#twilight-eclipse

“Hello, Grandpa.” Draco was momentarily rooted to the ground where he stood. The same paralysis extended to the soldiers under his command, who were waiting for orders from their frozen commander. Gad and Zooks, in the back, could only just about make out what was happening, but they were in a similar state. And so it was that Draco took a magical blast straight to the face. He was instantly enveloped in a blast of green flames that knocked the closest knights a few feet back into the air. “Draco!” Light shouted, immediately shaking herself free from the paralysis. The spot Draco had been standing was wreathed in thick smoke for a few seconds before Everyone heard a short cough. Draco was still standing, despite taking the brunt of a blast that would have reduced a lesser pony to dust. “Stand Down.” Draco said to his opponents through his bared teeth.

“No.” Midnight said, a grin on her face. “Your time as Prince is done. We will take your place.” Another shot of magic came from Midnight’s horn, this time a deep purple. Draco’s sword was seemingly conjured from nowhere and deflected the blow. The beam hit a wall, leaving a worrying crater. “Don’t make me fight you,” Draco said, “I’m here to save you!” “We don’t need saving! We’re more powerful than we’ve ever been!” Midnight said as Lunar broke a stalactite from the ceiling and propelled it forward with ballistic force. Draco’s blade came down on the incoming spike, shattering it into a thousand tiny pieces of shrapnel. A few Knights near the front of the group covered their faces with their armored hooves to avoid getting hit. “That power is a curse! Let it go!” Draco said staunchly. “Oh, you would say that, wouldn’t you?” Midnight replied. “After all, you’re the one who kept us from it in the first place!” With a flash of Midnight’s horn, the walls of the cave broke and slammed inward towards Draco. “Get Back!” Draco shouted to the Knights behind him, instants before the incoming rocks slammed into a sparkling force field that surrounded him. Two massive magical forces struggled against eachother, causing the air around them to fill with sparks. A moment later Draco Slammed a hoof into the ground, and the rocks flew outward in an explosion of sharp gravel. The cave walls and ceiling gave a groan and a crack before settling down again. Draco Gritted his teeth. “Knights… retreat.” “Sir… we’re trained to-” Ice began. “Retreat! Now!” Draco repeated. And this time none of the knights hesitated. Gad and Zooks hesitantly followed. Draco kept his eys trained on his grandchildren as he backed away, and only turned when he broke line of sight. “Sir, we’re trained to take down rouge alicorns!” Phoenix said as soon as they were out of earshot. “I know.” Draco said. “I also know that Twilight and Solar are no match for you; maybe too much so.” The knights looked at eachother with confusion until Zooks spoke up. “They weren’t using any wards; no protection magic.” Pheonix cursed. Gad was confused. “Uh… isn’t that a good thing?” Gad asked. “Not if we want to take them alive.” Ice replied. Granted, We might still be able to do it-” “But that would take too long, potentially giving the cultists time to escape.” Draco said. “We don’t have time to take Twilight and Solar down and catch the cultists before they escape.” “Are we absolutely sure the cultists can escape? We might have them backed into a corner.” Light Peice offered.

Night shook his head. “No; If they knew we’d come after them, they would have fled, not retreated back into the caves. Not unless they had another escape route down there.”

The whole group was quiet for a moment. “So… we have to let them go.” Nature finally said. “We can’t save the Prince and Princess and get the cultists.” “Well… Maybe…” Said a certain blue hippogriffin. Everyone looked at Zooks.He wilted a bit under their attention. “Uh… um…” “Look out, everypony! My brother is going to come up with the best plan ever!” Gad said as he put his arm on Zooks’ back reassuringly. Zooks gave a not-quite-sure smile. 

“Right… well, uh… We could get past Midnight-Eclipse with a teleport spell, right?” Ice shook his head. “Not gonna work; Twilight would detect that, and then we’d be caught between them and the cultists.” “Right!” Zooks said, with no sign of discouragement. “So we’ll need to keep her distracted while we’re doing it.” “I’m not sure giving her a good book to read would work, Hippogriffin,” Phoenix said. “In this state, They’re dead-set on killing Draco and taking the throne.”

“Exactly,” Zooks said, “Draco could be our distraction.”

All eyes stared incredulously at Zooks, Except for Draco, who was looking thoughtful.

“Sorry, are you suggesting we abandon our prince to fight a corrupted, two-headed alicorn alone?” Light piece demanded.

Zooks wilted again. “Uh, well… when you put it like that…”

“It’s a good plan.”

Everyone looked to Draco, who was nodding appreciatively.

“You can’t possibly be considering…” Light said.

“I’m doing more than that, Light.” Draco replied.

“At least let us leave you with some backup, Your highness!” Phoenix said.

Draco shook his head. “You’ll need all the forces you have to take on the cultists. Don’t forget, they were organized enough to take you by surprise once already. You can’t risk being outnumbered once you get there, especially without Alicorn backup. Besides, this battle won’t be pretty, and any force you could spare would be at risk of becoming collateral damage.”

Phoenix sputtered wordlessly, clearly not liking where this plan was going, but not having anything more to say. Light simply had her muzzle agape at Draco, and Ice and Night seemed to be having a conversation between each other composed entirely of worried stares. Nature was the only pony who seemed to be nodding in agreement.

“Let me make this clear,” Draco said, “This is no longer a discussion. I will face my grandchildren, alone, to give you all enough time to capture the cultists. Is that clear?”