Author's Note
I wanted to do a little something dark for Month of Macabre so I crunched this out a couple nights before Halloween and I decided I wanted to post it here. Have fun.
Feel the Flames
Consciousness finally crept back into Opaline’s body, and her eyes fluttered open, squinting as the blinding white all around her battered her sight.
Wait…what?
No, that wasn’t right…where was…
Opaline forced herself to her hooves, her gaze flickering around, first curious, then confused…then desperate.
Was she actually dead, and this was the afterlife? Was she in heaven? Or was she in…
No, she couldn’t be dead! Alicorns were immortal! Nothing should’ve been able to change that fact! The idea that she was dead was completely impossible!
Unless…Sunny Starscout’s sheer power and dedication to friendship overpowered Opaline’s own powers.
Opaline’s face contorted into a scowl and she yelled into the endless expanse. “Sunny Starscout! Once I get out of here, I will make you and your pathetic friends pay!”
“Your dedication is admirable, my dear Opaline. However…you won’t be getting out of here.”
The sound of a voice tickled Opaline’s ears. It was smooth, silky, and all too familiar. Opaline stood in shocked silence, whipping her head towards the voice before her blood began to boil and her wings flared.
“After all, no matter how powerful one is, nopony can cheat death.”
The voice had materialized in the form of a tall, white alicorn, whose mane shone in shades of green, blue, and pink. Her purple eyes stared down at Opaline with a mixture of pity and disapproval.
“You…YOU!!” Opaline hissed. “Princess Celestia! What are you doing here?! Are you here to perhaps humiliate me further?!”
Celestia’s gaze did not waver in the face of Opaline’s fury. “I see you’re still as wrathful and presumptive as always.” She heaved a heavy sigh. “But no, that’s not what I’m here for.” Just as she had finished speaking, she lit her horn. A brief flash of magic, then Celestia’s horn stopped glowing.
A few seconds of silence passed before Opaline cackled triumphantly. “Is that really all you can do?! You’re the Princess of the Sun and all you can muster is a little flash of light?! Well, this should be easy!” She gloated as she got into a battle position and tried to light her horn.
Nothing happened.
Opaline blinked in shock. She tried lighting her horn again, and still nothing happened. She flapped her wings vigorously, yet could not get herself off of the ground. She looked at Celestia, her chest aching in rage.
“You FIEND!” Opaline shouted. “Give me back my magic at once!!” She leapt towards Celestia before hitting the ground hard as something coiled around her back legs. Dazed, she looked back to find her hooves were chained to the ground. Before she could move another inch, she felt the dark blue chains latch onto her front hooves as well.
“What is the meaning of this?! Celestia, unchain me NOW or I’ll-!”
“Or thou shalt do what?”
Another alicorn stepped forward besides Celestia, her face stern with an eyebrow raised. She was shorter than Celestia, her coat a dark blue instead of white, and instead of shades of green, blue, and pink, her hair shone a vibrant midnight blue with stars sparkling gently within her mane.
“Well?” Princess Luna pressed on, raising her muzzle inquisitively.
Opaline seethed as she got back on her hooves, glaring viciously at the two alicorns and snarling four words that dripped with venom.
“I hate you both.”
“Seethe all thou want, Opaline Arcana. Cry, scream, and shout…” Luna remarked. “But thou cannot change the inevitable. Once thou let wrath take hold of thy heart, it was always going to end this way.”
Celestia stepped to the side, her eyes focused intently on the void, as if she was actively trying to distract herself from whatever was going to come next. “Would you like to do the honors, my faithful student?”
“I believe it would be fair.” Just then, a purple alicorn stepped forward between Celestia and Luna, her purple, pink and blue mane flowing down the side of her neck, her purple eyes piercing into Opaline’s very soul.
“Princess. Twilight. Sparkle.” Opaline growled, her tone furious but her pinprick pupils giving away her terror. Whatever the alicorns decided to do with her, Opaline had neither the magic to fight back, nor the ability to flee. And for the first time in centuries, pure fear gripped Opaline’s heart.
“What…are you going to do to me…?” Opaline forced the question out between her lips. “Listen, if you let me go, I-I’ll go and apologize to everyone! I’ll change my ways! How about that? Does that s-sound good?” She begged Twilight, whose only response was to raise an eyebrow.
“You’ve hurt so many ponies, Opaline. You’ve driven a rift between the three races of ponykind. You’ve stolen the cutie marks of several innocent ponies, the very essence of what makes a pony who they are.” Twilight elucidated. “Does that sound like something that can be fixed by a simple apology?”
“Well, uh…”
“Do you have any last words, Opaline?” Twilight asked firmly.
Opaline fell silent. It was hopeless. No matter how much she begged, how much she pleaded, how much she lied…she couldn’t escape her fate. Her expression hardened as she looked up at Twilight, who stared back in anticipation.
“You may think that you have won, but I assure you: there are others out there. Others that hold the same hatred in their hearts as I do. I will live on in them. Disharmony shall reign, thus so shall I. And one day, Equestria will fall, groveling at the hooves of the truly powerful.”
Magic lit up Twilight’s horn, and a large, blue circle glowed on the ground beneath Opaline. Celestia, Luna, and Twilight all closed their eyes, as the circle began to glow ever so brighter. Suddenly, azure scorching fire shot up within the circle, engulfing Opaline’s form. She shrieked in anguish as her skin bubbled and blistered at the mercy of the flames. Her white and cyan mane caught fire, which trailed all the way to her scalp, burning the remaining bits of her mane off and melting the skin off of her ears. Her vision grew dark as her eyes melted, their liquids trailing from their sockets and singing the fur on her cheeks further. Her screams turned into hopeless gurgling as she collapsed to the ground, her legs unable to endure the hellish inferno any longer. Her last moments were filled with agony as the fire rippled through her remaining flesh, before her consciousness finally slipped away one last time.
