The Final Moves
The next couple hours passed in relative silence. Starlight seemed to split most of her travel time between brooding and glaring resentfully up at me on my Blightspawn mount. I guess a couple hours of trudging through snow drifts while I didn’t have to deal with any of that was enough to put her in a bad mood.
She finally hit her breaking point when a misplaced hoof wound up making her sink into the snow all the way up to her knee. She let out a frustrated snarl, and a second later an orange beam carved a path through the snow.
Starlight smirked and strode into the channel she’d carved through the snow. She got about five steps before discovering the flaw in her plan: melted snow turns back into water. Instead of sinking up to her knees in loose snow, she wound up ankle-deep in mud. Judging by her frustrated scream, she didn’t consider that much of an improvement.
I didn’t laugh at her out loud, but judging by the glower she shot my way she suspected I was amused by her continuing failure. She wasn’t wrong. For a second I wondered if she was about to order me off the Blightspawn and make me walk through the mud out of petty spite, but evidently she had something else in mind. The other one of her larger spawn stomped over and dropped to its knees in front of her, letting her climb onto its back.
While I had to commend her for recognizing a good idea when it was sitting right in front of her, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to rub it in just a little. “Told you this was faster.”
“Oh shut up,” she growled. A couple seconds later she sighed and shook her head. “Don’t forget you’re my prisoner. You shouldn’t be so damned smug about it.”
“Let me guess, Blackfyre hates the competition?” I groaned and stretched out as best I could while staying perched on the Blightspawn’s back. It was a long way away from a comfortable ride, especially without any sort of harness to help keep me in place, but it beat trying to walk through the snow and mud. “Speaking of your boss, any idea why he stuck his base way out in the middle of nowhere?”
“He doesn’t like to be bothered,” Starlight grumbled. “Maybe you haven’t heard, but most dragons aren’t exactly social creatures. Most of them can barely tolerate each other outside of migrations and other big events. Interacting with other races or even hosting them inside their own lair is pretty much unheard of. At best, you get someone who likes to keep a couple servants around for convenience’s sake. Why do you think there aren’t any other dragons willing to help Argentium out? They all think she’s a weirdo.” She snorted. “You know that filly at school who’s super social, knows and talks to everyone, and must be a part of every social event? That's Argentium to the dragons.”
“Right, guess that makes sense.” I did a few quick calculations assisted by a spell. They confirmed what I’d suspected about where we were. “So he’s not hanging out where his base was back during the first war. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Considering Frozen and I could find it with just a little bit of research, moving made sense,” Starlight agreed. She let out a soft snort. “Funny story, one of the first things he did after he enslaved me was make me help him move out. Moving an entire dragon’s hoard was a lot of work. He wanted a secure and secret base of operations before he started making a move against his enemies. No sense starting a fight when Celestia and Argentium would show up on his doorstep five minutes later.”
“Hard to fault the logic,” I agreed. “Celestia and Argentium pinning him down and teaming up against him has to be the number one thing he wants to avoid. A thousand years ago he picked surrender over fighting both of them at the same time.”
“Luna as well,” Starlight pointed out. “So it would’ve been three against one. The master is powerful, but that’s a huge disadvantage. Even two against one isn’t ideal, but that’s where you—” She abruptly cut herself off with a hiss of pain. Judging by her careful change of tone, she’d probably been on the verge of giving away a little too much. “The master plans to deal with each of them in turn.”
“I'm sure he does.” And I was just as sure those plans would get derailed at some point. It’s why big elaborate master plans that depend on thousands of things going exactly right never work out. Which should probably worry me a bit more considering I was in the middle of my own plan to take down Blackfyre, but I’d done my best to keep things simple. Not to mention I was under no illusions about the risks involved.
I spared a look for Starlight, who was doing her best to gingerly rub her back. Not hard to guess what was bothering her. “They’re getting worse, aren’t they?”
Starlight immediately stopped rubbing her back and did her best to look like nothing was bothering her. It failed, mostly because she was trying way too hard to do something that only looked natural when you weren’t trying to do it. She tossed her head and tried make her voice sound as bored as possible. “What do you mean?”
“The runes,” I shot back without missing a beat. “He’s tightening the noose on you, isn’t he? Maybe he’s letting you keep your free will for now, but you have to know by now that you only get as much freedom as he thinks will be useful to him.”
“I’m the one dealing with it every day!” Starlight snapped. “You don’t have to tell me what’s going on and how bad it is!” She glared at me, then shifted her gaze to the ground beneath us, her shoulders slumping as the rage leaked out of her. She swallowed and quietly confessed. “I’m not sure how much longer I’m still going to be me.”
“Considering he only wants the parts of you that make you a useful tool...” I grimaced, trying to think of the best way to word it. “I’m not sure how much wiggle room you have anymore, but I’d suggest using as much of it as you can. Best case, I can take Blackfyre down, get those runes off your back, and when it comes to the war crimes trial I’ll recommend clemency. Worst case ... at least you’ll die as yourself.”
“You seem real comfortable casually recommending I kill myself just to help you and your cause,” Starlight sniped. “If you think I’m going to do some sort of heroic suicide pact with you, you’re delusional. I don’t love working for Blackfyre, but I like dying pointlessly even less.” She snorted and shook her head, resignedly mutterly. “Besides, how much wiggle room do you think a thousand year old dragon would even give me?”
“Yeah, I know.” I was pretty sure that if she openly turned against Blackfyre, I had about five seconds to take the dragon down before he used his runes to force her back to his side. And that was an optimistic assessment that assumed she wouldn’t just keel over dead as soon as she tried something. “I’m not telling you to go against him in a way that gets you killed. Just ... I don’t know, don’t try all that hard to keep him alive and yourself enslaved to him.”
She frowned and thought it over for a moment. “I suppose I could—” She cut herself off with a hiss, biting her lip to keep it from turning into a full fledged scream. After a couple seconds she gasped out, “I will ... do what ... I must ... to serve my master!”
Not exactly an ironclad commitment, but all things considered I would be a fool to expect that out of her with the runes still on her back. I’d already had more success than I’d hoped at planting a few seeds of doubt.
Starlight shot a resentful glare my way. “You think I don’t see what you’re trying to do? Bet you figure it’d be a lot easier to kill Blackfyre if he gets me out of the way.” She snorted and pointed at the crude bandage over her eye. “Don’t try to pretend you’re my friend after you did this to me. Yesterday you and your friends were trying to kill me.”
“Yeah, we were,” I shot back. “That’s what happens when you attack people with an army of monsters: they defend themselves. Remember how you were trying to kill me two seconds before I put out your eye? And if we could’ve killed you then, we would’ve.” I met her gaze unflinchingly. “I don’t like seeing what Blackfyre’s done to you. I sympathize with your plight. But as long as you’re a danger to everyone else around you I’ll do whatever it takes to stop you. You were ranting about killing thousands of innocent people. Be glad it only cost you an eye, because the three of us were doing our best to kill you.”
“I noticed,” she growled, her one remaining eye narrowing.
That did a pretty good job of killing the conversation, so the two of us carried on in silence, riding along on our improvised mounts. The Blightspawn weren’t much for conversation, but I couldn’t fault their speed, and more importantly their durability. They just kept moving along at a steady pace, regardless of how long Starlight kept them going or what kind of terrain they ran into. I had to wonder how they could keep up the pace, and how much of it was due to Blackfyre enhancing them versus them being so mindless they’d run themselves to death before stopping.
Eventually we got to the mountains. Part of the same chain Argentium’s lair was in, though several hundred miles to the south of her cavern. However, instead of the grandly constructed near-palatial entrance of Argentium’s home, complete with expensive carved wooden doors, this just looked like an especially big hole in the side of the mountain. If not for the spawn guarding the entrance it would’ve looked like any other cave. Small surprise, considering he was trying to keep a low profile.
As we got a bit closer I did notice one thing about the place that stood out: the smell. The whole place had a faint stench of burned, rotting meat. Not a big surprise, considering who lived here. I had a sinking feeling the smell would be a lot worse once I actually got into the cavern itself.
Our Blightspawn mounts halted in front of the entrance, and the two of us gingerly slid off their backs. It took a bit for me to get my hooves back under me after spending so long off them. Just because life seemed to enjoy being horribly unfair to me, my missing leg was the one that felt the numbest. Stupid phantom pains.
Starlight was still stretching out when one of the nasty little Spawns came running out of the cave with a scroll tied to its back. Starlight took the message and quickly read it over, then turned to me. “Before we go in there, you’re putting this on.” She pulled out a suppression ring. “Master’s orders.”
I grimaced and took it from her. “Figures.” I probably would’ve been more surprised if he didn’t insist on putting one on me. He might be arrogant enough to believe there was nothing I could possibly do to actually hurt him, but he was still canny enough to play it safe regardless. “I guess you’ll want this as well?” I used my magic to undo the straps securing Chainbreaker and passed it over to her, then put the ring on.
Starlight took the sword, frowning at it. “Yeah. As well as anything else on you.” Her eyes flicked down to my prosthetic. “I’ll give you back your leg and cloak once I’m done checking them over. Wouldn’t put it past you to try and hide a weapon there or something.”
“Wish I’d thought of that,” I shot back as I carefully removed my prosthetic. Unsurprisingly, the peg leg we’d whipped together from a bunch of scrap wood didn’t have any nasty tricks hidden in it. Even if I’d wanted to include something like that, I hadn’t had the resources to pull it off on short notice or anyone skilled enough to make a fake leg while also concealing a weapon inside of it. Maybe I could look into that if I survived the next few hours.
Starlight gave my leg a quick once over, then passed it back with an awkward cough. “So, right, um, it’s just a leg.”
“Or at least something that’s close enough to one,” I shook the snow and a couple loose hairs off my cloak, then passed it over to her for inspection. “Anything else?”
She finished checking it, scowling suspiciously at me when she didn’t find anything. “Okay, what’s the deal? I expected you to pull something before I got around to putting a suppression ring on your horn. I know you’re up to something, you all but admitted as much. Now I’ve got you here completely unarmed, surrounded by Blightspawn, unarmed and with your magic bound. And you still seem to think you can win this.”
“Don’t tell me I’ve got you scared,” I shot out with a smirk.
“More like convinced you’re completely insane,” she scoffed. “What you’re doing doesn’t make any sense, especially for someone who just talked about how she’d rather die than be a slave. Or was it all talk and you chickened out when it came to actually following through?”
I shrugged. “It’s almost like I have a plan.”
Starlight glared at me for several more seconds. “You know, I am seriously tempted to slap a blindfold and gag on you, then put you in shackles.
I couldn’t resist needling her just a bit more. “Unless that's part of my plan too.” I stepped in front of her, taking the lead as we headed into Blackfyre’s cave.
Starlight pointedly jogged ahead of me. “Or maybe you’re in way over your head, and you’re just trying to make up enough horseapples to stay alive for the next five minutes.”
I didn’t have an answer for that, mostly because her assessment was a bit too close to accurate. I liked to think my plan had come together pretty well, but considering the risks involved it was hard to shake the fear that I’d made a mistake somewhere along the line. There were a whole lot of innocent lives riding on me getting this right.
I’d been right about one thing; the deeper we went into the caves the worse the smell got. Starlight must have noticed me wrinkling my nose, because she felt the need to comment. “You get used to the smell eventually.”
“I’d rather not be here long enough for that to happen.”
“You won’t have a choice in the matter,” Starlight murmured. “I didn’t.”
Eventually we emerged into the cavern’s massive central chamber, most of which was taken up by Blackfyre himself. I could see his disgusting little anti-magic critter hanging in a cage off to the side, twitching and mewling feebly. Some of his spawn were lurking in the corner as well, and along the back of one wall were dozens of dark shapes trapped within crystal prisons. The cavern itself looked pretty rough, though it was no surprise he hadn’t done much to fancy the place up if he’d just moved.
Or maybe not. Blackfyre didn’t strike me as the type to waste a lot of time to pretty up his environs. Or perhaps his tastes just naturally leaned towards ruined caverns filled with twisted mutants and stinking of dead, burned flesh. He’d spent the last thousand years living that way, by now he was probably just used to it. Immortals do have a lot of time to become set in their ways.
Blackfyre reached down into the massive pit in the center of the room, scooping out a handful of raw meaty sludge. He held it between his talons, shaping it almost like a potter making a clay vase, except in this case he was making some sort of twisted mutant. Once he’d gotten it into a shape roughly resembling one of the small lesser Blightspawn he set it aside, and a with a flick of his talons encased the thing in crystal. Then he put it right next to the dozens of other crystal prisons which held what must be other Blightspawn in the process of forming.
Ugh. If not for all the reasons doing so would be incredibly undignified, I probably would’ve vomited then and there.
Starlight stepped in front of Blackfyre and bowed so low her muzzle was scraping the cavern floor. “I moved as fast as I could, master. But I’ve got her.”
Blackfyre turned to face her, his talons still dripping with gore. “So I see. But you’ve damaged yourself in the process. How very ... disappointing. That makes it twice you’ve been less than successful despite all the gifts I’ve given you.”
Starlight’s remaining eye shot wide open, and she pressed herself even lower to the ground, all but groveling. “It’s not my fault, master! I wasn’t fighting just her! There was the caribou militia, and Sunset’s fri—”
Blackfyre crooked a talon and she dropped to the floor, gasping in pain. “What did I say that made you think I was interested in hearing excuses?” He stared down at her, looking almost bored. “I know she had allies, and you had my Blightspawn to counter them.” He let out a long-suffering sigh as he carefully reached down to pick up his spasming slave. “Now what am I going to do with you? Tempting as it is to come up with some suitably creative punishment, I will have need of you again soon enough.”
He tore off her bandage, then casually plucked out her damaged eye, ignoring Starlight’s agonized scream. Then he scooped a bit more of the sludge out of his pit, slapping it into place. He settled his talon over her head, and I could see that nasty orange light seeping out from between his talons. While Starlight thrashed in his grip, he turned his attention to me. “I see you lost the leg I damaged for your insolence. Argentium remains a fool. If she had learned the art of fleshcrafting she could have repaired the damage easily enough. A few dead peasants is a small price to pay to restore a battle mage to full strength, yet she leaves you crippled and thinks herself noble for doing so.”
I wasn’t interested in hearing him stroke his own ego, even though I knew that was most dragons’ favorite pastime. “I did my best to return the favor on your pet.”
Blackfyre snorted, his eyes flicking down to Starlight as she writhed within his grip. “A minor inconvenience.” He removed her armor and scratched a fresh rune into her back. “A few minutes’ effort on my part and her eye will be restored. Had she served me better, I could even make it better than what she had before.”
It didn’t take a genius to see where this conversation was going. “Let me guess, this is the part where you offer to fix my leg if I join you?”
Blackfyre shrugged. “It is a rather obvious point of attack, isn’t it? But I suspect merely restoring your leg won’t be enough to entice you.”
“I did pretty much cut it off just to keep fighting you,” I agreed. “Wouldn’t make much sense to join you just to get it back.”
“Ah, so you chose a quick amputation over the long and torturous process of conventional healing.” Blackfyre snorted and shook his head. “Such a short-sighted decision, typical of the delusions of morality held by mortal beings. What difference did you really think you would make in this battle? To save a few hundred insignificant lives? They will all die eventually, regardless of your actions. Mortal lives are so ... fleeting. No more lasting or valuable than dust in the wind.”
I rolled my eyes and tried to keep myself from sounding so bored and contemptuous he’d kill me on the spot. “So why should I join you anyway?”
Blackfyre shrugged. “What do you want?”
I tossed out the first thing that came to mind. “Well I’m going to guess talking you into killing yourself is out.”
Blackfyre chuckled. “Such a spiteful little creature, though I do at least understand wanting to destroy one’s enemies.” He set Starlight down, shifting his attention fully to me. “Of course, we are only enemies due to a quirk of fate. Join me. I can give you the power to dominate anyone under my name. You could rule Equestria, or Freeport, or even the North itself. Or all three, if such is your desire. I have little desire to rule over a kingdom like Argentium does, much less imitate Celestia’s constant attempts to guide her subjects to enlightenment. You could be an empress—the greatest ruler the world has ever known.”
Well, I hadn’t been expecting that. “So wait, this isn’t about conquering the world for you?”
“Conquest does hold a certain interest,” Blackfyre answered. “It is rulership I object to. The mere thought of tending the petty concerns of myriad subjects bores me. All I desire is to reshape the world order to one that better suits me. After that, all I desire is independence. I wish the freedom to continue my research and do as I will, when I wish it. Such as this.” He picked Starlight up and shifted her mane aside, revealing a whole and healthy eye. “Look upon the fruit my research has borne. Yet the likes of Celestia and Argentium would declare my work profane, my methods evil.” He scoffed. “As if they have the right to judge me. Did I ever consent to be ruled over by the likes of them? I think not.”
I took a step closer to the huge charnel pit he seemed to be getting all that biomass from. It was hard to get a good idea of how big it was or how much he’d killed to fill it up, but it was enough to make me sick to my stomach. “So whose eye was that before you gave it to her?”
Blackfyre shrugged. “Doubtless some small, insignificant being living an unimportant life. Are you so worried about where your new leg would come from? What does it matter if a life of no account belonging to a being you have never even met should end? Countless mortals die every single day. Think instead of how much you could gain. You could be made whole, or even improved. I see no reason to limit you to your current potential.”
He grinned, showing off his fangs. “Do you want to be an alicorn? Most of those who fall within Celestia’s orbit long for it at least once, to stand as her equal in power and magnificence. It is one of the many things she fails to grasp, that those who stand below her will always hate and envy her in the secret parts of their hearts. I am sure you know exactly what I mean: the student always longs to surpass the master.”
Not really. Well okay, maybe a little. I mean, I guess part of why I wanted to be an alicorn was so I could stand side by side Celestia as an equal. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t like the idea of getting so strong that I could maybe even beat her in a friendly practice spar, or at least make her have to take it seriously. But hating and envying her? No, never that.
Blackfyre seemed to think he was on the right track though. “Ah, yes, there we have it. Adding wings is a relatively simple change, but we both know there’s far more to an alicorn than wings and a horn. However, if we work together those intangibles are easily seen to, and I can take you far beyond the limits of equine anatomy.” He slowly dragged a talon down Starlight’s back. “I could even show you what the final product would be if you’re worried about being tricked. Starlight could serve as excellent proof of all that I could achieve. I’d even be willing to give her to you to do with as you wish.”
Starlight’s eyes shot wide open. “W-what? That’s not ... you never said anything about me becoming Sunset’s slave!”
Blackfyre snorted and didn’t even acknowledge her outburst. “You will serve me as I desire, whether it’s by my side or Sunset’s. So far I am less than impressed with your performance in my service.” He crooked a talon, and she dropped to the ground writhing in pain once more. “I crippled the mare and gave you new gifts, and you come back to me broken and in need of healing. I had hoped for better, but it seems this is all your are capable of. I suggest you start finding more ways to make yourself useful, or I shall have to come up with something.”
Starlight slowly picked herself up off the floor, trembling in pain. For a second I thought she’d snap and attack him, but instead she weakly gasped out, “Y-yes master.”
I gave Starlight a quick once-over as she feebly picked herself back up. “And would I end up like that? A bunch of control runes on my back and you send me down to the ground screaming my head off every time I look at you funny or don’t succeed as much as you’d like?”
“Only if you make it necessary,” Blackfyre answered with an especially fang-filled smile. “As you have no doubt noticed, Starlight has been a ... less than ideal servant. One makes the most of the tools one has available, but her use to me is rapidly diminishing.”
“So you’re trading her out for me,” I concluded. “And I guess that means as soon as you get someone better, I’m on the same chopping block she is?”
“I have little need for weak minions who fail me,” Blackfyre conceded. “But also no reason to betray capable ones who serve me well. Only a fool fails to reward loyalty, and there are so many gifts I can give you. A world of possibilities I could open up to you. In time, I could make you such a wondrous being that even Celestia would be nothing before your power.” He smirked. “And if we succeed in capturing Celestia alive, I would be happy to break her power and leave her as another of your servants. You will find I am not a harsh master. So long as you follow my commands and execute my desires, you will be free to do as you wish.”
“Hmm.” I gave the room a quick once-over, making sure I knew exactly where that nasty little anti-magic critter of his was. Chainbreaker lay off to the side, dropped by Starlight at some point while Blackfyre was torturing her. “I assume stopping Argentium and Celestia is part of the package? Along with anyone else who might object to your new status quo.”
“Of course,” Blackfyre agreed. “Their designs and my own are incompatible. They will not stop until I am once again imprisoned or slain. Likely others as well, though I suspect I will have far less trouble persuading you to lead a campaign against Chrysalis or her ilk. Not to mention the various evils Celestia has sealed away who will doubtless try to escape after her downfall. Should Sombra regain his freedom, I am sure he will be saddened to learn he was only ever an ally of convenience.”
If most of what I’d read about Sombra was true, he wouldn’t be shocked and he probably felt the exact same way about Blackfyre. However, that did beg one question. “So what exactly are your designs? Because so far all you’ve said is that you want to reset the world order, and don’t really care about anything past that. So what is it you want to do?”
Blackfyre shrugged. “All I desire is my personal freedom. So that I can conduct my research, and act as a dragon should.”
Starlight risked a look up at him. “And if that means burning down a village or attacking a refugee column...”
“What of it?” Blackfyre shot back with a smirk. “I will need fresh materials for my research from time to time. And it is so liberating to express your power over other beings, to show them your might, and make them know that they are such tiny and insignificant creatures. Do you mourn for mayflies when their lives are snuffed out?”
Wow. I’d known he was an evil bastard, but I hadn’t realized what a profoundly petty evil bastard he was. It wasn’t about world domination or reshaping reality in his image, he just wanted the right to be a jerk without facing any consequences for it. “So basically, your definition of freedom is the right to be horrible to everyone else around you?”
Blackfyre spread his wings, showing off his sheer size. “I am a terrible being to behold, as it should be. And I would not be denied the right to express my power and majesty.”
I scoffed. “‘Majesty’? Oh please, you're just a petty, self-centered jerk who happens to be a lot bigger than every other one out there.”
Blackfyre’s eyes shot open, and a second later he bared his fangs at me. “I see you’ve chosen defiance over service, then. You forget yourself. You are nothing but a useful pawn for the destruction of your former teacher. Your willing cooperation would have been an asset, but breaking you and hurling the remnants in front of Celestia’s hooves will serve my purposes well enough. Bow, and I will forget your outburst.”
“Yeah, I don't think so.” I extended a hoof towards my sword. “Chainbreaker!”
The blade leapt off ground, flying straight for me. If I had two working forelegs I probably could’ve caught it cleanly, and naturally magic would’ve worked if I wasn’t ringed. With both of those factors, I had to improvise a bit. I leaned to the side, praying I had it right and I wasn’t about to kill myself in an especially embarrassing way.
Thankfully, I got it right. Or maybe the sword just compensated for anything I had wrong. The blade sliced clean through my horn ring, and I didn’t get anything worse out of it than a shallow cut on my forehead.
I didn’t have any time to celebrate. My magic might be free for the moment, but as soon as I lost the element of surprise Blackfyre would set that horrible little monster of his to singing. I had time to cast one spell, and I knew which one it had to be.
The shriek the creature let out when I set it on fire was so horrible I could swear it made my ears bleed, but at least it didn’t last very long.
Blackfyre let out a deep-throated growl as he realized what I’d done. “You insolent little—” An instant later the fury in his eyes shifted to something colder and far more calculating. “A futile move. Even with your magic you are but a pony, and I am dragon. The loss of the Warpmouth is inconvenient, but it is easily replaced. A poor trade for your life.”
“I wasn’t planning on dying here.” I tried to teleport clear of his cave, but a second later after I winked out of existence I popped back right where I was. Guess I shouldn’t have been surprised Blackfyre had some sort of teleportation wards set up, but it had been worth a shot. Pity he’d ringed my horn before I had any time to study them, and right now I had far bigger issues to deal with. Like going to Plan B for my escape.
Blackfyre scoffed at me. “You short-sighted fool. I spent centuries carefully preparing this fastness while Celestia and Argentium watched over my old lair. The wards here are so powerful that even they wouldn’t dare to launch a direct attack, and you are nothing compared to them.”
He flicked a talon, and runes lit up along the floor beneath me. Suddenly it felt like I was being stabbed with a dozen red hot hooks that all started trying to rip me apart in different directions. He was probably hoping that would be enough to drop me, but I wasn’t going down that easily. Runic wards were easy to break with the right tools. I scratched Chainbreaker’s tip along the floor, cutting through the rune’s lines and disrupting the energy enough to break his spell. I let out a gasp as the pain vanished, and briefly had to plant the tip of my sword into the ground to keep from falling flat on my face.
Despite all the lingering pain I wasn’t going to give Blackfyre the satisfaction of seeing how much that hurt. “What’s the matter? Is that all you’ve got?”
Blackfyre snorted. “Oh that is just precious. You actually think you can beat me. Let me show you the futility of your struggles. Starlight—capture her, and do make it painful.”
A second later Starlight hit me from behind, not even bothering with subtlety. I’d been ready for a magical attack, but she caught me off guard when instead she charged in and shoulder slammed my rib cage. My already tenuous balance vanished completely, and I went tumbling to the ground. Before I could even start to recover another pain spell hit.
It wasn’t fun, but compared to the one Blackfyre had used on me a few seconds ago it ... well okay it was still pretty bad, but I’d had worse. I clenched my teeth and tried to fight through it, sending an ice spear at Blackfyre that bounced off his scales as if I’d flicked a pebble at him. He didn’t even bother to respond, just sitting back and watching.
My odds of making it out of here alive were already pretty bad, but I knew I didn’t stand a chance as long as it was two-on-one. “F-fight him ... Starlight...”
Starlight froze, and the power behind the spell weakened enough for me to shake it off. Starlight stood there for a second longer, chewing her lip indecisively, before the runes on her back activated and she fell to the floor.
Blackfyre scowled down at her. “Again you disappoint me. Not loyal enough to be a good servant, but not quite brave enough to openly betray me. I’m almost tempted to make you the next Warpmouth, but I do despise wasting raw materials.”
I certainly wasn’t going to stick around to see what exactly he had in mind for her. If teleporting out had been an option I would’ve tried to take her with me, but Blackfyre had already shut that down. Carrying her out ... yeah, not likely when I only had three legs to work with. I didn’t like it, but there was really only one thing I could do. “Sorry, I’ll come back for you.”
I threw a thunderflash spell at Blackfyre’s face, then bolted for the cavern exit. Hopefully the bright light and loud noise would disorient him for long enough to allow me a decent head start on getting out of here. If I could get outside of his wards and teleport clear I actually stood a decent chance of—
A blast of orange magic shot over my head, and a crystalline wall shot up in front of me, blocking off the exit. I spun around to find Starlight back on her hooves, tears leaking out of her eyes as she glared at me. “I knew you’d stab me in the back!”
“I wasn’t—” I groaned and shook my head. “What am I supposed to do, carry you out of here when I can barely even walk on my own?!”
“We should really do something about that.” I barely saw Blackfyre’s tail come flicking towards me in time, and my best shield spell couldn’t do much more than buy me just enough time to make sure he hit my prosthetic instead of one of the legs I had left. The impact still turned my wooden leg into kindling, and left several dozen cut and splinters over the rest of my body.
Blackfyre smirked down at me chuckling. “Oops, did I do that again? I do so hate repeating myself, but I suppose it does save me the effort of fixing a second leg.” He tsked under his breath. “You really can’t seem to keep four legs under yourself.”
I tried to get back to my hooves and find some way to keep balanced, but a second later Starlight let out a scream of raw pain and fury, and I felt several blasts hit me in the back. Each one felt like getting punched by an especially large and angry stallion, and probably left behind bruises that equaled the experience.
Blackfyre sat back on his haunches, seemingly content to let Starlight pound me until I finally managed to get a shield spell back up. “Still a little fight left in you, then?”
“Plenty,” I bluffed, slowly managing to work out something that at least me stay balanced enough to remain more-or-less upright. “Starlight, you know your best shot of getting out of this is to let me go, even if I can’t save you right now.”
“I know that’s what you’re saying,” she snapped. “But maybe you’re just using me, and you’re fine with leaving me behind to get killed as long as you get what you want. Besides, it ... it hurts too much to fight him.”
She fired off a blast of raw concussive force. I had my shield up, but a second before her spell would’ve connected Blackfyre flicked a talon and my defensive spell shattered. Whatever he did also must have weakened Starlight’s attack, because instead of ripping my head clean off it just bounced me off the wall. Not that I was especially grateful for hitting a solid stone wall at a very unhealthy speed. The only consolation was that I’d smacked the back of my head hard enough to dull the pain from the rest of my body.
“That’s enough, for now,” Blackfyre rumbled. “Though feel free to knock her around a bit more if she tries anything.” He stomped over, looming over me like a huge shadow. “Really now, Sunset. How did you expect this to end? I crushed you without even trying in our last encounter, and that was before I broke you. What possible scenario is there where challenging myself and Starlight to a two-on-one battle ends well? Were you expecting her to side with you? I did not think you so foolish. Even a moment’s hesitation cost her dearly, and she lacks the strength to resist me beyond that. You had to know that any aid you might receive from her would be fleeting at best.”
“I got what I came for,” I groaned, nodding at the charred remnants of his nasty little anti-magic pet, the Warpmouth.
He scoffed. “Yes, that is something of an inconvenience. It will take some time to craft a new one, and I suppose until that time I am very slightly diminished. Did you think that just because creating the first Warpmouth took centuries I could not easily replace it once it was lost? Even without my perfect memory, I kept extensive notes. Once you know how to make one, repeating the process is child’s play.”
Damn. Guess it was too much to hope that making one of those things required a lot of really rare materials. Or maybe it did, and Blackfyre just had the foresight to stock up beforehand. Still... “Better hope you get it done before Celestia and Argentium find you.”
“I will,” he answered with a confident smirk. “I have had over a thousand years to plan my return out in exacting detail, and I assure you I’ve accounted for every variable. The loss of the Warpmouth is but a temporary setback, and I knew not everything would got according to plan. I have already crafted plans for every possible outcome, accounted for every conceivable contingency.” He snatched me up by the mane, hauling me up to in front of his face. “Surely by now you must have realized there is nothing you can do to stop me. Whatever plan you hoped to hatch, it was doomed from the start. All you’ve done is walk willingly to your doom.”
I groaned as he lifted me into the air, leaving me dangling by the scalp. “So how’d you plan for me a thousand years before I was born?”
“Not for you specifically,” he conceded. “But Celestia has always been far too fond of mortals. I simply needed to find the right one to use against her. If you were wise, you would have run and hid as far away from me as you can, to let Celestia fight unimpeded. All you accomplished by trying to face me yourself is to usher in her annihilation. You are nothing, and there is nothing you could do that would make the slightest difference.”
I groaned as he gave me a shake to emphasize his point, or perhaps just to be a jerk. “Yeah ... maybe you’re right. Maybe it was stupid to think I could take you on.” I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and prepared myself. “But I’m not done yet.”
Starlight seemed to figure out what I had in mind. “No! Don’t!”
I reached down deep into myself, deeper than I’d ever gone before. I didn’t just tap into the energy I normally used for my spells, I took everything.
All the magic I had in my body.
The strength that kept my lungs breathing.
The power that kept my heart beating.
The energy firing between the neurons in my brain.
My very soul, the essence of who I was.
Everything.
I guess that’s why they call it a death curse.
I took all that power and hurled it in a single blast of pure destruction, aimed straight at Blackfyre’s heart. My only regret as the darkness claimed me was that I’d never get to see the look on his face when he realized he’d lost.
Darkness claimed me.
...
...
...
...
...
Black, ugly power pushed its way into my body. An oily flame that left me feeling like I’d spent a week immersing myself in dirty kitchen grease, then set myself on fire.
I gasped as it forced my lungs to take in air once more, and compelled the muscles in my heart to keep beating.
Slowly, the world came back into focus.
Blackfyre stood towering over me, pinning me to the floor with a single massive claw, orange light pouring from between his talons. On his chest, where I’d hit him, there was a smoking, bleeding, damaged patch of scales, but it didn’t look like nearly enough to kill him. “Fool!” he snarled. “Do you think you’re the first to throw a death curse at me?! I have born the brunt of a hundred and more death curses, and here I stand!” Smoke curled from his lips as he bared his fangs. “I am Blackfyre, greatest of all dragons, and you do not die until I will it. You. Are. Mine. Body, mind, and soul.”
“D ... damn ... you...” I tried to come up with enough power to throw another death curse, but I was ... empty. There wasn’t anything left at all. After all, the only thing keeping me breathing was Blackfyre’s power, and I could hardly tap into that. His claw might be pinning me to the floor, but I wouldn’t have been able to move even if there’d been nothing holding me down but air pressure.
“I’ve only started to give you reasons to damn my name.” He dipped his free foreclaw into the wound I’d put on his chest, gathering some of his blood. “Such a waste. You could have ruled the world as one of my most valuable and rewarded agents, but if you will not be my knight then I shall content myself with a mere pawn.”
He worked some sort of magic over his own blood, slowly changing it into something else. “Do you want to say your last words now? Oh wait, you already died. I’m sure you imagined some grand, heroic death with a funeral where you would be honored for your sacrifice. The noble heroine who gave her life to strike down Blackfyre, remembered and celebrated for centuries to come. Pity that if anyone remembers you at all, it will only be as the tool with which I will destroy Celestia. Once she is dead Argentium will quickly follow, and I will be free to remake the world in whatever manner pleases me. Or just burn it all once I grow bored.”
He opened my mouth and tipped the vile potion he’d come up with down my throat. There was nothing I could do to stop him. I couldn’t even try to stop myself from swallowing—he had full control over every muscle in my body, including my throat. At least my senses were so dull I couldn’t taste it. I guess he didn’t think it was worth the extra bit of power to add that tiny bit more spite to the whole experience.
I could feel something else, though. A nasty, black, twisted mass settling into the pit of my stomach. Like something inside there was growing. Or maybe it was just changing the rest of my body around it. Probably a bit of both.
“Seal her.” Blackfyre removed his talon, and a second later Starlight blasted me, sealing my body away within a crystalline prison. Then Blackfyre picked it up and set it next to all the other Blightspawn going through various stages of transformation.
Blightspawn ... like what I’d be soon enough.
I’d like to say this is when the world recognized my heroism. When destiny noticed that seconds ago I’d sacrificed my life to try and stop Blackfyre, and I finally received the reward I’d earned with all my sufferings. A nice new set of feathery wings, and new alicorn magic I used to break free of my prison and finally destroy Blackfyre.
But that’s not what happened.
Stats
Page generated in 0.06 seconds
Total duration
1,044 users online
1,594,354 hits today, 2,167,270 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.®
You tease you.
"You said unarmed twice."
"You're going up against one of the most powerful beings in the world! It bears repeating!"
In any case, goddamnit, Starlight. This is why you can't have nice things.
Now to see what does happen...
Celestia, now its your time to save your daughter!
.... You absolute moron, Sunset. I have no idea how the hell she gets out of this unless Freeport becomes its own AU to the Winningverse and she doesn't
I noticed that, specially considering how much time he spent trying to convince Sunset into switching sides, mostly for the sake of showing off to both Argentium and Celestia. Like an envious child trying to steal a toy from his richer, prettier neighbour just to piss her off.
Oh, that went poorly. Even if Sunset manages to survive her martyr complex reaching its logical conclusion and then spiraling out of control into a fate worse than death, after all the conversations she just had about not doing this exact thing because of this exact outcome, her relationships are not going to be in a good place later.
Okay...this is either the beginning of the end...or there is a very pissed off Alicorn and Dragon kicking in the door...I hope.
>all your are capable of
Your->you
Anyway, now that's a cliffhanger. Wonder how she's gonna get out of this one, 'cause I don't see any way out.
I don't know how long I can wait for what happens next.
I don't know why Sunset thought this would go any differently than it did. This was the obvious outcome. And even if it do go as she expected, if her death curse was successful, I still don't think it's a good plan, she's far more useful to the world alive.
Well Sunset Shimmer is a complete and utter moron, her entire plan was based on the notion Blackfire who planned to fight Celestia didn't have an anti teleportation spell ready
Oh Sunset, you... well, fool would be an understatement. That was her entire plan? Basically go out in a blaze of glory and maybe get wings? And now she's subjected to a fate worse than death. Maybe she slowed Blackfyre's plans a bit by taking out that creature but I doubt that balances out her later being sent against Celestia. Not to mention she was seriously trying to run out of his cave? Even if she was planning to kill herself, that was never going to work, even if she had all her legs.
Maybe Sunset gave Starlight some ideas but with Starlight's self-justifications, I'm not expecting any help from her any time soon. Well, when Sunset gets out of this (unless all future Sunset appearances are her as a puppet) I hope she learned her lesson about reckless stupid ideas like this.
Wait ... Argentium is a draconic version of Pinkie Pie?!
Obviously, no one every told Celestia that.
So this was Sunset's plan? It was a very poor one ....
Ok... Know she gets out because later on she turns into that Lich thing. Not to mention the time she defended Chainbreaker in the Freeport museum from a thief so there's definitely something else at play.
Ahh, I had been wondering about if Luna was around for the last fight, nice to know that I apparently had the timeline right.
That's a well planned avenue of temptation.
She does have a habit of screwing things up.
That was risky. Self decapitation would have been a hell of a way to go.
Killing the warpmouth was a great idea.
So much for the death curse plan B.
Hey, maybe Starlight had the additional plan of somehow alerting Argentium and Celestia to this location and what happens next is they burst in to fight Blackfyre.
HAH!
Blackfyre, mate... If Winning!Sombra is, like, half as good as canon!Sombra, given the ninth season opener, let alone potentially more dangerous as would be in-keeping with Winningverse, if you actually went against him, even with all your blightspawn behind you, somepony would probably be able to pick up what was left of you with a spoon.
A breezey's spoon.
Sunset, you don't think that maybe using the last of your strength, to, I dunno, send up a single flare for Argentium and Celestia would have been a better use...? I mean, it was kinda obvious he'd make his Fort save, there...
9560463
While she never quite got to the point of consciously admitting it to herself, this was basically a suicide mission from the start.
Does blackfyre need intelligent creatures to conduct research? It seems like if he spent the time he could make his own flesh farms with unintelligent animals and breed them to be perfect for his needs instead of making enemies of everyone.
Blackfyre's techniques are only questionable when he gets the meat from intelligent creatures. Imagine if he set up a farm of hydras(hydras aren't intelligent in mlp, right?) and shared his research? He'd have a great deal of support and others probably encouraging his research, which in the end, is all he wants to do.
Sunset's gonna turn into something like that demon form she had in EQG for a bit, isn't she?
The last few lines of this chapter and Winning!Sunset's history with dark magic makes me guess so, anyway.
God damn.
Blackfyre is a sadist.
People are calling Sunset an idiot for it, but if it was indeed a suicide mission, then killing the Warpmouth and then hitting Blackfyre with a death curse isn’t that bad, as plans go. Banking on a resurrection and spontaneous ascendency wasn't smart, if that was the intention, but... she did get a resurrection, just not in the way she would've wanted, so... I don't know. I'm undecided on whether this was a bad plan or not.
Also, on her leg... An interesting thing I recall from both Disastrously Daunting Delegates and Lesser Lights is that both times we've seen Archon Shimmer duel, she's noted as swatting away spells with her hoof, which is both an unusual technique, and not one that Magus Shimmer has yet demonstrated. Seems to me that however she eventually replaces that leg, her new one will be much more sophisticated and natural-looking.
9569322
Huh, never thought about that. Neat.
9562281
Because deep down, Blackfyre enjoys beng an evil jerk.
And that’s why being a martyr specifically so you can resurrect as a demigod is inherently flawed. No act of self sacrifice can truly be genuine if you’re banking on coming back stronger afterward.
I wonder if Starlight can use Chainbreaker to disrupt the runes on her back. Though I suppose if it was that easy Sunset would have tried it already
Okay so we know that SOMEHOW Sunset will escape...but I got NOTHING as to what exactly will happen right now.
Also, rather than his heart like everyone does...wouldn't it have been better to go for the head, or does it only work against the heart? O.o;
Holy shit Sunsets a suicidal idiot.
“We should really do something about that.” I love Blackfyre’s sardonic humor.