Fight Til' the End

The sky above displays its crimson hues. The clouds were more menacing than they normally looked. It was as though an apocalypse had hit the enchanted world below. It did feel like an apocalypse. On the ground, the tiniest speckles of debris coated the air. It was an apocalypse.

The Golden Oak library was... gone.

All Twilight could do, was stare with Owlowiscious in her hooves. The scent of burning wood caught her nose. The air around darkened as the smoke gathered. A small part of the tree was still lit with fire. Twilight felt her throat tighten. Tears welled up in her eyes.

Slowly, very slowly, she lifted herself from the ground. Owlowiscious flew over to land on her back. The alicorn took a few steps forward. She felt like she was breaking internally with each and every movement.

"It... It's gone..." she whispered. She didn't think she could make out the words any louder. "My home... is..." she trailed off. She just couldn't continue.

She just hung her head and let the tears flow. Her home, the one she lived in since beginning her adventure, was no more.

She lifted her head when she felt something trudge behind her.

Letting out a breath, she spun around to see the centaur ahead of her.

Twilight just looked on for a moment. The heavy feeling of grey still took her over inside. Sadness. All the sad emotions. Twilight knew she was already pretty emotional. This only made it worse.

But should she feel this way?

As the hero, should she learn to let go of things? Even if it would seem big. Wasn't her job as a hero meant to be continuously battle? Fight for justice. Fight for your friends and family. Your land. Keep it safe. No matter what. It's her destiny now. It really is quite amazing. How she turned from being an ordinary student from Canterlot to a princess. An alicorn. One of the rarest things in the universe. She went from being just another pony to somepony the entirety of Equestria depended on. She became so important that even villains thought of her as one of their main enemies. Somepony to get rid of beforehand to ease their vengeance.

Yup! She was so important. And she just loved it!

But then again, the whole of Equestria believed that she would bring them peace. Twilight brought up a hoof to wipe her eyes as she hardened her gaze.

No. There really was no time to cry. No time to mourn.

Her library. Her precious library is gone.

And it's all Tirek's fault.

Twilight glanced back to the remains of the library. It was no more. All the books and scrolls in there are also gone.

Books.

Her books.

The more she thought about that, the more her veins flooded with another emotion. This one felt stronger and bolder than sadness.

Anger.

She was really angry.

Oh, she will show that imbecile. She will show him that he picked the wrong house to destroy.

So she unfurled her majestic wings but paused when she felt Owlowiscious shift on her back. She looked back and gestured for the owl to come to her hoof. Owlowiscious obeyed and fluttered over. Twilight gave her pet the most courageous smile she could muster.

"Go, Owlowiscious. Fly somewhere safe. Come back when it's over, okay?" For a minute, Owlowiscious only gave her a sad look and then, took flight.

Twilight watched until the owl was out of view.

And then, with a brilliant flash of her horn, she disappeared.

When she appeared again, she was high above the ground. As she shot in the centaur's direction, she blasted a massive beam of multicoloured magic right toward him.

The beam gradually got larger as she continued to force the centaur down to the best of her abilities.

To her annoyance, Tirek wasn't so oblivious to the coming whirlwind of magic, so he pulled up an orange shield with his own magic PLUS the magic he stole from Equestria, Twilight's friends, AND Discord. That gave him enough power to hold up a shield within her blast.

But Twilight also had magic. Her power plus Celestia, Luna, and Cadence. And all three of them and she herself are alicorns. And alicorns are the most powerful race of ponies in all the land. So that and Tirek's magic should be equal right? He was extra overpowered and she was extra overpowered.

Twilight knew she is overpowered. She didn't exactly feel as happy as she thought she would be.

It was stress. A huge burden. Twilight didn't like it at all. Half of her was determined to keep up the fight for her ponies. The other half just wanted to reverse time and go home and pretend that none of this ever happened.

Well, it was way too late for that though.

Twilight had a responsibility, now. She would fight.

She would fight.

Eventually, her enormous beam faded. She thudded on the ground, landing on her hooves. She looked up and shot Tirek a glare of hatred.

Tirek smirked. "I see now. What your fellow princesses have done. They have no idea how convenient they made it for me," he said with a certain smugness to his voice.

Twilight was beyond disgusted with his sudden glee.

She shot to the sky and lunged toward the centaur. This time though, he didn't see her coming in time. So she aimed at his face and using her hoof, she served him with a good hard blow directly to his face.

Tirek reared back with a snarl. Twilight didn't give him a chance to fight back as she crushed him to the earth with another magical blast.

The colours of her beams were Celestia's graceful, royal golden, Luna's mystical, midnight blue, Cadence's bright, crystal blue, and her own. Magical and vibrant deep pink.

Her magic evaporated away again. Tirek slowly rose up. Now he held a glare of his own. Twilight didn't falter. She simply kept fluttering while returning to Tirek, a mad look of her own.

Tirek's horns blazed with an orange aura. A heartbeat later, magic that looked like fire zipped to her.

Twilight called up a colourful shield.

For a while, all around her magical protector, fiery wisps traced the glowing sphere and only a sideways glance caught them streaking by.

At last, Tirek's magic disappeared. Twilight dropped her shield and aimed a shot to the ground.

The earth beneath Tirek's hooves dropped away only several meters, but it was still enough to throw him off balance.

Just as he did, the lavender alicorn made a turn and, like a shooting star, she flew and lit her horn with a powerful aura. She smashed the blast to the ground with an enormous impact, burying Tirek within the ground.

The next while was quiet. Twilight took the moment to land and breathe. Her horn and bones felt like they were on fire.

It must be because of all the magic I used most likely.

However, her moment of peace was ended when the ground below Began to shake as though there was an earthquake.

Twilight yelled when a yellow glow whined through the cracks in the dirt. The princess made her move to reach safety, but was too late as the light made contact with her.

She screamed as a burning ache erupted all over her body. She smashed into the the Earth with a loud crash.

Pain.

Pain screamed all over her.

Twilight numbly moved her head. She let out a groan as she brought a hoof up to gingerly rub at her temple. That didn't do much, though.

Her body was still burning.

As she got up, she was wondering how she still got up. Why did she still get up?

She didn't want to dwell on it too much. Not right now. Definitely not when she was in the middle of something like this.

She took off to the sky again. Swooping higher, she lit her horn and aimed a shot to Tirek's hooves to throw him off guard again. She aimed another laser to his chest so he would hit the ground.

Which he did. Miraculously.

When she fluttered closer, she tensed when she was suddenly being held in a orange aura. Tirek got up and as he did, he whirled around and smashed the alicorn into the side of a mountain.

Twilight let out a cry of pain as her aching body made contact with a rocky edge. It was like fire. The pain grew stronger and more bold with every passing minute. Twilight stood up with a angry look while internally wishing to hide somewhere where nopony would find her so she could curl up in a quiet corner and cry.

Where she could let out this pain so at least it wouldn't scar her insides. That kind of pain was not the kind she could just wait through to be gone. That kind of pain hurt more.

Her horn flared a spark of multicolored hues as she crushed past a hurtled boulder. She rammed her way through a few more.

At last, when she found a clearing and the centaur she was battling just up ahead, her horn blazed with blinding lights. And then, she shot the blast directly towards Tirek's oncoming fiery beam.

He two collided and an incredible explosion of multicoloured and fiery magic arose. It remained for a few seconds before evaporating to nothing.

Twilight landed on the ground.

Her body was still burning with an unbearable ache. But she held strong. She kept her shoulders and head up. Taking great care that they wouldn't falter. So she wouldn't look like she gave up.

She would never give up.

She glared at Tirek and he glared back.

But then he smiled.

"It appears we're at an impasse. How about a trade princess Twilight?" he snapped his fingers and Twilight watched as her friends and Discord appeared all around him.

Her shoulders dropped. Her heart jumped.

Tirek grinned. "They're released, for all the alicorn magic in Equestria."

Twilight gasped in horror. Why were decisions like these so hard? Why is life so cruel?

"So," Tirek sneered. "What's it going to be... princess?"

Twilight felt torn. Why was this the outcome? She felt just horrible. She had no idea what was a better option. On one hoof, she could keep her magic and perhaps free her friends some other way. But chances of that working are less. On the other hoof, as she stared up at her friends, visions flashed through her mind. Visions of her and her friends laughing and smiling. Of all the good times they've spent. Of all the things they learned about the value of friendship. How sometimes... Sacrifices must be made. Despite how big it may be.

At last, she made her choice. She knew what she had to do.