Author's Note

I did this listening to a compilation of the most epic songs I could find on YouTube, so you could say I was inspired, and I honestly don't know how it turned out, maybe I exaggerated too much, maybe I didn't express myself well, and it's not understood, I already you will say in the comments.

Any criticism is accepted and appreciated.

Now yes, let's go with the cap.

23- My little ponies… I'm really sorry

In the deer village, life continued like any other day, with one difference, the silence and tranquility of nature that its people had lived with for generations had been replaced by the sound of creation.

Saws cutting, hammers hitting

The village was going through new times of change and growth, the likes of which had not been seen in centuries, all thanks to the timberwolves.

Servants, brought and given almost as gifts to the inhabitants of this town for the embodiment of everything they considered sacred

They were somewhat scary, but quite obedient and extremely efficient. They had not been living with deer for long, but in that short time they had built beautiful buildings in their village with and polished wood, strong and large walls created using an innovative method that involved creating blocks that were assembled on top of each other to form the wall and then covering it with a mixture created by the deer, leaving them almost reflective

It might sound exaggerated to say that such a thing is something that no other race could have achieved on Equss, but these beasts did not need rest, nor sleep, nor food, nor even catching their breath, besides being hundreds of thousands.

They just do whatever they are asked, and they don't stop until they finish that task in the best way they know how, build buildings, clean hunts, take care of children, teach about the structure of chemical components and how to alter them in an almost mathematical way, revolutionizing the field of alchemy several decades or an entire century

Until now

The new normal was disrupted when all the timberwolves stopped what they were doing, remaining perfectly still for a full second before speeding off, all heading in the same direction, not caring what was in their path or the importance of their current job

They ran through doors and windows, dropped their work tools, and threw the children at the first adult they saw as they all ran in the same direction.

All those who appreciated it prayed, because they noticed the desperation that these creations had to reach their creator.

I thought I had a good plan, but as the saying goes, “No plan survives contact with the enemy.”

…

Or at least that's how it should normally be, but not here, because in this case everything turned out wonderfully.

Normally, it would be idiotic to think that anything I did could somehow surpass Celestia, we're talking centuries of stored, refined and perfected arcane knowledge. There was no way to surpass that, so I didn't even try. Instead, That's why I opted for something that I have depended on enormously since I came into this world.

The deception

My plan was simple, it barely consisted of three parts. Everything had to be perfect, there was no time for a plan B

First, piss off Celestia, make her mind messed up, and miss the most obvious clues.

Second, install two barriers. In the first one, I would put all my effort and resources, I would use every second I had available to enhance it and increase its size and robustness. I would do EVERYTHING to fail, or rather, to make failure convincing.

After all, leaving my home unprotected would raise suspicion and possibly provoke some caution on Celestia's part, but as soon as this barrier was destroyed by Celestia, she took it as a sign of superiority and that her victory was guaranteed.

That's where the second barrier came in, which was the complete opposite, it was paper thin, barely functional and even if left untouched, it would fade on its own in just a few more hours. It was so pathetically weak that it was no wonder it was ignored, so small that it becomes difficult to locate, as flimsy as it is flexible

All of that added together was what allowed my secondary barrier to survive the impulsive deployment of magic and outwit Celestia the way she did.

The third part of my plan was the most obvious, collapse the mine

It's true that I and my timberwolves hid in it when Celestia and her troops dispersed through the forest, but when she ordered them to gather at the entrance to my cave, I had plenty of room to come out with my [flame gate] modified timberwolves. Camouflaged thanks to my secondary barrier, it spread freely through the spaces previously secured by ponies

Thank you very much, fools!

It was then that I ordered the golems to attack, prioritizing the unicorns, the only good thing Celestia had done was distribute them to protect the rest in case of collapse.

I had to delete them first

The element of surprise was well used, in a rapid movement, dozens of lives were cut, obviously they did not always reach their objective. Even so, I ordered them to throw themselves into danger in a suicidal race just to be able to kill at least one unicorn each

“Attention to all my golems” I said through everyone, even the ones who were still fighting, executing or being executed, however, I did not care about them, only one golem deserved my attention.

“Half of you must explode.” The look of terror in Celestia's eyes was priceless.

“Did you feel that?” asked one of the earth pony guards who were waiting their turn in line to enter the mine, like many others.

The progress was slow, and the groups of ponies did not stop arriving. Internally, he wondered how long it would take them to get out of there once they had arrested their fugitive.

“No, what?” A pegasus guard asked confused.

“Feel it, the earth”

The pegasus just snorted, dismissing the comment as some silly earth pony superstition.

“Wait, I think I feel something too,” said another earth pony who had been listening a few steps away.

One could be a coincidence, but two?

“I don't like the way it feels.”

"Something is wrong!"

“I think we should back off.”

"Silence, everyone!" He demanded a unicorn when he noticed how the murmurs turned into screams.

Luckily, his authoritarian tone worked, and silence reigned as everyone present tried to perceive whatever had upset their companions so much.

“Is he… shaking?” He questioned the unicorn, who had silenced everyone when he noticed the vibrations, and suddenly understood why the earth ponies were so upset.

Their racial magic made them more susceptible to these types of natural changes, in the same way that pegasi were more sensitive to climate changes.

“CRACK”

The earth broke

"WITHDRAWAL!"

Chaos reign

The ground shook with greater intensity, cracks began to form, the entrance to the cave began to collapse, condemning those who were still inside, and a stampede of ponies formed, desperate to find a safe area.

The pegasi were the luckiest due to their natural ability, the most intelligent or quick thinking managed to grab the pony that was next to them, taking them out of the danger zone.

A few unicorns who knew teleportation used it without hesitation, but the number of unicorns who mastered that spell did not even add up to a tenth of what the unicorns brought.

Other not so lucky ponies fell into despair as parts of the ground began to give way and swallow their companions or simply make them stumble, something unimportant, but in the current situation it proved fatal.

Dozens of ponies were crushed by their companions, some who realized this could not deal with the idea of being next, and in their panic they clung to the pegasi who were trying to save as many of their companions as they could, the only thing they managed to do was drag them away more of his companions to certain death

The collapse didn't last more than a few minutes, but for the survivors, it felt like hours

Before the incredulous gaze of the ponies, the entire area where they were previously was now divided by a large crack, like a scar on what was once the beautiful face of Mother Nature.

When calm finally returned, the screams and crying soon followed.

There had been hundreds of ponies gathering in that place, it was impossible that there were no survivors.

With this thought in mind, the first group of pegasi managed to muster enough courage to go in and lend their help to whoever needed it, but their naive minds forgot to consider the opposite approach.

When the first brave man descended into the opening, the first thing he saw was the blood dripping between the rocks.

Just as there had to be survivors, there had to be a much larger margin of victims.

Some vomited, others returned, but one managed to spot a survivor.

A pegasus mare descended and stumbled when she touched the ground. She felt weak and dizzy, she couldn't even identify what breed the pony she was helping was, only that apparently its armor suffered a lot of damage, since she could distinguish the yellow color of its fur, was also quite battered, and had one front leg completely crushed by a rock

The poor guy couldn't stop crying and screaming.

“T-calm down” The pegasus mare leaned on the rock as she tried to compose herself “I'm going to get you out of here” She said, but the truth is that she wasn't able to move the rock even an inch “Help! She needed help here! ” She screamed, and luckily her scream was answered.

A group of five pegasi carrying a unicorn descended

“For… Celestia.”

As expected, none of those present were in any better condition, they were still too stunned.

"What are they waiting for?!" The cry of the pegasus mare desperately trying to get the rock off the poor pony's leg brought them out of their stupor.

"Y-you, hold his legs and prepare to pull, the rest of you, pull the rock on the count of three." The unicorn gave instructions while mentally preparing to help levitate the rock and thinking about the spells he would use later to take the pony out to treat its wounds

“One, two… three” They all moved in synchronicity, this caused part of the surrounding land to give way, causing a slight collapse accompanied by a small cloud of smoke, but none of them stopped their efforts, and in the end they were rewarded.

The rock rose high enough for the pony's limb to be freed. The pegasus holding it pulled hard, and as soon as it was out of danger, the group stopped its efforts by letting the rock fall.

The unicorn felt bile rise up his throat as he saw the severity of the damage to the limb. “Hold him… he may have to cut.”

The rest of the group shuddered, but did not hesitate to follow the instructions, although these did not seem to be necessary.

The yellow pony hardly seemed to have any strength, he was no longer even screaming. As the unicorn guard approached, he began to fear that his efforts had been in vain, but to his relief, the injured pony's expression filled with energy as he saw him approach.

Although... it wasn't relief that she saw in him, it was absolute terror.

Before he could ask why, one of his companions warned him

“Watch out back!”

That slight collapse a while ago had not been as simple as they initially believed, something had come out of there and used the light curtain of dust along with the structure of its body to cover itself and get close enough.

The unicorn could only see the advancing golem for a second before his view abruptly changed to the sky, the horrified faces of his companions for an instant, and finally the sandy ground.

The rest of the guards still couldn't fully process the scene that unfolded before them. In one simple move, his pony companion had been decapitated.

Fear petrified them, a fatal mistake that the golem had no qualms about taking advantage of.

“Here they come!”

Surprisingly, the scream did not come from any of those present, but from the surface, outside the crack, where cries of panic and fierce combat could now be heard.

“The timberwolves are here!”

It was heard at the same time that the golem lowered other of his limb to open the head of another unfortunate pony.

The poor guy, at least, died quickly

Another pegasus tried to take off in panic, but the golem did not hesitate to take the injured pony, stabbing him with one of his beaks, condemning him to death, and throwing him against the pegasus, preventing him from taking flight and causing both of them to crash.

It was horrible

Everyone was going to die there

“NOOOOOOOO!”

Or so it seemed

A miniature sun emerged with a gigantic beam of energy that pointed towards the sky, disintegrating anything that obstructed its rise to the surface.

Celestia had arrived, and she was not happy

In the blink of an eye, he flew at the golem, crushing it with his own hooves.

In horror, she saw the corpses of the soldiers she had brought with her, but as much as it pained her, she had no time to mourn her loss, she could still hear the sounds of battle.

"Stay here!" Celestia practically roared as she, in an instant, healed any wounds on the survivors and encased them in a miniature dome.

Realizing that they were as protected as they could be under these circumstances, Celestia wasted no time and took flight at a higher altitude.

Celestia believed that before she was horrified, well now she was desperate

Before her, a pitched battle raged between her ponies, the modified timberwolves, and a few advanced golems that emerged from the rocks.

Their ponies still seemed to have the numerical advantage, and with their pegasi in flight, they had air superiority, but little else. Their forces had been surrounded by what the timberwolves were attacking from all fronts, the destroyed terrain prevented them from moving freely, the golems came out of the cracks and caused disorder among her troops, and although she didn't know it, in the sky, the drones were locating any pony with enough initiative to try to organize the troops and marking them so that they would be hunted as quickly as possible, preventing any opportunity to build an effective defense

Celestia's body moved on instinct, and she cast spell after spell trying to destroy as many of these aberrations as possible from the air, but she had a problem, one that had haunted her since her youth.

It is true that Celestia was a magician without equal, being only equaled, never surpassed in the art of the arcane, and it was not the first time she crossed a battlefield.

But there was a reason why Luna was considered the warrior between the two, even though Celestia had a greater amount of magical power and experience at her disposal.

She was easily distracted

At that moment, Celestia attempted to charge a spell of pinpoint precision that would manifest a gigantic pillar of light that would destroy the enemies within that area while ignoring her own troops, leaving them unharmed and giving them the opportunity to gather, but over the edge. From his vision, he noticed how an earth pony had his weapon taken away from him, and he could not keep his distance from the timberwolf, which did not hesitate to pounce on him.

Without thinking, Celestia canceled her spell that was moments from completion, and she descended to save this single soldier.

On a map table, Celestia had no problem coordinating her troops and deciding what sacrifices needed to be made, but here? On the battlefield? Where did I have to see the fruit of her decisions and mistakes in real time?

Celestia's mind was simply unable to turn away and ignore those in need, such an act was against her nature!

So she had to settle for saving one soldier at a time.

In her defense, she was doing a good job. The enemy she looked at was a dead enemy, but contrary to her deficiency, this time her mistake was being too focused on these enemies.

“SHIIIING”

“AAAAAGH” Celestia grunted and shuddered when a bolt of green energy hit her and threw her several meters until she crashed back into the ground.

The residual essence of her dark magic caused him great pain, but throughout her life she had suffered much worse, so she stood up and assessed the damage.

The impact had burned and darkened her pristine fur, right at her cutie mark, her sun!

“That was on purpose!” Celestia growled, realizing just in time the second beam of energy that was heading towards her.

This time, blocking it with a barrier was no problem.

“Can you blame me for aiming for the bigger target? It’s practically a bullseye!” Forest Heart's mocking voice came from a few meters to Celestia's left.

The princess quickly turned to face her, only to find a group of timberwolves practically devouring one of her guards.

Tearing it apart, biting it, pulling all of her limbs, and tearing off pieces of flesh like one of her ears.

That was unnecessary, there was no point in such exaggeration, but Celestia's mind could not process that fact before her body moved out of pure instinct, destroying a timberwolf with one blow and sending the rest away with an exaggeratedly strong magical wave before charging a healing spell

“BURNS!”

Something she couldn't finish doing.

In her desperation to save the life of her pony, she had let her guard down and allowed a drone to position itself a few meters above her.

However, due to the chaos caused by the surrounding battle, Celestia could not perceive when it blew itself up or the consequent teleportation of [Flame Gate] until she felt a burning weight fall on her.

Celestia immediately reared up, trying to shake off the hot bicorn.

It was true that Celestia was also a being of fire, so logically, that element should not harm her, but this was magical fire, worse yet, dragon fire enhanced by dark magic

Certainly, Celestia could sense that, they could harm her with that!

But the worst came when Forest Heart clung to her

Celestia felt a series of punctures that caused a deep pain in the back of her neck, near her cross. This only motivated her to shake more wildly, with every second that passed, she felt the pain deepen until Forest Heart decided to finish it off releasing an electric shock

Ironically, it was this shot that activated Celestia's combat instinct, an instinct long suppressed almost to the point of oblivion, but which faithfully soon responded to a potential threat to Celestia's life.

Using her unicorn magic and the innate magic of the earth ponies, Celestia rejected the energies that entered her body and then used her horn to manifest a sphere of golden energy that remained weightless in the air a short distance from her until, with a Herculean effort, he dropped with his back facing the sphere, causing Forest Heart to enter the main danger zone before detonating it.

“BOOOOOM”

Being Celestia's own magic and having set her spell to ignore it, the only damage she suffered was caused by her being dragged against the ground.

Forest Heart, on the other hand, suffered much more. They could be said to be on par with burns now, however, there was a difference

Even during the explosion, Forest never loosened his grip on his jaw.

As they both composed themselves, Celestia looked disturbed at the piece of flesh protruding from Forest Heart's snout. Even from a distance and so damaged, she could see the shades of white fur marred with blood and… drool.

Forest Heart was visibly drooling as her greenish pupils dilated before she began to chew rigorously and finally swallow audibly.

She had enjoyed it.

Celestia didn't know how to react, she was practically eating her alive, and she had the nerve to show it off in her face!

"I'll kill you!" Celestia screamed in anger as the edges of her hair transformed into an ethereal fire.

Forest Heart only smiled disastrously at her statement as she also enveloped herself in her own flames “HAHAHAHA, YOU WERE DELICIOUS, THIS-WILL-BE-FUN”

“I don't like this.” Shining Armor truly didn't like what he was seeing.

"Exactly what? The only thing I can see is that we will be going home soon” Iron Blade said nonchalantly.

“I'm not sure, maybe anything that could threaten our princess to the point of having to release that amount of magic?” He emphasized Shining sarcastically and with the image of the golden pillar still fresh in his mind.

From where they were, that was the only thing they could see, but Shining could sense that they were missing something important.

“Haha, you are too paranoid, surely that vermin made the mistake of making our princess angry, you know well how stressed she has been lately, Celestia should have simply decided to end this whole circus as quickly as possible” Blade dismissed all his worries while taking a bite of the provisions they had brought

Shining looked at him stunned. “Where did you get a donut?” Shining would clearly never waste space to bring something as trivial as candy, much less would he eat it in the middle of the most delicate moment of her mission.

"I ordered a cart to be requisitioned." Iron shrugged as if it were no big deal. "Oh, please don't look at me like that, we haven't left Equestria and someone had to make sure our princess had something worthy of her after our victory"

“Sure, ours” Shining almost said, but managed to keep that comment to himself.

The only reason Iron Blade was here was because Celestia was tasked with distracting the nobles with meetings, tea parties, minor errands, and other things, while Shining made the necessary preparations to mobilize a legion.

Celestia could easily get herself off the hook by claiming any excuse she could think of, no matter how flimsy it was of hers, no one dared challenge her, but that left Shining as the main person responsible for the unauthorized deployment of troops.

They had to change that, hence the idea of appointing a legion commander to an inept man so easily manipulated and with an ego so inflated as not to suspect that his only real job was to be present when the nobles began to look for culprits.

“BRUM”

"What was that?!" Shining was immediately alarmed by the sudden noise.

“Relax, Captain, it's just a landslide.” Iron dismissed any thoughts of danger from his head as he took another bite of his treat.

From his perspective, the only danger in this place was confined within the guard captain's force field, and it would be pure luck if at this moment that danger had not already been captured by Princess Celestia.

“Maybe, but the dust clouds should vanish, right? Don’t surround us!” Shining practically shouted in the stallion's ear, making him drop his donut in surprise. “Everyone on guard!”

At his command, all the guards assumed defensive positions.

The pegasi spread their wings, ready to take off, the earth ponies readied their spears, and the unicorns' horns glowed with arcane power.

Then a shadow became visible through all that fog.

What came out of there was not something they expected.

"Please help!" He was a diamond dog in a red jacket. He was running towards them, holding a limp and bleeding arm.

“Stop right there” The captain declared, and although hesitant, the dog obeyed “What happened to you?”

"T-they attacked us, somehow they avoided the lookouts and invaded the tunnels, we confronted them, we thought they were no big deal, but they didn't stop coming and exploding when we knocked them down," the dog explained in panic while clutching his head, almost hyperventilating at the memory “And then those flames!” The poor cry of terror “I have never seen anything like it. They joined the rocks and gems!, and- and…”

"And what happened?" The captain wanted to know more, but the dog remained silent, putting his ears to his neck, his fur standing on end, and looking at the ground as if he were going to devour him. Shining was already considering whether to threaten him or try to calm him down with kindness when she felt a vibration.

Suddenly, everyone began to understand why the diamond dog looked at the ground like that.

Except one

“Answer once and for all, creature! What pestilence haunts you?” Iron Blade stepped forward as he created three swords of light, pointing at his surroundings.

Only one word came out of the dog's mouth "Timberwolves"

…

“Poof, hahaha” The legion commander laughed as he discarded his creations “Is that all? Gosh, I don't know what he expected from a simple earth dog."

“I am a diamond dog, and at least I know when there is a larger predator to fear”

“You flatter me, chucho,” the commander said smugly.

“I wasn't talking about you.”

“BANK”

A stone was thrown, hitting one of the guards in the eye.

"Who did that?!" The guard shouted, quite irritated, only to receive the rude response of dozens of other objects thrown in the direction of his entire group.

"Ouch," a random soldier complained when a stump fell on his head.

“AH!” another growled as a group of grimy branches stained his armor.

"How dare they? - AH!” The soldier screamed when another rock hit him right on the snout.

The entire group began to receive stones and other objects that they tried to block with their armor, but there were beginning to be too many.

“Shield, now!” Shining's order might seem exaggerated when you considered that they were only hitting the frontline soldiers, the others could dodge the throws with ease, and he along with Iron were out of range, but something didn't like it, something felt wrong, and his subconscious knew it and tried to warn him, but no matter how much he thought, the answer eluded him.

“Timberwolves!” The scream immediately caught the captain's attention, and he located the threat.

It was just as the soldier had announced, a group of five, obviously enhanced, running straight towards them, but the captain didn't care.

The shield had already covered them completely, including the diamond dog, and no matter how upgraded these timberwolves were, they were still just rocks and branches. He trusted that his enchanted spears and magic could take care of them with ease.

The timberwolves stopped outside the shield, and soon the group grew until they surrounded the entire force field, but none of them moved from their positions, none of them attacked the barrier, they just… they stood there watching.

“No, no, no, no, let me out, let me out!” The diamond dog started to panic again

“Don't worry, you're safe here.”

"Safe?!" The diamond dog looked at him like he was the biggest idiot in the world “You think this magic protects us?! All you did was lock us up with them. Look!"The dog said as he pointed to a pony, more specifically a unicorn.

One of the same ones who maintained the barrier

“AAAAAAH” The unicorn screamed, but he was not the only one, several more of his same species screamed when they were bitten by… Timberwolfves heads?

“Where did those things come from?!” Shocked, Iron Blade shouted.

Suddenly Shining understood: "The garbage they threw! Everyone, pay attention to the ground, destroy anything that moves."

But it was too late, the objective had already been achieved, distract the unicorns that were feeding the barrier, weaken it and attack

“CRACK”

With a creak like window glass, the barrier gave way, and the timberwolves entered, which surprised them. Even with the unicorns distracted, it shouldn't have broken so easily.

A more elaborate battle than that of the Everfree began, mainly because these soldiers had seen their enemy and knew he would come, so there was no element of surprise to take advantage of, apart from having their leader with them to guide them.

But they also had disadvantages, the fragments of timberwolves scattered and reforming frequently distracted the Equestrian soldiers, worried that an enemy would suddenly appear in the middle of their ranks. Even so, the performance of the Equestrian troops was nothing to sneeze at.

“Left flank watch out, right flank press, Iron get out of the way!” Shining couldn't stop barking orders as he pushed Iron to the side, narrowly managing to avoid a stolen spear thrown by a timberwolf and responding with an energy beam, managing to destroy the aggressor "If you're not going to help, don't get in the way!" Shining shouted at Iron Blade and shouted orders to his troops again.

The truth is that the captain was tremendously frustrated, there was nothing he wanted more than to fight alongside his fellow guards, but he was far from being an optimal combatant.

Defensive magic is his specialty, he could even be said to be a prodigy in that area, but maintaining a force field the size of a city was wasting most of his strength.

No matter how skilled and prodigious Shining was, he was still a unicorn, not a miracle worker like the alicorns, he had his limits.

“Okay, okay!” Iron shouted, and to the captain's surprise, he created a series of large ethereal swords that fell like arrows, not on the timberwolves but on their surroundings, creating cages that prevented them from surrounding the guards while dividing the enemy army into small groups

In a second, the balance of the battle tipped in favor of the Equestrians

Shining gaped at his unicorn companion.

“Why are you looking at me like that? I’ve been on the guard almost as long as you’ve been alive!” The commander shouted indignantly.

Perhaps, there is a possibility that he and Celestia misjudged him.

Certainly, he wasn't going to tell her that, maybe later, but for now, there was something more important.

Shining watched with a critical eye as the timberwolves were forced back and bombarded by the occasional spell from his fellow Iron, but there was something about the sight that disturbed him.

There were many bodies, despite being victorious, almost half of his troops had died or been seriously wounded in that short period, however, it was not that that disconcerted him the most, but the fact that several of these bodies had their armor torn

The upgraded timberwolves were supposed to be all wood and rock, how did they manage to cause that kind of damage?

Then he realized something as he looked at the diamond dog that had joined his forces, helping to repel the attack.

A timberwolf pounced on the dog's back and bit him on the shoulder of his good arm. He screamed, but far from freezing from the pain, he responded with a jerk that expelled the wolf which, in the same way, recomposed itself, ready to attack immediately. Only to be brutally destroyed by the claws of the diamond dog, demonstrating why his breed was the owner of such a name.

The dog allowed himself a smile at this victory and proceeded to celebrate… By biting his wound?

No, there was something there between his teeth that he began to chew like a treat, then his ears shot up, and his fur stood on end once again, with the only difference that now, instead of looking at the ground, he turned to look at Shining to the eyes

Once again, they felt the ground vibrate

“Iron run!” Shining screamed when he realized the danger

"That? Because?" Despite his confusion, when Iron did not receive a response, I decided to follow the captain.

Unfortunately, it was a second too slow, a second too late

“CRACK”

In the same way that in the Everfree Forest, the ground began to collapse, but this time instead of the earth opening and swallowing the ponies on top of it, something came out from inside it.

Something bright and multicolored

Bigger than a pony, but not as big as an alicorn, at least in height

Iron Blade was thrown into the air as one of the emerging beast's claws cut him.

Shining could see in horror how the pony and its hind leg fell meters away from each other, and then the person responsible ran straight towards him.

Unknowingly, Shining was facing another variant made by Forest Heart, but not one made for battle but for transportation.

That thing was a Beta created entirely of rock and reinforced with gems of all shapes, sizes and colors, stolen from the diamanté dogs.

If there was any wood or brush inside it, it was completely covered by its glass armor.

Suddenly Shining understood why the timberwolves had become so deadly, their claws and fangs had been changed for sharp gems, some even of great magical quality.

And the one in front of him was completely armored with them.

Shining Armor for the first time in his life, he questioned whether joining the guard had been the right decision.

Forest Heart saw how a beam of golden energy capable of covering his entire body went directly in his direction.

Without hesitation, he activated [Flame Gate] and reappeared a few meters away, where he immediately breathed fire out of him without caring what he was giving him.

"Enough!" Celestia shouted, she could see in detail how the green flames inevitably overwhelmed some random pony, but Forest cared little. “Damn monster!”

Celestia launched another energy beam at Forest Heart, and the same scenario repeated itself again.

In fact, this scene had been repeating itself for a while, and as a result, the forest was on fire

Forest no longer even had to sacrifice troops to teleport, on the contrary, thanks to his attack/flight combat strategy, his fire was spreading on its own, resurrecting his troops or even creating new ones.

On the other hand, there was Celestia who stopped chasing her momentarily to cast a force field around a trio of ponies who were moments away from being overwhelmed by the enemies.

It only took Celestia two seconds at most, but thanks to his ever-watchful drones, Forest did not miss the opportunity, and with his own magic fanned the flames on Celestia's side while turning them into [Flame Gate]. Only this, Maybe it wasn't for her to use.

Three modified timberwolves and a golem jumped on Celestia less than a meter away.

The golem was the closest and the one she tried to hit first, but Celestia managed to dodge it by inches by jumping back. Afterward, she had to duck to avoid a timberwolf's jumping attack.

However, another of the wolves took advantage of the moment to attack one of her hind legs, which bled, but little else.

Modified or not, there was no timberwolf with the strength to break an alicorn bone, something Celestia noticed, so she deliberately ignored her attacker and concentrated on melting the next timberwolf who tried to gouge out her eyes, which she succeeded in doing, but not fast enough to notice the tackle from the golem

Celestia lost the air in her lungs at the surprisingly strong blow, but she managed to compose herself and teleport away before the golem crushed her to the ground.

With the advantage that distance gave her, Celestia made use of her vast arsenal of spells to turn the ground and its depths into a quagmire, causing the beasts to become victims of their own weight and inability to fly, condemning everyone to sinking and later returning the soil to its natural state, burying all its attackers at once

Sadly, Celestia did not have time to celebrate her victory when Forest attacked her using the same combination of spells with which she brought down the walls of Canterlot Castle.

The impact was much more devastating than that of the golem.

Celestia tried to compose herself, she managed to plant her hind legs on the ground while she used her adversary's horns as a foothold to hold on to.

Celestia's hooves scraped the ground, leaving a couple of parallel marks, but Forest Heart was no less persevering and continued to advance with even more strength and flames on her body until finally a tree stopped her march.

Celestia really felt that, it wasn't the torturing effect of the dark magic, but she truly could feel her ribs cracking as she was crushed between the tree and the bicorn hat.

Luckily for Celestia it was not her body that gave way, but the tree whose roots came to the surface and the canopy touched the ground.

Such was the strength of her enemy, and yet he was still inferior to her.

With a surge of anger, Celestia used her front paws and, with sheer brute force, forced the bicorn back.

The action was tremendously painful, the beast's entire body was on fire and had left horrible burns on her belly and chest, but Celestia was furious!

Once she had pushed her enemy back far enough, Celestia lifted her up, achieving a bipedal position, before slamming Forest into the ground, using all her strength.

The bicorn grunted in pain. She knew that alicorns were strong in every way, but this was ridiculous. She had practically sunk it into the ground, creating a microcrater and filling the ground with cracks that spread like cobwebs, but she didn't have time to process the damage.

Celestia wrapped her horn with enough magic to turn it into a weapon capable of cutting through any mundane material or lesser magic, and slammed it into her like a guillotine.

Forest detonated a shockwave at herself, catapulting her out of the danger zone, but her flight didn't get very far as Celestia activated a second spell, and a magical barrier prevented her from going any further.

The use of simultaneous spells was a task whose difficulty was only comparable to its danger, which increased depending on the number of spells that were attempted to be used at the same time, which is why the barrier vanished as quickly as it appeared.

But Forest had no time to take advantage of this, as Celestia followed up with a thrust, giving him no chance to flee again and no time to even think about what spell to use. Forest reinforced his own horns and deflected Celestia's attack.

That was the only thing he could do while Celestia continued with her crazy assault. Deflecting Celestia's attacks was a feat that required the use of all of her strength, trying to parry or repel any of them ran the risk of opening the door for her head

“She already dies once and for all!” Blow after blow, each one faster, stronger and more furious than the last, but luckily for Forest, these were too wild, without order and to a certain extent predictable, that was the only reason he had been able to withstand the brutal assault until now. , but little by little, it was reaching the point where that advantage was beginning to lose importance

Celestia's slashes had reached the point where Forest's four legs left the ground after each impact.

Forest had to do something, she had an idea, but it seemed desperately crazy even to her.

But in such a situation, she could no longer afford to think that, and as an old commissioner said, more times than one can count, "A slight chance of survival is better than none."

With that idea in mind, Forest Heart waited for a downward blow, like the one Celestia had given her at the beginning, and as soon as it arrived, she deflected the magic reinforcing her horns to her fangs and jaw while twisting her head neck and received the impact with his mouth open

Damn madness! That it worked... somehow, however, not without consequences

Several of the fangs that received the impact were immediately shattered, the others were loosened or splintered, the muscles of her jaw suffered a slight tear, and due to her uncomfortable position, Forest almost broke her neck.

But despite all the pain that such a maneuver caused him, there was no delay in biting her, even knowing that this action would only increase her pain.

And he was right, it turns out that biting a lightsaber is not the best idea, since his lips and part of his gums were immediately charred.

Despite all that, Forest did not let up because he knew that his turn had finally arrived.

With all the hate, the pain, the contempt she felt towards ponies in general, even the awkward moments she spent with Celestia and a feeling of revenge that Forest didn't understand where it came from, it was that she stopped holding her breath and exhaled as many flames as possible without stopping biting the alicorn's horn

Celestia couldn't do anything except close her eyes before the wave of flames hit her directly in the face.

Because of the way Forest was biting the horn, he couldn't put Celestia completely in his line of fire, but even so, a large part of the big pony was directly receiving his flames, and he couldn't use his magic to defend himself because that meant putting at risk his horn

Something he simply couldn't do, there was an instinctive fear implanted in all unicorns at the mere prospect of exposing such an organ to danger, a feeling almost worse than death, from which alicorns were not exempt.

“AAAAAAAAAH” As such, the only thing Celestia could do was scream and shake wildly.

Pulling and screaming, shaking from side to side, she would have cried if her tears didn't turn to steam the instant they came out.

In her moment of desperation, Celestia spread her wings and took flight, or did the best she could.

Forest couldn't help but be carried away without letting go of the horn, something she wasn't willing to do, it was too good an opportunity to pass up, so she had to settle for the idea of taking a ride.

The distance separating them from the ground didn't increase much, but her speed did. Out of the edge of her dwindling vision, Celestia could see the immense number of trees, and she changed course in hopes of crashing into one of them.

A hope bore fruit, now the tables had turned, and upon impact, Forest almost lost his grip, but she managed to maintain it, however, the blow with her trunk took his breath away.

Using her magic, Forest forced air into her lungs and again exhaled another massive jet of flames.

Celestia had had enough

Using all of her strength, Celestia flapped her wings as hard as she could, her earth pony and pegasus magic working together to achieve a result greater than the sum of its parts.

The tree split in half, resulting in enormous pain on Forest's part, but as foolish as only a mentally damaged person with a serious history of literally explosive anger issues could be, she refused to loosen her grip and persisted with her flames.

Celestia continued in the same way

Two trees

Three trees

One of the two had to give in, and it was obvious who

Forest released his grip on her and let go of the horn. No matter how stubborn she was or how strong he was, there was no way he could defeat an alicorn with just that.

Celestia did not let her fall, empowered by fury, bloodlust and an alarming amount of adrenaline in her blood, she caught her enemy before touching the ground and took her to the skies.

Reaching as high as the dome would allow

"Are you happy?! It was worth it?! Now you will die having achieved nothing but suffering and meaningless deaths!”

The complete lack of fur on Forest's snout made it difficult for Celestia to read her expression, but she could tell with a glance.

She was smiling

At that moment, a signal was sent to the Forest Heart hive mind, and all of its drones followed it.

Drones were Forest's weakest creation and, therefore, the easiest to make. The material and energy expended to create a modified Timberwolf were at least ten times greater than those expended on a single drone, and there would still be materials left over.

Forest did not have enough control or experience over his flames to control the ones that now consumed everything inside the dome.

But what would happen if the fire was already in the desired position? In that case, all Forest would have to do was keep him in her place, something she could do perfectly well.

Celestia had not been able to see them, the right side of her vision was blurred to anything beyond a few meters, and the left side of hers was completely blackened.

How could she have seen the flock orbiting them, as a planet should orbit its sun?

The drones detonated

More than a thousand drones detonated, each contributing a small but substantial amount of flames, and Forest set the sky on fire inside the dome.

For Forest, that green fire was a part of her, an extra limb that they now slid all over her body, ignoring her as if she were part of the flow of flames.

But Celestia, Celestia was his natural enemy, Forest did not know it, but the entity that had summoned him to this world never forgot who had forced him to take such an action, hence his instinctive desire for Celestia, but now his guest had offered him an opportunity

It was at that moment that the nameless entity of the Everfree felt a feeling that he had never been allowed to experience.

Desire for just revenge, RETRIBUTION

The sea of flames that covered the sky condensed into a sphere a few meters in circumference, turning liquid almost solid, and Celestia's suffering reached a new scale of magnitude.

However, she was far from finished, as ruthless as she was relentless. Forest kept his grip on the alicorn with one of his front paws and with the other, she began to hit Celestia in the face, the stomach, and anywhere he could reach, while with no one to keep them in the air, the ground approached dangerously fast

At some point, Celestia managed to gather enough rationing capacity to block one of Forest's blows, but she was so ecstatic and overwhelmed by the madness and emotions of a being foreign to her that Forest didn't even think about it when she took the paw that Celestia used to block and bit her brutally, tearing off a piece of flesh that left the bone exposed.

It was that sight, of a predator devouring her flesh as her body was torn apart, the expectation of certain death, that caused something inside Celestia to activate.

“BOOOOOOOOOOOM”

A gigantic amount of magical energy was released from Celestia's body, similar to a volcano erupting.

The imminent danger of death had caused Celestia to instinctively draw on the power of the celestial object linked to her.

That was bad, not only for Forest but for the world in general. The only times she had to resort to such power was when she had to move the celestial object that provided her with such energy.

If the action you performed did not expend said power at the same rate as it was absorbed, it could result in a loss of control of it that would result in an unimaginable cataclysm.

Fortunately, that didn't happen. The dome that Shining Armor created was primarily intended to block Forest Heart's escape, but it accidentally also partially obstructed her access to her hive mind and similarly affected Celestia's connection to the sun.

Something that not only saved Celestia from being consumed by her own power, but also gave her counterpart time to act.

Luna, who was already in Canterlot, was forced to use her own connection to the moon to further interfere with that of Celestia and the sun, then crash through a window and fly directly to the Everfree.

These two factors were what prevented Celestia and her star from going supernova.

But there was something else there, something that just... woke up

And Forest Heart could feel it, she had been brutally expelled, she suffered a lot of damage, but thanks to the timely interference of the Everfree forest entity that alerted her to the danger, she was able to activate [Flame Gate] in time and escape to a distance... technically safe.

But that didn't matter, Celestia, or whatever that thing was in front of her, cast a healing spell on herself.

It didn't work well, her affinity with that magic had been affected. Instead of her spell granting her the necessary energies to heal, the healing process consumed her body's own nutrients, giving Celestia an especially emaciated appearance because, due to the brutality of this process, it was not possible to repair all the damage, leaving several burns and wounds without completely healing

But she managed to restore her eyes, and that was exactly what disturbed Forest.

It was upon seeing those orange eyes that Forest felt it, it wasn't dark magic, but almost there, a measly step away.

That alarmed her. If an alicorn was already this powerful, what would it be like when empowered by dark magic?

She had to end this now or start praying.

Things were not going well for Shining

The situation had turned upside down for him and his soldiers

Many of his soldiers bravely ran to his aid as soon as they saw that his captain was in danger.

It was a serious mistake, as after Iron Blade's death, the ethereal swords that previously prevented the timberwolves from overtaking them vanished.

The sudden withdrawal of soldiers on the battlefront, along with the disappearance of their only defensive barrier, had disastrous results for the Equestrian forces.

Shining had to risk casting spells in an attempt to stop the crystallized Beta in front of him from eviscerating him.

With his magic reserves so low, a single bolt of energy would only bother the beta like a mosquito would bother a lion.

Telekinesis would be the least damaging to both his concentration and his dangerously low reserves of magic, and he had no problem locating a spear that once belonged to one of his fallen soldiers.

It was a little far away, but as soon as it was enveloped by Shining's pink aura, the spear took off at lightning speed and stabbed deeply into the beast's front leg, interrupting its swing.

Shining immediately retracted the spear before the Beta could even think about breaking it, and watched the fruits of his labor.

The enchanted spear had managed to penetrate quite a bit into the armor, however, he had not managed to penetrate it and the edge of the spear had also suffered damage.

"Captain!" The first of his soldiers had arrived to rescue him, obviously, they were the pegasi.

There were three of them, two with swords in their mouths and one with a spear in his front legs.

“Don't try to take him down, just distract him!” Shining warned

The pegasi immediately followed his order, joining their captain and clawing at the crystallized armor with rapid slashes, while Shining took advantage of the distractions to strike as hard as possible until the weapon gave way, and he swapped it for another on the ground.

Like vultures, the pegasi harassed the Beta, but none of them realized who was harassing them.

One of the pegasi that was returning to ascend after a successful hit against the head shell was hit by a drone directly in its eye

The drone had plummeted with its stone beak pointing directly at the large eye opening.

“AAAAAH” I screamed as I fell

“Wounded soldier!” He yelled at the pegasus with the spear as he rushed alongside his companion to catch the free-falling pegasus.

There were no worries on his mind. Shining had also noticed his rescue attempt and was restraining the Beta, risking levitating four weapons at once to make sure he kept him away.

But, far from what Shining expected, the fight never happened. The Beta stood patiently in his place while he waited, hunching over and… Raising his serpentine tail?

A growing sense of alarm exploded within Shining, but it was too late.

The Beta moved his tail like a whip, and the countless gems that made up his armor lost the strength that held them together and were thrown away.

"NO!" Shining shouted as he saw how more of his soldiers died, and in a horrible way.

The pegasi did not catch his comrade, because they had been impaled by the rain of sharp gems.

There were so many that it was impossible for them to dodge, clearly, they were not able to reach very deep. The Beta was an amateur launcher at best, in fact, the only reason it had managed to hit its target was because the gems scattered like shrapnel.

But what his attack started was ended by gravity

“There are too many! Where do we run?!”

The bad news did not stop coming when Shining witnessed how his soldiers were overtaken and subdued by the Timberwolves.

He had no reinforcements, surrounded on both sides, there was only one thing he could do without stopping feeding the shield, and they would call him crazy.

With the four spears in his possession, Shining made a desperate dash directly against the Beta, who was blocking his path.

As expected, the Beta responded in the same way

The first claw was blocked, launching the spear accurately into the elbow joint.

The rock didn't have anywhere near the same level of strength as the crystals, so the limb gave way and the Beta stumbled.

The second and third spears were thrown directly at the head, but these did not have the same level of accuracy as the first, so one collided with its helmet and another was intercepted by the Beta's leftover leg.

He only had one of her left, and Shining knew exactly what he had to do with her.

Shining stabbed the sharp side of the spear into the ground as she continued her run and held on to the shaft with her front paws, causing it to bend dangerously.

The Beta and the drones realized his intentions instantly.

I was trying to do a pole vault

She was trying to get past the Beta!

They weren't going to allow it

Beta and drones launched to intercept him in the air, the Beta with notable greater difficulty, but jumping anyway.

There was no escape for Shining, he would die there... or so it would be, if he had jumped, but instead he simply let go of the handle of the spear and continued running on the ground.

Normally, chasing him wouldn't have been a challenge for the crystallized Beta, but the moment Shining released the spear, it straightened violently, and the handle slammed into his face with such force that the crystal helmet fractured.

If the Beta had been intelligent, he would have been outraged by such plagiarism of 'Coyote and the Road Runner'

Taking advantage of that moment, Shining ran desperately until he reached his shield, where upon his arrival, for a measly moment, a small opening through which he could barely pass by crouching, and as soon as he crossed it, the opening closed

The opening had lasted less than a second, and Shining was confident that Forest would be too busy to have taken advantage of it.

Shining collapsed to the ground, finally saved he felt like he was melting as all the tension from moments ago left his body.

"Captain"

That voice... Shining knew it

“Captain, what do we do?”

Shining didn't want to look, but he couldn't help but slowly stand up to turn around and looked in horror at his soldiers, mares and stallions, stripped of their armor, showing their true appearances, all with crippling wounds, some dying, all forced by the forces. timberwolves claws to stand in front of the shield and look it in the eyes

Some she recognized, some classmates with whom he graduated from the academy, others with whom he simply shared a passing greeting in some hallway, and others whose faces she had only seen on paper.

Everyone looked at him desperately, waiting for him to do something, anything.

“Ah” The first, without the armor and the illusory spell on him so that all the guards looked the same, could clearly see the features of the light blue mare when a timberwolf grabbed her head from behind and slammed her against the shield “Au !”

Screamed the mare before being slammed into the barrier a second time, followed by a third, and then a fourth.

“Pases, spos” The first blows had drawn blood, the next ones were breaking his nose and teeth, resulting in him not being able to speak properly.

“NO, NO, NO, NO, Stop, captain, help!” Another of her soldiers was taken in the same way as the mare and beaten again, using her shield as a weapon.

It was horrible. Shining had never in her life imagined such a cruel act, not only for those ponies, but for him.

That spell was supposed to protect ponies, help them, and save them, and now they turned it into a tool to torture both him and his soldiers.

More of his soldiers joined in this cacophony of blows, screams and pleas.

Shining struggled to drown out his screams, but even by closing his eyes and blocking out the sound completely, he could imagine them perfectly, whether he wanted to or not.

But one voice stood out

“Don't even think about dropping this thing!” The only voice he didn't plead for

“Iron Blade?” The old stallion was still alive, he didn't look well, although his wound seemed to have been healed. He was in the same position as all the other soldiers, with the only difference being that he was the only one who was not begging for his life.

“If you don't hold on, everything will have been- poof” Iron's face was beaten again in an even more brutal way “Everything will have been in vain” The dying soldier whispered before being whipped again

He was wrong about the stallion, he was a true soldier, loyal to Equestria and its people.

Shining wanted to tell him that, he wanted to apologize and exchange advice to learn from him and get closer to his goal of being a true royal guard, an exemplar of the best values that Equestria represents.

Just like his teammates always wanted, none of them deserved to die here.

“CRACK”

A sickening crack echoed in Shining's mind as another guard's skull finally gave way, spilling his brains across the barrier, which did little to stop the timberwolf from continuing to unnecessarily slam the corpse against the shield... his shield, his spell.

Shining had chosen not to save him, he was choosing not to save anyone present. If he had full magic of him, saving them would be easy

But his orders... What mattered more? What would Celestia do?

I achieve it

Celestia did it

She passed through the flames as if they were a light breeze, destroyed Forest's creations with a blow as if they were candles, and then subdued Forest Heart as if it were a stray animal.

He had nowhere left to run from her, not in here, not with her here too.

Celestia's paw was on Forest's chest as he pressed with greater intensity every moment. Forest tried to escape with blows, fire and spells, but for Celestia it was a painful spectacle.

The sun princess could feel her ribs give way, allowing her paw to sink and the black blood to drip from Forest's mouth and her other wounds, but she tried not to rush, on the contrary, her progress slowed down.

She wanted to enjoy it, she wanted to see the life leave her body, she wanted to see the pain and regret in Forest's eyes.

And then she stopped

...

What was she doing? She was Celestia, she would never stoop to such a barbaric act, no matter how much this being deserved it.

Celestia took a few steps back, and the magic that empowered her began to disperse, freeing her mind from the haze and realizing the hell that she herself had unleashed.

“Where are my little ponies?” Celestia questioned herself, she had helped and saved countless soldiers, but she couldn't see or feel any of them. “But-but, what did I do?”

“CRACK”

Celestia's thoughts were interrupted when a set of variously colored vials were thrown and shattered right in her paws.

A cloud born from the combination of spicy dust, sleep, dizziness and lightning completely enveloped Celestia as roots emerged from the ground and completely enveloped her.

Forest watched everything in amazement, but not because of the collective effect of the multiple potions, but because of her caster.

Zecora ran towards her friend, partially buried in the ground with one last jar in her mouth, it seemed that the contents of it were simple water.

As soon as Zecora was close enough to her, she popped the cork and shoved the neck of the bottle down Forest's throat.

With her body so damaged and broken, coupled with the confusion of her friend's arrival, Forest had no way to resist, he could only swallow.

“AAAAAAAAAAAG”

“BANG”

Celestia's makeshift prison obviously didn't last

"SHE IS MINE!" Celestia looked like she was going to lunge at them both, but upon seeing Zecora's face, her hesitation and confusion overcame her for a second.

“My friend, flight would be the best way out,” Zecora said simply.

At that moment, Zecora's cloak glowed with a greenish hue and completely enveloped her like a cocoon, followed by the flames of Forest Heart, and then the two disappeared together.

All in a moment too short for Celestia's overloaded brain to process what happened.

…

It didn't matter, Celestia told herself mentally, they couldn't be far away, not with the barrier… the barrier… it was gone.

Celestia stopped hanging in the air, and as soon as her legs touched the ground, they gave way.

Celestia felt enormous pain. Her brain finally seemed to process the state her body was in, her muscles and her mind finally gave up after being forced to cross her boundaries so violently.

The last thing she saw was the ashen wasteland she helped create, and the last thing she thought about was all the ponies who had trusted her and were now part of those ashes.

“I'm sorry.” With sheer force of will, Celestia shooed away her own biological needs to dedicate a few last words to her faithful ponies. “I promise I'm going to kill her so that you can judge her properly.”

And finally, Celestia was able to rest. She was going to need it, it would be the last one she would have for a long time.