Hello Mares and Gentlecolts and welcome to my story, it ends

Chapter 15: Showdown at Canterlot

On this day Spike had achieved greatness, or he was about, he had already arrived at the castle and he wouldn't be surprised if Carnage had managed to break free of his binds and was heading straight for him but he had gotten a good head start and the balloon he predicted they were using just wasn't fast enough to get here in time to stop him.

His plan was now falling into place, when he arrived he shrunk back down and had gotten rid of the glass that Celestia would make her toast with and was now holding the chalice with the potion, he knew that it would only take a drop in Celestia's mouth for the potion to work and then he would be unstoppable, he would just have to play the innocent little dragon act again and offer her his glass, who could really stop him then if Celestia, Luna and the elements were taken out first, he took one look at Rainbow Dash who was standing amongst her friends and thought I'm going to take my time with you.

On this day Rainbow Dash was heartbroken, she felt that sometimes she could be an actress with how often she pretended to act cool and tough when really all she wanted to do was scream, she was hanging with her friends and Scootaloo who she had picked up before she left for the majority of the party so far, Scoots was an orphan and before their fight this evening Carnage had actually asked her why she had never adopted Scootaloo since Scoots looked up to her so much as a role model, he also said that he thought she would make a great mom, to her the answer would have been no but when Carnage said it, it sounded like a good idea, she had to admit the little squirt was cute but she tried to remove any thoughts about her ex-coltfriend from her mind.

Rainbow looked around, she was trying to block out the heartbreak she felt but it just wasn't working, this year's event was a bit different than previous years, there were a lot more younger mares and stallions this time around and music was playing courtesy of Vinyl Scratch and her musical buddy Octavia, she always thought it was weird how they were friends due to their different taste in styles but then she looked at her own friends and she understood, the kind of music that was playing was something the higher class ponies would have detested but Celestia wanted a younger theme this year and Fancypants had convinced the other nobles to accept it, there were also performers besides the Wonderbolts with jugglers with flaming torches and clowns with their face paint on.

Some of her friends had noticed two things, one that Carnage wasn't with her and two that she was sulking a lot, Rarity had presumed they had some sort of spat and she had been trying to convince her all evening that he wasn't good enough for her and that she should leave him little knowing that she already had, she just didn't want to talk about it especially Rarity who always seemed to have her snout in everyponies love life despite her good intentions, Dash knew her friend only wanted the best for her so she really did mean it and wasn't just letting anger block her field of vision.

Dash had to admit it tough that Rarity was tougher than she thought, her sister had been viciously attacked only two days ago and here she was putting on the bravest face she could for the rest of Equestria, she spotted the Princesses Celestia and Luna who were being greeted by the nobility of Canterlot and this time she could tell what they were really feeling.

On this day Princess Celestia & Princess Luna were bored, the pair of them hated the gala however it had become a tradition and one that could be ignored in these dark times, Luna had never actually been as last year she got out of it by using the excuse that their subjects still feared her so she had best not attend but word had spread from Ponyville about the events of nightmare night and now her subjects loved her again, this was the one downside of that and right now she wished she had stayed on the moon.

Celestia wasn't doing much better, she just had to deal with her nephew prince Blueblood going on about the commoners that Celestia adored and how he thought they were mongrels, if she had a lest favourite family member then he would be it, in truth Celestia as loving and tolerant as she was she had to admit to her sister that she was embarrassed to be related to him in any sense to him and Luna's feelings were mutual.

She had thought of a good enough excuse to leave and gave her sister 'that look' the two of them shared when they wanted to leave with each other, the two walked to the edge of the party so they were out of the earshot of everypony else and they laughed, an awkward laugh, Celestia spoke, "I told you it wouldn't be fun."

"I know… and I believed you, I suppose that lessened the impact of the boredom, is it really like this every year?"

"Actually it's normally worse but the changes to the music and the performers have improved tonight however I haven't had the chance to enjoy any of it yet."

"Yeah I know what you mean, it's times like these Tia that I wished the ponies still feared me but never the less I am once again loved, you know it's sad when you wished you weren't loved."

Celestia let out a light chuckle but then a thought occurred to her, "You know I'm actually surprised that a certain pony we know hasn't come tonight, you know the one who would have probably jumped at the chance to have a little 'chat' with us."

Celestia had put a lot of emphasis on the word chat and Luna nodded in agreement, "Yes I would have expected Carnage to have confronted us in front of everypony like he did a couple of nights ago with me but strangely he did not arrive with Rainbow Dash."

"I never told you but the first time I met him in an attempt to get on my good side he flirted with me."

Luna was slightly surprised by her sisters confess, "Really? Do tell."

"There's not a lot to say except that it was quite welcome."

"I didn't know you had a thing for detectives Tia."

"It wasn't that, it was more the fact that he was the only pony to attempt to flirt with the most powerful pony in Equestria in about five hundred years."

"Really? That long huh, well I suppose that does make sense but I'm in a worse position as I've been on the moon for about a thousand years and I think you meant to say the second most powerful pony in Equestria right sister?"

"Alright Luna let's not start that again, you remember what it led to last time don't you?"

"I only tease you Tia, but it is nice to see the ponies here enjoying themselves, the mood in Ponyville when I fly over is much darker and it's not because of the night."

"Speaking about the murder and the detective when do want to tell him?"

"Not yet Tia, I wonder what he's up to now…"

On this day Carnage was reborn, despite the threat of an entire world being turned into an edible toy by a deranged baby dragon he felt a something new flowing through his veins, Twilight and himself had finally gotten close enough to land the balloon and arrive at the party and Twilight was preparing their descent just outside the castle, she called out to him, "Hold on Carnage were going to land."

He could tell she still wasn't a hundred per cent and that she wouldn't be much help in a fight but she seemed determined to go and his mind was now preoccupied by his new self, he remembered the day when he said goodbye to himself and locked his old personality inside the depths of his mind but now not only did he feel that the old Carnage was back but he felt somewhat more powerful than before, he hadn't had a chance to try anything out yet but he could also feel something electric coursing through his veins and now eyes were an electric blue and shaped like a reptiles and his teeth were now razor sharp to the point where he thought that he might be able to bite through metal, he didn't know if he was human or… whatever, all he knew was that he just got twenty per cent more awesome.

They had nearly landed and Twilight assured him that they could just go right through without any worry about being stopped as the guards knew who she was, he thought that maybe the best way to deal with Spike was to let the princesses take care of it and do whatever they do besides ruling over other ponies because technically their more powerful than them and there aren't really any ponies to challenge them, he realised he was getting side tracked and landed on the ground, he turned to Twilight, "Alright Miss Sparkle it looks like it's time to save a world full of pastel coloured ponies with big heads… your good at that right?"

Twilight ignored his mock question and the two of them ran off as fast as they could towards the castle gardens…

---

Celestia had gathered all the ponies together while herself and her sister stood above them on a small balcony at the entrance of the garden, she always made a speech thanking the ponies for attending and this year would be no different but as she went for her glass she realised that it was no longer there but before she could attempt to look for it she felt something tapping her leg, as she looked down Spike stood there innocently offering Celestia his drink which was in a beautiful chalice, "Why thank you Spike but how did you get this? You're not old enough to drink yet."

"Oh I just happened to find it is all and I thought you would need it."

"Well thank you Spike."

Celestia had no idea for what awaited her when she lifted the chalice and the crowd of ponies fell silent for their sun princess was about to make her speech, "My loyal subjects, I would like to thank you all for coming here this evening for the grand galloping gala, it is no secret that we have had dark days in Equestria as of late because of the recent murders of our fellow innocent Equestrians but as Equestrians we shall continue on with our heads held high and soon the killer amongst us will be caught, to Equestria."

All the ponies chanted with their princess, "To Equestria!"

Celestia levitated the chalice to her mouth and was about to finish her toast with a drink but out of the corner of her eye she could see her student Twilight Sparkle and a larger unidentifiable creature running towards her and Luna and as a single drop rolled down her tongue and down her throat she heard Twilight call out to her, "Princess don't drink that!"

Carnage smacked the chalice from her mouth and it crashed and spilled all over the floor, Celestia was more surprised than angry at the actions of her faithful student and this mysterious creature, "Twilight Sparkle and… whatever you are, what is the mean…"

When Carnage had knocked the chalice from Celestia's mouth Spike looked genuinely frightened but now his mouth grew into a large and somewhat disturbing smile, Celestia stopped herself when her horn starting to feel a little odd, she tried looking up at it and all she could identify from it was that it was glowing involuntarily, this had never happened to Celestia before and she could suddenly feel her horn building up something sound so understandably she panicked a little, "Twilight do you know what is happening?"

Twilight and Carnage looked around, Carnage spoke, "Crap its happening, where is Spike?"

"I'm right here!"

The two of them looked behind them and found Spike standing right on the ledge of the balcony with the same disturbing smile, "I told you both that it would be too late and now your precious princess is going to help me get what I want."

Celestia felt whatever it was in her horn was about to explode out of it to the point where it started to hurt and in a cry of pain Celestia involuntarily unleashed a spell from her horn upwards and Spike jumped right into the beam of magic before anypony could stop him, he started to laugh to himself as he grew bigger and bigger and bigger and the Canterlot elite didn't waste any time in making a break for it including Prince Blueblood who tried to knock Vinyl Scratch and Octavia out of carriage so he could make his own escape only to receive a punch from Octavia, Spike was now much bigger than he was in the library and he spoke in a booming voice, "Alright then, let's see if this worked."

Spike drew his clawed hand towards the now fallen Celestia but Luna jumped in the way to defend her sister, "You shall not touch Tia, I do not know what has befallen you young Spike but I will protect her with all of my…"

Spike whipped Luna out of the way with his massive tail and she went flying towards the elements of harmony who made a failed attempt to catch her which resulted in Luna pinning them on the ground, no one could stop Spike now and as he touched Celestia, her eyes opened wide in terror as her entire body froze, she could only move her eyeballs and they looked down at her hoofs to see her body was turning into a bright shiny red and suddenly her eyes rolled back into her head and she saw no more, Carnage and Twilight could only observe as Celestia had become a ruby statue of herself and Twilight called out in rage, "Spike how could you!?"

Spike ignored Twilight as he felt that he was now beyond her, he petted his newest creation like he would a pet and decided he wouldn't eat Celestia just yet as he wanted to savour the moment, Luna was getting off the rest of the element of harmony and tears started to fill her eyes as she saw the fate that had befallen her sister, she had been turned into a ruby statue and it appeared that Spike was saving her for later as he was picking up random trees and other objects and turning them into different gems like emeralds or sapphires and devouring them, rage had taken other and Luna shouted at Spike in her royal Canterlot voice, "You beast, where is your Ponanity you sick and twisted being!"

That caught his attention as he remembered that certain parts of his plan still needed to be followed through with in order to make sure that no one could take his power from him, "Ah Princess Luna, thank you for reminding me that I have to take you out and… oh look there's Rainbow Crash, I remember the promise that I made your Coltfriend was to personally take care of you."

Rainbow looked visibly shocked and worried, "Carnage! What have you done to him?"

Before she could get an answer though she was picked by the odd creature that had stopped the party a moment ago, she tried to break free from his grasp by bucking out but he just held on to her tighter, he called out to the rest of them, "I know your all angry but we can't take him on like this we need to retreat for the moment, Twilight gives us a way out of him."

Twilight performed some sort of flash bang in front of Spike's eyes which appeared that temporarily blind him and gave everyone enough time to run into the closest tent and out of sight of the now monstrous dragon, "WHERE ARE ALL OF YOU! YOU CANT HIDE FROM ME!"

---

Carnage knew the colourful tent wouldn't provide any protection from Spike who he also knew could turn them all into gems at any time and they would be at his mercy so he hoped the dragon was too thick to check under the tents, all the ponies had convened inside and Carnage put down Rainbow Dash who was violently bucking at him in order to escape his grasp, she looked up at him and he looked down at her and she said, "Who are you? Actually what are you? How do you know Twilight? Do you know what happed to Carnage?"

Carnage was being bombarded by questions all at once but he couldn't answer them because he had to focus on the problem at hand so he put his gently on Dash's cheeks and he brought his face down to her so his nose was against her snout and he said, "Skittles look at me, I may look different but you know who I am."

And she did know when he said that word, Skittles, she wrapped her fore hoofs around him and hugged him tightly, she thanked Celestia under her breath that he wasn't dead and he hugged her back with equal force thankful of the same thing, she let go and asked, "I'm glad you're okay, I was scared that Spike hurt you and I know I act tough and all but I didn't want you dead and I'm so sorry that I shouted at you like that I didn't want anypony else to die I was just angry because I didn't think you wanted me anymore because you thought this was a mistake and…"

Carnage put his finger to her lips because she was speaking at a million miles per hour and he calmly said, "I didn't think for a moment this was a mistake, I care about you Skittles and that will never change."

Rainbow Dash took in the new appearance of her lover, "What happened to you Marty?"

"Please it's Carnage Miss Dash and it's a Long story, let's just say I've sort of been… reborn, basically this is me in human form with a few adjustments but we don't have time for that Dash we have to stop Spike."

The other elements had watched what had just transpired between Dash and Carnage and normally there would be a lot of questions but their minds were on what had happened to Celestia, it looked like Twilight was about to burst into tears as she turned to Luna, "Luna, is princess Celestia… dead?"

Luna appeared to have regained some composure, "No dear Twilight, I recognise the spell now, it has not been performed in far more years than I can count, with a spell it can be reversed however it would take a day to prepare and perform so she will be of no help, what's worse though is the spell now on Spike is irreversible and he is now practically indestructible, there is no way to defeat him."

Everypony in the room was silent; they could only look at each other in disbelief as their Princess had given up, was this really the end? The bleak atmosphere was interrupted by laughter coming from Carnage, all the ponies in the room looked at him in disbelief as he just laughed; Rarity officially had enough of Carnage, "Pray tell what is so funny?"

"Oh I'm sorry I just realised that old Carnage or the newer Carnage would have probably given up in this situation along with you guys but not this Carnage, were going to smash Spike right in the grapefruits… if he has any testicles, despite his size you really would have thought he'd have a pair… Twilight did you neuter Spike when he was born because that would explain a lot of things."

Twilight didn't dignify the question with a response but Fluttershy spoke up, "But Mr. Carnage sir, how will we stop Spike."

"Well if you can't kill or destroy something you get rid of it and I did my homework on this world and I remember a little story about you getting banished to the moon Luna, so why not do the same to Spike?"

Luna shook her head, "It' isn't that simple, we need the elements of Harmony and at least one very powerful mage."

"Luna we have the elements right here and I think you can match your sister's ability easily."

"Yes but we would need to keep him in one place while we charge up the spell, what kind of distraction can we get?"

"Well I know for a fact that I'm very distracting so it looks like I'm up."

Rainbow Dash was not a big fan on that part of the plan, "No way! You won't last long against Spike and I'm not losing you again."

"Dash we have no choice we…"

They could all suddenly hear Spikes booming voice travelling over them, "CITIZENS OF CANTERLOT, HEAR ME!"

The mane six, Luna and Carnage popped out of the tent to find Spike had climbed to the top of the castle and was calling out to everypony in Canterlot, "HAIL TO YOUR NEW KING, IF YOU DO NOT WISH ME TO DEVOUR YOU THEN ALL OF YOU MUST GIVE ME AN OFFERING OF GEMS ONCE A DAY BUT DO NOT FRET, ALL OF EQUESTRIA WILL FOLLOW THIS EXAMPLE!"

Carnage looked around for a way to distract Spike and in his line of vision came a catapult, his brain said 'You would be an idiot to even think about doing that' but his heart was saying 'Go on its going to be awesome and if we survive this we can ask if twilight has a spell to turn Dash human and have sexy times with her in hot human form' this was enough to convince him to do this, "Okay guys you charge up the spell while I distract him up there."

They looked confused as Carnage was lining up the catapult but they all figured out what he was doing when he sat in it; Luna called out "You have to be completely mad."

Carnage just turned to her and smiled "To quote Jack Sparrow, It's a good thing I am or else this would never work."

And with that Carnage pulled the release and went shooting off towards Spike, Luna turned to the elements, "Okay everypony get behind me and I will do the rest."

Carnage went faster than when he went flying with Dash, he couldn't tell what he had grabbed on to at first but he at least could tell he wasn't dead but he thought he might as well be as he opened his eyes and saw Spike looking at him, it turned out he grabbed the dragons neck and he said, "Well hello there Spike, fancy meeting you here."

Spike reached out to grab him and in a panic Carnage pushed away only to find that the electric energy going through him was actually electricity and it came out of his hands and hit the dragon as he recoiled in pain, he looked at his hands and all he could say was, "THIS IS AWESOME!"

In the heat of the moment since Spike had his back to him Carnage took this opportunity to see how strong his new teeth really were and bit his tail, his teeth went deep into the fireproofs dragons scales to the point where it started to bleed and Spike screamed in pain and threw Carnage with his tail on top of Celestia's tower, the dragon now had him cornered and Carnage knew this, he looked down to find that Luna had nearly completed the spell, he just needed to keep the dragons attention for just a moment longer, "You know Spike it's a shame that your such a pussy, but hey you never need to go in drag because it appears your neither gender."

Spike in one last moment of anger whipped his tail again and obliterated the tower, time slowed down as Carnage fell he could see the spell finally being cast and hitting Spike squarely in the back, he almost dissolved and what was left shot upwards presumably to the moon, slowly the adrenaline coursing through his veins and the momentum he was falling downward was beginning to overtake him and he started to black out, the last two things that went through his head was that he could die happy as he finally stopped the killer and the last thing was that he swore he heard Rainbow Dash calling out his name…

Next chapter …

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