Chapter 142 – The Bell Will Sound
142
Equestria
The Kingdom of Tambelon
Year: 2015
9:23 p.m.
It turned out that prison breaks earned a lot of attention.
What was left of the Caverns was but a caravan of chaos. Fires illuminating from the astounding canyon lit up the night sky and brought forth a flurry of madness and distress under Luna’s moon’s glow. Most of all, freedom rang that night. The reinforcing cries of the Knights of Tambelon could not overwhelm the unleashed spirits of the enslaved, now the free. Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle left the uprising to be handled by the professionals, and focused their efforts and all that was left for them to tend to.
Tony carried Steve as they flew across the dead wastelands surrounding the Caverns and canyons. All they could do was follow Rainbow Dash as the bright blue and black Iron Mare suit tore across the night sky, repulsors sounding off and breaking the silence of the wastelands. Twilight flew alongside her, tried to keep up, and observed Rainbow in her natural habitat. She led them to a few scattered trees somehow emerging from the blanket of darkness across the earth. The moon’s glow helped. The suits of armor helped even more.
Soon enough, Rainbow brought them to a forest of wickedness, nearly endless and cascading across the earth for miles and miles. She flew downwards, just high enough to grace the tops of each tree she flew past. Twisting back, Rainbow called out in her comms, “Welcome to the Everfree! Now, all we need to do is look for something that looks even remotely—!”
“Rainbow, look out!”
Twilight’s warning barely reached Rainbow in time, the Pegasus twisting back and yelping as she jetted quickly to the side. Erected out of the tree tops, a stone tower with its windows darkened nearly had a certain Pegasus indent. As the team of four cast the tower a waning glance, they returned forward and lost their collective breaths. Rainbow Dash, especially, after seeing no more forest.
No more Everfree.
Just a kingdom cloaked in darkness.
More and more towers built of stone replaced the towering tree tops and sprang up like blades of grass within the shadows. An ancient civilization of winding staircases, haunting bridges, and an army of towers replaced the forest. The earth below was, in turn, replaced with stone and cement, lanterns scattered and barely offering any form of light into the kingdom of darkness. The main form of light, the only real, natural light came from Luna’s warmth. The Avengers halted in mid-air, Twilight’s head gazing skyward to see the full moon directly overhead. Cautiously gazing downwards to the blackness and giving it light. Even then, it seemed as if even the moon’s glow was snuffed away once it reached the kingdom. As if its shadows absorbed and devoured any form of light from entering its embrace. Like a black hole.
Twilight gulped, especially when her eyes focused forward and spotted the heart of the kingdom.
Directly beneath the moon’s glow, in the heart of the Everfree, the Castle of Tambelon stood. It had to be the castle. It was mightier than any structure for miles on end, tall enough to scrape the heavens with its towers and pillars of black. The castle itself was vast, spreading for thousands of feet across the grounds. Even those grounds seemed inconsequential, as the castle appeared to have been hovering upon the earth. Barely. The ground was split upwards, erected to compensate the castle. Like it had fallen from the stars and impacted the world. Whatever lied beneath the castle—whatever they could see—glowed a hellish red, like the bowels of the world itself or a portal to Tartarus. Maybe even Tartarus in its highest, most damnable form.
Unlike the others, Twilight Sparkle did not immediately take action. Unlike Tony, Rainbow, or even Steve who flew into action and charged the front gates of the castle, Twilight was a little more hesitant. She didn’t understand why. Perhaps that was the most horrifying aspect of it. The Tesseract could be hidden within those castle walls, and all she wanted to do was stay where she was, as if even another inch closer seemed to paralyze her. The unknown chill slipping through her armor, washing over her coat, and strangling her spine earned a stuttering breath out of the Alicorn. For nearly a full minute, that was where she remained. For nearly a full minute, she could feel that darkness clouding around her, snuffing out the light she held dear. The wind seemed to whisper across her ears, as if the kingdom itself was a living, breathing beast slowly consuming her.
But it failed. She shook her head and darted forward into the front gates. They were already blown open by the time Twilight entered the fray.
Tony tossed Steve to the ground once they reached the insides of the castle foyer, Captain America rolling forward with shield in hand. They were instantly met with a cluster of Tambelonian Knights, but the Avengers were ready for them. They didn’t hesitate and cleared the room in less than a minute. Steve and Rainbow fought on the ground, practically back to back and side to side as the strikes from the shield and the punches from the Iron Mare easily deflected the attacks from the demonic knights. Stark was flying high above, the elevated ceiling to his advantage as he flew and dodged the blasts from the knights’ weapons. He responded with various repulsor beams and rockets.
As Iron Man’s repulsors hit something vital, the knights would give one final cry as they keeled over and vaporized. Turned to ash. Steve and Rainbow were both caught by that as their own devastating strikes dealt instant death upon their foes. The ashes that accumulated their bodies were mixtures of gold and black, like the magic they wielded in their weapons of war. Steve was caught only momentarily before he heard the roar behind him, forcing him into action. He gripped his shield’s edge, spun around, and tossed the disk directly into the face of the charging knight. It fell back and collapsed upon the stone floor, the shield returning to Rogers as he jumped atop of it and rammed its edge into the creature’s skull. It gurgled it’s last, turning to ash beneath the Captain.
Tony noticed the room starting to get crowded, more and more waves of Tambelonian Knights entering through the darkened hallways and even appearing from the frozen statues decorating the walls. They took action and charged Steve and Rainbow. Charging up his lasers, Stark flew downwards and impacted the floor with various cracks emerging from his fist. Without even looking back at them, he shot out his forearms.
“Duck!” Tony shouted.
Steve grabbed Rainbow and fell to the floor. Iron Man spun around as two streams of red-hot lasers shot out from his wrists. Those lasers sliced through anything taller than four feet, knights severed in half and roaring as their bodies were consumed by the ashes. The castle’s interior suffered as well, the lasers destroying pillars, the nearby staircase, and burning paintings. Only one knight was smart enough to duck, or it just tripped over the clattering weapons hitting the ground from the fallen knights. Once Tony’s lasers died and the knight rose again, it growled at them and aimed its mace in the direction of the three Avengers.
Once Twilight arrived, her magical beam tore through the last knight and vaporized it. She watched as the knight cried out and vaporized into ashes of gold and black upon death. Its mace hit the stone floor, the clattering sound echoing across the castle’s walls. Twilight’s repulsors died into silence as she reached the ground, the mask of the Iron Mare retracting back to unveil Twilight’s spent expression. She breathed and took in the silence. Everyone did as they rose together.
As they collected themselves, Tony noticed the castle’s walls, the paintings, the architecture, and the windows to be incredibly Gothic. Whoever was running the show had taste in the classics. Red banners with a familiar blue goat’s horn plastered on them swayed gently in the wind emerging from the open doors. The ceiling was circular with windows and intricate paintings lining it. Some of the paintings depicted ponies bowing to an unseen dictator, the shadows hiding most of everything. Some paintings showed monsters of every caliber inflicting their will upon the populace, upon cities and the remains of entire civilizations. Tony turned away when he saw more bones, skulls, and skeletons painted than he would have liked. Steve’s lips were pursed, his expression hard as he gazed to the horrifying paintings. He gripped his shield tighter and tighter.
With Tony’s mask retracting back, he raised his right arm and began tapping away at it. A pulsating hologram emerged on his forearm, finding nothing as various scans shot out across the castle. “Well, we’re definitely in the right place,” Tony noted, shaking his head. “I got no energy spike for the Tesseract. I swear, if Orange is the New Black lied to us about the cube being here…”
Twilight rolled her eyes, the Iron Mare armor materializing back into her Arc Reactor. She trotted up to him, Tony’s eyes only to his hologram. “Even she didn’t seem a hundred percent certain the Tesseract was here, Tony. She heard a rumor and tried to help us the best she could.”
“Well, we’re not leaving here without it,” Steve muttered, letting his eyes trail away from the paintings and focus on what mattered. The flaming red torches and cauldrons gave them enough light for the time being. He pointed a red glove to his fellow Avengers. “Scour the castle and stay close. We’ll search this place from top to bottom if need be.”
Tony was already off, forearm held outwards as he continuously scanned and pulsed for the Tesseract’s energy signature, or any energy signatures. Rainbow’s Iron Mare suit fell back into her Arc Reactor, the Pegasus hovering beside Steve as he began to approach the hallway near the left side of the foyer. Tony went in the opposite direction. Leaving just her.
Twilight was about to follow Stark when she stopped. When the whispers of the wind washed over and past her, blowing directly forward. Twilight followed the sensation and direction of the wind, eyes glossing upwards and forwards to see a lone, stone door between the staircases. She could see the clear indent surrounding it, the blackness on its edges indicating a passageway. Indicating another room directly ahead. She narrowed her eyes, expression tightening in wonder and brow furrowing in thought. What if, perhaps, what lied beyond was what they needed? What if, maybe, what they needed was just out of their reach, and that door was their only obstacle? What if…
“… you followed it?”
Twilight’s eyes slowly enlarged when she heard the wind. Like before, under the moon’s glow, she was seemingly paralyzed, unable to move or react accordingly to that whisper. The shadows were consuming, sneaking in on Twilight like a serpent slithering to its prey. Until the edges of her vision were beginning to darken. Until the torches and flaming cauldrons lining the castle walls were turned into a haunting blue. Her vision slowly focused ahead, saw nothing outside the darkness and only to what lied before her. The wind was her greeter, her ally, her only friend within the darkness that she could not traverse. That wind pushed her along, that calming voice within it taking her hoof and leading her to the stone door. To the only destination she could see.
“Let my light by your guide. Do not be afraid…”
To come to him.
Washed away in the darkness, Twilight took a step forward. Her eyes were wide, glazed over, each iris that once shimmered a soft violet now radiating a burning red. She followed the wind and felt the world, the sounds, all else around her numb into silence. She let his warming voice by her guide, her guardian, and her sole savior as the darkness clouded and took her into nothingness. The stone door slid open slowly, painfully, the wind seeping inwards like an ancient beast had just inhaled. She was breathed in, her hoofsteps echoing across the stone floor until even those sounds faded.
A pulse. Tony’s eyes widened when he witnessed the single beat of energy appear behind him. Tony shouted, “I got a beat!”
He looked back and saw her.
Steve and Rainbow looked back and saw her.
They watched Twilight’s tail disappear into the shadows and the stone door sliding shut behind the Alicorn. Instantaneously, the shared adrenaline and panic washed over each of their faces. Tony dropped his arms as he jetted forward. Steve sprinted with as much energy as he could muster. But Rainbow made it first. She was gone in half a second.
“Twilight!” Rainbow screamed, reaching the door just as it closed and locked. She slammed herself into the stone door, but to no avail. She tried again and again, screaming Twilight’s name and begging for her best friend to respond. But there was nothing. She backed away once a certain super soldier slid behind her. Steve rammed his shield into the stone, creating a flurry of sparks and nothing else. Tony stepped up and shot the door with a repulsor, but it didn’t break. Not even a crack.
Already growing furious at the lack of progress—and the fear of what could happen to Twilight had overtaken his senses—Tony went full overkill and jammed out both palms, his Arc Reactor burning even brighter and a Tri-beam already beginning to charge up. His strongest repulsor yet. The scream from his palms and his chest began to fill the air…
Until the wind came back even louder and silenced it.
Those rising screams from his repulsors died down considerably, Tony shakily looking back. Steve and Rainbow followed with a sense of uncertainty growing in their panic-filled eyes.
The Tambelonian Knights slowly reemerged from the ashes, like phoenixes, and grabbed their weapons. Red eyes and growls filled the shadows of the Castle of Tambelon. They surrounded the three Avengers faster than Tony’s mask covered his face and his eyes ignited a bright blue.
When the stone shut behind her, the echo that followed trailed across the floors, the walls, and the towering hallway that rested before Princess Twilight.
The whispers of the wind lingered for several seconds, and Twilight followed it. She didn’t understand its meaning, her meaning for following it, or where her destination lied. Every form of basic thought process and logical thinking just didn’t seem to matter to her anymore. All that mattered was that voice, that calming whisper that broke her away from the darkness and led her to the light. The coldness tried to capture her, but his warmth, his whisper, was all she needed. No more mission. No more Tesseract. Just him. She needed him more than ever to traverse the darkness, and he was there.
He never left her. His calming whisper sent a shaking exhale throughout Twilight’s body, enveloping her heart and escaping her lips. The air was frozen, her breath like mist. Her red irises shimmered like jewels within the shadows. Her Arc Reactor flickered to black, then blue, and back again. Consistently as her hooves rose and impacted the stone floor. She pushed on and on through the hallway, the ceiling reaching higher than the stars and the moon’s glow unable to seep through the windows to her left. The stained glass created an array of stories, from the rise of the Great Sorcerer, the birth of the monsters, the defeat of Gusty the Great, and the reclamation of Equestria under his banner. His eyes overlooked his world, his all-encompassing horns reaching as far as the east was from the west. Twilight saw none of it.
She only followed the voice.
“All else will fade away. There will be no more pain. No more cold. You will find comfort… safety… peace. Do not turn away, child. I will help you.”
She longed for it. She yearned to hear his voice because it was all she needed from that point forward. Nothing else gave her warmth, gave her safety, gave her assurance other than hearing him. He was the voice on her shoulder, the strength in her heart, and the rationale in her mind. She was completely and utterly his. Yet the subtle beats of her heart and the waning cries in the distant past told her otherwise, begged for her to turn and run away. Twilight furrowed her brow at that, her breath tightening as she stumbled to a halt in the center of the hallway. Like there was still a semblance of resistance still cindering within her spirit, Twilight stared to the stone floor, to the towering pillars and walls of black, and to the banners swaying gently in his wind. She breathed and blinked slowly, the red in her irises beginning to fade and the familiar violet returning.
“I will guide you… but you must follow. This is as much your journey as it is mine.”
Twilight closed her eyes, much longer so she could feel the enclosing walls of the castle cloud around her. The statues of screaming beasts—like gargoyles—glared down at her and the stained glass image of the ram doing the same. No light reached her. The shadows consumed what remained. When Twilight opened her eyes, the glowing red took its claim. A calming and serene expression filled Twilight’s facial features, a soft, misty exhale leaving her.
“Follow the light.”
Before she even knew it, the throne room doors broke apart, the heavy oak creaking and crying to their slow movement. They towered so high Twilight couldn’t even see the ceiling where they reached any longer. The ceiling was the heavens itself. The throne room was warm, inviting, and held that light he so promised her. Twilight absentmindedly followed, the doors closing softly behind her.
She surely was within the throne room of the Great Sorcerer. The majestic banners and paintings signifying his strength and knowledge. His victories and futures to come. The throne was cast in the shadows, a golden, red, and black triumphant royal seat reaching near the ceiling. A foreboding and transcending essence seemed to flow within the shadows and the wind, the whispers within it guiding the Alicorn to the light. That light shimmered a glorious and heavenly blue, Twilight’s jaw falling as her hooves brought her closer and closer to its embrace.
Resting in the heart of the throne room, the Tesseract lied on a simple podium. No guards. No traps. Nothing. So simple. Twilight slowly approached it, the great distance between them shortening by the second. Throughout her journey to the light, his voice spoke to her once more. Never abandoning her. He, too, stared to the object of her desire, to the light of which she yearned.
He said, “Beautiful… isn’t it? Predictable… even more so. Ponies always seek the light and never think of what else may be. They never imagine the darkness. They never think of what it can offer. They resist. And you… putting the fire in their hearts and setting a storm across my world. You know not of this world. You know not of the old ways…”
One of the paintings to Twilight’s left unveiled a dark castle hanging within a world of shadows.
“The ancient kingdom…”
The moon’s glow showed the painting to her right. The image of the Bell sounding off over a shaken and terrified Equestria… and the lives it held.
“The darkness… and the realm of which it lies.”
Twilight approached the cube, gazing into the light and finding solace within it. A horrifying sense of déjà vu filled her senses, that calming smile on her lips falling and replaced by a frown of distress. The flowing colors, like stars, swirling within a universe of blue. The Tesseract spurred that realization and fear within her, the mind of Twilight Sparkle slowly escaping the bonds that held it.
“Space…” he uttered, capturing Twilight’s heart once again. She caught her breath, gasped and held it in as that voice emerged before her. Like he was standing right in front of her. The light of the cube blinded her to all else… but his voice. “One of the six. Infinity Stones. Mere fractions of the power I hold.”
Twilight held her breath. Her lower lip trembled as she felt a haunting darkness begin to cloud the heart he held, consume the mind he wielded, and utterly infect the Princess of Friendship. She could do nothing. The pony who had overcome Nightmare Moon, defeated the Spirit of Chaos, relinquished the Crystal Empire, imprisoned Lord Tirek, saved Starlight Glimmer and her timeline, banished the Pony of Shadows, and rose up to lead her little ponies… could do nothing.
“This is not your world.”
She was a slave to his will.
“Your world lies elsewhere… You are but a vapor in a much larger multiverse. Your journey to undo what has befallen may benefit your present… but your future lies in my grasp. In your world… in every world… I always will be…”
His words were like piercing spikes into her very soul, the Alicorn gasping for air. Gasping for release. Like a beast had overcome her and wouldn’t let go. Clutching her chest with a raised hoof, Twilight could finally breathe again, her mind flashing and fading, the pulsating darkness at the edges of her vision. She breathed as hard as she could. Harder than ever before in her life. As if utter madness was slowly consuming her mind, Twilight Sparkle gazed beyond the Tesseract and onto the throne.
Her heart beat out of her chest when she saw the glowing red and yellow eyes meet her own.
And his voice… affirming to her…
“More than you could ever know.”
The Bell hanging beneath his eyes sounded off. The ring washed over Twilight and she felt it. Felt every reverberation flow across her coat, break through her bloodstream, rattle her bones, and stop her heart. For a mere second, then she breathed again. The madness that consumed her mind had reached beyond her will, beyond compare, and forced her to scream out. She clutched her head with two hooves and screamed, fell down and closed her eyes as her mind fell to darkness and the horrifying nightmare within tried to consume her. She screamed for him to get out of her head. She screamed when there was no answer. She screamed until tears ran down her cheeks.
Then the throne room doors exploded behind her.
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Meesa think Grogar be bombad powerful, yo.
Jar Jars and goats aside, nice chapter! Kinda glad Trixie didn't make an appearance XD
Great chapter again.
I think 3 pissed heroes are going to give Grogar a punition...
Great chapter! Let’s see if our heroes can help Twilight and give Groban a good beating.
For the Soul Stone segment, are you going to do the alternate version that was filmed but cut where 2014 Thanos and his forces attack Natasha and Clint? You can see the original sequence on YouTube if it’s still there.
Oh I really hope the Space Stone is immune to that Bell.
Uh oh...This will end either really good or really bad...Why do i get an Emperor Palpatine vibe here?
Seems like the cavalry has arrived.
The question is... will it be enough?
Great chapter, JD!
Grogar: "I am... inevitable."
Welcome, Young Sparkle. I have been expecting you...
Well I think that's his ego talking but that's just me
Interesting how things will go and also interesting on how many battles the heroes are going through already before the end.
...I DON'T LIKE THIS.
HE KNOWS.
So what makes this Grogar sounding so powerful that he would have the ego to mock the power of the Infinity Stones? Cause last I checked his magic should be insignificant to even one of them let alone all 6 unless this version of him is more than what he seems(and it better not be Fucking Discord).
9955301
Hey dude are you making another chapter tomorrow 🤔 is it the power team
9955428 Darth Jar Jar is too dangerous to be kept alive.
9955647 I won't go with the alternate version.
9955688 I hope so, too.
9955704 May or may not have been inspired.
9955736 Thanks!
9955738 Twilight: And friendship... is... magic.
9955848
9955977 Is it ego... or is it true?
9956015
9956177 It's not Discord, and thus we don't really know the full extent of Grogar's power since the show never capitalized on it. This is merely setting the stage for something potentially more threatening.
9956457 No chapter tomorrow.
9956679
I guess for my view yeah but for the context of the story I guess we'll have to see.
Grogar messing with Twilight's head is a pretty scary-yet-interesting highlight of this chapter.
9956679
Hey dude in beautiful new age what chapter did the avengers fight Tirek 🤔
9958187 Chapter 55.
Well mister big shot there’s only one way to test that and that is to find Thanos and:
https://m.9958326 Now that's a fight I'd love to see. Almost as much as I would have liked to see Grogar confront Twilight and the Mane 6.
Ask not for whom the bell tolls! It tolls for thee!
Grogar is terrifying here. With the mind games he is playing on Twilight, he might even potentially be as big of a threat as Thanos.