The Magister of the Deep

by The Voice in the Water

9 – Contest with the Deep

The Rainbooms stared in awe at the vortex of light that had engulfed princess Twilight. None of them dared to move, let alone speak, as the shimmering sphere pulsed and whirled. An eternity of seconds passed, and the light began to recede, revealing a… creature that they could only hope was the princess.

Slowly, the figure drifted down as its feet alighted on the ground.

The entity resembled a human in only the most generous of senses, in that it was humanoid, and vaguely feminine. But there the similarities ended. Instead of soft skin, the entity looked as though it were sculpted from smooth, lavender mother-of-pearl, save for its forearms and legs, which were adorned with a set of brassy vambraces and grieves. It lacked a right hand, instead having a ornate, center-griped, square shield in its place. A set of long tines emerged from the four corners of the shield, and were connected by a glowing, blue field of energy, with the strange blue gem that had adorned the princess's hand now proudly displayed on the shield's boss. Nearly a dozen other smooth, rounded blue crystals dotted its body at regular intervals. Most disturbing of all was its face. It was completely smooth and featureless, save pair of closed eyes. A long, curved horn adorned its forehead, and in place of hair, it had a series of plates resembling the shell of a chiton. And from its back was a massive pair of crystalline damselfly wings.

The entity stood completely still, its head bowed slightly towards the ground, as though it were sleeping on its feet. Slowly, ever so painfully slowly, the creature raised its head. In an instant its eyes snapped open, revealing twin, blazing fountains of purple light.

"P…princess Twilight?" Pinkie stammered, "Is that you?"

The entity's head swiveled with glacial speed to Pinkie, and regarded her as if seeing her for the first time, before cocking to the side as if trying to understand what she said. It blinked slowly, before it nodded with the same lethargic deliberateness.

The spell broken, the Rainbooms all rushed to their transformed friend, firing off dozens of questions at once. Looking at each one, Twilight raised a hand to silence them. Without saying a word, she pushed her hand out, as though telling the human girls to step back. Slowly, they obliged.

Closing all but her index finger, she pointed to all of the Rainbooms with one sweeping gesture, before pointing to the ground.

“You… want us to stay here?” Rainbow asked.

Twilight nodded.

“Twilight, we can’t. Our families are down there. We have to do something to…” Fluttershy protested, but was cut off by Twilight holding up her hand and shaking her head ‘no.’

Pointing again, she repeated the ‘you stay here’ gesture, this time with more force, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

“Twi, ah’ know there’s probly nothin’ we can do, but we cahn’t jus’ stay here. We have ta’ do somethin’!”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed as she regarded the Rainbooms. As she did, her wings flipped up and snapped open, before beginning to vibrate. Slowly, she lifted off the ground and hovered some 20 feet above the girls. Raising her left hand, she drew a circle in the air. An instant later, a shimmering bubble of glowing energy encapsulated the Rainbooms, all of whom rushed to the edge of the field, and began pounding on it, crying Twilight’s name, but the field held firm.

Slowly, the reality of the situation settled on them. They were trapped. And there was nothing they could do about it.

With one last glance at the humans below her, Twilight turned her attention towards the devastated city. Wings thrumming with power, she snot off towards the epicenter like a comet, leaving the Rainbooms to watch mournfully as their friend vanished into the distance.

*The epicenter of the nuclear strike on Canterlot City*

The Magister lazily floated above the smoldering devastation that had once been her false-self’s home. She’d won. Soon, all life on this world would wither and die, if not from the radiation, then from the sun being blotted out by the dust and ash thrown into the atmosphere. And anything that lived through that, the Deep’s beautiful blighted energy was now filling every part of the planet, and would slowly sap the life out of everything.

Now, it was only a matter of dealing with the Sky’s agents.

Admittedly, she could simply leave them to die of starvation or blight poisoning, but that felt… anti-climactic in a way. While a lingering, slow death was possible, it left too much to chance. No, once she dealt with the Sky’s vessel and the bearer she recalled from her false-self's memories was named Twilight Sparkle, she would finish the job. If she was feeling merciful, she would kill them with a death song; quick, agonizing, and unstoppable. A moment of dark humor passed through her as a memory of her false-self came to the surface: it would be ironic for them to die by her song, since her false-self had once saved their lives with one.

The cruel, poetic justice of it all gave her a thrill.

But first, there was someone ahead of them in line. Someone she could see approaching at high speed. The Magister didn’t even flinch as the bearer came streaking out of the sky and attempted to strike her with the vessel. At the last moment, the Magister casually blinked out of the path of the attack, causing the bearer to overshoot before recovering and wheeling around to face her.

Regarding the bearer, the Magister smiled.

She’d done it. She’d actually done it. The Magister had her doubts that the bearer would find the will to fully submit herself to the Sky, but she had.

This… this was better than she could have hoped for. Now she had the opportunity to truly destroy all traces of the Sky on this world. If she could kill the bearer, she’d have proof that she was stronger than the Sky’s servants, and none would be able to defeat her.

And if she lost?

Ultimately it didn’t matter. It wasn’t like the bearer or vessel could actually do anything to save life on this planet anymore.

Now, all that was left was the contest between herself and the Sky's miserable slave. And she was determined to be the winner of that contest.

Smiling maliciously at the bearer, the Magister pushed her hand into the Deep’s space. Grabbing onto an idea, she pulled her hand back into this reality, a long, brutal looking rapier forming from the Deep’s power. Raising the blade in a mocking salute, the Magister squared off against the bearer.

******

The sky above the ruins of Canterlot shook and roared with a steady stream of explosions, impacts and beams of purple light as a titanic battle raged between Twilight Sparkle and the Magister.

Twilight wheeled to the side to avoid a volley of lethal bolts of void darkness, before thrumming her wings and barreling towards Sunset. Pulling on the well of power now coursing within her, she sent a mental command to The Aegis.

Strike.

Heeding its bearer, the gems dotting her body erupted in void light, sending a dozen bolts of energy screaming towards Sunset. Flapping her wings hard, Sunset dodged and parried the attack, before wheeling around and diving away from Twilight’s charge. Without missing a beat, Twilight’s wings thrummed, and she turned to pursue.

Down towards the ground they rocketed. Just before she impacted, Sunset flared out her wings and stalled her flight, before turning and reversing her course strait at Twilight, her rapier poised to strike.

Twilight banked hard and barely raised The Aegis in time to deflect the strike, which skittered off the surface with a shower of sparks. The force of the blow was enough to push Twilight backwards, her wings barely able to keep her from tumbling out of control. Without relenting, Sunset raised her hand and sent a blast of void darkness at the princess.

Defend.

A glowing shield of energy erupted from The Aegis, forming an impenetrable barrier around Twilight. As the he bolt of energy impacted the shield, it bounced off harmlessly and slammed into one of the buildings behind her, filling the air with the sound of a massive explosion as the damaged structure collapsed to the ground.

Shield dropping, Twilight raised the Aegis and rushed back into the fray.

*****

Calling on the Deep, the Magister raised her free hand and sent a volley of void energy bolts at the bearer and vessel. Unable to dodge in time, the bearer raised the vessel and summoned her shield again. The Magister didn’t relent in her assault, continuing to fire bolt after bolt of baleful energy, which slammed against the shield, only to sizzle away and dissipate harmlessly. Seconds passed, and she could see the shield faltering, until it blinked out of existence. Stripped of her defense, the bearer managed to wheel out of the way of most of the bolts, but one struck her in the arm, cracking her pearly flesh.

The bearer reoriented herself and retaliated, sending a dozen snaking bolts of void light at the Magister, who had to dodge and parry as the volley managed to push her back.

This… this was wonderful, the Magister thought as the bearer flew forward and attempted to strike her with the vessel. Shifting in the air, the Magister retaliated with her rapier with in a series of quick thrusts, forcing the bearer to parry her attacks.

Nobody on this miserable mud-ball had been able to give her a challenge. And now? Now she was locked in mortal combat with a fully empowered Sky wielder. The rush, the thrill of her potential death, the contesting against such a powerful foe. It made her feel more whole than she had since she had been reborn.

And to make it even better, it was the one who had forced that false-self onto her. Even now, she still could feel some faint, distant echo of her false-self screaming for her to stop, to not hurt the bearer, but she easily pushed it away. She was going to enjoy killing this bearer and finally cutting out the last link to her false-self.

Calling on her power, she sent out a wave of void darkness, pushing the bearer back, before flapping her wings hard and closing the distance between them, her rapier flashing in a series of lunges and thrusts. Every time, the bearer’s vessel would rise and block her attacks.

But these continuous attacks were not just for show. No, she was learning.

The bearer, despite being her superior in raw power, was still clumsy with her efforts. Even with the vessel’s guidance, she was not accustomed to her new form, and was not utilizing it to its full potential.

What was more, while the bearer was nearly as strong as the Magister in close combat, she was at a severe disadvantage at range; her projectiles were simply far too slow to catch someone as nimble in the air as the Magister.

Even with that knowledge, she knew she had to be careful. The bearer and her vessel could still easily kill her if she made a mistake. But there was one final trick she had up her sleeve that could easily turn the tide. She just needed to wait a little while longer before she could play her hand.

So, until the time was right, she would fight with everything she had, and enjoy every moment of it.

*****

Wings thrumming with power, Twilight wove through the ruins of Canterlot City in pursuit of Sunset. After their last clash, Sunset had turned and flown towards the city, with Twilight hot on her tail. It struck her as odd that Sunset would suddenly flee, but she didn’t have time to question it. She couldn’t let her get away. The only explanation she could come up with was that Sunset was trying to find a place where she would have an advantage.

She couldn’t let that happen.

Raising The Aegis, Twilight pooled the Sky’s power and aimed the central crystal ahead of Sunset’s fleeing form.

Delete!

Power arced across the surface, and erupted as a brilliant sphere of light, which barreled towards the fleeing taken human. As the sphere closed in on Sunset, she banked to avoid the bolt. Narrowing her eyes, Twilight focused her will on the shining sphere.

Detonate!

The sphere exploded in a shower of light, catching Sunset off guard and sending her crashing into the ground. Steeling herself, Twilight’s wings thrummed harder as she dropped into a power-dive, The Aegis braced in front of her like a ram.

Sunset had barely recovered before Twilight slammed into her, knocking her off her feet and sending her flying into a nearby wall. Sunset’s form crumpled to the ground, phosphorescent fluid leaking from dozens of cracks radiating out from the point where The Aegis had struck.

Alighting on the ground, Twilight slowly approached the prone taken. Without any hesitation, she lifted The Aegis to finish the job.

This was the end. She would put this mockery of her friend down. She'd failed to save the rest of this world. But she could at least make sure that the one who had doomed it was brought down.

She wasn’t expecting to hear a low chuckle escape from Sunset as the taken weakly turned her head and looked at her foe with a smug, satisfied grin.

Child! Above you! Twilight heard The Aegis scream in her mind.

Twilight barely had time to wonder what was going on before she heard a sound much like a firework being set off. Before she could react, a bolt of blue energy slammed into her chest and detonated, sending her flying through the air and back to the ground. Tumbling across the pavement, she rolled and bounced until she slammed into an overturned car, bringing her to an abrupt stop. Painfully pushing herself up onto her hands and knees, she looked in the direction of the attack.

Her heart sank at what she saw.

On the building above where Sunset had fallen, there was a figure. It was clearly humanoid, and like Sunset, its body was composed of the same monochromatic gradient, though it wore much lighter looking armor than Sunset's. Like Sunset, it had a pair of massive wings, though it’s were much thinner, and resembled those of an albatross. In its arms, it carried a long, vicious looking weapon that vaguely resembled a slightly conical tube covered in barbs and prongs. Yet, where Sunset had a pair of eyes, this one had the typical single eye of a common taken.

But most horrible of all was the face, which she could now see clearly as the creature lowered its strange weapon from its eye and regarded her.

Because Twilight recognized its… her face.

It was the one she would see when she looked in the mirror as a human.

It was her face.

It was another Twilight Sparkle.

Author's Note:

Dun dun dun!

I can imagine a few of you might have figured out that this was going to happen. I did leave a few, semi-subtle hints in the earlier chapters that SciTwi had been taken too. "But how did this happen?" you ask. That will be addressed next chapter.

Comments

[Featherfury]

Sci-Twi was taken too?! Nooooooo!

Actually, that makes a lot of sense given what Crystal Prep was like while Cinch was in charge.

[aline1]

Well this struck me completely out of left field, I wasn't even completely certain that SciTwi even existed in this universe to be honest.

So Twilight has two corrupt unholy abominations to slay I guess.

[Nick_The_Savage_174]

I reread the chapters but i cant find the hints. Wjich chapters exactly were they in?

[The oracle]

Ohohohohohoh! After this ends, I admit, I wouldn't be adverse to a spin off where SciTwi and Taken sunset go off on a adventure full of deep thoughts

[draph91]

i expected her to have been killed when Crystal prep was destroyed

but it does explain how the Magister was able to accelerate things so fast

[draph91]

9799979
there is one in the previous chapter, it mentions "the other"

[The Voice in the Water]

9799979
The previous chapter with the mention of the other. And chapter 6, where the news report mentioned that there was an electrical fire at Crystal prep, and that there were specific call-outs to staff and students being killed.

As to how this happened, that'll be addressed in the next chapter.

[The Voice in the Water]

9800091
Paracausal is a term used in the Destiny universe. It essentially means beings that are not bound by material cause and effect, and instead shape their reality through force of will and non-mortal precepts. For example, the Deep defines its reality by Sword Logic, which states that the act of killing proves that a being is true, and anything that cannot avoid being killed when faced with a foe is false. The more a thing kills, the more true it becomes, the more its existence is defined, and the greater its power to define reality around it.

This is different from acausal, another concept in Destiny, which defines a force as being outside linear time, but still bound by material cause and effect. Something that is acausal can tweak and modify things in a non-linear fashion, but is still bound by material reality. This differs from a paracausal force, which forcibly re-defines reality around it based on the power of the bearer.