A Different World: The Future and Fate of Equestria

by Riclo

Chapter 21 | Battle

Twilight Sparkle's POV

Restlessness plagued my mind. The evening was soon approaching, meaning it had been at least twenty-four hours since Celestia and the others had left for Mount Everhoof. I didn't know for sure when they would return, but when they did, I hoped it would be with Duston. I couldn't stop thinking about the possibility of him still being alive, even though I was sure I had seen him die right in-front of my eyes. I didn't make sense, but I wanted to believe anyway.

'I should be the one with them... not Celestia. I need to be there.' I sighed as my hooves repeatedly stepped across the marble flooring. At the moment I was walking mindlessly through the halls of Canterlot, mostly because I didn't know what else to do. 'I think that's the wrong way of thinking at it though. What could I possibly do that Celestia can't? I'm sure they'll be fine, but I still wish I could be there anyway.'

Eventually I realized that I had accidentally come across the room that Trixie was staying in. She had been cooped up in there for what must've been the whole day by now, all because she didn't want to deal with me. I didn't want anything to do with her either, and I was about to just walk right by. Celestia did want me to try getting to know her though, for some reason that I couldn't possibly fathom. There must've been a reason, and I sighed again as I looked back towards the door.

'Here goes nothing.' I walked up to the door and knocked, waiting a few seconds until the pony in question answered. I could see the look on her face immediately change to disgust when she saw it was me, and she frowned.

"Oh, it's you. What do you want?"

"I want to talk." I replied, which was only followed by her slamming the door in my face, much to my annoyance. "Trixie, don't be like this."

"Go away." Her muffled voice responded from the other side. I groaned, feeling tempted to just teleport inside past the door, but that probably would be a bit too aggressive.

"I don't think Celestia is going to like it when she finds out that you weren't looking over me like you were supposed to." I exclaimed. There was a long few seconds of silence after that, to which the door eventually opened back up.

"Do you feel fine?" She asked.

"No, I don't, really."

"Too bad. Trixie is many things, but she is not a doctor." She exclaimed as she once again closed the door. I outwardly sighed, quickly starting to get aggravated by her behavior.

"What is it you don't like about me, Trixie?" I asked honestly. "Is all of this really from what I did to you at your magic show? It's not polite at all to show off what other ponies can never have because they weren't born the right way."

With that, the door swung open, revealing Trixie's pissed off face. "Not polite?? It's not polite to utterly humiliate me, for no good reason other than to satisfy your own pathetic, narcissistic desires. It's not polite to ruin Trixie's ONLY source of income, which was already embarrassingly small to begin with. This is my TALENT - this is what my cutie mark TELLS ME TO DO!!! Who the hell are YOU to dictate what I can and can't do in my life!?"

I backed away slightly at Trixie's anger-fueled outburst, taking a couple seconds to reply. "Trixie... What you're doing is fine, but.. the way that you're doing it isn't."

Trixie frowned further. "Again, who the hell are you to tell me how I can do things? Until you realize that you are NOT more important than me, then we are never going to 'get along' with each other." From there, Trixie slammed the door closed again, leaving me standing there by myself in silence. I really didn't know how to respond to that, because part of me was saying that maybe she was actually right.

"Trixie... I'm sorry." I spoke softly. I didn't get a response though, which prompted me to continue. "I'm just trying to help. I'm not saying that you can't do what your cutie mark tells you to do, you just..." I trailed off, to which Trixie opened the door one more time.

"I just what? Huh? Are you going to tell me what to do again?"

"Trixie.." I frowned. "...I think that you'd have alot more success with your business if you came across as a more... nice and relate-able pony. That's all."

Trixie stared back at me with a bored, deadpan expression until replying awhile later. "Duly noted." She remarked as she closed the door. I looked at the closed doorway for several seconds before sighing, letting my gaze trail downwards slightly.

'I guess that's a start. I don't think I can do much else right now without making things worse.' I perked my head back up. 'I just wish she wasn't so egotistical - and she's the one who thinks I'm narcissistic? That's projection if I've ever seen it.' I turned, continuing to make my way through the halls of Canterlot. I didn't make it very far though before the feeling of rumbling caught my attention. At first I thought I was just imagining things, but I quickly realized that the rumbling was real - and growing more violent. The walls around me felt like they were rattling and clunking, and I re-made my steps in an attempt to keep my balance. 'What on Equestria?? Is this an earthquake? But there shouldn't be any earthquakes near this part of the world.' The sound of Trixie's door opening was the next thing I heard, and I turned to see her trotting half-way out.

"What's going on now? What is this Twilight? Surely you have an explanation."

"I don't know. This isn't normal!" I frowned. "I'm going to look outside." I quickly proceeded to run through the halls, where I hoped that the rumbling didn't get any worse - after all, Canterlot was a city totally attached to a mountain. I ran until I reached the front gates of the castle, where I almost fell over due to just how abruptly I had stopped my sprint. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until I looked upwards, where at first I didn't believe what I was looking at. Hovering far above the city up in the clouds was a huge red-flaming five-pointed star, which was surrounded by grey clouds that only seemed to spread out further. Peering into the demonic symbol made it look like it was an entryway to another world, and a cold feeling of fear shivered through me when I scarcely remembered reading about something like this before. "Isn't that... Tartarus? But why?"

"That's not Discord, is it?" Trixie's voice rang out - she must've followed me over here when I started running. I shook my head in response, gulping and backing up slightly.

"No... it's not." I replied. "It's much worse." As I was about to run back into the castle, the sight of what appeared to be black dots came pouring out from within the flaming star. Closer inspection showed what must've been hundreds, if not thousands of bat-like creatures gushing out, and I backed away further. "I need to warn Princess Luna.."

"Wait, so what is that thing?" Trixie asked, turning her head to look at me in confusion.

"That's Tartarus." I answered grimly. With that, I rushed back into the castle, heading straight towards the throne room. I ran as fast as I possibly could, until eventually bursting through the large throne room doors as a panting mess. Luna was fortunately there, and understandably disturbed by my current state.

"Twilight?" She asked, sitting up from her throne. "What has got thou-"

"It's Tartarus!!" I interrupted with a shout. "I'm extremely sure - I've read about it before, a-and.. the description matches! It's up there in the sky right now!"

Luna's expression immediately changed to a more serious one after hearing my words. "Are you certain of this, young one?"

"There's a lot of creatures flying straight for the castle, right now." Trixie replied, having arrived shortly after I did. "Can you do something about it?"

"We must warn the others at once." Luna announced. She began to walk down from the throne until the sound of high-pitched clicks and chirps began to resonate around us. It was faint at first, but quickly grew louder, causing us to momentarily stand still as we looked around and listened. It sounded like there were hundreds of these little animal-like voices, to which a sudden loud screeching caused us to flinch as it penetrated our ears. The pretty stained glass windows of the throne room shattered at the noise, where the bats that I saw earlier all proceeded to fly inside. Now that they were much closer, I was able to get a better look at them, showing me just how terrifying they looked with their huge, unnatural teeth as well as their piercing red eyes. My first instinct was to protect us using my magic, but I was able to stop myself before I did any harm to my horn - I still wasn't able to do anything magical related at all.

"Trixie should not be here!" The blue-colored unicorn yelled out as she gazed at the incoming bats. "She could have been sleeping in her mansion in Los Pegasus right now!"

The screeching bats were surrounding us from every direction, but before they could reach us, a beaming blue blast from Princess Luna's horn rang out like a shock-wave. The room rumbled as all of the bats within the building either fell or flew into walls, clearly disoriented from the blast, but it definitely wasn't over. Bats were still flying in from the windows, and Luna turned to look at us afterwards.

"We must make haste!" She ran out of the room, where we were quick to follow as we ran through the castle. The clicks from the bats could be heard all around us from outside the castle walls, as well as the horrified screams and yelling from other ponies. We soon arrived at the section of Canterlot devoted to the Royal Guards, where we already saw a large group of them moving past us equipped with spears and armor. Inside the main room Shining Armor could be seen directing orders, and Luna walked right up to him as we followed.

"Princess Luna!" Shining Armor exclaimed when he turned to look at us. "Twilight! We need to get you all to safety."

"It's Tartarus. I think the gates have opened up - at least, I'm extremely sure of it." I expressed. My brother looked understandably disturbed upon hearing that.

"Tartarus?" He inquired. "That.. oh that's not good at all. Are you sure?"

"She's right." The voice of Princess Cadance rang out. I looked to see that she had ran into the room from the other side, much to Shining's relief.

"There you are!" He remarked with relief. "I haven't had a good look outside yet - is there anything more than the bats?"

"There's much more than just bats in Tartarus." Cadance replied. "I don't want to believe it, but I fear that the gates really have been opened - somehow."

"The gates can't be opened from the inside, right?" I asked, to which Luna nodded.

"You would be correct."

"You all wouldn't think that perhaps Discord has something to do with this?" Trixie spoke up.

"That I do not know." Luna replied. "However, there are much more pressing matters at hoof. To stand up and fight against this threat here would ultimately be a fatal battle. The forces of Tartarus easily outnumber us, even if every city of Equestria were hypothetically here to help."

"Really?" Trixie asked with a surprised tone. "Tartarus has that many bad guys?"

"Now you see how serious this is." Luna responded.

"So then... what do we do?" I spoke up. Luna's following silence weighed down on me, to which I looked towards my brother and Cadance, who also appeared to be clueless.

"Perhaps my sister would know what to do." Luna eventually replied. "But she is not with us at this time."

"Well, we gotta do something." Shining Armor remarked. The sounds of walls crumbling and ponies screaming became apparent from the outside once more, reminding us that we were currently being attacked. "We can't stay here. We need to gather up as many ponies as we can and escape to someplace more safe."

"Someplace more safe than Canterlot?" Trixie inquired with disbelief.

"She has a point. Where would we possibly go?" Cadance responded. "It may be best to just stay and fight."

"We can attempt to travel south to the badlands." Luna affirmed. "They have a more violent culture, so they may be better suited for such a catastrophe. They likely will not be very welcoming, but there is no chance of survival without combining our forces. It would be in both of our interests."

"It's going to take days to go way down there!" Cadance replied. Before anyone else could talk though, a loud cracking sound suddenly resonated from somewhere within the castle. The sound of what seemed like loud, thumping footsteps could be heard, and I frowned as I could only imagine what was going on outside this room.

"We have to decide on something!" I spoke up. "And fast!"

"What Luna said might be our best option." Shining Armor reaffirmed. "We need to work on gathering up as many ponies as we can, and then starting our journey south. Sound good?" Nobody seemed to have anything to rebuttal with, so my brother continued. "Alright then, let's move it!" With that, Shining gathered the guards that were stationed around this room, ordering them to escort us as we all exited. We didn't make it very far before we saw more than just bats: Hellhounds and creatures that looked like deformed meshes of other creatures combined into one were roaming about - most of which I couldn't even name or recognize. There wasn't much time to look at them though as we ran through, where Luna discharged magical beams at the creatures. It didn't seem to damage them, but it was enough to stun them, giving us the opportunity to keep running. Guards that we came across while we sprinted were ordered to form a defensive position around us, and any civilians we saw were commanded to seek refuge within the inner circle of our group. By the time we had reached the front gates of the castle, I was able to see just how much destruction had already happened in such a short time.

"Wow.." I remarked softly as I gazed past the front gates. Huge broken pieces of the castle were scattered across, where civilians ran around them as they struggled to escape from the devilish-looking creatures all over. The Royal Guards were trying to deal with the threat, but they didn't seem to be doing very well by the looks of it. Looking back up towards the sky, it looked as if the flaming star had gotten even bigger, and the grey clouds that surrounded it had spread even further - so much so that it was starting to block out the sun a little.

"Everyone!! Come here! Guards, take position with the others - our destination is the tunnel leading down the mountain!" Shining Armor yelled out as we advanced forward. Now that we were outside, the bats had become more prevalent than ever. They swooped across us, biting and scratching - and it was hard to fight back since they were so fast and mobile. The inability to use my magic was really starting to bother me, and I felt useless as all I did was avoid the creatures as best I could.

"Ahhhh!" I yelped out when I felt one particular bat bite trying to bite my bandaged horn. With the vermin right in-front of me, I managed to grab ahold of it with my fore-hooves, forcing it down to the ground and then stomping on it repeatedly. I felt its body crack and squish underneath my hooves, to which I kicked it out of the way when I was satisfied that it was dead.

"Are you alright Twilight?" My brother's voice called as he approached me. "Once we get to the tunnel I'm hoping things will get easier."

I nodded, feeling just how sweaty and shaken up I was. For the moment I wanted to just stand and regain my composure, but the constant movement from our group forced me to keep going. I had never been a part of such a large-scale battle before, and there was so much going on at the same time that it was overwhelming me.

The sound of a loud, low-pitched roar coming from the direction of the castle suddenly caught mine and the others' attention despite the chaos. Looking back, I was momentarily stunned to see a large minotaur standing right at the doorway. He grabbed one of the large castle doors, jerking it and ripping it right off. He held it his huge arms for a few seconds before hurling it straight towards us, and I gasped in horror at the huge incoming object.

"Look out!" I screamed, feeling frozen in place as it felt impossible to dodge such a big projectile. A light blue shield sprung up from Shining Armor's horn, managing to deflect the projectile from us, but not completely as it steered and rammed into several royal guards that were positioned at the far edges of our defensive circle. I stared wide-eyed at the huge chunk of death that had come from that single attack - the guards had either died from the impact or were crushed underneath the huge metal door.

"We need to hurry it up!!" Shining Armor shouted. "Come on, let's move it!" I stood paralyzed in shock until a pony bumped into me, forcing me to keep moving as we continued on towards the tunnel. The thumping sounds of footsteps that must've been from the minotaur could be heard behind me - it sounded like he was running straight for us - but I dared not look as I focused only on getting away. More civilians took shelter inside our group, all of which were panic-stricken and trying to swing away the swooping bats. Our pace had quickened enough to reach the tunnel not too long afterwards, where the red-eyes of the bats became even more visible as we hurried into the darkness. The tunnel was the only way out of Canterlot on-hoof, and Shining Armor's voice was the next thing I heard.

"Forget the fighting - we gotta lose them in here. Everyone, run as fast you can! Now!" The trampling of hooves echoed throughout the cave as the ponies quickly listened, and upon looking back towards the entrance, I saw the shadow of the huge minotaur from earlier - as if to further reinforce us to start running. I was hasty to abide as well after seeing that, but I didn't make it very far before another pony violently bumped into me during his or her sprint, knocking me down onto the ground.

"Ahh!!" I skidded with a thud, hearing the trampling of hooves all around me as ponies mistakenly ran on-top of me. I curled up in a ball to brace myself as best I could, waiting in fear until I felt the stomping of hooves progressively get quieter as they went further away. I didn't dare move though, now only hoping that whatever was out there didn't see me in the darkness - that was all I could hope for because I wasn't about to risk getting back up. Before long however, someone else made that decision for me when I abruptly felt myself being hauled back to my hooves.

"Let's go Twilight - now!" My brother had come back, to which I saw him look up at something behind me - there must've been something there. "Look out!" He went to push me out of the way, but it was already too late as I felt something dig into me from behind, sending me flying upwards.

"OOF!!!" I went flying forwards into the cave after being launched into the air. I hopelessly flailed my hooves, screaming all the way as wind rushed past me. It had quickly gotten too dark for me to accurately see where anything was though, which ultimately led to my head unexpectedly striking against one of the hard-rock structures of the cave, knocking me right out and filling my mind with blackness.