Death Be Not Proud

by ShinigamiDad

Sacrifices

The five ponies moved swiftly through a series of steep, twisting passages and corridors, keeping close on the heels of their unwitting escort as it swept past rank after rank of now-deferential skeletal and mummified ponies. Zecora and her team still had to step carefully, and they nearly barreled into various non-pony creatures more than once.

Smudge trotted directly behind Solar, panting: “How--how much more of this? It’s hot and stuffy in here, and I need a rest!”

“I really don’t know. Realistically I could lose control anytime, now. I can feel the Void probing and pushing against my link with our guide.”

Shatter slapped her fellow flyer on the flank: “Suck it up, Smudge! You’ve done harder PT than this!”

“Yeah, but not directly under the enemy’s nose! The tension is making the physical exertion twice as bad!”

“I know, Smudge, but we have to strike while the iron’s hot. When Solar loses control of his puppet, up there, we’re gonna have to pick our way through this minefield without a guide!”

Solar squinted at the floor in front of his hooves: “Zecora! Please put down some more homing powder--I’m losing the path!”

The team stopped as Zecora dropped a small amount of shimmering dust which slithered forward past Solar and the proto-alicorn skeleton.

Steel peered at the pouch containing the powder: “I hope we get there shortly--it looks like Zecora’s about out!”

Zecora nodded grimly: “We have used much more dust than was planned / as its role I’ve been forced to expand!”

Solar sent a fresh pulse of dark magic to their skeleton escort, and the group began to walk forward again, tracking along the filament of glittering blue, which shone through the gloom like a glow worm trail.

Solar chewed his lip: “That doesn’t surprise me. These passages and caves have been far more labyrinthine and difficult to navigate. We may be forced to improvise if we run out of Zecora’s powder.”

Shatter rolled her eyes as she sidestepped some sort of tentacle that flopped out from the cave wall: “Super. Well, as old General von Canterwitz said long ago, ‘No campaign plan survives first contact with the enemy!’”

Steel chuckled: “Oh, I think we’re well past ‘first contact’ by now, Ma’am!”

Smudge furrowed her brow and craned her neck up above Solar’s back: “Heads up! The air’s changing!”

Shatter tipped her head around Steel’s flank: “I have my nose up Steel’s ass this time, which isn’t real conducive to my avionics! What’s changing, Smudge?”

Smudge’s ears flicked and she narrowed her eyes: “Pressure’s dropping--we’re about to hit another open area.”

“Roger that! OK, everypony--stay sharp! The last several times we hit the chasm shit got weird! I don’t expect that to change now!”

Solar ducked his head under the stump of a stalactite and came to an abrupt stop.

“I’m fairly sure you needn't worry, Captain--I suspect this will be ‘weird’ enough for all of us!”

---

The party squeezed through the narrow opening into a broad, high-domed cavern that opened out onto a breach in the chasm so broad, the far rim could not be discerned.

The space was lit with a faint blue glow emanating from swirls and clouds of Zecora’s tracking powder hovering in the air, and from light pulsing slowly from the walls of the cavern. The walls appeared to be lined with endless rows of brightly-illuminated bookshelves, trapped behind thick sheets of translucent, distorted, melting glass.

In the center of the chamber, suspended in a web of countless scores of filaments, ribbons and tendrils, hung the Void, now swollen to the size of a cider fermentation tank. Its surface was glossy and cracked, like a huge, fractured, smoky crystal ball.

The proto-alicorn skeleton stopped and began to twitch and tremble. Solar dashed forward, extending the cloak around his puppet.

Shatter stumbled backwards as the protected space became even more crowded: “Whoa! What’s up?”

Solar chewed his lip: “That’s the Void, and I almost lost control of our escort. I would like to keep her under my control for as long as I can.”

Steel furrowed his brow: “Sure doesn’t look watermelon-sized to me!”

“No, clearly it has swelled and stretched beyond the constraints Reaper put on it.”

He pointed to the spider-web-like cracks covering the Void’s shimmering surface: “You can literally see it cracking and straining. And obviously all these bands and ribbons of dark energy have escaped through its fractured surface.”

Shatter scanned the cave and noticed dozens of creatures and ponies in various stages of decay and mummification lining the walls: “OK, so now what? Can I assume you weren’t expecting it to be this big?”

“Nor this fractured. It has almost escaped the bonds Reaper laid on it! Our original plan was for me to tap and drain some of its power, pinning it in-place while Zecora laid down that pink entrapping compound you saw her use to close off the cave behind us.”

“And you don’t think that’ll work anymore. So what’s the plan now?”

Solar chewed his lip again and stared silently at the Void with wide eyes.

Shatter looked at Solar’s confused expression and nodded: “So this may turn into a military mission after all. Red Tabs! How many of those lances do we have?”

“Including the one Smudge is carrying? Five.”

“That’s a fuck-ton of power yes, Lieutenant?”

“Yes, Ma’am, but to what end? Can that thing even be affected? And what would it do to the ceiling of this cave?”

Shatter glanced up nervously: “Ah, I hear echoes of the good Major in that question…”

Zecora shouldered her way next to Solar: “What if we use your unwitting guide / to open a stealthy path inside?”

Solar licked his lips: “Extend the cloak along the lines of power. Walk the skeleton right into the Void…”

Shatter raised an eyebrow: “OK, then what? We have Old Bony on the other side. Could you still control her?”

“Probably not--not long, anyway, but she’d act as an anchor for a conduit along which my spells can run. At least for a moment…”

Zecora nodded: “Then I can insert my binding dust / and our blended magics should form a crust.”

Steel furrowed his brow: “A crust?”

Solar opened his shoulder bag and pulled out the vial of blood: “An odd word choice, but essentially correct. We will form a variation of the shield above us now, but this shield will collapse, compress and bind.”

“I assume this was your plan to begin with, but how will it scale up?”

Solar looked nervously at Zecora, who shrugged. Solar pulled the stopper from the vial: “It was never designed for anything this large and active. I hope that by inserting the binding spell and compound inside, I can expand a bubble of sorts within the confines of the existing containment field.”

Steel furrowed his brow: “Hang on--that’s going to take all the magic you can muster! What’s going to happen to the shield?”

Solar sighed heavily: “Zecora and I will stay inside the shield, which will be stretched to its limit containing our decoy as it enters the Void. You three will have to go...uncovered.”

Shatter smiled grimly: “So we three get to party while you two wallflowers hang around in here. That’s fine--it’s getting cramped anyway!”

She turned to Steel and began pulling the lances off his back: “Alright, Red Tabs--charge up these bad girls, it’s gonna get hot in here!”

Solar began drawing runes in blood across the proto-alicorn’s shoulders and skull: “I truly am sorry, Captain, but Zecora and I must remain undisturbed if there is to be any chance of this working. It should take no more than two or three minutes.”

Shatter nodded as Steel poured beams of crimson magic into the lances: “Seriously, I understand. This whole mission has gone from weird to weirder since we crossed that boundary. I always figured it’d end with us slugging it out with some monster or other!”

Smudge tucked her recharged lance back under her right foreleg: “So what’s the plan, Captain?”

Shatter set one of the lances on the ground as Steel levitated one lance off to the side of each of his shoulders. His horn still glowed a bright crimson.

Shatter grinned at Steel: “Damn, colt! You are ready to rock!”

Steel nodded: “Three minutes, Ma’am? With this low roof and that many targets and that Void over there? I honestly don’t expect to walk out of here. Might as well go out in a blaze of glory!”

Shatter nodded: “You may well be right, but I don’t want any wasted shots or wasted lives. Red Tabs, the heaviest concentration is to the right--that’s your target. Smudge, you go high, pick off targets of opportunity as they move to engage. I’ll head left in a wing-assisted sprint, see if I can draw off some of our opponents to the edge of the chasm.”

Smudge frowned: “Ceiling’s awful low, Captain--not sure how much use I can be airborne.”

“I know you’ll only have seven or eight yards to work with, but that gives you some advantage. With the enemy swarming and these lances going off, it’s going to get messy down here. I want a pair of eyes in the sky.”

Smudge bit her lip, but nodded curtly: “Yes, Ma’am!”

Solar closed his eyes and gritted his teeth: “I apologize to you all in advance, and to Princess Twilight in absentia…”

The other four ponies grimaced as Solar muttered a few arcane words and emptied the final measure of blood from the vial into his mouth. He swallowed with a shudder and his eyes glowed with a dull silver fire for a moment.

Smudge turned away with a look of loathing as Shatter clenched her jaw: “Holy shit, Old Timer! You’re heading into dangerous territory!”

“Agreed--as are we all. The Lieutenant is correct: none of us may survive the next three minutes. I will do what I must, even at the risk of becoming a pariah.”

Zecora closed her eyes and nodded as she pulled out the bag containing her pink binding agent.

Shatter sighed: “Alright, then--let’s do this!” Red Tabs, break right as I go left. Now!”

Steel and Shatter emerged from the cloak with a flash of golden light as Smudge rose quickly to the ceiling and hovered. They were noticed immediately, and two-dozen skeletal ponies and diverse creatures jerked to attention.

Shatter fanned her wings and cut a wide arc toward the left wall of the cave, nearly brushing her wingtip against several mummified bodies.

Steel shot simultaneous pulses of cherry-red magic from his two lances and horn, blasting apart four skeletons just as they stepped away from the right-side wall.

Smudge drifted back as dust and small stones showered down from the cave ceiling: “Captain! Watch out for incoming tentacle things on your eight!”

A cluster of ribbon-like tendrils shot out from the Void, lashing toward all three exposed ponies, nearly entangling Shatter as she swept her lance along the floor like a scythe, shearing off multiple legs.

She belly-flopped on the floor and rolled once, kicking up a cloud of dust, before resuming her sprint: “Shit--that was close!”

Steel looked over his shoulder as his lances ripped apart a pair of advancing, mummified manticores, showering burning fragments across the cave floor: “How’re you doing, Captain? Can you tell if Zecora and Solar are making any progress?”

Smudge swooped down and knocked a flying reptilian skeleton out of the air: “No, the cloak’s definitely doing its job!”

Inside the cloak Zecora and Solar huddled tight against the proto-alicorn and shuffled forward toward the Void as bits of bone and rock pelted them from all directions.

Solar stopped and tapped his horn against the skeleton’s; they both pulsed green and glowed a low, deep violet, streaked with black: “It’s time. I’m sending it in…”

Zecora nodded and sprinkled a line of pink dust along the proto-alicorn’s back, letting it fall off the tail onto the cave floor: “Go forward now into the dark! / Act as host to our secret spark!”

The cloak stretched forward as the skeleton shambled the final few yards to the surface of the Void. Zecora tossed out more hooffuls of pink compound, forming a thick line leading from just behind the proto-alicorn to Solar and Zecora’s hooves.

At the last moment Solar let the leading edge of the cloak pull apart, allowing his puppet’s head to emerge. It touched its horn, blazing with black and green eldritch flames, to the Void’s shimmering surface. The skeleton dissolved like smoke in the wind, and a black ribbon of energy suddenly locked onto Solar’s horn.

His eyes went wide as the cloak collapsed and the Void began pulling him toward it: “Zecora! Quickly! Cast more of your compound on the beam connecting me to the Void!”

Zecora furrowed her brow, but did as Solar requested. The pink powder disappeared into the ebony ribbon, which glittered briefly and slowed its drag on Solar.

Zecora looked around anxiously and scooped the fifth lance off the cave floor. She jumped next to Solar and poised the lance to strike the band of magic connecting the struggling unicorn to the Void.

Solar panted as his eyes bulged: “No! No! Don’t break the link! I--I can control it! I can manipulate your--your comp--comp…”

A tendril slashed at Zecora, driving her back and striking the floor heavily, raising a cloud of pink dust which settled on Zecora, Solar and the tendril.

Shatter pivoted at the edge of the chasm and caught sight of Solar and Zecora’s struggles: “What’s going on? I’m coming!”

Zecora stabbed her lance at the tendril and glanced in horror at the black cloud forming around her companion: “Solar is locked in mortal strife! / I fear the Void may end his life!”

Shatter knocked aside three skeletons and accelerated toward Solar as Zecora leaped over the tendril now entangling Solar’s forelegs. She landed in a patch of now-thickening pink compound and drove her lance into the band of dark energy connecting Solar to the Void.

The Void pulsed outward suddenly, sending out a shockwave, knocking Shatter aside, and driving Zecora to her knees. A section of roof loosened and sent Smudge scrambling for cover.

Solar suddenly lost control of his body and sagged forward, staring blindly into the black conduit that now enveloped his head. Zecora hacked at the black bands in vain as Solar gasped and twitched nervelessly.

“It...it...it’s indescribable…”

His eyes went blank as a faint shimmer rose from his horn, only to be swallowed by the black tendrils pulling him forward.

Zecora screamed in impotent rage and drove the head of the lance into the surface of the Void.

It detonated.

The Void shuddered and its surface ruptured outward, smothering the blast, throwing Solar’s lifeless body across the cave, and enveloping Zecora in black and pink and crimson bands.

She shrieked in horror and struggled wildly in an attempt to escape being sucked in as the Void reformed its outer layer.

Shatter regained her traction and shot forward in a cloud of dust, lance at the ready: “Hang in there, Zecora--we’re coming! Red Tabs! To me!”

Steel turned from his own melee and dashed across the rock-and-bone-strewn floor, disintegrating two foes as he ran, but as he and Shatter converged on Zecora, a wall of tendrils broke through the floor, blocking them as they watched Zecora disappear with a shout through the rippling surface of the Void.

Shatter stamped in fury and fired a blast of crimson magic from her lance at a nearby pony skeleton: “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!”

Smudge landed next to her as Steel retreated from the squirming black barrier, He turned to Shatter: “Now what, Captain? If we’re going to fall back we have to do it now before the roof gives way!”

Shatter ground her teeth: “Negative, Lieutenant! We’re balls-deep in this thing, and there’s no pulling out now! Solar and Zecora were right about one thing: Celestia made it clear that we either leave here victorious, or we don’t leave at all!”

Smudge nodded grimly: “So what’s the plan?”

Shatter ran her tongue over her teeth: “That lance took something out of the Void, and pulling in all that pink stuff seems to have had an effect, too.”

Steel nodded: “And it sure looked like Zecora went in kicking and fighting.”

“Yeah, she sure was. OK...so let’s hit it at all at once from three directions. I’ll sweep behind it, Steel can hit it with all he has right up front, and you, Smudge, can hit it from above, coordinating our strike, since you’ll be able to see Steel and me at the same time.”

Smudge re-positioned her lance and rose into the air: “Yes Ma’am--good luck!”

Shatter fanned her wings in salute: “You, too! Ready, Red Tabs?”

“Alright kids, we either go home, or we go wherever warriors go! Call the strike when we’re in position, Smudge!”

Shatter sprinted around the right side of the Void, jumping and half-flying over enemies and tendrils, cutting behind the ominous black shape as Smudge rose above it. Steel took a step forward and braced, his horn glowing blood-red.

Smudge rose a final yard and poised her lance for a downward thrust when she felt a gust of air from directly above her. She glanced up and cried out in surprise as the mummified form of a wyvern dropped out of a niche in the ceiling and grabbed at the startled pegasus.

Smudge instinctively swung her lance upward and discharged it directly into the wyvern’s mid-section, blasting it into pieces. One of its talons ripped across Smudge’s neck, tearing open a huge gash that sprayed blood as the pegasus’ broken body was thrown across the cave by the blast.

Steel shielded his eyes from the detonation, then watched Smudge crash to the floor behind him: “Smudge! Oh, Sweet Celestia, no! Captain!”

Steel ran to Smudge’s side as Shatter rocketed around the far side of the Void, avoiding large chunks of wyvern and rock falling from the cave roof.

She skidded to a stop in front of Smudge’s crumpled body: “What the fuck happened?!”

Smudge’s eyes fluttered open for a moment and focused weakly on Shatter’s face: “Sorry, Captain--it--it surprised me...I guess I’m going wherever...warriors…” Her eyes slowly closed as blood bubbled from her lips.

Tears welled up in Shatter’s eyes: “Shut up, Smudge! That’s an order! We’re going to get you out of this shit-hole cave!”

She stood and stepped toward the now-pulsing Void: “Red Tabs--give me your second lance!”

Steel rose from his knees and stepped gingerly around the pool of blood spreading around Smudge’s head. He levitated the lance hovering off his right shoulder toward Shatter.

She spread her wings and hovered two yards off the cave floor, tucking a lance under each foreleg, locking her wrists behind the glowing, crystal tips: “I’m going in hot, Lieutenant. Feed me energy all the way!”

Steel furrowed his brow: “Suicide run, Captain?”

Shatter narrowed her eyes and gauged the distance to the upper edge of the Void: “Not my intent, but if I have to, I will. Whatever you do, don’t stop feeding me--blow these things up if it comes to that! I will not go out like Solar or Zecora!”

She looked back down over her shoulder at Steel: “Am I clear, Lieutenant?”

Steel nodded curtly: “Yes Ma’am--crystal clear!”

Shatter smiled sadly: “I don’t think I’m gonna get to see you get those tabs, Noble, but it’s been an honor serving with you.”

“You, too Ma’am…”

“Shatter--call me ‘Shatter.’”

“Yes M--Shatter. Good luck!”

Shatter rose another two yards: “If not, you and I and Smudge can have a drink together--wherever warriors go!”

The Void surged as pink bands and sprites danced sporadically across its surface, and it threw off sprays of dark energy and tendrils, tearing away chunks of ceiling, smashing skeletons.

Shatter squared her shoulders: “Light me up, Red Tabs--here we go!”

Steel focused his horn on Shatter’s tail, causing his magic to fork just behind her, terminating at the butt-end of the Captain’s lances.

Shatter shot forward, dust swirling in eddies off her wingtips, lances glowing and vibrating as they strained to the breaking point. She accelerated the final few yards with a full-throated battle cry and hurled the lance tucked against her left wrist as she cocked her right foreleg for a second throw.

The throw never came.

A ribbon of black energy darted out of the roiling, fractured surface of the Void, intercepting the lance, detonating it with a deafening roar and blinding flash that ripped across Shatter’s body, hurling her backwards as her left wing splintered in a spray of bone and blood and feathers.

The feedback of the two magic streams, combined with the shockwave of the exploding lance hurtled Steel backwards into the cave wall, directly beneath a large section of collapsing roof. He fell unconscious as a slab of rock crumbled above him.

Smudge gasped feebly as her pulse faded out and blood filled her throat.

---

Twilight phased-in next to Smudge and quickly surveyed the chaos: falling rock, flyer plunging toward the chasm, dying pegasus, Void rupturing its restraints in a multi-hued eruption.

Her head swam with panic for an instant, then a single word came unbidden into her consciousness like a clarion call: “STOP!”

Everything froze.

Twilight blinked and shuddered, then looked down sadly at Smudge before bending down and touching the dark-grey body with her horn. A faint mist shimmered above the bloodied, broken pegasus for a moment, then faded.

Twilight stood up and looked around the cave, beholding the impending deaths of Steel and Shatter. She chewed her lip and stared at the collapsing ceiling, and the now-unconstrained Void.

She saw two more guaranteed deaths, and heard Discord’s words echo in her ears. She glanced at the marks on both flanks; her eyes hardened: “Fuck Discord.”

Working quickly, Twilight dashed to Steel’s side, pulling him away from the collapsing ceiling, laying him next to Smudge. She then rushed to the edge of the chasm and used her magic to guide Shatter back toward the cave floor, depositing her on Smudge’s other side.

Sweat beaded on her forehead as Twilight cast a violet web across the cave’s roof, restraining it, and limiting additional rockfall. She felt time beginning to slip forward, and sensed the Void straining. She stared intently at its glittering surface and perceived the effects of Zecora’s binding compound.

She brought her sword up in front of her face, squared her shoulders, and let the time-suspense effect end. The air was suddenly a swirling maelstrom of dust and rubble and bones and lashing tendrils.

Twilight’s horn glowed a deep purplish-black as Twilight probed the Void with both Death’s power and dark magic.

She glanced at Solar’s lifeless body, then back at the Void: “What did you do, Solar? Where’s Zecora?”

Her eyes went wide as the truth dawned on her: “Oh, Sweet Celestia! You’re inside! How?”

She probed the fields around the Void again, and furrowed her brow: “Dark, blood magic--my blood! I understand, now!”

Twilight shook her head sadly at Solar: “This was beyond you--beyond any living pony…”

She turned back to face the Void with a frown: “But I am no normal, living pony!”

She turned up a wrist and slashed it with a blade of dark magic. Blood welled up and ran down her leg, dripping on the floor: “Come on! Take it! This is what you want! This is the power of life and death!”

A dozen tendrils shot out and entangled Twilight’s foreleg, whisking away the blood, tugging. She raised her other foreleg and gashed its wrist: “Take it all! Come!”

The Void surge toward Twilight, its black surface now swirling with bands of violet and pink and gold. Twilight gritted her teeth and poured out a beam of dark magic, impossibly black even against the backdrop of the Void.

She stepped forward, panting, eyes glowing with silver fire, sword flickering with gold and crimson flames, horn pulsing purple-black. The Void seemed to shrink back.

“No, no! You want my blood, you pay the price! I know what Solar was trying to do, but his magic wasn’t dark enough, and he didn’t have enough of my blood!”

She lunged forward and plunged both her sword and her horn into the Void, puncturing it with a flash of light and a wave of intense cold.

“But I now command dark magic with a power unrivaled since Grey Thorn fell, and I am deathless! I bind you now to my will!"

She stepped back a pace from the Void and inscribed three glyphs on the cave floor using the blood that was now dripping freely off her hooves.

The Void suddenly contracted as black bands materialized around it, glittering like wet obsidian. Twilight rose on her hind legs and spread out both her bloody forelegs and wings as she rose, writhing ecstatically into the frigid air.

She hovered above the glyphs, sword poised above her head, dark power coursing from her horn as the Void was squeezed and pressed down into a compact sphere again.

The fire died in Twilight’s eyes as she dropped heavily to the floor, falling to her knees, shuddering. The Void drifted toward the floor like a deflating balloon.

Twilight’s head snapped up: “Not this time!”

A concave, violet disk, like a large, shallow bowl appeared beneath the Void, preventing it from passing through the floor into the chasm below.

Twilight sat back wearily on her haunches and pulsed healing magic from her horn across the gashes in her wrists.

“Prin--Princess…”

Twilight rose wearily to her hooves and walked slowly over to Steel.

He looked up at Twilight, eyes unfocused: “Is...is the Captain OK?”

“No, but she’ll live. As will you.”

“Smudge?”

Twilight shook her head: “No, but her death summoned me here, and that saved you and the Captain.”

Steel lifted his head off the floor and nodded: “That would have made her glad--to know her death was not in vain.”

Twilight smiled sadly as she teleported Smudge and Solar’s bodies away.

“Where did you send them?”

“Where I’m sending you two--back up to the top of the chasm. Major Stormy left a patrol there, and they’ll take care of you--your Captain’s in pretty rough shape.”

“I understand. Thank you, Princess.” He tipped his horn toward the Void: “What are you going to do with that?”

“I don’t really know. Take it up to Grey Thorn’s old study, for the time being. After that…”

She looked around the crumbling cavern and watched the glowing, illusory bookcases run down the walls like sepia-toned tears.

“Even the past is weeping, Lieutenant.”

Steel took a deep, pained breath through broken ribs and squeezed his eyes shut: “I’m sorry--what, Princess?”

She looked down with dry, empty eyes at Shatter and Steel’s damaged bodies: “Never mind, Lieutenant. Not important.”

The pegasus and unicorn vanished in a bright, magenta flash, leaving Twilight alone with the Void.

She pitched the last two lances into the chasm and wrapped the Void in a glowing, red bubble, lifting it from its protective base.

She popped the lid on her flask and drank it dry: “A thousand years from now...nopony…”

The Void vanished with a ‘pop’ and Twilight faded-out moments later.