CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY:
LOVE
ZEPHYR
On a hill outside of Canterlot in the dead of night, Zephyr dug.
He had hoped to find his diary from the days of old, but the fact that he couldn't find it was of no importance: he'd expected Celestia to be rid of it after she'd disposed of him, anyway, and he'd been preparing for this moment for eons. He still vividly remembered the time he'd first attempted the ritual at the Castle of the Two Sisters, crudely carving the rune into Luna's old throne.
I was a fool then, he thought to himself, making sure the lines he was drilling into the dirt were perfect. That Zephyr is dead.
A large circle made up the base of the rune, and three smaller ones of disproportionate sizes made up the inside. When he was content with the pattern, he flung the remaining dirt aside with his magic, and he knelt down before the rune with a brown bag at his side.
One by one, he pulled out what he needed. The Alicorn Amulet, a pendant created from the hatred of an ancient dark mage, was placed carefully in the smallest circle. King Sombra's horn, a relic he'd acquired in the barren wastes of the Crystal Empire, was placed in the second largest. Finally, with deft precision, he removed the last piece from the bag, taking care to also take it out of its protective cloth.
It was a single hair from Princess Luna, who was once a fearsome entity of dark magic known as Nightmare Moon. He'd found it on her throne in Canterlot Castle, but unfortunately, he'd retrieved it without talking to the mare herself. He would have liked to have persuaded her to join his cause, but that, too, was of no importance: once this was done, he could focus on his true goal, and it would be completed with or without her.
"When I awoke outside of the Crystal Empire, I thought it to be my destiny. To return you to me, and to share my gift with the world." As he spoke, Zephyr used magic to open a cut down his foreleg, causing little droplets of blood to spread across the rune as he extended it over the relics
"But then that Sunset, the one who I sensed so much darkness in, told me otherwise. That it was all of Celestia's apprentices. I knew that mare, Violet, from the way Celestia used to babble on about her far too often. The rat with the machine was probably one, too." Once he was satisfied that the three relics had been bathed in his blood, he retracted it back to his side, and with a deep breath, he closed his eyes and felt his horn begin to glow.
"But now, darling, with you at my side," he said, feeling the magic course within him like a current. "I'll take that throne, and I'll give everypony the gift I'm about to give you."
Zephyr began to chant under his breath, his eyes firmly shut as he concentrated. He knew the words by heart, but he also knew what he had to change from the last time, and with the three relics before him, he would certainly channel enough dark magic to truly bring back his love.
He knew not how long he stood there, but after repeated incantations, he heard the noise he'd been looking for. A short pop of magic rang through his ears right where the rune in front of him had been, and slowly, he opened his eyes.
Laying prone on the rune was the mare he had so longed to see. Her light purple coat glistened in the moonlight, and her dark red mane and tail matched the glimmering jewel of the Alicorn Amulet. She stirred ever slightly, and then after a few moments, she opened her eyes. They were blue like the clearest of oceans, and they brought Zephyr back to every moment he spent with the mare that had completed him so.
"Chrysanthemum," he whispered, crawling over to her. When she saw him, her eyes widened softly, and she gave him that warm smile he'd always so cherished and thought of in his worst moments. He rose from his seated position and grabbed on to her, slowly helping her up.
"Zephyr," she whispered quietly, staring into his eyes. He held a hoof to her face, taking in the sight he worked so hard to see before him.
"The darkness has brought you back to me, Chrys," he told her. "And together, we'll show the world what we can do with its power." He drew her into a kiss, and he wrapped a hoof around her as she gladly returned it.
They stayed there for just long enough, and after what seemed like a lifetime back in his wife's embrace, their lips broke apart. They stayed in the hug, however, and Zephyr made no protest as Chrysanthemum continued to hold him.
While they were embraced, however, he heard the subtle shimmer of her horn igniting, and in the moment he had just loosened the wrap around her to investigate why, he felt a brutal pain course through his chest as something pierced deep into his flesh.
He reeled back from her a few steps, looking down to see a knife plunged into his heart with almost surgical precision. It had certainly been nearby for it to have arrived that quick, and he looked to his lover with a shake in his jaw and a visage of pure shock in his eyes as wide as Luna's moon.
"W-Wha... C-Chrys... " He could feel blood pouring from his mouth, and his horror only amplified when he peered upon the mare.
The mare who was not Chrysanthemum slowly deteriorated. Her light purple coat slowly melted away to a holey mass of black carapace, and her mane and tail faded to a green, webbed substance Zephyr couldn't identify. Those blue eyes he'd known so well vanished to reveal a sickly, reflectionless blue.
"I expected so much more, Zephyr." He fell to the ground, and the changeling towered over his body as he gasped for air. "After what you did in Canterlot, I thought you might actually have been a challenge. Your painting was perfect, though, I must say. Almost better than a photograph." Slowly, Zephyr turned his head to the imposter, grit in his teeth as he eyed her with a feverish snarl.
"Who... a-are... y-y-you?" he asked, every word coming out slower. The changeling knelt down, examining the knife still in his chest.
"I'm Melody," she answered simply. "I brought you here, and my goodness, Zephyr, did you play your part well. Your notes helped me prepare the resurrection spell to bring everypony back, too, so I must thank you for that." Zephyr's look of rage devolved into further shock, but it didn't last long: he felt the pain overtaking him, and he found it increasingly difficult to keep his eyes open as he fought the flutter.
Melody rose to all fours again, and she quickly grabbed his bag with magic and began storing the contents of the rune back inside of it. As she did so, she spoke to Zephyr, whose twitches began to slow down considerably.
"An admirable attempt, but there was one thing you just couldn't have known." slinging it across her back, she turned to him, and her changeling features disappeared as Zephyr's very own reflection stared back at him. With his own eyes, Melody looked down upon him one last time.
"You were a fine deuteragonist, but this was my story. Not yours." Her voice had mimicked his perfectly, and with the moonlight in front of her, Melody Waltz turned around and descended down the hill, leaving the stallion to expire.
"Ask Chrysanthemum how I did," she requested, disappearing down the hill slope.
Zephyr laid upon the grass, feeling his own breathing slow to a halt as he contemplated his failure. The end would approach in seconds, and as the reaper came to claim his soul for the second time, Zephyr used the last of his power to croak a name into the night.
END BOOK TWO
BEGIN BOOK THREE
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And so we've hit the last ten chapters of Dear Faithful Student...
I want to, of course, thank you all for reading. I know I'm not the best writer in the world -- nor is this story a shining example of prose -- but I've had a lot of fun writing it, and I hope you've had just as much fun reading it!
What do you all think about the end of Sunset's book?
What an idiot. He just unleashed something far more sinister into Equestria and hopefully they can stop it.
Well, kinda saw this coming once the painting went missing, but still just what is her endgame here? Why bring everyone back and not just Zephyr?
Wat.
You should be very proud of this story.
Well that was quite the plot twist.
I'm rather curious how does "Melody" view those colorful changedlings now for some reason given her species were quite different during her time period. Is she going to make "changelings great again"?
9805757
Thank you! I certainly am, and I'm glad you like it!
Well. That was unexpected, to say the least.
"Ah man... that suuucked."
~ Number 24, Venture Bros
Can't wait to read the rest of this. Fascinating tale you got going.
9805862 In order to do that, she would first have to Change her name to "Trump". I suspect Melody Waltz is just an alias she used so that she could pass as a pony and no one would suspect her of being a changeling, though Sun butt figured it out pretty quick in spite of bug pone trying to hide what she really is.
But Trollestia wouldn't have figured it out had Melody not try to impersonate someone that's so us your nose but Melody did not give Melody away as not really being the pony that she was disguised as at the time.
Oh damn she is going to be a fantastic villain. Unless there’s a second twist where she is actually trying to defend a Questria from something even worse but I kind of doubt that given she just murdered someone.
yo holy shit 👀👀👀
Hm.
Things just got interesting.