Chapter 29

Into the Breach

"What happened to you?" Twin Star asked. She had just caught a glimpse of Faust's normally hidden face and it made her skin crawl. Even though she could feel the floor shake under her hooves as the battle continued elsewhere in the palace, that didn't scare her nearly as badly as that image.

Faust tossed his head back, taking down his hood in one swift motion. His coat was pure white and his mane was black, but his horn didn't match either color. His horn appeared to be a bright, purple crystal of some kind jutting out from his forehead and his eyes were glowing with unnatural power. "Do you like it?" he asked, "It's amazing what you can do with a philosopher's stone and the right arcane ritual."

Twin Star's own horn began to glow and lightning arced from it as she accused, "You're not even a real unicorn, are you? You cheated to get your magic!"

The bolt struck just a few inches away from its intended target and he gave a wicked grins he answered, "No, I'm not a unicorn by birth. On the other hoof, I'm not really a unicorn right now either." His robes shifted and a pair of black, leathery wings spread out from under them. The sorcerer let out a low chuckle before saying, "I believe the phrase your looking for is, 'I surrender'."

The white wolf towered over the heroes that were left to fight him and growled. Beopony and Horsecules managed to get to their hooves without a problem, but Robin Hoof struggled to stand. Even though he was the last to stand, he was the first to act.

Robin Hoof took another deep breath and unleashed an ear-piercing pitch that sent everyone to the floor, covering their ears. The monsters raised a paw to smash the thief once more, but Horsecules was upon the beast right away, tackling it to the floor. Beopony joined in the mayhem with a battle cry and soon both he and his barbarian ally had the white wolf pinned.

The monster clearly didn't like being held down and fought as hard as it could to get back up. Apparently, that was harder than any of the heroes expected as Horsecules and Beopony once again found themselves flying into the bookshelves and then crashing to the floor. The monster turned its attention to Robin Hoof who simply whined, "How much does it take to stop this beast?"

"Whined?"

A Capella protested Roller's choice of description, "I was not whining! My character was simply complaining. Would you like to hear whining?"

Roller answered that question with a question, "Would you like to be force-fed your own dice?"

The two glared at each other for what seemed like a long time. No one dared to speak for a little while and the tension in the air between the two was almost palpable. Strangely enough, it was Fluttershy who spoke up first, "Um, do you guys want to take a break?"

"No!" they answered in unison. Roller elaborated, "It's considered a bad idea to take a break in the middle of a battle. Especially one so close to the end like this."

"Is that so?" A Capella asked through clenched teeth, "Well then, I suppose we'd better hurry up and take care of your little pound puppy. Right?"

Before anyone could reach for their dice, there was a knock at the door. The author shouted, "We're closed," and reached for a miniature, but the knock came again and he stepped away from the table to answer it. Opening the door, the author didn't even look at who he was talking to before shouting, "I said we're closed! What part of that is hard to understand?"

"I'm not here to shop, nerd-boy," the stallion in the doorway told him. It was Mic, a fact that the author lamented. The manager walked inside and right up to the table. He scolded A Capella in his usual tone, "AC, baby, you've gotta stop hangin' around this old place. You're gonna wind up smelling like dust and book glue if you..." his voice trailed off as something on the table caught his attention, but he looked right back to the singer and finished, "We gotta go. You've got autographs to sign."

X cleared her throat and corrected him, "Actually, you said we had the rest of today off. Remember? You haven't been changing the schedule at the last minute again, have you?"

Mic sighed, "Look, I don't make the rules in this business. I've been keeping you busy around here for a reason. Can't we just get out of here?"

A Capella arched an eyebrow and stated, "I'd like to know what that reason is. We're in the middle of something and I'm not about to just let the two-bit fanfiction author here win this by default."

Mic stayed quiet. He looked to the table, then to A Capella, then to Roller. Finally, he told the singer, "You have thirty minutes," and went to wait in the corner.

Roller took his place at the table again just as Pinkie Pie joked, "Wow. Even if you guys did get Roller's letter, it looks like you wouldn't have time to read them."

Everyone just glared at the pink pony for a few seconds until Roller spoke again.

"Anyway, where were we? Ah. Right."

Just as Twin Star saw Faust's wings spread wide and show his full, horrific nature, Reyna stumbled into the observatory. She looked to her friend and then her captor before shouting, "Aw yeah! I'm back in the fight!" and charging headlong at Faust.

The villain tucked his wings back in and rolled away from the barbarian's blow, allowing her to crack the floor with her front hooves. He then pointed his unnatural horn at her and from it came another searing ray of light.

Reyna ducked and only took a grazing blow across her uninjured wing. "Hey!" she yelled, "Stop clipping my wings! A girl's gotta fly, you know!"

Before he could make a witty retort, a bolt of lightning from Twin Star's horn struck the mad sorcerer and sent him reeling. He shook from his effort to stay standing, but once he had his footing he only shook with anger. "Why can't you just give up?" he asked, "Let your wretched queen's empire fall. It's my sun that's rising now, not her's!"

Robin Hoof opened his mouth to let loose another bard spell, but the monster put a sudden stop to that with one blow. The thief was thrown back by the force of his enemy's punch. He tried to get back up, but the room seemed to be spinning too fast for him to do that. He tried desperately to hang on to the waking world, but could not as everything went dark.

Beopony lifted himself up from the pile of ruined books and saw his friend laying motionless on the floor before the beast. "Robin Hoof!" he shouted, "Hang on!"

The knight charged the white wolf again and gave it a powerful kick to the stomach. The beast stumbled back and tried to retaliate when suddenly Horsecules came descending from a high jump and smashed the creature's head with a vicious stomp. Stars circled the white wolf's vision for a little while and the monster fell onto its back.

Reyna locked eyes with Faust and let out a growl...

"Hold on a second."

Roller sighed and looked up from the table. "What is it, Rainbow Dash?" he asked, "Is being a barbarian suddenly too complicated for you?"

Rainbow Dash said, "No, it's just that I've been looking at my character sheet and there's this thing called 'Rage' on it. What's that for? You know, 'cause it sounds like a combat thing."

X looked to Roller and asked, "You let her play as a barbarian without telling her about raging? I knew you were kind of a mean HM, but that's just cruel."

The author explained, "First of all, X, She just copied her character out of the book without really reading it. You know, newbie mistake. Secondly, Rainbow Dash, 'Rage' is the signature power of the barbarian class and it basically turns you into a one pony army for a few rounds of combat."

"Why didn't you tell me I could do this before?" Rainbow asked angrily.

"You didn't ask. Can we continue?"

Something inside Reyna's mind snapped as she glared at Faust. Her eyes grew wide, she scraped her hoof against the floor and a feint red glow surrounded her. She snarled and growled things that seemed incoherent at first, but a few words stood out, "You... hurt... my... WINGS!"

The barbarian moved faster than she ever had before and swung harder than anypony thought possible. With a sickening, cracking noise, her hoof collided with the side of Faust's head and the villain was forced to the floor. As he strained himself to get back up, the barbarian challenged, "Yeah? Just try that fancy flashlight now, punk!"

The sorcerer got up and sneered at the savage. "Temper, temper," he mumbled, "Didn't your parents ever teach you not to pick fights with ponies who are bigger than you?"

He beat his wings and was soon hovering just below the ceiling. From his new vantage point, he took a deep breath, his horn glowed and then a gout of fire erupted from his mouth and washed over Reyna. The barbarian stood strong and even though she was burned, she did not fall.

Twin Star readied another spell and her horn began to glow. As she muttered an incantation, she swore she could hear music coming from the door. The pleasant strumming of a guitar... wait, that was music coming from the door. Pin Kay had found her way to the battle and was doing what she did best.

Horsecules stood over his unconscious friends. "Um, Robin? Oliver?" he spoke softly, "You two alright?"

Robin Hoof got to his feet only to fall back down again. "Cor," he coughed, "That smarts. How's that brave soldier we brought with us?"

Beopony told him, "I'm fine."

"Not you," the thief said, shaking his head, "I'm talking about Oliver."

Beopony blushed and answered, "Oh. Sorry. Um, he's still out cold, but he should get back up eventually. You should really just worry about yourself right now. It looks like a we could use a healer."

Robin Hoof laughed weakly, "Isn't that always the case?" He then coughed a few times and stated, "No, what we should do now is find where Twin Star and her friends ran off too. They probably need more help then I do by now."

Reyna glared up at the ceiling, unable to do anything about her out-of-reach enemy. If she had her wings, then maybe she could take care of the situation. As things stood right now, all should could do was scream insults.

Faust surveyed the battlefield from his high vantage point and could see Twin Star preparing her spell. "Oh no you don't!" he shouted as he took aim, "No more magic from you!"

Another breath of flame came down from the ceiling and washed over Twin Star, ruining her concentration and leaving her badly burned. The sorceress could barely stand, but managed to raise her head and let loose one last bolt of electricity from her horn. The bolt struck its target, sending him to the floor. Seeing an opportunity, Reyna ran up and slammed into the enemy at full force.

The villain picked himself up again. "You really think you can win?" he asked breathlessly, "Don't make me laugh! I'm the future ruler of these lands. I'm the wielder of magic more ancient than even your precious queen! I'm... I'm..." suddenly, his shoulders slumped and tears welled up in his eyes. He was barely able to say, "I'm all alone."

Black flames appeared over his head and around his hooves and Pin Kay's guitar grew louder. She now had learned to use her music to shock and not just support and she wasn't about to let some jerk hurt her friends like that, so she sang, "Sitting on my throne up in the sky. You'd better watch out, guy. Anyone who comes this way will die..."

"What song is that?"

Pinkie smiled as she answered Roller's question, "Annihilation of Monsteropolis. It's based on those old Megamare comics. You want to hear more?"

Everyone shook their heads but A Capella. The singer told her, "Hey, you role-play your character. No need to ask permission. Besides, what's the worst that come come of a song?"

A/N: The song is The Annihilation of Monsteropolis by The Megas. They do covers for Megaman songs. Give 'em a listen.

A/N 2: The next chapter could be the last one. Thanks for putting up with me so far.