Forgotten Legend

by Halogenmyst

Finale

A living mountain encompassed the horizon. Golden light leaking from fissures over its pale, fleshy surface. Lights like lanterns on a foggy night extended forth and whipped around like a sea creature's limbs. Near to this monstrous titan, one small dark dot flew through the sky.

Nightmare Moon approached the giant, stopping close enough to touch the massive glassy surface in front of her. The surface would be close enough to call an eyeball if it weren't for the oily colors swirling across its surface, and the milky plumes of fluid churning beneath.

"Sister, how I have missed you." The dark alicorn spoke toward the behemoth. "I see the years have not been kind."

The wall of flesh let out a bellowing crunch, sounding like collapsing metal in response.

"I apologize for forcing you to seal yourself away to survive... Your magic has festered like an untreated rot and warped the land under your light... But now you have returned! Celestia, let us go home." Nightmare Moon asked gently.

The disks of Nightmare Moon's spine began to swell. As pulses of pain flushed through her body, Nightmare Moon smiled at what was once her sister, a few tears dripping from her closed eyes.

"That's right. Home."

Those words were her last as the veins under her skin snapped apart and pressed their way out of her pores like earthworms. Every bone in her body extended sharply through her flesh, piercing through her coat and feathers. As blood dripped over every hair of her coat, her form drifted apart like sand in the wind. Leaving only one tear falling toward the earth to be the only remnant of her existence.

---

Vicar Honeydew dropped to her knees. She could only see a dark dot settle against the mountain, but once it had burst into a mist, she could feel the difference.

"The Empress is dead..." She gasped to herself, ignoring the werewolf that stood only a pony's distance from her.

Bloom stood behind the werewolf and heard Honeydew's crestfallen words.

"Empress? Ya mean there really is a pony ownin' the sky?" Bloom asked.

"Not anymore there aint."

The orange earth pony accompanying the voice walked into the town square.

Applejack's body was relaxed, despite the beast she had captured standing so close to her precious sister.

Honeydew narrowed her eyes and got back on her hooves angrily.

"What is that thing!?" She demanded.

Applejack turned her head over her shoulder to get a long, clear look at the abomination.

"That there is The Promise." She stated soberly. "All o' us in the order were told of her arrival. She's the one who will take the select few to paradise and wipe the slate clean. A new beginnin'."

Honeydew, Bloom, and even Iron looked straight to Applejack incredulously.

One of the glassy disks began to glow, as though a light from it were pointing directly to town square.

"YES!" Applejack exclaimed. She ran for the most open portion of the square, hopping up and down like an excited school filly. "PICK ME! AH'M RIGHT HERE!" She shouted to the sky.

An orange pegasus filly appeared out of nowhere and bolted for Bloom.

"HIDE!" Zecora shouted as she pushed the yellow farm filly through the doorway of a nearby building. Honeydew and Iron decided to follow instructions rather than ask questions and ran for shelter themselves.

A bright light accompanied by churning winds wandered through the town square, where Applejack's excited smile aimed upward. The light snapped to attention on the orange pony and began to expand and brighten.

Bloom watched from behind a storefront counter and saw her sister's flesh wash away like the light were a waterfall washing away dirt. Applejack's bones hung in the air for only a moment before a golden fire enveloped them and they turned to ash.

---

Ponies across Equestria looked to the blood-stained sky and couldn't wrench their eyes from the mountain that appeared before them. Some of the ponies abated to nothing, like Applejack, others simply died at the sight.

Others however, were not as lucky. Sickening tendrils grew from their flesh and wrapped themselves tightly around the pony. Some ponies could hear the sound of bones snapping under the tight squeeze of the stringy growths. Coats would peel away, revealing a loose mesh of scar tissue openly displaying a pony's innards. Each sight was more gruesome than the last, causing the air to ring with horrified screams, harmonizing disturbingly with wailing cries.

Sweetie Belle shook with fear as she saw little creatures dance about outside her window. They were closest to worms, without limbs or bones, but they flailed about with nerves lining the outside of their bodies. Sweetie was shaken to the core, clueless on what was happening, or what to do.

The door to her room burst open, revealing a white unicorn mare wearing a beaten and torn red dress. Strings of deep purple mane dangled carelessly over her face.

"Are you alright?" The unicorn asked through the buzz of adrenaline.

Sweetie Belle backed herself against a corner, hardly able to breathe through the fear, but nodded slowly.

The white unicorn let out a deep breath she wasn't aware she was holding, and relaxed her body, approaching the quivering foal extremely carefully.

Slowly placing a hoof to Sweetie Belle's cheek, the unicorn's eyes pressed closed from her warm, genuine smile.

"Good."

---

Silver light stretched upwards, snapping into pointed javelins before falling, piercing rows of unexplainable creatures in front of Vicar Honeydew.

She hadn't noticed the front half of a dead pony slowly crawling towards her from behind. Right as it would have been dangerous, the wild form of Iron Pyrite landed his claws down on it, before tearing it apart in his teeth.

Honeydew turned to see the monster she was sent to execute just save her life. Wordlessly, Iron looked the eggshell unicorn in the eye before bolting off to tear apart more abominations.

She looked over the burning corpses she had lit to see a small filly in a heavy skin cloak command roots beneath the earth to work their way into several oncoming monsters from beneath their hooves and expand, causing them to burst apart.

"A witch too?" Honeydew whispered. "I don't think this day could get any weirder."

As if in response, a swarm of ill-defined bats rushed past her, coalescing into the form of an alabaster unicorn throwing her large fangs into one of the abominations and tore it apart.

"Now a vampire!?" Honeydew complained aloud as a small unicorn filly rushed to stay close to the new arrival.

The fight continued to grow fiercer as fissures cracked through the ground, allowing golden lights to leak out. Bloom could feel the warmth of the lights and wondered what it meant before the warmth grew hotter and hotter.

A fissure opened up beneath Bloom's hooves, and all at once, her body burst into flame.

---

"Now Ah say, that's quite enough!" Applejack interrupted.

Sweetie Belle backed her head from the campfire in a confused look. On the other side of the fire sat Applejack, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Rainbow Dash, the young fillies holding tightly to the stiff mares beside them.

Rarity sat beside Sweetie Belle with a clipboard in hoof, excitedly sketching out a dress design.

"What? You said to tell a scary story." Sweetie responded.

Rarity stopped her sketch momentarily to join in the conversation.

"I told you she has a wild imagination, she's got at least three notebooks filled with such ideas."

Sweetie turned angrily to Rarity. "You said you wouldn't tell!"

Rainbow Dash coughed. "So where was I during this whole thing?" She spoke with a nervous waver in her voice, betraying her calm appearance with the fear tightening in her throat.

"I don't know, you died a long time ago or something, does it matter?" Sweetie asked.

A muffled, barely audible sound escaped Scootaloo, who was hiding her face deep into Rainbow's side.

"Yes."

"Welp! Ah sure am tired,Ah think it's time to hit the hay!" Apple Bloom announced loudly as she practically teleported to her tent. Applejack just cleared her throat and joined her sister.

Sweetie Belle sighed. "I was just getting to the good part..." She complained.

"I think it was already quite fantastic dearie." Rarity said as she put away her sketch.

"You just like the dress." Sweetie said as they both turned into their massive tent.

"Hey squirt." Rainbow said, trying to pry the filly from her side as she quenched the fire.

Scootaloo didn't let go but at least lessened her grip so she could look Rainbow in the eye. "Yeah?"

"Don't tell anypony, but that was terrifying. Your friend is freaky." Rainbow said with a smile.

Scootaloo gave a light nod as Rainbow Dash led her back to their tent.

---

A dark alicorn drifted through the sky just above the recently doused fire.

"I am inclined to agree." Said Luna before making a mental note to hug her sister as soon as she could.

Author's Note:

What a twist! But not really.
I figured out the conclusion after discovering I didn't actually have a conclusion. Besides, I wanted to contrast the visceral horror by the end, so the story would at least wouldn't leave you feeling the need for a shower.
Thanks for reading! I enjoyed writing this one!

Comments

[aline1]

It seems like a perfect sort of ending for this story and I must say Sweetie Bell if she also wrote detective stories because she'd have a future as Equestria's Egar Allan Poe given she already got the Macabre down pat.