In the mural room Twilight stood as she continued to look over the wall and it’s words. She knew some of it was in dark alicorn, if only she could read it. She felt like she could learn a way, but how? Did it have to do with Grogar in some way? “Maybe prolonged use of his blood would allow somepony to read it properly.”
“Oh you are so close. Actually they learn the language when they have ascended or blood is granted them directly from the source.”
Twilight’s heart stopped upon that voice as she slowly turned around. Her eyes widened as she saw Cult Race standing at the entrance. “How? How did you survive ‘F’ you demon?”
“Oh you should already know that I am much worse than any demon.” He leaned his head downward.
Twilight looked to the donkeys around her and smiled. “Oh come on Cult Race. You are out numbered.”
“Am I?” Cult Race resumed facing her as he tilted his head ever so slightly to the left and spoke, “He is a fake god who lives in the shadows and curses the real gods who live in the light.” The phrase completely confused Twilight. However her mind went on other things as the donkeys around her stood to attention. “Ah, it’s good to see that Hollow Prince’s command code is still in effect.”
“Command code? What are you talking about? And who is this Hollow Prince?” Twilight held up her kopises and stood ready for battle.
“Why, Hollow Prince is the one who created all doppelgangers, including me.” On that the donkeys showed their true forms to Twilight. Her eyes widened as all of them shapeshifted to look just like Cult Race. “Though considering I was the first and to his words the most broken, they are far from as strong as me and they can’t regenerate.”
Twilight charged magic into her weapons. “So doppelgangers are a type of shapeshifter like the changelings. Why would you show me this? What are you doing here?”
“I’m sorry. I was just simply listening in to your talk with my previous employer.” Cult Race walked closer to Twilight as he continued. He could see the confusion growing in her eyes. “What? Don’t tell me you didn’t try to figure out who sent me after Starlight. In fact a better question is how I knew where Starlight would be upon your arrival.”
Twilight’s mouth fell. “You knew where we would be.”
“My allies and Grogar knew where Starlight would be. Though we had no idea that you and ‘F’ would show up afterwards.” He reached his hand outward toward the wall and moved over there so fast that Twilight didn’t even see him move. He placed his hand over the writing, feeling every scratch. “What he told you about the scratched part was a lie. The truth is that this writing states Starlight’s arrival time and place perfectly.”
“Why wouldn’t he tell us the truth?”
Cult Race turned looked at her in slight shock. “Really? A better question is why would he lie?”
Twilight’s mind raced on the possibilities until her heart jolted in shock upon realizing the only reason why. Without even a single word she bolted out of there as quick as she could, running quickly to Starlight’s position.
Cult Race just stood there looking onward in curiosity. “I saw the truth very easily and yet you didn’t. ‘F’ told me he was here to kill the greatest evil. When the truth is there is only one ‘Greatest Evil’ when it comes to a sinner like him. It’s stronger than God yet weaker than the Devil, you can run from it as far as you want, but you can never defeat it until you face it.”
He looked down and walked out of there. “This is the riddle of the Greatest Evil. And the answer is always the same.” Cult Race almost could have smiled if he was able to as he lifted his head upward toward the top of the temple. “The answer is the past. A sinner’s greatest evil is their past, or in this certain case….. the sinner’s past self.”
******
Twilight jumped into the air and flew up to the top of the temple as fast as she could. She had to get there as quickly as possible. The wind flew past her as she flew fast. She dared not slow for a single breath as she pushed on.
Once she got to the top she saw Starlight standing near the stairway with the Brain of Ceous in her hands. Twilight shouted to her to get away. Starlight looked at her with confusion, that is until her eyes widened and blood poured from her mouth. Starlight looked down to see a gladius tearing through her chest. Starlight looked toward ‘F’ and asked why.
“Because you are the omni-pony. You were sent here to stop my God’s rise to power. And I cannot allow that.” He raised her into the air, digging his gladius deeper into her chest, making her drop the brain into his free left claw.
Twilight charged at him as he threw Starlight down to the stairs below. “Starlight!” Twilight shouted as she flew to her as quick as she could but was stopped as ‘F’ punched her in the gut with the hilt of his gladius. She fell to the ground as her body ached from the hard force of the punch. She tried to recover but he followed it with a spin kick, knocking her toward the pedestal. Her hand scraped across the ground as she pulled herself up. “You are not ‘F’. You are ‘F’'s past self. Why would you do this?”
“You clearly know nothing of me. I do as my God commands.” He put away the brain and his gladius while pulling out two gems to show her. Twilight looked in confusion to see the very same gems from the mural. “Now that I have three Charms of Power I only need one more thing to complete my mission.” Putting them away he pulled out a condor mask and placed it on his head. “Just as Sombra was Grogar’s messenger one thousand years ago, I am my God’s messenger. I am Freak Show.” On that, he pulled out his changeling wings and flew upwards.
Twilight chased after him but he turned and aimed his right hand right at her and spoke, “Great Hand Of Corruption.” A contorted beam of corrupted magic shot from his hand and straight toward Twilight. She called upon what magic she could to shot a blast of magic to try and match it. The two blast clashed with great force.
The ground shook and crack as the temple’s old structure weakened from the force of the attacks. Twilight tried pushing back with all her might, but it was quickly becoming a losing fight. Freak Show clearly had the advantage. The more he pushed, the weaker she became.
Finally, Twilight reached her limit and her blast disappeared. Now his blast headed right toward her with no more obstacles. It hit her head on, crashing her through the ground and through the temple as the beam tore the building apart.
Once the collapsing began he stopped the attack, turned back around, and flew higher and higher, toward the coordinates of the next and final charm. As he flew away, Twilight’s mind raced on why would he do such a thing as she lost consciousness while falling through the collapsing rubble.
******
Meanwhile, Starlight’s body rolled down what remained of the stairs, bouncing with each step until she finally hit the bottom with a hard thud. Blood continued to pour from the hole in her chest. The rain doing very little to wash away the red stain.
Her body was completely numb. She didn’t even feel her body stop moving. Yet despite her numbness, she could still feel the blood leaving her body. It was like she was being drained of everything.
Her eyes and body were still filled with shock to all of this. She couldn’t move at all. She could feel her life ebbing away each second as the puddle of blood grew as it spread across the ground.
Tears slowly fell from her eyes as they dilated as her breath stopped. Her eyes became more and more foggy. In the end, her eyes didn’t even close. They stayed open beyond… death.
Her body laid silently as the temple continued to crumble. It was completely motionless, even to the small bit of rubble that beated upon it. They fell into the puddle of blood and floated around like a circle.
Cult Race walked through the falling rubble around the puddle without stepping in it. He looked over her and showed absolutely no emotions toward her except what looked like small trembling in his hands. He didn’t speak for several moments.
Once the rubble stopped falling he took to the sky and flew off. As he flew, he turned to face the rain as it fell. A random drop fell across his cheek as his trembling stopped almost looking like a tear. “Fear, is that what that feeling was when I let her live? Or was it…..” The clouds opened and a shooting star could be seen high in the sky. “Hope? Like a shooting star in the sky.”
******
<1,000 years ago>
Celestia cried over the dead corpse of her sister as her mind raced as to why. Why did this have to happen? Was this truly her fault? Did she really push Nightmare into doing this to her sister?
Sunfire simply moved more and more away until he was near the doorway. “I’m sorry Celestia.” On those last words, blood dropped to the ground near him. This small drop of blood was enough to pull Celestia free from her tears only for her eyes to widened upon seeing Sunfire’s shadow in the light on the wall and blade in his hand.
“Why?” she trembled.
Sunfire quickly hid the blade upon seeing his shadow, but he knew it was too late. “Because she was dangerous, to my lo-- to us,” he corrected.
“To your what?!” she demanded, “I heard your words now finish them.”
“She was a danger to my lord,” Sunfire spoke no more as he continued to back out of the room. This time he was trembling as well.
“What?” her eyes widened at his words as she rose up to look at him.
However before any more words could be said, Sombra broke into the room with fiery rage after breaking free from the imprisonment he was in. His rage went absolutely cold upon seeing Luna dead.
He had heard Celestia's tears beforehand but couldn't fully believe it until he was seeing it with his own eyes. He walked slowly to Luna. Celestia slowly moved out of the way upon seeing his eyes. As he reached the body he leaned down toward Luna, grabbing her hand in his and holding it tightly. His eyes closed and he trembled as it finally soaked in.
The room shook as dark magic to emanate from him. Celestia and Sunfire backed away upon feeling a great force. “Get in here now, father.”
All the shadows darkened and shook as Grogar entered the room. Celestia and Sunfire practically froze in fear upon seeing him. Grogar walked over to Luna’s body and held out his hand. “Are you sure about this?”
“Yes.” Sombra opened his eyes and rose up.
“Fine.” Grogar grabbed out a knife.
Celestia knew what he was doing and pulled free from her fear. “Please don’t do this. She is the only family I have left.”
“If I don’t she will stay dead.” On that Grogar cut open his hand and maroon red blood poured forth and took the form of a bug like a talon. Without warning, it stabbed itself into the hole in Luna’s chest and broke free from Grogar’s hand as his hand healed. The talon fed into Luna’s wound and slowly sealed. Once the talon was fully inside her she glowed and rise into the air. “Now all she needs to do is open the dark gate that is now within her.”
Celestia tried to race forward but was stopped upon feeling the powers of Grogar holding her back. Luna’s body glowed brighter and her flesh pulsed and twist. “No Luna, don’t ascend please!” Celestia yelled.
Soon the ground shook and quake. Without warning the entire room exploded. As the smoke cleared, Luna was standing up and leaning into Sombra’s arms as she breathed once more.
“This is surprising. Despite how much dark magic I put in her she was able to stop the ascension.” Grogar spoke as he looked over her unchanged form. “Or maybe the reason she didn’t ascend was because my daughter Cassandra is still inside her.”
“Whatever it was she needs to rest. Please take her far from here.” Sombra lifted her up and placed her in Grogar's care. Grogar placed his hand over her and both them teleported away from there.
Celestia got up and looked around only to see Luna was gone. “Luna! Where are you?!” she shouted in vain. “Oh please let her not have transformed.”
“Why would that be a problem?” Sombra turned to face her. “Your aunt Sapphire was a dark alicorn, I am a dark alicorn. What is wrong with being a dark alicorn?”
Celestia didn’t answer, but Sunfire did as he rose forth looking very different, “They are a great evil that needs to be purged!” he practically roared.
Celestia trembled upon seeing Sunfire as she backed away from him. Meanwhile, Sombra put up his guard, “So you were never an alicorn at all.”
Sunfire looked at them in confused until he realized the illusion he had been wearing was now gone. Indeed he wasn't ever an alicorn. His head and arms were still the same but his body was that of a buffalo, his legs were that of a dragon, his wings were that of a changeling and his tail was that of a manticore. He was a draconequus, just like Discord.
He looked at Celestia and frowned at her fear. “What's wrong? I ascended like you desired. I took power like you wanted. I did as you and my God commanded of me. To protect you no matter how damned I become.”
“And who is this god you serve?” Sombra summoned his scythe to his side.
Sunfire looked at Sombra with anger. “Redsting Blacklist Blasphemy.”
******
<1,000 years later>
Twilight felt pain flowing through her entire body as she slowly awoke. She looked through the rubble. Twenty meters beyond her was the end of the staircase and the body of Starlight.
Twilight trembled in horror as she looked onward to the motionless body. She hoped for the best, or more likely feared for the worse. She saw the pool of blood, she couldn’t believe. No, more like she rather deny it, before ever accepting.
She tried to rise to get to her, but she quickly fell as something pulled her back down. She looked back only for her eyes to fill with more horror. There was a massive piece of rubble over her legs. Were they just trapped, damaged or worse, were they crushed?
She struggled in more pain to turn around and point her horn toward the rubble. She didn’t know how much magic she had left, or even if she could walk afterward. In the end, that last part didn’t matter to her. She needed to get to Starlight and now.
She didn’t care about her legs, she just needed to know that her friend was okay. She had seen so much horror and seen so much death in that other timeline that she was trapped in and now that she was free from those horrors, she refused to lose another.
She pulled on any magic she had left. She was at her limit and there was no more left. She heard Grogar’s voice returning, calling on her to use his power. She winced and denied it as she tried harder to pull on any other magic she could muster.
She wouldn’t give up at all and soon began to slowly move rubble. She gritted her teeth and pushed harder. Commanding as much magic as she could to push the rubble ever so slowly higher. In the end, she could grit her teeth no more and screamed with all her might as she pushed at the very edge of her magic. For a moment her eyes flickered and the air around grew cold as the rubble was pushed off to the side.
She fell back and laid her head on the hard drenched ground breathing heavily. That had taken so much out of her, but she was far from done. Pushing on her bodily strength, she turned her body around and crawled over to Starlight.
However as she made her way over to Starlight, a mysterious figure with a long flowing mane walked toward the body of Starlight. Twilight couldn’t figure out who it was, it was too dark from the storm to see who it was and it seemingly was getting darker by the second as her eyes became weaker from exhaustion. She feared the only possibility. There were only two creatures she knew of that she could think of that knew they were there. She would be had hoped for the best possibility, but with how things were going, hope seemed too far to see.
Suddenly all of that changed as lightning struck in the distance, filling the area with light. Twilight’s weak eyes widened in shock and confusion. “You…. look…. Just like….. m....” Before she could even question what she was seeing, her body finally gave out and she fell unconscious.
A moment of silence passed before a great roar quickly filled the air as an unknown mare stood over Starlight as the clouds parted for a moment to show some of what Twilight saw before she had lost consciousness. The unknown mare had a long flowing navy blue mane and alicorn-like wings. She kneeled down and brushed Starlight’s mane to one side and spoke softly, “Oh my poor shining glimmer of starlight.”
******