My Chains Are Broken
I felt ... I’m not sure how I felt. Good, I guess.
Really good.
It felt like the time I’d snuck into Celestia’s room and tried to use her enchanted broom to clean up my tower before she came over. The whole thing ended with me in over my head and dealing with forces beyond my control, and instead of cleaning up my bedroom I wound up wrecking hers. Naturally she came back just in time to see the mess I’d made, which left me terrified I was going to get in trouble and sent back to Scarlett and Solar. Fortunately, the worst she did was bring it up any time she needed to tell a funny and embarrassing story about me.
But it was different now. I had the same feeling of incredible power that should’ve been way beyond anything I could manage, except this time I knew exactly what I was doing. I guess that was the best way to put it: I felt like I’d gotten a berserker wild magic power boost, except I was still completely calm, and I could control it.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, slowly bringing all the power raging around me into focus. I couldn’t believe how easy it was. It felt like I should be full to bursting and on the verge of exploding into an eruption of wild magic, but everything still responded exactly like I was doing ordinary spellcasting.
Now was no time to revel in my newfound power, though. “Strumming, Puzzle, get clear.”
Puzzle shook his head, still staring at me. “Um, should we take cover or did you want us to—”
“Exit’s that way, Bug Boy,” Strumming pointed it out to him. “Dunno about you, but I’d rather not be in the middle of this.”
“Point,” he murmured.
Blackfyre frowned. “Oh no, I think it’s more interesting if we keep your friends in the firing line. Starlight, stop them.”
Starlight hesitated, her eyes fixed on me. “But what about—did you see what she just—”
Blackfyre’s eyes narrowed. “Go!”
Starlight gasped, and I could see the runes flaring up along her back. Whatever doubts she might have been harboring quickly became irrelevant as Blackfyre forced her into action. She rushed for the entrance, her horn lighting up with its new ugly orange color as she fired off a blast of blightfire to block off the exit before Strumming and Puzzle could get away.
I knew I needed to stop her, but something else had to take top priority. There was plenty of broken crystal lying around—more than enough to forge a new temporary leg. I did that while Starlight was busy blocking off the exit. Maybe I should’ve dealt with her first, but once that fight started I wouldn’t have a few quiet seconds to replace my missing leg, and I would almost certainly need it before the fight was done.
Starlight used the opening to turn her blightfire on me, sending out a massive wave that I couldn’t hope to dodge, especially since Blackfyre’s wards blocked teleportation. However, I didn’t need to dodge it, and covering such a wide area meant the spell’s power wasn’t focused. A small burst of energy was enough to punch a hole in it that I could easily walk through. If it had been real fire, being that close to it would’ve still baked me by proximity, but blightfire doesn’t give off any heat. Really, the spell just looks like fire because it’s a consuming, entropic force.
Starlight stared incredulously as one of the most destructive spells she knew just seemed to wash over me with no effect. “What?! That can’t...”
She tried another spell, this time making black crystals erupt from the ground to try and cage me in. While Blackfyre had given her a lot more power and a wider spell selection, he hadn’t done much to improve her subtlety, especially with his runes slowly turning her into a pain-fueled berserker. I saw the spell coming with enough time to make a magically-assisted jump straight up, and instead of the cage closing around me, I landed on top of it. “It’s over, Starlight.”
“No.” She snarled and shook her head. “It’s just the same stunt you pulled last time. You think it is going to go any better than it did in Coldharbor?! All I need to do is outlast you until you fall over from whatever it is you’ve done to yourself.” She threw up a wall of black crystals to block my line of attack.
“This is different.” I fired off a low-level kinetic blast at the crystals. Not enough to do any actual damage, just enough to make them start ringing. Once I heard the tone, all I needed to do was match that frequence with a loud enough sonic spell. It took a couple seconds to get a perfect match, but once I did all I needed to do was hold it and slowly increase the volume until the entire wall of crystal shattered. I guess she made all her crystals with the same spell, since all the crystal cages holding half-formed Blightspawn shattered as well, sending the twisted half-formed bodies flopping out onto the floor.
Starlight’s eyes shot wide open, and she threw up a dome-shaped shield spell. “No! Stay away from me!” I think if not for the runes on her back, she would’ve tried to make a run for it. Though really, even without them there wasn’t anywhere for her to go.
She did have a very nice shield spell, but like a lot of her spells it spread its power out a bit too widely. It made sense for a spell that was supposed to protect her from all angles, but it had the same weakness as her attack spells.
I could’ve just fired off another shield-piercing spell, but instead I decided to try out a trick I’d read about Torch using with Chainbreaker. A quick spell infused the blade with Blightfire, making it crackle with entropic energy. Then I sliced it along her shield spell. Chainbreaker tore the initial hole in the shield, and the Blightfire easily slipped through the gap and consumed the rest of her shield spell.
“Impossible...” Starlight took half a step back, then snarled and shook her head. With a scream she unleashed a massive blast of raw destructive force, pouring all her fear and anger into the spell. It was probably the strongest spell I’d ever seen her cast, desperation pushing her to new heights of power.
But all that power was just too unfocused. Like a lot of things, her spell followed the path of least resistance. All it took was a single defensive spell from me and all that destructive power flowed right around me, like I was a rock in the middle of a river. I slowly advanced, making sure my defensive spell held up under Starlight sustained attack. Once I was sure it would, I charged in to close the distance until I was right in front of her. At the last second I did another magically boosted jump, emerging from the middle of her spell and vaulting over her head.
Starlight slowly started to lift her head, trying to follow me. There wasn’t enough time for her to perform any sort of counter or put up another shield. All she had time to do was gasp.
Chainbreaker sliced straight down, carving into her back. I did three quick strikes, just to make sure I got it right. I didn’t have time for more before I was past her, landing on three hooves while keeping Chainbreaker in my prosthetic.
Starlight screamed as her shock turned into pain, collapsing to the floor. A second later her back erupted into black-orange fire as the runes Blackfyre had carved into her back broke, and all the power he’d poured into them spilled out of her.
I waited until the explosion ended, then threw a quick status spell her way. She was in a ton of pain and bleeding pretty badly from three sword slices, but she was still alive and Blackfyre’s control over her was gone. Good enough for me.
That just left Blackfyre himself.
Blackfyre scowled down at Starlight, then sighed and shook his head. “Even with all the power I've given her she still proves to be so inept. Do you know how frustratingly hard it is to get good help?” He rolled his massive shoulders and snorted, sending out a plume of black smoke. “Then again, I sent my pawn in first for a reason. Whatever transformation you’ve wrought upon yourself is impressive, but not enough to make you my equal.”
“We’ll see about that.” I made sure all of my defensive enchantments were in place. “Maybe you were watching, but I know a lot more about what you’re capable of than you know about me. Not after how much has changed.”
Blackfyre scoffed, letting out a chuckle that sounded more like a rockslide. “Do you think you’re the first pony to push herself beyond her limits to fight me? You have no idea how many I’ve forced to the very limits of their capabilities and beyond in a vain attempt to match my power. Every last one has fallen before me, much like all those who have tried to strike me down with their death curses. Do you think you can beat me with just a little bit of heroic willpower and determination? I’ve faced hundreds of would-be heroes who thought the same. Go back to my old cavern sometime, their bones litter the floors.”
“You must really enjoy those ‘Nobody could possibly beat me’ speeches,” I sniped. “How about you stop talking and prove it!”
He opened his mouth, almost certainly to do a bit more gloating, and I took advantage of the opening. There was plenty of broken crystal to use, and most of it had broken with some sharp edges. I grabbed several of the best-looking chunks and hurled them straight at his eyes.
Blackfyre saw the attack coming and quickly snapped his head to the side. I didn’t manage to blind him, but I did get a pretty good hit in on one of his scales. His eyes widened when he saw the dent I’d put in it. Crystal might not be anywhere near as hard as dragonscale, but if you make it move fast enough, just about anything will do some damage.
The dragon snarled when he felt the damage. “You impudent little—!” He took a deep breath, then snapped his head forward and unleashed a massive gout of bright orange fire.
Last time, I’d tried to match dragonfire with raw power. I had a lot more strength to work with now, but not enough that I could waste it with brute-force slugouts. I tried using the same trick I’d used to disperse Starlight’s spells, but dragonfire was a lot harder to shift than her blasts. Not to mention it was so hot I needed to get it a lot further away from me to be safe.
It was hard—really hard. But not impossible. And when he’d finished hurling dragonfire at me I was still standing, and ready to keep the fight going.
Blackfyre snarled when he saw me. “I feel I should congratulate you. You might not be capable of actually being a threat to me, but you have most certainly succeeded in being one of the most annoying ponies to ever cross my path.”
“Spend five minutes near Strumming with her filter off,” I shot back.
“Please don’t bring me into this.” Strumming muttered from the sidelines. I risked a quick glance her way, and saw that she and Puzzle had taken charge of Starlight. Not sure if they were trying to keep her from bleeding out or just making sure she was out of the fight for good, but either way I needed to keep focused on Blackfyre.
“Ah yes, your precious little friends.” Blackfyre smiled in an especially nasty way that showed off his fangs. “I’m sure Celestia bored you to tears with all her lectures about the magic of harmony and friendship. Foolishness. Even if they do have power, it is a source of power with one crippling flaw: it is all too easily erased.”
His talon swept out, gathering up several massive chunks and hurling them all at Puzzle and Strumming. Starlight too, so I guess he didn’t really care if she became collateral damage.
I threw out another quick sonic blast that intercepted most of the crystals, but some of them must have been at a different frequency on account of all the damage they’d taken. I varied the pitch as much as I could, but I wouldn’t be able to get all of them.
Thankfully Puzzle stepped in to fill the gap, his horn lighting up as he mimicked my spell. It wasn’t anywhere near as well-cast or powerful, but it was enough to catch the pieces I’d missed. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d taken.
Blackfyre smirked at me. “Impressive. Well, shall we raise the stakes? I’m curious to see how long you’ll last trying to protect yourself and your defenseless little friends.”
Damn, should’ve known he’d be a total bastard about it. Well, I wasn’t going to play that game. If he wanted to distract me by attacking my friends, I just needed to make sure he didn’t have enough time to pull any dirty stunts like that. I charged straight in Chainbreaker held high and screaming out my defiance.
That did do a good job of keeping his attention focused squarely on me. His tail whipped out, aimed low at my legs. He probably wanted to sweep me off my hooves, or maybe just shatter my prosthetic.
Either way, I saw it coming in time to counter. A quick flick put Chainbreaker in line to intercept his tail well before it would hit me.
The sword sliced straight into him, the force of his own attack driving the sword in deeper than I ever could have on my own. Blackfyre tried to pull the blow, but he still wound up with a pretty nasty-looking cut.
The bad news was that the rest of his tail still whipped around Chainbreaker and smacked into my side. The impact knocked me off my hooves, but thankfully between him pulling the attack at the last second and the awkward angle, he didn’t shatter any bones. It felt like it would leave one hay of a massive bruise though.
Blackfyre pulled his tail back, hissing in pain and quickly checking the damage. Evidently it wasn’t enough to impress him. “You think that’s enough to stop me? You are nothing to me—an annoying bug nipping at the back of my neck. Irritating and unpleasant, but not capable of inflicting real damage.”
I growled and got back up, blocking out the pain. I’d been through worse. “I'm just getting started. And you’re already bleeding a lot more than last time.”
Blackfyre snorted. “I have blood to spare. You haven’t done anything I couldn’t repair with two minutes and my charnel pit. Though I suppose I should congratulate you: hundreds of mortals who tried to challenge me never accomplished that much. Now, let’s put an end to this farce.”
Blackfyre snapped off another blast of fire, this one a lot tighter and hotter than his first. Just trying to deflect it would’ve taken a lot out of me, but I wasn’t stupid enough to try the same trick twice, especially when I had a really nasty idea for how to counter him.
Instead of trying to block his fire blast, I conjured up a big ice spear. I mixed in some cave and crystal dust as I worked to make it just a bit more heat-resistant, and threw in some magic as well. Then I hurled my ice spear straight up that column of fire. Most of it melted away before reaching Blackfyre, but I’d made it large enough to account for that.
Blackfyre must have seen the attack coming, because he snapped his jaws shut on the spear before it could get into his mouth. The ice spear shattered between his teeth, but at least I got the consolation of bloodying his gums a bit. Not to mention closing his mouth shut down all the dragonfire he’d been throwing my way.
The dragon scoffed. “Clever, but you’ll have do better than that.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty of tricks left.” Considering who I was up against, I definitely needed to hit him with my best shot. I conjured up some more Blightfire, keeping it close to hoof for now. I’d only pulled this trick once before, and that had been when I was in an altered mental state. Still, the principle was basic enough...
Blackfyre wasn’t going to let me have it all my way, and he closed in on me with a huge swipe of his claw. I ducked under the attack before it could tear my head off, and threw a little Blightfire at his claw as it passed by, mostly just to test it out.
Blackfyre scoffed and flicked the Blightfire out with no visible effort. “Surely you didn’t expect that to work. I mastered the manipulation of Blightfire to a degree you can scarcely comprehend over a thousand years before you were even born!”
He swung his tail around, this time dropping it in a vertical line that would’ve splattered me flatter than a pancake if it connected. I dove to the side, barely rolling clear before it hit. “I should’ve known you’d be immune to blightfire. You taught Starlight how to use it, after all.”
“She has only begun to grasp what I could teach her.” He snarled and took a single step towards me, making the cavern floor tremble. “I could have done the same for you, but you foolishly rejected my gifts. And now, you will reap the price for your insolent defiance of your betters!” He sprang forward with a surprising amount of speed for something so huge, closing in on me with several more claw swipes.
If even one of those attacks connected, that would’ve been it for me. Maybe my defensive spells would be enough to let me survive a single hit, but even then it’d probably leave me a stunned, easy target for a follow-up strike. I wasn’t eager to put that to the test. I might have gotten a lot more raw magical power to work with, but physically I was still just a normal pony, which made me very small and fragile compared to Blackfyre.
I had to keep dodging and falling back to avoid getting crushed beneath a small mountain of angry evil dragon. It was a bit hard to focus on conjuring up anima in my other hoof while also keeping the Blightfire under control and the constant frantic scramble to survive the next five seconds. Especially with the added complication of needing to hold one of the spells on an improvised prosthetic cobbled together out of magically active crystal. I’m not sure if that actually made it harder, but it sure felt that way.
I dodged past another claw strike, but felt my leg bump up against the cavern wall. A quick check of my surroundings confirmed it—Blackfyre had me boxed in. He smirked. “Whatever spell you’re trying to pull off, I’d suggest doing it quickly.”
Turns out, desperation and fear for my impending messy demise was exactly what I needed to make the spell come together. “Well, you did ask for this.”
I unleashed the blast, the Blightfire and anima rippling towards him in a slowly spiralling beam of energy, becoming narrower and tighter as they closed in on the dragon. The attack hit his chest, almost directly over his heart, where my failed death curse had hit him.
The hit sent Blackfyre staggering backwards, roaring in pain. The entire cave shook, and if not for the sound-dampening spell I quickly tossed up he might have deafened me. One of his claws instinctively flew up to his chest, and I saw quite a bit of blood slipping between his talons. I’d hurt him, and pretty badly judging by his reaction.
I wasn’t going to squander my advantage. It was time to go on the offensive and hammer him down before he could recover. I conjured up a thick block of ice and smacked him across the face with it. The ice shattered, and I sent all those shards straight at the talons covering his wounded chest. I followed it up with a beam of fire I concentrated down until it was more like a laser. It certainly did a good job of cutting a deep line into several of his scales, and judging by the new roar, my spells were having an impact.
Blackfyre snarled and lashed out with his tail. It was a blind strike that wouldn’t have hit me even if I hadn’t dodged, but it did break my offensive momentum for a bit. Blackfyre tried to reclaim the initiative by breathing more fire at me, but he’d barely started before he cut himself off, coughing a couple times and clutching his chest once more.
I smirked and wiped some sweat out of my eyes. “That sounded like it hurt. Tell you what, if you want to surrender I’ll accept it. From what I’ve heard you have plenty of experience at giving up once you realize you can’t win.”
“Do you actually think you’re winning?” Blackfyre scoffed. “You’ve hit me dozens of times to no effect while I have to hit you but once to crush you like a gnat.”
“Maybe,” I shot back. “But so far that’s just a lot of hot air. Guess it figures you’d only be good at blowing that—you are a dragon.”
Blackfyre smirked. “Ah, so very arrogant. Perhaps it is time I showed you the error of your ways and taught you to respect your betters.”
“I do. You’re just not one of them.”
“I’m going to enjoy breaking you, insolent whelp.” Blackfyre snarled and slashed out with one his talons, while the one covered in his own blood from the chest wound I’d given him started tracing runes into the cavern floor. I knew which one was more dangerous.
I used a bit of telekinesis to flick Chainbreaker out to parry his claw away at range. There was no way the sword could actually stop his claw, but as I’d hoped he pulled away from the strike rather than risk another cut on his talon. After all, the real attack was coming from the blood runes.
A moment later cracking bolts of bloody orange power erupted from the symbols Blackfyre had carved into the cavern floor. I threw all my power into a shield spell, focusing it forward to intercept the magical attack before it could flay the flesh from my bones or whatever it was the spell would do. The bolts hammered into my shield...
And bounced off with almost no effect. I knew I’d gotten stronger thanks to whatever it was I’d done with Torch and Ushabti, but it couldn’t be enough to swat aside a serious magical attack from Blackfyre like it was nothing. Which meant...
While I was focused on his feint, Blackfyre’s real attack came in. His tail snaked around my shield, and he flicked one of the larger chunks of broken crystal at me. I didn’t see the attack coming in time to stop it, but I definitely felt when it connected.
The piece of debris slammed into my ribs like an especially sparkly sledgehammer. The blow knocked me clean off my hooves and I went down with a strangled gasp. I tried to take a deep breath, but my side spasmed in pain and it felt like one of my lungs had completely forgotten how to work.
Blackfyre smirked down at me. “Oh, what was that? It sounded like you were going to make another one of your little snide remarks, but I couldn’t make it out over all the gasping and crying. Still, you’ve done better than any other mortal I’ve faced in over a thousand years. As a token of respect to you...” He flicked another rock at me.
I managed to throw up a shield spell, but the pain in my side made it hard to focus. Instead of blocking the attack completely it skipped off the top of the shield. That kept it from hitting anything vital, but it still cut a long, nasty, painful gash in my cheek.
“Still fighting back?” He scoffed and shook his head. “You really are persistent.” He traced some more blood runes, and this time it wasn’t a feint. Instead of the massive bolts of power he’d used last time, there were dozens of little ones. None of them hurt all that much, but there were a lot of them. Blackfyre laughed as the attacks pounded in, as if this was all the just the punchline to some huge joke only he understood.
Eventually the magical assault ceased. Blackfyre chuckled softly. “Look at you. What happened to all that strength and defiance?” He scoffed. “Ponies. Your power is so fragile, and all too easily broken.” He glowered down at me, reaching up and slowly stroking his chin with a bloody talon. “I’m already bored of playing with you. Still, before we finish this, there are a few more things to see to.” His eyes settled on my remaining foreleg, and prosthetic on my other limb. “Do you know what truly offends my aesthetic sensibilities? Asymmetry.”
Those words cut through the mental fog all those hits had left behind. As his tail whipped down towards my one remaining foreleg I rolled to the side, calling Chainbreaker to my hooves and swinging the sword upwards through the space I’d occupied moments ago. The blade cut into Blackfyre’s descending tail, carried through flesh and bone with the momentum provided by his own attack. Eventually the blade came free, breaking through the resistance.
Blackfyre let out another roar that made the entire cavern shudder, knocking dust loose from the ceiling. He pulled his tail back. Most of it. The last meter or so got left behind.
I pulled myself to my hooves, grinning at the chunk of the dragon I’d just lopped off. “Don’t worry, it’s a clean cut. You won’t be asymmetrical.”
Blackfyre let out a snarl that sounded more like something you’d expect from a feral animal than the supposedly sophisticated dragon. “When I am done with you, bards will sing of your suffering for centuries to come! Mothers will warn their children not to be so foolish as to repeat the follies of Sunset Shimmer!”
“Or maybe they’ll tell the legend of Sunset the Dragonslayer!” I shot back.
Blackfyre answered with a wordless roar of pure rage, snatching up several chunks of broken crystal that were bigger than me and hurling them all towards me. I countered with a thin plane of Blightfire, breaking those crystals up into harmless dust before they could crush me.
“Looks like I pissed you off!” That was good though. If there was one thing I’d figured out while fighting Starlight, it was that blind rage was exploitable. What worked against the slave might work against the master too. I conjured up dozens of small shards of razor-sharp ice and hurled them at Blackfyre with gale-force wind.
Blackfyre did the smart thing and quickly covered his chest wound and eyes. For everything else, his scales were more than thick enough to fend off the ice shards. Well, almost everything. I knew sharp bits of ice weren’t going to do anything to dragon scales that could turn away any sword that wasn’t as magically charged as Chainbreaker.
However, the thin membrane of a dragon’s wings was a lot easier to hurt.
Blackfyre snarled when he realized what I was doing and quickly tucked his wings back to try and protect them, but it was a bit late for that. I’d already done enough damage to ground him, or at least make flying a lot harder and incredibly painful.
That was only damage to the body, though. I knew I needed to hit him where it really hurt: his pride. “How does it feel to be crippled by a mere mortal, Blackfyre?!”
“Crippled?!” Blackfyre scoffed. “Once you’re broken, I can fix this in a matter of minutes. Your leg is gone forever. Pity you won’t have the chance to appreciate the depth of your loss. I suppose I should congratulate you on how far you’ve come. You’ve convinced me that you’re too much trouble to be worth turning. When it comes to unbalancing Celestia, I suppose your corpse will have to suffice.”
Blackfyre followed through on that, charging straight at me instead of trying any of the old subtle tricks. Guess he really had given up on trying to take me alive and warp me into a pet monster. My shield spells were pretty good, especially now, but trading punches with a dragon who was a couple hundred times heavier than I was wouldn’t end well.
As the massive dragon closed in, I picked the only route I had open to get past him: going straight under. Blackfyre snapped down at me as I rushed in, but his timing was off and he got nothing but a mouthful of air. I was underneath him before he could bring his talons to bear. Once I was underneath him I realized he might just drop down and crush me underneath his bulk. I quickly swung Chainbreaker up at his vulnerable underbelly. The strike didn’t do much more than the equivalent of a small papercut, but it did make him instinctively flinch. That bought me a second’s grace to get clear before he tried to belly-flop on me.
Blackfyre snarled and flicked his tail at me as I emerged. Or rather, he tried to. Instead of connecting, he wound up waving the bloody stump a couple centimeters away from my face. Guess he hadn’t quite adjusted to losing the last meter or so off his tail.
The look on Blackfyre’s face when he realized what had just happened made me far happier than I should’ve been considering the circumstances. The glare he sent my way probably should’ve terrified me, but I think I was way past the point of caring. “Don’t delude yourself into thinking you’ve done any lasting harm. Argentium did far worse when I fought her, and I healed every last wound in a day’s time.”
I rolled my eyes. “You must not have much faith in your own abilities if the best you can come up with is ‘I’ll heal no matter how hard you kick my ass.’ I guess that just means I’ll need to make sure you’re dead or captured before you get a chance to run away and patch up.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Blackfyre scoffed. “As if all it would take to destroy me is the will to do so. It’s past time you stopped deluding yourself. You cannot hope to match my power. I’ve seen the limits of your strength, and they will not be enough. I have existed since the first ponies clubbed one another over the head with wood and stone, and I shall endure long after your pathetic race ends.”
He grinned and chuckled softly. “Oh you rudimentary creature. I won’t deny that you’ll stand out to me in the centuries after this. You’re an irritation worth remembering. You’ll have earned my respect in a curious way, even if I’ll eventually forget your name. You should be proud of how far you’ve come, but for all that you’ve achieved and all the power you’ve gained, you will always be mortal. And I will always be so much more.”
Celestia, what an ego. “Alright then! If you really are that great, let’s see how you stand up against all the power this pitiful little mortal can conjure up!”
I dug deep, but not the same way I had with my attempt at a death curse a while back. Back then I’d been burning everything out, destroying myself to get what I thought would be the most powerful spell I would ever cast. What I was doing just hammered home how wrong I’d been. Don’t get me wrong: a properly done death curse can be incredibly powerful, but mine hadn’t been done right. I’d all but burned out my life out of pure, stubborn pride and refusal to accept that I wouldn’t get the obsession I’d clung to for years. In a lot of ways, I’d just been giving up on life.
This time I was fighting for it. I had so much to live for, and I’d let the quest for an alicorn’s wings blind me to all of it.
Celestia. My mother in all but biology who’d never stopped loving and believing in me, no matter what. Kukri, the eager young student who always saw the best in me, and had so much faith that it helped me believe in myself as well. Puzzle and Strumming, the friends I’d needed, even if not always the ones I’d wanted. They weren’t perfect—in fact, they all had some pretty huge flaws. But they were important, and they were worth fighting for. Worth living for.
As I pulled in all that energy, I felt an undercurrent flowing through the cavern. It took me a second to realize what it was. All the residual magic from my failed death curse. Now that I got an outside look at it I realized how sloppy the spell had been. I hadn’t been in the best of mental states, and a lot of the power had leaked out. Or maybe when the spell bounced off Blackfyre all that magic had just sort of ... stuck around for a bit, before it all slowly leaked away into the background aura of the world. But for right now, it was all still here.
Determination and despair. Life and death.
I always had been good at combining opposing forces.
I gathered all the power together and hurled it straight at Blackfyre. The attack made every last hair on my body stand on end, and I felt like I was in the middle of a roaring river, unimaginable power coursing in and out of me. Like I was just a conduit for forces I barely understood and could only control in the loosest sense of the word.
Blackfyre’s eyes widened a bit, and he brought his blood-soaked talon into the air, quickly tracing runes with droplets of blood that hung in the air. My attack slammed into an orange shield that sprang into being from those runes, breaking apart into a dozen beams that all shot past Blackfyre, hammering into the ceiling above him.
The dragon smirked when he saw that he’d deflected my attack. “Such a pity. All that power, everything you gained by pushing yourself past your limits again and again, and you didn’t even manage to hit the target.”
I smirked. “Oh really?”
Blackfyre had just enough time to let out a surprised roar before the entire ceiling collapsed on top of him. He’d been one hay of a durable bastard so far, but I would bet that even he would have a hard time surviving getting half a mountain dropped on his head.
Of course, that did raise the slight problem that all of us were underneath the collapsing mountain too. I scrambled over to where Puzzle and Strumming had taken cover, trying to catch my breath and throw up a shield spell before we all got crushed beneath countless tons of falling rubble. Right as I was about to put the barrier up, a teal dome covered all three of us.
Starlight Glimmer grunted as several large rocks bounced off the shield. “I hope you have a plan to get out of here, because I can’t hold up a shield forever! Did you forget that all of us are also stuck under the mountain you decided to bring down!”
Strumming slowly put away the knife she’d had halfway to Starlight’s throat. “Good thing I figured out what you were doing before I decided to kill you just to be safe.”
Starlight groaned. “Killing me right now would kill us all, so could you not?”
Strumming shrugged. “Wasn’t planning to, but you can’t blame me for being wary given recent history. Though if I did kill you Bacon could just take over.”
I shrugged. “I’m fine with saving my strength. After all, I need to get the four of us out of here in one piece.” Starlight did a double-take at me including her. “I aimed for the runes instead of your head for a reason. Besides, you are helping out right now. Leaving you behind to get crushed would just be a jerk move.”
“Yay, you’re saving my life so I can be hanged by the war crimes tribunal, or whatever ends up happening.” She grimaced as more and more rubble settled on top of her shield. “Well whatever brilliant plan you’ve got, could you do it quick?”
“Just waiting for Blackfyre’s wards to come down, then I’ll teleport us all out.”
Puzzle frowned at me. “This one always thought you could only teleport yourself, not others. Or at least, that was what you told it.”
“Well, that was when I had less experience, before I got a lot stronger, and when we weren’t in a ‘I have to pull this off or we’re all dead’ situation,” I shot back. “If you’ve got a better idea, I’d love to hear it.”
Puzzle didn’t say anything, so I guess that answered that. I closed my eyes and concentrated, trying to pull together the spell while also waiting for Blackfyre’s wards to collapse completely. They were already in shambles with the mountain collapsing all around us, but considering the spell I was trying to pull off, even really weak and tattered ones might be enough to make something go horribly wrong. I couldn’t help but recall when Celestia had first started teaching me the teleportation spell and we wound up with several dozen stuffed animals that came out of the spell missing limbs, eyes, or heads.
Starlight groaned as more rocks hammered into her dome, and cracks started spreading through it. “Whatever you’re gonna do, do it fast or you won’t get to do it at all!”
I took a deep breath and cast the spell.
An instant later the cold hit me like a slap in the face. For a moment I worried that I’d somehow horribly messed it up and wound up teleporting off my own head or something. Then I opened my eyes, and realized we were all outside, in the middle of a Northmarch winter. I’d lost all my robes and armor when I’d been shoved into that crystal cocoon, and going out naked in sub-zero temperatures was not fun. Good thing I had a couple good spells for that kind of thing.
A quick check over the others confirmed that they’d all come out of the teleportation more-or-less intact. Strumming’s mane looked a bit singed, Puzzle was blinking and staring at the snow-covered landscape like he was disoriented, and Starlight staggered off to the side and emptied the contents of her stomach. Still, none of them were missing limbs or screaming in agony, so I could probably call this one a win.
Blackfyre had been buried underneath an entire mountain, and we were all still alive.
I slumped down on the ground, utterly exhausted.
Puzzle shook his head, then rushed to my side. “Are you okay, Shimmer-mare?”
I groaned and pulled myself back up, carefully stretching out each of my three remaining limbs. “Yeah, I think so. Or at least, everything’s still where it’s supposed to be.”
“Maybe,” Strumming frowned and looked me. “You still look like you need a doc. Not to mention we should have someone look you over to make sure Blackfyre didn’t mess with anything while he was trying to mutate you into one of his Spawn. I mean, you did get a big unexplained power boost.”
“For what it’s worth, she doesn’t feel like one.” Starlight gave me a quick once-over. “I can kind of sense them. Though as long as we’re getting doctors, somepony sliced my back halfway open. I should probably get that looked at, past the quick bandage to keep me from bleeding out.”
“You’re welcome for that.” Strumming looked over the bandages with a faint smirk. “Though really, I blame Bacon’s influence. If it wasn’t for her, the nicest you would’ve gotten from me is a slit throat before you could bleed out. Buuut I figured that since she went to a lot of trouble to slice up those runes without taking off your head or severing your spine or anything else, it’d be a real downer if I let you slowly bleed to death right after she saved you from your own stupidity and bad choices.”
“Convincing you to show mercy to your enemies,” Puzzle murmured. “Truly, she has been a most horrible, corrupting influence.”
“The worst,” Strumming agreed. “Now c’mon, let’s get Bacon patched up.”
Puzzle nodded. “This one is sure Machwing company will have some sort of medic. They shouldn’t be too far, probably just over that ridge.”
“At least we...” I trailed off as the ground trembled, and the massive pile of rubble shifted. A second later I could swear I heard a rumble deep within the earth. Like a very massive and extremely angry volcano that was on the verge of erupting. “You gotta be bucking kidding me, I dropped a mountain on him!”
Starlight flinched, her legs giving out as she collapsed to the ground. “No ... no ... there’s no way he could be—”
What was left of Blackfyre’s lair exploded outwards as the dragon emerged with a roar that seemed to shake the very heavens. “Fools! I am Blackfyre the Fleshcarver, the Bane of the North! The greatest dragon who ever has or will live! You think you can kill me?! What arrogance! What hubris! You are nothing! Temporary creatures with fleeting lives, who will fall to the side in an eyeblink while I continue to roam the earth! You can no more strike me down than you could drink the oceans dry or scour the desert clean of sand! I am beyond you in every conceivable way!”
I scowled at him and stepped forward, refusing to be intimidated by his show of force. “I guess I should’ve known it would take more than dropping a couple thousand tons of rocks on you to kill you. Doesn’t matter anyway, I’ve won. Gloat all you want, but there’s one thing you overlooked.”
Blackfyre scoffed. “Nothing I might have overlooked could possibly be so grand as to allow a creature as insignificant as you to triumph over me. Spend your last moments reveling in your minor victory and the temporary inconvenience you’ve inflicted upon me. However, the war will still be mine. But please, do share whatever small fact you think might have given you enough to overcome a creature vastly superior to you in every way.”
I smirked and let him know exactly how he’d just been beaten by a lowly little mortal. “When I collapsed your cave, I also took out your wards. All of your wards.”
“What are you blathering on abou—” Judging by the way Blackfyre’s eyes shot open, he had actually figured it out before the beam of golden fire hammered straight into him and knocked him sprawling.
With a bright flash of golden light, Mom appeared at my side. “Blackfyre.” The look on her face was ... well she wasn’t snarling in rage or anything. Actually she looked completely calm. And yet I could feel the waves of barely restraining righteous anger radiating off of her. Or maybe it was just heat.
I’m a pyromancer. I’m used to dealing with high temperatures. But right now I felt like I was standing next to the sun itself. She was already melting away a rapidly growing circle in the snow around us.
“Celestia,” Blackfyre snarled. I saw a flicker of something in his eyes. I like to think it was fear.
“This ends, now.” Celestia’s horn lit up, and several beams of golden fire lashed out at him. Each one knocked scales off of Blackfyre when it connected, and the dragon howled in pain.
I didn’t waste any time putting in my own contribution, preparing another blightfire and anima annihilation blast. I fired it off at one of the patches where Celestia had already torn a gap in Blackfyre’s scales for maximum damage. When it hit, Blackfyre screamed and went sprawling again.
I was almost shocked to see how much damage I’d done. It was ... maybe not quite on par with what Celestia was doing, but a hay of a lot closer to it than I ever would’ve believed I could pull off. Sure, I’d dreamed of being on par with Celestia, but just the prospect of being somewhere in the same league as her was ... well if not for being focused on the huge evil dragon in front of us, I probably would’ve sat there in shock for a bit.
Blackfyre fell back under our combined assault, scrambling behind some of the rubble of his old lair for a bit of cover and moment’s respite. He used the time and space he’d bought to unleash a massive torrent of dragonfire.
Celestia shifted from offense to defense at a moment’s notice, easily intercepting the flames before they could come close to us. However, the break in her offensive momentum was exactly what Blackfyre had been waiting for. He bolted out of cover, running surprisingly fast for a such a huge and battered dragon, his tattered wings pumping furiously. “I haven’t lived this long without knowing when to withdraw! This is but the beginning of my rampage! Northmarch will drown in oceans of blood!”
“No! We can’t let him get away!” If Blackfyre escaped, he would just find a new hiding place and start the whole thing all over again. That was why Celestia and Argentium let him surrender rather than spend years and thousands of lives trying to hunt him down in the first war. If we let him get away now, everything would be...
Celestia caught my eye, and did the last thing I expected.
She winked.
“Wha—”
Blackfyre was about a thirty meters into the air when Argentium came barreling out of the clouds, diving straight down at him. Even if he’d been whole and uninjured, Blackfyre wouldn’t have had time to dodge before she hit him.
Blackfyre and Argentium slammed into the ground hard enough to set off what felt like a localized earthquake, and the sheer force of it would’ve knocked me over if not for Celestia steadying me with a single hoof. When the dust cleared, Argentium was on top of Blackfyre, pinning him down. He tried to fight back, but he was battered and in a bad position, while Argentium was fresh and had all the leverage over him.
As Celestia and I closed in, Blackfyre played the only card he had left. “I yield!”
“No false surrender this time.” Argentium snarled. “A thousand years ago we gave you the chance to live and learn the error of your ways. I will not fight a new war in the North a thousand years hence when you think the time to rise up has come again.” She clamped her jaws on the back of his neck.
Blackfyre yowled. “Celestia! I yield! You can’t kill me, I surrender! Under the ancient laws that bind all dragonkind, I surrender!”
Mom paused, frowning at him. “The laws of dragons have no power here. You will not escape punishment for all the damage you’ve done by paying out a portion of your hoard as blood money. You will be put on trial for your crimes against Northmarch and sentenced by judge and jury, under our laws.”
Blackfyre snarled and thrashed beneath Argentium, vainly trying to free himself. “Never! I will not consent to be bound by your foolish laws! I am not some lowly mortal criminal to be executed like a dog! I! Am! A! Dragon!”
“Fine! Then die like one!” I prepared an anima blast, and on pure impulse channeled the whole thing into Chainbreaker. It must have been a good idea, because a second later Celestia joined in on the spell. The sword lit up like a beacon, practically throbbing with energy.
I teleported in and sliced the sword straight into his chest. With something like a thunderclap, all the power unleashed itself straight into his heart.
Blackfyre’s eyes shot wide open, and his head snapped around to face me. His mouth silently opened and closed a few times, though it was hard to tell whether it was just shock or if he was trying to come up with some sort of famous last words.
And then he died.
Argentium wrenched her jaws, and bones in his neck shattered. I couldn’t exactly blame her for wanting to make sure.
I stared at the huge mass of dead dragon, trying to wrap my head around it all. Blackfyre was dead. The monster who’d ravaged the North, unleashed hordes of twisted spawn, and fought against the likes of Celestia and Argentium was gone. And I’d been the one to strike the finishing blow. It was ... I couldn’t ... it was just too...
Celestia stepped up to my side and wrapped a gentle wing around me. “It’s over, Sunset.”
Chainbreaker tumbled out of my hooves, and I wordlessly collapsed against her. I wasn’t sure what I ... I mean, I suppose I should feel elated and triumphant. I’d taken down Blackfyre. The monster was dead, and Northmarch was safe once more. Safer, probably. They’d never need to worry about Blackfyre again.
But instead of feeling like celebrating, I was just ... tired. Everything I’d been through, it was all just too much. I couldn’t even ...
At least it was over.
Celestia gently picked me up, cradling me against her chest. “Let’s go home, Sunset.”
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YES
Alright, that was a pretty epic final battle. Wish Celestia and Argentium had gotten to do more, but Sunset's trap was well laid. Wonder how she's going to deal with the permanent loss of her alicorn potential and leg once everything's had time to sink in.
>Cut the tail
>Didn't get to carve it before the next phase
Uuuuuuugh now she has to do ANOTHER run of this
Was that a reference?
9631485
Not familiar with that show.
...and for the rest of the chapter I heard Mannheim Steamroller's rendition of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" in my head while I read on.
You honestly didn't think that was going to be enough, did you Sunset?
9631490
66.media.tumblr.com/2fabe7c4a2d397565d1f3a3e4f827ccf/tumblr_inline_mtaeaz0LKq1raliby.gif
People no longer knows about Kid Next Door?!
Man, I'm getting old
Bards are going to sing songs of Sunset Crystal Leg for ages.And of course get everything wrong.
I figured at the beginning of the story when I saw that she would have to sacrifice something great, I figured it was her ability to become an alicorn. I like what she was able to do with the loss of that potential. A truly epic battle.
Now she has to face her losses.
Sunset the Dragonslayer sounds like an awesome title. I bet Kukri will be glad to call her that, as soon as they can meet up again. And this will probably massively enhance Sunset's reputation.
Really good final battle, it was great to see it as a culmination of Sunset's development over the whole fic (using her big power boost wisely rather than just getting into a slug match). I didn't mind Celestia and Argentium's entry into the battle, Sunset still held out for a long while on her own. Not to mention getting the final blow in.
I'm sad this fic is probably almost over, but even aside from another of your exciting battles, I want to see where Sunset goes from here (her leg, no more alicorn, etc.).
Something tells me that the ability to become an Alicorn isn't lost. Her power was just unlocked by the sword. She just needed to be willing to sacrifice everything. Chainbreaker itself is obviously a learning/sentient sword. It needed Sunset to prove herself worthy.
As for Freeport. Something tells me Sunset will have to deal with the council soon whether she wants to or not. Even if she wants to work with them they'll try and off her just because of the potential threat to power she represents to them.
Still I look forward to more. Love this story especially, and the Freeport part of this universe in general.
I'm still holding out hope for wings, but it is possible that she will never gain them, but at her new level of power she might still be darn close to immortal anyway.
This was an amazing chapter and a real good fight. Sparing Starlight might still bite her in the arse, but it was the right thing to do. If she is to die, she needs to die free.
Realistically she's going to be very depressed and adrift for a significant period of time, but this is a kids show about ponies so maybe she'll just shake it off like it was unimportant.
If the whole thing was real, Celestia is going to want to have words with Torch & whats-his-name since they basically doomed her daughter to mortality.
9631490
You are not aware of Kids Next Door. Dammit there goes some of my respect for you xD
Damn that was one HELL ofa fight and i was not disappointed in the least <3
The whole power boost from Chainbreaker....no wonder Sunset's able to stand up to Twilight in their duel (speaking of. This seems more permanent than whatever Sunset did by messing with Argentium's runes back in Coldharbor. Fantastic climax, and I'm glad to see everyone got out there alive. Starlight's definitely going to prison at minimum, but at least she's free from Blackfyre's control. I do like how Sunset was the focus here. She couldn't have killed Blackfyre without Celestia or Argentium's help, but they couldn't have found his lair without hers. It all balances out nicely.
I really hope this is the last time Sunset goes on a suicide mission, though. I'd like to think she's learned her lesson. She's lucky she survived, but the price was giving up her potential ascension. Looking forward to the aftermath (like...is Celestia gonna magic Sunset a new leg or something?); I imagine the story will wrap up within a few chapters.
Dang!! Epic fight. What I’m most looking forwars to though are the conversations after battle.
AWww. That is a nice piece of carnage
Awesomen final battle against Blackfyre. With this kind of power maybe Sunset doesn't need to be an alicorn anyway though I still wanted that for her. Regardless onto the celebration. And this also tells me just how Sunset may handle the council when she replaces it.
Still waiting on that leg resolution but god damn that was a great boss fight.
9631494
Getting old...
I grew up watching cartoons like Battle of the Planets on Saturday mornings. Growing up, the choice at the gas pump was leaded or unleaded. We had rotary phones. The Atari 2600 was a revolutionary thing that was going to change how people played games. Mt. St. Helens was starting to wake up...
You ain't getting close to getting old yet.
Damn good chapter. Just wondering how she'll deal with having been forced to give up her lifelong dream, once the heat of battle finally wears off.
This upgrade is working out pretty good so far.
There we go. The runes, I assume.
Blood to spare? Let's test that.
That combo spell was a good idea.
Uh oh.
It's very cooperative of Sunset to keep working with the symmetry theme.
That may be fairly tactically important by the end of this fight.
That's a nice, big spell.
That seems optimistic, but maybe it'll work.
I wonder if they've made a big enough mess that Celestia and Argentium will be able to find the fight.
Yep.
The righteous anger of the Sun.
Nice.
Ooo, nice.
Rule number 2, double tap.
Momlestia is bestlia.
Exquisite. Especially the final blow being struck by a fleeting, insiginificant mortal.
Burn the body, just to be sure.
In any case, tremendously satisfying fight, especially since Sunset still had to struggle for every inch and suffered the moment she got cocky.
Incredible! Loved every second of this chapter! That final bit with Celestia and Sunset fighting together was super satisfying as well, not just because it was cool, but knowing how important it would be to Sunset just made it all the sweeter. Thank you for this latest chapter!
Great climax. And now for the denouement!
9631643
Yeah, wings would be nice.
NOW it symbolizes my character development!
This was literally the most anime thing I've ever read.
And he's dead! Rest in spaghetti, never forgetti. Good final fight. It was pretty crazy seeing Sunset solo a dragon given previously established power levels, but I'm glad she got something worthwhile for such a monumental sacrifice. Though, if Sunset's power boost is permanent, and is indeed an effect of Chainbreaker, well... it casts the events of Lesser Lights in a new... light.
Damn the sass in that battle between Blackfyre and Sunset. Then the great villain ending to quote the Evil Overlord List "I will maintain a realistic assessment of my strengths and weaknesses. Even though this takes some of the fun out of the job, at least I will never utter the line "No, this cannot be! I AM INVINCIBLE!!!" (After that, death is usually instantaneous.)"(http://www.eviloverlord.com/lists/overlord.html[/url) Such a ham that Blackfyre
I'm looking forward to see how this will bridge to your stories set in the near future.
Methinks someone's projecting.
But seriously, that guy has the gall to call out someone else for being arrogant.
He will get to eat those words, and soon.
I kind of want to turn Blackfyre into a D&D boss monster but I don't know enough of his stats are and what he's capable of (how to translate his abilities into DND)
I knew on some level that Sunset would get a deus ex machina and live to fight another day. Not exactly how I anticipated, still, methinks that Celestia and maybe several others need to sit her down for a combination hugfest/slap the ever-loving harmony out of her for being so incredibly stupid. Sunset is an incredibly talented and driven mare, but she's also temperamental, arrogant, and brash. At least, she was in previous stories. Hopefully her gift at a second chance will not be wasted.