Myths and Birthrights

by Tundara

Book Two: Chapter Twenty-Five: The Titanomanchy

Myths and Birthrights
By Tundara

Book Two: Duty and Dreams
Chapter Twenty-Five: The Titanomanchy

Fleur was the first to act.

She threw herself at Twilight, shoulder lowered, spear and shield tucked close to her sides. The ground cracked with the strength of her legs. Air became distorted, bending until it snapped from her passage. Tackling Twilight, she flung them both skyward, leaving a shallow crater from the force of her kick. Aegis and Pallas flew beside Fleur, the mighty shield catching a kick

Higher, higher, and higher they rocketed. The ground shook with their repeated blows, Twilight's hooves hammering against Aegis. Fleur reversed Pallas and thrust with the blunted butt end. To her shock, Twilight caught the shaft under her leg, grabbed Fleur’s mane with her magic, spun them both, and then hurled Fleur back to the disc.

A white comet trailing pink, Fleur clipped a distant ridge of Kiligrifjaro. She tore through the mountain, its granite core unable to halt her flight. The cloud of dust hid the rest of her calamitous flight from the knot of observing ponies. Underhoof the ground shook as Fleur crashed into the far northern plains many miles away.

Shock bleaching the colour from their fur, Applejack and Rainbow Dash just stared for an eternally long second up at their friend.

“Nopony will say I didn’t give you a fair chance, Fleur!” Twilight’s amplified voice carried to every corner of the fields. “It’s obvious that the shade you harboured has corrupted you.”

At the tip of Twilight’s horn, a globule of twisted blue-black magic gathered. Her dress billowed around her, and from her pouches fluttered a trio of scrolls, caught in the magical nexus she conjured.

Soir’s tongue tingled with a sour aftertaste from the dark aether permeating the air. She backed up further against Hades, and looked up to see what he was going to do just as Twilight unleashed a lance of putrid energy.

There was a shrill scream like the angry cords of a guitar string being pulled in half as the foul energies cut through the afternoon towards Fleur. They pierced the thick cloud of dust Fleur had cast up in her crash, and the ground shook again.

Soir’s heart sank, and tears ran freely down her face.

She saw Faust’s broken body from the day Lourdes had been destroyed, only this time it was Fleur. It was only a fleeting image, born of the deepest dread.

It broke as the lance of blackest magic shot back into the sky, and out of the dust appeared Fleur. Wings straining, she huddled behind Aegis’ unbreakable face, using the shield to turn Twilight’s magic aside.

If Fleur said anything to Twilight as she hurtled towards her friend it was swallowed by the wind and the horrible shrieking of Twilight’s magic as she conjured a second, and then third bolt.

The second was turned toward the city, where it pierced the great shield Hades used to keep the remaining undead contained. A large swath of the blue shell was peeled away, leaving a gaping hole along one side of the dome.

The third cut a gash across the battlefield, leaving a shallow canyon that split the reeling zebrican army. Miraculously, no one was caught in the actual blast, or if they were not even ash remained.

Remorseful determination in the tight corners of her eyes, Fleur swung Aegis as hard as she could with her new alicorn strength. At the same moment there was a flash next to Twilight, a slit opening in the air through with a second, midnight sky could be seen. From the slit emerged Llallawynn.

“You should have just gone back to Canterlot and been happy!” Twilight brought Llallawynn down on Aegis in a tremendous stroke. Where nothing before had been able to harm Aegis, the starheart steel blade bit into the aurichalcum shield.

Fleur darted back, putting a little distance between her and Twilight, tucking Aegis close to her shoulder. Smirking, Twilight dismissed Llallawynn, confident that she’d proven that the fabled shield could no longer be relied upon.

“Please, Twilight, I know this is not the real you. Vos amis ont besoin de vous,” Fleur tried to reason with the titan.

Curling her lip, Twilight snarled. “What I want. What Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, or Rainbow Dash want doesn’t matter. I am what the disc requires!” Hundreds of smaller, bright violet darts flashed from the Twilight’s horn, showering Fleur and the lands beneath her. Aegis blocked many, turning them aside.

Leaping forward, Sirius spread her wings and let out a shout as she formed a dome of roiling orange-red flames over the cluster of ponies. Soir ducked, covering her head and tensing as the darts drove into the ground and shattered harmlessly against Sirius’ spell. Dirt pitter-pattered through Sirius’ magic in a thin smattering that pelted lightly against Soir’s face.

As she uncovered her eyes, Soir was surprised to find a number of thanes gathered around Sirius, their shadowy wings splayed, but ignoring the calamity unfolding overhead. Silently they watched Hades, their presence as unnerving as the fiery magics on display in the sky.

“Lord Hades, what are they doing here?” Sirius demanded over her shoulder as she struggled to maintain her spell.

Ignoring Sirius, Hades addressed the thanes. “Return the souls collected. I recant my curse.” Hades shook grit and gravel from his wings, glaring at the darting lights pulsing above. “And contact the gods of Ioka. They are all to come. We must gather to end the threat of this titan. I am calling for a Titanomachy.”

The thanes bowed. Though their stony expressions hid it, secret joy filled them. With great fervor they vanished into the grey mists where they’d hidden the souls taken from the first-born fillies. At Zerubaba the swarm besieging the city cocked their ears, then dispersed in a sudden flourish. In all corners of the disc fillies began to awaken, jolting up in their beds and rubbing away the thick crust of sleep from their eyes, none the wiser for the weeks they’d spent comatose. Parents cried out in joy, and doctors scratched their heads utterly baffled by the end of the disease, just as they had been by its emergence. In Castle Canterlot’s throne room, the Crystal Palace, and Thornhaven messengers appeared, conveying Hades call to gather.

Back in Griphonia, Hades addressed the Elements and cluster of fillies. “We need to hurry. Fleur won’t be able to hold Twilight’s attention long, and the other alicorns won’t arrive in time.”

Turning away from the clashing blades and crashing blows of the alicorns overhead, Soir saw that Hades had started a spell of his own. Applejack and Rainbow Dash snapped out of their stupors and started to intercept Hades, distrust working at the corner of their jaws.

“Now, see here—” Applejack began, but stopped at a gesture of Hades’ wing, a silvery-sheen encompassing her and Rainbow. Both were held in an unyielding grasp of magic, bodies locked in place and voices stifled. Behind them, Gilda clutched Talona tight, her eyes darting between Hades and the Elements.

Plucking up a protesting Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, Hades simultaneously stamped a hoof to the ground. There was a rumble deep under Soir, and then the earth heaved and was swept aside as a flat slab of granite emerged. Setting the fillies down next to the Elements, Hades moved onto the next spell without missing a moment. He was deep in the throws of ancient magics born in the time of primordial dreams and shifting nightmares. His eyes glowed like luminous blue jewels in the bottom of a crystalline clear pond beneath the full moon, and his mouth formed silent words that resonated in Soir’s bones.

Far overhead the sky shook and the heavens trembled as Fleur and Twilight clashed again.

Hades ignored them.

Circles and sharp lines burned themselves into the granite slab. They cut elegant arcs, connecting and then splitting, forming a series of three triangles, and a half-moon encompassing a twisted sun. Runes unfurled in the spaces between the outermost circles, and then down the straight lines towards the heart of the circle. To where Sweetie sat on her haunches rocking back and forth, tears of thick, oily black ichor running from milky white eyes.

As he worked, with the disc shaking from the battle between alicorns, Hades said to Rainbow and Applejack, “Once I start, this can not be stopped with cataclysmic results. When completed Sweetie will be saved, or lost for all time. If I fail, you will have but a moment to flee. In the worst outcome, I will be weakened for a time, and there will be the angriest being in creation with which to contend. Our only hope will be that the Queen of Wrath will draw Twilight’s attention, and when they have worn themselves out against each other we may deal with them both.”

“Roger, roger!” Pinkie popped up between her friends, and saluted. After a moment of exchanged looks, Rainbow and Applejack nodded.

Hades nodded to Pinkie, and said. “Very good. Let us commence.”

A beam of silver spun from the tip of his horn. It struck Sweetie between her eyes, and engulfed her in light. There followed a deep, bassy boom disconnected from the battle overhead.

And then bodiless laughter that tore from the ground.

In the sky god and titan clashed with spell and sinew. On the ground god and demon slammed their wills against the other.

The amount of raw, spent aether drifting in the air was almost suffocating. Even the battle at Lourdes was only a shadow next to the power on display.

Soir shook her head violently as a pink streak blazed across the now cloudless crystalline sky. Shockwaves rippled from an impact that blasted over the fields, kicking up clouds of stinging dirt and whipping Soir’s mane and tail about. Her ears rang from the low booms and sharp refrains of the battle overhead.

Through it all Twilight never moved as Fleur darted in, and then dashed back to safety before arcing in for another exchange.

Soir’s heart thudded harder and harder in her chest.

She curled her hooves around herself as Twilight began to laugh, the mad sound louder than even the continual, cloudless thunder of Fleur’s attacks.

“You are safe here.” Hades said as he worked his magic, extending a black wing over Soir. “I swear it to you.”

Soir looked up at Hades. Her mouth was dry as the great desert they had crossed. Her legs shook from more than just the continual tremours rippling through the earth.

Yet, she felt safe next to the God of the Dead.

He was her protector, even if she didn’t deserve it.

Not when she was so weak and useless. Unable to cast even the most minor cantrip.

And with gods, titans, and demons waging war.

Swallowing her fear, Soir stepped closer to Hades.

Fully immersed in his primordial spellweaving, Hades didn’t respond as she wrapped her forehooves around his own, thickly muscled leg. The bright nimbus of spiraling silvery blue aether cascaded from the tip of his horn. He gave a low grunt and dug his hooves into the stone.

A feral growl rumbled in Sweetie’s throat. Her eyes flashed like rubies, and she hurled herself against the innermost ring of the circle. Splits clove Sweetie’s hooves as she scraped them across an invisible barrier. Froth flying from her mouth she paced and snarled like a feral beast, throwing herself against a different portion of the ring after a few turns. On the third attempt the inner ring of the circle cracked, trembled, and then shattered.

Hades grunted and tensed as if he’d been bucked in the face. The beam coming from his horn doubled in intensity.

Out of the corner of her eye, Soir noticed at the last moment a ball of black fire roaring towards the cluster of ponies and casting circle. At the heart of the obsidian flames was Fleur, mane and wingtips burning as she used Aegis and spell to hurled back the brunt of the spell. Unable to stop her fall, she ripped through Sirius’ protective bubble as if it were made of wet tissue paper.

Fleur struck the earth just beyond the casting circle. Sharp shards of earth pelted the knot of ponies. Soir yelped and tried to cover her face as she was picked up and thrown by a gust of wind from Fleur’s crash. She was lucky, bouncing against Hades’ unmoving side. Everypony else was sent tumbling and rolling through the brittle grass. Pallas and Aegis fell on the far side of the casting circle, the holy armaments forming twin craters. Picked up again by the gusts caused by the weapon’s crash, the ponies were sent back towards the casting circle. Wrapping her talons around the fillies she’d been entrusted, Gilda hit her temple against a rock with a sickening smack. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head. She lay very still, but breathing, Soarin and Applejack hurrying over to check on her and the fillies. The others were all battered, but nopony else seriously hurt.

Panting, Fleur pushed herself up on shaky legs. A thick lather of sweat covered the newly ascended goddess. Her breaths were laboured, but her eyes held the same steely light. Before she could launch herself back into the fray, Twilight came to her.

Slamming down just in front of Fleur, Twilight back-hoofed her before she could react even with her enhanced sight. The percussion of the blow knocked Soir flat as Fleur was sent careening through the magical barrier surrounding Southstone Spires. Several puffs of smoke lifted from buildings toppling, and Fleur didn’t reappear this time. Quick as a cobra strike, Twilight’s gaze snapped towards Hades.

Over twelve hoof-lengths tall, Twilight very literally towered over the gathered ponies. As Soir cowered, Twilight continued to grow, her mane and tail elongating, wingtips gouging the earth like talons raked through soft sand.

“I won’t let you summon her!” Twilight growled in the back of her throat, menace flashing like the flickering of a flame in a snarling tiger’s eyes. She raised a hoof, and brought it down towards Hades’ exposed back. Trapped in the spell he couldn’t defend himself against the oncoming blow.

“No!” Pinkie yelled at the top of her lungs, flinging herself sidelong through the air with hooves outstretched to intercept Twilight’s strike. Soir tried to cringe, to look away, but Twilight moved too fast.

At the last instant Twilight diverted her swing. Had it landed nothing would have remained of Pinkie. The disc heaved and cracked. Winds blasted from the point where Twilight struck the disc. A mile long chasm, curling around the base of the mountain, began from where her hoof landed.

Mane lanky, and tears welling in her eyes, Pinkie faced down Twilight.

Twilight didn’t look at Pinkie, her focus on the chasm emerging from beneath her hoof. Her wings began to tremble, and her face curled with fear.

“Move aside, Pinkie,” Twilight said, thunder rumbling deep in her throat as magic filled the command.

“Nope!” Pinkie responded, defiance scrunching up her face. “You need to take a time-out, Twilight!”

The ludicrous statement made Soir reel back in surprise. It evidently had the same effect on Twilight, the towering titan letting out a guffaw and shaking her head.

“I don’t have time! Hades is using Sweetie to summon a Queen of Hell!”

“Nope!” Pinkie again said. “He is helping her! He is going to save Sweetie. Unlike you!”

A sharp crack sounded over the fields as Sweetie struck the barrier keeping her in place. Twilight’s eyes flickered towards the casting circle, and her mouth pressed into a determined line, before returning to Pinkie.

“This is a dangerous place, Pinkie. You really should go home to Ponyville.” Twilight’s horn glowed with magic, and before Pinkie could protest anymore, she, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Soarin popped out of existence. Not just them, Soir realised as Scootaloo and Apple Bloom had also vanished.

“There, that’s better. Now I don’t have to worry about hurting the good ponies.”

Tending to Gilda and the sobbing Talona, Sirius demanded, “What did you do to them?”

“I sent them back to the Bellerophon,” Twilight answered. “Ponyville was a bit too far away. Captain Hardy and the others will take care of them. Do you want me to send you there too? You’ll be safe there, and Gilda looks hurt. Yes, she needs a doctor. I will send you too. This place is becoming too dangerous for you, my little star.”

Before she’d finished speaking, Twilight cast her spell again, and Gilda, Talona, and Sirius vanished.

Smiling smugly, Twilight returned her attention to Hades. “Now, to the matter at hoof.”

Behind Soir, Hades yelled with the effort to save Sweetie. In front of her towered Twilight, a twitch in the mad-god’s left eye. Heart crashing inside her chest, Soir had never felt so small and powerless.

So completely, and utterly useless.

An inconvenience anchored around capable ponies’ necks.

Curling into a ball beside Hades, Soir wished with all her being that she’d never left home. That she had stayed in Lourdes with her mama. There she wouldn’t have been a bother to anypony. There she could hide and not have any responsibilities to find gods and save the world.

The ground trembled as Twilight took a step closer.

This was it, Soir realised. The grand adventure with the strange foreigner was over, and at the end was fear, misery, and doubt.

As Soir trembled, terrified tears blurring her vision, she saw in the dirt where Pinkie had been a pink glimmer from a gem. Rubbing clear one eye, Soir looked harder in surprise. It was a large, rough gemstone. Inside it something called to her. Cautiously, she reached out, grabbed it in a hoof, and pulled it to her chest. The crystal was warm to the touch, and oddly soft, like cotton candy.

Picking up the crystal also grabbed Twilight’s attention. The titan’s gaze locked onto Soir, and the flickering object she cradled.

“Shades,” Twilight hissed, mane violently whipping around her, “I should have finished the job in Zerubaba. Give that to me.”

“No!” Soir pressed herself tighter against Hades’ leg.

Hades glanced over, but locked in his spell, there was little he could do to intervene. He had to complete the ritual in order to save Sweetie. The beam arced brighter, a thick pulse knocking Sweetie back into the middle of the circle. Hooked silver chains manifested around Sweetie’s limbs and neck, biting into flesh without drawing blood. Straining, aetheric metal flexing to the edge of breaking, the hooks began to pull Astaroth’s palid form slowly out of Sweetie.

Low, feral growls rattled in Sweetie’s throat. Sweat trickled down her face, and she clutched her hooves tight to her chest as she rocked back and forth. Her eyes bulged, wide and panic stricken. Digging her hooves into the hardened earth, she threw herself against the barrier again, and again, and again. Cracks began to worm through the field keeping her in the spell circle. The back of Astaroth’s head emerged, sliding from Sweetie with a sickening squelch. Poisonous steam curled from the edges of Astaroth’s exposed mouth, and her cold eyes fixated on Hades, Soir, and Twilight. Half exposed, the Queen of Wrath fought with all her impossible strength, digging her own claws deeper into Sweetie. With a last, desperate screech, the demoness charged the nearly fractured wards.

At the same time Twilight reached down towards Soir, and the stone she desperately clutched.

“Give me Authea!” There was a flash of fear in Twilight’s eyes. Something about the crystal worried the unstoppable titan. “She is too dangerous!”

Hades looked between Sweetie, a thick lather covering her mutated body with Astaroth almost fully exposed, and Twilight leaning towards Soir.

Soir looked up at him, and tried to convey in that momentary glance that he needed to finish his spell. He gazed back, regret in his ancient blue eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Hades said, and he cut the beam connecting him to Sweetie, spun as he engulfed Soir in his wings, and leapt from the casting circle.

The moment he broke his spell the barrier holding Sweetie in place shattered. The chains dragging Astaroth free snapped, and the demon slammed back into Sweetie. Pained panic was replaced with hungry triumph, a vindictive grin splitting Sweetie’s mouth.

“No!” Soir shrieked, hoof outstretched towards Sweetie.

Except, Sweetie was gone. Any vestiges of the filly devoured by Astaroth. A sickening refrain of bones snapping brought bile to Soir’s mouth as what had been Sweetie was remade into a horrific perversion of life. Hooves cracked apart, long fingers and green nailed toes bursting from what had been the frogs of hooves. Limbs elongated, becoming thin as Astaroth’s body swelled and shrank at the same time, fur falling out in thick clumps to reveal taught skin over ribs and bony hips. Only her mane remained, retaining the white and pink tones of Sweetie, descending over Astaroth’s face, hiding it behind wispy curtains. Long, leathery wings grew longer still, like blades thrust out from between Astaroth’s shoulders. The skin on Astaroth’s brow split, and from it emerged a crown of frozen blood.

Fast as a pouncing panther, growls turning into unearthly howls, Astaroth hurled herself towards Twilight with a mighty thrust of her spidery legs. Hunched forward, she moved in a wholly unnatural manner that made Soir’s mind recoil. There was a flash as the demon crashed into the titan, followed by a bang that rattled Soir’s bones. Twilight was momentarily lifted off her hooves by the blow to her sternum, her own eyes wide with shock at the strength within the demon queen.

“We have to go back,” Soir grabbed at Hades’ silvery mane with her free hoof. “We have to save Sweetie!”

Hades sadly shook his head. “Nothing can save her now. It would take a miracle beyond what any god can perform to bring her back. Sweetie is gone, body and soul. All that remains is Astaroth.”

A dreadful lump lodged itself in Soir’s throat. Hades would have saved Sweetie if it weren’t for her. He’d been only a few moments away from purging the demon. A few seconds. A few more seconds…

Tears streamed down Soir’s face as she watched Astaroth clash with Twilight. There was nothing equine about the demon. She stood as tall as Twilight, long arms entwined around the titan, broken shackles dangling from her wrists draped across the earth. Diseased steam whistled through hooked teeth, cracks leaking black blood from grinning lips. Head shooting forward, Astaroth bit Twilight on the shoulder.

A roar of pain and frustration broke from Twilight. Magic pulsed around her horn. Stormy clouds were torn apart, and in their place a giant, aetheric circle appeared. Thousands of runes formed clockwork lattices far more intricate than those Hades used in his attempt to purge Astaroth. Pulses of lavender energy coursed around the outer rim, down the bands connected to the circle’s core, and along the interwoven spans.

Sensing danger, Astaroth released Twilight just as a singular beam of pristine starlight emerged from the center of the circle. Astaroth reached up to grab the oncoming beam. It cut through her hand, severing fingers, wrist, elbow, and shoulder before driving the demoness deep into the ground, burning a sunken hole through the disc’s crust down to the underlying mantle.

Twilight, having not moved a step even as her own spell cascaded over her, narrowed her eyes as she peered into the hole.

Gently laying a hoof to the wound on her shoulder as skin knitted together and flesh mended, Twilight mused, “Maybe I worried over nothing.”

No sooner did Twilight speak than the ground beneath her gave way and Astaroth emerged, driving her crown of frozen blood into Twilight’s stomach and flinging the titan skyward right towards Hades and Soir. A heavy thrust of his wings pushed Hades out of Twilight’s path at the last moment. Almost thrown off, Soir buried herself deeper into Hade’s shoulders as she clung to him for dear life. Astaroth emerged from the ground, arm and hand regenerating, new muscle binding itself to bleached bones as skin crawled over new flesh. With a sickening crack, her lower jaw dislocated, hanging open to reveal row upon row of hooked teeth. The foul vapours leaking from Astaroth’s open maw were sucked back in as her belly ballooned, and then with a gush, a wave of absolute cold was expelled.

Everything in the path of Astaroth’s breath flash-froze like they’d been trapped atop the tallest peak on the northernmost edge of the edge in deepest winter for a thousand years. A raging blizzard clawed into the balmy Griphonian skies, howling with rage pent up since before Ioka was born. Twilight was hit by the full force of the gale, and even with her titanic strength, was sent careening further, tumbling and twisting unable to regain control. After several hundred lengths she thrust out her wings and formed a thin shield around herself to hold the gale at bay.

Beating his wings hard to stay ahead of the gale’s leading edge, Hades charged a spell of his own. Soir was plunged into absolute black for an instant, cold sinking its claws through her coat in that infinitesimal moment, before she was back in the air above Southstone.

Off in the distance, Twilight and Astaroth were dark specks in the blue fabric of the sky.

A flick of Twilight’s wings launched her at Astaroth. She battered aside spell after spell hurled into her path. The heavens trembled as titan crashed into demon, and together screeched towards the ground. Like the ringing of hammers upon anvils they traded blow after blow. Twilight didn’t restrain herself as she had against Fleur. Every kick, every punch, every spell she threw with all her apocalyptic might.

Such was the fury of the exchange that echoes reached over the vast savannah all the way to Zerubaba, and the ancient dragons in their desert lairs began to stir. Even through covered ears, Soir was deafened.

The pair crashed among the remains of the zebrican artillery. Cannons and trebuchets were cast aside like leaves in a strong breeze. Snatching a bronze cannon, Astaroth swung it in both hands like a club. Metal rang as it connected with Twilight’s jaw. Her head snapped sharly to the side as she careened through an abandoned baggage train.

Fast as a panther, Twilight was back on her hooves. Around her a dozen cannons levitated, and then were rocketed at Astaroth.

Astaroth swatted them aside as she would a drunken fly. The cannons were only distractions, as Twilight teleported behind Astaroth and let fly a wild haymaker that sent the demoness tumbling this time.

Even before Twilight gave chase, Astaroth gained control of her flight. She howled and screamed, froth falling from the edges of her foul mouth as Twilight gave chase.

An aetheric whip lashed at Astaroth. It tore through her wings, cut slices that bled a thick, dark ichor from her sides, then wrapped around her leg. Muscles in her neck bulging, Twilight swung Astaroth against the cliffside beneath Southstone Spires. The mountain shook and the cliff face shattered. Debris rained beyond the miasmic horizon.

In a long rumble the mountainside slid, the road into the city falling in a cascade of splintered stone and dust.

Twilight stood unmoving as the mountain fell down around them. She kept Astaroth pressed in the landslide. Boulders and chunks of mountain buffeted them. Astaroth roared defiance at Twilight. Digging her feet into the crumbling ground, her gaunt hands reached around Twilight’s throat. Black talons sank into steel muscles bulging in Twilight’s neck, and with a powerful kick, she threw them both from the landslide and towards Southstone Spire’s middle tier. The aetheric shield around the city flashed as titan and demoness punched through.

Entwined, they crashed among the homes of former merchants and artisans. Buildings tumbled in showers of dust and mud bricks, an obscuring cloud rising over the district like ash from the maw of an angry volcano. Lurid purple-black lightning crackled around the billowing clouds and were spat into the sky. Hades’ barrier around the city flickered, dimmed, and then grew brighter than before, but marred with sickly patches of pulsating algae-like matter.

Soir gulped, and held tighter to Hades’ shoulder.

“We must stop this!” She shouted over the crashing refrain of hidden blows.

Hades didn’t reply, just grimly watching the spectacle.

Somepony kicked the other hard. All Soir could make out was a black streak tumbling and smashing through building after building along an empty market street, followed by the groaning of a thick tower before it began to collapse to the side, crushing a block of abandoned homes. A second figure emerged from the thick clouds, bounding from roof to roof on spidery legs. Moments later Twilight burst from the homes she’d landed among. Pumping her wings, she blazed a sparkling trail as she gave chase, a point of light emanating from the tip of her horn.

“They are making their way towards the castle,” Soir pointed towards Southstone’s palace. Her eyes widened with sudden, horrific realization. “The zebras Sweetie saved are there!”

“Souls for the demon to consume,” Hades grimly snarled as he beat his wings, propelling him into a screaming dive. “I wished to avoid showing this to a pony obviously so young and inexperienced, but if I withhold myself, this world will die.”

Astaroth noticed his approach, and leapt to meet him and Soir. She had the same angry grin that had claimed her from the moment Sweetie ended and only Astaroth remained. Brittle hoarfrost coated leathery skin, and the talons that reached towards Hades. Behind the Queen of Wrath came the Titan of Stars.

Stone faced, Hades flared his wings. Soir’s breath was pushed out of her lungs in a whoosh, and her hooves almost slipped from around Hades’ neck.

“Let sun bleed and moon shatter, and be the end of all days.” Thrusting a hoof overhead, Hades pointed the other at Astaroth. “Legions of the Dead, come to me!”

There weren’t any of the usual signs of magic, except the burnt scent of aether coiling off Hades’ mane and wings. Behind Hades a silvery tear opened like frayed silk sheets dangling over a window. On the other side lay an endless city of decayed majesty. Streets were filled with spectral ponies, milling about in despair beneath endless, eternal rain. It took Soir a moment to realise the city was Tartarus itself. In a colossal wave of screaming, jagged mouths and groping hooves, the spectres ascended. Screams resonated from the portal, merging into a single, impossible noise that tore through flesh and soul alike. In a glowing white tsunami, the spirits poured from the silvery rip in reality, and rushed towards Astaroth and Twilight.

Barely a hoof length from Hades, Astaroth hardly had time to brace herself before being engulfed by the spirits. Her eyes went wide, and for the first time anger gave way to a different emotion; fear.

Twilight attempted to cut a path through the spectral mass swarming over her. Ghostly hooves emerged from the morass, wrapping around her legs and wings. Dead faces appeared, moaning and screaming as they dragged Twilight from the sky.

For what seemed to be ages, the unceasing glut of spirits poured forth from Tartarus, splashing into the empty streets of Southstone Spires, and pouring down the deserted avenues, filling the city squares and forums, before they overflowed down the mountain’s sides.

Panting heavily, Hades lifted a trembling hoof, and with a gesture, re-sealed the tear he’d made between worlds. He stumbled in his flight, falling a short distance before catching himself.

“You alright, Mr. Hades?” Soir asked, trying to clamber into a position that wouldn’t hamper his flight.

Looking over his shoulders, his face was sunken and sallow. “I will be, in time. Bending my domain in such a fashion is very… taxing.” His flight faltered again, and slowly he began to descend towards Southstone’s ruined middle tier.

“That is an interesting trick,” came Twilight’s voice, amplified to bound off the mountain slopes and over the fields.

Aether fluctuated in thick, lavender bands around the titan as she floated over the fields, rising until she was above the mountain. Her dress, torn in only a few places, whipped about her as if she were in the middle of a gale. A trio of scrolls were tugged from where they’d rested against her flank, unspooling as they fell into tumbling orbits. Twinned rings formed of the wild aether, rotating and spinning about Twilight like she were the center of a dynamo device. Runes from the dawn of time blinked within the glowing semi-solid aether as a miniature storm coated the length of Twilight’s horn.

She was beautiful and frightening to behold.

“Look at what you’ve done!” Twilight thrust a hoof towards Astaroth, the demon, now as tall as a tower, rising seemingly unharmed by Hades’ magic. “I am this world’s protector! I am this world’s saviour!”

Sparks of miniature lightning coalescing along her horn, Twilight raised a hoof overhead.

Soir’s chest convulsed as a deep pressure ran through her body. Hidden between her and Hades, the pink crystal hummed with warmth.

The air around Twilight distorted, bending and turning in on itself as the rings about the titan continued to speed up.

Hades narrowed his eyes, and gave a concerned grunt.

“They’re too late,” he whispered moments before the sky filled with the broad wings of alicorns.

First came Iridia and Faust in light summer dresses. Girded in golden armour, with fiery blade at her side, Celestia and mighty Zeus appeared to the south, racing each other to reach the site of the confrontation first. Young Tyr and Shyara came from the east, having over shot their destination. Luna and Fluttershy swept down from the west, freed from their duty of safeguarding Zerubaba from the thanes.

Twilight took in the oncoming gods, and gave a disappointed groan.

“Why can’t ponies just stay put and trust me?” She quietly asked, head tilted to the side and face tormented by rage. “I’ll prove to everypony that I’ll keep them safe! I’ll stop Astaroth, just like I stopped Nightmare Moon, Discord, and every other threat to Equestria.”

A sharp whine grew in Soir’s ears as the dynamo of spinning aether about Twilight reached a fevered pitch. Faster, faster, and faster they spun until they’d become invisible. And then they stopped, the rings halting with a deafening crack as Twilight cried out, “Let the tears of the stars fall and crack the disc. Suffer for threatening our little ponies.”

An impossible wail rattled through Soir as the sky tore open around Twilight. Slivers of night in the brilliant blue afternoon howled into existence. Twilight tossed back her mane, luscious lavender aether flowing from her as she channeled primordial energies. A dozen, two dozen, a hundred, then thousands of gashes opened around Twilight. One for every star in the night sky.

Spinning Soir around so he could clutch her tight to his chest, Hades growled in a low whisper, “Hold on.”

All at once, the jagged spears of sparkling obsidian shot from the twinkling holes. In a crushing refrain they rained upon the disc. Six thousand spears pierced the earth in thunderous booms that shook the land. Clouds of dust flew into the air and formed a smothering curtain.

Those zebras still attempting to flee were scattered by the quaking earth. Griffons flung to the ground by the mere passage of the shimmering spears. Soldiers fled in wild panic, others formed small knots and prayed for mercy. Heavily armoured cataphracts smacked with bone breaking impacts plummeted like glinting steel stars.

Hades darted and rolled with Soir. The air in Soir’s throat turned thick, like molasses was being poured down her mouth. His back hooves touched one of the shards of crystallized midnight, and it burst into a million deadly needles. Grunting, he swept his wings around Soir and his vulnerable stomach. Soir screamed as they tumbled and then sharply halted before shooting upwards on strong strokes of Hades’ straining wings between two more shards. A flick and twist put them into a spiral, and just barely they squeezed into clear air.

The others were less fortunate. A dozen shards converged on Faust and Iridia. The first few they darted beneath, only to be struck in the side as jagged lattice branches burst from the shard’s glistening surfaces. Silvery blood flowing down her face, a wing limply twisted at her side, Iridia plummeted. Faust slammed into her sister, her own wings pumping hard to keep her a hair’s length from the shards’ razor sharp edges. Ruby magic flared, and the Goddesses of the Spring and Harmony retreated.

“Everypony will be safe! Everypony will be secure!”

Twilight raged above the fields, more and more shards emerging from the holes she’d gouged in the sky.

“This is what everypony wants from me, isn’t it? What I was raised to do! What I was trained to do! What I was thrust into doing time and time again! Why do you try to stop me now?!”

Flying back to back, Zeus and Celestia cut and smashed any shard that came near. Lightning crackled along the God of Thunder’s broad chest, and down thickly hewn legs. There was none of the laughter or humour from the King of the Gods that usually sounded in low rumbles at a challenge, only a stern grimace and heavy growls as he worked up a lather. Behind him, Celestia cut through a shard with Coronal Edge, brilliant, orange hued flames pouring from the sliver of Sol used to craft the ancient blade.

Every blow shattered the shards into slivers as thin as a hair. They melted in the heat emanating from Celestia, turned into harmless puffs of black smoke. For all those she stopped, a hundred more pelted the area beneath the pair of mighty alicorns. Zebras and griffons howled as the needle-like rain dug into any exposed flesh. Sensing their plight, Celestia and Zeus dropped to the ground. They formed a bulwark against the deadly torrent with swaths of flames and sheets of crackling lightning to protect the mortals.

“Traitors!”

Flecks of shadowy magic flickered and twisted around Twilight.

“You are all traitors. You just had to stay in Canterlot and be happy while I did the dirty work. Isn’t that what you wanted all this time?”

Catching a shard in his hooves before hurling it beyond the horizon, Zeus said, “Glorious Celestia, we must strike Twilight before it is too late! Her power continues to grow as she loses more and more of her mind. Soon, even we will have difficulty against her might.”

Aurora-hued mane flying about her as she spun Coronal Edge’s cleaving blade over the heads of the zebras, its flaming trail consuming clouds of needles, Celestia shouted back, “Twilight can be saved! I know she can. If you trust me, then trust her.”

“Trust? A fine sentiment when one is sharing wine and bread before a fire, but unwise to give a titan hurling crystalised night and bolts of blackest aether at you!”

“Remember Faust’s warning; we must not fight each other.”

“Ha-ha!” Zeus’ booming laughter erupted from him with a toss of his golden mane. “I love it when you defy me!”

Spinning around Celestia to deflect an erratic dark bolt of corruptive aether with his wing, Zeus grabbed her, planted his back hooves, and brought her into a deep, passionate kiss. It lasted only a brief instant before she playfully slapped him, but her eyes danced with mischief in spite of the chaos surrounding them. Celestia was flush with adrenaline and urgency, alive as she’d perhaps never been before.

“Continue that later?” Zeus waggled an eyebrow suggestively, and Celestia could only give her head a slight, exasperated shake and roll of her eyes.

“Focus, King of the Gods.”

“Yes, we have a battle to win! We will safe-vouch these mortals from this battlefield while my brother contends with the titan and demoness. In Hades I trust. My brother will see both defeated.”

At this Celestia nodded, and together the Sun and Storms redoubled their efforts. Golden sheets of Sol’s might and crackling blue pulses of lightning flashed, spun, and jetted across the battle-field as they worked tirelessly to evacuate as many mortals as possible.

Shyara and Tyr never reached the deadly impact site. The pair of young goddesses stared open mouthed at the powers being unleashed in awe. Even on Gaea, the tales of a Titan unleashed requiring a convergence of gods seemed preposterous. That a Titan could defeat multiple gods before being stopped was surely the playwrights taking liberties to further the tension in their works. If anything, they’d downplayed the deadly power of a titan.

“What have I done?” Shyara covered her mouth in shock. “This isn’t what I wanted!”

“Cousin, snap out of it!” Tyr barked, tackling Shyara out of the path of the shard hurled by Zeus. “We have to help the others.”

“Help? Help!? Us?” Shyara pointed at her scarred face and wings. “A mere monster made of a single fallen star did this to me! How can I face that?!”

“Because, it’s our responsibility to protect the mortals. Look at Zeus and Celestia! We have to do the same, or what kind of gods are we?”

“We’ll just get in their way. We’re too young. Too weak. Too—”

“Fine! Be a coward. Run back to your demi-realm or wherever it is you hide. I know my duty, at least.” And with that disgusted retort, Tyr too dove towards the battlefield where swarms of undead attacked the fleeing stragglers of the zebrican army. She’d gone barely a body-length when the shadow of a crystal engulfed her and Shyara.

The cousins looked up in shock as jagged obsidian plummeted out of the sun. Both young gods began to form spells, and both realised that in the face of Twilight’s power there was little they could do to save themselves. Out of the corner of her eye, Tyr saw a flash of pink, and then a wall of feathers sprang up between her and the oncoming shard. Next to the wall hovered a bleak bladed greatsword in a tight blue-white aura.

“Mama?” Tyr asked, bewildered in the instant before the shard reached them.

Covered in ancient barding, Cadence clenched her teeth tight and swung Penumbra with all her divine strength. From tip to end she cleaved the giant shard. Sparks flew from her sword and barding before the halves fell away from the young goddesses.

Turning around, Cadence gave her adoptive daughter a hard tap between the eyes. “Your father is beside himself with worry!” Cadence admonished. “Your grandmother is worried. Your cousins are worried. Everypony was worried!”

“You too, mama?” Tyr rubbed the tender spot where she’d been hit.

Cadence smiled softly. “No. But, maybe I should have been as well. Come on, let’s help Celestia and Zeus.”

“As if they need our help,” Shyara grumbled, drawing Cadence’s ire.

“And you, young miss, have had everypony besides themselves with fright! You’ll be three hundred by the time you’re let out of the palace alone. There will be ballads and plays about the ‘Grounding of Shyara’. What happened to you? Where have you been?” To Tyr and Shyara’s surprise, Cadence wrapped her in a hug, gently cradling Shyara’s head against her shoulder.

Shyara tensed at first, then melted into the tender embrace, basking in the safety of Cadence’s wings.

“Iridia already gave me, um, the ‘riot act’, I think you call it?”

This caused Cadence to stifle a laugh. “Oh, did she now? And she didn’t think to tell the rest of us that she’d found you.” Cadence sighed, and added, “I can’t even be mad at her. Not with this.” Cadence sadly swept her eyes over the transformed plains.

Most of the surviving zebras and griffons had already fled, but there were many trapped within the range of the unfolding calamity. Griffons speckled the ground, some wandering in a daze, others joining with their former enemies in forging an escape route. Pockets of undead conglomerated in the newly formed wastelands, stalking the zebras and griffons. The more intelligent undead prioritized survival over base animalistic hunger, escaping to the north, west, and south. Those going south were met by the might of Celestia and Zeus, and were quickly dispatched.

In the north, Luna carved a path towards Twilight and Astaroth.

All the songs of her prowess, all the tales and legends heaped on her withers paled to the spectacle of the Moon unleashed. Tamashi in constant motion, a fluid crescent of oblivion, Luna danced through the undead and crystallized night alike. There was no pause, her strokes seeming to be utterly without effort. Cadence, who’d sparred on occasion with Luna over the past few years, realized that her mother had been holding back during their sessions. If Zeus and Celestia were pinnacles of raw might and power, Luna was that of grace and agility. She was like a rushing stream in the moonlight, mane sweeping about her in a sparkling cascade as she spun and jumped, every leaping bound taking her closer to where Twilight and Astaroth clashed at the heart of the calamity.

Fluttershy followed behind Luna, an emerald bow hovering by her side, twanging destruction at the abominations beyond Luna’s considerable reach. Together, they prevented a single undead monstrosity from escaping to the north.

Slowly the dust cleared and revealed a forest of towering midnight menhirs thrust from the ground for miles in every direction.

Watching from above, Soir’s mouth went dry.

Twilight seemed utterly unstoppable. A force of primal nature unleashed, pulsing with aether from before the world was born. With a sweep of her wing she conjured another wave of the deadly, shimmering obsidian shards. With a thrust of her hoof midnight webs of unnatural lightning sizzled from shard to shard across the wastelands.

“I can rewrite reality, and you think to defy me?!” Twilight was screaming, her little remaining composure lost. “A ruler must do what is best for a nation, a god what is best for the entire disc! For all of reality!”

Infused with so much raw aether, her body a conduit to the energies that birthed all the myriad worlds and realms between, Twilight grew in spurts and sudden surges. Her body bulged and then contracted before growing again until she was more than a hundred hooves tall.

Hades and Soir watched the other alicorns arrive and disperse, or were forced to flee.

Author's Note:

Due to the length of the chapter, after being advised, I've decided to cut it in half. There was a good break point right in the middle. This is just for ease of reading and management.

My Author's Notes at the end of the next chapter encompasses it and this one.

I hope this chapter wasn't too cumbersome or boring as its just a whole lot of fighting and 'pew-pew'.

If you've enjoyed my writing, please consider donating. You can buy me a Ko-Fi, or just directly donate with Paypal to [e-mail].  I could really use any support and help to keep writing. Thank you!

Comments

[Arzoo]

My only complaint is that Twilight immediately dumps all her friends out of reach. I know their narratives are mostly done with, but it feels like some core part of MLP was left out here by having her friends not even be present to talk to her.

As climactic action goes though, A+

[Tundara]

10166902

I somewhat agree, but I decided that I wanted to show Twilight wasn't totally 'gone' as she moved not just her friends and the CMC, but every pony but Soir, who was hiding in Hades' shadow. That was my narrative reason. My cogs and gears reason was there were just too many characters, and with the world ending explosions, I couldn't see how they'd be able to survive without more dues-ex interventions on their behalf.

So, for an epilogue, you'd want to see Twi's re-union with her friends? Hmmm, that doesn't fit that well with the current epilogue I have written. Would need to make a second epilogue... Not that that is a bad thing... ponder ponder ponder plot...