The Eternal Blaze: Vicariously for Vengeance

by The Bricklayer

Final Volume: For In That Moment, The Swordsmen Advanced

Author's Note:

So... yeah, this is the end of things. I apologize for such a short chapter but honestly, I didn't think it needed to be any longer. I think things, for the most part, are wrapped up nice and tidy with a bow.

Sure, Storious is still out there and I guess that does count as a sequel hook but I'd like to imagine things progress to something resembling the canon show. After all, I never did say what the higher-ups in the Sword of Logos are like in this universe. YMMV.

Imagination is truly the greatest story of all, isn't it? I'd like you to imagine what happens next from here...

Twilight looked up at the beast, seemingly staring into the abyss as it stared back at her. It’s seven heads coiled around each other like snakes, forked tongues hissing at her. Scales like crimson blood clad the beast, shining like newly-forged armor.

And then it struck, heads jabbing at the earth and striking again and again. Twilight rolled to the left, the hydra letting out a horrific screech that nearly shattered her ears. Her blade plunged into its skin, striking with intent.

Two heads reared up, with a tsunami of flames erupting forth and scouring the land. Twilight stood amongst the fire, bathed in the inferno as she buffeted against the onslaught. Slowly but steadily, she marched forwards with both Rekka and Excalibur in hand.

Massive feet slammed into the earth, something truly primitive before her. The kaiju’s tails lashed at the earth, slamming into it and sending rubble flying. This beast wore no crowns, unlike its biblical counterpart but it was clear it was king of the world. All hail it.

Sharp spines erupted from its back, like blades traveling all the way up its many insidious necks. Like steel, they glittered in the sunlight. They flattered against the beast’s scales as it slowly strode forwards crushing the earth underfoot.

“Oh boy…” Twilight looked nervous under her helmet, and she would admit her swords were trembling in her hands. “Okay, so you got big. Very very big in fact. But that’s the thing about us knights, we slay dragons. Just look it up, in a book. It’s in every fairy tale.”

But would this story end like every fairy tale she’d ever read?

“I’ve never been one for fairy tales, I admit. My life’s never been exactly like something out of one,” she would go on to say. “It’s been horribly depressing. For ages, I was consumed by rage. I’d been pressured into being something I wasn’t. But… That doesn’t mean I won’t discount the possibility of a happy ending.”

The dragon tried to incinerate her again, only for dark portals conjured by Kurayami to swallow up the flames.

“I’m not alone in this fight…” Twilight reminded herself as five other knights stood by her side. Fire, Water, Shadow, Earth, Lightning, and Smoke stood against the end of days. “I have my friends by my side. Though some of them may be gone, they still live on in my memory.”

One last time, they charged into battle darting between blasts of fire and dodging certain doom. A black hole shot towards them, the void hoping to swallow them up. But Kurayami brought that void to bear. It again created a portal, and the black hole began to be swallowed up.

“That’s the thing about stories right?” Twilight asked herself, as Nagare cut through dark flame and dowsed the inferno. “They keep memories alive, even when their source is dead and gone. Nobody ever truly dies, not really. That’s why our Ridebooks persist, why we persist. The written word is all that stands between memory and oblivion. Without books as our anchors we are cast adrift; neither teaching, nor learning. They are windows on the past, mirrors on the present, and prisms reflecting all possible futures. Books are lighthouses erected in the dark sea of time.”

Golden lightning arced down from an ever-darkening sky, striking the dragon again and again as it howled in pain and shrieked in rage. Smoke shrouded the knights, even as jets of flame tried to smash through the smog and hit their targets.

The smoke swirled and surrounded the monstrous dragon like storm clouds and indeed lightning flashed inside it. It arced out of the clouds striking the dragon again and again. Atop a bolt of lightning was a Rider, Grape’s sword crackling with energy as they struck his foe.

The dragon tried to incinerate him, but no such luck as the Knight of Thunder and Lightning was pulled into one of Kurayami’s portals.

“I’m not even sure we’re doing any damage…” Grape muttered, with them looking up at their foe. “Like, sacred swords or no, we’re barely scratching it!”

“Look, as much as I believe in the power of friendship as the next guy,” Mr. Ogami mused. “I’m not even sure that will be able to save us!”

“No…” Twilight said, tightening her grip on Excalibur. “I have to believe our friendship will save us. It saved me once before, when I was turned into that thing back in High School. A friend reached out her hand to try and save me back then!”

“So what?” Ryo asked. “You want to try and befriend the monster?”

“Let her speak!” Hayato barked.

“Friendship is the strongest sort of magic in the world, I know that now,” Twilight said. “No, I’m not suggesting we befriend the monster. But what I am suggesting is we use the magic of our friendship to defeat him. I have to believe we can make our own magic, write the ending of this story ourselves. Because if we can’t fall back on that, then what are we? I refuse to give up.”

“Well, I’ll put my blade behind yours, kiddo,” Mr. Ogami said. “You haven’t led us wrong thus far, and in lack of any better ideas…”

“Yeah, what he said,” Grape nodded.

“Hey, what I saw back at Crystal Prep and the Friendship Games…” Sugarcoat shrugged. “I’m convinced.”

“You’re in harmony with your own blade,” Vinyl said. “You’re not shrouded in doubt anymore, the fog of your mind has cleared away.”

“Then…” Twilight nodded before Excalibur hummed in her hands and crackled with power before it began to grow larger and larger. Soon it was the size of their opponent, and shifting in form and instead of an impossibly large sword now stood a knight the size of a building.

“What the hell…?” Hayato wondered in sheer amazement.

“Like the girl said,” Vinyl chuckled. “Friiiiiieeeeeeeeeeennnnnndship.”

Suddenly Twilight found herself shifting and changing, wielded by the massive mecha as a second sword. The robot stuck again and again, metal slashing into flesh.

“Hissatsu Dokuha! King Slash!”

The mecha proclaimed this even as another series of slashes coated in energy made the dragon stagger. Finally, visible damage. The mecha then tossed Twilight skywards, her armor’s own wings extending.

She was now dodging blasts of fire and void energy, the monster’s heads snaking around as it tried to incinerate her. Keen eyes spotted a chink in the creature’s armor, a place where the scales weren’t quite as thick.

“Tornado Dragon Eagle! Extra Book! Hiden no Hiden Monogatari! Two Rekka Books! A raging winged dragon that burns everything with a hellish flame!”

Twilight landed on one of the great beast’s necks, running her two blades through the scales leaving a trail of green light behind her. A certain mecha smashed into the kaiju, with a shoulder-charge throwing it off balance.

Twilight used this opportunity to strike again, the Swordswoman of Flames slashing into the monster’s hide. She shoved her sword into its neck, before leaping off the monster and activating a finisher.

“Rekka Battou! Osha Jizou San Issatsu Giri! Fire!”

A slash of flames cut through the dark sky, cleaving off one of the heads from its neck and making sure nothing would grow back. The head crashed to the ground with a mighty thud and the remaining ones howled in rage.

“Just six to go… wonderful…”

She flew forwards, readying her sword twice more.
“Hiden no Hiden Monogatari Nisatsu Giri! F-F-Fire!”

“Emotional Dragon Sansatsu Giri! F-F-F-Fire!”

And twice more, two heads crashed to the ground. Now only four remained.

A certain knightly mecha raised its hands above its head, bringing them down like a powerful hammer. Eight sets of eyes bugged out almost comically as the dragon crashed to the earth, dust and smoke stirred up like a sandstorm.

Ruins fell all around the dragon, spurred on by bolts of lightning and pinned it to the earth. Three portals from Kurayami sliced off three more heads. But in a burst of rage and indignation and humiliation, the dragon burst free before the job could be done.

And already, magic swirled around the stumps that were once its necks and little by little flesh began to spring forth. Bones came next, forming solid structures that the flesh and sinew could wrap themselves around with eyes finally glowing bright.

“I don’t believe it!” Ryo gasped. “How do we kill this thing?”

“We can’t,” Hayato said even as the Excalibur-borne mecha crashed to the earth. “We can only seal it away.”

The mecha shifted back to sword form, miniaturizing and clattering to the ground. Twilight retrieved her sword, remembering that chink in the beast’s armor and an idea beginning to form in her mind.

“Keep it distracted!” she barked charging forwards before stone and lightning pelted the beast.

“Alright kid, I don’t know what plan you have, but I’m all for it!” Ryo said, the current Kamen Rider Buster shoving his blade into the earth. Explosions erupted from his sword, igniting beneath the dragon’s feet. Fissures opened up, trapping the beast.

Twilight took to the skies once more, in one hand Excalibur and in the other her borrowed Attache Calibur in sword form. Rekka was strapped to her hips.

“Alright then…” Twilight said to herself before with a roar, she tossed one of her swords. Like a javelin, the Attache Calibur soared through the air.

The sword slammed into the beast’s hide, running it clean through. Magic crackled around it and this time Twilight tossed her other blade.

“Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!” she shouted before activating one of Rekka’s finishers watching the second sword piece the beast’s hide. It had landed right next to the first.

“King Arthur, Hiden no Hiden Monogatari, Emotional Dragon Sansatsu Giri! F-F-F-Fire!”

Fire swirled around Twilight’s boot in a diving kick and she slammed into the two blades, driving them through the beast. An explosion of magic erupted, the energy released and swirling around in a storm.

Finally, when all of the dust cleared, there lay Revelatory Dragon impaled with two swords. And Twilight, knocked back to her base Brave Dragon form about ready to collapse.

Off to the side, lay the Eternal Phoenix ridebook crackling with leftover magic. It rose up, even as all that was destroyed reformed around. The world once broken, was now mending itself. But a spectre of its destroyer still remained.

“N-No…” Twilight stammered out, unable to believe it. “I… you were supposed to be destroyed.”

“Hahahahaha,” Sombra’s ghost chuckled. “Eternal Phoenix. It’s in the name. I’ve spent so long tying myself to this book that my spirit is forever linked to it. Strike me down, and I shall rise again. That is the source of my immortality. You did well, girl, foiling my plan as you did. It’ll take me a while to properly reform, probably another decade or so. But I’ll make sure you never get to see that.”

A ghostly version of Kyomu was forming in his hands, poised to strike.

Then, globs of water slammed into him, each impact apparently forcing the spectre back. Holy water from Blades, who stood firm and helped her partner up.

“Fire cannot destroy fire,” Sugarcoat said. “It’s obvious once you think about it. Only water can drown out the inferno. Even an irritatingly persisting one.”

Several slashes from Nagare seemed to do damage, but Sugarcoat paused.

“So? Destroy him!” Twilight said. “End this nightmare! I see now this is your destiny, not mine.”

“No…” Sugarcoat shook her head before tossing Nagare to her. “It’s still yours. It’s only right that you do this. He’s your archenemy, not mine.”

“T-Thank you…” Twilight gripped both of her swords, before slashing twice. The slash from Rekka made the spectre stagger. And Nagare removed him from the earth.

Finally, exhaustion and weariness began to catch up with her. Her vision grew darker and the ground soon rushed up to meet her. Finally, it was over and she could rest easily. Sombra would never again taint the world with his evil.

---

Time passed, and Sombra really became no more than a distant memory. Instead of swordplay, Twilight's mind was now focused on more mechanical matters. Hiden Industries would always need a dutiful employee after all.

“Your soul seems lighter, Twilight Sparkle,” Izu had noted. “There is… how you say, an extra spring in your step.”

“Yes, well, Sombra’s gone,” she mused. “Honestly, though? I… feel sorry for him. I never imagined I’d say that, but I just do.”

“Alright, I admit I am curious,” Izu’s head tilted with a noisy whir. “Explain. Define your pity for him.”

“It’s just…” Twilight sighed, running a hand through her hair. “He had all of that power, and he chose to conquer the world with it. I guess that’s it? The rest of us with our Sacred Swords, we choose to fight to protect innocent lives and preserve order. He could have been the same.”

“Quite a change in your mindset,” Izu replied. “Once, you would have been happy to see him dead but now you are sad about his demise.”

“I guess I just grew up,” Twilight shrugged. “I suppose spending all of that time in a world of hatred and revenge, I didn’t stop to think if Sombra was a victim himself. Maybe he could have turned out different.”

“Perhaps, we will never know,” Izu said with another noisy nod. “In any event, the storm has passed. What will you do with your life now?”

And Twilight smiled as she grabbed her shoulder bag. Inside it, was Rekka and her ride books. Hopefully, it would be a while before she'd ever have to use them again. “Live it.”

With that, she walked out into the shining sun and smiled. A new chapter of her life had opened. It was time to see where it took her.

Comments

[WozWuzHere]

"I'm going to defeat you with the power of friendship and a bunch of swords!"

-Twilight Sparkle

[The Bricklayer]

10751336
Basically.

...wow it's a weird feeling when I realize this is the first KR story I've finished in ages.

[nightshroud96]

This was certainly a good fic to see.

Part of me wished how things are with Spike in this AU. In fact I wonder how did things go in Friendship Games since it was referenced there in a way?

[Diokno44]

Rereading this, I enjoyed it