Chapter 36
Pinkie Pie wasn’t sure what to do. She looked up at her friends as they stood motionlessly with their eyes closed, with the so called Unknowable Mare in the centre of them. This device, the so called ‘psionic resonator’ had essentially become their prison. They were trapped here with no control over their own faculties.
Pinkie Pie glanced down at the MIP on her foreleg and brought up the clock. 0415, they’d been in this thing for hours. Enough was enough. They had more important things to do than to sit here all night. A look of determination came over Pinkie Pie’s face as she brought up the holographic keyboard and began to type. It was time to wake them up.
...
Kelso dropped to her knees, as a loud piercing shrill filled the air; she let out a cry in pain as she struggled to keep her eyes open. She blinked and the scene changed, they were in Ponyville, and could only watch as the scenes flashed before her.
A battalion sized group of ponies clad in metal armour marched through the streets of Ponyville. At the head of them was an elderly unicorn clad in purple robes. Kelso recognised him from a previous memory, Archimedes, the leader of the Fillydelphia chapter of the Cultus Mechanius, he and his people were invading Ponyville.
Archimedes raised a hoof and brought it back down to the ground, signalling his soldiers to open fire on the unsuspecting town ponies. The air was filled with the sound of gunfire and the citizens of Ponyville ran for their lives.
‘Today! The secrets of the Everfree Plains Missile Base shall be ours!’ Archimedes cried out triumphantly. ‘Paladins of the Fillydelphia Chapter! Forward march!’
The scene changed, they were in the town square, and an azure unicorn mare stood, wielding one of the Fillydelphia Chapter’s heavy machine guns opening fire on any and all who dared to oppose her. At Trixie’s flanks were none other than Lyra Heartstrings and Bon Bon, Spike, and Mr. Happy, and the group all stood together, arranged in a circle trying to hold off the horde of Fillydelphia chapter Paladins as they closed in around them.
Lyra held a lever action shotgun in her telekinetic grip, firing it off every chance she could, as Bon Bon pulled a stick of dynamite from a bandoleer and passed it over to Spike, the dragon used his fire breath to light the stick before tossing it as hard as he could into the advancing lines of Paladins.
‘Hey!’ Spike called out.
‘What is it Spike?’ Trixie asked as she inserted a new box of ammunition into her machine gun, cocking the weapon. ‘We’re a little busy!’
Spike merely pointed off to the distance, there was a train approaching, an Equestrian steam engine pulling a single cargo container. The train came to a stop, and explosive bolts fired off on the container. Kelso had to rub her eyes to make sure she wasn’t seeing things.
She most certainly was not.
‘Laufen! Los los los!’ cried out a voice with a thick accent. Kelso looked up to discover none other than Heinrich Büchsenmacher. ‘Panzer Lehr Angriff!’
Nearly a dozen Schäferhund soldiers, along with a tank mounted with four auto cannons dismounted from the train car and rolled out into the street. The Schäferhund Flakpanzer rolled into view and opened fire on the cult troops. The Fillydelphian paladins watched in terror as their ranks were cut down and turned to flee, many of them attempting to abandon their gear to flee faster.
It was to no avail, the might of the Flakpanzer was too much and it wasn’t long before the fighting force of the Fillydelphia chapter was completely destroyed.
‘Not so good when you have to fight an equal’, Trixie smirked.
‘Stop running! Fight! Fight!’ A booming voice called out to the few remaining Paladins who were in the process of fleeing.
Trixie looked out to see Archimedes himself wading through battle; a powerful energy shield augmented by his own telekinetic ability shimmered around him as he personally engaged the soldiers of the Panzer Lehr division, darting around the battle field quickly and with skill. Trixie’s anger flared again. She abandoned her heavy machine gun and charged the elder unicorn.
Archimedes hadn’t taken notice of her yet, he dashed by the Panzer Lehr division’s flakpanzer, slapping a small detonation charge on the tracks. It exploded breaking the links of the flakpanzer’s treads, stopping it, literally, in its tracks.
Trixie leapt at the aging unicorn, passing right through his telekinetic barrier, which was designed to stop faster moving objects, like bullets, but allowed slower moving people, like Trixie, through, she caught the chapter master by surprise, breaking his barrier with his focus shifting. Trixie planted her fore hoof into his face, striking as hard as she could, a single blow landed, but when she moved to strike again, Archimedes moved his head out of the way and responded with a kick that sent Trixie off him and broke her hold over the shotgun, sending it clattering to the ground. Trixie got back up and both of them eyed the weapon.
Trixie and Archimedes both dove for it, struggling to take control of it in a fight for their lives.
Heinrich blindsided Archimedes, leaping at him to knock him off balance, it didn’t work however, as Archimedes had ducked at the last minute. However, the distraction had caused him to release his hold on the shotgun, when he turned back towards Trixie; he discovered that the barrel was pointed right at his face.
‘Well fuck’, Archimedes said.
Trixie grinned at him, and pulled the trigger, watching with a certain amount of pride as the chapter master's head exploded.
…
Something was fighting Pinkie Pie, it had to be the Unknowable Mare; she had to have been directly interfacing with the psionic resonator’s controls, and she was blocking each of Pinkie Pie’s attempts to shut the device down.
The why of it was in the back of Pinkie Pie’s mind. What was going on in there? What was so important that the Unknowable Mare needed to keep them in? Pinkie Pie pushed these thoughts away, the why of it mattered little. She needed to get her friends out of there. Whatever the Unknowable Mare was doing, it couldn’t possibly be good.
…
The scene changed and Kelso and company found themselves at the deserted gates of Canterlot, standing behind none other than Twilight Sparkle. The image before them flicked and distorted as they followed Twilight deeper into the abandoned city.
‘What’s going on?’ Sparky asked as they followed.
‘With the events of the memory? Or the flickering?’ Viola asked.
‘Well… both I guess?’ Sparky asked as she and the rest of her friends followed Twilight as she walked along the eerily deserted streets of Canterlot towards the castle.
‘This… this has got to be it, the big one, where Twilight Sparkle overthrew the Princesses’, Hopely said. ‘They say that Princess Celestia saw this day coming, and secretly evacuated Canterlot so that they could have their final battle without any innocent bystanders getting hurt’.
‘Downright noble of her’, Sparky said with a sarcastic huff as Twilight Sparkle pushed open the door to the castle and entered the Great Hall, they climbed the stairs in silence, and pushed open the door to the throne room.
Sitting on her throne at the far end of the room was none other than Princess Celestia herself, she sat silently, as if she had been waiting for this moment for a long time. ‘Hello Twilight, I knew you would come’, she said softly.
‘You did?’ Twilight asked, looking dumbfoundedly at the Princess.
Celestia nodded slightly. ‘I’ve known that this day would come for a long, long time. It’s unfortunate, now that it is finally here’.
‘Then you should have done something about it! You won’t do anything to help us! But instead, you’ve sat up here on your throne for the last thousand years and held us back from reaching our full potential!’ Twilight yelled. ‘You’re a danger to all of pony kind and I’m here to put you down!’
Celestia shook her head slowly. ‘Twilight... no, it’s not me that you need to worry about’, Celestia said with a frown.
Twilight gave her mentor a look of annoyance. ‘Fine, I’ll bite, who’s so much worse than you?’
Princess Celestia did not respond, and at that moment, Kelso jumped as Princess Luna herself walked through the passive observers as they weren’t there. They watched as she tapped Twilight on the back and gave her an eerie smile. ‘Surprise!’ she said and hit Twilight with a powerful telekinetic attack, sending her flying into a stone pillar.
Princess Celestia flinched as she watched her student hit the wall with such tremendous force. Twilight cried out in pain as she slid down towards the floor.
‘Princess Luna... why?’ Twilight asked weakly as she struggled to pull herself up from the floor.
Luna did not respond, instead she hit Twilight with another telekinetic attack, sending her flying into another pillar. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve been so naïve?’ Luna asked as she walked slowly up to Twilight Sparkle. ‘Do you remember me telling you that it was ME, who was the outgoing one, and Tia the one who was shy? Well that was always true, did you really think that she would be the one capable of being your real enemy? When she, even as a little filly, required others to push her into any confrontation at all?’
The passive observers watched in silence as Twilight struggled to get back to her hooves, their vision began to blur, and the sound became static. They could only watch as Princess Luna continued to speak, unable to hear what she was saying.
‘But... the elements of harmony! We cured you of the darkness in your heart! We defeated Nightmare Moon and saved you!’ Twilight eventually said after a few seconds of static, and coughed up blood.
Princess Luna sighed. ‘Naïve fool! My plans were formulated LONG before I became Nightmare Moon! In fact... why don’t you ask your beloved teacher the real reason why she held back our technological progress?’
Twilight looked towards Celestia in pain. She discovered that the princess of the sun was crying. ‘Twilight, you must understand... I would never do something that wasn’t in the best interests of the people! Personal feelings never took into account! If technological advancement was the best step for our people! I would have encouraged it! But it wasn’t! Don’t you now see why?’
Luna acted before Twilight could respond, driving a hoof into her face. ‘Yes, see, Tia couldn’t bear to hurt her baby sister! She knew what she needed to do, for the good of all, I needed to be destroyed, but she couldn’t do it, so she banished me to the moon instead! She knew that I would escape eventually, and she was afraid if our technological progress were to keep on the track that it was in. When I came back, I would have a powerful army at my disposal, Equestria would roll over the rest of the world, and I wouldn’t stop there! Today the world, Tomorrow the rest of the Tau Ceti star system, next week? The entire galaxy!’
‘You’re... you’re insane!’ Twilight said weakly.
‘You are small!’ Luna said. ‘You cannot possibly comprehend a mind like mine. So go ahead, think I’m insane. Won’t matter much longer’.
At this point, Luna was done talking; she began to kick Twilight hard in her chest, and her stomach. She intended to beat the unicorn to death. Twilight looked over to Celestia communicating her pleas for help through her eyes. Celestia couldn’t bear to make eye contact, and looked away as her sister continued to beat her prized student to death.
‘She is not going to help you! She cannot even help herself!’ Luna cried out.
Twilight cried out in pain as the beating kept coming. Luna decided that she was done. She had had her fun with Twilight Sparkle and it was time to put her out of her misery. She raised her hoof for the final blow, ready to bring it down upon her.
A flash of white darted across Twilight’s eyes, as a cloud of white smoke slammed into Luna at full force, sending the princess of the night clattering to the floor. The white smoke rematerialised into Celestia as she pinned Luna against the ground.
‘Get off me!’ Luna cried out in anger.
‘No!’ Celestia said defiantly, she looked towards Twilight Sparkle with sad eyes. ‘I am so sorry’, she said. The two royal sisters turned into clouds of white and purple smoke, and rose into the air. Twilight watched as the smoke clouds tangled and entwined with each other. She heard Princess Luna’s voice shriek, as the two clouds became enveloped in a bright light. The light filled the room completely and then went out. The echoes of screaming filling the halls, and then became silent.
Twilight sighed and fell back onto the ground, closing her eyes to rest. It was over. Princess Celestia had sacrificed herself to kill Princess Luna.
...
It was working! Pinkie Pie had done it she had finally wrestled control away from the Unknowable Mare, now it was time to bring her friends home. She dashed over to the psionic resonator, there was space for six here, she stepped into the unoccupied space and closed her eyes. Time to enter the dream.
...
Kelso couldn’t believe it. This was not how it was supposed to have gone, this was not what the history books had said. They had been lied to their entire lives.
Crack!
Twilight’s eyes shot back open as the whole mountain city began to shift. ‘Oh no!’ Twilight cried out. She forced herself to her hooves and began to drag herself out of the castle.
Of course, why had they not seen it sooner? Canterlot was not structurally sound, and it had to have been the Princesses themselves holding it up with their powerful telekinetic abilities.
Twilight pulled herself out of the castle to discover that her hypothesis was right. Large cracks were forming in the ground and the streets of the city. Canterlot was going to fall.
The entire city gave way at once, falling from the mountain and down towards Whitetail Wood. Twilight fell along with it down towards the ground, she didn’t scream, she didn’t struggle. She just fell.
Suddenly, Kelso looked up to discover a new bright pink figure materialising before them. ‘Pinkie Pie?’ Kelso asked in disbelief.
‘Hey Kelso!’ Pinkie Pie said with a bright smile. ‘Time to come home!’
The world began to fade once more, a bright white light formed around them; they were exiting memories for good. Good riddance, Kelso had to say. She looked over to Twilight once more, noticing the unicorn mare’s horn begin to glow. Twilight disappeared in a flash of white light, and the passive observers finally woke up.