//------------------------------// // Strife! // Story: My Little Crisis Core // by Mudkipman98 //------------------------------// Zack struggled to stand up, leaning on his sword for support. As his vision cleared, he managed to make out Twilight being taken away by several armored ponies and a white horse in full battle dress. Its wings glowed various colors while its horn glowed gold, possibly to control the magic in its wings. Its mane and tail flowed through the air and looked like a dynamic sunset as it rolled in the wind. "Is that a changeling?" Zack asked through gritted teeth, though he spoke to no one in particular. Regardless, he could tell that this pony was hostile, so he got into a ready stance and stared down his opponent, gathering as much information on the creature as he could from what he could see. It was much larger than any of the ponies or changelings he had seen so far and it wore an impressive set of armor, meaning that it was either some kind of special unit or a member of a royal family of sorts. It had a much longer horn than Twilight and it had a much greater wingspan as well. On its wings were long blades, each glowing a different color. Zack recognized the glow as that given off by materia when activated. Using this knowledge, he picked up that his enemy was equipped with fire, ice, lightning, poison, Cure, and esuna materia (that or just another Cure, but Zack found that redundant and assumed his enemy would too). He could also make out the greyish glow of Stone and Death materia. While Zack was focusing on gathering information, he had not realized that the large alicorn had been talking to him. "I said," spoke the pony in a harsh, female voice, "who are you?!" It yelled as its wings turned red and it fired off a large ball of fire. Zack dodged to his left just in time to avoid the flaming ball of gas that singed the air where he stood only a fraction of a second before. "Zack, SOLDIER first class!" he shouted back. "And you?" "Princess Celestia of Equestria," responded the now identified princess. "Why have you attacked my subjects?" "Attacked them?" shouted Zack as he let his sword sag, filling with rage again. "I'm the only one who's been protecting them!" "Reports from my spies have detailed a bipedal creature wearing strange clothes and carrying a large sword," said Celestia as she relayed the information she'd received. "This 'man' was sighted in the Everfree Forest and around the edge of Ponyville. Eye witnesses have confirmed the creature to have been at the source of the fire that struck Ponyville a week ago." "That wasn't me," said Zack defensively, tightening his grip on his sword. "Oh?" questioned Celestia, raising an eyebrow beneath her helmet. "Do you deny being in the forest and in Ponyville during the fire?" "No, but I-" "Then there is nothing more to discuss," said Celestia, cutting him off. "You are a threat to Equestria, and I will protect my subjects to the last!" she shouted, firing off a bolt of lightning from her horn as her armored wings changed to a yellow color. The bolt stuck Zack, but he managed to use his sword to draw it and stop most of the shock through his insulated gloves. Before Zack could recover from the shock, Celestia rushed forward and brought her swords down on Zack, electrocuting him and knocking him down. He recovered quickly, and as he jumped back up, he swung the Buster Sword in an upward arc, forcing Celestia to back up to avoid being sliced by the massive blade. "My turn," said Zack as he steadied his sword. He pushed energy into his materia and launched a large ball of fire from his hand. The solar princess cast her own fire to intercept it, destroying both attacks and filling the air with smoke. Zack was immediately met with more blows coming his way, forcing him to go on the defensive while he waited for the smoke to clear. The only thing that gave away Celestia's position in the smoke was the red glow of her armored wings, now charged with the fire magic she'd used earlier. Using this to his advantage, Zack managed to guard most of the blows and mostly dodge the ones he couldn't. "Forget this," cursed Zack to himself under his breath. When Celestia swung again with her wings, Zack jumped high into the air, cast Fire into the smoke to clear some of it, and then followed up with a downward jab in the hopes of impaling Celestia from above. The princess saw this coming and countered by firing a concentrated burst of ice magic at Zack as he came down. When the magic touched Zack's sword, it froze the entire weapon solid, encasing both the blade and Zack's hands in a thick layer of jagged ice. Celestia sidestepped to avoid Zack as he came down, then bucked him across the road and into the dirt, breaking off some of the ice. "Give in," she yelled to the downed SOLDIER. Zack struggled to get up and yelled back, "No!" As Zack finally got to his feet, he found Celestia standing only three yards away, her wings beginning to glow a sick green color. "If you don't halt your attack this instant," she began, "I will be forced to end your existence." Zack began to back up slowly saying, "Hey, you swung first, lady." As the distance between them increased, Zack could see Celestia's patience ebbing away by the second, her glare hardening. When Zack stood far enough away so as not to be threatened by Celestia's swords, he readied his sword again, waiting for Celestia's attack. "Very well then," said the solar princess. Celestia crouched slightly and Zack prepared to guard her attack, but he never saw it coming. Zack's adversary was there one moment, and gone the next. Her image seemed to fade quickly before he heard her voice from behind him. "I'm sorry this problem couldn't be solved another way, but you've left me with no choice. Please, die quickly." As soon as her sentence finished, Zack's vision blurred red as a gush of crimson erupted in an X across every part of his body. The force of his life blood ejecting knocked Zack off of his feet backwards to land in the dirt which would soon be dyed the same, dark crimson. /)*#*(\ Twilight gave in and decided to walk behind the guards to the chariot instead of being dragged. She and the group of guards arrived within minutes, and one of the guards spoke up. "Princess Twilight, please step inside." Twilight didn't move from where she stood. The guards waited, but no response came from the purple alicorn. The guard began to approach her with a hoof extended to guide her in, but as he got close, Twilight yanked the sword off her back and swung it in a wide arc, cutting through the stallion's armor and striking him, but not killing him. As the guard fell, the others displayed shocked looks at what they'd just witnessed. The others, believing that Twilight had gone insane, armed themselves with their javelins and pointed them at Twilight as they surrounded her. Without moving, Twilight activated her magic, engulfing the guards and flinging them away from her. As they collided either with the ground or other broken objects around the street, the wounded guard on the ground turned his head and managed to say, "Why, Princess Twilight?" "I've got a friend who needs me," she said back as the guard passed out. Before charging off to help Zack, Twilight used a low level healing spell to seal the guard's wound so he wouldn't bleed out. As she sprinted down the streets to get to Zack, Twilight quickly double checked her equipment. She carried an ice, Cure, and double cut material, allowing her to inflict twice the damage with a direct hit. She didn't have any armor, though she still couldn't wrap her mind around a piece of equipment that could protect all of you when only going around your wrist or head, and she still carried her double edged sword. After turning down a couple of roads, Twilight found what she was looking for. Standing in the middle of the road were Zack and Princess Celestia, facing each other and not moving. "Oh, thank Celestia," muttered Twilight. But before she could move, Twilight saw Celestia disappear completely before reappearing a couple of yards behind Zack. Twilight stared in puzzlement for a second before watching as blood flew from Zack in arcs across his body. Twilight froze as she watched the SOLDIER get launched back a few feet by the force of his own blood, causing him to land in the dirt and kick up a small cloud of dust. Without thinking, Twilight immediately teleported to Zack's side to make sure he was okay. As she knelt down next to him, his body now leaking blood in a steady stream, she heard Celestia's voice. "I'm sorry you had to see that. Please, do not think less of me." Twilight froze when she heard those words. Slowly, she turned to see the princess looking at her from a short distance away, the magic in her wings subsiding as they closed. "How could you?" asked Twilight in a tone barely above a whisper, though audible enough for Celestia to make out. "It was in the defense of our nation," said Celestia back. "He will die shortly, and that will vastly weaken the changelings and their army after losing their leader." "He wasn't leading the changelings," said Twilight, her voice increasing in volume. "He was the only one protecting us from them!" Twilight stamped a hoof into the ground as she finished. "He wasn't the one who started the fires in Ponyville or the one who destroyed Applejack's farm and almost got her killed, or the one who sent the changelings here to begin with!" Twilight looked down at Zack, who was now lying in a pool of his own blood. She immediately cast a Cure spell on him, sealing his wounds. That's when she noticed his Buster Sword lying next to him in the dirt, partly coated in a mixture of his and many changeling's blood. Twilight bent over him to pic up the sword, shouldering it and turning to face Celestia. "What are you doing, Twilight?" asked the princess, confused by Twilight's actions. Her expression turned to one of deep concern when she saw Twilight crouch slightly into a fighting stance. "So that's what you're doing? Raising a sword against your princess; your friend?" asked Celestia, now overcome with sadness. But Twilight didn't change. Her expression hardened even more. "You've hurt someone dear to me, princess. While you may be my mentor, I'm going to do what I feel is right. I'm going to save Zack, and then we're going to go after the real threat to Equestria; the one you've chosen to ignore because you wouldn't listen to him or to me," finished Twilight, new strength lining her voice. Realizing that it would be futile to try and sway Twilight's resolve, Celestia said with regret in her voice, "Then I guess you leave me with no choice, Twilight. I'm sorry." Celestia's wings suddenly flared open, the blades recharged with magic in seconds. It took Twilight a second to realize that she was shaking slightly. She was about to fight the leader of her country. A god. Can I really win? Twilight barely had time to think before Celestia charged at her, blades glowing blue and red for a combination of ice and fire magic. Twilight sidestepped to dodge, struggling with the Buster Sword for a second before regaining her balance and guarding a followup attack from the princess. As their blades collided, Twilight used her magic to give her sword an extra push and deflect Celestia's blades, staggering her and allowing Twilight to execute a hard swing to the princess's flank. Celestia teleported before the massive sword could make contact, then countered with a ball of fire that sped like a bullet toward Twilight. The burning gas impacted Twilight hard, knocking her back and singeing her flesh slightly. "Please, Twilight," pleaded Celestia. "Give this up. I don't want to kill you." "You certainly took a good shot at it just now," retorted the purple alicorn. She then rushed toward Celestia, now holding the sword with her magic to simplify movement. When she got close, she grabbed it out of midair for a powerful downward swing in an attempt to cut Celestia from the top. The princess easily dodged and swung the blades on her wings at Twilight, raking them across her sides and bringing forth a scream as well as blood from the purple alicorn. On contact, the blades both burned and froze together, inflicting great damage and blistering Twilight. When Twilight jumped back in an attempt to escape another attack, Celestia followed her, uppercutting her and launching her into the sky only for her to come crashing back down onto a pile of smoldering wood. Twilight stood up from the rubble, cinders falling off of her and into the dirt. She quickly healed herself with a Cure spell and then activated one of her own strength spells, allowing her to wield the Buster Sword with greater ease. As Twilight recovered, Celestia charged her horn full of sun magic, the same power she used to raise the sun every day. As soon as Twilight was standing again, Celestia shut her eyes and fired, launching a massive beam of concentrated energy at Twilight while silent tears rolled down her face. When Celestia brought herself to open her eyes, her jaw dropped and she collapsed realizing what she'd just done. The princess could see straight through to the other end of town and the train station where her beam had destroyed part of the tracks as well as burned a hole through Ponyville itself, though a lot of it was still clouded in smoke. The beam had cut right through all of the houses that were in the way and part of the road itself, leaving a charred and blackened straight line of destruction through the town. But what hurt Celestia the most was that her once faithful student was no where in sight, presumably disintegrated like the rest of the area. The solar princess, now laying on the ground, began to cry to herself. "What have I done?" she asked the wind, almost as if she expected a response. Though of course, none came. She turned her head slightly when she heard a shuffling behind her and found Zack slowly moving toward her, dragging Twilight's sword through the dirt. She sighed in defeat when he stopped and held it in front of him, ready to continue fighting. While he was in horrible condition and the poison that Celestia had nailed him with was beginning to take effect, he wasn't about to give up and die. "So you still wish to fight me?" asked Celestia as she stood up from the dirt, now filling with anger toward Zack. "After all you've done?!" Celestia fired off a large, rotating ring of solar magic from her horn at Zack who stumbled slightly as he dodged. "Because of you, my most faithful student lost that faith and turned against me." Another ring fired, this one even bigger, cutting through the ground as well as singeing the air next to Zack when he dodged. "And now, I've killed her!" She then fired off two more of the large ones that homed in on Zack. He quickly cast ice magic to dispel one of the rings, but it failed and allowed both of them to crash into Zack, denting Twilight's sword while the other cut his side as it passed. Zack dropped on one knee as pain from his side flowed through him combined with the pain from the poison. He gasped as he felt new energy welling inside him and realized he was ready for a limit break. "About freakin' time," he thought to himself. When Celestia approached him to finish him off, he rocketed into the air and shouted, "Angel's Revenge!" From his back sprouted two large wings made of pure white energy. The dented sword he wielded became enveloped in a blinding light as it extended, doubling its length and repairing the dent. From the air, he dove down to the ground in less than a second before uppercutting Celestia and launching her into the sky. Before the princess could guard or try to dodge, Zack followed her and struck her in midair too many times to count, releasing jets of blood from the pony before finishing by striking her from above hard and firing her toward the ground which certainly would kill her. Or at least, she would've died had she not been caught before the impact. When she opened her eyes as far as they would go (which was very little), Celestia found herself floating in midair surrounded by a slightly purple aura while Zack still hovered above, his energy wings starting to disappear. Looking around, the solar Princess found the source of the magic. Crawling up from some of the rubble of the nearby buildings was Twilight, hauling Zack's sword with her. As soon as she surfaced, Zack halted his assault and glided down to her before his wings fully disappeared. "Twilight," he began. "You're still alive." "Yeah," said the alicorn back with nearly no emotion whatsoever. Puzzled, Zack did his best to follow her as she moved towards the still-hovering Celestia. Together, Twilight and Zack approached the solar princess. Twilight let Celestia go gently, allowing her to touch down on the ground lightly. "I'm sorry I didn't listen to you Twilight," said Celestia weakly. Zack checked his materia and activated his Cure materia, doing his best to heal the defeated princess, slow as the process was. Twilight continued to approach Celestia until she stood only two feet away. She drew back her right fore hoof and let it fly right across the princess's face, causing Zack to step back in shock and Celestia to freeze where she was as a small trickle of blood flew from her mouth. After a few moments, Twilight turned back to the princess and hugged her as hard as she could while she began to cry. She cried for all the death that had happened that day. She cried for her weakness and for Zack's. She cried for those whose tears had run dry, and she cried for her world that now fell under the shadow of destruction from an alien so powerful it could wipe out acres of land with a few swings of a sword. After a second, Celestia returned the hug, holding her student as she wailed in her arms. The day was beginning to yield to night, and soon the dead town would be put to its last sleep under Luna's brilliant moon. The town of Ponyville would never rise again, not in the same way. It would remain crippled by the horrific losses and impossible bloodshed that would generate legends for hundreds of years to come.