Flash ran out towards where Celtus was but Spike stopped him.

“I need to help her!” Flash said.

“She almost lost you once! She isn’t taking that risk a second time,” Spike said.

“Right now we need to help liberate the remaining ponies, I can sense their mind control is wearing off but some might still be hurting others, I can diffuse them,” Audacia said.

“Hey guys I’m fine too, thanks for asking,” Trixie said walking into view.

“Later! We need to help her!” Flash said.

“We can help by helping here,” Starshine said.

“....Um, wait, what happened to Starlight and Sunset?” Spike said addressing the fact that they were Starshine again.

“Later! C’mon!” Starshine said before they saw something flying overhead and they paused when they saw Celestia and Luna, armed with a fancy parchment and the elements.

“Princesses!” Spike said.

“Where is Twinkle and the others?” Celestia asked worriedly.

“Fighting Celtus,” Spike said.

“No… then our time is limited, come Luna, we need to get to the battlefield,” Celestia said.

“Very well,” Luna said and the two flew off.

“Alright, team, let’s move!” Starshine said and they ran off.

Twinkle, Zap Apple, and Charity scattered as a giant paw slammed on the ground where they were standing.

Twinkle fired a powerful beam at Celtus’s face and it exploded on impact but Celtus pressed through and bit at Twinkle, trying to eat her.

Only to run into a giant stone wall that Charity put up.

“Leave my friends alone!” Charity gave him the stare.

Celtus roared in return and lunged at her.

“LOOK OUT!” Twinkle teleported the two of them away avoiding the pounce, he turned and saw the two reappear elsewhere and he suddenly transformed into a snake and pursued the two mares as they took to the air.

He slithered after them, crushing foliage and trees as they flew higher to avoid him, he lunged upwards.

“AH!” Charity panicked.

Then Zap Apple flew in front of them and spun kicked the snake in the face, forcing its head aside and it missed its bite.

“Oh no ya don’t!” Zap flew forward, grabbed Celtus’s face, flew downwards with a rainboom, and piledrived the giant snakes face into the ground.

“ZAP!” Twinkle called.

“Huh?” Zap noticed tentacles and she had to hurriedly avoid several as the creature shifted into a giant squid, it roared as it swung its tentacles wildly to hit Zap out of the air, but the pegasus was too swift.

Twinkle descended and fired several bolts that hit Celtus but it didn’t do much damage and Celtus turned to her and morphed into a giant falcon and proceeded to fly after her.

“AAAH!” Twinkle teleported to avoid the giant bird and she flew off as fast as she could as the massive bird flew after her, snapping its beak at her.

“Ah got ya!” Zap flew after them and she picked up speed before rainbooming her way over there, she flew fast and with a spin kick she struck the wing of Celtus and snapped it.

The creature cawwed loudly in pain and snapped at her but Twinkle blasted him in the face and he fell out of the air.

“Think we got him?” Zap asked as Charity caught up.

“No!” Charity said as she saw the wing regenerate and Celtus swooped up and fly at them.

“LOOK OUT!” Twinkle teleported the group away as Celtus nearly snapped them up.

The group arrived on ground level and saw the giant bird circling above.

It then shifted into something round and it fell towards them.

“I have this!” Charity focused and used her creation power to create a giant slanted wall that the massive creature bounced off of.

It rolled on the ground and unfurled into a giant turtle.

“Hmmph, slow an steady wins the race ah suppose,” Zap said.

Celtus roared and shifted into a giant ape again and jumped at them again.

They all took to the air avoiding his fists but Celtus spun and swatted Twinkle out of the air.

“AH!” Twinkle cried as she hit the ground.

“Twinkle!” Charity flew up towards Celtus and fired several shots, none affected him and he grabbed her.

“Chares!” Zap flew fast and dove into the side of Celtus’s head with another kick and this made him drop Charity but he spun and bit at Zap who was caught in his mouth and she held it open.

“NNNGGGH!” Zap grunted as she held the jaws open.

Intending to increase the pressure Celtus changed into a crocodile and bobbed his head back trying to swallow her.

“LET HER GO!” Twinkle got up and fired a full-powered beam at Celtus’s side and the monster spat out Zap as he was knocked on his side.

Zap tumbled on the ground for a little bit and laid there.

Celtus turned and raised his tail to slam on Twinkle but Twinkle hopped in a bush and as the tail came down and smashed the bush.

“TWINKLE!” Charity called.

“I’m ok!” Twinkle said jumping out of another bush.

“What are we going to do?” Charity asked as Zap had recovered and rejoined them.

“Nothin we do can even weaken him,” Zap panted.

“We just gotta hold him off until the princesses get here,” Twinkle said.

“Then we keep fighting,” Zap said turning to Celtus as he turned to them and changed again, into a ram.

“Alright, then let’s go!” Twinkle said and they ran out at him.

Celestia and Luna flew out of Canterlot and spotted Celtus battling Twinkle and the others.

“There they are!” Celestia said.

“I will distract Celtus, you relay the plan and get things ready,” Luna said.

“Godspeed Luna,” Celestia said before she flew overhead and fired several strong blasts at Celtis hitting the ram on the back and it stumbled a little, Celtus turned and bellowed at Luna before shifting into a giant crow and flying after her.

“LUNA!” Twinkle called before she heard somepony land behind her and she turned to see Celestia.

“Princess!” Charity said.

“Didja find it?” Zap asked.

“Yes, now here is what we do,” Celestia said.

“Luna is fighting out there, we should help her,” Charity said.

“And we will, listen, Celtus needs to be weakened before he can be sealed back into a manuscript,” Celestia said.

“How? We’ve used our best moves,” Zap said.

“I can help in that regard, I can charge up the elements for a great burst of magic that can injure Celtus long enough to reabsorb him into a manuscript,” Celestia said.

“Ok,” Twinkle nodded, understanding the plan.

“Now, aid Luna, I will get things set!” Celestia said bringing out the elements.

“Alright, let’s move!” Twinkle shouted and they ran out to aid Luna.

“I pray this works,” Celestia said before she levitated the elements and began muttering an ancient language charging them up.

Luna dodged another beak attack from Celtus as the giant crow flew after her.

Luna turned and fired several shots into the face of the creature but it just pressed through and snapped at her again.

Before it could grab her several powerful blasts of magic struck the bird and it cawwed loudly before turning and seeing Twinkle, Charity and Zap flying at it.

“GO FOR THE WINGS ZAP!” Twinkle called.

“Ok!” Zap Apple flew up and Celtus turned and swung a claw at her, but Zap flew around his grab and plowed through his wing.

Charity flew above Celtus and used her creation magic to gradually form a giant anvil.

Celtus saw what she was doing but was bombarded with magic blasts taking his focus off of evasion and by then, it was too late and a giant anvil struck the bird out of the air and all the way to the ground with a crash.

“Good work,” Luna said as they flew down there.

They had to immediately dodge as Celtus, turned into a giant cobra, and lashed out at them and they avoided being snapped up.

Zap flew around behind the snake to hit him from behind but Celtus suddenly morphed again and turned into a bear again before turning and biting at Zap.

“NGH!” Zap managed to change direction and avoid him.

Twinkle shot him several times but the massive bear lunged at her, swinging its claws at her.

Suddenly a chunk of ground tore free and smashed into the side of Celtus’s head by Luna’s magic and Celtus responded by transforming into a bull and running after Luna and Charity who flew away from Celtus.

“Doesn’t this thing ever get tired?!” Zap demanded as she flew overhead.

“Doesn’t look like it!” Twinkle said.

“...I got an idea, keep him in one spot!” Zap said and she took off into the sky.

“Zap?! What are you doing?!” Twinkle called.

“TRUST ME!” Zap called back.

“Alright,” Twinkle said as she flew down and shot several blasts at Celtus.

Celtus growled, losing his patience with all the evasive mares and he proceeded to pause and change once more, sprouting wings, getting bigger and billowing fire from his mouth.

“No…” Luna said as the group formed up on her.

“What? What is it doing?” Charity asked.

“I had no clue it could do this!” Luna said as she saw Celtus having turned into a dragon.

The monster then roared billowing fire at the three and they put up barriers to block the fire.

Celtus took to the air and flew at them and they were forced to scatter as he snapped at them.

“This thing can turn into a dragon?!” Twinkle exclaimed.

“It must not be fully limited to animals after all,” Luna said cursing herself for not expecting this.

As they were holding the monster off, Zap had taken to above the clouds and she then used an instant rainboom to shoot back down.

“TIME TA EXPERIENCE SOME REAL PAIN!” Zap called as she broke through the clouds.

Looking up Twinkle saw her coming and nodded before she focused her magic and created a barrier, big enough to contain Celtus.

“ROOOOAAAAR!” Celtus roared angrily as he tore at the barrier and began breaking it apart.

“NGH! HURRY!” Twinkle struggled.

“HYYYAAAAAH!” Zap shot downwards and struck Celtus in the back at that moment he broke free and drove the dragon into the ground creating a big explosion.

“ZAP! You ok!?” Twinkle called.

Zap flew out of the explosion looking a little scuffed up but alright otherwise.

“Yeah!” Zap said rejoining her friends.

“Did that get him?” Charity asked.

“No, he cannot be done in that easily, we must return to my sister!” Luna ordered and the others nodded and flew off.

“They're coming,” Celestia looked up and saw her student, sister and friends arrive.

“We’re here!” Twinkle said.

“Alright, I have charged the elements up, now let us end this, here,” Celestia gave them each their two elements.

“What if it goes haywire like last time?” Charity asked.

“Better than nothing,” Celestia said.

“Ok,” Twinkle said.

They heard distant roars and they turned to see an injured Celtus standing up but his injuries were healing and he turned to them with a glower.

“It is now or never!” Luna said taking the manuscript.

“Good luck,” Celestia said and the two took off to do their part.

“Ok girls! Let’s send this guy packing!” Twinkle said as she and the others charged their power and a glow came out around them.

Celtus saw this and roared before charging at them, determined to stop them.

“Here we go!” Twinkle called and they fired the rainbow power at Celtus, the power flew at Celtus and collided with the monster, Celtus roared in pain but continued to press forward.

“How?!” Zap said.

“We need to gain control!” Charity said.

“I believe in you girls!” Twinkle said before their elements glowed brighter and they forced the rainbow power into alignment.

The power grew bigger and Celtus roared as he was being pressed back.

And meanwhile Celestia and Luna were behind him and they held the manuscript out.

“RETURN TO THE MANUSCRIPTS CELTUS! AND TORMENT THESE LANDS NO MORE!” Celestia called and the manuscripts glowed brightly as they activated it and it began drawing Celtus into it, parts of him flowing into it like liquid.

Celtus roared and thrashed as he was pulled in and began shapeshifting into various animals to try and break away but in the end the bright light consumed him.

And the manuscripts detained the monster once more.

The red clouds above dissipated and sunlight returned to the lands once more.

Celestia and Luna flew to ground level and fell to the ground panting.

Twinkle and the others ran over to them.

“Princesses, are you alright?” Charity asked.

“Yes… just exhausted, but more importantly… Celtus is sealed once more,” Celestia said standing up.

“Where’s Discord?” Charity asked, thinking immediately of her friend.

“Over there!” Luna said and they turned to see Discord limping towards them.

“Did we…” Discord said before collapsing.

“DISCORD!” Charity cried running over to him along with the others and they helped him up.

“Did… did we win?” Discord asked.

“Yes, thank you Discord,” Charity hugged him and he hugged back.

“I do hate to break up the tender moment, but we must hurry and locate Dusk Heart before he gets away,” Luna said.

“If he does that’ll just start all over again,” Zap said.

“Alright, gather around,” Twinkle said flaring her horn and teleporting them all back into Canterlot.

As they made it back they saw everypony had gathered up, no more fighting was going on as the lantern of subjugation was broken.

Ponies left and right were disoriented and couldn’t remember much since their initial hypnotizing.

Spike and the others had gathered everypony up.

“Everypony!” Celestia called catching their attention “The day is won, but we must still apprehend the criminal Dusk Heart! Those of you who can help, may do so, but he mustn’t escape.” Celestia said.

“We gotta form a perimeter, make sure he doesn’t slip through,” Starshine said.

“Then let’s get looking,” Twinkle said before making her way down the path to talk to her other friends, when she heard hoofsteps and she turned to see Spike, Shining Armor and Flash approaching her.

“Alright, we know that he is hiding somewhere in Canterlot,” Twinkle said.

“How?” Spike asked.

“My Twinkle sense, it’s helping me get a cursory scan of Canterlot, and there’s no evidence of teleporting out of Canterlot… yet,” Twinkle said.

“Alright, I’ll have the guards form the perimeter, we’ll arm them with horns to-” Shining began discussing when Twinkle’s mane bounced and she paused… she turned around despite Shining continuing and she noticed something… in the middle of the crowd near them…

A yellow sphere… the size of a baseball, it was just sitting there… and her senses were screaming about it… no… it’s dangerous!

“Celestia!” Twinkle called pointing at it and Celestia turned and saw what she was gesturing to and her eyes widened.

“SUN SPHERE!” Celestia tried to attack it but it was too late.

It opened up and a bright light as if the sun appeared point blank shone throughout the area along with a disorientingly high pitch noise.

Everypony screamed as the bright light shone over them.

Twinkle’s ears were ringing and she was lying on the ground, as she looked up her vision was blurry and her hearing muffled, but her Twinkle Sense told her everything.

Dusk was standing over her.

“Hello Twinkle, you probably can’t see or hear me right now, but I’ll say it anyways, for a pony who can see anything coming, you get caught offguard alot,” Dusk chuckled before raising his foot and kicking her in the face sending her tumbling, Twinkle spat a little bit of blood.

Meanwhile everypony in the area save for Dusk were laying about in a similar daze to Twinkle.

Except Discord.

Discord was on the ground panting, but more due to his injuries from fighting Celtus.

Dusk walked over to Celestia and knelt down.

“It has come to this huh?... You know, despite all the hatred I have for you, I gotta give you props, you learned from your mistakes and aided your student instead of incarcerating them, bravo,” Dusk said as he stood up and stomped on Celestia’s face, grinding his hoof into it, earning a grunt of pain from her.

“But now my plan comes full circle, it's time for the final phase,” Dusk said as he walked over to Discord.

Spike got up, disoriented.

As he looked up he saw Dusk kicking Twinkle.

“No… Stay away from her…” Spike slurred, his senses were all foggy, but he could tell, he was planning on finishing things.

And so even though his heavy body screamed in protest Spike got up and began lumbering towards him.

And seeing Dusk summoning his tendrils, it was fully clear what he planned to do.

And Spike had to stop him!

“Hello Discord,” Dusk said as he approached him.

“You…” Discord tried to get up but he fell down.

“Celtus really did a number on you didn’t he?” Dusk’s tendril snagged Discord and held him up.

“...So… this was the plan all along… the attack on Canterlot, distracting everypony who could fight Celtus, even Celtus himself… everything up to this point… you sly dog,” Discord said with a glare.

“Not everything, but I frankly see this as my final win, soon, your power… will be mine! With my intelligence and fusion power and your chaos magic… I can become the strongest in the world, and soon, every other race will acknowledge ponies as the true apex species, and my tragedy will never repeat,” Dusk said as he levitated himself and grabbed himself around the waist with a fusion tendril.

“NO!” Spike cried now fully understanding what he was intending to do, even though his body was heavy and his mind was fogged by the sun sphere, he pressed on, knowing there was one way to prevent this…

“I’m… sorry Twinkle,” Spike said as he ran past Twinkle.

“Spike…” Twinkle called weakly.

“Time for the ultimate fusion! YOUR MINE!” Dusk said as he drew the tendrils together quickly.

“NO!” Discord cried out as they flew at eachother.

They were nearing eachother….

And Spike jumped in between them…

“HUH?!” Dusk exclaimed.

“Spike!?” Discord exclaimed.

And the collided with eachother and a great glow overcame the area.

“NOO!” Twinkle cried.

When the fog in everyponies mind cleared and they began to get up from their disorientation, Twinkle hurriedly got up and pressed through the others to get to where Spike was.

And when she got there she saw a hunched figure amidst smoke.

“S-Spike?...” Twinkle asked as he stood and turned to her.

“What?... What has he done?” Luna asked, unsure of what was about to happen.

As the others gathered up they saw the being stumble towards them and when the smoke cleared they all gasped.

He looked like Dusk Heart, but he had Spike’s clawed hands and one of his eyes, the other resembled Discord’s eye.

He had Discords tail, and wings and horns.

He looked at them and prepared to move towards them.

“Be prepared, this may be a worse fight than Celtus,” Celestia said as everpony got ready…. And then he fell on his face.

“Huh?” Twinkle said when she saw him getting up and trying to move again but he seemed to be unsure of how to move… and then he spoke.

“I’m….Chaos… Twinkle… Stop… Where… Help… Cannot…” He staggered and fell of his side as if he didn’t know how to operate his own body.

“Wait… Of course!” Twinkle said realizing what Spike’s plan was, just like Audacia before him, three minds can’t properly merge right off the bat!

“Get out!… stupid… Twinkle… help…” The new being cried out holding his head.

“What is happening to him?” Shining asked.

“He’s suffering from mental overload, three minds cannot occupy the same place at the same time, Spike just saved us all,” Twinkle said before looking away with tears in her eyes, knowing Spike sacrificed himself.

“Guards,” Luna said and the guards went over and scooped the disoriented being up and cuffed him.

“What do we do now?” Zap asked.

“I could use my power to separate them,” Audacia said.

“There’s no telling what could happen if a triple fusion is undone using Audacia’s power,” Charity said.

“We have to do something, Spike, he…” Twinkle said looking a little distressed.

“We need a surefire way to undo this,” Cadence said.

“…..There is a way,” Twinkle said holding out the pearl.

“The pearl of wishes? How did you obtain it?” Celestia asked.

“No... Mine!...” The disoriented fusion of Dusk, Spike and Discord tried to pull free but couldn’t.

“Dusk dropped it when me and him were fighting, I can use it to fix this, it has one wish left on it,” Twinkle said.

“NO!....Do it!... Don’t!” The irate fusion thrashed, knowing what she was going to do.

“Do it,” Celestia said with a nod.

Twinkle looked to her friends and they nodded and they understood.

“If we diffuse because of this, then… I love you guys,” Twinkle said.

“Twinkle,” Shining said before Twinkle shook her head.

“Everypony else is more important, so i’ll take this risk,” Twinkle said before she raised the pearl “I wish, that all the damage and fusions Dusk has caused, was fixed!” Twinkle declared and the pearl floated into the air and the one turned into a zero before the pearl glowed and a beam shot into the sky, and then the beam expanded and every fused pony caught in the flash was separated and back to normal, including Dusk, Discord, and Spike.

And all the damage to Canterlot was fixed in the process.

When the light faded the pearl stopped glowing and fell to the ground and shattered.

And all the fusions were undone, ponies everwhere rejoiced.

But Twinkle, Zap and Charity were still there.

“Huh? Why aren’t we diffused?” Charity asked.

“....It’s because Dusk didn’t cause our fusions, we did,” Twinkle said with a shrug before noticing Starshine was still there as well.

“We, can fix her,” Sweetie Belle said, thankfully she and the other two were still alicorns, but the spell must have diffused them from Audacia.

“I hope you can,” Starshine chuckled nervously.

“NOOO!” They all turned to see Dusk laying on the ground next to an unconscious Spike and Discord, having broken away from the guards and he scooted closer to the shattered pearl.

“I wish her wish was undone! DO IT!” Dusk cried but the pearl didn’t react.

“All the wishes were used up,” Twinkle said.

“No… No…” Dusk said in disbelief, looking around he saw all the ponies he fused having separated into individual ponies again.

All his hard work and planning… down the drain…

“No…” Dusk sobbed as the guards picked him back up.

“Dusk…” Celestia said as she walked over, but when he saw her he just spat at her and she paused.

“Are you proud of yourself Celestia…. Equestria was this close… THIS CLOSE, to being a nation of harmony by strength… and now it's all ruined… all of it…” Dusk said looking despondent and broken.

“....Dusk, you're wrong,” Celestia said and he glared at her “You think you were doing Equestria a favor?... But in reality, you became what you resented most, because you couldn’t learn to forgive or forget, my greatest regret, is ever taking you as an apprentice, and as a result, ruining your life…” Celestia said looking down.

“....Take your pity and choke on it…” Dusk said with all the venom he could muster and Celestia looked at him somberly, before he exploded “YOU THINK I CARE ABOUT YOUR APOLOGIES?! SORRY DOESN’T UNDO WHAT YOU DID TO ME AND THE ONES YOU COULDN’T SAVE OR AVENGE! THE COMPLACENCY EVERYONE LIVES IN TODAY WILL KILL THEM ONE DAY! THAT IS ALL I TRULY LEARNED ABOUT YOU! ANY DEATHS, ANY SUFFERING ANY WHO EXPERIENCE MY LOSS, IT WILL BE ALL ON YOUR HEADS FOR NOT ACCEPTING A NEW EQUESTRIA! ALL ON YOUR HEADS!” Dusk screamed out before quieting.

“Oh that’s it,” Zap said getting ready to beat him up but Twinkle held out her hand stopping her.

“Guards…. Take him away,” Celestia said before turning away with tears in her eyes and walking off.

“And history repeats itself…” Dusk spat before bowing his head as the guards dragged him off.

“Celestia…” Twinkle tried to comfort her but Luna put her hand on her shoulder and shook her head as Celestia needed to be alone.

Twinkle then decided to walk over to Spike and pick him up.

“Thank you Spike,” Twinkle said knowing he nearly sacrificed himself to save them.

“Discord!” Charity said as she ran over to check on him.

Meanwhile everypony was just relieved it was over.

“Well, better go make sure Bulk is alright,” Zap said looking at the blue skies and smiling.

It was finally over…

Author's Note

I had been planning this chapter long before I reached it, I hope you enjoyed, we're nearing the end soon.