A coin flips. The disc hangs in the air momentarily, dull gold reflecting the room's weak light before gravity kicks in once more. It clatters to a rest on the tea-stained oak table. Tails.
"Huh, would you look at that?"
The sky was burning.
This wasn't a new development. It had been aflame for seven days now. A monstrous conflagration that gripped hearts with an unnerving fear that something had fundamentally changed. That this was no mere accident, but an event, almost akin to magics return. Yet that had been beautiful and joyous, bells ringing out across Equestria from the highest peak to the lowest valley. This was the heartbeat of a mad god, terrible and all-consuming. It was said faces could be seen in the roaring vastness, twisted visages screaming for forgiveness from some great unknowable sin.
Maretime Bay wasn't faring as poorly as the other enclaves, a slowly choking ocean giving them the briefest of reprieves from an encroaching deadly heat and even deadlier thirst. They had three days before the filters broke down if estimates were to be believed.
Hope remained in the citizens' hearts though, were they not the home of the Alicorn Ascendant? That kind-hearted leader of those five gallant ponies who'd saved them time and again, smothering the embers of conflict, and ensuring peace between the three tribes?
Yes, there was no doubt. Argyle Starshine would save them all.
The Lightbrary held a steady sense of unease, its interior a hollowed-out corpse due to well-meaning (if futile) preservation attempts of the contents within. The decision to convert half his home into a public library had certainly been bold, but where else could Argyle Starshine share the hard-won knowledge he and his friends uncovered? Unfortunately such books fared poorly in the heat. Once dusty shelves now found their usual occupants replaced with all manner of wires and formulae, ancient tombs and tawdry paperbacks sharing the same iron shod cases buried deep in a nearby field. Sitting in the heart of the building though was a great device, at a glance best described as 'complex'. Within a series of concentric rings resided a massive cube, arteries of wire zig-zagging around the machine all linked to a glowing crystal deep in its centre, the gentle hum and vibrancy within proving there was little doubt of the things power.
"I don't like this," rumbled one of the building's two occupants. He was a heavy-set dark grey unicorn with a shock of unruly white hair for a mane, fidgeting infrequently with a chipped and faded Rubix cube. "The odds just don't square up."
"Trust the gambler to speak of odds," replied a short peach earth pony dryly, her blonde bob held back in a hair net as she worked a hoof-held soldering iron over the cube with an ease that came from long hours of practice. She counted down with each hiss of her tool, every number representing more and more wires linked into the cyclopean machine.
"I'm just saying if you look at what she's done-"
"I thought you were all about luck, not statistics, mayonnaise beard?" She retorted, snippier this time. "Remember who's the data gatherer here!" The mare gestured briefly to her flank and the graph depicted there before sighing, anger quickly snuffed out. "We've got a chance. If Argyle says it, I believe him."
It had started as all things did, by pure random chance. The dig site was referred to in ancient texts as 'The Ghastly Gorge', but for sake of ease in further scholarly reference it had become 'G-5'. There was something darkly prophetic in that. It had certainly felt like a grade-five earthquake hit them, the caves having always been unstable to some degree. Yet the risks seemed limited at the time, what were the chances of a major quake this far from the fault lines? Ancient equestrian history and all its talk of unity had been needed now more than ever if the rumblings from Maretime Bay indicated anything.
Yet it wasn't dusty old relics that he grasped tightly as the walls began to fall around him. It was his special assistant, his shining star, the one he'd planted all those tree's he'd never feel the shade of. Sunny, his daughter.
Thank Celestia for Alphabittle.
Things had... well they'd escalated from there. A dumb bet the big galoot had lost led the unicorn to him, and then 'scientific inquiry' on his part had taken them to Zephyr Heights. The royal crystal caper was unexpected, but definitely a team effort, both Pegasi Princesses joined by his hometown rival 'out to prove these frauds are as harmless as they are egotistical'.
Phyllis had gotten better.
Then the real craziness began. It was two years later, and he still didn't feel comfortable with the title. Laughed it off whenever it was used in anything but stationary. 'Prince of Harmony'. He was a stuffy scholar for moon's sake! Just... with wings... and a horn. Not all the time though. He had to set an example for his daughter. He was no better than any other pony, even an alicorn had to put their horseshoes on one hoof at a time.
"Why are we here daddy?"
Ah yes, the teleport would have finished now. So curious how his mind was faster when he manifested, equations that took him hours finished within minutes. Some kind of-
"Daddy?"
His horn faded as he flickered back to reality, now no more than a guilty earth pony. So much power. So much possibility. It all made sense now why the Moon Princess had gone mad.
Dry, dead, grass crunched under hoof as he knelt, giving the small filly a reassuring smile. "Well Princess, Daddy thought that since school is shut right now it might be fun if you go see Nana Figgy? Hitch is here too!"
She practically exploded, a firework of unbridled exuberance and joy. It was the simple things that mattered to her he'd learnt over the years. Friends, family, community. She'd only asked to be called 'Princess' by her teacher once, and that was really just to see what it sounded like from an adult she actually knew. The loose confederation of cities were nothing more than spots on a map to her, their politicians even less.
A haggard smile is all he can give Figgy as an excited foal runs through the sagging cottage looking for her lifelong playmate. One push and a click is all it takes though, door closed the sweet grandmother sheds away to reveal a tired, scared, mare.
"Please Argyle, please. Tell me something," she said. "Anything." She breathes deeply of the thin air, coughing slightly from the sooty taint. "N-not for me. These bones won't be here much longer, fire sky or not. I just need to know for Hitch's sake."
She was shaking. He could tell her the truth. Tell her a lie. An internal grimace settles as the middle ground arrives, something comforting. 'Truth with a gloss' as the Element of Honesty would have said.
"It's... complicated Figgy. This is something we've never seen before, that the ancients never saw. I have a plan though, with my team-"
"Phyliss? Hah!" A wad of phlegm sizzles as it hits the bone-dry soil. "Mare calls herself a mother, she gave that colt of hers up like he was a bad habit!"
Argyle's muscles tensed, this was familiar territory but he just didn't have time.
"Phyllis Cloverleaf came to the realisation that her son's condition was too much for her to handle, placing him in the appropriate facilities was the best and only option available for both of them. Facilities I recommended and requested. I hope you don't have a problem with that Figgy?"
It was cruel honestly. Here she was, an elderly mare set in her ways, being intimidated by (in her eyes) a god-made-flesh. Oh a god she'd known since he was a snot-nosed foal, but a god all the same.
" ...I'm sorry Argyle," she mumbled, staring intently at a fascinating patch of dirt.
"No, don't be." He relaxed, guilt gnawing at his chest once again. "Your opinions are your own, just please have faith in my tea- no, have faith in my friends if nothing else."
The swift nod from Figgy is all he needs, one quick trot and manifested wing glide leading back to the burnt etchings left by the long-range teleport. The father in Argyle screams to turn, to take Sunny in his hooves, and tell her how much he loves her, how he'll never leav-
"I love you daddy!"
The voice was so small, so very far away. It took every scrap of his willpower to turn and stay where he was. Sunny's head was hanging out of a window now, Hitch with her, both gawking at something few (until recently) had ever seen. His wings flutter slowly in the dry breeze while the phantasm horn reflected the unmoving fires above. This was it.
"I-I love you too Princess!"
A flash of light hides the tears falling beneath his glasses.
Heat roils like a great beast above Maretime Bay, dark clouds of burning ash coalescing into a mocking parody of a real storm. Ponies cower in bedrooms and pray to rediscovered deities, ancient psalms to the moon and sun on every lip. They know it, they can feel it. There's something new in the air.
Anticipation.
"How are we looking Phyliss?" Argyle snapped, the ethereal horn and wings fading as the door slammed behind him.
"Almost there Starshine, keep your horseshoes on."
Moments later she flicks up her welding mask, the small torch in her hooves guttering out. Despite the mare's size, she dances over the mess of wires and connections with a surprising amount of grace, pausing only to poke her tongue out at Alphabittle before landing before their unofficial leader, tearing her hair net off with equal measures of frustration and showiness.
"Ok, so using your plan I took what we learnt from that crystal table Haven and Peril salvaged. You were definitely right by the way, despite my initial assessments there's some serious chronal energy in it-"
A self-righteous giggle by the burly unicorn is strangled when a set of dark blue eyes stare at him. The words "Not now!" practically emanating forth.
"...anyway, incorporating shards of that into the helio-matrix and running it simultaneously in a Tirek-theorem with the harmony crystal in tandem should, note that word here, should get us the result we need." She ran a dry tongue over even dryer lips, water a luxury she'd refused one too many times in the past few days.
"That fancy talk is nice and all, but what does the darn thing do?" Alphabittle grunted, hooves still busy with his puzzle. "Those magic formulas you had me crack for it weren't exactly forthcoming Argyle."
A lull filled the uncomfortably hot air, fond memories of the unicorn eagerly pouring over recovered texts coming to the forefront of Argyles mind. His friend always loved a challenge, and the Shimmer syntax was some of the most complex theoretical spell craft they'd ever found. That had been a good day.
"Argyle?"
"Huh, oh sorry." He ran a hoof through his shaggy blue hair, thinner in the last week than it had ever been. "I was just... thinking back on better times."
Soft arms wrapped around him, a slight squeak escaping from the scholar as the smaller (yet surprisingly strong) mare pressed herself tightly against a stallion she'd once publicly called 'a senseless species sell out'.
"Don't worry. They'll be back soon enough, I just know it."
He smiled despite himself, still amazed at these ponies he called frie-
A shriek pierces the air, it's keening, and full of the raw kind of pain that you only get when your soul has been practically torn out. It's not usually formulated into words however.
'SHE'S COMING!' is all that's possible to be made out before the impact occurs. Pegasi windows were designed to open after the flyer lands, not during a mid-air dive. The noise is messy, a crunching thud peaking into the screech of broken glass.
Razor shards rain throughout the Lightbrary, a deadly overcast thankfully blunted by foresight and a few spells cast months ago. It's not the glass that concerns the trio however, but its herald splayed out on the floor and barely conscious. The pegasus was slim, not in a fashionable manner but built for speed, streamlined wings and all. Her once lustrous pink coat was marred by a thick layer of soot, blood, and grime, the gift of a burning sky. There wasn't enough dirt to hide the bruises and cuts from her impact though, let alone the ugly burn marks covering half her body. All the exposed skin was a frightening charred mess however, peeling, cracked, flesh clear for all to see.
With little fanfare Argyle's horn appeared once more, healing energy pouring forth from not one- but two sources, Alphabittles jaw tight as he focused his magic on the mare beneath him.
"What happened to her?" The Unicorn grunts out, sweat pouring down his face as he desperately tried to focus on the matter of knitting together flesh that wanted to crumble to dust.
"You know," Phyllis replied. Her voice barely rising above a whisper as she was drawn into the repulsively hypnotic display.
"Quiet! She's going into shock!."
He wasn't a doctor in any sense of the word, but being an alicorn meant you could cheat the system. Memorising every medical text in the city had its advantages. Still, practical experience counted for something. The fear coursing through his system may have abated somewhat if he'd spent a few years in practice; the terror as her pulse dropped and pupils grew far too wide could have been an old friend perhaps. Maybe things could have gone better, maybe... just maybe he could have saved her-
No. He didn't have years, he didn't need years!
Digging deeper into the firmament of his very soul, he drew upon the wellspring. Not with a bucket as was usual, no, the time for restraint was gone. A thrumming bass filled the room, wings and horn ceasing their transparency such was the power he channelled.
"Live dammit!" Argyle roared, crackling energy arcing through the convulsing Pegasus, "LIVE!"
She had a limit though, everything did, and he was rapidly reaching hers. Between this latest influx and their prior efforts the threat of a magic overload was a very real possibility. Despite himself, despite the part of him that came with the wings, the part that said 'Reality is what you make it', he stopped.
Silence.
"C'mon Haven, please... please wake up," Alphabittle whispered, staring at the still mare and hoping against all hope that luck was on his side today.
A single gasp caused more jubilation in the trio than any reward, acknowledgement, or gruelling victory they'd ever obtained.
If you stood on the edge of Maretime bay you'd see it. A daytime comet, unusual and certainly brilliant in its rarity. It was quite beautiful in fact, a real once-in-a-lifetime sight. Quite literally in fact.
The burning aquamarine mass slammed into dry earth, dust plumes igniting from the sheer heat it radiated. Moments later, ignorant of the smoke and flame, a hoof emerged from deep within the crater. One word choking forth from its owners lips.
"Starshine."
"We have a problem."
It was said with as much reserve as he could hold considering what he'd just seen; a wary attempt at dream walking giving the blue alicorn all the answers he didn't want from his comatose friend. She'd been safely deposited in a makeshift bedroom formerly cluttered with relics, perhaps the closest she would get to peace any time soon.
"It was her, wasn't it?" The peach mare rocked on chipped hooves, voice running away from her. "Haven said 'She's coming' right? So we need to get ready! We need to contact Zephyr Heights, get Peril and-"
He hated that they weren't in a better setting, something more respectful than a library jury-rigged into an engineer's nightmare. It wouldn't change much, just... feel better. More right.
"They're gone."
"Whaddya mean 'they're gone', Argyle?" snapped Alphabittle, once more click-clacking his way through the puzzle in his hooves, stress eating away at a face once described as "Handsome... in an ugly kind of way" by the now unconscious mare in the next room.
"I mean they're gone. Destroyed. All Haven found of Zephyr Heights was ash and ruin, her families crowns amongst it all."
He neglected to mention the corpses, the steaming bones and fused flesh. Metal and glass warped into a mocking reflection of a once proud city. Harrowing didn't even begin to describe it. There was always a risk of exaggeration in dreams, the unconscious mind having a certain flexibility to it. Not this though, no. It was far too clear, too concise, too neat.
There's a pause, a vibration, the mainsprings in two clocks most certainly broken now in a way that'll never be repaired. Certainly not to the way they were before. As if to illuminate this, the smallest of the group slams into Argyle, a peach rocket of tears and fury.
"You're lying! You're lying! Stop it... stop... stop lying!" She squeaks, slamming her hooves over and over into a chest that would normally relent from such an assault. He can take it though, for them, for her.
"I wish I was Phyllis. Hoof to heart, I wish I was."
There's a finality to those words, the mare knowing deep in her soul that Argyle may be many things, but a liar he is not. Like a puppet with its strings cut though she slumped to the floor, eyes dim and unresponsive.
"Sh-she... she was the first pony to ever call me her friend."
The alicorn can tell Alphabittle is hit just as hard, the large unicorn usually so full of presence now muted, pensive.
"You said we had a problem Starshine," he growled, voice low. "It better be that your plan won't be as 'efficient' in dealing with that witch. She..." he paused, gulping back a sob, "...she needs to suffer for what she's done."
They both take in the device filling the majority of the Lightbrary's rear, the long hours of blood, sweat, and tears they'd put into it on such short notice. An eruption in the far north had seemed almost natural a week ago, but something had prickled Argyle, it wasn't quite right, not quite normal. Things didn't add up. Then the sky transformed. Climate Change? Magic leaving once more? Or something far worse.
Argyle hated being right. He also hated the next few words out of his mouth.
“Without Peril, we can't activate the device.”
Her name is Star Fall.
She is six years old.
She doesn't like the heat. Her Mommy and Daddy moved to Maretime Bay to be near the ocean, to get away from it, that and the neighbours. 'Have a dip whenever we want' was what her Daddy had said, but it's all icky now. The water was black and goopy, and her parents wouldn't let her go near it. All the water tasted funny too, like the coins her Mommy gave her to buy ice cream every Saturday. It was a shame, she liked the ocean. It was blue just like her coat.
Her parents were sleeping now, they've been asleep for a long time, but she wasn't worried. They were always deep sleepers. 'Deep sleeping' was a funny phrase to Star Fall. Did you dig a hole in your dreams? Did the nice moon pony Mister Starshine (with the shiny wings and horn) tell her all about take you on an adventure?
Ever since she'd read every book in her little library three times over, and Mister Snafflepuss had his fill of (imaginary) tea and crumpets the bedroom window had been her entertainment. She glanced at the stuffed toy currently having a nap on her bed, soft dragon chest unmoving. Just like her parents.
Looking once more to the empty streets a realisation hit her. It was too quiet. She didn't like that, she was used to the hustle and bustle of the Bay, not this kind of silence. Everypony went inside three days ago though and hadn't come out since. Something was wrong, but what? Maybe it was because of the ocean? Or the sky? The sky did scare her at first, but it was kind of pretty now like a big orange blanket. It was still too hot though, and the air was all stinky in the house.
One of the things she liked best about her home though, in fact, the best thing, was how close it was to the town's gates. She practically heard every new pony coming into town! Every arrival was a new friend waiting to happen.
Just like now in fact.
The clip-clop of hooves on cement, louder than ever before, signalled an end to her boredom. Finally someone new she could meet! But should she leave? Her Mommy said not to go out on her own, but, well, they were asleep; plus she wasso bored. She'll apologise later she decides. She's a big girl after all, six years old in fact.
Quietly moving her way down the stairs (can't wake up Mommy and Daddy after all) Star Fall ran through her home. Past pictures of the three in her hallway, past the hat stand with her mommy's silly green felt thing , and double quick past the corner where that nasty spider lives.
Thick air, stinking of sulphur, ash, and soot, lie heavily on the filly. She's immediately confused and nauseated, relatively sheltered as she'd been in her home. Hanging onto the door frame for a few seconds a feeling of unease begins to grow, the temptation to return seeming more sensible by the second. Her mission was clear however, no matter how much she wanted to go back. Her Daddy told her to never give up right? The new pony would be so close as well! Just a minute or two away from her house, round the corn-
A heat haze on four legs shimmers as it walks past, stops, then stares.
Star Falls eyes widen even as the air becomes hotter. The pony is tall, very tall. She's also purple, with a horn AND wings. She'd only ever seen that on Mister Starshine and hers wasn't glowy, they were solid. They were on fire though, which was a bit scary, but the new friend seemed fine. Magic probably. She wasn't good with magic, barely able to lift a mug with her horn.
It took a few seconds, but the nagging feeling in her mind finally turned over something she'd learnt recently. Mister Starshine had been teaching them in school once a week about history, and she was sure, so definitely sure that it was her!
“Pri-,” Star Fall began before coughing, her throat parched and voice cracking in the ever-increasing heat as she approached the tall, purple, pony. “Princess Twilight Sparkle? Have you come back to stop the fire?”
The dead eye stare moves, two blue orbs swivelling down. Star Fall is too young, too innocent. She can't see the shaking in the mares limbs, the subtle shift in her facial muscles.
“Princess Twilight?”
The mare stills, her aquamarine flames ceasing in their intensity. The air cools, and for a few brief seconds normalcy resumes.
“Princess Twilight?” A bleak chuckle breaks through the reserved grimace before hardening once more. “No. I am the fire.”
Those seconds end.
A spike of panic impales Argyle's composure, the intense boom and rumbling throughout the Lightbrary bringing back unpleasant memories with Ghastly Gorge still fresh in his mind. Despite that he takes a moment, glancing around the room as the aftershocks slowed to a standstill. Nothing seemed too damaged thankfully, and everyone was standing, alert and confused, but standing nonetheless.
“What in the jinxies was th-”
A gentle hoof to the lips silenced Alphabittle, Phyliss holding it there with a haunted look on her face. Ignoring his muffled protestations, the stiff mare drew the unicorns vision to the Lightbrary's large front window with a trembling limb, a croaking sob echoing throughout the room.
A husk. Maretime Bay was a husk.
Sorcerous fire leapt throughout the ruin of a city they'd called home mere minutes ago, dancing the finest of ballets on three hundred thousand corpses. It bore no distinction to its targets, melting the remaining stone and burning scanty vegetation with little care, its hues shifting in the wind like the work of a macabre painter. Utterly senseless and horrific in equal measure.
Even at this distance though all three could see the architect of this horror, a figure proudly standing amidst the wreckage. An aquamarine beacon to her targets. She wanted to be seen, wanted them to know who it was that did this, wanted them to know that they were next.
A desperate desire to cry overtook Argyle. He needed the hot salty tears to well in his eyes for those he'd known his entire life, eradicated by a madmares senseless rage. Yet all he could do was whisper her name, a deep numbness overtaking him.
“Opaline.”
“Why?”
Her handiwork nipped at his hooves like an overexcited hound, the fire working eagerly despite its irrelevance. You couldn't hurt a projection after all. It gave her something pleasing to focus on though as she languidly marched from the crater of that disgusting little hovel the mud-ponies called a city.
“Why, Argyle? Why? Really now...” She tilted her head, snorting a jet of pale smoke, “I've so many reasons, use that brain you're apparently so famous for having.”
The golden projection wavers, magic flickering. Fire couldn't hurt, but her particular brand of arcane flame had a nasty habit of interfering with the complexities of ambient magic. Like say... a sleeping dragon's warning alarm? Bottling spells as a precaution seemed silly at the time, but now it paid dividends, as had keeping records from all those years ago in Canterlot.
Flexing her blazing wings, she reflected on those days. Spike had certainly been a rather useful assistant, who'd have thought it? Shame about what had to happen to him though. Still, needs must, and really, where did he get off thinking he mattered? Jumped up little lizard.
“Your plan?”
She kicked a charred skull out of her path, pausing to ensure it hadn't stained her delicate hooficure. It took so long to get that royal look on your lonesome.
“Oh, that? Yes, that was rather irritating,” she replied, “I mean you spend over a thousand years ironing out all the little details only to fail at the first hurdle? To a rag-tag group of plebeians like yourselves no less!” She's surprised at how bitter her chuckle is, “Yes, that did smart I'll admit. Not enough to do this, but it was certainly annoying.”
“Your plan was insane, you'd have killed us all! We had no choice but to stop you.”
The mare regarded Argyle for a second. That righteous indignation, the scholarly air, his chintzy knock-off wings. Ugh, it was all so disgustingly nostalgic.
“In my day Starshine, we turned ponies to stone for their mistakes. We didn't steal their blood right.”
There's venom in her tone, that had hurt. All that time as a scrimping, servile little mud-pony. So desperate for food and water that she'd begged travellers for even a crumb of bread, each night sifting through her castle's ruins for magic, any magic at all. Persistence paid off thankfully. Maps, jars, and a sweet little note from dear 'ol teach commending her organisational skills.
“You had to be stopped,” he repeated adamantly, though a look slowly began to dawn on his face, “Wait, the date... no... this isn't about you, is it?”
“Of course not you repulsive imitation!” She finally screamed, fire erupting forth from her wings and horn once more. “I'm surprised you even remembered. Today is the day you stole my daughter from me!”
He softens in stance, an adversary but still a father. “You were beaten Opaline. The castle was in ruins and you were a shell of a pony, barely able to speak let alone look after a child. We couldn't leave Misty with you, her parents deserved their filly back.”
The seething flames overhead converge, a pillar of pure plasma slamming into the projection. Utterly pointless, but masking the screech of pure rage as Opaline's eyes burnt a solid, blazing, blue.
“You dare Starshine! You dare! Those scum tossed her aside, how do you think I found her to begin with!” The initial blast is followed by another, then another, oceans now boiling at her fury. “Were you surprised when you learnt they'd killed her? How they'd simply left her once more. This time in a shack with no food or water for weeks on end, the filly utterly alone, starving to death without even the loving touch another to comfort her final hours!”
“I und-”
“YOU UNDERSTAND NOTHING!” she shrieked, flame petering out slowly. Even like this, her power wouldn't let her cry; the tears would vanish into puffs of steam. “I was her mother. We were-- things weren't perfect but we were happy” said the goddess who couldn't be a pony.
The ocean's calmed, the burning sky stills, even the enflamed ruins of Maretime Bay gutter out.
“I'm... I'm sorry, Opaline.”
“Too late.”
The fire rises.
A hundred thousand symbols rush past Argyle's eyes, a horn projected screen displaying the incoherent mess. It seemed so easy to miss even a single one, yet each was a key to an arcane mystery, each as important as the last. He'd needed to stay manifested though despite the oncoming strain. They'd had time before, it seemed rushed then, but possible. This though? The last-ditch scrapings of a dead colt walking. Every last bit of brainpower was needed however and as good as Alphabittle was he'd never be able to keep up. It was already like juggling chickens whilst unicycling with so many spells running simultaneously, trying to include his friend would only throw some spinning plates needlessly into the equation.
“Wh-whats-” Phyliss shuddered as another blast of plasma ricocheted off the glowing sphere enveloping the Lightbrary, a howl of incandescent rage following it, “-what's he doing?”
“Hmm?” Alphabittle tore his head away from the open bedroom, Princess Havens still slumbering form exuding an unnerving sense of peace despite the current events. “I think-” he squinted, attempting to follow the rapid flow of the screen around his tense friend, “-he's trying to brute force the formula, hard to tell.”
“What does that even mean!” she snapped, a note of hysteria in her voice. “I'm just an earth pony! I don't understand magic. Science, data, facts. That I can deal with, but this-”
“It means... I'm trying... to rejig the plan,” replied Argyle, each gasp of breath harder than the last. It felt like nails were being driven into his eye sockets, a gleeful team of Breezies hammering them with joyful abandon.
Further questions were overshadowed by an eruption of blood, the duo gasping as Argyle's nose fountained crimson. There was little doubt to the cause, Opaline's assault having turned from the now familiar sound of rapid blasts to something with an ear-splitting, endless, roar. A quick glance by Alphabittle through the shattered ceiling windows confirmed it. A white-hot beam of plasma was drilling its way through the shield inch-by-inch, a grim-faced Opaline hovering on high, her horn lit with an eerie flame.
“I'm going out there.”
Despite the thunderous sound of the lance above, it was as if you could hear a pin drop.
"That's insane.... she's more powerful... than anything... we've ever seen Alphabittle!” Argyle managed to push out, the final utterance of his friends name rendered into a bubbling cry of pain, crimson leaking from his mouth now.
"Yeah? Well, you need more time right?” An excruciating nod was his answer. “Five minutes?” Another wincing nod. “Good. I've got enough in the tank left for that at least,” he chortled, tapping his broad chest.
Alphabittles bravado melted at the sight of Phyliss though. The loud-mouthed, opinionated, firey earth pony who bickered with him nearly every day since they'd met was a shrunken shell of herself. What little make up she wore long faded, disappearing in her current waterfall of tears and mucus.
“I've lost P-Peril already,” she bawled, “you... you can't go... you'll die.”
Uncaring of the mess in his coat, Alphabittle embraced the blubbering mare. It was odd, just a few weeks ago he'd of loved to wring her scrawny neck. Oh, how things change. Then again there was a time he'd never even dreamed of speaking to an earth pony, let alone comfort one.
As her crying slowed to a weak hiccup he pulled away, aware of the ever-present drilling getting louder. "Maybe. Maybe not. You did say I was a gambler, didn't you? Let's leave it in lady lucks hooves, eh?"
Much to the Unicorn's consternation this didn't have the calming effect he'd hoped, Phyliss bursting into a new round of tears. Each gulp of air followed by a sobbing cry of 'Oh M-mayonnaise beard'.
"Shh- no tears,” he whispered, wiping at his friend's face, surprising tenderness in those huge hooves. “This is my choice Phyllis. Just...” he stared once more at the unconscious mare in the other room, his voice cracking now. “Just tell Haven how much I loved her, ok?"
He expected Phyliss to begin crying once more, maybe even fling herself into his hooves in a poor attempt at slowing him down. Not that she could stop him. The small resolute nod though... that was unexpected. The tears were there, but behind them was a mare of steel.
It was realistically less than thirty seconds, but the walk to the door felt like a lifetime. A lifetime of memories, both good and bad. Mostly good as of late actually, all Argyles work. Friendship... magic... maybe they really were the same thing? Spotting his old Rubix cube a fancy overtook him. He'd completed dozens of these in his life, but this was his first, a gift from a keen-witted father eager to quieten down an inquisitive colt. It was the only one he'd never completed in fact. So why not a few cranks for the road?
"Huh, would you look at that?” he said moments later, holding up the now completed cube to his friend's awe. “Trust my luck.” He chortled.
The laugh continued in fact, a full and boisterous side-splitter that never ended as the Unicorn finally touched the door. Horn glowing a faint blue as it matched his friend's magical harmonic signature, the shield was now no more then empty air to him.
"Alright you overcooked chicken!” Alphabittle bellowed, swinging the door wide and readying himself to leap out. “Lets dance!"
With a sickening scream of rending metal and brick, the Brightbary was agonisingly torn in half. Years of hard work destroyed with ludicrous ease, the lighthouses fall was causally redirected into the ocean by an aquamarine aura. Opaline wouldn't let an errant brick do in an instant what she'd take few amusing hours to do. The building's shield had simply dropped moments ago, the pretender no doubt running out of power, and that was all the offer she'd needed to get down to business.
“Are you ready to die Starshine?” Opaline trilled, landing triumphantly amidst the wreckage with a perky smile on her face...only to catch a screaming earth pony mid-leap in a bubble of aquamarine magic. It probably would have been a threat with that acetylene torch if she wasn't an alicorn. A fire alicorn at that. Mud ponies, honestly.
She stared at the bubble monetarily, bemused at the berserk creature inside. It's feeble strength couldn't even begin to damage the things prison, yet it blustered away nonetheless. This was all the mud ponies really were deep down, rabid brutes with simple minds, no better than draft animals. Looking at its peach coat covered in a thick layer of brick dust gave Opaline an idea however, a rather fun one at that.
“Let's get you cleaned up shall we?” she snickered, spinning from the wreckage and hurling the orb as far as she could towards the ocean. It'd probably stop...somewhere over Zebrica? If it still existed. Maps weren't exactly a priority these days.
“Now, where was I again? Oh yes! Starshine.” Turning back to the remnants of her foe's home, she trotted deeper into the semi-suspended wreckage, her face held in picturesque calm. After supping so heavily on an elder dragon he was no threat to her, even after her displays today. What were a few cities to the limitless power of a true alicorn?
“Opaline.” The bloodied earth pony (wings and horn now long faded) nodded cordially. “I'd offer you some tea, but you appear to have destroyed my kettle... and my stove... and my entire home in fact.”
A razor-thin eyebrow raised luxuriously, “Are you always this glib in the face of imminent death Argyle?”
“Well,” he began, settling himself down on the floor, “That really depends on how insincere you feel I'm being. My daughter thinks I'm rather funny.”
She grunted in acknowledgement, her interest more taken with the odd contraption behind the soon-to-be-dead fool. It was ugly, very much so, like all the things these mud ponies...Celestia dammit really all these 'modern' ponies made. Not a drop of taste in any of them. The thing was a mess of brass, wire and-oh!
“You're either the most hopeful or the most stupid pony I've ever known in my life,” she said dryly, slipping around the seated Argyle to point at the glowing crystal embedded deep in the machine. “Harmony magic? Hah! I was trained by Twilight Sparkle herself, I know all about those little tricks. Chief of which is to use it you need all your little friends," she spat. “But... oh I seem to have broken your playmates? What a shame.”
“Mhm,” he replied, shifting on the detritus-riddled floor slightly, eyes now closed.
“I've attained power beyond your comprehension, destroyed your city and now i'll -WHAT ARE YOU DOING! Opaline snarled, ire raised not just at Argyle's sheer mood-killing nonchalance, but the ridiculous shuffling he was doing on the floor.
“Trying to get comfy,” he answered matter-of-factly, sweeping the last of the rubble away from beneath him. “For the end you understand.” He added, a small smile on his face.
“I'm actually impressed Argyle, not many choose to accept their fate." She flicked her hair, dislodging an errant mote of plaster, "That won't stop me from torturing you of course.”
His smile grew.
“Who said you caused the end?”
With a shuddering screech the device activated. Each of its great rings beginning a slow spin, the circles sweeping motions increasing with each full rotation. As the looming device worked, its embedded chunks of crystal began glittering magnificently, each circle of the device showcasing another dazzling marvel. Adding to the machine's ominous air however was the steadily increasing hum from the harmony crystal, as well as the new fervour in the light it gave off.
“What is that!” Opaline snapped hastily, unable to suppress the note of panic in her voice. Something was wrong. Something felt wrong.
“It doesn't really have a name,“ the seated Argyle called over the rising din. “Peril suggested 'The flank kicker 9000' but that's a bit crass don't you think? That was her though, wonderful filly.” He sighed.
“I'll do to it what I did to her!” the frantic alicorn snarled, horn glowing as she summoned a gout of arcane fire. The blaze's immediate dispersion sent a knife of terror through her heart. No, not dispersion... the blast's motes were readily devoured by the spinning, whirling machine, its glowing heart taunting her ineffectiveness.
“See that's you're problem Opaline. Cast first, ask questions later.” The earth pony opened his eyes once more, releasing another deep sigh, “You never question anything beyond your assumptions and prejudices. Yes, you were taught by Twilight Sparkle. Yes, she was without a doubt a genius. Arguably one of the greatest to ever live. She didn't know everything, however.”
“What did you do!” She seethed, resorting to slamming the dust and blood-covered Argyle into the remains of a wall with her bare hooves, increasingly wary of using any more magic in front of this infernal device.
“Well,” he giggled, ignoring the cracked ribs she'd just given him. “You were partly right. I'll give you that. We wanted to use harmony magic.” He coughed painfully, the rib creaking under Opalines hooves. “It was a long shot on my part, we figured that the fire-storm was some kind of magical effect. When it became clear that it'd kill us all it was a no-brainer really, we'd-”
“-sacrifice this world's magic!” She felt violently ill at the idea, even the mere suggestion. “You'd just gotten it back Argyle, sweet Celestia how could you even think of doing such a thing!”
He shrugged, dust falling from his dark blue coat and eagerly drawn in by the strengthening drag of the device.
“Can't use it if we're dead. Of course, that's before we knew you were the one behind all this.” He leant in closer, now eye to eye with the panicking mare as the devices noise increased in pitch. “Still, nothing was fundamentally different. You were the source and removing your magic would do the trick all the same as ours. After you... changed things though I had to think outside the box. Crack the system if you will.”
She dropped the fool, acutely aware of the ebbing she could feel now. It was the same as all those moons ago, that awful, terrible, nightmarish drain. Her resplendent flame she'd worked so hard to coax back to life was already weakening, its power no doubt being drawn into the dervish behind her. There was only one option, as much as it pained her to leave a job half-done she'd have to-
“Oh no you don't,” her former captive growled, grappling the slighter mare to the ground in a leap. To Opaline's horror, his mere mud pony strength was enough to overpower her further diminishing self. No matter how she bucked or crawled she just couldn't shake the sanctimonious blue lunatic.
“I haven't finished the story,” he said, pinning the mare beneath him as the wind around the two rose. “Now, as I was saying. I had to crack the system. The original plan involved using Harmony magic to disperse all that collected energy across the timeline, a fine dusting if you will, so nothing would break and no one would notice. Safe, stable.” He tightened his grip on the mares neck, her brief attempt wriggling utterly futile. “Now though, well things were tough. I practically had to re-write a whole book on arcano-physics, probably a few in fact.” He chuckled at the idea. “I learnt I couldn't stop the storm, or you to be honest, but there was a way around it.”
Vomit rose in Opalines throat, whether it was at the idea forming in her mind or the feeling of her wings fading, she wasn't too sure. He couldn't of done it though. It was impossible. Twilight Sparkle herself had ensured all knowledge of it had been destroyed, hadn't she?
“You...you meddled with time!”
“Oh one better than that Opaline,” Argyle said, a cocky grin on his face. “I changed destiny.”
Taking her awed silence as a license to continue he laughed, removing his cracked glasses and shining them with a rag he caught fluttering in mid-air. The thing had been mere seconds away from being sucked into the frantically spinning machine, every crystalline component now glowing with a white-hot, blinding, light.
“It's probably the greatest achievement of my life,” He paused momentarily. “No, definitely the second. Anyway, I dug beyond time, the fractals becoming irrelevant once you know the trick,” he said, treating mass chrono-shifting as if it were a mildly irritating tax form. “The skeins of fate though? A lot tougher. There are only so many places a destiny can go.” He leant in once more, his breath the only source of warmth in the steadily freezing room. “Interestingly you were always meant to be the bitter little thing you are, you know that? It's sad really, you're the universe's chew toy, and no matter what you do... you'll always lose.”
Opaline tried to protest, to scream, to curse, but all she could do was squeak, a pathetic noise not even the lowliest mud-pony would give the time of day to notice. It was so very hard to move now though, even blink. Not only that, but a feeling of great cold was sweeping over her.
“Yes, destiny only goes to certain ponies. Not very democratic admittedly, but that's the universe for you.” He sighed, a soft, sad, smile following. “I just... wish there had been a better way. She deserves better. She deserves so much more than this. Than you.” The Mare beneath him was silent, still. It was coming.
He began to feel it too now. The ice creeping not through his veins, but through his very sense of self. Everything was becoming fuzzy, reality falling apart at its fundamental levels. Argyle tried to focus on those things most precious to him, her face, her voice, the memories that felt so real moments ago but even now were fading away.
“Hey Opaline,” he muttered, looking at the destabilising mess of a pony beneath him as his consciousness slipped away like so much water down a river.
“Say hi to Sunny for me, would you?”
A coin flips. The disc hangs in the air momentarily, dull gold reflecting the room's weak light, before gravity kicks in once more. It clatters to a rest on the tea-stained oak table. Heads.
"Huh, would you look at that?"
Author's Note
Notes are here
