Episode 214: Second Half Of Trixie: Magic Star
Pony POV Series
My Little Pony Fanfiction
Magic Star
My name is Magic Star of Paradise Estate. I'm an Earth Pony. My special talent is making magic wands. Some think I can't use my own magic wands, or my cutie mark is a 'mistake' since I'm not a unicorn. The sentiment 'unicorn magic is the only magic' makes me bristle. Unicorns are not the only ponies who can do spells, the sooner we realize that, the better for everyone.
Everyone knows the first 'General' Firefly, and our other friends Applejack, Twilight, Posey, Surprise, even Glory and Sparkler, but as time marched on, most of the rest of us seemed to have been forgotten.
The Baby Ponies, Paradise, Lofty, Heart Throb, the Big Brother Ponies, Truly, Sundance, Wind Whistler, Cherries Jubilee, Gingerbread, Lickety Split, Mimic, Buttons, Fizzy, Gusty, Galaxy, Moon Dancer, Bowtie and Ribbon, Bubbles, Shady, Sweet Stuff, Ember...and so many more of us. We were truly a HERD, there was none of us who were better than the rest.
I helped train my friends for the Pony Olympics, the only thing more determined than some of the athletes was Shady's focus on putting herself down.
North Star, me, and Paradise were part of the rescue party for Gusty Lickety-Split and Heart Throb were kidnapped by the Raptorians to create a magic cloak from their manes (thank goodness being so near the Rainbow of Light for so long let their manes grow back in under a minute).
I was also organized the search team (with Shady and Gusty that time, Gusty at the time just HAD to say how Shady was 'bad luck') for Spike and Baby Lickety Split when the filly ran away from home, just in time for the Smooze to invade. By good luck, I had knowledge about the blob and was able to warn the others for what good it did.
I was at Flutter Valley when Megan and us asked the Flutter Ponies to end their isolation to stop the Smooze from ending all life in Ponyland.
I sadly held the 'honor' of being among the first ponies captured by Grogar's raid on Dream Valley, intended to be part of his 'sacrifice' to keep himself and his city in the real world and us to take its place in the shadow world. I and my fellow prisoners escaped only to be captured again.
When a thoughtless use of a wish coin caused a horrible drought (I won't say who), I was there with Megan, Galaxy, Wind Whistler, Gingerbread, Fizzy, Heart Throb, and Spike at Crimson Canyon to try and find a way to reverse the wish by speaking with their none too friendly or cheerful original owner, the troll Niblick.
I was among the ponies invited to attend a party at a royal castle that turned out to be an lure by a usurper to have some of the baby ponies made into pets for her equally horrid daughter. But we helped get the REAL rulers back on the throne, so that worked out.
The good-hearted but desperate shape shifter who pretended to be a ghost at Paradise Estate, the giant puppy, a squire who wanted to become a knight by slaying Spike (he actually was a good kid), when our property became alive turned us thanks to magic paint, and of course...our youth being stolen by that witch Somnambula.
While our big adventures created some powerful memories and bonds with my friends I'd never want to lose, they weren't what made me HAPPY, I'm not Firefly. I'm sorry Megan never got to see those earlier times.
Once upon a time, Baby Blossom was watching Lofty fly, and wished to fly herself. I used my magic and gave her wings for one night, and up in the sky she played with the constellations and the Milky Way, who welcomed her and were happy to play with her in turn (the Milky Way can serve chocolate milk if you ever ask it nicely). The night eventually ended and she flew back to her crib and her wings vanished and she fell asleep dreaming of the evening in the night sky I'd given her.
I did that a lot, spotting foals and other ponies with special wishes in their hearts my wand could grant. It wasn't part of my talent. It's what I chose to do.
Then there was that time Baby Half-Note and Baby Shady were putting on a dance recital, but forgot how to turn on the record player. I was in the front row, and we could have simply helped them with that, but I saw a chance to make things better for their little show.
Behind the curtain, I used my wand to summon a group of friendly stars called the Star Light Band, who were perfectly happy to perform with symbols, violins and drums. Baby Half Note and Baby Shady's performance got the other ponies dance.
At the end of the show, after Baby Half Note got a bouquet of roses, she gave me the flowers, saying I was the real star of the show even if all I had gone was bring in some emergency replacement music.
I'd say I and the stars have always gotten along well.
Those were the times that made me smile the most.
Sadly...I put so much of my own magic into my wand, it wasn't something I could easily recreate...it was destroyed when Tirek's army first raid on Dream Valley, and no, I don't mean the one that inspired Firefly to discover the rainbow and Megan.
I heard ponies whisper when they thought I couldn't hear, "Poor Magic Star, her special talent is useless to herself now." I just took it and carried on.
You've heard of all those adventures I mentioned before, they're all common knowledge by now. But ...there's one 'adventure' you haven't heard about. It would be the last great adventure for Ponyland all of us Paradise Ponies would be together for. Except it wasn't an adventure...it was a war.
This was the war that brought the Age of Myths to a close, and began the Age Of Wonders.
At the time, we were thinking this war could be the end of us.
"How many wicked witches?" Wind Whistler had asked when Lofty first spotted them.
"All of them."
"A REAL estimate please."
"I'm not exaggerating!"
Hydia. That old hag had called in every witch and warlock in her rotten family tree and bore down on us, wanting to see us obliterated.
They vowed to reduce any survivors to mindless animals, so all any would remembers ponies as was as dumb beasts of burden. Us being more would become less than a fairytale.
After we had spent so many years foiling her plans at every turn, I think we'd finally driven her to the point that she swallowed her pride and admitted that she couldn't beat us herself.
Hydia's sister the witch Eureka, who would feed victims till they were on the verge of bursting, and then cooked them (Reeka's role model).
Her grandmother, the ancient witch Alexis, who at her prime had made entire kingdoms tremble.
Her niece Lucracia, legendary for her cursed potions and who turned princesses into frogs rather than princes.
They also included their distant relatives Beezen (the man who sold us that magic paint) and of course, ugh, Somnambula.
And countless other members of their extended we had never even heard of until now.
"You better be afraid of the great Ashley!" Cheerfully said a little girl in a red dress with an expression that didn't belong on any child.
Hydia had even called in her father, a notorious warlock named Vile, who apparently ruled some other country with an iron fist were 'evil always wins' (don't worry, by the Age of Wonders he'd finally met his end). He spent half the war nagging Hydia about 'losing to a bunch of ponies' so many times. Though apparently Alexis had told her son to let Hydia call the shots, much to his chagrin. He also brought with him Hydia's sister named Repulsa and brother, a lich named Revolto.
The world was a big place, and there plenty of witches trying their hardest to make it miserable, and as I said, Hydia had called on her rotten family tree and they answered. You never want to see a horizon at dawn with wicked witches standing shoulder to shoulder.
Hydia and her daughters were riding on top of Ahgg, her pet giant Cyclopes spider and loyal minion.
The witches also brought with them a big stone coffin that they seemed more scared of than we were.
And they weren't alone.
The witches had bought, charmed, and outright bullied several goblins to act as cannon fodder. They had also 'recruited' the gizmonk clan as engineers, promising half the little monkeys us ponies as lab animals and slave labor, and the other half of the gizmonks were brought into service at wand-point.
After the war, the Gizmonks at Tambelon's next appearance swore themselves to Grogar, becoming loyal citizens of Tambelon, working as its scientists and engineers along with the loyalist portion of the Troggles and the donkeys. The Gizmonks said Grogar was the only one who ever had appreciate their mechanical marvels. How Grogar treated them was a step up from the witches.
But we had friends of own. Many friends. Our pegasi went off in every direction to get help, braving literally wicked weather.
We got what help we could. The Crabnasties on the other side of the lake of Dream Valley, with the Grundles and their king Hugo willing to ride on top of the near indestructible crab police.
We also had some former enemies to help, like The Mountain King (no, not king of the mountain, he's a mountain whose king) sent Crunch along with his rock monsters to return the favor he owed us for giving Crunch emotions.
We also had a surprise ally in the form of the Weather Witch, both her name and title, she was not a wicked witch even if she could be made cross if friends forgot her birthday. Her magic was everything you'd think it was, she cleared the skies for us and proved to be better at weather magic than any of the witches on Hydia's side. She'd been our friend for years actually, funny how the one of the few GOOD witches we'd met got left out of the history books. I admittedly felt quite guilty at the look on Draggle's face when she saw the good witch…I admit it, we'd made a big mistake in not teaching that poor witch good magic.
Katrina and Rep also came to our aid. Katrina may have kicked her Witch Weed habit, but she was still a giant cat woman with razor sharp claws and some minor magic, and Rep was still a fairly powerful shapeshifter.
Porcina reluctantly asked us to sacrifice our manes again to create her a new magic cloak. Yes, the situation was THAT drastic. Sadly, her magic mirror had been 'lost' (sound familiar?) so she couldn't just turn all the witches into glass statues, but she still had some respectable magic of her own with the cape enhancing her spells.
Pluma and her feathered family of shape shifters also came to our aid.
And of course...the flutter ponies...the seaponies WANTED to help, but this wasn't a sea battle.
The elf Garth who was now a brave knight who had indeed now slain a dragon (thanks to a bastille and a narrow passage) who had tried to take his adopted kingdom's castle for its own. And the other elfen and human kingdoms (including King 'Scorpan') we had made friends with, but much of this help was far away. The witches weren't going to politely wait.
We did have one member of our family, by species or not, arrive to help us though.
It had been years since we had seen Megan on the human side of the rainbow, years had come and gone, she and her siblings weren't children anymore, Megan was a woman. And she'd brought along a shotgun. It scared me more than the witches.
We had many friends, but there was a reason just one of these witches had been enough to turn small kingdoms into history until they met the unmovable ponies.
Wind Whistler theorized that it was because ponies ran on primarily on positive emotions, something the witches generally did not comprehend at all, but who knows.
This was also, by the way, the war that we collectively gave Firefly the rank of 'General' (mostly so she could give orders and be properly respected by the Elf and Human commanders), she was the first General Firefly.
A young witch (more like a little girl) who flew on a vacuum cleaner approached us carrying a white flag. "Name's Maple The Wicked Witch . . ." She surly. "Got a message for you. Give up, or else."
"You don't have to be wicked." Megan replied. "Why don't you use your magic to help others?"
Maple looked like Megan had asked her to eat frogs (do witches do that? Whatever was something you just didn't do because it was gross and weird), and flew off back to the gigantic coven of witches.
No. We didn't hole up inside Dream Castle. We stayed at Paradise Estate. I know that sound crazy, not moving into the fortified castle, and instead staying at the pretty pink estate when you have an army of witches marches down on you.
But the thing is? We'd gotten kinda sick of being overwhelmed by the next big nasty. Danny gave us the suggestion after a video game he played where Count Dracula kept coming back before he was supposed to. We'd had years to prepare if Grogar chose to make a sudden of sync visit.
The trees were defenders unto themselves thanks to the Moochick, the green grass hid plenty of surprises, and we'd built towers and walls around the place as 'herd construction projects' with help of the Big Brother Ponies. And we were more than ready to welcome an army of nasties coming to turn us into glue.
Incidentally, one of the evildoers that Hydia had called in was her 'ex-boyfriend' Krastos the Glue Maker. Laugh now, but to us he was basically a serial killer.
I don't think it was coincidence that Draggle and Reeka took point with the goblins.
The battle was complete bedlam.
The goblins right after facing the crab nasties turned tail and ran...
"Grunts are worthless!" Vile shouted.
The first goblin to make it back got turned into a spoon by Ashley. "The enemy is that way," she pointed. None of the goblins retreated after that.
One of Hydia's family summoned a swarm of countless rats to devour us. We unleashed a giant wheel of cheese that rolled away from the Estate, the swarm of rats following behind it in hot pursuit.
Another member of their family created an indestructible sand monster that reshaped itself no matter how many times we blew it apart, until Porcina turned it into glass.
The flutterponies tore the swarm of crows and ravens they summoned to pieces with the power of Utter Flutter.
Gizmonk built golems given life by Beezen charged through, and lifted Paradise Estate off its foundations, intending to flip it over. Then Surprise ticked them with a feather under their arm pits, making the golems laugh an hug themselves. The golems had just enough time to look up and say "Uh-oh," before the Estate fell on them.
Maple tried to drop bombs on us and got splattered by the Baby Ponies' ice-cream catapult, a gift from the gnome brothers.
The Gizmonk built platforms to carry the witches so they could focus on their spells, in a great bit of irony, it was Gusty and Crunch together who destroyed them.
Our unicorns teleport all over the Estate and the battle field, being everywhere at once and nowhere.
Ashley then used her magic to magically summon forth dragons, lava demons, and ice-orks to do the witches' fighting for them.
"We're sorry, but we're bound by her wicked contract to do what she means at what she says to the best of our ability because she summoned us, whether we like it or not." G'nash apologized as he tried to freeze Buttons solid. The dragons on the other hoof were more than happy to 'help.'
Our towers and walls took a beating from the combined might of fire and ice, and when the war was over it was less trouble simply to clear them away and start from scratch.
When one of the dragons tried to eat Molly after smashing it's head and neck through a wall, elfy Garth again earned the right to call himself a 'dragon slayer.'
Little Ashley boasted atop her own dragon. "I'm going to turn your baby ponies into stuff animals with the 'magic' of taxidermy!"
Megan shouted it first. "Take down Ashley! I spoke with Moochick! Her contracts only apply to her! It'll free her summons!"
Katrina nodded. "Rep, shall we?" she asked her husband (yes, we attended her wedding).
"Yes dear."
Rep then leapt up into the air, turning into an Armadillo. Katrina then hit him with a tennis racket (don't worry, it didn't hurt him). Ashley used a giant spoon (formally a goblin) to bat him back. Katrina bat him back, but this time, he transformed midair.
Ashley's eyes widened right before getting a high speed headbutt from a ram right to the jaw, knocking her off her dragon mount to the hard ground far below. The dragon was kept off center by the pegasi.
"How was that, Katrina?" Rep asked, flying back as a bird.
"Purrrrfect darling," our cat woman friend replied, kissing her husband. And the husband and wife fastball special would definitely be something we wouldn't forget. Twilight thought it'd make something fun to tell the kids about.
"And that bed time story was passed down our family for generations," Starlight Sparkle told little Shining.
"Wow! Do you think I can do that someday too momma?"
Starlight giggled. "Yes, I'm certain there will come a day when you and your wife defeat an evil pony by throwing one of you at them."
"Yay!"
'I hope he knows I was being sarcastic...'
"Maybe Grandma Syrup is right, and our family thinking bad is the best isn't so hot," Maple said and tried to fly away. Vile turned her to stone in mid-air.
"No deserters!"
Maple was saved and restored by the Weather Witch before she could shatter on the ground. "Auntie Syrup was always was a wise witch."
The Ice-Orcs and Lava-Demons sadly were teleported back to where they were summoned from, thankfully so were the dragons.
"Megan are you currently emotionally well?" Wind Whistler whispered.
"No I'm not. Come on, this fight is far from over."
Ahgg ended up in a fight with Pluma, who'd taken the shape of a giant bear and wrestled with him. She then smirked and shrunk down. When the big spider looked down, he found a jet of skunk spray going up his nose. Almost feel sorry for the big brute.
The rainbow of light swept away hordes of more summoned or created monsters by Hydia.
Alexis brought down tornados and earthquakes and floods and meteor storms to try and turn Paradise Estate into a crater. The Weather Witch, the pegasi, and Earth Ponies, had their hands and hooves full.
Megan's shotgun found its mark plenty of times too on Hydia's relatives. I think it seriously took them off guard Megan had been clever enough to come equipped with silver rounds, each engraved with a cross on one side and a smile on the other for good measure. One of them, named the 'Dust Witch' who fed on negatives emotions might have died from fright I think when she realized it.
Somnambula, still weak from last time we met, spent most of the battle on the sidelines feeding off of whoever she could get her claws on, sometimes even picking off deserters, until she become her young, powerful self again and began causing us trouble, reminding us that for a feeble old hag she was probably one of the strongest witches on Hydia's side.
Ironically, Slugger and the other Big Brother Ponies were more than willing to put her in her place again...after dealing with every trick the old witch had up her sleeves and needing bailed out by us a few times. In the end, Pluma used Somnambula's vanity against her by distracting her in the form of her bird coming back, begging her for forgiveness, giving Slugger the chance to use her crystal as a baseball. I don't know how, but that slimy witch managed to sneak away in all the war and escape alive despite being reverted back to an old hag.
Vile's own version of the Smooze tried to suck all the magic out of our unicorns and nearly succeeded until the icecream catapult froze it solid and we shattered it, releasing our magic back to us.
Revolto almost reduced to the crabnasties to boiled lobster with his fireballs, while Rita turned the grundles into dim-witted monkeys.
Glory made herself a very fast distraction on her roller skates to the nasty pair, and Mimic literally brought the house down on the wicked witch Rita, while Gusty sent Rito flying and Fizzy trapped him in a magic proof bubble bubble of her own invention. Then Megan's rainbow of light finished the undead bully off and restored the Grundles.
Vile transformed into a towering giant. "You may have defeated my children, but now it's daddy's turn!"
I'll give him this, he may have been a tyrannical monster, but Vile did not fall easily.
He actually SURVIVED getting nailed by the Rainbow of Light, but it still destroyed his staff and knocked him on his butt and brought him back down to normal size (and burned him pretty dang bad). He didn't take it very well.
"That's it! I've had it to with all of you! I'm going back to my own country were evil rules supreme and the bad guys always win! " he yelled, throwing a temper tantrum and teleporting back home in a huff. He forgot how many ponies there would be itching to take him out while he was recovering from his wounds. Which our allies had made certain knew he was taking part in a gigantic battle he'd likely return wounded from.
Alexis sighed. "And that, Hydia, is why I put you in charge, your father isn't used to set backs."
It went on like this for days, maybe longer, it was all a blur, us holding on against the army of witches on our door step determined to destroy us, both sides slowly losing numbers and resources. But it gave us time, time for our allied kingdoms' forces to show up, including their own court wizards who were decidedly GOOD wizards, began to tip the balance in our favor.
We had the witches back into a corner, they were on the run! There was just one problem. The witches had no intention of retreating. They had every intention of seeing us destroyed, or them destroyed first.
The court wizards of our human and elf allies focused on keeping them from summon some ancient spirit of destruction that would destroy everything nearby if unleashed. Yes. We had driven the witches to desperate indeed.
The Moochick even decided to step onto the field himself, and fought Hydia magician to magician.
Let this be said, Moochick might be foolish at times, but he is the strongest white magician to ever live.
"You can never win, Hydia!" he announced as light magic collided with dark magic, restoring to normal Hydia's monsters as fast as she could summon or make them, matching her move for move. "Maybe we should call this a day and you can turn over a new leaf!"
Several witches finally took over so Hydia could help her clan with whatever they were doing. None were killed (Moochick merely destroyed their wands and sent them to a tropical island paradise), thankfully, but they barely stood a chance against him.
The remaining members of the witch family meanwhile...gathered around the creepy stone coffin they had set behind their minds, and them stayed as far away from as possible. They looked terrified. Alexis raised her magic staff, and the rest of the witches gathered did the same. One witch was holding two staffs, (one was Ashley's wand).
They stabbed the blunt ends of their wands into the edges of the sarcophagus' cover, the runes on it began to glow. The witches, including Alexis, ran from the sarcophagus, like Tirek himself had risen from the dead and wanted an unhappy word with them, leaving their wands behind.
The sky darkened even though the Weather Witch was giving us clear skies on our side. The coffin rumbled. Then the land began to quake. The runes on the coffin began to glow brighter and brighter.
One of the human court magicians, called White Beard, said, "I didn't think the witch were truly THAT desperate, I wondered if the ones trying to summon the spirit of destruction were just a distraction."
Then the runes went completely black, and the top of the sarcophagus slightly opened. Then a second later it was blown right off landing a mile away (completely intact).
=Ico OST - Queen=
A slender, pale feminine white hand gripped the edge of the sarcophagus, shadow spread out from the sarcophagus like overflowing water. A figured that might have once been human stiffly rose, her skin as pale as marble. her rope and hair both as black and twisting as shadow, they might have in fact been nothing but shadows. her white face was beautiful, but completely devoid of emotion.
"Who is that?" Molly whispered besides me.
I don't know she heard her or not, but her voice boomed across the battle field.
"I. am Lilith. The True Witch Queen. The First Witch."
Shadows came to life around her, and began marching as a half-hazard army.
The rest of the witch clan ran as if their lives depended on it.
And she rose. And continued to rise, a towering shadow over everything, the shadows under her great shadow coming to life to do her bidding. Hydia's sister wasn't fast enough, and her body turned to dust as her life-force was sucked up by her ancestor as White Beard explained to me later.
And in one moment. It had become pure survival. Not just for us, but for the entire planet.
Unicorns, white wizards, pegasi, earth ponies, the flutterponies, Megan's rainbow of light, all directing our strength to drive away this darkness given hunger, but all were doing was holding back the tide.
To Draggles shock, she was saved from sharing her aunt's fate at the very last second by Firefly. The young witch took a few moments to comprehend what just happened. "You...you saved me?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I?"
"I'm the bad guy!"
"So was half our friends! Ponies FORGIVE, it's what we do!"
Draggle, I think for the first time in her life had actually been shown genuine compassion.
"Lilith, the Witch Queen, will take no prisoners," the Moochick explained sadly. "What is not made a shadow to serve her, or turned to stone to amuse her, is devoured to prolong her life. I never imagined Hydia would become so desperate, or so foolish, as to unleash her back into the world."
And that was when I made my decision. It occurred to me and was made in a flash. We might beat Lilith, but by then, we'd be so worn out that the witch family would have no trouble finishing us off. I think that might have been their real plan all along, unless they played to die with the rest of the world.
"Whizzer," I said to my trusting pegasi herd mate. "I need your help with something very important."
She didn't ask too many question, Whizzer was always open and trusting like that. She talked as fast as she flew, and I needed that more than ever now. Firefly was needed here, but Whizzer's name wasn't for nothing.
She took me right where I told her to take me after I grab some magic bags I had gotten from the Moochick some years before.
I only told the others were were off to 'get help,' like Firefly all those years before.
"MagicStar?Whereisthis?" She asked him when we landed where I directed her to the top of a fortress sized tree.
"This is where Tirek's castle once stood," I answered simply.
"What?Whytheheckdowewanttobehere?"
"Because this is where I need to be, and this is the one place that has the raw material I need," I answer, keeping my voice and calm and even as I'm sweating bullets.
I 'set up shop' on the highest part of the tree, and empty out my magic saddlebags, full of lab equipment I'd pilfered from the city of Tambelon's last visit. Grogar might have been evil but that doesn't mean his things couldn't be used for good.
I found seven fruits within the gigantic trees. I could sense there was something different about them, and powerful. Wish I had brought others with me, like Applejack, Bubbles, Moondancer, or others infected by Tirek's rainbow of darkness, this might have made this easier.
I used what magical equipment I had. I never needed a unicorn for my special talent and I wouldn't need one now.
I found a crystal shard inside each fruit instead of a pit. I had Whizzer as my lab assistant, she was hyperactive but not klutzy. I found the jewels shards fit together perfectly into a single gem. Using the enchantments I knew along with my own earth pony magic enhanced with Grogar's equipment, I began to smelt the Mithral I had brought.
Really wish I had brought Megan or the Moochick. Or heck, even Draggle (though with her having the whole 'crisis of faith' thing at the moment, this may have been too tempting). This is was insane. But the whole world had gone crazy. This was the ultimate test of my special talent. And I was on my own.
Was this just my fantasy? Did I have the courage for this? To reach this desire? I shuddered as I felt empathy for all my friends struggling for their lives. Am I even doing this for the right reasons? Did I have the magic? This was my choice of my own free will.
"Whizzer. Stand back."
"MagicStarwhatareyoudoing?"
"Do you trust me?"
"Iaskedfirst."
"I'm trying to save everyone. Do you trust me?"
"...Yes."
"Then stand back."
This power. Why was there a rainbow of light, and a rainbow of darkness? Why should there be two of them? Where they part of a whole? Weren't wholes supposed to WORK TOGETHER? The ying-yang masters in the books Megan brought said that evil WASN'T part of any balance, evil by its nature was something that DISRUPTED balance. Counterparts were something that complimented each other. So did these two rainbow compliment each other? Was it Tirek who was evil? Not his rainbow?
This would either work, or turn me into a giant dragon monster...At least I'd be a giant dragon monster opposed to the Witch Queen... I hope.
I shaped the jewel into the mithril necklace, which bonded to it like you bound to your own body. And I call upon my magic within, flowing through the great tree that was once Tirek's fortress, a storm forming over our heads. It felt like the fury of nature itself was watching me do this...
And everything went white.
I saw...something...a pony with wings and a unicorn horn...next to a snake with arms and legs and horns.... I saw them plant something...and a great crystal tree rose up...from which two fruits were seen...
Something appeared in front of me, an Earth Pony with what looked like broken legs. But he was much more than that, I could feel it. "Little Pony, Do You Fear For Your Friends?"
"Yes…"
"Will You Let That Fear Motivate Or Destroy You?"
"...Motivate me...I'll save the all...I swear it…"
He smiled. "As Empathy Binds Friends, So Does Fear. Then Take The Reigns Of Nature's Fury And Do As You Will."
Then I was back on top of the tree. I looked down at my creation. Or maybe I was just the surrogate mother. It was a golden color, with a swirling rainbow jewel with seven facets at its center, perched above it, was the shape of a pony with wings and horn.
"Magic Star? What is that?" Whizzer spoke, uncharacteristically slowly.
"Hope, I hope." I raised it up. I think of my vision, the shapes I saw, and a word unknown and unbidden comes to my mind. "I name you, the Alicorn Amulet."
It was no one else's risk to take, I place the Amulet around my neck.
I understand how to make fantasy into reality.
I have the courage to face danger for my friends.
I have the desire to see them safe.
I feel their fear, hope and desperation as my own.
I see my choices all before me.
I understand myself.
I feel the magic within me.
"Whizzer." I said turning to her. My amulet sparkled, and a pair of wings like those of a Flutterpony appeared on my back. "Let's go."
I move faster than the four winds, carrying Whizzer along with me!
-Grandia II -Battle Ver. 4-
I zoom back to Paradise Estate, my friends and our allies fighting the army of shadows.
"EVERYPONY! BELIEVE!" I shouted like royalty from their perch as I flew towards them, leaving a rainbow circle of light behind me.
The Witch Queen looked up at me. "You dare to challenge the First Witch child?"
I ignore her.
She tries to seize the Alicorn Amulet from me with her magic, but it doesn't even budge. She could behead me and this Amulet wasn't coming off unless I wished it so.
Firefly finds herself cornered by winged shadows, at my command, Firefly finds herself triplets, all sharing the same personality and goals, the three Fireflies now overwhelm the winged shadows.
A shadow the size of a giant slams down on Applejack and Sun Dance, they hold back with all their strength but it isn't enough. With a sparkle they become Big Brother Ponies and now DO have the strength to knock the giant on its rear. I remember to change them back.
The Witch Queen actually showed a hint of irritation. "Where did you get such power?"
I don't feel like answering her.
Moochick...he smiled at me and nodded. "Together at last…"
'Baby' Half-Note (now an adult mare after all these years) uses her music to try and knock back the beasts with help from Surprise, but they aren't enough hooves to go around. I don't give them extra hooves, but I give them the ability to wield ten instruments at once, a twenty instrument orchestra created more than enough magic music to blow the shadow beasts away from the main gates.
Draggle was using a club to beat back shadows and keep them from the actual baby ponies (I was happy to see it). "This is just too far! I didn't want to destroy the world!" With a sparkle, she had one of my magic wands, which she used to erase the shadows with a light spell.
"Finally kept our promise!" I called to her with a smile. She smiled back.
The Fireflies highhoofed each other and became one pony again, their awareness and memories peacefully merging back together.
I made the horn of one shadow beasts so large it 'weighted' itself down so to speak, or whatever spectral mass black magic born shadows have. I made Danny metal baseball bat (already enchanted by me) the size of a rhino at the last moment, letting him smash it flat.
With a sparkle I restored Truly, Cheeries Jubilee, and Posey from the stone the Witch Queen had turn them into.
The Queen finally showed the first real emotion she had since she had been unleashed other than smug arrogance. "Little pony...you are beginning to frustrate me."
The silence I returned with was the best insult I could have given her!
- Live-A-Live- 'Demon King Odio' -
Twilight gasped, "Magic Star! Those spells are impossible!"
"Don't question good luck right now!" Cotton Candy said.
"Nothing is impossible when you believe in the power of the rainbow," I said, giving a smile to Megan.
The Witch Queen sent a shockwave of shadow directly at me, trying to turn me to stone. Whizzer flew right in front of me, I teleport us both out of the way.
"It does not matter how much power you gain. You could drop the sun itself on me and it would not be my end. My existence and my magic is as deep and dark as the abyss. You only delay the inevitable."
The queen grew larger, she spawned more and more shadows. She was right. No matter how many spells I used, I wasn't attacking the source.
And I could sense it now. She wasn't exaggerating, her soul was like an abyss, vast and empty. And at the same time her body filled with black magic, her body having practically become black magic itself! And her reserves were unimaginable.
And I have an idea. It's even more insane than the idea I already had today. Might as well go for broke.
Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.
"Megan, get ready to use the rainbow of light on her. You'll know when!"
"The rainbow of light itself is not enough to destroy me. I am eternal."
"Maybe I need to cut you down to size!"
I dove head first into Lilith.
"MAGIC STAR!" I heard ALL OF my friends shout my name.
Blackness surrounded me everywhere. Blackness wishes to consume me, turn me to stone, make me but a thing of black magic. I feel it invading, forcing its way into me from every opening in my body.
"You want to give me your black magic?" I shout in the infinite nothingness that was Lilith. "I'LL TAKE ALL OF IT!"
The darkness flowed like a whirlpool as the Alicorn Amulet did as I commanded. Pull it all inward, all towards me. All towards the Alicorn Amulet.
"Impossible, I AM evil magic, you can't possibly... "
The infinite black magic was pulled further and further into the Alicorn Amulet pulled deeper and deeper, faster and faster, more and more! Hate! Anger! Greed! Fear! The spirits of dark magic itself. I heard them wail!
I screamed too.
"Stop! You can't do that! My magic is me! You're taking away parts of me!"
It went on forever and ever, for eternity it seemed, so much black magic. So much rage, so much spite, so much avarice, so much terror! So thick I could taste it! It could taste me. I drew it all in, into the Alicorn Amulet.
"Stop...please...I don't want to die...not again…"
The black magic. It was flooding me!
"I am the Great Dark One! The spirits of dark magic walk with me! Anger gives me life! Hate gives me my mind! Despair gives me form! I who sacrifice all in the name of power! I cannot vanish!"
After forever and a night, day broke inside the black nightmare. And white light shined.
The light! It was bright! Too bright! Too much light! Agh! It is the Rainbow of Light! It is piercing the darkness! It is strike against the darkness! This is it! Megan is doing it! Megan! For all you're worth! I feel the rainbow fill the now emptied out shell of darkness.
And I felt the rainbow around me...somehow feeling so familiar.
My eyes slowly adjusted. I heard my friends calling to me. My inside felt so heavy.
I see Lilith...or rather what's left of her... her hands and face are still silky white as snow...but she's bald now...and...her torso and trunk are literally a skeleton. She is barely able to push herself up. Wind blows through her rib cage as she breaths. Her face one of shock and bewilderment.
"I...am the Witch Queen...I am Lilith...I am . . the first of all witches...I can't die...I won't die...even if I my body crumbles...my shadow will endure...even if it takes me thousands of years...I will return! As long as there is light, there must always be shadow!"
She broke apart like a sculpture made of cane sugar, no blood, no insides, like an alabaster statue, she crumbles away. Her shadow, the last part to vanish, faded away to nothing, scattering like a puff of smoke.
"...Then our light will always shine brighter," I heard Twilight say.
I felt Whizzer and Gusty slowly help me up. I looked down at the Alicorn Amulet. Where it had been gold, now it was a dark almost gray silver. And instead of a rainbow pattern, it was blood red. Even the Alicorn symbol itself seemed intimidating somehow. But it felt just as powerful as before, maybe. It was light as a feather before, now it felt, heavy. Before it was warm, now it was as cold as winter. I feel it pulse with a force all its own.
"Magic Star, what happened to your necklace?" Gusty asked.
They want to take it from you. "You can't have it! It's mine! I made it! So it's mine! The Alicorn Amulet belongs to me!" I stare at the greedy little thief.
"Wha-?!" She trots back looking scared, good. "Star! I didn't mean anything like that! But it's all changed from how it looked before! Is it supposed to do that?"
The unicorn is looking down on you, Earth Pony. "What's the matter?! I thought unicorns were supposed to know everything about magic! I'm just a dumb earth pony right?! What can -I- know about magic?!"
"Magicstarhaveyougonelocointhecoco?"
"Get away from me you pest!" Whizzer was crying. Good.
Mimic trotted forward. "Magic Star, I know how dangerous magic items can be. Something is wrong!"
"What does a slave to her own magic horseshoes know? You can't even lose them without dying! You think you're so special! Your special talent and magic horseshoes OTHERS made gives you everything while I've made to MAKE and CREATE every magic I use with my own hooves! You never worked for anything you have!"
They're all looking at you now, they're all against you, they all want the me for themselves, they all feel jealous of you, you should make them fear you so they won't dare raise their heads against you.
"Stay back! Don't any of you dare come any closer! Thieves! Backstabbers! You need to be taught a lesson!"
"MAGIC STAR! STOP! YOU ARE NOT YOURSELF! THESE ARE NOT YOUR WORDS!" The Moochick's own voice boomed with so much force it rattled my brain.
Heart Throb fluttered next to Gusty. "Magic Star dear! Listen to yourself! I think whatever you did to stop the witch is affecting you."
"Shut up!"
Shady trotted towards me, head low. Finally one paying proper respect to the one who just saved all of Equestria. What are they all waiting for? They should declare you their queen right on the spot! It's nothing less than what you deserve!
"It's heavy isn't it?" She whispered.
"Huh?"
"Being looked down on." She raised her head and looked me in the eyes. Her eyes. They're not angry, they're not scared, they're...just so calm. "You try your hardest. But it's not enough anyway. You feel the weight tug at your heart, getting heavier, dragging you down. Others tell it's alright, but it doesn't change a thing. It's nearly unbearable isn't it?
"They don't understand. But they pretend to. How could they understand? They're not you. What right do they have to say they understand? They haven't walked a mile in your horseshoes. What right do they have to judge you? And one day you wake up and realize, how could they hope to understand? When you never once tried to let them in? You're holding onto the anger and the sadness because it makes you feel like it's okay to be those things, like it makes you entitled to those feelings...When all you're doing is pushing away your friends...Who'd do anything to help you...if you let them." She hugged me.
Almost like a broken toy, I felt my forelegs lifting up and slowly embracing her too.
She's trying to hurt you! She's going to betray you! Hurt her! Punish her! No! She's my friends! These are all my friends!
The Amulet's lock came off. And fell to the ground. My felt fuzzy. No you need me you can't be anything with out me. You want me. You can't.... your soul, your blood I'll...call...
I just kept hugging Shady.
"Shady. . . thank you...for saving me." I look at the others. "Gusty, Mimic, Heart Throb, Whizzer, I'm sorry I said all those horrible things."
I looked down at the Amulet, just looking at it, I wanted to put it back around my neck, I wanted what it offered. With it I had no equal. With it no unicorn was my better. No! I shut my eyes.
"No one put it on! Megan! Get a bag! Something! Put it in! Don't touch it if you don't have to! Don't...don't let me look at it."
-
The witches were being routed now that their last desperate act had run its course. 'General' Firefly leading the charge along with Moon Dancer and Not-So-Baby Sundance. The witches had scattered when they released Lilith. Now with our allies we were taking them down before they could regroup. Draggle, now the Moochick's apprentice, helped by telling us their hide aways. She was done with her evil family after they'd left her to die at Lilith's claws but us little ponies had saved her life…I don't think it was easy on her, but I will say she was a lot happier than she ever was on their side. Somnambula escaped, but the majority of the evil witches were finally brought down.
Hydia was cornered back at Mount Gloom, with us ponies and our allies finally raiding it, breaking past its own defenses, Hydia's family unleashed the Smooze one last time after their final army of monsters was destroyed (being led by Reeka). Aghh fell with his mistress, and then the last of the witches to switch sides or be defeated fell.
Maple and her grandmother chose to move to a new world, I heard they moved actually quite a few times, running into the same boy in green out to save the land each time somehow...
-
A while later In private I explained to Megan, Wind Whistler, Mimic, and the Moochick was the Alicorn Amulet was. I had Whizzer promise to spill the beans on what she had seen me do to create it. I think the Moochick might have had some idea what I had done already from the way he barely asked any questions. He didn't seem to find the fact I had managed to tame the Rainbow of Darkness bad or wrong, in fact he seemed proud.
I explicitly asked not to be told where the Alicorn Amulet was.
"I would surmise the simplest solution is to destroy the enchanted object in question," Wind Whisper said.
"If I destroy the Amulet, it'll just release all the black magic inside it along with the rainbow of darkness without a master. None can know it exists, or someone WILL come looking for it as a road to easy power. That burden will be on my family."
"But all of us saw it," Mimic said. "All of us know it exists."
"Which is why no one can speak of it again. I need you to promise, I need everyone to promise, not to speak of it ever again, Megan defeated Lilith and her power was sealed away. That's all anyone needs to know. Only my own foals can know of it. It'll be their responsibility after I'm gone. Otherwise, it'll catch them unaware at a moment of weakness. The only hope is that its power and Lilith's black magic fade and weaken in time. Even if it takes thousands of years."
"Ten thousand years maybe," Moochick said to himself. "Maybe they'll be another way...some day."
In the end, Mimic insists on writing an entry on the Alicorn Amulet along with warnings of other dangerous magical artifacts that were indestructible or couldn't risk being destroyed in a book she wrote made up of her own experiences (including the origin of the 'foals come from a magic mirror' myth, and the inhumane nature of creating ponies whose only purpose was to be a copy of another). She claimed she had enchanted the book so it would subconsciously lead any nearby who needed its knowledge to it.
The book's by line believe it or not ended up getting smudged.
The book was taken by Masquerade when she left paradise estate when Discord was born.
While my family would forever know of my creation (ignorance wouldn't protect them from it, not in the least), we were never to know its location. I hoped this would keep us safe from it, and the world safe from one of my blood wielding being a slave to its corrupt power again.
Long before the birth of chaos, this was the tale I told my daughter after I found my stallion as I knew I would. I entertained the idea of simply never siring any foals, or making myself barren, sealing away my bloodline forever, but in the end, I couldn't bear the idea the idea of the Amulet being my only legacy. To put it more simply, I fell in love. Of course he'd be a unicorn.
My daughter, Gypsy Lulamoon. Born into a ruined world I'd chosen to help restore and reteach earth ponies the magic they nearly lost -again- with the destruction of the world. As I had taught, perhaps my first student, Bright Eyes, another Earth Pony, to awaken the magic within herself. I am so proud Bright Eyes regained her memory and would go on to teach others.
I knew Gypsy would fall in love one day too.
And her foal would fall in love too one day, with a pony whose mother bore the name 'Starburst Mid-Summernight' and had come to the settlement Horn Haven.
Long after I had turned to dust, and accepted Mortis' call, freed from the call of the Amulet at last...Discord destroyed the world a second time.
One of my descendants gave into the call, desperate for the nightmare to end. She challenged Discord, in a utterly selfless and pure attempt to be a hero, her heart and will stronger than mine to be not be consumed by its corruption.
She might as well have tried to burn a forest fire. Discord carried within him the essence of an Avatar of the source of its magic after all, as much as the fires of friendship are the source of power of the Rainbow of Light.
Discord did not destroy it either, even though he was one of the few beings with the power to do so truly and utterly. Instead...he broke off a piece...the jewel of the Alicorn Amulet reshaping itself to make up for the missing seventh part of itself.
The individual facet was not what it once was, now it was only the aspect of Despair. And he gave it Shady, the black magic in the shard infecting her. I don't know if Discord knew what it would do, or what it did to her or not. Discord never did see what he didn't want to see. Her heart was stronger than mine, some true part of her always remained.
If six other ponies were given these infected shards, they'd likely turn as twisted as Shady had.
Discord left the rest of the Amulet like a broken toy, not giving it further thought.
With the Element of Despair gone, balance was gone as well. Black magic began to leak out from it, and like blood in the water, the sharks came.
Among them, was Tirek, and his brother, the TRUE Scorpan, the rainbow of darkness, corrupted by Lilith's black magic, and made unbalanced by Discord breaking off a piece, was what let him pull himself him from the afterlife. He crushed an army of thestrals that tried to get in the way of his return to the living.
I don't know if the tree that used to be Tirek's fortress would have resurrect him itself or not.
But the Amulet itself, bleeding black magic, was finally found by the shade of the shadow queen who took it for herself again. But she couldn't take her black magic back fully, the black magic had become an integrated part of the Amulet. The Amulet itself had gained a mind and will of its own, one that was no longer the same as the Queen. It wanted one of my soul, and my blood. I can't help thinking it saw me as its mother and in some twisted way desired to reunite with me.
It took eons more for the Queen to suckle enough of her black magic from the Amulet to restore herself to a resemblance of her former glory. Only then she began terrorizing Equestria, she made her two different attacks on Canterlot, both ending in retreat, the second leaving her broken.
When the Queen attacked Canterlot, Celestia never knew of its presence as it hid itself from her presence. She didn't feel it when the Queen was blasted by the might of the sun itself, and in that moment of weakness, the Amulet finally made its escape from Lilith, falling from her. And the queen forced to leave it behind or be destroyed by Princess Celestia.
Pony scrounging the battlefield for plunder finds the Amulet, but by fate never touches it, and the Amulet finds him unworthy of being its host. He kept it as did his son as and did his son as they ran the magic curio shop. The Amulet itself hiding itself from magical senses, and constantly calling out to my descendants sublimely and will until finally one answers, for my family has forgotten it, and ignorant, does not protect them, it only makes them more vulnerable its silent sweet voice.
Now one of my blood, and my soul walks Equestria. And the soul of itself. The Amulet came to her, dared speak to her directly, but she rejected it. Fate had changed. But the Amulet is tireless. She had severed its tie to her. But it will wait. She is the one it wants. Be strong Trixie Mid-Summernight of the Lulamoon herd. My little pony. Maybe one day, you can be the one to do what the Moochick hope could be done, and heal the Amulet 5,000 years early. Or maybe it's best left where it is. Whatever choice you make Trixie, I believe in you my little pony. f
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Thank you for pointing me to this -- I had forgotten to Favorite this so I didn't get the announcement from FIMFiction.
Some immediate reactions:
This is epic. You've basically put in every character from the G1 series and several others, some from sources I think I recognize and some from ones I don't, into that climactic battle. Some I'm pretty sure you put in from 80's sitcoms.
Lilith is a truly awesome creature. Having her be the First of all Evil Witches hearkens back to the myth of Lilith from the apocryphal versions of Genesis.
I'm glad Draggle got to complete her final Heel-Face Turn. I always felt some sympathy for her.
This is a good origin and story for the Alicorn Amulet -- and one that you can use as a basis for future stories.
Awesome.
5007295
Thank you VERY MUCH for your comments here!!! They mean a lot!~
I still love how you did the Last Battle of Paradise Estates here, with the witches of the world united against the ponies and their allies/friends. It makes me wish that G1 really could have gotten a sendoff like this.
5008170
I doubt it. Not in those days. Then again, GI Joe and Transformers did kinda.
5004349
I have this urge to have a reincarnated Destruction participate in the Final Battle. I think he's going to let himself get taken prisoner by the Nightshadows. Then explode.
5010051
Sound like him.
Imagine Trixie finds a way to heal the Amulet, while keeping her conexion to Magic.
memecrunch.com/meme/1MACX/unlimited-powah/image.png
5073242
The Alicorn Amulet would still be incomplete compared to the one Magic Star wielded. And if Trixie healed the Alicorn Amulet, I wonder if that would be enough for her to undergo Alicornification and became Princess Anasi.
5114999
Because the hanged man is often show hanging in a number four shape. And I was worried using a cross for the symbol of redemption and self sacrifice would rub some people the wrong way.
"Also, since I'm thinking of it, I had an idea of using the POV Series in a snip for the Infinite Loops. Is that alright, or would you rather I didn't?"
Unless it involves the loops ENDING and the ponies suddenly having to deal with not having a reset button . . .
Really. After I read infinite loops . . . I lost my ability to enjoy New Game Pluses, because I felt like I was CHEATING on the NPCs and monsters for whom this was their first time through. This is why I never reset from the start my 'long live the queen' game, because while it ended with her dying at the hands of a dark lord, and never becoming queen, it was MY choices, and using knowledge of events she'd have no way of knowing, felt like cheating. When BEFORE reading Loops I'd have had no trouble with it.
The moment I read 'It's so adorable you think you're more awesome than us.' From RD to slaver Celestia, my like of the story was killed. And when I read Celestia and Twilight banishing all of Conversion Equestria to the moon, WHILE DRUNK, it was buried.
The only other snip I'd be interested in reading, is Demon Homura MAKING THEM SQUIRM and making them realize how powerless they really are against her, and BOOTING THEM OUT of her reality.
I just really didn't enjoy the series anymore. At all. It does nothing now but make me unhappy when I read it. :-(
The irony is that I wrote outline for Nightmare Eclipse's character, and the scheme of her trapping Discord in an endless loop (which was roughly 300 million years worth), and Twilight REFUSING to reset time (therefore breaking the loops), saying it was a cheat, was BEFORE I ever read Infinite Loops! Nightmare Eclipse is, effectively, an unbuilt trope of the Infinite Loops. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UnbuiltTrope
And yes, this mean Nothingness, the domain overseen by Discord's mother, is now inhabited by three hundred thousand twins worth of shadows of existence of the same ponies who were born, lived, and died in the dark world timeless, and were erased from existence when Eclipse reset time, since their actions and memories have to go somewhere.
The fact Nightmare Eclipse's circle of friends is made up of versions of the mane six (minus Rarity, and plus Spike) from PREVIOUS loops, when she corrupted to her side, and they end up fighting the versions of themselves from the final timeline of dark world, should say something. (And the Alicorn version of Trixie who gave Nightmare Eclipse the scar on her face in a previous timeline, still exists as an Alicorn on the plane of the gods, while the Trixie who died in the final dark world timeline simply went on to the afterlife, where gods are barred from entering.).
Sorry. It just wouldn't sit right with me. I'm sorry.
5115676
That's okay, it's why I asked first. Especially after all the trouble Rainbow Double Dash gave us for a misinterpretation of his work.
5116775
And seriously, wouldn't that be a good story? What happens IF an infinite loop ended? How could they adjust?
5117018
There has been some speculation in the Miscellaneous section of having some Loopers get affected by Darkseid's Lotus Eater Machine into thinking the Loops are over, or how a new expansion period (such as the upcoming new series for Digimon Adventure) would freak out some of the characters into thinking it was happening (especially if they had massively changed the Loop it first happens it).
5118892
Like I said, what happens if it ACTUALLY happened?
5707633
Someone noticed!
That was a good story.
11633788
Thanks. What did you enjoy about it?
11634082
It was simply entertaining to read and interesting to learn more about the backstory for the series.