Journey to the center of Equestria

by Rarity Belle

Chapter LXXXIV

The two anthronies once again locked themselves in their deadly battle when they engaged with one another once more. For the whole time as time stood still they were literally at each other’s throat. Punches were dealt while kicks were given out. The two beings of darkness just continued their fight as if nothing had changed or happened.

The blows were both received and given by the other while the physical exhaustion became more and more apparent by the two of them. Their bodies were wearing thin, literally. It wouldn’t have been all too long before either one of them be shattered. Not that it was minded all too much by the other though.

Both Nightmare Moon and Sunset Shimmer only were having a pair of eyes for the other. They wanted to see the eradication of the other being and they wanted to see it happen there and then. There was no other way how the battle could have been resolved. The only problem happened to be at the magical abilities of both Sunset and Twilight were just about the same.

Where Twilight Sparkle had trained her abilities into the lighter form of the arcane arts, Sunset Shimmer trained herself in the dark arts. Which in return meant that they were about equally powerful but had taken different paths to achieve that.

Huffs and growls were released by both of the mares after they had made a jump backwards. It was no use to keep on going in the way that they did. The mares looked one another firm in the eyes while the blood streamed down their bodies. Sunset’s talons had left their markings all over the body of the nightmare unicorn.

The pain was shared by Nightmare Moon though. She was the dominating entity within the body and thus had not only full control over it, but also felt everything what happened. The nerve system of the unicorn’s brain was linked directly to her very own essence.

A winch of pure pain was given off by the dark mistress of hell before a hand travelled past the lips. Blood was collected upon the skin, though she never even dared to take her eyes away from Sunset Shimmer. The demoness was the life that she wanted to take and if time allowed her, she would have reformed Twilight Sparkle to her own bidding

Though that matter was one that could still be thought about later. The first and possible only priory that the devil had was the demoness. Another growl therefore left through the throat as the eyes were narrowed once more.

“Don’t you see what you’re doing to yourself?! You failed to realize the truth you are forced to live in. You live in a fantasy world created by your own mind. You think you could have escaped me all those times before. But let me tell you just how wrong you happened to be on that part!” Nightmare Moon spoke through the winches of pain. Her voice was still unusually clear through.

That fact came as a massive surprise to Sunset. She had thought that the body of the unicorn couldn’t have endured that much to begin with. Yet as it turned out, Twilight happened to be a lot of a tougher nut to be cracked. Not that it mattered all too much to her though, she would still take a sickening enjoyment out of snapping her neck.

“I’m wrong for defying you?!” Sunset replied after she gasped for breath. The words of the devil must have been spoken in utter desperation. It couldn’t have been anything else. The demoness saw her chance clean to regain some of her much required energy as the once again had a stare down. “I like to go into the history books as the being that defied the devil herself!”

Those words made then Nightmare Moon chuckle up before she shook her head from left to right. “How foolish, how foalish even,” the devil replied to her with a nasty grin. “You think you’re just so powerful to defeat me in combat. But you forget that I’m at my full power when this body has been destroyed. Which you have planned to do for a very, very long time now. Could you live with yourself, if you did such a thing to perhaps your one true friend?”

The devil was just taunting the demoness from that point onward. The words spoken in the mixed tone caused some confusion to be struck by the demoness. But she had her sights set straight. There only was one way through which she would be able to liberate herself truly from the torments of the devil herself.

And that was by perhaps doing the unthinkable. But Sunset Shimmer had to kill the devil herself. The demoness of fire had to not just make a point to Nightmare Moon, she had to vanquish her from existence. …If such a thing was only possible. The eyes of the mare were closed for a fraction of a second in order to make a blink.

~~~~

The eyes were opened again when a deep breathing was given off. Hyperventilation almost seemed to be happening and a mulberry skinned hand reached for the chest. Behind her stood the two massive doors that would be leading her to the library. In front of her laid the equally massive hallway that seemed to be stretching out to infinity and far beyond.

Twilight Sparkle herself gasped for air as she had managed to escape the clutches of darkness. Her body was safe from harm in her own eyes. Sweat of fear gently went past the sides of her head before she shook it violently.

“That can’t be possible, right? Such a thing, just isn’t possible and you know it,” the mare said to herself before she walked away from the door. After only a couple of steps forward had she turned back around to face the gates of darkness again. “S-Something isn’t right. Something has been going wrong. Dead wrong. What kind of spell would have been cast over the castle or, or, o-or me?”

There was a light that turned on in the mind of Twilight when she made a shocking realization. “No, no, no, no, no, that couldn’t have been done, right? I mean, history is set in stone and I couldn’t have just been removed from it, like that.” All sorts of ideas went through her when she turned around with haste. Her eyes had to view everything there was to be seen.

Any sign could have helped her to determine where exactly in time she happened to be and what direction she had to look for the answers.

Clean, everything was just clean. “Meaning, we’re still in the present,” said Twilight to herself after her turning stopped. The unicorn moved over to one of the many windows and looked over to the world outside. There she could have only prayed on the fact that everything would have been alright.

Her eyes turned from left to right while she watched over the courtyard of castle. Her eyes were set on any kind of motion and once more continued their search. She had to find somepony else, anypony would have been good enough to her. From either the laziest student to the sternest guard. Anypony would have been just more than welcome in her eyes.

It were a couple of long and tedious seconds had she glanced over the courtyard. But never did she saw another being moving around or about. The normally always filled courtyard of the place had just been emptied. Something or somepony seemed to have taken all of the souls of the castle away, with the exception of hers.

It troubled Twilight perhaps a whole lot more than it originally needed to have. But she became terrified. She became terrified about just what was holding the sheer ability that could have done such a thing. Thousand and one things rushed through her mind as she took another set of steps back.

The realization kicked in her mind as she turned around to look down the hallway. A gentle tear formed itself in her eye before it made the journey down her cheek. “I can’t be… I can’t be, the only one left, can I?” she questioned to herself in a true tone of sadness.

Twilight Sparkle just stood there while she allowed the events to just wash over her. The lack of anthronies within the castle had made her feel uncomfortable beyond belief. Uncomfortable up to the point that she thought that she was alone in the massive castle. Which made the prideful building become a whole lot more spooky looking.

The normally always so filled hallways were empty, the dorms that used to carry the students off into the nights had no one to protect. The rooms for the other soothsayers had nopony to pray in. Life in the castle ceased to exist with one, measly exception. Twilight Sparkle continued to live on as if nothing had happened.

Naturally did it terrify the unicorn. Because for all she knew did she happen to be the cause of it all. There was no memory of the other day, she also had forgotten the magical matter that she wanted to look up. A hand was brought to her mouth and only three fingers touched her lips.

In her eyes could the terror be clearly read before she shook her head gently. It couldn’t have been her, right? It couldn’t have been her who had just removed every last being from the castle and sent them to the goddesses knew where. Fears crawled up in her body as there possibly was one location where she could have gone to.

The only place in the whole castle that probably would have allowed her to give some kind of answers upon the matters that were tormenting her mind. Though the route had to be walked. The dangerous route where everything could have happened upon. The soothsayer nodded firm to herself as she gathered her guts.

She had escaped the clutches of the darkened library already, something else along those lines could be fought a second time. As long as it wasn’t along the lines of an old friend she would encounter. A shudder travelled down the spine of the mare before she just continued onward.

The clacking of her heels against the stone floor echoed against every possible wall. To Twilight it constantly seemed to be as if she was followed by an entity that she couldn’t see at all. The unicorn was constantly on her guard as she held her hands ready. At any given moment in time could she have collected her magic and had to fire a blast against something.

Her eyes went from left to right and in every single sideway that she came across. The thoughts of a figure standing in each and every one of them crawled up in her eyes. The mind began to play tricks upon her as she noticed something in the corner of her eyes. Something in one of the hallways had captured her attention. And that wasn’t a good thing at all.

The unicorn quickly charged her magic before she turned towards the mysterious figure. But when the hallway came into her full view, there was nothing to be witnessed. An eyebrow rose up in a gentle manner as she couldn’t have believed the facts as they were. “Always hidden, at the spot you never dare to look. The corner, of your eye,” the soothsayer whispered to herself before shook her head vividly and frightened.

Twilight discharged her magic and turned back around to walk forwards. Her imagination had been toying around with her and played in with her most primal fears. The emptiness of the castle was already a thing that crawled to her and she didn’t require any more in the moment. Though the fear of seeing figures at places they weren’t be happened to be another one that tried to get a hold of her.

If she didn’t know any better, it would have seemed that something played with her fears. Almost as if some kind of dark magic had taken a grasp around her heart and mind. The only problem happened to be that she didn’t realize that little fact. For Twilight was everything that she saw a reality. A frightening one, but one nonetheless.

The mare quickened her pace and she kept on walking through the hallways. Mutters were released through her mouth, she complained about one fact over and over. The very fact of just why the office of the head soothsayer had to be placed in the one massive tower were nopony went to.

The office of the head soothsayer was the location where she wanted to go. There must have been some answers that she could have used to her own advantage at that place. At least that was the thing where she hoped for. A faint hope that became less and less with every step she took.

Anything was better than being left out in the figural dark that she was. Twilight would have lowered her pace to a standstill out of nowhere. There was another fact that crawled up in her body. “Where are you lot?” she mumbled to herself before had a look from right to left again.

Where she earlier had seen guards standing upon their required spots, now she didn’t saw anypony. Not even the statue like guards were there anymore. That little fact alone caused the unicorn to blink a little bit with her eyes. She didn't remember anything of them having gone off or anything. And she certainly didn’t hear them when they went off. “What’s going on here?!” she exclaimed in utter desperation.

"The office can wait, I need to find out something else first!” The panic that had filled Twilight caused her to run as fast as she could. The unicorn ran through the hallways of the castle as she seemed to be heading back.

Back to the rooms of the students and the rooms of the staff. The eyes didn’t look to either her right or left anymore. She had a clear heading that she needed to follow and she would follow it no matter what. Even if the levels of danger were arising literally right next to her, she had to find out the one thing she was required to find out.

The thoughts crossed her mind as she rushed over to the rooms of her fellow colleagues and just came to a standstill again. The hallway looked so peaceful at first glance. Though all of the doors were shut and no light seemed to have gotten out of the gaps beneath it. Which meant to her that they probably would have still been vastly asleep.

But that couldn’t be, right? The morning sun had been shining bright and it wasn’t a day where they could rest upon. “This is just getting too creepy for me,” said Twilight Sparkle herself while she walked to one of the doors.

Out of all the teachers in Canterlot Castle was there one that certainly would have answered to her calls. Perhaps not in the kindest of manners but those left the unicorn just cold in the moment. She had to know whether or not her mind was right on the matters that it came up with. So with a deep exhale she knocked upon the door.

A door that was of nopony else then the battlemage instructor herself: Beatrix Lulamoon. Possibly the biggest nemesis that Twilight had made in the castle and sure to answer her call. “Trixie, are you in there? We need to discuss a couple of things. This whole place, is acting… funny, for the lack of a better term,” said Twilight in a loud and clear tone. The waiting began.

Seconds went by. There was no way in the world that the battlemage couldn’t have heard it through it. The answer had to come one way or the other. Unless her thoughts had been confirmed. If that happened to be the case, she just had to wait a couple more seconds. A couple of seconds that seemed to have been worth nothing to any and all were required to figure out whether or not her worst thoughts had been true or not.

Seconds ticked by like hours in Twilight’s mind. The unicorn soothsayer became more terrified with every last one that went by. She began to fear that her thoughts had been confirmed and only one more thing could be done. A thing that she never had done to begin with and one she didn’t hoped to be doing anymore after it.

All that the unicorn could be doing was to just barge straight into the room. Would she barge straight into the room that belonged to her nemesis and probably get a load of magic over her? But it would have been worth the risks just so much. At least it would have been in her own eyes. The soothsayer simply nodded to herself. There was no other option left in her mind. She just had to do what was needed.

Her hand allowed itself to be coated within the magical aura as she reached out for the doorknob. Only a mere second after her hand and the object touched could the lock be heard opening up. Which meant to Twilight that it must have been locked from the inside. Time was there, the time had fallen upon her to figure out just what was going on in the castle.

With one swift motion was the door flung open and Twilight appeared in the opening with the hand still charged. A shield was being created because she had expected a massive burst of fire or ice to have been fired right in her direction.

Yet there was nothing. Nothing had gotten into her way as silence took over again. Only the loud crash of the door against the stone wall filled the room for a moment. But she then just looked over the room through the shield.

In her eyes she caught perhaps the worst possible thing. For the entire room of the battlemage instructor had been cleaned up. Everything had just been stacked in nice looking stacks of documents and documents. The various staffs that were carried by Trixie all hung prideful at the wall while the bed perhaps bared the biggest concern.

Everything on top of the bed was made up. The blankets and the pillow laid in a perfect formation as if they had been cleaned only moments ago. To any other anthrony Twilight would have said that it was a good job. But she knew Trixie through and through. The other unicorn wasn’t as clean as Twilight or the rest. Not by a long shot.

No, Trixie was both messy and unorganized. A brilliant fighter with the arcane for sure, but just a disaster when it came to cleaning things up. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that she could always have found order among chaos.

“This isn’t right. This is everything but right,” said Twilight to herself moments after she lowered the shield. She took a step or two further into the room and looked around once more. Her eyes just couldn’t have believed what they saw.

Everything within the room of Trixie had just been tidied up for whatever reason. All the scrolls were placed nicely upon their shelves. All of the papers and books stored on top of the desk. The chair was even pushed against it. The shivers went down the spine of Twilight. The sights terrified her because they were just as unreal as anything could have been.

A small gasp for air was given off by the unicorn before she shook her head again. It was just impossible to do anything else. The mare had to leave, she had to head to the tower of the head soothsayer. Twilight needed to have answers upon the questions that were tormenting her mind.

The door of the room was closed again when Twilight had charged up her magic again. She wouldn’t be taking any chances anymore. With the disappearances of the guards in other parts of the castle could she better have over prepared than doing anything else. Prevention was better than healing, as the saying went.

A deep exhale was given off by her nostrils when she once more walked through the hallways of the giant castle. But the feelings weren’t getting more comfortable on the matter. No, Twilight was afraid of everything in the castle. She was truly afraid of the things that could have happened.

For all she knew, could she have encountered one of the biggest evils in the whole land. Or even worse, she would have to fight a much darker version of herself. The head was given a shake before she made a turn. A turn that was meant to become a little shortcut to the office of the head soothsayer. She hadn’t taken the route before as she wasn’t in the position to go down that road without having to backtrack her steps first.

She didn’t wanted to think back about the library as well. The door of it was perhaps covered in a dark substance that resonated only to black magic. The terrifying thoughts of Twilight rushed through her mind as the warning on the scroll always stood with her. There must have been some force that was looking out for her. At least that was the way it happened to be presented to her.

The unicorn turned around another corner and got the fright of her life. She took a couple of steps back and then she gasped for air. Her uncharged hand reached for her chest while her back was set against the wall. The eyes were closed for a moment as she thought there would have been a lash of some sort.

Yet once again there was nothing that seemed to be happening. The unicorn was getting only more and more confused as she dared to open one of her eyes. The only problem was that it happened to be her eye that couldn’t look into the distance. So all she saw was a shimmer that stood in the distance.

A shimmer that she had caught in her eyes before and had caused her to do what she did. The thing didn’t seemed to be getting any closer to her, which meant that it seemed to have been safe for her. So her other eye was opened as well. Which resulted in the mare regaining her focus and she just looked towards the thing in front of her.

And what she was something that she couldn’t truly have believed. For there stood a guard, in a sideways position with its head turned towards her. The eyes of the guard were directly looking at her. Yet there was no motion being made. Nothing came from the thing. The terror that rushed through Twilight made her gulp a little bit.

But then she removed herself from the wall. For she made a realization. The very fact that she carried her magic. And that very magic should have been more than enough to help her with any trouble that the guards would have been giving her. That was the plan at least. What seemed to be working in theory, never had to work in reality as well. And vice versa as well.

With a careful pace in her steps did Twilight approach the guard. Yet she never took her eyes away from him. But he neither took his eyes away from her either. The closer Twilight came, the more she began to fear something terrible would happen. She had seen such a thing before but couldn’t place where it was. A strange sense of familiarity struck her next to the fear.

The mare began to shake her head from right to left while she looked away from the guard. Something wasn’t right about him and she tried to deny the very fact as it was. The unicorn had one last look before she walked past him.

His skin was a pale as snow, the chest armor never seemed to have moved either up or down and his hooves were stuck to the floor. Twilight became only more terrified as she realized that the guard was a statue. An actual stone statue that had the haunting abilities of a real guard.

Another shudder travelled down her spine before she quickly managed to get past it and into the next hallway. She didn’t had the desire to see something along the lines of that ever again. At least not anytime soon. Twilight had to continue her journey through the castle to reach the office of the head soothsayer. To reach the office and finally get some of the much needed answers upon the matters as they were happening.

After minutes of having wandered through the castle and scaled the massive staircase that led up to the office, the unicorn had finally gotten where she needed to be. A pant was given off while she finally was at the room where she had to be. The door that was leading to the office of the head soothsayer stood before her.

With only having seen one stoned guard and the room of Trixie being cleaned up, the unicorn didn’t thought that there was much occupation within the room. So with her charged hand did she drew the symbol of the soothsayers themselves and took a hold on the door knob.

The resonation between the arcane powers she had and the magic within the door matched with one another perfectly. Which in return resulted in the fact that she could have just opened the door like that. Which was exactly the thing that she did.

The unicorn opened the door with a swift motion before she walked into the office. The door was then closed again while her magic ignited all of the flames from the candles. A sight that she had seen numerous times before returned in her eyes. But the odd thing was that everything just seemed to have been the same in that room.

It both terrified and satisfied the mare as it meant she could do what she needed to be doing. But not before she had cast a locking spell over the door. The glance of the stone guard still haunted her to her soul. So she didn’t had the desire that either him, or his possible friends would have entered the place. Once the spell had been completed could the mare given herself a deep breath of relaxation. Though the danger was far from over. She still could be ambushed right in the room of the head soothsayer by anything that was placed inside of it.

Yet in the moment she didn’t care about such things. Twilight had her own things to do and went searching through the room. There was something in that very room that could have allowed her to see what she needed to see and perhaps could have given the answers she needed. Somewhere in the room laid a crystal orb. A crystal orb that would have allowed her to just see everything that needed to be seen.

An orb that contained such a vast amount of magical powers that it was impossible to truly tame. “There you are!” Twilight spoke in happiness when she finally found it standing on one of the many shelves. With a pair of shaking hands did she managed to get a hold of it. The crystal ball was lowered from its pedestal and carried with Twilight to the desk of the head soothsayer.

There the mare just took place behind it and placed the ball on another pedestal. An exhale went through her nostrils as another hand was placed right upon it. The hand allowed itself to be coated within the magical aura and the two things were at a direct contact with one another. The words had to be spoken and the crystal orb would have revealed what needed to be revealed.

“What happened here? Why is everything the way it is now?” she asked directly to the orb before she closed her eyes. Anything could have been showed to her in the moment. Anything from the most terrible disaster to perhaps the most wonderful lie ever told.

Yet the things that she got to see where some of the most disturbing yet. The sounds of two being battling it out with one another were heard before she saw the sights as they truly were. Terror went through her, but she had to keep on watching and remain silent. There was no way other than to just witness what would come next.

~~~~

For the two beings were still going at one another’s throat. The nightmare version of Twilight Sparkle and the demoness named Sunset Shimmer were still going at one another. Their battle had been fierce and deadly. Fires must have burned for ages while the entire floor of was just charred black and cracked. Whatever the two had been doing in the meantime, they still hadn’t been able to end the life of the other. Not even after so many hours of battling.

The strangest part of it all? They still had enough energy left inside of them to continue with their madness. The two of them just stood there on top of the throne room roof while they had both assumed a stance of readiness. They wanted to once again go at one another, but Sunset had enough of it. Direct assault never seemed to have been working on the devil before her. So the only thing that could have been done was to surprise her like before.

The horn of the demoness was being charged up and before the devil could have reacted had she vanished again. But Nightmare Moon wasn’t stupid either. She awaited the events to come. She had learned from her previous mistakes and wanted to use them against Sunset for a change.

Which was done in a manner that couldn’t have been believed if it wasn’t seen. For when the demoness reappeared into the world, she wanted to once again uppercut the devil. Yet just before she would have hit the face of Twilight’s body, the devil herself teleported away from the scene. Which resulted in Sunset just hitting thin air before she landed back on her hooves.

The demoness turned around and around before she had exposed her back to Nightmare Moon. The devil reappeared back into existence and kicked the demoness right in her back. Which resulted in the other mare being forced down to the ground. With a swift motion had Nightmare Moon set Twilight’s hoof firm on the neck and taken a hold of the wings.

Screams and flaps were given off by the demoness while she thought that everything was over. But the worst pain still had to come to her though. With two swift motions of the hands was it done and could the cracks be heard. Those nasty, bone shattering cracks that went through literally marrow and bone.

Sunset Shimmer released another yell of utter pain as she realized what had been done. Nightmare Moon had broken off her wings. The joints that were used to have them fused to her body had been shattered by the devil’s hands.

With one last teleport had Moon removed herself from Shimmer’s body and shook her head. “I thought you would have been able to endure a bit more. Shame, you were always such a fine thing to watch over,” the devil spoke only moments before another grin came from her.

Sunset Shimmer on the other end was crying. She was crying in pain before she still forced her body to be risen. Though the wings were literally broken and thus rendered useless. “Y-You h-haven’t even s-seen, h-half of what, I can d-do,” she stuttered before another winch was given off.

The tides seemed to have changed for the worst in the eyes of the demoness as she was about to lose the thing she held close to her. But the worst had yet to come. Though beneath her hooves did the ground began to shake. Or better said, the floor began to shake. The eyes of both Moon and Shimmer went wide in confusion. Neither of them knew what would happen next. Yet the devil teleported herself out of the line of possible fire.

She would have left Sunset to just deal with the thing as it was. Whatever it was that came for her, or them, a third party seemed to have arrived. A third party to end their battle possibly once and for all. And most likely in a way neither of them had expected nor wanted.

Comments

[Rarity Belle]

7841288 You really like the story, don't you? Hmhmhmh, it's good to see someone enjoying it.

But meeting the rest of the Pie family? Not something I should tell here, actually. Though the answer should come within ten to fifteen chapters.