End of the Line

by Wheller

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Twilight realised that she had shut her eyes tightly at the sound of the gunshot. She slowly opened them and looked down upon what she had done. Whirlwind’s body lay on the ground as still as it could possibly be. A gunshot wound in his head. Twilight frowned. Whirlwind deserved better than this.

‘I’m sorry Whirlwind’, Twilight said softly. ‘I promise you, if I’m alive at the end of today, I’ll make sure history remembers you as a hero’.

Twilight silently hoped for a moment that Whirlwind would say something in response. She hoped that he’d get back up, free from Legion’s control, and be there to help her in the task that she had ahead of her. That was silly, though, and she knew it. She waited for a few minutes, and when Whirlwind did not get up, she turned and went about her way. It was time to end this, once and for all.

...

Princess Celestia looked out upon Equestria. The fires burning in Ponyville had finally gone out, the smoke had cleared. At least there was that. Celestia looked down towards Whitetail Wood, she knew what was coming. It pained her to know that it was coming to this, but she also knew that there was no other way.

‘If it makes any difference’, Princess Celestia said quietly to herself. ‘I’m sorry’.

...

Twilight spent the next several hours climbing up the mountain towards the capital city of Canterlot. It felt eerie, deserted; the mountain road should have had at least some activity, ponies going to and fro, caravans winding down the mountain path... but no, there was nothing. When Twilight reached the city gates, she discovered that they were wide open. No guards present. She entered the city, only to find that it was completely deserted as well. It was the middle of the day. There should have been ponies out in the streets! Why was nopony here!?

Twilight stiffened her resolve. The emptiness intimidated her, she felt as if something awful had taken place, but there were no signs of anything having happened, nothing at all except for the fact that the streets were completely devoid of all usual city life. Twilight pressed on, up towards the castle. She reached the gates and discovered that there were no guards here as well.

Twilight realised that Princess Celestia wanted her to come, and she had ensured that would be able to happen. Twilight pushed open the door and entered the main hall, walking down the familiar corridors of the castle and stopping just outside the throne room. Twilight took a deep breath and drew her revolver. She threw the door open the door and marched inside.

Princess Celestia was sitting upon her throne looking down upon her. ‘Hello Twilight, I knew you would come’.

‘You did?’ Twilight asked.

Celestia nodded slightly. ‘I’ve known that this day would come for a long, long time. It’s unfortunate, now that it is finally here’.

‘Then you should have done something about it! You won’t do anything to help us! But instead, you’ve sat up here on your throne for the last thousand years and held us back from reaching our full potential!’ Twilight yelled. ‘You’re a danger to all of pony kind and I’m here to put you down!’

Celestia shook her head slowly. ‘Twilight... no, it’s not me that you need to worry about’.

Twilight gave her mentor a look of annoyance. ‘Fine, I’ll bite, who’s so much worse than you?’

Princess Celestia did not respond, and at that moment, Twilight felt someone tapping on her back. She turned around to discover that Princess Luna was standing right behind her. She gave Twilight and eerie smile. ‘Surprise!’ she said and hit Twilight with a powerful telekinetic attack, sending her flying into a stone pillar.

Princess Celestia flinched as she watched her student hit the wall with such tremendous force. Twilight cried out in pain as she slid down towards the floor.

‘Princess Luna... why?’ Twilight said weakly.

Luna did not respond, instead she hit Twilight with another telekinetic attack, sending her flying into another pillar. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve been so naïve?’ Luna asked as she walked slowly up to Twilight Sparkle. ‘Do you remember me telling you that it was ME, who was the outgoing one, and Tia the one who was shy? Well that was always true, did you really think that she would be the one capable of being your real enemy? When she, even as a little filly, required others to push her into any confrontation at all?’

Twilight moaned loudly in pain as she tried to scoot herself back along the floor away from Princess Luna as she approached.

‘Let me give you a little history lesson, Twilight Sparkle, because what you think you know, even what you’d been told by Emerald Sparkle was wrong. Even in the old world, it was Celestia’s idea to kill our mother, and then brainwash me into supporting her. It was mine, and I pushed her into it!’

‘Then... you...’ Twilight said as Princess Luna hit her with another telekinetic attack.

‘Yes, you all were so focused on Overdrive, the Siblings Nightmare, and Celestia, that you failed to see the real threat. The one pulling the strings behind everything, me!’ Luna said.

Twilight moaned in pain, trying to drag herself to her hooves. She fell to the floor, and began to cough up blood. ‘But... you... you helped us!’

‘Yes... yes I did’, Luna said. ‘In the old world, I helped you, because I knew you would help me, and you did, you killed my siblings in the old world, then you set off that bomb and wiped the slate clean!’ She added, hitting Twilight with another telekinetic attack.

‘Why?’ Twilight asked.

‘You catch more flies with honey, than with vinegar. That’s an old saying that my idiot brothers could never quite understand’.

‘But... the elements of harmony! We cured you of the darkness in your heart! We defeated Nightmare Moon and saved you!’ Twilight said with a cough.

Princess Luna sighed. ‘Naïve fool! My plans were formulated LONG before I became Nightmare Moon! In fact... why don’t you ask your beloved teacher the real reason why she held back our technological progress?’

Twilight looked towards Celestia in pain. She discovered that the princess of the sun was crying. ‘Twilight, you must understand... I would never do something that wasn’t in the best interests of the people! Personal feelings never took into account! If technological advancement was the best step for our people! I would have encouraged it! But it wasn’t! Don’t you now see why?’

Luna acted before Twilight could respond, driving a hoof into her face. ‘Yes, see, Tia couldn’t bear to hurt her baby sister! She knew what she needed to do, for the good of all, I needed to be destroyed, but she couldn’t do it, so she banished me to the moon instead! She knew that I would escape eventually, and she was afraid if our technological progress were to keep on the track that it was in. When I came back, I would have a powerful army at my disposal, Equestria would roll over the rest of the world, and I wouldn’t stop there! Today the world, Tomorrow the rest of the Tau Ceti star system, next week? The entire galaxy! Tia tried to stop me in the old world, she sent me to live with you in Ponyville, hoping that you would be able to make me see what I wanted was wrong, she failed, of course. As she always does’.

‘You’re... you’re insane!’ Twilight said weakly.

‘You are small!’ Luna said. ‘You cannot possibly comprehend a mind like mine. So go ahead, think I’m insane. Won’t matter much longer’.

At this point, Luna was done talking; she began to kick Twilight hard in her chest, and her stomach. She intended to beat the unicorn to death. Twilight looked over to Celestia communicating her pleas for help through her eyes. Celestia couldn’t bear to make eye contact, and looked away as her sister continued to beat her prized student to death.

‘She is not going to help you! She cannot even help herself!’ Luna cried out.

Twilight cried out in pain as the beating kept coming. Luna decided that she was done. She had had her fun with Twilight Sparkle and it was time to put her out of her misery. She raised her hoof for the final blow, ready to bring it down upon her.

A flash of white darted across Twilight’s eyes, as a cloud of white smoke slammed into Luna at full force, sending the princess of the night clattering to the floor. The white smoke rematerialised into Celestia as she pinned Luna against the ground.

‘Get off me!’ Luna cried out in anger.

‘No!’ Celestia said defiantly, she looked towards Twilight Sparkle with sad eyes. ‘I am so sorry’, she said. The two royal sisters turned into clouds of white and purple smoke, and rose into the air. Twilight watched as the smoke clouds tangled and entwined with each other. She heard Princess Luna’s voice shriek, as the two clouds became enveloped in a bright light. The light filled the room completely and then went out. The echoes of screaming filing the halls, and then became silent.

Twilight sighed and fell back onto the ground. It was over. Princess Celestia had sacrificed herself to kill Princess Luna.

Twilight closed her eyes. She wanted nothing more than to sleep.

Crack!

Twilight’s eyes shot back open as she felt the whole mountain city began to shift. ‘Oh no!’ Twilight cried out. She forced herself to her hooves and began to drag herself out of the castle. Twilight should have realised this long ago. The mountain city was not architecturally sound; there was no way that such a city could have ever possibly held itself up on this mountain the way it had been built. The city was held up by magic. Without the Princess here...

Twilight pulled herself out of the castle to discover that her hypothesis was right. Large cracks were forming in the ground and the streets of the city. Canterlot was going to fall.

The entire city gave way at once, falling from the mountain and down towards Whitetail Wood. Twilight fell along with it down towards the ground, she didn’t scream, she didn’t struggle. Twilight closed her eyes as a white light began to overtake her.

This was the end of things as she knew it. Twilight Sparkle had come to the end of the line.

Comments

[DreadedCandiru2]

Ah, the perils of getting rid of a load-bearing boss and her dragon. Ah, well. At least with those two out of the way, it's all up to the mortals to do stuff now.

[chrisbiby]

i love and hate the ending of series's all the pent up bad assery, shocking twists, questions answered, the final epic showdown between good and evil. how will it end! will it end like All Good Things, will it end with Twilight and friends becoming the new leaders, will they all die in the end. i dont care just as long as there is a good dénouement ill be happy (i would be even happier if you then posted a blog a week later saying "ha ha i lied now on to story series four!" but i respect your decision to end it there)

[Apocalypse Pony]

Dafuq? So it was Luna who was the insane amish leader this whole time?

[harvestofsilver]

What have you done to Luna? You monster