Darkness Before Dawn

Tirek wasted no time upon seeing the unfurled wings of his adversaries. Rainbow lightning erupted throughout his skeletal frame, followed immediately with a blinding airburst of white light directed toward everypony.

The glow quickly faded, revealing the fire shield Firestorm projected around the rest of the Atlanteans and Equestrians.

"I told you before! I am the living shield of Princess Minerva, Princess Pandora, and their allies!" she said. "You have yet to do your absolute best to break through me!

"Star Tracer, lead everyone who isn't an alicorn away from the battlefield," she ordered, not once looking away from the eldritch abomination before them.

"But-- ," Rainbow Dash protested.

"No," Firestorm interrupted. "If we fall, you and your friends will be the difference between absolute liberation" -- her grey eyes piercing through Tirek's terrifying gaze -- "and utter annihilation."

"Firestorm is correct, Rainbow," Twilight said. "It will do nopony any good if all of us are felled by Tirek at once, not with what's at stake."

Rainbow huffed. "Fine."

"Star Tracer, take this; you know what's inside," Firestorm said, turning to levitating her saddlebags upon her commanding officer's back.

Star Tracer solemnly saluted. "It was an honor to serve under your command, ma'am."

"It was an honor to serve with you, General Star Tracer," she said, fixing one of her stars onto the new general's collar, then returning the salute. The new general ordered her charges to the remains of Castellum Palladia, still towering directly over Emerald Harbor after three millennia of isolation and neglect.

With the Equestrians led away to safety, the five alicorns walked deliberately toward the mechanized behemoth.

"Any ideas?" Luna asked nopony in particular.

"Don't hold back, Your Majesty," Firestorm replied. "Don't. Hold. Back."

Firestorm violently ejected the fire shield, transforming the fragments into a shower of explosive plasma projectiles detonating in rapid succession around Tirek. The airbursts briefly cowed the monster, giving enough time for Celestia, Luna, Minerva, and Pandora to combine their respective magics. The resulting phoenix-like entity rushed the behemoth at full charge, sweeping up through his neck into the sky, the sandstorm pulled forth in the firebird's wake scouring every attached bone remaining. The magic phoenix then delivered its killing blow as a coronal mass ejection, disrupting the electrical energy in Tirek's heart and head, and rendering his disfigured form into a fusion of obsidian and metallic glass in front of the pillar of fire.

Mocking black laughter filled the sky in response.

"Resistance is futile, Shepherd," Tirek telepathically proclaimed. "All shall be liberated from the iron collar you force upon us through every cycle of life and death."

The ring of light fused with the black moon, funnelling through the still-intact fire ruby into his frenzied heart.

"If it means becoming one with every dark spirit and abomination..."

Massive flares of dark magic escaped from the cracking, buckling glass, streaming unhindered into the tearing sky.

"... the entirety of Delphi, Xiberia, and Astra... "

A deluge of souls and cold light rushed from the celestial wound, drenching without end Tirek's rapidly reforming body.

"... and the powers bestowed by Rainbow of Twilight and the Oracle... "

"Celestia, Luna, go. We'll be along soon," Pandora commanded as gold and rainbow ribbons wrapped around the monster.

"... so I may at last annihilate you, Avalon, and the Grand Veil... "

"Valete," Minerva said.

"Virtus junxit mors non separabit," Pandora replied.

"Ad finem ultimum," Firestorm finished.

Turning their now-glowing white eyes directly upon the abomination, Minerva and Firestorm clashed their horns together over an ephemeral projection from Pandora's amethyst gemstone. The resulting fusion of power shook the earth and vibrated the air around the trio, swathing them in a sphere of blinding power.

No time to spare, the Atlantean alicorns made their final declaration loud and clear:

"Acta est fabula plaudite!"

Upon those words, the rapidly expanding sphere charged toward Tirek, pulling burning winds and sand toward the threaded helix enveloping him.

"... then let it be," he declared, his mechanical eyes ablaze in white.

Accompanied by a bloodcurdling howl never heard by any living being, the helix detonated, casting forth a rising wall of terrifying light in the direction of the divine fireball.

* * * * * * * * *

Star Tracer led her charges into the charred throne room at the top of the highest spire in Castellum Palladia, overlooking Emerald Harbor and the massive open area now engulfed in fire.

"This may be the safest location in Castellum Palladia, all things considered," Star Tracer said.

"Good heavens!" Rarity said. "Whatever happened here? It's as if a fire swept through and left nothing untouched!"

"Understatement of the century, Rarity."

Rainbow leaped back from the ash pile on the throne, frightened by a peculiar object peeking out.

"Is that... a jaw bone on the throne?!"

Star Tracer nonchalantly glanced at the remains. "King Argentum III, the last ruler of the Kingdom of Palladia, known as the Usurper King."

"Also known as Argentum Carnifex," Celestia interjected, appearing with her sister in a flash of light. "Nearly all records of his existence were destroyed when Palladia itself succumbed to the darkness of his heart."

"Your Majesties!" all exclaimed, hugging the princesses tightly.

"Is everything okay?" Applejack asked. "Where are your godmothers? Where's General Firestorm?"

The nightmarish howl reverberated within the throne room.

"Get behind me now!" Luna ordered.

As quickly as everypony huddled under Luna's magic shield, the two opposing points of light outside fused together. The resulting starburst resonated with the opaque shield's vibrations, smothering the room in painful light and agonizing heat, cracking and torching the stone floor and walls. The throne itself rapidly melted and boiled away, taking the last trace of the butcher king with it into the suffocating ether.

Less than a moment later, the stellar firestorm gave way to cold air and an unobscured view of the reglassed room.

"Is everypony all right?" Luna asked, her shield dissipating into stardust.

"I think so," Twilight replied. "I just hope your godmothers and Firestorm made it through."

A much louder, more blackened howl eviscerated everypony's ears and injected abject terror into their hearts, followed by the sudden, explosive demolition of the tower thought to be safe from the pandemonium in the expansive courtyard.

* * * * * * * * *

Blurred light and dark pulsed in contrast to the sustained ringing in Twilight's ears. The more she blinked, the more detail emerged until, at last, she could see her friends and mentors regaining their own footing.

"Is everypony okay?" she asked, the ringing gradually giving way to a faint, ghostly lullaby.

"I think we are," Applejack replied, dusting off her hat.

Rainbow groaned, rising back onto her hooves and shaking dust off of her wings. "Did a train just hit us?"

"If only," Star Tracer said, walking over to the others with Spike and the princesses close at her side.

Fluttershy stuttered, cautiously pointing a hoof toward the south. "T-T-T-T-Tw-Tw-Twi-T-Twi-l-light?"

A churning wall of black water climbed high into the white sky, evaporating into the air amid stark apparitions dancing in concert with the caustic light spinning within the void. Glittering flurries wove their chaotic paths through the ruin, skating across the glassed surface before the vile winds took them aloft once more.

Below the eye of the astral hurricane rose a grisly leviathan of platinum bone and crystalline fiber, towering over the highest peaks of the mountain range surrounding Palladia's glassed heart. Long, razor-like horns framed the cold light emanating from his forehead, obscuring his frightening visage from view below. The same cold light also pulsed from his dead heart, flowing rhythmically within each delicate strand growing from the back of his limbs, the impressive lion's mane covering his head and back, and the icy threads snaking forth toward their intended prey.

"Help!" Rarity cried, the first to be ensnared.

"I'm coming, Rarity!" Rainbow said, charging into the sky before she, too, was snagged.

"Let them go!" Celestia ordered, attempting to burn through the threads with her magic to no avail.

"Thou shalt liberate my friends and sister!" Luna said, her lightning strikes briefly severing the threads before they slammed her through a wall.

One by one, the threads captured everypony in their cold, strangling embrace, drawing them all before Tirek's hollow eyes.

"First, Aria. Then, the Shepherd. And now, you," he said. "It's a pity you spirits die so easily, or I might have a sense of satisfaction now!"

Anger burned brightly in Rainbow's eyes. "Why won't you die?!"

"I've been sent to pray for you, love... ," a soft voice sang repeatedly within the winds, perking Fluttershy's and Pinkie Pie's ears.

Spike gasped for breath, the threads strangling his neck and chest. "Where is that music coming from?"

"I am eternal," Tirek declared, his discordian telepathy causing pain to everypony the longer he spoke. "I am one with the thread of time, the fire of the cosmos, the new gold dawn of existence--

"You are one with nothing, Tirek!" said Twilight. "Nothing but the blind hatred you possess for the Shepherd and all she holds dear -- including you! You've lost yourself entirely to your own darkness!"

"Better to be lost in the darkness than to be blinded by the light, Element of Magic."

"Don't you see I'm never away... " sang a new, stronger voice.

"Say what?" Applejack asked.

"Avalon, The Grand Veil, the Elements of Harmony, every thread of the Shepherd's essence shall be rendered unto my own until she herself is one with me. We shall all become as tears in rain, dissolved in the infinite waters of the Gulf of Elegia. The Shepherd's cyclical reign of slavery ended forever, never to be reignited."

White fire and lightning exploded from its mane and heart, enshrouding the eldritch behemoth.

"... I'll be watching over you now," the second voice continued.

"Embrace my darkness, Elements of Harmony."

Upon those words, bolts of bluish-white lightning stabbed his heart and severed the threads, allowing a gust of wind to carry everypony away from Tirek up into the vortex forming over the spot where the pillar once stood. The beast charged forth to slaughter his prisoners before they were pulled away, denied only by a wall of lightning and magical energy stronger than the surrounding mountains.

* * * * * * * * *

"What is happening?!" Twilight asked.

"Hold on, y'all!" Applejack said, grabbing onto Rarity as soon as she came near.

"Weeeeeee!" Pinkie added. "This is fun!"

"What is that?" Rainbow asked, looking directly into the eye of the vortex.

"Good heavens!" Rarity said, hugging Applejack as tight as she could. "Are those... ghost phoenixes?"

"I think... that's the Shepherd," Star Tracer replied. "All of them."

Swirling within the vortex's eye were eight bird-like flames of various colors, the largest four bearing wings and crests of gold, crimson, greyish fuschia, and silver. The quartet circling the Shepherds were splashed in colors similar to the ponies they represented, from the grey and pale heliotrope feathers of Starswirl and Minerva, to the multi-colored and muted fire plumage of Aria and Firestorm.

Below, infinite numbers of smaller ghost phoenixes filtered from the blinding eye of the storm into the walls of the vortex itself, gently pushing everypony further and further toward the inner wall until all were under the eye's levitating glow.

"What is this?" Luna asked the sky.

"Is this another dream?" Celestia wondered out loud.

"You have nothing to fear, dear spirits," multiple warm, familiar voices spoke.

"Pandora?!" all replied in unison.

"I am here to lend you my strength, my magic, my power," the four Shepherds said.

"And you are not alone, my dears," Aria added.

"All of Avalon is with you," Firestorm said.

"You, the Elements of Harmony, are the key to unifying our power," Star Swirl explained.

"Open your hearts to us, and we shall become as one," Minerva said.

"How?" Twilight asked. "The Elements of Harmony were destroyed by Tirek!"

"We don't need those charms!" Fluttershy said, echoing the words once spoken to her as an apparition of a butterfly blossomed from her heart. "We are the elements we represent! We only need to look within our hearts to find the magic that was always with us!"

The power of her words allowed the Elements of Harmony to emerge from everypony ever to wield their magic, even Celestia and Luna, much to their surprise. Threads of silver and gold magic connected the bearers's hearts with Spike's and Star Tracer's, allowing the Elements to draw from their respective spirits, and vice versa.

The Shepherds dove from the eye upon their champions, every ghost phoenix following suit from all directions. The apparitions fused around everypony into a growing ball of energy. Cords of souls reached out and joined with the hearts of those inside.

"Let now the Cry of Avalon be heard throughout the Grand Veil, our voices, our hearts, our spirits, unified as one," the Shepherds said in a single voice.

Upon those words, everypony transformed into individual columns of elemental smoke and fire, fusing into an inner core of incredible power within the ghostly sphere. The two entities rapidly assimilated the other, exploding into magic and life not unlike the birth of the omniverse itself.

* * * * * * * * *

Tirek continued to ram and claw away at the wall of energy to no avail when the Cry of Avalon shook the behemoth to the core of his dark soul. Frozen tears fell from his eyes. His skeletal limbs and claws struggled to bear the weight of his body. His heart felt a force his mind could not comprehend. Yet, none of what Tirek experienced could compare to the sphere of burning light washing over him. Absolute pain and terror raced through every piece of his self as he struggled to maintain his footing, his demonic face turned away from the overwhelming power of the spiritual big bang before him.

"Face me now," an otherworldy voice beckoned Tirek.

Finding the heart to obey, the leviathan gazed upon a creature whose appearance sent shock waves into his essence.

Before his pulsating white eyes was a phoenix as large as he, composed of white feathers on her belly and neck. Her face and crest were as fiery as her beak and claws, highlighting her sapphire blue reptilian eyes. Multitudes of color flowed seamlessly into each other, covering her back, massive wings, and long tail. Every part of her shimmered, swirled, and burned like the stars and the sun, her prey captive within her ice-fire gaze as his magic ebbed into her essence. All the while, the lullaby continued unabated, carried aloft alongside the glittering snowflakes by the turbulent winds surrounding the combatants.

"Avalon... The Shepherd... the Grand Veil... the omniverse... all within one perfect being," Tirek said.

"I can take away your suffering, Tirek," she said. "Your pain, your corruption, your spirit. I can take it all away, granting you the liberation you seek... if you surrender yourself unto me."

The leviathan stammered, his mind unable to process her plea. "What are you?"

"I am Avalon," she replied.

His heart felt a semblance of serenity for the first time in eons, yet his eyes could no longer bear her unyielding stare

"Liberation... you promise liberation from this wretched coil... if I fully surrender my essence to Avalon... to you... "

Malevolent laughter rumbled out of Tirek, his spirit renewed with unhinged vitriol and contempt for the creature before him.

"What lies you tell, Shepherd. 'Surrender' myself unto you? Allow your eternal cycle of slavery to continue without interference? Cast everything in your defiled, ever-changing image of how life should be...

"You are a fool, Shepherd! I vowed eons ago to cast you and your works into oblivion, even if it meant taking you with me. And this blasphemous display before my vengeful eyes shall be your last error in judgement, for you and all you represent are exactly where I want you!

Bellowing into the heavens, Tirek reared up and slammed his front legs into the glassed ground. Avalon raced upward to escape the resulting wave of sparkling white energy before she could be pulled under, then dodged several bolts of lightning ejected from his body, unaware of the many threads snaking out from his heart to ensnare her in midair.

Lifted by his dark magic, he rose to meet his prey eye to eye. "Not this time, Shepherd. I will never surrender myself to your defiled heart, not when I can make you surrender your entire being and all you represent... unto me!"

With an anguished scream, Tirek unleashed the Rainbow of Twilight upon Avalon, his skeletal frame straining against itself and the corrupted magic still draining away from his bones. The resulting contact with the phoenix thrusted his lifeless body through the remains of Castellum Palladia, throwing up glass sand and stone upon him.

The dark rainbow dissipated, Tirek felt a terrible fear tear into his heart at the sight above him.

"No... "

"The Rainbow of Twilight is mine, Tirek, as is the darkness of your heart," Avalon said, levitating the restored Hope Ruby into her breast.

Panic setting in, Tirek reached for his head to discover a sizable hole where the Hope Ruby once resided, then grabbed his heart to retrieve only scant shards of crystal in his claws.

"The die has been cast. Redemption shall never come for you, and I shall never allow your spirit to ever live again.

"Embrace the light you have denied for so long, Pythia of Delphi."

Bitter, frozen tears fell from his fading gold eyes. Avalon's icy denial of his salvation violently forced the eons of torment and defeat from his shattered heart and mind, his essence slipping further and further into the thing he sought to make his own for so long. Tirek's spirit convulsed in agony. White smoke and steam errupted from his body.

Her rejection would be the last mistake she ever made as far as he was concerned.

"Only if you embrace it with me!" he declared.

Tirek leaped into the sky with all his remaining might, the prey reflected in his twisted metal smile. He reached out for Avalon's breast, intending to plunge his frozen claw into her heart and the Hope Ruby.

The tips of his claw brushed her pale pink breast feathers. Vindication flowed through his bleeding, broken heart, victory at last in his grasp.

Tirek passed through a scattering column of glittering snowflakes. His anguished howls bounced off the mountains on his fall back to earth, silenced by a piercing cry from the heavens. Burning talons grabbed the leviathan's ribs, lifting the dying spirit high above Emerald Harbor and Palladia. He could do little to right his projectory, nor anything to defend himself against the last thing he would ever see: Avalon's glimmering ethereal body, surrounded in a rainbow aura of scythe magic, rushing toward him.

Time slowed briefly upon Tirek's beheading before a catastrophic detonation of four hypersonic rainbow halos charged in all directions. Avalon continued her upward arc, her entire self now a rapidly growing apparition of red, gold, and white fire as large as Equestria for but a moment. Plumes of dark and light magic erupted and dissipated continuously from her long tail flames, carried away by each halo on their respective journeys to every corner of the ominverse.

As quickly as she transfigured into fire, Avalon disintegrated, bathing the entire omniverse and the Grand Veil in purifying white light. Her empathetic cry was heard by every living spirit in every world of every universe, healing the damage Tirek's darkness wrought.

"It is finished."