Episode 92: The Might of Sun and Moon
Episode 92: The Might of Sun and Moon
“Do you think they heard you?” Luna asked, a hint of cheekiness in her tone. Celestia noted her sister didn’t look at her as she spoke, Luna’s sharp eyes carefully scanning the scene below them. Celestia was doing the same, not allowing her focus to slip for an instant.
As planned, the train that had been falsely rumored to be carrying the Alicorn Amulet had come to a halt upon the large stone bridge crossing the Greenbrook River. The massive barrier of magic encasing the train, bridge, and a portion of the surrounding hillsides was Shining Armor’s work. The stallion, along with a contingent of Canterlot’s finest, were hidden in the train. Their sole task was to maintain the shield, and Celestia couldn’t halt a flutter of worry in her chest for her little ponies. Shining Armor was a brave soldier, as were the stallions and mares of the Royal Guard with him, but they would be out of their depth in facing the foes that had come for the train.
While the alicorn Princesses were committed to the operation here, they’d ensured the defense of Canterlot and Ponyville through requesting Discord act as watchdog in their absence. Other allies were being called in as well, the Crystal Empire not only being safeguarded by Princess Cadence, but Dragonlord Ember was making a ‘coincidental’ diplomatic visit with a retinue of her strongest vassals. The fact that Princess Cadence had offered the dragons a healthy supply of crystal gems to indulge their appetites with had sweetened that particular deal. That covered the north, and the heartland. Meanwhile King Thorax had volunteered to maintain watch on other fronts, the Changelings acting as ideal eyes and ears to warn of unusual activity across the continent.
That was about all Celestia and Luna could do to protect their realm while still freeing themselves to go on the offensive like this.
Ideally the plan was to subdue the opposition before they could realize who was maintaining the shield trapping them here. Fortunately Shining Armor only had to periodically renew his barrier, so as long as Celestia and Luna dealt with the enemy before then, he would be safe. Speed was of the essence, regardless, but Celestia was wary of acting in haste. Besides, if they couldn’t subdue their foes fast, she and Luna had already prepared a whole different surprise for Starlight Glimmer’s cronies. It wasn't her first choice, as she preferred to capture the foe alive, if possible. But she was prepared to do what she must to protect Equestria.
She and Luna had proven superior in strength to a Soul Reaper Lieutenant such as Flash Sentry, but all reports indicated Starlight Glimmer and her allies were on a very different level than Flash had been. A combination of boldness and caution were needed here.
Celestia had already discussed tactics with Luna, and so despite Luna’s casual question, Celestia simply replied, “Most assuredly. Let’s not keep our guests waiting.”
As one the sisters moved together, rocketing downward like a gold and dark pair of comets. Their alicorn bodies could fly with remarkable speed on their own, but both Celestia and Luna had fortified their physical abilities with enhancement magic before teleporting into the barrier. Luna had always been a little faster than Celestia, especially with her enhancement magic being stronger, but Luna held back to keep pace with Celestia. The plan was to sweep the train back to front, sticking together as a pair. Celestia would prefer not to get separated from her sister during the fighting, even if she recognized the likelihood that it'd still happen. Ideally, they’d take the foe down together.
Their rapid descent took them towards the back of the train, and it didn’t take long to see motion there, a purple and pink form opening up the back of the train and heading into the back car.
“You take the roof, I’ll take the door,” Celestia said, and Luna just nodded.
If the enemy was moving into the train because they thought that might give them cover, or cause the alicorn Princesses any level of pause, they were in for a rude awakening.
Luna didn’t bother using her ice coated axes, she simply impacted with the back train car’s roof and pierced through it like a sport’s team breaking through a paper logo. Celestia used a little more delicacy than her sister, swiping once with one of her flaming longswords. The weapon, sporting heat enough to turn steel to liquid on contact, sliced the door readily and Celestia smashed through it a half second later.
Within the empty back car she couldn’t miss the pony who’d been standing there waiting for her and her sister. It was faintly surreal, seeing Firefly. Of course Celestia knew who the mother of Rainbow Dash was, at least in this world. Rainbow Dash being one of the bearer’s of the Elements of Harmony had been a figure of interest Celestia had studied up on, and while she’d never met Firefly, she was aware of who the mare was. But that was Equestria’s Firefly.
This mare was someone else, someone who for reasons of her own was serving Starlight’s human counterpart and offering threat to the stability of Celestia’s realm. Appearances aside, Celestia steeled herself to do what was necessary. Ideally she wanted to subdue and capture Firefly and whoever was with her, but Celestia was prepared to safeguard Equestria by whatever means were required, if it came to that.
Firefly was clad in what appeared to be elaborate, advanced armor of a dark purple coloring and smooth angles. Wings formed of numerous blade-like protrusions formed around her natural pegasus wings, and emitted wisps of purple light. Sunset Shimmer had provided information on those with Starlight Glimmer, and their abilities. So, this was a Fullbring, was it? Apparently the goggles Firefly wore were the catalyst for this manifested armor and weaponry.
If I destroy the goggles, will that break her power? Celestia wondered, but that was all she had time for, as Firefly had been standing in preparation for Celestia and Luna’s arrival.
“Hi there, your royal highnesses!” the mare said with forced cheer, already aiming a large cannon with a hexagon shaped barrel at Celestia. Even as Celestia had entered the train car, the barrel had been heating up with a bright purple light. Now Firefly triggered the cannon, and a large beam of purple light, crackling along the sides, launched out at Celestia.
With swift reflexes, Celestia crossed her swords in front of her and caught the brunt of the beam on them. Even holding the blades in her magic, the force of the beam pushed her right back out of the train. Her swords held firm under the beam, splitting its energy out around Celestia. Once the beam petered out, she heard a series of detonations inside the train and saw its windows blown out by explosions of purple flame. Then the roof of the train erupted upward as well, and two forms flew straight up out of it; Luna and Firefly both taking to the air while smoking slightly from the explosions.
The cause of the exposition became apparent as small hatches opened up around Firefly’s armor and expelled a swarm of small missiles that flew in at Luna. With a scoffing sound, Luna launched herself forward and ploughed through the missiles. Her axes hummed in the air, leaving trails of silvery lunar light as their magical edges cut through the missiles. Luna continued on through the trail of explosions and flew right at Firefly, axes smashing downward.
Firefly responded by using one hoof to reach to her side and pull out a purple sword hilt. The hilt then blazed to life with a beam of energy that she raised to block Luna’s strike, magical axes clashing with the blade of spiritual power. Magical symbols bloomed to life across Luna’s body and her icy black armor, the enhancement spells flaring to life in a set of sharp geometric patterns that glowed with incandescent azure light that matched the fierce gaze in Luna’s eyes. Firefly was strong, for her size, with her Fullbring boosting her physical abilities in a similar manner to Luna’s spells, but it became quickly clear that Luna was the stronger as she swung into a swift series of spinning blows and Firefly was rapidly driven back.
Firefly didn’t waste time allowing herself to be pushed back for long, however, and the energy flowing from her wings intensified as she burst away from Luna at high speed, putting distance from the lunar Princess while firing a blinding beam from her cannon. Luna would have dodged it, but the beam would have otherwise struck the train, so Luna instead lit her horn up like a fountain and generated a sparkling, dark blue barrier in front of her. The beam struck the shield, and Luna’s spell held up, albeit with noticeable cracks from the intensity of the cannon’s beam.
Celestia made her move then, having waited until Luna and Firefly were separated to launch a spell she’d been preparing. A wall of searing flames formed in a semicircle above Celestia's head, and from this wall a flight of blazing phoenix burst forth. These weren’t real phoenixes, but rather conjurations of flame that held enough artificial intelligence to actively follow a designated target, seeking to impact them and engulf them in flames. However this was a particularly favored spell of Celestia because each conjured phoenix also carried a small element of healing magic that was intended to prevent the deaths of those burned. It was still a very painful spell, and the wall of flame would keep spawning phoenixes until its energy ran out... which would take several minutes, at least.
Firefly saw the swarm of phoenixes coming, and without letting up with the energy pouring out of her cannon’s barrel that was keeping Luna pinned in place, she turned to focus on the incoming flaming birds. The blades of her wings folded out and parts of them detached, flying out in a swarm of about a dozen small, sharp drones. Celestia had read about these in Sunset Shimmer’s report; Firefly’s “Dragoons”.
The small drones moved with incredibly speed and precision, flying at the swarm of phoenix constructs. Thin laser beams of purple light shot out, picking off the phoenixes one after another and causing them to prematurely detonate in bursts of flame across the sky. Yet the flock was not so mindless as to ignore the danger the Dragoons posed, and the conjured phoenixes started to juke and twist in erratic patterns, seeking to avoid the piercing lasers. Even so, only around one in five of them were breaking past the Dragoons to soar in at Firefly. That was still enough to force her to evade, flying up and to the side in a streak of purple light.
This freed up Luna, since Firefly was no longer blasting Luna’s shield with her canon, and the Princess of the Night flapped her wings in a thunderclap that sent her soaring in pursuit.
Celestia would have joined her sister, but a flare of white magic appeared on her brow in the shape of a symbolic eye. A premonition spell, meant to give Celestia a partial view of events a few seconds into the potential future, let her know a second foe was making her move. Celestia had suspected that more than one enemy would go after the train, but hadn’t known who it would be. Chrysalis? Starlight Glimmer herself?
A wave of frost, thicker than clouds and plummeting the ambient temperature to a wintry low, cascaded down upon the wall of flame that Celestia had summoned. Flames and phoenixes both were flash frozen in mid-air, steam erupting from the clash of heat and ice. Celestia was impressed. Freezing such fires, conjured by her alicorn magic and fortified by her innate connection to the sun, was no small feat. There was no doubting who her new foe was, and Celestia’s premonition spell told her of the danger just in time for her to react.
The speed was even beyond what Celestia had anticipated, the form darting across the air with the ease of a hummingbird, and faster than lightning itself. Celestia’s flaming swords flashed around her in a dizzying pattern, and a curved sword of icy blue sparked off their flame clad steel.
Facing Celestia stood a unicorn mare, as tall and well proportioned as some of the most attractive noblemares form Canterlot, if not for the horrible burn scars covering one side of her body. Her front right leg was gone, replaced by an artificial limb of some manner of dull gray ceramic, jointed like a puppet’s limb. She wore black robes that were identical to the one’s Flash Sentry wore, although Celestia knew full-well that this mare had also once worn a white overcoat denoting her former rank.
“Captain Platinum, I presume?”
“You blocked Fuyukogo,” Platinum said, confirming her identity with the name of her Zanpaktou, already released to its Shikai state, “I suppose this world does have worthy defenders, after all.”
The sound of explosions and the harsh clash of magical energies resounding behind them as Luna and Firefly’s high-speed aerial duel continued, yet neither Platinum or Celestia moved as they sized each other up. Celestia’s blades floated readily at her side, bathing the area in harsh, flaming light.
“I offer you one last chance to lay down your weapon and surrender yourself to our custody,” Celestia said, “I give you my word you will not be harmed, nor will your son-”
Platinum’s hard voice cut her off as sharply as any knife, “I will not. My son and I will never be safe until Starlight Glimmer fulfills her plans. I will aide her until that day. Now, I offer you one chance to withdraw from this battle. Otherwise you will feel the full measure of my power.”
Celestia couldn’t help herself. She gave Platinum a cheeky little smirk and said, “You mean the power my student, Sunset Shimmer, has already defeated?”
It probably wasn’t all that smart to taunt a Captain-class Soul Reaper, but Celestia’s graciousness towards an enemy only extended so far, and this woman had caused her beloved student and her friends no small amount of grief. To be honest, Celestia would have accepted a surrender, but was happy enough to have the opportunity to teach this woman a lesson.
Of course being able to do that was a whole other matter, and Platinum’s face turned to a glacial mask of cold fury as she vanished from sight and came at Celestia so fast that even with the premonition spell, Celestia couldn't fully tell which direction Platinum was coming from first. Fortunately Celestia didn’t have to, her horn bursting with gold light as she encased herself in a magical barrier.
Platinum’s Zanpaktou struck the sphere of golden magic surrounding Celestia a dozen times in the span of a mere flutter of eyelashes. Celestia felt each blow like a physical pressure on her horn, and couldn’t deny the incredible potency the Soul Reaper displayed. In terms of speed and strength she was easily leagues above Flash Sentry. He hadn’t been exaggerating the power of Soul Reaper Captains at all.
And this is before she’s unleashed that second stage of her sword. Truly not a foe to be underestimated. Fortunately Luna and I haven’t.
Her magical barrier was showing cracks in it from Platinum’s strikes, and each swing of that large, curved tulwar left a blast of frost that further sapped the shield’s strength. However Celestia wasn’t idle within the shield and her horn blazed to even brighter gold light, casting several spells, one after another.
Small, condensed spheres of light appeared in the air around her, still within the barrier. Each one buzzed with barely contained magic, flickering with searing, white-hot fire. As Platinum appeared above and smashed her blade down on the shield, Celestia actually dispelled it, then instantly teleported.
The alicorn vanished in a flash of gold light, her magical shield gone, and Platinum left swinging at nothing but air. Right in front of her now was half a dozen spheres of magical energy, and now triggered by the proximity of one who wasn’t Celestia, the spheres buzzed louder and flared with bright light.
Platinum’s eyes widened, but she threw herself away with a masterfully swift Flash Step, just as the magic spheres exploded in a series of incinerating detonations.
Platinum appeared a few paces above one of the more central train cars, frowning as she cast about with her spiritual senses, trying to sense where Celestia had gone. Then gold light coated the two train cars behind Platinum, and the Soul Reaper turned to see the huge, multi-ton cars floating up in the air underneath a sparkling gold glow. Both cars then were hurled at Platinum, just as she spotted Celestia standing behind the train, smiling mischievously.
Celestia knew Shining Armor and his guards were in the car one more down from Platinum, so there was no danger in using the empty cars like bludgeons. She hurled them at Platinum with careful precision, ensuring that even if Platinum dodged, the cars wouldn’t strike any other part of the train.
Platinum responded with a derisive neigh, a sound that appeared to embarrass the Soul Reaper as she blushed in angry fury at the equine noise she’d inadvertently made. That didn’t stop her from leaping towards the hurled train cars, swinging Fuyukogo in wide, swift arcs. The sharp blade struck with bursts of what Celestia imagined had to be spiritual energy combined with sheets of ice, which cut through the train cars like so much soft bread.
Celestia had known Platinum would do this, and the train cars being cut in half didn’t change the fact that they were still under Celestia’s telekinetic magic. So the severed pieces simply turned and flew right back at Platinum, even faster than before. With a scowl on her face, Platinum disappeared with another Flash Step and landed on one of the train car pieces. She shoved Fuyukogo into the car, then ice burst outward in a white sheet, covering everything nearby. In an instant the four train car pieces were fused into one large chunk of ice which in turn was fused to the train itself, Platinum standing atop it all.
“Is this all you can do? A few magical tricks? Sunset Shimmer may have been an arrogant child, but she at least had far more power than what you’ve displayed so far,” Platinum chided.
“Oh, if it’s power you want, you’ll see it soon enough. I usually prefer to warm up when testing out a new dance partner,” Celestia chided right back. She wasn’t above some verbal sparring, especially if it just bought more time.
She wasn’t bluffing either. She had yet to break out any of her ‘big guns’ against Platinum. Partially because she preferred not to risk any friendly fire with her sister or Shining Armors squad. Partially because a portion of her magic was already being used elsewhere, but Platinum didn’t need to know that. Besides, it wasn’t as if Platinum was going all out yet either.
Unfortunately, despite her preference, she and Luna had gotten split up, but with luck Luna would be turning that around soon, and both Platinum and Firefly would be seeing the full might of the Princesses of Sun and Moon.
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“So, uh, anypony got any idea what we’re supposed to do with her?” asked Rainbow Dash, hovering around the heavily bound mare that had assaulted Twilight.
The fire was long since contained. The locals, despite being such a rough seeming bunch when the ponies had first arrived, now seemed rather warmed up to Twilight and her friends. Apparently fire was taken as a serious threat in Klugetown, and having prevented the fire from spreading further than one building had turned Twilight and the other ponies into minor celebrities. Their inn stay was now free, and apparently when the ponies wanted to do some shopping, discounts would abound.
Of course Klugetown was still Klugetown and more than a few locals had wanted to take Twilight’s prisoner to sell off parts of her at market for setting the fire. Twilight was having none of that, however, and since she and her friends had stopped the fire, the locals were willing to let the alicorn Princess deal with the arsonist with only some minor grumbling.
That still left Twilight and her friends to sit in the now largely vacated common room of the inn and stare at their tied up prisoner, wondering just what to do next.
For her part, the prisoner just glared at them with her eyes filled with such rancor that Twilight had to seriously wonder if she’d done something to personally anger this mare. What little conversation they’d managed on the roof between her and Flash Sentry had been too brief and confusing for any real answers to be had for either party.
It was time to change that.
“First I suppose we should ungag her,” Twilight said.
“Do we have to? She’s kinda snarly and decidedly unpleasant,” said Trixie, wrinkling her snout.
“Nopony’s makin’ ya stay, Trixie,” said Applejack, her orange coat stained with dark soot. Out of all the ponies on the ground she’d insisted on taking the lead on the bucket brigade and had been closest to the flames, which showed in the singed parts of her mane, tail, and stetson hat. “Ya could always go on back ta sleep, like the sirens did.”
“Hmph, and miss any important information you squeeze out of this ruffian? Not a chance. She disturbed my beauty sleep, so I want to at least know what she wanted.”
“Me, it sounded like,” Starlight Glimmer’s voice was uneasy, and she kept giving the bound mare measuring look. “Only we know there’s another me running around, so not exactly genius level deduction to figure out who she might really be after.”
“There’s only one way for us to get this sorted out, and that’s by talking, so I’ll ask that everyone let me handle the questioning,” Twilight said, and used her magic to carefully untie the cloth that had been gagging their prisoner.
The mare spat and licked her lips, then turned an disdainful snarl towards them, “Do whatever you like, but you won’t get any information from me. I don’t know what game you think your playing with this ‘two Starlights’ business, but I’m not some idiot foal who’d fall for a trick like that.”
“Heh, shows you’re the real idiot,” Rainbow Dash said, “Not that you didn’t already prove that by trying to take us on by yourself.”
“Rainbow, please,” Twilight said, and Rainbow quieted down with a sheepish grin. Taking a deep breath, Twilight met the mares eyes, “I think to start, we need to properly introduce ourselves. I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle. What’s your name?”
The mare just glared at her, and Twilight’s eye twitched slightly, “Look, I’m not your enemy. We’re not your enemy. Please, even if you don’t want to answer questions, there can’t be any harm in just telling me your name.”
A few moments passed where a contemplative look crossed the mare’s face, then with a soft ‘humph’ she said, “Tempest Shadow.”
“Seriously? That’s a fake name if Trixie ever heard one,” Trixie declared, earning a brief moment of stink-eye from Twilight, to which Trixie blanched but turned her nose up stubbornly, “Well... it does sound fake.”
“It’s the only name you’re getting, so deal with it, Blueberry,” Tempest Shadow said with a derisive glance at Trixie, who immediately rose to the bait.
“B-Blueberry!? I’ll have you know my name is the Great, and Powerful Trixie!”
“Trixie, hm? That describe your profession? I’m sorry, I suppose a mare with no other talents can only make her bits in one way...”
Trixie’s eyes bulged, “Excuse me!? Twilight, is torture off the table as an accessible means of interrogation?”
“No, Trixie, not torture. And Tempest Shadow, please stop teasing my friends-”
“...We’re friends?” Trixie said, somewhat bemused as Twilight went on.
“-and try to understand that we don’t want to harm you. We just want to understand why you lit that fire and attacked us. You keep saying you know Starlight Glimmer. How?”
Tempest Shadow’s eyes narrowed to sharp slits of suspicion, her face set in a disbelieving frown. “I don’t see the point of this, but fine, I’ll indulge you...”
She recounted the events on Mt. Aris, including her role as the military commander of the Storm King’s forces. She described the manner in which a unicorn mare who looked identical to Starlight Glimmer had single hooved taken down the majority of the airship fleet and halted the attack on Mt. Aris, while also taking away the Storm King. She further explained she’d taken the surviving fleet to Klugetown, but had been intercepted by a different pony, a pegasus with ludicrously powerful weaponry and armor that had decimated the fleet’s remains.
“That certainly explains the wrecks we saw on the way in,” Rarity said.
Fluttershy, gulping, turned worried eyes towards Rainbow Dash, “Um, s-so that pegasus... she was Firefly?”
Rainbow Dash’s face turned stern as she crossed her hooves over her chest, shaking her head, “That’s not my mother. My mother is awesome and would never stoop to working for some crazy pony trying to wreck the world. Sucks to be the human me, because if I get the chance I’m kicking her mom’s flank.”
Tempest’s brow creased as she looked at Rainbow Dash, then towards Starlight Glimmer, “Why this deception? You didn’t try to hide anything when you mangled my fleet and took my employer. You have me captured, so what do you want?”
Starlight gave Twilight a look, who after a pensive moment gave a ‘go ahead’ nod. Starlight coughed awkwardly and put on a painfully forced smile as she approached Tempest.
“Soooo, let me try to get this straight. You think I blew up a whole army and took your king, this big powerful yeti-like fellow who conquered whole nations already, right?”
“...Yes,” Tempest said, but a hint of doubt was creeping into her tone as she looked Starlight over. It was as if Tempest was finally noting the actual differences between the Starlight in front of her and the Starlight she’d seen on Mt. Aris. Not in appearance, but in poise and stance.
“So if I’m such an incredible, powerful pony, why didn’t I use any of that amazing power to stop the fire last night? Or sense Twilight was being attacked and swoop in to the rescue?”
Gears turned behind Tempest Shadow’s eyes and her lips drew down in a frustrated frown, “Perhaps you don’t know spells useful for putting out fires? And I ambushed the Princess after specifically ensuring she’d been drawn away from the lot of you. I caught you by surprise, that’s all.”
“Uh-huh, do you really think if I was a unicorn who could wipe out an army by myself that ‘surprise’ would make the slightest difference at all? Do I even look like I know how to fight an army?”
At Starlight’s words, Flash Sentry piped in, “On top of that, you didn’t see any of the rest of us at Mt. Aris. Why would Starlight wipe out an army there, send some other random pony to blow up the ships outside town, then just wander in from the desert with a completely different group of ponies and proceed to get rooms at the inn?”
Tempest Shadow’s voice grew more doubtful as she said, “But you wear a sword just like the one Starlight Glimmer had-”
“Which I don’t seem to have now,” Starlight pointed out.
“Well you could have just stowed it somewhere!” Tempest shouted.
“Why would I do that?”
“I don’t know! I... I don’t know...” Tempest finally looked truly bothered by the holes in her logic, her eyes all but burning with thought, “I have no idea why any of this is happening. Nothing’s made sense since the attack on Mt. Aris. If... if you’re not the same pony as her, then what are you? A twin sister?”
“Not exactly,” said Starlight, who then nodded to Twilight, “Your show now. You explain it to her. I’m not even sure I’ve got all the facts straight, myself.”
Twilight cleared her throat and looked Tempest Shadow straight in the eyes, putting on her most trustworthy smile, “Okay, so, um, how much do you know about interdimensional travel?”
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Luna was impressed, which didn’t happen often in battle. The last opponent who’d even approached a legitimate physical threat to her had been Tirek, in his heyday, and that was only because the thieving bastard could suck the magic right out of her before she could get in any good shots. Discord was a close second, but his threat was more a matter of circumventing his ludicrous chaos powers, not triumphing over him in physical battle. Sombra, unfortunately, had just been a one trick pony, easily dealt with by the Elements. No fun to be had, there.
Luna would have liked to have tested herself against Chrysalis, but the Changeling Queen had been defeated the first time while Luna had still slept, and the second time... well, the witch cheated and that was all Luna wanted to think about that. Stupid poisoned pancakes. She’d told Celestia that getting rid of taste testers for their food was a mistake, but nooooo, Tia wanted to be ‘modern’ and not rely on old fashioned methods like poison tasters. And she had no idea where Chrysalis had found a poison strong enough to render two alicorn Princesses so... reduced, but Luna had a serious axe to grind over the matter. Specifically one of her ice axes, meant for Chrysalis’ face if she ever got the chance.
However the indignity of that incident galled Luna, she put it aside to enjoy that for the moment she had a someone to properly test her skills against. Celestia held back too much in their sparring matches, and poor Flash Sentry had simply not been up to more than a light workout.
This Firefly, however? Quite the accomplished warrior, and Luna couldn’t deny she was smiling deeper and deeper with every exchange of blows between them.
A savage blizzard of attacks was being unleashed by Luna, making equal use of the claws of ice covering her fetlocks as well as the axes of black frost that twirled in the grip of her pale blue magic. Her wings beat a furious pace, keeping up with Firefly’s rapid, haphazard flight across the limited airspace within the magical barrier. It amazed Luna how well Firefly was fending off her blows. That brilliantly scintillating energy blade worked overtime to parry the ice axes, while Firefly herself bent and twisted her body in the air to avoid Luna’s claws.
Luna was still scoring glancing hits, cutting sparking gouges in Firefly’s armor, or drawing small, bloody wounds, but so far it was all superficial.
Conversely, Firefly had yet to score a meaningful hit on Luna, but not for lack of trying. Whether it was from the deadly lasers from Firefly’s Dragoons, or bursts of missiles fired from the hatches on Firefly’s armor, Luna had no lack of assaults to contend with while trying to pin down her opponent.
Four of the Dragoons arrayed themselves above Luna, while another four flanked her from below. Neon purple beams stitched a cat’s-cradle pattern at the Lunar Princess. Luna’s body shimmered with a flickering mirage pattern as she cast a spell that split her image with illusionary light, allowing her to easily twist through the laser beams while the Dragoons were left unsure of what to target.
She then swiftly cast another spell that retaliated against the Dragoons, summoning a circle of silvery blades of moonlight that flew out like shooting stars. The Dragoons moved to evade, but the swift moon shards cut at least three or four of them cleanly in half, causing the sparking remains to detonate.
Firefly took the momentary distraction to dive down, soaring towards the river while turning to fly backwards, her cannon thrust upward. Luna wheeled to the side as a huge beam of energy licked past her, heating up her armor and causing Luna to wince. She still hadn’t taken a direct hit from that cannon, and wasn’t eager to. Her smile bright with adrenaline, Luna dove after Firefly, her horn flaring to a fountain of azure light as she discharged a beam of her own.
Raw alicorn magic cut a thin line towards Firefly, and she banked sharply to avoid it, cutting across the surface of the river as she did so. Luna kept the beam going as she followed in hot pursuit, the blue stream of magic cutting a steaming swath through the river waters as it chased Firefly. The pegasus barrel rolled, the blue beam passing so close that it cut the tips off of several of her blade shaped wings. The beam kept going, cutting over the river shoreline, then gouging up the adjoining hillside, nearly severing through the whole thing.
Firefly glanced at the still hot, glowing metal where the tips of Ace of Sky’s left wing had been cut off, and whistled.
“Figured we might have been lowballing you alicorns, but damn, color me impressed anyway.”
Her eyes flicked towards the damaged hillside, narrowed slightly, then looked back in time to see Luna charging right in at her, axes barred. Firefly got her energy blade in position just in time to catch the axes, the water of the river exploding around her and Luna as the physical strength of the blow and parry combined caused a shockwave that rippled over the waters.
“If you have time to talk, you have time to reconsider my sister’s offer of surrender,” Luna said, “Although I’d be a bit disappointed if you did.”
Even as she spoke, Luna bent low and lashed out with a swift uppercut with her claws. Firefly pushed away with her energy blade and swung an elbow down to block the sudden strike, but Luna had been feinting. The moment Firefly moved to block, Luna gripped her elbow instead and levered herself up into a spin kick that smashed Firefly across the face and sent her reeling into the water.
Luna glanced up briefly to see how her sister was faring. She knew the plan had been to try to avoid being separated, but Celestia did always have an issue with understanding plans never actually panned out in practice. Especially in battle. Still, rejoining her sister was probably ideal, and although she knew Firefly was far from done with just one solid hit, it’d take Firefly a second to recover. So Luna flew upwards, looking for Celestia.
She wasn’t hard to find. The giant halo of fire that Celestia had summoned around herself, easily twenty paces across, kind of gave her away. Luna recognized the sunfire halo as one of Celestia’s more experimental invocations. It followed Celestia wherever she moved, keeping her at its center, while absorbing all heat outside of the ring and expelling it inward in a constant, searing wave.
Celestia was all but immune to the fire, fairly heat resistant even before placing further heat resistant enchantments on herself. Anyone else trying to battle her in melee was going to be contending with temperatures high enough to scald skin and rapidly melt solid ice. Top that off with the fact that Celestia could bend and turn the halo in any direction to use as a weapon, and it was a nasty piece of spellwork.
Little wonder Platinum was having difficulty with it and was making a point of keeping her distance. Luna could see the unicorn mare zipping around Celestia at a distance of several dozen meters. Luna only recognized Platinum based on second-hoof description, of course, but who else would be wielding a blade that generated gigantic spikes of ice to hurl at Celestia?
Luna felt vaguely insulted, as ice was one of her preferred elements.
For a second Luna wasn’t certain what Platinum was trying to accomplish. Even with shards of ice not much smaller than the train cars below, the sharp chunks of frost were melted rapidly by Celestia’s spell. Celestia even rather easily adjusted the angle of the halo to slice several of the ice shards to pieces. Water vapor was filling the air rapidly as Platinum hurled more and more ice at Celestia, which only got melted further.
Abruptly Luna realized what Platinum might be up to, and shouted a warning, “Tia! The vapor!”
Melted or not, the ice was releasing huge amounts of water vapor around Celestia. It’d eventually evaporate too, but with how much ice Platinum was throwing out, Celestia was surrounded by steam. More than that, the cloud of steam had extended down to the lake itself, and even as Luna shouted in warning, Platinum’s face bloomed with a haughty smirk and vanished.
Firefly was fast, but Platinum’s Flash Step was on a different level. Even Luna couldn’t sense where Platinum had gone, but she didn’t really have to. Platinum’s voice rang out from below.
“Kyokuchi Hana!” (Polar Blossom)
Platinum had appeared at the river surface, right where the cloud of water vapor was touching, and thrust her Zanpakatou into the water. In a instant a white flash of light flared out, and the temperature dropped to well below freezing. There was a crystalline shriek as ice erupted upwards in a huge pillar, the river using the water vapor as a bridge to freeze upward in a sudden, flash frozen pillar of ice nearly fifty meters tall. The top of the pillar was spread out, looking for al the world like a frozen flower.
Celestia would have been in the center of that flower, and from the satisfied look on Platinum’s face she certainly thought that was the case, but Luna knew better. Flash Sentry had already made it clear these people’s spirit senses couldn’t very effectively sense magic, so Platinum wouldn’t have felt what Luna did.
“Well, she certainly has a future as an ice sculpture artist,” said Celestia, who’d teleported nearby, just far enough away that her sunfire halo wasn’t endangering Luna.
“Don’t try to play it off, Tia, if I hadn’t warned you, you wouldn’t have teleported away in time. Do try to pay better attention to your opponent.”
Celestia smiled mischievously, “You’re one to talk. Incoming, by the way.”
“Wha-? HORSEAPPLES!”
Luna blurted a loud curse as she barely dodged aside of Firefly, who’d burst up from the river and flown straight for Luna’s undercarriage, nearly spitting Luna on her energy sword. Luna had managed to roll out of the way, but still took a painful cut on her barrel as Firefly soared past. She shot Celestia a glare.
“What?” Celestia asked innocently.
“Nothing. Nothing at all. Your concern for me is touching.”
“Love you too, Lulu.”
Firefly, still surrounded by her Dragoons, the destroyed ones having been regenerated, now floated before the two alicorn sisters, rubbing her sore jaw with the back of an armored glove. “Hell of a kick.”
“Thank you,” Luna replied dryly.
With a rush of air, Platinum appeared with a Flash Step beside Firefly, her face now drawn in a deep scowl at Celestia, “That attack would have finished you.”
“Would it? Such a shame you didn’t hit with it, then. I’ll remember to be more polite and evade a little less. I wouldn’t want you to feel embarrassed by losing twice in a row. First to Sunset, then to me, what an unfortunate losing streak.”
Rock could burst under the pressure of Platinum’s grinding teeth.
“We going to resume this fight, or are we all just going to pick on Platinum all night?” Firefly asked, eyes candidly amused behind her gleaming purple visor, “Because I could go either way.”
A venomous side-glare shot towards her from Platinum, “Do take this seriously, will you?”
“What? This is me being serious. See my serious face?”
A brief glance was traded between Luna and Celestia. The long lived sisters didn’t need words to communicate their intent to each other. The surprise they had been preparing before the train had even stopped and the trap sprung was nearly ready, but they needed a few moments longer of keeping these two busy. With barely a nod passing between the two alicorns they leaped into action, giving Firefly and Platinum no more than a split second to react.
Silvery lunar light flared around Luna in a spiraling cone, a spell flowing from her horn that created a drill-like battering ram of solid magical light. It was essentially an offensive version of a shield spell, tailored for penetration. She and Celestia had silently agreed to switch foes, so Luna crossed towards Platinum in a blue streak. The Soul Reaper saw it coming, if barely, and swung Fuyukogo in an upward arc. A thick slab of ice formed a circular shield in front of her, and Luna’s magical battering ram slammed into it, along with the Lunar Princess herself.
At the same time Celestia dove in at Firefly, angling her sunfire halo like a buzzsaw of searing flame, while her horn wreathed itself in golden, arcane might. Even as Firefly nimbly cartwheeled through the air away from the searing halo, a series of magical circles filled the air in a concave circle around her. In a similar rendition to the spell Celestia had used upon Flash Sentry, the sky was then filled with a disgorged swarming of flaming meteorites that slammed towards Firefly from multiple angles.
“Dragoon Purge, Full Spread!” Firefly shouted, and a set of additional drones detached and flew from her metal wings, making the wings grow smaller, but this was compensated with additional wisps of purple light flowing form them.
The now doubled swarm of Dargoons worked overtime to shoot down the meteorites coming in at Firefly, while the mare herself, rather than retreat from Celestia, charged right in. This almost surprised Celestia, but her premonition spell was still active, so she saw the move coming and had her flaming blades ready to counter Firefly’s energy sword as the woman slashed at her in a wide arc. Fiery swords of magic clashed with a blade of raw spirit force, and for a few seconds a dizzying display ensued. Meteorites fell among the pair, while Dragoons flew this way and that, lasers both piercing the meteorites and trying to ensnare Celestia and she and Firefly became a brief blur of motion, their blades crossing again and again.
The heat of the sunfire halo was clearly affecting Firefly, her armor slowly starting to steam, but the pegasus fought on doggedly, and Celestia had to conceded that without her premonition spell, she’d be in a much rougher spot. She wasn’t as skilled in close quarters as her sister, and Firefly was pressing her hard. Her meteorite spell ran out of juice, and suddenly the Dragoons, now many more of them than before, started to surround Celestia and fire from all sides.
She brought up a shield around herself, deflecting the beams, but that just gave Firefly time to set her cannon directly against the shield. Even as her armor steamed and her hide blistered from the sunfire halo, Firefly was grinning as she triggered the cannon at point blank-range, the blast of purple energy slamming into Celestia’s shield and cracking through it.
Celestia choose to tank the blow, letting the purple energy course over her fortified alicorn body as she surged forward and proceeded to headbutt Firefly in a undignified, but surprisingly effective move.
Meanwhile Platinum had continued to hold firm against Luna’s spell, and before she could be driven back more than a dozen yards, she let out a fierce yell and a storm of ice erupted from the Zanpaktou. Luna, even fairly resistant to cold, didn’t want to take the brunt of that storm, and so teleported out of the way. She appeared behind Platinum, her axes slashing from both sides at the unicorn’s vulnerable neck. Yet Platinum’s speed was not to be taken lightly, and she too vanished, as fast as any teleport. Luna’s instincts guided her and she crossed one of her axes behind her head, just in time for it to intercept Platinum’s blade, which came within inches of taking Luna’s head clean off.
Luna spun around, slamming out with her wings and her magic both. Her horn was a blue corona now, and her wings generated a godly gust of wind combined with a burst of azure magic that caught Platinum squarely, and sent the unicorn flying backwards. Platinum flipped in the air and skidded across it, raising her Zanpaktou high above her head. Now tendrils of ice ending in sets of wicked spikes flowed out of Fuyukogo’s edge, rushing at Luna like living serpents.
Twirling like a black tornado, Luna worked her axes upon the incoming tendrils of ice, smashing them one after another into shards that rained down upon the river and train both.
Celestia pressed her own advantage on Firefly, keeping the pegasus mare off balance with her swords while activating the last ability of her sunfire halo. The halo broke into eight pieces, each one straightening out into the shape of radiant spears of white fire. The spears aligned around Celestia, then darted in at Firefly. Each one contained a portion of the heat absorbed by the sunfire halo up until that point, so the entire time Celestia had been using it to fight, it’d actually been charging up for this attack.
Sensing the power of the spears, Firefly didn’t even dream of blocking them, and instead put all of her effort into evasion. She became little more than a line of purple light cutting across the air as the spears flew at her like missiles. One missed, and hit the river with a brilliant detonation that lit up the night landscape like a flash of daylight. A third of the riverbank was melted to glass by the explosion of searing solar fire.
Firefly streaked towards the hill Luna’s own magic beam had cut earlier, and rushed up the length of that gouge in the earth. Three more sunfire spears detonated in her wake, each one slightly closer to her than the last. She felt the heat on her back, melting her armor.
Finally she reached the crest of the hill, landed on it, and turned. The last four spears were nearly on her, and in a purely insane maneuver worthy of her own daughter’s daredevil nature, Firefly charged at the spears at full speed. The spears had been following her wake, but weren’t able to turn fast enough as Firefly flew through their formation at speeds that shattered the sound barrier.
The four spears exploded upon the top of the hill, all but melting away the top half of it into rivers of molten rock and dirt.
At the same time, Luna sensed a signal from her sister, a simple poke of magic that told her their preparations were complete. She teleported away from the icy tendrils that Platinum was still sending her way and appeared next to Celestia.
“It’s ready?”
“You should feel it too, your Simulacrum is out there, same as mine.”
“i’m not as practiced at this spell as you are, sister, but now that you mention it, I can feel it, yes.”
As the two Princesses had spoken, Firefly had flown above and around them, reaching Platinum’s side.
“Hey, Plat, eye’s sharp! I think they’re planning something big!”
“Obviously. And don’t call me ‘Plat’!”
As the pair watched, Celestia and Luna both flew, not towards Firefly and Platinum, but down towards the middle train car. They both landed atop the roof of the car, the same one that held Shining Armor and his squad of Royal Guard within. Shining Armor had been maintaining the shield around the area this entire time, and with no small effort given several spells and stray shots had struck it during the fighting. He and his guard ponies had been watching from the windows, none of them able to truly follow the speed and ferocity of the fight. To their normal senses the battle had been an insanely fast, haphazard series of streaking lights and cacophonous shockwaves of force, not one of the ponies able to make out any details of the high speed battle between the Princesses and their foes.
Now, however, Shining Armor saw the Princesses on the roof, and knew what was coming.
“Heads down everypony, this is about to get loud!” he called, following his own orders and bracing himself.
Celestia and Luna’s horns both lit up with twin lights of sunlit gold and midnight blue. Abruptly, the horizon itself started to lighten as the very sun itself started to rise, a good number of hours too early. At the same time, from the opposite horizon, the moon rose to greet its partner in the sky, both the fiery orb and its silver counterpart kissing the east and western skies.
Firefly and Platinum couldn’t have missed this, and both of them shared uneasy looks.
“Hell, they weren’t kidding about these two controlling the sun and moon.”
“Madness,” Platinum said, shaking her head, “But what are they planning to do with them?”
“We’re about to find out,” Firefly said, eyes narrowing, “Be ready with that Bankai of yours. I think this isn’t the time for holding back.”
At the next set of hills out from the ones surrounding the train and bridge, two gigantic magical circles had appeared in the air, each one easily half a football field across. The one facing the east was a magic circle of pure gold, filled with elegant, curved script and runes. The one facing west was of raw silver, its harsher angled sigils like gleaming spider thread. On those hills stood identical copies of Luna and Celestia, the alicorn’s horns blazing in mirror to the light of the magical circles they were creating.
These were Simulacrums. Clones forged using High Magic incantations, and made from a portion of Luna and Celestia’s own magic and a fragment of their souls to act as anchors and give the clones shape. They’d created the Simulacrums before the train had even stopped, and set them to invoking the magical circles now forming above them. The entire fight with Firefly and Platinum had been to buy time for this, a High Magic spell that Luna and Celestia had developed centuries ago in case they ever needed to subdue an invading army.
Granted, the spell took a long charge up time, so it wasn’t all that useful against a surprise attack, but as long as they had a good ten minutes or so to work, or have their magical clones do it, then attackers of Equestria would be in store for a nasty surprise.
Now, however, with the sun and moon both raised into the sky, the spell was ready, and Celestia and Luna both spoke as one, their voices overlapping in a loud echo as they used their Royal Canterlot voices to invoke the spell.
”Instar Solis Lunaeque!” (Might of Sun and Moon)
Single pin-pricks of light shone upon the distant celestial orbs. Then, ripping across the sky of false dawn, were two beams of light. A ray of roaring white and orange sunfire, and a equal beam of pure silver moondust. The two beams rushed over the sky from their respective celestia bodies, and struck the massive magical circles formed by Celestia and Luna’s magical clones. The magic circles absorbed the beams, then amplified and redirected them to collide at the apex of Shining Armor’s magical barrier.
Shining Armor then opened the top of the barrier, as he’d been directed. Above it, the colliding beams from sun and moon both fused together in a blinding sphere of barely contained energy that illuminated the sleepy countryside for dozens of miles.
Luna and Celestia cast a combined teleport spell, whisking themselves, and the train car with Shining Armor and his squad, away to safety.
In small snippets of time, Firefly withdrew one of her portal rods from a hatch on the side of her armor. Platinum, eyes wide at the mighty star of arcane power gathered above her, sneered defiance and thrust her Zanpaktou upward, uttering the only word she could under the circumstances; the only word capable of challenging the power about to descend upon her.
“Bankai!”
A glacier of ice burst into a thick and rapid spreading wave around Platinum and Firefly, the ice palace of Fuyukogo Sodaina Kyuden rushing to take form as Platinum’s reiatsu surged outward in an overwhelming burst.
However at the same instant the sphere of combined lunar and solar magic, easily larger than a full grown dragon, flared with one final pulse of light. Then it discharged a beam straight down into the earth, brighter than the dawn, yet darker than pitch midnight, light and darkness combined into a all consuming blast of magical might that transcended the normal limits of arcane law.
A kilometer away, Celestia and Luna saw the blast from where they’d teleported the train car carrying Shining Armor and his guards. The false dawn was turned into blinding day by the light from the blast, an explosion of swirling light and dark energies blasting outward in all directions. The river valley, the stone bridge, the surrounding hills, all were engulfed by the blast. The pressure wave of air from it flattened trees on the neighboring hills, and even a kilometer away, Celestia and Luna had to raise magical shields to guard themselves and the train car from flying debris.
“You know, sister, when you said ‘I want a spell to subdue armies with’, I still imagined something more subtle. A large scale sleep spell, perhaps. A tad less destructive, at least.”
“Lulu, you know I detest violence, more than anything,” Celestia said, face sullen but eyes hard, “But when people come to threaten our peaceful realm who are as powerful as they are, there’s very little else we can do except respond with equal power.”
As the wind died down from the shockwave, Luna narrowed her eyes at the column of dust and smoke reaching hundreds of feet into the air from the now smoking crater that was once the river valley, “Do you suspect they survived that?”
“If I’m being honest with myself, I wouldn’t be surprised. I sensed a massive surge of power right before the Instar Solis Lunaeque fired. I think Platinum used that second Zanpaktou release that Flash Sentry warned us of...”
As if answer to the two alicorns’ musings, there was motion within the column of smoke and dust. Sluggishly, but with increasing rapidness, ice spread from amid the cloud. It was melted and torn ragged along the edges, but the ice just kept growing, until it spread out into a massive floating island of pure blue ice. Four pillars emerged at each cardinal point of the island, spearing both up and down like grasping fingers. At the center of the island was a multi-tiered, eastern styled palace of gleaming frost... although its splendor was somewhat reduced by its half shattered, melted walls and sunken roof.
Clearly, while Platinum’s Bankai activated, it had taken damage from Luna and Celestia’s attack. Damage that it wasn’t quickly regenerating, as even as the island itself formed, the palace’s damage remained, and the island listed in the air like a wounded beast.
A look of chagrin dampened Luna’s features, “Perhaps we should have hit them with the Stellar Mallus instead?”
Celestia winced, “Lulu, we’re trying to protect Equestria, not break it. If Instar wasn't enough, we’ll just have to finish this up close. They can’t have withstood that without injury.”
“Hmph, you were hoping for this result, weren’t you?”
“Perhaps. Come, let’s not give them any more time to recover,” Celestia turned towards the train car, seeing the ponies within staring at the them and the huge crater a kilometer away with wide eyes, “Captain Armor, take your squad and proceed to the rendezvous point.”
Hesitant, Shining Armor said, “What about the enemy, Princess? Don’t you need my barrier again?”
“That gambit is passed, Captain. Luna and I will finish things ourselves. Get your squad to safety, if you please.”
With clear reluctance to leave the battlefield while his Princesses were still intending to do battle, Shining Armor still did his duty and followed orders, barking crisp instructions to his squad. As he and the guardponies vacated the train car and started a swift gallop down the hill, heading for the agreed meeting point with the Princesses once the operation was finished, Celestia and Luna both rose into the sky. Swift as they could, they flew towards the floating ice palace, careful of any attacks that might be thrown their way.
Nothing stopped them from landing upon the slick surface of the island, and they cast about in search for Firefly and Platinum.
The pair appeared from the top of wide steps leading up to the front of the partially ruined palace. Neither had escaped unscathed by the spell Luna and Celestia had unleashed. Even with Platinum activating her Bankai just in time, having the ice of the island surrounding them like a thick barrier, the impact and storm of magical forces had hit both of them hard. The wings of Firefly’s Ace of Sky were half slagged, and she bled behind crumbled pieces of armor and a cracked visor. Platinum was somewhat better off, but she still showed blood from torn skin on her scalp.
Still, both of them moved with strong motions down the steps to face the two alicorns, the fight not out of them yet. If anything, Platinum at least seemed to be moving with greater strength with each stride. Damaged or not, the palace of her Bankai was very slowly reforming, and the spirit energy coursing off of the Bankai and herself was a potent fountain that even Celestia and Luna could feel as a stiff pressure on their skin.
“If that was your trump card,” Platinum said, “it’s failed.”
“Has it?” Celestia asked, “You both seem less than fresh to continue fighting. Whereas my sister and I-”
There was a slamming sound as their magical Simulacrum clones landed beside them, and Celestia smirked, “-have power to spare.”
The clones began to turn into translucent auras of magic that flowed into and rejoined with their originals. The magic Celestia and Luna had invested in the clones now returned to them, refreshing the power they’d already expended fighting Firefly and Platinum. Twin pillars of light shot upwards from the two alicorns, one soft gold, the other dark blue, as the alicorns let their magical auras surge out.
“Do either of you really want to keep this fight going?” Celestia asked.
“Personally I’d be perfectly happy with you letting us go,” Firefly said, half-joking. Platinum scowled, raising Fuyukogo once more as her own body was wreathed in a frost white aura, her own reiatsu rushing out of her in challenge to the alicorn’s magic.
“Don’t underestimate my Bankai. We’ve taken your best. We can finish up your dregs.”
“Thanks for volunteering me for that with the whole ‘we’ thing, Plat,” Firefly said, “Never mind I think I’ve got some internal bleeding here. Let’s keep fighting the insanely strong magical goddess ponies instead of running away.”
“The’d never let us go.”
“If only one of us had portals they could use now, with that stupid barrier gone,” Firefly pointed out.
“I won't run if there's still a chance of victory.”
“Hey, crazy thought... I wasn’t asking,” Firefly said, and stepped in front of Platinum.
“What are you-” Platinum began to say, but Firefly ignored her and turned to the alicorns, “Yo, question for you, what’s small, purple, burrows through ice, and you haven’t seen floating around me like usual?”
Faintly bemused and confused expressions passed between Celestia and Luna, then the frosty ground rumbled at their hooves. Bursting from the ice, Firefly’s Dragoons appeared, a dozen of them surrounding the alicorns and spinning around at such speed that they formed a near solid circle.
“Dragoon Purge, Destruct Mode!” Firefly shouted, and suddenly all the Dragoon’s gleamed a bright, violent purple, the air filled with a harsh, rising mechanical buzz.
Luna and Celestia formed shields around themselves, each layering their barriers over the other, just as the Dragoons proceeded to self-destruct in a series of fast, potent explosions.
As this happened, Firefly twirled around and threw a portal rod at the ground behind Platinum. The rod opened and a purple rimmed, crackling portal opened up, connecting to the portal rods that Firefly had set up in the distant hills before they’d even engaged the train. Platinum’s eyes flared with anger, “But we can still win!”
“No, we can’t, you idiot! Maybe if it was just you and one of them your damn Bankai might do something, but two of them together, this is a job for Chrysalis or Starlight. We’re going. Now! Or I’m leaving your ass!”
She shoved Platinum roughly on the shoulder, pushing the Soul Reaper turned unicorn towards the portal. Platinum glared, resisting. Firefly growled in pure frustration, and turned back towards Celestia and Luna, as the detonation of her Dragoons has finished and the pair of alicorns was emerging from their magical barriers.
“Dammit Platinum this is no time for your pride! GO!”
Firefly took the hilt of her energy blade and inverted it. A slot opened up at the top of her hexagon barreled cannon, and she inserted the energy blade into it. The barrel reacted with a series of sharp violet lights flowing along its surface like circuitry, then the barrel itself extended and widened to double its usual size. Purple light like the deathly lanterns of the underworld formed ihe barrel’s depths.
Seeing this, Luna snarled and said, “Tia, get Platinum! I’ll handle this!”
She turned her axes around and connected their hilts, forming them both into a single double-axe. Then Luna’s magic shot up from her horn, turning from sparkling midnight blue to a shadowy black. This magic flowed like dark rivers into the double-axe, pooling within it and surrounding it like a cocoon until the axe was bathed all in shadow.
Celestia, face showing sudden fear for her sister, cast a teleport spell and flashed in and out of existence, appearing above Platinum. She sent her flaming swords whirling downward, but Platinum gestured with her sword and the island of ice heaved. Hands the size of thick redwood trees rushed up from the ground, brushing aside Celestia’s swords and trying to clap the alicorn out of the air like a mosquito. Celestia sliced into the ice hands with beams of pure gold head from her horn, but even as she did so, Firefly and Luna’s confrontation ignited to its finale.
“Exia Cannon, Fire!”
The ground broke apart around Firefly as her hooves dug into the ice, a sharp beam like an extending sword firing form her cannon, surrounded by arcs of erratic violet energy. At the same instant Luna reared up on her hind legs, wings flaring, and she slammed herself forward, throwing her double-axe like a boomerang shrouded in darkness so thick that it was like a physical void.
The void axe struck the beam of blade-like energy, and sliced into it akin to a surfer riding a wave. The beam still went on, reforming around the split, and Luna’s eyes shot wide as the beam rushed towards her faster than she could teleport. At the same time the double-axe, wreathed in its shadows, cut into Firefly’s canon and sliced past her, ripping armor and flesh alike.
Platinum paused, seeing the blood flowing from Firefly, and more than that, the way her cannon sparked as Firefly dropped it.
Indecision tore at Platinum for an instant, but she looked back at the portal Firefly had made, then at Firefly as she hit the ground, blood seeping into the ice from a horrendous and deep gouge in her side. Making her choice, Platinum vanished with a Flash Step, appearing at Firefly’s side and grabbing the pegasus in the uneasy grip of her unicorn magic. She then Flash Stepped away, rushing through the portal just in time to beat the explosion from Firefly’s overloaded cannon.
The explosion destroyed the portal, and a good chunk of the front steps of the ice palace.
“LUNA!” Celestia rushed to her sister’s side.
Luna was still standing, but her face was twisted in pain, her voice strained, “Tia, I’m... I’m alright. We need to give chase to the foe, before...”
Luna trailed off as she looked at herself, specifically at her left side. Where once was a beautiful, regal wing, was a severed, bloody stump. Firefly’s final attack had ripped the limb clean off.
“...Oh. That’s not good,” the Lunar Princess said, in something of an understatement.
Abruptly the ice palace began to shake. With Platinum having fled, with the true Fuyukogo in her grip, the ice palace itself had no further energy to sustain it, and so it was crumbling. Celestia gathered her sister onto her back, Luna only giving a faint, shocked complaint as Celestia took flight and flew away from the disintegrating island of frost. The ice melted into chunks that filled the crater of the river valley, where in time it would likely join with the remains of the river flowing into the crater to form a new lake where once a river had been.
----------
With a rustle of wind and leaves Platinum appeared beneath the sparse cover of trees at the base of one of the hills some distance from the site of the battle. Her back was slick with blood from Firefly, and with her face an rigid mask, she used magic to carefully lay the heavily breathing pegasus down on the ground.
"Quit moving," Platinum said to the squirming Firefly, "You're making the wound worse."
"Didn't know... you cared..." Firefly said, face sweat soaked. Platinum examined her, brow furrowing. To conserve energy, Firefly had deactivated Ace of Sky nearly the moment they were through the portal, leaving her bare save for the goggles on her forehead. Her right side bore a glaring, rough wound nearly half a foot across. Platinum's eyes narrowed as she saw the edges of the wound bore strange, black markings, almost as if the injury was infected already.
"I lack the skill of the Fourth Divisions, but I'll do what I can," Platinum said as she raised a hoof over the wound and quietly chanted a healing Kido, bathing the wound in wane, green light. Even as she could sense the spell repairing some of the damage, she also felt a strange, chilling resistance as well. As if something were resisting the Kido's attempts to restore flesh and stem blood flow.
"Guh, my own damn... fault, really," Firefly said, clearly trying to ignore what had to be agonizing pain, "Should've told Starlight that going after the train was too risky."
"You couldn't have been certain it was a trap," Platinum said, but Firefly, in horrible pain or not, still managed to give Platinum a frank and level look.
"Was pretty damn certain... we still went in anyway, and got our asses kicked for it."
"If it's any consolation I think you struck an equally painful blow to the blue one with that last exchange."
"...Okay, having you try to... to console me is weirding me out. Can you go back to being a...icy bitch, please?"
Platinum made a light, scoffing noise and shook her head, "Bleeding out and you still have energy to be insufferable. My healing Kido is proving less than ideally effective. We need to get you back to Hitsuyo Aku as fast as possible."
A soft groan of pain escaped Firefly's lips as Platinum lifted her up onto her back. There was a cold rush of air as Platinum turned Fuyukogo around, and used its power to create a patch of ice over the wound, helping to stem the bleeding. She then used further ice to create chains wrapping Firefly, securing the pegasus to Platinum's back.
"It's hundreds of miles back to base," Firefly said.
"Then I'd better move swiftly, shouldn't I? Try not to expire, in the meantime. My son would be most upset by that," Platinum said, then proceeded to rush southward with the fastest Flash Steps she could muster.
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Some nice scale to this particular fight. I really felt like this was a clash between gods.
"Tis but a scratch."
"A scratch?! Your wing is cut off!"
"... It's a flesh wound."
I didn't expect Luna to receive so much damage from that fight, I'm surprised.
Only complaint I'd say is that being "faster than lightning" isn't all that impressive by Princess standards. Rainbow has dodged lightning multiple times and even asked Soarin if he had ever "soared passed lightning". And Rainbow certainly isn't on par with any of the Princesses for speed, at least reaction speed as Twilight has been keeping track of Rainbow's speed since she was a Unicorn, she was even able to snatch her out of mid-air with her telekinesis. Celestia of all Ponies shouldn't have any problem with that level of speed.
King Sombra is a one-trick pony? Shame that. I had hoped, since the Quincy version is obviously inspired by the comics version of the character, that the Pony version would follow suit. That particular version of Sombra being more powerful than either Celestia or Luna, redeeming himself at the end and technically being available to help in this situation.
Not to mention the existence of the Umbrums would challenge Sunset's early assertions that Equestria didn't have anything remotely similar to Hollows. Oh well.
I quite enjoyed the fight. If we accept Firefly's view that the Princesses should be about as powerful as the Captains then Platinum's parity with Celestia means that she is much more powerful than I previously gave her credit for. I imagine Luna will be able to fix her wing but Firefly may be suffering for a while. Firefly was the weak link here, she was sound tactically but couldn't measure up power wise unlike Platinum.
With Discord guarding Canterlot, that should at least keep Substitute Starlight and Espada Chrysalis busy until the Princesses get back. I'm still waiting on the epic duel of Queen vs Espada. I can only imagine how powerful a reformed Queen Chrysalis would be considering what it did to Thorax and Pharynx.
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Heh, well its possible that the Princesses can move faster, but the show's always been a little weird with that. I mean, lightning might not even move at the same speed in Equestria as it does on earth, and a lot of the time Rainbow Dash probably isn't flying at top speed, so others "keeping track" of her would only be impressive if they were doing it at her top speed. Either way, let's just leave it at the Princesses are very fast for now, enough to more or less keep pace with Captain-class opponents in most cases (although still probably not speed focused opponents like Catrina).
Keep in mind that line is from Luna's perspective, and she's kind of derogatory towards a lot of Equestria's enemies. King Sombra used mind control and shadows for the most part, and to her, back in the day, he seemed like a foe with little to offer her in terms of an enjoyable battle. That isn't to say that King Sombra couldn't have had other tricks up his sleeve, or learned new tricks over time. I am more or less intending to keep with the comic lore, but that stuff hasn't actually come up yet in this timeline.
Luna losing a wing is a shock.
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No one expects the Monty Python inquisition!
Hope
Luna gets her wing back somehow
Wonder I'd she is going to grow that back because Alicorn, or if she is going to get something like Sombra timeline Rainbow?
Surprised that ice could do that much to anything as closely tied to the Sun as Celestia is, but sure. However this was sadly more a draw than anything, and that makes me sad.
Firefly's current state aside, Starlight's side is still too far ahead for my liking.
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I agree they need a solid lose, hopefully our god of chaos will grant them it.
Well, Firefly and Platinum certainly put up a good fight. Although it looks like Celestia and Luna's trump card has been revealed and it will be tricky to use that spell again. Also, Platinum's Bankai was surprisingly strong to take the full brunt of that spell and only appear to mildly damage it/her. Makes me wonder if Celestia and Luna would have been able to even hurt her if she had gone Bankai from the start.
I'm not what will happen with Luna. Loosing a wing is a big hindered and the show implies that wings and horns can't really be fixed. Although, I'd also be surprised if the never ageing immortal alicorns didn't have a few healing tricks up their sleeves.
Great chapter.
What is with you and chopping people's body parts off!!!! Let's do a count shall we:
Lieutenant of the 2nd division( forget his name, arm), Sugarcoat (eyes), Garble (Arm), Platinum (arm), Harshwhinny (leg), Indigo Zap (legs), Twilight (hand), Luna (wing). Thats 8 people off the top of my head, and I know I forgot some.
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Heh, well, it's kind of a Bleach tradition...
i9.mangapanda.com/bleach/213/bleach-1589261.jpg
i.imgur.com/PdjnHCH.jpg
dailyanimeart.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/kira-arm-cut-near-death-e1338379790427.jpg
encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQgmg2NjHgKnmmpYT6t8CJ7bO-87ANBpqQZmpRMID0bCtdd5V6U1A
i7.mangapanda.com/bleach/312/bleach-2405785.jpg
If people ain't losing limbs, it ain't Bleach.
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If not, I hope Celestia loses it and goes all Dawn Breaker and wipes the floor with the 2 and even Chrysalis for Starlight has to pull some bullshit Deus Ex to win.
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If the human Starswirl is anything like Mayuri Kurotsuchi maybe he could grow it back for her. Hell its the least SS can do, Platinum and Starlight were right under their noses the whole time, but they were too blinded by their 'oh we are in charge ot the afterlife so nothing we do is wrong' point of view and allowed two psychodic soul reapers to drag an innocent realm of cute ponies into their war with the hollows, endangering both realities in the process, all for the sake of two people who mean a lot to them, endangering millions of people(plus ponies) over two people.
Ya they owe Luna a new wing.
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What do you mean? There is a whole new world, without an afterlife. They have to break in no matter what, kill Celestia and Luna, then take over control of that dimension to continue their divine goal to creating the perfect afterlife for everyone, including Ponies now. All these new resources and armies to use against the Hollow, all without even having to throw away their own soldiers.
Knowing all that, why would they want to heal their enemy?
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True, but the difference is that in Bleach losing a limb usually acted as a way to show the power differences b/t two character, or to act as an inconvenience another character would have to work around during a battle and the tend to come back. You on the other hand seam to use it for character drama as most of the time, the limbs aren't lost until the last attack of the battle, and they tend to stay lost long after the fact.
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It’s not just a Bleach tradition, it’s a Star Wars homage Kubo likes to do.
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True enough assessment. I tend to figure that such injuries should have some lasting impact on the character, even if they're a relatively secondary character. It can lead to some good character moments, like Sci-Twi making the visor for Sugarcoat, developing their friendship.
So many misuses of there their and they're. Particularly of their in this story.
There is somewhere
Their is owned by
They're is they are
But spelling issues aside, great story. I loved Bleach (up till the Quincy arc stuff) and find your versions of this world to be far more interesting as all the different factions seem connected in ways that make sense. Especially between Shinigami, Hallow, and Quincy. Sombra is probably my favorite of the three big honchos but all of them are great.
Ugh, my least favorite part about bleach: nobody ever actually dies.
But then of course you have Ulquiorra dying, and that's just the saddest part of the anime.
I expected the princesses to be stronger than this. I feel like your drastically underestimating them. Though I also feel your underestimating the sheer level of destruction bleach characters and mlp characters are capable of in general.
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It's possible I am underestimating them to a degree. Trying to find the sweet spot for just how powerful certain characters are is a continuous struggle in this story, walking a tight rope between trying not to let some characters get too overpowered, while ensuring others aren't given the shaft too much. Celestia and Luna are especially tricky in this case because there's a huge range of opinions on how powerful they are in show canon, where some people view them as outright deities who just happen to hold back all the time, while others view them as just being a few steps stronger than the ponies they rule over. Heck, even for the normal ponies, their power ranges seem to vary a lot depending on how seriously you want to take the cartoon physics of the show.
And to compound matters, Bleach itself is a story rife with... how shall we say a less than balanced and consistent power scale? Over the course of the series we've seen characters who run the whole gamut from being just a shade stronger than normal humans, all the way up to reality warping gods.
Now I do have a power tier list for this series, but it's never really been fully finalized in my mind. I tend to make adjustments to it as my ideas on who's stronger than who evolves, and of course the characters themselves continue to get stronger. I've considered posting this tier list up somewhere, if people are interesting and providing some input on it.
9647113
yea, balancing the vague notions of power from 2 sources must be a pain.
also this;
"The one facing the east was a magic circle of pure gold, filled with elegant, curved script and runes. The one facing east was of raw silver, its harsher angled sigils like gleaming spider thread."
Rock could burst under the pressure of Platinum’s grinding teeth
You should feel it to, you’re Simulacrum is out there, same as mine
The magic circles absorbed the beams, them amplified and redirected them
It was he that then opened the top of the barrier, as he’d been directed
If Instar wasn't’ enough, we’ll just have to finish this up close
1. Rocks? Then again, both might work well.
2. Too, Your.
3. Then.
4. Here.
5. Extra apostrophe.
would have thought Luna and Celestia would recognize Princess/Queen Platinum in the Captain
11110901
I think then they didn’t had much of a reaction because :
A : They already knew of the thing with alter-ego.
B : They already knew of Platinum and her personality and what she did due to Sunset’s words.