Endgame: The Lost Worlds

Ashen galloped as fast as he could up the temple steps, forbidden tears slipping from his eyes.

He saw it, Xander saw it, they all saw it. They saw Braveheart get stuck down by a god, and in such a way.

Braveheart was the soul of the Equestrian army. Without him, the mission was nearly impossible.

No, Ashen will find a way to cast Alduin back into his own world, with or without Braveheart. He had to. Too much was at stake here.

Ashen finally reached the temple gates, and looked down below, viewing the battle between the Nohrian army and the Chimerae warriors. He remembered Xander’s words to him

“Go! Complete what we came here for! I will hold off the Chimerae for as long as I draw breath, but you must seal Alduin away!... Go!”

Ashen Spectre rammed the temple doors, forcing the heavy doors wide open. The Temple Of Origin was made entirely of one, vast room inside, with a massive pool of sparkling clear water in the middle of the room.

Ashen pulled off his saddle bag and checked his gear. He had his runestones, his copy of Quod Sacra Tenebrae, his bandolier of knives, and four very powerful tomes of four other dragon deities from Xander’s world.

Grima’s Truth, Book of Naga, Book of Dusk Dragon, Book of Dawn Dragon.

Ashen put the saddle bag back on and trotted up to the pool, he slammed his silver lance point-first into the ground. As he got closer to the pool, he could see tiny spheres floating in the pool. He understood immediately.

This sacred pool is the gateway to the lost worlds, worlds that have been birthed by various gods, set in their owns universes. Somewhere in that pool was the manifestation of Xander’s world, Julius Belmont’s world, Alduin’s world, they were all among countless others.

Then it clicked, and Ashen’s eyes grew wide with horror..

Ashen heard the shuffling of robes, and turned to face the interloper.

It was none other than Trixie, dressed in dragon priest robes.

“You should not be hear. My patron needs pool prepared for his grand ascent.”

“Stop this foolishness, Trixie! Do you know what Alduin is planning to do?! Imagine world after world subjugated or burning into nothing but ash! He plans to annihilate entire universes, only sparing Equis and his world! Stop this madness!” Ashen pleaded.

“The name is Sahvot. I no longer bear the name Trixie.”

Ashen Spectre could only look at her with horror.

Trixie put on her dragon priest mask, “I believe in this path. I believe that this is the path to true peace.” She spun her staff and slammed it into the ground, causing cracks in the stone floor. Glowing smoke rose from the cracks, and solidified into three figures.

The shades of Aether Aegis, Saburo, and… Braveheart.

Their empty eyes regarded Ashen coldly. Expressionless, they drew their weapons.

“If you stand in the way of peace, if you stand in the way of Alduin and his conquest, his birthright, his revelation, then I have no choice but to destroy you. Warriors… eliminate him.”

Ashen quickly put up a magic shield as his undead friends lunged forward.

Their weapons bounced off the shield, but that didn’t faze them. They went to work on the shield, hacking and stabbing away at the barrier.

Ashen took the saddle bag off of himself as fast as he could and picked up Grima’s Truth, and opened the tome. He grabbed one of his knives, and began to chant in an ancient and almost forgotten tongue.

The barrier was cracking like glass, and the warriors were not letting up.

Ashen kept chanting:

“Grima Domine, suppliciter invocare super sancta tua: Potestatem habeo ponendi es inimicis meis. Sine tuo numine posse cognoscunt, ut et ira tua campana qui finis. Grima Domine, exaudi vocem meam! Da mihi benedictionem, da potestatem!”

The barrier broke, and the warriors surged at Ashen.

Ashen held out his hoof, and a blast of dark magic exploded, shaking the whole room, and blowing Trixie off her hooves.

Aether disintegrated in the blast, leaving Braveheart and Saburo left. Ashen seized the opportunity , clamped his teeth on the blade of his knife, and pulled his silver lance from the ground. He hefted the lance, and threw it at Saburo. The lance went through the neck of the shade, killing Saburo.

But Braveheart appeared, and used the ghostly version of the Darksaber slash at Ashen, who narrowly ducked under the whining blade.

Braveheart growled like an animal as he swung again, and again. Ashen dodged, and even tried to block the attack with his knife. The blade cut through the knife, slashing his eye.

Ashen screamed in agony, and Braveheart swung downwards, and Ashen raised Grima’s Truth to block it. To his amazement, the tome successfully blocked the ghostly Darksaber. Ashen pulled out a knife he made just for this occasion. It was knife made of dragon bone, with a rune scratched into the side.

Ashen darted inside of Braveheart’s guard and slashed his throat.

The spirit of Braveheart screeched as it turned to mist and was blown away by a slight breeze.

Trixie began to chant her own spell as fire erupted from her hooves.

Ashen yelled in defiance as he caused another dark magic explosion, rocking the entire temple as he used the power of the fell dragon-god, to blow Trixie apart… literally.

By the time he was done with her, he knew that other ponies might have to scrape her off the temple walls.

Seizing this opportunity, Ashen opened the other three tomes, and arranged all of them in the corners of the temple. He cursed himself, for he forgot to gring the chalk.

He walked over to the severed fore leg of Trixie, and picked it up. It would have to do.

Using the limb, he drew the circle and symbols with the blood leaking out of Trixie’s limb.

He could hear Alduin’s roar getting closer and closer to the temple as he frantically chanted the verses, trying to ignore the painful fact that his eye is gone.

Alduin’s roar sounded a final time before the ceiling of the temple exploded. Shards of stone went everywhere and Alduin dropped through the whole, and landed on the temple floor with a thud.

“Well, if it isn't the pitiful orphan. Did you think you could kill my priest and get away with it? No matter, all that matters is the Pool of The Lost Worlds. With it, I shall rain Armageddon on many a world, and wipe out entire universes.

Ashen stood between Alduin and the pool. Ashen finished his chanting, and swung his hoof to the side, causing all four tomes to glow.

“You shall not pass!”

The tomes glowed brighter, then a glowing rune appeared on Alduin’s head. The seal that he landed on sprouted chains, chains made of holy energy. The chains bound the dragon god of destruction.

Alduin, outraged, slammed his tail into the ground, causing the beautiful marble floor to crack. He slammed his tail into the floor again, causing the seal to break and fade. Alduin started to make his way towards Ashen

Thinking fast, Ashen summoned another dark blast, causing the floor beneath Alduin to collapse and open up into a wide fissure in the earth. Alduin lunged forward, clamping his jaws on Ashen’s left leg.

“You're coming with me!”

Together, the two plunged into the darkest canyon of Equis.

Alduin bumped his head on the side of the fissure, causing Ashen to break free from his jaws. Now they both were in freefall.

Alduin flailed around as he fell, with Ashen close behind.

Ashen made peace with his demons, then pulled a knife out and plunged towards Alduin.

He grabbed one of Alduin’s spikes, and began stabbing as much as he can.

Alduin shrieked and roared as he squirmed and flailed around, smashing and hitting into many rocks and walls of rock as they plummeted towards the underworld.

Ashen kept on stabbing, drawing many quarts of dragon blood. The knife was slick, his eye hurt, and he was sure his leg is broken. But he was gonna finish the job, even if he died doing so.

The chasm opened up, revealing a subterranean lake.

Ashen smiled and said, “Mother, Father, open the gates of Tartarus. I'm coming home.

His body and the body of the dragon-god plunged into the water, from nearly ten thousand feet.

(***)

*a year later…*

Luna and Celestia, Ryoma and Xander, Sunset Shimmer and Lyra Heartstrings. sat inside the Canterlot Cemetery, viewing the tombstones of the fallen heroes.

Braveheart, Saburo, Aether Aegis, Ashen Spectre, and many more are forever immortalized by the various sacrifices they made.

Xander and Ryoma nodded to the princesses, and left the two sisters to pay their respects.

Celestia patted the shoulder of Sunset as she wept bitter, sorrowful tears for the loss of her loved one.

Luna used a bit of magic to cause four strange glowing grey stone to appear. She set them down on the graves of four heroes.

“These rocks are from the Moon itself. May they guard your graves from misfortune and give you eternal rest.”

Luna then turned and left with her sister, eager to relieve herself of the grief.

Sunset kissed the tombstone of Braveheart, saying, “wait for me up there. And...it's a colt. I will raise our son, and he will remember his father, who gave his live to let him live.”

Sunset turned to the other three tombstones and said, “take care of him for me.”

She began to trot out of the cemetery. She turned back one more time, and saw the spirits of all four smiling at her.

The wind picked up, and the spirits faded.

She turned to Lyra, and Lyra nodded, with tears sliding down her cheeks.

The two left the wretched past, and never looked back again.

Author's Note

That is the end of all. Thanks for everything guys, and thanks for those who read this story. It was fun to write and fun to put on this site. I am almost sad, you know. This series is what got me on this site, and i'm saying farewell to it. Well, onwards! To the future of my writing.

See you around.

The Iced Lance.