Alicornae: The Legend of Starlit Sky
Part V - Chapter 12: Surety
* * *
"You've travelled all this way, done all this work, and when I give you an easy way out, you refuse it," Twilight Sparkle stated as she stared Starlit down. "I knew there was a reason I picked you for this task, even if you have thoroughly disappointed me with your actions over the last few days."
"I know what you did, Twilight," Starlit replied, venom heavy in her voice as her spear floated up by her head. "To Chrysalis, to both of the Hearts that you are trying to bind to your will. Could you blame me for trying to stop you, knowing what I know now?"
"I can't say I can, but I believe that you've only been told a part of the story," Twilight said, slowly walking in a semicircle to Starlit's right. Starlit mirrored her, keeping a good few feet of distance between them.
"Then why don't you give me your side. It can't be any worse than throwing Celestia out a window and beating Chrysalis near to death just for the sake of your 'great work.'"
Starlit saw Twilight's calm smirk twitch into a momentary frown, a break in her regal facade that Starlit knew all too well by now.
"Then ask away," Twilight replied, her voice maintaining its calm and detached air. "You remember how this exchange of ideas went last time, I assume?"
"Why are you trying to enslave Equestria to your will?" Starlit asked, immediately going for the throat of the matter. There was no more sense in dancing around the issue.
"As direct as always, I see," Twilight quipped. "Tell me, Starlit Sky, what is your general opinion of the ponies you have known in your life?"
"You're not answering my question, Twilight," Starlit interjected.
"I only ask because it will provide some necessary context for my answer," Twilight countered. "Please, indulge me in this if nothing else."
Starlit kept a keen eye on Twilight, especially her horn and her hooves, waiting for the errant twitch that Starlit would need to capitalize on.
"Generally neutral, all things considered," Starlit answered, "with the notable exceptions of my family and friends."
"Then you are lucky to live in a time that allows you to have a dispassionate view of everypony around you," Twilight replied, her back now facing the Heart. "Life was far more complicated in my day, and there was far more conflict to be had over ultimately inconsequential matters. Wars, civil strife, rebellion; all of this and more was the order of the day for thousands of years as I was growing up and coming to understand what my role was to be."
"That's just how ponies are, though," Starlit countered. "We fight for things we believe in, or just to live another day. You can't possibly think things that just happen to everypony justifies this mad scheme."
"Maybe from your position it doesn't justify my actions, but you haven't lived the thousands of years that I have. You haven't seen the sheer scale of the destruction that ponies can wreak when they feel the need to. The unification of Equestria and binding of its magic to the Crystal Heart were earlier methods that my kind used to try and reign you in, but these were half-measures at best because they believed in a pony's right to self-determination."
"And you obviously don't," Starlit stated. "You've answered my question, so why not ask me yours?"
"Not a fan of my rhetoric, are you?" Twilight asked back. "Very well, since we're running short on time as it is."
"You have someplace to be? Because I'm afraid I'm might have to waylay you," Starlit countered.
"I'm exactly where I need to be, Starlit Sky," Twilight replied, that smug smirk dancing across her face again. "You've already told me why you can't just go home and let me finish my work, so I guess my best question should be how you intend to stop me."
"By force, if that wasn't painfully obvious," Starlit answered, bobbing her spear up and down in her magic. "Pretty poor choice of question, all in all."
"I wouldn't think so," Twilight replied, "since it does tell me where your head is at right now. You're a smart mare, Starlit Sky, surely you don't think that you can beat me in a straight fight?"
"Not a straight one, certainly, but I have my ways," Starlit answered. "I managed to beat Celestia in a straight fight, after all."
"Celestia is a brute who has far more in common with you than you'd think," Twilight countered, continuing to circle around Starlit as Starlit circled her. "She never had much of a mind for subtlety and subterfuge, and when you cleft her portion of the Crystal Heart in two it robbed her of the only advantage she knew she had over you. You took the wind out from beneath her wings, so to speak."
"Then maybe I should just destroy your fancy crown," Starlit replied, gesturing to the five-pointed crown on Twilight's head. "That seems like it has a lot of power in it, given it has five shards from this giant glowing rock behind me in it."
"And you've reminded me of the other question I wanted to ask you," Twilight said, her voice brightening with malice. "How, exactly, have you managed to spy on me? I know you have a particular specialty for shields and warding magic, so these little forays into manifesting your sight through my crown have thrown me for something of a loop."
"You know, I'm feeling nice, so I'll let you have this one for free," Starlit replied, a smile of her own going across her face. "I have no idea."
"You can't possibly be serious."
"I am as serious as the fight that I know we're about to have, and that I would love to get underway," Starlit countered. "I just drew some power out of the stone to get me back on my hooves after that ridiculous amount of thestrals you threw at me on my way up the mountain, and it knocked me out and apparently connected me to your crown as a side effect."
Twilight opened her mouth as if to speak before her previously look of smug superiority slowly soured. Her eyebrows furrowed, her coy smirk quickly turning into a resolute frown, and she stopped circling around Starlit. Starlit stopped dead in her tracks in turn, a feeling of satisfaction rising in her chest.
"That answer cut to the quick, I'd wager," Starlit said. "Upset that you can't find the answer you're looking for?"
"Starlit Sky, you are going to give that fragment to me now, and I am only going to ask for it one more time," Twilight countered, her voice as steely as her glare. Her horn illuminated with magenta magic, and Starlit dropped into a low stance in response.
"You're going to have to take it from my corpse, you lying, insane excuse for a pony," Starlit countered, tensing her muscles in anticipation.
Twilight took a deep breath in, her pupils shrinking and her head shaking in rage.
"As you wish," Twilight replied with pure hatred, before firing a beam of magic directly at Starlit's spear.
Starlit quickly flipped the blade around to the other side of her head, taking the time in between to manifest her personal ward as Twilight readied another beam. She could feel the heat radiating off of the blast of magic as it grazed past her cheek, but despite the danger Starlit could feel a strange sense of exhilaration.
As the second beam lanced towards Starlit she expertly ducked underneath it and charged, spear aloft and righteous rage driving her hooves.
* * *
"I must say, Setting Sun, your arrival could not be more expertly timed," Chrysalis said as she rose off of her chitinous throne. Her steps were shaky and weak, and she drooped her head as she approached like it hurt for her neck to support its weight.
"How so?" Sun asked as he fully entered the chamber. He could feel the air suffused with energy, like a static charge running along his fur, and it made his horn ache.
"As we speak, I can feel Starlit Sky within the Heart," Chrysalis answered, sending a start through Sun's heart. "Within myself, in a way."
"She's still alive?!" Sun asked, before remembering her ability to resurrect herself. "How… how many times has she died?"
"More than most, I'd say, but that is not your concern right now, Setting Sun," Chrysalis answered. "Right now we are here to discuss you, and your role in this long and sordid tale."
"What about Fluttershy? Where is she?" Sun asked, guiltily recalling how he had futilely launched himself off of her back. He hadn't seen her when he got to the bottom of the hive.
"She will be fine; my children are escorting her from this place as we speak. She will be safely returned to her home and all of this will seem to her as though it were a bad dream."
Sun felt a lump of worry form in his throat, but swallowed it back down as he thought it through.
"It's for the best, probably," Sun replied. "She never wanted to come with me, and she seemed kind of upset with me when last I saw her."
"A common issue with all ponies, it would seem," Chrysalis mused, sitting on the floor in front of Sun. She towered over him even when seated, and the air of otherness she gave off was even more acute than when they had spoken in the swamp.
"How so?" Sun asked, sitting down in turn.
"Ponies are selfish creatures, and alicorns triply so," Chrysalis explained. "Their only concerns always seem to be how to better themselves and their own positions at the expense of all of those around them."
"You say that like it's fact," Sun countered, "but I wouldn't be here if that were a tautology like you seem to think it is."
A low, soft chuckle escaped Chrysalis's lips, one that carried weariness instead of mirth.
"Perhaps I've been cooped up in my hive for far too long, then. You and Starlit Sky are rare exceptions that prove the rule, I'd say. You wouldn't be here if it weren't for the selfishness and vindictiveness of your Princesses all those centuries ago, and neither would I."
"What do you mean? Weren't you one of the Princesses?" Sun asked.
"In title, if not in fact," Chrysalis continued. "My Heart created life as we know it now, but for countless ages it let life flourish unabated and undisturbed. Civilizations have risen and fallen on the stretch of land you call Equestria, allowed to grow, live, and die as they saw fit to. That changed when the alicorns, blessed amongst the ponies, committed a grave and terrible sin."
"By creating the Crystal Heart and binding Equestria's natural magic to it," Sun replied as he drank in Chrysalis's words.
"Precisely. By creating that profane trinket they sought to usurp the appropriate role of the Heart of Fate and become greater than their station. The Heart of Fate let their leash go slack, and they took the opportunity to try and shackle it in turn. They enslaved those like you, in principle if not in fact, by forcing that which the Heart gave to all to go through only a select few."
"Then where do you factor into all of this?" Sun asked, fearing that he understood the answer.
"I was created as the first of the Changelings when the Heart needed an emissary and a saboteur," Chrysalis continued with a touch of pride, "a creature that could see without being seen, hear without being heard, and unravel the crime that the alicorns had committed against this world."
"During this time that I observed your world, creating my own children to act where I could not, I saw the level of decadence and depravity that ponies could commit; acts of betrayal, of violence, and of selfishness that I could not fathom. I was created for a singular purpose, and your kind was not, and your aimlessness leads you down dark paths."
"But there is just as much good and nobility in ponies, surely," Sun countered. "I may not be as old as you are, or seen as much, but we learn from our mistakes."
"Do you?" Chrysalis asked. "Allow me to peel back the scales from your eyes, so that you might see more clearly."
With a swish of her gnarled, twisted horn a small disc of silvery mist manifested to Sun's left, its slight glow a stark contrast to the harsh shadows cast by the room's omnipresent green glow. Slowly the mist parted to reveal a scene like the innumerable ones that he had seen in the blackness around the hive itself. This one, however, made his heart drop into his stomach.
He could see Starlit Sky dodge around a bright magenta beam of magic, one being cast from Twilight Sparkle. Starlit was charging up towards Twilight, a spear held aloft in her teal magic, before taking a swift and heavy blow to the side from Twilight's magic sent her sprawling against the floor of the cavern they were both in.
"Is this happening now?!" Sun asked, standing up with a start.
"It is, and it shows the depths ponies will delve to when they think they are right," Chrysalis answered.
"But Starlit's in the right!" Sun interjected, his face growing got with anger. "Twilight's trying to enslave Equestria, how can you say that they are in any way equal?!"
"Twilight Sparkle's motives are as abominable as you say, that much is true, but Starlit Sky's methods are equally as atrocious," Chrysalis replied. "Tell me, how many ponies and other creatures have you seen her kill, or have been killed in her wake?"
Sun could feel the indignation burn in his chest, and he wasn't about to sit back and be lectured by a creature that hadn't seen anything outside of her own domain in centuries.
"Don't you try to pull that false equivalency nonsense with me," Sun spat back. "The only ponies that have gotten hurt along the way are the ones that have tried to hurt her, hurt us, first. Either that or they were thestrals, which are basically just wild animals. Maybe you'd understand that if you had any sort of perspective, but given that you've been holed up in this hive since the war it would make sense that you have convinced yourself of your own superiority."
Chrysalis quickly got to her hooves, faster than her previously weak steps would indicate that she could, and Sun took a reflexive step back as she rose to her full, towering height.
"Do not think me a being that is ill-informed, Setting Sun!" Chrysalis snarled back. "I am but a servant to a much higher power, and I have seen the atrocities that your fallen kind commit in service of rising above their stations! Do you want proof that I am aware of the plights of your people?"
"Yes! Show me evidence, show my proof, show me anything that will convince me that you're right, or else you are just as self-serving and hypocritical as the Princesses were!"
Sun's declaration rang throughout the throne room, and Chrysalis's vertical, compound pupils tightened into slits. She swiftly rose to her full, statuesque height, and Sun could feel the deep, cloying coldness of regret seize his spine as she did.
"Then gaze upon this!" Chrysalis replied, her eyes filling with silver light as she did. A beam of silver connected Chrysalis's horn to Sun's, and he crumpled in pain at the magic being forced down his mangled horn. He could feel a scream of agony escape his lips but could not hear it as he was slowly lifted into the air.
Sun cracked his eyes open to try and see what was happening to him, but all that he could see was a silvery field of magic and the floating black shard of the Heart of Fate in front of his face. It pulsed and beat furiously, in perfect synchronicity with the beat in the back of his head.
"This, Setting Sun, is how I know about the abominable methods ponies use to enact their own will on the world," Chrysalis said, her voice echoing in the deafening silence. "This fragment is all that remains of my Heart, for it has been shattered and carved away with every birth of one of those Twilight cursed. For every pony that is born she gains more of my Heart, so I had to correct her mistake by making every death give it back to me, in time."
A bead of silvery light appeared in the infinite blackness of the shard, before resolving into an image the fully encompassed Sun's vision.
He saw Starlit again, an expression of horror on her face as his own blackened, emaciated hooves were beating her into a pulp on a long-worn palace carpet, dust heavy in the air. Sun saw himself, a beam of green magic turning into a blast of teal and white as an explosion rocked a long abandoned mine. Sun saw Starlit, wind whipping snow past her covered head as she drove a sword through his neck, just as his own spear was burying itself into her chest.
"Twilight placed the shards of my Heart that she beat and tortured out of me into ponies at random, bound them to their very essence, their very souls!" Chrysalis continued, her anger giving way to anguish. "For every pony that she tainted that gave birth, another piece of my Heart was stolen away! This slow, intractable theft has been going on for centuries, and now everything is on the precipice of oblivion because she dared to defy the course of nature!"
Sun could see a home, his home, and Applejack cleaning up the dust inside, only now she had a glowing, black tumor showing through the back of her head at the base of her skull. He saw Rarity and Pinkie Pie in New Selene, each with a growth on the backs of their heads as well. Rainbow Dash, Cherry Blossom, Big Macintosh, Stalwart Warden, White Eclipse; every pony he had ever met flashed across his field of view in a whirling kaleidoscope of images, all of them with a black tumor on the backs of their heads, until he finally saw the base of his own skull and the growth pulsing furiously in time with his frantic heartbeats.
"You are naught but a slave to Twilight Sparkle's ambitions, and the world she has created because of it is a doomed and fallen one destined for ruination. You are bound inextricably into her great work, and it is only through me that you can achieve absolution and salvation for everything you hold dear, Setting Sun."
The pain in Sun's horn slowly subsided, and he was gently lowered to the ground where he fell to his side as soon as Chrysalis's magic was no longer supporting. His breathing was labored as he tried to process everything he had just seen, only for the last piece of the Heart of Fate to float into his periphery.
"How…?" Sun asked, his throat catching like he had just inhaled sand. "I thought… magic was natural. How could Twilight… bind us to the Crystal… Heart with magic… that isn't ours?"
"There is magic in nature, yes, but ponies themselves are born with it innate," Chrysalis continued, her voice resonating with insect-like buzzing. "When Twilight cursed your kind with my shards she bound what should have been a pony's natural magic into that profane Crystal Heart, robbing them of their power lest it be her will to restore it. Some overcome through hard work and effort to reconnect themselves with their primal source, but eventually all of the cursed ponies of this land will lose this connection permanently. Thus I created my thestrals; My only recourse against Twilight's madness was to debase myself to her level, and destroy her slaves with the very magic she was robbing them of."
"You… you made the thestrals?" Sun asked back, too sore to put the proper emphasis behind his voice that he wanted as he hauled himself back up to a sitting position.
"Through my connection to the Heart of Fate, yes. If Twilight was going to deny my Heart to me, then I would deny her subjects to her. Every thestral made is one less pony bound to her will, and one more fragment of my Heart made whole again."
"You mean to tell me… that every death… every ounce of suffering… and pain… that those monsters… have put us all through… for centuries… is your fault?" Sun asked, voice low and pain building in his forehead.
Chrysalis opened her gleaming, silvered mouth to speak, but couldn't get a single word out before a titanic blast of silver light exploded out of Sun's mangled and deformed horn. The agony was indescribable as he unleashed the full fury of what magic he had left, but Sun didn't care any more. He was going to do something he wanted to do, for the first and probably last time in his life.
There was a crack, followed by the sound of bone striking the chitinous floor. Sun immediately collapsed to the floor from sheer exhaustion and excruciating pain, and the last thing he saw before unconsciousness took him was a wide grin cracking across Chrysalis's smoking visage.
* * *
Fluttershy sped as fast as her wings would take her towards the hive in the center of the pitch-black swamp, hoping upon hope that she wasn't too late to warn Sun about what was going to happen.
The sound of buzzing grew louder as Fluttershy approached the hive, and she could see mobs of Changelings buzzing around the higher parts of the egg sac-like structure. She could feel her heart hammering into her throat as she thought of how she was going to try and maneuver around or through them, but a solution was quickly offered up.
A straight, bright beam of silver light shot up out of the top of the hive, blowing away dozens of Changeling from the sheer force of the blast alone. Fluttershy, still being a good half-mile out from it, still felt the shockwave ripple through the air and was nearly knocked out of her flight, only barely maintaining her altitude by flattening herself out as much as possible.
"Sun," Fluttershy whispered as she flew faster still towards the hive.
The stinking scent of burnt flesh filled Fluttershy's nose as she approached the top of the hive, and the multitudes of burnt and mangled Changelings that were scattered all about. At the apex of the hive there was a smoking hole, burnt black at its edges. Fluttershy carefully set down at the edge of the hole, if only to give her wings a moment's respite as she looked inside.
Below her there was only the smell of burning webbing and waves of heat emanating from inside. The entire inside of the hive had been blasted clean, the walls smooth and polished by the magical eruption. At the very bottom, so small it was scarcely even a dot, was a glow of green.
Stretching her wings out again, Fluttershy dove down into the hive and practically fell towards the green light. There was no other light and no obstacles to block her path, allowing her to save her wing strength for when she needed to make a hard stop at the bottom. She almost smacked into the floor, such was her speed, just barely managing to land on her hooves after a hasty deceleration process.
She ran across the slick, warm floor towards the green light, lungs burning and muscles crying out to stop. Panic and worry we're the only two things driving Fluttershy forward, both of which were swiftly replaced by the old, familiar fear she knew so well.
Sun was laying on the floor, his breathing haggard and his cloak missing, while a Changeling Fluttershy could only guess was Chrysalis loomed over him. She held a large shard of black crystal aloft, guiding it towards Sun as she flicked her glowing, silver eyes in Fluttershy's direction.
"I apparently put too much faith in my drones," Chrysalis mused, her voice buzzing as silver light spilled from her mouth. "Tis no matter, though; you are far too late to prevent what must be done to secure your world against those that would prey against it."
"What did you do to him?!" Fluttershy cried out, tears leaking from her eyes.
"He tried to resist the course of destiny, and I had to set him right," Chrysalis answered. "He will make for a capable vessel, as marred as he is, and I have you to thank for bringing him to me."
Fluttershy stumbled back, as if Chrysalis's declaration had physical force behind it, before falling to a sitting position as the weight of what she had done settled onto her.
"Know this, Fluttershy," Chrysalis continued as she lifted Sun's prone body off of the floor in a nimbus of silver magic. "When the world is made right, and the Heart of Fate reorganizes all things, you will have the peace you have so long sought."
Fluttershy looked up at Chrysalis, then back to the shard, her impotence and fear clutching her heart with an iron grip.
"I didn't want it to come like this," Fluttershy muttered.
"So rarely do we get to choose how our wishes are granted, or if they even are. Just know that you have set the world on a path towards a brighter future, one without alicorns or Princesses or any of the factors of chaos that have been tearing this grand design apart for these many long years."
As Fluttershy sat stock still, paralyzed by her failure, she watched as Chrysalis raised the shard high above Sun's head before driving it into the stump where his horn once was. A squelch of blood and nerve tissue sprayed out from the stump, followed by two heavy thumps as Chrysalis collapsed to the floor and Sun fell out of her magic.
"Sun!" Fluttershy cried as she ran over to the unicorn. She shook him with all the strength her leaden muscles could muster, before noticing the spreading silver vein-like glow emanating from his forehead.
Slowly Fluttershy took a step back as the web of silver lights encircled Sun's prone body, glowing brighter and brighter until it was impossible to look at anymore. Fluttershy buried her eyes in her hooves, both to protect them and to try and block out whatever she had let happen to Sun. A hoof laid itself on Fluttershy's shoulder, eliciting a jolt of fear as she snapped her head up.
Standing in front of her was Sun, but not as Fluttershy remembered him. The black crystal had perfectly bonded with his horn stump, enough that she could only tell where it ended and his head began by the change in color. His irises were no longer green but silver, and glowed slightly in the dim light. The thing she noticed most, though, was that he now carried himself with an air of confidence and regality that she had never seen from him before.
"Sun?" Fluttershy asked, placing a hoof atop his.
"No," he answered, his voice a perfect chorus of multitude voices all wrapped up into one. He slowly pulled his hoof away as fresh tears leaked out from Fluttershy's eyes.
"Then, are you Chrysalis?"
"She is but a fragment of my being, as is Setting Sun, and every pony that has ever been connected to my will. I must leave now, but know that you have played your role expertly and will be rewarded when I reset this world. Goodbye, Fluttershy."
With a flash of silver light the being that was inhabiting Sun's body vanished, leaving Fluttershy alone with a dead body and a hollow in her soul that she didn't know how to fill.
* * *
Starlit quickly rolled back to her hooves, her ribs aching where Twilight's blast of magic had busted through a portion of her ward. Starlit hastily patched over the open spot, leaving barely enough time to leap out of the way of another bolt of magenta fury.
"You can't win this, Starlit Sky!" Twilight taunted, charging up another bolt. "You either give me what I want and get to go home to your husband and child, or you die here and I still get what I want!"
"Don't you dare talk about my family after what you put them through!" Starlit snarled back as she rushed towards Twilight, her spear a good three feet ahead of her.
Twilight expertly deflected the spear's tip with a quickly manifested field of energy, the point skating into the ground before Starlit whipped around at Twilight's armored fetlocks. The bladed head made contact with the armor, sending out a high ringing sound that knocked Twilight to the side from surprise.
"What I did to them? Surely you mean what I did for them!" Twilight countered, sending a wave of rage burning through Starlit's heart. "I sheltered them, kept them safe from anything and everything that could do them harm!"
"You trapped them under that dome for a month!" Starlit roared, slamming the spear again and again into Twilight's ward. "They didn't know if I was dead or alive, they were on the verge of starving! How could you possibly justify the anguish you put my husband, my daughter through!? Why didn't you just do what you told me you would!?"
"I would have if I could have!" Twilight defiantly answered, starting to press back towards the entrance to the cavern under Starlit's assault. "I can't control time, at least not yet, and I had to say what I did to get you to come willingly! I manipulated you, yes, but it was for a greater good than you can possibly understand!"
"Tell that to my daughter crying into my chest after a month of wondering where her mother had gone! Tell that to my husband who thought he had lost the love of his life! How dare you try to moralize at me!"
Starlit's manic assault against Twilight, fueled by rage and vindictiveness, was slowly pushing Twilight back towards the open shaft beyond the cavern's mouth. Each thrust was parried expertly with magic, only for the attack to be redoubled, and for a moment Starlit could seat she saw fear in Twilight's eyes.
"You think you're the only one who's lost anypony?" Twilight asked back, teetering in the edge of the shaft. "You think you're the only pony who's suffered for any of this?! My brother died defending our homeland, my parents were trampled in the mad dash to escape this falling kingdom, and you stole Spike from me!"
With a quick flap of her wings Twilight took the the air, holding in a hover over the empty pit as bolts of magenta energy crackled from her eyes. Starlit's fur stood up in end from the electricity in the air as a wave of force shoved her backward.
"You have become a thorn in my side that I cannot abide anymore, Starlit Sky!" Twilight intoned. "When you finally starve to death down here, I hope your last thoughts are of everything you threw away for petty revenge!"
A beam of brilliant magenta energy shot out of Twilight's horn, blasting the staircase that Starlit had taken down into the cavern. Searing fragments of stone exploded out of the wall, enough that Starlit had to manifest a secondary ward over her bodily one just to make sure none of them hit her. When the smoke finally cleared away the staircase as far as she could see was gone.
Without another word Twilight flapped her wings and began her ascent, obviously not counting on Starlit's newfound power. Dropping her ward to conserve energy, Starlit began to channel her magic into her shoulders, feeling the same electrical tingling before the familiar sound of skating metal erupted out of her back. Taking a moment to measure up how much of a run up she would need, Starlit galloped forward, jumped over the empty pit below, and flapped her ethereal wings to begin the ascent.
Starlit was quickly gaining speed on Twilight, the haft of her spear held back and prepared to be hurled at the brightening spot of magenta ahead of her. When Starlit could just make out Twilight's figure she sent the spear forward, the spot of her own teal magic marring Twilight's aura.
A howl of pain and confusion echoed throughout the vertical tunnel as the spear made its mark, driving into the back of Twilight's unarmored left hind knee. Starlit quickly pulled into a roll to avoid the spray of blood, followed by a much sharper second roll to dodge the blast of magic coming after her.
"You are just full of surprises, aren't you!?" Twilight screamed, sending bolt after bolt of magic raining down in frenzy as Starlit gained distance on the Princess.
"You picked me for a reason, didn't you?" Starlit replied, yanking the spear from Twilight's leg with another spray of blood and shriek of pain.
Starlit finally got on level with Twilight, whirling her spear around to try and bury the head into Twilight's side. Her efforts were quickly interrupted with a solid kick to the chest from Twilight's good hind leg, one that sent Starlit spinning and smacking off of the walls of the shaft, losing her a good few yards of distance.
"Don't think you have me beaten that easily!" Twilight declared, before sending another flurry of bolts raining down on Starlit.
Thinking quickly, Starlit channeled her protective magic into her spear and began to spin it in front of herself, creating a disc of energy that deflected Twilight's energy blasts. Starlit could feel her magic starting to wane, and found herself muttering the old words she used to say to her warding lines just to maintain the shield and her wings at the same time.
Slowly but surely Starlit began to gain on Twilight again, the Princess's arcane onslaught deflecting off of Starlit's shield and scattering all across the walls. A few even reflected back at Twilight herself, who was hit by a fair few bolts of her own magic. Starlit found herself wondering why Twilight wasn't stopping her assault, but couldn't dwell on idle thoughts for too long lest her shield or her wings fail her.
Just as Starlit caught up to Twilight again she could see a light at the end of the tunnel, one that was rapidly approaching. Her horn ached and her shoulders burned from the effort of flight, and when the exit to the tunnel was finally level with the both of them Starlit wheeled her spear around and smacked Twilight square in the face with the flat of the blade. Having been so consumed with her magical deluge Twilight didn't notice until the spear had hit her, sending her flying out of the entrance to the shaft and scattering in a clanking, bleeding mess across the polished marble floor. Starlit spilled out after her, landing flat on her stomach as her wings vanished and the spear clattered to the floor.
Both mares quickly scrambled to their hooves as swiftly as they could, with Starlit winning out if only because of Twilight's injury. Starlit grabbed her spear back up in her magic just as Twilight manifested another bead of energy on the tip of her horn. Starlit's breathing was just as ragged as Twilight's, and they were both covered in scrapes and blood.
"Couldn't take you in a straight fight, huh?" Starlit asked mockingly.
"I'll admit I may have underestimated your prowess," Twilight answered viciously, "but you have made a serious mistake in challenging me like this."
"Doesn't feel like I have," Starlit replied as she approached Twilight, who was swiftly backing up towards a large set of immaculate white wood doors.
"Then let me to educate you further," Twilight replied. With a quick bolt of magic Twilight opened the doors behind her, revealing three things that Starlit hadn't known were there, but had expected to see, and one which she hadn't expected at all.
In this throne room Starlit saw three crystallized figures seated upon three thrones, each of whom she recognized as Celestia, Luna, and Cadance. The sun coming in through the shattered windows dappled off of their rough hewn bodies, and each was locked in an expression of deepest betrayal and shock.
However, what truly drew Starlit's eye was the large, crystalline heart floating above the central throne. It beat rhythmically and steadily, but inside of its crystalline form Starlit saw very volatile, and very familiar, magenta magic warbling and pulsing.
With a buffeting gust from her wings Twilight flew to the opposite side of the throne room, seating herself down upon the throne that bore her cutie mark on its apex. The bead of magic on her horn quickly connected itself to the Crystal Heart, and Twilight began to siphon her magic back out of it.
"I tried to get you to see reason, I tried to show you why fighting me is a bad idea, but you leave me no choice!" Twilight stated, her voice lowering and gaining that resonant quality Starlit remembered from the vision she had been shown. "Now all that there is left to do is annihilate you where you stand!"
Slowly Twilight grew in size, her mane lengthening and floating above her as her eyes glowed with pure power. Starlit threw her spear at Twilight's chest, hoping she could pierce her armor and kill her before the ritual was completed, but the spear was lazily deflected away.
"You can't fight destiny, Starlit Sky," Twilight continued, rising off of her throne and approaching the podium in the center of the room with nary a limp. "You can't run from it, and you can't cheat it. All you can do is wait for it to come, and hope that you haven't caught its eye."
Starlit felt her heart jump into her throat, a cold sweat breaking out on her forehead as Twilight glided towards her, wings spread wide as if daring Starlit to try and attack her. Starlit could still see the Crystal Heart, almost drained of the power Twilight had fed into it, and a last, desperate play leapt to the forefront of her mind.
"I don't have to fight destiny," Starlit replied, pulling the shard of the Heart of Fate from her armor and holding it aloft next to her spear, "not when you've already done it for me."
"And the unicorn finally sees reason," Twilight replied, folding her wings as she looked over Starlit, energy crackling in her eyes and a placid smile painted across her face. "When my new world is made, you will see both its wonder and the futility of trying to fight its coming, Starlit Sky. There will be a place for you and all those you love there, you have my word."
"Yes, the new world," Starlit echoed, bowing low.
Just as Twilight reached down to take the shard Starlit bolted, running in between Twilight's elongated legs and using the slick marble to slide further than her hooves could take her. Twilight turned in shock as Starlit placed the shard of the Heart of Fate against the tip her spear, binding them together with a quick ward.
"A world without you to rule it!" Starlit cried out as her spear flew forward, directly towards the Crystal Heart.
Twilight's scream of rage echoed through the hall as the spear made contact, and at the tip where the shard protruded past the spear point a crack shot across the Heart's surface. The crack spiderwebbed all across the formerly immaculate surface of the Crystal Heart, pieces of it falling away like they were drifting through water.
There was a boom like thunder, a flash like lightning, and a force like an earthquake as the Crystal Heart shattered.
* * *