//------------------------------//
// Chapter 15: Light and Fire 
// Story: The Alicorn King's Glare 
// by LightOfTriumph 
//------------------------------//

"Perfect," he said. "Now you've gotten him started. They've passed their little 'test.' Now what's stopping Glare from simply burning them to ashes?"

"Partly me," his friend said proudly. "Partly his own pride. He'll want to take his time with them, like he did with us. That should give us the time we need..."

"How are we going to get the message to Twilight?" he asked. "i hope you're not planning on getting her here the old fashioned way, I have a feeling she'll object."

"Well I would too!" his friend laughed. "Remember, I've been through it! It wasn't a pleasant experience. Could be worse though, It could be dealing with Sirens."

"My question remains, you need to talk to her face to face," he said firmly. "You want me to bring them here. I can do that but the problem is down there I'm currently... incapacitated. How are we going to fix that problem."

"Simple," his friend smiled. "I'm going to wake someone. In turn, they'll wake you. Without realizing it, Glare put her right where I can get her..."

The area around them changed into a meadow during a beautiful starry summer night. In the middle of the field, looking blissfully up at the sky were to ponies, a mare and a stallion. Both of whom were very familiar to him and his friend. His friend stared at the Stallion for quite a while with a far away look. He could tell his friend wanted nothing more than to go over and speak to him. Apologize. Try to save him from the path he went down...

He had to remind his friend of the hard truth.

"Remember," he said softly. "This is an illusion. And it isn't even ours. Don't fall into Glare's trap. This isn't-"

"Real," his friend said as a tear rolled down his cheek. "I know."

His friend walked up and put a firm hoof on the Mare's shoulder.

"Little Wings?" he said softly. "I'm sorry, but you need to wake up."





The sheer power of Seraphim Glare caught Twilight off guard. 

The room had grown hot. As if there was a raging fire threatening to consume the room. The light coming from Glare was close to blinding. His mane and tail were flowing upwards, resembling an extreme blaze. His eyes were as bright as headlamps and they were staring straight through Twilight and her friends.

This is what they were up against.

This was the Alicorn king unleashed. 

"At last," Glare seethed. His voice was distorted, like there was another, deeper voice backing it up. "You six are at a loss for words. That's fine. I don't need you to talk."

Magic caught Fluttershy around the throat and lifted her into the air. A few burns were starting to form on her neck.

"I need you to scream."

Acting quickly, Rarity ran right up to the Alicorn King and flicked his horn with the tip of her hoof. The spell was interrupted, and Fluttershy was dropped.

Glare grunted in pain and turned is gaze to Rarity.

"Bet you didn't know that could happen, did you?" Rarity said proudly. "Neither did I! Thank you Sweetie Belle!"

Glare turned his attention to Rarity, but was caught broadside with a swift tackle. He turned to see Rainbow Dash smugly blowing on her hooves. "I thought that light was supposed to be fast." she scoffed. "Apparently not fast enough to block that. I'll tell ya, Discord would've seen that coming a mile away."

Glare lunged at Dash but was met with nothing but air.

"You know, it's starting to occur to me," Dash said, lolligagging around in midair. "Maybe you weren't as super-threatening as we thought you were... Maybe your just another kook who wants to conquer Equestria for no other reason than to stroke his own overinflated ego! And I'll tell you, when you put my ego to shame, that's really-"

Rainbow Dash was cut off when Glare shoulder tackled her into a wall. "The incessant jabber," Glare growled. "Quite like March when he got himself going. I'll make sure you stay silent from now on, whelp."

He was stopped when he came face to face with an angry Fluttershy. "Touch her again," she growled. "I dare you!"

Glare's icy laughter filled the room once more. "And what...exactly," Glare laughed. "Do you think you're going to do."

Fluttershy thought about it for a moment. "Distract you!" she said sweetly.

Glare was then hit by cake and streamers that came at him with the force of a runaway stagecoach.

"Holy guacamole!" Pinkie said standing next to her "Party Cannon". "Can you believe how accurate this thing is? I mean it's a spring loaded cannon that fires party fixings! How do I manage to hit my mark every single time I fire it? Is the cannon magic, or am I just that good?!"

Glare's anger was momentarily replaced by pure bewilderment. "Wha...?"

"We've learned not to ask," Applejack smiled from next to Glare. "Ain't no point."

Glare noticed her presence too late to block the massive buck that sent him flying across the room. Applejack and the others gathered beside Twilight.

"You look tired, Seraphim," Twilight smiled. "I thought we weren't worth your time. I thought that if you unleashed your full power it would be over too quickly. It just seems to me like you've been pushed to your limits."

Glare began to right himself. "If you honestly think that these are my full limits...," Glare coughed. "Oh girls... We're going to be here for quite a while."

"No," Twilight shook her head. "We're not. Now!!"

Twilight felt her mind connect with her friends as it had only done a scarce few times before. That pulse that connected the six of them to the workings of all Equestrian magics. That spark that became apparent to her in her first bout with Nightmare Moon. The thing inside of them that saved a princess and reformed Chaos itself. The thing that had defeated so many foes in the past, and would go on to defeat countless more in the future.

The full power of the Elements of Harmony.

The Magic swirled around them in a full spectrum of color. It enveloped them in a cocoon of polychromatic vibrance. It fired in a never ending stream directly at Seraphim Glare.

Glare was ready to counter. He threw up every magical barrier Twilight had ever seen or heard of, and then some. A shield of translucent magic surrounded Searphim Glare.

And to Glare's horror, it was starting to crack. 

Twilight wasn't sure if it was her propensity with the art, her Alicorn abilities, or merely her imagination, but she could see Glare's face through the haze. It shifted from angry, to confused, to frantic. 

Glare was beginning to panic.

"No...," Glare muttered. "No! This is impossible!!"

"Oh, it's possible!" Twilight shouted over the roar of the beam. "I told you Glare! You're facing the six strongest ponies in Equestria! This is it, Glare! This is where this ends!"

The intensity of the beam multiplied as Twilight threw everything she was into the shot.

"No...,' Glare said shocked. "I won't let this happen! I WON'T LET THIS HAPPEN!!!"

And then it happened.

The shell broke and Glare was hit by the full force of the magic. She could hear Glare scream in agony as the beam washed over him, hitting him full force in the face and chest. Twilight couldn't see anything except whiteness for a moment. She could hear the recoil of the blast knock her friends back. She heard Glare skid across the floor.

Then she heard nothing.

When she was able to see again, she saw her friends, obviously exhausted, picking themselves up and brushing themselves off. Twilight could barely stand with all of the effort she had put into that last spell. Even with her friends help, that was the most powerful spell she had ever unleashed.

And truth be told... she wasn't entirely sure how it happened. 

The Elements of Harmony were returned to the Tree of Harmony a few months ago.  There was some sort of power she unlocked when she faced Tirek... But her friends changed form then. Almost as if the power was physically effecting them. That hadn't happened this time. She had stayed the same. So had her friends. Where did this come from? How did this happen?

Those questions would have to wait for when she had more time. for now there was only one important question.

She saw Glare lying motionless across from the six. Sprawled on the floor. His mane seemed to be... going out, for lack of a better term. Twilight couldn't decide if it was a good thing or a bad thing that she could still see him. But it didn't answer her question.

Is it over? 

Her question was answered with a sharp thud that came when Seraphim Glare stomped his hoof upon the crystal floor. 

Twilight listened in horror as the ice cold laughter filled the room again. This time it seemed manic. Almost pained.

"That...," Glare said as he rose to his hoofs, his back to the six. "Hurt. It hurt. It has been quite a long time since somepony has managed to physically hurt me. Bravo."

There was something wrong with his voice, Twilight thought. There was a certain hiss to it now. Like he couldn't form the words properly.

"Incredible," Glare laughed. "i really thought I was going to die. I, Seraphim Glare, was brought to the brink of death. Congratulations. No one has ever pushed me this far. And no one ever will again..."

Twilight felt a white hot aura grip her and raise her skyward. She looked around to see that it was also happening to her friends.

"I am about to call you what I have not called anything else I have encountered in my life," Glare said coldly. "You six... are a threat. you have earned that title because you have done what I thought impossible. You have almost killed me. Doubtless you would have succeeded..."

Then Glare turned around, and Twilight and her friends all screamed.

Half of his face had broken off. Not peeled or burned, broken. As if his skin was a hard metal casing rather that proper flesh. The hole had cracked from the left side of his face just under his eye down to his neck. And where Twilight would have expected to see blood or veins or even musculature, there was only fire. Fire coming out from the broken skin and feeding the fire that was his mane.  The only thing that Twilight could make out from within the flames was a white eyeball seemingly floating in the orange haze, and a set of teeth that gave Glare a permanent sickening sneer.

"Doubtless you would have," he continued. "If long ago Flesh and Blood had not been replaced with Light and Fire."

Rainbow Dash turned to look at Twilight, obviously in agony. "Please...," she managed to groan. "Tell me we have a Plan B!"

Twilight couldn't answer. She didn't. She had nothing left. Everything that was Twilight Sparkle had gone into that last shot. There was nothing more she could do. Nothing more anyone can do.

Seraphim Glare had won.

"I am going to finish you quickly," Glare spat. "Despite my better judgement you six have worried me. So I'll make it quick. But just so I'm sure you suffer in your last moments, let me make it very clear. This is it. The end. Your failure. My victory. No one is coming to save you and no one will be coming to 'save' Equestria when you're gone. This is the moment that will go down in history when this battle is remembered. The moment where Darkness's chosen champions burned alive at the whim of the Alicorn King.

"With that terror in your hearts, I think I can finally say goodbye."

But before the final blow could be struck, something happened that surprised everyone in the room. They all suddenly became aware of an eigth presence. Somepony who had always been in the room with them, but they had no reason to acknowledge until now. She made her presence known with the pounding of her hoof upon the ground and three simple words.

"Put. Them. Down."

Twilight looked at her. She had forgotten she was here. How had she gotten up? She was under Glare's spell! Under the thrall of the Golden Mirror! How was it possible that she had broken out of it without outside influence? Nopony was that strong willed, so how had she done it. Twilight reasoned that she hadn't. Someone had to have helped her. Someone they had yet to see was helping them against Glare... Somepony somewhere wanted them to succeed. A tear came to Twilight's eye. It wasn't over yet. 

There was still hope.

"Father," Luna growled. "I would have words."