The Greater Cause
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The Greater Cause
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Alpha stood at the top of the stairs to Canterlot Castle silently, and watched as an entire battalion of changeling soldiers stood ready in front of a massive piece of ground that was glowing a bright dark purple. At the front of the group, stood Beta. The commander Alpha had been arguing with just a few minutes before Twilight broke through the ground, ruining his entire plan.
“Is everypony ready?!” Beta shouted to the group, as they all cheered in response, “Good! Now, let’s show this Omega what it really means to be a soldier for the hive!”
Alpha made eye contact with Beta as he spoke to the group, and shook his head slowly.
Growling, Beta turned to face the purple circle as it began to glow brighter, and brighter. Both he, and his soldiers were ready to finish what they had started.
Suddenly, the ground within the circle began to rise.
A perfect circle of stone began rising from the ground, as everything between the army on the surface, and the trapped equestrians below, rose up in to the sky.
This was the first moment that Beta began to second guess his confidence. He had never seen a spell that was capable of lifting what must have been over a thousand tons of weight, straight up in to the air.
They were able to track how close they were to the end of their wait, as the crystals in the pillar grew more and more frequent, until there was almost nothing but the shining blue coming up from the ground.
Suddenly. It stopped.
“Mmmm…” A deep voice said, echoing out from underneath the stone, “Look at all these lovely boys, waiting to give me all their attention…”
The nervous glances exchanged between the soldiers was countless, as they all felt a chill run up their spines.
“I’m going to make you all a deal,” Her voice was heard, as the pillar lifted an inch off the ground, revealing a pair of glowing red eyes, in the otherwise black pit, “Run away now, and I’ll let you live. I’m here for Alpha.”
“That’s Omega to you!” A zealous solider called, as she replied with a slow, deep laughter.
“You can call him whatever you want,” She replied, as the pillar raised another inch, revealing a large portion of her otherwise normal looking head, “I don’t care what his tombstone reads.”
The pillar finally began to rise consistently once again, as it flew just high enough for the mare to step out, revealing the strangely normal looking pony.
Beta scoffed, and tried to hold back his laughter, as the mare smiled to him, and tilted her head.
“What’s so funny?” She asked, her voice now returned to normal, despite her darker eyes, “You think that because I’m a mare, this won’t be a challenge for you?”
“Well—“ He began, before a magic aura surrounded his muzzle.
“Allow me to make an example out of you then.” She said, a wicked smile spread across her lips, as he was lifted off the ground by his mouth, and shook terribly.
“Get her!” The next in command called, as the soldiers rushed Twilight, her smile only growing.
The first few soldiers to reach her were batted out of the way by Beta, as she swing him like a rag doll, smashing him in to anything that tried to do her any harm.
Hearing the loud cried of pain escaping from Beta, the standing soldiers took a step back, not wanting to be responsible for the serious injury, or even death of their commander.
“Oh, am I being too rough?” She asked pulling Beta’s face right against hers, as the stone pillar moved several meters directly behind her, knocking a red cart in to the opening in the process, “Sorry about that.”
Lifting him up, she dangled his body precariously over the pit, and shook him slightly.
“I hope I don’t slip and drop you in!” She called, as he flailed his body in an attempt to escape her hold on him, “Well, if you keep fighting like that, might make me lose my grip!”
Levitating him back to in front of her, he clearly breathed a sigh of relief. But, she wasn’t done with him yet. Instead of letting him go, she decided to scare the army a little more. Casting another spell, a thread pulled from the tip of her horn, and wrapped tightly around his midsection, pressing his wings against his body.
Pulling him close to her, she whispered in his ear, “You should have run.”
Then, with a single, swift movement, she tossed him over her shoulder, throwing the pony down the pit she had just come out of, bound, and unable to free himself.
“I sure hope somepony is down there to catch him.” She laughed, as she took a step forward, causing the battalion to take a step back.
She continued this, trying to approach them, but every time she made any headway, they would just run to the nearest group of soldiers.
“This is no fun!” She said, “I can’t have you all running away from me!”
With an instant cast of her magic, the massive stone pillar shot out hundreds of crystal spikes, each one homing in on one of the many changelings, and lightly pressing itself against their temples.
Chuckling, she took another step forward. This time, none of them moved. They all stood frozen in place, terrified to even move an inch, “Much better!”
Alpha grimaced. If she slaughtered them all right here… it would be his fault.
“I thought I was just a girl!” Twilight called, looking through the group of men, “Are you all really that scared of me?”
“What kind of monster are you?” One of them said from the group, as her eyes snapped to the source.
“Ahh! So much better!” She cheered, as she lifted him up from the group, “You all finally understand! I am a god!”
None said a word, as she scanned the group once again, a confused look riddling her face.
“Why are you not bowing?!” She asked, twitching her head to the side, as the crystals pressed against them moved to the top of their heads, and pressed down painfully, forcing them to lower their heads to get away from it.
“Good boys!” She cackled, as the crystals were all shattered, and the entire army was engulfed in a purple magic field, “As a reward, I’ll let you live another day!”
The entire army was suddenly lifted from the ground, and lined up above the hole in a large pile, each of them unable to move.
“Tell your boss I said ‘hi.’” She laughed, sending the group of soldiers in to the ground so fast, that their wings were all but useless to stop them from moving, and spinning at their speed.
Then, to make sure none of them caught themselves, she lifted the stone pillar from its place behind the hole, and dropped it, sending it right down after them.
Twilight turned away from the hole, and faced the changeling that stood at the top of the stairs, his face reading no emotion that she could ascertain.
“Are you frightened?” Twilight asked, as the red hue surrounding her eyes slowly began to be threaded by tendrils of black, “Your life is only seconds from its end!”
Alpha said nothing, as he looked directly to his executioner.
“I think I’ll take one of these crystals… and jam it in your eye!” She said, a twisted smile spreading across her face, before her head snapped to the left, then back to the front, her expression now much darker than it had been, “Or maybe I’ll just run you through the back of your head…”
Alpha sighed.
“Why aren’t you saying anything!?” She shouted, teleporting herself to within an inch of his face, “Don’t you at least owe me an apology for—for breaking my heart!?”
Twilight’s eyes shimmered for a moment, as the dark power’s hold on her mind began to loosen.
“An apology…” Alpha said softly, finally opening his mouth upon realizing that he might stand a chance after all, “…You deserve so much more than that, Twilight.”
She twitched, as the dark energy in her eyes lessened.
“I betrayed you, Twilight.” Alpha said softly, closing the gap between them, “I lied, I helped the changelings gain access to the wedding. I almost got you, and everypony you care about killed.”
“Damn it…” She growled, as the dark side within her tried to look away from his piercing gaze.
“It was selfish, and reckless, and there is nothing I will regret more in my lifetime, than having betrayed the trust you put in me,” He continued, as tears began forming in her eyes, “And when all of this is made right, whether it be with this side of you killing me, or me being cast out of Equestria… I could never blame you for that outcome.”
“I… I don’t—“ She struggled, as she fought back against the power with all of her might, “I could never--!”
Placing a hoof on her cheek, the power completely vanished for a moment, as her tears were finally able to fall down her face, “Alpha… I—“
However, in a powerful, and opposite reaction, dark power filled her gaze once again, as she pulled away from his touch.
“You will not save yourself from this with this manipulation!” She shouted, as one final crystal shard that she had saved, flew from the ground, and pressed tightly against his neck, “This is the end for you.”
////
“What kind of magic was that?” Trixie said, looking at the massive ring in the ceiling that Twilight’s dark side had made, “I didn’t thing something like that was even possible!”
“She has the chaotic power of three ponies put together,” Spike said, wondering just how far she had gone up, “And that on top of her usual magic, well, it’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before… short of the Elements of Harmony.”
“Does anypony want to follow her up?” Cadence called, looking over the cowering crowd of ponies, before shaking her head and looking back to her friends, “I’ll take that as a no.”
“We need to focus on getting up to Twilight, and fixing her,” The Doctor said, also examining the hole, “Why don’t you fly up there, Cadence?”
“I hurt my wing the last time I got out of these caves,” She explained, spreading her beautiful, yet bent right wing, “I’m not going anywhere.”
“I knew I should have packed my helium!” Pinkie huffed, sitting down on her haunches, “I could have floated us right out of here!”
“Would you have needed some balloons to do that?” Derpy asked, frowning at the strange action Pinkie would have taken.
“Derpy, you’re not around very often,” Pinkie said, smiling and patting her on the shoulder, “So I’ll forgive you for not thinking that I had a secret stash of balloons!”
Pinkie then proceeded to shake her hair quickly, as dozens of balloons began falling to the ground.
“Great.” Rarity sighed, rolling her eyes, “Pinkie’s got balloons. We’re all saved.”
“I told you, that if I had my helium, I could lift all of us—“
Suddenly, a massive cart, filled with red compressed air tanks smashed in to the ground.
“Oh, there they are!” Pinkie said happily, unfazed by the crazy happening, “I’ll get these inflated right away!”
“H-how does she do that?” Applejack stuttered.
“It’s better not to ask.” Spike shook his head, “I’m surprised she doesn’t have a blimp down here somewhere.”
“I suppose we should always have Pinkie with us in a crisis,” Rarity said, shrugging to Spike, as she looked to Applejack, “She’d probably make a better Element of Magic than Twilight.”
“Don’t go jokin’ around like that,” Applejack laughed, “She doesn’t have that much—“
“Done!” Pinkie said, as they all turned around, and looked at the hundreds of inflated balloons, all tied to the empty tanks, almost filling the entire entrance of the hole above them.
“Now how in tarnation did ya’ do that?” Applejack asked, her mouth falling open.
“Like she said,” Cadence chuckled, “Element of Magic.”
“How are we supposed to take those up?” Trixie asked, walking up to Pinkie and inspecting the tanks, “I mean, they don’t even lift these off the—“
Suddenly, something came crashing down from the pit, and landed in the mass of balloons in between the hole and the cave.
Luckily, they managed to completely break his fall, as they lowered slowly, and he rolled off of them, falling a few feet on to the ground.
“Who is that?” The Doctor asked, running over to the tied up changeling.
“That’s one of the commanders from the invasion,” Spike said, recognizing the scar over his cheek, “He must have really pissed off Twilight.”
Looking up at the ceiling, Beta sighed with relief as he felt his heart rate slowly begin to fall back to normal.
“Thank you for saving me…” He muttered, avoiding any eye contact with the ponies in the room with him, “That mare… What is she?”
“Oh! Oh!” Pinkie called, raising her hoof in the air, as he, and the rest of the ponies around them looked to her, “That’s Twilight! Right now, she’s being taken over by a dark power that’s made up of all of the dark sides of the Elements of Harmony! Deceit, Treachery, Greed, Anger, Sadness, and Selfishness! She’s like an onion! Oh, but an evil onion! Even though I hate onions, and I consider them to be pretty bad, this is like, the worst onion!”
“She’s such a good explainer.” Spike sighed.
“So, ah’ take it Twilight handed yer’ butt to ya’ on a platter.” Applejack laughed, happy that this insane Twilight had a use.
“My entire army.” He mumbled, before his ear perked up, “Did you all hear that?”
The room silenced, as they all focused on what sounded like… screaming.
“Where’s that coming from?” Trixie asked, before realizing that it’s source had to be from the hole above them.
In an instant, a hundred changelings collided with Pinkie’s balloons, and came crashing down to the ground, the balloons slowing them just enough to prevent any injury.
“Are ya’ tellin’ me that she beat all of ya’?” Applejack laughed, “Well bless mah—“
“Above us!” One of them shouted, as they all fought over one another to get away from the dropping stone pillar that Twilight had dropped just after them.
Looking up, Trixie’s eyes went wide as she made out the pillar dropping from just above them, threating to crash in to the ground, and splat every changeling that was still trying to get away from the danger zone.
“You need to give me my magic back!” Trixie shouted to Beta, as he looked to her with panic in his eyes.
“O-only Omega knows the deactivation spell!” He said, as he watched the plummeting stone head right for him, his entire army, and all the ponies they had imprisoned down here, “And even if I knew where he put the magic blocker on your body, this entire cavern is neutralized!”
Most of the able bodied ponies removed themselves from danger, but so many were still stunned from the fall, or trying to help the disabled soldiers escape harm’s way. Trixie gulped, and ran to the center of the hole, and pointed her horn straight up.
“C-come on Aurora.” Trixie whispered to herself, only ten seconds from the end of her life, “It’s time to come back out…!”
Trixie tried to pool her magic in her horn, in an attempt to cast the most powerful levitation spell she had, but all of the magic blockers in the cave were making that impossible.
“I’m sorry I have to ask you like this,” Trixie said, her volume increasing, as the pillar passed the end of the hole, plummeted down toward the ground, “But I need you to--!”
A beam of light exploded from Trixie’s horn, shooting right in to the pillar, stopping it dead in its place, as the entire section that was made of crystal began to glow, and reshape itself in a smooth dome, that slowly lowered around the threatened ponies, and placed it safely on the ground, no longer any threat of collapsing and hurting them.
“Thank goodness…” Cadence sighed happily, looking at Trixie, as she turned and made eye contact, revealing a soft glow over her eyes.
However, before she was able to understand what she was looking at, the beam from Trixie’s horn vanished, revealing that her magic had also burned a hole right through the middle of the stone, to where she could only assume was the surface.
Then, with a bright bust of light form her body, two wings burning with light shot out from her sides, and she instantly took to the air, ascending from the darkness, leaving the shocked, and awed ponies on the ground below.
////
A crystal twirled around on Alpha’s forehead, as Twilight relished in the moment she was about to experience. She was about to destroy the man who dared betray her… And she was going to enjoy every second of it.
“Any last words?” Twilight asked, tilting her head, while watching the blood drop down his forehead, and run past his nose.
Alpha tried his best not to give in and allow her the fuel she would need to finish the job. Remaining himself for as long as possible would be his best chance at giving the real Twilight a chance to take her body back.
“No?” She asked, watching his forehead even closer, “Well… I can wait.”
Suddenly, a deafening boom of sound came from behind them, as a beam of white light shot up from the ground, carving a new hole in the ground, in the center of her last hole.
“What…” Twilight muttered, turning to face the magic, as it abruptly ended, just as quickly as it had begun, leaving nothing but silence between Alpha and her.
Then, an instant later, a pair of brilliantly gold wings flapped out of the hole, and revealed the mare Twilight least wanted to see.
“You.” She said, her voice clearly nervous as she took a step backward toward Alpha, “Where did you even come from!?”
Trixie wasted no time in flying toward the two ponies, and landing herself directly in front of them.
“I’m here to help you, Twilight.” Trixie said, with another voice speaking just under hers, “I’m here to cleanse this dark power within you.”
Twilight continued to back up, as her horn began to spark with black bolts of energy, “Stay away from me!” She shouted, pointing her horn at Alpha and growling, “I’ll destroy him right here, unless you back off!”
Trixie did just the opposite, however. Seeing that Twilight indeed meant her threat, she wasted no time, and fired another beam of light from her horn, and completely encompassed the purple mare in its energy.
“N-No!” She screamed, over the humming of the energy, as she felt her magic begin to burn away from the outside in.
Trixie held firm, but felt something still working very hard to sap away at her magic. It was whatever Alpha had put on her body to stop her from casting spells. Aurora was strong, but she wasn’t going to be able to hold out against this magic blocker for long.
“A-Alpha…” She managed, as the strain of keeping the spell up started to become greater, “I need you to- help me stop her!”
Looking from Trixie to Twilight, Alpha went wide eyed at the white energy covering her began to darken, as Twilight fought back with all of her might. She was beginning to beat back the harmonious magic. And if she managed to do that… It would all be over.
So, he decided to play his last card.
“Twilight!” Alpha shouted, as he carefully made his way next to her. He was confident that she wouldn’t make a move to attack him, since she was so busy with casting this spell. So, he stepped right next to her, and leaned in to her ear, “There’s something I need to tell you…”
Whispering something that Trixie couldn’t hope to make out, Twilight suddenly relented, and was at the complete mercy of Trixie’s purifying magic.
“N-No!” She shouted, as the black magic began to ripple out the back of her body, “I’m not done here yet! Not until your friends face their dark sides!”
Twilight suddenly lifted off the ground, and looked in to the sky.
“You’ve won today.” She shouted, as her head snapped back to Trixie, “But when I come back… when the rest of the girls face their demons… I will be more powerful than you could ever imagine!”
Then, with one final blast of dark energy, Alpha and Trixie were knocked back, and Twilight fell to the ground, unconscious.
“Twilight!” Alpha shouted, running to her limp body and pressing his hear to her muzzle, “O-okay… She’s breathing.”
Trixie felt the overwhelming magic within her dissipate as well, as she looked to her rump, and saw a small black speck stuck to her, smoking slightly, as it had overloaded, and been shorted out.
Panting, she stood up, and walked over to Alpha and Twilight, kneeling down with them.
“What did you whisper to her?” Trixie asked, panting heavily as she wiped the sweat from her brow with a spell.
Alpha laughed for a moment, before his expression softened, and he brushed some of the hair out of Twilight’s face.
“...You know what I told her.”
////
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If Twilights Dark Seid is on the run, where did it go to? Or is it just back to hiding deep inside?
I thought Twilight was the last, and all the other gils had already run the dark gauntlet? If not, I apologise for the confusion.
is twilight's dark side the evil that they are going to fight!!??
We still have three things to settle now. Alpha's trial. The changelings and chrysalis and finally the wedding. I think that is what is need to ending this mini saga. Also it looks like they need to remove the element of magic from Twilight. I don't think it is going to be that easy. Great chapter.
CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
You have made me like a character that I had previously wanted to torture until he felt excruciating pain whenever he wanted to do something!
Joking aside, this take on A Canterlot Wedding, an episode I HATE, was quite possibly the best (and only, I think) version I have ever read/seen. I look forward to whatever crazy shenanigans will happen next! :)
5606542
Nah. Still Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie left.
Considering there's still left, I do worry how much stronger dark Twilight will get until the last one.
On a completely unrelated note, I completely forgot that this story had neither a dark nor a gore tag. And for some reason expected a different result from the changelings. Ah well. I guess I need to stop reading those other fanfics that much.
That said, I do wonder what will happen to Chrysalis. Most of the changelings are probably still loyal to her.
And one last thing. Great chapter, as usual.
5606577
I imagine the changelings won't be too happy with their queen and will want to do something horrible to her for putting them in danger of this magnitude.
Then Omega will take over and a new era of peace between the changelings and ponies will begin... or not...
Well, I wonder what Chrysalis, Beta, and all the other changelings have to say now? I know there is no way Chrysalis didn't see what happened to all her changelings. I hope a changeling/Equestrian alliance forms because of this.
On another note, I have a feeling that Trixie has a lot of explaining to do. I also think that Twilight is going to be moving back into the palace...whether she wants to or not.
So is Alpha (Or Omega) now the good guy or the bad guy?
Is he going to be helping Equestria?
Or is was he counting on this to happen? And he will now use his army to re contain everyone.
I kind of hope the latter for the sake of Alpha taking the 'needs of the many' route that I love so much.
Awesome chapter!! I love the Star wars reference. It made me laugh.
It's a cliffhanger of EPIC PROPORTIONS. Goddamnit well now I'm gonna go cry myself to sleep because my ship was broken and made canon in the space of a minute of reading AND THAT IT WAS PUT IN A GODDAMN CLIFFHANGER!!! That is all.
Okay I feel redundant by always saying "well, damn" all the time, but seriously... damn
Tbh, I hope that Alpha doesn't get just, instantly forgiven(as seems to happen in these things, this should linger for a while and he should have to earn back her trust and forgiveness). I mean, if his original plan was to try and avert the invasion by basically taking over and pulling out, he could have at least told Twilight if no one else. The changelings aren't mind readers, they just feed on love(and presumably can feel/sense emotions)
Because he clearly wasn't trying to bring out her dark side, if this line is anything to go on-
He was trying to get them all to pull out of Canterlot/Equestria and stop the invasion by getting himself promoted to Omega.
He knew she unstable because of her dark side, but he said nothing to her and put not only himself, but his friends, her and his entire hive at risk. Even if he was still batting for their side, he did betray her, he betrayed her trust and faith in him. And it'll be really disappointing and a slap in the face if Twilight just wakes up and instantly forgives him.
I was following this story on fan fiction and it just stopped at the part were Alex ( dax ) stops treachery. other then that glad to find it here very good story and if u ever need a spare oc to use or ever kill of let me know lol will be glad to help PS thanks to you I got back in to reading so keep up the good work
Tis a good chapter
he told her, "you failed the test".