Taking Over
Chapter 27: Taking Over
"What do you mean, he got away?" asked Perlin, giving Dawn a confused look.
"I felt it just as your attacks were about to hit him," said Dawn, "He disappeared, right before your blows would have made contact. He disappeared the same way we last fought him. It appears to be some form of teleportation."
"Teleportation...?" Perlin blinked and glanced at the space where Flash Spark had been a moment ago. "I didn't think he could do that."
"I don't believe that it is something he has control over," said Dawn.
"You mean it's involuntary?" asked Firefly, "Some kind of safety feature?"
"It definitely happens without his consent," said Dawn, his voice growing cold, "But I don't think it's a safety feature exactly..."
"What do you mean?" asked Firefly.
Dawn pursed his lips, pressing them together tightly. "I believe he was recalled by the one who controls him."
"Controls him...?" Perlin's eyes widened and he gaped at Dawn. "But Wight said..."
"He lied," replied Dawn, "Because I am certain that there was no way that Flash Spark could have ever truly broken through his control."
After all, that had been painfully apparent the previous time Dawn and others had been forced to confront Flash Spark. The insectile stallion had attempted to crash Ditzy and Big Macintosh's wedding, but had had been intercepted by the Wonderbolts, Fluttershy's griffon bodyguards, Storm Front, and Dawn. They had been on the verge of defeating Flash Spark when, as though somepony had flipped a switch, the pony known as Flash Spark had disappeared and something...else...had taken its place, using the buzzing vibrations of Flash's wings to produce words in much the same way that Wight Shade's beetle-shaped messenger had earlier. Flash's head had grown a horn then too. Dawn was firmly convinced that, rather than being a manifestation of the abilities Flash's armor had granted him, that horn was instead formed by Morning Star/Wight Shade taking direct control over his unwitting puppet.
"That makes sense, I guess," muttered Firefly, "He not only creates Dark Matter, but he controls it as well." She glanced sidelong at Perlin. "I'd be careful if I were you. If you ever got on the wrong side of him, those fancy wings of yours might well cut into your own flesh.""
Perlin gave his wings a dubious look and frowned. "I will certainly have to think about that," he said.
"We should head back," said Dawn, "Flash Spark isn't here anymore and I want to check on Mom and the others."
"Let's go then," said Firefly with a nod.
"Then this is where I leave you," said Perlin, giving Dawn a small smile, "I need return to my employer and discuss the terms of my contract."
"I suppose we'll meet again," said Dawn, giving Perlin a wry smile.
"Try to keep yourself in one piece until then," taunted Perlin.
"The same to you," answered Dawn.
"Anything to add?" asked Perlin, glancing at Firefly.
"I don't think so," she said, "I believe I understand why Spitfire and Arkenstone keep letting you get away."
"Until later then," said Perlin, flicking one wing to his forehead in a mocking salute before he looped around and took off, flying directly towards Canterlot in the distance.
"I like him," said Firefly with a giggle as she watched the young stallion fly off.
"I certainly find myself enjoying his company more than I used to," observed Dawn, ""He's changed a lot from when I first met him."
"I'm sure he could say the same of you," Firefly pointed out.
"Probably," agreed Dawn with a shrug. The two of them turned towards Ponyville. Dawn was beginning to feel the fatigue from his battle with Flash Spark. The strain of using a high-level technique that he hadn't fully mastered had taken its toll on his body and, right now, all he really wanted to do was land and rest.
After a few minutes, they cruised over the edge of the Everfree Forest and came in for landing near the front of Fluttershy's cottage. To Dawn's surprise, there were plenty of other ponies there. Twilight Sparkle and Arkenstone had arrived, as had Rainbow Dash and Soarin'. Rainbow was currently doing her best to help Caramel comfort a distraught Fluttershy.
"Where are Skan and Zhan?" asked Dawn, looking around for the two griffons. He didn't bother questioning the presence of the others, as Flash Spark's presence had probably been announced to everypony in town with that buzz his wings produced.
"At the hospital," replied Twilight grimly, "I don't know what that creep did, but the bones in Zhan's arm are cracked and broken almost all the way up to the shoulder. On top of that, her muscles and tendons had tears all through them. Then there's the wound on her haunch..." Twilight sighed and shook her head. "She'll survive, no doubt. Her life wasn't in any danger, according to the doctor. But he's not sure he can guarantee that she'll have use of that arm." She looked over at Fluttershy, who was currently wrapped in Caramel's forelegs, weeping quietly while Rainbow wrapped her wings around Fluttershy from the back. "Fluttershy's taking it pretty hard. I think she's blaming herself for this."
"It's a feeling I'm familiar with," said Dawn darkly, "Dad and I will help her through it."
"There's something else," said Twilight, holding up a scroll in her magic, "I got this just a little bit ago, a few minutes before that buzzing started. Flash Spark blasted his way out from under somewhere in Canterlot. Princess Celestia sent it to me through Spike."
Taking the scroll, Dawn read it before passing it to Firefly, who perused its contents as well. "This isn't right," she said, returning the scroll to Twilight, "According to the time of his departure given by Princess Celestia, it was less than an hour after Flash Spark left Canterlot that he arrived in Ponyville. As fast as he is with those wings, I doubt he can be that fast."
"It probably has something to do with Morning Star's control," replied Dawn, "We've already seen that Morning Star can apparently forcibly recall Flash Spark from a fight. I would not be surprised if he could send Flash Spark out in a similar manner."
"But then why bother with having Flash Spark blast his way out of Canterlot in the first place?" asked Arkenstone, "If what you suggest is true, and I have little reason to doubt that it is, then he could have sent Flash Spark directly without making his departure so...loud."
"I can't be sure," said Twilight, "But Celestia already sent a detachment of the Royal Guard, along with Shining Armor to help capture Flash Spark. They're hoping that Shining can do something to help contain him with his shields."
"I doubt that would accomplish much," said Arkenstone.
"It's pointless in any case," said Dawn sadly, "Flash Spark has come and gone. There's no trace of him now."
Firefly stared at the distant shape of Canterlot, still visible in the distance, her eyes narrowed. "I don't like this," she declared, "It doesn't make any real sense. According to what Dawn and Perlin heard, Flash Spark had gone rogue. But, given that Morning Star seems to be able to assume complete control of him at any time, that's virtually impossible."
"Why bother with the deception in the first place?" mused Dawn, "It's not as though we would have refused to fight him if had been there at Morning Star's will."
"Maybe because he wanted to give Perlin a legitimate reason to get in the fight," suggested Arkenstone, "Having Perlin take the field against Flash Spark would reinforce the idea that he was running out of control, even if it shouldn't have been possible."
"That's a lot of obfuscation to no real end," said Firefly, "I have a bad feeling..."
"How so?" asked Twilight, looking back and forth between the two Knights.
"I think I understand," said Arkenstone, his tone just as grim as Firefly, "This whole situation has a familiar feeling to it."
"What do you mean?" asked Dawn.
"This sense of trying to figure out what Morning Star was trying to accomplish...lying about the reason Flash Spark was here, lying about Flash Spark being out of control, Flash Spark loudly blasting his way out of Canterlot, then showing up in Ponyville far too soon after he left...there are so many unknowns and uncertainties about the situation...why so many lies...? It almost feels like the kind of thing Swift Stride might have come up with." Arkenstone snorted angrily.
"Swift Stride?" Twilight blinked and then gaped at her coltfriend. "Do you think this is his work?"
"I doubt it," said Firefly, "However dubious his methods, Swift Stride has always been committed to protecting Equestria, even if he's willing to take actions we would never condone to do so."
"Besides, I don't think this is Swift Stride's work," said Arkenstone, "Remember, Swift Stride spent quite a bit of time in Morning Star's company when he was infiltrating the Cult Solar. I suspect that, while Swift Stride may have learned a great deal about Morning Star and his work, Morning Star learned a few things from Swift Stride."
"That's bad," said Twilight with a shiver.
"It's a lot like one of Swift's favorite tactics," grumbled Firefly, "He throws a bunch of deceptions and falsehoods at whoever he's trying to deceive. Then, while they try to unravel all of those, he gets away with the real deception, which was that there was something important about all his other lies and that he was working another angle entirely."
"So...in this case, we need to figure out this other angle," said Dawn.
"But what could it be?" wondered Arkenstone.
"If there's one thing I understand about Morning Star, it's that his research trumps everything else," said Twilight. She remembered the day Morning Star, under the guise of Wight Shade, had guided her and Arkenstone to his secret wing of the library, hidden within the Royal Archives. Twilight had long wondered what purpose that had served Morning Star. However, given what Swift Stride suggested, it suggested he'd been grooming her to serve as a tool to help with his research from the very beginning. "Right now," she continued, following that line of thought, "the only research he really cares about is his grand experiment, the one he's spent the last ten years planning."
"So...all of that..." Firefly waved a hoof vaguely in the direction of the Everfree Forest and the area where the battle had taken place. "...was cover for something to do with his big experiment."
"Maybe..." said Twilight, tapping her chin in thought, "Let me think about it." As she contemplated her theory, Twilight began to mutter to herself out loud. "He built the foci all around Equestria and got them up and running before Celestia could destroy them. According to what he told Celestia and what she figured out, the array is ready, but that's just an intermediary step and the final stage of his plan is supposed to take place in Canterlot..." Her voice trailed off as her eyes drifted to the distant city...then went wide as she let out a horrified gasp. "That's it!"
"What is?" asked Arkenstone moving closer to Twilight and worriedly nuzzling her neck.
"What this was all about," said Twilight frantically, "All the lies...all the confusion...it was never really about Flash Spark or anything to do with him in the first place! All Morning Star cared about was making sure that the attention of everypony that mattered was on Ponyville..."
"And away from Canterlot," finished Firefly, her wings flaring in surprise.
"His experiment!" continued Twilight, "Whatever it is he's doing, he must be doing it while everypony is in a tizzy over Flash Spark's attack. Rainbow! Fluttershy!"
The two pegasus mares looked up. Fluttershy had calmed down somewhat, relaxing as she and Rainbow listened in on the conversation. Ironically, the idea that Flash Spark coming after her and injuring Zhan in the process had been part of a scheme to accomplish some other obscure objective had been somewhat comforting to Fluttershy. It at least alleviated the feeling that the damage done by Flash Spark was partly her fault.
"What's up, Twi?" asked Rainbow.
"We need to get to Canterlot, on the double," said Twilight, "I need you to get Applejack while I get Rarity and Pinkie Pie."
Rainbow's eyes widened and an eager grin appeared on her face. "Does this mean what I think it means?"
"I think so," said Twilight, her eyes narrowing, "It's time to get the Elements."
"I'm going with you," said Dawn, stepping forward.
Twilight opened her mouth to protest, but was stopped as Firefly came up to stand by him. "You're not taking my student and leaving me behind."
"I wouldn't ask you to, Firefly," said Twilight before looking to the colt, "But Dawn..." She paused, considering what she was protesting. This was Dawn after all. He'd been through the fracas that had been the tribalist takeover of Cloudsdale. He'd gone to Diamond Mountain to thwart the schemes of a member of the Noble Court. Arkenstone had rescued her with the assistance of a pair of foals with far less skill and experience that Dawn possessed. She couldn't turn him aside. With a resigned sigh, she smiled at him. "Okay...please be careful."
"Can I borrow one of the feathers Spitfire left you?" asked Soarin', coming over, "I'll let Spitfire know and we can hopefully have her and the other Wonderbolts over for backup in a jiffy...probably faster than we'll get there in fact."
"Sure," said Twilight, "I think this situation qualifies as enough of an emergency to bring her in." She looked from Arkenstone to Soarin' to Firefly. "What about the other Knights."
"You met them all, so you could help Spike send letters to them," said Arkenstone, "But that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be in a position to help. There's no telling how far abroad Sunset Shimmer or Arcana are. Sparrowhawk might well be in another country entirely."
"It never hurts to try though," said Firefly with a shrug.
"Let's hurry," said Twilight, looking around at her friends, "I don't know how much time we have, but I don't think this ruse was meant to last very long."
They quickly set off to make arrangements for their hasty departure for Canterlot.
Celestia sighed as she looked out from the balcony and over the city of Canterlot. The damage caused by Flash Spark's...dynamic exit was clearly visible from her vantage point. A trio of houses near the edge of the middle districts had fallen into what appeared, from this position anyway, to be a sinkhole leading down into the caverns below the mountain. Silently, she cursed Morning Star for giving such a monstrous pony such tremendous destructive power.
Shining Armor and his Royal Guard detachment had already left by train. Celestia hoped that they could get there in time to be of some assistance. Given the nature of Dark Matter, it was highly likely that the fighters in Ponyville would simply decide that Flash Spark was too dangerous and unpredictable to contain and simply opt for killing him. It was more expedient that way. She prayed that they managed to keep the damage to a minimum. The last thing they needed was for Ponyville to get wrecked again while they were still busy rebuilding after the last time.
From her vantage point, Celestia could see silver-plated Guards moving to the edge of the pit and making preparations to descend into it. Amongst them, she could see the dark-blue of her sister as Luna joined them, leading the expedition into what they hoped was a path that might lead them directly into Morning Star's lair.
"Good luck, sister," she said. If there was one silver lining to this situation, it was that Morning Star's foolishness and inability to control the ponies he empowered had apparently opened the way for them to disrupt his plans once and for all. Celestia had wanted to go herself, but Luna had suggested she wait, just in case Morning Star tried something else whilst Luna and her Guards were down in the caverns.
Be careful, Luna, thought Celestia, Morning Star is far more dangerous than he seems.
Before her eyes, the last few members of the Guard expedition slipped down into the chasm, accompanied by Luna. Leaving the balcony, Celestia made for her chambers, planning to make a cup of hot cocoa for herself as she waited for news from Luna. There would be no sleep for her tonight. As she walked, her steps took her past the throne room. The large doors seemed to watch over the hallway, the pair of Guards flanking them staring stoically forward as they awaited orders while monitoring for any threats. Celestia gave each of them an encouraging smile as she passed...
...then paused, drawing looks of confusion from the two Guards as Celestia felt something unsettling behind the throne room door.
"Your Highness...what's the matter?" asked one of the Guards, looking up at her anxiously.
"Nothing...I hope," said Celestia, "I'm just going to check inside the throne room right now. Something doesn't seem right."
Both of the Guards immediately wheeled in place to face the imposing doors, their bodies tense and ready.
Celestia shook her head. "No. Wait outside please. If you hear any form of disturbance from within, go and fetch my sister."
"But..." said one stallion, looking up at her in confusion.
Celestia silenced him with another shake of her head. "No. If it is what I'm afraid it is, then there is nothing you can do. Please wait outside."
The two Guards bowed to her and stepped away. Celestia opened the doors and stepped through, letting them swing shut behind her.
The throne room felt disturbingly empty without the mass of ponies that normally filled it when Celestia held court. With the torches and lamps extinguished, shadows filled the darkened hall, plunging the areas of the room behind the lines of columns into almost impenetrable blackness. The only illumination was the light of the moon and stars as they filtered in through the large windows above.
With a spark of her horn, Celestia sent a spell throughout the room. Lamps lit, torches flared into sparking life. Soon the throne room was filled with warm light and looked much less intimidating, though the sense of emptiness still gave it a daunting impression.
Celestia's steps carried her along the length of the carpet leading up to the dais where she normally held court. As she walked, she eyed every alcove and peered as far around each column as she could manage. There was no sign of anypony. And yet...the troubling sensation did not dwindle. If anything, it intensified, giving Celestia the very firm impression that she was not alone. Worse still, the feeling was strangely familiar. He's here.
"I can sense you, Morning Star," said Celestia, "The game is over, come out."
The click of hooves on marble floors echoed throughout the throne room as Morning Star, strode out from behind one of the columns, specifically one Celestia had already checked and seen nothing before, probably just to unnerve her.
"And here I am," said Morning with a cheery smile, "I believe I asked you to call me by my new name. I prefer it much more than my old one."
"Old habits die hard," said Celestia sadly, "To me, you will always be Morning Star, especially since you no longer wear the disguise your new name was attached to."
"Oh...if it's something like that..." Cracks appeared all across Morning's body. The fur of his coat and the skin underneath it broke away and began to flake off as he walked further out from under cover. The pink of his coat and the orange and yellow of his mane and tail were shucked off, as though he were shedding his skin like a snake. Underneath it was a dark-tan coat and an off-white mane. The eyes Morning Star had had previously peeled away to reveal orbs of glittering crimson. Only two things remained unchanged, the image of a brain surrounded by white wings engraved on his flank and the off-white horn jutting out from his forehead.
"I feel more comfortable this way anyway," said Wight Shade, grinning at Celestia, "At this stage, you could say that Morning Star was my disguise, rather than the other way around."
"You didn't simply change your appearance did you?" asked Celestia, her eyes narrowing as a horrified feeling welled up in her gut. She took an involuntary step backwards. "You changed yourself, your flesh, blood, and bone...it's all Dark Matter."
"That it is," replied Wight, relaxing a little as he slowly began to walk, circling counterclockwise around Celestia as he spoke, "After you broke my horn, even though I had expected it, I was at a bit of a loss. I almost missed you passing sentence on me because I was working out how to make do without it. But then, I had a simply wonderful notion. If my old horn was broken, I could simply make myself a new one, one more in tune with my Dark Matter, even better than the one I was born with.
"Sadly, such modifications cannot be made lightly. For the first thing, I had not yet grasped how to use Dark Matter to forge organic substances. I had to open up an entirely new field of research, even as I worked to rebuild the Cult Solar and make arrangements to build the array. My initial efforts, hasty as they were, had some unpleasant side-effects."
"I can imagine," said Celestia as her eyes followed Wight's journey around her, though she made no effort to follow his movement with her head and body.
"Simply building myself a new horn was difficult enough," continued Wight, "But connecting it to my nervous system, controlling it, understanding the magic that it produced, it required me to make additional changes and each additional change that I made to my body to accommodate my new horn required additional changes to support those changes. You could say things snowballed and I ended up remaking myself from the ground up. Hence this..." He gestured at himself.
"And what does that mean?" inquired Celestia.
"Nothing really," replied Wight indifferently, "My body and magic are different. I've picked a name I've grown quite fond of for something that was just supposed to be an alias. My goals have not changed."
"Of course not. You would not let anything dissuade you from your experiment," said Celestia, her words dripping with disgust, "Why are you here now?"
Wight smiled earnestly, his expression unsettling Celestia even further. It wasn't the smile of a sinister schemer, sneering at the pony he duped. It wasn't the malicious smile of a stallion delighting in her suffering or in taking revenge on her. It was the same smile she'd always seen on him, the smile of her old student, eager to explain his reasoning to his teacher. Wight's appearance and name might have changed, but his personality had not.
"I'm here because I'm ready," he said simply, "It's almost time to begin."
Celestia's blood turned to ice and she shivered. But that can't be, she thought, We'd just gotten a lead on his whereabouts. One of his creations broke out of control and left us a way to find him in its wake. So why...?
She paused, considering the situation, the sickening feeling in her gut growing. She had sent out the Guard and Luna to both bring Flash Spark down and plumb the hole he'd left in Canterlot to find where it began. While the Guard's resources weren't as severely depleted as they had been when Celestia had been running her campaign against the Cult Solar, there were fewer of them in the Palace and the principle obstacles of both Luna and Shining Armor had been sent out. All of this had been predicated on the idea that one of Wight's creations had broken out of his control. But if it hadn't, then that meant...
"It was a distraction, to lower our defenses," said Celestia, "Flash Spark didn't escape from you as we thought, but you actually sent him out."
"In a manner of speaking," replied Wight, "I simply released Flash Spark from the restraints I'd placed on his mind and body and let him do as he pleased. What he did after that was sufficiently loud and messy for my purposes. It often works to your advantage to not try and control every little thing."
"Then what are you doing now?" asked Celestia, "What is the point of talking to me like this?”
"Just passing the time," said Wight, "Things have already been set in motion. I merely need to wait until the preparations are completed. The last component of the array will be here momentarily."
"Here...?" Celestia blinked and looked down at the throne room floor in horror.
"Of course, here," said Wight, "Canterlot was designed to be the center of Starswirl's protective array. The Royal Palace was at the center. The throne room was at the center. Right here is the center, both literally and figuratively, of Equestria itself. I repurposed Starswirl's array for my own use, but the center remained the same. I'd thought you'd known that. My greatest fear was that you would just blast your way straight down from the throne room and find my work."
It made Celestia want to smack her forehead in frustration. All this time wondering where and how Wight would carry out the final phase of his plan and the answer had been literally under her hooves the whole time. She should have seen it.
"I suppose it's darkest at the lamp's base," said Wight with a shrug.
"You're right," said Celestia, "However, you've made a critical mistake."
Wight raised an eyebrow at her. "What's that?" he asked, sounding genuinely confused.
"You may have set your plan into motion. You might be ready to carry out your grand experiment. But your mistake was to appear before me," said Celestia, her eyes narrowing in a glare, "If I kill you here and now, then all of this will be over."
Wight turned his eyes up thoughtfully, considering her words. "I suppose that is technically true...when you put it that way. But, you are incorrect. I have made no mistakes." He paused and tapped his chin. "Well...that's a bit of a stretch. But...insofar as your claim about this particular situation, I can earnestly say that I've made no mistakes."
Taking a step forward, Celestia loomed menacingly over her former student. "And what do you mean by that?"
"Your assessment is predicated on the idea that me appearing before you before my experiment is complete is a mistake. However, that is incorrect because it is predicated on you killing me, which itself is predicated on the assumption that you are able to...which is the true error in your assessment of the situation." There was no taunting in Wight's tone, but a simple statement of facts, as though he sincerely believed what he was saying was true. He gave Celestia a plain, innocent smile. "Unfortunately for you, you are incapable of killing me. You simply lack the means."
"Is that so?" said Celestia, glaring down at him.
"It is."
"Then let me put your assessment of the situation to the test. I defeated you once before and I will defeat you again." Celestia's horn began to glow.
"Of course," said Wight, canting his head, "Feel free to try."
The warm, yellow light emitting from Celestia's horn intensified, going from warm to searing hot as she spread her wings and rose up into the air over the throne room. With a thunderous roar, she unleashed a column of fiery solar energy straight down, the bright-yellow light filling the throne room and shining out from the windows.
The blast descended upon Wight, blotting out his figure from Celestia's sight. The beam of energy exploded with a crash, flinging bits of molten marble every which way, shattering the windows all over the throne room and cracking the columns in its vicinity. When the beam faded, a smoking crater lay where Wight Shade had once been.
"Wasn't this one of the first tactics you used against me last time?" asked Wight as the smoke cleared. Celestia found herself looking down at a cocoon of white feathers, forming a rough sphere around where Wight had been standing. As he spoke, the feathers pulled back, three pairs of wings spreading out and revealing Wight still standing there, completely unscathed. "If I recall correctly, your magic was completely helpless against these."
Celestia huffed impatiently and attacked again. This time she used the attack that had defeated Morning Star the last time they had fought. A thin shaft of glowing yellow light lanced out from her horn. However, as it rushed for Wight, it fractured and split, sending beams rushing off in all different directions and at different speeds, bending at sharp angles to come at Wight from several different vectors at once.
Wight's wings became glowing white blurs as they whirled around him, batting away the beams effortlessly. The bolts of solar light ricocheted around the throne room, shattering columns and even blasting a hole through the back of Celestia's throne.
Not bothering to try and converse, Celestia dropped down and charged in to attack directly, leveling her horn at Wight's chest. However, one of Wight's wings whipped around and slammed into Celestia's side, sending her slamming into and then through a column, trailing blood from a ragged gash in her side as she came skidding to a halt. Wight made no effort to press his advantage, but merely remained where he was and watched Celestia as she struggled to her hooves, his expression unreadable.
"I should warn you that I've upgraded the auto-defense function on my wings," said Wight, "Their reaction time is practically instantaneous, enough so that even a master of the Three Pillars shouldn't be able to outpace them. You should keep that in mind if you're going to keep trying to slip in for physical attacks between spells."
"You may have changed the control for them, but not the wings themselves," said Celestia, staggering slightly as she lowered her horn at Wight again, "That will be your undoing again."
"It's true that I haven't upgraded the capabilities of my own wings," admitted Wight, "But they are sufficient for my purposes."
"Fool!" barked Celestia, taking to the air once again. Wight Shade's overconfidence had been his downfall the last time she had fought him as well. The wings he had such pride in would not hold up. She wasn't entirely certain if it was the effort of using them against so many different types of attacks or if she simply pushed them past their limits with a continuous bombardment of magic, but his wings had fallen to pieces and left Wight vulnerable. If he hadn't bothered to improve his design in the years since they had last fought, then he would end up losing the same way again.
Celestia supposed that Wight could be lying about his wings. But, as she probed them with her magic, the feedback she received indicated that they were the same weapons he'd wielded against her ten years ago. Their power was impressive to be sure, but she couldn't understand why Wight, normally so observant, would overlook the flaw that had cost him the battle last time.
As it was, he barely even glanced her way as she attacked again, this time unleashing a storm of solar rays down upon Wight's head. Again, his wings blurred, batting away the attacks with contemptuous ease. Her horn shining, Celestia reared up onto her hind hooves and flared her wings, combining her pegasus and unicorn magic in a way that only an alicorn could, transforming the winds generated by her wings into a searing gust of solar radiation that washed over Wight Shade. Such an attack would make the blood boil in his veins even as his skin turned black and crisped. Instead, Wight's wings seemed to dissolve into a formless mass of feathers that caught the onrushing wind and dispersed it.
Wight sighed, his voice taking on a disappointed tone as he spoke. "Celestia, please stop this. It's pointless."
"Never!" shouted Celestia, her eyes blazing white, her shimmering mane bursting into blue and white flame as the tip of her horn blazed like the mighty sun she guided through the sky, calling upon all of her power for her next attack, fully prepared to smash the hall and even the entire Royal Palace to pieces if that was what it took to stop Wight Shade.
"Enough." Wight didn't shout. He spoke, sounding tired as he closed his eyes and lowered his head slightly. Before Celestia's eyes, something happened that she could scarcely believe. The spiral running along the length of Wight's horn began to widen, becoming a seam as his horn began to actually unwind, forming a loose helix that wound out from the center of his forehead, the sight of unnerving Celestia to such an extent that she nearly forgot her spell. There was a flare of something, something she couldn't call light, but something all the same, from the base of of Wight's "horn."
The next thing Celestia knew, she was blasted off her hooves, her magic snuffed out like a candle's flame. What was that? Aside from the flare from Wight's protrusion (she would never willingly refer to such a twisted, repulsive object like that as a horn), there had been no signs of an incoming attack spell, no flare of magical aura, nothing that her senses had picked up at all.
"Please calm yourself, Princess," requested Wight, "You can't win. I told you already, killing me is impossible for you."
Celestia struggled to get back up again. Whatever Wight had hit her with had delivered a debilitating shock to her entire body. Her legs quivered as though they were made of jelly. Nonetheless, she started walking towards him. Her horn flickered as she prepared yet another spell.
Wight sighed and closed his eyes. There was another flare and Celestia was blasted off her hooves again. It almost felt as though she was in the center of a bubble that imploded around her, then burst. Her ears filled with a roar that made them bleed, her eyes burned in their sockets and her nose felt as though it was packed with solid cement. Her own lungs betrayed her and turned to stone in her chest, leaving her unable to draw in the breath she would have otherwise needed to scream.
This time, the attack launched her along the length of the throne room and slammed her through her own throne, shattering it to pieces as Celestia landed with a crash behind it. As she lay there, Wight slowly approached, his hooves clicking against the floor. The carpet had been burned away by Celestia's fire. Occasionally, there was the sound of tinkling glass falling from the broken windows. Otherwise, the only things Celestia heard were the relentless pounding and ringing in her ears.
"I apologize for being so rough with you," said Wight, his tone as genuine as always, devoid of any kind of taunt, "But you leave me with little choice. Alicorns are durable, so I had to hit you a little harder than I normally would."
Panting, Celestia lifted her head, glaring at him over the ruined remains of her throne. I have to get up. I have to keep fighting. This is my responsibility, my mistake. Those thoughts ran through her head on an endless loop as she tried to force herself up to confront her wayward former student once more...
But her muscles refused to obey her. Every time she tried to force herself up, a shiver went through her body and she found she couldn't get up off the ground. Her wings trembled. It wasn't the pain or the damage caused by the last two attacks that caused it. Celestia could feel her limbs just fine, could still move them with relative ease. Her body...her heart...refused to listen to her mind when she told it to get up and fight. Instead, as Wight Shade approached, her body responded, her legs kicking out against the floor, pushing herself away from the stallion in front of her. No. It wasn't pain or debilitation. It was raw fear. The pony in front of her struck fear into Celestia's heart in a way that overrode her rational mind and completely wrenched her body out of her control.
"Overwhelming power is one thing," said Wight calmly as he continued his approach, "But there is nothing so terrifying as an attack you cannot comprehend. Even if it were a power that completely exceeded yours, so long as you could grasp its nature and read its execution you could imagine some form of strategy against it, even if you aren't fully capable of implementing that strategy. But against an attack that you can't even begin to understand, no timing to read, no medium to observe, no form you can perceive, you feel completely helpless, unable to conceive of even the most basic strategy. Thus, even ponies who have trained to master their fear and not allow it to control them find that their bodies are no longer their own as that most basic and primal of instincts rips their resolve out from under them."
I can still fight, thought Celestia, even though her body refused to listen to her, I just have to keep this up until I can break down the defense presented by his wings. Victory isn't impossible. I've beaten him before.
"You can't win," said Wight, as though he had heard Celestia's thoughts, "I thought you might have understood by now, but you were never capable of winning against my Dark Matter...not even ten years ago."
"Wha-" Celestia stared up at him. That was a ridiculous assertion. She had shattered his wings and broken his horn, forced him to start all over from the beginning.
"You still haven't realized," said Wight, shaking his head sadly and turning to walk towards one of the broken windows of the throne room that looked out over the side of the mountain and the fields down below. As he did so, the protrusion on his head once again curled and coiled until the tight spiral of his horn was visible once again. "You won ten years ago, not because you actually defeated me, but because I let you win."
"What?" Celestia's jaw dropped and her whole body went limp. "That can't be!"
Wight chuckled wryly. "Before you throw that accusation at me, this isn't the simple whining of a beaten dog. Your magic was incapable of penetrating the defense of my wings and I was on the verge of turning your own magic back against you in a form that would have turned your flesh to ash."
"Then why?" demanded Celestia as she remembered the battle. It came back to her now, that decisive moment where Wight (Morning Star, back then) had stood over her and hesitated.
"Because, as I was about to claim victory, I realized something," said Wight ruefully, "I realized that winning against you then and there would have actually done more harm than good to my plans in the long run."
"What do you mean?" asked Celestia.
"When you found out about what I was doing, you did so at the very beginning stages of my work," said Wight, "Assembling the array, even if you hadn't forbidden my work and I hadn't been forced to labor in secret on it would have still taken years, yes. But that was merely a preparatory stage of my experiment. There were resources that I required, conditions that needed to be met, that simply weren't feasible at that time.
"If I had beaten you, I would have thrown Equestria into chaos. The nobility would have risen up, both to try and punish me for my treasonous actions and to seize power for themselves. Ponies around the country would have had their lives thrown into disarray. Assembling the marepower and resources to construct my foci would have been next to impossible under those conditions. If I wanted to actually make any headway, I would have had to seize control of Equestria myself and would have to take on the burden of governing a country simply for the sake of finishing my work. Doing so could have easily set my work back by twenty years or more. Worse, the resulting chaos might have been enough to break Discord out of his imprisonment even more quickly, which might have delayed my work even more still, if not derailed it irreversibly. By then, your sister would have come back...I'll leave it to you to imagine just how much of a ruckus she might have caused under those conditions."
Celestia blinked as she listened to Wight's explanation. She had thought it was an excuse at first. But the more he talked about it, the more she realized that he was right. Defeating her ten years ago would have made it even harder for him to complete his experiment within any reasonable timeframe. "So you let me break your horn?"
She was surprised to see Wight actually wince at her words. "That..." he said with slight hesitation, "...was not within my predictions...though it probably should have been. Perhaps it demonstrates my nature as a sociopath, but I didn't really comprehend how vindictive you would be. That was a setback I didn't plan for. It turns out it was just as well in any case. I actually had a moment of panic when I realized what you had done. I'd genuinely thought you'd actually ruined everything. But it forced me to innovate, to develop my Dark Matter in ways I'd never considered before. So, in the end, I'm grateful for it." He turned and gave her an amused look, the look of a pony who'd been taken in by a good-natured prank.
"It's just as well in any case," continued Wight, looking back out the window again, "Even if everything had gone as well as I could have ever hoped, I would have still needed to wait."
"Wait for what?" asked Celestia.
"For the longest day of the thousandth year," replied Wight.
"For Luna?" gasped Celestia, "Why?"
"Well, actually, for Nightmare Moon," answered Wight, "I knew you must have had some sort of plan for dealing with her when she returned...perhaps I had even been a part of that plan at some point. However, there was no way you would have turned to force except as a last resort. A direct battle against Nightmare Moon would have devastated Equestria and you yourself if you were forced to kill her. Instead, you would default to the only tools that could save her while minimizing harm to others."
"The Elements of Harmony," said Celestia, her eyes narrowing.
"I needed to study them, see them in action and how they might impact my work," said Wight, "I never imagined that Discord would break out shortly after that and give me a chance to study their power twice over. It was truly an enlightening opportunity."
A glittering cloud of green sparks and smoke gathered in front of Celestia, turning into a scroll with a poof. The scroll landed on the floor in front of her. Carefully, she managed to summon her magic and unroll it so that she could read its contents. As she did so, a triumphant smirk broke out on her face. "It looks as though you'll get the chance to study their effects a third time, up close and personal. Twilight and her friends have figured out your ruse and are on their way here."
Wight blinked and stared at the scroll. "Is that so? Oh well, I'm sure that everything will work out in the end. I managed to study the Elements quite thoroughly on the two occasions they were used. I am confident that they cannot do any real harm to me." He ran a hoof through his mane, eyes turning upward. "I suppose I should take some precautions, just to be safe."
Your confidence shall be your downfall, thought Celestia viciously, A pony like you could never appreciate the true power of Harmony. You will learn your mistake soon enough. She could only hope that Twilight and her friends would arrive in time to stop Morning Star's plans once and for all.
"In any case," said Wight, turning back to face Celestia once again, "Your part in this is over. From here on it will be between me, your student and her friends, and anyone else who chooses to interfere in my work." The horn on his head began to uncoil once again until it formed that strange helix spiraling out of his head. The sight of it made Celestia shiver as a sense of dread settled down into the pit of her stomach. A flare of white began to build up at is base, washing outwards and engulfing her.
"Be at peace, Princess Celestia, by the time you regain yourself, this will all be over."
Stats
Page generated in 0.036 seconds
Total duration
814 users online
1,020,107 hits today, 1,822,946 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
He needs the elements... I wonder how all this will end?
Indent
__________________
Freaking hell! Wight Shade is scary. Awesome, but scary. He's probably one of the best written villains I've ever read. Now just with his power and skill set, but his entire mentality.
I really hate Wight Shade. Elements, DON'T GO -- IT'S A TRAP!!
damn, shit, crap, fuck, *10hrs later filled with nothing but curses* i have nothing else 2 say
he doesn't know Twilight has figured out his magic. She will make the EOH have an effect. and Tia, you should have killed him long ago.
6862749 Snap, and now Morning Star is a fish and Dark Matter is just a thought and doesn't exist in this realm.
Why do people always try to limit discord? He's literally able to do anything he wants. The Elements of Harmony were the ONLY thing that could stop him, and even they could only seal him for a time.
Morning Star has nothing on Discord. That's why Morning Star needs a horn, needs the wings for defence, why he needs to hide. And Discord doesn't need anything, the entire thing is one big game to him.
6862618 maybe with new rules saying when these things happen, the Knights don't go wandering off all willy nilly and stick around?
you could
helphave SpikeWell... shit. Again,
Oh, and Celly... THAT'S WHY YOU KILL PONIES, NOT BANISH THEM AND ERASE THEM FROM RECORDS YOU DUMB BITCH!
I'll laugh if the experiment isn't even bad.
...
PFFT!
God I'm funny.
The betting corner is up. How many ways will this fuck up?
6863196 Yes he does. Remember the bug spies.
the upcoming battle may levee a little mark on Canterlot.
6863311
I agree. In canon actuality, Discord limits himself. He's Q in MLP.
For Discord, IT'S ALL JUST A GAME! But ALL games have rules. Even as the God of Chaos, he follows the rules of the game, otherwise, there's no point of playing. It's all for his amusement, or it's not worth doing. (besides, it's not his fault if folks don't understand the rules)
For Morning Star, with his Dark Matter, he thinks he can change the rules of the physics his materials are doing. And I'm sure Discord would be willing to take up the challenge of such a game with changing rules, if the #1 rule to remember is that ALL the rules can change!
That contest, however, would certainly get VERY UGLY, VERY QUICK!
The question is whether Morning Star would have what it takes to play such a game. If he had more of Perlin's outlook, where everything that guy did was simply for entertainment, there might be a point to playing with Discord in that manner. But Discord would quickly see that MS isn't doing it for fun. In which case, Discord would become a very vindictive player!
Author's Note:
Yeah. It's like Unicorn Hentai.
"
Celestia: "NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE!
6862658 I agree. I don't think I've ever seen the vein of sociopath that Morning Star is. He makes for an excellent villain because he's unique in several ways.
First, he is a sociopath. That right there marks him as different from nearly every other villain ever, as he doesn't even have the sadistic tendencies that might mark him as evil. He doesn't have Blue and Orange Morality, he lacks any morality at all, whether good or evil; concepts of right and wrong just don't exist for him. He's so completely amoral that it's difficult to even comprehend.
Second, he has powers beyond all understanding, like some kind of eldritch abomination, but he doesn't fall into that category either because the powers aren't inherent to him. He turns the entire concepts of eldritch abominations and unspeakable power on their heads. His abilities and motivations are so beyond our comprehension that it's impossible to predict what he'll do next.
And third, he would likely destroy the entire fabric of reality if left to his own devices, and he would be okay with that. He is willing to risk the destruction of reality itself simply to satisfy his own curiosity, which essentially makes him the classic mad scientist on steroids.
Morning Star might just be the most well-written villain I've ever seen in fiction.
7572757
Just saw this and I have to say that was well said. Although I can't even find it in me to call what he has sociopathy. Since he doesn't really meet the DSM criteria for it completely. Since while he lacks empathy, and (it's not that he lacks morals but) the idea of morality doesn't exist for him to begin with. He lacks a lot of other things that'd mark him with Antisocial Personality Disorder. Rather he transcends any label a normal person could mark him with, other than mad scientist (or simply 'Morning Star / Wight Shade). Much like the only label that truly fits Pinkie Pie is 'Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.'
But yes ... he most definitely is a mad scientist on steroids.
6862749
That assumes that he can actually do anything in this instance. Wight Shade/Morning Star may have already created a cage out of Dark Matter that absorbs his Chaos magic.
Besides, this is Discord we're talking about. The chaos of battle is right up his alley.
6941220
As shown in the Season 4 finale, Discord actually has his own brand of magic that at least seems to be compatible with Tirek's, considering he sucked Discord's magic out of him just like he did with the ponies. I take Discord to be the embodiment of chaos, but in the mathematical sense rather than the typical sense. Discord operates by the same laws as everyone else, when all is said and done. It's just that his inner workings are so complex that he's impossible to predict. If that's the case, then he probably wouldn't fare much better against Wight than any of the other characters.