The Death of an Age

Chapters

Seven Against Thousands

Seven Against Thousands

Author's Note: I just did this as a short one-off to get away from the sadfics... and then it ended up turning into one. This is not the best thing I've written, I just needed to get this off of my mind. So here it is! I hope you enjoy it!

---- The Death of an Age ----

When all you know is buried beneath rubble and destruction, what else can you do but fight?

Her lavender hooves punched through the dry, cracked earth as she slowly made her way up the looming hill before her. The sun, sitting halfway between afternoon and night, beat down upon her as each of her hooves was lifted over the next. She looked up to the unmoving celestial body and sighed heavily, trying and failing to suppress her mentor’s last words to her as they called out from underneath the thin veil of time. “Twilight, you have to live on. You are my most-faithful student and the last hope for Equestria. If you die, harmony and love throughout the world will as well. You must… live… on.”

“I will, Princess. You can count on it.” Twilight’s voice was hoarse and broken, like the rest of the dying world around her.

“Hey, Twi? Do you know where we’re going?” Rainbow Dash’s voice, once so full of confidence and ease, drew her back into the present as it caressed her ears. “I mean, we’ve been walking for hours!” The lavender unicorn slowly turned to look at the group of ponies that she was leading, her gaze touching briefly with each of their tired eyes, all of which reflected the weary resignation that she felt.

The cyan wings of the once-Wonderbolt drooped with fatigue as their owner swayed with the wind that occasionally gusted past them, their feathers jutting out at odd angles every so often and giving them the appearance of a bristling animal. The blue-and-yellow suit clung in tatters to the prismatic-maned pegasus, who was still stubborn enough to keep wearing it despite the uselessness of the cloth. Her magenta eyes looked to Twilight with a loyalty that would weather the toughest of storms, even the one that was soon to be the end of them all.

The unicorn could only shake her head and sigh dejectedly. “No, Rainbow, I don’t. I really don’t. But it doesn’t matter, we have to keep moving. We don’t want those things catching up to us. You saw what they did to the Princesses.” A collective shudder ran through them as the all-too-recent deaths of their rulers played themselves out again in their minds.

After a few moments of silence, the other pegasus of their group spoke, her soft voice easily being heard over the wind. “Um, I think we should keep going.” The events that had transpired merely a few hours before brought about a major change in the Element of Kindness. Her kind, azure eyes that had once held the glimmering warmth of an inner kindness now shone with a hatred that was as smooth and cold as ice.

“You’re right, Fluttershy. Come on, girls. Let’s go.” Twilight turned away, only to turn back again as another voice, slightly tinged with a country twang, burst out angrily from behind.

“What’s the point!? Why are we even runnin’ from them?” Applejack tossed her head angrily as she stomped a hole into the dry ground. “Why, Twilight? What makes you think dyin’ a few hundred feet out that way is any different from dyin’ at home?” The orange farmer threw a hoof out behind her as she threw her questions to the world. “Why do we have to leave it all behind? Our families? Our lives?”

Twilight felt her heart being torn as the green eyes grew distance with the ghosts of the past. She felt nothing but compassion to the poor earth pony who had watched as her brother charged fearlessly into the ranks of changelings to buy them enough time to escape. Despite his valiant efforts, only Applejack escaped the death of Sweet Apple Acres. “Applejack… I… I don’t know. The only reason we left was because the Princess told me—“

“To Tartarus with those buckin’ Princesses!” Applejack trotted up to her and pushed her with a hoof. “Twilight, they’re dead!” The angry words assaulted her even as she tried to back away. “We all watched them die! Why are you followin’ some orders from dead ponies?! What can us livin’ have anything’ to do with savin’ Equestria?!”

“I… I… Applejack, please.” Tears pooled in Twilight’s eyes as she searched her mind for a reason. She could find none.

“Ah don’t know about ya’ll, but Ah’m gonna stay right here and buck each and every one of them changelings into the ground,” The orange pony turned abruptly and stomped a hoof into the dirt with the air of finality, “or Ah’m gonna die tryin’.”

A stillness, so complete that not even the wind blew, descended onto the world around them as they stared at the pony who had resigned herself to die in battle with a force that not even goddesses could defeat. One by one, the rest of them moved over to stand beside her, looking into the horizon in anticipation of their doom. Even Spike jumped from her back and stood beside his once-thought love, sharpening his claws on a gemstone that he had brought along. It pained Twilight to see how much he had matured in such a short time, just as much as it pained her to see how flat Pinkie Pie’s hair was or how grizzled and resigned Rarity’s face had become.

Gripped by a sudden urge that had welled up from within her, Twilight slowly trotted over to the former Elements of Harmony and stood amongst them in her rightful place. She laid a hoof on Applejack’s shoulder and returned the grateful smile with ease. Suddenly more hooves wrapped around her as the rest of them gathered into one last hug.

As they sat watching for the impending mass of black that was to consume them, Twilight slowly started to sing.

I used to wonder what friendship could be,

until you all shared its magic with me.

The rest of them all breathed in and began to sing along to the age-old song of friendship and harmony. Twilight’s horn glowed brightly as she cast a spell to defiantly send their voices into the howling wind.

Big adventure,

Tons of fun,

A beautiful heart,

Faithful and strong,

Sharing kindness,

It’s an easy feat, and magic makes it all complete.

You have my little ponies,

do you know you’re all my very best friends?

Over and over they sang, their song washing across the land with the spell that Twilight had cast. The wind carried it further still, allowing the song to serenade the bodies of the dead who had fallen in the fight for their home. It wasn’t a song only about the Elements of Harmony. It was a song about the bonds that every last pony had formed with each other in the last few seconds of life that they had before falling into the black abyss that is death.

Their voices did not falter or stop as a line of black appeared on the horizon, blotting out the very bottom edge of the hanging sun. The cold, blue eyes grew closer with every passing verse, but it was no deterrent to them. Nothing short of death would truly silence their song. As the writhing, black mass surrounded them, the finally allowed their voices to descend into the realm of silence as they stared out into the crowd of bared fangs and unfurled wings. The world seemed to hold its breath as Twilight glanced back to her friends with a calm regard.

"Hey... girls?" Despite her show of outward peace, the unicorn couldn't quite keep the quiver out of her voice as she stared into the pure-blue eyes of their foe.

"Yeah, Twi?" Applejack's voice was as steady as ever, if heavy with a sad resignation.

"See you on the other side."

As one, they leapt from the hill and into their enemy’s ranks, kicking and punching with their hooves at everything they could reach. Changeling after changeling fell to their blows as they each became a whirlwind of death in their own rights. Twilight sent out a wave of magic before her, setting the ones who were unfortunate enough to be standing in the way alight with raging, lavender fire. A few bolts of green light crossed overhead as a few of the ones standing further back attempted to strike at them from afar.

Twilight turned to see one of the monsters being split in two by one of Applejack’s hind legs and another being thrown upward by an uppercut from Rainbow Dash. A changeling that leapt in front of Twilight was taken by the calculating hooves of Fluttershy, who swiftly put her skill that she had once used to massage bigger animals to lethal use, snapping the neck of the insect and ending its life more quickly than it deserved.

Rarity drew from the earth below their hooves the sharpest of gemstones that soon found themselves a new home embedded in the soft insides of those who dared to approach her, one of which finding its way into a changeling that was about to bit into Twilight’s neck. Twilight turned again to see Pinkie Pie coldly crushing one of the things’ heads beneath her hooves. None of them hesitated as they cut through the ranks of the destroyers of Equestria. It was nothing but death.

The first set of fangs bit into her leg from behind as she cast another immolation spell, bringing a stab of pain and a scream of agony as more followed. She felt herself being thrown to the ground as more and more of the sharp teeth dug into her body. Her struggles grew weaker as she bled, her hooves weakly pushing against the crushing weight of the monsters on top of her. The screams of the others falling as well followed her into the blackness that reached up to claim her as its own.

She could feel nothing but pain as her mind sluggishly worked to free itself from death. Her groans of agony were heard by nothing but the wind as she slowly opened her eyes. The sun beat down upon the death earth, but she couldn’t see anything except a blinding light. Her horned-head slowly turned to her right, revealing to her the blurry forms of two bodies on the ground. “Pinkie… Pie? Flutter… shy?” Talking hurt, but she didn’t allow herself to stop. Casting her gaze to her other side, she took in the hazy forms of the other Elements. “Applejack… Rarity… Rainbow Dash…”

She shifted slightly and brushed against a purple and green form that had been curled by her side. “Oh, Spike… not you too.” Tears welled up in her eyes and overflowed onto her face, making tracks through the dirt that had been blown there by the gusting wind that now cooled her bleeding wounds. “I guess it’s finally over. We lost.” She smiled over to each of her friends. “I guess we didn’t win then.” A weak chuckled brought another wave of pain that lashed through her body, making her hiss as it slowly faded.

There she lay, staring up at the uncaring sky amongst the corpses of friend and foe alike. Something bubbled up inside of her, pushing through her lungs and pounding against her gritted teeth as it urged to be free. She took in a deep breath and began to sing.