Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Stargazer

Twilight whipped her neck forward, her horn enveloped in flaming magic flowing into a roaring blade. She dug her hooves in and grit her teeth, pushing through the physical strain of holding so much power streaming out of her for so long. Nightmare Moon had nowhere left to run, and if she could end things there she would.

Nightmare Moon slammed down her horn in a last desperate attempt to push back Twilight. Magic flared around it like a maul as she brought it onto Twilight's attack. The two clashed with a bright flash of light and a loud, thunderous note underscoring the impact. The crystal tower beneath their hooves cracked, their necks shuddered, and both their heads were pushed back by the resulting wave.

Nightmare Moon let the impact carry her body instead of fighting back against it. As Twilight stopped her head moving downwards and began to look up and steady herself again, the black alicorn reared onto her hind legs. Magic grew around her horn as she spread her wings and prepared to bring it all crashing down onto Twilight's body. Twilight watched as fear seized her brain, realising she might not be fast enough to meet the next blow.

But the growing, violently swirling sphere of magical energy condensing around Nightmare Moon's horn never came down. Before she could strike, someone else struck her first. Shot with blinding speed and strength, a large and ornate silver sword lodged itself into her head and her neck and through them. She faltered, lost her proper balance, and as blood began to shoot out of her wound she lost control of her magic. The sphere shattered and dissolved into black and blue bolts of lighting that showered over her face and burnt her skin.

Twilight saw her chance, and she took it. While Nightmare Moon still stood on her hind legs, she pushed herself forward, her horn once more flaring with magic. She struck the unhealed wound on Nightmare Moon's chest and pierced through it, lodging her horn as deep as she could push it. Gritting her teeth and ignoring the pain, she unleashed as much magic as she could into the alicorn's body.

Twilight's eyes glew bright from the power she channelled, and so did Nightmare Moon's as that power pushed its way out from the core of her body. Light leaked from her wounds and out of her mouth, carried along by her screaming, and out of the cracks opening all over her body. A hole began to open in her back as Twilight's spell ate through her from the inside, and her hooves left solid ground as she was pushed by it.

Twilight felt Nightmare Moon's body slip from her horn. Eyes ablaze and mane flowing on its own, she took one more step forward and pointed her head down off the broken edge of the tower. Pulled by gravity and pushed by magic, Nightmare Moon fell towards the ground, as the stream of magic tearing through her from the inside swelled into a torrent pouring out of Twilight's horn and swallowed her whole.

Twilight pushed out everything she could, raw unfiltered magic leaving her horn, hooves digging into the crystal as she fired her spell to the ground, the golden beam wide as the building she stood on and not much less tall than it had been, visible from everywhere in the Empire. She pushed and pushed, crystal melting under her assault, air burning, the ground around the area cracking under the pressure. She pushed until her horn screamed at her to stop, until her muscles gave out, until her breathing stopped. Until her vision fogged and her ears could hear nothing and her mind almost blacked out. Then she stopped, panting, hurting, limbs failing her, and through lidded eyes she looked at the wide, smouldering crater she'd left on the ground down below.

Comments

[Speckle]

Did...did this do it?