You know… I never thought it would end like this.

The wind whips around my body as I fall, plummeting towards the ground. The world around me has somehow seemed to slow down to a crawl, like some kind of awkward movie scene. It might have been a result of some side effect of the huge magical explosion that had just occurred a few seconds ago, or maybe it’s just Equestria’s natural magic working in its wiley ways…

It’s also a bit hard to believe that, after everything that I’ve accomplished, I’d end up failing them all… but I guess it doesn’t really matter at this point.

To be honest, I’m surprised that I even lasted up until now. I mean, if someone would’ve told me twenty-five years ago that I would lead a rebellion of angry mages and farmers in an anthropomorphic version of the magical world of My Little Pony. -After, of course, I became one of said magical equines, (one of the female variety, no-less)- I probably would’ve called that person many, many, different words, least of all insane. I would’ve tacked on “Demented” too If they’d told me how I’d get there…

It was about half past eight on that fateful Sunday night. I had finally gotten onto the road after a rather lengthy wedding reception. I was tired as hell and I just wanted to get back to my hotel room. I think I may have made a wrong turn or something because I was in the middle of a rundown back road with no sign of civilization in either direction. So, there I was; stranded in the middle of no-where, trying desperately to read a map while half-asleep, listening to old rock music on the radio…

“Big wheels keep on turning! Carry me home to see my kin…”

I truly wished that was the case, Lynyrd; but the ironic situation ended when the radio cut out to static, instantaneously. The sudden sharp ear wrenching noise caused me to drop the map. I fumbled around with the radio knobs until I turned it off. The map of course had to get knocked under the seat so I had to pull over to get at it. I opened the door and got out of the car, still wondering what the hell had just happened, and that’s when I saw it.

The Aurora Borealis was covering the entirety of the night sky with colour. Now, I’ve seen the Aurora Borealis plenty of times… almost all of which were on T.V. But I had never seen it completely block out the sky before. I stood there, shocked. It was utterly beautiful. Only, I’m pretty sure that the “Aurora Borealis” wasn’t supposed to be visible from the middle of the Ontarian outback.

I stood there, awestruck, until my eyes began to hurt from the strain of staring at it so long… And then the rest of me started to hurt. More specifically, it felt like my skin was burning. A wave of nausea wash over my head. I stumbled my way back towards the car, so that maybe I could grab my cellphone and call for help. My legs decided that now was the opportune time to betray me, causing me to trip over my feet and slam face first into the pavement. I tried to get back up, but I couldn’t move. My vision began to darken, and I was fricken terrified. I was still conscious mind you, during all of it… I think at that point I knew I was going to die, it was just a matter of time. I mean…

It only took ten minutes…

When I finally regained consciousness, if you could even call it that. I was in some sort of… warm enclosed space, and a moist one at that. I tried to open my eyes, but I was met with the same blackness as when they were closed. I opened my mouth to breath, and instead got a mouthful of some sort of weird tasting… water. I started to thrash around in panic. I was scared, I mean, who wouldn’t be? I had just died and now I was in… I didn’t know, Hell? a coffin? An underwater cave?

After a few seconds of waving and kicking my limbs around I had to stop. My muscles were feeling like I had just sprinted a mile, uphill, in the snow. Heck, afterwards I didn’t even have the strength to move my fingers, which I could at the time thankfully still feel. I felt… weak. After a while, I fell asleep, purely out of exhaustion.

This dark moist space would be my existence for the next… I don’t know how many days. I spent most of it trying to keep myself from going insane from the lack of… well, everything really, and the rest sleeping, at least what I assumed was sleeping...

Eventually, I checked to see if I was all here. I couldn’t feel my toes, or feet, and there was a weird thing poking my forehead that hurt a little bit, but… that was about all I figured out at that point… well, besides the fact that I was alone. It’s safe to say that I was not a happy camper…

Then one day I was awakened by the distinct feeling of being abruptly turned upside down.

“What’s going on??” I remember thinking to myself, trying to resist puking my guts out from being suddenly flipped over. I felt a rush of liquid past my body before feeling my body impact a solid surface. Then the squeezing began. I could feel my head slowly get pulled downwards, followed by the rest of me. I was already scared from arriving here. I was silently screaming in my mind even before I could feel the walls around my body attempt to crush the life out of me. I resolved to try to remain calm and collected and just wait until it was all over.

I was not calm.

I started to hear distorted voices coming from the direction I was being forced towards. Then something that felt distinctly like hands grabbed on to my head, and then proceeded to pull me away from… wherever I was. A sudden rush of information from my senses took me by surprise and... I-I could finally breath again! smell, hear, a-and-

I opened my eyes. And I saw two large, cartoonish eyes, situated above something that distinctly looks like muzzle.

I screamed.

I was hoisted up and given into the arms of one of the… things, despite my attempts at protesting. Between my screams and… the weird cooing coming from the one who was holding me, I managed to get a better look at the giant alien creatures in the room. They stood up on two misshapen and bent legs that’d look more appropriate on an animal than anything humanoid. They also had hooves, distinctly the kind you’d find on horses.

Besides being covered in fur, or hair- or whatever, the rest of their bodies were relatively similar to anyone you’d see on earth, they had same torso, and arms, they were even clothed! In rather fancy looking attire even. But sadly, the similarities ended from the neck upwards. Their mouths and noses were combined in an almost dog-like muzzle. Surprisingly; now that they’re not right in front of my face, their eyes appeared to be more… human-esque than before, albeit only slightly bigger…

Later, after I calmed down, I finally came to understand exactly where, and what, I was enclosed in for the past… however many days

I’d also eventually realized that I now knew what it meant to be “born again” …

Literally.

I can’t believe it’s already been… what, twenty…six? I think, years since then… Heh, time really does fly…

The distorted sound of battle starts to ring in my ear. Below me, the shattered remnants of my ragtag bunch of rebels are still fighting on, even though we’ve probably already lost… Although… I can’t really say that I envy them.

I thought I had it all figured out: I’d beat the equestrian army with the help of the locals, and then we, together with my friends would all gone on to live happily ever after. The “perfect” ending. I thought I would be able to protect them, and save the world!... But now… they’re all going to die, and It’s all my fault. Heh, some “Guardian” I am…

I wish that I’d never suggested that we leave Canterlot… maybe I could have convinced them to just go with the ban. I know they were angry… Heck, I was too… But, I guess… It’s far too late for regrets now.

A part of me wants to blame Celestia and Luna for all this. I want to be angry at them, to hate them. But I just… can’t. While some of this is their fault, I don’t think they’d ever even consider it on their own. They were probably just acting on Starswirl’s advice…

I could feel my body stiffen at that thought…

We had spent six months in the cold, featureless icy desert known as the “great north”. “We” being a levied equestrian army led by the princesses, supported by the arcane university’s battlemages, including moi, and basically all the destruction magi. “We” were up there because a certain jackass, one that I had the displeasure of being classmates with, named Sombra, decided to usurp the crystal empire. And so it was that after one fateful assault during the sixth months in that hell-frozen-over, the princesses decided to charge into the crystal palace to finally end this, and kill that pompous jackass for good… and then of course because he cast some weird time curse or something the empire just… disappeared, poof, into thin air.

And so it was that “we” started on the long trek to get back home; disappointed, angry, and completely exhausted. You’d think that’d be where the shit would start flying, but surprisingly the journey home was rather uneventful. When we got back home, however, was an entirely different story…

I shuffled through the large group of ponies. I was walking to work when I saw them gathered outside of the gates of the university, arguing and murmuring. Most of them I recognized as fellow destruction mages, and was trying my best to make my way towards what ever had gotten everyone’s panties in a bunch… It had been two months since we had returned from the crystal empire ordeal. A lot of things had changed; chiefly (for me at least), was my promotion to the esteemed office of “Master Destroyer”, after the retirement of the previous owner of the title, a nice old stallion who I personally knew as my teacher back when I did my advanced classes, a week before any of the crap up north happened. It had only been six weeks after the war ended, and things had already started to go to hell. Now… Since… well… forever, according to some of the stories I’ve been told, “we who wield the power of annihilation” (also known as the destruction magi) have always had a… bad reputation.

I mean… In the minds of most ponies, “destruction” means “death”. A correlation that, while basically true, isn’t exactly a cheery public image… and It’s worsened by all the superstitious rumors surrounding us. Did your annual crops Fail? Blame the destruction mages. After all, they “corrupt” any land they walk upon. Disease running rampant throughout your town? Blame the destruction mages, they “obviously” cursed the water or something. We’re basically the scapegoats for when anything bad happens… They feared us… It never bothered any of the others… maybe it was just me. But… back then I just… it just made me cringe every time someone gave me a “please don’t hurt me” look…

And then of course, “King” Sombra happened.

He “was” a destruction mage, and even though the magic he used to enslave the crystal empire was something… else, it was close enough that everyone “assumed” it was still destruction magic.

All the ignorance, all the superstition and fear… it ignited into hatred. At first, it was just contemptuous looks, and idle gossip… But then it started to get serious… Shops and stores started “closing” when my colleagues would walk in. Inns and ponies alike would close their doors to us… and… there was the violence… An apprentice, a young colt not much older than fifteen, was attacked in the street. I heard about it several days afterwards, I think… it might have been Flash Freeze that told me about it, but… It wasn’t the only “incident” that happened… I had to do something, so last night I… I approached my old teacher, and current archmage of the university, Starswirl the Bearded, for help. We had drifted away over time, because of many… different, “other” issues. But I had hoped that he might be able to stop this from escalating any further.

So that was why I found myself today teleporting to the front of the gates after trying, and failing, to wade through the jostling vocal mass of bodies. Another week passed by since I spoke to him. He assured me that he’d “look into my concerns”. When I pressed him for something more… specific, and after a little begging on my part, he replied that he would send out a research group to discern if Sombra was indeed using a different type of magic, as I suspected. I thanked him, and left, knowing for sure he’d find what I already knew and everything would thus be roses and rainbows…

I looked up, and attached right in the middle of the gate was a large piece of parchment. Upon closer inspection, it was a… royal decree… “By order of royal decree by her royal Majesty’s Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and on the grace of blah blah blah Faust blah blah blah something something…” ugh, why do these things always have to be so long just get to the fricken point already… ah, here we go.

“…the practice and teaching of destruction magic is hereby BANNED IN EQUESTRIA?!”

I ripped the offending document off the metal bars and read farther down the page. It was a blanket ban. The battlemages, apprentices, all of us, we were all going to get shafted. Classes teaching destruction magic would be shut down, destruction battlemages were being discharged from service…

I started shaking.

They can’t do this. There are hundreds of us, they can’t just… just… SCREW us all over like this… this has to be temporary, i-it has to be…

I read further down... and found something that made my blood boil.

“-decided on the evidence given by archmage Starswirl- “

I didn’t even read the rest. I ran forward and slammed the gates open, charging straight into the university.

Why? Why would he do this? The angry thought shot through my mind over and over again, repeatedly, as I stomped onwards…

It was… I don’t know, maybe around ten in the morning? He’s usually in his… he should be in his office, so that’s where I started heading… No one tried to stop me, probably on account of me being one of the archmage’s apprentices, and being a sorceress to boot… I passed a couple of ponies on my way, but for the most part the halls were vacant. Everyone was probably already in their respective classes already…

Before I knew it, I was standing outside the door to his office. I was still fuming, mind you, and muttering curse words under my breath. But, I managed to calm down enough to “compose” myself.

I knocked on the door. Well, it was more along the lines of me pounding it, but really, at that point I was more concerned with trying to resist the urge to just kick the door down. I heard a sigh from the other side, along with the lock lighting up with a glow, and an audible “click” from the door being unlocked.

A muffled “Come in” was the last thing I heard before I barged in through the door.

He was sitting behind his rather sizable desk. He had a grim expression on his face, as if he was expecting this to happen. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could even get a word out, I slammed the piece of parchment onto the desktop.

“Care to…. explain this?” I manage to say, through gritted teeth. He sighed in response.

“I did what thou asked- “

“I asked thou to help! Not to illegalize my school of magic!” I yelled shrilly. How does he think this constitutes as help?! All he’s done is confirm their ludicrous superstitions!

“I’ve done all I could! There’s no evidence of any sort of “other magic”, contrary to what you believe.”

He stood up from his chair, his grim expression changed and he looked... sad.

“I’m sorry, but I was obligated to inform the princesses of the truth.” He gave me a look of… pity?! Was he seriously pitying me?!

“There’s nothing more that I can do- “

“All you’ve “done” is made things worse! Now everyone is going to think that WE’RE responsible for the deaths of their loved ones!” I was beyond furious. His mouth started move in response to me raising my voice. But I just tuned out whatever he was saying….

This shouldn’t be possible! What sort of idiots did he assign the job to?! Even the most inept, brainless, jackass could see the magic’s base aura is different! And that the spells that were used had a different combination of mana! There’s no possible way that anyone with any shred of intelligence could’ve…missed…it…

I stared at him. He was still talking, probably trying to justify his actions…

He. Knows.

I clenched my fists.

He knows that it exists; and yet he’s lying to everyone, even the princesses, about it by deliberately placing the blame for all of Sombra’s atrocities on us!

I wanted to punch him. How could he… Why would do this?! This makes no sense! If he knows everything that I do, then… then he’s screwing me… he’s screwing all of us!

I can’t let him get away with this! There has to be some way to… I can call the rest of the other masters together. The Council of Magi can override the archmage’s authority. I’ll just get them all together and… Wait…

I can’t, the ban stripped my… I’m not on the council anymore, I can’t… You planned this didn’t you?! You son of a-…

I couldn’t do anything… I have no authority anymore, even If I am still a sorceress… They’d never believe… heck I’m willing to bet that Starswirl’s already presented his lies to them… and they probably believe him. He’s the one who helped unite the pony tribes… He’s practically a war hero! No one’s going to believe me, over him!

I glared at him.

No… No, no, NO! I can’t let him get away with this! I can’t let him just ruin everything!

I-I…I need time to think…

Starswirl had stopped talking somewhere during my mental meltdown, and was looking at me expectantly…

“As you wish… Archmage.” I said, barely hiding my disgust…

I turned one-hundred and eighty degrees abrupt about face, and stormed out of the office… and I didn’t look back. I don’t know what his reaction was… but I didn’t care.

He might have outplayed me, this time at least… but I don’t think he knows that I know of his duplicity…

I need to go talk with the rest of the gang, maybe they can help… I know I’ll need it…

…That bastard, how could he just stab me in the back like that? I know we never really saw eye-to-eye, but I’m one of his… was, one of his students! Did I seriously mean nothing to him? Did he really think that after all his blatant lies, that I’d somehow turn my back on everything I care about? Abandon my friends and just… just stand by! As he sweeps everything under the rug??

Over ten years of tutelage and what do I get? The termination of my job, along with those of all my pupils, and- AND, making it illegal to cast a type of magic, one that’s been practiced and perfected ever since before Equestria even existed. All of it, in an effort to cover up his mistakes! …

…And he called me the traitor… Heh... At least I got the chance to wipe off the smug fatherly grin that’s always plastered on his face under his stupid beard.

Which looked like a dead sheep strapped onto his chin, might I add.

It felt good to finally see his façade crack. Sure, it was a short-lived and completely pointless victory, but you know what? I needed it. Especially after everything he put me through...

We had just routed their army after their first assault on the tower (a very piss-poor attempt at that) and they were running with their tails between their legs, in some cases literally. I had seen Starswirl amongst Equestria glorified tin soldiers, (also known as the royal guard). We locked eyes for a moment before he went off trouncing into the trees. I went in pursuit after the old codger…

Darkness had fallen across the local forest. For a stallion whose supposedly over eighty years old Starswirl was surprisingly agile, however... After a mess of chain teleporting, I had managed to track him down to one of the many secluded glades that dot the forest. If he was simply fleeing, he would’ve simply teleported away the moment the equestrian lines broke. But he didn’t, which suggested that he was purposefully luring me away from everyone else, an ambush perhaps?

I stepped out into the open, scanning the perimeter with both my eyes and a quick detection spell. Luckily, I didn’t have to search for long. The greying beige haired old windbag stood in the middle of the enclosure, wizard hat and all. His eyes where shut, probably in deep thought. Being the master of divination he is, of course, meant he probably already knew I was there, making a quick stealthy takedown kind of a moot strategy. Which of course meant that I had to do things the hard way…

I cautiously approached him. I had brought my staff with me, along with my sword, both strapped onto my back in their respective sheaves. I had also started charging up a lightning bolt in my left hand as I got closer, just in case. While I had no doubts that I could escape him should I need to, it didn’t hurt to be prepared. At first, he gave no reaction to my arrival. But as I drew closer, he finally decided to “grace” me with his attention…

“Ah, Elenwyn, my ever-tactful student…”

“I am no longer your student anymore, Starswirl” I interrupted, lacing as much venom as I could into my words. But, he kept up his serene expression.

“…but thou art still in need of guidance. Tell me, why have you turned your back on everything I hath taught you?” he replied, with his trademark condescending tone, while I, as per usual, glared at him from behind my mask.

“Starswirl, why exactly have you lured me here?” I shot back, I was sooooo not in the mood for more of his ceaseless philosophical chastisement. He frowned.

“You are walking down a dark path, my student. But it is not too late. Surrender, and you- “

How dare he? After everything he put me through, all the lies and- AND after throwing me under the bus and murdering my friends, he thought that I would just throw down my arms and give up? Seriously? I hate him, his stupid holier-than-thou attitude and…

“-and the princesses may yet show mercy on you- “

Is he still talking? Okay, I need to stop this from devolving into another one of his lectures… I’m already feeling the urge to rip my ears off…

I reached up behind my back and drew my sword, which shut him up rather quickly. He looked down towards the ground with a… solemn expression. For a second I actually felt a little guilty about wanting to kill him, sad even. And I almost even considered letting him go…

Keyword being “almost” …

“Then… I am sorry, Elenwyn. But you leave me no choice.” He finished.

“We always have a choice, Starswirl…” I said, unleashing the lightning bolt I’d been holding back from my right hand. He, sadly, blocked it, but It did stagger him.

“…And you’ve Long since made yours!”

I couldn’t resist, he set himself up for that one. And thus, our duel was on. We traded blows, firing off spell after spell at each other. He put up and hid behind a classic ol’bubble shield, while I gracefully dodged and teleported out of the way of all the incoming fireballs and other spells he continuously shot from his horn. As we continued, I was getting progressively more and more frustrated. None of my attacks were getting through, and he wasn’t letting me get close enough for me to swing at him or even get a “dispel” off to disable his invulnerability sphere. A disintegration bolt even got reflected back at me. I was just narrowly able to duck out of the way. The poor tree behind me, however, did not get that luxury. I stood back up… Only to see a much bigger ball of fire several inches from my face. Panicking, I tried to put up my own rather amateurish shield at the last second. I felt weightless as I was thrown backwards several feet by the impact. I wasn’t too badly damaged by the blast, although my armor did get pretty singed.

I was utterly livid, at both myself and him. I crawled my way behind a nearby tree, and started trying to think up a functional strategy…

Stupid bloody cheap invulnerability globe… I’m not running from this, I can’t run from this. This is the probably only opportunity I’ll probably ever get to finally have some… revenge… Wait…

An idea popped into my head in that moment. A rather… fun, idea.

I started scanning the local area with the same spell I used to track him, although with a much different target. I was looking for-… well, “bodies”. Corpses... I was searching for corpses. Anyway, for the past several months I had been practicing and performing a type of magic that I’d never even heard of up until before I translated the tome containing it.

Necromancy

My eyes had been glued to the page after I first read that word. To me, it wasn’t actually that much of a foreign concept. I was an avid Dungeon and Dragons fan back in my university days, so the idea of it wasn’t that much of a shocker. But what was shocking was that, up until that point, there was no record of anything even remotely resembling it ever existing on this planet… at least that I knew of.

It was something completely new, and It fascinated me immensely…

But… the name of the book itself did sound familiar to me, somehow, although I think that I would vividly remember reading something called “Shadow Puppets”.

After I read it cover to cover, I decided to try out some of the spells described in it.

When I first tried my hand at it though… nothing happened. I read the instructions word for word and tried to cast… Death Ray? Yes, that one, again. I focused my magic, envision it in my mind, aimed my hand towards the far wall, and… nothing. I tried again, this time, I tried to force the magic to work. I didn’t work, but I did manage to get a reaction. A “bowled over in nausea and pain” reaction, but it was something... at least. Upon further analysis, I realized that there was something physically stopping me from performing the spell. At the time, I thought it was no biggie, I mean, everyone has difficulty doing a new type of spell for the first time. So, I thought that If I just kept doing it I’d eventually be able cast it.

Fourteen tries later, it still fizzled out. Here was something that could turn the tide of the war, and… maybe even bring my friends, a-and everyone else back. I might’ve been able t-to…

Well… to say at the very least, I was beyond angry when, even when my only chance at saving what little I had left was literally right in front of me, and that no matter how many times I tried I still couldn’t even manage to cast even the most basic spell from the book after I’d spent months- MONTHS translating. I got so worked up over it that I tried forcing it. I poured magic into it, a lot of magic, way above the threshold needed to cast it. “Hide behind the nearest large object” level of magic.

I woke up an hour later in the tower’s recently MacGyvered new infirmary. I found out that, after my little blackout, I was found in my room spasming on the floor lying in a puddle of my own, what one of my students informed me of, my “incarnadine bile”. I felt… wrong. I was cold but, I didn’t really… ‘feel”, cold. After assuring the nurse on hand that I was fine, and that I wasn’t feeling sick, and that no, I wasn’t trying to kill myself. I walked back to my room to see If I’d broken anything in my short severe lapse in competency… and to sulk over my growing list of failures.

When I opened the door back into my room though. I could literally smell the magical residue left over from my attempt at casting. Thankfully, nothing was broken. but I checked everything afterwards. Normally, if you screw up a spell, it’ll backfire, and you’ll end up feeling a bit exhausted. Or… spasming on the floor, but still…

If it does backfire, then the magic doesn’t even leave your body. Therefore, no invisible residue. But, there was. Which meant… that...

I went through the mental steps again, aimed at the wall, and-

A ray of sickly purplish black energy shot out from my palm, hitting the wall, and dissipating with squelch…

I smiled

After I tried some more of the spells out for myself, I decided to share my discovery with everyone. They were naturally afraid at first. But I eventually got them to warm up to the idea, albeit very reluctantly. When a few of them tried it out for themselves, they were even worse than I was. They couldn’t even start casting the spells. They just... couldn’t, for some reason… Looking back, maybe I should been more concerned as to why… But, anyway, back to the fight. before I lose my train of thought, again… more than I already have...

Underneath me were… I don’t know how many, but the ground was practically chock-full of bodies to the point where I was stunned by the sudden rush of information. And… some of them were… more recent, than others. That… little detail, got me thinking some rather unpleasant thoughts…

I never wanted this to happen. Well, no, I did, it’s just that… I never thought it would be… “like this”. When I convinced all the surrounding villages to declare independence… I don’t know… I never… “originally” intended to bring them into this. Heck, I brought the destruction magii here to stop anyone from getting hurt… They were about to get themselves killed marching to the palace to force the princesses to repeal the ban! I couldn’t just let them all die! I’ve known them for almost half my… well, half of this life.

They’re. My. Friends! I will NOT lose them too! I c-can’t lose them…

B-but now… So many innocent people have died because of this stupid war. From both sides… I started this, and now their b-blood is on my hands-…

No! Focus! Kill Starwirl, you can feel sorry about yourself later.

I blinked, my cheeks felt a bit wet.

I wiped the tears from my eyes and gave my head a good shake to clear my thoughts. I turned my attention instead onto the more pressing matter behind me. I sheathed my sword and started to focus my magic. My horn slowly started to glow with a ghostly blue, almost cyan, light. My hands joined into the lightshow too, the two channeling runes tattooed on the back of them lighting up with the same colour as my horn. I took a couple of seconds for it to reach full power, but then, I let that sucker go. I watched the light flow from my three focal points, and coalesce into thin tendrils, then rush towards and subsequently disappear into the ground…

And now, all I have to do is wait-

And then suddenly, everything was on fire.

I dove out from my hiding place, landing several feet away… and promptly faceplanted into the ground.

Ow

I looked back over my shoulder to see the tree I was just hiding behind being lit up like a bonfire. I barely made it out before I became pony flambé. I could still feel the heat from-

…

I’m on fire.

…

I hit the dirt and started rolling on the ground to put the flames out. I saved the “stop” part for last. I pushed myself up off the ground and got back up, pausing for a second to assess the damage. Luckily, my armor prevented most of me from getting burned. The only exceptions were my arms and my thighs…

But, besides my fur-like hair turning a slightly darker shade in the exposed areas, everything appeared to be fine. It didn’t hurt, which was a good sign. Although… Ugh… I’m going to get so many immature comments from the guys about the new, “dark splotches” just below my waistline… sigh…

I brushed off the soot from my legs, as best I could. But It looked like I’d still be due for a bath this evening-

And that’s, when I felt it. The ground underneath me was starting to shift, like something was under it…

Oh… right, they’re underground… so they have to dig themselves… out…

I looked back up to see Starswirl approaching me. With the same super serious expression, as per usual.

“I know you’re angry with me…”

And there he goes again… He blabbered on trying to talk me down, again. I hid my left hand behind my back and fired up my magic again, to see how much longer I would have to deal with thi-

They almost broke up through the ground, and with a flick of magic from my hand they stopped in their tracks. Starswirl hadn’t reacted to the not-so-subtle shift of the ground. Sooooo… either he didn’t know they were there, or he didn’t know what “they” ARE… Either way… heh. I think it’s about time to get some good, old fashioned, PAYBACK.

“Your presuming a lot of things about me, Starswirl…” I said as I started circling around him. He frowned at my interruption, and for a second he almost looked, dare I say… irritated?

“You presume that I’m somehow oblivious to all your machinations…” I continued, smiling giddily with barely constrained excitement.

“Your presuming that I don’t already know the truth about who you really are…”

“…And you presume that I have any intention of letting you leave here, ALIVE”

He raised his eyebrows at me and scoffed.

“And pray tell, how do you intend to- “

I didn’t let him finish. I lifted and lit up my hands, and commanded the dead to rise.

And they did not disappoint.

A skeletal hand burst from the ground under his hooves, grabbing his leg. He yelped at the sudden contact, and jumped backwards. More sinewy limbs broke the surface, hauling the rest of their rotting, rusted armor-clad bodies into the open air. When Starswirl caught sight of them, he blanched white with one of the most horrified and shocked faces that I’ve ever seen, especially from him…

And I loved every second of it.

“What… what have you done?” he hissed out, his face changing to furious almost instantly. So quickly that it made me pause my thoughts for a second. I’d… never actually seen him that angry before. I mean, I’ve seen him “frustrated” before, and he’s given me the “I’m disappointed in you” look more times than I can count…

“Oh, you know, just a little something I learned from a book. You’d be surprised by what you can learn from reading ancient magical tomes.” I said, sarcastically. He stared at me, boring his eyes into my soul. I fidgeted uncomfortably under his gaze. He was absolutely furious, at least that’s what I could tell from his expression at the time.

“It seems thou art right, Elenwyn…"

"I hath presumed that thou could be reasoned with, but It seems I underestimated how far you’ve fallen. I thought you were still a pony, but I had not anticipated thou having become a monster.”

…

Wow, that was… a little harsh…

I Stared at him, slightly shocked. His words caught me off guard. I had expected him to be terrified or… I don’t know, just not… this... Regardless… While it was a little uncalled for, and hypocritical coming from him, it didn’t really matter. It doesn’t matter, because I think it’s about damn time that I end th-

Wait… where did he go?! I saw a flash of light and then… Wait did he just...

…

Oh my god he just teleported away.

I growled. I was so close a-and then that son of a bitch just… just… GAH.

I turned around and loosed a pent-up lightning bolt from my hands, it cut through the air and crashed into the burning tree behind me, followed by another. and another. A minute later, after I had wasted a considerable amount of magic. I collapsed backwards onto the grass.

...

Honestly… I shouldn’t be surprised… I would’ve run away too if someone pulled zombies out of their ass in the middle of a fight...

I should probably get going. We might’ve sent the Equestrian army running for the hills, but they’ll be back… I need to get back to base and discus our next course of action.

I got up from the ground. The undead soldiers that I had raised were still around me, spread out across the clearing. Simply standing there, and staring at me… They were… creepy, to say the least. The tree that was set on fire, and the one I subsequently took out my anger on, illuminated the clearing with an orange glow.

They’re were at least twenty of them. I walked towards the one nearest to me...

Shattered armor, rotten flesh, a couple of bones sticking out... It fit the description of “walking corpse” almost perfectly… It’d be a waste just to dismiss them all… I suppose I could take them with me. Although I’ll probably need to fix them up a bit…

Then of course, Its arm fell off. I jumped back a little as the appendage unceremoniously flopped onto the ground…

…I can probably just… sew that back on…

Well then, let’s get you lot back to the tower and get you cleaned up.

I turned around, and the forest was on fire. The fire from before had spread, sending several more trees up in smoke…

… All right, before we do that. Let’s… put that out before it burns down the entire forest.

I did… eventually, manage to suffocate out the flames. Although it did take a while. Wind magic isn’t really the most conventional fire extinguisher, for obvious reasons. Manipulating the air to starve the fire of oxygen isn’t that magically efficient, but it worked out well enough I guess…

I stared downwards towards the ground below as I came to exit my thoughts. I was still falling, with gravity continuing to accelerate me faster and ever faster…

…

So… I guess this is it. I’m going to die… again. Normally I’d chalk this up to be just another one of my mistakes, that or fate just outright hates me… But…

A smile worked its way onto my face. And I started to focus…

What can I say? Old habits die… old habits… die…

I looked toward my left hand. I was trying to access one of the latent spells enchanted into my staff. So I could shapechange myself-

There was nothing in my hand, my staff was gone.

Where is-?! Where did it…go…

The rainbow wave shot itself towards me. The princesses had whipped out the oh so famed “El-er-mernts of Hermony “during our thinking they could end our ongoing stalemate by shooting their magical friendship beam of doom at me. They, however, were not the only ones with a powerful artifact…

One month ago, using the vial stored in the head my staff, containing drops of blood from all thirteen of my friends and myself, I summoned my friends’ spirits back from the grave, and bound them to the blood in the vial. I nearly cried in joy when I realized the ritual worked. I-I had my friends back… and they were just as angry as I was about the Equestira’s growing number of atrocities... So, just like we’ve done a hundred times before, I used the blood as a medium to combine our magic together through the staff…

Which of course leads us to the fight.

I raised my staff level to the incoming blast, and met it with a continually sustained “Deathray” of my own, mixed in with a disintegrate from my horn. Sickly green, black smog and red lightning clashed with all the colours of the rainbow…

And then of course, the rainbow started gaining ground, very quickly.

So, I poured more mana into the spell, which only slightly slowed its advance towards me. And so, I poured more, and more, and more power into the spell. My head was pounding, my arm hurt like hell, but still, it inched towards me.

Maybe I had exhausted too much of my, and the staff’s, magic during our fight. Maybe I had put it under too much stress by pouring all the magic through it. But when the tip of the rainbow beam made contact with my staff… it exploded. My expertly crafted, heavily enchanted staff, was blown apart into pieces.

If the shockwave of the point-blank explosion wasn’t enough, the feedback of the spell suddenly failing caused me to feel like lightning was running down my spine. When my head stopped spinning. I opened my eyes only to witness the massive ball of congealed magic I had been gathering the last couple of months, go completely nuclear. It exploded, and I felt a feeling of weightlessness, and wind, rushing past my mane…

Oh…right. And I guess the shockwave from its explosion must’ve destabilized the Mana Well I was prepping…

Well… no matter, I’ll just teleport myself down and-

*Bzzzt*

…

W-What?!

I gathered my magic again, pictured where I wanted to go, and… it fizzled out again…

Why isn’t it working?! What could-?!

I turned inward and focused on my internal magic and… and there was nothing…

Where is my magic?! Where the hell is it?!

Wait, that means that…

I looked down, I was getting closer and closer to the ground…

I-I’m going to die… Oh god… I’m going to die!

I screamed. The indescribable dots I recognized from the top of the tower as both my and the equestrian soldiers were becoming more detailed and larger…

Please no! this can’t be it! Not after everything I’ve done!

N-no, nononononono-

Dirt, and rock filled my vision.

NOOO-

…

I hit the ground like a sack of potatoes, with a rather audible "thunk". In but a moment, I could feel almost all of the bones in my body utterly shatter as I impacted the ground. Amongst the agony, I felt a wetness begin to gather under me as I laid there, broken, on my side…

My fall hadn’t interrupted the fighting around me, and the sound of clashing steel and shouting filled the air…

I’ve failed them, they’re all going to die…

I tried to open my mouth, to scream at them to run, to save themselves. But all that came out of my mouth was a whimpering gurgle, along with the irony taste of blood tickling my tongue…

This is it, T-this is the end... I’ll never be able to have dinner with Jeeves again, o-or hear any of Red Thunder’s lewd jokes ever again… I’ll never be able to see Sunny or Moony again…

It can’t end like this! No!

My eyes whirled around frantically, desperately hoping that someone would help me, save me.

Please! Help me!

No one even seemed to be paying attention…

Please someone, anyone please just help me!

Darkness once again encroached on the edge of my vision…

Please someone! I-I don’t wanna diiiiiie! Again!

I felt dizzy and lightheaded. My cheeks felt wet as tears clouded my darkening vision…

Please!

I feel… I-I can’t feel my legs…

Please…

My vision turned completely black.

Help me…

...

Please…

…

Help…

…

Help…

...

Help…

…

…

…

…

…

Author's Note

I should probably mention now that the whole "magic system" I'm trying to go for is going to mainly draw its variety from Dungeons and Dragons, but will operate similarly to how magic works in a little game called Age of Wonders 3. Please, do look it up if your interested, its quite a fun 3X game.

But anyway, its time for me to get back to getting the next chapter up and ready.

Also, while this has been extremely edited by a very awesome person. I wouldn't be surprised if a few errors have escaped correction. If you spot any, please do point them out, it definitely will save me the embarrassment.