//------------------------------// // Chapter Thirty Nine: Let There be Light // Story: Heart of Magic // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// Heart of Magic Chapter Thirty Nine: Let There Be Light Written by TheCrimsonDM Twilight hacked. She slashed. She stabbed. One by one she felled changeling and deer alike as they charged her. Duck under the blade, swipe at the legs, stab another as she rises, and crush the head of the one she felled with her back hooves. On and on she took them down. Her body ached, her muscles burned but her heart and her mind were one in duty and death. Behind her Wind Rider was moving like a dancer. His wings covered in bladed tips lashed out like spears, lashing, stabbing and tearing at things near him. His gun fired actual fireballs into the nearest and furthest targets. He could move, duck, weave and flip over his enemies without ever having to fly using his wings instead as the most deadly appendages she’d ever seen. Chrysy by far had it the easiest. A constant sweeping beam of green disintegration beam wiped her foes out before they even reached her. There was nothing that could stand against Chrysalis, something Twilight had learned herself long ago. One of the ones by Twilight leapt over her. She reached out with her blade but the deer had jumped high enough to avoid it. It landed a good five feet behind her and charged straight for Blackout and Cozy. A beam of green energy cut it short before it got there. Chrysalis shouted back. “Take of your lines minion or else face my wraith for failing my orders!” Twilight was covered in goop, gore, and chunks of she didn’t want to know. Yet seeing that made her smile. With Chrysalis on their side they could handle this horde. In fact it was time for Twilight to get a little crazy herself. She began to dip into that pool of alicorn magic. Discord’s voice cut out like a sharp knife. “NO! Save that for the real threat!” Twilight normally would argue with him, but when he said real threat she was sure he had access to information she did not. In this one instance, it was better for her to listen, though it would make this battle longer and harder still. Yet if there was something worse on its way, she feared what it could be. She cut more down. One by one. It seemed the majority of the horde was facing on the nearest targets. Only a few of the deer seemed keen on getting past there lines. Each one was failed as it tried. Yet there was one thing Twilight hadn’t noticed until she saw a fireball explode into a changeling’s face right next to hers. There line was being pushed back. Little by little there triangle was shrinking until they were close enough that the possibility of interfering with one another was real. Chrysalis must have retreated in order to prevent being overrun by herself. She was shooting the occasional glare Twilight’s way. She must have known Twilight had more power stored behind but wasn’t using it. She knew that just using it now, just a little would be enough to push the tide. Give them a breather, maybe stop the horde completely. Chrysalis cried out. “Get down you TWO!” Her horn lit up and Twilight could feel it, she didn’t need the warning. She ducked down and so did Wind Rider. A wave of green energy flew from Chrysalis’s horn and rushed out into the horde. As it brushed over Twilight’s head she saw a few stray hairs turn to ash. As the light washed over the horde the changelings and deer fell into ash and vanished. The wave rushed out over the edges of the plateau and for a moment things were quiet. Twilight looked around. Everything up here that wasn’t part of their crew was gone. For the moment it really was just them. Twilight looked at Chrysalis but she turned her head and scoffed. Twilight laid there for a moment. Her face was covered in sweat which mixed with the black gore soiling her face and came down in smears that were certain to stain her fur. Wind Rider looked only mildly better than she did. Chrysy was pretty much clean of any gore, though even she seemed to have sweat running down her face and was out of breathe. Maybe her magic was not quite as infinite as Twilight had believed. Twilight looked back at the two sitting against the ship wreck. “You two okay?” Cozy nodded. Blackout was shaking, her pupils were tiny. She wasn’t Rainbow Dash, she was just a normal filly who’d acted tough to try and look good to her mom but was just a scared kid inside. For crying out loud running away from home like this was the worst thing she’d ever done. Even Amber held up better against such odds… Twilight stood up. “Wind Rider, this mission is failed. Can you fix the ship?” Wind Rider stood up. “While you were out I did look at it. It’ll fly… for about two minutes.” Twilight looked at him. “And then?” “Then it will explode.” Twilight blinked some sweat and blood out of her eyes. She wiped a leg at her face and stamped her hoof. “Damn it! I can’t let Rainbow’s kid get hurt.” Wind Rider nodded. “I agree.” Chrysalis growled. “I don’t think we’re getting out of her either way.” Twilight followed Chrysalis’s glare and saw the Smooze punching the mountain that Sunset had crashed into. Chunks of the mountain were sailing off and landing into the sea creating huge splashes below. The top of the mountain was virtually gone at this point. Where was Sunset? Why wasn’t she fighting anymore? Did she actually lose all of the magic she’d built up? A flash of brilliant gold light lit up and Twilight watched as the purple ooze that formed the Smooze began to turn grey and solidify. The grey raced up its arms and covered it’s head and body in mere seconds. It continued going until it reached the sea below and continued to stretch on for hundreds of feet away from the Smooze’s now frozen form. A golden flicker of light flashed from the mountain top and then reappeared on the mountain in front of Twilight. Sunset was there. Her face was a crimson soaked and swollen mess. Parts of her fur were covered in the purple ooze. The glow that had covered her earlier had dimmed considerably. She spat something crimson and white onto the ground… a tooth. “Chrysalis, I need you. We’re ending this now.” Chrysalis stared at her in silence for a long moment. Finally at length she said, “No.” Sunset blinked her non swollen eye. “What?” Chrysalis scoffed. “I have avenged my children. I am done here.” Twilight looked at Chrysalis. “Then what… what are you going to do?” Chrysalis smiled. “Should be easy. Even without a ship I assume all of us can fly. Because I find the idea of owing any of you a favor for saving me, I will repay it immediately by helping the rest of you fly out of here and somewhere considerably less purple.” Twilight looked down at the ground. She tried to force herself to not smile. “Thank you, Chrysalis.” “You have been an excellent minion so far, Twilight.” Chrysalis admitted. “Now continue to do your Queen’s work and help us move this sorry mess of an alicorn with us.” Twilight nodded. “Yeah.” She looked at Sunset. “Okay, time to go.” Sunset growled. “No.” Twilight shook her head. “We’re done here. We tried, we failed. We need to leave and come back later.” Sunset shouted. “I have never failed! You, you have failed, over and over and over again! But I have never once failed in my duty to rid this world of its evil!” Twilight took a step back. “But… Starlight, your losing magic.” “I have enough.” Wind Rider spoke up. “Listen, kid, you don’t have enough strength to finish this. We need to go back, let Celestia know what we learned and come back with a stronger force, maybe a fleet.” Sunset roared. “NO!” Black lines spread out from her legs up towards her body. The purple goo that was on her began to sink into her flesh. “I will end this now, or never! If you don’t help me so help Celestia’s left buttcheek I will make you!” Twilight stared at the lines running Sunset’s legs. “Discord… what happens when you get the goo on you?” Discord cleared his nonexistent throat. “You um… you change.” Sunset roared. “FINE, Screw all of you! I’ll do this myself!” Her wings flapped once and she rocketed into the sky. Chrysalis shot up after her. “I am you’re queen and I demand you come with us right now, Sunset!” A beam of gold energy shot out and hit Chrysalis. The beam went right through her left foreleg and wing. Chrysalis screamed as she came tumbling back toward the mountain top. Twilight’s horn lit up and her sword dropped to the ground. She caught Chrysalis in her aura and gently laid her down. “Oh Celestia, oh no.” Twilight ran to Chrysalis’s side. “You can fly can’t you? Can you heal?” Chrysalis stared at her with a hate filled eye. “Do I look like I can fly?” “Heal?” Chrysalis’s horn flickered to life and lasted for only a moment before dying. “There may be more reason I declared it was time for us to leave. Even though I’m clearly strong enough to handle this-” she flapped her wounded wing, “-I would rather be at full str-“ her face screwed up and she cried out as her wing went completely limp. Twilight looked at it. The hole was the size of her hoof. If her leg was in the same state then she wasn’t walking or flying anywhere. Twilight couldn’t lift them all back. Wind Rider and the other two couldn’t hold Twilight and Chrysalis as they flew back. Twilight was going to be hard enough to carry, but a giant like Chrysalis would take three or more ponies alone. In the sky Twilight saw Sunset floating far above the hole. Her entire body was glowing and a ball of golden flames had formed around her. What was she planning? She was mad with whatever corruption was taking root in her, so whatever she was doing it was going to be bad for everypony. Discord piped up. “Twilight, your magic.” Twilight blinked. “Oh my goddess, you’re right! You’re always right!” “Thank you.” Twilight looked up at Sunset and then down at Chrysalis. “I… I only have enough magic for one miracle spell… what… Discord what do I do?” Off in the distance the giant Smooze mountain started to crack. Purple ooze leaked from the cracks like fell tainted blood. His arm shattered and his fingers began flexing spraying purple goo all over the mountain’s top. Twilight found herself shaking. “D-Discord, he’s back.” “Twilight, you can’t kill the Smooze.” If Twilight saved Chrysy she might be able to get the four of them out of there, but that would leave Sunset behind to die. Sunset had kids, she was a mommy! Meanwhile if she saved Sunset, she was in horrible shape and there was no telling if any amount of alicorn magic could actually save someone from that kind of corruption, only Val was here. If she teleported everypony as far away as possible she could still only teleport ponies touching her. And turning the Smooze to stone again wouldn’t stop him for long… Wind Rider walked up to Twilight. “It sounds like you only have magic enough for one spell.” Twilight nodded. He smiled. “Well good news is that we can work around that. Listen, I don’t know what Sunset is going to do, but it won’t work. I can tell you that much. That Smooze thing will be back up and running in a matter of minutes and you need to either move everypony or heal them.” Twilight nodded. “I was never good at healing magic as a unicorn. It has to be my alicorn magic to heal.” Wind Rider flexed his wings. “Good thing I can still fly, right?” He glanced at the ship and flexed his wings again. Twilight sat down. “Explosion?” Wind Rider nodded. “I’ll fly the ship into the Smooze. Fly back here on my own, and after Sunset completes her useless spell she’ll come back right? Then you can teleport us all away.” Twilight nodded. “Yes, yes I can do that!” Wind Rider walked toward the ship. “Hey, Twilight, keep her safe.” Twilight nodded. “No undead will touch her while I’m here.” As Wind Rider walked past Blackout he paused. “Hey, Blackout.” Blackout was shaking uncontrollably as she looked up at him. He smiled down at her and took off his white scarf. He wrapped it around Blackout’s neck and said, “I’m letting you borrow this kid. It’ll keep you safe until I come back.” Blackout pawed at the scarf. “D-d-dad, I… I love-“ He interrupted her. “Love you too, kid. Now do me and your mom proud and go sit by Twilight okay?” Blackout tried to stand up but her legs shook too much to walk on her own. It took Cozy Glow’s help to get Blackout over to Twilight’s side. The four of them watched as Wind Rider flew onto the side of his ship, pressed a few switches and the ship gently drifted upwards. It was making a horrible grinding sound as it spun around flying sideways and began heading toward the Smooze. Part of the Smooze’s back was cracked and open at this point. He was right, they only had a few minutes. The sun began to glare down at them and Twilight had to look away it was getting too bright. For a moment she didn’t look up, but then she realized that the sun was actually closer to the horizon and the blinding light was coming from above them. She glanced up and using a hoof to help block out the light she saw where Sunset had been it was now replaced by a miniature sun, roughly the size of a cruise ship. Twilight gasped. “What, what is she doing?” Chrysalis spoke in a shaky tone. “Her plan, I’m just not there to join her.” “Her plan?” Chrysalis coughed. “There is only one way to end a world ending threat, Twilight. The price you pay for it will always be the highest.” Twilight blinked. “What, what are you talking about?” Chrysalis spoke gently. “She didn’t tell you, did she?” “No! She hasn’t told me anything about her plan!” Chrysalis coughed again. “Not the plan. About her family?” Twilight stood up. “What… what are you saying?” Chrysalis met Twilight’s eyes. “If you had your family, your kids, and everything you love taken away from you, what would you do to avenge them?” Twilight blinked. Her eyes were stinging and it was becoming hard to see. She wiped at her eyes and looked up again. “No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No! NO!” Twilight tried to flap her wings and jumped into the air. She landed on her hooves and realized she didn’t have wings to flap. She was just a useless unicorn again. “Discord, Discord do something! Please, I need your help.” Discord’s voice came out gentle, soft, and sad. “I… Twilight, I’m virtually powerless. If you want I can make you a cup of tea. I’ll be the cup, but I can make it. Anything more… I can’t do that anymore.” “Then of what use are you to me!” Twilight screamed Discord replied. “Clearly not enough.” Cozy Glow reached up and stroked Twilight’s leg. “Let this go, Twilight. We’ll take Wind Rider and leave.” Twilight looked up. “I can fly. I can make wings. Butterfly wings, that melt in the heat of the sun but I can make them!” Discord cried out. “Are you daft! Sunset is literally living up to her name, your wings will melt before you can even take off!” Twilight closed her eyes and stomped a hoof. “Then what do you suggest?” “I don’t know anymore! I didn’t plan for this!” Twilight looked ahead and saw the airship collide into the purple back of the Smooze. The ship sunk into its back slowly, but she could see him. Like a little fly Wind Rider was flying away. He was safe! A purple tendril lashed out from The Smooze and wrapped around Wind Rider’s waist. Twilight’s eyes widened. Blackout stood up and screamed, “DADDY!” Twilight knew it. If it had been a leg, or his tail, Wind Rider could have cut it off and flew away without being corrupted. The tendril had wrapped around his waist. Even if he broke away he wasn’t going to get away clean. He also wasn’t going to be strong enough to break away on his own, he wasn’t some madly powered alicorn, the corruption was likely already taking hold of him. The ship exploded into a blast of furious flame and shrapnel. The explosion quickly enveloped Wind Rider and continued to grow. Whatever was inside that ship seemed to be so strong it actually cut the mountainous form of The Smooze in half. The top half of the Smooze fell into the purple sea and sunk. The other half crumbled and sunk beneath it. Blackout was still screaming but the words were lost on Twilight. She looked up. The sun had grown into a blinding white ball. Sunset’s form descended toward the hole and it was in that moment Twilight knew what was going to happen. She searched inside herself and grabbed hold of the power inside her left eye. With a toss of her head she threw the eye patch off and it flew away in the wind. Her eye cast a golden light around them. She wrapped her legs around Cozy and Blackout and jumped back to land on top of Chrysalis’s good wing. She checked and made sure that Discord was as tightly wrapped around her neck as possible and then wrapped what was left her legs around Chrysalis’s waist, good thing she was so thin. The miniature sun was still sinking toward the hole. It was almost reaching it now. Twilight needed to make sure that no matter what she saved everyone here. Just to make absolutely sure that she didn’t leave anypony behind, she bit down into Chrysalis’s wing as hard as she could. Chrysalis yelped but gave no other response. Twilight felt her eye burning, her body screaming in pain as she channeled the full power of an alicorn through her mortal body. Her muscles were in agony her soul was on fire and her mouth was filled with a copper taste. It kept building up, the magic kept filling her and she let it grow until she felt her mind slipping. Then she let the magic all go into the world in a single spectacular spell. The world was washed out in a ball of heat and flame and Twilight teleported herself and her group as far as she possibly could. There was only one place she could think of where any sort of safety would be; The Royal Guard Watchtower. *** The world formed itself again around Twilight and her group. They all were dropped onto the top level of the old tower. Dust covered everything and was kicked up as there explosive presence landed. In the distance Twilight could see the purple sea but more importantly she saw the ball of glowing light. It was massive. It was larger than any of the mountains and it was growing larger still. A force of kinetic energy blasted out along with a gust of wind so strong it threatened to push Twilight back and cut at her face. The ball of light just kept growing and growing. It was so large that the mountainous size of the Smooze itself was only a mere fly compared to it now. It seemed like it would continue growing and never stop at this point. Yet it did. It reached a certain size and stayed there. Larger still than any mountain or city that Twilight had ever seen. It reached that point and stayed there. She half expected it to shrink but it just remained… it was too bright to keep watching but they waited. Seconds became minutes, and still it remained its same size and did not shrink. Twilight finally gave up on expecting that miniature sun to go away anytime soon. She instead looked to her friends. Cozy was sitting there, holding Blackout in her legs. Chrysalis was actually unconscious. Her wounds had started to bleed a little. Twilight didn’t have any alicorn magic left in her but she easily found some old flag of Equestria and tore it in half to make bandages for Chrysalis’s wounds. The old Royal Guard Watchtower had been abandoned many years ago, but at least here, at least for now they were safe. Once she made sure that nopony else was going to… to leave, she would take a nap and contact Luna. For now, she was going to make sure what was left of her group, her friends, were all okay. Twilight opened the hatch to go to the lower level and found herself surprised by a store room of old canned foods and gallons of purified water. They would be okay here for as long as they needed to. While she was searching for an actual medical kit she heard Discord. “I… I’m sorry,” Discord said, his voice somber. Twilight looked under a cupboard and actually found one. Unopened and locked with the most simple of locks. “You saved us.” Discord’s voice cracked. “Not, everyone.” Twilight opened the medical kit and saw everything was still there. Including the pain killers that Chrysalis was going to need when she woke up. “If you didn’t stop me from wasting the last of my alicorn magic sooner we’d all be gone.” “But… I’m the god of chaos, I should be able to do whatever I want.” Discord’s voice wavered. “And I wanted everyone saved.” Twilight closed her eyes. For a moment she allowed them to stay shut. She could feel the tears streaming down her face. “Even you can’t save everyone, Discord. But you saved us, you’re a hero.” Discord’s voice grew quiet and the last words he spoke for the rest of the day were, “Then why don’t I feel like one?” Twilight couldn’t answer that. She didn’t feel like a hero either. Still, she had ponies to look after and as Sunset had ordered, she was the leader and she was going to take care of them until Luna showed up. After that… After that she would need to think of what next. For now, make sure no one else left her, after that they could mourn. “Make a list, Twilight,” Twilight told herself. “Stay organized. Save ponies. You can do this. You got this.” Twilight went back up the stairs to the top level and with needle and thread got to work on repairing Chrysalis before moving her to somewhere less exposed to the elements. Twilight could do this. She had to do this. After all, there was nopony else there to do this… She was ready to take charge and save the world again, after all following somepony else failed horribly. Twilight was going to save the world once again, she had to. End of Part Three