//------------------------------// // Chapter 23 - The absolute Chaos // Story: The Darkness among the Stars // by Haseo //------------------------------// Chapter 23 The absolute Chaos The literal darkness overthrew the upper area while black rain dropped from the sky. The rain felt like acid on the skin, itching and burning slightly on a pony’s coat. But it seemed like it was more hazardous for these Leyfeeder. Black smoke rose from their bodies. They screamed in pain but never stopped attacking the last defensive line. The shield that Princess Cadence had formed over the Colosseum began to crack from the immense pressure inside. The darkness formed, bit by bit, into a new being. It had grown giant draconian wings and sharp claws. This surpassed everything that they had seen before. He was still smaller than the dragon that polluted the air in Ponyville before, but the magical aura that flowed from the inside was the most terrifying feeling, far beyond a pony’s imagination. Finally, the dark matter seemed to develop a consciousness. His eyes ripped open and revealed a shining red orb with a huge slit in its centre. They were searching for an enemy… or better... for a victim. But something was different than before. His body seemed to be more solid and even some sort of scales were visible. Even the horn remained on his head. It almost seemed like he tried to bind this body to his own, or more like he tried to make this artificial body to his own. His eyes halted upon Nightmare Moon and Radiant Flare. He forced his whole body to straighten and pushed with his back against the shield. Everything else would have been thrown back but he simply passed through the shield and caused it to shatter into a million tiny shards. He bawled a terrible roar that let the blood inside a pony's veins freeze. It embodied everything dark on the world, endless Pain and suffering expressed in one single scream. A huge magical circle appeared above the Colosseum, sharing the same colour as Soul's new artificial body. Princess Luna's eyes widened in shock. “This symbols! Star Swirl and Soul had talked many times about it! But this can't be. There is no possibility that even the aspect of time and space together could perform this spell!” The magical pressure forced the weakened Princesses to the knees. Princess Celestia looked at her younger sister in shock but couldn't bring a single word out. Twilight looked confusedly from one Princess to another. Her ears neatly pressed to her head. “What do you mean that there is no possibility? What is this spell? What is happening?” She yelled desperately with watery eyes. Princess Luna bit on her lip until a tiny drop of blood flew down her chin. “This spell was only a mind-game of theirs. The amount of magic that would be required for this spell even exceed the capabilities of Celestia and me together.” The Elements looked at her with curiosity in their eyes. What could possibly even be too hard for a princess to perform? Luna gulped heavily before she could continue. “This spell was designed to part time and space permanently. It would cause the downfall of everything we know. Existence would cease. This entire world and universe would cease. Nothing would be left.” Twilight looked at her mentor, stunned by the shock. “Why would anypony do something like this? This is insane! This can't be.” Princess Celestia extended her hoof to stroke over Twilight's head. “I'm sorry my faithful student. I disappointed you, your friends, and the entire population of Equestria. I'm afraid to admit that my sister speaks the truth. The spell is loosening up the fabric of time. The damage done by now will bring down Equestria sooner or later. We had the idea for this spell when we thought about a situation when he would die for sure and would take this world with us. It was a foolish and reckless thought. I regret that I've ever approved something like that, even when it was only theoretical possible to that time.” Princess Luna looked up in the sky and stared at her former student, he was like a son to her. “Watch him carefully Twilight Sparkle. Soul has given into his madness. This is what happens to you if you gain too much power too fast. It corrupts you and makes you turn against your family and friends. I'm glad that this fate will never be yours now.” Before Twilight could answer, a bright light shined behind the endless lines of Layfeeder. The light blinded them despite it's distance. It seemed like its sources were the crystals that the Leyfeeder had constructed. A stuttered and audibly exhausted voice exclaimed, issuing an order that belonged to the brighter one of the dark princesses. “Sister! Now!” Prismatic chains shot up to the sky from the crystals, winding themselves around Soul's body. They bound his jaws together and tied his wings, making him unable to fly. The massive dragon body fell to the ground right in the centre of the nine crystals. More chains appeared and held him tight to the ground. Violently, he tried to escape but with no success. The magic circle in the sky had broken, Radiant Flare and Nightmare Moon now circling Soul in the air. Their horns lit up with the intensity of the sun itself. They were trying hard to channel every bit of magic they possessed into this spell. Soul roared up in pain. The chains tightened around his body. The crystals shined even brighter than before and began to pull the chains back. The pressure around Soul's body must have been followed by unbearable pain. The chains cut inside his flesh until they reached the pony in its core. The skin of darkness bursted and revealed the stallion inside again. That was the moment, everypony knew what was going on. It seemed like there were two Souls standing inside each other. Both of them had slightly different colours. The first one was a mix of black and white that swirled around each other calmly in perfect harmony. The second was a mix of black and a blood red that raged against each other, fighting for the upper hand. Princess Luna had to watch her student suffer. Tiny tears began to drop on the ground. A thousand years had passed but she still loved her student like a son. “Soul! Fight against it! I know you can! You have experienced so many hardships in your live, but you always turned out as winner!” A twin laughter sounded from above. Both dark Princesses talked in perfect unison. “It's useless! This is a recreation of his very own spell! There is no way out for him!” Princess Luna bit her tortured lip again, her sister leaned carefully to her. “We can't do anything, sister. They fully synchronized their magic. It’s like they’re one single mind. They are too powerful. I'm so sorry.” Twilight looked around to find a point of reassurance, for Phalanx. But it was like he disappeared into thin air. She looked behind, the only thing she saw was her friends shivering in fear and her mentor that held her sister in an caring embrace. The only exception was Applejack. She watched between the Leyfeeder while Soul was literally torn apart. Her gaze was stoic and without any emotions, she only waited for what would happen. Twilight followed her gaze and stared at Soul's dying body. The two parts almost didn't touch each other any more. While the black and white part suffered in silence, the other black and red part screamed like a monster that was willing to kill. It was an awful sound, the type of sound that would wake the deepest sleeper or even a coma patient. Twilight sank to the ground and covered her face with her hooves. The end was near, the seemingly strongest stallion in pony history was about to die. The darker halves of the Princesses were trying to conquer the world or something. But that didn't even matter because Soul had damaged the fabric of reality in his rage, so the world would cease for sure. And on top, the stallion she liked seemed to be lost and most likely dead. The only thing positive was the familiar voice that rang from behind her. “Shiny! Now!” The lavender unicorn took away the barricade in front of her eyes and spun around to see her sister in law with extended wings and a brightly ignited horn. She build up a another much smaller shield, barely big enough to cover them from the threat. Twilight heard something soaring around the crystals. One more time she turned around. Her mouth fell agape. Shining Armor and Asad appeared with a bright flash of light above two different crystals. Their horns ignited in such an intense light that even the sun herself could be jealous of them. Asad formed out of his own shadow a claw and buried it deep into the sparkling crystal. Tiny cracks ran from the impact. Shining Armor casted his Crystal Knight upon himself and soared down with incredible speed. With a crystal spear in his hoof, he tried to destroy another crystal. The spear dug deep.. From the inside of both crystals flowed a huge amount of magical energy. Shining and Asad led go of their weapons and jumped a few feet away, only to disappear again in a bright pink flash and reappear inside the forcefield along with another pegasus. The three Princesses used their magic to maintain the shield together. Shining and Asad panted heavily, their eyes spinning around in dizziness. In presence of these Leyfeeder they had to use an amazing amount of magic. Twilight beamed with relief at Phalanx. She approached him with huge jumps and hugged him tightly. “Where have you been? I was worried about you. I told you that you weren't allowed to do stupid things!” Phalanx blushed while the mare squeezed him. “I noticed that the situation was getting worse when the barrier broke, so I decided to alert Captain Shining Armor and do something about the situation, to save you.” Twilight blushed and let go of the pegasus. As awkward as this situation might be, they got distracted from a rapidly repeating cracking noise. The two chains which origins were the crystals that Asad and Shining had attacked were coloured with a strange sapphire-blue aura. The dark Princesses above seemed to struggle. Their flight became more unstable, their synchronization became inaccurate. Radiant Flare narrowed her eyes and tried as hard as she could to concentrate. “This is impossible! A mortal can't possibly push back against such a spell.” The aura followed the chains until they reached the crystals themselves. The crystals colour changed to a light blue and an intense shade of this very colour shined from the cracks. They widened every second. Both chains were connected to the black and white version of Soul. He stood there and didn't moved an inch anymore. He stood still and seemed to be concentrating with closed eyes while the other part tried to get away as far as it could. It was only a short moment, but in the second he ripped his eyes open the crystals finally snapped and shattered into a thousand pieces. The remaining crystals shined brighter and crumbled under the massive magical burden upon them. A blueish pillar of energy shot into the sky and swallowed both parts of Soul completely. The Princesses could clearly feel the magical pressure upon their shield. They gasped in surprise about its weight. The dust got whirled up from the outburst and denied any view on the current happenings. As the pillar of light faded, the sound of ponies dropping from the sky could be heard. They touched gently the ground and folded their wings. They closed their eyes to improve their ability to hear a tiny bit. They listened carefully for any sign of a movement inside the dust cloud. The sound of hooves clopping at the ground was audible. The sound of one pony. Two ponies. Three ponies. Four ponies? Slowly the dust withdrew and revealed the first of them. Soul had returned to his usual solid self. He looked extremely exhausted with slightly shaking knees and sweat pouring down his body. But he didn't turn around. He just stared into the dust. Applejack screamed out loud in relief and hugged Shining firmly for his action. But Twilight noticed that something had changed. The weird feel that she received around Soul was still there but it didn't rise from Soul himself. The feeling's source was somewhere further away, in the centre of the dust. The dust settled more and more and revealed the snouts of Radiant Flare and Nightmare Moon. They were staring at them with a sinister grin upon their faces. It was the grin of a winner. The breath of the ponies was heard as the dust finally completely ceased. Between the dark princesses and behind them stood a fourth pony. He looked almost like the exact replica of Soul. There were only two major differences. First of all, they didn't share the same eyes. Soul's eyes were calm and caring fine blue orbs but the eyes of that imposter were the eyes of a monster in which turned before. The second was the colouring of his coat. Soul's coat remained the same as before but the coat of his replica was different. Red tribal stripes extended from his chest and covered his whole body. The stripes seemed to pulse along with his heartbeat. From his sharp teeth dropped his spit. He looked Soul directly into his eyes. Soul didn't move nor breathed visibly despite his condition. “Tell me your name.” The creature in front of him snickered with his tongue and hissed his response. “I'm the sin, and the temptation, and the desire, and the pain, and the loss. I've had many names in history. They called me Death, Drought, Famine, Disease or simply, Chaos. Everything bad on this world was connected to me. I'm the madness and the insanity inside everypony’s mind. You should be familiar with my previous name and host. But especially for you I will choose a new name. Call me Lunacy!” A terrible laughter rang through the arena. Twilight pushed her hooves against the barrier and yelled with everything she had. “Who are you! Tell me!” The laughter halted and Lunacy stretched out his tongue as far as be could. “DISCORD!” Twilight and her friends couldn't even think about a response to that. But the dark and calm voice of Soul lit up for the first time since Lunacy appeared. “He is the pony embodiment of Chaos itself. The essence that made Discord so evil and dangerous before he fought me. I separated this aspect of him and buried it unconsciously deep inside my heart. I just learned recently that he was in my mind and guided me. The deadly power that changed my body and formed it into this being was him along.” Lunacy tilted his head from one side to another but never lost focus of Soul. “Too bad that my plan had failed. I wanted to take everything from you, not only myself. But that crystal wearing unicorn and his shadow forming friend interfered. It would be so rich to see you as a mere earth pony without any magic and intelligence.” Soul flashed a cheeky grin to his counterpart. “I was always the stubborn type of pony, I suppose. So what are you plotting, my dear childhood companion.” The blood red stripes pulsed and Lunacy's eyes widened in an awkward way. He narrowed one but ripped the other wide open. “Isn't it obvious? I will end what I've begun centuries ago! These pretty little Princesses always stopped me from the total destruction of this wretched world! But now I'm pure and they are weak! Nopony can stop me now!” The dark ponies began to laugh fanatically. Their laughter merged with another to an awful frightening sound. The lips of the girls turned into a terrifying, sad frown. Only Soul's expression remained fearless. Lunacy screamed in ecstasy at Soul. “You know what the best part is? It is your fault! If you hadn't returned from your exile. I would never be able to re-enter this time.” Soul's eyes widened in surprise. “It wasn't your work that I returned?… I see...” Lunacy approached him slowly but halted when he stood a step in front of the dark princesses. “You have already ushered the doom of this world. So I will let you live, so you’ll be able to watch everypony suffer until they die.” Soul's gaze became stern and showed no mercy or kindness any more. “Why do you think that you can do what you want? I defeated you once when I was a little colt. Why shouldn't I be able to stop you now? I'm still able to control the aspect of time and space.” Radiant Flare and Nightmare Moon looked with worry to their master. But the master himself hadn’t really reacted at all. “We are the three strongest beings here, our power is absolute. We had planned every single detail. I've lived inside your mind for almost your entire life. Nopony can defeat us.” The grin of the sole time traveller widened even more. “I'm the specter of time, why do you assume I would even came here unprepared?” Princess Luna whispered to the ponies around her, only barely audible. “Concentrate together on the barrier. I know it is hard with these creatures around but you have to give everything into the barrier. Trust me!” Confused, they looked at the Princess of the Night but they nodded in agreement, igniting their unicorn horns and concentrating as hard as they could. Soul's horn illuminated in an insane blinding light. “You will cease together with your wicked army, you fools!” High above them, in the sky, nine stars that were arranged in a circular manner began to shine brightly. Again, the arena was filled with highly pressured magic. Princess Luna closed her eyes violently and screamed from the pain. “Now. Push everything into the barrier!” As soon as she finished her sentence, a multiple whistling tone sounded from above. The ponies under the barrier clustered together, only Asad looked at them with huge eyes and shied away. Rarity rolled with her eyes and pulled him to them. The stars shot down to earth, countless stars roaring down from the sky. They hit the ground with an insane speed. The impacts could be felt miles away through the ground. The stars formed of magic left nopony out. Merciless, they ceased every single one of the Leyfeeder. The ponies inside the barrier screamed desperately for their lives. They could feel every time a star hit the ground, hitting the massive amount of magic that flowed from within them. Impact for impact, they strained their magic to the limit until it was too much. The barrier broke and shattered leaving them without shelter from the raging stars. A star choose its path to the ground and decided upon the location of the Princesses and the Elements for its impact out. Princess Celestia looked upwards and caught sight of the blazing meteor. The moment she saw the star it had already hit the barrier. With every second, the meteor pushed harder against the barrier. Princess Cadence shivered from the intense pain that occurred from the pressure. “Why is the meteor simply pushing stronger the longer it touches the barrier?” Princess Luna supported her with her shoulder. “Since Soul had used this spell for the first time he developed it further. It was unusual that something could block this spell but from time to time some specific individuals were able to counter it. So he developed the ability to suck on their defence and break it. One of the deadliest spells ever was invented.” Twilight rolled her eyes. “Great, so we’re doomed...” When Twilight finished her sentence another magical source roamed up. The necklaces around the necks of the mares lit up and exuded their magic. It flew directly into the barrier and the meteor began to decrease in its size. Nevertheless, it pushed slowly inside the shield. Twilight struggled with her mind while she tried to concentrate. Her friends were using the Elements but they couldn’t unfold their full potential without her Element. She closed her eyes tight and searched inside her heart. “I don't want to let this end... I don't want my friends to die... The only thing I want … is to see these culprits suffer!” Twilight's magical aura deepened in its colour, becoming a dark purple. Princess Celestia watched from one corner of her eye to her student. She felt that something inside her had changed. But the barrier pushed back against the star and threw it aside. The barrier shined in a mix of the colour of everypony’s magic. Harmony had helped them once more to save them. Once more, the whole battlefield was covered in dust. With an powerful magical pulse Soul cleared the arena and looked at the after-effects of his most powerful spell. The Leyfeeder that had scratched at the barrier before were gone. No remains were left. They just vaporized under the immense magical energy. His gaze fell the other way were his biggest enemies of this time had stood before. At the time before he met Harmony he would have enjoyed this view. The wretched and crippled form of Radiant Flare and Nightmare Moon laid bleeding on the ground, only barely breathing. Only Lunacy stood firm. Through his bleeding and pain he tried to stay calm. His eyes told Soul that he was barely holding consciousness. Lunacy's horn ignited, him staring with his last might into Soul's eyes. “This is not over, yet!” With a flash of dark reddish magic Lunacy disappeared along with Radiant Flare and Nightmare Moon. Soul sank to his knees and began to pant heavily. The Princesses and the Elements lowered the barrier and looked around themselves. The whole Colosseum was destroyed in the fight. The clopping sound of Princess Luna's hooves caught their attention. She stopped only mere feet in front of him. “Every time I see you, you have become even more amazing. I'm so proud of you. You were always like a son to me. I'm so happy you are on our side.” Princess Luna wanted to approach him and to pull him into a close embrace but Soul stood up and ignited his horn once more. “I'm sorry, Luna. I'm so sorry. But you know as well as I that there is no great power without great sacrifices for a mortal.” Princess Luna got shoved back to the others and another blue shield covered them, A single tear rolled down Soul's face. “You were always like a mother to me.” Before Princess Luna could respond, a blazing lightning made of pure magical power stretched from the sky and hit Soul's horn. Pushing him into the ground and blinding the others. When they regained their ability to see, they had to learn that Soul body laid motionless on the ground. Applejack and Princess Luna screamed in unison with watery eyes. “SOUL!”