• Published 10th Jan 2014
  • 4,111 Views, 118 Comments

The Incredibly Loyal Heart Of A Winning Pony - Hallowed



What if the Winningverse's Cloud Kicker went with Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie to retrieve the Elements of Harmony instead of Rainbow Dash?

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Alternate Ending - Honor - Part One

"...and Cloud Kicker, who stood true to her friends and family even when offered fame and glory, represents the spirit of... Loyalty!" As Twilight continued to speak, crystals began to fly around each of us in turn. Twilight continued, "The spirits of these five ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us!"

Nightmare Moon, for the first time, didn't sound smugly confident, but almost desperate as she said, "You still don't have the sixth Element! The spark didn't work!"

Twilight replied, "But it did! A different kind of spark." Twilight turned back to address us, saying, "I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you." She even began to tear up a little, before she turned back to face the alicorn. "The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all... are my friends!"

A flash of light appeared over us, and a sixth stone sphere appeared, floating as she finished, "You see, Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the... the spark, that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element: the element of... magic!"

A blinding flash of light filled the room-

-barely a year old, seeing my mom in uniform about to leave the house, I tug on her leg to get her attention, and I give her my first salute. She smiles softly and salutes me back-

-at Flight Camp, after Eepy and I became fillyfriends, banging for the first time. We're clumsy the way virgins always are, but I like her so much-

-my friend Rainbow Dash attacking me, and I hit her in the eye. I buck her under the tail as hard as I can, and she goes down screaming-

-walking through the front door at West Hoof for the first time, following in the family tradition, knowing that my parents are so proud of me-

-banging three different mares in as many days-

-running away at graduation. I know my parents are there watching and they have to be so embarrassed, but I just can't go through with it-

...

-running away at graduation. I know my parents are there watching and they have to be so embarrassed, but I just can't go through with it-

...

-running away at graduation-

...

-running away-

-and after a long moment, the light faded away. I opened my eyes, expecting to see Nightmare Moon dusted, or turned to stone, or otherwise dealt with by the Elements.

But I didn't.

The Elements were back into their stone spheres, sitting on the floor totally inert. Nightmare Moon loomed in front of us, and for a single moment, she looked as confused as we all did.

That didn't last long, though. With rising volume, Nightmare Moon began chuckling, then laughing, then cackling insanely. "Oh, this is precious! After all that speechmaking, you still aren't capable of using the Elements!"

Twilight looked like she was about to cry as she said, "But I was sure that the Elements would work now! Everything made sense!"

Twilight might have continued talking, except Nightmare Moon teleporting directly in front of us cut her off, as the alicorn hissed, "But. They. Didn't. Your trump card has failed, Twilight Sparkle. And now there is nothing to stop me. This night will last forever!"

Twilight slumped on her hooves, and I could tell there was no more fight in her. To be honest, I felt the same. I couldn't match Nightmare Moon on my own, none of us could.

Applejack must have come to the same conclusion, because she hissed out "Girls, Ah think we oughta' be hightailin' it!" That was enough to spur all six of us to action, and we ran for the door, and for our lives.

But we didn't even get close to it before it slammed shut, a dark purple field surrounding it. An instant later, Nightmare Moon teleported in front of us again, crying out, "You won't be escaping from me, my little ponies!"A moment later, all six of us began floating away from the ground, Eepysqueak crying out in shock.

Rarity shrieked as Nightmare Moon's magic pulled her by her hair. "Not the mane!"

Applejack strained and twisted, her hat falling at Nightmare Moon's hooves. With a disdainful snort from the alicorn, it began floating in the alicorn’s magic for an instant before her magic twisted and the hat shredded itself, to Applejack's cry of horror.

I flapped my wings furiously, but to no avail; I just floated like a leaf on a pond.

Twilight Sparkle, though she still looked gutted, wasn't going out without a fight: Sparks were shooting out of her horn, and she was probably casting spell after spell. But all her efforts weren't getting her any more free than mine were.

Pinkie and Fluttershy, though, weren't trying to fight free at all. Pinkie... well, didn't look like Pinkie. Her normally poofy mane was hanging completely straight and down. Pinkie looked at me, and for the first time since I've known her, looked sad. "Cloudy... it wasn't supposed to be like this. This isn't how it was supposed to turn out. We were supposed to win..." and then she started to cry softly.

Eepysqueak was crying too, the sound muffled a little behind her mane. I swallowed and said "Fluttershy, don't worry. It's going to be okay."

Suddenly, I realized that I had Nightmare Moon’s full attention as she stepped towards me, eyes narrowing as the echoes of her steps resounded through the room. "Oh? It's going to be okay? Are you sure?" and then the temperature in the room plunged as she darkly continued, "My Captain?"

With a snarl, Nightmare Moon swung her metal-clad hoof into my stomach, all the air rushing out of my lungs and the other five mares gasping in response. The magic holding me up vanished, and I collapsed on the stone, coughing roughly as I tried to catch my breath. I started to rise, looking up just in time to catch Nightmare Moon's backhoof across my face as I recoiled and collapsed again in a heap. As I tried to get my bearings back, my left eye began stinging from blood leaking from a cut over it. This was getting very bad very quickly.

I stood shakily, as the alicorn tossed her mane imperiously. "Come now, Cloud Kicker. You were so eager to fight against my projection. Now you face the genuine article, and you fail to impress!"

I panted for breath, wiping with my foreleg to clear the blood from my eye, but a sharp pain from something heavy striking me in the shoulder nearly knocked me off my hooves again. With my vision cleared for the moment, I could see that Nightmare Moon was levitating a few large pieces of rock in her magic, and that one of those was what had just hit me. She hissed at me, “I warned you once to not take your eyes off of me, foal. Now you pay the price for your defiance!” before hurling another rock at me.

I lunged forward, diving under the rock that would have caved in my skull, then flapped my wings and pushed off from the ground, aiming a straight punch at Nightmare Moon's throat, but her magic seized my foreleg, bringing my hoof to a halt seemingly without any effort whatsoever on her part.

"Pathetic." Suddenly she yanked hard, and I went flying end over end, slamming into a wall and falling in a heap. I felt a flare of pain in my side, and it started hurting to breathe. A detached part of my mind thought that it was most likely a fractured or broken rib.

I struggled to rise again, but Nightmare Moon planted her hoof on my head and pressed down hard. I scrabbled at the ground and her hoof, but couldn't budge myself or her. I then felt the hoof lift for a moment before it came crashing back down in a thunderous crack, blurring my vision with pain. A long moment passed, and all I could hear beyond my thundering heartbeat was the heavy hoofsteps of the alicorn as she walked around my prone form. Almost casually, she lashed out in a kick to my barrel, and this time I knew the rib was broken as I screamed in agony.

I couldn't see the others, but I could hear Fluttershy whimpering and crying, Applejack telling me to hang on as she fought against Nightmare Moon’s levitation, Twilight whispering over and over that she was sorry, and finally Rarity cried out, "Enough, please! Let her go, I beg you!"

Nightmare Moon laughed again, then said, "Neigh. For refusing my generous offer, and daring to lay her hooves upon my person, this one will perish by my hoof. And she will not be the last. You will all watch, and should think hard about ways for you to avoid the same fate."I then felt her magic lift me up by the throat and slam meagainst the wall. I gasped for air, my limbs flailing around the magic field tightly gripping my neck, but to no avail; I couldn't grasp the magic any more than I could empty air. I tried to think desperately of any way out of this, but I couldn't think of anything.

Nightmare Moon leaned closer, the force around my throat loosening for a moment as she tauntingly said, "Any last words?"

In a moment of clarity, I realized I was about to die. And I knew, in that moment, if I’m going to die, I’m going to die a Kicker. I took a deep breath and, locking gaze with the alicorn in a last defiant glare, yelled out the ancient words of my clan at the top of my lungs: "Death waits in the shadows!"

Then I spat in her face.

Nightmare Moon's magic crushed my windpipe, making me choke and gasp for air that wouldn't come as she snorted and said, "Adorable. Now die!"

I could hear the girls all crying out, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. As my vision began to darken, my thoughts went to my friends and family. Blossomforth. Derpy. Harpflank. Rainbow. Alula. Dad. Mom. As my limbs fell limp, I could still make out my killer, and the other five ponies in the room, looking horrified at the casual murder of one of their friends. Applejack. Pinkie. Rarity. Twilight. Fluttershy.

As my eyes slipped closed, my last thought was:

I'm sorry.

...