//------------------------------// // Darkness falls Pt. 6 // Story: My Little Pony: Friendship is Eternal // by AlphaToothless95 //------------------------------// As Starlight and Spike ran through the kingdom, avoiding incoming fire and explosions and guiding the young ones to safety, they were trying their best to also defend themselves and the kingdom wherever they could. It wasn’t enough though, Canterlot was going to fall unless they could come up with something, and fast. When they see a tunnel, they’re hesitant to go through it but they know it’ll lead them back down to the school as a shortcut. “We have to go through.. there?” Ocellus asks in a scared tone. Starlight, seeing the fear coming from her students, tries to think of another way to get them out safely. She could try teleporting them but this fight was putting a severe amount of strain on her magic due to a surprise attack from Chrysalis and Tirek. Speaking of the evil duo, Chrysalis lands behind them all, smirking evilly, specifically at Starlight. She may have been smirking, but the hatred behind it was clear as day. Starlight just glares at her while talking to Spike and her students. “Looks like you don’t have a choice.. go, all of you, I’ll hold her off until you’re safe.” Starlight says, much to everyone’s shock. “What?! No! We’re not leaving you!” Smolder says but Starlight wasn’t having it. When Chrysalis charges at them, she puts a shield around them all, struggling to keep it up. “You have to! ..It’s me she’s after.. and I refuse to let any of you get hurt because of me..! Spike, when I say go, you take them into that tunnel and get them as far away as possible!” She says and Spike hesitates but then nods. After a few more seconds, when she sees an opening, Starlight drops the shield and blasts Chrysalis. “Go!!” Starlight yells and that’s when Spike takes the students and the crusaders into the tunnel. “She’ll be ok.. right?” Silverstream asks Spike, but he’s not so sure. So Sandbar answers for him. “Of course she will, she’s strong. She wants us to be safe so the least we can do is try to stay in one piece.” He says and Spike agrees. Before they can say anything else, a giant dragon bursts into the tunnel and roars at them. Smolder transforms just as it breathes fire at them and she uses her body and wings to cover the others, protecting them from the fire. It hurts like hell though and she can’t help but growl in pain. “Smolder!!” Ocellus yells with a worried tone. “Don’t worry! She can handle it!” Gallus yells before trying to get an opening to blast electricity at the dragon. More fire comes towards them though and he just barely gets back to cover. Some of his feathers are singed but there was no major damage. Smolder is experiencing more and more pain with every wave of fire coming from the gigantic dragon and it doesn’t seem like it’s gonna give up until they’re burnt to a crisp or crushed under rubble. Just when the dragon is about to send another wave of fire at them, an ice glyph suddenly hits it, freezing its mouth and sending it back outside. The tunnel then freezes, keeping it from collapsing any further. This confuses everyone and they look to see two familiar faces and sigh in relief. “Man are we glad to see you two..”Spike says and the others share his relief until one of the ponies ask them something. “Where’s Starlight?” Starlight was quickly getting worn out but she would press on, she will keep Chrysalis distracted until the children were safe from danger. She quickly dodges a downward strike from Chrysalis's new sword that greatly resembled her own horn then blocks it with a shield that easily breaks due to the severe drainage of magic that still somehow affected Starlight. Whatever Chrysalis and Tirek had done to her, she hopes it wasn’t permanent. “You look tired, Starlight Glimmer. You should probably just lie down and be destroyed.” Chrysalis says, much to Starlight's annoyance. “Not tired..” Starlight says before dodging another attack. “Just tired of your shit..” She continues before dodging again, charging up to Chrysalis, grabbing her, and headbutting her as hard as she can, knocking her back a bit. She then runs, jumps, and kicks her in the chest, jumping up and over her and using magic lassos to hold her in place. This angers Chrysalis to no end and she breaks one hand free before grabbing the lassos, swinging Starlight around and slamming her through the wall of one of the buildings. “And so.. it ends.” Chrysalis says as she walks up to Starlight who’s trying to get up. She stomps on her chest to keep her down and holds her sword towards her face. “This is for everything that you stole from me. My hive, my kingdom.. you’ll answer for all of it!” Chrysalis says and Starlight glares up at her with no fear at all. “You did all that.. to yourself! I offered you a chance to be good! To.. to share love instead of taking it from others! If you had accepted it.. maybe you’d still have everything.. that you gave up.. that you 'stole' from yourself!” Starlight says and Chrysalis is.. shocked. But that shock quickly turns to rage and hatred as she yells in anger, raises her sword and sends it racing towards Starlight's heart. Right before it even leaves a scratch on her, a glyph forms in front of Starlight’s chest, blocking the blade and also freezing it along with Chrysalis’s arms. Chrysalis growls in anger before getting blasted through the next building. Starlight looks to see it was non other than Trixie and Tempest aka Fizzlepop who saved her. “Looks like we made it just in time.” Tempest says as she and Trixie help Starlight up and Trixie uses a recently learned healing spell on her. “Bet you’re glad you called in some 'Great and Powerful' help, huh?” Trixie asks with a smirk on her face, prompting Starlight to roll her eyes with a smile. “Took you long enough, don’t ya think?” She asks and before Trixie can respond, Starlight’s horn and eyes suddenly glow and she feels much.. stronger. “Whoa.. I don’t know why but I feel.. a lot better.” She says and before any of them can question it, they’re reminded of the current battle when Chrysalis and the Storm King, who made himself a bit smaller, turn their attention to them. “Tempest..” He says as he notices his former top general who was the reason he died in the first place.. now he would have his revenge. He blasts electricity at them all and they quickly split up and return their own attacks. One way or another, they weren’t giving up without a fight. This fight was taking a major toll on both Celestia and Luna, physically and mentally. Throughout the whole battle, Midnight and Astelle had been throwing everything they had at them whether it be verbal or physical. They weren’t sure what hurt more, the words coming from the evil duo or the blows they landed from their attacks. They had tried to stay together to avoid a repeat of their last battle but even with that, it wasn’t helping much. Celestia dodges an attack from Midnight and blocks one from Astelle and Luna jumps over her sends a very powerful wave of magic at them, sending them both through the wall behind them. They quickly give chase only for Midnight to tackle Celestia and Astelle to land on Luna, pinning her down. Celestia is dragged up into the sky and slammed onto a part of the roof of the castle. Celestia quickly recovers and dodges a barrage of blasts from Midnight and blocks the rest that follow. She then flys around some shadow tendrils coming from her and slashes her with her scepter. Midnight is knocked back a bit as she holds her stomach which now has a scratch on it. She removes her hand, seeing it stained with her own blood. Surprisingly though, Midnight doesn’t seem angry, just a bit annoyed. “Ya know.. pain isn’t as bad as I remember. Guess that’s to be expected after not feeling this much of it for so long.” Midnight says before she attacks Celestia again but these next attacks make Celestia realize something.. Midnight was holding back the entire time.. When Celestia thought she was prepared to block the first attack, Midnight flew past her and attacked her from behind. “Don’t you remember why that was the case anyway Celestia?” Midnight asks and Celestia tries recovering faster but Midnight is already attacking her before she can go on the defensive. With every attack that Midnight delivers, a piece of Celestia’s armor gets knocked off, she receives a new injury, and her weapon gets closer to breaking whenever she manages to block. On one last strike, Celestia manages to block it.. but her weapon finally breaks in the process and Midnight wastes no time in grabbing her, flying around and dragging and slamming her along the sides or through buildings. “It’s because of how much of a hypocrite you are! You criticize me for how much pain and suffering I’ve caused and am causing.. when you gave me and your sister a fate worse than death!” Midnight yells before flying high into the sky, dropping Celestia, and then diving down into her and punching her. She brings her all the way down through the castle’s roof and to the bottom floor, the magic packed into the punch causing the castle to explode. “And now it’s time.. for you to suffer the same fate.. goodbye.. my oldest enemy.” Midnight says as she smirks evilly at her fallen rival. “Celestia!!!” Everyone hears Luna yell through the smoke and they don’t see what happens afterwards. After a few minutes, a solar eclipse occurs in the sky and fire and dark magic shoot up into the sky. From that, both Celestia and Luna’s evil alter ego’s emerge.. Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon. Midnight and Astelle come out not long after but Astelle is holding an unconscious Luna. This confuses everyone and Midnight gives all the villains a look that says she’ll explain later. Twivine notices that Celestia is nowhere to be seen. She looks at Daybreaker and steps up to Midnight. “With all due respect.. what happened to Celestia?” Twivine asks and Midnight smirks and holds up Celestia’s crown.. before dropping it, causing it to break on impact and everyone is shocked and devastated except the villains.. Twilight is so distraught that she now feels nothing.. but hatred for the monster who caused all this.. anger at herself for not being strong enough to fight back against her, against Twivine, against any of this.. and sadness at the fact that her former mentor and friend.. was gone. “Kill whoever you wish.”Midnight says to the villains as she gestures to the injured, so-called “heroes.” The villains all smirk and immediately start attacking them again but Twivine just stands there.. watching all the carnage and destruction that’s going on around her. Suddenly Discord appears and knocks the villains back, looking really pissed off. “Alright alright! Enough is enough!” He says and Midnight rolls her eyes as she walks forward a bit. “Ah.. the other pretender god.” She says and Discord growls in annoyance. “If you don’t mind, I will be ending this now.” Discord says but before he can even snap, Midnight blasts him with magic that then surrounds him and starts crushing him. The part that surprises him is that he can’t escape.. and this is actually hurting him.. “How.. is this.. possible.?!” He asks and Midnight chuckles. “Because I am the impossible.. as I told your ex.. I.. am chaos and destruction.. I.. am.. eternal.” Midnight says as she then aims at the others, preparing to destroy them. Twilight sees this and comes out for a second and considers the consequences of her actions but then she remembers that when it came to those she cares about.. she would turn Equestria upside down for them.. and not give a damn about the consequences on her part. She closes her eyes, focuses her magic.. and teleports everyone to safety, hoping none of the villains would notice that it was her. Midnight yells in anger and Twilight gives control back to Twivine just as Midnight turns to them all. Midnight just stares for a second before breathing in and out. “Nevermind them, they’re too weak to stop us.. we’ve won!” Midnight says before she slowly raises her hands which were glowing along with her horn and the magic starts rebuilding the damaged parts of the kingdom in her image. The villains all spread out to enjoy their new kingdom but Twivine stops as Twilight takes back control and looks at herself. “I need to fix this.. any way I can..” She says before walking to Celestia's broken crown and picking up sadly. “I’m so sorry Celestia.. I won’t let you down.. I promise.”