Midnight
Applejack ran. Fields, mountains, and lakes flashed by her. Every couple of minutes, she whipped a leg into the pack that sat opposite of her whip’s holster on her hip and devoured an apple. After she finished the apple, she zipped back her leg again and pulled out some oats. Pinkie had been correct: she had run further than this before and on nothing to restore her stamina. It still burned to run this distance at the highest speed could maintain for the long term.
Onward she went until the open grasslands gave way to cultivated fields and finally the outskirts of Canterlot. Her eyes focused. She darted left and right, avoiding ponies directly but sending their belongings flying.
It was both a testament to her Talent and good luck that a guard did not stop her in her tracks for such flagrant and haphazard use of her speed. She reached the school, burst through its doors, and plowed up to the staff rooms.
At the same time, Celestia was just finishing explaining her condition to Seabreeze. Seabreeze, for his part, had managed to keep himself in in seat with a neutral expression, save for his eyes occasionally widening.
“So, how long can you maintain your form?” Seabreeze asked.
“It depends on how much magic I use,” Celestia answered. Her hooves were clasped in front of her. “It’s about three to four hours if I don’t use any major spells.”
“And you just had to waste a half of it listening to Neighsay,” Seabreeze sighed.
Celestia gave a raspy chuckle. “I’ve had to budget my time for the past millennium.”
“Well, I’ll make sure to covertly adjust any future plans we have with you to make things a little easier.”
“Oh, Seabreeze, there’s no need for that.” Celestia shook a hoof. “As I said, I’ve gotten very good at maximizing my time. Speaking of which, I should probably be on my way if I wish to catch the last of Class 1-A’s time at the Wea—”
Seabreeze jolted into the air. Something outside his office was tearing through the hallways and approaching at a blinding pace. He flapped his wings and forced a gale to press up against the door, preventing whoever was outside from bursting in while Celestia was still in her weakened state.
That did not stop Applejack from hitting the door full force. The blow shattered the door to pieces and Seabreeze’s gale sent the pieces and Applejack flying backwards. In the confusion, Celestia stood and summoned the power of the Elements to regain her elegant appearance. The glow around her died down just as Applejack sprung up and shook off the daze from the getting launched backwards.
“Principal! Princess!” she yelped. “We’re under attack! There’s villains at the Weather Tra—”
Wind, far stronger than what Seabreeze had summoned, blew both him and Applejack back. When they righted themselves, Celestia was gone as was most of the wall facing outside. What remained was melted, both brick and glass, and smoking.
Seabreeze stared at the damage for a moment and then turned to Applejack, who, having accomplished her goal, fell to her knees and gasped for breath. Her stomach clenched up and roared with hunger.
“Well,” Seabreeze mused, “as much as I trust the Princess to handle this, attacking our institution is a slight I cannot let stand.”
He glided over to Applejack and hefted her up with a miniature tornado. “As thanks for defending you classmates and warning us, how about you come along too?”
~~~
Before the dust could settle from Celestia’s attack, Twilight was scooped up and found herself back on the ridge alongside Fluttershy and a still-unconscious Sunset. Celestia stood with her back to Twilight.
“Twilight,” she ordered. “Take your friends out of here. I’ll handle the rest.”
Twilight gazed away from Celestia toward Paradox. It just swirled the air. “That thing was able to resist the Ele—my attack!”
“Well, it does resemble a draconequus.” Celestia turned and smiled. Despite all the horror that had been inflicted on Twilight, she felt like she saw the light at the end of a tunnel. “I am Equestria’s protector, there is no foe I cannot vanquish! Now, go!”
“You’re not going anywhere!” Equality roared. The dust blew away from her, revealing that molten chains raced across her body and anchored her to the ground. Their glow radiated against the tattered remains of the right side of her mask.
Underneath her mask, she had purple fur and a disheveled mane of violet and stripes of teal— the black angular mane of her costume had just been for show. A bit of blood dribbled from her lips, but they were still curved up into a twisted grin. Her right eye was bloodshot and radiated with malice. “Enigma! Seal us in!”
“Of course.” Enigma lit up his horn and shot a bolt of magic into the air. The air above gained a sheen, like a massive screen of glass had been placed in the sky. It contorted and constricted until in enclosed just the field.
“You should have used that attack to kill me or…” Equality cackled at Celestia. Her grin broadened. “Could it be that was everything you had?”
Celestia gave a snort. The air around her grew hotter. “My little ponies, take cover.”
“Paradox,” Equality ordered, “kill them.”
Paradox’s eyes glowed bright and it rushed at Celestia. Celestia flew to meet it. The force was enough to knock Twilight and Fluttershy off balance. They dove behind the ridge just before Celestia’s hoof clashed against Paradox’s amphibious claw. The air exploded around them, but they both remained locked in place. Celestia saw a bit of Paradox’s claw petrifying, but as quickly as it did, the rocky portions popped off.
“I see,” Celestia commented. Her horn turned into a blazing beacon. A beam shot out its tip and sheared off Paradox’s right tentacle. It writhed on the ground for a second before it stiffened, turned to stone, and then crumbled. Paradox’s expression remained blank, but its shoulder where its tentacle had been severed squirmed. A muscular arm with black finger-like digits burst out of the wound and slammed into Celestia’s side, knocking her away.
“It’s pointless!” Equality howled. “Paradox was made to counter the strongest magic in Equestria!
“Then what if it’s not in Equestria anymore?” Celestia brushed herself off and faced Paradox once more. A flaming lasso surged out of Celestia’s horn and wrapped around it. Rearing back, Celestia pulled Paradox with her and began to spin it around. With each revolution it went faster and faster until it was a blur.
“You won’t break through the barrier!” Despite her proclamation, Equality lit up her horn and brought it down on the chains binding her. A link crackled and popped, but her horn only managed to bore into the link a few millimeters. She cursed, “Damn.”
Celestia continued to whip Paradox around. A gale formed around her. Even from behind the ridge, Twilight had to shield her eyes with a hoof and Fluttershy shielded hers with a wing. When the fiery tempest swelled to a cyclone that vastly dwarfed the one Twilight’s group had summoned, Celestia threw Paradox with all her might.
Its body was marred with burns and smoke sizzled off it. It careened diagonally away from Celestia, tearing through the sound barrier as it did. It rushed toward the barrier, but as it did, Enigma lit up his horn.
Instead of crashing through the barrier, Paradox vanished through a tear in the air. At the same time, a tear opened up right next to Celestia. Paradox flew through it and rammed into her. In the tumble, its left claw latched onto Celestia’s left hind leg. Its eyes glowed bright as did its claw.
Equality paused in removing the chains to sneer, “Yes! Cripple her!”
Celestia glanced down at her leg and snorted. “Discord would be disappointed.”
She readied a spell and fired it at Paradox’s claw, but the spell vanished and instead struck Celestia in the back. She clenched her teeth in pain.
“Haha!” Equality cheered. “Good work, Enigma!”
“Of course,” came a voice right beside Twilight. Enigma turned to stare down at her, Fluttershy, and Sunset. “Now as for you thr—”
Sunset exploded off the ground and nicked Enigma’s horn with a blazing white hoof. A trail of blood ran down from her left temple, but the cut itself had healed up. Little tongues of fire flicked across her body, sealing up her wounds and restoring her muscles.
“Sunset!” Twilight and Fluttershy both cried.
“Save it!” she shot back at them. She glared at Enigma as he staggered backwards, the tip of his horn cracked and smoking. “It was you! You’re the one that’s been playing us like fools!”
“Very astute, but it wo—” Sunset hooked at him. He barely dodged, and the burning air left in Sunset’s wake forced him to cough. He reared up a muscled leg to swat Sunset into the ground, but a talon seized it before he could. His gaze fell upon Fluttershy.
“I won’t let you hurt anypony else!” she declared.
Twilight rose to join in the fight, but the ground roiled beneath her. She went onto her knees. Celestia’s fight and Enigma’s sudden appearance had pushed the pain in her horn away, but now it flooded back to her. The world spun around her, even while she sat on the ground. Her stomach churned. Darn it! I can’t do anything like this!
While Twilight was mentally kicking herself, Celestia had readied another spell. Without Enigma to interfere, it atomized the claw around her leg, but her leg had been reduced to its true state. Undeterred by the loss of another limb, Paradox threw out its right arm out to ensnare Celestia, but a buck to its torso sent it spiraling upwards. If it had not crashed into Enigma’s barrier, it might have kept going all the way into Cloudsdale.
The crash left it unfazed like its other injuries and it bolted straight for Celestia. Water swirled around it and morphed into a blazing fire, then a hazy air, then a mass of shimmering rocks, and then back to water. Raising its stump of a left arm, it threw the chaotic elemental forces at Celestia.
Despite the state of her left hind leg, Celestia stood tall. She furrowed her brow and summoned a small ball of light at the end of her horn. It floated to the side. Twilight felt the ground roil under her again, but then realized it was not her vision swimming, but that she herself was getting lightly tugged. Closer to the sphere, Equality lurched towards it with only the chains keeping her from going any further.
Sunset, Fluttershy, and Enigma felt it too. Sunset aimed for Enigma’s legs in that moment and he briefly went airborne long enough for Sunset to blast him in the stomach. The blow met against a shield of aura that cracked from the force of the attack. Fluttershy spun at that exact moment and threw all her weight into her hoof. It crashed against the shield, plowed through, and delivered a blow straight to Enigma’s gut. He heaved and sent spittle flying onto his mask.
When he fell to the ground. Fluttershy swapped avian attributes for amphibian and wrapped up his legs up with an extended tongue. Sunset bent low and pressed the tip of her horn right next to the base of Enigma’s.
She grinned. “I suggest you take down that barrier before I take off your horn!”
“Better idea.” Enigma vanished just as Sunset blasted him. A seared half of a horn lay on the ground. The sight made Fluttershy cheeks turn green. Around them, the barrier dissipated into the wind.
Sunset sneered at the burnt remains. “Hope he enjoys being trapped between teleportation spells.”
At the same time all this had been going on, Paradox’s attack had veered away from its path toward Celestia and over to the sphere of light instead. The sphere gobbled it up and then vanished in a blast of heat. Celestia leveled her eyes up at Paradox but turned her attention to the barrier fading away.
“Looks like one bit of interference is gone.”
Equality’s jaw clenched. “Conscripting the youth to do your dirty work and silencing anything stronger with sheer might. What a model ruler.”
“Ah, the old tyrannical spiel.” Celestia kept her eyes on Paradox while she spoke. It lingered in the air. Celestia furrowed her brow. “The bloodlust was enough to shoot that argument down, but your eye can’t hide what you’re really feeling: it glows bright with hatred. I don’t know why such animosity is directed at an innocent filly, but I will not let you have your way.”
“Shut up! Shut up!” Equality tore at her bindings. One of the chains snapped while the others strained against her. “You have no idea what I’ve endured! Paradox! Kill Twilight and then Celestia! Kill them all!”
Paradox zoomed downward straight at Twilight. Celestia intercepted it and locked limbs with it. The snapping of chains filled the air. Equality’s horn was smoking and darkening in spots, but more chains were falling off her.
Celestia coughed, sending up a bit of blood. Twilight could see that her back was scorched from her own attack, yet she still stood strong against Paradox. “Princess…”
“My faithful students, I am Equestria’s protector and its symbol of peace!” Celestia pushed back against Paradox. Her cutie mark brightened, and her eyes flared with rainbow flecks. Twilight felt her own cutie mark light up as well. “Through night, through day, and ever onwards, I will not fall!”
A column of prismatic magic exploded out of Celestia’s horn and washed over Paradox. The initial force sent it flying. It tried to push through the massive stream of magic, but as it did, its tail turned to stone. The petrification rushed up the rest of its body. This time, it stuck. Yet, it still tried to strike at Celestia and Twilight with an outstretched claw that came inches within striking Celestia. Then, the petrification took hold of its arm and finally its head. It crashed to the ground and shattered to pieces.
Everyone was silent at the sight. Celestia spread her wings and flew into the center of the field. She directly stared down Equality. Equality, while stunned for a second, glared back at her. There was even more ferocity in her eye now.
“You… damn…” she growled.
“It’s over,” Celestia stated. “Surrender.”
“No! No!” Equality writhed, snapping more chains. There were only a few left but Twilight could not help but feel like this nightmare was at its end.
She… she needs to retreat, a voice hacked.
“Tantabus?” Twilight yelped.
Twilight, she rasped. Celestia must get out of there. That thing will kill her!
“What? How?”
“Uh, Twilight?” Fluttershy glided over. “Are you okay?”
Celestia is at her limit and that thing has the ability to destroy magic, not just dissipate it! If Celestia takes an attack from her, what remains of the Elements in her will be destroyed. That cannot be allowed!
“Fluttershy!” Twilight called out. “I need you t—”
No! Tantabus pleaded. Twilight, please forgive me, but the only thing that will work on that monster will be a direct Element attack and Celestia cannot launch anything else.
Twilight looked up at her horn with beady pupils. Her face grew taught. Another chain snapped. I’m not in much better shape.
I will handle that, but you must trust me. I’m going to temporarily bind myself to your thaumic system, that way I’ll be able to take the brunt of the Elements.
I don’t know if I ca—
Yes, you can! Tantabus insisted. I know our relationship has been shaky, but I do trust you and I will do everything to preserve your, Celestia, and Equestria’s future. All you need to do is trust me.
“I…” Twilight recalled the way Tantabus had taken a blow that would have been fatal for Twilight. “Okay, do it!”
“Do wh—” Fluttershy was cut off by Twilight seizing up. Smoke-like shadow rose up across her body. “Twilight!”
“It’s fine!” Twilight snorted. Heat radiated up her horn, restoring its purple sheen. Her whole body felt aflame yet cold at the same time, as if she were staring straight at Tantabus.
Noticing the change Twilight was undergoing, Sunset moved closer but kept her distance.
Feeling strength returning to her, Twilight got onto her hooves. She yelped when she felt something stab beside her shoulder blades. An inky substance oozed out of the spots and coalesced into shadowy wings. At the same time, Twilight’s fur grew a few shades darker. Her mane flared upwards as a wave of pressure knocked Sunset and Fluttershy back, the former managed to stay upright while Fluttershy was sent rolling.
“What in Tartarus?” Sunset gasped.
Twilight’s bangs turned black, while the streaks of purple and raspberry brightened to a brilliant violet and rose. Her costume screeched, stretched, and gained sharper edges and a more angular pattern while the star at its center gained a pale glow. The restorative magic flowing up her horn did not stop at its tip and expanded outwards to encase her horn in a sheath of light. The same light reached down to blaze out around her eyes.
Just as the transformation reached its final stages, Equality freed herself of her last restraints. She encased herself in a sickly teal glow that lifted her off the ground and flew at Celestia. Celestia readied a barrier while coughing up a bit more blood.
Darn, she thought, feeling the strain throughout her body, but particularly in her chest and her horn. This might be trou—
A burst of aura cut of her thoughts. She recognized the spine-tingling feeling as the kind Tantabus put out when going full-force, but she could feel the pulsation of the Elements as well. The sensation was something she had not felt in over a thousand years. It forced her to gasp, “Luna?!”
Equality did not let the new sensation distract her and angled her horn straight for Celestia’s heart. Before she could reach her target, something smashed into her from the side and launched her skyward. That same force had destroyed the ridge Twilight had been on, leaving Fluttershy and Sunset to stagger to their hooves. Piercing violet eyes with slitted pupils glared at Equality.
“Get away from Celestia!” Twilight roared with Tantabus’s voice layered over her own and making it deafening. With her wings of darkness, she pushed them higher into the sky until they were up near Cloudsdale.
“Twiiiiillliggggggghhhhhttt!” Equality screamed. She angled her horn to blast Twilight, but one of Twilight’s wings morphed and smashed her in the face. Twilight took the second Equality was stunned to charge up her own horn.
The attack came out as a pillar of prismatic light wreathed in spiraling shadows that caught Equality in the chest. Somehow, she managed to clutch onto the blast and glared at Twilight. She screamed at the top of her lungs, “This isn’t over! You’re still weak and the Princesses can’t protect you forever! Next time, Twilight, I will kill yo—"
The attack drove further into her. The aura around her faded. Her ranting was reduced to bestial roars before the attack consumed her and went flying off, past Cloudsdale and into the horizon.
Twilight slackened, but the shadowy wings at her sides remained outstretched. They guided her down until she touched the ground by Celestia. A dark haze parted off of her, revealing her normal coat and costume. As it peeled off, her legs crumpled and bent at odd angles. The pain in her horn returned and when the magic faded from it, it was pure black.
S-sorry, Tantabus hacked. I contained it the best I could… now, I must rest.
“Tantabus?” Twilight coughed, but there was no reply.
“She’ll be fine,” Celestia called out. Twilight turned to her and saw a few tears collecting around her eyes. In a whisper, she said, “You idiot.”
Twilight perked up her ears. Her vision was fading due to the pain, and she assumed her hearing was going too. “Huh?”
“That’s twice now I owe you a great debt.” With the last of her strength, Celestia gave her wings a flap and sent up a cloud of dust around herself and Twilight. While she shrunk down, she smiled. “Good job.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.026 seconds
Total duration
781 users online
556,055 hits today, 1,960,719 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.®
For a minute, I thought Tantabus unleashed Midnight from within Twilight. But it seemed she just borrowed Twilight's body. Wonder if she can do the same with anypony else?
Interesting. As much as I love the ways it parallels bnha, the deviations are proving to be most intriguing.
The fight scene was amazing. Glad to see more of Seabreeze, as well.
"Now, villain. Tell me, have you heard of these words?"
"GO BEYOND.... PLUS...ULTRAAAAAAAA!!!!
9166395
Tirek!
Ah shit he's the avatar.
9554143
What was in that video? It's unavailable right now. Deleted, likely.