Divergent Destinies

by Leondude

Chapter 11 - Vengeance

Sunset and her acquaintances sat in a dark, damp dungeon room, their collective attempt at defeating Nightmare Moon a failure. The only source of light was from the moon between the metal bars on a small window. While they have tried to escape, the magical properties of the dungeon sapped away at their power, leaving them unable to use whatever magic they possess to escape. Outside of the cell they were imprisoned in was a small undead dragon and a key right next to him. While everypony else assumed this was a necromantic creation of Nightmare Moon, Sunset knew that the revenant standing before her was Spike.

"Spike," Sunset whispered, "Let us out."

"Can't," Spike replied "Even if I wanted to, Nightmare Moon would find out and I'd be even more dead. Besides, she already killed Twilight."

"No, she didn't. Twilight's still alive."

"Really? Then where is she?"

"Kain took her."

Spike paused for a moment. He remembered Twilight talking about the monster that murdered her parents before her very eyes. He shook as he remembered a luminescent talon slashing at his throat when he wasn't even old enough to speak. He shuddered to imagine what bestial savage would be willing enough to orphan a little filly as well as murder a newborn dragon.

"Yep," Spike said fearfully "She's dead."

---

Within the Everfree Forest, Kain landed towards a cloaked equine figure.

"Is it done?" the cloaked pony asked raspily.

"Yes," Kain replied.

"And should she die?"

"You have the spare, do you not?"

"True, but she is not as powerful as Twilight Sparkle. Nor does she trust me as easily."

"Considering you're a lich who taught Nightmare Moon herself a few tricks of the necromancer trade, I'm hardly surprised," Kain deadpanned.

---

Within the dungeon, Sunset continued to try and reason with Twilight's former assistant, but to no avail.

"I would help you out for Twilight's sake," Spike said "But I never really had that much of an attachment to the living anyway. Besides..."

Spike looked in both directions before moving towards Sunset.

"Nightmare Moon scares the Tartarus out of me," Spike whispered.

"Even though you could suck her soul out?" Sunset asked.

"Yeah, but I'm too scared to try it. An alicorn more powerful than mortal ponies and can control the Nightmare Forces? Kinda blows Twilight and I out of the water."

"What if I get Xindisious to bring you back? Would that make you feel better?"

Spike looked away before sighing and looking back.

"Fine," Spike said in an annoyed tone "But you owe me five souls if this goes wrong and we all get killed."

Spike picked up the dungeon key that was next to him and opened the door. As Sunset and the others exited the cell, they felt their magic return to them.

"Aw, yeah!" Rainbow Dash shouted excitedly "Now let's kick Nightmare Moon's butt!"

"How about you save the butt-kicking to me and Spike?" Sunset asked.

"What?!"

"Hey, you still get to do something," Sunset retorted defensively "While Spike and I distract Nightmare Moon, you and the others look around the castle for Celestia."

"No way. If we're taking on Nightmare Moon, we're doing it as a team!"

---

Twilight continued trotting towards her target, her rage and anguish fuelling the surge of magic within her. It felt like a wellspring that hadn't been tapped in centuries. When she made her way to the Everfree Forest, she saw in the distance the one that made her this way. That beast…that demon... the one that made her life Tartarus.

Kain.

She felt another surge of magic course through her as she lept towards the ancient brute and drove her front hoof so hard into his face it melted his mask right off of him, revealing and further disfiguring his already mangled beak. Twilight ripped through the forest with Kain in tow before smashing him into and through a castle wall at the end of the forest path. The wall collapsed as Kain was thrown off of Twilight's hoof. Kain stared in awe and horror at the young unicorn before him, her eyes glowing white with magic.

While she appeared expressionless, Kain knew that Twilight wanted nothing more than to painfully end his unnaturally long existence. Out of a natural sense of self-preservation as well as curiosity in what Twilight could do in her new state, Kain got up from the rubble of the ruined wall and flew high into the air. Twilight leapt into the air and shot an extremely powerful blast at Kain's direction. Kain narrowly missed the attack from the enraged unicorn, only receiving a singed feather. But when Twilight repeated the attack as she caught up to him, he was far less fortunate.

Without the pain-relieving enchantments of his mask, Kain howled in agony before coming face-to-face with the merciless mare. Twilight tackled Kain towards the ground, but in that same moment, he clawed at her shoulder and used his own magic to hurl her off of him and onto the castle below. The disfigured griffon looked down where Twilight had landed. While he couldn't see any sight of her, he eventually heard Twilight scream, though it was less a terrified wail and more a furious howl.

A lavender-coloured mass of unbridled rage and nigh limitless magic burst forth from below, every ounce of that arcane power aimed directly at Kain. He tried blocking the charging mare but for all his efforts his luminescent talon got shattered into a million pieces before fading from existence entirely. Before he had time to process how excruciating it was to have one of his limbs torn into nothing, Kain flew away as fast as his wings could carry him, only to get hit with another blast of magic that sent him plummeting down into the canyon below. The griffon tried to get up but it was no use. Crippled by the pain as well as his now missing talon, Kain could only stare in terror at what he had unleashed and what his employer intended to do with her. Knowing this was the end for him, Kain closed his eyes in resignation and drew what would soon be his last breath.

So this is what it felt like, brother? Kain thought to himself, his beak too mangled for words.
And with a blinding flash of light, the legendary griffin ceased to be.

Author's Note:

What better way to come back from hiatus than with Twilight killing the Joe Chill to her Batman?

And to those who stuck around, I hope it was worth the wait.