To Chase The Shadows of Redemption

Dire Comet fought to catch his breath. It was unfair, really, that he had recovered and been forced to exert himself as hard as possible so soon after doing so after getting home from the war. While he definitely felt stronger because of it, he had never thought that it would be used against the ponies beloved princess in Celestia.

She was beloved no more. At first, he had been disbelieving, but as the evidence piled up and he heard more and more it had enraged him. How many lives had he seen stolen from them in the war because of Celestia? And for what?

Soon, the ponies of Canterlot would look up and see the truth for themselves after hearing the impossible to miss commotion.

All of it had reached a head in the throne room. Once violence had broken out, instincts had taken over and all of this had begun quickly. What had shown up was no regal princess. It was a cruel monster. He hadn't blamed that unicorn for attacking her. How many families had be irreversibly destroyed because of her? He felt that even lacking his own he could understand it. The thought of Rainbow Dash perishing was about the closest he could compare it to it now, and even that drove him up the wall.

Rainbow Dash... could she have also found it within herself to fight Celestia? A part of himself was glad that she wasn't here to have to see and experience this... but another side of him wondered. Truly ruminated on the changed probability of victory if she was here. There was no doubt with her speed she could most likely avoid many of Celestia's attacks and be a real threat to her when supported. Entirely changing the situation.

No, he needed to stay focused.

They had actually dealt a blow to Celestia... she would be back soon he assumed. There was no way that was enough. But they had done it. She was not invincible. The implications of losing her did not matter right now. Justice was at hoof. They'd think about that after they'd defeated her, at the very least. If they could.

Yet, he knew that Celestia was holding back. Why? He didn't know. But so far she had not revealed much of her power. The stories he had heard of her from the war that had spread in rumor had been ridiculous, but believable. This was a goddess. So why did she hold back? Was there still a small part of her that didn't want to fight her ponies? Was she saving her strength for something else?

In the end, the reason didn't matter. They'd have to be ready for her to adjust to the situation when she realized it was not working so far. He dreaded that. Already he had been forced to cast magic and hold it for a long period of time. His fellow unicorns had recognized the importance of protecting him earlier, but there was no way he could keep that up forever. He may have grown stronger, but even he had limits.... Well, he still had a lot to give. Switching gear back into war mentality felt natural at this point. Fight until you have nothing left to give.

What came from the wreckage was not that which had gone in. The unicorns and himself had come down onto the rooftops of the buildings in Canterlot so that he could rest for however long he could, and they all stood isolated building-to-building. He would not use that same platforming as before unless he had to now that they were more in position. He couldn't babysit everypony, he wasn't powerful enough for that. It was time he joined the fight in earnest. That blow he had landed earlier would not be the last.

What was going on with Celestia though? Her entire body bore flames, which flickered with an ominous feeling to them. This was not the pure fire of the sun, he felt, but a cursed flame which made to extinguish and consume your soul if you let it. There was no way he could allow himself to be hit and emersed in it. He doubted he'd be able to neutralize it if it did.

He was pretty far away from Celestia at this point, and would need to get closer. They couldn't allow ponies to be picked off one-by-one.

Celestia, surrounded and staring them down, saw the flames around her flicker far faster as they sank into her a little more. Dire teleported around a hundred meters closer towards her, onto another roof. What came next was an attack he had never seen before. Coming from within, she released a wave of fire that expanded from every part of her body. It expanded quickly and hit what must've been every building in her immediate vicinity as well as anything else in the way. He was glad to see that that the majority of his allies had managed to protect themselves with shields, but this was something that was going to make fighting her harder and harder if the footing they had held the threat of setting them on fire. Let alone buildings eventually crumbling....

A few pegasi who had been too close fell from the sky like burnt flies, and there was also a few unicorns who hadn't been fast enough to react which rolled in pain, being roasted alive. Who knew what'd become of them.

The battle resumed in earnest, and it was one of desperation for both sides. Even if neither side could ever understand the true extent others feeling.

Dire saw Celestia move at breakneck speed and plow hoof first through a hastily prepared shield and a panicked unicorn. His end was not pretty as she met her mark.

The unicorns teleported nearer to her, but with enough of a gap to not get instantly shredded by her closing the gap. Close enough to attack. Many times she glided and missed her mark because they had adapted to teleportation to avoid her, but that was a particularly draining tactic. It would not hold long-term, but what other options did they have? The dynamic of before returned, with attacks being exchanged when possible, but it was harder to slow down Celestia this time.

Dire looked around. He was partially hidden right now on the side of a roof, a chimney concealing him with his back against it. On one of the few safe spaces left on top of a building, where there was rare stone foundation that wouldn't burn. There wasn't many of them left. In fact, he may have been the last one, it wasnt impossible. Or perhaps those left had already retreated however they could. Canterlot had become a hellscape, unrecognizable from the shining beacon of ponykind he had come to love over the course of his life.

Celestia was hovering over all of it, admiring her work. Scanning for any signs of life, signs of further defiance.

How many times had she forced the flames to burst from her body? It crushed buildings and felt unfair to have to deal with. She'd even cast lightning a few dozen more times.

He was getting ready to use up the last of his magic. He still had quite a lot compared to before he had started fighting again, but a fifth at most compared to the reserve he had come to build in total.

He realized that, if he was going to fight Celestia, it'd have to be one continuous strain to keep up a brutal pace. He was getting used to having to do that. That was the only way you survived. He was lucky she hadn't targeted him until now on round two.

They had actually still managed to land quite a few blows on her, but she recovered far too quickly for it to mean much this time around. The losses they took in contrast were a complete disaster. The fight had turned quickly.

He looked across and down into the streets. There was several bodies burning. He had come to hate that cursed flame. What kind of evil had Celestia unleashed on the world? Even with his most basic senses he could tell the flame would last far longer than it normally should've, burning and burning even past the time there was nothing left. The darkness was buried deep below the flames. The bodies hadn't disappeared yet, but he had no idea how long they'd been dead. How it boiled his blood, even now, to see it....

His next attack would need to surprise her somehow. Because he held the advantage of knowing her position while she wasn't sure if there was anypony left to challenge her, he'd had to make the most of it. What he heard struck an icy dagger in his heart.

She was laughing now... no... it was cackling. Celestia, no, that demon was talking to herself now. Some inane rambling about destroying everything and to let it all burn. Her physical features had become more and more twisted as time went on, and her mane was one of flame rather than the beautiful shades ponies had painted in her likeliness for thousands of years. Her tail remained the same as it used to be, but the doubt that'd remain no different than her mane. Even the iris of her eyes had grown a foul black rather than white. Her true form, it seemed, was one of imperious and destruction incarnation.

It dawned on him that he was essentially about to challenge Celestia to a duel. This was one of the most inconceivable thoughts that had ever came to him. To go out against the sun goddess of Equestria? Perhaps there was no greater glory possible. A lifetime of repressed dreaming of greater things entered the fray.

He spent some time coming up with a strategy. He believed only a risky strategy would be able to catch her off guard at this point. Looking across streets, he saw something that slowly gave him inspiration. Broken glass had rained down from the windows being smashed and destroyed from buildings at varying heights.

With this in mind, he began preparing to engage Celestia.

Several platforms started appearing as he crafted them, but while these looked similar to what he had created before, they were inherently different. He'd made sure of that. He hoped that she wouldn't notice the change quick enough. Not needing to move them slowly to stay with a respective pony for footing, he'd be able to throw these around at a high tempo. That was a double-edged sword, because if he calculated things wrongly he'd waste magic and not land a hit.

Sending them out into her view, he quickly made to get them shifting all around her in a blur. He didn't want them to be immediately destroyed, so he had to make them tough targets.

Peering around the corner to look at her, he saw that she was already firing beams to try and intercept them, while keenly keeping her vision widespread. When the beams didn't see much success, although she did score one of them, she released a wave of fire again. Something he'd grown used to seeing and nearly feeling. The wave of fire was blocked by the chimney he was on, and it went past him with no harm to himself. Luckily, that kind of magic was ineffectual against his platforms. Or, more accurately, his magic mirrors.

Now, with his heart pounding, he'd have to step out and face her again, alone.

Creating a ball of arcane magic, he left it behind the chimney as he turned the corner and began sprinting towards the end of the roof towards Celestia. Just as he was about to run off the roof and into open air, he created a true platform to run on. He fired many bolts of arcane magic, close to Celestia but enough to miss by enough that she wouldn't bother with them. She was fully focused on him now, and it should've been a terrifying thing. There was no fear left at this point though. Only resolve.

Most of the bolts were intercepted by his mirrors, and they began a wild chain reaction of ricocheting as they bounced from mirror to mirror at every possible angle around Celestia. Eventually, they made to hit her but her shield held all around her. Only one managed to hit her before she had realized, and he hadnt seen the damage. This was good though - that was one of the best ways to get her to waste magic, gritting it out to hold a shield together, blow after blow. He stopped, and fired a beam after directing his hidden ball of magic to begin its flight path.

Celestia's shield warped, as all of the previous attacks had finished, and only blocked his beam. What kind of confidence was it that she was willing to waste magic just to intercept his beam? Did she want to show him how futile it all was? How overwhelming the gap was between them? It only enraged him on further.

And finally, it happened. The ball of arcane magic slipped through a blind spot he had created with the mirrors by sending it below the buildings to street level and then blocking the view of that angle as it came up and towards her by having his mirrors locked in place rather than moving. It slammed into the back of her right hip and threw her to the side, blood gushing into the open air against all expectations of finding more shadows beneath. It must've left a decent indent in her frame, and the shield disappeared allowing his beam to continue on. It grazed her and tore a sheet off the left side her body, but it was shallow. He'd miscalculated. That should've done far more damage by hitting her more head on.

She fell, and he saw her eyes lock onto him again. Her wings pounded to right herself, and soon she was closing the gap between them. What kind of monster recovered that quickly?! He was pretty sure she was healing the fresh wounds as well. Every time they had scored some victory over her, she just came back with a fury to prevent them from gaining hope. It was unfair. He had to believe it was still possible despite this. He had to.

What began after was far more what he had been expecting. He was forced to teleport into the open air and begin falling, high enough that he'd have ages before he ever got close to hitting any building or the ground. That was about the limit of his calculations, none of it had any preciseness to it anymore. Enough to prevent disaster.

Celestia swiveled and immediately launched three giant pillars of fire at him. He created three spears of wind, thin and far weaker than what was coming at him no undoubtedly. They aimed for the middle of the each fireblast. They met each other, and the wind pierced through the middle of the things to disperse them enough that they couldn't make it to him. It didn't help that Celestia came through the blinding mess in the air not a second later and barrelling towards him again. His teleportation was forced.

Similar type exchanges continued for another two minutes or so, with Dire becoming increasingly sicker and sicker from casting far too much and the disorientation of falling while partially spinning making his head spin. It didn't help that she had become impatient, and at one point had summoned dozens of fire pillars to shoot straight down towards Canterlot at random, apparently hoping to just hit him by luck. Somehow, he was lucky enough it missed his destination point he arrived at. Countless buildings blew apart under the inferno. Or they just got further crushed and melted. Just as he was about to lose all control, he cast one final teleport after waiting to the final second before getting hit by another of Celestia's beams so that he could calculate an exact coordinate. He landed safely on one of the only rooftops he had actually seen that was still safe from the firestorm below.

The exhaustion hit. It was impossible for a unicorn like him to have enough mobility and still attack somepony as strong as this while trying to switch between the two. He slowly looked up and saw her hovering again. She had approached him, and now stayed there staring him down once again. Looking down on him.

There was a silence between them as they shared a mutual look. He spat. The world was ending in the background, but neither heard it. Then, to put him out of his misery, she fired a simple beam at him again. He truly had nothing left, and he was tired of all this insanity. He had accepted his fate long ago. He smiled knowing he had fought one of the strongest beings in existence and actually traded some blows back.

The beam made to cut straight through his heart and finish him off, but a figure appeared in front of him at the last second. He had kept his eyes open firmly to show her she would never break his spirit, even if he lost. The figure stood tall before him and blocked his view as it appeared, taller than the rest of the ponies, including Celestia.

The impact, and its associated sound a moment later, was nowhere to be found.