The Life of Penumbra Heartbreak

by Unwhole Hole


Chapter 59: The Known Betrayer

A vast crystal ship detonated, its disintegrating remains being pulled into a vortex to some unseen and unknowable place. The others continued, though, bombarding the Crystal Empire to dust. Nothing of the greater Empire would survive for Celestia to claim. It would be sacrificed in the name of the One True King.
Yet the troops on the ground fought on, even with the world crashing down around them. Retreat had been cut off, and the whole of the world had fallen into dispensary. Forward bases and landing zones had been lost, and whatever chain of command had existed before had been severed. T here was fear and pain, but through that fear was hope and faith- -and the soldiers strove onward toward the Citadel.
A substantial force of earth-ponies had made it farther than the rest, and their escape had been cut off. Their forward momentum persisted, though, supported by a small contingent of batponies wielding ice-bolt crossbows. Many of their forces lay injured behind them, struck down by the blasts from above or by the hordes of golems that appeared not to notice or not to care about the bombardment. Yet the band moved forward.
As the ships began to explode, they had crested a small hill when the ground suddenly began to shake. The roar of hooves became thunderous, and as it drew nearer, a chant could be heard echoing through the noise.
“SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH!!”
A horde of yaks suddenly appeared. The ponies did not understand and did not react at first, not sure if these creatures were friend or foe. After all, the Yak’s Republic of YakYakistan was a known ally. Each and every one of the ponies knew that it was a glorious utopia of sharing and peace- -if only because that was the propaganda the unicorn nobles had fed them.
Yet when the yaks struck, they struck hard. Earth ponies were sent flying. The bat ponies had already loosed their crossbows- -their own knights having been far more transparent on international politics, and the need for the Nightmare Horde to eventually conquer all yak territory- -but their weapons had no effect. Yaks, being exceedingly hairy, were immune to both ice and tiny pony bolts.
The leader of the earth-ponies was thrown back by a punch to the chest. “But you’re allies!” he cried as a yak stood over him. “Why?!”
“Allies? Tell that to yak family that end up in GOULASH! Yak gonna SMASH!”
The earth-pony was promptly stomped.
Then a laser bolt from the sky descended. It struck directly in the center of the yak forces. Yaks were thrown everywhere as the ground was torn upward from the force, boiling from within.
“But- -we are allies!” cried the lead yak, just as the ground below him disintegrated.
The Equestrian forces took advantage of the chaos and charged, building up speed even over the collapsing ground. Though no match for yaks standing still, once they had gathered momentum the yaks did not stand a chance. They forced past, and the shield dome of the Crystal Citadel came in sight.
And when they saw it, they slowed, their eyes drawn upward to what sat over it. Fear encroached into each of their souls, and the strength began to drain from them.
That was when the yaks were forced out of the way by reinforcements.
Terrible things burst through, screaming and leaping upon the earth-pony forces. The ponies cried out in terror, not understanding what they were being attacked by...but the greatest fear came from those who understood, by some instinct or some aspect of incidental thought, what these horrors had once been.
They were distorted, their bodies mutilated and reconfigured in hideous ways. Black armor had been bolted and fused to their bodies, and their faces and hooves were twisted to the point of no longer being recognizable. Almost all of them were screaming, and many wept from agony- -but most laughed. High, manic laughter of endless joy. And then there were a few that had undergone so much surgery that all they could do was chatter.
The earth-pony leader, though stomped, still managed to stand- -only for one of these monstrosities to leap onto him, pinning him down. It had no apparent eyes, or face; its skin was pierced by rusted metal of every type and shape, parts of it bending to form structures of unknown and unspeakable function.
The batponies opened fire. Their arrows struck true, penetrating the body of the thing that had pinned the leader of their allies. She was forced back, screaming out and shaking- -but it was not a scream of pain or surprise. It was a cry of joy.
“Oh yes!” she wailed, her voice corrupted by her badly altered vocal organs, the arrows still deep in her bloodless body. “Oh YES daddy! Hurt me daddy, HURT ME! Daddy please, give me PAIN!”
She leapt forward, and the earth-pony had no choice but to punch her in the face with full force. She was knocked back, and he was sure he had felt something break. Yet she did not fall.
“Yes daddy! I love you daddy! Hurt me more! HARDER! I’M A GOOD PONY HURT ME HARDER!”
Her body was in a flash consumed by fire. This time she screamed with something other than pleasure- -but still not pain. Now it was anger.
“Get up!” cried a voice, lifting the earth-pony onto his feet.
“Thanks, I would have- -” his words caught in his throat when he saw that the red unicorn standing beside him was dressed in Imperial armor, his horn surrounded by a system of magical support controls and his body marked with signs of surgical reconfiguration.
“But- - you’re on THEIR side!”
“The field marshal's gone mad! I fight for the Empire!” He lit his horn, and a plume of flame burst outward from it, driving back more of the mutants. “We have to retreat! If his students are here, he can’t be far behind- -”
Except that it was too late. Walking slowly, almost bored, Buttonhooks the Mad dragged himself through the battlefield.
The earth-pony soldier cried out, terrified by the hulking mass before him. “What- -what is that thing?!”
The damaged eyes of the creature turned toward him. “I am merely an explorer,” he sighed. His voice was barely comprehensible. It was not that of a pony, or any sane being. “Yet, in this battle, I fear I may have reached the final shore.”
“GET DOWN!”
The imperial unicorn ignited his horn and fired a blast of flame. Buttonhooks did not even dodge it; he was immolated in an instant.
The only sound that came from him was a somber sigh. “Why?” he asked. “Why is this fire so cold? Why does it not hurt?”
He stepped forward, leaving the boundaries of the spell. The batponies opened fire, and Buttonhooks became the equine equivalent of a pincushion. He did not even flinch.
“Daddy!” cried the creature that had been attacking before. She ran to his side. “Daddy, we love you, we all love you- -”
She crumbled as Buttonhooks slammed a metal-studded hoof into her side. She rolled several times across the battlefield, barreling through several terrified earth-ponies. When she fell, she did not move- -at first. Then, to the horror of all present, she lifted her broken body and broke into laughter.
“Thank you daddy! Look everypony, LOOK! I’m a GOOD PONY!”
“I envy them,” said Buttonhooks, pausing. “How innocent they are. How far they still have to go. It is too much to bear.” He grabbed the arrows stuck in his body and absentmindedly pushed them deeper. “I had thought a war would give me new pain. Better pain. But there isn’t any left.” He turned toward the earth pony and the unicorn. He suddenly shuddered forward with impossible speed. The unicorn cried out as he was thrown to the ground, and the earth-pony tried to defend, only to be pressed into the snow and ice with a great, twisted hoof. He could feel the bones inside it, and the bones were strange. They had been broken hundreds if not thousands of times.
“At least I can still give the greatest gift,” said Buttonhooks. “The gift of endless, perfect pleasure. How would you like to start?” He lowered his face to the earth-pony. His eyes seemed to grow wider, even with steel hooks keeping them open far wider than should have been possible. “I know! Do you know what I’m going to do to you?”
“N- -no?”
“I’m going to take four metal horseshoes...and I’m going to put them on your hooves….” He drew his face even closer. The commander could feel his breath. It actually smelled quite pleasant. “And then?”
“Th...then?”
“I’m going to NAIL THEM IN PLACE!”
“NOOOOOO!” cried the earth pony. “Not that! ANYTHING but THAT!”
Buttonhooks produced a lemon. “Squeezed in the eye first then? How daring!”
Before the pain could begin, the whole of the battlefield was cleared with a single spell. Every pony or yak on both sides suddenly cried out as they were shocked with pink-violet magic, and then they fell to the ground, their bodies smoking slightly.
The spell had also struck Buttonhooks, but he had hardly noticed. His nervous system could not be overloaded so easily.
He turned, and in the distance saw Twilight Luciferian limping toward him. He seemed to be almost entirely unable to put weight on his armored hoof, and he was sweating profusely. Dark circles had formed under his eyes- -one of which was now completely red, the face around it having changed color from pale gray-white to a disgusting shade of yellow.
“I don’t have time for this,” he growled.
“Twilight Luciferian,” said Buttonhooks, sitting down in the field of unconscious ponies and yaks. “I must say, I had been wondering which side you actually intended to take. In all honesty? This does not answer my question.”
“Stop toying with me, donkey,” hissed Luciferian. He coughed hard and quickly wiped a thin stream of silver from his lips. “You know exactly which side I’m on.”
“Your own?”
Luciferian smiled. “Sombra decided for me. The Princesses must win. Equestria must prevail. If Sombra takes back the throne, I’m done.” He reached for his infected hoof. “And then it all was for nothing.”
Buttonhooks nodded. “I see. So you came to betray me.”
Luciferian smiled. His teeth had grown substantially. “I chose the weakest to go first.”
“And the other twelve?”
“I already have control over one, and at least six of them don’t matter whatsoever.”
“Really?” Buttonhooks lifted himself off the ground and turned to Luciferian. “You have made a grave mistake, if you intend to fight me. There is nothing you can do to me that I have not already done to myself. I have reached the far limit of pain, and found it pointlessly weak.”
Luciferian sat down. “Fighting. What’s even the point? I tried fighting. It never works. To be honest, I abhor violence. I am a white unicorn, not some racially inferior savage. I prefer a more civilized approach.”
“You refer to treachery.”
Luciferian shrugged. “You cannot betray a pony without befriending them. If the world were a perfect place, we would only ever crush our friends.” Luciferian reached into his robes and produced an object. “I therefore have brought a gift. For you. You will not need to fight.”
“What gift could you possibly give me that would convince me to stop?”
Luciferian’s grin grew, and he opened the box he had produced. From it, he withdrew a cube of dark, nearly black wood and strips of pale steel.
Buttonhooks took a ragged gasp and took a step forward, his eyes wide with awe and disbelief.
“That is not possible!” he cried. “There- -there are none left! They were destroyed!”
Luciferian laughed. “My ancestors built them! They were a gift to this world from House Twilight, and ponies simply refused to accept our generosity.” Luciferian held it out. “This is the very last of them. The last Configuration, from my own personal collection. I want you to have it. Take it, and depart this war.”
Buttonhooks took another step forward. His body was shaking, and he was salivating uncontrollably.
“No,” he said, stopping suddenly. “It- -it can’t be real. There is no way to prove it is genuine- -”
“Yes,” said Luciferian. “There is.”
Buttonhooks stared at the cube. It was not large, but he could see the insignia and forms carved into its surface. Forms that, if it were real, linked to immensely complex and accursed mechanisms within, the product of the work of generations of mad mages. Mages whose works Buttonhooks had based his life off of.
“I have no reason to give you a fake,” said Luciferian. “The whole point is to open it.”
Buttonhooks reached out, half expecting Luciferian to rip his dream away and strike him down with a spell. Yet Luciferian did not, and when Buttonhooks touched the box he shivered. He took it from Luciferian and for a brief moment thought he could hear the screams of every pony who had held it before him. All those who had opened the Way.
“Use it well,” said Luciferian, walking past Buttonhooks. “She’s waiting.”
Buttonhooks could have stopped him, but he did not. He allowed Luciferian to pass into the snowstorm and to disappear, on his way to commit whatever betrayal he wished. Yet there was nothing Buttonhooks could do, no force that could take his eyes away from the cube.
He knew that he could save it. He could open it later, once the battle was won. That would be the right thing to do- -but the temptation was too vast. Hungrily and with shaking hooves, he tore into the cube, wrenching its pieces around into the proper configurations that had been written down by the disciples of pain in the long past. He knew the codes and meanings of the terrible runes carved into the side and cast in silver, and knew the forms they must take- -and he wept with joy as he turned the facets of the device.
Suddenly, it shifted. It was no longer a cube. Part of its center snapped upward and Buttonhooks turned it. He took a deep breath and pushed it downward.
Nothing happened. There was no sound, no flash of light. No vortex to paradise.
“Depressing, isn’t it?”
Buttonhooks turned and nearly cried out. A mare had appeared beside him, standing in an empty field of snow and ice between the fallen buildings of the ruined city. A mare of perfect yellow with a bright red mane- -and eyes with neither whites nor pupils. They were pure red.
Buttonhooks fell to the ground, prostrate. “H- -Hail Satin!”
A smile crossed the mare’s face. She was tall, thin, and remarkably beautiful. As was her smile, if only because of its absolute sincerity. “One who remembers my name. I had not known that there were any left in your world.”
“Though your name may be forgotten, your beauty penetrates all ponies in life, and consumes them in the beyond.”
The smile grew wider. “You know, I had been about to complain. I’ve already been summoned once, and frankly that’s going terrible for me right now. And then this?” She took the Configuration from Buttonhooks. At her touch, its form of perfect angles disintegrated, instead assuming its true form: a conglomeration of malignant globes. “I mean, did he actually trick you into opening this?”
“No,” said Buttonhooks, standing. “No, I know exactly what I have done.”
“They all say that. Then they learn that I’m not a mare, and suddenly their tune changes.” Her smile grew far larger than was possible for a pony. Her teeth were black and pointed. “But by then it’s too late, isn’t it?”
“Not I,” said Buttonhooks, looming over her. “I have taken everything this world can gives me. I have learned every secret of its pain. Please, show mercy upon me, oh great Goddess! Grant my wish! Show me the secrets that I crave!”
The One True Goddess looked up at Buttonhooks and frowned. “You fool. Are you trying to impress me? With that body? What point does it serve?” She waved her hoof, and Buttonhooks dropped to the ground. He sat up, gasping and shivering. He looked down in shock and saw that his hooves were no longer pierced by metal. They were small and free of scars. He had been restored to his original body.
“Wh- -what have you done?!”
“A mortal body cannot feel pain. Not really. Sure, it thinks it can. But real, true physical pain? No living thing would survive it. But those who give themselves to me? Who present me with their soft pony flesh?” She hugged Buttonhooks, her chin touching his shoulder and her hooves around him. “To those and those alone, I bring IMMORTALITY.”
Buttonhooks smiled, and then his eyes widened as he felt her. His mouth opened in a silent scream of agony when he understood, and a quiet scream escaped his mouth- -but it was already too late. In an instant, he was gone from the mortal world- -and had finally entered paradise.