Fall of Empire

by Sixes_And_Sevens

Cold War

Celestia was half-blind in the darkness of the swirling white snow. Every breath she took in, flakes and crystals lined her lungs and froze her throat, and every exhalation dried out her innards more and more. It was impossible to make any noise above a faint gasp, but she gave it her best shot. “Luuunaaa!” she wheezed. “Sister, where are you?”

Silhouettes flickered in the obscuring shadow of brightness, all too short for any alicorn. Celestia squinted against the stinging snow— and where had this storm rolled in from? It had been as clear and crisp a night as ever she had seen— but still there was no sign of THERE!

“Luna.” Celestia said as loudly as she was able, though due to the inclement weather, her hailing was still, regrettably, entirely appropriate for a library and entirely inappropriate for a battlefield. Nevertheless, the lanky figure that had caught her eye in the howling maelstrom whipped around to stare in her general direction.

The taller mare galloped forward. “Sister, are you well? Thy cry of alarm did cause Us great consternation. You are not injured, I trust?”

The darker alicorn chuckled, low and not a little menacing. “Quite the reverse, sister dearest. Quite the reverse. Never have I felt quite so well as I feel at this moment.”

Celestia’s smile faltered. “In the midst of battle, you are merry? Sister, I do not understand.”

“Verily, sister? Recall to yourself the adventures which we took alongside the Doctor. How good it felt to overcome villainy, to defeat wickedness. And now, at long last, we have a return to such adventures as we take down this iniquitous empire STONE BY STONE!”

Celestia stumbled back a few steps, taken aback by the sudden outburst. “Luna! Recall to yourself the morals which the Doctor did teach us. Kindness, mercy, understanding—”

“Codswallop! Words and phrases, castor-oil which he spoon-fed us without partaking himself, or have you forgotten the sack of Roan? Perhaps you have lost your memory of his actions, yea and even thy own words to him after the defeat of Discord, but I assure you that my mind is as clear as ever. Clearer! Finally, I see what must be done. In the name of sanity! In the name of justice!”

“But not in the name of Celestia. Or Equestria,” the elder alicorn said coldly.

Luna sneered. “So be it. With or without your aid, sister, this city will fall. With or without you.”

So saying, she spun around, her tail smacking Celestia’s face. When the princess of the sun had recovered, Luna had already vanished into the dark and cold, into the land which was as cold and arid as the surface of the Moon.

---

The Doctor stood silent in the center of the square. All around him, noise, chaos, anarchy. He, Jade, and Sweetie Belle stood, face to face to face, in the eye of the storm. The eye of a storm, in case you were wondering, is not actually the part of a weather system that can see things. Not usually, anyway. There are exceptions. For the most part, however, the eye of a storm is merely the center of the maelstrom, the doldrums around which all the violence revolves.

It is a terrible thing to be caught in a hurricane or a tornado or a nightmarishly large storm made of parsley-flavored cotton candy, but at least you more or less know just how much trouble you are in. In the eye of the storm, you can hear the storm howling, see it tearing apart buildings and uprooting trees, smell the sickly-sweet scent of spun sugar and hideous herbs, and remain yourself completely untouched. The relative silence and stillness, the discolored light, the petrichor, all more terrifying by far than any mere storm could ever hope to accomplish.

The Doctor said nothing, only stared coldly at Jade. Jade said nothing, but glared furiously at the Doctor. Sweetie didn’t say anything, either, though she wished that she could. Her throat was filled with phlegm and her mouth smacked of blood from her bitten tongue.

At length, the Doctor spoke. “Sweetie Belle, get to the TARDIS. I’ll meet you there later.”

The unicorn blinked. She hacked and spat on the ground to clear her throat. “And how do you expect me to do that?”

“I— just get out of the city, go!”

Sweetie raised a brow. “...Yeah, that’s not happening. In case you forgot, we’re in an actual war zone. Not to mention, the last time I left you alone, you got captured.”

“I don’t have time for this!”

Sweetie frowned. “That doesn’t sound like the Doctor I know. You have time for everypony who needs you. That’s your whole shtick.”

“Sometimes I have to go to the place that needs me the most,” the Time Lord snarled, glaring at Jade.

“Okay, let’s go there, then,” Sweetie returned, exuding a calm that stemmed purely from being too tired to be afraid. “I know where you need to be.”

“So do I, and you can’t follow me.”

“Are you going to stop me?”

Jade cleared her throat, annoyed. “I’m still here!”

The Doctor paid her no mind, glaring instead at the unicorn. “I’ll stop you if I have to.”

“And are you going to explain that to Rarity?”

The Doctor suddenly looked much older. “Well. I suppose I won’t be around to.”

“And who’s going to explain that to Ditzy? Or Dinky? Or the princesses, or the other Crusaders? Or anypony who ever met you? Me? No thanks. If we go down, we go down together.” She was smiling slightly, but it was clear that the unicorn wasn’t joking.

“Sweetie Belle—”

“Ah-ah-ah, no arguing. You know I’m right.”

“Sweetie Belle, this is the day. This is the last charge. By the time the sun comes up over the horizon, the Empire will have already vanished. You need to get out!”

Jade blinked. “Wait. What?” The red crystal fell out of her helmet with a faint pop and smashed on the ground, shards scattering in all directions, losing color as they went.

Sweetie rolled her eyes. “So what do I do after it falls, wait for a thousand years for it to come back? The TARDIS is still stuck, remember? I can’t drive it, anyway.”

“But Luna and Celestia can,” the Doctor returned shortly. “They’ll be able to get you home.”

That threw the young mare for a moment. Jade waved a hoof. “Hi! Still here? What was that thing, y’know, about the Empire collapsing before the sun was up?”

The Doctor pressed his advantage. “You can get home, get to safety. I’ll take care of everything here. Get to the TARDIS.”

Sweetie hesitated.

What happened next may have been caused by any number of things. It may have been that she was waspish from lack of peaceful sleep. Perhaps not all of the influence of the red crystal had been exorcised from her after all. Maybe it was due to years and years of being passed over, like a slow torture, that finally did it. But the unicorn’s face hardened. “No. Way. I’m staying, Doctor. We’re in this together, and I am not leaving for anything or anypony until this is over. So stop being stupid and listen to what I have to tell you.”

“Right, okay,” Jade muttered. “I’ll just… show myself out. Of the kingdom. Quickly.” She turned tail and weaved through the still-brawling crowd.

The Doctor stared, open-mouthed as Sweetie continued. “There are secret passages in the castle that Sombra uses. They don’t have any crystal in them. I think he uses them to keep from being as badly affected by them as the citizens are, and I’ll bet anything that the Heart is hidden somewhere in there to keep it out of the way. If we can find that, we can fix this, all of it.”

The Doctor blinked, his eyelids oddly sluggish. “Makes sense…” he muttered. “Like putting a lump of radium in a lead box. Or maybe like putting a lump of lead in a radium box.”

“It would work, right?” Sweetie asked, bouncing on her hooves. She kept one eye on the Doctor’s face, and one on the collar he wore. “Use the Heart, purify the Empire?”

The Doctor blinked again. “Yes…” he said slowly. “I think it might. It did in the future, after all, so why not now?” Unbeknownst to him, the gem in his collar had begun to vibrate and change color at an alarming rate. Now Sweetie was sure that she could see steam coming off of it.

A slow smile split the Doctor’s face, and a fissure appeared in the center of the crystal. “Well done, Sweetie Belle!”

There was a faint pop and the crystal shattered, discoloring and turning into a mound of shards. Sweetie grinned proudly. The Doctor shook his head. “Wait. Hold on a mo’. What was— what— what just happened?”

“No idea!” Sweetie replied merrily. “But it worked, didn’t it?”

“That it did,” the Doctor agreed. “Now—” he cut off, suddenly.

Silence. All around them, all-consuming silence. Even the sound of breathing was muffled by the snow. And all around the former eye of the storm, countless pairs of eyes stared at the two non-crystal ponies. “Ah,” said Sweetie. “I don’t think I can talk them all round. Run?”

“I think so,” the Doctor replied. “Which way were you saying we should go?”

Sweetie pointed, and suddenly several more ponies had stationed themselves in their path.

“Okay, other way,” Sweetie said quickly, turning tail and galloping off, the Doctor hot on her hooves, both of them breaking through a line of rather surprised ponies. As their hooves hammered up the stairs, a loud, carrying roar echoed up from behind them, followed by the sound of a stampede. As soon as they had reached the landing, the Doctor slammed the door closed, and Sweetie dragged a suit of armor in front of it. “Right, hidden corridor, where?”

Sweetie glanced around. “Look for a statue, a bust,” she said authoritatively. “Then push down.”

“Ah!” The Doctor stood up on his hind hooves to get a better look at a pillar. “No, this isn’t it.”

Meanwhile, a series of loud thumps came from the other side of the blockaded door. Sweetie glanced around, panicked. “Okay. Okay. No triggers this time. What else…” She blinked. Oh. The black anti-light. “Right. Um…”

Slowly, she let her breathing grow more ragged and husky, glaring at the wall. She thought about how much she hated it when her friends left to go to school. She thought about her frustration at never being able to get a cutie mark. Her horn started to glow a darker, more menacing shade of green, like misty meadows rather than sunny glades. The air seemed to turn redder, as though the fury was being concentrated. “Sweetie Belle?” the Doctor asked, peering at her in concern.

“Not now,” she growled. “Don’t interrupt, I’m working.” I hate this wall. I really, really hate this wall, she thought to herself. Come on, Twilight had used dark magic to open up a secret passage, why couldn’t she?

“What are you doing?”

“Getting angry!” Sweetie snarled. “And you’re breaking my concentration!” Her aura darkened a little more, and the walls darkened in apparent agreement.

“Well, whatever you’re doing, do it faster, they’re almost through!”

“I know! This hasn’t been a very good day for me either, you know!” Her aura shimmered slowly into a color best described as olive. There was a low rumbling, and the wall behind them began to open slowly.

“Quick, in,” the Doctor said, waving Sweetie through the widening crevasse. She hurried through, and he followed quickly after her. There was a final crash, and the suit of armor fell to the floor. Armored ponies swarmed through the door and toward the still-open passage. However, they all stopped short suddenly and turned away, trotting back the way they had come.

The Doctor blinked as the door began to slide shut. What had so alarmed the Crystal ponies? “Um, Doctor…”

The Time Lord turned to Sweetie, who pointed at a figure farther down the hall. The large, shadowy formed whipped around and smiled with far too many sharp teeth. “GRAAAAAAUUUGH!” Sombra howled, galloping toward the duo, mane flying, eyes glowing. The Doctor shoved Sweetie out of the way and dove in the other direction, the dark king rushing harmlessly between them. He spun around, horn charging, ready to attack again. The Doctor met Sombra’s eyes, full as they were of power and madness, and prepared to die.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

The eye of a storm, in case you were wondering, is not actually the part of a weather system that can see things. Not usually, anyway. There are exceptions.

As we've seen earlier in this series.

And we've definitely hit the climax. The question is, can Sweetie inspire positive emotions in Sombra of all ponies? Worn down as his soul is... but on the other hand, they're in the crystal-less corridors. This should be very interesting indeed. (And that's saying nothing of the damage being done to Luna. )