The Avatar rushed forward, her lance aimed to pierce my chest almost exactly where she struck me down before. I leapt back and spread my wings, taking myself over her attack. Though I was out of position to land a strike with my blades, I did kick at her face when the opening presented itself. The blow did not connect and would not have had much in the way of power even if it had, but ‘twas worthwhile simply for the fact that it forced her to kill her forward momentum to avoid being struck.
Her response came swiftly after dodging my blow. She fell back a step, out of range from mine own weapons, but still well within striking distance for her lance. She drove me back with a series of quick thrusts, and while many of them likely would not have connected firmly enough to break mine armor, the attacks came too quickly for me to judge which were dangerous and which were mere feints. ‘Twas all I could manage just to hold her weapon at bay.
Then her real strike came in a flash of spellwork, turning the very ground beneath my hooves into a sheet of ice. I slipped on the ice, and it likely would have ended me were it not for my being blessed with wings. As it was, I took to the air easily enough, denying her any advantage. “You have spent too long as an abomination, Avatar. Pegasi do not fight on the ground.”
She closed on me in an effort to land a blow ere I could fully settle into the air, but she underestimated mine agility. Though she was fast enough that I could not dodge her entirely, ‘twas simple enough to turn so that her lance’s tip scraped along mine armor without finding purchase. She glowered up at me, not daring to take to the air and create an opening I might exploit. “And how much air dost thou have to fight in whilst trapped in a building?”
I saw a chance to unsettle her. Bright had always been a proud and temperamental mare, and those traits had not faded after her transformation. “Is that the way of it, then? Thou must trap me and fight like an earth pony or a unicorn? Art thou so much the monster now that thou canst not defeat me while battling as a pegasus?”
Her eyes narrowed and her lip curled in a contemptuous snarl. “Thou art the last creature on this earth that I fear. Fight me on the earth, in the skies, or whate’er location thou canst conceive. ‘Twill not change the outcome—thou shalt die, as it should have been months ago when I first struck thee down.”
I moved for the kill. “Then remove the barrier ‘round this house, so that we might fight in the skies as true pegasi should.”
The Avatar scoffed incredulously. “Remove the barrier and allow thine allies into the manor? Dost thou takest me for a fool? I will not allow thy minions to disrupt the ritual and prevent the Conduit from unleashing my full power.”
“A fool?” I smirked as I saw the chance to land a quick barb. “Thou didst sell thyself to the Nightmare, discarding all honor and damning thyself and thine entire cause in the process. I would call that the very height of foolishness.”
Her teeth clenched. “Dost thou know why I sealed the bargain that granted mine apotheosis? ‘Twas all too simple, in truth: as I lay dying, Luna only needed to say a few simple words. My vengeance was not yet complete. Sunbeam still lived. My bitch sister thou so loyally serve’st still lived. Every single pony in Canterlot who had a hoof in Lance’s death by continuing to defy me had not yet suffered for their crimes.” She strode to the barrier, which parted like a curtain to let her through. “Tell thy followers then. Let them watch our battle, so that they might bear witness as I crush the life from thee. I shall break their spirits e’en as I shatter thy body.”
I did not dignify her boasts with a response. My victory would speak far louder than any words I might bandy with her. I followed her through the barrier, which sealed itself behind me. The forces I had brought to the manor stared at the both of us, some with confusion but most with keen interest. They had already likely guessed what I was about to tell them. “The Avatar and I will engage in single combat. None may interfere.”
Most of the soldiers grunted and nodded, and to my displeasure a few of them stood down to find somewhere to view our duel rather than remain focused on the manor. The Avatar turned to me with a cold smile. “Excellent. E’er since mine earliest duels in our homeland, I have always enjoyed having an audience for my victories. Centuries from now, the bards shall still sing of the day I vanquished thee.”
“I care not whether any bards sing of me,” I growled, facing her and readying my blades, “But I shall take pleasure in ending the monster thou hast become.”
“Thou shalt try.” The Avatar made her move, catching me unawares. I had expected an attack of some sort, but instead she simply launched herself into the air. I wasted no time following behind her, but she had gained a critical lead in the moments she had gained. Worse, as our wings heaved against the air her lead grew wider rather than narrowing.
In challenging the Avatar to battle in the sky, I had neglected to mention when the duel should begin. I suppose some corner of my mind had assumed we would both take to the air and begin from an equal height. In hindsight ‘twas obvious we would begin on the ground, and that whoe’er could climb the fastest would hold a critical advantage. Though I was no weakling, Bright had likely been one of the strongest fliers in all Pegasopolis e’en before her transformation. The lance required fast climbs and steep dives, whilst mine own wing blades were a weapon more suited to agile maneuvers.
The Avatar was all too aware of her growing lead, looking o’er her shoulder at me with a triumphant smirk. “E’en before mine apotheosis I was thy better, Shadow, and I have an alicorn’s speed and strength now! I had not realized thou wert so eager to embrace thine own destruction, but I shall gladly grant it!”
I spotted the telltale flash of spellwork an instant before the icy darts she had conjured came for me. ‘Twas easy enough to dodge most of the strikes, and those that I could not avoid deflected off mine armor with no damage. Howe’er, wounding me had not been the spell’s true purpose. She had gained e’en more height whilst I dodged the attack, and the momentum of my climb had been almost completely lost. I had no hope of catching her, or remaining close enough that she could not turn and charge ere I caught her. Mine only chance now was to wait for her attack and hope that I could turn it to mine advantage. Ceding the initiative was almost ne’er a path to victory, as all one could do at that point was survive and hope the enemy would eventually make an error that could be exploited.
The Avatar whirled about and descended on me, her lance leading the way. I had only moments to react and would have to time my move perfectly. Too soon, and she would have time to correct her aim. Too late ... well, the consequences for that were obvious.
I was so focused on the incoming lance strike that I almost missed the Avatar’s hidden strike. As I began slipping to the side the Avatar broke into mist, shooting past me and reforming on mine other side. She was now perfectly positioned to put her lance ‘tween my shoulders, and I had no hope of stopping her of getting out the way before the blow connected.
With no other option, I reached into the armor’s reserve of magic and unleashed it in a single blinding flash of light. The lance tip slammed into my back a heartbeat later, but rather than finding solid purchase it skittered off mine armor. Even so, the blow struck me like a sledgehammer despite the armor itself and the padding I wore beneath it. If not for Celestia’s fine craftsmanship, the force of the strike alone might well have snapped my spine.
By the time I recovered from the blow, the Avatar was already climbing again. I could almost feel the magic thrumming through the air around her, bending the winds to her will to aid her climb. She had already regained the advantage on height, and I knew I stood little chance of catching up with her.
She had come to much the same conclusion, smirking triumphantly down at me. “Thou might as well surrender now and end this farce, Shadow! Thou canst not catch me in the air. Thou couldst not e’en defeat mine own daughter in a fair battle, and resorted to treachery to slay her. What chance dost thou stand against mine ascended might?!”
She was right in one regard: e’en with the protection of the armor Celestia and Sunbeam had crafted for me, I could not win by matching my raw strength against hers. Thankfully, while I lacked the raw might of the Avatar, I was not without mine own advantages. Rather than attempt to catch up to her or surrender the initiative, I placed myself to take advantage of her next strike.
If there was one advantage to be had against her lance and its charges, ‘twas that she operated in straight lines. E’en the translocation spell she had used merely altered her angle of attack, not the line it followed. The very nature of a lance charge ensured that her path would not end with me—’twould take time for her to come about and halt her momentum. With my new position, that charge would carry her straight into her own barrier surrounding the manor.
I was ready for the Avatar when she came for me again. Howe’er, this time instead of attempting to bring her lance to bear against me she let it slip to the side, her real attack coming in the form of a shoulder to my chest. The strike sent me flying back, down towards the shield.
She followed me down, grabbing one of my wings to prevent me from pulling out of my fall. “Didst thou think me blind, Shadow? That I would foolishly charge into mine own shield like an enraged brute?” She forced me all the way down to the manor itself, only flaring her wings to stop our fall once I could not hope to avoid it. “Let us put the power of my sister’s craftsmanship to the test, then!” She shoved my head into the lightning field. (1)
1: Presumably, she had some sort of protection to prevent this from electrocuting her as well.
One would think that being electrocuted would be far more painful than what I experienced. In truth, beyond a slight pain in my chest, I felt nothing but numbness. E’en that soon faded, followed by intense heat from mine armor as it absorbed the power flowing into me. E’en Celestia’s fine work had its limits, and only so much power could be absorbed without finding some means of release.
Fortunately, I had the perfect target for that. Bright had mistaken mine intentions, thinking I merely hoped she would collide with the barrier while pulling out of a lance dive. While I had not anticipated this exact course of events, ‘twas close enough to what I had planned.
I slapped a hoof against the Avatar’s belly and unleashed every ounce of power mine armor had absorbed. Ere she e’en realized what I had done, a beam of pure force punched through her, tearing a hole the size of my hoof straight through her body and out her back. The beam shot skyward uninterrupted, eventually reaching the massive dome shield covering the city. When it struck, the shield rippled like a pond disturbed by a rock.
The barrier surrounding the manor collapsed, its strength stolen away. My soldiers wasted no time rushing into the opening I had created. Though they moved too quickly for me to be certain, I thought I spotted Gale amongst them.
Howe’er, I could not afford to remove mine attention from the Avatar long enough to confirm it. Despite having suffered a wound that by all right should have been mortal, or at least crippling, the Avatar had not fallen—her wound did not e’en bleed as it should have. As she withdrew from me, I noted that her blood flowed through the wound as if ‘twere not there at all, continuing onward through the hole and back into her body.
Despite hearing time and again that she was an abomination, I had not truly grasped how much the term applied to her. She was not merely a pony that had the hubris to attempt to claim the power of an alicorn, she was ... wrong. Simple as the word was, it seemed to capture what she was in a way that no flowery speech could e’er manage. Something like her should not exist in a decent world. “What hast thou become, Bright?”
She flitted back and landed on a tower, drawing herself to her full height. “Strong. Stronger than thou couldst possibly imagine. Dost thou think thy soldiers’ entry is a victory? That I did not anticipate that my defenses might fail? The hetairoi, the cream of Pegasopolis, await them within along with my loyal magi and other most unpleasant surprises. The ritual will proceed as planned, despite thine efforts. All thou hast accomplished is sending more of thy minions to a painful death.”
“We shall see.” As she had landed, I took the chance to seize the initiative and change the nature of the battle. Rather than climbing into the sky for height I remained near ground level, darting in between Canterlot’s buildings and towers. Though I could not match the Avatar’s raw speed, her charges required straight lines to build momentum. A contest of agility denied her that, and played to mine own strengths.
As we darted ‘tween the city’s buildings, I took stock of mine injuries. My battle-lust had dulled the pain of the Avatar’s blows, and now that I had a few moments spare for mine own condition I was surprised by what I found. My back would likely be a single massive bruise if I lived long enough for that to be a concern, and one of the bones in my foreleg had cracked from the impact of her second charge. Yet e’en as I became aware of the injury, I realized that mine armor had tightened around it, holding the damaged bone in place as well as any cast. I found that I could still use the limb reasonably well, although it moved stiffly and with some discomfort.
Certainly I had gotten the better of mine exchange with the Avatar by most conventional measures. Howe’er, her unnatural vitality put that in question. She could endure wounds that ought to be mortal, and evidently felt no pain from injuries that would drop even the hardiest soldiers. A few short hours ago I had reveled in mine own mortality, but now a small part of me wished I had remained in my former unnatural state. I certainly would have enjoyed sharing her immunity to pain and fatigue.
A tower passed ‘tween us, but when I emerged on the other side the Avatar was nowhere to be seen. After quickly confirming that she was not about to swoop down upon me from above, I halted mine own flight, slipping underneath a balcony on one of the nearby towers. As I faded into the shadows I tapped into mine armor’s own reserves once more, and the darkness wrapped itself around me with the familiarity of an old lover.
And then I waited. Stealth is as much a matter of patience as agility or cunning, and many an infiltrator had been undone by moving too swiftly. In her youth, Bright had been wild and impulsive, and while age had tempered those tendencies it had not eliminated them completely. With her blood up and battle-lust roaring in her ears, ‘twas all but certain that she would be the first to reveal herself.
She did so soon enough, though only by voice and using magic to conceal where she was speaking from. “Thinkest thou that the darkness is thine ally? Hast thou forgotten the very nature of mine apotheosis? I am the night, and all that hides from the light cast by my sister’s burning sun belongs to me. The very shadows thou art named for betray thee, for I made them millenia ere you were born.”
Despite her words, I remained in place. If she could truly find me so easily, she likely would have cut me down ere I realized my peril. Neigh, her words were intended to draw me out of my hiding place. ‘Twould be wiser to remain hidden. If she could truly find me so easily, then let her prove it.
Unless...
I slipped out of my hiding place, doing my best to put up appearance of maintaining stealth while being just visible enough for an attentive foe to notice. Let her think her ploy had worked, and I could turn it upon her when it suited me.
“Fool!” The Avatar swooped down from the heavens towards me, revealing herself. Moments later her form shimmered, and then three abominations charged towards me instead of one.
If she thought illusions would give me pause, she was mistaken. Rather than waste precious moments trying to find some clue as to which was the real Avatar, I chose one of the three at random and countercharged. It seemed I had chosen well, for we passed through one another, while the other two Avatars passed behind me. My three foes whirled about, passing through one another’s paths several times so that I could not be certain which one was the illusion I had already identified. The three of them spoke in unison. “Luck has favored thee once, Shadow. How long wilt thou rely upon it?”
I knew it could not be that simple. The Avatar would not do something so crude as repeat the same maneuver over and over until luck favored her, and she could not think I would go along with such a farce. Neigh, she had some other plan in store.
I drew upon mine armor once more, sharpening my senses. As I had suspected, none of the Avatars before me was the true one. Their wings displaced no air, and none of them smelled of sweat, blood, freshly oiled armor, or anything at all. The real Avatar was high above, likely planning to dive down upon me while I remained occupied with her illusions.
I had left my concealed position to let her think her ploys were fooling me, and I saw no reason to stop now. I feigned ignorance, sparring with her shadows while always keeping one ear turned towards the sky. I waited until I heard the telltale rush of wind rapidly passing o’er wings, telling me that she had fully committed to the strike.
As I could not perfectly find her by sound, mine initial counter needed to strike a wide area. Once more, I called upon mine armor’s ability to produce a blinding flash of light. The Avatar let out a startled cry as I stole her sight, and my blades slashed out towards her voice. One of them struck a solid blow, and a spray of blood emerged from empty air.
The Avatar returned to visibility, abandoning her failed illusion. One of her wings had a long but deep enough cut for me to see bone beneath her flesh. She struggled to remain airborne, her wounded wing flailing weakly.
I grinned and followed, keen on pressing the advantage now that she was wounded. “Didst thou truly think thou couldst beat me in a battle of wits and stealth?”
She looked back o’er her shoulder at me. “Aye.” Her wounded wing straightened itself, her unnatural vitality asserting itself once. I tried to alter my path, but I had pursued her too eagerly. ‘Twas too close for her bring her lance tip to bear, so she settled for swinging the weighted butt at my face. I ducked my head in time to take the blow on my helmet, and e’en then the impact was so loud it nearly deafened me. For all its fine craftsmanship, I felt my helmet buckle from the force of the blow, and ‘twas suddenly uncomfortably tight. Despite a brief impulse to remove it, I left it firmly in place. If her blow had done that much damage to a finely-made and heavily enchanted steel helm, it would have done far worse to an unprotected skull.
I thought to whirl about and face the Avatar again, but mine eyes struck upon a better option. I continued forward, reaching the edge of the city and nearing the protective dome Celestia had held in place around it for many months. If the barrier around the Line Manor had given me strength enough to blast a hole through the Avatar’s body, what might I gain from drawing upon a shield many times larger and more powerful?
The Avatar’s eyes widened as she divined my purpose. “Thou shalt not!” E’en with her injured wing, she more than matched my speed, snaring one of my hind legs and yanking it back. Though it did not injure me, I lost all forward momentum and had to dive down to escape from her. When I tried to return to mine original course, I found the Avatar betwixt me and the barrier. “I will not let thee steal my sister’s power. This fight is between us.”
“Then stop me.” I shot to the side, moving down a side alley in hopes of outflanking her.
The Avatar roared and unleashed a devastating blast of lightning, tearing through one of the buildings at the end of the alleyway and collapsing it, blocking off my path. I did not have enough room to turn and fly o’er it, and so had little choice but to halt and turn to face her.
I barely had time to ready myself before she struck, repeating her earlier tactic of bombarding me with dozens of small icy darts. ‘Twas simple enough to duck my head to protect my face, trusting to mine armor to block the light attacks. Howe’er, the blows upon mine already damaged helmet rang far too loud, and in protecting my face I took mine eyes off of her for a critical moment.
I realized my peril too late when I spotted movement out of the corner of my lowered eyes. The Avatar had used another spell to tear several pieces of rubble from the collapsed building, hurling them towards me like massive boulders. I spread my wings and sailed o’er the miniature avalanche, but the Avatar used the opportunity to strike with more of her icy darts. This time, instead of targetting my face or body, she aimed for my wings.
My wing blades and armor protected me from any serious wounds, but I could hardly armor my feathers without undermining their purpose. The Avatar had evidently shaped these darts specifically to catch them, and I hissed in pain as dozens of feathers were torn from my wings. ‘Twas all I could manage just to come to a relatively safe landing, hitting the ground hard and rolling to disperse my momentum. I tried a single experimental flap, confirming my fears. I would not be taking to the skies again without regaining my lost feathers, and that would take weeks without magical aid. For all mine armor’s enchantments, it could only bind my body, not restore it.
The Avatar landed in front of me, grinning triumphantly. “It seems thou canst no longer fight me in the sky. I shall be sporting enough to slay thee on the ground, then.” As she stalked towards me, I noted that her wounded wing did not fold against her side properly, and if anything the damage I had inflicted upon it looked e’en worse than when I had first struck the blow. Her monstrous vigor had allowed her to ignore the wound for a time, but evidently that had come at a price. Perhaps her decision to battle on the ground was a product of necessity as much as chivalry.
She conjured ice once more, but this time instead of a few small distracting darts she made her projectiles far larger. I did not know if these ice spears could pierce my fine armor, but I had no intention of testing it needlessly. As she hurled them towards me I snatched up an o’erfilled refuse bin, letting it serve as an impromptu shield to absorb the blows. A second later the Avatar swatted aside my shield with kinetic blast, charging forward with a battlecry as she readied her lance.
My time on the ground had trained me in a few nuances of warfare that were often lost upon those of us who battled in the sky. As the Avatar came on, I kicked the rubbish bin towards her, scattering its contents across the street. The Avatar’s charge slowed, a critical second’s hesitation as she worked to ensure she did not trip over any of the dozens of obstacles I had just added to the ground between us.
I exploited mine advantage to good effect, rushing past her extended lance and closing with the mare herself. I was moving too swiftly to deliver a proper punch or bring my blades to bear, so instead I lowered my head and slammed my helmet into her face.
The Avatar fell back with a groan, but I could not exploit the opening I had created. It seemed that the blow she had struck my helm earlier had some lingering effect, for mine own skull ached far more than it should have when I had surely gotten the better of the exchange. By the time I could shake away mine own pain and disorientation, the Avatar had recovered her hooves and was ready for me once more.
Indeed, despite the blood leaking from what I hoped was a broken nose, ‘twas the Avatar who struck first. She aimed her lance for the gap in my plates at the shoulder, but I saw the attack coming in time to change my stance so that the plates overlapped, leaving the speartip nowhere to go. I countered with a slash aimed at her lance’s shaft, but it had been reinforced with metallic bands that not e’en my fine blades could cut through easily.
The Avatar kept up her offensive, forcing me back with a series of rapid thrusts that took full advantage of the superior reach of her polearm. While the lance was not ideally balanced for use outside the charge, the Avatar clearly had enough skill to manage despite that.
I prepared another flash of blinding light in effort to close the gap, but I had already used that tactic twice before, and now it seemed mine opponent was ready for it. No sooner had the light begun to manifest than a darkness spell countered it, and the distraction gave the Avatar a chance to slam her lance into my chest. Mine armor held and sent the tip sliding away, but the force of the blow still staggered me.
Mine opponent grinned viciously and shifted her grip, shortening it so she could strike with greater force and precision. “That last blow would have slain any other. What art thou without thine armor, Shadow?”
“If not for thee being twisted into a crime against nature, thou wouldst be dead twice o’er,” I countered.
“Mayhaps, but I shall continue cheating death for centuries after thy corpse grows cold!” She rushed in, bringing her spear down in a powerful overhand stab. I hopped back to avoid the blow, and she quickly reversed her grip and struck with an uppercut that came perilously close to driving the tip of her spear up through my chin. After avoiding the blow by a hair’s breadth, I closed in to slash at her legs, but she knocked my blades aside with the butt end of her lance. Howe’er, this time I struck below the reinforced section of her polearm, and my blades left a pair of deep notches in the wood.
I only had a moment to save that small victory before she fouled my legs with her weapon. I tried to recover my balance, but with a single easy motion she sent me tumbling to the ground. The maneuver exacerbated the damage to her lance, but left me flat on my back. She brought her spear stabbing down at my face, I jerked my head to the side to avoid her first strike, and while I avoided the worst of it, her blow tore through my cheekguard and sliced my face so deeply that ‘twould leave me badly disfigured if I lived long enough to concern myself with such matters. I felt the armor’s magic surge to the wound, slowing the bleeding and sealing it.
She drew back for another strike, and I rolled backwards to lash out with my hind legs, aiming for her elbows. The strike succeeded by the narrowest of margins, stopping her lance’s point when ‘twas but a hairsbreadth away from mine eyes.
The Avatar pressed down against me, trying to force her lance to close those last few inches. “Thine end is at hoof, Shadow.”
“Not today.” I lashed out at her with my wing blades. While mine attack and angle and leverage left me no hope of scoring a telling blow, the attack distracted her for a critical moment, allowing me to break the deadlock and roll away to the side.
The Avatar’s lance slammed into the ground, leaving a deep gouge in the cobblestones. She quickly brought her weapon back to the guard position, smiling viciously. “I nearly had thee. How many more tricks dost thou have that can allow thee to escape certain doom?”
“Enough.” I grunted, readying myself for the next exchange.
The Avatar charged me again, and I used one of her own tricks against her. Mine illusion was doubtless far less sophisticated than hers, but it did not need to be anywhere near as elaborate when I only expected it to hold for a fraction of a second. E’en as mine opponent's spear passed through my shadowy duplicate, I was slipping into cover. Unlike the Avatar, I needed no magic to hide myself.
She let out a howl of rage as she realized the deception. She conjured up several waves of ice shards, hurling them at every hidden corner she could find. When she targeted my hiding place I merely endured the blast, confident in mine armor’s ability to resist the attack.
Seeing that her gambit to flush me out had failed, she snarled and lashed out at one of the nearby buildings, several lightning bolts tearing chunks out of the masonry. “Face me, coward! If we were fighting in a dueling ring, thou wouldst have forfeited the match!”
“Does this look like a dueling ring to thee?” I masked my voice so ‘twould not betray my location, and for added measure I threw a small pebble further down the alley. The Avatar fell for the ploy in her o’erwrought state, turning towards my distraction and lashing out with a blast of raw force that tore the alleyway to pieces and kicked up a massive cloud of dust and debris.
I saw my chance, rushing out into the concealing cloud and silently coming behind the Avatar while the noise of her own attack still rang in her ears. I closed on her back, taking a moment to concentrate and activate my blades’ enchantment so that they glowed white-hot when I struck. The armor protecting the Avatar’s hamstrings offered no more resistance than a stick of butter, and I cut into the muscle beneath just as easily. The wound did not e’en bleed, for my blade was so hot that it instantly cauterized her flesh.
I tried to carry my strike into her other leg, but the Avatar reacted too quickly and I managed no more than a flesh wound. She snarled and lashed out another burst of ice shards. This time she caught me out, and I barely managed to close mine eyes in time to protect them. Several shards found their way past my helmet, One of them cut deeply into mine eyelid, and for a few desperate seconds I feared it had gone into the eye itself.
Both of us stepped back, taking stock of our wounds. I risked briefly removing my helm to wipe away the worst of the blood and ensure that I could still see out of my wounded eye, while the Avatar tested her wounded leg. It seemed she could still walk, albeit far more slowly than she had before, and with her unwounded wing half open for balance.
Despite the pain of mine own wounds, I felt a cautious spark of optimism. Mine armor’s enchantments had already stopped the worst of the blood loss, and while my wounds pained me, I was a warrior of Pegasopolis, trained from birth to carry on through all manner of privation. I called to mind the works of Lyequinegus—most notably his famous statement that pain was naught but an illusion of the senses, and one could choose to ignore it just as one did an unpleasant sight or smell.
I took in both our battered states, and a faint grin danced across my lips. “I think that we are both nearly finished, Avatar.”
Her eyes snapped back to me, glaring hatefully. “No, only thee.” Her magic surged once more, grasping several pieces of the ruined building and hurling them at me. I rushed forward, aiming to close the distance to her and deny her attack. As I had hoped, her efforts to back away and buy time to hurl more of her improvised missiles were lackluster at best. Though her unnatural state might grant her immunity to pain and resistance to injury, I had damaged her leg so badly that the muscle beneath was no longer capable of functioning.
She raised a foreleg to stop mine attack as my blade descended upon her, and to my surprise the blow stopped cold. A second later I saw the heavy spellwork lingering on it, and recalled that she had met her first death on account of a wound there.
She answered mine attack with another thrust to the chest, but as with her previous efforts my breastplate was more than a match for her. I could not help but be somewhat amused by the symmetry of it all. “It seems neither of us shall die the same way as we did in the past.”
The Avatar scoffed and shook her head. “I would not know. I have ne’er died.” She limped back a step. “But I have learned thy tricks all too well. Heavy braces so thy blades cannot slip past and open a vein. Indirect magic so thy leechcraft cannot steal my power and make it thine own. Do not forget that I am the greatest duelist in Pegasopolis.”
“I have heard that said of thee many times,” I countered coolly. “But surely thou knowest that I ne’er made a point of hopping into the dueling ring over any minor slight.”
“I know why thou didst not grace the ring with thy presence.” Her lips curled back in a contemptuous sneer. “Why fight an open duel in the sight of all Pegasopolis when thou couldst skulk about and slip a knife in an unsuspecting pony’s back? That is how thou didst slay my daughter after she bested thee in honorable combat.”
I grimaced at the reminder. “How many times must I say that her death was ne’er my desire?!”
“Speak the lie as often as thou wish, ‘twill change nothing.” She began another spell, and despite the injuries I had inflicted on her leg it steadied beneath. There was cold, sickly sweet smell to her magic and the flesh of her leg turned pallid, the veins blackening and distending. “E’en if thy claim is true—if my daughter’s death was naught but an accident—it changes nothing. My child is dead, and if not for thee she would live.”
I stared at her leg, unraveling what magic she had worked upon it. On any other pony ‘twould have been a horror, but compared to all the other ways in which the Avatar had warped her own flesh, it seemed a trifle. Already she was a monstrous thing whose body carried wounds that should fell any living being, and whose blood flowed unnaturally through the holes I had carved in her flesh. This latest horror seemed hardly worth noting compared to what had already been done. “What hast thou become, Bright?
She scoffed. “In truth, I care not. Monster, demon, goddess, queen—all empty words and prattle of unicorns. The only thing that matters to me is that this apotheosis has granted me the power to avenge myself upon all those who have wronged me. I would gladly damn my soul to an eternity of torment and my memory stricken from the rolls of honor if that path ended with the death of mine enemies.”
“Then there is nothing more to discuss.” I closed on her, moving slowly now from the pain of my wounds. I swiped at her head, and she easily swatted the blow aside with her lance. She followed that with a few token jabs at my face but I easily dodged or parried all of them.
We exchanged a few more blows, neither of us truly committing to any of the attacks. I did not think I could recover fast enough to have sound defenses against her counter if I struck unwisely, and I suspect the same thoughts occupied the Avatar’s mind.
The battle continued in that regard for some time. Gone were the sudden maneuvers and clever gambits, for neither of us had the energy or daring to try such at this late stage. ‘Twas naught but a battle of attrition and endurance, each of us pressing the other and waiting to see who would fall first.
As the battle continued, I felt a charge slowly building in the air. There was a heavy oppressiveness to it, akin to the feeling of two armies preparing to meet in battle, each waiting for the moment when ‘twould be joined. A terrible energy building up like a drawn bow, and all the world held its breath waiting for it to be released. I slowed, almost feeling compelled to stop and wait until it passed. What point was there in trading a few punches with the Avatar when such massive forces were at play?
The Avatar spat, then grinned at me with bloodstained teeth. “Thou art undone, Shadow. The Conduit has been activated, and soon I shall unleash my full strength upon this world. Thou couldst barely stand against me with but a tiny fraction of my true strength; how wilt thou survive when my power grows a thousandfold?!”
“And yet, thou dost not seem any stronger now.” E’en if she achieved all she dreamed of, I did not think she would grow nearly so mighty as she claimed. Not that I had any desire to put that theory to the test, for ‘twould mean that young Midnight had been murdered by her warlocks. “Thy ritual will not succeed, Avatar. Sunbeam would ne’er allow it.”
“She would not allow it?” the Avatar repeated incredulously. “Thou speakest as if she had any choice in the matter. The whore who stole my Conduit cannot hope to defeat all my followers. Hidden and Moonwatch are each her equal, and the greatest warriors in Pegasopolis stand beside them. In all likelihood, she is already dead.”
“We shall see.” I settled against a wall, taking a moment to catch my breath. It might have been more prudent to press a last offensive in case the ritual succeeded, but I judged against it. Desperation was far more likely to lead to me pushing too hard and leaving myself vulnerable, and the Avatar’s unnatural resilience had already allowed her to survive strikes that should have been killing blows. Neigh, all I could do now was wait and have faith in mine allies.
The Avatar seemed content to follow mine example. “It is fitting, I suppose. Thou shalt be the first to fall once my full might is unleashed. Tempting as ‘twould be to make thee live and watch as Canterlot crumbles, thou hast succeeded in vexing me far too many times. Thou wilt have to imagine all Canterlot in flames, and the ruin of everything thou lovest.”
Though such thoughts had haunted my nightmares more than once since the war began, I would not give her the satisfaction. “I am afraid mine imagination is rather poor, for I cannot conceive of anything so utterly impossible. Unlike thee, I do not underestimate the power of a mother’s love for her daughter.”
“Thou wouldst dare!” she snarled, rising to her hooves and stalking towards me. “All I have done, this entire war, all of it was for them. Thou hast murdered half of my children, and Equestria shall burn until I avenge them!”
“And what of thy surviving children?” I demanded. “They abandoned thee for thy crimes and madness. Thou hast done far more damage to thine own family than I e’er could!”
The Avatar roared like an enraged beast, charging and stabbing wildly with her lance. I easily batted aside or dodged her unfocused attacks, giving ground and letting her play out her rage while I waited for mine opening. Her attacks gradually slowed as her burst of fury left her drained, her wounded body unable to sustain her efforts and her muscles pushed past their limits.
I saw my chance when she stabbed at my head, the blow extending much too far and being recovered far too slowly. I struck, empowering my blades once more ere I slashed at her chest. My blow parted her armor like cheesecloth, passing into the flesh beneath and, more importantly, the muscles. I knew not what unnatural force drove the Avatar forward, but my blow to her leg proved that she still needed intact muscles to move. As my blade carved through her chest, her forelegs collapsed beneath her like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
I kicked away her lance. “Thy strength hath faded, Avatar. Make what peace thou canst in thy last moments.”
She snarled, vainly struggling to make her limbs move. “‘Tis not o’er yet. My true strength ... shall be ... unleashed ... soon enough. The ritual must be...”
“It has failed. Canst thou not feel it in the air? There is no power awaiting thee. Lay down thine arms, and mayhaps the Commander will be able to undo all that thou hast done to thyself.” I judged it unlikely, but I owed it to the mare she had once been to try.
“No!” She struggled to take to the air, but her damaged wing refused to work. “I would rather die screaming in agony for a thousand years than accept the slightest aid from thee! I spit upon thy so-called mercy! Spare me, and I swear I shall cut thee down as soon as my wounds heal!” She lashed out at me with a bolt of lightning, but mine armor easily absorbed the direct magical assault.
“It is over.” I readied my blade for the deathblow. “Thou hast lost.”
She glowered defiantly up at me but the rage slowly faded her from her eyes and her head fell with a resigned sigh. “Aye. I am undone. Without the Conduit, I cannot win.” Her teeth clenched, and she grinned at me. “But we can both still lose.”
The Avatar shattered apart, vanishing in a puff of smoke.
My first instinct was to search my surroundings, expecting her to attack me from behind at any moment. Howe’er, as I found no sign of the Avatar, I realized the horrible meaning of her words. ‘Twas not my blood she aimed to shed.
I concentrated on the point she had vanished from, turning all mine armor’s energy towards it. I needed to follow the Avatar. I needed it, perhaps, more than I had e’er needed something in my life. Finally, I found the tiniest thread of the Avatar’s magic and seized upon it, pulling myself in its wake. My body felt thin, stretched, and nearly torn asunder, but I could tell it was working as my surroundings vanished and blurred about me.
I opened mine eyes to discover what had once been a finely appointed room in what I presumed to be Duke Line’s manor. The elaborate tapestries had been torn asunder, and the lush carpets soaked with blood. At the center of the room lay a massive ritual circle torn asunder by a small mountain of jagged ice. Several robed figures hung impaled by icy spears, and in the epicenter of the explosion lay young Midnight herself. The child appeared limp and lifeless, though the faintest movement of her chest confirmed that she yet lived.
Sunbeam and Gale watched o’er her, though both had clearly suffered in the battle to reach her. I could scarcely see Sunbeam herself ‘neath the ash and blood adorning her, and while I was sure that much of that blood was not hers, some of it was. As I watched, Sunbeam strode to her daughter, picking her up and carefully examining her.
The Avatar emerged from the shadows, behind the two of them. A thunderbolt caught Sunbeam and Midnight from behind, taking the exhausted magus unawares and sending her body flying across the room. Gale had barely turned to face her attacker ere the Avatar lashed out, freezing her to the massive icy stalagmite.
Then my hooves struck solid stone as I fully arrived within the basement. Terror drove the pain and weakness from my body, and I rushed forward to interpose myself ‘tween the Avatar and my captured daughter. The Avatar herself had somehow deteriorated e’en more in the moments since I had last seen her. Her chest now seemed a ravaged ruin of mottled, rotting flesh, but she walked as if her forelegs were undamaged. I could not imagine that whate’er she had done to restore them would last for long, but clearly ‘twould be long enough for her purposes.
The Avatar greeted me with a cold smile. “Ah, I had hoped thou wouldst be able to join us. I was about to add the finishing touch to this little piece of theater.”
She gestured towards my daughter, and the ice holding her in place extended o’er her muzzle, covering it completely. My daughter’s eyes widened and she frantically struggled, but she could not free herself from her bonds.
My first instinct was to rush to her side, but I knew ‘twould leave me vulnerable to her captor. With a mother’s fury driving me, I descended upon the monster. She thrust at me with her lance, and the blow deflected off my pauldron. It cut into my neck, but not deeply enough to stop mine own strike from opening her throat to the spine.
With the Avatar seen to, I turned mine attention to my daughter. I quickly heated one of my blades and pressed it against the ice covering her muzzle, melting it rapidly. My daughter gasped raggedly once I freed her mouth, but ere I could turn mine attention to her bonds her eyes widened in horror.
The Avatar struck me from behind, hammering her damaged lance into the vulnerable joint where my wing’s armor joined my shoulder. The blow drove through flesh and bone and into the ice beneath, pinning me in place next to my daughter. Despite the indescribable agony, I attempted to turn and face her, but a moment later one of my daughter’s own throwing spikes caught my wrist and pierced through it, lodging itself into the ice and leaving me helpless.
The Avatar slowly and deliberately stepped into my field of view, pinching down her severed throat to hold it closed. Her voice was so ragged I could barely understand the words, though in truth I could have guessed them regardless. “Watch now, Shadow.” She wrenched my head about, and I saw the ice forming o’er my daughter’s muzzle once more. “Watch helplessly as thy daughter’s life ebbs away. Spend thy last moments on this world suffering as I have every day of the miserably existence thou hast condemned me to.”
I struggled to free myself, but there was nothing I could do. The Avatar had pinned me in place, and for all my terror and desperation I could not free myself. My daughter struggled, her encased mouth gasping for air that would not come.
The Avatar’s rasping laughter rang in mine ears. E’en as she reveled in her victory I saw her wounded wing begin rotting away. ‘Twould seem that I had indeed struck a mortal blow, yet as I watched what might well be my daughter’s last breaths, I did not feel like the victor.
The Avatar leaned forward to whisper in mine ear. “Though I will die, I can yet cast my death curse down upon this miserable city. I know not how much more of it I can destroy with my final act, but I swear I will bring it to ruin. I only regret that thou wilt not live to see—”
“ENOUGH!” The word reverberated through the air like a hammerblow against a bell, and the ice entrapping my and my daughter. The Avatar herself staggered back as though stricken by a physical blow as the word echoed through the small chamber.
Commander Celestia strode into the room, clad in golden armor and radiant as the sun itself. She swung her shining blade, and fire erupted from it to slam the Avatar back. “Too many have already died on thine account. No more.”
Lance and spike removed themselves from my flesh, and a moment later I felt her magic flowing into those wounds and every other injury I had suffered. I could actually feel my flesh mending itself, the Commander stepped to my side, smiling down at me. “Thou hast fought well and valiantly, my noble Shadow. Already, thou hast done far more than I should e’er have asked of thee. Now, I shall finally do what I should have months ago.”
The Avatar dragged her body to its hooves once more, despite the fact that she was decaying before our eyes. “Sister...” The left side of her body was an utter ruin, the already devastated flesh burned away by the Commander’s attack. In the places where skin, bone, and muscle were gone entirely I could see the shriveled remnants of the organs beneath, vainly struggling to maintain a body that should have been dead for weeks. Her face bore only the barest resemblance to anything that belonged to a pony, a ruin of charred flesh and shattered bone. I cannot conceive of how such a creature could possibly continue to move and live when every single part of her seemed broken.
The ravaged remnants of the Avatar staggered forward, somehow able to speak despite all the damage she had suffered. “So good of thee to join us, sister. Wilt thou be mine executioner now that Shadow has exhausted me?”
The Commander faced her, slowly shaking her head. “Luna, my sister ... let this madness finally end. Let Bright Charger go. Let her join her children, as she should have long ago. We owe her that kindness, at least.”
The Avatar stared at her from dead eyes, her body twitching unnaturally. After a long silence another voice left the Avatar’s lips. “So be it. This ruined corpse is of no further use to me. I already planned to discard her once the Conduit fulfilled its purpose. Revel in this meaningless victory as thou wilt, but I will find another way to reclaim my rightful throne e’en if it takes me a thousand years.”
The Commander took half a step forward, her blade raised, but I placed myself ‘tween her and the Avatar. “Neigh, Commander. Imprisoning your sister was painful enough, I will not ask you to take this step.” Mine eyes flicked down to what had once been Bright Charger. “And ... as you said, the kindest thing we can do for her now is grant her peace. I played my part in stealing her daughter from her, it seems ... fitting that I reunite them.”
I stepped up to her. “Bright of Clan Charger, thou hast rebelled against thy rightful ruler, raised armies against her and shed the blood of noble ponies beyond counting. The sentence for these crimes is clear.” I readied my blade, measuring the stroke to ensure ‘twould be done cleanly. Ere I struck, a final statement left my lips. “I am ... sorry.”
For a moment, I saw the faintest glimmer in her eyes, a hint of the fiery mare I had known ere war and misery changed her. Her neck trembled as she slowly shook her head. I do not know what she meant by it—whether ‘twas a final defiant refusal to accept my words, or mayhaps a final acceptance of her own acts. Mayhaps in her final moments she wanted to convey her forgiveness. Or perhaps I simply wish to believe that.
My blade descended, and the Avatar of Nightmare Moon was no more.