-Celestia's Balcony-
... The ponies were silent, watching this divine being staring solemnly at the moon, the wind blowing through his mane. Tears were flowing from him.
The Princesses and Twilight knew God would be there for a while. All three understood he wanted to be alone, so they departed for the Canterlot Library, seeking the information they needed.
-A Cave, Location Unknown-
They seemed amused, "So what do you have in your mind little boy." Aria spoke to me with a slight note of disgust towards me. "You can't escape."
Three swords materialized in front of Ace, as beautiful as his cutie mark had shown. They floated around his body, possessed by whatever force emanated from his body. He smiled at me in a cocky fashion. "I've ended the lives or stronger and faster ponies than you. You'd better sit back down."
"What's the point? I'm going to die either way. So if you want to kill me... It just happens to be now or never." I looked at them in the eyes, prepared to meet my fate. Ace laughed, so amused he even let his swords fall to the ground. Aria herself seemed amused, but unlike her partner, who was rolling all over the ground in laughter, she kept her posture. She looked directly at me.
I started to walk towards her.
"It looks like I have a life to end today." Aria surged towards me at a speed I had only seen Rainbow Dash match.
-Canterlot Library *Third Person*-
The Princesses and Twilight had spent their entire time in the archives, reading through every book they could, but they weren't able to find anything. "What would he have wanted us to search for... if our labor was going to be fruitless, God would never have sent us to do it..." Twilight was exasperated. She had no idea what there was left to read. Her mentor and her mentor's sister were in the same position, every book on humans and every book on past equestrian disasters happened to either be on the floor or piled up haphazardly on one of several tables.
"Nothing... we found nothing..." Twilight looked defeated, "We don't have any clue as to what's coming up, and there aren't any clues as to what happened to Leon." She paced back and fourth around the room, not sure what to do next.
A book suddenly caught Twilight's eye, it was in a different section of the library from where they had been. It was the fiction section. It was titled simply as The King, and there was no author to speak of on it, but for some reason Twilight couldn't stop looking at it. It fell off the shelf and opened on its own to a random page.
There was an image of Leon on it, and next to him, a chess board like the one Twilight had seen in Leon's dream.
The princesses, wondering what the purple pony had been staring at walked over next to her, they both froze as well.
"Ladies, I think we found our book." Twilight turned around and said, trying to shine some happiness throughout the room with this new discovery. However, her voice, and her face, showed exhaustion.
"We may have found it... but it may be better to look at it with fresh eyes Twilight. We all need sleep." Celestia told her student.
Luna nodded in agreement. "We shall rest and meet here in a few hours. Twilight, there is a guest room right down the hallway you may use. Keep the book safe, will you?"
Twilight nodded, and all three ponies left the room, leaving the piles of books on the floor where they were.
-A Cave, Location Unknown *1st person*-
I knew the last moments of my life were upon me, Aria had summoned five beautiful dark blue lances that surrounded her like Ace's swords had with their owner. She closed the gap between us within a fraction of a second and was about to strike with her horn. With reflexes I had never had before in my life, I sidestepped her strike. I was moving by sheer instinct. Before I could even think, two of the lances began to lower themselves. Adrenaline rushing, I leaped forward toward Ace and rolled, the spears embedded themselves almost a third of their length into the hard ground.
Ace, by this time, had recovered, and prepared his swords. I decided to take a suicidal approach. The more unpredictable I was, the harder it was for them to take the offensive. I charged toward Ace, disregarding all form of logic. I sensed the other three spears of Aria flying toward me from behind at a speed impossible to outrun, I stepped off of a good-sized rock near me, leaped up in the air, and did a 360 degree sideways roll in the air as the lances flew underneath and past me. I landed and continued running towards Ace. He saw me, and began his assault as well. Doing a several rolls, leaps, and ducks, dodging every swing of the swords. The lances that passed me now spun around and speared the entrance of the cave blocking the exit with most of their weight. I would need to break them to leave the cave. I ignored that problem and focused instead on Ace, just moments away from tackling him, he rose up in the air and swept horizontally with a sword.
Everything entered a state of slow motion, I leaped onto the blade, just as I had during that race in ponyville, and grabbed onto his ankle. He lost his balance and fell to the ground. I rolled past him and grabbed a sword that had fallen when he lost his focus with my mouth. I spun around and threw it, twisting my neck to throw it as quickly as possible, it flew through the air at a speed not even Aria couldn't dodge. The hilt struck her across the face and she collapsed, unconscious, to the ground. Ace got up and looked at her, he spun around with anger being apparent over his face.
"You... you hurt her!" He was clearly enraged. His swords rose up from where they were, and pointing straight at me, flew at me with the clear intent to skewer me.
Immortal doesn't mean indestructible. I won't die to you. I refuse.
I turned and raced towards the lances blocking the cave's exit. I couldn't let this be the end. After reaching the lances, I turned and faced the swords, jumped, and did a front flip. The swords raised their trajectory, adjusting to my height difference. I closed my eyes. Now or never... My neck cracked as my horn struck the three swords at an angle. It swept the speeding swords into one of the lances. The lance, remarkably, didn't break, or even scratch, but the rock it was embedded into crumbled under the sheer force causing the lance to go flying and the entire cave to shudder. Ace realized what I had done and turned to move Aria away from some falling rubble. I was going to make the mountain fall on top of them.
I ducked through the opening the impact created and sprinted into the woods, the snow quickly covering up my tracks.
"Damn..." Ace said. The rocks collapsed quickly around the two gods. "Oh well, he's going to die from the cold anyways." He laughed and kissed Aria on the cheek, "Looks like our time is up."
He sat there, a sad smile on his face.
"Remember what they said, Aria? If our bodies die when we're in a world, its impossible to return again to that world. Looks like we failed, Aria..." He laughed and laughed, "and we were having so much fun."
The cave entrance finally cave, closing the only exit, "We won't be returning for you Leon. We had fun."
All I heard was Ace's laughter as I ran, with no real destination in mind, through the knee deep snow.
-Canterlot Library *Third Person*-
Luna was at the Library first and began re-shelving this books. She, however, was preoccupied with other things, so it was extremely inefficient. Twilight walked in.
Luna looked at Twilight and went to speak, she opened her mouth, but couldn't find the words to tell her that... that. Luna closed her mouth again and thought for a moment. Finally, she gave up trying to find a good way to tell Twilight. "...the royal guard that my sister sent out just returned..."
Twilight knew they hadn't found Leon, she could tell from Luna's voice. "Where... where is your sister?" Twilight decided to try to change the subject to try to prevent her emotions of anger and frustration from seeping into her voice, even though the question itself almost brought her to tears. She had really grown attached to the black unicorn.
"I don't know, but she should be here soon... Listen, he'll be all right." Luna said this gently and put a wing over Twilight. She knew the second half of her sentence was empty words, but the Princess didn't know what else to say.
"I... I couldn't even protect him... I was right there, and... and..." Twilight began to cry uncontrollably, unable to contain her feelings.
Celestia entered the room silently. She had news she needed to share with both of them, but she noticed that with Twilight like she was, it would be difficult.
"Sister, could you please come over here when you get a chance?" Celestia quietly beckoned her sister over. Twilight was so busy crying, she was oblivious to the voice. Luna nodded her head and called fourth a blanket from her room. She laid it over the crying unicorn, and walked over to her sister.
Celestia immediately cast a spell, showing the balcony of her room.
She saw God, standing there in the same position he was left when they departed to the Library. He had become a solid white marble, and the floor underneath his hooves let out a faint shimmer. His crown had been the only thing exempted from this change, it was by the now-statue's feet, placed there by the Princess Celestia herself.
"Is that- Why is he- What happened?" Luna tried to form a question for the situation.
"... look closer..." was the only response.
Luna looked at the crown. In small letters, in the center of the crown was a single word: Twilight.
The lunar ruler closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Should we show her now?"
Twilight was still sobbing. "We'd better wait..." Celestia said to her sister.
-Leon's Location *1st Person*-
I had run a good mile in the snow, but I was soon running out of energy. I found that one of the swords had given me a gash across my right shoulder, I didn't know when I sustained it, the adrenaline had kept me from noticing, but it was apparent now. I stumbled through the woods until I found a hollow tree with a large opening. I walked in, collapsed, and immediately lost consciousness.
-God's Domain-
The fireplace, the floor, the window, the chess set, the robes. Everything was there.
I walked across the tile to the table and chess set. Everything was silent.
The white king had fallen, but the pieces continued to move. Who was the white king? Who...
Then I understood. It was me.
And so... does this mean my story ends here? I died? Already?
I looked down, and saw the white pieces surround the black king, and that king also fell. The white king shattered, causing an explosion that blew all of the other pieces all over the floor. I stepped back. The fragments of my piece had frozen in midair.
"... ... ..." I kept hoping for an explanation as to what had occurred, but God wasn't here. Expecting anything was idiotic.
All of a sudden, a memory washed over me.
"God! Tell me! Why did you choose me?"
...destiny... ...surpass... li... ...
The chess king's shattered remains flew toward the center of the board and formed a bright light.
God's voice rang out from the light, as clear as could be. "I chose you, Leon, to be my proxy for a single reason. You are a defect. You have no destiny. You are the wild card I needed for this next chess match. You can surpass all who came before you. You are limitless."
I stood there, looking at the light in awe.
"I am no longer here. I have given my last commands to my second proxy. Twilight. I no longer reside as a god, but only as a memory in the minds of a select few. This room will always be open to you, feel free to come and go. Just remember, the eternal game of chess will always be played. And as long as it will be played, it will never be understood."
The light faded. The king was there, my piece. It was surrounded by a crown identical to God's, with a single major difference. A single word was on it. Leon.
I picked it up with my teeth, but didn't dare wear it. Twilight is his second proxy?I smiled, I didn't know anyone else who would be a better ambassador for god than Twilight, even when compared to me.
The ornate wooden door appeared, on it was etched a single phrase: "To the next guardian of Equestria, I wish you good luck."
It opened, the light consuming the entire room. I walked through with the crown in my mouth, back into the world.
Behind me, the chess set reassembled. Another game began.