//------------------------------// // Chapter 17.) The End Of My Lie // Story: Blaze // by Blazing_Mane01 //------------------------------// "BLLLLLAAAAAAAAZZZZZEEEEE....." the monster growled again. I shook my head slowly, and attempted to collect my jaw. "How could you?" "BLLLAAAAZZZEEEE, PUUUHHHHHH... PUUHHHLLLLLEEEEEEEAAAAASSSSSSSEEEE!!" "Elder, what were you thinking? You murdered all of your village! You nearly killed me in a hallucination! AND I TRUSTED YOU!!" "NNNNNNOOOOOOO, PLLLLLEEEEEAAAAASSSSSSSSSEEEEE!!" The elder still had his claws above me, clenched tightly against each other, ready to smash the guts out of an unfortunate pony. I caught a glimpse of Twilight Sparkle and the others walking slowly up behind the Ursa, wearing their respective jewelry. Knowing that giving any obvious sign will make the elder suspicious, I wink my left eye, then shortly after several times as if something had flown in it. I then turned my attention back to the monster that is my lie. "Sir! I'm not just gonna let you make amends with us after you've revealed the truth to me! If you think I am, then you got another thing coming!" "I DON'T WANNA HURT YOU..." his voice has cleared up since he started to experiment with his new voice box. "So you go killing the whole village I thought was my real life, and make me think Faded Ivory was dead!? Yeah, that makes a shit-ton of sense!" "BLAZE, LISTEN --" "YOU listen!!" This was obviously a moment where the fire within me had spiked. "It makes absolutely no sense to abduct me, coax me into a lie that I have a place in your village, have my special somepony living in the same house, and then have it all erased. What were you thinking!? Were you waiting for this moment for so long? Or did you just happen to lose sanity after twelve years!?" My blood had begun to boil with anger. I felt the flame illuminate in my eyes, and I found my hooves moving to the left around the shadow without my command; around to where the Element Bearers were charging their magical finishing blast. "IT WASN'T LIKE THAT..." "The fact of the matter is," I was slowly walking toward the other seven ponies, "that you made me feel like I had nothing left in this world. To me, it would be less lonely if you just killed me then and there!" I turned to face him again once I was directly in front of my friends. Based on how the ponies were in formation, they were ready to fire and seal the monster away, but I had my own little treat in store for him. "I don't know how that was supposed to help me in your wicked way of thinking, but at the time, I believed all my REAL family was gone! All dead! Every fucking one of them! And it's ALL YOUR FAULT!! You destroyed all I was manipulated to care for and more! How am I supposed to just... forgive you... and make everything better!?" At this point, the elder had demonstrated notice of the other ponies behind me, and had started to prepare for an attack of sorts. Little did he know, I felt like I was going to erupt again. The monster roared, attempting to throw us off focus, but my focus wasn't in my mind; it was its own. Knowing he was trying to divert our attention was the extra fuel that I needed to make the fire explode. So I did just that. I dug my hooves into the paved ground as best as I could, then shot the inferno into the shadow's stomach. I didn't see what happened, but I visualized what went on due to the noises I could hear; the blast had obviously hit his gut hard and went around his figure, enveloping it in a brilliant yellow-white flame. The elder rampaged on spot, fighting to throw the fires off his midnight-blue coat. The magical blast came from my system for about ten seconds, then ceased so I could note what was happening with my eyes. The flames weren't yellow-white anymore; they were bright blue, a hue it took after charring the shadow from the elder's murderous form. With another monstrous swipe, he successfully threw the majority off of him and into the sky, where it fizzled away to nothing. I turned my head to the Element Bearers. "Go for it!!" When I said this, Twilight's eyes opened, closely followed by everypony elses. Their eyes were illuminated white to the point that their pupils were nonexistent. In sync, they all shot up a different color of the rainbow into the sky, fusing in the stratosphere into a brilliant white beam. It then struck down like lightning onto the elder, creating a cracking sound that could make you go deaf, followed my several more little crackles off of the tainted fur. The monster was impaled by the celestial magic, rendering it immobile; forced to suffer and agonize through the torment the pain must've caused. After a few seconds, the light dispersed completely around the creature, preventing me from seeing whatever was happening inside. Several seconds passed, then the beam completely exploded off of the monster, blinding my eyes for a brief moment. When I can see again, I note a huge fissure in the ground caused by the thunderous light, and directly above it, the elder's pony form, encased in stone. Finally, my nightmare has ended... But something about the elder's expression makes me feel like he didn't deserve it. I walk up to the sideways-laying statue, observing the cuts, scars, burns, and other imperfections that made him seem ugly, when I start to wonder about his true intentions. I feel like I'm about to faint; not only from giving up the rest of the lie, but also from the blast. The fact that I'm still standing seems like a miracle to me. At that point, Princess Celestia had walked up to my side and wrapped her left foreleg around me. Her doing so makes me lean up to her, for I fear I may be on the verge of crying. It may be a lie, but I still respected the elder. I hate him, but at the same time still want his company... "I'm sorry, Blaze..." I dig my face into Celestia's other foreleg. She understands that while this may be for the better of everything, it won't be a simple matter to recover from the damage caused today. Not only is the majority of Canterlot collapsed on itself, but now, the old Blaze is no more. Nothing now exists from my previous life, except the pain and suffering the monster left in its wake. I'm now forced to restart, again, as a son of the Princess Luna, which may mean that I have to leave behind my new best friends... "...Let's go find Faded Ivory..." I say. The princess nods, and gives a gentle nudge to help me focus. I then slowly pull myself away from her and look among the other six ponies, who were also slightly fatigued. When they see me look toward them, they all straighten up, seemingly ready to help this injured soul further. Oh, how much they've sacrificed for me already... I walk up to them. Once I get directly in front of them, there was only silence; so much so that you could hear a butterfly's wing beat. Twilight Sparkle is the first to speak; "Blaze..." I shook my head. "I'm so sorry..." We both walk toward each other. She was the first to put her left hoof around the back of my neck, and after a short moment I return the embrace.