//------------------------------// // Chapter Ninety-one: Children of Light // Story: A Rather Large Adventure // by BradyBunch //------------------------------// Something was wrong. Horribly wrong. Solaris’s steps halted, and the impact of his hoof left a crater in the barren earth. The devil slowly craned his head backwards. There was a great and terrible light behind him. At the ruins of Mount Nevermore. After all the years of preparation, the efforts of his servants, the devices of his mind, the deceit he had spread across all nations, the fury and fear he had put into the hearts of Faust’s children… it was all meaningless. The designs of his dark heart had born no fruit. Despite his best efforts, it was back at the same spot he had feared. And for a solitary moment, wrested from his life of control and manipulation, Solaris felt a twinge of fear for his immortal soul. The black fires running beside him halted. They were only a few miles away from the shore of the sea; Solaris could see the foam of the waves. But his quest to envelop the world needed to be put on hold. "You cannot," Solaris whispered, rumbling the ground. He was petrified momentarily. It took effort to reposition himself so he was facing back, but he had to. His enormous hoof pawed the ground, creating a great canyon beneath him. His jaw ground his fangs, squeaking like chalk, before parting to allow a terrible screech from the depths of his throat. "YOU CANNOT!" he shrieked. He reared into the air, his flailing hooves miles high in the air, before planting them down with earth-shaking tremors and breaking into a charge. Solaris' hooves tore up the earth as he galloped. The very face of the land was already deformed from his march, and his sprint ripped apart the earth even more. He left a trail of broken rock and molten magma behind him. Mount Nevermore was indeed no more, but there was a beacon of light in the distance breaking forth like the dawning of a new day. Though many miles away, there were ten distinct balls of colored light hovering in the air inside a larger sphere, merging swishing streams coming off them into one shining, glorious pillar reaching into the heavens. As he galloped, Solaris built upon the tip of his mountainous horn a ball of energy. It was as if a miniature sun had been born to replace the star he had destroyed in the heavens above. It was enough to make even Solaris wince, and he had to stop galloping to charge it. The yellow star gradually grew to more than twice the size of Solaris himself. Solaris' knees were bent and shaking from the effort. The star was brighter far than the noonday sun, and its sheer energy scorched and blasted the earth beneath. Rock turned to liquid. Sand turned to glass and shattered. There was no doubt that it could be seen from orbit, and if anyone in faraway Equestria had looked to the east, they would have briefly seen a new sun chasing away the darkness. Solaris roared with all the strength he could muster. And with all the fury of his will, he launched it. At the speed of light, the star was flung at the Elements of Harmony. At an even faster speed, the pillar of light intercepted it. The star exploded. A roiling shockwave knocked Solaris back, while a sphere of orange flame created a steadily-growing crater between Solaris and the Elements of Harmony. Solaris blinked hard and squinted to see into the depths of the explosion. And then the still-growing explosion swirled into a vortex. Solaris helplessly watched the enormous ball of fire dissipate and suck itself into a singularity that had emerged in its very center. In a matter of seconds, it was almost entirely gone. And with a pop, it fizzled out. The hovering Elements of Harmony, as well as the enormous pillar of light, were untouched. It couldn't be the end! There was still more he could do! Perhaps if he was given more time, or if he could hit them with another explosion-- Father. The word rang in his head. It was the combined, androgynous voice of all of the Element bearers at once. "Silence!" Solaris bellowed at them. "You will obey me, children!" No. You will be silent. You will bow. And you will submit. "Put down your weapons and worship me! I have commanded it! I am your God! Your father!" A father who seeks to destroy us. When your law is tyranny, resistance is a commandment. "Who commanded it, Faust? You're nothing but her tools!" Better hers than yours. Solaris snarled, an animalistic and brutal sound, and took a marching step. Halt. Solaris staggered back. It was as if he had run into a wall. He could not take another step, backwards or forwards. "What devilry is this?!" Solais demanded. He pounded the earth beneath him, creating two massive craters and rupturing the surface of the earth with hairline cracks. His mountainous horn ignited once more. The uneven ground for miles in every direction, like a sea, glowed yellow like the sun. Magma sputtered from cracks in the ground and quickly spread over the earth. It lapped at Solaris' towering legs. The sea of fire grew at a speed never before known to the earth. "I will kill every last one of my children!" Solaris threatened, although the threat seemed hollow compared to what he was facing. "Before I bend my knee to Faust and her band of animals!" So be it. We will crush you. "Who do you think I am?" Solaris bellowed at the top of his lungs. "A dog that can be run off with a stick?! I AM SOLARIS! The greatest of all in the universe!" Yes. And you will die. "Very well!" Solaris replied, louder than before. "I've waited for eons to shed a traitorous pony's blood! It might as well be yours!" The Elements made no response. "Come to me, children," Solaris goaded, growing an insane grin. "I'll kill you and feed your flesh to the fires and beasts of hell!" He fired a steady orange laser into their midst, so powerful he had to dig his hooves into the ruined earth beneath. And the laser stream split right before reaching the sphere holding the ten Elements, shooting off into diverging directions and going out of the atmosphere into space. It only infuriated Solaris. He screamed from his throat and slammed his hooves into the earth again, creating waves of lava. Dozens of streaks of blinding lightning erupted from his horn and coiled around his head. Then they flew at the Elements from scores of different directions, all converging on the same spot. In response, the sphere shot out hundreds of beams of magic. Every color of the rainbow was present, and some that weren't as well. They collided with the lightning in midair, flashing in pops on contact like fireworks. Solaris had to squint again to see his enemy. The rest of the beams of magic readjusted their flight path and flew like shrieking missiles into Solaris' chest, erupting in blossoming explosions on his skin. It didn't hurt him. That much was good news. But Solaris knew that continuing to experiment in this direction was pointless. Direct attacks on the Elements didn't seem to work. He needed some way to provoke them, get them angry, and draw them out. Make them vulnerable. Attack what they love most. Put it at risk. Wager it all. Double or nothing. And the answer came upon him in a gleam of brilliance. "You think that because you can meet me, you can defy me?" Solaris taunted. His terrible voice echoed out of the skies. "I own you! I own the universe! I own the earth at your hooves! In fact…!" With another shockwave, he ignited his horn once again, rearing up on his back two legs. "This planet has reached its end!" Planting both hooves down, creating terrible earthquakes on impact never before known to the world, he bowed down and fired. The earth effortlessly splashed away as if it were water. The flaming orange laser drilled deep, deep down, and Solaris poured forth all of his power to keep it going. Solaris privately wondered if it was on the right trajectory to reach the core. If he could destabilize it, then this could work, but he hadn't blown up a planet since the War in Heaven. He didn't even know if the laser had breached the crust yet and into the mantle. Most likely, he was just performing under pressure. In any case, it was sure to evoke a response from the Elements… Without bending his head, he looked up as far as he dared. He immediately wished he hadn't. From each of the ten pinpoints of light, streaks of vivid color shot out and merged together into one shimmering, fiery rainbow lance. Solaris very suddenly had an overwhelming and altogether vindicated rush of fear. The rainbow lance flew like a bolt of lightning into the tip of Solaris' horn. A flash of blinding light on contact accompanied a booming shatter and a crack like an earthquake. The laser shut off like a cut water hose, leaving nothing but a terrible pit of molten lava in front of him. The mountainous horn immediately broke into boulders that rained down in front of Solaris' wild eyes. For his eyes did indeed betray the madness deep within. Between blinks, his eyes turned bloodshot and raw and wet. Solaris was slavering and drooling like a rabid dog. "I am God!" he bellowed. "I am! Worship me! KNEEL!" You will kneel. The lance struck again, piercing his chest and going the long way through his insides before emerging out of his flank and disappearing into the distant horizon. His eyes glazed for a second. His weak knees trembled. They gave way, and Solaris fell before the Elements. His impact trembled the earth, knocking stones from their spots and sloshing the molten magma that had erupted from the cracks beneath him. Solaris lay in a pool of fire, his head bowed before the Elements. You may own the dust at our hooves. But that's all you will ever have. And you will return once again to the dust from where you came. His head craned up. His unfocused eyes were barely open, squinting into the brilliant light emitting off the ten ponies. The pillar of light among them seemed to reach above Solaris threateningly. Like an executioner's axe. And right there, on his broken knees, Solaris went against his stubborn insistence at last. He knew it when he saw it. This was the end. By the right of the Elements. By the will of our mother. The pillar of light bent down and stretched over Solaris in an arc, hurtling down like a shrieking meteor. Solaris' bloodshot eyes were wide open now. The bitter, bitter end. In the name of Faust, we destroy you. It struck Solaris like a cannon. And for a brief, infinitesimal moment, Solaris could see a rainbow of color constricting him. Then he felt his skin peel open, his muscles evaporate, his bones crumble to dust. It was almost instantaneous, but for Solaris, it felt cruelly slow. Every vein snapped, every ligament tore, every ounce of fat boiled. But something far worse was happening to his spirit. It was foreign to him--to any creature. It was simply… dissipating. There would be no future for Solaris. His presence in the universe would be over. To kill a spirit! How monstrous could she get? Faust was the devil incarnate! Who would weep for him, if not her? Who else would mourn his passing? His mission was unfinished, and nothing would prevent him from dying alone, unloved, in pain ignored--nay, celebrated! The very thought tore him apart even more than the Elements. No one wanted to be as he was. He stood alone against the universe. Defiant and determined… but alone. And helpless. Hopeless. And so Solaris raised his broken voice for the last time and cried from his swirling prison to the one being in the universe who might still listen to his plea. "Mother!" But she did not come. He wasn't surprised, but he was still betrayed. Solaris's final breath gasped from his dusty throat and accompanied the swirls of his body into the hot air. For a while, the pieces lingered. It was as if the collection was gazing into the heavens far above. But the heavens stared coldly down on him who had ruined them. With a final blast of wind, the ashen shreds of Solaris evaporated and disappeared forever from the presence of Equus, and the universe itself. The column of light shining upon where Solaris used to be split in half and fell to either side, then rotated in a complete circle, creating a dome of quickly-expanding energy. It glowed and shimmered in every color of the rainbow, under the direction of the Element’s will. And wherever it grew, whatever it enveloped, the land turned into a restored version of itself. The sudden sea of lava Solaris had died in crusted over and turned to rock. The hole drilled into the crust was as if it had never happened. The dome spread in breadth and height, covering everything beneath it in heavenly light. It spread almost instantaneously across the face of the Dragonlands, healing the land scarred by the fires of Tartarus. When it passed over the black flames standing patiently at attention, they obediently extinguished. Celestia gasped. Her horn shut off in shock. Something felt strange. Different. Like it was gone, but wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place. She looked to the eastern sky. A black arrow whizzed only a few feet in front of her, but Celestia barely noticed it. There was a softly glowing light on the horizon, growing in intensity with every passing second. Could it be…? She stood at the drawbridge of Canterlot, where some sparse Royal Guard were standing beside her and firing into the line of Noxxa about to breach it. None of their hearts were into it, though. The sun was blotted out, the moon above cast an evil red glow, the stars swirled and danced out of place. Their defeat was inevitable, but none of the guards really knew what to do except go through the motions and defend what remained before it was swallowed up in darkness. Once they saw Celestia staring into the eastern skies, however, they did too. And despite some initial jeers by the Noxxa, the light growing past the eastern peaks was undeniable. The arrows ceased their rain. The mocking cries of the Noxxa fell silent. And replacing them was a collective shriek and bellow of terror. The light was a familiar one to Celestia. It was the dawning of a new day. But this light carried the swishing rainbows that accompanied the triumph of the Elements. Solaris was dead. Twilight was alive! It was like a vision. Too good to be true. Celestia did not immediately recognize it as such. But still, her heart made a painful thump against her chest upon ingesting that Twilight was alive! A shaken Celestia slowly turned her head back to the hordes just outside the drawbridge, but the Noxxa were already pushing and shoving their way in a coagulated, stuck mass of bodies, doing their best to collectively rush back down the winding road and down the mountain upon which Canterlot was built. But Celestia knew better. Just before the sun had darkened, the trains from Foal Mountain had intercepted the march of Noxxa on the plains beneath Canterlot. The forces under Luna's command had engaged the rear of the Noxxa column, and though Celestia could not see them now, she knew that they were waiting at the bottom of the mountain, cutting the Noxxa's route off. They were stuck on the mountain, for better or worse. If it weren't for that ongoing distraction from Luna, the Noxxa surely would have breached the walls of Canterlot. The sheer amount of magical power coming from her numbers was enough to boggle the mind. Strangely enough, her army seemed stronger than the forces she had left with. It was significant enough to hold the Noxxa off for several hours at least. By then, they would have ravaged the city and butchered her people. Celestia's head was fuzzy, unable to recall too much detail. The last thirty-six hours had been disorienting and hopeless ones. But this light breaking over the mountaintops, chasing away the shadows and streaking hope back into the hearts of its people… It was the most heavenly thing Celestia had ever seen. Of course, the reactions of the Noxxa would suggest otherwise. Screams and desolate cries of doom arose from their numbers, now illuminated by shimmering white light all around. Celestia thought their exposed bodies looked like a road of loose black pebbles the morning after a rainstorm. "He's dead!" some would shout. "Father is dead!" It was enough to send most of them into hysterics, collapsing and weeping and pounding the ground. The ones who didn't lose themselves just stared into the distance numbly. Celestia knew there was a profound moment for the entire Noxxa species at that particular moment. Without the influence of their father in their lives, the Noxxa saw the entire depth of their miserable state. It was a painful moment. None of them escaped it. As the blast of light grew in intensity, Celestia was surprised to discover that she did not even have to squint. The Noxxa, however, shrieked and covered their eyes with scrabbling limbs. It was a peculiar thing. All at once, as if a long, winding snake had died, the Noxxa choking the road up to Canterlot stilled. Then, released at last from their master's power and influence, they melted like ice. Celestia could not see past a bend in the road, but it would be ludicrous to assume it wasn't happening to the rest of them. All across Equestria--all across Equus-- the Noxxa would be disintegrated by the heavenly presence of the Element's power, never to reform or come back. As the shimmer in the sky passed over them, Celestia could see the stark contrast between the past and present skies. The Element's power cleansed the face of the land for miles, as far as Celestia could see, wherever it went. It was not the first time this had happened: something to this same effect occurred to clean up Discord's reign of terror. Same after Tirek's rampage, although Celestia had only heard about it after the fact; she was in Tartarus at the time. Celestia looked into the dark, starry skies. The moon had stopped glowing red, and the stars were silent and still. Where the Element's power went, so did the light, and it had passed them by, leaving Equestria almost as dark as the moments before. There was just one thing left to take care of. Celestia concentrated, igniting her horn into a lance of sparkling yellow. The task before her was an unprecedented one. But she was the Lightbringer. It was a noble and powerful purpose. Lend me strength, Mother, she prayed. But if not, then let me prove my power. And she felt a warm feeling in her breastbone. Like a miniature sun had been born within her. Celestia longed to create that warmth for all her subjects. She felt the prompting enlighten her as to how to create that star herself for everypony in the world. A long whine preceded the sudden eruption from her horn. A billowing yellow laser blasted from the tip, sending the guards nearby stumbling back and covering their eyes. Celestia stood firm despite the power fountaining out, and despite the blinding light, Celestia could see clearly. The magic beam was like a ray of divine sunlight. Celestia’s magic, which was an extension of her influence, was directed into the east. It almost immediately reached space and within seconds got to the spot where her sun once was. There weren’t even bits of her star still floating in space. She couldn’t even pick up the pieces. The sun had just disappeared. But Celestia knew she could recover it. She didn't have to create a new one. Just recover the old one. Reach back and bring it forward. It was complicated, and hurt her brain to comprehend it. Never in Celestia's life had she expected to do something like this. But she had Faust. So it was possible. Celestia couldn't see what was going on out there. But she knew what to do. Let there be light. There was a time space of a few minutes where the Element's influence encircled the globe and restored it to a more peaceful state of being. The Element bearers themselves stayed where they were, hovering above the Son. Mount Nevermore was clear of the smoke from its ruin. The sheer power of the Elements had dissipated it. But darkness still encircled it in endless night. Then, breaking forth from the western skies, the beams of the newly-restored sun reached the earth. Streams of light sliced through the residual dust hanging in the air and made it spotty and hazy. The sudden contrast was able to display the slight color differences between dark rocks. The creatures clinging for dear life to the slope of the remaining mountain gazed up in awe. Bedrock, straddled atop his bear, could not look directly into the sun. But Bedrock nonetheless bathed in its light and gentle heat, and as his eyes roamed over the lava fields and rock plains, he swallowed; his mouth was dry. "So this is the sun?" he asked. Bedrock blinked and squinted upward. And a genuine smile grew across his face for the first time in a long, long time. For the first time in centuries, the soft and golden light of the sun illuminated that forsaken corner of the world. Every shadow had been chased away, every hidden place exposed, and every creature partook of the heavenly gift. The presence of the Goddess at last lit every dark corner of the earth.