//------------------------------//
// The Atheist Who Would Be God 
// Story: Synthesis of the Atheist 
// by BlackRoseRaven 
//------------------------------//

Chapter Eighty Two: The Atheist Who Would Be God
~BlackRoseRaven

Luna slammed Hecate's head into the scanner beside the ornate, crest-embossed doors, making it beep loudly several times before the red-plated doors slid smoothly open. She and Scrivener traded smiles, neither pony in little more than their matching collars and Scrivener carrying the single satchel bag they had. Most of their equipment had been cleaned out of this: partly because they had used so much of their stuff up or broken it, and partly to give themselves enough room to carry Hecate's head.
The particularly-twisted version of Celestia muttered under her breath as Luna yanked the head off the scanner, then shoved it back into the satchel, and Hecate wriggled helplessly inside the bag before saying with disgust, as Luna and Scrivener strode slowly from the slate and sterile halls of the research facility into an ornate and beautiful round foyer of marble: “If this is your idea of mercy, Luna Brynhild, you may want to refine the definition. Either leave me here or kill me, we're inside the Tower of Etemenanki now, past the security doors. You have no more use for me.”
“Oh, aye, I do. Thou art fun to throw at things and make a grand kick-ball.” Luna replied absently, and she shivered a little as Scrivener looked around with the same uneasy expression: there was a single spiraling staircase leading up along the walls of the high tower, and everything was such a bright, polished white it was almost painful to look at. Everything except for the black cables and the polished steel piping that was, and the metal railing along the edge of the staircase.
The two slowly strode forwards, both still feeling weak and tired, wounded and with their armor to broken to protect them. Yet all the same, they both knew the only thing they could do was push forwards, heading across the wide floor to the staircase and beginning their ascent as Hecate said moodily: “Thesis is going to kill me after he kills you now. I hope you know this. I hope you're happy about this. He's an atheistic child. There's nothing worse than a child who believes that nothing is going to happen to him if he decides to behave badly.”
“And what does thou believe?” Luna asked crankily as they reached a narrow landing, and both ponies hesitated before looking through the open archway leading out into a hallway. The corridor seemed to encircle this enormous central shaft they were climbing, fenced in by walls with strange cutouts and windows throughout the thin surface: it was both beautiful and soulless at the same time, like it had been done by someone who had all the mechanical skills necessary to create art, yet could convey no emotion whatsoever. It was hollow.
Hecate didn't reply as they decided to investigate this floor. Luna and Scrivener slowly strode into the narrow hall, following its curve and every so often glancing uneasily through one of the windows or cutouts into the central zone of the tower, half-expecting to see some unimaginable horror waiting to ambush them... but the emptiness and silence they were greeted with instead was somehow far more unsettling and unwelcome. There was only one door on this floor, the fake wooden paneling sticking out sorely against the painful white.
They pushed it open, and were both surprised by the noise that assaulted them, staring in disbelief into the room beyond. It was filled with massive machines, turbines spinning and gears clanking over the walls, pistons pumping as corruption flowed in every direction through glass pipes, and at the back, several massive tubes filled with green chemicals bubbled and boiled. Except, as Luna and Scrivener strode into the concrete room, they realized these tubes weren't empty: at least two of them were filled with corpses-
Except corpses didn't scream, even as they drowned. Corpses didn't react to the presence of others, one pony turning to stare at them with horror, and Luna reared back in shock as Scrivener looked over the three filled tubes, before his eyes turned to the last and he felt a blast of pain run through his senses, leaning forwards as something petrified hit the wall of the tank-
Scrivener's eyes focused, saw beneath... and he watched as the desperate pony's face shoved against the glass, different-colored eyes staring out at him as mismatched hands clawed wildly at the glass for a moment before there was a flash... and instead, Scrivener saw only swirling stone and rock inside the tube. But a moment later, confirming Scrivener's horrified instincts, the spirit of Twilight Sparkle appeared and grabbed at the vat, shaking her head wildly and staring into it with horror.
“Allonym...” Scrivener whispered, and Luna followed his gaze incredulously, before the sapphire mare snarled and turned towards his satchel bag, yanking Hecate out as the ghostly Twilight looked up almost desperately towards them.
Hecate winced as she was jerked out of the satchel, then twisted around and forced to face the massive chemical batteries, apparently powered by the victims locked inside them. “What are these? What hast thou done?”
“If you didn't actually know, you wouldn't be yelling at me in that tone of voice.” Hecate replied contemptibly, and Luna snarled before smashing the head down into the ground, Hecate cursing before she spat out a bit of blood as she was hefted back into the air and turned towards Luna's furious eyes, answering hurriedly despite the hard glare she gave the sapphire mare: “Extractors! They're extractors... they boil out the energy from organics and artifacts, provide energy for the rest of the machines that keep power running throughout Etemenanki!”
The sapphire mare grimaced at this, then she looked up at the massive batteries and shivered before turning her eyes coldly back down to Hecate. “And Thesis has a corpse in there. Of a Draconequus, does he not?”
Hecate looked up at this... then she grinned balefully, whispering: “So you know after all. That answers a lot of questions, Luna Brynhild... you're not really here for revenge, or for redemption. You're here to steal the Immeasurable Gyre, effectively robbing Thesis of his plans to complete himself and to transform this universe as you see fit.”
Luna only frowned at this, and Scrivener Blooms looked uneasily towards Hecate before the sapphire mare asked slowly: “What precisely art thou talking about?”
“Oh, you don't know about the machine?” Hecate seemed surprised, and then she smiled grimly and shook her head as best she could. “How could you be that stupid, that naïve... fine. Go find Thesis. He'll answer the rest of your questions.”
Scrivener and Luna traded frowns, and then Luna shoved Hecate's head moodily back into the satchel, not in the mood to try and argue with the mare's head. There was silence for a few moments, before they both looked towards where Twilight's spirit was silently gazing at them, imploring them with her eyes... but before either Luna or Scrivener could ask, the ivory mare's voice floated up distastefully from the bag: “Don't even think about trying to shut down this machinery, by the way. Etemenanki's systems will fail if you do. You won't be able to reach Thesis or the Immeasurable Gyre. And then your only choice will be to wait for him to come and find you, and kill you.”
Luna only grunted in response, but she and Scrivener both decided that Hecate had no reason to lie at this point... hell, the mare sounded eager for them to locate Thesis. Whether it was because Hecate thought her son was going to kick their flanks or the sick, twisted mare actually wanted to see her own flesh and blood die, neither was sure, and neither really wanted to know, either.
They looked across at Twilight Sparkle, who shuddered before nodding silently, and the spirit vanished from sight before both ponies turned and made their way back outside. They returned to the stairs and climbed them, but halted when they reached the next landing, which led out into a hallway almost identical to the one below, except for the placement of the fake-wood door.
The room it led into wasn't a power room either, but instead a beautiful bedroom. Beautiful, yet... lonely. Everything was too neat, and there were no personal objects apart from a single framed picture on the desk, of a young, normal-looking Thesis standing beside Celestia. Scrivener picked this up, studying it silently, and he was surprised when Valthrudnir said softly: I did not understand it... but I studied it. The relationship that developed between Thesis and Celestia, in those early days... how she was his mother, and he was her child. Half-Jötnar. Half-godling. But he was nothing at first but a carefree little foal, for all the power I would pour into him... for all the training he would go through...
He fell silent, and Scrivener felt Hecate shift in the bag before the stallion, without really knowing why, turned and tucked the small picture into the satchel. Hecate shook herself, not speaking but trying to pull away from the picture, and Luna and Scrivener went back to searching the room.
They did a thorough job, but neither pony found a single thing: Thesis had done a good job of cleaning everything up and ensuring he didn't leave a single trace behind... or maybe he just didn't write things down or record his ideas in any other way, shape, or form. There were no books, no nothing to indicate interest or engagement with the world outside himself, either... just that single framed picture on a lonely desk that seemed to serve no real purpose.
Scrivener and Luna made their way up to the next floor: the hall here was blemished by two doors instead of just one, and one of these doors had a security lock on it. Luna reached into the satchel to pull out Hecate, and the sapphire mare glanced down at the head with surprise, but then only turned her eyes upwards and silently held the head in front of the security scanner, doing her best to ignore the blue-tinged tears running down Hecate's cheeks.
The door clicked and unlocked, sliding open to reveal a short corridor beyond, leading to some kind of large tub. Luna frowned curiously as she turned and tucked Hecate back into the saddlebag, and  just after she let the flap fall closed, Hecate surprisingly muttered: “Thesis must have completed this phase of preparation. I didn't expect him to be able to finish so quickly... that means he may be undergoing stabilization now in the surgery bay down the hall.”
“Let's go.” Luna said firmly, and Scrivener looked uneasily at the tub, smelling the concentrated corruption before he nodded quickly. He and Luna both noted that Hecate had just guided them towards Thesis again, though, as they headed down the corridor to the other door, the winged unicorn gritting her teeth as she noted it was already open before she leapt inside...
And there was nothing. It was just an open, dome-shaped room with automated, dangerous-looking equipment hanging from the ceiling over a surgical bed with all kinds of restraints on it, and at one side of the surgery theater there was a large, metal table with a strange metal engine on it, wires and cables and large, ugly metal bolts standing out of the bottom of the device. One of the pistons sticking out of the back of it was broken, however, and it had strange metallic extensions over it... oh Horses of Heaven, wait... that's no engine. That's Thesis' exoskeleton.
He's abandoned it? Valthrudnir asked incredulously in his mind, and then the Jötnar cursed under his breath before saying disgustedly: Impossible, how could he have achieved completion in such a short period of time...
Luna strode slowly forwards into the surgery room, looking back and forth as Scrivener Blooms uneasily studied the area, then frowned at a nearby monitor. It had all kinds of strange displays over it, and as the stallion studied the runes and words, he finally muttered: “I dunno why, but... I get the sense he hasn't been here...”
Hecate wiggled in the saddlebag, then managed to stick her head a little out of the satchel. She looked back and forth, and then her eyes widened slightly as they focused on a closed medical cabinet, whispering: “Thesis... what are you playing at?”
Luna frowned at this, then quickly followed Hecate's gaze, striding over to the cabinet on the wall and yanking it open. She reared back in surprise at what she found inside: all manner of vials filled with corruption and blood, each neatly labeled... several with names she recognized, shivering as she whispered: “Psukhikos, and Protelea, and... Cheshire...
“What are these?” Luna rounded towards Hecate, and Scrivener frowned over his shoulder before he strode across the room to join the sapphire mare, as Hecate grimaced a bit... and then winced when Luna yanked the vial labeled Protelea free, growling down at the head: “Or shall I find out by giving thee a sample of this special medicine?”
“They're... genetic stabilizers!” Hecate winced and leaned backwards with a curse, looking disgusted as she tried to draw her head away from the black poison. “They're made from the genes and cells of other Replicants, each designed to amplify those characteristics, without them... Thesis can't achieve completion. He'll be unstable.”
“I don't like the sound of that.” Scrivener muttered, then he hesitated and shook his head. “I mean, part of it sounds good, but the rest of it sounds too good to be true.”
Luna grunted in agreement, nodding quickly before the mare looked moodily down at the vial in her hoof, then flung it across the room and into a wall, where it shattered loudly. “Oops. My hoof slipped. But so all of these... Thesis was going to drink them dry?”
“Injections, yes.” Hecate said acidly, and Luna and Scrivener both looked up over the racks of vials before they both seized the sides of the medical cabinet, then grunted and yanked only it firmly, tearing it free from the wall and sending it crashing to the ground with a tremendous bang and smash.
Hecate didn't say anything, only moodily sinking back into the satchel bag as Scrivener and Luna looked at one-another for a few moments, then traded faint smiles and firm nods. They both turned and made their way out of the surgery bay before Hecate's voice murmured: “Thesis must be at the Immeasurable Gyre... but why...”
“We are not idiots, Hecate. Why art thou leading us onwards towards thy son, Evil Celestia?” Luna asked quietly, tilting her head, and there was silence for a moment.
Then, Hecate answered harshly: “He is not my son! He is... he was nothing but an experiment of Valthrudnir's. He is not my flesh and blood...” Hecate snorted and looked away, adding quietly: “And I am not any kind of Celestia, evil or otherwise. I am Hecate, the glorified immortal administrator of a glorified compost heap.
“But why shouldn't I lead you to Thesis, really? If he wins, I'll doubtlessly die alone on Endworld. If you win, I'll still be dead, but it might happen a little faster.” Hecate said contemptibly, even as she burrowed herself into the saddlebag. “I have no magic, no body, no strength left. I'm nothing but a plug-in brain for machinery. I don't care who lives or dies, I just want you all to hurt as badly as I did when all the fairy tales ended and I found out that in reality, only the fiercest dragon gets to survive in this universe.”
Luna only shook her head slowly as Scrivener looked up, then murmured: “Come on. Let's go back to tub for a moment. It's kind of gross, maybe, but... it looked like concentrated mire.”
“Aye.” Luna said quietly, and she smiled a little at Scrivener's back as he led them back to the room they had entered before. The door was still opened and unlocked, letting them head inside and straight down to the vat, Scrivener studying the flecks and stains around the edge of the tub that seemed so out of place in this polished world, while Luna moodily looked up at the cables dangling down from the roof and what looked like some kind of raised glass shield.
Scrivener reached forwards and touched the mire... then shivered a little, bringing his claw back. And yet the mire visibly rippled and reached for him: it was more concentrated than anything he had ever before touched. He and Luna traded looks, and then the stallion swallowed a little before murmuring: “I... it should be enough to heal us both if just I... drink.”
Luna nodded silently, and then the stallion took a slow breath before he leaned forwards, looking down into the ultra-concentrated corruption before he lowered his head and pushed his mouth into the liquid. He shuddered as he swallowed it down, and while the texture and taste were both awful, his body immediately craved more, more, more...
He drank down another few swallows: with every drop down his throat, he could feel his body healing, his energy restoring, and Luna shuddering beside him, hugging herself and trying to look away. But her eyes kept drawing back as heat and longing rolled through her mind, as her body sizzled with a fire she didn't want to feel as she licked her lips slowly...
Finally, Scrivener Blooms tore himself back, and he growled once before he could stop himself as that primal, dark instinct twisted through him... but strangely, he felt something calm him. Not Twilight, not Luna, but a gentle hand on the back of his neck, before Valthrudnir said quietly: Now is not the time, Nihete. You and Brynhild will need your full strength for what is ahead.
Scrivener nodded slowly, and Valthrudnir seemed to hesitate, Scrivener catching a strange image of the Jötnar looking almost... well, he wasn't sure, because he had never seen that look on his features before. But then it was gone, and Scrivener turned a faint smile to Luna, nodding as he asked quietly: “Refreshed?”
“I... I would like... one sip.” Luna whispered, and Scrivener looked at her silently before the sapphire mare smiled a little, reaching up and rubbing at her face slowly. “Please. Just... just one sip. What harm can it cause at this juncture, Scrivener Blooms?”
There was silence, and in spite of knowing he shouldn't, Scrivener silently nodded before he reached a hoof up. It snapped apart into a claw before the stallion turned and scooped up a small bit of the mire, then held it towards Luna. She looked at his cupped claw with a flush in her cheeks, breathing slowly before leaning forwards, and Scrivener tipped his claw, pouring the corruption into her jaws and down her throat as her eyes tightly closed.
There was such pleasure, though. Such radiant pleasure in this darkness, as her tongue slid out, licked slowly along Scrivener's palm, tasted the mire and the poison and the... everything. She suffered, felt humiliated and needy and... yet... strangely complete, as the stallion's claw drew away and the two looked at each other. Luna, with her weapons holstered over the back; Scrivener, with the equipment bag on his side. But Tyrant Wyrm and Valkyrie otherwise seeing no differences between one-another.
There was silence for a few moments, and then Hecate said quietly from the satchel: “Go all the way to the top of the tower. It's the only place Thesis could be, yet I don't understand what he's doing. You will need me to open the last gate for you... which I will do on the condition that you kill me.”
Luna and Scrivener only smiled wryly to one-another, then turned and strode onwards, the sapphire mare murmuring: “Perhaps Thesis inherited his cowardice from thou and not Valthrudnir, Hecate. Nay, I shall choose who lives and who dies by my own standards. I shall not be coerced into granting life or bringing death... besides, thou forgets. Thou art a head. I can bring not just a hoof party to thy face's house, but a hoof party to all of thy existence's house.”
Hecate only snarled at them from the satchel, but otherwise there was silence as they headed back to the stairs and ascended quickly upwards. It wasn't long before Scrivener Blooms and Luna Brynhild reached the top level, and both ponies looked forwards in surprise as they saw a long, gorgeous hallway in front of them, lined with a red carpet, gorgeous landscapes over the walls... but ending in a massive security shutter with a single, enormous eye carved into it.
The two strode slowly forwards... then both ponies halted in surprise as a pillar of smoke rose up in front of the doors, before Luna smiled wryly as this dissolved and left Kismet in its wake. The death entity looked down at them with a strange mixture of relief and bittersweet sorrow in his eyes, and then he rose the spear in one gauntlet, saying quietly: “I believe you'll need this, my friend.”
“Prúðbikkja.” Luna grinned slightly, her horn glowing and taking the spear, easily spinning it at her side before she smiled slightly and turned towards the satchel. She dug quickly through it, making Hecate grumble as she was jostled around, before extracting the battered, damaged pocketwatch and turning to fling this easily up to the death entity.
He caught it in one gauntlet, then looked down at it with amazement, studying the cracked and broken face, before his eyes looked upwards as he whispered: “I felt their grip loosened, but... did not dare to think... Valkyrie, do you know what you have given me?”
“All I have given to thee is the very same that thou hast given to me. Thy soul.” Luna said softly, glancing up at Prúðbikkja as the alicorn speartip sizzled with energy, before the sapphire mare smiled and turned kind eyes to Kismet. “Go. Be free, death entity. And know that thou shall always be welcomed in Looking Glass World.”
Kismet looked down at the pocketwatch for a few moments, then he clenched his claw around it... and after a moment, the watch simply dissolved in a puff of smoke, the death entity's eyes flashing before he lowered his head slowly. There was silence for a few long seconds, and then Kismet silently dropped to a kneel, crossing his arms over his knee and bowing his head low as he whispered: “I can never thank you enough for the kindness and generosity you have shown me. I shall always do as I can to aid you, as you have aided me. And no matter what may occur, I know this is an impossible task: I will never be able to show the depth of my gratitude for this.”
“Now cease. 'Tis just what... friends do.” Luna shrugged and laughed, shaking her head slowly before she and Scrivener traded looks, before the sapphire mare glanced up and smiled a little. “Get thee hence, Kismet. We have a battle to finish, with a foe who has long eluded us, but now awaits beyond that door. We have answers to retrieve, and a story to close.”
“You've done a world for us. You have.” Scrivener added quietly, nodding a few times, and Kismet studied the two silently before the stallion smiled lamely and shrugged. “It was just... the right thing to do, anyway. Luna and I have a lot of reasons to... keep doing the right thing.”
Kismet chuckled quietly, shaking his head slowly before he straightened and stood, then bowed respectfully to them. Luna and Scrivener bowed back, and there was silence for a moment before the death entity said softly: “I do not believe the time of your death is just yet, my friends. It would fill me with sorrow to see your lives cut short. I will stay out of your battle with Thesis... but I will also await your safe return.”
Scrivener and Luna smiled slightly, then they both nodded, and the death entity nodded once to them before he put his hands together, murmuring: “Good luck, and safe journey. May your gods smile upon you, and fortune favor you.”
With that, Kismet vanished in a puff of darkness, and Hecate snorted in disgust before she muttered: “You fools. That was a death entity... powerful beyond compare. Able to control reapers and the flow of organic energy... one of the greatest assets of Thesis. He could have been a powerful asset to add to your own collection.”
“He is a friend to us. But I do not know if thou quite understands the meaning of that word.” Luna said distastefully, and Hecate snorted ruefully before the ponies approached the armored shutter, Prúðbikkja floating loyally alongside Luna as she gazed up at the enormous, crystalline eye. “Now, must I kick thy head into this shutter to make it work?”
Hecate only snorted in disgust at this, then the head wriggled a little in the satchel before calling in a clear, contemptible voice: “Mommy's home, darling. Open up.”
The shutter rumbled as the eye glowed, and then it slowly rose up into the ceiling, neither pony hesitating before they stepped into the room beyond. They were both surprised as they strode out onto a long metal walkway that stretched out into the center of an enormous, dome-shaped room... but neither pony had the time to look around or focus on anything except for Thesis, who was smiling calmly at the other end of the wide, circular platform suspended in the center of the room by massive chains. “I was wondering just how long it was going to take you to get here.”
Luna and Scrivener reached the end of the bridge and hopped down to the central platform that hung a foot or so below it, and Thesis smiled at them, his metallic, dark night-blue coat gleaming and perfect, body unblemished, eyes studying them with interest before he gestured calmly down beneath them. “Welcome to the Immeasurable Gyre, the crowning achievement of Etemenanki. Powered by all of Endworld's resources, it is my last step to becoming complete.”
“Thesis, thou art going to-” Luna was cut off as Thesis simply rose a hoof, and the mare lost the ability to speak. She mouthed wordlessly, feeling her tongue moving, air still whistling in and out of her jaws and lungs, her head twisting back and forth before she stared in horror over at Scrivener Blooms, who gazed back at her with disbelief.
“Shush.” Thesis smiled at them coldly, calmly, but his eyes were burning with rage they both knew he wouldn't, couldn't contain for long. “I am complete now. I am no longer some... badly-mashed together construct-toy of a... a false god. I am no longer Mother's flesh and Father's blood, I am... I am complete. I am evolved. I am not a Replicant, but an Original: I am Jötnar.”
Scrivener and Luna both stared incredulously at Thesis, who smiled icily before he gestured downwards, and neither pony could stop themselves from staring down through the grated platform and seeing the obelisk below, sitting in a wide metal base with several unidentifiable objects around it, but energy was already visibly thrumming through the strange monolith. “And that is the Immeasurable Gyre, my key to merging with the origin of this universe, to being hailed not just as complete, but as more than some freak occurrence of replication and transformation. When I enter the core reality, I'll be truly complete, because I will be one of the originals. I'll become one of the original beings all these scattered worlds were replicated from! And then, maybe... I will have found a way to make the universe matter, if only for a moment, because I will be part of that universe's mind and heart and soul.”
Scrivener Blooms and Luna Brynhild could only stare, and then the charcoal stallion whispered: “You're insane.”
“I said shut up!” Thesis almost screamed, stomping a hoof, and reality rippled violently before a chain muzzle snapped into place around Scrivener's jaws, holding his mouth tightly shut as he winced at the feeling of steel digging painfully into his flesh.
Thesis snarled at them, leaning forwards, eyes burning with rage and madness... and then he suddenly dropped his head forwards, closing his eyes and visibly reining in his emotions as he whispered: “You'll have to excuse the outburst... it's been a long, hard day with being forced to... rush my completion, and watch you kill my entire family and all. I'm a little tired. I'm a little stressed, and angry, and upset, with all these chemicals flowing through my brain. And if either of you has any intelligence whatsoever, you'll know better than to... to... you won't try and make me...”
Thesis frowned and grabbed at his features, gasping for breath and shivering as he leaned forwards again, and Scrivener could swear he saw the flesh now covering the Replicant's back... vibrating. Rippling, although the rest of his body...
But then Thesis came back to his senses, although he seemed... something was off. Something Scrivener couldn't completely describe or identify, as he shifted uneasily before the Replicant looked up at them and whispered: “You're fools. Of course you don't understand... you're still content to live in your fairy tales of gods and magic. I tried to be your friend. I tried to share this with you... not just power, but a sense of purpose. Truth. But instead, you slapped it all away, so here we are. And I've decided I want you to watch my... my crowning...”
Thesis shifted uneasily, kicking one of his hind legs in a strange, fidgety gesture, and Scrivener and Luna shifted slowly. The sapphire mare felt Prúðbikkja trembling, wanting to strike, but she held back for now, wanting to see how this played out. Letting Thesis ramble onwards... and admittedly, a little afraid. No, not of the fact that he had apparently gained Jötnar-like reality-bending powers with his hurried 'completion,' but of his clearly-worsening insanity. “The Replicants... we were... like family... programming... not was... the programming we threw off... I threw off and you did... Valthrudnir... I was...”
The Replicant leaned forwards, his eyes glazing over, and Scrivener frowned... then cursed and grabbed at his face as the chain muzzle around his maw suddenly began to steam and melt. He clawed at this violently, and Thesis looked up with a snarl, snapping back into reality before he rose a hoof, and both Luna and Scrivener cried out even as the chain muzzle vanished and Luna's voice returned: but these little victories were canceled out from being hefted into the air with what felt like a thousand needles piercing their bodies from every direction. “What are you doing? Stop it and listen to me!”
Thesis flicked his hoof downwards, slamming Luna and Scrivener belly-down into the ground, and Prúðbikkja fell and bounced with them as Hecate gave a muffled curse inside the bag. But both ponies were stopped from responding as they looked up... and saw the foreleg that Thesis had gestured with had begun to visibly melt.
Yet somehow, the enormous, once-too-perfect stallion didn't seem aware of this as he stood up and began to tremble, anymore than he seemed aware of the heaving breaths he was taking, the sick, sludgy sounds he was making with every step, the fact it looked like more of his coat was beginning to slowly slough away off his sides. Maybe he wasn't even aware of how he was ranting, as he shouted furiously: “I gave you a chance! I  made you my brother, and you betrayed me, killed Cheshire, killed our siblings! You killed my only friend, and my Mother... and yet... still, I wanted you most of all! Not just because you, you, you were the nearest perfection, the only prototype out of us all who had... who could reproduce, who could process the mire properly, who was like a real living person instead of a stupid puppet... I was good to you, and you betrayed me!
“And yet... why is it that even now, I feel like you... you look to me like, sound to me like my Father? Father... Father abandoned me!” Thesis shouted furiously, turning towards them with a snarl. “Did you know that Valthrudnir was my Father? That he lied to Mother, loved her, abandoned her? Oh, he said he would make me strong, but I was never completed, he thought I was mindless but I was there... there... there every day! Listening to him, watching him, trying to love him in spite of what he did and had done and was going to do! Trying to be just like what he wanted me to be!
“He was supposed to be a Jötnar, claimed he was going to bring paradise, but he was nothing but a coward and a bully and pathetic!” Thesis raved, looking up with a furious snarl. “He wanted to get to the core world and make everything work, but he lied... lied! Like he lied about Mother! He lied that he loved her, because he made her into a monster! He lied that he hated her, because he couldn't kill her, he saved her life! He lied about not caring for her, because he was so ashamed he couldn't face her anymore and left her here in the forgotten trash-pit of Endworld to watch over it for all time, after he salvaged the little he could of her remains and saved them, cherished them... M-Mother...”
Thesis trembled and slammed his hooves against the floor, then looked up, snarling, not even noticing the black, sticky puddle forming around himself, dripping down through the grating as Scrivener and Luna only stared in horror. “And you... were like F-Father, but not. I was drawn to you from the start... I watched you, for years and y-years... I thought you would understand. I thought you and Brynhild both would understand. I thought you would want to help, and we could become complete together... go to the Core together, fix... the universe... b-b-be... be... my family...”
He shook his head, then looked slowly upwards and whispered: “But I'm all alone. Because you killed my parents and all my siblings and my only friend. You brought down Decretum... you destroyed a tyrant, but you killed so many innocents too. You're not heroes. You just help whatever makes you feel good at the time, and hurt everyone else with impunity. I should have rescued your daughter. I should have made her my little filly, so you couldn't ruin her like you destroyed your son's spirit, like you turned that poor winged unicorn into a Lich-slave. And she would have made me complete in return, and I wouldn't have been alone anymore.
“Nothing matters, though. Everything is emptiness, and a lie.” Slowly, the Replicant looked down, breathing hard, mind clearly broken. “But I'm going to go to the Core World now. I have stolen, cheated, and murdered for the artifacts necessary to override your stupid little shield... but I have them all. And with the energy provided from the corruption, and my own Jötnar powers... I can... activate t-the Immeasurable Gyre... burrow... what... w-what... what's h-h-happening to m-me?”
Thesis held up his melting hooves, staring down with horror as he shook his head in wild denial, mouthing wordlessly before he snarled and looked up at Scrivener and Luna, screaming: “You did this! You murdered me! You f-forced me to speed up the process, it... I am... oh no, no, no no nononono-”
The Replicant howled, grabbing at his face with limbs that were too thin, his back arching and his bones almost pushing up through flesh rotting away to waxy corruption and sludge. His rear legs and lower body, meanwhile, had almost completely rotted and dissolved into dark goo, and the Replicant shrieked again as he looked down at this and clawed wildly at the air, shaking his head violently before he fell forward as the lake boiled and warped around him, horrible tendrils writhing and rising up around the creature.
Scrivener and Luna both stood quickly up, backing towards the other side of the platform as it swayed and rocked on the chains, thankfully wide enough to give them plenty of room to maneuver even with the expanding size of the... the thing. The two ponies could only stare in horror as shapes began to emerge from the mire as Thesis howled miserably and writhed, and Valthrudnir murmured in Scrivener's mind, a strange mix of calm and... perhaps regretful: The fool. I left him as incomplete for a reason... a Jötnar's powers cannot simply be transferred from one being to another. All that energy passing through his body, his cells, must have torn apart his own genetic structure... and you, Nihete... you were never meant to be what you became. He took your genetic data while it was still in the process of evolution, mutation...
“Oh Horses of Heaven... Thesis is... he's...” Scrivener was unable to finish, but there was no need to as Thesis howled and fell forwards, nothing but a torso standing out of a lake of corruption... before behind him, the half-formed features of a monstrous, malignant Tyrant Wyrm ripped up out of the ground, roaring in primal rage. It was semisolid at best, rippling and changing constantly, its lower jaw seeming to hideously half-form beneath Thesis a good distance from the upper jaw overtop the Replicant, as Thesis himself howled miserably, half-submerged inside the creature.
Long limbs ending in grasping claws and broken hooves shoved out of the black bog, grabbing at the grated floor beneath them as Luna and Scrivener both set themselves, before the Tyrant Wyrm head stretched forwards, roaring furiously again even as something vaguely-body shaped began to hump up in the muck. But it was clear enough the monster was never going to reach total cohesion: it was nothing but a mangled mass of cells and corruption, no longer Thesis... but the Antithesis to everything he had been trying to become and achieve, the miscarriage of completion.
There was only one thing they could do: one act of mercy they could bring this twisted, warped creature, as Luna snapped her horn to the side and unholstered Andlitstingar, the weapon springing to full length beside Prúðbikkja as the sapphire mare said coldly: “Pray, poor soul. Lower thy head and pray, and we shall end thy pain soon.”
Antithesis only screamed and roared, the half-melted pony gurgling corruption out of his jaws as he struggled to raise a hoof, pointing at them and shrieking: “M-Murderers!”
Luna responded by snapping her horn forwards, sending a blast of blue flames into the creature, and the pony core struggling to hold Antithesis together howled and leaned backwards, a wall of mire seeming to form on instinct between him and the magic to absorb the worst of the damage before the horrible, sludgy thing quickly dragged itself forwards, roaring and venting blue smog into the air from holes across its body. Scrivener and Luna traded looks, and then the stallion nodded sharply before he ran quickly to the side, beginning to analyze the monstrosity as Luna launched herself into the air and shot forwards with her spears to either side of her.
A massive claw rose up out of the mire like it had been laying in wait beneath the sludge this entire time, and Luna cursed as she flung herself sharply upwards before she stabbed Andlitstingar forwards, driving it through a half-formed Tyrant Wyrm eye. The monster didn't even twitch, didn't seem to even notice as it roared at her and tried to snatch at her again, but Luna was quickly to twist to the side, stabbing both Andlitstingar and Prúðbikkja in a violent flurry across the side of its features and down into its amorphous body.
The monster only roared again in frustration, barely seeming to notice the attacks as it turned, and Luna flung herself backwards, flapping quickly out of range... before her eyes widened in horror as the slimy monster leaned forwards and a bulge formed in its back, then tore open like a mouth, vomiting out a tornado of toxic smoke. Luna flapped her wings hard and let herself drop lower, narrowly avoiding being caught up in this, before her eyes locked on Antithesis' enormous limb as it swung in towards her.
Without a second thought, she thrust both spears outwards into its claw before launching herself forwards, corkscrewing her weapons and body  to rip through the wrist of the monster. Antithesis howled as its claw immediately exploded into nothing but black goo and most of its upper limb dissolved along with it, the creature rearing back in pain.
Scrivener Blooms, meanwhile, had gotten a good view over most of the creature, and he gritted his teeth before running forwards as its attention remained focused on Luna. The stallion leapt onto its ramping, strange body, running up its back and dodging both shifting, waxy mire-flesh and venting blue poison until he reached the middle of its back, slamming both his front claws down into the monster and concentrating.
Antithesis wailed, beginning to twist and shift violently back and forth as mire crystallized in some places and dissolved in others, Scrivener only concentrating on causing the monster as much pain as possible as he gritted his teeth and poured all his powers forwards. Then his eyes widened in horror as arms ripped up all around him out of the monstrosity, grabbing at him wildly, but the stallion only clenched his eyes shut and focused his powers harder, making the sludge of the beast's body vibrate violently, shattering some of the limbs even as others grabbed and clawed at him.
A massive cyst began to form over the mutant's back before teeth bared in it, blue smog beginning to vent upwards as the pustule twisted towards Scrivener, but Luna Brynhild shot quickly over the monstrosity, stabbing her spears in another short flurry over the back of its neck and skull before she flipped her body, rolling in midair and stabbing Prúðbikkja into the other side of the cyst. It all-but-exploded in a burst of blue smog, driving Luna backwards with a curse, but she quickly steadied herself with several hard flaps of her wings before wincing and flinging herself backwards as Antithesis swung its head down towards her with a snarl.
Scrivener Blooms rocked back and forth, and then he cursed as he was suddenly flung upwards by a geyser of mire, letting his body flip backwards before he caught himself in midair and managed to slam down on his hooves at the edge of the platform. Antithesis was in a broken, writhing mess, but the creature was still fighting ferociously, and Scrivener prepared to run forwards... before he stopped to stare in horror as a massive, staring eye ripped open in the monstrosity's side, as spikes and thorns tore upwards all throughout the mire, making it impossible for him to run in close again.
The stallion snarled, and Luna cursed as she mentally ordered Scrivener to stay back for the moment so she could distract it again, as she flew backwards and snapped her horn down, sending a blue fireball into the Tyrant Wyrm-shaped head of the beast. It exploded with a tremendous bang, splattering goo in every direction but the spiritual fire refusing to catch, making her grimace.
Then Antithesis snapped its head suddenly forwards, and the mare's eyes widened in horror as the thorns and black needles over its body launched towards her in a hail, the winged unicorn flinging herself backwards and flicking both Andlitstingar and Prúðbikkja out to windmill them rapidly against the oncoming rain. Still, mire blades and black-gemstone shrapnel tore against her body, knocking her backwards with several curses of pain.
Antithesis leaned forwards as it swung its massive limb outwards like a club, but Luna let herself drop before attempting to shoot beneath the platform: a foolish idea, she learned too late, as the mire dripping between the grating suddenly formed into thick ropes that snapped downwards and seized around her body like tentacles before viciously yanking her upwards, crushing her against the railing. She gasped and almost fumbled her psychic grip on her spears, then snarled in fury and stabbed both weapons upwards, trying to angle them through the grating with a hiss of pain as she felt herself already being crushed.
Scrivener cursed in frustration, feeling cuts forming over his own body before he suddenly leapt forwards on instinct and desperation, slamming both front claws into the edge of the mire beast. A visible ripple shot through the pond of black gunk around Antithesis before a spike of crystallized corruption suddenly shot upwards and pierced through the eye in the beast's side, and Antithesis screamed in agony as both blue steam and a torrent of dark ooze gushed out of this.
As the monster convulsed, pieces of it half-receding, more parts of it melting, Scrivener saw his chance: he shoved down, concentrating before lowering his head, roaring a terrible melody to the air, and reality around them vibrated violently. Antithesis barely seemed to notice the words of the Hymn, but it squealed and began to writhe wildly as massive vines and brambles ripped out of its own dark flesh, constricting rapidly around the beast, crushing down on it and wrapping around the pony at the core of this horrendous abomination.
The monster howled in misery, and Luna felt the coils around her loosen enough to let her look up and finally manage to stab Prúðbikkja up through the grating into the underside of the beast, before she simply focused all the raw power she could upwards. The alicorn speartip, her horn, the piece of her soul, glowed with energy before unleashing a blast of electricity that shot upwards like a neon flare, blasting a narrow tunnel straight through Antithesis that made it rear back with a scream of anguish and weakened the miserable creature enough to let Luna tear herself free.
She fell with Andlitstingar behind her, then snapped her horn back to rip Prúðbikkja loose, the weapon spinning down to the mare before she shot quickly out from beneath the platform, rising up in front of the mire beast. Its pony core looked up at her, his shield melted, his body restrained by the vines, and Luna snapped her horn forwards to send Andlitstingar ripping through the pony's chest, pinning it back against the monster behind it as the melted creature's cataract-covered eyes widened-
Antithesis dropped down over its core, roaring as its body rippled and it vented blue smog in all directions, and Scrivener was forced to leap backwards as Luna flew upwards and arched over the beast, looking down with disgust. It had covered itself completely in the cloud of corrosive fog, and neither of them could see the monster even as she passed over it and turned to hover over Scrivener.
There was a single moment they both felt, of something like serenity, of silence and peace, and then the monster came forwards: it ripped out of the cloud, charging at them as Luna floated above and Scrivener stood on the edge of the platform below, Antithesis looking like a half-melted Tyrant Wyrm with its core nowhere in sight and jaws open to swallow them whole. And in that same moment, the same insane idea struck both ponies before Scrivener took a breath, then flung himself into the air.
Luna snapped her horn forwards with a roar, feeling an extra burst of energy rip through her body, and Scrivener was flung like a cannonball straight down the gullet of the Antithesis. He smashed into it with enough force to make the monster rear back with a hacking gag, and then Luna's eyes and horn blazed with darkness as she reared back, pouring her strength into Scrivener Blooms as he drew on her magic at the same time and simply flung himself upwards.
Antithesis didn't even have the time to scream as most of its upper body exploded in a geyser of mire and blue mist, as Scrivener Blooms leapt high into the air in full Tyrant Wyrm glory, the corruption his body was coated with already hardening into bladed armor. He rotated his body with all of Luna's grace and skill as he continued to draw on her strength and mind, then dove straight down into the messy, broken shell that concealed the pony core of the terrible monstrosity no more.
Scrivener Blooms slammed full-on into the melted-monster that had once been Thesis with all the strength he could muster, ripping straight through the center of the suspended platform like it was paper. He fell, shoving the screaming monster in front of him, nothing but a gelatinous mass of mire with a vague pony-shape sticking up of its top that still had Andlitstingar buried through it, their fall followed by a streaming tail of dark ooze until they smashed into the cement ground far below and Scrivener felt his bones crack as he bounced off the crushed monster, rolling to the side.
And above, Luna didn't even wince at the pain as she drew Prúðbikkja back, taking aim at Antithesis as he lay in the middle of his own lake of mire, dark rain falling all around him before the Valkyrie shouted: “May Odin's spirit grant thee mercy!”
She slung the spear down, and it streaked like a falling star through the air, leaving a trail of lightning in its wake before it ripped squarely through the skull of the insane, raving monster below. His head snapped back as he gurgled once, his sightless eyes staring upwards as he gave one weak, shuddering rasp, spears thrumming in both his chest and skull.
And then, slowly, the monster melted out of existence, as Luna sailed slowly, gradually downwards to join Scrivener Blooms. She landed as the Tyrant Wyrm carefully stood, shaking his armored body slowly out before looking up at all that remained: a lake of dark, mindless corruption, laying across the cement in front of a monolithic machine.
The two traded faint smiles, their eyes locking before Luna leaned up and Scrivener met her lips gladly: it was an awkward moment, yet still a shared kiss that sent thrills through them both before they parted. They breathed slowly in and out, then turned their eyes back over the mire... and then Scrivener couldn't help but stare when Hecate's head fell from above with a yell, slapping loudly down into the mire and bouncing through the dark ooze.
The head of the mare snarled with disgust, and Scrivener and Luna both stared at her... then they threw their heads back and laughed loudly as Hecate only rolled her eyes and muttered in contempt: “I'm laying in my dead son's remains. Yes. That's hilarious.”
“Thou art laying in the remains of a monster, Hecate, I... I am sorry to say that...” Luna smiled faintly, trading a look with Scrivener Blooms. “Thy son died a long time ago.”
Hecate didn't respond, only looking upwards before Scrivener and Luna turned their eyes towards the monolithic machine, studying it. And then Scrivener frowned in surprise: while the tall, ominous obelisk drew the eye first, shaped like a stone needle with red, alien runes distorting its silvery face, it was what was locked onto the box-like machinery and the large, crystalline sphere in the center of the device that quickly drew their attention.
A steel cane with a handle shaped like a snarling dragon's head was locked on one side by vise grips, and some kind of staff was on the other. There were at least a dozen glowing rings, several of which Scrivener recognized, and a set of beautiful onyx prayer beads protected inside the machine's glass orb cage, as Scrivener whispered: “Those beads belonged to Allonym...”
Hecate smiled wryly as the winged unicorn and the Tyrant Wyrm strode slowly into the bog of mire, both grimacing a little but not seeing any other way across the room as they approached. “Yes. Thesis discovered that each bead contains coordinates of a different world... some perhaps even completely alien, somewhere on the other side of the universe. But one of those beads has the coordinates to the core reality hidden inside it... the Immeasurable Gyre is designed to teleport from world-to-world until it finds the origin. It has a massive amount of energy stored within, and draws more from the world around it... and is made with artifacts used to channel and augment magic and world-traveling. It just needs the right touch to activate it.”
“We should grab those prayer beads.” Scrivener muttered, and Luna nodded, the sapphire mare starting forwards, to clear the last twenty or so feet towards the Gyre... and then Scrivener felt the twitch inside himself, a frown crossing his muzzle before his eyes bulged and he grabbed at his head, as something horrible echoed throughout his mind.
Luna turned around, eyes widening, before something seized her and held her down, refusing to let her take another step. She felt a burning agony pierce deep into her skull, dropping her head forwards as her horn began to glow brightly, before Nightmare Moon hissed into her ear: No, Luna Brynhild. Relax. This is all according to plan.
Scrivener howled in misery, grabbing at his face as the armor over his body turned back into dark sludge before spilling off his form, as his scales rippled and his body filled with agony. And worse than the pain was the mess of emotions ripping through his mind, as every bad memory rose to the surface and became one awful storm, as he felt the guilt and suffering Ersatz had put him through all over again, heard Underbrush's scorn and contempt, remembered how he and Luna had been reduced to monsters and how they were all useless worthless stupid broken freaks and his father, oh no, his father was... was...
His eyes turned amber, his expression twisted into a crazed grin, and then Scrivener Blooms leaned forwards and began to rasp the Black Verses even as dark ooze started to run from his eyes, his mouth, his nose, sweated out of his body: “All ends and begins in the Void, all must bow to it; hail the beginning in destruction, hail as we are reborn in broken flesh, hail the coming of the King of Everything, as Everything becomes Nothing...”
Scrivener's head wrenched back and forth, and then his body transformed, scales peeling from his form and blood bursting out of his pores even as he vomited a stream of cancerous ooze into the mire, shuddering and howling in agony before he finally choked on his own black blood and collapsed backwards, looking broken and half-skinned as Luna shrieked the stallion's name. And yet even as the same agonies ran through her, she couldn't move, felt her magic being focused outwards as Nightmare Moon stroked soothingly over her back even as the malicious creature kept her pinned, whispering: Good girl. Good girl... it's almost over... it is a necessary evil...
The mire was humping up, twisting, distorting, as flakes of ice and crystal began to form through it. It began to assume a strange, terrible, and familiar shape as Hecate trembled in the dark sludge, and Scrivener weakly rose his head, tears running down his cheeks as he whimpered and stared blankly upwards, whispering weakly without even knowing why: “F-Father...”
Arms reached outwards to either side of a broad torso, a tail snapped behind the figure, and legs calmly anchored themselves as a head rolled on its shoulders... before features that were made of equal amounts ice and mire calmly twisted into a pleased grin, a hand of frost and snow slowly rubbing along its uneven but clearly-draconic muzzle before it spoke in charming, pleased tones: “At last.”
Amber eyes opened, and Valthrudnir threw his head back and laughed, raising his arms high before he clenched his claws into fists, looking up through the dribbles of black rain still spilling down from the grated platform above as he shouted: “I am greater than any Jötnar, than any other being to ever live in this wretched, miserable universe! I am eternal, invulnerable! I have returned!”
Valthrudnir laughed again, and then he reached down and picked up Scrivener Blooms by the throat, hauling him into the air as Luna stared in horror and the stallion gasped weakly, looking up at the Jötnar with disbelief. The stallion stared with absolute terror, whimpering weakly but with too much pain still ripping through his system to do anything else as the dragon looked down into his eyes with a cold smile. “It was a long, difficult journey in which I was forced to make... more accommodations than I would have preferred... but it seems my means have been justified by my ends. Perhaps I even deserve to be applauded... of course, you stupid little plebeians are so naïve and gullible that a victory over you is little to be proud of.”
Valthrudnir turned, flinging Scrivener to Luna's hooves, and the sapphire mare finally felt her body released from paralysis, coughing blood but only disregarding it as she leapt forwards, stumbling to Scrivener's side and looking down at him with horror as Valthrudnir looked at them with triumph on his features. “But I really should thank you... all of you, and I even include you in that, Hecate.”
The Jötnar stepped over to seize Hecate by her mane, yanking the head into the air as she stared up with a whimper at the dragon, the head shivering in terror as tears ran down her cheeks while Valthrudnir lightly pushed a finger against her nose, making her pendulum through the air. “Pathetic what you've become, really... less than a machine. More of an organic program... but I digress. I apologize, even... but all these years of playing nice, tucked away inside that idiot Nihete's skull, have left me feeling acerbic. I'm sure you understand.
“But without your spread legs and willing womb, I would not have had an heir like Thesis... who was half-Jötnar. Half me... my genetic material, and better yet, made with my Clay of Prometheus. The properties of which I know like no other.” Valthrudnir smiled coldly, then, disdainfully, he simply flung Hecate's head across the room to bounce loudly off the Immeasurable Gyre and fall to land on the metal base around it with another whimper. “How ironic. My greatest plan of all, and begun all because of the ridiculous need of you animals to reproduce. By whatever means necessary.”
He shook his head slowly, brushing absently at his own chest, then he stomped with distaste against the mire, continuing calmly: “Of course, the mire alone was not enough. I required a matching genetic sample: the Replicants may have a similar base, but few genetic similarities. I needed to modify Nihete's genes so that his cellular data would be able to interact with the cellular data that I knew would be left behind once Thesis was destroyed. I have to admit, that while it's pleasing he made such a foolish miscalculation that has made it even easier for me to secure a new body... I'm also disappointed. He must have begun suffering some kind of mental illness, or degenerative mental disease... I can think of no other reason he would have been so weak. So stupid.”
Luna looked up with a tremble, hugging Scrivener Blooms tight before she whispered: “Shut up. Silence thy mouth, foulest of cowards... weakest of beasts...”
Valthrudnir laughed quietly at this, leaning forwards and saying almost conversationally: “Are you really stupid enough to think that I would leave you a fighting chance, Valkyrie whore? That I would err again in my assumptions? No. I have spent these years learning about you detestable, stupid philistines from every angle... I have lived amongst your kind, so to speak. And I must say, I found it as disgusting and useless as I expected to. Friendship? Trust? You are nothing but naïve pack animals, fleshy mixes of basal instincts. And it was such a simple task to play with your minds once I put my plan into action...  mimicking your exorbitant emotions here, using a metaphor culled from the mind of Scrivener Blooms there. And it was almost as if you both desired to be tricked... desired to think that, for a moment, I was actually your friend. Maybe even a mentor. What an incredible depth of willful ignorance! All I ever truly wanted was to ensure you would slaughter Thesis for me, removing the barrier of his living mind from the equation so I could take over his remains and reconstitute!”
The Jötnar laughed again and shook his head slowly, before he calmly rose his hand, saying softly: “And Nihete's mind, vulnerable and trusting, was easy to overload with all the aversive sensory data he has accumulated over the years. And now, I am afraid I must renege on a deal I made with the disgusting parasite in your mind, Brynhild, to permit you all to become the first of my new servants. It would be much more logical... and satisfying... to simply crush you out of existence right now.”
“Wait...” Scrivener whispered, and Valthrudnir frowned as the stallion rasped and coughed weakly, trembling violently, feeling the mire beneath him trying to connect with him, trying to heal him... but failing for some reason. Valthrudnir had ripped his mind apart on the way out, shut down pieces of his body, left him mutilated inside and out... and yet all the same, Scrivener couldn't stop himself from asking weakly: “Why?”
Valthrudnir snorted in contempt, saying softly: “Because, Nihete. I do not care about you... I do not care about any of you. You are nothing but worthless, insignificant ants to me. Toys and dolls, to be used up and broken and discarded as I please. Are you still trying to live in your fairy tale, believe that I ever thought of myself as anything apart from the rightful ruler of this universe, ironically trapped inside the empty skull of a defunct creation?”
“Then why did you feel guilty earlier?” Scrivener Blooms asked quietly, and there was silence for a few moments before the stallion smiled faintly, the stallion coughing black blood before he looked up, rasping slowly in and out. “Then how did Nightmare Moon beat you...”
“She did not! Sometimes... sometimes sacrifices must be made, that is all!” Valthrudnir snarled, but his amber eyes flickered before he bared his icy fangs and said disgustedly: “I appeared to look weak in order to achieve this victory, this was all my doing, and the parasite was intelligent enough to recognize that when she grovelled at my feet for mercy... a mercy that I have modified to be a quick demise instead of an eternity of servitude. Goodbye, failed project, whore of Odin.”
Valthrudnir's hand clenched shut... and nothing happened. The Jötnar frowned at this, then snarled, leaning forwards as his eyes glowed, making the gesture again, and all Scrivener and Luna felt was a tickle before the Frost Giant snarled and gestured violently to the side... and the wall opposite all-but-exploded, tearing itself apart before he turned an incredulous look back towards the two ponies. “What have you cheating mortals done?”
Luna trembled before she felt a darkness flood through her mind, and she clenched her eyes shut... and when they opened, they were the eyes of Nightmare Moon. She smiled coldly, sliding her hooves slowly against Scrivener Blooms... and now, mire flooded up over him as her horn glowed, guiding it into his jaws, into his wounds, the stallion gargling but then clenching his eyes shut as he did his best to swallow back, feeling it restoring his strength... making him stronger, as power fed between himself and Luna with their link. “Foolish Jötnar child. Yes, we have tasted your powers and put them to our own use through the soul link. We let you in and played the submissive because it served our interests, not yours, oh mighty Lord Valthrudnir. And now you have removed your fragile spirit from our bodies, and stand before us, physical and incomplete and unable to destroy us with a thought, a puppetmaster with no puppets to hide behind. Now we will break open your feeble shell, and take your powers for ourselves. We shall devour you.”
The mare shuddered... and then Nightmare Moon's presence receded into Luna's mind, laughing in pleasure the whole time before the sapphire mare snarled and stood up. And slowly, Scrivener Blooms forced himself to his own hooves, looking down before he spat to the side, feeling his energy returning, the corruption boiling in his blood.
Luna firmly snapped her horn, and Prúðbikkja shot past the Jötnar to ready beside her, ponies glaring at dragon, the dragon glaring back before he suddenly grinned and straightened, eyes burning as he whispered: “Yes. It's better this way, in any event. Now we can match wits and strength, and I can prove my superiority to you weaklings in every single way. I may no longer be able to affect you directly with your cheating inoculation to my powers... but I can still destroy you both with ease. And you are both wounded and weak, and all the powers I gave Nihete have been taken away from him.”
The winged unicorn only snorted and Scrivener leaned forwards with his teeth bared, before Valthrudnir smiled coldly, raising a hand: “Let's play a game.”
He snapped his fingers, and there was a tremendous burst of energy from behind the two, Luna and Scrivener looking over their shoulders in shock as the runes over the face of the Immeasurable Gyre all lit up brightly, the crystalline orb that contained the prayer beads beginning to thrum with power. Scrivener turned with a snarl on instinct as Luna leapt forwards, her horn glowing before she flicked it firmly backwards, and Andlitstingar shot from the ground towards Valthrudnir's back.
Without losing his cold smile, the dragon simply twisted his body slightly to the side, the spear shooting past before he snatched it out of the air, spun it around gracefully as he rose it high, and then flung it sharply at the sapphire mare. Luna snarled, but her eyes flashed fearlessly, and the spear twisted itself past her before she lunged straight down at Valthrudnir-
The dragon was gone, and Luna barely had the time to process this before the ice-and-mire Jötnar appeared with a crackle of energy between the Immeasurable Gyre and Scrivener Blooms, laughing as he punted the stallion viciously in the chest and sent him crashing backwards. “Pathetic philistines! I don't even have to try!”
The Gyre was powering up, and Luna shot forwards with a curse as Valthrudnir spread his arms, grinning as he mocked: “I'll do my best not to destroy you foolish plebeians before we reach the core reality... I want you both to witness my triumph over that pathetic fool, Odin!”
Scrivener roared like a wounded animal as he scrabbled to his hooves and ran forwards, and Valthrudnir only snapped his fingers, several enormous blades of ice ripping out of the ground in front of the stallion. Scrivener was barely able to fling himself to the side, rolling out of the way as the Jötnar calmly waved his other hand outwards, creating a wall of energy that blocked the blast of lightning Luna shot at him before the mare smashed into his barrier with a curse.
She ran quickly up the wall of energy as spikes and blades ripped out of it, the Jötnar grinning and following her with his eyes... making it all the more insulting when he caught Scrivener Blooms by the face in mid-leap and simply yanked him into the air, holding him at shoulder level by the head without even paying attention to him. The stallion shouted curses at the dragon as he flailed wildly, while Luna leapt over the barrier, brimming with rage-
And then the Immeasurable Gyre rumbled, and time slowed to a crawl, everything moving in slow motion for a moment, distracting the Jötnar and surprising the ponies before both the monolithic machine and the four nearby vanished from sight.
They reappeared in a crackle of energy, and immediately Luna choked, floating stupidly in dark emptiness as Scrivener's own eyes bulged. Valthrudnir, meanwhile, looked back and forth in disgust at star-studded space above them, while the head of Hecate only shivered in terror.
Then Valthrudnir reached up and seized Luna by the throat before flinging her downwards, bouncing her off the ivory, crater-covered surface of what could only be the moon. The sapphire mare gargled, eyes rolling in her head as blood ran from her mouth, her nose, her ears, and Valthrudnir laughed before he mocked them... or at least attempted to, through the near-soundless air.
Scrivener convulsed weakly in the grip of the Jötnar, and after a moment the dragon simply smiled cruelly and released him, easily shoving him away. He floated more than fell backwards until he hit the floor of the moon with a puff, and Valthrudnir calmly snapped his fingers before his voice sounded clearly and derisively to them: “I think I'll just sit back and enjoy watching you stupid plebeians struggle against the impossibility of-”
Luna's horn glowed brightly, and translucent bubbles of air appeared around both her and Scrivener Blooms, shielding them as the winged unicorn gasped for breath. She glanced up and saw her spears were both listlessly sailing through the air, and she immediately snapped her horn to the side, Andlitstingar folding down to lock securely into her holster and Prúðbikkja taking up its loyal position beside her as Valthrudnir snarled in disgust. “Of course. Cheating.”
Luna only snarled at this, as the moon pulsed beneath her feet, feeding her strength. The stars glittered, shining their healing light over her body as she set herself and snapped her horn outwards, sending a blast of pure force at Valthrudnir.
The Jötnar was knocked back against the obelisk with a grunt, then he snarled and replied with a gesture that sent several massive arcs of electricity ripping through the air around the mare. Luna snapped her horn out, repelling the serpents of lightning as Prúðbikkja absorbed several of the wild arcs, before she snapped her head upwards to send a massive blade of lightning straight at the Jötnar.
Valthrudnir blocked it with one limb, cursing in fury, distracted... and Scrivener Blooms managed to slam both his rear hooves into the Jötnar's knee, knocking him to a crouch with a hiss of surprise before the stallion jumped upwards, seizing the back of Valthrudnir's skull and slamming him face-first down into the surface of moon.
Then the stallion leapt backwards – going much further a little slower than intended – as Luna arched her back with roar, a pillar of moon-rock ripping upwards and launching the dragon flying upwards with a shout of disbelief before Luna snarled and shouted: “The moon is my servant, fool!”
Luna arched her back, roaring, and a bright glow spread through the rock beneath them before a wave of raw power shot outwards, hammering into Valthrudnir and knocking him out of the thin atmosphere. Both Scrivener Blooms and Luna looked up with shock before something tingled in Luna's senses... and she turned around too little, too late, to avoid Valthrudnir stomping savagely down on her.
Scrivener howled in pain as well, arching his back as the Jötnar snarled in fury, several pieces of ice and hardened mire floating around him as he rose his foot and snapped: “Pathetic little pack-mule, did you-”
Prúðbikkja suddenly drove backwards, hammering into Valthrudnir's stomach and knocking him off balance in the low gravity, and then Luna leapt forwards, carrying her spear with her before her eyes widened as her attention was drawn towards the Gyre as it powered up. Scrivener was already running towards it, but the mare drew her spear back, knowing that at any cost... they had to stop Valthrudnir from reaching the core world.
The dragon only snarled and sharply rose a hand, however, and ice rapidly spread upwards from the ground, snaring around Luna's form and seizing around her spear, crushing and pinning her in place as she gasped. He grinned, then rose both hands, preparing to finish her, but before he could, the Immeasurable Gyre gave another pulse, vanishing and taking them through reality with it.
They reappeared in the middle of an asphalt street in a city: but this was no Canterlot, and almost certainly not even Equestria. The buildings looked like they were made of metal and glass and stretched to the sky, and there were metal, mechanical carriages of some kind parked and skidding to a halt in shock at the appearance of the ponies and Jötnar.
The ice shattered around Luna as Valthrudnir looked back and forth with disgust, and Scrivener stared stupidly at one of the inhabitants of this world: a strange, bipedal creature talking rapidly on some kind of likely magic-powered device as he pointed wildly at them. Luna was just as stunned, memories stirring in her mind and confusing her further, and Valthrudnir took the moment of confusion to reach out and seize a nearby machine, hefting it easily above his head and ignoring the now-screaming person inside.
The cries of the strange creatures all around them were what drew Luna and Scrivener's attention back to what was happening, and the mare turned around just in time to watch in shock as Valthrudnir flung one of the metal carriages at her. But with a snarl, Luna leapt up and caught it against her front hooves by its steel roof, flapping her wings hard as she flexed with a gasp before redirecting the yellow-painted metal machine straight down.
It landed with a heavy thud on its wheels, and Luna crashed down on the roof with a snarl as Valthrudnir pointed at her and challenged coldly: “How about you cease your cheating, Valkyrie whore, and see if you can match yourself against me properly?”
Luna bared her fangs at this challenge, and then she leapt forwards and shot straight at Valthrudnir, Prúðbikkja beside her. The dragon only grinned coldly though, his amber eyes glinting as he made a wide waving motion with one hand, and the glass wall of one building erupted in a massive typhoon of deadly shards, Luna's eyes widening before she snarled as the tidal wave of glass tore past and over her and became a cyclone, even as her mane spread out to try and shield her body and wings.
Scrivener cursed, sprinting down the sidewalk and making a run straight for Valthrudnir despite the cuts forming over his body as the dragon laughed and loitered down the street, mockingly unconcerned as the cyclone of glass lashed and twisted around Luna. He glanced up casually as one of the female creatures tried to run past him, catching her by the hair and yanking her backwards by this before turning with a cruel grin and flinging the creature into the air.
She screamed, and Scrivener's eyes were automatically drawn to her before he leapt up over one of the metal carriages, throwing himself through the air towards her, reaching out... and Valthrudnir snapped his claws with a cold smile. The creature simply exploded in a hail of boiling blood and bone shards, hitting Scrivener like a shotgun blast and knocking him crashing down to the pavement as he howled in agony.
“That's what happens when you try to save lesser creatures, beings you have no affiliation with whatsoever!” Valthrudnir called calmly, ignoring the wet sound of Luna's body finally hitting the pavement beneath the storm of glass still whirling through the air. Instead, the dragon put his hands behind his back and leaned forwards to look through the window of what seemed like tailor's, studying an expensive black suit with a bright red tie that was out on display.
The dragon smiled slightly as his eyes flashed, and then he simply turned and looked calmly down at the suit that was now covering his body, a perfect, enlarged reproduction of the suit he had been studying as he spread his arms. “What do you think?”
He looked up, and saw Luna leaping at him too late to react, the mare kicking against his body and slamming her soulstone horn against his chest, ripping the lapels of his suit but doing little damage further as she kicked off his body and made him stumble. The Jötnar snarled in disgust, then frowned at Luna's grin before his eyes widened as he realized too late the mare hadn't been trying to hurt him: she had just transfigured the material of suit.
Luna snapped her horn upwards, sending a spark of lightning at him, and the moment it touched Valthrudnir's suit the material burst into bright white flames. The Jötnar shouted, then cried out in horror as the ice that made up his body began to melt as the mire to turn to brittle clay, cursing and snarling as he clawed wildly at the cloth-turned-magnesium.
The sapphire mare began to cock her spear back as Scrivener leapt up to his hooves... and then, in a flash from the Immeasurable Gyre, they all vanished, reappearing in no city but instead on the lip of an enormous volcano.
Valthrudnir staggered at the edge of the lava, pinwheeling his limbs and no longer burning, as Luna and Scrivener both stumbled, looking back and forth in shock: there was little more than a wide ledge here, with barren, rocky waste to one side and nothing but a lake of magma to the other. Not an environment good for any of them, before Luna's sharp eyes widened as Valthrudnir leaned forwards and grabbed at a shoulder that looked like a chunk had neatly been sliced out of it. That meant there likely was a maximum distance they could be from the Gyre, so-
Valthrudnir interrupted her thoughts with a snarl of rage, lashing his hand to the side, and a massive wave of magma burst upwards over the lip of stone. Scrivener cursed and staggered backwards, just avoiding being burnt to a crisp as Luna shot upwards, then snapped her horn down to shoot a fireball into the ground in front of Valthrudnir.
A powerful explosion ripped through the air, knocking Valthrudnir staggering and kicking up some of the magma, sending it splashing over the Jötnar as he cursed in frustration before snapping an arm outwards. And immediately, ice rippled violently outwards over the molten lava, widening the safe zone into a large island. “Why won't you just die?”
Valthrudnir snapped a hand upwards, and a massive pillar of magma exploded upwards through the safe zone he had just created before bending itself to shoot straight at Luna. The mare hurriedly shot to the side with a curse, zigzagging through the air as Scrivener turned to run for the Immeasurable Gyre, but the Jötnar caught the charcoal stallion's movements in the corner of his eye and he snarled in fury, making a sharp sweeping motion.
The ledge in front of Scrivener Blooms exploded, a massive gush of magma ripping through it and sending the stallion staggering backwards as he was pelted by burning stone shrapnel, gasping in pain. Some of the lava splashed up over the machine, charring into it and causing the crystalline sphere to crack as Valthrudnir shouted with disgust: “I thought we had a rule about cheating, Ni-”
Prúðbikkja tore into the ice beneath Valthrudnir's feet, and the dragon looked down in dumb surprise before the speartip released a concentrated blast of force and energy, launching itself into the air and ripping apart the ground beneath Valthrudnir. He fell through the gap into the magma, barely managing to catch the edge of the hole as he snarled in frustration and fury, clawing wildly at the island of ice before he looked up as Luna began to shoot down towards him to finish him off.
His amber eyes flashed as he snarled, and a psychokinetic blast slammed into the mare, knocking her backwards with a gasp to crash down on the island of ice and bounce over it. And Valthrudnir roared in fury, raising a fist before he slammed it savagely downwards, sending cracks ripping towards the mare through the surface of the icy island and shattering almost a quarter of it into pieces that rapidly began to melt away, as fire and slag vomited up through the widening cracks.
Luna cursed, and the mare barely managed to fling herself upwards and out of harm's way in time, her wings flapping as Valthrudnir snarled in frustration before the Jötnar hauled his melting body upwards, before glaring at Luna as he heard the Gyre gearing up, hissing: “You're running out of time.”
Scrivener gritted his teeth as he looked over his shoulder, and Luna floated for a moment, half-hidden in the steam coming up from the melting ice as Valthrudnir rasped for breath, his body burning and cracking before the dragon added darkly: “And I am running out of patience.”
There was a tremble through the world, and then a flash as they vanished... and the monolith, ponies, and Jötnar reappeared in a world of ice, surrounded by a whipping blizzard, massive peaks of frost all around them. Valthrudnir slowly picked himself up from the crouch he had appeared in, as the fires over his body whiffed out... but even as his ice-and-mire body healed, Scrivener saw something was wrong with it. It was malformed, damaged... it gave him hope.
Valthrudnir snarled as Luna dropped to the ground, the mare readying Prúðbikkja: he glared into their souls, breathing hard in and out as they stood at the ready, tasting the freezing air, welcoming the ice after the deadly heat that had baked them in the volcano, before the Jötnar gestured around them and shouted furiously over the howling winds of the blizzard: “Why do you insist on trying to fight, pathetic little failures? Both of you are traitors and broken toys, discarded by your former masters, and I? I am the master of the workshop, I am beyond any god, I can make anything I want reality!”
Valthrudnir snapped his arms to either side with the last, and both ponies staggered backwards in shock as massive figures of armored knights and terrible monsters ripped out of the ground around them, weapons and bodies made from solid, ruthless frost. One of the ice golems stepped forwards, swinging an axe viciously down at Luna, and the mare leapt backwards before she slammed a blow into the neck of the weapon, shattering it before she snapped her horn upwards and blew the upper body of the golem into shards.
And yet more attacked, an icy chimera diving at Scrivener Blooms, and the stallion barely leaping over it to kick off its back and tackle a minotaur of frost backwards, crushing its face beneath his hooves even as Valthrudnir continued to rage: “Do you not understand that none of this has any point? In a moment, with a single breath, I could destroy you! Your entire universe is meaningless and I am attempting to fix that, to create meaning... it is not my fault that first your stupid kind has to be eradicated, because none of you can even think, let alone evolve!”
A spear of ice stabbed towards Luna, and the mare parried it with her own before ramming a quick stab through the stomach of the golem wielding it, then she spun around and smashed Prúðbikkja across the skull of a dire wolf of frost, shattering its head into countless broken pieces. It bounced once against the ground before Luna leapt forwards, scooping it up with telekinesis to fling it into the face of another gigantic knight of ice, knocking it sprawling backwards.
“There is no hope! There is no meaning to this worthless struggle! Thesis was only correct about one thing: you are nothing but flesh and chemical reactions, you are barely even real life, nothing but... the whims and amalgamations, the miserable magnum opus of pathetic little gods who made themselves superior by pasting together little toys like you flesh-puppets and programmed them to think they all had free will...”
Scrivener Blooms snarled as a fist slammed into his face, staggering backwards before the ice troll seized him by the face and yanked him into the air, but the stallion quickly seized the creature's wrist of frost and swung himself forwards, kicking both rear hooves as hard as he could into the face of  the golem and crunching its head in, ripping himself free and knocking it in a sprawl. He flipped his body as he fell, landing with a curse on all fours.
“I am showing you kindness by exterminating your kind! Mercy! But you expect me to show you tolerance and friendship and respect? Why? I am superior, and you are nothing but stupid animals who only react between fight or flight instincts, who cannot overcome their natural, sickening drives, who are nothing but a disease that idiot Odin has spread throughout this sick and stupid universe!”
Luna and Scrivener leapt back to back, breathing hard and both glaring to either side, the mare with her spear raised, the stallion with his teeth grit and claws flexing against the snow. Blood ran from wounds across both their bodies as they were encircled by countless monsters of all shape and size of ice, before Valthrudnir strode forwards and shoved through the crowd, snarling in fury before he held up a hand. “Show me a single reason I should respect you worthless bacteria I can cleanse with a snap of my fingers.”
The Gyre rumbled, and there was a flash before they vanished, reappearing inside an empty church. The obelisk stretched almost to the roof in this small building and the massive steel base took up most of the front, and Valthrudnir looked back and forth with surprise at the pews, Luna and Scrivener only a few feet away down the nave before Luna leapt forwards in this moment of vulnerability and slammed a hoof into the dragon's icy face.
He staggered backwards, and Scrivener ran after the Jötnar, doing what his instincts told him to do as Luna began to slam blow after blow into Valthrudnir's features, sending him stumbling down the nave before Scrivener leapt up and twisted his body around in midair, slamming both rear hooves viciously into the dragon's waist and knocking him crashing through the front wall of the small church.
He was flung out into the streets of a busy little town, ponies yelling in surprise before Valthrudnir shouted in fury and pain as Prúðbikkja slammed down through his chest, pinning him to the ground before Luna slammed both rear hooves viciously down into the giant's chest, then began to simply pummel away as fiercely and viciously as she could with her front hooves as Scrivener leapt up onto the dragon's body and joined her in smashing blows, hitting the Jötnar's breast and stomach to fracture his body and send up splatters of mire.
Then Valthrudnir slapped Luna fiercely away, knocking her crashing into a nearby cart full of hay before he ripped the spear out of his body and batted Scrivener Blooms with it as hard as he could. The charcoal stallion was launched flying back into the church, hitting the ground and rolling violently almost all the way to the Gyre before Valthrudnir stood and flung the spear viciously after the stallion. “Stupid, idiotic, worthless animals! I'll kill all of you!”
Valthrudnir roared to the skies, and ponies fled, screaming, as spikes of ice and frost tore out of the earth, beginning to spread through the dirt and up along the walls of houses, crushing wood and shattering windows. Lightning blasted down from the skies in all directions, turning the hay cart that Luna had been thrown into to a massive blaze, alighting the nearby hooves, blowing the ponies struck by the bolts of lightning into pieces as the dragon clenched his hands into fists. “I will tear you pathetic plebeians apart! I will rip your limbs from your bodies and-”
The burning cart was launched off the ground by the pony behind it and slammed into the Frost Giant, knocking him staggering backwards before Luna snapped her horn forwards, hammering the dragon's features with a blue fireball as she grinned viciously. Valthrudnir was knocked flat by this, and then he roared in even greater fury, able to think of nothing else but killing the winged unicorn.
Luna concentrated on dodging back and forth, while Scrivener Blooms worked away inside the church. The dragon flung missiles of ice at her, flung bolts of lightning, temper-tantrumed with his magic as he roared insults and curses and swore revenge until he looked up in shock at the sound of the Gyre gearing up and realized- “Wait!”
Valthrudnir began to turn towards the church, and Luna shot down before kicking savagely off his face, knocking him reeling as she launched herself neatly through the collapsed front wall of the church and spun around, skidding to a halt at the end of the nave just as Valthrudnir began to scramble into the church, head and amber eyes widening in horror. Too late, he saw Scrivener Blooms grinning – his own creation, grinning at him, declaring victory over him! – as Hecate's head looked coldly out of the center of the Immeasurable Gyre in place of the broken and removed crystal sphere, and she calmly mouthed two choice words to the dragon.
There was a flash, and they vanished... and reappeared with a shockwave back in Endworld, in the room at the top of the tower of Etemenanki, the Immeasurable Gyre settling back into place as Hecate screamed with the recoil that blasted through the monolith behind her, the machine screaming as lightning sizzled down Prúðbikkja, and the reverberations of energy traveled through the spear and back into the monolith.
There was a terrible tremor for a moment, all eyes turning to watch as cracks spread through the obelisk before it erupted in a small but tremendously-focused explosion, dissolving the stone almost completely. And Prúðbikkja was flung into the air, flipping once before Scrivener Blooms snarled and made a wild leap for the weapon as Luna looked up sharply, seeing the same thing Scrivener did: their chance.
Valthrudnir was only staring, limbs hanging limply, watching as all his plans fell to pieces around him. He felt numb, unable to react, as Scrivener seized the spear as it burst into bright blue flames, before the stallion leaned forwards in midair, putting all his strength and momentum into throwing the spear as Luna snapped her horn forwards to add all the strength she could, the weapon shooting like lightning through the air and slamming home into the Jötnar's chest.
He staggered backwards, black mire vomiting out of his jaws as his arms reached uselessly up, part of his chest crumpling inwards. And even as Scrivener landed, he was already reaching up as Luna ran forwards before Scrivener's claws locked around one of her forelegs, and he dragged her around in a satellite swing as she sprinted as fast as she could with him before he flung her after the spear.
She shot towards the Jötnar almost as fast as her weapon had, before flipping at the last moment and slamming a vicious kick into the butt of the polearm as hard as possible. It shot completely through Valthrudnir as it erupted with fire and lightning, launching to the other side of the room and burying almost all the way into the metal wall as an explosion of force and sapphire flames tore the air.
Luna was flung backwards by the shockwave with a curse, and Scrivener leapt up immediately, catching the sapphire mare with a grunt before they both hit the ground and stumbled, falling into ready positions side by side. They both stood proud, breathing hard, scalded and wounded and burned, but never hopeless, never giving up, never stopping until the job was finished.
Valthrudnir gargled weakly, then he looked slowly down and shook his head in denial, almost whimpering at the sight of half of his arm laying on the ground. His stump of shoulder leaked black mire in a flood as he cursed under his breath, and his remaining hand convulsively grabbed at his torso... or rather, the enormous hole where more than a quarter of his body had been blown completely away. He coughed black mire, then whispered weakly, trembling violently: “I-Impossible... n-not... this is not possible... can... not... happen...”
“Game over.” Scrivener said quietly, and Valthrudnir stared with disbelief at him before the stallion rose his head and added coldly: “This time, stay gone.”
“There is no return this time, Valthrudnir. And even if thou does, no matter how many times thou tries to refute death... we shall send thee back to the waiting reaper, and to the Void where thou belongs.” Luna added sharply, her blue-fire mane snapping backwards as she and Scrivener readied themselves. “Now pray. Pray, and die. For thou cannot reach the Core World, thou cannot fight, thou cannot even save thyself. We have done more than stop thee... we have beaten thee, and thou knows it.”
“N-No... no!” Valthrudnir snarled in fury, and then he gave a cracked, twisted grin as he rose his head, shouting furiously: “No, I will not be defeated... I will never be defeated, I will never lose, and I will not be insulted and mocked by two pathetic little ponies who do not understand that if I cannot fix this universe... then I will simply erase this universe from all of existence!”
Valthrudnir rose his hand and snapped his fingers, and there was a terrible ripple in reality behind him before the air shattered like glass, the fragments sucked back into an awful, empty tunnel in space and time. Scrivener and Luna both stared in horror, eyes widening as they felt it already beginning to drag them in, the blank, empty hole in reality greedily beginning to devour anything and everything around it.
“Thou art a fool! Thou will... that is the Void!” Luna shouted, dragging herself backwards as Scrivener winced and cursed, looking in horror upon something he'd never imagined seeing, something his eyes still couldn't process, that threatened him with madness: pure, hungry nothing. “It will consume thee as well!”
“It will rip apart all of reality, and then the next, and then the next, until all the layers are destroyed! And we'll have eternity together in the Void to celebrate my victory and your defeat, because you worthless, stupid plebeians are nothing to me!” Valthrudnir replied almost gleefully, his eyes burning with hatred and insanity. “The Jötnar already know what Thesis knew... there's no Heaven or Hell for us! There's no true rule but power, there is no punishment beyond the grave for me any more than there is pleasure, only the empty, eternal Void, only being dissolved over eons particle-by-particle, and I can think of no others whom I would rather share that with!”
Scrivener and Luna both shoved themselves backwards as the suspended platform above was torn off its chains, several massive metal links following, but all of these were only dragged hungrily into the gaping hole leading into the Void as Valthrudnir laughed harshly. “This is my ultimate victory, and I realize that I should have done this from the start, with how-”
He was cut off as a hand slammed down on his shoulder, and Scrivener and Luna looked up in shock, watching as Valthrudnir went silent. His amber eyes were wide as he slowly, disbelievingly turned to stare with a tremble at the spirit behind him... no, the spirits. There had to be five, six, all of them terribly tall, only the vaguest of shapes of what looked like pure energy before Valthrudnir whispered: “No... that's... that's not p-p-possible...”
“Jötnar only have the Void to go to. Jötnar do not die. We've been waiting for you.” rasped the spirit behind Valthrudnir, and the dragon screamed before he turned and tried to run. The spirits let him take a few steps, and then they swarmed in behind him, leaping onto him and seizing the dragon, beginning to drag him back towards the portal as the lead spirit only shook its head slowly and said in a disappointed voice: “Welcome back, Valthrudnir. We have some things to talk about.”
“Help me!” Valthrudnir shrieked, clawing wildly at the ground as one of his legs was torn off, yanked upwards into the portal to the Void as the spirits vanished from sight... and yet still Valthrudnir was dragged up towards the hollow in reality, the dragon screaming in terror as black tears ran down his cheeks, grabbing madly at the floor for purchase, kicking, trying to yank himself away even as more pieces of ice and mire-flesh were torn from him and hurled into the Void. “Help me help me help me, please! Please! Please help me! Don't let them get me, oh please, please don't let them take me!”
The last cut off into a long, terrible scream as Valthrudnir's body shattered, leaving only a gaunt, terrified spirit behind that was yanked cruelly up through the air and dragged into the white hole in reality... and a moment later, it was simply gone, like it had never been there in the first place, leaving the world still and calm and silent.
Scrivener Blooms and Luna Brynhild both breathed roughly in and out, still staring in disbelief at what they had just seen. Neither could speak, neither could even think, before there was a quiet flicker between them, and both ponies glanced silently to  see the shade of Twilight Sparkle smiling faintly, nodding once reassuringly to them before she reached up and hugged them both around the neck.
They closed their eyes, lowering their heads, feeling the embrace for a moment before the spirit faded quietly out of sight, and the two ponies turned to smile faintly at each other. They leaned towards each other, sharing a short, quiet kiss before parting and sharing small smiles, and then Hecate murmured quietly from the Gyre: “You actually destroyed him.”
Scrivener and Luna both looked towards her curiously, and Hecate snorted in disgust and spat to the side before muttering: “Good riddance.”
“Aye. I could not have put it better myself.” Luna sighed softly, then she and Scrivener Blooms traded faint smiles before they nodded a little to each other, before the sapphire mare grinned wryly and said in a relieved, almost-amazed voice: “And now, home awaits.”
Hecate laughed shortly at this, then asked wryly: “Oh really? You think it's that easy?” This earned a frown from both the ponies, and Hecate explained moodily: “Endworld was disconnected from all other worlds many, many years ago. You can't use your stupid Bifrost to get between layers here. And Thesis, thinking it would prevent you from reaching here, had all the point-to-point portals destroyed. So I guess we're roommates. Yippee.”
Luna scowled at this, and Scrivener winced a little before the sapphire mare reached up and touched her horn, whispering: “We lost the portal flare, Scrivener Blooms... and I cannot force open the Bifrost with my horn, I... oh damnation, then how...”
“May I make a suggestion?” asked a polite voice, and Scrivener and Luna both looked up in surprise to see Kismet was calmly striding towards them, Prúðbikkja in one claw. Both Scrivener and Luna couldn't help but grin at this, looking up at the death entity with relief as he looked kindly down at them. “Not that I wish to impose, but I would be more than happy to offer my services and help you go back home. I owe you much, after all.”
The two ponies traded looks, then Luna grinned widely over at Hecate, and the head cursed in frustration as she was firmly yanked free from the Gyre by telekinesis before Luna took Prúðbikkja from Kismet with a wink. “Nay, Kismet, that is far too generous of thee. We shall settle for bringing us to whatever world happens to be nearest. Scrivener Blooms and I could use a short vacation, and to get used to our new... friend, Hecate. Although perhaps thou could see to ensuring this damned place is shut down and... the souls still in torment here are allowed to finally have their rest.”
“As you desire. But may I recommend sending a letter to your family and friends once you have the time, so they do not worry?” Kismet asked kindly, even as he calmly flicked one hand to the side, opening a rippling hole in reality with ease.
Luna and Scrivener both smiled up at the death entity as Hecate muttered under her breath, and then the sapphire mare nodded firmly and looked warmly over her shoulder at Scrivener Blooms. “Of course. 'Tis why I have a poet with me, Kismet. To make sure the heart never wanes.”
“And to have something to beat on.” Scrivener added mildly, and Luna laughed before she and Scrivener Blooms strode into the glowing vortex of light, fearless and unafraid, ready and proud to make their way back to their friends and family by their own efforts... because they both knew they had more than was worth dying for: they had people to live for.