My Little Pony: The Seal of Death

by Azrael the alicorn

19: Into The Belly Of The Beast

Shining Armor watched the vast army of undead alicorns, impressed by how big it was, surpassing their own three times. And if the numbers weren’t scary enough, the looks of those zombie-like creatures were sickening. Their bodies were rotten, the wings didn’t have any feather on them and showed bones and decayed flesh; the hooves were filthy and dirty and were filled with cracks. And their faces… the lack of flesh which showed bones, coupled with the complete lack of the lower jaw and eyes, was downright terrifying.

I can’t believe it… they shouldn’t be even capable to stand after all this time passed in the grave! Much less be sent into battle! The power that Sombra have over the dead is horrible! thought the Captain of the guards.

Princess Luna, who stood right beside him, could feel what he was thinking.

“You must not be afraid, Shining, this alicorns are nothing but a shadow of what they once were,” she said, reassuring the unicorn.

“Yes, but they are still much more numerous than us!” She noticed his extreme level of anxiety, and concluded something was off.

“That’s your first true battle, isn’t it?” she asked, already guessing the answer.

“Well, it happened to clash and fight with creatures like Hydras or some burly minotaur. But is nothing compared to this.”

“I guess, but I know your skills, Shining Armor. You have proved it during the reunion back in the Crystal Empire and before of our arrival here.”

“Well, it wasn’t really that complicated, but I appreciate the compliment”, Shining Armor said, giving a nod of respect to the ruler of the night.

The plan indeed had changed, passing from an aggressive one to a much more defensive type. Instead of charging the undead army, the united forces of Equestria decided to stand in circle, mixing the strength of the buffalos to the magic of the unicorns and Luna, assuming a strong defensive position. Shining could only hope that such strategy wouldn’t have annoyed Sombra, keeping him focused on the battlefield.

Suddenly the zombies alicorns started to advance with unexpected quickness. Apparently those horribly decomposed legs and hooves were still capable to grant them a great mobility.

“Brace yourself, people!” ordered Shining Armor.

And the undead army charged them and at the same time started to shoot rays from their horns. Luckily the magic barrier made by Shining, Luna, and all the unicorns held its place without any problem and while a part of them was busy keep the shield up the others ponies started the counter-attack, shooting burst of energy with all the strength they had, managing to damage their already messed up corpses. But that alone was not enough to stop their charge, which reached the barrier. The magic shield allowed them to pass…

Just to end up brutally assaulted by the buffalos! The team of those giants were split into two teams: one for attacking the trespassers and one to protect the ponies. The strategy was working pretty well and Shining Armor hoped that the things could keep going like this until the Mane Six and Azrael returned.

In the middle of fighting, he found himself wondering how the Afterlife looked like. He wondered if his sister would have the chance to meet their parents or Spike. Shining Armor grimaced at that thought. He had always saw in that little dragon—just as Twilight did—a little brother. And he didn’t forget, just like Cadence, that it was thanks to his courage that the Crystal Empire was saved. His death was just as sad as the ones of Celestia and his parents, for not counting that unlike the former he was yet a baby dragon.

Shining Armor moved those thoughts away. If he wanted to take down Sombra’s army he had to stay focused. The Afterlife could wait.

*

“Celestia! Celestia, please wake up!”

The ruler of Equestria opened her eyes, and found herself face to face with a familiar face.

“Spike?” she asked at first, confused. Once she managed to take off her the grogginess, she knew it was really him. “SPIKE!” she shouted, picking the little dragon off the “ground” and hugged him with happiness. The embrace was a bit too much strong for the small dragon.

“Ugh, Celestia, I know we are not in the physical world, but please contain your strength!” said the young dragon.

“Oh, sorry” she said, putting him down.

“Celestia, have you any idea of how we can get out from the Soul Eater?” asked Spike, looking concerned.

“Yes, but how do you know about that creature?”

“Well, my body may have been reduced to ash, but my spirit was yet pretty much awake. I’ve seen how Sombra used my soul and that of so many others to give this big worm life. After that I remember only a great pain tormenting, so strong that it made me lose all sense of time. At least until some minutes ago, where I felt Elements of Harmony hit the Soul Eater.”

“So, we are not alone?”

“Nope. Turn around.”

She did so, finding not too far away a large crowd of ponies of all kinds and ages. Once she started to move towards them the mass noticed her. Soon she found herself surrounded by scared and confused ponies which started begging the princess with all kind of questions and prayers, making quite the noise. Celestia tried to talk calmly but the racket was to much strong and it didn’t show to get down so she decided to use her Canterlot voice.

“Enough!” shouted the ruler of Equestria, her voice overwhelming the thousands of ponies before her.

“If we let panic take over us we’re not going anywhere. We must be calm so that we can figure it out a way to get out of here,” she continued, more calm.

“How? Have you tried to look around!? We are completely surrounded by darkness!” screamed a filly with a crown as a cutie mark.

For how much Celestia didn’t agreed on the desperate (and rather annoying) tone of the little she had a point. All around them there was nothing but a pitch black.

“Leave your hope you should not, because even in the deepest darkness light still is on,” said the zebra known as Zecora, pointing into a the far east. Everypony watched in that direction, trying to figure it out what the zebra had just saw. It was hard to see at first, but then they noticed something: A weak light, so weak that it was easy to miss.

“Is that a possible way out?” asked Spitfire.

“I don’t think it is, but something else not less helpful will be,” continued Zecora.

“So…?” asked Soarin, confused by the riddles of the zebra.

“I think that light is what we may consider the brain of the Soul Eater. If we reach it we may be able to find a way to get out of here,” stated Princess Celestia.

“Then what are we waiting for?” asked Spike.

The large crowd moved toward the weak light, just to find themselves before what indeed looked like some sort of brain or physical consciousness. But when they tried to get closer to it a barrier had risen up, stopping them on the tracks.

“Stand back everypony!” said Celestia, summoning all of her power to take the obstacle down into a ray. Sadly it didn’t matter how much effort she putted, the barrier didn’t even flinched at this.

Suddenly the place around them started to shake as if there was an earthquake.

“And now what’s going on!?” asked again the pink pony.

“I’m not sure of it, but I’m afraid that the Soul Eater is trying to break the spell casted by the Elements of Harmony” said Zecora.

“You know, I’m not sure of what I should feel, happy for the fact you just stopped rhyming or scared for the fact this thing is going to wake up and curse us again with pain,” commented Soarin, trying to use his humor to keep the panic at bay.

Too bad that the pink filly wasn’t at all amused by it.

“We are DOOMED! THERE’S NO WAY OUT! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!” started screeching the little pony.

“Tiara! Please calm down!” begged her father, who looked quite ashamed by the hysteria of his offspring.

“Please leave her to us,” said Sweetie Belle. The Cutie Mark Crusaders walked to the pink filly unicorn.

“Calm down Diamond Tiara!” ordered Applebloom, shaking Tiara like a ragdoll. Then when she didn’t complied to the request Scootaloo took her place.

“Let me try,” said the young pegasi. She grabbed Tiara by the shoulders, “Get ahold of yourself darn it!” shouted Scootaloo. As soon Diamond Tiara continued screaming the pegasi started slapping her, “I said, GET!” Slap. “AHOLD!” Slap. “OF YOURSELF!” ordered Scootaloo while beating her up.

“I think she has calmed down,” stated Filthy Rich.

“Better be sure about that.” For good measure, she slapped the hysteric filly a few more times.

“I had enough of this,” said Spike, turning all attention towards him. Then the young dragon started attacking the barrier with his claws and fire, to no avail.

“Spike—“ started to say the ruler of Equestria, but the dragon interrupted her.

“I’m sick of feeling useless, to be left behind while my friends risk their life over and over to protect us from every menaces which appears on the horizon! I don’t care if all of this is pointless, I will never stop trying to protect my friends! I say that has come the time to repay all of their effort, who’s with me?” he asked.

“I am!” declared Granny Smith. “Feel on joining us to take this bad guy out, Big Mac?”

“Yup” agreed the eldest brother of Applejack.

“Me too!” said Applebloom.

“Count us in too!” said Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo at the same time while the latter dropped Diamond Tiara on the ground.

In no time all the ponies from Ponyville, Canterlot, and Cloudsdale started helping them, pushing, beating and magic rays the barrier, helping Celestia in her work. What they couldn’t know (for the exception of Celestia) is that when the Elements of Harmony stroked down the Soul Eater they had also infused the souls inside of him with their power, giving them an extra amount of power. Now that they worked all together the power started to flow into them and soon helped them to overcome the magic barrier. The brain of the Soul Eater noticed that and started to blast the ponies away, hoping to get enough time to fully broke free from the spell. Many ponies were pushed back, but Spike and Celestia managed to get closer and closer. They could all feel that there were few seconds left to stop the monster consciousness, Spike leaped and, pushed by Princess Celestia, went straight towards the target. And then….

Author's Note:

Yet 5 chapters left, gentlemen.
I hope to have manage to surprise someone here. Did you really expected that I would sacrifice my favorite male character of the show so early on?

Comments

[YeetingHunter]

By five chapters, do you mean the story, or until death is reviled?

[Azrael the alicorn]

6417317 The second one.
Your comment gave me an actual pretty creepy idea

[Revan]

6417948 In the words of Deigo from the first Ice Age movie,

"Oh no."

[YeetingHunter]

6417948 Really now, I will have to see what said idea is