The Future of Magehold
Equestria. Ponyville. On the Nation of Magehold. Afternoon.
After what felt like an eternity, the Black Crusade was over. And the outcome was the positive one. Life on Earth was saved thanks to the efforts of many. Ash, Twilight, Celestia and everyone else emerged victorious, protecting their home from certain destruction. Even in their darkest moment, they made a stupendous turnaround.
Lying there on the ground, defeated and unconscious was the Lich Queen Rosa Maledicta. And even though she was not conscious, one could only imagine the reaction she would have if she saw the state of her nation, even though Xerneas had repaired it.
The skies were clear, free from the darkness as the time zones were completely off balance. It was previously nighttime but after some back and forth, the Sun had been up instead. There was a lot of work that had to be done in order to fix what the Dread League have ruined.
"Well done, everyone." Celestia descended, alongside Luna, Reshiram and Zekrom. "That was overwhelming, but we made it through, didn't we?"
"Yeah..." Ash sighed while sitting down, taking everything in and looking at the scenery. It was wild how this all turned out. This battle against the Dread League took them from the original location of Magehold all the way back to Ponyville while moving through the air.
He especially looked over to where Shining Armor and the Crystal Empire soldeirs could be found. They had been turned to stone by Yveltal first but thanks to Xerneas, they have been brought back to life.
"Oh..." Shining Armor held his head, stumbling across Magehold. "I-Is it over? What happened?"
"Shining Armor!" Rushing over to him were his wife and daughter. He blinked for a moment, still taking things in before being met with a dual hug. His body was also still recovering from being brought back to life.
"Dad!"
"Hey, you two." He greeted them back with his eyes half-open. Reuniting with their Trainers were Hatterene and Galarian Rapidash, quickly rushing over to Starlight Glimmer. And even though Twilight didn't rush over, she smiled, knowing her brother was back while lying on the floor. Also lying on the floor, rather close to the Lich Queen was Stygian, who had been freed from the Pony of Shadows, returning to how he originally was.
"Long ago, you needed our help, Stygian." Starswirl approached Stygian. He would soon see all the Pillars gather around him but this time, for a positive reason. "But instead of listening, we turned our backs on you. Pride clouded my judgment. I owe you an apology. Thank you for helping us see the errors of our ways, Twilight. It seems I never accounted for the Magic of Friendship."
"Thank you, Swirlstar. Uh, Star Swirl!" She corrected herself, still perplexed.
"There are still a lot of questions that I need answering. What has happened while we were gone?" Starswirl moved onto the Pokemon, needing answers immediately. He looked over at Pikachu, confused on what he was. "What are these creatures? There are so many of them I don't recognize. They are so strange..."
"And wonderful!" Pinkie Pie added to Starswirl's sentence.
"They're Pocket Monsters. Or Pokemon for short." Approaching him with an answer was none other than one of his students, Celestia.
"Celestia? Is that you? I simply cannot believe how tall you've gotten!" Starswirl said, surprised by Celestia's growth. Both in terms of magic and height. He could still remember how small she was all those years ago.
"Well, it has been over a thousand years. Will you stay here and teach magic once again? My sister and I have such fond memories of your lessons."
"As long as you don't ask for those essays we owed you before you disappeared," Luna said.
"I'm not certain Canterlot is where I belong. The realm has grown far beyond what it used, and I believe I'll have a look around before I settle in any one place." Starswirl would need some time to assess things before he stays somewhere. Even though he's way past his era, he would stay behind either way. After all, he needed to find out what has happened over the past years and where these Pokemon came from.
"And I long to see what has become of my home," said Mage Meadowbrook.
"We all do." Finishing off their conversation was Mistmane.
"Aside from these Pokemon...What is a Human doing here?" Starswirl looked over at Ash, recognizing his species.
"You know about Humans?" Celestia said, amazed that her teacher had knowledge about humans. But it wasn't too surprising with how much knowledge he possessed.
"Hey." Ash greeted Starswirl. He wasn't the only Human here. There was Nessa, Brawly, Cynthia, and more. "My name's Ash. And this is my partner, Pikachu."
"Hmm...Where do I start?" Celestia closed her eyes as she would be the one to explain things to Starswirl while he was still here.
"Alright. We'll keep quiet about the whole Siren thing since he's noticed Ash." Rarity whispered to her friends, wanting to avoid Starswirl and the Sirens meeting up with each other. "The Sirens will continue on their quest to find the rest of their species after this so let's do our best to-"
"That was rough, wasn't it!? But we made it!" Alas, the Sirens appeared either way, staying behind instead of leaving immediately. Rarity and her friends scrunched their faces. They turned to see that the one who made all that noise was Sonata.
And of course, right behind Sonata and her two sisters was their mother who still kept her original Siren form. It didn't take long for Starswirl and the Pillars to spot the Sirens. And of course, the Sirens would spot them back. Before Adagio could reply to Sonata's bellowing words, her mouth stayed open when spotting the pillars.
"Oh, it's them," Stygian remembered the Sirens as well since he gathered the Pillars to defeat them that fateful day. That was also the same day everything went downhill.
"It's them!" Aria said as both sides couldn't take their eyes off each other.
"We just got done with the Dread League...Now this?!" Rainbow Dash held her head, worried they would have another problem on their hooves and hands.
Ebony Rhyme's Home.
Meanwhile, over at Ebony Rhyme's home, the Potion-Making Vampire had mostly stayed out of the Black Crusade, making no appearance. Fractured Note had entered her home, expecting to see Fantina there. Fantina did come here earlier to check up on Ebony to see how she was doing. And the moment Fractured Note showed up, he arrived to see Fantina already being lent a potion.
"Alright, Fantina. With the Lich Queen defeated, the control she has over you should be weaker. Which means that the Memory Potion will be effective enough." Ebony Rhyme explained. Even when the Lich Queen was defeated, the memory wipe she performed on Fantina was still there. But now that her magic had been subdued, it was no longer as powerful as it was.
"Alright." Fantina nodded before drinking the Memory Potion. Fractured Note and Ebony Rhyme watched closely as Fantina drank it all.
"Have you been in here the entire time, Ebony?" Fractured Note approached her.
"I have. Once the Crusade started, I knew I had to put all my effort into the Memory Potion. I didn't take any breaks and even when the nation was moving, I kept working on it. Now it should be ready."
Ebony Rhyme went for the clever approach of only working on the potions instead of getting involved with the Black Crusade. She could've assisted in it but she didn't. Not a single one of her potions has been used to give either Magehold or Equestria an advantage.
"Ah..." Fantina had finished up the potion, drinking all of it. She then took a deep breath as the taste of the potion was rather, sweet, reminding her of caramel. She lingered on the taste for a moment as Fractured Note and Ebony Rhyme waited to see what would happen. Would this work even with the Lich Queen defeated? The magical aura appeared around Fantina's head as the effects have already gone through. Now it was a matter of how effective it would be.
"Mmm. Taste's like Caramel. Ah, now I want Mother's Caramel Cake like before." Fantina giggled.
"D-Do you remember anything?" Ebony Rhyme questioned.
"Hmm..." Fantina stood up, leaving Ebony and Fractured Note in suspense as they were desperately waiting for an answer. Her eyes focused on what was happening outside and how clear everything looked. There were no vampires outside since the Sun was still up and the fact that Magehold was far away from its original location was noticeable. Instead, it was those from Equestria and other regions that caught her eye.
Ash's appearance along with Cynthia, Roxie and Roxanne caught her attention. And at that moment, when seeing them interact, Fantina spouted these words that confirmed if the potion worked or not. "Even after all of that, they're just going on as if nothing happened. It's just like them."
"It worked!" Ebony Rhyme yelled, showing the most emotion she's ever given out to date. "I knew it! I knew it would work with those conditions!"
"I knew you'd succeed, Ebony," Fantina replied. "You did a fantastic job making that potion. And with no interruptions either even with everything happening out there."
"Thanks, Fantina." Ebony put on a wide grin as she finally repaid Fantina. Fantina was the one who stuck up for her and befriended her. To see Fantina back to how she was felt fulfilled in so many ways. "My best work yet, honestly."
"Seems like your fears about dismissing Magehold have been...well, dismissed." Fractured Note pointed out. Fantina did not disdain Magehold in any way even though she was brought here against her own will, losing a majority of her memories. Despite all of that, she harboured no ill feelings toward the place.
"How could I?" Fantina giggled. "I had so much fun here even with my memories gone. Because now I've made new memories that I can add to the rest. The friends I've made here are wonderful. Wouldn't you agree, Ebony"
"Mhm! Definitely!"
"I can finally return to my home at Hearthome. I know so many people are missing. I wouldn't want to make the rest of my friends upset." Fantina could finally head home. "But...I won't forget this or leave Magehold out of the question of places to come by."
"So you'll come by and visit?" Ebony Rhyme asked.
"As many times as possible. It will be a long trip here without a gateway but I'll manage. And for the future, I want you all to enjoy and entertain yourself as much as you can. Let your next ruler give you all the entertainment in the world.
"I'm not the Lich King anymore. And honestly, I don't think I can rule over Magehold anymore even with the Lich Cycle gone. Rosa Maledicta should be the final Lich Queen. With her defeat, the cycle will end here once and for all. And all the souls can pass on to the afterlife in peace."
"Well, first. We have to find a way to get Magehold back to where it originally was. It's rather dangerous for any of us to step outside right now and a lot of magic will be needed to lift the nation. Will you help us out one more time, Fantina?" Fractured Note questioned.
"Gladly. And I know the ponies who can help with that."
It was too late. The Pillars and the Sirens have spotted each other. And neither could forget the other's faces. Applejack and the others feared this would happen but they were too late to stop it. The fact that they were looking at each other for a while didn't help at all.
"Now uh...Are we done taking all of this in?" Applejack nervously said, hoping that they recollected their thoughts. "This is pretty awkward."
"Don't they have history with each other, sister?" Luna asked.
"They do. Apparently, Starswirl and the Pillars have run into each other a few times. The first was when many Sirens were drawing negativity across Equestria. And eventually, they sent those Sirens to the Human World. And the final time that they ever encountered each other was with Adagio and her sisters. So this encounter is rather awkward."
"Well...You picked the right time to show up after we helped save the entire world." Vivace spoke to the Pillars. "It's been far too long since we've last met."
"Way to ruin the mood..." Adagio snarled at the Pillars, never forgetting that fateful day.
"Mm." Starswirl agreed with Vivace before noticing Adagio's piercing eyes. "It has been a while. We've been stuck in Limbo while you've been in another world."
"Limbo? Looks like I was lucky at the end of the day." Vivace smiled while it was hard to tell if Starswirl was smiling or frowning with that beard on his face. The tension was rather strong between the two. It could be felt in the atmosphere by Gardevoir, who shifted her eyes from left to right.
"My apologies." Suddenly, Starswirl would apologize to the Sirens instead of jumping to the worst possible outcome. Instead, the best possible outcome was chosen. "I have a lot of apologizing to do actually. First was Stygian and now I owe one to you and your daughters."
"No need for that." Vivace shook her head. "You were only defending Equestria. We had no other way to feed ourselves. All we knew was feeding off negativity to grow stronger and survive. But now we don't need it to survive. It does make us stronger though."
"We're not exactly angels in our own right, anyway," Aria added, pointing out how she and her sisters weren't fully innocent. While they were better than what they used to be, the fact that they did terrorize others was still very much true. "All's fair now, I guess."
"Speaking of angels...I saw one, you know?" Shining Armor uttered in the midst of this conversation.
"I guess it's alright. I'm still pretty mad about you sending all the other sirens away." Adagio crossed her hooves. She still harboured some anger but it wasn't excessive at all. "That was not cool."
"S-Sorrry about that." Flash Magnus said. "That was actually my idea from the start."
"Phew...That turned out better than I expected." Applejack took off her hat, glad that the worst did not come to pass. She thought there would be another form of conflict that they had to deal with.
"This is great and all but what do we do about him?" Rainbow Dash then turned everyone's attention to Yveltal, who was sitting there. Xerneas was already approaching her opposite who appeared to be rather devastated.
"Yveltal is completely free from the Lich Queen's control. But it's easy to see how he feels from it." Celestia saw how devastated Yvelal was. While everyone had been brought back to life, he had still taken lives unfairly. Here to comfort him was Xerneas, who would make sure her opposite would not go through any sadness on his own. No longer was he Rosa Maledicta's Pokemon as the Master Ball had been destroyed during that Final Attack.
"Wait. So was Xerneas in the Tree the entire time?" Twilight gasped, looking over at the Heavenly Maiden Tree. "It looks a lot like Cresselia too the more I look at it."
"That's because the Heavenly Maiden of the Milky Way Galaxy greatly resembles Cresselia," Cynthia answered. "Most likely, Fantina is the one who grew it since she's been here for months."
"Has Xerneas been there since the beginning? Pretty smart hiding in the one place the Dread League would never expect." Brawly wondered if this was part of Xerneas' plan the entire time.
"What about the Dread League actually? And Magehold? What's gonna happen to them?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"The Dread League will be disbanded." Entering the outside while having an umbrella to shield him from the darkness was Fractured Note. The First Lich King. Joining him outside was Fantina, who reunited with her fellow Gym Leaders. "It has to be now that this is all over. And the Lich Cycle will come to an end for good."
"Bonjour! It's been a while, all of you!" Fantina greeted her friends after so long.
"Fantina!" Roxanne said with high happiness in her octaves. "You're back!"
"Finally. I thought we'd have to go through something else to bring you back." Roxie chuckled. "Glad we didn't, but you've made yourself comfortable in this place even with your memories gone."
"Very comfortable. There's something about this place that clicks with me~"
"If there isn't a Lich Queen anymore, will the cycle end?" Ash asked.
"They don't have to be a King or Queen to continue the cycle. The cycle will try and turn them into a Lich. It originates here at Magehold and waits for a pony who is at their lowest, taking advantage of them. Rosa Maledicta ended up as the most successful Lich ever."
"I don't see a sign of it coming to an end anywhere." Pinkie navigated her head around the area, spotting anything relating to the Lich Cycle.
"Anyway. We should send Rosa to Tartarus as soon as possible. Will that help stop the cycle if she's away from Magehold?" Celestia said, looking down at Rosa Maledicta.
"Probably. As long as it doesn't happen at Magehold, we should be fine. Opal was the one who started the cycle in the first place and even when she left, it remained and existed within Rosa. The Future of Magehold will dictate what will happen with-"
But just as Fractured Note was about to finish his sentence, that enigmatic magic that PInkie Pie was looking for revealed itself. And the way it revealed itself was by flying out of the ground. Everyone gasped as the green magic from the Lich Cycle finally showed itself. Right on time since they were discussing it and how they would bring an end to it.
"What's that?!"
"It's the Magic from the Cycle!" Fractured Note gasped. "It's looking for a new host!"
The Cycle would not let itself end here. It would not let Rosa Maledicta be the final Lich Ruler of Magehold. It was as if the Will of Opal Vivacity refused to die. The way the magic was shaped even showed a glimpse of Opal Vivacity's face. The sound it made even resembled her laughter.
"Opal?!" Rarity bellowed, recognizing that face and laughter. "It can't be!"
As a way to live on, it would instantly latch itself onto the nearest target. But this time, it wasn't a pony. This time, it was a Human. The magic from the Lich Cycle would go for Fantina, entering her through her head, choosing her as the next host.
"Fantina!" All of her friends yelled as Fantina's eyes and mouth were widened as this devious magic entered her body. Fantina felt the magic surge within her, making her hair rattle as she was bestowed magic for the first time.
Everyone feared that the cycle wouldn't end after all and it seemed that it already found itself another victim. The sound of Opal Vivacity's laughter was heard as she was relishing in this. This was her cycle after all and it felt like her spirit and soul were exacting revenge against those who defeated her.
Everyone was ready to at as soon as possible, even after stopping the Black Crusade. But that would unfortunately mean they'd have to deal with their dear friend, Fantina. And compared to Rosa Maledicta, who only had Roseluck that was close to her, that would be rather difficult to deal with.
"Hoohohoh! This is a funny feeling!" However, Fantina just laughed, finding this feeling to be rather interesting. She giggled as the magic was flowing out of her.
"F-Fantina?" Roxanne stuttered. "Are you alright?"
"I feel alright." Fantina looked at her hand as the green aura suddenly started changing colours. Lo and behold, it went from its usual eerie green to something else. It shifted into a purplish colour instead, more akin to what Fantina wears. From her hair to her dress.
"I don't believe it..." Fractured Note's jaw dropped as the darkness within the Lich Cycle was leaving, overtaken by this brighter magic. And when overtaken, the sounds of Opal Vivacity screaming could be heard.
Much like how she screamed when she was defeated back at the Chamber, Opal unleashed another bone-chilling scream of defeat, realizing that she failed to overtake Fantina. But not only did her cycle fail, it was also overwritten. Opal Vivacity realized that it was being replaced and expunged at last, lacking the strength to go on.
A new strength was being made that opposed what she stood for. Now Opal Vivacity was truly gone and just like before, her final moments were seeing her plans fail. And her greatest plan to continue the Lich Cycle had been shattered.
A new Lich Queen had emerged. But not in the usual way. Fantina had made this magic her own while retaining who she was. Magic now existed within Fantina, which she didn't ask for but received by accident. It was truly a happy little accident as the aura would fade away.
Everyone's jaw dropped at what just happened. Fantina completely outdid the Lich Cycle with ease, staving away their fears in a heartbeat. Fantian simply stood there casually as if nothing happened. She once again defeated Opal Vivacity and with irony, made Opal's power her own.
"Fantina...How did you do that?" Drayden questioned.
"There was nothing for the cycle to take advantage of." Fractured Note already figured it out. "The Lich Cycle has always existed as a way to take advantage of those at their lowest. But Fantina wasn't at her lowest at all. There was nothing she was struggling with."
"D-Does this mean she's Half Lich now?" Fluttershy realized what this might mean for Fantina. She was now potentially Half Human Half Lich.
"I am?" Fantina pointed at herself, unsure how to feel about it right now
"She is the new Lich Queen!" This was all recognised by the ponies of Magehold, who were staying inside the Chamber and Contest Hall to shield themselves away from the sunlight. Instantly, without hesitation, they would crown her the next Lich Queen since the Magic from the Lich Cyle entered her.
But that Cycle no longer existed. Instead, a new Magic had been made thanks to Fantina overcoming. That didn't stop everypony from cheering as they were surprised but pleased to know that Fantina was the next Lich Queen, even though she wasn't asking for that position and neither did she think about taking it. Fantina chuckled, waving at them all as the vampires would celebrate the rise of a new Lich Queen.
And this time, it was someone they truly loved. Someone who rekindled that missing spark in all of them. She was the one who brought entertainment back to Magehold and brought the most happiness they've felt in the longest. It was easy to see why they would nominate her as the next Lich Queen.
It was a wild day indeed and this simply added to the craziness that it brought. From start to finish, this was all an experience they would never forget. The Future of Magehold was up in the air but one thing was for sure in the eyes of the citizens, it would be way better than what it was previously.
As the journey continues.
Chapter 196 End.
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Ahh… so close
Well… that went better then expected
I called it! Opal would try to do one last act even after death
Oh come on! She’s back?!
Oh thank goodness, I thought somehow she was back again
Another unexpected thing that has happened
Amazing Amar! Man, thought things between the Pillars and Sirens would’ve ended badly, glad that wasn’t the case.
The Pillars definitely have a lot of catching up to do, and perhaps they might help the dazzling and their mother find the other sirens
Also, if I recall right. Isn’t the next movie Legends of Everfree right? Sense the MLP Movie came out after that one
all hail queen Fatina, first of her name ruler of magehold and the mother of vampires
I hope team galactic have an better role than in arceus chronicles