A Different Kind of Paradise

Chapter XVI: Battle for Redemption

Justice stood awestruck, trembling at the sight of Gabe in his human form.  “H-how?!”  He managed to choke out.  “This is impossible!  You!”  He was lost for words.

Gabe smiled in response.  “I suppose you had a hand in it.”  Gabe reached into his back pocket and pulled out Danny’s broken glasses and thought back to a few minutes beforehand.

Gabe was defeated; Justice had resisted the Elements of Harmony and turned all of his friends against him.  He had just started crying when the sound of somepony clearing their throat got his attention.  Before he could get a chance to look up however he felt himself being levitated by magic.

“Well you’re not going to get anything done getting all dirty now are you?”  Rarity asked in her usual tone, almost as if she didn’t realize it was the end of the world.

“Rarity?”  Gabe was confused.

“Everypony listen up!”  Rarity called the attention of the other five element bearers and Nero.  “I know you may be upset, and it’s perfectly understandable why.  But none of us have ever given up before, and I certainly won’t let any of us give up now.”

Twilight never turned around, she just sat there and scoffed.  “I don’t quite know if you’ve been paying attention, but there is nothing we can do.  The Elements of Harmony did nothing, and it’s all because of Gabe."  She then sniffled and wiped her face.

“What’s yer point Twi?”  Applejack said, picking her hat off of the ground and repositioning it on her head.  “When Discord turned us all evil, y’all didn’t give up on us then, in fact if ah recall y’all just fought harder.”

Twilight turned around to face Applejack, but only to scold her.  “Exactly!  Discord did that to you, it was Gabe’s choice to hand our world over to that thing.”  She made her way over to Gabe with nothing but anger and hatred in her eyes.  “And then, despite everything he said about being so sorry with the things he’s done wrong in his life, lied to us.”

“Says who?”  Rarity asked with a raised brow.

“You heard what Justice said!”  Twilight barked back.  “Gabe sold Danny out, he sold us all out.”  She turned her burning gaze back to Gabe who could only cringe at the sight.

“That was probably just Justice trying to get us to turn against him; you can’t seriously put his word over the word of your friend can you?”

“You know what?”  Twilight quipped.  “You’re right; Gabe, what did happen?”  She asked with a look that was a mix of pride and anger.

At first Gabe looked nervous, but then sighed and shook his head.  “This is my fault, not all of it like Justice believes and wants you to believe; but I started all of this, and after I saw what was developing I tried to take the easy way out.  But now I see I should have done something to fix this; not for me, not even for Danny, but because it was the right thing to do.”

After Gabe finished Twilight did look moved a little, but was soon distracted when she saw that her Element was glowing.

When they looked around they saw that all of the Elements of Harmony were glowing.  “What’s going on?”  Twilight asked, confused.

Gabe looked just as confused, but then grinned.  “I think I know, but you’re going to have to trust me.”

Gabe opened his eyes as he finished, unclenching Danny’s glasses.   “I had the girls use the Elements again, but this time” he paused.  “This time they used it on me.”

“A-a-and the Elements turned you human again?”  Justice stuttered.  “But that makes no sense!  You were stronger as a pony!”  He screamed; feeling a mixture of fear, anger and confusion.

Gabe shook his head and chuckled.  “It’s not about what form I take Justice: it’s about the trust my friends put in me, the strength I hold in my heart, the cause I stand for” as he spoke he began to glow a white light.  “And right now more than anything it’s about me undoing my mistake; for me, for Danny and for EVERYPONY!”  He cried out as his body was consumed in a flash of bright light, causing even Princess Celestia to shield her eyes.

When the light faded and Justice, Luna, and Celestia looked to where Gabe was the sight they saw was nothing short of miraculous.  Gabe had become much more than human.

6 thin, clean white wings were coming from his back,  his shirt had been replaced by a short-sleeved long white coat with three tails that flowed behind him, the open coat not only showed off not only his fit chiseled body, but the original symbol of the Elements of Harmony upon his chest.

As Justice’s jaw dropped Gabe just smirked and pocketed Danny’s glasses.

Justice’s breathing increased as he changed from shocked to enraged, his dreams of conquest were within grasp and he refused to be made a fool of again.  “You can’t stop me” he started, seething with rage.  “NOTHING CAN!!!”

“You’re wrong Justice.”  Gabe smirked.  “And I’m going to enjoy proving it.”  On that note he charged forward, Justice doing the same.

The two’s fists collided and a shockwave went in every direction.  Even the princesses were knocked off of their hooves.  Locked in a stalemate Justice and Gabe just pushed harder, hoping to break the other’s stance.  But soon Gabe’s chest began to glow purple as the emblem of the Elements of Harmony changed to a purple eight-pointed star.  “What the hell is this?”  Justice asked, straining to keep his footing against Gabe’s enhanced strength.

Gabe locked eyes with Justice and just smiled, then disappeared with a flash.

The amount of force on Justice’s was pushing before Gabe vanished caused him to fly forward and collapse.  When he started to pick himself up Gabe re-appeared in another flash right in front of him and kicked him in the face.  The kick sent Justice flying back, upon crashing Justice picked himself up quickly and scanned the room; Gabe was gone.  All he could see were the princesses, idly sitting and eating popcorn.  Justice took a defensive stance and waited for Gabe to re-appear.

He wasn’t prepared for this.

In several rapid flashes Gabe warped in and out of existence, each time delivering a powerful blow to the monstrosity.   When the assault stopped Justice was flailing about trying to intercept his attacker to no avail.   After a few seconds of silence Justice panted before crying out “WHERE ARE YOU!?  COME OUT HERE AND FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN!”

The response Justice got was a blue balloon coming through the floor.  Soon many balloons of different colors were surrounding him.   Confused, Justice struck one with the back of his hand, only to have it explode in a blast that sent him flying back; straight into the other balloons.  A chain of explosions caused Justice to fly into one balloon after the other, each one detonating on contact and sending the helpless demon flying.

After the last explosion Gabe reappeared, the star on his chest becoming an orange apple.  He grabbed Justice’s foot, brought him in close and punched him in the face with force enough to split the continent in half.  Still holding the demon’s canine paw Gabe spun around and flung Justice into the wall on the other side of the room, amazingly the wall didn’t shatter with the force Justice hit it with.  As Justice began to fall, Gabe quickly intercepted and punched him up through the ceiling and high into the night sky.  Gabe quickly took off after him.

When Justice stopped spinning he was able to right himself and keep himself aloft.  He panicked when he saw Gabriel flying up to him, still angry and still powerful.  “WAIT!”  He desperately cried, holding his hands in front of him.  “Please, just-just hear me out friend.”

Gabe hovered at Justice’s level and scowled at him.  “What?” he spat out at the creature.

“This power, it’s amazing.”  Justice wasted no time flattering his assailant.  “Can you imagine the possibilities?  What we could do with this?”

“All I’m thinking about is killing you, saving this world, and getting back my friend.”

“But if we work together, we can return to your world.  Rule it as gods!”

Gabe scoffed at how desperate Justice was acting.  “They already have a god.  And I thought I made myself clear, I’m happy here now.  I’ve found a new purpose, new friends, and a new life.  I’m sorry for what our families and friends must be going through, and I’ll never forget what I left there.  But Danny was right; this is a new beginning, a new world of possibilities.”

“B-b-but Gabriel my friend” he paused for effect.  “I can reunite you with Beatrice.”  Justice continued to plead.   “Didn’t you say you’d do anything in this world or the next to see her again?  If we just work together, and put this silly argument aside, I know we can do it!”

Gabe shook his head as his chest began to glow red as the apple took the form of a red lightning bolt.  “Justice” he started with a somber voice.  “You don’t get it.  I’ve moved on, forgiven myself for cheating on her, for betraying her.  I learned from my mistake, and became better for it.  But you Justice” storm clouds began to roll in overhead.  “You held on to the anger, hoping it would make you stronger, but all it did was make you an enemy.”

Thunder began to boom from the clouds as red lightning circulated through them.  Horrified, Justice took note of this.  “No! Not again!”

After he said that bolts of red lightning ripped from the clouds and descended to where the two floated in mid-air.  Justice cringed at the sight, but soon found he wasn’t being electrocuted again.  But when he looked up he wished it was the same as before.

Gabe was glowing red as electricity cackled all over his body.  He formed two massive spheres of energy in his hands and clapped them together, the massive electric blast sent Justice flying across the Canterlot skies into a tall tower.

The impact of Justice’s battered and fried husk caused the tower to begin collapsing.  Gabe smiled, knowing he was one step closer to his goal.  But his thoughts were interrupted when a massive segment of wall came sailing at him.  Quick maneuvering on his part saved him from the oncoming rubble.  Knowing he had no time to lose, Gabe took off towards where his “friend” was waiting.

More and more pieces of debris came flying at Gabe.  The first two were easily dodged by flying out of its path, but the next one Gabe turned upside down mid-flight and ran across; leaping off of it to gain the momentum to smash the final and largest piece through the center.  Keeping the energy from the blow going, Gabe kept going and flew fist-first into Justice, knocking him against the far wall.

The roof was completely gone, the walls were in pieces and the floor was cracking up; but that didn’t stop the two from their fight to the death.  Gabe lunged at Justice, but this time Justice was able to evade the oncoming blow.  Knowing he couldn’t stay still for long Justice sprang up and took to the offense; he rushed to Gabe and prepared a series of devastating punches, each of which to no surprise Gabe avoided.

Seeing what he thought was an opening Gabe threw a punch aimed at Justice’s jaw, but Justice had learned from his encounter with Nero and intercepted Gabe’s fist.  Shocked, and unwilling to let Justice have any control over the fight, Gabe countered Justice’s attempt by pulling him in close and then kicking him in the gut with both legs.

This blow sent Justice reeling; he flew into one of the few standing walls, just to feel it give away.  Within seconds he was riding a chunk of wall down towards Canterlot.   As he was trying to gain control of his fall Gabe dove at him, effectively shattering the slab of wall Justice was trying to ride.  As the two fell Gabe grabbed Justice and threw him into the walls of the tower, before Justice could recover Gabe grabbed his head and ground it into the wall; Justice’s face causing the damaged tower to crumble and collapse further.

Although Justice was able to remain intact, the pain of his muzzle grinding against a concrete building as he fell to the ground was excruciating.  He couldn’t see why but soon he noticed that Gabe had let go, he didn’t give it a second thought before he propelled himself from the wall and tried to regain his balance; then he realized why Gabe let go.  Pieces of the building were coming down left and right, it took all of Justice’s effort not to be flattened.  As he dodged more large chunks of debris he noticed Gabe was in the same predicament:  Justice got a nasty idea.

Making sure to weave his way in and out of the falling pieces of demolished building Justice quickly approached the preoccupied Gabe from behind.  When he was close enough Justice grabbed Gabe and flung him into the side of the tower, took a deep breath in, and blew a torrent of fire at the surprised human.

Justice didn’t let the stream of flames up for a good minute before he was out of breath; even then he just let out an even bigger burst just to make sure the job was done.  He snickered as the flames subsided; but his pride soon melted into shock.

Surrounding an unharmed Gabe was a massive diamond-shaped barrier.  As Gabe unfolded himself and passed right through the shield it was revealed his chest bore the symbol of a gem.   He then swung his arm, the diamond following his motions, shattered the magically-fashioned gem into Justice’s skull.  The impact causing Justice to fall even faster, with more force right into the square below:  the square already being cleared due to the panic of the tower’s destruction.

With a deja-vu sense beating in his head, Justice pried himself from the crater he left in the stone and got to his knees as Gabe effortlessly drifted to the ground nearby.   The bruised and tired Justice spat before leering at Gabe “why are you fighting me?”  He asked.

“I thought I made this clear.”  Gabe started.  “I’m fighting to save this world.”

“Don’t lie to me!”  Justice snapped.  “Why are you fighting?!”

“To save the ponies I put in danger and to make up for what I did!”  Gabe yelled in response.

In response Justice simple chuckled, finally getting to his paws.  “Don’t you see?  This isn’t for them!  This is all for you!  You feel bad about what you did and now you’re trying to get rid of the thing that’s living proof that you screwed up!”

“Are you even trying anymore?”  Gabe scoffed.  “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Justice shook his head.  “You can’t deny it.  You’re just trying to cover up your mistake, and look noble in the process.  You may seem all benevolent and wise, but you’re a fraud, a hypocrite.  You claim to stand for the light, but you have barely any idea what the light is.  It’s not what you believe in; it’s what you use as a tool to promote yourself; you sing of grace and forgiveness, but all you give is anger and intolerance! ”

“That’s enough Justice.”  Gabe seethed.

“What are you going to do?”  Justice mocked.  “Lash out at me like you lashed at Daniel time and time again when he refused to accept what you preached?”  He started to laugh but was interrupted when a crow landed on his shoulder.  When Justice looked at his newest avian friend it cawed in his face and flew towards Gabe.  What Justice saw next made him reel in horror; the emblem on Gabe’s chest had changed to a pink butterfly and there was a massive swarm of birds piling behind him.

“Actually” Gabe started to answer Justice’s question.  “That’s exactly what I’m going to do.”  The look in his eyes was enough to stop even the most resilient beast’s heart.  He raised his hand in the air, and snapped his fingers.

At that instant all of the birds that had gathered behind him flew at Justice.  He swung desperately but there were too many and they were each too small to land a decent hit.  He could barely keep his footing against the ornithoid onslaught.  He couldn’t see, could barely breathe, and had no way to defend himself.

  When the constant fluttering and flapping stopped and the wind and tiny impacts came to an end Justice thought it was safe to open his eyes again.  He thought wrong.  The first thing Justice saw was Gabe, still enraged, more specifically his fist coming at him with the force of a train.

This single punch sent Justice flying across the square into another building.  Before Justice could recover Gabe had quickly flown over to him and grabbed him by his neck and brought him close.  “This is for Twilight!”  He said before smashing Justice’s head into the wall behind him.  “This is for all of the ponies you killed!”  He repeated the process, this time causing cracks to appear in the wall.  “And this is for every time you made Danny doubt himself or caused him any sort of pain.”  He whispered before putting Justice down, taking a few steps back, and with a running start kicked Justice in the face; sending him clear through the damaged wall.

The room in which the two now found themselves was some sort of elaborate ballroom.  Justice, who was beaten severely, had difficulty sitting up to face his opponent.  Gabe on the other hand had strength to spare; he causally stepped through the hole he made as the butterfly on his chest changed back to the original symbol of the Elements.

“Coward.”  Justice leered at Gabe before falling onto his hands and knees and coughing up some blood.

Gabe shook his head, Justice was just being pathetic, trying to salvage any sort of pride if he ever had any.  “Alright, I’ll humor you.  How am I a coward?  The one who admitted his mistake and is confronting his demons?”

Justice managed to push himself onto his knees before continuing.  “You fight me not with your own strength” he almost fell over again when he coughed some more.  “But rather, you fight me with the powers and abilities stolen from your so-called friends.”

“This strength was given to me because they believe in me.”  Gabe stated, sure of himself and his cause.

“They were afraid!”  Justice yelled.  “Afraid of losing what mattered most to them!  And you!  You took advantage of that fear!  You knew they would never say no to your hare-brained idea.  So you forced them to give you the strength to defeat me and play the hero.  I’ve said it once and I’ll say it 1,000 times, you’re a liar.  But you can’t fool me, you can’t fool yourself, and you can’t fool Daniel!”

“I don’t have to fool anybody Justice!”  Gabe shouted back, he was tired of Justice trying to make him out to be the bad guy.   “I’m doing what is right!  And that’s all th…”  He was interrupted when the emblem of the Elements on his chest began to glow.

Justice cringed at the sight, he feared the worst.

Gabe saw Justice’s fear and smirked, but then felt an odd sensation that pulled him out of his confident state.  When he looked down his heart almost stopped:  the symbol of the Elements was fading away.  No sooner than they did he noticed his wings were peeling apart and drifting away like ash.  “No!”  He screamed in terror.  “NO! NO! NO! What’s going on?!”

Justice noticed this and was just as surprised as Gabe, but soon he started to laugh.  “Amazing.”  He grinned as he got to his paws with no problem.  “It seems that while you don’t listen to reason, the Elements of Harmony did.  They would rather watch their world burn then serve the will of someone like you.”

“This can’t be happening!  I don’t understand!  Wait!”  Gabe pleaded as he fell on his rear and began to back away.

Justice slowly approached the now powerless Gabe with a wicked grin.  He made sure to take his time, allow the hopelessness to really sink in to the one who had caused him so much grief.  When Gabe tried to escape through the hole he made with Justice’s face, Justice plunged his fist into the ground and caused several spikes to rip through the ground and block the exit.

Gabe was horrified, his source of strength had left him and now he was trapped.  It wasn’t long before Justice grabbed his neck and lifted him to face level.  “You’ve always disgusted me Gabriel.  Your talk of hope and faith; I have never once felt what it meant to be loved, to have something to live for and people like you take all of that for granted.  You go around making sure everyone can see things your way, and you break anyone who tries to see things from a different point of view.”

“It’s not like that.”  Gabe choked out while he pitifully struggled to break Justice’s grip.

“Well I see it that way.”  Justice growled.  “And so does Daniel.”

“NO!”  Gabe cried out.

“But where’s your hope now Gabriel?  Do you finally grasp the big picture?  That in the real world, whether it be one of pony or man, you don’t get ahead by hoping; you get ahead by breaking those who stand in your way with force.  Daniel and I both learned that the hard way.”

“You’re wrong!”  Gabe yelled, on the verge of tears from Justice breaking him.  “Hope is real!  It’s what pushes us to fight against impossible odds.  Even if you kill me someone will fight, and if one pony fights, more will be inspired to fight you.   Then you will fall.”

“Oh Gabriel.”  Justice grinned.  “So deluded ‘till the end, once I murder those princesses nopony will want to fight; they’ll all just want to run, to survive.  And I will happily break their illusions of security, and watch their hopes shatter along with their bones.”

Justice then pinned Gabe against the wall and wrapped both of his hands around his throat.  Gabe kicked and struggled in vain as his throat was crushed and he lost the ability to breathe, his gasps for air drowned out by Justice’s mocking.

  “So as you can see, there is no hope; not for you, not for this world, and not for Daniel, the one you personally condemned!”  Using his thumbs, Justice forced Gabe to look him in the eye as he finished.  “I was hoping to watch you slowly starve as you wandered the ashes of this destroyed land, but I’m more than satisfied with sending you to Hell myself.”

As Gabe was forced to stare at Justice’s sadistic grin he felt the last bit of life leave him.  Everything he could see became blurred, he couldn’t feel anything, and soon everything went black.

He was dead.

Gabe was terrified; he found himself in nothing but total darkness; there was nothing in every direction.  He couldn’t even look down and see himself.  He tried running, but as there was nothing he couldn’t tell if he wasn’t moving or just lost in the void.  No matter how hard he tried nothing ever changed, just a thick black darkness as far as he could see.

Eventually he gave up.  He fell to his knees and began to cry.  He cried as loud and hard as he could, punching whatever he was kneeling on.  “I’m so sorry!”  He cried into the darkness, hoping someone would hear him.

But there was no response.

Gabe had lost, he had failed his friends, and now he would have to bear that for all of eternity as he wandered this empty darkness.  He fell on his side and cried some more.

“Don’t give up!”

Hearing that made Gabe jump up in surprise; he didn’t say it, and he was alone in this void.  Wasn’t he?

Then he saw something, a light.  At first it was small, but quickly grew as it got closer.  Gabe recognized it instantly and when he did tears filled his eyes.  “DANNY!”  He shouted as he picked himself up and ran towards him.

When they finally reached one another Gabe was thoroughly crying as he wrapped his arms around his friend.  “I’m so sorry, this is all my fault.  Please forgive me.”

Danny returned the hug, but soon broke it to talk to Gabe.  “Please don’t give up now, Justice is weak I can feel it.  You just have to keep fighting!”

“I-I can’t” Gabe sobbed, falling to his knees.  “The Elements left me; I have nothing to fight with.”  He then felt himself being lifted up.

“Fuck the elements!”  Danny said as he lifted Gabe to his feet.  “Do you think those stupid rocks are what matter?  No.  It’s the spirit of those who wield them, the fact that they had something worth fighting for and would do anything to fight for it.  I don’t know how you lost their power, but I don’t care.  You’re way too strong to let something like that stop you.”

Hearing Danny’s speech just made Gabe cry more.  “But Justice is right.  Without that power I’m nothing.”  He turned away, ashamed he caused this and was unable to fix it.

“If the Elements of Harmony won’t give you their power” Danny put a hand on Gabe’s shoulder.   “Then take mine.”

When Gabe turned back he saw Danny glow brightly.  The light then came off in streams and flow into Gabe’s chest.  The moment they did he felt rejuvenated, and the darkness began to let up.  But his attention went back to Danny as he groaned and began to stagger.

“I’m sorry.”  He said.  “But that’s all I can do.  Go, finish this, for everyone.”  The moment he finished he fell forward; Gabe reached out to catch him, but the moment Danny touched him he burst into a silvery glittering dust.

Gabe started crying again as the darkness melted away further.  “I’LL GET YOU OUT OF HERE DANNY!”  He yelled before sobbing.  “I’LL GET YOU OUT OF HERE NO MATTER WHAT!”

Justice laughed as Gabe’s limbs just dropped to his side, his empty eyes a sign of his victory.  He knew that he had won, but as a sign of respect he closed both of Gabe’s eyes.  Justice then let go of Gabe’s neck and let him drop to the floor.

Suddenly both of Gabe’s eyes ripped open, glowing with a powerful light.  “WHAT?!?”  Justice yelled in shock, only to be blasted all the way to the other side of the ballroom by a powerful burst of light, when he recovered he saw Gabe standing over him again; his wings had returned and on his chest a half-white half-black heart shaped record lingered for a moment before changing back into the symbol of the Elements of Harmony.    “Bu-b-but I killed you!  How is this p-possible?!”  Justice stammered in fear as he tried to back away.

“Justice” Gabe started.  “Not only did you hurt my friends and kill several ponies, but you tried to take away our hope, to make us feel helpless and alone.”  One by one the elements came out of his chest, as brilliant spheres, each bearing the symbol of their bearer.  They merged together over Gabe into a large bright mass.  Then each of Gabe’s wings turned into a beam of light and joined the mass above him.  “And that” Gabe started as the mass above him took form.  “IS BEYOND FORGIVNESS!”

Justice just watched in horror as the mass of light transformed into a giant dove, its coo shook the building and rattled the windows, everypony all over Canterlot heard it, and turned to where the noise was coming from.  Justice returned his gaze to Gabe as he finished his speech.  “Oh and Justice, I was never your friend.”

At that the massive dove dove at Justice, it wasn’t fast but the impact was still devastating.  The moment it made contact Justice began to scream in agony, the scream soon turning into a shrill cry as his silhouette began to fade.  The shriek stopped for a moment as Justice asked.  “What’s going to happen to me?”  Right before he faded.

The bird of light didn’t stop though.  It smashed right through the wall and flew out into the gardens.  It then flew over the city, sprinkling a glittering stardust over everything it passed over.  Whatever damage was caused by Justice instantly healed as the stardust touched it, everypony just watched in awe as the dove flew around the city many times, and then out towards the Everfree forest, where it seemed to disappear.

But none of that mattered to Gabe.

Gently floating before him in a gentle beam of light was Danny, unconscious and once again a pony.  Gabe ran towards him and once he reached him, carefully grabbed him and slowly went down to his knees.  “Hey.”  Gabe said softly as he gently shook Danny, trying to wake him up.  “We won.  For real this time, you can wake up.”  Gabe started to cry as Danny remained motionless.  “Danny?  Danny please!”  Suddenly he remembered something, he reached into his back pocket and grabbed Danny’s glasses and proceeded to put them on him.  Once he did Danny stirred a little.

“Danny?!”  Gabe gasped.

In response Danny’s eyes slowly opened.   He looked up at Gabe and with tears in his eyes threw his hooves around him.  “You did it!  You really did it!  I never stopped believing in you Gabe.”

“Thank you Danny.”  Gabe returned the hug, right before he started glowing.

“Gabe” Danny gasped.  “What’s happening?”

Gabe’s entire body was enveloped in a bright light, and when it faded he had changed back from a human into a pony.  “Nothing, this is who I am now.  I shouldn’t have tried to change that.  Not if it meant hurting my friend.”  Suddenly Gabe felt completely drained and began to lose his balance; soon he collapsed on the ground.

“Gabe!”  Danny shouted, worried.

“Don’t worry about me.”  Gabe said, his voice trailing off.  “I’m just a little beat, that’s all.  See you soon.”  At that he passed out, this time without the fear of Justice haunting his dreams.