28
(28)
A long, dreadful silence fell over Pinkie and Celestia after Luna departed inside of the possessed Zachary’s mind. The air was hot and humid; breathing up atop Dragon’s Peak was dry and uncomfortable. The sun had titled westward, which marked the beginning of the long afternoon–the time was assumed to be six-o’clock. The heat and smog from the smokey world below had begun to seep through the fog coverage surrounding the mount, rising in great plumes of grey towers. The rays of sunlight graced over the contours of the smokey spires with enchanting golds and vivid rubies. The surreality of the situation, mixed with the unsettling beauty about them, gave way to a bizarre feeling of enchantment over the two remaining ponies.
Celestia and Pinkie Pie stood before the enchained Zachary, who’s eyes were affixed on the ground, looking as if he was in great concentration. The uneasiness of the situation made Pinkie shift in her stance, her mind wondered what exactly was going on in her friend’s head. Celestia eyed Zachary as well, trying to sense what was happening inside of him, but she couldn’t tell. She knew she couldn’t, but she desperately tried anyways. The Princess had an idea as to what her sister was doing, but how Luna would preform it was a mystery to the leading Princess.
Zack breathed long and rasped breaths, he was practically silent and still while suspended in the air by the strange powers that enchanted the Ebony Chains. The artifact’s ends were dug into the mountain’s rocky surface; they wrapped around his limbs and neck, ensuring he would not break free easily. Every now and then he would stretch and flex his body, straining the chains. With each pull, the artifact creaked with tension and Celestia drew in a sharp breath with each attempt he made to break the chain. It had only been several minutes before Pinkie broke the silence. If any of her friends were around still, they would have noted her time being silent as a personal record.
“What if...” she started slowly, “What if Princess Luna can’t help Zachary?”
Celestia broke away from the Discord’s thrall and lowered her eyes to meet with Pinkie’s, “Luna will try, I know she will.”
“But what if she can’t save him?” She remained silent, Pinkie knew the answer quite well, but wanted to make sure she was right.
The pink pony started again, but this time with a long sigh, “I think I really confused Zachary... before all of this ever happened.” Celestia glanced at her as Pinkie lowered her head and continued to talk.
Pinkie zoned out, thinking deeply while confessing, “For a while, I really liked him, like really liked him. I kissed him before he left through that Pan... thing-a-ma-bob-er. It wasn’t just a friendly peck on the cheek,” she spoke softly, twiddling her hooves while she blushed, “it was passionate, like what two ponies in love would do alone. I had been feeling it for a while, a strong desire to... to be with him the way two lover ponies would.”
She laughed to her self saying, “I’m not sure if I could even wed him, me being a pony and him being, well, him. But I’ve always seemed to like him, but now I’m even more confused than ever.”
She looked over towards Zachary and thought aloud, “I... I've always wondered why he never aged, or showed any signs of it. I waited until I was around his age to try and tell him my feelings. Yet now it seems one half of me sees him like a lover does and the other half sees him as a... as a child sees her father.” She spoke so odd and somber that it would seem she too was possessed. Pinkie spoke calmly and so unlike herself that it even made Celestia worry for her.
Celestia didn’t fully want to divert her attention from the crisis these past couple days have been, but it seemed her mind wanted to think about something else for a while. So she joined in and passed her own thoughts onto the earth pony beside her.
“I think Zachary sees you the same way. He feels like a father to you, and that is because he himself grew with you while here in Equestria. Zack is a very broken individual, and you complete him. I don’t believe you should pursue your sexually desires for him, I think that will pass with time. You need to find a stallion of your own and know that Zachary will always be your friend and protector.” She finally looked down at the pony, who gave Celestia a warm smile in return to her comments.
“I think you’re right,” Pinkie concluded, getting closer to Celestia and nuzzling her head against the large alicorn’s side.
“I think it won’t matter,” a voice spoke suddenly before them. Celestia and Pinkie’s eyes darted upward as Zachary rose his head up to stare at them with wild eyes.
He continued with a deep and harsh tone, “... It won’t matter because I’m going to break free and kill you all so soon.” Celestia’s mind raced with worrisome thoughts that her sister had failed. He spat, “Your hope is futile. It died with the Elements, it died with Zachary. You have no power over me, and soon I will break you and show you what fury I can unleash.”
Zack flexed once more, letting out a groan of relief as the chains made a harsh, high-pitched sounds when stretched out. With a sudden jerk of his hands, the chains snapped around his wrists and Celestia and Pinkie jumped back in fright. Zack floated back down as he used his freed hands to tear off the chain around his neck. As it snapped off, his feet gently touched the ground. He threw his arm over as the Prevailer traveled towards his open hand. As he clenched the blade once again, he swiped it across the ground behind him, slicing the chains that wrapped around his ankles.
As he finally freed his entire body from the Ebony Chains, he looked up and smiled with beaming yellow eyes that drove a terrible horror through the two ponies. As he began to walk forwards towards them, they hastily stepped back as Celestia charged her horn with magic. With a sudden push off the ground, he flew forward and low across the mount with the Prevailer high above him. He was took quick to avoid as he stopped before Celestia in killing range. She closed her eyes and awaited her sudden death.
Zachary had stopped however, frozen in place with a look of distress in his eyes. He dropped to his knees into the dirt and looked over his body frantically as if something was crawling up him. Pinkie and Celestia dashed away from him when he was distracted, getting as far away from Zack as possible.
“W-what’s happening? No... No!” Suddenly, he shot his head upward as his mouth opened wide. A thick, black smoke tangled out of his throat and before him, which appeared to be Luna’s magic. Celestia’s hope rose tremendously as she saw her sister’s familiar lunar magic. As the starry, black wisp of magic balled itself up before the possessed Zachary, what faded from it was not the Princess of the Night. The pink pony’s eyes widened when seeing what came from the magic mist. From the thick smoke stood a boy no higher than Pinkie Pie. He stood straight and strong, his face gave way to his furious emotions. His short, brown hair blew back in the wind and his hazel eyes glistened with the intent to kill.
Celestia gasped, “Z-Za... Zachary? Zack! Is that you?” The boy said nothing, but waited for the older, twisted version of himself to recuperate. Discord coughed and wheezed, and when his eyes looked up to see what had formed before him, he gasped in shock.
“Impossible,” he yelled. He pointed a trembling finger at the boy and faltered, “You’re nothing more than–, you can’t be–”.
As he said this, a sudden force overtook his sword arm. The Prevailer gained a magnificent weight to its essence, so much so that even Discord could not pick it up. It fell to the ground with a thud as he tried to lift it with all of his supposedly great strength and power. The boy held out his arm and the blade sang through the air towards him. He gripped the hilt of the large blade tightly as it found its way to the boy’s palm and fingers. He held it firmly with both hands in front of him, feeling the magic come back into his being. The boy was stoic and fearsome, much more so than the bewildered god before them all.
Celestia took in the sight and for a long time did not understand what had just happened. Then it came to her as she thought, "This boy IS Zack, the Prevailer knows this! A remainder of Zack was still inside of Discord so that he could use the sword, but now that Zachary left his body... Yes, it all makes sense now! We might have a chance!"
The older, false Zachary grit his teeth and shook his fists violently in front of him. He couldn’t comprehend what all was happening and his rage continued to grow rapidly outward. The younger, true Zachary tensed up; he knew Discord still possessed his body and the Catalyst Stone inside of him. Everything Zachary could do before in the first fight was fractioned now in his broken form. He had to be very wise and quick to avoid or fool Discord–lest he truly dies.
Discord shouted at the boy saying, “I am tired of this! So damn tired of all of this!” He threw out an arm away from him and laughed hysterically as a blaring light charged in his palm. The boy looked ahead to see where he was aiming and began to sprint forward upon realization of the target. Zack raced to try and beat the beam of magic that was sent from Discord’s hand before it struck. He looked ahead and dived forward to try and take the blow, but it was too late, Pinkie had been shot with the death beam.
It stabbed through her chest as Zachary tucked and rolled from the late jump. Before the pink pony could fall to the ground, he caught her and rested her head in his lap. Celestia immediately created an orb of defense around them all, using every bit of her magic to strengthen the shield. Discord was relentless as he fired bolt after bolt at the orb. As it shook, it began to crack; but Zack cared not for Discord’s feeble attempts to break the shield, all he cared about at the moment was Pinkie.
She looked into his eyes and began to breath heavily as death loomed over her. Zack–still quiet–showed the sorrowful emotions he felt for the pony before him. He began to stroke her mane with his hands, gliding his fingers through her curls and rubbing her head gently.
She began to speak in almost a murmur as she breathed, “I’m so glad... I could see you as a child... I always wondered what you looked like when you were younger.”
He adjusted her head a bit like cradling a baby. The mass explosions and tremors shook them and lit the light, golden orb around the three in a multitude of reds, yellows, oranges and whites. Pinkie moved one of her hooves up to her neck as she unfastened her Element of Harmony. It gently slid off as Zachary held it in his hand.
She said in now broken breathes, “C-can I... ask y-you something?”
“Anything, Pinkie, I’ll do it!” His eyes began to water up, almost unable to hold back his emotions any longer.
“S-smile for me... o-one more t-time...” He did so the best he could in the situation. Tears fell across his reddened cheeks and rolled down his dimples. She returned his smile with her own as it slowly, but surely formed across her pink face.
She closed her eyes and sighed, “In a-all the smiles I’ve e-ever seen, I’ve n-never seen-n a sm–... smile q–... q–... qui-te... like... y-yours...” In one long breath, her body fell quiet. The young Zack closed his blurring eyes and began to sob, giving way to long, convulsive gasps.
He rested her head on the ground, he knew he could do nothing more as he tried to mend his composure. The boy turned to face the monster again, wiping away the tears from his eyes. Celestia was gasping and wincing from the forced exertion of her magic and soon to be her life force. He placed a hand on her side and she let go, the orb faded rapidly around them and the dust from the explosions fell over the mountain top. In one hand, the boy held Pinkie’s Element–in the other, he held the overly large sword for a child that weighed near nothing to him. He gripped both as he rose the Element high above him.
Using his magic, he took off the Elements of Harmony around the five other dead ponies’ necks. They flew towards him and circled around Zack, giving off their colored auras as they were being filled with magic. As the dust faded, the older Zachary was laughing over the death of the younger Zachary’s beloved; but when he saw the strange event the boy was doing, he stopped his wild guffawing.
The Prevailer floated in front of Zachary and out of his hand; Pinkie’s Element did so as well as it joined the other five. The Elements circled together in front of the hilt of the Prevailer eclipsing it. When the Elements combined with the blade, a bright light shot forth over the battlefield. The sword began to change, most prominently in the blade itself. Two golden stripes wrapped down the sword in straight columns as six different colored jewels shown forth in the center of the hilt. The white metal that made up the Prevailer’s body now dazzled in a rainbow spectrum of colors that shimmered in a wavering, diamond-like fashion. Its surface appeared to be a pool of twinkling liquid that flowed slowly across the blade, but not over the two golden rivers that fell like thick pinstripes. The light receded when the boy grasped hold of the new blade, The Everlasting.
His eyes fell over the older Zachary as he began to step forward slowly. He could feel an ever greater power flow through him; more magic seeped through him than ever before. He thought that maybe it was enough to rival that of Discord’s, but he knew that trying to match Discord’s power and destructiveness with his own would be fruitless, like before. He had to be nimble, he had to be stealthy with his magic. Then an idea came to him and stuck with the new plan, he only had to wait for Discord to attack first.
Discord ebbed with rage as he threw his hands forward and screamed, “Take this, you son of a bitch!”
A mass explosion was unleashed over the battlefield that narrowly missed Celestia, who nearly teetered over the edge of the mount. The blast took over the mountain side as it rushed off of the ground and filled the eastern sky with a blazing fire. It was an enormous wave of magic and blaze that lit the atmosphere–it was the largest blast seen by Celestia so far in this ongoing conflict.
Discord threw his hands down and straightened his posture, waiting to see if the boy had survived. As the coal-black smoke faded, nothing remained in front of him, expect for the scorched earth and rock that the explosion left behind.
As he began to snicker, something from behind him said, “Nice try.”
Discord’s eyes shot open and before he could turn, he felt the sting of the hot blade break through his back and come out his chest between his ribcage. A great, silver light shot forth from the area where the blade exited his torso as he screeched in agony. He couldn’t believe it; he thought how his focus had been so invested in what was before him that Zachary simply teleported behind him without his knowing. It was all too amateur of a mistake for Discord, yet it was set up flawlessly by Zachary. Masking his magic while teleporting behind him, making him nearly undetectable. Even though Discord had god-like abilities, he was blinded by power.
Discord could only sputter a few words while his mind raced, “How… how… no… No!”
He withdrew the blade quickly from the body as Discord held the glowing wound on his chest. He staggered forward, barely keeping himself from falling over. His face showed fear, confusion, and anguish; yet it hinted something more, something Zachary and Celestia did not expect to see or sense from him. Discord looked up into the sky and from his eyes, two streams of glittering light floated outward and formed high above them into a large sphere. It grew larger and larger until it finally all seeped out of the older Zachary. His body fell backwards onto the rocky surface, lifeless it seemed.
The boy felt something very strange overcome him and soon his own body turned into a strange vapor that whisked back into his once possessed body. When the smoke entered into Zack’s original–once possessed–form, from it exited another smoke. The other mist was a black and starry veil, and from it spawned Luna who wearily rose to her hooves and was wonderstruck by her surroundings. Zachary’s body then sat up straight, as if being awoken from a nightmare. He patted his body down and felt the depression in his chest from where the blade entered. He fingered through the rip in his shirt and saw that all that remained from the wound was a narrow, jagged scar. Celestia galloped over quickly and the two sisters hugged before Zachary.
The human eased himself up off of the ground, but before he embraced the two sisters, he remembered the glowing sphere above him and looked skyward towards it. It hovered silently above them, glowing in an ethereal light he had never seen before. The two alicorns saw him looking up and peered upward to see what he was looking at. As their attentions were held on the massive ball of strange energy, it began to illuminate with life, growing brighter in dimer as if breathing. Zack wasn’t afraid of the sight, though he would have been at any other time. He had seen so much in the last few days that something like this was nothing compared to what horrors he had faced.
The sphere spoke outward in a voice they could not recognize. It spoke slowly with relief in its tone, “Blinded by chaos, anger and envy, I can now see what is true. So this is what peace feels like, I had forgotten its joys. Thank you, Zachary. And goodbye, my mother. I will now join my father in the Everlasting Lands. Though the world has been broken, a brighter future lies on the morrow.” The spirit then ascended and rose beyond their sight.
The spirit’s voice echoed one last time saying, “The Catalyst Stone’s sacrifice will bring peace once again. It is the only way to bring life to what is now dead.” And that was the last thing they heard from the Prince. The battle was over, Zachary had won.
Zack looked around at the numerous bodies of ponies. All of them were brutally killed, and it was hard not to grieve or cry for the innocent that tried their hardest to fight back. Smoke from the burning earth below continued to fill the skies with a black and gray smog. Even though they had won, they had lost so much of Equestria and its occupants. Zachary knew he should be rejoicing from the victory, but he couldn’t seeing his dead friends around him. He looked over at the two sisters with a crestfallen appearance.
“Do we just rebuild..." he asked wearily, "forget about all this and just move on?”
Luna spoke up sweetly, “Zachary, we do what the Prince said before he ascended. I think we might be able to reverse the effects of all of this.”
Celestia stepped forward and explained, “By using the Catalyst Stone and the Elements of Harmony, we can bring about peace again... but only once. You see, the Catalyst Stone will be overcharged and create harmony once again, but when it is overcharged, it will collapse on itself and it cannot be used again.”
Zack affirmed her knowledge by saying, “Yes, Moonsinger told me this.” In those words, the two sisters looked at each other questionably, then looked back at Zachary.
He held his hand on his chest where his new scar was as he took in a long sigh. He felt the stone inside of him once again and began to draw it out of his core. It flowed from his chest like a stream of emerald water and before them all it formed back into the physical gem. He felt a great power leave his body, and the powerful magic he was once able to do had left him once again. The stone shimmered like it did the day he first saw it with its other worldly beauty. It flickered in a multitude of colors that he still could have never imagined, but he broke away from its alluring sight to look back at the sisters.
Luna went on to say, “Piercing the Prevailer into it–since it is still fused with the Elements–will most likely cause it to overcharge. That would trigger the mass Harmony Effect, restoring at least Equestria and its surrounding borders. It would reverse only the effects of the last few days. The Catalyst Stone is limited in its power and reach; this would be all we could do.”
Zack turned around to look over the battlefield questioning, “But do we want everypony to remember this? Wouldn’t a lot of ponies be shocked that they’ve been, well, resurrected? And that their lands have been filled with life again?”
Celestia answered, “Me and my sister can use our magic with the Catalyst Stone to possibly alter everypony’s memory, forgetting this conflict ever happened. They would all remember the days before this. The Elements of Harmony would possibly remember the dream they had about Discord, with the hedge maze and what not, but that would be it. Life would go on normally.”
Zack looked back at the magic stone floating before them and dryly affirmed, “So, it’s possible then... to make everypony forget this all happened?” Celestia nodded to confirm his suspensions. He continued saying, “Then I want them all to forget me.”
Luna gasped, “What? Why? What about your friends? What about–”
“I feel as if I should be left out of this world... to be forgotten and far away. Wherever I go, I always seem to bring trouble with me. I’m so, so tired.”
He kept going, “I also don’t want ponies to remember me again, or for me to feel as if I’m an outcast amongst them.” He looked up at the two and sighed with tiresome eyes, “I just want to leave Equestria, I don’t want to be remembered, and I want to be normal... and at peace with myself.” Celestia hesitated her response, she couldn’t exactly contemplate why he would want this.
She eventually came to saying, “We... we can do that for you, Zachary. But after this, we can’t take it back.”
Zack then asked, “Can you make a few remember me?”
“I suppose so... Who?”
“Pinkie Pie, Valiant Steed and his mare friend, Spitfire... and Neighmo. I think that’ll be all.” He thought for a moment on the choice of Rainbow Dash remembering him, though he chose to exclude her. It was a heavy weight he would have to carry–the promise he told her on the cliff side was one he would have to break. He didn’t see a point to her loving someone like him, he thought that maybe it would be better if he was out of the picture entirely. He hoped that maybe she would find herself a nice stallion, but that was all he could hope for.
Luna stepped forward, “But for everyone else–except us–you want them to forget you?”
“Correct.”
“But for six years you’ve been here, you've done so much for all of us. We’ll have to recreate new memories in nearly everyone you’ve made contact with.”
“Then so be it.” Zachary was cold with his responses, ever keeping his eyes locked into the stone before him. He never felt apart of this world, and he never would be no matter how hard he tried. He knew he couldn’t go back to Earth, and still never would want to, but he felt he should separate himself from the ponies and Equestria. It was time to move on. The alicorns looked at each other with equal despondent expressions and nodded–it was time.
Celestia said with approval, “Whenever you are ready, Zachary.”
He rose the Everlasting up high, looking at it as it shimmered with unrealistic beauty and splendor. He thought for a moment and with both hands gripped around the hilt of the sword, he stabbed the stone. A splintering, cracking noise broke out and light poured fourth from the gem as it quaked with rising magical energy. The two alicorn sisters closed their eyes and charged their horns with their own magic, warping the properties of the coming Harmony Effect to Zack’s desires.
Zachary stepped back as a cleansing light filled realm of Equestria, restoring life and harmony; and forgetting the hero that saved them all.
Stats
Page generated in 0.028 seconds
Total duration
1,019 users online
2,140,550 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Sad ending. :(
This story is whole like: YOU AINT AND NEVUR B DA SON OF ETERNITY! So I dont get it, WHO is the Son of Eternity?
3214457 it's not even done
3214457
It's not over till the pink pony sings.
My brain is still mindfucked from about 2 chapters ago but it got restored and got overloaded by the feels man
But... But... What about Dashie?
I am pretty sad about Rainbow not remembering. But, whatever happens happens, I guess, and that's that. Love the stories, by the way.
3214524
Obviously Featherweight.
3216653
Obviously
Secrets and Lies?
This story, especially this ending, is a masterpiece.
This ending, this..... is perfect. It's not one of those crappy "lived happily ever after" shits, it's not an "oh no they died but we'll get over it" ending, or even an "evil won, everything died the end" ending.
This is... is a perfect ending. It's sad, it's deep, meaningful, it's heart wrenching, and carries an enormous impact, even though good won, and I don't really feel like doing anything for a while after reading it.
I want to thank you for bringing this piece of heaven to us, and I hope you will lead a great life, bringing us more.
3232698
That's very sweet and kind of you, but the story isn't over, it's still 'incomplete'. A lot of people are mistaking this as the ending. You'll know how it all ends very soon... as soon as my editor finishes one of the two last chapters.
But what you said, it's very touching to me that people consider my fiction, out of thousands on this site, to be a good fiction. There's not a lot of great reputation behind fanfictions, even less reputation behind HiE's. I don't think you know what it means to hear from everyone who takes the time to read something I poured almost 2 years into. All of the good and bad of every comment written out, I love hearing from everyone.
Thank you again and thousand times over, but it's not over yet. I'll try and finish up loose ends with two more chapters and an epilogue.
3234155 It's sad really, watching great stories come to an end, whether they're good or bad endings, it doesn't matter, it's always sad to see a great fic to just end, after pouring so much time into it.
3234155 Pinkie gets hit by death beam.
...
FREEZIE POP!
encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTsnvQsznze8lz6x0Ii1GxVsjDTgIs9tOElPAndeSOOCuyVQuzy