Chapter 9: End Game

Location: Ponyville

Cheerful was sitting in the remains of the tower; several holes and other states of disrepair were all over the place

"How did this happen?" Cheerful asked quietly

"Without magic the ponies of Ponyville are having a hard time staying alive." A mare said in the doorway, "We could really use some help."

"None of us can hold anything anymore; it's like our hooves are not working right." Cheerful tried to pick up a stick; failing at even that

Cheerful followed the mare and saw what happened after that event about a week ago

'It's been only a week; now this.' Cheerful thought to herself

The town was in disrepair and Fluttershy couldn't control her pets; the ponies had to resort to eating grass

"When will this end?" Cheerful asked

"Remember that young stallion? The one that fought the monsters?" the mare asked

"Skarfly; yeah." Cheerful smiled; her last hope was there

"I think he'll come back" the mare smiled, "He was a bit cute if I say so myself."

'Better back off' Cheerful thought to herself, "I think so too."

Location: Apploosa

I came up from underground; Twilight had gathered the others and they were around a campfire

"The hold on magic is getting weaker." I said as I walked up

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked

"We can't hold anything in our hooves anymore." I answered; demonstrating

"What do we do now?" FireCracker asked, "We don't have any way to hold swords."

"We have mouths" Chris pointed out

"We'll have to make do" I said

"So are you going to cook up whatever you found down there?" FireCracker suggested

"Right; let me get on that." I trotted into the closest house with a furnace

Inside I went over to the furnace and threw the iron ore I got underground

'I must be getting better at this' I thought to myself, 'I got tons of iron here.'

This was what it was to be me. I realized; my adventures never brought peace; they simply brought something worse

I sighed; I guess I'll deal with this while I could and that would be that

"You're worried aren't you?" a voice behind me asked

I turned and saw Rainbowdash; back from Cloudsdale

"I've been worried this entire crazy adventure" I answered, "But I still went through with it."

"You were scared this whole time?" Rainbowdash asked

"Of course" I said, "It's normal to be scared and even petrified sometimes. It's just what you do when that happens that matters."

"Never thought about it that way" Rainbowdash shrugged, "I'm not scared."

I shrugged, "Alright; just be ready when that fails."

I went to the second furnace and put some gold ore inside

(Or butter ore; I really don't care. Or do I?)

"What are you going to do?" Rainbowdash asked

"Fight" I answered; minting off an iron sword, "It's all I know to do."

"Well you weren't always fighting" Rainbowdash blew her hair out of her face, "I saw you were a bit alright being with others. Not fighting."

I thought about that, "I can't do anything else; something is wrong and I'm not the ambassador of Equestria. I'm a fighter."

"Cloudsdale is gone; without magic the whole city dispersed." Rainbowdash said

"More reason then" I finished one set of armor

"Reason to what?"

"I'm not like anyone in Equestria" I said, "I may have to kill him."

"What!?" Rainbowdash reeled, "You can't kill in Equestria!"

"I will if I have to!" I snapped, "If he keeps this up Equestria isn't the only place in danger!"

Rainbowdash was silent, "…Were you like this before?"

"I don't know" I answered, "What I do know is that I need to stop him."

"I'll leave you to that." Rainbowdash sounded annoyed

I thought it over; I could barely remember what things were like when I wasn't in Equestria

The life I had here was carefree and fun; I had a few friends and a few more responsibilities, but something didn't seem right, and I couldn't put my finger on it

"Hey" Chris trotted in, "I think I know what you're going through."

"I doubt that" I said, "I've got more conflict than you do."

"Right" Chris said, "But you're still on level with turmoil; and I think you should play by this worlds rules."

I shrugged, "My job is to stop the king of reality; nothing more."

"You're too serious about this" Chris said, "You need to calm down and think about this from a perspective of one of the ponies here."

"Magic is going away the fabric of reality is unraveling and what else?" I said, "They can't survive like this forever."

"Reality is unraveling?" Chris repeated

"Yeah; that's what I said." I answered, "You're not the first Chris; and I'm sure you're not the last if we sit back."

Chris left the room

I sighed; finishing the armor; I still had that gold and made a pick out of it; I wasn't down there for gold but I grabbed seven; and I made a clock out of it

"Now I'll be able to tell the time better" I said; putting the golden pickaxe down

(For those who're confused: I made a pick and a clock. For those not confused: Good job!)

Then I sighed; something was wrong. I could feel it and I was sure Twilight did too.

I settled in to sleep; I'd be able to work better under the sunlight anyway

[…]

The next morning it was a bit colder; and the gnawing pit in my stomach had grown larger

Chris trotted into the room, "Skarfly; we have a problem."

"What's wrong?" I asked; stretching

"Look at the sky" Chris said

I felt alarm pierce through my sleepy haze; I grabbed my stuff and looked out the window

There was the bright blue of an early morning sky; with a big black crack running right down the middle; it seemed to be sucking in everything around it

"This equals very very bad." I said

Twilight trotted into the room, "We need to stop him"

"I have no other plans then to go at it" I warned, "I don't know if we'll survive this."

"Does it matter?" Rainbowdash asked, "If we don't do something, who will?"

"Right" I sighed, "Well then. Let's get going to Canterlot."

(Boy, that escalated quickly.)

Twilight teleported the small band of troops to the castle gates; all armored up

"This is where we kick some flank." Chris said simply

The castle seemed empty; the walls were spattered with random things. It looked like the guards revolted

'Way to go guards' I thought to myself

Then we entered; the castle was in various states of disarray and the ground seemed to have a swath leading to the throne room

I bucked open the doors; there before us stood the king of reality

For some reason my vision blurred; it seemed to get static like when someone saw Slenderman or something

But then my vision leveled out; I drew my sword and got ready; the King holding an ornate diamond sword

"Your reign of terror ends here" Chris said

"I doubt that puny little ponies." The king said

"Let's go!" my voice was muffled by my sword handle

Then we attacked; four ponies against one alicorn; ready to take on the final battle

Well it didn't work out that way; my vision cut and blurred some more; the king bucked the entire group backwards

He lunged; B-slapping Twilight out the window

Then he smacked Chris and Rainbowdash out the other window

He pounced on me before I could get up; my vision the faded into blackness