12. By Any Means Necessary
Tambelon burned green and orange in the night.
A former shop’s front exploded inwards as something was thrown into it. A moment later, it ignited in orange flames, and Corona surged out from it, horn glowing bright white as she lunged after Grogar who hovered in the air, necromantic wings beating steadily. The lich stopped her advance by conjuring a black and purple ooze that stretched out into a broad wall hundreds of feet across; Corona checked her ascent just in time to avoid hitting the ooze, but had to retreat as the ooze grew spines that lanced towards her. She yet held the Element of Magic in her telekinetic grasp, and pulled it close to herself as she lashed out at the spines with flame.
The distraction proved critical to Grogar, however, as Luna appeared almost beside the lich, making a cutting motion with one wing that sent out a plane of air travelling at supersonic speeds. The air hit Grogar and sent it flying away in two pieces, its spine severed. The two halves of Grogar crashed down into the city several blocks apart, and the site of each of its impacts burst into green flame. The flames, however, raced together quickly, as Grogar’s bones were carried along and reunited into a single whole once again. The flames rose higher once it was whole, lancing towards Luna even as Grogar’s skeletal form broke apart of its own accord, travelling along the flaming bridge that it had created. Luna didn’t react in time as the ram’s skull connected with Luna’s barrel, sending her flying away, though not before the remainder of Grogar’s bones had cut ahead of its skull and sliced at Luna as she passed.
Corona struck then as Grogar turned to focus its attention onto the other alicorn, a giant fireball that exploded almost on top of Grogar. When the flames cleared from the sky, Grogar remained, protected inside a green-and-purple shield, but that was when Corona appeared directly overhead and brought her hind hooves down on the shield, shattering it. Corona followed up with another airburst of fire that sent Grogar soaring down into the ground below, and sent a third fireball down after the lich. It exploded, taking out all of Tambelon’s nearby buildings.
The black smoke that had resulted quickly took on a green glow, however, as Grogar once more reconstituted itself. With a green flash, Grogar appeared behind Corona and lashed out with a lance of black magic. Corona avoided it, but nevertheless suffered a gash along her flank. Luna was atop Grogar in an instant, the air around the lich freezing into a solid block of ice and quenching the lich’s flames even as it became trapped. Luna drove her horn into the block of ice, shattering it and the black bones contained therein into a million pieces that fell to the ground below – and all that happened was each piece burst into green-and-purple fire, and the lich reformed itself in moments, its bones repairing without difficulty. Grogar was in the air again in moments, held aloft simply by the force of its flames even as its ribs and spine broke apart into a pair of sharp-pointed whips that lashed out at the two alicorns, landing several blows that left behind black, necromantic ooze before the alicorns retreated beyond their range. Corona once more burned the necromantic ooze off of her with orange flames, while Luna opted instead to simply dissolve into mist and then reform, the necromantic ooze falling to the ground below harmlessly. Corona burned it anyway, just in case.
Both alicorns were breathing heavily – not panting, not yet, but the two were certainly worked up. “The lich can heal from any wound!” Celestia exclaimed. “They barely even slow it – ”
Grogar appeared between them in a flash of green fire that quickly expanded outwards, engulfing both alicorns. The baleful flames tried to reach into their very beings, the purple flames of Grogar’s chest and eyes reaching out as well and down their throats, reaching hungrily for their souls.
It hurt, far beyond any physical blow. But it was not a pain that was unfamiliar to either alicorn – not when both had fought Tirek in the past, who may not have been able to steal souls but could certainly cause them harm. It was not so painful as to debilitate them. The two lashed out as one, turning and striking with their front hooves at the lich that had been foolish enough to appear between them. Its skull crumpled, the baleful fire died, and it fell away towards the ground. The lich didn’t even reach it before reigniting and landing smoothly on the street below, glaring up at the sisters.
Corona swallowed, looking to Luna, then up to the sky overhead, studded with stars. “I fear we have no choice, little sister,” she said, her voice grave. “Your stars or the flames of my sun. We must scour the island from the Earth.”
Luna shook her head, even as both alicorns kept a wary eye on the lich below lest it try to teleport between them and attack again. “The island is only a thing that happens to occupy the same space where the Tamberlaan were murdered. It will not rob Grogar of the pressure that is making it so strong. And I do not think the damage of a falling star or solar flare will be great enough to overcome its regeneration.” She doubted that any damage would be enough, in fact. She glanced to Corona, and to the Element of Magic that she yet held, knowing that she couldn’t simply suggest what she wanted to quite yet, as Corona would reject it out of hoof. “Teleport it somewhere else? Over the Southern Sea, into space?”
Corona shook her own head. “It will simply teleport back. We do not have time to set up a lock. And that, of course, presumes that it cannot simply be empowered by the pressure regardless of its location. Perhaps if – ”
Grogar struck again, sweeping its hooves before it and conjuring up a crimson whirlwind – blood, most likely, though neither alicorn could even begin to guess its source – that reached for the alicorns. They flew off in opposite directions, but the whirlwind only gathered itself into the sky and then shot off as two lances. Corona turned and burned hers away, while Luna once again dissolved into mist and let the blood-lance pass through her and splatter against a nearby building’s wall.
That proved a mistake, however. Motes of the blood had remained behind, and when Luna reconstituted herself into an alicorn again, she found herself screaming in pain as the rogue blood coursed at her very being, hardening and blocking her own blood flow or turning into thin needles that pierced her flesh from the inside out. She fell to the ground below, forgetting to fly and ignoring the pain of the impact into one of Tambelon’s streets as she turned her magic inwards, destroying the foreign blood within her.
Corona was beside her in an instant, eyes wide as her own magic reached out to help her sister in her dispelling of the necromantic attack. No sooner had she tried, however, that Grogar was there before the two alicorns. No complex spell came this time, simply telekinesis that send the two alicorns flying down the street.
Luna had finished her dispelling, and picked herself up, panting heavily. Corona looked to be in slightly better condition, but she was already somewhat weakened from her earlier battle with Grogar before Luna had intervened.
“You cannot win, alicorns,” Grogar intoned as it started trotting down the street. Each hoof-step caused green flames to spring to life and then die within seconds. “Everything in this world dies, and I have become death itself. My power is limitless.”
Corona whickered. “You feed off of stolen souls. We can last until you burn through the traitor prince’s – ”
“How little you think of the power of a soul, Celestia. It shall sustain me for months.” Grogar laughed. “My immortality would be a poor thing indeed if I required souls at any more rapid a pace! No, alicorn. You cannot outlast me. Very soon, you shall tire. You shall stumble. You shall fall. And then I shall feast.”
Corona’s wings spread wide, ready and willing to test Grogar’s assertion, but Luna stopped her with one outstretched wing of her own. The white alicorn glanced at her little sister, while Luna looked to the Element of Magic, still in Corona’s telekinetic grasp. “The Elements of Harmony, sister,” she said.
Corona bristled. “We do not need them to overcome this foe!” she retorted, turning back to Grogar, horn glowing. The lich’s flames grew in anticipation as Corona fired a burst of fire magic straight at him, then teleported. Grogar stopped the fireball with a shield spell, then turned around, expecting Corona to appear behind him. It was correct, in that Corona waited until Grogar had turned around before appearing once more in a flash behind the lich, right where her fireball had gone off. Grogar didn’t realize its mistake until Corona set a fireball off right beneath its hooves, blasting the lich apart.
It was a short-lived impediment, as the bones of Grogar immediately began reassembling dozens of feet away. Corona charged, but before Grogar had even fully reformed, its spine and ribs once more formed a lance that shot towards Corona. She might have been skewered had Luna not teleported beside the land and pushed it aside telekinetically, then once more beat her wings and sent Grogar flying away through the walls of several buildings that collapsed from the force of him passing through them.
Luna looked to Corona again, about to try and suggest the Elements once more. She was interrupted, however, when Grogar appeared, charging straight at Corona and ramming into her with all his might. She went soaring away, and before Luna could respond, Grogar sent a green-tinted fireball at her that sent the alicorn of the moon flying backwards to avoid it. The green fireball chased her every motion, however, splitting apart after a moment into multiple smaller orbs that kept Luna occupied.
Grogar hissed to itself, looking at where it has sent Corona. She was already rising once more, hurt but still very much willing and able to fight – this battle would not be over soon.
But that was fine. Grogar had the time.
---
The sounds of the battle could be heard across the island, and only grew as the six ponies galloped yet again across Tambelon and towards certain doom. Trixie felt that there were certain patterns beginning to take shape in her life. She didn’t like them.
Trixie glanced up at her horn, glowing bright blue to provide illumination alongside Lyra’s own golden glow. At least the golden flecks that still coursed through her aura were beginning to fade, as the trace amounts of Corona’s power that she had absorbed were gradually dissipating from her being. This was probably for the best – Trixie wasn’t certain she wanted her fireworks illusions to provide any actual heat, not with how often she used the glamors for effect.
It wasn’t long before they could see the light of the battle being waged in Tambelon through the trees – flashes of green, orange, and blue to go along with the noises, the sounds of explosions, screams of powerful gales, and the shifting resonance of raw magic itself. The six ponies slowed as they neared the city, glancing between each other regularly as though they were silently asking each other over and over again if they were really ready and willing to put their lives on their line again. Apparently, the answer was yes, as they kept pushing forward, only slowing when they reached the southern wall of the city and began cantering alongside it, making their way east towards the main gate.
The six panted as they moved, all of them just about ready to go home and sleep for a week. “What now?” Ditzy asked, looking down as best she could at the Element of Kindness’ focus that wrapped around her neck. “Once we reach the gate, what then? Do we just sit there in the open, hide…?”
“Hide and wait for Luna,” Trixie responded, jumping at the sound of an explosion from somewhere in the city. Somewhere inside, near the palace if Trixie guessed right, a conflagration of green and orange flame rose into the sky, the two colored fires seeming to battle with each other even as their creators soared upwards, joined swiftly by Luna. The ponies were too far away to see the lich and two alicorns as anything other than glowing points of light, but the colors of their magic helped to identify them – Luna in blue, Grogar in green, and Corona in white.
Luna came at Grogar from the side, but green fire lashed out and kept her at bay, then Grogar followed up with a wave of red magic. Corona intercepted it, however, with a line of fire that cut through the night sky like an aurora. She turned the line towards Grogar, and his green glow ceased for a moment. Trixie thought she saw something falling towards the city below, and for a moment thought that Grogar had been destroyed. But then both halves lit up with green flame and came together, then launched themselves at Corona, appearing below her and doing something that caused Corona to soar down towards the ground, impacting nearly atop the palace of Tambelon. The impact was strong enough to send slight vibrations even out to the ponies, and there was a flash of orange fire where she landed.
“That would be the ‘can’t be hurt anymore’ thing that Princess Luna said,” Lyra noted, squinting a little. “He was cut in half there. Didn’t help.”
“He doesn’t have to be a good fighter, then,” Cheerilee noted. “He doesn’t have to be as strong as Luna or Corona. He just has to be strong enough to put up a fight. Princess Luna was right, he can just outlast them.”
Corona shot into the sky as an angry white glow yet again, joined swiftly by Luna’s own blue effervescence. They didn’t move, however. Trixie winced. “That’s Luna trying to convince Corona to give her the Element of Magic,” she guessed, glancing up at the hat on her head, a hat that should have had the Element of Magic lying over it. “Darn it…why couldn’t it be a necklace like yours?”
“That would make things too easy,” Raindrops guessed with a grunt, glancing around. “Hey, didn’t we come into the city somewhere near here? With Corona?”
Trixie thought a moment. “Yeah, you’re right,” she said, looking around and directing her horn’s glow, making it more like a hooded lantern than a torch as she scanned the nearby forest. “Which means that…a-ha.”
The six ponies broke away from hugging the wall, trotting over to the forest as quickly as they could. Burried behind a brush, they came across a set of six saddlebags – the ones they had carried with them to the city, but had left behind when they had needed to fly in in order to cut down on the amount of weight that Ditzy and Raindrops would have to carry.
“Thank goodness!” Carrot Top exclaimed. She didn’t go for her own saddlebag, but rather, a cream-colored set with clasps in the shape of wrapped-up candy. Lyra let out a slight yelp of protest, but before she could do anything more Carrot Top had opened the saddlebags and produced a brown paper bag from within, which she immediately began searching through.
“That’s sort of my candy,” Lyra objected while Carrot Top picked out a few choice flavors and popped them into her mouth, while everypony else put on their own saddlebags.
Carrot Top took several moments to chew and swallow the candy she had stolen. “Sorry,” she said, “but like Cheerilee said, I sort of played chicken with a demon, an alicorn, and a demon ram today. That’s not even getting into those golems or the dragon, and Bray…I needed something, and it would take too long to ferment those.” She pointed idly at a nearby bush, which Trixie could only assume Carrot Top knew could be turned into some kind of alcoholic beverage given time and a distillery.
Though, on that note, Trixie reached into her own saddlebags and produced a flask, unscrewing it carefully. “Ahh…” she sighed at the sight of her sixth best friend in the whole world. “Monsieur Bourbon, vous m'avez manqué…”
Trixie was aware of eyes on her as she took a swig from the flask, and saw it was Carrot Top. Or, more precisely, Carrot Top’s eyes were on the flask of bourbon, even as she finished another one of Lyra’s candies. Trixie took the flask from her lips and held it out to Carrot Top. “Don’t worry, there’s still plenty to go around,” she said.
“When was the last time we all ate?” Lyra asked as she got her bag of candy back from Carrot Top in exchange for Trixie’s bourbon. Lyra took a few pieces for herself, then passed the bag over to Cheerilee. “On the ship?”
“Except for the candy after we escaped Tambelon the first time, yeah,” Raindrops noted, though she looked to Carrot Top. “’cept her. She ate half the forest on the way to the city.”
Carrot Top had just finished her own swig of bourbon, but nearly spat it out at Raindrop’s assertion. She glared at the pegasus. “I hadn’t been able to keep anything down on Wingsong!” She objected, passing the flask to her.
Raindrops considered the flask for a moment before sighing and taking a mouthful of the bourbon herself – Trixie knew that Raindrops generally avoided drinking, for fear of not being able to control herself and the potential consequences should she lose her temper while drunk. She wasn’t much surprised, then, when Raindrops started coughing almost as soon as she had finished, not used to the burn on her throat. She managed to keep everything down as she passed the flask to Lyra next. “Funny how being near death makes you forget how hungry you are,” she said.
“Dinner first, then sleep for a week when this is all over,” Cheerilee noted as the candy began being passed around, the same as Trixie’s flask of bourbon.
Lyra finished her own gulp and had passed the flask to Ditzy, who held it in her hooves, staring at it for a long while before taking a swallow. “Corona’s going to get away,” she said softly.
Trixie stared at her. “No she isn’t,” she insisted.
“Yes she is,” Ditzy countered, as she passed the flask along. “Every time we use the Elements, they take a lot out of us. Grogar has to go first – I’m not going to argue that. But afterwards we’ll all be knocked out. Princess Luna can’t fight Corona and protect us at the same time.”
“She doesn’t have to,” Lyra tried. “Corona said she doesn’t want to hurt us anymore – ”
“And maybe she meant that,” Ditzy responded. “But she’s insane, Lyra. She might change her mind. Or, heck, she doesn’t have to. She can just teleport us somewhere else – somewhere on the island, to Ponyville, to wherever she’s been hiding. She could even teleport us to different places, break us up.” Ditzy shook her head, her voice hitching a little and her eyes wandering further apart than normal, a sign of distress for her. “Luna can’t fight Corona and protect us. She’ll have to take us away. Or…or she’ll have to let Corona go. O-or she can try to stop Corona and protect us, but then when we’re waking up, Corona can teleport away. S-so…so Corona’s gonna g-get away.” She looked down at her hooves, wings clenched tightly to her body. “A-after everything she’s done…everything she wants to do…she’s gonna get away again. We’ll have failed…again.”
The other five ponies were silent as they considered that. After a few moments, however, Trixie shook her head. “There’s nothing we could have done,” she said. “When Corona first showed up, we could use the Elements on either her or Grogar. We made the right choice, weakening her. If we had saved them for Grogar, then Corona would have had us before she had her little personal revelation.” She shook her head. “Even if she wouldn’t have killed us, we would have been useless.”
“And later on, we made the right choice trying to take Corona and Grogar both,” Carrot Top insisted. “Grogar was too strong. We would have had to use the Elements on him at some point before Luna got through his shield. Then…then that would have left us with us unconscious in front of Corona again.” She stomped a hoof. “We didn’t do anything wrong.”
Ditzy looked to the carrot farmer. “Do you really believe that?” she asked, then looked around at the rest of her friends. “Do any of us?”
Raindrops opened her mouth to respond, but closed it after a moment, looking down at her own hooves. “Somewhere in the past twelve hours is what we should have done,” she said. “But I think that we did the best we could with the options we knew we had.”
“All we can do, is make sure that we do better next time,” Lyra said. A small, but warm, smile spread on her lips. “Onwards and upwards. Old Cloudsdale saying, right?”
Ditzy was still a moment, but then shrugged. “I grew up in Fillydelphia. But you’re right. Next time…we’ll do better.” She closed her eyes tightly, rubbing away the few small tears that had been there. When she opened them again, they weren’t quite as misaligned as before, one of them even focusing straight forward like it was supposed to. “Onwards and upwards.”
“Our new motto,” Trixie said, as she finally got her flask back when Cheerilee finished it off. She tucked it away in her saddlebags. Everypony else began packing up as well, and within a few moments they were off again, back to the wall of Tambelon and cantering as quickly as they dared. Beyond the wall, the fight with Grogar hadn’t seem to have progressed at all, Luna and Corona still battling hard to overcome the lich, but unable to get past its ability to heal. The six ponies felt somewhat guilty for having taken the few minutes to themselves that they just had, but on the other hoof, after hours of constant danger and threat, they’d needed the respite.
“We’re knights now,” Lyra noted. “Knights need mottos. That’s as good a one as any.”
“It would look good on a business card,” Cheerilee noted with a small laugh.
---
“Tia, please!” Luna begged as she avoided another gout of green fire and responded with a razor-thin gust of wind that once more bisected the lich. It might not have killed Grogar, but it was enough to give him pause for a few moments. “We need to use the Elements!”
Corona snorted as she followed up her sister’s attack with a fireball just as Grogar would have reformed. “There was a time before the Elements for us, little sister,” she noted, a humorless smile on her face. “Have you forgotten? We have overcome far greater foes than this without them! Squirk, Tirek, the Red Cloud, Lavan – ”
“And there have been foes beyond our power, too. The Smooze, Discord – ”
“Me?” Corona hissed dangerously, eyes narrowing as she looked to Luna.
Luna started, drifting backwards a few feet and readying herself. “I had no choice,” she insisted. “I had to protect my little ponies. I swore I would protect them from anything, any threat. Just because – ” her breath caught in her throat, but she pressed on after a moment, though quieter. “Just because I never thought that would mean you…it doesn’t exclude you.”
Corona’s glare lingered for a moment, the flames of her mane and tail rising dangerously high as she glared at Luna…but then, against all odds, her gaze softened. The glow to her eyes disappeared for the moment as she looked at Luna for the first time in a thousand years not as an enemy, not as an obstacle to overcome, but as her sister. “I swore the same thing, Luna,” she said. “I haven’t forgotten, no matter what you think of me.”
Luna drifted forward, slowly, cautiously, like one approaching an animal that one wasn’t sure if it was hostile or not. She had been this close to her sister recently, but always as she readied to strike her with hoof or wing. Celestia, to Luna’s great surprise and even greater relief, didn’t flinch, move away, or otherwise try to keep her little sister back. “Please, Tia,” she begged. “Come back to Canterlot.”
Celestia closed her eyes tightly, even as she looked away from Luna. “Give me the throne,” she said. “Acknowledge my right. I am Queen of Equestria.”
“I can’t do that,” Luna responded, even as she desperately wished that she could.
Celestia looked back to Luna. The younger alicorn got the sense that Celestia felt much the same thing – that somewhere, she wished she could set aside everything, and return to Canterlot with her sister. But her convictions were just as strong as Luna’s, and they were reinforced by madness. “I will return, Luna,” she said. “The throne will be mine. And…and then you will see. You will see that I am right. Though it may take centuries, you will ask my forgiveness…” she shook her head. “And I will give it. And then everything will be as it supposed to be, the world will start making sense again – ”
Celestia was wrapped in baleful green flames. She cried out in pain, her horn glowing and creating a shield directly below her just as Grogar appeared there, ribs and spine once more having become a solid lance that would have otherwise skewered the Alicorn of the Sun from below. Grogar reacted quickly, however, teleporting around to the other side of Celestia and driving its lance downwards. It pierced her back and drove into her flesh near one wing. Celestia cried out as she teleported away herself.
“If you are quite finished,” Grogar droned, turning its necromantic lance towards Luna.
She wasn’t there. Luna had followed Celestia’s teleport with one of her own, and found herself beside Celestia on a rooftop. One of the elder alicorn’s wings was hanging limply even as fire danced across her body and into her wound to purge the necromantic influence. She cried out in pain at the burns she caused herself – she was forced to forgo her normal virtual immunity to heat in order to burn away the necromancy. Luna’s own horn glowed as soon as she was done, healing magic coursing along Celestia’s wound and closing it. The glow to Corona’s eyes was back, as was a rage-filled visage, but it was directed at Grogar still – not Luna. “I will burn him from the skies!” She exclaimed with a stamp of her hoof, taking to the air.
Luna watched her for a moment, mouth hanging slightly as she felt tears at her eyes. She had nearly reached Celestia. She was sure of it. They were talking, they had hit a wall, but they had still been talking, reasoning with each other, even if Corona’s reasoning had been laced still with her madness, but she had nearly – but then Grogar…
Luna launched herself upwards. Corona was in front of Grogar, horn glowing as she readied fire. Luna reached Corona, shoved her out of the way, and drove her horn through the lich’s skull before charging it full of magic, the most powerful magic she could muster and detonating it within the lich. Grogar screamed as it shattered apart, its pieces falling away. They reformed a moment later, wrapped once again in green fire, but Luna was already upon him, landing on him with both hind hooves and forcing him into the ground below. They sank several feet, cobblestone shattering. Grogar’s flames flared up, but Luna had already stepped backwards and off of it, then reached out with telekinesis and hurling up into a nearby building. The walls of the building shattered apart as Grogar was hurled through it.
Luna followed the lich, horn glowing a deep blue that could only have been described as malevolent. There was a support beam of some kind in her way, but she didn’t notice it other than to use one wing to flick it aside as she advanced on the lich, heedless of the fact that it caused the building to collapse around the two of them. Grogar was on its hooves again as Luna charged, horn down. It sidestepped, but Luna caught it with one wing and shoved it forward as her horn’s glow tripled.
“DIE,” she ordered, a beam of pure white magic cutting from her horn and enveloping the lich. It was blown to pieces. What remained of the building was similarly destroyed, as was the next, and the one that followed, all the way through the wall surrounding Castle Tambelon. The lance struck a building therein – Spellhold, still glowing with blue light from whatevever magic Bray had placed upon it. Luna’s magical energy interacted with the stored spell there, and Spellhold disappeared in a blue-tinged flash, leaving behind nothing save its foundations and the corpse of a former donkey prince.
Luna was panting heavily, she realized, as she heard movement to her right. Glancing, she saw Corona having landed on a nearby piece of rubble, wings spread wide and horn glowing white. She still held the Element of Magic in her telekinetic grip. She opened her mouth to speak, but then green and purple fire erupted from the ground several paces away from the two of them, and Grogar once again reformed.
“Never,” Grogar responded to Luna’s order.
Luna looked to Corona. “Tia, Elements,” she stated.
Corona bristled. “We do not need them!” she exclaimed, horn’s glow brightening once more as she lashed out at Grogar. The lich burst into green flames, however, teleporting away and into the sky. Corona turned to Luna. “This battle has only barely begun. We can fight for days if need be! Grogar is not so mighty as to oppose us for that long!” She stomped her hoof. “I will not return to you the means to seal me once more within the Sun!”
Grogar laughed. Luna and Corona both turned to it, and Grogar’s skeletal grin once more seemed to widen. “This is magnificent,” it said. “Your own pride will let me triumph, Celestia, let me turn the world into a feast to fuel my eternity. There is only one weapon you could use to destroy me, and you refuse because you cannot take me seriously!”
“Who could?” Luna demanded. Gorgar bristled, and the alicorn turned to face it, wings spreading wide. “Grogar the Necromancer. So afraid of his own death that he would make deals with Tirek and slay innocent beings just to stave it off. And that is all there is to you.”
“What?” Grogar demanded.
“Fear,” Luna snarled, lips curling. “Tirek had grand designs of his own on the world. Sombra wanted an empire and a legacy. Even she,” Luna pointed a hoof at Corona, “is acting towards some greater goal. You? You have nothing but selfish, self-centered fear driving your existence.” Luna shook her head. “You are not the first monster desiring immortality that I have fought. You are not even the first one to achieve it. You are simply the only one who wanted nothing beyond that. Even now, all you can think of is how to keep your stolen immortality. So of course my sister and I are already looking past your defeat to what will come next. Your own aspirations are just so small.”
The purple flames that made up Grogar’s eyes widened, while the green flames that illuminated the rest of its body seemed to shrink. It lasted only a moment, however, and after that moment the flames leaped in size, and Grogar roared. “Small? Small?!” It demanded, lunging forward, head down – no magic, no spell, he simply tried to ram into them. Luna and Corona both leaped away.
Grogar turned to Luna, mouth open wide. “I have transcended death itself, alicorn! I have defied your will! I bent the will of Tirek to my own! Two thousand years of careful preparation came to fruition today!”
Corona lashed at Grogar with a whip made of fire, but the necromancer stopped it with a shield and sent out a lance of dark magic. Luna beat her wings and sent a razor gale at it, but Grogar only let it slice it apart, reforming nearly instantly and closing in on the alicorn, ramming its skull into her and sending her flying away. Grogar stomped a hoof, re-creating its necromantic wings, and took to the sky once again, lashing out with baleful flame and dark magic. Corona tried to close in on it, but it simply turned its attentions onto her as well.
“I am IMMORTAL! I have NO RIVAL, NO EQUAL! What do I need beyond that? You will die, your ponies will die, EVERYTHING WILL DIE BUT ME! THAT IS ALL I NEED!”
A fireball finally struck home against Luna, sending her flying away an down into the ground. She landed near the city gates themselves, in the main street that lead up to it. Grogar plummeted, landing nearly atop the alicorn and sending its ribs forward as a series of lances. Luna was up and parrying them away with telekinesis and wing, but Grogar kept advancing, its destroyed ribs reforming in its flames and being launched forward anew as it forced her back towards the gates. An angry orange fireball landed atop Grogar then, blasting it to pieces as Corona landed and followed up with another fireball. Grogar reformed within the flames, however, as they seemed to be drawn into its own green conflagration.
Luna panted heavily in the brief moment of respite from Grogar. The mask of impassivity, it seemed was finally dropped. Grogar was angry, purple flames billowing every now and then from its nasal cavity as though it still had a nose or drew breath and was snorting in rage.
---
It was around then that the six ponies arrived, Trixie leading the way as they reached the main gates of Tambelon. Trixie had been expecting to see a few things on rounding the corner and looking in, but among those things had not been Luna, Corona, and Grogar, none of them more than twenty feet away.
“Gah!” She exclaimed, stopping her canter and trying to get back into hiding. Luna and Corona’s heads both whipped around to look at them, while Grogar’s own purple eye-flames narrowed.
Luna acted first. Even as Grogar began to charge, she turned to Corona, grimacing as she raised a hind hoof and bucked as hard as she could at Corona’s face. The Alicorn of the Sun noticed and reacted, wide-eyed as she beat her wings and sailed backwards, such that Luna only clipped her chin slightly. It was, however, only intended as a distraction, as Luna’s magic reached out and seized the Element of Magic. Before Corona could do anything, the Element was enveloped in a midnight blue glow, disappeared in a pop, and re-appeared on Trixie’s head.
Grogar noticed, its charge stopping as its own flames glowed bright. It teleported past Corona and Luna both, and appeared in the midst of the ponies, its rictus grin widening as it did.
“No!” Luna exclaimed.
“Die,” Grogar said at the same time, green and purple flames both reaching out for the six of them…
…and washing over them harmlessly, as each of the Elements began to glow brightly, not in preparation to attack, but rather merely to defend those that bore them. Said bearers nevertheless cried out in shock and fell away from Grogar, but the increased distance of a few feet didn’t seem to have any effect on their protection.
Grogar realized its mistake, and the purple flames that occupied its eye sockets once again seemed to widen. It lashed out with its bones, but they, too, shattered within inches of the Element-bearers, unable to harm them. Grogar then tried to fly straight up and away, but the Elements reacted yet again, imprisoning the lich between the six ponies.
“No! NO!” It exclaimed, spinning in place, charging forward, trying to ram its way out of the shield. It didn’t work: Grogar had become trapped in place.
Trixie looked to her friends. Their eyes were all wide, but they were each beginning to realize that they weren’t going to die, that the Elements were protecting them from Grogar’s magic as they had protected them from Corona’s, all those months ago. In fact, they were doing one better: they were holding the lich in place, making him that much more vulnerable. He could get close to them, mere inches from them – but no closer. It was like he was trapped in a glass box, and he took it about as well as could be expected.
“Dames?” Trixie asked, a smile spreading on her face. She closed her eyes, focusing her thoughts up, into the Element of Magic that now sat on her head, even as her friends began focusing on their own respective Elements. Once again, Trixie felt the power building within her friends, as the links between them, the bonds that united them, formed a magical conduit like no other.
Trixie opened her eyes. The six of them were in a circle around Grogar, rising into the air around him. A rainbow of magic curled between each of the six as they rose above his head and looked down on him. They collected into Trixie’s Element, the Element of Magic.
Grogar was still trying to escape his invisible prison, but to no avail. Magic, green fire, even bucking it and ramming it wasn’t helping. “This is impossible!” It screamed. “I AM A GOD!”
Trixie didn’t have anything to say to that; she decided to let the Elements of Harmony speak for her. The power had finished gathering, and it lanced between the six friends, manifesting as a rainbow-colored point of light that hovered directly over Grogar before lancing down.
It was quick. Grogar fell silent and froze the moment the Elements’ magic touched it. The green fires went out, and the purple fire followed soon thereafter. When the Elements’ power at last receded, Grogar was nothing more than a black ram’s skeleton that stood still like some kind of museum preserve. As the six ponies were deposited once more on the ground, the skeleton collapsed in a heap of smoldering, brittle bones – and nothing more.
As always, the Elements took a lot out of Trixie – she found herself staggering on her hooves when the rush of their power ebbed, and she fell back into a sitting position, breathing heavily. But she wasn’t unconscious, she realized – not like the last two times she had used the Elements on Corona. Her friends, too, were all still awake – panting like they had run a marathon, eyes glazed and somewhat unfocused, though that focus returned quickly.
Having a mad Alicorn of the Sun standing only a few feet behind you tended to have that effect on a pony.
Trixie turned quickly, though in her state it meant that she nearly collapsed. Taking a few moments to steady herself, she looked back, towards the city of Tambelon. Luna was standing just outside the gate, wings raised high, having planted herself firmly between herself and Corona. The white alicorn was just inside the gate, her own wings spread wide as she alternated between looking between Luna and the six ponies. There was silence, a silence that might have stretched for seconds or minutes as none of the ponies, nor even the alicorns, dared to move, blink, or even breathe. Even the night was utterly still.
Luna acted first, inching forward. Corona reacted by spreading her wings wider, while the six ponies bunched together, readying themselves. But Luna wasn’t attacking, only stepping forward. “Tia,” she said softly. “Please…come home.”
Corona stared at her carefully. “I will,” she said. “When I am ready to take my rightful place.”
Luna blinked once. “I’ll fight you,” she said, her voice cracking.
“We’ll fight you,” Trixie said, forcing herself to her hooves and coming forward despite her exhaustion. The other five ponies followed suit, coming up alongside their princess. “We’ll stop you.”
Corona regarded them. “You will try,” she said, as her horn glowed. “I…will be merciful, when you fail.” She disappeared in a white-tinted flash.
Trixie looked to her mentor. Luna’s eyes were glued to the spot where Corona had been for several long moments. Trixie pressed closer to Luna, reaching up a hoof and patting the princess’ shoulder. The alicorn gasped at the touch, taking in a deep breath and holding it – it was obvious that she was fighting back tears.
“Princess?” Trixie asked. “Let’s…let’s go.”
Luna was still for a few moments, before closing her eyes tightly, bowing her head and taking a few steadying breaths. When she opened her eyes again, Trixie saw that the few moments hadn’t helped. Luna’s tears flowed freely, though she nevertheless smiled down at the ponies. “Let’s,” she said. “Gather ‘round, my little ponies. Let’s – let’s leave this island behind.”
“Onwards and upwards,” Cheerilee ventured carefully.
“Yes,” Luna said, as her horn glowed blue, readying herself to teleport them all. “Onwards, and upwards…and forwards.”
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There can be only one!
Guh. D: Celestia/Corona and Luna just give me so many feels. I'm loving this slightly-saner version of her - she's still out of her mind, but she's not a complete monster anymore, and that's throwing everyone for a loop. And both Luna and Celestia want to drop everything, to become sisters again - but they can't. It's heart-wrenching to read.
Luna's The Reason You Suck speech was spot-on. Excellent job.
And I almost thought this was a wrap, but then I remembered the dragon... :o
typos:
Glad to know Pokey ranks number 7.
4348953 chill out man I don't think it'll be that long lol
I wonder if Grogar and Briar´s souls survived the Element blast. Even if the answer is yes, they must have been heavily consumed, leaving them in a state not unlikely Voldemort´s.
Corona truly is insane.......
Wow that is one tough Lich, he just kept going and going.
In some ways the somewhat anticlimactic ending was fitting, he was just ended. It would be nice to know the souls of the slaughtered donkeys were released though.
1) Well, I think it DOES help to have a sort of catch phrase.....especially one that can be added on to.
2) The pattern of Trixie's life might be an unpleasant one but it's an easier one to bear each time she traverses it.
3) Corona might be insane in a different way now BUT it'll get easier to penetrate the labyrinth in which Celestia is being held captive.
4) I should think that any sort of "trial" would be strictly metaphorical.....
4348885
Oh, you and me both. It's like in "All Hail Megatron" after they conquer the Autobots. Realizing that Megs has no plans beyond that, Starscream asks Bucket-head a question he doesn't like: "WHAT NEXT?"
Poor Luna...
Tirek is G4 cannon now, you are even ahead of the main show.
Thank you, Ditzy.
So anyway, I'm surprised Celestia didn't bring up their betrayal as a reason to deny them the Elements. That would seem to be a much better point than, 'we don't need them'. Though either way, it's clear her aim was to prevent them from being used against her again. Here's hoping that one of the epilogues covers Celestia's ending and future plans.
Very good ending
. Now thats how you defeat an enemy with a deus ex machina, you let the villain get to show off and be a threat for a while first (looking at you Sombra)
I also liked that you didnt turn him to stone, but actually did away with him.
4349979
Well, didn't realize Tirek was going to be a monkey.....
I listened to most of this chapter (other than the beginning) over speech-to-text on my commute home today, and the use of it as the pronoun for lich form Grogar was very strange and distracting.
Anyway, glad to see him bite it, and I'm especially enjoying half-sane Corona, she is a much more compelling character than full crazy Corona ever was.
4349979
CALLED IT!
That was some pretty impressive stuff there. The hopeless fight kinda ran a bit too long though. I did like the talk the sisters had so that's a big plus. Luna and Celestia's situation is rather tragic.
I hope poor Carrot Top won't be sick on the way back
Hey! If Luna teleported Spellhold out of there then it's possible we could have a story related to finding it!!
4349517
What next indeed, Grogar never thought his plan out beyond becoming immortal. Not too bright, glad he's finally dead.
Great, as usual.
The exact translation of Trixie's sentence is "Monsieur Bourbon, vous m'avez manqué".
That was awesome, the fight was epic, the feels as great and powerful as the sun itself.
Though if I were Grogar I'd probably consider becoming immortal a more than valid goal in of itself, even without any "grand plan."
I went on a tour of the rest of FimFiction the last month. On my return, I see that this story updates. I imagine that, inspired my the show, Tirek will escape, but he will not showup again for a few years:
In the show, the Alicorns figure that Tirek would drain them, so gave their Magic to Princess Twilight Sparkle for safekeeping until she can find a way to defeat him. Given that Princess Twilight Sparkle could hold her own against Tirek after he absorbed the magic od Discord, it seems very likely that all 4 Princesses would be able to defeat him at the time they transfer their magic to Princess Twilight Sparkle, before Tirek consumes the magic of Discord. Discord, without the influence of Tirek, would probably fall back under the influence of FlutterShy:
Discord is Chaotic Neutral. Under the influence of a lawful good friend, he can do good. Under the influence of pony pretending to be his friend who is something evil (I am not certain whether Tirek is lawful, neutral of chaotic evil), he easily falls to his old ways. It is too bad that Discord did not know that Tirek is the one who killed Darth Plagues in his sleep, thus destroying the means to save Padme Amiadala by manipulating MidiChlorians. Tirek did succeed in seducing Discord to the Dark Side of the Force.
I wonder what the LunaVerse spin on the return of Tirek will be in our season 4 in 2 years.
OMC! I cried at the conclusion of this chapter. It's been ages since a fic hit me in the feels this much, especially with an entire season of emotional build-up, characterization, and emotional investment into everyone (including the main villain). And the battle scene was epic. You are seriously one of my top 6 authors on this site.
Mostly I can say great, action-packed fight. And although it wasn't much... YES! Celestia got kicked in the face!
*Everyone turns to stare at him* What? it's expected of me by now.
Nice to see Grogar killed, or at least sent on a one-way ticket to hell. Ditzy, awesome. Okay, this was pretty great. Thanks!
Where did you get the "Onwards and Upwards" thing? I ask because my Doctor Whooves group uses it as our Doctor's Motto as well, and it'd be neat if that was the source. If its' not, then that's cool too, I just wonder is all.
And now everyone's depressed.
They saved the day....SO WHY DO I FEEL DEAD INSIDE?
makeameme.org/media/created/sadness-sadness-everywhere.jpg
Well done! I really do love what you did with Grogar and Bray! Bravo!