Chapter 28
Bad Joke was smiling as wide as he could as the Mare Do Wells kept fighting him.
These guys were horrible at dogfights. Dodging through a dozen or so tackles from the incoming heroes, Bad Joke laughed as he flew up into the air, rolling once more. “Is this the best you got?”
Another Mare Do Well leapt up at him, and his knives once more dragged uselessly against her chitin.
To be fair, they had landed a few good blows on him, and he was getting more and more tired by the second, but they really didn’t know how to fight in the air.
“Come on, I expected more out of—”
A sudden burst of light erupted from behind him, and he turned to see the space where Chaos had been only a moment ago.
“Whelp. So much for that,” he muttered before turning back to the Mare Do Wells below him. “Well, ladies, it’s been fun, but I’ve got to head out!”
“You’re not going anywhere!” one of them yelled.
“What? Are you going to stop me?” he asked, before reaching into his suit pocket. “Because I’m sure that those guards that have been helping keep the demons in check would have a hard time keeping their sides from being split while their sides are splitting,” he said with a laugh as he tossed a few gas pellets into the air.
The Mare Do Wells slowed down, hesitating at the edge of the his reach, waiting for the crazed pegasus to make a move.
“So, if you don’t want them to go down, you’re going to let me go.”
Chess Piece ground her teeth at the thought, still no one made a move.
“I’m glad we could come to this understanding,” Bad Joke said as he began to fly backwards, up and away from the disguised changelings. As he crested the wall, he laughed. “Heehee-heheh…Unfortunately, you have to learn not to trust the villain,” he said, before tossing the pellets behind him and over the wall. “Have fun! Hee-Hahahahahahahahaha!”
“Save the civilians!” Chess Piece ordered, even as she watched Bad Joke take to the air.
The changelings leapt over the wall, diving into the clouds of gas, searching for civilians that had now breathed in the gas.
Civilians that had already been evacuated.
<<<|Ω|>>>
Alan shook his head. “I was not aware that draconequui were explosive…”
As he slowly sat up, his eyes went wide.
Three figures now lay ahead of him, the first and closest being a draconequus. He looked exactly like Discord in every way, with the exception of the fact that he was no taller than Applebloom.
He simply lay there, curled up around his own tail like a baby.
The figure to his left was odd, though, a blob of night sky. Yet, it seemed wrong somehow.
It seemed more like the mane of Nightmare Moon. Or, at least, what he remembered about it all those years ago.
And the the figure on the right simply took his breath away. Propping himself on a long, oakwood staff, a tall, golden alicorn began to get his hooves under him.
His wings stretched, opening to a massive wingspan, and two cerulean eyes met him.
He looked down at his hooves, and how they dug into the ground, and lowered his head to smell the grass.
“It has been too long,” he said with a smile, before turning to face the cloud of night sky. “Too long since I’ve been free of you.”
No one else made a move, they merely stared at the three figures before them.
Harmony took a long step forward, standing above the small draconequus and leveled his glare at the blob. “Show yourself, you vile fiend. In the name of Faust, show them what you truly are.”
As though compelled, the blob quivered and shook, transforming before their very eyes into a wintery ghost.
A wendigo.
The demon glared at him, before hissing. “I hate you.” It’s voice sounded like a winter wind, and chilled the gathered ponies to the bone.
“I should have known,” Harmony said. “Your need to cause hatred and suffering, the chill in your voice when we first spoke. The real question, though, is how did I miss one of your miserable kind?”
“I hate you,” the wendigo repeated.
“The feeling is mutual,” Harmony noted. “And now I shall finish the duty given to me six thousand years ago.”
The wendigo hissed, before launching into the air. “You will not destroy me!” it cried. “Do you know who I am?”
“You are a pathetic weakling of an era long passed, the last of your kind, and the one I missed when I came to end the monsters like you,” Harmony said without a hint of mercy.
“I am Chaos!” the winter monster replied, floating into the air as the north wind began to blow. “I have been absorbing your power for millennia! Your power is mine to command!”
Harmony shook his head and began to hobble towards Alan.
The wind began to howl and screech. “Faust fears me! My power is unmatched by all! There is no one on this planet that can stop me!”
Harmony ignored him, before looking down at Alan. “Sir Pendragon,” he called.
Alan blinked as he looked at him.
“I need your help, Pendragon.”
“W-with what?” Alan asked.
“The Spirit is willing, but my body is weak. My friend, I would ask you for your strength, that together we might bring our fury to the monster that separated us from our loved ones.”
Alan looked at him, and then smiled. “I can do that.”
<<<|Ω|>>>
“I am the end of all mortal kind!” the wendigo screamed, even as a freezing wind whipped about him. “I will not be stopped by the likes of you! I am unstoppab—!”
Once more the world exploded in light.
Only this time, the ball sustained itself, standing in the middle of garden, and blinding anyone that looked too deep into its center.
Forced to look away, the wendigo found itself looking to the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. They all looked to their elements, which were beginning to glow almost white with power.
And then came the voice.
A voice of the great host of angels, a choir of heavenly voices singing simple words into the air and minds of those gathered.
“Kindness,” the voice called, and Fluttershy stared with wide eyes as the element around her neck began to shake before coming loose entirely, flying towards the ball of light like a pin drawn to a magnet. “So that peace and stillness may follow wherever your hooves may tread.”
There was the sound of metal armor clasping shut, and Twilight could just barely make out the form of armored legs at the lower half of the light.
“Honesty,” the voice called again.
This time, the necklace around Applejack began to shake in answer. It also came loose and flew forward, this time encasing the center of light into the body.
“For the Truth will set you free, and you will fly on the wings of eagles.”
From the body the raised not one, not two, but three majestic pairs of wings.
“Generosity,” the voice called, and Rarity’s necklace answered the call, clasping around the flanks like a belt, complete with long strips of leather that ran down the sides. “For giving oneself creates the bonds that will hold a friendship together for a lifetime.”
“Laughter,” the angelic choir sang, and Pinkie’s Element leapt up to the head, crowning the dual-horned head of a white and gold alicorn. The large, crested helm sat snugly, with a large gem at its center. “For when Fear and Darkness hide your path, laughter shall light and lead your way.”
“Loyalty,” the armored alicorn spoke, and Rainbow Dash’s Element flew forward. With a flash a large, circular, golden shield formed, with a burning red, fiery gem as its device. “For when friends stand side-by-side, no force can break them.”
And then the alicorn turned, his fur shimmering from white to gold to white again, before his eyes fell on Twilight.
She gasped as his eyes flashed from Harmony’s Cerulean to Alan’s brown. “Magic,” he said, his voice echoing across the garden.
As she was expecting, her crown flew forward towards the light, but she was surprised to see yet another streak shoot forward.
When they came together, what was left sent her jaw to the floor.
Judgement’s blade stood proudly against the night sky, with the six pointed star at the base of its hilt. Where the blade ended, though, it seemed the crown began. The arms of the crown had twisted, now spiralling around the oak shaft that was once Harmony’s staff to created one of the most beautiful spears she had seen.
“The spark that keeps us together.”
And then the alicorn turned back towards the wendigo.
“Un...unstoppable…” it muttered.
The alicorn smirked. “You were saying?”
“I...I’m…”
Anything further that could have been said was then cut off by the alicorn stretching his six, powerful wings and launching into the air.
His spear hovered next to him as he stared the demon in the eyes. “We have let you stay in this world long enough, monster. And now we shall rectify this mistake.”
The wendigo bristled angrily. “I am your superior! I am not some gnat for you to push aside! I am—”
Wham!
The spear slammed into the side of the wendigo's head, sending the demon sprawling along the grass as it slammed into the ground. “Be silent, worm. Now fight us, or go to the abyss quietly.”
The wendigo growled, as it picked itself off the ground. “Winter shall tear you apart,” he said, before he opened his mouth, his jaw distending to unleash the long breath of winter.
The alicorn was quickly engulfed in a freezing fog, obscuring him behind a mist of blue.
And then the mist exploded.
Icy streams were sent sideways as red walls of energy cut through it.
The wendigo's eyes went wide, and a gasp escaped his lips, cutting off the stream of chilling mist.
As the cloud dissipated, revealing the large, round, golden shield sitting before him.
“Is that all?” the alicorn asked in Alan’s voice, as he lowered the shield. “I expected more out of you.”
“Now, now, Alan,” the alicorn said again, this time in Harmony’s tone. “Be polite. I felt a chill, at least.”
They all laughed together, their voices coming together in that heavenly song.
The wendigo growled, before launching itself forward. “I will eat your soul!”
The laugh got louder, and as the choir sang, it began to cause the ground to shake.
As the wendigo began to close the distance, a sudden blast of light and sound erupted from the alicorn’s mouth, and shook the demon to its core, shredding its wispy skin apart with the unadulterated power of joy.
Shreds of wendigo hit the ground hard, scattering across the grass before they began to gather and coalesce.
“You seem to be holding back…” Harmony’s voice noted from the alicorn.
“Im trying to restrain myself,” Alan answered. “I do not dare let dark magic make me vulnerable again.”
The alicorn nodded. “Admirable, yet ultimately unnecessary,” Harmony said. “Hatred and fear are mere emotions, emotions given by Faust. They are the most easily corruptible, but they are harmless in and of themselves.
“The secret lies in your target. Turning hatred on ponies, the work of Faust, will lead you down a dark path. Fear, if no action is taken, will lead to despair. Despair will lead you down that same path, while offering false promises of power. Instead, turn your fear and hatred into a driving action. Fear and hatred are to be turned to against evils and injustices, and are to drive you to right these. Turn your hatred against the evils in the world, Alan. Turn it there, and you will need not fear.”
“Are you sure?” Alan asked.
“Here, let me show you.”
The alicorn nodded, and purple smoke began to leak from his eyes.
And then it suddenly burst in a flash of light as the smoke turned blue his eyes became a heavenly silver.
The gathered ponies landed, moving closer together as the wendigo finished collecting itself. “I...I am not finished yet…” the demon said groggily. “I will not be so easily stopped...I will be—”
Wham!
The alicorn slammed into the ground where the wendigo had been, moving at a blinding speed.
The ground shook at the impact, and the second of silence was suddenly cut short by the scream of the wendigo as it was sent flying into the air.
The alicorn shot up into the air, following the demon as it flew, screaming all the way. When they met in the air, the alicorn reared back with his hind legs and kicked him forward.
Again the wendigo went screaming across the air, only for the spear to suddenly shoot forward ahead of him, and bat him away with a crack.
As if flew, it tried to correct, rolling around until it righted itself, and slowed, hovering in the air. He shook his head, trying to reorient himself, when he was quickly run over by the trampling, armored hooves of the alicorn.
Somehow trampled against empty air, the wendigo felt it’s being crushed, and it knew if it had bones they would have been pulverized.
Still, the onslaught did not stop. The haft of the spear, trailing beams of shimmering white, rainbow magic, slammed into the monster’s chin, dislocating the jaw and leaving it’s belly exposed to the sky.
And that’s when the spear ran him through.
It crashed the the ground, pinned to the earth by the spear as it writhed in pain against the magical blade.
The alicorn lowered itself down to the demon, and stared at it with cold, shimmering, gold and silver eyes.
The wendigo looked up, twitching as holy light filled his body and ate away at his being. “How?” he asked. “We were so close...so close to winning…”
“You were never going to win,” the alicorn said in the choir that was its voice. “You were only allowed this much so that Faust’s plan may come to fruition. Through your actions, you have saved a species from Tartarus, you have brought a family closer together than ever before, you have released Harmony from his prison, brought three ponies so far from darkness that they will only speak of the light, and far, far more.”
The alicorn brought his hoof up to the end of his spear. “Go now to the abyss, and know that all of your plans were only noise at the gates of paradise,” he said, before he drove the spear straight through his chest, and into the ground with a flash of light.
“So has Faust spoken.”
<<<|Ω|>>>
As the flash settled, Twilight tried to look in, searching for her husband amongst the light.
She blinked as the after image stung her eyes before slowly, ever so slowly, the world came back into view. Alan and Harmony stood, staring down the empty crater where the demon once lay.
The elements sat, spread out around them as Harmony held his staff, and Alan held Judgement.
They shared a look, and nod between them, before turning back to crowd gathered behind them.
They smiled.
Harmony looked up to Luna, who had not taken her gaze from them for a second. “Hello, Luna…” he said, as tears began to form in his eyes.
She said nothing, but she did take a slow, unsteady step towards him. “Ha-Harmony?”
“It’s me. Only me this time…” he said as he took step towards her.
No more words were spoken between them. She merely ran to him, and he took her into his embrace.
Alan meanwhile, walked up to Twilight, and hugged her close. “It’s over,” he said. “It’s finally over.”
She smiled, and hugged him tighter.
“Sir!” a voice called from the left, and Alan looked up to see a small swarm of Mare Do Wells approach. “Sir,” Chess Piece said again as she led the charge. “I have changelings reporting that the demons are heading out of Canterlot, heading West and South, what...are...your...orders…” she said, trailing off as she realized what she just said in front of the Princess.
“Changelings?” Celestia asked concerned.
Chess looked to Alan.
Alan shrugged. “You might as well let her know.”
Chess Piece looked to the swarm behind her.
They all took a step back.
She looked up at Celestia, who was caught between grilling Alan for an answer and asking the masked mare before her.
Chess sighed, before straightening her back, and holding her head high. With the crackle of green flame, her mask disappeared, revealing the slender face of Chess Piece the changeling. “Your Majesty, Princess Celestia, my name is Chess Piece and I…” she paused before sighing, keeping her posture all the while. “I represent the Exilarchy of the Named Ones.”
“Exilarchy?” the Princess asked.
“Yes, we come in peace, yet do not represent any other changeling hives. As a matter of penance, we have taken it upon ourselves to aid Equestria in this dark hour.”
Celestia blinked, but nodded. “That’s—”
“Hang on!” another voice cried, and Celestia watched as Rainbow Dash suddenly landed between them. “Princess!” she said, spreading her wings in defiance. “If you even think about banishing them, then I want you know I’m going with them!”
Celestia blinked again, confused by the sudden outburst. “That’s...you seem to feel quite strongly about this, Rainbow Dash. May I ask why?”
“I owe my life to a changeling,” she said, “and if I can’t return the favor, then I’m going to do everything I can to help them,” she said, staring Celestia in the eye.
The Princess blinked, before smiling. “I suppose I have no choice then,” she said, grinning wider. “I’ll just have to offer the Exilarchy sanctuary.”
Chess let loose a breath of relief. “Oh, thank you, Princess. That’s good to hear.”
She nodded, before turning to the clearing, where Harmony and Luna stood. “Harmony, it is good to see you again.”
“It is better than you know,” Harmony said as the two approached her.
“I have to wonder how, though?” she asked.
Harmony smiled. “That would be Alan’s blade. The Elements infused a touch of their magic into Sir Alan’s sword. It has the power to separate beings from each other, body, mind, and soul. And it has, seperating me from the demon, and separating us,” he said before motioning down to the baby draconequus, “from Discord.”
“What?” she asked.
“This is Discord,” Harmony said, while Luna walked up to his side. “Separated from my knowledge and the demon’s malice. This is the child of our souls.”
Luna regarded the creature with disgust as she spoke. “Then this creature is demonspawn that must be dealt with.”
“No, Luna,” Harmony said with a gentle smile as she turned to him in surprise. “He is to remain, as a reminder to myself that your duties are yours, and my own are my own. He shall serve as a cornerstone of my mistake, that I might never forget.”
Luna said nothing, but merely stared at the sleeping form.
Celestia looked between the two. “I’ll...I’ll take care of him.”
“Thank you Celestia,” Harmony said. “It is appreciated.”
She nodded before turning to Alan. “Now, now that I’ve got all of that out of the way, how are you two alive?”
“Changelings,” Alan answered while Twilight gave an embarrassed smile.
“Alright, that’s the how,” she said, rolling her eyes. “By why keep silent?”
“That, Princess, is a long story,” Alan said. “One that I’m sure everyone here would like to hear, so shall we head inside?”
She gave a tired sigh, but smiled. “Sounds marvelous.”
“Come on, everypony,” Alan said with a smirk. “You’re finally about to get your answers.”
“Well it’s about darn time,” Applejack said, as the gathered began to make their way inside, Harmony gathering the Elements and Celestia swooping up the young Discord.
A laugh floated among them for a second, and Alan smiled.
A burst of black smoke stopped him, and he stared in horror at the face at its head. “Deeeeeeeeath!” it cried before slamming down on him.
With an explosion of black smoke, both the face, and Alan were gone.
“Alan!” Twilight called as her horn lit up with magic.
“Where’d they go?” Rainbow Dash asked, searching the area.
“It was a weak teleportation spell!” Twilight said, having identified the magic around the point where they disappeared. “Look around, they haven’t gone too far!”
“There!” Fluttershy said, pointing at one of the towers, where a massive worm of smoke was seen, silhouetted by a massive storm cloud.
“I’m on it!” Rainbow yelled.
“No,” Harmony said, earning the stares of the gathered. “Leave him be.”
“What?!” Twilight asked, sounding angry.
“Worry not, Lady Sparkle,” Harmony said. “This is a part of the plan.”
“The plan?” she asked.
Harmony nodded. “I said three ponies have been saved from the darkness, but only two have come to the light so far.”
“Harmony?” Celestia asked.
The golden alicorn smiled. “He’s about to save the third.”
“Okay…” Twilight said, “but, alone? Does he have to go alone?”
Harmony smiled once more. “Do now worry, he’s never alone.”
<<<|Ω|>>>
Sombra threw Alan, sending him and Judgement sprawling across the tower roof.
“Worm!” Sombra said into his mind. “Weakling! Coward! Caitiff! Half-Wit! Freak! Wimp!”
Then he spoke a single word. “Yyooooouuuuuuuu...”
Alan rolled onto his hooves, grabbing his sword as he got ready.
“Do you know what you’ve done?! Do you realize what you’ve ruined?!”
“I know enough to know that it needed to be stopped,” Alan said.
“You have stopped nothing!” Sombra raged. “I may not have the power now, but I will take this world! I will rule, and I will make your life a living Tartarus!”
Alan raised his blade. “What else is new?”
Sombra stared him in the eye.
>>>(⏀)<<<
Alan saw it.
He saw it all.
This was what Sombra had in mind.
Celestia and Luna lay dead, and the world was shrouded in darkness.
Canterlot had been thrown down, and an ugly throne of black crystal stood in its place. Demons flew across the sky and ponies laboured under heavy chains for as the eye could see.
“They will labour for their entire lives, and nothing will come of it. One team will undo the progress of another, and in turn, the first will be undone. There will be no respite, and no progress. There will only be toil and pain.” Sombra said into his mind
A light blue stallion, armed with a blade, walked between the columns, staring wearily out with brown eyes.
“That is your son,” Sombra said, “forced into my service as my right hand. He had hopes once, hopes of assassinating me and freeing his brethren. Yet he is cursed by those he wishes to save and his will is failing and soon he will fall into my will. His mother, your wife, is a broken old maid, unable to offer comfort and struck dumb so that she might not give counsel. She withers away while your son wanders aimlessly.”
A slave spat at him.
“You will die, Pendragon, if you fight me. You will die, and your son will walk fatherless. He will be hated and spat upon, he will be cursed and despised. When the people speak of your son, they will only speak of his failures and unending misery.
“But…” the voice said, slowly calming, “but if you join me, I will see him spared. Turn your back on your god, and I will offer you safety. Your family will not suffer my wrath. Join me and—”
A sudden burst of light cut him off.
>>>(⏀)<<<
Sombra was suddenly forced backwards, reeling as Alan stood, staring him in the face, his eyes gold and silver with blue smoke trailing from them.
“They will say many things about my son,” Alan said, staring him in the eyes, “but they will never say he had a coward for a father.”
Sombra growled, not noticing the thick mist that now hung around them. “You will die alone!” He roared, as magic began to gather around him.
Lightning struck, slamming into column of smoke, and disrupting his cast, when Thunder flooded their ears.
“He’s not alone!” another voice said, and Sombra wheeled around to see something he was not expecting.
Behind them stood the gates.
The Gates.
The Gates of Tartarus itself.
And before the gates, stood six, ghostly figures.
The first was a minotaur, dressed in marvelous armor, he towered over the others, with his gauntleted arms crossed. His horns, when they weren’t see through, shone in the green light of the gates, and his smirk was a mile long.
The second figure was a liger. His regal, red mane was safely tucked away underneath a neatly tied turban, and a silk sash was tied around his striped side. He stood proud, and his stocky frame spoke of a creature that took pride of his body.
On the other side, stood a zebra. His face betrayed no emotion, but his eyes sparkled with a hint of excitement of an ancient promise about to be fulfilled.
Next to the zebra stood a griffon, and after a second look, Alan’s eyes went wide.
He knew that griffon.
That was Markus.
He stood, a smile on his beak, his face devoid of scars, and the silver bands on his talons shone with a polished sheen.
Next to Markus stood a changeling. One that Alan was not sure he knew. He couldn’t remember if there was ever a changeling with a trio of green beetles as a cutie mark.
And finally, standing at the head of the small group, was a familiar pegasus.
“He’s never been alone,” Thundersight said.
“What-what are you doing here?” Sombra asked.
“We were promised vengeance, beast,” the Minotaur said with a deep rumbling voice.
“Vengeance for all of us,” the liger said. “Every death in every war, every murder, and anywhere your taint has touched.”
“And we’re here to collect,” Markus said with a smirk.
“What do you…?” Sombra asked.
The gates flew open, and a thousand souls leapt up at him.
Minotaurs, griffons, zebras, ponies and ligers all leapt up at him, gripping each other with interlocking arms, forming a chain of souls.
“We’re here,” Thundersight said, as he stretched his wings out, “to drag you back into hell.” The pegasus then leapt up, joining his brothers in the wave of souls.
Alan watched as the souls began to cover him, dragging him to the ground and back to the gate.
Sombra struggled in their grip. “You fools!” he roared. “You can’t take me to Tartarus! I am it’s king!”
And then it began to get brighter.
“You have done well, Alan,” a voice said behind him.
<<<|Ω|>>>
Their view has quickly been covered by a thick thundercloud, and Twilight was beginning to get nervous.
“A-Are you sure?” she asked Harmony for the third time.
He nodded. “He will be fine, Mrs. Sparkle. There is nothing that can touch him.”
She nodded, before looking back at the cloud.
“Are you positive?” She asked once more.
Harmony held up a hoof, signalling her to wait.
Suddenly the cloud exploded into light, and the shadow of a large alicorn figure was just barely hidden in the cloud.
“If you want you can ask her,” Harmony said with a smirk. “But don’t really. Seeing that much of her will do more harm to you than good.”
<<<|Ω|>>>
Alan turned, and saw Faust, who slowly sauntered up behind him.
He stared at her, her glory manifesting as a blinding light that he could barely see through.
Sombra’s eyes went wide. “Wh-What are you doing here?!” He asked, panicked.
Faust looked at Sombra with disgust. “Bringing justice.”
“Y-You wouldn’t!” he cried. “You would doom one of your innocent ponies to Tartarus!”
Faust nodded. “In your current state, you are correct. But I have my champion.”
Alan blinked, before it dawned on him.
She was trying to save Umbra…
He looked down at Judgement.
Sombra noticed his glance. “What? That?” he asked. “That puny weapon can’t unmake me! I am greater than the power of those pathetic gems!”
Faust smiled. “True enough.”
And then the alicorn transformed, changing into a ball of light that shot into the sword.
“No…”
Alan looked down into the blade, and the face of Faust smiled back at him.
“No.”
Alan smiled, his eyes still gleaming with purified magic.
“No!” Sombra cried, struggling against his bonds, trying to throw off the souls that bound him tight.
Alan brought up the blade, which left an after image of blinding, multi-colored light.
“No! No! No!”
Alan looked down at Sombra, and said one word. “Justice.”
He thrust Judgement forward, straight into the forehead of the cloud, who screamed in pain as he began to splinter and shatter from the light.
“Nooooo!” Hatred, not Sombra screamed as light erupted from him and the chain of souls began to reel backwards into the gates.
The gates slammed shut.
The light in Judgement was gone.
The cloud rumbled, and began to blow away, leaving only two figures on the roof of the tower.
The first, was Alan.
The second, was a black-furred unicorn, who lay sprawled across the ground, breathing heavily.
Alan walked over, and lightly slapped his face. “Umbra...Umbra is that you?”
The unicorn’s eyes fluttered open, revealing two emerald green eyes. “Is this...is this reality? Am I free?”
Alan smiled. “You are, Umbra. We brought you back. Come on, let’s get you inside…”
<<<|Ω|>>>
“No!” Hatred screamed as the chain of souls pulled him deeper and deeper into Tartarus.
They dropped him, throwing him to the ground without any sort of ceremony.
Landing hard, Hatred rolled across the rough ground of Tartarus, and cursed as he looked up into black void above, and saw the chain of souls fly across and over the abyss.
He yelled at them, screaming into the sky. “Do you know who I am? I am Hatred! Faust herself fears me! I am the master of Tartarus and the king of all Evil! I am a being beyond any of you!”
He cursed them, but they were far beyond his reach.
He shook his head. “I can’t believe this...all that work now useless.”
He smirked. “Well, no matter. I’ll simply try again.”
“No, you won’t,” someone said behind him, and Hatred froze at the sound.
He turned, and he quickly regretted it.
Before him stood none other than Faust, and Tartarus couldn’t stand it. The soul stone beneath her, once red, jagged, and ugly, now reformed itself into beautiful white tiles at the touch of her hooves.
“W-What are you doing here?!” he asked. “You can’t be here! Perfect beings aren’t allowed here!”
Faust smiled. “Correct, luckily, I happen to be carrying the sins of trillions of mortals, present, past, and future, and those sins must be punished.”
“But...but you can’t…”
“I most certainly can, Hatred,” she said with a hint of anger in her voice as she took a step towards him, “I can, I have, and as per the Law, I am here until you release me.”
“Well you’re free to go!” he said, taking a step back and hunching over his frame.
“Thank you,” she said, taking another step forward. “I’ll take that under consideration, but as for right now, I have some unfinished business with you.”
“B-business?” he asked, trying to step away.
“A matter of stolen property,” she said, having closed the distance between them, towering over the demon before her.
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.
“Hatred,” she said, glaring at him. “Give me the Keys.”
“What keys?” he asked.
“Do not play with me!” Faust said, lightning flashing from her body as her eyes became flames. The thunder of her voice rocked all of Tartarus, and deafened Hatred as she stood over him. “The Keys! The Keys of Paradise, Tartarus, and the Lake of Fire! The Keys that you stole from my gates when you tried to lay siege to Paradise! Now, do I need to explain myself further, or do you understand me clearly?!”
“Oh…” Hatred whimpered. “You mean these keys…” he said, offering the keys up to her.
She snatched them up, calming almost instantly.
And then Faust stared at him.
Fire was burning in her eyes.
“A day is coming,” she said, “when all will be fed, and disease will be washed away. A day is coming where there will be no hatred to endure, no wars to fight, no orphans, no prisoners, and no slaves. A day is coming when I will remake the world into perfection.”
She glared at him, and took a step forward until she loomed over him. “And when that day comes, I will make sure you get every moment of justice that you deserve.”
Hatred stared up at her.
“I will throw you out if this holding cell you call your kingdom and into the lake of fire. There you will receive every inch, every speck, and every twinge of pain you have caused me and my creations.”
“Y-you...I...I can try again! You won’t stop me!”
“You’ve already been stopped,” Faust scoffed. “When I leave, I will lock the gates behind me, no more will you be able to send in your spies and servants, and until your judgement comes, you are not going to leave this place again.”
“But...but I’ll…!”
“You have lost the war, Hatred,” she said. “If you wish, you can continue to fight your battles. But you have lost. There will be harmony for all.”
<<<|Ω|>>>
Alan sighed as he sat outside the tower.
Here he was, sleeping in the room where he had stayed when it all started, and standing on the balcony just outside his door. “It has been a long night,” he said.
“Too long,” Twilight agreed, coming up next to him.
“We’ve got a lot of stuff to fix,” Alan said.
“Easy fixes,” she said with a smirk as she nuzzled him.
“Easy?” he asked.
“Easy compared to stopping a demonic invasion,” she said.
“Or overthrowing a usurper alicorn?” he asked.
“Or uncovering a plot to kill a king?”
Alan smiled, and kissed her. “We’ve been through a lot, haven’t we?”
“And we’ll go through much more, I’m sure.”
He sighed. “We’ve still got to hunt down Bad Joke, he’s going to make a mess if we let him go.”
“Don’t worry, sir,” another voice said, and Alan peeked over the edge of the balcony to see a Mare Do Well clinging to wall. “We’ll take care of that one.”
Alan nodded. “Good luck, guys.”
“Thank you, sir,” the changeling said, before diving away.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Alan said, watching the changeling fly off towards the east as the sun slowly began to rise.
Twilight nodded. “At least we have friends to help us through.”
Alan nodded, before kissing her head. “At least we have each other.”
--------------------------------
And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the story of Pendragon Alan Williams Goldenhoof.
“Aw...it’s over…”
It is indeed, Pinkie. It is indeed.
“Expect the epilogues soon guys. They’ll be coming out shortly.”
Bye!