Book Two: Chapter Twenty-Four: An Alicorn's Judgement
Myths and Birthrights
By Tundara
Book Two: Duty and Dreams
Chapter Twenty Four: An Alicorn’s Judgement
The night swirled through Twilight.
She was one with it.
An extension of it manifested on the disc, and it was Her in the heavens above. It was hers to command. To create. To guide and protect with her legion of stars. To sculpt and mold as She saw fit. And to use to bring Her holy judgement down on everypony beneath Her gaze.
Selene was now the bridge, a transient wanderer who belonged to neither the Day nor the Night, but found herself in both realms. Luna would surely be grateful for the respite. For the gift of being able to spend time with Celestia unencumbered by worrying about the Night.
Twilight would safeguard the disc in their stead.
The bells of Zerubaba marked noon in a resounding chorus as Twilight appeared over the city. Around Zerubaba, Luna and Fluttershy’s protective dome warded off the black shapes of thanes. The spirits formed a thick, ominous cloud as they darted this way and that around the edges of the dome like a flock of starlings. In flowing murmurations they swept to the top of the dome at Twilight’s arrival, and then zig-zagged down to the coastal side before heading back inland.
Ignoring the thane’s antics, Twilight banked into a lazy descent towards the Tamil Tahree. She would deal with the thanes in due time, as well as their master. They would all be put into their proper order.
The Imperial Guard waited at attention before the grand temple, and around them was an expansive crowd that filled the gardens, the plaza, and the nearby streets. Every zebra in Zerubaba and the surrounding towns filled the area around the temple, clogging the city in a sea of black and white. A cheer rose up from the crowd as Twilight approached. The guards stamped their hooves and saluted the moment her hooves gently graced the velvet carpet leading up the steps. As with the thanes, she ignored the flagrant pageantry, and headed straight into the temple.
There Her star—Her Samalla—waited.
Third to last on the disc.
She was so close to being complete.
Order and Safety near to being achieved for Her little ponies.
Inside the grand tomb waited Empress Maatsheptra and her entire court. They formed a pocket around the raised dias holding Samalla’s sarcophagus, with only the empress standing between it and Twilight. Maatsheptra wore a broad grin and a shimmering silk dress that accentuated the curves of her flanks and slender legs.
“And so the Stars come to grace great Zebrica with their presence once more,” Maatsheptra intoned in a voice amplified by magic so as to carry out over the crowds beyond the temple. She bowed low, prostrating herself on the soft carpet. The court mimicked the empress, a rustle rippling throughout the temple as they touched their faces to the cold stone. “Command your subjects, beloved mistress of the heavens.”
Twilight ignored the empress and her theatrics. They were pointless and immaterial for the moment. Her goal was in sight, and then she’d deal with the empress.
A flick of her eyes flung the sarcophagus’s lid aside. With a rattling crash at the base of the short steps it broke in two halves, the nobles jumping to avoid the spray of stone shards. A worried murmur rippled through some corners of the crowd. Reaching into the dark interior of the sarcophagus, Twilight pulled free Samalla’s metallic heart, and as she’d done so many times now, re-ignited the dead star.
The crowd gasped and covered their faces at the brilliant inferno blossomed from the formerly cold, dead star.
Samalla yawned and stretched out her rekindled body.
Cupping the reborn star in her wings, Twilight gently sent her to the heavens before anything could be said. Sucking in a deep breath, she basked in the calming warmth of her stars. Everything was becoming so clear. As if she’d observed the disc through broken windows, the many facets creating refractions and distorting reality. Each restored star fixed a crack, brought the truth of the disc into ever sharper focus. And the image painted was one of misery, fear, and hate.
Two more stars and she’d be complete.
Two more stars and she would wipe away all suffering and cruelty.
Opening her eyes, Twilight turned her attention towards the empress.
“You tried to manipulate me.” The fact echoed in the marble temple, bursting out to the streets beyond. Twilight tingled at the confidence flowing into her from the stars. Surely, this is how Celestia always felt.
Continuing to prostrate herself, Maatsheptra cried out, “Never, glorious one!”
Twilight’s frown deepened at the denial. Especially one so painfully false. “I want to know why. What is your goal?”
“I’ve known of your ascension since I was a tiny foal. I’ve known all my life that it was the stars who would guide me to greatness, and one did! The jet jewel, Algol, saved me. Raised me. Sculpted me. And through her, through the stars, I claimed dominion over Zebrica and began to reshape it into an empire fit to serve as your instrument on the disc.” There was a gleam of madness in Maatsheptra’s gemlike eyes. “You saved my daughter, and I am forever your servant.”
Twilight regarded the empress coldly. “You’re still playing games, but they hardly matter. I’m abolishing all nations. There will be no more wars. No more hunger. Everypony—and zebra—will be sheltered beneath my wings. But, first, I must deal with those who are a threat, or hurt those I intend to protect.”
“Yes! Exactly! A ruler must get their hooves dirty to ensure the success of their nation, or the entire disc! You understand.” Maatsheptra sauntered towards Twilight, seductively swaying her hips, her lips curving into a tight smile. “You are our goddess—My goddess—the ruler of Ioka. None is more deserving.
“Let them see who you truly are,” Maatsheptra purred into Twilight’s ear. Her hoof came up to caress Twilight’s cheek. “Lead us into a glorious future, and I will be there by your side, your most dedicated Imperial High Priestess.”
With a flick of a wing, Twilight slapped Maatsheptra’s hoof away. Surprise flashed over the empress’s face. Revulsion boiled in Twilight’s stomach. She couldn’t believe she’d been so blind to the manipulative, self-serving, vileness lurking in the empress.
No, she’d been aware, she’d just been too weak to do anything about it.
Wrapping herself in a cloak of pretentious morals and justifications to avoid dealing with the empress.
Allowing herself to be swayed, to be pushed and pulled into turning a blind eye to the suffering of the common zebras in the empire. Seduced by honeyed words and naivete.
A slight warmth crept over Twilight’s cheeks as she remembered her time in Zerubaba. Of the night spent in tangled sheets and legs, seduced by velvetine words and soft lips.
Almost as fast, a cold fury took root. A fury that burned brighter than all her stars combined.
When she spoke, Twilight’s voice was like a clap of thunder in a mountainous valley.
“You tormented and killed tens of thousands of zebras to gain your crown. In the time since, your rule has been marked by war, suffering, and death. Zebras fight for sport for the masses, and you excuse it as ‘just tradition’. You claim that a ruler must do what is best for the nation, yet you don’t even try to alleviate the suffering of your citizens. Instead, you surround yourself with gold and servants. You build and expand your palace as a temple to your own vanity. You have failed as a ruler.”
“No! Never! It is a gift for you! A palace worthy of the Goddess of the Stars!” Maatsheptra protested, but Twilight could see through her lies.
“I’m a princess of Equestria and the Taiga, why would I need another palace?” Twilight advanced, towering over the tall empress. Maathsheptra retreated, backing up the stairs and shrinking underneath Twilight’s fierce gaze. “If you’d really been thinking about what I would have wanted, then you would have put your effort towards building hospitals and schools. To ensuring every zebra was well fed and safe. Well, I will make them safe. Safe from you!”
“From me?” Maatsheptra demanded, her fiery mane bristling, and turned away from Twilight’s withering gaze to the crowd of nobles. Definitely she cried, “Then do what you must! Kill me in front of your loyal subjects! Show them you are to be feared, as they once feared me.”
Twilight hardly heard Maatsheptra, memories of stories she’d heard from other, jealous students when she’d been a filly just starting her apprenticeship popping to the surface.
Stories intended to make her run away and afraid of Celestia.
Stories that gave her an idea.
In the blink of an eye she consulted her stars, querying them for the necessary runes and the formula. Reluctantly, Alnitak, the Stonestar, provided what was demanded.
Already beginning the spell, Twilight said, “There was a rumour once that the statues in Celestia’s gardens were actually ponies she’d turned to stone. Can you believe it? As if Celestia would do something like that. After Discord broke free, the rumours gained renewed traction for a while. Ponies can be so silly!”
Twilight giggled, the sound crackling around the edges with a manic tint. Slowly she advanced on the empress. Blue-white aether formed around her horn as the spell neared completion.
“The rumours were wrong, of course. It does give me an idea, however. I won’t kill you, Maatsheptra. No, I will seal you away. A thousand years trapped in stone, but aware of everything that happens around you. I will put you somewhere you can watch the zebras you manipulated and ruled. Where you can see them lead lives of peace and prosperity. Safe under my protection. Safe from you.”
Grey stone crinkled and snapped at the base of Maatsheptra’s hooves and the tip of her tail. The empress’s eyes widened, panic and terror in equal measure filling them. “This was not what I foresaw! We were supposed to rule together! I was to be your High Priestess and lover!”
“If those visions came from Faust, then it is no surprise they are wrong,” Twilight scoffed, lifting Maatsheptra’s chin with her hoof. “She’s been wrong a lot lately. It is fine, though. She can rest and spend time with Celestia and Luna. I’ll keep everypony safe for her, since she isn’t able to herself.”
Maatsheptra’s mouth fell open, and then became trapped in horror as the grey lines of stone encapsulated her face.
“Twilight! What are you doing?” Luna’s voice cut across the temple.
In the entranceway Luna and Fluttershy stood side by side. Dismay and shock contorted their features, Fluttershy covering her mouth with a hoof.
There was a slight, haggard air about them, one that only their closest friends would notice. A faint hint of bags beginning to form under Luna’s eyes. A minute slump to Fluttershy’s shoulders. Protecting the city for weeks on end, without being able to sleep or take a break, had taken its toll on even them. Still, they probably could endure for months, or even years, before collapsing.
Though that would hardly be necessary. Hades would be stopped before the next dawn, and the thanes made to return to their duty.
“Meting out punishment,” Twilight replied, dragging the tips of her wings along the new statue’s flanks to its shoulders, and up the neck until reaching the chin. “Just like Discord, or Chrysalis; Maatsheptra was an evil pony who caused misery and suffering. Now she can’t. She can think on what she did, and in a hundred or so years, if she’s properly remorseful, I will release her from the spell. See? I’m a merciful pony. It is what Celestia would have done if she were here.”
Luna took a step back as if she’d been slapped. Her wings flew open and anger flashed in her crystal blue eyes.
“My sister is many things, Twilight, but even she wouldn’t do something like that to a mortal pony!”
“I think I am a very good judge of what Celestia would or wouldn’t do,” Twilight curled her nose, her voice containing a deep, rumbling undertone that made the walls shake.
“Even I, um, don’t think Celestia would do something like that,” Fluttershy shook her head sadly. “It is something the alicorns of Gaea would do, though. That is, I think they would. It, um, seems like it, to me, any ways.”
Twilight couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She was helping them! Helping everypony!
Didn’t they understand?
She had to protect everypony from the monsters lurking in the shadows.
It was her duty.
“Are you saying you're going to interfere?” Twilight barely heard the deadly edge in her tone. It sent a little tingle of anticipation up her spine. A part of her wondered who was stronger; Luna, or her.
Luna was older, forged by a far more callous disc. In the old stories, she was the kind of pony willing to do anything to safeguard those she cared about and were under her protection. A pony she could respect. The Book of Selene was replete with tales of Luna battling demons and monsters while protecting villages, princesses, and her friends. Supposedly nopony could best her in battle. Even Celestia heaped praise on Luna’s prowess with blade and war-magic.
Yet, that was the Luna of the ancient past. An insidious voice whispered, asking; ‘what had Luna done since her return to maintain such a reputation?’
Nothing. Every threat to Equestria had been Twilight’s responsibility to resolve. Nightmare Moon. Discord. And even Chrysalis would have caused so much more damage if Twilight hadn’t seen through her plots and rescued Cadence. Leviathan would still threaten the disc.
All that was left was Hades and the other interlopers.
Confidence brimmed in Twilight. She tossed back her midnight mane flecked with the stars—her stars—and smiled at Luna and Fluttershy.
Stepping closer, Twilight was a little startled to notice that she now stood a full hooflength taller than Luna. “I wouldn’t recommend trying to interfere, Luna.”
Sadness, and a deep regret covered Luna’s face. She almost seemed to sag in the middle of the crowd. The zebras were trapped in rapt attention at the upheaval to their empire and the duel of wills.
“You can join me if you want,” Twilight continued, and rolled a wing to towards the eastern doors. “Together we can sweep Hades and his Thanes off the disc, and safeguard our little ponies.”
Luna was silent for a long moment, and then asked in a voice brittle as ice, and just as cold, “It won’t end there, though, will it? It never ends, Twilight. There will always be something else that threatens your little ponies. Paranoia and fear, nightmares and madness, terror and suffering; that is all you will know or create. Ponies will be no safer for your self-proclaimed protection. Please, Twilight, do not go down this path. ‘Tis one of only the deepest regrets. I know.”
Luna reached up with a tender hoof. With a quick flick of her wing, Twilight slapped it aside.
“I am not you, Luna. I don’t have a shade lodged in my soul twisting me to evil.”
“No, you have six thousand, all pulling you in different directions.” Luna countered. “I know the stars well, Twilight. I was their keeper while they waited for your arrival. Their whims are fractious, driven by hidden desires and secret pains. You need to listen, but not let them you control you, dear cousin, or they will drive you mad.”
Bristling, Twilight stomped a hoof, and a tremor shook the city. “That is what I have done! I am in total control of the stars, and myself. They are an extension of me, and I them. There is no need to worry, Luna. I’ll prove it to you. Stay here and keep delaying a symptom of the malady infecting the disc. I’ll deal with the source, just like I always have. I’ll restore the fillies and drive Hades back to Tartarus, or destroy him if he won't leave.”
Twilight marched between Luna and Fluttershy.
“Please, Twilight!” Luna called to her. “There is still hope. Do not continue down this path. It leads only to heartbreak and misery.”
In the grand doorway to the temple, Twilight stopped, and snapped over her shoulder, “I am not like you, Luna. I am in complete control of myself.” Dark light writhed along the edges of her mane like a nest of angered vipers. The smell of burnt aether filled the air. In a black flash she vanished, heading to collect her final stars, and confront Hades.
She appeared at the height of the battle, as the zebras and griffons desperately tried to rally in the face of the undead horde pouring out of Southstone Spires. At once the putrid presence of a demon curled in her nose, and felt not only Hades, but three other alicorns. She caught sight of Fleur, wings spread wide as she dived down into the fray to confront the demon. Part of her wanted to follow and assist in destroying the fiend, and expunging its vile existence from the disc. There was a similar quality to the demon to that exuded by Leviathan, but hotter, more primal in nature.
If Fleur was unable to deal with it, than Twilight would finish what had been started.
In the meantime, she had two stars to collect. Until then, confronting the demon and Hades would have to wait.
Scanning the fields she easily found the stars. Sirius’ weak presence lay directly below, while Algol flew over the battle towards the city.
Excitement tingled up Twilight’s spine. Her alicorn heart drummed a brassy beat. The next chapter of the disc was about to begin, and she was its author, no longer a passive player waiting for the enemy to attack.
A quick blink through the aetheric ley lines brought Twilight to the zebrican command tent. The guards rubbed at their eyes, blinded by the flash of her arrival. Before they could recover she’d stepped into the controlled chaos of the general attempting to salvage the battle.
“What now?” he demanded, but quickly clamped his mouth shut as Twilight looked down to see Sirius body covered in a thin sheet. Blood made it cling to the fallen star, the edges of Sirius’ face leaving an imprint in her death shroud.
Clicking her tongue, Twilight pulled aside the white and red sheet, detached from the carnage of Algol’s heinous act. The warmth hadn’t begun to fade from Sirius’ body. The blood of her murdered star squelching underhoof, Twilight knelt down and laid a wing over the ghastly wound in Sirius’ throat. A simple transfer of aether was all it took, and a sharp gasp filled the tent as Sirius took a deep breath.
Shooting to her hooves, Sirius’ darted a frantic look around, body rigid with tension ready to be unleashed. Anger and hatred mingled in her dark eyes, shifting to shock, and then sadness as Sirius drank in Twilight’s altered appearance.
“Mistress,” Sirius bowed low, nose touching her crusted blood on the carpet. “This was not what I meant when I said you needed to earn my respect.”
Twilight scoffed. “I don’t need any pony’s respect. Just their compliance. Their safety is all that matters.”
Sirius lifted her head, and considered Twilight for a long moment, and then sighed as she straightened. “So you go too far the other way now? First you are passive to the point of cowardice. So, instead of finding a proper middle-ground, you decide to become a tyrant instead. I thought you were close to finding your place when you cast me from the heavens. What does it say of us stars if you are our mistress?”
A deep frown carved itself on Twilight’s face as Sirius spoke. Her ear flicked to the battle raging just beyond the tent. “Your opinion is noted. I have work to do, and don’t have the time to argue.”
“That is true,” Sirius nodded, but her own scowl remained. “Algol seeks to unleash the remaining Great Sins. She’s already enticed some poor soul into releasing Astaroth, and will try to find a way to release the others.”
“Don’t worry, Algol will be put in her proper place very soon.” Twilight clicked her tongue and nodded. “Before I confront Algol, and whatever tricks she thinks will save her; it is time to return you to your sisters. I’m sorry I didn’t seek you out and do this right away. It should have been the first thing I did afterward you fell.”
Sirius shrugged and made to push past Twilight, “We made our choices. I fell in place of a sister. Who do you fall to protect?”
Twilight blocked Sirius with an outstretched wing.
That rational, kind, innocent pony who’d gone to Ponyville those few short years ago, flush with success and vindication at overcoming Nightmare Moon, would have been horrified to see what she’d become. She knew this, in her heart of hearts. She also knew she’d been so horrifyingly naive. How many ponies could she have saved during Chrysalis’ invasion if she’d been a little more forceful of her suspicions? If she’d properly confronted the shapeshifter before things got out of hoof? Or the lives lost on Marelantis? The destruction of Faust’s confrontation with Zeus… So many lives she should have protected.
“Everypony.”
Sirius rolled her eyes.
“Then you really don’t understand anything. You are worse than the naive foal who ascended a few short months ago. She, at least, had hope. All I see now is a tyrant that she would have tried to stop.”
“Your opinion is noted.” Twilight’s tone was as dry as the winds blowing across the savannah. As she gathered the magic to send Sirius back to the heavens, she continued, “We’ll discuss this more after Hades and the other threats are gone. After I send you home.”
A smile creeping at the corner of her mouth, Sirius shook her head. “Even you can’t send me to the heavens yet. My power was spent to fulfill a wish— your wish—and is scattered across the disc, heavens, and mists.”
Twilight snorted defiance.
All the other stars that had fallen and been used for wishes had been returned to the heavens already. There’d been only a few who Luna crudely fashioned into wishes as she’d been a temporary steward. Five or six, at the most. There’d been no issue returning them to their proper place.
A silly bluff.
She tried to grasp Sirius to remold the star, only for her magic slip away. Smoke would have been less immaterial. There was aether aplenty, yet, it wasn’t the right aether.
Tension flaring in her jaw, Twilight tried again. She took hold of the chain linking her to Sirius, grabbed a great swell of aether in her nigh limitless ocean, and attempted to reforge the links. Again, the chain refused her, and remained broken. Broken, but Twilight could feel Sirius in the shattered, twisted aetheric-mental construct.
She could feel the star’s pleasure at Twilight being denied.
“There must be consequences for a Wish.” Sirius smirked, her amusement fueling Twilight’s growing ire. “It may take a lifetime, or several, until my magic is restored to you, and I can return to my sisters.”
Bristling at her failure. At being unable to become truly whole, Twilight let out a long snarl.
“You will never leave my side until I can fix you, and put you back where you belong.”
Sirius shrugged, gave a knowing smile, and said, “We’ll see.”
“I mean it. I’ll fix you.” Twilight promised as she turned to leave the tent, Sirius at her side.
Twilight departed without further comment. To the general and his aides there was nothing to say. His entire role was utterly superfluous.
Taking to the sky, she headed towards Algol.
A chill fell over the battlefield, the din of clashing steel and dying yells fading away as every face turned towards the newcomer. Twilight pulled all attention to her like a black star at the height of noon.
Some zebras fell to their knees, tears of adoration streaming down their faces, and prostrated themselves before the goddess. Others flew into an even greater frenzy. The northernmost flank, so close to breaking, flung themselves harder against the undead pouring over them in an unholy wave. Miraculously they began to regain lost ground.
Twilight ignored them.
As she flew, Twilight swept the area around her of Hades’ vile creations. The spell came to her from Vega, the Vulturestar a repository of knowledge pertaining to the dead, and how to force them to cross the grey mists to Tartarus. A smile crept up Twilight’s face. She was doing Hades’ job for him now.
Maybe she should take his mantle?
Twilight, Goddess of the Stars, Wishes, Protection, and Death? The six thousand lights that sheltered ponies in life, and guided them to the after-life.
The idea was… fascinating.
She continued to examine the possibility as she sped over the battlefield. Undead burst into dust in her shadow, and the living zebras cheered at her passing. She was their dark saviour, the obsidian light in their bleakest hour. The swell of prayers from her passage filled her with greater purpose.
It was less than a minute, but in that time thousands of prayers coalesced inside her. The voices of the soldiers, and the zebras who’d witnessed her in Zerubaba, formed a chorus, pleading for Her guidance.
Her protection.
Hers.
And Hers alone.
Brimming with holy fervour, Twilight tucked her wings, and swept towards the city. The Demonstar was so close, just at the top of the mountain, and along the way was the demonic presence, as well as all the other alicorns. Fleur, Hades, and the other two. Together in one spot.
It was perfect.
Like the disc wanted her to clean up this mess.
Twilight, the great protector of the disc, would happily oblige.
Soir stared across Southstone Spires from the top of the garden tower. A deathly quiet hung over the upper city in a pall so thin the creaking of iron gates in the wind could be heard from the courtyard. Shivering, Soir clutched her hooves around her shoulders.
For what was the thousandth time she asked herself if she’d made a mistake. If she’d somehow failed Faust. She’d been instructed to find Princess Twilight, and she had, and then the princess vanished.
And everything went from bad to worse.
She rubbed her hooves over her forelegs to ward off the bitter chill of the winds around the highest point in the city. Cold as they were, they paled to the freezing lump of loneliness lodged in her chest.
After the equestrian fillies and Talona went to watch the siege down on the plains, Hades secluded himself in misery, hardly moving from his throne. Gaze as lifeless as the rest of the city, he fell further and further into melancholy. In that short time dust had already started to settle on his shoulders, and spider webs clung to the pinions of his feathers. If not for the ever so slight wisps of breath, it’d have been easy to mistake him for a statue.
Soir was alone.
Utterly alone.
“Mama, I never should have left home,” she mumbled to herself, wiping her nose with the back of a hoof.
A bit before noon, Soir began the descent down the winding stairs. As she reached the final landing the castle shook with the reverberations of hundreds of lightning bolts arcing above the castle. Catching herself against the wall, Soir glanced out the narrow window, but didn’t see anything but the boiling clouds. There was an unusual tang in the air, one that made her stomach flop and press her ears back to her skull.
Primal instincts told Soir to run. To run and run and never stop even after reaching the edge of the disc. Her heart quickened, and heat flashed across her face. Sharp screams sounded in her head to the groan of collapsing home as a shattered mountain rained from flame licked skies.
Sweat prickling her face, Soir beat back the rush of memories.
“It was just lightning,” she said to herself, “You are far from the village and Mr. Hades is here.”
“Just Lightning,” she repeated. “Just lightning.”
Soir hurried faster down the stairs.
At the bottom she broke into a gallop. Her heart struck her chest like the pounding of a giant hammer. She hardly slowed as she entered the throne room, and didn’t notice Hades had stirred from his throne.
The God of the Dead stood rigid at the edge of the shattered walls looking out to west. His pose was sharp, head raised to the rain billowing into the chamber and slicking back his silvery mane. At his side hovered his golden bident.
Hades pressed his mouth into a tight line, eyes flashing with loathing mixed with excitement.
“Under my very nose?”
His jaw clenched, and he bared his teeth in a long growl like a panther on the prowl. “Such contempt deserves a response in kind. Oh, yes, I shall respond to this insult.”
Midnight wings spread wide, Hades started to leap skyward when Soir called, “Don’t leave me here, Mr. Hades! Take me with you! I don’t want to be alone.”
Twisting around as he pumped his wings he looked back at Soir, and nodded. “Very well. You are safer at my side regardless. The Queen of Wrath seeks to break into the mortal realms, and we go to silence her rage before its infection spreads.”
As he lifted Soir to his back, Sweetie’s first scream broke across the sky.
“It would be her. Of course. My wits have grown sluggish with age not to have sensed it earlier. Such an angry little pony. A fine vessel for Astaroth. Come, we must hurry before she destroys anypony else.”
Hades began to speed from the castle, but had only reached the second of Southstone’s many tiers when he halted mid-air. Tension ran up his back beneath Soir, and he leaned forward like a cat on a ledge about to pounce. Before Soir could ask what he was doing, he moved off at a sharp angle, paralleling the battlefield, eyes keeping track of something near the bottom of the clouds. He stopped again after a mere mile, right before a pegasus black as himself.
“What are you doing, fallen one?” He demanded, punctuating his words with a thrust of his bident at the mare. “Are you here at Twilight’s behest? Did she think to unleash Astaroth when she failed to best me herself? If so, her plan is short sighted and insipid.”
“Oh, Twilight has no control over me! None! And never will,” Algol snarled, upper lip curling in hate. “As for what I am doing? Just playing a game, Lord Hades. Down there a filly and her friends cling to shades of bright gold and happy pink. Clasped in each others hooves, they believe a mortal could defeat a Queen of Hell. False pink. False gold. Cracked and flawed, ready to shatter when she is devoured.”
“I have had many reports of your actions on this world, Algol, though until I met your mistress, I never fully believed a star could debase herself so far as to consort with demons. From the stench that lingers over you, I have you to thank for Astaroth’s attempt at escaping her prison.”
“That you do,” cackled Algol, her laughter enough to make Soir tremble. The pegasus’ gaze drifted over Hades, and settled on Soir, and there was… warmth just visible behind the swirling pools of madness. Quickly she darted her gaze back to Hades. “Astaroth can only be delayed. Soon, that filly will be consumed body and soul in Her eternal, endless wrath. Her vessel has mere minutes before being burnt out from within, and you can’t have even one, single, little mortal soul lost to a demon, can you, God of the Dead? The great bulwark and warden of the demons; indeed!”
Hades’ growl grew lower, more ominous.
“Your reckoning will come, witch,” Hades warned as he shot past her.
“Perhaps,” she called after him, a sinister ring to her voice. “If Twilight was in control of herself. A shame she has become as dark and twisted as I. It is so… beautiful.”
Algol continued to laugh, the sound like shards of jagged ice jabbed in Soir’s ears. It lingered even as Hades dropped from the sky, angling towards the city gates.
Below them, Soir watched a thick fog creep over the battlefield, obscuring the death and misery. It was nothing like the little faux battles she’d make playing in her garden with flowers for troops, and stones for cavalry. This was real. Far too real. Scrunching her eyes tight, she looked away, but still saw the burning bodies, and the cloying stench of burnt meat filled her nose as the memories of Lourdes returning in a rush of screaming heat and trembling earth.
Her heart beat harder and harder. In the depths of her throat, Soir’s breaths grew raged, sharp as she struggled for air.
Hades came to an abrupt halt. Glancing over his shoulder, he demanded, “Soir? Did the witch do something to you?”
Eyes still scrunched tight she shook her head sharply. “The battle. It reminds me of home. Of that day. When we met.” The words, ‘and momma nearly died,’ stuck in Soir’s throat.
“Ah.”
“Is there anything you can do to stop this, Mr. Hades?” Soir clung tighter to his back, shivering despite the warm breeze rising up from the plains.
He grunted. “Yes, but if I do…” Hades’ voice trailed off as a patch of fog cleared, and the monstrosities he’d created came into clear view pouncing upon a line of beleaguered zebras and griffons united against the undead. “Damnation. Of course she let them loose. I am such a bloody, old, miserable fool! Hold on tight.”
No sooner had he spoken than Hades plummeted from the sky, coming to a very sudden landing just before the sundered gates, undead still jostling to pour out to the charnel fields below. As if a second, invisible wall had sprung up, the grotesque monstrosities stopped just outside the gates. They hissed and spat at Hades and Soir. Some leapt off the side of the cliff, driven by either mindless hunger or fear of the God of the Dead.
“A pox on my anger,” Hades snarled, magic alighting along his horn. “And for being so feeble minded.”
First he pushed the undead back into the city. They snarled and gnashed twisted teeth, but were impotent against his power. The gates shook, and then the broken halves jolted upwards. With a low boom they slammed into the broken frame. Thick iron bars thudded across the gates, and the foul tide of abominations was stopped.
“That will hold a decade or two. More than long enough to create a permanent plan.” Hades’ disgust was etched on his face and the gravel growl of his voice.
As he turned to continue down to the fields, Sweetie’s anguished howl echoed from below. “We must hurry,” was all Hades said as he jumped over the cliff into a steep dive.
In the few minutes they’d spent mending the gates, the fog had grown thicker still, covering the entirety of the plains in an unnatural morass. It bubbled out of the ground. Fissures opened up, and a heavy, sulphurous stench hissed from the cracks. Swirls showed where the armies fought, or more likely retreated in full flight, all semblance of order long since lost.
From above Soir made out a cluster of brightly coated ponies.
“There,” Soir pointed, but Hades had already altered his descent so that they came to a near silent landing only a few paces from the gathering.
Slipping off his back, Soir bounded towards the tight knot of ponies and griffon. A couple looked up as she approached, those Soir didn’t recognise doing double takes, or quickly shifting their attention to the black figure coming up behind her. Soir was surprised to see that among the ponies was Lady Fleur de Lis. She recognised her from the National Gazette and various magazines her mother read. As Prance’s representative in Celestia’s court Fleur was often depicted in articles about Equestria. It was a moment later that she realised the other ponies were members of the Elements of Harmony. The griffon, naturally, Soir did not know.
Addressing Hades, Fleur said, “Fleur de Lis, Goddess of Wisdom. That is how you make introductions, non?”
“Sadly, there is no time for the normal niceties,” Hades replied in his usual, dispassionate drawl. “Take these mortals far from here. I must deal with Astaroth.”
“Sweetie is already better!” Scootaloo shouted, head poking up from the huddle with her friends. Tears matted her face, and her eyes were raw from crying. “She cried, and the anger is gone. Right, Sweetie?”
“If only deals with demons could be so easily sundered,” Hades replied, his tone laced with disdain.
Passing Talona to the griffon, Fleur said, “Monsieur Hades is correct. Sweetie has little time for us to find a solution.”
Looking up at Hades, Soir asked, “You are able to save her, Mr. Hades, right?”
Soir wasn’t entirely certain what, or rather who Sweetie needed saving from, or how they were hurting her. That hardly mattered. Soir knew that something was very wrong with Sweetie.
The creamy white coated unicorn shivered as if she’d been trapped all night in a blizzard. Her lips were blue, and thick sweat matted her face and mane, what was recognisable with the deformity that had become her horn and features. She was also… bigger. Larger than any of the non-alicorns, even though she was hunched over. Soir gasped as she noticed the leathery wings pressed against Sweetie’s withers.
“There is no saving Sweetie Belle,” Hades responded, his tone as cold as a december graveyard. “All I can do is save her soul so that she may have another life. To do so I must send her to the Halls of Perdition within my palace in Tartarus.”
Applejack and Rainbow interposed themselves between Hades and the knot of fillies. “I ain’t letting you lay a feather on her, you hear me?”
“Goes double for me,” Rainbow added.
Hades snorted, and made to push past them. He stopped as Fleur joined Applejack and Rainbow, her expression a stern mask. She didn’t speak, but gave a slight shake of her head.
“You blind, optimistic fools. She is already dead,” frustration ran up Hades jaw in tight waves. “She was dead the instant she opened herself to demonic possession. Just look at her! She has been twisted and deformed. And this is only the beginning. If you stop me, she will suffer in ways you can barely begin to comprehend as her very soul is devoured by Astaroth, leaving her a hollow shell. Her skin will begin to tear as Astaroth takes greater control and forces her way to the surface. Next, her eyes will—”
“All right, we get it!” Applejack yelled, but she wasn’t backing down. “But we don’t need any of your help getting this Astaroth out of Sweetie. We’ll just get Twi, Fluttershy, and…”
Applejack’s voice hitched in her throat, and her face contorted with an odd expression Soir had never seen.
“Where is Twilight, anyways? What did you do to her?” Demanded Rainbow Dash, a few flaps of her wings making it so that she looked down on Hades. “If you’ve hurt her…”
Lips pressed tight, Hades narrowed his eyes into dangerous, blue slits. Exasperation twitched in the corner of his tense jaws, giving him a wild aspect.
“It is my fault she vanished,” Soir answered for Hades. She stepped between the adults as she spoke, drawing their attention. Surprise at seeing a filly with Hades flashed over Applejack and Rainbow’s faces, and both leaned a little towards her. Applejack, in particular, glared suspiciously between Soir and Hades. “Mr. Hades and Twilight, um, fought, and then she vanished. Faust told me to find Twilight, but I hesitated, and now she is gone.”
“Gone?” Applejack and Rainbow shared concerned looks. Rainbow flew a little higher, looking this way and that as if expecting Twilight to be nearby. “Where? We need her! Twilight will figure out how to save Sweetie. She always comes through in the end. Always.”
As if in defiance of Rainbow’s optimism, Sweetie collapsed onto her haunches, hooves wrapping around her chest. She gasped and sucked in laboured breaths like she’d just run a marathon. She shivered and shook, face terribly pale beneath her white coat.
Applejack and Rainbow rushed back to Sweetie, leaving only Fleur to block Hades. It’d only been Fleur’s presence that had stayed his magic thus far. Still, he didn’t try to push past Fleur, instead sizing her up and down with his ancient gaze, and then he simply stepped around her, and she let him pass.
“Sweetie, sugarcube, what’s the matter?” Applejack gently demanded, crouching down and wrapping a hoof over Sweetie’s shoulders.
“The power she accepted is consuming her. It can’t be contained. Not in any mortal vessel, and will burn through her soul. While you stand in the way, more of her is lost, devoured by Astaroth.” Hades loomed large over the cluster of ponies. “Make your choice. Either way, the filly you knew is gone, and I will send Astaroth back to her prison.”
Applejack and Rainbow shared distraught looks.
They glared at Hades.
Glanced with pity and love at Sweetie.
They opened their mouths to speak.
And then Pinkie Pie popped up on Fleur’s back. She thrust a hoof forward, her head lowered like a pointer dog. “Twilight is back!”
Everypony swung around to follow the direction of Pinkie’s hoof. The thick fog cleared, swept away by an unnatural wind that tingled with magic, and Twilight emerged.
What joy had begun to form in Soir’s chest at Pinkie’s announcement dropped to the darkest parts of Tartarus as she stared at Twilight.
Statuesque, Twilight was taller than Hades by a good two hooves. The dress she wore did little to hide a chiseled and well muscled frame, like she’d lived her life on a race track, rather than a library. The underside of Twilight’s wings shimmered like obsidian mirrors of the night sky, hard edges forming between a midnight realm they contained and their grey surroundings. Over her withers cascaded a mane of fiery stars. Brighter and brighter they grew until their sides trembled, and then burst in scintillating ripples that rebounded off the edges of her mane until coalescing into a new star, and the process started all over. Aether leaked from Twilight’s glowing eyes in silvery tears down her scowling face.
Hades and Fleur both reared back, and knickered in surprise.
“Don’t worry,” Twilight said, her voice echoing inside her throat and rumbling in Soir’s chest like a clap of thunder. “Now that I am here, I will protect everypony.”
Grabbing onto Hades’ leg, trembling at the raw power exuded by Twilight, Soir asked, “What happened to her, Mr. Hades?”
It was a question on everypony’s mind, and a dozen ears swiveled for his response.
“She has become a Titan.”
A heavy lump lodged itself in Soir’s gut, crushing any hope or relief she might have experienced at, finally, finding Twilight. The title itself crushed her with ominous foreboding.
“A Titan?” Twilight tilted her head. “If that is what ponies call me, fine. I will be Twilight, Titan of Stars, Wishes, Death, and Protection. Titan of Magic itself! Queen of the disc! Foundation of all societies. The shield that keeps evil at bay. Kneel, and you may be spared.”
In all her dark splendor, Twilight reared over friend and god alike.
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Good heavens. I'm not sure I have the constitution necessary to wait for the resolution mentally unscathed.
so she is evil.
Oh dear Twi, probably not the best idea to proclaim yourself as Death in front of Death himself.
10028174
Yep referring to the world is a disc that is carried by a giant turtle.
Winter is always the worst time of year to fight depression, remember to search for the good things and you'll do fine.
Looks like the previous Alicorn of the Stars and Wishes had a reason to spread out her power. Gathered, Twilight is in the throes of essense fever (to borrow a term from Exalted), driven to madness by her divine might and endless ambition. This also explains a bit on who the Titans of Gaea really were, Alicorns lost to their power and roles to the point they could take no challenge to their authority. It looks like it's a danger any god could fall into in this 'verse.
Looking forward to your conclusion, you got this well in hand.
Depression is not pleasant. It's best to find someone you trust to confide in. Take your time with the story and make sure you're ok. I know well how bad depression can get so I understand any delays. Be well.
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Thanks for the support and advice. I've got a couple people who help me out and keep me level. Last couple days have been rougher as I neared and then published this chapter.
Had a couple minor attacks tonight and the weird out-of-body sensation once. But, it seems to be clearing up now. I did some modeling of some Warhammer 40k stuff a friend got me for Christmas. Modeling and especially painting helps me focus and calm down. Guy is really nice, and has very similar problems with anxiety.
10028671
Always a good thing. And. I'm kinda at a loss for what to say right now so I'll just leave you with this advice. Real life before online. If you need "you time" take it. Everyone will understand.
I like how every idle thought she has aboit what she will be comes out at the end.
Personally I feel like you went too far with Twilight, her whole personality is sacrificed for one facet, now she's just evil, she can only have a nightmare moon redemption now IMO: to be "cleansed" and only partially blamed for her actions.
Edit: I felt like my comment was overly negative so I just wanna say that I just think Twi is taken to far over the edge, and everything other than her is completely fine.
Twilight needs to be saved from herself but I don't know how that will happen. Algol clearly needs be sealed away with the Sins she wants to unleash.
10029099
Your comment is fine. It has been a concern of mine that I was going too far with her. To mitigate that I've been trying to show her journey to this point over the course of Myths, especially since her encounter with Leviathan. Obviously I don't think I've gone to far (or I would have changed some things), but I know I'm pressing up pretty hard to the line. As to whether or not she would need a blast of harmony to the face to fix her, that kind of thing would need to be even more carefully handled so as to not be a deus ex machina type butt-pull. Though, my story is literally about a bunch of gods throwing down at this point, so, would that be wholly inappropriate?
Regardless, we're right at the end now. I hope the resolution is satisfactory, whether it entails Twilight having an epiphany on her present course and changes it herself, or gets anvil'd by an Elements type laser/artifact, or something else occurring.
I do hope that Twilight doesn't get sealed away at the end of the story. Seeing her fall and all makes me excited but also... I feel like a tragedy tag would be in place if that were to happen. Twilight has been one of the central forces to the fic and I do want to see what happens: whether it be element healing, her realizing the faults on her own or otherwise. I just... really don't want my opinion of this story soured by a bitter ending? Because I do enjoy it that much, heh, and I've mostly read for Twilight's story. (Though I also love Fleur's.)
10028224
mmmyeah, this is when people in Creation would be praying for an army of the Princes of the Earth to come over the hill....
(love that RPG)
Before I get apprehensive about endings here....is Anthologiae still future canon? Because if so my worrying cap is ON.
10030438
The Anthologiae is 'soft' future' cannon. Particularly that one story. The beech fan-service one.
In a case of contradictions, Myths takes precedence over the Anthologiae. Furthermore, when I published/wrote the shorts that take place after Myths I allowed myself the 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card of; If Myths goes down a radically different path than I anticipate at the time of writing this short, than I will accept that this short is no longer valid.
10030214
Well, I'm not going to spoil anything beyond saying I haven't updated the tags in a very long time, and won't make it necessary to change them with the finale. Of course, I've also managed to justify to myself not adding the Dark tag, or Gore tags, and I've abutted that line rather hard at times. So, grain of salt and all that.
10029137
Algol needs a time out. Ten thousand years in the Cave of Wonders aught to chill her out a bit.
10029058
Was my intent when she had those idle thoughts.
10030536
Shh writers don't exist.
10031070
Wait, what?!
*poofs out of existence*
And still, I pity and feel sorry for Twilight. A Victim of circumstance, and manipulated by forces and individuals older and more experienced than her.
I really hope she and Sweetie get the happy ending they deserve. Or at least steer clear of a sad ending.
Tundara, your story is one of the few I can count on this site as legitimately better then most books. Nearly everything in this story is top notch. I will eagerly await the next chapter, but I hope it isn’t too much to ask that it’s not months from now (lol).
Anyway, Twilights becoming corrupted. What fun. I don’t think she’ll be sealed, because I doubt that would end well for Equestria or the world. I’m fairly sure Twilight is as strong if not stronger then Celestia now. Losing the new prospective alicorn would end in nothing but the end of Equestria.
Worth the wait!
Though right now I’m still on edge as to what’s happening with poor Sweetybell.
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I'm not going to give a timeline, as that seems to just be tempting fate. I'm very glad that everyone seems to be invested and eager for the next chapter.
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Mm Hm! That was what I was going for with her and her interactions with various characters. Pushed and manipulated, a few inches at a time, and before she realized it, she could no longer see where she began. That sort of thing. I think and hope that what happens with Sweetie is a surprise and satisfactory. Got it plotted and fleshing it out.
10036529
I agree. You did twilight's arc well. And I do hope that I end up liking Sweetie's as well. She's been, arguably, through as much shit as Twilight.
"I shall not be dark, but beautiful and terrible as the Morning and the Night! Fair as the Sea and the Sun and the Snow upon the Mountain! Dreadful as the Storm and the Lightning! Stronger than the foundations of the earth. All shall love me and despair!
10047463
Yeah, I got bopped on the head for being even closer to the Galadriel quote by my brother when I had him do a pre-read to get his thoughts just prior to posting the chapter.
Hmm. I think I've got an idea just who Algol intends to manipulate into releasing Pride...
Yes. Yes you are. Bad Hades. Bad!
No dessert for you!! Ah. If that's okay, I mean... Uhm... sorry, Daddy? 