Chapter 23
Knight POV (A few minutes prior to Super Nova’s unveiling)
My scout bird had just alerted me of Twilight Sparkle’s “demise” from the Clock Tower, and Project 64’s attempting to rescue her. I had to work quickly to make sure he couldn’t do anything, so I ran to the Throne Room, where Princess Celestia and Princess Luna resided. I barged in loudly, startling both Princesses. I readied myself for what I was about to say.
“Knight! What is the meaning of this intrusion?!” Celestia yelled. I looked up at her with a fake horror stricken face.
“Princess! I just got word from Ponyville! Project 64 has detonated explosives in the Ponyville Clock Tower! Word says Twilight was caught in the explosion!” I yelled, and the well-oiled gears of my plan start to turn. Celestia’s face froze in shock, eyes wide in terror and mouth opened in shock.
“Words say the explosion must have killed her, she was on top of the Clock Tower when it exploded! I have responders going to the scene immediately!” I lied. Of course there were no responders heading towards Ponyville, and especially not her blundering Brother. Luna looked at her sisters face, and saw the tears starting to form.
“Sister? We must calm down if we wish to get anything done about this. Let us request a chariot to travel to Ponyville as quickly as possible. Knight, ready a chariot for us!” Luna yelled at me. I didn’t care for her tone, so I simply stood there which a glare. Celestia still simply stared, the state of shock never leaving her body. I saw the tears stream down her face, and she stood from her throne. She took a few steps forward towards me, and stared.
I was wondering what she was doing, because I had only seen her like this once before, and she did the exact same thing as last time. She turned and walked towards the window, simply staring at the night sky. The tears were now never ending, simply flowing down as if they were two streams of continuous tears.
“WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE WHELP?! WE REQUESTED A CHARIOT FOR DIRECT TRAVEL TO PONYVILLE!” Luna yelled at me once again. I glared at her again, daring her to make another word. We both heard glass shattering, and turned to see the source of the noise. Celestia had smashed one of the stained glass windows with her head, lodging pieces of glass in her face and head. Blood rushed down her face and made her look absolutely menacing, and her tears had begun to… evaporate?
Steam started to form from her tears as she started to growl. Luna saw what was happening and rushed to stop her sister. But as Luna came forward to tackle Celestia, A beam of light came from Celestia’s horn, hitting Luna square in the chest. Luna was knocked back across the room, hitting the wall opposite of Celestia. I look in shock as I started to back away from Celestia. All of a sudden the room started to get hot, and I felt sweat starting to form on the surface of my face and body. The temperature was slowly rising, and I felt the need to just run away as fast as I could, as far as I could. Celestia turned towards my retreating form, and glared at me with eyes which were glowing like the sun. I shielded my eyes to prevent myself from blindness, but before I could even do that, an explosion blew me out of the room, through two walls before I came to a stop, flying into the side of a Royal Guard on patrol.
“Sir! What in Celestia name is going on?!” The Guard yelled at me.
“Celestia herself is what happening! Gather as many Guards in the Palace as you can…. And…. G-get m-me a medic……” I said, starting to feel the adrenaline rush from being blasted through the walls disappear, and I felt myself become nauseated, before I fell to the floor, passing out.
64 POV
The sweltering heat was starting to make me lose my mettle, and my knees were starting to shake.
“64! This heat isn’t just any regular heat! I’m getting readings of Solar Radiation coming off of Nova in small amounts! She’s taking energy directly from the Sun!” Vi yelled, voice slightly distorted.
Super Nova was Celestia’s version of Nightmare Moon, but was much more deadly and harder to defeat. Vi once told me that after Nightmare Moon’s imprisonment Celestia slowly started to give in to the Darkness, and nearly became a full version of Super Nova. Luckily, thanks to the last shred of feeling she had within her being, she was able to pull herself back from the Darkness. Vi had told me this story countless times, to tell me that no matter how bad things ever got, as long as we still had that last shred of feeling, we could continue forward.
It had looked like that last shred of feeling was now completely gone from Celestia’s being.
“Y-YOU… PROJECT 64... COME AND MEET YOUR DESTINY. COME TO MEET YOUR END!” Nova yelled at me. Her voiced sounded like Celestia, except it was deeper, and sounded more distorted. I didn’t know how to respond to her command, so I simply grabbed Twilight’s hoof and pulled her off of the ground, standing her up.
“She’s not dead! I saved her dammit! Why are you like this?!” I yelled back, feeling an intense dryness in my throat.
“SHE M-MIGHT NOT B-BE D-DEAD NOW! BUT ITS O-ONLY MATTER OF TIME B-BEFORE YOU TRY SOMETHING! B-BEFORE YOU DO KILL HER!” Nova yelled, shooting a fireball of magic at me.
I swung my Katana at the fireball, but when I deflected it and the ball disperse, I saw Super Nova was lunging directly at me. I jumped straight in the air and dodged her, before I hit the ground and looked up towards the 6 mares still standing there in shock.
“GO! GO! RUN AWAY! I’LL TRY TO STOP HER!” I yelled, swinging my hand at them motioning them to run away. I quickly put the blunt end of Peacemaker onto Twilight, and sent a pulse of magic through her, allowing me to track and locate her at a time in the future. For now I had this crazy Alicorn God to deal with, and she had the power of the sun at her control.
Glorious.
The mares ran off, with the Rainbow Pegasus swooping down and picking up Twilight off of her feet, and heading away from the ensuing battle. As soon as they were clear, I turned back towards Super Nova, and saw she was rushing at me with a Magical Sword in her telekinesis grasp. I bent backwards , pulling off a limbo style dodge before she came forward with a horizontal strike, nearly beheading me. I rolled forward, before turning and rushing towards Nova with a two handed stab. As I connected I looked up in awe. The blade simply struck the hard rock magma cover which surrounded Super Nova and didn’t penetrate an inch. I was then knocked back by a shove from Nova, and it was only then when I realized the heat which was radiating off of her.
Where she had shoved me back with her hoof, not only did I feel the intense heat make contact with me, I felt my flesh start to burn. I looked down and saw that not only was my shirt completely burned where she made contact, but the skin underneath it was reddened, and it stung like a bitch. I made a mental not to longer make contact with Super Nova, but how was I supposed to beat her? I couldn’t hurt her because of her molten rock armor, and I couldn’t be touched by her or else I’ll be burned to a crisp!
The heat certainly wasn’t helping me focus, and I barely caught that she was sending yet another fireball in my direction. I pulled a quick side step roll, and then I had to jump backwards to avoid the stab she was aiming for. I swung to parry the sword which she had extended, and knocked her off balance, desperately looking for a chink in her armor. I saw that her hooves were more molten than hard, so I quickly swung at her left forehoof, which was closest to me. Celestia bellowed in pain as the Katana struck her, send a small stream of what looked like magma blood spurting out, melting the concrete which it landed on.
I jumped backwards before she was able to slice me in two, grinning at my new knowledge of her weak spot. But my grin quickly diminished at the sight of her wound quickly closing up, and her getting into a fighting pose once again.
“Fuck me! You have regeneration too?!” I yelled, not expecting an answer. She gave none as she simply yelled in anger as she launched a stream of magma through her horn towards me, nearly catching me before I was able to dive roll away. I launched forward once again, meeting her sword in a block as we met face to face. I stared into her eyes as she was pushing against my sword with all her magical might, until she slowly started to advance upon me.
“YOU W-WILL BE DESTROYED PROJECT 64! I W-WILL END YOU!” Super Nova yelled in my face, nearly singeing my eyebrows with the temperature her words were shot out. I shoved forward and jumped back, before I once again swung vertically at Nova. She blocked we met blades, and I pulled back to continue with a sword combination. I swung downwards diagonally, then upwards diagonally, trying to push Super Nova until I was once again in control of the sword match. It worked as she was slowly being pushed back by all my strikes, trying to find in opening in my simple combo. As she prepared to block a downwards strike, I faked and swung towards her hooves again, slicing clean through it. She jumped back in pain, as I saw yet another perfect opening.
“Vi! Prepare the Rhyolite!” I yelled in my head, pulling out the crystal in question as I felt the power running through my hand. I crushed the Crystal and pointed it towards Super Nova.
“BLISTERING FROSTBITE!”
I shot a blast of freezing Ice towards Nova’s injured form, hoping it was enough as I watched the results. When the blast of Ice met with Super Nova, everything flashed white, blinding me for a few seconds. I heard Nova’s scream permeate through the town, and knew something had just happened. When my vision returned, I saw Super Nova was frozen from head to toe in solid ice.
“YES!” I screamed, pumping my fist in victory, “YEAH! NOT SO TOUGH ARE YOU NOVA?!”
I continued my jeers as some ponies came out of their houses, still scared of the events that just occurred. When they saw the defeated Super Nova, they too started to jump and cheer in joy, joyous that something had stopped the rampaging monster.
I continued to jump and shout, until I felt something hit my chest. I looked down, and saw a tendril of magic grab me around my chest, and slowly start to crush me. I looked where the magic was coming from, and saw a crack in the solid Ice sculpture of Super Nova, where the magic was shooting out of. The crowd of ponies screamed and ran back into their homes, scared from the premature celebrations.
“LET GO OF ME!” I yelled, pulling and cutting at the magical grasp. It wasn’t squeezing me very fast, but I knew I wanted to get out of this hold as quickly as I could. I continued to slice at the tendril, until I saw that the rest of Super Nova’s frozen body was starting to thaw, and would soon have me in its full grasp. I struggled quicker, hoping to get out of her hold before she got out of mine.
“YOU THINK THAT Y-YOUR LITTLE MAGIC SHARD W-WOULD BE ENOUGH TO STOP ME!? I AM SUPER NOVA! YOU C-CANNOT, AND WILL NOT STOP MY RULE!” She screamed as the ice melted from her mouth. I felt the magical grip suddenly tighten, crushing the air out of my lungs. I saw the light start to fade from my eyes, until I saw a Light Rose bolt of magic strike the now free Super Nova’s side, as she dropped me from her grasp.
“Think of that as thanks for before!” I heard a voice yell from behind me. I turned and saw Shining Armor in his battle armor with his horn glowing with magical aura.
I chuckled at his way of paying me back, before getting serious and looking toward Super Nova, who was now glaring at us.
“SHINING ARMOR! T-THE SO CALLED L-LOYAL CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD! HOW DARE YOU ATTACK ME! NOW SUBDUE THIS FUGITIVE FOR EXECUTION IMMEDIATELY!” Nova yelled at Shining, and he simply blew steam from his muzzle.
“I swore on my honor to defend Equestria from any and all threats, and right now, that threat is you!” Shining said, shooting yet another bolt of magic towards Super Nova.
“Shining! How the hell did you get here so quickly!?” I yelled, pulling out Peacemaker to switch from a Katana to a Gladius sword, much better for penetrating armor.
“I saw that flaming ball heading towards Ponyville, and knew whatever it was had something to do with Twilight! Speaking of which, where is she?”
I called Vi for my tracking locator on her, and saw her heading through the Everfree Forest towards the Castle Ruins, the location of the battle with Nightmare Moon.
“She’s heading through the Everfree Forest towards safety! She’s with the other 5 who helped defeat Nightmare Moon!” I yelled back, watching carefully as Super Nova stood her ground once again and started to advance.
“64! Go to her!” Shining yelled, confusing me.
“And leave you here?! I can’t!”
Shining looked towards me.
“GO NOW! THAT’S AN ORDER!” he yelled, confusing me. I wasn’t part of the Royal Guard. He shot a small bolt of magic at me, knocking me back and sticking a small pin to my long sleeve. I saw it was Celestia’s crest, and looked up at Shining Armor.
“THERE! NOW THAT’S AN ORDER!”
I stared in shock, before I ball of fire flew above both of us, startling us and forcing us to see Super Nova slowly advancing towards us.
“I’LL SEE YOU LATER!” I yelled to Shining Armor, charging my legs with a slight magical boost and speeding towards the Everfree, dodging a swipe from Super Nova as she tried to keep me back, but I saw Shining Armor blast her once again, making her focus on the Royal Captain. I hoped that he would be able to handle her, and continued to run towards the Forest.
“64, do you really think that He will be able to hold off Super Nova?” Vi asked worriedly.
“I hope so Vi, I hope so.”