The wave of magic slammed into Sparkle with incredible force. Her skin cracked, blue-white light pouring out from the wounds. She had just enough time to make eye contact with Shining Armor before the secondary concussive blast slammed into her.
Sparkle shattered like glass, and with it, so did her brother’s world.
A hush fell over the gathered crowd. Dozens of ponies had just witnessed Sparkle’s very sudden death.
“No...” Shining took a step forwards. “Sparks! No...” He took another step and then broke out into a full gallop. “No no no! Oh Celestia, buck no!”
He skidded to a halt over the mangled form of the prosthetic, which looked like it had ruptured from the inside out. In fact, it had; Sparkle had placed her old bone inside it for safe keeping, and when the blast hit, the bone exploded.
That fake leg was the only identifiable trace of his sister left. Everything else had been blasted beyond the borders of the empire, and had been pulverized to dust.
Shining Armor’s hind legs gave out from under him. He didn’t even try to stop his fall.
“Shiny! Oh Celestia, no...” Cadance shouted as she galloped up to where her fiancé had fallen. “Sparkle... why?”
“What in tarnation just happened?” Applejack asked as she and the rest of the Element Bearers also arrived.
Shining Armor stiffened as his muscles tensed to the point of shaking. The smell of smoke filled the air. His jaw clenched hard enough to crack his teeth. “YOU.”
Shining Armor whipped around, mane exploding into flames, and slugged the first pony in his hoof’s path, which happened to be Pinkie Pie. “YOU! YOU KILLED HER! RRRAAAAGGGHHH!”
His hoof swung wildly, this time crashing into Rainbow Dash with enough force to send her flying, and not in a good way.
“Shining Armor! Stop, please,” Cadance begged.
Shining Armor’s flaming head whipped to the side as he latched his gaze on her. Crimson eyes bore down into her violet pair, with nothing but pure, unadulterated rage in the former aimed at the latter. “YOU YOU WERE THE ONE WHO PUT THE HEART THERE! YOU KILLED SPARKLE!”
“I didn’t know it would do that!” Cadance pleaded. “The crystal heart is an artifact of protection powered by the crystal ponies, it shouldn’t have-”
“THEN IT WAS THIS BUCKING EMPIRE THAT KILLED HER! I’LL KILL THEM! I’LL KILL THEM ALL!” he roared, his rage changing targets again, this time aimed at the entire empire.
“Shiny, no! They’re innocent.” Cadance only succeeded in redirecting his rage yet again - this time at her.
Shining lunged for her throat, intent on skewering it with his horn. At the last second, a magical pulse slammed the irrational stallion into the ground. “Trixie will not let you hurt Princess Cadance,” the alicorn’s defender said.
Shining Armor bucked and thrashed within the magical grip. His own violently fluctuating magic kept throwing her magic off, which meant that it took Trixie, Rarity, and Cadance to keep him pinned.
“RAAAAGGHH! AHHH! AAAHHH! Ahhh...” As Shining Armor’s rage cooled, his fiery mane and tail returned to their normal shade of blue, and his eyes restored their cerulean hue. His bellows of rage slowly warped into sobbing wails of anguish.
“Shiny...” Cadance said once it was apparent that he no longer needed to be held down. “I...”
But no words would come. She was the princess of love, not of grief. Anything she could say right now felt like it would be rubbing salt into both of their wounds.
The weeping stallion muttered something that Cadance couldn’t quite hear. When his fiancée asked him to speak up, he repeated, “You should have known... you should have known...”
“How could I?” Cadance asked. “Shining, it was an accident... Sparkle... oh Celestia...”
“You could have known...” Shining Armor repeated.
Fluttershy, ever the caring soul, came up and wrapped her wing around Shining Armor’s back. That proved to be a mistake, as it only rekindled his rage. With a shove, Shining Armor sent the small pegasus tumbling. “You should have known! You six nearly killed Sparkle with the last magical shit you used. What, are you trying to finish the job? ‘Cause guess bucking what? You won! Sparkle’s dead. MY SISTER! IS! DEAD!”
That earned him a slap from Applejack. “Now listen here,” the orange mare commanded. “I know what it’s like to lose loved ones, and ya don’t go around hittin’ ponies for because of it. Am. Ah. Clear?”
Shining Armor rubbed his cheek and nodded dumbly.
“Good. Now, this was a tragic accident. You are gonna sit there until you can get it in you to walk, and then we’re gonna go inside. Understand?”
“Mmmhmm,” Shining Armor agreed.
“Good.”
It was supposed to be a happy week. He should have been preparing for his wedding this coming weekend. Instead, he was at his own sister’s funeral.
He sat silently in the chair. There was only a pile of wood with no body to burn with it. Shards of her had been found, turned to crystal by the blast, but nothing whole enough to display.
When he’d been out in the snow, looking for anything that belonged to his sister, he’d only managed to find her eye, crystallized until it literally was a jewel. He couldn’t bear to look at it, though. Despite being just as round and inexpressive as any other severed eye, it had still managed to capture the pure anguish it had felt when its life was ripped away from it.
The stone eye was in his suit pocket, though. It was morbid, sure, but he didn’t think he could completely part with her yet. And so he sat, eye tucked away, at its owner’s funeral.
There weren’t many ponies here. Cadance was here, and had brought Princess Celestia and Princess Luna with her. With Luna had come Lieutenant Ironwood, Squad Six of the Red Platoon, and Vinyl Scratch. The Element Bearers were there as well. Rarity had insisted that they had come, and had brought Sweetie Belle along as well.
That was it. With Thorn and Cobalt having vanished off the face of the world, that was the sum total of the ponies that had shown up. None of the guards she had taught, none of the nobles, none of the common ponies, nopony else.
Shining stood up and walked until he was next to the pyre wood, on top of which sat one of the very few photos of Sparkle. He looked into her eyes. Whereas he had been so enraged before, now he felt numb. No tears flowed, and his heart felt nothing.
Cadance walked up next to him. “It hurts so much... But she’s with your parents now, so that’s what matters.”
“She isn’t,” Shining Armor replied. “I never told you, but Death... I saw her back during the Battle of Canterlot. She told me that I would lose somepony close to me. She knew, Cadance. She knew that Sparks was going to die, and I know she knows what Sparks has done.”
“Shiny? What has she done? You never tell me much about her... what... what did she do?”
“She’s killed, Cadance. She’s killed a lot of ponies, and not just during the battle. She’s done horrible thing, I know. And if she’s in Death’s hooves now... you know what they say happens to ponies who’ve killed once. Sh-she’s... she’s...”
He couldn’t bring himself to say more. But he didn’t need to. In that moment, Cadance understood. Dread and regret piled up in her stomach and sat like a led brick. A tear rolled down her eye, and then another. Within second, it was a constant stream of tears from her eyes as she gently sobbed into her fiancé’s shoulder.
Welp Shining Armor's reaction was quite spot on I think. That eye is probably gonna be used in a future chapter. Now I'm guessing one of the next epilogue's is gonna be thorn and cobalt.
Lovely chapter that clears up quite a few worries I had with the abrupt ending.
But, I have to admit that bit with Applejack felt a bit hollow. She's the Element of Honesty and she's lost family, sure, but I'm fairly certain she wasn't told to shut up by her parents killer five minutes after it happened with the smoking bits still littering an entire empire.
Frankly, Shining should have totally lost it in that moment and outright tried killing her in my opinion, rather then just throwing a few punches and screaming vague threats. Not start humming.
Twilight didn't bother to make a hop through the mirror to attend her twin sister's funeral? That's cold. This chapter is like Gatsby's funeral all over again!
I would be bursting with joy if you had said that any other time besides right after the main character's funeral.
Sadly Sparkle could not visit her on funeral, but not for the reason most would think.
I have to wonder if the Crystal Heart did anything to disrupt the magical enhancements that Sparkle has done to Shining Armor. They were done using dark magical shenanigans, so I wouldn't be surprised if they've at least been nullified in some way.
WAIT she was a necromancer now she died is she going to come back as a litch
ALL HAIL THE LITCH QUEEN SPARKLE
6240177 maybe she is mortally wounded
6240213 Oh, she's fine. Remember that backup body she got? Tirek I mean. She's going to pop out of the closet any day now and scare the living horseapples out of Shining. I bet she's just making it look like herself first instead of an evil centaur overlord. But the funeral is still sad! Nopony showed up!
6240208
I've got my money on coming back in Tirek's body.
She did keep it lying around for "just in case", right. Also, wasn't death described as a kind of centaur or something? My money is on Sparkle coming back in Tirek's body, and becoming Death.
6240225 no I mean Twilight from the parallel timeline
6240246 yeah, that would make sense.
6240225
6240243
Wherein Shining no longer has a sister, but has a brother instead...
6240271 I know! Shining is going to have a heart attack!
"Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds"
Even as a chapter title, that would be pretty amazing.
6240208
That requires immense preperation, however you may be onto something. A lich requires a phalactory for a part of their soul, for example Sparkle was Thorn's phalactory, because they shared a soul.
Though, I feel a different path may open itself...
she havnt used a city killer YET in this story meaning that it is in the future.... as death said
also death asked celestia to make it so luna would help him in 2 years.... whit.. something we dont know
= ...(PLEASE DONT MAKE A SHIP OR ILL SINK IT WHIT MY SUBMARINE!)
= (for real this time) WE ARE GONNA GET MORE NO MATTER WHAT!
I can see it now: Sparkle sneaking behind Shining in a brand new Tirek suit, scaring the bajeebus out od him.
And now I'm wondering, what did happen to the cult of princess Treelestia?
Praise the log XD
6240319
...
OH MY GOD YES THAT'S HOW SHE SURVIVED RIGHT SHE SWAPPED INTO TIREK'S BODY BEFORE SHE DIED SO SHE'S NOT ACTUALLY DEAD BECAUSE SHE CAN'T BE DEAD THANK YOU SO MUCH STRANGER!!
*fangirl noises*
6240327
They're still there.
Well, technically they Did kill her and it wasn't just a 'tragic accident'.
Sorry AJ, but you are accessory to murder.
6236146 that just kinda hpened. It makes sence though.
Please tell me that there is a sequel planned for this. Otherwise I'm going to sick pinkie pie on you. Then record it and post it online.
Then you shall be banished to the depths of hell only to come out when you have started a sequel. Do you understand me soldier??
6240363
I would like a Pinkie Pie, so I won't tell you that there is a sequel coming.
6240370 so you want pinkie to come to your house and I will even ask her the most feared question of all time: chimichanga or chimmicungsas.
(I can't spell too good at 9am)
6240271
Oh, but its true Shiny! You won't have a sister for much longer... actually you will have a brother!
*dark whispering that echos for miles* If my brother had been killed even by accident anyone that even considered talking to me like that would find themselves brutalised beyond all recognition, just like the laws, ignorance is no excuse. Even if no one had spoken to me as if they are superior and know how I feel because they had lost a loved one everyone involved , if it was within my power, would likely find themselves in the hospital if not the morgue. I sure as hell would NOT be cowed by the bitch responsible for his death slapping and yelling at me. If I was a unicorn or otherwise had magic I DOUBT THERE WOULD BE ANYONE LEFT TO SAY WHAT HAD OCCURRED AND THE AREA WOULD LIKELY BE STEEPED IN MY HATE FROM THE MAGIC USED
Do I have anger issues? Maybe. Could this actually happen if my brother died? Unless there is a surprising quantity of munitions lying around...... Maybe, maybe not, I hope I never have to find out.
6240412
Well said, well said.
Well that happened.
Loved the story.
6240370 eeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I cant wait
6240370
Hell yeah! What happens? Do they go on an epic quest to drag her soul out of the deepest depths of Tartarus?
6240204 That's what I was thinking.
We know that Sparkle didn't become Death, but maybe she just became the Dread Necroptica.
I was going to say that it was kind of a dick move of Vinyl not to be there, but I guess she only didn't come because either nopony told her, or because the sun was still up? I know, they weren't that close, but at the gala, they seemed to be pretty friendly with each other.
6240672
I think it also bears remembering that she save all of canterlot from a vampire invasion. If that doesn't make you a national hero I don't know what does. Not to mention the crystal empire which she single hoofedly brought back from the void and took out it's boogieman/tyrant.
6240889 It should, but she's a dark mage whose traumatized more than half the day guard. Like any kind who is oppressed in a society their triumphs get washed over simply because of who they are.
Oooh, near-Genocide. I like. And honestly, a reasonable reaction, given the situation.
Seriously, even you planned on bringing her back in the sequel, this was seriously fucked up. And...this problem with her and harmonious artifacts/energy really needs to be fixed at some point in my opinion.
Things like love, friendship, harmony(real harmony), they don't light, they don't know darkness, they just are. And that's how it should be for Sparkle, and good mare at heart was killed by love. She needs a happy ending, something fitting for a good magic user, something with friendship.
Ehh, that felt over the top for Shining. Not sure I can't imagine Cadance still being his fiancee at the end there what with the murder attempt up-chapter.
May sparkle rest in peace.......wait a minute the eye....and she still has sombra, some of the books and she has a weird relationship with death......ITS NOT THE END
6410597 theendisnevertheendisnevertheisnevertheendisnevertheendisneverthend
6459288 theendisnevertheendisnevertheendisnevertheendisnevertheendisnevertheendisnevertheendisnevertheendisnevertheendisnever
6240180 Wait, her being petrified, filled with cleansing light, and exploding isn't reason enough to not come to a funeral?
Besides, who else is holding a funeral?
7043349
6240412 A-buckin'-men, AJ's a complete cunt in that scene. Sorry girl, but you're one of the ones that just blasted his sister apart. She didn't die off screen like your parents, she very much died right in front of her brother, when they were the only family they had left. I'm sure you'd understand how he feels after you sit there and watch someone slice Apple Bloom, Big Mac, and Granny Smith to shreds. After that, you might know what he feels like.
*Checks chapter index*
CRAP NO I THOUGHT I HAD MORE CHAPTERS TO READ