Beatrix Belladonna Versus the Vampiric Planet

Gathering all who might be able to aid her, Beatrix Belladonna carried her mother, prepared to enact the Smooze's plan. However unlike usual, when their thoughts were often practically one, he'd shut her out. It wasn't like him. Did he no longer trust her? She tried to take his behavior on faith, her eyes watering. She'd never felt so alone in her life.

At least she'd mended things with her sister. “I don't understand,” said Flurry Heart who allowed her to climb aboard her back. “Are we planning to leave the wounded on Megiddo? How will this save them and the planet?”

“I don't know. You'd have to ask Smoozy,” she said flatly. Despite what little assurance she'd been able to offer Flurry, Starlight, and Smolder had all agreed to the plan, despite their obvious misgivings. Perhaps they were desperate, too.

“They'll die anyway if we don't try something,” reasoned Smolder. “At least this way some of 'em might make it!”

A mass of dragons and pegasi carried the fallen through the void. Most were carefully wrapped up to ease their transport, but even so it was obvious some were unlikely to survive the trip. Flurry winced to see them struggling and whimpering. Over the next couple of hours they traveled back-and-forth, ferrying in as many on the verge of death as they could.

“Looks like it's about our turn.” Beatrix brushed her sleeping mother's loose hairs from her face. “Please, let this work.”

The pillar of crystal which sealed Sombra started to shake. A crack rippled through it, and it exploded into innumerable fragments that were hurled about, the stallion wasting no time once freed as he charged. He bowled into Belladonna, rolling with her and Trixie's unconscious form, the pair wrestling for the Necronomicon. “Give it to me,” he demanded.

“No! You'll have to kill me!” She tried to dig into its mummified cover, nails snapping and bleeding as she dug in.

“Don't tempt me,” he snarled as smoke spilled from his eyes.

“There's nowhere to run!” Flurry Heart grabbed him and pulled. “You're surrounded, there's-” The tome shimmered as somepony called upon its power. Suddenly it, Sombra, and Flurry had blinked away, to who-knows-where.

“No...” Beatrix shook her head and cradled her mother close to her bosom. Was the nightmare destined to start all over? “Starlight, take us to Megiddo. If there's even the tiniest chance, I can't give up.”

Starlight nodded with pursed lips. “We'll track them down...somehow.”

*****

A calm settled over the Crystal Empire. From the balcony Flurry Heart and Sombra watched over it, side-by-side, the crystal ponies going about their business. It was an ancient, borderline primative time, rife with prejudice and superstition. But the sorcerer-king had delved into the dark arts in hopes he could secure a utopian future for all his followers.

“How is this possible?” Flurry blinked. “We're in the past?!”

“Indeed. Or an approximation,” mused Sombra. “The Necronomicon is trying to take hold of me once more.”

She studied him. Bleak skies rolled over the capital. “I think I understand. We're inside the book again, aren't we?” He nodded patiently. “Hmm, but didn't you want to save this country? Maybe...maybe there's still time to-”

Gently he brushed aside the forehoof she placed on his. “No, it's too late for me to change, even if I wanted to. Like the Sphinx my pride wouldn't allow it.” A low chuckle escaped him. “Much as I'm loathe to admit it, Celestia and Luna were right. Black magic ultimately corrupts. They were prudent to forbid its use. A degree of lucidity has returned to me, but I doubt it will last.”

Flurry tilted her head and watched him with doe-like eyes. “So, what will you do?”

“The one thing I still can. I can still hear the alien voices throbbing in my skull, the Necronomicon desperate to make me reclaim its power. And I will.” He laughed as the Crystal Empire started to crumble around them. Screams sounded below from the cataclysm that spiraled up from above, a lightning storm tearing the land apart in its fury.

Suddenly Flurry found herself and Sombra upon an asteroid. He held the Necronomicon close. She searched around the small cratered surface, stars visible in the distance. “How did we get here?! And how are we breathing?!”

“Both thanks to me. I teleported us here and raised a bubble that allows us to breathe,” he explained. “You see, thanks to the Necronomicon attempting to bond with me, I can always call upon its power. Beatrix and the Smooze may have been able to stop me for a time...but they would surely lose in the end as I continue to master it.” He couldn't stymie his arrogance even now.

Flurry gulped. “So now what? You plan to kill or enslave me?” She took up a cautious combative stance.

“Take it easy. I've no wish to battle you. No, the Necronomicon traveled through space, until it somehow ended up in that parallel world of humans, where the Twilight Sparkle there was unfortunate enough to stumble upon it. Of course, she couldn't resist any book, even one this grotesque, and with her knowledge it wasn't difficult to bring its horrors to Equestria once it corrupted her soul and establish what you call the cult of the nemesis. I'll simply return the tome to the cosmos, where it belongs. Who knows? Perhaps it will end up in the sun, a black hole, or another world. Either way, it won't be your problem.”

“You plan to die with it?” She relaxed her taut muscles.

“Supposedly, it cannot be destroyed. I simply chose an asteroid far away from Equestria as I could transport us, one I sensed was on a doomed collision course. I've restrained the tome's power for now, but who knows how long before it twists my will?”

She beamed. “So you want to be remembered as a hero!”

He tossed back his head and boomed with laughter. “Hardly! Perhaps in my youth I would have wished for such a fate, but I'm no martyr. No, this is how I'll reclaim my will! I'll resist its power unto the end, surpass what even Starlight Glimmer was capable of!” He calmed himself and turned to study her. It was odd. Maybe it was due to her naivety, but he felt like he could confess almost anything to her. Perhaps if he'd met her sooner... “But there's no need for you to die with me.”

“Wait, Sombra-” But he drew upon the Necronomicon's power to boost his own and sent her back home. He settled upon his haunches amidst the cold void. A part of him wished to simply await the end. But there was always the risk in a fit of madness the eldritch whispers would convince him to alter his course of action. No, there was only one option left.

He ripped off his horn with a cry. The crimson edge snapped and blood oozed between his eyes. “Shining Armor, are you still out there?! I saved Equestria where even you couldn't!” He yelled into the emptiness of space and plunged the ragged blade into his chest. It ripped into his skin, past his ribs, and pierced his heart. He slumped onto his side with another chuckle.

His dulled eyes studied the discarded Necronomicon. The asteroid drifted ever closer to its impact with a planetoid in the far reaches of the universe. But there was nopony to claim it now. Inevitably, the darkness claimed him.

*****

A greenish-yellow blob slithered across Megiddo and left a slimy trail. Beatrix watched her companion devour the dead here, enemies and allies alike, and its mass increased with each one it swallowed. “But that shouldn't be possible anymore ever since we bonded! Unless...” She realized that somehow he'd broken their symbiotic link, and more than that, neither were harmed by the process. “You've altered your composition again, haven't you?” She wanted to be happy for him despite her tears.

(Yes. Forgive me. I wanted to stya with you forever, learn more about Equestria with you, but I may have finally found a way to repent for my errors. I was a simple tool of the cult, but you helped make me something more. Thank you, Beatrix Belladonna.)

“What are you saying...?” It was barely a whisper as she touched her chest. “You don't plan to-”

“I may have discovered a way to mimic Sunburst's elixir. Unfortunately, it shall require a permanent alteration.)

“That's why you haven't been communicating with me! You knew I wouldn't approve!” She sunk to her knees beside the blob, tried to hold him, but he slipped from her arms and continued his spread outwards. “Is there any other way?!”

(I fear not. Do not worry. Trixie will be saved. As will the others who still survive.)

“It's not fair. After all you've done to make amends!” She knew it was the voice of a whiny, petulant child, but she didn't care.

(We both know all too well life isn't fair, Beatrix. We've been afforded opportunities most can only dream of.)

It felt so empty inside her now that they were separated. Was he feeling the same, too? A certain hollowness that could never quite be filled by anyone else? “Please don't do this. You're my soul-mate. I need you. Please...”

(It is not healthy to be so co-dependent. That applies to me, too. But I adored our all-too short time together. Megiddo will be reborn into a similar world as the one it was built atop of.) Portions of him were sinking into the earth, consuming and rebuilding it, creating land masses from himself and what would become oceans. He was becoming the healing elixir, restoring the wounded, soft breaths escaping the slumbering Trixie when he rejuvenated her. (Not much longer, now.)

“Can't you simply leave a small portion of yourself? No?” Of course he'd already considered the idea and realized it wouldn't work. In order to undergo such a massive metamorphosis he'd have to sacrifice his entire being. And once it started there was no way to stop. “Smoozy thinks of everything. Goodbye...” Watery eyes almost blinded her as he sunk into the land.

(Farewell...Beatrix Belladonna...) Sloshes sounded when he seeped into the earth.

Ever so slowly she, Starlight, and Smolder watched the birth of a brand new world. Eventually Flurry Heart arrived from seemingly nowhere, and sat with them to bear witness on her haunches, the vampiric planet revitalized by the Smooze's remains. Properties that mimicked the elixir suffused the air and wounds closed as a result. Trixie was one of the first to stir.

“B-baby?” Her voice was a hoarse whisper when she reached towards Beatrix who took her hand and nodded.

“It's wonderful,” said Flurry who openly wept while the skies started to turn a soft blue.

“It is, isn't it?” Starlight chuckled. “I'm sure your parents would be so proud. Sunset Shimmer, too.”

Scooping up the last puddle of the Smooze she saw, Beatrix watched it alter to a sparkly, many-hued elixir in her cupped palms which twinkled under the sunshine. Somehow, he'd done the impossible. Ambivalent tears cascaded from her.

“Baby? It will be okay,” assured Trixie who knelt by her. “We saved Equestria, didn't we?”

“Yes...but at a high cost.” She'd lost Bellatrix and the Smooze. Not to mention part of herself. Her hand clasped around the Prima Materia which sealed the neck of her cape. “What happened to Sombra?”

“Tough to explain. Uh, he teleported us with the Necronomicon to this asteroid which was hurtling to its doom-”

“Whoa, slow down!” Smolder raised her palms. “This mean we don't have to worry about it anymore?”

“Maybe. Can't say for certain,” admitted Flurry who stared at a hoof she dragged over the dirt.

“We'll deal with it when, and if, it comes.” Starlight smiled. “Hey, chin up! We all did well, didn't we?”

“Trixie certainly thinks so!” She wrapped her arms around Glimmer and her daughter.

“Uh-oh. We can't stay much longer.” Beatrix pointed at the void which was slowly starting to seal, shrinking with every second that passed. “Stick around, and we may end up trapped in this dimension forever!”

“Together, sweetheart! Let's put on a show!” Trixie took the lead and Beatrix fell into step. It was just like old times, back when she'd been so little, her mother the world to her as she followed in her footsteps. They pirouetted with a flourish, capes and manes trailing behind them, pointing an index finger in unison. By now they'd perfected their routine.

Drawing a circle, they opened a portal in the sky. It was a spell Trixie couldn't manage on her own, but she could aid her daughter's craft, who likewise was surprised she could work the spell without the Smooze's assistance. “It won't hold long,” warned Beatrix. “Everyone, let's move out!” The dragons and pegasi started to carry those who wished to come out.

However there were some who chose to stay behind in this peaceful natural paradise. Color returned to Foal-Bearer and Wet Nurse, their coats again a myriad of shimmery hues. “Hey,” she called as life returned to their eyes. “You coming?”

The twins looked at each other and shook their heads. “No,” said Foal-Bearer. “After my crimes, I have no place in Equestria.”

“I can't believe we have another chance,” admitted Wet Nurse.

“Thanks to the Smooze. I released him from his prison and used him as a weapon...” Foal-Bearer bowed her head.

“That's behind us,” said Wet Nurse who stroked her shoulder. “Thanks. All of you.”

“No, thank you.” Starlight smiled sadly at her. “You helped save me too, way back then!”

“It's the least we could do to repay Cadance after she took us in. Thank you for believing in me when nopony would.” She daintily took Glimmer's forehoof and kissed it. “Well, you'd better hurry. Time's almost up.”

Foal-Bearer nodded. “We may not meet again. But know all of you will forever be in our hearts.”

With a final look back and a somber nod, Starlight plucked up the mother-and-daughter duo, and ferried them across the vortex which once closed would permanently separate the parallel dimensions. Perhaps it would be a life of hard work on this newly established Eden. But she somehow had a feeling those who chose to stay behind would be all right.