//-------------------------------------------------------// The Sulreif Demigod -by Workard- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: Read my words, hear me crying. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1: Read my words, hear me crying. The Sulreif Demigod If you die, you will leave me here. Into the sky, you will disappear. There will be no reason, nothing to show for. Changing seasons, but the same old war. If you die, you will leave me here. Trapped inside, you killed my mind. Another birthday song, just for you. It’s not too long, just push through. She read the words, over and over. Almost whispered the sentences to hear the beautiful rhyme. It was the last poem on the last page of the book. Only below stood the name of the pony who wrote it down. S. Cast. A name she has now become familiar with. She often wondered who this author could be. For some reason, she felt as she knew him. The name was just… familiar. Would she ever get to see him? She saw the pages falling down on one another as she closed the book. “There is a time for everyone” there stood on the cover of the book, with big yellow letters. The title made sense in all different ways. Chapter 1: Read my words, hear me crying. “Back already?” Twilight said with a sort of sad smile, while looking at Pinkie standing at her front door, letting some of the sunlight in. “I finished the book a couple of minutes ago” Pinkie replied with the book on her back. The weather was sunny, with only a few clouds, casting shadows across the streets. Pinkie looked around the room for a second “Do you have any more books similar to this one you lend me?” Pinkie then looked at Twilight while still standing at the open door. “Come inside” she replied while taking a few steps back. Just after Pinkie walked in, she slowly closed the door. Just as the door closed, something weird happened. It felt like some sort of… glitch. The feeling disappeared quickly, so she chose to just ignore it. “Pinkie. I know this has hit you hard, but you can’t just spend your time, reading sad poems. You need to get out more” Twilight said with a soft voice while gently walking around the library. Pinkie had placed the book on the table in the middle of the library, with a few other books. “I know” Pinkie said with a sad voice. She was standing in a center point, looking around for something that looked interesting. 6 shelves were surrounding her, with books in all different colors and sizes. “Here. Let me help you” Twilight smiled, standing behind Pinkie. Her horn began glowing as she levitated a few books down from the shelf to her left. “These 3 books were written by the same author as the previous one you read. I would recommend the one in the middle. It’s very artistic and tells some good stories as well” Twilight explained while levitating the three books in front of Pinkie. The pink pony began focusing on the brown book in the middle. It looked old, but it was in a stable condition. Black letters was written across the brown cover. “The exit from beyond” it spelled out. At the bottom of the book, a little sticker was attached. “Warning: These are words. Not suggestions. P.V. Publisher takes no responsibility for any dangerous acts” For some reason; Pinkie felt herself being drawn to the book. She was curious to what the book could contain since they had to put a warning sticker at the bottom. “Have you made up your mind yet?” Twilight said impatiently. Pinkie had forgotten that Twilight was using her magic to lift the books. “Oh, sorry. The middle one is fine” she replied quickly. “Good choice” Twilight smiled as she placed the 2 other books back on their shelves. “Spike!” Twilight then yelled. “What?” A little voice was heard coming from upstairs. “Are you sleeping?! We have to get ready for Canterlot!” Twilight yelled in a strict voice. “Ehh… I am up” Spike replied as confident as he was able to. “I’m coming up” Twilight said as she began walking up the stairs. Twilight had been a little cranky after her official princess duties that had started 2 weeks ago. Though she takes the duties with pride, the change from being a simple student, to a princess of the land, would make anyone stressed. Pinkie looked at the door she entered. She was unsure if she should say something before walking out. “I’ll be going home now. Thanks for the book” She said with a small smirk. “Sure. See you later” Twilight said just before she stopped at the last step on the stairs. “Oh, and Pinkie. Remember not to spend all of your time reading that book. The weather is nice outside” She said looking down at Pinkie. “Don’t worry Twilight” She replied while back in her head, she knew she probably would end up using the whole day to read the recently borrowed book. “Alright. See you” Twilight said quickly as she disappeared up the stairs. “Bye” Pinkie said automatically, before going out the door, with the book on her back. The book was slightly heavier than the one she returned, but since she lives close by, she felt as she could manage. Pinkie looked up for a second. “It really is nice weather” she thought to herself. There was nearly no clouds to be seen, and the sunshine beautifully passed by the streets. Even the ponies working outside seemed to be in a good mood. It almost brought a smile to Pinkie. “There she is” a male voice sounded. Pinkie looked to her left, to see a dark brown pony standing next to her. “Out to borrow some more reading material, I see” The pony said as he stepped closer to Pinkie. His light yellow hair was standing straight up, and he was walking with a confident look in his eyes, yet there still was something slightly annoying with his looks. This was the last thing Pinkie needed. She had known the pony for a while now, but due to a very bad first time impression; he had been mocking Pinkie Pie for weeks now. He was never very good at it, and Pinkie was finding it easy to ignore his bad humor, but since the latest tragedy in Pinkies family, he had picked one specific thing to mock her with. “I wonder how reading books will help your father to get out of the hospital” he said in a sarcastic voice. He was one of the meanest ponies Pinkie knew, with a name she will always say in disgust. Boomer. He never did any real harm, other than trying his best to hurt ponies he didn’t like, and since Pinkies father came down with a serious illness, he had targeted her mostly. Even as the word “father” was spoken across his lips, Pinkie could feel her body tensing. “Since you like poems so much cotton tail, I got one for ya’” Boomer grinned, making his light yellow hair wave slightly to his right. “I don’t care how much you cry. Your father will still die” Pinkie looked away, and began walking forward, trying her best to ignore him. She really couldn’t handle this right now. “Wait!” Boomer shouted. “I got more!” with his own praise he continued. “Toughen up a little, do what I love. Go behind a weak pony, and begin to shove!” Her marked the last word as he shoved Pinkie Pie, making her go off balance and fall to the ground. Boomer began laughing, with his ever so annoying light voice. “You can’t even stand up straight!” He smiled “I gotta get home. I don’t wanna be late” He began laughing even harder “I can’t even stop!” Pinkie tensed her body while doing her best to relax. She knew better than to react to him. She steadily got herself up, but there was something missing. “Where is the book?” She asked herself. Looking to her right, she was relieved to find the book on the ground. It had opened up, to what seemed to be the first page. Just before picking it up she noticed some hooves marks on it. Boomer must have stepped on the book. Though there was some dirt on the page, but the sentences could still be read. “My lover was in a hospital bed, fighting to survive. There was only one thing I could do, to keep her alive. The myth of the godlike powers, hidden in a cave. I know what they told me, but I was desperate and brave. My lover is now alive, but I lost control. I made the biggest sacrifice; I sold my soul. Every week, every day, every hour. All I hungered for was more power” Pinkie’s heart skipped a beat. When Twilight said it had good stories, she was right, but she didn’t expect this. The poem speaks of a pony that couldn’t be saved. Yet somehow… she could. Pinkie quickly placed the book on her back and turned around, walking back towards Twilight’s library. Pinkie’s curiosity was raising, and she was convinced Twilight knew what the book was talking about. Thanks to Boomer, Pinkie hadn’t walked far, so she was at Twilight’s library in seconds. Without knocking, she opened the door in a swift move. “Twilight!” It was clear to see Pinkie was excited. She could see Twilight’s hair bouncing from upstairs. It was a really open library, so there were few places you could hide. Twilight was walking around, with Spike following her, with a long note and a pen. It seemed like Twilight was doing some sort of checklist again. “Be right there” Twilight yelled. Pinkie looked around, trying to find a place to sit. She scanned the room carefully, but with a sigh she just sat down on the ground. She could hear Twilight mumbling something before she flew down in front of Pinkie. Twilight had gotten somewhat used to her wings by now, so it wasn’t unusual to see her in the air anymore. “Don’t tell me you already read the whole book” Twilight smiled as she landed. “Nonono” Pinkie replied with a fast voice. “I saw in this book that-“ Pinkie held both her hooves out, in front of Twilight, then realized the book was not in her hooves. “Wait!” she quickly looked to her right, then her left, before spotting to book lying next to her. She quickly grabbed it, and repeated her words holding out her hooves again. “This book speaks of something in-te-res-ting” Pinkie marked almost every letter for some reason. “It tells of some weird power that can cure illness, which would otherwise be known as impossible” Pinkie instantly went quite, like she just had finished a scene. Twilight began levitating the book in front of her. “Oh, that’s right. I forgot about this” she mumbled while looking at the first page. Pinkie was almost staring her down, just waiting for her to explain. She made big eyes, looking almost like a sad puppy while waiting for Twilight to say something. Twilight moved her head slightly to the right, to look past the book, and at Pinkie Pie that was almost dying in the suspension. “No” Twilight said cold. Pinkie had tensed her body so much, that when Twilight said that word, her body fell backwards. Like an egg-timer, Pinkie was using a couple of seconds to progress what Twilight said. A couple of silent seconds went by before Pinkie jumped back up. “What do you mean ‘no’?” “Pinkie” Twilight sighed. “I know you want to help your father, but like the doctors told you, there is nothing they can do. They have never experienced anyone with his condition before” Twilight slowly levitated the book down on the table placed in the middle of the library. “But the booook” Pinkie followed the book with her eyes as it was floating down. “This guy heals his inhealable lover” Twilight sighed once more. “First of all; inhealable isn’t a word. Secondly, the book speaks the truth. There is a mystical power hidden somewhere called the Sulreif, that is said to be able to cure anything with its amazing powers, but as it says in the book, the power will consume the bearer, and you will lose all control. It is far too dangerous to take the chance, even if it’s the only way to save your father” Twilight’s face looked serious. “But…” Pinkie frowned. “Listen Pinkie…” Twilight said as she turned around, and began walking back to Spike. “I gotta go to Canterlot now to help out Celestia” Twilight stopped for a moment and looked back at Pinkie Pie. “Promise me you won’t go searching for it” Pinkie was still sitting on the ground, looking sad. “Fine” she said with a weak voice. “On an unrelated note… where is the Sulreif located?” Pinkie stared into thin air. Twilight lowered her head. “How is that unrelated to what I just said?” Pinkie thought for a moment. “Alright Twi. I won’t go look for it” she said before walking out the door. Taking slow steps away from the library, she looked to her right, in the direction of the Everfree forest. “I didn’t Pinkie promise” she whispered to herself, just as she began running in her looking direction. She had a plan. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: Feeling stuck, I'm in my own prison. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2: Feeling stuck, I'm in my own prison. The ground she was walking on was much softer than pavement she was walking on just seconds ago. The more the trees were surrounding her, the worse of an idea it seemed. Even the bushes began looking gloomy as the air was thick, and something smelled awful. The sudden loud noises from animals were comforting, even though it gave her an eventual shock. She could feel her heart beginning to beat faster. Unsure if it was fear, or the desire to go through with this, she kept moving. She felt she had been walking for hours, and she had to drag herself the last few steps, but she finally saw her destination. Zecora’s hut. It had been awhile since she had been here, but the surroundings seemed familiar, as did the small hut. She was relieved that she no longer had to walk through the creepy Everfree forest. Though, first now she began thinking about what to say to Zecora. Until now, she imagined the conversation between them two would be something like “Hey Zecora. You know about that mystic power, which can be used to heal ponies, but is also really dangerous? Oh you do! Can you tell me where it is? Oh, it’s nearby? Great! Thanks for your help” but now that she was a few steps away from Zecora, she realized that it probably wouldn’t end up like that. She was about to sit down, thinking about how she should ask her, but even the thought of being in this forest another second was bone chilling. Her body kept walking, just until she was standing before the square shaped door. As she knocked 2 times, she noticed a few plants hanging from above her. To her fear she saw that one of the plants had some sort of liquid hanging, and it was just about to drip down on her. “Yesss?” Zecora opened the door, just before Pinkie ran inside screaming. Zecora quickly moved away, and looked as Pinkie fell over some pots on the floor. “Oh, it’s you” Zecora said calmly as she closed the door again. “Awwie” Pinkie cried while rolling around the floor, grabbing her right hoof. “So my pink friend, what has brought you here?” Zecora said while she was placing the pots back up. Again, Pinkie’s brain quickly processed what had just happened, just before she jumped back up. She slowly moved her head closer to Zecora’s as she whispered “I need some information” Zecora sighed and began walking through a door, into another room. The house was neatly built, now she thought about it. Most of the rooms were connected, and the plants really gave the air a nice, fresh touch. Zecora said from the other room “I told you. Even if Candy Island does exist, I don’t know where it is” Zecora then popped her head in, in the door opening, looking at Pinkie “So stop asking” she said just before noticing Pinkie staring blankly into nothing. She was already off into her imagination of Candy Island. A couple of seconds went by, with a dripping tongue and big eyes before Pinkie shook her head. “No. That’s not why I am here. It’s something even more important than infinite candy” Zecora opened her eyes wide and stared at Pinkie. “More than… Follow me” she let out as she led the way to a third small room, with 3 chairs around a wooden table. The aroma was a little creepier here. “Take a seat” She said before noticing Pinkie was already sitting down. Zecora closed her eyes and took a deep breath, before letting it out as she sat down in front of Pinkie. “What can I help you with?” Pinkie looked at Zecora, noticing her stripes and the jewelry around her neck. She then sighed and looked down. “My dad recently came down with a serious illness. Something the doctors have never seen before. His chances of survival are not good. I had given up hope until I read this book. It spoke about some mystical power that not only has the power to accomplish amazing things, but also has the power to heal anything. Twilight warned me about go searching for it, because it is known to get out of control, but I am so scared of losing him, and I feel like this is my only chance. So I traveled to visit you, Zecora” Pinkie looked back up. “I hope that you know anything about where this power is located. Where I can find it, so I can save my dad” Zecora looked at Pinkie for a couple of seconds. “I do know what you’re talking about, and I do know where you can find it” Pinkie opened her eyes wide “You do?! Where?!” she said enthusiastically. Zecora stood back up and turned around. “I’m afraid I am forbidden to tell you any further details” Pinkie felt like she was kicked in the stomach. “Forbidden? What do you mean?” Zecora took a few steps, and began moving some potion bottles around. “Princess Celestia has given me responsibility to keep this power a secret” she said emotionlessly. Pinkie began walking towards her, feeling her eyes watering. “Please Zecora. I will never ask for more; this is really all I ever need. I can’t sleep because I am worrying about my dad. Maybe… I could just get the power for one day, and then you can maybe take it back again?” Zecora looked back at Pinkie. “Take it back?” she began wondering. “I don’t know if that’s even a possibility. I mean, the book says that it is very much possible to do so, but if I could do it…” Pinkie saw a glimpse of hope returning. “I know you can do it! Please Zecora. I will be forever grateful” Zecora looked at Pinkies face, then sighed “Alright then” she quickly looked into Pinkie’s eyes. “But after you healed your father, you are to come straight back here!” she demanded. Pinkie felt a little frightened, but she stood up confidently. “I promise” Zecora slowly nodded and began walking towards a shelf filled with bottles and jars. “You need to be really careful” Zecora began speaking. “This power – or ‘Sulreif’ as it’s really called, is one of the most dangerous and powerful things in the world. It was used only once before by a stallion named Sombra Cast. He got hungry for power and ended up killing many innocent lives. Fortunately he was stopped before he got complete control of the Crystal Empire. Both Celestia and Luna were needed to suck out the power and seal it in a small safe. Similar to the safe protecting The Elements of Harmony. After the long battle, Celestia decided I was trustworthy enough to keep it safe in my home, where nobody would think to look for it” Pinkie was amazed by the story, but she couldn’t help but to get a boost of excitement. “Does that mean you have the powe- err… Sulreif, here?” Zecora took out a small gold plated metal chest from the shelf. “It does, but as I said, Celestia trusted me. So I must ask you to keep silent about this and return immediately after you’re done using it. The longer you have it, the more difficult it will be to get it out” Zecora began walking back to Pinkie with the chest as she saw her nodding. “Very well then. Place you head in front of the chest” She said as she placed the chest on the table between them. Pinkie could feel her body tensing. It was really going to happen. She slowly moved her head closer to the chest, trying not to shake too much. “You may experience headaches and temporary loss of sight, but it’s important that you don’t freak out, you will get dangerous powers within this Sulreif. It’s similar to a spirit. It goes in your body, and slowly tries to gain control of your mind” Pinkie understood, and she felt ready. “I understand” Zecora closed her eyes and began mumbling some weird words. Pinkie’s heart began racing as Zecora began talking louder. It was unknown what she was saying. It must be some sort of spell; Pinkie thought. Before she knew it, Zecora yelled out one final word, and the chest opened. She had less than a second to see what the chest contained. It looked like some sort if purple gas, or something. She had never seen anything like it before. Before she could inspect it further, the purple gas got sucked into her head, through her mouth and nostrils. Pinkie lifted her head back, with a loud gasp. Her eyes made a quick flash with a dark glow, and she then fell onto her back. Zecora quickly closed the chest and ran towards of Pinkie. “My Pink friend; how are you feeling?” she asked nervously. Pinkie’s body felt numb for a couple of seconds. It hurt when she tried to open her eyes. “Just relax” Zecora said reassuringly. “Mmmm” Pinkie mumbled while trying to stand, one hoof to her head. It took a couple of seconds, but she finally got up, and managed to open her eyes, as the headache got milder. “Auch. Did it work?” Pinkie asked while trying to find proper balance. Zecora looked into Pinkie’s eyes that now had a minor glow of purple. “It worked” she said almost as she was regretting it. “My head kinda hurts” Pinkie glimpsed her eyes. “I know, but focus on what I am saying now Pinkie” Zecora said in a serious voice. “You need to heal your father right away, and come back here. You may not get any distractions. If you meet your friends, just say you’re busy and walk away, and most importantly, you have to keep yourself from getting angry no matter what. You have enormous powers right now Pinkie, and it can easily get out of control” Pinkie understood, and she responded confidently with a yes. “One question though” Pinkie looked at her hoof. “How do I get this power thing to heal my dad? Is there some sort of spell?” “Luckily-” Zecora responded. “It is very advanced magic it uses, so all you have to do is to focus on what you want. Just look at him, and imagine yourself healing him. The Sulreif will do the rest” Pinkie took a breath. “Okay. I’m ready” //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3: I can hear screams, am I dying? //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3: I can hear screams, am I dying? Pinkie had been walking slowly in Ponyvillie for a couple of minutes now. She started off by running, but it quickly became too stressful, considering she had a headache. She had just entered Ponyvillie, and the only thing on her mind was to get to the hospital. No distractions. She felt a little worried however. Beside the headache, she didn’t feel any different. Maybe it didn’t work properly? As Zecora said, it was amazing powers she had consumed, one of the most powerful out there, so not feeling anything was worrying. She shook those thoughts away while she kept on walking. Every step made her more exhausted, but she didn’t slow down. There was still quite a long way to the hospital. She tried to keep her focus on the road, and the road only. She didn’t notice if there was anypony around; she didn’t notice her surroundings, not even the weather. Until a voice was heard. “If it isn’t cotton tail” A whiny voice said. Pinkie squeezed her eyes hard. “No. Not now” “You look a little exhausted” Boomer said with a smile. “Have you been riding Colts all day?” he laughed annoyingly. “Shut up…” Pinkie said in her mind while she kept on walking, trying to ignore him. She slowly became aware of the houses around her. She even noticed a few ponies. She quickly tried to shut all that out, and only focus on walking. “Or didn’t the poems work on you dad, so you tried riding him instead?” Boomer continued giggling while following Pinkie closely. “Shut up, shut up, shut up” Pinkie repeated in her head. “So you’re ignoring me, huh?” Boomer continued. Pinkie tensed her body while keeping her eyes closed, as she began taking heavy steps. “Like you ignored your dad until he was sent to the hospital” Boomer made a big “HA” “Shut up, shut up, shut up” Pinkie whispered. “What was that? You need to speak up cotton tail” That did it. “SHUT UP!!!” Pinkie screamed violently while smashing her hooves down the ground. In a flash, a purple mist began surrounding Pinkie, as well as Boomer. A couple of seconds went by with complete silence before Boomer slowly began to float off the ground while the purple mist was going in circles around him. Pinkie felt numb, yet her body turned around and she began looking silently at Boomer. Her eyes had a sharp purple glow in them. She took a quick glance at her surroundings as she could feel the air getting thick. She was walking on a busy road, with at least 7 ponies nearby, and a dozen of buildings. It was a standard looking place in Ponyvillie. “Hey hey! What is happening?!” Boomer yelled as he was gripped by panic, and began flapping his hooves around. Pinkie was staring dead at him. Looking at his body floating a few feet off the ground. Not a thought went through her mind. Only anger. “No” Pinkie whispered. “Nonono!” She said a little louder. “Don’t just stand there! Help me!” Boomer yelled at the ponies nearby while struggling to get free. The ponies around didn’t know what was going on, and most of them was just staring at Boomer. Pinkie began tensing her body as the mist got thicker. She could feel the anger inside her body. Feeling it rise, like it had started in her hooves, and now worked its way up her body, and just reaching her head. She tried to calm herself down, but it was no use. “ARGH!” She screamed loudly as a sharp pain pierced her body, forcing her to close her eyes shut. Suddenly Boomer began screaming in pain as a wound started creating across the center of his body, which quickly proceeded to become wider and wider. His body was magically being pulled in opposite directions. His screams only became louder as his skin couldn’t stretch anymore and started breaking apart several places. The movement then stopped for a second, as giving him time to realize he was about to die. Creating furious fear within him just before his 2 body parts got ripped apart, only connected by his bloody spine. Boomer was still screaming for a few more seconds while blood was spraying down on the road. Some entrails began dropping on the ground while his torn skeleton was visible for all to see. Not that Pinkie had any time to analyze their expressions. Not only could she hear Boomers screams, but she could feel them. Suddenly her body began shaking, and Pinkie quickly inhaled, then opened her eyes again. In the blink of an eye, all the mist rushed back into Pinkie, and the 2 pieces of Boomer fell to the ground with a soft sound, in front of Pinkie. Her vision was blurry, and she was unsure of what had happened. All she could hear were screams and crying coming from the ponies around. She feared the worst as her vision returned, and she saw the horror she had created. A little to her right, the upper body of Boomer was lying on the ground. His eyes were wide open, and his expression brought tears to Pinkies eyes. “What have I done?!” She said silently. She grinded her teeth, just before running away as fast as she could. There was nopony that dared running after her. Blood was scattered around, and the screams kept repeating in Pinkies mind. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 4: A dream has fallen; another has risen. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 4: A dream has fallen; another has risen. “Princess!” A royal guard stormed into the throne room, seeing Princess Celestia and Twilight in front of him. He was breathing heavily as if he had been running for a while. “What is it my royal guard?” Celestia asked calmly, standing right besides Twilight who looked confused. “Sorry to interrupt, but we just got word that a violent murder has been executed in the middle of Ponyvillie” The guard stood firmly up. Celestia lifted her head, and then turned to Twilight who was looking shocked. The word murder kept bouncing of the white walls in the big room. “You’re a princess now Twilight and as horrible this is, it’s a part of the responsibility. I want you to give the commands” she said calmly. “What?!” Twilight let out nervously. “But this sounds dangerous Princess. I’m not sure I’m ready for this” Twilight felt really nervous. She had never heard of a murder happening in Ponyvillie before and even though she didn’t know that many citizens in Ponyvillie, she feared that the victim could be one of her friends. Celestia closed her eyes and bowed her head down a little. “I trust you” Twilight could feel the pressure, and what she wanted to do the most was to run away and hide, but she knew she had to do this. It was her first major duty as a princess after all. She took a few steps forward and looked down on the royal guard. “Do we have any record on when this happened?” she asked as confidently she was able to. “We just received the message, so it can’t have been more than half an hour ago… eh, princess” The guard stretched the word. For some reason, being called princess boosted her confidence, as she was thinking the situation through. “Do we have any idea of how this murder was executed?” She asked while looking at Celestia, hoping for a nod, to make sure she was asking the right questions. But Celestia stood completely still, not giving any signs, or reassuring nods. “It was possibly done with a levitation magic spell. Pulling the victim’s body in opposite directions, causing the victim’s body to be ripped apart” Twilight was clearly stunned by hearing about these horrible actions, but she tried to keep going without giving away her nervousity. “Have we any idea of whom the victim was?” “From what we’ve heard, it was a male earth pony. Not further information was given princess” A beam of sunlight passed through one of the many windows that were decorated to show the major happenings through history. “The murderer must have been a unicorn” Twilight thought to herself. She was thinking quick, then raised her head high. “Send out two royal guards to find my friends, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity, and bring them here. If there aren’t around or in their homes, then do no further searching. We don’t have a lot of time, so don’t waste it by searching for them in the town. Also, send someone to wake up Spike. He is in the royal bedchamber” Twilight made a quick pause. “Don’t tell him what’s going on, just notify him that I need his assistance” The royal guard quickly bowed down. “At once princess” As soon as the royal guard left the room; Twilight took a deep breath, then letting it out while lowering her head. She could hear the princess walking past her. “You did well Princess Twilight” she said calmly, making Twilight quickly lift her head back up. She couldn’t find anything to say. She wasn’t even sure if that was positive feedback. She didn’t expect a cake and a song or anything, but the lack of details wasn’t reassuring. She just stared at Celestia that was walking out the same way as the royal guard, leaving Twilight confused and nervous. It was all going so fast. It hadn’t been more than 2 weeks since she got the princess role and she is already in pretty deep. Before she was able to think further about it, the door Celestia had just walked out off opened again as another royal guard entered the room, with Spike walking beside him. He was rubbing his eyes, making it clear to see he just got up. Twilight felt a small relief as she took a few steps towards Spike. “Thank you” she said to the royal guard as she bowed her head quickly. The guard did the same, just before walking back out. “What is going on?” Spike asked with a yawn. Twilight was used to see Spike showing up, looking as tired as ever. He was handling most of the library work by himself, when Twilight was away. “I’m not sure” Twilight sighed. “I just need a friend beside me right now” she looked down. “Well, your number one assistant can also be your number one friend” Spike smiled. “I’m glad” Twilight whispered, returning a smile. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 5: Eyes closed, it's my blind destruction. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 5: Eyes closed, it's my blind destruction. Pinkie had been running through the streets in a random direction until her body gave up, eventually forcing her to stop and sit down to catch her breath, which didn’t turn out to be a problem as her breathing was out of control and her whole body was shaking. “What happened to him? What happened to me?!” Tears were furiously running down her cheeks as she had to keep herself from puking from causing such horrors. She was sitting alone; only ponies in the distance could be seen. “I- I just killed a pony” The horrifying dead face of Boomer kept flashing before her eyes. She wanted to scream, but her body had gone completely numb, and all her feelings felt as they exploded. The fear, the sadness, the… anger. Not at herself, but at boomer. The things he said were downright evil. Maybe he… he deserved to die? Pinkie thought, before quickly shaking her head, causing a headache. “Nono! I need to get rid of this power. It’s like Zecora told me, I am losing control” She tried taking deep breaths to calm herself down. “I should get back to Zecora before it’s too late” she told herself. But before she was able to get up from her kneeling position a male voice was heard from behind. “Miss? Are you okay?” Pinkie looked back, and saw a brown stallion standing looking worried at her. She had forgotten that she was still crying and quickly looked away. “Yes, I’m fine. Just please g-go away” Pinkie stuttered nervously. The stallion took a step closer. “Are you sure? You look like you could need some help” Frustration began building up inside Pinkie. She forced herself to stay quiet and hoped for him to walk away. He head began hurting badly again. “Come. Let’s get you something to drink” the stallion said just before placing his hoof one Pinkies shoulder. His hoof was quickly thrown back as Pinkie placed both her hooves to her head, and clinched her eyes. “Nonono” she repeated in her head. “Wha-“ the stallion blurted out just before his head suddenly burst out in an explosion, sending pieces of skull and brain in every direction. Not even a small sound was made. His body was still standing, but his whole head was gone in a matter of seconds, leaving his neck, just bleeding down the sides. Pinkie just kept looking away from her kneeling position, while pressing her hooves tighter to her head. “STOP STOP STOP!” She could feel it. She could feel how she just killed another pony. She could feel the burst deep down in her heart. A short while after, a thump sounded from the stallions’ body falling to the ground. Tears kept escaping from her eyes, and she could feel a huge amount of energy rushing through her body. Without looking back, without looking at the dead body, she quickly stood up and began running once again. Her mind was racing, but no clear thoughts came up. It was like her mind was trying to make sense of it all, but something had shut down most of her control. Feelings of minor explosions irrupting inside her head continued as things around her began shattering. Her body was almost shaking in rhythm with her surroundings. Without looking, she could feel a vase breaking into several pieces on an outside table next to her. Sounds of small things breaking kept appearing behind her. She had given up to restrain control, and just tried finding a hiding place. Her conscious was still there, but her mind wasn’t her own. It kept screaming “Break that! Throw that! Shatter that!” Like an anxiety attack, she just couldn’t stop it. Everything surrounding her was shattered quickly while the purple mist was going viciously around in circles of Pinkies’ body. A chair was hurled into the air, and another was ripped apart into two pieces. Every time something broke; she got the image of the object and its destruction inside her mind. Suddenly Pinkie stopped in the middle of the torn out street. It was like something snapped as she looked up into the sky and screamed as loud as she possibly could. The mist was swirling fast around her, some of it boosting into the air while small stones and dirt began levitating just around her hooves. The feeling was like nothing else. Like fear and power collided. Going back to Zecora to take this power away, and only leave fear… wasn’t a choice anymore. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 6: My friends, I ask for nothing. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 6: My friends, I ask for nothing. “Princess. We have gathered your friends as ordered” A royal guard spoke just after opening the door to the throne room. Twilight was surprised that they already brought them here. Maybe they were just quick, or maybe the stress made it feel like every minute lasted a second. “Send them in” she commanded, with only Spike by her side; that still wasn’t sure of the situation. Both Princess Luna and Celestia hadn’t made any sound in a while, making Twilight even more nervous. She was getting better at hiding it though. The white pony in armor bowed down just as 4 ponies entered the room in a line; Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash was in front of the line and as soon as she saw Twilight, she took off the ground and flew over to her. “Twi, what is going on?! 2 guards came to my house and said that you needed my assistance immediately” Rainbow Dash said while flapping her hooves around. “Same here” Applejack said while walking closer with Rarity and Fluttershy behind her. “So what seems to be the problem dear?” Rarity said softly. “W- what do you need us for?” Fluttershy said silently from behind. “I will inform you all in a moment” she quickly said before looking back at the guard still standing in the door opening. “What about Pinkie Pie?” she asked. The guard lifted his chin up a little. "She wasn’t around her home, so we continued to search for the others, as to your command princess” “I see. Thanks my royal guard. Me and my friends will need some privacy, so make sure we are not interrupted, by others than Celestia, Luna or if there is more information about Pinkie Pie” She said with a strict undertone. “Understood” the guard responded as he went back out the door, closing it behind him. Twilight looked back at her friends that were staring curiously at her. She made a small sigh while Spike was standing next to her, looking just as curious as the others. Twilight looked up and began to speak “Lately I was informed about a murder done by magic. I won’t go into details, but it sounds like the murderer is cold blooded and won’t hesitate to kill anyone that comes near” Though she wasn’t finished, Rainbow Dash began blurting out. “B-but… you don’t know who did it?” Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash who was still airborne in front of her. “I’m afraid not, but guards are already investigating the case, and I will do everything to keep Ponyvillie safe” All the 4 ponies had different expressions, but they all had a hint of anger or fear. “Ah’m sorry to interrupt Twi, but what is it you need our assistance with exactly?” Applejack took a few steps forward. Twilight looked shortly at Spike and then looked back at Applejack. “For now I just want you all to stay in the castle, under the supervision from the guards” A few seconds of silence passed by. “What do you mean?” Rainbow Dash then asked while lifting an eyebrow. “I don’t want to put any of you in danger, so the only choice is for you all to stay here until we have figured out who did this horrible crime. It’s for the best” Twilight ended. “What?” Rainbow Dash was quick to respond as the others kept quiet. “What are you talking about? We should be out there, saving Ponyvillie from that psycho!” Applejack quickly hushed at Rainbow Dash. Twilight bowed her head down slowly “As I said, I have sent out a great amount of guards to capture the guilty. Until then, I don’t want to worry about my friends being in serious danger” Twilight could see Rainbow Dash being irritated. “Are you seriously suggesting that we all stay here and hide while all the ponies in Ponyvillie could be dead?!” Applejack took a step forward “That’s enough Dash!” she said sturdily. “No!” Rainbow Dash yelled back. “I don’t care if Twilight is a princess or not. She can’t give me orders like that! I am getting out of here!” In a swift move, Rainbow Dash flew over and opened the big door. “Dash! You’re staying right here!” Applejack commanded with Fluttershy looking frightened behind her. “To hell with this” Dash let out before flying out of the room. “Gosh dangit. Shouldn’t you send guards after her or something?” Applejack faced Twilight who looked surprisingly calm, like she expected it to happen. “Let her go. I can’t force her to stay here” Applejack grinded her teeth, just before walking up next to Twilight, followed by Rarity that had been too shocked to speak and Fluttershy following safely behind. “We will stay by your side, princess” Applejack winked. “That’s right” Rarity then said just as she got beside her. Twilight couldn’t help but to make a small smile. “Thanks” she said silently. *** “What is troubling you my sister?” Luna asked nervously. Celestia had called Luna into her royal bed chamber, where the 2 sisters were now standing around a small round table, in a room only lightened up by 2 windows on the wall. “Is it the murder I heard about? Are you unsure of what to do?” Luna asked while tilting her head a little. Whenever Celestia had worries, she often called Luna into the bed chamber. She felt safer around familiar objects. From the purple pillow, to the family photo on the nightstand. Celestia looked up “You know about the murder?” She asked curiously. “Not much. A guard spoke of a murder done by magic, and that you had placed Princess Twilight in charge of the case” Luna explained. The dark purple walls were surrounding them, and with only the 2 windows, the light source was small. “I am just not sure what to do. Why would a unicorn use its magic to commit a murder? And by what I’ve been informed, it must have been a massive amount of powerful energy. Normal unicorns aren’t able to just tear ponies apart” Celestia looked to her right, staring at the photo on her night stand, showing her and Luna with their parents, in front of a couple of fresh trees. “Maybe the unicorn has just been practicing magic like that. If you are willing to kill another pony, your mind must really be focused around it” At the moment Luna looked calmer than Celestia. “Besides” Luna looked at her sister. “Princess Twilight is on it. I am sure she won’t let us down” she reassured. Celestia sighed “I hope you’re right” //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 8: Step by step, rushing for something. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 8: Step by step, rushing for something. “Twi- Twilight” a small voice sounded just as Rainbow Dash slowly limped into the throne room, where Twilight and her friends were standing in a small circle. “Dash?” Applejack was the first to say. “What happened to you?” she asked as she looked at the several bruises across Dash’s body, and the frightened look in her eyes. “It- It was Pinkie” Dash said while grasping for air. “You found her?” Applejack asked while all the others were looking curious and scared. “You don’t understand. It was Pinkie who did this to me. It was Pinkie who murdered that pony!” The room went quite as she said this and the air felt tense around them as Applejack and the others were looking wondering. “What are you talking about? The murder was done by a unicorn. It couldn’t have been an earth pony like Pinkie” The others slightly nodded, but Twilight had an even more terrifying look in her eyes than before. “I don’t understand it either, but there’s something inside of her. Something evil. Something that gives her amazing powers. She was able to throw me over most of Ponyvillie with no effort” Dash tensed her body as she spoke. Rainbow Dash began explaining further “She had this weird-“ “Purple mist around her” Twilight interrupted. They all looked at her. “You know about this?!” Rainbow Dash almost yelled. Twilight sighed. “Yes. I mean, no. Not really. Not so long ago, she borrowed a book in my library. A book I didn’t really know much about, other than it tells a story about somepony healing his loved one, with a mystical power, but it came with a price. The power he stole, took over him and gave him a never ending hunger for even more power” Rarity took a step forward. “Excuse me, but how does that relate to Pinkie? Why would she-“ Rarity stopped herself. “Oh no. S-She did it to help her father. Thinking she would be able to heal him?” She stuttered. Twilight nodded. “So… how mighty is her power and what can we do about it?” Applejack broke in. “I… I don’t know” Twilight looked down. “As the book suggests, it has only happened once. I believe the author of the book was a pony named ‘S. Cast’. Whoever he is” No one of the ponies could find anything to say. Twilight took a quick breath. “We need to inform Princess Celestia about this vital information” “No need” The door opened. “I heard it all” Princess Celestia stepped in, with her head high, looking at Twilight. “Pinkie Pie has come under control by the same power, which took over King Sombra” Celestia spoke. The ponies looked shocked. “King Sombra. The pony that tried to take over the Crystal Empire?” Applejack asked quietly. “Yes” Celestia said as she lowered her head. “But the book says only one had been-“ Twilight stopped. “Wait… S. Cast. Is- is that King Sombra? Is his name Sombra Cast?” Celestia closed her eyes slowly, giving a slight nod. “But..” Rarity quickly said “How can we help then? Do we have to use the Crystal Heart on her as well?” “We might have to” Celestia sighed. “But Princess” Twilight looked nervous. “Wouldn’t that result in not only the curse to be destroyed, but Pinkie Pie as well?” Rairty and the others looked shocked at Celestia. “Yes. It’s inevitable” She said with a low voice. “Now hold on!” Applejack took a step forward. “We can’t just go ahead and kill Pinkie. She’s our friend!” Applejack said strictly. Even though the others kept silence, it was clear to see they agreed. Celestia sighed “Well, there is another way, but it’s way too dangerous and would need extreme amounts of magic” “So what?!” Rainbow Dash suddenly said from behind. “This is not Pinkie’s fault! We need to save her! I don’t care what it takes!” Fluttershy made a small weep, in fright of them all yelling. Celestia stayed silent for a second. “Let me talk to Twilight in private” Celestia then let out. “W- What?!” Rainbow Dash blurted out. “We are her friends as well. There is no private talking!” “Guards!” Celestia said with a loud voice, just as 3 guards hurried inside. “Please escort these ponies to the safe room and make sure they stay there until other orders are given” Celestia ordered. “Yes Princess” one of the guards said as the other took a hold of Rainbow Dash. “Hey, let go!” Dash yelled. “Celestia, what the hell is this?!” “I’m sorry Rainbow Dash, but it is important that I talk to Twilight in private. She will inform you of what to do after we’re finished” Celestia kept looking straight forward. “Twilight! Do something” Rainbow Dash yelled to her. “Please Dash. Just follow the guards. I’ll be with you in a minute” she said with a serious tone. Dash made a grump “Fine!” She said, then turned her back on her and followed one of the guards outside. Though Applejack resisted a little as well, it wasn’t long before Celestia and Twilight were the only ones in the room. Minutes passed by as what only could be described as an intense discussion. *** Several minutes later, Celestia spoke the last word while looking at Twilight. “Alright, Twilight. I hope you know what you’re doing” she then proceeded to walk away, with Twilight looking down into the ground. “Your friends are waiting for you to tell them what to do. Better go inform them. Best of luck” Celestia just said before leaving. Twilight took a deep breath feeling both relieved and nervous. *** “What kinda decision is that?!” Rainbow said in anger. “Both me and Celestia feel it’s the best thing to do. You should be happy Rainbow. As I said, it’s decided that we won’t use the crystal heart against Pinkie. Instead Celestia, Luna and I, will use our magic to save Pinkie, with a spell created by Starswirl the bearded” “So you decided to lock us in like rats, until it’s all over?!” Dash responded. “We are just keeping you here in the safe room at the castle, to make sure you are all safe. I know you want to help Rainbow, but there is nothing you, or anypony else can do. It’s for the best” Twilight finished. Looking around the room; seeing a few beds, a single window, but not much else. The room was fairly big, but it had similarities of a prison cell. Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity, were all standing a little behind Rainbow Dash, unsure of what to say. Rainbow Dash took another step forward, trying to find words for convincing Twilight that they can be of use. “Don’t worry” Twilight let out. “It will all be over before you know it” she said with a reassuring smile. Rainbow Dash turned around frustrated, not saying anything. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry to you all, but I need to go now. The guards are waiting for me to give orders of our next move. Please, trust me. I mean the best for you all” //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 9: Please give it, give me your power. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 9: Please give it, give me your power. Each step taken drew her closer to her goal. Closer to the castle. Closer to the delicious power. Pinkie was walking across Ponyvillie, keeping a straight face. The purple mist had been circling around her for a while now. Her body was tingling just at the thought of the power she would gain. There was no doubt; the Sulreif had taken over Pinkie completely. The glow in her eyes was forever strong, and anyone who even neared her, was either tossed away, or smart enough to flee. Whenever she felt like it, she crashed a window simply with her mind. It was no surprise most of Ponyvillie had been painfully aware of the monster walking through the streets. Suddenly a sound was heard from above. “There she is!” Pinkie slowly looked up. A dozen of guards flying around in the air, apparently searching for Pinkie and now they found her. Pinkie was actually surprised that she hadn’t seen a guard until now. Twilight must have done an even worse job as a princess that she would assume. They all quickly flew downwards while Pinkie was following them with her eyes, not saying anything. First, a white stallion, fully armored, landed before her. Then a couple of more followed until all 12 guards were standing a few meters before Pinkie. The first one who landed was also the first one to speak. “You are accused of the murder of a young colt and the destruction of several houses. If you do not surrender right now and calmly follow us to the castle, we will have to use force!” He nearly yelled. Pinkie noticed that most of them were holding a fairly long spear. They really meant it. There were no other ponies around, only a few empty shops and a couple of houses. It was a pretty standard street in Ponyvillie where they were standing. “Trash” Pinkie said calmly. “What did you say?!” A dark brown guard yelled a little further behind. Pinkie stared at him, showing no emotions. “You’re in my way. I intend to get to the castle alright, but not so you can lock me in. I will defeat the 3 princesses and become the most powerful being in the world. You are simply small obstacles that I would have no problem killing” Pinkie said cold. The brown guard was getting annoyed. “That’s it!” He yelled while charging against her. Though his courage, he happened to be one of the few guards without a spear. Pinkie readied herself to dismember his limbs. “Stop! You’re not making the orders!” The white guard quickly commanded, the one who was standing in front. It didn’t stop him from charging though as he ran in front of the guards and now just a single meter away from Pinkie. Pinkie blinked and suddenly he fell to the ground ending up sliding across the ground, stopping just inches before Pinkie’s hooves. The other guards stared in eve, wondering what happened. It wasn’t long before that revealed itself as they saw the guard’s four legs had become twisted and broken in several places. Even with a bone piercing through the skin at one spot. “What?! She didn’t even move!” A guard let out. Pinkie looked down on the guard lying in front of her, who was trying not to scream in pain. “You’re just a bug to me” she said cold, just before lifting her left hoof. The mist quickly surrounded that hoof and with incredible power; she smashed her hoof down onto the guards head, resulting in mist and blood flying around. Sounds of bones cracking and brain being squashed went through the streets. The guards were stunned in fear as the mist went back around Pinkie, making the guards shattered face visible. It wasn’t a pretty sight. One of his eyeballs had rolled out as the other had exploded into a yellowish, thick fluid. Pieces of skull and brain were sticking to Pinkies hoof as blood was scattered across the street. Without a twitch, Pinkie began walking forward, towards the guards. The white guard in front finally snapped out his stun and lifted his right hoof. “Attack!” He commanded. In a swift move, some of the guards threw their spears towards Pinkie. Flying at high speed, aiming directly at Pinkie, there seemed to be no way of dodging. Pinkie didn’t worry as without even blinking; she stopped the 6 spears in mid-air. One spear was right in front of her left eye. She just kept walking forward, while turning around the spears in the air, with the blades now facing the terrified guards. It was like she was just walking a calm stroll as she hurled the spears back at the guards, hitting several of them. They were barely able to see what was going on as the 6 spears had pierced their body. A few of the guards fell to the ground, either with a spear going through their eye, or a spear piercing several inches into their forehead. Others were screaming in pain, with spears across they body and hooves. Pinkie looked at them numb, seeing there was still standing 6 guards. 3 of them wounded. “Arrgh!” the white guard in front growled. First now, it was visible to see that he was a unicorn as she bowed his head slightly down, making his helmet fall off. He quickly began focusing power to his horn, making it glow with a strong white light. Pinkie just kept walking slowly towards him, feeling no danger, just as a white beam streamed out of the guards horn, coming towards Pinkie. “You still don’t get it, do you?” Pinkie said quietly, just as the beam stopped for a split second, just like the spears. She looked at the glowing beam; she could sense the heat and power going through it. In the blink of an eye, the beam was sent back towards the guard's horn. Just as it hit, his horn quickly began expanding before it exploded. The guard fell to the ground without a sound, blood appearing from his horn. The 5 other guards quickly spread out their wings, looking absolutely terrified. “Retreat!” one of them yelled and without any arguments they took off in a heartbeat. Pinkie didn’t seem to care as she kept walking in her own slow tempo, right through the dead ponies and the badly wounded ponies that were grasping for air. “Princess…” one of the wounded moaned. Pinkie stopped for a second and looked down on the brown stallion who was covered in blood, with a spear in the side of his body. She stared numb at him “I’m your princess now motherfucker” *** Not long after, back at the tower, one of the wounded guards limped into the entrance, lucky enough to find Princess Celestia and Twilight just in front of him. “Princess!” he gasped for air. “I am sorry. We failed to retreat her. She is too powerful! She killed most of the guards and almost killed me” He had a small wound on his side, dripping down on the floor with blood. Twilight looked nervously at him, but Celestia looked more serious, realizing the seriousness of it all. “Go to the royal medic right away, I will take it from here” Though Celestia had a calm voice, it was clear to see she was stressed. “Yes, princess” the royal guard did his best to bow and then began walking further into the castle, heading for the medical room. Twilight who was standing next to Celestia was already shivering. “Princess. We should just let Pinkie get to the castle so we can force the Sulreif out of here. The longer we wait the worse it’ll get” Twilight said looking at Celestia. “We made a deal Twilight. We will do our best to stop her, even kill her if necessary. Only if she overpowers all my guards and breaks into the castle, we will try to do the spell” Twilight looked down. “I don’t understand. Why are you willing to risk the lives of the guards instead of ending this now?” Celestia maintained her look straight forward. “The chance of the spell even working is slim. There is a far better chance to stop her with force. If she manages to get here, and we can’t overpower her and the spell fails, Ponyvillie will most likely be destroyed. Our best bet will be to stop her before risking all that” Twilight thought for a moment. “But, my friends…” Celestia looked at Twilight. “I figure you didn’t tell them that detail?” Twilight said nothing, giving the response for no. Celestia looked into the sky, squirming her eyes. “She must be stopped before she ruins the entire town. Even all of Equestria is in danger. I am not taking any chances” Celestia said with a serious tone. “I understand” Twilight sighed. *** An hour later, Celestia and Luna once again was discussing the events in Celestia's bedroom, but Celestia had something else in mind than Pinkie. She looked at Luna with both a nervous and serious look. “Luna, my dear sister. I fear something is just not right…” Luna looked back at Celestia “Pinkie is killing every other pony she sees if that’s what you mean” “No. It’s about Twilight” Celestia looked down. “She let her feelings for her friend, overcome her feelings for protecting Equestria” Luna stood still for a second. “I understand, but I also understand Twilight. She cares a lot for her friends, and she’s willing to do almost anything to help Pinkie Pie, but believe me, she wants to protect Equestria as much as you do” Celestia looked back at Luna, who was gently smiling. She sighed “I guess you’re right, but there is another thing that worries me. This Sulreif… Twilight told us that Pinkie borrowed a book from her, which told the story about this curse. Yet, it seems like she’s almost clueless about the book. I clearly remember teaching her about this Sulreif curse when she was my student. Though, we try to let no one know about this power, so they might seek it out; it is still the most powerful thing all of Equestria. I would imagine that she would study up on it herself after hearing about it, but seeing her, unsure of what to do, I wonder if she’s the right pony for this job” Celestia felt bad about what she said, but she stuck to it. Luna bowed her head slightly “Sister. Twilight hasn’t been a princess for long. Even at day one, she felt she was under pressure, and now, she is. It’s a lot to deal with, even for you and me. After she became a princess, she was no longer your student, so she no longer studies every possible thing anymore, instead tries to stick to her duty as a princess. It’s no surprise she is weak on the subject as the Sulreif is one of the most forbidden things to talk about. Yet, you trusted her enough when she was young, to teach her about this curse. If you trusted her well enough at that time, you should trust her enough - as a princess, now. None of us know everything about what happened to Pinkie, so you can’t expect Twilight to know it” Luna lifted her head up and looked at Celestia. “We are all together in this” Luna said. Celestia looked at her. “You’re right Luna” she smiled gently. “Sometimes I feel like you’re the big sister” Celestia smiled. Luna smiled back “I love you little sister” she giggled. “I love you too” Celestia smiled with her eyes closed. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 10: You're falling, falling like a feather. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 10: You're falling, falling like a feather. Pinkie had been walking in a slow, straight line for a couple of minutes now. The road was calm with complete silence. No ponies around, not even a bird singing beautiful tones somewhere. The silence was painful to Pinkie. The only way she could feel good, was to gain more power. It was around evening until the castle was finally in sight. Only the tip of 2 towers was visible, but she was getting close. Her body was shaking, not in fear, but in excitement. She was ready to see the dying princesses in front of her. Seeing them fade away, and with no other choice, the guards would have to follow her own commands for total world power. Her body even began trembling. “I can’t take it!” Pinkie said to herself. She needed to destroy something. She looked to her right, seeing a small café, with about 4-5 ponies in it, drinking juice and eating pie with their friends. “Guess they haven’t heard about the murderous pony. Or don’t care… it’s their fault really” Pinkie thought to herself. She quickly looked to her left, seeing an average house, built of bricks. “Perfect” focusing her mind she forced several red bricks out of the house, levitating them around her. The house made a few alarming noises, but it was still standing. Pinkie didn’t care though as it was not her goal to destroy the house. She looked back at the café with the big window built in, making her able to look inside. There were around 6 tables with 2 to 3 chairs in there. An old looking stallion stood behind the counter, talking to a younger looking stallion. A little logo was built in the glass she was looking through. “Ponyvillie Local Café” it said. Without wasting another second, she hurled all the 5 bricks straight through the window, at incredible speed. When the first brick hit the glass, it smashed into thousand pieces as the bricks kept flying. Without seeing it coming, 2 ponies got hit hard in the head by the speeding bricks. It felt like time stood still as she observed the big hole the brick caused on the gray mare sitting around a table in the café. Less than a second later, both the ponies that got hit were lying in the ground, yelling. The other 3 bricks missed, and hit the wall at the end, leaving some marks. The other ponies quickly began running around, screaming, searching for a place to hide. “Shimmer!” one stallion yelled looking down onto the gray pony she had hit. Guess it was his wife or something or maybe his sister. They kind of looked alike. Though he had a light yellow fur; his eyes looked very much similar to the gray mare. Suddenly the stallion looked up crying, noticing Pinkie Pie. He was grasping for air as he whispered out something. “Why?” he asked, with tears running down his cheeks. Pinkie looked at him for a second while her mind began imagining the things she could do. Immediately the stallions’ eyes burst out in a small explosion mixed with blood, tears, and some yellow goo. He fell down onto the ground screaming, with little strings hanging out of his empty eye sockets. His scream was so light; he almost ruined his voice. “For fun” Pinkie responded calmly as she continued to walk towards her destination, hearing the screams slowly fading away. *** The ground around was now shaking around her. The excitement was too much. She was just a few more steps away from the entrance to the castle. She could even see the door leading inside. There were no guards in sight. “Maybe they all fled” Pinkie smirked. The place almost looked deserted. One would think; that under these circumstances, they would defend the castle with all they’ve got. Suddenly Pinkie stopped, looking up into the sky as she saw shadows being casted in front of her. “Yes.. YES!” She bit her lip with a smile. Above her were a massive amount of guards, with heavy armor and razor-sharp spears, flying directly towards her. Pinkie was drenched in shadows of the guards above her. This had to be at least half of Celestia’s army. “Guess she really wants to kill me. I feel so special” Pinkie smiled while shivering. The guards were nearing her as most of the sky was blocked by guards. “Just a little closer…” she whispered to herself. “Protect the Princess” one of the guards yelled. “Now!” Pinkie yelled. Suddenly a huge shockwave rushed from Pinkie, through the air and hitting the guards in the front, sending them flying in all directions, revealing even more guards behind them. The purple mist had begun circling around her, high through the air. Pinkie lifted her upper body, and quickly smashed it down again into the ground, making the ground crack and sending several big pieces of rock up around her. Pinkie quickly grabbed them with her mind then lowered her head. The rocks were now floating peacefully around Pinkie. In no time at all, another shockwave burst in front of her, this time sending the big rocks with the shockwave towards the guards that was only getting closer. All of the guards avoided the rocks, but one, who was knocked unconscious by the massive blow to his head. He began falling towards the ground as the other guards readied their spears. The back row of the guards started throwing their spears instead. “This again?” Pinkie sighed. Only this time, there were 30 spears instead of 6. She quickly calculated which of the spears would end up hitting her. The spears came close, and only a split second before hitting her, she stopped 4 of those that would have made contact with her while the other spears missed, leading them to pierce through the ground. “I can aim better than that” Pinkie said calmly, and then again hurled the spears back at the guards, who were now so close, she was even able to make out their eye colors. All the 4 spears stroke 4 different guards, scratching their amour, but not doing any real damage. “Stupid armor. I can’t get a good hit in” Pinkie looked at the guards in front and grinded her teeth. The more anger she felt; the more pain rushed through her body, but with the pain she could feel the power. She was only getting stronger. She smashed her right hoof down and began screaming up in the sky. Suddenly the armor worn by some of the guards in the front row were tightening in, so fast and violent that most of their bones were shattering. Even worse for the guards wearing helmets, as their skulls was breaking by the massive pressure. Just like that, another dozen of guards fell to the ground with their body or head shattered. There still seemed to be around 50 guards left. They were finally reaching near contact with Pinkie. One guard flew in front, holding his spear and charging with all his might towards pinkie. He yelled as he closed his eyes. Suddenly the guard stopped in midair. “Did I get her?” the guard asked quietly while opening one eye. “Nope” Pinkie smiled at him and the others guards saw he was standing still in the air with Pinkie just in front of him. She was holding the guard firmly in place with her frightening mind. Pinkie quickly broke the spear he was holding in half and threw it away. The guard could feel tension around his neck, like she was strangling him with her very own hooves. The mist was acting like a rope as it went a turn around his neck and began tightening. She turned him around, making him look in the same direction as Pinkie. Looking at the guards that had now landed less than 2 meters away from her. “I am getting tired of this” she spoke to them. “Let me in, or I will kill this pitiful guard and then all of you” The guard could barely speak as the tension got tighter around his neck. “What do we do?” one of the white guards asked. “We obey the Princesses order. We must kill her, no matter what” another responded. The white guard slowly nodded. Without further discussion, they began charging towards Pinkie, with an angry look in their eyes. “I didn’t think so” Pinkie almost sighed. *Crack* a sound was heard. Pinkie looked at the guard the mist was holding up. His neck was hanging to the side, slowly swinging from side to side. “Guess I pressed too hard and broke his neck” Pinkie looked at the guards running towards her. “Oh well” she said, and threw the guard away. “Let’s go then” she smiled, looking at the angry faces coming towards her. *** “She is breaking through” Celestia said calmly, looking to her left, seeing Twilight standing on the throne and Luna at Twilights left side. They were lined up in the throne room, waiting for Pinkies arrival. Luna lowered her head slightly. Celestia's eyes fell upon Twilight; that was standing slightly taller than herself and Luna. “We’re in this together, Princess Twilight. As soon as we are able to hold her down, we will all three perform the spell, forcing the spirit out. At the minute we see it, we destroy it for good” Celestia had repeated the plan several times now, but this would be the last time. Twilight looked at Celestia, trying to seem confident. “Got it” Luna looked out the window to her left, seeing all the guards corpses scattered around the entrance. She quickly looked away again, as she felt sick looking at all that blood. “I- I can’t see her down there. I think she is heading for us” Luna said nervously. Twilight could feel her body tensing. The air felt incredible thick, making it hard to breathe. Celestia looked straight forward, towards the door. It was amazing how she could keep calm in such an intense situation. “All those guards, just dying around us…” Twilight said quietly. “They fought to protect this land” Celestia responded. “There is not a more honorable death than dying for the sake of others. Their deaths won’t be in vain” Their chat was interrupted as they could hear small footsteps, nearing the entrance to the throne room. “It’s time” Celestia said with a serious voice. “Twilight and Luna. Equestria is in grave danger. It’s our duty as princesses to protect this land. Many guards have died, serving us. We will make sure it wasn’t for nothing. I will; I know we all will, protect this land, even if it costs our lives” Twilight and Luna nodded slowly, understanding the importance of this very moment. “This is it” Twilight whispered. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 11: Look up, it's the 9th floored tower. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 11: Look up, it's the 9th floored tower. “Why do you think Celestia sent us to check out Twilight’s library at a time like this?” Fluttershy asked, flying next to Rainbow Dash across Ponyvillie. “I have no idea. She didn’t even say what we’re supposed to be looking for. She just looked and said “I want you two, and only you two, to fly to Twilight’s library to find anything that may be of use” “Is she talking about a book or something?” Rainbow Dash asked herself. Fluttershy looked down for a moment. “I hope Twilight and Pinkie will be alright” They flew over several houses at medium speed until the library was in sight. A moment later, they both landed in front of the big library which Twilight called home. Rainbow Dash silently opened the door, with Fluttershy right behind her. At first glance, the library seemed quite messy, with some books lying around. Actually, it wasn’t that bad, but for Twilights standards it was unusual. It did make sense though, seeing how Twilight has been very busy with her royal duties the last couple of days. “So where should we start looking?” Rainbow Dash asked, not really expecting an answer. “We don’t even know what to look for” Fluttershy said quietly. “Let’s just… take a look around” Dash sighed. Fluttershy nodded. A couple of minutes passed, moving books around, looking under tables and checking clothes. If it wasn’t for one of the windows being open, it would be exhausting to fly around in there. Even though it was afternoon, the air was still quite warm around Ponyvillie. Rainbow Dash was just downstairs, looking over a few books on a shelf, when a noise was heard from Fluttershy. “Eeep!” Rainbow Dash quickly reacted and flew upstairs to Fluttershy. “What is it? Did you find something?” Dash asked as she saw Fluttershy standing in front of an opened closet, looking shocked. Her jaw was shaking, and her eyes looked pale. “What’s going on Flutter-“ Dash stopped her sentence as she looked inside the big brown closet. “Oh my gosh…” she let out. *** “Halt!” One of the guards yelled. “You’re not getting through!” He said fiercely. Pinkie looked slowly at the 2 guards standing in front of the door, leading to the throne room. They appeared confident and ready to attack, but she was able to see they were shaking in fear. Pinkie ignored them, and began walking towards the door they were protecting. 2 pillars were lined up before the door, with the door as a gap between them. The room was not very wide, but the height to the roof made the room seem big. The door wasn’t an exception. “Stop right there!” the other guard commanded. They were both white stallions with gold plated armor. To Pinkie, all the guards looked the same. Pinkie didn’t say anything; she just kept walking forward, not breaking her eye contact to the door. “That’s it!” the guard on the right yelled, getting ready to attack. Pinkie sent him a quick intense stare as he suddenly froze. “Arrgh!” He clenched in pain, just before puking up blood. His body was trembling, but there were no visible wounds on his body. “W- What did you do to him?!” the other guard yelled nervously. “I squished his lungs, and some other entrails. He will die within seconds of massive pain… and you better back off, or I’ll do the same to you” Pinkie said threatening. The guard was stunned, looking at his comrade who was holding his hoof to his chest, gasping for air, but unable to take a breath for all the blood filling up in his throat. Pinkie took her focus away from the guards and looked back at the door. “It’s finally time” she thought to herself. She continued taking slow steps forward while the other guard was too shocked to even move. He stared at Pinkie, trying his best to move his body, but seeing his comrade dying, slowly took away all his courage. Pinkie now stood directly in front of the door, feeling her body getting excited. Craving for power. Her mind snapped as a sudden burst was forced out of her; the door opened forcefully, almost pulling it off its hinges. “Yes… yes!” she chuckled as she looked at the 3 princesses in front of her, standing only about 10 meters away in the other end of the room. Her friend Twilight was in the middle, sitting in the throne while Luna was on Twilights right side and Celestia on the left side. The room was beautiful, even though it was nearly empty. Only the artistic windows, 2 statues of Luna and Celestia and a few other decorations were seen. “Pinkie Pie!” Celestia yelled to her. “You have murdered my guards and innocent ponies. Your reign of terror ends here!” Luna looked at Pinkie, with a serious look while Twilight had a hard time understanding that it was her friend in front of her, covered in blood and ready to kill. It seemed unreal. “Ha... Hahahaha!” Pinkie laughed loudly. Her eyes were almost bursting out a purple mist. “Twilight…” Pinkie then said, still with a wide smile and with her eyes closed. “You were never cut out to a princess. To gain such power” she quickly opened her eyes and looked at them. “None of you are!” she then yelled, smashing her right hoof down, creating a huge burst and pressure, shattering all the windows in the room simultaneously. All the broken pieces of glass were floating in the air, with the purple mist surrounding it. Pinkie had managed to get control of every single piece of glass. “Now die!” she yelled again, sending all the broken glass and shrapnel flying towards the 3 princesses. Twilight quickly created a light purple bubble shield around her, while Luna and Celestia weren’t fast enough and was struck by some of the glass pieces, creating small wounds several places across their body. As soon as all the glass was on the ground or sticking to the wall behind them, Twilight removed the bubble, still looking shocked. Though her quick reflexes, her mind was still unsure of what to do. Celestia quickly recovered and took a step forward with an intense look. “Luna, Twilight! Now, Attack!” she yelled as Celestia and Luna took off and began flying towards Pinkie, with both their horns glowing. They were flying delicately through the air while spreading their large wings. “Why don’t you just give up?” Pinkie asked while smiling, not moving an inch. “You will fail!” Luna then yelled and began creating a small sphere around her horn, which quickly created a dark blue beam headed directly towards Pinkie, who didn’t attempt to avoid it. “It’s gonna hit her!” Luna’s mind rushed. But just as the beam made contact with Pinkies body, she disappeared in a cloud of purple mist, sending the beam right through and doing severe damage to the floor. “What?!” Luna let out as she looked across the room. “Too slow” a sound was suddenly heard in front of her. Just as she blinked, she saw Pinkies evil purple eyes before her own, hiding in the mist scattered across the room. In a swift move, a thick substance of purple mist came from below and faster than Luna was able to make out, the mist quickly forced itself upwards hitting Luna under her jar, with strength powerful enough to send her flying backwards, falling to the ground and sliding slightly across the floor. Celestia was still airborne, witnessing the Sulreifs amazing powers. “The- the mist itself can do damage?!” she looked stunned. “Not only that” Pinkie’s voice was heard across the room, though she was no where to be seen. “I can hide in the mist. Cause damage before you even see it. You can’t damage a foe you can’t see” she proceeded to laugh again. Celestia was tensing her body. Pinkie spoke the truth, seeing the mist spreading all over the room, making it hard to see anything. “Twilight!” Celestia then yelled. “Don’t just stand there. Help us!” She looked back at Twilight, who was still standing at the same spot, trembling. “I- I can’t fight my friend. I just can’t” she said, keeping in a tear. She was looking straight forward as she was caught in her own thoughts. “This is not your friend. This is not Pinkie! It’s the Sulreif spirit, and if we don’t do something now, the curse will not only take over Pinkie, but all of Equestria!” Celestia yelled in frustration. “Enough out of you!” Pinkie’s voice was heard once again, just before some of the mist began forming a shape. Like a bat hitting a ball, the mist was swung towards her, going for a direct attack, but Celestia was quick to react and evaded it by flying downwards and landing on the ground. “It’s no use. I have powers you can’t even imagine!!” Pinkie almost screamed. Suddenly the mist began focusing on a spot in the middle of the room and began shaping itself once again. “What?!” Celestia let out as she saw a wolf like shape being created in front of her with nothing but mist. “It isn’t possible!” Celestia looked surprise. “Being able to create the shapes of animal, giving them almost a conscious of their own” she thought to herself. Pinkie had clearly mastered the Sulreif better than Sombra was able to. In a split second, the wolf made from purple mist, began running towards her with its mouth open, making it able to see the rows of razor sharp teeth in its mouth. The movement and the sounds looked so realistic. Only the fact that the wolf was created by mist; it could easily be mistaken for a real life wolf. Celestia froze; she couldn’t believe it. The mist wolf was sprinting towards her, quickly getting into to range to attack. “Sister!” Luna suddenly yelled, sending another dark beam from her horn. The wolf had just jumped to attack Celestia, as only inches before reaching Celestia; the beam hit the wolf making the beam go directly through the wolf, misshaping it and quickly getting turned back into nothing but mist. Celestia quickly snapped out of it and looked at Luna, who was bleeding slightly from her under her jar. “So you’re up again?” Pinkie said slightly frustrated. Rage was building up inside Celestia, seeing her sister wounded. “Nobody gets away with such cruelty” Celestia said quietly. “I promise you Pinkie. We will force the demon out of you, one way or another. You are simply fighting for power, but we are fighting for something bigger. We are fighting for the lives of others, making us more powerful than any evil spirit can ever get” Celestia ended with an angry, yet calm look in her eyes” “Now you keep mention ‘we’… I’ve been thinking, 3 against 1 isn’t quite fair is it? Though, one of you seems to be out of the game” Pinkie grinned. Twilight was still standing in the same spot, trying to move, but the whole thing was overwhelming. She wasn’t sure if she had it in her, to take the duty of a true princess and protect the land. Especially if it means fighting your best friend. “I think I’m going to make it a little more fair” Pinkie continued. Again the mist began moving in different directions, spreading across most of the room. Each piece of mist began shaping itself once again. Celestia and Luna was standing by, preparing themselves for the worst. Since the mist had spread into smaller amounts, visibility got clearer while the shapes were beginning to take form. Not only did the scattered mist begin taking the form of ponies, but the mist even changed it colors. It was beyond belief… the mist shaped into the form of Pinkie Pie, with such details it was impossible to tell them apart. Meaning they were now surrounded by some sort of clones, created by nothing but the magical mist. The clones began laughing. “Try to find the real me” they hummed. The all looked exactly the same, but the mist was all gone, meaning one of them had to be the real Pinkie. They were around 50 of them, scattered all around the room. “Luna! Now!” Celestia demanded. Luna quickly nodded while looking nervous. She began focusing her magic to her horn, as well as Celestia. In two bright flashes, a weapon appeared in front of them both. The weapon appearing in front of Celestia was a long metal pole, with two blades at each end. A little sun mark was glowing in the middle of it. Appearing in front of Luna, two smaller weapons, both looking like dark blue daggers, though they were a little longer, with a sharp blade on each one, with an added small moon at the shaft of them both. “Mere weapons?” One of the clones said. “You’ll need to do better than that to defeat me” another clone said. Both Celestia and Luna were holding their weapons up with their magic. The weapons were slightly glowing, making it able to see the magic that rushed through them. “See if you can block this!” all the Pinkies said loudly before about 20 of them began running towards them both. Celestia and Luna quickly readied their weapons, getting ready to attack as well. Just as one of the clones jumped Celestia from the front, she swung her weapon, making the blade on one of the ends slice through the clone, resulting in it turning back to the purple mist. Just after, another clone jumped towards her from behind. Again, Celestia was quick to react and she forced the end of her blade through the clone, stabbing it. Once again, it returned to the purple mist; a slight hope was now felt in Celestia, but there was no time to rest as two clones both jumped her this time. In a quick moved Celestia ducked, then began spinning her weapon fast over her, slicing both the clones across their faces. Once more, it turned out it was only clones that turned back to mist. “Don’t let them get to you, Luna! A good hit and she can force the mist into your body, shutting down your muscles or even you heart!” Celestia shouted. “Got it” Luna responded as she was busy fighting the clones as well. She was attacked by all sides, but at amazing speed she managed to slice or stab them, just inches before they reached her. Luna was under pressure, but she managed to fend off all the clones attacking her. One of the clones began yelling while running towards her. Luna was quick to react and levitated the two daggers down on the ground, with their blades facing up before her. Just as the clone was ready to jump, she hurled the two daggers upwards, making the blades pierce through the clones jaw, but just as the others, it immediately dissolved into purple mist. Both the princesses were breathing heavily as they observed the mist of the clones they had defeated, began to shape back into more clones. It was clear to see that there were not fewer clones than to begin with. “This is a waste of energy! They just keep reforming themselves” Celestia tried to catch a breath. “Quite irritating isn’t it?” One of the newly formed clones smiled. “We will never find the real one at this rate!” Luna said in frustration. “We have to destroy them all at the same time” Celestia looked serious. “But sister” Luna looked at her. “The amount of magic and energy to clear them all…” “We have no choice” Celestia was quick to respond. Luna looked down for a second. “Very well” she sighed. “Then let’s d-“ before she was able to finish her sentence, a clone suddenly attacked Luna off guard, hitting the side of her neck with its hoof, sending her flying across the room, landing hard on the ground and sliding a few meters across the ground. “Luna!” Celestia yelled in concern. To her horror she saw her sister was unconscious. Another clone quickly jumped towards Celestia as well, but she reacted fast enough to violently swing her right hoof, hitting the clone on the cheek, hurling it away before turning into mist. “Enough of this!” Celestia yelled in anger. She then proceeded to stomp her front hooves down and began focusing magic in her horn. A small light appeared at the tip. She lowered her head as the light became slightly bigger. “Aaaargh!” she suddenly yelled loudly, just before lifting her head back up, making the light rapidly bigger, ending up in it exploding, sending a massive shockwave through the room. In a bright flash, all the clones were sent flying, eventually disappearing into mist. All of them dissolved but one; which kept sliding across the floor, with scratches across her body. As soon as she stopped sliding across the floor, she slowly tried to get up. “So you found the real me, huh?” the real Pinkie coughed. It was clear to see she was hurt, but she managed to get up again, with an angry face. “But it seems you’re a little worn out as well” she then smiled, looking at Celestia that could barely stand up and a small smoke coming from her burned horn. She had used most of her magic and Luna was still unconscious. Celestia couldn’t stand anymore and feel down on a kneeling position. The massive amount of magic she released had weakened her body badly. “Too bad. I was hoping for more fun. Guess that only leaves one pony to be taken care of” Pinkie locked her eyes on Twilight, who was covering her eyes… whether it was from the bright light or to hide her tears; she couldn’t see. No matter, she thought. “Pinkie…” Twilight weeped. “Why are you doing this? What about your father?” Twilight looked up, with wet eyes. Pinkie looked at her for a little while. “Oh, you’re right. I should thank him for pressuring me to consume this spirit and become the most powerful being to ever have walked on earth” Pinkie had a small grin on her face. “But…” Twilight continued. “What about your friends? Are they not important to you? You’ve always been the one to bring a smile to my face. Making me laugh… I thought us 6 had a connection that would never be broken. I- I thought we we’re friends” Twilight looked away, keeping in tears. “Don’t worry Twilight. I will never forget you” Pinkie said slowly. “I will always remember this day. The day I killed the 3 princesses. After that, I will probably kill our friends, but that’s not important. Enough talk” Pinkie stopped for a second then looked up with a smile. “Time to die my friend!” Pinkie yelled as she sprinted towards Twilight. All the mist scattered across the room, quickly began floating towards Pinkies right hoof. Just a meter before her defendless friend; she jumped into the air, bending her right front leg, as getting ready to make a punch with all the mist focusing at that exact point of her hoof. “DIE!” she screamed, just before smashing her hoof towards Twilight, who was doing nothing to defend herself. Pinkie could feel her hoof making contact but before she expected. She quickly opened her eyes, seeing Twilight had a small bubble shield surrounding her. “What?!” Pinkie let out shocked. She tried to retrieve her hoof, but it was stuck in the shield. “I’m stuck!” the thought rushed through her mind. Inside the small bubble, Twilight stared cold at Pinkie Pie. “That’s enough” Twilight said, remaining her almost demonic stare. The hole Pinkie made through the shield with her right hoof began tightening slowly. It continued as Pinkie panicked when she could feel the bones in her hoof cracking. The pressure was tightening so violently; you could even hear the bone shattering sound. “Let go, let go, LET GO!” Pinkie screamed, before using all her power to just break her hoof away from the shield, landing a safe distance from Twilight. Unable to support much weight on her right hoof due to some of her bones had been broken. While she stared mad at Twilight; the mist began circling around Pinkie. She looked back up at Twilight. The shield had disappeared, but she was still standing still, staring down at Pinkie, with an angry look in her eyes. “Now it’s my turn” she said, with her horn beginning to glow. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 13: Missing a piece, help me please. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 13: Missing a piece, help me please. Luna and Celestia looked back at Rainbow Dash, who just stated something unbelievable. “What?” Celestia was quick to ask. “In her closet” Rainbow Dash was trying to catch her breath while sweat was dripping from her body. “We found Twilights dead body!” Rainbow Dash was talking fast. Celestia remembered sending Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to investigate Twilights library to find something of use, but she never expected something like this. Luna and Celestia quickly looked back at Twilight. “The Sulreif… it’s gone!” Luna spoke out, seeing that the ball of mist was gone. “Where did it go?!” Celestia asked nervously. “Too late Rainbow Dash” Twilight said calmly, facing away from the others, standing still. “The power is MINE now!” Twilight turned around, with her eyes filled with a dark purple glow and with an evil grin. “But… how? Why?” Celestia said shocked. “W- Who are you?” she asked. “Who am I?” Twilight smiled, just before sending a shockwave through the room, with no effort, sending Celestia and Luna flying through the air. Luckily they were just able to fold out their wings and land on their hooves again, a few meters away. “Don’t you know your own student?” Twilight kept smiling, with the devilish eyes. “Rainbow Dash is both right and wrong” Twilight took a glance at Rainbow Dash, who was still trying to breathe properly. “Future Twilight is dead. I, present Twilight, am still very much alive” Twilight declared. Luna took a step forward “Future Twilight? I don’t understand” It was clear to see Luna was weak as she had a hard time standing up. Twilight looked down and began to chuckle, just before lifting up her head, laughing loudly. “It’s unbelievable you couldn’t figure it out!” Twilight continued. “No. She’s lying” Rainbow Dash whispered. “What’s that?” Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash with a smirk. Rainbow Dash was finally breathing properly and stood up confident. “I saw the dead body of Twilight. You’re just a fake!” She yelled as she dashed towards Twilight, with attend to attack her. “I am just as real as you are, Dash” Twilight said calmly as she sent some of the purple mist behind Rainbow Dash, grapping her hind hooves in the air. In a swift move, the mist hurled her through the air, sending her flying into the wall at tremendous speed. She just made a small sound before failing from the wall to the ground, unconscious. The mist had returned, but only in a small amount as most of it was still inside Twilight. “Now that she’s taken care of, I’ll continue” Twilight looked back at Celestia and Luna who was standing beside each other. “You see, in a way, this all happened before” Twilight smiled. “Allow me to start at the beginning. The early beginning, which you don’t even remember” Celestia and Luna both stood still anxious to find out what was going on. “A little over a month ago, in another time dimension, I was just beginning to do my duties as a princess. It was a pretty tough task, even after all the studying. Intelligence wasn’t enough to make me feel secure. The amount of pressure and expectations from the all the ponies was killing me. I felt like I wasn’t… powerful enough” She stopped for a second, standing before Pinkie who was lying on the ground, unconscious. She could see on Celestia that she was trying to figure it out. “It’s funny” Twilight continued. “I clearly remember when you were teaching me about this curse. About the Sulreif. I studied the curse even after the lesson. I was a master on the subject. Well… almost, but we’ll get back to that. I was buried in work and pressure from being a princess. I needed something to help me. Not even the fancy friendship was enough. Actually, friendship just made it harder. The thought of how disappointed my friends would be if I stepped down as a princess. Even though you all tried to reassure me that I was doing fine, you had no idea what it was like to suddenly become a princess, as young as I was. I knew I had to do something drastic, and I had just the thing in mind. I was aware that Zecora was the one securing the curse. You, Celestia, also told me that. So I went for a little visit in the Everfree forest. As the princess I am, it was hard for Zecora to say no when I asked to see the Sulreif. From there it all went pretty smoothly. Keep in mind, this all still happened in another dimension, which is why I am the only one that knows about all of this. I got the power and Zecora was too loyal to say anything” While Twilight explained; the purple mist kept surrounding her in bigger amounts. “But as you probably know by now, the Sulreif gives a never ending hunger for power. A power I couldn’t share with anyone. Not even with you and Luna. I wanted to rule Equestria alone. Against my confident, yet nervous mind, I was not able to better the Sulreif. My plan was to take over the Sulreif, not it taking over me, but I was far from strong enough, so I became the holder and servant of the Sulreif. Since I doubted you would just accept to give all the power to me, I needed to do what Pinkie tried to do… I had to kill you both” A horrible chill went through the room as Twilight spoke out the words. “So why did you go to the past!? Why didn’t you just kill us and retrieve your power?!” Luna yelled out. “That was the plan, yes” Twilight continued. “But as I wasn’t able to control the Sulreif to perfection and with you two being so damn powerful… I failed. You had me pinned down, just like Pinkie. Sucking the spirit out of me. Seeing as there was no other way, I escaped by using a time travel spell” “But” Luna again interrupted. “The time travel spell only works for about 10 seconds! There is no way you can still be here!” “Yes she can… if she died” Celestia said calmly. Twilight looked at Celestia with a smile. “Catching on I see. Yes, the spell only last for about 10 seconds, but I managed to travel to my own library after I failed to beat you. To the past Twilight… which is the Twilight you are looking at now. To make it a little easier, let’s say that I am present Twilight, and the Twilight that traveled back in time was FT, for Future Twilight. Just so you don’t get confused” Twilight smiled. “As there was not much time, and FT was close to dying, she forced the Sulreif into present Twilight, which is me, just before taking her last breath. FT died on the spot, just after transferring the Sulreif to my former self. Present Twilight. As the Sulreif is a mind spirit, all of FT's memories were transferred to me as well. I had done it; I gave myself a second chance, as the present Twilight. Only thing is as Celestia was so kind to point out, when you die during the time spell, your dead body doesn’t get forced back into the original time. So of course I had to hide the dead body of FT. After that was done, instead of just doing the same mistake again, and fail against you two, I came up with a plan” Twilight laughed slightly. “Here comes the funny part. I had to trick somepony into accepting the spirit into them as well. Seeing as it was in the past, the Sulreif was still secure in Zecora's house. So at that time there was two Sulreif powers. The one within me and the one being held secure by Zecora” “I don’t get it! Why didn’t you just take the power yourself? What does all this have to do with Pinkie Pie?!” Luna yelled in frustration. “So impatience you are. Alright, I’ll get right to it. Instead of just taking you two head-on once again, and probably end up failing, I got an idea. Getting another pony, in this case Pinkie Pie, to accept the spirit into her body, so she would eventually get so much hunger for power that, just as me, wanted to control Equestria” Again, Luna took a step forward. “But how did you know Pinkie would be willing to accept the spirit?!” Twilight sighed. “You see, in order for Pinkie to want the power, I had to do something drastic, so she NEEDED the power. So I went and placed a spell on Pinkie’s father. A spell I knew couldn’t be healed and would eventually kill him if she didn’t take action. I knew Pinkie loved her father so much; she would do anything to help him. So when I “accidentally” made her read the only book, speaking of the Sulreif curse, I knew she was pressured enough to go through with it” Luna looked down for a second. “You MONSTER!!” She yelled as she began flying towards Twilight. “I am not done with the story yet Luna. Sit. Down.” Twilight said, just before forcing her to the ground, with her mind, barely using any effort. Twilight continued. “Allow me to finish, please. After Pinkie got the Sulreif from Zecora-“ “And what if Zecora wouldn’t accept for Pinkie to borrow the power?” Luna interrupted, despite that she was just thrown to the ground. “Luna! Shut up!” Celestia suddenly commanded. “Sister…” Luna whispered back at her, seeing that Celestia had an angry look on her face. Twilight smiled and nodded at Celestia. “Thank you Celestia. Ehem. If Zecora would deny Pinkie to borrow the power, I would just have had to kill her, and force the power into Pinkie. Luckily, I didn’t need to. Actually, it all went pretty smoothly. I just had to wait until the Sulreif got out of control for Pinkie, and she would do something extreme. Like, killing a pony. At that moment, we were all 3 in the castle as the guard gave us word about the murder. It was hard to keep down the excitement, and pretend to be shocked. Even then, I still had some work before me, before the plan was complete. I was pretty concerned that my friends were able to talk sense into Pinkie, or even killing her if it came to that, which would shatter the plan. So I started off by collecting all my friends - or former friends, into the castle. Pretending I was nervous about them getting killed and they had to stay here. I got to admit, I got a little nervous when Rainbow Dash escaped from the castle to get Pinkie” Twilight stopped to chuckle again. “But when she came back, all bruised up, I knew I didn’t have to worry. Still, Pinkie still had an army of guards to go through, before she was able to arrive at the castle. So once again, I put up an act. Saying I didn’t want to hurt my beloved Pinkie, so you wouldn’t demand the guards to attack her right away, so the Sulreif had enough time to take complete control over her, which is when the spirit is at its most powerful state. My plan was going perfectly until you, Celestia, suggested that we should use the Crystal Heart to defeat her as we did to King Sombra” Twilight looked down into the ground, still with a smile and the mist going around her. “When I tried to kill you both in the past, I just attacked without further ado… but Pinkie exposed herself, before attacking. So once again, I had to convince you to not use the crystal heart against her, but to go another way. A way that would make sure my plan would work. After our talk, you finally gave in and accepted to use the spell instead. Of course, you had to go ahead and send your whole army after her, but I think she managed to get rid of them quite well. It was a joy to finally see her stepping into the very room we’re in right now. As I knew all about the Sulreif, it’s was an easy feat to protect myself from any harm. Unlike you two. Just as I planned, you both got damaged badly. Actually a little too badly. So with my knowledge of how to defeat Pinkie, I had to step in and do the work for you. Which was no problem really. When I went to heal Celestia, I made sure to only heal you as little as possible, but still enough so you could perform the spell. As you remember, I insisted on healing Luna as well, so I could do the same to her, and then it all came together. I knew that after you performed the spell to force out the spirit from Pinkie, you would both have zero magic left. So just as Rainbow Dash came in and the spirit was out in the open; I sucked the power into me, restoring everything that was pulled out of me the last time” Twilight took a step forward and smiled. “And here we are. You are both unable to fight, and I’m more powerful than ever” She said confident, with the mist rushing around her. Luna was standing, wounded, not able to comprehend what she just heard. “So all this time…” she whispered. “I should have seen it coming” Celestia suddenly said. “You were acting so strange. Giving weird commands and locking up your friends. I thought it was just because you recently had become a princess, and you were confused about what to do, but to hear this. My… favorite student, betraying Ponyvillie, her friends and even the land of Equestria. I don’t know if it’s still you, Twilight, or the spirit talking, but I know one thing… I have to kill you” //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 14: Covered in blood, you're so beatiful. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 14: Covered in blood, you're so beatiful. Twilight was standing in front of Celestia, Luna and Rainbow Dash who had restored her energy, standing in the corner. Twilight was unsure if Rainbow Dash had even heard what was going on. No matter, both her and Fluttershy knows the truth and had to be eliminated. Though Fluttershy was still to reveal her position. She had probably just fallen behind while Rainbow Dash rushed to get here. Asking Rainbow Dash where she was probably wouldn’t help, but these were all minor problems to deal with later. Right now she had to finish what she started so long ago; to kill Celestia and Luna and take full control over Equestria. Suddenly breathing was heard from behind Twilight. It was Pinkie who had seemed to finally be awake. Twilight turned around and looked back at her with a cold look. “Tw- Twilight?” Pinkie asked confused. “What is going on?” Suddenly she opened her eyes wide. “Dad!” She said quickly. “Is he alive? Where is he?!” she asked startled. Twilight looked down at her. “Don’t worry” she said with a smile. “You’ll be with him soon” she whispered just before she lifted her right hoof, and stomped it down on Pinkies head. A cracking sound appeared as Pinkie was instantly knocked unconsciously. Celestia and Luna had no doubt that what Twilight had said was true. She was the evil behind it all. “I will defeat you” Celestia starred mad at Twilight. “Even though it breaks my heart to see a dear friend fall” “That’s some big words from someone that has no magic left” Twilight smiled, with the mist keeping appearing around her. She was confident that this would be an easy battle. She had it all planed. “I may not have much magic left, but I still have the will to protect Equestria. That is all I need” Celestia said equally confidently. Twilight couldn’t help to chuckle a little. “You think it’s funny?” Luna whispered, still lying on the ground. “Let’s see you laugh after this!” Luna suddenly jumped up and flew towards Twilight with a blue glow in her eyes, looking intimidating. “Don’t think I forgot about you” Twilight smiled. With no further movement, Luna just as Twilight did with Pinkie, was able to pierce Twilights chest with her horn. “It’s no use” Twilight said calmly, just before a purple mass was going from Twilight’s chest onto Luna’s horn; almost like her skin was trying to blend with Luna’s horn. Luna was quick to react, and withdrew her horn, still with a white and dark blue glow storming from her eyes. The hole left in Twilights chest, was quick to close itself. “Don’t forget Luna…” Twilight’s had a smile on her lips, just as the wound disappeared, as nothing had happened. ”I’ve fought you before. In the future. I know all your tricks. Unlike your sister here…” Twilight looked over at Celestia. “You have a monster hiding inside you. A monster with even more power than your normal self, even greater power than Celestia. The power of Nightmare Moon. That was actually the reason you bested me the last time. I thought I had you both forced down, just as dark blue glow began appearing, and a huge amount of magic burst through you. At that time, I thought that Nightmare Moon was long gone, but I learned it never left. You simply learned to contain it. Of course, you had to keep that detail a secret to the public so they wouldn’t look at you with anger and fear” Twilight looked back at Luna, seeing the eyes of Nightmare Moon. “But not this time. Without your sister to help you, you don’t stand a chance against me” Twilight smiled calmly. “Shut your mouth!” Luna screamed as she created a massive beam bursting from her horn, shattering the ground below its path. Twilight quickly did the same and sent an equally massive beam towards Luna. The 2 forces smashed against each other in the middle, sending both beams off course with a screeching sound, one of the beams was forced upwards, making a big hole in the roof, as Twilight’s beam was heading towards Rainbow Dash. “Dash!” Celestia quickly yelled as she had observed the beams direction. Rainbow Dash quickly looked up as she saw the massive beam heading directly towards her. She just managed to spread out her wings before the beam made contact with her, sending her flying into the wall behind her as the beam dissolved. The amount of force was great enough to make a big hole into the wall, where Rainbow Dash was now stuck in, unconscious and badly wounded. “Rainbow Dash!” Celestia yelled again, before running towards the unconscious blue pony. “Oh no, you don’t” Twilight said. In an instant, she sent another beam heading towards Celestia. The beam was flying quickly through the air, heading directly towards Celestia that had no change of avoiding it. Celestia knew she was unable to evade, and simply closed her eyes. The purple beam was certain to finish her off. Quicker than the eye could catch; Luna appeared in front of Celestia, with both her daggers she used against Pinkie’s clones. She levitated the two weapons in front of herself and Celestia. Just as the beam made contact with the weapons, she managed to send the beam off course yet again, but the power of them beam was so intense that the daggers were forced out of Luna’s magic and sent flying in separate directions. Luna was breathing heavily, standing before her sister, with her eyes glowing more than ever. “Thanks Luna” Celestia was quick to say as she bowed her head, then continuing to run towards Rainbow Dash, while gently levitating the blue pony down from the hole. Luna’s eyes looked fierce, and her energy seemed to be fully back. Though she looked like Luna on the outside, you could see Nightmare Moon in her eyes. “Oh, how nice. 2 sisters protecting each other. Guess I just have to kill you instead” Twilight focused her eyes on Luna, who had small wounds across her body and an angry look on her face. “If you insist on using your toy weapons, I can play along as well” she smiled, just before some of the purple mist began gathering in front of her, slowly beginning to form a long blade, with a shaft at the bottom. A thin sword began taking form. The blade was narrow but razor sharp. The shaft was black, with what appeared to be bandages across it. The mist in front of her was gone, only leaving the weapon before her. “Let’s end this shall we?” Twilight made a smirk just before disappearing into thin air. “Where did she go?” Luna thought to herself. Even the mist was nowhere to be seen. A step was heard somewhere across the room, followed by another one at the other side of the room. “She- she’s not teleporting. She just moving so fast I am unable to see her?” Luna was shocked as step followed by step was heard across the room as Luna tried to keep focus. Every time Twilight placed her hoof on the floor; a sound appeared, but she was moving so fast it was impossible to see where she was. Luna closed her eyes and looked down, beginning to focus magic in her horn. “There is no reason to try and attack me. It’s just a waste of magic” Twilights voice was heard across the room. Luna ignored it and continued to focus on her horn, though nothing appeared to happen. “Too slow!” A voice was suddenly heard just inches next to Luna. In a swift move; Twilight swung her weapon with magic, towards Luna’s neck. The sword stopped suddenly as it made contact, but as Twilight looked at Luna, it revealed this she had managed to block the sword with her right hoof. Though her quick reactions, the sword had still made a deep cut into her hoof, but a little slower and the blade would have killed her with a blow to her neck. Blood was dripping down from Luna’s hoof, with the sword stuck in her hoof. Twilight was standing in front of her, looking frustrated. “How… how were you able to block my attack? I was moving faster than anyone would be able to see and hear. How did you know when I was going to attack?” Twilight asked, with a drop of sweat escaping from her chin. Luna kept her right hoof up, still with the blade stuck in the bloody wound. “I didn’t try to use my magic to attack you” Luna said still looking down. “I was sending out invisible waves of magic. Almost acting like sound waves. Even though I wasn’t able to hear or see where you were, I could feel your position in the disturbance of my magic” Luna looked up and stared at Twilight. “You’ll have to do better than that Twilight” she said cold. Twilight smiled nervously. “I have to do better, huh? Alright then” she almost chuckled. Suddenly the sword that was stuck in Luna’s hoof began bulging. Luna was shocked as she saw thin purple hands creeping out from the surface of the sword. “W-what?!” Luna said nervously as she tried retrieving her hoof, but she came painfully aware that it wasn’t that easy. Every time she tried forcing her hoof back; a sharp pain pierced her entire leg. “Oh, you’re not going anywhere” Twilight smiled. “This is no ordinary sword. I am able to shape this sword to my liking. When the sword sliced through your hoof - even though the wound is only a few inches deep, I made inverted spikes at the end of sword, meaning every time you try to retrieve your hoof, the spikes not only stop you, they make even more damage. So I suggest you stop struggling, or the spikes will bury themselves deeper into your flesh” Twilight smiled. Luna could feel the spikes, pushing against her flesh every time she tried to move. Forcing her hoof free would result her flesh being ripped apart, leaving a big open wound which would eventually drain her from blood loss. In despair, she looked around the room. Seeing Celestia empty of energy, trying to help up the badly wounded Rainbow Dash. She looked at the thin hands emerging from the sword that was beginning to crawl their way up her leg, and closer to her head. She then looked back at Twilight, who was smiling confidently. She was sure victory was hers, and who could blame her… Luna was slowly being devoured by the Sulreif while her sister was struggling to even stand up and while Rainbow Dash wasn’t even able to move a muscle. The other holders of the elements of harmony were trapped in the other castle, waiting for it all to be over. Waiting for the good news, that they saved Pinkie Pie. It all rushed through Luna’s mind as she closed her eyes as she recalled a recent memory. “I convinced my big sister that everything was alright” She thought to herself. “That Twilight had it under control. If it wasn’t for me, we might have discovered it all a lot sooner. We would have been able to capture the real monster and save Equestria” She thought of the last words she heard from her sister that day. “I love you” Her sister’s words kept smashing inside her mind. “She trusted me, and I let her down. She loves me… this is my fault!” Suddenly she snapped out of it, and began yelling as she tried to retrieve her hoof with all her force. Twilight was shocked by Luna’s determination, and had to struggle to keep the sword in place. Luna’s yelling became louder, as well as the pain was rising. Just a second later, she ripped off her hoof from the sword, leaving a bloody open wound across her hoof while some of her flesh was still stuck to the spikes. Blood was almost spraying on the ground. “Luna!” Celestia suddenly yelled as she saw the blood appearing from Luna’s wound. “I’m sorry sister” she whispered with a tear pushing from her eye. “It’s Time to end this!” Luna yelled as she began casting a spell. Before Twilight was able to react, the ground around her lit up and 7 chains made of magic appeared from below, swinging quickly upwards. 4 of the chains began going in circles around Twilights hooves, before tightening in. She became unable to move. Just as quickly 2 of the other chains did the same around her wings, so she was unable to fly. The last chain was quick to tighten in around her horn. All 7 chains were now holding her firmly fast to the ground as she was completely unable to move. “What is this?!” Twilight yelled nervous, while trying to teleport away. “It’s no use. These chains have magic flowing through them, counter attacking your own magic” Luna stared dead at Twilight as her own horn began glowing. She was levitating Celestia’s weapon, which was a few feet behind her. Twilight began shaking violently, trying to break free from the chains as Luna held Celestia’s spear, with one of the blades pointing towards Twilight. Twilight was staring at the sharp blade Luna held before her, only a few feet away. “You did it Luna!” Celestia almost cheered, despite her lack of energy. “This curse ends now!” Luna yelled. Time appeared to be in slow-motion as Luna ran towards Twilight, with the weapon in front of her. No matter how much Twilight struggled, she couldn’t move out of the way. Just inches before the weapon made contact; Luna opened her eyes wide as she saw a smile across Twilight’s lips. She was still in a running movement, but at the moment Luna placed her right hoof down on the ground, something made her lose control, and she almost slipped to the side, missing Twilight by mere inches. “What?” Luna thought, running just past Twilight that was still stuck in the chains. “Remember…” Twilight smiled as Luna was passing Twilight, unable to stop running. “The hands on my sword weren’t meant to kill you. They were meant to take over your body, making me able to control it, and since they only reached your hooves… I now control your hooves movement” The words just managed to pass through Luna’s head, as she realized she couldn’t feel her legs. They were running without her control. Twilight stood still, with a cold smile as Luna kept running forward, towards one of the broken windows. Unable to stop, she could only watch as she got closer and closer to the window. “No” Luna whispered as she was forced to take a final step before she fell out the window, at a deadly height. As Luna felt like she was frozen in the air, a scream passed through her. “LUNA!” Celestia had cried. “Sister” Luna gently whispered as time felt like it made a glitch and then went back to normal, and she was forced closer and closer to the ground. Twilight’s magic was forcing her down, so even if she had enough energy available, her wings wouldn’t do any good. It was a cold night outside, with the wind gently passing through the trees and the grass. It was a beautiful night. A tear escaped from Celestia’s eye, just as she heard the loud thump of Luna’s body smashing to the ground. At that exact moment, the chains holding Twilight in place, dissolved into nothing but dust. Celestia stared blank at the window for a while, tears falling to the ground, one after another. “I know it must hurt” Twilight stretched her neck, feeling glad to be free again as she took a few steps forward. “It’s a loss for me as well. She was like a sister to me” Twilight continued, taking another step as a smile appeared across her face. “But she wasn’t” she grinned. At that moment, Celestia smashed her left hoof into the ground and stood up tall with anger in her eyes. Twilight couldn’t help but to sigh. “I know you want to avenge your sister, but…” Twilight paused. “Right now, you’re as weak as the blue pony beside you” Rainbow Dash was still lying numb on the ground next to Celestia, barely breathing. “Just give up now” Twilight was now only feet away from Celestia. “Or you are going to end up like your dead sister” She smiled, staring down Celestia. “You…” Celestia whispered. “You’re gonna die here” She said a little louder. “Right now!” She suddenly yelled as she bashed open her wings and flew up into the air, with her eyes glowing as bright as the very sun. In a quick move, she swung her head back while her horn began glowing strongly. Just as quick, she swung it back, sending a bright beam burning with white fire, directly towards Twilight. The beam was going fast, but Twilight was even faster as she was able to move out of the way with a laugh. “Ha! It’s no use” But as soon as the beam hit the ground behind Twilight, a sharp flash almost exploded through the room, blinding Twilight. “Argh!” she flinched as she held her right hoof in front of her eyes. “You annoying…” Twilight grunted. It wasn’t long before her sight returned, but as she looked up, Celestia had vanished from sight. Suddenly a sound appeared from behind, Twilight quickly looked back in surprise. Her eyes first saw the wall of purple mist that had appeared behind her, just after she noticed a blade just inches away from her body. Celestia had tried making an attack from behind while Twilight was blinded. Only at the last second, the purple mist had created a strong wall behind her as protection, but the blade had penetrated, though only a few inches, the blade had still cleared through some of the mist. The mist was like a wall of sand. Enough mass to slow down an incoming object, but not enough to completely stop it, like concrete would. Twilight laughed nervously. “Sorry Celestia, it was a good plan, but the Sulreif has a mind of its own sometimes. The curse can see things that I cannot. It doesn’t need eyes; it can feel where you are” She smiled. “SHUT UP!” A yelling was suddenly heard from above. Twilight quickly looked up towards the voice, seeing Celestia flying towards her with her weapon. “What?!” Twilight let out. “But you’re weapon is stuck in the wall of mist… How is that possible?!” The wall of mist that had protected her, began spreading out again, as a blade fell to the ground. “The blade isn’t attached to her weapon? Which means…” Twilight looked back up at Celestia, seeing only one blade on her weapon. Twilight quickly realized what Celestia must have done. “She took out one of the blades from her weapon, and used it as a decoy while flying above me. Even though the mist has a mind of its own, it’s not able to move fast enough to create another wall above me” Twilight realized all this as Celestia was flying at intense speed with the weapon towards her. Before Twilight was able to move, the blade of the weapon made its way through her hair and flesh, and had made contact with her skull. A slight sound was heard from pieces of Twilight’s skull cracking. Twilight felt the blade penetrating her flesh and nerves. Just as her heart made a beat, her eyes were forced wide open. “AAAARGH!” Twilight screamed in pain, just before the purple mist forcefully smashed Celestia and her weapon away, sending them both flying through the air, before hitting the ground at the other end of the room. “Dammit!” Twilight yelled while holding up a hoof to her wound. She looked at Celestia that was struggling to get up from the ground. “That blow could have killed me if she had hit with full power” Twilight thought to herself. “Just lucky for me, that she used the last bit if energy she had left on that flash beam” Twilight had a hard time feeling lucky while feeling the narrow hole in her head. The pain was rushing through her body as she could feel the blood working its way down her face. “I’m going to kill her!” Twilight yelled in her head. The purple mist quickly retracted Twilight’s sword that was lying on the ground. As soon as Celestia saw this, she lifted her own weapon with her magic and with her last bit of energy she was able to stand up. “I’m not giving up!” Celestia yelled. Twilight was just looking at her angry. The wind rushing through the smashed windows was sending a cold air into the room. Twilight closed her eyes just before moving at tremendous speeds towards Celestia. Again, it was hard to even being able to see Twilight while she was moving so fast. Celestia closed her eyes for a second and took a breath. In a flash, Twilight appeared in front of Celestia, swinging her sword forcefully down towards her. Celestia quickly opened her eyes and reacted. As fast as she was able to, she levitated the spear in front of her, in an attempt to block Twilight’s sword. Twilight swung with such force, so even though the spear blocked, it was pushed to the side while the ricochet forced Twilight’s weapon back, but it had left an opening. Twilight quickly took back control of her sword and swung it from the side. In an attempt to avoid it, Celestia tried to move back, but she was too slow to avoid getting hit. The tip of the blade swung just over her right leg, leaving a long wound. Celestia ignored the pain and quickly tried to counter attack by taking control of her spear, and with a stepping motion she forced the blade towards Twilight, trying to stab her body, but with her slow movements, Twilight was able to duck the blade and just as quickly, she got below Celestia’s head and slammed her head up in Celestia’s jaw, making Twilight’s horn pierce through her chin and up through her open mouth. Immediately Celestia began coughing up blood. The ground was already splattered with blood, from Twilight’s head wound. Twilight didn’t waste any time as she began focusing magic to her horn, still while it was stuck from down her jaw through Celestia’s bloody mouth. “Die!” Twilight yelled, just before sending a beam from her horn upwards. Celestia opened her eyes wide as she could feel the warm beam going through the roof of her mouth, and further through her skull and brain, ending with shooting up a hole through the top of her head, sending pieces of brain and skull across the room, with a massive amount of blood. “L- Luna” Celestia whispered as her eyes rolled back in her head, with a single tear escaping from her eyes. “I couldn’t save you” She said with a fading voice. Twilight smiled, as she in a swift move withdrew her horn, down out from her jaw, leading Princess Celestia falling to the ground with a hole going from her jaw all the way through the top of her head. Blood dripping from her horn, Twilight looked at her dead teacher lying on a pile of blood. Both the princesses had fallen before her, and knowing she now had finished her goal. To gain full control over Equestria. There was complete silence in the room. No screams, nothing falling apart. The air felt delightfully dirty, and the room seemed more beautiful than ever, with the broken memories and the dried up blood. Twilight looked up into the air, before laughing uncontrollably. “I DID IT! THERE’S NOTHING TO STOP ME NOW!” She screamed. The purple mist floating around the room quickly flew back into Twilight, giving her eyes an evil purple glow. She looked around the room. There were defiantly signs of violent battle. Broken windows, holes in the floor, the roof and across the walls. Not to mention the dead bodies. Pinkie had been lying on the ground peacefully for a long time now. It was unclear whether or not she was still breathing. Her eyes then focused on the other unconscious pony, lying in the corner. “Better do something about you” Twilight said to herself, as she began walking towards Rainbow Dash. She was still alive as her breathing was still following a steady rhythm. Twilight stopped before her and looked down on the blue pony. “You know too much, my dear Rainbow Dash” She smiled. “Don’t worry. Killing you isn’t necessary. You might become useful, later on. A quick memory erasing spell should do the trick” Twilight slowly lowered her horn, and began messing around in Rainbow Dash’s head. “You won’t remember a thing” Twilight almost hummed. “Princesses!” Suddenly someone stormed into the room. Twilight quickly stopped the spell, and looked at the entrance, from where the yelling had appeared. There was standing a single white guard, who was just staring at the damage in the room. “W- What happened? I’m from the medic team that was evacuating ponies in the nearby area. When I returned, I saw the massive amount of dead soldiers around the castle” He muttered as he looked around the room, seeing Princess Celestia lying numb on the ground. Twilight had to think quickly. She looked at the guard with a sad face. “Pinkie was stronger than we imagined” She sighed. “It took our full strength to bring her down. Celestia she…” Twilight squeezed a tear out. “She fought a brave battle, b- but she died fighting for Equestria. I was the only one who managed to survive Pinkies destruction, besides my friend Rainbow Dash. I was just performing a healing spell on her, but I’m afraid it’s too late with Celestia and Luna” Twilight looked down to the floor, trying to hide her smile. The guard took a step forward. “Celestia and Luna are dead?” He asked with a silent voice. “I’m afraid so” Twilight weakly responded. The guard tried to say something, but he couldn’t find the words. Twilight looked back up. “How many royal guards are left?” She asked with a serious tone. “Ehm…” The guard took a while to answer. “From what I know, there are about 50 uninjured guards, and probably around 110-120 wounded ones. Most of them are being taken care of by the royal medics” “I see” Twilight responded quickly. “My royal guard” Twilight took a step forward. The guard quickly looked up, this time more confident. “Yes, Princess Twilight” “Now that I am the only princess left, and most of our army is destroyed, we need to rebuild” Twilight looked into the guard eyes, not caring about looking sad anymore, but still hiding her smile. “Y- Yes princess. What are your orders?” The guard lifted his right hoof up to his forehead. “First, send a couple of medics up here, to take care of Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie” Twilight commanded. “As you wish” the guard responded as he went to call upon the medics. After he left the room Twilight looked outside, seeing Canterlot being struck by the first beam of sunlight. It all looked so peaceful. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 15: The soon and moon is at peace. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 15: The soon and moon is at peace. 2 days later, most of the castle was still being repaired, and the word of Pinkie’s defeat and the dead of Princess Celestia and Luna had been passed through Equestria. Twilight was standing alone on the throne, preserving the power she had, but of course, this was just another step in her plan. “Guards!” Twilight said out loud. A few seconds later, 2 guards stepped inside the throne room, lifting up their chins. “Yes Princess” They both said, lifting their heads up high. One of the guards was a white stallion that often was the one to take orders and pass them on. The other was a brown stallion that she had never seen before. It was no mystery that the amount of dead guards meant that they had to fill in different roles every now and then. Twilight looked down on the guards before her. “How are Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie’s recovering going?” Twilight asked, looking at the white guard. He was the one who then stepped forward. “Rainbow Dash is in a stable condition, though she’s still unconscious. She should be out of the hospital in a week. Pinkie’s wounds are healing as well, but she has been awake for the last 10 hours without uttering a word. The Sulreif must have done more damage to her mind than we thought at first.” “I see” Twilight looked up. Several strokes of sunlight passed through the room. “Listen closely now” She said, getting ready to tell them something important. Both the guards paid their attention to Twilight. “Our forces have suffered great damage. We are no longer the strong land we used to be. That is why I plan to recruit new guards from other lands” Twilight said, with a serious tone and a look that didn’t tolerate misbehavior. The guards thought for a while. “But Princess” The white guard then said. “We can’t recruit guards from other lands as they have their own army. I doubt that they will simply hand over recruits. In order to build up the army, we will have to recruit ponies from Equestria, not from other lands.” Twilight looked down at them again. “The recent happenings in Equestria will without a doubt have scared everpony, making them nervous about joining the army. If we’re lucky, we may get around 50 recruits from Equestria, and that is simply not enough. We all need to be aware that there is no peaceful solution to this. Equestria is nearly in ruins, and we have no chance of rebuilding without taking some risks. So we will have to use force in order to become the great land we ones were” Twilight stopped and lifted her chin up. “Princess?” The white guard let out. “We need to control other lands, in order to restore Equestria. We need to go to war” Twilight said cold. The white guard looked back at the other guard, who looked just as confused. “B- But, I hardly think that such a solution will-“ Twilight quickly interrupted. “We have no choice. I am the only princess now, and I give the orders. Gather the guards, and let them know that tomorrow we strike for Appleloosa. That is an order!” Twilight commanded strictly. The guards looked at each other, before bowing down. “Understood” they said simultaneously, just before exiting the room. Twilight looked out the window to her right, looking at the sun, rising from above the trees. “It’s a new era” she said to herself as the purple mist began circling around her, and her eyes began glowing. She showed a small smile feeling like the most powerful being in the world. “It won’t be long before I control the world!” She laughed as a warm wind passed through the open window next to her, making her mane flowing gently to the side. “Nothing can stop me now” She smiled, with the mist creating a sphere around her. //-------------------------------------------------------// Prologue //-------------------------------------------------------// Prologue ”Keep going!” The white mare yelled, as blood worked her way down her hooves. Light was slowly fading in through the damaged glass windows, creating a beam of light, highlighting all the dust that had spread throughout the room. “Hrrng! Just a little longer!” The darkened mare growled. Flashes of magic kept appearing, creating a warm heat towards the three ponies that were all struggling. Though there were at least 20 ponies in the very same room, only those three ponies were alive to feel the intensity. “Get ready to destroy it!” The white mare could feel the terror about to appear before her eyes. “Wait!” a shivering voice sounded from the third pony, lying flat on the ground below the two other mares. The bloody pony lying on the ground, slowly lifted up her head and stared into the deep eyes of her beloved enemy. “It’s not over yet” the pony’s voice seemed weak- yet under these circumstances, very confident. “Neither of you will remember a thing.” A little hum came from the blood-drenched pony, who was barely breathing. Before any of the two mares were able to react, a different glow appeared in the center of the room. The sharp light nearly blinded the two mares, as a silent wave of heat forced it way through them. The glow quickly retracted to where it had begun, just before everything disappeared in front of her very eyes. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 7: Open your eyes, it's the Demigod function. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 7: Open your eyes, it's the Demigod function. Though Pinkie kept fighting in her own mind, she was beginning to think it was a lost cause. Nothing she did seemed to help. Maybe she should just submit, and let the evil inside her win? A choice she would never think about, but the amount of energy she had used fighting herself, was extremely tiring. Not to mention the amount of running she had done within the last hour. She wasn’t even aware of where in Ponyvillie she was anymore, and she didn’t even care. She just wanted to give up. “Pinkie!” A voice sounded from above. A blue pegasus quickly landed in front of her. “Dash?!” Pinkie blurted out by surprise. “W- What are you doing here?” She asked with the calmest voice she was able to. “I was looking for you. I’m not sure if you know, but Twilight and the other princesses heard about a magical murder happening right here in Ponyvillie, just a few moments ago” Dash spoke quickly. Pinkie froze. “They… know about the murder?” She said in her mind. That thought never crossed her mind. That Celestia and Twilight would find out, and search for answers for who did it. It just kept getting worse. “Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash asked, tilting her head. Pinkie quickly looked up. “Eh, yeah!” “Me, Twilight and the others have gathered in the royal throne room, in the Canterlot castle, to sort things out. Follow me” Dash said as she took a step in the opposite direction. “I- I can’t” Pinkie hesitated. If I expose myself to Twilight, she will quickly find out that I was the one who did it, Pinkie thought to herself. Surely Twilight would find out that I ignored her advice and went for the Sulreif. Rainbow Dash looked back at Pinkie. “What?” she asked. “I can’t go. I’m sorry” Pinkie looked away. “Why? Come on Pinkie” Dash said as she took a few steps closer to Pinkie. “Please… just go without me” Pinkie tried taking a few steps back, she could feel the spirit burning inside her again. “I’m not going without you Pinkie” Rainbow Dash said more strictly while stepping just in front of Pinkie. “I don’t…” Pinkie stuttered. “You’re coming with me” Rainbow Dash said as she grabbed Pinkie. In a flash, Pinkie’s eye got a purple glow to it as a purple mist appeared and began surrounding them both, just before lifting Rainbow Dash a few feet up into the air. Almost the same way as she did with Boomer. “W- What is going on?!” Rainbow Dash said nervously. “I. Am. Not. Going!” Pinkie yelled as more mist appeared around Rainbow Dash, which was floating above Pinkie. “Pinkie?! What- it’s you? It’s you who did it?!” Dash yelled as she was gripped by panic; she could barely move her body. Pinkie stared dead at Rainbow Dash. “That’s right. Now… get lost!” She yelled loudly, and in a burst Rainbow Dash was hurled away with incredible speed, sending her flying over most of the houses nearby until her blue body was out of sight. Once again, the mist quickly rushed back into Pinkie, making it look like nothing had happened. Her eyes quickly returned to her plain blue color. Pinkie looked down on her hooves, still shaking a little. She could feel it… the fight with herself was done. Her mind was not her own, but her body no longer fought it. Everything came together as she sent out a little smile. She could feel the power to the full extent now, rushing through her body. It was an amazing feeling. A feeling like no other. No way she was giving this up. Matter of fact, she thought to herself. “I want more!” she almost laughed. Suddenly a few small steps were heard from behind. Pinkie looked back, and saw a pony that had observed what had happened and was trying to sneak away. It was a young stallion, with a pale blue body and light brown hair. At the moment, the little blue pony saw he was spotted; fear entered his face as he began running. “Aww, a small kid saw the scary me and now he’s frightened” Pinkie tensed her body as the small pony stopped moving, just standing still in the middle of the road. The buildings around was casting shadows across most of the street. Pinkie could feel the control she had over the blue pony, the control to do whatever she felt like. She focused her mind as she saw the possibilities inside her head, just waiting to be tested. She could sense the pony, even with her eyes closed. It was her mind that was running the show. Suddenly the pony that was a good amount of feet away began getting misshaped, with moving bulges began appearing across his body. The colt was only able to make a few twitches, nothing more. Pinkie was still closing her eyes, but she was very much able to see what was going on inside her mind. The blue pony was forced to puke as his body began shivering quickly, making him scream in a high pitch voice. His body was still moving around, like he had something crawling inside him. In a swift move, Pinkie lifted him a little above ground, just to toss him violently down into the ground, face first. As she lifted him back up, she could see some of his teeth had broken, and his snout had been pressed slightly into his head. It was clear to both see and hear that he was in extreme pain while blood was dripping out his nostrils and mouth. Slowly Pinkie opened her eyes again and let go of her mind grip over the pony as he fell back onto the ground, landing on his back. Pinkie turned around silently and began walking away as the small pony kept weeping, unable to stand up. There was nopony around to help him as most of them were hiding inside their houses after hearing about the murder. Although, a male voice was heard yelling “Son!” from not far away. Pinkie observed the noises while she just kept walking away cold. It wasn’t long before she calculated in her head that the apparent father had reached his son, and was holding him in his hooves. It felt like she had eyes in her back as she could even tell the look of the stallion. He was blue as well, just slightly darker than his son and with similar hair color. Pinkie that was walking in the opposite direction made a small smirk, just before the house next the two ponies fell apart and crashed down upon them both while the last screams of terror were heard. After a few seconds, the house was completely demolished and other than the gentle breeze passing by, there was complete silence. Nothing could stop her now. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 12: Love and hate, it all lies together. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 12: Love and hate, it all lies together. There they both stood, looking at each other, both nervous and angry at the same time. Just waiting for the other to make a move. Pinkie focused on Twilight’s glowing horn, getting ready to attack her. Suddenly a noise came from behind; Pinkie quickly reacted and looked back. Nothing. Before knowing what even happened, Twilight flew towards Pinkie, just before she was able to look back. She could feel a sharp pain in her neck. Twilight had impaled Pinkie’s neck with her horn that was flowing with magic. Just as she could feel the pain, Pinkie immediately leaped back. “Gah!” she coughed while holding her left hoof to the wound, trying to stop the bleeding. The wound was small, but it had hit her in a critical place. “W- What happened?” Pinkie asked in agony. Twilight was standing a few meters from Pinkie, breathing slowly. Pinkie looked at her with an angry face. “You just caught me off guard, that’s all! I control my power with the mind and my mind is without a doubt moving faster than your body is able to. You don’t stand a chance!” She loudly marked the last sentence, just as beams of purple mist flew from behind Pinkie, towards Twilight. Twilight saw this and quickly tried to evade, but she only managed the slightly move her body before a beam stroke against her body, leaving a long, narrow wound. “Give it up!” Pinkie yelled. She focused her mind on one of the statues that was behind her. Cracks began appearing on the life sized statue of Luna. The upper part quickly broke off. Now the 2 pieces were floating a little above the ground under Pinkie’s mind control. “Arrgh!” Pinkie yelled while hurling the two pieces towards Twilight, changing the course of the pieces making them flying towards her from Twilights left side. “I can’t evade!” Twilight thought to herself, while just being able to get airborne. Unfortunately, Pinkie was still able to change the course of the rock pieces. In a second, she was hit by one of the pieces, which was almost the size of herself, sending her flying to the right with the piece of rock. With the huge weight of the statue, she was smashed into one of the walls, making pieces of the statue shattering. Just as the statue fell down and hit the ground, Twilight followed and landed right next to the piece of rock, which had some blood across it. Twilight began coughing violently, with blood appearing from her mouth. Her body had been smashed by the stone, and it felt as she had some thick liquid stuck in her throat, making it hard to breathe. “You’re no match for me” In the blink of an eye, Pinkie was standing in front of Twilight, who was lying on the ground, badly wounded. “Now you die!” she continued to yell as a wave of purple mist began rushing towards her. Pinkie had a deep dark glow in her eyes; it was as if you could almost see the spirit inside her that was ready to kill. “Wait! Think of you father! You can still save him!” Twilight quickly let out. Suddenly the mist stopped as Pinkie froze. “Save m-my father?” she whispered. “Wasn’t that your purpose with this power? Not to kill but to revive? I know the real Pinkie is still inside you. Your family needs you. Your father needs you” Pinkie was staring blankly into the air. “I…” she mumbled, feeling a flow of different emotions running through her body. Suddenly a breathtaking pain rushed through Pinkie’s stomach. She looked down; feeling like everything was in slow-motion. Twilight had gotten up, and hit Pinkie in the stomach with both her hind legs, while she was thinking about her father. Time stood still in Pinkies eyes as Twilights hind hooves were smashing towards her stomach. The pressure was intense as everything went back to normal time, just before Pinkie was hurled away from the force of the attack, spinning around in the air before landing several meters away, hard on the ground. While she was down, she couldn’t help put to begin coughing from the powerful attack to her stomach. “You are right” Twilight said slowly while getting back in her standing position. “Your mind is faster than my body… but using your mind as the source of your attacks has a disadvantage. If you even get the slightest distracted, you won’t be able to focus your powers on the enemy, thus making it utterly useless. As you remember, just before I attacked you with my horn just a few minutes ago, you looked back because you heard a sound. With my magic, I was able to create a small spark behind you, making a small but critical sound. When you were focused on trying to figure out what it was, you let your guard down and I was able to attack you with full power” Twilight began walking away from Pinkie, towards Celestia who was lying on the ground, passed out from energy loss. As Twilight stood before her body, she sent a flowing beam of magic into her body, restoring some of her energy. Not long after, Celestia opened her eyes. “Tw- Twilight? What happened?” Celestia slowly tried to get up. “Princess. I was able to wound Pinkie badly, and I found her weak spot. All we need to do now, is to wake up Luna, so we can perform the spell on Pinkie while we have the chance, freeing her from the curse, then destroying it with our powers combined” Twilight spoke out. Just as Celestia got up, she looked across the room, seeing Pinkie Pie lying on the floor, coughing, with blood surrounding her. She was speechless that Twilight, alone, was able to beat Pinkie. Her mind quickly focused to Luna, making her look around the room, seeing Luna still lying unconscious to her right. “Luna!” Celestia yelled, before flying over to her passed out sister. Twilight quickly followed. “Let me help her princess. You need to save your power” Twilight said reassuringly. Twilight then continued to slowly begin focusing magic to her horn, just as she did with Celestia. It wasn’t long before Luna quickly inhaled, with her eyes wide open. “What? Celestia? Did we beat her?” Luna asked in confusion while looking around. Twilight sighed in relief seeing both the princesses were awake again. Celestia was happy to see her sister awake as well; it was clear to see she had been worried. “I’m not done yet!” A yelling was suddenly heard. Pinkie was storming towards Twilight, getting ready to attack. “Twilight! Watch out!” Celestia let out. Twilight just managed to look back, seeing Pinkie running towards her with no chance to evade. Mere inches before Pinkie were able to hit Twilight; her body stopped moving. “W- What? I can’t move!” Pinkies body had completely tensed up, making it hard to even move her lips. Celestia looked as surprised as Pinkie did. Twilight was smiling gently. “Oh yeah. Another thing about that attack I did with my horn. When I impaled your neck, I sent electric magic through your veins. It was just a matter of time before it reached you core nerves, shutting your movement down. Your body is paralyzed for at least 5 minutes” Pinkie had her eyes wide open. “It’s not possible” she thought to herself, just before falling down on the ground, unable to control her movements. She was shaking as she was trying to move her body. “Celestia! Luna! Now’s our chance!” Twilight said, looking back. Both the princesses quickly looked up, seeing Pinkie lying almost motionless on the ground. Celestia rushed up to Twilight, but stopped when she saw Luna struggling to get on her hooves. Celestia quickly turned around and went to support Luna. With one hoof around her sister, Luna managed to slowly limb towards Twilight and Pinkie, who was standing in the middle of the room. After a few seconds, Celestia placed Luna to the right of Twilight. “Can you stand?” Celestia asked. “Yeah, I’m alright. Thank you” Luna friendly responded. Celestia nodded as she placed herself to the left of Twilight. They were all looking at Pinkie Pie who seemed to be in pain. “No! Go away!” she screamed. Mist began rushing out of her, smashing things nearby. Her mind was too shocked to aim properly. “Quick! We need to do the spell now!” Celestia commanded as mist was surrounding around them. “Let’s do it!” Twilight then said, lowering her head down, aiming her horn at Pinkie. Luna and Celestia did the same. The three of them began focusing magic in their horns, each making a different color glow. A circle of light was created around Pinkie’s body. “Go away! Leave me alone! It’s me! Pinkie Pie! Don’t hurt me Twilight!” She yelled with a scared look in her eyes. “Don’t listen to her!” Celestia let out. Twilight closed her eyes. “You’re not Pinkie. You’re the evil spirit that took over Pinkies mind!” Twilight yelled the last few words. The glows slowly became sharper around their horns as it was clear to see all 3 of the princesses were putting in a huge effort. The mist was traveling around the room at immense speed, smashing everything it touched. A few silent seconds went by, just before Celestia yelled “Now!” Suddenly they all lifted their horns up into air, magically dragging the spirit out of Pinkie. In a split second, all the mist around the room rushed into a dark ball just above Pinkie. It was glowing strong, even looking at it brought pain to their eyes. “There it is! The Sulreif! Twilight, now! Destroy it! You’re the only one with enough power! End this!” Luna yelled. “WAIT!” A sound suddenly sounded from behind; Rainbow Dash had flown into one of the broken windows, sliding across the room with an intense look in her eyes. “That is not the real Twilight!” She yelled. “The real Twilight is dead!” //-------------------------------------------------------// End: Sweet tones from the ever lasting musical. //-------------------------------------------------------// End: Sweet tones from the ever lasting musical. My power will seek no reason. My power has no changing season. My power might be wrong. My power might kill the song. But to those who sit and stare, is it fair, that you don’t dare, to try and change the way of power, when I call truth in killing a flower? Power never dies, only grows. There is always someone to oppose. Power isn’t me; power is not you. Power is everything you cannot do. All things are subject to interpretation; whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth. The End