The chapter begins with Shining getting ready for the next big fight, he is certainly not happy about this but he knows that only death can end the suffering of these special victims. He will have to kill the pony trapped within the Pseudocorn Cyborg or Makarov will torture her for all eternity. Dima and Shining will take on the Pseudocorn while his and Dima's friends will fight against the other cyborgs (an Earth Pony and a Pegasus). Thunderchild has a plan to defeat the former Pegasus while Ellis and Zangief have an idea how to handle the former Earth Pony. Shining and Dima charge forward as their allies distract the other cyborgs. At first the combination of shields and Dima's weapon work well against her sickles but then she combines her sickles into something similar to a scissor. The cyborg manages to destroy Shining's useful shield while Dima in turn is able to cut one of her wings off.
The unicorn however is not defenseless and thanks to his shields the Pseudocorn's next strikes do not kill both. This time the horn isn't cut off so easily and Dima is knocked to the ground. With the help of the interviewers Shining realizes that Pandora left him another hint, this time about Makarov foolishly letting the concept of LOVE in. There is more then the love between male and female, there is also the love between family members like the sisterly bond between the two victims that were transformed into Pseudocorns. The unicorn keeps talking about how her sister would never want her to do this, how they are about to create a world of endless suffering for the insane fool, how her sister wished her to be free as well, how Makarov is currently weakened and two of his victims have already escaped his grasp. It is a hard struggle but eventually the victim is able to resist Makarov's control and stops to fight.
The imagination thing can be heard screaming that this is impossible. Meanwhile Zangief and Ellis are able to outmaneuver the former Earth Pony and take it apart. First they destroy the flamethrower hose, then they immobilize it, Ellis blows up it's leg with grenades and finally Zengief finishes it with a rocket launcher. Thunderchild and Gag are able to redirect the lightning from the former Pegasus while Nikolai is able to impale it with his sword. This allows the two pegasi to finish it off by directing all the lightning directly into the sword. At the same time the Pseudocorn is slowly losing control over her own mind again while Makarov summons more cyborgs to their position. She knows that it is too late for her but she can still help in the fight against Makarov. So she makes the ultimate sacrifice and blows up herself and the controls of Skyfall. The entire time Solomon tries to stop her but is helpless to do anything about her decision.
Shining is understandably shaken about his inability to save Makarov's victims. After all protecting others is what he lives for. But the interviewers are there to comfort him and point out that not only was he able to reunite her with her sister, their love did also prove Solomon wrong. How often was he proven wrong today? Defeated in the very center of his power, his Paradox Engine broken, his flying fortress destroyed, his forces slowly losing, his personal helicopter being shot down, his prisoners being freed and now Project Skyfall was brought down. The bestial scream of rage is quite understandable for the Mary Sue unable to understand the very idea of it losing ALL of these battles.
Now that flying is possible again, the allies are able to unite and coordinate their troops far better but there is one Pegasus that even now is unable to fly: Running Gag. It is horrible for somebody that flew his entire life to suddenly be unable to do so but Garnet will be with him. Their next target is the main barracks to reach the main building from there. Shining is planning to have an explosive entrance now that he is reunited with his friends and allies. The allies also took the liberty to borrow some of the Hooviet weapons Makarov apparently did spread everywhere like this is some sort of videogame. Several of the allies will have to stay outside to guard the entrance and to protect the wounded. After a quick battle the others are able to blow up the entire front of the building while they only wanted to remove the door. In fact somehow they managed to blow up pretty much everything but the next door and what lies behind that. The Unicorn interviewer rightfully wonders how this is even possible but the closer they get to Makarov the less sense many things make.
Here they encounter a much fiercer resistance then outside and much better trained enemy troops. On the other side they might be more effective as Makarov is not directly controlling them like puppets. Unlike him Shining actually cares for the lives of his troops and takes extra effort to use shields to protect them.
On the other side some of the other soldiers seem to feel zero regrets about the death of commissars, it seems almost to be a running gag for them. Meanwhile Shining does also notice that the blood around them does set off the prey drive of the griffins but they have it under control. They just need to eat a bit of their rations to calm down again. After all the ponies are not slaves to their instincts either. But the upcoming path is a long set of tunnels that is perfect for ambushes. Either the Hooviets did plan ahead or Makarov shifted the structure to their advantages. And he did apparently take the time to create a swimming pool as well... he really is a master of internal decorating. But there is little time to enjoy the details of his architecture as the battle ranges on. Slowly the allies force their way forward to take out the well protected machine gunners. The losses are still painful but Shining has to admit that war without sacrifice is impossible. And it is still an extremely depressing thought that he doesn't even know the names of those that die alongside him.
He knows that all their deaths could be erased but Shining is still unwilling to sacrifice his troops without regrets. The unicorn is afraid where this train of thoughts could lead him and that it might turn him into a monster as well. For now it is time for a stealth mission for the Shinobi Taichi and Gag did also learn a few stealth trick from Shinobi guidebooks. Twilight would be proud of this ability to learn practical lessons from books. Garnet sadly points out that her friend did use this very ability to hide from his fellow troops in the cells, like he was ashamed of his condition. The plan is to use stealth to plant a few explosives to launch another surprise attack.
There were once countless Spetsnaz troops and ten Tankettes waiting ahead but most of them are gone now. An explosion took care of many of them but these elite troops don't panic so easily. There is also another Commissar but he also gets killed before finishing his sentence. Gilda's group rushes forward but Dima is too late to stop them from being hit by a ambush from the side corridors. Shining is not able to shield him in time and his friend is injured. In turn Gilda almost snaps and continues to fire at the enemy troops. The battle continues on but suddenly Dima collapses to the ground. He had to take all the hits for Gilda, she was the only one Makarov had guided his troops to aim at. The deer saw this sacrifice as the only way to break Solomon's demented script. Gilda is understandably confused why she should be the target and not the unicorn that had ruined so many of Makarov's plans or the deer with the special weapon.
Shining suspects that her connection to the Element of Loyalty and her equestrian origin makes her a valid target. But Dima doesn't want to be saved. He knows that the Makarov will come after him to finish him off. If he is left behind wounded, he will just be another target. Yet if he dies here, killed by mere bullets then it will annoy his fake brother to no end that things didn't follow his script. Shining more then anything wishes that his friend could continue to fight alongside him but it is too late for that. All Dima asks of him now is to take his weapon and to destroy his body so Solomon can't turn him into a cyborg or something worse.
The deer is so determined to write the end of his own story, that he doesn't even try to find a way that might allow him to survive. But maybe there really is none. A Hooviet prisoner claims to be a medic that might be able to help him but his story doesn't add up. No one did surrender during the battle and suddenly he speaks Equestrian. Gag is quickly able to deduce that it is really Makarov using one of his robots and destroys it. With his last breath Dima wonders what life he had chosen if he had the chance to write his own story. He hopes that he would make a choice similar to Shining, a choice to protect others. And from what the unicorn did see in his dream, Dima will make such a choice. With these last reassuring words Dima dies in peace.
By now Shining is so sick of the imagination thing that he declares that he doesn't deserve the names Makarov or Solomon. Fine then I will no longer use them either and just call him Azure Raven or Nameless from now on. Dima's corpse is burned into nothing so that Azure Raven can not twist him into something else or eat him. The silence for Dima is interrupted by Nameless's insane scream of rage that seems for a moment to shake not only the entire base but all memories Azure Raven left behind. Now they still have to find a way to get through the next door. But after seeing all the various items around here Shining gets an idea that might make his enemy even angrier. Shining's group once tried to built a cider still and it backfired spectacularly, this kind of power might be enough to take out the door. The room does contain exactly what they need, in fact it is a bit TOO convenient to be pure luck. Maybe some of the other gods have started to influence events against the imagination thing as well. The device works very well and obliterates anything in its path before breaking down.
The next room is filled with... nothing? It seems to be another empty pre boss room to restock their equipment before the confrontations with the last Pseudocorn and Nameless. But since it looks like a confrontation SHOULD take place here the unicorn wonders if Azure Raven is sick of waiting or has simply forgotten to will his troops into existence after his scripted plan for Dima got completely ruined or if he had eaten all his men to become even more powerful. But just as they reach the main Armory, Nameless feels like he shouldn't let their expectations down and creates an ambush with Spetsnaz and they even have a forklift. The only thing that is missing is the kitchen sink. But with the aid of his friends, the allies and the electric coils on the walls (Azure Raven is truly a master of internal decorating) Shining is able to survive this attack as well. Another commissar dies in the resulting struggle, maybe their deaths are a running gag for Nameless?
The armory doesn't contain as many useful items as the last one but Shining finds another shield for himself and fresh ammo for his troops. Eventually they seem to reach Azure Raven's personal palace. It is a strange cross between a citadel and a giant organ that plays its own background music. The palace even has its own dramatic lightning but more important are the Spetsnaz troops and the last Pseudocorn Cyborg. This one has even two sets of wings and wastes no time to attempt another attack against Gilda. Soon enough it turns out that the imagination thing has assumed direct control of the last Pseudocorn to kill Shining, Gilda and everybody else in the room. He even manages to have a threatening and more importantly short monologue.
Shining is able to shield one of Azure Raven's targets and counters by throwing his new sword at him. With the aid of his telekinesis this is one of the few ranged attacks that can NOT miss their targets. This is very important for the unicorn and his horrible aiming skills. Gilda is not just standing there as Shining's escort mission but actively takes out Hooviets so that the unicorn doesn't have to worry about them as well. The attack against the horn doesn't work this time but that was expected, so far every Pseudocorn perished in a different way. Nameless keeps up his attacks with high speed but the flashy attack leave openings allowing Shining to land a point blank hit with his gravity spell.
Azure Raven counters with a powerful lightning attack but with the aid of Thunderchild the unicorn is able to resist the strike. It likely hit another commissar or maybe even two of them. Unfortunately while Nameless did not forget to power up after each battle, his strategy could be better. He keeps forcing the same attack on his target while Shining asks his friends for help with an nearby AA gun. Eventually the lightning is directed back at Azure Raven but thankfully this doesn't result in a prolonged game of lightning tennis. The unicorn tries to use his shield to trap the spear inside but this backfires since he is ALSO inside and the imagination thing still controls the spear with his own telekinesis. So Nameless manages to draw his blood and takes the time to lick it off the spear with a one liner. That turns out to be a poor choice as the anti-aircraft gun operated by Shining's friends shreds his stolen cyborg body to pieces. The unicorn won thanks to the power of friendship and heavy weaponry. So now the final Pseudocorn Cyborg is finally free of her torment. Now it is hopefully finally time to take Nameless down once and for all.
