//------------------------------// // Balance of Power // Story: Do Not Go Gentle // by ShinigamiDad //------------------------------// Celestia hit the ground in a crouch, sending cracks radiating for yards, followed by a clap of thunder, and a sheet of blinding white flame that traveled into the heart of the Void faster than the eye could follow. “You brag about your thousand years, and all the power it brought you!” she shouted, eyes blazing, horn glowing like the core of a star. She stepped forward, teeth bared: “I’ll show you power! You won’t hunt my subjects, or torment my sister anymore!” Grey Thorn squinted and sank back into the Void’s outer bands: “Torment? I think you misunderstand the dynamic! She tormented--I was just along to pick off those she had weakened, or even killed! We made an outstanding pair!” “I’ll make you pay for your dirty lies!” Celestia replied, nostrils flared. Luna cringed and dropped to the ground next to Celestia: “Come sister, let us fall back and consider how best to tackle this fiend!” “Oh, don’t run away yet, Nightmare-who-was!” Grey Thorn taunted, “Surely your sister knows all about Zephyr, and Sea Foam, and Blue Velvet, and dozens of others through the centuries! Those whom you disemboweled or terrorized or raped to the point of death! I’m sure you’ve been fully open and honest with Her Highness, yes?” Celestia furrowed her brow: “What is he saying, Luna? Were you truly responsible for deaths as Nightmare Moon?” Luna chewed her lip; her ears drooped, and she looked away. “Ladies, can we discuss this later?” Reaper asked, diving to the ground as Grey Thorn spun out multiple tendrils, tearing through the shield. Celestia’s attention snapped back to Grey Thorn, and she rose several yards into the air, spreading her wings wide: “Whatever my sister may or may not have done as Nightmare Moon pales in comparison to your crimes, murderer!” Grey Thorn raised an eyebrow and shot back: “And what of your own crimes, your Highness? You’re just as guilty as your old mentor!” Reaper slid sideways, avoiding a ribbon of impenetrable blackness: “Don’t let him goad you, Celestia! He just wants to stall, and force you into doing something rash, out of anger!” Celestia let out a short, mirthless laugh: “Ha! Stall for time? What more can he do in a few minutes that he hasn’t done while skulking around the dreamscape for a thousand years?” She fired a streak of golden-white energy along the base of the Void, opening a blazing gash in the ground, filled with white-hot flames. Reaper took the opportunity to fall back a few yards and reestablish his shield. “It won’t help anyway,” Celestia concluded, “I have troops arriving in another minute or two who will hem him in, and allow me to do something I’ve never really gotten to do: unleash my full power!” Grey Thorn glanced up over the walls of flame and blue magic: “Right on time! You must be so proud of your minions!" Luna looked over her shoulder and saw eight pegasi in tight formation, banking down from the clouds. Each wielded a glowing lance, tucked tight under his or her right foreleg. “And they brought toys!” Grey Thorn said, firing a screen of coppery-red magic bolts at the descending pegasi. The eight flyers split into two groups, deftly avoiding the attack. One group swooped down in front of Grey Thorn and his Void, the other wing swept behind and above, looking for any openings they might exploit. Grey Thorn regarded his advancing opponents passively, remarking laconically, “Very pretty. But what do they do?” Celestia fired a blast of pale magenta magic at Grey Thorn: “Show him, warriors!” Luna added a beam of bright blue energy to her sister’s attack as the the eight guardsponies wheeled as one, and dove in tandem toward Grey Thorn, hurling their lances like thunderbolts. The Void contracted, like a collapsing cyclone, deflecting several of the enchanted lances into nearby cottages and shops, which exploded as though struck by meteors. One lance did manage to penetrate the Void’s swirling nimbus, but Grey Thorn froze it mid-air with ease, and sent a stygian tendril shooting back up the lance’s path, using its magical residue to act as a conduit. The tendril entangled the pegasus’ hoof. “No!” Reaper cried out in alarm, propelling his sword upward like a javelin, seeking to sever the connection between the Void and its impending victim. It was too late. The blade merely passed unheeded through the darkness, embedding itself in a nearby water tower. The pegasus shrieked in terror, his eyes frozen open, wings stroking frantically, attempting to break free. Everypony looked on in horror as the doomed guardspony rapidly plunged toward the Void, and then suddenly stopped, as though he were an image in a paused movie. For an instant he was framed against the Void’s perfect blackness, then it appeared as though he were made of some kind of viscous, living paint, trapped between two panes of glass, with the top pane swiftly moving sideways, smearing the image out of all recognition. The pegasus made a horrible, wet gurgling noise as he disintegrated, then was gone, consumed by the Void. “NO!!” his wingpony, Green Streak, screamed, “Top Cover! Nooo!!” She dove after her partner before anypony could stop her, and she, too dissolved with a sudden, squelching sound, as the Void reached out to meet her suicidal descent. Reaper summoned his sword back to his side, and cried out frantically to the horrified pegasi circling above, “Fall back, you idiots! You’re all going to get fucking killed at this rate!” Luna’s shock broke first, and she raced forward, sweeping the sky clear of guardsponies, narrowly avoiding being entrapped herself. Celestia howled in rage, and her eyes blazed with unearthly silver-white fire: “MURDERER!!” A heat shimmer rose around her body, radiating outward like a shock wave, forcing Luna and the pegasi back over a hundred yards. The air was suddenly filled with a squealing, crackling sound, and the smell of smoke as dozens of nearby structures began to smolder. Celestia let loose a primal scream. The resulting blast of pure radiance vaporized a handful of buildings, the fountain and the water tower. It also left a perfectly smooth, molten-glass-lined crater, glowing cherry-red beneath a hovering Grey Thorn. His eyes opened wide, and he cried out in ecstasy as Celestia’s power washed over him: “Oh, the beauty of it! I’ve never felt anything like it!!” The tendrils of the Void, now standing out in such stark relief as to look almost like tears in the very fabric of space itself, wrapped themselves hungrily around the still-flowing beams of Celestia’s energy. She furrowed her brow and began to struggle as the Void sucked away at her very essence, greedily consuming her cosmic fire, growing ever larger and stronger. “Oh, shit!!” Reaper cried, dashing into the heart of the fire, “Celestia! You have to stop this attack--he’s feeding off it! You are pure life energy to him at this moment!” Luna rushed forward, but was buffeted back by pulses of heat and light. She bit her lip and fired a beam of dark energy straight at her sister’s horn. Celestia recoiled at the touch of Luna’s dark magic, blinking away tears, and shaking her head violently. The bond to the Void was broken. “Nicely done!” Grey Thorn mocked. “I bet you’ve wanted to do that for centuries!” Luna dodged past, avoiding the growing black nimbus which now encompassed much of the center of town. It looked eerily reminiscent of the cyclone in Starswirl’s dream. She swept in next to her sister, helping her to the ground as Reaper threw up layer upon layer of deep blue shielding; he, too, had been inadvertently feeding off Celestia’s overabundant energy. “Thank you, Luna!” Celestia gasped, as she regained her footing. Luna nodded, distractedly, and stared intently at the swirling Void, as it obliterated a row of cottages and a small outdoor theater. Celestia noticed her sister’s furrowed brow and distant stare: “What’s wrong, Luna? What is it?” “This looks like Startswirl’s last dream.” Celestia was confused: “His last dream? I don’t understand? Why would that come to you now, of all times?” Luna rubbed a hoof across her eyes: “It is as though I am seeing double--as though another is sharing that dream with me now, even beyond the dreamscape." Luna’s ears suddenly drooped: “Oh, by the Blessed Night--I know where Twilight is!” “Good to hear,” Reaper shouted over his shoulder as he slashed wave after wave of crimson energy at Grey Thorn, attempting to drain off both their reserves, and keep him occupied while Celestia recovered. Suddenly, Grey Thorn, too, stopped and tipped his head to one side as though listening to a distant sound. The Void shuddered and contracted. He narrowed his eyes and glanced knowingly between Reaper and Luna, then he broke off the battle and began swiftly heading away, toward the north. Reaper stumbled forward as the pressure against his barrier collapsed: “Um, can I assume he just figured out Twilight’s whereabouts, too?” Luna nodded: “She is asleep, and dreaming. I can now locate her, and so can Grey Thorn, it would seem.” “I don’t think I need to stress how important it is we get to her first!” Reaper said, trotting toward the Sisters. “You need to wake her up and alert her to her danger, Luna!” Luna concurred: “I will see if I can reach her, but there is some sort of interference which prevents me from making a good connection!” She closed her eyes and concentrated: “Reaper, I cannot tell you precisely where she is, but if you go to the base of the Old Tower, you should be close, and I can join you within a minute or two.” Reaper nodded and sheathed his sword, preparing to depart: “make sure to run interference along the way, warning everypony to steer clear of that Void. You might also consider starting to evacuate Canterlot, too.” Luna knelt down next to Celestia: “Will you be OK if I leave? I must join Reaper ahead of Grey Thorn’s arrival in Canterlot.” Celestia nodded wearily: “I’m feeling better by the second, sister. You go get that monster, and I’ll catch up as fast as I can!” Luna rose into the air and raced up and to the north as fast as her wings would carry her, as Reaper started to fade out. Celestia called to Reaper just as he disappeared: “Is it true? Did Luna really do the things Grey Thorn said?” “No--Luna didn’t,” he replied, “but Nightmare Moon did.” “I hope I can live with the distinction,” Celestia said quietly, tears welling in her eyes. “I hope so, too, because I’m not sure she can…”