A powerful explosion rocked the outskirts of the Everfree as two colossal forces of energy collided, annihilating anything contained within the ensuing blast's radius. The powers of light, tranquility, magic and love combined with the stolen powers of nature, flight, magic and chaos in a blinding display, lighting up the sky like a second sun.
When the light faded and the dust cleared, two figures stood facing one another. Panting, Twilight Sparkle raised her head to glare at her adversary: the gargantuan, mutated centaur, Lord Tirek. Her heart hammered from the adrenaline and exertion of four alicorns' worth of power cascading from her horn. Dirt creased her face; light scuff marks and scratches adorned every inch of her body. She raised a solitary hoof and wiped two drops of sweat from her face, smearing the dust across her cheek into a brown streak.
Opposite her, the behemoth glared down at her, also breathing heavier than he had been two minutes earlier. His mammoth horns rose high into the air, adding all the more intimidation to his fearsome visage. He towered over the nearby trees, almost level with many background hills.
“It appears we are at an impasse,” Tirek growled. He cocked his head lightly and grinned. He clicked his fingers.
Twilight’s eyes widened at the sight before her. All of her friends, even Discord, appeared above Tirek’s head. Each sat suspended in transparent magical bubbles.
“How about a trade, Princess Twilight?”
All seven of Twilight’s friends stared with dulled eyes at the sight of her dishevelled self. Twilight brought a hoof to her mouth and gasped at all of their blank flanks. Even Discord seemed miserable, refusing to look at her.
“Their release... for all the alicorn magic in Equestria!”
As one, each of her friends cried out in fear. Discord muttered something indiscernible to Fluttershy before Tirek's bellow interrupted them.
“Enough!” He stamped a towering hoof. “I want an answer and I want it now!”
Twilight gazing up at her friends, various possible outcomes flitted through Twilight's head. What do I do? Do I give up Equestria’s remaining magic and pray for a miracle? Can I truly place the fate of everypony and all other life upon the contents of the box? I still don’t even have the final key! And with my friends held captive…
There is another way, a voice in the back of her mind piped up. You could always retrieve… “it.”
No! She shook her head. It’s far too dangerous. We all saw how it twists the mind of its bearer. Nopony must ever be allowed to wear it again!
But you have a stronger mind than that flashy showmare. Think about it: its power could easily help you overcome this tyrant of fear and tragedy. You would be wearing it for all of an hour—easily enough time for you to send this beast back to where he belongs and remove it from your neck before the corruption kicks in.
Twilight shifted her gaze from her friends to the ground. Her eyes moved back and forth for a moment before she closed them briefly.
I can’t believe I’m even considering this…
“Tirek, you had better keep them alive long enough for them to watch you dissolve into shadow. I’ll be back to return you to the depths soon.”
Twilight spun on the spot and bent her knees. She rocketed over the deserted plains toward the Everfree’s edge. As the ground raced past beneath her, she crushed her eyelids together against the wind and willed the tears away. Forgive me, my friends.
“You can do it, Twilight!”
“We believe in you!”
“Do what you gotta do, Twi!”
“We’ll be okay, hurry back!”
Tirek's mouth hung slightly open at the princess’ actions. He closed his mouth and turned toward his seven captives. “Well, I can honestly say I’m surprised. I thought for sure she would give up her magic and save you all. So much for the magic of ‘friendship.’”
He laughed a great laugh that shook the earth's foundations again, while in the distance, a purple light flashed. His eyes gleamed a dangerous gold when he returned his attention to his prisoners.
“You just wait!” Rainbow cried. “Twilight'll be right back, and when she returns she's gonna kick your flank so hard, you'll fly further than I have in my whole life!”
Tirek simply laughed and cast his glowing eyes upon Rainbow.
“Whatever you say, it seems to me that your friend cares more for her own skin. I admit, I'm surprised. No matter; we may be equal in strength and raw power, but sooner or later, her stamina will wear thin. And when it does, she will be unable to flee from or resist me any longer. I will obtain her magic!”
He clicked his fingers once again. Discord floated forward and came to rest before Tirek. His eyes shrank to pinpricks as Tirek's own bored into his. The others all cried out, though their capsules stayed put.
“Twilight Sparkle has abandoned you all, whether you admit that or not. As such, none of you serve any more purpose. Now, I'm going to have a little fun while I wait for your precious princess to return. The great Tirek shall see how she fights when her reasons for doing so—along with her spirit—have been… crushed.”
* * * * *
Twilight appeared at the forest’s edge three seconds later. With a gasp, she collapsed against a tree and let her head fall beneath a single supporting hoof.
“Oh, Celestia, forgive me. I’ve abandoned my friends.”
She shook her head and straightened. Into the forest she fled, blasting trees, boulders and timberwolves alike from her path. Fluttershy would hate this level of destruction to the woodland creatures’ habitat. I can always fix it later, though.
The same way you could fix the Golden Oaks? the other voice said, once more emerging from the depths of her mind.
Yes! I will fix all of the destruction that Equestria has suffered: her mountains, her trees... by Celestia, I will make it all right again!
Twilight continued to gallop into the heart of the forest at an incredible speed. She rounded a final corner and found herself at her destination. Wasting no more time, Twilight rammed her shoulders into the door and burst into the treehut. She began immediately combing the shelves that were filled with assorted voodoo paraphernalia and plant extracts, her eyes flying wildly from side to side.
“Forgive me if my question is poor, but why have you so destroyed my door?”
Twilight’s gaze shifted from the yieldless shelves and onto the stiff zebra before her. Zecora’s eyes were narrowed and a single eyebrow raised.
“Oh, I’m so sorry about all of this, Zecora, really! I promise I’ll fix it all soon, but right now the fate of Equestria hinges on your next words: please tell me where you’ve stowed the Alicorn Amulet!”
Zecora took a step back and let out a high whinny. “Princess Twilight, have you taken leave of your senses? Wearing that amulet will have dire consequences!”
“I need it, Zecora. This is a matter of literal life and death! It’s the only way I can overpower and stop Tirek from destroying Equestria!”
Two flashes later, Twilight appeared in front of Zecora and shook her by the shoulders. “Please, don’t make me destroy your house looking for it. Just tell me where it is! Every second I delay places my friends at an ever-greater risk!” She lowered her hooves and faced Zecora with her shining purple eyes, hoping that Zecora would see the urgency contained within them.
“Please, Princess, I implore you to halt! Equestria will fall and it will be all your fault!”
Twilight screamed with exasperation and blew a hole through Zecora’s ceiling. She hovered up to one of zebra’s shelves and, with a single flick of her mane, sent potions, artifacts and photographs crashing to the floor.
“Zecora! I mean it—I will reduce this tree to splinters if I have to!”
Zecora bowed her head and sighed.
“I can see there is no persuading you. Very well—I will aid with what you feel you must do. But know that I hang on the edge of despair, for this manipulation of yours is most unfair.”
She trotted into her side bedroom, Twilight’s anxious stare following her. She retrieved a golden key from beneath her bed and approached the Everfree Tatzltrap plant on her windowsill. The plant began to shoot its short tentacles and snap its jaws as she drew closer.
Zecora hummed a short tune, following it up with some choice Zebrican words. The plant ceased its attempt to claim her face and opened wide, where it sat motionless in complete silence. Zecora lifted the plant by its tentacles and inserted her key into the golden lock the plant had been guarding. With a shiver and a final prayer to herself, she placed a hoof under the Alicorn Amulet and lifted it from its pedestal inside the box.
A tremble ran through the Everfree.
“Hurry, Zecora! He's getting closer!”
Zecora emerged from her room with the Amulet in her grasp. “Here is what you seek, Princess Twilight. With this mighty amulet, you will surely win your fight. Keep it no longer than necessary, then return it to me immediately.”
Twilight snatched the amulet out of the zebra’s hoof and stared at the shining jewel in the centre, the way the pair of dark wings stretched out over the top of it. The inset red eyes seemed to cast their own glow against the silver jewellery. She shivered for the briefest of moments before she fled from the hut. On her way out, she sparked up her horn; shattered possessions reformed and returned to their shelves, while the broken door floated up back onto its hinges.
Zecora opened the door and observed the red flash in the ruined distance. “Twilight Sparkle may win this fight, yet her methods are far from how I hoped she might…”
* * * * *
Twilight materialised at the opposite side of the Everfree, accompanied by a bright flash. Her eyes blazed scarlet with renewed intensity. If Trixie could wield such power—she, a mere unicorn—what are the bounds of my own? Do I even have any limits now?
She shot a beam of crackling light into the distance. Five kilometers away, a mountain dissolved into a gigantic cloud of dust. With a grin to herself, she flew toward Tirek and had him in her sights within seconds.
“Ah, I see you have returned to your senses, Princess Twilight. Now, give me your magic!” Tirek followed up his growl with another glowing ball of golden energy. He fired directly at Twilight—
—Who effortlessly knocked the projectile away with a single sweep of her foreleg. Into the sky it shot, where it exploded after another second. With a great roar, Tirek charged up another wave of energy and fired a continuous beam at Twilight—
—Who powered right through it as if it weren't there at all. Tirek's eyes widened at the sight of the purple streak drawing closer from inside the gold. He fixed his gaze upon a small red blip at her chest.
“What... is that? It can't be—”
“You are going to release my friends right now if you have any desire to live beyond this day!”
Twilight finished closing the distance, a purple and red trail in her wake. At the end of her flight, she pulled out of the array and delivered a swift punch to Tirek’s left cheek.
The centaur howled, feeling his teeth shatter; his energy beam ceased instantly, his focus broken. The impact knocked him onto his right side, the ground quaking as he landed heavily. He massaged what remained of the caved-in cheek, then spat a glob of blood into a small puddle on the ground in front of him.
“W-what… is this… power?” he moaned. He attempted to stand, only to scream with renewed agony as Twilight flew like a lightning bolt into his back.
The sickening snap of a shattering spine thundered over the land.
Tirek released his agony with another ground-trembling roar. When his echoing outcry subsided, he made to say something, succeeding only in adding to the crimson pile growing beneath his head.
“Release my friends, now. I may bestow mercy upon you if you comply within the next ten seconds.”
Twilight landed in front of Tirek and watched his blazing golden eyes twitch. When she lit her horn again, a giant golden candle with a flickering flame appeared between them. The flame blazed high and green. A ten-second timer glowed red in front of Tirek’s eyes and a laughing, masked shadow wielding a ghostly scythe appeared above his head.
“When this timer reaches zero, your soul shall depart from your body. You will spend an eternity in Tartarus, in constant, searing pain, knowing that you were stripped of the one thing that gave you any semblance of power.”
“Th-that... amulet... I th-thought it was... lost, e-eons ago...”
Twilight’s eyes flashed scarlet again as they bored into Tirek’s. “My friends, in exchange for your pathetic life and possible recovery.”
“I-I-I… c-cannot help th-them now…”
The words came from Tirek’s mouth in a jumbled, barely coherent whisper. “Th-they have… alr-ready met with… their o-own f...fate.” His eyes twitched, before moving to the side.
Twilight followed the motion and flapped over Tirek’s head. Her heart leapt into her mouth.
Before her lay the broken, beaten and scarred bodies of five ponies, a dragon and a draconequus. Rarity’s mane had been sheared off, along with half of her head. Fluttershy was missing two of her legs. Spike had an impossibly large hole drilled right through his chest. Discord had been strangled, tied into double knots and pulled taut. The rest of her friends resembled nothing more than shattered porcelain dolls, an ever-increasing flow of red growing from under them.
Twilight’s heart stopped; the amulet's glow receded from her eyes. In a minute that contained an eternity, she could do naught but stare at the remains of her friends. No… I wasn’t fast enough to stop him… I… I couldn’t save them...
Twilight closed her eyes and breathed the deepest, longest breath of her life. Cold fury ran through every line and scratch of her face and body. Her eyes alight in scarlet once more, she flapped up to Tirek and lit her horn, engulfing his body in her bloody aura. She turned him around slowly to face her and blinked.
The candle blazed higher and brighter while the shadow’s cackle increased in pitch. The hazy red numbers in front of the broken centaur’s eyes began to count backward.
10…
“You have taken everything from me, you monster.”
8…
“Never again will you know freedom or respite from excruciating agony.”
5…
“In the name of the former bearers of the Elements of Harmony, the Lord of Chaos and my Number One Assistant—”
2…
“—I sentence you to an eternity of suffering in solitude.”
0.
“Go to hell, Tirek.”
The shadow swung its scythe through Tirek’s head. A piercing scream echoed all over Equestria upon Death’s extraction of Tirek’s soul. Amid the seemingly endless howling, Twilight banished the Tyrant of Destruction to the bottom of Tartarus. The candle shimmered and wavered from Twilight’s sight; the flame blazed with the intensity of the noonday sun before emitting a flash and vanishing. Death waved to Twilight with a skeletal leer and disappeared.
Twilight exhaled and stood in place for a full minute, her head toward the ground and her eyes leaking unceasingly. A small puddle had gathered at her hooves before she trotted slowly back to the remnants of her friends’ bodies. Saying no words, she lit her horn for the final time. Her blazing aura grasped all of the pieces and converged them into a single pile. With a drawn-out cry that pierced Elysium above, Twilight raised her head and incinerated the pile. Within seconds, ash was all that remained.
There was no breeze to blow the ashes away.
Twilight lowered her head and stared at the extinct funeral pyre. After shedding a final tear, she disappeared in a flash.
* * * * *
Two weeks later...
Every unicorn, pegasus and Earth pony in Equestria gathered in Canterlot square. They murmured amongst themselves, wondering why they had been summoned to the central seat of power together.
“Have the princesses returned?”
“Did they defeat the brute that stole our magic?”
“What’s going on?”
The sound of trumpets filled the air, willing the masses to fall silent. From atop the royal balcony, Princess Twilight Sparkle addressed the apprehensive crowd.
“Citizens of Equestria!” Twilight announced in her Royal Canterlot Voice. The ground rumbled beneath the civilians' hooves. “The Tyrant of Destruction, Tirek, has been defeated and re-imprisoned within the depths of Tartarus!”
The tribes all stamped and cheered together as one.
“However, it is not all good news. Though he has been sentenced for his crimes… he also took your magic with him. There is no way to reclaim it. I am truly sorry.”
Every head turned and gaped, the cacophony of seconds earlier completely muted and forgotten.
“Our magic is gone? Forever?”
“What about our cutie marks?”
“The weather?”
“The crops?”
“Despite this unfortunate setback,” Twilight continued, “there is another solution. The three princesses each bestowed their magical power upon me before Tirek banished them all to the Great Pit. I will remain to raise the sun and the moon every day. My magic is great enough to generate Equestria’s winds, manage its weather, even grow its crops. In short—”
She frowned as the masses began to hiss and stamp her way. Earth ponies threw various fruit in the castle’s direction, though without their strength, they were unable to land anything near their target.
“In short,” Twilight persisted, “I will be responsible for the continued prosperity of Equestria. With the power of the four princesses and my Alicorn Amulet, I will guide Equestria to a new time of peace. Nothing will ever threaten you again, my little ponies!”
Seconds passed. The uproar's volume reached new heights.
“What is wrong, my subjects?”
As the Alicorn Amulet around her neck glowed—her eyes matching its striking intensity—Twilight spread her wings, lifting her into the air. Her royal voice boomed over everypony in the square; hooves reached up to nurse their shaken owners' ears. She narrowed her eyes. “Are you not appreciative of what I've done for you? Do you not care that I saved you all from a horrible future?”
All of Canterlot square lapsed into silence. For a long while, nopony spoke. Then— “Princess Twilight? Where are Princesses Celestia and Luna? When are they returning?”
Twilight’s ears twitched. She narrowed her gaze at the lone stallion who—for even a single second—dared to challenge her will. A red aura enveloped him, driving his eyes to flick rapidly in all directions while he spluttered uselessly in Twilight’s grip.
“Now hear me, everypony, for these next words will determine whether you live—”
The hapless unicorn’s limbs all flew apart, painting members of the crowd with his vital liquids.
“—Or die. There is only one princess in Equestria now!”
She set the remaining torso of the shredded stallion back on the ground.
“And that princess is me!”
She retreated into the throne room and slid the door closed behind her, smiling as the quadruple-folded glass muted everypony’s screams. Yes, I will be the princess that Equestria needs. The only one.
The glow surrounding the Amulet and her eyes vanished, while she sagged against the door. Tears began to pool on the floor as the ultimate alicorn buried her face into her forehooves and sobbed.
