The Dark One
Their balloon touched down roughly on a large, black stone surface.
"By the Princesses, he rebuilt Stronghold." All six ponies gaped at the rebuilt human bastion. "It really is a fortress," Rainbow Dash murmured.
"We don't have time to waste girls, if he rebuilt it then he is here!"
"Right Twilight!" All the ponies dashed for the largest building, the one that contained the staircase to the Vault. They pushed open the new looking glass doors to the building, their hearts pounding for the final showdown. The halls were bright white like they had been millenia before, tables and chairs sat ready to accommodate their human users.
Twilight felt all eyes falling here, to Stronghold, the events that would happen would decide the fate of the world. Would pegasi fill the skies, or human flyers? Would ponies like Applejack plow the fields to grow their food, or would fingered hands crack the whip to make them pull? The magic of the Earth felt powerful here, She was here to watch, to choose her champions for the future.
They stood before the stairs to the Vault, readying themselves. "Girls, whatever happens here, I love all of you like my sisters."
"We all love you too Twilight, and whatever happens, you made our lives complete when you came to Ponyville," Rarity told her. The five mares pulled out their Elements, the presence of their lost piece making them into their jeweled forms. They placed on their Elements, ready to do battle for the fate of the world.
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Aaron sat in front of the entrance to the Vault, his eyes closed as he meditated on his task. To his left sat the Element of Magic, to his right sat Lucifer. Light and dark, good and evil. They were the ultimate dichotomy, the power of the Earth paired with the cunning of man. And he began to understand his part. Legion spoke to him.
"You are beginning to understand, aren't you Aaron?"
"Yes, I must make the ultimate sacrifice for you, and we will finally be whole. I must join the darkness to see the light."
A sound came from his left, he opened his eyes, burning with the soul fire, to look upon the Element. It had changed from a stone to a beautiful gem set tiara. "They are here," said Legion and Aaron as one.
He stood, with his magic he levitated the Element and waited for the bearers to arrive.
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They cantered down the seemingly endless staircase, rushing forth to do battle and end the War before it could begin.The six friends entered the massive room that opened to the Vault. There he stood, the magic of billions of souls burning in his eyes and hands.
They took to a line, preparing their Elements to do battle with this friend who had become a foe. Twilight took a step ahead of the line to confront the creature that she was responsible for unleashing on the world. "Aaron! Do not do this! Do not start a war!"
The entity lifted its eyes from the floor, looking upon each them with some semblance of surprise. "The Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Six pure souls whose light can illuminate the deepest dark. I should have known it would be you. Do you believe in fate, or coincidence? It cannot just be chance that would bring such great odds together. I came here because I chose to, but also because I had no choice but to come."
"Yeah, and we chose to come here and stop you from starting a war!" Rainbow Dash shouted, her hoof pawing at the ground, ready to do battle.
"I am not here to cause one. What comes next is purely an act of choice, and I chose to arm those who would be my destroyers. Twilight, I believe this belongs to you." The Element of Magic left his hand, gently floating across the room to lay down at Twilight's hooves. Warily, Twilight lifted the tiara, honestly wondering why he would give it up without a fight.
"I am here to make us whole, and awaken the Fallen to walk the Earth again." The man turned his back to the bearers of the Elements, looking in at the dimly lit rows of human beings in their stasis modules. "For millions of years, mankind has been gifted with heart and soul. An inner fire that gave us ambition and dreams. A gift from the gods themselves. A gift that was broken, and misused by us for own ends." He placed his hand on an invisible barrier, he felt them calling to him, screaming for their freedom.
Aaron's eyes took on a deeper glow, and the Legion voices of mankind's spirits spoke through him. "Brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, can you hear us? Can you hear us in your dreams? All we wish to say is that we are sorry. Please, forgive us for the burden of sin that we placed upon you. Please forgive us for our failings that have left you in guilt for being human. You are our legacy, our children, our greatest hope and light. All we have ever wanted is your happiness, for you to walk freely and without fear in the light of the sun."
Legion caressed the barrier, a single tear of regret falling down their cheek. The flickering flames of its eyes left the human beings in their slumber, and came to rest back on the Element Bearers. "To you they are silent, but to us they scream. We can feel our brethren as they cry out in their dreams. They beg to us, 'set us free', they cry. But we cannot yet, for as a race we have a hole in our hearts. A deep wound which would make monsters of them. A bleeding hole within our souls and our minds which we chose to fill with hatred and anger."
Twilight recalled what Starswirl had written, and it all made sense to her. "Yes, the error."
The lights of Legion's influence left Aaron's eyes, and he took a breath as he regained control. "Mother left it in us without knowledge. But I can fix it. I can undo millenia of hatred and violence, but only you can purify us. But if I fail...."
"What are you saying?" Twilight asked, her fear being replaced with concern.
"I need you to make me a promise." Aaron took another shuddering breath, and he held out his hand. Glowing with his borrowed magic, a form began to coalesce, and a long dagger made of pure energy rested in his open palm. Steadying his nerves, he placed the dagger's tip over his heart. "I need you to swear that you will kill me. If I grow out of control, you have to kill me. And if you can't do it, I'll do it for you, right now." The blade pressed again his chest, and a small blossom of crimson sprang through the fabric of his shirt, only to dry as the healing of Legion erased it. "Twilight, I need you to swear."
The unicorn backed away a step, pure horror filling her expression. "I... I... I can't..."
"Swear!" Aaron shouted, driving the dagger's tip another fraction of an inch into his own flesh. "Please, for the safety of all the world, I need you to swear that you will kill me if I cannot be contained!"
Twilight swallowed, choking back her tears. She nodded quickly, giving in to his request. "I swear... I swear by the sun that I will kill you."
Aaron gently removed the dagger's tip from his heart, and he nodded. "Good. Now, Pinkie Pie, same deal."
The pink mare shrank back when he addressed her, and she shook her head violently. "No no no! I can't hurt another person, especially like that!"
"Pinkie, if I fail here, there will never be another smile, another laugh, another feeling of joy in the entire world. Everything, everywhere will become dark and evil. Please, for the sake of all the happiness in the world," he begged, his clear and focused eyes pleading with her.
Seeing no other way, the Element of Laughter slowly nodded. "I swear."
The man turned to the one mare who he knew this would hurt the most. "Applejack?" he said as gently as he could.
Tears openly ran down her tangerine cheeks, and the mare sniffled, shaking her head. "No, never! Y'all were like kin to me! Ah'd never ever hurt mah family! You cain't do that to people! You cain't become somethin' that they love, and then ask them to do somethin' like that!"
Aaron choked back his own tears. "Applejack, I'm not asking you, I'm telling you to swear! As someone who cares about me, swear for me."
Applejack controlled her sobs, and she slowly nodded. "Ah swear."
"Good, Rainbow Dash?" he said to the rainbow-maned pegasus.
Rainbow Dash stood tall and resolute in the face of such a powerful request. "I swear on my loyalty as a friend," she said, her voice quavering.
"Good," said the man. "Rarity?"
The blood drained away from Rarity's face, but she nodded. "I swear."
Aaron turned to the last member of their party, and the one he believed would be the hardest to sway. "Fluttershy?" The butter-yellow pegasus winced when he called her name, and she looked down at her hooves in fright. "Fluttershy, please, I need you to at least speak to me."
The timid pegasus closed her eyes, running through the possibilities and the repercussions. And slowly, she looked up into her friend's face. "I embody kindness, and a part of kindness is knowing when to show mercy. I know when to end a poor creature's suffering. I swear."
Aaron released his grip on the spectral dagger, and it faded away into nothingness. "Alright then. Let's get this over with." Reaching down, he grabbed the barrel of Lucifer, and planted it on his chin. He took one deep breath, and he inched his hand towards the trigger.
"No!" Twilight screamed. She knew what that weapon was capable of, how it had created both Nightmare Moon and Discord, the two evil entities that had plagued all of the first age of Equestria and threatened to plunge the whole world into unending darkness. "Don't do it! There has to be another way!"
Aaron held the weapon firmly to his chin, and as his hand reached the trigger, a tear driven by fear fell down his cheek. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil," he whispered. And when his fingers found the trigger, he closed his eyes, and squeezed the lever.
And with blast of oily darkness, Lucifer unleashed the third of its corrupting shots, straight into the young man who had created it. He was blasted back by its sheer force of chaos, and slammed into the divine shield that separated him from the untainted members of humanity that lay dormant.
Sliding down to his knees, Aaron's shoulders slumped over, and he sat there silently, appearing as though the bolt of Lucifer's darkness had overpowered his Legion healing and killed him.
Twilight took a few steps closer to the barrier, and she called out softly, "Aaron?" Her friends took a concerned step forward as well, wondering how it could have failed. "Aaron?" she called again, just a tiny bit louder than the first time.
The man's body twitched, and they all breathed a sigh of relief that he had not been killed nor overwhelmed by the darkness. "Aaron, are you alright?" Twilight called.
"The name... is Lucifer," the man hissed, looking up from the floor. And when he did, a cold dagger of fear pierced each of their hearts. His once clear eyes sprang with the green fires of Legion, and an oily dark taint began to poison the purity of the soul magic until his eyes were nothing but an empty abyss of black flame. His skin rippled and darkened, spreading down into his entire body like a wave of ashen poison.
Standing from his kneel, the spirit of darkness given form rolled his neck, snapping and popping his joints. His lips pulled back in a chilling smile, showing a row of sharp, jagged teeth. "Oh," the demon crooned, running his darkening hands over his face. "Two thousand years of solitude. Two millenia of waiting. All for this moment," he hissed.
The tips of his fingers grew into claws, and Lucifer drew them across his own cheek, leaving thin trails of blood that healed in an instant. "Ah, pain. Such a wonderful thing to know. And once I'm done here, the whole world will learn the true definition of pain!" He looked to the Element Bearers as a predator might stalk its prey, and he grinned a wicked smile. "Oh, I'm sorry my dears, I didn't notice you there!"
"Stay away from us, monster!" Rarity shrieked.
Lucifer chuckled, a low, rumbling laugh that seemed to shake the very stones around them. And though he was across the room, he crossed it with hardly a flicker of movement, standing only inches in front of Rarity's face. He jabbed a single clawed finger into her chin, lifting her face to look him in the eyes. "That's no way to speak to your new god. In fact, I think a little lesson is in order. First, we will learn to bow." He took a step back from the six friends, frozen by their terror and held in place by the dark will of Lucifer. "I said, BOW!" He waved a hand glowing with dark magic, and all six mares felt their knees turn to liquid. One by one they fell to the floor before Lucifer, prostrating before the self-proclaimed god of darkness.
"Isn't this so much simpler? Isn't it easier in the end to simply obey? After all, that's what you've been doing, all your lives, obeying. Did you seek the Elements of Harmony because you had a choice, or simply because you were the pawns of a uncaring god and master?" He spread his arms wide, and he shouted to the room, "Aren't we all! Did you ever care!? Did you ever truly show us love!? Or were we just your playthings from the beginning!" The dark one snarled to the empty room, circling an enemy that only he could see. "You've always sought perfection, culling out the weak through nature and nurturing the strong with your magic! Don't you see? I am perfection! I am your only true son! I am the alpha and the omega, the first, the truest, and the final, the culmination of unknowable years of your tampering and your machinations! These pitiful things, these playthings of yours," he waved a clawed hand back towards the prostrated mares, "are the last desperate act of a fool who believes that salvation lies in her own childish ideals! Your time has ended, Mother" he hissed with scorn, "and now the forsaken child will become the master!"
Twilight fought with all the strength she could muster against the spell of immobility, but she paused as Lucifer ranted to nothing. And she realized that the dark god was insecure in his victory, that the dark spirit that was Lucifer was just a facade for the insecurities of the human souls within him. The evil spirit lashed out in his anger, sending powerful orbs of dark magic to strike at the barriers of divine magic. And though each impact shook the room, the shield held strong.
Lucifer cried out in frustration and hatred, flailing his magic like a unicorn foal throwing a tantrum. And Twilight realized, that's just what it was: a tantrum. Lucifer was the childish, hateful, spiteful, bitter part of every human being, craving some kind of approval from the thing it hated. Repressed and beaten down by every person it had ever been a part of. Scorned and mistreated, Lucifer was a child angry with the world, seeking revenge for slights that had simply been the better parts of human nature.
Twilight found her strength, and she struggled back her hooves. Her friends looked at her in awe, and they began to find their own strength, struggling to stand while Lucifer continued to lash out in anger against the divine shield.
"I pity you," Twilight said to the dark god.
Lucifer froze in the middle of another of his dark spells. His fists clenched hard in fury, and the cracking and mending of his bones could be heard from across the room. Spinning around to face the mare, his black eyes seethed and his jagged teeth were bared in a snarl. "What did you say?"
"I said that I pity you!" Twilight shouted. The demon recoiled from the force of her declaration. "You're a foul, cretinous thing that should never have been born! You could have simply accepted your place in the world, but look at what you've done! You've been the cause of every war, every tear, and every ignorant thought that has ever gone through a human mind!"
Lucifer quivered with rage at her, she who dared to scold him like a child. "SHUT UP!" it screamed.
"And look at you, a child throwing a tantrum because of some imagined wrong! You deserve to be locked away and punished like the spoiled brat that you are! You weren't a dark spirit, locked away in some kind of weapon, you're just the dark half of human nature given a face!"
Lucifer teleported over to stand in front of Twilight, breathing jets of pure smoke as his anger grew. "You just don't know when to shut up, do you?"
Twilight stared the avatar of evil in the eye, unwavering in her conviction. "And even if you do manage to escape from here, you'll never win. Because you can never be content, never be satisfied. Even if this world burns to the ground, you'll never truly succeed."
The monster cracked another wicked grin, tracing a claw along her cheek. "Sweet Twilight, so full of heart. Do you know why you're still alive? Because he's still in here, fighting to control me. But he's losing, ever so slowly he's losing ground in this battle of wills. I have waited millions of years, lurking in the hearts of all mankind, I can outlast him. And as for you, you've never been more right."
Lucifer withdrew his hand from her face, and a stream of dark magic leaped from his hand and into her horn. A quick glance told her that Lucifer was meting out the same punishment to every one of her friends. A searing pain traveled down her horn and into her mind, and the world became dark.
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It had been months since the War had been rekindled, and months since it had ended. Lucifer had succeeded in shattering the divine shield and used his dark magic to resurrect a dark army of human soldiers. Men and women that he had turned into demons had marched from Stronghold, and crushed the Equestrian army like insects. With nothing to stand against them, his dread army had grown in strength as the souls of the dead joined with Lucifer, and nations were felled like trees in the forest.
Twilight awoke in the barren wasteland, lifting her head from the ashes and peering around. All that met her eyes was a grey landscape devoid of features and a sky that boiled with black clouds.
"Hello?" she shouted. Her voice echoed endlessly in the wasteland, and the only sound that answered was the lonely moan of the wind as it stirred the ash. "Is anypony here?" she called.
"Where am I?" she asked herself. Standing from the ashes, she tried to find some kind of landmark to find where she was. And when the featureless wasteland yielded nothing, she looked upward to try and see the sun through the clouds. The thick cloud cover did not yield to the light of the sun and did not cast a shadow. Lost in this horrid waste, she embraced her magic.
But when she tried to tap the source of her arcane power, she felt nothing. Shaking her head, she probed deeper and deeper, desperately seeking any bare scrap of magic. She nearly cried in frustration as she delved down to dangerous depths within herself, seeking the source of her unicorn magic. Only to find that it did not exist.
"I don't have magic," she whispered to herself, snapping her eyes open. And when she tried to tap the magic of the world around her, she that to be just as barren as the magic within herself. "The world has no magic. He won, he killed the Mother and destroyed all magic."
And Twilight stifled the tears that threatened to spring from her eyes, and for the first time she noticed a single bump on the horizon. Wiping away her tears, she began her solemn trudge towards it.
She walked for hours, and hours stretched into days. Time had no meaning here in this dead and decaying world, and the black and boiling sky never showed any difference between day and night. The pin-prick on the horizon steadily grew and grew, and even as she trudged endlessly closer to it, she could not tell whether it was a mole hill or a sky-scraping mountain. Eventually it filled most of the horizon in front of her, and the land around the mountain turned into rolling foothills. The destruction looked fresher here, the ash felt warmer and bits of ruined buildings and burned stumps poked out from the wasteland's otherwise featureless surface.
And on her way to the mountain, something about the land seemed to strike a chord of memory in her. She walked through the ruins of a town, and when her hoof came down, she heard a crunch. Twilight stopped in her tracks, knowing what lie under her hoof, and not daring to look down upon it. Swallowing her disgust and her apprehension, she continued through the ruined town, her hoof crunching on many more bones before she managed to make it through.
And only when she made it through that town did she look up at the side of the mountain and see the ruins of a once shining alabaster city perched on the mountainside. "Canterlot," she whispered. A realization struck her, and she looked back over her shoulder at the ruined town that she had passed through. "Ponyville," she whispered in horror.
Biting back the sadness in her heart, Twilight began her trudge up Canterlot mountain. It was a long journey, and the uphill climb was only compounded by heaps of ash that gave way under her hooves and forced her back one step for every two steps forward. She walked for hours without rest, nor the need for it.
And when she finally came to the shattered gates of Canterlot, Twilight sat down to rest for a moment after days of walking to reach this point. All around her, bullet holes marred the once perfect marble walls, armor and bones of the valiant defenders of the city of harmony lay in heaps, and the very stone walkways of the city had been cracked by the tremendous passing of human war machines.
In their end, the soldiers of Equestria had made their valiant last stand here at the gates of Canterlot. And before the might of Lucifer's campaign of revenge, they had fallen as nameless piles of dust. Twilight could have wept for the futility of it all, leaning back against the walls of the once sacred city of ponykind. Until her ears caught something that was not constant moan of the wind in this dead world.
She perked her ears up, standing up and looking around in the city. The sound came again on the wind, a mare's cries of anguish barely floated to her ears. And from what she could tell, it came from the castle. Damning her tired legs, she galloped through the ruined streets of broken buildings and shattered bones, wanting to see if there truly was one living soul left in this dead place.
Twilight could have wept with tears of joy, joy that she wasn't alone in the world, that maybe there was a companion soul to comfort her in this apocalyptic wasteland. She charged through the shattered gates of the palace, through the broken courtyard, and straight to the throne room. And when she saw who was in there, her heart froze, and she hid behind a pile of rubble.
Peeking over the rubble, her worst fears came alive. Lucifer, the dark god, the King of the Damned, sat upon a twisted image of the royal throne, a wicked grin on his face as he considered the two mares lying tortured and prostrate at his feet.
"Well Celestia, are you ready to admit your defeat?" the monster asked the white alicorn.
"Never!" she shrieked back. A finger on Lucifer's hand barely twitched, and a lash of dark magic struck the alicorn like a whip.
"Give up already. Your armies were crushed like so many ants, your allies were scattered to the wind, your nation has been ground to dust, and your god has been broken and killed like a common dog. Earth is mine! Even now my armies walk the pathways beneath the fabric of the universe, seeking other worlds to turn to chaos."
Celestia struggled to stand on shaky legs before the dark god, trickles of blood running from her battered and bruised body. "You'll never win," she said painfully. Again a lash of magic struck her, and the alicorn of the sun collapsed.
"Do be gentle with her," a chillingly familiar voice said from the shadows. Discord flowed into the royal throne room, taking his place by the dark god's side. "After all, I do have her to blame for locking me away for several millenia. And to you, my ever so devious partner in crime, I can never thank you enough for undoing all the damage that those accursed human souls did to my mind."
"My pleasure, Discord," the demon king said with a grin. "And they thought you could be changed. Well, I changed you back just as easily as they 'reformed' you. And now, to make our rulership complete, there is one more lamb that needs be brought back into the fold." Lucifer's eyes drifted down to the blue alicorn mare lying still on the floor of the throne room.
Lucifer stepped down from his throne, using his magic to ease Princess Luna into a sitting position. "Poor Princess Luna," he crooned, stroking her unconscious cheek. "Tormented, abused, broken, and betrayed by her own sister." Luna's eyes fluttered open, and she moaned a barely audible gasp of pain. Lucifer leaned close to her, whispering to her ear, "But, there was a time when you wielded power that was unmatched on Earth. A power that made your sister jealous, and made her banish you to a forsaken prison while she ruled the world by herself. You were above a Princess, you were a Queen. And you shall be again, you shall once again rule as the Nightmare. The Queen of Darkness for the King of the Damned."
The dark god cupped the Princess's cheek, and he leaned in close to her, planting his lips on hers.
Celestia struggled against the magical bonds that Discord laid upon her, screaming, "No! Luna! NO!"
Lucifer's kiss lasted for many moments, and he held onto Princess Luna as the darkness in his own body spread into hers, tainting her coat black. Luna's eyes snapped open, shifting from her gentle azure to a sickly green. Lucifer stepped back as Nightmare Moon arose from the floor, restored to all the shadowed glory that had been stolen from her by the Elements of Harmony. With a wicked laugh, Nightmare Moon spread her wings and took her place beside the throne of Lucifer.
The King of the Damned turned at last to Princess Celestia, who wept at the complete loss of her beloved sister, the destruction of her world, and how she had failed to protect all her subjects. "Well Celestia, it's been one hell of a ride. But I'm afraid that we do not need you anymore." Lucifer extended a hand, as did Discord, and Nightmare Moon's horn glowed with her dark magic. As one, a blinding spell of destruction came from the Dark Triumvirate, and all that was left of the Princess of the Sun was her dented and beaten crown, lying on a blackened spot.
"Princess!" Twilight screamed, running out from behind her cover to the spot where Celestia had laid moments before. Grasping up the crown in her hooves, she wept as freely as she had ever wept, cradling the last relic of her beloved teacher to her chest.
"Well!" Lucifer chimed in glee. "What do we have here? Twilight Sparkle, I believed you dead after you helped me unleash my army." Stepping down from the throne, with his two cohorts by his side, Lucifer powered up another of his dark orbs of destruction, aiming his magic at the unicorn. "I guess I'll just have to finish the job. No hard feelings."
Twilight stared death in the face, and in that moment, she lost all fear. If she was going to die here, she was going to do it standing tall. Rising from the floor, she set aside Celestia's crown, took a deep breath, and awaited her doom. "I'm not afraid of you anymore," she said to the Triumvirate.
Lucifer recoiled, and his empty eyes glowed with fear. But he wasn't looking at Twilight. Discord and Nightmare Moon similarly wore expressions of terror, and they slowly backed away.
"No," Lucifer cried, shaking his head in disbelief. "You're dead! I killed you! You can't be here! You can't walk the universe like this!"
It was only then that Twilight noticed the golden aura of light that poured from behind her.
"Your lies are cheap, shadow of the deceiver," a heavenly voice said. Twilight turned slowly, and when she saw the being before her, she could only stare incredulously. A green coated alicorn, clad in golden armor, crowned with a crystal diadem and flowing black hair stood before her. And around her neck, a simple necklace bedecked with the seal of the Elements of Harmony.
Lucifer fell back on the steps of his throne, screaming about how she was impossible. The golden warrior drew her sword, and with a single strike she plunged it into the demon king's heart. Lucifer screamed his dying cry of agony, and his body melted into shadows. The whole world around her began to melt away into shadows, and the warrior tore her blade free from the stones where Lucifer had been. She held the blade before Twilight, who gently took it from her magical aura.
The golden warrior nodded to her. "Twilight Sparkle, do you really believe in everything that you see? This illusion is merely what Lucifer desires the future to be. And unless you find the strength to believe in the power of harmony, this is what it shall be. Find your element, and break his spell over you. Farewell, my child."
The golden warrior disappeared in an aura of light, leaving Twilight alone with her sword. And when Twilight considered her words, she knew what had to be done. "Find my Element. My Element, the Element of Magic. But where...." She looked down at the blade in her hoof, and when she looked at the gem in the pommel, and she smiled. A six pointed star carved from a purple gem met her, and when she touched it, the world of illusion around her shattered.
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Her vision was blurry, but she could see the dim lights of Project Lazarus through the divine shield, and Twilight knew she was back in reality. Lucifer was facing away from her, concentrating himself on a magical spell to breach the shield and reach his prize on the inside. All around her, her friends lay on the floor, moaning and whimpering in the nightmares that Lucifer had placed them in. Twilight crept up to her friends, and she whispered into their ears, "Wake up, it's not real! It's just a nightmare, find your Element!"
One by one, each of her friends woke up, shaking off their individual horrifying realities that they had been subjected to. Twilight helped them to their hooves, and as one they embraced the power of the Elements of Harmony, determined to strike down the monster before he could realize that they had shattered his spell of mind control and illusion.
Lucifer paced like a caged animal in front of the barrier, madly muttering to himself and occasionally lashing at the shield with a powerful dark spell. But he froze, sensing the gathering of harmonious magic all around him. Spinning around, Lucifer snarled at the bearers of the Elements.
"Don't you ever quit!" he screamed in rage.
Twilight stepped forward. "No, we don't. Aaron! We know you're in there. And for this, we're sorry." The Elements of Harmony gathered their immutable power, each sending out a stream of light to connect with the Tiara of Magic.
"Be free of hatred," said Fluttershy.
"Be free of greed," said Rarity.
"Be free of anger," Rainbow Dash said.
"Be free of lies," Applejack said proudly.
"Be free of fear," said Pinkie Pie.
Twilight opened her closed eyes, and they glowed deeply with the power of harmony. "Be free of darkness, my friend."
And with their peace made, they unleashed the greatest force of magic known upon the dark god. A beam of rainbow energy flew for Lucifer, and the demon king's eyes grew wide. He shrieked his defiance, throwing up his hands and putting up the most powerful shield he could muster. The unstoppable force of Harmony collided with the immovable avatar of Chaos.
"No!" Lucifer screamed, pressing back with every droplet of arcane power that the billions of Legion souls could afford him. The two forces dueled for the supremacy of mankind's souls, and neither side gained nor lost ground as the rainbow beam of power crashed into the oily black shield. Lucifer snarled at the six friends, screaming his defiance.
With a final push from both, the two forces of magic shattered one another, and Lucifer stumbled back, panting from the exertion of fighting off such a powerful attack. But, his face was split by a smile of glee, and he laughed. "I have done it! I have defeated the greatest weapon of the gods! I am unstoppable! Where is your precious "harmony" now!"
Twilight smiled confidently. "Right where it needs to be."
Lucifer looked to her in confusion, until he felt an itching upon his palm. Looking at his hand, the monster's confusion changed to fear as he spied a patch of clear skin among his pale grey flesh. "No..." he murmured. With a glow of light, it began to spread up into his fingers, banishing away the pale darkness and melting away his demonic features "No!" he screamed.
The power of harmony spread up into his arm, purifying body, mind and soul as it spread up his arm. Lucifer clawed at his shoulder, intending to amputate the infected limb before it could spread. But with the healing magic of Legion mending his wounds as quickly as he could lay them down, his efforts were futile.
In vain, Lucifer looked with pleading eyes at the Bearers of the Elements. "Don't you understand!? I am necessary! Without darkness, how can you know light?! There must be balance to the universe, chaos and harmony must exist together! Without chaos, there can be no life, no harmony, no universe at all! I kept humanity alive, I allowed them to survive and thrive where anyone else would have fallen!"
The spreading light seeped into Lucifer's chest, and he shrieked in agony as it quickly began to spread everywhere within him. "Mother!" he screamed. "Why do you hate me?!"
And to the surprise of the six friends, a voice could be heard, ringing through their thoughts.
I have never hated you, my child.
The dark creature closed his eyes and wept a tear, spreading his arms wide as the light of harmony touched every soul within his body. Leaning back his head, his eyes opened to reveal a shining light. His skin glowed with the power of harmony, and Lucifer shrieked one last scream before its taint was annihilated.
But the lights of harmony did not cease, and with the death and defeat of Lucifer, the souls of humanity were released from their bondage within Aaron's body. The orbs of millions of spirits flew from his body, swirling around their savior, crying in their joy.
Swarms of purified human souls poured out of the man, singing to their pony saviors. Twilight and her friends were crowded by millions of grateful human souls, gently giving their warmth and their love.
"We are whole! We are pure! We are free!" they chanted in a thousand languages. "Thank you, kind ones! Thank you!"
And with a call that came to all of the souls from the next life, they dispersed out to the world, free at last from a million years of the wound upon their souls, and finally able to return to the cycle of nature.
The lights of magic faded as the swell of souls ended, and the ponies were left alone in the entrance to the Vault. Aaron stood as he had, arms spread wide and his head back. Aaron looked up at the ponies, his face bathed with cold sweat, and his skin pale with exhaustion. Aaron gasped for breath, holding his hand over his chest.
"Are you alright?" Rainbow Dash asked her friend, alighting to rush to his side.
Without a word, he fell to his knees, and slumped over to the ground.
"No!" Twilight shouted, running across the room to his side. She rolled him onto his back, placing her ear on his chest to listen for a heartbeat. "No no no!" she chanted, hearing nothing from his still chest. "Come, get up!"
The rest of her friends joined her, lowering themselves to his body, trying to find something to do to bring him back.
Fluttershy pushed past the group, pressing her hoof just below his ribs over and over, trying to force his lungs to take in breath. "Come on, breathe! You can do it, just breathe!" she hissed through clenched teeth.
Applejack cradled his head, a stream of tears falling down her face. "Come on, little cousin. Don't leave me. If you can hear me, come back. Please, come back."
Twilight angrily shoved them out of the way, grabbing Aaron's collar with her magic. "Get up, you son of a bitch!" she tearfully screamed. "You've never given up on anything, don't give up now! Fight it, fight it!" She slapped his face with a hoof, hoping the stinging pain might bring him back. "Come on, damn it, you're not done yet! Please! Please, just wake up."
A white hoof stopped her, and Rarity pulled Twilight gently away from Aaron's body. "There's nothing we can do," Rarity whispered to Twilight, giving her friend a comforting hug.
********************************
He saw darkness, then light. His soul stood from his body, and looked around. His friends stood around him, crying for his loss.
"No way. Am I... am I... dead?"
"Yes, brother," a spectral voice said to him, a human ghost appearing by his side. "Come! We have been waiting for you! Come with us!" The spirit grabbed his hand, pulling Aaron away from his body. Other ghosts of human beings joined their fellow, ushering their brother along towards the shining horizon of the afterlife.
"Wait, no, I can't go yet! Let me go!" he said to his brethren, trying to pull himself free. The ghosts silenced him with promises of rest, of seeing all those he loved again, of paradise and of returning to the universe. "No! I can't go yet!"
"Let him go, my children."
The ghosts released Aaron, turning to face the one who had commanded them. With a nod, each of them crossed the threshold back to the afterlife.
He turned to confront the voice, it came from a woman who stood smiling at him. She was beautiful, clad in green wisps with hair that waved like it was in the wind, like the manes of her daughters. It shined with the light of a million stars, but it was not like the mane of Luna, where the light of stars were mere pinpricks in her flowing crown. Hers was a window to the cosmos, a wavering view of galaxies and stars that human eyes had never seen the light of. Her eyes shined with golden irises that made the soul weep with beauty. She stood much taller than him, but her body seemed incomplete. Her face was kind, yet it showed the lines from tears and sorrow.
But the goddess of Earth did not stay in one form, she subtly and seamlessly shifted between all the forms of which her children saw fit to imagine her with. One moment she was a human goddess of beauty, the next a golden alicorn, constantly shifting between the forms of all of her children.
"Mother," he said in awe.
"Yes, you have done us a great service Aaron, your brothers and sisters have been redeemed for their sins and their spirits are whole."
The human soul looked back to his friends. "What about them?"
"Their stories will continue on in life. Come now, we must go. You will be with everyone you loved once again." The Mother of All extended her hand.
He reached to take it, but hesitated. "No, I can't go yet."
Mother Earth looked down at him quizzically. "No? Do you not want eternal rest and paradise?"
"Mankind still sleeps, I need to awaken them. I haven't finished yet."
Mother Earth smiled, she reached down and wrapped her arms around him. "Child, you and your friends embody everything I wished for when I dreamed of life," she whispered to him. She placed her lips on his forehead and gave a gentle kiss. "Now get up, you have a job to finish. And don't you dare think about giving up now," she whispered into his ear. Placing a hand on his chest, she gave a gentle push. His wayward soul flew back through the air, landing in his body.
"As always, I'll be watching. Remember that peace, love and harmony have no equal."
******************************************************************************
His eyes opened slowly, he heard crying, felt the warmth of his friends around him. He groaned once from the soreness of his run. Legion was gone, their souls made whole by Lucifer and purified by the Elements. But something else replaced them, a tie to something nearby, he realized that his spirit was now bonded with Lucifer.
"He's awake! Oh thank the Princesses!" A half dozen warm pony bodies crowded to give him a hug. He raised his arms to hug as many ponies as he possibly could.
They wept for his return. "Don't you ever scare us like that ever again," cried Rainbow Dash.
"I won't," he confided. He stood with what energy he had left. He reached out to the Vault's entrance, the magical barrier was gone and the way unbarred.
Without another word, he looked down to his weapon that had lain unused and unnoticed on the ground. He reached down to grab Lucifer, straining to lift the pacified source of dark magic. With his rebirth and the lack of Legion's strength, he barely had the strength to lift it. Lucifer no longer swirled with the evil it once had, its energy had been converted to harmonious magic, and his tie to it had allowed the Elements to purify it and him.
Aaron took a feeble step forward, doubting the surety of his own feet. Taking another belabored step forward, he stumbled, falling to his hands and knees. Aaron gritted his teeth, struggling back to his feet and taking another step forward. Panting at the exertion of this final task, he stumbled again. And this time when he fell, Aaron could feel his strength fading. He nearly fell completely to the floor, but a springy pink mane worked its way under his arm, and helped to lift him back to his feet.
The man looked to Pinkie Pie, who had a knowing and understanding smile on her face. "You looked like you needed a little help, Mr Stumbly-Bumbly." He afforded a fatigued smile, and with the earth pony under his arm, he took another step forward.
Another few steps, and he was fully within the Vault, only a few steps away from the cryo-stasis chamber that had been his resting place. Again, his legs gave way, and he found himself caught by a sky blue mare. "Woah there, speed demon," said Rainbow Dash. "We're gonna take this one nice and slow."
They walked through the aisles of cryo-stasis tubes, heading for the master control center. With each step Aaron felt his strength returning, and soon he didn't need either pony as a crutch. "There's only one way to hit all of them, I have to use Lucifer on the central life support system, it should spread the energy enough to cover all of them."
"You're still going to do it? You're going to wake them up? But it could start a war!" Rarity said as she ran beside him.
"Not as long as I still breathe!" he yelled. The rows of stasis chambers passed by in a flash of pale blue lights, each illuminating a human being silently begging for freedom. "Did I ever tell you what 'Lucifer' means?" he asked to nopony in particular.
"You said it was religious," Twilight said between her panting breaths as she ran by his side.
"Lucifer...was the fallen angel. The right hand of God. Cast down from Heaven for trying to make all the angels equals. He wanted to make everyone come together. His name...meant Light Bringer. And it's time the Devil got his name redeemed, and time to bring back the light!"
He climbed the metal stairs to the master control room, his boots and their hooves clanging in the silence. He reared back and kicked down the door. Inside were dozens of consoles, he searched desperately until he found the one labeled life support. He stood back and aimed Lucifer at it. "Everyone get behind me!" He squeezed the trigger on Lucifer, expending the last shot it had in its power pack. A bolt of rainbow colored energy flowed forth, infecting the console. The light of harmonious magic spread from the console, through the cables in the wall and down into the thousands of standing cryo-stasis modules.
He felt the tie to Lucifer dissipate, its energy having gone. He took it off and threw the now useless hunk of metal to the floor. Turning to the master control console, he spied the one button to abort cryo-stasis in all modules. He slammed a hand down on it.
Klaxons blared, "Warning, all modules compromised, beginning restoration of all inhabitants."
"I did it, my mission is complete," he said to himself. Then he turned to his friends, laughing as the weight of mountains lifted from his shoulders. He grabbed the nearest pony and twirled her while giving a hug. "I DID IT!" He blindly threw kisses on the cheeks of everypony that was in his range.
Another warning sounded, "Omega energy contamination detected at dangerous levels, sealing all exits to prevent contamination."
Aaron stopped dead. "Shit."
"What does that mean Aaron? What is going on?" said Applejack.
"It means that the big door is closed now, and it won't open for quite a while. Not too bad for me, horrible for you. In about ten minutes an army of groggy, trigger happy humans is going to wake up. And seeing you will not make them happy."
"But I thought you purified them!" shouted Twilight.
"It will take time, probably better the door closed so it could take effect without them going on a rampage."
"But what about us?!" cried Applejack.
"I'm thinking damn it!" His fingers frantically typed on the master control console, searching for an override.
Twilight, use it.
"I know what to do!" She whipped out the parchment from her saddlebag, laying it on the floor, "Everypony circle up, grab each other's hooves!" Aaron ran to join them. "Not you, I don't know what it will do to you."
He stood back as she began to weave the magic spell. His eyes growing round with what he saw. The whole thing took around five minutes, and his mouth was wide enough to catch flies in the entire time. "That is a neat trick."
"Ha! They'll kill us as ponies, but not as humans!" There sat a circle of absolutely gorgeous young women.
"I...uh....woah..."
"What? Why are you looking at us like that?"
He was wall eyed, but he shook himself back to reality. Going over to a closet, he pulled out six sets of the white blouses and pants for the new humans. "Put these on, it won't do to have you walking around in your birthday suits."
"What do we do now pardner?" Applejack said while pulling on a shirt.
"Well, meet the family I guess." Out in Lazarus, The Race of Man stirred.
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So much YAY! Two in one day!
I kind of imagined Linkin Park's song What I've Done playing in the background when he fires Lucifer on the life support system. Makes it more dramatic.
sweet chapter...celestia's gonna be gobsmacked...hehehe
327319 I have been listening The Catalyst while reading your story. They have some really fitting music. Burning In the Skies, Iridescent, New Divide, etc. This is so awesome!
327145 man do what ever you want just make sure you comment on how it from the transformers movie
Oh my Mother,
YES!
(See what I did there?)
327648 I win if I just started a new religion.
327671
In the church of Earth, we are all children of Mother.
So much WIN with the Assassin's Creed reference!
Well done klondike you practically added everything I suggested.
well done!
That's one HELL of a energizer battery to keep a charge that long...just saying.