Harmony's Creed

by Gapeagle

Chapter 55: Consequences (Part 2)

Applejack was far from the battle, thus I knew I wouldn't be joining them. I got to my feet and rushed back into the street where the battles continued. Vinyl was popping shots at Sunset from a distance. Rarity was still holding her own against the pyromancer. Most of the Brothers and Sisters were dead now. Charred, frozen, ripped apart, or electrocuted.

The closest battle to me was Noteworthy against Braeburn. I would say it was a battle, but it appeared that Noteworthy was simply playing with his former leader.

"Hold still, ya bastard!" Braeburn yelled.

A cloud of smoke circled around the Den Master. The man within the smoke kept laughing evilly, mocking Braeburn in the worse of ways. The Den Master swung his blade through the smoke to no effect.

"Keep swinging, I can watch it forever!" Noteworthy laughed with a seemingly out-of-body voice.

I started to run over to aid my fellow Den Master. I was not sure how I would help him against living smoke, but I was certain Valor may be of assistance. The muck that was left of the snow sloshed under my boots. With Sunset moving away from the area I was in, the snow was refreezing over, becoming sleek like glass.

However, I was too late. Noteworthy must have seen me approaching, for he returned to his solid form right behind Braeburn before slicing the Den Master's head off. The body twitched about as the head landed silently on the snow. With a tap of his finger, Noteworthy made the body fall over.

"Well, that's one down." He chuckled. "I guess it was fun while it lasted. I've been waiting to do that, I mean, oh! That felt good!"

"You will find me a tougher match, Noteworthy." I warned him. "What shard do you possess?"

"Me? Well, it's exactly what everyone acquaints me with: Doubt. Braeburn had doubt in my skills as an Assassin. Applejack had doubts of me being loyal to the Brotherhood. You gave me doubts in myself after you beat me at the fighting tournament. Now my own sister has doubts of me being a good brother. It's something you live with, Octavia. It clouds your vision. It is what signals a disaster. It is the warning when you head towards danger. After being around it for too long, it stinks up even your clothes for weeks. You can't just wash it out. It is what comes after Order has made everything the same!"

Noteworthy, with a insane grin on his face, turned back into his smoke form. I launched Valor at him, but the spirit passed through the black cloud with no effect. After seeing his tactics with Braeburn, I rolled forward and dodged the swing of his blade as he returned to his real form.

"You may run, Octavia, but it's not like you can have the endurance to face me." He said mockingly.

"I had to battle a hurricane out in the Labyrinth Isles. I think I can last." I remarked.

"You're just going to rely on that petty shard." He shot back. "The shards grant such wondrous powers, yet yours just let you make a blue clone for two seconds."

"Valor does not like his tone."

My hand started to tingle with Valor's anger. It tingled so much that it started to feel numb. Was she trying to take over me? My vision blurred for a second or two. Fortunately, Noteworthy strafed about with his word up, waiting for my move instead of taking advantage of my confusion. The odd sensation did not last long though. Without my command, Valor appeared underneath Noteworthy and grabbed his legs.

"What?!"

I swept in with my sword, but he recovered and blocked my attack. The next instant, he faded away in his gaseous state and out of Valor's grip. The blue spirit disappeared back into my body, but shot out again from behind me. She kicked Noteworthy to the ground with speed I could not keep up with.

He expertly threw himself back to his feet. I approached him cautiously. Smoke was emitting from his fingertips. What other abilities he possessed, I did not know. His yellow eyes squinted at me in anger. With a twirl of his blade, he rushed at me. When our blades met, he turned back into smoke and floated through me. I turned around quickly to parry his next attack. Once his attack failed, he repeated the action even faster. Every time the smoke went passed me, my eyes waters and my lungs would fill up with the horrid stuff.

"Keep fighting! Do you even think you're going to win?" Noteworthy barked.

I couldn't respond to his words because I was gagging and coughing on the smoke. Several times I parried his sword and swung at his leg or torso, only to have my blade go right through his gaseous body. I could only describe this fight to be frustrated. My skills were superior to his in every way. It was easy to tell he had not improved as a fighter ever since I last saw him. If it was not for that bloody shard, I would have killed him at least eighteen times.

Valor smacked him away from me and gave me much needed time to rest. I coughed the rest of the smoke out of my chest and then took my first steps towards him. He lifted his hand and a spray of dense smoke flew at me. I closed my eyes and threw Valor at him. The spirit tackled him to the ground and gave him a punch to the face before disappearing. Like every other time he went down, he quickly got back to his feet.

With a roar, I charged at him. I had still some length to go. He did not fade away like I thought he would. He held his sword out as well, waiting to parry me or something. Whatever he was planning, it was a change of tactics. As I ran to him, we both heard the scream of a girl sound over the battle noises. I knew the voice of the scream. It was Amethyst Star.

With a glance, I looked over his shoulder and saw his sister have her hand sliced off by an Assassin. All the lightning she had been creating ceased to be as she was separated from her shard. Noteworthy heard the scream and turned around, leaving his back to me.

"Star! No!" He yelled.

He started to fade away and run after her, but I met him first. My sword stabbed him right in the back and emerged on the other side, right out of his chest. I was close enough to his face to hear every startled breath from him. His hands clutched the end of my blade as he realized he was about to die. His eyes stayed on his sister and they never looked anywhere else.

"I'm done..." He gasped. "Octavia, make sure Star lives....please. She never wanted any of this to happen. W.....Will you let her live?"

"Yes." I told him.

"Thank....you..."

He slid off me blade and onto the frozen snow. The hand with his shard began to twitch madly and the skin on his body began to decompose on the spot. Smoke popped out of his body at places and he soon became a horrid corpse. I whisked the blood off my blade before running over to his sister, who was at the end of Vinyl's rifle.

"Stop, Vinyl!" I yelled. "Don't kill her!"

Vinyl looked at me through the mask. I knew exactly what she was thinking under there. She stubbornly kept the rifle pointed at the girl's head as I ran over. The girl had tears in her eyes and she stared at the barrel of the gun with unblinking eyes.

"Why not?" Vinyl spat.

"Because she is not the enemy." I told her. "She's obviously been forced into this by Twilight and Sunset Shimmer. You've already disarmed her."

"She killed a Brother!" Vinyl growled. "She is a traitor!"

"Let us have one person live through this battle! From now on, only those responsible for this should die."

Vinyl did not seem convinced. "She is responsible..."

"As Den Master, I order you to spare her!" I commanded harshly.

Vinyl slowly lifted her rifle up. "As you wish, Den Master." She added rudely.

Amethyst looked at me for the first time. "Thank you, Octavia."

"Get out of here." I told her coldly.

The girl nodded her head and stood up. She clutched her wrist and glanced once at her chopped off hand before running out of the dwindling battlefield. There were only two battles left. Sunset and Rarity were still fighting while Applejack and Twilight were battling on a large roof.

Vinyl ordered the remaining Assassins to go help the Bearer of Honesty. Her and I ran over to Rarity, who was shooting her pistol at the pyromancer from behind cover.

"Ah, good of you darlings to help." She panted when we reached her. "This woman is no easy task to bring down."

The smell of burning corpses stung my nose. All around us were the unfortunate burnt bodies of Assassins. Sunset's fire was so untamed and wild. It was no wonder that Rarity could not get close to her.

"I have had to summon several pistols. They keep melting from use." The Bearer told us. "And I haven't hit her once!"

"Let me try." Vinyl suggested confidently.

Vinyl stood up and aimed her rifle over the stone cover. A gout of fire went over our heads, igniting Vinyl's hood. My friend crouched back down again and stuck her head in the snow. I could only shake my head at her.

"That didn't work like I planned." Vinyl sighed.

"There must be some way to get to her." I said.

"We need some mobile protection." Rarity suggested. "Maybe I can summon a Royal Guard shield?"

I thought of my fight with Noteworthy. "Perhaps a smoke bomb? A bunch of them. All we need to do is distract her long enough for her to lose her advantage."

I checked my sash to see if I had any. I thought I left the Den with at least two, but neither were there. The only guess I could make was that they had fallen off or Noteworthy used them against me. Rarity quickly summoned three of them in her hand. We all took one and then lobbed them over our cover.

"Is that your best idea?" Sunset asked with confusion.

I risked a glance around the cover and saw that the smoke was between us and the pyromancer. I could not see Sunset and assumed she couldn't see us. I rolled out and rolled again, trying to get in a position to flank her. Vinyl and Rarity went in the other direction. I heard the sound of raging fire and saw a fireball flew through the smoke at me. I threw myself to the snow and watched the fire fly over me.

"Trying to get cute on me isn't going to help." Sunset said.

The smoke cleared and all of us could see each other. Vinyl was reloading her rifle and Rarity had formed what looked like a large Crystal shield in her left arm. Sunset looked at us with a slight grin. Her arms were bare and flames snaked around them. Small flames emitted from the ends of her turquoise eyes.

"Ah, Octavia, nice of you to join us." She chuckled. "And you too, Vinyl. We had such plans for you two."

"Enough!" Rarity yelled. "This is where you die like the fiend you are. This is when all your mistakes come back to haunt you."

"And I thought you'd be the one to encourage speaking." Sunset remarked.

"Well, darling, I'm simply not feeling it today."

Sunset's flames grew larger and she formed a fireball in her palms. She launched the ball at Rarity, who took the blow with her shield. Rarity then charged at the pyromancer with her shield still up. It was an unusual attack method for an Assassin, but Rarity was skilled at adapting to situations.

I followed the Bearer and tried to attack from the side, but a wall of bluish fire rose up before me. I fell backwards trying to stop myself. Sunset kept backing up as Rarity pressed on. The shield took countless streams of fire and small explosions. Chips of Crystal would fly off, but the shield held up. The Bearer could only swing her sword so much as she could not get too close to the pyromancer's flaming body.

Sunset then sent a crawling fire that went underneath the shield caught Rarity's shoes on fire. The Bearer summoned a brick wall up between them before beating the fire out. It was like watching a chess match. Everything had a counter and every counter had another counter.

Vinyl finished reloading and took aim. Sunset noticed this and made a sprout of fire rise right under my friend. My heart fell as I saw the flames shoot up. Vinyl escaped by leaping back, but her rifle was left in the inferno. The wood had caught on fire and the barrel melted beyond use. I saw fire creep up Vinyl's leg and she cried in agony as she put it out.

"Anything else you want to throw at me?" Sunset growled.

I got to my feet and started running around the wall of flame. Wherever I went, it followed. There seemed to be a invisible bubble around them and me. I kept running, trying to find some opening.

Rarity countered an attack from Sunset by bashing her shield into her. The pyromancer hit the snow and tumbled over. The flames around me died just for a second, but it was enough for me to dive through and enter the fight. Not a moment later did wave of fire fly by my head, catching the ends of my hair on flame.

I could tell Sunset was becoming frustrated with us. Her attacks became even more sporadic than before. I had to dodge most of the flames while Rarity took them with her shield. The edges of her robes were all singed and her shoulder cape was on the ground in flames. Upon seeing this, I slipped both my cape and cloak off and fought with only my thin robes and pieces of armor in the cold.

The Bearer took another strong hit and slid back. Sunset followed her attack by expertly sweeping her legs under the shield and tripping Rarity. The pyromancer was about to strike the open Bearer when I sent Valor to kick her over. I tried to follow up by sending Valor crashing from the sky upon her, but Sunset rolled out from beneath my attack. Valor's smash sent a ripple through the ground.

"Get up, Bearer!" I said.

"No need to tell me twice." She said as she jumped to her feet.

A series of throwing knives formed in her hands and she launched them at the Templar. A thick wave of fire intercepted them and knocked them to the ground. Sunset sent a rolling disk of flame at us. We sidestepped out of the way and watched it explode when it struck a building.

"Why do you still fight? Don't you know that you've lost already?" Sunset asked.

"Hm, darling I think you're quite outnumbered." Rarity remarked.

"It doesn't matter what happens to Twilight and me now." Sunset said. "We've already broken the unbreakable Brotherhood. You're nothing but remnants now."

"Do you think we will not persevere?" I said. "We are stronger than that!"

"Is that coming from you?" Sunset chuckled. "You know, for being so strong, they kept you in the dark, all of them. It's so easy to simply blame Twilight and me, but all the other Bearers played their part to make this happen."

"Octavia, don't listen to her." Rarity told me.

"I know." I said, ignoring Rarity. "I know they kept secrets and lied. I know they are false representations of their Elements. They kept their secrets to protect us. If not even the Assassins knew of the Crystal Heart and of ways to dominate the world, then who will? The war with the Templar was never about shards or Elements like one would believe. To us, it is more. It's about keeping Freedom alive and establishing Harmony where there is none. We do not need shards or any forms of magic to accomplish this. Those are only tools for Chaos and Absolute Order. The Assassins may have their Bearers, but they know not to become corrupt with power. All of them except Twilight."

"Are you on my side or not?" Rarity asked me with a frown.

"And yet you Assassins supported the Empresses, who hoarded shards. I have mine as a gift from my former teacher. I'm sure you gained yours by pleasing Celestia in some way."

"Celestia and Luna kept them to make sure cruel men and women would not get their hands on them. You know this, Sunset Shimmer. Empress Celestia blessed you with the shard, but you paid her back with this!" I said loudly.

"I paid her back to only way she deserved. In all her false Wisdom, she never saw the turmoil that raged in her land. She allowed the Templar and Assassins to reek havoc in Equestria. Twilight and I were forced to take action when the Sisters refused to!"

"You killed Luna!" Rarity shouted.

"I made a point!"

"You destroyed the Palace!"

"It was in the way."

"You corrupted Twilight!"

Rarity charged at Sunset with her sword raised. I was taken aback by the speed of the Bearer and followed only after she was far ahead of me. Sunset sent a ball of fire at the Bearer. Rarity deflected the attack with her sword, sending the ball out into the air. I only now realized she had dropped her shield. Both her hands were on the handle of her sword.

Rarity swung and missed the pyromancer. I hit Sunset squarely with a blast from Valor, making her tumble over a couple of bushes. Rarity jumped over the bushes and chased after her. The Templar stood up quickly and ducked under a crazed horizontal swing from the Bearer. Her Crystal sword went deep into a sapling tree where it became stuck in the trunk.

Sunset grinned and threw Rarity away with her fire. The Bearer landed back first on the ground with the front of her robes on fire. I prepared to send Valor out once more, but Sunset already had an attack planned. A crawling flame tripped me up and sent me to the ground. I looked up the next instant. The pyromancer's eyes were dead on the Bearer.

"You've reached your end, Bearer!" She laughed.

A gout of fire went up right below the Bearer, putting her in a raging inferno. I watched with horror as not only her robes, but her skin and hair burned up in the fire. The fire went on and on, the only thing louder than it was Rarity's screams of pain and terror. She had a hand reached out towards her killer. Her skin was melting and I could see the bones be exposed. Ashes floated above her and her arm fell apart into black pieces.

I could not even utter a word. Sunset laughed as she sent up more and more flames on the dying Bearer. The Element of Generosity was exposed now, a gleaming gem in a burning corpse. It rung out with some low tune of mourning. As the flames started to finally die down, the once beautiful and kind woman that was Rarity was nothing more than a charred skeleton and ash.

Another Bearer was lost. My hand tingled with the rage that was building in me this entire time. Rainbow, Pinkie, and now Rarity? With a twitch of my fingers, Valor rushed out of my body and at Sunset. The spirit knocked her into a tree before disappearing. I scrambled to my feet with a quickness I did not know I possessed. The ground all around me was on fire. Fire upon the snow and fire in the bushes and trees. Valor was released again hitting her in similar fashion.

A gout of fire formed under me, but I was too fast. The city of Canterlot was blocked by all the fire that was sprouting around me. I leaped through anything in front of me, ignoring the burn marks on my body. Nothing hurt anymore. Valor knocked her through the tree this time. She was stunned for the moment. I jumped over the broken sapling with my sword ready to stab downward. I connected the attack and stabbed Sunset right in the stomach. I felt the tip of my blade land into the hard ground underneath her.

"You won't kill me that easily!" Sunset said through her teeth.

An explosion happened right where I stood, launching me off of her and into what was left of the snow. To my shock, Sunset stood up with the sword still in her. She pulled it out and then singed her wounds together with her fire. All the while she groaned with pain. Ignoring my own pain, I stood up once more and activated my hidden blades, but another explosion sent my reeling back. When I recovered from this attack, Sunset was already fleeing the street while holding her stomach.

"Come back here!" I yelled.

I was about to give chase, but I then heard Vinyl's moans beside me. I looked to see her clutching her right leg, which was blistered with burns. My hands reached her shoulders and I worriedly looked into her eyes.

"Vinyl, are you alright?" I asked.

"Don't give me that!" She spat. "You go after that bitch! You go and you kill her. Show her what it means to die at an Assassin's hand!"

"But you..."

Vinyl pushed me away. "Forget me! Go!"

With one last glance, I looked upon Rarity's ruined corpse. The sight once again fueled my anger and I was off. I chased the target. I ran with all my might through the street after her. Every wound I felt was nothing compared to my willpower. Sunset may have been fleeing, but there was nothing she could do to escape me.

Every step in the snow gave me strength to carry on the chase. Like any Templar, she chose to stay to the ground. I expertly took to the rooftops of the neighborhood and we went on through the wreckage of the mansions. Don't give up. Finish this fight.

Parts of the buildings collapsed under my feet. I was constantly jumping from one standing stone to another. Hurdle that! Jump over that! Keep going! Never before had I felt such determination. I could not think of anything else. I could not even tell what was in front of me. My body moved before I even recognized the obstacles. Kill Sunset. Kill Sunset.

I ran on the side of a wall and swung from a small flagpole to another mansion. She was still running, every footstep creating a puff of flames. I could see her face becoming paler. She also knew how this was going to end. Like a lame prey, she was just waiting for the predator to strike.

She threw a fireball at me once or twice, but her aim was so off I ignored them completely. She took a tight turn down a tight street, but the move was nothing for me. I jumped from my building to another and kept up right with her. I was now just waiting for the perfect chance.

"I will not be slain like some dog!" Sunset cried.

"Then you'll die like a Templar!" I shouted back.

She stopped and sent a wave of fire at me. I kept running and ran out of her line of flames in no time. I skipped from one rooftop to another while she followed behind with her ceaseless fire. I slipped a throwing knife into my fingers and aimed with care. With precision, I released the knife, watching it fly right into her shoulder.

"Gah!"

With a quick turn of my feet, I turned towards her. I jumped off the ledge of the mansion and extended my blades. This was it. This was the moment I had been waiting for. For Vinyl, for Rainbow, for Pinkie, and for Rarity. This was the end of an insane and false leader. This was the moment that my blades served Justice well.

Upon colliding with her, my blades went into her chest simultaneously. Our eyes met in the fleeting moment of our collision. I knew my pink eyes were cold to her, but hers were filled with tears. I did not care for what she was crying about. They were eyes that told of loss and defeat. After this moment, my body crushed her into the ice. Her mouth was agape slightly and her breathing became heavy and shallow. I forcefully took my blades out from her and watched her chest become crimson.

"It's done." I said.

"Of course it is..." She chuckled.

"Why?" I asked. "That's the only question I wish to ask you.

She tilted her head. "Such a broad question. Almost unanswerable. I tell you why. It's because Twilight and I know that when war exists, so does Chaos. We only wished to end Chaos and establish Order. I never believed in Harmony and I was right. Harmony never existed. The Creed of Harmony that Twilight was planning on to establish would never work. Harmony can only exists if people are willing to have Harmony within themselves. If even the Bearers can't accomplish this, then why would any normal sod?"

"You don't know that!"

"I do. You just deny the evidence before you. Twilight and I were trying to bring down these organizations to unify them. She did so well with the Assassins. You killed so many Templar in her name. It was just an elimination game. Silverstar, Sir Rich, and others were just radical Templar that needed to be destroyed. I tried my best with Spitfire. Have her be my alley, but she went too far with the Templar. I sent her on a suicide mission and you helped nicely. We pushed the Templar down, but the Brotherhood remained strong. I tried to ruin you all. I sent the attack on Ponyville, but even that did not work. Twilight had to start ruining you from the inside. I'm sure you know the rest."

"All of this just to create peace?"

"Yes. That is the purpose of war, is it not? War is nothing more than an argument. You either convince the other of your point or you forfeit. If both are stubborn and refuse to see the other side, the argument or war continues. End the argument, doesn't matter who wins, and peace follows. The Templar and Assassins is a war that won't end unless someone like me comes along. They may not praise my name in the future, but they will remember it. I made a difference in this world and it will benefit the future. So I'll die now, but my legacy will live on."

"No, your legacy ends here. None will remember you in any good light."

"As you wish. You are the survivor, you write the history. Depict me in your worse way." She smiled.

"Then I'll just write you like how you are before me: weak and foolish. I don't need to change anything. Your true nature gives me what I already need."

"May you die in Tartarus." She chuckled weakly.

Her head tilted back and her last breath left her. Her turquoise eyes looked up at the cloudy sky unblinking. I felt like leaving her in this state, but I remembered what the Bearers often did with their slain targets. One must honor the dead. With a sigh, I crouched beside her and closed her eyes with my hand.

"And may you rest in peace, Sunset Shimmer."

~

Comments

[badninja]

So now Rarity and Sunset Shimmer are dead now to deal with Twilight. The real question is who will be next to die?

[Gapeagle]

6761414 Yes. Exactly this. Only, it's not Quan Chi, it's Ermac.

"We are many, you are but one."

6761886 "I think we all know."

"I went out in THE. WORST. POSSIBLE. WAY!"

"You sure? Death by a literal thousand cuts is pretty bad."

"I'm still falling!!!"

[Amethyst Blade]

6761948 Nice chapter...

Time like this is when I think of Echonarch Metamage. The fighting style created for musician with weak magic...Those who are masters can wipe the floor with any of these bearers and the empresses themselves.

[Gapeagle]

6762402 "Octavia was an expert in her craft. She was not graceful or fancy by any means. It was her willpower that made her so strong."

"I'm sure Octy could have beaten all of us without the shard. Sometimes ya get too caught up with your magic and lose all that hard training."

"Octavia beat me? Yeah right!"

"She probably would have beaten me..."

[Amethyst Blade]

6762999 Probably...but then again...She is an Assassin. She did not spend years of her life fighting in a gladiator pit and being kept from dying by foul dark magic then being retrained by the creator of said fighting style once managed to escape through the sacrifice of a dear friend.

[Iron Comet]

Dammit, I knew Rarity would go, but not like that.