When Worlds Collapse

by MoonShine

The ancient secret unveiled

Last chapter: With Kieron being unconscious he doesn’t notice any of it and just limps along towards his house as if nothing happened.

<Grand Master’s house>

“Sir, we have a problem, Kieron has gone rouge, he has just killed a pony in the city centre, something’s odd though, he isn’t himself, and I have no life signs either.” Mathis explains to him.

“Don’t hurt him, if we do nothing to him, he won’t do anything to us, unless something major happens, don’t attack him, let him be for now.” He replies.

Thomas is sat in his chair taking a sip of scotch whilst looking out of the window towards Canterlot, a knock on the door gets his attention, “Come in.” He answers, the door swings open only for a waft of delightful smells to arouse his nose, “Ah Treacle, just in time, what have you brought me today?” he asks as she enters the room with a trolley full of both savoury and sweet snacks, Luna the enters behind her and shuts the door with her magic, “Princess Luna, why have YOU come?” he asks her but she doesn’t reply, still worried about the pony that got killed by Kieron.

Just as Treacle places the trolley next to Thomas the TV screen unfolds and a hologram of Mathis appears behind all of them, “Sir, there is something wrong, Kieron has just got home, I’ve been watching him with all the surveillance I have, he’s hasn’t gone rouge, he’s dead. His mark is gone, I have looked and looked but it isn’t covered, it isn’t there full stop.” He explains as he paces, Thomas sharply turns on his chair to face Mathis with a worried look on his face, Treacle walks back slowly knowing that when Thomas has that face it can’t be good.

“How is that possible, he can’t die, it isn’t physically possible for him.” He replies with a small stutter in his voice, Mathis shakes his head.

“I overheard Celestia’s and Dr Atom’s conversation after the IRIS ship disappeared, Atom said something about the Elements of Harmony being used of Kieron and now he is changing. I don’t know much about pony history but I don’t think this is good, I have called for Celestia to make her way here, I have provided an escort, you should make your way there too.” He advises before shimmering and then disappearing fully.

Thomas looks back out the window to see two Havoc mechs flying alongside Celestia’s chariot; he then looks back at the trolley full of tasty snacks, “I was just about to enjoy my meal too. Oh well, duty calls once more.” He says to himself before walking to the door picking up his cane along the way and leaving the house with Treacle and Luna close behind.

Thomas is stood waiting outside of Kieron’s house as Celestia slowly approaches him, the chariot lands a few metres ahead of him and he greets her with a friendly welcome, the fact they were enemies four days ago wouldn’t be noticeable, “Shall we?” he asks calmly as Celestia walks up to him and knods lightly, he then turns and opens the door only to be presented with a dark room filled with candle light from the multiple candles scattered around the main room, ancient symbols written all over the walls and floor and in the centre of the floor was a pentagram like symbol that wasn’t one but looked more ancient style, Kieron was hovering directly above the centre of the symbol, his legs crossed and his hands on his knees, eyes shut and head lowered slightly.

Thomas and Celestia enter the building, both confused and even slightly scared as they both feel a large surge of magical energy emitting from Kieron in bursts, they approach Kieron, the door slams shut behind them and locks all the candles suddenly go out and the windows already shut tight.

Celestia steps forward in the pitch black and try to use her magic to light the candles once more but she can’t as something blocks her, maybe Kieron. Thomas then raises his cane as uses it to light them as well as the main lights, as soon as the cane finishes lighting the room Kieron lifts his head quickly and opens his eyes, “Ancient technology detected, that can mean only one thing, humans have arrived on this planet. Step forward human.” He orders but something is greatly different about him, his voice was hugely distorted like it was six voices talking in unison. Thomas steps forward as told and Kieron looks him up and down.

“How have you come about our technology, and why have you brought it here?” he asks, Thomas looks at him narrow eyed.

“We, Who’s we?” he asks, Kieron looks down and shakes his head.

“Foolish human, you are talking to a creation of the ancient. Two ultimate creations were made, that cane and the one you now speak to, the Elements of Harmony...” Kieron replies whilst lifting his head up a little to look right into his eyes, still bright white.

“But the Elements are powers used by the ponies.” Celestia butts in but is immediately slammed to the ground by a magic force; it was like having a car land in top of you.

“Stupid pony, you do interrupt someone when they are talking. Now human, you may be thinking where you dear friend has gone but he is no longer, we has been exposed to a viable shell that needs filling, this body is now ours, we have freedom from the insolent ponies that use us for their own needs, this body is ours and we are free.” He explains as Thomas listens intently but smirk slightly knowing they are wrong, he steps back and turns to help Celestia up.

He puts his mouth to her ear and starts to whisper something to her, “The Elements are foolish, not us. They underestimate Kieron, do you know the real reason why he is so hard to kill?” he asks her, she shakes her head softly as she watches the person ahead of her, “Some would call it persistence, others would call it strong will power, I call it stubbornness. Kieron won’t die because he is too stubborn to die, he has a mark like a tattoo on his left leg...” he stands up and talks normally whilst facing Kieron, ‘Tia stood next to Thomas.

“The tattoo looks like a dagger with two snakes coiled round it, it changes colour depending on his mood, if he starts to die it fades, if he does die, it disappears fully, but Kieron is far too stubborn to die, his mark isn’t gone at all, you’re just hiding it.” He remarks as Kieron orders him to stop talking, Thomas getting to the Elements.

“SHUT UP! You insolent human, you know nothing, we are the power of the ancients, a silly little human cannot overpower us, he will be dead for all eternity, this body is......what? What is this?” he stops as he feels something from inside as is something was trying to push out of his chest, “No, not possible.” He exclaims.

“Right on cue, I knew he could hear me.” Thomas comments as Kieron falls to the floor with both fists and one knee against the floor.

Kieron’s voice changes back to normal but he groan like when someone is trying to pull themselves out of a hole, “No, it is you who is foolish Elements, Thomas is right, I AM too stubborn to die, this is MY body, this is MY mind, this is MY life and I it isn’t MY time to die, not listen to me, get the fuck out of me body before I kick the shit out of you, I am the stronger one, I don’t need no fucking magic to be strong, the ancients were weak, they relied on pathetic magic to do things for them, I do not. Now piss off.” He orders, after a few seconds he groans loudly as the Elements fight his body and mind for control, he wriggles and writhes about as the fight continues.

Thomas steps forward and puts a hand on Kieron as he stops moving, “Kick their ass Kieron, you are my creation and you can’t die, not yet, I need you, dare I say it, Equestria needs you.” He supports Kieron knowing he can hear him, almost as soon as Thomas stops talking; Kieron opens his eyes and looks up at his quickly.

“Well then, let’s get to work.” He replies as Thomas stands up and offers a hand, Kieron grabs it and he pulls him up to his feet, “Pathetic ancients. I guess stubbornness DOES have its upsides.” He remarks before walking towards the door, staggering a little as he gets used to his body once more, he stops next to Celestia and puts hand on her shoulder, “Oh and I’m sorry about being discriminate towards magic users, magic IS useful, and I feel really weird, why do I feel weird, THOMAS why do I feel weird, am I meant to feel this?” he questions.

“Mathis scan him.” Thomas says Mathis then appears in his mechanoid form and raises an arm to scan Kieron; almost right away he knows the problem.

“Got it, it would appear the Elements haven’t left you at all, Kieron. They are simply residing within you; they have submitted to the more dominant creature, you are their master now. How about that, you’re the first human to have magic...” he comments before Thomas clears his throat to correct him, “Oh yeah, SECOND human, does that even count?” he asks pointing at the cane, Thomas knods, “Fair enough, no problems Kieron, you’re fine, you just have magic now.” He says before disappearing back to the Fenrir.

“By the way, sirs, you may think you can relax now, well IRIS has other ideas, I have literally just detected movement over by Manehatten, twenty ships are heading this way.” Mathis adds over a small radio in Kieron’s room.

“How many ships do we have, Mathis?” Thomas asks him as he stops by the door and looks out towards Ponyville.
“We have only four ships, sir. They outnumber us five to one.” He replies.

“Then it is an even fight.” Thomas comments before sniggering, “They will be the ones outnumbered, not us.” He says before leaving the house and walking to his own house, Celestia and Kieron look at each other for a bit but then Kieron’s expression changes as he knows what Thomas is on about, he then begins to laugh quietly before laughing out loudly, in fact really evilly. Celestia stands at stares at him fearfully.

“Kieron, please stop, you’re scaring me...again.” she asks nicely. He stops and looks up at her with his eyes, keeping his head low.

“You will find out soon enough dear princess.” He replies before walking out and sitting on the entrance step to his house. Celestia then exits the house and walks past him, giving him a nudge as she does, “Hey, d that again and I will do something I will regret, but I don’t know what that thing is yet......no wait, yes I do.” He comments whilst pointing at her, she taunts him by flicking her mane as she looks away and walks off slowly, it works and he gets up, walks beside and calmly says, “Tag.” Before running off towards the city dining hall, Celestia stands for a moment and watches his run off, she then teleports in front of him, this shocks him and he puts on full brakes, closes his eyes reactively and without knowing how teleports past ‘Tia, he then opens his eyes waiting for the collision and sees that she’s behind him, he stops for a small moment as they both turn to look at each other.

“That’s new.” He comments, ‘Tia then quickly darts for him and he runs off at full speed again with her in close pursuit, “Why is this so scary?!” he shouts to himself as they both head off into the city, Thomas watches from his from door before turning to face Canterlot and watches, waiting.

Thomas is in his house in his chair with the same glass of scotch in his hand looking out of the window, Treacle and Claire both behind arguing over who is his best friend, after all Claire has got pretty close to him as his personal barmare, but on the other hand Treacle has always been friends with him, they get on really well.

“Could you two please stop, I want to enjoy the peace whilst it lasts.” He says quietly to them, surprisingly they manage to hear him over their own loud arguing, they stop and look at him, “I would much prefer that you two get along rather than fight, as I said, I would like to have some peace.” He adds, treacle walks up to him.

“Are you feeling alright, you are the same person right? You never want peace, you want war and death all the time.” She says confused by his remark.

“That may be true but lately I have felt like war may be getting on a bit too much, I could do with a break from it all, only for a little bit.” He replies, Claire walks up to them and put a hoof in his shoulder, Treacle glares at her.

As they exchange glares, Thomas slams down his glass, almost shattering it, they both jump and look at him, he gets up out of his chair and stares at the horizon past Canterlot, both of them look at the horizon to see a ship slowly coming into view, it was pretty big, then another next to it started to come into view, and another, soon a total of six were in view and more were starting to come into view behind them.

Thomas then starts to mutter under his breath to himself, “C’mon, c’mon, a bit closer....bit more.” Treacle looks at him wondering what he wants them closer for, all twenty ships were soon in sight and slowly looming closer towards Canterlot, “You are free to open fire general.” He comments, almost instantly some fast moving rounds enter from orbit and hit against a ship, then more rounds, and even more, then even more, it must be from ad entire fleet for that many round to be firing.

Some of the IRIS ships then slow down and begins to turn upwards to face space but as they do a large amount of ex-SKULL ships come out of cloak at the armour plating flips and they start to open fire on the IRIS ships, it was an ambush, all of a sudden large flames in the sky form as more SKULL ships descend from orbit, they were travelling quickly and can’t have been in orbit for them to move that fast, they must have been already heading for the planet’s surface, they then fire off a few more rounds per ship on the IRIS forces who start deploy as many mechs and fighters as possible, the descending ships then stop firing as they go into full lockdown, a system only meant for defensive purposes, it allows the ship to be virtually indestructible, the ships above the IRIS forces scatter and the charging ships impact the IRIS ship, they were on a suicide run, they crash right into the IRIS ships taking down most of them but the IRIS have powerful engine and activate emergency landing boosters that push upwards with a force enough to stop them and the SKULL ship still.

The SKULL that hit then begin to fall towards the ground but then activate engine and join the ones above, they exit lockdown and fire on the weakened IRIS ships, mechs and fighter begin to leave the SKULL ships as they counter the IRIS offensive, they were in full blown war within a matter of minutes, no ships were giving up, all just as good as each other but then a large ship appears on the horizon, it must have been the size of the Fenrir.

Thomas spots the ship and immediately barks at Mathis, “Mathis, what is that, how come you didn’t tell me about that one.”

“Which one sir, the only ships in my view are the twenty IRIS ships that are currently in combat.” He replies, Thomas looks at the ships.

“They must have a radar cloaking on them, time for plan B.” He says, Mathis acknowledges him.

As the ship approaches the battle area the main cannon doors open up and the cannons lower, quickly charge and a large single beam of energy fire at the largest SKULL ship on the battlefield, the beam cuts right through the ship with ease, right afterwards a large, loud shockwave emits from above as the newly created Malevolence travel down from orbit at full speed, the engines at the rear glowing bright as they are put into overtime, the ship itself was fully automated.
The IRIS capitol ship then slows to get a steady aim but then the ship suddenly boosts to flip over and the main guns get a steady aim on the Malevolence, it fire but only just misses as the Malevolence take evasive manoeuvres, the Malevolence soon coming to within two miles of the capitol ship, the IRIS ship firing more and more in an attempt to stop the charging ship, “I hope this works.” Mathis comments.

“Mathis, you are a computer you have probabilities, you don’t need hope.” He corrects, the Malevolence then starts to have a large energy wave make its way back the ship, soon coming to the back and disappearing, the IRIS ship stops firing and the engines start to try and move but fails as the Malevolence suddenly rams into the capitol ship at the speed of light, the warp drive activated, the two ships almost instantly collide with the ground in a large inferno, a massive shockwave is created and ripples across the surface of the planet, knocking some of the ships out of the sky and disrupts their electronic, they then fall to the ground too, IRIS and SKULL.

The Malevolence and capitol ship still burying deeper into the ground as the Malevolence tries to pass through the planet with its warp drive. The ground starts to shake from the strong force, Thomas watches in anticipation, “Well that went slightly different to expected but we still have the upper hand.” He says to himself before sitting down and grabbing the scotch, he then comments, “Give us your best Grand Inquisitor.”