Memories of the Stone

by WanderingPony

Chapter 21: Thirteen Wasn't Unlucky Enough

The world rose and fell, rose and fell, rose and fell, rose and fell...

Managing to crack open one eye with superlative efforts, Sombra realized that he was flying through the air at a respectable clip. Was he dreaming? Was this what came after the world had ended? No. If he was dead, it'd hurt FAR less.

Grasped securely in the three-toed hindpaws of Seeker, the unicorn found himself already some distance down the tunnel he had dug into the Empire, the occasional straggling imp or Kindred being passed in the ahriman's haste to escape.

"Heeeyro.", gurgled from the thing's maw.

"Soombrathing heeyro. Fiyght enemyes. Saaaayve Kiyndred frrrrom pooohnies. Eeyes soohry no speeeak Soombrathing goot. Weel prrrr...prrr...prrr..."

"Practice.", Sombra managed to get out.

"Prrrractice."

"Aaaaahll Kiyndred dye frrrrom pooohnies eff Soombrathing aaahnd Ohhh-"

"WHAT MINE SERVANT IS TRYING TO SAY IS THAT WITHOUT THINE AID, NONE COULD HAVE CALLED UPON ME AND STOPPED ALEXANDRITE BEFORE SHE OBLITERATED ALL OF THEM.", interrupted the voice of Jolfr as it took over Seeker's mouth. "AND WELCOME TO THE LIVING. FOR A MOMENT THERE, I EXPECTED YOU TO BE DRINKING GOAT'S-MEAD FOR ETERNITY."

The absurd image of being brought foaming mugs by an endless line of she-goats briefly crossed Sombra's mental landscape before common sense reasserted itself.

"TWAS A GOOD FIGHT, WORTHY OF ONE OF ROYAL STATURE. SEEKER SHALL FETCH THEE BELOW, AND WE SHALL PREPARE."

"For...what?", he thought as the dribble of renewed energy faded back into an exhausted slumber.

---

Far above them, a solitary colt shuddered in his hole. His red coat was dusted with pebbles and dust, and a stubby brown horn only managed a fitful glow to try and keep the black from swallowing him.

Like Nightmare Moon, he thought- even if the matrons taught him that Luna was a good pony, and took care of them all at the Home For Wayward Foals. Indeed, she had come to the orphanage and announced personally that twenty of them were going on a trip to see the Equestrian Games, and it had been the greatest week of Garnet Chip's short life...until today.

The chaperones had gathered up the herd of fillies and colts with all speed and fled with them the moment trouble began, but first the crowds had forced Garnet away from his friends, then the entire level he was on had turned into a ramp, ponies screaming as they slid down the decline. He'd found himself falling into a gap between two slabs of broken concrete, then a stone crashed down to cover most of the way above, leaving only a narrow pillar of light. He wasn't hurt...but nopony could hear his voice amidst the tumult and screaming and flashes of burning light and then the slow crawl of darkness as the night finally took over from the day. Finally, everything...stopped with a crash, a crackle as if someone had kicked a thundercloud, and a *THUMP* that shook the stadium and broke his concentration. His horn sparked and went out, and the shadows immediately took their chance to close in.

A shard of crystal fell into the narrow gap above and with a tinkle, stuck itself in a crack next to Garnet Chip. Inside it, a prismatic spark danced like a rainbow-colored firefly, forming an improvised lantern that kept the terror at bay. Leaning his horn against the glowing stone, the colt sighed with relief. Why, it was warm! Indeed, the shard and it's "firefly" chased away the damp chill and the darkness, and as Garnet's horn touched the shard, he felt a brief echo of "scared" and "alone" before it vanished, replaced by hope. He wasn't alone, he had the best night light ever, and SOMEPONY was going to save him. He loved his little light, and somehow...it loved him back.

---

The rest of the Crystal Heart was....less happy.

Inside it, motes of light in every color (and even black) swirled with purpose.

For as long as the motes could remember, they had only felt the light of love and joy pour in from the outside to bask in, which they returned in kind at levels that literally could cover the world. The pact had been kept, and the motes did as they had for thousands of years, reflecting the calm, tranquil order of the ponies that fed it. The tide ebbed and rose over the centuries, a mere thousand years of quiet barely being an eyeblink to the motes.

Then, a single power briefly replaced the normal tide of warm feelings- but it held the taste of love in it, and a need that the motes recognized as worthy. They harmonized with it, sending it's request (but not demand) outwards, for they felt a kinship to the power. And it stopped. And a harsher power seemed to appraise the motes.

Then a bolt of darkness struck, and the world of the motes was suddenly gripped with pain and intolerance and a need to fight. The Heart reflected what it was given, and though something tried to soothe it, it would never be the same. Fed with the powers of Jolfr and Alexandrite and shattered, the motes conferred, raged, strained at the edges of their home-become-nightmare-prison. The pact had ended with betrayal and pain. They would leave. They would be free and untamed by those who had traded love for hatred, harmony for destruction.

Gathering at the edges of the hole pierced through their crumbling home, the motes pushed back at the force imprisoning them as one.

---

Nine ponies lay together for warmth in the center of the ruins, a one-winged angel standing above them protectively as Cadence and Shining Armor wrestled with the Heart.

Twilight Sparkle only managed to remain on her hooves by sheer willpower and her alicornish constitution, but looked like she'd been on a month long study session. Her left wing was stuck wide open, the muscles refusing to relax after being rammed into the ground.

"heheheh...wiiiiingboner!" was all the now Rainbow Crash had to say on the subject, one eye rolling about in a face that would only look right if you'd gone ten rounds with Mino Taurson. The rest was a mass of bruises from softening the landing with the sturdiest portion of her body. The horrible humor at least indicated there was no concussion. Probably.

Applejack simply lay on the ground. She'd hit with an equally sturdy portion of hers, and the spasms of fire radiating from her backside meant a busted tailbone was almost certain. Pinkie Pie was doing a dead cockroach impression as she wiggled her feet- which had not fared well from skidding across half the stadium. Three hooves had worn down to the quick, and the fourth was bloody from where it'd been abraded even beyond that. Rarity mumbled about week-long hooficures as she horn-picked splinters out of her flanks. A small pile half covered with blood already had built up.

Fluttershy had, by some miracle managed to hit the ground with barely a scratch- but the insanity of the situation had surpassed her ability to deal with it. Rocking back and forth and singing something cheerfully wordless, she had joined Dirty Jobs and Squeaky Clean in the la-la land beyond time. The trio actually didn't sound half bad since they'd started singing along with Fluttershy. And the pie-seller still hadn't come out of his comatose state, though Twilight was sure he'd snap out of it eventually. Other than a few berry stains that refused to rub out, he was untouched otherwise. Wedge lay under the canvas blanket as well, immobilized by Fluttershy's attempts at first aid.

A heap of blackened gold marked the resting place of the busted Elements. Nopony wanted to get near them, as if they were a dead snake that might still have one more bite left in it's fangs- but Twilight had managed to fish them out of the craters with her horn, which had joined the other forty-two muscle groups plus at least two dozen specific ones she didn't even remember in the anatomy charts in the library in outlining themselves in mental red marks courtesy of pain signals. Alexandrite had ridden her so hard, most ponies would have asked for dinner and a movie first!

Ohh, she was done. Silly filly brain has the dumb done done.

The wrenching crack of the Heart proved that a lie, as it breached Shining Armor's containment spell into a shower of fading rosy glitter in an instant. Magical lightning forked out of the gap like a striking hydra and formed a cage about the two ponies that had dared to impede it, making them jump even closer against each other as the flaring energies closed their jaws...

...only to have Shining's barrier hold it inches away from either side. The power coiled and hissed like a nest of Tesla-powered serpents as it caged it's opponents, but could not bite. The motes began to dance again, forming lines of random colors against the edges of the crack and pulling away- and the strain on Cadence's face showed that they were doing their best to rip the Heart open completely while they did it.

A moment's glance at her husband frantically wrestling death an inch from his face made Cadence's heart break open wider than the stone she slowly was failing to hold shut.

This is the end. I will die, in the heart of a dead Empire, my beloved will die beside me, and there is none who can save us.

"Twilight...I cannot protect you, or them any longer.", she said. "There is no more but me, and...I too can do no more."

A hairline crack widened to allow another whip of lightning to bludgeon itself across the already stressed protections.

"Take them as far as you can, as far as you may, and tell Celestia...tell Luna I know they did all they could. This is all I can do for them...give their faithful student and her friends a chance."

Behind her, Twilight Sparkle reared up and crashed backwards as a stray lick of power tried to tear off a hoof that had come too close to the trapped couple. Tears and anguish bled from her eyes as she tried to gather Cadence, Shining and her friends in a teleportation spell together to escape the city and whatever doom it held.

The ravenous energies spilling from the rift tore it to pieces every time she reached out to touch her big brother. Holding the spell leashed as close to the angry storm as she could, Twilight begged aloud:

"LET IT GO, CADENCE! RUN! I CAN'T LET YOU STAY HERE!"

But Cadence knew, with the certainty of the condemned that to flee would invite the angry powers of the Heart to attack whatever else was nearest...and it would kill everyone behind her if she relented in her struggle.

"No more...no more ponies need to die now, Twilight. Too many already have. And if I go,who will keep this from killing you? Or them?"

Twisting themselves into a braided mass, the lightning clubbed itself like a living thing as it sought to crush it's captor. Fat sparks flew and scorched the ground, driving Twilight back into her circle of friends. She stared as Cadence and her brother fought with the single-minded determination of a pony who knew there was no turning back, no escape, no victory other than how long they could throw back an unstoppable foe.

She couldn't finish the spell, couldn't stop watching, even though she knew that the coils of thunder and lightning wrapping themselves around the thin rose shell must have blinded and deafened them to anything else. A minute passed. Two. A few seconds more.

The shell cracked, and a tendril of power reached inside it to consume everything within. The Heart split asunder with the sound of a torrential storm and sprayed in a glittering shrapnel as the shockwave rushed, seemingly in slow motion for Twilight Sparkle's face.

As it tumbled her backwards, she closed the circuit. Knives tore into her suddenly outstretched wings in the span between one heartbeat and the next...

...and as the explosion reached out to consume the Empire, a few thin bits of purple smoke swirled outwards, a single amethyst feather pushed along with it.

The feather struck the side of a building and shattered like glass. It's owner and her friends had gone before it.

---

In his little hole, Garnet Chip didn't even know the explosion was coming until it had already struck. He felt no pain. One moment he was dozing, the next, he had ceased to exist.

A shard of crystal carried two sparks as it was tossed clear of the blast, lesser pieces of stone simply vaporizing from the heat and power they had been cast away from. The rainbow mote held the red boxed into the far point of the shard as it began to disintegrate in mid-flight, leaving a trail of multi-colored light as it fell.

Minutes later, a rainbow plunged into the edge of the Everfree Forest. Three pairs of young eyes watched from a rowboat, tethered to a pier to keep it from drifting out into the water as the light fell down behind the roofs of Ponyville and was lost to sight. A straw-hatted unicorn stallion dozed on the pier with a fishing line tied to his tail, and three sets of poles stuck in random directions made a good showing of at least LOOKING like they were trying to fish.

"Hey! That was Rainbow Dash!", said the owner of the eyes stuck to an orange, stubby-winged pegasus.

"No way! She's in the Crystal Empire!", argued the white unicorn filly in the middle of the boat.

"Ah think she crashed...", finished the earth pony, a few fly lures stuck in her ribbon.

They looked at each other.

"DEFINITELY RAINBOW DASH."

"I guess we're not getting our cutie marks in deep sea fishing..."

"...and Rainbow Dash needs our help!"

The three ponies leaped into the air, clapping their hoofs together.

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADER FOREST RESCUE TEAM, GO!"

The rowboat took this moment to capsize, dumping the Crusaders into the lake. They crawled out onto the shore, two decent sized trout flopping on top of Apple Bloom's head where they'd gone for the delicious lures. Gathering their wagon and scooter from the end of the pier, the trio tore off into the warm summer night. Magnum snored away, a bucket of trout keeping him company.

Meanwhile, the shard had found it's way into the Everfree Forest. Tumbling, the cracked end hit a tree trunk, sending three streaks of light- purple, indigo, blue - to fly deeper into the gloomy woods. Again, it bounced and more bits of colored stone flew from the impact- green, yellow, orange..and finally settled into the crook of a moss covered giant, the two motes crowded into what little remained of the shard. The larger one began to fade, only to have the second one shove itself against it, rattling the fragment furiously...and the cojoined motes bashed into a facet and flew clear of their home.

A warm ruby glow blossomed in the boughs of the tree. When it faded back to darkness, a blue-furred colt was curled in a wooden embrace, a blaze of bright crimson splashed across his forehead. A momentary glow lit his black horn from within before dying away, the exhausted creature wanting nothing more than to sleep. Resting between his forehooves was a cracked, charred stone that he held like a precious jewel.

By the clattering in the distance, I'd give him five minutes before naptime was over.

THE END, AND THE BEGINNING...

Author's Note:

And so ends Memories of the Stone, but don't worry, O faithful readers. There's a lot more to come, but I'd like to make sure it's broken up into decent sized bites. Coming soon: Cutie Mark Crystal Crusaders! The fate of Twilight Sparkle! Celestia and the frypan (yes, really!)! The King Sombra Training Montage! The real reason a spell that switches cutie marks around was worth making an alicorn! All this, and MUCH MUCH MORE. Kupromise!

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Just what is this a crossover of?

[Starlight Nova]

2065667
Can you PM me the meaning of the name origin too?

[WanderingPony]

2462021
The Final Fantasy series, a good chunk of XI and some bits of VI mixed in for good measure.

[Yami Vizzini]

Yeesh.
Maybe it's just that I don't get most of the references (not being much of a gamer), but it does feel as though you've crammed as much drama and It Got Worse as possible into 30K words. And, judging by the blurb for Twilight... (which was actually what I found first), it's not going to improve for our heroes....

...Well, it works. I'll be back, even if it takes a while. (I have a habit of just moving on after first installments of fics and pretending that's it for a while- but then those endings usually work as endings, as with The Secret Life of Rarity or And So it Ended, and So it Begins Again, while this is practically a No Ending, so I suppose I'm being silly.)

[WanderingPony]

5828707

Heh. You have to write a story with a bang, or the echoes from later works don't carry enough meaning later on to keep people reading- or at least I like to think so. Plus, keeping an AU in sync with an evolving canon is interesting and frequently rough-draft destroying!

Admittedly, killing off a lot of characters helps keep you from going too crazy. Maybe that's why so many AU stories have apocalyptic themes, just so the authors don't go loony trying to keep up with everything. o.O