Chapter 14: And thus the horizon Darkened
Chapter 14: And thus the horizon Darkened
Proofread by GOOPMONSTER!
“You know, Chrissie… I think you’re taking this whole revenge thing far too seriously,” Discord yawned as he lazily floated about Chrysalis’s throne room. “Revenge should be fun, or a good laugh at very least, not something that leaves you in a chronic state of absolute boredom; you should really try and enjoy yourself while you’re at it.”
His words, as the changeling ruler noted when she turned around to snarl at him, were accompanied by the spirit scratching what looked to be a stick-bodied depiction of her and Celestia into the wall with his talons, and then snickering in amusement as her crude double chased the alicorn’s around the stone surface.
Chrysalis just looked up and glared at him. “I will enjoy myself as I either watch Canterlot burn to the ground… or suck Princess Cadence dry of every drop of love she has in her,” the changeling hissed, baring her short fangs at the totally undeterred embodiment of chaos. “Is that clear?”
Her two present throne guards buzzed and clicked in agreement, though they both quickly fell silent, and hastily skittered backwards, when she turned away from Discord and glared disapprovingly at them instead.
“Ugh, why so serious? I know both Luna and little miss royal sun plot are utterly against my magnificently creative displays of chaos, but even they aren’t this drab.”
“Well perhaps if you were serious about something once in a while, Discord,” the changeling queen hissed again in return, this time not even bothering to look at him as she spoke. “You wouldn’t have twice ended up as a decorative garden ornament.”
The spirit of chaos snorted in reply, now going about adding a crude depiction of himself to the living wall scene. “I find being serious is just soooo boring though; it’s like making sense, there’s absolutely no fun in it.”
For what felt like roughly the thousand time in the last hour, Chrysalis couldn’t help but grind her fangs and roll her eyes at both the pain-in-the-flank spirit, as well his pointless remark. She was quietly beginning to guess there was a second reason Celestia had sealed him away as she had; on top of being the entity of disharmony and chaos, he apparently didn’t know when or how to just shut his muzzle.
All he had done since entering the confines her subterranean hive was, to put it quite simply, complain about literally everything. He was constantly reminding her just how “drab” the colour scheme of the black cave rock was, how “dull” her changings were in terms of both personality and physical appearance, and how he was “bored” to the point of going even madder than he already was.
Truth be told, she had had it up to her horn with him.
Still, that didn’t mean the past hour hadn’t been somewhat useful. For Chrysalis, the last hour had consisted of lying on her throne room floor, and when she wasn’t angrily snapping at Discord for getting on her nerves, reading through the dusty ancient yellow pages of the nameless tome he’d stolen from Princess Celestia’s vault. The changeling’s sharp green eyes had focused on firstly finding, and running and re-running over one spell, and that one particular spell alone… Reincarnation of a fallen soul.
“Anyhow, are you almost done there yet?” Discord asked as he floated down beside her, his muzzle sporting one of his signature single-fanged grins as he drew his eagle claws through her blue-green mane. “I’m truly looking forward to meeting this special guest of ours; who knows, he might actually have a sense of humour.”
“Ugh, I’ve lost count of how many times you’ve asked that question.”
The spirit once again burst into a fit of laughter. “So have I!” he cackled manically. “But… uh, gag, seriously, who's this Sephiroth character anyway? What’s so spectacularly special about him?” He asked as his laughter died down.
As he ended his toying with her mane, and then returned to floating about the ceiling, Chrysalis frantically tried to resist the urge to groan and face-hoof at his question; she managed not to in the end, but only just.
“Because, I don’t know if you’ve realized yet, Discord, but that Zack brat seems to be a far bigger pain in the flank then even you are,” she groaned through clenched jaws. “As it is right now, he’s currently standing between us and our goal of dealing with ‘little miss royal sun plot’, and he happens to have a few abilities that seem to put both of us to shame.”
“Put me to shame? Bah! Speak for yourself,” Discord scoffed loudly in mock insult, though he did end up unintentionally rubbing the left side of his head where Zack’s sword had connected.
“Because you can go and summon a demon just on a whim then, right?”
“Hmmf, touché my dear.”
Chrysalis just rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue. “Look, the reason is that as far as Zack’s memories revealed to me, Sephiroth is the only one to have beaten him sword-to-sword at full strength… and by beaten, I mean within a mere inch of his life, now that’s the kind of someone we need. Now do you understand where I’m coming from?”
“I still think the whole plan lacks flair and is utterly boring,” the chaos spirit sighed. “But I guess so.”
“Good, so how about do us both a favour and get out of my mane for a while, I’m busy.”
“No promises, but I’ll try.”
Chrysalis hissed to herself. “There is just no winning with you, is there?” she muttered before turning to her pair of present guards. “Both of you need to leave us now as well; I cannot risk any more unwarranted distractions, especially while I cast the incantation. It could prove fatal for all of us.”
The two changelings momentarily shared a puzzled glance with each other, before taking to their wings and departing the throne room, the eyes of their ruler following them as they left. Realistically, she wouldn’t have cared if they’d died in the event of the spell going wrong, there were countless more like them flying about just beyond her throne room walls, but, as selfish as it was, she frankly refused to even risk putting herself in such a dangerous position.
Without another thought she turned away from the crude doorway, and refocused on the pages of her book, allowing Discord to once again loose himself in the creativity of his own warped imagination, while her horn began to glow an eerie green, the changeling queen directing her magic into putting the tome’s words to action.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“That was… somewhat unpleasant,” a tired Chrysalis huffed aloud as she rubbed the base of her jagged horn, a dull ache now throbbing in the forefront of her head from magical exertion.
“You could’ve just asked me for help,” the voice of Discord answered with a touch of humour.
The spirit himself, as she saw after casting her gaze back and blinking a few times in surprise, was currently sipping from small glass of a substance that the ponies called ‘chocolate milk’, while apparently taking a bath in the now somehow liquefied shadow of a large stalactite, the inky blackness apparently steaming and splashing about as if it were hot water as he moved.
“Uh…”
“I got bored,” he shrugged flatly in response to her confused look.
“He’s the living embodiment of chaos,” she told herself as she shook her head. “Just… forget it.”
Despite how tired she was though, Chrysalis silently figured it was worth it, for the changeling queen now found herself standing tall and proud, with the ancient tome still floating beside her within the grasp of her green aura, as she herself looked over her incantation.
Before her lay a glowing circle of eerie green runes, each having been neatly carved into the floor, and then individually empowered by the magic of her own horn. Truth be told, Chrysalis quietly felt herself filled with a combination of awe and dread. It was, after all, both a fascinating and frightening scene for her, to behold runes and magic of such dangerous power that ponykind had willingly allowed it to be forgotten as they passed through the ages.
As such, she had found herself darting her eyes between the pages and the glowing runes themselves, making sure the overall layout itself mirrored the book’s own elaborate illustrations and instructions down to the finest and tiniest details. As Chrysalis shuddered and remembered from Shining Armor’s wedding all too well, powerful magic was not something you wanted to be on the wrong end of.
Hence the reason she had blatantly refused to ask for Discord’s help in the first place; he was, after all, downright trouble at the best of times.
“Mark the centre with the desired blood, and then draw a sun for Celestia, and a moon for Luna…” Chrysalis read from the ancient pages aloud as she made sure It was perfect, the names of the two pony princesses each accompanied by a venomous snort. “Both standing guard outside the caster’s circle, and thus watching over all that transpires within it. The circle is drawn from the runes of each element and their respective opposite, generosity and greed, kindness and cruelty, harmony and…”
“Chaos?” Discord chimed in, his voice causing Chrysalis to groan again and stamp her hooves. “Oh come now, everypony loves a bit of-Gah!”
BOOM!
The room was momentarily illuminated by a bright burst of green magic, which erupted from the changeling’s horn, travelled the entire length of the room in under a second, and just about managed to take Discord’s own left horn off when it reached him.
It had apparently caught him by surprise, and only missed thanks to the spirit’s abnormally quick reflexes, instead the spell ended up blowing a hoof sized chunk out of the wall directly behind him.
Chrysalis couldn’t help but put a holed hoof to her lips and smirk as the normally composed, and rather annoying chaos spirit was forced to leap out sideways from his makeshift bath to avoid her magic bolt, resulting in him landing sprawled on his stomach across her throne room floor.
Quickly he got up from the floor as she laughed, and rather pointlessly began dusting himself off, seemingly trying to act as if nothing had just happened. His folded forelegs though, as well as the pout worn by his pointed face, only caused her grin to widen.
“That was very much uncalled for,” he said flatly as he squinted and glared at the pony-like ruler.
“Like I said before, dear Discord, you need to take some things seriously,” Chrysalis smirked wickedly in response, the sly and almost mischievous expression she wore, complete with a smug grin and half-lidded eyes, rubbing the spirit all the wrong ways.
“As I said before, you’re absolutely no fun at all.”
“Or perhaps you just don’t my idea of fun,” Chrysalis retorted as she turned away from him, at last placing the ancient book down beside her, and redirecting her attention to spell that crisscrossed her floor as her horn began to glow. “Now then… I think we’re done with the preparations,” she snickered. “Let’s tear Celestia’s pretty little land apart.”
Taking a deep breath in, and with a final hope that this was all worth the effort, Chrysalis willed her magic to act.
Despite being the living embodiment of chaos, and hence generally seeing what others considered extraordinary magic as little more than an everyday party trick, Discord couldn’t help but back away a few paces and simultaneously feel his jaw slacken at what happened next. Tentatively, and with a decent amount of his own magic ready, he watched the scene unfold in a combination of intrigue and awe.
If the initial event was anything to go by, this was certainly going to be interesting.
As if mirroring the glow from Chrysalis’s own horn, the runes that lay craved into the floor suddenly burst into life, or rather roared violently and erupted with fierce green light to be exact, the individual strands of magical energy twisting and dancing as if they were tongues of green fire within a far greater overall flame, flooding the room with blinding light as they scattered the shadows in every direction.
Discord could do nothing but hold his breath, and watch as the magical flames rapidly grew in intensity, quickly growing into a raging inferno of magical power that dwarfed Chrysalis in size, and looked as if it would consume the unmoving changeling within its burning embrace at any moment.
“And I thought I was the mad one here,” the spirit of chaos groaned under his breath, bringing his furry paw up to cover his eyes from the relentless barrage of light.
Upon closer observation, he did somewhat understand why the spell looked like that though; the flames were presumably the magical representation of Tartarus and its gates of damnation. It was only logical that if one wished to bring someone or something back into the world of the living, they’d have to summon it back via the very gates which said someone or something exited life through upon dying.
It made sense to him, but as the spirit of chaos… well, that didn’t exactly mean much in the overall scheme of things.
Thankfully, the light began thinning within a few moments as the spell reached it’s apparent climax, and then began to dissipate, the magical green flames subsequently dying down, and slowly shrinking away until only a small amount of stray flicks of fire remained; in those moments of change, Discord’s thoughts went from intrigued, to amazed…
And then to totally and utterly fearful.
The final thought came about when a tall figure took a single step out from the still slightly glowing circle, one gloved appendage grasping a slender, but truly massive, curving sword that glistened with lethal grace in the low light, and the other simultaneously wiping a shimmering dancing lock of silver hair from one of his piercing cyan eyes.
Discord quickly noted that said piercing cyan eyes were currently locked on Chrysalis and himself, and contained only one emotion, an emotion he, as the spirit of chaos, knew all too well.
Madness.
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
The loud clacks of galloping pony hooves meeting marble flooring, followed by the thundering of booted footsteps meeting the same white material, as well as the metallic ring of armor plates banging together, resounded and echoed through the decorated winding halls of Canterlot palace, catching both the ears and interest of anypony and everypony who heard them.
Given that running in the palace was a rare occurrence, unless of course something was direly wrong, the two sounds served to quickly alert said anypony caught wandering the corridors, whether they be patrolling royal guard or working royal subject, to quickly get the hay out of the way; that was unless they wished to find themselves being bowled over by a six-foot something SOLDIER, carrying the added weight of a massive two-handed sword, or worse, an utterly fuming and rather vocal royal guard captain, as they charged through side by side.
Admittedly, they ended up receiving more than a few odd looks, mutterings, and even cries of alarm from the various ponies they encountered, though whether that was due to their haste, Zack simply not being a pony, or the fact that Spike was gripping Shining Armor’s blue mane for dear life as he tried to stay on the charging stallion, was yet to be figured out.
“I swear on my rank as captain of the royal guard, that when I get my hooves on you Discord…” Shining Armor snorted as he galloped beside Zack down a long hallway, a pair of earth pony maids whinnying in fright as they were forced to jump out of the pair’s way. “I’m going to make you beg my sister to turn you into a Tartarus-damned statue again.”
Zack couldn’t help but roll his own blue eyes. “Shining, you need to calm down before…” He started.
“Calm down?! Do have any idea big of a pain in the flank these last few days have been? First you show up at the Gala with the Wonderbolts, Chrysalis launches a second major offensive against Canterlot on Gala night, with a small army no less, and then you proceed to blow up half the damn palace while fighting them.”
“Heh, made last year’s fireworks display look pretty ordinary in comparison.” Spike smirked from his furry seat, drawing a loud and obviously unimpressed snort from his adopted older brother.
“Haha, not funny Spike; next up, Discord gets freed from imprisonment… again, with Prince Blue Blood as the main and only suspect no less; Chrysalis launches a third attack while Discord’s being freed, and then, as we’ve just learned, while we were all busy watching you incinerate changelings with a damn dragon, Discord went and broke into the royal vault… do you have any idea just how this week could actually get any bucking worse?”
“Discord could’ve actually hurt the Princesses.” Spike answered first.
“Your shield spell could’ve failed when I summoned Bahamut,” Zack added in flatly, his right hand rising up and then drawing his massive Buster Sword.
Shining Armor flinched at the two thoughts. “Ugh, alright, fair point.”
“Glad we could help, now could you tell me just where the hell we’re going exactly?”
Wordlessly, royal guard captain gave a short snort of effort and, with a swift burst of speed, pulled both himself and Spike ahead of their companion, the loud ringing of the stallion’s armored hooves quickly drowning out the thumps of Zack’s own quickened footfalls.
“Just follow me,” He replied sharply. “And whatever you do, don’t go falling behind; I really don’t have time to wait up for your sorry flank.”
“Psh, like that’d ever happen.” Zack smirked, though his remark only earned him another unamused snort from Shining Armor.
The SOLDIER couldn’t help but shake his black locks, and give a small mentally groan in annoyance at the unicorn’s sourly commanding attitude, though he didn’t openly try to fight it, after all, he knew doing so probably wouldn’t do either of them any good.
Instead, he opted to follow the order, and quickly took his place in following roughly a pace or two behind Shining Armor, the huge blade of his sword seeming to float beside him as he gripped its handle, and continued sprinting behind the dragon-carrying stallion down the corridor.
The length of lavish hallway, much to Zack’s surprise, ended up carrying on for at least another hundred meters or so.
Eventually though, it did come to an end. The corridor abruptly finished with a set of large wooden doors, and then opened up into the expanse of a large vaulted foyer. The path they’d been following subsequently split at a crossroad in the middle of the room, with two narrower wings running off through large doors in either direction, and a large banner-sided staircase rising upwards directly ahead, its width easily the equivalent of the stairs which lead up to the Palace’s main entrance; if Zack’s memory served him right, he’d ran through this particular foyer and past these stairs earlier on his way to the throne room, though he hadn’t the slightest clue as to where the stairs themselves led.
A small number of ponies, most as Zack quickly noted from either their armor or black suit apparel, ranging from on duty royal guards to apparent members of the nobility, were standing scattered about the red carpet which floored the open space. Most of them seemed presently engaged in simple banter and chatter with one another, and doing so while painfully oblivious to their surroundings.
A fact which quickly proved to be to their detriment as the two warriors came charging through.
Shining Armor headed for the staircase without missing a beat, and Zack, although silently, found it a little surprising how well his four legs took the sudden change in constructed terrain, especially with the added weight of Spike being perched on his back. What was more surprising, however, was that anypony who made the mistake of not getting out of the stallion’s way in time, was instantly picked up by his magic, and then moved aside and deposited forcefully whether they were elegant about it or not.
“What did I say about falling behind?” he shouted as he bolted up the stairs, the silver maned noble who he’d just tossed aside cursing at them as they ran past.
With two quick jumps in acknowledgement, Zack easily pulled level with him again. “Are you even allowed to do that?” he asked, taking a moment to glance back down the flight of stairs at a group of now angry ponies below.
“I’m the captain of the royal guard. If they don’t like the way I do my job, then they can take it up with Princess Celestia.”
“Heh, sometimes I think you and Angeal wouldn’t get along in the slightest.” The black haired SOLDIER grinned as he resumed his normal pace. “Where does this thing lead to anyway?”
Of the two, Spike proved to be the faster. “The memorial hall and the royal vault of Canterlot.” He answered with pride.
“Yeah, Spike’s correct.” Shining Armor continued. “And if you’re wondering, whenever a pony performs an act of valour, such as when my sister and her friends used the elements to free Princess Luna, they have a window inset in the memorial hall, so others can commemorate and remember their actions.”
“Yeah, heh, remember.” Zack sighed under his breath, a touch of bitterness creeping into his voice as he recalled the small memorial he’d erected for his friends Essai and Sebastian. “Hey Shining, this is just out of curiosity more than anything, but what kinds of things does this vault actually contain anyway?”
For the first time since taking the lead, Shining Armor cast a glance back over his shoulder. “Strictly speaking, only Princess Celestia and Princess Luna know the complete contents,” he answered in a flat tone truly befitting of a royal guard. “But as an example, off the top of my head, the elements of harmony.”
Zack raised a curious eyebrow. “You do realize Twilight and her friends were wearing the elements earlier, right?”
“I know, and that’s exactly why I’m worried.” The stallion sighed as he shook his head, his tone containing what sounded to be a touch of defeat. “If it were the elements of harmony Discord had stolen, then at least we’d know the worst he’d probably end up doing is hiding them, that’s what he did last time he got free… ugh, I don’t know what else Discord could’ve taken, but if it’s got the Princesses worked up this much… trust me when I say that it can’t be good.”
“He’s got a point there,” Zack thought, a slight shiver running down the length of spine as the top of the stairs came into view. “Celestia wouldn’t have summoned us both so urgently if it wasn’t something dire… just what the hell were those two keeping in that vault?”
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
“EEEP!”
“Ok… just… just what the actual feathering hay?”
“Ya’ll better darn well be pulling ma’ reins here Princess.”
“Oh this is bad! Like mega-super-giant-doozy bad.”
“B-but those types of spells are absolutely forbidden! You told me yourself!”
“Please… tell me… you’re both joking.” Shining Armor managed to choke out from his hanging jaw at last, the near horrified expression on his face matching those of Spike, his younger sister Twilight, and her five present friends almost perfectly.
Sure, he’d had a decent amount of surprises thrown at him over his relatively short lifetime, both good ones and bad; such examples included finding out his sister was the elements of magic, realizing he’d been tricked into believing a changeling was his fiancé, and having a member of a previously unknown species turn up at the Grand Galloping Gala to name a few major ones.
But finding out that Princess Celestia, of all possible ponies, had been keeping a collection of darker magic spells in the royal vault of Canterlot… yeah, that blew a few brain cells. What bothered him even more though, was that he was presently looking directly at that same massive golden vault, but now it’s great door hung freely open, and the collection of spells at the very root of his fear, as he’d just been told by his sworn liege, was now gone.
The stallion watched as Princess Celestia, primary ruler of Equestria and alicorn of the day, sighed and unroyally bit her lip like a nervous filly, her golden hooves carrying the princess before one of the many memorial windows which lined the marble walls, the combination of colour filtered light and broken shadow illuminating and enhancing her saddened expression.
“In this day and age captain, you are indeed very correct in that statement, experimenting with such magic is absolutely forbidden, much less it’s actual use by anypony… but centuries and millennia ago… there was no distinction between what was acceptable and unacceptable magic.”
“Please forgive me for this, Princess.” The royal guard captain just about spat, now visibly shaking in his metal hoof-guards. “But we’re basically talking about BUCKING BLACK MAGIC HERE! A bucking half-brained diamond dog could see there’s nothing even remotely acceptable about it!”
“SHINING ARMOR!” Twilight screamed as she turned on him, the sudden volume in her voice startling everypony else present. “You’re talking to Princess Cel…”
“Be still, Twilight Sparkle.” Princess Luna cut in sharply, the darker alicorn flaring her wings, taking a few steps forward, and placing herself between the pair of now seething brother and sister. “Captain Armor’s outrage is both warranted and understandable…”
“Outrage doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel.” Shining Armor grunted as he pawed in agitation, his sister’s glare narrowing on him further in reaction. “I don’t know if you’ve forgotten, Princess, but the royal guard has a standing order to detain anypony found to be either practising or in possession of such spells.”
“Though I do understand your feelings, captain Armor, I for one still request that you at least try to remain calm.”
Everypony present watched, and cringed slightly, as the white stallion and lavender unicorn both gave off unamused snorts, and looked away from each other in disdain, both wearing expressions of utter annoyance.
After a few more moments though, of both ponies apparently grinding his or her respective teeth and flaring their nostrils, the pair of siblings raging tempers seemed to burn themselves out like unfuelled fires; slowly, and somewhat reluctantly at first, they both returned turned back, and replaced their focuses on the two princesses.
Only once they did so did Zack relax a little, and gingerly lower his Buster Sword.
“Sorry, Princess,” they both said quietly in unison.
Princess Luna gave a sigh of relief, and returned to her former place, said place being her own older sister’s side. “We accept your apologies,” she said flatly at last, a dark hoof rising up and rubbing her brow like she was experiencing a headache. “I know this time is stressful, it is for all of us, my sister and I included… but the last thing we need to do is try and make unnecessary enemies of each other, am I understood?”
“Yes, Princess,” the two siblings responded in repeat unison, both playing with their hooves, and now sounding more than a little embarrassed.
“Thank you, Luna,” Celestia smiled softly as she turned around. “And for what it’s worth Shining Armor, I fully acknowledge that my choice in allowing such materials to continue to exist was… a very foalish choice indeed.”
“Then why did you choose to keep them in the first place?” he asked, an obvious edge of venom creeping back into his voice.
“I tried to learn from a previous mistake, Shining Armor…” the solar monarch sighed, the images of a beautiful blue heart carved from crystal, and a dark-grey coated stallion with a steel crown, crawling to the front of her mind. “My sister and I once allowed something that shouldn’t have been forgotten… to be lost to us, and the act of doing so cost many, many of our little ponies dearly… but enough of that, merely acknowledging my wrongs will not fix this problem.”
Her circular pacing started again, but this time her eyes stayed closed as her four hooves moved, as if she was trying to remember something she’d long since forgotten. “Now then, as Luna and I have just explained, the spells which Discord has stolen are of a darker form of magic. As Shining Armor has stated, this magic, so you all know from now on, is commonly referred to as being ‘black’ magic.”
“So… when you say black magic, what kind of magic are we talking about here anyway?” Rainbow Dash asked, hovering above her friends. “Like… Discord’s sort of weirdo chaos magic?”
Celestia shook her head. “Sadly, it’s far worse than that kind of magic, Rainbow Dash. Black magic was conceived in a far harsher point in Equestria’s history, when magic was… explored freely and unrestrained… a time without any set lawful or moral boundaries to distinguish what was deemed ‘acceptable’ or ‘unacceptable’ in magical practise.”
Twilight put a hoof to her chin. “Um, Princess, Starswirl the bearded wrote a book called Arcane Ethics and Proper Magical Practise in…”
“…In the year 1792 A.D.” The Princess ended.
“A.D?” Zack asked, his words reminding everypony the palace’s resident SOLDIER was still there, plus drawing him a number of curious looks.
“It means After Discord, or the first time my sister and I imprisoned him in stone.” Celestia replied, a slight grin pulling at the edge of her muzzle at his curiosity. “And yes, Twilight, I know that book quite well, it forms the guidelines for all magical study, and brought about the end of open exploration into the darker workings of magic… but the magic we are talking about, and the spells which Discord has stolen, were both discovered and recorded in the years before Starswirl was even born.”
Applejack loudly cleared her throat. “Princess, Just for the sake ah’ us who ain’t unicorns, and quite frankly don’t know ponyfeathers about magic in general, could ya’ll just… you know, say it straight. Like, could ya just tell us what this ‘black magic’ whooe that ya’ll keep referring to is?”
“By definition, ‘black magic’ refers to any type of magic that would be deemed to be either outright dangerous or unethical in today’s society,” Twilight sighed in frustration, turning around and facing her five confused friends. “Such as lethal combat or destruction orientated spells, darker types of incantations, rune magic…” she groaned, and almost face-hoofed at the blank stares she got. “Ugh, in short, kind of like some of the magic Zack uses.”
“I’m still here, you know,” the black haired SOLDIER in question growled, folding his arms across his chest as he did.
“Twilight is correct.” Celestia went on calmly. “And those are the types of spells which Discord now has in his possession. However, I know myself that because he is the spirit of chaos, and thus lacks any true sense of harmony, Discord himself cannot harness the magic we ponies use. Instead, I am led to believe that due to the changelings’ involvement in his release… those spells were perhaps actually intended for use by Chrysalis.”
A loud snort left Shining Armor’s muzzle, followed promptly by the stomping of one of his armored hooves. “So Discord’s definitely working with that… that thing? Grah! I’m going to geld that damn spirit when I catch him.”
His angry words caused everypony, the two Princesses included, to cringe substantially.
“Why would she be interested in pony magic?” Spike asked, now backing away from beside his now fuming older brother.
The solar alicorn sighed, lowered her head, and partly raised her alabaster wings like she was shrugging. “In that matter, even I haven’t a clue. My only guess is that she believes it will somehow aid her effort against Equestria.”
Her rose colored eyes then slowly floated around the group, taking in the nervous and uneasy expressions of each of her little ponies individually, before finally ending up coming to rest on an apparently still stoic and expressionless Zack.
“However, there is still something I cannot fully make sense of,” she went on, the tone in her normally motherly voice taking on an even more serious edge, and sounding as if she were threatening to draw a sword as she spoke. “When you initially subdued Discord, Zack, and he then managed to claw you while your back was turned, he seemed rather overly triumphant about it, as if simply by drawing blood he had struck a killing blow… tell me, Zack Fair, why do you think that would be?”
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Notes:
So, uh, sorry about me being a tosser and making you all wait for so long, but uni’s been draining me dry of free time (courtesy of a 14 page drawing assignment + a 5 week studio group assignment + an anthropology essay).
As always, special thanks goes to GOOPMONSTER! for pre-reading/editing.
Stats
Page generated in 0.032 seconds
Total duration
1,093 users online
2,163,542 hits today, 2,054,621 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.®
Finally Sephiroth arrives. Hope to see more action from him in the next chapter.
Sees update.
Has this reaction:
iambrony.jsmart.web.id/mlp/gif/gVTJs.gif
dashie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw8055-Beautiful.gif
media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m24j14d9qB1r1crym.gif
denver.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw1021_Rainbow_Dash_says_youre_awesome.gif
images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060408064606/uncyclopedia/images/3/3b/Dancing_bear.gif
Typo alert! Red words need to be added to the chapter, while bold words need to be changed, moved, or removed.
A word is obviously meant to go between the two bold words, but I can't figure out what word it should be.
Well, other then that, good chapter!
Okay, so Sephiroth's back...SEPHIROTH'S BACK!!! HEAD FOR THE HILLS!!!
And it looks like Princess Luna has made the first step in allowing everyone to figure out why Discord was content to get a sample of Zack's blood!
Also, I bet the first thing Sephiroth does is slice Chrysalis apart, since he's insane!
Here, have some badges!
fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/282/e/5/twilight_sparkle_approved_by_ambris-d4c255h.png
fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/282/7/5/rainbow_dash_approved_by_ambris-d4bdn33.png
fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/060/f/5/princess_celestia_approved_by_ambris-d4rftlj.png
fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/057/f/a/princess_luna_approved_by_ambris-d4r3ibw.png
[img][img]http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/345/0/9/fluttershy_approved_by_ambris-d4ivleb.png[/img]
fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/345/9/d/applejack_approved_by_ambris-d4ivlan.png
fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/277/e/a/pinkie_pie_approved_by_ambris-d4brtm4.png
fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/282/4/e/rarity_approved_by_ambris-d4cdq6y.png
Now if you'll excuse me...*hides in indestructible book fort and waits for this to blow over*
then sephiroth shows up to kill everyone and zack responds with phoenix allowing them all to come back to life!
Zack: ..................
fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
2435835 Ach, how could I miss such basic typos?! Thanks for pointing out my mistakes. I'll be more thorough in the future.
Heh, seems like Shiny is throwing a bit of a temper tantrum... most epic way of scarring a young spike for life, Gelding.
Zack: hmm lets see...Oh $#&%!
Can't wait for the next chapter.
Zack: "the Jenova cells..."
"what about them?"
"that insane SOLDIER I was talking about? he had them too"
"what are you referring to?"
"does the book teach about resurrection?"
"yes"
"oh... shit"
Me: and the bomb has been transformed into a nuke!
Sephiroth is going to kill everything.
Will Sephiroth be winged or wingless?
2455333
In the end, the vote said start off wingless, and then grow the wing.
>Decides to read comments before the chapter, like a dumbass
>Spoilers
GOOODDDD DDAMMMMIIITTTT
2470826 It's Always The Small Details That Count
Now I cannot wait until chrysalis/discord gets beaten to a NANO-INCH of their life for thinking they can ally with sephiroth which I happily dub god of madness Ooo I can see their reactions now :D FUCK YES there's a damn good reason why sephiroth manage to defeat the dude who manage to hit discord or kill the changeling army using the king of the dragons and by the way is his summon :D :D :D
Where's the next chapter?! Seriously, I need more!
I stopped reading at Chapter 8 because this story urged me to play Crisis Core. And I did just that, I just completed Crisis Core on Hard Mode from scratch and the game is EPIC!!!!! now to continue reading Zack's adventures after Crisis Core
...still waitin...
2837658
Just looked at the Crisis Core materia list... do you mean Darkness? or like Death and Drain?
Those not so much, the main ones Zack will be throwing around are the basic attack spells (Firaga etc.), the heavy elemental ones (Flare etc.), and command materia/sword based attacks. (Assault Twister etc.)
dang it cliff hanger hate those
2863785
The next chapter is with the editor, so your hanging-from-a-cliff shouldn't be much longer.
Shit is about to go down. Hope to see this continued soon.
3295839
Next chapter is done, I just want to go over it once or twice more before sending it to me editor.
3297215 Great to hear!
I guess I could say that shit hitting the fan would be a vast understatement.