Disclaimer: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and all associated characters, settings and stories are the rightful subjects of Hasbro, the HUB, Studio B, and Lauren Faust.
Chapter 40
Magicon was stunned beyond belief. His jaw was on the floor as his eyes bulged out of his head. Rainbow Dash couldn't be here, she had run away. She was on the run from scouting guards and police ponies; she wouldn't be that foolish to meet Magicon face-to-face.
"Umm…uh…what?" he asked, trying to find words and stumbling over the ones he found.
"What? You didn't think I would leave my friends behind, did you? I am the Element of Loyalty after all."
"How…what?"
"Oh, you are that surprised to see me. Well good, then this will surprise you even more."
She punched him directly in the face. Magicon was indeed surprised by the rapid movement of her attack and took the punch with full force. He stumbled backwards against the wall. He put a hoof to his head to shake off the pain and concentrate on his next action. If only he could use his magic everything would be different. Since he couldn't he'd have to rely on his own strength, skills, and stamina.
Rainbow Dash simply walked forward as he prepared, glaring at the weakened unicorn.
"I suppose I should be thanking you," she hissed. "If it wasn't for your brutality I wouldn't have discovered the truth and helped my friends. So, thanks."
She gave him another punch in the face. Magicon simply took it, allowing the unusually dull pain to course through him. He had already formulated a plan in the few seconds of laying eyes on Rainbow Dash, now he had to put it to action.
"I admit, I am surprised to see you," he managed to utter through his troubled breathing. Rainbow's punches had knocked the wind out of him, but he did his best. It wasn't like he had no experience with physical violence and fights; he had learned well from past experiences. But something was different about this. It was as if the punches weren't real. It was as if he was in a dream or something. It just felt surreal to him.
"But that doesn't excuse your treasonous actions," he garbled out.
"Treasonous? Treasonous! You're the pony who has committed treason!"
"Have I really? All of my actions have been dictated by Equestria and its ponies."
"No it hasn't! Your actions are personal! You attack and strike down anypony who disappoints you or gets in your way!"
"Do I now? Then prove me correct."
"Huh?"
"Prove…me…correct," he smirked.
Rainbow sternly looked at him and flew directly towards him, ready to punch him and make him truly sorry for what he did. Magicon braced himself for the impact and raised his hooves in anticipation for the attack. It was mere seconds, but for both of them it felt like many minutes.
Just as they were about to collide a blinding light appeared. Both were suddenly blinded and Rainbow crashed into the wall head-first, just inches to the left of Magicon who covered his eyes with his hooves.
When it became bearable Magicon saw that Pinkie Pie was standing directly in front of him with Rainbow half-unconscious at his right side. Pinkie was stern and direct, unlike what he just saw before.
"I hope you liked that surprise because we have to go now."
"Wait, what? You mean you aren't going to attack me?"
"It wasn't supposed to be like this. Rainbow was just too aggressive and I won't harm you, even after what you've done."
"I never harmed you."
"But you harmed them and they are like family to me."
"Well, I can't help that."
"I know and I'm not asking you to. There are more ponies waiting for you. Go see them."
She grabbed Rainbow, slung her on her back and walked out of the room. Outside she met Twilight.
"That didn't go as planned," she said.
"Actually, it went better than planned," replied Twilight. "You see, with the drugs in place this is just looking like a really vivid dream to Magicon. He thinks he's sleeping."
"So that's what Fluttershy did."
"Yup. Now, as for Rainbow, we better wake her up and get ready for the final stage."
"Yeah."
The two of them grabbed hooves and teleported out of the hall with a loud bang.
Back in his office Magicon shook his head wildly trying to make sense of what was going on around him.
"What in Equestria is happening to me? This can't be real. Rainbow Dash is hiding somewhere, that wasn't her and Pinkie would never be so foolish as to create a party here in this office. This is all just a bad dream or something; I have to just either wake up or continue on, hoping that it will get better."
He examined his room with a blurred vision. There was a lot of color, which almost gave him a headache but there was also no noise. It was completely silent. Magicon checked his hears to make sure they were working, and they were, but the pure silence worried him. If this was a bad dream, since it certainly had to be because none of this would make sense in the real world, he felt very strange in it.
"I need to get out of this dream. Pinkie said there are other ponies waiting for me and if I saw Rainbow now I don't want to know who else I might see and talk to."
He began banging his head on the wall, biting and scratching himself, and a variety of other tricks to try and wake himself. But nothing worked. He either didn't feel it, thanks to drugs, or it failed to wake him.
In the middle of his attempts he distinctly heard a knock on the door. A bit apprehensive in answering it, Magicon only hoped that the better part of his dream was coming, if this was a dream.
Opening the door, he could make out a white coat and purple mane of a pony before him.
"Ra…Rarity?"
"I do hope I'm not interrupting anything, your highness, but I must ask a favor of you. If you would kindly accompany me."
"Ok…I guess."
He followed her as best as he could. He swore as he walked down the hallway he was on a zigzag course and swaying side to side. Rarity's image was the only distinct thing he could make out, and even then her features were blurred. The hallways were barely visible and the torches only blinded him as he walked. He could still tell that he couldn't use his magic. As he tried to unlock the barrier to his magic, he didn't realize that Rarity had stopped and he bumped right into her.
"Ouch, do watch where you are going, Magicon."
"Oh, I…umm…sorry."
"Humph," she scoffed and turned her back towards him and opened the door in front of her.
He followed her inside, unable to see anything other than pitch darkness. The door silently closed behind him, pitching everything into complete darkness. Magicon was blind to the world around him. A bottomless pit could be two steps in front of him and he would never know it.
"Rarity, what is going on?"
"Oh, hang on just a minute, Magicon," he heard a distant echo.
"Rarity?"
There was no response.
"Anypony there?"
Again, no response.
"If somepony is trying toscareme I'llhaveyouknow thatI'm notafraid ofyou."
"What if somepony surprised you?" said a mare's voice behind him that made Magicon jump.
"Who'sthere?"
"A pony you thought you knew very well, but never actually did."
"Huh?"
"You know who I am."
"You're voice…no that's not possible. You're dead!"
"Oh, you underestimated my power. You thought a simple enchanted dagger could kill me, well guess again. How about I illuminate you on the power of alicorns?"
A slow light appeared before Magicon. It started out dull but quickly grew to a blinding solar light. He covered his eyes to hide himself from the sunlight, and when he opened them again Princess Celestia was standing directly before him.
"No! You can't be real!"
"Oh, but I am."
"No, you'renot!"
"Would you care to see for yourself?" She extended her hoof out but Magicon swatted it away as if it were an insect.
"Look at what you've become. Look how low you have come."
"No…no…" he began clutching his sides trying to stabilize himself from total collapse. "This…isn't possible…I killed you. Killed you!"
"Could you say that in a coherent sentence? After all, didn't I train you better than to speak gibberish?"
"I killed you!" he yelled with everything in his voice and then collapsed to the floor, hysterically sobbing from Celestia's image directly in front of him.
But there was no Celestia there. Instead, another alicorn had been in her place, with two unicorns watching silently from the side. While Magicon hysterically sobbed and covered his face, Cadance walked over to Twilight and Rarity, an emotionless expression on her face.
"Good job, Cadance," compliment Rarity in a whisper.
"I can't believe I did it," she mumbled as she began using her magic to remove the Celestia disguise.
"Twilight, how are you holding up?"
"I'm trying not to watch Cadance," she mumbled.
Cadance, now fully removed of her disguise, put a hoof on Twilight's shoulder. "Twilight, you can't keep beating yourself up about what happened. It was tragic, I know. But it's in the past. We can't change it, but what we can do is bring the pony who did it to justice."
"Speaking of justice, are we done with the plan yet?" Rarity asked.
"Almost. There's just one simple thing left that has to be done," Twilight answered. She began walking towards the sobbing unicorn in the center of the room.
"Be careful, Twilight," warned Cadance as Twilight simply put a hoof on Magicon's shoulder and teleported them both out of the room. Magicon never felt it.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Magicon was disturbed by a solid hoof touching his soldier. He didn't know if it was real or imaginary; he had just seen Celestia which practically brought him to the edge of total collapse. He had seen his mother in his dreams, Luna is his dreams or in real life, he couldn't tell, but Celestia? He had never expected to see her so clearly. He thought she would have nothing to say. Celestia was not the type of pony to come back to things. Once they happened, they were done. Then why did she come and why hadn't she extracted revenge? Magicon was baffled.
Either way he raised his head and, through his wet eyes, saw a purple figure standing before him. They were in the entrance hall of the palace; Magicon could see light streaming in from the large windows, collecting around the pony before him.
"Hi, Magicon," greeted Twilight.
"Twi…Twilight Sparkle?"
"Correct. How do you like your day so far?"
"What…uh…what do you mean?"
"I mean Applejack's electrocution, Fluttershy's drugs, Pinkie's surprise, Rainbow's attack, and Rarity and Cadance's deceptuion."
"What?" he asked half-confused, half-enraged at learning the truth.
"Come now, Magicon, you're a smart unicorn, why don't you just pull the pieces together."
"I…I…" he was lost in his own thoughts which seemed to betray him.
"This is all a dream; none of this is real. But she just said that I was drugged; this could be the effects of the drugs. But she could be lying. But she couldn't be. How do I know?"
"How do I know?"
"How do you know what?" Twilight asked.
"How did you hear that?"
"I heard you say it."
"What? That's not possible."
"Was that supposed to be an inner thought?"
"That's none of your business."
"I'll take that as a yes."
"You're hearing my thoughts!"
"You're speaking them."
"No, I'm not!"
"You clearly are not well, Magicon. Allow me to help you."
"Stay away from me!" he scrambled up and backed away from Twilight.
"Magicon, what's wrong?"
"She's after me! She put you up to this!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Princess Celestia! She's back!"
"Magicon, Princess Celestia is dead."
"No, she's alive! I thought I killed her, but that it turns out that she's still alive!"
"You killed Princess Celestia?"
"Yes! I killed Princess Celestia and would do it again!" he yelled.
Just then Magicon felt a sharp pain in his head. He put a hoof to his head and began messaging it. The pain only lasted a few seconds before it disappeared. Opening his eyes, Magicon no longer saw a blurry vision. In fact he saw Twilight, clear as day, standing over him, her horn dying down from some sort of spell. But it wasn't Twilight that sent the coldest shiver down his spine; it was seeing her other friends, Cadance, Shining Armor, and the Royal Guard glaring at him.
"What…what did you do to me?" he asked as he felt his senses return to him. The effects of the drugs had suddenly disappeared, thanks to Twilight's spell.
"We weakened you."
"What is the meaning of this?"
"I call it a coup," answered Shining as he walked up next to his sister. Magicon was speechless as he saw the escaped unicorn before him.
"How-"
"Because you underestimated my sister's power and skill, that's how."
"And I see you guys went right to your friends."
"Because you tried to control them," answered Twilight angrily. "Look at what you've done. Look at how much hurt and pain you've caused."
"I did it for Equestria."
"No, you didn't! You did it for yourself! You wanted an unquestioned rule and you wanted to control everything and everypony! When that didn't happen, you attempted to remove the problem and you failed!"
"No, I succeeded! You're all traitors and you will all die!"
He sent a huge blast of magic at the floor in front of all of the ponies. Dust and chunks of marble flew into the air as the group covered themselves from the debris. He was shocked to see his magic return to him and with such a force. He didn't expect it to work, much less at such a great power. As smoke rose from the blast, Magicon ran.
"This isn't a dream! It's all real! They're trying to overthrow me! They're going to kill me! I won't have it! But I can't fight them like this. The Royal Guard will be killed for this and so will the rest of those ponies. I will see to that."
He kept running, unsure if they were pursing him. He didn't look back to check. He knew he couldn't beat that many; but he had something they didn't. They may have uncovered the truth, but they hadn't uncovered his darkest secrets. Red-Blood's book would contain spells and hexes that would equip him for this fight.
Running into his room, he slammed and locked the door, and ran over to his bookshelf. Amazingly, the book was still there and he grabbed it, threw it on his bed, and tore through the pages looking for spells and charms that would help him.
He knew he didn't have much time and he scanned page after page looking for spells.
"No, no, no! These are shit! Sleeping death, no! Torture takes too long! I need help!"
"Thou shall receive it," said a deep voice emulating from the book.
"Red-Blood?"
"That is correct, Magicon."
"You will help me?"
"That I shall, but only because thou hath an apprentice to train."
"Yes, but-"
"Thou shall teach her these ways and finish my plan. That is thee's soul mission."
Magicon was silent for a few moments. He knew what Red-Blood was asking him to do, but he had little desire to do it. Finding and teaching his apprentice was important, but so was ruling Equestria. He had enjoyed his time as the Prince and now here was the ancient master telling him it couldn't do it anymore. Here was his choice; Rule Equestria or finish his masters work. He had loved ending Celestia's and Luna's reign; but he loved ruling Equestria too. Which one did he love more?
Summoning up whatever courage he had left, he took a deep breath and made his decision.
"No, Red-Blood."
"Pardon?"
"I said 'no'. I'm retaining my title and position as the Prince of Equestria. I've worked too hard to just give it up."
"Thou are a traitor to my cause."
"Did I not kill Celestia and Luna in your name?"
"Thou was never instructed to anyway."
"What are you talking about?"
The book flipped to a page titled Mission: 18. It contained instructions and directions detailing the search for alicorn blood in normal ponies.
"That was thou's mission. Thou was supposed to find any alicorn blood outside of the princess's. Look at what thou hast done instead!"
A page turned and there were Missions 19 and 20 written in Magicon's hoof-writing, both stating they were successful.
"What was I supposed to do? Luna had returned and now it was time to kill them before they became too powerful and cemented in Equestria."
"They were already. It wasn't thou's concern to begin with. Thou was supposed to find alicorn blood and thou not only disobeyed me once, but twice. Thou are no follower of mine!"
The book slammed shut and locked itself. Magicon was shocked by Red-Blood's betrayal and desperately tried to open it, both magically and physically. He shook it, banged it, rattled it, and cast spells on it. Yet, it would not respond. It was no longer his. He had been cast out, his work forgotten. They were supposed to celebrate him; congratulate him on his work. But instead, Red-Blood cast him out as a traitor.
In frustration, Magicon threw the book aside and began preparing for the fight ahead of him. He heard hoofsteps approaching and the sounds of banging on the door. In less than a minute they would be flooding the room. Magicon couldn't take on that many ponies; he had to even the odds.
Casting a vision spell that allowed him to see what was going on in the hall Magicon saw the numerous Royal Guards banging against the door while the group of eight, stood right behind them.
"Oh, this is too easy," he said as he finished the spell, approached the banging door, and prepared one of his favorite enemy spells that he still remembered.
He charged his horn, the dark lavender once again flowing through him. He had never used the spell, but he had copied down in dictation from the book. The dictation worked, for the spell became cemented in his mind and ass he summoned his power, he remembered the spell and its complexities without missing a single step. He waited; listening carefully to sound of hinges weakening and wood bending under the combined pressure of the guards outside.
Then the door broke and the guards pushed it aside and Magicon wasted now time. He let out his spell with a large yell. His horn charged to life as electric lightning bolts shot out from his horn, impaling the guards and the ones standing behind the front lines. They vibrated violently for a few seconds, screaming in pain before collapsing to the floor. The electric bolts jumped to other guards, impaling and electrocuting them.
Within seconds only the group of eight remained standing while the Royal Guard either lay dead or unconscious from the shear charge and power of the electricity.
The group was horrified by the scene. Fluttershy hid herself behind them and Rainbow twitched uncontrollably. Rarity hid her eyes amongst Cadance's wings who hid herself in her husband's mane. Shining watched the scene with pure sadness and regret. Applejack stood tall and resolute, already hardened by her earlier experience with electrocution. Pinkie remained oblivious, simply jumping around the group. Twilight stared at the group with a saddened face. It was sad, but she realized now wasn't the time for mourning; these soldiers knew what they were getting into when they agreed to help. Now, they were no longer suffering under Magicon's wrath.
"Come on, we have no time to lose," she ordered and ran into the room with the rest of the group in tow.
Magicon was standing in the center of the room, glaring at them, his horn at the ready.
"You didn't think I would actually kill my own guards? Ha! I've hurt them and had no trouble in killing them! They were all traitors anyway. They deserved it."
"You are a heartless bastard," Twilight hissed.
"Yes, I am and now you will all die!"
He cast a black sphere of dark energy directly at the group. Twilight's and Shining Armor's horns glowed and cast their defensive spell that dispersed the sphere. Shining then threw his own paralysis spell at Magicon who jumped and dodged it.
Rainbow had already taken to the air and charged directly at him and knocked him clean out of the air as he jumped. Magicon landed on the floor with a loud thud as Applejack ran up to him and attempted to throw punches and bucks which he dodged and blasted her away. Pinkie broke Applejack's fall with physics-defying speed.
Rainbow continued to dive towards him as Shining threw spells at him. Magicon jumped, curved, and did his best to dodge them with his own spells and physical skills. Twilight made quick teleportation spells, trying to block him in his runs or try to divert him into the path of Shining's spells.
Magicon quickly realized that he was just simply outmatched for them. Eight against one wasn't fair, even with three of them not even fighting. Cadance, Rarity, and Fluttershy stood by the doorway, ready to jump into action in case of the worst. He decided to even the odds in his favor.
Jumping and diving under his bed Magicon easily cast a fire spell that set the bed and floor aflame. This wasn't just a simple fire, it spread faster than any other and its fumes were unbearable.
Magicon crawled out of the bed to see everything in his room suddenly ablaze and the group of attackers, suddenly separated, trying to fight the flames.
Shining and Twilight attempted to dissipate the flames and the smoke by casting spells that had little effect on them. Pinkie managed to jump between the flames to safe spots until she reached where Cadance, Fluttershy, and Rarity were standing in the doorway. Applejack did her best to fan the flames with her hat and was thankful that Rainbow came to her rescue. She grabbed her and both of them crashed into the group in the doorway, landing out into the hallway.
Magicon then quickly restored the door to its original position, slammed it shut and sealed it, leaving only the two ponies in the room with him. The fire refused to touch him, but the same could not be said for the other two. Panicking, Shining and Twilight did whatever they could to prevent the flames from searing their hair and burning them alive.
Magicon simply watched as a malicious smile grew on is face.
"I hope you two enjoy four final moments together. Funny really, brother and sister get to be together one last time before the end. And when you're both dead, I'm going to make your friends suffer like they never suffered before. Oh and Shining, saw goodbye to your wife forever!"
With those final words Magicon teleported out of the room, ready for the next group of ponies. The two unicorns looked at each other, and the flames, completely scared. It wasn't just that fact that they might die here; it was also the fate Magicon had planned for the rest of their friends.
"Shining, what do we do?"
"Keep fighting!"
"This fire won't go out!"
"It's dark magic. Use light magic. It's the only thing that might work."
They both cast bright spells of white light that only seemed to stop the fire from advancing.
"Shining, it's too powerful! I can't do it!"
"Wait, I have an idea! Cast an energy spell on me. Divert your magic to me and I'll cast a spell of my own to douse the flames."
"Can't we just teleport?"
"I already tried. Just do what I'm asking!"
"But, Shining-"
"Do it now!"
"Okay," she answered relcuntatly. She threw her magic in an energy spell directly at Shining. It hit him square in the chest and he took it all in and cast the brightest light he could from his horn. The fire reacted quickly, dispersing and retreating from the pure light magic.
Within seconds the room was devoid of any flames and the two unicorns ran over to teach other and hugged. Everything in the room had been destroyed, except for the book which lay in the center of the room, untouched.
They both looked at it and shook their heads.
"We'll be back for it," Twilight said.
"Then let's go. We've got a unicorn to catch. There's no time to lose."