Perspective : Ponies
Princess Celestia teleports behind the barrier with all bearers in toe as she gently sets a very docile and blushing with embarrassment Fluttershy back onto the ground before giving her a very apologetic look for lifting her by the scruff of the neck.
"My apologizes Fluttershy," Celestia conceded, "I had little choice and even less time."
"Oh..its okay Princess." Fluttershy tried to give a reassuring smile up towards Celestia before she reverted her vision back towards where the metal creature had been sent into a building, "I hope its okay..." she said with tiny tears forming.
"Why the hay did it protect us?" Rainbow openly questioned, "Isn't it one of them?" she said as she looked at her fellow bearers.
"I fear," Celestia said, grabbing everypony's attention when she admitted she was afraid, "That unless we prevail through this threat, that whatever it is, we are destined to share the same fate."
"What do you mean Princess?" Twilight asked her mentor.
"We have come to believe that the creature did not come by accident," Princess Luna tries to elaborate, "but by giving chase."
"What else have we found out?" Celestia directs towards her sister, as all of the bearers also turn towards the Lunar Princess in case she was able to explain anything about the one that had saved their lives, twice.
"I've been getting...flashes of memory." Princess Cadance speaks up, causing all attention to now shift towards her as they all show expressions of concern and worry as her tone was not that of hope.
"Please, Princess Cadance." Celestia beckons Cadance to continue, "Go on."
"I...I think they killed it's world..." Cadance starts to say, her voice starting to break towards the end as her eyes also start to water, causing Fluttershy and Rarity to jump over and comfort her.
"I..." Cadance then does her best to steel herself, "I saw oceans like our own. I saw vast woodlands that would make many of our own look sparse. I even saw his kind who seemed to mass in the billions!" She continued as Rarity and Fluttershy nestled up against her sides for support and comfort, "...and I saw absolutely no life." she said in almost a hush, causing the others to think that they misunderstood.
"What do you mean you didn't see any life?" Twilight looked at her confused. "You just said..."
"That I saw billions of his kind." Cadance interrupts not to be rude, but to reaffirm.
"But that makes..." Twilight once again tries to question.
"They were dead, Twilight." Cadance states almost toneless, causing Cadance to not just feel the shock from the others, but the sudden jolts to both her sides as well.
Suddenly everypony's attention was shifted back around towards where the bearers and Celestia once were, as they saw the very tall demon pointing it's weapon their way as it just seemed to stare before saying something they couldn't make out.
"That means we just witnessed the extinction of... of..." Twilight stuttered near the end as tears started to well up.
"Did we now?" Princess Luna asked in a rather inquisitive tone, just the metal creature from before took a swing towards the demon's backside, causing it to turn in order to block the attack.
While many of the ponies seemed to be cheering or otherwise in better spirits, two princesses were thinking of how they would keep their world safe, and if it survived, what would they do with this metal creature who for all intents and purposes, had nothing.
"Luna I'm counting on you to keep everypony here safe, and if need be, fall back to the catacombs." Celestia then stated, or almost commanded, causing Luna to give the return look of shock.
"Are thou mad?!" Luna loudly questioned her sister, causing ponies to gasp as the display.
"Yes, I am!" Celestia retorted back, showing just as much agitation and causing all to remain silent.
"I am annoyed that so much today has been destroyed." Celestia stomps a hoof, "I am agitated that these things attacked us as if we were nothing." she stomps a little harder, "I am angry because I had I watch my precious little ponies almost die!" she then stomps hard enough to cause the marble to crack, "But I am absolutely furious that the one who came to help us is out there fighting not only for us, but without us!" she finally ends with one more stomp as it creates a small impact crater.
"It plans to sacrifice itself." Cadance softly states, causing gasps.
"What do you mean sacrifice?!" Fluttershy says in the loudest whisper she can.
"I can sense emotions." Cadance tonelessly states. "I can tell you that whatever it's called, its not just here chasing them out of anger. It knew what would happen here and it pushed forward." Cadance tries to explain, "I can sense pride. I can sense how pained it is. I can even sense the very urgency that it has placed on stopping these demons."
Cadance then softens her eyes as the others do the same, "But what I am not sensing is fear. At all." she then looks at Celestia, "and that means it knows it has absolutely nothing left to lose." she then looks out as the ensuring battle, "Its tired."
"Tia." Luna states as she also looks out at the battle playing out, "We will assist the bearers in preparing the elements once more." she then looks at her sister and slightly grins, "We look forward to seeing the Solar Princess in all of her glory."
"What!?" Twilight yells out, "Princess Celestia is going to fight?!"
"Shoo wee!" Applejack loudly calls out, "This is something I gotta see with mah own two eyes."
"Applejack!" Rarity gasped, "Why on earth would you want to see our lovely princesses fight?!"
"Cause!" Applejack replied as she repositioned her stetson, "They're my princesses."
"Please be careful" Fluttershy whispered out towards Princess Celestia.
"What if it don't want to be saved." Rainbow Dash uncharacteristically said, as she watched the metal creature fight, causing her friends to all give her a surprised look before she herself looked back at them, "Hey don't look at me like that!"
"This is our world." Celestia then stated, looking down towards Rainbow Dash as she slowly walked past, "Whether it likes it or not, it is going to play by our rules." She then gives Rainbow a smile, "Plus I know you all want to give it thanks, am I right?"
The bearers all look at each other before looking back up towards Princess Celestia, nodding in confirmation just as Princess Celestia teleported out from behind the safety of the barrier back into the battle to save their world, and what was left of another.
Flashback : Celestia
“I don't see why we have to come all the way out here father.” A much younger, and shorter, Celestia said, as she followed a pitch black equine even taller that her own in the far future.
“Celly...” said the tall equine, in a rather deep and grainy voice, “What did I tell you before we left?”, he asked as he stopped. The equine was was pitch black in the fur and feather, with silver strands flowing through the latter.
Letting out a huff Celestia stopped, puffed out her chest, and started to speak, “Little Celly, do you know the difference between learning and knowing the words?” she paused just like he had done, “Experience”. She finishes, raising a hoof towards her father, twirling it.
As testament to any father's patience for his young, he deadpanned.
Celestia proceeded to give the normal “hey you asked!” look.
Sighing, her father half closed his eyes and spoke dryly, “But father, how am I supposed to get experience if you never let me actually try it first?”.
Huffing, “Hey at least I tried to sound like you!” she yelled with a very high pitch.
Her father, once more granted an oppurtunity to represent fathers of teenage foals everywhere, slowly let his half opened eyes fully close. His breathing, slowed. His movement, like a stone wall.
“But DAAAAAAD!!” he cried out with such a mangled high pitched voice that birds and squirrels scattered, “I'm TIRED OF READING!!” letting his head and tone both drop to a grumble.
Unfurling his wings, he begins to prance around little Celestia, “Mom is actually nice! She lets me try out all of these spells in the books she gives me instead of wanting to always drag me out to the middle of the nowhere! Aaaaaaghhhh!!” he finished, in all of his high pitched and over dramatic glory.
As he stands there, dead silence. Look out to the rolling hills and open fields, he lets it build.
Slowly, he turns around, and as expected, where once stood a white little celly, instead stood a red one.
“AAAHHHHHH!” she roars as she lunges at him, sending them both to the ground. Peering down with a very sour look on her face, “I do NOT sound like that.” she says with finality.
Looking up with the well trained, and even more so practiced, look of agreement, he simply answers “Of course dear.”
Celestia hops off her father's chest, about ready to start another emotional tirade, when her father uses the voice and tone that causes any foal to stop and listen.
“Celly...” he says with a gentle tone.
Celestia looks back at her father. She turns, plopping her flank onto the grass, and gives him her full attention. Even if the strain of seeing him on his back, all legs bent, tested all her might.
“The difference between a spell and a shift, is the same difference between an Alicorn thats ascended and one that has not.” her fathered stated, but left the air open for more.
“The very notion of trying to shift back home, in our castle, is the very reason that you are NOT ready to know the words.” he rolls so that he is facing her, lifting his head as he props himself onto his forelegs.
“I brought you out here both to teach you... “ he looks down, before looking back into her eyes, “and to protect you.” he whispers.
“Protect me?” Celestia half tilts her head as she asks.
“All be answered with a single act, which needs some preparation on our part before it can happen.” he says as he stands back up, “Would you mind helping me?” he asks her.
Celestia simply nods her head, getting up and following her father further out into the plains. After a few hours, her father stopped and told her to help him clear some of the brush and foilage. After a few more hours of hard work, they cleared a small area, roughly 1km in circumference. Her father then took her to a hill not far from the edge of the cleared area, telling her to stay there. She watched, silently, as he turned around and walked back to the very center of the clearing.
Standing there, silent, he does his best to mentally prepare himself. Just like when his parents show him, he knew after this day, Celestia would never be able to look at him the same again. But to let her go any further, without leaving this scar on her heart, risks having her's ripped entirely out of her chest.
“..forgive me.” was all he whispered, before saying something in a long forgotten tongue.
What Celestia saw next, would forever be scarred on her very soul. There was no explosion. No noise. If one were to just arrive onto the hill, and look at what lays before her, they wouldn't know that anything in particular had changed. The reason was quite simple.. it was entirely gone.
Within the entirety of the 1km area, not a single thing remained. No trees, grass, or animals. Even the very ground had seemed to disappear for dozens of feet downward.
“wha..” was all Celestia could muster, eyes widening. It was then that she also didn't see her father anywhere, causing her to go into immediate panic mode.
“Father?!” she screamed as she galloped towards the crater before her. Reaching the edge, tear running down her confused face, she cried out again. “FATHER!?”.
The answer came in a small implosive shock wave of the darkest of dark purple. Before her stood some phantasm like abomination, half formed like a equine but too distorted to be called one. A dark purple mist swirled around this monster, rising like strands from it's hooves. But what scared her the most was the eyes, or lack thereof. All that came out of what should have been it's eye sockets was more mist, pouring out and then upwards into the air.
Sprawling out her forelegs, like into a battle stance, she yelled in a threatening tone “Wheres my father?!”.
“I'm right here, my little Celly” said the swirling mass.
“fa..father?” she calls out as she begins to shake. Her mind not being able to fully comprehend whats happening, almost causing her to falter to the ground. “What.. what happened to you?” she asked, tears starting to well up.
He looked on her, and no matter how much his own heart was breaking, he knew he still had hers to forever wound. “I shifted, my dear Celly.”.
Celestia looked around once more, taking in the absolute... nothingness. Trying to grasp what had happened, for her own sake, she started to grab at straws. “You teleported everything away?”
“I didn't teleport anything Celly” he simply answered.
“Then what...” she asked.
“I became the singularity.” he simply stated.
Her eyes popped open as big as they could. Her stare, as if something just struck her across the muzzle. So shocked, she couldn't even cry. “Th...the a..an...animals...an.. and...” she staggered out, “a...and...the...” she tried to continue.
“Erased.” he stated, as if he was simply replying to a nonsensical question.
“You...” she muttered, before her face went from shock to pure anger, “YOU KILLED THEM!” she screamed out.
“No, I didn't” he said once more, whether purposely or by inhibition, plainly.
She opened her mouth to yell again, but was interupted...
“I never put any thought or effort into directing anything towards anything around me. When I shifted, the very act itself ascends me into the utmost potential of my affinity. Gravity.” He stated, as the swirls began dissipating. “A singularity is neither good or evil. It is exactly what it is. An absolute, that wherever it exists, nothing else can.” he comments as he begins to fully shift back to his normal self.
Levitating towards the edge of the crater, he lands on his hooves without a sound.
“Horse apples! You had a choice!” Celestia screamed.
“Yes I did” he replied. Continuing, “My choice was to burn it into your soul, or let you do it on your own. You are destined for something important Celly, same as little Luna.”
He pauses for a moment as Celestia eyes acknowledge what he was saying, especially about Luna, “Did you not think that I wouldn't know that you were waking up during the mid night in order to gleam any details from those texts on shifting?” he accuses, but not in a cruel tone.
“What affinity shall you have?” he steps closer to her, “Not even I know that, but what you just witnessed was the shift of both experience and control, and you saw what was wrought in it's wake.”
“The very first shift will be the most powerful, and uncontrollable, that you shall ever experience.” he states as he trots until he is standing almost right on top of her. “The animals did not suffer, of that I can assure you.” he says as he lifts a hoof under her chin, forcing her to look up at him.
“But consider if this was our home, filled with thousands of ponies. Consider what would happen if your affinity is just as destructive, but not nearly as absolute.” he says, painfully, just as he was told ages ago. "The word I wanted you to know, not just learn, is consequence. To ascend, is to envelope the world around you in what you truly are. The only choice you have is how much and how far reaching that world shall be." he continues.
"Will it be just your enemies? Maybe your friends? Your entire home? Nothing shall be free of consequence, especially for one such as you and Luna, no matter what choice you make." he says, gradually dwindling down to a whisper.
Celestia places her foreleg on top of his, and pushes down, narrowing her eyes, “Well then I don't want to ascend! And neither will luna!” she yelled out as she turned and galloped away.
Letting his hoof drop back to the ground as he watched both Celestia along with her innocence disappear, “Beings such as ourselves, my little Celly,” he whispered, “have never been afforded such luxuries”.
End Flash Back
"Please..." Celestia softly spoke much against the strain upon her face as if some invisible force was baring down upon her, "Let me have the strength..." she mutters as strands of golden ethereal like energy flickers back and forth beneath her hooves, occasionally wrapping themselves along her body, anchoring her down. The sudden increase in pressure causing the heated condensed air to escape the marbled as it violently cracks.
"To weather the storm less I bring forth the..." Celestia is in mid sentence when super heated air spirals away from her stealing also the sound of her words, followed by all the marble within 15 feet around her to hiss and explode in the same manner. Even the very clouds above her seem to evaporate in a much wider radius as all of the ponies behind the barrier would later attest to seeing, just as the bastion that is her namesake erupts in a spiraling inferno reaching up and then through the clear night sky.
Where her white fur used to be, only white hot flowing flames remained, as if her fur just grew a foot and she was slowly sinking in water. Her original flowing mane had entirely disappeared. It was instead replaced by dozens of very long blue flames that behaved almost like her original mane and also replicated into a similar tail. As if to give another measure of her transformation to whom bore witness, she unfurled her white hot wings. Blistering white hot strands of condensed flames slowly rose from her wings like smoke rising from burning timber in a erratic but gentle breeze.
Celestia sent her gaze over towards the demon, who while even damaged, was standing up to full stature as if there was absolutely nothing wrong. If she had a brow still she might of quirked it before having her attention drawn over towards the noise something burst through rubble. The metallic creature wasn't entirely metallic anymore, it seems. Upon it's upper body, bore flesh. Bloody, scarred, and dirty.
Just as she were about to end this horrible battle, she is startled. The demon before her starts to laugh. Not just a chuckle, but overly loud guffawing. The metallic creature suddenly launches itself at the demon, only to be hit by some invisible shield, drove back towards Celestia onto the melted marble ground.
She quickly trotted up the metallic creature, in her haste, forgetting that she was literally living white embers. She got within a few feet when she gasped, realizing what she had done, before being startled again, as the creature's plate seems to be more affected than it's flesh.
"If you could actually understand me," Celestia said with a hint of a smirk, "I might have to compliment your resilience".
She couldn't help but notice that at least the general empathy of meaning got through, as the creature gave her a talon gesture of a stubby one pointing up with the rest of the longer talons closed in palm. Tilting her head, she stared at the gesture, and then did her best to mimic it in the flicker of flames, returning it. It was here that she first saw one of it's eyes. Turquoise gleamed through the darkness of the its helmet, cracked up the left just enough. Her left ear flicked, as she could of sworn she heard it mutter something.
"Tia!!! Watch your flank!" Luna yelled from far behind, "Something's happening to the dead demons!"
Celestia, and metallic creature, both turned around to notice that the dead and one still living demon were all beginning to glow a sick blend of black and red, while slowly rising from the ground before seemingly being vaporized in a red and black haze. "What in Faust's name.." Celestia muttered before ear shattering demonic screams erupted all around.
As she flapped her white ember ears down, as did every other pony, she couldn't help but notice that the metallic creature did not react at all to the sudden noise. It stood there, entirely still, staring at the seemingly nothing.
When she turned to face the same direction that the creature was, she had to stare for a few seconds before she gasped and realized her folly.
"The attack that happened when I was trying to teleport the bearers..." she said grimly, having to slightly lift her head to encompass the entirety of what was before her. Before her, as all demons both the one that had been still alive and those long since vanquished dissolved, was what could only be described as damnation itself, "it was a distraction!" she yelled.
She was able to get the last of her words out just as a ghastly halberd about as big as she was came down on her head, causing her forelegs to slightly buckle. From the demon's perspective, all it saw was thousands of tiny white and blue embers scatter under it's halberd, from it's 30 foot downcast. It's eyes twitched however as it felt something slightly push back, underneath the weapon's girth.
"You....dare...." came the feminine growl of Celestia under the blade held by her intensified embers, her forelegs straightened and locked, her white embers begin to glow with more purity.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Celestia screams as she parries the halberd, letting it slam into the molten composite underneath her, as she literally blasts herself towards it's center mass 20 feet above her.
Perspective Shift : Sentinel
As Sentinel was blown back from the force of the titanic impact on the white fire covered equine, he couldn't be rather impressed. This white equine was strong. Very strong. It fought on it's own four feet, or hooves, like he had had to do for so long. It was protective, and had shown the courage to put itself into harm's way for the sake of what he could only conceive as it's children, or very least, haven. It had tried to communicate with him several times, and while only gibberish, he had gotten several good vibes on the meaning.
"Hell, it even have me a thumbs up...hah, "he said as he chuckled a bit, given how confused it looked when it did so.
But he could tell the element melding it displayed by what was hitting him through his elemental equilibrium aura, as it shifted all the damn way to fire, with a little earth. He knew there was just no way that with what they were currently facing, it would be able to generate enough without vaporizing everything nearby.
"No..." he thought to himself, "not even that would be enough."
His people had tried the same, with their thermonuclear bombs. Sure, they killed a lot of demons, "and people," he internally added, but it did almost nothing to the more advanced ones. And this one, he knew from personal experience, was a purebred. It was never created using materials from where they invaded, but came from the actual source. This meant that it often gained powers and augmentations when visiting a new dimension, not adhere to it.
"Just like they hoped to instill in us..." he whispered, a little in anger, but more in moral conflict. He was brought back to reality as he saw the white equine, time and time again, last devastating blows only to see very little effect.
"Still," he says as he turns his hands palm up as clenches them into fists, "Even if today is the day that I fall, I can do it alongside one that I could call a Sentinel." he says with some under laying pride, and excitement.
Perspective Shift : Celestia
"Why won't you fall!" she yells as she lands several more flame touched impacts on the giant demon's weapon, and some on it directly. Neither showing anything more than mundane blemishes. The frustration wasn't from the lack of potential power, but the lack of options to use that power to save anypony but herself. The only pony who might escape alive if she were to push herself to full shift was Luna, and even then out of her own shift she would be horrifically wounded.
However if she didn't...."is that...Cadance?" she says to herself, looking back towards where all her ponies were behind a shield.
In the far off view, she could barely make out Cadance frantically screaming as the bearers and Luna are holding her back.
"...if you use that" Cadance screams, tears streaming down her cheeks, "you'll die!!".
It takes only a moment for Celestia to realize that she isn't screaming at her, but something past her, right where the....
"Sentinel!!" was the last thing Celestia heard before something of great mass. moving at speeds not normally afforded for such objects, dashed past her and right at the hulking demon.
"Sentinel?!" she both asked and directed towards, while different, the 20 foot tall being in front of her.
Perspective Shift : Sentinel
Hurt.
It hurt so damn much. He'd seen a Sentinel go down like this once before. He'd been warned by the few Sentinels that he actually held any amount of time around, not to ever do this. He knew it would hurt. He accepted that. He just didn't know it be this damn much. This thing, that one sentinel had called, shifting.
<Lunging forward, Sentinel sped past the white equine and latched both hands onto the pole of the halberd as the demon swiftly brought it back in defense, facing the one thing from it's time in Sentinel's world that was to be feared.>
In order for his body and armor to expand like it has, he had to change himself. During the war with the demons, they had used on his kind some form of phase based elemental application. What it did, they had found out through less than kind accounts of fortunate, or unfortunate survivors, was shifting the very molecules out of phase. Of the many applications, one of the most devastating was that it made defenses literally obsolete. It worked both on solid mass and energy signatures.
<Feeling just enough pressure against his own by the demon, Sentinel lets his knees fall loose for a fraction of a second, letting himself be pushed without resistance back and downwards. Sentinel then uses all the arm and chest strength he can to heave himself forward violently, putting his full force coupled with the demon's forward momentum into a devastating head butt.>
While the demons were much more proficient with it's range and application, sentinels specifically were able to at least apply it in small but highly concentrated doses. But what he was doing now, was entirely different. While sentinels could apply it externally in small ranges, they theoretically had no limit internally, since unlike demons they were already highly susceptible to phase shifting.
<With the demon still reeling from the head butt, Sentinel slightly crouches down on one knee to regain standing friction, while pivoting his body so that he gave a harsh counter motion as he shifted his arms holding onto the halberd, disarming the demon. He immediately smashes the weapon into the ground, shattering it as it seems to absorb some of the shimmering purple glow that was already enveloping his own body, at an alarming rate.>
Take a few scientists, a few sentinels who HAD steel clad balls, and you come out with using the shift to phase oneself to insanely augmented levels. Coupled with literally super charging the healing aura at the same time, and you had one minute of demigod like prowess. As a byproduct, it was found that being in a constant state of shift, the phase could be applied to other objects or energy via physical contact.
<As the demon sends it's right talon full of bristling black energy towards left side of his head, Sentinel tilts his neck, gaining only a twisted hue from the mixture of purple and black. He then sends a fist upwards using his left arm, striking close to the demon's elbow, while using the right hand to grab it's wrist both straighten the demon's arm and pull him forward. Sentinel lifts and brings down his left elbow above the demon's own, while lifting his knee below it, shattering the joint.>
Of course the disadvantages were that while you repaired faster than you destroyed yourself, you still were in a state of pure and utter agony. The next of course, was that there was no going back. Eventually, since your auras were then sustained by one's own life force rather than using the demon's that you killed, you ran out. Then...well... that's it.
<As the demon backs up in immense pain, Sentinel, putting his entire body into the motion, jets forward. At the moment of impact, he twists his hand clockwise while lifting up towards where the demon's diaphragm should be. As the fist begins to lift the demon up off the ground, the area of impact starts to crack with a sicken sound, rippling with purple sparks. While it happens within seconds, if slow motion, one would see the entirety of the demon's chest cavity and lower abdomen shatter into purple dust, before it immediately spread and does the same throughout it's entire body.>
As Sentinel stood there, before an empty courtyard where once a towering demon stood, he made no sound or movement. If he could still hear, he might of heard many of the equines calling out in cheers. It wasn't because of the demon's death directly, but because they had just escaped what should of been their own. If he could see, he might of looked back to a white equine slowly approaching him, the look of sheer appreciation and also great concern for him, as she spoke in a tongue he couldn't of understood.
If he wasn't already dead, he might of at least been able to acknowledge the silence when a bright rainbow hit him just as his entire being shattered, just like the demon's, signalling the same fate.
Setting Shift : If death was a rainbow..
Sentinel, maybe for the first time since he could recollect, had no where to be. He wasn't needed anymore in a haven, even if that only went as far as a summons up to, and only to, the gates. He had no battle that demanded his presence neither. His hovel, or home some would say, no longer needed packed up and moved to yet a new location, less he wished uninvited horrors in the new night. He even had to note that not even his most basic instinct to live needed him anymore, as he no longer required breathing.
He was... free.
Yet he did feel... something. He could feel himself lying in it, covering up to the side of his entire body. Slowly, he let his fingers explore, taking in the texture, until he lifted his arm in the air, and something like dust gently hit and ran along his face. Opening his eyes he was met only with the purity of white, his gaze taking in nothing else. So there he laid, staring, at the endless white expanse.
Funny, he thought, "I think I actually expected something more." he spoke aloud, cracking a half smile.
"Oh?" replied a easily male voice, gruff and low toned.
Shooting up, Sentinel couldn't help but be a little surprised, not only by the being behind the voice, but everything else had hadn't even been aware of. Before him stood a equine like being, like the others he had just met, but resembled most closely in both stature and appendage that white one from before.
But beyond him was the grand finale. The entire landscape was covered in pure white snow, so fluffy that it danced and skipped along instead of getting immediately dragged in. There was a small house, something just enough for one, surrounded by large oak trees, and nestled near a much bigger frozen pond. The equine seemed to follow Sentinel's gaze as he scanned before him, remaining silent to let the canvas sink in for a few minutes.
"Remarkable, in it's own way, isn't it?" the equine spoke as it too turned to gaze at the canvas like frozen landscape.
Sentinel's silence was an answer in of itself. But silence would not lead to the roads needing to be traveled..
"But if I may, wouldn't it be much more if the snow and ice were melted away? The grass and leaves would grow. The flowers, bloom. The pond, even if one can not deny the allure of the frozen in time contrast, would shimmer even brighter with the sun warming it's bank." he equine spoke, louder, but not enough to disturb the scene's melody.
"Heh, maybe" Answered Sentinel, before continuing, "But why wonder what could be when you can accept what you see right before you?" he aimed at the equine, who he was still quite unsure about, both in existence and intention.
Sentinel stood up, speaking as he reached his feet, "The ice on the pond protects the water and the life, even if dormant, hidden from the ever encroaching sunlight that steals away the water. The snow on the ground means that the grass, that still exists underneath, won't ever catch fire and burn away." Reaching one arm out, open palm with fingers outstretched, "The house..."
"The house," cuts in the equine,"remains so small as to accommodate only the little warmth needed to sustain the one life inside."
Sentinel just stares at the equine, an open invitation to elaborate why such a thing would be in any way bad.
"Would it not be better if the landscape melted away, also allowing for that small little home to be build onto? Surely one cannot easily expand something in such blistering cold, even if that cold has it's own true beauty." The equine questioned Sentinel for an answer.
"But with the blistering cold as a natural shield, no one else is ever going to even know that this is here." Sentinel retorts, "Why worry about expanding something isolated by the cold? Maybe they chose this, or maybe this was where they took their last stand." he shifts his open hand pointing to the house, and let it encompass in a wide swing all in view, "invading one's haven, even with good intentions, is still invading." he finalized.
"I just wish I knew where or what this...is..." Sinclair says as he looks around again.
"Its you, of course" the equine remarks.
"What?" Sinclair asks, figuring he misheard or mistook what it said.
"Its.." the equine says, as it lifts and with abnormal dexterity from Sentinel's perspective, widely twirls it's hoof all around, until pointing it towards Sentinel, "you".
Sentinel just continues to give the equine a stare.
Sighing, the equine taps it's hoof to it's horned forehead before speaking again, "You died, Sentinel. You're actually on the verge of spiritual death. The only thing holding you together, and thus letting me in, is the elements of harmony."
"So I died... and now I am on the verge of dying, while dead." Sentinel asks, getting a nod from the equine, before continuing, "I am now being held intact by some cutesy named thing that I have absolutely no idea about, while being visited by some equine creature giving commentary on my dying soul's future building plans." Sentinel finishes, tilting his open palm hand for confirmation.
"Correct." The equine says, nodding it's head in confirmation before adding, "Quite the good, or bad, luck you have."
Sentinel's reply is to close his hand, and lift only his middle finger, hovering it towards the equine.
The equine begins to take a deep breath, as if the tension in the air either left or got thicker, "I am going to be frank with you, Sentinel. You're a mistake. You should of died with your world. The demons that invaded your world are designed, in essence, to be like a river. They flow forward, consuming whatever is in their path, in order to form new rivers that merely continue to do the same." it says, getting a clenched fist from Sentinel.
"However," the equine continues, "you instead traveled to the next world in line, Equestria. Here you stopped where a branch off was to start once again, and like a river it will not flow backwards to reclaim, but just keep moving on. Yet in doing so, you pretty much exiled yourself from your people's destiny. You cannot go back, especially now, since you died in another dimension. You also cannot join this dimension's destiny since you weren't here long enough to come to mutual acceptance of each other." he finishes.
"So I'm basically on my own once more." Sentinel says, letting out a chuckle, "or is there some cosmic kicker to all this?"
The equine just stares at him, before speaking once more, "You saved my ponies..." It looks at him, with more sincerity and heartfelt than before, "...and they desperately are trying to save you, in return." when it's eyes glow pure white, and what could only be described as glass pictures of motion form and slowly play roulette before Sentinel.
He sees pictures of ponies calling out to him, the six that he healed when he first arrive glowing, the white one approaching him as if to thank him, the rainbow shooting towards him only for it to hit as he shatters, and the looks of shock on them all as he does.
The equine stomps one of its hoofs into the ground, sending a small shock wave uncovering some green grass, causing Sentinel to actually feel it deep down, albeit not painfully.
"You should of stayed down...accepted your fate!" the equine bellowed out, unfurling it's wings. "Instead you made a choice. You stood up and you followed damnation, averting it's seeding in another world, as the candled burned out for your own!" he continued to advance slowly towards Sentinel as he spoke, "Equestria is a land of peace and of harmony with itself. My ponies, even if they didn't know what or who you were, would still cry for you for what you've done to yourself FOR them!"
Much like the white equine, this one started emitting streaks of power upwards off it's body as it yelled out, "But invading another haven, even with good intentions, is still invading" it says, as it seems to let it's fury hold steady, "and you must atone for leaving your name in Equestria." it states, before narrowing it's eyes, "by living it, once more".
"Bullshit!" Sentinel yells right back, "I'm nothing but an island there!" he clenches his fist as he yells out again, "I won't even have a history to stand by anymore! What the hell do you expect me to do? Go back there and be another world's damned Sentinel?" Sentinel screams with anger, and frustration at the prospect.
"I expect nothing." the equine states, completely calm.
"Then..." Sentinel starts, but is cut off.
"I expect nothing, and neither should you. You will be returned as you were, with no memories of what has taken place from the moment you died until you arrive back. You will not be altered otherwise, nor shall anything be altered for you. There is no impending evil to face, nor some grand scheme by which you must live accordingly for the sake of Equestria. There is only one thing that you need to know, before you return." the equine states.
"And just what is it that I need to know?!" Sentinel demands, already noticing the snowy world going out of focus.
"There is a difference between learning the word, and knowing it." The equine says, as Sentinel is sent away, the snowy world fading away as the hue of a rainbow begins to overlap all around.
The equine looks back, as it too begins to fade away, before whispering "I hope the next time we meet, Sentinel, your house is big enough to invite me in for some tea..."
Setting Shift : Equestria
All of the equines who witnessed what had transpired were decimated. While some knew what it was, even if only a name and some history, they all saw how it saved the element of harmony bearers, defeated the demons, saved Celestia, and sacrificed itself to take down the colossus.
What many didn't know, between the the time it battled the smaller demons and the larger one that attacked Celestia, that it had been healing the mortally wounded royal guard ponies who had also sacrificed themselves to get as many ponies to safety as possible.
<BBZZZT>
The sound, much like what was heard when the large red portal first appeared, caused immediate panic. Guard ponies jumped in front of the white, dark blue, and pink equine and started shield the wounded and common pony folk still in the area. The bearers, no worse for wear, got in formation, even if their hearts were heavier if Sentinel's sacrifice was for naught.
The white one however, formerly burning embers, instantly showed not fear but anger. She leaped over the guard ponies and towards the sound and light of a portal ripping open, not risking delay like before.
"<gibberish>" yelled a familiar voice, to Celestia, who widened her eyes as something slammed into the ground before her. What also caught her eye was a single long black feather with silver strides through it landing in front of her hooves.