Author's Note

Last time: Coco brings Rarity back to the castle where she recovers Saccharine's brain but Magic pins the lot of them when the dive wears out.
The Cartel despeartely prepares to cast the Azoth spell as a shadow of Nightmare Moon descends upon them
Rainbow Dash travels south to Oakenfield with both Sunset and Embermoon following, hoping to recruit the former in her fight with the latter.

Mistake

Dust went to work pounding at the wall. No dice. The vines left it magically reinforced. She needed to find another way out.

She turned only for two ghosts to come up from underneath and attack with spikes of ice. One. Two. Dust knocked them out in turn and rushed back into the chaos room.

She tried soaring over it but ghosts kept coming like bucking rain out there! Dust tried swatting at them only for them to fly up into the ceiling and then come back down when she tried to get away. And that was to say nothing of the gunfire. Yet nopony in the cartel had any interest in attacking the living, whether they recognized Dust or not.

Landing near the secret portrait, Dust found Rolling Thunder had pulled Short Fuse out from the rubble, relatively unscathed.

“I’m not dead, boss!” He waved at Dust. With no time to chat, she rushed past him and up to a window. “You can at least try to act happy.”

“Hurry up! We’re the only ones who can make a difference out there!” Dust wasted no time going for the window. The other two were competent enough to follow.

Then the window froze solid.

“Bucking.” Dust pounded at it repeatedly, slowly trying to shatter the ice. That stuff was always harder to break than it looked. More ghosts came from behind but at least now she had two other ponies to hold them off. “Crow!”

Dust did not have time for this! She spun around once looking for another path, ghosts were coming in from every direction so what would be the fastest path outside?

Up?

Bucking ghosts!

Down?

More ghosts.

While the cartel had decided to give her a pass, the ghosts were the opposite. The two sides were living and dead. Anything else didn’t matter on this ground.

“No choice!” Dust wasn’t fully recovered from the fight with Flash Bang yet but had to suck it up. She pulled back her ‘good’ hoof and surrounded it in electricity then swung forward wildly.

Not entirely a good idea! The pain from worsening the wound could barely be contained by her cringe but it did work – most importantly she didn’t let out any sound of anguish. The ice and most of the wall came off, opening a path to the outside.

Before anything else could happen, Dust bolted outside so fast she found herself among the shrapnel she just created, expecting to have to slaughter one or two spooks on the way. Instead, those shards of ice and stone slowed to a crawl, then began to fall back towards the hole.

Dust soon found herself flying up instead of forward, as though the whole world had been turned ninety degrees, then it became hard to fly and she fell. Dust was now looking down back into a sideways castle.

This was hardly the first time Dust had seen something like this. Disturbingly, she had multiple explanations for this. Dimensional tether? Gravitational shift? It didn’t feel like either of those. Maybe…?

As she fell back inside, from thin air emerged a phantom, one who formed a jaw of fangs out of ice and bit hard into Dust’s increasingly bad leg.

It hurt, but it also gave Dust everything she needed to tell what kind of distortion it was, and a good guess this was the ghost who did it. It was a spatial loop, turning space in on itself. With the ghost clamped down on her leg, Dust took her for a spin by turning rapidly in every direction, parts of the ghost's body appeared to vanish or stretch out in a loop as she did.

She’d done this before. Not easy to visualize but it bent the third dimension along a loop. This created some kind of 4d tube, whatever those were called. At any rate, the only important thing was the tube had an end and that end had a hole– Dust found it and threw the ghost through. Though in the end the phantom only went through the wall, emerging unharmed a moment later.

Her opponent smiled with those ice fangs and laughed a bit. The ghost had something wrong with her, her tongue constantly lolled out to one side and her eyes never seemed to look in the same direction. They had some weird spiral shapes instead of normal pupils. A pony modified by MSC who then became a phantom?

Not great.

“You look like you’re trying to leave,” tongue-pony said, lolling her head to one side. “I don’t like that. Just stay here until you-know-who comes.”

Great! Now that stupid thing was determined to stop them from getting outside. And it just so happened to be one of the biggest time-wasting opponents you could run into.

“I’m not here to fight you spooks!” Dust shouted at them. “I’m literally going to leave right now.”

“Oh! Then I guess it’s fine,” said the phantom, moving her tongue to the other side but not able to get it in her mouth. “I totally trust you and stuff.”

“Aren’t you concerned about that freak in the backyard?!” Dust shouted, hoping it would be. “I’m trying to take care of it over here. I don’t give a buck if you destroy the castle.”

“That thing?” She shook her head, tongue wagging. “I saw it. Doesn’t seem like my problem. Everything will be destroyed once the shadow falls over this place.”

“Well, it is your problem!” Dust tried bluffing. Didn’t work as the ghost just sank back into the ground.

Too much time had already passed. Rarity was almost certainly dead by now, or at least she had to be by the time Dust figured out this little puzzle-fifth. If at least had been Dash the pony could have tricked her way into surviving for however long it took, but a bunch of mad scientists? They killed themselves half the time.

The entire room appeared to bend around Dust and deep down she knew what was coming already. She spun around once, finding the floor was now in every direction she looked and getting closer. That trick probably managed to crush just about everypony that ghost used it on– tighten a loop around a pony to crush them. Dust had too much experience for that.

There was always a hole in the loop. There was something horrible in the air that made using her psychic perception difficult but she had other options. Instead, she merely spun to find the hole, then swerved, and suddenly the room appeared normal again. Derp-tongue didn’t try that again.

Next, it went for pure chaos, the room tilted and turned in every direction. Ghosts came at Dust from every direction, often appearing out of nowhere. The other two pegasi tried to attack derp-tongue while she was focused on Dust. How well that went, she had no idea. Now Dust could only manage to be a distraction for them.

Dust had to cowl to strike out against the furious assault. But it was limited by the thick atmosphere. Between that and her injured leg, Dust was fighting with a serious handicap. The ghosts pushed her down and down, nearly breaking her.

Until suddenly relief came from support fire. Dark flames forced the ghosts back and in a moment of respite, Dust landed hard on the floor.

But that wasn’t an attack either of her helpers would have used…

Dust recovered and found the pony who had aided her. One of those bat-winged freaks, wings covered in flames! Dust couldn’t help but gawk when she recognized the pony.

Batton Pass specifically. The second in command, or rather the new leader of the Cartel.

Both took a step back in surprise. It seemed Batton hadn’t even realized who she’d been helping until now.

“You?! What are you even doing here?!” Batton hissed. “Perhaps you have something better to do?”

As much as Dust wanted to clobber this criminal, she was literally unable at this exact moment.

“Yeah, maybe I do! How about we just don’t ask any questions until that” Dust pointed sideways in time to get another brief glance at the annoying ghost, now struggling with her two teammates. “is taken care of?!”

Batton frowned watching Dust and then the ghost in turn, unsure of who was the greater threat. Dust knew this was bad for her too. Derp-tongue was using those vortexes to let ghosts appear just in front of that… summoning circle or whatever it was.

“Look, I can already tell you’re trying to defend that circle thing and right now I don’t care what it does! A ghost-like that is a big threat to you too. Come on: Five-minute truce. Quick in and out then maybe we kill each other.”

The phantom helped Dust out just then, creating a loop from the outside to just around that channeling circle the Cartel defended. This meant the ghosts could all but teleport onto it. It took damage! But Dust still waited for Batton to give the word.

“Fine!” Batton gave in. “But only until we deal with these vortexes!”

Together, Batton and Dust flew at the derp-tongued, pony, forcing her to break off the assault on the ritual circle at least for the moment.

Before Rarity stood the element of magic possessing that filly, and behind them, a wall of vines covered Rarity’s castle.

She looked around for anything that might be remotely usable. Twilight’s treehouse was right there, just across the yard, but it may as well have been on the other side of the planet. Other than that–

Rarity blinked, dumbfounded at the unexpected object just behind her. The dive machine she’d just had in the basement had somehow found its way to the yard, hooked up to a battery no less. But how? Rarity looked to Coco. Did she somehow set this up?

Time was already up! Rarity had no time to think let alone act. The pink filly raised her hoof, and a disc of swirling magic materialized above it. She pulled back, then made to throw it… at Twilight’s house!

Rarity stared wide at her break. Too many questions swirled through her mind. Things took a turn for the better again when Magic failed to launch it even at that target. Seemingly a controversial decision, the filly pulled back at the last moment, stopping herself and trying to turn the attack instead to Rarity.

“No!” The filly shouted and practically fell over. “Not that one you idiot! Why won’t you let me –because I’m stupid! You’re the idiot! It’s so obvious who’s the threat! No, I can see more!”

Convulsing, arguing with herself again.

“Perhaps we should be running?!” Blueblood was exactly two steps ahead of her.

“Hold on one moment!” Rarity stopped him. They might have a few more seconds here and running wouldn’t get them far besides. She knelt next to a panicking Coco. “Tell me, do you remember anything?”

Sometimes ponies could remember little pieces of their thought process during a dive but only for a moment. Like waking up from a dream it would soon be forgotten unless you said it right then.

“What happened?” Coco panted heavily and would start a panic attack in a minute.

“Coco! I promise you can have your panic attack in a second but you need to tell me if you remember anything!”

The promise of a guilt-free panic attack heavily tempted Coco. She managed one last act of bravery and nodded with tears in her eyes.

“I-It looked like we had such a clear way out just a second ago!” Coco winced, pressing against her wound harder. “Why can’t I remember? Should I put my head back in there? No, no! It wasn’t there before!”

That was exactly the sort of thing Rarity was looking for!

“What wasn’t here before? Where! Where was it?”

“I – I do remember one thing!” Coco nodded. “I honestly thought the dive machine was on the roof. N-not out here. Was I wrong?”

“No! You wanted it to be up there.” Rarity looked up to the roof of the castle.

“Rarity!” Coco sobbed. “I can’t. I can’t even walk right now.”

“You’ve done more than enough,” Rarity assured her with a pat on the shoulder. “I’ll take care of the rest. You just take shelter.”

Even that was a tall order, Coco began hyperventilating as she pressed a hoof against her badly bleeding wound. As much as Rarity wanted to drag her somewhere, there was nowhere to drag her. Things wouldn’t be safe unless Rarity completed whatever Coco’s plan was. Through that alone could Rarity help her.

Reluctantly, Blueblood came back over to try and lift the machine.

“So I suppose I’m the one doing the heavy lifting?” Blueblood asked. “I can bring it up there, but I can’t deal with that monster. Do you have a plan for that?”

Blueblood wasn’t a small stallion, and he had some slight difficulty lifting it all the same. So how did it get over here in the first place? Rarity was with Coco the whole time…

Searching for the answer, Rarity saw just a tiny sliver of a window leading to the basement room where they were. And she remembered there was one other pony who had dived just before Coco!

Suddenly it clicked why Magic would be aiming for Twilight’s house. That random mercenary who volunteered to take a dive! He must have gone there and Coco knew it.

“I’m going that way!” Rarity gestured to Twilight’s house. “I think it will be enough of a distraction for you.”

“Hold on! If you–”

Rarity did not hold on but charged straight to Twilight’s house. She supposed she knew what Blueblood was about to say anyway. Magic and that filly were arguing about whether to attack Rarity or Twilight’s house. So if they were in the same place…

Suddenly, Magic straightened up and lifted the disc again.

“That’s still not the right target, but whatever,” the filly groaned to herself before throwing the disc.

Maybe she had acted a bit hastily here. Rarity didn’t even get close to the house. The disk tore through the ground leaving a small canyon in its wake.

Rarity fell forward but no obliteration came. That disc spun in place against an unseen barrier, spitting out huge sparks like a buzzsaw against a metal wall.

Looking up once again, Rarity saw him! The mercenary from before. In his mouth, he held a staff from Twilight’s house no doubt. That managed to hold off the one attack. The disc soon snapped hard against something. That staff shattered throwing him onto the ground but the disc went whirling into the air.

Magic came rushing in.

The stallion tore something off his neck. A necklace. Scootaloo’s necklace. The alicorn feather!

This he threw to Rarity as he pulled something else out from a tattered vest. Rarity scrambled to put it on herself as Magic stopped short again giving the feather a troubled look.

Behind Magic, the mercenary went to stab her with whatever he’d taken out. Rarity never saw what it was. Magic charged into him and the two of them went rushing across the lawn.

Perhaps it was too much to hope he found something in Twilight’s house that could keep Magic at bay, but this all felt like a step in the right direction. Rarity rushed back towards the castle, clutching Saccharine and the feather both, unsure what the latter was for.

Her hopes were dashed almost immediately as Magic returned hardly two seconds later.

“Who even was that guy?!” Magic, exasperated, came trotting out of the wreckage of her own attack. “Yes, I know you saw it. I.”

Struggling again. Magic shook her head violently.

Rarity had another second.

She didn’t see Blueblood around but supposed this was the best she could do down here. He had to be on his way. Now to get to the roof herself. Rarity reached the wall of vines. Maybe she was just athletic enough to climb it.

She was noting something. Magic would always be tempted to hit the most powerful enemy. There had to be some way to use that.

The vines shifted and squirmed, throwing Rarity back to the ground. Her, the feather, and Saccharine all hit the floor in a small line. There was no way Rarity was getting up there!

“It looks like it’s just you and me, Saccharine. If only you still had your body. Or any robot body!”

“Did somepony ask for any robot body?”

That voice. That was right… it was three! Did all three of them manage to focus on escaping?

Kerfuffle, minus her mechanical leg, came kerlumping along the side of the building, a large satchel on her back. She rolled to one side, practically collapsing from the strain, allowing her work to unfurl itself as it rolled along.

It looked just like her robot Fuff n’ Stuff! The sleek and slender skeleton of a pony with overly long limbs, nimble but not strong. One major difference stuck out to Rarity, the head cavity stood open with a latch on the other side, waiting for a persona core to be installed.

“I found just enough stuff and rebuilt an entirely new robot body! It’s even better than Fuff n’ Stuff’s old one. I can’t get to her right now. So.” Kerfuffle struggled to find a natural sitting position with her missing leg, then struggled to get the robot into a more natural pose as well. “Rarity! Give it to Saccharine.”

Rarity looked down at Kerfuffle’s stump of a leg. She must have cannibalized her own leg for the parts, among other things, but here it was!

“You know installing a persona core into a robot would take far too long,” Rarity protested. “And I don’t have the equipment besides.”

“I thought of that. Or at least, I think I thought of that. I’m 99% sure this has an auto-installer on it.”

Such a thing wasn’t unheard of, but it also wasn’t something you could build unless in a dive state. It was almost a shame to have to use one so hastily. Studying these installers was the only way anypony even knew how to install a persona core, to begin with.

Hardly any time to mourn that loss. Rarity opened Saccharine’s skull, removed the persona core, and placed it inside the body intended for Fuff N’ Stuff.

The auto-loader went to work straight away. The inside always reminded Rarity of her old sewing machines from her dress-making phase as a teenager. A hundred tiny needles swarmed the persona core, jabbing it repeatedly as it installed even tinier wires, threads you would need a microscope to see.

No two of these were ever the same. Rarity could only hold her breath as she waited to find out how long this would take,

“Silence!” Magic’s voice boomed over all the rage of the storm and battle. Her eyes became wrapped in a mist of green and dark blue. “I am in control and that’s final!”

She turned her head to Rarity with determination, Rarity could only assume Magic would be in complete control for now. She wouldn’t get another convulsion, perhaps, but maybe Rarity could use that all the same.

Rarity felt a jerk, something pulling her to the wall, but it wasn’t any attack from Magic!

Saccharine had grabbed her! The core had installed just enough for her to regain mobility! Anything else wouldn’t be of much use.

As Magic stared forward unblinking, she fired off repeated, small attacks that wouldn’t destroy the castle.

Saccharine’s body twirled about, snatching Rarity up and darting out of the way. Magic sneered down at them, still unwilling to damage the building that Saccharine now clung to. It attempted to strike her with much smaller bolts of energy but couldn’t keep up.

It still functioned starkly different from the SB9000. Rarity’s robots focused on defense, Kerfuffle’s on speed and agility. But this was on a much different level from what Fuff n’ Stuff had ever managed!

Kerfuffle’s studies with Twilight had been brief, but even a small difference like that could pay off enormously in this situation! This body was far stronger than Fuff’ N’ Stuff’s last one! Rarity clung only to the vaguest hope that it was even stronger than Saccharine’s previous body. That had merely been upgraded before the knowledge exchange with Twilight but this one had been built after!

Rarity could hardly keep up with the two of them, Saccharine deftly crawled alongside the edge of the crumbling castle. Rarity past vines that tore around them in every direction, bullets whizzed by, ghosts swarmed about, and the wind blew hard. She could hardly keep her eyes open as Saccharine weaved about, dodging a relentless assault.

Dust spun and threw derp-tongue away a second time, though it cost her getting bit in the leg again. That pony really hated that one leg! This time she had somepony to throw her to. Batton Pass landed a brutal blow of black flames that incinerated much of the left half of that ghost’s body.

“Gah! My head hurts!” Derp-tongue put her remaining forehoof on her back and retreated toward the wall, gone for now.

That was a big step in the right direction. She wouldn’t be nearly as effective after such a horrible wound. But nonetheless, Dust’s hope in the situation had only managed to dwindle. She could feel it in the air, things were getting much worse.

Something horrible infected Dust’s head. She’d felt it a little upon coming here but the pressure in her head grew stronger and stronger. And she could guess why. The cartel ponies with psychic perception were in varying states of bad. Some of them were already incapacitated just from that.

The buzz in her head made it harder and harder to fight. More importantly, it meant Dust would be unable to track down Rarity. Not that she had much hope that pony was even alive but barring some miracle, Rarity would be on her own for the moment.

“I think we got rid of her!” Short Fuse pointed to a hole in the wall. There were so many of them now.

His little victory cry summoned that phantom back once more, sticking her head just above the ground once more.

“Heeee. You think you’re winning?” She licked her lips with desperation. “Hehe. Maybe I can give you a peak…”

Now Derp-tongue created another vortex, not so stable or as large as before, but that fact gave Dust little hope. The point of this was only to give them a view of the distant horizon. A monster was coming, a wave of ravenous maws that rose above the trees and devoured everything in its path raged towards them.

Dust knew exactly what it was. In truth, she’d felt this same sickness once or twice while close to Crater Cemetery. It was Nightmare Moon or more likely some aspect of her, rushing toward them.

“You think time’s on your side but it’s not!” She declared before being forced to retreat as Dust rushed over to her.

“I really don’t think staying here much longer is a good idea!” Short Fuse tried to pull Dust to one of the holes in the wall. “You win some, you lose some, you know? Rarity is dead. Mission failed. So let’s go.”

He moved closer to the door but didn’t even dare to retreat without Dust.

“No!” Batton called after them! “We need you!”

“That was a fast turn-around,” said Dust. “But he has a point. We can’t fight what’s coming right now.”

“We can!” Batton gestured to the circle they’d been protecting up until now. “The azoth spell! It’s almost ready. If you can keep the ghosts away just a little longer, Eclipse can cast the spell! You have my word you’ll be allowed to leave afterward so long as you don’t try anything.”

The situation with the cartel was serious. If Rarity was hiding somewhere, this was something they’d have to deal with for her to have any chance. Maybe even for Dust to have any chance. Not like this portion of Nightmare Moon would just go away forever after this fight.

As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Dust was beginning to think letting the Cartel take a shot at this monster was the best idea.

On the other hoof, Dust didn’t trust these ponies to any extent. Letting them be crushed wouldn’t be a bad thing, exactly. Eclipse would be eliminated just as Dash planned and they’d come up with some other way to save the day. Killing this portion of Nightmare Moon, and Dust knew it was merely that, wouldn’t actually solve the problem.

“Please!” Another way of ghosts pinned Batton Pass and her increasingly stressed forces. “We need you!”

Besides, the battle did appear unwinnable. Ghosts were coming from every direction. Without psychics, they’d soon be overwhelmed. Everypony was nearing the end of their strength.

“Batton!” That green pony, Hissteria comes bounding down the stairs, a smaller pony on his back. “Our last psychic collapsed. We’re done the next time a specter attacks!”

The lack of Specter attacks had been something Dust wondered about up until now.

“Sorry.” Dust turned her back on Batton. “Normally, I’d help two of my enemies fight but this really is hopeless. Getting out of here is the best we can do.”

“No!”

Her companion was most pleased with this. Even some of the Cartel seemed to be thinking of defecting. Though frankly, even getting away would be a task, Dust doubted many here even had that kind of skill.

“Sorry, Dash,” said Dust. “This really is hopeless.”

But as Dust looked around for the best escape route, something gave her pause.

“Come on already!” Short Fuse gave her a rough shove.

“Hold on.”

Ghosts weren’t coming up from below or from the front anymore…

“It’s a little too quiet.” Dust took a few steps forward, hardly the only one who had noticed the sudden decline in ghosts.

Dust turned right to find a few of the spooks falling back a little, confused more than anything.

“It’s a specter!” One of them called out. “They only pull back when they’re about to unleash a seal on us!”

The general consensus appeared to be imminent death was approaching, some of them all but collapsed on the spot. Dust wasn’t so sure. Normally you’d be able to tell when a specter showed up, but there was too much static to tell anything right now. Something else tipped Dust off they were wrong. Instead of her ESP, her gut told her that a specter was here but…

Dust ran outside. A huge wall of ice blocked off the front of the castle and the ground froze. The enemy ghosts were still out there, on the other side, but enchanted ice was one of the few things ghosts couldn’t float through. They had an effective barrier! And perhaps a few seconds before the enemy regrouped.

Dust knew where this came from right away. There was a specter, the one who made it stood in front of the wall, pushing all of her energy to keep it intact as various attacks assailed the wall.

“Fluttershy?!” Dust balked at the sight.

“Um!” Fluttershy panted heavily as she put all of her strength into keeping the wall up. “I noticed everypony was still here so um…”

“You came back?” Dust didn’t even know what to point at in all this mess. “To this?!”

“I promised I’d never run away again!” Fluttershy said. “Not from anything.”

That ruffled Dust’s feathers and pride alike.

“Yeah, but there’s a limit.” Dust felt a sudden surge of annoyance. “I’m pretty sure Rarity is already dead.”

“No! I saw Rarity. This is just the best I can do for her right now,” said Fluttershy. “And I know… I can tell you have some plan, right? All this magic. It has to be for something.”

Batton ran forward shouting about the need to protect the nexus. Fluttershy was a little too quick to accept that as the solution.

“You’re not going for Rarity?” Dust asked, part of her still wanting to ‘get’ Fluttershy.

“I have a feeling this is something Rarity needs to do herself,” said Fluttershy. She looked over her shoulder. “But this one? This is my fight.”

Fluttershy moved closer to the nexus, creating a tighter wall that would force the ghosts to come in from one direction so long as it held.

With a wall to put their backs to… this fight might actually be winnable.

“I understand,” said Fluttershy, “if you want to–”

“Don’t you dare!” Dust snapped at her. “If you’re staying, I’m staying!”

She shot an angry look at Short Fuse who desperately considered his best chance of surviving. No options available, he instead relented to fighting.

The wind, somehow or another, began to die down and Rainbow Dash began to wonder what its true purpose had been for on the horizon loomed a much greater threat. An absolute behemoth, so large Dash had no idea how far away it could possibly be shook the ground and left a trail of fire as it moved north.

Possibly it moved toward Ponyville but more likely the castle. And Dash knew

“I don’t suppose you have any plan to deal with that, do you?” Moondancer asked.

“Um. No.” Dash put up her hood and looked down at Oakenfield. Even getting there would feel like an achievement at this point. “We just stick to our part of the plan.”

“Rainbow Dash! I can see well in the dark.”

Dash stepped back, though they clung well to the trees and darkness. It took her a moment to recall that voice but when she did, Dash relaxed both at the familiarity and the explanation of how she was spotted so easily.

Aria Blaze sat leaning across a tree just before the gate with the tattered remains of her doll, looking no better than a drunkard freshly kicked out of a bar.

“Sonata is over there.” Aria looked toward Nightmare Moon. “I can’t get anywhere near it, though. I figured you’d come back here eventually so I decided to wait. I’ll tell you anything you want to know… if that’s worth anything now.”

Aria grimaced and looked dejected at the ground, hating herself for trying to profit from withholding the intel from Dash earlier.

“Not sure if now’s the best time,” said Dash. “But you’re sure that’s… is that Nightmare Moon already or?”

“A small fragment,” said Aria. “Nightmare Moon’s containment is leaking. This happened once before, during the last True Halloween. But now I fear there’s no way to put her back in. We can’t even beat this– a percent of her true self. It’s hopeless now.”

Aria gave something between a huff and a sigh.

“And yet you’re still here?” Dash asked. “Waiting for… me?”

“Hope is wasted on the hopeless.” Aria turned up one hoof and leaned back.

“Oh. Any cloud in a storm, huh? I see how it is.

“But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.” With some slight struggle, Aria stood up and moved closer to the gate.

A bustle on top moved against her but Dash could hardly make out much more than that.

“Hey, you!” Aria shouted up at the guard.

“You stay back!” She shouted back. “I already told you, no ghosts! Not now! Not with that out!”

“I’m staying out here. You tell all your friends Rainbow Dash is here!”

A light was shined in their direction and Dash wasn’t fast enough to hide in time. There was no verbal reply, just some rapid movement, the light going out, then nothing. Nopony came out of the gate to say anything friendly or hostile.

“I was trying to keep me coming here a secret!” Dash chastised.

“Well that was a stupid idea.” Aria closed her eyes as if ready to take a nap. Dash could relate but kept hers open.

“Look, I have a plan. Sort of.” Dash glanced around. “I was so sure those two would follow me down here. What’s taking them so long? They should be faster than me, I was expecting to get overtaken.”

“They did,” Aria went on. “I think they had the same idea I did. Waiting for you.”

Dash watched her carefully. Aria could have possibly figured out the plan unless.

“They’re here? Who’s here?” Dash asked, not wanting to give any more away.

“Sunset and Embermoon,” said Aria. “Unless you meant to bring another two demons down here, damn you. I was here first, they came a bit later almost the same time. I have no idea what you’re possibly planning but they’re in something of a standoff.”

Dash took heart. If there was tension between the two, there could be fighting!

“I don’t want them to fight so close to the city,” Moondancer warned.

“I suppose neither do they,” said Dash, “if they’re hesitating. I’m sure I can get them to move out into the forest. And get them to fight!”

Dash clashed her hooves together. She was so close to this paying off.

“Oh. Is that it?” Aria asked, weary but accommodating. “Well, Embermoon is dug into the west against the wall, blocking Sunset who is northeast. Or maybe it doesn’t matter.”

Aria withdrew slightly as both witches stepped forward. Sunset wore armor with a gold tinge while Embermoon’s partial chitin seemed a black armor in reflection. The lack of symmetry came with Moonlight Raven standing just behind Sunset.

The two stared one another down, neither wanting to make the other move still.

“Rainbow Dash,” Sunset spoke first. “Is it true that the element of Honesty is awake? No, don’t bother. I can already tell. But why did you tell me? Did you change your mind in light of…”

Sunset turned to the northeast, toward the fraction of Nightmare Moon.

“Well, I promise you I can stop it.” Sunset extended a hoof. “I’ll take any help you're willing to offer.”

Dash did not reach forward.

“Yeah, about that. Still not sold on your plan to wake up Golden Feather and make her supreme emperor,” said Dash as Sunset slowly withdrew her hoof. “But only cause we can do better! I was hoping–”

“To side with Nailbat and his anarchists,” said Sunset. “I’ve heard as much. You promised these ponies that, didn’t you?”

“Well! Maybe.”

“We need a strong leader, Rainbow Dash! Not mob rule. I won’t negotiate with you on this. Bringing back our true queen is the only solution,” Sunset laid it down firmly, an impenetrable wall between them. “Now tell me why you passed this information to me.”

“I–” Dash turned to Embermoon, watching this unfold with an annoying smile. “If you don’t do anything, Embermoon might–”

“She isn’t nearly as big a threat as Nightmare Moon!” Sunset shot back. “And I’ll be the one to deal with that. For good.”

Sunset turned to Embermoon.

“I’m willing to make at least this much of a truce with you,” said Sunset. “If you don’t interfere with me, I won’t with you.”

“Done,” said Embermoon.

“Don’t you know what a threat Embermoon poses to this city!” Dash called after Sunset. “Are you really just going to abandon it?”

“She isn’t the biggest threat to this city, nor anything else,” said Sunset. “My path is the surest way to aid everyone and even if I had to leave one city to perish it’d be a price I would begrudgingly pay.”

Sunset left then, moving swiftly into the city. Moonlight lingered a moment longer.

“Sunset alone will travel to the outer realm,” said Moonlight Raven. “I will consider what I can do here when we get back.”

And then she too departed.

Dash turned next to Embermoon, now craning her neck and looking pleased. With herself.

“Now hold on,” Dash called out to her. “Don’t you think we should team up against, well, that? Nightmare Moon is a far bigger threat than me or you. We can agree on that, right?”

“Honestly, I’d just feel better if I kill you now,” said Embermoon. “You cause way too many problems.”

Dash let out a long sigh. She honestly thought this would be an easy sell.

“You can’t seriously think I’m a bigger threat here. Like, you realize that thing is going to kill you too right?”

“I know. But I’m one of those blessed by Luna. When I die I’ll become a ghost. Becoming her adoring slave is hardly the worst-case scenario for me.”

“Seriously? You’re just okay with losing your free will and becoming a slave?”

“In the end, we’re all slaves to something. You to your moralizations and me to–” She paused, looking over the chitin slowly overtaking her body. “To something or other in the end. It doesn’t matter.”

Dash took a step back. She’d come to see herself as a smooth talker as of late, but how could you possibly reason with somepony of that mindset?

“And more importantly, I know you won’t be getting a second chance as a ghost!”

“Look, this is a much bigger response from Nightmare Moon than I thought we’d get. You’re in immediate danger right now and–”

“Wait. ‘Than you thought’?!” Embermoon’s eye twitched. “You had something to do with this? You… you played even her?!”

“Well.”

“Just what kind of games are you playing? How much of all this have you orchestrated? Have you been to the Dark Circle? Who are you?!” Embermoon stepped forward aggressively. Dash knew the witch had been trying to kill here mere hours earlier but somehow this felt worse, more personal.

“Look, it’s really not as deep as you think!” Dash waved her hooves defensively. “I’m winging it 99% of the time. I’m just, you know, not afraid to wake a sleeping ghost. Sometimes literally.”

“Oh no you don’t,” her face contorted. “You’re not going to convince me that you’re using gods as your pawns, masterminding the downfall of witches and kings but that you’re just some idiot.”

“Hey! I didn’t say I was an idiot! My plans work. Therefore they’re smart.”

“You followed me out of that pit, didn’t you?” Her anger broke to something bordering on fear. “Oh yes, I’m pretty sure I’ve figured out what you really are.”

“And I’m pretty sure you haven’t because I have no idea what the crow you’re talking about. Do you guys…?”

Aria weakly shook her head and Moondancer provided even less.

“Yes!” Embermoon looked up at the sky. “All it’s all just a big coincidence that ‘Rainbow Dash’ just happens to show up at Twilight Sparkle’s house exactly one year ago?

“Um. I. Yeah, it is a coincidence. Look! I don’t even know what I’m being accused of over here!”

Embermoon briefly raised a hoof to strike Rainbow Dash, but it seemed she’d spun her wheels too hard. She stopped for a moment with a smile on her face.

“You know what?” Embermoon instead took a step back. “No.”

“No?” Dash blinked.

“You want me to attack Oakenfield. You want me to chase you down here. “I know enough to not give you what you want. I’m going back to the castle, but not to help the Cartel.! Even if they manage to destroy that shadow, I will sweep down upon them, exhausted and spent, and slaughter every last pony there! Even Eclipse and that stupid girl she was with.”

Dash tried to control herself but the fear at the thought leaked through. Her plan had fallen apart completely.

“Yes!” Embermoon took much encouragement from Dash’s moment of hesitation. “It seems I’m the card you didn’t see coming! I’m not letting you decide the battlefield. Meet me there.”

Embermoon departed far too quickly for Dash to have any hope of catching up with.

Moondancer looked left and right between the two witches, each departing in opposite directions. If they chased both they would catch neither.

“I can use my powers to slow her down as much as possible,” said Moondancer.

And then what? It might give the others a chance to get away from the castle, at least. Dash had no idea how the extraction was going. Hopefully, Rarity was already long gone.

“If it’s the best we can do then fine,” said Dash. “But…”

She bit her lip in frustration. She almost had a solution even now, assuming the Cartel did manage to blast Nightmare Moon back with the azoth spell. Dash had three armies to work with. The pegasi that defected to her, Oakenfield, Moonlight Raven, and the army Sunset had sheltered in Ponyville… Crow, even the remnants of the Cartel might help them fight Embermoon.

It was like she had the puzzle in three completed sections but they just wouldn’t click together!

“Moonlight, if you command everypony here to march with us, do you think they would?” Dash asked.

“I’m not a queen or even a president,” said Moonlight. “I only have so much sway over those ponies.”

“I’m pretty sure they’ll follow you now, Rainbow Dash,” Ari spoke up, reminding Dash she was there suddenly.

“I already tried to sell them on this.”

“And I told you hope is wasted on the hopeless, remember?”

Aria turned again to the gates. Dash had missed it before but ponies were assembling outside, or rather clogging up the exit trying to crawl all over themselves. Pegasi reached her first, Dash recognizing many of them among the leaders who denied her before.

“Rainbow Dash!” Many of them called out all around her. “Do you have a plan? We are lost!”

“That thing is going to turn around and kill us next, isn’t it?”

“Dash!”

So many ponies were asking her for help all at once, Dash could hardly respond to any of them.

“Whoa! Whoa! What is this?!” Dash finally managed to get a small amount of distance between herself and the crowd. “Two minutes ago you told me to buzz off! Are you really the same ponies?”

“That was hours ago!” One stepped forward to complain. “And besides that was before… that thing emerged!”

Dash turned north once more still incredulous. Many of them had known this would happen eventually but still didn’t act until now.

“It’s different when death is at your doorstep,” said Aria. “Ponies will cling to any cloud in a storm when death is near.”

“If you have any hope to give us then I offer you the lives of me and my ponies in return!” One battle-hardened-looking stallion called out to her.

And most unexpectedly, a pony wearing a gas mask came slithering through the group. A huge chorus rushed to echo the sentiment.

“The Mad Science Cartel may have some weapons you’d be interested in,” he said a little too slightly but spoke more frankly at getting a look at Rainbow Dash. “Free, in exchange for any information or counsel you can offer. Do you not know anything about Crater Cemetery? If The Bloodstorm Cartel fails…”

Dash looked at Aria, who met her gaze smiled for once, then stood up.

“Yeah,” said Aria. “Rainbow Dash knows everything there is to know about Nightmare Moon.”

“Big sister Rarity!” Slightly jarring, her voice sounded like Fuff rather than Saccharine’s. “Sweetie Belle is still present. She’s frozen and will soon be used to focus the azoth spell!”

“What?” Rarity looked up at the sky, or rather the encroaching doom that blocked it out. Part of her had been hoping Eclipse was about to use it to banish this monstrosity but now who knew what this could mean? “We’re getting her out of there!”

Not that she needed to say as much. Saccharine crawled rapidly across the edge of the building, spiraling inward toward a point. Magic faltered a moment as if trying hard to line up a proper shot.

“It’s not letting us move up. I have only one choice to make it. Get ready.”

For what Rarity soon found.

The two of them did jerk upward suddenly, launching into the air. The cost, it seemed, was taking a hit. A single bolt of magic slammed into Saccharine, tearing off a foreleg and separating the two of them. They fell towards where the roof really should have been. Enough was missing for Rarity to see what should have been one of her secret passages.

Six portals had opened near the front of the castle, beaming a stream of light, each a different color, towards something that grew ever brighter. The magic coming from there was so strong that even through all of this, Rarity felt her horn throbbing. Perhaps a more skilled mage could have used this for something.

More importantly, yet more subtle, Rarity could see strands of energy that wrapped around something in a tangle and extended to each of the portals. At the center of it all was her target.

Sweetie Belle!

Rarity saw her suspended in the air, motionless, frozen in time.

The two landed hard against the ground, near Sweetie Belle.

But how was she supposed to unfreeze her? Rarity ran up and tried moving her, but she wasn’t simply paralyzed. Objects frozen in time (or rather slowed to a near stand-still as it was impossible to completely stop time) couldn’t be moved easily.

One other pony was present. Blueblood was here, the dive machine on his back. He set it down, breathing heavily from what must have been quite the ordeal.

“I saw this and, well–” Blueblood didn’t get another word, he was swept away and off the roof of the castle when Magic landed. That same blast threw Rarity against the wall. Her back hurt so much! She could hardly stand after that.

The dive machine too went clattering across the room and down a small ledge. Yet it started to whirl and generate a portal. It wasn’t completely broken yet.

“Hmph. In the end, it seems like I didn’t even have to do anything.” Magic looked out to the south.

Rarity had known all along that something was there. A veritable wall of the darkest, most sickening magic came rushing at them. Rarity had some assumptions as to what this was but it hardly mattered.

“That will destroy you too!”

“Don’t be dense.”

“Rarity!” Saccharine called out. “It plans to use Sweetie Belle to redirect the azoth spell!”

“Shut up!” Magic moved swiftly forward and stomped Saccharine’s back, destroying the back half of her body. “It doesn’t matter, but yes. I want you to know that this will kill Sweetie Belle. The spell will be redirected at Rainbow Dash so everything you care about is about to be destroyed. I want you to know that before you die.”

It didn’t seem Dash would come to the rescue this time. Rarity had to do this on her own.

Despite everything, there was one thing she’d seen in this battle that gave her hope. No matter how this creature wanted to think of itself, it was less than a pony, not more!

“You’re not really a person, are you? No matter how powerful you are, you’re just going to keep making the same mistake over and over again,” said Rarity.

“Yes, yes. Wonderful. So I suppose you’re just going to set up another fool to throw against me now?”

That Rarity had been able to use Coco, Kerfuffle, that nameless pony… it really had been luck and her luck was out now. Still, that didn’t mean Rarity was out of cards. There had to be something else a creature like this couldn’t possibly understand.

A being that only cares about power and growth.

“Yes,” Rarity stood up. “And that fool is me!”

Saccharine caught in immediately while Magic watched on only non-plussed. It seemed Rarity’s guess was right.

“Rarity! In your current state, this will destroy your mind!” Saccharine protested.

“It’s the only way to catch it off guard,” said Rarity.

“What are you talking about?” Magic watched. Some part of that darkness came hurtling down on them only for something below to throw it back. She seemed contented with letting things play out.

Even now, despite it being so overwhelmingly obvious what she was about to do, it simply looked on, dumbfounded, truly unable not just to understand, but to even know. If it had any ability, that had come from the filly, now silenced.

Yes, this was a being of strength. To purposely decline, to give up everything simply wasn’t something Magic could imagine.

“If it’s bad enough, you know what to do,” Rarity gave Saccharine one last solemn command. “Don’t let me live like that.”

“Rarity!” Saccharine tried reaching toward her, only for Magic to stomp down, breaking her last leg off, halting the one thing that could have stopped Rarity’s plan.

Despite her protests, Saccharine couldn’t feel sorrow. She’d put Rarity down after the fact.

Rarity pushed herself, jumping down towards the dive machine. Only then, after she’d actually done it, did Magic realize what she’d been plotting.

Sweetie regained motion as seven streams of magic shot toward the castle from every direction. Magic charged down at Rarity. And Rarity took her eighth dive.

Dust rushed out into the storm to slam her hoof against a final ghost before the enemy fled. She watched them scattered, cut badly, and exhausted.

A brief look at the scene would suggest the barest of victories. Few ponies remained who weren’t at the brink of exhaustion, most needed medical attention that wouldn’t come any time soon. Dust herself had maybe one or two punches left in her and Fluttershy’s wall had only held on with the very last drop of her strength.

Yet the ghosts did flee. They had held on and driven out the enemy, and for a brief moment, it truly did seem a victory.

Then an exhausted Fluttershy finally allowed her guard to drop, for the wall to crumble, and the true nemesis became visible. None of that mattered compared to what stood before them.

Like a hydra with countless heads came bounding forth their doom. Trees bent beneath it like grass and the ground trembled as it approached. So big was it that it blocked out the wind of that violent hurricane. It wouldn’t even have to attack. Just staying its course would obliterate them all.

There was no retreat. The storm, it seemed, wasn’t intended to blow down the castle nor to just limit mobility. It had carried some shred of the monster off in its gale until tatters and pieces of it took root all around the castle. Though not as terrific as the main mass, such snarling maws surrounded them in every direction. And now they all moved in at once.

Not a single pony mustered or even went for cover. Even if they had been at full strength there would have been no chance at all against this tide of darkness.

What would they even do? Shoot it?

So Dust hardly blamed them for laying down their guns and looking up at their next challenge with stoic silence among the best of them. Dust could do little more herself.

But just as victory appeared for only a moment, so too did defeat. Behind them stood the nexus, seemingly fully charged. Six portals opened and from them came six beams of light that charged the beacon with a rainbow of light.

So much magic emanated from that… though Dust knew not where they drew the magic from the strength of it was enough to give some hope even now. Even some of the psychics seemed to recover, however slightly shielded by it. Dust herself felt somehow propped up by the power of the nexus and wondered if she would even be able to stand without it.

One head of the hydra came bounding far ahead of the others on a curved path toward the nexus. Even just that, perhaps the smallest head could have crushed what was left of the group.

From above came a flash and a meteor that first pinned the head to the ground and then popped it, sending a wave that dissolved that long neck as it went. A ghost followed close behind her, but Dust decided to just ignore them for now.

From the flash rose Eclipse and even those badly wounded could nearly stand at that sight. Nopony knew whether or not to hope now, least of all Dust! The enemy was so close and yet here was Eclipse!

“It’s ready!” Batton screamed up at her. “Now! There isn’t any time!”

Time was up. Nightmare Moon ripped off the front of the castle. The whole structure collapsed around them, only Fluttershy’s walls remained.

“This is really it!” Dust shouted.

The three pegasi and the three ghosts Fluttershy huddled together. It seemed anypony who could do more or less the same. Only Eclipse was able to stand at the front, she alone had the ability to fight back.

“Is it enough?!” Batton screamed over the noise.

“I won’t manage to kill it!” Eclipse declared. “But I’ll leave a scare it won’t ever forget!”

The seven points of light slammed into Eclipse, into the nexus point, and around her came the aura of a rainbow. The magic of unicorns, of anypony really but most visibly in unicorns, was only ever one color. Yet now, Eclipse shone with every color, perhaps even more than Dust could see.

The immensity of the spell! Every hair on Dust’s body stood on edge. She could swear such a thing could destroy her just by being in the same plane of existence.

“I can’t believe we’re going to die surrounded by a bunch of thieves and ghosts!”

That was right. Dust had no idea if this was the end. Even if the spell worked, something like this could obliterate all of them just as collateral. But if Dust was going to die… there was one thing she had to do first.

“Fluttershy,” Dust said what might be her last words, “Thanks.”

“So this is true insanity, is it?” Rarity looked about. “It certainly looks odd but I never thought it’d feel so normal. Then again, maybe I’m simply too crazy to even realize my lack of sanity. After all, I am narrating everything out loud.”

It didn’t look any different from sanity. Things appeared to move slower, so slow they didn’t actually move, not really. And a few things simply made sense to her suddenly.

Magic, now a visage of Twilight, but a literal shell of her wrapped around the filly, falling apart piece by piece as pieces of it sloughed off like a poorly made paper mâché construct. Their pact was broken and slowly fading.

She could also see something else. While Magic was slowly crumbling off the filly, that same process came in reverse from Rarity’s necklace, from that feather. Like a parasite it was trying to latch onto her, Already it covered one eye.

Yes. One eye in the real world, one eye here… But Rarity didn’t much like this plan. She ripped the necklace off and threw the alicorn feather away.

The feather took shape to answer her.

It assumed the form of Rarity herself. Her worst weakness! Rarity cringed and turned away. She had lost her mask in all this chaos. How other ponies put up with it, even during the fight Rarity couldn’t say, but she certainly could not bear to look at her face, not without that scare.

“Oh come now!” Rarity looked in the other direction. “Don’t you have limitless powers or something? Surely you can put on a mask or get rid of the scar or perhaps not transform into a living effigy of myself? Thank you!”

“Not?” It asked in her voice. Or rather what her voice would have sounded like were she a dullard. “You?”

Rarity only glanced sideways long enough to catch its expression. Like an animal staring blankly into a light. How intelligent were these feathers again?

“Yes. Not me. I don’t like looking at myself!” Rarity waved her hoof rapidly at it without turning her head. “Do you have the power to take any form you want or not?”

“I am nothing so I could be anything, yes.” It spoke with a slow realization that what it was saying was true. “But not you? You don’t want me to be… you? How strange.”

It looked out at the other ponies, thinking Rarity was so different from them all.

It thought that so strange, but it did acquiesce to her request, even if it was in the worst way possible. Rarity glanced back at it upon seeing some motion in the corner of her eye. Now it was choosing to appear as Sweetie Belle – before the accident.

Rarity hung her head and bore it. But this insult she could bear, at least.

Sweetie Belle looked at Rarity with genuine confusion, not knowing what she did wrong and through it all Rarity could not but imagine the real Sweetie Belle giving Rarity that look moments before Rarity failed her.

“I don’t think we have much time!” Rarity hmphed, deciding to not waste any more on this hopeless game. “You’ve been clinging to me at least since I returned to the castle. You want something and if it’s from me I would appreciate complete frankness, thank you.”

Though she expected nothing of the like from a creature so closely related to a god. Why oh why did the gods feel the need to play such games? Were they truly great they’d not need mysterious ways.

“I have no desires. I have no name,” she said. “I can’t answer such a question: why.”

That last word came out like it was spitting a bug out of its mouth.

“And yet here you are, doing something.” Rarity rolled her eyes impatiently. “Somepony without desires would just sit there perfectly content forever, wouldn’t they?”

“Isn’t that what I’ve been doing up until now?” It asked innocently enough.

“Oh, I suppose. But clearly, something changed. What is that, exactly?”

“I was given a small push. I have been slowly beginning to think since that other one appeared,” she said. “And only now have I had my first thought.”

“Weren’t you helping Scootaloo from the beginning?”

“Was I?” It looked like a genuinely confused child.

“What do you want now,” Rarity demanded. “I despise all things related to the gods because of these games you play with us! Be frank or be silent.”

“I can bring you out of this danger. Take my power, Rarity. Give me your desires. You know exactly what I’m offering.”

Sweetie – that thing lifted a small hoof up to her in offer.

“Thanks, but I’ve seen what happened to that child.” Rarity smacked it aside. “I’ve never even heard of a deal with your kind bringing any good. What you’re trying to become is a source of only evil as far as I’m aware. And the last thing Coco said to me was to not be like that filly.”

“Are you sure that’s what she meant?” It looked towards Magic. “There are many ways you can be unlike someone. I thought she meant something more like: don’t fight with your other half. That we could be partners instead of merely using the other.”

“Oh, so now you’re smart? I’m not so easy to be taken for a fool.”

“I’m starting to think,” the fake Sweetie Belle crept up alongside Rarity. “I told you this was dangerous. I don’t know what I’ll think next.”

It looked down at the mimicry of Sweetie Belle’s body carefully, frowning at some invisible flaw. Then it changed again into a mimicry of a Sweetiebot 9000. Not Saccharine nor Sweetie’s artificial body, but a third Rarity never managed to make.

“You see? I figured it out already!” The Sweetiebot announced. “You hate looking at yourself because you aren’t yourself. Did you realize that yet?”

Rarity sneered. It was because of that scar.

“No, no. You didn’t, I think.” The Sweetiebot pointed at itself. “This is you, Rarity! Your creations are the real you. This is your very soul born out into the world. All of it, in here.”

And it placed its heart on its chest, where the heart could be.

Perhaps Rarity didn’t entirely disagree. Even before she became obsessed with robots, Rarity had always been the artistic type. In another world, she likely would have ended up a famous painter or who knew what else.

“That is your heart, that is what I want to be, the only thing I can see: to be your creation!” The Sweetiebot grew ever more sleek and perfect, slowly morphing into some idealized form of it.

In your mind, a work of art was always perfect and what manifested in the world was always some compromise: with reality, with your faults, with the limited understandings of others. True art could not exist in the real world. Perfect meaning never left one's own head.

And yet here it was, standing before Rarity. The perfect, uncompromised form of her vision, her perfect Sweetiebot. Just a few feet ahead.

“With my help, you can become your greatest self,” it offered, “and I can become your creation. If you can create me, you can create anything. This is who you were meant to be.”

Rarity sighed and smiled. It really had her going until that last line. ‘Meant to be’. Rarity couldn’t possibly accept something like that.

“Maybe you aren’t evil.” Rarity trotted over to the frozen visage of Magic. “But you don’t understand. It seems like your kind can never understand…”

“How can I understand if you won’t create me?” It shook its head with no real sense of disappointment despite it all. “Don’t you know that if you won’t someone else will? If you’re so clever then find a way. Defeat Magic. Make me understand. There is always a hidden answer. Do it. Find a way.”

And from then on, it just stood there and waited patiently without any further input. But time didn’t Rarity didn’t have much longer. It could only protect her for so long. Insanity was creeping closer.

It was nearer the truth now, its words spoke more to Rarity’s heart. If you would be the first to do something, you must discard the notion it was impossible.

Perhaps there was a way, if Rarity could see that – to be the first. And its speech earlier brought the solution to her mind already. Rarity’s greatest strength was her creations and yet if she focused on creating who knew where she would end up?

It all seemed so obvious.

A move Magic would never see coming. A move that would assure this element wouldn’t corrupt Rarity… It all hinged on one thing.

“Her. My creation.”

Rarity pointed to Saccharine.

“I’ll take your offer. If you’re going to make some bond with me… take what you will from me and give all you have to her! That is my desire!”

Once again the feather took Rarity’s form with eyes wide, looking breathlessly at Saccharine.

“Yes. I see. It was never about… you.”

Magic waited through the long second. It saw Rarity take the feather. The alicorn magic filled the air, but it wouldn’t be enough! That one second it took to flood Rarity was all it needed.

“Not enough!”

Magic ignored Saccharine and took its one shot down at Rarity as the azoth spell went off. Its hoof slammed hard into the ground. And yet beside it…

Magic slowly turned its head then eyes to see.

That one mistake…