Horseraiser

The treetops of the Everfree Forest whipped past underneath Twilight. How long had she been talking to the illusory Priest? Had she ever been talking to the real one at all? There was no time to lose. She was sure he was headed to Ponyville, and she was sure horrible things would happen when he got there. But if Twilight hurried…

A massive golden tail rose up out of the forest and slammed into Twilight, knocking her out of the air. She instinctively brought up an impact shield as branches and leaves began to flash past. Trees shattered as she shot through them. The magical backlash fed back into her horn, making her feel like her head was about to split in half. She plummeted, slamming through stronger and stronger trees. The friction of her passage began to create sparks, then flames. Her shield slammed into the ground, driving itself ten hooves into the soil before it stopped. Twilight deactivated her shield. A clod of dirt fell on her head. She sighed, and crawled out of the hole.

A fire was raging in the Everfree. Rising above the fire was a massive, golden-scaled, and wingless dragon. It caught sight of her and opened its jaws, and a stream of green fire flashed towards her. Twilight effortlessly deflected the fire and flapped back into the air.

Wait. Green fire. “Oh no.”

Twilight dove and twisted, making herself harder to target, the way Rainbow Dash had taught her. A massive claw whipped past her, knocking feathers from her wings. She had to get close enough to see. To make sure.

Twilight zoomed by, her wingtip nearly brushing the dragon’s side. Close enough to see that the gold plates were riveted to green and purple scales. She began to climb. “Oh, Spike. What has he done to you?”

Flames flashed after her. She was very high now — high enough to see for miles. High enough that she had to struggle to maintain altitude in the thin air. Her horn glowed. Below, winds began to swirl around Spike.

“Hush now, quiet now…” The wind whipped through the broken branches around the dragon. Flames, both orange and green, flickered and died. The dragon lumbered around, searching, unsure what attack Twilight was preparing.

“…It’s time to lay your sleepy head…” The wind played a melody as it whipped through tree branches. Spike blinked. His eyelids were growing heavy. He yawned.

“…Hush now, quiet now…” Twilight let herself drift lower, spiraling down through the clouds. The dragon staggered, and swung his claws at her even though she was far, far out of reach.

“…It’s time to go to bed.” Spike fell, crashing down amongst the burned and broken trees around him.

Twilight landed on Spike’s nose. She could see blood under the gold plates on his face where Needle Noggin had nailed them into Spike’s skull. She kissed him on the eyelid, then put her face against the center of his forehead. Her horn glowed green for a few minutes.

“He’ll pay, Spike. I promise you, he will pay.” She kissed the dragon’s sleeping form again, and launched herself into the air.

———

Ponyville was burning with green flames. The roads were clogged with fleeing ponies. They pointed as Twilight flew overhead. The princess. Their heroine. Their salvation. And the cause of all of this, though they didn’t know it yet.

Needle Noggin was waiting for her when she landed on Ponyville common. He was standing in the midst of five t-shaped scaffolds. Her friends were crucified on them, held in place with barbed wire.

“What took you so long, your Highness?” said the Priest. “I got bored and started without you.”

Pinkie Pie’s mane fell straight and lank over one eye. The other eye glared at Twilight. “We’re having such a nice party, Twilight. I’m so glad you could make it.”

“It’s not so bad, Pinkie,” said Fluttershy. “I always knew something like this was going to happen to me.” Her eyes were red from crying. Twilight could see that there was vomit crusted in amongst the blood on her fur. “Now that it has, I know that nothing worse than this can happen to me, ever again. I don’t have to be afraid any more! It’s so wonderful!” And she smiled. Twilight could hear Fluttershy’s teeth grinding together.

“Oh, Fluttershy. I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” Twilight felt like she was going to be sick herself.

“Please, darling,” said Rarity, her voice trembling, “we all... we all make mistakes, don’t we.” Twilight looked at Rarity’s wounds, and knew that her pure white coat would show every scar from the barbed wire for the rest of her life.

Twilight hung her head. “I didn’t want to involve you, because I was afraid you might get hurt.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “And look how well that worked out.” A loop of barbed wire was dug in deep under her jaw, forcing her to hold her head up and to the side or risk tearing open a jugular.

“The important thing, though,” said Applejack, between clenched teeth, “is that we’re all together again.”

“Yes,” hissed Pinkie. “Dear Princess Celestia, today I unleashed the dammed to torment the virtuous. That was a big mistake. Everyone died screaming. Oops. But at least we died together. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”

“If I could have a moment, ladies?” said Twilight.

“Oh, of course,” said Pinkie. She began humming to herself.

Twilight turned to the Priest. “You’re breaking your own rules. These ponies are innocent. They didn’t even know I planned to open the box.”

The Priest growled. “You broke the rules first. You attacked us, and murdered my companions. Now, we are thrown back on the oldest law. Lex talionis. An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. You killed my friends. But one can always make new friends. Isn’t that right, Princess?”

Twilight didn’t answer.

“But I only need three of them. Which three, Princess. Should I let you choose?”

“Two. You already mutilated Spike.”

The Priest laughed. “That animal does not count.”

“It’s not important. I’m not going to play your game. We’re done here. I wanted to destroy you — not only because you are evil, but because I was afraid that in my lust for knowledge I would become like you. I wanted to face your darkness, because I hoped that in destroying your darkness, I could destroy my own.”

“Yeah, not to be harsh on you Twi, but it kind of had the opposite effect,” said Rainbow.

“You can say that again,” said Applejack.

Twilight nodded. “It’s true. I made a mistake. A horrible, horrible mistake. But I’m not like you. Do you know why, Needle Noggin?”

“Do not call me that!”

Twilight lifted her head high. “Because I’m a pony. You left that behind a long time ago. And because when things were looking bad, you ran away from your friends. And I ran towards mine.”

“I’m sure your friends will be a great comfort to you when the maggots are eating your eyes from the inside!” said the Priest.

Applejack sighed. “Yeah. As I was saying: the important thing is that we’re all here together.”

“Seriously. You ready for me to kick this chump’s plot for you, Twi?” said Rainbow.

Twilight nodded. “I think it’s about that time.” Prismatic light lanced from her body to the bodies of her friends. The barbed wire fell away, and the five fillies were lifted off their crosses by clouds of radiance while the rainbow beams converged on Twilight.

“But your Elements! I have studied you! You are powerless without your Elements!” The Priest reared up on his hind legs and raised his hooves. Lighting crackled between them, but he was too late. Twilight seized him in a beam of light and lifted him in the air. His spell flickered out.

“Study isn’t everything, egghead,” said Rainbow, rubbing her neck.

“You simply have to keep abreast of current events, darling. We internalized our Elements a week and a half ago. Do try to keep up,” growled Rarity.

Twilight had the Priest at her mercy, but she hesitated. She could destroy the Priest easily, and she had no qualms about that. But the Lament Configuration had survived her attempt to destroy it. She had defeated the Order of the Gash, but Hell could replace them.

She turned to her friends. “I’m sorry, friends. There’s something else I have to do.”

Before they could try to stop her, she flicked her hoof at the Priest, yanking him towards her. “Come to Mommy.” A cross of brilliant blue light enveloped them, and folded itself into a box. And then with a flash, Twilight and the Priest were gone.

The five stared at the place where the two had been.

“Um, where’s Twilight?” asked Applejack.

Pinkie started to laugh.

———

Twilight and Needle Noggin sat in the box of white light, staring at each other. They were quiet for a long time.

At long last, Twilight spoke up. “All right. I surrender.”

“You... you surrender?” the Priest’s lower eyelid twitched.

“I surrender. I’m trapped in here with you. I’m exhausted from battle, and I’m separated from my friends. There’s no way I can beat you. You’ve won.”

“This is a trick. A filthy pony trick.”

“Well then,” said Twilight, “We’re going to be here a while. I’m glad I brought something to read.” She pulled a small paperback novel from her saddlebags, and instantly became absorbed in it.

The Priest howled with rage, and tore the tools of the great Engineer of Hell from his belt. They flew from his hooves, unfolding into bandsaws, scalpels, and clamps. Twilight screamed as icy steel sliced through her coat. In seconds, her wings were stripped away. Her skin was flayed from her sides, and ribs were twisted and broken. Purple hide was stretched across rib bone and bolted to her wing-shoulders, and iron bands were summoned and fastened to the torn muscles of her barrel to keep her heart and lungs inside. A crown appeared, heavy and iron black. Holes were drilled in her skull, and nails slammed through to anchor the crown home. Then the tools withdrew, folded themselves into neat little packets, and hovered in the air between them.

Twilight Sparkle stood shaking, dizzy with shock, her head bowed under the weight of her new crown. The Priest laughed. “Now do you understand, Your Highness? Do you see the secret of our power?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes. There is power in pain. Especially when combined with sacrifice.”

“Sacrifice?” the Priest spat. “A lie told to sheep! The will to power is supreme!”

Twilight’s eyes began to glow. “Oh, don’t worry. I’ve got a lot of that, too. Hey, look, now that I’m a Cenobite, I can use your tools.” The tools, enveloped in purple light, unfolded again. They turned towards the Priest. Twilight stepped towards him over her severed wings, a joyless grin splitting her face. “You hurt my friends. Now your suffering will be legendary. Even in Hell.”

It was hours before the Priest’s screams stopped.

———

Twilight stood on a ledge overlooking a labyrinth. Below her, catwalks, stairways, chambers and rows of arches tangled in grotesque confusion. She had traveled far in the tesseract she had created with the last of the rainbow power. All the way to Hell.

Some of her books had suggest that Hell might be a place like Tartarus, where the wicked were protected and cared for — kept where they could not harm others, or themselves. But she heard the countless screams echoing below her, and realized that this was only a place of suffering. There was no need for this. Not in any universe.

Twilight turned to the ashen plain behind her. She closed her eyes, and her horn flickered. Electricity crackled across her crown and her new, thestral-like wings. Her mind reached out across the Bulk, the void between universes, and found the beacon she had placed on Spike. She pulled him through.

“Twilight,” he rumbled. His eyes were clouded, but he was slowly regaining his senses. “It hurts.”

Twilight hugged his massive, gold-armored chest. “I know. I’m sorry.” She had hidden her soul in amongst her dreams — this sounded very poetic, but it was really an exacting and fairly painful procedure. It had been hidden, there, safe from Luna’s prying and from the Priest’s attempt to reshape it as he had her body. A few slices transferred to Spike had been enough to give him back his sanity, and his self control. “It’s my fault that this happened to you.”

Spike smiled. Teeth glistened. “You won, didn’t you?”

“Did you see the others? Are they all right?”

Spike nodded. “Rarity, AJ, and Rainbow are okay. Really sad, though. I’m worried about Pinkie and Fluttershy.” He pointed a claw at his huge head and moved it in a circling motion.

Twilight sighed. “We can’t help them. We’ve changed. There’s no place in Equestria for us any more.”

Spike nodded. “So now what?”

Twilight turned back to the horizon. Spike saw that the flayed head of the Priest was tied to her saddlebags. Its eyes turned to watch him as she walked to the edge of the ledge. In the distance a massive structure rotated — it looked like two pyramids fused together at the wide ends. Beams of darkness lanced from it, searching the maze below. It was Leviathan, the ruler of Hell. It emitted a strange pulsing hum. As Twilight listened to it, she realized it was a message in a telegraph code she recognized. Long-long-short. Long-long-long. Long-short-short. “God”. She snorted. She’d see about that.

“This place,” Twilight said, sweeping a hoof across the horizon. “It has to go.”

Spike cracked his knuckles.

The Princess and the dragon descended into Hell. And Hell howled.