The End - Part 2
“You’re bluffing.”
The Beacon looked away from studying Princess Twilight and stared into Princess Luna, unblinkingly. “Try me.”
Luna raised a hoof to step forward, but Cadence’s left wing sprang open and held the Moon Goddess at bay and shook her head. She remembered what it was like being under the Beacon’s control. “It’s not bluffing Luna. Please do what the Beacon says,” she begged.
Luna, moved by the hurt she saw in Cadence’s face, lowered her hoof.
The Beacon praised Luna disdainfully, “Very good, witch, very good indeed.” It took a bold step forward and moved past its six converted bargaining chips. He continued his monologue.
“I must admit, it surprised me to no end when the Moon appeared in Cloudsdale. Princess Cadence was the first out of thousands that even knew that the Sun and Moon even existed. I assumed you had sacrificed yourselves long ago, defeating some lesser evil.”
“Lesser evil?” Luna snorted and twin blasts of hot air billowed out of her nostrils at the approaching white construct.
“Of course. Surely there can be no greater evil than Discord.” It walked in front of Celestia and came to a stop and smiled at her. “After all, the Sun would not have bothered with creating the ultimate weapon if she did not intend it to fight the ultimate enemy.”
“You’re right. I did create the ultimate weapon,” said Celestia diplomatically, “but Discord has changed. He’s no longer the enemy. He—”
She was silenced by a featureless white hoof smacking her across the face. “He is the enemy! Still! Even now, he plots to throw this world into chaos. If you don’t believe me…” The Beacon turned to the side and pointed into the crowd. “See for yourself.”
There was a sudden rumbling and Twilight looked away from the Beacon for just a moment to see what it was pointing at. Her stomach fell out from under her and she felt her rump hit the cold ground.
Through the center of the ranks rose a white crystal obelisk. Discord was skewered half way up it, impaled through the chest.
“Discord!”
The barely lucid draconequus gripped the obelisk with his right paw and pulled himself up as best he could to look at the row of Princesses.
“Oh. Hi, Sparkplug,” he said in a daze. “I see you found Celestia. That’s nice.”
The obelisk flashed red and Discord roared in pain. He grasped the crystal that pierced his body and pulled against it ineffectually. When it stopped, he went limp again. He didn’t struggle again, opting instead to breathe heavily and stare up at the eclipse for a while.
“What… What happened?” asked Twilight.
“Well, you know.” He said while flopping an arm around willy-nilly, “I could have zigged. I could have zagged, but instead I went down.”
“You went down?” she asked, a puzzled look on her face.
“Yeah, dove down. In hindsight it probably wasn’t the best pla—“
The red light filled the plaza again, and again Discord screamed in pain. Twilight took a step forward, desperate to save the God of Chaos from his fate. Only to realize her mistake a moment too late.
“Twilight, no!” cried Cadence.
The Beacon shouted at the four ponies “Looks like somepony doesn’t know how to listen!”
Twilight stood rigid in place and turned her head to watch her brother. Shining Armor was standing perfectly still. He wasn’t breathing. His face turned blue and he fell over.
“Shining!”
The Beacon looked at the visibly shaken Cadence. It watched her curiously as she fought against the primal urge to save her mate. It knew the turmoil that would be raging inside of her.
“Why don’t you run to him?” The Beacon asked.
“Be… Because you’ll kill him.”
The Beacon scoffed. “He’s already dying. I’ve done my part.” It turned away from her and waved a hoof dismissively “Save him, if you can.”
Cadence shot Celestia a pleading look, and the white Alicorn nodded once. They knew the danger of separating. They both accepted the risk.
Cadence ran to her fallen husband and scooped him up. His heart wasn’t beating. She hugged him to her chest and looked at her royal sisters one last time.
“I’m sorry,” she said before vanishing with Shining Armor.
“And then there were three.” Scoffed the Beacon, its myriad of voices jeering and taunting as it spoke. “Tell me, what made you think that I—“
“NO MORE TALK!” Boomed the Moon Goddess. Quick as an arrow, she bolted from where she stood and hit the Beacon square in the jaw. It fell to the ground with a crunch, sprawled out on its side.
Luna charged forward to strike again, but the Beacon’s horn was already glowing a deep red. She was suddenly grabbed by a score of crystal coils that shot out of the ground beneath her. They wrapped around her limbs and forced her into a sitting position. She screamed in righteous indignation and pushed energy into her horn.
When she released it, she reeled back from an immediate and severe pain that raced up and down her spine. A metallic pop met her ears. Silent moments passed, but when Luna was able to focus her eyes again she looked up at her forehead and cursed.
She saw that her horn was in a crystal cage of it’s own. “You dare imprison the Moon? Release me!”
“What’s the matter? You don’t like being trapped, witch?” It said as it stood back up and rubbed its jaw. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be out before you break your old record on the Moon. But only just.” It added, snidely.
Luna growled.
“Did I hit a nerve? You really need to let go. Obsession’s not healthy.”
Luna screamed and writhed all the more. She was desperate to rip the Beacon in half with her own hooves. But to her dismay she found that with each pull and grunt, the crystal only tightened its grip.
“Oh, I wouldn’t struggle. I think you’ll find that I’ve vastly improved upon the spell that Empress Rarity used in Cloudsdale.”
She ignored him and continued to rail against the crystal’s ever-tightening grip. Finally, when she could take no more and she became still. Her growl became a frown and her frown became a whimper.
Celestia could take no more. All hope of a diplomatic solution were gone. This was not the cure for chaos. It was a disease all its own. There would be no more negotiations.
The Sun Goddess charged to her sister’s aid, running past Twilight and melting cobblestone beneath her hooves as she went. In her eyes were a supernova sunrise. High in the sky above, the sun burned brightly behind the moon.
The life giving orb exploded with a sister’s fury. The solar winds boiled in her outrage. Her horn glowed with power and she unleashed the full force of a creator scorned upon her failed creation.
There was a soft pop, and Celestia crumpled to the ground, skidding to a halt. Her horn was also sheathed in crystal.
“You Princesses are so predictable,” sighed the Beacon of Order, walking over to Celestia. “You created me to adapt to chaos, remember? Dealing with you and your sisters is foal’s play by comparison.” He gave her a playful kick in the face.
As Celestia regained awareness, she found that that she was being wrapped in crystal coils like her sister before her. She struggled at first too, but stopped when the pressure became too much for her to bear.
“Do you know what your downfall was?” the Beacon asked her coyly, “It was your compassion. Compassion for friends. Compassion for family… Compassion for me. You ponies are full-to-bursting with compassion.”
It took a step back and spun in a slow circle. “Look around you. Look how I defeated you. It wasn’t my skills that did this. It wasn’t my strength. It was your weakness.”
It glanced at Twilight who was shaking with rage. “You. I have almost to thank you for as I do the Sun. You gave me all the time I needed to get where I am now. What with all your emergency planning and fooling around in Cloudsdale.”
It chuckled before continuing “You with your precious castle defenses. At any point before I arrived in Canterlot, you could have stopped me. You could have teleported to me across the ley lines and smashed me into a million tiny pieces. But you didn’t.”
The Beacon smiled at her innocently. “I wonder… Why didn’t you?”
“You’re wrong,” said Twilight. “I did everything in my power to stop you and—“
“And what? Look for your precious teacher?” You knew what Smarty Pants was going to do when you sent her to that sleepover yesterday. You knew that she was going to sneak into the Everfree Forest and look for the perfect gift for her perfect teacher.”
“What? No, I—“
“Tsk Tsk, Princess. Nopony likes a liar.”
As the Beacon spoke the royal librarian, Lily Pages, converted to the cause of Order, stepped forward from the crowd. The Beacon pointed a hoof at her. “You told Mrs. Pages here to stick a copy of the blueprints to the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters in Smarty Pants’ saddlebags last week.”
“Lily! She’s supposed to be in—“
“In the emergency shelters? I’m afraid that when the evacuation notice went out, she went home to save some of her rare books. She was quite the little co-conspirator, was she not?”
“You don’t understand!”
“Oh I understand. And once you found out that the girls discovered me, you started playing it safe. Evacuating ponies, contacting parents, eating breakfast, that sort of thing. After all, what else would get a compassionate goddess to come out of hiding like a… what would you call it? A doozy of a catastrophe?”
“Twilight? Is this true?” asked Celestia, her ears pinned back and the hurt apparent in her face.
“It’s not like that! The Beacon is twisting the truth. Sure, I wanted you both back but not like this! Do you think I wanted the girls to go into the Everfree forest? They could have been killed!” she said gesturing at the three corrupted girls standing in front of her.
“Then why in the Creator’s name did you tell the librarian to slip the castle blueprints in Smarty Pants’ saddlebags?” pondered the Beacon, whimsically.
The plaza filled with red light again, and Discord screamed. Twilight snorted the acrid scent of burnt hair out of her nose.
“Because I did want her to go, eventually! When she was old enough. Wise enough. When I was sure she was ready explore the world and find its secrets.”
“You played a dangerous game, Twilight Sparkle,” said Luna without daring to move.
“Don’t treat me like a child, Luna.” Twilight snapped at the Moon Goddess.
Luna snorted at Twilight's remark. "Ah forgive me. I forgot you were also a goddess. What with all this foolishness. Did we not entrust you and Cadence with the care of Equestria and all of our little ponies? You have suffered your duty to play at senator and teacher"
"Oh, you left all right," growled Twilight, the old repressed angers now coming to a head. "You and Celestia both left, without warning. You left everything for us to take care of. You raised us up to be your equals and then left! How’s that for friendship and sisterhood?"
“It wasn't that easy!" shouted Luna.
"I KNOW! I WAS THERE!" yelled the Goddess of Magic.
"Twilight, Luna, please," said Celestia, offering a temporary truce. “Yes, we have much to discuss, but arguing right now isn't going to help anypony.”
Twilight begrudgingly looked at her old mentor. “I needed you. Equestria needs you. Every morning the Solar Court taps into my magic to help raise the sun. And every night the Lunar Court does the same to raise the moon. Do you know what that kind of drain that is, every day, twice a day, for 450 years?”
“I do,” said Celestia, remembering the long millennium of her sister’s banishment. Then she turned her head away from her former student and closed her eyes. She muttered something under her breath.
“What was that? I didn’t hear that,” said the Beacon giddily as it pranced over. It leaned in and gave its Creator its undivided attention.
She whispered in it’s ear, and the Beacon’s eyes went wide at the words.
“N-no!” it gasped as it smacked its creator across the face before teleporting away to the other side Canterlot’s Grand Central Plaza.
Luna shouted out her part of the spell that would end the Beacon’s threat, but her voice was lost in the thundering hundreds of other voices. Each one was shouting gibberish as loudly as the Beacon could will them to. Once the Beacon’s head stopped ringing, the shouting stopped too. It looked up and saw Princess Twilight trying to melt away the crystal of the Sun’s prison.
“No, no, don’t do that,” it chided as the three girls took a few lurching steps forward. “Otherwise who knows what will happen to these precious little angels of yours?”
Twilight stopped and took a step back. The crystal she managed to time-melt away reformed, securing the Sun Goddess in her prison once more.
“Don’t hurt them,” she begged. “Please, just tell me what you want.”
“What I want?” it laughed cruelly, “I am a weapon of Order, designed and perfected to defeat the God of Chaos.”
It walked past the groaning Discord and back to them as it continued. “But, once I complete my task? Once it’s all over? I’ll go inert and be no more. But that’s not really fair for a conquering hero now, is it?”
It sneered at Celestia before continuing “Surely this was just an oversight on the part of the Creator. After all, why should I have to stop existing after stopping Discord? What if there’s another threat long after I’m gone?”
“Discord is not a threat!” shouted Celestia. “How many times must we tell you?”
The Beacon scoffed “Well of course he’s not a threat, now. I mean, look at him.” A wall of red light reflected off the surrounding corrupted ponies and Discord roared in agony once more. His limbs flailed uselessly against the burning rock that pierced his body.
The Beacon chuckled at the grim sight and then turned back to the Sun. “Seriously though, I’m going to kill him. But not yet. Not until I have the power I need to overcome the termination runes you so carelessly carved into my cortex.”
It pointed at a distraught Twilight Sparkle. “More to the point, her power.”
Twilight lowered her head and snarled as her wings flaring out to their full extension. “What makes you think I’ll give you my magic?”
The Beacon’s white horn began to glow and it arched an eyebrow at the Goddess of Magic. “What makes you think I’ll ask?”
The weathered stone beneath Twilight's hooves began to shimmer with magical light of every hue. All the unicorns that lined the edge of the Grand Central Plaza stood there, pouring magic into the recently carved pavement. Her gaze spun from side to side, tracing the runes as they lit up.
“It’s a summoning circle” She said absentmindedly.
Twilight watched the magic surge towards the center of the plaza where Discord was impaled. “But what are yo—“
The light reached the tortured draconequus and it changed from a prism of colors to a solid red. Discord screamed again, but then went limp. There was a flash of light, and the world around Twilight was filled with fog.
And voices. So many voices.
Twilight pushed more of power into her mental shielding, but it was too much. So many voices, so many calls to Order. To obey and become part of something greater. She stumbled on her hooves and fell to her knees.
The Goddess of Magic let out a pained squeak as she pushed against the clamoring in her head with all of her strength. She would not submit. She would not yield. It would not end like this.
She suddenly felt a hard skinless hoof tap her shoulder and she looked up. It was the Beacon of Order. It was smiling at her sympathetically.
“You are a very impressive pony, Princess Twilight.” the Beacon shouted over the tremendous din. “But you can’t win.”
“I… I won’t give up!” she said through clenched teeth as she staggered to her hooves.
“I’ve learned a great deal about you, Princess. Would you like to learn the two most important lessons I learned? The first was that I could not rely on Memetic Harmonization to defeat you.”
Twilight said nothing, but swung a hoof weakly at the Beacon, fighting against the ever-growing urge to join his ranks. It connected with a tap, and the Beacon just shook its head sadly.
“Did you think that I didn’t see you through the eyes of my converted ponies? See you studying them and the effects of your magic?”
She ignored him, choosing instead to try and walk over to Celestia and Luna. The two sisters sat in their twisted cages with their eyes shut tight and their ears pinned back, trying desperately to hold on to their sanity.
“Look how far the mighty have fallen,” he quipped as he walked next to her. “The second thing I learned was that it took very little effort for you block out the Call to Order from a hundred ponies. But what about a thousand? What about ten thousand? What about… The combined voices of everypony converted?”
Giggling, the Beacon stood up on one of its hind legs and spun in a circle. “Look around you, Princess! Pierce the veil of this world and see the truth. Look at all your little ponies. Well… my little ponies now. Aren’t they wonderful?” it asked dreamily.
Twilight fought against the Beacon’s influence, but the suggestion to know the truth and her natural curiosity got the better of her. She opened her sixth sense and her consciousness fled into the magical realm beyond Equestria.
It was worse than she could have imagined. The plaza and the city beyond were filled with corrupted ponies, teleported here from all over Equestria. Her mind boggled at the density of magical signatures within Canterlot, she couldn’t tell where one pony ended another began.
She didn’t have long to stare before something hit her. It was a white tendril. One of many. Laced with red energy, the tendrils lashed out randomly all across the tides. She winced as a second tendril, sprouting from the convergence of two nearby ley lines, touched her. Then another.
With each touch, she felt her mental barrier shrink. She ducked and dove around each one as best she could, but they would catch her inevitably. Even here her stamina was not infinite. The voices got louder and more insistent with each passing moment.
Maybe she should just quit. What was the worst that could happen? Equestria had a good run with harmony, maybe it was Order’s time to shine? No.
She observed that the tendrils stayed on the surface of the tides, not dipping below for reasons unknown. She willed herself down into the tide to limit the tendril’s attack vector. They didn’t seem to like that.
Submerged with only her head above the surface as she was, Twilight felt helpless as the tendrils flailed and thrashed about, sending waves of magic crashing down on her. She fought against them and struggled to stay afloat. Another wave pulled at her and she began to sink, her strength fleeing from her ethereal body. That was when she remembered something Discord said..
I could have zigged. I could have zagged, but instead I went down.
She closed her senses as best she could to the physical world and then she let herself sink below the surface.
She fought the urge to hold her breath, knowing that there was nothing to breathe here anyway. The fact that she was still able to breathe meant that her body was probably unharmed and standing where she left it in Canterlot. It wasn’t much of a consolation prize, but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
She pushed deeper. Deeper than she’d ever gone before. The farther she sank, the quieter her mind became. Before long there was only one voice in her head.
She rolled over onto her back as her dive continued. She couldn’t see the angry waves of the surface or any of the red laced tendrils that marred it. She could think for herself again, and smiled at that fact. But her smile quickly faded when she realized what she’d done.
Twilight Sparkle had forsaken the world for the sake of her own sanity. She had abandoned her friends, her most faithful student, and everypony else. Now there was only her and the growing darkness around her.
Soon the Goddess of Magic was unable to sense anything. Her equilibrium left her like she left Equestria. She knew up from down, but she knew that she was being pulled towards some unseen terminus.
Soon the pulling stopped and the back of her wings touched a soft mushy surface. Turning so her hooves touched the substance instead, she pressed in and felt something hard and flat a few inches beneath the murky top layer.
She walked forward into the blackness, but there was nothing to be found. She looked in every direction, but there was nothing to see. She reached out with her heart, but there was nothing to feel.
There was nothing.
It was the end of everything. She fled, and in doing so, she damned the world to wither and die. The Goddess of Magic had escaped so far within herself and the false safety of this magical realm that she feared she would be lost forever.
“Help.” she whispered to the echoing abyss.
Nothing answered back. And that’s when the full weight of what she had done fell upon her. She cried in her despair.
It was not a single resolute tear, but a rain of sorrow. Her eyes burned and her voice croaked with each and every sob. Twilight Sparkle, alone and at the bottom of an ocean beyond the edges her own doomed world, sang a song.
It was a song of loss, bittersweet remembrance, and the anguish that came from trying your best and still losing. Every word she sang was carved onto the surface of her heart.
Her mind’s eye was flooded with visions of the victories won through careful planning, deliberate action, and her faith in others. What went wrong this time? Why didn’t they win?
Then she remembered Smarty Pants standing there in the plaza. Her dull eyes looked straight ahead. How she’d never blossom into the wonderful mare Twilight knew she was meant to be. She was only a child.
Her requiem ended, and Princess Twilight knew the wretchedness of having everything only to lose it all. Twilight Sparkle was defeated. She opened her eyes and dreaded the eternity to come. There was nothing but darkness.
Well, almost nothing.
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Waiting for the next part is going to be HARD.
Another well written chapter but I have unfortunately spotted another spelling mistake.
The word "grip" should either be the words "gripped" or "grasped at".
Looking forward to the next chapter.
Holy. Shit.
I want her friends to somehow come back to her. Or for her to suddenly find some new bearers.
It comes across as a bit odd that the two older princesses didn't run or teleport right next to the Beacon and give the shutdown code *immediately*. The prose clarifies later on that Celestia has to _literally_ whisper into its ear (which seems strange for a safety measure, as you'd want those to be _easy_ to use), but even then: alicorns. They can teleport, they can fly, and barring all else, they can just plain _run_ really fast.
It might be worth tweaking the beginning of this chapter to clarify what exactly they have to do and why they can't just do it immediately.
The same applies to why they delay to mess around with the dragons when shutting down the Beacon would immediately make the dragons allies again. Celestia's earlier hesitation may be understandable (per her conversations, she isn't sure if she should help at all), but once she's decided to act, her priorities come across as quite odd.
Definitely looking forward to the conclusion, at any rate!
3524442
Yeah, I only mentioned it once before when the girls shared the journal they found with Twilight. That Celestia has to whisper and Luna has to shout a two part verbal spell. It was intended to be difficult to replicate by discord. Two keys, like arming a nuke or disarming one, in this case.
I appreciate your comment and when I go through and do a final edit some time in the next year, I will be sure to have that point pinned to the corkboard of my mind.
3524266
Another great catch! Thank you!
3524115
The last part was just sent to the pre-reader, Bloodlord, best of ponies. When he is done with it I will make it so.
3524500
*sacrifices a goat to Bloodlord*
Wow, so basically every god(des) is just a huge bag of dicks...
Seriously, they might as well be greek for all the good they end up doing the world.
3524596
Clearly your sacrifice was pleasing to Bloodlord, as he has just returned Part Three to me.
HAIL BLOODLORD!
CLIFFHANGER!!! you evil creature
At first I was like
then I was like 
then I was like 
then I was like 
then for some weird reason I was like 
then I realized that 'weird reason' was you're a freakin' genius man/girl AC. 
OH FUCKETY FUCK FUCK MCFUCK!!!
missing a "She"
Huh.
Man, this is literally getting deep.
I'm using up all the applejack icons.
WAIT A HOLYFUCKING MINUTE RARITY HASN'T BEEN MENTIONED IN A WHILE SO MAYBE MY GUESS LIKE FIVE CHAPTERS AGO ISN'T SO OFF!!!!
3524636 if you haven't you shouldREALLYread " The Immortal Game". It is kind of about this very concept.
>>>“Did I hit a nerve? You really need to let go. Obsession’s not healthy.”>>>
You're one to talk, Mr. I-Must-Kill-Discord-At-All-Costs. How long have you been harboring that obsession, hmmm?
Hah, if that were true, you would have slipped them to her a few years from now.
It's not like she needed to have them right away if she wasn't leaving soon.
Well, I knew that the non-zigging and non-zagging was important, but ouch!
Oh crap, Shining.
Daaaaamn.
Ooooo, clever Celestia! So, even though the shouting drowned Luna's part of the spell out, I have to wonder if Celestia will have to repeat her whisper if enough time passes, or if they just need the shout now.
That's a lot of ponies in Canterlot, probably some sort of fire code being violated.
Down definitely seems important.