I met my fate at the altar...
The stirring of the Dark Silent One beneath the mountain sent tremors rippling throughout Equestria and likely the world beyond. If I pricked up my ears and listened carefully, I could hear already the distant yet clearly maddened cries of those who could not bear the Harbinger's hideous and unearthly song.
A bleak and horrifying era of madness and chaos would soon fall upon the earth just as it did so long ago and this time I would be the catalyst to bring that era forth. This time there would be no heavenly light to banish the darkness. With the blessing of the almighty Outer Gods, I would fulfill my role and drown the world in a wretched black mire from which there would be no escape.
I would not stop until I saw the truth that lay beyond the gate with my own eyes, and yet!
Even now, when the end was in sight and resistance was rendered meaningless, there were those that would continue to struggle in vain. This I knew, for upon my arrival to Ponehenge where the final ritual was to take place I was met not with the Mad Queen, but my own brother and a sizeable contingent of the Royal Guard under his command.
While frustrating it was not wholly unexpected when one considered the circumstances. After all, I had no recollection of how long it had been since I escaped from that incomprehensible sea of angles. What's more, I no longer had possession of my personal effects—the tomes and my journal no doubt seized by the Lunar Princess when I was captured.
Whether my captors had read through those tomes or my journal or not, I hardly had to wonder if this ambush was Luna's doing. She seemed the most adamant to prevent the inevitable and I would not put this last desperate and ultimately futile attempt to hinder my progress past the mare.
When pushed, Luna could be a ruthless and cunning mare, much moreso than her Solar counterpart. She had shown as much in putting a swift end to Stygian's ritual along with his life. Though they'd spoken little during my confinement, I could tell at a glance that the Pillars felt the same. Although I suppose that had more to do with my hoof in Star Swirl's fate than anything else.
Where Celestia and the Elements were concerned there was nothing but longing and forgiveness. They would have me returned to the Twilight Sparkle that had been before my fateful foray into the Crystal Caverns—before my path to enlightenment began. Such a wish was wasted on me and I had no more patience for their sentiments.
In Spike, there was a strong sense of familial devotion. It was not quite the bond of a mother and his son nor was it entirely that of a brother or sister either, but something in between. A powerful sentiment yet it was heavily tempered even now by darker emotions such as doubt and fear among other things. In the eyes of my brother, I saw much of the same, though he hid his softer emotions behind a stout heart and a steely gaze of determination.
Shining Armor loved me as much as a brother could love his sister but he also loved his country, and at the end of it all, he was a soldier through and through. He had the compassion of my old mentor but the cold decisiveness that had allowed the Lunar Princess to put Stygian down. And so the stallion had a choice to make.
Would he fulfill his duty as Captain of the Royal Guard and put an end to me and my ambitions? Would he forsake that duty in an attempt to reach out to me like the Elements and Celestia? It mattered not to me what actions he ultimately chose to take. In the end, I would accomplish what I set out to do. There would be no stopping what was to come.
It was not mine, but the will of those eldritch deities from beyond that bade Equestria be swallowed by darkness. I was under no illusion that my actions were in the right and should those left behind to endure the chaos to come survive to write it, I was all but certain history would see me as the villain who destroyed the world.
That was a truth I had come to accept and nothing—not useless platitudes or caring words or even death would stop me from seeing what was beyond the gate. I would not falter! I would not waver! I would not wait for Shining Armor to choose! Now was the time to act!
With but an arcane word I could and would render my brother and his Guards helpless as newborn foals just as I did to the others in the Crystal Cavern. The one meant to be the sacrifice to Zushakon was nowhere to be seen but that was of little consequence to me now. I now had plenty of souls to offer before me and any one of them would suffice.
Alas, before I could utter a single blasphemous syllable my words were stolen away from me by another. A clear and strong and familiar voice rang out from everywhere at once. The voice sang a song of silence in the ancient tongue I thought only I had bothered to learn. My own voice was bound by a rite of silence and I found that I could not speak.
My shock at this sudden and entirely unwelcome development had only just turned to rage when another rite was invoked binding me where I stood. Rage had quickly turned to horror as I realized the words spoken were the same I had used mere moments ago to keep both the Elements and Pillars at bay. It was the same rite I meant to use to detain the Royal Guard and yet I was bound.
I knew well that I myself was not immune to this eldritch power as I was now. If I was, I would not have become this horrific thing of flesh and shadow. I thought myself and Chrysalis the only creatures willing and able to invoke the ancient tongue but against all expectations, there was another. With another word from the disembodied voice, I felt even my natural magic drain away, leaving me the helpless one in this situation.
As if waiting for just such an opportunity, my brother and the rest of the Royal Guards closed in, entrapping and subduing me on the spot. Spike, no doubt bemused and afraid, cried out in surprise as he was magically pulled from my side and into the waiting throng of soldiers. Forced to the ground, I looked up to see Shining Armor approach me, his steely gaze replaced with one of guilt, pity, and a deep sense of loss.
With a grimace born of intense emotional pain, he leaned closed and muttered a heartfelt apology. Unable to respond, my fury and panic went ignored as he and the other Royal Guards stepped aside to reveal the culprit—the mastermind behind this ambush and my detainment. Like the reaper come for my immortal soul did Luna appear.
In one moment there was empty space, and in the next the mare stood before me, imperious and swathed in a familiar inky black aura. There was a different air about her now as she looked down upon me with eyes devoid of sorrow or pity. Physically—save for her eyes and that overwhelmingly sinister aura—the Lunar Princess looked no different from what I and the rest of Equestria had come to know.
And yet there was a drastic shift in her cosmic presence, something wholly different from what I had felt and seen in the Crystal Cavern. One look at the mare was all it took for me to understand that she knew far more than I initially believed. Whether she had delved as deeply into the abyss as I had I could no longer say, but in my blind hubris, I fell for her ruse and had only myself to blame.
"You overestimate yourself, Twilight Sparkle," came Luna's powerful voice, "though my efforts to put an end to your foolish endeavors have been stymied time and time again I have never once been more than a hair's breadth behind you.
"I know that you were aware of my own investigation into the truth Star Swirl hid from my sister and me, but you were careless not to consider just how much I have actually learned over these past few centuries. I know far more than you think, whelp."
I could neither say or do anything against her words restrained as I was. What's more, I could not refute those words even had I my freedom. She had been on my trail all along; I knew this, but I was a fool not to realize just how close she'd actually been this whole time.
She knew of the Nameless Tome's disappearance from Daring Do's cottage. From her oneiric rendezvous with the mare during our trip to the temple in the desert she had likely worked out our destination. She knew of Star Swirl's hidden vault and knew to take the amulet from within. The Princess would have had no reason to do such a thing unless she already knew of my intentions.
I would scarcely be surprised if it was due to Luna's efforts that her sister, the Elements, and the Guards that restrained me remained unaffected by Ghroth's song. Though her wit had allowed Luna to get close enough to ruin Stygian's ritual, it was ultimately my own ignorance and arrogance that saw me captured back in the Well of Shade.
My current state was due to my own folly and single-minded determination. Just as the Princess of the Night had said, I couldn't look away from my path long enough to see that she was right behind me all along. All I could do was grit my teeth in silent anger and bow my head in abject humiliation at this horrible realization.
"While it is true that I was never able to fully discover the truth behind our world's history as you have," Luna continued, heedless of my predicament, "I did long ago discover another way to learn of the cosmic truths hidden from me by my mentor. Tell me, Twilight Sparkle, do you know of the Dreamlands? I am sure you have come across mention of it in your research, no?"
I had indeed discovered the existence of that fantastical world beyond our own time and space. The Dreamlands, or the Dream Realm, where gods and monsters and all manner of otherworldly creatures in-between were said to dwell. It was a land not unlike my own yet fundamentally different in its design.
The inhabitants of the world I belonged to may have been shaped by an outer god, but when placed next to the Dreamlands there was no comparison. In my studies, I came to understand that the Realm of Dreams was itself shaped by the many cosmic truths I so desperately wanted to learn. As a result, that place was closer to the arcane and occult than Equestria could ever hope to be.
Would that I could have traveled to such a place back then, I could have taken my research to far greater heights, but I had thought it an impossibility. To access that wondrous realm would have required me to find a peculiar stairway within an ordinary dream, and my dreams from the very beginning of my journey had been anything but ordinary.
I had entertained the idea of Luna having entered the Dreamlands given her propensity towards oneiromancy but eventually dismissed the notion. The gate to that realm was guarded by two powerful judges known as Nasht and Kaman-Tha. I had thought, with her meager knowledge in all things occult, she would not be judged worthy to enter but it seemed that was yet another foolish assumption on my part.
"I too learned of the Dream Realm, you see," Luna explained, "I discovered many ways to enter that place though the only viable means I found back then was to find that ghastly stairway. It took several years but eventually, I managed to find and descend the Seven Hundred Steps of Deeper Slumber.
"I faced the judgment of Nasht and Kaman-Tha and yes, I was found worthy to enter the Dream Realm and so I did by way of the Enchanted Wood. For reasons I still cannot fathom, I was only allowed entry once, but I saw and learned much during that time.
"I have seen the ruins of Sarnath. I have narrowly escaped the clutches of the dreaded moon-beasts. I traveled aboard a mystical ship and discovered islands both infinitely wondrous and ineffably horrifying. I lived for a time in the town of Ulthar where no man may kill a cat and have done and seen so much more besides.
"It was in Ulthar that I met and even briefly studied under Barzai the Wise before his untimely demise at the summit of Hatheg-Kla. It was from his teachings, in fact, that I learned to walk the dreams of others. What I mean to say in revealing this to you, foolish mare, is that I am not nearly as ignorant of the truth as you likely believed me to be."
At that moment, with all that was said, I was forced to accept that I'd been bested. In my rage and envy, all I could do was watch as Luna magically retrieved the amulet that had fallen to the ground some distance away. She considered it for a moment before placing it in the hooves of a nearby Guard and turning her attention back to me.
"You have done well to escape me thus far, Twilight Sparkle—and I am truly sorry it has come to this—but this horrid path of madness and destruction you continue to walk ends here. I have read of what you mean to do, and so long as I live, I will not allow you to reawaken your dark god."
It was a promise, words said with all the conviction and finality of a judge, jury, and executioner. That was it, I thought to myself. She was going to do away with me just as she did Stygian and there was nothing I could do but laugh and so I did. I laughed at my foolishness, I laughed as my ambitions crumbled to nothing right at the very end. I laughed as the gate at the end of my path closed before my eyes.
It was an unhinged and inequine sort of sound fit to make even the staunchest of Guards shudder in discomfort, much like the cackle of the Mad Queen herself. As I thought on the absence of Chrysalis and my fate at the hooves of Luna, a memory and a realization suddenly came to me and I laughed all the harder.
The Lunar Princess meant to kill me—to violently rip my soul from this mortal coil. I could see it in her sorrowless, pitiless eyes. She meant to do away with me just as she did with Stygian. Perhaps, despite her cold gaze, she saw it as a mercy. Perhaps she saw as simply carrying out her duty to protect her subjects. Perhaps it was simple hatred or revenge for the death of her old mentor.
Whatever her reasons may have been, it was clear to me that while Luna may have known more than I initially thought, she hardly knew everything even having read through my journal or the tomes. Or it may have been possible that she misinterpreted the text. I don't know which, but for all her supposed knowledge, she knew nothing of Zushakon's true nature or that of the Ritual of Awakening.
If she had, she would never have even attempted to take mine or Stygian's life. If she truly understood just how that ritual worked, she would've realized what Chrysalis and I already knew. But no, rather than attempt to understand, Luna instead conjured a magic-born blade of light with which to steal my life away.
It was a thing of beauty, imbued with arcane runes likely meant to smite creatures like me where they stood. She raised the blade high and, before the horrified eyes and desperate screams of my faithful draconic assistant and beloved brother, brought it down upon my neck, separating my head from my body in one swift, clean motion.
It was there, in that place, on that unholy altar that Twilight Sparkle died, but what Luna failed to see in her evident wisdom was that when it came to the Dark Silent One, death was a blessing. For only blind can the faithful see...
...and only in death can the faithful truly feel alive.
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Some situations demand a good cliffhanger. No worries mate.
I can see this ending in three ways
1. It didn't work and Twilight returns, kills Luna and the guard and then retrieves Spike and finishes her mission, and maybe Spike's final fate is that he becomes her grand priest or something.
2. Twilights dead and everything goes back to normal
3. Twilight becomes something else and leaves that dimension neither awakening her diety or destroying her world... for now.
Am I close with any of these?
10461724
No comment...
10461730
XD
The ritual needed a pony sacrifice to complete.
Luna rendered Twilight powerless to perform the sacrifice herself.
All she had to do was prevent anyone from dying upon that hill. She thought she'd won. And then the fatal mistake, she did it herself.
Twilight as much as she may have forgotten, is still a pony. Far removed mayhaps and even farther after what is to come, but I imagine it is enough.
Or I'm wrong but eh.
Well this is still a very fun ride, I though it was interest, if not totally un-surprised, that Luna was has also trotted a similar path that Twilight ha trotted, it was nice to see that he has manage to stay herself after all that she had seen. Good job can't wait to see the coming end.
Looking forward to reading the last chapter this has been a interesting tale (for lack of better words) And even now at the end of all things I hold a sliver of hope, futile though it may be, that somewhere in the vast expanse that a fragment of the kind and loving polymath still exists, that the twisted vile mockery of what was once Twilight Sparkle did not totally win.