Twilily Saga: Past, Present, Or Damnation

by Lighttone GryphonStar

Chapter 17: Shining Glimmer Of Starlight

The dome drew closer and closer, yet Selena Moondie didn’t move a single muscle. Silence fell all around her as the world was nothing to her but blackness. She looked straight out into the blackness for what felt like eons. Finally, trembles broke through her frozen form. She let tears loose once more, but she stopped as she heard a voice, it wasn’t Corruption or Twilight or anypony else. But it was also a voice that nopony else could hear.

“I see he finally died.”

She looked up to see a boney figure in a blacked cloak walking toward her. Her instincts told her to get up and run as far and as fast as she could, but she still refused to move from her spot. The figure stopped walking just mere inches in front of them. He leaned down and placed his bony hand upon Cult Race. “He made a bet with me once when I gave his weapons. It was that you and him would never die.”

“Saturn…” spoke another voice above Selena Moondie.

“Yes…” Saturn looked upward toward the voice. “Do you want him and her to lose that bet?”

“They lose that bet. They won’t die.”

Saturn smiled and retreated his hand from Cult Race. “I suppose I will have to take the words of another who always escapes my grip.”

Selena Moondie soon realized that Saturn wasn’t talking to her as he backed away from them. As he left, the darkness around them vanished. Selena Moondie could feel the warmth of the world again and hear the sounds of the world as her ears perched up to the sound of a voice behind her. She turned to face it but upon so, the dome shattered around them as the figure that was talking landed. Her eyes widened and lit up with hope upon who she saw.

It was a samurai-like figure that stood in the way of the battle, over the remains of Corruption's attack. The figure looked down toward Selena Moondie and placed her hand on her shoulder. The figure’s long purple and turquoise mane flew out of her face, revealing to all who it was.

It was Starlight, alive!

Realta appeared behind her and spoke to her. “You will only have a certain amount of time. Use it wisely.” After he was finished, he took his leave.

Twilight knocked away more of the mindless alicorns and looked in shock at what was happening. Starlight looked so different. She was slightly taller, her mane was longer, and it almost looked like she was older. She was now wearing gray armor, with a look reminiscent of a samurai, under it she wore a lavender cheongsam over a black tank top and tight pants. Next thing she noticed was that Starlight was wearing the strangest choice in gloves. The left one was red, and the right one was blue. The final difference was on her belt were two katanas in their sheaths on each of her sides. The left one had a white handle, the right one had a black handle.

Corruption looked upon Starlight as he slowly descended. “Starlight Glimmer.”

She ignored him and looked toward Selena Moondie. She leaned down and whispered something silently into Selena Moodie’s ears. Starlight backed away as Selena Moondie smiled greatly.

Corruption noticed that Starlight wasn’t answering so he crossed his arms and spoke once more, “Are you Balance or are you Starlight Glimmer?”

Starlight took a breath and turned to look at him. “What exactly do you mean?”

“Well you are supposed to be the omni-pony, are you not? The descendant of my mortal enemy?”

“I am, and?”

“Well, that’s just it. You’re disappointing. I don’t feel a thing. You have no magic at all. The prophecy stated that you would be overflowing with magic right now. And yet I can sense nothing at all. You’re as blank as Cult Race’s emotions.”

“Enough!” she shouted with a random amount of rage. “I will not let you patronize him.”

“Is that suppose to be a threat? Do you even know who you are dealing with? I am Corruption one of the original being of the universe. I am the God of everything now and I will not be threat--”

Suddenly she stopped him as she grabbed his throat and flew into the sky at the speed of a sonic rainboom. The force of the hit sent a small shockwave outward from the spot.

******

As Starlight left, Selena Moondie face fell slightly. “What hope do I have thought? Cult Race was still gone… right?”

“I never thought that you would quit so easily.”

Selena Moondie’s ears perked up at that voice. She looked upward to what looked like a giant storm cloud descending down up them all. “It can’t be?”

“But it is.” a zebra jumped of the storm cloud and landed by them.

“Uncle Zeb and Uncle Arabus!”

“Arub… What?” Twilight killed a few more mindless alicorns as she looked toward them. Her eyes widened and the giant storm cloud transformed into a mighty beast. “It’s a titan.”

Arabus landed around them, grabbing as many of the mindless alicorns as he could in his hand, throwing them around, sending them crashing into the ground. Arabus built up large amounts of magic in his mouth and blasted it outward, taking out a good portion of the alicorns.

“Yeah! We just need more help and we might just win,” Twilight cheered as she landed near Selena Moondie.

“Twilily.” Selena Moondie smiled, an idea had finally formed. “Starlight is the mare who escaped death, I am the mare who refuses to die, Cult Race is the stallion who even death denies.” Her smile grew and bolder soon her teeth could be seen. “Don’t destroy them completely. I need plenty of bodies if I am to save Cult Race.”

Twilight smiled at her words., “That’s better.” She looked around to them all. “Well, as a friend of mine would always tell me, it’s best to never let a lady down.” She charged her kopises with dark magic. “So let’s go.”

On that line, Twilight, Arabus and Zeb charged into the army.

******

A crash tore through trees as Starlight and Corruption landed in the forest. Corruption hit the ground with such force that his back was ripped wide open as their hit left a small yet deep crater in the ground.

Starlight let go of his throat and jumped back. Corruption rubbed at his throat as his back healed. Once finished checking his wounds he got up and as his mind raced in complete confusion. “She just flew like the fastest pegasus and threw me with the strength of the strongest earth pony. How? she is just a mere unicorn.”

He looked at her with a deathly stare as she walked around him. He realized it then. “Now I see. It’s all become clear to me. You’re older. By at least six years. Am I right?”

She rolled her eyes at him and stopped moving. She crossed her arms and looked directly at him. She was clearly not in the mood to talk.

“Oh, there is no need to answer. It’s clear that Realta ripped you from a timeline six years ahead of the one I saw die. And it’s also clear that during those six years you have pushed your body to it’s limit, in a way to trick me. There is no way you could fly like a pegasus, or crush me like an earth pony. You are a simple unicorn who increased her bodily strength to trick me. That was clearly not pegasus or earth pony magic. I know--”

“Are you done monologuing yet?” she interrupted.

It didn’t matter what she did to herself, his power would keep growing. “Fine, I’ll end this right now.”

He charged forward with his fist ready. She quickly ducked as he swung. But behind her, the forest received the full power of his attack as it turned into a wasteland.

“You may have dodged me, but you still must be surprised. I just turned this entire forest into a desert. I won’t be holding back like I did with Cult Race and Selena Moondie. My power is so immense and it will keep growing and growing.”

Starlight backflipped away from him several feet and then stood in a defensive stance. He charged in for another attack. Starlight dodged him again but was nearly knocked back by the hurricane winds that he shot forth. As he saw an opening he went straight for her chest. She barely dodged it with a teleport. He quickly found her through with his own teleport and tried again, but she managed to dodge once more with another teleport.

The two kept this up for several minutes as the place continued to be torn apart. Soon Starlight found herself on the side of a hill covered in slight sweat from all the teleporting. Suddenly Corruption appeared right behind her. She turned and jumped back as he swung one of his arms at her. He rushed forward and grabbed her by the leg. She kicked at him several times to get him to let go. Once she was free she pushed herself back even more as he jumped toward her. She jumped into the air and tried crashing a heavy earth pony like kick downward on him. He caught it, however, there was a lot of force behind the attack as the ground under him cracked with the force of the hit.

Starlight pushed with her leg, throwing herself out of his grip and into a flip and then a spin to where she swung her fists at him as she twirled. As he blocked the attacks, she quickly landed on the ground in a crouching position and tried to trip him over with a downward swing of her leg. He saw this, jumped and swung his four fists downward, meanwhile she rolled forward to dodge the attack and once she got under him she kicked upward with the force of the previous strong attack. Making contact with his stomach she kicked with enough force to send out a small concentrated shockwave outward.

Corruption was pushed upward by this. He grabbed his stomach as he flew. If he still had a mouth, he would be puking from the force of that hit. Meanwhile, Starlight pushed at the ground with her hands sending her into the air. She landed another hard attack with her kicks, sending out more shockwaves as this time it cut through his flesh. However, this had her stuck to him. He grabbed her by the legs and pulled her out and swung her into the hillside with such great force that the hill filled with cracks.

Seeing his chance, he charged forward to finish this, but again she teleported as his fist hit the hill, tearing half of it apart. Starlight landed on the other side of the hill barely alive. She jumped back as Corruption teleported in front of her and simply walked toward her this time.

“This is very odd. You are supposed to be the one to kill me. Is fate wrong? If not then why do you dodge me?” He continued to walk closer until he found himself just inches from her. “I wonder is it out of instinct to dodge a god, or is it fear?” he finished as he once more sent one of his fist right for her heart.

However the impossible happen once again. His attack made contact, but she stopped it with just two fingers. Despite the fist being stopped, the attack went forward beyond her, leaving a large crater in its wake, yet she was left untouched.

He looked in shock as his mind raced, “She caught it! She caught it! Why would she catch it now, but dodge it before?”

Finally, she spoke up once more, “You asked whether it was instinct or fear. It was to show you, that you are not God. The mere fact that I can dodge and even fight you is proveth enough.”

He jumped far back in anger his frustration was getting the better of him. “So you claim that I’m not God. Do you doubt my power? I will show you what only God who created the very Ideas can do.”

He held out his left upper hand toward her and chanted in a strange language once more, “Obacovni Mulam Mungam Meger. Tigeder obacovni Ingam. Obacovni Inrefni Sucal. Oido, obacovni Oitatnet. Sitcefretni euqsius Romit, Satidipuc, Segnitiam, Aitirava, Aidivni, Aibrepus, Ari Sulod obacovni. The great push and pull, Left Hand of the Devil.”

******

Twilight and the others took down more and more mindless alicorns, but the numbers were still proving to be too big. There was so many of them. She wiped off the sweat gathering on her face as she looked toward Selena Moondie.

Selena Moondie was creating a circle of blood around her and Cult Race. She needed more bodies for this to work, but she also needed time, that of which Cult Race did not have. She didn’t know how long Saturn would wait before returning. She had to get this done now.

However, her mind stopped wandering as several mindless alicorns broke away from Arabus and charged toward her. She looked with terror as she weakly raised her chain blades in defense of her and Cult Race. The mindless alicorns knocked them away and rushed right at her. She leaned down over Cult Race and closed her eyes.

Suddenly blood splatter over them as the mindless alicorns was cut down. She looked up to see a pony she thought would never save them. “Princess Celestia? Why?”

“I don’t know… I don’t remember.” Celestia stood ready with her horn lite. “But what I do know is that this is not how alicorns should live! They are suffering under his command and this only way left to save them!”

Twilight heard Celestia’s voice and landed beside her. “Where is Freak Show?”

“... who?” Celestia looked in confusion at Twilight’s words.

“What do you mean--” Suddenly Twilight was stopped as a loud shockwave filled the air. She turned toward the battle in the distance and knew instantly what it was. “No… Starlight!!”

******

A massive, seemingly endless crater cleared as Corruption backed away from its starting point. “What?! How?!” His limbs became numb as his body stopped purely on its own. “The only one immune to my power is… No, THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!!!!”

Indeed it seemed impossible. Starlight was left untouched by the attack. In fact, several feet of land around her was completely unscathed. “It is very possible. The devil hand and god hand take magic from around the user and effects all that was taken.” She moved her hand upward and placed it just above her chest. She reached into a pocket and pulled out a charm of her own. “This is the Charm of Emptiness. With it, it’s as if I have no magic at all.”

Corruption’s eyes widened, “No… you were fighting me without magic, not a single drop. But how, you telepo--” He stopped himself as he realized it. “Titan-like speed would look like a teleport to even the best of eyes. I have eyes that can see all forms of magic, yet I could never track your teleports until you reappeared because they weren’t teleports.” He backed away very slowly, “No, great speed and incredible power… and it was all muscle and technique…”

“Yes.” she moved at speed faster than even his titan eyes could read as she not only reached him before he could even react, she cut all four of his arms off with her katanas and resheathed both her katanas before they could even be seen. Corruption stopped moving in shock. All he saw was a red and blue blur and his arms were gone. Instantly he teleported to the top of the hill they were on.

“See you ran.” she looked up at him. “You are an Idea, a being that existed beyond the creation of the universe, and you still run. DO YOU TRULY CALL YOURSELF GOD NOW?!?!” She roared out to him as her word trembled through his entire being. “If you were truly the creator of all things, then this battle would have ended long ago. I would be gone before even considering the idea of fighting you. The mere fact that I am able to defy you is proveth that you could never be such a being. You mere an idea, and not the mind that created you.” She could see the frustration upon him. She smiled widely this time and showed her teeth. “Fine. If you are God, then tell me, why did you run from me?”

“I get it now,” he trembled. “You are pleased that you dodged all my attacks. I guess you are also proud of yourself to even out think my most powerful attacks. Well, don’t get too full of yourself, foolish unicorn!” Corrupted magic surged within him in impossible amounts. It shot out with the force of a typhoon as he roared in agony. The ground shook with such great force. It spread in all directions as the entire country shook. Massive cracks formed on the holes left from his limbs. His flawless, featureless flesh twisted and pulse as thick mud like black corroded liquid flooded from his wounds seemingly endless amounts in all directions like a river across the ground.

******

Twilight and Celestia felt the crazy winds as all turned toward the battle. Seeing the liquid rush toward them they flew into the air while Zeb jumped onto Arabus’ back with his stretchy limbs. The liquid flowed beyond them for miles on end until the entire wasteland was quickly cover in a thick lake of this oily sludge. Any mindless alicorn that was on the ground found themselves quickly trapped in this goo.

“What is this stuff?” Twilight covered her mouth as noxious fumes rose from the gunk, permeating everything.

“It’s flowing from Corruption.” Celestia turned back toward the battle once more only to find more mindless alicorns standing in their way of sight. “Move.,” she waved her horn, knocking them to the side. Suddenly her eyes widened upon what she saw. Corruption’s body was swelling at a massive rate. “He is discarding.”

“Discarding what?” Twilight stabbed another mindless alicorn as she looked to Celestia. Celestia wouldn’t answer at all.

Corruption’s body fell slightly as the liquid kept flowing. Soon it slowed to a stop, only for the flow to be replaced with white color liquid. This new white liquid was even thicker than the previous and moved more like rotten putty as it covered the previous liquid like a thick slime.

Twilight grabbed the body of the mindless alicorn she had just killed threw it to the pile that was gathering around Selena Moondie and Cult Race. She didn’t know how many more bodies they would need, but as she looked around to the many more around them all, she doubted they would run out.

She twisted in revulsion as the new white liquid stank even worse than the first. She looked around and jumped slightly as the white liquid had risen the liquid level enough that it was hitting at the bodies over the pyramid.

She landed beside Selena Moondie as the dark mare continued to draw the needed symbols. “What is taking so long?”

“The symbols I usually use are engraved on my body and bones with invisible ink. In order to use this spell on Cult Race, I need to write out every single symbol in its entirety around him and use the equivalent amount of bodies to replace what he lost.”

“Wouldn’t make sense to simply use just one body?”

“If it was that easy, anypony could be a necromancer.”

“Fine, fine. I get your point--” Twilight’s voice stopped as the smell got too worse for her to handle. She grabbed at her mouth and tried to hold in the biles.

Selena Moondie looked at her and smiled. “You asked what this is? It’s millions of years of blood and lard from every creature he has ever devoured.”

Twilight’s eyes widened in horror and her hand pulled back as she could no longer hold it. She puked profusely, yet even the smell of her own vomit was not enough to break the horrid smell that was gathering around them. “Why is he doing this?”

“He is breaking away everything that bounds him to this world.”

“What do you mean?”

“Twilight!” Celestia shouted to her.

Twilight rose back up to the sky to see her. “What is it?”

“I told you the legend of the Ideas. How they entered this universe in new forms, more physical forms.”

“Yes,”

“You have seen Realta and Grogar forms. The Tree of Harmony and even Discord I’m assuming.”

“Yes?”

“Well, Corruption is returning to his true physical form.” Celestia looked upward as a great shadow rose over them all.

Twilight looked toward the same direction as her eyes then followed the same pathway upward.

******

Corruption’s body expanded more and more until he stood so high that he even dwarfed Arabus in height. Now even Starlight was wide-eyed at the size of him. But the worst was yet to come as the wind and ground came to an utter stop. Everything came to an instant standstill. Silence fell for only an ever short moment. A mere thirty seconds of motionless and silence fell over the entire planet.

Quickly everything returned to motion as the body exploded, yet there was not a single shock wave from it at all. Gory remains showered over the wasteland as something gigantic shot out from the flesh. A massive serpentine-like centipede with the seemingly uncountable amount of limbs stretch upward and through the sky. It flew in all directions as it body kept flowing out the remains without a single sign of an end. Just how big was this thing?

After several minutes of covering the entire sky, it stopped flying around and hovered over them all. He was so big, all that could be seen of him was his face from every direction. He roared so loud the pyramid cracked from the force of the roar.

“Well, Balance I have shown my skin. Will you show your’s?”

Starlight looked up at him with rage as her eyes narrowed and she pulled off her charm. “I won’t be needing my charm anymore.” She put the charm away and looked toward his charms, seeing that they were still upon his flesh as they had moved down to his neck, acting like a necklace. “There are my targets,” she reached for her katanas.

“No, I won’t give you time to attack. Show me your true power.” He rushed forward with his jaws open. Starlight jumped back and turned to run away as he chased her down. Starlight ran as fast she could, trying to get away from his jaws as they kept getting close. They ran through the cratered cover land and soon over the liquid. Kicking her feet through the top of the lake that covered the ground, she managed to run across the surface of the liquid as she made her way to the mindless alicorn.

“Starlight!” Starlight heard Twilight yell as she ran. She looked to see Twilight aiming her kopises her direction. “Dive!”

Seeing what Twilight was planning, she took a breath and dived into the disgusting liquid. Meanwhile, Twilight jumped and spun her kopises outward. “Full Moon Strike!” Magic shot out from her kopises in a white ring and went right at Corruption.

“Infernal Fire,” Celestia lite the magical attack in fire magic as it flew through the air. The combined attack hit Corruption head on, knocking his massive head into the air.

Seeing her chance Starlight pulled her katanas out, filling them with her restored light and dark magic and swinging them outward. “Heaven Hell Strike.”

The liquid around Starlight burst outward in all directions as two massive slices of magic punched Corruption right upside the face, slicing off part of his claws.

Starlight jumped out out the liquid spinning as held out her katanas out more, “Light’s Darkness,” A tornado of light and dark magic swarmed around her as she crashed right into the charms. Corruption pushed her back and she changed at him again and again with the tornado. Each clash sent out a shockwave covered in black and white rainbows.

Starlight eventually stopped and stood ready for another attack as Corruption laughed at her. “Yes, I see those katanas are the ones of legend,” he remarked. In her right hand was the red-bladed katana with a black handle and in her left hand was a blue-bladed katana with a white handle.

“Enough,” She grasped them together, similar to Cult Race’s own style. “Duel Striker Finale!” She swung out a pillar of light and dark magic.

Corruption easily dodged, however that was the plan. With his eyes on her, he didn’t see Arabus send down a massive lightning strike across the face. Corruption reeled back in pain as the massive bolt going down his face and neck, nearly touching the charms.

Starlight saw her chance with him now exposed as she spun again and returned back to the tornado attack, striking him right on the spot of the charms and sending out massive shockwaves of rainbows even bigger than before. A huge hole tore through the spot where the charms were and Corruption wailed in agony.

Corruption fell backward and crashed into the liquid. The liquid rushed around his crash sending out small tidal waves in all directions. The mindless alicorns stopped in place as Corruption stopped moving.

Utter silence fell overall as not even the wind crept a noise the sound of utter shock. Starlight looked to the liquid that covered her body and shivered. She was certainly going to need a shower after this. She took a breath looked around for Realta as she landed. “Hmm, he said he would be here once the battle was complete.”

Twilight and Celestia cheered as Starlight landed on top of the unmoving corpse. As she tried to catch her breath she looked around to the liquid that covered every sight of the ground. She wiped the sweat off her face, found the disgusting liquid still over most of her. She shivered and jumped slightly. Calming herself down she looked up to the sky to see Arabus and Zeb taking down as many mindless alicorns as they could.

Everything seemed to be in the clear, yet she felt uneasy the entire time she walked over the dead body to get to Celestia and Twilight. She knew the army mindless alicorns were still moving about and they would have to deal with them soon as well, but for right now she just wanted to be happy to see friends again.

A smile kept growing on her face until she could take it no more. She put her katanas away and held her arms out as she rushed toward them. “I missed you all.”

As she ran, she didn’t notice the fact that the liquid vibrated. Soon the mindless alicorns jolted and twist. Zeb and Arabus stopped their attacks as they looked at the army strangely.

Without any warning, all the mindless alicorns that were still alive rushed toward Starlight at a fast. Zeb and Arabus charged at them, but quickly realized the army was heading for Starlight.

“Look out!”

Starlight, Twilight, and Celestia looked toward Zeb as they saw the army approaching them. However, that was not the true terror as the liquid splashed around and Corruption’s head rushed out of the liquid straight toward Starlight.

All Celestia and Twilight heard was a rush of wind and a splash as Corruption swallowed Starlight whole. Meanwhile, the mindless alicorns swarmed over them as they turned around. The swarm headed straight for the wound as the massive body lifted out of the liquid. Twilight and Celestia looked to see the charms barely hanging from small slivers of flesh inside the wound in his chest.

The alicorns swarm tore their way through the wound, filling every crevice as Corruption rose into the air. They twist and tore to fit in as many as possible. Every single one of them tightly compacted themselves even tighter them then a prison overfilled with inmates. However the worst was yet to come, each one of the alicorns turned their head to the nearest neighbor and bite down. Much to the sickening of everypony that saw this, all the alicorns ripped themselves apart, chunk by chunk. With each bite, purple blood, blue blood, maroon blood and white blood flowed into every remaining crack and tear.

Corruption laughed in a mighty roar as Twilight and Celestia looked in shock. “I am victorious,” he laughed aloud as he descended to look at his wound as the meat filled it. Soon many shells of exoskeleton shot out from the edges and covered every exposed piece of meat until the wound was completely gone like it never happened. “Oh, nothing like improved healing.” He turned and looked at Twilight and Celestia, “This is the true reason I went after the charms. You see once I had enough magic, I could easily restore my form at any time of my choosing. However, I would still have problems in your equines. You creatures always proved to be my greatest obstacle.” He looked toward the charms and back to Twilight and Celestia. “Hence why I went for the charms first. You see I wasn’t lying when I call myself God. Or to be more precise, God of my alicorns. For just as King Heavonos was the father, the God of the alicorns. Now I am as well. King Heavonos’ magic is infused into every alicorn before this day. And now my magic flows through the new alicorns like blood.” He looked back at Twilight as he leaned down to her height. “In other words, just as you are part of Grogar, they are part of me. Once I am finished here, I will make every equine on the planet an alicorn and with that, they will all be of my blood.” He lifted his head up to the sky, “It matters not whether you call me God now! Soon enough you will!”

His words tore through her core as Twilight fell to the ground and shook. “This means we can’t beat him ever.” Tears gathered in her eyes as Corruption moved away from her.

He turned toward them and moved around them more and more until most of his body surrounded them. They looked to see him on all sides. There was no sight of escape anywhere at all. Once they all saw the truth he rose his head up high over the Sun, almost like he was eating it. He looked down to them all as the light shine of his limbs in an almost divine look.

He rose his body to the very edge of the atmosphere so all of Equestria could see him. He took in a deep breath and looked upon the world. His eyes glowed as transparent strings became visible on the tips of his trillions of limbs as he stretched out his gigantic body. The strings stretched outward across the entire planet. “This is my true power. Every string is apart of me and always had been there, manipulating, bending and twisting everything I desire since the planet’s creation. But in truth, you are all but a mere footnote to me. When I am done here, my strings will cover everything in the universe. Beings, planets, star and even the very fabric of reality itself will be under my control.”

Twilight rose her hands to her face, covering it shame and terror. “We’ve lost. We all have lost. No, we can’t win. We can’t even win.”

The liquid around the pyramid sank into the ground at a fast rate as the remains of the alicorn army landed and bowed to Corruption. Celestia and Twilight landed on the ground as well and looked around to the army. They looked to every single one of them. They looked at each other and clenched their weapons tightly. “Please let this not be the end.”

Suddenly blood-curdling screams filled the top of the pyramid as magic shot outward from the top of the pyramid. A moment passed and a voice shouted outward “Twilight Sparkle, is that cowardice?!”

Twilight looked toward the pyramid to see Cult Race standing at the top of it. He was alive and fully repaired. He was even wearing new clothes. He was now wearing a dark gray, tall collared, thin steampunk trench coat and a bright, neon yellow suit, tie, and pants that were clearly meant to be a bullseye for his enemies, always the strangest of all was his choice in gloves; the left one was red and the right one was blue a tall, and tall gray top hat.

“I want to know because I don’t know what cowardice is, I don’t know what pain is, I don’t know what sorrow is, I don’t know what sadness is, yet there is one thing I do know. It’s the reason I spared her that day. It was something I saw in her eyes. The reason Starlight keeps fighting is because of the one emotion we all have.” He lifted up his weapons and ready his stance.

Cult Race pulled out his moth wings and jumped into the flying toward Corruption. He pushed on slicing through the serpent’s side and he spun around him. Corruption reeled back and descend down upon them all. He looked toward Cult Race and rushed right at him with his mandibles.

Cult Race held up his weapons and blocked the oncoming attack. The clash sent of out shockwave of static as Cult Race was pushed back away from Corruption’s body with very little force. Yet as Cult Race pushed to the ground he stood strong, despite the fact that his weapons now beginning to crack under the pressure.

Corruption smiled, “I already killed you once, Are you really wanting me to kill you again?”

Cult Race glared at him with a fake smile, “Nope, I just wanted close enough so she could hear me.”

“Who?” Corruption narrowed his eyes at him.

Cult Race took in a massive breath of air into his mouth and screamed “STARLIGHT GLIMMER!!!!” his roar tore through all the ears of all who were there. “You were never meant to be the reincarnation of Balance.” Cult Race gritted his teeth and pushed Corruption back. “You were meant to be a new Idea, a better emotion that lives with all of us and that is Hope.”

Suddenly his weapons snapped and Corruption pushed forward. Time seemed to slow around Cult Race as Corruption’s mandibles closed in. He looked toward and then toward Twilight. Seeing the fear in her eyes. She had given up, but he had not. He looked forward back to the attack and reached outward with his hands as time’s flow returned for him. The attack stabbed through his hands, yet he still would fall as the attack pushed him into the ground.

Finally, the attack tore through his arms and headed straight his heart. “DIE!” However, the attack was stopped mere millimeters from his chest as the ground shook around them. Corruption pulled back in pain as a massive pillar of light and darkness tore through his body as it straight up to the sky and beyond. “What is this?!?!” Corruption roared in pain.

“It’s Starlight Glimmer, the embodiment of the idea known as Hope. Because even if you just have a glimmer of hope, you can’t ever lose.”

******

Author's Note:

Well, how was that battle? Was it worth the wait? But what am I saying, the battle isn't over yet. The finale is soon to be here. Though I might have a few problems. Due to some rewrites, I may have to postpone the Chapter 18 by a day, maybe. Nothing too bad. Either way, at earliest, expect Chapter 18: Starlight The Glimmer Of Hope to be posted on Wednesday, September 27th. See you all then.

Oh, and don't forget about the epilogue and bonus chapter. They will be posted soon after.