Ending B: Mark Maker's Choice
Twilight sighed as the options weighed heavily on her mind, and she looked up to see Flak, knocked out on the ceiling. Flak is a monster... a pony that feels no remorse, and can commit murder in cold blood without so much as a moment of hesitation... and he's only one of many monsters, all created by Reach. I thought that, to kill would make me like them... but perhaps... perhaps I would be hurting far more people by not doing anything.
Her thoughts grew more solid as she trotted beneath the bound pony, observing him with a pensive expression. The burden of knowledge... I now know the crimes that Reach and his minions, the whole Trident, commit! If I were to do nothing... then in a way, I am making a choice. The concequences of my inaction could be hundreds, maybe even thousands of lives. To leave such a monster alive, or to imprison him where he could make more monsters... that would change nothing. ...One life is a small price to pay for progress.
The princess was filled with a new, burning resolve. Her eyes narrowed as she put her head down and dashed through the door on the right, making up her mind to support Mark Maker in his plan. She ran and ran, passing doors in the long hall of stone, until she came to a staircase at the end.
She traveled up quickly, her hooves barely touching the steps as she ascended, until she reached a final, short hallway with only one door at the end. It was a smooth, stone door, with the raised emblem of the Trident emblazoned on it. She cleared her mind, staying focused on what she had to do, as she pushed open the heavy door and dashed inside, gasping at the sight that greeted her.
The room itself was very large, and narrowed towards the ceiling, indicating that this was the hollowed out peak of the facility. An enormous crystal raised about 20 feet into the air in the center of the room, and tapered off from a wide base to a thin top. The base descended through the floor, where she had seen the crystal in the roof earlier. She hadn't expected it to be this large, though that was not the most shocking sight in the chamber. She saw Reach right off, hovering above the crystal and sporting some kind of metallic outer suit, complete with mechanical wings, but she didn't let it distract from her mission.
The gray stallion turned around at the sound of the door, speaking in a very clear, resounding voice, with a smile that might have been terrifying to Twilight had she not been trying to purge her emotions in preperation of the threat. "Ah, princess, so nice of you to join me! I was rather hoping your curiosity might bring you here! Although, something tells me you aren't here to tell me that you'll be giving up..."
Twilight remained silent, her face set like concrete, as she stared directly at the monster before her.
Reach calmly flew down to the ground and stood before her, his hooves clanking on the stone floor with his landing. "I did warn you that you would be in for a surprise, didn't I? To think, I was going to let you test this rig to make sure it was safe... but I rather think it's best that I was the first. You may never have wanted to remove it!" As he spoke, unusually haughty for someone like him, Twilight made as many observations about the rig he was wearing as she could.
The setup was almost entirely built out of some kind of very smooth metal, likely some form of steel. It had many rib-like rungs that wrapped around his chest, and a raised spine that emmitted a faint glow from within. Twilight noted eight of the unicorn power containers lined along his back, each hooked into the spine structure, and shielded on top with a metal plate over each. Most prominent, was the layered, metallic horn raised from his forehead, which connected directly to the glowing helmet on his head, shaped mildly like the top half of a skull. Off of the helmet was one wire leading into some kind of headphone in his ear, and a glass information lens over one eye, with data projected onto it. Her wandering eyes had not escaped Reach's own gaze, and he almost seemed pleased at her assessment of it, so he politely, with raised eyebrow, waited for her to speak.
The energy containers and horn seem to imply that this suit allows him access to immense power, and perhaps even the ability to cast like a unicorn... if I'm going to do this, then my priority will be to disable the rig... but how? Perhaps I could remove the containers... she considered, her train of thought momentarily halting as she noticed the expectant look in his eyes. He was waiting for her to speak, it seemed, so she said merely what needed to be said. "I'm going to make sure you never harm another living soul, Reach."
He seemed to chuckle at this, and briefly said "I'm certain that you will try," while calmly flying up towards the tip of the broadcast crystal again, his mechanical wings beating the air with a faint, yet very bassy sound.
This is my chance... his back is to me! I just need one good shot... Twilight swiftly took aim and fired twelve well-placed, silent stealth shots towards the back of his rig, attempting to neutralize the immediate threat. Unfortunatly for her, she had highly underestimated exactly what he could do.
She didn't even have a second to react as she was immediately blasted in the ribs by a white sphere of energy. She let out a sharp cry as she impacted the wall, seeing Reach walking towards her from a position he had clearly not been in before she had fired. He can teleport!? she thought frantically, knowing that she needed to re-evaluate her strategy.
"Perhaps I should have mentioned beforehand, princess..." he started with a dark grin, as she got up and returned to a battle stance. "...These canisters are filled with the energy of eight archmages... making me over four times as powerful as you are, my dear."
Her eyes widened in mild panic, and she turned herself invisible in an attempt to surprise attack him from behind. He merely chuckled darkly as he surrounded his entire back in a white shield, then to spite her, he fired a long arching bolt of energy in her direction. She sidestepped what would have been its impact point, but was blasted into the air and out of her cloak as it curved and impacted her front legs.
"It's useless, Twilight!" he began, flying back to his original position above the crystal, his back still shielded, much to her dismay. "I can sense your very energy! Even without sight, I know where you are!" he stated, tapping lightly on the glass eyepiece.
Twilight needed a moment to think of a strategy, and thankfully, she knew exactly how to get that time. She interrupted his attempt to do something with the crystal tip by simply shouting: "Why, Reach? Why are you here? What is your big plan, huh?" That ought to buy me a minute or two... the princess reasoned, banking on his need to explain, and looking over Reach above. Knowing Reach, his statement on being four times my power is likely accurate, which doesn't bode well for me. I need to separate him from his power, or somehow find a way to render it useless. His back is shielded, so I need to make him drop his guard...
As she ran through her options, the gray stallion cleared his throat, clearly already knowing what he wanted to say. "You see, Twilight, Equestria is one prosperous spot in a whole world of nations, other kingdoms and empires across the planet are completely unpredictable, and many uncontacted. What if one of them decides to attack us, Twilight? Or perhaps worse, what if they do nothing? As it stands, the Equestrian economy is starting to go stale... So, I decided to take care of those issues in one fell swoop. I fully intend to spread Cutie Marks to EVERY sentient being on the planet! Imagine: Dragons with their riches suddenly getting generous, Gryphons suddenly wanting to open trade talks, Bison more than willing to hand over land and territory! Equestria will be led into a new golden age, thanks to me!" he said proudly, watching her carefully, and his unnervingly out-of-character smile widening as he saw the look of shock dawn on her face.
"Every sentient being? But how?" Twilight asked, bewildered, still analyzing her options, but now distracted by his mad plan.
"Simply put, the broadcast crystal is too weak to actually reach the whole world, as it is right now. It needs a conduit to spread the area of effect, something that can regulate and process the information going in and out for the whole operation... and that's me! This metal exosuit is the result of countless years of research, designing, and preparation. I contain in these energy cells... well, I've already explained how much power I have! With this rig and this much energy, I can not only boost the range planet wide just long enough to Brand every single sentient being on the planet, but then I can return every once in a while to repeat the process. I have circumvented Mark Maker entirely. I can sway governments, shift opinions... I can alter the very fabric of entire kingdoms with a single thought!" he declared, smiling wildly, his eyes actually widening to match.
Twilight flew up into the air, her face one of horror and utter distress. "Have you gone mad? Are you trying to become omnipotent?!" she shouted, incredulous.
"Oh, Twilight, I'm not trying to become omnipotent..." he started, lowering his gaze a bit. "...because I already AM omnipotent!" he cried, letting loose a shockwave that sent her tumbling back. If there was ever any doubt in her mind about what she had to do, it completely disappeared with his last statement.
Now or never! she thought to herself, dashing forward and blasting the broadcast crystal with high energy bursts. From Reach's point of view, it must have seemed like she was trying to destroy it, which prompted another laugh. An enormous white triangle appeared before her, smacking her out of the air violently.
"Oh princess... it would take something nearly a hundred times your strength to destroy that crystal! You can't even begin to hurt it! All you've done is temporarily changed it to a nice shade of lavender!" he boasted, smirking away. That is, of course, until his flank began to glow.
"WHAT?" he shouted as he looked back, looking to see a clown nose and wig staring back at him from his previously blank flank. "THAT BLASTED IDIOT!" he shouted with genuine fury, before a powerful hoof connected with his helmet, sending him flying backwards.
Unfortunately for Twilight, it didn't seem to stop him, although she did notice something unique. His horn... It moved slightly, as if it were spring loaded... After careful examination, she noted that the suit had no charging port, like she saw in the facility, for the energy canisters, it just went from the canisters to the helmet. Because the helmet IS the port! The horn folds in and recieves power! She had a new plan, since her punch had not warrented the shield drop she had originally wanted. However, judging by the expression on his face, her plan would be much more difficult to execute now.
Reach, his face marred by genuine fury, raised a hoof with horn ablaze, staring her down as he flapped his wings about four yards away. As he brought his hoof down, a few dozen white pellets appeared in a spherical configuration around the airborne princess, who panickedly raised a shield bubble just in time to have it broken down by the pellets attempting to ram into her.
Though she had sucessfully defended against them, Reach himself slammed into her, covered in a white full body field, which seemed to multiply the force of the impact. With a desperate move she attempted to clash her horn into his helmet, but he had been moving too quickly, and as she was knocked away, she tried to reorganize her thoughts.
I clearly can't overpower him, but if I could just get close enough for a second-- Twilight's thoughts were cut off as the ground benath her exploded, sending her up into the air. She barely dodged a multitude of energy bursts, erupting from his horn in rapid sucession without so much as a half second gap between each shot. She tried flying backwards as she dodged, only to find herself caught in an energy web of sorts, which, upon contact, shocked her intensely as if it were lightning. She crumpled to the ground with a weak cry of pain, eyes wincing at the feelings endured.
"HAhahahah! You know, Twilight, I've never been a very emotional stallion, and perhaps this is the new Mark talking, but I think I'm rather enjoying this!" Reach yelled down, juggling white energy spheres and throwing them at her, much like one would toss rotten tomatoes. She pitifully rolled from side to side to dodge the spheres, realizing that, at this point he was merely having fun, not even attempting to do serious damage. This sparked anger and a faint hint of hatred from the princess.
That's it! I can't overpower him... but if I can increase my own power just enough, maybe I can make the brief opening I need... Twilight's realization caused her to look up once again and see the despicable madman still juggling and tossing energy at her. It didn't take much more to get her to unlock her dark energy potential, just like she did when fighting the gray pegasus.
Twilight thought about Flak, and all the pain he had caused... about all the horrible things the Trident had done to keep Cadence, and the other princesses under their complete control... She thought about Straight Arrow, and the pain his loss had caused to Ruby, and she thought of all the countless ponies that may have died and hurt people just the same. Then the energy began to swell.
Far Reach cast a cautious glance at the mare's crumpled form, noting a rather unusual glow about her. He noted her horn arcing with black jolts rather than her typical purple. He noted something like black smoke beginning to trail from her eyes, and when she looked up, he himself flew backwards slightly, feeling a faint twinge of actual fear. She stood up, ignoring all previous pain, and flew upwards, making eye contact with the now-defensive leader.
"Far Reach, I find you guilty of treason against Equestria, murder, theft, destruction of property, and assault on royalty. You won't be leaving this room again, monster!" she cried out in an unusually dark tone, casting a powerful black bolt towards him.
He warped to the other side of the room, shielding himself before creating two orbiting white spheres around his body. "My oh my, getting a little edgy there, aren't we?" he taunted, believing he now held the intellectual advantage, given that dark energy users had to give in to nearly-blind hatred in order to sucessfully cast with it. His mild fear was replaced instead with healthy caution. He still had full functionality, so he had no need to worry, he thought.
She teleported behind him, surrounding him in a thick, black smoke screen, which essentially just served as a distraction while she attempted to blast him from multiple angles. His orbiting spheres managed to seek her out and blow her backwards, and as soon as he had her in his sights, he created a very complicated looking construct with his horn. Upon blasting it with what seemed like a jolt of electricity, the pure energy construct erupted into hundreds of triangular glass-like shards, which Twilight had to defend against.
"I'm more powerful in this state, Reach!" she declared, casting a long beam towards him. He countered with his own beam, carefully maintaining his own shield while firing.
"Please. You may be unstable, and difficult to measure, but I still hold more power, and we both know it!" As he said this, he sent a pulse along his energy beam, one that managed to supercede hers and throw her in a backwards tumble. He maintained his kinetic shield in case she bounced back, warily scanning the environment. As the dust settled, all that remained was Twilight, teeth gritted, panting heavily, having made an enormous construct that appeared to be a black bow and arrow, made entirely of dark energy.
Reach actually scoffed at the thing, standing his ground. "Do you really think that will hurt me? You'd have to have more power than my shield to get through!" he boasted, throwing his head back to laugh and increasing energy output to his defense.
She released the black, crackling arrow, sending the bolt towards him. Now, what he said about her needing more power to get through the shield was true... when speaking of pure unicorn power. Dark energy, however, was unstable by nature, and rather than block the shot, the unstable, constantly phase-shifting black bolt only half dissapated, as it fired THROUGH his barrier, and slammed into his upper chest.
"WHA--?!" he had just enough time to exclaim before Twilight warped to him, slamming her horn into his. Just as she had predicted, it retracted as she pushed, and she was able to plug into his helmet. "H-how did you know about--" he began, completely caught off guard by not only the wound on his chest, but by the exact means of his defeat.
"Never studied dark energy, huh?" she taunted, her eyes returning to their normal hue, the hate subsiding. Her horn began to glow, and his helmet whirred as she began the transfer.
"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded, struggling, but finding his suit frozen in charge mode with the influx of power. Reach gritted his teeth, eyes widening.
"I'm giving you what you always wanted, Reach. I'm giving you power." With that statement, she closed her eyes, and thought back to what the other princesses had done during the Tirek incident. Through a special technique taught to her later, alicorns could willingly give up portions, or all, of their inherent alicornic power, and that was exactly what Twilight was doing. With a painful grunt, she began to drain her very energy into his suit, eyes closed in concentration.
Reach himself began desperately trying to move, unable to budge in the metal cage that surrounded him. "No! Wait! Those canisters have a fixed capacity! They can't take any more power! Especially not alicornic energy!" his cries were useless, and after depleting about a quarter of her power, she removed her horn and stepped back, observing the canisters on his back glowing a bright white, unnatural coloration. "You IDIOT! This won't disable my suit! They will EXPLODE! Take it back!" he said panicked, attempting to use the horn, but unable to, with the overpowered canisters.
Twilight silently teleported to the door, and stared in. "Saves me the trouble," she said quietly as she closed the door.
Reach ran over to it, and began pounding on it. "Twilight! Listen! I can't remove this suit, this is going to literally kill me unless you take the energy back!" he shouted, after failing to remove the canisters by hoof. "Is that what you want? A death on your hooves?"
Twilight sighed with a shakey breath and said nothing, but she didn't need to, because he figured out her intentions after the initial silence.
"Oh. Oh, now, now listen Twilight! I surrender! I realize I have been beaten! Take me away to prison, or Tartaurus, I give up!" he pleaded, pounding on the door. "I know you, Twilight! You're not a murderer! In your mind, that would make you as bad as me! Right? Right?" he tried, as a warning light began to flash on his visor.
Twilight's stomach was knotted tighter than ever before, her eyes closed as she stayed by the entrance, trying desperately to ignore her instincts to save him. This was one villain who was too dangerous to be left alive.
"Twilight! I can give you secrets! I can give you anything, Twilight!" he continued, but to no avail. His suit was beeping madly, his back beginning to grow hot. He didn't have long. He was desperate, for once in decades, he, Far Reach, was not in control.
He slammed his hooves on the door, crying out loudly, face mortified, marred by a feeling he could hardly remember: panic. "BLAST IT TWILIGHT, OPEN THIS DOOR! OPEN THE DOOR TWILIGHT, OPEN THE DO--"
The explosion knocked Twilight down flat, and caused her to look back at the chamber door. The odd stone was fractured, and the raised emblem of the Trident had crumbled to pieces, the left and right arrows warped, and the head arrow had completely fallen off and been pulverized on the floor.
Twilight gulped down the feelings she had welled up inside her throat, as she stood on shakey legs and turned to walk down the hall. It was done. Both Far Reach, and the Trident with him, were no more.
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I'll leave a real comment when I get home...
Ok, I just wanted to say that this story was better than I was expecting it to be. To be frank with you, I wasn't expecting it to be amazing because I'm pretty judgmental when it comes to premises, but I wasn't expecting it to be quite as good as it is. That being said, you did pretty good.
As for this particular ending, I suppose it's rather fitting. I made the decision that I was going to pick one ending and not look at the others, because in the real world you don't get second chances, at least not quite like that. As it is, I'm quite satisfied with this, I wouldn't say it's inspired or anything, but it is fitting. There are a bunch of minor issues I have with how this was handled, the ending and the whole story itself, but they are really just minor things that I don't really feel are worth mentioning unless you want me to do a more critical review. If you do feel free to bug me about it and I'll see what I can do
Again though, as it is, this is pretty good.
Cheers, Null
P.S. This deserves more comments, and also I would sincerely recommend adding the other character and original character tags to this story since they would apply perfectly in this case.