The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny
How It came to Be (Parts 0, 1 & 2)
Book Part 0: Prologue
Blackness.
A dark room filled by an absence of colour. Shadows reigned in the dark corners of the Castle as the sound of hooves shuffling in the dark fell on deaf ears. A pony walked into the room and closed the door slowly behind her, causing the old hinges to creak and shudder from the sudden use. The door finally came to rest in the architraves, clunking shut and locking in place.
A heavy breath was exhaled as the unseen pony moved further into the abyss. The steps heading toward an invisible center where she stopped without warning. A moment of silence began, lasting for longer than it should of before the sound of wood gliding across old marble floors echoed into the dark, a chair being pulled away from a table.
The muffled and content sighs of the hooded mare resting her weary legs sounded into the nothing as she sat there, contemplating her day of stressful work. But alas, the night was still young. And this mare's work was not quite over yet, one final entry into a book was to be made before she could finish her day and fall into the realm of dreams.
The gentle hum of magic started up and a sharp scraping was heard as she lit a match, allowing the soft light of the tiny flame to cascade into an equally small amount of the room around her. The match was levitated slowly over to a large wax candle and held against the wick until it too was set alight.
The candle proved to be much more efficient as a light source than the match, as it illuminated more than a small patch of the room. The candle-flame burned with enough intensity to bask the mare and her desk in a warm glow that allowed sight of everything in front of her: On her desk lay a thick book filled with ageing parchment and protected by layers of dulled leather and held together by worn threads.
She smiled at the sight of her old diary, a personal tome containing things along the lines of inane philosophical ramblings, stories and tales of creatures in the night. Using her magic, the mare pulled back the cowl over her head and let it drop to her back. Resting the cloth on her cloak, she removed the rest of her attire: She removed the cloak, allowing it to come away and reveal a coat dark blue fur lying underneath.
Her ethereal mane and tail flowed on an invisible breeze that blew gently and made her mane ripple with the tides of magical energy that resided within her soul. She allowed the cloak and hood to hand from the back of the chair and hover just above the floor, scratching the surface of a complicated carpet that was black and sparkled with the reflections of the stars in her hair.
She leaned down to her desk and glanced over to a quill lying on the table next to the book, picking it up with her magic and laying it to rest in an ink well, running low on ink. Then she gently turned over the cover of the book and let it lie on the desk to reveal the title page behind it.
She smiled and flicked slowly through the pages, each one holding a night of memories immortalised within the confines of the paper. With them came visions of myths, legends and days far behind her, old friends whom had long since passed away and personal accounts of their meetings together.
The mare almost shed a tear at the knowledge held in the book, thinking about things she had done and things she wished she had. But now was not the time for recounting old regrets, as she had a tale to write. A story of a time when she witnessed a great event that changed Equestria forever.
Reaching a blank page, she rested the book out open before her and picked up the quill in the ink well. She levitated it from the black pot and rested it against the page. Then she began to write, talking her story with her drawn words...
"... Long, long ago, there was a time in the history of our beloved country when the sun shone warmly in the day and the moon glowed white with the passions of the night. There was a period of absolute harmony of which the heroes of Equestria saved the innocent from those who would wish to prey upon their weakness.
"With Laughter, the energetic one would bounce around her home filing those who need not have known better at that time, something to show the silver lining behind the dark clouds of sadness.
"Kindness, the gentle mare with an understanding of the mind far beyond that of any normal pony. She gave hope to the hopeless and helped all those in need of a little love.
"Honesty, those who would seek to slither their way past a mare such as she, would be spared no room for error as she could tell tall tale from the truth on any day.
"Generosity, a mare willing to give up something of her's in order for those around her to be happy and live life how they wish. Always the first to sacrifice if it meant the best for those around her.
"Loyalty, protecting and serving those in the need, ponies who would wish to victimise the innocent would be hard pressed to undermine this mare, as her bravery knew no bounds and her loyalty was utterly un-breakable.
"And finally we have magic. The product of all five combined, the mare of spells had an un-rivaled talent in the arcane arts and utillised her abilities to protect Equestria from those who would threaten the peace, no matter the cost. These mares grew into fine keepers of harmony and did everything in their power to maintain a safe Equestria for us all. They defeated many foes ranging from King Sombra, the shadow tyrant. Queen Chrysalis, the hive monarch. And they even tamed the wildest of chaos' himself; Discord.
"For years it was known throughout the kingdoms that Equestria was a force to be reckoned with, however there was a force eventually known to challenge even the power of the Elements of Harmony. These three beings changed everything we knew about power, able to 'write' whatever they wished into existence and able to change the course of time itself in order to gain the result they most desired. These beings came to be known as 'The Authors'...
They called themselves:'Devil-Hunter', 'Zamairiac' and 'Mad-Max-the-Black' ...."
Book Part One: An Ordinary Wednesday
"It was a day like any other, the sun beamed down upon the land with a gracious warmth that enveloped the ponies of Equestria in an aura of happiness. In the farming town of Ponyville, where the keepers of harmony resided, all was going as it normally would do on a typical wednesday.
"Ponies were well into their weekly work schedule and were doing their jobs like they would do any other week day. And a timid butter yellow pegasus was going about her daily business, when she saw an interesting book in her friend's library..."
*Knock-knock-knock*
A light knocking that could be better referred to as 'tapping' sounded through the Golden Oak library. Twilight's ears pricked up at the sound and her brain translated it into the arrival of Fluttershy. Always the shy pony, she would never take the chance of aggravating anypony even if they were her worst enemy.
"Come in, Fluttershy." Twilight called to the door and a quiet creaking noise struck through the library. A yellow head with a pink mane poked through the gap and eyes surveyed the room. Fluttershy located Twilight at her table, writing a report to Celestia.
"Oh, I hope I'm not interrupting anything." She said timidly, blushing lightly at her purple friend.
"Not at all, Fluttershy..." Twilight picked her head up from the parchment. "... I've got all night to write this report- well, probably not all night. Celestia needs sleep as well." She let out a little giggle and fell back in her chair with a lazy smile on her face. Fluttershy couldn't help but smile along as she walked into the room and gently closed the door behind her. It closed with a thud and Fluttershy turned back to her friend.
"I'm looking for a book on mythical animals, that is- if you don't mind. I mean it is well past closing time, but umm, I was wondering-"
"-Of course! What are friends for?" Twilight cut her off mid-sentence and left her desk to take a quick glance at her book-shelves. "They're over there, by 'M'."
"Thank's." The yellow pegasus replied simply. She walked over to the shelves where everything under 'M' was apparently located. She soon found the small golden plaque with an 'M' engraved into it and looked to everything to it's right and below it. While she was looking, Twilight started to ponder why she would be looking for a book at 10 pm.
"So. What's got you out at 10 O-clock in the night for a book, hm?" She questioned the shy mare.
"Oh, I was trying to get to sleep but I kept thinking about an old story. The one about the Humans."
"That old folktale?" Twilight said brightly. "Well you're free to look for something about them." Fluttershy just smiled and returned to scouring the shelves for her book. However, Twilight had taken an interest in her affairs, so it was only polite for Fluttershy to do the same for her.
"Is Spike not awake at this time? Isn't he normally the one to be writing your reports?"
"Mhm. Spike pretty much wore himself to the bone with all the chores I gave him today, and besides: If I don't write my own reports, I'll forget how to write eventually." She joked tiredly. "He's not the only one that's tired though. I've been milling around Ponyville all day, my legs are quite worn too."
Fluttershy was coming quite close to something she needed. Books that she would have been interested in on and around the topic of creatures, both known and un-known were starting to come up. Her hoof trailed along the edge of the shelf as names of books past by.
Eventually she came by something that caught her attention. A large yellowish book stood out against the drab browns and blacks, a hardback entitled: 'The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny'. She frowned.
"-Strange... I've never seen such a strange title for a book before.-" The pegasus thought to herself. She took the book gently from it's space and held it out in front of her. It's old cover seemed to have clearly been quite deeply affected by time, and the colours had faded significantly.
"Twilight?" She called to her friend.
"Yes? Need any help?" Her friend called back.
"What do you know about this?" Fluttershy held the book out to Twilight as the purple mare turned to see what she was holding with a grin. When her eyes fell upon the cover though, her expression fell and she frowned just as hard as Fluttershy did. She got out of her chair and walked over to the book held out to her.
Her magical aura enveloped the book and she picked it from the yellow hooves of Fluttershy. Hovering the book over to herself, they met half-way between the chair and Fluttershy. She tilted the book to meet her face and she scoured the cover for details.
"'The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny', hmm?" She almost sounded offended by the strange nature of the book. She flipped open the cover and looked at the front page. "The author hasn't bothered to write their name down, there's only a title." She flicked through all 300 or so of the pages, confused even more by the contents of it. Or more the lack of content it had. Each page was totally blank apart from the exception of a short sentence on the final page.
"'Don't fear who lies behind you if the greatest challenge is yet to be known'. Huh?" She was about to snap it shut when the page suddenly started emitting a small orange light. At first, the librarian thought one of her precious books was about to light on fire as her eyes grew wide and her mouth gaped. But when she saw that an inscription was appearing on the page... her mouth still didn't close. It was now jammed open for a different reason. Fluttershy walked up and peered over her friends shoulder.
"T-Twilight?" She stammered, confused at what was going on.
"Something is being 'written' on the book!" She cried and whirled around, making the timid pegasus jump. The unicorn nearl bowled over her friend as she rushed by and jumped onto her chair. Pushing her report aside, she lay the book down on the table and stared at it in awe. Fluttershy came up to the table to see what was happening, and she too was awe-struck by the process in front of her.
Words were slowly being inscribed onto the papers by some force of magic. Twilight read out the words as they came;
"If-fortune-favours-the-brave,
And-only-takes-three-to-dig-the-grave,
Both-of-mythical-origin,
With-a-book-to-pour-their-anger-in-,
-to-and-write-the-sounds-of-thunder,
As-they-tear-the-world-asunder."
She finished reciting the poem written before her and a flame rose from the words, writing the rhymes in the air. The flame hovered for a moment before collapsing in on itself, falling away into an infinite blackness. Wind was sucked past their faces and into the vortex as the vacuum pulled away the air from the room. The intense racket it created was horrendous, a high pitch whine that shook the crockery in the kitchen and made every hollow object in the room rattle. Twilight's ink well and quill fell from the table and started to be sucked into the bright portal that opened before her. The two started to back up as a faint screaming could be heard getting closer through it.
"Ugh, What the heck is going on down here-" A sleepy Spike wandered lazily over to the top of the stairs but stopped when he saw what was happening. "What did you do now!?" He shouted to her in a tired tone.
"I-I don't know!" Twilight shouted back. The screaming got louder an louder until it sounded like it was right outside of the portal. Everypony closed their eyes as a bright light shone through the portal, nearly blinding them all. While their eyes were closed, they heard the whining suddenly stop and the screaming took it's place.
*-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- *Crash* -Oof! *Bang* -Urgh!" The noises stopped and they all stood with their eyes closed in silence. They opened their eyes when they heard a groaning coming from inside the room. When Twilight looked in front of her, a large figure lay on the ground.
It had long legs and two arms that came down from a pair of shoulders near the top of it's body. The bi-pedal creature was wearing a pair of polished black boots and some maroon trousers that came up to it's waist. On top of it all, it was wearing a dark red trench coat that came down nearly all the way to the ankles and the end of the right sleeve had been rolled up. Under the trench coat it was wearing a red shirt with large black buckles to hold it together and black finger-less gloves adorned the hands. What got her was when she saw the face. The face of a primate looking back at her, with deep blue eyes and an incredibly light blonde mane. The face of a human.
"Uhh..." It said unsure of what to say. "...Hi?" It greeted with an unsure attitude.
For the first time since she was a little filly, she screamed.
Book Part two: A Day That Shall Live in Infamy
"The first of the three came with just as much confusion as those who had inadvertently brought him here. His name... Devil Hunter..."
"So, let me just go through this..." Twilight said after hearing the confused explanation of the human sitting at the other side of the table. "...You are the personified soul depiction of an author that has been implemented into our universe, correct?"
"Correct." Said the male human sitting opposite her. "However I'm not finished yet." Twilight propped her head up on the table with a hoof. All this thought of possible quantum magic explanations was making her head hurt.
"Begin." She droned.
"There is probably more authors coming here." He tapped his finger on the book and turned it over to the first few pages, that had already been filled with text. "The book is already being written, and considering the circumstances- there are probably more authors coming our way. Plus, the book is called 'The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny', so I'm guessing they're not going to be the friendliest bunch."
"You don't say..." Spike said sarcastically.
"I can already tell..." Twilight rubbed her temples. "...This is going to be a long day."
=---------- Meanwhile... ----------=
"Ponyville town hall was quiet at night. Only the final janitor and a few night dwelling ponies were hanging around in the dark shadows. Enter Lyra, a young and clever mare who had recently been condemned to 100 hours of community service by the Equestrian court for guess what? Naff all!" A mint green mare said angrily as she mopped the floors of Ponyville town hall.
A few ponies outside kept knocking on the walls and doors just to frustrate her. This made her stop and listen every single time it happened, and that meant she stopped mopping to stare at them through the windows. Mayor Mare had said that if she couldn't get this hall done by the end of the night, then she would call the princess to personally get her hours increased.
"The cheek!" She cried out to herself. "I'm paying my dues for no reason... Yeah, I did accidentally destroy AJ's market stall and nearly crush her pet dog as well as ruin over 100 bits worth of apples, but it wasn't all my fault!" She remembered her marefriend, BonBon who had pushed her and started laughing once it was all over. "She should be doing this stuff as-well!"
*Tap-tap-tap*
"SHUT THE HECK UP!" She screamed in the direction of the taps as a collection of giggles followed her. She growled and got back to mopping the surprisingly dirty floors, dipping the mop in the murky bucket water to help her cleaning, grumbling incoherent words under her breath.
She came across a particularly dirty patch and started to mop at it furiously to get it off. However, she cleaned, and cleaned but the muck would not come away, no matter how hard she tried. Then she had an idea. She would use her magic to get rid of it! Yes... Wait... one of the terms of community service is that she was not allowed to use her magic.
"Darn." She whispered under her breath, leaning on the mop and staring at the patch. "What even is that, anyway?" As she pondered the origin of the substance, unknown to her, something rose out of the shadows behind her.
The silhouette stood up to it's terrifying height and stared down at the mare with burning red eyes and a smile on his lips. He took a large scythe from his back and stood contemplating it. Raising it up slowly to bring it down upon the mare, he grinned as it became fully raised. He was about to bring it crashing down onto Lyra when he was interrupted by a knocking sound.
*Tap-tap...* The mare snapped her head in the direction of the tapping with an infuriated expression and scowled, keeping her angry gaze locked onto the wall. *...Tap*
"GAH!" She screamed. Whipping around she snatched the mop from the bucket and walked on her hind legs over to one of the windows. The cloaked 6 foot 6 inch tall man with brown hair watched as the mare smashed out the window and climbed into the darkness. "Here's LYRA!" She shouted at the colts and he heard screams of terror come from the other side.
Zamairiac observed in awe as the black shadow of Lyra terrorised the small ponies on the other side of the wall. Screams of absolutely petrifying proportions were sent out into the night and he grinned at the beautiful sight through a window where he could see the mare chasing them around in circles with the mop.
Zam' shrugged and moved on-wards through the hall, stalking the shadows and never once being fully exposed by the time he got to the front door. The door was locked, causing him to groan in frustration as he had to make more noise than he wanted to. He apprehensively raised the pommel of his scythe. As he brought it down on the door, the handle smashed into millions of different pieces. Even though the door was in tatters, the scythe was okay, much to Zam's delight.
"I'd hate to have to write in another one of these, they take ages to build." He said to himself. More screams from the ponies outside made him smirk, as he raised a leg ready to kick the door open.
*Smash!* He thrust his leg forward and the doors were flung outward. One of the hinges for the right door broke, making it lean down as he walked through the door-frame. He had to duck to get under, but her made it work.
"Ah... fresh air." He smiled at the cool and clean country air, reveling at the refreshing feeling in his lungs. He turned left and walked along the path until he reached the corner of the building. Peering around the edge, he saw three terrified colts whimpering on the ground at the mercy of the much taller Lyra.
With crazed eyes and a mop in hoof, Lyra beat her chest and roared in rage, shrieking into the night sky. Zam' smiled again and walked out into the open, planning to head past the raging pony and not get knocked out by a mop. He crept along the ground, quietly, stealthily. There was no way they would notice him over the racket that Lyra was making, until...
"-AAAAAAARGH!"... *Crack*
Just as Lyra finished her roar, Zam' stepped on a twig lying in the middle of the road and snapped it with enough noise to catch the angry pony's attention. He froze, like a rabbit under the headlights. Waiting to be smashed over the face by a wet and stinky mop... But the blow never came. He looked up at the ponies staring at him, blankly watching him apparently unsure of what to think of such a creature in the world of ponies. Zam's face did the opposite of Lyra's. As she grew a wicked grin, he frowned as hard as he could.
"Shit." He said in a fearful monotone voice. Lyra pointed her mop at him and shouted:
"Human!" She screamed in delight. "Ha! I knew they existed!" She pointed at the colts on the floor. As she began repeating 'I told you so!' at the confused young ponies, Zam' took the opportunity to peg it. He took off like a rocket, running away into the shadows as fast as he could.
With every foot-fall, Zam' could feel the pounding of his weight on the cold ground and he sighed a light breath of relief when he looked back to find no ponies chasing him. He kept running with his tan cloak trailing behind him, attached to his shoulders.
"AFTER HIM!" He heard Lyra scream in his direction and Zam' glanced back once more to check his six. Sure enough, there were now three scared colts and an insane mare chasing him.
"Fuck me..." Zam' groaned and returned his gaze in-front of him again. He looked for somewhere to hide, checking both sides of the thin shadowed street for anything that he could cover himself with. His eyes brightened when he saw the opening of an alley way coming up on his side of the street, for one time in his life he was thankful for an alley to hide in.
He ducked left and into the claustrophobic alley, looking for something to concrete his hiding place. Straight in-front of him was a dumpster and he decided quickly that he would hide behind it. He leaped over the top of it and tucked in as much of his large body as he possibly could. Finally managing to completely mask his body, he waited as the hoof-steps got louder. His shaky breathing steadied and he closed his eyes.
Lyra and her minions ran straight past him, or so he thought. So as he heard the hoof-steps muffling into the distance, he sighed and picked himself back onto his feet. He chuckled quietly to himself and dusted himself down. he turned around and there, standing in the mouth of the alley was the grinning, creepy figure of a pony.
He stared back at it for a few seconds until it walked forward, hips swaying into a stray ray of moon-light. And the demented face of a mint green mare showed up.
"Hello, human..." Lyra said seductively.
"Oh fuck." Zam's shoulders drooped and he suddenly started to fear for his life.
"Oh fuck, indeed." Lyra smiled back.
=----------Meanwhile----------=
Max grumbled as he picked himself up from the fall, and since he couldn't speak he had no way to shout out his annoyances to the world around him. he rose to his knees and rested there for a second, breathing heavily in shock from being woken up by falling face first onto the hard floor. His heart was beating extremely quickly from the sheer amount of adrenaline in his system.
Last night he had not only had sex with a pony, his owner, but he had also rolled off of her bed and onto the floor. And for some reason he was... dressed? He didn't remember getting dressed after that, maybe Twilight did it? Why though? She would have had no reason to.
He picked walked over to the top of the stairs in the Golden Oak library, rubbing his eyes lazily and yawning. And was immediately greeted by metal to the face. He jumped again as he staggered back and opened his eyes.
"-Oh, what now?-" He thought groggily. And what he saw hit him hard, confusing him deeply. Another human, this one clothed. Smiling and pointing a pistol at his head. He was completely covered like a human from back home would be, mostly in red attire that struck him as looking quite cool. He needed to get Twilight to ask Rarity for something of the likes.
However the first thing that came to mind was that he had a gun pointed at his fore-head, and that kind of took priority.
"Hello Max." The red clad man said to him, lowering his pistol. "Fancy meeting you here..."
