Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Blot Out The Stars

A dark back alley, filled by the long shadows of the approaching twilight. No pony there, or anywhere close enough to hear Stella as she appeared. Her body leaned against the closest wall, dirtying her coat and her mane with mould and moss and unwashed dust. It didn't matter. She chuckled weakly, too weakly for it to make it past her throat. Her body was weak, wounded, on the brink, but her magic was still strong. Still plentiful. She would survive. She would heal. She would return, and she wouldn't waste time with any honour. Twilight deserved none. She spasmsed, her own laughter poorly received by the rest of her. She almost fell, but caught herself with her magic and kept herself upright. It didn't matter. She began to step forward slowly, moving her hooves and legs with her horn like her body was a doll. She'd find shelter. She'd trick ponies into healing her. She would survive. She would win.

There was figure at the other end of the alley. A pony. A stallion. Unremarkable in his silhouette. Not broadly built, no wings or horn, nothing else with him. Stella didn't even bother using her coil. Not yet. Maybe later. He didn't move, staying in the shadow, hidden to her. Perhaps he was afraid. Maybe he would run away. Maybe he would come closer and offer to help. She'd use her coil after he acted, either way. She stepped weakly in his direction, one hoof after the other, rarely in ways a body would have naturally moved. It didn't matter. She had magic enough to get to safety. But he did not move. He spoke instead. Stella wished he hadn't.

"I would have expected some thanks, at the least."

Stella recognised the voice. Only hisses came to her mouth, her body too weak and damaged to speak, her mind reeling and unable to string her thoughts into sentences. The stallion stepped forward towards her, and even in the darkness of the late hour she still recognised him. Stella stopped in her tracks, legs bent at wrong angles, breath heavy and shaking. He took another step towards her.

"I'm sure you're hoping to get somewhere else now. Get yourself together again, and play another round with Twilight. I'm sure you're thinking you'd win this time. I'm sure you're worried sick right now, and if you still had a stomach you'd feel it twisting." Another step. "You would have found a way out yourself, I don't doubt it. I sped things up, and spared you unwanted humiliation. However, I'm afraid to tell you I'm here to confirm your worst worries. It's been fun, but all things end, Stella." He had kept walking as he'd spoken, and he was up to her at that point. "I'm sorry to say, this time you won't return later."

Stella did not have time to turn and run, though she wished to. She did not have time to do anything, in her conditions. Merely she stared as the Charioteer slowly raised his hoof, and slowly brought it against her face. She didn't even get to close her eyes. When he tapped against her forehead, she saw no more.

Stella's head split like a log, and like a log nothing came of the broken halves. Her body fell on the ground, a disjointed pile, and the day after, when someone checked there, they wondered where the stack of oddly coloured wood had come from. The Charioteer walked away from the scene, and disappeared completely before reaching the end of the alley. The Sun set over the horizon, and clouds came over the sky, and rain poured down over the city and its streets and its buildings and the alley and washed away the memories of what had happened there, and of the one who there had died.

Comments

[Skywalker215]

Just 10 chapters left until the 1,000 max limit.

[Speckle]

"sighs"
I dunno whether or not to be thankful, sad, or somewhere in between. The biggest question I have is whether or not Twilight will find out that Stella's....dead?
"goes to check next chapter"

[Saix]

First things first, thanks for clarifying those aspects of Stella's character after I wrote that giant wall of text, and for keeping on dropping hints about the spatial manipulation spell despite my piss poor performance in solving it.

Well, Stella's dead. It was always the most likely outcome, especially with the state of the statue and Cozy finding her lab, and I was waiting for the other shoe to drop after she was captured, but I still feel bad about it, despite everything. Despite being one of the most talented, accomplished and powerful beings in Equestrian history, to the extent that almost the entire cast had to work together and cheat constantly just to beat her, and the fact that she saved the world from an invading abomination, it feels like she wasted her entire life. After all that the only person left alive bar Otty and the Charioteer who has any real amount of memories of her is Starlight, and they're all bad memories. It's a complicated legacy for sure.

It's pretty interesting to compare her to Wick Clip actually, objectively speaking Wick Clip has so little going on in her life and such sad motivations that she should feel like a more pitiful and pathetic character than Stella, but for me at least Stella beats her in that department by leagues. I guess there's only so much achievements can do for you if your personality is that rancid, and her status as a puppet doesn't help.

Likeability aside though, she was an extremely interesting character, especially considering her limited interactions with other characters, and it's going to be weird not having her be around any more, so nice work with her.