End of Days, End of Nights

by The REAL Mister Pkmn

Part Ten: Compassion

The ice blue stallion continued to observe the ponies, grinning like a madpony. “Oh, how foolish they are to believe that they are in control. Don’t they see? This is all a part of a Grander Purpose, for the comeback of an ancient force long forgotten by even the Princesses themselves!” He chuckled to himself, and his cutie mark of a heart encased in ice shimmered. “Go, you fools, play your lives to my tune! It matters not if you think that you control your actions or not, for in the end, All will go according to plan.” He then laughed maniacally.

CANTERLOT

The light cleared, and the barrier had a massive crack on its surface, but it hadn’t broken. King Eclipse was livid at this. “How? How is it that this accursed barrier still stands? This should be impossible!” However, just to spite him, the crack slowly started to heal. “This is an outrage! I shall not be denied entrance into my city!” He then looked at the assembled unicorns once more, and saw that a young violet mare with pink-highlighted indigo mane and tail with a starburst cutie mark was charging magenta magic through her horn, and sending it to the barrier.

The mare’s magenta eyes shimmered as she spoke. “BBBFF! I thought you could use a little extra support!”

Shining Armor looked back, surprised. “Twiley? What are you doing here?”

She grinned. “Well, I sensed a great deal of magic near the barrier you’d put up, so I thought that I’d lend it an extra bit of strength!”

Shining smiled. “Thanks, sis. Your help is most appreciated.” The mare beamed at this.

Eclipse narrowed his gaze in fury, and flapped his three sets of wings in agitation. “So yet another Astrolight dares defy me? No matter! You could bring out the entire Astrolight and Lulamoon families for all I care! It won’t matter in the end! I will gain entrance into my city! You could even bring in the Trigems and it wouldn’t be enough!”

The mare tilted her head in confusion. “Who are the Trigems?”

Shining then answered. “Twilight, the Trigems were once a powerful noble family with the greatest magical capabilities since the dawn of ponykind. It is rumored that Starswirl the Bearded himself studied under these masters. However, common ponies feared that the Trigems would one day usurp the Princesses themselves, so they had the noble families hire assassins to take the family down. The final member that is known to exist, Rubeus Obsidian Diamond, former Viceroy of Caneighda, was taken out six years ago. None are known to even be still alive, though there are rumors of six children that Rubeus sired before he died. But nopony knows if this rumor is true.”

Eclipse then grinned. “So the Trigems are out of the picture, you say?” Shining Armor and Twilight gulped as Eclipse grinned maniacally. “Then I guess there’s no reason for me to hold back.” He then summoned a larger platinum white orb than before in his dragon claw. This is going to be wonderfully amusing.

EVERFREE FOREST

The ground shook again from a powerful shockwave, and the sound of breaking glass was audible from the direction of Canterlot. Maestro cursed. “De réir an Ancients! Ní raibh mé ag smaoineamh bhfuigheadh sé a síos a thabhairt an bac seo go luath! C’mon! We have little time to spare!” They started running faster, but soon they came upon a strange creature. It had a jaw like a Venus flytrap, and its body was made of some form of wood. It had four legs, which ended in root-like claws. Its eyes were small and beady, glowing with rage. The creature snarled as the group got closer, causing the vines on its back to snap towards the group.

Roseluck jumped back from the vines. “By Luna’s starry mane! What in Equestria is that?”

Maestro huffed as he rolled out of the way of one of the vines. “It’s a triffid, and it is very cross. Some fool must’ve come this way before us and riled it up.”

Melia then shot into the air to avoid one of the attacking vines. “So! Anypony got any ideas as to how we’re supposed to get past this thing?”

Cloudkicker then flew forward. “I might have an idea.” Cloudkicker then went up to the triffid, and spoke. “Hey! You okay little guy?” The triffid turned to look at her and huffed. “C’mon, I’m just trying to help you! I can’t do that if you don’t tell me what’s wrong!” The triffid snapped its vines at the ground in agitation, and pointed at the canopy, which was entirely closed off. “Oh! Not enough light’s getting in, is that it?” The triffid nodded, a pleased grin upon its face. “Okay! I’ll have that taken care of in a jiffy!” Cloudkicker then shot up into the sky, and went into the canopy. Snaps could be heard as a multitude of branches fell, and soon a pony-sized hole was blasted into the canopy. Cloudkicker came in from above, beaming proudly. “There you go! plenty of sunshine!” The triffid nodded, and walked over to the beam of sunlight, and curled up and went to sleep.

Janice then spoke in a hushed tone. “That was pretty amazing, Cloudkicker. How’d you think of that?”

Cloudkicker looked somewhat bashful at that. “Oh, I just couldn’t bear to see it upset. My compassionate heart just wouldn’t let it stand! And Janice, I’’m sorry about judging you just because that Eclipse character said you were a Kirin.”

Janice smiled at that. “Apology accepted, Cloudkicker.”

Maestro then cleared his throat. “C’mon, everyone, we’ve little time to spare! Let’s get going.”

The others nodded, and the group traveled further into the forest. Janice could help but think though. Maybe this means Cloudkicker also no longer cares whether or not I’m a Kirin. Perhaps, by the time this is all over, none of them will care either way. If that’s the case then… Perhaps I’ll show them. The thought still terrified her a bit, but maybe her friends would accept her for who she was despite that.

Author's Note:

Surprised to see Chapter Ten so soon? You thought that you'd have to wait a week, like usual? Nah, I decided to be nice to you guys and put up another chapter today. As usual, constructive criticism always helps. Credit for editing goes to Just A Random Pegasus. Just about six chapters left to go!