Scourge of Twilight

by UnintentionalFan

The Battle

"Okay everypony!" Twilight shouted out over the entire crowd. There were thousands of ponies there, all divided according to race, and then organized according to each individual's strengths.

"I need the stronger third of every race to mass inside of Equestria. You will be our emergency force. Hopefully, we won't need you."

The leader of the ex-slaves, who was standing beside Twilight, leaned over to whisper in Twiight's ear.

"Why do you put the weak up front?" he said, "You will have more casualties."

"Because, Dragon," Twilight whispered back, "all they have to do is keep the enemy away from me."

Dragon gave Twilight a suspicious look, and Twilight elaborated.

"If I am attacked, I will have to focus on protecting myself. However, if I can stay free of the fight, I can focus on the entire battle. The ponies simply have to keep Scourge's army away from the gate and away from me, and I can pick them all off. If I fail and the enemy gets into Equestria, then they will be met with an even stronger force. Coupled with my efforts, the stronger third of our ponies might be enough to stave off a weakened enemy."

Dragon nodded. It made sense, but it isn't what he would have done. However, this unicorn was powerful, and so he trusted her. He watched as the stronger third of the ponies all went through the gate and organized themselves to fend off any attacks that might break through. Twilight then called her five friends up to her, as well as Celestia and Luna.

"Celestia," Twilight addressed the white alicorn, "you have been protecting Equestria for a long time. I am going to ask that you aid the ponies I sent into the border."

Celestia nodded and took off.

"Luna, you have been defending Equestria for almost as long as your sister has been protecting it. I am appointing you as the battlefield commander. Go take your position."

Luna, too, nodded and took off.

"My friends." Twilight looked at Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie.

"The Elements of Harmony are the second strongest things we have. I want you all up here with me. As long as I can complete the circle, you all should be able to control the elements. Use them to the best of your abilities."

They all nodded, and hugged Twilight in turn, before arranging themselves in a semi-circle behind Twilight.

Dragon left his spot beside the unicorn and went to be with the rest of the ponies. Many of them were scared, but determination trumped any other feelings in the crowd. His own ponies had been spread out quite a bit - Dragon had ordered it, because together they would be a weakness. He hoped that they would be encouraged to put forth more effort if each of his ponies were surrounded by allies who would fight to the death before surrendering to a foe as powerful as the Scourge.

"This is how we are going to do it!" Twilight started to announce her battle strategy.

"Earth ponies, form a complete barrier around the gate. Unicorns, behind them. Pegasi, stay far back enough to give yourself room to take off."

All the ponies did as told. Dragon and Luna were the only two to stay separate from the rest.

"The stronger unicorns need to be the farthest back. You will be the ones attacking the most. The weaker ones will be working to protect the Earth ponies in front of them."

The unicorns re-arranged themselves accordingly. Twilight slowly raised a hoof, and then slammed it down. Cracks formed before the half-ring of ponies, and the ground fell away into a deep chasm. Surprisingly, not a single pony flinched.

"Pegasi, your job is to make sure that no enemy reaches that chasm! If they reach the chasm, it's up to the unicorns to make sure they don't cross. If they cross, it's the Earth ponies' job to make sure they don't stay on this side."

Dragon smiled. They just might stand a chance. His hopes were about to be put to the test; the marching invaders just peeked over the horizon.

~ ~ ~

Scourge focused heavily on the little Runestone in his hand. It pulsed violently as he probed it with his mind. Death was ever weakening, and soon he would fall into submission. The line of ponies before him looked rather intimidating, but he knew he could defeat them easily. He felt a few powerful entities in their midst, but none were equal to him. The stone pulsed slightly weaker, and Scourge leaped into action. He knew that was the signal that Death was giving in. He breathed in, and crushed the little rock. Black smoke welled from his palm and threatened to constrict him, but instead, it seeped into his armor.

"Yes" Scourge breathed. He could feel the new power rushing through him. He also felt something else: every soul around him. Every single life felt like a glowing sun, and the only thing stopping him from taking every single scrap of that energy was the bodies that held those lives. He could see a large crack in the ground as his army neared the waiting ponies. He also saw a mass of dots rise from behind the line of ponies waiting on the other side of the chasm. The black dots neared, and he saw they were pegasi. The sky darkened by several shades, and clouds gathered. The pegasi hid in them, but Scourge could still see their souls. He waved a hand, and hundreds of raptor-like creatures jumped into the air and took flight on large thin wings that unfolded from their arms. They disappeared into the clouds, and the life-energy of both sides began to flow to him. Bodies fell from the sky and landed on his own army, but that did not matter. What surprised Scourge is when a massive bolt of lightning came down from those blackened clouds and completely obliterated a small number of centaurs who had been galloping extremely close to him. The energy flowing into him was exhilarating, but the loud booms coming from the lightning that was now striking everywhere was unnerving his soldiers.

Scourge looked past the events around him, and on to the purple pony standing above all the other enemies. She was focusing deeply, he could tell, and her gaze was sweeping across his ranks. The lightning seemed to follow her gaze, and he knew that she was the opponent he was looking for. He was surprised yet again as five ponies around her began to glow and rise into the air. From them, beams of color burned through his army. The losses on his side were significant, but not enough to weaken his overall numbers. Besides, every death meant more power for him. The distant onslaught continued, and all of his aerial troops were dispatched. The raptors were the only flying creatures he was able to obtain, but that wouldn't matter once they reached the rest of the ponies. The pegasi began dive-bombing his weaker warriors, and the life kept flowing in. They were a mere ten minutes from the enemy. Ten minutes after that, it would all be over.

~ ~ ~

"Unicorns, now!" Luna shouted in her royal voice. All of the unicorns set their horns aglow. A wall of light formed in front of the Earth ponies, and dozens of spells flew over it and into the approaching army. Dragon turned up and looked at Twilight Sparkle. Her horn was blazing magnificently, and her friends were all doing a fine job of controlling their multicolored death rays. His eyes returned to the battle ahead of them. All was looking well. They had taken out over a third of Scourge's army before it ever reached them. However, Dragon knew it wouldn't matter much. Scourge was the one they needed to kill. He was the real challenge; his army was just the intimidation factor.

Twilight Sparkle searched for the black figure Dragon had described. Her spells flowed like water and continued to fight for her, but they paused for a moment when she spotted an empty throne on top of a large creature with claws and a deadly looking tail. She gritted her teeth, and her most massive bolt of lightning yet shot down and decimated the creature and it's carriage. All of a sudden, everything went silent. The skies cleared, and the light spread. Twilight looked down in confusion, and felt her heart stop. The army had reached the chasm and were crossing the bridges that were forming. Her ponies were dying before they could even attempt to fight back. What scared her most, however, was the tall dark figure that was standing behind her lines and staring straight at her.

"I'm sorry, girls" Twilight said as she teleported down to Scourge. She heard a small clap of what sounded like thunder, and winced as she heard Applejack cursing at their sudden inability to use the elements. She quickly teleported two more times, once to be behind Scourge, and another to take them both far from the battle.

"So, you are the powerful one." Scourge scoffed. His armor bulged and distorted as his own power literally leaked out of him. He was saturated with energy, and was ready to release it all on this worthy foe.

"I am. What do you want?" Twilight said, allowing her more peaceful instincts to take over.

"Domination, of course." Scourge replied. He chuckled at the little unicorn that stood so boldly before him.

"Well, you aren't going to get it!" Twilight screamed. She launched herself at him, her horn ablaze with purple flames. Her charge was short-lived, and she found herself face down in the dirt. She looked up at Scourge, and saw that he had never even moved, but had simply held out his hand. In a flash of light, Twilight was back on her feet several yards away from the demonic human. She aimed her horn, and a powerful blast of light escaped her and rushed for the armored man. He, again, held out his hand, and the light deflected like water would deflect off of a wall. Twilight gasped, but she wasn't ready to give up. She charged again, this time forming a sword of light out of her horn while attempting to freeze Scourge with her magic. To her astonishment, an orange bubble formed around her and cut her spells off. She floated helplessly over to Scourge, where he held her calmly to his side.

"Look out there" he said, pointing a finger at the battle. "They are dying, and you are so far away, not even helping." Twilight didn't answer, and she didn't need to. Both Luna and Celestia appeared before them, and the sisters challenged Scourge.

"Put her down!" Celestia demanded.

"Or what?" Scourge laughed. "She is two hundred times stronger than you, and look what I have done!"

"Princess!" Twilight cried. "It's no use! You have to get inside Equestria. Take all the survivors with you, and get the barriers up. Try to bunker down as long as you can, please! Tell Spike that I am sorry!"

Celestia backed off. Twilight had said their secret phrase, which could only mean she had a plan. Celestia nodded, and played defeat as best as she could. She took Luna and flew off. Scourge chuckled at that ridiculously easy surrender, and was soon rewarded by victorious howls from his army.

"Now that I have won, we can fight." Scourge told his captive. He released Twilight and dropped her a few feet in front of him. She instantly closed her eyes and began searching within herself, attempting to copy the actions in Star-Swirls last scroll. She knew that there was nothing she could currently do to defeat Scourge, so whatever option she had was hidden in the key. Scourge stood, waiting. He was in no hurry, and so saw no problem with allowing the Unicorn some time to think.

Twilight focused on her own DNA, and on the gene that she had identified as the magic gene. She saw it, and tried her best to open it as Start-Swirl said he was going to try to do. Almost too quickly, it did open for her, and she found herself standing in a new space. She was suspended in a black and purple haze, with a dull thought of a vision in the back of her mind. It was Scourge still standing and waiting for her to move. She looked around her new surroundings, and almost leaped with joy when she saw Star-Swirl in the haze.

"Welcome, Twilight." the ancient pony spoke.

"Star-Swirl!" Twilight exclaimed. "I can't believe it's you! Oh my gosh, you have to help me!"

Star-Swirl nodded, and stepped closer to her.

"You have opened the bridge, as I did. You must decide carefully now on what you can do. You don't have long, so be hasty."

"What can I do?" Twilight begged to know.

"You can leave them forever and stay here, or you can go back, and bring the wrath of the Astral Plane with you."

"I can't stay here!"

"Figure it out for yourself. I cannot help beyond what I have said."

Twilight lurched, and felt tears welling in her eyes. She racked her brain for a solution, but could not find one. She focused on the image in her mind, and saw a bright sphere rapidly form over Equestria. It was the magic barriers - they had been renewed. It was right then that Twilight knew what she had to do.

~ ~ ~

Scourge stared at the unicorn who had been motionless for several moments now, He was growing impatient, and was about to kill her right then and there when he saw the barriers of Equestria strengthened. Right at that moment, Twilight looked up with a new anger and fierceness in her eyes.

"You..." she said "You dare to come here! You dare to try and take over this world! You DARE to try and challenge me! Well, let me tell you something. You are not the victor!"

Twilight felt her blood explode with power. She screwed her eyes shut, and began to levitate off the ground. An aura of energy surrounded her, and she rose to eye level with Scourge. She opened her eyes and stared at him. He was leaning back with his arms raised protectively, and he was obviously frightened. Twilight's horn glowed, and a gigantic beam of bright white energy erupted from her skull. Scourge raised his hand to deflect it, but was knocked back by its force. He cursed the unicorn as he lay on his back, but she was not done yet. She hovered even higher, and the aura grew brighter. Deep within her eyes, a spark ignited, and filled her pupils with a searing bright light. She spoke no more, but instead tried her hardest to channel her new power. A single tear ran down her cheek and fell to the ground as a crack formed across her chest. The crack poured out light, and slowly widened. Its spreading stooped for a moment, but was then followed by a loud boom. Twilight's filled with light that beamed like spotlights. Her mouth gaped and poured light as well. Several more cracks formed across her skin, and then all was consumed by light.

~ ~ ~

All the remaining ponies, including the five friends of Twilight, looked to the sky for any sign of a fight. None came for the longest time, and many were worried to the point of fainting. Screams of fear and shock filled the little fort inside of Equestria as a brilliant flash of light came across the sky and engulfed every visible thing. It quickly faded, and everypony waited, and listened.

Nothing.

"Should we go look for her?" Rainbow Dash asked her friends.

"Is she still alive?" Fluttershy responded, her voice shaking with fear.

The rest of the day passed with nothing happening. Celestia sent out several scouts to try and find something, but everything had apparently vanished. Everypony had low heads and sad hearts as the day passed into twilight.

Comments

[Dapper Mutt]

"Now that I have won, we can fight." Scourge told his captive.

This is one sentence, not two. The period at the end of the quote is supposed to be a comma.

" She instantly closed her eyes and began searching within herself, attempting to copy the actions in Star-Swirls last scroll.

In this case you need an apostrophe between his name and the following 's' after it because the scroll belongs to him. For this it would look like: "Star-Swirl's last scroll." I would also suggest you add the word 'detailed' after 'actions,' so it would look like this; "She instantly closed her eyes and began searching within herself, attempting to copy the actions detailed in Star-Swirl's last scroll."

Scourge stared at the unicorn who had been motionless for several moments now, He was growing impatient, and was

If I am correct in assuming that was the end of the sentence, then it should be: "several moments now. He was growing impatient," rather than using a comma.

Its spreading stooped for a moment, but was then followed by a loud boom. Twilight's filled with light that beamed like spotlights. Her mouth gaped and poured light as well. Several more cracks formed across her skin, and then all was consumed by light.

It's, stopped, Twilight's ? filled with light that beamed like spotlights. I assume you're talking about her eyes.

The rest of the day passed with nothing happening. Celestia sent out several scouts to try and find something, but everything had apparently vanished. Everypony had low heads and sad hearts as the day passed into twilight.

Oh, now I have nothing but praises for this perfect paragraph! What a perfect cliffhanger! Oh, how I love it. The best part is the last sentence. Fading into twilight... jeese, I've thought up dramatic scenes like this before and I too have thought about using the day fading into twilight because it is just so poetic!

Nothing but compliments.

Well, compliments and a handful of suggestions, but you know what I mean.