Twilight of the Colossus

by CyborgSamurai

Chapters

Prologue
I: Valus
II: Quadratus

Prologue

by CyborgSamurai

Prologue

That place does exist, you are not incorrect...

It begins at the place where two points intersect.

Memories long lost now etched into stone...

A kingdom long gone, though the reason’s unknown.

Blood, young sprouts, sky—a lonely land bright...

Wherein dwells a one commanding beings of light.

Do not believe it a shred, but in that world it is said—

that one can wish back the souls of the dead.

A loved one retrieved, or a dear friend reclaimed?

‘Tis nothing more but a mean-spirited claim!

Twilight, my friend, you are stricken with grief.

Do not give in to such false belief.

Even if such an absurdity was true...

To enter that place is most strictly taboo.

I mean not to be crass, but this pain will pass.

So please, I beg you...

Do not do anything rash.

Once upon a time, a purple pony flew high above an ancient mountain range in the farthest reaches of the world. She was tall and slender for her kind, with thin, graceful legs and large, broad wings that allowed her to soar for miles on end. Her long, fluted horn cut through the air as she flew, and her sparkling mane and tail fluttered softly in the wind. Most noticeable of all, though, a golden necklace set with a jewel in the shape of six-pointed star glittered brightly around her neck.

The pony paused a moment to land on a cloud, resting her aching wings for the first time in several hours. She rolled her shoulders, paying no attention to the clinks that resonated from within the bulging saddlebags at her sides.

“Almost there,” she muttered to herself. “Come on, Twilight…”

The wild, untamed clouds above dotted the night sky like an endless patchwork quilt. The moon was weak tonight; shy, almost if it were afraid to shed its light down upon that desolate place. Perhaps it was, but even so, its half-hearted efforts still allowed Twilight to see the mountains below. She continued on at a steady clip, paying little attention to the land below and staying lost in her own thoughts. Such complacency might’ve seemed foolhardy, but unless the hawk she’d seen earlier somehow meant her ill will, there was little need for wariness.

Twilight made her way out of the mountains as the night gave way to dawn. She saw that there was a shadowy, deciduous forest nestled in a narrow valley, and she rested there for a time before continuing on. By mid-morning she’d come to a stretch of hilly plains, and it was there she descended so she could locate a specific landmark.

It didn’t take her long to find it. Ruins of ancient buildings, scattered about without thought, cause, or discernible purpose were easily visible across the lonely plains. Twilight went lower to investigate, and she found that strange symbols were etched all over the masonry. Perhaps they mere decoration, perhaps they were the remnants of a long-dead language, and under different circumstances Twilight might’ve stopped to learn more about the runes. But now wasn’t the time to indulge in linguistics, so she left the buildings behind and found an ancient road leading north through the tall grass, which she followed from above.

It took Twilight two days to cross the plains. She kept the road in sight for the most part, which she noted was in shockingly good condition for its age. Maybe nature was loath to reclaim it, or maybe there was some lingering magic that kept it from decaying. She didn’t question it either way. She kept going for as long as she could each day, landing only to graze and rest a few hours...

...but even though she rested, never once did she sleep.

The road at last led into a sparse woodland. There Twilight found a narrow opening flanked by tall, menacing structures in a sheer cliffside. The ruined buildings were more plentiful here, and she could see that several stone pillars had been built between the trees. The late afternoon sun was in her eyes, and she was unable to see what lay just beyond.

Twilight landed once more to catch her breath. She stood before the forgotten structures in awe, stretching her sore wings and allowing her eyes to adjust.

“Wow…”

Twilight voice was raspy from lack of use. She pulled out her canteen and took a few swigs, grateful for the rainstorm she’d run into two days past. She briefly considered resting again, but decided against it as she was right before the last stretch. She put her canteen back and flew fearlessly into the bright sliver of light.

A blast of wind greeted her upon exiting the cleft. The path opened into a cliffside platform several hundred feet in the air, and Twilight could see that she’d entered a vast, lonely land filled with windswept grasslands, sheer cliffs, lush forests, pristine lakes, twisting canyons, and intimidating mountains. It went on for as far as she could see, but if she squinted, she could just barely make out a thin line of blue on the horizon in all directions. The path she’d had been following was now a narrow stone bridge leading on for several miles, and it ended at a giant stone shrine the likes of which she’d never seen before. It was colossal in size, practically a mountain in and of itself, and even though Twilight was already several hundred feet in the air, she wasn’t even at its halfway point.

Twilight gulped. “Hoo boy…”

A strong gust of wind suddenly blasted her to the side. She yelped and managed to right herself in time, but now she was only a foot away from the edge. She used the wind’s momentum to jump off and sail smoothly away, but then a crosswind hit her and caused her to fall into a nosedive. She began to plummet to the ground, but suddenly, there was a snapping sound like static electricity. Twilight disappeared in a magenta flash of light and re-appeared back on the cliffside platform, safe and sound and whole... and not at all happy.

“I don’t think so,” she muttered. Her face twisted into a snarl and her horn glowed ominously with magical power. A white light crept into her eyes, and the wind howled and screamed seemingly in response, picking up in intensity and trying push Twilight every which way. She remained sturdy and firm. The air around her rippled and thickened with magical energy, and with a mighty shout, she delivered her eloquent rebuttal.

“BE STILL!”

There was a crack like a gunshot. A blinding pulse of magenta light shot out from Twilight’s horn that spread out into the valley at the speed of sound. The deafening gales rose up once more, but upon hitting the shockwave, they spluttered and died out. The howling slowly faded out of Twilight’s ears, and a few seconds later the wind was nothing more than a gentle breeze.

The ghost of a smile played on Twilight’s lips. “Much better.”

Twilight decided to give her wings a rest and traversed the narrow bridge on hoof. The plains below waved about like a verdant sea, but the only other thing that moved was the occasional bird roosting in the bridge’s architecture. Twilight didn’t pay much heed to the land’s emptiness due to concentrating on her footing, but even if she had, it wouldn’t have bothered her much.

Emptiness was something she’d gotten used to as of late.

Twilight reached the end of the bridge and stood before the shrine. In front of her was a large stone door built that had no obvious way of being opened, but as soon as she approached, the necklace around her neck began to glow. The outline of the door shone in response, and with a terrible grating sound, the door slid upward and disappeared into the ceiling.

Beyond was a set of stairs that led into a cavernous darkness. A damp, musty smell hit Twilight’s nostrils, and as she stared into the unknown abyss, she was struck with a sudden urge to book it back across the bridge. She stood there frozen while her willpower and instincts duked it out, but eventually she set her jaw and descended the stairs, not even turning around when the grating sound returned and the light behind her disappeared.

The stairway led down quite a ways before opening up into a circular atrium with a winding spiral ramp. Twilight carefully made her way down, the only sound being the loud clip-clop of her own hoofsteps. At the bottom she found a shallow stone pool in the center of the atrium with a narrow beam of sunlight shining down on it through a hole in the ceiling. She looked to see if there was anything within the pool. After finding nothing, she continued on to the large hall just beyond.

Along the walls of this hall were a series of stone statues the likes of which Twilight had never seen. Tall and menacing, each depicted a strange, monstrous creature of one type or another. Some looked to be bipedal, others were clearly serpentine, and a few of them even looked to be avian. There were eight on each side, and as Twilight passed them by, she was filled with an eerie sense of foreboding that sent a chill down her spine. Nevertheless, she continued on past them and made a beeline for what she sought: a stone altar at the far end of the hall.

Twilight climbed up a small set of stairs and approached the altar. There was no wall beyond it, just a few foundational pillars spread out to the left and right. Sunlight streamed in from the outside just beyond, and she could now see details of the plains a few dozen feet below.

Twilight stopped at the altar. Her legs were shaking, but not from fatigue. She closed her eyes and grit her teeth, steadying herself for what was to come. With a deep breath, she slowly reached into her saddlebags and pulled out a small, pink urn sealed carefully with wax.

Twilight smiled weakly. “Well, we made it.”

She set the urn carefully on the altar, rotating it so she could see the trio of balloons etched upon it.

“Sorry if it was a bumpy ride. I tried to be as gentle as I could.”

Twilight reached back into her saddlebags again and produced a second jar, this one yellow with a trio of butterflies.

“I didn’t mean to take so long. This place was a LOT harder to find than I thought.”

She looked the new urn over with a critical eye before setting it next to the first. She then reached back into her bags and pulled out two more: one orange with a trio of apples, the other white with a trio of diamonds. She blushed a little upon seeing the latter.

“You’d probably flip if you could see me now. I know there’s probably a lot I could do with how I look, but I haven’t cared much for appearances since, well… you know.”

Twilight set them down and pulled out one final urn, cyan in color with a stylized lightning bolt. Her expression hardened as she set it down beside the others.

“It’s ironic. This would’ve been so much easier if I’d had all of you with me, but then that would have defeated the purpose, wouldn’t it?”

All five urns now stood side by side on the altar. Twilight stared at them for a time, trying to keep the keep the inevitable at bay, but it always was a fruitless measure. She hung her head and struggled to speak through the lump in her throat.

“It’s my f-fault… I should’ve been s-stronger, sh-should’ve anticipated what coming and c-countered it. You all t-trusted me, and I—”

A sudden, strange oozing sound reached her ears. Twilight whirled around with a growl, and saw that five shadowy figures had now risen up out of the floor. They emanated a sense of wrongness that made her hair stand on end, and they slowly lurched towards her with their hands outstretched.

A sense of dread washed over Twilight. She began to ready a spell, but then, a familiar, accursed voice floated through her mind.

Just give in…

Let them take you…

You’ll be with your friends again…

That’s what you want, right?

Twilight moaned and clutched her head. “Sh-shut up… shutupshutupShutUpSHUTUPSHUTUP!”

She focused on her necklace which began to glow with the same light as before. However, this time it spread out to encompass her entire body, building up in intensity until it pulsed out in a bright flash. The shadowy figures recoiled and dissipated without sound or protest, and just as quickly as they’d appeared, Twilight was alone once again with the ashes of her friends.

Or at least, she thought she was.

The temple suddenly began to rumble. Small pebbles and pieces of debris to began to dance on the floor as a sound like distant thunder came from above. Twilight jumped and looked around in alarm. She saw that there was another, larger hole in the ceiling similar to the one in the atrium, but aside from some sunlight shining down through it, she didn’t see anything of note.

And that was when a booming pair of voices speaking in unison echoed throughout the hall.

“Hmm? You possess an Element of Harmony?”

Twilight froze. She looked all about, but there was nopony she could see. There was just that strange pillar of light up in the ceiling.

The voices sounded again. “You are an alicorn… we were not aware that another Goddess had come into the world. Are you in league with the Heavenly Sisters?”

“No!” Twilight all but shouted. She squinted and looked up into the light. It was hard to tell, but she guessed that the voices were coming from up there. “I-I mean… I was, yes, but not anymore. I’m done with those lying, manipulative, backstabbing murderers.”

“Lying, manipulative, backstabbing murderers,” the voices repeated slowly. “Interesting...”

“Are you Dormin?” Twilight’s heart was pounding. “Oh please, please, pleeeeeeeeaaase say that you are. I’ve read about this place—the Forbidden Peninsula—it’s said that there’s a being here who can control the souls of the dead.”

“You are correct,” the voices said. “We are the one known as Dormin…”

“Finally,” Twilight muttered to herself. She tilted her head back at the urns. “I need your help. They were taken from me. All of them, quicker than I could even blink. We were trying to stop a tyrant from taking over our country when...”

“...that is precisely what I wish.”

“The game is over, little ponies! The power… is MINE!”

“BEHOLD THE POWER OF DARKNESS!”

Twilight’s throat went tight. She shook her head and turned back to the five little jars with haunted eyes.

“Please... I need them. They mean everything to me. I’ll do whatever you want in exchange.”

Dormin’s dissonant laughter echoed all around her. “Five fallen mortals brought here by a distraught, desperate Goddess… with an Element of Harmony, no less... ‘tis not hard to see the connection...”

“I don’t care about the bucking Elements of Harmony!” Twilight spat. The ground shook again, but this time from her. “They can go and rot for all I care! The only reason I’m wearing mine is because I need it! As soon as I get my friends back, I’m going to break it into pieces, then throw the shards in Celestia’s smug face!”

“Ah, but souls that are once lost cannot be reclaimed... is that not the law of mortals?”

“SCREW THE LAWS!” Twilight screamed. Her watery eyes glowed as the air thickened once more. “SCREW DESTINY, SCREW THE HARMONIC BALANCE, AND SCREW HARMONY ALTOGETHER! SHE SACRIFICED THEM! SHE TRIED TO SACRIFICE ME! SHE USED ME LIKE A TOOL FOR YEARS, AND I’VE COME TOO FAR TO—”

“Peace, young one,” Dormin said gently. “We did not say we would not help. The resurrection of your friends is no small request, but with an Element of Harmony, it may not be impossible.”

Twilight gasped. Her appearance returned to normal as her magic abruptly died.

“Really?!”

“That is, of course,” Dormin added quickly, “if you manage to accomplish what we ask.”

“Yes, yes!” Twilight nodded fervently. “Anything! I’m at your disposal!”

Dormin’s beam of light shifted to shine farther into the hall. “Behold the idols that stand along the wall… you are to destroy all of them.”

“Pfft! That’s easy!” Twilight turned to the nearest one and lowered her head. Pebbles rose from the ground and hovered in the air in response to the sudden flux of energy, and there was a high-pitched whining sound as a tiny white dot appeared on the tip of Twilight’s horn.

“One pile of rubble, coming up!”

“Wait—”

VWOMMMMMM

The deafening blast drowned out everything else as an immense beam of light erupted from Twilight’s horn. It streaked towards the hapless idol and hit with a sound like screeching metal, but instead of obliterating the statue, the beam glanced off of it like it was a mirror. It then flew to the other side of the room and struck another idol, but it bounced off that one too. The deadly ray ricocheted around the room at faster and faster speeds…

...until it headed straight back at Twilight.

“AHHH!” She dove for the ground just in time. The beam shot over head and past the altar, where it travelled out some ways out of the shrine before finally dissipating.

Silence followed. Twilight lay there on the ground as the shock wore off, but then her eyes widened as she remembered the urns. She got up and looked up at the altar fearing the worst, but fortunately, her beam had gone wide. The ashes of her friends were still safe and sound.

“Um…” Twilight laughed nervously as she got to her hooves. “Oops?”

“As we were about to say…” Dormin said with a hint of irritation. “Formidable as you are,those idols cannot be destroyed through mere brute force.”

“Oh,” Twilight said. She clicked her teeth and thought for a moment. “Well then, what should I do?”

Dormin paused a moment before continuing. “In this land, there exist colossi that are the incarnations of those idols. If you defeat those colossi, the idols shall fall.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Define ‘defeat.’”

“Slain,” Dormin said. “Killed. Eliminated. Snuffed out.”

It was a testament to many things that Twilight didn’t panic or show any discomfort upon hearing that. All she did was chew on her lip a moment, then looked back up at the light with steely eyes.

“And if I do this you’ll bring back my friends? Body, mind, and soul?”

“We will.”

“Do you Pinkie Promise?”

Dormin hesitated. “Pinkie… Promise?”

“The most solemn and sacred of vows,” Twilight said. She raised her right hoof up to the light. “Repeat after me: ‘Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.’”

There was a silence. She stared up expectantly into the light, not even bothering to blink. The light shifted and flickered a few times, then Dormin spoke again in a tired voice.

“Very well. Cross our heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in our… eye.”

"Then you’ve got yourself a deal,” Twilight said. She brushed herself off and inspected her clothes for any rips or tears. They still seemed to be in good in condition, so she left them be. “Consider these idols broken.”

“Your resolve is admirable…” Dormin’s light now moved to shine down on Twilight. “But heed this, Bearer, even in victory, there will be a price for what you desire. And depending on your actions, that price may be heavy, indeed.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Twilight said. She turned and looked back at the jars that held the ashes of her friends. Her mouth twisted, but she grit her teeth and pried her gaze away.

“I can’t live without them.”

The temple rumbled with Dormin’s approval. “Very well, then… the magic of this land will aid you in this. When in the sun’s light, focus on your Element. Then, head to the place where the light gathers. There you shall find the colossi you are to defeat.”

Twilight looked curiously down at her Element. She was currently bathed in the sunlight pouring in from beyond the altar, so she did as Dormin said. Almost immediately the necklace felt warm, and a thin ray of sunlight shot out to point to the south.

“Got it,” Twilight said.

The light from above dimmed as Dormin’s voice faded out. “Now, be on thy way.”

I: Valus

Valus

“Murderer,” Twilight hissed.

Celestia flinched, but made no effort to deny the claim. She took a step forward the bleeding, battered, irate effigy of power that was once her student.

“Twilight, you need to understand—”

“MURDERER!” she shrieked in the Royal Canterlot Voice. She fired a salvo of white-hot magical bolts at Celestia. “I’LL KILL YOU! I SWEAR ON THEIR NAMES I’LL FIND A WAY!”

The attacks bounced harmlessly off a magical golden shield. Celestia continued to slowly make her way towards Twilight, speaking all the while. “They were dead either way, you know. All of Equestria would be nothing but ashes right now If I hadn’t sacrificed them. Would you have had me be responsible for the death of six, or six million?”

“NOPONY NEEDED TO DIE AT ALL!” Twilight teleported a few dozen yards back and focused on the ground. There was a series of deafening cracks as several giant chunks of stone rose up in the air. “I FOUND ANOTHER WAY! YOU KILLED THEM ALL FOR NOTHING! YOU TRIED TO KILL ME FOR NOTHING, YOU VILE, LYING, BACKSTABBING SNAKE!”

Celestia paid no heed to the insults, nor to the several tons of rock now hovering over her. She simply kept walking forward and talking in the same, steady voice. “You have no idea how much it hurt. You’ve all done so much, and here I repay you by betraying your trust and throwing you to the wolves. I don’t expect you to understand, and I certainly don’t expect you to forgive me, but maybe in a few hundred years—”

“BRING THEM BACK!” Twilight compressed the boulders down into smaller chunks, pouring magical energy into them and bringing them to volatile states. “BRING THEM BACK OR FINISH THE JOB AND KILL ME!”

“I’m not going to kill you, Twilight,” Celestia said. Her shield turned opaque, preventing the golden, glowing chains she was pulling out from being seen. “And you know full well that I can’t restore the dead. The harmonic balance must not be disturbed, not for anything or anything. Besides, you knew you were going to have say goodbye eventually—”

Twilight screamed. She screamed long and hard. It was a chilling sound—like the wail of a banshee infused with pure, undiluted grief. The air around her shimmered with waves of heat, and Twilight’s mane and tail suddenly exploded into flame. Her coat changed to a stark white, and she looked down at Celestia with literal fire in her eyes.

“I DIDN’T EVEN GET A CHANCE!” Her tears sizzled and evaporated before they could fall down her face. “THEY WERE GONE BEFORE I EVEN KNEW WHAT HAD HAPPENED! ALL BECAUSE OF YOU! YOU, THE ONE WHO PUSHED ME TO MAKE FRIENDS IN THE FIRST PLACE! THE ONE WHO I CONFIDED MY HOPES, DREAMS AND FEARS TO! THE ONE CONVINCED ME TO OPEN MY HEART, ONLY THEN TO TURN AROUND AND SHATTER IT INTO OBLIVION!”

Celestia’s composure finally began to crack. The golden chains faltered as her lower lip quivered.

“Twilight…”

“I HATE YOU!” The deadly rocks around them now vibrated with ominous hums. “I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU! ALL YOU’VE EVER DONE IS USE US! YOU NEVER DO ANYTHING YOURSELF! WHY DOES A GODDESS WHO CONTROLS THE SUN NEED ANYPONY’S HELP FOR ANYTHING?!”

The rocks were now pure white and emitting a high-pitched screeching noise.Twilight and Celestia stared at each other at a momentary impasse, neither one willing to back down. Twilight finally spoke again, but this time, it was in a venomous, seething whisper.

“I’m done with you, you spineless, self-righteous whorse. Your precious harmonic balance is beyond me now, but one day, I’ll find a way to pierce the Veil. Do you hear me?! I don’t care how long it takes, or what I have to do! I’ll put the ‘gifts’ you’ve given me to good use, and when once I’ve got them back… I’m coming back for you.”

Celestia threw the golden chains at Twilight. But before they could land, she disappeared in a magenta flash.

“NO!” Celestia yelled.

And then all the rocks detonated at once.

Adrenaline coursed through Twilight’s veins as she jolted awake. She opened her eyes wide and looked all around, breathing heavily as sweat dripped down from her brow. She suppressed the familiar urge to bolt in a random direction and looked up at the sun to see how long she’d slept.

“Wow, almost an hour.” She yawned and rolled her neck. “I must’ve been really tired.”

Twilight was beneath a solitary tree in the plains south of the mighty structure where she’d met Dormin. She’d decided to call the Shrine of Worship, as there hadn’t been any name for it in anything she’d read... or a name for anything beyond this point, really. She was in uncharted waters now, completely sailing into the unknown, and the notion was so unfamiliar that it set her ill at ease.

The air was calm as she took off again and made her way south. The clear skies were empty, much like the majority of the lands she’d seen thus far. Not even any birds were about that she could see, although that might’ve just been due to the time of day. The only sound she heard was the wind rushing past her, and so she was left to her own musings.

Half an hour later, Twilight reached a set of bluffs that had a narrow canyon carved halfway up the cliffside. She could see that some sort of building had once been built there, but only its shattered ruins remained. Fallen pillars and crumbling foundations were the only testament to its existence, and thick curtains of ivy now covered the majority of the ancient walls.

Twilight circled around once before landing just before the ruins. She double-checked her Element to see where it was pointing, and sure enough, it shone directly into the canyon above. She clicked her tongue a few times as she thought how to go about her task.

“If it’s called a ‘colossus’, it’s probably gonna be big.” Twilight scratched her chin. “How big, though? Ursa Major big? Tatzlwurm big? Amethyst Great Wyrm big? A sense of scale would be nice, here. I can’t really make any kind of plan without more information, and I’d rather not go in blind. Maybe I should go back and ask Dormin for more info…”

She started to turn around back to the north, but after another minute’s consideration, she stopped and gave a half-hearted shrug.

“Meh, I’ve beaten worse things with less. I’ll just put up the usual spells and take it out before it has a chance to do anything.”

Twilight’s horn flashed several times as she took a few minutes to prepare her normal defensive spells. Her body glowed several colors in response, and then she completely vanished from sight. She mumbled softly to herself as she mentally ticked the list off.

“Intangibility, Shining Aegis, Drain Sphere, Armor of the Archmage, Mirror Veil, Planar Freedom, Sigil of Order, Selective Repulsion, Prismatic Shield, and Greater Invisibility. There we go! That should do it.”

Now suitably protected, Twilight rose into the air and confidently flew up to the canyon above. It was shallower than she’d first thought—only going in about a mile before narrowing out. The ground was flat and barren, and only a few trees and rocks lined the sheer cliff walls. There wasn’t anything notable she could see, so she perched on a small boulder and looked all around.

“Okayyyyy… so where exactly is this—”

The ground shook. The trees quivered and trembled. A coldness crept over Twilight, and she froze stock still as an enormous foot suddenly filled her vision. A seventy-foot tall bidepal monstrosity strode right past her, its footsteps creating violent tremors and causing the ground under to crack and crumble. It was a construct—that much certain—made up of rock and abandoned architecture and covered in patches of rough fur. Its glowing blue eyes only held the barest sign of intelligence, and it carried a cudgel the size of a house in its right hand, An aerie of hawks circled above it like a black cloud.

Twilight stood there for a few seconds, wide-eyed and incredulous. She worked her mouth several times before managing to voice what was on her mind.

“How… the living hay… did I not see that?!”

She didn’t have much time to ponder that question, for at that moment, her body flickered and became visible again. Loud snapping sounds went off as the colorful sparks ran down her profile again

“Hey!” she tried casting her wards again, but to no avail. “What’s going on?”

“The colossi disjoin all magic within their vicinity…” a pair of familiar voices said. “Only with your Element will you be able to slay them…”

“Dormin?” Twilight looked up and all around, but the only other thing around was the colossus. “Where are you?”

“Hold up your Element to reflect the light on your foe,” Dormin said. “Its vitals shall be revealed…”

“That doesn’t answer my—whoa!” Twilight stumbled from the constant shaking of the footsteps. She jumped into the air to keep herself steady. “And how exactly do you expect me to hurt it without magic? That’s kind of my main strong point, and I didn’t exactly bring any weapons with me!”

The Element of Magic glowed in response. Twilight looked down in surprise, and saw that her right forehoof had become encased in white, crackling light. The smell of ozone suddenly filled the air, and the beam elongated and flattened before tapering off into a fine, pointed tip humming with energy.

Twilight blinked. “Well, that’s new.”

“A warning,” Dormin said. “The blade requires great energy and focus to sustain. Only summon it when you are about to strike.”

As if on cue, Twilight felt a great pressure suddenly creep up behind her eyes, similar to whenever she chain-casted several powerful spells. She released her focus much in the same manner, and the sword immediately faded away.

“You know, this info would’ve been nice to have BEFORE I was standing in front of the moving mountain,” Twilight said to the air. “How about next time you give me the advice and tools for the job ahead of time, hmm?”

There was no reply—only the wind and the colossus’ thundering footsteps.

Twilight ran her hoof down her face. “I’ll take that as a no.”

She figured there wasn’t any need for subtlety in approaching the colossus. It seemed perfectly content to continue on its merry way down the dead-end ravine, so she just took wing and joined the circling hawks above. They paid her no mind as she looked down at the colossus, analyzing and searching for any obvious weak point.

“How am I going to—oh, right, the Element.” Twilight concentrated and felt her necklace grow warm. The sunlight gathered and shot out, revealing a bright blue sigil etched atop the its head.

“Bingo,” she said.

Suddenly, the colossus looked up. Silence reigned a moment as the two locked eyes, then the beast let out a deafening bellow.

Twilight lightly smacked her forehead. “Of course.”

The colossus swung its cudgel. Twilight saw it coming and flew out of the way, but the weapon’s size and momentum created enough wind to blow her away. She tumbled through the air, falling several dozen feet before managing to right herself and retreat to a safe distance.

“Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!” She tried casting her wards again on reflex, but they instantly broke with faint popping sounds. “Come on, work!A stupid disjunction aura shouldn’t be able to unravel my spells!”

The colossus stomped after her, cudgel raised and ready to strike. It loomed before Twilight and swung, but she dodged again to the side. The weapon smashed the ground with titanic force, sending a shudder through the spindly trees and boulders on the edge.

Twilight sneered. “You think an oversized club is enough to intimidate me?”

The colossus wound up again, but she flew out of its range and out of its aura. She then ascended high into the air, out of the canyon and through the clouds until she was nothing more than a lavender dot.

“Do you know who I am?!” Twilight’s voice magically boomed into the tiny canyon below. “I am Twilight Sparkle! Goddess of Magic, Princess of Equestria, Defender of Harmony, Last of the Six! I have purified the Night! I have tamed Chaos! I have destroyed Hatred and Fear! I have even conquered Evil itself! A dim-witted construct like you is NOTHING compared to the powers I’ve laid low, and I’ll not allow some stupid little aura, or ANYTHING else to stand in my way!”

Twilight's horn glowed bright, then brighter still, until finally it resembled a second sun in the sky.
There was a sound like screeching metal, faint at first, but growing louder and louder until it drowned out everything else. A disturbance in the air formed just before Twilight that stretched all the way down to where the colossus stood, who seemed to take no notice. It just simply stood there with its cudgel ready, waiting for her to come back down.

The disturbance in the air thickened. Twilight gathered more and more magic, chanting all the while in a powerful voice. Multicolored sparks began to form. The energy made her hair stand on end. Her entire body shook from the strain, but still she continued on with a will tempered by the fires of Tartarus.

Finally, she was ready. The spell was fully charged. She finished the last part of the incantation and screamed at the top of her lungs.

“SCATTER!”

A pulse like lightning travelled down the heavenly pillar. It hit the colossus dead-on…

…and did absolutely nothing.

Twilight’s mind blanked. Her jaw went slack as she went limp in the air.

“What.”

She was so shocked by the spell’s failure that she didn’t realize that the colossus was stretching back its right arm. It took careful aim, then hurled its train-sized weapon straight at her. It rocketed towards her with a sound like a motor churning through water.

Twilight didn’t even bother to dodge. The weapon hit her with a crunch and then continued on for a little over a mile before crashing down into the plains with an earth-shattering thud. It bounced a few times, tearing up the grass and dirt and rock alike before finally embedding itself several feet into the ground. The dust and debris settled a short while later, and then... all was silent.

The colossus stared out into the plains where its cudgel now lay. It stood stock still for a few seconds, as if unable to decide whether or not to go after the weapon. Whatever cognizance guided it didn’t seem to think that it wasn’t worth the effort, though, so it turned around and began heading back down the canyon...

…only to stop when it heard a strange sound—like a motor churning through water.

The colossus’ own cudgel came sailing back into the canyon and struck the beast in the small of the back. It was lifted off its feet by the force and flew back several hundred feet before colliding into the far canyon wall in a great explosion of rock and dust. It roared as it became buried in an avalanche of falling stone, kicking and struggling to get free.

Twilight teleported into the entrance of the canyon. She looked like a living nightmare—her horn was snapped, her eyes were ruined, her jaw had been torn off, countless bones were crushed, and her clothes were soaked in her own blood. However, her injuries were swiftly mending thanks to a prismatic light shining out from within her core.

“You will not stop me,” Twilight snarled in a ghostly, dissonant voice. “You cannot stop me. Through whatever means necessary, I will get what I want… what I need.”

The colossus was still buried beneath the rubble. The only thing sticking out were its legs. Twilight saw that the back of its left calf was unarmored, and operating on a hunch, she used the Element again and discovered a second sigil there.

There was no taunting. There were no tactics. There wasn’t even any thought, really. Twilight just spread her wings and shot forward like a bullet, summoning her blade to her mid-flight. She landed on the colossus’ leg and plunged the sword into the glowing sigil.

The colossus roared. A foul, black ichor spurted out from the wound, covering Twilight and staining her clothes. She stabbed again and again and again, and then she stabbed some more for good measure. The colossus kicked and flailed all the while, causing the rocks to shift and fly all around Twilight. The sigil flickered and faded away, and she retreated before the boulders could hit her.

The colossus freed itself of the canyon wall. It got up and looked around for its attacker, but Twilight was nowhere to be seen. The cudgel was laying a few hundred feet away beside an uprooted tree, so it started to make for that. Before it could get there, though, the cudgel became encased in a magenta aura and lifted up into the air. The magic started to fade as the colossus approached, but then, the magenta aura redoubled and carried it away.

Twilight watched the colossus limp after its own weapon while hidden away on top of the bluffs. She was reminded of a dog chasing after a stick as she moved the cudgel in and out of various distances in relation to the giant.

“Looks like about a seventy-five foot radius,” Twilight mused. She worked her jaw a few times to try and get rid of the soreness. “Feels like it’s weaker at the edges, though; probably from being in continuous effect... I could unravel the fraying arcana threads, but it’ll take me a while if they’re warded, and Stompy’s not gonna just sit still while I do it… maybe I could put up a disjunction aura of my own and override his? Let’s see, rate of decay for disjunction is three-point-four-seven times ten to the negative thirteenth, diminished effect is approximately fifteen meters, which means that this aura’s been in effect for around—wow. Okay, so that’s not gonna work, but at least it narrows down who cast it in the first place...”

Twilight felt her anger slowly ebbing away as she continued to analyze the situation. It never truly went away—she’d come to terms with that long ago—but it did simmer down to a level that allowed her to actually think.

“I almost want to dispel this aura just to prove that I can.” Twilight ground her teeth and swished her tail. “It’s not gonna be efficient, though, and I just wanna get this over with... rather not get smashed again, either. I’m gonna be feeling that for a week... all right, all right. The sword and sigil thing seems to work, so we’ll go with that for now.”

Twilight led the colossus over to the cliff where she was hiding. She dropped the cudgel on the ground just below her, feeling the vibrations of the immense object hitting the ground all the way up the bluff. The colossus went right for it, oblivious of Twilight’s location. It stopped right in front of her, then bent down to pick up the weapon.

The glowing blue sigil on its head glowed brightly a few dozen feet before Twilight. She ignited her blade and prepared to leap.

You’re never going to get them back.

Twilight’s entire body locked up. The sword faded away as a violent chill ripped through her.

“No… not now…”

Dead, gone, lost forever. The unknown voice was mocking, sinister, and dripping with malice. Nothing you ever do will change that. You might as well just give up...

Twilight felt her energy being sapped away. A numbness formed in her hooves that started to creep up her legs. The colossus retrieved its cudgel and straightened back up, looking all around for her.

How long have you been searching? the voice said with a cruel laugh. How many legends have you chased, how many failures have you suffered? This is nothing but another dead end, Twilight. There’s never been anything BUT dead ends. You will fail here, just like you failed to see through Celestia’s lies. Just like you failed to save your friends. Just like you’ve failed to join them despite your best efforts—

“SHUT IT!” Twilight yelled. She grabbed onto the Element of Magic and focused. “SHUT IT, SHUT IT, SHUT IT! KEEP YOUR POISONOUS WHISPERS TO YOURSELF!”

The Element’s light spread out and covered her entire body, just like it had back against the shades Her outline flashed brightly like the sun, and the accursed voice faded away.

Twilight sighed in relief as the feeling returned to her legs. “That’s better. Now to—”

And then she noticed the large, cudgel-shaped shadow swiftly descending on her.

“Horseapples…”

She leapt off the cliff just in time. The colossus swing smashed the spot where she’d just been, taking out a chunk of the wall and causing a second rockslide. The canyon echoed with the riotous sounds of destruction as Twilight opened her wings and flew in between the colossus’ legs. She came out the other side and tried to regain her altitude, but the colossus then turned and swatted at her with its free hand.

“AAHHH!” Twilight narrowly avoided the swipe and retreated farther back. She tried to get out of range, but the colossus now had her in its sights and was swiftly chasing after her. She switched to evasive tactics instead, swooping around and using her agility to avoid being turned into a pancake.

“Gotta end this,” Twilight panted through gritted teeth. She baited the colossus into taking another swing, then pumped her wings hard and made a beeline for its head. “No more messing around!”

She buzzed over the colossus’ face and tucked in her wings, landing roughly upon its broad, furry back. The beast roared and shook itself to dislodge her, but Twilight held on and made for the top of its head. She didn’t get there, though, because then the colossus reached up with its free arm and tried to grab her. She was forced to dodge and take wing again and climb several dozen feet so she could safely figure out another plan of attack.

“Can’t use magic when near it, and all magic dies when it gets close to it.” Twilight let out a low, frustrated growl. “Fine. If I can’t use magical force to hurt it, I’ll use another force instead!”

While circling just out of reach, Twilight used her telekinesis to pick up several large boulders now littering the canyon. Each one was over twenty feet in diameter and weighed several tons. She lit them all on fire for no particular reason, and once she had a decent number gathered, she brought them all up to the same level as her and fired them at the colossus like a swarm of meteorites.

“EAT PHYSICS, BIG BOY!”

The acrid stench of charred fur filled the air as the colossus bellowed and staggered from the assault. Twilight fired each and every one of her projectiles with grim efficiency, striking it relentlessly from every direction and knocking it off-balance. The creature’s wounded leg gave out from the pummeling, and it sagged down to one knee, stunned.

Twilight saw her chance. She took careful aim, then folded her wings and dove down with her forehoof outstretched. The blazing sword formed at her command, and the weak point on the colossus’ head appeared in response. Twilight’s battlecry was lost to the wind as she collided with the beast and drove her sword deep into the sigil.

The colossus let out a deep, guttural wail. Its entire form seized up, its breath escaping it in a long, slow rattle. An explosion of black ichor sprayed out of where Twilight had struck, taking her by surprise and causing her to cough and splutter. The colossus dropped its cudgel and fell to the ground with a cacophony of crunching stone, and it shuddered one final time before going still.

Twilight jumped off and tumbled to the ground. She fell to her knees gagging and gasping as she tried to expel whatever she’d just inhaled a considerable amount of.

“The buck IS this stuff?!” Twilight wheezed in between coughing fits. “Ugh! Is it blood? Constructs don’t have blood! What the heck are these things?”

Twilight was so distracted with trying to regain her breath that she didn’t notice the darkness quickly enveloping the colossus, nor the odd black tendrils that now slithered out of the corpse’s head.

“That was sloppy,” Twilight said once she’d caught her breath. She looked towards the Shrine of Worship clearly visible off in the distance. “Gonna need to have a chat with Dormin about what these things can do before taking on the next one. This might be tricky if all of them have auras like that.…”

The tendrils were now spiraling erratically above Twilight, their ghostly forms leaving no shadows in the afternoon sun. They inched closer and closer to her without a sound.

“Good enough.” Twilight got to her hooves and brushed herself off. “Time to—”

The tendrils struck. They rushed her from all sides and entered her body with a sound like stone scraping sandpaper. Twilight cried out in alarm and tried to cast a spell, but she was still within the colossus’ aura. The tendrils fully entered her, her spell fizzled, and a thick haze fell upon her mind. She suddenly felt tired, so very, very tired, and she was only dimly aware of herself falling down, down, down…

II: Quadratus

Quadratus

“You shouldn’t be here,” Luna said in a hurried whisper. “Leave now, Twilight Sparkle. There is nothing for us to discuss.”

“You owe both me and them a debt many times over,” Twilight answered in an icy voice. She hopped off Luna’s balcony railing and looked up into her ancient eyes. “I’m giving you a chance to repay that debt. I’ll ask you again: will you help me?”

Luna’s eyes softened. She looked around to make sure they were alone before answering. “You think I don’t want to? You think I wouldn’t have already brought them back if I could? Such things are beyond me, my friend. They always have been, and they always will be.”

“I didn’t ask you whether or not you could resurrect them,” Twilight said. “I know full well that you can’t. What I’m asking for is your help.”

“Help?” Luna raised an eyebrow. “In doing what?”

“Research,” Twilight answered. “Experiments. Brainstorming. Anything and everything to try and figure out a way to—”

“I can save you some time,” Luna said in a tired voice. “I’ve spent millennia researching the secrets of life and death, all in vain. Countless avenues explored, innumerable trials failed, every single idea exhausted. I’ve worked with the best and brightest minds of over a hundred generations, and none of them have even come close to retrieving a soul from beyond the Veil. I’d truly hoped there was some other way to do it, but I—”

Twilight’s eyes went wide. “Other way’? You mean you knew of one all along?! What was it? How’s it done? Tell me!”

Luna shook her head. “It’s irrelevant. The process would—”

“I’ll decide what’s irrelevant or not!” Twilight snapped. “There’s never just one way to do anything! You KNOW how good I am at figuring things out! I just need you to know where to start!”

Luna bit her lip. She sized Twilight up for a few seconds before her eyes briefly flicked to the north. She opened her mouth to say something, but then, she sighed and shook her head.

“No. Not even for them. I’m sorry, Twilight, but after they’ve saving Equestria so many times, it would be an insult to your friends’ memory if I were to put it into jeopardy once more.”

Twilight’s jaw dropped. She spluttered for a few seconds, but then the rage bubbled up inside her again. She dropped her paper-thin visage of politeness and spoke in a low growl.

“I’m not leaving until you tell me.”

“Yes, you are,” Luna replied without pause. “Because I will alert my sister to your presence if you don’t. Do you wish to face Celestia again when you can’t use a megaton explosion to cover your escape? Oh! And perhaps I should notify your mother, as well. She’s been very worried about you, you know. Would you care to explain your actions as of late to her?”

Twilight seethed. There was a line here she wasn’t willing to cross, and they both knew it. They stared silent daggers at each other for almost a full minute, but then Twilight scoffed and turned away. As she prepared to leave, though, she couldn’t help but say one final thing.

“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.” Twilight looked back at her with cold, bitter eyes. “Betrayal is something that runs in your family, after all. You just happened to exhibit it early.”

And then she teleported away.

Twilight’s unconscious form lay sprawled out on the floor of the Shrine of Worship. Her breathing was deep and steady, and her body was unharmed and whole. Strangely, standing right above her was one of the ghostly, bipedal shades from when she’d first placed the urns on the altar, but it didn’t seem to be doing anything. It just stood there, unmoving, staring down at Twilight for no discernible reason.

Twilight came to with a groan. She blearily opened her eyes, but immediately regretted it as the merciless sun assaulted her retinas. She shielded her face with a wing and unsteadily rose to her hooves.

“Ugh.” Twilight rubbed her head and gingerly opened her eyes a crack. “What the… did I pass out? What the hay for? I didn’t over—”

She stopped once she’d realized where she was. She lowered her wing and looked all around with parted lips.

“Buh?”

She had a moment to wonder if she was still dreaming before her eyes fell on the urns. She rushed to them to make sure if spells she’d cast on them were intact.

“Thank Heavens…” she breathed a sigh of relief. “Maybe I shouldn’t leave them here. I could probably find a safer place—”

There was an ominous grating sound behind her. She turned and found that the idol closest to her was emitting a pure, white light. The grating sound grew louder and louder, and then all at once, the statue exploded to pieces with a thunderous crack.

Twilight wrinkled her brow as the dust and debris settled. ‘“Huh. Okay, then.”

The shrine rumbled and quaked. The sunlight from the hole above grew bright as Dormin’s dissonant voice filtered down to address Twilight once more.

“Your next foe is…”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Twilight held up a hoof and looked all around the great hall. “How’d I get back here, Dormin? One minute I’m stabbing old Two-Legs in the head, and the next I’m laid out here on the floor!”

“You will be returned to this place each time you slay a colossus,” Dormin said. “It is part of the magic that governs this land…”

“And what exactly is that supposed to mean?” Twilight warily eyed the shattered idol. “Aren’t you were the one that governs this land? Who’s calling the shots around here?”

“We only hold dominion over life and the light.” The sunlight flickered and pulsed for emphasis. “Nothing more...”

“Gee, whaddya know?” Twilight said with rolled eyes. “There’s another thing that would’ve been nice to know from the start! Right along with details on what the colossi can do, the Element beam-sword, and a mother-bucking disjunction aura! Did the giant LASER BEAM I shot when I got here not clue you in to what I’m the Goddess of?! Did you not think that not being able to use magic wouldn’t change my tactics?”

“You are an immortal Goddess,” Dormin said without any hint of concern. “Even with their defenses, the colossi pose little challenge to you...”

“Just because I’m immortal doesn’t mean I’m invincible!” Twilight said with a scowl. “I still get tired, I still feel pain, and I can still be knocked out! Having limitations on my magic is a major handicap, and it doesn’t help that I also having to deal with—”

Her voice died in her throat. Her hoof strayed unconsciously towards her necklace, but she caught it and put it back down.

“Having to deal with...?” Dormin said expectantly.

“Never mind,” Twilight muttered. She regained her composure with a sigh and looked back at the urns. “Look, I’ve been trying to bring my friends back for a while now. I’m not in the mood for games, cryptic hints, over-elaborate plans, evil schemes, betrayals, setbacks, or distractions of any kind. I’ve had enough of those to last me the rest of eternity, and I’m while willing to play ball with you here, you’ve gotta know that it’s not in your best interests to withhold information from me. You seem like a smart… whatever you are, can’t you see that keeping me in the dark is only gonna drag this out?”

“The process of retrieving of five souls is both lengthy and arduous,” Dormin said. “Your task does serve as payment, but it is also a test.”

Twilight cocked her head. “Test? In what way?’

“Each time you kill a colossus, the rest will become resistant to whatever method you used to best them.” Dormin paused a moment to let that sink in. “You must use your versatility, adaptability, and tenacity to succeed, but surely such qualities are no issue for a Goddess…”

Twilight ground her teeth. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, trying hard not to cast one of the fifty spells that were currently at the forefront of her mind. She didn’t say anything for a long while, but when she finally did, it was in a voice that betrayed no emotion.

“Does that count striking their weak points with the Element sword?”

“Nay,” Dormin said. “That will always work. We refer to whatever other strategies or abilities you use before delivering the final blow…”

“So they’re all resistant to being hit with rocks.” Twilight ran a hoof down her face. “Great. And I take it you’re not gonna be dissuaded on this?”

“Correct…”

“Which means I’m basically on my own here aside from a few vague hints here and there.”

“The challenge will keep you occupied while we grant your wish…”

Twilight’s eye twitched at that, but she kept her voice level. “And these are your terms for upholding your end of the bargain?”

“Destroy the colossi, and your friends will live once more.”

Twilight exhaled out her nose. “Fine, but let me give you one word of warning in return, Dormin. There have been many times in the past where I’ve given someone the benefit of the doubt when I shouldn’t have, and if there’s one thing I hate more than anything else, it’s those who try to use others for their own gain. Tyrants and beggars alike have made the mistake of confusing my kindness and trust for weakness and naivety, and I’ve made each and every one of them regret their actions a million times over.”

Twilight looked up at the ceiling, her eyes sparkling and crackling with electricity.

“Don’t think I won’t do the same to you.”

She teleported away before Dormin could reply, re-appearing outside in midair high above the Shrine. She circled around the mighty building once while focusing on her Element, and after finding that her next target was to the north, she adjusted her course accordingly and headed on her way.

Twilight discovered that her next quarry wasn’t far away at all. She followed the great stone bridge for only ten minutes before her Element pointed down towards a canyon dividing the great plains. At the bottom was a winding body of water leading to the sea, and she could see that a long-abandoned path led down the cliffside to a white, sandy beach. The ruins were plentiful along the road as she descended, with eroded guardrails and crumbling cobblestones that would’ve made traversing it a nightmare.

“Ah, wings,” Twilight said with the hint of a smile. “I do love you so.”

She followed the ancient path down and landed near the sandy shore. The place was abandoned as far as she could tell, without so much as a bird or a crab or a even a fish visible to her eyes. Twilight looked up and saw that a sliver of land connected the northern and southern plains at the far edge of the canyon, and the pillars of the great bridge were spaced out in a straight line before and behind her.

“Gonna try and surprise me again, I see.” A quick check of her Element told Twilight that she needed to go to the opposite end of the beach. Before she did, though, she took another brief look at her surroundings.

“Not exactly much to work with, here. I can’t use rocks again, and I gotta be careful about what I try or this is gonna get tricky before long. Hmm…”

A dull rumbling in the ground jolted Twilight out of her thoughts. She looked all around in alarm, but couldn’t identify the source of it. She jumped into the air and began to ascend.

“I seriously doubt that was an earthquake.” Twilight turned her gaze to where her Element had pointed. There was a cave at the far end with a weathered mural carved into the rock. She had a moment of indecision, but then angled her wings and flew over to perch just above the carving.

“Yoohoo!” She raised her hoof to her lips and whistled. “Oh, mister colosssssssuuuussss! Come on out! The pretty purple pony princess would like to have a word with you!”

The mural below her shuddered. The rocks all around jittered and jolted, and all of a sudden, a gigantic, four-legged beast smashed its way through the mural as if it were nothing. It was much larger than the first colossus—standing at around one hundred feet tall and one-and-a-half times as long. Its body was covered in shaggy brown fur, with bits of stone architecture sticking out of its legs and back. Its face was covered with a mask that was reminiscent of a portcullis gate, and a pair of curved horns stuck out from either side of its head.

The colossus finished breaking its way through the cliffside and ran down the beach. Each step it took made Twilight’s teeth rattle in her skull. The beast ran some ways before turning around, and it looked up at Twilight with eerie blue eyes, gauging her with a shrewdness that hadn’t been present in the first. It stomped at the ground and let out an ear-splitting bellow.

Twilight leapt off the ledge and dove at the beast, her voice rising into a shrill scream.

“AND THAT WORD IS DIE!”

The colossus charged as well. The waters of the inlet shivered as they they rushed each other full-bore. Five hundred feet. One hundred feet. Fifty. Twenty-five. Ten. The colossus’ visage filled Twilight’s vision. Her magic was useless while this close. She was a gnat to this creature, smaller than one of its eyes, yet still she charged on with her teeth bared in a snarl.

But at the last second, that snarl turned into a smirk.

“Gotcha.”

Twilight turned in midair, cocked both her legs, and buckedthe charging colossus square between the eyes.

CRACK

The very air around them rippled from the force of Twilight’s strike. A great shockwave emanated from her hooves upon hitting, causing the sand around them to blow away with such magnitude that a great dust cloud rose up out of the canyon and into the sky. The massive colossus was not only knocked back from Twilight’s kick, it was sent flying off the beach and clear across the inlet to crash into the far wall. Its trajectory was such that it smashed through two of the pillars of the great bridge, and with an ominous rumbling, a portion collapsed and fell tumbling into the canyon below.

“Uh-oh.” Twilight teleported to dodge the falling masonry. She reappeared up on the edge of the southern plain, rubbing at her eyes and coughing to clear the sand from her lungs. The entire crevasse was now obscured by the cloud, and she was unable to see any sign of the colossus.

Another roar sounded from below, this one considerably more enraged than the first. There was a disturbance on the far side, and suddenly, several chunks of the fallen bridge came sailing straight at Twilight.

Each one of them was enshrouded in an eerie blue aura.

Twilight’s eyes widened. She teleported again to dodge, but the rocks homed in on her again. She tried a second time, but they followed her without fail. She realized she couldn’t shake them after the third time, and so she took wing with a curse and fled, scanning the canyon for her foe as she did.

“It’s copying my telekinesis,” Twilight muttered. She abruptly veered right avoid being smashed to a pulp. “But how the heck is it able to see me?! Is it able to sense my—wait. Why the hay am I running?”

She slowed down and faced the pursuing rocks. They sped to collide with her, but she responded with a devastating flurry of punches. There was a cacophony of cracks as the boulders were shattered to smithereens, and a deluge of pebbles fell down to the plains below.

“Sorry, pal,” Twilight said with a chuckle. “Divinity comes with a few perks.”

The dust in the canyon had now settled. She could now see that the colossus was standing knee-deep in the inlet a short ways away from where she’d kicked it. The fallen remains of the collapsed bridge section were scattered all around it, and as Twilight looked on, its horns glowed with the same blue aura as the rocks she’d just smashed. Another, much larger chunk lifted up at the colossus’ command and was launched at Twilight with impressive speed.

“Ooooh, tennis!” Her horn glowed as the rock came close. “I can’t even remember the last time I played!”

Twilight easily overpowered the colossus’ magic and altered the path of the giant stone. It flew around her in an arc, then shot back down with terrifying velocity. It struck the colossus square on the top of the head, but strangely, it didn’t seem to have much effect at all.

“Yeah, figured that wouldn’t work.” Twilight cracked her neck and touched her Element. “May as well go with what did before.”

She now saw that the colossus had two sigils: The first was on its rump, and the second was the top of its head. She decided to go for the latter and dove straight down for an attack. The colossus shot a few more rocks at her as she descended, but Twilight just either dodged or smashed straight through them. She stretched out her forehoof and summoned the Element sword.

“Take thi—”

The colossus reared. It avoided her attack with surprising ease and then swatted her with one of its gargantuan hooves. Twilight’s body crumpled under the strike and ragdolled through the air, landing in the churning waters with the force of a depth charge.

Twilight had time to chide herself about getting cocky again while her body healed. It’d been a while since she’d run into anything that could actually hurt her, and she was beginning to realize that her over-reliance on magic had made her grow complacent. This was the second time she’d taken a would-be-fatal hit, which, as far as she was concerned, was two times too many. She wouldn’t be able to make mistakes like this once she wasn’t working alone anymore, so she really needed to wise up.

A bright light illuminated Twilight’s features. She looked up and saw that the colossus’ hoof was swiftly descending through the waters to crush her. It’s underside glowed with a strange brilliance that was oddly distorted beneath the choppy waves.

Twilight panicked. She wasn’t able to get out of the way due to still being injured, so she did the only thing she could do: she braced herself and stuck her horn straight up to meet it.

The colossus’ hoof impaled itself on the foot-long spike of keratin. An echoing cry of pain echoed through the water, and there was a great disturbance in the water as the beast fell forward and to its knees. Twilight was taken along for the ride, as she was still stuck on the underside of the creature’s hoof.

It took a few seconds for her to wrench herself free. When she did, though, she swam up as fast as her mended legs would allow. She surfaced with a gasp and saw that the colossus was stunned and unmoving. She jumped free of the water and awkwardly flapped up onto its back, focusing on her Element as she did. The glowing weak spot on its rump was only a few dozen feet away, and she pounced on it before it could recover.

“No more messing around,” she said. She brought her hoof back and sunk the enchanted sword deep into the colossus’ flesh.

The colossus screeched. It jumped back up and kicked its back hooves out to try and dislodge her, but Twilight held fast and stabbed again. The sigil flickered as black mist sprayed out like a geyser, covering her coat in a greasy, oily film. She turned her head away to avoid getting it in her mouth this time, and once the sigil had faded away, she turned and started to make for the head.

The colossus had gone berserk. It now ran all over the canyon in an erratic fashion, bucking, twisting, shaking, jumping, all in an effort to knock Twilight off. The entire canyon shook from the beast’s frenzied movements, but she held on regardless. The wind whipped past her as she crawled across the colossus’ back bit by bit, carefully making her way over and past the various chunks of stone sticking out of its back. Her progress was slow due to many of the chunks being more than twice her size, and she had to wait for lulls in the colossus’ movements before clambering over them.

Twilight reached the head. The second sigil was only a few feet away, clearly visible through the dark brown fur. She prepared to give the final blow, but as she did, the colossus’ horns glowed. Twilight paused at the sudden light and looked up to see several more boulders zooming towards her from all directions.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Twilight rushed to the right horn and punched it as hard as she could.

SNAP

The horn broke off like it was made of chalk. The boulders abruptly lost their magic and fell back down to the ground. The colossus’ screams of agony were lost to Twilight’s ears as she turned her attention back to the sigil, Element blade in hoof.

“Nothing personal,” she whispered.

The strike was quick and clean. The colossus immediately ceased its cries and stopped thrashing about. It went completely limp mid-stride and crashed into the sandy beach, the impact tossing Twilight free and sending her flying through the air. She opened her wings in time and glided gracefully down to the ground a hundred feet away, and upon coming to a stop, she turned and looked back at the colossus to make sure it was really dead.

“Two down. Good.” She sat back on her haunches and looked up at the sky. “Fourteen to go, then? Ergggh, this is gonna take a while...”
Silence gradually returned to the canyon as the echoes died out and the waters calmed. Twilight stared over at the enormous corpse, lost in her thoughts and feelings. She glanced down at her hoof, which was still tingling from summoning the sword.

“Sixteen lives for five… pretty crummy deal, all things considered. Though I can’t actually tell if these things are really alive or not. They’re pretty advanced for constructs, but it’s hard to say much without performing an autopsy on them. Maybe I can do some experiments after I finish my business here.”

She then took a proper look at herself and curled her lip. “But I may not bother if it means getting covered in more of this black gunk. I hope it doesn’t stain… ew, it’s all greasy. I need a wash.”

She made her way over to the water to clean herself. As she did, though, the colossus’ corpse became enveloped in a seeping darkness from head to toe.

Twilight stopped. “What the…”

A multitude of black tendrils suddenly burst out of the head wound. They streaked towards Twilight faster than a bullet and speared her body with a crunchy, organic sound.

“Hrk!”

Twilight spasmed and fell to her side, doubling over in pain as the tendrils forced her way into her body. She tried to do something, anything, to defend herself, but it was hard to think when she was so tired. Her vision dimmed, and she felt herself slipping away…