Autumn

by canonkiller

Eternal

~Song mentioned later was introduced to me by Mindblower, who's fanfic is awesome and yet I do not have a link to and should really get around to finding... it's called Envy and Arrogance~

This place...

It was never supposed to look like this...

Have I been here before?

I remember sun and light...

I couldn't have ever been here. This place is nothing but fire and darkness...

...and joy...

This can't be...

...the kind of joy only ever felt in the...

home?

Obsidian suddenly threw his spiritual essence into retreiving his left wing. Folding it tightly, he sent his body spinning to the ground. Discord skidded past, claws still sparking with haze. Seeing the creature writhing, he lowered his hands, instead hovering a safe distance away.

<Go back! You let me be in control!>

I didn't let you destroy my home!

<Yes, you did. You said as long as she was fine, you'd->

I DON'T CARE! LET ME BACK IN!

The struggle looked almost false, the way that the thing in control seemed to be fighting itself. It was mildly disturbing, but this thought never crossed Sunrise's mind as she skimmed over the burned ground. Her paws, normally clumsy on gravitationally correct ground, seemed to vanish as she launched herself to the rim of the battlefield.

"GET OUT!" Obsidian's shreik echoed through the unnaturally still air. Almost as fast as it had lost control, the other power returned.

"You've driven me to this, Obsidian." The other mocked, rising one talon to his throat. "Your question before, if this body dying would kill me? I hate to regret not telling you sooner, but the corpse of a host does nothing to me."

It was a quick, swift motion, and Obsidian regained control mere seconds too late.

"NO!!" Sunrise's shout was louder than Obsiadian's final scream, shocking all present. She darted across the ground, falling onto her knees beside him, ignoring the blood beginning to pool around her feet. "You can't... you can't die..."

There was a rustle, but a mechanical one, not the kind made by animals foaging through leaves. A series of pings not unlike a security code being entered, and a series of whirrs and clicks followed suit. With the screech of rust, two spirals of metal twsited open, relighting the two pricks of scarlet light.

More groans of steel shifting, and the lumbering beast revitalized. Glaring down at Twilight Sparkle and her measly band of friends, he made a series of moans not unlike a disgusted snort. <Come.>

There was the reverse of the flash of normal teleportation, almost seeming to blanket the area in further darkness, before the vague silhoettes of the former vessels vanished.

Sunrise cradled Obsidian's head in her front paws. The blood oozing from his throat had been thick and black at first, but had returned to the normal cherry sheen and density of a normal pulse.

"Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry, go to sleep my little baby. When you wake, you shall have all the pretty little horses. Dapple and grays, pintos and bays, all the pretty little horses...when...you...wake..." Tears were streaming down her muzzle, making dark streaks down Obsidian's neck. His pulse was racing as his body panicked to heal what his mind knew he couldn't. “Way down yonder, in the meadow, poor little baby cryin’ mama, birds and the butterflies flutter ‘round his eyes. Poor little baby, cryin’ mama.

"Hush-a-bye, don’t you cry, go to sleep, my little baby. When you wake, you shall have all the pretty little horses. Dapples and grays, pintos and bays, all the pretty little horses.”

"I'm so, so sorry, Obsidian..."

I love you...

The following silence was broken by the sound of scratching metal, and the impact wave of a powerful teleportation spell. The discarded bodies from said spell got to their hooves - claws - and looked around the barren landscape.

Twilight was the first to speak, as nothing waited pateintly for them to catch up to their current predicament. "Discord?! How did you where are we what's going on?!?!?!"

He cast a sideways glance at her, and to shut her up, replied. "This sentence is false."

As she struggled to understand the paradox he had just inflicted, the others took in the scorched ground, casual spirit of Disharmony, Spike, and Sunrise, cradling the body of another draconequus.

"Discord, what's goin' on? Ah demand ta know where Ponyville got to!"

The spirit was crying, tears invisibly stremaing down his face. "This is Ponyville."

Before she could continue, he held up his paw. "And I'm sorry. For everything I've ever done to you. For turnign you against yourselves. And I need you to trust me. I'm not the enemy here."

Gilda, separating herself from the group, timidly walked over to Sunrise. "W-what happened?"

The dragonness didn't look up, just burrowed her muzzle deeper in his mane. "He's...he's..."

Tigerjay suddenly appeared over the hill, with four others in tow. There was Chibi, eyes narrowed at the cruel twist of fate being played out before her. Scootaloo, her wings flared and head up, looking for something to attack. Applesauce - who Sunrise admitted she didn't know very well - seemed to swell with strength and anger. And Squishy, who seemed to have discarded her prim appearance for two streaks of soot under her eyes. Tigerjay launched into the air, screeching a battle cry, and watched the others charge. Glaring at the demon standing indifferently a distance away. He looked down once, making sure his mother was alright, before scraping his claws against each other and charging at the beast.

Is this heaven?

It depends. What do you believe heaven to be?

I don't care what heaven in. I just want to go home.

So home is your heaven?

I guess so...

The girl. Do you miss her?

Sunrise?

Yes. The dragonness.

I miss her. I can't believe he tricked me... he made her love me...

You are wrong then.

What do you mean?

She loved you before then, and she loved you after.

She can't. Noone loves draconequus. That's why we're disharmony.

Please, listen. She loves you.

~When you wake, you shall have all the pretty little horses...~

She's singing...for me?

She loves you.

~Dapples and grays, pintos and bays...~

Fight it. You can go back.

I...can?

~All the pretty little horses...~

Be gentle. Your body is in a different space than you. It will be painful.

I can stand pain.

Time seemed to slow as nothing spun, tails whipping across the new army and knocking them all aside. Dust and ashes flew away from their impact, leaving long dark marks of exposed earth. Bones shattered, and hope flew apart in slivers of light.

This will be more dangerous than anything you've ever done before.

I'm ready.

You will need help. Tell me you will retreat once this battle resumes.

...I will.

Sunrise's sobs only increased as Gilda screamed beside her, seeing her son's pastel body launched through the air and slammed into the ground.

You must hurry. Time never stops.

It stops when I want it to.

No. It can't be. Only two beings have that power.

Maybe three.

The new army fell, finsing their caretakers and parents quickly beside them. Mutters of happiness and painlessness echoed around, but there was no truth.

You can change this.

Yes. I need to go back.

For her?

For me.

And a pair of sapphire eyes flickered back to life.

Comments

[mccall12]

WHY!! Why must there always be a cliffy?

[canonkiller]

Update in progress! But it's not over just yet