Do What I Want

Even with the sun approaching its apex, bathing the world in Celestia's light, no matter where the elements looked, the scenery of the forest seemed rather dull and dreary.

They had crossed a sizable portion of the country to reach a remote corner of Equestria, and were justifiably tired. Although traveling long distances on hoof isn't something new to them, they realized they'd once again be dealing with a familiar group of troublemakers, and right before the end of all life, no less. The idea didn't juggle so well in their heads.

Twilight was especially miffed when they figured out who left the note. Every time she faced them, she swore she could feel every symptom of stress manifesting. This time was no different as she already found another gray hair in her mane.

She looked up at the dense canopy to try and ease her mind. The rays of sunshine peeking through did little. Maybe... Maybe they can give us another chance? she thought.

Her brows furrowed and she shook her head, puffing air through her nostrils. I shouldn't get my hopes up, that's how they've always got away. She softened her expression for a brief moment before she snapped back to the cold, contemplative stare, groaning in frustration. I don't want to believe in them anymore, but—

"Hey!"

"Gah!" Twilight yelped. Apparently, she was looking too obviously troubled that Pinkie Pie had decided to walk up next to her. "I—Is everything alright!?" She began frantically searching around for anything amiss. "What's going on?"

Pinkie Pie giggled. "I was going to ask you that, silly!"

"I... I was just thinking, is all." The sentient, pony-shaped mass of cotton candy lowered her neck so that she was looking up at her friend's chin.

"Abooouut?"

"I—"

"Pinkie, she's thinking about those three," Rainbow Dash interjected, flying up to Twilight's other side. "We all were."

"Really?" Pinkie said with her head tilted. "All I've been thinking about is how a macaron is one type of cookie, but if you add another 'o', it becomes a completely different type of cookie." With her friends observing her now, Pinkie's mood seemed the most normal out of all of them. At least, normal in the Pinkie sort of way.

"Dear, these are the same hooligans who've been a nuisance to us and the Equestrian government for nearly a year," Rarity said behind them. "While we may have stopped them on a few occasions, they have managed to slip past us in several others. What's not to worry about those three?"

"I didn't say I wasn't worried at all. Sure, these guys beat us more times than we could count—"

"Don't remind me," Rainbow said.

"—but acting like they've already won will lead to them, well, winning."

Twilight's gaze lingered on her pink friend, marching along without a care in the world. "I suppose..." she said, her eyes now following the unmarked path ahead.

—Is what would have happened if there was more path to follow. Should she have noticed her friends stopping a few paces back, she, too, would have seen the dense thicket blocking their way. Instead, she walked face first into a wall of prickly foliage.

"Ow," she said, backing up a few steps and rubbing her snout. Brushing herself off, she looked up at the leaves with mild annoyance. "Did we take the wrong turn?" Her friends glanced at each other before shrugging.

"We wouldn't know," Applejack said. "Yer the one with the relic know-how, you tell us." Twilight sighed upon being reminded that it was her own fault for researching a way to stop the doomsday alone, despite her friends' offers to help her out.

"Right... We'll just go around."

"Oooo, shiny!" Pinkie Pie said, staring into the indent Twilight's face left in the thicket.

Raising an eyebrow, Twilight followed the pink mare's gaze, only to see a flash of yellow. While brief, the light was intense enough to momentarily daze her. With a quick shake of her head, she regained her senses, but not her patience.

"What in Tartarus is it this time..." she groaned.

Her horn lit up and the entire section of thicket glowed. She tried pulling the whole thing down, but the best she could do was make the thicket rustle to no avail. Growling in defeat, the pink aura vanished and she began approaching the indent while holding up a hoof to partially block its view.

As she leaned in, she turned her head a little to the side and squinted, still wary that it could flash again. Her friends had gathered around her, shielding their own faces.

"Well? What'd you see?" Rainbow Dash said behind the partial cover of her foreleg.

"I..." Twilight craned her neck in and closed her eyes a little more. "I don't see anything. Hold on..." The alicorn's horn lit up and the deepest parts of the indent glowed a deep pink. Using her magic, she pushed the leaves and twigs apart, digging the indent deeper into the thick layer of green.

At first, she wasn't getting anywhere as she only found more leaves to get through. She began thinking that it was her and her friend's imaginations, even when she knew that it was too much of a coincidence. However, when she managed to get through a pony's length of thicket, she was able to see movement, even behind the layers of foliage.

"I think I'm finally getting something!" Twilight said with the slightest hint of excitement. Her friends, who had opted to lay about in the meantime, all looked up from whatever they could find to keep themselves busy.

"Finally!" Rainbow said, abandoning a game of chess with Pinkie. Before she took another a step, the pegasus turned around, reached for her rook, and slid it onto her opponent’s king. "Check and mate." Then she unfurled her wings and power leaped her way back to Twilight, blowing away both the board and its pieces.

Pinkie shrugged and proceeded to get up so that she could join the rest of her friends who were gathered around Twilight.

Rainbow Dash, hovering next to the alicorn, tried craning her neck to get a better view. "So...?" she said.

"I see..." Twilight said, squinting her eyes. The other mares leaned a little closer, all staring in anticipation. "I see..."

"C'mon Twilight! What is it?"

The princess of friendship remained silent as she finally peeled off the last few layers. Then she leaned back and gasped, her eyes going wide. "Run! Get away from the—"

A flash much brighter than the first shined through the hole, blinding everypony once more. They all staggered back, their eyes shut tight, hoping it would dull the pain.

Except Pinkie Pie. Although she couldn't really see anything but white, she continued giving a wide-eyed stare as if she wasn't just blasted with enough lumens to outshine the sun.

"Ow! That was like a flash of lightning!" the pink mare said, turning her head at where she thought her alicorn friend would be. "It's a good thing that wasn't really lightning, otherwise there'd be thun—"

KRAKOOM

A shock wave of pure force and sound erupted from the opening, sending all the ponies flying back at least fifty feet. Twilight was thrown back the way they came, falling on her side and skidding to a halt right in the middle of the unmarked path. She steadied her head with a hoof, eyelids clenched as she endured the ringing in her ears.

Though she was still dazed, she forced her eyes open to see what became of her friends. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were thrown right at a tree, the former slammed into its trunk, while the latter broke through it. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity were luckily caught by some relatively soft bushes, leaving only a dirtied mane for them to worry about. Besides the apple farmer, who was already shaking off the dirt in her coat, nopony was hurt too badly.

Before Twilight could breathe a sigh of relief, she noticed the numerous leaves and twigs scattered about. She recognized the leaves as ones from the thicket. Curious, she brought her gaze over to the wall.

The section her friends gathered around had been blasted away, presumably from the same shock wave that knocked them back. Normally, Twilight would wonder what could have caused such a blast and prompt herself to investigate further. Instead, she remained motionless, as the next thing she saw was the answer to her question.

Rampaging out of the ruptured wall was an entity of frost and energy. Shards of ice made up most of its form; its head, hands, and torso being the largest chunks, while smaller, disconnected icicles served as its fingers as well as the frame of its arms and legs. Electricity arced between its shards, creating a constantly changing web of energy within itself, and keeping its body chained together. It was an elemental construct harnessing the power of ice and lightning, none like Twilight had ever seen.

Yet, as intimidating as it seemed, what caught her eye the most was the passenger balancing himself on top of it.

"Whoa, calm down there fella! I only impaled you with a tree branch," said the human with the polo, standing on its back and keeping steady by holding on to said tree branch. "Is all this thrashing about really necess—HO SHIT!"

The branch erupted, creating another shock wave that sent the human flying. If he had paid attention, he would have noticed the elemental sending a surge of energy into the branch, appearing as a yellow light travelling up its wooden crevices. Instead, he landed flat on his back a few feet in front of the purple pony, gasping for air.

Twilight pushed her upper body up so she could better see if it really was who she thought it was.

"Le..."

Her brows furrowed, her pulse quickened, and her left eyelid twitched. She absolutely did not want to believe it. She wanted to blame her earlier blindness from the light but knew it couldn't have affected her vision that badly. With nothing else to fault, she ejected the stress-infused air from her lungs into a name she didn't want to hear.

"Leers!?"