Memories of the Stone

by WanderingPony

Chapter 19: Hearts Will Be Broken

In the twilight hours, a new sun rose above the Crystal Empire.

Lifting her/their bodies in a ball of blinding light, the incarnated form of Alexandrite rose above the stadium to view the scuttling grey insects tainting the city around her.

"OFFER THINE WORSHIP, I SHALL BURN AWAY ALL TRANSGRESSIONS!

The radiance reached down into the stadium to the cowering crowd of demons, withering wings to nubs of half-melted flesh and turning the curved horns of Kindred into candles. Some ran. Others simply fell on their bellies and buried their faces in the unforgiving earth, their shrieks desecrating the ground they lay upon.

A moment of satisfaction seemed to pass across six faces as they beheld the scant dozens that remained, kowtowing before the unrelenting sun.

"MY DIVINE FLAMES SHALL MELT THY FLESH, SEAR THY BONES, UNSHACKLE THY SOUL!

Pinned like bugs within the gaze of Alexandrite, they writhed and became as dust on spears of glowing light.

---

Inside the wreckage, Sombra grunted as a thrice-reflected beam left a scorch mark across his chest and inspired a few choice comments about the wickedness of mares.

Outside, Shining Armor blinked away tears as another cone of light spread from Alexandrite into the city, reflections from the city's structure sending beams of white in mad angles. Monsters burned, but the screams of ponies blinded by the assault rose into the air as well- the occasional tourist or citizen stumbling out of a hiding place to fumble at a world that had become nothing but a sparkling, endless void.

"TWILIGHT! TWIIIIILIGHT!" he screamed at the thing that had swallowed his sister as it relentlessly purified block after block of un-natural life, even as Alexandrite judged the innocent along with the evil. Pegasi stumbled across the rubble, wingfeathers scorched into uselessness along with their eyes. Another pony pushed his horn to a smouldering glow as he tried to banish the darkness from his ruined vision. Only the crystal ponies seemed to have some resistance to the effects of the attacks- where others were blind or burnt, the power of Alexandrite barely dazzled them in it's mercifully brief passages.

If Twilight Sparkle was aware of the dot below her crying her name, she betrayed no sign.

Princess Cadence was far more useful.

"Celestia, Luna- Twilight and the Elements have gone mad! She's burning the Empire clean with magic and everypony along with it, and won't stop calling herself something named "Alexandrite"..."

Luna's response was to take wing as the Royal Guard trotted along the tracks towards the distant warmth of the south, escorting trains filled to bursting with ponies who had escaped the carnage.

"GUARDS, WARD THE CITIZENRY! MINE HORN NEEDS BE LENT TO THE FIGHT ONCE MORE, FOR PRINCESS CADENCE AND THE EMPIRE!"

Ragged cries of encouragement came from the crowded cars as the weary alicorn flew over them, straining for a glimpse of light beyond the snow-laden winds.

"Cadence, those who fled with me are clear of thine tormentors- though the storms press me sorely, I come!"

Celestia's response was more delayed and abrupt.

"The creature that has our little ponies in it's thrall dwells in the Elements they wear- it IS the Elements. Get them off however you can- break them if you must, but please...try not to harm anypony in doing it. I.....I...."

A wordless cry of pain rolled through the link as the roc managed to nip a divot of hoof from Celestia's hindleg, the distraction finally letting it draw blood. Celestia exploded into a panicked ball of flames from the agony and engulfed the giant bird, sending it tumbling to the earth with it's head a mass of charred flesh.

Suffering,nauseated by pain and the thick scent of roasted avian flesh, she stumbled into a three-legged landing on a nearby cliff. The wounded alicorn finally gave in to her exhaustion as the final, overwrought spell sapped what little reserves she'd been husbanding for hours.

"I....can do...no more." was all she managed before the Sun fell into night.

---

Having purged her sight of any creatures of darkness that had been foolish enough to scuttle beneath the gaze of Alexandrite, the spirit riding Twlight Sparkle's flesh gazed with thought at the Crystal Heart, glittering with a rainbow of sparks as it rested in it's perch overlooking the stadium. The five other ponies that formed her "body" alternatively stood on nothingness in mid-air or peered about, sensing the few remnants of darkness in the city yet unable to determine exactly where they might be found.

The original owners of those six bodies were....elsewhere.

Twilight Sparkle blinked, as if her eyes had been closed for hours. The world outside was...very magenta-ish and bright. Well, to be precise, it was the introduction of large amounts of white light filtered through the star-shaped crystal her spirit happened to be occupying, letting her look out into a realm that was actually rather familiar, for an alicorn. Spinning nearby were five very familiar, if oversized prisons, each holding their own pony. Applejack occasionally thrashed at the bottom of her equally orange apple-shaped prison, her hooves sliding like grease on something slippery. Past her, a red bolt of lightning held Rainbow Dash- suspended in a sea of what looked to be....bubbles? The faint shape of what had to be Rarity in her own donjon was a blurry mess as she tried to see through to the end of the line.

"I'm on the Astral Plane, and somepony used our elements as soul gems!" flashed through the scholar's mind. Of course, the Elements were as magical a gem as one could find, and if there was anything Twilight Sparkle was linked to..."But how could anypony have enchanted them?".

Never mind that. Whatever or whoever had them here was up to no good, and who knows what they could be doing?

Escape.

A blast of mental energy arced from Twilight's horn to impact on the wall- and bounce off, twice, thrice, four times...before *cracking* off her horn. Spirit or not, that HURT! When the stars stopped multiplying every time her eyes opened, she began to pace her prison.

"My prison is magic-proofed. Applejack's doesn't give her a leg to stand on, from the looks of it. Dash's won't let her get any wingspeed up, she'll just end up pushing all those bubbles around...but they can't all be proof against everything, CAN THEY?"

Turning away from the view of Applejack as she fell over once again, she brought both legs up and bucked a pair of golden horseshoes against the wall. Pain shot through her hindlegs from the effort, but ... the crystal had scratch marks! Again. A tiny crack. Again. Another crack. Again. Again. Again. AGAIN. AGAIN. AGAIN. Come. On. AGAIN. Again, again...

One side of the gem-prison had become a spiderweb of cracked facets, but no matter how many more times she struck, the wall refused to give further to her exhausted legs. A second blast from her horn splintered into needlelike shards of energy that reflected back to poke her in a dozen places with red-hot points.

"How do I hit that wall in one place with more force than using my hooves?" was the next question. She thought, while the agony passed into mere aches and pains. She studied the web of cracks, Twilight's subconscious mind assigning them patterns of stress and reinforcement. And finally, she looked at her horn, shuddered, and made a decision. Bracing herself, she lowered her head, spread her wings...

...and shoving off the wall with her wings flapping, she rammed the point of her horn into the jigsaw of broken crystal. A splintering sound filled her ears as her head crashed through the wall...and stuck there. Her view of the white light of the Astral was clear, but the wall had shifted to trap her head in place, and no matter how she flapped or pushed, forwards or backwards was going nowhere.

Staring through the wall of her citrine cage, Applejack couldn't be heard, but the way her eyes were bulging at the sight told Twilight she looked TOTALLY ridiculous at the moment. Then again, after seeing some of those pictures of her dancing at the Coronation Gala, what else was new? And besides, she might not be able to move, and her body was limp with exhaustion...but she had plenty of magic left.

And who built magic-proof prisons for an earth pony? Twilight pummeled the barrier keeping her from Applejack relentlessly with her horn, the concussions setting the crystal to ringing like a giant chime. Hooves clapped over her ears, Applejack lay still as the giant fruit was peeled and finally gave way to Twilight's efforts with a musical *TING*, leaving the apple looking as if an equally large worm had bored a hole in the top.

A loop of rope flicked from Applejack's tail settled neatly around a broken edge and dripping some unidentifiable slime, she dragged herself to freedom, grousing as it dripped back into the chamber.

"The NERVE of the fella who put me in that there thing! Trappin' an Apple in APPLESAUCE! Why, I'm gonna...Twilight, are you gonna be all right like that? That looks....kinda sharp."

"Never mind me, Applejack. Can you help Rainbow Dash?"

"Well, there's this kinda glowy nothin' between me and her, but..."

Looking over the edge, Applejack watched a dollop of pulped fruit drip off the edge of her hoof and fall. And fall. And fall...until it vanished from sight.

"Hoo boy, that there is a LOT of nothin'." Keeping a tight grip on her anchor, Applejack shook off her coat, droplets flying in all directions to plunge into nothingness. A stray bit hit Twilight on the nose.

Hmm. Zap apple. Sadly, the angle and distance was going to make lifting her friend over to the next prison pretty much impossible...but Applejack was already on the job.

Tying a loop bigger than she was around in the lasso, the earth pony whipped it in a few quick circles and tossed the end as far she could. It settled around the top of Dash's containment, and with a quick pull, she tightened it until the line lost all but the slightest bit of slack.

A moment to make sure her hat was VERY firmly settled on her head, a few deep breaths...and she began to walk across an ocean of nothing on a single rope. A memory flashed before her eyes.

Big Mac when he was just not-so-little MacIntosh, holding one end of the rope tight in his teeth as his crazy sister walked down the line from the hayloft to the barn floor. After the circus had come to Ponyville, the filly had been wanting to try the one thing that had her on the edge of her hooves...four steps to go, three, two...and her hooves slipped on the last bit of rope, sending her crashing onto Mac's back. They couldn't get up for ten minutes straight from laughing that hard at the "Great Appletini's" daring high-wire act!

Memory faded back to reality, and with a little hop, Applejack landed on the roof of Dash's gem-cell. She gave it an experimental tap with one hoof. Hmmm....

"Time to let off a little steam."

Applejack stomped a brisk tattoo on the roof, chips of ruby flying in all directions as her hooves pummeled the prison. In less than a minute, the crystalline surface failed, and a hole gouted bubbles that floated up and outwards into the "sky" until finally, the only thing occupying the cell was Rainbow Dash. For about two seconds. Call it one and change- the pegasus did need a second to get flapping, after all.

"OHHHHHH YEAH!"

Hovering in place, Dash gave her friend a quick hug of gratitude, then flitted over to drift before Twilight's rocky predicament.

"You want me to get you outta there? I'll just go WHAM and POW and BAM and it'll be all CRACK and BLAM and..."

Thinking about the idea of Rainbow Dash punching razor-sharp crystal bits anywhere near her neck got Twilight encouraging her friend to go help whoever was next door instead.

And that happened to be Rarity, who was wobbling at the bottom of an purple octahedron, her hooves barely keeping purchase on the bottom edges. The facets shone like delicate stained glass, just waiting for the slightest push to split them apart from the inside...and send the unicorn plunging into infinity. It was a prison as stylish as it was lethal...but not for your neighborhood Rainbow Dash! A quick dive under Rarity and with a (overdone as usual) little shriek, the unicorn was towed through the air to safety as the walls of her deathtrap swung uselessly.

Next was a blue, translucent balloon, with a rosy butterfly of quartz glittering only a short distance away. Inside the balloon was a clearly amused Pinkie Pie as she ricocheted off the springy walls, while Fluttershy looked plaintively from her imprisonment inside the "head" of hers. Twilight suggested they take them in order, so Applejack made her best effort to bust her way into Pinkie's soul prison...even if she DID look like she was having too much fun.

The resulting *SPROING* sent Applejack flying in need of a Dash taxi back to the butterfly. Dash's attempt to ram through the rubbery walls didn't do much better, though the rainbow-colored rebound WAS the longest Dash had ever managed to fly backwards at nearly the speed of sound.

(Sadly, the Astral Plane is not considered for record keeping for Wonderbolt trainees or it might have been an academy record.)

Finally, it took Twilight's planning and all three to defeat the rebounding redoubt. Applejack stood on Fluttershy's butterfly, her lasso tied around Rarity. Dash hovered at a distance and watched as the unicorn proceeded to prick the offending thing with the sharp end of her horn.

It popped, sending Rarity flying into the air as Pinkie's SQUEEEEEEEEEEE! of delight dopplered off, Rainbow Dash chasing the overstimulated earth pony for an aerial recovery. Hauling on the line, Applejack brought her catch in for a rough but serviceable landing.

"EEEEEEEEEEE! Boingy, boingy, boingy!" went Pinkie as soon as her hooves touched down, hopping across the stony insect. Suddenly, she stopped and looked down the "ground". "Oops! Sorry, Mister Flutterby. You're so stony-sparkly-shiny I HAD to dance...how about...."

...a Pinkie Is Planning look snuck onto her face when she thought nopony was looking...

"TICKLES!" as she dropped to her belly and dug her hooves into the stony thorax. It shuddered. It wheezed! And a long curled up tongue rolled out of it's mouth, depositing Fluttershy in mid-air. Flutterby's spiracles did a rather good impression of laughing at the whole experience, or at least heh-heh-hehing.

"Oh! Mister Flutterby! You're SO nice not to dump all my friends off after they treated your quartzy-wartzy chitin like that. I know, we'll find you a nice polish and I'll make it all better! And there has to be some flowers around here...somewhere?"

Fluttershy's voice trailed off. "Um, where's Twilight?"

"Over heeee-rrrrre!" echoed from the glittering star still floating in space.

Dash had the grace to look momentarily embarrassed.

"Um, yeah! We're gonna get you out RIGHT now Twilight! canyougeteveryponyovertherelikerightnowfluttershythanks!"

A few soft words from Fluttershy and the crystalline insect flapped over to hover near the starry and scarred wall from which Twilight's head protruded, surrounded by jagged bits of crystal. The yellow pegasus examined the tangle of splinters and unicorn with some concern, then said:

"Take a nice, deep breath.". Twilight gulped a lungful of air and held it. "And out.". She blew it out with a puff that ruffled Fluttershy's wings. "OK, another one." In, and out. In, and out. After a few breaths, Twilight realized she'd been panting between sucking in all the air her lungs could handle, and it changed to a calm, steady rhythm.

"And in....", as Twilight relaxed, Fluttershy's hoof matter-of-factly pulled a splinter that had been poking her neck dangerously close to an artery and let it fall into the void. "...and out..." A second shard came loose without so much as a scrape. "And in..." Then another, and another as she cleaned the jagged hole of it's fragments and let her friend's head pull back, without a single scratch. The remnants lost cohesion without their pony-support and crumbled into open space, leaving a wide hole for the prisoner to escape. Twilight leaped clear of the gem as it fell apart, the ghostlike touch of the astral "winds" catching at her wings as she flapped for a little altitude. The tip of her horn glowed as she sought out a way- and found one.

"Second star on the right, and straight on till morning!", she said as she led the way towards one of the infinite celestial beacons that shone in every direction. As they flew, it grew, and grew, and grew....and became an all-encompassing glow that closed in about them like mist, leaving each of the ponies only aware of moving onwards and "outwards"...

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

What just happened in this chapter again? I'm confused.

[WanderingPony]

7803590

The Elements were a prison for an entity previously split up, that was used to power their effects. Unfortunately, it seems to have gotten out and stuffed the Bearers inside it's old containment system while it decided to attack it's ancient enemy, Sombra's army of monsters.

While each of the old parts of the containment system were ideal for trapping their bearer, it wasn't quite so good when the prisoners broke -each other- out.