized them. They were the Paw Pad Orbitars that Fluttershy had used three years ago on her mission to the Lunar Sanctum. Rainbow always thought that Celestia was sending Fluttershy to die on these missions, and she’d cracked a joke that Celestia was making it too obvious by sending her out with these weapons.

Rainbow took a closer look at the orbitars. They were part of a set, which practically made them twins, and yet they were modeled after completely different looking cats: one based on a tabby cat and the other a calico. Rainbow looked from the Paw Pad Orbitars to Fluttershy and back, and the look in her eyes hardened with determination.

‘No,’ Rainbow thought to herself. ‘Not if I’ve got something to say about it.’ Lowering her foreleg from the cabinet, she turned toward the doors across the room.

She placed her hoof, now cleaned of any blood or shards of glass and freshly bandaged, on the door on the left and opened Fluttershy’s closet. Several white tunics just like the one Fluttershy wore stared back at her from inside, all from their own hangers. Rainbow parsed through them, only to do a double take when she saw one in black tucked away to the side. Within moments, she put the black tunic on and was adjusting the last straps.

With her new tunic on, Rainbow moved toward the dresser and mirror, where several weapons were waiting for her. With her hooves, she shoved the EZ Cannon and the Violet Palm off the side, knocking over an Ogre Club that had been propped against the dresser in the process. She picked up the first weapon, her Silver Bow, by the grip and aimed it across the room. With one quick motion, Rainbow Dash separated her bow, catching its second bladed limb in her other hoof. Using the blades, she sliced through the air in a flurry of practiced slashes and aerial flips. Satisfied, she tossed the second blade into her other hoof and placed both of them on her foreleg, allowing their magic to affix them.

Walking back to the dresser, Rainbow picked up the second weapon, her version of the First Blade with a black metallic blade instead of a white one. She approached the training dummy and swung her blade, hitting the dummy with a sharp, resounding crack. Rainbow swung again, landing a vertical swing against one of the dummy’s pegs, then ducked under another peg before spinning around and striking with an upward vertical slash. She swung horizontally, striking the dummy’s body before ramming into it with a shoulder check. Rainbow leapt, flipping over one of the pegs before landing on the other side and aiming her weapon along the dummy’s side. Her blade fired across the room, and the dummy rattled violently from the blast of the weapon’s muzzle so close by.

Rainbow Dash placed the black First Blade against her side, and the weapon’s magic attached itself just under her wing. Rainbow walked back to the dresser and took her next weapon, her old Dark Pit Staff, before turning around and walking back from the dresser. She raised the staff, her gaze lining up with the weapon’s sight as she aimed at the mirror across the room. She made slight adjustments in her aim, each time targeting a new part in the mirror’s reflection.

The staff fired, and in the blink of an eye, an orange shot struck the mirror, rebounded, and soared back at her. Rainbow hit her shot back with the butt of her staff, deflecting it just as fast and sending it into a wall on the other side of the room. Without giving a thought to the new charred hole in the wall, she half-smirked for a second before securing the Dark Pit Staff to her other side and returning to the dresser.

Her last weapon was a pair of claws made of bright, flickering blue-black flames. Surprisingly, the flames didn’t burn the dresser they were lying on, and they felt solid and barely lukewarm as Rainbow Dash picked them up in her hooves. Rainbow placed one of the Pandora Claws on her hoof and felt the blue flames rise and swirl up her leg as its power rushed into her. She put the other claw on her other front hoof and felt the same magic flare up her other leg like fire through kerosene.

A pair of white pupil-less eyes glared back at Rainbow Dash from the back of each claw as she twisted one of her hooves back and forth, testing the weight and feel of her weapons and studying the sharpness of each fiery talon. She gave them a hard look of her own as she slipped into a moment of quiet, tense thought that had become much too common for her liking. This wasn’t about revenge or pride for her, or some righteous crusade against the gods. Not anymore. This was about helping Fluttershy. This was about setting things right where she had screwed things up so badly.

As she stepped away from the table, Rainbow Dash stopped in front of the cabinet. Reaching into the broken glass, she picked up the set of Paw Pad Orbitars into her hooves. She took the tabby Paw Pad and pressed it to her shoulder. The weapon held in place, dangling from her tunic like a little ornament. Still holding the other Paw Pad, Rainbow walked over to Fluttershy’s side.

‘Hang in there, Fluttershy,’ Rainbow thought. She placed the calico Paw Pad by Fluttershy’s side and clasped her hoof around it. ‘I’m going to save you. I don’t know how yet, but I’ll figure something out. And if not me, then maybe Celestia will.’ She felt her wings twitch, and when she looked up, she saw Celestia standing by the doorway, looking on at both of them. ‘Well speak of the Discord.’

She met Celestia’s tempered, dispassionate gaze with a hard look of her own as she headed toward the doorway. Celestia let her through, neither one saying anything as Rainbow turned and headed down the empty hallway.

Rainbow Dash made her way to the end of the hallway, where a pair of doors swung open. “I’m outta here!” she shouted as she leapt through the doors. A green aura flared through her wings, and she took flight. A bleak landscape met her on the other side of the portal, with isolated mountains dotting the cold, barren wasteland below. She saw a lake in the distance, but no life in or around it. A mist hung over the area, smothering the land and wrapping around the mountaintops. Rainbow Dash turned her gaze from the land below to the cold blue-green skies around her. It all gave her the feeling that every living thing here was now long dead, except for the Belunka and three Gyrazers moving in from her left.

“Fluttershy is still unconscious,” Celestia said, her voice echoing in Rainbow’s left ear. “With her wings burned up, she won’t last much longer. But I’ve found a way to save her.”

“Of course you did,” Rainbow retorted.

“We both owe Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “You know that. Think of the sacrifices she made to save the both of us.”

“Yeah, I know…” Rainbow said, her voice tinged with regret. She fired a blue, fiery blast from the Pandora Claws into the Belunka’s open maw, watching as the giant beast lurched and fell into the valley below. She then turned her weapons on the Gyrazers, shooting them down with a spray of blue-black talons. A Monomiknose formed ahead of her, and Rainbow lunged at it with two claw swipes. The creature broke apart, and Rainbow fired point blank, incinerating the Specknose, Mik, and Monoeyes in one blast. “So what’s the plan?”

“Go to the City of Souls,” Celestia said. “It’s just up ahead. It’s where souls make their final passage into death… or back into life.”

“Oh, I understand,” a familiar voice rang, making Rainbow’s right ear twitch. “You intend to turn back the clock and cheat death. Raising the dead, keeping the near-dead alive. You are playing with dangerous forces, Celestia.”

“I know the risks involved, Luna, but we don’t have a choice,” Celestia replied.

“Hold on a sec, weren’t you two just at war with each other?” Rainbow said, even as a swarm of Gyrazers, Komaytos, and Handoras on Monoliths flew toward her.

“Please, I am not so petty that I cannot extend an olive branch at a time like this,” Luna said.

“You’re not?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow.

“Thank you, Luna,” Celestia said. “And thank you for helping Fluttershy when I couldn’t.”

“There is no need,” Luna said. “Sombra was my responsibility, and I am indebted to Fluttershy just as much as any of you for her help.”

As Rainbow Dash soared past the last of the mountaintops, she reached a forest at the end of a giant chasm. The trees were massive, but they too looked cold and lifeless. Not a single leaf could be found on any of the trees or on the rock-hard ground they rose from, and in the glow of the blue-green sky, the trees even shared the same dark gray as the earth. Still, Rainbow scanned the forest as she flew by, keeping an eye out for Underworld troops.

A red glare passed over Rainbow for a brief moment. She turned her head toward the source, but saw four Reapettes flying toward her. Further ahead, she spotted an Orne lying in wait among the trees. She fired a blast at one of the Reapettes, and then a volley of talons to shoot down the other three. Rainbow then banked left, her body twisting as she flew in between the Orne and one of the trees. She heard the roar of the Orne and the rattling of skulls in its jaws as she rushed past with the hint of a smirk, deftly avoiding contact with a monster that eagerly sought to wrench her own skull from her body and add it to its collection.

Another red flash passed over Rainbow’s body. She glanced just in time to see a Reaper summoning four more Reapettes from thin air. Aiming her Pandora Claws, she fired a volley of talons at them, shooting them down one at a time. She then swerved right, maneuvering past another Orne with practiced skill.

“Not to make anypony feel bad, but this pegasus doesn’t need your help to fly,” Rainbow said. “So don’t expect me to suck up to you.”

“I’m beginning to understand why you chose Fluttershy as your commander,” Luna said. “The nerve of this one.”

“Rainbow never offered, I never asked,” Celestia responded. “That said, Rainbow Dash, if your flight is unlimited, then you won’t have to battle on land.”

“Good,” Luna said. “Time is of the essence, and going on hoof would only slow us down.”

The forest thickened on either side of Rainbow as she flew deeper inside. Up ahead, a rock formation towered over the treetops and formed an archway in her path. Rainbow flew onward, passing through the archway and into a clear path in between the trees. Gyrazers and Syrens emerged from the forest around her. She heard a scuttling sound behind her and turned to see a group of Handoras racing after her on either side of the path. The Gyrazers fired at Rainbow with dark purple lasers, and Rainbow banked left to dodge them. Rainbow fired back with a blast from her claws, destroying two of the Gyrazers, and then rolled to her right as the Handoras fired a barrage of energy pellets at her. Aiming her claws back at the Handoras, she fired a barrage of blue-black energy talons, picking off one row of them before firing on the other.

Two Syrens fired whirlwind blasts at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow dove, ducking under one whirlwind and angling left to evade the other. She lunged at the Syrens, slashing a Gyrazer with one of her claws along the way. Her other claw slashed into one of the Syrens, slicing one of its wings and sending the creature plummeting to the forest floor. Rainbow’s back hooves made contact with the other Syren, bucking it into a nearby tree as she propelled herself forward.

Rainbow Dash blasted another Syren with her claws as she flew past. She could see the end of the treeline up ahead, at the top of a hill. With a look of determination, Rainbow pumped her wings harder and soared, leaving the last Underworld troops behind as she made for the edge of the forest. Once she breached the forest boundary, the hill sloped downward into a steep cliffside, and Rainbow reached her destination.

Dozens of glowing blue spires rose from the ground as far as Rainbow Dash could see, many of them standing on a series of raised plateaus that interlaced the landscape. This had to be the City of Souls, Rainbow thought to herself, but something felt wrong to her. There were no other buildings or structures except for those spires, but there weren’t any windows, any doors, or anything that looked like marketplaces anywhere on them. The only feature she could see on any of them was the occasional blue-white sigil that ran up and down one of their sides. The cold, ghostly glow of the spires made Rainbow shiver. And as she flew toward the city, she realized that there wasn’t a soul in sight. “What kind of city is this?” she asked.

“It’s unlike any earthly city,” Celestia said. “The spirits of the dead gather here.”

“The dead?” Rainbow said. Suddenly the bleak landscape, the Ornes and the Reapers all made sense to her. “So this is the Underworld.”

“YOU’VE GOT IT!” boomed another familiar voice in the distance. Rainbow turned to her left as she passed by a group of spires. Discord’s form loomed over the city in the horizon, his arms crossed and a wide, mocking smirk stretched across his face.

Rainbow scowled. “Oh, it’s you,” she said coolly.

“My, my, aren’t you dressed a little goth today?” Discord sneered. “I hope the stresses of life haven’t gotten you down.” A flash of light enveloped him, and a second later he was draped with a blanket and holding a handkerchief in his paw. “That would be ever so tragic.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and kept flying through the city. “No one’s listening,” she said.

Discord put on a sinister grin. “It’s hilarious how you have no sense of humor,” he said while throwing away the blanket and handkerchief, which vanished in another flash of light. “But that sourpuss attitude is going to give you an ulcer someday!”

“Moving right along…” Luna muttered impatiently. “Your understanding is correct, Rainbow Dash. The Underworld is where souls go. As you know, Reapers are responsible for carrying souls.”

“But we’ve got an excess of souls these days,” Discord said. He shrugged, even as his form faded away. “The Reapers can’t handle them all.”

“So, what?” Rainbow asked. “They end up here?”

“Yes, the City of Souls is meant to be a waystation for souls bound for the afterlife,” Celestia explained. “Unfortunately, even here the souls of the departed are not safe. Some just fade away, while others are… eaten…”

The look on Rainbow’s face turned into one of horror. She aimed her Pandora Claws and fired on the next group of enemies she saw: a horde of Miks and Monoeyes. As she flew past the spires, groups of Handoras crawled up their sides, and she shot at them too.

“Even in the afterlife, it’s survival of the fittest,” Discord mused.

“Actually, that makes some sense,” Luna added. “The weak are consumed, just as nature intended.”

A red flash flickered in the corner of Rainbow’s eye, and she turned to see a Reaper and four Reapettes hovering below. Rainbow fired a charge shot at them, but the blast was absorbed by one of the Reapettes, and the other three flew at her. She fired a stream of talons at the three, shooting them down one at a time, and then rushed at the Reaper. The Reaper swung its scythe, but Rainbow sailed over its blade and slammed into it with both front hooves. With her claws buried in the Reaper’s cloaked body, she fired a charge shot point-blank. The Reaper hung limp in the air as Rainbow pulled her hooves away and floated back, but before long it fell back and faded away in blue-black flames.

“You don’t have time to fight every enemy,” Celestia said. “Fluttershy may not have that long.”

“R-Right,” Rainbow said. “Where to now?”

“Straight ahead,” Celestia said. “There is a tunnel through one of the obelisks.”

Handoras crawled up the spires around Rainbow Dash, and Gyrazers, Miks, Monoeyes, and Petribombers swarmed the skies to replace the enemies she had taken out. With Celestia’s words in mind, Rainbow kept going. She noticed a square passage inside one of the spires ahead and flew inside. The same glowing blue stone that the spires were made from stretched across sections of the tunnel in beams and columns. Shulms clung to the beams, and Monoeyes, Miks and Splins emerged from behind them.

Rainbow Dash fired at the Shulms, keeping her distance from the toxic clouds they gave off upon exploding. One of the Splins divided into two, and the two Splins hurled themselves at Rainbow. Rainbow ducked under the first one, its spinning blades just sailing over her head, and sped past the second one. Aiming her Pandora Claws, she fired back, shooting down Monoeyes, Miks, and several Splins with a stream of talons. The Monoeyes and Miks returned fire, and Rainbow Dash swerved right, going into a barrel roll to dodge them in spite of the tunnel’s size. One of the Miks came in close, opened its mouth and lashed at her with its long tongue. Rainbow soared over the attack, blasted the Mik with her claws, and opened fire again on the other Miks and Monoeyes.

The Splins began to take cover behind some of the pillars as Rainbow took down the other enemies, dividing into two before emerging to attack her. Rainbow flapped her wings harder, surging past the Splins as they spun at her and firing back with her claws. She maintained her speed, racing through the tunnel and putting as much distance between the surviving enemies as she could while Celestia’s words echoed in her mind. She didn’t have time to fight them all.

The tunnel’s light grew dim as she flew deeper inside. The ghostly, luminescent stone that made up the spire’s walls was replaced with ordinary stone, but the beams and columns that extended from the walls became fewer and further in between, and as Rainbow stared down the length of the tunnel, she saw no signs of Underworld monsters ahead. Undaunted, she took one last glance at the monsters behind her and flew into the darkness.

* * * * * * * * * *

Rainbow Dash emerged on the other side of the tunnel, which led out of a cave in one of the cliffsides in the area. The City of Souls stretched on, with dozens of spires towering above Rainbow in either direction. A deep fissure tore through the center of the city starting from the entrance to the cave she had exited, and even though she couldn’t see the bottom of the chasm, there were spires rising from the darkness below.

“Keep going, Rainbow Dash,” Celestia said. “This chasm should lead you to your destination.”

Rainbow frowned. “What are we doing here anyway?” she asked. “I thought the whole point was to save Fluttershy while she’s still hanging on.”

“It is, and I will explain everything soon, ” Celestia said. “But the longer we take, the smaller her chances are.”

“It may be wise to fly inside the chasm,” Luna suggested. “If you fly out in the open, you’ll likely draw the attention of the Underworld Army.”

“True,” Celestia said, “But we don’t know how many of them are down there. They could be preparing an ambush.”

“Besides, it’s not like they don’t know I’m here,” Rainbow shrugged. But as she soared over the chasm, something caught her eye in the depths below. “Wait, what was that?”

“Do you remember when I said that some souls are eaten?” Celestia said.

“Well that would be the hideous devourer of souls himself,” Luna said.

Rainbow noticed something move below her in the chasm, but before she could make out what it was, it was gone. Her eyes shifted from one side of the chasm to the other, her Pandora Claws ready as she looked for any sign of the monster. She checked around the spires that rose from the chasm, but the light of their glow only reached so far into the darkness.

A shadowy figure moved underneath Rainbow Dash, and a gigantic maw rose from the chasm. Rainbow swerved left as it lunged at her, barely rolling out of its way before it could chomp down on her. She stretched out her foreleg, aiming one of her claws at the wormlike creature racing after her. The monster opened its jaws, revealing dozens of sawlike teeth that formed multiple rows in its mouth. Rainbow pumped her wings harder as she got a good look into the creature’s maw, veering to the side as it rushed again to tear into her with its flesh-ripping teeth. She fired at the monster, but her shots bounced harmlessly off of its flesh and teeth without leaving a scratch.

“You weren’t kidding about the hideous part!” Rainbow said. She banked right as the monster lunged at her again, barely dodging it as it smashed through several obelisks in its path. Rainbow Dash descended into the chasm, hoping to lose the creature. The monster dove in after her, chomping at her as it closed in.

“Well I think he’s adorable,” Discord said. “And souls can be very delicious.”

Rainbow felt the magic coursing through her wings as she beat them harder, trying to put more distance between her and the monster. “You eat souls too?” she said in disgust. “I thought Luna said there was only one hideous soul-eating monster.” The chasm took a sharp turn. Rainbow twisted hard, barely avoiding the wall as she tried to make the turn, but losing precious speed in the process. The monster loomed over her, opening its maw again as it went for another bite.

“Cute,” Discord muttered. “Besides, it’s not like souls possess personalities or anything like that.”

“They don’t?” Rainbow asked. She swerved out of the monster’s way, but the other wall closed in and she nearly crashed into it. She silently cursed as she realized her mistake: the chasm was too narrow to maneuver in and not straight enough to pick up speed in.

“Of course not,” Discord said. “Souls have no more personality than blood or bone. They’re just another resource to harvest from living beings.”

“Your disregard for life is just astounding,” Luna said. “Could you be any more callous?”

Rainbow looked up at the walls of the chasm as she weighed her options, doubting she could fly out and still maintain enough speed on her ascent. She glanced back at the monster behind her, not sure of how long she could dodge it. Then she had an idea.

The soul-eating monster lunged again, its sawlike teeth ready to shred Rainbow to pieces. Rainbow steered right, evading it again, and angled her body upright and flapped her wings to decelerate. The creature flew past, and she dashed forward again, now flying alongside it. The creature dove, performing a loop and emerging to charge at Rainbow Dash from below. Rainbow went into a loop along with it, watching the monster’s movements and following them. The monster turned its head and twisted its serpentine body to lunge at her again, but she dipped slightly to dodge and performed an Immelmare turn to follow the monster’s movements. The creature did another loop, exiting into a steep nosedive as it hurled itself at her again. Rainbow rolled as she followed the creature’s loop and went into the same nosedive.

Rainbow gave a cocky grin as she and the creature leveled off and continued through the chasm. She soared above the creature’s back, aimed her claws at a soft, bulbous sac on its body, and fired. The sac burst, and dozens of orbs of radiant white light spilled out and scattered through the air. For a moment, Rainbow thought she noticed images inside a few of the orbs, but shrugged it off and shot another one of the sacs on the monster’s body.

“Well, I suppose I can take a stab out of it,” Discord said. “You know, souls are a bit like taffy. Sweet enough to eat, but pliable enough to mold into any shape I can imagine.”

“I regret that I asked,” Luna muttered after a pause.

“I’d love to get my claws on Dashie’s soul,” Discord said. “So dark, so bold, so malleable! A powerful spirit like that shouldn’t be wasted on Ol’ Chomper’s lunch.”

Rainbow Dash shot a blast from her claws, bursting open the last bulbous sac on the soul-eating monster’s body. She banked slightly as white orbs spilled from the destroyed sac and raced forward, overtaking the monster. The creature lunged forward, but Rainbow was already too far ahead. Rainbow flipped around, hurled a charge shot from the Pandora Claws into the creature’s mouth, and kept flying down the length of the chasm. The force of her attack rippled through the creature’s body as explosions tore through the wounds created from the destroyed sacs. The monster writhed in midair for a moment, and then plummeted back into the chasm. A final explosion rocked the surrounding area, shaking the cliffsides and spires and creating a shaft of white light that illuminated a section of the chasm behind Rainbow Dash.

“By the way, you might want to get a new Chompers,” Rainbow said. “Your last one went to live on a nice big farm up north.”

“How can you be so cruel?!” Discord howled in mock grief. “He was my only friend in the world…”

“Can’t imagine why,” Rainbow snarked.

Rainbow soared out of the chasm and continued to make her way through the City of Souls. In addition to the clusters of spires that surrounded her in every direction, she noticed some hovering in the skies as a series of diamond-shaped stone structures. The sky had changed from the cold, bleak blue-green Rainbow had seen when she entered the Underworld to a dark, empty bluish-black. Only it wasn’t completely empty. The same radiant white orbs that poured out of the soul-eating monster’s wounds when Rainbow fought it now merged into rivulets of glowing white light that streamed across the sky and wound around the city spires. And as Rainbow scanned the skyline, she spotted several clusters of dots in the horizon, each individual dot growing bigger as they seemed to approach. She noticed movement below her as well, and watched as creatures emerged from the crevices in the ground to pursue her.

“That explosion must have drawn the Underworld Army’s attention,” Luna said.

“She’s right,” Celestia said. “I see signs of a significant Underworld troop presence converging on you. Keep moving, and be prepared to battle. You’re almost there.”

“Got it,” Rainbow said. Three Syrens circled around her like vultures around their prey while two Petribombers flew up toward her from below. Rainbow shot the two Petribombers with a blast from her claws and fired a stream of talons at the Syrens one by one. A Fort Oink rose up from below, surrounded by three Komaytos orbiting it in a protective circle. Rainbow charged at one of the Komaytos, slashing through its gelatinous body before flying after the next.

“Do you think Discord was telling the truth about molding souls into other forms?” Luna asked.

There was a pause as the three mares pondered Luna’s question. To Rainbow, the question didn’t make much sense. Souls were just little balls of light that every creature had inside them. She could barely wrap her head around the fact that some creatures ate them. So what was the point of trying to shape them into anything?

“That would explain his endless supply of troops,” Celestia answered. “He’s making them from souls!”

The slow clap of Discord’s talon and paw could be heard through the telepathic void. “Well done, Celestia!” Discord jeered. “At least someone figured it out!”

Rainbow froze in midaim. She stared in horror at a group of Miks and Daphnes as the three gods’ words sunk into her head: each of those monsters was the soul of a once-living pony.

“That’s why you were trying to stop us from attacking Celestia’s temple!” another familiar female voice cut in.

“Wait,” Rainbow Dash said, “aren’t you one of the Lightning Chariot twins? What are you doing here?”

“As long as Celestia was under the Chaos Kin’s control, she was still attacking earth ponies,” Twilight continued. “That’s why you didn’t want anypony using the Lightning Chariot. You were using her to harvest souls!”

“Two for two, I’m impressed!” Discord said. “You ladies finally found a pony with a brain in her little head.”

“W-Wait…” Luna said. “So then every creature who dies…”

“Goes to building up my army!” Discord said.

‘Wait…’ Rainbow thought to herself.

“In that case…” Luna murmured hopelessly. “There is no way the Underworld Army could ever lose.”

“Hey, spoilers!” Discord shouted back. But a second later, his voice rose up with excitement and glee. “It’s true, though. And the more fighting there is, the bigger my army gets! MY GOODNESS, does it feel good to be on the winning team!”

“Hold on a sec,” Rainbow Dash cut in. “Your math is a little off. Might wanna break out the Brain Age, pal.”

“What is this ‘Brain Age’ of which you speak?” Luna asked.

“And what does it have to with any of our current crises?” Celestia added flatly.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. She swerved as a pair of Splins spun at her and rolled to dodge a blast from a Paramush. “Think of all the ponies who died in this war between the gods,” Rainbow said. “If what Discord says is true, then the Underworld would be way more crowded with monsters.”

“And that’s just counting ponies, right?” Twilight added. “If we consider other races of creatures such as zebras, buffalo, minotaurs, or griffons, he should have a lot more souls at his disposal.”

“She’s right,” Luna said. “Even if you only count creatures who die natural deaths, Discord’s armies are far smaller than they should be.”

“Then one fallen pony, or one fallen creature, doesn’t equal one new Underworld monster,” Celestia thought aloud. “After all, creating something as corporeal as a monster would take…”

“Dozens, even hundreds of souls!” Luna said. “But that’s a tremendous waste! It’s… an abomination!”

“Yeah, that’s just about the sickest thing I’ve ever heard,” Rainbow muttered. “And after today, that’s saying something. We have to stop him.”

Discord rose up from the cracks in the earth and peered down at Rainbow Dash, looming over her and the entire City of Souls all at once with a maniacal grin. “You poor, deluded things will never stop me!” he bellowed. He raised the eagle talon on his left arm and swung at Rainbow Dash with a backhand chop. “Not in my realm!”

Rainbow Dash yelped as she veered into a dive-roll to dodge Discord’s swipe. She narrowly avoided a direct hit as his talon sailed over her, but the force of his swing knocked her out of her flight and sent her tumbling through the air. Regaining control, Rainbow righted herself, and with a few powerful flaps of her wings, she was flying again. Toward her left, she caught a glimpse of a spire crumbling to the ground after Discord’s talon had cut clean through it.

“Watch yourself, Dashie,” Discord sneered. “You’re in my world.”

“Yeah, well I’ve got enough firepower behind me to bring your world crashing down on you!” she shot back. “So what’s your point?!”

“Rainbow, calm down,” Celestia said. “Don’t let him get to you.”

“Not a problem!” The power of flight flared across Rainbow’s wings, and she charged at Discord. The magic radiated from her wings and coursed through the rest of her body as she stretched out her hooves, her wings rapidly accelerating her to speeds beyond anything any other pegasus had ever flown. An explosion of light and sound erupted, followed by a massive rainbow shockwave as she left the sound barrier shattered in her wake and a solid rainbow contrail followed behind her.

The power of flight, already flowing through Rainbow, now shot through her body like an electric current as she felt the rush of adrenaline pumping through her. The electricity worked its way through her forelegs and into the Pandora Claws, and she stretched out her hooves to her sides. She corkscrewed through the air, her claws shredding through the skies in a flurry of speed and raw magic while the rainbow contrail spiraled behind her as she spun wildly.

Rainbow exited her corkscrew and slowed down, the immense magic power finally running its course. Slowing to a stop, she looked around. The blue-white spires that made up the City of Souls were nowhere to be found. The cracked, desolate landscape was gone as well, leaving Rainbow Dash in a bluish-purple void. Discord’s cold, sadistic laughter echoed all around her, sparking her temper and sending a chill through her very core as she searched left and right. Behind her, thousands of tiny purple wisps of smoke rose from the direction she had flown – the remnants of the Underworld monsters that were in her path – before dissolving into nothing.

After a while, Rainbow noticed something else. Several streams of glowing, glittery white light flowed across the void all around her. She’d seen them earlier, back in the City of Souls after slaying the soul-eating monster, but there were more of them now and they were all flowing past her in the same direction. When she gazed forward again, she saw the streams converge and swirl around a great, spiraling funnel of that same glittering white light.

Rainbow stared in awe, speechless as the funnel’s soft yet brilliant light reflected off her eyes and illuminated the void all at once. She drifted toward one of the streams that fed the column, where she saw several orbs of glowing white light flowing at a time. Some of the orbs were featureless, apart from the iridescent streaks that occasionally swam under their surfaces. But many had images floating in the center: a quill and paper, a tree, a gust of wind with a snowflake, a telescope and stars, a lightning bolt and raindrops, an apple, and so many others. They were cutie marks, Rainbow Dash realized.

“Are these… souls?” Rainbow asked.

“Yes,” Celestia said, her voice taking on a dark, sober tone. “This used to be a stream of souls. But so many lives have been lost that it’s now become a torrent. All souls need to find their final resting place down here so that life may spring anew. That’s part of the natural cycle of life. But Discord keeps playing with souls; he won’t let them rest. His greed has thrown everything off balance.”

“It’s like the earth ponies disrupting the balance on Earth!” Luna said. “It’s unforgivable!”

Rainbow’s eye twitched. She felt her jaw clench at Luna’s words, and a scowl spread across her face. “You’ve got to be joking!” she shouted. “All you gods and your stupid wars are the ones throwing everything off balance!”

“You worthless, insignificant little gnat!” Luna seethed. “How dare you?!”

“No, how dare you!” Rainbow shot back. “You want to talk about who’s throwing off the balance?! Why don’t we start with that Reset Bomb you dropped? Or your war on the earth ponies? A bunch of these souls are down here because of the earth ponies you killed! You’re supposed to be the Goddess of Nature, but instead you’re doing Discord’s dirty work for him, and if he wasn’t already the biggest monster in the universe, I would hunt you down, take my Dark Pit Staff, shove it in your-”

“Rainbow Dash!” Celestia shouted, trying to cut her off to no avail.

“And fire off a charge shot! And don’t get me started on you, Goddess of Light,” Rainbow said, venom dripping from her voice at the mention of Celestia’s title. “What was your job again? Protecting earth ponies? Stopping the Underworld from going to war with the living? Then maybe you can tell how many earth ponies you actually bothered to save?”

“What are you talking about?” Celestia asked. “Fluttershy and I have saved countless ponies from the Underworld. We protected them from the Forces of Nature and the Parasprites, and from any gods who would do them harm.”

“Yeah, after Nightmare Moon showed up!” Rainbow said. “But what about the earth ponies who died before she came back? The Underworld Army didn’t just start attacking when Nightmare Moon or Discord showed up. They’ve been killing ponies this whole time, only you never did anything about it! All these souls are down here because you couldn’t be bothered to get off your fat white flank and do your job!”

“Now wait just a minute,” Twilight intejected. “Princess Celestia does a lot more…”

The voices of Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Luna faded into the background of Celestia’s mind. Her conscience weighed on her, pushing itself to the forefront of her thoughts. Could what Rainbow said about her be true? She had ignored the Underworld before Nightmare Moon’s return, but that was only because they weren’t a priority. There were other gods threatening the earth ponies, and without an evil god to lead them, the Underworld wasn’t as great a threat. Even if they staged attacks on the earth ponies from time to time…

“Hey, if you’re chattin’ with your precious goddess, give her a message from me. Tell her she’s been sleepin’ on the job! My world is on the edge of collapse!”

Only that wasn’t true, and deep down she knew it. The Underworld was always active, raiding earth pony cities and claiming souls even without a god to command them. Ponies like Applejack, whose family was wiped out in one of their attacks, or the former Dark Lord Pinkamena, who was turned into one of the Underworld commanders, were living proof that they were a threat even years before Nightmare Moon’s return. Perhaps the Underworld was preparing for her revival, Celestia wondered. Or perhaps they were preparing for Discord’s uprising.

“Those earth ponies were at war with one another,” Luna said. “They were slaughtering each other over a ‘wish seed.’ So don’t condemn me for taking their lives! They were already dead.”

Celestia could hear Luna and Rainbow Dash bickering in the background of her inner thoughts. Twilight Sparkle would occasionally cut in, but only in Celestia’s defense. Celestia was beginning to wonder if she even deserved such a defense. Hundreds, maybe thousands of ponies must have died over the years because she gave the Underworld a pass for so long.

The revelation made Celestia think of Rainbow Dash in a different light. When they first found her, she was just a spiteful, angry pegasus who lashed out at anything and anyone. In a lot of ways, Rainbow was still just that, and for so long Celestia had dismissed her as a malformed product of the Mirror of Truth’s magic. Until now, it had never occurred to her that Rainbow’s loathing for her had some merit.

“Don’t say that. Everyone loves the goddess of light. You know that. And I’m sure you try your best.”

Fluttershy’s words echoed in Celestia’s thoughts. Fluttershy had always had the utmost faith in her. She always tried her best, no matter what Celestia asked of her or how terrified she was. It was hard to believe that Rainbow Dash was a manifestation of Fluttershy’s inner darkness, because it sometimes seemed like Fluttershy didn’t have any darkness in her.

“If it were not for my Reset Bomb, the earth ponies would still be at war with each other,” Luna said. “I put an end to that! I saved them!”

“So what?!” Rainbow shot back. “That makes you their hero now?”

And yet how many times had Celestia seen Fluttershy peering over the edge of one of Skyworld’s many islands in her youth, watching silently and intently at the earth below? Whenever somepony asked, Fluttershy would always answer that she was looking at the ponies down below, or that she was looking at the animals below. Was she watching the Underworld’s attacks on them?

The more Celestia thought about it, the more it made sense. Fluttershy had fought and trained for much of her young life, far more than any filly or colt in Skyworld. She had learned to fight with nearly any kind of weapon, become adept at combat, and over time become the finest soldier Celestia had ever seen. Deep down, Fluttershy wanted to help, even if helping went against every instinct she had.

“The Mirror of Truth is just that. It reflects the truth!”

There lie the answer. Rainbow Dash’s fiery determination. Her drive to help ponies in need. Her will to fight back. They had been a part of Fluttershy for years, and they compelled her to become the soldier she was. But there was more. Fluttershy was always much happier tending to her animals, and Celestia couldn’t deny that she wanted no part in any of these wars. She resented fighting, and even if she could never admit to it, she must have resented Celestia too. Not just for failing to stop the Underworld, but for putting her in harm’s way time and again.

The Mirror of Truth brought all of it to the surface when it created Rainbow Dash…

“When I get my hooves on you…” Luna seethed.

“Go ahead and try!” Rainbow Dash shouted.

“BOTH OF YOU! ENOUGH!”

Rainbow and Luna fell silent. Rainbow’s eyes shifted anxiously from left to right, and she rubbed her foreleg with her hoof. Celestia’s voiced still boomed in her ears, and not even Luna nor Twilight Sparkle dared speak.

Celestia took a breath. “Rainbow Dash has a point,” Celestia said. “We have the Underworld Army out to hoard souls. We have the Forces of Nature trying to wipe out the earth ponies. We have the earth ponies continuing to exploit nature and each other. And we have us — gods — who drag all of ponykind into our power struggles.

“But it doesn’t matter how this all started,” Celestia continued. “Now we know who’s profiting from it.”

“Discord!” Luna said. “Left unchecked, he threatens us all.”

“Then we’ve got to take him out,” Rainbow said.

“But to do that, we need Fluttershy’s help,” Luna said.

“Right,” Rainbow said. She took off, veering past one of the rivulets as she made her way around the torrent of souls. With each passing second, the skies grew blacker, the void more all-consuming as she put the torrent of souls and its light behind her. But it didn’t matter. She was heading in the right direction. She was almost there, wherever ‘there’ was.

“I’m glad we are all in agreement,” Celestia said. “But there is one last thing, Rainbow Dash.”

“Yeah, what?”

“When you learned that Discord was molding souls to create his troops, you hesitated to attack them.”

“Uh, yeah,” Rainbow said anxiously. “But what am I supposed to do? I can’t just wipe out their souls.”

“Defeating an Underworld enemy won’t destroy the souls used to make it,” Celestia said. “Those souls are already lost, I’m afraid. Some of their souls may still be salvageable, depending on how long the monster’s form has had to solidify. But the only way to do that is to slay the monster.”

“Okay, so taking them out is still a good thing?” Rainbow said. “Got it.”

A single, solitary white pillar came into view in the distance, rising from the abyss below and standing out in the darkness as if illuminated by its own light. As Rainbow made her approach, the pillar towered above her, and she began to pick up altitude. A circular platform sat at the very top of the pillar, and an ornate piece of the structure extended down from the platform and wove its way around the pillar in a flourish, giving it the appearance of a flower’s stem.

“Up ahead is the Rewind Spring,” Celestia said. “That’s where you need to go.”

Before long, Rainbow soared above the platform and began to circle around, scanning both the platform and the surrounding skies for any threats. Sure enough, a circular pool of water rested in the center of the platform. It wasn’t what Rainbow was expecting at all – a fountain in the deepest depths of the Underworld – but at least it sounded promising.

“As the name implies, the Rewind Spring can return things to their original states,” Luna said. “But take heed, the Rewind Spring’s waters are very powerful, and… well, suffice it to say, there have been accidents.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, but she shrugged it off. They only needed the Rewind Spring to save Fluttershy’s life. No matter how dangerous it was, all they had to do was restore Fluttershy’s wings and get out. Confident, Rainbow banked and began her descent, making a beeline for the fountain.

* * * * * * * * * *

Rainbow Dash’s hooves touched down on the surface of the platform, the aura around her wings vanishing as she folded them at her sides and broke into a short sprint. She stopped at the edge of the Rewind Spring and began to peer into the water. Without any wind blowing this deep in the Underworld, the water was still, and the spring was clear enough to see the bottom. Rainbow turned away and looked out to the rest of the platform. If the Rewind Spring could heal Fluttershy, she thought, then she just had to wait for Celestia to teleport Fluttershy here.

Something didn’t feel right to Rainbow Dash. Gravity seemed to shift, and for a moment, she felt her head, her legs, and her barrel swing toward the Rewind Spring. A jolt passed through her wings, causing them to unfurl. The sensation grew more intense, more painful as it moved from the rest of her body to her wings, and she rose into the air screaming as fire and electricity seemed to sear through her wings.

“What is happening?!” Luna said.

“Oh no,” Celestia said.

A green aura surged through Rainbow’s wings for a brief moment before breaking away from them, forming four fiery green orbs that hurtled into the Rewind Spring. The screaming stopped, and Rainbow Dash collapsed at the foot of the spring. A black figure emerged from the center of the spring, soaring over Rainbow as she attempted to get up, and landed right behind her.

“Well, that worked out nicely.”

Rainbow managed to get her legs under her before turning her head back. Looming over her was the form of a equine figure covered from head to hoof in a buglike exoskeleton. Rainbow recognized the creature all too well, and as she moved to stand on one of her hooves, she groaned in more than just fatigue. “Chrysalis.”

Malice seeped into the already mocking grin on Chrysalis’ face as a green aura flared throughout her horn. The aura changed to a fiery red orange as she lowered her head, aiming her horn at Rainbow Dash and firing a surge of magic. Rainbow Dash rolled out of the way as the blast scorched the ground and made its way to the edge of the spring. She stood up again, aiming one of her claws at Chrysalis, whose eyes had changed from green to orange and whose black, chitinous body had developed an orange tint.

Chrysalis’ magic engulfed her entire form, and she sunk into the floor, leaving behind a circle of magical flames that made its way toward Rainbow. Rainbow stepped back, bracing herself as Chrysalis drew closer. She leapt back, firing both claws at the ground in front of her as she backflipped away. The blast from the Pandora Claws swirled around Chrysalis’ magic, consuming her in a raging reddish-black inferno. Chrysalis rose from the flames, her godly equine body reforming as Rainbow’s attack was dispersed in a show of force. Seething in rage, and with her chitinous body singed, Chrysalis fired a powerful bolt of magic at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow jumped to the side to dodge, performing a flip in midair and firing back with two small bluish-black fireballs from her claws. Chrysalis fired two bolts of magic from her horn, nullifying Rainbow’s counterattack in midair.

“Is that Chrysalis, the goddess of disaster and calamity?” Luna asked. “I heard she was dead.”

“Yes, I was dead,” Chrysalis said. “You can thank Dark Shy for bringing me to the Rewind Spring,” The aura around her horn pulsed, and three black, spherical bombs materialized around the edge of the spring. “She was a rebellious servant, though it seems she still served my purposes in the end.” Chrysalis’ magic flared again, and she launched a barrage of orange fireballs at Rainbow Dash. “But that little parasite did steal my powers. And for that she must pay!”

Rainbow galloped across the island, sidestepping each of Chrysalis’ fireballs. She leapt, turning around and flipping on her side in midair, then fired a bluish-black fireball from her claws. Her attack intercepted another one of Chrysalis’ fireballs, canceling each other out.

“Oh yeah?” Rainbow said. “Well maybe I’ll just beat you again and steal your powers back. It worked out great last time.”

“Over my dead body, you little worm!” Chrysalis said. Her aura flared again, and the ground around Rainbow Dash burst into flame.

Rainbow jumped forward, flipping over the flames before they could surround her and firing back with another blast from her claws. “That’s the whole point, you know!” she shot back.

“What just happened?” Luna said. “Celestia, explain.”

“Rainbow Dash was created by Chrysalis to serve the Underworld,” Celestia said. “She was made using Fluttershy and the magic of the Mirror of Truth. But Rainbow turned on Chrysalis and stole her magic. She has been using it to power her wings ever since.”

“Until we foolishly brought her to the Rewind Spring and resurrected her,” Luna realized. “Didn’t you know this could happen?”

“It never occurred to me!” Celestia said. “But this poses another problem. We need Rainbow Dash to dip Fluttershy into the Rewind Spring. But if Rainbow steals Chrysalis’ power again, then Chrysalis will use the Rewind Spring to revive herself.”

“And if Rainbow Dash is wounded, she can just use the Rewind Spring to reverse her injuries,” Luna added. “This could go on forever.”

“All while Fluttershy’s life hangs in the balance,” Celestia said.

“Does it truly matter if Fluttershy dies?” Luna asked. “As long as her body remains, the Rewind Spring should reverse her death and bring her back to life.”

“But if she dies, then her soul will depart her body,” Celestia said. “If she is revived without her soul… I don’t know what will become of her.”

Rainbow Dash swiped at one of the bombs surrounding the spring with her claws, tossing it into the air before batting it at Chrysalis with another strike. Chrysalis fired a beam of magic, exploding the bomb in midair, and fired at Rainbow as the pegasus rushed her at full speed. Rainbow jumped, flipping over the beam of magic as it passed underneath, and landed to the right of it. She steered right, evading the beam of magic as Chrysalis followed her with her horn while running at the goddess at full gallop.

Chrysalis grasped another bomb at the far edge of the spring with her magic, picking it up and hurling it at Rainbow from behind. But Rainbow’s eyes were on Chrysalis, reading her as she tilted her head to pick up the bomb. She leapt over Chrysalis’ magic again, barely dodging an explosion as the bomb hit the ground where she had just been and landing safely on her hooves, and bounded at Chrysalis with her claw outstretched.

Rainbow’s body froze in midair, her momentum cut short mere inches from Chrysalis. She tried to move her right foreleg, but it too was stuck in an aura of orange magic. She looked at Chrysalis, whose expression changed from frustration to one of scorn as her horn flared with magic.

Rainbow’s right foreleg struggled against the magical grip, but to no avail. She tried the other foreleg, and was surprised to find she could still move it somewhat. Aiming her left hoof, she fired a charge shot at Chrysalis with her other claw. Chrysalis yelled and stumbled back as the blast hit her in the face. Her magic faltered, and Rainbow landed on her hooves before lunging at Chrysalis with a swipe her claws. The Pandora Claws cut into Chrysalis’ black, hole-ridden foreleg, causing her to fall to her knee as Rainbow delivered a left uppercut across her chest. Rainbow then leapt back and fired, letting loose a reddish-black inferno from the Pandora Claws.

As the flames engulfed Chrysalis, Rainbow turned and galloped in the other direction. She reached the last bomb at the edge of the spring, jumped over it, and planted her front hooves on the ground as she landed before bucking with her hind legs. The bomb sailed through the air with the strength of Rainbow’s kick, crashing into Chrysalis as the flames of the Pandora Claws subsided and exploding on impact. The force of the blast threw Chrysalis back as Rainbow turned back around, aimed her Pandora Claws, and shot a bluish-black fireball. Chrysalis went back further as Rainbow’s attack hit her, sliding towards the edge of the platform. Her back hoof fell off the edge, and she stumbled to lift her hoof back and regain her footing before she could lose her balance and fall with it.

Rainbow watched as Chrysalis threw an anxious glance at her back hooves. She noticed the sudden movements of Chrysalis back hoof, and her expression shifted. “Hey, where do you think you’re going?” she called out. “You can fall to your death after I steal back your power! You got that?”

Chrysalis seethed as she shifted her gaze from her back hooves to Rainbow Dash. Her foreleg was scarred, her exoskeleton cracked and her chest scorched. But the nerve of the arrogant blue pegasus before her stung worse than any of her injuries. That she created her, and Rainbow repaid her by betraying her, stealing her power, and rubbing her nose in it. That she could not allow. “Irritating little pest,” she hissed. “Time to exterminate you!”

With her wings spread out, Chrysalis took to the air and flew toward Rainbow Dash. Rainbow fired with another charge shot, but Chrysalis soared higher, evading the fireball. Her weapon hoof lowering and her eyes tracking her target, she could only turn and watch as Chrysalis soared above her and dove straight for the center of the Rewind Spring.

Ripples and waves flowed across the surface of the Rewind Spring for the first time in a very long time, bashing against the edge of the fountain and flooding the center of the platform. Rainbow took a step back as some of the water approached her hooves. But something else happened. Before her very eyes, the water vanished from the surface of the platform. Rainbow did a double take and scanned the island. She wasn’t sure if the water had just evaporated very fast or if it had been sucked into the ground itself. All she knew was that the ground was dry again, and the Rewind Spring was completely still.

Rainbow Dash stepped forward and lifted her foreleg, aiming at the water. Seconds ticked away, but the Rewind Spring stayed completely still. Her aim was still trained on the water, but her leg began to twitch, and she grew impatient. Seconds seemed to turn to minutes. Not even Celestia or Luna said a word, which was a rarity as long as she had known either of them. Perhaps they too were waiting in anticipation for what would emerge. They had said that the Rewind Spring’s waters were dangerous if used for too long, and from what Rainbow could guess, that meant turning things back too far. But how far back was Chrysalis trying to turn herself?

After what felt like an eternity, something splashed out of the center of the Rewind Spring and hovered above, but it was not Chrysalis. A pair of pink, feathery pony wings kept the tall, slender equine creature airborne, matched by a long, spiraling horn and a coat with the same pink color. A long, flowing mane and tail parted in the colors white, lavender and rose adorned the creature, and a pair of lavender eyes gazed out with a look of content. The most shocking feature of all was the symbol that adorned her flanks: a heart carved from light blue crystal resting on a golden frame.

“What?!” Celestia and Luna exclaimed in unison.

Rainbow herself stared with mouth agape. What came out of the Rewind Spring wasn’t Chrysalis. It was a pony – an alicorn mare, no less. “Who is that?” Rainbow asked.

The pink alicorn smiled back. “It’s the new, improved me,” she said. With little effort, she bounded from the center of the spring and landed gracefully on the platform. A spark of blue light shone next to her, bathed in a light blue aura as it split into three smaller lights and traced three separate yet converging paths in front of her. When the lights disappeared, they revealed a blue double helical sword with a hilt guard that formed a ring around the hilt. The pink alicorn held the hilt idly in the light blue aura of her magic as she flexed her wings and lifted a hoof to examine her foreleg. “Ahh, it’s been so long since I’ve had this body! Eat your hearts out, ladies!”

The aura around the pink alicorn’s horn pulsed. She lowered her head, aiming at Rainbow Dash, and launched a glowing blue outline of a heart at her. Rainbow jumped aside, dodging the magical heart, and broke into a gallop. The pink alicorn fired another blue heart after another at Rainbow Dash, even as Rainbow stepped around them and continued after her.

“I don’t believe it,” Luna said. “That is Chrysalis?! I never knew she looked like… like this.”

“Neither did I,” Celestia muttered. “Personally, I think I preferred her when she looked like rancid Swiss cheese.”

“Now now, be nice, Celestia,” Luna said. “She’s still the same Chrysalis she was before. She just has a better mane… and better wings… and a nicer figure.”

Rainbow Dash sidestepped another blue heart and jumped at the pink alicorn with her foreleg outstretched. Blue light surrounded the pink alicorn’s body, and she disappeared a second later before Rainbow could slash with her claws. “We get it, she’s hot,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. “She won’t be when I’m done with her!”

Light flashed behind Rainbow, and she spun around and raised a claw to block a sword swing. The sword pulled back as the alicorn focused her magic and went for another swing at Rainbow, but Rainbow caught it between the talons of her claw. Seeing an opening, Rainbow twisted and yanked her weapon hoof, pulling the sword aside, stepped around the pink alicorn, and plunged her claws into her left wing. She pulled on the pink alicorn’s wing, unfurling it and further tearing into feather and flesh as the goddess cried out in pain.

“Ahh! What are you doing?!”

“Leveling the playing field,” Rainbow said. She jumped up, hoisting herself onto the alicorn’s back, and went after the other wing. She stabbed into the partly unfolded wing, fired a charge shot at point-blank range, and jumped off. “If I can’t fly anymore, then you can’t either!”

The alicorn stumbled in pain. Her sword seemed to fall as the magic keeping it afloat flickered. But she still managed to send a murderous glare at the blue pegasus. “You spiteful little monster!” she said. “I can’t believe I created you.”

Rainbow charged at the pink alicorn again. “Hey, you wanted an evil Fluttershy and you got me,” she said. “What did you expect?”

“What I wanted was a loyal servant of the Underworld who could beat Celestia’s pet soldier,” the alicorn said as she swung her sword at Rainbow.

“At the very least, this solves one problem,” Luna said quietly as she and Celestia continued to watch the ensuing battle. “Rainbow won’t be able to steal Chrysalis’ power in this form. Though she isn’t taking the news very well.”

“I’m not so sure,” Celestia said. “Rainbow may be more stubborn than we give her credit for. And this poses another problem. Chrysalis must have turned back centuries to restore herself to this body. But Rainbow doesn’t have centuries. She was created from the Mirror of Truth just three years ago. If she falls into the Rewind Spring, it will unmake her.”

“Hey, don’t give her ideas!” Rainbow said.

“That’s actually a good idea,” the pink alicorn said with a smirk. With a subtle flicker of her horn’s aura, her magic enveloped Rainbow’s body and tossed her across the platform.

Rainbow yelped as she hurtled toward the fountain. She reached for the ground with a hoof in a panic, her claw extending to make contact with the stone beneath her. Her claw caught the surface of the ground, digging into the stone and slowing her down. She finally came to a stop, and all four hooves touched the ground a few inches from the foot of the Rewind Spring.

Letting out a quick sigh of relief, Rainbow Dash lifted a hoof and fired back at the pink alicorn. Her charge shot struck the alicorn in the chest and neck, throwing her back and knocking her to the ground. Rainbow took it as an opening and rushed at the goddess again, ready to bring the coup de grâce. She couldn’t see the glint in the alicorn’s eyes, much less the look in them as she listened for Rainbow’s hoofbeats and waited for the right moment.

Before Rainbow Dash knew what was happening, the pink alicorn teleported from the ground, standing on all four hoofs when she reappeared and training her horn on Rainbow. A barrage of blue magical hearts fired from her horn in Rainbow’s direction. Rainbow’s eyes went wide, and she skidded on her hooves to try to stop. She hopped to the side to evade one heart, but couldn’t react in time before another heart hit her in the shoulder. Rainbow winced from the resulting magical burn, but another sensation flowed from her shoulder and coursed through the rest of her body. Strangely, her body felt softer, more tender.

Rainbow’s suspicions were confirmed when another heart smacked into the right side of her barrel. She felt it burn twice as much as the first heart did, and the impact knocked her down and sent her body sliding. As Rainbow rose to her hooves, the pink alicorn lifted a few drops of the Rewind Spring’s water with her magic. The goddess brought the droplets toward her wings and smeared them across her wounds. Rainbow could only watch in dismay as the wounds she inflicted vanished without a trace.

And it only got worse.

“There you are!” Discord exclaimed. “I finally tracked you down! You ponies are a stealthy bunch, traveling to the depths of my realm without me noticing.”

“Then my cloaking spell worked perfectly,” Celestia said.

“You have a cloaking spell?” Luna deadpanned. “Since when?”

“I’ve been working on it for some time,” Celestia replied. “I only recently perfected it.”

“You were possessed by a demonic unicorn for the last three years,” Luna said. “When did you have time to learn a cloaking spell?”

“If you had a cloaking spell, I wouldn’t have had to fight my way through half the Underworld just to get here,” Rainbow said as she leapt out of the way of a blue heart. “I bet Discord just got lost and wouldn’t ask for directions.”

“Excuse me? I’ll have you know that’s an unfair male stereotype,” Discord groused. “I would resent it if it weren’t so beneath me.”

“It’s been a long time, Discord,” the pink alicorn said.

“And you are…?” Discord asked.

The pink alicorn frowned even as her magic conjured two treasure chests around the edge of the fountain. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten your old friend Cadance,” she said.

“Hmm… nope, doesn't ring a bell,” Discord said. “But I can’t help but notice the absence of godly magic in Rainbow Dash’s win— Chrysalis?!”

“I go by Cadance now,” she said.

“I don’t remember you being so… colorful,” Discord said. “If the Rewind Spring did this to Chrysalis, I shudder to think what it could do to Fluttershy. No one wants to see her alive! I’d better destroy it.”

“No, wait! You can’t do that!” Celestia said. “Rainbow Dash, you have to end this now!”

Rainbow froze. She gritted her teeth in frustration, even as her foreleg was ready to take another shot at Cadance. If she defeated Cadance now, she wouldn’t be able to take her power. She would never be able to fly on her own again. And then what would she do? Either she would have to find another god to help her fly or stay grounded. Rainbow hated both options. She’d burned too many bridges already, and even if she hadn’t, the idea of serving one of these gods or goddesses disgusted her.

And above all, she was going to miss it. She would miss the freedom of it all. Not just freedom from the gods, but soaring through the open skies, the wind at her mane as her wings cut through the air and every force that kept everything else grounded, and the sheer power of it all

Rainbow glanced at Cadance from across the platform. She couldn’t even steal Cadance’s power anymore, at least not in that body. But she could figure out a way. She knew it. All Rainbow had to do was turn Cadance back into Chrysalis. She just needed time to…

Rainbow’s mind stopped on that last thought. She didn’t have time. None of them did. Fluttershy was going to die soon, and Discord was about to destroy the only thing that could bring her back. Rainbow squeezed her eyes shut and groaned. ‘Fluttershy, if you didn’t almost get yourself killed for me, you would so owe me right now!’ she thought to herself.

Rainbow rolled to dodge another blue magical heart. She raised her foreleg, aiming her Pandora Claws at Cadance’s head, and fired back. Seeing the bluish-black fireball coming toward her, Cadance tilted her head up, her magic flicking off the tip of her horn, and conjured a thin heart-shaped wall in front of her. The fireball bounced off the heart and shot back at Rainbow, forcing her to perform a side flip to dodge. She raised her hoof again, aiming at Cadance in spite of the heart-shaped barrier.

“Be careful with that crystal barrier,” Celestia said. “It-”

“It reflects my shots back at me, right?” Rainbow asked.

“Well… yes,” Celestia said. “You can-”

“Smash it with a melee attack?” Rainbow cut in again.

“Yes, but-” Celestia started to say.

“Then stop telling me what to do!” Rainbow snapped. She bolted toward Cadance, the magic from the Pandora Claws surging through her legs as she moved at inequine speed. She leapt out with her claws and shattered the heart-shaped barrier, then lunged again at Cadance. Cadance spread her wings and flew back from Rainbow, yet the glow around her horn remained the same. Rainbow moved to take a swipe at her, but she heard something click nearby. A treasure chest next to her opened. A blue glow radiated from inside, and a volley of blue magical orbs burst from the opened chest and flew out in every direction.

Rainbow Dash landed on her left hoof, pivoted to swing her body around, and dodged one of the orbs. She jumped back as another orb zigzagged toward her, then backflipped to dodge a third. She side-hopped to dodge a fourth one as the last of the orbs flew past, then lunged forward to charge at Cadance again, but something stopped her. Her back right hoof wouldn’t budge, and when she looked back, she found it stuck in the center of a circular trap on the ground.

A light blue flash shone from across the fountain, and Cadance appeared in its place. She aimed her horn at Rainbow and fired one blue magical heart after another. Rainbow fired back with a charge shot from her Pandora Claws, hitting the first heart, but the heart flickered in midair and continued on its path. Rainbow hopped to the side, her leg still stuck in the trap as she tried to dodge the first heart. The second heart swerved toward Rainbow, and she spun around, swinging her body around her trapped leg to evade the attack. The third heart sailed high, and Rainbow ducked underneath.

As the fourth heart hovered toward her, Rainbow reared up on her hind legs. Her Pandora Claws extended, and she plunged her weapon into the trap and fired another blast into it. The trap broke apart, her back hoof was free, and she hopped to the right, dodge-rolling away from the fourth heart. Her attention turned to the fifth and last heart as she worked out how to outmaneuver it. She barely noticed the light blue flash next to her as Cadance teleported nearby, or Cadance’s sword raised over her.

The blade swung before Rainbow could react, slicing a deep gash into her right wing and lifting her off the ground. Cadance wheeled around and followed with a sharp buck to Rainbow’s chest, throwing her across the platform. Rainbow tumbled across the platform before coming to a stop, wincing and groaning at the pain of her newest injuries. Her damaged wing felt like it was tearing apart as she flexed it, and she opened her eyes to inspect the damage. Her eyes widened in alarm, and she lifted a foreleg, catching Cadance’s sword between the talons of her Pandora Claws.

Cadance concentrated her magic into her sword, pushing down on Rainbow Dash as she stood over the struggling pegasus’ body. She lifted a hoof and delivered a brutal stomp to Rainbow’s chest. Rainbow let out a sharp gasp. Her foreleg buckled against the strain of Cadance’s sword, and she was nearly eye to eye with its curved, deadly blade. She lifted her other foreleg, moving it toward the blade of Cadance’s weapon.

But she wasn’t reaching for Cadance’s weapon. Instead Rainbow aimed upward, directly at Cadance’s head, and fired point-blank at her face. Cadance staggered back, reeling in pain as Rainbow’s blast seared her face. No longer pinned down, Rainbow Dash knocked the sword away with her claws and rolled out from under Cadance. She stumbled as she tried to stand back up, wincing as her injured wing protested her movement. Shrugging off the pain as best as she could, Rainbow looked up at Cadance. The sword had long since clattered to the ground, no longer in the grip of Cadance’s magic, and Cadance herself was rubbing her face and eyes with a hoof. Rainbow could see several burn marks around Cadance’s eyes. Cadance was blinded.

Rainbow saw her opening, and she lunged forward. In spite of her pain, Cadance heard the pounding of hoofbeats against the ground coming toward her. Reaching with her horn’s magic, she lifted her sword and swung at her attacker. Rainbow Dash jumped, catching the side of the blade with a back hoof and bounding off of it into a midair somersault. Just as she was falling back down, Rainbow fired another blast from her Pandora Claws. The blast went wide, but purposefully so, and curved toward Cadance with its homing properties, striking her side and searing her left wing.

Once Rainbow’s hooves hit the ground, she darted after Cadance again. Her right claw swung diagonally down, slashing into Cadance’s chest and right foreleg. Her left claw swung horizontally, slicing Cadance’s forelegs and causing her to fall to the ground. Rainbow leapt off of her front legs and delivered an uppercut with her right hoof, piercing Cadance’s chest and throwing her onto her back hooves. Rainbow then turned around, landing on her front hoofs and delivering a sharp buck to Cadance’s chest.

Cadance stumbled back on her hind legs, treading closer to the edge of the platform, as she tried to keep balance. Rainbow never gave her the chance. She spun back around, aimed her Pandora Claws, and fired. The fireball struck Cadance just beneath her wings, tossing her off of her back hooves and sending her off the edge of the platform and into the abyss below.

Silence descended over the Rewind Spring and the surrounding airspace. The adrenaline coursing through Rainbow began to wear off, and she lowered her weapon hoof to the ground, but a sharp pain flashed through her right wing. Wincing, she flexed her wing open and looked over her injury. Blood dripped from her wound and soaked the surrounding plumage. The gash extended from the top of her wing to the bottom and looked deep enough to cut into the bone, though Rainbow couldn’t see any wing bones at first glance. Then again, she didn’t want to find out either.

Groaning, Rainbow turned around and approached the edge of the Rewind Spring. She flexed her wing gingerly, extending it in front of her, and grazed it against the water’s surface. Wary of the Rewind Spring’s power, she pulled her wing back after a split second and looked over her wound. The water rested on her feathers for a moment before a white glow spread across her wing. The gash contracted in both length and depth until it disappeared entirely, and her blood-stained feathers returned to their natural sky blue. Rainbow gave a sigh of relief and even smiled as the waters even left her wing perfectly preened.

A ray of yellow light shone on the ground next to Rainbow, and Fluttershy’s body appeared in the center. Rainbow took Fluttershy into her hooves, lifting the comatose pegasus to a sitting position, and pulled her closer to the spring’s edge. She leaned Fluttershy gently back, pulling her long pink mane away from water as she submerged the bandaged stubs of her wings into the spring before pulling her back a second later.

Drops of water ran down Fluttershy’s back and dripped from the remains of her wings for a moment before they began to glow. Orbs of glowing white light gathered around Fluttershy’s sides, pooling around the remains of her wings before flaring out in either direction. When the light subsided, two healthy, feathery yellow pegasus wings stood fully spread out, and Fluttershy’s eyes fluttered open.

“I’m alive?” Fluttershy said. She looked down at her front hooves and gazed in wonder at her newly restored wings. “I’m alive…” she said again, a mixture of shock and relief. She sprung to her hooves. “I’m alive! I…” Fluttershy paused when she noticed her surroundings. “... have no idea where I am.” She paused when she saw Rainbow looking back at her. “Rainbow Dash?”

Without saying a word, Rainbow turned and headed toward the edge of the platform. Spreading her wings, she leapt off the edge and gave a powerful beat of her wings… and plummeted like a stone. Rainbow yelped and flapped her wings, but to no avail.

Fluttershy blinked, looking on in a mixture of confusion and concern.

“She can’t fly anymore,” Celestia stated.

A shaft of blue light shone down on Rainbow Dash. Leaves and vines swirled around her, and for a moment she lay suspended in the air. “Fine,” Luna said. “I’ll retrieve her.” A second later, Rainbow vanished.

Fluttershy’s ears perked, and she looked up at the skies in hope. “Princess Celestia?” she asked. “Is that you?”

“I’m here, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “Welcome back.”

A ray of golden light shone on Fluttershy from above, and a sense of weightlessness overtook her as she floated off the ground. “I’ve missed you so much,” Fluttershy said, elated.

“I missed you too,” Celestia said. “Let’s get you home.” Lifted by Celestia’s magic, Fluttershy soared into the ray of light before vanishing, and the light faded away soon after.

Silence returned to the Rewind Spring. No Underworld monsters lurked around the vicinity, and the last pony had just left, leaving the spring and the surrounding City of Souls at relative peace. Even the waters of the Rewind Spring had become still, without so much as the occasional air current to blow ripples across its surface.

That peace came to an end as a disturbance shook the air and a distant shout echoed in the darkness. The shout grew louder, until a giant lion’s paw crashed into the fountain of the Rewind Spring. The platform fractured in two, sending the spring’s enchanted water splashing and cascading down into the depths below.

Discord lifted his paw back and twisted it in the air for a moment, looking it over before shaking off the water. “There should be ponies screaming and falling to their deaths,” he thought aloud. “I guess they’ve already left. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.” He cracked the joints in his paw, and then did the same in his talon. “They’ll be back soon anyway, and then the real fun can begin.”

* * * * * * * * * *

The blue light that surrounded Rainbow Dash disappeared from her as her hooves touched down on the ground. Confused, she looked around and began to take in her surroundings. The full moon shone through an opening in the massive chamber she now stood in, bathing the roots and vines that covered the walls with its soft, white light. A network of roots led up a series of steps to a great tree that towered above the chamber. The base of the tree’s trunk had twisted and woven itself into an ancient-looking throne. Rainbow noticed the figure sitting in the throne, and a righteous glare flashed across her face.

“You!” Rainbow snarled.

Luna’s gaze hardened as she squinted down at Rainbow from her throne. Watching as Rainbow charged at her throne from the bottom of the stairs, she focused her magic through her horn. Thick vines and bramble rose from the ground, aglow with the blue aura of Luna’s magic, and moved after Rainbow Dash. Rainbow jumped forward, slashing through one thick vine and sidestepping several more. A large root extended from the base of Luna’s throne and lunged at her, but she leapt onto it and bounded off before firing a blast from her claws.

Luna’s head jerked to the side as the shot exploded behind her. She glanced back in alarm at where the shot hit her throne, taking her eyes off of Rainbow for a second. It gave Rainbow enough time to reach Luna, pull the Dark Pit Staff from her tunic, and shove the muzzle of the weapon into Luna’s mouth. Rainbow tightened her grip on the staff as she gazed up at Luna, ready to fire a charge shot through the back of the goddess’ head. But before she could, the staff disappeared in a flash of blue light.

Rainbow blinked. By the time she heard the staff clattering on the ground nearby, a wave of blue magic issued from an irate Luna’s horn, hurling her across the room. Rainbow’s body slammed against the far wall, eliciting a pained grunt from her, and a series of vines wrapped around her legs and barrel.

Rainbow pulled against the vines, trying to wrest a hoof free from them even as Luna teleported in front of her in a bright blue flash. “Let me go!” Rainbow demanded. “I took down another alicorn goddess on her home turf. Don’t think I can’t do the same to you!”

“Somehow I don’t doubt that,” Luna replied. “Which is why I am not giving you the chance.” She turned her attention to a pony who had just entered the chamber. “Search her thoroughly.”

Luna’s ear perked, and a look of surprise flashed across her face for a moment. The blue aura around her horn flickered, and she muttered under her breath while stepping away from Rainbow. Rainbow would have listened in, but a jolt of electricity shot through both of her forelegs. She turned to look at the other pony as she walked over, a familiar white unicorn with a coiffed purple mane and blue lightning sparking through her horn. Another jolt of electricity passed through Rainbow’s forelegs, latching onto her Pandora Claws and pulling them from the sleeves of her tunic.

“Hey!” Rainbow yelped. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

“What does it look like, dear?” Rarity said. Her magic ensnared the Paw Pad Orbitar hanging from Rainbow’s side, as well as the First Blade hidden in her tunic. “I’m disarming you. We can’t have you running loose in Mistress Luna’s domain with all of your weapons, now can we?”

“I understand, Celestia, but she attacked me,” Luna said as she walked back toward Rainbow and Rarity, her horn still aglow. “I can’t let that go unanswered, much less allow her to roam my halls freely.”

Another jolt of Rarity’s magic ran through Rainbow Dash’s body before reaching her foreleg, where she kept the separated blades of her Silver Bow. The blades broke away from Rainbow and hovered toward the rest of Rainbow’s weapons, which Rarity lined up in front of Luna with a confident smile. Luna’s gaze shifted from Rainbow Dash as she looked over each weapon, stopping at the single Paw Pad Orbitar.

“These come in pairs,” Luna said. “Where is the other one?” Rarity’s smile vanished instantly. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came. Luna ignored her, instead turning to Rainbow Dash with a cold, hard stare. “Well?”

“Either mind your business or ask somepony else,” Rainbow shot back. “I’m not telling you anything.”

Luna glared at Rainbow for a moment, and then turned back to Rarity. “Search her again.”

“I already searched her for weapons,” Rarity stammered. “If she had any left, my magic would have found them.”

“And I told you to search her thoroughly,” Luna said.

Rarity winced. Reluctantly, she turned back to Rainbow, who kept up her defiant scowl. “You know, you could make this easier by telling us where the other orbitar is,” she said.

“Or what?” Rainbow asked.

Rarity’s expression turned serious. She closed her eyes for a moment, and lightning crackled across the length of her horn. “Or I will have to make this unpleasant for you,” Rarity answered.

For a while, the two ponies stared at each other. A bead of sweat traced its way down the side of Rainbow’s head, but she maintained her gaze as if daring Rarity to carry out her threat. Rarity looked on more calmly, seemingly biding her time. It was hard to tell if she was waiting for Rainbow to confess on her own or just trying to decide where to start.

“Stop!” Luna ordered. The lightning around Rarity’s horn subsided, and both she and Rainbow Dash looked at the Goddess of Nature. Luna’s magic flickered, and the vines around Rainbow’s body set her down and began to recede. With her hooves free and back on the ground, Rainbow gave each of her limbs a quick stretch, while Rarity looked at Luna in confusion. “The Goddess of Light has asked me to spare you, so for now you are free to go. You are also welcome to stay with us for the time being.”

“Sure,” Rainbow muttered. “Thanks, I guess.” She started to walk off, but one of Luna’s forelegs pressed against her chest and stopped her in her tracks. She looked up at Luna and was met with another hard look.

“The only reason I’m letting you go is because Celestia asked,” Luna said, “and the only reason I agreed is because Discord is still the greater threat. I will return your weapons when you leave, but I will not let you loose in my domain with them, and if you do anything to wreak havoc in my realm, I will strike you down.”

“Fine,” Rainbow muttered. “You done?”

“For now, yes,” Luna answered. She motioned with a flick of her head. “They will show you around.”

As Luna walked away, Rainbow spotted Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor standing off to the side of the room. She started toward them but was interrupted once again, this time by a white hoof on her shoulder.

“I hope you don’t take what happened too personally, Rainbow dear,” Rarity implored. “The whole matter just went out of hoof so quickly.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Rainbow said. “Following orders, right?”

“Yes, of course,” Rarity said uncomfortably. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pony get under Mistress Luna’s skin the way you did. I understand you have differences of opinion, but…”

“You seem to have a gift for it,” Twilight said as she and Shining Armor approached. “Rainbow Dash, right? I don’t know if you remember us, but—”

“Yeah, I know you,” Rainbow cut in. “You’re the Lightning Chariot twins.”

“We’re not twins, actually,” Twilight said. “Shining Armor’s older.”

“I’m surprised you remember us,” Shining Armor said. “We only met you in Skyworld when you… almost killed us.”

Rainbow’s ear fell flat. “Oh yeah,” she said, scuffing her hoof against the floor. “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be,” Twilight said. “If it wasn’t for you, Princess Celestia would’ve been taken by the Chaos Kin. You really pulled through back there, at least more than Fluttershy ever did.” Her voice gained a bitter edge at Fluttershy’s mention.

“Hey, lay off of Fluttershy,” Rainbow said, giving Twilight a dirty look.

“Is she a friend of yours?” Shining Armor asked. “After everything that’s happened today, I wasn’t sure she had friends, let alone one who would kick down the doors to the Underworld just to save her.”

“Something like that,” Rainbow said, still glaring at Twilight. “And if you’ve got a problem with her, you’re gonna have to deal with me.” Twilight seemed to step back, her mouth slightly agape and at a loss for words.

“Be that as it may,” Rarity interjected, “Mistress Luna has offered to let the three of you stay in her domain for the time, including Rainbow Dash. She has asked that the two of you show her to her accommodations.”

“We can do that,” Shining Armor nodded. “This way, Rainbow Dash.” He turned and approached the closest hallway, with Twilight following after.

Rainbow Dash took a step toward the two unicorns, but she stopped when a familiar voice echoed in her ear. “You seem to have made quite an impression on them, Rainbow Dash.”

“Celestia,” Rainbow said coolly. “What do you want?”

“Just to talk,” Celestia replied. “Before Sombra appeared, Luna and I called a truce and put aside our differences to deal with Discord. He is a formidable enemy, and one we cannot defeat if we are busy fighting one another. I asked Luna to spare you for the same reason, because I believe you could be a valuable ally in the coming war. I only ask that you agree to do the same.”

“Fine,” Rainbow said. “I’ll help you out. But only until this is all over.”

“There’s one other thing,” Celestia said. “I want to thank you for what you did today.”

“If this is about Fluttershy, I didn’t do it for you,” Rainbow said.

“No, not just that,” Celestia said, her voice tinged with regret. “What you said to me and Luna at the torrent of souls, about me neglecting my duties, it made me confront some harsh truths that I’ve been denying for too long.”

“Like what?”

“Well let me be clear,” Celestia continued. “Protecting ponykind is about far more than just going to war with other gods. There is so much more that I do than you know. But you were right about the Underworld. I allowed them to go unchecked for too long, and I fear that too many have paid the price, including Fluttershy.”

Rainbow paused for a moment. Her eyes widened, and her mouth hung slightly open in surprise. “Whoa. I never would’ve thought that you’d own up to that.” Her demeanor shifted subtly again, the look in her eyes hardening and her expression becoming more guarded. “But that doesn’t mean things are gonna be different between us.”

“I thought it wouldn’t,” Celestia said.

The echo of Celestia’s voice subsided from the inside of Rainbow’s ear, but her last few words stayed with Rainbow, solemn yet stern as they were. Nothing had changed between the two of them, and she knew that. She even admitted it, but hearing Celestia say it made it more unsettling. She felt isolated. She felt trapped. And even though she felt like she knew why, she couldn’t put her hoof on it. Suddenly her wing twitched, reminding her that it was there, and then she understood why. She flexed her wings and looked up at her surroundings as it dawned on her, and she definitely understood why.

“Earth to Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted.

“Are you coming or not?” Shining Armor added.

Rainbow was snapped out of her thoughts, and she looked up to find the two unicorns down the hall, already far ahead of her. “I’ll be right there!” she called back. Her mind somewhat more at ease, she trotted after them.

Lord of the Underworld

Chapter 23: Lord of the Underworld

The dull crack of Celestia’s hoofsteps echoed across stone and marble as she walked down one of the hallways of Skyworld. Three years ago, she might have passed by a number of ponies along this hallway: some Centurions on patrol, a few trainees making their way to and from their quarters, or maybe just some civilians running past. There was no one left now. The ponies of Skyworld were elsewhere, either tending to their wounded or trying to pick up the pieces after the last three years.

Celestia herself had spent the last few days helping where she could, rebuilding her crumbling, broken realm, directing those of her subjects who could help to do the same, and searching for those who had gone missing during the wars against the Earth ponies and the Underworld. In the three years she was possessed by the Chaos Kin, she was never inclined to keep track of her subjects, not even the ones she had sent to war. She did not know how long it would take to find them, or how many were still alive.

She stopped partway through the hallway and looked on at a deep fissure that extended from the stone floor, traveling up the wall on either side, up to the ceiling above her. The floor and ceiling on the other side of the crack were elevated several inches above where she stood. She had seen many of Skyworld’s islands and structures partially broken and gone, and her ponies had said that parts of Skyworld had crumbled and fallen below the clouds after months of damage and disrepair. This section of her temple, the very ground she stood on, was in danger of falling away too.

Celestia gave a deep, breathless sigh, and her horn lit with magic. Her aura traced along the crack on the ground. The ground beneath her hooves trembled, and the sound of stone and marble grinding together reverberated through the surrounding walls as one broken section of the hallway rose to meet the other. The warm yellow glow of her magic brightened as the two sections became level, melting and fusing together. When the aura around Celestia’s horn faded, the hallway was whole again, without even a thin crack in the floor to betray the previous damage.

Celestia continued down the rest of the corridor until she reached a door on her left. She entered and found Fluttershy lying on her bed. She was facing away from Celestia, and her mane draped over her head to conceal most of her face. She was wide awake, Celestia knew, but didn’t make an effort to budge, not even to look up when Celestia entered the room. Celestia paused, a look of pity on her face, before making her way around the bed.

“We will be ready to launch our attack on Discord soon,” Celestia said. “I thought you would like to know.”

Fluttershy didn’t move. Celestia tried to meet her gaze, but Fluttershy wouldn’t meet hers. Her eyes remained downcast, half staring at the floor, half staring at the bedside her head was buried in, yet not actually looking at either one.

“It has been four days, Fluttershy,” Celestia continued on. “You have to leave your room and face the world sooner or later.” Still, Fluttershy didn’t move. Celestia paused again, and then finally let out a quiet sigh. “How much do you remember?”

Flutetershy twitched. Not by much, but Celestia noticed it all the same, and she went on. “It’s been coming back to me over the past few days. In my dreams, when I close my eyes, and sometimes when I look upon what’s become of this realm. Not everything, I’m sure, not yet, but bits and pieces.”

Fluttershy shifted a little, but remained silent.

“I know what you were subjected to was different, but you’ve been awake longer than I have,” she continued, “By now, you must remember more.”

Fluttershy shook her head slightly. “I… didn’t have a chance to think about it before,” she said. “There was so much going on. The Earth pony town, the Chariot Master’s tower, everything with you and the Chaos Kin, and then after the Chaos Kin…”

Celestia allowed her a moment. After spending the last few days picking up the pieces from Sombra’s reign of terror, it was easy to forget that Fluttershy had been on the brink of death.

“But after that, when everything quieted down and I had time in my own body and my own head again…” Fluttershy trailed off again, but it gave Celestia a moment to really look at her like she hadn’t before. The fur under her eyes, matted down from past tears, and the look in her eyes, empty and despondent. “I remember everything.”

Celestia’s heart ached. It was worse than she’d imagined. “We were not ourselves. You know that as well as I do. You can't blame yourself for what happened.” Fluttershy lowered her gaze and said nothing in response. “But knowing that does not make it any easier, does it?” Celestia continued. “Luna said I should show you something. I had hoped to take you to see it, but I think it would make more sense to bring it to you.”

With that, Celestia’s horn lit, and an aura of yellow washed over the floor surrounding her and Fluttershy’s bed. What Fluttershy saw when the flash of magic disappeared made her rise from her position on the bed. Dozens of small animals—squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, and birds—surrounded her. A few of them hopped onto the bed and gathered around her, each with a look of concern on their little faces, including a white bunny that took its place at her front hooves. A heavy feeling formed in Fluttershy’s chest as the first real smile she’d had in a while made its way onto her face. She bit back bittersweet tears that, after the last few days, she didn’t know she had left.

“Luna told me the trouble she went through to shelter your animals, and how much it meant to you to be reunited with them,” Celestia said. “I’ll be waiting for you when you’re ready for your mission, but for now, take all the time you need. I hope this can at least bring you some solace after everything that’s happened.”

Fluttershy looked up as a squirrel was nuzzling her cheek. It was heartwarming to watch. Normally it was Fluttershy tending to her animals, not the other way around. Fluttershy opened her mouth as if to say something, but something changed in her expression.

“Yeah, I think so,” she said. “Maybe a little… no, not really.” The animals paused, each with varying looks of disappointment or pity. “When… if we defeat Discord, will it be over?”

“Once Discord is no more, the threat from the Underworld should be all but neutralized,” Celestia said. “But that doesn’t mean my work as the Goddess of Light will be done. I may even need to send you into battle one day.”

“I’m… not sure I can go through with that,” Fluttershy said. “It’s not just what happened when Sombra was controlling us. The things I’ve done, the thoughts I’ve had… I think I’m turning into a monster.”

Celestia was taken aback, but after a moment it started to make sense. By now, she remembered what happened during Fluttershy and Luna’s attack on Skyworld: Fluttershy’s decision to use the Underworld troops to distract her Centurions, Rarity’s grudge against her for her gruesome injuries at the Thunder Cloud Temple. And she’d learned what Fluttershy had to do to obtain the Lightning Chariot. For the second time in less than a week, Celestia was regretting turning Fluttershy into a soldier and sending her into war.

“Princess Celestia, if you don’t mind, I want this to be my last mission. I just… I can’t do this anymore.”

“If that is what you want, I can honor your request,” Celestia said. “Until then, take your time here.” Fluttershy smiled weakly, and turned back to her animals. Celestia turned to leave, but paused for a moment. “Oh, and Fluttershy? Thank you for everything you've done under my service, and I'm truly sorry for what you've had to endure.”

Fluttershy looked on, unsure how to respond as Celestia left the room, before her little white rabbit demanded her attention.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy marched down the once familiar dark hallway with a resolve in her hoofbeats. It had been a long time since he had come down this way to start a mission, and with any luck she would never have to again after today. She spied the set of double doors off to the right, and in front of them just in her path was the large rectangular case that held the Three Sacred Treasures. Approaching the case, she popped the lock open with her hoof and pushed the top back. Three rays of light shot out from the box and converged on Fluttershy’s body, forming a bronze set of barding, a large mirrored shield on the cannon of her right foreleg, a magenta glow over her wings, and a bronze longbow affixed to her left foreleg with shafts of magenta light coming from its limbs. A howling sound came from her wings as the magenta light flared in intensity over them, and she was already in flight as the double doors opened.

“Equipped again,” Fluttershy muttered, and the Alicorn Wings sent her through the doors. She was met with the same barren plateaus and overcast yet bright orange skies from her last trip to the Underworld. No sooner had she entered this realm than a swarm of Monoeyes attempted to intercept her, only for each of them to take an arrow from her Bow of Light.

“It’s finally time for us to confront Discord,” Celestia said. “I’m glad that you agreed to take this mission. I trust that you’re ready?”

“Mm-hm,” Fluttershy responded, nodding. More Monoeyes emerged from the surrounding clouds, joined by a few Splins, Paramushes, and a Monomiknose. Fluttershy was daunted at first by the numbers, before remembering that this was their domain. More importantly, they were nothing her bow couldn’t handle, and she fired another volley.

“Discord has overstepped his boundaries by destroying and desecrating souls,” Celestia said. “He’s disrupted the balance between the earth, the heavens, and the Underworld. He must be stopped. You must stop him. It’s a tall order, but if anyone can do it, I have faith that you can.”

Fluttershy nodded again. She didn’t need to be told twice. A group of Shrips descended from the cloud cover, along with a Mega Mussel and two Ganewmedes. “I’ll do it,” she said as she opened fire again. “For the heavens and earth, for the Earth ponies, and for every soul that comes through here, I will defeat Discord!”

“Go now, Fluttershy,” Celestia said.

The magic of the Alicorn Wings flared as Fluttershy shot down the Shrips and Mega Mussel. She separated the Bow of Light into its bladed limbs, and as Celestia’s magic propelled her forward, she held the blades out, slashing through the Ganymedes on either side. Three Komaytos hurtled toward her, and she corkscrewed with limbs extended, slicing through them. She then recombined the bow and fired an arrow at each of three Gyrazors that emerged from the nearby clouds.

“What else do we have to fight with?” Fluttershy asked. “I mean, the Three Sacred Treasures are great, but… well, it’s Discord.”

“For now, it’s just you and the Three Sacred Treasures,” Celestia said. “I’m hoping it will be enough.”

“Wait, that’s it?” Fluttershy said. “We could’ve fought Discord like this three years ago. We could have fought him before he set that Wish Seed trap. All of this, Luna, the Parasprites, the Chaos Kin. We could have avoided all of it.”

“Ideally yes,” Celestia said. “But let’s not forget who we’re dealing with. Discord’s power is the stuff of nightmares, even among us gods, and the Three Sacred Treasures are not what they once were. Even if they are enough, this will be a long and difficult fight. And if they are not, if we had confronted Discord earlier, we would have been ill-prepared for what he was planning. More so than we already were…

“I’ll admit, the last three years have not gone well,” she continued. “Not for us, and certainly not for the Earth ponies. But for better or worse, those crises have come and gone. Discord has played out his entire hand, and there are no more crises left to distract us. We know his plan, and we even have a few key allies ready to mobilize at a moment’s notice if need be. We couldn’t ask for a better time to strike.”

“If you say so, Princess Celestia,” Fluttershy said, and left it at that. Celestia’s magic guided her down toward a vast canyon spanning the plateaus as far as she could see. More Monoeyes and Miks flew out from below, and she opened fire on them as she took her descent. “Does he have a castle down here? Some kind of fortress?”

“None whatsoever,” Celestia said.

“Wait,” Fluttershy said. “The Lord of the Underworld doesn’t even have a roof over his head?” Handoras crawled along the walls of the canyon as she moved deeper, and Syrens began to emerge from the crevices surrounding her. Soon enough, the light from the sky above faded, and she found herself in near total darkness.

“Not quite what I meant,” Celestia said. “This is his realm. Everything from the barren landscape above to the City of Souls beyond, and everything in the darkness beneath. He could be anywhere in this darkness. Or… everywhere.”

“O-kay…” Fluttershy said. “Then what do we do?”

“Just stay alert,” Celestia said. “I can sense Discord’s presence around us.”

Before Fluttershy knew it, the bottom of the canyon was behind her, and she had entered a deep, winding tunnel in the ground. The glow from the Alicorn Wings flickered off of the walls, and the shafts of light from her bow cast steady streams against her surroundings—her only two sources of light in the deepest depths of the Underworld. Three Komaytos rose up to meet her, and beneath them, she saw and heard the ethereal glow and unnatural howl of an Orne. She spun her bow, cutting through the Komaytos, and vanquished the Orne with an arrow.

A deep crimson glow began to radiate from the walls of the tunnel, and strange runes appeared all around her, casting a faint yet eerie glow in the darkness. No more Underworld monsters appeared to attack her, which should have been a relief, but Fluttershy readied her bow all the same as her eyes scanned the tunnel ahead with unease. Before long, the blood red glow around her reduced to little more to a hoofful of runes scattered along the walls, and then nothing but darkness. Moments later, the glow from her wings and weapon couldn’t find anything to cast their light on. She must have reached the end of the tunnel and entered a massive, pitch-black cavern, but to Fluttershy, there was nothing but darkness as she looked all around her.

“Hello there!” a voice boomed.

Something slammed into Fluttershy, sending her tumbling back through the air with a yelp. It took a moment for the Alicorn Wings to reorient her, and she groaned in pain as she took another moment to regain her bearings.

“I’ve been so looking forward to your arrival, Flutters,” the voice scoffed. “You kept me waiting so long, I thought you’d dropped dead again.”

Fluttershy glowered. Hovering in the middle of a spotlight, as if standing on thin air, was him. “Discord!” she growled.

“Oh, come now, Fluttershy,” Discord said. “Must you say my name like that, after everything we’ve been through together?”

“Discord!” Fluttershy scolded, her patience razor thin.

“Fluttershy!” Discord mocked back.

“Enough!” Celestia said. “You know why we’re here, Discord.”

“Fine, ruin my fun as always, silly Celestia,” Discord said. “If you insist. It’s ON!”

A group of Monoeyes and Shrips flanked Fluttershy from either side, and an Orne rose from the darkness below. Fluttershy wasted no time firing on them with the Bow of Light, while Discord produced a nail file and began to work on his lion’s paw. A few Reapettes hovered toward Fluttershy, along with a Syren, a Shrip, a Mik, and a second Orne, but Fluttershy made quick work of each of them. It was only when the second Orne was destroyed that Discord glanced up from his work with a glint in his eye.

“Ooh, do I spy with my little eye the Three Sacred Treasures?” Discord said.

With the last of the enemies gone, Fluttershy aimed her bow at Discord himself. “Even your darkness can’t hide from the light!” she shouted.

“Aw, someone’s been binging Kingdom Hearts,” Discord said. “Isn’t that just…” Discord leaned back as he sucked air in through his teeth. “PRECIOUS!”

Discord exhaled on the last word, blasting Fluttershy through the air with an intense gust of wind. Fluttershy yelped as she spun through the air. One by one, parts of her body felt lighter: first her right foreleg, then her left, then her head and her chest and barrel. Then she felt heavy as a stone, as if gravity was suddenly taking hold again, and then light once more as if the magic in her wings had something to say about that, and she felt herself being righted once more by her wings.

“No, not the Three Sacred Treasures!” Celestia said.

“What?!” Fluttershy shouted. She looked over her body, and to her horror, Celestia was right. The Mirror Shield and the Bow of Light were gone from her hooves. Each and every piece of barding she had worn, from the greaves on her legs and the peytral on her chest to the helmet on her head, had dissolved from her body. Her single best weapon against Discord was gone, in one move, without even firing a single arrow at the god. “NO!”

“Not quite so tough now, are you?” Discord sneered.

Frantically, Fluttershy rummaged through her tunic. Both times, when Celestia had sent her out with the Three Sacred Treasures, she advised her to bring a second weapon, just in case. She pulled out a crystalline purple orb with a yellow sphere in its center. Wisps of purple, starry dust circled around the little orb as she held it, before she pressed it into the sole of her right hoof. A dark purple tint spread up the length of her foreleg, and a number of crescent moon shapes conjured around her leg, with one large moon forming over her shoulder. When the purple tint had reached up to her shoulder, a white glow began to emanate from the sole of her hoof. She didn’t trust palm weapons, but the Midnight Palm was all she had left, and she had bigger problems.

Fluttershy aimed her hoof and fired, sending a crescent moon-shaped energy blade spinning toward Discord. The projectile took its time reaching Discord, and Fluttershy added a stream of smaller crescent moon shots to it. Discord smirked back at her, wound back his right arm, and sent a flurry of punches at her from afar, each punch launching a detached copy of his lion’s paw. The Midnight Palm’s shots struck the first few fists and dissipated into nothing, not even slowing the fists down. Fluttershy swerved and weaved as she tried to dodge the volley of disembodied fists. Most sailed past her, despite their size, but one caught her square in the chest and face, tossing her back and knocking the wind out of her.

Fluttershy coughed violently and massaged her chest with her free hoof. It hurt to cough, and even after she caught her breath it still hurt a little to breathe. Her jaw ached, and she was pretty sure she tasted blood. Despite the pain, she glared back at Discord, who merely grinned as he wound back his right arm again. Her Midnight Palm’s fire didn’t do a thing, but she had one last desperate move left. Focusing the magic from Celestia’s power of flight spell, she raised her weapon hoof. As Discord let loose another volley of disembodied punches, she unleashed that magic through the Midnight Palm, and a torrent of iridescent fireballs spiraled their way toward Discord.

Discord’s punches met Fluttershy’s Special Attack in the middle, only to be burned away by the latter. Discord pulled back his arm and inspected his paw. Fresh burn marks glowed in the same iridescent colors as Fluttershy’s Special Attack along the digits of his paw. “Alright, you want to play rough?” Discord sneered. “I can play rough.” He snapped his eagle talons and vanished in an instant.

“Huh?!” Fluttershy said. She searched all around her, but all she could see was the surrounding darkness.

“Fluttershy, behind you!” Celestia shouted.

Fluttershy turned to find Discord looming above her, eagle claw raised. Pumping her wings, she darted out of the way as Discord swung his talons down. He missed, but the force of his chop hit her with a wave of turbulence, and she yelped as she tried to keep herself aloft. By the time she stabilized herself, Discord had snapped his talons and vanished again.

“Having fun, Fluttershy?!” Discord asked, his voice echoing through the darkness. Fluttershy looked around again, but there was no sign of him.

“On your left!” Celestia said.

Fluttershy turned and saw Discord with his left arm bent. She broke into a dive, sailed under his claw as he swung at the air horizontally, and used her momentum to soar upward. Discord wound back his right arm and let loose another volley of punches, but Fluttershy banked left and continued her ascent, sailing over his assault. Now she loomed over his head, and she raised her weapon hoof and focused. With the power of flight feeding her Midnight Palm, she swung her hoof down and let loose another barrage of iridescent fireballs.

Discord let out a sound between a grunt and a howl and recoiled in pain as the Midnight Palm’s Special Attack hit his face. He raised his lion’s paw in reflex to shield himself and to massage the fresh wounds. Shallow burns, just like the ones on his paw, smarted all over his face and around his eyes, and he felt the constant pitter-patter of something jabbing at his arm and chest. He then realized that that wasn’t from the Special Attack, and he drew back his paw to see Fluttershy still firing on him. Whereas the Special Attack hurt, the Midnight Palm’s tiny stream of fire was more of a nuisance to him, and he scowled at the little pest taking her potshots at him. An idea came to him, and his scowl turned into a diabolical grin.

“You know what, Fluttershy?” Discord said. “You’re looking mighty tasty! Down the hatch!”

Discord opened his mouth wide and breathed in, creating a wind tunnel that began to pull in Fluttershy. Fluttershy twisted around and beat her wings, trying to escape the vortex to no avail. A column of heavenly yellow light shone down on her as Celestia tried to extract her, only to flicker away a second later when Discord’s inhalation overwhelmed the power of flight and yanked her in the direction of Discord’s waiting maw.

“Fluttershy, no!” Celestia called out.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy’s body ached. She doubted she had any new bruises or broken bones from her tumble downward, but she still groaned in pain as she tested her legs and neck and began to rise to her hooves. “Ow,” she grunted, massaging a few places that had taken the worst of the fall.

“Oh, goodness,” Discord’s voice echoed all above and around her. “Don’t tell me you’re still alive, Flutterbutt!”

“Discord,” Fluttershy groaned in annoyance, but as she glanced up to face the source of his voice, she began to take in her surroundings. The room was vast and somewhat domelike. The surrounding walls took on a few shades of gray, with support structures extending up the walls and across the ceiling that looked almost bony, or at least like the joints of a bat’s wing. The floor beneath her was pink and damp, yet firm under her hooves. “Oh no. Don’t tell me.”

“That’s right,” Discord said. “You’re in the belly of the beast, Flutters!”

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Fluttershy said, raising a hoof toward her muzzle.

“Me, too,” Discord said. “Well, there’s more than one way to get rid of a bad chicken nugget.”

The floor shook violently underneath Fluttershy's hooves. She stumbled trying to keep her balance, and the queasy feeling in her stomach grew. “Ngh, stop,” she said. “You’re making it wor-” She tried to put a hoof to her mouth, but the pressure in her stomach rose up her throat. She lowered her head and vomited on the ground.

“Oh, why did you have to do that?!” Discord said.

“Ugh,” Fluttershy groaned. “It’s not like I wanted to. I even carbo-loaded for this mission.”

“Yes, well I’ve been on a juice cleanse, and now you’ve made a mess down there!”

“I hadn’t even eaten in days. I really could’ve used that food.”

“Are you even listening to me?”

“To tell you the truth, I’m trying really hard not to.”

“Fine, be like that,” Discord huffed. “I’ll just have to send in the cleaning crew.”

The floor bulged in four spots ahead of Fluttershy, each forming into a pink, fleshy growth that seemed to both bud from and crawl out the ground at the same time. Fluttershy noted several giant fingers on each one and a milky blue eye at the center of what looked like their palms. She aimed her hoof at one of them, which she began to recognize as cellular versions of Underworld Handoras, and fired her Midnight Palm. While the crescent moon-shaped projectile slowly oscillated toward its target, eventually hitting it, Fluttershy fired a series of smaller crescent moon shots at two of the others, shooting them down as well. The surviving one scuttled away, firing a blast back at her as it moved around the room. Fluttershy side-hopped out of the way and returned fire with three shots, taking out the last one.

Spotting a doorway at the far end of the chamber, Fluttershy began to make her way out of the room. Another dark purple energy blast hurtled toward her from behind the doorway, which she quickly stepped out of the way of. Peering through, she saw three more creatures behind the doorway. Each one was round, almost like Monoeyes, but with transparent, gelatinous pink bodies and clusters of veins and nerves visible under their flesh. Another Cellular Monoeye fired at her, but she rolled to the side and fired back. Back on her hooves, she aimed her weapon, waiting for the two remaining creatures to peek out from the side of the doorway before firing a stream of shots at each one.

With all three Cellular Monoeyes slain, Fluttershy left through the doorway and entered a winding hallway. The same bony structure that made up the previous chamber’s walls extended down the hall, but the floor had become more of a grayish-pink, with a pattern like roots or nerves extending down the path and to each side. Fluttershy didn't get far before coming across a gelatinous pink block in her path. She tried to find a way around, but the block took up the width of the hallway. Reluctantly, she lifted her weapon hoof and fired. The block ruptured and burst, deflating into an oozing heap on the floor. Fluttershy grimaced as the block’s innards seeped from the rupture and across the floor ahead of her, but with no other way to go, she tentatively stepped forward.

The floor squelched under her hooves, and the remains of the block reached past her knees as she stepped over it. She began to gag, the queasy feeling in her stomach returning. She would have put her hoof up to her mouth if it hadn’t been for what it was stepping in. At least she’d already thrown up.

Finally stepping back on drier ground, Fluttershy tried to wipe the slime from her hooves. She would definitely need a shower after this was over. She heard something behind her, and turned back to see the gelatinous block fully reformed. “Gross,” Fluttershy murmured. Thankfully, she wouldn’t have to go back the same way. She turned forward again and found another cellular enemy hovering toward her. It looked like a Komayto in profile, but with a translucent, deeper blue membrane surrounding a large red core instead of three smaller nuclei. Fluttershy hesitated and stepped back. If this was anything like a real Komayto, it could only be hurt by melee attacks. She looked down at the Midnight Palm, little more than a magic tattoo over her hoof and foreleg, and grimaced at the thought. Unfortunately, the gelatinous block was still behind her.

With nowhere else to run, she steeled herself, raised her weapon hoof, and threw a punch at the Cellular Komayto. The creature burst, coating Fluttershy’s foreleg with a layer of pinkish slime that, thankfully, vanished into purple mist along with the slain monster. “Ew,” Fluttershy grimaced again before lowering her hoof and continuing on. The hallway soon widened, eventually leading into a cavernous room. The walls and ceiling on one end appeared transparent and membranous, showing Fluttershy what appeared to be a swirling red nebula in the middle of space on the other side.

While Fluttershy was awed at that site, the rest of the cavern disgusted her. A set of what looked like orifices lined the nearby wall, one of which oozed an orange liquid into a chasm that blocked her path. Four Cellular Monoeyes rose from the chasm, and one opened fire on her. Fluttershy sidestepped out of the way and returned fire with a large, slow-moving crescent moon projectile. She then fired a volley of smaller projectiles at two of them, shooting them down as the first projectile struck its target. The last one fired a blast at her, which she hopped out of the way of while taking it down with three crescent moon shots.

She made her way toward the chasm, looking for a way across while shooting down a fifth Cellular Monoeye that peered from below. The gap was too big to leap across, but she found a pillar composed of what looked like green, pulsating cells spanning it. The pillar was low enough to climb onto, and after a moment of hesitation, she reached her front hooves up and caught the top of the pillar. She pulled herself up, her back hooves scrabbling up as she climbed onto the pillar. Hopping off on the other side, she made her way across the cavern, where two more pillars led up to a ledge with a doorway. She climbed up the first pillar, the same as before, and used it to reach the second pillar.

The doorway led to another winding corridor, but as Fluttershy peeked her head to check, she saw three Cellular Handoras waiting. She pulled her head back, and a barrage of pellets flew out from the doorway where her head had just been. Leaping out from cover, she fired back with a crescent moon shot that mowed down the three enemies.

“You know, as long as you’re down there, it wouldn’t kill you to keep a conversation going,” Discord said. “Misery loves company, after all! You’re miserable, I’m the only company you have. It’s practically a match made in hell! Or heaven. Has to be one of those.”

Fluttershy scowled. She wordlessly made her way down the corridor, her eyes scanning for any cellular enemies that might sprout from the ground or appear from a corner.

“Nothing?” Discord continued. “No squeaking? No begging for your life? No righteous claptrap? My innards have so longed to hear your battle cry. Did you forget the words?”

Fluttershy stayed silent. The corridor began to twist and turn. A pair of turquoise cellular monsters, both bearing a resemblance to Skuttlers, stood guard at the end of one bend in the path.

“I’m starting to wish I swallowed Rainbow Dash,” Discord said. “I could at least get a rise out of her.”

“Why can’t I hear Princess Celestia?” Fluttershy asked as she opened fire on the Cellular Skuttlers.

“Oh, I see how it is,” Discord said. “You’d rather have your precious goddess. And here I thought we finally had something special. Or maybe it's something else. Maybe you're just lost without the Goddess of Light telling you what to do?”

Fluttershy rolled her eyes. At the next turn, she spotted what appeared to be a cellular version of an Igniot. Strangely, the amulet it held was just as fleshy as the two conjoined hands that formed its purple, veiny, translucent body, and she could barely see the milky eyeball at the amulet’s center. The Cellular Igniot reacted to Fluttershy’s approach, and she had to take cover from its petrifying laser.

“Unfortunately for you, the Wi-Fi down there is abysmal,” Discord said. “But since it's just you and me, I’ve been wondering. Why exactly are you trying to defeat me?”

Fluttershy moved from her cover and fired at the Cellular Igniot. “Every one of you gods is responsible for maintaining a certain order in the world,” she said. “You’re the Lord of the Underworld. You know that better than anyone. But you’ve disrupted that balance between the earth, heavens, and Underworld. You’ve overstepped your bounds by exploiting and desecrating souls. You and your greed have taken things too far, Discord.” She fired again at the Cellular Igniot, finally destroying it, and continued down the corridor.

“That’s quite the mouthful,” Discord said. “But I didn’t ask for Celestia’s sermon. Don’t you have something to say about her war with me?”

Three more Cellular Monoeyes hovered at the end of the next turn. Fluttershy raised her weapon hoof and fired at them. “Discord, I raise little animals back in Skyworld when I’m not out here fighting,” she said through gritted teeth. “I have to take care of all of their dietary needs. Even the carnivores and insectivores. And I’ve had Luna breathing down my neck long enough to think about the plants that keep the rest of them fed. Just because I agree with Princess Celestia doesn’t mean I haven’t thought about this.”

“Fine, fine,” Discord said. “But if you ask me, balance and order are overrated. The chaos these last three years has been so much more interesting.”

Fluttershy could swear the sound of her Midnight Palm’s fire punched louder in her ears as she shot down two Cellular Skuttlers. She threw a punch at a Cellular Komayto as it approached—not even noticing this time as its remains splashed along her weapon leg before vanishing with the rest of the creature—and stormed down the rest of the corridor.

Once the corridor ended, she found herself on a ledge at the top of a large chamber. A red glow lit through the floor of the chamber below, and a series of veins could be seen underneath. At the center of the chamber was a pillar with a section cut out of it, allowing for a platform and a ceiling. To Fluttershy’s surprise, a pair of grind rails extended from the ledge she was on to the platform.

“What are grind rails doing here?” she asked. She hopped on, her hooves catching the rails as their magic carried her toward the pillar.

“What does it look like?” Discord said. “I put them there just for you.”

“Why would you be helping me along?” Fluttershy asked. She hopped off the rails and onto the platform before continuing along.

“You presume too much,” Discord said. “Who’s to say any of these grind rails go anywhere at all?”

Fluttershy stopped and looked around. Several sets of grind rails snaked their way throughout the air in odd directions over the platform and even around the pillar. Almost none of them were close enough to jump onto, but she saw one pair at the other end of the platform that led to a second pillar up ahead with its own platform cut into it. “Basic physics?” she snarked.

“Sure, but the one place they won’t take you is outside,” Discord said.

Fluttershy hopped onto the next set of rails. As they carried her, she noticed a second set of rails briefly run alongside hers before connecting to the second pillar, while the rails she was on led to a drop to the bottom of the chamber. She hopped to the second set of rails as they lined up and let them carry her to the next platform. Looking back as she jumped off, she realized that the second set of rails also led back to the first pillar, to a small alcove just below its platform. “Where does this lead?” she asked.

“Hmm,” Discord said. “I’m not sure.” Fluttershy took a step toward the rails again. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? You don’t know where they goes anymore than I do.”

“If you’re telling me not to go there, that’s as good a reason as any,” Fluttershy muttered.

“The difference is that I don’t want you dead yet,” Discord replied. “If you go there and die now, my fun ends.”

Fluttershy narrowed her eyes. She shook her head and immediately jumped back onto the rails. As they led her to the alcove, she began to see a bright blue circle on the ground, a shaft of light shining in its center, and a sigil within the light shaft. Fluttershy’s eyes widened. A Zodiac Chamber. She jumped off the grind rails and quickly trotted toward the glowing circle.

In a flash, she was standing on one end of a familiar dumbbell-shaped platform in the Zodiac Chamber space. She trotted to the other end with an almost eagerness she hadn’t felt since being swallowed by Discord. It wasn’t an escape, but at least for now she wasn’t in his gut anymore. She found it strange that the Zodiac Chamber entrance was there at all. Almost as strange was that she had found so many of these. Twelve Zodiac signs, and this was her eleventh one.

As she approached the altar at the other end of the platform, a light shone, and a new weapon appeared. The weapon bore the silver handle of a Blade, but the “blade” itself took the form of rushing water with an apparent edge. Fluttershy took the new weapon, the Aquarius Blade, into her hoof. She still couldn’t reach Celestia, so Celestia wouldn’t be able to take it off of her hooves. She regarded the Aquarius Blade, this untested weapon she had only just found, and then the Midnight Palm—a class of weapon she didn’t trust after Celestia’s mention of draining the user’s life force—and began to think that this might be for the best. With both weapons in the same hoof, she made her way back to the entrance. The chamber in Discord’s belly appeared before her, and she hopped back onto the grind rails.

“Is that a Zodiac weapon?” Discord asked. “There was a Zodiac Chamber inside me? I swear, when this is over, Granny Smith is going to get an earful.”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. Of all the callous, terrible things Discord had ever said, that was just odd. She hopped off of the grind rails and made her way across the platform to a spiral walkway at the other end. The walkway led down the side of the pillar to another pair of grind rails, which led down a tunnel in the chamber wall. Gripping the Aquarius Blade in her hoof, she used her other three hooves to jump onto the rails and let them take her.

Fluttershy eyed the length of the tunnel as the grind rails carried her. No monsters appeared ahead, or emerged from the surrounding walls, or tried to chase her from behind, and after a minute the rails dropped her in the middle of a different chamber. The floor beneath her was hard, with a purple glow emanating from the center, and a white light seemed to swirl behind the surrounding walls like the inside of a tornado, all giving the chamber an otherworldly feel very unlike the rest of what she’d traveled through.

“You know, Flutters,” Discord said. “I’m going to miss you when you’re gone.”

Before Fluttershy could react, a massive lion’s paw punched through the side of the chamber wall, cutting off her path. “Eep!” she squeaked, freezing in place as the arm retracted from the wall, only to punch through a second, and then a third time. She eyed the lion’s paw after the third punch while it slowly pulled out of the chamber. “Did… Did you just punch yourself?”

“You know, now that you mention it, that kind of hurt,” Discord replied, “Let’s take a page from your book and have a nice healing snack.”

The chamber trembled. Fluttershy stumbled as she tried to keep balance on three hooves. She looked up, yelped, and jumped back as a stone column fell from above and nearly crushed her. Several more columns and broken sections of wall fell from above and crashed into the chamber floor, along with two real Skuttlers and a Boogity. “STOP EATING THINGS!” Fluttershy screamed. She aimed her Aquarius Blade, and a large ball of water catapulted from the tip of its blade into one of the Skuttlers. “It was already bad when you ate souls!”

“But souls are delicious,” Discord said. “They’re like chocolate—they go great with everything.”

Fluttershy swung her blade at the remaining Skuttler as it charged toward her, and was stunned when her weapon’s swing froze the creature solid in ice. “Okay, but not everything goes well with chocolate,” she said, only to shake her head. “Wait, what am I saying? SOULS ARE NOT CHOCOLATE! If you eat them, you completely wipe them from existence! They can’t move on or go to the afterlife!”

“Huh,” Discord said. “Never really gave it much thought. Tell me, Fluttershy. You came closer to the afterlife than any of us. What’s it like over there?”

“I…” Fluttershy paused. The Boogity turned its body, exposing its face and hands from behind its protective metal backplate, and Fluttershy launched a ball of water from the Aquarius Blade. “I wouldn’t know. I almost died, but…”

“So you don’t know what’s waiting for us on the other side?” Discord asked.

“N-No,” Fluttershy said. “I guess not.” As the Boogity vanished, a Tortolunk, an Armin, and a Pluton dropped down from above.

“Of course not, Fluttershy,” Discord said. “None of us knows what awaits us when we die. For all you know, we could all be reincarnated. Different body, different memories, different experiences. Meanwhile, the old you just fades away, and the new you goes about their life without ever knowing. Isn’t that the same as being ‘wiped from existence?’”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Fluttershy said. She dodged the Tortolunk as it spun at her on its shell, and fired a few jets of water at the Pluton. “I’ve seen souls before. They have our cutie marks on them. There’s no way our souls would be reincarnated and our marks erased like that!”

“Oh please,” Discord said. “Do you have any idea how many cutie marked souls I’ve seen pass through here? You’d be amazed how many of them are similar to each other. I don’t think anyone would notice if they got recycled every few generations. Why, there’s even a whole family of Earth pony farmers whose cutie marks are nothing but apples! You can’t tell me their souls aren’t just being passed down from one pony to the next.”

Fluttershy’s eyes and weapon hoof were focused, undeterred against the onslaught of Underworld monsters she had to contend with. But she was at a loss for words.

“And that’s just ponies’ souls,” Discord added. “Just imagine how indistinct and interchangeable your soul must be when you don’t have your special gifts and life’s purpose tattooed on your butt! Take it from me, they look so ordinary, even I can’t tell them apart. Why, it’s moments like this when I think about making a breakfast cereal out of the souls I eat. All the other souls would be the cereal pieces, and your souls would be the colorful marshmallow shapes!”

Fluttershy was horrified. She’d heard that Celestia, Luna, and Rainbow Dash had been disturbed by what Discord said when Rainbow was in the City of Souls. But she wasn’t prepared for this. Three Skuttler Cannoneers dropped down, and a Crawler tank crashed into the floor in the center of the chamber. Fluttershy glanced at one of the Skuttler Cannoneers and fired at it. She then shook her head.

“Even if we did get reincarnated, that doesn’t change the fact that what you’re doing is wrong,” Fluttershy said. “The souls you eat could never come back and never be replaced. It doesn’t matter how you justify it. You’re still erasing life from the world.”

“That depends on your definition of right and wrong, Fluttershy,” Discord said. “All living things survive by eating other living things. You said it yourself, didn’t you? You have to look after the needs of the carnivores and insectivores in your care.”

Fluttershy frowned. She shot down the last Skuttler Cannoneer with a ball of water from her blade and began to run as the Crawler prepared to fire its cannon. “That doesn’t mean you have to eat souls!” Fluttershy said. “Besides, you’re a god. I thought maybe you’d be above that.”

“Oh, Fluttershy, Fluttershy,” Discord said. “Of course gods are above mortal beings. But that just means we don’t necessarily care about them.”

“I-I can’t can’t believe you just… Oh, who am I kidding? Of course you’d say that!”

“If it’s any consolation, though, I could never eat your soul,” Discord said. “Better to mold it into a nice little keepsake to remember all our time together. Come to think of it, I’ve always wanted a bobblehead Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy gritted her teeth. She leapt to dodge as the Crawler’s treads spun madly and it charged at her.

“Only problem is there’s only one way out for your body,” Discord said.

“Discord, don’t you dare!” Fluttershy snapped.

“Oh, cheer up, Fluttershy,” Discord said. “You’ve been privy to a side of me that no one else has—my insides! And now you’ll be privy to the inside of a privy too. Tootleloo!”

“Discord, no!”

“What’s wrong?” Discord asked. “Obeying nature’s call is part of the cycle of life. Tell me, Fluttershy, why do you hate life?”

The Crawler’s treads fell from its fuselage as Fluttershy fired one last blast into its weak point. “Sometimes, it feels more like life hates me,” she murmured. Once the Crawler exploded and vanished, a clearing opened up in the light swirling around the chamber, and a tunnel stretched open behind it. Fluttershy stepped into the tunnel and followed it, her eyes scanning for signs of any more monsters.

The tunnel opened out into a gently twisting hallway. Grayish walls surrounded her on either side, with shallow cracks and ridges marring their otherwise glossy appearance, and an ominous red glow reflected off the walls from a distance. The floor under Fluttershy’s hooves began to shake, gently at first, then violently as the shaking filled the entire hallway. Fluttershy stopped and braced herself, keeping her balance against the tremors.

“What now?” Fluttershy asked.

“Luna can’t seem to mind her own business,” Discord said. “ Pardon me, if you will. I must go tend to my new, unwelcome guests.”

Fluttershy held still against the shaking around her. A flood of images raced across the walls on either side, and she noticed Nutskis, Parashooters, and a number of other creatures from the Forces of Nature in those images. She remembered Celestia saying something about calling in a few allies. Celestia must have called Luna after she got swallowed. Fluttershy felt a small bit of relief at the thought of Celestia sending help, even if they couldn’t reach each other. She hoped there was a plan to free her, and continued down the hallway.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy stepped out of the hallway and entered an enormous room, much larger than any of the ones she’d set hoof in earlier. Much to her surprise, the floor beneath her hooves looked and felt like actual stone, or at least closer to real earth than anything she’d seen in here. Even the surrounding walls were made of the same purple-gray stonelike material. She looked up, and was mesmerized by a swirling red nebula not unlike what she saw in a previous chamber, visible through what appeared to be a network of roots overhead. She looked back down to the surrounding walls and saw a number of turns and intersections ahead of her. The walls were too high for her to see over, but to her dismay, it looked like she had just entered a maze.

She reached the first intersection and glanced down each direction. Straight ahead and to her right were empty, but she let out a squeak and stumbled back when she looked to her left. Towering over her at the beginning of the turn was a deep blue creature standing on two thick legs. Tiny yellow dots swirled across its body like stars, and while the creature didn’t seem to have arms or a head or even much of a face, she could see two thick tendrils wrap around its body and three hollow appendages at the top of its body resembling tubes or pipes.

“Are you…” Fluttershy said. “Discord’s heart?”

The creature craned its body down, as if to scrutinize Fluttershy, and then jumped back, flipped around in midair, and hobbled down the path and around the next turn.

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “Ookay…” she said. It was strange to think that any of Discord’s organs could be bashful, or even animate for that matter. She shrugged it off and turned away, taking the forward path of the three. Whatever the deal was with Discord’s heart or any of his organs, it wasn’t going to help her get out of here.

As she made her way down the corridor, the heart appeared again at another intersection further down, only something was off. A yellow aura radiated from the top of the heart, and when it seemed to sense Fluttershy, it began to amble toward her. Quickly, in fact.

“Uh-oh,” Fluttershy said. She took a few steps back. The heart stepped forward, but stopped at the next intersection. Its aura swelled, and the heart began to pulsate rapidly. Fluttershy spun around and ran. Reaching the closest intersection, she leapt for the left turn, taking cover before an explosion consumed the pathway she had just been in. She peeked her head out, and found that the heart was gone… except that it waddled out from another intersection. The heart shuddered for a moment, and another identical heart peeled from its body. Identical, except that the new heart radiated a yellow aura.

“Okay, definitely not friendly,” Fluttershy said to herself. Then she gave a frustrated sigh. “Of course it’s not friendly,” she muttered. The real heart continued in its original direction, while the fake one headed in her direction. Fluttershy continued down the turn she’d leapt in, hoping to intercept the real one. Like it or not, she would have to fight the creature.

As she reached the next intersection, she thought she spotted the top of the real heart over the corner of one of the walls. For the most part, the walls were too high for her to see over, but the heart was just tall enough to peek out over them anyway, if her line of sight was just right. She trotted off toward it, grateful at first for the thing’s size, but then thought better of it. Sure, Discord’s heart was huge compared to her. But for a creature of Discord’s size, it was tiny. The metaphor wasn’t lost on her.

After another two turns, she spotted Discord’s heart walking down a corridor away from her. Aiming her Aquarius Blade, she launched a ball of water. The ball struck the creature, but it continued on its way and made the right turn. Fluttershy chased after it and fired several jets of water from her weapon at the heart. Suddenly the heart spasmed, and a red aura emanated from the creature. Fluttershy kept firing, but her shots seemed to splash off of the red aura as the heart bolted and turned the next corner. She began to chase after it, but she could hear a thumping sound from the other side of the wall it had fled behind. The thumping sound seemed to pass by her on the other side of the wall, and then started coming from behind her.

Fluttershy turned, and was stunned to find the heart had lapped the section of wall and was now running after her. With an “eep!”, she ran the other way, dodging behind another corner before the rampaging heart could run her down. The heart itself continued down the corridor before turning at another corner. Fluttershy was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but she spotted a fake heart further down her path. The fake heart stopped at an intersection, and its aura flared as it prepared to detonate. Fluttershy rushed back behind the wall, but as the fake heart was about to explode, the real one emerged from another corner and plowed into her.

Fluttershy landed on her side as the creature ran past and turned the next corner. The explosion from the fake heart rocked the chamber, but Fluttershy ignored it over her pain as she tried to stand back up, only for the real heart to come back around and trample her a second time. The heart then slowed down, and the red aura disappeared as it walked further down the hallway.

Fluttershy grunted in pain as she tried again to get her hooves under her. “Ow,” she said. Fighting through the throbbing pain of her new injuries, she managed to stand back up and look around. The heart had taken a left turn, and she began to follow it again. Another fake heart appeared further down the hall and prepared to explode, and Fluttershy was forced to take an early left, hoping to cut off the real one later on.

After another turn, she spotted the heart and lifted her weapon hoof to fire at it again. She struck the creature with another blast of water, followed by several high pressure jets before the heart flared with a red aura and began its rampage anew. Fluttershy began to back up and look around, hoping to see it coming and dodge past it before it barreled into her again. Her eyes glanced upward, toward the top of the walls nearby. There was no way any of the hearts could hit her up there, but the walls were too high to climb up either. She looked down at her weapon hoof, hoping to find something. The Aquarius Blade was new, and there was no way it had a power equipped to it. But then she noticed the dark purple around the leg of her weapon hoof. She still had her Midnight Palm, and it had something she could work with.

“Rocket Jump,” Fluttershy said.

An explosion propelled Fluttershy several feet off the floor, and she landed safely on top of the wall. She turned around to see the heart rushing around a corner and down the hallway she had been in. It ran past her, too low to reach her up on the walls, and turned down another hallway. Fluttershy watched the creature navigate the maze, paying attention to the surrounding walls she could jump to and from to make sure she had a good shot at it. Inwardly, she scoffed at the idea that there might be invisible barriers around the tops of these walls, preventing her from jumping onto them and cheating at the boss fight.

Before long, the red aura around Discord’s heart subsided, and it slowed down. Only this time, the heart continued to pulsate as it went along. Fluttershy eyed the creature with suspicion. It wasn’t strange for a heart to beat; they were supposed to do that. But this one wasn’t doing that before. Aiming her weapon hoof, she fired a ball of water toward the heart. The heart had traveled too far for a clear shot, but she had seen the Aquarius Blade’s charge shots bounce off of walls and floors, and she had angled the attack to rebound off a wall and strike the heart. The blade’s continuous fire didn’t have the same property, but her Midnight Palm’s fire had good homing ability. She jumped to the top of the next wall, hoping to get a closer shot. She passed over a fake heart below, which sensed her and prepared to detonate. Sure enough, the fake heart’s explosion couldn’t reach her atop the walls either, and the wind from the blast only blew her mane and tail.

Fluttershy aimed her Aquarius Blade again and fired, rebounding another ball of water into Discord’s heart. Tossing the blade into her other hoof, she reared onto her hind legs, aimed her Midnight Palm, and fired a stream of crescent moon shots at the creature. A red aura enveloped the creature, and it ran down the halls of the maze below. Only this time, the ground underneath her shook, and she lost her balance and landed on her stomach. The heart was beating harder and faster now, and it was enough to cause the entire chamber to shake. Fluttershy moved the Aquarius Blade back to her right hoof and stood back up. She kept her balance against the heart’s palpitations and watched as it ran around the maze again, unable to hurt it until its rampage ended.

Before long, the heart’s movement slowed down, but its beating still shook the walls around it. Fluttershy fired her Aquarius Blade, hitting the creature with another blast of water, followed by a stream of high pressure jets. The heart moved behind a corner, out of her weapon’s line of fire. The Midnight Palm’s homing ability would curve its fire around the wall and hit the creature, Fluttershy realized, but its poor range meant she had to get closer anyway. Seeing the next closest wall, she jumped toward it. Her front hooves caught the top of it, but she stumbled against the shaking of the walls, and her hind legs fell back.

Fluttershy tried to pull herself up onto the wall, even as the tremors threatened to make her front hooves lose their grip. A movement to the side caught her eye, and she turned her head to find a fake heart coming down the same hallway. Frantically, she scrambled up the wall with her hooves and climbed back on top of it. She took a second to catch her break, even as the fake heart’s explosion added to the tremors.

Standing back up, she aimed her Aquarius Blade and fired. The blast of water struck Discord’s heart head on, sending it into another rampage, and Fluttershy fell down again. The tremors had become more severe, and she thought she could hear the heart beating more erratically. She also heard the sound of stone grinding and breaking around her. Unable to stay balanced on her hooves, she rose up on her knees and looked around. Cracks were forming in the walls nearby and in the floor as Discord’s heart went. Fluttershy waited for its rampage to end, and then fired a ball of water at it. She followed that with another stream of high pressure water jets.

Before long, the creature stumbled. Its palpitations grew even stronger, and cracks formed in every one of the surrounding walls. The wall underneath Fluttershy crumbled, and she fell back onto the floor. Groaning, she began to get back up, only to get a look at Discord’s heart. The thing swelled in size, its beating now out of control as its form began to writhe.

“Uh-oh,” Fluttershy said.

For a single moment, the heart seemed to stop. Then it exploded, tearing through the surrounding walls and floor of the chamber. Fluttershy hurtled through the air, her body thrown by the force of the blast past the network of roots overhead and seemingly into the red nebula above. Then in the blink of an eye, something caught her in midair and began to pull her along. As she felt her body turn, she looked up and saw a sky blue hoof holding onto hers. Rainbow Dash was holding onto her, with her other hoof grasping the reins of the Lightning Chariot.

Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor galloped back around, steering the four of them in the direction of a hole in the space around them. They sped through the hole, punching through Discord’s chest on the other side and earning a pained grunt from the Lord of the Underworld.

“You alright, Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked. “If it wasn’t for that explosion, we never would’ve found you.”

Fluttershy nodded back, holding onto Rainbow Dash’s hoof for dear life. Behind them, Discord was doubled over and clutching his chest with his eagle talon. He rose and glanced back up at the chariot and the four of them, a snarl on his face.

“That wasn’t very nice!” Discord shouted. He reached out to grab them with his lion’s paw just as a shaft of yellow light shone down on the Lightning Chariot and the four ponies. When he opened his fist, he saw that his paw was empty, except for a pair of blue and yellow feathers that floated away in the air. He then looked down at his chest, where the piercing wound from the chariot had all but vanished. “That really hurt.”

A grin crept across Discord’s face, and he held out his arms in an affable shrug.

“But hey, at least I’m not dead!”

* * * * * * * * * *

The late afternoon sun shone high over the islands of Skyworld, casting a bright yellow glow on the heavens and on the cloud cover below. The realm was still in ruins, with broken structures visible on just about every island, but after only a few days, the buildings and plazas had begun to show some of their former glory for the first time in years.

A shaft of bright yellow light shone out in the distance, and the Lightning Chariot appeared from it, with Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor galloping in a wide arc around the islands. Still holding onto Fluttershy’s hoof, Rainbow Dash pulled her toward the chariot, and Fluttershy’s back hooves gained their footing on the chariot floor. Fluttershy’s free hoof grabbed onto the front lip of the chariot, while the two unicorns slowed down and made their descent. The four of them came to a stop at the threshold of Celestia’s temple, where the Goddess of Light was waiting for them.

“You’ve got to admit, Twilight, that was awesome,” Rainbow said as she and Fluttershy stepped back onto solid ground.

“You’re lucky we even agreed to let you drive after what happened last time,” Twilight replied as she and Shining Armor took off their harnesses.

“I’m glad you all returned safely,” Celestia said.

Twilight’s jaw dropped. “Oh my gosh!” she said. “It’s you. You’re… You’re really her!”

“It’s an honor to meet you, Princess Celestia,” Shining Armor said, giving a slight bow. “I’m glad we could meet under better circumstances than last time.”

“Princess Celestia?” Fluttershy said. “I’m sorry. I… We…”

“It’s alright, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. She placed a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder and gave her a nuzzle, earning a stunned reaction from Twilight. “There are worse ways to fail a mission. The important thing is that you’re safe, and we can try again another time. That is, if you’re willing to try again.”

“Yeah, that’s great,” Rainbow interjected. She placed a foreleg on Fluttershy’s back and motioned for them to walk away. “Since we’re all fine, why don’t we get settled in? That was a rough mission for everypony, right?”

The smile on Celestia’s face lost some of its warmth as she regarded Rainbow Dash. “Yes, you do that,” she replied. “But I would like to have a word with our two new guests. I’ve heard some very impressive things about you. Especially you… Twilight Sparkle, is it?”

If it was possible for Twilight’s jaw to drop any more, it would have in that moment. “Yes!” she squealed. “Oh my gosh, yes! Me too! I mean, I’ve heard so much about you too, and it’s amazing to finally meet you in person…”

As Twilight gushed on, Rainbow Dash nudged Shining Armor with her hoof. “You should probably stick around anyway,” she said. “Just in case you have to hold her back.” Shining Armor gave her a mixed expression as she led Fluttershy away. “I should find a place to crash around here. And you… could probably use a shower after what you just went through.”

“Yes, I suppose…” Fluttershy said as she walked with Rainbow into the temple. “Um, Rainbow?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, I heard about what you did to save my life,” Fluttershy continued. “How much you gave up. And, well, I just wanted to-”

“Look,” Rainbow cut her off. “Don’t sweat it! You’d have done the same for me, right?” There was a pause. “Wait, don’t answer that.”

Fluttershy flexed her wings. “I think I already did,” she said. “Do the same for you, I mean. So… call it even?”

Rainbow thought for a moment. “More like, let’s agree to have each other’s backs,” she said. “Sound good?”

Fluttershy nodded, and the two of them continued into the temple.

Author's Note

Couple of fun facts:

In the game, you can actually stall for more than five minutes during the Hades encounter after he destroys the Three Sacred Treasures. Five minute time limit, my ass!
I don't know how many times I've played this level, but for the land battle theme, I never noticed the heartbeat in the background until a few days ago when I pulled the track for this level. Between that and the things I've had to pay attention to to nail the narration on each chapter, it's amazing the finer details you just don't notice when you're engrossed in the gameplay or the dialogue of a game.
I've heard how much people hate this boss, and before you ask, no, you can't use an equipped power to jump onto the walls. I just let Fluttershy cheat this time. And then I made the boss cheat back.

The Three Trials

Chapter 24: The Three Trials

One day had passed since their failed attack on the Lord of the Underworld, and Fluttershy was in her room, adjusting the last of the straps on her tunic. It had barely been half an hour since Princess Celestia told her she had a mission for her, and she was still surprised. The Three Sacred Treasures were the strongest weapon they’d had against Discord, and he had destroyed them with barely any effort. Now Celestia said that she had another plan for defeating him.

What was even stranger was that the Goddess of Light was sending Fluttershy on her own. She couldn’t help but think over the remaining weapons at their disposal. The Lightning Chariot was powerful, or at least the two unicorns who pulled it were powerful, but even a direct hit from them didn’t bring him down. Her own weapons were too weak to hurt him at all, and even their Special Attacks—fueled by Celestia’s alicorn magic—only left a few surface-level injuries. Alicorn magic. They had two alicorn goddesses behind them, and not much else.

With her tunic on, she turned to the rest of the room, where her little animals stood looking on at her. She took a few steps toward them, kneeled down, and gave them the most reassuring smile she could muster. “Don’t worry, little ones,” she told them. “I’ll be right back.”

She then turned and headed out the door. On her left, just outside the doorway, was a stand where a staff weapon lay waiting for her. With the exception of its metal handle and tip, the body of the staff was made from wood and woven in thick, thorny vines, with the largest, pointiest thorn sticking out of the butt of the staff. Three red roses were in full bloom at the base of the weapon, just above the handle.

Fluttershy took the weapon, the Rose Staff, into her hoof and placed it against her side, where its magic affixed itself just above her wing. With just how close the thorns were to her body, she was grateful they didn’t prick her side. She started down the hallway, but stopped when she noticed Rainbow Dash leaning against the wall and looking at her.

“You sure about this?” Rainbow asked.

Fluttershy couldn’t help but furrow her eyebrows. There was something off about the way Rainbow had asked that question, as if there was something she wasn’t telling her. “Yeah, I am,” she said.

“Just be careful, okay?” Rainbow said.

Fluttershy nodded and continued down the hallway. She could hear Rainbow’s hoofbeats going down the other direction. After a minute, the hallway brought her before the set of double doors, which swung open on her approach. The power of flight rushed through her, and with a beat from her wings, she was flung through the doors and out into the afternoon sky. The sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, casting orange and purple hues across the cloud cover below while the sky above still retained some of its blue.

“I’m glad that you accepted this mission,” Celestia said. “When you asked that the last mission be your final one, I feared that I would have to look elsewhere.”

Fluttershy shook her head. “Discord is still alive,” she said. “It’s not over yet. Do we have a plan?”

“Given the current circumstances, I don’t see how we can defeat Discord,” Celestia said.

“Then what do we do?” Fluttershy asked.

“I’m working on it,” Celestia said. “That’s why we’re going to meet Granny Smith.”

There was that name again. “Granny Smith?” Fluttershy asked. “Discord mentioned that name yesterday. Who is she?”

There was an uncomfortable pause. “Granny Smith is the Goddess of the Forge,” Celestia said. “She made the Three Sacred Treasures. She created nearly every divine weapon in the pantheon, including the one you’re using now.”

“Wow,” Fluttershy said. “And I thought she might be Discord’s grandmother. Or with a name like that, one of Luna’s low-level fertility gods. So you think she can make us a weapon strong enough to stop Discord?”

“That’s what I’m hoping for,” Celestia said. “W-What did Discord say about Granny Smith?”

“Well…” Fluttershy said. “He seemed upset that I found a Zodiac Chamber inside his body. He said he was going to give her a piece of his mind.”

“Oh,” Celestia said, with what Fluttershy thought sounded like a sigh of relief. “Regardless, we should probably see her as soon as possible.”

A Monoeye emerged from the cloud cover below and floated in front of Fluttershy’s path. Fluttershy drew the Rose Staff from her side, but when she moved to aim the weapon at the Monoeye, the creature split apart into five Parasprite Monoeyes. Fluttershy paused and raised an eyebrow, and one of the Parasprite enemies fired a blast at her. She swerved to dodge and returned fire, launching a thorny chunk of bramble at each of the enemies from the tip of the Rose Staff. A Nutski flew up from the clouds below, only to split into five Paramushes. Fluttershy turned her aim toward the Paramushes and opened fire.

“Underworld troops, the Forces of Nature, and Parasprite enemies?” Fluttershy said. “I’m getting Chaos Vortex flashbacks.”

“Yes, this is very strange,” Celestia said.

A group of Parasprite Rezdas floated through the air ahead of Fluttershy, with two froglike Underworld Kerons standing on them. “You said Granny Smith would help us, right?” Fluttershy asked as she fired at the Kerons.

“That’s just it,” Celestia said anxiously. “I never said she would.”

The sun seemed to vanish from view, and the skies began to darken around Fluttershy. Even the cloud cover below disappeared, leaving her in total darkness, except for a pale white sphere off in the distance. Fluttershy’s flight path turned toward the lone object, while her eyes looked for any other enemies nearby.

“Why, hello there, Princess Celestia,” an elderly voice called out. “And hello to your little helper as well!”

“Um, hello?” Fluttershy said. “Granny Smith?” A Parasprite space vessel coasted by several feet to Fluttershy’s left, and she recoiled at the sight of it. A swarm of Parasprite Monoeyes spilled from the ship, and Fluttershy aimed at them with her staff.

“Oh, aren’t you just adorable?” the elderly voice said. “Yep, that’s me. Granny Smith! And who might you be, little filly?”

“This is Fluttershy, the captain of my army,” Celestia said. “She’s my strongest and most trusted soldier.” Another uncomfortable pause. “Do you… know why we’ve come to you?”

“Why, of course!” Granny Smith said. “You want to stop Discord and protect that celestial balance o’ yours.”

“Y-Yes,” Celestia said. The Parasprite ship had banked left, and Fluttershy was shooting down the last of the Parasprite Monoeyes. All the while, she couldn’t help but get the sense that they were walking on eggshells. First Luna with the Chaos Kin, and now Celestia with Granny Smith. Granny Smith seemed pleasant enough, but it was hard not to notice that Celestia was afraid of her.

“Oh, to be young again,” Granny Smith said. “To be so wide-eyed, energetic, and have a head stuffed with wool! Nah, I’m just pulling you. I like the cut of your jib. Tell you what, if you can make it to me and pass my three tests, I’ll lend you a hoof.”

Fluttershy drew closer to the pale white sphere, which came into view as an ornate, silvery structure floating in the sky. Glass panes covered much of the exterior, and she thought she could make out a stone building on the inside. A round platform extended out from the side, and she could see a tall, arched doorway into the sphere.

“Up ahead is Granny Smith’s workshop,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy began her approach toward the workshop, but as she flew closer to the entrance, the structure spun around, putting the doorway on the opposite side. Eight Parasprite Monoeyes lay waiting on the other side of the workshop, and a few opened fire on her. Fluttershy banked left to dodge and returned with a few shots from her Rose Staff. Celestia guided her flight path around the structure, away from the Parasprite enemies and back toward the entrance. With the doorway in view again, Fluttershy steered right and flew inside.

A long hallway stretched out before Fluttershy, with stone columns on either side supporting the blue-gray marble walls and an arched ceiling. A group of Reapettes floated toward her, and she could make out one of Skyworld’s Juggernauts further down. Fluttershy furrowed her eyebrows as she aimed her Rose Staff at the enemies. The hallway stretched out as far as her eyes could see, and continued to do so even as the power of flight carried her at a brisk pace. By the time her weapon’s shots tore apart the Juggernaut, the hallway had already gone longer than the size of the workshop outside, and it was still going. And still just as strange was the variety of enemies she encountered.

“Where did these creatures come from?” Fluttershy asked.

“I made them myself,” Granny Smith said. “They might be forgeries, but they’re better than the real deal. And they’re just the tip of the iceberg! If you don’t have the gumption to handle them, you ain’t got a shot against Discord.”

Two Ornes sailed past Fluttershy from behind, earning a squeak and a flinch from her as they roared and positioned themselves on either side ahead of her. Fluttershy ducked and sailed under the one on her left, then stole a nervous glance back at the two of them as her flight path climbed back up.

“But you’ll make me a new weapon if I pass your tests, right?” Fluttershy asked. “That’s all I have to do?”

All you have to do, huh?” Granny Smith said. “Awful sure of yourself, ain’t ya?”

“Um…” Fluttershy stammered.

“I heard about what you and Princess Celestia did,” Granny Smith said. “Fightin’ the Underworld, the Forces o’ Nature, aliens, and that no good Sombra. Not bad. But I want to see what you’re made of for myself. Don’t be expectin’ this to be easy.”

“O-Okay…” Fluttershy said.

The wall on Fluttershy’s left had broken and crumbled away, showing her a view of a field of stars and bluish purple nebulae. A Monomiknose hovered outside just beyond the collapsed wall, and she fired at it with her Rose Staff. The creature broke apart, and the two Monoeyes and Mik flew into the hallway and into Fluttershy’s path. Fluttershy fired a stream of bramble chunks at the creatures, shooting them down, and flew onward.

Further on, the hallway had fallen into greater disrepair. The ceiling had collapsed in multiple places. Sections of both walls were gone, and support columns were strewn about on the few pieces of floor that hadn’t fallen away into the interstellar void that surrounded this space. Underworld Shrips and Shulms lurked behind the remaining fragments of the hallway, with the Shrips spinning their bladed heads inside the hallway like circular saw blades. Fluttershy fired on the creatures, shooting down the Shrips and clearing her flight path. Her shots also struck the Shulms, releasing clouds of toxic gas upon their destruction, but they dissipated before she could fly into them.

The remnants of the hallway finally disappeared behind Fluttershy, and the stars along with them as she found herself in another black void. A gigantic version of the First Blade rose from the darkness and hovered ahead of her. The weapon split into three identical copies, all of them raised up and poised to swing down at her.

“Uh-oh,” Fluttershy said.

The blades swung down, each sending a blade of energy at her. Fluttershy swerved left, dodging all three as they rushed past. The set of First Blades disappeared, only to be replaced by a pair of giant claw weapons. A set of three golden talons, each one mottled with black stripes, extended from each of the red gauntlets that comprised the claws. She recognized this set as the Tiger Claws, the standard variety of claw weapons.

“Yeehaw!” Granny Smith said. “Now this is a hootenanny!”

The Tiger Claws swung down next, sending a crisscrossing set of projectile slashes toward her. Fluttershy went into a steady dive, finding a gap in the oncoming claw swipes and flying through it. “At least one of us is having a good time,” she murmured.

The Tiger Claws disappeared too, and in their place emerged a giant bow resembling the Silver Bow that Rainbow Dash used. Only the limbs of this bow had golden blades instead of the silver ones on Rainbow’s version. Fluttershy could swear that she’d seen this weapon somewhere else before, but had little time to think about it as the bow separated into its limbs and swung toward her in a sawlike pattern. She banked right, dodging as the bladed limbs sliced past and eventually disappeared behind her.

Fluttershy's flight path came to a stop, seemingly in the middle of the empty black void around her. She looked around, but couldn’t find anything for as far as she could see, not even the hallway from before. Slowly, she began to ascend, and when she gazed up, she could see a large hemispherical platform floating high above. A ring of red, green, and blue crystal formations surrounded the platform, jutting up from the surrounding void like a group of stalagmites in a cave.

As she rose above the platform, she could see a great petrified tree looming over the other side. Crystal formations hung from its stony branches in all shapes and sizes, like colorful leaves and fruit. An alcove had been carved into the trunk of the tree a few feet above the platform, where a lone figure was waiting for Fluttershy.

“Come right this way, little filly,” Granny Smith said,

Fluttershy went into a dive, and descended toward the platform below.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy’s hooves touched down on the platform, and the aura of alicorn magic faded from her wings. She gazed up at the alcove in the tree, where the figure that she’d seen before looked back down at her. What she saw was an elderly green mare with a slightly frazzled white mane and tail both tied in buns sitting in a rocking chair. She didn’t look much larger than a normal pony. In fact, she actually looked smaller due to her age. Fluttershy could barely make out a cutie mark in the shape of a pie on her flanks. It was strange to see what looked like an ordinary pony sitting at the seat of power of a god, but as Fluttershy glanced away from Granny Smith’s cutie mark, she noticed something else. No wings, and when she looked up at the old mare’s head, she found no trace of a horn.

“You’re an Earth pony?!” Fluttershy said.

Granny Smith chuckled. “Now if that ain’t the first thing anyone ever notices,” she said. “It’s a long story, sugarcube. And as much as I’d like to talk your ear off about it, I reckon we’ve got more important things to worry about. Now hurry up and stand in the middle there. That’ll take you to your first test.”

A dozen questions swarmed through Fluttershy’s mind. She wasn’t sure she had the nerve to ask any of them. Here was this Earth pony, an ancient mare, and seemingly one of the most powerful gods she had ever met. Strong enough to help them against Discord, maybe. Strong enough to give Princess Celestia herself pause. Which meant she was strong enough for Fluttershy not to test her patience. Anxiously, Fluttershy approached the center of the platform.

The center of the platform shuddered underneath her and rose up, breaking off from the rest of the floor. Granny Smith, the petrified tree, and the ring of crystals disappeared beneath her, and before long the platform reached the center of a pathway before coming to a stop. Marble columns stood along either side of the salmon-colored stone pathway, and Fluttershy could make out a set of stairs leading up from the end of the path.

“Your first test is up those stairs,” Granny Smith’s voice echoed. “You must overcome all three.”

Fluttershy looked up to the top of the stairs, and then glanced back at the rest of the pathway behind her. She saw another set of stairs leading down in the other direction, to what appeared to be a simple little shrine. Six pillars surrounded the shrine, and a large ring of stone rested on top of the pillars.

“What’s down there?” Fluttershy asked.

“Are you snooping around another goddess’ home?” Granny Smith said, a note of irritability in her voice.

“Um…”

“Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “Just this once, maybe you shouldn’t go off exploring the area.”

“Well it’s just that…” Fluttershy stammered. “All of this looks, well…”

“Looks what?” Granny Smith asked, a hint of accusation in her tone.

“Brand new,” Fluttershy said. “Like you just made all this not too long ago. And I don’t know why you would put this path here with the three tests if you didn’t want me going down there.”

“Hm,” Granny Smith said. “Well, you make a good point there. Alright, go down there if you like. Just don’t blame me if what you find ain’t to your liking.”

Fluttershy furrowed her eyebrows, and then started down the stairs. A blue circle came into view on the ground in the center of the shrine as she approached, with a faint shaft of light shining up from it. A sigil hovered in place within the shaft of light. Another Zodiac Chamber. With a quickened pace, Fluttershy made her way to the bottom of the stairs and stepped into the circle.

The stairs, the shrine, and the space around her disappeared in a flash of light, and Fluttershy stood in the Zodiac Chamber space once more. She stepped toward the altar at the end of the platform, where a thin, light blue box materialized. A symbol was drawn on the lid of the box in the form of two arcs bending toward each other with a horizontal line cutting through the center of them. Fluttershy took the box, which contained the Pisces Heal power, into her hoof, and Celestia’s magic surrounded it for a second before the box vanished. With the Pisces Heal in Celestia’s possession, Fluttershy turned around and headed for the Zodiac Chamber’s exit.

Fluttershy found herself back in the shrine at the bottom of the stairs. She began to make her way back up the stairs. “What’s with these Zodiac Chambers anyway?” she asked. “Discord made it sound like you had something to do with them.”

“Well of course I had something to do with them,” Granny Smith said. “Those are my weapons in there, and some of my most special ones too. I’ve been putting them here and there for ponies to find. I reckon you’ve found a few of them yourself?”

“That was the twelvth chamber I’ve been in,” Fluttershy said.

“Is that right?” Granny Smith said. “I suppose that means you found them all.”

“So what happens now?” Fluttershy asked. “You said the Zodiac weapons were special. Do they do anything when they’re all together?”

“What happens now is you keep going up those stairs and you pass my three tests,” Granny Smith said. “Those Zodiac weapons are special, but they won’t help you none against Discord.”

Fluttershy reached the top of the first set of stairs and returned to where the platform had first brought her to the pathway. Another flight of stairs led up from where she stood, and she walked past the platform and began to climb these steps as well. Further along, three enemies flew out from underneath the stairs and floated over them a fair distance away: a Monoeye, a Cellular Monoeye, and a Parasprite Monoeye. Fluttershy reached for her Rose Staff, aimed, and fired a chunk of bramble. As luck would have it, the three creatures all lined up one behind the other, and the Rose Staff’s projectile punched through each one.

Another set of the same Monoeyes hovered down above the stairway, this time on either side of each other. Fluttershy aimed at the Cellular Monoeye in the center and fired a stream of bramble shots, shooting it down. The Monoeye on its right fired a dark purple blast of energy at her. She hopped left to dodge, returning fire at the Parasprite Monoeye at the other side. With the Parasprite Monoeye taken out, she fired a few shots at the remaining Monoeye before making her way up the rest of the stairs.

A terrace made from the same salmon-colored stone awaited Fluttershy at the top of the stairs. To her left, a massive set of double doors overlooked the terrace, with two stone columns on either side. Above the doors, a set of stone gray statues depicted several ponies kneeling before an Earth pony in the center. Fluttershy stepped toward the pair of doors, but a Flage from the Forces of Nature appeared in front of her out of thin air. Fluttershy jumped back, landing out of range of the Flage’s scythed arms as it tried to swing them down on her, and reached for her Rose Staff. She fired the weapon, shooting a hole through the creature before it disappeared.

Out of the corner of her eye, Fluttershy noticed two more Flages hovering around the terrace before they vanished. Gripping her weapon, she moved along the terrace on three hooves, her eyes darting back and forth as she scanned the area for the two enemies. The first Flage reappeared directly in front of her, scythed arms raised, and she fired a chunk of bramble through its body. The second Flage appeared on her right, and she hopped away from it while firing back with a few more shots.

A heavy click echoed from the pair of doors as the last Flage was slain, and the two doors swung open. Gripping her Rose Staff in her hoof, she made her way toward the doorway.

As Flutershy passed through the doorway, the terrace and even the doors themselves vanished behind her. The ground under her hooves was hot, and she looked down to find the earth beneath her was cracked and dry. Smoke and volcanic ash blanketed the skies over her head. She heard a loud cry behind her, and when she turned around, her heart sank at the sight of a giant red and green bird circling overhead.

“The Phoenix?” Fluttershy said. “I have to fight him again?”

“It was just tragic seeing the majestic immortal bird felled by a little pegasus,” Granny Smith said.

“Tell me about it,” Fluttershy murmured. “I was so close to calming him down before Discord sent him into a frenzy.”

Three fiery rocks formed within the Phoenix’s talons, which he flung at her. Fluttershy ran, avoiding the rocks as they hit the ground and exploded behind her, and turned back to face the creature.

“After three years, the Phoenix you defeated has surely revived itself by now,” Celestia said. “But this is not that same creature. It is one of Granny Smith’s creations, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Sharp as always, princess,” Granny Smith said. “I didn’t see the point of putting the real Phoenix through the same thing twice if I could just make one from scratch.”

The Phoenix turned to face Fluttershy, and with a hard flap of his wings, launched a pair of glowing feathers at her. Fluttershy sidestepped, aimed her Rose Staff, and returned fired with a large chunk of bramble that struck the creature in the chest. The Phoenix let out a cry, and his body erupted in bright orange flames right before he dove at Fluttershy. Fluttershy ran to the side and dove as well, ducking under the creature’s fiery wing as it rushed past.

Fluttershy rose back to her hooves and turned to face the Phoenix again. The flames subsided from the immortal bird’s body, and the creature spun around to face her as well. At once, the Phoenix’s wings stopped flapping, and its talons landed with a heavy crash, sending three vertical shockwaves along the ground. Fluttershy sidestepped in between two of the waves and fired back with her Rose Staff. The bramble shot struck the creature’s wing, but it still took flight again, seemingly unharmed by the hit. The Phoenix spat three fireballs at her. Fluttershy hopped to the side, dodging in between the fireballs, and raised her staff again to fire back.

Fluttershy’s third shot hit the Phoenix square in the beak. For a second, the Phoenix recoiled back, only to freeze in place as a bright white glow began to spread across his body. Fluttershy noticed the same white glow spread across the ground beneath her in patches, and then across the ashen gray sky, until everything around her was consumed in white light.

The white glow subsided almost as quickly as it came, and Fluttershy was standing before the same salmon-colored terrace she had been in before she fought the Phoenix. The Phoenix itself was gone, and the massive doors she had entered before loomed behind her, now locked shut.

“Not bad, little filly,” Granny Smith said. “Your next challenge is up those stairs.”

Fluttershy blinked. “Wait, that was it?” she asked. She turned to look back up at the two enormous doors. “But he was so much stronger last time.”

“You can thank that weapon you’re using,” Celestia said. “It’s the author’s weapon of choice. It’s quite potent, especially from a distance, and I couldn’t be sure what Granny Smith had in store for you.”

Fluttershy turned the Rose Staff in her hoof as she looked it over. “Whoa,” she said.

“Yep, that one’s a real beauty,” Granny Smith said. “But I don’t think you’ll be wanting to take that to fight Discord. Now go on. You’ve got two more challenges up those stairs.”

Fluttershy turned to her left, where a new set of stairs led up from the other end of the terrace. With her weapon in hoof, she walked toward the end of the terrace and up the flight of stairs. She reached another terrace at the top, with another set of massive doors on her right. Three tiny treasure chests each no bigger than Fluttershy’s head lay scattered across the terrace.

“The Zodiac Chamber was one thing, but I don’t think Granny Smith would leave real treasure chests lying around,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy eyed each of the three chests. “Mimicuties?” she asked.

“Figuring it out is one thing,” Granny Smith said, a hint of annoyance in her tone. “But that door ain’t gonna open ‘til you beat every one of them.”

Fluttershy’s gaze turned to the closest treasure chest, and she began to step toward it. When she drew close, the chest rose above her, standing on a pair of long legs. Fluttershy hopped back on three hooves while using her weapon hoof to aim and fire at the Mimicutie. The creature took the hit, but ambled around the terrace seemingly oblivious to Fluttershy. Fluttershy fired another shot at the Mimicutie, and this time the monster stumbled back for a second before fading away into purple mist.

Fluttershy paused. Mimicuties were supposed to be hardier than that. But just like with the Phoenix, her new weapon had made short work of an enemy that normally took a lot of punishment. Lowering her weapon hoof, she began to approach the next chest.

The second Mimicutie rose up on two legs as Fluttershy approached. Fluttershy leapt back, hitting the monster with another blast from her Rose Staff as she went. This time, the Mimicutie slid toward her on one leg, while the other leg was raised up and bent, ready to deliver a brutal kick.

“Bumblebee,” Fluttershy said. Her weapon flickered, and a blue glow washed over her body. The Mimicutie extended its leg into not just one, but a series of fast, powerful kicks. But before even one could land, Fluttershy swerved around the Mimicutie, now standing behind the monster as it delivered a flurry of attacks at the air in front of it. Fluttershy leapt back again, firing another bramble chunk at the Mimicutie and finishing it off.

Fluttershy made her way to the last Mimicutie. The creature rose on its two legs, and Fluttershy jumped back and fired at it with her Rose Staff. The same as before, the third Mimicutie slid toward Fluttershy on one leg, with the other leg ready to deliver a barrage of kicks. But as it tried to make the first kick, Fluttershy’s Bumblebee power activated, and she swerved behind her creature. Fluttershy leapt back, fired one more shot from her Rose Staff, and slayed the last Mimicutie.

A deep click echoed from the pair of giant doors overlooking the terrace, and a moment later the doors swung open. Fluttershy walked toward the open doorway, her staff still in hoof. The terrace behind her vanished once again as she stepped through, just as it had when she fought the Phoenix. A hot pink glow permeated the sky for as far as she could see, and bits of white light in the shape of petals swirled up from the earth as if caught in an updraft. Broken cobblestones littered the ground around her, which formed a smooth crater that she stood in the center of. Further away, more bits of gray stonework—from broken walls to archways—surrounded the crater.

And across from her in the middle of the crater, there stood a glassy-eyed Earth pony stallion. Rocklike barding covered much of his body, while patches of rotting, moldy flesh were exposed where his otherwise red coat and orange mane had fallen out.

“Big Macintosh?” Fluttershy said, her voice faltering.

The stallion said nothing as a chunk of rock formed in his hoof and he hurled it at Fluttershy. Fluttershy stepped to the side, avoiding the thrown rock, and fired a shot from her Rose Staff.

“Why are you doing this?” Fluttershy said. “First the Phoenix, and now him?”

“Believe you me, I ain’t happy about recreating one of Luna’s abominations,” Granny Smith said. “Especially not this one. But I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think you needed it. I can’t just give you a weapon to fight Discord with and expect things’ll turn out right. A weapon is just like any other tool. It could be the best thing ever made, but that won’t mean a thing if the pony holding it ain’t up to the job.”

Fluttershy gritted her teeth. The body of Big Macintosh flung itself through the air like a missile, with another layer of rock forming over him. Fluttershy ducked and rolled underneath, and then aimed her weapon as she rose back to her hooves. She spotted a hole in the back of his neck, just like the original one had, and fired a chunk of bramble at it. Big Macintosh stumbled, and the second layer of rock fell from his body, but he turned to face her again.

“He still has that weak point in the back of his head,” Fluttershy said.

Big Macintosh stomped his hoof on the ground, sending a trio of shockwaves at Fluttershy. Fluttershy sidestepped between them and fired back with a shot from her staff. The shot chipped off a chunk of rock barding from Big Machintosh’s body, but he was unfazed as he tossed another chunk of rock at her.

“I will give her credit,” Celestia said. “The detail in her craft is second to none. I couldn’t imagine the force she could create if she wanted to upend the divine order.”

“Pray that you never have to, princess,” Granny Smith said.

Big Macintosh’s body hovered in the air, and Fluttershy jumped out of the way as he crashed into the ground. She turned around, aimed, and fired another chunk of bramble at the hole in the back of his head. His head jerked forward, but he twisted around and faced Fluttershy again. He flung another rock at her, but she dodged and fired back with her Rose Staff. Her shot broke another piece of rock from the stallion’s body, but he barely reacted as he lunged toward her.

Stones began to fly toward Big Macintosh’s body, sticking to him and forming a round boulder as he tried to roll into her. Fluttershy rolled to the side to dodge and aimed her weapon behind her as she rose back on her hooves. The stones crumbled away from his body, exposing the weak point in the back of his head, and Fluttershy fired. Big Macintosh stumbled and fell to his knees, his head swaying back and forth. With her Rose Staff still trained on him, Fluttershy fired again.

Big Macintosh froze in place, and a white glow spread across his body in patches. From his body, the glow spread to the ground, and then the skies all around Fluttershy. As soon as it touched all of her surroundings, the glow dissipated, and she stood at the foot of the doors in front of the salmon-colored terrace. Toward her right, at the end of the terrace, a new set of stairs rose up from the abyss below one step at a time. Fluttershy approached the end of the terrace and looked up the staircase to see one more terrace at the end, with one more doorway. One more challenge.

Fluttershy began to make her way up the stairs, her Rose Staff in hoof as she watched for any more enemies. Further up, she saw a white vase twice her size resting on one of the steps. The vase teetered for a moment, and an Urgle climbed up from inside. Fluttershy aimed her Rose Staff and fired, shooting down the Urgle before it could land on the steps, and continued up. The vase shook again, and a Porcuspine shot out of it and landed on the stairs. Fluttershy fired again, taking out the Porcuspine as she continued her way up.

When she reached the vase, Fluttershy swung her staff, slamming the butt of her weapon against the vessel. She swung again, striking the vase with the Rose Staff’s thorny shaft and leaving cracks in it. Her third swing shattered the vase, and she made her way up the rest of the staircase.

As Fluttershy stepped onto the terrace at the top of the stairs, a Fort Oink appeared as if from thin air on her left, blocking her path to the final doorway. A Juggernaut hovered opposite the Fort Oink on Fluttershy’s right, the two enemies facing each other. Fluttershy aimed her Rose Staff at the Juggernaut and fired a chunk of bramble at the machine’s face.

A pair of burning rocks rolled down the tubes on either side of the Juggernaut and into its waiting catapults. The catapults launched the two stones, hurling them in Fluttershy’s direction. Fluttershy ran, avoiding the rocks as they hit the ground and exploded on impact, and fired again with her staff. The second chunk of bramble struck one of the Juggernaut’s arms, caving in one of the tubes that led to its catapults.

A soft crack sounded from the other side of the terrace, and Fluttershy leapt back as three projectiles hurtled toward her. She fired a few small pieces of bramble from her staff as her hooves landed, pelting the Juggernaut. The Juggernaut’s damaged arm snapped, and the machine twisted in the air before collapsing in a heap on the ground.

Fluttershy turned to face the Fort Oink, and saw a Trynamite hovering in front of the transport’s front gates. The Trynamite broke apart into three pieces, which then hurtled at her. Fluttershy sidestepped the trio of projectiles and fired back, hitting the pig’s face at the top of the Fort Oink’s central keep. The Fort Oink’s front gates flung open, and another Trynamite was spat out. Fluttershy fired a shot at the Trynamite, shooting the enemy down, and then turned her weapon back on the Fort Oink. She fired a steady stream of small bramble chunks at the pig’s face, and before long the Fort Oink faltered in its flight. Bits of stone and wood crumbled away from the facade before the Underworld transport landed on the ground and vanished into purple mist.

A click echoed from the set of massive doors that overlooked the terrace, which then swung open. Fluttershy approached the doorway, preparing herself for the third trial. At once, the terrace behind her vanished when she passed through, and she found herself standing on a round, dark gray metal platform. A small number of stars twinkled in the sky above her. Except it wasn’t just stars. Clouds of space dust blew and swirled around the platform, and despite how few stars there were, she could still make out a constellation or two.

The platform beneath Fluttershy’s hooves bobbed up and down with an almost steady rhythm, and when she looked out past the platform, she could see the ocean all around her. She was in space, she realized. Except no, not just space. She was in the Galactic Sea. But that meant…

The platform shook beneath her again, and two salmon-red tentacles rose up from the side.

“The Kraken?” Fluttershy said. She raised her weapon hoof and fired a shot at one of the tentacles. Her shot not only punched through, but severed the tentacle at the point of impact, earning a stunned reaction from Fluttershy as the cut limb fell into the ocean and the remaining stub writhed and slid back into the sea.

“Then this must be the Space Pirate ship,” Celestia said. “But why this creature?”

“Well, first I was thinking about recreating Sombra for her to fight,” Granny Smith said, “But I figure that’d be a bit much in more ways than one.”

Fluttershy fired another chunk of bramble at the next tentacle. The shot only grazed its target, but it was enough to send the appendage back into the ocean as two more tentacles rose above the pirate ship’s deck.

“I also thought about recreating that Fancypants feller,” Granny Smith continued. “But I ain’t that keen on making more of Luna’s soldiers.”

“I’m beginning to see the pattern here,” Celestia said, even as Fluttershy shot down the third tentacle, “But for once, I have to say I don’t approve, Granny Smith.”

“Oh, hush up, princess,” Granny Smith chided. “You may not like it, but she needs this. And besides, I settled on this thing because I reckoned you both had some unfinished business here.”

Fluttershy fired another chunk of bramble from her Rose Staff, knocking the last tentacle back into the sea. A huge wave of water splashed against the ship, and the Kraken’s head rose above the ocean’s surface. The creature regarded Fluttershy with its shimmering neon-green eyes, while Fluttershy aimed her weapon back at it. “You mean how we never actually fought this monster?” she said. “We got the Three Sacred Treasures, so there wasn’t really any need to.”

“Not quite what I meant,” Granny Smith said. “But I suppose you were due to face this monster.”

Fluttershy fired a chunk of bramble at the Kraken. The creature seemed to lurch back, only to fire a massive beam of energy from its mouth at the ship’s deck. Fluttershy ran from the beam as it traced its way up the deck, and then fired another shot from her Rose Staff. This time, the hit threw the Kraken’s head back, and the seemingly dazed monster leaned back from the ship and back into the water. The Kraken’s body made another huge splash as it fell back into the ocean, and then slowly receded into the water’s depths.

Fluttershy lowered her weapon hoof, but raised an eyebrow. “That was… anticlimactic,” she said. “But that was the last one, right? We can have that new weapon now?”

“Counting your chickens a bit too soon there, ain’t yah?” Granny Smith said. “Don’t you remember how many tests there were?”

“Um, three,” Fluttershy said. “And that was three, wasn’t it?”

“Not quite,” Granny Smith said. The deck underneath Fluttershy’s hooves began to glow white, and that glow spread from the ship to the Galactic Sea itself, and even the space above. “That was all the first one. You’ve still got two more ahead of you, dearie.”

“I think one of us isn’t counting right,” Fluttershy muttered.

“I heard that!” Granny Smith groused.

* * * * * * * * * *

Soft carpet touched the bottom of Fluttershy’s hooves as the white glow surrounding her began to recede, leaving behind a palatial hall that stretched both behind and ahead of her. A long red carpet lay beneath her and covered the cold, stone gray floor between her and a small set of stairs at the other end of the hall. A high throne sat at the top of the stairs, and in front of the throne stood two ponies, one clad from head to hoof in purple armor and the other wearing a Stetson hat and a faded black leather outfit. The two ponies turned to look at Fluttershy, and the one in the Stetson hat held a massive greatsword in her hoof, propping the hefty weapon behind her shoulder and against her back.

“Howdy,” the pony said in an accent Fluttershy knew all too well.

“Applejack!” Fluttershy said in a tone that lost its enthusiasm as she recognized the other pony. “And… Dark Lord Pinkamena?”

The second pony placed her front hooves against the sides of her helmet and pushed, forcing it off her head with a rubbery plop. A pair of cheery blue eyes looked back at Fluttershy from a vibrant, hot pink face sporting a messy darker pink mane. “Oh please,” the mare said, “my friends just call me Pinkie Pie.”

“Pinkie, put that back on!” Applejack scolded. “You know how dangerous she is.”

Pinkie Pie shoved the helmet back over her head, while Applejack galloped toward Fluttershy on three hooves. Fluttershy, perplexed at first, grimaced as Applejack closed the distance and swung her greatsword down at her. She sidestepped Applejack’s swing, and her eyes widened as a blade of energy issued from the weapon for several feet. She ducked as Applejack went for a horizontal swing, and then hopped a few steps back to put distance between them, only to notice a fiery aura around Pinkie Pie as the armored mare flew at her.

“Wheeeeeeee!” Pinkie Pie shouted.

Fluttershy jumped back before Pinkie Pie could crash into her. Pinkie Pie skidded to a halt on her hooves, the metal of her greaves scraping against the stone floor, and produced a weapon in her hoof as if from thin air. The weapon was a sword with a bent hilt similar to the Blade weapons Fluttershy had used before, built from the same metal as Pinkie Pie’s armor, with toothlike projections and a red-orange coloration at the tip of the blade. Pinkie Pie swung the weapon, the Gaol Blade, at Fluttershy. Fluttershy parried the attack with her Rose Staff, then moved to block again with her staff as Pinkie Pie swung a second time. Applejack swung her own weapon down, and Fluttershy leapt back before she could take the hit.

“Applejack, is it really you?” Fluttershy asked. “You’re not just one of Granny Smith’s creations?”

“Yep,” Applejack said as she moved for another swing. “It’s me, all right!”

Fluttershy leapt back, dodging another swing from Applejack’s greatsword. “But what are you doing here?” she asked. “Is everything alright back on the ground? And why are you fighting with Dark Lor– er, Pinkie Pie? And didn’t we destroy her arm– eep!”

Fluttershy flinched and stumbled backward as Pinkie Pie hopped in front of her, getting in between her and Applejack. “Ooh, are we playing twenty questions?” Pinkie Pie asked, her bubbly voice reverberating through the metal of her dark helmet. “Let me try! Is it true you can’t really fly? What’s the Goddess of Light like? Do you have a bakery up in Skyworld? How do you get so much volume in your mane? Everything I try just makes mine come out poofy.”

“Um…” Fluttershy said.

A pair of back hooves caught Fluttershy in her side, catapulting her across the throne room. Applejack’s hind legs met the ground again, and she flipped around to face the direction she had kicked Fluttershy. “Pinkie, don’t get in the way like that,” she said. “Ah’m trying not to cut you in half with this sword.”

“Oops,” Pinkie Pie said.

Fluttershy grunted as she rose to her hooves again. She could still feel where Applejack had bucked her, and she was probably looking at a pair of bruises later, but thankfully nothing felt broken. “Okay, I guess they are real,” Fluttershy said.

“Of course these two are real,” Granny Smith said. “I just invited them here to test you. Not a bad challenge for that weapon, don’t you think?”

“Hold on, Granny!” Applejack objected. “That ain’t what Ah agreed to.”

“Settle down there, youngin,” Granny Smith said. “I know what I promised ya. And I’ll make good on it if you hold up your end of the bargain. After all, I haven’t let you down yet, have I?”

“That depends,” Applejack said as she lifted her greatsword, the Magnus Club. “Do we get to keep these weapons you made us?”

“I’d be mighty disappointed if you didn’t,” Granny Smith said.

“Well in that case,” Applejack said. Holding out the Magnus Club with both hooves, she spun around on her hind legs. The weight of her weapon and her sheer strength created a wind column around her, pulling Fluttershy in. Keeping her footing as best as she could, Fluttershy turned and ran against the pull of the twister.

An energy ball struck Fluttershy’s side, shot by Pinkie Pie’s Gaol Blade, and she fell to the ground. She grunted from the pain of the hit, even as her body was dragged toward the column of wind. A surge of panic set in, and Fluttershy rolled on her side. Applejack came out of her spin, her greatsword raised high, and swung the weapon down with all her might. Her attack missed Fluttershy, but left a deep gouge in the floor.

“She seems to be having trouble,” Celestia said. “Are you sure this isn’t too much?”

“I thought you two were supposed to protect Earth ponies from the gods,” Granny Smith said. “How do you expect to beat Discord if you can’t even fight two Earth ponies?”

Fluttershy raised her weapon, blocking a strike from Pinkie Pie’s Gaol Blade, and rolled on her side. “I was hoping to use that weapon you were making me,” she said as she climbed back on her hooves. “I thought that was the whole point.”

Granny Smith sighed. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll see what I can do.”

All three ponies stopped and looked as a shaft of magenta light shone on the floor just a few feet away. Seconds passed, and just before the light faded away, Rainbow Dash leapt out. With Silver Bow in hoof, she bounded toward Applejack and swung her weapon.

Applejack stepped back, avoiding Rainbow’s swing. “Another one?” she said. She sidestepped right as Rainbow went for another swing. Rainbow swung her bow a third time, only this time Applejack swung back with her Magnus Club. The two weapons met, but Applejack was the stronger one by far, and her parry deflected Rainbow’s weapon with ease, sending the pegasus stumbling back several feet.

As Rainbow Dash regained her footing, Applejack went in for another attack. Rainbow ducked under a horizontal slash from the greatsword, then rolled to the side as Applejack went for a downward swing. Applejack moved forward and swung again. Rainbow leapt over the attack, aimed her Silver Bow, and fired a shot into Applejack’s withers. As her hooves hit the ground again, she quickly spun around and bucked, her back hooves landing on Applejack’s shoulder and barrel. But as she spun back to face Applejack again, she saw the Earth pony staring at the site of her kicks, having not even budged an inch. Applejack glanced back up at Rainbow and raised an eyebrow.

“Uh, heh heh,” Rainbow chuckled anxiously.

Applejack’s eyes narrowed. She flipped around and delivered a buck of her own.

A couple of feet away, Fluttershy dodged as Pinkie Pie bounded in the air and brought her Gaol Blade down. She parried with her Rose Staff as Pinkie went for another swing, then used her weapon to block a third strike. The blade of Pinkie’s weapon was caught between the thorns of Fluttershy’s staff, and with a hard yank, Fluttershy sent Pinkie stumbling.

A yell from Rainbow Dash carried throughout the throne room, and Fluttershy looked up just in time to see her sail across the hall and crash into the throne in a heap, knocking the chair down.

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy called out.

“Worry about her later!” Applejack said. She raised her Magnus Club and swung it down at Fluttershy. Fluttershy sidestepped out of the way, glancing at the blade of energy that issued from the weapon for several feet, and jumped back as Applejack slashed again with the greatsword. Pinkie Pie started toward the two, but then paused and turned toward the throne. She cocked her head, and then bounced away.

Over by the toppled throne, Rainbow groaned as she sat up and then rose to her hooves. “Okay, so she’s stronger than me,” she said, massaging her head. “I can work with that.” She made her way down the stairs and started to gallop toward Applejack.

“Hi there!”

“Whoa!” Rainbow skidded to a halt on her hooves, stopping just short of a Pinkie Pie who suddenly appeared in her path. She raised her Silver Bow to swipe at Pinkie, who blocked with her Gaol Blade. She swung again, but was blocked by Pinkie’s weapon a second time.

With a quick motion, Rainbow separated the Silver Bow into its two bladed limbs, caught the second limb in her other hoof, and tried to swipe at Pinkie. Pinkie moved her blade to parry the attack, but Rainbow pushed back, throwing her off balance. Recombining her bow, Rainbow aimed and fired point blank at Pinkie, only for the latter to dodge at the last second. Pinkie aimed her blade and returned fire, but Rainbow quickly dodged.

“Ooh, what’s your name?” Pinkie asked.

Rainbow smirked. “Rainbow Dash,” she said, separating her bow into its two bladed limbs again.

For a split second, the pair of glowing blue lights in Pinkie’s helmet seemed to brighten. “Wow, you sure are!” Pinkie said.

Rainbow swung with both bladed limbs, only to be blocked by Pinkie’s blade. Pushing back with one limb, she spun around Pinkie, recombined her bow, and fired into the armored pony’s side.

“Look, as much as I like to meet a fan, even if they’re a Dark Lord, Fluttershy needs my help,” Rainbow said. “So why don’t we cut this short?”

Pinkie cocked her head. “Dark Lord?” she said. “Nah, you can just call me Pinkie Pie.”

For a moment, Rainbow looked over Pinkie and her dark, purple armor. “You sure about that?” she asked.

Elsewhere in the throne room, Applejack swung her weapon at Fluttershy. Fluttershy parried with her Rose Staff, but the force of Applejack’s swing threw her onto her back hooves. Applejack flipped around and bucked Fluttershy square in the chest. Fluttershy flew across the throne room, landing on her back twice before sliding along the stone floor. She grunted as she began to rise to her haunches, only to hear the sound of hoofbeats galloping toward her. She raised her staff, blocking a downward swing from Applejack’s Magnus Club. But the force of Applejack’s attack threw her on her back again, and she found herself pinned down under the Earth pony.

“Ah’ve got to give ya credit, Fluttershy,” Applejack said, bearing down on Fluttershy and her Rose Staff with her greatsword. “I help ya get back to yourself, and the next day ya’ve got that whole Celestia mess sorted out. Ah don’t know how ya did it, but Ah’m mighty grateful. But that don’t mean Ah’m gonna take it easy on ya. Granny Smith promised me a weapon to fight Discord with if Ah beat ya, and there’s no way Ah’m lettin’ that opportunity slip by.”

“Wait, but Granny Smith promised me a weapon if I passed her tests,” Fluttershy said.

“She promised me, Twilight, and Shining Armor the same thing,” Rainbow said, deflecting a hit from Pinkie Pie’s Gaol Blade with her bow. “Even told us that whoever won out of the three of us could help you with these two. I knocked ‘em to the ground in 9.8 seconds. I think that’s a new record.”

“That’s the general gist,” Granny Smith said. “It was one thing to give Fluttershy a few trials and have her earn the weapon. But when I realized there were a bunch of ponies itching to take down the Lord of the Underworld, I reckoned I should figure out which one was best for the job.”

“That’s great and all,” Rainbow said, “but how do we know we can actually trust you? We don’t exactly have a great track record with gods. Especially not the Earth ponies.”

Putting leverage on her Rose Staff, Fluttershy pushed Applejack's Magnus Club to the side and knocked the Earth pony off balance. Now free, she rolled out from under Applejack and rose to her hooves. “Princess Celestia seems to trust her,” she said.

“Not exactly helpin’ your case there,” Applejack said. “And she’s got a point. Ah don’t like the idea of some goddess pittin’ us against each other like this. But at least Pinkie and Ah got some new weapons out of it. She even fixed up Pinkie’s armor. And besides, call it intuition, but Ah’ve got a good feelin’ about Granny Smith. Even sounds like an Apple name.”

“Well…” Fluttershy murmured.

“Say another word, Fluttershy,” Granny Smith’s voice whispered in Fluttershy’s ear, “and you’ll be fighting Discord with nothing but your hooves.”

“Um…”

“You say something, Fluttershy?” Applejack asked.

“N-Nothing important,” Fluttershy said.

“Hmm,” Applejack narrowed her eyes.

Rainbow Dash deflected a blow from Pinkie’s blade with her Silver Bow. She jumped over Pinkie, her free forehoof bounding off of Pinkie’s back, and fired an arrow toward Applejack. The arrow struck the body of the Magnus Club as Applejack was winding up for a swing, throwing Applejack off course as Rainbow ran between her and Fluttershy.

“What’s wrong, Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked. “You should’ve taken these two down, no problem.”

“Excuse me?” Applejack said.

“Well, um…” Fluttershy said, idly waving the Rose Staff in her hoof.

Rainbow sighed. “You’re worried about what that thing will do to them, aren’t you?” she said. Fluttershy’s lack of an answer was all she needed. “Look, Pinkie Pie’s got that armor on. She can probably take a shot or two. Want to trade partners?”

“Oh no ya don’t!” Applejack said. She swung her Magnus Club at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow deflected the attack to the side, separated her bow as she spun around Applejack, and slashed the Earth pony’s side with one of its bladed limbs. Recombining her bow, Rainbow leapt back while firing another arrow at Applejack. “Oh, you no-good…” Applejack gritted her teeth and charged after Rainbow.

Fluttershy looked on at the two of them. A clatter of armor sounded behind her as Pinkie bounced over and stopped right next to her.

“Aw, but we were having fun…” Pinkie’s voice echoed from her helmet.

“Um…” Fluttershy said.

Pinkie glanced over at Fluttershy. “Oh, hello!” she chirped. “Dashie’s your friend, right? Do you know how she dyes her mane like that?”

“I…” Fluttershy started. She couldn’t help but notice that Pinkie Pie wasn’t actually attacking her. “… think that’s her natural color.”

Pinkie gasped. “It is?!” she said. “And she’s a pegasus just like you! Can she fly?”

“I wouldn’t bring it up with her,” Fluttershy said.

Across the throne room, Applejack swung her Magnus Club at Rainbow, who ducked underneath the weapon’s blade. “Stand still!” she said. “You are not stoppin’ me from gettin’ that weapon!”

“Hey, I get you,” Rainbow said. “I know what he’s done to Earth ponies like you, and I respect you for taking the fight back to him. To be honest, part of me’s actually rooting for you to win this.”

Applejack furrowed her eyebrows. “What, that mean you’re goin’ easy on me?” she asked.

Rainbow smirked. “Not a chance!” she said.

Applejack took another swing at Rainbow, but Rainbow deflected the blow with her own weapon. She swung her Magnus Club again, but Rainbow sidestepped the attack and fired an arrow. Her shot struck the body of the Magnus Club in midswing, causing Applejack to stumble.

“Cut that out!” Applejack said. She swung her weapon again, but Rainbow leapt over the greatsword, bounded off of Applejack’s back, and fired again at her. Applejack winced and grunted from the hit and turned to glare at Rainbow, only to see that she had landed directly behind her, within range of her hind legs. “Big mistake.”

Planting her free forehoof, Applejack raised her hind legs and bucked at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow ducked underneath Applejack’s back hooves, aimed her Silver Bow at Applejack’s belly, and fired. The shot threw Applejack off of her last hoof, and she hit the floor with a thud.

“Applejack!” Pinkie gasped. She galloped after Applejack. Behind her, Fluttershy raised her Rose Staff and aimed. After a deliberate pause, she fired. The chunk of bramble struck Pinkie in the rear, shattering her armor and sending her tumbling along the floor in a pink ball of fur and mane. She landed on her haunches after coming to a stop, but still swayed back and forth from her seated position.

“Pinkie Pie!” Applejack shouted. She quickly rose to her hooves and started to rush toward Pinkie, only to be shot from behind again by Rainbow and her Silver Bow. She collapsed on her stomach again, her Magnus Club clattering away from her.

Pinkie Pie placed her front hooves on the ground to keep herself steady, but still wobbled from one direction to the other. “Come on, Maud,” she said dizzily. “Let’s ride the waterfall again!” Her front hooves gave out, and she landed on her belly with a plop.

“Yeah, she’s fine,” Rainbow said. “A little loopy, but I’m pretty sure that’s normal for her.”

Two shafts of magenta light shone on Pinkie Pie and Applejack, and the two of them vanished.

“Good job, fillies,” Granny Smith said. “But that’s not the end of the trial just yet. I did say only one of you would get that weapon, didn’t I?”

“Hold on, you want us to fight each other?” Rainbow asked.

“That’s right,” Granny Smith said.

“Nope, not happening, Granny,” Rainbow said. “We’re not playing your stupid game anymore. So why don’t you cut the horseapples and give us what you prom–”

Rainbow stopped as she felt the tip of a weapon’s muzzle against her temple.

“Put down your bow,” Fluttershy said.

“Fluttershy,” Rainbow said. “What are you–”

“Rainbow,” Fluttershy insisted.

Rainbow glanced to her side. She could make out Fluttershy in the corner of her eye, holding the Rose Staff to her head. Slowly, she held out her weapon hoof and began to lower her bow. Then she ducked, and with one quick motion, she grasped the barrel of the Rose Staff and yanked it away. The thorns along the staff’s body poked into her foreleg, and she gasped in pain as she pulled the weapon out of Fluttershy’s hoof and tossed it away. “Augh, you had to pick the one staff that move doesn’t work o– Hey!”

Fluttershy grabbed Rainbow’s weapon hoof with one of her hooves. She placed her other hoof against Rainbow’s foreleg, and leveraging her body, pulled the Silver Bow out of Rainbow’s grasp and tossed it to the ground. Rainbow glanced at her weapon, and then turned her eyes to Fluttershy, who returned a glare back at her.

Fluttereshy rushed forward and threw a punch at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow blocked with one hoof, then raised the other foreleg to block a second punch. Grabbing Fluttershy’s foreleg, she pulled her forward, trying to throw her. Fluttershy kept her footing, and with forehooves planted, she kicked back with both hind legs. Rainbow unfurled one of her wings and raised it to block, wincing at the pain from Fluttershy’s buck.

Annoyed, Rainbow threw a punch with one of her own hooves. Fluttershy ducked and rushed to tackle Rainbow to the ground. Rainbow landed on her back, but managed to plant her back hooves on Fluttershy and kick her off. Rainbow rolled back onto her hooves and watched as Fluttershy landed on her back. She then stole a glance at her Silver Bow lying on the ground just feet away.

Fluttershy rolled over and got her hooves under her. She looked up at Rainbow, who was running toward her weapon. Her eyes darted toward her own Rose Staff, which was close by. Scrambling to her hooves, she jumped toward her weapon. Both ponies grabbed their weapons at the same time and pointed them at each other. They glared at each other, each weapon trained on the other pony, but neither of them fired.

“Fluttershy, what the hay?!” Rainbow said.

“Rainbow, please,” Fluttershy said. “Stand down. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Rainbow said. “Aren’t we past all this?”

“You tell me,” Fluttershy said.

“I’m not the one picking a fight this time!”

“You would’ve,” Fluttershy said. “I know you, Rainbow. You would’ve found some excuse to fight me over that weapon. Over the right to fight Discord. Whether it’s for your own ego or something else. But I can’t let you do that. Not this time.”

“What, you want to fight him that bad?”

“I have to,” Fluttershy said. “He and I talked to each other when I was down there yesterday. He doesn’t care, Rainbow!”

“Yeah, no kidding!” Rainbow shot back. “I could’ve told you that!”

“No, it’s more than that,” Fluttershy said. “We’re all just toys to him, for him to play with and throw away whenever he likes. And when he breaks one of us, there are always a million more where that came from. Somepony has to show him that he can’t just treat ponies however he wants, that we matter.”

“That doesn’t have to be you!” Rainbow said. “What if you screw up? What if you don’t make it back?”

“I won’t fail, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said.

“You don’t know that,” Rainbow said. “You know how powerful he is, and we don’t know what kind of weapon Granny Smith is giving us. How do you know it’s not just going to fall apart on you halfway through the battle?”

“And you think you’ll do better?” Fluttershy asked.

“If I go down, at least it’ll just be me!” Rainbow blurted out.

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. She kept her Rose Staff trained on Rainbow, but there was a little more slack in her grip. Rainbow’s grip on her Silver Bow was less steady.

“We’re still connected by the Mirror of Truth, remember?” Rainbow said. “If something happens to you, it affects me. It’s one thing if I take that weapon to fight Discord and lose. At least then, I’ll go down swinging. But if you die fighting him… I don’t want to go out like that.”

Fluttershy took a moment to regard Rainbow Dash. By then, Rainbow had averted her eyes. “I understand, Rainbow,” she said. “But look at me.”

Rainbow looked up. She could see a hint of compassion in Fluttershy’s gaze, but more than that, an unshakeable resolve.

“If I die to Discord, then he gets away with everything,” Fluttershy said. “All the damage he’s done. All the lives he’s destroyed. And I will not let that happen. I promise, Rainbow. I will not fail.”

Rainbow stared at Fluttershy. Then she closed her eyes, smiled, and lowered her weapon. “Alright, Fluttershy,” she said. “You win.” And with that, she threw her weapon away.

Fluttershy lowered her own weapon and smiled. “Thank you, Rainbow,” she said.

“You hear that, Granny?” Rainbow shouted upward. “It’s over.”

“That ain’t good enough,” Granny Smith said. “I need one of you to beat the other to pass this test.”

“Are you deaf?” Rainbow said. “I am not fighting Fluttershy. So either pony up or think of something else. I already told you I’m not playing your game.”

“You ought to learn some manners,” Granny Smith said. “At least Fluttershy and the princess know to respect their elders. But alright. I think I can whip up something.”

A magenta light shone at the foot of the stairs where the throne once stood. Before the light subsided, Celestia stepped forward from it.

“Princess Celestia?” Fluttershy said. “What is she doing here?”

“Isn’t it obvious, Fluttershy?” Celestia said. “I’m here to end you.” She raised her horn, and a sigil appeared above the ground next to her. Then she lowered her horn and fired three bolts of magic at Fluttershy. Fluttershy jumped out on the way, and then looked on at the Goddess of Light.

“No…” Fluttershy murmured. “Not again.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Rainbow said. “You made a copy of Celestia?”

“Were you expecting something else?” Granny Smith said. “I needed something good to test the two of you. Besides, are you sure that Celestia’s just a copy? When’s the last time either of you heard from her?”

“Princess Celestia?” Fluttershy said.

Celestia’s horn glowed, and she fired three more bolts of magic at Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. The sigil next to her fired a shot as well. The two pegasi dodged, but Fluttershy stood still afterward. She then shook her head.

“No, I can’t do this,” Fluttershy said. “I can’t fight her again.”

“Alright, then I will,” Rainbow said. She ran over and picked up her Silver Bow from the floor.

“Rainbow, no!” Fluttershy said. “What if it’s really her?”

“I’m cool either way,” Rainbow said. “I’ve been wanting to do this for a long time.”

Two fireballs issued from Celestia’s horn, one aimed at each pegasus. Fluttershy sidestepped hers, while Rainbow broke into a gallop, running around hers and charging at Celestia. Celestia summoned another three bolts of magic and fired them at Rainbow in quick succession, while the sigil next to her fired a fourth. Rainbow leapt, twirling the Silver Bow in her hoof and deflecting all four projectiles with its limbs, then fired an arrow at the sigil. The sigil broke, and Rainbow went back into her gallop when she hit the ground.

Rainbow swung her Silver Bow at Celestia when she got close. Celestia blocked the strike with one of her golden shoes. Rainbow swung again, but Celestia blocked again with the same shoe. Rainbow separated her bow, catching the second limb in her other hoof. With the first bow limb still clashing against Celestia's shoe, she spun around and sliced at Celestia’s foreleg. Recombining her bow, she slashed at Celestia’s side up to her shoulder and fired an arrow at the side of Celestia’s head.

Celestia snarled. The glow around her horn flared, and the air around her burst into a column of fire and alicorn magic, throwing Rainbow back. Rainbow landed on three hooves, sliding back a few feet. Ignoring the fresh singe marks and probable burns, she glared back at the fiery column. When it subsided, the golden shoe on one of Celestia’s hooves had turned orange and grew almost enough to cover the cut Rainbow had made. An orange peytral adorned with Celestia's cutie mark also covered Celestia’s chest, and the tiara that once sat on her head was replaced with an orange helmet with a ruby just beneath the horn. The sclera of Celestia’s eyes had turned black, and her irises had turned a bright, fiery yellow.

“What the?!” Rainbow shouted. “Hey, Fluttershy! Still think that’s the Goddess of Light? She’s got kind of a Nightmare Moon thing going on!”

“You’ll pay for that!” the alicorn said. She launched three fireballs from her horn one after the other. Rainbow jumped back to dodge the first, then ran around the alicorn to evade the other two.

“Hope you like the surprise,” Granny Smith said. “Rainbow’s been mouthing off about the gods so much, I thought I’d give her a little taste of what the princess would be like if she was everything you hated about them. Haven’t settled on a name just yet, but I was thinking ‘Daybreaker.’”

Rainbow leapt and rolled in midair, dodging a blast from Daybreaker’s horn, and fired another arrow back. Daybreaker dissipated the arrow with a flick of her horn.

“Die already!” Daybreaker said. Two sigils appeared in front of her, one on either side, and she fired a flurry of magical bolts at Rainbow Dash. Rainbow jumped back and spun her Silver Bow in front of her like a pair of propeller blades. Most of the bolts hit her bow and deflected off in various directions, but a few slipped by, pelting her across her body. She landed on her hooves, but bristled at the fresh burns on her chest and legs

“Alright, fine,” Rainbow grunted. “You want to play rough? Let’s play rough. Libra Sponge!”

A red glow began to flicker around Rainbow Dash and her weapon. A white aura radiated off of her as well, trailing from her body movements almost like an afterimage, and she charged at Daybreaker. The two sigils each fired a blast at her. Rainbow leapt, deflected the first blast with her bow, and fired an arrow back at the sigil, but was struck by the second blast. Seemingly unfazed, she hit the ground and kept running, but the white aura that trailed off of her seemed to magnify slightly.

Across the throne room, Fluttershy tiptoed toward the wall. Looking on at the fight between Rainbow and Daybreaker, she aimed her Rose Staff. “Energy Charge,” she said. Her weapon flashed white for a second, and a faint light began to gather around it.

Rainbow swung her weapon at Daybreaker, but the alicorn blocked with her transformed hoof guard. She swung again, this time at the other leg, and put a dent in the golden shoe. Daybreaker’s hoof recoiled, but she rose to her hind legs and attempted to stomp Rainbow. Rainbow rolled around her to dodge. She moved to slash at Daybreaker’s side, but was hit by a shot from the remaining sigil and stumbled. She recovered just as Daybreaker was turning to face her, jumped back, and fired an arrow into Daybreaker’s wing. Daybreaker winced, but fired back with three bolts of magic, each one throwing Rainbow back.

Rainbow hit the ground sliding on her stomach and grimaced. Rising to her hooves again, she noticed that both of Daybreaker’s front hooves now had orange hoof guards on them, and orange armor plates were forming over the wing she had shot with her bow. Gritting her teeth, she broke into another gallop.

The aura around Rainbow and the movements she made swelled with each hit she took, making her and her Silver Bow more fierce. Another sigil had appeared next to Daybreaker, but Rainbow ran around their two shots and kept going. She swung her weapon at Daybreaker, putting a gouge in one of the hoof guards. She swung again, damaging the other hoof guard, then aimed her bow and fired point blank at Daybreaker’s chest. Her shot threw Daybreaker back and left a dent in her peytral.

Enraged, Daybreaker fired a beam of magic at Rainbow. Rainbow rolled to the side and then charged again. She ran to Daybreaker’s other side, skidded on three hooves, and spun her Silver Bow over her head. Her bow’s limbs sliced into Daybreaker’s side and unarmored wing.

Rainbow then separated her weapon into its bladed limbs, but as she moved to plunge them into Daybreaker’s side, an explosion of fire and magic surrounded the alicorn’s body, catapulting Rainbow back. Daybreaker turned her head and fired a beam of magic at Rainbow. The beam struck Rainbow, slamming her into the ground and sending her tumbling as it followed her.

When the beam finally dissipated, Rainbow Dash collapsed in a heap on the floor. The bladed limbs of her weapon had scattered away from her, and the Libra Sponge’s white aura vanished from her body.

Daybreaker turned her attention away from the defeated Rainbow Dash. Armor plating formed over her second wing. Orange hoof guards now covered both of her hind legs, and her mane and tail, previously flowing in Celestia’s pastel colors, now roared in bright flames. She started to turn toward the one other pony in the room when she felt something punch through her body and out the other side. She looked down at her chest, where a hole had been torn into her peytral and the flesh underneath.

Fluttershy stared back at Daybreaker without saying a word. Her Rose Staff was still trained on Daybreaker from across the throne room, a soft glow emanating from the weapon for a moment before finally ceasing.

Daybreaker didn’t move or say another word before a white glow began to spread across her form and through the interior of the throne room. A shaft of magenta light shone on Rainbow Dash, along with two smaller ones on the limbs of her weapon, and all three vanished before the white glow could reach them. Fluttershy lowered her own weapon and watched as the glow spread across the room around her.

* * * * * * * * * *

A dark blue void surrounded Fluttershy as the white glow receded from around her. A square platform made of cold blue marble stretched out before her. She took a wary step forward and looked around, but nothing else stood on the platform or floated beyond it.

“Not bad,” Granny Smith said. “But you’ve still got one trial left.”

“Wait, but that was two, wasn’t it?” Fluttershy asked. “Applejack and Pinkie Pie, and then Daybreaker?”

“Not how it works, dearie,” Granny Smith said. “And even if it did, how’s it fair if Rainbow Dash put in all the hard work and you take all the credit?”

“Um…”

“But sure,” Granny Smith said. “Since you’ve come this far, why don’t I show you what I’ve whipped up?”

The hum of an engine sounded from Fluttershy’s left, and she turned to watch a huge machine covered in gleaming white armor flying above the edge of the island. A pair of what looked like giant, flared shoulderpads jutted out from either side of the machine, with a long, heavy rifle connected to its right arm and a pair of heavy cannons attached to its left. Its lower body and two legs, while still large in their own right, seemed stubby by comparison, or at least folded in. A large golden emblem hovered behind the machine, consisting of an ornate circle with eight star points. Six hollow gaps were spread out across the emblem, with five of them at the star points and one in the center.

“Here it is,” Granny Smith said. “The Great Sacred Treasure.”

“But you said I had one trial left,” Fluttershy said. “Why are you showing this to me… oh no.”

The Great Sacred Treasure turned in Fluttershy’s direction, and the hum of its engine turned into a loud roar. Fluttershy jumped out of the way as the giant mech rocketed across the platform, barely missing her. Fluttershy turned around to see the mech already facing her again. Fluttershy fired at it with her Rose Staff, but the Great Sacred Treasure rolled out of the way of her shot. It then fired a volley of shots from the center of its chest, but Fluttershy rolled to dodge them.

A familiar voice groaned inside Fluttershy’s ear, and Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “Princess Celestia?” she asked. “Are you okay?”

“I’m alright, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “But I’m not sure what happened. I must have been put into some kind of sleep.”

Fluttershy maneuvered around one of four twisters that the Great Sacred Treasure launched from its main body. She fired a charge shot back, putting a small crack in the giant mech’s armor. “Could Granny Smith have done that?” she asked.

“I’m all but certain it was,” Celestia said.

“Sorry about that, princess,” Granny Smith said. “I needed her and Rainbow Dash to fight a version of you for the second test, and I couldn’t have you whispering to her for that.”

“I see,” Celestia said.

“Rainbow got hurt during that last trial,” Fluttershy said. “Is she okay? Is she there with you?”

A pair of green shots fired from the dual cannons on the Great Sacred Treasure’s left arm. The shots hit the ground and traced their own paths toward Fluttershy. She leapt over them and fired another large chunk of bramble at the mech from her staff.

“Nothing a Drink of the Gods won’t heal,” Celestia said. “And yes, she’s back in Skyworld.”

“Thank goodness,” Fluttershy said. The Great Sacred Treasure aimed its long rifle at Fluttershy and fired two flaming shots at her. Fluttershy rolled to the side to dodge and fired back with a blast from her staff. “But Granny Smith can make you fall asleep? From all the way over here?”

“Granny Smith has power beyond imagining,” Celestia said. “There are very few gods and goddesses who aren’t indebted to her just for the weapons she has given them. But she is also very reclusive, and she has a reputation for being capricious. That’s why I was reluctant to ask for her help. It’s also why I’m glad she has taken a liking to you. You are the only one I could trust for this mission.”

“Really?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yes,” Celestia answered. “Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor are both promising, and quite willing, but untested… or at least they were until Rainbow Dash made short work of them. And speaking of Rainbow Dash, I shudder to think of the impression she would have made if I had sent her instead of you.”

“Oh, I know all about that little troublemaker,” Granny Smith said. “It would’ve been a hoot seeing the look on your face if she won the Great Sacred Treasure. Nevertheless, I do hope you know what you’re doing with that one.”

Fluttershy fired another chunk of bramble at the Great Sacred Treasure, putting a few more cracks in its armor. In the blink of an eye, the Great Sacred Treasure vanished. Fluttershy looked on in confusion, but a light hit the corner of her eye a second later. She turned to see the giant mech again, as well as a harsh glow from the barrel of its body’s main cannon.

“Uh-oh,” Fluttershy said.

“Fluttershy, run!” Celestia called out.

Fluttershy affixed the Rose Staff to her side and bolted for the other end of the platform. Just as she heard the cannon fire, she jumped, hitting the ground as an intense light consumed half of the platform behind her. When the light faded away, she stood back up. Smoke rose from the edge of what was left of her platform. Beyond it, the other half of the platform had been completely annihilated. If she had been standing there when the cannon fired, she would have been too.

“That was close,” Fluttershy said.

“I do hope none of y’all still have doubts about the weapon I promised,” Granny Smith said.

“But Granny Smith,” Celestia said. “Aren’t you worried about what might happen if this fell into the wrong hooves?”

“Why, of course I am!” Granny Smith said. “That’s why I’m testing this filly. I need to make sure she can handle a weapon like that.”

The Great Sacred Treasure fired a laser from its body’s main cannon. Fluttershy did a side flip to dodge and shot a chunk of bramble back at it. The giant mech rolled out of the way and aimed its long rifle at her. The rifle charged and shot a large fireball back at her. Fluttershy rolled out of the way, but was caught by the explosion on impact and thrown along the ground.

Fluttershy managed to rise back to her knees, but the giant mech’s dual cannons fired another pair of shots along the ground. She rolled out of the way, rose back on her hooves, and fired back with a charge shot. The shot hit the mech’s body, but its main cannon fired back with a flurry of energy projectiles. Fluttershy did another side hop, dodging in between the barrage of shots, and fired back with another chunk of bramble.

The Great Sacred Treasure’s dual cannons charged, and a black orb launched toward the platform. An energy field expanded from the orb when it hit the ground. Dust and smoke from the destruction of the other half of the platform began to swirl toward the field, and Fluttershy’s hooves slid across the platform as she too was being pulled toward the gravity well. Gritting her teeth, she kept three of her hooves planted, aimed her weapon hoof at the Great Sacred Treasure, and fired.

At once, the gravity well vanished. The Great Sacred Treasure seemed to lurch back from the last piece of bramble fired from Fluttershy’s weapon. The cracks in its armor had spread to one another, and fragments of it looked like they would fall off.

“Alright, alright,” Granny Smith said. “I reckon that’s enough. Congratulations, Fluttershy. You passed.”

Fluttershy lowered her weapon hoof. “Wait, that’s it?” she said. “The Great Sacred Treasure’s ours now?” She then noticed the damage to the mech’s body. “But wait, I don’t think I can use it like that.”

“Oh, don’t you worry about that one,” Granny Smith said. In an instant, the Great Sacred Treasure vanished. “I can throw together a new one in a jiffy. Even give it some better armor. That staff of yours is a mite stronger than what I expected you to bring, but that first one’s armor was never going to hold up against Discord.”

Fluttershy’s body lifted off of the platform. She reached and pawed at the ground for a moment, trying to get back down, but stopped as she floated up higher. In a flash of light, Fluttershy found herself seated and surrounded by metal and machinery. She leaned over her seat and saw the gleaming white metal of the Great Sacred Treasure below her, its armor without a single dent, crack, or blemish. To her right, the mech’s long rifle lay idle and pointed at the ground, and on its left arm, the dual cannons sat at the ready. She was in the pilot seat of the Great Sacred Treasure.

Fluttershy sat back in the Great Sacred Treasure’s seat and looked over at the myriad controls surrounding her. “Um…” she said. “How do I drive a stick shift again?”

The Great Sacred Treasure zoomed across the platform and into the surrounding void, leaving behind only a trail of light. It returned a moment later, for only a split second, leaving another trail of light going in the opposite direction. A third light trail shot over the platform before doing a ninety degree turn straight up, followed by yet another trail aimed at the ground before pulling up at the last second.

“Granny Smith?” Celestia said.

“Yes, princess?” Granny Smith replied.

“That was quite a bit for just “three” trials, wouldn’t you say?” Celestia asked.

“I suppose it was,” Granny Smith said. “But you know what she’s up against. I needed to make sure I had the right pony with the right mind for the job. And I think I did just that. She’s even having a little joyride with the Great Sacred Treasure.”

“She’s doesn’t normally enjoy…” Celestia started. The Great Sacred Treasure appeared once again, crashing head on into the center of the platform before Celestia could finish.

“Oh dear,” both Celestia and Granny Smith said at once.

A ray of yellow light shone down on the Great Sacred Treasure. “I should probably take that,” Celestia said. “Thank you for your aid, Granny Smith.” The Great Sacred Treasure vanished, along with Fluttershy inside, leaving nothing behind but a crater in the platform.

The War's End

Chapter 25: The War’s End

Fluttershy marched down the dark hallway with a sense of determination. She would have broken into a gallop, but she knew what was facing her at the end of the hallway, and while she was determined to end this once and for all, a sense of unease kept her hooves going at little more than a resolute trot. In the darkness, she could see the silhouette of the double doors as she approached the end of the hallway. The doors stood much taller than they normally did, probably a result of Princess Celestia’s magic. It only made sense; it wasn’t just her that would be flying out those doors this time.

Fluttershy came to a stop in front of the two doors. “Great Sacred Treasure, activate!” she called out. Her body slowly spun as her hooves rose off the ground, carried by a magic that she wasn’t quite used to after the first time. An emblem made of golden light appeared directly behind her and spun rapidly, letting out a series of metallic clinks that echoed through the hallway. The emblem came to a stop with a single resounding clank, revealing an ornate circle with eight star points. Five hollow gaps rested outside the perimeter of the circle along five of the star points, while a sixth gap lay in the center, emitting a faint purple glow. All at once, the Great Sacred Treasure materialized underneath Fluttershy, everything from the main body and the shoulder blades to the heavy weapon arms, while Fluttershy was seated in the cockpit.

The pair of massive doors opened before Fluttershy, revealing the vast, foreboding orange skies of the Underworld on the other side. The twin thrusters on the back of the Great Sacred Treasure began to fire, and in the blink of an eye, the machine rocketed forward. The Underworld landscape zoomed beneath Fluttershy as she went, with hills, chasms, plateaus, and rock formations all bleeding together.

In time, she came upon a number of Underworld enemies patrolling the skies: Monoeyes, Wave Anglers, and Petribombers. Fluttershy worked the controls for the Great Sacred Treasure’s weaponry. A large blast shot out of the dual cannons on the mech’s left arm, erupting into a massive fireball when it struck one of the Monoeyes and consuming several others in the vicinity of its explosion. A spray of energy shots fired from the heavy rifle on the mech’s right arm, which homed in on the other enemies ahead.

“The time has finally come, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “This is the final battle. Good luck.”

“Thank you, Princess Celestia,” Fluttershy said. “I’ll do my best.”

“The Forces of Nature are preparing as we speak,” Luna cut in. “They will be ready to mobilize at a moment’s notice, should the need arise.”

“Thank you, Luna,” Celestia said.

“Is that the weapon?” Luna asked.

“Yes,” Celestia said. “Granny Smith called it the Great Sacred Treasure.”

“Remarkable,” Luna said, almost in a hushed tone.

“I think it’s missing a few weapons,” Fluttershy said as she fired a spray of shots at a pair of Belunkas. “The one Granny Smith made me fight had more attacks.”

“Most peculiar,” Luna said. “Tell me, did the previous weapon boast a vast array of projectiles, each inflicting a different status ailment?”

“I don’t recall Fluttershy being struck by any of its weapons, but yes actually,” Celestia said.

“It’s likely for the best,” Luna said. “Fluttershy will need all the firepower she can muster against Discord, and I cannot be certain how effective status ailments would be. Burning him would do no good, and I shudder to think what he might be capable of if afflicted with spinning.”

The ground ahead of Fluttershy erupted in a burst of light and energy. Fluttershy slammed the brakes on the Great Sacred Treasure, her chest and forelegs slamming into the dashboard as the mech came to a sudden halt in front of a deep fissure in the ground below. Rising above the fissure and looming over the Great Sacred Treasure was the Lord of the Underworld himself, arms crossed and a smirk on his face.

“Hello again, Flutters,” Discord said.

Fluttershy pushed herself off of the dashboard with her hooves, sat back up in her seat, and managed a glare back at him. “Discord,” she muttered.

“Come now, Fluttershy,” Discord said, rolling his eyes. “We’ve been over this.”

“Discord!” Fluttershy said through gritted teeth.

“Fluttershy!” Discord spat back.

“Discord!” Celestia said, more forcefully.

“Celestia!” Discord said.

“Discord…” Luna said, sounding almost bored.

“LUNA!” Discord bellowed.

Silence followed. Fluttershy narrowed her eyes, while Discord stood there, his arms still folded and the smirk still on his face. Then Rainbow Dash cut in. “Discord,” she said slowly, as if stifling a yawn.

Discord sneezed. The Great Sacred Treasure flew back, evading Discord as his body doubled over from the force of his own sneeze. A flock of vultures shot out of Discord’s nostrils, let out a few harried squawks between them, and scattered off into the skies.

“Excuse you,” Fluttershy muttered. “But anyway–”

“Now it’s REALLY on!” said both Fluttershy and Discord. Discord wound back his lion’s paw, while Fluttershy kept her hooves at the controls, the Great Sacred Treasure hovering in place as she braced herself.

“On to death!” Discord added as he swung his paw. The Great Sacred Treasure rushed forward, and then rolled underneath his outstretched arm. Fluttershy piloted the mech behind Discord, turned it around, and fired a blast from the mech’s dual cannons. Discord let out a yelp as the blast struck his back just below the shoulder, but kicked back with his goat leg, sending Fluttershy and her mech flying across the landscape.

Fluttershy brought the Great Sacred Treasure to a halt. Seeing Discord’s form off in the distance, she fired the mech’s thrusters and sped back toward him. Discord turned to face her, raised his paw again, and launched a beam of purple energy at her. The Great Sacred Treasure rolled to the side, sailed under the beam as it blasted its way along the ground, and continued on.

“Let me get a closer look at that shiny new toy of yours,” Discord said.

Fluttershy soared over and past Discord, trying to get behind his head, but Discord craned his neck and kept her in his sights. Below, she spotted a swarm of blue hummingbirds, the same color as Discord’s feathered wing, rushing up toward her. She swerved out of their way and fired a spray of shots from her mech’s heavy rifle. Discord blocked with his lion’s paw, grunted as the barrage of fire seared its pale yellow fur, then raised his arms outward and brought them together with a resounding clap. Fluttershy backed the Great Sacred Treasure away, but she and the mech were flung back by the sheer force of his clap.

The Great Sacred Treasure came to a stop, and Fluttershy took a moment to catch her breath. The fight had only just begun, and her body was being rattled around inside the cockpit. She checked the displays in front of her. No alarm sounds, no flashing lights. The Great Sacred Treasure was holding up, even if she was feeling a bit sore. She looked out toward Discord, and could see the remnants of a shockwave from his clap radiating out behind him.

Discord reached behind him, plucked the bat wing from his back, and held it with both his talon and paw. The wing’s webbing grew longer and flowed down, reaching as far down as his knees. He gave Fluttershy a smug grin and waved the wing to his side like a matador’s cape. With her hooves at the controls, Fluttershy rushed forward, firing another blast from the dual cannons as she went. Discord dropped the bat wing and shifted to the side, dodging the Great Sacred Treasure’s fire. The bat wing fluttered in the air for a moment before shriveling away, revealing a herd of bulls behind it, each flying on leathery wings.

In a surge of panic, Fluttershy pulled the Great Sacred Treasure up and to the side, evading a stampede from the flying bulls. She aimed the mech’s heavy rifle and fired another spray of shots at Discord. Discord grimaced as the shots peppered his upper body and neck, then held up his paw to shield himself.

“You can be awfully cute, Fluttershy,” Discord said, forcing a half-smirk. In an instant, his body slithered up, and he soared high above Fluttershy with his paw clenched. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t squash you like a gnat!”

Fluttershy backed the Great Sacred Treasure away just as Discord crashed his fist into the ground. Bits of rock pelted the armor of the Great Sacred Treasure, shot up from the impact of Discord’s fist. Fluttershy hovered around Discord, who now knelt at the center of a vast crater. He tried to rise up, but his right shoulder struggled.

“Drat, my arm is stuck,” Discord said.

Fluttershy fired another blast from the mech’s dual cannons, followed by a spray of shots from the heavy rifle. Discord flinched, but the horn and antler on his head began to spark, and lightning shot up. Fluttershy dodged and kept firing with the mech’s rifle. Suddenly, Discord’s paw popped off, and he rose back up to his full height. Fluttershy pulled the mech back, retreating to a safer distance as he stood, or at least what counted for a safer distance. Discord reached into the stub of his right arm with his talon, and with a hard tug, pulled out a fresh new lion’s paw.

“There, all better,” he said. He then looked up at the Great Sacred Treasure, and another smirk crept across his face. “Flutters, I have something to show you!”

Discord twisted his long serpentine body and wound both arms up. Then he unwound himself and started spinning, kicking up wind and dirt all around himself in a massive red and gray tornado.

“Oh no!” Fluttershy squeaked.

“If you get caught in that twister, it’ll tear the Great Sacred Treasure apart!” Celestia said.

Fluttershy turned the Great Sacred Treasure around and fired its thrusters. The mech struggled against the pull of the tornado’s winds, especially once the tornado moved toward her. Grunting, Fluttershy turned up the mech’s throttle as much as it went. For a moment, the Great Sacred Treasure broke free of the tornado’s winds and put some distance between them. But then Discord began to spin faster, and the tornado bore down on Fluttershy once again. Fluttershy grunted as she pressed even harder on the throttle. It did no good; the Great Sacred Treasure’s thrusters were already working as hard as they could, and the mech came mere feet from the tornado’s winds and the destructive debris it was carrying.

The tornado abruptly subsided as Discord stopped spinning, and before Fluttershy realized, the Great Sacred Treasure rocketed away from Discord. Fluttershy was slammed into the back of her seat by the mech’s acceleration, and then again into the dashboard when she hit the brakes. Catching her breath, she turned the mech around to get a look at Discord again, but the moment he was in her sights, he lunged forward. The golden emblem behind the Great Sacred Treasure began to glow brighter, and when its thrusters fired, the mech rocketed backwards, away from Discord.

“Playing hard to get, are you?” Discord said. Fluttershy yelped as he flew after her, his body undulating through the air as he pursued the fleeing mech. “Good thing I’ve been getting my cardio in!”

“Like watching an alligator swim after its prey…” Luna mused.

Discord lunged at the Great Sacred Treasure, his jaws trying to clamp down on her as he drew closer. Fluttershy kept the throttle up, hoping to put as much distance between her and Discord as she could. She fired a blast from the mech’s dual cannons at him, then a spray of shots from the heavy rifle. The two of them entered a canyon, and Fluttershy noticed its walls rise up on either side of them. She had no way of seeing what was behind her as she went, and the Great Sacred Treasure’s weapons could only fire forward. She hoped that the canyon kept going straight. Even a slight turn, and it was all over.

Discord lunged again, bringing forward both his teeth and his left talon. Fluttershy swerved, taking her hoof off the weapon controls for a moment. When her hoof returned to them, she fired a blast from the mech’s dual cannons. The blast exploded in the side of Discord’s muzzle, sending him off course and crashing face-first into one of the canyon walls. Fluttershy brought the Great Sacred Treasure to a halt. She paused to watch Discord, and when he stayed motionlessly embedded in the rock wall, she brought the mech closer.

“Did I beat him?” she asked.

With some effort, Discord pulled his face out of the canyon wall. “No, I’m fine,” he said. “But I could’ve chipped a tooth.” He then coiled his tail and raised his lower body. “Good thing I didn’t!”

With a quick motion, Discord lashed his tail at the Great Sacred Treasure. Fluttershy yelped as she pulled the mech up, barely getting out of the way. Discord’s tail slashed clean through the canyon wall, digging a deep gouge in the rock face. Fluttershy panted, her heart pounding in her chest as she looked from the rock face back to Discord.

“Oh dear, Fluttershy,” Discord said. “I hope you’re not getting tired. Not when I’m just getting started!” Before Fluttershy could react, Discord shot up into the air, leaving behind ripples and waves in the Underworld skies like a stone splashing into a red-orange lake. “Let’s see if you can keep up!” his voice echoed.

“You can’t run from me, Discord,” Fluttershy said. Her glance shifted to a lever on the left side of the cockpit. She pulled the lever, and the Great Sacred Treasure began to change. The heavy rifle detached from the mech’s right arm and fragmented into a hundred pieces as it fell to the ground. The dual cannons rotated on their arm and pivoted back, joining the thrusters at the Great Sacred Treaure’s back. The massive shoulder blades fanned out and angled back, while the mech’s comparatively stubby legs locked together and folded in, giving the mech a more streamlined form. Finally, a long turret that had been positioned at the back along with the thrusters rotated to the front, extending out in front of the cockpit.

A readout appeared on the dashboard in front of Fluttershy in bright green letters: PURSUIT MODE ENGAGED. With her hooves at the controls, Fluttershy pointed the Great Sacred Treasure up at the sky, where the ripples were still reverberating through the air. In the blink of an eye, the Great Sacred Treasure rocketed upward.

It didn’t take long for the Great Sacred Treasure to catch up to Discord. Discord glanced back as the speeding mech flew in alongside him, and a smug grin crept onto his face. “Why, Fluttershy, I thought I’d left you behind,” he said.

“Like I said, you can’t run from me, Discord!” Fluttershy said. “Not while I have the Great Sacred Treasure!” She hit the weapons controls, and a ring of bright green light shot out from the turret and struck Discord’s body.

“Run from you?” Discord said. “No, I was just going to make a quick stop to decimate a country or two.”

“In the middle of battle?!” Fluttershy said. “Why would you do that?”

“No doubt to replenish his supply of souls,” Luna said.

“Yes, I was hoping to greet Fluttershy on top of a mountain of corpses,” Discord said with a gleeful smile, his arms spread out. A barrage of fire from the Great Sacred Treasure’s turret peppered his serpentine form, and he scowled and crossed his arms. “But I couldn’t even get a pile started with her hot on my heels. What a killjoy.”

“Your hunger for destruction is as boundless as it is callous, Discord,” Celestia said.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Rainbow Dash said. “A mountain of corpses? Seriously?”

Discord uncrossed his arms, and the fur and flesh along his body began to twist and morph. Another head, just like Discord’s own, grew out of his body close to his feathered wing. Two more heads grew, one just below his left arm and another along the forearm of his lion’s paw. Fluttershy grimaced, then swerved as the first new head spat out a missile.

“Are those… face guns?” Fluttershy asked.

“Discord’s face, no less,” Celestia said.

“I’m so glad you noticed!” the head sprouting from Discord’s arm said.

“I want you to remember every detail of this lovely visage,” the head on Discord’s lower body added, then spat out a missile at Fluttershy.

One more head sprouted upside down from Discord’s long neck, earning a raised eyebrow and a frown from the original head. “After all, it’s the last face you’ll ever see!”

Fluttershy shot an energy ring from the Great Sacred Treasure’s turret, which burned through the head that had grown near Discord’s wing. She then fired a stream of shots up his body, first destroying the head under his left arm then the one growing on his right forearm. Another head began to sprout on Discord’s back, just between his shoulders, while the head on Discord’s neck spat a missile at Fluttershy. Fluttershy rolled to dodge, then made her way up Discord’s body. She fired at the head on Discord’s neck, destroying it and earning a wince from the real head. She then turned the Great Sacred Treasure’s turret on the real head, pelting him with its barrage of fire.

Discord let out a pained grunt. The head that had grown out of his back popped like a balloon, while the rest of his body lurched back. He then let out a snarl and glared back at Fluttershy.

“Now, Fluttershy,” Discord said. “That was very naughty of you!”

At once, the fur on Discord’s body stood on end, and red and yellow needles of light shot up from every hair on him. One needle struck the Great Sacred Treasure and exploded, rattling Fluttershy inside the cockpit. Hitting the throttle, Fluttershy flew the mech as fast as it would go, even as the remaining needles homed in and chased after her. She swerved to avoid one needle, but another exploded into the mech’s side. The Great Sacred Treasure went spinning, and collided with yet another needle. All around her, alarms were sounding off inside the cockpit. The Great Sacred Treasure’s turret broke from the front of the craft, and when she checked the dashboard display, it showed one of the mech’s shoulders beginning to come off.

“The Great Sacred Treasure is falling apart!” Fluttershy said.

Regaining control, Fluttershy piloted her mech forward, with the needles still in hot pursuit. One slammed into the mech’s rear, sending it spinning again. The thrusters failed, and the display in front of Fluttershy showed more pieces of the Great Sacred Treasure coming undone.

“Wait, no,” Celestia said. “It’s… changing shape again!”

The remaining needles circled around and surrounded the Great Sacred Treasure. A light shone from the dashboard, filling up the cockpit as the needles converged and struck the Great Sacred Treasure all at once. Each explosion added to the others, quickly consuming the Great Sacred Treasure in an inferno. But when the flames subsided, the Great Sacred Treasure emerged in a new form, completely unscathed. Much of the mech’s plating had been repositioned in front of it, including a set of faulds and tassets. The new form took on an upright, bipedal shape, with the two surviving thrusters positioned at the bottom of its legs and a set of bronze-colored claws at the end of its new arms.

Inside the cockpit, Fluttershy’s seat had molded itself around all four of her legs, leaving her all but standing. The controls on the dashboard had all but disappeared, leaving only the status display and a hoofful of buttons and levers within reach. She moved a foreleg, and though she was met with some resistance by the machinery that surrounded it, she was shocked to see one of the Great Sacred Treasure’s claws move to match her.

The first thing that appeared on the status display were a few words in bright green letters: MECH ARMOR MODE ENGAGED.

“That thing is so awesome!” Rainbow Dash said.

The golden emblem behind the Great Sacred Treasure had moved in front of it as Fluttershy turned to face Discord, who stood scowling at her with arms crossed and tapping an eagle talon against his right forearm.

“You know, you could’ve told me you were dressing up for this,” Discord said. “Good thing I always come prepared.” He grabbed his chest with both arms, lion’s paw and eagle talons digging into his fur. In a quick motion, he seemed to rip off his own pelt, only to reveal a tailcoat tuxedo underneath it. “Like the duds, Fluttershy? I call this my devastation ensemble.”

Energy shots fired from the buttons on Discord’s tailcoat. Fluttershy banked left to dodge, raised her front hooves, and fired back from the Great Sacred Treasure’s claws. Discord’s tie fluttered underneath the coat, rose out, and lashed out at Fluttershy like a striking cobra. Fluttershy ducked underneath and kept firing, destroying three of Discord’s buttons.

“I only wear this for very special occasions,” Discord said. “You know, weddings, armageddons…” He raised an arm and reached toward Fluttershy. A pink Parasprite-shaped cufflink with an open mouth adorned Discord’s suit cuff. It began to suck in air, pulling Fluttershy toward it. Fluttershy tried to pull away, but the Great Sacred Treasure was pelted by shots from the buttons.

Fluttershy aimed her mech’s claws at the Parasprite cufflink and fired. The cufflink shattered, and Fluttershy swerved to dodge another barrage from the tailcoat’s buttons. She fired at the buttons again, destroying another one, when Discord raised his other arm and revealed another Parasprite-shaped cufflink. The second cufflink started to pull in the Great Sacred Treasure, but Fluttershy promptly shredded it with her mech’s weapon fire.

Fluttershy fired at the tailcoat buttons again, destroying another two, when an explosion rocked the air beneath the Great Sacred Treasure. She looked down from the cockpit and saw what looked like a stream of giant pollen grains wafting away from a flower on Discord’s lapel. As she hovered away from the pollen stream, she could swear she saw a white glow coming from beneath the flower. If anything, Fluttershy could swear the glow was coming from underneath the tailcoat.

It then dawned on her. The Lightning Chariot! That glow was where Twilight and Shining Armor pierced Discord’s chest to rescue her the last time she fought him. If that wound was still there, maybe it was a weak point. She aimed at the flower and fired with the Great Sacred Treasure’s claws. Her shots tore through the flower one petal at a time before it fell away. With few buttons left to keep it in place, Discord’s tailcoat began to slide off his shoulder as well, until he caught it with his eagle talon.

“How rude of you, Fluttershy,” Discord said. “Do I ruin your formal wear? Wait, don’t answer that just yet!”

Fluttershy ignored him. With the flower gone, she could see the glow coming from Discord’s chest more clearly. The Great Sacred Treasure’s fire had even torn a hole through Discord’s tailcoat, revealing a bright blue void shining from his chest. Aiming the Great Sacred Treasure’s claws, she fired a barrage of shots into the wound.

Discord let out a pained gasp. He bared his teeth and glared at Fluttershy. “Come here!” he shouted.

With one quick motion, Discord snatched the Great Sacred Treasure out of the air and grasped it tight within his lion’s paw. Fluttershy struggled within the cockpit, but couldn’t move her legs. The machinery she was hooked up to linked her front and hind legs with the arms and legs of the mech. If they couldn’t move, neither could she.

Discord held his paw out in front of him and stared down at Fluttershy. “What a mighty little oak you’ve grown into!” he said. He raised his left arm, the eagle talons splayed out at first, then bent toward each other and meeting at the tips. His wrist then spun madly as he brought his arm toward the Great Sacred Treasure’s armor. “Now let’s drill through the bark and drain the sap!”

Red lights flashed all throughout the cockpit. Alarms sounded and warning messages flooded the display in front of Fluttershy, detailing the damage to the Great Sacred Treasure as Discord bored through its metal plating. Fluttershy tried to move again. She tried the weapons, but none of them responded. Pretty soon, Discord’s talon would break through the armor and reach her. She looked frantically throughout the cockpit for something, anything that could help. At first, all she saw were the warning messages scrolling in front of her. But then, in the corner of her right eye, a blinking light. A side display with three rows of bright green text.

100%
CHARGE COMPLETE
FINAL STRIKE READY

Underneath the text, there was a red button. Her hoof couldn’t reach for it, not while she was hooked up to the machinery. But her wing was still free. She reached out with her wing and hit the button.

In every single mode of the Great Sacred Treasure, there had been a single cannon on the main body of the mech, positioned just beneath the cockpit. Completely unassuming next to the gleaming white armor and heavy weaponry of the Great Sacred Treasure, the cannon hadn’t fired once during the entire battle. In that moment, a massive beam of rainbow light launched forth from the cannon, annihilating every ounce of Discord’s body that it touched. Discord groaned as his lower body, his legs, his wings, and his tail were burned away before he even knew what happened. His arms were spared, as well as everything from the chest up, but it was enough to make him release his grip on the Great Sacred Treasure.

“Yeah, that’s right!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “You’re not half the villain you thought you were!”

“That’s what you think!” Discord said. He cackled as he soared upward, leaving Fluttershy in his wake.

“How did he survive that?!” Fluttershy asked. She watched in disbelief as Discord flew off, then turned her attention back to the cockpit. The alarms had gone silent, but several status messages remained on the screen, and a diagram of the Great Sacred Treasure showed the damage it had taken. One message was flashing red in the center of the display:

MECH ARMOR COMPROMISED
JETTISON RECOMMENDED

Fluttershy reached with her wing and tapped the message on the screen. The broken armor plating fell from the Great Sacred Treasure. The legs fell away too, but the thrusters detached and repositioned themselves behind the mech’s shoulders. Fluttershy looked at the diagram of what was left on the screen. If she squinted her eyes, it looked like a shrunken down version of the Great Sacred Treasure’s first mode. A status message appeared on the display, replacing all of the others: ULTRALIGHT MODE ENGAGED.

The Great Sacred Treasure shot upward, and immediately Fluttershy felt a difference. At least it was still fast. Unencumbered as it was, it might’ve even been more maneuverable than Pursuit Mode. A fiery rift tore through the sky above, and Fluttershy flew up towards it. When she passed through, she was met with another orange sky. It was only the sun setting on the surface world, but between the Underworld and the Chaos Vortex, she was getting tired of orange skies. The ocean lay below her, and as she looked out, she could see a town nestled in between the coastline and some mountains.

“Fluttershy! Behind you!” Luna shouted.

Fluttershy spun around. Even with just his top half, Discord was still imposing as he loomed over both her and the coastline behind her, a smug grin stretched across his face. “Still stalking me, I see,” he said. He clenched his paw and talon, raised his head up, and let out a strained grunt. A blackish-purple mass of scales burst out from below his chest, and in less than a second, grew into a long, slender, draconic tail and a set of hind legs to match.

“What the–?!” Fluttershy said.

“There,” Discord said. “Much better.” He then struck a pose, sticking his right leg out and his arms forward, and a volley of purple energy orbs issued from his arms. The Great Sacred Treasure rushed backward, and Fluttershy fired back, shooting down some of the orbs while landing a few hits on Discord’s body.

“He can do that?!” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Yes, but at great cost,” Luna said. “For a being of Discord’s size and strength, it would take an incredible amount of souls to regenerate his lower body. He cannot keep regrowing lost parts indefinitely.”

“More than that, his new parts haven’t had time to grow in properly,” Celestia said. “They won’t be as strong as his original body. They’ll be more vulnerable.”

“So, what?” Rainbow asked. “We just wait for him to use up every soul in the Underworld before we start doing any real damage?!”

“Rainbow…” Fluttershy murmured. She swerved around another volley of orbs and fired back at Discord.

“And you said that some of those souls are salvageable if the monster they were used to make is destroyed fast enough,” Rainbow went on. “So how do we know he can’t just recycle the same souls he used to heal himself?”

“Rainbow,” Fluttershy muttered, her eyes narrowing.

“And look at the Great Sacred Treasure!” Rainbow said. “That thing’s been losing parts ever since this fight started! How much longer do you think it’ll hold up?”

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy snapped. “You’re not helping!”

“Uh, right. Sorry…” Rainbow said sheepishly. “You’ve got this, Fluttershy!”

“Oh, you sweet, deluded mares,” Discord said as he shook his head, scattering a few more orbs. “You act like you’re the first creatures to ever hack off one of my limbs!”

“What?!” all four mares shouted at once.

“I mean, just look at me!” Discord said, spreading his arms out and releasing more orbs. “Haven’t you ever wondered how I got all these gorgeous body parts? Each and every one of them is a patch job from some upstart who thought they could depose me as Lord of the Underworld. And I’ve been at this for a very long time, so just imagine how many of them there have been! Even the ones who didn’t even lay a scratch.”

Each time Discord spoke, he posed, gesticulated, or even just paced above the ocean’s surface. And with each movement, he sloughed more energy orbs at Fluttershy. “Why, I remember the first one like it was yesterday,” he said. “This horned centaur thing who grew a pants size every time he ate a soul. I had come down to the City of Souls to look into an attack on my Reapers when I saw him guzzling down souls like ale from a tap. Obviously, I couldn’t have that in my realm, so I dealt with him and tossed his soul into the stream with all the others. But the whole ordeal cost me an arm.”

Up in Skyworld, Rainbow Dash felt a hoof on her shoulder. She looked up to see Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor standing over her. Without a word, Twilight threw a glance toward a corridor leading from Celestia’s throne room. Rainbow looked from them back to the ethereal window Celestia had cast with her magic, the one that all four of them had been using to watch the battle between Fluttershy and Discord. She then nodded to the two unicorns and stood up, and the three of them rushed toward the corridor.

“I wish I could say that was the end of the story,” Discord went on. “But if it wasn’t one of you little gods with your petty squabbles or some power hungry buffoon, it was some idiot who thought they could make me answer for the death of someone they cared about. And before, none of them would have even dared try. But with little old me down an arm, they must have seen an easy target. Before I knew it, I lost a leg and both horns too.”

Fluttershy shot down another round of energy orbs and fired back with the Great Sacred Treasure’s claws. If Discord was even a little bothered by it, he wasn’t showing it.

“By then, I was a little worried. About myself, of course, but also about who would rule over the Underworld without me. It’s hard to believe now, even for me, but there was actually a time when I cared about the job. That’s when I decided to take a page from the centaur’s book. If he could get stronger by eating souls, maybe I could fix myself with them. It was either use them for myself or let them fall into the hands of whoever took my place.

“Of course, that didn’t stop anyone from going to war against me,” Discord continued. “But each time one of them took a piece off of me, I could take a few thousand souls and put myself back together. Especially the souls of those who dared defy me in the first place. Serves them right, after all. Before long, I even learned how to mold those souls into troops for my army.”

“If you think your story will earn you any sympathy, you are sorely mistaken,” Celestia said. “There is no excuse for your abuse of power.”

“Oh, please!” Discord said. “Every soul, mortal or divine, comes through the Underworld sooner or later. Your souls are all mine, whether you realize it or not! You’d best remember that with the time you have left. As for you, Fluttershy, just know that you’ll have a special place in my heart when you’re dead. It’s only fair after what you did to the last one.”

Fluttershy gritted her teeth. She swerved away from another group of orbs, then fired two streams of shots from the Great Sacred Treasure’s claws. Discord grimaced as the shots hit his lower body.

“Alright, that’s enough fun for one day,” he said. With a pop, Discord’s body vanished.

“Huh?” Fluttershy said. She looked out over the horizon, then turned the Great Sacred Treasure to check the town behind her, but there was no sign of him. She then turned back toward the ocean, and saw Discord’s head upside-down in front of her. Before she could flinch or let out an “eep,” Discord’s paw and talon clapped down on the Great Sacred Treasure. He uncupped his hands, then flipped and lashed the Great Sacred Treasure with his tail. The Great Sacred Treasure broke apart, and Fluttershy hurtled through the air along with the mech’s broken pieces.

“Oh no, Fluttershy!” Celestia said.

“Looks like your toy isn’t so ‘great’ after all,” Discord said.

Discord put on a big, toothy grin, but then cried out as something slammed into the back of his eagle talon, tearing it clean off. He looked down at the stub of his left arm, then ahead of him to find the Lightning Chariot racing toward Fluttershy. The chariot caught up to Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash grabbed onto Fluttershy’s hoof with her own, while her other hoof held the reins. Fluttershy’s hoof gripped Rainbow’s right back, holding on for dear life as her body practically dangled in the Lightning Chariot’s wake.

Discord snarled. He raised back the stub of his left arm, and the head of a shark burst forth from it to replace his lost eagle talon. “Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something here?!” he said. He struck the Lightning Chariot with a backhand from his new appendage, knocking all four ponies out of the air.

The screams of Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armor, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy all turned to grunts of pain as they hit the ground and tumbled. Pieces of the Great Sacred Treasure crashed into the ground around them, while the Lightning Chariot landed a few feet ahead, the body of the chariot nearly flattening against the ground while the wheels flew off. Groans could be heard from all four ponies as they struggled to rise back to their hooves. As they looked up, they saw Discord looming over them off the coast. He sneered at them, then raised his head as a third eye opened on his head, just between his horn and antler.

“Since you’ve been such a formidable adversary, I’ve saved my deadliest attack just for you!” he said. “I do hope you enjoy it!”

Dark clouds began to gather and swirl above Discord’s head, while the skies themselves darkened to a deep red. Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Shining Armor all exchanged looks of worry, while Twilight kept her eyes on Discord as energy began to pulsate from his third eye. Then she noticed something above him: a break in the clouds, and a bright, golden light shining from it.

“That’s not part of his attack,” she said. “Is it?”

The other three ponies looked up and saw the same thing. “No, that’s…” Fluttershy said. “The Solar Flare spell?”

“Yes,” Celestia said. “Discord is weaker now, thanks to all of you and the Great Sacred Treasure. If I gather enough magic, I can destroy him once and for all with just one spell.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Rainbow Dash said. “You know how long that spell takes to charge! He’s gonna kill us before you get it off. Help us out here!”

“She may not have to,” Luna said.

“You sense it too?” Celestia said.

“What is it?” Twilight asked.

“An outside force, a godlike force,” Celestia said. “I cannot tell if it’s friend or foe. But it seems to be seeking Discord.”

“That’s not a lot to go o—” Shining Armor said.

A shadow fell over the ponies and the town behind them for a fleeting second, stopping Shining Armor mid-sentence, and a massive figure flew over them on great black wings. Lustrous blue barding and a starry mane and tail flashed above them as the figure sailed by, its hooves coming down on Discord’s body and its long, glowing horn aimed down at his third eye. An explosion of fire and magic lit up the horizon, throwing both creatures back. Discord’s now headless body fell backward and crashed into the ocean, while the black figure landed on all four hooves, sending waves crashing against the shore behind her. Only a glowing stub remained of her horn, while orbs of brilliant white light flew off from it a few at a time.

“Nightmare Moon?!” Celestia and Luna said at once.

“But we defeated you!” Celestia said. “Why are you helping us?”

Ignoring the dull, throbbing, almost blinding pain from her broken horn, Nightmare Moon’s eyes narrowed in loathing as she glowered at her ‘master’ and supposed Lord of the Underworld. The master who had kept her armies under-resourced and deprived of troops in her war with the Goddess of Light. The master who had no doubt watched in glee and amusement as she fought a losing battle against her bitter nemesis and that little pet pegasus of hers. The master who had left her to be defeated, to be humiliated, by none other than that same little pegasus. And now he expected her to play the loyal servant to him. She regarded him with one last look of contempt, and then reared up onto her hind legs.

“Discord keeps reviving me, but I won’t play the puppet anymore!” she said. She brought down her front hooves, ready to grind Discord’s body into paste, only for his arms to reach up and catch her front legs in midair. She struggled against his grip, trying to bring her hooves down on him, but he ripped her legs off with one clean motion. Nightmare Moon stumbled back and fell into the water, landing on her back as souls leaked out into the air from the remains of her legs as well as her horn. “No! How dare you?!”

“I am your master, Nightmare Moon, and I will revive you as many times as I desire!” Discord said as he rose back up. An explosion of light and energy burst forth from his neck, and the fiery head of a bearded blue ibex with long, curved back horns sprang up in place of his lost head. “But you’ve worn out your usefulness!”

Discord plunged the shark’s head on his left arm into Nightmare Moon’s chest, its jaws clamping down where Nightmare Moon’s heart would be. Her body began to disappear almost immediately, tens of thousands of souls swarming out of her like embers from a campfire, starting from the wound in her chest, then her head, and finally her wings and hind legs. Many more souls dripped from the rows of teeth on Discord’s arm as he raised it back up. On land, three ponies’ jaws had fallen in stunned silence, while Rainbow Dash, her teeth bared, looked apoplectic.

“Nightmare Moon!” Rainbow said. “You put our lives in the hooves of Nightmare Moon! Are you out of your minds?!”

“I can’t believe he’d do that to her!” Twilight said.

“No honor among Underworld gods, I guess,” Shining Armor said.

“What do we do?” Fluttershy asked.

“We press on!” Luna said. Fluttershy’s wings unfurled as a blue aura flared across them, earning a wide-eyed glance from her. “Powerful though it may have been, the Great Sacred Treasure was but one weapon. We have yet to bring to bear the full weight of our forces against Discord!”

“It may still be salvageable,” Celestia said. “Fluttershy, pick up that cannon.”

Amidst the wreckage of the Great Sacred Treasure rested a long barrel cannon. Bits and chunks of the Great Sacred Treasure’s white armor plating still clung to the body of the cannon, albeit twisted and charred in places, but what caught her eye was a display screen on the side, with a flickering green readout: 11%.

“We’ll help too,” Twilight said, she and her brother standing up with some difficulty. She turned to Shining Armor, who gave her a quick nod. Their horns lit up, and they zipped out toward the ocean, hard light paths streaking through the air in their wake.

Fluttershy reached for the cannon, grabbing onto the closest thing to a hoofhold she could find. She placed her other hoof beneath the cannon for support, and with a few beats of her wings, the power of flight spell carried her up into the air. The cannon was heavy, heavier than any cannon or club she had used in any of her missions, but she held on with both hooves. Off in the distance, Discord turned his new flaming goat head toward Fluttershy, only to be met with a blast in the face from Twilight’s horn as she rushed by. The golden light that had penetrated the clouds above Discord’s head had disappeared, and instead a thin shaft of light shone down on the cannon from above.

“I have a plan, but it will take some time,” Celestia said. “I’m going to channel the magic of my Solar Flare spell to charge the cannon. Once it’s fully charged, let loose!”

Sure enough, she could see the percentage on the display rising: 17%… 18%… Heat radiated from the cannon, and parts of it began to glow where there was no armor plating. Sparks crackled from its body and into the air, and Fluttershy flinched as they flew by her.

“The Forces of Nature are en route to render aid,” Luna said. “But they are too far away. I fear they may not reach you in time.”

Discord raised his lion’s paw, and a beam shot out of his palm at Twilight. The hard light path under Twilight’s hooves sloped down, letting her duck underneath it as she galloped by and fired back with two blasts from her horn. Discord snarled, and a pair of beams shot out of his eyes at her. The path under her hooves twisted, putting itself between her and Discord’s attack as she ran sideways along it. His eye beams cracked the path, and Twilight grimaced as the cracks spread across the path toward her hooves. A sharp impact struck the back of Discord’s left arm as Shining Armor rammed into him, a barrier spell surrounding him. Discord fired back with a beam from his paw, rattling the barrier, Shining Armor, and the hard light path he ran on all at once.

“Everypony spread out!” Shining Armor said. “We need to divide his attention and make sure he can’t line us up!”

Fluttershy glanced back and forth between the battle playing out before her and the display on the cannon: 42%… 43%… Fire erupted along the body of the cannon, just at the base of the barrel. A loud pop and a flash emitted from underneath one of the remaining pieces of plating, which now had a new crack in it. As components of the cannon glowed brighter, Fluttershy could see dents, cracks, and exposed circuits that weren’t visible when she first picked it up. Golden energy seemed to leak and drip away from the glowing parts. There was no telling how much longer the cannon would hold up.

If she was lucky, she would only get one shot.

Off in the distance, Discord was fuming. “I had today all planned out!” he said. “Take my time with your little toy, take it apart piece by piece, and sit back with a hot dog and nachos while Nightmare Moon finished you off!” He backhanded Shining Armor with his shark head arm, shattering his barrier and flinging him off of his hard light path. “My ‘deadliest attack’ wasn’t even meant for you! I was aiming it at the town behind you!” He fired a beam from his shark’s head, shattering the hard light path under Twilight’s hooves and sending her plummeting. He then turned around and fired his eye beams at Fluttershy. “What a pest you are!”

Fluttershy ducked under Discord’s eye beams. Discord began to follow her with his beams, only for them to falter when a blast of electricity hit the back of his head. He turned around and saw Rarity hovering above him, a blue electrical field crackling from her horn to the rest of her body and through the blue scarf around her neck. He fired a beam from his paw, but Rarity zipped across the sky to evade him. Using her horn, she sent bolts of electricity into three nearby clouds. All three clouds struck Discord with lightning all at once. Discord seethed and waved his paw, and all three clouds turned into sheep and plummeted from the air.

Meanwhile, Twilight struggled to get her hooves under her as she fell. She channeled a spell from her horn into her hooves, but her magic fizzled out. Down below, the ocean’s waters were coming up on her fast. She shut her eyes, focused on her magic, and vanished in a flash of magenta light. She reappeared hundreds of feet up in the air. With a little more altitude to work with, she tried her magic again. The hard light path reappeared under her hooves, sloping at a near freefall along with her, and she broke into a gallop. The light path curved ahead of her, becoming less steep as she bled off her falling speed, then sloped back upward as she raced toward Discord. She would’ve breathed a sigh of relief if she wasn’t running at a full gallop.

Shining Armor surveyed the battle as he circled around Discord, his barrier spell back in place again. Fluttershy was keeping out of the fray, holding out while that cannon charged. Good, he thought to himself, at least that was going right. That unicorn Rarity was also taking a few shots at Discord, dividing his attention further. Also good, they needed all the help they could get.

And then there was Twily. He watched her teleport out of the way of one of Discord’s attacks, only to stumble on her own light path when she popped back in. She had never teleported in midrun during a battle before. She’d never had to. They were the two fastest unicorns in the galaxy. Until now, evasive maneuvers had been enough. Until now, his barrier had been enough. He wished he could be there right now, covering her with his barrier spell. He glanced back at Fluttershy and wondered how much time the cannon still needed.

Fluttershy looked on at the three unicorns fighting Discord off, and then at the readout on the cannon. 75%… 76%… She swerved as Discord fired a beam at her from his shark head, then saw Rarity blast him with a lightning bolt. All three of them were barely hanging on. She wouldn’t fare much better. The power of flight couldn’t match Rarity’s lightning speed or the Lightning Chariot unicorns, especially not when she was lugging this heavy cannon. She needed them to hang on. If they lost, it was over.

Her gaze turned from the unicorns to Discord himself. From the furious glare on his new goat head to the shark’s head on his left arm and his draconic lower body. All new body parts, all grown using the souls of dead ponies and creatures. The look in Fluttershy’s eyes hardened. No more, she thought to herself. She was fighting for all creatures living and breathing. She was fighting for all departed souls still hanging in limbo. And last but not least, she was fighting for Princess Celestia, the Goddess of Light. And in all of their names, she would crush the Lord of the Underworld.

Fluttershy regarded Discord one more time, her eyes narrowing to a hard glare. “I won’t let you desecrate another soul,” she muttered under her breath.

The readout on the cannon read 96%. Rarity launched another bolt of lightning at Discord. Discord raised the shark head to block her electricity. His eyes flashed. The lightning bolt arced around and zapped Rarity. Then every cloud nearby let loose a lightning bolt, all striking Rarity at the same time. Rarity froze for a moment, and then fell out of the air.

98%…

Twilight shot another blast at Discord from her horn. Discord raised his lion’s paw and turned his head toward her. Two beams shot from his eyes. Twilight ran up and sailed over the beams, but Discord’s eyes tracked her. With the beams right behind her and gaining, Twilight teleported. Discord snapped the digits on his paw at that exact moment, and Twilight reappeared right in front of Shining Armor, inside his barrier. The two siblings crashed into each other. Their light paths and his barrier flickered out of existence, and both ponies fell out of the sky.

99%…

Discord turned his gaze to Fluttershy.

100%
CHARGE COMPLETE
FINAL STRIKE RE—

“Fluttershy, now!” Luna shouted. “FIRE!”

Fluttershy lifted the cannon and aimed it at Discord. An explosion tore through part of the cannon’s body, blowing off two pieces of plating. Electricity surged along the length of the body, frying some of the exposed circuitry. Fires erupted, followed by another explosion, and two cables running along the side of the cannon melted. Another surge of electricity raced down the barrel, followed by an explosion.

And then the cannon fired.

A massive golden beam of energy issued from the muzzle of the cannon, surrounded by a swirling spiral of rainbow light. Discord gritted his teeth and held out his arms, unleashing all of his might into four beams of magic from his eyes and arms. The beams met in the middle, pushing against each other for less than a second before the Final Strike cannon’s beam forced Discord's attack back. He had no time to think, no time to move or pop out of existence or throw a bit of magic.

The beam struck Discord head on, sending a shockwave across his body. His shark head arm and lower body vaporized instantly. He struggled against the force of the blast, even as its magic bore through his chest and sent iridescent veins through his upper body and arms. Even his flaming goat head, the last part of his body that had been regrown during this fight, was being consumed by the gold and rainbow energy.

“It’s hard to believe, but you actually got me, Fluttershy,” Discord said. “The nerve of you.”

The Final Strike beam pierced through and shot out of Discord’s back. The iridescent veins spread throughout his body and consumed him, while his fiery head was enveloped and snuffed out by the beam’s energy. As the beam’s energy shrunk and eventually dissipated, the remains of Discord’s body broke away and faded into nothing with the gold and rainbow light.

Author's Note

The ending goes on for long enough that I thought it should get its own chapter. It'll be up the following day.

The End...

Even as the cannon’s energy depleted, Fluttershy was still holding the weapon up with both hooves. She panted heavily, a blank expression written on her face as she stared out into the empty horizon. She barely even flinched when another explosion ripped through the coils and cables on the Final Strike cannon. She glanced down at the broken weapon in her hooves, and without thinking about it, she let go. She continued to stare at the cannon as it fell, as one more explosion tore the weapon in two and the two fragments fell to the ocean below. She looked back up at the horizon, her face showing nothing but exhaustion, while a buzzing sound reached her ears from down below. As the seconds wore on, the buzzing became clearer, began to sound like cheering, and was coming from the town behind her.

“We did it,” she said, the emotion slowly returning to her face. “We beat him. We saved every living thing, everywhere!”

She flapped her wings, circled around, and began to fly towards land. She let the cheers of the townsponies wash over her, the weight of the last few days and even the last three years beginning to lighten from her shoulders.

“That may be so,” Luna said, “but we have one problem yet to solve.”

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked.

“The Earth ponies,” Luna said. “Perhaps you might enjoy their adoration, but their cheers mean nothing to me. And though Celestia might say that ponies are closest to the gods, she is far too sentimental for her own good. So what say you, Fluttershy? Why do you care so much about the Earth ponies?”

“It’s not about caring about them, Luna,” Fluttershy said. She looked down at the crowds of cheering ponies in the streets below. For a moment, she thought she saw a few huddled together, worried looks on their faces. “I just don’t want to see anypony get hurt. Sure, Earth ponies can do some awful things. But they also care about each other, just like anypony else. They’ll help each other, often without asking for or expecting anything in return. A lot of their relationships and communities are built on that.”

“You need not explain altruism to me, Fluttershy,” Luna said. “There are plenty of other creatures that exhibit altruistic behaviors. Earth ponies are far from alone in this sense. How does this make them any better?”

“Luna, how many other creatures do you know who believe in the gods, or even pray to them?” Fluttershy asked. “How many other creatures do you know who respect the gods?”

“What difference does that make?” Luna asked. “Do you suggest that only believers deserve protection?”

“Luna, let her enjoy her moment,” Celestia said. “She saved everyone today, gods and mortals alike.”

“Celestia, I will not ignore the threat they pose,” Luna said. “What good is their respect, their prayers? So that they might curry our favor for their selfish ends?”

Fluttershy glanced to her right as Rainbow Dash flew alongside her, a yellow aura bathing her wings and a rainbow contrail behind her. The cheering seemed to double in volume, and Rainbow waved at the crowds with her hoof. She then looked at Fluttershy, who gave her a raised eyebrow. “What?” she asked with a smile and a shrug.

“I would thank you not to ignore me,” Luna groused.

“If it means anything, you make a valid point,” Celestia said. “Earth ponies are simple, selfish creatures who are driven by their own desires. Not so different from us gods, wouldn’t you say?”

“You’re kidding, right?” Rainbow said. “Like anypony could be as selfish as the gods!”

“Consider yourself fortunate that Celestia is the one granting you flight,” Luna said.

“Okay, look,” Rainbow said. “You talked a lot about the awful things Earth ponies do. But I’ve picked up a couple of things about animals from Fluttershy, and you know what? They can be pretty messed up too. They fight and kill each other over food, over turf, over mates. How’s that any better than what ponies do?” She didn’t notice the scowl Fluttershy was giving her at that moment.

“You are oversimplifying the matter,” Luna said. “The wars they wage and the technology they wield bring untold devastation to the world, far greater than the petty squabbles of animals. For the good of all, their destructive potential must be reined in!”

“Then do so, by guiding them,” Celestia said.

There was a pause. “Pardon?” Luna said.

“You heard me,” Celestia said. “If you are so concerned about the harm Earth ponies might cause, then show them a better way. As the Goddess of Nature, you know better than I do that ecosystems change, die out, or spring anew over time. Whatever damage Earth ponies may cause will mend itself, given enough time. Whatever crimes they may commit against nature will eventually prove meaningless.

“But with the right push, they could foster growth and stability in nature far more effectively than any god, due to their innate magic and their reach across the land. You could make great use of the Earth ponies and their gifts, if you could just make peace with them.”

“You once told me that we gods cannot interfere in their affairs as I have,” Luna said. “Would this not be interference?”

“You have already crossed that line, Luna,” Celestia said. “Better a guiding hoof than a smiting horn.”

“Hm,” Luna said. “You have given me much to think about.”

Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor galloped past Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, admiring the town, the coast, and the mountainside from above. Rarity followed alongside them, carried along by her own lightning magic.

“Revel in your victory today, Goddess of Light,” Luna said. “For you know not what turmoil tomorrow may bring.”

“Don’t forget this was your victory too,” Celestia said.

“Alright, challenge accepted,” Rainbow said, looking on at the three unicorns with a smirk. “Come on, Celestia! It’s rainboom time!”

“Rainbow Dash, if that’s what I think it is, I strongly advise against…” Celestia started to say.

Rainbow sped on ahead. Before anypony could utter another word of protest, a vapor cone formed around her, and with another burst of speed, a rainbow shockwave erupted in the immediate vicinity of the three unicorns as she shot past them. Twilight and Shining Armor hurtled through the air for several moments before the spell cast of their hooves kicked in again, and they skidded to a stop on newly reformed light paths. Rarity came to a stop as well, her trajectory quickly arrested by her lightning magic. All three glared at Rainbow Dash, who was flying a lap around the edge of the town, a bright rainbow trail in her wake. They then glanced at Fluttershy, who could only give a sheepish smile.

“Woohoo!” Rainbow shouted from far behind as she finished her lap. She flew in alongside Fluttershy, performing two rolls before matching her flight speed. “That was awesome! Nothing like a sonic rainboom victory lap after beating the Underworld! And I’ll bet the ponies below got a kick out of…” She paused, and her expression changed. “Hold on, why are my wings getting warm?”

“Um…” Fluttershy said, pointing a hoof at Rainbow’s wings.

Rainbow glanced behind her and saw that the aura around her wings had turned from yellow to orange. “What the?!” she said. “Hey, what gives?! You only turned on the power of flight a minute ago!”

“I tried to warn you,” Celestia said. “That stunt you pulled draws too much magic from the power of flight spell. It shortened the length of time you can safely use it.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Rainbow grumbled. “Chrysalis’ magic could handle a sonic rainboom…”

“Regardless,” Celestia said, “You have less than twenty-five seconds to find a place to land.”

“I think I know a good spot,” Fluttershy said, pointing down.

Rainbow followed Fluttershy’s hoof and saw a single tree near a dirt road. Applejack stood near the tree, raising the brim of her Stetson hat to gaze up at them, while Pinkie Pie stood next to her in her armor, minus the helmet, staring awestruck at the still expanding rainbow shockwave and what was left of the ring Rainbow had flown around the town’s perimeter. Rainbow nodded to Fluttershy, and the two made their descent. They touched down on the dirt path in front of the two Earth ponies, the auras around their wings extinguishing the moment their hooves met the earth.

“I take it that was you up there?” Applejack asked.

“Which part?” Rainbow said with a smirk.

“Rainbow Dash, serious question,” Shining Armor said behind them with a flat stare as he and Twilight touched down. “Are you trying to kill us?”

“Honestly, dear,” Rarity said, zipping down and hovering above the road. “We haven’t known each other for very long, but if I had a bit for every time I wondered what’s gotten into you, I’d be on my way to becoming a wealthy mare.”

“Wait, hold on,” Rainbow said. “Were you guys…” She glanced up at her rainbow shockwave, which was beginning to fade. “Whoops, sorry about that. Besides, you’re fine. Nothing the Lightning Chariot unicorns and Luna’s top commander can’t handle, right?”

“I don’t think we can call ourselves that anymore,” Shining Armor said. “Not with what happened to the Chariot.”

“Back up a sec,” Applejack said, narrowing her eyes at Rarity. “You’re one of Luna’s generals?”

“You might say that,” Rarity said. She began to lower herself, but stopped at the sight of the dirt road beneath her. After a pause, she gave a breathless sigh, and touched down on the ground as well. The electrical aura around her horn and body faded away, and she extended a hoof. “Rarity, commander of the Forces of Nature and one of Mistress Luna’s most trusted liaisons for divine affairs.”

Applejack regarded the hoof for a moment before giving Rarity a flat stare.

“She helped us in the battle against Discord,” Fluttershy said. “All three of them did. We would’ve lost without them.”

Applejack gave a slight shrug, then relented. “It’s a pleasure, Ah s’pose,” she said, accepting the hoofshake.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight said, offering her hoof.

“Shining Armor.”

Applejack shook both of their hooves. “Applejack,” she said. “And that right there is Pin…” Applejack turned and saw Pinkie standing under the tree, with a picnic blanket laid out. “Pinkie Pie, we weren’t plannin’ to stay.”

“Oh, come on, Applejack!” Pinkie said. “What’s a little get-together between friends?” She zipped across the grass in front of Twilight and Shining Armor, holding out a pie already cut into slices. “Pie?”

Applejack looked between the pegasi and unicorns while Twilight and Shining Armor each took a slice. “Sure, friends,” she deadpanned. The ponies sat around the picnic blanket and helped themselves to some food. “So what’s this about those three helpin’ you against Discord, Fluttershy? What happened to that weapon Granny Smith promised?”

“It started falling apart halfway through the battle,” Rainbow said, a bite of sandwich in her mouth.

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “Is this the part where you say, ‘Ah told ya so?’”

“Well, no, the weapon was good,” Fluttershy said. “Amazing, even. But… well, it was Discord.”

“What are you doing here anyway?” Rainbow asked.

“The usual,” Applejack said. “Chasin’ a job.”

“Chasing a job?” Twilight asked. She glanced at the Magnus Club next to Applejack, then at Pinkie still in her dark lord armor. “You two are mercenaries?”

“You could say that,” Applejack said. “Used to be an apple farmer, a long time ago. Ah met Pinkie Pie on a rock farm while on a job, and she’s been followin’ me ever since. Couldn’t get rid of her even if Ah tried.” Pinkie gave them a wide, toothy grin.

“What kind of mercenary work, if you don’t mind me asking?” Rarity asked.

“The kind other Earth ponies won’t take on their own,” Applejack said. “Fightin’ off monsters, the Underworld, other gods’ armies.”

“Sounds like dangerous work,” Shining Armor said. “Why not just go back to farming?”

The expression on Applejack’s face quickly soured. Rainbow nudged Shining Armor’s side. “Dead family, killed by the Underworld,” she whispered. “Try not to bring it up.” She glanced back at Applejack, who was now giving her a scowl. “Uh… I mean, nah, she’s fine. Strongest Earth pony you’ll ever meet in your life. Hay, she could probably go toe to toe with most gods if she got close enough.”

“Well, you’ll be delighted to know you won’t have to anymore,” Rarity said. “Discord has been slain, and the Underworld is surely in shambles right now, so you won’t have them to threaten you anymore.”

“What about the Goddess of Nature?” Applejack said.

“Excuse me?” Rarity asked.

“Ah don’t know what you’ve heard about us, but we Earth ponies don’t forget,” Applejack said. “We remember the bomb ya dropped on us three years ago. The war you started. How do Ah know your goddess ain’t gonna go to war with us now?”

Rarity hmphed. “Excuse me, but I’ll have you know that Mistress Luna went to great pains to help fend off the Lord of the Underworld, our common enemy,” she said. “And she’s considering a ceasefire against the Earth ponies, provided that the Earth ponies follow her guidance on coexisting with and stewarding the land.”

“Yeah, that’ll go over well,” Rainbow snarked.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Rarity asked.

“We’re talking about a goddess who dropped a plant nuke on the Earth ponies and tried to start a genocide,” Rainbow said. “Now she’s saying she’ll back down, if Earth ponies do everything she says. What could possibly go wrong?!”

“Ah’m with Rainbow Dash on this one,” Applejack said. “Ah’m not about to listen to a goddess who tried to wipe out my kind not too long ago.”

“I guess things are only just getting started,” Twilight said.

“What do you mean?” Shining Armor asked.

“Well, what Discord said had me thinking,” Twilight said. “He may have turned out evil in the end, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t serve an important role. Souls need to find their final resting place once their hosts die, and someone needs to be there to smooth that process along. If no one’s there to fill that void, there’s no telling what damage it will cause to the celestial balance.”

Pinkie gasped. “You know what that means, right?!” she said. If anypony looked at her at that moment, they would swear she had stars in her eyes.

“… No, what?” Twilight asked.

Pinkie popped in right in front of Twilight’s face. “It means we’re getting a sequel!” she squealed. She hopped back and forth on the dirt road alongside the picnic blanket. “We’re getting a sequel! We’re getting a sequel!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “What’s she talking about?” she asked.

Applejack shrugged. “Ah’m gonna level with ya,” she said. “Half the time, Ah don’t even know.”

The sun began to dip below the horizon. Shining Armor and Twilight’s horns lit, and several rose and magenta colored orbs of light spread out around the road and picnic area.

“It’s gettin’ kind of late,” Applejack said. “Pinkie and Ah were gonna settle into town for the night, before this rest stop and that show ya put on with Discord.”

“I suppose I should return to Mistress Luna as well,” Rarity said. She turned to Twilight and Shining Armor. “What about the two of you? You’re welcome to enjoy Mistress Luna’s hospitality once more.”

“Thanks, but meeting Princess Celestia has been a lifelong dream,” Twilight said. “And if things keep going the way they have been, Shining Armor and I might even get to serve under her.”

“She’ll probably be glad to take you, now that Fluttershy’s retiring,” Rainbow said.

All eyes turned to Fluttershy. “Really?” Applejack asked. “You?”

“Well,” Fluttershy said, looking down at her hooves, “defeating Discord was the last thing I wanted to do. The truth is, these last three years, all these wars, it’s been a lot to handle.”

“At least you get to retire,” Applejack said. “Down here, work’s never over. But maybe with Discord gone, things’ll quiet down a bit. A couple of years back, my brother went missing. Left behind a wife and two foals. Ah’ve been meanin’ to look for him, but between the Underworld, the Forces of Nature, and Celestia all attackin’, Ah really haven’t had the time.”

“You don’t think he bailed on them, do you?” Rainbow asked.

Applejack shook her head. “We Apples don’t walk out on family like that,” she said. “But with how long it’s been, Ah need to find out where he is, what’s happened to him, and who Ah’m gonna make answer for it.”

“I hope you find him,” Fluttershy said.

“Thanks, sugarcube,” Applejack said. “That means a lot.” She turned to Rainbow Dash. “What about you? You’re goin’ to Celestia too?”

Rainbow shrugged. “Might as well,” she said. “I’m not happy about it, but without Chrysalis’ magic, I’ve got nowhere else to go.”

Applejack furrowed her eyebrows. “Chrysalis?” she asked. “The Goddess of Disaster and Calamity?”

“Technically Cadance, but yeah,” Shining Armor said.

“I stole her magic to help me fly a while back,” Rainbow said. “She stole it back. Without it, I need a spell from Celestia to help me fly, same as Fluttershy. Problem is, let the spell run too long, and my wings go up in flames. But that’s going to change.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked.

“I mean I’m going to learn how to fly by myself,” Rainbow said. “Doesn’t matter how long it takes, as long as I never have to count on a god to get me off the ground again.”

“I tried learning how to fly a long time ago, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said. “I never could do it.”

Rainbow shrugged. “I still think you gave up on it too easily,” she said. “But before we all call it a night and you hang up your tunic for good, how about a little match? You know, for old time’s sake?”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened as Rainbow rose to her hooves. “Wait, you and me?” she asked. “But why?”

“Might as well do it now, when you’re still at your best, right?” Rainbow said. “Just one friendly match to settle things between us.”

“But…” Fluttershy said. “You’ve never actually beaten me before. It’s been, what, three times? I don’t really have anything to prove.”

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed. “You see, Fluttershy, now those are fighting words,” she said.

Fluttershy let out an annoyed sigh. “Fine,” she muttered. “But, wait, I didn’t bring a weapon with me.”

“Got you covered!” Rainbow said. She reached into a nearby saddlebag and pulled out the two bladed limbs of the Fortune Bow.

“Ain’t that the one she had when we first met?” Applejack said.

Fluttershy combined the two limbs, then held the bow by its grip. “Why this one?” she asked.

Rainbow shrugged as she pulled out the two limbs of her Silver Bow. “We were kind of in a rush, and it was the only one of yours I could find,” she said. “I thought you could use something if the Great Sacred Treasure got destroyed. Besides, it works out. Same race, same training, same weapon type.”

“Sure,” Fluttershy said, rolling her eyes. “No items, Fox only, Final Destination, right?”

“Wow, how old is that joke?” Rainbow said with a chuckle. She then turned to Twilight and pointed to the other side of the road. “Hey, could we get some light over there? We need more space for this.”

With a light shrug and a flick of their horns’ auras, Twilight and Shining Armor moved a few of their light orbs across the road. Rainbow walked across to a flat patch of grass, with Fluttershy following behind. Rainbow shot a glance back to the other ponies, then turned to Fluttershy and spoke in a hushed tone.

“So you’re really doing this, right?” she asked. “Retiring from missions?”

“Yeah, I am,” Fluttershy said with a nod.

“And what happens if Luna starts causing trouble again?” Rainbow asked. “She pissed you off just as much as Discord ever did, and you heard what everypony said back there. Nopony thinks this truce is gonna last.”

Fluttershy furrowed her eyebrows. “If it’s Luna…” she trailed off. “Then I guess I’ll have to stop her.”

“Yeah, kinda figured,” Rainbow said. She threw another sidelong glance at the other ponies. “That means going up against Rarity. She’s playing nice right now, but I’m pretty sure she still has it out for you after what happened at the Thunder Cloud Temple. Be careful with her, okay?”

Fluttershy threw a glance of her own at the other ponies, Rarity in particular. She noted how far she and Rainbow Dash had walked from the group, and the lower tone in Rainbow’s voice. “I will,” she said. “Is that why you brought me out here for a sparring match? You could’ve just talked to me when we got home.”

“I mean, yeah,” Rainbow said with a half-smirk and a shrug. “but I wanted a rematch too.” She took a few more paces, putting some distance between her and Fluttershy, and turned back around. “You ready?”

Fluttershy nodded to Rainbow Dash, raised her Fortune Bow, and fired an arrow. Rainbow deflected the arrow with a swing of her Silver Bow, then rolled forward, shooting an arrow back. Fluttershy deflected the shot with her own bow and fired back, but Rainbow was already galloping toward her. Rainbow deflected the second arrow and swung her bow at Fluttershy. Fluttershy blocked the swing with her bow, then leapt back to dodge another swing. Rainbow lunged forward and swung again, and Fluttershy parried the blow. Fluttershy blocked another swing from Rainbow’s weapon, then rolled to the side to get some distance. Rainbow aimed her Silver Bow and fired, hitting Fluttershy in the side in midroll.

Fluttershy came out of her sideroll in a heap, wincing from the hit to her side. She started to scramble back to her hooves, but felt something against her throat. She looked up to see Rainbow Dash holding her bow against her. Rainbow lifted back her bow, gave a smirk, and extended a wing. “Best two out of three?” she said.

Fluttershy scowled, but accepted the outstretched wing and lifted herself up. The two gave a quick nod to each other, and Rainbow swung first with a diagonal slash. Fluttershy blocked, and then blocked a second time when Rainbow went for a horizontal swing. Fluttershy separated the Fortune Bow, tossing one of its bladed limbs to her other hoof, and went for a thrust. Rainbow hurriedly parried the blow, then stumbled back as she deflected a slash from Fluttershy’s other bow limb.

Fluttershy swung down with one of her bow’s limbs. Rainbow blocked with her bow, then fired at point blank range. Her shot went past Fluttershy’s head, but it was enough to make Fluttershy flinch and stumble back. Rainbow took the opening, lunging forward and swinging with a vertical slash. Fluttershy shifted her head to dodge the swipe. She recombined her bow, brought one foreleg back down to steady her footing, and parried a horizontal swipe from Rainbow’s weapon.

Rainbow swung her bow again, but Fluttershy blocked again, their weapons locked. Fluttershy struggled as Rainbow pushed against her with her Silver Bow, but then she saw where the bowsight was pointing. She ducked her head just before the Silver Bow fired, its arrow sailing over her. Then she separated her bow, one limb holding back Rainbow’s weapon while the other landed in her other hoof. She thrust with her free hoof, the bladed bow limb stopping at Rainbow’s chest. Rainbow blinked when she felt the weapon’s edge against her chest, and then stepped back from their weapon clash.

“Okay, that was good,” Rainbow said. For a pony who had spent so much time fighting her to prove herself, Fluttershy thought, there was something oddly proud about the smile on Rainbow’s face. “Tiebreaker?”

“In a minute,” Fluttershy panted. She recombined her bow, returned one foreleg to the ground, and took a moment to catch her breath. “You like doing that, don’t you? Firing from up close when you’re clashing weapons? You know the game doesn’t let you do that.”

“You’d be surprised how many enemies forget these things can shoot in the heat of battle,” Rainbow said. “Besides, you know how most bows’ shots get stronger from far away? This one’s the opposite; it's stronger up close. Better for getting up close and personal with enemies.”

“I guess that explains why you use it so much,” Fluttershy said. “I’d think you of all ponies would use a different weapon type, like claws.”

“You know, it’s funny you mention that,” Rainbow said. “This was supposed to be for you.”

Fluttershy cocked her head. “Wait, what?”

“Yeah, Celestia was trying to make you a weapon,” Rainbow said. “Probably because you spent so many missions swapping between different ones.” She glanced over the Silver Bow and gave a light chuckle. “I don’t know what she was thinking. Making you of all ponies a weapon for fighting enemies up close.”

Fluttershy thought for a moment. “That must be what she was doing with that half-finished bow,” she said. “It looked just like yours, but with gold instead of silver. Oh… but if I’m retiring from battles, then…”

“Nah, I wouldn’t worry about it,” Rainbow said. “Twilight’ll probably get it as a hoof-me-down. Knowing how she feels about Celestia, she’ll probably love it.”

“Wait,” Fluttershy said. “If that bow was meant for me, then why do you… you stole it from Princess Celestia, didn’t you?”

Rainbow cracked a smirk and glanced to the side. “Maybe,” she said.

“Woo!” Pinkie Pie shouted. “Go Rainbow Dash!”

“Fluttershy, tan that no-good varmint’s hide!” Applejack shouted.

The two pegasi looked over at the picnic blanket, where the unicorns and Earth ponies were all watching them. “Looks like we’ve got spectators,” Rainbow said, still wearing a smirk. She took a few paces and turned back to face Fluttershy. “Ready for that tiebreaker?”

Fluttershy gave a curt nod. The two raised their bows and fired at the same time. Their arrows collided and canceled each other out, but Rainbow was already charging forward. Fluttershy shot three smaller arrows at her, but Rainbow skidded on three hooves and used her fourth to spin the Silver Bow in front of her like a pair of propeller blades, deflecting each arrow. Once she came to a stop, she leapt off of her three hooves, bounding over Fluttershy’s head. Fluttershy stepped to the side, dodging Rainbow as she brought her bow crashing down. She swung her weapon, but Rainbow quickly brought hers up to block.

Both ponies narrowed their eyes at each other, Fluttershy’s face hardening into a serious expression while Rainbow met her gaze with a cocky smirk. They both swung, their weapons clashing with each other…

* * * * * * * * * *

Night had long since fallen on the coastal Earth pony town that bore witness to Discord’s ultimate demise. Leading away from the town, a dirt road passed by a single tree. The seven ponies that had gathered there had moved on—either to Skyworld, to Luna’s domain, or to the nearest inn in town—and their picnic blanket had been gathered up with them. On the other side of the road, on a flat patch of grass, lay the only evidence of their presence earlier: a pair of feathers, one yellow and one blue. The wind blew across the grass, disturbing the individual blades for a moment, but the two feathers clung stubbornly to the ground. Apart from the wind, all was silent. Until…

“Well I must say, I am impressed,” a voice echoed all around. “Such a teeny little pegasus defeating such a big bad God of the Underworld. Why Flutters, that must make you the most powerful My Little Pony character of all time! I’m actually rather proud of you. Canon Fluttershy would’ve never made it this far. But don’t worry; I’m not going to drag this out for another sixteen chapters. The story really is over… Which is why I’m here to delete it from this site! One… Two… Three… Four…

“Nawww, I’m just messing with the readers,” Discord’s voice continued on. “Settle down, chumps, this story isn’t going anywhere. I mean, I don’t even have a body anymore. Couldn’t delete a story if I wanted to. I’m not even sure I can be resurrected in this state. There’s the real tragedy. This dashing physique, this literally godly body is gone forever. Mares everywhere are no doubt weeping as we speak! ‘All Fluttershy’s fault!’ Oh well, I’ll figure something out. I have what, thirteen more years before Nintendo makes the next sequel? If they ever release one at all. At least the author beat that record.

“Until then, you can always revisit me and other… friends in the previous chapters. You can play out battles over and over again like a favorite book, or a broken record. Oh, and if the mood strikes you, pick up the actual game and play it for yourself. Nintendo still hasn’t ported the thing, but I’m sure it and a 3DS won’t cost you too much… yet. So here’s to Filly Fluttershy: Uprising, my new favorite plagiarism of my new favorite game of all time! At least until the author publishes a sequel. Imagine that, writing his own material!

“Thanks for reading. Discord out!”

The Return of Celestia/Applejack and the Dark Lord

Chapter 1: The Return of Celestia

The sound of hoofbeats echoed throughout a narrow, dimly lit hallway. The source of the sound continued down the length of the hallway, keeping the same hurried pace before finally coming to a stop in front of a pair of white doors. The doors opened outward, and a yellow pegasus pony with a long pink mane stood at the threshold.

“Um, sorry to keep you waiting,” Fluttershy murmured. She approached the edge of the doorway and gazed out through the portal, only to anxiously step back. Dozens of thick white clouds filled the otherwise blue skies on the other side of the doors. Fluttershy’s heart sank as she looked down below the clouds, unable to see the earth below. Her eyes then turned to her left side, where a single-edged sword stayed magically in place just above her wing. The sword’s grip was bent at an angle to the white metallic blade, and while the edge retained its sharpness along the blade’s entire length, the tip of the blade appeared to be fashioned into the barrel of a gun.

Fluttershy took the weapon, called the First Blade, from her side and held it in her right hoof. She spread her wings, and with her remaining three legs, she hopped through the wide open doorway. An aura of yellow light bathed her wings as soon as she passed through the portal, and she propelled herself through the afternoon skies.

“Princess Celestia, can you hear me?” Fluttershy asked.

“I’m right here, Fluttershy,” Celestia said, speaking telepathically to Fluttershy. “But this is not the time to talk. The Underworld Army is invading.”

“Eep!” Fluttershy squeaked as a pair of pink spherical monsters, each with a single blue eye, flew toward her. She looked from one creature to the other, too frightened to even move. The two monsters, called Monoeyes, simply stared back and kept their distance.

“I don’t think staring at them will accomplish anything,” Celestia chided. “You have a weapon, don’t you?”

“Oh, of course,” Fluttershy said. Several more Monoeyes flew in front of her by the time she aimed the First Blade. A powerful blast of energy fired from the tip of the blade, killing three Monoeyes. Fluttershy fired a few smaller shots to kill each of the remaining enemies. “You said these are Underworld troops. Does that mean Nightmare Moon has been…”

“Resurrected, yes,” Celestia said. “Though the Goddess of Darkness was defeated long ago, she’s back now. And as the Goddess of Light, it’s my duty to protect the surface ponies from her.”

Suddenly, the skies around Fluttershy turned a deep ominous red. Fluttershy slowed to a stop and surveyed the skies anxiously. Before long, a massive figure rose from the now dark clouds. The figure, now towering over Fluttershy, took the form of a gigantic black alicorn with a starry blue mane, cyan eyes, and several pieces of pale blue armor on its body. The alicorn glanced down at Fluttershy, who had frozen in midair and turned pale at the sight of her.

“Hello, Celestia,” Nightmare Moon said. As she spoke, a number of Monoeyes rose from the clouds around her. “And this is the filly you sent to crash my homecoming party. Fluttershy, is it?”

“This invasion is just a party to you, Nightmare Moon?” Celestia said.

“What better way to celebrate my return than with a festive little bloodbath,” Nightmare Moon said. “After all, I have been gone for a thousand years.” As soon as she finished speaking, Nightmare Moon’s body faded away, and the skies returned to normal. The monsters, however, did not disappear. Instead, they flew back down through the clouds.

“They’re moving their attack to the ground!” Fluttershy said.

“Then so are we!” Celestia said.

The aura around Fluttershy’s wings intensified. Her body tilted up, pulling her into a backward loop, and before she knew it she flew straight down into the clouds. The wind whipped through her mane and coat as she made her descent. When she looked down, she could barely see a few scattered lakes and grassy hills below, all steadily becoming clearer and closer to her. Her heart was racing, but after a while, she noticed the steady rate of her descent. She didn’t chance a look at her sides, but she could feel her wings controlling her flight in spite of gravity. For a moment, a smile crept on Fluttershy’s face “I can’t believe it,” she said. “I’m actually flying!”

“The power of flight is my gift to you,” Celestia said. “I’ll control your route so you can focus on battle. But I can only maintain this power for five minutes at a time. After that, your wings will burn up and you’ll fall.”

“Wait, my wings will burn up?!”

“You have nothing to worry about,” Celestia said. “I’ll make sure to set you on the ground before that happens. From there, you’ll have to continue fighting on land.”

“Oh. That’s a relief,” Fluttershy said. “Thank you, princess. You have no idea what it’s like to be a pegasus who can’t fly on her own.”

Fluttershy’s flight path finally leveled out, and she continued to fly at a constant altitude over the land. Unfortunately, several Underworld enemies already surrounded her, all going in the same direction she was. On the ground were several giant froglike monsters, each with a single large eye, a pair of wings, but no front legs. Monoeyes floated above the ground, as well as an orange, almost spherical cephalopod creature. The aerial monsters quickly spotted Fluttershy, and the orange cephalopod, called an Octos, spat out a large ring of smoke at her. Fluttershy flinched at the oncoming ring, though because of its large size, the ring simply passed harmlessly around her.

“Focus, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “If we were done here, I would have extracted you by now.”

Fluttershy swerved left to dodge several blasts from the Monoeyes. However, one of their shots managed to strike her chest. Fluttershy grunted in pain and placed her free hoof on the wounded area. She fired back with her own weapon, taking out several with a powerful blast and killing the rest with a stream of smaller shots. After killing the last enemy, one of the froglike Kerons, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“There’s an earth pony town up ahead,” Celestia said. “That is your destination.”

Fluttershy continued to fly over a flat stretch of land. A mountain range stood at the other end of the plain, obstructing any view she might have had of a town up ahead. What she saw instead was a group of Monoeyes hover above the peaks and disappear on the other side of the mountains. “Now they’re attacking the town?” Fluttershy said. “This isn’t right!”

“The earth ponies need your help,” Celestia said. “I’d better get you over there.”

The aura around Fluttershy’s wings intensified. Her wings began to beat faster, and she immediately accelerated across the plain. Her flight path tilted up, carrying her above the mountains and over a small town on the other side. Plumes of smoke rose from several places within the town. Underworld monsters hovered over the streets, occasionally attacking the nearby buildings and structures. But as Fluttershy soared above the town, she began to hear shouting and cheering. The jubilant cries rose in volume, loud enough for Fluttershy to hear them clearly. Though she could barely see how many ponies there were, she realized that there had to be a lot of them.

“Um, Celestia?” Fluttershy asked nervously. “I don’t know how I feel about all this.”

“Are you referring to the Underworld troops or the hundreds of ponies gazing up at you?” Celestia asked.

“What?!” Fluttershy said, her face turning bright red. She turned her attention back to the earth ponies on the ground, and her hooves moved across her body to cover certain areas.

“Not to worry,” Celestia said. “Those ponies are cheering for the arrival of their Goddess of Light, not just you. Despite the Underworld invasion, the earth ponies haven’t lost hope. It’s our duty to protect them. Prepare for land battle, Fluttershy.”

“O-Okay,” Fluttershy said, “but I’d really like something to wear the next time you send me on a mission. Maybe a tunic, if it’s not too much trouble.”

Fluttershy angled left as she began her descent toward the town. Her wings guided her toward one of the larger streets, one that cut through the middle of the town. Several Underworld troops were already attacking the street, but rather than landing amidst them, she diverted away to an empty side alley.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy hovered above the ground for a second before gently touching down on three of her hooves. Several houses stood in a circle around her, forming a dead end at the end of the alley. The yellow aura that had enveloped Fluttershy’s wings since she first took flight disappeared, and her wings folded neatly at her sides. Still holding the First Blade in her right hoof, she brought the weapon to her left side. The blade held in place at her side, just above her left wing, and she placed her fourth hoof firmly on the ground. Taking her first few steps on solid ground, Fluttershy headed out of the alleyway.

A small fountain stood further up at the center of the main street, marking the area as a town square. Two enormous stone staircases lay at the far end of the square, behind the fountain. At the top of the stairs, sitting at the town’s highest point, was a large circular arena. Fluttershy stepped out of the alley and onto the main street, only to stop in her tracks. Several Underworld monsters roamed the square, some attacking while others just pacing around, as if on patrol. Four of the monsters, large blue serpents with feathery white wings, turned and slithered toward Fluttershy. Fluttershy stepped backward, looking from one monster to the next.

“Fluttershy,” Celestia said. Her tone was calm and gentle, yet betrayed a tinge of impatience. “You’re here to help the townsfolk, remember?”

Oh, um…” Fluttershy stammered. The grip of her blade touched against her left shoulder, reminding her that it was still there. “R-Right.” She grabbed her weapon, aimed at the serpents, firing at one of them. Her leg shook as she aimed from one monster to the next, but a few shots from her blade were enough to take out the serpents one by one.

Several Monoeyes were grouped around the fountain, along with more of the winged serpents. Fluttershy stepped awkwardly toward the enemies on three of her legs, with the fourth leg still holding onto her blade. She shot at the Monoeyes first, taking out the first three with a single blast from her weapon. The attack caught the attention of the remaining monsters, and one of the Monoeyes fired back. Fluttershy jumped to the side, almost stumbling on her three hooves, but barely avoiding the attack.

Another blast from the First Blade managed to take out the last two Monoeyes. But the serpent monsters, called Shemums, were still moving toward her. If anything, there seemed to be more of them than earlier. Fluttershy fired a stream of smaller shots at the creatures. But even though she quickly killed five of them, more kept coming. She looked past the approaching Shemums and to the right of the fountain, where she saw two more emerging from a large vase.

“You won’t be able to damage that vase from a distance,” Celestia said. “You will have to use your weapon from up close. Alternatively, you could use that grenade in front of your hooves.”

Fluttershy looked down at her hooves, one of which was touching a small round object. The object was spherical, gold in color, with a thick metal ring around it. “What’s a grenade like this doing here in the middle of the street?” she asked.

“I’m not entirely certain myself,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy fired at the oncoming Shemums again, taking out six of the closest ones to her. Setting the First Blade on the ground, she then lifted the grenade into her hoof. She threw the grenade, hurling it over the other Shemums and toward the vase. Another one of the serpents was climbing out of vase when the grenade hit the ground just two feet away, detonating on impact. Several more were caught in the resulting blast. The explosion was small, but when it subsided a second later, there was no trace left of the vase. Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief and picked up her blade, holding it in her hoof again. Seeing three surviving Shemums still approaching her, she aimed the tip of the blade at them.

Even with the fountain clear of enemies, more Underworld troops were spread out in nearby areas of the town. Several were clustered in groups at the far end of the square and along the stairs leading up. Fluttershy moved forward slowly, her grip tightening on her weapon while three of her legs carried her. She left the fountain behind her, but something else in the square caught her attention. To her right stood a small, arched wooden door. The door had a circular emblem placed on it with five hearts going around it and a skull at the bottom.

“What is that?” Fluttershy asked.

“An intensity gate,” Celestia said. “These only open during certain intensity, or difficulty, levels. I would elaborate more, but this isn’t the best place to explain gameplay.”

“Should we be talking about that at all?” Fluttershy asked.

“I don’t see any reason not to,” Celestia said. “After all, the game frequently breaks the fourth wall. Nevertheless, the gate won’t open at this time. Even if it did, I don’t sense anything pertinent behind it.”

Stepping back from the intensity gate, Fluttershy continued toward the end of the square. For a moment, she wondered why something like an intensity gate would be in the middle of an earth pony town to begin with, much less one that only been attacked minutes ago, but brushed it off as she continued on. As she approached the large sets of stairs at the end of the square, her attention shifted toward the coliseum at the top. She looked from the coliseum down to the groups of Underworld enemies leading up to it. Most of the enemies were ground troops. Their heads and bodies took the appearance of skulls with black crossbones marks on their foreheads. Each one had a single red eye on its chest and short, stubby purple tentacles as limbs. Fluttershy recognized the creatures as Skuttlers, and as she drew closer to the first group, she aimed the tip of her weapon at them.

The skies above turned a deep shade of red, casting an ominous glow over the entire town. Fluttershy stopped in her tracks, still keeping her weapon aimed forward. But before she could question the change in scenery, a massive ball of flames suddenly flew above her head. The ball crashed into the ground only a few feet from where she stood. Fluttershy stumbled back from the impact. She made it a few steps, but her back hooves lost their footing and she fell on her haunches. Meanwhile, the fireball bounced off the ground and leapt forward. It landed several feet away with a heavy crash, this time landing in the midst of a group of Skuttlers. The fireball bounced again, smashing into another group of Skuttlers on the stairs. It made another leap up the stairs, and then another, and then another, each time landing explosively in the middle of a few Underworld forces. Finally it reached the coliseum’s front entrance at the top. There it made one last higher leap, launching itself over the coliseum walls and disappearing behind them.

Meanwhile, Fluttershy was still on her haunches, staring up at the coliseum. Her front hoof still gripped the First Blade, albeit shakily. “Wh-What was that?” she stammered.

“Nightmare Moon,” Celestia said. “She’s released an evil beast in the coliseum.”

Another loud crash sounded from behind the coliseum walls, and flames briefly erupted from within the arena. Fluttershy stood back up, still gazing anxiously at the coliseum. “And I have to go up there, don’t I?” she asked. Without waiting for an answer, or even getting one, she took the first tentative steps toward the coliseum. She quickly reached the foot of the stairs and began making her way up.

* * * * * * * * * *

Within the walls of the coliseum, at the town’s highest point of elevation, Fluttershy stepped into the center of the arena. On the other side of the arena, an enormous black dog stood on the seats within the spectator’s stands. It turned toward Fluttershy with its six eyes, two on each of its separate heads. Three separate sets of jaws were bared at her, two of which uttered low growls.

“Cerberus!” Fluttershy said.

“The Underworld’s faithful watchdog,” Celestia said.

Cerberus leapt from its position in the spectator stands, landing in the center of the arena with Fluttershy. All three of its heads growled at her, this time more loudly and with much more ferocity.

“Make sure to avoid Cerberus’ flames,” Celestia said, “And be careful when he…” Celestia stopped short and blinked when she took another look at the battlefield. Within only a few seconds, Cerberus was lying on its back, enjoying a belly rub from Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, what are you doing?”

“Who’s the cute widdle three-headed dog?” Fluttershy said. “Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy?” Fluttershy continued to vigorously rub Cerberus’ belly, her First Blade secured to her side and all but forgotten as the three-headed dog put up little to no fight.

Back in Skyworld, Celestia watched in disbelief as the recently-promoted captain of her army pacified one of Nightmare Moon’s fiercest monsters. “Fluttershy, you are going to put Cerberus down, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Are you sure I still have to?” Fluttershy said. “I mean, look at him. He’s just a big furry guy who got out of his yard… isn’t he?” Fluttershy turned toward the sky, where Nightmare Moon’s visage could be seen glaring silently and contemptuously at the scene in the coliseum. She frowned at the image, even as she continued working her hooves across Cerberus’ belly.

“To you perhaps,” Celestia said. “But Cerberus is a creature of the Underworld. If you leave him alone here, what’s there to stop him from resuming his rampage?”

Fluttershy’s hooves stopped, and she looked down at the three-headed dog. “I’m not sure I can go through with that,” she murmured.

“I understand,” Celestia said. “And that’s why you won’t have to do this yourself.”

Yellow light shone down on Fluttershy from above. A sudden weightlessness took over her body as she was bathed in the light, and she rose several inches above Cerberus. Fluttershy looked up at the sky, where she saw the ray of light shining through a larger, harsher, yellow glow in the clouds. She frowned when she realized that the glow was directly overhead and looked back at Cerberus.

“Let’s return for now,” Celestia added. “This was just our first step in defeating Nightmare Moon.”

A second later, Fluttershy was quickly carried up, taking her away from the battlefield and back home.

Chapter 2: Applejack and the Dark Lord

For the second time in the last few days, Fluttershy found herself galloping through a narrow, dimly lit hallway. This time, she had opted to get dressed before going on her mission. A white tunic covered the length of her body, with holes in the sides for her wings to fit through, and she wore a gold laurel crown in her mane. She reached the end of the hallway, where a pair of double doors swung open.

“And we’re off,” Fluttershy muttered. She jumped through the open doorway, spreading her wings as she passed through. A yellow light flowed through her wings, and with a few strong beats of her wings, she was soaring through the air. But before she could get more than a few seconds past the portal, a bolt of lightning shot past on her right, only a couple of feet from her. Fluttershy cringed, but after a second, she noticed flashes of light all around her. When she looked around, she saw masses of dark clouds all over the sky, both above and below her, with lightning arcing between them almost constantly. “It’s a little stormy, isn’t it?” she squeaked.

“Yes, but your next mission can’t wait,” Celestia said. “You must defeat Dark Lord Pinkamena.”

“Um, dark lord?” Fluttershy said. “Aren’t there already a lot of those?”

“She’s earned it.” Celestia said. “She is one of Nightmare Moon’s top generals. Many of Nightmare Moon’s forces are coming from Pinkamena’s castle. An earth pony army has gone to fight her, but I don’t know how long they will last.”

“And so you need me to defeat the dark lord?” Fluttershy murmured.

“Yes, preferably as soon as possible,” Celestia said. “And remember that this is a dark lord of the Underworld Army. Do not let your guard down.”

Another bolt of lightning flashed nearby. Fluttershy flinched, though with the magic coursing through her wings, she continued her course through the air. “I wasn’t planning to,” she squeaked after opening her eyes again. Out of the corner of her vision, several Monoeyes emerged from one of the storm clouds. “I have a question though,” she said. “Wasn’t this a separate chapter in the video game? Why am I doing this all in the same chapter?”

“The author is planning a joke that won’t pay off for about eighteen chapters,” Celestia said. “I don’t understand it either.”

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning flashed directly in front of Fluttershy, barely a foot away. Fluttershy came to a stop in midair. She cringed and brought her forelegs up to her face. Two more streaks of lightning flashed behind her, frightening her even more. “Maybe we should take a safer path to Pinkamena’s castle?” she whimpered.

“Agreed,” Celestia said. “I’d best get you out of there.”

Fluttershy’s body angled down toward a small gap in the clouds. She caught a glimpse of several Monoeyes being electrocuted in the storm before beginning her descent and disappearing into the thunderclouds. Almost immediately, she began to notice a difference in the storm activity. Light flashed briefly and intermittently behind several patches of cloud, accompanied by the loud rumbling of thunder. The flashes grew less frequent as Fluttershy continued her descent, eventually coming to a complete stop.

“Whew, much better,” Fluttershy sighed in relief.

“You still have to watch for Underworld troops,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy looked behind her, where she saw six large black bugs diving after her. The bugs, called Shrips, had long metal blade extending from their faces like beaks. As they flew after Fluttershy, the joints between their wings and their heads unhinged, causing their heads and blades to spin wildly. Fluttershy tilted her head under her and aimed her right hoof at the Shrips. Attached to her right foreleg was the Fortune Bow, a stringless pink bow with two bladed metal limbs connected by a dark brown grip. Fluttershy fired her bow, taking out two of the Shrips with an arrow made of bright yellow light. She launched several smaller light arrows in quick succession, shooting down the remaining Shrips one by one.

Fluttershy looked back down again, only to see four X-shaped enemies below her. Two of the enemies, called Gyrazers, began spinning rapidly and fired a stream of energy shots at her . Fluttershy twisted left to dodge, though her hind leg was grazed by the incoming fire, singing her coat and leaving a small energy burn on her leg. She winced, but aimed her bow at one of the Gyrazers and fired an arrow back.

After shooting down the last few enemies, Fluttershy eventually emerged from the thick cloud cover. She pulled up out of her descent, and her flight path continued at a steady altitude over the land. Several mountains lay spread out across the land in all directions. What little flat land there remained between these mountains was fractured by numerous deep fissures in the ground. As Fluttershy looked over the rough terrain, she noticed two beige Underworld monsters with black dorsal and tail fins floating ahead of her. The monsters, which she recognized as Wave Anglers, had widened heads with eyes spaced far apart, much like that of a hammerhead shark.

“I can’t believe the earth pony army made it across these mountains on hoof,” Fluttershy said. She ascended a few extra feet to avoid a blade of energy fired by one of the Wave Anglers.

“Not to mention the adverse weather and Underworld attacks they must have endured,” Celestia added. “You have to admire their tenacity.”

Fluttershy dove a few feet to avoid another blade of energy. She aimed her bow at one of the Wave Anglers and fired, killing it with a single powerful arrow. “It’s a good thing I can fly over all of this,” she said.

“Do I detect a note of smugness in your voice?” Celestia asked, her tone almost teasing.

“Oh, um… no, no, no!” Fluttershy said, somewhat panicked. “I’m just really happy I can fly.” For a moment she had been distracted from her surroundings by Celestia’s apparent reproach. When she finally paid attention again, she frantically moved to her left, barely avoiding another attack from the Wave Angler.

“Good, because you shouldn’t be gloating,” Celestia said. “Especially since you’ll be entering the dark lord’s castle on your own.”

“Don’t remind me,” Fluttershy murmured.

After shooting down the other Wave Angler, Fluttershy continued along her flight path, soaring over the mountains and deep valleys. She soon reached a deep chasm in the earth amidst the low, jagged peaks and fragmented plateaus. Guided by Celestia’s magic, she dove into the chasm and entered a deep underground cavern.

Because of the dark, overcast skies outside, very little light entered the cavern through the cracks and openings in its ceiling. Fluttershy slowly made her way through the cavern, relying mainly on a blue luminescent moss growing on stalactites and stalagmites as a light source. Two Octos emerged from the shadows along with a new group of enemies. The creatures, called Miks, had no eyes, and their green, spherical bodies consisted only of a mouth with large, powerful jaws.

Fluttershy watched nervously as the Underworld troops moved to surround her. She held up her foreleg, aiming her bow at one of the Octos, and fired. Her arrow pierced the Octos’ body, along with two of the Miks floating behind it. Suddenly, she felt herself being pulled up several feet. A long, slender tongue appeared just below her hooves, barely missing her as it lashed at the air. Fluttershy turned around and saw one of the Miks floating behind her, now drawing its elastic tongue back into its mouth. She fired an arrow at the Mik, only for her wings to pull her abruptly away a second time.

With the power of flight controlling her wings, Fluttershy shot past the remaining enemies. She continued to fly through the cavern, weaving past stalactites and other rock formations as she went. Behind her, the Miks and one Octos hovered after her in pursuit. Ahead of her, a second group of Miks appeared from behind a few stalactites. One of the Miks extended its tongue and tired to swat Fluttershy from a distance, while another spat out a blast of energy at her. Fluttershy’s wings gave a strong, sharp flap, propelling her a few feet up and over the attacks. She shot an arrow at the group, piercing through two of the Miks and opening a gap in between the others. Her body angled down toward the gap, and with her wings stretched, she pulled into a dive. Fluttershy rushed past the second group of Underworld troops, and with a few quick beats of her wings, she pulled out of her dive and continued through the cavern. Looking back behind her, she saw both groups of enemies chasing after her. She pointed her right foreleg back, aiming the Fortune Bow, and fired several arrows back at them. Three Miks were shot down, but before she had the chance to see it, her flight path tilted upward and she began to make an ascent toward a light-filled opening in the cavern ceiling.

Muted gray light filled Fluttershy’s vision as she emerged from the darkness of the cavern and found herself flying in the middle of a narrow valley. She turned her head back toward the opening she had emerged from. Nothing else came out of the cavern entrance after her, even as she put it further behind her. Fluttershy turned away from the entrance and let out a deep, audible sigh of relief. “Could you give me a heads up the next time you do any of that?” she pleaded.

“That may be sooner than you realize,” Celestia said. “We still haven’t reached the dark lord’s castle.” Using her magic, she guided Fluttershy’s through the valley, sending her on a right turn when the trench split into two directions. “Fluttershy, behind you!”

“Huh?” Fluttershy turned her head back again. What she saw was a massive green whale big enough to take up the entire width of the trench flying after her. "Eep!”

The monster, called a Belunka, opened its enormous maw as it lurched after Fluttershy. Fluttershy felt her wings beat harder, pushing her away from the behemoth before it could try to devour her. As the power of flight worked to keep enough distance between the two, Fluttershy looked back at the creature. The Belunka continued after her, flapping its massive fins to stay in the air. However, it did not try to devour Fluttershy a second time, nor was it actually attacking her itself. Instead, it opened its mouth again, and four Monoeyes and one Mik flew out.

While the Belunka lagged behind its dispatched troops, three of the Monoeyes each fired an energy blast from their eyes at Fluttershy. Fluttershy banked left to evade, and then shot a few arrows back. Despite her frantic, unfocused aim, her arrows’ trajectory altered as they approached their targets, managing to hit two of the Monoeyes and the one Mik. Fluttershy continued down the trench, making several turns along its bends and twists. The Underworld forces kept their pursuit, even when the valley occasionally split into two different directions. The Belunka opened its maw again, this time releasing two Shrips.

After making another turn, Fluttershy came across a group of rock formations that extended across and blocked much of the valley. She dove into a gap between the rocks just large enough for her to slip through. A loud crash sounded behind her barely a few seconds later, along with some small crumbling noises. Fluttershy turned her head back to look, making certain that neither the Belunka nor its troops would be chasing after her anymore. She breathed another heavy sigh of relief, and before long, she reached a rocky plain at the end of the valley.

“Pinkamena’s castle is up ahead,” Celestia said.

The moon shone visibly in the clear night sky, casting a pale yellow light over a formidable gray castle at the far end of the plain. Before the castle, Fluttershy noticed a battle taking place between the Underworld and earth pony armies. The earth ponies clashed against Underworld ground forces on the front lines, but seemed to be making very little progress. Their efforts were further hindered by aerial Underworld troops consisting of Monoeyes, Miks and Gyrazers shooting at them from above.

“The earth ponies won’t make it to the castle with the Underworld in their way,” Fluttershy said. “They need our help!” She aimed the Fortune Bow at a small group of Gyrazers hovering over the battlefield.

“Normally I’d agree with you, but…” Celestia trailed off.

“What is it?” Fluttershy asked. She shot down four Gyrazers with her bow, and continued to soar over the ongoing fighting.

“Do you remember how long the power of flight lasts?” Celestia asked.

“Five minutes?” Fluttershy answered.

“And remember what happens when it runs out?”

“My wings… burn up?” Fluttershy said apprehensively.

“We don’t have time to assist the ponies,” Celestia said. She carried Fluttershy over the front line and directly toward the castle. “We have to go straight for Pinkamena. I’ll take you into the castle. From there, you’ll have to face the dark lord yourself. Her defeat will force the Underworld Army into retreat.”

Fluttershy circled over the castle, letting both her and Celestia survey it from above. As she gazed down, she took in a deep breath to try to calm her nerves. She exhaled slowly and gave a quick nod.

“Okay, I’m… I’m ready,” Fluttershy said. She banked right and angled herself downward, beginning her descent toward the castle entrance.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy’s hooves touched down on the cold, hard floor of the castle entrance. The yellow aura of Celestia’s magic dissolved from her wings, which she then folded at her sides. She took a few steps and allowed her eyes to wander. Statues of Skuttlers flanked either side of the entrance, seemingly ready to come to life at any minute. “So this is the dark lord’s castle,” Fluttershy said.

“She must have scrambled to build it after Nightmare Moon’s resurrection,” Celestia said. “She’s using this castle as a stronghold for Underworld soldiers.”

As Fluttershy passed through the main doorway into the castle, she caught sight of a row of streamers hanging on a wall, along with a few dull balloons floating on the ceiling. “Great,” she murmured. “It’s just like a birthday party… where everypony wants to kill me.”

Fluttershy followed the trail of streamers and balloons, which soon led her to the ground floor of the main hall. Two sets of stairs on either side of the chamber led to a balcony on the second floor. At the top of the stairs, four Skuttlers stood on patrol in front of a doorway. One of the Skuttlers saw Fluttershy on the ground floor and moved toward the stairs, signaling the other three. Fluttershy lifted her right hoof, aiming her Fortune Bow up one set of stairs, and shot a single arrow. Her arrow pierced one Skuttler and struck the one behind it. She then turned her bow toward the next pair of Skuttlers and fired several smaller arrows at them one at a time.

With the Skuttlers eliminated, Fluttershy glanced nervously around the main hall as she moved up the stairs. At the other end of the balcony, two seemingly ornamental stone spikes stood upright and jutted out of the floor. “What are those?” Fluttershy asked.

“They appear to be switches,” Celestia said. “I’m sensing a link between them and the door ahead.”

As she reached the top of the stairs, Fluttershy looked from the switches back to the doorway, which was already wide open. “Why would they lock their castle from the outside?” she said, raising an eyebrow.

“It is a poor security design,” Celestia said. “What concerns me more is that the switches have already been activated. Something or somepony is already in this castle.”

Past the main hall, Fluttershy found herself standing on a walkway that overlooked a small courtyard. Three Skuttlers stood on patrol on the walkway, which ran along a section of the wall before extending across the courtyard to the other side. “That could explain why there are so few troops inside the castle,” Fluttershy said as she aimed her bow at one of the Skuttlers. For a moment, her eye caught sight of a party hat lying on its side by the wall, making her feel uneasy. “Or maybe Pinkamena left the door open as part of her party invitation,” she added.

Fluttershy’s first arrow hit one of the Skuttlers, tossing it several feet back and taking it out instantly. She shakily turned her bow to the next two enemies and fired several smaller arrows. The second Skuttler fell over before it even turned to see Fluttershy, and while the third one began to waddle after her, it too was slain before it could even reach her.

Once she reached the other end of the walkway, Fluttershy continued down a narrow passageway that led to the lower level of the courtyard. She walked down a set of stairs, which came to a stop halfway to the lower level. A second set of stairs led the rest of the way to the courtyard, with a single tapestry decorating the wall in between them. Fluttershy would have passed by the tapestry on her way down, but she noticed the bottom of it waving gently.

“What’s this?” Fluttershy said as she moved closer to examine the tapestry. The bottom corners of the tapestry swayed softly back and forth, and when Fluttershy looked more closely, she saw a small crack of light at the foot of the wall. Placing her foreleg against the fringe of the tapestry, she pushed it aside, revealing a small room hidden behind it. A runic circle decorated the floor of the otherwise empty room. The circle glowed a bright light blue, and at its center shone a faint ray of light.

Fluttershy walked into the room and took a few cautious steps toward the circle of light. Her hooves came to a stop just a few steps away, and she considered turning back toward the courtyard. While the circle seemed out of place inside a dark castle filled with monsters and party decorations, she couldn’t be sure what magic formed its bright blue runes. After getting no additional advice or warning from Celestia, Fluttershy slowly slid a hoof across the floor and moved it over the circle.

White light flashed throughout Fluttershy’s vision, overtaking the entire room around her. The light faded a second later, only to be replaced by a seemingly endless black void. The floor of the castle was gone too, and instead, she was standing on one end of a long, narrow platform. Fluttershy blinked her eyes and gasped. She started to look around frantically. “Where am I?” she asked. “Princess Celestia?”

“You’ve been transported far outside the dark lord’s castle,” Celestia said. “Where precisely or how far I’m not sure. Thankfully, the portal you stepped on is still active.”

Fluttershy turned behind her, where she saw another, much smaller circle of blue light. “Then I can take this back to the castle,” she said.

“You can,” Celestia said. “But for now, you should examine what little there is here. I would like to know why this place is connected to an Underworld fortress.”

A small pedestal stood on the other side of the platform. Yellow light shimmered down on the pedestal from above, and as Fluttershy approached, an object began to materialize in the center. Fluttershy took the object, a thin, silver-colored bow, into her left foreleg and studied it. A symbol depicting a bow with arrow nocked was embossed into both limbs, and like her Fortune Bow, this one was also stringless. Fluttershy looked at her own weapon, hoping to compare the two, when the new bow suddenly started to glow yellow. The bow vanished a moment later, leaving her left hoof empty.

“The pocket dimension you are currently in is called a Zodiac Chamber,” Celestia said. “Each of them is rumored to house a weapon modeled after a Zodiac sign. The weapon you found here is the Sagittarius Bow. I’ve taken the bow for the time being. It will be here when you return from your mission.”

“You mean I can’t use it now?” Fluttershy asked.

“You already have the Fortune Bow with you,” Celestia said. “There is no way for you to wield both simultaneously. And even though they are both the same type of weapon, they may handle very differently. You should have some experience with a new weapon before bringing it into battle.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Fluttershy said. She turned around and went back to the other end of the chamber. Once she stepped inside the blue circle, white light flashed across her vision. A second later, she was standing in the hidden room of Pinkamena’s castle.

“Speaking of which, I see that you chose not to use a blade for this mission,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy pulled the tapestry aside as she walked out of the room. She continued down the hallway toward the lower level of the courtyard. “Oh yeah, I thought I’d try out other weapons besides blades,” she said, glancing at her bow. “This one’s easier to walk around with since it just attaches to my foreleg.”

“Your bow can also split into blades for close combat, though it’s better suited for ranged attacks,” Celestia said.

A small break ran through the middle of the Fortune Bow’s grip. Fluttershy could barely see the break in her weapon when she began to hear sounds coming from ahead. She reached the lower level of the courtyard, and when she saw what was waiting there, her eyes widened.

“Look at that!” Fluttershy said.

In the center of the courtyard, right in front of a single ornamental tree, an earth pony mare stood facing three Skuttlers. The mare had an orange coat, and her blonde mane and tail were pulled back and tied at the end with red hair bands. She wore a Stetson hat on her head, and as she stared at the three Skutlers, her right hoof gripped the handle of a large, imposing sword nearly twice her size.

“How did an earth pony make it into the castle?” Celestia said.

The earth pony swung her enormous blade, slicing one of the Skuttlers in half. She slashed a second Skuttler with another swing, and then swung around to buck the last one across the courtyard. The slain monsters vanished one by one in a puff of purple smoke. The earth pony rested the back of her greatsword against her shoulder and turned to face Fluttershy, giving her a friendly smile.

“Well, Ah didn’t expect to see a pegasus here,” the earth pony said, tipping the brim of her Stetson hat. “Hope that doesn’t mean Ah’ve kicked the bucket.”

More Underworld troops appeared in the courtyard. The earth pony noticed the enemies and turned to rush at them, leaving Fluttershy bewildered.

“I think you should help her,” Celestia said.

“She’s taking on the Underworld Army herself…” Fluttershy said. She glanced at a Shemum slithering toward her and fired an arrow at it. “And surviving. Are you sure she’s really an earth pony?”

“Absolutely,” Celestia said.

“Ya havin’ a private conversation with yourself, sugarcube?” the orange earth pony said, swinging her greatsword at one of two nearby Miks.

“Oh, right. Sorry about that,” Fluttershy said. She looked back at the other mare after shooting down a Handora, a monster consisting of pair of hands joined at the wrists by a spiked bracelet. “I, uh… I’m Fluttershy, servant of the goddess Celestia. I’m here to defeat Dark Lord Pinkamena.”

“So, you’re here for a slice of the pie too,” the orange pony said. After slaying the two Miks, she charged after a Keron with her weapon.

“What pie?” Fluttershy asked in confusion. “No, I mean… I’m here to stop Pinkamena’s attacks on the earth ponies.” She separated her bow at the grip and used its bladed limbs to slash through a Shulm, a monster resembling a giant, poisonous mushroom with two bulging eyes.

“Right, you’re the pegasus here,” the earth pony said, swinging her greatsword at a one-eyed monster made of living red Coral. “But me, Ah’m in it for the reward money. Since we both want to take down Pinkamena, how ‘bout we work together?”

“I-I don’t know about that…” Fluttershy said, firing an arrow at a Skuttler.

“What’ve ya got to lose?” the orange mare asked. She plunged her greatsword into the eye of a giant, one-eyed skull with four spider-like legs. “It’ll be easier on both of us.” The skull, known as a Ganewmede, faded away into purple smoke, allowing her to easily retrieve her sword.

“Celestia?” Fluttershy asked. “What do you think?” She shot down a Skuttler with several arrows from her Fortune Bow.

“She makes a compelling argument,” Celestia said, still speaking telepathically and privately to Fluttershy.

“Well if it’s okay with Celestia…” Fluttershy said quietly.

“Then it’s settled,” the earth pony said. “Ah’m Applejack, by the way. Pleased to meet ya.”

After finishing off the last two Underworld enemies, Applejack and Fluttershy made their way to the other side of the courtyard. With a quick, affirmative nod from Applejack, the two of them continued down a second passageway that led deeper into the castle. A few torches provided some light for them, but only enough to see a few feet ahead.

“Applejack sure is strong,” Fluttershy said, almost whispering.

“Yes, especially for an earth pony,” Celestia replied.

“She must really want that reward,” Fluttershy said. Her quiet tone caught the attention of Applejack, who shot a glance at her.

“She may not be made of the sturdiest moral fiber, but that’s fine with me,” Celestia said.

“I’m surprised you feel that way,” Fluttershy said.

“Earth ponies are driven by desire,” Celestia said. “It’s convenient to know what bait they’ll chase.”

“That’s kind of cold, but it makes sense… I guess,” Fluttershy said.

“Hey,” Applejack said gruffly. She gave Fluttershy a hard look even as the latter turned her attention to her. “If you’re chattin’ with your precious goddess, give her a message from me. Tell her she’s been sleepin’ on the job! My world is on the edge of collapse!”

Applejack turned away and continued to make her way down the passage, even as Fluttershy stopped in her tracks. Fluttershy stared at Applejack uncomfortably.

“On second thought, I don’t think she and I will get along very well,” Celestia said.

“Okay…” Fluttershy said quietly. Tentatively, she trotted back to Applejack, who had already gone a few feet ahead of her.

The passageway led them to an old elevator. As soon as the two of them stepped inside, the door shut behind them and the elevator began its ascent. Before long, the elevator came to a stop next to a balcony on the side of the castle. Two doors faced them on one side of the balcony while the other side of the balcony wrapped around a corner of the castle’s exterior wall. Applejack galloped ahead, using her greatsword to take out a single Skuttler that was standing on patrol. Fluttershy eventually caught up to her, and even though the Skuttler was already gone, something else caught her attention.

“Oh look, a treasure chest!” Fluttershy said. At the far end of balcony rested a blue chest with decorative gold fringes. However, before Fluttershy could walk toward the chest, Applejack cut her off with her foreleg.

“That’s clearly a trap,” Applejack said. “Think about it. Who’d leave treasure just lyin’ ‘round outside?”

“Oh, okay…” Fluttershy murmured. “Then let’s just see what’s behind those doors, if that’s okay.”

“Sure thing, sugarcube,” Applejack said. Turning around, she and Fluttershy walked back to the other side of the balcony. They opened the first door on the right, and when Fluttershy saw what was inside the room, her eyes widened.

“Wait, is that…” Fluttershy said. At the center of the room was a pool of steaming hot water, just the right temperature for a pony to relax in. “It is! A hot spring!” she squealed excitedly. Eagerly, she trotted toward the edge of the pool.

“Somepony likes her spa time,” Applejack chuckled.

Fluttershy dipped her hoof into the hot spring. Satisfied with the water’s temperature, she then stepped inside. Without bothering to remove any of her equipment, she sat down with her back against the edge of the pool and breathed a content sigh.

“Ya go in fully dressed?” Applejack asked. “Don’t ya at least want to set your bow down or change into a swimmin’ tunic or somethin’?”

“Oh, no,” Fluttershy said. “As a member of Celestia's army, I have to be ready for battle, especially now when I’m on a mission.”

“Ah guess if you're gonna serve the gods, you're gonna do things by the book,” Applejack said.

“Yeah…” Fluttershy said. She averted her gaze from Applejack and hesitated before murmuring something else. “And I don’t want you looking at my flanks.”

“Ah beg your pardon?!” Applejack snapped. Fluttershy winced at the outburst, even as Applejack continued. “Look, Ah don’t know where ya got the idea, but Ah am not that kind of mare!”

When she finished, Applejack noticed that Fluttershy was cringing at her. She drew a heavy sigh and decided to approach her a little more gently.

“Ah’m sorry. Ah shouldn’t have yelled at ya,” she said, this time more calmly. “Look, could we get goin’ now? Pinkamena isn’t goin’ to take herself down.”

Fluttershy opened her eyes and turned her head back toward Applejack. “Okay,” she said, nodding back. She rose back onto her hooves and stepped out of the hot spring.

After leaving the hot spring room, and after Fluttershy tried to wring the water out of her tunic and coat, the two mares continued to the other door on the balcony. Once inside, they found themselves inside the highest tower in Pinkamena’s castle. A walkway spiraled up along the wall, eventually leading to a large door at the top.

“Dark Lord Pinkamena should be up there,” Fluttershy said.

“Ah hope you’re ready,” Applejack replied. Without waiting for Fluttershy, she began her climb up the walkway. Fluttershy paused for a second, but after a small nod, she followed after her.

* * * * * * * * * *

Applejack and Fluttershy walked into a large, mostly empty throne room at the highest floor of the castle. At the far end of the chamber they saw Dark Lord Pinkamena, fully clad in purple armor and surrounded by a sickly green, almost fiery aura. She wore a red cape over her armored body, and her helmet had a protrusion built in to accommodate a unicorn’s horn.

“Aw, if it isn’t Celestia’s little messenger filly,” Pinkamena said in a dark, distorted voice. “And Applejack, it’s always a pleasure.”

“Sorry if Ah’m a bit late,” Applejack said, readying her greatsword. “Ah had other business to attend to.”

“Wait, you two know each other?” Fluttershy asked.

Neither Applejack nor Pinkamena answered Fluttershy. Applejack charged toward the dark lord, her greatsword held firmly in her mouth. At the same time, Pinkamena hovered above the ground, her eyes fixed on Applejack.

“Actually, you’re not late at all,” Pinkamena said. “You’re early… too early.”

Her tone seemed to gain an added bitterness. She tilted her head toward Applejack, and a volley of green and black energy shots fired across the room. Applejack sidestepped the attack, and once she reached Pinkamena, she placed her sword in her hoof and swung at her. Pinkamena floated off to her left, moving out of Applejack’s reach.

“I had this whole dark lord party planned out,” Pinkamena said. “But thanks to you, I didn’t have enough time to finish decorating the castle!” She fired another stream of energy shots, which Applejack jumped out of the way of. “And then there’s that pegasus you brought with you. It’s just like you to bring an uninvited guest everywhere you go!”

Applejack lunged at a Pinkamena with her greatsword a second time, only for Pinkamena to raise a barrier of light between them. “Fluttershy? Ah met her on the way here,” Applejack said. “Ah thought you invited her too.”

Applejack quickly circled around the barrier and struck Pinkamena with her blade. She swung her weapon at Pinkamena two more times, with her third hit throwing the dark lord back. Pinkamena recovered in midair, though the armor around her barrel and flanks now had several large dents and cracks.

“No, she wasn’t invited,” Pinkamena muttered. “But I’ve got plenty of other guests for you to mingle with!” Using her magic, she summoned two Skuttlers to her side.

Applejack charged at Pinkamena again. But before she could land another hit, magic flared throughout Pinkamena’s body and she flew rapidly toward Fluttershy. Fluttershy squeaked and stepped backward, but by the time she thought to jump out of way, Pinkamena slammed into her. Her body was thrown against the wall behind her, and she collapsed onto the floor. She groaned as she tried to get back onto her hooves.

“I don’t know much about the situation,” Celestia said. “But it seems that Applejack and Pinkamena used to be close friends.”

“What? Really?!” Fluttershy said.

“They were part of the same band of monster-fighting mercenaries,” Celestia said, even as Pinkamena fired another stream of energy shots at Fluttershy. “But Pinkamena’s heart was weak, and she couldn’t resist the temptation of the Underworld.”

Fluttershy leapt to the side to avoid the dark lord’s barrage of attacks and shot back with her bow. Pinkamena hovered left to dodge the charged arrow, only to be blindsided by a powerful swing of Applejack’s greatsword. Applejack followed her attack with a second, equally fierce strike. A third swing of her weapon tossed Pinkamena across the throne room floor.

“Seeing them fighting, it’s hard to believe they were ever friends,” Fluttershy said, watching the fight quietly.

“Applejack only knows one way to fight: ferociously,” Celestia said. “From what I can discern, it’s how she has always fought, ever since she lost a foal to Underworld troops.”

Fluttershy lifted her bow in Pinkamena’s direction, only to stop in mid-aim. “I had no idea,” she said, turning her gaze between Applejack and Pinkamena. “That’s so sad…”

“Hey!” Applejack grunted, ducking under a powerful beam shot from Pinkamena’s horn. “Ya want to actually help out here?! Ya said ya came here to stop Pinkamena, didn’t ya?”

“Hmph. I almost feel sorry for the two of you,” Pinkamena mocked. She flew across the throne room, putting more distance between herself and the other two mares. Light began to concentrate around her horn as she prepared to fire a beam of magic at them. “But not quite. I’ll tear that pegasus’ wings off. Who knows? She might stay alive long enough to watch me cut out her organs one by one. And after that, Applejack, you’re next.”

“You’ll do no such thing,” Fluttershy said angrily under her breath. Her eyes narrowed, almost erasing the fear in them and changing her expression from a pout to a look of disgust. She held out her foreleg, lined up her glare with the Fortune Bow’s sight, and fired a charged arrow.

The arrow hit Pinkamena’s helmet right above the eyes. Magic stopped collecting around her horn, and several cracks formed throughout the helmet. Pinkamena’s head recoiled, and she collapsed onto the floor. Her armor shattered around her when she landed, particularly around the areas damaged by Applejack’s attacks. Fluttershy lowered her bow and sighed, convinced that the dark lord was defeated.

“Nice work, sugarcube,” Applejack said. She walked over to where Pinkamena had fallen, stepping around the broken armor fragments along the way. When she reached the dark lord’s body, what lay before her was a dull pink pony with a straightened mane and tail. She placed her greatsword on the floor and knelt beside the pink mare. “Ah’m sorry it had to come to this,” she said, placing a hoof on the mare’s chest.

Fluttershy started to approach Applejack, but when she got a closer look at the other mare, she froze. She turned her eyes toward the remains of Pinkamena’s horned helmet and then back at the pink pony. There was no horn on the pink pony’s head, nor did she even have any wings.

“Pinkamena was an earth pony?” Fluttershy said. “I-I didn’t know…” She looked down in remorse at her hooves and at the bow on her right leg. “What have I done?”

“You can’t feel bad,” Celestia said. “Think of all the other ponies you’ve saved. Besides, she looks like she’s still holding on.”

“Really?” Fluttershy said, her head perking up. She was about to run toward Pinkamena’s body, but her own body suddenly felt weightless. Yellow light shone down on her, and she rose off the ground.

“But we need to regroup,” Celestia said. “The war against Nightmare Moon is just starting.”

Before Fluttershy could object, she was abruptly taken from the area. Applejack looked back for a moment, but seeing that Fluttershy has disappeared, she turned back to her fallen friend.

Mysterious Invaders

Chapter 15: Mysterious Invaders

Fluttershy ambled sluggishly through a dark hallway. Her eyes barely open, she stumbled sleepily toward the set of double doors at the end. The doors opened as soon as she reached them, bathing the otherwise dimly lit hall with the morning light on the other side of the portal. Standing right next to the edge of the portal, Fluttershy lifted a hoof to her muzzle and let out a long, drawn out yawn.

“I’m… so sleepy,” she murmured. With her left hoof still lifted to her mouth, Fluttershy leaned too far toward her right side, falling through the portal and toward the ground below. Before she could fall too far, a yellow aura materialized around her wings. Her wings started flapping immediately, catching her in the middle of her fall, and she slowly rose back up. A mountain range covered the ground below her, with a single lake situated in the middle of it. Toward Fluttershy’s left, the rising sun illuminated the landscape and glimmered off of the lake’s surface.

“Sorry to drag you out so early, but we have an emergency,” Celestia said. Even as her wings kept her aloft, Fluttershy was snoring lightly. Celestia’s magic kept her flying in the air, so she had already drifted back to sleep. Celestia turned Fluttershy left, toward the direction of the sun. “We have a big problem, bigger than all of us gods.”

Fluttershy squeezed her eyes shut as the morning sun shone directly at her face. The direct sunlight partly woke her up, and she tried to shield her eyes from the sun with her left foreleg. After a while, her eyes adjusted enough to the light that she was able to open them.

“Huh?!”

When Fluttershy opened her eyes, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. For a moment, she thought she saw an enormous island floating in the sky. She rubbed her eyes with her left hoof, but when she looked again, she saw that it was more than just one island. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of small islands clustered together in the sky.

“What is that?!” Fluttershy said. A closer look at the islands revealed to her several beams of light firing down. Each beam produced a crater in the earth below, adding to the hundreds of craters already littering the ground. Around each beam of light, dozens of displaced fragments of rock rose from the impact site and made their way to the islands above. “It’s… it’s ransacking the earth!”

“Enemies incoming!” Celestia said.

Looking back up from the devastation, Fluttershy saw hundreds of round buglike creatures flying from the islands. Each of the little bugs had the same spherical body and large green eyes, though their bodies all varied widely in color. Under any other circumstances, Fluttershy might have found the creatures to be adorable. However, several of them flew down toward her. They clustered together into three groups, and within seconds, each cluster morphed into a white, metallic triangle.

One triangle fired a spherical energy shot at Fluttershy. Fluttershy swerved away from the attack and aimed at them. Attached to her right foreleg was the Phoenix Arm, designed to resemble the hooked beak of a large bird. The arm fit like a glove, but with a green feathery sleeve extending over the cannon of her leg and a tuft of fuchsia plumage behind the upper beak. She fired a charge shot, consisting of a fireball, at two of them and took out the third one by firing two bladed feathers from her weapon. More triangular enemies advanced toward Fluttershy, and three lasers fired down ahead of her.

“They’re firing on me!” Fluttershy said.

“I’m not even sure what they are,” Celestia said, slowly leading Fluttershy toward the cluster of islands. Fluttershy shot down the triangular enemies. Above her, she saw that the lasers originated from three sets of connected poles. The sets of poles stopped firing and folded into white cubes before flying off. In their place, three green triangles traced themselves in the middle of the air. Fluttershy fired at them, taking down two of them, but the third launched a missile at her before vanishing into thin air. “They’re organized, but who’s giving the orders?” Celestia said.

Fluttershy swerved to dodge the missile. “Maybe they’re a new unit of the Forces of Nature?” she said.

“Come on now,” Luna interjected just as three more white triangles appeared with three Nutskis flying after them. “Doth they look ‘natural’ to thee?”

“Morning, do-gooders!” Discord chimed in.

Three more green triangles traced themselves in the air. “Are you two behind this?” Fluttershy asked, taking aim at the triangles.

“Sadly, no,” Discord said. “Though I do applaud any and all violence directed toward you.”

Fluttershy shot down the three triangles before they could fire any missiles. Meanwhile, two Monoeyes floated on ahead, only to be struck from below by two fast-moving objects. Several more of these objects shot up from below, each one appearing to be a coil tapered at both ends. Fluttershy looked down at the direction they were coming from. At first, she didn’t see anything except for the mountainous terrain. However, a flash of green light caught her attention. Glancing toward it, she saw another one of the glowing green coils shooting up toward her. She jerked left, and the object rushed past her and continued up. Two more flashes appeared below her.

“And thou should know that I would never work with Discord,” Luna said. “In fact, I was about to destroy him when they suddenly appeared.”

“No,” Discord said. “They saved her at the last minute.”

Fluttershy was now firing her weapon down, trying to hit as many of the shooting coils as possible. The Phoenix Arm’s bladed feathers homed in on their targets and managed to hit most of the coils. However, a few were missed by her fire, and Fluttershy found herself swerving to dodge them. One of the coils shot a bit too close to Fluttershy’s face, and she flinched when it rushed by. “So you have no idea what they are?!” she blurted out.

“I’m sure know-it-all Celestia is just dying to illuminate us,” he said.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know any more than you do,” Celestia said. “I can only tell you that they’re not of this world.”

“You mean they’re… invaders from space?” Fluttershy said.

“They’re not just invading,” Luna said angrily. “This swarm is harvesting whole sections of the earth! They are like bees taking pollen back to whatever hive they call home.”

“Not to quibble over details, but I think locusts are a more apt analogy,” Discord said. “But whatever they are, they must be stopped. This is my planet to rend as I see fit.”

“Must I do everything around here?” Luna said through gritted teeth, before switching to a loud, booming voice to address her troops. “FORCES OF NATURE, DROP THE HAMMER!”

“I guess we Underworlders will get in the mix, too,” Discord said. “Shoot anything that moves.”

“Still can’t get along, I see,” Fluttershy murmured.

“Just do what you can, and try to stay out of the thick of things,” Celestia said.

Four Nutskis flew past Fluttershy as she approached the cluster of islands. Along the way, they ran into an enemy larger than any of the previous one, a white flying saucer with what appeared to be a nozzle underneath it. The Nutskis each stopped to fire a shot at the saucer before flying left.

At the same time, two Monoeyes, a Mik and a Gyrazor began to attack the flying saucer. Fluttershy herself got close to the saucer, but before she could take aim at it, she noticed more of the white triangular enemies spilling out of the nozzle underneath it. She aimed her arm at the nozzle and fired a charge shot, destroying the nozzle and trapping any remaining enemies inside. Her attack was followed by a tongue lash from the Mik and a wide blade of energy from a Wave Angler. The latter attack finished off the saucer, which fell apart and morphed into hundreds to the spherical bugs Fluttershy had seen earlier. However, instead of forming into another enemy, the bugs all burst into flames and were incinerated in seconds. The remaining Underworld troops flew off in another direction, followed by the triangular enemies.

Fluttershy made her way toward the cluster of islands. Along the way, she continued to shoot down more of the enemies. Upon being destroyed, every one of the enemies turned into a cluster of spherical bugs, which immediately fell apart from each other and burst into flames. By now, Fluttershy was close enough to a few of the islands to examine them. From what she could discern, each of them was almost identical to every other island in the cluster. Each one was square-shaped on top and tapered toward the bottom, as if they has risen out of the ground. A number of formations rose from the surface of each island. However, each formation had smooth edges and flat faces to it, giving them all a blocky appearance. Meanwhile, a series of laser shots was being fired in many directions from the islands below. Presumably, the islands’ external defenses had activated in response to the Underworld Army and Forces of Nature, though Celestia was still carefully guiding Fluttershy’s flight path.

“I’ve never seen anything like this!” Fluttershy said.

“These… things are tough,” Luna added.

“But what are they?” Celestia said.

Six more of the white triangular enemies advanced on Fluttershy. Fluttershy shot down two with a charge shot and dodged attacks for another two. She aimed her weapon at the next enemy. However, before she could shoot, a pale magenta fireball collided with the triangle she was aiming at.

“Huh?!”

Within a second or two, the fireball diminished in size, revealing a unicorn mare within the flames. The mare had a pale blue coat and an even paler blue mane. She wore a purple cape decorated with stars, one that was notably unharmed by her flames. Using her own magic to levitate herself through the sky, she moved in front of the remaining three enemies and discharged three small orbs of pale magenta magic at them. Each orb exploded on contact with one of the white triangles, destroying it. “Alien marauders are no match for Trixie!” she said.

“Trixie?” Celestia said incredulously. “As in the Goddess of all Equine Magic, Trixie?”

“The Great and Powerful,” Trixie said affirmatively. She flew further ahead and attacked three more white triangular enemies, as well as three green triangular enemies that were beginning to appear.

“Wait,” Fluttershy murmured. “That lunatic is a goddess?” Another dozen white triangles moved to attack her. She fired a charge shot from her Phoenix Arm, destroying two of them, and continued to fire bladed feathers at the others.

“That’s what she calls herself, at least,” Luna said, similarly skeptical.

“Ah, so you’re all together,” Trixie said. She moved back toward Fluttershy and attacked the four enemies Fluttershy hadn’t yet destroyed. “Good! Trixie loves an audience!”

“Listen, do you know anything about these enemies?” Celestia asked.

“Of course!” Trixie said. “They are the Parasprites, and this passel of floating islands is just one of their bases.”

“Just one of their bases?” Discord said. “How much more hell do they plan to raise?”

“Trixie shall explain everything,” she said.

“Splendid,” Luna deadpanned.

Trixie descended toward one of the islands in the cluster. Guided by Celestia’s magic Fluttershy followed her. Along the way, four sets of connected poles were positioned and firing lasers. Fluttershy launched a fireball from her arm, destroying two, and shot down the other two with bladed feathers. Before long, she and Trixie reached the surface of the island. She flew after the latter over the white, blocky landscape.

“It’s all in the Book of Divine Prophecy, chapter 84, section 3,” Trixie said. “‘Beckoned by destruction and corruption, the Parasprites are born from and return to nothing. They travel across the galaxy to swallow up the heavens, land, and seas.’”

“I remember not that passage,” Luna said.

“I’ll break it down for you,” Trixie continued. “The Parasprites are going to eat the entire earth! But stow your fear, for the Great and Powerful Trixie will show them that they picked the wrong planet to consume!”

“We can trust that mare, right?” Fluttershy asked.

“Um…” Celestia uttered, equally uncertain.

“Things are truly dire if that’s the pony we're listening to,” Luna said.

“Fear the wrath of Trixie’s unparalleled magic!” Trixie shouted. She rose up into the air and channeled her magic through her horn. Eight small orbs of pale magenta magic emerged from her horn, and one by one she hurled them at group of white triangles ahead of her. “Take that! And that! And that! And…”

“Yes… let’s let Trixie take care of this,” Celestia said. She guided Fluttershy to a narrow chasm that ran through a section of the island. Feeding more of her magic into the power of flight, she led Fluttershy down into the chasm. “We’ll take the other side of the islands.”

Fluttershy descended rapidly into the chasm. Like the top surface of the island, the walls of the chasm also had a blocky appearance to them. The chasm's ledges and outcroppings were smoothed down and rectangular in shape. As Fluttershy made her way down, flashes of green light were visible in certain sections of the chasm. Each flash was quickly followed by one of the coil enemies shooting from an alcove in the walls. Several coils nearly blindsided Fluttershy, who tried to dodge them as they passed. She concentrated on the magic coursing through her wings, and then on the Phoenix Arm equipped to her foreleg. She then unleashed a barrage of punches from the arm, launching the magical energy throughout the chasm and destroying any nearby enemies as she went.

Before long, Fluttershy made it through the chasm and reached the underside of the island. All around her, dozens of massive rock fragments were being pulled up to the underside of the side by a tractor beam. She moved past the beam and around the rocks.

“The Parasprites are blowing up the earth and then taking the pieces for themselves!” Luna said.

“Luna, it was you and Discord who lured the Parasprites to our world,” Celestia said.

“What?!” Luna said. “That’s the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard!”

“Trixie said that they are ‘beckoned by destruction and corruption,’” Celestia said. “They were likely drawn here by the war between the Underworld and Nature.”

“Convenient that thou would forget thy own conflict with the Underworld!” Luna shot back.

“Convenient that you would forget a massive Reset Bomb visible from space,” Fluttershy muttered.

“You, silence,” Luna said. “The Parasprites are the aggressors here. We’re the victims!”

“You’re absolutely right,” Celestia said. “Like it or not, we’re on the same side now.” She guided Fluttershy away from the underside and toward another group of floating islands in the cluster. In particular, she led her toward one island, which had a single tower in the center of it that none of the other islands had. “We’re heading to the center of the Parasprite islands. That tower is the key to stopping all this devastation. Prepare for land battle.”

“Okay,” Fluttershy said. The power of flight flared throughout her wings, and she found herself accelerating in flight toward the base of the tower.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy landed at the edge of a rooftop terrace of the tower. The beak of her Phoenix Arm opened slightly and slid over the cannon of her foreleg, revealing her hoof and allowing her to stand. Once she was firmly on the ground, she stared in awe at her surroundings. The floor beneath her hooves was white in color and arranged in tile-like rectangles. However, none of the rectangles matched each other in size, and the hard, smooth, reflective surface was made of a material she couldn’t even begin to identify. All around her, structures made of another blue-gray material stood, unless they were floating many feet above the floor. Some of these structures were rectangular, even blocky, though many of the floating objects were arranged in concentric semicircles. And many objects or structures in the area had holographic projections displayed over them, some of squares and rectangles, though many of nothing in particular.

“Is this the future?” Fluttershy asked.

“The Parasprites must have stolen materials from all over to build these islands,” Luna said.

“I wonder how many other planets were harvested to make them,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy took a tentative step forward, followed by another, and then another. After awhile, she was walking across the terrace, warily eyeing her surroundings. “For being patched together, everything seems pretty structured,” she said.

“If the Parasprites are anything like bees, that’s no surprise,” Celestia said. “Bees are orderly colonies. Likewise, the Parasprites seem to act as one, and I doubt these drones have any sense of free will.”

“There’s all this activity here, but no actual life,” Fluttershy said. Two of the white triangular enemies, Tribytes, emerged from the right edge of the terrace and floated in front of Fluttershy’s path. Fluttershy stopped abruptly and held out her hoof toward them. The Phoenix Arm slid back into over her foreleg, and she fired a charge shot at them. The fireball punched through both Tribytes and set their remains ablaze, and when the enemies morphed back into groups of Parasprites, they were quickly incinerated. “There aren’t any animals here, or anypony. It’s just these things.”

“Poor Fluttershy,” Luna said sarcastically. “Art thou feeling lonely? Because I can summon one of my commanders to keep thee company.”

“That… really isn’t necessary,” Fluttershy stammered. As she explored the rooftop terrace, she found an entrance leading inside the tower. Three Tribytes descended in front of her and blocked her path, as well as a floating white cube. Fluttershy launched a fireball from her arm, destroying two of them, and took out the third one with a few bladed feathers. The white cube, a Jyok, opened up into four connected poles and fired a laser at Fluttershy. Fluttershy jumped to the side to dodge and fired four bladed feathers, destroying the Jyok. With her path clear, she approached the entrance leading into the tower.

Once inside, Fluttershy found herself walking down a darkened passageway. Three more Tribytes appeared at a corner, but Fluttershy shot them down with a fireball and continued on. The passageway sloped downward slightly, leading her down into the tower until she reached a door at the end. In front of the door were two comma-shaped enemies with thin tendrils hanging from them. The enemies each lifted one of their tendrils in the air and moved it from side to side.

“Are they… waving at me?” Fluttershy asked.

“They're not saying hello, if that';s what thou art asking?” Luna said.

“Those enemies are known as Zaurums,” Celestia said. “Their attacks have a disorienting effect, so don’t stop to say hi.”

Fluttershy lifted her hoof and took aim. Suddenly, a purple field surrounded one of the Zaurums. Fluttershy hastily jumped back, firing a charge shot from her arm. The fireball struck both enemies one after the other, burning through both them and the Parasprites that emerged from them.

The door at the end of the passageway led Fluttershy into a large chamber. The room was dark, just like the previous passageway. She reached one end of the chamber and was about to turn right toward the rest of it, but the ground underneath her started to move. Before she could step back, the section of the floor she stood on sank into the ground. The section connected to a platform about ten feet down, where two of the coil-like enemies were waiting for Fluttershy. However, instead of shooting at her like the ones in the air did, these Quoils simply rotated about their axis as they moved slowly toward her.

“An elevator into a torture chamber,” Luna mused out loud. “Convenient!” Fluttershy ignored the comment and fired at the Quoils, easily destroying them. However, once they were gone, she noticed a small blue treasure chest in the middle of the platform

“Discord,” Celestia said accusingly, “Did you put that treasure box there?”

“Me?” Discord said. “I would never!”

With nowhere else to go, Fluttershy cautiously approached the treasure chest. She was within a few feet of the box when it rose above the ground, supported by two hairless humanoid legs. “What the—” Fluttershy murmured.

“That’s strange…” Luna said. “How would a Mimicutie have found its way up there?”

Fluttershy and Luna watched in bemusement as the Mimicutie moved around the platform. Celestia, however, found the Mimicutie’s prancing on two feet more endearing. “Aw! Who’s a Mimicutie?” she said.

Suddenly, the Mimicutie slid across the platform and in front of Fluttershy. Keeping one foot firmly planted on the ground, it kept its other knee bent and pivoted in Fluttershy’s direction. What came next were a series of fast, sharp kicks all directed at Fluttershy. The assault culminated in one last painful kick against her chest, which tossed her into the air.

When Fluttershy came back down, she landed back on higher ground. She brought a hoof to her sore lower jaw, which had taken several of the Mimicutie’s kicks. “Ow,” she uttered softly. She brought her hooves under her and stood back up. Her chest, forelegs and jaw all felt sore and battered. She used her hoof to wipe some blood from her lower lip before turning back toward the end of the chamber. Since the Mimicutie had kicked her back up, she decided to move on with the mission. Luckily for her, the first thing she saw at the end of the chamber was a pool of warm water with an unmistakable steam billowing from it. “Look, a hot spring,” she said. She eagerly trotted toward the hot spring. However, before she could get within inches of the spring, an entire section of the floor rose out of the ground, taking the pool of water with it. “Where’s it going?”

“Don’t worry, there are stairs to your right that will take you to it,” Celestia said.

In only a few seconds, Fluttershy had cantered up the nearby stairs and was now wading into the hot spring. She took another second or two to relax and make herself comfortable, and the soreness from her recent wounds began to melt away. “Ah, that feels better,” she said.

“I hope for thine sake that is a hot spring and not some other kind of… puddle,” Luna said.

Fluttershy blinked a few times, her state of relaxation partially broken. She looked down at the steaming water, which did have a sort of yellow color to it, presumably from any minerals dissolved in it. “It doesn’t smell like any other sort of puddle,” she said.

“Even if it did, I wouldn’t know where the Parasprites would find such a puddle,” Celestia said. “Let alone make one.”

“Fine, but say not that I never warned thee about jumping into strange bodies of water,” Luna said.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Fluttershy said lazily, trailing off at the end as she continued to relax. Meanwhile, several loud noises could be heard on the other side of the hot spring. Fluttershy leaned over and saw several Skuttlers and Quoils fighting each other. “I’m sure that’ll take care of itself. But there is one other thing that bothers me. Do you think that Trixie pony is really a goddess?”

“No,” said three gods simultaneously.

“She seems to be playing the role of the self-proclaimed sun god, Pyrrhon,” Celestia said. “Apparently, the author decided that turning Trixie from a magician to a pyromaniac isn’t an issue, since the most impressive magic she has ever performed on the show without augmentation is a pyrotechnic spell.”

“She’s probably just an above average unicorn who’s gotten a bit too big for her saddle,” Discord said gleefully. “Give it a few years. We’ll see what she has to say about her ‘godly’ status when she meets me face to face.”

“I give it a few days,” Luna said. “And that worries me.”

“I agree,” Celestia said. “In the midst of this Parasprite invasion, she may become more of a burden than an asset.”

After a few minutes in the hot spring, Fluttershy stood up. With the Skuttlers and Quoils long gone, she jumped down from the ledge the hot spring had risen to and made her way to the end of the chamber. The door at the end led her to an outdoor courtyard in the tower. The path ahead continued through the courtyard on her left, but in front of her stood a familiar looking vehicle. “Hey, look! An Exo Tank!” Fluttershy said.

“Hey, look! Who cares?” Discord mocked.

“This makes no sense,” Luna said.

“I certainly didn’t put it there,” Celestia added.

“You don’t suppose it belongs to anypony here, do you?” Fluttershy asked, but one quick glance around the area reminded her where she was. “No, I guess it doesn’t. But since it’s here, I might as well use it.” Fluttershy climbed into the Exo Tank. Placing her hooves on the controls, she drove forward toward the end of the courtyard. A few Monoeyes, Nutskis, and Tribytes floated in her path and attacked each other. Rather than try to attack them, Fluttershy drove around the groups of enemies, trying to avoid them.

Past the courtyard, the path continued on the outside of the tower, slowly dipping downward along the way. Fluttershy made her way around a turn in the road that spiraled down, and eventually reached another courtyard. At the end of the road stood another small treasure chest, much like the one she had found earlier. She slowly drove up to the chest. As soon as she was within two feet of the chest, it rose above the ground stood on two humanoid feet.

“Ugh, another Mimicutie,” Fluttershy groaned.

The Mimicutie slid toward the Exo Tank and lifted one of its feet, preparing to attack. “What elegance! What grace!” Discord said. But before the Mimicutie could unleash its barrage of kicks, Fluttershy hit the throttle of the Exo Tank. The Exo Tank ran into the Mimicutie, tossed it into the air and drove to a door at the other end of the courtyard. “What disturbing brutality,” Discord added after a pause.

Fluttershy drove the Exo Tank to the end of the courtyard, where a door automatically opened for her. The door led to a fairly large elevator shaft, where the elevator was already waiting. She drove inside, and the elevator began to rise toward its destination.

“Taking the Exo Tank with you?” Celestia asked.

“I didn’t think I would be a problem,” Fluttershy said. “I thought there might be some invisible wall or something that would keep the Exo Tank from coming in here at first, but there wasn’t one.”

“Even so, you won’t be able to take the Exo Tank much further,” Celestia said. “The path forward ends at a ledge overlooking the island. Fortunately, I placed a pair of grind rails up ahead for you, though they didn’t turn out exactly as I hoped.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ll see when you reach it.”

The elevator came to a stop, and a door opened for Fluttershy that led out to a solitary platform. Fluttershy climbed out of the Exo Tank and walked over to a pair of magenta rails. She hopped onto the rails, allowing their magic to carry her along them. It wasn’t long before she realized what Celestia was referring to. The grind rails continued straight ahead up to a certain distance and made an abrupt 90° turn to the right. Fluttershy reared on her hind legs just before the turn. Her back hooves reached the turn, and though her right leg changed direction a second before her left, causing some uncomfortable twisting and stretching, she continued on in the new direction without any problems.

“The rails are kind of crooked,” Fluttershy said, placing her front hooves back down. Several more 90° turns were visible further along, and she knew she’d have to go through the same thing at each of those turns.

“Something seems to have distorted them,” Celestia said.

“The nerve of those Parasprites,” Luna said. “How dare they meddle with thy godly powers?”

“Sorry about that, Fluttershy,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy continued to follow the grind rails, standing up on her back hooves every time they took a sharp turn. After a while, she noticed that the grind rails’ magic was allowing her to balance effortlessly on her hind legs, and even on only one hind leg. She used that to her advantage to move along the rails more easily. Along the way, she shot down a number of Parasprite enemies, including some Tribytes, a few Quoils, a Jyok, and even three of the vanishing green triangles she had seen while flying, known as Blits.

“Have you noticed that arms have the shortest range of any weapon type?” Celestia asked.

“Yeah, I have,” Fluttershy said. “I don’t really like to get that close to enemies. But it looks like this arm has a longer range than normal.”

“That’s because the Phoenix Arm’s continuous fire has nearly twice the range of its charged attacks,” Celestia said. “Its design is modeled after the Immortal Phoenix.” Fluttershy gave a frown and looked at the weapon with disdain. “… Sorry.”

“That’s okay,” Fluttershy said. “This type of weapon isn’t for me anyway.”

“Thou seem to have more of a presence with that arm equipped, considering its size,” Luna said. “It’s like how driving an SUV or a big truck makes one feel more in control. But that’s a misconception. Driving a big car does not make the objects around thee any smaller, and thou must still pay attention to the road.”

“What’s an SUV?” Fluttershy asked.

“How is this relevant?” Celestia added.

Luna scowled at the two of them. “Fine, heed not my warning,” she said. “But if thou run down some poor filly’s parents, remember that I tried to warn thee.”

“You do know that I fabricated that entire story, right?” Discord said.

“Does that include the part about vehicular ponyslaughter?” Celestia said.

“Sure, why not?” Discord said.

As Fluttershy continued down the pair of grind rails, the rails frequently sloped downward in addition to turning at right angles. She expected the rails to lead back to the same tower and drop her off at a lower floor. Instead, they seemed to be moving away from that tower and toward a second, much shorter tower. “Why am I going over there?” Fluttershy asked.

“That way leads to the control core for this entire island,” Celestia said. “That’s your target for this mission.”

The rails finally came to an end at one of the floors of the second tower. Fluttershy jumped off of the rails and landed on the nearest floor, where a door led into the tower. However, she turned back to gaze at the first tower. “So then you landed me at the wrong tower,” she said.

“You could say that,” Celestia said.

Inside the second tower was an elevator. The elevator took Fluttershy down to the surface level of the island. Once outside the elevator, Fluttershy stepped onto a path that led to a third tower. Unlike the others, the third tower was smaller, cylindrical in overall shape, and emerged from a deep circular shaft in the ground.

“There’s a path down through that tower,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy stepped hesitantly toward the third tower. She stopped at the edge of the pathway, which overlooked the circular shaft and the tower in the center. The pathway led down into the shaft, spiraling around the tower as it went. “So I should just keep going down this way?” she asked.

“I’m picking up high energy readings from the base of the tower,” Celestia said. “You can head there… I think.”

“Aww, sounds like someone’s losing her nerve,” Discord said mockingly. “I guess I’d better step in! Get in here, boys! It’s time for some Underworld Army action!” Several Monoeyes, Wave Anglers, and Syrens converged on the tower from multiple directions. They swooped down into the hole to begin their attack, avoiding the spiraling pathway entirely. Fluttershy peered down at them from the edge of the pathway. Suddenly, several lasers shot up from the shaft. Fluttershy stumbled back from the edge of the walkway and fell on her haunches, avoiding any near misses from the lasers. The Underworld troops weren’t so lucky however, and were all incinerated by the laser fire. “Well that didn’t go very well,” Discord said, somewhat embarrassed.

“I think we should just leave this to Fluttershy,” Luna said.

Fluttershy stood back up and moved back toward the spiraling walkway. “Oh, sure,” she muttered. “Do you want me to do your laundry too?”

“Now, now, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “Luna has faith in you, and so do I. I know you can handle it.”

Fluttershy turned toward the tower, and then back at the walkway. Cautiously, she started walking down the walkway. “I’ll do my best,” she said, “but only for you.”

“She certainly is devoted to thee, Celestia,” Luna said.

“Only because she squeezes that head wreath if she doesn’t follow orders,” Discord said.

“You mean like… this?!” Celestia said.

Fluttershy froze in place. “No, please don’t!” she said. “You’ll squeeze my brains out!”

Celestia chuckled. “Just kidding, Fluttershy,” she said.

“Ha ha ha ha! Nicely done!” Luna said, joining in on the laughter.

“Thank you.”

“Who knew that our sourpuss Celestia possessed a sense of humor?” Discord said.

“Yeah, very funny,” Fluttershy muttered before continuing down the walkway. She met with very little resistance as she descended into the shaft. The lasers that eliminated the Underworld troops could only fire straight up, so they couldn’t aim at Fluttershy. That only left Parasprite enemies, which included eight Quoils and two Blits. At the end of the pathway, she came across a circular platform suspended over the rest of the shaft.

“The center of that platform is an elevator down,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy walked over to a circle in the center of the platform. As soon as she stepped onto it, the circle detached from the rest of the platform and floated down into the darkness of the shaft below.

* * * * * * * * * *

Once the elevator reached the end of its descent, Fluttershy was standing in front of the core of the Parasprite island. The core, glowing red with copper colored markings on it, was at the base of the cylindrical tower. Three thick yellow plates circled around the core, partially protecting it, but with gaps in between them large enough to expose it.

“So that’s what I need to destroy?” Fluttershy asked.

“Only one way to find out?” Discord taunted.

Three circular white objects floated in place just below the plates. They circled around the core at the same speed as the plates, but in the opposite direction. Fluttershy moved closer to the core and fired a charge shot from her Phoenix Arm, but her attack hit one of the plates instead. She then fired a stream of bladed feathers at the core. Some of her shots hit their target while others merely hit the shields. Meanwhile, one of the circling white objects launched a ball of electricity at Fluttershy. The ball moved slowly across the ground, allowing Fluttershy to step away from it and continue firing.

“Try circling around the core to get a clearer shot at the gaps in the shield,” Celestia said. “You might want to shoot those outer guns too.”

At first, Fluttershy tried to move with the shields while firing. However, she found that the shields rotated around the core more quickly than she could. Instead, she decided to move in the other direction. More of her arm’s shots struck the core, chipping at the body of the core and putting a few noticeably large scratches in it. Suddenly, a large section of the floor changed to a bright purple color, including where Fluttershy was standing. Two seconds later, the purple sections of the floor became electrified. The current shot up through Fluttershy’s legs, shocking her and leaving her momentarily paralyzed.

“Your little pegasus gets an A for effort,” Discord said.

“I don’t know what I’d do without her,” Celestia said.

“Aw, that’s really nice of you, Princess Celestia,” Fluttershy said, having recovered from the earlier electrical shock. “Actually, I don’t think there’s any god or goddess I’d rather fight for.” Her cheeks turned a slight shade of pink, though she still managed to jump out of the way of another slow-moving ball of electricity. As she jumped, she fired four more bladed feathers, three of which hit the core, and continued firing.

“It seems we a have a little mutual admiration society here,” Luna said.

“Isn’t that sweet?” Discord said. “And by ‘sweet’, I mean disgusting!”

“I wouldn’t expect you two to know anything about loyalty or devotion,” Celestia said.

“I know sappiness when I see it,” Luna shot back.

“Hear hear,” Discord chimed in.

“That’s enough from the cheap seats,” Celestia said.

After a while, Fluttershy had tuned out the gods’ conversation in favor of focusing on the battle. The floor beneath her turned purple again, but this time she ran toward a safe section of the floor. All the while, she continued dodging attacks from the core’s revolving guns while shooting at the core. However, the shields were still blocking some of her attacks. Wondering if she could find another way around the plates, she soon had an idea.

“Slip Shot,” Fluttershy said. Her equipped power immediately activated, and her body started to softly flash pink. She took aim at the core, not bothering to aim away from the shields, and fired a charge shot. The fireball passed through one of the plates completely and struck the core directly. Fluttershy continued shooting afterward, and each of her shots hit their target without being blocked by the shields.

Suddenly, Fluttershy felt something hit her from behind. The impact sent electricity through her a second time. As soon as it passed, she looked behind her and saw one of the same guns that circled in front of the core moving along the wall. In addition to this one, and the three in front of the core, two more of these guns were also moving along the wall.

“The core’s defenses appear to be activating little by little,” Celestia said. “It will take some time before they are fully in place, so you should have plenty of time to severely damage the core by the time that happens.”

“They must still be using dial-up,” Discord quipped.

After twenty seconds, the effect of Slip Shot wore off, and Fluttershy’s body stopped flashing pink. Fortunately for her, she was able to use it twice, and she activated it a second time. The soft pink flashing resumed, and she launched another fireball at the core. Several cracks, scratches, and scorch marks already covered the core. After a few more bladed feathers from Fluttershy’s weapon, the defense systems abruptly halted.

“Let’s see what happens,” Discord said.

Moments later, bright yellow light began to shine from within every crack in the core’s structure. Meanwhile, Parasprite activity was continuing as it had throughout the cluster of islands. That all changed after nearly half a minute when a tremendous explosion occurred at one of the islands. Only one of these islands exploded, specifically the one that Fluttershy had attacked. However, the explosion spread far beyond that one island and caught every other island in the cluster within its blast radius. Little by little, the islands fragmented and started to fall from the sky. At the same time, Parasprites broke off each and every island by the thousand, only to burn shortly after.

As the islands were caught in the explosion, a pale magenta streak moved from the cluster. Carrying Flutteshy with her magic, Trixie came to a stop outside the blast radius. “I’m sure you’re just eager to thank Trixie for boldly rescuing you from…” Trixie stopped when she heard a light snoring. She turned toward Fluttershy, who was now fast asleep again. “How dare you sleep through the Great and Powerful Trixie’s performance?!”

“You’ll have to forgive her,” Celestia said. “She just woke up.” A beam of light shone down on Fluttershy, pulling her away from Trixie’s magic, but still keeping her in the air. “We appreciate your help.”

After that, Celestia’s magic extracted Fluttershy from the area, leaving Trixie alone. The glow around Trixie’s horn flared. “Trixie senses danger,” she said. She turned toward another area of the sky, where a massive fleet of starships could be seen beyond the upper atmosphere. “And now, Trixie sees it.”

Author's Note

Why does this chapter's land battle theme sound so much better when I'm not playing the chapter? Am I the only one who finds it to be out of place? Also, for anyone who's keeping track or even remotely interested, I'm done featuring any Arm or Cannon weapons for the rest of the story. And finally, let's review, shall we?
- If we'd landed on the balcony of Dark Lord Gaol's Castle, we could've cut out most of the land battle section, though we wouldn't have run into Magnus.
- You could say something similar about the Reaper Fortress, though there were extenuating circumstances.
- I'm not sure what we were doing in the Space Pirate Ship if we were just going to end up on the main deck anyway.
- The route to the Phoenix was pretty much all outdoor, though air travel was probably limited by the five-minute time limit.
- A different landing spot on the Reset Bomb Depot would have brought us directly in front of the entrance to the bomb pod.
- You could argue something similar about the Thunder Cloud Temple, since reaching Phosphora involved taking the walkway underneath the island.
- And now, we have this chapter. You know, now that I'm paying more attention to this game's level layouts, I'm noticing this trend more and more often.

The Parasprite Hive

Chapter 16: The Parasprite Hive

Fluttershy galloped toward the pair of doors at the end of the hallway. “Heading out!” she said. The doors opened as soon as she reached them, and a powerful gust of wind blew out through them, tugging on Fluttershy mane and causing her hooves to slide toward the portal. “Eep!” Within a few seconds, Fluttershy’s hooves lifted off the ground as she was sucked out through the portal. At first, she found herself above the evening sky, plummeting toward the earth. Before long, a yellow aura of magic spread through her wings, which soon began flapping.

“The Parasprites have been weakened, but not defeated,” Celestia said. “We need to destroy their fleet next.” Fluttershy nodded, and she gazed down at the fleet of blue airships below. She continued in her descent, her wings bringing her closer to the ships with each passing second. “Aim for the green targets, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy was now close enough to one of the ships to see a large, spherical green node sticking out of its hull. Held in her left hoof was a white and blue metallic staff, the Laser Staff. She held the staff out ahead of her and aimed at the fast approaching airship. Her aim was shaky at first, but within a second, she had the staff pointed at the green node and fired. Her shot hit the node head on, but before she could look to see the damage it caused, she had already flown past. Four more airships were below the first one, each one with a green node somewhere on its body. Fluttershy adjusted her aim as she approached each ship, and one by one, she shot each node as she flew by.

After the fifth node, Fluttershy slowed in her descent. She looked back up and saw the five ships, all in flames. As soon as reached a steady altitude, she turned toward the rest of the fleet, where at least a few dozen more ships were already visible to her. “There are so many different ships!” she said. A few Tribytes tried to fly toward her, but she shot them down with her staff.

“Well, yes,” Celestia said. “There are battleships, cruisers, destroyers, kayaks…”

Fluttershy swerved down and to the left to dodge a massive laser from the nose of one battleship. “No, I mean the Parasprites have lots of ships,” she said. On her right, two destroyers fired several smaller laser shots at her. However, these shots homed in on her, and she found herself trying to dodge them. “I doubt they have any kayaks.”

A third destroyer started firing at Fluttershy from two guns on its front. Celestia pulled her away from the two parallel streams of bullets and toward one of the battleships. “There are a lot of them,” she said. “It might be best to get you out.”

“Now why would you want to do that?” Discord said. “Where you pinheads see adversity, I see opportunity!”

“Discord!” Fluttershy muttered.

“For example,” Discord continued, “this battleship looks like it could use a good home. Now your chance, minions! It’s lootin’ time!”

Several Monoeyes floated down around the ship. Fluttershy looked up to see where they were coming from, and was shocked to see what looked like several huge, translucent tentacles hovering above the battleship. The tentacles almost looked like, and could have possibly been, a swarm of Monoeyes, and they moved toward and began to wrap around the battleship’s hull.

“The Underworld certainly is enthusiastic when it comes to thieving,” Celestia said. She turned Fluttershy toward the left, where an enormous spherical structure loomed in the distance. “Up ahead is where the battleships are being hatched.”

“Hatched?” Fluttershy asked. Four Blits began to trace themselves in the air. Fluttershy fired at them with her staff, and managed to destroy two before another four appeared behind them. “Don’t you mean built?”

“Sorry,” Celestia said. “I keep thinking of the Parasprites as a bee colony. And if their smaller troops are drones, their ships are killer bees.”

“Thou art referring to worker bees,” Luna said bluntly. “Drones serve a completely different purpose.”

“If we want to take down their fleet, we need to target the source of the problem,” Celestia added.

“I just hope there’s no Parasprite queen,” Fluttershy said. She began to fly toward the spherical hive, which had a few floating islands surrounding it. She noticed something green flash above her, and looked up to see three Monoeyes and three Miks were moving in a group. The green flash turned out to be a spherical object, which hurtled down and struck one of the Monoeyes. The object continued falling toward Fluttershy, who jerked left to avoid before it could hit her. “What was that?!” she squeaked.

“Those are also Parasprite troops,” Celestia said, pointing out a group of spheres that were falling toward Fluttershy. “They are called Rozzes.”

Two more Underworld soldiers were also hit by oncoming Rozzes, though the other three managed to move away. Fluttershy, however, was left to dodge each of the Rozzes as they rained down toward on her one by one. “So you know the names of all these enemies too?” she asked.

“Well, you can’t actually pronounce the names of Parasprite troops, so I took a few creative liberties,” Celestia said. Eventually, the Rozzes had stopped coming, but were replaced by Quoils. Fluttershy prepared to move in any direction necessary to dodge, only this time, she aimed her weapon and fired at them. Most of the Quoils were destroyed by her staff, and even though she detonated a few approaching Nukleens, circular orange and green mines that exploded when shot, she had less trouble avoiding them.

“Am I the only one paying attention?” Luna said irritably. “Look! Those Parasprite ‘troops’ are merely copies of Underworld enemies!”

Fluttershy looked down, and was surprised to see Parasprite version of Miks and Monoeyes fighting a group of their original counterparts. The copies were identical in shape to the originals, except their bodies were white and their short, stubby tentacles were black and neon green. The Parasprite Miks even had prehensile tongues, which they and their counterparts were using to lash at one another.

“I’ve got to hand it to them,” Discord said. “Those are some pretty decent knock-offs.”

“First they devour planets, and now they are copying enemies?” Luna said in disgust. “Ugh, lowlifes.”

Two of the Parasprite copies, a Mik and a Monoeye, appeared ahead of Fluttershy and started shooting at her. Fluttershy moved away from their attacks, but when she returned fire, a Rezda moved in front of them and blocked her shots. Noticing a solid object in the center of the Rezda’s square-shaped energy barrier, she fired at it instead.

“So maybe the treasure boxes and Exo Tank were also copies,” Celestia said.

“Can’t say for sure,” Luna said.

“Full disclosure here,” Discord said. “The Mimicuties were courtesy of yours truly.”

Fluttershy was busy shooting down more of the Parasprite Miks and Monoeyes, but she paused after hearing Discord’s confession. “It was you!” she said.

“What?” Discord said. “Don’t you like presents, Fluttershy?”

After a while, Fluttershy had finally shot down the Parasprite copies, and even a few Rezdas in her way, and was now approaching the floating islands that lay before the Parasprite Hive. Much of the islands were obscured by a thick blanket of clouds, though the Hive itself was at a slightly higher altitude.

“We’re nearing a floating island,” Celestia said. “You can hide from the Parasprite fleet by taking a lower route.” She guided Fluttershy above the surface of one of the islands and into the cloud mass covering it.

Inside the clouds, Fluttershy saw groups of Tribytes and Parasprite Miks and Monoeyes. She flew in between the island’s towers and other various structures, dodging enemy fire and shooting down enemies as she went. As soon as the last few enemies were destroyed, she continued to fly over the island. Because she was cruising through the clouds, much of the island was obscured by poor visibility. She could have just as easily been flying through a dense fog. Fortunately, she could still see and moved around the islands tallest structures as she went. However, she also saw something else through the clouds, looming over the side of the island. Lasers fired from the looming figure into the clouds and twisted off course, smashing through the island’s towers as they tried to home in on Fluttershy.

“They’ve sent a destroyer in,” Celestia said. “They’re destroying themselves to get to you.”

“I must give credit to the Parasprites,” Luna said. “They don’t fool around.”

Celestia continued to guide Fluttershy through the clouds. She pulled her away from each of the destroyer’s oncoming attacks that continued to target her. Soon, there was a pause in the destroyer’s assault. Using her magic, Celestia took the opportunity to guide Fluttershy out of the clouds, past the floating island, and out of the destroyer’s range.

Past the group of floating islands, Fluttershy came across more of the Parasprite fleet. At least three ships were ahead, from what she could see, and directly behind the fleet, the Hive itself loomed over her. One more detail caught her eyes as she flew toward the ships. Large green nodes were also present on their hulls as well. She readied her Laser Staff and took aim at the oncoming ships.

“None of these battleships seem to have a helm,” Luna said.

“And I’m not detecting any life forms on the ships either,” Celestia added.

“Something has to be controlling them,” Luna said.

“Weeee aarrrre from outer spaaaaaace,” Discord said, imitating an almost robotic voice.

“Yes, yes, you’re hilarious,” Celestia deadpanned.

Another shot from Fluttershy’s staff hit another green node on one of the Parasprite ships. Moments later, she was flying toward another ship with a node projecting from it; the third one since she’d past the floating islands. “It seems like awfully poor design for these ships to have their weak spots exposed,” she said. After shooting down a Rezda in her path, she fired a shot at the green node, destroying her third Parasprite airship in roughly ten seconds, and spotting a fourth one just a few hundred feet away.

“Or you can thank me for the user-friendly interface,” Celestia said.

“Are you saying that you exposed the ships’ weak spots?!”

“I cast a spell to attach large markers to the ships’ exteriors,” Celestia said. “Those markers connect to the ships’ engines.”

Fluttershy flew by the fifth Parasprite ship and fired her staff at the next green node. “Wow, thank you,” she said.

“Anything to help you destroy the Parasprite fleet,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy flew toward a Parasprite aircraft carrier, where the sixth green node awaited her. Two Jyoks tried to block her path with their lasers, and four Quoils launched themselves at her, but she shot down each of them with her weapon, fired one more shot at the node and continued on past the fleet. Explosions tore through several sections of the aircraft carrier, as well as the last five ships Fluttershy left behind.

The destroyed airships were the least of Fluttershy’s concerns now, because two things still lay ahead of her, and both of them left her feeling anxious. First, over a hundred airships were still positioned in front of the Parasprite Hive. They were all grouped around Fluttershy, and she felt trapped as she flew closer to them. Second, the Hive itself now hung directly above her in the air, adding to the feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach.

Now that Fluttershy was near the underside of the Hive, Celestia led her up the surface of the spherical fortress and toward its face. “We’ve arrived at the Parasprite Hive,” she said. “There’s just one problem.”

“What is it?” Fluttershy said nervously. She fired at several Tribytes in her way, as well as yet another airship with a green node attached to its surface.

“There doesn’t seem to be any way in.”

“There isn’t?” Fluttershy said. She passed by three more ships along the way, each one with one of Celestia’s markers attached to its hull.

“I’m afraid not,” Celestia said. “There’s not a single entry, and we won’t be able to enter by force.” She finally brought Fluttershy in front of the Parasprite Hive, where a yellow energy barrier covered part of the Hive’s surface. More airships, as well as a few Tribytes and other enemies, exited the Hive to join the fleet, passing harmlessly through the yellow energy barrier.

“There is a shield to protect the vessels as they leave the Hive,” Luna said.

“But you always find a way in, Princess Celestia,” Fluttershy said. “Now what do we do?”

Celestia began to weigh her remaining options, but with less than a minute of Fluttershy’s flight remaining, there was little they could do. Making their own entrance into the Parasprite Hive would take far too long, and any ships they destroyed now would easily be replaced. “At this time, our only option is to fall back,” she said.

“And thou would leave us to fight this battle for ye,” Luna said irritably. “Of course.”

“Don’t curse the darkness, light a candle!” Discord said in delight. “When freaky aliens give you lemons, make freaky alien lemonade! Like… this!”

At first, nothing seemed to happen, and Fluttershy simply hovered in place in the air. Suddenly, Celestia abruptly pulled her to her right, mere seconds before a gold colored battleship rushed past her. “Eep!” Fluttershy squeaked, startled by the ship as it came with feet of ramming into her. Instead, the battleship crashed into the Hive’s barrier head on. The barrier flickered violently as the ship seemed to shatter through a section of it. It continued to flicker and crackle violently, even after the ship’s nose and half of its body were buried inside it. “Well that’s one way to do it.”

“That was… incredible,” Luna said.

“Now just pass through the ship and enter the Parasprite Hive,” Celestia said.

“It’s like a straw stuck in an orange,” Luna added, still in complete shock.

Two Monoeyes and two Miks flew out of the crashed ship, apparently evacuating the wreckage. Fluttershy ignored them as she flew in the opposite direction and toward the ship. Smoke rose from a hole in the side of the ship, and as soon as Fluttershy saw it, she flew inside. However, flames had erupted throughout the battleships interior, and Fluttershy was hit by the intense heat almost immediately. “Ow, hot!” she said. “Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot! Hot!”

* * * * * * * * * *

Beyond the crashed battleship and the launch bay of the Parasprite Hive, Fluttershy touched down in a narrow hallway. The hallway’s floors and ceiling were all built from a smooth, reflective material. Overall, the material was blue-gray in color, but the walls, floors, and ceiling all bore a patchwork design reminiscent of the Parasprite floating islands, and each individual patch of the hallway material was in a different shade of blue-gray. Small, rectangular spots lit up randomly behind several sections of the walls, and though it added to the futuristic appearance of the place, its actual purpose was far less clear.

“Now that you’re in the Parasprite Hive, you’re one step closer to stopping their fleet,” Celestia said. “Your objective is to shut down the Hive’s power generator.”

Fluttershy began making her way through the hallway with little resistance. At every turn, she found the hallway to be completely empty of Parasprite troops. It seemed that the Hive wasn’t responding to her presence, but to Fluttershy, it only made the place feel colder and emptier than it already felt. She reached the end of the passageway, where a door opened into a large empty room with a low ceiling. But as soon as she stepped into the room, she heard a loud blaring noise. “Uh-oh.”

“You must have triggered an alarm,” Celestia said.

At the other end of the room, four doors opened, revealing a small alcove with two Quoils and Parasprite versions of a Skuttler and an Urgle all in a row. Holding her Laser Staff in her hoof, Fluttershy fired a charge shot at the Parasprite Skuttler, and took out the Quoils with two smaller shots. Unfortunately, she was too busy with the other three to notice the Parasprite Urgle, which rushed toward her. Placing its large hands underneath Fluttershy’s body, it then flung its arms up, tossing Fluttershy off the ground. Fluttershy’s body slammed into the low ceiling and fell back onto the ground. She groaned as she tried to get back on her hooves, while the Parasprite Urgle stepped back, preparing to attack again. Before standing back up, Fluttershy aimed her staff and the enemy and fired, punching through it with a short-ranged charge shot. With the room clear of Parasprite soldiers, a door at the end of the room opened. Fluttershy moved carefully toward the door and continued through the Hive.

“The ship the Underworld Army hijacked was very heavily damaged,” Celestia said.

“Well of course,” Luna said. “They did crash it into the hive. And not only did that give us a point of entry, but it also cost both Discord and the Parasprites some of their forces.”

“I am thankful for that bit of good news,” Celestia said.

“Um, you’re welcome?” Discord said.

At the end of another hallway, Fluttershy found herself standing at the entrance of an enormous chamber within the Hive. The chamber consisted of a single path that extended from right to left. On either side of the chamber, a red energy barrier was in place over the path, though the path seemed to continue in past both barriers. Fluttershy was about to step inside when she began to hear something on the right side of the chamber. The sound was soft at first, but grew louder with each passing second, and was soon accompanied by a tremor in the ground. “Does anypony hear that rumble?” she asked.

“It’s coming from a behemoth of a vehicle,” Celestia said. From the right side of the chamber, a large dark gray vehicle raced along the path. The vehicle hovered about an inch off the ground, with electricity coursing through the bottom and connecting to the floor. It passed by Fluttershy and continued on, passing through the red barrier on the left side of the chamber. “It looks like it runs on a loop.”

Fluttershy looked in both directions along the vehicle’s track. There were no doors or passageways on her side of the track, or even directly opposite her side. Instead, she saw a few alcoves in the walls to her right, all of them spread out from each other. “I have to get through here to keep going, do I?” she asked.

“As a disclaimer, thy insurance does not cover being run over by alien trains,” Luna said.

“Outer space is a bit out of the coverage area,” Celestia said.

“What I wouldn’t give to have the Thanatos plan right about now,” Fluttershy murmured. She edged closer to the right and looked out at the track. The nearest recess in the wall was on her side of the track, several yards from where she was standing. She stepped back when she heard the train coming around again, and waited for it to pass.

The train made a loud rumble and caused the ground to shake as it went, but as soon as it passed, Fluttershy went on to the track and ran toward the next alcove. As soon as she reached it, she ran inside and looked out. The next alcove was further ahead, on the other side of the track. Fluttershy retreated further inside the alcove, and as she waited for the train to pass, she checked her left side, where her Laser Staff was magically secured just below her wing.

“Did you know that staffs are generally more powerful from a distance?” Celestia said.

“What do you mean by ‘generally’?” Fluttershy said as she galloped toward the next alcove, continuing the pattern of running along the track while the train was gone.

“Well, there are many different types of staffs,” Celestia said. “Most of them are more powerful when fired from long distances, making them suitable for sniping, though a few are more effective at close range.” Fluttershy ran into the fourth alcove along the track. Looking out at the track, she could see one more alcove ahead of her, and beyond that was the red barrier that the train emerged from. However, when she stepped inside the alcove, a Parasprite Urgle suddenly dropped in from the ceiling. Fluttershy quickly reached for her staff, and as soon as she had it aimed, fired a charge shot. Her shot pierced through the enemy’s body, causing it to disassemble into a few dozen Parasprites before burning to ash. “Then there’s your Laser Staff, which is just as powerful at point-blank range as it is from a hundred meters.”

Fluttershy took a close look at the staff in her hoof. With a long, slender body, tapered muzzle and a blunt, rounded handle, the Laser Staff wasn’t especially different from other staffs. However, Fluttershy took particular interest in the blue lines that ran along its white body. “This staff looks a lot like the Parasprite enemies,” she said.

“Hmm,” Celestia said, examining the weapon for herself. “Aesthetically, there is a resemblance, but there’s nothing in its name or flavor text to suggest that its design was inspired by them.”

“Besides, all of thy weapons have been imbued with the power of the gods,” Luna said.

“Oh,” Fluttershy said. “So are earth ponies able to use them?”

“I doubt it,” Luna said. “Even if they were, these weapons aren’t likely to fall into their hooves.”

“They miss out on a lot,” Discord said tersely.

“Thou know the saying about earth ponies,” Luna started to say, and was soon joined by Discord. “‘Born crying, soon they’re dying.’”

“That’s kind of mean, isn’t it?” Fluttershy said.

“Well I’ve always liked the saying about the gods better,” Discord said. This time, he was joined by both Luna and Celestia. “‘Powerful and frightening, smite everything with lighting.’”

“That one doesn’t sound much better either,” Fluttershy said. “It just makes all the gods sound like violent sociopaths. And Celestia isn’t like that at all, right?”

“Of course not, Fluttershy,” Celestia said.

“As long as thou ask naught of her teen years,” Luna interjected.

“What did she say?” Fluttershy asked.

“Nothing, Fluttershy,” Celestia calmly asserted. “Absolutely nothing.”

Inside the last alcove was a small elevator. The elevator took Fluttershy down one floor when she stepped onto it, and when it came to a stop, she saw a pool of warm water with steam coming from it.

“Fluttershy, there’s a hot spring,” Celestia said.

“Wait,” Luna said, just as Fluttershy started to canter toward the spring. “This is a Parasprite hot spring. Thou know not if it is dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” Fluttershy said as she waded into the hot spring. She moved her hoof through the warm, shallow water, and then sat down. “It doesn’t feel any different from the other hot springs.”

After a few minutes passed, Fluttershy stepped out of the hot spring and continued on through a nearby door. The room beyond that door was circular in shape, with a pillar standing in the center. The floor rotated counterclockwise around the center of the room, and three Jyoks and two Nukleens hovered above the ground.

“There’s an Aether Ring to your left,” Celestia said.

“It’s likely a Parasprite imitation,” Luna said.

“I don’t care,” Fluttershy said, spotting the Aether Ring sitting just outside the rotating floor and trotting toward it. As soon as she reached it, she stepped inside and activated the vehicle. Her body floated within the ring, and she placed her hooves on the controls. “As long as it works, I’m going to use it.”

With her hooves on the controls, Fluttershy fired the Aether Ring’s short-range gun at the Jyoks while trying to avoid shooting the explosive Nukleens. The Jyoks were quickly shot down, but two Kolmas, floating wheel-shaped enemies with white plates covering the circumference of their black bodies, appeared in the room to take their place. Fluttershy fired at them, but her shots did little to the protective white plates surrounding them.

One of the Kolmas rose up and began to spin its wheel-shaped body around its axis, causing its plates to fly off at Fluttershy. Fluttershy maneuvered the Aether Ring away from the Kolma’s line of fire. In the process, she moved around the second Kolma and fired at one of its two unprotected circular sides. A few shots from the Aether Ring’s gun destroyed the second Kolma, and by the time she started firing at the first one, it had thrown off all of its protective plates. Once the Kolmas were destroyed, Fluttershy easily shot down a Zaurum and two Parasprite Urgles that replaced them.

As soon as Fluttershy destroyed the last Parasprite Urgle, the two Nukleens vanished from the room. Another door opened, and Fluttershy piloted the Aether Ring into the adjoining hallway. At the end of the hallway, she found a small circular room with a hole in the floor.

“There appears to be a passageway leading downward,” Celestia said. “You should be able to use that Aether Ring to gently hover to the bottom.”

Fluttershy moved the Aether Ring over the hole and decelerated, allowing it to float down the hole and into a shaft below. The Aether Ring came to a stop at a platform just beneath the hole, and Fluttershy decided to look further down the shaft. The shaft was empty for the most part, and the bottom of it wasn’t especially far down with the Aether Ring. However, there were also two recesses in the walls. The first was at the same height as the platform Fluttershy was on, and inside was a spherical blue switch. Fluttershy shot at the switch with the Aether Ring’s gun, activating the switch and causing another platform to appear further down the shaft. This platform extended to one of the walls of the shaft, and incidentally was also at the same level as the second alcove.

Fluttershy moved off of the first platform, allowing the Aether Ring to hover down to the second. As she got closer to the platform, she could see into the alcove and noticed a blue light inside it. Eventually, she realized what it was that she was seeing inside. “Another Zodiac Chamber,” Fluttershy said.

“In the Parasprite Hive?” Celestia said. “What an odd place to find one.”

Fluttershy moved the Aether Ring into the alcove and onto the beacon of light. However, as soon as she hovered over the beacon and let its light wash over her, the Aether Ring disappeared from around her. A second later, she found herself standing on her own hooves inside the Zodiac Chamber. After being unable to find the Aether Ring nearby, Fluttershy approached the pedestal at the other end of the chamber. As soon as she reached it, a thin gray staff materialized above the pedestal. The staff’s handle resembled a scorpion’s pincer, and it bore a sight in the shape of a scorpion’s tail. Fluttershy grabbed the weapon, known as the Scorpio Staff, and once it was secured by Celestia’s magic, she left the Zodiac Chamber.

As soon as she returned to the Hive, Fluttershy dropped down from the platform to the bottom of the shaft. A door at the bottom of the shaft led her to another hallway. She moved through the hallway, and when she reached the door at the end of it, she found herself staring out at the heart of the Parasprite Hive. As far as she could see, everything around her was a clear sky blue. Much of the Hive’s interior was hollow, though several white structures covered the very bottom of the area, bearing a resemblance to arctic ice floes due to the wide open expanse of the area and the blue backdrop created by the walls of the Hive interior.

“I can’t believe all of this actually fits inside the Parasprite Hive,” Fluttershy said.

“It is quite expansive,” Celestia said.

A pair of blue-gray rails appeared in front of the ledge Fluttershy stood on. Fluttershy hopped onto the rails, and their magic went through her hooves and carried her toward the center of the Hive. Along the way, several Parasprite enemies, including four Miks, a Jyok, two Monoeyes and four Tribytes hovered ahead of her. Taking her Laser Staff into her hoof, Fluttershy opened fire on the group of enemies. However, once those enemies were taken out, two more Jyoks and two Rezdas appeared above the rails ahead of her. The Rezdas hovered in place over the grind rails, positioning their energy-based shields over the rails and in Fluttershy’s path. Meanwhile, the Jyoks hid behind the Rezda’s shields, allowing them to aim their lasers from behind safe cover. But before Fluttershy could run into either the Rezdas’ shields or the Jyoks’ lasers, a Blader flew past her and toward the four enemies. The Blader barreled through the center of both Redzas and into the two Jyoks, destroying all four and clearing Fluttershy’s path.

“The Forces of Nature?” Fluttershy said.

“Do not misinterpret my actions, Fluttershy,” Luna said. “I am not here to help thee. It is simply in my best interest to keep thee alive for now.”

A second Blader flew by and joined the first one. Each one fired a laser at one of two Parasprite Monoeyes still in the area before flying off.

“Aw…” Celestia said. “It looks like Little Miss Cactus has a soft spot for Fluttershy.”

“Keep thy voice down!” Luna hissed. “Others are listening! Er…” She paused for a moment, and then switched to a loud, booming voice. “WE ARE DEFINITELY NOT TRYING TO HELP THEE, FLUTTERSHY!”

“Oh really?” Celestia teased.

“That’s fine,” Fluttershy muttered. “I don’t like you anyway.”

“RRGH, THOU ART SO INFURIATING!” Luna shouted. “THIS IS WHY WE KEPT TRYING TO KILL THEE!”

“Really, and dismantling your weapons of mass destruction had nothing to do with it?” Celestia said.

“… That was part of it,” Luna grumbled.

Fluttershy passed over a pair of partially constructed battleships underneath the grind rails as she made her way toward the center of the Hive. Awaiting her at the center was what appeared to be a bluish-white tower, though instead of rising out of any part of the ground, it was floating in the air. “This will take you to the Parasprite Hive’s power generator,” Celestia said. “Destroy the generator to neutralize the entire Hive.”

Fluttershy gazed nervously at the structure as the grind rails brought her closer to it. She entered through a hexagonal opening near the base of the structure. The rails spiraled up the interior of a cylindrical chamber inside and came to an end at another hexagonal opening at the top. Once she reached the end of them, Fluttershy jumped off the rails and landed inside a large room within the structure. A door opened at the other side of the room, and she made her way toward it and the Parasprite Hive’s generator room.

* * * * * * * * * *

Fluttershy stood on a ledge overlooking a massive chamber at the center of the Parasprite Hive. A spherical object with several large points extending from it floated in the middle of the chamber, glowing with an intense yellow light. Four pairs of rails, one red, one yellow, one blue and one green, formed their own winding paths around the sphere. “That’s the Parasprite Hive’s power generator,” Celestia said.

Fluttershy brought a foreleg over her face in an attempt to shield her eyes from the generator’s harsh glow. “It’s as bright as the sun,” she said. Turning her eyes away from the generator, she saw that one set of rails came near the ledge she was standing on. Stepping up to the edge, she hesitated for a second before jumping onto the yellow pair of rails. Though she stumbled for a moment, her hooves stayed on the pair of rails, which immediately started carrying her along them.

As soon as she was standing securely on the pair of yellow rails, Fluttershy took the Laser Staff from her side. Aiming it at the generator, she fired a single charge shot. She kept her weapon pointed at her target and waited several seconds for it to charge before firing again. Floating above her were three guard units resembling giant Tribytes. One of them fired a spherical energy shot at her, but because the grind rails carried her along without stopping, the shot was too slow to hit her.

Eventually, she reached a point in the loop where all four sets of rails aligned themselves next to each other. Though she wasn’t yet considering switching to another set of rails, she noticed a section of the green rails on her left become electrified. She continued along the yellow rails and fired another charge shot at the generator. Cracks formed on the surface of the generator with each of her attacks, and one shot even pierced a few inches into it.

After her fourth attack on the generator, Fluttershy noticed something fly into the chamber. As soon as it flew up to the generator, Fluttershy realized that that something was a certain blue unicorn mare. “Trixie?” she asked. “What are you doing here?”

“Looks like you could use a hoof there, and the Great and Powerful Trixie is here to provide it!” Trixie said.

“Actually… I think I’ve got it under control,” Fluttershy said, focusing her attention back on her target.

Trixie scowled at Fluttershy, seemingly taking offense to what the latter said. After a second, she shrugged it off and began to gather the magic in her horn. “This is what you call having it under control?” she scoffed. “Watch and see how my magic handles the job!” Several small blasts of magic rained down from Trixie’s horn and exploded on contact with the generator. However, instead of causing any damage, the energy and flames from her assault spread across the surface and appeared to seep inside. The generator glowed with increased intensity, the three guard units above changed to a pale magenta, and three protective plates materialized around the sides of the generator. “That’s… odd.”

Fluttershy stared in shock at the changes to the generator, and the hoof that held her weapon started to shake. “What did you do?!” she yelled out.

“Apparently, adding heat to heat only makes it hotter,” Celestia said.

“Ha ha ha…” Trixie laughed nervously. “That is to say, oops. My bad.”

“My bad?” Fluttershy said angrily, glaring up at Trixie even as the grind rails kept moving her around the generator. “That’s all you have to say for yourself?!”

“W-Well you said you had everything under control, right? Trixie said. The glare Fluttershy gave her remained unchanged. “But no, the Great and Powerful Trixie has one more message to impart to you. I wish you luck! You’re going to need it. And with that, Trixie must leave you!”

Fluttershy watched as Trixie flew out of the generator room. As soon as Trixie was gone, Fluttershy lifted her weapon hoof to her foreleg in a sort of facehoof. “Arrgh! What an idiot!” she said. Once again, the yellow set of rails returned her to where the four aligned next to each other. This time however, a section of the yellow rails became electrified, as well as the red ones to her right. Bending her knees, she hopped off of the yellow rails and landed on the green ones to her left. She continued along the green rails and aimed her staff at the generator again. “Quick Charge,” she said quietly. Blue light flashed throughout her body, and she fired a charge shot at the generator. Her staff charged up again less than a second later, and she fired another charge shot.

After an additional eight charge shots fired in quick succession, the glow emanating from the generator started to flicker. The three guard units reverted back to their original blue color, and along with the three protective plates, they fell from their positions around the now crumbling generator. Fluttershy stopped riding along the grind rails as a yellow beam of light shone down on her, and within a few seconds, she was extracted from the generator room.

On the outside, the Parasprite Hive was also crumbling on the outside. For a few seconds, the Hive imploded on itself, and every nearby airship in its fleet was pulled in. The implosion reversed after those few seconds, and the Parasprite Hive, its entire fleet of airships, and all of the millions of Parasprites that made them up were caught within a gigantic explosion.

Meanwhile, Trixie hovered outside the blast radius of the Parasprite Hive’s explosion. As the explosion subsided, she looked up at the evening sky. “And now, on to the Parasprite Brain,” she said.

Author's Note

Ugh, maybe it's because I had a lot of stuff to do last week and sort of rushed to finish this over the weekend. Maybe it's because I don't really go back to the Aurum chapters all that much, and thus hadn't thought out this chapter as much in the last few months as I did many of the game's other chapters. Or maybe it's because I just don't find the Aurum subplot all that interesting and am trying to push through until I reach the next subarc. Whatever it is, this took longer than it should have, and I'm about as confident in this chapter as I am in the Hewdraw and Reaper chapters. Oh well, this subarc's almost done at least.

Also, to those of you who never noticed, there is in fact a fourth, blue grind rail in the Aurum Generator boss fight. It's on the far left when the rails line up with each other, and it actually brings you close enough to the generator to use melee attacks. Keep that in mind for when you want to go into this chapter with a short-ranged weapon, like ~~a club~~ or ~~an arm~~ or claws.

Finally, if you’re wondering where Rainbow Dash is during the Parasprite invasion, scroll up the page a bit. You can’t miss her.

The Lightning Chariot: Part 2

Chapter 19: The Lightning Chariot (cont.)

The elevator came to a slow, grinding stop as it reached another circular chamber, fitting perfectly inside a ring-shaped platform that marked the upper end of the elevator shaft. A narrow bridge extended from one side of the platform, spanning a deep chasm and connecting to a door at the end of the chamber. Fluttershy started toward the bridge, but stopped when two Handoras crawled up from the chasm and scuttled in front of the bridge, blocking her path. Two Syrens rose from the chasm with them and glided along the chamber walls in opposite directions, trying to catch her in a pincer maneuver. Finally, a Shildeen floated behind the Handoras, and a thin, iridescent dome formed over the three monsters, acting as a barrier.

“Underlings!” Discord shouted. “I’m offering one hundred bits for Flutterbutt’s head!”

“Fluttershy,” she muttered back, less than amused as she sidestepped an energy blast and fired back with her bow.

“Whatever,” Discord said, rolling his eyes. “You’d think your tenure as a bracelet would have had some effect your sense of humor.”

Fluttershy froze as she was aiming her bow at one of the Syrens. “Wait, you know that I was turned into a bracelet?”

“Oh, is it a secret?” Discord said. “Well don’t mind me. Mum’s the word.”

Fluttershy fired a charge shot, striking one of the two Syrens and sending it falling back into the chasm. “Did you turn me into that bracelet?” she accused more than asked.

“Wow,” Discord said, shaking his head and almost chuckling. “You really are clueless. Don’t you know, Fluttershy? You’re the cause of all this chaos!”

“What?! But that makes no sense!”

“Believe not a word he speaks, Fluttershy,” Luna broke in. “Discord is at fault here and no one else.”

“Why, thank you,” Discord replied. “That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard you say.”

“It may very well be,” Luna retorted. “But don’t grow accustomed to it.”

“Well that’s a bit harsh,” Discord said. “As if I’ve done anything to deserve such scorn.”

Fluttershy shot one more gem from her bow, taking out the last enemy in the chamber. She walked down the bridge to the end of the chamber, and once the heavy door opened for her, she stepped outside. Once again, she found herself standing on another walkway that gently spiraled up the tower’s side. She began to walk toward the edge of the walkway, intending to peer down at the ground below, but stopped a few steps short when she glimpsed how far down it actually was.

Turning around, she looked up the side of tower, only to be dismayed as the structure continued to loom endlessly above her. The elevator in the last chamber had taken her up several floors, and by now she had to have been on the twentieth floor, or at least very close to it. Yet the tower still stretched high up, and the higher Fluttershy climbed, the more of it there still seemed to be. “How much more of this tower is there? I know you said it was really tall, but—”

“Yes, I recall warning you in advance about the tower’s height,” Luna said, giving an exasperated sigh. “You must have seen for yourself its size when we approached for a landing.”

“I suppose,” Fluttershy said. “But this place is so huge, we had to start a new chapter back there.”

“Quiet, lest they hear you!” Luna hissed. “We are not to discuss such things.”

Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. She’d never had any problem talking about those things when Celestia was with her. Occasionally, they even took a shot at the author, something they’d both grown fond of. So why was Luna fretting about it? Fluttershy shook her head, dropping the subject, and headed up the walkway.

A narrow, branching corridor formed by several low walls greeted her when she entered the chamber on the next floor. The walls rose several feet above her, nowhere near high enough to reach the ceiling but still tall enough that she couldn’t see over them, much less climb over them. From the way the walls wrapped around one another, Fluttershy could tell that there were other corridors on the other side, some of which came to dead ends.

“Is this supposed to be a maze?” Fluttershy asked.

“Yes, though it does not extend beyond this chamber,” Luna said. “It should not delay you for long.”

Fluttershy began to make her way down the corridor. After a brief dead end, a left turn and then a right turn, she soon reached a fork in the pathway. To her right, the path continued down a long hallway that eventually branched in three different directions. But straight ahead of her, a large hole lay in the floor, blocking her off from another hallway on the other side. Looking over the walls ahead, Fluttershy could make out the top of a massive doorframe at the end of that hallway, marking the end of the maze. She gazed down at the Crystal Bow on her leg, studying the small puzzle grid that was engraved into the base of one of its limbs.

“There has to be something here that can get me across,” Fluttershy said. “Maybe a Jump Glide?”

“I recall the Angelic Missile power being inserted into that bow,” Luna answered.

“Angelic Missile?” Fluttershy said. “I don’t like the sound of—”

Before she could finish her sentence, the puzzle grid flashed. Fluttershy’s hooves lifted off the ground, and she suddenly found herself spinning through the air as her body rocketed forward. She spun for several seconds before coming to a stop in midair and landed on her back with a plop.

The room spun in Fluttershy’s vision as she pulled herself onto her haunches and stood back up. She brought a hoof to her head, giving her head a moment to stop spinning and herself a chance to get her bearings. The Angelic Missile power had shot her across the gap in the floor, and when she looked around she saw the exit just a few feet away. The door lifted open for her as she approached it, and she started up toward the next floor, putting this chamber and its maze behind her.

The mechanical whir of spinning propellers came from beneath the edge of the walkway as Fluttershy was walking up to the next floor. Fluttershy stopped halfway up as the sound grew louder and closer. She watched as a small castle rose up and hovered before her alongside the walkway. Several propellers on each of the castle’s three towers, two slender ones flanking a wider central tower, spun rapidly and kept the whole structure afloat. The central keep was fitted with a pair of thick doors at its base and a wooden shutter above it that covered what appeared to be a large window. The shutter flew open, and the cartoonish visage of a scowling pig’s face burst out, accompanied by the sound of a pig’s squeal. Fluttershy’s apprehensive gaze quickly turned into an incredulous stare. “What’s that supposed to be?” she asked.

“A fortified troop transport for the Underworld Army,” Luna said. “They are named Fort Oinks. Not quite as terrifying as the Belunkas but far better defended, based on reports from my commanders.”

The gates of the Fort Oink swung open, and two Skuttler Cannoneers were spit out onto the walkway. The Skuttlers hardly managed to land on their limbs before being taken out by a charge shot from Fluttershy’s bow. Fluttershy aimed her bow and, after waiting for a second, fired another charge shot at the Fort Oink. The fortress jerked back, but stayed afloat and hovered further up the side of the walkway. Its doors flew open again, but before it could dispatch another few troops, Fluttershy fired another blue gem at the pig’s face. The Fort Oink stumbled back. It wobbled in midair as several of its propellers malfunctioned and stopped spinning. Eventually the mini-fortress dropped from its position near the tower and plummeted back down.

“I thought they were supposed to be better defended,” Fluttershy said.

“They are,” Luna replied. “As long as your overlook the pig’s face.”

Fluttershy gave a brief shrug before turning back and continuing up the rest of the walkway. When she reached the next floor, she stepped inside a vast, empty chamber. To her surprise, the ceiling of the chamber was domed with brightly glowing, ornate patterns moving across from one side to the next. Beneath her hooves, the floor was blue, glassy, and transparent, and revealed an entire hemispherical space underneath the chamber. The glowing patterns continued to move on the walls beneath the transparent floor, rotating along the walls and ceiling of the entire spherical chamber as if they were turning rings or gears. Nevertheless, the next door was still on the other side of the room, with nothing in Fluttershy’s way, and she started walking toward it. She didn’t get very far before she heard several sharp thumps on the floor around her.

A number of Shemums rolled onto their undersides and turned toward Fluttershy. A few more were still falling from the ceiling, some landing on their sides, some landing on their faces, but all of them collectively surrounding her. Fluttershy fired a charge shot at one of the creatures as they all began to slither toward her, forming an increasingly tighter circle around her. She turned toward the two closest Shemums and shot a smaller gem from her bow at each of them. As the remaining enemies drew closer, Fluttershy separated her bow, holding each limb in one hoof, and slashed at them.

Despite their advance, the Shemums didn’t take much effort to defeat individually, and with a combination of projectile gems and blade slices, the last Shemum was eventually slain. Suddenly, the floor trembled violently under Fluttershy’s hooves, causing her to stumble as a Crawler dropped into the center of the room. The Crawler was soon followed by two Skuttlers, both of which landed gracelessly on their heads. Fluttershy shot the first Skuttler as she began to trot around the chamber, her attention focused on the Crawler as she studied its movement and tried to get behind it. Her gait soon shifted to a brisk canter, almost at a gallop, after she fired at the second Skuttler, taking it out before it could stand up. For its part, the Crawler rotated on its treads trying to keep up with Fluttershy, setting her in its sights while attempting to keep its vulnerable rear unexposed.

Lights flashed from underneath the Crawler’s pleated shell. Fluttershy ducked as a laser fired from its turrets, then sidestepped to avoid two more lasers. She dashed around behind the Crawler’s rear, and seeing an opening, fired a charge shot at the fleshy red mass on its backside. A loud mechanical knocking could be heard from within the Underworld tank as its engine coughed and sputtered, and it spun wildly on its treads in the center of the room. Fluttershy jumped back to avoid the out-of-control heavy vehicle, her bow still held up and aimed but her target out of range.

The Crawler came to an abrupt stop with its front facing Fluttershy. With its engine sputtering and it treads spinning rapidly, it rolled right after her. Fluttershy dashed to the side, letting the tank thunder by her and crash into the nearby wall. She made her way behind the vehicle and fired one more charge shot at its weak spot before turning to leave the chamber. Behind her, the Crawler fell loose from its treads and explosions started to tear through its armored body as she walked toward the exit.

As she stepped out onto walkway outside, Fluttershy turned around to stare up at the tower. The tower’s exterior, which had been much wider at its base and even just a few floors down, was now noticeably narrower at this height. Fluttershy wondered if that meant she was getting closer to the top, and she smiled hopefully when she glanced up and saw that there were only a few floors left to climb; she was almost at the top of the tower. Unfortunately, the ‘walkway’ she stood on came to an end right in front of her hooves, serving as little more than a balcony. Fluttershy scanned the rest of the balcony, but there was nothing around her that she could use to climb any higher.

“I think I’m stuck,” Fluttershy said. “There’s no way up from here.”

“Indeed there isn’t,” Luna replied, quietly noting to herself that the lack of an accessible pathway would stop most intruders from climbing. “In hindsight, a dead end may just be this tower’s single most effective defense, though that doesn’t say much.”

“Don’t really see the point,” Discord mused. “If you managed to fly all the way out here in the first place, there’s nothing stopping you from just flying to the top. Wouldn’t you two agree?” He made little effort to hide the insincerity in his tone, making the subtext hard to miss. Fluttershy rolled her eyes, slightly annoyed but preferring to just ignore him.

“Be that as it may,” Luna muttered irritably, “I do have an alternative.” Blue light glimmered at Fluttershy’s hooves and traced a path from the edge of the balcony, spiraling up the side of the tower. The light grew dim after a few seconds, and in its place were a pair of blue light rails that rose gently up along the side of the structure.

Fluttershy stepped onto the grind rails. Their magic seeped into her hooves as soon as she touched them, binding them to the rails and pulling her up along them. The rails continued their spiral above her even as they carried her rapidly along, moving higher up with each pass around the tower and ensuring that it would be a lengthy ride. “I guess this will work,” she said.

“It’s like watching a roller-skating chicken,” Discord added gleefully.

Fluttershy frowned at the remark. “You wouldn’t actually put roller-skates on a chicken, would you?” she asked. “That might break its legs.”

Underworld troops emerged from around the sides of the tower in pursuit of Fluttershy. Fluttershy lifted her weapon hoof off of the grind rails and fired a large blue gem at a group of Monoeyes, knocking them out of the air. She turned her bow toward three Handoras that were scurrying along the wall of the tower and fired a few smaller gems. Each gem hit its mark, throwing the creatures off of the wall and sending them plummeting back down. She made another pass around the tower’s exterior as the grind rails pulled her further up, bringing her closer to her goal at the top. A few Miks and Monoeyes converged on her from both ahead of and behind her, and she aimed her bow at them as well.

“The air here is more conducive to my magic, so these rails will carry you more than a few floors up the Chariot Master’s tower,” Luna said. “Unfortunately, I could not extend the rails to the top of the tower.”

“It looks like we’re almost there anyway,” Fluttershy said, firing her bow at another monster.

“Once you reach the top and claim the Lightning Chariot from its master, you and I will soon be able to rescue Celestia,” Luna said. She smiled to herself. “I’m pleasantly surprised. Three years ago, I would never have imagined us fighting on the same side.”

Fluttershy stopped abruptly as she took aim at a Skuttler Cannoneer perched on a small ledge on the side of the tower. Her eye began to twitch, and her brow eventually furrowed as the grind rails continued to take her around the tower and away from the Skuttler, neither one bothering to fire at the other. “No,” she said back harshly.

Luna paused, taken aback by the uncharacteristic forcefulness in Fluttershy’s response. “I beg your pardon?” she eventually asked.

“You and I will never be on the same side, Luna,” Fluttershy said coldly, her tone unwavering and resolute. “We are not friends, or even allies. And I will never fight for you.”

For a moment, Luna had remained speechless, unsure of what to think or how to respond. “I don’t understand,” she finally said. “I thought you and I had reconciled our differences, or at least agreed to be civil with one another. Certainly our battle with the parasprites must have fostered some cooperation between us.”

“No, Luna,” Fluttershy said. “Just because I’m here on this mission with your voice in my head doesn’t mean I like you. And it doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you for everything I saw you do. Not for your war on the earth ponies, not for your Reset Bombs, and not for Big Mac—” She paused at the thought of the name on the tip of her tongue. Vivid images from that day flooded her mind: the stallion’s blank, hollow eyes staring lifelessly at her; the decayed, discolored red coat visible through the body’s stone barding; the collapsed, headless heap that the body fell into once she had finished with him…

Fluttershy vigorously shook her head, trying to drive those memories out of her head. “Especially not for Big Macintosh.”

“If you still hold such resentment for what I’ve done,” Luna said, “then why accept this mission from me? Why accept my assistance and guidance?”

“Because we both want the same thing,” Fluttershy answered soberly. “Three years ago, it was to get rid of the parasprites. And right now, it’s to save Celestia. I’m doing this for her, Luna, not you.”

“I see,” Luna said quietly. “And what of your small menagerie of animals? I would have thought that saving them and bringing you to them today would have earned some goodwill from you.”

Fluttershy paused at the question. Her mind drifted back to earlier in the afternoon, to when she greeted all of her little critters. She smiled as she remembered her animal friends crowding around her, all excited to see their beloved caretaker. After everything else that had happened today, knowing that they were all safe and sound brought a small but meaningful sense of relief to her. As if one thing was still right in the world, even after everything else had gone so horribly wrong. “I haven’t forgotten about that,” she said, her smile fading. “I’m thankful that you took care of them this whole time. I really am. But that doesn’t change anything between us. I still can’t forgive you for what you’ve done. And even if I could, I don’t think I have any right to forgive you. I mean, what I saw you do was awful, but in the end I’m not the one who was most hurt by what you did.

“I’m sorry if you were expecting something different,” Fluttershy said. “But as soon as Celestia’s back, that’s it for us.”

The grind rails finally came to a stop in front of a large, heavy door leading back into the tower. Fluttershy jumped off the rails without saying another word, her hooves landing on the balcony just outside the door, and she walked inside. The chamber here was small, much smaller and more confined than the rooms on any of the lower floors, no doubt because of how much the tower narrowed at this altitude. A circular stage stood in the middle of the room with a small flight of stairs leading up to it, and at the center of the stage rested a Cherubot, deactivated but still functional.

“The Chariot Master has a Cherubot too?” Fluttershy wondered out loud. Ascending the small flight of stairs, she made her way toward the Cherubot. Her forelegs reached over its body, and with a push from her hind legs, she lifted herself over the torso and into the cockpit. She reoriented herself into a sitting position, and with her hooves on the controls, the Cherubot sprung to life, rising onto its legs with a high-pitched whir from its mechanical joints.

While Fluttershy started up the Cherubot, four Underworld monsters—two Monoeyes, a Mik, and a Specknose— descended into the room, clustering together as they floated in front of her. The Mik hovered underneath the Specknose, positioning itself underneath the enormous nose of the latter’s body, while the Monoeyes each took a spot behind the Specknose’s glasses. The four monsters squeezed closer together in their formation, and the Specknose’s glasses dissolved away as the Monoeyes moved into place, flanking the bridge of its nose from either side.

Fluttershy stared in bemusement at the spectacle, gazing at the completed face that the monsters now formed. “Monoeyes…” Fluttershy said. “Specknose… and a Mik?”

“Monomiknose,” Luna said in clarification. “In addition to the Fort Oinks, one of a number of changes Discord has made to his army in these three years.”

Fluttershy continued to stare at the combined creature from the seat of the Cherubot, her bemused gaze turning into an unimpressed stare. The Monoeyes, whose perpetually narrowed eyelids often made them look either bored or aggressive individually, were tilted away from each other, giving the Monomiknose a sad, dopey expression. The Mik, whose mouth was almost large enough that it could feasibly swallow a pony whole if it tried, seemed small when placed beneath a Specknose that was twice its size. Taken together, the Monomiknose’s appearance struck Fluttershy as comical and somehow managed to look less intimidating that its individual parts ever did.

Fluttershy moved a hoof along the Cherubot’s controls. The Cherubot’s right arm swung forward and socked the Specknose, dislodging the four monsters from one another and throwing them across the room. Fluttershy brought the Cherubot’s gun arm forward and fired, mowing down the four of them one after the other. As the last of them dissolved into wisps of purple smoke, several Splins began to hover down from the ceiling and surround her. Fluttershy caught sight of a few and pointed the gun arm up. She fired at the Splins, turning the Cherubot to aim at more of them to the right and the left.

As soon as the last of the Splins was gunned down, Fluttershy searched the rest of the chamber, her eyes scanning across every corner and shadow in the room. Aside from her and the Cherubot, the room was now empty, with not a single Underworld enemy in sight.

“I think that’s all of them,” she said. She removed her hooves from the Cherubot’s controls. The Cherubot’s legs folded in on themselves as the machine powered down, deactivating once again. Fluttershy stood up from her seat in the cockpit and disembarked from the vehicle.

“Indeed,” Luna said. “What few forces Discord still commands here have already reached the Chariot Master.”

“They have?” Fluttershy asked. She exited the chamber through the opposite door and began to make her way up to the next floor of the tower.

“Of course,” Luna answered. “Some of his aerial troops simply soared to the roof while the rest overran the lower floors. They must have attacked him for the Lightning Chariot, but you can imagine the outcome.” She paused right there, even though something else was on her mind. For a while, she watched uncomfortably as Fluttershy walked up, staying silent about something that had bothered her for a few minutes now. Eventually, she spoke. “Fluttershy, about our previous discussion.”

Fluttershy’s ears perked up, and her eyes glanced up to the side. She knew what Luna was talking about, but she kept her steady pace up the walkway even as she gave her attention.

“I must admit that your bitter sentiment toward me is… disappointing to say the least. However, I have no intention of changing your mind on the issue. I have already expressed my motives. And you understand my grievances with the earth ponies, of course.”

“I know,” Fluttershy said passively. “I’m not here to change your mind either.”

“Even so,” Luna added, “you are right about one detail. We do share a common goal in saving Celestia. And we still have Discord as a common foe. So until Celestia has been restored to her true self, it remains in our best interest to maintain our relationship, however strained it may be.”

Fluttershy gave a brief, very subtle, but affirmative nod and continued toward the end of the walkway, feeling a strange mixture of detachment and relief. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate Luna’s help at a time like this; she certainly did. But Luna was hardly a friend as far as Fluttershy was concerned, even if she was trying to be one. And that thought gnawed at her, that Luna was now the closest thing she had to an ally anymore, making her feel very much alone. Her only hope was that Celestia could be brought back from whatever had changed her. If that couldn’t be done, she didn’t know what she would do.

Fluttershy reached the next floor of the tower. She went inside, where she saw stream gently rising in the air across the entire room. Warm mineral water flooded the whole room, from where she stood all the way to the exit on the other side. Fluttershy stared wide-eyed at the shallow pool, letting the warm, steamy air wash over her.

“A hot spring,” she said cheerfully. “The Chariot Master has a hot spring!” She started to trot toward the edge of the water, only to stop after a few steps. She remembered where she was and looked at the inviting pool of warm water a second time. “Well, really more of a huge hot tub,” she corrected herself, her enthusiasm deflating a bit. “But still, this works too.”

She waded into the pool of water, letting it reach up to her chest and shoulders. Finding a good place, she sat down and leaned with her back against the wall. The warm water washed over her legs, her body, and her wings, melting away all the aches and soreness she’d accumulated during the climb, and she let out a contented sigh. She would stay here for a minute or two before heading up the rest of the tower.

“I still do not understand how anyone could mistake this for a hot spring,” Luna said. “To be a hot spring, this would have to source its water from a natural spring and be heated by geothermal energy, would it not?”

“Hm?” Fluttershy stirred, awaking from a stupor she hadn’t realized she’d fallen into. “I suppose it is. Must be a force of habit or something.”

After a few minutes, Fluttershy rose to her hooves. Feeling rested and rejuvenated, she stepped out of the water, wrung out the excess water in her coat and tunic, and left the room through the exit. Once outside, she gazed up at the rest of the tower above her. The tower’s peak sat only a short distance up, at the end of the walkway she was on now. A sprawling hard light racetrack circled around the peak, stretching far away from the rooftop in a number of places before bending back—something she hadn’t noticed on the lower floors.

“We’re almost there. The hot tub’s got to be the last floor before the roof.”

“Then the Chariot Master has a hot tub directly below his chariot’s landing site,” Luna mused aloud. “If it were not for the lack of household amenities, I would say that this tower is the Chariot Master’s dwelling rather than a fortified base. Thankfully Discord is no longer here to ridicule us for rudely invading someone’s home.”

“He’s not?”

“Divine telepathy is aided by a god’s or goddess’ indirect presence in the desired area, often in the form of troops deployed,” Luna explained. “I for instance am only here through you. Without any soldiers in the area, I think not even Discord is powerful enough to maintain a telepathic presence.”

“And all of Discord’s troops are gone?”

“As I mentioned, the Chariot Master vanquished the last of Discord’s troops here. He now awaits you at the tower’s peak.”

Fluttershy frowned. “That doesn’t sound very inviting,” she said. Looking back up to the tower’s peak, she took a deep breath and started up the spiraling walkway.

* * * * * * * * * *

The walkway came to an end at a wide, circular platform at the tower’s rooftop. Cylindrical white columns surrounded the roof, and a white, glassy bridge extended from one side out toward the hard light racetrack. Fluttershy stepped onto the roof from the walkway and scanned her surroundings. At the other end of the bridge, she spotted a white unicorn stallion with a three-colored blue mane standing on the side of the racetrack, a simple golden chariot hitched to his back. The image of a purple shield adorned his flank, with three blue-gray stars above and a rose-colored six-pointed star in the center. The unicorn turned his head to look at her, and for a moment they both gave each other a blank, awkward stare.

“Grab the reins on Shining Armor,” echoed the Chariot Master’s harsh, gravelly voice.

“Really?” Fluttershy said, an excited smile forming on her face. “Wow, thanks!” She ran across the bridge toward the chariot.

“You misunderstand,” the Chariot Master said. “This is not a gift.”

A flash of light streaked across a nearby stretch of the racetrack. It made a turn at a bend in the track, and in the blink of an eye it rushed past both a shocked Fluttershy and the unicorn in front of her. In that brief moment, Fluttershy glimpsed a second chariot within the streak of light and a second pony pulling it. Confused, she looked back at the unicorn. Shining Armor cocked his head, motioning for her to get into the chariot. Giving him an uneasy nod, she climbed into chariot and took hold of the reins. Shining Armor looked back at her, waiting for her to get in. As soon as she had a good grip on the reins, he turned to face forward, reared onto his hind legs for a moment, and galloped forward.

It didn’t take long for the two of them to catch up to the other chariot. Not surprisingly, that chariot was being pulled by the second of the Lightning Chariot’s two unicorns, a lavender mare with an indigo mane sporting a rose-colored streak and a six-pointed star for a cutie mark. What did surprise Fluttershy was the creature driving the chariot. Holding the reins of the lavender unicorn in one of his scaly claws, with the other claw wielding a short-sword, was a purple and green dragon the size of a fully grown minotaur. Few pieces of armor covered the dull, graying, yet still purple scales of the Chariot Master’s aging body, and what little armor he had was heavily worn and damaged, with numerous dents and cracks. His body was no better for wear, bearing numerous scars and old wounds, including one enormous scar across his pale green underbelly, one on the left side of his face, and one on his arm.

“You want the Lightning Chariot, right?” the dragon growled at her. “Then prove to me that you deserve to have it!” He raised his short-sword in the air, and a thin strand of lightning rose from the blade toward the sky. A larger, more powerful bolt of lightning came down a second later, striking the track ahead of Fluttershy and Shining Armor. Shining Armor swerved, violently jostling Fluttershy in the chariot and making her stumble, but managed to avoid the lightning strike.

“You need both unicorns to pull the Lightning Chariot,” Luna said. “That means the Chariot Master expects you to defeat him in combat in order to claim them.”

Fluttershy froze as she looked ahead at the Chariot Master, her face going pale and a look of horror spread across it. “You’re not saying I have to…”

Meanwhile, the Chariot Master summoned another bolt of lightning in her path, and Shining Armor swerved again to avoid it. The chariot’s movement shook Fluttershy again, pulling her out of her thoughts as she tried to remain standing. But as soon as she looked back at the aged dragon in the other chariot and remembered what he was expecting from her, she shook her head and lowered her gaze.

“No… This isn’t how I wanted things to go,” she murmured. She felt tears beginning to form in her eyes, and her hooves shook as she tried to hold the chariot’s reins. Her gaze shifted toward Shining Armor, who returned an uncertain look to her as he galloped after the other chariot. Strangely, he didn’t seem to hold any ill will toward her. Surely he had to know the Chariot Master personally; Fluttershy knew that. And yet from what little he said to her, or didn’t say for that matter, he seemed to be gently encouraging her. She looked down at her Crystal Bow for a moment, now a bit more resolute than before. “But I still have to save Princess Celestia.”

“I understand better than you know,” the Chariot Master said gruffly, interjecting into Fluttershy’s thoughts. “For my own master, I would not hesitate to dirty these hands.” As if to punctuate his oath, he quickly exhaled, expelling a spray of bright green flames at her.

Fluttershy ducked her head into the Lightning Chariot, the green flames passing overhead. “You served someone as well?” she asked.

“I did,” he said, his tone softening and a tinge of sorrow audible in his voice. “I’ve suffered many war wounds, but none greater than the loss of my master. I once had many comrades in arms. But they too have returned to the dust. All I have left are my friends, Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor.”

Fluttershy grew silent, only giving the Chariot Master a sympathetic look. “Oh…”

“My health has long since degraded, and I feel my life slipping away,” he continued. “The warrior’s path inevitably leads to loss. I have no qualms about this.”

Looking up, the Chariot Master gazed back at Fluttershy, staring into her sad, sympathetic eyes. Suddenly, he drew in a deep breath and spat out three fireballs on the track behind him, right in Fluttershy’s path. Shining Armor sidestepped as each of the fireballs struck the ground and exploded into a column of green flames. For a moment, his hooves stepped directly into the fire, but he remained unharmed as a rose-colored barrier flickered over his body.

Meanwhile, the Chariot Master held up his sword, preparing to swing at Fluttershy. “But you are no warrior,” he said. “Tell me, why do you fight?”

Fluttershy ducked under the swing of the Chariot Master’s sword. In one quick motion, she separated her bow, one bladed limb in each hoof. She parried another swing from the dragon’s sword with one limb, and with the other she moved to attack. The Chariot Master jerked back, but not quickly enough, and felt the bow’s limb slash into his arm. He lifted back his own weapon and swung it down on her, but Fluttershy blocked with both limbs. Both combatants pushed against each other with their weapons clashed, each trying to overpower the other.

“I fight for Princess Celestia,” Fluttershy said. “And I fight for the ponies under her protection.”

Both Shining Armor and the unicorn called Twilight Sparkle looked up at the mention of Celestia’s name and glanced at Fluttershy, surprised expressions on both their faces. The Chariot Master was not impressed however, and he spat out a burst of green flames at her. Fluttershy stumbled back and fell into her chariot, barely avoiding the flames. “That’s not reason enough,” he said with a frown.

Fluttershy stood back onto her hind legs, but had to duck into the chariot again when the Chariot Master exhaled another burst of fire at her. “What do you mean?” she asked.

The Chariot Master swung again at Fluttershy, but his blow was parried by one of the Crystal Bow’s limbs. “I’m impressed that you were able to fly all the way out to my realm,” he said. “And I’m impressed that you managed to scale my tower on hoof. It tells me much about your determination and the reservoir of strength within you.” Fluttershy moved her other hoof to slash at him, but the dragon caught her foreleg with his other claw. He tightened his grip, painfully constricting her leg until her hoof released the bow limb and let it drop to the chariot’s floor. He released her foreleg, but then grabbed her by the collar of her tunic and yanked her toward him. Panic set in Fluttershy’s eyes as she came face to face with the dragon, his claw tightening on her collar. “But that’s not what I see in front of me. I look into your eyes, and I see the fear and intimidation in them. I don’t see the warrior who stormed my tower for the Lightning Chariot, and I’m convinced that if you had lived another life, you would have been a weakling and a coward.” He pulled her closer to his face, their eyes now inches apart. “So tell me, pegasus. Why do you fight?”

So distracted was the Chariot Master that he didn’t see the sharp bow limb in Fluttershy’s other hoof until it slashed across his shoulder and chest. The Chariot Master recoiled back and loosened his grip, finally releasing her when the bow limb swung across his snout. Fluttershy fell to the floor of her own chariot and then picked up the bow limb she’d dropped earlier. Fixing the two limbs together again, she took aim at the Chariot Master and fired a charge shot at him, knocking him back into his own chariot. “Who are you to question my reasons?” Fluttershy demanded. “I already told you who I’m fighting for. What difference does it make why?”

The Chariot Master raised his sword, attempting to call another lightning strike on the track, only to be struck and thrown back by another charge shot from Fluttershy’s bow. “I admire your conviction,” he grunted. “It speaks to that reservoir of strength within you. But it also proves you are very foolish.” He snapped the chariot’s reins forward, and with a flash of bright light, Twilight Sparkle accelerated at an incredible burst of speed, rocketing across the track and leaving Fluttershy and Shining Armor far behind. “And though you may be a servant of the heavens,” the Chariot Master’s voice echoed, “I will show you no mercy!”

By the time Twilight Sparkle and the Chariot Master slowed down, Shining Armor had already sped up, galloping down the track after them. He sidestepped past bolts of lightning and columns of fire as he navigated the twisting racetrack, closing in on the Chariot Master with each hoofbeat. For her part, Fluttershy ducked to avoid a few fireballs that were spat directly at her. She came within range of the Chariot Master and fired a large blue gem from her bow, landing another clean hit on him.

The racetrack narrowed at a particularly long stretch ahead, becoming only wide enough for one chariot at a time. The Chariot Master reached the stretch first, with Fluttershy trailing several seconds behind. Taking a deep breath, he turned around and spat two fireballs onto the track. Two massive columns of fire rose up as the fireballs exploded on the narrow track, directly in the path of Fluttershy’s chariot. A rose-colored barrier flickered around Shining Armor as he approached the flames, solidifying after a brief second. The magic barrier would protect him, but it didn’t extend to Fluttershy in the chariot behind him, and the pillars of fire rose high enough and burned brightly enough to reach her.

Terrified, she darted her eyes around the chariot, considering her options. There was no maneuvering around the columns, not on this track, and she didn’t think the chariot could shield her if she tried to take cover in it. Her eyes shifted to the powers equipped to her bow, but on closer inspection, none of them could protect her from running headfirst into a wall of flames… except maybe one, but using it here was almost as risky and dangerous. When she looked back up at the track ahead of her however, the first column of flames was almost right on her, and her decision was made for her.

“Sky Jump!”

Fluttershy launched out of the chariot and up into the air, easily clearing the first of the two fire pillars. The height she gained from the jump combined with the chariot’s speed was enough to help her fly over the second pillar. That was the easy part; landing safely back in the chariot was going to be a problem. She fell back down, thankfully with the chariot still directly below her, but her back hoof landed wrong when she hit the chariot’s floor, and pain shot up through her hind leg. She thought she might have twisted it, but she would have to check later after the fight.

With the narrow section of the racetrack now behind them, the two chariots soon pulled up next to each other. Fluttershy ducked as the Chariot Master swung at her, and then dodged to the side as he raised his sword and swung down on her. The Chariot Master moved to swing his sword again, but Fluttershy was younger, faster. She parried the blade with one of her bow’s limbs, pushing it away, and slashed his chest with the other limb. She slashed at him again with the bow limb, pushing him back into his own chariot, quickly put her bow back together again, and fired a charge shot at him. The Chariot Master stumbled and fell into his chariot. Fluttershy’s own chariot pulled ahead, and she trained her bow on him, preparing to fire again.

Suddenly, a blast of magenta light shot at Fluttershy, barely missing the side of her head. Fluttershy recoiled at the blast, taking both her aim and her attention from the wounded dragon. She turned toward the source of the attack where she saw Twilight Sparkle, the second unicorn, glaring at her, a magenta aura swirling around her horn. From the deathly glare she was giving Fluttershy and the magic still pulsating forebodingly from her horn, it was clear who that horn was pointing at. It seemed that Twilight wasn’t as willing as Shining Armor to let Fluttershy win this fight.

In that time, the Chariot Master stood back up and snapped the reins forward again. Snapping her attention away from Fluttershy, Twilight burst forward across the track, racing past her and putting distance between them again. Fluttershy gripped the reins of her chariot and snapped them forward as well. Getting the message, Shining Armor tilted his head down and galloped faster. His horn charged with magic, and with a bright flash of light, he rocketed down the racetrack after the other chariot.

It didn’t take long to reach the other chariot after Twilight’s burst of acceleration came to an end, and Fluttershy and the Chariot Master were soon next to each other. Fluttershy parried a thrust from the Chariot Master’s blade, and then ducked as he spat green flames at her. The Chariot Master stood over the side of his chariot, ready to breathe fire into Fluttershy’s chariot, only to see her sitting inside aiming her bow directly at him. He jumped back before a blue gem shot at him from the bow, barely avoiding it.

Fluttershy got back up onto her hooves and aimed her bow at the Chariot Master, who was now raising his sword up in the air. Suddenly her chariot lurched as it swerved off to the side, pulling her away from the Chariot Master. Seconds later, a bolt of lightning struck the track next to the dragon’s chariot, right where she had been moments ago. The Chariot Master breathed in, about to spew fire at her again. Fluttershy held her bow, aiming it at him, and fired a charge shot. The blue gem struck the Chariot Master dead on, knocking him back and throwing him out of his chariot.

Fluttershy looked on in horror as the dragon’s body hit the ground hard, tumbling on the track from the chariot’s speed before coming to a stop on his back. Grabbing the reins of her chariot in her hooves, she pulled hard. “Stop!” she cried. Shining Armor’s hooves stumbled and skidded on the track as the vehicle came to an abrupt halt.

Fluttershy leapt out of the chariot. Ignoring the pain in her back hoof, she galloped to the side of the Chariot Master, who lay barely moving in the middle of the track. “Try not to move!” she said, her tone panicked and almost pleading. She quickly went to work checking his vital signs and his injuries. “You’re going to be fine! You’re going to be fine, I promise!”

“Don’t waste your effort,” the Chariot Master whispered. “There was only one way this was going to end. You know that.”

“No!” Fluttershy said. She kept trying to tend to his injuries, her hooves frantically moving across his body, only for them to slow as it dawned on her how futile it actually was. The slashes across his body were too deep, and the bruising under his scales told the extent of the internal damage; it was more than her meager medical knowledge could properly treat, even with the right provisions. “No…” she said weakly. Tears welled up in her eyes, and her hooves slid uselessly from him. “This isn’t how I wanted this to end.”

“This is the only way things can end for an old warrior,” he said. He looked up at Fluttershy’s eyes, his voice gentle yet weary. “I’m trusting you with the Lightning Chariot.”

It was at that moment when Fluttershy heard the sound of hooves racing toward them, and she moved aside just as the unicorn named Twilight rushed to the dragon’s side. Tears made their way down Twilight’s cheeks as she looked down at him, the dragon meeting her gaze. She tenderly placed a hoof on his wounded chest. In between sobs, she mumbled something barely audible to him. “Spike…”

“Twilight,” the dragon whispered. He reached out and weakly grabbed Twilight’s hoof in one of his claws. “Take care of yourselves. You and Shining Armor.” His grasp on Twilight’s hoof slackened, and his arm fell to his side as his eyelids drew closed. “Take care of each other.”

Green flames slowly erupted from the fresh wounds on the dragon’s now still body, as well as from some of the older scars, and spread across the rest of him. The flames glowed brighter as they moved to consume more of him, until his entire form disappeared within them. Tears flowed freely from Twilight’s eyes as she collapsed and broke down into sobs. After a while, the fire flickered and died away, leaving nothing behind where the dragon once lay.

Fluttershy looked between Twilight and the now fading flames, tears running down her face as a number of emotions flooded her: sorrow, remorse, pity. She reached out with her foreleg, to place a consoling hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.

“Don’t touch me!” she hissed. Taken aback, Fluttershy retracted her hoof. She backed away as Twilight stood and glared venomously at her. The anguish in her eyes blurred and mixed with a look of hatred and disgust that was aimed solely at Fluttershy. “You did this. You killed him.”

“No, I…” Fluttershy stammered. “I didn’t mean for it to happen this way.”

“You didn’t mean for it to happen this way?!” Twilight snapped. She stepped toward Fluttershy, bearing down on her as the latter whimpered and tried to back away. “You barged into our home, started a fight with an elderly dragon, and for what? To take his chariot? What did you think was going to happen?!”

“Twilight, that’s enough.” Both mares turned to see Shining Armor walking up to them, a somber expression on his face. His tone was soft and coaxing, equally as sad, yet still firm and authoritative, like an older sibling’s would be. “Let her go,” he said.

Indignantly, Twilight turned her anger from Fluttershy and directed it at Shining Armor. “Let her go?! You’re not defending her, are you?” She jabbed a hoof in Fluttershy’s direction. “She killed Spike!”

“Twilight, you know that’s not true,” he said. He was visibly trying to stay collected, to remain stoic, but there was no mistaking the mournful look in his eyes or the tears he was holding back. He let out a sigh. “Let me talk to her.” Before Twilight could protest, he gave her a stern, imploring look. “We’ll talk about this later.”

Twilight glared silently at him before walking him away, leaving him and Fluttershy alone together. Neither one spoke for several moments at a time. Fluttershy stood quietly with her head hung low, occasionally glancing up at Shining Armor, while a multitude of thoughts swarmed through Shining Armor’s head as he considered how to approach the situation, ultimately prolonging the deep, uncomfortable silence between them. “Why aren’t you angry?” Fluttershy finally asked. Shining Armor’s ears perked up at the question. “You were friends with him too, right? Why aren’t you blaming me?”

“We were friends, yeah,” Shining Armor answered with a sigh. “It was hard, seeing him die like that. But he was deteriorating for years before you even came here. He was getting old, and I don’t think he had much time left anyway. This wasn’t your fault, Miss…”

“Fluttershy,” she answered him.

“This wasn’t your fault, Fluttershy,” Shining Armor repeated. “I thought Twilight understood that. She’d been watching him get worse at least as long as I had, but…” He turned his head to where Twilight had gone. “She was always so much closer to Spike. She must be taking this very hard.” He paused, and another long, uncomfortable silence fell over the two of them. “Why do you need the Lightning Chariot? You mentioned something about Celestia earlier. Do you serve her?”

“I do,” Fluttershy nodded. “Or at least I did. But something’s happened to her. She’s attacking the earth ponies now instead of protecting them, and I don’t know why.” New tears started flowing down her cheeks. “I tried reaching out to her, but…”

Shining Armor frowned. “That doesn’t sound anything like the Celestia I’ve heard of,” he said. “We’ve heard a lot about Celestia, and Twilight’s very fond of her. She practically worships her.”

Fluttershy paused, thinking over the new information. If anything, it would make Twilight and Shining Armor more willing to help her, even after everything that had happened, and it gave her a glimmer of hope. “I need to find out what’s happened to her. But she’s put up a barrier around Skyworld, and I can’t get through.” Fluttershy looked up and stared pleadingly into Shining Armor’s eyes. “That’s why I need your help; to break through the barrier and reach her.”

Shining Armor narrowed his eyes. “So let me get this straight,” he said, his voice gaining an edge to it. “The Goddess of Light is holed up in Skyworld behind a barrier that she put up to protect herself, and you need the Lightning Chariot and our help to smash through that barrier and get to her? That sounds more than a little suspicious.”

Fluttershy’s heart sank, and she winced at the accusation. “But I…” For a moment, she’d thought that he and Twilight would agree to help her. She didn’t know how to convince them she wasn’t lying; it never even occurred to her that they’d think she was.

Shining Armor sighed. Slowly the skepticism ebbed from his features, and he regarded her with a look of pity. “Look, it’s not that I don’t trust you,” he said. “But you’re asking us to breach Celestia’s defenses and help you invade Skyworld. Even if you’re telling us the truth, that could put her life in jeopardy. That’s not a risk I’m comfortable taking, and Twilight’s not going to believe you at all. It’s going to take me a while to convince her to agree to this.”

Fluttershy’s ears perked up, and she looked up hopefully at Shining Armor. “So you’ll help me?” she murmured. “You’ll talk to her?”

“I’ll try,” he said. “But I can’t promise anything. For now, you should prepare in case we do set out. Even if I get Twilight to agree to this, we won’t be heading out at least until tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you,” Fluttershy said.

Shining Armor started down the track in the direction that Twilight had gone. He’d barely gone more than a few steps before Fluttershy spoke again. “Shining Armor?” He stopped in his tracks and turned back to a downcast Fluttershy. “I’m sorry. About what happened to Spike,” she sobbed. “I-I didn’t… this isn’t how I wanted things to go.”

Shining Armor placed a gentle hoof on her shoulder and looked into her eyes. “I know,” he replied. His hoof lingered on her shoulder before he finally let it fall. Turning away, he began to walk off again to look for Twilight, leaving Fluttershy alone on the racetrack.