XIV:
About Death and other surprises

The girls were walking carefully behind the human version of Shining Armor, running through the evacuated city. The situation itself was frightening. Being dresses up as the military in the middle of an abandoned city.

“You know? I know they don’t exist in your world, but this is the perfect setup for a zombie movie. I mean, we’re going to fight zombies, right?” said Shining Armor trying to lighten the mood.

It didn’t work, but the girls did chuckle nervously. Finally, the group stopped a few blocks away from Canterlot High.

The young colonel shivered.

“I am no expert, but I bet this strange atmosphere is coming from them. It is magic, am I right?”

The Equestrian Twilight nodded without a word and after taking a deep breath she walked forward. “Thank you for taking us here, Shining Armor. We’ll handle it from here.”

She tried to sound firm, but her voice was trembling.

Applejack held her hand. “It’s okay to be afraid Twilight. We all are.”

“But we’re in this together!” said Rarity holding her other hand. “We’re in this together, and we will save Spikey-Wakey no matter what.”

The whole group started to move forward ready to confront the creatures.

The soldier watched them leave. He really wanted to join them in battle, but he knew he would be little to no help against a magical threat. But he did pray for his little sister to come back safely, that world’s Twilight. Then he ran to find the first group who went into the perimeter hoping for them to be alive.

And then, in the middle of his running, he froze when a horrid shriek echoed all over the evacuated city.

“SPIIIIIIIIKEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!”

The girls froze because of the shriek.

Twilight shook her head furiously. Please no!

“Damn it! I warned him not to do anything reckless!”

“Let’s say it how it is. Something stupid!” corrected Applejack between scared and angry.

Nopony said anything else and ran as fast as they could to save Spike. But then Fluttershy collapsed.

“Fluttershy, Fluttershy! What’s going on? Talk to me!” said Rainbow.

The yellow girl didn’t answer. She was screaming and trembling on the floor as she was having a seizure. Rainbow Dash tried to carry her, but Fluttershy was trembling so violently that she ended up losing her balance and fell.

“You continue! I’ll take care of Fluttershy!”

The girls nodded.

“Keep her safe Dashie!” said Pinkie worried.

First the shriek, now this. What was happening?

Rainbow stroke her friends’ hair and put her hand on her cheek.

Fluttershy opened her eyes. “It’s so horrible. I don’t want them anymore. Take them back, take them back. Nooooooo pleaseeeeeee!”

…

The Undead Knights plus Starlight were approaching menacingly toward Spike. closer and closer.

The Equestrian Emerald, Irish and Eternal formed a protecting circle around the enormous purple dog.

“You are only delaying the inevitable. Move or face the consequences.” threatened Midnight with anger burning in her eyes.

Spike aimed the Dagger to Midnight.

“You mean you going to hell where you belong? Don’t you understand? The tables have turned. I have a weapon that can destroy you for good. I will not hesitate to use it.”

Jack the Reaper laughed. “Reeeeeeally? You won’t hesitate?”

“It is funny you mention it!” laughed Pin-Kill-Die.

“Because we will not hesitate to kill you. Not anymore.” finished Gothic, grinning.

Then the six monsters fused with their shadows and charged against Spike. The Knights of Silence were thrown away by the tremendous force of the undeads, and then they materialized right in front of him with knives on their hands that they used to attack the kid.

Spike rolled away right on time and managed to cut one of them, but he was injured himself. Luckily only superficial wounds, but still he was cut in his back leg and his back.

Undash fell on her knees touching the cut on her leg, and showed her fangs.

“Oh… pain… I had forgot how it was. And is so… enraging!”

As fast as she was she charged toward Spike. Irish jumped and shot a powerful attack destroying the undead’s lower half. Of course, Undash regenerated her body in less than a minute. But much to her surprise, the cut that Spike made with the Dagger was still there. She roared in anger.

Spike howled in response and stood there in combat position alongside with Irish.

“Time to put the time in motion!” said the Great Master.

“And let’s pray it works!” said Spike trembling.

Undash ran ready to finish the little traitor off. She did no have her wings in this side of the mirror, but she still was as fast as she was in Equestria.

Irish and Spike raised their hands and paws respectively and sent a powerful magic beam that reduced the monster to ashes. Irish and Spike exchanged a look, and fused with their shadows disappearing in the darkness of the night. The five remaining undeads roared and chased the two runaways by fusing with their shadows too. However they were pulled out by the other Knights of Silence.

Jack the Reaper roared and used her knife to cut her own stomach to pull out her lasso which was dripping blood.

“Okay, if that’s what ya’ll want!”

She threw her lasso catching Eternal, and then she kicked her on the face right on her prosthetic eye.

Eternal cried in pain, as the glass eye shattered a bit. Much to the Reaper’s delight.

“A’ll deal with ya’ later. Now A’ need to avenge ma’ friend and teach that dog to never betray his friends.”

Jack the Reaper fused with her shadow and resumed the chase for Spike followed by the other undeads. Getting rid of the other Knights of Silence was very easy for them.

They only had one thing on her minds, to get Spike. He had to pay no matter what!

East Wind charged her power on her hands and one more time forced them out of the shadows confronting the Undead Knights.

“Hey! Your problem is with me! Don’t you dare to touch my Knights!”

Midnight stared at her. “Oh well, if is attention what you want!”

The leader of the undeads charged against the first Great Master. East Wind took the Y-shapped staff from Glimmer’s death body and used as a spear to impale Midnight to the ground.

Midnight had no problem with removing the staff from her body and stand to face her enemy. She broke the staff on East Wind’s gut, and then kicked her to the ground.

“You know what? You are right! If it wasn’t for you and your shitty group Spike would have never do this to us. You made him betray my living self and the crown. You turned him against us!”

East Wind stood in front of her, determined to stop the monster.

“I was there when it happened. If someone is to blame for him joining us is your fallen lover. He is the one who gave Spike the motivation to protect his loved ones. And you know he was the one who gave us the Alicorn Spell? Lets be honest, he was the only one would could get it right in front of Celestia and get away with it!”

Midnight was about to reply when East quickly wrapped her legs around Midnight’s and spun her whole body to make the leader of the Undead Knights to fall. Finally East Wind disappeared inside her shadow and escaped enraging Midnight.

The rest of the Undeads were in a fight with the other Knights, holding them back for a few minutes and finally escape and materialize on a nearby building.

Sunset was tired. All covered with sweat and she was breathing heavily. But her eyes were full in determination. “We are going to fight until the end. Their mere existence is an insult to my friends!”

Fluttershy nodded. “And we won’t allow them to keep hurting the innocent. And the not so innocent either!”

The other knights nodded in agreement. They were exhausted, but really determined to win this once and for all. They were lying against the wall recovering the best they could, to keep fighting.

But then they were interrupted by a pair of red eyes and a sadistic grin followed by a demented laugh. It was Pin-Kill-Die.

“Your bravery is to be admired but it is useless! The only one who can help you now is that little traitor of Spike. But he ran away with the only thing that can work against us. He left you, don’t you see? You have no chance!”

East Wind looked at her right to the eye.

“We have our powers. We’ve been using Magic of Silence way longer than you in this world. You have no chance!”

The undead roared in excitement. “As you wish! You can play to distract us as much as you want. But in the end we’ll kill you all. And then I’ll go for my piece of Spike.”

East charged her magic on her hands, as Pin-Kill-Die aimed her knife toward her.

“Well, whatever. I wish I had more time so I can kill you as slowly and painful as possible, but I really want to go get him now. He has saved you a world of pain!”

East Wind smiled. “He is amazing, right? He is the only one who have managed to get rid of one of you. He is the one who have come closer to destroy you all, and he’ll finish what he started. In one way or another, this is the end Undead Knighs. NOW!”

The two Eternal Wings (human and pony) used their power to make all the cabling on the building to come to life and wrapped around the monster immobilizing them.

Pin-Kill-Die raised an eyebrow.

“Are you guys really trying?”

The monster started to struggle, reaping her own limbs that she regenerated and then she jumped on Eternal, wrapping her hands around her neck.

“Ahahahahaha!! Look at the bright side, now you’ll have something in common with your other self!”

She pressed one hand on her left eye.

The other Knights ran to help her friend, but the monster had time to rip Eternal’s eye off.

“ETERNAL!” shouted the human version of Emerald. “NO ONE TOUCHES MY BELOVED ETERNAL!”

And he used a magic beam to destroy the monster.

“Let’s do it now that she is reduced to ashes!” commanded the Equestrian version of the boy.

The Equestrian Knights of Silence took each other’s hands and began the rite. The human Knights joined in by lending their power to the others. It was the sealing spell for the undeads.

The ashes started to regenerate at great speed with the head being the first one to pop out of the pile of ashes. The monster was laughing as crazy.

“You guys are so desperate right?”

And she regenerated her whole body.

“Oh no you won’t!” shouted the human Emerald Horn and jumped over the monster taking a rock and stabbing her in the ye with it. The eye did not regenerate.

“Are you out of regeneration energy?”

“No idiot, I wanted you to feel bad for your girlfriend. Te-he!”

She slowly regenerated her eye. “Regenerating is like breathing for us. We’ll never get tired idiot, we are corpses. Corpses can’t feel tired.”

Emerald kept struggling with her, desperately trying to keep her still until the ritual finished.

“Move now!” Commanded East Wind.

The humans fused with the shadows and escaped as the equestrians finished the spell, trapping the monster inside the building.

Pin-Kill-Die laughed.

“This is not as effective in a whole building. For the next time try a small cell. Not that you’ll leave enough to do it again, but still…”

She comically shrugged and began using her own power to undo the spell.

The Knights of the Silence started to run away from the building.

“Dang it, how much time did we get?”

“Not as much as we need. Still, we did what we could. Now let’s go to help Spike!”

They nodded and ran following Spike’s shadow aura.

…

Irish and Spike have been running for a while, but in the end the dog could not continue.

“Are you okay Spike?” asked Irish.

Spike just nodded, but he was breathing heavily, and concentrated his power on regenerating his wounds.

“My fault. I should have healed before start running. But I was in an adrenaline rush!”

“Yeah, I should point that out too. Sorry Spike.”

Then they noticed the Bearers of Harmony approaching.

“Girls!” greeted the dragon.

“Spike!” said Twilight, running to hug her son.

The two embraced each other for a while, when Twilight finally released him.

“I was so worried! We heard them screaming. What did you do Spike?”

Spike only showed her the bloody dagger.

“What’s that?” asked Pinkie.

Spike was about to answer when a sinister figure materialized in front of them. Tall and threatening as they remembered. She still had the Y-shaped staff on her hand.

Rage was burning in her eyes.

“That is a dagger forged in hell. The only weapon capable to kill undeads such as myself and those six. It has claimed two victims already, one of them my other self.”

The girls stared at the girl.

“Starlight…”

Starlight Glimmer grinded her teeth as she walked toward the group, who have gathered in front of Spike in a protective way.

“My orders were very clear. Destroy those six and ignore you. But now the kid has ruined everything. Everything! I don’t care. I’ll kill you, even if this is the last thing I do with my unlife. YOU TURNED ME INTO THIS!”

The purple dog walked in front of the group with the dagger on his mouth.

“Don’t you dare to touch my friends, Glimmer. They have nothing to do with the Undeads. They killed you. Not my friends, but their other selves!”

Starlight roared but did not move.

Irish joined Spike, charging her power on her hands.

“Besides, they became the Undead Knights because of you. You decided to take their Cutie Marks away and then turn Ponyville into your new cult central. You did this to yourself!”

“I DON’T CARE!” shouted Starlight. “This was supposed to be my chance for revenge! Me and my other self were supposed to be the ones destroying them. Not you, me! Us! WHY DID YOU HAVE TO RUIN EVERYTHING? DO YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO US IF WE FAIL?”

Spike nodded.

“All of your suffering you’ve been through, and the suffering the Undeads would face in hell would be nothing compared with what is in storage for you.”

Starlight nodded. “If I managed to succeed, at least I would have the thought that they would be way worse than me. But no, you made me fail! You denied me my prize!”

Spike nodded. “I could not let you win Starlight. My friends are still inside those things. And you know what? They deserve to be better than you. You may not be the one who succeeded but you had the same intentions. I am glad they killed you just in time!”

The girls gasped, looking at Spike in disbelief. But he did not back down and nodded.

“Yes, I am glad you’re dead! You deserved to die!”

Starlight started to laugh maniacally.

“Really? So, in the end you are still the same little kid obsessed with protect instead of being protected.”

Spike growled.

“Being useless it’s a sin!”

Starlight laughed again, and she threw away her staff opening her arms.

“Oh, what the hell! I failed anyway. Do what you have to do!”

Spike then ran toward the second Starlight Glimmer and jumped over her, making sure to stab her heart with the dagger.

She grinned. “Good luck stupid. I’ll see you again. If you insist on keeping this path I am pretty sure we will.”

She then expired.

Spike pulled the dagger out from the undead’s heart and looked at Twilight who looked at him with her hand over her chest.

“Spike…”

“I am truly sorry you had to see this. But this is the only way to save them!”

Twilight hugged him again. “Spike I don’t know what type of luggage you are carrying but don’t do it alone! You hear her, you may lose yourself. Stop it now that we are on time!”

“Sorry Twilight, it is a promise I made to myself. Or what was left of myself back then.”

Then Irish joined placing her hand on Twilight’s shoulder.

“And he is not alone. His second family is with him, helping him to save his first family.”

At this point Rarity lost her temper.

“You are no family to him! You are just a bunch of idiots who provoked the wrong ponies! We wouldn’t be in this predicament if it wasn’t for you!”

Irish glared at Rarity “Hey, Luna and Cadence started it by asking for those monsters’ help on the first place! If the Crown had listen when we sent the first letter nothing of this would have happened. All they needed to do is to change the education system for good, but they chose to ignore us instead!”

They were about to start a fight when they felt the presence of the Undead Knights.

Twilight and her friends held hands.

“Stop right there! You know how it works; friendship is magic!”

Midnight did not care.

“You’re missing two. Stop it already and give us Spike or you’ll face consequences. We may not kill you, but we’ll make sure this is the last time you are in our way. You ungrateful bitches.”

“Go to heck as where ya’ belong!” shouted Applejack.

Her dark counterpart, Jack the Reaper, shrugged.

“If that’s what ya’ll want…”

The Reaper jumped over Applejack.

Spike began to look for the dagger, but he did not find it.

“What?!”

Irish tackled Jack the Reaper, and the two of them fell on the floor rolling down. Spike barely had the time to react using his magic to throw rocks, cars, everything he could find to neutralize the other undeads.

Twilight and her friends joined in trying to neutralize their other selves.

Then the Undead fell on their knees and screamed in anger and agony.

They turned to see Irish and Jack the Reaper. Irish was covered in cuts, bites and bruises. But she was standing up victorious with the dagger in her hand still dripping blood.

Jack the Reaper’s lifeless body was lying down with a hole in her chest.

“I told you Spike, you don’t have to do this alone!”

There were not words coming from the monsters this time. Only a roar of pure rage scarier than anything anypony have heard before. Pinke Pie, Rarity, Applejack and Twilight moved forward to protect Irish and Spike. Things have turned out to be more dangerous now.

But then Applejack collapsed just as Fluttershy did a few moments ago.

“NO, STOP! PLEASE STOP! A’ REGRET, A’ DON’T WANT IT! TAKE IT BACK, GO AWAAAAAY!”

Author's Note

And here it is, the continuation of the final battle between the Undead Knights, the Bearers and the Knights of Silence. I hope you all liked and sorry for the long wait.

Read ya’ later!!