"Twilight?" Astrid asked with confusion in her voice when the purple alicorn painted with a rainbow of colors floated down next to her, horn glowing with a plethora of colors while she glared at the blind pony who also wore a look of confusion. "But, I thought you were..."
"We dealt with the skeleton monsters, and my friends are helping Hiccup deal with Thanatos," Twilight informed Astrid with a small smile before glaring back at Wijida. "Now then, Wijida, we're finally at the end of the story that you wanted to see so badly. Are you ready to see how it ends?"
"Oh please, Twilight, you don't scare me," Wijida smirked as she sauntered right up to the princess and glared into her eyes. "I can still see into your future. In fact, I'm doing it right now. And all I see is that you lose to me, no matter how much power you have or-"
CRACK!
Wijida's head snapped back when Astrid's fist connected with her jaw, sending the pony sprawling to the ground as Astrid had to lean against Twilight for support. Wijida slowly picked herself back up with disbelief written across her face while she held a hoof to her jaw, before slowly turning to look back at the smirking Astrid.
"What's the matter Wijida, didn't see that coming?" Astrid taunted as she pushed herself off of Twilight and lifted her hammer once again, ignoring the blinding pain that burned in her leg. "For a pony who constantly brags about seeing the future, I see that stupid look of surprise on your face more than I have anypony else."
"This cannot be...how did you manage to sucker punch ME?! I can see your FUTURE!" Wijida roared with fury as her eyes flashed, but the moment they did so Twilight's horn glowed and a bolt of magic drove itself into Wijida's chest and hurled the pony into one of the pillars that adorned the tower top. "How?" she whispered weakly as she picked herself up again. "How can I not see these attacks coming?"
"Because you've just confirmed a theory that I've had for a while," Twilight explained while she glanced down at Astrid's bleeding leg, her horn glowing once again so that her magic closed the gash. She gave Astrid a quick nod before turning her focus back to Wijida.
"What theory?" Wijida spat with rage as her eyes flashed again.
"A theory about your future vision...and how to exploit its weakness," Twilight smiled as fury and confusion spread across Wijida's face. "Whenever you talked to us about the future, you used vague terms and talked in a broad sense, like you were leaving out important details. Yet, whenever you chose to fill those details in, you were always focusing on one of us in particular."
"I fail to see what that little detail-"
"That's it right there. You fail to see," Twilight cut Wijida off, making the pony snarl again. "When you fought me at Fluttershy's cottage, you only focused on my future, no pony else's. And then Luna somehow managed to sneak up on you, despite all of your claims about being able to see all of our futures. And that's when this theory hit me. When you're fighting a pony, you need every detail you can get. Meaning, that you have to focus your future vision on them and them alone."
"But then you get into a situation like this one," Astrid caught on as she smiled at the sheer genius of Twilight. "Where you've got to fight two incredibly powerful warriors at once. So the question becomes, how quickly can you switch between our futures...while taking in every detail needed to avoid certain death," Astrid snarled as she slammed her hammer into the ground before lunging forward. Wijida's eyes flashed and she brought her axe back to slice the advancing Viking, but a blast of magic knocked the axe out of the air and left Wijida open for Astrid's attack.
Wijida managed to save herself by pulling up a chunk of the tower top to intercept the attack, her eyes flashing as she glared over at Twilight. Twilight began to cry out in pain when Wijida's telekinesis assaulted her mind, but in the next moment Wijida felt a boot place itself on her muzzle and snap her head to the side. Wijida crashed to the ground with blood starting to pour from her nose, her mind fuzzy as she pushed herself back up with eyes flashing multiple times while she did so.
"Seems she just can't keep up with us, Twilight," Astrid said with a smirk before glancing over at Twilight. "So why'd you come over here instead of helping out Hiccup?"
"Well, I figured that my friend could use my help," Twilight said with a smile in response. Astrid shook her head with a smirk before the both of them turned their focus back to Wijida, who had turned to face them with a wicked smile across her face.
"Oh, this just gets better and better. Here I thought that this would be an uneventful final battle, but here you are...proving me wrong once again," Wijida said as a shiver of mirth ascended her spine. "But I've seen enough of the both of your futures to know that neither of you will manage to defeat me in time to stop the resurrection of Thanatos...and then he will kill both of you. But..."
Wijida then spun her head to where the gem was and grabbed it with her mind, ripping it out of the place where its energy could be absorbed by the dark dragon. She then focused with all of her might before, to the shock of both Astrid and Twilight, she shattered the gem into pieces with a maniacal laugh.
"I find that future to be boring! So there we go girls! Now, even I have no idea what's going to happen next!" Wijida bellowed with laughter while she slammed down onto all fours with insanity flashing in her blank eyes. "So come on, let's all rush into that great unknown together. Towards an ending that neither side will see coming. We don't know who will win! But I know I can't wait to find out!" With one last shriek of joy Wijida hurled herself at Astrid and Twilight, who each nodded to each other before they lunged at her as well.
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"You think that using the powers of the sun and moon along with the power of rainbows would be enough to keep him down, but nope. It can't be that easy!" Hiccup yelled down to Toothless while they weaved out of the way of a torrent of darkness that billowed towards them. The torrent was halted when the five rainbow wielders threw themselves in front of the blast and combined their powers to intercept it, just barely managing to stop the attack with their combined might.
"Hiccup, this battle continues to get worse!" Celestia called over to Hiccup while bolts of darkness tore apart the air around her. "For every wound that we inflict upon Thanatos, that gem infuses him with even more power to repair the damage done and then some! We need a plan! We need-"
Celestia's words were cut off when a shockwave of green energy washed over them, turning all heads, including Thanatos', towards the tower where the gem had once been. The column of green energy that had been constantly pouring into Thanatos slowly ebbed away into oblivion, leaving the dragon only partially covered in his scales.
"What happened?" Luna asked as she flew up beside her sister and the rider with a confused look, but Hiccup only had a smile on his face when he glanced towards the tower.
"Astrid and Twilight did it," he said with a sigh of relief before his eyes narrowed and his mind locked onto Thanatos with a razor-like focus. "This is our chance to strike! Thanatos will be weakened after losing the gem and my bet is that he can't repair himself like he's been doing! Time to attack with our all!" To cement his point, Toothless let out a bellow into the sky before the Night Fury began to glow with a blue energy that coursed through his body, making his entire form look even more powerful than before.
Then, with another bellow Toothless rocketed down at Thanatos, spewing bursts of plasma that tore the purple scales off the dragon and caused him to shriek with pain. The ponies began to add to the fire, unleashing their own multicolored attacks upon the dark dragon as well. And with each attack that injured the monster, the smaller and smaller he began to shrink.
"It's working! Keep firing!" Hiccup ordered to the others. But despite not having the gem fuel his body any more, Thanatos still let out a bellow of defiance as he unleashed black fire into the sky, temporarily blocking out the light of the ponies. He then turned his rapidly decaying head towards Toothless and Hiccup and let out a shriek while he hurled himself into the air after them.
"So, you want to finish it with us? Fine by me. Let's go Toothless," Hiccup ordered as the azure Night Fury turned and shot up into the sky, Thanatos following him up with flames billowing from his jaws. Yet, despite the fact that Thanatos had the speed advantage before with Toothless going all out, now Thanatos quickly found that he was unable to keep up with the Night Fury and a moment later he lost the dragon within the clouds.
Thanatos came to a stop in the black clouds and kept his head on a swivel so that he wouldn't be caught off guard. That was why he was so surprised when a bolt of blue streaked by him and tore through his leg, blasting apart the shadow and bone with one mighty impact. The dragon looked down at where his leg used to be before he unleashed his fury into the sky around him.
'You cannot best me, dragon!' Thanatos roared with fury as he let his darkness rip apart the sky once again. 'I am far more powerful than you can ever hope to be. I am the bringer of the end, a dragon whose power has no equal!'
"It's the same with any large dragon that we've come across," Hiccup's voice echoed throughout the sky around Thanatos, who turned towards the source of the voice, only to see a streak of blue whip by his head and blast apart one of his wings when the blue light tore through him. "No matter how strong they think they are or how high up in the food chain they are, when they go up against a foe that's smarter or faster...they always lash out in desperation."
Thanatos proved Hiccup's point when he billowed his black fire into the sky around him, setting the whole sky ablaze with black flames as he spun in a circle unleashing the hellfire. When he ran out of steam, he paused for a moment to look around in vain hope that he had somehow managed to hit the dragon and the rider. But then, through the black smoke and fire, he saw a dragon burning with blue light--a light that was heading right for him.
"And then, after they've exhausted their fire and believed themselves to have won," Hiccup began as he slammed his helmet onto his face, flattening himself against Toothless while the dragon glowed with an incredible light, "is when they are at their weakest. Toothless, NOW!"
Toothless barked before his whole form burned with the blue light as if he himself were on fire, rocketing into and then through Thanatos' stomach in one supersonic impact. Thanatos could only cough out black smoke as he looked down to see his stomach missing, before he began to plummet to the ground with the darkness vanishing into nothingness. And as he fell, Toothless and Hiccup watched with blank expressions on their faces.
"So, yeah, you might be bigger and tougher and quite possibly able to end the world," Hiccup said as he shook his head before motioning for Toothless to follow him. "But that doesn't make you unbeatable. And it certainly doesn't make you as good as an Alpha." Toothless and Hiccup found Thanatos laying in the center of a crater, far smaller than he had been when they knocked him out of the air. He was hardly any larger than Toothless, though that could have been because he was missing half of his body while the rest was fading back into darkness.
"Well, bringer of the end, you don't look so impressive now," Hiccup said coldly when he and Toothless walked up to the black dragon, who stared up at the sky as the dark clouds began to clear. "So then, Thanatos, anything to say to yourself before the ponies come and seal you away once again?" Hiccup asked as he glanced up to see the ponies descending towards them.
'End me,' Thanatos asked, snapping Hiccup's head back towards the still shrinking dragon with confusion on his face.
"Wait a moment. Thanatos, the bringer of the end, is asking us to end him?" Hiccup said with a look as he and Toothless glanced at each other. "Why do you want us to end you?"
'Because you are the only ones who can,' Thanatos said softly while he continued to stare up at the sky. 'For so long my soul has been bound to this land by my curse, a curse for myself more than it was for the ponies or dragons. The curse that until either I ruled the world or was bested in combat, I would not die. But all those I fought alongside are gone...the world I wished to conquer is no more...all I wish is to move on. To be free.'
Thanatos then slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position, at that point hardly any bigger than Hiccup was. 'And you are the only dragon that has been able to best me. Or, pair that was able to best me. So, that means that you are the only ones who can set my soul free. Please. For if you seal me, I believe that one day another will come to use my power again...and you may not be there to defeat me.'
Hiccup looked down at Toothless, who had a grim look on his face when he glanced up at his rider. "It's up to you, Bud. You're the Alpha and the dragon the bested him. It's up to you." Toothless let out a sigh before walking up to Thanatos and looking him in the eyes with rage, yet there was pity and regret in them as well. For a brief moment, the two spoke without saying a word before Thanatos nodded.
'Thank you.' Thanatos's body then began to completely decay away, leaving behind only a piece of him that looked eerily similar to the Draconis Gem. Toothless then looked up at the sky and let out a melancholy howl as the ponies landed behind the two.
"Come on you guys," Hiccup said to them after they laid eyes on what was left of the dragon. "There's still one more pony who needs to answer for what they've done."
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The ground tore itself apart as Wijida ripped up chunks of rocks from the tower and hurled them with a maniacal cackle while she hurled the stones towards Astrid and Twilight, the latter easily deflecting the rocks with her magic. Wijida's eyes flashed and Twilight quickly found herself being slammed face first into the ground, but before Wijida could focus on Astrid's future once again the hammer-wielding Viking slammed the hammer into Wijida's hind leg. Wijida roared with pain when her back leg shattered, but the roar quickly turned into laughter as she glared at the human and pony before glancing over at where Thanatos had been.
"Aw, he's been beaten already. Guess he wasn't the bringer of the end that everypony says he was, was he?" Wijida cackled while she levitated herself off of the ground, ripping out the pillars from the tower as her eyes flashed and her mane completely stood on end. "Well now, that leaves me in an interesting predicament, doesn't it? If I can't kill both of you soon, I'll have two princesses and the other members of the rainbow rangers to deal with. So come on girls, let's write that final chapter!"
Wijida let out another shrieking laugh while she hurled herself right at Astrid, but when Twilight started up a spell to stop Wijida in her tracks Wijida's eyes flashed once again and Twilight screamed as she aimed her own spell at herself. Astrid was tackled in the gut at full speed by Wijida while Twilight collapsed to the ground, leaving Astrid pinned down by the crazed pony whose eyes flashed as she glared at Astrid with a smile.
"And it seems that you'll be the first to go. No offence Astrid, but you're the only real threat to me out of the two of you," Wijida cackled before she turned her head to the side to see that not only was Twilight on her hooves, but she was also pointing her horn right at Wijida's head. "Are you sure you want to save her, Twilight? Think about it, with her gone there would be no pony left between you and Hiccup. You could-" Wijida swore when the spell just barely missed her face and she was forced to leap back as another spell tore by her head. Her eyes flashed once more while she hurled the pillars at Twilight, who was forced to deflect them with her magic, which left her open to Wijida's mental powers.
"Isn't that just like you, Twilight, always playing the goody good," Wijida cackled as she grabbed Twilight by the neck and began to twist slowly. "You could have anything you wanted if you just threw a few of those morals out the window. But if you want to die first, then so be--what's with that smile?" Wijida demanded to know when she saw Twilight smiling.
"Isn't it obvious? You took your eyes off the main threat." Wijida spun around and her eyes flashed, but as she did so Astrid was already in the air with the hammer swung back with one arm. Wijida's eyes narrowed while she prepared to grab the hammer and stop the attack, but then Astrid reached behind her and hurled a small object at Wijida. The fear of the unknown overcame the pony, so she caught the object right in front of her face...to find that she had just caught lightning in a bottle.
"By the power of Thor...you finally fall!" Astrid roared when she landed and swung her hammer for all she was worth, shattering the bottle with the head of the hammer as she swung through the bottle and slammed both the electricity and the hammer into Wijida's face. An explosion of lightning burst across the tower as the blind pony was hurled across the top of the it, skidding to a stop at the edge with half of her face missing.
"So...this is how...it ends," Wijida whispered with a smirk before sighing. "Sadly...I could see...this end...coming...oh well." Wijida then closed her eyes and rolled off to the side of the tower...only to stop a moment later when she felt somepony grab her head. Her one eye flickered and she looked up to see... "Astrid? You saved my life?"
"Oh, don't get me wrong, I would love nothing more than to drop you here and now," Astrid grunted as she held onto the pony with one arm, unable to use her other arm due to losing feeling in it. "But you're not answering to me, you're answering to the ponies. So, you can't die until they get a crack at you." Wijida looked up at Astrid with surprise before a small cackle escaped her lips.
"I've got to say...I never thought...that you would save my life...that's got to be...one heck of a plot twist," Wijida laughed as she looked into Astrid's face. But then her good eye began to shrink slightly and her face became blank for a moment, leaving Astrid to wonder what was going on. Then Wijida began to laugh, laughing so hard that Astrid had to tighten her grip to keep the practically crying pony from falling to her death. "Oh, that is good, that is just too good! Enjoy your victory now Astrid, because soon all you will know is despair," Wijida whispered to Astrid before grabbing hold of the Viking's axe with her mind. "And Berk will never be the same."
Astrid leapt back with a yelp as the axe slammed into the tower right in front of her, severing Wijida's arm from her body. But as the black pony began to fall into the black chasm below, all she did was laugh with a wicked smile on her face while she continued to stare at Astrid, knowing what was to come.
"So...is it over?" Twilight groaned while she floated over to Astrid, holding a hoof to her neck as she glanced down into the chasm. Astrid let go off Wijida's arm and watched as it fell after its owner, remembering the look of sheer joy that Wijida had on her face when she told Astrid what was to come.
'She was lying to you Astrid. Trying to get in one last shot before she lost,' Astrid decided before pulling her axe out of the side of the tower and standing up, smiling slightly while she looked up to see Hiccup and the others flying towards them.
"Yeah, Twilight. I think it's finally over."