When the group of Knights saw Starlight Glimmer, they were quite surprised, because the unicorn wasn't just sitting there manipulating the ritual magic. No, instead she seemed to have physically fused with the water castle, having dozens of watery tendrils enveloping her body and one that was actually inserted on the back of her neck, obviously attached to her spine.
The room in general looked like a more circular version of the throne room of Canterlot castle, and the whole thing was full of details that added to the feel of the place, from pillars, statues and other decorations to the elaborate manner in which the water walls were formed to give the impression of delicate archithecture.
They barely had time to notice those details before Starlight Glimmer decided to open up hostilities with the enemies who had reached her final sanctuary, which came in the form of a tornado of water that shot towards them, top first. The tornado wasn't that large, but it would be a mistake to believe that made it a weak attack. The sheer amount of magic flowing through it would be enough to tell otherwise, and the Crusaders, having access to the heightened perception of Applejack's cutie mark, could tell what the secret was: The size of the tornado wasn't large, but it carried much more water than it seemed, and said water was moving at speeds that would be called considerable even if one were talking about the wind speeds of a regular tornado.
The Crusaders' construct dodged to the side at high speed, carrying Spike along, and managed to avoid being hit by the extreme weather phenomenon, but Starlight's attack still had a surprise in store. The thing hit the watery wall of the room and 'splashed', the immense amount of very fast moving water breaking apart into innumerable droplets that instantly hardened into ice shards aimed at covering the entire area of the room.
The reaction of the Knights was twofold: One was a trio of shield spells aimed at blocking the largest concentrations of projectiles, and the second was an intense feat of weather magic, creating a zone around them that would disturb the structure of the ice shards through intense wind pressure. Those together were successful in allowing them to avoid injury from the attack, even though the Crusaders still had to protect Spike.
The dragon would still need about half a minute to recover back into fighting shape, but his addition to the fight would certainly be worth the effort of keeping him safe. That of course meant Starlight Glimmer would be trying her best to overwhelm the Crusaders with her offense while he couldn't help. Yet they knew such was the case, so instead of going full defensive and giving her the opportunity to find some chink in their armor, the Crusaders adopted a different tack:
They would go on the offensive.
As soon as the previous attack ended, the trio shifted the combination of marks that made up their current Triple Bond. Rainbow Dash's mark remained the same, but the other two were changed to Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle's cutie marks. The former would give their attacks the punch needed to truly threaten the villain, while the latter's chaotic nature would prove useful in disrupting her magic workings.
Accordingly, the construct around them changed in form. The eagle's wings took on a sharper, but also broader appearance, the legs split up into dozens of jellyfish-like tentacles, the head shifted into a draconic countenance and finally the body formed an armor of scales that constantly spun and moved around the body in an unnatural manner. Overall, the shape that their construct had assumed gave the impression of majestic power fitting of a dragon but also a dangerous kind of strange feel, like an unknown deep water beast.
One of the tentacles grabbed Spike and wrapped around him for protection, because things were about to get bumpy, then the construct's wings flapped and they shot through the air in Starlight's direction. The unicorn had either been wrong-footed by their sudden shift or had her focus drawn to whatever Luna was doing outside, because her initial reaction to their move was somewhat substandard: A series of water barriers erected in their path.
Those quick protections failed to slow down the Crusaders to any noticeable degree as their magical construct shot straight through them, but the sudden feeling of a large amount of magical power moving around once they got close to the enemy easily dissuaded them from any thoughts of trying to end the battle right then and there. Instead, the construct's mouth opened to shoot out their initial probing attack.
Still, saying that it was a probing strike only meant the spell had the power to destroy most of a mountain, rather than several of them. It came in the form of a black spiked ball that flew onward while vibrating violently enough to disturb the air as it passed.
The magical power that had risen up in response to their approach flowed into a spot right below Starlight's hooves and manifested into four thin strips of water that extended from it. Two of them shifted into a vapor state before slamming into the spiked ball, their ultra-low density allowing them to worm their way into the slight flaws in the spell structure, disturbing the magic and causing the ball to detonate early, which still unleashed a firewall towards the target.
But that was what the other water strips were for. They shifted into ice instead, becoming clear reflecting mirrors that bounced the fire right back at the Crusaders, forcing them to spend a precious moment nullifying it with a distortion spell.
Scootaloo had the time to deduce that the strips of water were an automatic defense spell that had been activated by their proximity, and then she had to focus completely on the fight again, as that singular moment of distraction gave Starlight Glimmer the opportunity to counter attack.
"Diamond Dust!" The unicorn declared, tearing away large portions of the water walls in order to feed the spell.
All that water flash froze into countless chunks of ice that were launched into the Crusaders like a malicious weather phenomenon. It was similar to the previous attack, but incomparable in terms of scale, as every single piece of ice was absurdly dense, making them projectiles more akin to mini artillery shells than anything else. And if that wasn't enough, each one also carried a particularly nasty bit of cold magic capable of freezing a furnace in seconds.
"Elder Sun!" Sweetie Belle declared in response, focusing the group's magic to an extreme level.
The result was the construct's tentacles (except for the one carrying Spike) aiming themselves forward and shooting orange beams that congregated into a rapidly growing mini-sun. But that wasn't an ordinary sun, for black vein-like streams of energy criss-crossed it, while deep violet sparks jumped from it. And yet the most alarming element was the fact that the construct's wings wrapped themselves protectively around the body as it grew, for not even the Crusaders themselves were safe from that thing.
The bombardment of ice began to hit the sun, and it unleashed dozens of light beams in response, each one carrying a noxious sort of radiation that attacked the very structure of the enemy projectiles, causing numerous random effects as the cold magic inside those countless ice projectiles failed in numerous different ways.
It was quite clear to any observer that Sweetie's Elder Sun was a combination of solar and chaos magics.
The ice bombardment had been blocked, but at the cost of the sun itself breaking apart. Noticing that, Starlight Glimmer decided to press on the attack, grabbing whatever remnants of her previous spell that hadn't been rendered completely useless by the chaotic effects and shaping them into a water vapor tornado with cutting winds, which was thrown at the Knights.
Yet she hadn't taken into account how unpredictable chaotic magic could be. Sweetie Belle's response to that new attack was to call upon the remnants of chaotic energy infused into the rest of Starlight's previous spell to take control of them, changing the melted vapor into a bizarre kind of anti-snow, with boiling hot crystal flakes that sucked themselves into the tornado and caused it to break apart into nothingness.
The first exchange was over, the combatants having been equally matched and unable to gain any advantage. A very quick moment passed as they decided on what the next move would be, and the first to act was... The Crusaders.
They once more shot towards Starlight Glimmer, having been forced away during the previous clash. Then they froze in place, Scootaloo channeling all their momentum into an offensive spell, shooting out four meteorites that rushed towards the enemy from four different directions at extreme speed.
The same automatic defense spell triggered once again, but the circumstances were different. The current attack had been made while taking that into account, and the meteorites were solid enough to avoid disturbance by the vapor defense, and while the reflective shields did turn them around, Scootaloo had included a timed explosion feature, so they blew apart before being able to get even close to the Crusaders.
The purpose of that attack was to occupy the auto-defense, as Scootaloo was fairly sure it could not trigger repeatedly, thus giving an opportunity for a direct attack. It was a good plan. However, she had failed to take into account the possibility of Starlight Glimmer counter-attacking before she had the chance.
"Ballistic Rain!" the unicorn declared as soon as the meteorites exploded.
'She has energy available to execute a manual spell even after the automatic defense?!' Scootaloo thought in a brief panic.
Because it was truly unexpected for such a thing to be possible. The ritual spell obviously allowed her access to a lot of energy, but there were limitations to how fast energy could flow around the different pieces of her magic working, so it was understandable for Scootaloo to miss the possibility.
Still, the panic lasted for only a moment before the Crusaders focused on how to deal with the attack that was quickly forming, creating a cloud several meters above them. The immense amount of energy going into that cloud was flagrant proof that it wasn't going to be an average attack, so they began to gather their energy for defense.
Just at that moment, the cloud seemed to thicken unnaturally, and the Crusaders felt like the thing hanging above them was more like a mountain than anything that should have been allowed to float like that. Then the actual rain started, and it was like the imagination of a kid who heard the expression 'heavy rain' and thought that was meant literally. Every single droplet of water had that same unnatural thickness as the cloud, and the Knights immediately realized that they were abnormally dense, to the point where it was like the previous ice bombardment, but even worse, as there was no cold spell element involved, so the entire energy of the magic was devoted into creating the heaviest projectiles.
A second passed with that incredibly deadly attack falling in their direction, then Applebloom took charge of the construct with a thought, she made it perform a mighty wing flap releasing a powerful wave of wind that still couldn't alter the trajectory of the water droplets. But that wasn't the point. Infused within the wind was a strain of powerful chaotic energy that attached to the approaching projectiles.
Set up complete, Applebloom cast her spell:
"Tsunami Maelstrom!" And with an effort of will she took control of every single water droplet that was going near them.
The earth pony filly had noticed that Starlight's attack was done in such a rush that she hadn't been able to properly harden it against interference, so she used that combination of weather and chaos magic to wrest control, not only solving the issue of their defense but also giving her a weapon to use.
The ultra-dense water curved around the Crusader's construct, quickly accumulating into a water whirl that spun around them once before Applebloom managed to redirect it into a water jet aimed straight at Starlight Glimmer. A water jet with the approximate mass of a mountain.
The unicorn reacted quickly to the change in situation, unleashing a reserve of power from somewhere else in the castle and shaping it into a multilayered water barrier. The water jet broke through the layers one after the other, but even its mighty momentum was worn away by the numerous obstructions, until it eventually came to a complete stop.
"Sun Lance!" Scootaloo shouted.
The Knights had been focusing their power again while that was going on, and their follow-up attack left no gap for Starlight to recover. Scootaloo's spell manifested a large and exceedingly bright firey lance besides the construct, and then they shot through the air, rushing at the enemy at amazing speed. Enough time had passed for her auto-defense spell to trigger again, but the water vapor found no weakpoint in the lance, and the water mirrors were broken through by the mighty charge.
That was it. Their best chance to deal a severe blow to Starlight Glimmer. They were merely seconds away...
"Execute." The unicorn spoke, her words like a falling guillotine.
A magic circle lit up beneath her. The ritual magic triggered, taking energy from the remnants of the previous spells, and the ultra-dense water that had been stopped by her barrier fused into an ice missile that shot at the Crusaders from the direction opposite to their lance.
They had too much momentum to change direction. They had no time to bring the lance to bear. They had no energy to spare for a sufficient defense. That was an attack perfectly designed for taking down the Crusaders.
"Grand Dragon Sever!"
So it was a good thing they weren't alone. With a burst of dragon magic, Spike sent out a majestic slash that severed the missile in half, saving his fellow Knights.
Thirty seconds had passed, and now Spike was back in the fight.
+0+
'It seems like she held a grudge over my moonfall attack.' Luna thought wryly as the comet crashed down towards her.
She had thought the fight was going well, with her matching the castle blow for blow, but Starlight Glimmer had actually been stealthily preparing a powerful move by slowly gathering most of the air humidity in an area of hundreds of kilometers around the battlefield, hiding that massive working with an equally massive illusion spell.
Then, when everything was ready, Starlight focused all that water into a gigantic ice comet that was thrown into Luna at way too high speed for something so large. Turning into a shadow to dodge through had been her first instinct, but one of the castle towers had manifested a large and ridiculously complex magic circle that sent a wave of power through the area which, sure enough, was interfering with Luna's ability to shadow shift.
Having magic geniuses as enemies sure was a bother.
Still, the situation was far from hopeless. Her older sister often said that there was no problem that couldn't be solved via proper application of overwhelming force, and she felt like this was a good time to put that idea into practice. Focusing within herself, Luna called upon the power of the moon to fill her with energy as she prepared her move. The power quickly accumulated to such a large extent that Luna's senses could detect slight spatial disturbances being formed around her because of it.
The comet accelerated its descent to try and pre-empt her, but Luna still had more than enough time to do what she wanted. The accumulated energy reached critical mass and then she cast:
"Lunar Eclipse."
The words were spoken softly, but the effect was colossal. Luna's body was instantly hidden by a shadow whose size easily surpassed the comet. It was a spherical mass of endless layers of darkness, to the point where the very shadow matter itself acquired enough pseudo-mass to generate gravitational anomalies in the whole area.
The colision was cataclysmic, and resulted in both spheres breaking apart. The ice comet split into innumerable shards of ice that froze in midair after a moment, in preparation for a follow-up attack. Yet it would never come, as Luna's shadow sphere broke apart unleashing an apocalyptic wave of destructive noise upwards, utterly and completely annihilating the remnants of Starlight's magic.
Luna took a breath to recover from her exertion but with a smile on her lips.
'Proper application of overwhelming force of course also includes dealing with any possible tricks from the opponent.' She thought to herself.
+0+
The Crusaders let go of their draconic companion as Spike shifted his form again. This time his scales darkened into the blackest black one could imagine while grey lightning coursed through his entire form, then both his wings grew into double his body size, while the rest of his body shifted in a much more subtle manner, appearing to simply become sharper, cleaner, more solid, everything giving the impression of unwavering will. Like his everything was meant for one singular purpose that would be achieved without fail.
"Draconic Ideal: Fading." Spike declared, revealing the truth behind this move.
It was no longer a mere transformation, but the manifestation of an ideal. And that ideal was that of the fading dragon, a legendary existence among dragonkind which would suppress their power for their entire life, only to unleash everything in a single moment to achieve an impossible feat, dying right afterwards.
It wasn't a perfect manifestation, as Spike wasn't intending on dying, but he was unleashing everything he had, abandoning any possibility of extending the fight for much longer.
'Ah. I guess we should follow his example, then.' Applebloom communicated to the others.
'Yeah. This is the last stage of the fight, so there's no need to hold back.' Scootaloo agreed.
'And she's not an opponent that can be dealt with using half measures.' Sweetie Belle had no objections either.
"""Maximize!""" The three shouted at once.
The cutie mark symbols above them briefly shone with an almost unbearable light before shifting into a solid golden color. The change in the Crusader's construct was more extreme, with the scales shifting into tridimensional shapes that barely resembled their previous form in addition to moving around more quickly, the dragon's head became slightly bigger but gained a lot more in definition, to the extent that one could pinpoint subtle changes in its expression, the tentacles multiplied by five, each one changing its shape into some sort of implement, some looking like blades, shields or some other regular objects, while others were much harder to identify. Finally, an additional pair or wings sprouted from the body, stacked on top of the previous one.
That was the result of the Crusaders maximizing their connection with their bonded cutie marks, expressing more of their power at the cost of expending the fillies' magic at a much greater rate. The construct was also a bit more unstable, its form wavering slightly at regular intervals, but the instability was much lesser than they had feared, possibly due to the experience they had gained in using Triple Bond in combat even just these past few minutes.
The Knights had readied themselves for a final decisive struggle, so of course Starlight Glimmer could not fail to match them.
"Ocean Domain." She declared in response.
Suddenly, it was like they had been plunged into the fathomless depths of the darkest ocean imaginable. Both the pressure and the sheer cold would have killed any normal ponies by themselves, and said ponies would have also been unable to see even their own bodies, let alone the enemy. The Knights' bodies could easily endure those conditions, and their senses were powerful enough to pierce the veil that had been cast, but that magic was terrifying even to them.
Especially to Scootaloo, for her Intuition allowed her to understand something about Starlight's newest move.
'That's the next step of the ritual... But it's not the original one. The castle was supposed to go deep into Equestria before triggering... Something. We hindered that, so Starlight changed it. She changed such a major ritual midway through.' And that realization led to another one 'This whole ritual is giving her a ton of information about magic and the way it reacts in major workings like these. She's learning more and more, and that's why she was able to do this, she's already learned enough to improve such a major ritual. She's dangerous. Way too dangerous.'
'But that's why we're here, right?' Sweetie Belle answered her.
Scootaloo was surprised. She hadn't intended on broadcasting those thoughts, but apparently maximizing their bond allowed them to bleed through without her intention.
'We're Knights. Fighting dangerous enemies of Equestria is what we do, right?' This time it was Applebloom.
Those words felt like an immense weight had been lifted from the pegasus filly. The fear was still there, but now she could fight it.
'You're right.' She replied 'We're Knights of the Realm of Equestria. This is just another enemy to overcome.'
'Then let's do it!' Sweetie Belle declared inside their head, and then there was no more time to talk, as the lull in the fight was ended by an attack from Spike.
It was an attack made with no declaration, a simple claw swipe to try out his new power, yet it was enough to send a massive shockwave through the water that forced Starlight into manipulating the domain, creating a short-lived but powerful water whirl in order to block it. And the sheer energy given off by that colision briefly raised the water's temperature to the point where it felt like a pleasant bath.
The Crusader's wouldn't fail to follow his lead, and they were also excited to see what they'd be capable of in this form, so their own attack came mere moments later, and it was actually a serious move.
"Myriad Blast!" Sweetie Belle shouted, channeling the construct's energy through dozens of tentacles at once to unleash a multitude of blasts of powerful solar energy at the enemy.
"Eternal Ice Mirrors." Starlight declared in response, her words seeming to come from everywhere, resonating throughout the entire domain.
The blasts began to hit the mirrors and reflect back, only to hit the successive blasts the Crusaders were still shooting and be forcefully redirected back to their original target before being reflected once more. The chaotic standstill was maintained for a whole second before Spike intervened.
"Breath of Annihilation!" He roared.
That was followed by shooting out a breath composed of pure power, condensed into the sharpest destructive energy, which shattered both the mirrors and their constituent spell, allowing the Crusaders' blasts to go through.
"Abyssal Crush!" Starlight shouted in response.
The entire area in between the combatants was then crushed by such unbelievable pressure that parts of the magical water suffusing the battlefield briefly turned into gas, creating hundreds of underwater explosions from the sudden expansion. The attack on Starlight was also crushed out of existence, and the Knights braced themselves, readying to endure the shockwaves that traveled through the water, but said shockwaves suddenly vanished without reaching them.
They were smart enough to know that wasn't a good sign.
"Supreme Quake." Came Starlight's next declaration.
Just as expected, the vanishing of the shockwaves had been her doing, somehow storing and amplifying them to turn into an actual attack too fast for the Knights to respond. The new shockwave was massive and terrifyingly powerful, something they absolutely had to deal with.
Thankfully, Starlight hadn't managed to make the shockwave also be fast, as it moved at only half of the speed of sound, a positively glacial pace by the standards of the fight. That meant they had time to strategize. A brief communication was enough to decide on a basic plan: The Crusaders would block the attack and Spike would follow up with a counter-attack, as they knew victory was impossible if they just defended.
And it took only one more moment after that for Applebloom to take charge of the Crusaders' construct, as she had quickly come up with a great idea for their move.
"Hyper Breaker!" Came the declaration, and four of the tentacles whipped forward, striking the shockwave at four different points without any pattern to them.
It worked, for that move had pierced into the shockwave with powerful chaotic energy (thus making a pattern would have actually been detrimental), taking advantage of the fact the shockwave had been composed of many smaller ones to break it apart.
And that wasn't all. The extra chaotic energy infused into the broken apart shockwave caused it to turn into a hundred constantly shifting shockwaves that ran through the water in a wide range, briefly scrambling Starlight Glimmer's control and even perception of the area.
Which gave Spike the perfect opportunity.
"Grand Piercing Claw!" He shouted.
His right hand glowed with an intense power and then he stabbed it forward, unleashing a piercing beam of purple power, shaped like a claw. The beam cleaved through the water with an unstopable might, leaving behind a tear in Starlight's Ocean Domain itself as both dimensions and magic were severed in its wake. Having nothing that could possibly slow it down, the beam crossed the distance between Spike and the enemy in the blink of an eye.
Then it hit.
For a moment it seemed like nothing had happened, and then the water wall behind Starlight cracked. It didn't make sense for such to happen to water, so it was clear that some sort of hidden magical structure had taken the damage, finally allowing the Knights to see it.
'That's the core of the ritual.' Scootaloo realized 'Starlight Glimmer shifted the damage from her to it. But now that it's damaged-' She had allowed her thoughts to be transmitted to the other Crusaders, so that was the point where she was cut off by Sweetie Belle's realization:
'It's close! We need to keep attacking!'
But the enemy was just as aware of the situation, so she preempted them with an attack of her own:
"Annihilation Wave!" Was the declaration.
An astonishing amount of magic flowed into the water around Starlight, and for a moment the Knights felt like they were no longer underwater as the sheer mass of that power interfered with the very integrity of the Ocean Domain, causing it to briefly flicker out of existence. The unicorn fixed it almost too fast to perceive, but that was another hint to what Scootaloo and the others had already realized: The damage from Spike's attack had destabilized the ritual, opening up a gap they could exploit.
Yet Starlight knew that too, and so she fought back with desperation, unleashing her spell in the form of a veritable tsunami of water and power, compressed enough that several spots in the wave seemed to crystalize, as the water molecules started to exhibit strange behavior due to the extreme conditions.
'I'll handle it!' Sweetie Belle shouted inwardly, taking charge of the construct and bringing its power to bear as fast as she could.
"Omega Wave!" She declared, channeling the magic through the tentacles while whipping them all at the same time.
Doing so created a wave that shot right in front of them, one much smaller but far more concentrated than the enemy's. At the same time, Spike unleashed his own response:
"Wing Shell Barrier!" He declared, expanding his wings with a solid purple aura and wrapping them around himself.
Moments later, Sweetie's wave hit the enemy attack. It didn't stop Starlight's wave in its tracks, but it vastly reduced the strength of a spot in the middle of it right as it passed by the Crusaders, resulting in them only having to endure the equivalent of a sideways waterfall to the face, which they were more than capable of.
Meanwhile Spike took the full brunt of the attack, but his extremely defensive stance and the resilience of his current form were enough to avoid anything more than light injuries as the attack passed by. And even more importantly, he didn't immediately cease his defense as that happened, but seemed to be accumulating even more power within his 'shell', showing that his move hadn't been entirely defensive.
The Knights had weathered through Starlight's desperate move, but they refused to let down their guard, certain that this wasn't all the enemy had in store.
And she didn't disappoint them.
"Eternal River Current!" Starlight declared.
And the wave of power that had just rammed past them flowed unnaturally, seeming to twist around itself and briefly move at speeds far beyond even the Knights' ability to perceive before everything snapped back into place.
And the powerful wave attack they had just endured was suddenly once more rushing straight at them.
There was barely any time to react, and before the Crusaders could attempt anything to try and respond, Spike made his move:
"Full Unleash!" He shouted, exploding out of his shell an releasing a tremendous pulse of power that slammed into Starlight's wave and broke it apart, successfully blocking her second continuous attack.
That was good, but Scootaloo frowned, understanding he had been caught off guard and forced to use his charging move before it was ready, leaving him in a vulnerable position. It would still be fine if he had managed to break Starlight's current spell, but she feared-
"Flow..." Starlight declared.
And once again the world seemed to be rearranged right in front of their eyes, leaving the Knights with a third consecutive powerful attack screaming towards them.
Faster than a thought, Scootaloo took charge of the construct and flew forward. There was no calculation behind that move, it was simply an instinctual charge for the sake of protecting their fellow Knight. As such, on the last moments before impact, Scootaloo channeled their power into a form inspired by the dragon.
"Ultima Charge!" She declared with a shout, wrapping the wings and tentacles around the contruct similarly to how Spike had previously done.
It was almost too late. As it was, all three of the Crusaders felt like their blood had stopped flowing and their muscles were about to tear themselves apart, such was the violence of the impact. But they endured it. Starlight's wave was broken apart once more, saving Spike while also charging up their own move. They just needed a moment to unleash it and-
"Flow..." Starlight spoke, her tone line a falling guillotine.
Impossibly, the wave of power reformed again, once more far too fast for them to respond. The trio wanted to scream. It was impossible for them to endure another hit like that, and Spike was just slightly too out of position to help. Scootaloo preared to fire off the charge, as it was the only way they could survive.
And then a miracle happened.
The entire water castle trembled like it had been hit by heavy artillery, and Starlight grunted, losing control of the wave of power, which thus dispersed. The next instant Scootaloo realized the truth:
'It's Princess Luna. Starlight was fully focused on this fight, so the princess took advantage of that to make a big attack.'
She also realized that they wouldn't get a better chance. The trio shouted as one, unleashing a final burst of power as they unleashed all the charged up energy into a blast, along with both the construct's wings. A moment before impact, Starlight rallied, screaming as she made the entire water castle bend inwards, forcing hundreds of thousands of tons of water into an improvised barrier.
The blast of the Crusaders smashed against it, the extreme power causing much of the water to sublimate into steam, but Starlight kept pouring more and more into it, struggling against the devastating attack. It was a standstill.
Until Spike flew in and poured all of his remaining power into a breath of pure annihilation. That was too much. The water barrier was broken through, Starlight was hit by the combination of the Knights' attacks, and the cracked core of her ritual did not break.
It exploded.
And with that the entire castle collapsed in itself, an enormous amount of water suddenly being forced to obey gravity. If they were in their best state, such a thing wouldn't even come close to threatening the Crusaders or Spike, but they had pushed themselves to the limit in order to win, so with the water crashing at them, the Knights could do nothing but brace themselves for impact.
+0+
Applebloom opened her eyes, closely followed by the other two. The trio had briefly blacked out (and it was brief, as they could see the ocean beneath was still shaking from the fall of the water), but they had unconsciously maintained what remained of their construct, so they were still flying. Looking beside them, they were glad to see Spike was also still conscious and flying, but then a question arose:
"Where's Starlight?" Applebloom asked.
"I don't know. I was paying attention to see what she would try to do, but she simply vanished while the water was falling." Spike replied "I couldn't see any signs of whatever she used to run away either."
"Neither could I." Luna cut in.
The four Knights did their best to stand at attention as the princess flew to their side.
"At ease." She said "I've used a lot of search spells, but there's no trace of Starlight Glimmer here anymore."
"Sorry we couldn't capture her." Spike replied.
"No need to worry. Ponies like her are always quite slippery." Luna said "In any case, the water castle crisis has been resolved, so I can say that this mission was a success."
The Knights smiled at that, weary as they still felt. But deep inside, they were already wondering what Starlight Glimmer would try next.
+0+
At the same time, within a deep underground tunnel, the unicorn they were thinking off was slowly pushing herself forward. Despite her attempt to shift the damage into the ritual, the final clash had still left her quite badly off, the entire right side of her body almost unable to move. But in her eyes, one couldn't see anything but a sharp ambition.
'It would have been better If I managed to reach the center...' She thought to herself 'But that was already enough. My theory was correct, the very structure of the multiverse can be likened to an ocean and can thus be manipulated as such...'
She paused for a moment, getting her breath back.
'I can finish the rest of the research little by little. I also need time to recover, after all.' She then smiled 'But once all of that is done, it will be time. The Absolute will be within my grasp.'
Ocean Magic Arc End
Next: Chrysalis' Hatred Arc