//------------------------------// // Clashing Thunder // Story: The Ash of Fallen Stars // by Wings of Black Glass //------------------------------// Twilight’s sleeping again. She barely has the strength to stay conscious by this point. I feel gently for her pulse; it’s very feeble. I can’t kid myself anymore. She’s not going to survive much longer, she might not even make it back to Ponyville at this rate. I bite back my tears, looking away from the pony in the cart. It’s not fair. My eyes are drawn to my Alicorn wings and my cutie mark. I finally, finally, get everything I ever wanted, and now the only pony I care about is being taken away one breath at a time. I couldn’t tell her, now, how I feel. I couldn’t tell her after that battle, with nothing but death here. My only hope for her is that Ponyville survived. It’s a shallow one, I know. I look around, trying to figure out exactly how far away we are. We’re in what used to be a forest, but now it’s a field of dreary black spikes and dried out leaves. Even after all these miles, we’ve found nothing alive. I sigh, knowing it’s a futile hope. Ponyville must certainly be as hollowed out as everywhere else. Why are we even bothering to go back? Because we’ve nothing else we can do. Maybe we’re going back just so we can be at home when we finally give up. I shake my head. I can’t think like that. There has to be a solution! Something we can do… This is all my fault. If only I hadn’t tried to go back in time in the first place. I blink. Could it really be that simple? Not that time travel is simple. But… I still know the spell. I can’t do it on my own, not out here. I need the map table to even have a chance; If I can do it at all. The Tree of Harmony is an ancient and powerful thing, it might have been able to survive my curse. If it’s still alive, the map table might still be intact. There’s still hope. I look back to Twilight again. She’s dying. If she can still be saved, I need to get her back to the Castle of Friendship. I quicken my pace. Luna rears and spins, dashing for the masks. Unsure if only one is enchanted, she sweeps both off the table and into her arms. Her teleport spell builds, and she glances back in time to see Despair’s eyes go wide and dart down to his own side. Now he knows. Cold night air bites at her when she reappears outside, flying just outside his tower. She can still see him through the window. He spins, searching for her and his masks. “Luna!” The shout is nearly deafening even muffled by the window, his voice amplified by rage and magic. Without waiting any longer, she wings away towards the palace. She has to get the masks away from him first, then she can worry about how to deal with Despair. Lightning flashes behind her, and thunder booms. He’s already found her. She accelerates without looking back, knowing he’s not a strong flyer. “Give it back!” A bolt of energy, A neon-blue beam with a haze of red flame around it, flashes past her and disappears off into the distance. She slips sideways in the air in surprise. If she had thought him unwilling to hurt her, she might have been wrong. The palace isn’t far, but she won’t be able to hide the masks from him with so nearby. If she tries, he’ll tear the castle apart looking for them. She needs time and help. Luna swings around to keep one of the towers between them, giving her a moment to think. A low rumble rolls across her, like thunder. At first, she thinks it’s another of Despair’s teleports, but then she realizes it came from far away. She glances to the side, at the coming storm. A second, more unstable, blast of energy nearly hits her in the back as she twists around and changes course towards the dark clouds. She climbs, gaining altitude and distance from the slower Unicorn. For an instant she risks a glance back, Despair is falling behind. She brings her attention back to her course. The storm isn’t far now. Repeated thunder blasts are her first and only warning, his quick teleports bring him too close. Despair cracks into reality just in front of her, rearing and shouting. Wild energy shines out of the cracks on his wings, flowing down as he unleashes raw power towards her. The masks are nearly knocked from her grip. She throws up a shield, blunting the attack, and dives to build speed. Rain pelts her face as she finally gets under the storm-clouds. The already dim light drops to near-complete blackness. She can’t see her way, but hopefully neither can Despair see her. A flash of Despair’s wild power streams past her, he’s still not far behind. In the dark, she can still see his face, lit by his glowing red eyes and the burning lightning of his scars. Holding the masks close, she pulls up hard and flies into the clouds. The rain and the wind intensify, threatening to knock her out of the air entirely. She grimaces, trying to steady herself. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. A lance of fire briefly lights the clouds, but the shot was far away. Despair fires again, aiming wildly for her. She pushes deeper into the storm. Despair doesn’t know where she is, but she still needs to hide the masks. Could she just throw them into the dark? No, Despair might see them, or have a spell to find them. Could she just destroy them? It wouldn’t be difficult. But… what if she needs it to restore his sanity? No, she won’t take that risk. She sucks in a breath as a lucky shot nearly scorches her wing. She needs help, but where can she get aid? Twilight? No, she’s too far away. What would Celestia do? Celestia, she could help! But… she should be sleeping by now. Luna blinks from the water in her eyes, shielding her face with one arm while she struggles through the rain. She could go find Celestia’s dream, but while flying through a storm? She can’t control her flight in the dream-world, it would be madness! Something flickers into view through the clouds, difficult to see in the deluge. Through the dark, she spies the lightning and fire of Despair’s face and the shining cracks on his wings. He’s not far away and flying nearly parallel to her. She rolls away, hoping he hasn’t noticed her. “This is a terrible idea.” She tries to level out her wings and hold herself steady on an ascending trajectory. Focusing on the dream-world, she closes her eye. Lights fill her mind as her body nears the top of its arc. She searches madly, trying to find one dream among millions. A Library, no. A field of flowers, no. She can’t even spare enough time to identify the dreamers as she blinks in an out of dreams. Three dancing ponies, no. Where is she!? A comforting fire and mug of hot chocolate, no. A white swan on a lake, no… wait! She darts back to that one. It’s a white swan with pastel wing feathers, gliding on a lake that looks like the top of a large white cake. That’s her! “Tia!” She shouts, unable to spend more effort or time to really interact with her dream. The swan glances up from its serene swimming with eyes that Luna recognizes. She’s right, it’s Celestia! “I need you, sister! Wake up!” She can feel her body shift, thrown off balance by a gust of wind. She’s plummeting now. “The storm, Tia! Look to the storm!” Gravity kicks her from the dream before she can be sure Celestia understood. She opens her eyes just in time to see Despair diving into her, too late to do anything about it. They collide, wings and limbs twisting together. Tumbling, spinning, neither one able to get wind under their wings. They fall as one. “Get off!” Desperately she tries to push him clear. He’s tangled himself too tightly with her, scrambling to get the masks out of her grip. The wind whips her mane into her eyes, she can’t see anything but flashes of his red eyes and his lightning scars. He kicks and punches madly, trying to get a hoof on one of the masks. She tries to hold them pressed close to her fur, she can’t tell which one is which, and their points dig into her chest painfully. Lightning flashes, mere inches away. The burst and the flare stun both of them, setting her ears ringing. For a brief instant, they both stop fighting, both rattled by the natural fury. Luna’s still trying to recover when she feels her skin crawl with static charge. It’s now a familiar sensation, Despair is going to teleport! Does she still have the masks? Yes, but then Despair’s hoof slips in under her arm, and he tugs on one. She can’t tell which, her senses still shot by the bolt. He’s not leaving without her, she locks one wing around him. The spell completes, the rough and distorted magic burns at her nerves, almost like being lit on fire. She can’t even tell where they’ve gone, there’s still rain in her eyes and wind in her ears. More static builds, mixing with the electric charge already in the air. They’re still locked together, and still falling through the storm. Despair’s teleport is even more painful the second time, and then yet worse for the third. Over and over, he’s using his teleport as an attack! It reaches a crescendo she can’t stand, and she screams involuntarily. She can’t see it, but she can feel the mask ripped from her grip. Despair kicks her away, and she spins alone. Wind howls in her ears, she can’t even see how far the ground is. Her wings scream at her as she struggles to halt her fall, tumbling nearly uncontrollably. Wind batters her, snapping her wings away as she spins. She almost panics, fearing the ground must be close. She closes her eyes and tries to ignore the vertigo. Instead of fighting the spin, she pulls her wings in close. Then, straining to keep it straight, she lets one wing out and allows the force of the wind to orient her down. Her tumble slows to a controllable spin, and she snaps her other wing open, angling her feathers so she pulls up out of the dive. Only now does she dare to look, catching her breath. She’s back in the air, flying more-or-less steady in the wind and rain, heading back into the clouds. She still has one of the silver masks. Which one did he get? Sailing out in a random direction, she risks a moment to wipe the rain out of her eyes to see the one she still has in her arms. She spins it around, trying to find the face. A flash of lightning from the storm reveals two empty eyes in her grip. Light from behind her draws her attention. Unchained, wild, spears of fire and lightning leap from his horn into the storm above. Neon-blue energy bleeds out of his cracked feather panels, illuminating the rain like immense wings of light. Despair’s rage howl is louder than even the screaming storm.