//------------------------------//
// Chapter 32: Ascent Final 
// Story: Penned IN 
// by Qwix 
//------------------------------//

	The chamber before them was grand, reaching dozens of lengths above their heads. Though no white light reached the floor, the ground was cast in millions of hues as the light of the hive filtered through stained glass. It was broken solely by three pillars that stood by the wide window, each reaching into the dark ceiling, out of sight. And in the center, a single throne broke the flatness, ornate and clawing towards the ceiling, like a greedy animal.

"Lovely. You are thirty-four seconds faster than my original prediction."

From behind the center pillar slunk Chrysalis, clad in her ice armor and wearing an expression of complete deadened focus.
"And even better, you manage to talk your way past Krayka instead of fighting him. I prefer my meat fresh."
Beside him, Lyra drew her blade and pointed it at Chrysalis. "You seem to know everything, don't you? Care to elaborate? Or do we proceed to the main event?"
She turned and walked to her throne lazily, giving them a sideways glance. "Oh, bother. You already know why I know that. As Queen of the changelings, there are no secrets among my kind that are hidden from me. Which is why I fiddled a little with a wire or three..."
She kicked her own throne with amazing force, sending it flying to the back wall. The floor where it was had a multitude of multicolored wires, clipped and sparking into the air.
Twilight grimaced, advancing. "You disabled the portal?"
Chrysalis casually scratched her chin, seemingly bored. "Oops. I was never good with electronics. I only meant to blow the whole thing to oblivion. I should do better than that." She stomped a hoof on the wires, sending a massive pulse of electricity that raised hairs all throughout the chamber. Somewhere below, an explosion rocked the ground and set off alarms elsewhere in the building.
"There we go, I fixed it. ...That's what Krayka gets for thinking he could go against me. Again. He can pay for the system repairs out of his own wallets if he wants to.
"Ah, but where were we? Where are my manners?" she said, lazily drawing her swords. "I never even properly introduced my other sword. You know Styng already–" she said, meeting Pennaprose's gaze as she swung her snake-like long sword over her shoulder. "–but this adorable little fellow's name is Byte."
She set her hollow broadsword neck level, letting small crackles of electricity run length-wise inside the hollow portions. "Byte, meet lunch. Lunch, Byte."
Nopony said a word, instead electing to slowly spread out to encircle Chrysalis.
"Ah? You're making Byte cry," she purred. "Can you not hear it? That low, mournful cry, like a baby in the dead. Of night..."
She swung Byte suddenly, letting a bolt strike flow forth. Without hesitation, Pennaprose drew Changeré and sliced at the bolt, cleaving it neatly in two. The lightning bolts hit both sides of the door frame behind him, collapsing the stone and locking them inside.
"Hm? Isn't that... dammit, Quitangu. I always tell her to pick up her toys afterwords, and does she ever listen to me? Never, I tell you...!"
Lyra, still next to Pennaprose, sidled up closer to him. "Cut the act, Chrysalis. You know what is at stake here–"
"HEH? Sorry, you just implied I didn't know something. I know what is at risk if I lose... but the key word here is lose."
Her form melted into nothing, disappearing. "I have all the time in the world to play with you eight, and yet I'm afraid I can't wait. You see, I'm impatient, but I like playing games."

The words echoed to the ceiling and the temperature seem to drop in the chamber; patches of ice began to form on the pillars and floor.
"I want one thing to end, but I want to end another. When a game starts, I live in first roll of the dice, a perfect twenty. When a game ends, I live in the falling of the cards, a royal flush. But in between?"
Clouds began to form at the very top of the chamber, only visible by the lightning illuminating it.
"There is no car chase to cut to. There is no intermission. There is no adventure of a lifetime."
Pennaprose could feel a tingling in the base of his mane as the air felt charged. He gave a small gasp as he looked upwards.
"There is only the rise of my blade..."
He pushed the limit of his willpower into charging his ice.
"And the falling of a body."

Pennaprose swung his blade above his head and channeled his ice into it, forming a shield of ice barely in time to cover the group. A thunderbolt of blue struck with a force of a rhino, driving him and his hastily made shield into the ground, sending a spiderweb of cracks throughout the floor and up the pillars. He could hear several shrieks of terror around him.
The bolt dissipated and Chrysalis reformed from the shadows across the chamber, looking demented. Pennaprose willed the shield to break, scattering thousands of ice shards everywhere. "Lyra! Our blades should be able to deal with her magic tricks, but we need to draw her into melee range if we want to let the others to get their half of the plan done. Twilight?"
He could feel her magic charging behind him. "Keep her attention for a minute and get her between the portal and you. If the portal is closed, then an immense outpouring of magic near it should trip it anyway. The only downside is that we can't control where it's headed."
"And that's a bad thing?" remarked Applejack.
"Never mind, then," answered Twilight. "We'll start charging when you see an opening."
Lyra advanced carefully, Djiingoh held in front of her. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see it shaking slightly. He put a hoof on her shoulder and smiled.
She looked back into his eyes searchingly. He nodded in response, holding his blade still besides hers.
"I'm here," he whispered. "Don't worry."
She smiled in return and sighed. "Sorry, Penni. The pressure was getting to me."
They stepped forward in unison. "Take the upper right. I'll take the lower left."
She smirked, advancing. Her blade, Djiingoh, seem to glow dimly in the multihued light of the stained glass, reflecting it all around.
Chrysalis's gaze was locked solely on them, Styng and Byte poised to strike at a moment's notice. Her face was frozen rigid in a state of hatred and cold determination, unyielding. Pennaprose met her gaze, then charged.
She stabbed forward with Styng. He ducked and held his blade above his head, allowing it to glance off of the top. The sound of steel against steel hit the air; he twisted his grip and swung, aiming for her side. Before he connected, Lyra appeared by his side, Djiingoh held defensively; another clang hit the air as Byte made contact with her blade.
The impact shoved both of them back, tumbling over one another. He could hear the blades impacting the ground, hastening to look up. Chrysalis was still focused on them.
Good, he thought, looking behind the Queen. The throne was directly behind her.
He got up and collected Changeré, grimacing. Beside him, Lyra did the same.
"All right... we need to force her back. We attack at the same time, I have an idea." Pennaprose uttered.
On the left side of the chamber, Twilight and the others were huddled into a circle. Faint strands of white magic jumped from one to another, swirling around the group. So far, so good,  he thought.
He dashed ahead, scraping the blade alongside the ground. Chrysalis snarled and brought down both blades at him when he drew close enough. He ducked to the side, letting them hit the ground with a thunderous bang and shot a quick ice beam at her head, which she dodged with the merest of nods. To his surprise, both Styng and Byte were buried into the ground. "Now, Lyra!"
Lyra ran up and jumped, bringing Djiingoh down forcefully. Chrysalis roared, rage in her eyes, and caught the blade between her front hooves, transformed into steel. Pennaprose jumped forward, bringing the blade near her throat. "Check. Your move, Chrysalis."
She snarled, which turned into a chuckle. "Now now... just because I cut the power cable leading to the portal, you've no options left but to kill me?"
She melted into darkness again, reforming a good distance away. "Soft. You look and think like a marshmallow, Pennaprose. Though you fight well, given the time between last time and this..." spat Chrysalis.
She let out a burst of ice, sending the chamber into subzero temperatures and coating the walls and floor with ice. "But how well can you dance?"
She skated forward deftly at blinding speed, as if unsupported by weight. He raised his blade in defense; she struck with an iron hoof, sending him sliding backwards into the wall. He expected stone, yet his collision was cushioned by something. He heard a weak groan of pain from somewhere behind him and got up.
Lyra was curled up and holding her stomach, a trickle of blood running down her forehead. He put a hoof around her neck, lifting her upright. "...Ly! Why did you do that?!" he asked. "I thought I said not to take any unnecessary risks!"
She smiled weakly up at him, raising a hoof to poke his nose. "It wasn't unnecessary, Penni... We fight together, we protect each other, we make  sacrifices for each other. Just *cough* g-give me a second..."
She slumped over and passed out. Tears rose to his eyes as he brushed her mane out of her eyes. Fear gripped him for a second as the thought of death crossed his mind, but the rising and falling of her chest allayed it. The sudden crescendo of fear crashed down, broken by relief. In the corner of his vision, Djiingoh lie embedded in the ice.
We make sacrifices for each other, he thought with growing conviction, as Krakya had said. If I am to end it, end it not in bloodshed...
"...but in love."
He yanked Djiingoh form the ice, wielding it on his left. The blade felt distinctly unnatural compared to Changeré. It gave off an aura of hunger in his mind, now that he held it in his magic. He shook his head, dispelling the feeling. He turned to Chrysalis, surveying the field with sharp mind and calm instinct.
She was darting around the chamber, ice skating in twisted delight. The sight jogged something in his memory; he channeled ice magic into his hooves and jumped onto the ice.
To he relief, he glided without effort, almost as if he were riding a current of air. The ice seemed to move beneath him as if he were still, on observer in a realm of spirits; he looked up and smiled, chasing Chrysalis as she scraped around the ice.
He zigzagged, wielding both blades by his side. "Chrysalis!"
She glanced over, twirling on her hooves in the process. "Oh, you can dance? This should be entertaining."

She halted suddenly, holding Styng level with his head. He barely managed to duck as he skated past, but clicked the hooked end of Djiingoh onto the edge of Styng, biting down on the handle in the process. He flipped up and over the blade, ice beam charging immediately without beckon. He launched it downwards, trapping her blade to the ice. Chrysalis grunted in surprise, but wasted no time in retaliating with an iron strike from the hilt of Byte. He barely managed to get hilt guard of Changeré up in time, but the blow slammed down with the weight of a mountain, sending him flying back into the chamber.
He landed and willed his ice magic to halt him. He slid a fair distance before finally stopping; when he looked up, he saw a blade incoming. He panicked and flipped backwards, but a stinging pain between his eyes told him he still took a cut. He flipped upright, sending droplets of blood onto the ice.
"Heheh... first blood," snickered Chrysalis as she sent a visible electric charge, shattering the ice he cast. "Good reaction time however, little squishling."
He perked up and dodged to the side as Styng zoomed past him a second time. "And conscious of your environment. Good. However, how fast can you move?"
Small blizzards appeared at her hooves as she looked over at Lyra, who was struggling to get up still. Fear and hate coursed through his veins like a poisonous catalyst, driving rational thought to explosive oblivion. He was on the other side of the chamber; she was mere yards away...
The chamber seemed to shrink as Lyra grew closer, the sound of ice cracking palatable. Before he knew it, he was face-to-face with Chrysalis, blades drawn in defense. Time seem to slow to a stop as he watched her strike. The glisten of steel, the chill of the ice, the pure hate that filled her eyes; in one moment, he saw it all and waited for it to pass.

CLAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!

It connected, but he felt no push back; instead, he felt as if the blade he was blocking may have well had been a feather.
"Not bad, Pennaprose..." chuckled Chrysalis. "That ill-gotten second-hoof gift from me made you rather competent."
He broke the blade lock with a mighty push, wasting no time in advancing. He swung, thrust, sliced; though Chrysalis still blocked or dodged every blow, she no longer wore an expression of playful contempt as she did. It was now replaced with one of pure, focused rage.
They struck and parried for what seemed an eternity, either making no headway, both dead set on each other. As they fought, the ice underneath them melted from the heat of their blows, cracking the walls and pillars with the sounds of steel meeting steel.
Eventually, Chrysalis managed to push Pennaprose back out of another blade lock. "Enough of this."
She sunk both blades into the ground, a familiar charge lacing the air. Pennaprose responded with an ice beam, almost instinctively, fully instant; this time, she raised her front hooves, turned to the lava, and moved to block it. He felt as if his teeth would soon break from clenching them as he poured more power into it, but when he finally let up, Chrysalis merely stood there, hooves completely frozen. She looked down at them; was he imagining it, or did a note of fear finally enter her eyes?
She lowered her hooves and unstuck her blades. "Human," she uttered.
Behind him, he could hear a low hum of magic crest his ears; a quick glance back confirmed his guess. Twilight and the girls were enveloped in a ball of light, hovering a few feet off the ground.
Chrysalis threw her blades into the walls opposite, embedding them to the hilts. "What is it... I brought you to this world, split you into two entities... Each half your original form. Are humans even stronger than I predicted...?" she wondered aloud.
A red circle, elaborate and demonic, traced from nothing around her. Her head hung limp as wisps of black magic floated off of it, containing strands of her mane. "How is half a human greater than that?"
She looked up, her face framed by magic and mane. Her eyes were voids of night, deep beyond measure and empty beyond filling. Pennaprose vomited in his mouth a little. 
"Asra chani des haeloruw. Khamal azramet magi ta lograti zoretamot," she said, her tone dead and echoing into itself.
Lightning arched from one point to the next in the circle, agitating the wisps of magic. "Dus ra do, ful maeh algherit... Pennaprose, you have no quarter in my sight," she said. "Yet you have proved yourself strong. This spell is one exclusive to the Queen of the hive, passed down orally. Legends give us that it was invented by Changeré's father as a gift to her, if she ever found herself in need of absolute power."
The circle seem to spin and rise of the ground, rotating faster and faster. He steeled himself, but before he could react, Twilight spoke.
"Stand back, Penni! The Elements of Harmony are done charging, let us take over!"
He nodded, gliding by magic over to Lyra. He picked her up, put her on his back, and flew up to the top of the chamber to watch.
He wiped his mane from he face with a few stray drops of blood. Lyra stirred on his back. "Penni? What's going on?"
"Twilight and the girls are handling it from here," he said as he found a ledge to put her down on. "Are you all right?"
"Back hurts. Think I snapped a rib," she said jadedly. "But you didn't listen. Your horn..."
He reached up and felt his horn. There were definite holes carved out of the material, tips ragged and surface black. "Sorry. Chrysalis was proving to be a bit too much. I had to."
She smiled. "Yeah... I know. Just don't go turning evil on me, okay?"
"Of course."
A massive explosion rocked the earth, sending streams of black and white magic into the air. It tore great scars in the wall and ceiling; over the din he could even hear the telltale sound of glass shattering. He rushed to look over the edge.
Twilight and the girls, Chrysalis; they stood trapped in their spheres of magic, magic beams colliding in the center. Neither gave, neither advanced.
The stained glass window was shattered wholesale, letting the city air and light in unfiltered. Maybe it was their height, maybe it was the magic, but the winds swept through the chamber unrepentant, whipping the remains of glass, ice, stone, and dust into a frenzy. He shielded his eyes from the maelstrom, trying to think straight.
He turned to Lyra. "Ly, are you going to be all right up here? I'm going to need to jump into this mess again."
She stumbled to her hooves, brushing the blood from her eyes. "Didn't I say not to take unnecessary risks?" she said, looking weary. "Just give me a reason, Penni..."
He looked down from the ledge, into the stream of magic. Neither side gave no sign of letting up.
"Chrysalis is in position. One last shove, and we win... They need that last shove, Ly," he said. "I know what I'm risking. Why else would I have come to be here if I didn't?"
He put a hoof on Lyra's shoulder. "...Don't worry, Ly. I, who woke to light, saw first a paradise on sails and learned of wonders penned by fate in the sunlight, silver-lined by love... wish a future for everypony, regardless of who wins here today. But most of all, a future for you... a future with you. You know that right?"
She closed her tearful eyes and put a single hoof around his shoulder. "That's all I needed to know..."
She pulled him into her embrace, kissing him softly on the lips. He let his blade fall to the ground; as time passed and debris flew, an eternal bliss enveloped that locked away reality and brought warmth to his cold, changeling body.
When she backed away, her eyes were dry. "...There's that reckless bravado I love. But... no matter if the world should fall apart, we will escape from here alive, together. You know that, right...?"
He smiled, kissing her on the forehead. "Of course, Ly. I'm not sacrificing myself here. Who ever well said I was sacrificing myself? I intend to win. Win here, eliminate any threat of darkness to Equestria and us... it's far due that we all basked in the warm light. ...But there can be no light if there are none left to defend it. Now or in the future; I intend to survive... to keep fighting that darkness so that nopony else has to learn of that burden."
She smiled, then turned to look over the ledge with him. "Go get 'em, tiger."
He picked up his blade, serenely calm and smiling. Without hesitation, he leaped over the side and dove, headfirst, into the white stream as if he always knew it was meant to be.
All noise died out, all forms around him vanished into whiteness. His eyes could have been opened, they could have been closed; Pennaprose could not tell. All he knew was that he could feel his blade in front of him and sense the motion of the magic alongside him, guiding him.
He shot forward, feeling his blade vibrate from the pure magic. He held it above his head and lie flat, willing himself to spin like a drill. He could feel himself spinning, but nothing else until he met with the darkness.
Its very existence violated, pushing against everything including itself. It filled every corner of his vision, erasing all trace of light and hope. But in the void, fear existed; it threatened to snuff out his thoughts, his very being. With an iron will, he shrugged it off and kept swimming against the tide.
It was then that Pennaprose began to see the outline of the truth of eternity; the horror of forever, the loneliness and cold of isolation. When he began to feel his spirit crush under the pressure, all that sustained him in the onslaught was a single image and a single phrase.

I love you, Penni...

He gave one final push, and the darkness gave way at last.