Quest For Equestria

by Skyguy626

Chapter 86: Sky Temple Divium

Early in the morning, the Harmonic Heroes were summoned to Canterlot Castle. On the way there, McGrath gave Phoenix a punch to the shoulder, "Hey! Why was that good for?", the red head asked as he rubbed his shoulder. "That was for interrupting me and Rarity last night!"

As they arrived, they immediately noticed a large amount of Crystal Ponies having gathered there. "What happened?", Griffifth muttered as they were approached by Celestia. "Something terible my dear Adam.", the princess said, leading them to the hospital wing, "Morgenstern has started his invasion in earnest. The Crystal Empire has fallen."

The group gasped, and they were horrified by what they saw in the hospital wing, a badly wounded Shining Armor sat next to a badly wounded Cadance, who looked as if she was beaten nearly to death. Twilight quickly walked towards her brother and sister-in-law, fussing over them. "I am fine, Twily.", he said, though he was clearly barley being able to keep it together. "I am more worried about Cadance, she fought Morgenstern one-on-one, I had help from my guards.", he said, but the princess of Love wasn't responding, it looked broken, crushed by her failure to protect her kingdom.

"Cadance, don't blame yourself.", Skywalker started but Cadance shook her head, "But it is my fault. It's my fault I couldn't save everyone or defeat Morgenstern.", she said, a tear escaping her eye. "Jason is right, Cadance.", Celestia said, "You saved as many as you could with what little time you had, and not many can claim they have fought Morgenstern one-on-one and life to tell the tale."

But none of this seemed to work on her, Morgenstern hadn't just merely beaten her, but he managed to break her. "We need to find Morgenstern and put an end to him.", Skywalker said, determent to defeat this monster, and the others agreed.

Celestia was deep in thought for a moment, "I think it's time we take a look at the place where this all began.", she muttered before turning to group, "Jason, I want you to accompany me and Luna to Sky Temple Divium. There must be something there that will help us against Morgenstern".

The moment they exited the portal, Skywalker felt himself being filled with a feeling of dread. The temple itself was a grand architecture, the floor seemed to be made of white marble, while the archways and walls had a futuristic touch to them. It would have been a sight to see in its prime, but it seemed that a major battle had taken place and none but the three of them had set a foot in here ever since. To his right, both Celestia and Luna arrived, both wearing dressed in a similar shade to their coats. "This is horrible.", Celestia said as she walked up a flight of stairs, followed closely by Skywalker and Luna as they looked over the ruins. Suddenly, he saw movement in the corner of his eye, and without thinking, Skywalker walked through a door, as if his body was on autopilot.

He could hear Celestia's and Luna's voices behind him as the door closed, leaving him in complete darkness before scene's started to play before him. He was standing in a circular room, a glass floor gave a magnificent views of the clouds below, two people were standing in the center of the room, a man and a woman.

The man was Morgenstern, he wore a black long coat, white armored boots and black trousers. The top of his coat is open to reveal his chest. His hair is spiky in the back, and he has chin-length bangs that parted down to frame both sides of his face. The woman was dressed in a light gray long sleeved hooded shirt with a sleeveless dark brown leather wrapping, trousers, leather calf braces, leather wrap arm bracers, a white sleeveless surcoat, and leather foot wear. Her long very dark almost black reddish hair which fell over her shoulders. What struck Skywalker the most was her faintly glowing amber eyes, the same as his own.

"Join me, Lily. Together we can recreate the Worlds as they should be, everyone will bend to our will.", Morgenstern said, holding out his hand. "What happens to those that don't bend?", Lily asked, holding her weapon on stand-by, ready to defend herself in a moments notice. "They can live in my new world, or they can die in their old one.", Morgenstern said, irritated that she didn't had taken him up on his offer, "I am sorry, but I cannot. I won't allow you to harm my son.", Lily said, activating her lightsaber and revealing a purple blade.

"I don't care if I kill a baby, I don't care if its a God-baby, I'm gonna kill it.", Morgenstern declared as he and Lily engaged each other in battle. He wielded his Keyblade with vicious efficiency and despite Lily's usual dominance on the battlefield, however, she continually gave ground over the entire battle.

Eventually, Morgenstern slammed the wide handle of his Keyblade into Lily's face, stunning the young woman, and the merciless Dark Messiah quickly took the moment to unleash a flurry of blade strikes, which ended with him stabbing Lily through the chest, as he lifted her into the air. "Where is it?", Morgenstern demanded to know, but Lily smiled at him, coughing up some blood, "He's not an it. His name is Skywalker, Jason Sephiroth Skywalker. And he's beyond your reach.", she said before being thrown to the ground in a swift move. "I will find him. And atop his corpse, I will build the new World."

Suddenly the scene disappeared and words flashed in front of Skywalker's eyes...

When the Wielders of the Key are shrouded by darkness and the light is taken... When the blessed ones fail, the graveyard trembles... When the Rulers loses their throne, and the Air Tower abandon... When the Corrupted arrive and make the Worlds bleed... The Aesity of Destruction rises, and fate turns its gaze upon the last of the Caelumaruku.

Meanwhile outside the room, Celestia and Luna tried to break open the door, but neither pushing nor with magic did it butch, but to no avail. "That door won't open, it is reprogrammed it to be keyed to my master's DNA.", a deep voice said behind them.

Turning around, they saw one of the cloaked man who had been with Morgenstern. He was wielding a sword that looked very familiar to Celestia, it looked exactly like her ex-husbands weapon of chose, except this one was different shades of black and red. "Where is the son of Lily?", he said, taking his fighting stance ready to fight them. "He just went through this door, but the moment we approached it closed.", Celestia said summoning her weapon just as her sister.

Celestia attempted to attack the cloaked man by telekinetically ripping debris out of wall and hurling them at him. He merely destroyed the platforms by the force of his will, which Celestia countered by unleashed a barrage of magic arcs. The man effortlessly caught the energy and deflected it back at Celestia, who deflected it into the ceiling above. Celestia looked stunned but proceeded to unleash a second blast, but as a show of his power, the cloaked man absorbed the bolt completely, with no need for deflection, showing them the clear futility of this assault.

As Celestia did this, Luna leaps into action, unleashing her full power against the cloaked. However, the cloaked man own mastery of his power allowed him to hold off Luna's relentless attacks, and seize the offensive.

As the duel continued, Morgenstern entered in a cloud of dark smoke, along side a hooded Lilium. He had heard everything Celestia had told his follower, and this worried him. "Do what you do best.", Morgenstern ordered as he himself went into the chamber. Joining the duel against the sister's, the cloaked man ended up dueling with Luna while Lilium ended up in a battle with Celestia.

Celestia attacked with a lightning fast sweep across the torso, but Lilium summoned her Keyblade, taking the blow and riposted, speeding up her timing, forcing Celestia to retreat. Lilium twirled and blocked a slash, weaving a defensive pattern with her blade. Celestia lunged again, but Lilium was ready, bringing them into a momentary blade-lock.

Lilium shoved hard, breaking the lock and forced Celestia to pull back. In backing away, Lilium attacked once more and unleashing a sudden flurry of attacks that forced a surprised Celestia to pull back. Lilium reached out and started to throw debris at her opponent, throwing it at a much faster speed than anybody had ever done to Celestia. Trying to get a hit on her opponent, Celestia shot energy out of her finger tips, but to her shock, Lilium not only caught it with her bare hands, but redirected it.

Luna disengaged and blocks the redirected lightning with his magic sword. Lilium and the cloaked man launched their own barrage of lightning from their finger tips, but instead of the usual blue lightning, their's was black with a red hue. Unable to deflect or dodge the attack in time, the two sisters joined forces and retorted with a combined magic arcs of their own, facing the opponents with the full brunt of their might.

Celestia and Luna commanded their power to overpower the others, but it wasn't enough, a bright flash enveloped them. Smoke, debris and fire decorated the massive hallway, as the smoke cleared Celestia and Luna were laying on the ground, burned and smoking, but breathing.
Slowly opening her eyes, Celestia saw that her opponents had sustained no damaged. But most shocking was that their hoods had come off. Staring her down, with the same eyes as Morgenstern, were her friend Lily Skywalker and her husband, Caelum.

Entering the chamber, Morgenstern found Skywalker standing at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes blank and a small glowing cube was resting in his hands.

Suddenly, Skywalker snapped out of it and saw the Dark Messiah looming over him. "Morgenstern.", Skywalker said, activating his lightsaber and taking his fighting stance. "Thanks to Celestia, I meet the last person I ever thought to meet.", Morgenstern said who summoned his Keyblade. Skywalker initiating two brief, unsuccessful strikes at Morgenstern's torso before regrouping. He then attempted to use an overhand power attack to overwhelm Morgenstern, but he blocked the attack, maintaining a one-handed grip on his weapon. Skywalker's attack resulted in a blade-lock which Morgenstern broke by casually throwing Skywalker to the ground, but he quickly recovered and advanced.

Skywalker then engaged in an aggressive series of attacks and managed to drive Morgenstern back, surprising him. However, Morgenstern soon counter-attacked, forcing Skywalker back. "Impressive. Most impressive. Celestia has taught you well.", Morgenstern complimented him.

"I will make you pay for what you did to Shining Armor, Cadance and everybody else. I am not afraid of you.", Skywalker said, retaking his fighting stance. A half smile appeared on Morgenstern's face, "You will be.".

Skywalker struck at Morgenstern again, but Morgenstern deprived him of his weapon with a quick flourish, he then lazily slashed at Skywalker, but he dove out of the way of the attack and rolled next to his weapon. Morgenstern performed another casual swing of his weapon, Skywalker quickly retrieved his lightsaber and managed to block the attack inches above his head.

Complimenting Skywalker's agility, taking this moment, he broke the blade lock and quickly slashed at Morgenstern, only for him to block the blow. As the pair's blades locked, Morgenstern taunted Skywalker, complimenting him on his ability to control his fear, but advising him that releasing his anger was the only path to victory. Morgenstern promptly broke the blade-lock and attacked but Skywalker managed to fend him off, leaping over an attack at his legs and flipping above Morgenstern.

Suddenly, pieces of the wall broke off the wall at a amazing speed, being hurled at Skywalker. He whipped around and, as he cut the debris apart, Morgenstern quickly lunged, engaging the knight in a brief bout of swordplay. As the two of them blade-locked once more, Morgenstern telekinetically threw more improvised debris at his opponent, which smashed into the back of Skywalker's head and broke the blade-lock. Morgenstern then pulled away and began telekinetically pummeling Skywalker with various objects in the room, slowly sapping away at Skywalker's morale.

As Skywalker tried and failed to hold off the onslaught of propelled equipment, a misguided piece of piping smashed him through a wall, onto a path way below them. Skywalker managed to recover but so far, Morgenstern had held back, only testing Skywalker's abilities, but now the time had come to put an end to this. In a brutal demonstration of his personal fighting style, Morgenstern began hacking and slashing at Skywalker with a series of heavy fast overhand power blows. Skywalker, overwhelmed by Morgenstern's strength and speed, was forced onto the defensive and driven back.

Engaging Skywalker in a blade-lock, Morgenstern threw him against a wall and pressed his attack. Skywalker managed to recover in time to dodge Morgenstern's slash, which struck the wall where he had been seconds before and caused an eruption of sparks. After avoiding another such attack, Skywalker attempted to escape along the way he had entered the walkway, but Morgenstern quickly cut him off.

Thrown off balance by a powerful telekinetic push from Morgenstern, Skywalker was forced to keep enduring Morgenstern's relentless offense, while he easily blocked and shunting aside all of Skywalker's counters, eventually blade-locking with the Knight Of The Wind again and throwing him into the ground.

Bringing his blade to Skywalker's throat, "You are beaten. It is useless to resist. Don't let yourself be destroyed as your mother did.", Morgenstern taunted him. In response, Skywalker defiantly drove Morgenstern's blade aside and regained his feet before attacking again.

As their bout continued, Skywalker tried to attack him with his Heat Vision, but much to his own shock and horror, Morgenstern managed to block his attack with a laser eye attack of his own. Then he continued to press his assault, his barrage driving Skywalker back and with one swift motion, he disarmed him from him weapon once again and with his free hand he grabbed Skywalker by his throat, lifting him off the ground.

"Don't make me destroy you. Jason Skywalker, you have only begun to discover your power. You have anger, you have hate, but you don't use it. Join me, and I will complete your training. Add your strength to mine, with our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict, and bring order to the Worlds.", he tried to convince him but Skywalker angrily defied him, "I will never join you!".

"Don't you see, Jason Skywalker? Only someone with my DNA in their body could have entered the Room Of Forbidden Knowledge. You could enter, just like me. I thought you were dead, but now I know. You are my son.", Morgenstern declared.

Comments

[Skyguy626]

6760839 I see, you are entitled to your own opinion of course. At least you give it a chance. Further into the story it's explained why they are not so surprised about the humans. Also I tried to steer away from the usual HIE cliche's you usually read.