Final Fantasy: Zack's second chance

by Freelancer


Chapter 9: The Freeing of Chaos


Chapter 9: The Freeing of Chaos

Pre-read and edited by GOOPMONSTER.



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Prince Blueblood couldn’t help but clench his teeth in frustration as he watched his family’s palace be invaded by common workers around him, bringing with them copious amounts of dirt, as well as an array of terrible smells that now wafted throughout the home of the royal family, and subsequently into his nostrils.

Their presence, he thought, was an undesirable necessity if the grand hall was to be rebuilt in a decent fashion, but the very thought of having them within his domain had always given him chills, and now they were not only within his home, but he had been instructed to personally represent the royal family in dealing with them.

To say he was currently annoyed would have been a vast understatement.

“So we’re gonna take out these pillars since they’re pretty damaged,” stated the unicorn engineer he was currently stuck with, the ungroomed brown stallion pointing to a blueprint with his hoof. “And then we’ll start to redo these foundations… but we’re gonna need the steel reinforcement before we can do these ones…”

“Just… do what you can with what you currently have,” Blueblood sighed through gritted teeth and a forced smile, trying his utter best to ignore the sounds of pounding hammers and other tools that filled his ears.

The engineer smiled and rolled up the blueprints with his magic before departing back to his work teams, leaving a still frustrated but relieved prince in his wake. Right now, there were a thousand places he’d rather be and countless ponies he’d prefer to be meeting, but thanks to his auntie Luna detesting his outburst at Zack Fair he was now stuck dealing with Equestria’s common filth. Naturally, he had complained and argued that he had better things to do then watch a bunch of filthy labourers go about their work whilst getting his coat dirty, but neither princess had budged despite his protests, overall resulting in him liking Zack even less then he already did.

“I swear auntie Celestia should have sent that… two-legged beast to the moon for this,” he muttered under his breath, running his eyes over the immense amount of damaged caused by the SOLDIER’s wrath.

In his mind Zack should have been sent to the moon, or at very least locked in the dungeon for a few years for what he had done, but his dear auntie Celestia done neither but rather something utterly terrible. Instead she and Shining Armor had, in his opinion anyway, gone and disgraced the proud heritage of the Canterlot royal guard by making the SOLDIER a member.

“And to think this family couldn’t be burdened with any more shame,” Blueblood snorted, stamping a hoof as the face of the royal guard captain Shining Armor flooded into his mind, the second-top on his list of most hated ponies.

The rank of his top hated fellow pony had for a while been the cake-demon Rarity, but the blue maned stallion had taken that post the day his engagement to Cadence had been announced to the rest of the royal family; the title of most hated now however went to Zack Fair.

The prince felt a sudden urge to break something out of pure anger, but his rage subsided quickly when he heard hoofsteps and a regal voice behind him. “You seem burdened by anger my prince… may I ask why that is so?”

Turning on his hooves, he was greeted the first pleasing sight he had experienced that morning, a sight which judging by their sudden stop in work and slack-jawed gazes the various workers around him also found pleasing. Said sight being the noble mare, Fleur de Lis, walking towards him from the palace entrance as she flicked her mane from her face.

“Lady de Lis! What a fine surprise this is,” Blueblood smiled as he approached her. “To what honour can I welcome you to my home?”

Although he didn’t exactly approve of her and Fancy Pants’ adornment of common ponies, the prince had always got along somewhat well with the pair of nobles, although he could only ever bring himself to call Fleur his friend; her husband in his opinion had lowered himself far below that status the day he become friends with the elements of harmony, and in particular, Rarity.

“I was wondering if I could speak to you if possible,” she giggled behind a hood, her eyes darting over the countless workers around the two of them. “But I see you’re busy… ”

“With them?” the blond stallion asked with a grin towards the workers, overjoyed at having a reason to escape his duty. “Nonsense, I assure you lady de Lis you deserve my time and presence much more than they do. Come, let us go find somewhere away from this racket.”

An unnoticed sly grin spread across the mare’s face as he led her up the nearest flight of marble stairs and away from the work-zone. If first impressions meant anything, this would be easier than either she or Queen Chrysalis had first anticipated.


It didn’t take long for him to lead her through the palace and find a free hallway devoid of any other ponies, since with most of the day guards either at breakfast or out searching for changelings the palace was practically empty.

“So you wished to speak to me then?” the prince asked as he stopped walking and turned to face the elegant mare, using his magic to remove a stray gold mane hair from his suit.

“Yes I did. You see, Prince Blueblood, I have a sort of… proposition for you.”

The regal stallion’s right eyebrow lifted slightly at the remark as he watched her with suspicion. “I’m listening.”

An unusual grin spread across her face. “I’ve heard rumours that you… disapprove… of your sister, Princess Cadence, marrying the royal guard captain Shining Armor, is that correct?”

Every rarely exercised muscle in the stallion’s body tensed as his jaw clenched and his nostrils flared. The very name Shining Armor brought to him a flood of anger, and this particular morning that name had been filling his mind quite a lot.

He tried to hide his frustration, but the disguised changeling could see it clearly despite his efforts, and it only made her smile widen even further; she knew that very soon he would be like jelly in her hooves, all she needed to do first was make him blind with hatred just as her queen had blinded Shining Armor with love.

And manipulating the prince was becoming easier by the second.

“That… common soldier… has, by marrying my sister, sullied our family’s proud blood line for all time.”

“So I take it that means you disapprove then?” the pretend Fleur de Lis said with a tone of fake sympathy as she put a hoof on his shoulder. “Well you’re not alone in that regard, I’ve never really liked him either to be honest.”

“I do not disapprove of him lady de Lis…”

The mare’s eyes twitched with confusion. “So you disapprove of them being together?”

“No, it’s more than that, I…”

“So you simply dislike him then?” she sighed.

“I DO NOT simply dislike him either Fleur! I HATE him!” Blueblood snorted in her face, a hoof angrily slamming into the marble floor and causing her to step back in surprise. “He has completely corrupted my sister! She should rightfully stand above ponykind as a ruler and a member of the royal family, her royal blood demands it… but she instead sees fit to associate with every common piece of hide in Equestria because of his influence… it’s a complete insult to our family as royalty!”

“Well perhaps together we can fix that,” the disguised changeling grinned as she put a hoof over his mouth to silence him. “Listen to me, Blueblood, I know you’re angry… but there is a way for your family to rid itself of this burden, but you must be willing to trust me and go along with it… it will not be easy but it is possible.”

His eyes widened as her words reached his white furred ears, and without a second thought he pulled her hoof away from his lips. “I may hate him lady de Lis, but even I am not so desperate as to see him killed!”

“Quiet down you foal!” she snapped, her hoof shooting forwards and once again covering his mouth as she looked either direction down the hallway. “I did not mean that! I merely meant to… forcefully break up their marriage.”

She could sense in the prince’s emotions his mind bending as it yearned for such an inviting prospect, and soon she knew he would be too weak to put up any resistance to her, once that happened, all that was left was for Chrysalis to do her part in distracting the guards, and Discord would be free.

“May I ask why you are so against them, Fleur?” he asked at last as she removed her hoof.

The disguised changeling giggled and put a hoof across her heart. “I, like you Blueblood, value and respect social hierarchy above all else… I mean, can you expect a mare like me to enjoy the idea of my own foals growing up and marrying some commoner? That’s what Equestria will come to if we allow these things to happen.”

The white coated prince bit his lip and chewed on her words, debating on what the best course of action was; he loved his sister dearly and wanted her to be happy, but when the nobility of their family name was at stake even her happiness would not stop him protecting it.

“Well… if there is a way to rid my family of his presence, I am all for it.”

With his words the changeling felt all of his mental resistance dissipate, his defences dropping as his urge to see Shining Armour’s presence removed from his family took over both his thoughts and emotions, and hence the changeling put the next part of Queen Chrysalis’s plan into action.

“Good,” she grinned as she stepped closer, her horn sudden beginning to glow a faint green. “Now, Prince Blueblood… look into my eyes.”

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“Will you two lay off?!” Zack snapped, trying his best to ignore both the pounding ache in his head, and the two grinning stallions that were pestering him. “What part of ‘nothing happened’ do you not understand?”

“The whole part Zack,” Soarin’ grinned, giving the SOLDIER a playful shove in the side. “Because we all know you’re lying.”

“If you’ve forgotten Soarin’, unlike you I have some sense of honourable behaviour when it comes to girls.”

“Still doesn’t change the fact you’re lying,” Shining Armor chuckled.

Zack groaned and rolled his eyes as he set his fork down with a clatter, physically struggling against the urge to backhand both the annoying blue Wonderbolt, as well as Shining Armor across the face, both of whom had approached him as he tried to enjoy his breakfast, and had since been in his face and pestering him for what had happened the night before for the entire morning.

As it was, they had seated themselves on one of the long wooden barrack tables beside of him, Soarin’s voice filling his left ear while Shining Armor’s filled his right, all the while the laughs and loud voices of the countless other royal guards in the barrack’s mess hall, only served to make the situation more unpleasant then it already was.

To say the least, Zack had already been in a less-than-perfect mood before they had started to bug him, the late night coupled with the fact he had been drinking had gifted him with tiredness and a throbbing headache. All the added pony annoyances were only causing his early morning mood to quickly deteriorate, more so with the fact the mere presence and laughter of the grinning royal guard captain was drawing the attention of the other guards around them, most of whom had picked up from the two offending stallions’ stray comments what the subject was, and had hence decided to tune in.

“Look Zack we don’t want to know the… intimate details,” Shining Armor grinned, causing the blue stallion seated on the SOLDIER’s opposite side and a few surrounding guards to snigger. “Just give us a run down on how everything played out.”

“Look… we went out to dinner, enjoyed ourselves, came back, and went to sleep,” The black haired SOLDIER grumbled, glowing blue eyes staring down at his temporary commanding officer as a stray fist threated to rearrange his face. “That’s all that happened. End of story.”

“Oh come on, we’re both grown stallions here,” Soarin yawned through another annoying grin. “We’re not school colts looking for something to tease you about; we just want to know what happened.”

“And I’m really not interested in telling you!” Zack snapped at the blue stallion, now literally on the very edge of his temper. “Now can we please talk about something else for a while? like what exactly I’m supposed to be doing today, because right now I’m on the verge hitting you both across the face with the flat side of my Buster Sword.”

Soarin’ snorted in disappointment at the change of topic, but since from personal experience he knew all too well what Zack was capable of, he didn’t complain. Instead, he opted to return to his own barely touched breakfast while Shining Armor quickly pulled a map and a few other documents from his saddlebag. The unicorn quickly arranged them on the table so both he and Zack had a full view of them. From what he could see the SOLDIER guessed these were the reports written by the search party leaders, dictating everything from which houses and buildings they had checked at what time to the name, occupation and description of everypony they had interviewed during their searches.

“You’re kidding me right?” Zack snorted at last from behind his black locks. “With all my skills and abilities, you’re giving me a desk job?”

The royal guard captain just about burst out laughing then and there, much the SOLDIER’s annoyance. “Don’t get your tail in a knot Zack, just trust me on this; I know what I’m doing,”

The SOLDIER wasn’t exactly reaffirmed by the stallion’s words, but decided it best to say nothing, and instead shifted his attention to one of the many documents that now lay beside his breakfast plate.

For roughly an hour they searched the piles of information, during which Soarin’, as well as most of the guards, left the hall for either a day of patrolling or, as in Soarin’s case, a day of team training, eventually leaving only Shining Armour and the lone sword-wielding biped.

To Zack, the various papers were all just names and writing at first, but that was only until he began spotting certain descriptions and names being circled along with the times and locations they had been recorded. Upon closer inspection he realized that each circled name was mentioned in one or more of the documents, like the same pony had been reported by two different guards.

“So… what exactly am I looking at here?” the SOLDIER asked as he peered over one of the documents. “I mean, I can see what these are but... what are they supposed to mean to me?”

“All you and I should care about are these pieces information I’ve circled. They’re anomalies, basically meaning that these are the names of ponies who’ve been seen in two different places, in either a relatively short or unusual space of time.”

“Hence the possibility that one of these ponies was a changeling,” Zack said, rubbing his brow with his free hand as he looked through the list of names. “Or all of these ponies were one changeling for all we know… anything decent here we can actually go on as a lead?”

The white stallion sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck with a hoof, drawing a confused look from the SOLDIER.

“Well… yes and no Zack. From what I can gather... most of the anomalies were either members of the nobility or higher Canterlot society, models, fashion designers, and so on. Ugh, I know you’re probably thinking that we’ve got some end here Zack… which I guess is possible… but you also have to remember these ponies are in general also pretty social…“

“Which means being seen around town isn’t exactly unusual for them,” Zack finished for him, a hand rubbing his brow in frustration as he peered over the pile of papers. “Well, is there anything el…”

Shining Armor stared awkwardly as the SOLDIER’s voice trailed off, and his hands ceased moving around his forehead.

A moment later the stallion found himself slightly unnerved as a stone cold expression crossed Zack’s face, the gaze of his eerie blue eyes so sharp he felt like they were burning holes through him. For a few seconds silence reigned between them, only to be broken when Zack growled and spoke in a near deathly tone.

“Can you hear that?” he asked as he stood up, a gloved hand already reaching up and gripping his Buster Sword.

“Hear wha…” the stallion started, only to stop when his ears perked up.

It was a faint sound at first, but it was rapidly growing louder in volume, permeating through the stone walls and quickly entering the ears of every guard still in the mess hall, all of whom had now risen to their hooves and were standing with their nostrils flaring. Shining Armor knew the sound in an instant. As the royal guard captain, he had heard the sound more times than he cared to remember, including on his wedding day.

The sound of hundreds of screaming ponies running in terror.
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“May the goddess help us,” Zack whispered to himself, his massive metal blade grasped firmly in his hand as emerged into the daylight and stared up at the sky, his ears flooded with the warning shouts of the guards around him and the frightened screams of Canterlot’s inhabitants.

He momentarily stood perfectly still as he stared up into the sky, along with everypony else around him.

The usually bright blue expanse they were looking at was now covered not only by the golden barrier that encircled Canterlot, but also by hundreds upon hundreds of changelings, all of whom were in a coordinated effort slamming into Celestia’s barrier in an effort to bring it down. Each slam brought with it a boom that caused the entire city to shake, and if what he was seeing was accurate, the barrier wouldn’t be able to take much more before shattering like glass.

Before it did however, there was a pulse of violet light, and the formerly golden barrier turned a deep shade of purple as a second defensive layer was formed beneath the first. The changelings though didn’t seem to notice and continued to pound at the wall that lay between them and Canterlot.

For a moment, Zack found himself frozen in place. A combination of dread and rage ran through him as the vivid memories of Genesis’s attacks and Sephiroth’s destruction of Nibelheim came flooding back.

“Zack!” Shining Armour shouted through the haze of the moment, giving him a none too gentle buck in the side and snapping the SOLDIER back to reality in an instant. “Come on! We need to find Princess Celestia!”

Zack however shook his head and drew his massive blade. “Why don’t we fight, Shining? With the other guards, we can take them!” he yelled back.

For the first time since they had met, Shining Armor stood staring at the SOLDIER and lost for words, his mind going over the almost bloodthirsty tone in his voice.

Then he saw it, and his conversation with Celestia the night prior made the connection; the expression on his pale scared face, a savage combination of hatred, rage, and regret.

Some time in his life, the stallion realized, his black haired friend had faced a situation very much like this one, and either lost or came close to losing somepony close, Zack was right now blinded by anger, just as he had been when Chrysalis had returned.

“Zack, if we fight them like this they’ll overrun Canterlot! Without Cadence, my magic isn’t strong enough to defeat them all and hold the barrier at the same time! We need Celestia’s magic to repel them, and if you haven’t noticed my barrier won’t last that long, Now. Come. The. Buck. On!”

Inside the SOLDIER’s mind it was hard for him to justify running, hard to remember the similar fiery destruction of Nibelheim by Sephiroth, and the subsequent hatred Tifa developed for SOLDIER because of it... but, although he hated to turn and run, Zack knew it was a better option in the long term than standing and attempting to fight off hundreds upon hundreds of changelings.

Hence, without another thought, he gritted his teeth and sprinted after the galloping royal guard captain, his abnormal speed allowing him to easily keep up with the stallion’s pace as they charged back into the palace, all the while the echoing booms and screams continued to rock the city.


There was utter chaos everywhere. Zack looked around as they made their way through the winding marble corridors, the entire palace echoing with the sounds of thundering hooves on stone accompanied by the occasional crash of a collision. Heavily armed guards were now charging in every direction around the SOLDIER and shouting out for their comrades, workers and servants were screaming in terror and panic as they looked for places to run or hide, and everything that got in the way, such as the proud golden suits of armour or priceless decorations that lined the halls, were totalled by anypony unlucky enough to run into them.

While rushing through the corridors, the two were lucky enough to run into a patrol of eight mildly confused guards, six spear wielding earth ponies and two unicorns. Upon Shining Armor’s orders they hastily fell in behind the unicorn and black haired SOLDIER, apparently glad to have some sense of direction in the current chaotic situation.

“What are they doing back here anyway?” he asked, sprinted forward and with a swing of his sword clearing a smashed table from their path.

“I’ve got two theories,” Shining Armour replied without breaking his gallop. “The first is that Chrysalis, in her stupidity, thinks she can take us on numbers alone. The second… I’d rather not mention, right now I’m just praying to Celestia it’s the first.”

“If I ever get my hands on you, Chrysalis, you better pray the goddess shows you mercy,” Zack thought darkly to himself as he passed another group of cowering servants, using his Buster Sword to quickly slash down an obstructive door that was in his way as his boots pounded on the stone floor. “Because I sure as hell won’t.”

There was something else that was far from right. Through the countless windows they ran past, Zack could see the clouds over Canterlot were not only somehow bright pink, but by the looks of things they had started to rain water on the city that was dark brown. Running along the eastern corridor the SOLDIER also saw, much to his utter shock that down below in the palace garden the trees that were growing upside down with their roots in the air.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he hissed under his breath as he gripped his Buster Sword even tighter, taking a right corner and finding both himself and the ponies standing before the mighty double throne room doors.

Amazingly, however, he found they weren’t alone, for heaving at the massive wooden doors with all their might, in a currently unsuccessful effort to get them open, were a collection of guards, the elements of harmony, Spike, and the still uniform wearing Wonderbolts, Soarin and Spitfire included. All of them looked up when they realized who had joined their group; their vain pushing however didn’t stop.

“About bucking time you two showed up!” Stormwing shouted straight at the SOLDIER like he was one of his trainees, his grey wings flapping furiously as he pushed against one of the massive doors. “So you gonna stand there like a pair of hay-brained mules or are you gonna give us a hoof? Princess Celestia’s inside and we can’t get this damn thing open!”

Neither the SOLDIER or the other guards waisted another second, and hurriedly joined them, but even as his muscles bludged with his delivered force and strain the doors refused to move.

“Haven’t you tried using magic?” Zack snapped to nopony in particular, his already boiling anger rising as he too tried and failed to heave the mighty doors open.

“These doors are enchanted so they’re siege-proof, Zack,” Shining Armor grunted from beside him, drops of sweat now running down the unicorn’s forehead. “Doesn’t matter how strong the wielder, pony magic won’t put a scratch on these things,”

The words ‘pony magic’ rebounded inside his skull for a moment before a realization dawned on him. A second later, the SOLDIER stepped back from the double doors and drew his Buster Sword, every pushing and panting pony now ceasing their efforts and watching him in confusion as the blade glistened in his hands.

“Get back! All of you!”

They shot a quick glance between each other before hastily getting out of the way, gathering behind the human-jenova hybrid as he held his blade at the ready.

He took a deep breath, and allowed his own magic to take over and run free through his body like water freed from a dam, the energy running through every fibre of his being. Then, as he directed it out into the blade of his mighty sword, a faint orange and purple aura quickly forming around him.

When he was ready he allowed it to take over, pulling his blade back and leaping high into the air, his glowing blue eyes locked on the set of double doors as a phrase all too familiar to the Wonderbolts escaped his mouth.

“All right, here comes the big one!”

With a swing he arched the blade downwards, the magic that had been surging through him travelling down the blade before bursting into existence in the form of a barrage of burning meteors. All of which hurtled down, and with a combination of a huge burst of flames and an almighty explosion, converted the wooden doors into firewood, the massive pieces flying off in various directions just before Zack even landed with a dull thud.

With a quick glance back he saw most of the present ponies now standing a short distance down the hall and staring at him in shock, their eyes quickly tearing between the two handed sword he held and the now smoking empty doorway.

A slack-jawed Rainbow Dash was the first to break the silence as she turned to Spitfire. “S-so… that was the trick with meteors you mentioned then, huh?”

“Yeah it was, but we’ll talk about that later,” she replied as she cantered forward through the smoke, her normally calm face covered with an expression as hard as steal. “Come on Zack, we need to find Princess Celestia.”

The first sight that greeted them as they entered the ruined throne room made every one of them, including Zack Fair with his sword still readied, stop dead in their tracks, the elements of harmony in particular hoping that what, or rather who, they were seeing grinning before them was a dream.

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Notes:

Special thanks goes to GOOPMONSTER for pre-reading and editing, thereby giving you all a grammatically decent chapter and me time to finish my architecture folio. Anyway, you’ve all asked for summons to be included in this story, so next chapter I’ll begin to fulfil that request.