"Calm down Night Princess. Sometimes, just sometimes, things happen for no reason at all! Not everything is part of a grand scheme. Sometimes, sheer dumb luck can make the greatest of plans fall apart like..." Jack suddenly swapped what hoof he was using to stand on. "that! Speaking of which... I think I know just how to change things for the better. How do I know this mysterious option will work?! I DON'T!" He turned to make a run for the door, but suddenly stopped. "Oh, and you may want to let Sihana get a FULL nights rest. No need to throw her right into battle as soon as she wakes up." With that he ran out the door, vanishing before exiting the other side. Even with him gone, his voice still lingered "Ouch, ouch, ouch, should have rested a bit before doing that..."
Luna shook her head as Jack left. "I try to be a good, fair, and just princess. I try to give everypony the benefit of the doubt. Still..." She sighed. "...I really don't like that pony. Wherever he goes, disaster seems to follow." Hope nodded. "I've heard the stories. Should I go after him? See if I can make him tell the truth?" "No need. We have what we need from him. Whatever is coming, it will be here before morning."
(This is likely ready to be buried. Let me get the shovel...) The Eriborian remained at gates of Canterlot, sitting down nearby the shield as he watched funeral pyres light up across the area around Canterlot like candles. If he could, he would remain at Sihana's side, but the Ryborian knew that his goddess was strong enough to make it through. Instead, he remained at the wall, having just finished his patrol. He got up just as a pegasi messenger came to his side, bearing important news. The Eriborian raised an eyebrow until he received the news. Sihana was healed, and is expected to awaken tomorrow morning. Pleased with this news, Venquis headed back to the palace.
Silver had spent most of the evening patrolling the barrier around the city, and as midnight approached, he spotted a familiar figure walking slowly towards the city. He swore inwardly. It looked like his suspicions were correct. Flying back to the palace, he rushed to the throne room and spoke a single word. "Plague."
The gods and their champions (With the notable exception of Sihana) suddenly jolted to life as the demon that was Plague wanded into the throne room without a single shed of conflict. One did set him apart from the rest. He looked so...human. Plague used to appear as an Alicorn when he was stuck inside of Midnight's body, but since nopony had heard from the Prince in over 30 years, it seemed that Plague had finally killed him. Plague appeared as a tall human with long wavy black and green hair and a long beard that went down to his stomach. His eyes were blood red, and was dressed in all black. His wings were still on his back, but it seemed they were mealy dead weight. Something...dangerous seemed off about Plague. His power, even by the standards of Major God's, was off the charts. If he wanted to, Plague could have won the entire war by himself. Plague was corrupted beyond measure, taking the essence of the Phoenix Queens corruption and becoming apart of it. And needless to say...he never felt so alive. "It's been a long time..." Plague spoke, his baritone voice echoing around in the minds of others. "Don't be surprised if you wanted to see me, It was bound to happen anyway." ----------------------------------- The Master was inside of the room, watching over the fight. He was completely unknown to those inside of the Throne room, even the 4th wall could not touch him. He wanted to see this ordeal play out. If Plague died, then he could have introduced himself straight after.
Silver glared at Plague, and whispered to his daughter, "We can take him, but not here. We have to get him out of the city." Nightshade shook her head, and looked the Master directly in the eye. She would deal with him later. "No. We must protect Sihana. She's the only one that can revive Celestia. If we lose her, we lose everything." Hope looked unimpressed. "Enough talk. Let's just rip this bastard to pieces!" Screaming an old Changeling battle-cry that her mother had taught her, she charged at Plague, Holly and Hemlock at her side.
Plague just watched as Hope and the two timber-wolves charged at him, only raising his arm effortlessly without emotion as all three of them were suddenly thrown across the room like rag-dolls with a single kinetic push. It was surprisingly gentle, but it was enough to send all three of them crashing through the walls. "Is that really all? I've heard stories...but this is just ridiculous." Plague levitated, looking at Silver and Nightshade. "How many of your friends have I killed?" Plague replied. "Six? Eight? Twelve?" ------------------------ The Master watched as he suddenly vanished from the room, having a sly smile across his face. He was done, he just wanted to monitor what he was dealing with. The Hunter appeared in the bed-room of Sihana, watching her slumber as he placed his hand on her forehead. From his hand came a single drop of liquid as he forced her mouth open as it was about to drop down inside of her. The liquid, of his own creation, was powerful enough to kill a god in less then five seconds. Just as the drop fell downwards, it suddenly evaporated as he turned around to see the Eriborian, his spell-sword drawn out and a furious look on his face.The Hunter could not have been happier, he was going to take down a goddess and her champion. The two of them said nothing as they both charged at another, swords drawn and began their duel. The Hunter lept over Venquis's back, his hand on his neck as they both teleported above the city.
Hearing a noise from Sihana's room, Silver sniffed the air. "Son of a... Nightshade, go help Venquis! The Hunter is a shadow of his Mun! The Ryborian is outmatched!" "On it!" Nightshade flew right past Plague and out of castle, rushing to help Venquis. Silver, furious that he had let himself be distracted, drew his swords. "How many on my friends have you killed? Not a damn one. I don't befriend weaklings." He grinned viciously. "Your story ends here, abomination. I'm going to put you down once and for all!" Princess Luna had slipped quietly out of the room when Nightshade left, and found Hope and the Timber-Wolves running back to join the fight. She stood in their path, shaking her head. "This is not your fight. Come with me, and together we shall stand guard over Sihana while she sleeps."
Deep inside Celestia's un-consciousness, Serketh sat at a table with two figures that looked similar to the alicorn at different points in her life. One had gentle pink hair and was far smaller than the other two figures, the other was moments before her death, her body bloody and injured, covered in armor. Each one seemed to be drinking tea, silently. In what only felt like seconds, days had passed outside the corrupted's mind. "Dear, dear Celestia. Celestia's... plural. I am sure you know why I'm here. A long, long time ago, I separated you," he pointed at the young one "from you." he pointed at the elder. "Given... all that's going on, I'm trying to do something I know you both want me to achieve, but I have never even attempted before. The recombining of uncorrupted innocence, responsible for ensuring the deepest desires of the mortal mind remain under control, and only at the back of the mind, with strength and power, the ability to act upon the mind. What I normally do, is slowly disconnect these two features from each other, leaving the body to act upon its deepest most horrible desires, using powers it would normally restrict and remove. I need both of your consent, before I can even hope to start trying this..." he took a sip of the drink in his cup. "I certainly hope you can find it to bring yourselves back together." (Is crimson ok with controlling Celestia still?) Jack walked through a doorway into a dark room. He looked around quickly, seeing the walls blank, and when he turned back to the doorway, there was merely a brick wall on the other side. The circular floor had three pedestals in an arc on the far side of the room, and on each pedestal was a large book. He approached the one in the middle, which was slightly larger. He opened the large tome to a page near the middle, and saw a myriad of seemingly random words, phrases, and half-made thoughts. He closed the book and looked at the cover. "A tale of two kingdoms." he read it out loud. He looked at the other ones "The pheonix queen" and "The end game." He flipped through all three of the books and found that out of them, The pheonix queen was finished while the others appeared only half-done. He noticed most of the characters seemed to vanish from the first book (he assumed the tale of two kingdoms, due to the prologue found at the start of each book) to the last, End-Game. "What the hell are these..." "Those would be my associates and my recounting's of a grand story..." The spirit was suddenly sitting on Jack's back. "It's a shame... there were so many of us at the start... only three remain now... I can tell how much you wanted to see the story of that necromantic crystal pony play out! I know I did... but sadly, every story has it's end... and when they come to ours, sometimes the end is merely a lack of interest..." Jack didn't react to the spirit's presence at all. He felt like nothing would happen to him. "These are our stories aren't they." "Very astute, Jacob Knife." "Are we more than just your toys?" "Not really. You only serve to entertain us. Your purpose is nearly pointless... Want to know why I accepted to join The Master???" He took a deep breath then whispered in Jack's ear. "I wanted to see how THEY could kill my toys..." He vanished. Jack stood, staring at the books. The spirit's voice lingered for a moment. "You relied on luck to show you a way to beat us... I guess you were quite UNLUCKY TODAY! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
“I have been waiting for many years for this to happen.” Plague said as he suddenly burst out in hysterical laughter. “I’m tempted not to kill you, but that temptation is not entirely satisfying to me. A unstoppable force pushing against an immovable object. I believe that we are destined to do this forever. If I kill you and the Goddess, what then? Ruling all of Tartarus, destroying anything that comes heading my way? No....no. You. complete.me Plague then pulled out two swords as he got into a stance, levitating slightly above the ground. “Shall we begin?” With that, Plague launched himself against his foe. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The two Celestia’s looked in silence at each other, staring into the eyes of each other for what seemed like an eternity before nodding at each other. The two of them both understood what they wanted, and what was best for all. The older Celestia walked a few steps ahead and nodded in approval. “You may proceed.” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Hunter and the Eriborian clashed swords above the sky, heading into the clouds. The force of the impact's of weaponry were strong enough to cause ripples in the sky. The Eriborian, however, found that the Hunter was far beyond his league as something exploded on his back. While the Hunter had teleported previously while he was teleporting them both to outside the city, an explosive created with an illusion of invisibility tore apart the upper armour on the Ryborian's back. The Ryborian, heavily inured from this attack, found the Hunter with a wide smile across his face. Venquis was not going to make it... "I could play with you all night, but I want to end things right now... It's over, Eriborian." Before the Eriborian could even comprehend what was happening, he found the Hunter's sword penetrating through him, destroying his heart in the process. The Eriborian looked at the blade and the human that had killed him. All he could think about was simply failure, failure to protect his people and the ones he loved. Failure to protect his queen, Tricorna. Failure for not having the strength to protect others and failure...knowing that Sihana was going to die. The colour drained from his body as he looked at his killer, remembering his face as the Killer removed him from his sword from the sky as he crashed through the magical barrier itself that almost instantaneously repaired itself before landing near the outskirts on a stone path that quickly began to attract a crowd. The Eriborian was facing upwards, looking at the sky and the stars above, just seeing the outline of Nightshade above him. Tears were streaming down his face as his heart stopped beating forever...
Serketh smiled. "Good. It's about time something went our way, I think things are going to start to look up..." With that his manifestation in Celestia's consciousness vanished, and he awoke inside the room. Celestia's spirit had stopped rampaging against the bonds he had set around her. "Alright. Let's get this start-" He suddenly fell towards the wall, as did everything not attached to the ground as gravity seemed to change in an instant. All of it alongside him, slowly rolled as the gravity in the room changed slowly from the wall to the top of the dome ceiling. He stood up, brushed himself off and looked up at Celestia's spirit, hanging in his webs from what was originally the floor. "I take it you don't want me to fix her then?" He floated into the air a couple of feet. "Who are you? And why should I not kill you?" The spirit spun into existence in the air in front of him. "I'm your maker, little spider. And I don't think you could kill me if you tried." Jack flipped through the books, thinking he could find something in them to help, but he found nothing. He flipped through the third book and found several pages had advanced... and Venquis died at the end of the chapter. Jack thought about the other books. "If everything that happened is these creature's writings... and they control us... They have one thing more important to them than killing off a character. The first of their characters that would even actually die was Tricorna... and she was saved by Silver from a guaranteed death, because love is more attractive to these play-writes than death..." Jack reached into his cape and drew out his sword. He looked over the hilt and sighed. "I REALLY hope I'm right about this... otherwise I'm gonna look like a freaking idiot..."
Just as Plague was about to land his first blow, something unexpected happened. A shining light blinded both Silver and Plague and anything still in the room, and all physical attacks were stopped dead in their tracks. Plague, confused about what had just occured, watched as he was suddenly thrown across the room. Plague landed normally, but did not expect the light to dim downwards and show the face of Midnight. "So...you survived." Plague responded. "Such a shame that Crimson did not, Ocean did not do that much better. Both of their souls being tortured by me in Tartarus for all eternity." Midnight got into a stance as a phantom great-sword created made from purple crystals from his own magic suddenly appeared for his use. Midnight had aged considerably, his hair greying out of his age. He looked at the abomination on the other side of the room, pointing the heavy sword at him with ease. "I have spent 30 years looking for you. I have been waiting for this day for my entire life." Midnight said coldly. "Our kind should never exist in this world. Not ever again..." Plague looked at Silver and now Midnight. It seemed it was going to be two against one, unless Silver had something to say about it. Midnight would rather protect Sihana, but the ultimate chance for revenge appeared to be the only thing on his mind.
Silver looked at Midnight, disappointed. "Damn it all. I was hoping to do this alone." He shrugged. "Oh well. I suppose this is a little bit poetic, you facing a physical manifestation of your inner demons. Shall we rip this bastard apart, then?" Flying at Plague, Silver sheathed his swords and grabbed his enemy by the neck. Still grinning, he tossed the furious human-thing into the path of Midnight. "Batter up, prince! Let's see if you're as strong as I remember!" Nightshade glanced down at the lifeless body of Venquis and swore loudly. "Gods dammit! What was that fool thinking? He saw what the Destroyer did to Dad! Did he really believe he stood a chance?" She could only spare a brief moment, however, for she was rapidly approaching the Mun-Shadow that called himself "Hunter." As her spear appeared at her side, she whispered under her breath, "I am not the plaything of others. I will not be controlled. My destiny is my own. My decisions are my own. I am Nightshade, and I am free!" Gripping her weapon, she charged the Hunter. "Your kind bring nothing but suffering to our world! Begone from this place, wretched human!"
(Plague has become human, I've hinted the start of his transformation right at end of the P.Q RP, but I'll let that slide.) Midnight rushed towards and delivered a blow directly at the face of Plague, the sheer energy of the blow shook the main hall violently like an earthquake. Plague fell downwards, but evaporated into a black cloud of mist as he suddenly appeared behind Midnight and grabbing him by his horn, throwing him against Silver's direction. Midnight stopped himself halfway, before he charged with his greatsword. Plague jumped towards him and lept onto the greatsword itself, stabbing Midnight in the shoulder, missing his neck by inches. The Prince just shrugged it off, looking at his demon straight in the eyes. "He's much stronger than last time. I exercise caution around him Silver..." Midnight said before facing him. "Do you want the liberty of putting him down?" ------------------------------------- The Hunter dodged the attack with ease and grabbed Nightshade's mane hard, ripping out some of the hairs as he raised his boot above her head. "Here's your answer..." The Hunter then dropped his leg at impossible speed and strength sending her crashing down towards the earth within a few seconds, regardless of how high they were. "The Ryborian knew he could not defeat me, he was simply trying to protect his goddess. Even in death, he's still a worthless coward of a fool." The Hunter replied before looking down at Nightshade, staring at her eyes. "You fight like a younger mare, nothing seeming to be held back. Impressive, but not mistaken." ---------------------------------------------------- The goddess was slowly starting to awaken, ever so slowly, she could feel life return to her. Despite being half asleep, she was aware of what was happening. Canterlot was under attack, and upon sensing the disappearance of a certain somepony's energy, her champion was killed. She broke the silence as she sat upright. "He deserved better...."
"YOU KILLED MY HUSBAND!" The hunter was struck in the back of the head by a force that would knock the sun out of place. Tricorna landed on the ground below him and glared up at him. Jack was standing behind them both. "Not exactly what I had in mind..." Tricorna turned back to him. "YOU CAN SAY THIS IS AS INNEVITABLE AS YOU WANT, BUT YOU STILL AREN'T GETTING OFF SCOTT FREE!" The spirit floated over the beaten Serketh. "I'm too lazy to write fight scenes. So I just use one move when It's all me... Sorry, I wish I was more entertaining... It's a shame I didn't let you finish fixing Celestia..." The spirit laughed a little. Serketh smiled up at The spirit. "What do you mean? I thought you knew everything that was going to happen... Like the fact that Celestia's recovery only took a second of my time. Hah! For someone claiming to be omnipotent... you are pretty stupid." "Oh... Oh damn. No way. No fukin way..." The spirit turned the where Celestia's spirit was webbed up. "Where did you send her spirit? WHERE DID YOU SEND IT!!" "I sent her to her little twisted kid... or at least what's left of him..." Serketh's 8 eyes then faded from red to black and he passed out. "Well... I guess I'm not the only one who had a character just a little beyond my reach... Well, she's just a ghost, she can't fight yet... right? That is how ghosts work? I should know seeing as I claim to be one... UGH! I hate questioning myself!" He grabbed Serketh's unconscious body and vanished in a puff of smoke.
The Hunter's eyes glowed bright red as he burst into fits of laugher while putting himself back up, looking down at the group below him. "It's such a shame that he's lost his heart, a worthless fool practising a worthless art." The Hunter lifted his hand as a bright red ball of energy appeared as he aimed it at the group below him. A small portion of its power was enough to destroy Canterlot, but the energy appeared much more powerful that it truly was. “Do you know the definition of insanity?” The Hunter asked. “Some might say that it’s the state of being seriously mentally ill. But...I believe that it is all about doing the same thing, over and over again and expecting different results each time. Once I realised this...it clicked. And then I started seeing, everywhere I looked, all these people, everywhere I looked, doing the exact same thing... over and over and over and over again thinking that even after failure, they held onto the belief that it was going to be different.” The Hunter then channelled the energy into the blade itself, glowing red as he got into a stance. “Prepare to die....” The Hunter then launched himself, vanishing due to sheer speed.
"SHUT. UP." Tricorna jumped, and The Hunter's blade was knocked from his hand by her head, leaving her unharmed as she flew past him. "YOU ARE INSANE! EXPECTING TO KILL PONIES WITHOUT SUFFERING ANY REAL CONSEQUENCE!" She grabbed the hilt of the sword in the air and came spinning down with the blade in front of her, causing a propeller effect, striking The Hunter several times with his own charged weapon before landing, and shoving the blade into the ground. "You get cocky, and eventually, you fall because of it!" Jack did nothing, just watched with a mild amount of amusement. "You go girl! Tell him what I learned the hard way!"
"Pathetic human!" Nightshade flew after the Hunter, easily outpacing him. Moving into his path, she suddenly whirled around and came to dead stop, her spear held in front of her. "Objects in motion tend to stay in motion..." She grinned as the Hunter's momentum caused him to be impaled by the spear. "...Unless acted upon by an outside force." Swinging the spear with the Hunter still on it, she slammed his head brutally into the ground. "You are powerful in this world, I won't deny that, but you are limited by the rules of your own universe. That is why you will lose." Hope helped Sihana to her hooves, nodding. "Very sad. I'm sorry, Goddess, but we don't have time for grief. We have a lot to do, and not much time to do it. Princess Luna, Sihana, I need you both to come with me. We're going to Celestia's tomb."
The Hunter reappeared a large distance away, the area that his body had hit turning into sand. The Hunter's sword reappeared in his hand while another manifested into his other hand, both of them being of opposite colours. One being Black with a Blue tint along the edge, while the other being White and Red on the Edge. He levitated into the air as he looked around. "Who said anything about losing?" Just as he made the statement, five other copies of the Hunter appeared out of nowhere and Slashed at Tricorna and Nightshade, focusing on their ability to focus on his opponent. Just as two of the copies swung Nightshade and Tricorna head first into each other, the other two exploded into brilliant beams of light that blinded anything nearby for a short period. By the time the light vanished, all the copies went away to the Hunter and the bodies of Tricorna and Nightshade were on the verge of death but still alive, with the Hunter seemingly appearing unharmed, his injuries quickly regenerating, his blades covered in buckets of blood as the red liquid was absorbed into the weapons themselves. The Hunter had a sadistic smile on his face as he watched his two opponents on the ground. “You are both very powerful, both of you managing to overpower me in this state. Might I add, you’re the strongest beings I’ve personally fought in any universe, and you should feel proud of yourselves. But it’s hightime that we stop playing war and we took this seriously, huh?” The hunter’s eyes began to glow as his ginger hair suddenly turned pure white, while his eyes turned a bright grey. His skin turned a brilliant white, as his current black clothing vanished to reveal his torso, which had turned white with strange black tattoos along his body. A strange very deep violet coloured aura appeared and his swords had turned a similar colour. Four sharp horn like appendages had also grown across his body, especially on the upper part of his body. What remained of the clothing on his upper torso became a part of his body, while his pants and boots remained black. This transformation caused earthquakes far beyond anything ever seen on the planet, while several mountains collapsed in the background and anything nearby him was lifted into the air. He looked at his foes, smiling the same sadistic smile. He was at full power, and everypony knew it. "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds..." The Hunter quoted from a famous physicist who happened to be quoting a religious text. He looked upwards at his foes in the same sadistic smile from before “Now....MAKE ME FEEL ALIVE !!!” The hunter roared an ear piercing scream that shook anything a hundred meters from him. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the Palace Plague pulled out both of his signature weapons, two beautiful retractable one handed scythes as he looked at his enemies. Noticing the energy levels outside, Plague still had to focus on combating Silver and Midnight. Once Plague took a step towards the two, he instantly began to charge before jumping across the room and landing on Silver, swinging with his scythes like a acrobat around and around across Silver’s neck before switching to impale Midnight with the butt of the Scythes before following up with a brutal slash to his armour. Plague then jumped backwards before moving towards again and charging once more. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sihana nodded as the Night Princess and Hope went down a seemingly endless corridor of stairs towards the resting place of Celestia.
"Destroyer of worlds? C'mon, dude! That's my bit!" The Destroyer appeared beside the Hunter, carrying an axe in one hand and the head of the Vanguard in the other. "Don't mind me. I'm just here to deliver a message to Nightshade." He yawned. "He knows what you're planning." With his message delivered, the Destroyer casually tossed a fireball that quickly engulfed the palace in flames, and vanished. Nightshade sighed. "Now is not the time for such concerns..." She looked at the Hunter, unconcerned. "You wish to feel alive? Very well. Prepare to suffer the fate of all mortals!" Nightshade's first strikes were deliberately non-lethal, two quick slashes with her spear that cleanly removed the Hunter's eyelids. She didn't want him closing his eyes. She wanted him to see his end coming. Silver was bleeding heavily from the cut to his neck, but his armor had stopped the scythe from doing any serious damage. Laughing, he easily deflected Plague's next attack with his sword. "You're a fool, abomination! A pony might have landed that blow properly, but that new body of yours isn't made for fighting! Have you looked at yourself? No hooves, no fur, legs going the wrong way... It's a wonder those human-things can survive at all! Why in Tartarus would you want to be one of them?" "What the..." Hope found the path to Celestia's tomb blocked by flames. "We can't stop! We're going through!" Casting a hasty shielding spell, Hope dragged Luna and Sihana into the inferno. After a few minutes, they emerged from the fire into a small stone chamber. A white marble sarcophagus sat in center of the chamber, marked by a golden image of the sun. Luna looked sadly at Celestia's coffin. "Why have we come here? I do not enjoy being reminded of what I have lost." Hope ignored her, and shoved cover off of the sarcophagus, revealing the bones of the dead princess. "Sihana, you're up. Revive Princess Celestia."
