Shadow of Fury

Chapter 18

The Final Battle

Part II

For a moment, the fighting stopped, as all eyes looked up at Ironfeathers.

"I can honestly say that I never would have considered the lot of you a genuine threat, let alone a force as effective as you've proven to be!" he said. "I mean, you actually killed the witch!"

A few gasps shot through the crowd, some from griffins, some from ponies. Willus emerged from the volcano, and a few of his friends shot him glares. What had happened?

"Oh yes, I figured it out. How else do you explain the fact that her Diamond Dog army has retreated with their tails between their legs? She was killed. In cold blood. By one of you. You see, that's the problem with you ponies. So high and mighty with your morals, but when push comes to shove, you're just as bad as the rest of us! You disgust me!" he shouted from his ledge, causing Gilda to flinch.

"We may not be perfect, but at least we try to maintain peace!" Shamrock retorted. "You're just mad! Just because things aren't the way you want them, you think that gives you the right to try and hurt the rest of us! And frankly, that just makes me sick!"

Ironfeathers laughed. "Sick? You ponies are nothing more than a plague upon the land, something that defiles all that it touches and destroys all in its path. And do you know what is the worst part of it all? You don't even have the decency to do it through warfare. You have to use your passive-aggressive tactics of 'love and tolerance!' You hypocrites!"

He then turned his attention to Minerva. "And you betrayed me for them? Of all things, you chose ponies over me?" he asked.

Minerva didn't show any emotion. "I didn't do it for the ponies, I did it for my daughter! She deserves better than your darkness!"

"My 'darkness' is the brightest light she has ever seen! Isn't that right, dear?" he asked Gilda, although the way he stated the question made it seem as though there was only one correct answer.

Gilda nodded in a forced, rehearsed manner. "Yes, sir!" she said. To the trained ear, fear was evident in her voice.

"See? Now how could you wish to break a daughter's connection to her father?" His mocking tone was full of spite and venom.

Minerva looked sadly at Gilda. "Gilda, please. I beg of you. Stop this madness. We can leave, right now, and just walk away from all of this!"

Gilda looked at her father, then her mother, then her father again. The glare he gave her was all she needed to see. "I'm sorry, mom, but that's not gonna happen," she said.

Minerva closed her eyes sadly, not wanting to speak more.

Ironfeathers then turned to Reaper. "You, changeling. Why do you fight? Does your kind not wish to conquer Equestria as much as I do? Perhaps if you abandoned the ponies now, an agreement could be reached that is mutually beneficial?"

Reaper glanced at the ponies surrounding him, before letting out a slightly amused laugh. "You're a bigger idiot than I thought. Do you honestly believe I would be here today if I owed any kind of allegiance to the hive?" he asked.

Ironfeathers' face contorted with rage. "You will regret that, insect!" he shouted.

Reaper felt a hoof place itself on his shoulder. "Thank you," Pinkie mouthed silently. He made no expression, but didn't openly scold her. That was more than could be expected of him most of the time, at least.

"Very well," Ironfeathers continued. "You have all sealed your fates. Kill them," he said, with a gesture to his army.

And so the battle began again.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Twilight Sparkle and Lightning Hawk flinched as another explosion of lava burst from the wall in front of them. "This place won't last much longer!" Twilight observed, trying to remember the way out.

"You don't say?" Lighting chided . Twilight rolled her eyes, knowing that the sarcasm was just his way of masking his fear.

"Do you remember the way out?" she asked, beginning to sweat from the heat.

"Uhh...I thought that was your job," Lightning said pathetically.

Twilight groaned, facehoofing. Suddenly, she began coughing, as smoke began to enter her lungs. "We better hurry up and get out of here soon, or we're toast!" she said.

Lightning nodded, and the pair ran down a hallway. There! At the end, they could see the outside! Only one problem. With a violent combustion, a river of lava flowed out of a crack and onto the ground, blocking off their passage. Twilight smirked. "Not a problem! I'll just teleport us over there!" Twilight's horn glowed, but then she coughed some more.

She groaned. "It's getting harder to breathe...I can't concentrate!" She coughed some more.  They turned around, to see if they could escape a different route, only to be met by a slowly approaching wall of lava.

Lightning began to panic. How were they going to get out of there? The situation seemed bleak. Lighting truly believed he was going to die. He gulped. Time to come clean. "Twilight?" he asked.

Twilight seemed deep in concetration, as she tried to come up with a solution. "Yeah?" she asked, not even giving him a glance.

"I love you," he said. "I've loved you ever since I first saw you. I don't think we're gonna make it, but if we do, would you...maybe...go on a date with me?"

Twilight froze in absolute shock. She turned and looked at Lightning, who smiled awkwardly. She smiled warmly, and almost sadly. Then, her smile turned to an angry frown. "You dolt!" she shouted.

"Wha-?" Lighting asked, thrown off guard.

"You have wings! You can just *cough* fly us out of here!"

Twilight seemed like she was about to kill him. Lightning opened his wings, barely remembering that he even had them. Wow, Spike and Sputnik were right. He really was an idiot! He smacked himself, before grabbing twilight by the waist. With a flap of his wings, the two fo them flew over the lava in their path. Another spurt of lava exploded from the walls behind them. Then another explosion, then another!

The pair of them shot out of the tunnel like a rocket, a large explosion of fire and lava following them. The battling griffins and ponies paused for a moment as they saw the pair fly into the air in shock. Lighting looked down at Twilight, everything seeming to go in slow motion. The light from the flames made her look positively angelic.

But Lighting Hawk didn't have time to admire her, as he flew down towards their friends. Twilight kicked a griffin in the back of the head as they descended, instantly knocking him out. The pair landed next to Rainbow Dash. "About time the two of you showed up. Any ideas?" she asked.

Twilight shrugged. "We're outnumbered, out-weaponed, and out-matched! I honestly don't know what to do!" she said.

Rainbow shrugged as well, hardly caring for stats. "Lightning, you're with me! We're gonna deal with an old friend of mine!"

"Wait, but-"

"No buts! Now let's go!"

Lightning pouted, turning to look at Twilight. She didn't show any expression. "Go! We can handle ourselves!" she said.

Lighting sighed, before following Rainbow towards a familiar griffin. Minerva watched them fly towards her daughter, before picking up a spear from an unconscious soldier. "What are you doing?" Derpy asked.

"Getting my daughter back, " Minerva responded, a look of determination in her eye, before she took to the skies as well.

Willus sighed shakily, his back to Applejack. "Things going well?" he asked, unusually calmly.

Applejack shrugged, deflecting a blow from a griffin's sword with her Katana. "Eh, the usual. Just an ordinary Friday," she said.

Willus blasted a soldier in the face with his magic. "Well, that's good," he said.

"Think we stand a chance?" she asked.

Willus shrugged. "Probably not. We'll probably die, in all likelihood,"

Applejack sighed. "Yeah, Ah guess so. Just in case we don't make it, Ah'm glad I got to know you, Willus,"

Willus smiled. "Me too," he said.

Shamrock punched another Griffin in the face, feeling the satisfying crunch of his beak breaking. "How are you holding up?" he asked Derpy, throwing the question over his shoulder.

Derpy viciously beat the living snot out of a soldier. "THAT'S. FOR. MY. BABY!" she shouted.

Shamrock's eye twitched. "All right then. Keep up the good work," he said, before returning to the battle at hoof.

Reaper, Pinkie, and Rarity also battled fiercely. Rarity was firing magic blasts, while Pinkie fired her party cannon. Only Celestia knew how she got it. Reaper constantly disappeared and reappeared, taking down various griffins as he did so. Of all who were fighting, he was the only one intentionaly using lethal force. None of the griffins saw his vicious black blade coming. It either materialized from mid-air, or suddenly appeared in a rapidly disintegrating illusion that they thought was a comrade. Reaper hadn't had this much fun in ages.

Lighting, Minerva, and Rainbow battled in the air, dodging attacks mid-flight while simultaneously dealing with their opponents. Finally, they approached their goal. Gilda hovered, a sword in claw, waiting for them. "Let's make this quick," she taunted, before charging at them.

Lighting looked at Rainbow, who merely shrugged. "If you insist," he said.

In a yellow and rainbow-colored flash, both ponies practically disappeared. They fought in tandem, like a swarm of insects. One would fly up and punch Gilda, before disappearing. Then, in a split-second, another would appear and deliver their own blow. Then the other would return and repeat the process. It didn't take long before Gilda was knocked unconscious. The limp griffin fell, before being caught by her mother, who began to fly back towards the others.

Suddenly, a rumble was felt. All eyes turned to the volcano as a large plume of fire and lava burst from its summit. Then....silence.

There was a pause.

"That's it?" A voice rang out from the crowd.

Twilight groaned in despair. "No, no, no, no! The explosion should have been far bigger than that!"

Ironfeathers laughed. "You see? Your pitiful attempts to stop me have failed! Surrender now, and I will make your deaths painless!"

The group of friends looked at each other, the enemy army backing away briefly. Despite their best efforts, they had hardly made a dent in their numbers and were already exhausted. Twilight took notice of the unconscious Gilda, who had been moved safely behind them. "We have your daughter! Unless you want something bad to happen to her, you better listen to what we have to say!"

Ironfeathers noticed for the first that his adoptive daughter was being held hostage. He scoffed. "Do I look like I care? Kill her, if you want! She's not even mine. She is easily replaced," he said, to the shock of everpony.

But no one was more shocked than Gilda. The griffin had woken up not long ago, although nopony noticed. She was awake long enough to hear what her father had to say. And it made her mad.

"What! After all that's happened, all we've been through, do you mean it was all  just a lie?" she screamed, rage obvious in her voice. She quickly strode up to the front of the group glaring at her father. Everyone instantly became uncomfortable.

Ironfeathers was surprised by the sudden snap. "Gilda? Darling! Please, forget what I just said. I was just bluffing, of course!"

"Sure you were, and the sky is green!" she shot back.

"Now, Gilda, listen to me, I'm your father-"

"You're not my real father!"

An awkward silence hung over the battlefield, no one knowing quite how to react.

"Very well," Ironfeathers said with a heavy sigh. "You have made your decision," he said.

He raised his claw as he prepared to gesture to his army from his perch, when Shamrock shouted. "Wait!"

"What is it?" Ironfeathers asked, clearly annoyed.

"Even if you kill us," he said. "Others will rise to stand up to your tyranny!"

"Oh really? I'd like to see them try. But enough talk! Soldiers, destroy-"

"YYEEEEEEEHHOOOOOO!!!"

A high-pitched metallic screech echoed through the air. Everyone looked up at a figure flying in from the horizon. "Is that-?" Lightning asked.

"It can't be!" Applejack said.

"It is," Reaper said. "May Celestia have mercy on us all,"

Approaching from the direction of the rising sun was Sputnik, riding an eagle. It was quite majestic, actually. Until the eagle got fed up, that is, and threw Sputnik off of it. The robot landed in front of Reaper with a loud crack, but got up apparently fine. "Hey boss! How's it goin?" he said.

A million questions raced through everypony's head right then, but it wasn't the time for questions. It was the time for action. And Reaper had an idea.

"Sputnik?"

"Yes?"

"I have a job for you,"

"Ooh! What is it?"

"Weapons mode: activate," he commanded.

On que, Sputnik's spidery legs and large cannons appeared, ready to do their work. "Ooh! How long have I had these, boss?" Sputnik asked, clearly still an idiot.

Twilight rolled her eyes. "You tell us. Now, if you can get a good shot in at the volcano, you might be able to complete the chain reaction!"

"Okidoki!"

Before anything else could be said, Ironfeather's roared over the interruption. "Enough! Destroy them!" The army came to life, charging at the group. But Sputnik didn't care. To his programming, they were just an obstacle in the way of his goal. So he would simply deal with them accordingly.

Sputnik disappeared into the army, a whirling metal ball of stupidity and destruction. Any griffin foolish enough to get in his path was thrown away or shot in the face. Ironfeathers' eyes began to widen as he realized what was happening. The ponies began to cheer him on from the sidelines. Sputnik approached nearer to an opening in the side of the volcano. Everything went in slow motion as he took aim with both cannons. They began to glow with pure energy, before firing a massive blast into the heart of the volcano.

The chain reaction was activated, and Mount Molten began to bubble with renewed ferocity. Ironfeathers turned around, his metal wings beginning to glow from the heat. He realized what was going to happen next, closed his eyes, and accepted oblivion.

"Get down! She's gonna blow!" Rainbow shouted.

Everypony jumped into a nearby trench, including Sputnik, who had returned quite quickly.

A deafening explosion ensued, a massive plume of lava and fire briefly burning brighter than the morning sun.