Impossible Mission - Sealing Tartarus

As Twilight Sparkle and Monochrome entered the center area of Tartarus, they were suddenly shocked by the massive increase in light; Twilight covered her eyes as they entered the central cavern letting them adjust.  Monochrome, whom still had his glasses on, shook it off with relative ease and stared straight forward.  In the center of the central cavern was a massive pillar; atop this pillar with a black and white orb that looked almost identical to Monochrome’s cutie mark, the orb leaked light and dark energies in the form of lightning blasts; colored white, black, and every shade of grey imaginable.  The energy shot off the walls and out to the rest of the multitude of caverns, it was literally the Core of Tartarus.  As Twilight and Monochrome approached it they spotted a third pony already there, the pony was dark blue, but had green hair with red dyed tips on his mane and tail.  His cutie mark was strangely enough, a book with a tombstone on it; it was unlike any cutie mark either of them had ever seen.  It didn’t take long for the mystery pony to realize he was being watched, without turning he acknowledged his guests.

“Beautiful isn’t it?” The stranger asked.

“The core?” Twilight Responded to him.

“The two energies of the world acting in a perfect yet completely unstable harmony, its life within death, harmony within disharmony, Order within Chaos.”  As the stranger turned to face them the first thing the two ponies saw was the mystery colt’s eyes.  They were a pitch dark grey and slit like the eyes of a dragon.

“Your eyes!” Monochrome looked at the colt with complete astonishment, he had only seen those eyes one other time, and he didn’t think they existed anywhere else.

“THIS, is the price I pay for my research.” The colt pointed at his eyes.  “THIS is the thanks I get for what I did with my life.  These eyes are a curse, a reminder that ponies should never walk as close to the edge as I walked.”

Monochrome muttered the words “you’re wrong” but it was drowned out by Twilight.

“Who are you?!” She demanded to know.

The colt smiled and returned to staring at the core.   “I had many name when I walked upon Equestria, they called me Endermen, Slender, ‘The Illusive Colt,’ to most people I was just that creepy pony who stalked around in the back, unnoticed and unwanted by society.  I am a writer and researcher, who traveled all over Equestria collecting tales, taking notes; studding the magic of fear.”

Something about this colt made the back of Twilight’s mane stand on end.  “The Magic of Fear?”

The colt turned back to them a wicked and insane smile on his face. “Black magic, forbidden tomes, lost scrolls, stories and myths of ancient creatures, I collected it all.  I went from town to town collecting stories used by ponies to make their foals go to sleep at night, or eat their vegetable.  I created a multitude of creatures based on myth and legend, and by using this core I was able to manifest them.  Most of the creations I made were kept here in Tartarus, and were kept under lock and key by the four guardians you have no doubt already encountered, but every so often I let something slip out into your world.”

“But why?” Twilight again demanded to know.

The colt only snickered. “To see the fruits of my labor of course; after all I cannot study fear without causing a panic or two, unfortunately there were two things that continually got in my way.”

The two ponies stared at the colt waiting for him to finish, the colt suddenly put on an annoyed almost aggravated look.  “For some reason, none of my creations ever made it past that place you call the Everfree Forrest; it’s as if somepony was keeping them all locked up there.”

Monochrome couldn’t help but snicker under his breath; he knew exactly who the colt meant.

“The second was you bunch of misfits!” The colt pointed at Twilight who gasped, Monochrome stepped out and stood in front of her.

“Every single time something did manage to make it to you all, it was defeated by you and your friends, the hydra, the cockatrice, for pony sake at one point I was so aggravated I even sent Cerberus down just to do what none of the other creatures could get a chance to.”

“You’re the reason Cerberus got away from Tartarus?” Twilight gasped.

“Well of course, I do run Tartarus after all, the protectors of it answer to me.”

“Not anymore they don’t” Monochrome finally spoke up after staying quiet for as long as he could.  “We’re shutting you down; we’re destroying the core and sealing Tartarus forever!”

The colt let out an insane laugh, something similar to what Discord would throw out.  “How do you purpose you will do that huh?  You need a source of light AND dark magic in order to operate the core, something you don’t have!”

“He’s right,” Twilight frowned, she didn’t want to admit it, but that fact had been bothering her since she heard it from Guardian, they lacked a source of dark magic so there was no way they could destroy the core, at least that’s what she thought.

“He’s not right.” Replied Monochrome, Twilight and Endermen both looked at him and Monochrome let out a sigh, if there was ever a time to do this, now was it.

“I’ve wanted to tell you for a while now Twilight, but I just never had the time or the courage…” with that, Monochrome reached for his shades and took them off.  Tossing them to the ground he looked up and faced his good friend and his enemy, his eyes were the exact same as Endermen’s.

“Impossible!  No other pony could possibly have my eyes!”

“Mono…what…I…how…” Twilight was at a complete loss for words if what Endermen said was true, then Monochrome one of her best friends had been practicing dark magic.

“I didn’t know how you’d respond so I kept it to myself for as long as I could.”  Mono put his shades back on and began to approach the still disgruntled colt across from him.

“You’re wrong about dark magic Slendermen or whatever in Luna’s sake your name is.”

Endermen smirked

“Dark magic is the magic of emotions, yes fear is involved, but so is anger, sadness, guilt-” Monochrome turned to Twilight as he continued. “As well as happiness, joy…love...”

Twilight blushed.

“Dark magic is emotional magic, and if one has total control over their emotions, if one has a sound and stable mind, it can be just as good and powerful as light magic.  The same magic that kept you at bay all these years.”

Endermen shrugged, realizing that his one trump card had been outplayed he only had one remaining option.  “Fine, fine, however, even if you can operate the core as I can, I’m not just going to give it to you.”  Endermen’s horn glowed the same shade of dark grey as Monochrome’s magic.  “If you want it, COME TAKE IT!”  Upon shouting this Endermen fired a massive blast of dark magic at Mono and Twilight.

“Lookout!” Twilight jumped infront of her friend and shielded them both from the blast with her force field, but the dark magic was empowered by Enderman’s rage and her force field fizzled away after just one shot, after which Enderman quickly fired again.

“My turn” Monochrome threw out a force field of his own unlike Twilight’s, Monochrome’s field was enriched with his own dark magic causing the projectile to be absorbed.

“Commendable” complimented Endermen, “but in vane!”  Endermen turned to the core and poured magic into it, after some time a small magical burst erupted from the core and a hydra appeared before the ponies.

“No way” Twilight stared at the three headed behemoth in disbelief.

“As I said” snickered the sinister pony, this core allows me to manifest legends, I can make a story come to life.

“I got a story for ya!” Twilight and the Endermen looked towards the core to see Monochrome who had teleported his way over, Monochrome mimicked the spell his colt nemesis unleashed and in a matter of moments both Ender and the Hydra were staring face to face with the mythical Platinum Dragon, the strongest and rarest of all the worlds’ dragon breeds.  Monochrome twitched a little and sweat dripped down his face, it took all of his concentration to keep the dragon under his control, but soon it began to fight and pin-down the hydra Endermen had created.

“Now Twi!”

Monochrome shifted his focus for a brief moment and fired a dark magic beam at Endermen who retaliated with his own, as the two stood in a stalemate Twilight took the opportunity to teleport behind the wicked colt blasting him with a magic bolt of her own.  Endermen flew off to the side, magic energy coursing through his body as he lay there on the ground.

“Okay, while he’s down lets destroy this-” Monochrome was cut off by coughing, some sputtering, and a weak laugh.

“Even if you defeated me, you still won’t destroy the core, because the ponies who cast the spells on the core will die, the destruction of the core will trigger a shockwave that will destroy everything within Tartarus.”

“What? No way!” Twilight began to back away from the core, she wanted to seal away this evil place, but not if it meant sealing the fate of her firends in the process.

“Then Twilight will leave and I’ll seal this place myself.”

Both of the other ponies found themselves looking at Monochrome.

“Mono are you crazy?!” Twilight glared at Mono but he shook it off

“You were right Twilight, Tartarus needs to be sealed away, and we need to make sure this kind of power never falls into the hands of that colt or anyone else.  This is what my cutie mark represents, I can use both light AND dark magic, and I can seal the core myself.”

Tears began to form in Twilight’s eyes.  “Monochrome please, you can’t be serious.”

Monochrome turned around. “As a heart attack, now get going, I’m starting the spell now.”

“but Mono-”

“FOR THE LOVE OF LUNA GO ALREADY!” Monochromes mane flared up again, like it did in the Succubus cave.

Twilight gasped; as she did Endermen walked by

“There’s much fear in that one.  I think this is something he clearly doesn't want to do.” He smiled then looked towards the startled mare, “You know, if you leave now, you just might save the rest of your friends from the same fate as him.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, all of her other friends were still fighting their own battles (so to speak); she needed to warn them, and get them out before they got caught in the shockwave.  Twilight ran out of the entrance to the core and away from them crying as she left.  Endermen let out a wicked laugh, slipped into the shadows and disappeared.  As he left Monochrome could hear him speak though his voice was quickly fading.

“Tartarus was an asset, not a necessity, my research will continue, remember my friend...fear is always behind you…”

Monochrome shook the words off and began to concentrate, focusing as much of his power as he could toward the core.  Magical rings wrapped around his broken horn to form his artificial one, this time the horn shot out longer than normal, all the way until it touched the core.  When the tip came in contact with the core Monochrome was jerked into the air, his glasses were shattered revealing solid white glowing eyes like the ones he had before. Moments later the shockwave rang out.  A black, white, and grey sonic rainboom looking explosion blasted out obliterating everything it came in contact with as it spread through Tartarus.  The Dragon and the Hydra being the first things to go.

One group at a time Twilight retraced her steps and gathered up her friends.   Each group asked the same question “Where’s Monochrome?”  And each group received the same answer: “I’ll explain later.”   Upon reaching the destroyed land bridge Twilight concentrated with all her might, but try as she could she couldn’t muster the strength to teleport eleven ponies including herself.  She gasped for breath broken, tired, and out of power.

“The pegasai can fly everyone out!” Blazing Trail yelled out to his friends desperately looking for a solution.

“There’s no time” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, we’d have to make two trips and we wouldn’t be able to do it before the shockwave got here.

“I’ve got…to try…again.” Twilight conjured any strength she had left but it wasn’t enough, she collapsed to the floor exhausted.

“Not good!” Yelled out Ravewind

As the shockwave closed in on them everypony gasped and yelled, suddenly though the colts Ravewind, Joe-Buck, Diamodozen, and Blazing trail began to glow.  The mares stared at them as their elements; The Elements of Order suddenly appeared.  Ravewind and Joe-Buck suddenly found themselves wearing golden necklaces shaped similarly to their cutie marks, a massively multicolored glow stick and a detailed Celtic cross.  Diamodozen and Blazing Trail’s left eyes began to glow and were replaced by eye patches in the shape of a diamond and a flame.  The energy from these four fluxed out and shot straight up.  The girls looked up to see what almost appeared to be the Core of Tartarus, a massive Black and White orb.

Twilight stuttered with tears in her eyes. “Mono…chrome?”

A massive magical energy spike occurred, knocking the ponies out cold. Sometime later the group found themselves waking up outside of the mountain range, with Fluttershy and Shortcut looking over them.

“Are you all okay?” Shortcut asked his friends, with a worried look on his face.

“There was an explosion, then the gate collapsed and Cerberus disappeared.” Fluttershy explained, “Then there was another explosion and you all appeared right here.”

Everypony looked at Twilight Sparkle who was crying uncontrollably, it didn’t take them long to put together the massive Black and White energy spike and her crying to realize how they got out.  Everypony looked down, Apple Jack and Joe-Buck removed their hats, Ravewind approached Twilight.

“Did he tell you?”

Twilight nodded sobbing, Ravewind didn’t need to go into details, she knew what he meant.

Back at Canterlot a celebration was held for the returning heroes, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, personally honored and congratulated the heroes on going above and beyond what she had called them to do, Tartarus was gone and as soon as the remaining creatures in the Everfree Forrest were taken care of Equrestria would be free from monsters and other vile creatures for generations to come.  Once the honoring ceremony had ended, a massive funeral gathering was held in the Canterlot Cortyard, to honor Monochrome’s sacrifice to save his kingdom and his friends.  Princess Celestia found her sister Luna among those who were crying, Luna had just lost her most prized student, a pain Celestria prayed she would never have to feel.  Among the honored guests that arrived were Vinyl Scratch and Octavia, Monochrome’s ex-girlfriends, as well as Monochromes original family, the Quadra-Colors, to the mane six’s surprise, the Quadra-Color family all had extravagantly colored manes, tails, and bodies, even Rainbow Dash was impressed by the sheer amount of colors on each of them.

That night, was a slow night for Twilight Sparkle and her friends, but especially for Twilight, who just couldn’t seem to get to sleep.  Getting up from her bed, Twilight walked to her balcony, the last place she had seen and talked to her dear friend, as she opened the door there was a bright light on the other side, Twilight raced out to find a mysterious, glowing, golden necklace lying on the balcony railing.  Twilight picked it up and realized it was Monochrome’s element of Order.   She closed her eyes and a sweet, reassured smile slowly made its way across her face.  Using magic, she put the necklace around her neck, then after taking one last look at the moon, she turned around, and with a yawn went back into the library and headed off to sleep.