Tartarus Forged Chapter Eight · 10:58am Oct 31st, 2016
SPOILERS!!!
Right, I've been gone a couple months, but I'm back with a something that hopefully looks a little better. I'm not nearly as stuck as I was with the previous version of Chapter Eight, and the only reason I'm posting this now is threefold.
1: To let you all know I live and am working on Tartarus Forged.
2: To get your opinion on the new version of Chapter Eight, which will be below.
3: To ask what you think I should do in regards to Sunset Shimmer. I have a few ideas. I could have her take the place of Twilight as the Element of Magic. I could have her become a sort of student/adviser to Twilight. Or I could have her just be a friend that learns about friendship alongside her. What do you guys think?
Anyways, here's the current version of Chapter Eight. It's not complete, but I'm not stuck anymore, so yay.
Twilight frowned as she examined the buildings around her. While it was understandable for most ponies to remain indoors during the Night, this was different. First of all, it was roughly four in the afternoon. Even if it the Moon was still high in the sky and the sky was dark, ponies were creatures of habit. They would still be going about their business in the middle of the “day”.
But there was no one. No, it was more accurate to say the town was deserted. And Twilight would have believed that if not for one thing. Off to the west she could see the glow of a dome-shaped barrier pulsing with intense power. Whoever was powering that thing was both strong and well-read in spells.
“Well, I guess that’s my next stop,” she shrugged, before picking a path that seemed to head in the general direction of the barrier. As she walked, she once more found her mind drifting back to the discussion she and Princess Celestia had after Nightmare Moon had retreated.
Uncomfortable was the word of the day.
In hindsight, admitting that you worked for someone who was once one of Equestria’s greatest enemies in front of Princess Celestia was a bad idea. Admitting as much while exhibiting a willingness to kill was probably also a bad idea. Twilight imagined that the only thing that saved her from the strongest magic suppressing cell in the dungeon, besides the current conflict, was the fact that she could wield the light blade she had acquired so many years ago. Apparently, it was well known to the Princess.
The sword had once been Celestia’s personal weapon in combat, a weapon infused with the intense Light Magic of the Sun itself. Said Light Magic also powered a failsafe that prevented it from being used for evil. It simply couldn’t be used by someone with malicious intentions.
How it got to Tartarus Twilight didn’t ask, and Celestia didn’t tell.
Still, Twilight had admitted to some very damning things and Celestia made it clear that a more in depth discussion will happen once the current crisis was averted. Afterwards, she told Twilight of the Elements of Harmony, and how they were the only thing that could stop Nightmare Moon and save Princess Luna in the process. She told Twilight that the husks of the Elements were hidden in the Everfree Forest, and that each Element required a wielder to activate them, and that the Elements would choose their bearers.
Twilight was told everything about the Elements. The Elements were not weapons, but rather Equalizers. Each Element was pure, crystalized conceptualized magic. Loyalty, Laughter, Honesty, Generosity, Kindness, and Magic. She had asked how something like the concept of magic got crystalized in a physical object, but Celestia chose that time to be mysterious and feign ignorance.
Celestia told her she had to find bearers for the Elements before she started hunting for them. Twilight didn’t see the point. She had already proven able to fight Nightmare Moon, why not just do it again, this time without holding back? Twilight was warned that Luna had been a brilliant Tactician before her fall, and would be ready for her in their next fight. Better to have a contingency.
Twilight’s musings were cut short when a… something stepped from the shadows of the path in front of her. She frowned and stopped, examining it.
It looked like living shadows, its body made of mostly cloudy blackness and only barely retaining a shape similar to the body of a pony. Its yellow eyes glowed like beacons in that blackness, and Twilight could feel the corrupt Darkness oozing from it.
In her a mind she recalled reading about these creatures. Unoriginally named Shadows. Weak on their own, but a serious problem when you get swarmed by multiple, as they make use of something like a hive mind.
Twilight drew her sword, and the Shadow flinched back from the light the blade gave off. She brandished it, expecting the Shadow to retreat in the face of such powerful Light. She was surprised when it instead jumped at her, razor like claws zeroing in on her heart.
She dealt with it easily with a swipe of the sword, making it burst into a cloud of darkness that faded away.
“Odd,” she mused, replacing the sword on her back. She started down the path again, only to freeze at the sight in front of her.
The path was gone, completely covered and hidden by the veritable flood of shifting blackness and beady yellow eyes locked onto her. Twilight’s expression dropped. “You have got to be kidding me…”
The Shadows surged forward, and Twilight yelped, drawing the sword again.
The scene will end there and shift to Sweet Apple Acres, taking in the situation it's in as the last refuge from the Darkness outside the barrier surrounding the farm.
And before anyone asks, yes, the Shadows are basically Shadow Heartless. I was always fascinated with the ideas and concepts Kingdom Hearts used, and a lot of them could be applicable here, so expect a bit of that showing up. Twilight's sword is the closest thing to Keyblade you're getting from me though, so remember that.
either friend or advisor not element If twi can wield the light blade then she isnt corrupt and the element isnt claimed yet so it should still bond to her if she can make friends
also anybody but twi wielding the element of magic is wrong to me
4278600 Sooooo, basically you don't care, so long as Sunset doesn't become the Bearer of Magic?
pretty much
the only way twilight couldnt be the beare is if she wasnt in equestria at the time as headcannon belief the rainbow was a manifestation of harmonys will and set twilight on her destiny along with other mane 5
I throughly enjoyed the preview as it gave a good look into Twilight's thought process. As for the other question I am up in the air over Sunset being the possible new bearer of Magic. On one hand 4278600 has a point, however just because Twilight is good doesn't mean that she is worthy think Mjölnir. As for Sunset's relationship go with a combination of student/advisor and friend.
Personally, there is a small part of me that wouldn't mind seeing Sunset become the bearer of the Element of Magic (mainly because of the thought of Sunset and the Mane 5 hitting Nightmare Moon with the Elements while Twilight is keeping Nightmare Moon busy in single combat [after all, Twi is the only one out of the group who is tough enough to last longer than a minute against Nightmare Moon one-on-one, which would buy the others more time to figure out how to activate the Elements]). However, there is a LARGER part that would prefer to see Sunset become a student/advisor to Twilight, learning friendship right alongside her. So I would ultimately go with a combination of the second and third options.
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All three of you raise rather valid points, but It seems there's no real want of Sunset becoming the Element of Magic, so I won't do that.
Thanks!
4279643 sweet looking forward to next chapter