//------------------------------// // 41. Entombed Entering // Story: Mirror Mirror // by LittleFaerieFire //------------------------------// Entombed Entering Sunset I wasn’t the wisest pony, I had never claimed such a title. I had never made any such allusions to my ability to hold my tongue, temper my flame, quench my anger, halt my hatred. No, I wasn't the wisest in the land. I wasn’t even in the hypothetical running. Princess Celestia certainly knows that to be the truth. Yet as poor decisions I had made, this one was potentially in second or third place. It wasn’t my worst mistake, not even close. But it definitely was a strong contender for a silver or bronze trophy. Even as my skull all but ferally scratched at my brain, I knew that I would live through this. I had survived through far worse. I had suffered far worse. I was still here. I would remain until I achieved my destiny, or Princess Celestia put me down like the rabid beast she knew I was. However, force-feeding a centaur that acts as a magical leech wasn’t one of my brightest ideas. While it had worked, and I was only slightly worse for wear, such a fact did little to ease the ringing in my ears and the cruel weakness that dared blossom within my blood. Even if I had cut off the connection before Tirek decided that I had been brought low enough for him to best. He wouldn’t have won, oh no he wouldn’t have won. He would not win. After I had threatened him to an appropriate inch of his long-lived life he was almost cordial. Just like with Cadance, I knew that it wouldn’t last. I hoped that my partnership with Cadance would last far longer than our workings with the once lord. He was attempting to fool the wrong pony, I had been raised by Princess Celestia. I knew all the tricks that a long-lived pony could use to pull the wool over the bright-eyed younglings, I knew the ways to bend your words back around, to poison your tone, and lay traps within offers of so-called kindness. As soon as Cadance and I’s worth was less than what he could receive for sinking a dagger into our back, we would be attacked. We wouldn’t be forced back into Princess Celestia’s shadow. Mewling for her protection and grace, so that she would save me from being once more burned by my decisions. I had escaped her shadow once and I would never return to its embrace. I would not be broken by this paltry lord when I had stood strong against the Princess of the Sun for so long. He would not prevent me from claiming what was rightfully mine. What had been long since promised to be mine. What had been stolen from me by the one pony that had only mattered. Tirek would try to betray us and he would once more burn, there was no doubt in my mind it would happen. It had after all dared to speak of sating its hunger on Cadance of all ponies! It knew exactly who she was. What she was. What she was to Celestia herself. She had been claimed as her blood. HER CLAIMED FAMILY! It would suffer for that long past its appropriate death for such words that it dared to utter in my presence. That alone earned it an excruciatingly slow end in my flames. Its screams will contort in symphonic suffering until its voice can no longer utter out in pain. Not until its remaining skin had been flayed from its soon-to-be corpse. Only to further be pulled apart into its basic components as I studied how its sorceries allow it to consume magic from any living being, it would survive until I had scraped what little worth it still held. Only then would I allow it to be finally cremated within my flames. It deserved nothing less for its words.  That feasting upon another's magic, was a skill that I would retrieve from its corpse when our time working together was over. It sought to betray us. Hah! I will happily greet such a betrayal with my own. It was merely a monster, and I was a demon wearing the skinned remains of a pony. I would rend it of its curse and replace it with one of my own designs. All that would remain of the once timeless creature would be memories that would fade into the sands of time. Oh, no doubt his story was genuine, or the portions about being bound by whatever so-called cult that had entrapped him. He was cursed by something that I couldn’t even fully understand even after having been right in his face… mouth more accurately but it was something that I knew was an impressive piece of work that had been etched into its very existence. There were two beings in all of Equestria that I knew that could potentially assist him with this curse. While there may have been others who could potentially comprehend it, they held barely a spark in comparison to Princess Celestia and I. Cadance for all of her swift learnings and deep insights, was still an apprentice in such arcane matters. Even if I knew she held within her enough strength to counteract and cleanse the curse that afflicted the paltry lord, she held not the knowledge to do so. Move. Thinking of the Alicorn seemed to be enough to summon her from wherever she had escaped. Adopting a forced calm that would prevent any of my current weaknesses from showing, I greeted her swiftly with a question. “I take it that the Watching Eyes feasted upon whatever lie you fed them?” Not that they would be able to tell that my partner was lying to them, she wasn’t able to fool Princess Celestia but almost no pony could. She would learn, in time.  “You are something else Sunset.” Cadance all but sighs out as she trots over to where I was recovering. “I’m not sure what it is, but it is something else.” My partner continued as I was forced to lock my legs as she all but fell on me. Did she forget that she was an Alicorn? Was whatever was ailing her draining her of her strength to this extent? My own ailments were forgotten as I once more focused my attention on the health of the pony who was my mare friend. My spells found little more than they previously had, she was physically as fit as well… as an Alicorn. I could feel the way that Cadance rolled her eyes into my coat as she felt my magic wash over her. The origins of what had befallen my companion were not something physical or it was so esoteric that I was unable to discover it with my light probings. “So what's the verdict? Will I live?” Cadance repeated that joke I had so long ago initially taken to be a verification of her frailty. She wasn’t a fragile gem that needed to be sequestered away in a vault, no she needed to be polished and honed.  “I still don’t think that your joking about your health is funny.” She was still mortal. She could still be shattered with the appropriate force. Yet here she was, with me. Continue. “You didn’t even then did you?” The forced teasing was back in my partner's voice as she spoke into my side. She finally understood the need for constant unending perfection, how a single misstep would forever mar your future in the bleeding black. No matter how little magic you have left, how your very bones feel hollow, your very heart fills with tar, you must get back up and prove to the Princess of the Sun that you aren’t a mistake. No matter what you accomplish it is never enough. Never enough for one whose one requirement is an ever-present perfection. Never accepting that I couldn’t be the pony she wished I was! No matter how much I burned away in my effort to conform to her ideals! No matter the effort I put into the impossible test that I had repeatedly failed! I-!   White feathers danced across my muzzle, brushing away my thoughts with practiced ease. Taking a breath of my partner's almost honeyed scent I forced the white feathers to recede from my eyes. She wasn’t her, I repeated as I wiped the snow off with her pink feathers. Allowing myself one more moment of weakness before the calling that blistered within my blood became too much to ignore. Ascend. “Cadance, are you certain that you are up for this?” I muttered in response to the false levity that my partner held within her. For all her manipulations, which most common ponies held no chance of comprehending, I could see through her with crystalline clarity at times. This was my destiny. My fate. One of which I had been ordained to achieve. Only one pony could stop it and she refused to cut me down even knowing what was at stake. She had allowed me to steal this opportunity to ascend and I would ensure that I took full advantage of this most recent mistake of hers. “If you're not fully topped up, you can stay-.” My half-rambling words were stopped mid-sentence as my partner shut my mouth for me once more with her wings.  “Sunset Shimmer, I hope that you aren’t about to suggest that I let you brave an ancient crypt filled with all manner of ancient traps with only Tirek by your side?” The falsified levity had been burned away by a mesmerizing flame of indignation and almost righteous rage that ran through Cadance as she tensed around me. “Especially after having fed him your magic. Celestia knows you can do the impossible in regards to magic, but even you don’t have an infinite amount of magic within you.” Her words were accompanied by her head maneuvering its way so that her piercing purple eyes could lay bare the great spires of twisting crystal that were contained within them.  I could only gulp in anticipation for whatever it was she was planning as she closed the slight distance before us. Only to stop and continue with her accusations, “Can you even teleport right now Sunset?” She asks as the crystals in her eyes sharpen to deadly fixed points, those now honed blades prepared to cut through me should it be required. A reflexive smile forms upon my lips. A lie bathed in false truths begins to coagulate upon my tongue. Deceive. Once more I found myself on trial before the divine and once more I would escape such observations with nothing more than my mind. “Even now if the paltry lord attempts to devour me, all he would receive is more indigestion.” It was true I was confident in my abilities to deal with the once lord. He would burn. He was to be strung upon the pyre of my hate and be utterly consumed within my hate for the transgressions he had performed. I allowed my true thoughts to color my smile, showing that even if I couldn’t teleport at the moment I was still able to deal with a threat that even Princess Celestia once struggled with. After all, I was the greatest Unicron that had ever walked upon Equus. The greatest Unicorn that would ever walk upon Equus. My name would be forever carved into the echoes of time, so that I would not be forgotten! “I thought so.” Cadance tonelessly replied, not even giving me a moment to enjoy my false victory over her. It seemed that the Princess of Love was superior to the Sun in matters of divining the truth from my words. “I decided to go along with your plan, so I will see it through to the end, Sunset.” Her words were laced with the finality that only one other pony had dared speak to me within her words. Once more an Alicorn Princess was supposedly correcting my course through life… That wasn’t a fair thought to my partner, but one that held a fragment of a burned truth that danced upon the embers of my echoing mind. “Listen to me down there, and if I tell you to retreat, do so immediately. We have no idea what's down in that pit other than what vague traps Tirek alluded towards.” I demanded of the Alicorn who had finally pulled herself from where she had been lounging on me. “I know you’re an Alicorn but this is my area of expertise. Please Cadance I don’t want you to get hurt.” She wasn’t yet fully ascended, she could perish. “Aww, you do like me!” Cadance squeed, out as her wings flashed out and once more entwined themselves around me. Before I could speak up and form any matter of rebuttal or even attempt to rationalize her statement, she continued her assault upon both my physical form and my mind. “That’s fair, this is something that fits with your entire personality delving into ancient tombs in search of powerful treasure. In exchange, Alicorn or not, you have to listen to me for an entire day.” The whiplash of her words from exaggerated joy to utter seriousness, exasperated the scratching of my brain. I… Befuddled I just shook my head in agreement. “I hate you.” I should. I didn’t. I couldn’t. But I uttered those cruel words nonetheless, yet that wasn’t enough to remove the true joy that had inflated my partner's spirit. It was far better to see her truly filled with those emotions that were beyond me than the falsified emotions that she thought I couldn’t see through. She deserved them. She deserved so much more than what I could currently give her. She stayed all the same. Leave. “No, you don’t.” She all but sang out as she nuzzled me, and finally allowed me to escape her embrace. I stepped through the door that she had opened sometime during that entire ordeal as I saw our newest… associate was an appropriate term whole was far more hearty and hale than he previously had been. The centaur that had been waiting for us just stared at me. His singular eye focused upon my flushed face. “What?” I wasn’t going to give him another lick of my magic, I would sooner send him into the grave than freely part with what was mine once more. The only reason I had dared do that folly-filled action was that ascension was on the line. The only ponies that were within that hidden realm were Cadance and myself. Cadance would have never permitted me to steal away one of her precious ponies for him to feast upon, she would have sooner offered herself as the meal for the creature. It would never touch her with its sorceries while I had a mote of heat that flickered in my blood. It would never drain her of her will. It will never devour her magic and strengths, I didn’t care what I had to do to ensure that remained true. Those rampant thoughts brought the rest of my body temperature up to equal heat written on my face. “I had hoped one such as you would debase yourself with such matters. I was wrong to believe better of you. Once more I am reminded why you ponies disgust me so.” The once lordling intoned while shaking its head in abject disappointment. Did it think that I cared for its opinion? Did it truly think that its thoughts mattered in comparison to the ones that had saved me? The ones embraced wholeheartedly by the divine? Cadance coughed at the words, and taking a moment to glance at my mare friend showed that she held a dusting of red upon her pink cheeks as she refused to meet my gaze. “Your disgust doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you keep good on your word and lead us to the Alicorn Amulet.” I growled as I stalked towards the centaur who even further towered over me now having had time to fully digest my magic. I was used to being the smallest pony in the room, it had never stopped me from defying destiny itself as I continuously clawed my way to ever grander heights. This paltry creature would be but another that I need to use before discarding. “Now lead on or I will start to experiment with that curse that has been branded into your soul.” I illustrated my threat by forcing it to activate once more. Even if I couldn’t fully understand yet, I understood more than enough to cause the one it had been branded by to suffer. Suffer the creature did, no matter how much it attempted to remain stalwart I could see the curse becoming ever further entrenched within its being. Worming its way ever deeper into its existence. No doubt if Princess Celestia was to see it, she would have decried it amongst the worst black magics that she had seen. It was horrifically beautiful in its cruel design. The creature that had constructed it had my respect for burrowing deeper into the darkness than I currently had. How much further has it gone? What further insights had it discovered? What secrets could I steal from its work? How could I use it to further my own strengths? “As you wish.” The paltry lord finally spat out as Cadance brushed her wing against my side, giving me a reason to let up from the torment it was enduring. We stalked after the creature as both it and Cadance donned their hoods. Once more I was proven correct that most ponies were utterly worthless and couldn’t survive without Princess Celestia to wipe their plots. Not even one odd glance was thrown our way as we moved through the town, two Unicorns following after a large cloaked individual. When I ascended there would be changes, major changes that would ensure that even in peacetimes such as this, they were not so blinded by their own fragile securities. They would all understand what Princess Celestia has to do to ensure that they keep their bellies full, their families hale, and their hooves clean. They would learn even if I had to personally show each and every one of this blind herd of fools the cost that was accrued each day in this peaceful prosperity. Eventually, the elderly creature that led both Cadance and I came to a stop in the middle of the center of the town. The urge to remind the creature that I could tug upon the chains it bore was nearly blinding, but I managed to bite down on that font of hatred for the moment. If it continued to dally, I would have it suffer. “The Well of Shade is below us.” It intoned as gestured with a covered hoof. I had already checked this area but I hadn’t exactly gone through and did a thorough investigation of any area below Hollow Shades. It was seeming more and more certain that this was not the location where the two Alicorn sisters had long ago fought. Thanks to the insights of this former lord there was a different avenue before me.  “Stand back.” Those two words and the illusion that I threw up, were all the warnings that the centaur received before I began to channel my flame forth into reality. I wouldn’t be bringing forth the birth of a new Sun but for something as simple as cutting through the earth? That required far less control, far less fuel, and far less finesse.  I paid only a cursory amount of attention to the still-cloaked centaur who was keenly observing the quick progress I was making, while Cadance moved back to my side after she had retreated away initially when I had begun to heat the air. “Yes?” I questioned my silent partner. I hadn’t found the crypt yet, and while the former lord hadn’t given any indication how deep it was I was already closing in on a hundred feet and still not found any sign of it.  “I just wanted to be next to my mare friend.” Cadance finally decided to say after a further few seconds of the only noise being the consumption of the earth within my slavering inferno. I turned back to my partner and showed exactly what I thought of those words with a roll of my eyes. That seemed to get my point across as she swiftly continued. “We are technically grave robbing right now, I mean I know we are who we are and I know we can get away with murder, Celestia knows that you have but still is…” Cadance was adorable as she both floundered and attempted to still continue the facade of the peerless Princess that Princess Celestia no doubt wished her to be. “It’s technically archeology at this point.” Seeing the look upon my mare friend's muzzle I continued myself. “It’s easily been over 50 years, so archeology, not gravedigging.” I continued my explanation and allowed my partner's mind to sidestep her morality. “Also I have never been charged with murder as the only creatures that I have killed have been in defense of Equestrian citizens, and the Equestrian Royalty.” I poked her cloak on the side where her wing had been injured not so long ago. She just stared at me as she processed my well-thought-out arguments. Seconds passed as the crystals within her sapphire eyes began to dull and fragment. I all but paused my efforts to review my words and ensure that I had spoken no form of folly. Yet I found nothing that should have inspired such a response. It was only when I had once more pushed against her side did the crystals within her eyes reformed and clarity was regained within her gaze. “Must you subject me to this form of suffering as well?” Our observer who had fallen silent ever since I had begun my work. I gave him a quick glare before I stole a kiss from my partner, enjoying the way that the centaur stifled a gag. That led to a speech that I was nearly certain had been planned by Cadance about not using our relationship as a weapon, that she had such a speech prepared implied something that I didn’t fully know. Something that I would have to study at a later moment. Though it was rather amusing at times how she broke character when it came up that she was the one defending Tirek from our ‘weaponized’ relationship. It took another few hundred feet, and nearly half an hour after Cadance had concluded her argument to reach something that didn’t immediately burn under my released magic. Corralling my flames back towards me as I glanced down the deep pit I had burned through the earth. Frowning as I saw nothing but darkness even with the dark vision spell that I had running. Turning back to my partner whose amusement could not be quantified with words as the crystals within her eyes exploded at my current difficulties. I shook my head at what amused my partner and fell into a shallow bow. “Oh, Princess of Love, if this humble servant of yours may ask of your assistance in furthering this one's endeavor towards its own ascension?” Cadance just muttered something about a maid uniform before she avoided my gaze and glanced down the hole at my behest. “Whatever is down there isn’t natural.” She states as she turns to look at the still silent centaur who had attempted his best to remain impassive while I performed my work. The elderly lord stepped forth and glanced down as well, nodding that this would indeed be a way into the Well of Shade. I contemplated shoving the former lord down the hole, but I held off for now. Later I could sate my anger upon his seared flesh.  Taking a moment to slow my descent through a basic feather-fall charm before I turned towards the centaur and waited to see if it could make its own way down. The centaur met my gaze with its own glare that paled in comparison to what I had seen in the mirror, before beginning to hoist itself down the hole I had burned. While it was making its way down I turned my attention fully towards Cadance, pulling the spelled knife from where I had placed it within my saddlebag for safekeeping. “Cadance…” I couldn’t help but trail off unsure of how to best convince my partner that we were all but entering into hostile territory where I couldn’t be sure that I would be able to protect her. That even burning away myself for her safety would likely not be enough. That she would likely be required to dirty her own hooves in order to survive should the worst outcome happen. I would have given her another chance to back out, to return to the so-called safety of her two Watching Eyes. But I didn’t, no instead I “Please be careful, I don’t want to lose you.” The words lacked the weight that I wished to impart upon them. Thankfully Cadance gave me a brief smile as she nodded at my words. “Together?” She asked as she grabbed the knife from my hoof. Nodding as she stepped next to me and we stepped into the hole together. Cadance had to wrap one of her wings around me as the hole I had made wasn’t large enough for her to spread her wings. The one wing she had remaining in combination with my charm was enough to slow our descent. That didn’t prevent me from kicking the forgotten lord when we descended upon his head. The growl he let out was music to my ears as I could all but hear the way his anger was straining against the plan he had so carefully constructed. When would its wrath escape its confines and be free to contest against my own? When would I be free to let my flames freely rage against one of Princess Celestia’s old enemies? When would I ascend and turn it into fuel for my flames? Turning my attention from the pleasurable thoughts that were beckoned forth from my blood I instead focused upon the task of cutting through the ceiling of the tomb. While in the past I would never have had to have spared any attention to ensure that my flames didn’t burn my surroundings while I pierced through the protections. Now I had a pony who I wished not to harm by my side. It was an awkward few moments while I worked my way through the archaic wards that had been inscribed upon the blackish-blue stone, the ancient lord didn’t dare to complain as I completed my work. Thankfully whoever had prepared the wards eons ago hadn’t bothered to update them or I would have had some difficulty as I breached the ancient tomb. As it was, I completed my work and turned the stone to molten slag after momentarily lifting the centaur so that he wouldn’t yet receive my flame-touched embrace.  After depositing the centaur down, Cadance brought us both down beside the ancient creature. We were in a great room with a number of stone pillars that supported the ceiling, yet that wasn’t what caught my attention. No, it was the figure carved intricately into the stone before us that completely held my attention. Revenge. My blood erupted in infernal flames, iron coated my teeth as my tongue was sliced upon the now-sharpened fangs that littered my mouth. I recognized that pony! I KNEW that shade! Hate. I knew that wretched shadow that dared best me! It seems that my time to repay the kindness it had gifted me was at hoof. The rusted iron was swiftly replaced by liquid flames as I stalked forth, soundless cries were whispered before me as I crossed the once-dark room. Now forcefully illuminated by my rage as I stood before the depiction of my once foe, now nothing more than long-awaited prey. A single emerald flame flickered into existence upon the sharpened horn that was chiseled from the stone. Suffer. It would burn as its stone depiction did falling apart within my flames. Becoming little more than fuel to fuel my flames. It would fuel my ascension as I drank from the strange magics that it wielded. I recognized its shielding spell that Celestia used when we had nearly brought forth an early conclusion! It would explain how it dared to steal from Mother! Then it would be left at the mercy of my inferno! Then I would cremate it while it suffered through the final moments of its life!  One moment it would be in an eternal dream of pain, the next it would forever suffer under my tormenting touch as my hatred scorched it even beyond its death! It would never reform within any form of darkness! The shadows it wielded would falter and be cleansed within my flames that would scour any that dared form!  I would watch as its flesh dripped from its bones, feasting upon the reduced fats that remained! I didn't need its reminder that I was little more than a demon! That I was little more than a monster! That I would never be Mother's daughter! That no matter what I achieved I would never achieve my goals! I smiled at the altar that was now nothing more than a great gaping hole that had bled through the floor and continued to burn ever deeper into the crust of Equus. A brilliant heat blossomed from the core that was a soothing reminder of what was soon to be mine. What had long been promised to me. What had always been decreed as mine! What I would rightfully take from any who dared stand in my way! The snapping of bone accompanied the twisting of my head as I turned back to the magical leech that feasted upon all that was weaker than it. “Where is the amulet?” I growled out demanding the information it still dared withhold from me. Grasping its curse that had been created by a mere mortal and twisting it within my mental grasp. Contorting the meager magics within my own as I shredded the flesh of the so-called monster.  It didn’t even cry out in pain at my tender touch as I rendered its flesh in ways that it wasn’t meant to exist much less support any semblance of life. “Answer me!” I demanded as I burned my own will into the curse, replacing its original intent with my own. That was the final barrier that was needed as the former lord was forced to capitulate within my embrace. “The Pony of Shadows holds it!” The answer finally spilled from its wretched mouth. Good. I now knew my prey's name. My will changed, I restored the failure before me to some semblance of health as I turned towards it… her. I was unable to even conceptualize it's her true face so bound by its… her farce.  The one who bound me. I grinned at her and she didn’t even flinch. Audacious little Princess bearing wings that were barely earned. Only concerned with stealing the Love of the one pony that was MINE! I would show it the folly of her ways! “Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.” I mockingly greeted the original thief that had stolen Mother from me, with a deep bow. The audacious little creature didn’t even have the grace to waver in fear, perhaps she had forgotten that she was still mortal. After all, she was a Princess one that held dominion over all lesser creatures. Of which I was not and from the way that she gulped that fact was known. “Sunset Shimmer?” The parasitic Princess asked, her words as brittle as the faltering crystals within her soul. I salivated further flames at the faint trickling fear that whispered across her form. I simply smiled and then cruelly laughed as I watched as it shuddered back. Oh, even now you were still such a wretched weakling whose only use was to be led to the slaughter. “Can you not even remember the name of the one you had nearly tainted with your touch?” I taunted as I pushed into her face. Each time she shuddered in clear revulsion at my actions, bringing my flames to even further heights. She wasn’t Mother, they weren’t even comparable but I couldn’t dare harm the only one who saved me, but she was almost as delicious! I wouldn’t touch her for now, not with the freedom I had been granted. I would have enjoyed playing with her without any interruptions thanks to the earlier actions, but I would have to wait to once more drink her blood as I relaxed in the Princess's screams. For the final creature stepped forth from where it had remained hidden within its shadows. Turning my gaze to its blacked eyes which narrowed as it traced my half-formed flesh.  I still recognized the gaze of the weakling within its new eyes from so long ago. Where it had attempted to ‘correct’ what changes I had brought. Back then it had fought beside six others, it being the seventh. Now aside from it, only one remained lost to time and magic. The rest had long since fallen to my hooves. “You are the Demon from back then.” It howled as it too recognized me. It thought it held a candle to my own flame, through the changes it had survived? I was the infernal conflagration that had scorched worlds beyond recognition? BURN! My single intonation brought forth fragments of flames. That sought nothing more than to reduce shadow to nothingness. They all would burn before me! They would all be reduced to nothing more than ash! They would all be lost within the void! They would all be forgotten as the only pony that they could have ever cared for moved on!  Even as my flames began to once more reduce Equus to little more than a pool of burned rock, A glinting from around my prey's neck caught my attention. I blazed through the air as I was upon the living shadow. My fangs found its neck as I drank from its blackened blood. Yet I couldn’t steal the amulet from within its shadowed flesh. It screeched as if it had never suffered before, as if it was but a newborn foal being burned alive for the first time! Even as I tore its throat open, I knew it lived as the shadows coagulated to prevent it from leaking even more of its life force, a weakness that it shouldn’t have yet remained in its new form. I laughed as I heard the wretching of the so-called Princess behind me.  “So what if I am?” I hissed as I gulped down its now burned blood. “You are all alone! Your allies lie dead! Entombed within these very walls!” I howled out in turn, each of my words igniting the world around me. Shadows and darkness burned alike. Reduced to nothing. Even as the bell began to toll I laughed. I laughed as I took the opportunity to cremate every creature save one that remained within these halls. I laughed as two ancient monsters once more fell to my flames. I laughed as I turned to the weakened mess that was once crowned a Princess! I laughed as I stalked towards her! I laughed even as the self-proclaimed savior stepped forth to once more save a pony from the DEMON! Impossible spears of energy ripped through realities beyond recognition, each determined to slow my assault. Each was a wretched failure equal to their summoner who couldn’t even save itself, but thought it could save everything! Even as the bell continued to ring and render reality nothing more than a suggestion, I worked my flames into the spell that it thought would once more save it from me! It wouldn’t be nearly as effective as it last was. It realized that even as it attempted to console the paltry Princess of Love. IT WOULD BURN! THEY WOULD ALL BURN! THEY WILL ALL BURN! The inferno that I forced into reality encased the two final ponies, one of them burned, and one of them remained untouched within my flames. The Princess once more found a fragment of its faltering strength and locked its gaze with me. Within its eyes were furious crystalline spears that promised retribution as my flames refused to find purchase upon her flesh. Hah, I would eagerly await its death once more!  The bell tolled for its final time.