I Will Now Rise From The Ashes, Don't Call Me Pretentious, I'm Sitting Here Making My Own Rules
A/N: Special thanks to King Sombrony, Mewaponny, kojivsleo, ErekLich, SilentMech, Ketvirtas, Ally of the Daleks, Ozymandias42, SadisticNerd, Drgnwolf, and hs0003 for your comments last chapter, for your support is very much welcomed and I want you to know just how much it is appreciated! We are approaching the finale soon, and I honestly can't wait for it, so I hope you guys enjoy and will continue to let me hear from you as we head on our way to that point (chapter 80)!
Chapter title from "Rise from the Ashes" from Quietdrive.
I hope you enjoy, and I hope to hear from you all in the comments below!
When Thor’s hammer struck Thanos next, the latter had expected it to leave almost no impact. When the Hulk surged forward and buried a fist down into Thanos’s cheek, there ought to have been no damage done.
Instead, when both of these attacks hit their mark, Thanos found himself being pushed back a step. These foes were more powerful than when he first struck them down, as if they were being empowered all of a sudden. Seeing as how they should be dead, he could instantly figure out that it was the interference of the man in red with the Infinity Gem. He was granting some of its power to them in order to let them be actual threats, but that meant that the Elf did not have that power to use for himself.
Despite both Thor and the Hulk inflicting pain on Thanos, it was hardly anything severe. With his own natural power, the energy of two Infinity Gems, and the Infinity Gauntlet to harness their powers and keep them in check, he was more than a match for the two even with their power boosts.
The purple man grabbed the much larger Hulk, whose massive size made the large Thanos appear puny in comparison, and before the green monster could react it was already being used as a weapon to be swung at Thor.
With Thor swatted away with the improvised weapon of the Hulk, Thanos continued his swing to spin around and then launch the green being as fast as a bullet towards his foes, “A man in a dress dares think he can fight me?”
Loki had moved to avoid the attack as soon as Thanos moved to gain momentum, but Kael remained in place. He needed a moment to channel his magic, and it was just in time to halt the green mass of muscle heading his way. The Hulk’s momentum moved upwards and his body spun around as if the world’s physics no longer wholly applied to him, which was exactly what was the case.
“A mantle does not a dress make,” Kael, who had summoned a second cloak after leaving Trixie behind, retorted as he lifted his hands up and finished a follow up spell, this time cast on Thanos himself, “Now, I wonder how you will fare when your world is turned upside down?”
At those words Loki found himself completely understanding what was about to be done. Thanos was powerful, but he was still susceptible to things that were not exactly harmful. A flash of light would likely blind him like anyone else, his mind could be tricked, and…his body could still have gravity reversed around it since it wasn’t a change to Thanos himself but the actual area around him.
Upon seeing the Hulk suddenly stop on his path towards Kael and Loki, Thanos realized that his opponent possessed unique abilities and decided to take no chances. He made a mad rush towards Kael, and even managed to strike the foreign prince across the face just as the mage’s second gravity spell finished.
The change in gravity lifted Thanos into the air just after his gauntlet struck across Kael’s cheek, the metal shredding skin and bone as it impacted his pale cheek.
Loki could hear the man’s neck snap at the touch, though instead of slumping over in death Kael’s neck just snapped back into place as the flesh and skin on his face began to reshape. This was followed up by a ball of fire forming in the man’s hand, as well as him smirking at the would-be fatal blow.
“You’re not the only one who had to survive Hel for years upon years,” he muttered towards Loki just before launching his fiery attack at Thanos, who was attempting to right himself and find a way out of his predicament.
Given the relative vulnerability of Thanos in that moment, Loki sought to capitalize on it while he still had a chance. With a swelling of power within him he could feel originated from his Elven ally, Loki launched himself towards Thanos while mentally preparing for the gravity shift. By expecting it, he was able to roll over and bring a warglaive down across Thanos’s exposes chest. The glaive’s green, glowing blade seared through the armor the man was wearing and Loki could even feel it pierce partially into the man’s body, though it was little more than a flesh wound with how shallow it sunk.
Thanos recovered with enough speed to attempt an attack back at Loki, but the Asgardian King used his foe as a kickboard to move away. This shift in movement made Thanos only connect his fist with Loki’s left leg, causing a compound fracture in the limb and breaking the light armor Loki was wearing there.
Loki’s momentum away caused him to fall outside of the gravity warped zone, and so he fell rapidly towards the ground despite his sudden ailment. By throwing his weight in one direction he managed to position himself in his fall to land on his hands, with the glaives in each of them serving as small buffers of sorts.
As Loki found a way to fall with a style required to not incur further damage to himself, Kael began preparing another fire attack. The previous one had scorched the man’s dark armor, and while Kael was sure that a follow up strike would yield likely the same results, he had little else in the way of damaging the man while he was stalled airborne, “Thanos, do you really think that this all will earn the favor of that twisted psychopath you have so long poured your pathetic heart to?”
It was then that Thanos reached the top of the invisible zone of reverse gravity that Kael created, causing the monster of a man to alternate between going up and down as he was pushed in opposing directions. The moments of being in regular gravity allowed him to begin truly righting himself, though it was not an instant process. He would have laughed as the fire blazed across his armor without any real effect if not for the insult levied at both him and Hela.
Given how both the Hulk and Thor had been taken out of action again, Kael began to channel more energy into them to renew their fighting capabilities, though his mouth continued to spew hatred for his former warden, “A cruel being will twist the heart so long as they please, and should they be insane this fact is compiled! You’re nothing to Hela, and you never will be anything to that monster!”
It was then that Thanos managed to remove himself from the reverse-gravity zone, and he was none to pleased at what he was hearing as he moved to plummet right at Kael, “You dare speak against my lady?”
As Thanos slammed into the ground, Loki felt his leg’s ailment heal as he felt more power pour into him. It seemed that the Gem that Kael held was capable of effecting issues pertaining to life or souls, or so Loki assumed, yet did not grant the massive power of one such as the Aether which seemed solely capable of empowering someone’s physical capabilities to their very limit.
Loki brought himself to his feet and spun around quickly to prepare himself to a similar move to what Thanos did earlier. The tyrant had landed on top of Kael and stomped down on him brutally, though this left him open to a frontal assault since the Elf was not in the way.
Angered by Kael’s insult towards “Lady Death”, Thanos had taken to stomping on his chest and neck brutally to pay his words back and keep him from saying anything else. This of course meant he had a slight lapse in attention, allowing for one of Loki’s glaives to bury itself in his gut as it launched forward with enough power and speed to then allow the magically empowered weapon to accomplish more than it had previously.
As the seemingly indifferent Thanos grabbed and yanked the blade from his stomach, he was once again assaulted by a blast of fire though this time it was to his exposed face. The scorching attack caused him momentary discomfort as the fire razed across his eyes and entered the open places on his head such as his mouth. This distraction then allowed for both Thor and Hulk to assault him again, even managing to grapple him off of the magician who revived them.
Still on the ground, Kael managed to rise to his knees as he wiped blood away from his face. He wasn’t done angering Thanos yet, fully hoping to send the man into a rampage since it would rob him of his intelligence, “She is not some being worthy of your love or your respect!”
Thor brought his hammer across the part in Thanos’s armor that had been broken the most, and it removed even more as the villain moved to steady himself. The rapid assault was not long-lasting, and before he could do a follow up strike he was swatted away and actually sent careening into the stadium.
As Thanos uppercutted the Hulk in the stomach and his fist burst through the giant’s other side, Kael began to prepare another spell, “I should know, having been tormented with my failures and my life’s tragedies in that grim world of hers for longer than I can even imagine! I do not care who she is, I do not care whose family she belongs to, but that sadistic woman deserves nothing but pain and misery!”
Loki paused as he heard the Elf’s words. They had merit to them given the sadism Hela regularly demonstrated, but to hear someone so vehemently abhor her right by him made him uncomfortable. He intended to make sure his own daughter, not this alternate one, would end up differently, so a part of him wanted to set that record straight after the conflict.
Kael’s attempt to anger Thanos further succeeded and Thanos quickly set about grabbing him with both hands to then crush him with. Loki used this time to grab his tossed blade and also to begin cutting Thanos from behind, his mind wondering if he would be able to use his secret weapon. If it worked, the fight would be over, but if it missed he could possibly lose them the encounter.
With unnatural speed Thanos began to evade Loki’s strikes without even facing his direction, apparently no longer seeking to lower himself to their level and instead going all out.
Despite the immense pressure put on him, Kael managed to choke out, “Every minute of every day I have to suffer away from my world, my people…”
In an attempt to shut up the vocal enemy, Thanos unhanded him and very quickly punched forward with enough strength to level a mountain range. The impact struck Kael right in the stomach, though instead of being utterly leveled by the strike and disintegrated the Elf just stumbled backwards. The durability of his foe struck Thanos as odd, and even though Kael was wearing armor alongside his mantle that should not have spared him. There was a reason the strike was partially nullified, but Thanos would never learn of it.
Still standing, Kael brought a hand forward to unleash a torrent of flame to strike Thanos all the while yelling, “The pain of not being there is far greater than anything you can muster, beast! They were at the brink of annihilation the last I saw of them, and now I have the opportunity to rejoin them. I will not let you stand in the way of my return, and I will not let you damn my people through your arrogance!”
This time Thanos managed to shield his face before the flames engulfed him, though a follow up attack from Loki caught him off-guard. A thick icicle erupted from the ground and impaled Thanos’s back where some of his armor was chipped.
Enraged by the constant damage he was incurring, which while overall meaningless given his bodies regeneration brought about by his sheer power, Thanos decided he was finished with fooling around in any capacity. He had already stepped his game up only to be countered by the Infinity Gem Kael held, and so it was time to take things even further.
Calming himself, Thanos emitted a shockwave of energy that knocked everyone else off their feet and broke the bones of all of them, the only thing keeping them alive being the constant healing factor of their Infinity Gem, “I am done with this. Where is your animal of a mistress, Elf? Where is the other Infinity Gem?”
This time even the stalwart Kael struggled to get up, the Elf instead weakly preparing to fire another attack as well as heal the others.
“By fire…be purged...”
Once again Thanos brought a foot down on top of him, this time crushing the hand that had been preparing the fire spell, “Do you think yourself capable of truly harming me? While I admit your attempts are more than just feeble, they are still second-rate,” he let a confident grin grow on his face as he let out another shockwave of power, this time in all directions which had the effect of repelling a previously invisible Loki from attacking from above as well as pushing back Thor’s hammer as it lurched forward through the air to strike Thanos, “After all, what are these warriors but gnats to me?”
“You were not here when the announcement was made, but there is a project that is just about at the point of completion in Asgard…” Kael, instead of giving up Trixie’s location, coughed up blood and smirked as Thanos continued to push him deeper and deeper into the ground with both his weight and his overflowing power, “In fact, it actually is finished, except that a certain someone ordered the workers to not report that fact and instead say the contrary…”
Loki recovered from being knocked back just in time to hear that last line, and while normally he would be infuriated about being lied to despite his own propensity for doing so himself, he found himself actually glad this one time.
“Heimdall!” Kael coughed out as loudly as he could, screaming to the sky as if the man would hear him.
Of course, Heimdall being the guardian of the Bifrost and having near omniscient sight and hearing, he did.
When the Bifrost would impact something normally it would cause actual damage, which was how Loki managed to use its power to begin carving up Jotunheim long ago. This time, however, the beam was far larger than he ever remembered the Bifrost to be…and he realized that this, of course, was because the Sunwell Kael had assisted in constructing was tied directly to the Bifrost’s power to increase its capabilities.
Kael had just called down an empowered strike capable of destroying a planet on himself, only to have Thanos in-between him and it for the most part.
The blinding golden light of the Sun-Bifrost made Thanos howl in true pain for the first time that day, for its power was far greater than anything he had been hit with thus far. He hurried outside of its range to avoid the scorching power of the mechanical contraption on an entirely different planet far away.
Instead of being flattened by the immense power being bombarded down into the ground like Thanos nearly was, Kael laughed as he let the energies of the Sunwell wash over him. As someone hailing from a race that had used such a fountain of power for thousands of years, he was capable of absorbing its energies instead of being harmed by them.
As Thanos managed to finally stumble out of the area of effect and free himself from the incredible pain of the weapon, Kael began to rise to his feet as he felt his body fill with power. Once power began to literally spark off of him he removed himself from the beam as well, not wanting to overdose on it, and it simultaneously ended its stream just as he did so, “The Sunwell is a fountain of arcane power, enough even to empower a species of mortals and grant them magic beyond your comprehension!” taking one shimmering hand, Kael pointed it at his foe and let out an extended laugh befitting of a nobleman, “I had hoped to not have to use it so soon, but this is the ace up my sleeve that will allow us to defeat you! Pray to your goddess of death, for you will be spending the rest of eternity with her!”
A beam of pure magic surged forward and collided with Thanos’s face, shattering part of his cheek and searing the visible, purple flesh. While this would be debilitating to most, possibly even lethal given how some of his face was melted away, it only received a small chuckle from Thanos.
“Impressive…” he turned to fully face Kael, a smug expression on his face as he began to realize that perhaps this would be a worthy challenge after all, “That…actually, truly hurt me. I am not used to the sensation, at least not anymore…”
Still the more powerful of the two, albeit by a smaller margin now that Kael was empowered even further, Thanos prepared himself to attack Kael once again. He had to admit that the persistence of this group was both amusing and irritating. Why could they just not accept death? Did they really cling to life with such strength and ardor that they would resist what should be killing blows? And for what other than to oppose him and prevent him from attaining his goals he had worked so long to achieve?
“All of this struggle to keep my hands tied until your animal is ready for me,” Thanos shook his head as he began to call forth a good portion of his power, though making sure not to overdo it so as to not destroy everything and possibly erase both of the two Infinity Gems he did not have in his possession from existence, “How pathetic. I am sorry, because you seem to be quite the worthy challenge, but I state once again that it is time to end all of this.”
This time the sphere of energy originating from Thanos was even more powerful, and with its strength it managed to even ravage and begin disintegrating Kael as he stood his ground in its wake. Loki and the others had not the strength to weather the strike and were pushed back constantly as it advanced outwards, and in doing so they were spared of much of its power while also being defeated once again.
With the power of his own Infinity Gem, Kael stood still after the attack ended, though now blood was dripping from every part of his body as deep gashes marred his skin. His arms stood as guards in front of the rest of his face, and so they were wounded the greatest out of any part. His armor on his arms was completely missing, and his mantle that partially covered his front was also ruined.
The Elven Prince coughed up some blood before falling to one knee, only to quickly force himself back upright. Turning his gaze to the others, who lay crumpled on the ground like ragdolls, Kael growled as he realized he was alone.
“Get up and fight!”
Loki was the only one to manage to pull himself together and rise to the command, though he did so because of his own will and not because of the order. The King of Asgard did not want to die facedown in the dirt, and he would not allow himself to be unready when the moment came to end Thanos’s life.
Seeing both Thor and the Hulk remain motionless, Kael reached out towards them and cursed them out as he began to rise them from the dead once more, “Damn you, I said stand up!”
This time the two Avengers rose up and prepared themselves for battle once again, now even stronger because the energy they were being fed was much greater. However, not about to stop there, Kael began channeling more magic to help their chances even more.
“Servants, minions of the undead, obey my call!”
The ground beneath the plains began to rumble, and soon enough bones began to break through the earth. The golden blasts from the sky returned as Heimdall now began to use the golden bridge between world to actively attack the enemy, and given that Thanos was occupied by avoiding the constant strikes of the Bifrost he could not stop Kael. Despite this, he found himself irritated by the prospect of having to fight even more foes.
Just as Thanos dreaded, bony creatures emerged from the ground of varying shapes and sizes. Some were mere skeletons of equines, others held the shapes of wolves, but even more frighteningly there were some that belonged to beings such as Ursas which were risen from the grave to fight.
Kael prepared to send them after his foe as a diversionary tactic of sorts, but a booming voice interrupted them.
“You, the one dancing with the golden flame, you must be the one who has summoned those frail, metal skeletons in the arena, as well as those flying beings in the sky,” the newly arrived Tirek laughed as he crushed one of Thanos’s soldiers in his palm before tossing it aside lifelessly, “Now joined by regular skeletons I see. Most impressive.”
Thanos was capable of moving far faster than the beam of energy could, granting him the occasional moment to retort and sneer at the newly arrived giant minotaur being, “And you are?”
“Lord Tirek, he who shall conquer all of Equestria and the known world,” Tirek announced as he finished exiting the broken coliseum he was now almost as tall as. Behind him lay a destroyed army of Thanos’s soldiers, as well as a now completely ruined stadium that had a one of the giant floating creatures that arrived with Thanos crashed down in the center.
Indifferent about the deaths of his forces, since he had many more in the orbit above them, Thanos continued to sneer at the relatively small time villain who now stood before him, “What small goals.”
Given the shift of attention from them to the newly arrived villain, Kael stopped his would be assault on Thanos in order to let the two duke it out. Even if it only stalled Thanos a moment, it would be worth it to not have their own skin in the game.
“I have waited a thousand years for my freedom. I am not going to let some upstart with such a pathetic army get in my way,” Tirek boasted right as a glowing orb of energy formed between his horns.
Thanos laughed as avoided the blast from his new challenger while also avoiding the Bifrost’s relatively slow assault given his near impossible speed, “You truly believe yourself capable of confronting me?”
Tirek scowled, actually having considered the idea before entering this battle, “I can feel your power, so if I don’t defeat you now I believe I will end up ceding everything to you, and that would be unforgivable,” he paused as he prepared another attack, a smirk forming on his face as he realized Thanos was actively trying to not remain in one area too long given the large diameter of the beam coming down. If he were to pause even for a moment to enter melee combat or to charge an attack of his own he would be assaulted by the powerful beam, “Besides, I have a feeling the one who is behind all of this madness would like to see us come to blows. There is someone who brought us all here on this day, and I must say they have given me quite the opportunity to expand my power. For that reason alone I will play to their fiddle.”
Thanos had to agree, though he wasn’t all too pleased with how he was being forced to run from something he couldn’t fight back against, or at least had not found a way to battle yet, “It does seem like someone wanted this all to happen, though I must say I don’t care. Since no-one can challenge me, why should I care what they intend?”
Canterlot was not the raging battlefield it once was given that Luna had viciously, yet carefully, beaten down every single one of the crowd spurred to action by the influence of the Sirens. Those who were still conscious seemed to be less enthralled, which made Luna think that perhaps the Sirens had been taken care of, but a part of her still remained worried. What if this was only the beginning of a greater plan? What if someone was using them as tools for a greater plan, like when Loki manipulated the Changelings?
Luna had some of her fear creep up further when she went to check on the newborn foals only to find the door open. She had told Scootaloo to keep it locked, and Scootaloo wouldn’t go against her command…
“Scootaloo?” Luna called out as she quickly teleported into the room, not wishing to waste another second. She could check on Loki and Trixie later, but for now her flesh and blood foals were possibly in immense danger.
Luna looked around briefly inside the dark room before finding a wounded, bleeding Scootaloo by her hooves. The filly was barely conscious and brought a hoof out to touch Luna, at which point Luna looked forward to see that there was a familiar orange guard on ground by the door. He was even more beaten and bloodied than Scootaloo, and he seemed to be suffering from various bite marks. He seemed to still be awake, yet still entranced like some of the other victims, but given his condition Luna paid him no mind. He must have come to harm the foals, only for Scootaloo to fight him off.
“P…princess Luna…”
Luna smiled down at Scootaloo, who she was very grateful for right then for saving the lives of the twins. She began to cast her healing magic on the wounded filly while speaking in a comforting voice, “Shhh, just rest.”
Scootaloo tried to shake her head no as she finally lost consciousness, “Behi…”
That small utterance made Luna realize she had not yet actually checked the foals condition, and when she spun around she found herself looking at a man with an odd silver, skeleton-like cage over some of his face. His upper face was shrouded by his hood, and his body was similarly shrouded…except for his ghoulish hand which held Hela by the neck and back. Hela was in her Asgardian form at the moment and was struggling as he moved to hold her with one arm while bringing a blade to hover by her body with his free hand.
The man smirked underneath his open mask in a wicked way, as if he was truly amused by this situation, “When Thanos sent me here to take care of the infants, I did not expect to encounter their animal of a mother as well.”
Luna remembered hearing about this man who served as the agent of Thanos, though she could not recall if she had encountered him before. He was the one who had bullied and threatened Loki into first betraying her, and now here he stood threatening their children, “You.”
The man moved to be behind Sleep Near’s bed as well, not for a moment underestimating the capabilities of the newly arrived Alicorn. He had to hold these two hostage until he could find an opportunity to escape with them, at which point he could kill them at his leisure, “I am known as The Other. Aide of the man who shall soon transcend this world and become a true, living god. Not the mere imitations that you and your husband are, but a truly powerful force.”
He tapped the knife down on Hela, “My duty here is to butcher these infants, and it seems that I can do so right now…” he shook his head as he spoke with a cold smugness, Luna not moving as her eyes coldly looked on at him, “But I am afraid I will instead use them as hostages. You wouldn’t dare harm me with them in the way, would you?”
Given that Luna did not move at all still, The Other took this as a sign that his plan to hold the infants hostage would work after all. In that moment he allowed himself to consider her nothing more than a distressed mother.
“Such weakness. I will enjoy seeing you crushed beneath my lord’s heel, after he finishes that mongrel with the Aether and your depraved husband.”
Sleep Near began crying in his crib as if to do so for his mute sister, distracting The Other’s attention just for the brief moment it took for Luna to both uncloak beside him and to force his knife up into his through with telekinesis. This done, Luna rammed her horn through his chest and used her telekinesis to lift Hela up and out of the way.
The Other was dead before he even realized what happened, though Luna felt obligated to taunt the dead man anyways, “I am sorry, but you’ve been watching nothing but a mirage,” she sneered as she removed her horn from his chest, the alien being falling over in a bloody mess as she finished, “And anyone who dares harm someone in my family, be it physical or mental, has signed a death warrant. Your mistake was not finishing the job sooner.”
Having dealt with the threat and believing there to be no further threat because of how the smug man made no reference to any allies, which would most certainly come in handy when in a standoff with her, Luna began to tend to the foals. Hela seemed to not be disturbed at all, though she clung tightly to Luna’s fur when Luna brought her over. Sleep Near was still crying as Luna brought him to her as well, her coldness melting away as she embraced them gently.
“Hey now, it’s okay. The bad man is gone,” Luna kissed them both lovingly before slowly putting them back in their beds, her brain finally processing what The Other said about Thanos, “Mommy will be back for you later, but now she needs to stop some evil people from hurting your father and sister.”
Having been healed of her wounds somewhat, Scootaloo managed to get up and limp towards them. She smiled at Luna before saluting the princess much like Rainbow Dash might have in her place, “I’ll look after them.”
Luna approached the filly and placed a hoof on her orange shoulder, not even knowing how to begin to explain how grateful she was that someone had been there to protect the twins, “Thank you Scootaloo. You have done my family a great favor today, and I will forever be indebted to you.”
With that, Luna prepared for what she hoped would be the final fight of her life…in the good way.
Left to look at the destruction of the coliseum she had built, Trixie found her eyes tearing up at the sight of some bodies of citizens who had not been able to escape. This perfect storm she had brewed had turned out not so perfect, and they had paid the price just because the timing had been slightly off from what she had hoped.
“I…what have I done?” she whispered to herself as she clenched Kael’s real cloak to herself, her eyes continuing to tear as her mind mewled over the sight before her and all of its implications.
She shook her head at the realization that she caused this, even if her part had only been to arrange for the different entities to come to this place like a master marionette might be able to. They would have all come to usurp power at some point, but she held the guilt of assuring they did so all at once, even if it was for the best of everyone involved since it squandered the villains powers against one another.
Still, there were dead people, and that guilt lay on her shoulders, “If I can’t pull this together, I’ll have ruined everything…” should Thanos succeed, there would be nothing left to even show that she had failed. Everything and everyone would be dead, “Everyone will…they’ll all…”
“I can’t go back…I don’t want to go back…”
Trixie stomped her hoof down in both parts anger and sorrow as her teeth clenched, “I did not intend for things to get this far off the rails, not that they will care,” she waved the hoof out at the mostly empty crowd before bringing it to point at herself, “And it’s not as if they ever understood to begin with, especially not that all I ever wanted was to give them the show of a lifetime, one which would ensure they all had lives to live…”
It took that long for Trixie to realize she was in her true form, at which point she wiped away her tears and reverted herself to the Elven body so she could better limit her power, “But of course nothing ever turns out like I want it to…”
Still…the Sirens were finished…and the sounds of a battle outside made Trixie think that Tirek and Thanos were finally going head to head. Things were still going in the direction she wanted…she simply needed to steer it all back on course.
“No, no, no…” Trixie threw her head back and let out a laugh as she realized she had still managed to manipulate things to such a degree that even when things went wrong she was still controlling the outcomes, “Well, what the Hel! I have done my very best in planning things, I’ve done my best to prepare,” she tossed a hand out and allowed power to surge through it to the point she nearly tore the fabric of reality like Discord was capable of, “With all of the power I have now, I can even reach beyond what any mortal ought to! And when this is over, they’ll all have stories to tell of the Great and Powerful Trixie’s most magnificent show ever performed!”
Her chest was warm, her ego was swelling…Trixie found herself laughing even more as she realized what this was.
“This feeling…” she stifled her laughter to instead shout in a commanding voice, “No more sniveling, no more whining! For the first time in years I actually feel true power and confidence, like I truly am the Great and Powerful Trixie…”
She paused as she stood up, the mantle still wrapped around her as she began to look down at her hands with conviction.
Trixie clenched them and looked up with true confidence, no longer feeling at all conflicted or scared about everything going on both external and internal, “That’s right, I AM the Great and Powerful Trixie! And nobody is going to stop me now! Not everything, not after all the pain and suffering I have endured!”
She threw her hand out to the side and summoned to herself the purple hat she was so accustomed to wearing, not bothering to also replace the red cloak with her purple one, “And if this is going to be my best show yet, I’m already wondering what my next will be like! Forever etched in history will be the magnificence demonstrated by none other than I these coming days! They’ll forever know just who it was who saved them all, they’ll know how wrong they were all this time to doubt and ridicule me!”
The distant sounds of explosions made Trixie snap back to the task at hand, and she turned her gaze towards the direction Thanos and Tirek were throwing down and battling, “Now I just need to see about making everything get back on the plan I have set for us all.”
Trixie did not know it then, but she was being watched, and so she would have no way of knowing that by being watched further tragedy would be brought about.
As Trixie emerged to join the others on the battlefield, she surprisingly found herself greeted by Tirek who was not in direct combat with Thanos at the specific moment.
Tirek, missing an arm and with a broken horn, smiled coldly at Trixie as she approached them all, “I must say, you have arranged quite the spectacular show here.”
Seeing that he was weakened, Trixie decided to look for the other threat, only to see to her own amusement that he was being bombarded by the power of the Bifrost trap she and Kael had arranged for. Still, she was surprised Tirek had managed to piece together her involvement in it all, but it wouldn’t help him in the end. If anything, it signed his death warrant.
Trixie slowly clapped as she walked over to him, “Very well done. Yes, I arranged this all, and I would love to discuss with you the many details of my master plan,” she rose a hand up to face him, a smirk then gracing her lips, “but I don’t have time to be talking to dead people.”
A second beam of power similar to the Bifrost came down and struck Trixie, though similarly to Kael it only served to empower her rather than cause extreme pain like it did even Thanos. Now empowered, Trixie fired a beam through the wounded Tirek’s skull, killing the villain instantly and ending the threat he posed. This done, she turned and began to approach her allies, who had taken to grouping up during the Thanos vs. Tirek battle Trixie just ended decisively.
Kael was the only one to speak when she approached, given that Thor and the Hulk were too battered by battle to formulate conversation and that Loki was stunned by the brutal killing of Tirek to form words, not that he disapproved.
“Trixie…”
Trixie placed a hand on his shoulder as she stood above the kneeling Elf, her face warm as she spoke despite the deed she just did, “Even though the words were your own, I must say I am of the same mind. However, you will do as I say now, Kael,” she then grew concern in her voice as she brought her hand to his face, “And that begins with not worrying me so greatly. Understood?”
Kael nodded absently, giving Trixie the permission she needed to move on to the next person she cared to speak to. Loki tried to stand up as she approached him, his mind questioning the second Bifrost-like beam as well as how he could best coordinate an attack now that they had most of their fighting strength present.
“Father, I believe I owe you just as much thanks for keeping this madman occupied here while I gathered myself. For that I will be forever grateful,” Trixie bowed before him in an overly polite and dramatic manner, almost making Loki scoff by her formalities alone.
“You can repay me by getting us out of this alive,” he joked back to her, though he did not expect her follow up.
“Oh, don’t worry, this battle is already decided.”
It may have been a boast, but in many ways she was correct: the victor had been decided from the start, and all it took was the cooling of her nerves and insecurities to ensure that initial outcome.
Even though not even an hour had passed by, not even half an hour since Thanos arrived, it was all too late.
Stats
Page generated in 0.047 seconds
Total duration
947 users online
1,412,310 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
That damnable shadowing you did!
Argh!
More shit will hit the fan.
I want to be mad at you. I want to be lividly angry at you. You are foreshadowing a foregone conclusion and it is so apparent that it is angering me. But I can't.
A note on Tirek's defeat-
stream1.gifsoup.com/view7/4604747/deer-head-shot-o.gif img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110703074740/custombionicle/images/7/7a/Boom_headshot.png
AHHHHHH!!! It's gitting so good right now. I was a little disappointed that tired was killed off with such a short beam but that ominous watching thing is making me curious.
Also, glad that scootaloo can hold her own against a brainwashed dunce of a guard. And glad you didn't make Luna dumb with The Other encounter and she used her magic like a sane person/pony!
Also little worried that kael has some anger issues to work out about Hella. : (
Anyway another great chapter and looking anxiously forward to the next one as well as the finale!
And now you make me worry, as I must wonder if we're the ones watching Trixie, ensuring that she'll come out on top, but only barely? Or the more likely option that someone in the story is watching her and going to be ensuring that things are interesting? It's probably Discord is of course the obvious answer, as it would be perfectly in his contrary character. Now we must wait and see what the second bifrost beam was and if it was special as stated, and just what has Thanos been doing other than kicking the absolute crap out of Tirek, who at least was rather affable about it, all things considered.
5776014 With chapters 74-80 still left, I don't see how anyone could NOT expect more to go wrong
These are anti-heroes/anti-heroes, the moment they stop facing adversity they lose some of their charm.
The question though is WHAT will happen
I've foreshadowed a lot, and it's time to bring it all together.
5776510 It's okay, feel mad if you want. I don't aim to tell you a story that makes you feel good, I aim to tell one that elicits more than just that simple emotion.
As for the supposed foregone conclusion, I've had one decided for about fifty chapters now, so the foreshadowing has actually been here for longer than you think! I am now just making it blatant to tie into our final chapters. It's time to wrap everything up after all, and for those who have missed out on my normal subtlety I think I should introduce more...direct measures.
Some things you just have to be explicit about or else they'll be missed entirely after all!
What's it that's keeping you from getting angry, may I ask?
I feel that, in the coming chapters, such reservations won't exist in everyone.
5777324 He's a small fry in a battle between gods. He threw everything into chaos by interfering at just the right moment, but he's not capable of really matching up to the others.
Wish he could, but he's not anywhere near the likes of Thanos even with a powerboost, and given that Trixie's the counter to Thanos Tirek isn't a match for her either. Oh well!
5780659 The fact that I am enjlying this story so much. The intrigue and politics juxtaposed by action and romance, the planning and plotting!
5778566 Glad you think it's so good right now! I can't wait to hit on the final storyline in another couple chapters, as I've been working towards it so very long and hard! I hope you guys will enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed crafting it, as it's really going to be something special.
Tirek's a small fry in a battle between gods. He threw everything into chaos by interfering at just the right moment, but he's not capable of really matching up to the others.
Wish he could, but he's not anywhere near the likes of Thanos even with a powerboost, and given that Trixie's the counter to Thanos Tirek isn't a match for her either. Oh well! 
Scootaloo beat up that orange royal guard really well, and I didn't reveal it explicitly yet, but she also fought The Other before Luna showed up. It wasn't the guard/Flash that beat Scootaloo up, she won that fight pretty easily
And Luna followed that up by killing The Other in an efficient manner, having been forced into a hard place given her children were held hostage. I do try to think about what would be the BEST way for a character to win with their toolkit and available resources, then also factor in how that character would think and then use the combination of those to decide in the end how something is handled. Pride, anger, or other personality traits can alter these decisions after all. In this case, no-nonsense Luna ENDED him by using a trick she and Trixie discussed nearly fifty chapters ago...using telekinesis on a foe during combat to forcibly move them.
Kael despises Hela, much like anyone who has lived in her literal hellhole ought to. She doesn't exactly treat denizens of her world nicely, she just tortures them mentally and physically indefinitely. That, in addition to being the one who rules death, would make the prince of a dying race who suffered in her world quite angry. Trixie somehow heard him and agreed though, so keep that in mind
I hope you continue to enjoy, and I look forward to our coming finale!
5780674 Well, in that case I am glad to please, and I hope you continue enjoying
The political side will come back very soon, and the topics of morality and the like will feature quite greatly. After all, what's a story with characters of varying shades of grey without that? 
Speaking of planning and plotting, it's almost time for my own to end! Boy do I have a big author's note coming for you all soon when you hit the end of a chapter...
5778991 I wasn't breaking the fourth wall and claiming you all to be the ones watching her. No, an in-story character was witnessing her monologue, and that's what will alter events.
Discord is not the answer. Discord doesn't have his power back yet and is at the very least unconscious, at the very most dead. They haven't gone to check on him since Tirek betrayed him and drained his powers. Discord isn't a major character, and I won't use him as a trump card for anything. That'd be out of place, given his minimal presence in the story.
A battle royal with the characters being empowered and pretty much none of the main opponents dying, yet. Pretty much everyone makes themselves appear like a badass in this fight, well maybe the avengers could use some time at the gym. Still, it was pretty much Loki and Kael that were doing the all the main work. Kale being the empowered super elf and Loki the guy that keeps on coming back. It all seems like Trixie's plans have more or less come together with some bumps along the way. Still, the ominous last line makes it seem like there might not be an all that happy ending. Hopefully nothing too serious happens to the main characters, it would suck having to loose the characters we have come to like over the whole story. Kind of sad that the story is nearing its end. Oh well, everything eventually ends so all we can hope for is a happy ending.
Amazing chapter, really great work.
5782203 Yeah, nobody's really gone yet out of the major players...in terms of ability the top is Thanos, then Trixie (and by extension, Kael, since they are sharing power), Loki (when he can borrow magic), Tirek (who is dead), Adagio (who has been neutralized), Sonata (dead), Aria (dead-ish), Luna, Loki (without magic), Celestia, and then Twilight. So the top tier is good and kicking, though the level just below them has had its teeth kicked in.
Everyone is a badass here, but the Avengers are running into the problem of how TOGETHER they are not at Loki's current level (since he's improved since The Avengers, while they have remained at the same level). Stark's suits can only get so good, the Hulk is just the Hulk, and Thor is a badass but not on the same level as the badasses that they are fighting here. Odin lost to Thanos without the Infinity Gauntlet in the comics, and Odin can beat Thor (except for the fact that Odin's dead here), so Thor has no real chance now that Thanos DOES have the Infinity Gauntlet.
Loki and Kael have pulled the most weight so far, with Loki being unable to die in the traditional sense and Kael being able to heal and revive the dead as well as use tricky magic. This in turn has bought the time Trixie needed to gather herself after her seeming panic attack, and it's about time to end this conflict once and for all.
As for worrying about our main characters, I will admit I do like my bittersweet endings, but you shouldn't fear for how things will go all that much. The fight with Thanos is the next 2 chapters, and seeing as how chapter 80 is the end and there is an epilogue for after that I honestly can't see how I could kill someone off in this fight and then keep things going for five chapters. Then again, I might, but I think Loki, Luna, and Trixie are definitely fine from a meta-standpoint.
It's sad that the story is coming to an end, but I am honestly glad that something I have been working towards for so long will just come all together in the end. The past 50 chapters of building a story arc especially, which is about to be brought full circle and completed soon enough. I'm glad to have had you here along for the ride, and I hope you will enjoy our finish as much as I will.
The chapter was, as always, a pretty good one. It's slowly but steadily going to the finish.
As for the progression of the fight I am still a little bit confused as to how to interpret it.
Even though Thanos has finally been forced to put at least a little bit of effort into the fight it still seems pretty much one sided.
With Trixie now on the field however this could and hopefully will change. Using the Bifröst as Sunwell powered weapon and healing and recharging fountain in one was a cool idea. However you hyped that weapon in earlier chapters very high and it does little more than keeping Thanos occupied but otherwise does not seem to pose a considerable threat to him.
In any case I'm looking forward on how you will end it. You've pulled one surprise after the other in the past and I have great faith in your talents as writer. Whatever you decide to do. I'm sure it'll be great.
Multi-phase boss fight defeated, now onto the final boss!
I really do hope Trixie gets greatly powered down after the fight, because no one likes a too OP hero.
5803259 Haha, especially since the magic doesn't seem good for her.
She's got a plan for handling it though. A plan one may pick up on in tonight's coming chapter 
Still, Trixie being OP would be...unfortunate
Right now her OP status is to counter Thanos's OP status, and once he's dead and in the ground everything should be good 
Happy end, right?
5798913 Multi-phase is correct, though he's got 2 phases left: namely chapters 74-75! He wouldn't be much of a godlike being if he couldn't take a beating, am I right?
Guess you'll see in a couple hours when the next chapter releases!
down across Thanos’s exposes chest
Thanos laughed as avoided the blast from his new challenger
1. Exposed.
2. Thanos laughed as he avoided the blast.
Another varible?!?! I want to say Heimdall was watching, since he was focused on the moment, though i doubt that was it.