//------------------------------// // Chapter 14: A Costly Victory // Story: My Little Pony: The Element of Space // by Thunderwing250 //------------------------------// Down below, Spike was knocking the ponies away, one by one injuring them to a point of leaving them immobile. Rarity, struggled to her hooves and walked towards the monstrous Spike. Pleading and crying to him to stop, the monster raised his tail. “If you want to put me out of your misery, do so. But I can no longer stand her and watch my best friend…my Spike-Wikey fall under control by some demon. Please Spike! Do it for us, do it for Twilight…DO IT FOR ME!!!” Rarity cried out. Spike, hearing her voice halted and placed his tail down. StoneColt and the others watched as Spike bent over and confronted Rarity crying. Khaoios, sensing Spike’s feeling, threw Paguseus off and used the Artifact to regain control of him. With its power, it electrified Spike’s head, controlling him once again, until a blink of light from an unknown location, blinked reversing the effect and destroying the Artifact, completely. Khaoios yelled out in rage as his most valuable possession was destroyed in front of him. Spike and Amethyst regained their memories back and restored them to their original forms. Spike, not realizing he is high in the air, was caught by New Horizon. “Don’t worry, Little Dragon. I’ve got you.” She said. She landed and the ponies cheered, for the first part was completed and everything was returning back to normal. Yet, their celebration was short lived, for their next and final objective was to take down Khaoios once and for all. As they hurried, the Archivist noticed Twilight was beyond her control and that darkness was slowly consuming her. Luckily, she was not in a different form, the Archivist ran to her and embraced her from behind. “That’s enough, Twilight! Please! It’s not worth it! Spike is safe.” The Archivist pleaded. Twilight breathing heavily and eyes bright red, like a hungry wolf immediately awoke from this unknown power. Twilight fell to the ground, breathing fast. “Wha…What happened to me?” Twilight asked. Amethyst Crystal walked over to Twilight and put her head on her. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I just couldn’t control myself nor you. We were both under some kind of mind control spell that exposed our dark side.” She cried. Twilight smiled. “Its okay, Amethyst.” She replied. Though Amethyst told Twilight about what they both went through, the Archivist knew that only Amethyst Crystal was under mind control. Twilight wasn’t for it was a different and darker power within her. It frightened her that what she saw may be a vision of Twilight’s future if she does not control it. First thing that came to her mind was if Twilight were to continue such dark actions, she will suffer the same fate as Princess Luna did as Nightmare Moon. Knowing the danger, she remained quiet to keep Twilight on the bright side. Both Twilight and Amethyst turned to the Archivist. “Let’s get Khaoios, shall we?” The Archivist spoke. Both of them nodded in agreement. Khaoios and Paguseus continued to fight, until finally Khaoios lost his footing, crashing on to the ground below. Now completely weakened, the ponies and even the residents of Manehattan walked over to see the downed Bronco-Titan. As Twilight, Amethyst, and the Archivist regrouped with them as well as Spike, Khaoios arose causing an earthquake as well as strong winds knocking away ponies. Paguseus, observing his mortal enemy sensed immediately danger. “No! Khaoios! You will destroy yourself!” Paguseus called out. Twilight turned. “What’s going on?” she yelled out. “His pulse….He’s going to unleash a pulse destroying himself along with everything!” the Archivist replied out loud. “A Pulse? How are we supposed to stop it?” Applejack called out. Suddenly, Twilight realized, she still had in possession the Element of Space. Quickly, she called to her friends to regroup and summon their Rainbow Powers. As they did, the ponies where in awe, watching the Mane Six group and use their magic with the assistance of the Element of Space against Khaoios. Khaoios watched as the Mane Six unleashed their magic, but failed in an instant. The power Khaoios was unleashing was causing the ponies to lose concentration. Paguseus grinned in disappointment. “There’s not enough power!” he said. StoneColt tried to crawl over but was lifted and slammed into a wall. The Archivist couldn’t move either. Looking and watching the other ponies try to go towards Khaoios, Amethyst made the most daring and ultimate decision. Using all her strength she ran to Twilight, knocked the Element of Space away and put it on her neck. The Archivist lifted her head and noticed Amethyst was now holding the element. “NO! AMETHYST! DON’T DO THIS!!!” Paguseus could not bear to see a young mare willing to sacrifice herself to save her father. The Archivist turned to Paguseus, insisting him to get her out. He looked back at Amethyst, shedding a tear. He didn’t have the heart to watch, but then she looked at him. “Do it! I promise, it’ll be alright!” She yelled out to him. Twilight and her friends sensed what they were about to do. Each one shedding a tear, they made the choice. Giving a final farewell, Amethyst smiled. “Thank you…” she whispered. In an instant, the Element of Space activated with the Rainbow Powers being unleashed, created a bright beam of light shooting high into the sky. After a few minutes, the city went into a complete blackout. Awakening after a minute, the ponies in the city celebrated. The enemy, Khaoios was once again defeated. However, nothing could cheer up the Mane Six, The Archivist, nor Paguseus. The decision Amethyst made to die with her father was heartbreaking to them. Twilight fell to her knees and cried. She couldn’t believe it, but knew that she did something that will haunt her for the rest of her life. Besides Twilight, her friends began to cry feeling her pain as if they were all connected and sensed the same exact thing. The Archivist walked over to StoneColt and put her head on him, crying. “Why did she do it, General? Why?” she cried. StoneColt, deep down sensed her pain. This is perhaps the first time, the Mane Six experienced a loss of an innocent pony they once thought of as an enemy and turned out to be a dear shy friend. Paguseus remained silent, then stood and walked away to the western docks. After a few minutes, the Mane Six, wiped away their tears and tried to think positive. Khaoios was defeated exactly what the attention was. Each one watched as the ponies of Manehattan cheered for them, and the Wonderbolts.