"No, please no!" Twilight cried. She shook Longspear's lifeless body, hoping that it would be enough to bring him back.
"Please no! Don't leave me."
She cried a river of tears as she wallowed on his chest.
Celestia approached her, resting her hoof on her shoulder. Twilight jerked away, refusing her accompaniment. Celestia frowned. She wiped the tears away from her eyes in order to stay strong for her friend.
"Twilight, I'm sorry for your loss. I really wish I could help but-"
"And why didn't you?" Twilight mumbled, cutting Celestia off.
"I beg your pardon?"
"WHY DIDN'T YOU!?" Twilight blurted out at her, standing face to face. Celestia was taken aback by the sudden mood change.
"Why couldn't you have done something? You could have healed him, and he would still be alive! All of you could have," she said, criticizing all of them. Celestia tried to ease her friend's pain.
"Twilight, you don't understand-"
"He was probably one of the only close friend I had besides all of you, and now he's gone!"
"Twilight, you need to calm down," Celestia ordered. Twilight though, was too hysterical to calm down. She simply collapsed on top of her friend's chest, feeling the world go numb around her.
The others didn't know what to do. Their friend had suffered yet another great loss, and they weren't so sure on how to cope with it.
Celestia sat next to her friend, trying one last time to end her suffering.
"Twilight, you know what he said before he passed. Do you know what he said?"
Twilight didn't bother answering. Instead she scooted further away from her.
"Well, if you must know, he said he didn't want me to heal him. He wanted something far better than being healed. Do you know what he wanted?"
Twilight didn't answer.
"Freedom. That's all he ever wanted, and that's exactly what he got."
Finally, Celestia's encouragement was getting to her. She raised her head to face her friend next to her.
"He's free now Twilight. He had been trapped in this awful prison Maxspell had set up for him, and now he's free!"
Twilight eyed both Celestia and her fallen friend. She did have a point there. After suffering for a thousand years, any pony would want to earn the exact same freedom Longspear had received.
After one last minute eyeing her friend, she finally got up to join the others.
"Sorry for snapping at you all like that. I have no idea what came over me," Twilight said apologetically. All of her friends came to forgive her, including another familiar voice.
"Yes, yes, quite a tragedy if I do say so myself," the voice said behind Twilight's shoulder. Turning to see whom it was, they could not believe what their eyes were seeing.
Maxspell stood next to Longspear smiling. She looked as though she was never attacked in the first place. There wasn't even a scratch on her. She was perfectly fine.
"How are you alright? You were basically close to dying after our little confrontation?" Twilight asked stunned.
"As I said before, you don't know what I am," Maxspell said in a dark manner.
"And what does that supposed to mean?" Aurora asked.
"Oh, then why don't I show you?"
With her horn glowing red, her coat turned black before a dark cloud covered her whole body. A blinding flash appeared in the blink of an eye, clearing away the dark clouds, revealing an enormous monstrous creature before them.
To them, it looked like a large serpent with the head and forelegs of a pony. Its body dripped with black ooze, and on its head was a curved unicorn horn.
It opened its eyes, revealing its dragon eye pupils and blood red glowing eyes.
It looked down upon the group of ponies and furrowed its eyes at them.
Softheart immediately fainted. Every pony else starred in both shock and horror at the creature.
Its horn began to glow, and in every pony's head, they heard a similar voice in all of them.
"I see you all are surprised by the sudden change in events," the voice in their heads said in a feminine tone.
"Who said that?!" Aurora frantically asked.
"Why me of course," the creature said.
"Who are you, and how are communicating with us?" Twilight asked nervously.
"My kind have been known by a lot of names, but we prefer to be known as the Children of Tartarus, and the only way for us to communicate with you mortals is telepathically with our magic," it said as it slithered closer to them.
Twilight couldn't believe what was happening. "All this time, you were really a demon in a fake body, and none of us ever found out up till now?"
"I wouldn't call that body a fake. In fact, I have been using that stupid mare's body for quite some time now."
"You possessed her? Why?"
"I needed someone who worked very closely with the princess in order for my plan to work."
"And what might that plan be?"
"Well, considering each and every one of you are going to die, I might as well tell you," the creature said as it slowly slithered around them.
"My kind have always fed off of the one thing that keeps us alive and makes us stronger, but before you may ask, let me make it clear that it is not an emotion, but rather something far greater than that."
"And what exactly does your kind fed off of?" Twilight asked.
"Souls."
"Souls?"
"Indeed, but don't get me wrong, it's quite difficult to obtain these souls. In order to do that, you'd have to claim the life of a pony yourself, and it's been a bit of a challenge trying to do that ever since we've escaped from Tartarus thousands of moons ago.”
To demonstrate, the demon slithered over to Longspear's body. It slowly opened its mouth; revealing two long fangs on either side of its mouth like an actual snake, with even more black ooze dripping from it. A cloud like substance was sucked up away from Longspear and into the demon like a vacuum cleaner.
Twilight starred at it with horror.
Once it was done feeding, a red halo glowed around it, as it got stronger.
"Now that felt good," it said, satisfied with its meal.
"So the souls make you stronger, then what about the magic?"
"I think of it more as a bit of a 'perk' in these little souls."
"But as I mentioned before, it’s difficult for us to steal souls from you mortals without having to deal with your laws against murder, so I began to ponder for a while, and I realized that the one thing that's making our lives difficult is a certain mare. A kind princess to be exact."
Everyone turned their attention towards Celestia, who stood there nervously.
"For centuries I have been observing this little pony without her noticing, and I've seen how she rules this pathetic little kingdom. This is why I chose you Twilight to usurp her, to kill her with the magic that I gave you. To bring an end to this era of kindness, and to begin a new era of darkness."
Celestia and Twilight stared back at the creature with determined looks.
"Is that why you treated me as a pawn in your little game? Is that the reason why you snatched me away from the life I once had for your own personal game?" Twilight furiously questioned, to which the monster in front of her agreed.
"Alright then, I can understand that, but the thing I still don't understand is why do you badly want the princess dead?"
"You really are a fool. What is the one thing she and I have in common? What is the one thing different between all of you?"
All of them didn't seem to understand what it was asking them.
"She's an immortal! She has an immortal soul!" it said, eyeing both Twilight and Celestia.
"But not just any immortal soul," it said as it slithered towards her and wrapped its body around her.
"No, her soul was already immortal since the day of her birth. Can you imagine the kind of power one would obtain when claiming an immortal soul?"
Celestia did not dare to reply. She was simply disgusted just by looking at the demon's smug look on its face as it rubbed its hoof on her cheek like a transfixed lover.
"And that's not the best part! The best part is that with the return of the beloved Princess Luna, that meant twice the power, but that also meant twice the work."
"Oh how I've tried claiming both of your souls for a long time, and the measures I had to take just to do it, yet every time I come close to do so, something always prevents me from achieving my goal," it said, uncoiling itself from Celestia and slithering closer to the six other ponies until it stood face to face with Twilight.
"As for you, I am not sure how you and your little pegasus friend were able to break free from my spell, but whatever it was, it's not going to work now."
Suddenly, Aurora Flash came to the realization of what the demon had just said.
"Wait a minute, it was you who was trying to make me betray my friends?"
"Who else did you think it was?"
Aurora seethed with riotous anger. "I ought to tear you apart piece by piece you little-" she was cut off when Appleseed held her back by her tail.
It however simply ignored her as she slowly approached the Princesses.
"The time has come for you to meet your doom, and you will not cheat on me this time," it said. Pulling its head back, it quickly shot at Celestia, piercing her chest with its glowing horn.
She uttered a cry of agony at the pain she was enduring as the demon's horn was killing her with its magic. Everyone cried out her name in shock. They tried to help her, but found that somehow they could not move. They were being held back by its magic.
As for the princess, as much as she tried, she could no longer resist the killing pain within her. She slipped off its horn and fell to the ground dead.
Blood dripped off its horn as it basked in glory of its victory.
Seeing her friend lay there dead horrified Twilight. She could not believe what had just happened. She furiously tried to escape the monster's grip, but it was too strong.
Satisfied with its kill, the creature turned to face Luna, who showed a face of anger at her.
"How dare you do such a thing? You'll never get away with this you monster!"
"Oh, I already have."
Without another word, the creature released Luna and levitated her off the ground. Its horn glowed, and Luna felt an awful pain in her chest. It was squeezing her heart tightly.
A minute later, her body fell limp. The creature laughed as she dropped her body next to her sister's.
Tears emerged from Twilight's eyes as she screamed at the creature to stop. It ignored her cries as it stood over the two bodies, ready to feed. As it opened its mouth, the two pony’s souls emitted from the two bodies, which were then sucked in by the creature.
Suddenly, something changed. Before the remaining six ponies very eyes, minus Softheart, they saw the creature transform.
It grew five times larger, its head and forelegs became that of a dragon, and on its back grew a pair of demonic wings.
They were all terrorized at seeing these events unfold.
The creature, marveled at its newly obtained power, looked back down upon the six.
"Your time is up little ponies. Witness your world as we raise Tartarus!"
"We?" Twilight nervously asked.
"Indeed."
Suddenly, its magic rippled from its head all across Canterlot, and later, reaching all across Equestria.
With all their might, they turned to look out the window.
The sky had turned red. Hundreds of black demons, identical to one another were rising up from within the bodies of ponies, and were now terrorizing the others. Hundreds of ponies were being slaughtered as their souls were absorbed by the same demon that killed them.
"Behold the future of Equestria." The creature marveled. Extending its wings, it flew up through the hole in the ceiling and high up into the sky.
The creatures who were nearby noticed it and gathered close to it from the ground.
"Brothers and sisters, we have now achieved our greatest victory in all our lifetime, and you will all be glad to hear that the Princesses are dead at last!"
They all cheered with excitement.
"No longer will we fear the prejudice of the leadership of this kingdom. From this day on, Equestria will be ruled the Children of Tartarus, with me as its queen!"
Twilight listened to everything the demon was saying. She knew she could not allow all of this to happen. She had to stop it somehow.
"Enjoy your glorious feasts my subjects, but be sure to keep a good number of them. We do not want them to go extinct now do we?"
All the other demons comprehended their leader’s words and went back to their feeding frenzy.
The creature flew back down towards the throne room in order to tie up one last lose end.
"Before I kill you all, I do want to say how grateful I am for helping me achieve this great goal. I probably wouldn't have done this without any of you."
"The feeling isn't mutual," Twilight replied. "Although, is it ok if I do say a few words for real this time?"
The demonic creature eyed her for a second, and then starred at her suspiciously.
"Well, since I am going to steal your souls, I'd say way not, but no tricks. I will be keeping my eyes on you."
"Thank you."
The demon released her magical grip on the six ponies. Twilight, now free to move, turned to face the others.
"Listen, before anything happens, I just want to let you all know how thankful I am for all of your help. I don't how I could have made it this far without you."
"Aw, don't sweat it sugar cube. That's what friends are for." Appleseed said.
That strummed Twilight's heartstrings. "Really? You guys consider me your friend? After all I have done to you?" she asked.
"Hey, it's not your fault you were being controlled by a crazy demon. Believe me, I know," Aurora Flash replied. "Besides, to us, you're our friend."
"Aurora's right! We're besties now, even if we are about to have our souls taken." Sweetie Pie chimed in.
"Indeed, and in case you still hold this awful burden, just know that we do forgive you," Elegance said.
"I agree with Elegance, and Appleseed, and Aurora Flash, and Sweetie Pie!" Softheart said with smile.
Twilight was speechless. She couldn't believe that these ponies were immediately accepting her as her friend. Just like how her old friends did. Suddenly, she found herself in the middle of a group hug.
She returned the hug, not caring about the tears flowing down her cheeks, not caring about the impending doom that was left to come. She had friends again, and that was all that mattered to her.
"Well isn't this sweet?" the demon interrupted as it made a gagging sound, indicating how disgusting it was to it.
"That's enough final words from all of you. It's time for you to meet your fate. Let this new era of Equestria be the last thing you see, just as what your beloved princesses saw."
With its head forward and eyes aglow, two massive beams, both merging into on struck the group with full force, followed by a minor explosion, throwing the demon several feet back.
As all the dust and debris was settling, the demon was anxious to claim its prize. However, that prize would never come.
Standing in the exact same spot without a single scratch were the six ponies. All of them were surrounded by a protective aurora of magic. The creature was stunned at the sight of it.
Twilight was the first to realize that they were still alive. Everyone noticed the magic around them.
"That's impossible! You're supposed to be dead, all of you!"
Without another minute to lose, Twilight seized the opportunity by calling upon her magic to teleport out of the throne room to safety.
Out in the palace courtyard appeared the six ponies from nowhere. Everyone except for Twilight were feeling nauseous, but were able to recuperate. In the distance, they could hear a loud roar coming from the throne room. A second later, the creature flew back up into the air and called out in a loud booming voice, enough to cause a slight migraine in the mares’ heads.
"You can't escape me! This is my world now you foolish mortals. I will have your souls!"
The five mares cringed at the sound of that, but not Twilight. She had cheated death, and she wasn't about to let a second chance to fix things slip passed her. Several feet away from her, she saw Spike already trying to fight off one demon at a time. Sadly though, he was being overwhelmed.
She stood there and thought for a moment, until coming to the realization that she was out of ideas.
She went to face the five mares.
"So what are we going to do?" Aurora asked.
"Nothing. I'm all to of ideas," Twilight replied. They were shocked at that.
"What do you mean nothing? We can't just let Equestria go down the drain. We have to do something!"
"What can we do Aurora? We're too outnumbered, and half of the ponies in Equestria are either dead or imprisoned. There's nothing we can do now."
Just then, they noticed they were surrounded by a large number of demons, and to make matters worse, The Creature was approaching them.
"Tsk, tsk. I expected more from you Twilight. Who'd a thought that a pony like you wouldn't know what to do."
Twilight hung her head low in disgrace.
"I have you all right where I want you, and there is no escape. I think this time I'll kill your friends one by one in front of you, starting with this no good little hayseed," It said as it levitated Appleseed off the ground.
"Hey, put me down!" Appleseed cried out.
Twilight's head shot up. She couldn't bear seeing any more of her friends dying. Then she noticed something. Something she hadn't seen in a long time. Eyeing each and every one of them, her friends, she felt something special about them. And there it was. The spark. Now she knew why these ponies were so familiar. She never lost her friends; they were here all along. She just couldn't see.
The creature released Appleseed, allowing her to fall to the ground. Pain shot through every inch of her body. Aurora and Softheart were the ones that helped her up.
Before the creature was about to kill them one by one, Twilight approached her friends to say the one thing that needed to be said.
"Guys, before we meet our doom, I just want to let you know that I'm glad you all consider me your friend, and I realized now that you all are my friends. Thank you all for everything," She said, giving them one last group hug. All of them did the same.
Within that moment, everything changed. The spark within them had finally ignited. A bright light emanated from the group, blinding those who stood near them.
Rising up into the air, a beam in a rainbow of colors shot up into the air before aiming down upon the creature like a fiery judgment. It struck the creature hard and in the midst of all the colors, it began to disintegrate. Bits and pieces of it were burning off of it. It roared from the pain and the loss of power.
At the same time, small streaks of rainbow colors were striking the other nearby demons, immediately disintegrating them to nothing.
In the middle of the group, with Twilight's eyes aglow and a smile on her face, a wave of bright light washed over all of Canterlot, spreading all over Equestria.
The brightness faded, revealing a bright and beautiful sunny day. In the palace courtyard laid the six friends. Appleseed was the first to rise up off the ground, then Aurora Flash, then Softheart, and so forth.
"Is every pony ok?" Appleseed asked. The only reply she got was from Aurora who was moaning about her head. Sweetie Pie got up and was surprised when she saw Appleseed.
"Oh my! Appleseed look, you're all better!"
Appleseed looked down upon herself and noticed that she was no longer wearing the body cast, and her body was fully healed.
"Well yee-haw! I'm all better now!"
"Everyone, look!" Elegance said, pointing a hoof at Twilight, who was just now rising.
"Twilight, are you all right?" she asked.
"I... I think so," she replied.
"Well, might I say, you look a lot better without your armor, and lavender does suit you."
"Armor?" Twilight asked, completely forgetting about it until now. Looking down upon herself, she saw her familiar lavender coat and wings. Lying at her hooves was the shredded remains of her armor. She stared at her friends with big grin on her face. She hopped up and down cheering yes over and over again.
Sweetie Pie joined her giddy friend as they jumped up and down for a full straight minute.
Afterwards, Twilight looked around, and saw that everything looked normal again. High up in the big blue sky, she noticed some strange, gray, smoke-like objects floating around. She knew those must have been the captured souls. Some were returning to their host bodies, while others that didn't merely faded away.
Two significant souls floating around in the sky stood out amongst the others. One of them was pinkish while the other was blue.
"The princesses’ souls," Twilight thought as she saw the two souls float towards the palace throne room. A while later, the two sisters trotted out of the palace entrance and into the courtyard. Twilight galloped towards them and hugged them both.
"We knew you would save us all," Celestia commented.
"Don't thank me princess, thank my friends. Without them, we would have never saved you all," Twilight said. Celestia, with a warm smile, thanked them all. They jumped with excitement at having the princess personally thank them.
As they all went off on how they were glad to have helped save Equestria and all, out of the corner of her eye, Twilight noticed a patch of gray smoke, a soul. Slowly approaching it, she made out the physical features of it and instantly knew whose soul it was. Slowly the soul approached her ear and whispered "Thank you Twilight," very softly and quietly before vanishing.
"You’re welcome Longspear," she replied.
"Who are you talking to?" Sweetie Pie said, whispering in her other ear, causing her to jump. All of her friends were standing near her now.
"Oh um, let’s just say, I've helped some pony get what they've always wanted."
No one except Celestia understood what she said.
Then they heard moaning. Just beyond them was a large crater in the middle of the courtyard. Right in the middle of it was Maxspell, the real Maxspell.
Every pony slowly approached the crater. Standing just several inches from the edge, Twilight saw Maxspell raise her head and utter something, just two words.
"Thank you."
Her head fell back down on the ground dead.
•••
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