The Divine Age

As the wave of magic rushed at Luna, a second before the wave would have impacted, she was saved by a lavender barrier. To both Luna and Justice's surprise, the seeds burst and the entire cross shattered on contact with the barrier instead of converting it to dust.

“Looks like we’re late girls,” a familiar voice said from behind Luna. She turned and beheld the bearers of the Elements of Harmony all dressed in battle armor, plus a dragoness in a rather provoking outfit and a huge feral drake that she recognized as Spike from her visit a few days earlier.

Twilight was wearing a dark blue robe that held lines of star shaped diamonds along each end of the robe. A mithril belt kept the robes from flowing to freely and was inscribed with many runes. Twilight was wearing the plainest outfit of all the girls.

Rainbow Dash was in her usual armor; her gauntlets’ claws were arcing electricity between them. Her form looked almost like a dragon berserker from ancient times, who tore through enemies with their claws and teeth rather than use their fire.

Flutterbat was wearing what appeared to be a leather cat suit. Plates of embersteel covered her knees, elbows and shoulders. She wore ember steel gauntlets and greaves, both sets clawed with lighting gems. She also wore a belt made of the same steel and on it were vials of red liquid, blood no doubt. Luna didn’t see the thestral wear a helmet but a small shimmer of magic around Flutterbat’s eyes told her that she probably didn’t need one.

Applejack was sporting thick full plate armor. Every inch of her body was covered in oricalcum plates an inch thick. Runes were inscribed on all available surfaces, which is likely why she is able to even be up here and not plummeting to the ground like a meteorite. What identified her as Applejack was her cutie mark emblazoned on the chest plate, besides that it was a plain suit of armor made from rare inch thick metal and covered in runes. She wielded a massive two-hand flail; the top was shaped like an apple made from regular embersteel. The handle appeared to be rune inscribed adamantite and the chain was undoubtedly enchanted mithril from the way it shined.

Pinkie Pie wore a patchwork dress made of various kinds of metals. More disturbingly, the pieces of metal were shaped like the cutie marks of her friends and numerous others stitched together. Aside from the dress, it appeared that Pinkie was juggling more and more steel knives that seemed to appear from nowhere. What unnerved Luna was the face her hair was razor straight and the manic fanged smile the mare was wearing as the knives glinted in the sunlight.

Rarity was on top of the Spike’s head. Her armor was similar to Luna’s own. It was a thing mithril full plate and full helmet, all intricately ornate and inscribed with runes. She held a black chain connected to a collar around the dragon’s neck.

Spike is her weapon, Luna realized.

The dragon in question was dark purple, huge and mean looking. Emerald green spines emerged from his head to the tip of his tail in a straight line. The wicked talons and claws of the great drake looked supremely deadly as they spontaneously ignited in black fire and extinguished at random. The drake was exhaling black smoke that seemed to suck all the light out from around it.

The last arrival was someone Luna didn’t recognize at all, an azure dragoness with sapphire spines. She was dressed in a leather outfit that looked more for bedroom games then battle. In her hand was a whip that was clearly enchanted. Luna smiled gratefully at the girls and turned to face the monster once again. She put aside her current feelings in favor of upholding her sister’s wishes.

"Celly’s dead?! Aw that's no fun!" Pinkie said as she bounced on air, somehow.

“Give up Black Justice! You are outmatched now!” Luna declared, emboldened by the arrival of the Elements.

“Hahahahaha, that just means more food for me!” Justice shouted back. He spared no time in charging at the weakened alicorn.
He found himself instantly changing direction to Equus as a lava colored, metal apple crashed down on his head. As he neared the ground, a portal opened up right before him and he was transported to above the girls. He regained enough of his senses to let loose waves of magic at the group. Both Rainbow Dash and Flutterbat used their claws and parted the wave down the middle so it harmlessly passed around the group.

“What?! How?!” he yelled in frustration.

“Lighting gems cut magic, jerk,” Rainbow said as she flapped her wings and rocketed towards the former pony.

Her claws met his amalgam of flesh, tearing entire limbs off and rending his body asunder. Several of the legs attempted to kick the pegasus and several mouths on those legs attempted to bite her, only to break bones and teeth on her armor with no visible effect to her. Justice let loose a torrent of magic from his mouth at Dash. She quickly broke off as the shredded legs were turned into dust and absorbed by the mad monster. Once absorbed the legs began to regrow. Spike saw this and did not let it go unpunished as he let loose a jet of black flames at the enemy. Justice screamed in pain as the flames of darkness consumed his flesh. He couldn’t put it out without destroying himself so instead he flew straight at the group.

Twilight lit her horn and a complex magic circle formed before her. Twilight shot a beam of pure magic into the circle. Nothing happened as the beam was absorbed by the circle. Rarity jumped down from Spike’s head and added her own beam to the circle, again with no visible effect. The circle moved to each of the mares who poured considerable amounts of power into the circle and ended at the dragoness's control. Black had a bad feeling about the circle and increased his speed.

As he neared, he was met by a rain of knives, shredding his flesh even more as the flames burned the wounds closed. The insane pink mare appeared on his back and began to carve pictures into his flesh with a seemingly infinite supply of knives. Justice was forced to stop and attempt to throw the mare off. The mare seemed to be unaffected by the fires and has he thrashed around, he found she was already gone. When he turned to face the mares once again he saw her bouncing next to the flail wielding mare. Confusion flashed on his face.

“Don’t try to figure out Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said and motioned to Ember, “Good bye.”

Ember breathed her fire into the circle and it started to glow red. Ember aimed the circle at Black and what came out was a literal stream of miniature stars begin shoot out at Justice. Justice attempted to absorb the stream but the heat had ignited the air and blocked him from even touching the stars. He was immediately destroyed as each mini star burned a hole in his body.

The glare from the creation and subsequent shooting of miniature stars was visible to everyone on this side of Equus, and entirely felt by both the Elementals who were keeping the world stable and by the denizens of the planet. Twilight and Day were the only ones unaffected by the glare. Day due to her affinity and being near omnipotent in the daytime. Twilight was unaffected due to her safety enchantments she used for her lab exparaments. Twilight saw that the stars would hit and destroy Equus if allowed to continue so she created a portal into a powerful containment chamber in her research lab directly behind Black Justice. The stars scorched Justice entirely into ash and passed through the portal to create a new power source for Aethereus's premier scientist. Golden dust was released everywhere as Black Justice was turned to ash. Luna could only hide her eyes until the stars passed from their location. The atmosphere was extinguished as Twilight's horn ceased to glow, Luna was astonished at the ridiculous amount of power the girls now wielded. She was about to say something when she was interrupted.

“Y-you bitches! I will have what is rightfully mine! I am the highest noble of the unicorn race! I deserve ultimate power!” a head made of ash formed where Black Justice used to be, shouted at the mares and dragons. The head was morbidly fascinating to see form, it had one unicorn horn but its mouth was like that of a lamprey. It had no ears or hair, and its eyes were simply holes in the skull. The head turned towards Luna, a green spike coming out of its mouth and eye sockets as it shot towards the alicorn. Luna snapped out of her fascination just in time to dodge the spike narrowly. The head passed harmlessly and the spikes dissipated. It turned to face Luna once again but the apple once again smashed into it. The head exploded into even more golden dust and started to reform far away from the girls. When it was fully formed and ready to make another charge, it was grabbed from behind by a rather familiar looking paw.

“That’s quite enough Black Justice, nobody likes a sore loser,” Greed said, and crushed the head permanently into golden dust. Everyone got to the spot where they say Black Justice get reduced to dust and found a diamond dog dressed in an immaculate suit.

“Who are you?” Luna asked, feeling slightly cheated that she did not get to kill the former pony.

“He’s Greed. One of the seven Sin deities,” Day answered as she appeared in a flash off to the side. She nodded at the Elements and turned her attention to Greed. “I assume he was bonded to you?”

“Correct. I must say I am impressed he managed to do so much with so little power the bond gave him. Then again he did kill and devour five other ponies that bonded with me,” Greed commented as the golden dust began to gravitate to his right paw.

"So you are the reason my sister is dead?!” Luna shouted as she charged at Greed. Greed just stood there looking slightly amused as Luna attempted to harm him, shattering both her khopesh, breaking her left hand and shattering her right knee in the process. Tears streamed down Luna’s face as she hit the god to no avail. Her blows became weaker and weaker as she futility attempted to get revenge for her sister on a god. Twilight had to pry Luna off the deity before she broke anything else. Luna sobbed, “Why? Why did you give such a cruel being power?”

"Power you say? I didn't even give that mortal a notable fraction of my current power, and I'm already at half power!" Greed laughed.

"You truly find the vilest of beings to bond with you, don't you Greed?" Day asked.

"It could have been a lot worse you know, the six of them came and begged all of us to bond with them. Right now, I am the weakest of the Sins. Imagine if Wrath or Gluttony or even Sloth bonded with them!" Greed laughed. Luna paled at the thought of another pony with double the power Black Justice wielded. “Granted, I will admit that the bond price likely made him the monster that you fought.”

“So you acknowledge he was a monster,” Day said.

“Of course I do, even I have standards,” Greed replied. The dust in his paw had begun to condense into a solid.

“Why are you even here?” Luna choked out between her sobs.

“To collect my payment for services rendered, as per my contract with the ponies I was bonded to,” he stated as six black coins with the cutie marks of the six ponies that bonded with him formed from the golden dust. He levitated the coins so the demigoddess could see them and said “Take a nice long look at these coins Moon Princess, for these are the souls of the ponies willing to do anything for power, even kill their own family. And I am sure there are far more than just these in your little kingdom.”

He held out his other paw and a wave of gold dust came rushing to him from everywhere. Tens of thousands of gold coins solidified and lined up into a wall of coins. Each one had a cutie mark, but more than a few were damaged or incomplete. Those coins were removed from the wall and made into a separate wall.

“Those are Black Justice’s victims, aren’t they?” Twilight asked as she held a catatonic Luna.

“Yes, as per the contract these are now mine,” Greed stated as he waved to the wall of complete coins. He waved his other paw to the wall of broken and incomplete coins, “These, however are incomplete or were used by Black Justice to heal and power him. By the terms of my contract I cannot take any of these, to my immense disappointment.”

Luna snapped out of it and struggled to get out of Twilight’s grasp and shouts at Greed, “Return the souls of our subjects vile cretin!”

“I cannot do that. I earned these souls fair and square, as per the contract,” Greed said, unfazed by the ranting mare.

“Day! Please, make him return the souls of mine and Celestia’s subjects, please! They are all I have left of her,” Luna cried out, the goddess of light was her last hope. Day could only shake her head.

“The payment terms of a soul contract cannot be violated, not even I or Night possesses the ability to violate the terms,” Day said with a finality that crushed the last vestiges of Luna’s will and she broke down and fell into despair. The Elements tried to comfort the moon goddess.

Day looked to the incomplete pile and then to Greed. He nodded and Day levitated the wall of incomplete coins to her. Greed flashed the group a smile that would charm any female if they hadn’t already known his true nature and vanished in a flash of gold. Day turned to her remaining choice for champion and her sister’s court.

“As I’m sure you are aware, the terms of a contract may only be violated by the mortal being bonded. I’m sorry Luna,” Day gave her condolences and teleported everyone to Aetherus.
August 20th 2431. 3:45 pm : Clelestial Age ends