//------------------------------// // Chapter 22 - Losing Control // Story: The Darkness among the Stars // by Haseo //------------------------------// Chapter 22 Losing Control Breathless, everypony observed Soul. He just stood there for seconds without moving, only watching them. They just had blinked, only for a fraction of a second. Soul disappeared from his high position and stood between the two fronts. His eyes didn't meet any of them. He just stared in a whole different direction. Applejack almost instantly tried to reach him, but Princess Celestia held her back with help of her big hoof. The Princess didn't dare to take her eyes off Soul, though she knew even if she was looking he could crush them before she could do anything effective. Radiant Flare's eyes ripped open in ecstasy. A glorious laughter thundered through the Colosseum. “So it was true after all! You really returned. So, will you take your revenge for what they did?” Soul didn't turn his head significantly, only his eyes wandered further to the left side where the Princesses and the girls were standing. His eye was mirrored inside the gem that laid around Rainbow Dash's necklace. “Tell me why I should take revenge at them, when their darker sides are standing right next to me. It was you that killed her, that took my future with her. So tell me. Why shouldn't I kill both of you right away?” Radiant Flare and Nightmare Moon backed off several steps when they realized that he had a valid point. After all, they were responsible for the murder, at least Radiant Flare was. “We are only parted beings. When we made this decision both of us agreed. It wasn't one alone. She is as guilty as I am, and I've already suffered for a thousand years!” Soul turned his head a little bit more and faced now, Princess Luna directly. “And now your statement.” Princess Luna didn't seem to be afraid. With confidence she took a step forward, she wasn't afraid or nervous at all. “I don't think you will attack any of us. I have four poofs for my theory. The first one is that they are both rather surprised about you, so after all you have nothing to do with their revival. The second reason is that you are holding the layfeeder at bay with your magic. It is almost not visible but your horn is faintly glowing. You are holding the complete army of them still with this little effort despite the fact that they absorb magic. The third is your appearance. If you really wanted to destroy us, your powers would be great enough to turn you into an alicorn. If you really wanted to take revenge, you would have taken that opportunity in your madness of seeking strength. Actually, I believe you refuse being an alicorn with every fabric of your body. And the fourth and final reason is that we are still alive.” Childish and foolish, Nightmare Moon jumped a few feet into Soul's direction. “What she is trying to say is that you're too chicken to...-” Before she could end her sentence, a thin wall made of a strange black matter stretched right next to her head, cutting through everything that crossed its path. If she had one of her wings extended it would had been neatly cut down. The black matter pierced through Cadence’s magical shield like it was nothing while it didn't make a sound at all. It was absolutely silent. When it faded, the sound of the world returned and the barrier closed itself quickly. Soul didn't look at Nightmare Moon at all, only his horn was still faintly glowing. “I can't remember giving you permission to speak.” Nightmare Moon shivered in shock. She lowered her head like she was bowing to him and slowly returned to the side of her sister, mumbling something into her own mane. “I will get my chance...” Radiant Flare didn't move at all. She just watched him, how he behaved and talked. While her sister got nearly killed, a small grin formed on her lips. The only pony that seemed to notice was Twilight. She didn't stare at Soul like the others. She observed the darker halves of her mentor and her mentor's sister. But to speak up now could cause terrible consequences. Soul turned to face all of them directly. Something about him seemed to be odd, even more than usual. It was something in his eyes. They lacked of his usual confidence and determination. It seemed like something dark was in his eyes, literally. From the distance it looked like small tendrils were in his eyes reaching for it's centre. Every time they touched his iris, it turned red for a short moment. The same red that coloured the stars that surrounded Luna's moon right before Nightmare Moon and Radiant Flare had returned. His eyes closed her a moment. He turned around and proceeded to walk in front of Radiant Flare and Nightmare Moon. “I will give you two options and you are free to choose one of them. Either you choose to go back to your exile inside the void between time and space and exist there or you choose to die here. It's up to you.” Soul offered them the choice between suffering in all eternity and dying on the spot. It was so heartless but what would somepony expect from somepony that had fought in war. Radiant Flare hesitated for a moment before she respond to him. She was obviously up to something. “I really appreciate your offer but I'm afraid I have to decline.” The ears of the Princesses perked up by this answer. They were curious to see what will happen now. Soul's facial expression changed from relaxed and collected to angry and aggressive. “How dare you!...-” He was cut off mid-sentence when Nightmare Moon and Radiant Flare crossed their horns and released a huge amount of magic. A bright blue beam soared through the air, aiming for Soul's horn. It's speed and power was incredible. Just mere seconds before it would hit him, the Elements began to glow brightly. A spark of magic escaped every single of them and formed some kind of sphere around Soul that wrapped him completely in light. Soul's view became blurred the brightness of the light blinded him. “Argh, not again!” But something seemed to move in the distance. It was the silhouette of a unicorn mare with a wavy mane. “Sweetheart? Can you finally hear me?” No words could leave his lungs when he realized who was talking to him. It was Harmony, his very Harmony. A sweet little giggle rang through his ears, the tension inside of him immediately falling. The sound of her pretty voice calmed him down. “Looks like you can. Listen, we don't have much time. I've led your way back for a purpose. I've died for a better good but even now I can't purge the last evil. It's the evil inside of you, that you had banished deep down in your heart a long time ago.” Soul stuttered a few sentence fragments before he said something understandable. “Wait, how do you know?” The silhouette slowly faded along with the bright light. Through the light burned in his eyes, he still looked at her. “Stop! Don't leave me! Will there ever be a chance to see you again?” The sweet voice turned into quiet sobbing. “When all this is ending. We will see each other again, my love. But please remember, never let your friends down. Protect them like you always protected me.” Soul ran towards the the fading silhouette, but with a cracking sound the barrier in front of him burst and released him into the real world again. Nightmare Moon and Radiant Flare hissed in annoyance. “So not even a combined Solar Flare and Lunar Ray can harm him while the Elements are around? How annoying. That little nuisance always had interfered with our plans.” In the same moment as the barrier broke, the magic that held the Layfeeder still was lifted. Several of them jumped down into the battlefield and surrounded them. From the white cone where the barrier stood only moments ago escaped a dark pulse. It let everypony shiver. Two big red eyes pierced through the pure light. The air began to tremble, like the air pressure was increased thousandfold. It was hard to breath or even to maintain consciousness. Something that seemed to resemble ashes began to appear from thin air and formed themselves into the shape of a pony. But not some random pony, they were the Royal Guards, with a quite confused look on their faces. The cone of light finally faded and revealed Soul again. His eyes had turned red and dragon-like again. Little black flames jumped over his body. “I brought your guards here, I think they are more useful here than in their quarters, waiting to get an order that will never reach them.” One of the guards hovered slowly to the ground. Twilight's heart made a huge jump. This guard was her guard. It was Phalanx. “Phalanx! I have never been so happy to see you!” The lavender unicorn jumped forward and pulled him into a bone-crushing hug. The pegasus struggled free of the embrace and looked into Twilight’s eyes. “You can't even imagine how happy I am to see you. I lost track of the enemy, and I just felt like something passed through me and then I found myself in some sort of a dark room. There was absolutely nothing. I was never so afraid in my whole life. I thought I would never see you again again!” Twilight hugged him once again for a short moment before she released him to join the other guards.”Be careful, please. I don't want to lose you again.” Phalanx nodded quickly with a confident smile and took off in the air. The guards were clearly at a disadvantage, the layfeeder outnumbering them by far. But none of them seemed to lose hope. They took arms and waited for the order to attack. The air pressure finally decreased again and Soul's voice rang through the entire arena and a little stream of tears flew down his cheeks. “As last survivor and Captain of the Nightmare Legion, I, Black Terror, order the Royal Guard to defend the Princesses and the Elements of Harmony at any cost, even if that means death while I'm fighting off these fools.” After his final word, it didn't even take a second for him to turn around and jump into the direction of his enemies. After all, they are winged ponies, so they didn't have any real reason to dodge him. But something was odd, again when Soul had spoken and declared them as their enemies, Radiant Flare had nodded to Nightmare Moon, like they were plotting something. Twilight couldn't think of a reason why they are acting so oddly. In the moment Soul had charged, the layfeeder made their move as well and attacked the defending Royal Guards. The creatures were unarmed, brandishing their razor sharp teeth and claws. The guards didn't even have a second to think about the order that Soul had given them. They just followed his orders. The sound of sharp metal being pierced into some flesh like matter filled the majority of the sound scenery. The Princesses used their magic primarily to tend the wounds of their soldiers and to take out single individuals to make sure that the Elements were safe. The main battle took place a few feet above them. Soul grew himself into that wicked looking being with draconian wings and followed the evil sisters through the air. But he held constant eye-contact with the events that took place on the ground. His speed was incredible, they only barely managed to dodge his attacks. Soul didn't used his magic to attack them, he wanted to strike them with his self-grown claws. His body was now fully engulfed in black flames that only waited to carbonize their flesh. While one of them dodge his strokes, the other talked to him. Nightmare Moon seemed to be either very brave or amazingly foolish. “What happened to you, my dear student? You were such a marvellous warrior, the perfect killer. Until this little brat came into your life! She had changed you, she had corrupted your mind!” The intensity of the flames that covered his body increased in an insane rate. His anger was driving more and more power into his body. With every second he got stronger and faster. Radiant Flare joined in and continued to taunt him. “You still think that she really loved you? You are such a fool! She was afraid of you! She was afraid of what you would do to her if she denied herself to you.” Soul finally caught up with Nightmare Moon and pushed her into the wall of the Colosseum. A painful squeak escaped from her lungs. Stones that were broken loose from the impact fell down and killed several layfeeder. “STOP IT!” His wings had grown in their length and the layer of fire that engulfed him became thicker. With a mighty wing flap he tossed himself from the wall and charged at Radiant Flare. His claws pierced through her body without resistance. But instead of blood, bright flames escaped from her innards. Soul's eyes widened in shock. “A replica?” Above him Radiant Flare and Nightmare Moon reformed again. On Nightmare Moon's skin were still traces of dust and little stones. They put their horns together again and blasted a pulse made of red and dark blue light at him, that found it's target perfectly between his artificial wings. Before he hit the ground he straightened his wings and elevated into the air again. Twilight followed the fight from the ground. She and Rarity were unable to use their magic in presence of so many layfeeder. Even the Princesses were struggling, their magic wouldn’t last for long. The guards that circled them to provide optimal protection were constantly besieged from these beings. They formed a massive wall where no gazes could go through. Fragments of flames dripped down on them. Soul had grown himself a long dragon-tail with a spiked end. He swirled his tail around and aimed for the dark Princesses. They tried hard to dodge him, but they had barely time to materialize properly. His form resembled more and more a mix of dragon and pony. It was odd and familiar at the same time. His red eyes focused only on his targets, slowly but steadily he was losing control over his own power. It was changing his mind, it didn't let any positive thoughts exist. Radiant Flare started once again to taunt, snickering with her tongue and spitting in his direction. “Oww, how cute! You really didn't know? Why do you think your so called best friend Star Swirl never had a filly friend? Because he and Harmony met each other in secret! Ohh and believe me, they had fun together.” Her wicked laugh rang through his ears. A terrible roar sounded through the arena. His pain and sorrow took the upper hand above his emotions. Finally, he took the form that he embodied when he met Twilight for the very first time in his prison, or better, in the ancient Equestria. Twilight looked from the ground to the terrible monster that fought in the sky for their sake. With a little bit of disgust, her eyes went down through the front lines. “Why are they trying to push him to the ground?” It was only a glimpse, but Twilight thought that she had seen something strange behind them. “Princess, please lift me up for a second!” Princess Celestia looked from the corner of her eyes at her student and nodded quickly. Twilight got engulfed by her golden magical aura and was lifted into the air. Finally, she could see what was hiding behind the massive wall of enemies that threatened to crush them. “What are these things?” The wall of enemies was only three or four feet thick, the rest of them were dispersed in nine different positions equally around the circular arena. They were moving some big and lustrous crystal-like gems into position and drew suspicious signs around them. Twilight tried hard to concentrate and identify the weird signs. Her eyes widened when she realized what these signs were supposed to be. The runes were arranged in a circular manner around the crystals. They were written in some kind of magic circle, as soon as they were fully drawn, the crystals began to glimmer for a short moment. She cringed in fear when she saw what the crystals were capable of. The layfeeder that had constructed them, screamed in agony while the crystals build a magical connection to them, sucking their lives away. In pain they struggled on the ground with their lives. But their suffering didn't lasted for long. Their movements became quickly slower. They became tired until they halted completely. The black matter which built their body dissolved and vanished without a trace. Twilight began to panic and she moved her hooves wildly around in order to move away from that awful scene. “Princess! Please let me down!” Princess Celestia put Twilight gently on the ground again, her knees shaking. Between heavy breaths of exhaustion she managed to speak. “What did you see, Twilight?” Twilight panted heavily with fear in her eyes as she stared at her mentor. “They are constructing a trap. I think they are plotting to kill Soul!” Princess Luna spun around with tears in her eyes. The constant usage of magic around the layfeeder must have been beyond painful. She had tears in her eyes, but Twilight wasn't sure if the tears were product of the pain or the possible assassination of her former student. “Don't say something like that! Until now they weren't even sure that he was back as well! Why should they want to kill him?” Princess Celestia's eyes already began to lose their shine, her power coming close to its limit. “It is because he is the only real threat to them. His power is different from ours. You and I are part of something whole, so the power is split between us. But the moment Soul took Star Swirl’s power he became absolute. He became more powerful than we could ever dream of, and Radiant Flare and Nightmare Moon are well aware of that fact.” Princess Luna's single tears formed into a stream and dripped freely on the ground. “Sister, I never told you, but I think time and space aren't the only aspects that he mastered. I believe he tamed chaos as well, when he defeated Discord.” Princess Celestia's eyes widened in shock as a terrible thought ran through her mind. “That could mean that they aren't up to kill him... they want his power!” The gears in Twilight's mind finally clicked together, everything making sense now. “This is the reason they are provoking him! They want to capture his abilities at the peak of his power! We have to warn him!” In the same moment as Twilight finally understood the plans of the dark Princesses, black rain began to drop from the sky. They eyes wandered upwards as a terrible scream of insanity shook through the Colosseum. Radiant Flare and Nightmare Moon circled now around Soul. “Now you are getting it! The pony that you valued the most hated you! Everything you believed in was wrong and everypony that you adored died a thousand years ago! And we will kill everypony that means something to you in this time period! It doesn't matter how you will turn! In the end you are always alone!” Soul wrapped his claws around his head and cringed in pain. The flames that built the layer around his body began to rampage. His form became unstable and deformed into an indefinable mix out of various life forms. The only thing that held continuity was the ear-splitting scream of agony that he ejected. It froze the blood inside a pony's veins. The black rain erupted from him while the flames acted crazy. The last glimpse of a pony's healthy mind vanished in his eyes and revealed the beast that had slept such a long time, deeply buried in his heart. The dark Princesses still circled his paralysed form and found satisfaction from his suffering. Their wicked laughter drowned every other sound. A loud explosion ripped the sounds apart and the laughter come to an abrupt end. The cringing form of Soul expand in its mass and darkened everything above them under the top of Cadence's shield. One of the guards in the circular defence of the Princesses only hesitated for a moment after the sudden blast and lost his balance. A layfeeder overpowered him and they managed to enter the safe zone between them and the Princesses. They had torn most of the guards apart. Only a few were left to defend them. The circle became closer but it still was enough space to stand against them for the moment. The situation was becoming more and more dangerous with every passing second. Radiant Flare appeared protective in front of her younger sister and looked with determination inside the black void that seemed to expand even more. “We have only one chance to release him, sister.”