//------------------------------// // The Final Day // Story: The Final Choices // by GMBlackjack //------------------------------// Qw looked around at her fellow enchanters. All of them had different colored gemstone wand, and all of them were older than her - and yet all of the robed blairne looked to her with respect and no small amount of fear. “This is their exact location?” Qw asked, touching her sapphire wand to the citrine of a stallion enchanter. “Updating in real-time,” the stallion responded. “This is risky,” Qw reminded them. “If I do not return, remember, Ny takes my place.” The enchanters all nodded in her direction. Qw focused her thoughts into her wand, holding it up high with her hoof. It sparkled with blue energy. She waved it through the air in a circle, etching the pattern into the air. With a determined glare, she drew a zig-zagging pattern within the circle, completing the spell. She loaded the coordinates she had just received into the ethereal symbols and was teleported to them in a flash of blue. She stood on top of a large stone brick embedded in the cotton-candy clouds. It was easy for her to make out ponies of all shapes and sizes along with a small orange dragon flying through the air. But this all meant nothing to her - she saw what she wanted. The bright blue crystal floating in the middle of the cloud fortress. It was not a single chunk of crystal but rather assembled from over a hundred separate shards. That explained why she hadn’t noticed anything physically missing: there were small shards laying everywhere due to natural wear and tear, they could have picked up ten times more than this and there would be no unusual pattern. That crystal had what she needed. So she would take it. She raised her wand… ...and Discord appeared right in front of her, shaking his finger. “Ah, ah, ah…! You can’t be doing that!” “You have no power now.” Qw pointed at him and unleashed a beam of neon-red energy right at him. He snapped his fingers, reducing the beam to chocolate chips. “Maybe not as much,” Discord admitted with a grin. “But I am fused to this ship. Everything in it… is me!” A licorice tentacle erupted from the cotton candy ground and wrapped around Qw, knocking her wand out of her hoof. “Gotcha!” “Monster…” Qw growled. To Discord’s surprise, her wand automatically returned to her hoof. “We can’t have th-” Qw initiated a recall, appearing back with her fellow enchanters. She glared at them all. “The Discord abomination still has power. They did something we didn’t think possible.” “Did you learn what they did to the mana fount magic?” “They collected Root shards and fused them together into a small core of magic. It’s in there, I’m sure of it.” Qw twitched. “We will get it even if we have to kill them all. Send word to the Empire. We may need their assistance in this endeavor.” ~~~ Celestia woke with the sun. She lifted her head out of the sleeping bag she had conjured for herself and looked up, more than a little pleased to see there were still trees above her head and not some kind of dungeon. She lifted herself onto her legs and spread her wings, performing a quick check to make sure everyone was there. Five ponies and a horned human, all sleeping peacefully - even Rarity, despite having little more than a sleeping bag on the ground to rest her head. The arthon mage was sitting on a nearby rock, meditating. Celestia decided to let them sleep a few more minutes while she checked on a few things. She spread her wings and flew to the edge of the forest, finding herself at the edge of the massive roother they were riding. The eight-legged monstrosity held mostly trees with a smattering of orange flowers here and there. They were surrounded mostly by wilderness. However, unlike yesterday, she could make out the tip of a bronze spire in the distance. The palace, no doubt. She tried to make out any details of the structure, but it was simply too far away. It was, however, close enough to teleport too… but that was ill-advised. “Is that it?” Rarity asked, trotting up to Celestia. The alicorn nodded. “Sleep well?” “Enough.” Rarity held a hoof to her eyes and squinted. “I’m still surprised it was so easy to get here…” “They have no way to detect us while invisible. They should have no idea we’re even here.” Rarity nodded slowly. “...I can’t say this trip was anything like I expected.” “How so?” “I was expecting to see more evidence of these ponies being brutes. But… we haven’t seen many slaves. Or much of anything, really. Just ponies living in towns. Going about their lives.” She frowned. “What will happen to them after we’re done?” “They’ll keep living,” Celestia said. “Either the Impervious Ruler will be redeemed or… whoever is next in line for the throne will rise.” “Hopefully they will get the message.” Celestia furrowed her brow as she strained her eyes to focus on the bronze spire. There was a soft rumbling as the roother below them completed a step. “Today is going to be difficult.” Rarity let out a nervous laugh. “No kidding…” “We should check on the others. Prepare as much as we are able.” When the two of them returned, they found that everyone else was already awake. Rainbow was doing her stretches, Fluttershy was talking to some local animals, Pinkie was cooking breakfast with Applejack, and Sunset was messing with her sound gun. The arthon mage hadn’t moved. “We’ll be heading out soon,” Celestia said. “The palace is visible. There will be many guards and defenses we know nothing about. We will go invisible and remain hidden as long as possible. If everything goes perfectly, we will be able to activate the Elements in the presence of the Impervious Ruler without raising any alarms.” “Good plan and all, but…” Rainbow tapped a hoof to her chin. “Where’s the contingency? I mean, come on, we’ve gotta have some backup plan if we’re found early.” “Supercharge celestia, sun nuke,” Pinkie offered. Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Sounds unreliable. Why not have… I don’t know, a distraction? We could send arthon here in and watch him blow some stuff up! They won’t even be looking for us!” “They know how to kill arthon,” Fluttershy reminded her. “We can’t put him in danger like that.” “Fine, I guess we go in without any real backup then.” “I could try t-” Sunset’s sentence caught in her throat. “Celestia? Arthon is doing something.” The arthon mage had stood up and was looking directly at Celestia. What is it? Celestia asked. Distraction. You’ve thought of a distraction? Affirmative. What’s the distraction? Roother. At first, Celestia wasn’t sure what he meant. Then, slowly, an amused grin came to her face. “Fluttershy, I must warn you, I don’t think you’ll like his idea…” Fluttershy sighed. “...Let’s hear it…” ~~~ The Discordia teleported to another section of the Sphere, dodging an immense magic laser shooting at them from the other side of the world. “And you said it was a filly that showed up?” Twilight said, gawking at the magic readings she had gotten from the passing laser. She was sitting on top of the Discordia, using her horn to keep tabs on all the magic happenings. “Absolutely!” Discord answered through a face made of cotton candy. “Child. Younger than Sweetie was when I was first released. Didn’t act like a kid though.” “Probably brainwashed like Nirix,” Twilight said, frowning. “A child.” “I’m surprised you’re more concerned about her well-being than fascinated by her wand. You’re growing, good for you!” A trophy appeared in front of her, filled to the brim with ice-cream. She absent-mindedly took a bite, pondering. “She keeps shooting at us from afar, probably with some ground based station. Moving behind the sun didn’t work, she just attacked from another location… One of those attacks will hit eventually.” “Pshaw, I’ve got enough power to teleport us in half a second! Nothing will faze me!” A red laser fired, singing the edge of the Discordia. “...Why didn’t I see that coming…?” Discord wondered. “She’s getting smarter. Working around our defenses. Can you keep teleporting and raise a chaos shield?” “Can? Yes. Will? On one condition.” He snapped his fingers, creating a sphere of pizza slices around the Discordia. “This is the shield I use.” “I need to be able to see outside, Discord.” “They’ll be invisible when you look at them! Geez, what do you think I am, an ameteur?” Twilight smirked. “Yep!” “Oh for the…” He teleported the Discordia to avoid another beam of energy. “This is already annoying.” “We just have to last until Celestia gets to the Impervious Ruler,” Twilight said. “Which she will know because RAINBOW DASH IS PAYING ATTENTION!” “I’m sure Blue Fast appreciates what you’re doing. After all, hearing the same urgent message four times? Great for focus and patience. A+, Queenie.” A laser hit the pizza shield, sending bits of cheese and pepperoni flying. The shield held, though. Discord frowned. “Why don’t they come up here and fight?” “From our perspective, they’re ‘up’, Discord.” “Gah. I wish the reflective spell still worked…” He teleported them. “Got any other ideas?” “Besides RAINBOW DASH, nothing really… I guess I’ll try Frostfire again. Can you handle it up here?” A cloud appeared above her head and started raining door handles. “I’ll take that as a yes.” She teleported to Frostfire, who was sitting with Eagle, Ichor, and Sweetie near the large crystal. “Frostfire. I know I asked this before, but… do you know anything about your race’s enchanters?” Frostfire sighed. “No. I thought they were just rumors…” “What’s in the rumors?” Frostfire frowned. “Nothing about weaknesses. Just, occasionally, I would hear whispers of young ponies that slaughtered their entire families and vanished, becoming terrible monsters. I… I suspect it was the government that slaughtered the families. Took the kids because they were valuable for some reason, however enchanting talent works.” He scowled. “I wouldn’t know their capabilities either. The rumors just say ‘run or die’. The ‘how’ is conspicuously absent.” “Don’t know if that helps, but thanks regardless.” Twilight glanced to Ichor and Eagle. “You two?” They both shook their heads. “Great. Sweetie, find Spitfire, tell her if push comes to shove we might need to send a strike team down there. Until then I’ll be dreaming up ways to keep them from shooting at us…” ~~~ The Blairne Empire’s Capital was a wonderfully beautiful city made largely of bronze. It had been founded on top of a mine with a seemingly endless supply of copper and other precious metals, making it somewhat easy to make the city primarily out of the simple alloy. Here, in this city, there were only blairne of the highest caliber. Nobles, warriors, agents - and enchanters, though even here they stayed out of sight. Here, in the safety of the capital, most blairne lived their entire lives without hearing anything from the other races. Many didn’t even know wraiths existed. They were a largely happy, if completely oblivious, people. They had a streak of pride that ran deep but rarely caused problems because everypony they came across was part of the same beautiful capital city at the hooves of the illustrious Impervious Ruler. It had barely been an hour since the sun rose when the first guard saw the roother coming. “Is that…?” “Is that what?” his partner asked. “Is that a roother?” “A roother? Coming to us? They avoid the larger cities, come o-” his jaw dropped. “What the…?” “I’m calling it in.” “What’s the signal for ‘incoming roother’?” “Ring the bell a lot of times randomly?” They both shrugged and started tugging on the bell randomly. The guards mobilized to the city outskirts and took in the incoming roother. It wasn’t the largest one in existence, but it was the largest one any of them had ever seen. The captain scratched her chin. “Get the Agents on it. They’ll know how to take out a roother.” The Agents of the Impervious Ruler arrived a few minutes later. Arix, a fire-ice-electric blairne, looked at the incoming roother. “You do not take out roothers. You divert their course.” The captain glared at him. “Then do that!” “The city is supposed to do that by existing.” “Oh for the - it’s coming right here and we don’t have a ton of time! Do something! That’s your job!” Arix nodded. “I will. Agents! Scramble defenses, call for a 442. Captain, arrange the guards in a wall formation. Steer clear of its crystal feet, you don’t want to be around it when we initiate. Go!” The blairne forces scrambled, forming a wall of ponies between the roother and the city. Shields were raised, armor equipped, and the Agents took position in the front. The normal blairne would be of absolutely no use in this encounter, but Arix had given the Captain something to do so they didn’t feel completely useless. Stand there and try to look menacing cowering behind their shields. They were fortunate the roother was incapable of finding their attempts at menacing faces amusing. Blairne with sound-elements present in their magic charged forward, focusing all their energy together onto a single point on one of the roother’s eight legs. This one’s purple crystal shook and shivered as it was subject to a terrible high-pitched frequency. It took two minutes of constant bombardment, but eventually the roother’s foot exploded in a shower of crystals and disgusting blue fluids. The captain whooped. “Yeah!” “Roothers have eight legs, captain,” Arix reminded her. “I’ve seen one stand on as few as three.” The roother took a trundling step forward. “Oh for the…” the captain sighed. “Do we have this under control?” “Yes. It will just take time and resources.” Which was exactly what Celestia and the Elements needed to sneak into the palace with their roother friend. They teleported across the city proper and appeared right in front of the palace gates: large, wiry things made out of a bronze wire mesh that pointed directly toward the sun. The armored guards saw the flash of light, but they didn’t know what at teleport looked like - they didn’t know to look for invisible arrivals. Celestia teleported everyone to the other side of the gates, a wing to her mouth indicating they should all be quiet. Rainbow pointed at her head, once again complaining that Twilight was shouting right in her ear. With a raised eyebrow, Fluttershy told Rainbow to just deal with it. Rainbow fumed silently. In the sky, they saw a red beam of light cross to the other side of the Sphere. The Discordia was still being shot at. They could not see where the beam was coming from, but it was nearby. Celestia teleported them through a window, appearing in a grand hall. Guards were standing there, naturally, but they didn’t suspect a thing. The eight of them were able to walk, unhindered, right to the main doors that led to what she presumed was the throne room. Then, at long last, they came across a problem. The doors were enchanted. Celestia couldn’t teleport through them. Which meant it was time for Celestia to stop carrying the team - they had the Element of Magic with them after all. With a tense breath, Sunset moved forward and placed her hand on the door. It creaked from the pressure she exerted on it, causing the guards to look their way. Seeing nothing, they didn’t think to raise the alarm. Sunset tapped into the Element of Magic, finding the enchantment easily. With a flick of her wrist, she removed it. The door instantly locked in seven different ways and started blaring with a very annoying siren. There must have been some kind of physical failsafe they couldn't see. No matter. The spell was gone and the guards were confused - there was no one at the door. She teleported them to the other side and Sunset put the sealing spell back, ending the alarm. They had to duck to the side as a white stallion holding a wand in his hoof appeared in a flash of white. He pointed his wand at a patch of empty air, scanning. He was no doubt one of their enchanters, and if he found them… Applejack didn’t wait to see what would happen. She gently smacked him upside the head - given her strength, this was more than enough force to knock him right out. They were now inside a large, circular room without any ponies besides them and the enchanter. There was a mana fount in the center, surrounded by a visually pleasing fountain. Behind that, there was another set of ornate double doors. Perhaps these led to the actual throne room? Celestia was surprised to find these doors didn’t have any sort of magical lock on them whatsoever. She teleported everyone to the other side. The room on the other side was so dark none of them could see anything - anything but a pair of eyes flashing dark with every color of the rainbow. “...It seems you have bested my security with ease…” the Impervious Ruler said. A wand of pure diamond appeared, casting a simple dispel that made all of them visible - though they still had a hard time seeing him in the darkness. “It is a pleasure to meet you in person.” ~~~ “We could teleport out into space,” Twilight said. Discord and Sweetie stared at her like she was crazy. “Think about it. We have enough magic power to keep an enclosed atmosphere around us while we’re out there. There’s no way they can shoot at us outside the Sphere!” Discord scratched his beard. “Hmm… Can I make the air smell like cherry bombs?” “Anything, if you can get us out there, away from being shot at!” The Discordia shook as Discord’s pizza shield took another hit. Discord rubbed his hands together. “Might as well try!” “No wai-” Sweetie began. But Discord had already snapped his fingers. Nothing happened. “...What? Seriously!?” Discord teleported the Discordia somewhere random. “The Sphere's shell is teleport-proof, I guess.” “Right, new plan…” Twilight tapped her chin. “Maybe somewhere underground?” “We’d need a honkin’ big cave,” Discord pointed out. “Probably can find one in a canyon, or maybe make one…” “Or… we could use the sun,” Sweetie said. “Already tried hiding behind the sun, they found us.” Sweetie shook her head. “I don’t mean behind the sun. I mean… here, uh… can you give me a piece of paper and a pen?” Twilight nodded, providing both. Sweetie levitated them and drew a circle in the center of the paper. “This is the sun, okay?” Seeing that they were both nodding, sweetie drew a half-circle around the sun. “This is what everyone thinks the shell looks like, a smooth covering for the sun to separate night from day. But that isn’t what it looks like.” She erased the half circle and replaced it with a ‘V’ shape that had a rounded tip. “This allows only half of the Sphere to see light at any given time. It’s an ingenious design, really. And it provides us with a place to hide.” She placed a dot between the sun and the bottom of the ‘V’. “It extends out, leaving a hole here. We could go there.” Twilight’s eyes widened. “Sweetie, that’s… amazing work! Discord, keep the sun from melting us, we’re hiding behind the shell!” Discord grinned. “Through the fire and flames we go!” He clapped this time, teleporting them to the backside of the shell. Their sky was now dominated by an immense ball of flame that blotted out all else. Everything else was the pure, matte black of the shell’s interior. Everything that came here burned. Except one cloud fortress protected by a pizza shield. “I’d like to see them shoot at us now,” Discord laughed - and then wheezed. “Ponyfeathers, it takes a lot of effort to keep you all from frying…” “With any luck that’s all you’ll have to do,” Twilight said. “I’ll tell everyone to be on guard regardless.” ~~~ “I understand,” the Impervious Ruler began. “I see wh-” “I know you understand us, we do not make a habit of making our motives secret,” Celestia interrupted. “You know what we want. I want to understand you.” The dark eyes of the Impervious ruler shifted, favoring purple over the other colors for a moment. “The Sphere must be completed.” Seeing their confusion, he continued. “Eons ago, the Creators built the Sphere and created numerous crystal-based creatures to do the finer details of the work for them. Roothers manage biological diversity and arthon mages…” he carefully examined the arthon mage in the room with him. “...were the defenders. Every other creature had its own purpose to building the Sphere, but they could not do it alone. The Creators needed to guide them. The Creators are not here to guide them anymore, so the Sphere never reached what it was meant to be.” “Which was?” Rarity asked. The Impervious Ruler looked right at her. “I do not know. All I know is that it must be done.” “Why? Why must?” Celestia asked, holding up a wing to keep Sunset from rushing forward. “Because it must. I cannot ignore the calling.” “Then why not do it peacefully?” Fluttershy asked. “We’d be willing to help fix everything…” “I attempted peace at first. Logically speaking, working as one should expedite the process. This proved to be pointless. I attempted to unite the ponies when I was first given the calling, and the other races betrayed me in the end. I devoted myself to my race afterward… and I have successfully claimed more mana founts through war, conquest, and power than I ever did with peace. In the end, the Blairne Empire will own every mana fount in the world, and the Sphere will reveal its final plans to me. On that day - that final day - everything will be right.” “We would have been willing to help you!” Rainbow shouted, aghast. “All you had to do was ask! We wanna know more about this Sphere too!” “And it would have taken months for you to give me full access to the Roots. It hasn’t even been two weeks since you’ve arrived and already I’ve taken most of your power. I will take the rest.” His eyes shifted forward, indicating that he was leaning in. “And I warned you that I would hunt you to the ends of the Sphere if you had a ploy.” “You won’t have to hunt,” Applejack said. “We’re right here.” “So you are…” He lifted his wand. “Celestia will remain. As the only alicorn in existence it would be a blasphemy to destroy her lineage. The rest of you will die.” Celestia smirked. “They’ll be harder to kill than me.” “...What secret do you have?” “Light him up, girls!” Pinkie shouted. Sunset pointed her hand into the air, surrounding it with an aura of purple energy. Her eyes went white as Rainbow, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Applejack, and Rarity floated around her glowing limb. Glowing beams of light unleashed from all six of their chests, coalescing into a rainbow ball. The Impervious Ruler flexed his wand, casting a dart spell that bounced harmlessly off the Harmonious energy. “What magic is this?” “The Elements of Harmony!” Sunset shouted at the top of her lungs. “The power of Friendship - the strongest of all Equestrian magic!” She pointed at the Impervious Ruler with her other hand. “And you’re going to feel the burning light like so many villains before you. Including myself.” The swirling Rainbow unleashed from the sphere, lighting up the Impervious Ruler for the first time. He was a black stallion half the size of Celestia with a larger-than-average horn compared to the other blairne. Multiple metallic rods intersected his body from many angles, all with dull crystals sticking out at the ends. One of these rods went right through his skull - no doubt infecting his brain with whatever was contained within the ancient rods. “No,” he ordered, pointing his wand at the rainbow burst. A shield went up that stopped the Elements for all of a second before shattering. His eyes opened wide in shock before the rainbows completely enveloped him. Celestia allowed herself to smile. He hadn’t been prepared for this. So few villains were. Her smile vanished the moment she sensed the mana fount providing the Impervious Ruler with power. For a moment, the rainbows were pushed back - but even the energy of the Fount was purged with Harmony. The Elements were more than capable of convincing the magic of the fount to join them in friendship. Then the Impervious Ruler’s connection to all the other mana founts in his Empire activated. Magic flowed through complex leyline enchantments that had been carefully laid in fear of a moment exactly like this - when all the magic would need to be called upon at once. The rainbow of Harmony was pushed back again. “Now!” Celestia shouted, unleashing her magic against the Impervious Ruler. The arthon mage did the same, adding a beam of his own magic. The impact all this magical power together caused a shockwave that tore the roof off the palace, allowing the light of the sun to enter the room and glint off the Impervious Ruler’s crystals. “I…” he began. “KEEP PUSHING!” Sunset shouted, casting some magic of her own in addition to the Elements. “Am…” “Duck, Rainbow!” Pinkie shouted. “IMPERVIOUS!” The Elements of Harmony finally gave out - they had unleashed as much magic as they could at one time. The ground beneath them cracked in multiple places from the sudden change in air pressure. With a pained yell, the Impervious Ruler pointed his wand at Rainbow Dash. She ducked, but the Impervious Ruler had heard Pinkie’s warming. He aimed lower. Rainbow Dash’s head exploded. “You won’t… be doing… that again…” the Impervious Ruler breathed. “RAINBOW DASH!” ~~~ “They moved where?!” Qw demanded, voice squeaking from the strain. A blue enchanter lifted her wand, tracing a representation of the sun and it’s shell in the air - a circle with a ‘V’ around it. She pointed the wand in the small space between the sun and the bottom point of the shell’s ‘V’. “Right here.” “They’re insane.” “-ly brilliant,” the blue mare continued. “They have enough magic to survive there. We can’t attack that location from long range.” “They can’t stay there forever.” Qw furrowed her brow. “...Which means they’re waiting for something.” “We recently detected the mana founts of the Empire activating. All of them.” Qw twitched. “We do not have the luxury of time.” She lifted her wand. “I am teleporting there. If I do not teleport right back, it means the Discord abomination is too busy with the sun to deal with us, and we must attack with everything we have. We will take them out from the inside. Most likely we will be consumed by the sun upon destroying the Discordia, but we must do all we can for our Impervious Ruler.” She waved her wand in the air, tracing out the teleport spell. The pizza shield was intended to be teleport-proof, but what kind of enchanter would she be if she couldn’t surpass a lock like that on the fly? Not the best, that’s what. She appeared inside the Discordia, holding her wand up high to allow her fellow enchanters to follow through. There were seven of them in addition to her. “Ponies and others of New Equestria!” Qw called. “You have something that belongs to the Impervious Ruler! Deliver o-” Seventeen pegasi barreled into the enchanters at the same time. “Not gonna sneak up on us!” Spitfire said with a laugh. “Definitely not!” Ocellus said, transforming into Qw. She unleashed a burst of fire magic at the filly, knocking her off balance. “Mhm!” Marble hefted a huge rock over her head and threw it, hitting several of the enchanters. She seemed shocked that she had even thought of doing such a thing, much less actually did it. “Nice one Marbs!” Zephyr called, smirking. “Now watch this!” He dove from the sky and hit a blue mage in the side. He got a lightning bolt to the face for his efforts. “Ow…” “We must repel the attack!” Zecora called, hefting a red magma-like potion in her hoof. “The enchanters will fall back!” She threw the potion, encasing several enchanters in noxious smoke that made them cough uncontrollably. This is ridiculous, Qw thought, lifting her wand. “FOR THE IMPERVIOUS RULER!” She unleashed a beam of red energy… that was completely absorbed by a purple magic shield. “...No…” “Yes,” Twilight sparkle said, alighting in front of Qw. The concerned look on the Queen’s face made Qw absolutely livid. How dare this mutation of the natural order feel pity for her? Qw pointed her wand at Twilight and cast the beam spell - to hit the Queen from behind. Twilight caught it with ease - but then Qw tapped into her natural blairne magic, unleashing a burst of fire into Twilight’s chest. The Queen was tossed back. But it was only for a moment. She teleported behind Qw and pinned her to the ground with her telekinesis. “I don’t want to hurt you.” “...You’re a fool,” Qw muttered, summoning her wand to her hoof and tracing the teleport spell. She jumped about a yard away and fired a beam of energy directly at a group of defenseless ponies. ~~~ “Rarity!” Celestia called as she dodged the Impervious Ruler’s torrent of electric fire infused with steam. “Here!” Rarity jumped away from what remained of Rainbow, tears streaking down her face. Celestia’s stomach sank as she realized Rarity wasn’t going toward her - but toward the Impervious Ruler out of pure, uncontrolled rage. The Impervious Ruler swung his wand around to attack her. Celestia intercepted the attack herself. She was far taller than Rarity, so the Impervious Ruler’s aim wasn’t dead on her head; instead, her shoulder exploded. The excruciating pain sent her perceptions into a tailspin - her eyes showed her nothing but sparkling white energy for a few seconds. Despite this, she managed to fire off a beam spell to where the Impervious Ruler had been all of a second ago. She heard him grunt, followed quickly by a yell of pain. As her eyes readjusted, she noticed the arthon mage and Applejack were both on him; the mage unleashing hundreds of magic bullets while the immensely strong earth pony simply punched him in the side. Pinkie appeared out of nowhere and stuck a stick of dynamite in the Impervious Ruler’s face, plastering soot all over his already black face. He whirled to point his wand at her, but Sunset encased him in a magic bubble. Fluttershy was on Celestia. “D-d-don’t worry, I’ve got y-you…” She waved her wings over Celestia, restoring her. “Rai-” Fluttershy choked at the first syllable, telling Celestia it was a bad idea to speak the full name. “I… I’m sorry Princess…” Rarity said, laying her hoof on Celestia. “I failed you… have it.” Celestia felt a surge of energy flow into her. Everything became heat. She felt as though flames licked up her legs and lava was churning in her stomach. Her eyes lit up with the orange might of a forgotten sun, her mane and tail becoming intense flames of power. The first thing she did with her newfound power was grab the Impervious Ruler’s wand with her telekinesis… and grind it to dust. It had a number of enchantments that would have made that action impossible to all unicorns. Celestia wasn’t a unicorn. “I thought you were impervious?” “As if I need a wand…” Using his elemental aspect of sound, he rammed a hoof into the ground. An earthquake rung out, collapsing the rest of the palace and much of the inner city. Everyone who wasn’t Celestia or the arthon mage fell over from the tremors. The arthon mage charged, only for the Impervious Ruler to ram a sound-infused hoof directly into its body, vibrating the crystals of the beast at the perfect frequency to get them to shatter. The arthon mage fell to pieces before the Impervious Ruler. “You gain ground and you lose it,” the Impervious Ruler declared. Celestia sneered. “I need no help… I am the SUN, what are you before the might of its fire?” ~~~ Twilight teleported in front of Qw, preventing her attack from reaching the innocent ponies. This was exactly what Qw wanted. In truth, it wasn’t even an attack - it was an overload spell. It absorbed directly into Twilight’s shield, driving all the magic used to cast it back into Twilight’s horn. Twilight fell back with a scream, unable to decipher what had just happened to her. This was all according to Qw’s plan. She waved her wand, casting the spell she needed to hit Twilight - a well known but difficult spell known as Silence. Very rarely useful, since blairne enchanters were all in the employ of the Impervious Ruler, but it was a good tool for training and earning respect. Few enchanters could cast it, fewer still could do it on an unwilling target. Twilight fell back, the light in her horn fizzling to nothing. “Die, queen,” Qw stated, pointing her wand. A beam of red energy came out. To Qw’s annoyance, Twilight demonstrated a proficiency with pegasus magic and diverted the beam with an unnatural burst of wind. “...Persistent.” “My special talent is magic,” Twilight admitted. “All magic.” She drove her hooves into the stone slab embedded in the cloudy ground, driving a crack through it all the way to Qw. Qw sneered, teleporting to a separate slab. Instead of resorting to magic lasers once again, she tried something else: restraints. A series of magical ropes appeared in the air and flew at Twilight. She was able to deflect many of them with her wings, but not all of them. When one of the ropes hit her, her hooves were forced together with such force that some of her skin was burned off. Other ropes arrived now that she was not so agile, taking her down to the ground. Qw tapped her wand in the air three times, creating three knife-like missiles in the air. She decided not to say anything. The blasphemous Twilight didn’t deserve a final word. The knives flew. “Gotcha, mom!” Ichor shouted, picking Twilight up and flying her out of the way of the knives. Qw twitched. Right. Their pet wraith. She wasn’t durable. A simple phasing bolt would take her out… Eagle came out of nowhere and drove her beak into Qw’s back. Shrieking, Qw created a minor explosion that sent Eagle flying. “GET YOUR HOOVES OF MY DAUGHTER!” Fox said, transforming fully into a bright red fox. She lunged, embedding her teeth upon Qw’s back leg. Insolent whelp! Qw lifted her wand, preparing a spell to turn Fox’s bones to jelly. Frostfire jumped over her head, grabbing the wand. “Got it!” “Not for long, traitor,” Qw growled, asking for her wand to return. It stayed in Frostfire’s hooves. But that’s impossible. The only one who can prevent a blairne’s wand from returning is… another enchanter. “I wonder what this thing does…?” Frostfire said, looking at the tip of the sapphire rod. “Can I make it shoot?” Qw wasn’t going to give him the chance. She sent fire down her back leg to get Fox off, burning her own limb in the process. Qw didn’t care. She was going to get that wand back at all costs. She lunged, swirling fire around her body. Frostfire shot a block of ice into her face, knocking her back. “And I don’t need a wand t-” Qw twisted around the block of ice and lit the ground under Frostfire on fire. She reached out to the flames with her natural blairne magic and invigorated them, burning Frostfire from multiple sides. He shouted, dropping the wand and stumbling out of the fire. Perfect. Qw reached forward… Ichor wrapped her tail around the enchanter’s neck. “Ah, ah, ah! Don’t move!” “...Why haven’t you stung me?” “That’s not how we work here.” “Your mistake.” Qw summoned her wand back to her hoof and pointed it at the crystal. It was clear at this point the enchanters alone couldn’t take the Discordia - they really needed the entire army here to win this. But she would be satisfied with a draw. She unleashed a spell of destruction directly on the central crystal of Discordia, ready to destroy it and, by extension, everyone in the cloud fortress. Twilight intercepted it. There was no teleport, no shield… just a purple alicorn taking a destructive spell head-on. She held out a hoof that was completely consumed in the resulting explosion. She fell to the ground, unmoving. Ichor tightened the grip of her tail around Qw’s neck until she passed out. She had been the last enchanter standing in Discordia. She was briefly aware of Discord shouting. “We need to get out of here! Something’s happening to the sun!” ~~~ The enchanters in the capital finally managed to get enough of their act together to realize they were nothing compared to the flaming monstrosity that was currently dueling their Impervious Ruler in the midst of the ruins of the royal palace. The moment they could give assistance they realized it would be pointless. One tried to throw a wand to their sovereign. Celestia reduced it to dust without so much as a thought. Celestia’s solar beams impacted the Impervious Ruler’s walls of ice with great intensity. “You’re straining!” Celestia cackled. “I am the center of the mana founts,” the Impervious Ruler breathed, the magic of the founts still fueling the durability of his form. “Their endless power is mine.” “Then I am the emissary of the sun. Its endless power is mine!” With a twisted grin, she felt the Sun in the sky. Currently, it was half-covered by its shell. Why not fix that? With a tilt of her head, she turned back the day until the shell was completely hidden behind the sun’s powerful glare. A beam of pure solar plasma shot from on high, impacting the ground around the Impervious Ruler and reducing it to glass. The Impervious Ruler remained in the midst of the sunlight. Unable to speak, unable to move… but unable to die. Celestia snarled. She couldn’t do any more than this. She had called heaven itself down upon this pony… and he was still here. Staring her down. Rarity’s supercharge wouldn’t last forever… There had to be something else. The others thought this as well. Rarity and Fluttershy looked around desperately. Applejack was visibly considering jumping into the light just to get a punch off. Pinkie had her party cannon aimed. And Sunset… Sunset had taken out her sound cannon. She hefted the metallic device in her arms and took aim. Pressing a few buttons with her magic, she sent a pulse of sound into the Impervious Ruler. The gems in his metallic rods began to crack. “NO!” He roared, somehow audible over the raging plasma. “IT MUST BE COMPLETED!” Sunset used her magic to increase the volume on the sound cannon, cracking the gems further. “THE SPHERE HAS A GRAND PURPOSE OF EONS! YOU DEFY IT!” “It no longer knows what its purpose is!” Rarity shouted. “How could you?” “I-” The rods shattered from the strain, leaving behind a larger-than-average blairne fed by the mana founts of the Empire. “It… it’s gone…” the Impervious Ruler said. “All gone…” A smile broke out on his face. “Thank you.” Celestia tried to end her spell, but it was too late. The Impervious Ruler, freed from the wedge in his brain, chose to reject the power of the mana founts. Instantly, the heat of the plasma vaporized every atom in his body. There were no more screams. Celestia’s mane returned to its normal pastel colors. Her confident smirk was replaced with a grimace of horror. “...He was still in there… if… if only the Elements could have worked on him…” She turned her gaze to the edge of the battlefield where the enchanters and Agents of the Blairne Empire stood. “Your Impervious Ruler is dead,” Celestia declared. “Send word to the armies. New Equestria is to be abandoned. After this is done, you may appoint whoever is heir to the throne. Do not threaten us ever again or we will bring the might you saw this day to bear upon you.” An enchanter in a white robe held an onyx wand tightly in her hooves. “...I am Princess Aegis. I accept your terms.” “Good,” Celestia said. Her gaze softened considerably. “...I am sorry I could not save him.” The Agents and the enchanters gasped in horror - but Princess Aegis did not. She merely wiped her eyes and nodded in understanding. “Ul, send word to Qw, get them to abandon New Equestria. Everypony else, make sure the citizens are okay.” They left, leaving only Princess Aegis with Celestia and the others. Celestia turned to Rarity. “Fluttershy.” Rarity nodded, touching the pegasus and endowing her with immense energy. The buttery pegasus exhaled, spreading her wings. Grass and flowers sprouted up all around. “I… I cannot find him…” Aegis nodded. “He was free in the end…” Fluttershy’s wings focused on Rainbow Dash’s headless body. “I can find her.” She pushed her wings into Rainbow, flooding it with life. All six limbs extended to full, and with a swirling aura of green light, Rainbow’s head regenerated. She opened her eyes. “Ugh… I’ve got the worst headache…” Fluttershy pulled her into a hug. “Rainbow!” “Wh- what? Wait, did I-” Pinkie, Rarity, Sunset, and Applejack piled on - the last one squeezing Rainbow a bit too hard. “AUGH! MY RIB!” “Sorry!” Applejack blurted. “Let me fix that…” Fluttershy said. Celestia smiled sadly. “...You should return to your ponies, Aegis.” Aegis looked to the alicorn. “As should you.” Celestia spread her wings and enveloped her five precious little ponies and her faithful student… and teleported away. Aegis looked down at the shards of diamond at her hooves. “Is this what you would have wanted, Scimitar?” She received no answer. ~~~ “Mom!” Ichor called, running to Twilight. The alicorn had seen better days - her entire lower half was missing, and one of her front legs had been burned to a stump. “Mom, I…” “Ichor…” Twilight said, smiling softly. “I… I’m sorry…” “D-don’t be, you saved everyone, there… nobody’s dead! Nobody at all! We beat them!” “But I… I was the keystone of the Roots…” Twilight coughed up some unnaturally dark bile. “I… I failed the Tree of Harmony… My plan…” “Screw the Tree of Harmony, you saved us!” Ichor spread her wings. “All of us are alive! ALL of us!” She tucked her hooves around Twilight’s head. “We won!” Twilight’s eyes lazily drifted to the crystal. “Discord… will have to see what he can do…” her eyes started to grow dim. “No… No! Mom, no! Discord, get out here and do something!” Discord appeared - at about the size of a pea. “I… I’m spent. I had to get us away from the sun.” “Screw the sun!” Ichor cried. “Screw the Tree, the sun, the magic, the…” “Ichor… I’m so proud of you,” Twilight said with a sad smile. “Tell my friends I’m proud of them too. They did just as much as I did…” she coughed. “Tell Celestia I forgive her… and that I love them. All of them…” “M-mom…” Ichor sputtered, eyes welling up with tears. “I didn’t get to…” “Go to Celestia…” Twilight encouraged, caressing Ichor’s face with her one remaining hoof. “And… be the Princess you know you are…” “I… I…” “Spike…” Twilight called, sensing her number one assistant was nearby. “Be happy.” Spike couldn’t make a verbal response. Twilight sparkle looked up. “I wish… I wish I could have seen the stars one last time…” “We can do that!” Ichor shouted. “S-someone open up the clouds, let’s start breaking through the Sphere’s barrier a-” She looked down. “M-mom?” She shook Twilight slightly. There was no response. “N-no…” For the longest time, there was nothing but silence in the Discordia. No one did more than breathe. No one thought anything else could be done. Should be done. Their Queen was no more. Their only loss in the entire fight. “No.” Everyone was more than a little shocked to hear the voice of Pinkie Pie. “There will not be an arbitrary tragedy today.” Pinkie stood up on her hind legs, smiling so large her teeth took up most of her face. “We started with a tragedy. We will end in triumph.” She stepped to the side, revealing a supercharged Fluttershy. “Today… we live. We all live.”