The Fall
“Bring him back inside,” Star Shine said. “We’ll kill him later.”
He turned his attention from Thistleroot to Mimic. “So, Twilight Sparkle. As I said, I’m surprised to see you here.” His horn began to glow. “I have to admit, I’ve been curious for some time now. Just how do I stack up against Princess Celestia’s own star pupil?”
Mimic hesitated for a moment, and the green fire swirled about her as she dropped the facade. Star Shine stepped back from the sudden flames, blinking stupidly.
“I appreciate the help, but I could have handled the pony fine on my own.”
Star Shine looked from her to Thistleroot. As he was turned away, Mimic threw Thistleroot a quick wink.
“You were a changeling?” Thistleroot cried in dismay.
“Of course. You ponies are so easy to dupe. And you led me straight here.”
“This whole time? How? How could you have fooled Celestia all those years?”
“What? No, I-“
“Just… don’t bother,” Star Shine said. “I don’t think it’s possible to stop him once he-“
“I read your books. I read your books! How could you do this to me? I- I loved you! I always admired you from afar, but then there you were, and for once in my life I could be there for you. Was it all a lie?”
Mimic and Star Shine both stared at him as he broke down into heavy sobs.
“Is he going to be okay?” Mimic asked.
“He… does this sometimes. I... I think it’s an act?” Star Shine shook his head. “What are you doing here?”
“Queen Lirean sent me ahead to make sure you had everything you needed.”
“I see. And so you grabbed some random pony off the street to guide you here, disguised as Twilight Sparkle so that nobody would question your intentions?”
“Exactly.”
“It’s amazing,” Star Shine said, shaking his head.
“What is?”
“None of you blasted changelings give me a fraction of the credit I deserve. I was valedictorian of that school. I didn’t get where I was with my good looks alone. You just happened to run into him, of all ponies? Lirean didn’t even know I was freed, let alone where I would be.” Star Shine’s horn flared with silver light and a force like a train slammed against Mimic, throwing her against the wall, driving the wind from her lungs.
“I am tired!” Star Shine threw another blast of pure magic at the changeling, throwing her tumbling through the air with a cry of pain. “Of you changelings!” Another flash of silver and another cry of pain. “Underestimating me!”
“Mimic!” Thistleroot cried, pulling against the cords of shadow holding him aloft.
“Don’t you start! Kill him. I don’t care who’s going to find out about it. I don’t want to hear another word come out of that slack jawed idiot’s face ever again!”
The shadows shifted, wrapping tightly around Thistleroot’s neck and squeezing. His head went light almost immediately as the circulation was cut off. His hind legs kicked out in fear, and he heard the specters behind him begin chittering in excitement.
Mimic rolled to her feet and let loose a shaky bolt of fire, but Star Shine swatted it from the air and counterattacked, driving her back with more silver energy.
None of them noticed the sudden shudder that went through the tower, or the sound of cracking rock and sliding earth a moment later.
The specters’ heads whipped about to face the North as a faint echo of many ponies crying out in fear could barely be heard.
And then a brilliant golden light shot into the room from the balcony. It hit the center of the room and expanded.
Air rushed into Thistleroot’s lungs as the bonds that held him loosened and then vanished. He fell to his hooves and staggered. The specters cried out in pain.
The golden light faded, mostly. Thistleroot glanced quickly around the room, taking note of any changes. Star Shine and the hypnotized unicorns wore shimmering auras of gold about their chests and front legs. Like Thistleroot, the hypnotized ponies had been freed from the specter’s shadowy grasps and were one by one falling to the floor, shaking restlessly.
Thistleroot looked down to find himself wreathed in the same golden light.
“Huh. Weird.”
Star Shine cried out in rage, gathering up more silver light and hurling it across the room. At the same time, Mimic attacked, green fire spraying out toward Star Shine. Thistleroot cowered back as Star Shine whipped about, too slow to stop the changeling’s magic.
The gold about Thistleroot swelled to meet the silver and burned the magic away before it could harm him. Likewise, Star Shine’s aura protected him against Mimic.
The specters had launched their own magic, not at any of the combatants, but at the ponies they had been controlling. The shadows splintered and burned away, and the unicorns did not so much as shudder.
Star Shine snarled, and sent a bolt of silver light at Mimic. She tried to put up a magical defense this time, but his magic pushed through it and forced her into a kneeling position. His horn flared again, and more silver surged toward her.
The silver light was burned away as Thistleroot slid into place between them.
“Move it, boy!” Star Shine screamed, horn flaring again. The magic around Thistleroot flared to life, and whatever effect Star Shine was after was thwarted.
Star Shine stepped back, eyes shifting about the room, and then looking down at himself.
“You okay?” Thistleroot asked.
“Fine,” Mimic said through gritted teeth, forcing herself upright. There didn’t seem to be any damage to her outer form, but her breathing was ragged.
“I see,” Star Shine said. “This magic is Celestia’s. Something went wrong. She knew the ponies in charge of maintaining the field were in trouble, but she didn’t know how, so she shot from the flank. Magic to protect all ponies in the tower.”
Whatever he was going to say next was cut off by a sudden explosion of noise from outside. A horrible screeching of rock against rock that lasted better than a minute before it finally settled.
“What was that?” Mimic asked after a minute of silent tension, her breathing still uneven.
“If I had to guess,” Star Shine said. “That would be my side winning.”
Thistleroot shook his head. “We have the elements, and the princesses, and the stone tablet. No way you guys win this.”
“Don’t be so sure, kid. Not that it matters to you either way. This magic shouldn’t last much longer, and then I’m free to take you apart.”
The words were barely out of his mouth before Canterlot tower began to shake. The floor lurched and then dropped a foot, and then begin to tilt. Thistleroot began to slide as the floor tilted more and more, a horrible grinding noise of stone and metal bending and shattering drowning out any other noise. He saw Mimic shouting at him, but couldn’t make out the words. She shook her head and began running toward the balcony.
Right, she could fly them down. But she was already half way across the room.
The room lurched downward again, and the ceiling began to cave. Thistleroot saw a heavy slab of stone, as though it were moving in slow motion, and tried to call a warning, but he couldn’t even hear himself.
He could only watch as the stone fell and struck Mimic driving her sideways. She rolled, avoiding the brunt of the impact, but she left behind a dark smear from her shoulder as she did so and her wing had bent at an unnatural angle.
The golden aura flared, and he flinched, looking up to see a piece of stone twice as large as him diverted by the magic.
Then the sound seemed to double, and then triple, and the floor began to crumble from beneath him.
Moments later, the tower fell.
*****
Everything was silent.
The dust settled over what was once Canterlot.
Homes lay in ruins. Streets were cracked down to the sewers beneath. Parks were stripped of their trees and lakes overflowed with debris.
Near the center of the city, at the bottom of a valley of broken stone, the rubble shifted.
A heavy slab of stone heaved upward, carried atop a golden glow. It slid off of the magic and fell flat beside the shaking unicorn. A few seconds later the golden glow faded, the magic evidently spent.
“I think the tower fell over,” Thistleroot managed in a weak voice.
No answer.
His heart skipped a beat and he looked down.
Mimic lie on her back, chest rising and falling. Still alive, at least. Her eyes were open.
“You okay?”
“I… I think so.” She put a hoof against his chest and pushed. He backed away, giving her room to shakily get to her hooves. She tried to stretch her wings and hissed in pain. Her right wing was bent halfway down. “That’s going to take some time to heal.”
“Well, all things considered, I think this went well.”
“Yes,” Mimic said, looking at him again, head tilting slightly. “You were over…” She looked down at their indent in the rubble. “You saved me?”
“Well, I mean, I had that nifty gold stuff and you didn’t,” Thistleroot said. “You would have done the same.”
“I really wouldn’t have. You don’t even know me.” She looked him up and down thoughtfully. “It was Thistleroot, right?”
“Yeahuh. Some call me ‘Lord Thistleroot’.”
Mimic gave a hissing sound that Thistleroot realized after a moment might have been a laugh. “I’ll keep that in mind. Now then, any idea what happened to the tower?”
“No idea. Let’s climb?”
Mimic nodded and they carefully made their way up the side of the newly formed valley, stepping gingerly onto the largest pieces of debris.
Thistleroot reached the top first and froze. Mimic was a moment behind him.
Canterlot had been destroyed.
A long moment passed before Thistleroot sank back onto his haunches. His front legs began to tremble.
“Thistleroot?” Mimic said cautiously.
He tried to say something. Anything. But for the first time in as long as he could remember, Thistleroot was speechless.
His home.
It was gone.
“Thistleroot, we should move.”
She was right, but he couldn’t bring himself to stand. He felt a cold wetness across his cheeks.
“It… everyone was gone, right? All the ponies. They can rebuild it, right?” She bumped her head against him, trying to get some response.
Another moment passed in silence.
“Thistleroot!” Hooves grabbed him roughly around his midsection and he felt himself rolling back down the rubble. A moment later, a blazing plume of silver fire struck the stone he’d been sitting on.
That got him moving. He managed to land on his hooves and began climbing again, only to falter when he heard a whimper of pain behind him. He turned to see Mimic struggling to keep up, wincing each time she had to put her weight on her right foreleg.
He doubled back to help her back to the top of the pile.
Star Shine was climbing to the top of the other side of the large valley, horn glowing with furious silver energy. He loosed another bolt, and Thistleroot pushed Mimic over the top of their side just as it streaked overhead.
“What’s the point?” He shouted as he helped Mimic back up and they began moving again. “You almost died just now. I think it’s safe to say you’ve been fired.”
“Yes,” he heard Star Shine call from out of view. “But that’s a problem for another time. This is personal. Consider it a bit of well-earned recreation. Therapy, even.”
“Great,” Thistleroot muttered. “Nopony appreciates the comedy genius.”
“You should go without me,” Mimic said. “He’ll catch up to us at this rate.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Thistleroot said, staying beside her. “Unfortunately, I’ve always considered myself more of a Daring Do and less of a Swan Belle. I’m not going to angst about while my vampony boyfriend does all the work. Not that I know who that is.”
“I… I have no idea what you’re saying.”
“Just keep going as fast as you can, we don’t have far.”
“You have a plan?”
Thistleroot grinned, “Sure, let’s go with that.”
Mimic shook her head and steeled herself before pushing harder. With Thistleroot there for support, she was able to keep a decent pace. Occasionally Star Shine would catch a glimpse of them and fire off a bolt of magic, shattering stone and occasionally knocking them off their feet.
“He’s toying with us,” Mimic hissed.
“Yeah,” Thistleroot said. “Wouldn’t be surprised if he could teleport.”
“We’re not going to be able to outrun him.”
“Nope.” Thistleroot looked around. Everything seemed so different now. It was lucky he’d been around so often the past few days. “This way.”
In the distance, a single section stood untouched by whatever had destroyed the rest of Canterlot. A disk off to the side of the mass of stone that was once Canterlot castle, about ten feet in diameter. On it stood a stone dais and an untouched statue.
Questions for later, Thistleroot thought with a shudder.
Another nerve wracking minute, and their destination was in view. It had fared no better than the rest of the city, the ground torn apart, the buildings around it reduced to rubble. But the grounds looked nicer, simply because there was fewer buildings within them to be destroyed.
“This is your first time to Canterlot, isn’t it? Welcome to one of the hottest tourist scenes, the Canterlot Gardens.”
“I really hope you have something other than sightseeing in mind.”
Thistleroot’s reply was cut off as a bolt of energy struck him from behind, rolling him several paces with a shout of pain.
Mimic looked back with a fresh wave of panic to see that Star Shine had begun to close the distance and was readying another blow. She pooled her own magic and the silver light met changeling fire, rocking her back several steps.
“Can you run?” Thistleroot asked through gritted teeth, the coat on his left flank darkened with red.
Mimic glanced at the gardens, only a hundred yards away. “Yes.”
She pushed herself past the pain of every step. She felt a shiver of power in the air and banked. The bolt passed by her, spiraling into the distance.
Another dozen agonizing seconds and they made it over the shattered stone arch and into the heavy trees of the garden.
“Hide,” Thistleroot said. "Use the trees and bushes to keep out of sight.”
“You don’t think he can track us with magic?”
“Oh, I’m sure he can. Just try to stay out of sight, and be ready to attack if you get a chance.” Thistleroot turned and stopped walking.
“Woah, wait. You’re not planning on fighting him, are you?”
“No, I thought we’d talk things out, see where that gets me.”
“He’ll tear you to pieces.”
“Mimic, do you trust me?”
“Not really, no.”
“Oh for, just go hide, and if you see a chance to take him out while he’s choking the life from me with his bare hooves, take it.”
Mimic hesitated a moment longer.
“Unless you have another plan, because quite frankly I’m open to suggestions.”
Mimic shook her head and limped her way out of sight.
Thistleroot stood, trying to ignore the deep shaking in his muscles.
Star Shine stepped carefully over the stone arch and moved to stand across him. “Finally tired of running?”
“You’re a sick pony,” Thistleroot said. “You could have caught us earlier than this.”
“I could have, but there’s no point in rushing therapy. I learned that from an actual therapist, mind you.”
“Let me guess, he charged by the hour.”
“Cute. Oh, I have been looking forward to this.”
“And now you’re going to do the villain thing where you put it off like another pony will put off a good cigar,” Thistleroot said. “Typical.”
“Terry Prancette? Do you ever just shut up and take things seriously?”
“No, usually I-“
Star Shine’s horn flared and he shot a bolt of magic toward Thistleroot. “Just shut up!”
Thistleroot’s horn glowed blue in response, and the bushes around him surged upward as he fell backward. The silver magic seared the leaves and cracked the bark, but sputtered out before breaking through.
Thistleroot’s horn flared again, sending a pulse of magic through the bushes and the ground about Star Shine began to churn and thick roots began winding around his hooves. Stare Shine flinched, horn flaring and burning at the roots until he could break free. He backed away, but as he did, the trees behind him bent and crack, the branches reaching down and scratching at his face and eyes, the heavy trunks moving to pin him.
Another flash of silver and he was free, appearing behind Thistleroot, horn flaring for the final blow.
He hesitated when he saw that Thistleroot was already facing toward him, ready.
“Hoof to the face!” Thistleroot shouted, striking Star Shine with an uppercut. There wasn’t much force behind it, but he felt the spell slip away. Thistleroot’s horn flashed once again, and the bushes around them shuddered. More roots tore through the soil, wrapping around Star Shine.
“Go Mimic! Take him out!”
Mimic charged forward from her cover, driven by changeling fire. Star Shine’s eyes widened in horror and he had only a moment to scream as the fire hit him full force. He shuddered as the green flames tore through the roots and tossed him rag-doll through the air.
He hit the ground with a thud of finality.
Mimic came down on her hoof hard and buckled, but barely managed to keep upright. She looked down at Star Shine with a frown and shook her head.
“Thistleroot, where did that come from?” She turned to him, a faint tremor in her voice. “I had no idea you could do stuff like that… Thistleroot?”
“I… Holy… I meant break his horn!”
“…Oh.” Mimic looked back over her shoulder. “That’s the kind of thing you should specify beforehand. I just thought... considering...”
“That’s… you…” For the second time in as many hours, Thistleroot fell backwards onto his haunches in shock. “I mean… I guess he… deserved… he would have done, tried to do it to me… my…”
“Are you… are you going to be okay?” Mimic asked.
“No, yes. It’s just I… this is a weird day for me."
“You want to go find Scootaloo?”
“Yeah. Yeah, let’s go do that. Yeah.”
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And that, boys and girls, is why you don't dimension door into melee. Unless you have the build for it. I'm partial to 5e bladesingers.
Woah! 2 updates in as many days! Fast! Or has it been a few days? Nope, it's only been 1 day.
And liking the adventurey chase feel! Even though I dunno what's going on 'cause its been too long. Shipping Mimic X Thistleroot!
Just gonna leave other updates until I can reread all of it.
Oh... First Kill...
Oh! Nice Bella Swan analogue name!
Terry Pratchett!
Typos:
specter’s
aura’s
Thisleroot
her room to shakily to her hooves.
out of site [x2]
7814308
Thank you. I actually managed to get one of the 'out of sites' before you mentioned it. The others I completely missed.
After thinking about it and remembering Mimic's musings in the changeling hive, I edited the end to make her less excited about winning the fight. She's still a bit more hardened than Thistleroot, but it doesn't really fit her characterization up to this point to be happy about the turn of events.
Just wish I'd thought of that before 25 people had seen it.
And edited the chapter title because the original was meant to be humorous and really just didn't work.
7814297 What?
I have to go back and find out who these ponies were. I completely forgot.
7814380
It was a Dungeons and Dragons reference.
WhooHoo! Another chapter ^_^!!!
Well... God damn. Things have gone to shit really quickly.
Yeah, ketchup definitely required
Thistlroot cried in dismay
The gold about Thistleroot swelled
1. Thistleroot.
2. I think you meant around.
7819267
Thanks for all the comments. I'd been meaning to go back over old chapters now that I'm back.