//------------------------------// // The Final Charge // Story: The Abundance // by defender2222 //------------------------------// "What have you done?" Kindness ignored the acidic tone Rarity's voice took, refusing to let herself feel even a touch of guilt at the incrimination that dripped from every word she spoke. The metallic alicorn held her ground, looking up at the white mare whose jaw was working so hard it was a wonder she hadn't broken off a few teeth. The rage and frustration and disgust seemed to radiate from her form and had Kindness been any other pony she would have been struck ill by its potency. None of Rarity’s reactions had shocked Kindness. She'd arrived at Rarity's penthouse in Manehattan expecting a battle. How could she not, when she knew deep down that if things were reversed she would have been looking upon Rarity with annoyance if she tried to tell her that everything SHE had done so far had been wrong and only caused suffering? No, Kindness knew from the get-go that this was going to be a tough talk and that she best prepare herself for the white alicorn thrashing and fighting every step of the way in the long, hard, drawn out push towards reason. "What are you doing?" Rarity hissed, glaring at the abstract. "Why have you rejected Fluttershy?" "I haven't rejected her," Kindness said, her voice soothing. All that heard it were reminded of a mother's song to her sick child and found themselves hard-pressed to keep up their anger. Even Rarity, in her Generosity-infused rage, was having problems keeping her temper up. "Far from it... the two of us are closer now." Fluttershy, who'd taken shelter behind the abstract in the face of Rarity's anger, looked up at her friend and nodded her head rapidly. "She's telling the truth, Rarity." Rarity gave her friend a sympathetic smile. "I know you are just trying to put a brave face forward, my dear, but it is clear that..." Rarity waved her hoof dismissively at Kindness, "she has put you in a horrible position." Kindness smiled and took a step forward. "Rarity, I forgive you for not understanding. Just as I forgive you, sister, for continuing to tow the line. I see now where we went wrong-" "We have not gone wrong," Rarity said with a sniff; not even she was sure if by ‘we’ she meant herself and the other mares or herself and Generosity. "All that we have done has been just!" "Perhaps... but just because something is good doesn't mean it can't be bad." Fluttershy bowed her head for a moment, her hair falling in her eyes, before she looked back up, courage flaring up within her heart and driving her to speak. "Is it ok to give some pony something to eat if they are hungry?" "Of course!" Rarity said. "The definition of generosity is giving to others!" "What if you don't have enough to feed yourself... should you give up your share to help some other pony?" Before Rarity could reply, Fluttershy continued. "And what if two ponies come and you only have enough for one? Or what if there are three? Or four?" Kindness nodded. "And what if their demands are outrageous? With if I say that I love your horn and I want it?" "Well... I..." Rarity stammered, even as the two pressed their attack. "Or what if I wanted you to give me something that wasn't yours? Or something I didn't need? Would that be right then? Fair?" Rarity backed away, bumping into an endtable. "Don't you see? You can't live through absolutes. The only thing that happens when you try and commit yourself 100% to an ideal is that you fail to see the world around you properly." Rarity shook her head, as if she were trying to remove the words from her ears like they were droplets of bathwater. "No... no, I don't accept that! I'm not the confused one here, you are! You and Fluttershy separated somehow and it has left you all muddled and unable to grasp the glorious harmony the five of us achieved-" "Rarity, stop," Fluttershy said gently. "We aren't muddled and we aren't mistaken." "You have to be." Rarity's eyes darkened. "This is Doubt's doing, isn't it? He's clouded your judgment and left you unable to see clearly. He worked his magic on you and now-" "Doubt isn't to blame for any of this," Kindness said softly, her whisper ringing louder than any scream. It left Rarity stumbling and stammering, her balance totally destroyed at the eight little words. "Of any abstract, FAITH is the only one that gets what is truly going on." "Faith is gone," Rarity said quickly, Generosity's own voicing echoing clearly with the white mare's. "He fell." "What do we do when we fall?" Kindness asked. When Rarity refused to answer the abstract answered her own question. "We pick ourselves back up. It might have taken a thousand years but Faith rose up again." "No... no, you are wrong," Rarity said, laughing at such an absurd idea. "Faith-" "Faith has returned. He has been redeemed," Fluttershy stated. "You were there, Rarity, we all were... Generosity has just made you forget." "Why would she do that?" Rarity demanded in anger. "She is my friend and ally... why would she lie to me?" "Because I blinded her to the truth,” a new voice called out. Rarity turned, only to get a gut full of magic that sent her flying across the room and crashing into a bookcase. Fluttershy and Kindness whipped around only to be struck as well, their heads snapping back and stars appearing all around them as they hit the oak bookcase with a solid THWUUUMMP! "Oh, come on now," Cadence purred as she slowly cantered over to the fallen alicorns, a cocky little grin that had no reason to be on her face gracing her lips, "you cannot tell me you didn't see this coming." Her horn crackled with black magic and the three other mares could feel the hair on the back of their necks rise. “I’ve tried to be a good girl and not be a bother… but then I remembered I’m not a good girl at all. I am quite… quite… naughty.” "Princess Cadence," Rarity moaned, her legs trembling as she tried to stand up. "What are you-" Cadence fired off another blast of black magic, silencing whatever comment Rarity was preparing to make. The first blast she had sent out was like a bat: blunt and hard. This new one was like a thunderbolt and Rarity threw back her head and screamed in agony as every nerve ending she had seemed to light up all at once. Her limbs went ramrod straight and her teeth clamped together, almost taking off a chunk of her tongue. "Now now now," Cadence chided, twisting her head towards Kindness and Fluttershy. The two had been trying to rise up, wanting to protect the white mare from the pink alicorn's attack. Whip like tendrils of dark magic lashed out from her horn, striking the two. Fluttershy cried out as the whip racked across her flank, the magic having hardened along the sides to form rose thorns. Kindness' horn lit up, only for Cadence to flip in the air and fire off several blades of dark magic. They drove into Kindness' horn, cancelling her magic and leaving her howling in pain. "You are all so rude to interrupt!" Cadence shouted. The black magic formed into three choke chains, which she threw over their necks and tightened until each was gasping for air. "Especially since I am the bestest of best allies you've got!" “Cadence,” Rarity gasped, fighting to breathe, “what-“ “Are you really this SLOW?!” Cadence roared. “Come on now, use that squishy mush in your head and think this through! Think good and hard because I am warning you, I am getting bored and I HATE BEING BORED!” “You… you aren’t Cadence, are you?” Fluttershy managed to get out. “You… you feel like Faith use to, back when he was Do-“ “HE IS NOT DOUBT!” ‘Cadence’ screamed. “HE IS THE USERPER AND THE CHEAT AND THE THIEF! HIS NAME WAS STOLEN BY YOU STUPID PONIES SO HE TOOK MINE! THEN YOU-“ she whipped around and jabbed her horn at Kindness. “YOU AND THE REST OF YOUR KIND LET HIM GET AWAY WITH IT! YOU LET HIM TAKE MY NAME!” ‘Cadence’ twitched for a moment, a smile quickly reforming on her face. “But that’s ok… because I took it back and now I am going to collect my interest.” “You’re… you’re Doubt,” Kindness whispered, the choke chain around her neck loosening slightly when she said the name. “The first Doubt.” “The only Doubt,” ‘Cadence’ purred. “There is me and the liar… nothing else.” She walked up to Kindness and rubbed against her. “But of course, you might know me as someone else…” Kindness’ eyes went wide and she looked at Doubt in horror. “No…. no no no…” “Yes… it was me… the one that whispered in YOUR ear, just as you have whispered in so many ponies. I am the one that convinced you to finally act. I was the one that drove your siblings to attack this country and spread ‘harmony’… of course, I also kept you blind to what you were really doing. I made you doubt ponies and your own senses. I pushed you hard and fast to go against your better judgment. It was me… it was always me.” Tears fell down Kindness’ cheeks as the blinders that had obscured her, the ones that Fluttershy had managed to crack, were ripped free and she saw just what she had done. She saw everything… the true horror of her actions and Kindness wept. Doubt turned and winked at Rarity, who fell to the ground sobbing as the full weight of her sins was revealed to her. “Oh… what have we done?” “You’ve destroyed this land better than any monster ever could.” Doubt pranced about, wiggling her wings in glee. “Your names will go down in the history books along side monsters like Nightmare Moon and Discord. Well, they would, if there was any pony left to write the history books.” “What… what are you talking about?” Fluttershy asked. Doubt favored her with a smile. “This is the final act… all the pieces are in place and the fat pony is about to sing.” Doubt’s horn glowed and her eyes flipped through several different colors at once. Doubt dragged the three over to the window, forcing them to look down as a horde of ponies began to march towards the skyscraper. “I must thank you Rarity for being so generous.” The word oozed out of Doubt’s mouth and Rarity cringed. “If you hadn’t given so much of your power to those ponies, making them little more than mindless slaves, none of this could have happened. It was going to be so hard creating my army… but now all I had to do was spend a few days drifting through their minds and placing a little bit of myself in each and every one of them… well, it has made things SO much easier. Now they heed my call… they see me as their champion and will do anything for me. They will DIE for me… and die… they… will.” Doubt tugged them back inside, letting out a happy sigh. “Soon, the rebellion will arrive and pony will fight pony. Brother vs. brother. Mother killing daughter. Husband slaughtering wife. The battle will be vicious and brutal and the gutters will scab over with blood. I, of course, won’t be around to see it… I have one last surprise to set up before the big kaboom, but you will… you will watch it all hap-“ The wall exploded, sending drywall flying all over and leaving Doubt shaking. “I have something to say about that,” Faith said as he entered through the hole, his wings flexing and catching the rays of the sun. All at once he appeared to Fluttershy as an angel with fiery wings and the strength of the heavens contained within his eyes. “Brother?” Kindness gasped out, staring at the lord of the gray in shock. She knew what Fluttershy had said, understood what she had been trying to get her to understand… but seeing her baby brother there, looking much as he had before his ascension… as she knew him before everything in their past had occurred…. Kindness, despite her injuries, wept in relief. “Get the hell away from my friends,” Faith snapped in annoyance. “Get the hell away from my family.” “Make me,” Doubt taunted, firing off a blast of magic. Faith grunted, deflecting the shot and sending off several blasts of his own that left the mad abstract blinking back stars. He marched forward, only to throw up his wings when Doubt sent her tendrils of black magic at him, trying to whip him as she had his sisters. “Faith the fool… Faith the blowhard… ALWAYS RUSHING IN!” Faith fell back to one knee as Doubt struck again and again, ripping away steel feathers. “You thought I would fall so easily?!” Doubt’s body trembled as the pink of her flank darkened till it became nightmare black, her mane a bleached out white. She laughed, her wings exploding to reveal her own metallic feathers, these ones looking to be made of tarnished sterling. She had become a bastardization of his fallen form, an amalgam of Cadence and Faith-as-Doubt. Or perhaps this had always been her form and it had been Faith who had created stolen the color and design. It was a question neither abstract could answer. Doubt grabbed Faith’s wings and forced them open so she could look him dead in the eye. “My army is going to watch me tear you apart. Faith is going to die… not just you but the very concept! Every pony is going to feel faith itself wither and die and with it all hope, all dreams, all wishes will be shattered as well! All will only know me!” “Your army is going to be a touch busy,” Faith said coldly. “Doing what?” Doubt scoffed. “Fighting you?” “No… fighting my army.” Doubt looked behind Faith, staring at the hole in the wall, eyes widening as The Abundance dropped from the sky, its cannons already armed and its deck full of ponies. Twilight, Celestia, Luna, Applejack, Honesty, and Rainbow Dash all stood on the bridge, their horns glowing. “Oh, poor Doubt,” Faith whispered mockingly. “I am sorry… but you’ve been outplayed. The pieces are on the board but that does you little good when I already have you in checkmate. The dice has been thrown, the bones are in the yard and the train has left the station. Did you REALLY think I’d rush over here? Did you think I came flying in without a plan? You poor stupid girl… I’m not you. I have friends… and we fight together. We plan together… we planned this for 3 days. And we are going to win together.” Faith smirked and Doubt couldn’t stop the tremble from rolling along her spine. “A thousand years from now, every pony in Equestria is going to look back at this moment and they will never, ever, forget it.” Faith smirked. “You want to know why my dear?” Faith asked, leaning in close so he could whisper in her ear. “I taught them my alicorn spell.” “No,” Doubt whispered, trying to buck him away so she could stop the magic that was now swirling around the alicorns on The Abundance. “NO!” “TWILIGHT NOW!” The lavender alicorn smirked. “You heard him.” The six alicorns threw back their heads, white magical energy bursting from them. Kindness, Rarity, and Fluttershy struggled to their feet, jaws dropping as the glow surrounded The Abundance, consuming it to the point that it looked like a miniature sun. It was blinding and beautiful and all that gazed upon it could not turn away. Then, in the next moment, the spell ended, leaving the airship the same as it had been. But not the ponies that crewed it. “Well, this is new,” The Doctor said, flexing his wings and lighting up his horn. Behind him Spitfire smirked, her newly grown horn glowing with the flames of a raging inferno. Pinkie Pie giggled as she floated behind them, watched as every pony on board The Abundance tested out their new abilities. Even the non-ponies had been changed; Iron Will smirked as he smashed his now stone hands together, his horns flashing with powerful magic. Faith headbutted Doubt, sending her back. “This is why you fail, Doubt!” Faith spread his forelegs out wide. “Don’t you GET IT? When there is doubt in the world ponies rally together! They find strength in each other… they wish for better days and they pray for guidance. Your quest to create doubt only strengthened us… and now you’ve raised an army against yourself! An army that flies the banner of faith and hope!” Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom flew up to the mast of The Abundance and unfurled the flag of Equestria. “Kill them…” Doubt screamed, her eyes glowing. “KILL THEM ALL!” “Incoming!” Trixie shouted, pointing at a massive swarm of pegasi that were rushing into the air towards the airship. “This is going to be bad,” Spike muttered, his now jewel-studded wings flexing as he leapt off the airship and raced down with Flim, Clyde, Shining Armor, and Derpy to lead the first wave. Faith’s horn crackled as he turned away from the oncoming battle. “A thousand years has been quite too long, Doubt. It ends… today.” “Indeed,” the mad abstract said in glee. “I am going to kill you… I am going to rip your heart out and devour it. And then I am going to find your little friends and I am going to BURN them. You think you can hide them from me? You think your sacrifice will protect them? You fool… I WILL FIND THEM!” “You have to get through me first,” Faith stated, his body trembling as dark and light magic swirled around him. “And I am never going to stop. Never going to give in. Never-going-to-back-down!” He rushed the mare, lashing out and striking her in the jaw. “So what we have here-“ Faith struck Doubt again, drawing blood, “-is a case of an unstoppable force-“ he grabbed Doubt’s face and drove her down into his knee, “-meeting an unmovable object!“ Doubt, dazed, could only yelp as Faith wrapped his limbs around her, “Let’s see who breaks first!” And with that, Faith launched himself through the roof of the penthouse, Doubt screaming as he flung her aside. She lit up her horn and charged, Faith not budging as she collided with him Behind him, The Abundance’s main hatches opened and a squad of rebel alicorns flew out, zooming down to meet the brainwashed citizens of Manehattan. "Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war" -Anthony, Julius Caesar