Time’s Up

Star listened to the voices and blocked a shot to the back of his head with his armor. He let out a kick to the face of the assailant while the demon below licked his lips. He pounced on something he saw in the darkness. Star flashed away as two figures crossed where he once was.

Celestia was having trouble keeping up. One moment he was there, then he was gone. Either he blocked their attacks or teleported away. They couldn’t land a single attack on him, even with the darkness advantage. She hated to admit it, but he was exactly what Project Horizon intended for. He was using Earth Pony magic to intensify his normal abilities of acrobatics and even managed to create a demon from the magic in the air.

Luna managed to dodge the tail swipe from the demon below. The gust of wind still blew her away from Star who closed his eyes for a second. Then, he opened his eyes and his dull grey eyes were replaced with that of a snake’s. Celestia saw the demon hesitate in his next strike before clawing at the air frantically. He landed on the ground and then jumped right back up towards Celestia. She flew just out of his reach and right into Star’s waiting range.

Star let out a magical blast that contained some of the evil energy the demon contained. She could feel the energy inside of him turning even darker. The blast hit her dead on because she couldn’t react fast enough. She fell to the ground in a crash as her whole body hurt. Then, she raised herself off the ground and flew back up. Her wounds were healing rapidly in the artificial darkness.

Luna activated some of her remaining magic and the stars in the sky sent down lights that hit the demon and one of which that got close to hitting Star. The lights erupted in the demon and he cried out in pain as a portion of him caught fire. Star’s left eye started bleeding and he closed it. The snake eye went in and out of focus as he tried to maintain the form.

Luna was familiar with summoning magic, all she had to do was remove the bonds that it held with the summoner and it would be weaker. Star managed to hold on, but it cost him a lot of his own strength. Then, Star opened the eye with blood in it. The sky started raining. It wasn’t normal rain, Celestia noticed. The drops were burning into the demon below. The creature convulsed on the ground and crawled into a ball. He seemed to melt into the ground as he gave a final cry of pain.

Luna had trouble getting away from the raindrops and she had her wings burned constantly. Celestia frowned. This was a forbidden spell that involved sacrificing a life. Where did he learn how to do that? It was erased from even her own library’s information. It had to have been from the Gryphons. After all, they were the only other ones that knew this existed. Maybe next time she’ll get rid of all of the witnesses.

Celestia felt the magic Luna casted was wearing off. The sky was beginning to brighten up and she wondered if they would be able to beat Star without it. Luna entered her Celestia’s vision, wearing black suit of armor. Celestia took a step back, that was a spell that took a serious toll on the user’s body, but it didn’t use up any magic.

“What’s she doing?” Twilight asked Eclipse, who was the only person that could hear her. Eclipse was still frozen in place, watching Star.

Luna felt the increase in the time limit of her spell and activated a spell that she didn’t want to use. The sky above Star became a web of markings that created a nine pointed star. At each point on the star, a letter was written and spelled out D-E-A-T-H and L-I-F-E.

“Luna, No!” Celestia cried out. It was too late. She was too fast at making summoning markings. The creature caused the air to freeze and the ground to quake. A white and light blue dragon flew out of the circle. Each scale on his body was as big as Twilight’s tree. He barred his monstrous teeth at Star’s direction. Star seemed to widen his eyes at the sight.

Celestia wanted to stop Luna as fast as possible before the demon could suck her energy away. Star looked up at the beast with bewilderment. Then, he nodded his head as the voice suggested an answer.

Star rushed to the beast, dashing forward and making up miles of ground in seconds. The beast looked down as Star put his hoof on the dragon’s scale. The dragon opened his mouth to breath fire at the colt and take a huge portion of Luna’s strength, but the fire never came. Star took one last look at the landscape around before closing his eyes. His right eye began to bleed.

The sky erupted in a flash of white. The moon was thrown away from in front of the sun and the dragon was blown apart into light particles by Star’s magic. The sisters looked up in disbelief as the servant of death himself was destroyed. Luna’s magic was retained by his short summoning, but her will was destroyed as the sky showed itself. Her armor shattered into pieces. The sun was shining down and the world looked normal, save the holes in the ground below.

Star was still floating in the air. His armor cracked and broke into pieces. It fell to the ground and turned to dust. His eyes were bleeding and he didn’t open them. The voices in his head were replaced by a single voice. He cried a red tear as he heard what it said. There was no going back now.

Celestia was still in shock, her mouth was agape. Their last resort was crushed in a second. There was nothing she could do to change that. Then, she looked up at Star who was barely hanging on to his consciousness. She still had small amounts of magic, but it would be enough if he was really out of magic.

Eclipse could now see what happened after everything went dark. She was no unicorn so she couldn’t activate a spell to see in the dark like the others. Now, she saw his condition. She saw the tears of blood that rolled down his cheek. She was almost speechless. Almost.

“Star!” Eclipse called out. She was on the verge of tears. This wasn’t her brother. He would never have let it gone this far.

“I’m sorry,” Star’s voice boomed down from the sky. “I can’t stop it,” Star said. “I just wanted to see the changelings…” Star frowned.

Celestia’s hope of him finally being out of magic was crushed. Star’s horn glowed even brighter, as the last remnants of his magic supply thawed out. He was given a surge of energy and his magic overflowed. The voice told him what would happen.

“You’re going to get your cutie mark now,” It said. He listened to the loudest voices since the beginning of the fight. He had done what the majority of the voices said. But the most important voice was ignored, because it was his own.

Star’s magic pool was tapped into without his permission. His body took over and the sky became littered in lines. The area around the sisters were covered in black lines. The lines split down the middle and a rift was opened. Celestia had no energy to stop the ancient magic. The world shook as the rifts opened up time and space. Meteors rained from the sky and targeted the sisters. Luna decided that with what little magic she had she would stop the colt.

Luna rushed forward, dashing straight to the colt and avoiding the rifts. Star looked right at her as he lifted his hoof towards her. She was stopped in her tracks as the air around her was turned into a web. Then, Star raised his hoof higher and the sky became littered with yellow lights. Except they weren’t lights. The sun rays were changed into a physical form and contained pure energy. They could pierce through the earth’s core in this form.

Star flicked his hoof downwards, and the rays all made contact with Luna’s body. Her scream was silent, as the world became mute. She became a pin cushion for the deadly lights. Celestia was horrified as Luna’s body fell to the ground and barely missed a rift. The meteors were almost there, getting bigger and bigger. Star raised his hoof again as more sun rays were created and were pointed at the hollow breathing alicorn below. Celestia’s hoof was trying to reach towards her sister.

Eclipse shook her head and looked up at Star. “Star!” Eclipse screamed. The silence was broken. The colt twitched.

Star felt a surge of control as he stopped his hoof from dropping. Then, he felt the burning sensation on his flank. He felt the magic supply overload and made a quick decision without the help of any voices. They were all silent now. All except his own.

Star sent the sun rays into the nearest rift and moved the rifts to point their entrances towards Luna. He concentrated all of the magic he was receiving and focused it on the meteors above. They changed directions and headed towards Star. Star gave a smile to Eclipse. His eyes were closed, but his magic sonar turned him to look directly at her.

“Thanks, for everything,” Star smiled. Eclipse’s eyes widened.

The meteors made contact with Star just a star constellation formed on his flank, and his body imploded, becoming a brilliant yellow color. The meteor also changed into a energy as it continued downwards towards Luna. The rifts shot out the rays they had captured before and shot them towards Luna before closing and disappearing.

The energy hit Luna and absorbed the sun rays already attached to her barely living body. The energy rushed through her and fueled her magic supply. The sky above turned to night and filled with stars. Those that had been gone for centuries were back now. Celestia was looking with confusion. Luna rose from the ground and shook her head.

“What was that?” Luna asked softly.

“I was wrong,” Celestia said, giving Luna a hug. The air was clearing up, and there was no sign of Star.

Twilight waved Eclipse goodbye as she was taken by chariot to Canterlot. She smiled to herself as she remembered what she told Celestia.

“What did you learn from this?” Celestia had asked her.

“I learned that sometimes a curse is actually a blessing in disguise. Don’t assume somepony needs to be normal to be happy. Sometimes you’re happier just being who you are,” Twilight had said.

“Very good. See? Good things come in hard to find places,” Celestia said.

“But princess, why did you provoke him in the first place? You still haven’t explained that in the first place,” Twilight said.

“Well you see Twilight… Project Horizon was a hypothesis of mine that tried to give magic to earth ponies. In the end, it did more harm than good, and was forgotten,” Celestia said.

“But I saw Star using… different magic, was he one of the successes?” Twilight asked.

Celestia looked up to the sky as she responded. “Actually, I was told that there was a single survivor of the project. We could never find out who it was until just yesterday. The problem was that when the explosion occurred, it didn’t just explode. It took all of the magic in the area, and gave it to Star. With all of that magic, we couldn’t let him go unless we knew he wasn’t a danger,” Celestia said.

“Still, wasn’t he too young to be considered a threat? I mean, he was just a colt after all,” Twilight asked.

“I guess the question I have to ask you is, Is the life of a colt worth more than putting your kingdom at risk,” Celestia looked Twilight in the eye. “Maybe you’ll answer that question better than I did,” Celestia said.

Twilight pondered this as Eclipse’s chariot faded into the distance. Luna nudged Celestia’s side.

“What did you learn sister?” Luna asked.

“I learned that Project Horizon was a complete success,” Celestia responded, looking away from them.

Luna laughed quietly, but Twilight was wondering if she’d ever have to make a choice like Celestia did. And if she had to, she might just say she needs to think and ask for more time. But some ponies just don't have time.

Author's Note

The end. I don’t think it was too bad, other than I feel it was a bit rushed at parts. I don’t read or write much short stories, so I don’t know if it’s rushed or not. Feel free to tell me what you think about the story, but there is a serious question I want you readers to think about. To prevent a threat to those you love, how far would you go?