Lyra - Escalation

It was hopeless. By that time, I wasn’t able to stop this madness.

So they say if you can’t beat them, join them. I need to make the best of it.

And I did. Though it still felt wrong to slay the changelings, I somehow had the feeling that it was for a better cause. I seemed to get back into the round of me, my hate and my human side. The more changelings we killed, the more they trusted me. Maybe I had a little chance to finally get an opportunity to end this?

It’s not easy to lie to yourself. I had to really enjoy killing, not just act like I do. My other parts could feel what I felt, if I liked what we did, or if I didn’t. But how could I be sure to get myself to like all the killing and then end it? Would I even want to end it, once I took pleasure for it? Probably not, but what else could I do? All these thoughts went through my mind, and of course I wasn’t the only one who heard them.

Lyra, don’t try to fool us. You know, if you stand in our way, we’ll just end this right here. You’re just still with us, because we allow it. There is no escape.

Enough! I’m going to stop these actions right now, before she deals some serious damage. You can’t stop us, silly Lyra.

Suddenly my vision blacked out. A few seconds later I found myself in a dark, round room with black walls, just lightened by… actually nothing. It wasn’t completely dark, but I couldn’t spot the source of the light, there wasn’t a lamp or anything like this. Though I never had been here before, I knew immediately where I was. I was in the deep of my own mind, banished from everything that could make me interact with anything around me. I was excluded from my senses, forced to be the little being I was, alone in the darkness of my mind. There was no way out of the room, no doors, no windows, just these smooth, black walls.

Meanwhile, my human half took control over my body, still under the command of the hate I let flow through me once to kill Sunset. Now that I wasn’t a problem for them anymore, they began to forge plans to get the life they ‘deserved’.

“We have to go to Canterlot. It’s wrong that Celestia banished us, and we’ll show her what we do with those who treat us the way she did.”

Yes, we will, but first you have to learn to control this body. It’s a shame we had to lock up this pathetic pony, after all she’s the one who knows how to do it, but you’ll learn.

It all went quick. Controlling my pony body wasn’t too hard to master, after all we still walked on two legs, just like a human, and of course my other half remembered how to do this. I don’t know how long it took them to get back to Canterlot, I lost every sense for time while I was in my prison. But I could hear every word they spoke. At least, my human part spoke… my hate was just a whisper inside my head, a quite whisper and still it felt like it yelled at me. Every word felt like a blade that cut through my brain.

This time we won’t run away. We will take what we deserve! It’s time to let Equestria know who is the one that saved it from Sunset, and who is the right one to sit on this throne.

I felt that my emotions intensified. It wasn’t just my hate anymore that whispered inside my head. All the negative feelings were combined to something I wasn’t able to describe. Hate, fear, envy, vanity, anger… they all fused to one bigger thing, it was almost like my body became a manifestation of those emotions. At the same time I could even feel in my prison how we became stronger and stronger. I don’t know where this power came from, but as I benefited from it, too, I was grateful for it. Maybe it could offer an opportunity for me to escape from this place? Since I was here, I noticed that I finally seemed to be the only one who could hear my thoughts, that was another advantage. I slowly felt hope rising in me, but still I had no chance to break these walls down, so I still was caught inside my mind. And who knows what will happen once I escaped from here? Will I be in the real world again? Or will I still be inside my mind? No matter what, I had to find it out. Even though I still didn’t know how…

“Oh, Princess Celestia! Guess who has returned? I’m here to finally take what I deserve for helping you with this little problem, Sunset Shimmer. You banished me after I saved your entire kingdom! I may not be the most honorable person, but I’m sure that your actions weren’t it either. Any idea how you could… reward me?”

“I knew you wouldn’t stay away, Lyra. Don’t think I’m not grateful for your help, but the way you helped us was just not right. In Equestria we won’t execute anypony, no matter what he or she did. And you didn’t just kill Sunset, you tortured her, you let her suffer, I’m not even able to imagine the pain she must have felt.”

“I know, and I loved it. It was nothing but fair! You know what she did to me, what she did to Bon Bon, and what she was going to do with every living creature in Equestria. Deep inside, you know it was right, and I’m sure you wanted to do similar things to her. I enjoyed every single moment when I killed her, and I enjoyed every time I killed one of these pathetic changelings. And I’m going to enjoy taking what I deserve. Give it to me, or let me take it by myself. You decide what will happen.”

“So what do you want? You have power, more than anypony else. You have the Alicorn Amulet, and you have your revenge on Sunset. What else could you want?”

“I want more! More power, physical power, magical power and political power. I want you to make me join your ranks, ruling over my own kingdom, full of creatures just like me. You know what I’m talking about. I want humans in Equestria! Humans who aren’t forced to live in these ridiculous pony bodies, real humans, just like me! Even though I’m no longer able to get my real appearance back because of this amulet, I’m still a human, and as a human I have desires a pony could never understand.”

“No. I won’t let you take more of these cruel creatures to Equestria! The humans have their own world to live in, and it’s not this one. I know about the happenings in your world, and it’s nothing but suffer, torture, poverty and war. You may have destroyed your own world, but you won’t do this to Equestria.”

“I think you don’t have to decide this, princess. Humans are stronger than ponies could ever be. It’s true, we may have caused some problems on earth, but what could stop us from moving on to the next world and make it our subject? It’s just like… mining. If one source is empty, we move on to the next one. If this one is empty, too, we take the third. Every world has its expiration date, and earth’s is almost reached. How can you deny me wish to save my species and give it a place to live? A place to raise our children, increase our knowledge and enjoy our lives?”

“And a place to conquer and enslave every other living being in it. One last time Lyra: No. It’s too late anyway, right after you left the castle we destroyed the portal. Nobody will ever come to Equestria, and nopony will get into your cursed world. And not even you have the power to create a new portal.”

“You underestimate me, Celestia. But I see you won’t give me what I want voluntarily. I’ll let you live, so you can see what real power means. So you can see what I am able to do!”

It’s time to take control over this kingdom, and soon we will be the one who is called Queen of Equestria! We don’t need a Princess of the Day, nor a Princess of the Night, and for sure not a Princess of Friendship. Now bring this to an end!

Lyra attacked Celestia, and suddenly the room was full of ponies. An entire army of guards appeared to defend their Princess, and Luna and her night guards joined the fight, too. The room was filled with deadly bolts, most of them focused on Lyra, but she didn’t feel a single impact. The Alicorn Amulet granted her enough power to instantly heal any injuries she incurred. It was a fight she knew from the beginning she couldn’t lose. After a few moments, not a single guard was still alive. They all were lying around the two princesses and Lyra who were still fighting. Even though Lyras magic was more powerful than the princesses’, they were fast enough to dodge almost every spell or counter them, throwing them back at Lyra who just absorbed them without getting harmed.

“Enough! I’m starting to get bored of you. You know you have no chance against me, so why do you even try and fight me?”

“Because we won’t let you plunge Equestria into the abyss without trying to save it. If we die, we die in honor, trying to defend our world!” Luna growled.

“Plunge Equestria into the abyss? Oh no, princess, I never had something like that in mind. With me, Equestria will finally be the home of creatures that are worth living in it! Humans, the only race existing that is strong enough to control an entire planet! We don’t have any natural enemies. We survived anything that ever occurred on earth! We survived ice ages, two world wars, nukes and nuclear explosions in power stations, built by ourselves. Nothing can stop us. And you will learn that first hand!”

Filled with the power granted by her human emotions, Lyra unleashed an enormous spell that knocked Celestia and Luna out instantly. She grinned.

Time to clean up and rearrange this castle a bit…