As Celestia ascended the flight, the floor began to glow. He was lurking at the top of the steps, she was sure of it. Her breathing became harsh, almost panicky.
A bubble of thunder blasted out from the stage at the top, tearing through the floorboards and the steps. Just when it reached Celestia, it met the invisible sphere shielding her and glowed blue where they both touched. The blue ring of disruption grew around the front of the bubble, passed over her, and shrank back to nothing. Behind her, the shockwave continued.
An aurora flared across the ground around her. From the depths of the wrecked stage, a fluorescent pink glow intensified. The stage was blasted aside to reveal the pit below. A grey mane rose up from the depths. An electric blue snout poked through the locks, which went all the way down to its waist. The horse was standing upright. Iron shoulder pads bristled with spikes. The rusted chains crisscrossed over the chest plate. The forehooves were plated with solid iron horseshoes.
The rising platform clicked into place. Indra stopped rising, and was now eye level with Celestia.
The truth behind the pony tribes stood in calm defiance.
Red eyes looked into purple ones. The spear-like unicorn horns both glowed – hers with the sheen of sunlit gold, his with zigzagging arcs of electricity.
The halberd on his back broke free of its chains and swung around before him, while broken links littered the platform. Celestia forced herself not to back away. Too late for second thoughts.
"Indra," said Celestia with a nod.
"Lord and Master," he intoned. "Heavenly General of the Horse World, and Master of the Halberd of Fate. I am the Anchor of the Pony Lands, the All-Father, and the Fundamental Truth. Don't presume to be familiar with me, mortal."
“I will be merciful,” promised Celestia. Indra growled.
“Conceited sun gazer,” he replied. “You cannot possibly kill the Lord of all Horses, the Guardian of All Things, the God Whose Voice is Thunder and Wind. You might as well try to destroy the cosmos with a pebble.”
“I don’t wish to,” she said as calmly as she could, “and I don’t have to.”
The halberd swung across, slicing through the air so cleanly it left white hot contrails. Celestia narrowed her eyes as it spun closer. Her horn’s glow lessened slightly.
Before it could cover the last ten inches to Celestia’s forehead, the halberd froze in mid-air. It hung still long enough for Indra to take in what was happening.
Inside her own head, she let out a relieved gasp of shock. That it would actually work was… almost ridiculous. A death sentence. And yet here she was, actually holding him at bay. She almost dropped the thing in surprise.
"I've changed since we last met," Celestia said. "And so have the ponies you control. They've discovered how to live in peace at last."
Then Celestia blinked and the weapon shattered. Shards of ornamental bronze, copper, and oak rained onto the torn planks before her.
"How very sweet," said Indra, who was suppressing a chuckle. "My little pony has learned a little magic."
"You're too kind." Celestia blushed, but the fire burned in her eyes. "I've seen more impressive magic, believe me."
"Unicorn, you are nothing but a mote of dust," said Indra with a smirk. "You may have ascended on your journey to the Hall of the Gods, but you lack the true sacred power. How dare you presume to storm in here and prattle about nothing? Where do you have the right to challenge me?"
"And what kind of god are you," she snapped, "to order the pony tribes to turn on each other, century after century? To fill their minds with hatred, fear, and suspicion, for nothing better than to satisfy your own whim? To leave them warring and corrupting each other? You don't stop it, you don't know about it, and you don't care about what little you do know."
Indra’s eyes and muscles bulged. He raised the iron horseshoes over his head. The locks flapped and whipped around his face, but he did not blink or look away from her.
We'll never do it, she thought suddenly. Oh, the earth ponies always wanted peace, but the pegasi? Even the unicorns hate losing to anyone, much less ruffians. So much armour dented, so many horns broken, so many wings burnt and snapped until their owners can't even unfold them anymore. Maybe he's not what stood in our way. Maybe we stood in each other's way, and he simply sat back and watched…
"Such a foal!" he boomed with false cheerfulness. "I am he who stands upright, not one who crawls on all fours. They will not grow and develop without adversity. They will not grow and develop at all, not without me. Better to suffer in the name of a god than to live in empty peace. That is the only thing worth doing in this void of a universe. That is the only thing that can even define worth."
Above him, clouds condensed out of seemingly nothing and grew. A black spewing shroud of lumps and fluff smothered the ceiling and deepened. Soon, they both seemed to have been plunged into the smoke of an inferno. Flashes of light burst within the cloud. Celestia’s horn dimmed until her own light was as weak as a candlewick’s.
"And only a god can determine what growth and development are! Begone!"
A bolt of lightning shrieked through the cloud. A second cut across it, and they both snapped to Celestia.
Nothing happened for a while.
Indra’s eyes glowed crimson. He chuckled as a third bolt shot down for her and struck her horn.
"So this is what a god is?" said Celestia calmly. "An authority who tells others what to do and what to think?"
But then her brain caught up with her words. Why not, after all? Hadn't she spent years growing sick of all the news of bickering and skirmishing? Hadn't she said often enough how she'd put an end to all of this, if only she could? True, she hadn't really believed it, but now, for a few precious moments, the idea seemed right.
Someone to tell them to stop fighting…
The clouds exploded with light. Webs of lightning crisscrossed all around them like an ethereal bush. Thousands of arcs danced around Celestia’s head and concentrated on her horn. The air rushed with a thousand slicing bolts lunging at one target.
"Only I have the wisdom to know what to think," said Indra. "It is beyond you. You couldn't decipher my thoughts if you took a thousand years."
Indra’s triumphant smirk melted into a look of horror. An orb of pure light was growing on the tip of Celestia’s horn.
His forehead dribbled with sweat as he concentrated. More lightning shot from the clouds. It rushed along the trails left in the air by the previous bolts. The electricity poured into Celestia’s horn.
"How can you be sure?" said Celestia. "How can you be sure you are a god, and not a demon with delusions of grandeur? How do I know you're not insane?"
"Because it is certain! It is the only certain thing!"
"I am certain I exist," said Celestia with an impish smile. "I'm not so sure about you, though. Perhaps this is a rather vivid dream? It wouldn't be the strangest I've had."
How can I be certain I'd make a decent god, though? If I replace him, I can rule Equestria without any rivals. I defeat him, someone defeats me… Yes, I have an advantage over him, but others could learn from it. And who'd replace me?
Still, the orb grew. Indra summoned more electricity from the clouds, ignoring the heat radiating off his brow. The orb swelled faster. He forced every last charge out of the blackness and summoned even more bolts. The orb swelled faster still. It never seemed to occur to him that the two events were connected.
"You dare to mock me, do you?" Indra thrashed his iron hooves about the air, and lightning rose from the ground and snaked towards the target.
Celestia channelled the incoming arcs through her horn towards the tip. The ball of super-hot plasma she was creating there was the cause of the orb of light. Soon, it was larger than her head, and still growing.
Indra never relented. He created more and more electricity out of thin air and threw it, and watched it pour into her horn. He sweated harder and harder. A wall of pulsing yellow plasma obscured his view now. Still it grew, almost engulfing him.
"What I command is the only worthy thing!" he said in his deep, booming voice. "Ponies like you are nothing but insects and toys at my mercy! You even ape my power with your kings and emperors, and now you presume to lecture me on the vices of a prize you yourself seek! Do you deny it?"
On top of the dull mountain, the Hall of the Gods blew apart as the miniature sun burst its boundaries. Charred timber and flaming straw rained down from the dull grey sky, landing everywhere on the surrounding mountain range.
Four hooves scraped the earth until they stopped sliding backward. Indra opened his eyes and saw the long grooves he’d left in the dirt. They led up to what was left of the Hall, which wasn’t much beyond four snapped beams in the corners. The rest of the space was either air or the mass of the miniature sun.
Celestia released the growing star from her horn and began to slowly walk towards him. Her face was a picture of serenity. It was the most terrifying thing Indra had ever set eyes on. She could see it in his stare, his grimace, his stiff limbs.
I'm not better than anyone, she thought. As soon as I start thinking like that, this whole quest becomes a waste. I am not a master.
"You never explain to us any of your wisdom," said Celestia. "You simply told the Kings and Queens of the Unicorns what to do. You never respected them because you assumed there was nothing to respect. No god worth worshipping would flaunt their 'greatness' to their subjects. They would share it, and encourage it. They would want company, not commodities."
Indra gritted his teeth and summoned an army of clouds, which merged into each other. A mountain range of cumulonimbus was soon looming above him. A casual flap of Celestia’s wings, and the mountains above them broke up. She folded her wings again, and the cloud remnants fled to the horizons. She continued walking as though nothing happened.
"And you clearly don't have any greatness at all." Her voice echoed back to him from mountains afar. "I've seen the Commanders of the Pegasi show their strength and valour in fighting the creatures you send against them. I've seen the Chancellor and her Earth Ponies show their self-sacrifice and kindness by easing the pain and suffering of your casualties. And I've seen the Emperors of the Crystal Ponies store all knowledge and wisdom to help guide others. If a tyrant like you cannot show a twinkle of any of these qualities, what then is so great about you?"
What's so great about me?
Indra gave a whinny, which he quickly turned into a snarl. He took a few hesitant steps back.
"I don't need such sentimental and pathetic sideshows to know my superiority!" He stomped a hoof. "I simply have the power. Who else could create spirits of wind and winter, spirits to bring an entire nation to its knees? Only those who have the power."
"Really? I don't see it anywhere right now."
The star above their heads began to redden and swell. Before the red giant even swallowed the Hall’s remnants with its expanding girth, the remaining pieces of timber burst into flame and crumpled into ash, then evaporated into grey clouds. The clouds vanished into nothing. The air shimmered and then distorted itself with the heat. A while later, the red giant finally swallowed it.
"You think this new land," spat Indra, "this Equestria, has any value beyond me, do you? It is worth nothing without me."
Celestia had long since cleared the Hall’s boundaries. Despite being well within the evaporation zone, she looked as unfazed as a mare on a breezy spring evening. Indra was sweating so viciously his fur had turned into one large soaked flannel. His electric blue body reddened.
I must listen. He never listened. I am not a master.
"I'm sorry, Indra," she said. "I had hoped to persuade you, but you've ruled for too long from too far away to be swayed. I can't risk you hurting my ponies again."
"Your ponies?" Indra tried a hollow laugh. "You fancy yourself a god now, pretender?"
No. Maybe… Unless I knew what to do. Unless someone got in my face. Unless idiots and liars try to plunge us back into the dark ages.
But that's the problem. "Unless". "Maybe". I can't trust myself not to fall prey to it, because no one could stop me once I do anything godly. And if I'll do it for a good reason, what's to say I won't do it for a middling reason? A weak one? A tempting one?
No. The only correct answer is "no".
As the star grew, the ground beneath it cracked and ripped itself apart until it was swallowed. He felt the earthquakes through all four hooves, and stayed stock still.
"You dare," said Indra, "and you won't live long enough to see your sister born."
"This is a new world, Indra. Chaos and confusion are going to be things of the past. We won't be blown about by the storm."
Celestia was almost upon him. On all fours, he was no bigger than one of her Royal Guards.
"We simply don't need you any more," she said.
The red giant, having gouged out a crater behind Celestia, began to slow down and stop. It trembled with the strain. Sun spots oozed and flowed over its surface. Flares leapt from it. Jets of shimmering air showed where gas was being blasted away. The entire mountain range glowed red under the intense light.
"What is this? This isn't magic." Indra stumbled trying to back away.
It's better, she thought.
"Now do you see? I have many friends counting on me," said Celestia. "I swore to them I wouldn't let them down. And I won't leave this realm until I've set them free."
"You think you'll prove any better, will you?" Indra said, but the confidence was draining from his voice. "You and your own kin will only lead the ponies to ruin and destruction. You and your kind are no better than I am."
How do I know he's lying? I led them to rebel against him, after teaching them all about him. What else would I lead them against?
"You don't understand this power," said Celestia. "Friendship isn't like worship. Power flows both ways. I feel it in every beat of my heart, so strong and enduring that I can wield the stars and create them from mere lightning. You only have to listen to the ponies, Indra. Lots of ponies wanted to confide in you. Isn't it about time you trusted them? Let them give you their transcendent power. Please."
He looked up at the graceful juggernaut bearing down on him. Celestia’s skin, despite the glow of the red giant, was still pure white. Her mane flowed like waves on a distant shore at sunset. She watched him, waiting for him to make a move.
Surely I'm right? With a power like this behind me? It feels too good to ever dare venture into the darkness.
No! Don't trust that kind of thinking! There's still room for mistakes!
Indra snorted and pawed at the ground. All he saw was the star looming.
Celestia sighed.
"I'm sorry, Indra," she said. "I tried to make you understand."
With a shriek of outrage and bloodlust, Indra lowered his horn and lunged at her throat.
Panic seized her.
Finally, the star escaped her control. They were both engulfed in intense light. The redness suddenly shrank, expanded, and swallowed the world.
Celestia's supernova lasted several seconds. Those seconds were filled with pure light, pure sound, pure heat, every kind of energy released all at once.
Then, it subsided. The mountain range was gone. All that was left was a vast crater stretching from horizon to horizon, the bottom of which consisted of oozing mantle that hadn’t seen the surface for millions of years. Hovering in the sky was a black mass, which distorted the air around it.
It wasn’t actually black. It was just a spot in the universe so immensely dense that light could not escape from it. Radiation quietly spewed from the hole.
Celestia was still standing where she had been, despite the mountain no longer being under her hooves. Her horn was aglow, as intense as sunshine. A similar glow danced beneath her hooves and around her as a protective sphere. Indra was nowhere to be seen, but she could still hear the echoes of his snarl. They soon died away.
Her mind was weightless, suddenly cast out into the void and left to fend for itself. For a brief moment, she couldn't tell what was up and what was down, what was real and what was emotion-muddled fantasy. So lost in the darkness was she that she barely noticed the crater all around her.
Overhead, the black hole swirled. She watched the spectacle for several minutes.
She knew that he would still be alive on the other side. At least he can't hurt anyone any more, she thought.
"I failed," she whispered. "I tried to warn you. Friendship conquers all... and spares none."
Her eyes burned.
I've done it, she thought; I've severed our link. We're adrift now. I only wanted to stop him hurting us, and now I've cast all of us adrift. How can I possibly tell them all? Clover, Smart Cookie, Pansy... We're doomed now. What have I done?
The empty crater howled with the cold wind from the east. Motes of dust floated by her softly flowing mane.
Celestia wiped the tears from her eyes, spread her wings, and released her magical grip on her own hooves. A flap of feathers let her rise into the sky. She soared towards the horizon and, with a flash of sunlight, vanished from this world.
Eventually, the black hole shattered into black plumes, radiated its last, and disintegrated into nothing.
