Violet Magica - The Arrow of Light

On the brink between nowhere and purgatory laid an ancient graveyard, a place where heroes were laid to be forgotten by the rivers of time. The blood red light of dusk flooded through a veil of clouds as it poured down upon the site. Violet stepped through the darkening shroud amid the cluttered graves scattered around the area. No pony seemed to care about any sort of order while digging the graves or placing the tombstones, creating a site that resembled a jungle of deceased rather than a graveyard.

Violet came to halt in a central space, a small clearing in the forest of graves. Her breathing slowed as she took in the mood of this place. “Come out, Incubator...”

Standing around without moving her head to search for her target, Kiubee appeared on his own and took a seat on top of a tombstone in front of Violet. “You know you didn't have to come here to talk to me.”

“Was there ever any chance for Crimson Phantasma to save Azure Marina?”

Kiubee hesitated for a moment. “No. Her whole idea was doomed to fail from the start, and she probably knew that herself.”

“Then why did you not stop her from throwing her life away before she could become a witch and grant you the energy that you desire so much?”

“You are correct, this does seem like an awful waste in the short-term... but I think you might already have it figured out?” Violet bit her lip. “With her out of the way, there is no way you could fight the Walpurgisnacht on your own, and you know that too well. That means, if the Walpurgisnacht is to be defeated, Rose will have to–”

“No way I will let that happen!”

Kiubee winked while tilting his head to the side. “Fine then... But while we are at it...” Violet took a deep breath, anticipating his next words. “You are from the future aren't you?”

Violet released her breath. “Yes, you found me out again... this is now only the fourth time you managed to do that... You aren't exactly the brightest are you? Or maybe you always assumed irregularities just happen and would not turn out to be an issue?”

“So it was you...” Slight hints of chuckles and repressed laughter hid under his breath. “How many times have you done this?”

“Too many times to count.”

“I see... And for what reason again? To save Rose Daybreak? That's what it was always about?”

Violet didn't answer. Instead she squinted at Kiubee.

“Do you know where a Sorceress gets her energy? How the maximum potential of her wish is determined?”

“It depends on what they wish for and their alignment to that very wish.”

“Not quite. Though it is true that denying your wish or abandoning it can cause serious damage, what really fuels a pony's potential is the weight of her karmic burden. You see, every pony has a certain weight he or she has to carry around with them, a sort of weight proportional to their cosmic burden. For example, queens or heroines shoulder the destinies of many ponies, even entire nations on their backs, therefore carrying an enormous karmic burden, which in turn increases their potential as Sorceresses.”

Kiubee jumped down from the tombstone and slowly walked towards Violet. “You see, I never understood why Rose Daybreak had such an incredible potential. She is an ordinary schoolpony with a handful of friends and a rather average life. But for some reason the weight of her karmic burden outshines absolutely every other pony I have ever seen by multiple magnitudes. But I think I am starting to understand.” He locked eyes with Violet. “It was you. You have rewound time countless times, over and over again, all with a single purpose: to save Rose Daybreak. By doing so you have folded multiple time-lines onto the current one you were in. All these different dimensions have only one single strain their entire existence relies on: your crusade for Rose's safety. Do you understand by now? All you have done has increased Rose's karmic burden by enormous amounts over and over again. And since you are still here today, I assume you have achieved absolutely nothing in all of these time-lines. I cannot thank you enough Violet. You have inadvertently created the most powerful Sorceress of all times. And with it, a witch strong enough to destroy entire solar systems in one swipe. I am willing to assume that the Kiubee who contracted you might have foreseen something like this.”

Violet's mind cracked in multiple places throughout Kiubee's speech. Trying to rearrange her thoughts, she merely turned around and slowly set one hoof in front of another. Every time she had seen Rose's witch, it had always grown stronger than the witch before. And with all the countless time-lines she had traversed, her power might not be too far off of what Kiubee had said. She had known this to be a side-effect of her workings, if she was aware of it or not. It did not matter to her.

There was nothing left to say to Kiubee. She left the graveyard as she had entered it: with heavy steps and an empty stare.

***

“Violet Somnia” a sign stated in front of a rather old house. A young pony knocked on the door.

Opening the door a small bit, the owner looked outside.

“Can I... come in?”

Further opening the door, Violet let Rose in without saying a single word. Astounded gasps filled the magically enhanced and twisted room that Violet had used to meet with Crimson before. “Wow... how did you do this?”

Violet stared back at Rose. “What did you come here for?”

Rose didn't look back at her, as she was occupied examining the floating frames instead. Her eyes locked on some of them which portrayed a peculiar being. “Is this... a Walpurgisnacht?”

“How do you know that?”

“Crimson told me that the two of you were teaming up to fight it...”

Violet rolled her eyes and moved to the opposite end of the room. “This is an extremely dangerous witch that doesn't need to hide inside a barrier. If it manifests even once it can take thousands of lives at once. Since regular ponies can't see it, they will instead think it was some sort of natural disaster like a tornado.”

Rose took a step forward. “So it absolutely has to be stopped, right? Crimson also said that it couldn't be defeated by a single Sorceress, and since you are the only one left then I should–”

“No. Phantasma wouldn't have been able to destroy it all on her own, but I can. I merely took her along so she could keep up and wouldn't feel left out.”

Rose looked at Violet more closely, her eyes slowly filling up with rims of tears. “I want to believe you... I don't know why you'd lie to me...”

A heavy punch hit Violet's heart. “I'm not lying. I will be... fine.”

Rose shook her head. “Despite what everyone has been saying about you and the way you have acted, I don't think you are the pony I see in front of me! You always helped us and saved us, everything you did was to try to get us through this... You are not a bad pony! You are my friend! And that's why I can tell... that you are lying!”

Violet couldn't keep up her composure anymore. Her face broke down and she had to avert her body. “You... you wouldn't know how I feel.” She instinctively reached to take off her glasses, but she hadn't worn them for a long time now. “I don't even live in the same world as you!” She let go of her grasp on her own emotions and let her real self take over. Visions faded in and out in front her eyes, visions of loneliness, death, and despair. Every single one of them featured Rose. Without even noticing it, she now found herself pressing Rose against her chest and embracing her.

For a few moments, none of them reacted, no pony dared to disturb the silence until Violet broke it herself. “Yes... I am from the future...” Her words drowned in suppressed sobs and shivers as her facade crumbled to dust until what was left was the scared little pony that once made a wish to save her friend all those ages ago. “Countless times I have relived this month over and over again, never finding my goal. I met you over and over again, and every single time I had to watch you die...”

The frames behind them reacted to Violet's unlocked memories and reflected them upon themselves, showing recreations of her past events involving the two. Most of these scenes showed Rose's deaths and were in present Rose's line of sight.

Violet tightened her grip on Rose, who still had all her fours on the ground and was subjected to the scenes in the frames. “I'm not making any sense am I? To you I am just some transfer student you met a month ago... But to me you are–” She let out a loud sob. “I will save you. That was the one thought I had when I started all of this... And now it's the only thing I have left to keep me going... The truth is, I think I have lost myself a long time ago... I don't even know who I am anymore.”

“When I first met you I was so scared and lost. I thought if I was unable to make friends with anyone I would be able to truly live, but you changed everything. You gave me so much life that I don't know what else to do with it but spend every second of my life repaying you. Promise me you will let me do that. If I can protect you then all I've done will have been worth it.”

Rose turned her eyes to look at Violet. Unable to produce any words she started crying herself.

Violet continued. “I am so sorry... I was so selfish just walking down my own path, not caring for what happened to anypony besides you. And still I could not save you. Every time I failed I saw a piece of me die alongside you. But still I could not give up. I had to keep trying.” Violet let go of Rose and took a step back, placing a hoof on her shoulder as she tried to regain her composure. “So please, allow me to be selfish one more time and let me protect you.”

***

Rose sat at the kitchen table back in her own house and stared at her glass of water. Behind her, her mother looked out the window. Gray clouds arose over Kamino City, howling winds raced through the alleys and a roaring storm of raindrops painted a nightmarish picture.

Her mother shouted at Rose over her back while she was still focused on the weather outside. “We better stay indoors for now, this doesn't look good out there... Rose, have you seen this?”

Rose slowly traced the top of the glass with her hoof.

“Rose, are you listening?”

She grabbed the glass, took a final sip and got up, heading for her room. “Okay Ma, I'll get to my homework then.”

Only quickly gazing at her leaving daughter, she kept her attention on the storm outside.

Arriving in her room, Rose closed the door behind her and walked over to the window. Resting her elbows on the windowsill, she held her head with her fore-hooves while looking outside. An almost silent thud next to her managed to catch her attention.

“Kiubee, it's you again...”

Kiubee jumped up next to her head and accompanied her in the process of staring out the window.

“Is she out there right now, Kiubee?”

“Probably. The witch is about to appear and I am pretty sure she is getting ready for it, since she knows exactly where it will strike first.”

Rose slightly lowered her head and halfway closed her eyelids. “Does she have a chance? Will she be able to defeat the Walpurgisnacht?”

“Would you believe me if I said yes? None of my words matter at this point, the outcome of this all can't be changed.”

Rose picked her head up and turned towards Kiubee. “Violet told me about her time-traveling to save me... is it true? How far has she gone?”

Kiubee tilted his head sideways and looked at Rose. “I have heard what she told you... and none of what she said warrants me discrediting her story. She has turned back this one month period numerous times now, and do you know what happened as a result?” Rose didn't react. “Every time she turned back time, using her wish to save you, she made you a more powerful Sorceress! And therefore, your witch-form has cosmic powers by now... So hey, if you ever feel like dying for the sake of the universe, go ahead and tell me!”

“For the sake of the universe?” Rose jumped up and stomped the ground while making agitated gestures.

“When you turn into a witch you release energy proportional to the amount of emotional despair you feel in that very moment, coupled with your power as a Sorceress. I can harvest that energy and use it to prolong the life of the universe. Pretty cool, right? You can rest assured though, that your race is the only race in the entire universe that is required to meet our quota. There are countless other races out there that are thankful for your struggles, as they are not needed to harvest energy.”

Rose's pupils widened. “So that's what this was all about? You used us the entire time? Us becoming witches was your plan all along?”

Kiubee let out what sounded like a chuckle. “I'm sure she reacted quite similar to when she found out.” He gestured towards the window. “After all you are so very predictable, the lot of you ponies. The way Violet acts though, makes me believe that she accepted this a long time ago... which doesn't mean that she's not trying to fight it.”

“Fight it? How?”

“There are two ways your Soul Gem can corrupt to a degree where you turn into witches. The most common way is to use up too much of your magic without using a Grief Seed in time. The second way is to fall into emotional despair and corrupt the Soul Gem with your own negative energy. At this point it looks like Violet has dedicated her entire existence to saving you. If she were to ever question her success chances to the point of considering giving up, I would imagine the despair she would feel in that moment would immediately cause her Soul Gem to blacken to its highest degree.”

Rose started shaking. “So what you are saying is...”

“Violet can't be saved. Every time she went backwards, she also increased the weight of her own wish. As long as she has even the slightest glimmer of hope that you could be saved she will continue to fight and turn back time, only worsening her fate. And I am pretty sure she knows that too well. For her, going forward and continuing to fight, searching for a way out of this, is the only option. Her giving up, coming to a halt or dying are exactly the same at this point. And she knows that if she lets that happen, she will have also failed in protecting you.”

Rose slightly raised her voice, but still kept it as quiet as possible to not alarm the rest of her family. “She is doomed? After all she has done?”

“Yes, after about eight years of turning back time nevertheless—if my calculations of your latent power are correct. And as expected all that time was not kind on her. For a race as empathetic as ponies, I never even sensed any sort of empathy from her. Additionally, the magic she used to transform her room is immaculately close to that of a witch's. The way she acts, the way she seemed ready to kill, the way she uses magic... She might as well be a living witch. Not much longer and she might turn into an actual witch.”

For a second, Rose forgot that she wanted to keep her voice down as she shouted with a voice that broke in multiple spots. “Even she has to go? Every single Sorceress is doomed to fail and turn into a witch? They all trusted you! Every single one of them! And you don't even seem to care...”

“It wasn't me who betrayed them. It was their own wishes. Have you never thought about this? Ponykind can not possibly handle a power as mighty as a wish. They all try to help somepony else or themselves in the short term, but always end up being betrayed by their wish in the aftermath. Sorceresses failing is just another constant of the universe. They cannot overcome this fact. Even Violet, who had held on to hope as her only way to keep on existing and prolonging this farce of hers is being betrayed by it. If she feels like she has failed you, she will probably immediately turn back time, and since she has failed to save you for such a long time it's probable that she will never be able to do so. This has locked her into an endless cycle that perpetuates itself by her own hope. As long as she has hope, she cannot be saved.”

A wave of emotions ran through Rose. It ended in determination. “Hope...” she muttered to herself. “I'm sorry, Violet, but I can't keep my promise.” With this, she slid open her window.

***

A last inspection of the firing mechanism on this weapon... done. This was now the fortieth one she double-checked. The aiming mechanism was spot-on, all weapons loaded and ready to fire, no possible malfunctions in sight.

Violet took a last glance over the row of launchers, all leaning towards a specific point in the sky. Everything was in order. She had never before been this prepared to face the Walpurgisnacht. Even so, she never expected winning against the Walpurgisnacht alone. Attempting to beat it became another one of her rituals, since she always felt like she had to try regardless. After all, it only took one lucky success to end all her troubles.

A harsh breeze streaked past her face, ethereal swirls formed in the air around her and popped into nothingness seconds later. Her eyes focused on a spot in the sky, between a crowd of thunderous clouds. As they shifted around and collapsed in the middle, Violet readied her TCD. Time Lock!

Picking up the first launcher with her hooves, she quickly aimed it skywards towards the combination of clouds and let loose a rocket-propelled grenade, sending it hurling towards the sky for a brief moment, before it got caught in the time lock. As soon as she regained control over the empty weapon after the recoil, she tossed it over her shoulder, and rushed to pick up the next one.

One after another she fired every single launcher until every single one was caught in the time stop behind her. Each one did not even fall over completely before it got caught in the time stop, creating a sight similar to a graveyard with deadly weapons as tombstones. In the sky an array of explosives was caught in mid-air, waiting to be let loose upon their target. Feeling like she didn't want to let them wait any longer, she magically released her TCD. Time Release!

Leading with a massive cry of screaming destruction, the shots hurdled towards the sky. Up there, the face of the Walpurgisnacht pierced through the clouds, slowly spinning around to face Violet way off in the distance. Just as she spied the Sorceress, she opened her mouth, readying her maniacal laughter. It was in that moment that the flying grenades reached their destination and sank deep within the witch's gaping maw. Almost within that same moment, the grenades released their potential and exploded, triggering a fiery inferno upon the Walpurgisnacht.

Back down on the ground, Violet did not wait for the dust to settle, but instead rushed towards a peculiar machine a few meters away from the now dormant field of launchers. It consisted of three giant barrels pointed skywards, mounted on a platform. A little console was attached to its side. Hammering a few buttons, the machine began to growl solemnly. Taking a quick glance skywards, she pressed another, even bigger button, to activate the machine. “It was such a hassle to bring this here, this better work...” Her mad mutters almost drowned in the metallic sounds of the oversized weapon. Finally, a sudden bang shot off three ginormous rockets from the barrels, sending another present towards the Walpurgisnacht.

High up between the clouds, the remnants of the dust clouds created by her first attack settled, revealing a slightly malformed but still grinning visage. Finishing what she started, the witch opened her mouth completely and initiated her insane laughter rivaling even the maddest jester having a nightmare of world-domination.

Seconds later, all three rockets made it to the Walpurgisnacht and once again landed deep within what seemed to be its throat. These shots dug deeper than the grenades, seemingly piercing through hellish tissue which only barely classifies as organic, before the detonation was set off. A fireball rivaling the sun in brightness engulfed the witch, sending bits of tissue soaring through the air.

The dust cleared up around the witch's head. For once, the force of the explosions knocked some of the clouds out of the way, so that a ray of light could illuminate its lower body and head, below the spinning gears. The sight of its exposed form tickled a horrified gasp out of Violet. From the silhouette veiled in shadows one could only guess its ginormous body resembled the upper half of a pony, sowed upside down to the gears of equal size around the hips, hanging its head downwards. The revealed guise let Violet in on more of its nature, the most striking part was that it was indeed missing its fore-hooves. Furthermore it was dressed like a sort of jester in a bright blue dress with an eccentric hat that fused together with its pseudo-organic tissue to create a second skin.

Everything that Violet could see however, was only slightly damaged by her attacks, leaving a mostly intact Walpurgisnacht.

The Walpurgisnacht: the most mysterious witch known to date. It was almost impossible to gather information about its nature, only about its behavior. It attacked using lightning-fast burst of magic that could be projected from anywhere in a large radius around it, even allowing it to shoot nearby enemies from behind without them noticing. It could also levitate massive objects and even control the weather to some degree. Its outer shell was hardened with magic tissue that repelled anything that did not match its makeup. The most terrifying thing about it was the fact that the Walpurgisnacht was not a one-of-a-kind entity. It was one entry in a class of witches that was on a completely different level from anything any Sorceress had witnessed and survived.

As it eventually spied Violet again on the ground, it continued its crazed laughter.

Violet took a quick moment to rethink her strategy as she whispered to herself. “Damn... I should make sure my next attack counts...” With this she gazed up at the sky again. Just as the Walpurgisnacht came into her field of view again, a howling blast of energy shot through her and wiped Violet off her feet. Soaring through the air, the only thing that managed to stop her was a brick wall.

Trying to recover from the impact, she shook her head. A sharp pain engulfed her mind as her sight blurred and trembled. More blasts of energy came her way, but instead of being of volatile and of an arrow-like nature, they stopped in front of her.

What followed next could have only been a bad joke by the gods. The energy took shape as many of Violet's 'friends'. Dancing around her she identified Crimson, Azure and even Amber. Still shaking on her hooves, Violet raised her hoof and tried to throw a punch at one of them, only to lose balance and topple over again. The dancing silhouettes pointed at her. The crazed witch's laughter only intensified in the distance.

Getting up on her hoof again, Violet readied her TCD. “All right... you had your fun...” Time Lock!

Gathering her power, she spun around quickly, delivering a kick to each of the silhouettes, causing the energy to disperse into smaller fragments that were now caught in the air. “Now... where was I?” Taking a leap into the air, she flew using her magic to stabilize herself in mid-air. Time Release!

Still trying to recuperate from the initial attack, Violet's movement slowed down, her magic capabilities slightly diminished. Still, she pressed on, trying to get closer to the Walpurgisnacht by flying towards her. She had yet to use her close-range bombs, hidden in the magical pouch behind her TCD. These bombs might not quite have the explosive power of her earlier arsenal, but they still packed quite a punch, especially if she could attach them directly on the witch's body and set them off simultaneously.

As Violet got closer to her destination, her foe levitated buildings around it as a sort of protective barrier. One after another it began launching them towards Violet, massive projectiles with huge momentum. Seeing them coming from afar, Violet readied her TCD once more. Time... Lock? Something was wrong. She immediately canceled her entire forwards momentum as she quickly glanced at her TCD. A gasp of realization was the last thing to come out of her before one of the buildings smacked directly into her. Taking her along, it smashed into the side of a building on the ground, crushing her body between two buildings until the side of the standing building collapsed, sending Violet flying further into it, an avalanche of debris following in her wake and spitting her out on the other side of the carnage.

When Violet came to again, she felt an excruciating pain in her leg. Looking down she understood what had happened. After being launched through the first wall she crashed through the opposite wall, but parts of debris crashed into her and crushed parts of her body. Now that everything had settled, her body was leaning against a piece of debris, one of her hind-legs pulverized and stuck below various fragments of the walls she crashed through. A pool of blood had already formed around it, only adding to the multiple wounds all over body.

Breathing heavily and gasping for air, she looked over towards the side of the ruins, where a giant hole allowed her to look towards the Walpurgisnacht, who had now stopped laughing and turned around. She slowly raised her hoof and reached out for the witch. “Why... why can't I beat it... No matter how many times I try...” She glanced over at her TCD, taking one of her free hooves to grab it, and getting ready to rotate it.

“No... After everything I have done...” Dropping her hoof, she released her grip on the TCD. “After everything that I have done, I have only made things worse...” Her last few words almost drowned in heavy sobs as her tears flowed. “I wanted you to comfort me one last time, embrace me and tell me everything was going to be alright; I am useless without you.”

Her body stopped fighting. She rested her hooves on the ground and laid her head against the wall, turned towards the sky. Blood rushed down her face as the magic shine from her horn faded. Her mind wracked. The Soul Gem in her horn filled with a sinister shade of black. “Rose... I failed... I was doomed from the start...” Her eyelids dropped shut as even the light in her cracked Soul Gem was flooded with black clouds.

“I had found something; someone to live for; someone to protect and devote my everything to. I have taken part in her times of joy and comforted her in her times of loss. I traveled further than any Sorceress could have ever traveled, and committed atrocities against my friends along the way. I have seen myself crumble into a pile of cold devotion, all of this and everything else I have done for you; only you. Now, in a moment of lucidity, I look back upon my life and have come to understand that all of my actions ended up destroying this wonderful world and all the ponies you wanted to protect. You only ever had one goal: to save everyone; but in my crusade to save one pony I have doomed them all. I... have failed you.”