Act 3 Chapter 77 : Last Battle
"I wish I could still drink myself to death. It would probably be gentler than any of the other options."
- Hard Boiled, Blood Alcohol Level - 0.19
Ice clinked in the bottom of my glass as I sat staring out into the dark and empty city. My enemy poured, then set the bottle down and offered me the drink. He finished pouring his own and sat down in the other wing-backed chair, swirling his whiskey for a long few seconds as we studied one another.
I tugged my hat off and set it on the table, then pulled off Sykes’s axe and propped it against the chair, wiggling my ears until the fur sat straight.
“May I?” he asked, gesturing at the hat.
I gave it a light nudge in his direction.
He carefully picked it up and stroked the brim, then touched the interior front before giving it a light sniff.
“Mmm. You have a stallion in your life?” he inquired, returning it to the table.
Instinctively, I started to shake my head, then paused and reconsidered. We were beyond lies or half-truths. If there was one person in the world I could be completely honest with, he was sitting across from me, wearing the armor of Nightmare Moon.
“It’s complicated. There’s a mare, too. They like each other and they like me, but the colt who gave me the hat is named Scarlet. The mare’s name is Lily,” I replied, taking a sip of the whiskey before continuing, “Between the two of them they’re sweet as punch. I hope to figure out what they see in me one day, but Scarlet has good taste in hats.”
“And stallions,” Diamond Wishes murmured, raising his glass in my direction. “You deserved better than this, Hard Boiled. Had you only been born a few years earlier, the three of you might have died together, somewhere far from here. Fate is unkind. If there is one thing I have learned in my journey, it is that.”
“Do you have anyone?” I asked, waving toward the armor.
He brushed a hoof through the tuft of grey hair at the corner of his brow and sighed. “Not in many years. My benefactor kept me from aging in many of the most physically crippling fashions, but that didn’t stop me from getting old. Love - beautiful as it is - always leads me back to the mission. I cannot help but see and that eventually dulls my affection. How could any mare or colt compare to the vastness and magnificence beyond the fabric of this little world?”
I cocked my head in his direction. “Two months ago, I think I’d have called you crazy. I’ve been out of this dimension a couple times since then and I know you’re not crazy. This isn’t the way to go about this. You want to see the universe and everything beyond, then I know a girl with a living train who’ll happily take you for a ride to all the weirdest bits of it if you can stand the smell.”
Diamond Wishes leaned sideways around his chair so he could give me an appraising look. “Mephitica and her ‘Bull’ are merely tourists. There are things beyond our few senses. I’ve been shown tasters and they are worth the death of one tiny world.”
I tucked a hoof under my coat until I found the Emblem of Harmony. Tugging it out, I set it on the table between us. “You know what this is?”
He turned the crystal amulet with the piece of the Tree of Harmony inside, looking at it. “I took something… almost exactly like this off of a Crusader before we chained him to the altar in the pylon at my family home. In all likelihood it burned with the building. I believe you are acquainted with him?”
“My grandfather,” I replied, tilting my whiskey back and finishing it off. Diamond Wishes picked up the bottle and poured me a fresh serving.
“I’m afraid I don’t know precisely what they do. Where did you get it?” he inquired, tapping the casing.
Lifting the amulet by the chain, I stared into its shimmering depths. “I was given this by one Princess Sparkle. It’s a way to call her if I manage to bring down the magical shield around the city that’s keeping the alicorns and their agents out.”
“Aha! She was not in Canterlot when I darkened the sky!” he exclaimed, a grin lighting his wrinkled face as he tapped his helm with the tip of his hoof and nodded towards the blackness beyond our little rooftop. “I had hoped to catch all of the Princesses at once, but Sparkle is a wiley one. I presume you took the Bull out to Ponyville at some point?”
“She seems to think that Canterlot is on the moon. I don’t know how much I believe it, but she was pretty sure.”
“It is indeed,” he replied, a bit sadly. “Preserving the lives of their subjects within the storm shields they used to deflect the hurricanes around Canterlot was the only thing that would keep them from returning immediately.”
I brushed a hoof through my shaggy mane, shaking flecks of blood out of it. “You know, that’s what I don’t understand. You hate all this. A blind pony could see that. You’re not like your brother. He’s screwed up because your family were monsters. You chose to kill all these people, but you wouldn’t have if there were some other method.”
He slowly nodded, his eyebrows drawn together as he scratched at the edge of Nightmare’s chestplate with one hooftip. “I do wish my aims could be accomplished without such regrettable loss of life, but take heart. I might potentially have killed Luna, Celestia, and the others, but as it is, a fragment of ponykind may survive upon the moon and one day, perhaps, return and rebuild Equestria. Mayhap without so many of the predators that plagued our early development.”
I threw up my hooves and slumped in my chair. “That’s what I don’t get. You save a part of equinekind--”
“Yes?”
“But you could have lived a decent life and moved on when you die. I’ve been dead. I’ve seen some of the other side. You don’t get all the answers, but I think you might get a few if you’re willing to work for them. This...all this? All it takes is walking away.”
“My life was, and still is, defined by my birth,” Diamond answered, shaking his head as he slid down from his chair. He turned and I saw, for the first time, that his flank was entirely blank. “I was rejected even by the most intrinsic parts of Equestria’s magics. Even my brother, beast that he is, has a talent and a mark. Perhaps my ‘destiny’ was sidelined. Perhaps I was a mistake of cosmic circumstance. It is irrelevant. While I wouldn’t stoop to calling myself a ‘victim’, were I not here, another would be. My family would have birthed another child. My benefactor would have whispered to them. The whispers follow us wherever we go. Even now, I hear it telling me to slay you and prepare the wish.”
“You could still walk away. Hand the armor over to Sparkle, or me for that matter...”
He laughed, a rich belly laugh so long and loud I was momentarily worried he’d cracked. After a full minute he wiped a few tears from his eyes and reached out to pat my hoof. “Heh, my apologies, Detective. The irony was just too much. Even if I might - in weaker moments - like to do that--” Reaching up, he gave the helm a light tug. It stuck to his head like it was glued there. “--I’m afraid I’d have to tear off my own skull at this late hour. I’ve no doubt the armor would torture me in fashions beyond what we mere mortals can conceive of if I were to become too obstinate. In the end, it’s immaterial. I will make the wish or you will succeed in killing me.”
I sank back and slowly rubbed at my forehead as Diamond Wishes clambered back into his seat. “But why? Throughout all of this, I’ve tried to make sense of it. You had opportunities to walk away. Do you know what your...’benefactor’...even...even is? You keep calling this thing that.”
Diamond Wishes gestured at my glass which I quickly picked up and emptied. It was so odd to be able to unburden myself, but frustrating as well. I could tell he was trying to get me to understand, though for what reason I couldn’t fathom beyond the simple equine need to be free in his final moments.
“My benefactor is what...you might call a ‘god’, though that word means nothing and is barely descriptive,” he murmured, tapping his toe on the tiled rooftop. “Many of your friends border on something like godhood. Creatures that might be akin to gods are a dime a dozen in Equestria. To cave ponies of just a few millennia ago, you would be a god. You wear a weapon that produces thunder and fire and your friends give you powers that would beggar the minds of those primitive creatures we both call ancestors. I could say it is a mineral, or a plant, in the same way you are flesh and bone. Does calling you ‘meat’ adequately describe the entirety of you, Detective?”
I considered this for a moment, then exhaled a slow breath. “Never thought of myself as particularly ‘god-like’. I get killed too often.”
“And yet, here you sit. My benefactor is to the Equestrian divinity - the alicorns, and other such creatures - as you are to those cave ponies I just mentioned. It is beyond them.”
“And beyond you,” I said.
“Naturally, though why I serve can be distilled down to a rather simple equation that I’ve lived with since that first day in the depths of my family home when I learned why my sister had to die and witnessed...glory.”
I watched his eyes and he didn’t seem mad or fanatical. Just determined. It was strange that I just then noticed his eyes were the same color as mine, gold, and just as careworn.
“Math was never one of my strong suits,” I said, picking up one of the olives from the snacks between us and popping it in my mouth. “Mmm...those are good.”
He lifted one, studying the tiny green orb on the tip of his hoof. “From my family’s garden plot. The last thing that was grown there before I left. I kept a few in magical stasis for this occasion. A tiny comfort, though nothing about that house could ever be called comfortable. In the hubbub of recent weeks I’ll admit, I forgot about them.” With a quirking of the lips that couldn’t really be called a smile, he tossed the olive into his muzzle and sighed. “Delicious.”
“Wish I had a cigar. Juniper smoked,” I sighed. Diamond Wishes shot me a slightly bemused look and I added, “Oh. Sorry. I think I’ve gotten too used to everyone being privy to my personal history. He was my ex-partner on the force. He died a long time ago in the line of duty. He liked a cigar when he was nervous or celebrating.”
Diamond Wishes reached under the hem of his armor and produced a pair of the finest Dodge Junction cigars money could buy. “I don’t smoke, either, but my brother liked them. I thought to be smoking these with him, but it seems that is a forlorn conclusion. So...are you nervous or are you celebrating?”
“A little of both, really,” I replied, taking the brown stick from him and biting the end off, then putting it between my lips. He proffered a lit wooden match and I leaned in, puffing carefully. My lungs filled and my shoulders relaxed. “This is the first time I’ve had to take a breath in days. In a few minutes, we’ll probably try to kill each other. Whoever is left standing might still die. Right now, though? Right now, nothing is trying to end me and the pure Tartarus that has been my life for the last couple months is going to finally be over, one way or another.”
“I had a similar feeling, really.” Diamond Wishes inhaled some smoke, had to bury a cough, then lazily grinned as he watched the ember on the end of his cigar fading in and out. “It is ever so exhausting to end the world. I must speak to my employer about a raise and some better benefits.”
It was a terrible, horrifying joke, but I laughed anyway. I couldn’t help but laugh. The alternative was weeping and I didn’t feel like letting him see me cry, although I doubt he’d have held it against me. We might even have comforted one another, just then, but the cigars and the drinks were enough for that.
We sat for several minutes, swilling our liquor and smoking our cigars, listening to the soundless streets. It was the very definition of a companionable silence. Part of me wished it could go on a good deal longer.
Finally, I tapped out some ash on the rooftop and asked, “So, tell me about this equation you’re stuck with? I’m pretty good at solving problems. Might find a way through it.”
“What?” he said with a start. “Oh. Pardon, I’d almost forgotten what we were talking about. Your is the first pleasant company I’ve had in almost two months.”
“It’s fine. I’ve got nowhere to be, really. The griffin I’d have gone drinking with died about twenty minutes ago,” I replied. Part of me expected a rush of anger at that admission, but there was none.
“I’m sorry to hear that. Truly, I am,” he said, and I believed him; he had no reason to lie to me. “The griffin afterlife is very pleasant to all accounts. Particularly for those who die as heroes, defending the weak. He has gone to a good place, if any place at all.”
I shrugged and took a drag. “I hope so.”
“In some ways, I suppose that plays into the scenario I have been unable to unpick for so many years,” he continued, thoughtfully.
“How do you mean?”
Reaching back, he touched his blank flank. “You seemed unsurprised to see this.”
I raised my glass and he touched his to the lip of mine. “It’s been a while since anything really surprised me. Your flank isn’t trying to eat me, shoot me, or burn me. I never put much stock in ‘destiny’, either. I’ve had plenty of people in positions to know tell me I don’t have one.”
“Nor I,” he affirmed, swallowing the dregs of his whiskey. “Destiny passed us by, it seems. As my benefactor has laid down and as I could not refute, the equation is thus:, Soon, I am going to die and cease to be, ascend and become as those above, or go to a place of such punishment as has never been seen by even the wickedest of mortals.”
I jerked my chin toward the cityscape below. “So, one out of three endings with a positive outcome. Well, two out of three, I guess. There’s still the option to quit now. You’d have saved more lives than anyone who has ever lived. To my mind, that would make you a hero worthy of one of those ‘pleasant afterlives’.”
“Possibly, though I doubt my body would respond if I considered tossing myself off this rooftop too heavily,” he murmured, slapping a hoof against his chest-plate with a soft clank. “Do you know, I committed my first murder at the age of fifteen? Not because I wanted to, mind you. Few in my family want to be monsters. Sociopathic traits like the ones my brother possesses are rare. We are led. I can barely remember the girl’s face, now. I’m not sure where my fathers found her or why they picked her for my ‘initiation’, but...choking the life out of her and pressing her body into the wall of my benefactor’s cage was one of the worst things I’ve ever done.”
“And you did it anyway?”
“I chose to survive,” he explained, voice tinged with sadness, “The alternative was death in her place. I may not believe their nonsense about compassion as a sign of weakness, but it was that moment I decided I would not die. Now, today, I am faced with the same roulette wheel, the same possibilities, and the same decision. I can kill a stallion I have come to like and admire...or I can die. That I may die anyway is immaterial. I can’t control that. But I am determined that, if there is a means, I will persist.”
I leaned back in the comfortable chair, rubbing the bridge of my nose as his words settled into the image of the stallion beside me that had formed in my mind over the past few months. He was cruel, because cruelty was necessary. He was vicious, because the alternative was agonizing death. Could I call him truly evil? Did I have the right to judge him in that fashion? My cutie-mark was still ice cold.
“Detective, if I might ask, what set you on this path?” Diamond Wishes asked, interrupting my train of thought.
“Me?”
“Yes. I’ve assembled some of your activities in the last several months, but much remains a mystery to me. My benefactor shares only what it sees fit. This began because of a murder? A young mare, if I am not mistaken?”
I reached into my pocket and withdrew Ruby Blue’s bejeweled diary, setting it on the table between us. “Her name was Ruby. She was cleverer than me. Cleverer than Nightmare Moon. Your colt, Zefu, killed her attempting to recover the helm of Nightmare Moon. I suspect she knew it was going to happen, though. She set everything up ahead of time, somehow knowing I’d be the one to investigate. I’m still vague on the how and why of it, but...I think she somehow knew we’d end up here, at the end.”
Diamond pulled at his lower lip with his toe for a moment, then set his cigar across his whiskey glass. “My benefactor gave me similar guidance. These weavings of fate bear a worrying resemblance to… well--”
“Destiny,” I finished, unable to hide a slight grumpiness in my voice about the admission. “Yeah, I noticed. Unfortunately, nobody seems to know for absolute certain what happens here and now. Maybe they put together the broad outlines. Maybe they knew I’d be a stubborn bastard who wouldn’t quit until I got here. Maybe they knew you’d do anything in your power to fulfill your god’s desires and escape death.”
“Interesting,” he mused. “That would tend to suggest they knew we would meet and that there was a relatively equal possibility you might kill me and that I might kill you. Do you believe it possible that this is the moment when they lost the...the ’thread’, as it were?”
I gave a slight shrug and exhaled, blowing a ring of smoke off the edge of the roof. “All I can figure is there weren’t any other places this could happen. If you had the chance to kill me sooner and make it stick, your benefactor seems like the sort of pragmatic that wouldn’t have thought twice about it.”
“And, to be fair, we did try several times.” Raising a hoof towards my chest, he pointed at the pouch over my heart. “I presume that is the source of your rather extreme sustainability?”
“A changeling heart. It was altered by the Archivists to run off magical batteries.”
He nodded, sagely. “Changelings are amazingly difficult to kill unless they are love starved, and you have had the love of this city sustaining you. The Bulldog, yes? I was also a fan of ‘Dead Heart’.”
“I’m never going to get away from those nicknames, even if I survive today. My driver loves to remind me I’ve somehow ended up a folk hero.”
Diamond Wishes smoothed back his mane and snorted. “Nothing ‘folk’ about it. You are a hero in the truest sense of the word, Detective. Most heroes will die or live to become the monsters the next generation of heroes must hunt. If you survive this day, retirement might be your best bet.”
“You think that’s likely?” I asked.
“I honestly can’t say. You are very nearly unkillable by traditional means and your firearm is classed for the killing of dragons. You are also wearing a prototype tactical anti-magic armor, if I am not mistaken. You were trained in close and ranged combat by the finest police academy in Equestria.”
I scratched an itch under the edge of my armor a little and nodded. “Sounds like you don’t fancy your odds, much.”
Chuckling, Diamond dropped out of his chair and stretched, his neck cracking in several places as he flexed his hooves. It was only then I noticed the extremely wiry muscles cording his throat and shoulders. “On the contrary, I have been learning to fight since only slightly out of infancy and my brother is or...rather was...a fearful opponent. I have thirty years experience on you and possess ancient magical armor designed by a divine being and powered by a city in chaos. While I am still exploring this armor’s limits, I would give both of us a fifty fifty chance.”
Taking a deep breath, I hopped down from the chair and went through a couple quick calisthenics. “So, this is it, then?”
“Unless you want to finish your drink and do a few more stretches,” he replied with a tone that was downright mournful, “I see no particular need for guile in this fight. The wish matrix is charged. If I am not dead in the next few minutes, I will use it. Even if you wished to give me mercy, it wouldn’t be an option.”
I scratched at my mane. “Is your friend sitting this out?”
“I am rather insisting it ‘sit this out’, as a final request from its long time servant. If you succeed you may go below and have your attempt to end this,” he said matter-of-factly as he pointed back toward the hatch I’d come from. “There is a hidden door in my apartments behind a bookshelf which will take you to another stairwell and at the bottom you’ll need to have my left eyeball to open the last door. I recommend a serving spoon from the kitchenette for removing it, but if you wish to take my head, that will work as well.”
We stood there for a long few seconds, studying one another like old friends picking out the subtle differences since the last time we’d seen one another. Slowly, I raised my hoof and offered it to him. He looked at my leg for a moment before reaching out to give it a firm shake.
“Mister Wishes, I can only say that this is not how this should have ended.”
He dipped his head respectfully, carefully stubbed out his cigar, then turned to trot to the other side of the roof, scuffing at the surface a few times. “Agreed. If you live, I do hope you bring about a fairer world, for those you love if not for me. Killing you will not be the pleasure I’d once thought it might, though I’ve never had much taste for killing.”
I moved to stand opposite him, checking my revolver to make sure it was loaded with the crystal rounds.
“Are you prepared, Hard Boiled?” the old stallion asked, politely tipping his head.
“I’m ready.”
The moment had come and the mission was before me. Reaching down, I flipped the Crusader’s control switch to the ‘sun’ setting. It let out an eager hum and I braced for the overwhelming rush of manic emotions that’d characterized my first use. I waited to become a flailing god of death. The last time was a wave of madness that swept me away. I wanted to be prepared, to hold my sanity as long as I could against the tide.
Several seconds later, I was still waiting.
I felt only a light tingle pulsing through my muscles, from my foreleg down to my tail and then back up to my ears. My chest expanded and I felt each heartbeat as though it were minutes long.
It was a moment to realize what was so different.
I had no anger to feed the devouring mania. I didn’t hate Diamond Wishes. Why shouldn’t I? He’d killed so many. He’d been responsible for the deaths of so many. In his own way, however, he was as much a victim as all the rest, a poor soul torn off his hooves by the fates and pulled along by the riptide of history.
There was no justice in his death.
It was necessary.
In that instant when I finally determined the course, I felt the Crusader’s power solidify around me, bracing bone that would otherwise have shattered and muscle that should have ripped itself to shreds under the forces being applied to it. I didn’t so much gallop as I flowed across the rooftop, faster than anything alive should have been able to move, feeling the wind of my passage nearly tearing my trenchcoat off my shoulders.
My body buzzed with barely contained energies beyond reckoning, yet it held together as I launched myself at the old stallion, feeling the same calm that’d permeated me since I awoke in the street take hold again. He seemed frozen in time, simply standing there with his chin cocked to one side and an interested look on his face.
I reached out for Diamond Wishes, raising my instrument to take his life. A slash of intense, pale energy lanced out, seeming to part the very fabric of reality where it passed. It lashed toward his throat, ready to separate head from body. I prepared, in some distant part of my mind, to mourn for him among many, many others who I knew I would shed tears for in the coming days.
In the instant before my blow connected, Diamond Wishes moved.
It wasn’t so much leaning back - more cocking his head back - but it was enough that my strike met with empty air, passing within a half inch of his throat. I was so surprised I didn’t have time to stop and plowed right by him, hooves skidding in the gravel as I approached the edge of the rooftop. I felt something snatch my back end painfully, bringing me up a half inch before I would have pitched over into the abyss.
I turned to see Wishes standing there with my tail in his teeth.
He spat it out and said, “Do be careful, Detective. I would hate for incautiousness to be your end.”
I swallowed and stepped back from the edge of the roof.
“H-how?” I stammered.
“This armor would appear to predict your movements, no matter how fast they might be,” he answered, softly. “You have had your strike. I do believe it is my turn.”
Before I could reply, he’d stepped inside my guard, one hoof planted between my front legs. I started to back up, but the edge of the roof was inches right against my heels. I tried to bring the Crusader up to slash at his rear knee, but he caught my strike on his shoulder and the weapon flashed uselessly into the dark, momentarily lighting up the skyline.
His throw was flawless and I’m sure I’d have been happier to appreciate it if I weren’t flying muzzle over tail. I crashed ribs first into one of the abutments at the edge of the roof and felt something inside me twinge though it wasn’t quite the crunch I’d been worried it might be. I slumped off the wall, sitting in the gravel for a moment as I tried to regain my breath.
Deciding if he was going to kill me outright he’d have let me sprint right off the rooftop, I took my time. At last, I rolled onto all fours and turned to face him. Time was still moving at a strange rate and bits of dust I’d kicked up getting to my hooves were still hanging in the air.
‘Nightmare, I need you this instant or we both die!’
Gale’s presence filled me.
‘She is pretty hurt,’ the ghostly colt whispered. ‘The part of your mind she was in sort of...blew up. I really like your gun, by the way. Could you fire it more?’
‘Gale, I can’t do this without her. Let me talk to Nightmare.’
There was a second of silence, then a weak voice mumbled in the back of my mind, ‘I...I am here.’
An image of Nightmare lying on her side, her dark blue body wrapped in bandages, appeared in my thoughts.
‘How do I fight someone who can see me coming?’
‘Y-you must exceed p-predictable behavioral norms. You must b-be...a s-storm.’
‘Any thoughts on an opener?’
‘D-do as your driver would d-do...’
My driver. Sweet Shine. How would she fight an opponent who knew what she was most likely to do? Nothing good, certainly, but there was something in what Nightmare said that resonated. Predicting Sweet Shine was entirely impossible.
She’d carved her own cutie-marks off with a knife to buy a few minutes of life for her former partner. She’d jumped into a dragon’s mouth just to get a clean kill. She’d brought me back from the dead just because she didn’t want to be alone.
According to the Ancestors, there were timelines where I died and she managed to kill Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.
How? There was no such thing as impossible for Sweet Shine. She’d pursue a goal single-mindedly to its conclusion without considering the potential personal consequences. If the Princesses ever decided to pull her into a courtroom, she’d get done for necromancy, conspiracy, diplomatic legal violations galore, an unknown number of assaults, drug use, and so many accessory charges it didn’t bear thinking about.
How did that translate into a fist fight?
Better than one might think.
Bracing myself against the wall, I launched with my rear hooves at Diamond Wishes who was still standing there, stock still, the only sign of movement his eyes darting from my legs to my face. The throb of magic was still coursing through me, reinforcing my bones and muscles, but it was not nearly so overwhelming as it might have been if I’d tried to wrap it in anger.
He knew I was coming. He’d worked out all of my immediate routes of attack, or rather, the armor had. I could see him start to roll his shoulder into the strike, but then his eyes widened slightly as the magical calculator spat out what I’m sure was an unenviable conclusion.
I skidded to a halt just out of kicking range and slammed my Crusader into the rooftop. The crystal rounds hadn’t had much of a recoil until that moment, but as the slash of energy struck the gravel the magical backlash almost knocked me flat on my backside. A shockwave shook the sky, shoving both of us back a couple feet as I drew the white blade straight upwards.
Diamond Wishes dodged sideways, avoiding a cut that would have bisected him. The enchanted blade exploded free of the roof, followed by a shower of debris that sprayed both of us like shrapnel, cutting into my fur and plinking off of the older stallion’s armor, cutting a slash across one of his cheeks. He looked, if anything, deeply impressed as he reached up and touched the bloody cut on his muzzle.
I sat there at one end of a long, gaping furrow torn in the rooftop that looked down into Diamond’s apartment. The soft record music filtered up through the gap as the roof under us creaked menacingly. One of the pillars I’d struck seemed to have been structural.
“Excellent, Detective! A worthy strike!” Wishes exclaimed. “Now, a riposte!”
A dark blue flash of light surrounded his armor and a dozen small stones rose off the rooftop, dangling in fields of shining magic. With a snap and a crack, the projectiles shot across the roof. I reared back, but all I felt was an intense pressure in my ribs for a moment before my back legs went out from under me.
Something hot boiled out of my chest, splashing around my hooves. I looked down and found several neat, circular holes in my armor and a steady rush of blood from each one. It was sadly anti-magic, not bulletproof. Next time I saw somepony with a tailoring talent I was going to have to fix that. Fortunately, none of them seemed to be directly centered over my heart.
Sinking onto my front knees, I swallowed and waited for the follow up strike that would surely take my head off, but Diamond Wishes seemed to be standing back, waiting to see what happened. Toying with me? No. His expression was one of curiosity. He was genuinely curious - in his broken way - as to whether I’d get up or not.
My breathing felt wholly inadequate. I found myself gasping, blood gurgling from between my lips. I spat out a muzzleful, then another. The pain was there, but distant and disconnected, like it was somepony else’s body who’d just absorbed the hits.
I dragged myself back against the edge of the roof, wincing as the blood spurting from my body became a gush. He’d nicked an artery, no doubt. I’d bled out once before and part of me was thankful; it was a relatively quick and painless way to go.
Just as I felt sure I would fall, my Crusader crackled and a furious heat swelled inside my chest. I felt my heart accelerate, thumping ten times, twenty times, thirty times in the span of a few seconds. Gale’s presence swirled up out of the encroaching darkness and - with a sickening series of wet pops - the stones unwedged themselves from my wounds and dropped onto the roof into the quickly expanding puddle of fluids.
The steady dribble of blood stopped almost as quickly as it’d begun and I gasped as one of my lungs suddenly reinflated. Strangely enough, that hurt many, many times worse than being punctured. There was a tickle in the back of my throat and I coughed, violently, before suddenly hacking something solid out onto my hooves; another stone.
Strength flooded my limbs as I shakily pulled myself upright, wiping my chin with the back of one hoof. I met his eyes and exhaled, limping towards the chair where my glass and cigar still sat. Picking up the whiskey, I downed it.
“D-Diamond?”
“Yes, Detective?”
“Some days, I really, really hate magic.”
“A sentiment we share, Detective. I would not wish for a simple cosmos, but perhaps, one where the divine’s dice were a tad less loaded. Still, it seems somehow appropriate that two earth ponies should be the ones deciding the continued existence of this world and its peoples, doesn’t it?”
“I can only agree,” I muttered. “One more attack?”
“I suspect that is all either of us have left,” he murmured.
‘So, we’re really doing this, then?’ I thought in the general direction of Nightmare.
The bandaged alicorn reappeared propped on a heap of pillows with a tattered book in her forelegs whose title was ‘Hardy’s favorite things’. ‘Y-you are doing this, Hard Boiled. If you d-die, I am not going to feel a thing. I intend to spend my remaining moments sorting through your memories of bagels, beer, and the various cheeses you’ve eaten in your lifetime.’
Picking up Sykes’s axe from beside my chair, I hefted it over one shoulder and propped it in the crook of my knee. Testing the balance against my hyper-charged muscles, I tossed it from leg to leg, then caught it in my teeth. Rising up on my back legs, I let the weight spin me in a quick circle before slinging the blade at Wishes.
His magic was already charging when I let go. The blade crossed the distance in a blink of an eye, but stopped an inch from the end of his nose, dangling there in his obnoxious field of augmented telekinesis. Before he could respond, I was already moving, throwing myself towards the gap the Crusader had torn in the rooftop.
I rolled over the edge, trying to brace for the short drop as my slightly tender stomach hit my spine, but the carpet was so thick I barely felt the shock on my knees as I landed in the comfortable apartment below. It was a strange change, being back in a place I’d have found fairly pleasant on another day.
Before Diamond could get a looksee at what I was up to, I drew in a deep breath, lifted up onto my back legs and tried to figure out what might be structurally relevant. Deciding after a few seconds it genuinely didn’t matter, I wrapped the Crusader’s power around me like a warm blanket.
A distant part of my mind found it interesting just how well the gun responded to simple thoughts and commands; an almost transcendental state of understanding existed between stallion and weapon.
The rest of me was shrieking, ‘You’re doing what on purpose?!’
Drawing back my hoof, I whirled in place, magical lightning arcing out to blast gaping holes in the wall supports, explosively filling the tiny apartment with dust. Ancient, valuable books burst into flames as the furniture was shredded into little more than wooden debris. Hot slag poured out of the holes left by the Crusader, sizzling on the carpet. I dodged another falling tile.
My heart was thumping at what felt like twenty times normal speed, but still I persisted, smashing one pillar after another with lashes of enchanted force like a spinning dervish. The creaking gradually became a roar as my muzzle filled with pulverized concrete and the air became thick with bits of shattered rubble. I looked up, just in time to catch a brief, shadowed glimpse of Diamond Wishes peering through the hole in the rooftop. He looked back and forth, then his armor flared with power. I lost him as the cloud of dust became too dense to see.
‘Gale, I’m about to suffer what I suspect will be a lot of injuries,’ I thought.
A slightly crazed, but altogether familiar voice giggled in my mind, ‘Injuries? No way! I love injuries! I have so much power right now I could put your head back on! This is amazing!’
I stopped in my tracks for a second, then slowly let my gun drop. ‘Gale, are...are you high?’
‘Please, more shiny crystal gun shooty, Mister Grumpy!’
Before I could question further why my cardiovascular system seemed to have developed an addiction to my firearm, the first of about two dozen tiles broke across my back. I threw myself into the gap I’d blown in the roof, but the collapse was already under way. I threw my forelegs over my head and buried my face in the lining of my coat, trying not to breathe anything too toxic.
The chaos that followed felt like it went on for hours.
There were deafening explosions of glass, a dozen or more heavy blows on my shoulders and back, scatterings of debris, and far too many ceiling panels collapsed across me. Very quickly, the darkness closed in until there was nothing to see at all. I lost the sounds of falling debris, but the weight across my back kept increasing until I felt sure it would crush me any moment.
I shut my eyes tightly and prayed.
It’d been said before, but I was never the one for prayer in our little party; that was Sweet Shine’s shtick. She’d prayed to everything under the sun and a few things besides down through the years. She knew the forms and functions of a hundred different religious icons. I always wondered if she was just covering her bases or if she genuinely hoped one of them might answer her one day. I never asked her exactly what she was praying for. It seemed obvious, at the time: a little peace, a little comfort, and maybe the hope that we’d all get the chance to retire.
In that instant, lying beneath a towering heap of garbage I’d just collapsed on myself in hope of leaving Diamond Wishes too injured to make his final wish, I finally found the real answer and I finally understood him.
I prayed because, in a life of terror and pain, there was nothing else left for me to do. I could die, or I could pray. It made the decision easy.
When silence had fallen and I was decidedly not dead, I tested my back and found it unbroken. I hurt. Mercy, did I hurt, but my shoulders were only sore instead of shattered. It felt like somepony had pummeled me with bricks, which now that I thought about it was probably pretty close to what’d happened.
Carefully, I pulled my coat away from my muzzle. I fished my headlamp back out of my pocket and flicked it on. There was almost nothing to see. I’d gotten luckier than I deserved, and a particularly wide section of tile had fallen across my shoulders, creating a tiny cavern of sorts being propped up by another section of garbage.
I shifted a couple inches and the tile slid sideways, sending a cascade of dust down on my head. Coughing involuntarily, I tried to edge my way toward one end. Even if I could have seen the sky, there was no sky to see, but it couldn’t be worse than being under however many pounds of crap.
Popping the Crusader open, I checked the crystal rounds still in the chamber. Three more of them were burned out and the last was cracked. How much power had I used just surviving pulling the top of a building down on myself?
Groaning softly, I flicked the dial back to the ‘stealth’ setting.
Now, I’ve done dumber things in my life, but cutting off my heart’s happy-drug supply while still under a collapsed roof probably rated in the top ten. My blood suddenly felt like it’d turned to sludgy ice and every muscle in my shoulders and back locked up tighter than a bank vault. I moaned and flopped back onto my belly, lying there whimpering in a fashion that would have been pretty embarrassing if there’d been anyone to see me or if I could have found it in me to give a damn what the world still thought of me.
After several minutes just lying there, I spat out a mouthful of dust and raised my head.
“A-Are you s-still there, Diamond?”
There was a cough from somewhere off to my left.
“S-still...still here, Detective,” Diamond wheezed. “I do wish I had spent more of my brief time experimenting with Nightmare Moon’s armor learning how to make a shield. Unicorns make it look like a simple matter.”
“Y-you injured?” I asked.
There was a shifting of debris, followed by a soft nicker. “Bruised, but whole. Yourself?”
I tried to move, but the pain radiating out from my chest was enough to keep me glued to the floor. I breathed slowly, trying to will my muscles to relax. I could feel Gale frantically working to keep me conscious without the influx of magic from the Crusader.
Somehow, my hat had landed just a foot from the end of my muzzle. With the remains of my strength, I picked it up and mashed it down on my head, not bothering to stick my ears through.
“I’m alive. Sore. Could you get this crap off me?”
“One moment. I see your light under a pile.” There was a shuffling of hooves nearby followed by the crunch of glass and concrete. The tile above me glowed blue, before being summarily yanked aside to reveal Diamond Wishes standing there, his white coat rendered grey by the clouds of dust and a small cut above his right eye dripping a streak of blood down his chin.
I groaned and propped myself up on my forelegs, stretching my neck back and forth.
“It was too much to hope that would kill you,” I muttered, tugging at my collar.
Diamond’s brow furrowed as he sat on his haunches a few meters away. “I must say, the armor had an absolute fit determining what you intended to do. It is presently telling me you will throw yourself off the rooftop and hope your skull hitting the sidewalk causes an earthquake that levels the building.”
“Might work,” I replied, pulling a kerchief out of my pocket. It was wrapped around something, but I couldn’t think of what just then. Dropping the contents on my coat, I held the folded cloth out and nodded at his forehead. “You’re bleeding.”
He took the cloth and pressed it carefully to his own forehead. “Ah, thank you. Your healing factor is impressive.”
“Chalk it up to some wartime enchantments. How long is your benefactor going to wait?”
The elderly stallion shook his head, brushing a bit of concrete scrap out of his chest fur as he let out a long, drawn out sigh. “It demands your death as we speak. I’m afraid I have bare moments before it will simply take control of my body. It will simply throw you off the tower when it does. Am I correct in assuming you are in no condition to fight me?”
I tried to stand, but my knees gave out, almost sending me onto my chin. I sat, again, and took several breaths, willing my heart to slow down. When even that felt like too much, I slumped onto my back, leaning on the tile that’d constituted the top of my little cave just moments ago.
“Seems like it,” I answered. “I don’t know if you read my police file, but it probably says something about how much I hate heights. I’d rather not go off the roof.”
“Unfortunately, throwing you off is the most efficient method and it does prize efficiency. I shan't have much say in the matter. It was a brave thing to fight me up here, then, though that would seem to be your defining feature. Madness and bravery.”
I waved a hoof at the empty, black sky. “Eh, helps there’s no wind and I can’t see the other buildings. Probably piss myself if I could.”
Rising, Diamond Wishes trotted over to stand over where I lay. I tried to squirm away, but it wasn’t happening. My front legs were working, but my back legs felt like jelly; kicking him was out of the question.
“I’m afraid our time has come to an end, Detective.” His armor shone brilliantly and something lifted out of the rubble nearby, coming to dangle beside him. It was Sykes’s axe. “I doubt you can regenerate from the type of head wound this will inflict, but just to be safe, I am going to cut you into several pieces. I’ll try to make the first wound lethal. It is the last mercy I can grant. If any of our species survive and I manage to return one day from the places beyond, I’ll be certain to tell them your story.”
I started to reach over to grab the Crusader and flick it back on, but the glow of telekinesis surrounded my chest and leg, pinning me in place. Hot sparks exploded from my armor, spraying the roof around us. I winced as the straps on my sides were suddenly torn free and the supposedly spell resistant armor was flung over his shoulder. A second later, my gun was ripped off my foreleg and joined it, clattering on the rooftop remnants somewhere in the dark.
“Do hold still,” Diamond admonished. “I’d rather not miss.”
----
The end.
I wish I could say that when my life flashed before my eyes I found it a pleasing bit of footage with a lot of good food, easy-going lovers, and stable friends. Realistically, it was a series of high speed nightmares culminating in taking one of my best drinking buddies’ axe to the forehead. At the very least, I thought maybe it was worthwhile to avoid the impending death of the world in whatever cataclysm the wish machine was likely to bring about.
Without my gun or armor and with my heart struggling to keep me alive, I had few good options.
Death wasn’t so bad and I’d likely have a fair bit of company in the afterlife, presuming whatever evil was lurking in the basement of Starlight Tower didn’t set its sights there next. Considering its propensity to casually use souls for its own purposes, there was no guarantee of that. Still, it was some solace in an otherwise bleak outlook.
Nopony could say I hadn’t earned a break.
----
My free hoof brushed something in the folds of my coat as I struggled to crawl away through the dusty remains of the rooftop. Unfortunately, there was no headway to make; his magic still held me in place. Sykes’s axe rose, lining up with my forehead.
I needed to disrupt it for only a second. How, though?
How?
In theory, he could see damn near everything I might do coming. The armor was fast. How fast? Fast enough?
One last trick remained.
“Diamond?”
He paused for a second. “Yes, Detective? Last words? We have little time.”
I nodded, weakly. “Only three.”
He hefted the axe higher and prepared to send me to oblivion. “Go on, then.”
“Free the moon.”
I couldn’t see precisely what happened from Diamond’s perspective, but I saw my reflection in his eyes an instant later. The ancient, deeply ingrained vision who haunted the dreams of every foal suddenly appeared underneath him, her glistening eyes glaring up with all the fury of the Nightmare herself.
The magic around my chest wavered.
It was enough.
I pulled my last weapon from the folds of my coat and clutched it tight in the crook of my leg before slamming it into his left side just below his armpit where the armor of Nightmare Moon didn’t quite protect. It sank in deep and he stiffened from head to hoof. A spurt of blood gushed onto my chest, dribbling over my leg and running off my elbow.
The last of my strength fled and my leg flopped back against my chest, leaving the horn of Ruby Blue sticking obscenely out of the old stallion’s side. His back legs collapsed as the axe dropped into the roof beside my head, sticking there with a loud ‘clunk’ that echoed off into the distance. Cautiously and with much trepidation, Diamond Wishes reached up and touched the horn where it protruded from his body.
“Ah. I...I s-see,” he murmured, with a certain finality. Gradually, like a freshly cut tree collapsing in the forest, Diamond Wishes slid onto his belly. His gaze met mine as I quickly dispelled the illusion surrounding me. “That...is a n-neat trick, Detective.”
I didn’t even have the energy to drag myself over to him. Instead, I heaved myself over onto my side so we could see each other properly. “Sorry. I made a deal with the intelligence in the armor for clemency. Some magic involving Twilight Sparkle way back in history changed her, gave her some free will. She wanted...eh...well, you don’t care, do you?”
He slowly shook his dusty head, the blood still leaking from his head wound having slowed to a trickle. “I-I’m afraid I am rather m-more concerned with the horn in my aorta,” he whispered, then rolled his eyes back in my direction and asked, “I have n-never died before. What is i-it like?”
I thought for a long minute, then answered, “It was quiet. Calm. Easy. Simpler than living, certainly.”
“Truly? I...hope to s-see my little sister one day.” He tilted his head to one side as he lay there on his stomach. I slowly, painfully shrugged out of my coat before folding it into a small pillow and pushing it under his cheek. “Thank you.”
“Least I can do,” I muttered, flopping onto my back again. “I’m going to go deal with your friend in a minute, but...right now, I just need to lie here and catch my breath.”
He tried to wet his lips, but all that came up was blood. “I...I do believe you may have c-clipped my lung as well. Mmmph.” Pushing a hoof onto the roof, he rolled onto his side. “My...friend. It a-assured me you would die here, today, on this rooftop. I-it said the future was set.”
I pulled my hat off and stared at it. There was a fresh rent in the brim that was going to need mending, but it looked otherwise none the worse for wear. “I didn’t come alone.”
Diamond’s eyes were growing foggy, but he still found the strength to look up at me one, last time. His voice was growing weaker as the thick puddle of blood around his middle grew.
“Detective. Suf...suffering cannot be truly eternal, can...can it? I am s-surely damned.”
“I don’t think it works like that,” I replied, staring out into the night. “The first time I died I had a big hole in my chest. Sniper got me right in the heart. I met my partner. We talked. He warned me that something was coming. Boy was he right.”
Diamond Wishes shifted his chin a little in the dirt and asked, “Y-you loved him?”
“I loved him.”
“You...are so lucky. I...hope...that one d-day you die...so...you...may be with...all those...you love, Detective...H-Hard Boiled...”
With that, his muzzle went slack and blood began to trickle from his nose and one corner of his mouth. His final breath was soft and gentle, that of an old pony finally finding reprieve from the slings and arrows of life. Diamond Wishes was dead. In much the same way I had with Sykes, I reached over and closed his eyes.
I sagged, wanting nothing so much as to shut my own eyes and sleep. When had I slept last? I could barely remember what sleep felt like. Sleep was the thing where you lay down and didn’t move until you felt better, right? Or was that death? Hard to say in my case.
Either way, it couldn’t be worse than being awake. Still, there were things to be done. A mission to finish. The Celestia’s-damned-fat-flanks job to be done.
Unfortunately, that didn’t matter much if I couldn’t walk. First things first.
‘Gale? Nightmare?’ I thought. ‘You two alright?’
‘I’m...okay,’ the colt’s ghost mumbled. ‘Fully charged for what feels like a week. Are you sure we can’t--’
‘I do not need the one who controls my ‘biological apartment’ to become addicted to the use of magical weaponry!’ Nightmare interjected, sharply.
‘Right, right. Sorry. Did...did you really do it? Did you really kill Diamond Wishes?’ Gale asked.
‘He’s dead,’ I affirmed, glancing toward where the other stallion’s body lay. ‘I need my legs. Any hope of those anytime soon?’
‘You know fixing your muscles isn’t as easy as flipping switches, right? I’m working as hard as I can! It would be a whole bunch easier if there was a wall socket and someone friendly with the juice.’
‘Just asking for updates when you can give them. Right now, I’m wishing I’d thought to bring some explosives. Probably be easier to blow the building up than fight whatever is in the basement.’
‘You had insufficient data, Detective,’ Nightmare commented, shifting her bandaged body about as a comfy looking beanbag chair appeared under her mental projection. ‘To be clear, you still have insufficient data. What makes you think you can even fight this ‘god’?’
‘What’s my alternative?’ I asked, pointing toward the blackened barrier that still hung over Uptown. ‘You want to try another sprint through the shield?’
‘Ah. No, I do not believe I do. What, then?’
‘Then we have to go down some stairs.’
The pain in my back legs was finally starting to fade. I decided to give them another try, dragging myself over onto my stomach and bracing against one of the piles of debris from the collapsed roof. Painstakingly, inch by inch, I hauled myself up until, at last, I stood, looking around at the destroyed remains of Diamond Wishes’s apartments. I picked up my headlamp and fitted it down over my hat, again, finally taking a moment to get my ears situated through their respective holes.
The bookshelf and its hidden door that Wishes mentioned was one of the early casualties of my assault, but its destruction had left behind a gaping hole in one of the few remaining walls where I could just make out the top of a set of metal steps descending back into the dark.
‘You can do this,’ I thought to myself.
‘Your weapon, Hard Boiled,’ Nightmare reminded me. ‘I believe, based on the trajectory of his throw, that you will find it approximately six yards to your left.’
I held up the shredded remains of my gun harness, the trigger bit dangling from a half-broken strap. Shaking my head, I limped in the general direction Nightmare had indicated, panning my lamp back and forth across the garbage-strewn carpet, hoping the Crusader wasn’t under something. Once again, I got lucky: my gun was wedged against the broken remains of Diamond Wishes’s coffee table. Snatching it up in my teeth, I looked around until I found what was left of my anti-magic armor draped over the busted remnant of the record player. Holding it up with both hooves, I exhaled and folded the destroyed rag in half, dropping it back over the player’s horn-style speaker.
I looked back in the direction of where I’d left Wishes with his bloody head still on my folded coat. No way was I leaving that, at least. Staggering back toward him, I stopped as a soft sound reached my ears.
‘Is...is that...breathing?’
No way.
No chance.
No how.
I’d seen enough death to know without checking a pulse whether a pony was dead or not and Diamond was dead. I stumbled forward, dropping my gun as I readied myself to try to stomp his skull into a pulp. Fear filled me as I hopped over bits of broken furniture, trying desperately to remember where I’d been standing when I saw him last.
My light swung back and forth through the dark, searching for the corpse. I found the puddle of blood quickly enough, but it was empty. The circle of illumination swept further across the blasted room until, at last, it alighted on a pair of dingy, red-flecked forelegs. They were just standing there, not moving. My brain momentarily froze and I fell back onto my heels, the torch’s beam rising until it panned onto my enemy’s face.
Diamond Wishes was looking at me across the short distance, a small, coy smile on his lips. His eyes were still foggy and the blood from his nose barely dripped. Even the stab wound in his side looked to have run dry. He was still definitely dead.
“Hello, Hardy,” he said, softly.
“T-that’s not...--” I stammered, trying to find where I’d lost the Crusader around my hooves.
“Not possible?” the corpse finished, then sat and held up his forelegs placatingly. “No, Diamond Wishes is gone. I promise. I guess you don’t recognize me, though, do you? Maybe this will help. Let me see if I can figure out how this armor works.”
Shutting his eyes, the dead body hummed a few short notes, then the armor around him shimmered with a burst of energetic magic. Gradually, the magic began to take on a new shape as a simple illusion spell spilled over the old stallion’s form, covering it from head to tail-tip. I gaped, unable to comprehend, though my lips worked themselves to form a single word.
“R-Ruby?”
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And there goes my brain. Haven't been this mind-blown since I finished Echo
I.. Don't know what to say.....
There was a moment of understanding between both, of what had to be done, what they both lost, and what was at stake.
It was a long journey for both, and they shared it in true understanding. They knew, they saw, but this.
My mind is just blown... Bravo.
That was one heck of a lead up to an intense fight. Like a Tsunami.
And now the start of the story is reached, and all thats left is the prolog.
Looks like Hard Boiled likes teh spirits so much, theyre coming back to play with him.
At this point I don't know if we are over the waterfalls entirely or if more loom ahead. What if this is a bonus boss of some sort? Still a great story, heck, Ruby might have a wish of her own.
...fucking what
Also, I think that's one of the most chill boss fights I've ever read.
Cigars aren't supposed to be inhaled, but I guess maybe Hardy's beyond caring or something?
10419871
Hardy gives zero fucks. He's immortal. Plus he doesn't smoke very often.
-Chessie
YES!
I KNEW he'd use her horn!
Not that Hardy can figure out why.
Eh ... i think he should be saying he's "been given a taste" instead?
Not to worry, Hardy is here to help you with that!
I mean, there are far worse things you could be called, Hardy. Iris Jade has used most of them already ...
This seems like a rather predictable oversight.
I hope that Hardy doesn't have to test that ...
That was a twist I had not seen coming. Ruby would be proud though.
If it is, you're one of the few who truly deserves it.
Hardy should have filled his pockets with batteries. A nice, spicy snack to help him recharge.
Well, that sounds really ominous.
Well, this ought to be fun. Are we talking a mare who played both sides while happening to be stone cold dead at the time until Hardy stabbed her soul into another body, literally?
Note to self: Ghostly children in magic organs get high off of destructive magical weapons.
10420075
A bit, yeah.
-Chessie
10420031
That Chekov's gun was loaded awhile ago. Glad I finally got to fire it.
10419795
Echo? I'm afraid I don't know that one.
10419824
The waterfall was this chapter. The rocks at the bottom are next chapter. The hive of poisonous lava-bees with rabies are also next chapter.
-Chessie
10420096
I did wonder at that line, but it was too fun not to include.
-Chessie
10420119
Because of course they are. Oh, WAT
Why did I think this was gonna be properly concluded? Except it sorta-kinda is? This is 'mother of all twist endings' coming up, a lot more than 'final boss'. THAT was 'final boss', except… it's weird that Hardy's sense of injustice is just not going off anymore. I guess shit got too real. Went to a level where there was only battle, and things got simpler.
I feel like I'm about to be mighty confused, but at the same time things aren't going to get complicated again. We're past that, somehow.
I hope I understand, in some way, what goes on that sets these poor foolish ponies against each other in such dire ways. The ending was BEYOND justice. That's… noir.
HOLY FUCK MOTHER OF PLOT TWISTS I DIDN'T SEE THAT ENDING COMING, WOAH BOY!!!!
10420119
It's a visual novel by The Echo Project, on itch.io
...Well, FUCK.
10420292
One more chapter.
And don't worry. Proper conclusion is coming.
-Chessie
... *smacks hands together in a sudden loud CLAP!* Welp! That was definitely one hell of a chapter. And now like Hardy, I too must go slip into madness.
Until next time Chessie, I bid thee adieu!
Okay... Wasn't expecting that. Oh god, I can just imagine next time.
"Oh, hi Ruby. Sorry I used you as a lethal weapon... Oh, and I might be dating your sister, is that okay?"
10420119
I had actually been counting on him using the horn on the Entity, but this is quite satisfactory (and satisfying).
...welllll shit... this just keeps getting better and better dont it? or should that be stranger and stranger?
I'm sorry chessie WHAT?!!!!!!
WHAT? And why?
Um okay So Ruby's back I guess.
I liked how the Final Baddie (so far) was actually erudite and relatively kind to Hardy. I definitely didn't expect genuine respect to blossom between the two of them.
Hardy's been battling absolute evil for the entirety of the story so far, so it's refreshing to
encounter a relatively decent pony who's been predetermined to commit atrocities under penalty of eternal torture.
Dunno what to make of the very end of the chapter.
I hope Swift, Taxi, Limerick, etc. get to have one last appearance before the end.
That plot twist.
Hardy.exe has stopped working
I did wonder if/how Ruby would be released/restored from her horn... I guess now we’ll see where this leads. Even though we never met her personally, it seemed she was a strong character with a story left to tell. Very much looking forward to this.
Nice job on giving us a good completion of DW. It was a much better ‘discovery’ of him than the usual cliche ‘Bad guy who pretends to be nice/honourable’. You could almost feel sorry for him and believe that under other circumstances he would have been a true philanthropist of great proportions or possibly even a member of the Librarians.
As for Hardy... the hits just keep on coming. At least he has had, for just a little while, a little bit of civility and polite conversation to help offset the masses of crazy that has been his life over the last few weeks.
Holy.
Carp.
Oh Hardy... I really hope this isn't an Arlington Road gambit on the part of the final boss, but I have a bad feeling...
10429788
I always did have a thing for the noir genre, even if I haven't seen or read many of them. There was something attractive about being a rough detective in a rougher town, wearing a trench-coat and fedora, taking on a case to help others even when they believe they can't be helped, all wrapped up in the contrast of beautiful black and white lighting.
And since I like yours so far, I'm sure you'll hear plenty from me around the block.
Until next time, Chessie
10429902
If you get the urge, do feel free to join the Starlight discord. There's a fair number of cool people there.
-Chessie
I'm calling it now, Swift Cuddles as the new chief of police.
My question is, Chessie: when Hardy says free the moon, doesn't that mean that the nightmare takes over his body? But in this case, he transforms into the nightmare but still retains control of his body somehow. Am I misunderstanding something?
10430191
Normally, yes, but Nightmare is not in a condition to take over.
-Chessie
Well I’m not too surprised by that. Hardy mentioned Ruby to Diamond Wishes and I recalled Hardy still had her horn. He then stabbed Diamond Wishes with the horn. And as I read that, I remembered a brief inkling about how a unicorn’s soul can remain within the horn, and a thought briefly crossed my mind before I continued reading pushing said thought away: In stabbing Ruby’s horn into Diamond Wishes, would that cause Ruby’s soul to go into Diamond Wishes’ body? Like I said the thought was pushed away as I continued reading, but when that last part in the chapter happened, I wasn’t too surprised. Now the next question is: What does Ruby intend to do?
One more thing:
That quote sounds familiar. Didn’t Harvey Dent from the second Batman movie say something similar to those lines? Something like, “You either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain”
I absolutely love this twist! It gives a chance of some really needed catharsis for poor Hardy, and maybe Diamond Wishes become Ruby's version of the little Nightmare fragment Hardy has.
And you made a very compelling villain out of Diamond Wishes, someone who lacked the fundamental thing that ponies are all but defined by, so all he can do is follow the path that's been forged for him. Part of me thinks he didn't really want to win, drawing it out so Hardy had every chance to stop the madness, or maybe he was just having fun with it. No matter what, it was fun to watch and I'm eager to see how this all finally ties up.
10467711
In hindsight it wasn't. I was just taking the title a little too literally at first. And tracking this now that I'm finally caught up (I've since finished Act 3 Ch 77).
First off, super cool fight, I do fear that words don't give it justice. So I guess imagination will have to do.
Second...uh, even bigger surprise entrance there at the end. I mean, I guess this is because he used her horn to shank him. Though, given the likely soul-partitioning that seems to have happened here, this does seriously bring up questions about who/what was pulling her stings. Her own 'benefactor', as it were.
With this, it's come full circle, in a way. Which for a story this long is rather fitt-you're going to have the epilogue start the same way the first chapter did, didn't you?
10646249
I'm gonna try not to do the 'epilogue starts the same way' thing.
-Chessie
Well... That was unexpected. The fight and the twist. I turned to this chapter expecting fire, brimstone, and some city-destroying magic. Instead I just felt sad. I'm guessing Hardy stabbing Diamond with Ruby's horn is what caused her to show up?