Prologue

By RazortheAwesome and KenSES64
Edited by RazortheAwesome, DaedaltheusXIV, and Kiro0613
DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fanbased work of prose. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is the property of Hasbro, and the reinvention of Lauren Faust. No copyright infringement is intended, please support the official release.

I looked over the checklist of things to take care for the day that Twilight assigned for me. ‘Okay, I got got some potions from Zecora, still think Twilight should pay me extra for going through that creepy-flank forest. Damnit Rainbow Dash, I love that mare, but because of that I have to look behind my shoulder every time I hear something to make sure I’m not being followed by Slenderpony or something.’ Anyways, back to the list. ‘Picked more quills for Twi, picked up that late book from Vinyl, thank Celestia that she wasn’t getting busy with Octavia this time. Yeah, that seems to be about it.’

I put the list away into my saddlebag and not soon afterward I made it back to the library. As I walked through the door I saw two mares sitting at a table reading. One a lavender alicorn, and the other a cyan pegasus.

They both looked up from their books at the sound of me walking in. I levitated the potion, quills, book, and late fee from Vinyl, out of my saddlebags and over to where Twilight was sitting. Twilight thanked me as I did and I took a seat next to my favorite pegasus, nuzzling up to her.

I saw that she was reading Daring Do and the Temple of Chaos, the first appearance of her diamond dog boyfriend and that so called “son of Discord”. Yeah, I’m sure that Rainbow’s going to have a grand ol’ time poking fun at me for that one, or maybe she’ll be more creeped out when it turns out that Celestia’s the mother.

You know, I couldn’t help but wonder what their opinions were on this.

“Bahahahahahahaha!” Discord laughed as sat by a fireplace that seemed to be frozen as he drank some blue liquid from a triangular mug. “Hmmm... it seems that this author likes Diselstia shipping. Also a son with powers like mine. Hmmm... should I give Seth that? Nah, he’s already boarderline OP.” That was when the princess of the sun walked into the room.

“Discord, I came to talk to you about me not really having you do anything and... Wait, what are you reading?”

“A fanfiction that the author keeps referencing as part of the Daring Do series, but since he assumes his readers get every reference he makes he won’t just flat out say it’s Echo the Diamond Dog. Oppies, sorry that I just spelled that out.”

“Umm... apology accepted?” Celestia said, yet was still unsure.

“I wasn’t apologizing to you.”

“Umm... okay. Wait, Daring Do? Diamond Dog? Don’t tell me it’s that book...”

“Yup, its a story were a long time ago you fell for my natural charm. Well, that actually happened, but here we actually...”

“Discord, just stop right there. I know of that book. I remember when it came out not too long after you were free. I remember the rumors that began because of it. Please don’t remind me.”

“Oh Celestia, you’ve been no fun since you fell for Claymore, but he only existed to be dead.” The second those words left Discord’s mouth, the frozen fireplace thawed out. Discord turned around to see Celestia with literal fire in her eyes. “Shit.”

“Hey Seth, can you put the book you got back from Vinyl back where it belongs?” Twilight asked.

“Well, you don’t pay me to cuddle with Rainbow.” I said as I got off my hunches.

“If she did you’d have more money than the royal family.” Rainbow said, not taking her eyes off of her book. I couldn’t really disagree with that, but since I don’t get paid for that I just picked up the book with my magic and found it’s place on a nearby shelf.

Once that was done I walked back over to them, “Oh yeah Twi, Zecora said to make sure that potion is...”, I began to say, but then I was cut off by a dark purple aura rising right in front of me.

“What the?” was my natural reaction to a magic wall appearing right in front of me. It started to form in a circle around me, and then formed into an orb. I saw Rainbow and Twilight rush over to me. I tried to teleport out, but somehow I just couldn’t.

Rainbow tackled the magic orb, but she bounced right off of it.

“Rainb...” I shouted right before I felt what I’d assume being electrocuted feels like, and I scream out in pain. Then there was bright flash of light and I had to close my eyes.

It was a Celestia damn beautiful day when Mehrunes Dagon Razor woke up that morning, or at least it was until he made his way downstairs and saw Daedalus sitting at the kitchen table reading the newspaper.

“Morning Daedalus,” Razor said to him as he walked in. There was a sort of spring in his step and he wore a chipper smile for whatever reason.

“Morning,” Daedalus replied without even taking his eyes off of his paper as he took another sip of his coffee.

Not deterred by his friend’s lack of attention in the slightest, Razor just walked right past him and the anti-magic field generator and over towards the toaster. He then set down the pack of bagels he had acquired from their walk in pantry next to it and took one out. He then proceeded to cut the bagel in half and put both halves in the toaster. From there, he grabbed a coffee mug from one of the cupboards, walked back over to the anti magic field generator, placed his mug into the slot in front of it, and pushed a button on the front.

The entire house shook for several minutes as if an earthquake suddenly hit it, but neither Razor nor Daedalus cared to even notice, as Daedalus never took his eyes off of the paper in front of him and Razor just stood where he was and watched the machine. After about a minute, the house finally stopped shaking, and Razor retrieved his coffee mug from the machine, the mug now filled with delicious coffee. Almost immediately after that, the “ding” noise from the toaster told him that his bagels were done.

After a quick application of peanut butter, Razor took his bagels and coffee and sat down across from Daedalus, who still refused to look away from his paper much less at him.

“Well, I think I got it,” Razor said as he took a bite out of one of his bagel halves. “I think I know what I’m gonna say to Twilight.”

“Good for you,” Daedalus said as he took a quick sip of his coffee and still wouldn’t take his eyes off of his newspaper. At that, Razor’s chipper attitude died as quickly as an underwater fire as he dropped his smile.

“Just once could you even PRETEND to give a shit about my problems?” he asked Daedalus as he took another bite of his bagel, this time biting half of it off.

“No,” Daedalus replied as he finally put his paper down and looked right at Razor. The look in his eyes suggesting that he really did not give any shits at all. “Because if I gave a shit then I would have to take shit, and I do not take shit. Not. From. Anypony.” The moment the last word left his mouth, he brought his paper back up and resumed reading it as he had before.

“You know,” Razor replied as he finished another bite of his bagel. “If there ever came a time where I would have to save your life, I would, but it’s gonna take A LOT of convincing to make me believe that it was worth it.”

“I’m sure it would,” Daedalus replied as he turned the page of his paper. Razor just let out a loud sigh and took another bite out of his second bagel half. If there was anypony who could kill a good mood and bury it seven and a half feet underground (but not before buying it dinner and flowers first), then it was Daedalus.

One quick bagel half and one cup of coffee later, Razor had gotten up and dropped his plate in the sink.

“Well, I’m gonna head out,” he said as he made his way out of the kitchen. “I might be back a little late. There’s something I have to get.”

“Goodbye,” Daedalus replied as he kept his eyes glued to his paper and took another sip of his coffee, which he still hadn’t finished. Razor, having known Daedalus for buck mothering ever, did what he knew best in this situation. He just ignored Daedalus completely and headed towards the front door.

Right as he stepped outside however....

“OHMYCELESTIAANDLUNAWHATISGOINGONDAEDALUSHELPMEI’MSORRYFORWHATISAIDJUSTPLEASEHEL-”

The sounds of Razor’s voice had stopped as instantaneously as he had begun shouting. Daedalus just took another sip of his coffee and turned the page of his paper, as he was want to do.

Author's Notes:

All parts labeled *Razor* are written by me, and all parts labeled *Seth* are written by KenSES64.

Enjoy.

Chapter 1

It took a few seconds for Razor’s vision to clear completely. All that he was absolutely certain of was that wherever he was, he was not standing in the front lawn of his house. As the white faded from his eyes, he began to get a good sense of his new surroundings.

From what he could tell, he was in some kind of grassy, and definitely abandoned, courtyard in a large, ruined castle. The grass he stood in looked as if it had died long ago, mostly black and brownish colored vines seemed to be growing around the walls, and even though Razor was nowhere near the architect that Daedalus was, he could definitely tell that the stone and bricks that made up the wall were definitely coming apart, as it was worn in all kinds of places and there were holes and rubble everywhere. Whatever happened here, somepony, or some thing, obviously did a number on this place. Also the roof of the castle was missing, which allowed Razor to see the sky.

It was definitely night time, as he could see the stars, though he couldn’t see the moon, or the sun for that matter. All that was above him was an endless sea of stars, which wouldn’t have been that much of an issue except for that fact that there wasn’t a motherbucking moon. Also, while there was no sun, there seemed to be a bit of light radiating from what Razor could only guess was the sky itself. The light seemed to give off a sort of purplish tint to it, unlike the yellow or orange tint of the actual sun that Celestia rose.

“What did that Griffin wench put in my drink?” Another voice suddenly asked out of nowhere. It sounded western minotos. The moment that voice hit Razor’s ears, he looked to his left to see a large minotaur staring up at the sky as well. He was dark blue with long red hair. He wore a black jacket and held a wooden club in his right hand. He didn’t seem to notice Razor there next to him. He seemed more focused on everything else that was around him.

I open my eyes to see a buffalo staring at moonless night sky. He was larger than any pony I had ever seen. He might have even given Big Macintosh a run for his bits. He also had what I could only guess were red paint stripes that ran down his eyes and wore a bandanna with a feather in it on top of his head.. I look around and see ponies, other creatures and what appeared to be an orange mare.

‘Wait is that who I think that is?’

After staring at him for a moment, Razor drew his attention back to the courtyard they were standing in. There were many more ponies of all races and creeds here than just Razor. As he looked around, he saw all kinds of ponies, a red unicorn with a tornado for a cutie mark, a tan pegasus, a few earth ponies, and one black unicorn with a purple mane and red eyes.

There weren’t just ponies in the courtyard though. Other than the minotaur, Razor saw a griffon, a buffalo, a changeling, and what he could only guess was a gargoyle. In total, there must have been about thirty different creatures here, ponies and all.

He thought that was it, but right as Razor turned his head to look right, he came face to face with a large, black dragon, which looked at him right in his eyes. While not a fully grown dragon, it was still huge, about the size of Razor’s house. It’s scales were a dark, jet black, and were very sharp, almost spiked, and his wings, though folded against his sides, were massive and had obvious Spikes on them. Razor did his best not to move or show any sign of fear as he looked into the dragon’s large, blue eyes. The thing was less than an inch away from his face, it could have swallowed him whole if it wanted to. Still, Razor didn’t show any sign of fear.

After a moment of staring, the dragon took his gaze away from Razor and lifted his head up to look at the sky. Razor, for the most part, even though he felt an incredible sense of relief in the fact that a dragon that could have easily swallowed him whole was no longer interested in him, was not sure what to think of the situation. Less than a moment ago, he was walking out of his house to go to work, and the next, he was here. Wherever here was.

“What the buck is going on?” One of the other ponies asked.

“Where are we?” Another pony asked almost immediately after the first one did.

“Gem? Gem, where are you!?” Another one started shouting as he began frantically searching through the crowd. It was at that point that every pony (and all other creatures) started talking to each other and asking all kinds of obvious, as well as not so obvious, questions.

“How did we get here!?” Another one asked.

“Where’d the clouds go?”

“I can swear I was at Rarity’s a second ago.”

“GEM, WHERE ARE YOU!!!???”

Razor remained silent, as did the large dragon that stood next to him. He had at least fifty questions he wanted to ask as well, but something told him he wouldn’t get any answers.

“Can we all please calm the buck down!!!” Another pony, this one a mare, shouted loud enough for all of them to hear. The instant those words left her mouth, everypony’s attention was on her. She was a brown earth pony that wore (at least in Razor’s eyes) an incredibly silly hat. It was some kind of incredibly tall, purple fedora with bunny ears coming out of the sides. Yes, it had bunny ears in it. Her cutie mark was the same as her hat was, for some reason.

“Okay,” the silly hat pony said once everything had calmed down. “Obviously none of us have any bucking idea where we are right now. So lets focus on what we do know.” She scanned through the crowd for a moment after she said that. “You there!” she said as she pointed her hoof at a random pony. “What were you doing before you got here?”

“Me?” The pony said as he pointed a hoof to himself. “I was in Ponyville. I was just heading to the library to see Twilight.” The moment those words hit Razor’s ears, he could swear he felt his blood boil a little. Small flames began to form around his horn as he had to fight the urge to burn him alive. He shut them out quickly though. He wasn’t an idiot, and he knew that now was neither the time nor the place for this.

“Okay,” the silly hat pony said as she looked around through the crowd once more. “You,” she said as she pointed to a pegasus. “What were you doing?”

“I was in Cloudsdale,” the pegasus replied. “I’m on the weather team there. I was right in the middle of clearing up some stray clouds when I got here.”

“Don’t look at me,” the one griffon there then said. He sounded kind of like Soarin from the Wonderbolts. “I was at my apartment in the Griffon Kingdom.”

“All right,” the silly had pony said as she brought a hoof to her chin. “So we all come from different walks of life.”

“Speak for yourself,” Another, much larger pony said as he walked up to her. “And what’s the deal with that hat?” Razor had to admit he had been wondering the same thing, but didn’t want to ask.

“My hat?” the silly hat pony replied as she touched it with a hoof. “It’s just my hat. Every pony wears a hat.”

“No they don’t,” the pony in front of her responded. “None of my friends wear hats.” The silly hat pony was about to respond, but then she looked around through the crowd. She was the only one there wearing a hat. At that, the silly hat pony’s eyes got so wide that they threatened to burst out of her skull.

“That’s impossible,” she said to himself as she backed away slightly. She would have gone on, but the sound of a deep laughter cut her off. At the sound of that, every pony, griffon, minotaur, buffalo, and dragon’s attention turned back towards the sky. It was then that Razor saw it.

He hadn’t seen it before since he had only looked directly up at the sky, but in front of them all was a massive, and incredibly tall, black tower. It was so tall that none of them could see the top. It seemed to be made out of the same kind of stone that the palaces of Canterlot were, yet its design was more gothic and much more horrifying than anything in Canterlot. It didn’t have any windows, sculptures, or anything that stood out from it. It was just one long tower that went straight up. The laughter that they all heard seemed to radiate from it as if it was coming from the tower itself, yet at the same time was all around them.

“Greetings to you all!” A baritone voice said to all of them.

“Who are you!?” One pony asked the speaker loud enough for all to hear it, and just loud enough for some of the others to start murmuring.

“I am the Stallion in the High Tower, Lord and Master of the Greater Palace, and the One Devoid of Time itself!” The voice responded with much more ferocity than before. “From all across the multiverse I have selected you ponies, griffins, and other assorted creatures for a single purpose to be brought before me.”

“Oh yeah, and what purpose would that be?” The minotaur said as he stepped forward and spit onto the floor before resuming his gaze upwards to the tower.

“To fight for your universe in a simple contest of strength to prove to me and the others here that you are the best of the stock that your particular corner of the multiverse has to offer!” The Stallion in the High Tower boomed with a certain regal flare in his baritone voice as the ground beneath all of their feet began to shake. The castle that surrounded them all then started to come apart, as parts of it came off and floated up into the sky.

It took only a few moments before the entire castle that surrounded them was gone, and with it gone, they all could see more clearly where they were. They all looked around to see the ruins of a destroyed city. It was a city that at least the ponies knew all too well, for they had all seen it before. They all stood in the ruins of what was unmistakably Canterlot.

“The rules are as follows: fight each other to the DEATH until one pony is left standing. That pony shall be allowed to walk freely from within the Greater Palace of the Stallion in the High Tower with a prize.” The bait had been set, a simple catch to the whole affair that piqued the interest of all those standing in attendance. The mention of a single prize to be awarded following a series of gore filled matches until one stallion or mare stood victorious above all others even enticed Razor at some level. “The prize is that you and your universe survive.” The moment those words were said, Razor felt both his jaw drop and eyes go wide. He couldn’t believe what he had just heard, and neither could any of the others there too as they all held similar expressions on their faces.

“You see,” The Stallion in the High Tower continued. “In this game, if you fall you die here, but at the same time, the High Tower will target your universe for elimination. At the exact moment you utter your very last breath, your universe shall join you in the great here to the afterlife of nothingness that awaits you. In truth, your life not only hangs in the balance, but the thousands upon millions of lives of the other citizens of your universes as well.”

“This is bullshit!” The silly hat pony screamed as she stepped forward. “What if we don’t fight!? If we don’t fight, then no one has to die!” The moment the last word left her mouth, a bolt of lightning came down from the sky and struck her. Everyone, including Razor, jumped back a bit as the silly hat pony was turned to ashes. When the lightning cleared, nothing remained of her, even his hat was gone. All that was left, was a little pile of black ash on the ground where he once stood. Razor, all the other ponies, the minotaur, the griffon, the buffalo, and even the dragon all just stared at the pile of ash where the silly hat pony once stood with their mouths agape.

None of them wanted to or could believe what they had just seen. This pony, who they barely knew, was vaporized in an instant. Not only that, but she died because she refused to fight. After several moments, the booming laughter of the Stallion in the High Tower returned.

“So much for the Universe of Silly Hats.” The Stallion in the High Tower said. All Razor could do was look up at the tower and grit his teeth. “Do not take me to be some great fool that lives as the gods do, I have played this game a thousand times over, and a thousand times over I have seen the same as her kind refusing to fight and all have ended the same way. They bring nothing to us and therefore they shall leaving nothing behind to remind us of a ill-begotten legacy of forsaken talent and the undiscovered penchant for murderous survival.” Silence reigned for several moments as every single one of the ponies and creatures there all looked at each other. Every one of them held looks of either worry, confusion, or disbelief. Razor... The only thing that Razor felt was anger. An anger that surged throughout his body, but before he could solidify it within himself, the Stallion in the High Tower spoke once again. “You all have seven days to kill, maim, crush, destroy, mutilate and destroy your enemies. Otherwise you will meet the same fate as those motherbucking insolate pussies that dare to try and plead their way out!”

‘Is this true?’ I asked myself, ‘If I die here all the ponies I care about will die with me? My friends, my sister, my wife. No, I can’t let that happen. If I have to fight my way through all of these ponies to keep them safe I will.’

Silence fell over the crowd once again as each creature just stared with looks of worry, confusion, and eagerness to begin while they examined each of their new found opponents. Razor didn’t bother to look at his newfound opponents, but rather stared at the tower, long after the Stallion in the High Tower ceased his speech with only one look cemented upon his furrowed brow: rage in its purest and unadulterated form. He wasn’t sure at all why he felt the way he did. He barely knew that mare, but at the same time. He couldn’t let it go.

“Good luck everyone!” The Stallion in the High Tower said to them all. “And may the best one amongst you win!” As if one cue, the moment he spoke the last word, purple auras formed around all of them, which soon encased them all in orbs. Suddenly, there was another flash of white light.

Chapter 2

As I ran around the ruins of this version of Canterlot, a million and one things ran through my head. Most of them involved trying to survive so I can see Rainbow again. As I passed a half buried cafe sign, I stopped in my tracks to see a yellow earth pony stallion with an aqua blue mane standing in front of a still-standing brick building.

He cracked his neck and put on a look like he was about to attack. I started to charge up my horn to fight back.

Suddenly, a blue minotaur jumped down from atop the building and landed behind the earth pony. The earth pony turned around only to have the right side of his head to meet a wooden club. Upon impact, the earth pony was sent temporarily through the air and rolled a few feet after he hit the ground, leaving a trail of blood in his wake. I looked at him for a few moments, seeing that he wasn’t getting up. The minotaur just put on a smug grin.

“One down.” He said as he turned to me. “What do you think of that, Mr. Pajama-Wearing, Basket-Face, Slipper-Wielding, Clype-Dreep-Bachle, Gether-Uping-Blate-Maw, Bleathering, Gomeril, Jessie, Oaf-Looking, Scooner, Nyaff, Plookie, Shan, Milk-Drinking, Soy-Faced Shilpit, Mim-Moothed, Sniveling, Worm-Eyed, Hotten-Blaugh, Vile-Stoochie, Cally-Breek-Tattie?”

“The buck did you just say?” I asked, tilting my head in confusion.

“You heard me, lad.”

“I did, and no offence, but I couldn’t understand most of it. Wait, why am I saying no offence? We’re about to try to kill each other!”

“Good point,” he said before he charged at me with his club in the air.

I put up a magic bubble-shield around myself right as he reached me and brought the club down onto the shield, which to my shock, shattered instantly.

Luckily, I was able to teleport about 30 feet away right before he was able to hit me.

‘What the buck?!’ I asked myself. ‘That shield’s kept me safe from a manticore before and this guy destroyed it like it was glass! I know minotaurs are strong, but holy crap!’

He started charging at me again. I useed my weapon spawning spell to summon a tomahawk, which I threw right at him.

The minotaur, while still running at me, just swung his club and knocked it away. It soon turned into a red mist that quickly faded away.

As he reached me again I spawned my sword of choice, a rapier, to try to block his attack.

Our weapons clashed, both trying to overpower the other. At first it seemed even, but then I noticed that the back of my blade getting closer to my face. The minotaur was then able to knock my blade out of my magical grasp (I had no Idea you could even do that without hitting the horn). My sword vanished and he brought his club up to attack.

I once again teleported, this time right behind him, and with electricity flowing around my horn. Electricity which I shot right at him before he had the chance to turn around.

He jumped a bit and turned around quickly, looking more annoyed than anything.

‘OH COME ON! THAT DID NOTHING?!’

The next thing I knew, he had one of his hands wrapped around my throat and he started to lift me off the ground. I coughed a bit as he started to strangle me. To avoid him crushing my windpipe, I instinctively teleported out of his grasp.

When I reappeared several yards away, I heard him shout, “Stop running, ya coward!” as I took a moment to catch my breath.

I looked up to see him running at me yet again. This time though, I got an idea. Since he was still a ways away from me, I used a spell that trapped his legs in the ground. He got a look of confusion before trying to pull himself out. While he was doing that I noticed the brick building he jumped off of and got an idea.

‘Well, I’ve hit Queen Chrysalis in the face with a brick before.’

I used my magic to try to pull out some of the loose bricks from the building, but nothing seemed to budge, at least until I heard a loud cracking sound. The minotaur seemed to have heard it too, since he stop pulling on his legs to look at the building, which started to tip over.

Even from the distance away I was at I could see the huge “Oh shit” look on his face as the building fell on him, burying him under several tons of rubble.

‘Well... That works, I guess.’ I though to myself before running off.

It took several moments for the white to clear from Razor’s eyes. When it did, he found himself standing in the middle of one of the many streets in the ruined Canterlot. He stopped for a minute to look around. He actually recognized this street, he’d been down it before back when he lived here with Daedalus. He saw one of the coffee shops that he’d seen on occasion but never actually went to. It’s windows were smashed in and all of the tables and chairs that stood outside were destroyed. Whether that was from a previous game or something else Razor couldn’t tell, but either way, things did not go well here. The inside didn’t look much better, as it seemed the building had caved in some time ago.

One of the other buildings he saw was a little pastry shop across the street. While before it seemed an ideal place for a pastry shop, since on one side of the street one could get coffee while on the other, delicious pastries awaited, now there wasn’t even anything left. The entire building was gone. In it’s place was a large pile of rubble that could have been a building if it was all put back together again, but for now it was just a pile of stone, bricks, and whatever else was used to hold the building together.

The sound of something crashing took Razor’s attention away from the remains of the buildings. Instantaneously he drew his attention down the street in front of him. Though he couldn’t see any other ponies down it, he knew that wherever that sound had come from, it was close. Either way, he couldn’t stay here.

He ran down the street as quickly he could and took a hard right at the first intersection he saw.

‘The f*** is going on!?’ he thought to himself as he ran through the city. ‘One second I’m in my house, the next I’m suddenly here where some insane pony in a tower tells me I have to kill everyone here or my universe dies. He can’t be serious, and why me? Why would he pick me to fight for my universe out of the several million ponies in Equestria that probably could fight better than I could. So why me?’ As he skidded to a half at another intersection to make a hard left, another thought crossed his mind. ‘Wait, if I somehow die then everypony else in my universe dies. Does that mean that Daedalus dies too?’

His thought was interrupted when he turned down another street, only to come face to face with another pony, an earthpony stallion. He was larger than Razor. He was no Daedalus or Big Macintosh, but still, he was larger than average. His coat was dark grey and he had a short, orangish, almost copper mane. His cutie mark resembled a red electrical bolt in a black triangle, like an electrical sign almost.

The moment the two saw each other, they stopped. The earthpony spread his legs out as if he were about to charge. Razor was hesitant at first, but the more he thought about it, the more the situation came back to bite him.

‘There really is no other way out of this is there?’ The moment that Razor finished that thought, he let out the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding in and put on the most confidant face he could. His horn then began to glow with a green aura as an orange ball of fire appeared next to him.

“Come at me bro,” he said to his challenger.

Right before Razor could even finish the last word, a large buffalo wearing a feather headband of some kind came out from the road to the right, charged into the earthpony at a high enough speed that would put most ponies to shame, and knocked him back like a golf club to a ball. The force of the buffalo’s charge was enough to send the earthpony flying several yards until he crashed into one of the buildings down the road, upon which he crashed through the stone walls of the building and flew right into it. The moment he building’s outer surface was ruptured, the building itself began to shake as the entire thing came down on the pony, burying him inside.

Razor had to stop for a moment and do a double take as he felt both his fireball disappear and his eyes threaten to burst out of his skull. By all accounts, as far as he knew, that should not have been possible. Granted, he had never met many buffalos in his life, but still, hitting somepony that hard was not a normal thing to do. The buffalo then looked right at Razor. Red paint ran down his eyes, and even though Razor was no expert on buffalos, he could clearly tell that it was war paint of some kind.

“I’m sorry,” the buffalo said right as he turned and charged full force at Razor. Razor quickly shook his head to regain himself as the buffalo ran towards him. Right before it could hit him though, Razor jumped up into the air over it. The buffalo ran right under Razor as flipped over it and landed back on his hooves.

With Razor no longer in front of him, the buffalo skidded to a halt and turned himself around to face Razor again. With no other way out of his, Razor put his look of confidence back on.

Mehrunes Dagon Razor vs The Buffalo

Buried Alive by Combichrist

“I’m sorry too,” Razor replied to the buffalo as three fireballs appeared around him. The buffalo didn’t bother to acknowledge Razor’s words as he charged forward right at him again. Razor waited several moments, then threw all three of his fireballs right at the buffalo. However, the buffalo just closed his eyes and kept running, his fur was charred black as the fireballs had clearly hit him, but he didn’t slow down at all.

“Oh shit,” Razor said to no one in particular as he leapt to his left just moments before the buffalo had hit him. The buffalo charged right past him for a few meters until he tripped over one of his legs and tumbled to the ground. Razor landed on his hooves again just in time to see the buffalo crash into the ground and slide for several feet until he crashed into a street lamp on the edge of the road, which bent to his shape upon impact.

Razor just kept his eyes on the downed buffalo. Experience had taught him not to let his guard down just yet, especially now. The Buffalo’s face was almost completely charred, almost black, and the facepaint that ran over his eyes was now gone as a result. The feather headband that rested on top of his head was gone as well, as it was little more than ash. His eyes twitched a little and he gritted his teeth in pain. Even though Razor’s fire didn’t stop the buffalo, it did do something. Still, Razor didn’t relax just yet.

After a few moments of laying still, the buffalo opened his eyes and looked right at Razor. The look he shot him was different than before. Where before he showed sorrow and a bit of empathy for the actions he was about to commit, now there was only rage and anger. Razor’s expression didn’t change as he stood his ground. His horn began to glow with not only its green aura, but his fire as well as he prepared himself whatever was to come.

Without any hesitation or signs of fatigue, the buffalo jumped back to his feet. He didn’t take his eyes off of Razor, and Razor never took his eyes off of him. With his eyes still on Razor, the buffalo turned his head back to the street lamp, opened his mouth and bit the base. He then threw his two front hooves around it and started to lift.

‘No,’ Razor thought to himself as he saw that. The ground below the lamp post began to crack. ‘No f***ing way!’ The buffalo didn’t even wait for Razor to finish his thought before he, with what seemed like Heraclean strength, lifted the lamp post up out from the ground, swung it around as if it were a stick and threw it right at Razor.

Before it could touch him, Razor reached out with his magic and caught it. The mental strain that hit Razor the second the thing was in his magical grasp nearly knocked him back. He may have been holding it with his magic, but it still felt like he was lifting up a whole cart full of supplies. Basically, it still felt heavy even in his magic.

The buffalo, seeing this opportunity, charged right at Razor again just as fast as before. Razor, using the momentum of the lamp post, spun it around and with one extra touch, lit the entire thing on fire before throwing it back at the buffalo. The buffalo didn’t even slow down as he leapt right over the flaming lamp post as it flew right under him and back into the building behind where it once stood.

The buffalo flew over the lamp post and came down right where Razor was standing. Razor quickly jumped to his left to avoid him. Right as the buffalo landed, he dug his front hooves into the ground skidded across the ground and using his own momentum, turned himself left. He then leap at Razor again, who only leapt to his left again. This repeated about three more times. After the fifth time, the buffalo simply turned left again and leapt at Razor, who leapt to his right, and then again right behind the buffalo. The buffalo jumped up and spun himself around so that he was facing Razor, he then leapt one last time right at him. Before the buffalo could touch Razor however, there was a flash of green light.

The buffalo stopped where he was and frantically looked around for Razor, only to turn around and see him standing about 30 feet away from him down one of the other streets. The buffalo kicked the ground with his back left leg, then his right before he got into charging position again. Razor didn’t move. All around the buffalo, several spots on the ground began to glow orange for a moment.

Right as the buffalo lifted his legs up to charge, six fire seals appeared on the ground all around him. In an instant, the six seals exploded into massive balls of fire that flew up above the buildings. That didn’t stop the buffalo though, as he charged right through the flames and right towards Razor again. More of his coat was charred, and several spots where actually on fire, but none of that stopped him as he charged forward.

‘Oh shit!’ Razor mentally screamed at himself as he put up a magical barrier around himself just as the buffalo reached him. The buffalo crashed into the barrier, but didn’t stop, he just kept pushing on it. Razor dug all of hooves into the ground in an attempt to keep himself from moving, but he barely held on. While neither of them moved any farther back, to Razor it was like he was trying to fight against a freight train.

‘You’ve got to be Celestia damn kidding me! What in tartarus is this motherf***er made of!?’ Razor thought to himself as he kept trying to hold the buffalo back. The more the buffalo pushed on his magical shield, the more Razor had to fight to keep standing due to the migraine headaches he was receiving from the magical strain. ‘F***, I won’t be able to hold out at this rate,’ Razor thought to himself before an idea hit him. ‘Wait.’

It was at that moment that a small crack started to form on Razor’s barrier, right where the buffalo was pushing on it. A crack which quickly grew until it encompassed the whole barrier. It didn’t even take long at all for the barrier to shatter like glass once the cracks reached all the way around it. Razor jumped back and to his left right as the buffalo charged right through his shattered shield. The moment he did, all the shattered bits of his shield suddenly burst into flames and exploded like firecrackers.

The buffalo closed his eyes and winced in pain as several explosions went off in his face. As he did he dug his hooves into the ground and spun around to face Razor as he skidded to a halt. The moment he had turned himself around however, his face met Razor’s left hoof as Razor ran up and punched him. Razor then followed with a swing from his right hoof, and then again with his left, and again with his right. While Razor had put a generous amount of magic into each of his blows to make them more powerful, he still wasn’t entirely sure if they were doing anything. Still, each hit he made did send the buffalo reeling back a bit.

After his fifth blow to the buffalo's face, Razor swung his right hoof upwards and hit the buffalo right in his jaw with an uppercut, a move which hurt Razor’s hoof a little. Razor didn’t stop though, right as the buffalo stepped back a little from Razor’s blow, Razor ran forward, jumped up, and hit the buffalo in jaw again with his left knee. The second after that blow connected, fire engulfed Razor’s right rear hoof. With the application of another small, magical barrier beneath his left, rear hoof, Razor stepped off of it and launched himself farther into the air, flipped himself backwards and kicked the buffalo right in the face with his flaming right hoof. A trail of fire followed Razor’s hoof as he flipped through the air as the buffalo was really knocked back.

Right as Razor landed back on his hooves, his horn flared with magic as he stood up on his hind legs and held out both his forehooves. The ends of both his hooves became engulfed in flames. Right as the buffalo regained his composure and looked forward right at Razor, Razor brought both his hooves together and a large explosion went off right in front of him. The explosion rocked the entire street as every building around him shook. The fire from the explosion even reached higher than some of the buildings around him. If Razor’s previous attacks didn’t have any chance of being seen before, this one definitely did.

Razor just stood where he was on his hind hooves breathing hard. After a moment, he fell back on all four of his hooves and just stared forward at the inferno in front of him. He couldn’t see through it, but he couldn’t see any movement in it either other than the flames.

“Stay down,” Razor said as he turned around and started to walk away. Before he could take any more than a few steps however, the buffalo came charging out from the flames, his fur completely covered in fire. Razor quickly jumped up into the air, flipped over the buffalo as he charged right under him, and landed back on his hooves as he watched the buffalo keep charging forward. The buffalo kept going until he charged right into a nearby building. The building shook violently for a moment before it collapsed right on top of him.

Razor could only watch in awe at what he had just seen. In all honestly, he couldn’t even believe that buffalo has just survived an attack like that. He kept his eyes on the building for a few more moments, but no movement came from it. It was as still and silent as it had been before either of them got here. Razor then looked down the road to his left. It was empty, no pony or creature was there that he could see. He then looked back towards the destroyed building, then back to the road, then back to the building. While under normal circumstances, he knew what he would have done, right now he was not under normal circumstances.

Without even wasting another moment to think about it, he turned and ran down the road.

I heard a sound in the distance that, in all honesty, sounded not that much different from the sound of me dropping that building onto that minotaur, which I swear if he survived that I won’t have any idea what else to do to him.

I ran down the empty streets, ran around a dented trash can that was laying in the middle of the road. All while I kept hearing the sounds of combat in many different directions. Some notable sounds included, some breaking glass, a male sounding voice shouting “My leg!” and a huge roar.

That one made me stop in my tracks as I remembered that there was a dragon among us. Which made me flash back to my fight with Lord Drez about a year ago and how he just destroyed me, and he was only half-dragon. So yeah, I kinda hoped that somepony else would take care of that dragon before I ran into it.

Snapping out of it, I looked down the road and see a dark grey, unicorn stallion with a long brown mane, green eyes and what looked like to be an A inside of a circle for a cutie mark, looking back at me.

Razor ran through the streets of this derelict, ruined version of Canterlot away from the buffalo he fought as quickly as he could. Off in the distance he thought he could hear the sound of another building coming down, but he ignored it for now. He had so many things on his mind right now that for the life of him, he couldn’t have noticed it even if he wanted to.

‘I just burned a buffalo alive...’ he thought again and again to himself as he ran. ‘I... I’d never killed anypony before... I...’ It was at that moment that the grim reality of the situation he was in finally hit him. This entire thing really was a fight to the death.

The sounds of combat echoed all around him as he ran through the city. The sound of somepony or something being knocked through glass, the sounds of more buildings being destroyed.

“My leg!” Razor heard another stallion shout from somewhere close to him. The moment he turned to look though, the sound of an incredibly large roar hit his ears. At that, Razor stopped dead in his tracks and looked up to see the black dragon he'd seen before up on the side of one of the taller buildings. It stayed there for only a moment before it pushed itself off of the building and flew down into the city somewhere.

To say that Razor was thankful to Celestia that the dragon hadn’t noticed him would have been a HUGE understatement. He’d never fought a dragon before, but it was an experience he sure as tartarus didn’t want to have.

Once he was sure that the dragon was gone, Razor broke into a gallop and kept running through the city, only to come to another abrupt stop a few moments later when he turned left down another road and ran into another pony staring back at him, a unicorn stallion with a pure black coat that was darker than his, red eyes, a purple mane, and a grey, upside down star for a cutie mark.

Chapter 3

Razor vs Seth
Resonance by T.M. Revolution

The other unicorn and I stared at each other for a few moments, but we then looked away when we heard the sound of a nearby fight above us.

In the sky, a light red pegasus with a purple mane and a brown griffin were having a test of strength in mid-flight. We saw the griffin put one of its back paws on the pegasus’ chest and kick him away. The griffin then dove at the pegasus, grabbed him and flew forward. We didn’t see where they went, but we heard them both crash somewhere in on the ground.

The other unicorn and I then looked back at each other.

“Sorry, no hard feelings,” he said to me.

“In this situation there’s no room for hard feelings.” I respond as I spawned my rapier. “Bring it on!”

Razor didn’t let the black unicorn say another word before he spawned a fireball and threw it right at him. The black unicorn swung his rapier and deflected it, but right as he did, Razor teleported right in front of him and punched him in the face with his right hoof. The fireball was only a distraction.

The first hit sent the black unicorn reeling back a little bit from the blow, but Razor didn’t let up. As the black unicorn stepped back, he stepped forward and punched him in the face again with his left hoof, then again with his right, then one more time with his left right at his neck. Before he could hit the black unicorn’s neck however, a red magic shield appeared between his hoof and the black unicorn. Razor looked back up to see the black unicorn’s red eyes looking back at him. The look on his face was pretty much the epitome of a determined ‘f*ck you’.

‘Oh shit!’ Razor thought right as the black unicorn swung upwards with his rapier. Razor leaned back right before the blade hit him, but that didn’t stop him from seeing his own reflection in the blade. Any closer, and he wouldn’t have a face anymore. The black unicorn then swung horizontally right at Razor’s neck. Razor ducked right under the blade, but right as he got back up the black unicorn swung horizontally again, this time in the opposite direction. Razor backed away again right before the blade could touch him, but again, the blade barely reached his throat.

Right after that near fatal hit, the black unicorn then spun around and swung downwards at Razor with his sword.

‘Shit!’ Razor screamed in his thoughts right as he saw the black unicorn’s sword come down at him and instinctively reached out with his magic to grab the blade.

“What!?” the black unicorn exclaimed in what could have only been shock right as Razor caught his sword with his magic. When Razor heard that, he actually had to stop for a quick second and do a double take as he brought his attention to the black unicorn’s rapier. While the black unicorn’s red aura surrounded the handle, Razor’s green aura had wrapped around the entire blade, and was already fighting the black unicorn’s for control of the handle.

‘That actually worked?’ Razor thought to himself as he saw his green aura overpowering the black unicorn’s red aura. By all accounts, that should not have been that easy. Even a novice level unicorn should have been able to fight back against another unicorn’s aura, and yet this pony nearly let Razor completely take his sword. Razor quickly looked back to the black unicorn to see that not only was his attention still on his sword, but he still had a look of dumbfounded surprise on his face.

However this happened, it didn’t matter, and Razor was not about to let an opening like this escape from him as he brought up his right hoof and hit the black unicorn right in the jaw with an uppercut. The impact sent the back a little bit as he nearly lost his footing. Not only that, but right as Razor’s hoof made contact with the back unicorn’s jaw, Razor could practically feel the black unicorn lose focus as Razor was able to push his back aura off of his rapier completely and take it for himself. It was his now.

Still, like before Razor did not let up, as he punched the black unicorn again right in the jaw with his left hoof, then again in the chest with his right, then his left. Every blow he landed made Razor’s adrenaline run just a little bit faster, as the beginnings of a smile slowly started to crawl across his face. After one last punch to the black unicorn’s face with his right hoof, Razor then quickly jumped up, turned to his side, and kicked the black unicorn square in the chest with his back right hoof.

The impact of Razor’s hoof sent the black unicorn flying back a few feet. He was airborne for only a moment before he landed back on all four of his hooves and skidded along the ground for at least another foot. Razor didn’t even care to notice as he spun the black unicorn’s sword around, lit it aflame with his own magic, and threw it right at him.

Right as the black unicorn skidded to a halt, he looked back up and lit his horn with magic again. The moment his sword got within cutting distance of him, it suddenly evaporated into a cloud of red, fiery mist. As it had come from nothing, it had gone back into nothing. As the flaming mist cleared, Razor saw the black unicorn’s face again. The look on his face had gone straight from standard angry to pretty much the epitome of pure rage.

Suddenly, right as the mist of flames died there was a spark of electricity. A spark that quickly became a full on electrical storm as the black unicorn’s horn lit up with electricity, which he then shot right at Razor.

Razor quickly teleported from that spot right before it hit him. He then reappeared right in front of the black unicorn and threw another punch at him with his right hoof, only for his hoof to be stopped a few inches from the black unicorn’s face by a solid aura of red magical energy. Undeterred, Razor threw another punch with his left hoof, and then again with his right, but every attack he threw hit the black unicorn’s magic shield the same as the first one did.

Right after his third failed hit on the black unicorn’s shield, a rock suddenly flew up from the ground and hit Razor in the left side of his head.

‘The fu-’ Razor began, only for that thought to be immediately interrupted by the sight of many rocks coming up from the ground and surrounding the black unicorn. Razor quickly jumped away before any of the other rocks could hit him before he then teleported several feet away from the black unicorn.

Razor just stood there for a moment and watched as all the rocks that the black unicorn pulled up from the ground spun around him in some kind of vortex. The black unicorn looked back at him and they held eye contact for a moment as Razor’s green eyes locked onto his. Razor didn’t let the moment last any longer than it had to as he spawned several enough fireballs to match all the rocks the black unicorn had torn up from ground and threw them all right at him. The black unicorn responded by throwing all of the rocks he had right back at Razor.

Every single one of Razor’s fireballs hit one of the black unicorn’s rocks and exploded on contact. Not one of the black unicorn’s rocks made it through, as they were all either torn apart by the explosions or melted by the potency of Razor’s fire.

The black unicorn held his left hoof in front of his face in an effort to stop any debris from the explosions from hitting him, though it did little stop the intense heat from the flames. They were so close, it was like he was staring into the sun. He held his hoof in front of his face for only a moment. When he brought it down to look, a flash of green light filled his vision as Razor teleported through the flames and right in front of him with his right hoof pulled back.

Razor dove right for the black unicorn and threw another punch, but the black unicorn teleported away with a flash of red light before he could hit him. He then reappeared a few feet to Razor’s left down one of the streets. He looked at Razor for only a moment before he turned and ran down the street away from him. Razor, not about to let him get away that easily, gave chase after him.

Razor chased the black unicorn down the ruined street of Canterlot for about a block and a half. The black unicorn didn’t seem to be making any kind of effort to slow down, yet Razor couldn’t hear him running. He could hear the sound somepony running, but the sound wasn’t coming from in front of him.

Suddenly, after the second block, the black unicorn skidded to a halt, turned himself around and leapt right at Razor. Razor responded by leaping up into the air as well, then by creating a small magical barrier beneath his hooves, which he jumped off of and spun himself around to kick the black unicorn in the face.

Time seemed to slow down for the two unicorns right as they were about to collide. Before they did however, Razor teleported away, then reappeared again in the same spot, but turned around 180 degrees. He then continued with his kick as he kicked the real black unicorn in the face as he became visible again. Behind him, the shadow that he was chasing disappeared in a cloud of red mist as the black unicorn’s concentration had been broken.

The black unicorn flew backwards for a few feet before landing on his back and skidding on a ground for a few more inches. The mace he had spawned disappeared in red mist before he stopped. The black unicorn quickly jumped back up onto his four hooves, only to come face to face with Razor again as he teleported right in front of him with his left hoof pulled back.

The black unicorn quickly spawned a pair of tomahawks and blocked Razor’s hoof with them. Razor responded by throwing another punch with his right hoof, but the black unicorn leaned back to dodge that and swung upwards with one of his tomahawks. Razor leaned to the side to dodge the black unicorn’s tomahawk before he spun himself around and threw a spin kick at the black unicorn with his right rear hoof. The black unicorn leaned back again to dodge Razor’s kick, but barely, as Razor’s hoof barely scratched the edge of his nose.

Before Razor could turn around, the black unicorn swung down on him with his other tomahawk, but Razor put up a magical barrier before it could hit him and threw another punch. The black unicorn blocked Razor’s punch with one of his tomahawks, but Razor didn’t stop there and threw another punch with his other hoof, witch the black unicorn blocked again with the same tomahawk.

Right as Razor threw a third punch with his right hoof, the black unicorn spun around one of his tomahawks and grabbed Razor’s hoof with the bottom of it right where the blade met the handle. Using Razor’s forward momentum, the black unicorn pulled Razor towards the ground and swung his other tomahawk right at his head.

‘Shit!’ Razor screamed in his thoughts as he leaned his head and neck backwards and barely dodged the black unicorn’s tomahawk. Razor then pulled his hoof out from the grasp of the black unicorn’s other tomahawk, but as he did, he saw it spin around out of the corner of his eye.

‘Oh shi-!’ Razor screamed again in his thoughts as he quickly put two magical barriers beneath his front hooves, then jumped up and did a backflip away from the black unicorn right as he swung upwards with his other tomahawk.

Razor landed a few feet away from the black unicorn. The moment his hooves touched the ground, the black unicorn spun around both his tomahawks with his magic and threw them both at Razor. Razor quickly leaned his head to the left to dodge the first one, then grabbed the second one with his magic right as it passed him and threw it back at the black unicorn.

The black unicorn quickly spawned another rapier and swatted the tomahawk away right before it could hit him. The tomahawk turned into red mist as it flew away from him. Razor just stood where he was and created another fireball, which he threw at the black unicorn again.

The black unicorn however, didn’t move as he spawned a katana and cut right through the fireball before it could touch him. He wasn’t about to fall for the same trick twice it seemed. He then spawned another sword, this one a kriss, then a broadsword, then a short sword, then a machete of all things. A scimitar and then a claymore completed the mix as eight different sword all floated around the black unicorn.

The swords all stayed where they were for about a moment before their points all turned to face Razor. Razor couldn’t help but feel his eyes widen and his brain stop for a moment as he saw that.

“Well f*ck me Neigh Bradbury,” he said to himself right as the black unicorn threw them all at him. Razor quickly swatted away the broadsword, which came at him first, with his magic, only to move to the left to avoid the kriss which came immediately afterwards. He then got low and ducked under the katana right as it flew over him, then jumped to his right as the claymore was about to hit him in the face and flipped over in mid air right under the scimitar as it barely scratched his belly.

The moment he landed he had to roll to the right as the short sword came right at him. He quickly swatted it away with his magic and ducked again just as the machete flew right over his head. Having dodged the last sword, Razor looked back up in the black unicorn’s direction, only for the black unicorn to teleport right in front of him with his right hoof pulled back. Time seemed to slow for Razor as his eyes widened in shock, of all the things he expected, he did not see this coming.

The black unicorn punched Razor right in the face, which made him double over a little. For a unicorn who seemed to rely mostly on magic, he hit hard, harder than most Razor had fought before.

‘Son of a bitch!’ Razor screamed in his thoughts as he spawned a spear and swung upwards at the black unicorn. The black unicorn’s eyes widened in response before he teleported away just before the blade of Razor’s spear could touch him.

His eyes full of rage, Razor stepped forward and looked around for the black unicorn, yet something was off. Razor had seen the black unicorn’s weapons disappear into red mist before, but the mist usually disappeared within an instant. Now, red mist was everywhere like a fog, and it was difficult to see through. He looked to his left, nothing. Right, not a damn thing, though he thought he could see another ruined building through the mist. Behind him, still nothing. The mist was as thick as peanut butter, he couldn’t see a damn thing through it.

Suddenly, from behind him, Razor heard the sound of a loud “BANG!” noise, and instinctively turned around and swatted away a red magical energy shot with his spear. In front of him he could still see only mist, yet he knew the shot came from this direction. It didn’t take him more than a moment to figure out what was going on.

“Heh, so that’s your game,” Razor said aloud as he charged the blade of his spear with fire. Within moments it was so hot the blade appeared to glow a little bit. Suddenly, from behind him again, he heard two more “BANG!” noises. As fast as a teleport, he spun around, and swatted away both magic shots, then he threw a bit more fire into his spear as he swung upwards. At the midpoint of his swing, a giant column of pure flames erupted from the ground and quickly rose high into the air as it followed the motion of Razor’s spear.

The intense heat from the flames cleared away the red mist and showed Razor the street ahead of him, the street that led right back to the intersection he was fighting in before, with the black unicorn standing right in the middle of it. His eyes set on his target, Razor pulled his spear close and charged forward.

The black unicorn’s eyes went wide for a moment as he lowered his head and shot blast after blast of magical energy shots right at Razor like some kind of automatic party canon. Not a single one hit Razor though, as he deflected every shot that came at him with his spear as if he were swatting flies away. They didn’t even slow him down. The black unicorn didn’t let up as Razor kept running towards him, and still Razor deflected every shot.

‘F*ck this,’ Razor thought to himself right as he passed the halfway point between him and the unicorn, then right after he blocked a few more magic shots, he suddenly teleported away.

The black unicorn’s eyes went even wider for a moment as he frantically looked around for Razor, but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. He wasn’t left, right, or even behind him. Then the black unicorn looked up and saw Razor coming down on him with the blade of his spear raised.

Instinctively, the black unicorn spawned a rapier again and held it above him. The blade of Razor’s spear hit the blade of the black unicorn’s rapier as he landed back on the ground. The black unicorn then pushed Razor’s spear away as he stepped forward and swung his sword horizontally at him. Razor held his spear vertically and blocked it, then he pushed the black unicorn’s sword away, spun around his spear and swung upwards with it. The black unicorn leapt to his right to dodge it and swung vertically at Razor right as he landed. Razor brought his spear back up and blocked it before he pushed the black unicorn’s sword away again. Razor then spun his spear around his neck and swung horizontally at the black unicorn from the left. The black unicorn quickly held up his sword to block Razor’s swing before he pushed it back and swung upwards with his sword again. Razor responded by leaning to the left to dodge the black unicorn’s sword before spinning his spear around swinging down at the black unicorn. Again, the black unicorn held up his sword and blocked Razor’s spear as they locked blades.

The two of them held their ground as they looked into each other’s eyes, the irony of their eye colors lost on both of them. Razor tried to push his spear closer to the black unicorn, but the black unicorn held strong, as he pushed back on Razor’s spear with his sword with just as much vigor as Razor had.

‘Damn, this guy’s good with a sword,’ Razor thought to himself as he kept looking into the black unicorn’s blood red eyes. That wasn’t a lie either, he was better than many other unicorns he’d fought before when it came to weapons. ‘If I could disarm him I could-’ Razor began to think before something hit him. ‘Wait!’

Just then he thought back to the beginning of the fight. The black unicorn was using a sword then too, but Razor was able to take it away from him with his own magic. He chalked it up to a fluke, something that wouldn’t happen twice, but he took it so easily, like he didn’t even know how to hold it properly… like he didn’t even know what magic threads were.

Razor brought his attention back to the point where the blade of his spear and the black of the black unicorn’s rapier locked, where their magic touched.

‘Well, f*ck me if this doesn’t work,’ Razor thought. He knew that there was at least a one in a hundred chance of this actually working, but hey, if it worked once…

As Razor and the black unicorn continued to lock blades, Razor pushed forward with his magic and focused on the black unicorn’s sword. Within moments, the black unicorn’s red aura was overtaken by Razor’s green aura.

The black unicorn’s eyes went wide as he saw that happen as Razor couldn’t help but smile. By all accounts, there was no way that could have worked twice.

Before Razor could take over the black unicorn’s sword fully however, the black unicorn threw a punch at Razor with his right hoof. Razor quickly brought up his own hoof and blocked it, but with him momentarily distracted, the black unicorn managed to pull his sword away from Razor’s spear as his red aura completely overtook it again, yet Razor couldn’t help but keep smiling.

The black unicorn then stepped back away from Razor as he swung vertically at him, but Razor swatted his attack away with his spear like it was nothing. The black unicorn in turn spun around and swung diagonally at Razor. Razor however, spun his spear around so that it was behind him, and when the black unicorn’s sword hit him, it was stopped not by his spear, but by the green aura of his magic as he grabbed the black unicorn’s blade.

The black unicorn’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as he saw that happen, and that was all the confirmation Razor needed to see as his smile grew even wider.

“Got ya,” Razor said as he swung upwards with his spear and completely took the black unicorn’s rapier away as his green aura completely overtook the black unicorn’s red one. The black unicorn quickly teleported away before Razor could hit him. His rapier turned to the same red mist all his other weapons did as he disappeared.

The black unicorn then reappeared on the roof of one of the destroyed buildings several feet in front of Razor. The look on his face was a look of disbelief as he looked back down at Razor.

“Get back here!” Razor screamed as he spun his spear around, covered it in his fire, and then threw it directly at where the black unicorn was standing. Again the black unicorn’s eyes widened slightly as he saw the spear coming right for him. The second the spear hit the building, it exploded in a massive inferno that took out the whole roof and half the building with it. Within the flames, the black unicorn was nowhere to be seen.

Razor couldn’t help but laugh to himself a little as he watched the building burn.

“Good riddance to bad rubbish,” Razor said to himself as he started to walk away. He was done here. The moment he tried to lift up one of his hooves to walk though, something was wrong. He couldn’t move it. He immediately looked down to see that all four of his hooves had been encased in the concrete beneath him, as if they were not just buried, but as if he were standing there when the street was first paved as his hooves were literally trapped in the concrete.

Suddenly, out of only Celestia knew where, the black unicorn teleported above him, landed on Razor’s back and threw his forehooves around Razor’s neck. The black unicorn then teleported both him and Razor away. The two of them reappeared several feet above where they stood as they began to fall. Razor struggled in the black unicorn’s grasp for a moment as he tried to get himself free, but the black unicorn held strong. He meant to piledrive Razor into the ground, and he wasn’t letting go.

“Mistake,” Razor said as his horn began to glow. Suddenly, Razor’s body began to cover itself with flames as it spread from his horn all around him. The black unicorn seeing this, quickly teleported off of Razor’s back as the fire completely surrounded Razor’s body and then spread itself out all around him.

The black unicorn reappeared back on the ground where he and Razor once stood as he looked back up into the sky where Razor was. In Razor’s place was a massive ball of fire that for all intents and purposes, could have been mistaken for the sun. The black unicorn had to cover his face with a hoof as the intense heat from Razor’s fire reached him. It really could have been a sun.

Suddenly, the ground beneath the black unicorn’s hooves began to feel a little hot. At first, he thought it was from the fireball above him, but then he looked down at it. On the ground beneath his hooves, was some kind of fiery glowing symbol, which he recognized as the ancient Roanan symbol for fire. His eyes widened again in realization as he understood just what it was. The ground beneath his feet soon began to grow even hotter as the ball of fire above him started to get closer.

The black unicorn teleported away again just as the ground beneath him exploded. He reappeared on the roof of another destroyed building only a block away as he watched the explosion take out the entire the street and some of the buildings around it. A look of shock crossed his face, as if he couldn’t believe what he had just seen.

He didn’t get long to contemplate it though, as the heat from the massive ball of fire suddenly returned. He looked up to see that it wasn’t falling down anymore, but coming straight at him.

Before it could hit him, he quickly put up a magical bubble shield all around him as the fire hit him. His shield fought through the intense heat of the flames as it passed right through him. All around him the roof of the building was burning, the building itself was burning, everything was burning, but still he held strong. Finally, after what seemed like several minutes, the fire passed through him completely as he took his shield down, only to come face to face with Razor as he flew right at him.

Razor flew right at the black unicorn and drop kicked him with both his rear hooves. The resulting impact sent the black unicorn flying backwards off the roof of the building and down into the street behind the building. The black unicorn bounced once as he hit the ground before he landed around and rolled for a few more feet before finally stopping.

He looked right at the remains of the building he once stood on, which was now burning in front of him. Suddenly, with a burst of green light, Razor appeared right in front of him with a sort of sadistic smile on his face as he slowly started walking towards him.

At the sight of him, the black unicorn screamed as he got back onto his hooves, spawned a hammer, and ran right at Razor. Razor didn’t even move or pick up his pace as the black unicorn ran at him. Right as the black unicorn reached Razor, he swung his hammer right at his head. However, his hammer suddenly stopped before it could even get within an inch of Razor. The black unicorn looked to see the green aura of Razor’s magic completely envelop his hammer and remove his own red aura.

At that, Razor couldn’t help but laugh again as the black unicorn turned his attention back to him, the look on his face one of immense confusion. Razor on the other hoof, couldn’t help but smile confidently.

‘Heh heh, I got you now. I got you all figured out now,’ Razor thought to himself as he stared right at the black unicorn. The black unicorn in turn, stared unblinking right at him, the look on his face slowly started to show his confusion turn to worry, and then finally, fear as he looked right into Razor’s eyes.

Without even wasting a second, Razor punched the black unicorn right in the face with his right hoof, jumped to his side and kicked him in his torso with his back right hoof, and then swung upwards with the hammer and hit the black unicorn right in his jaw. The impact of the hammer sent the black unicorn back a few feet as was knocked up into the air before landing on his back. The hammer faded into red mist right as he landed.

Razor didn’t care though, he didn’t need it. He just let it disappear as he started leisurely walking towards the black unicorn, the sadistic smile on his face only growing even more.

‘You use your magic all the time cause you suck at everything else,’ Razor thought to himself as he moved close to the black unicorn, who was struggling to get back to his hooves. ‘Granted, I don’t know how in f*cking Tartarus you don’t know about magic threads, but hey, I’m not complaining. Makes kicking your sorry flank that much easier.’ The black unicorn finally stood up right as Razor reached him, only for Razor to punch him in the face again and knock him back down. ‘So if you use magic all the time, that means,’ Razor thought as the black unicorn stood up again, only for Razor to punch him in the face again with his other hoof. ‘You must really suck at hoof to hoof.’

At that, the black unicorn got up much quicker this time and threw a punch at Razor. Razor just held up his left hoof to block it before he punched the black unicorn in the face again with his right hoof, then again with his left before he kneed him right in the stomach. The black unicorn actually coughed up a bit of blood before he fell back to the to the ground. Razor just watched him fall as he held up his front hooves and brought them together. They made a cracking noise as he pushed them against each other.

‘Sorry man,’ Razor said in his thoughts as he kept cracking his hooves. ‘But it’s either you or me, and it sure as Tartarus is not going to be me!’

At that, the black unicorn stood up again, and Razor punched him right in the face with his left hoof again, and then again with his right, and then the left again, and then a knee to the chest, followed by one more punch to the jaw. Every hit sent the black unicorn reeling, and every hit made Razor’s smile grow a little wider as he felt his blood pumping a little bit faster every time his hoof made contact with the black unicorn’s face, or torso, or legs, or stomach.

Razor couldn’t help but laugh maniacally again to himself as he punched the black unicorn one more time across the face. This was brilliant. This black unicorn put up a hell of a fight at first, but now that Razor figured him out, he was pathetically easy, and best of all, Daedalus wasn’t here to stop him. This was perfect. Absolutely, perfect.

Another rush of ecstasy ran through Razor as he punched the black unicorn again, and again, and again. All he had to do was keep hitting him, and it would be over. He would do it, he would survive. He would win this thing.

I kept reeling back from each hit I received from the grey unicorn. I tried to fight back, but I could feel that my magic was completely tapped out, and he seemed to have the upper hoof when it came to hoof to hoof combat. Yeah, I’ve gotten some karate lessons from Rainbow, but not much of it stuck with me, and that was biting me in the flank now.

Then with one good hit to the temple, I went straight down to the ground. I tried to stand up, but I just didn’t have the strength to lift myself up anymore. I looked up to see the grey unicorn walking up to me again with that same crazy smile still on his face. Was he somehow insane?

Suddenly, well, call me crazy, but I swore I saw my whole life flash before my eyes. Me seeing my creator/father get turned to stone, meeting each one of my friends for the first time, nightmare night with Rainbow, Twilight letting me stay at the library, meeting my sister for the first time, me starting to get feelings for Rainbow, meeting Princess Celestia and freaking out, hearths warming eve, telling my friends the truth about me, Rainbow slapping me, the two of us making up and confessing our love for each other, our first date, moving in with Rainbow, my first chat with Inferno, training with Shining Armor, time traveling with The Doctor and Ditzy, my secret getting out thanks to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, me coming clean to the town, my first fight with Inferno, Shining and Cadence’s wedding, meeting Princess Filia Solis and traveling to her universe, getting captured, fighting Ganger, fighting Chrysalis, fighting Inferno again, fighting Drez, returning home, my first birthday, asking Rainbow to marry me, helping with the crystal fair, getting Rainbow’s wedding bracelet, being turned to stone by Trixie, ponies going missing thanks to The Voice, camping with Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, and the Crusaders, meeting Rainbow’s father and spending hearths warming eve with him, helping Fluttershy reform my father, finding out what The Voice was, fighting The Voice, Dad telling me about that Dromis guy, Twilight becoming a princess, and of course mine and Rainbow’s wedding.

‘Is this it? Am I going to die? No! I can’t let that happen! Not just for me, but for those I care about! For the mare I love! It’s him or you Seth! You can’t give up this easy! I’ll MAKE SURE THAT HE WON’T LIVE TO SEE THE END OF THIS DAY!’

Razor watched as the black unicorn got back to his hooves, yet, something was different about him. He didn’t struggle, he just got back up. It was as if some kind of fire that was one a dwindling flame rekindled itself within him as he found some kind of new strength. Then the black unicorn stood up completely, looking more pissed than ever.

Razor didn’t pay it and mind through as he kept walking towards him, but then he stopped. He couldn’t see it, but he could feel it. It was like magic, but different, somehow. It was like the black unicorn was suddenly radiating some kind of magical energy like he did with his fire.

Suddenly, something strange started to happen as the black unicorn closed his eyes and started to shake a little bit, as if he was having muscle spasms of some kind. It was slow at first, but then it sped up as it went on. The black unicorn’s coat started to change from black to a darkish blue and his mane a bright crimson that reminded Razor of blood.

Then, suddenly, the no longer black unicorn opened his eyes, but they were no longer eyes. They were more like glowing balls of pure rage as they literally glowed with a light the same color as his mane.

Razor, not about to let something like this stop him, ran forward and threw another punch.

Seemingly on instinct, a wall of magic rose in front of me and blocked the grey unicorn’s hoof before it lunged at him and wrapped itself around him.

He tried to teleport out, but I wrapped some magic around his horn.

‘DO IT! SNAP HIS HORN! WATCH HIS SCREAM BEFORE YOU KILL HIM! JUST MAKE SURE HE’S IN PAIN TILL HIS LAST BREATH!’ I heard a familiar voice scream in my head, and strangely, I wasn’t against the idea.

I stared straight into the grey unicorn’s eyes. It was obvious that he was trying to hide his emotions, but deep down I could see a certain one coming from him. Fear.

I couldn’t help, but laugh aloud, though when I did I heard a familiar echo. I knew what it meant, but yet for one reason or another, I didn’t mind.

‘NOW, WITH ONE QUICK MOTION BREAK HIS-’

That’s when out of nowhere, I felt a quick jolt through my body, and suddenly the magic I had wrapped around the grey unicorn faded.

He landed on his hooves, then quickly turned around and bucked me in the face, knocking me on my back.

I then saw him leap into the air , but he stops in mid air as he is wrapped in a light blue aura.

I looked over to see a face I haven’t seen in about a year. It was an orange mare with a red mane with pink streaks, green eyes, a magic staff for a cutie mark, though there was one detail about her that stood out more than anything. She was an alicorn.

‘Filia?’ I asked myself.

‘SHE STOPPED US! WE NEED TO FIGHT HER TOO!’

‘But, I can feel that I’m out of magic again. Besides, Filia’s a friend.’

‘IT’S THEM OR US! AND IT’LL BE BETTER FOR IT TO BE THEM! WE DESERVE TO EXIST MORE THAN THEY DO!’

‘I don’t want to hurt her.’

‘IT DOESN’T MATTER WE HAVE TO!’

‘I SAID I DON’T WANT TO HURT A FRIEND!’

After I thought that, for some reason felt even weaker than before.

Then she picked me up with her magic just like with the grey unicorn. She walked up to us with a slightly annoyed look on her face.

“Okay, you two need to stop this.” Filia said me and the grey unicorn. “We need to think this though. Killing each other isn’t the answer.”

“Oh, and who the f*ck are you?” The grey unicorn asked.

“She’s Princess Filia Solis.” I answered. “In her universe, she’s the daughter of Princess Celestia herself. Though her being an alicorn my have given that away.”

“Yeah I can see tha- wait, how the f*ck do you know her? We’re all from different universes.”

“I’ve been to her universe. It’s kinda a long story. If I wrote it down it’d probably be about 14 chapters long, so not that bad, but you get the point.” After I said that, Filia coughed to get our attention.

“It doesn’t matter now. We need to find a place to stay, before somepony finds us.”

“Us?” The grey unicorn asked.

“Look, countless lives are at risk here, we can’t fight each other.” Filia explained.

“If we don’t fight, the Stallion in the High Tower will kill us.” I pointed out.

“He has a point.” The grey unicorn said.

“If I didn’t stop you two, one of you would be dead right now!” Filia shouts.

“Yeah, he would’ve.” The grey unicorn said smirking.

“What are you talking about? I was two seconds away from snapping off your horn.” I said back to him.

“Only because you turned blue and went all ‘rage mode’ and everything. Seriously, what the f*ck was that?”

“It’s an even longer story.”

“Guys focus!” The Princess suddenly exclaimed, “We need to get to the task at hoof here. We need to stop this before even more universes are destroyed.”

“And what are you suggesting?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“We need to get into The High Tower, get inside and do whatever we can to take that stallion down.”

I looked up to the sky, expecting some lightning to come down, yet was shocked when it didn’t.

“Now, I want you two to call a truce, then I’ll let you both down, okay?”

“You serious?” The grey unicorn said, the look on his face pretty much matched his words.

“Do it, or I’ll snap your neck in half for hurting my friend.” Filia said to him with a completely serious look on her face.

“Eh,” The grey unicorn replied. “You really think you can kill me that easily.” Right after he said that, his horn glowed and pushed Filia’s magical aura off of him the same way he did with me and my weapons. Seriously, how the hell does he do that?

However, he was only out of Filia’s grip for a few seconds before she caught him again with her magic and started choking him. He didn’t even touch the ground.

“I’m quicker than you think,” she said to him. “Try that on me again and I won’t hesitate to make good on what I said.” The grey unicorn didn’t answer, but she did stop choking him after a few moments. “Now,” she said as she looked back at me, and then him, and then back at me. “Do we have a truce?”

I looked at the grey unicorn and he looked back at me. He looked at me if we were thinking the same thing, though he didn’t say anything. After a few moments, we gave each other a nod.

Filia put us down, removing her magical grip.

I looked at the grey unicorn for a moment before I held my hoof out, “Seth Disarmonia.”

He looked at my hoof for a moment, then up at me. Then he looked over to Filia, who was glaring daggers at him. He then let out a sigh as he looked back at me and took it, “Mehrunes Dagon Razor.”

Author's Notes:

Yep

We're back.

Chapter 4

Rainbow Dash was flying back and forth inside the library, worried out of her mind about Seth. “Have you found anything yet?” She asked Twilight as she landed right next to her.

“I tried a tracker spell, but I didn’t get any signs of him. So I have no idea where he can be.” Twilight said.

Rainbow put her head in her hooves and muttered,”This is my fault.”

“What do mean?”

“I didn’t save him. I couldn’t fly fast enough. Now he’s gone and we have no clue where he could be.”

Twilight put a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder and said, “Rainbow, it’s not your fault. Sure Seth is missing, but it’s not like you caused it.”

“I know. It’s just... I’m worried about him, I mean we both know what trouble Seth can get him. It seems that he can’t go six months without having to fight some big bad guy.” She fell silent for a few seconds before she continued, “I don’t want him to get hurt... Or worse.”

“Rainbow, it’s Seth, so I’m sure he’s fine, and wherever he is, I think it’s safe to say he’s trying his best to get home and back to you.”

At that, Rainbow looked back up to Twilight and said, “I hope you’re right.”

Daedalus sat on his couch reading the newspaper, as he was want to do. He was in the middle of reading an article about how Celestia eats seemingly endless amounts of cake but never gets fat when he heard a knock on his front door. With all the charisma of a pony of could give absolutely zero f***s, he neatly folded up the newspaper and set it on his coffee table before getting up and walking over to the door just as another knock came from it.

He opened his door right in the middle of a third knock to find of all ponies, Twilight Sparkle on the other side with her right forehoof still in the air. Her mood dropped noticeably the moment she laid eyes on him.

“Oh… Umm… Hi... Daedalus,” Twilight said to him as she put her hoof down.

“Hello Ms. Sparkle,” Daedalus replied in his usual, ‘I can give no f***s’ manner.

“Umm…. Uh…. Have you… Uh… Do you...” Twilight kept saying as she tried to look anywhere but at Daedalus. She seemed a little more than nervous to see him. Though given their last encounter, she had every right to be.

“If you have something you want to say,” Daedalus replied without changing his tone in the slightest. “Then say it Ms. Sparkle, as I don’t get paid nearly enough bits to listen to your incoherent ramblings.” Twilight stared at him for a few moments before she shook her head and refocused her mind.

“Have you seen Razor?” she asked him, now sounding a bit more serious.

“Can’t say that I have,” Daedalus replied.

“Oh,” Twilight responded, now looking a little confused. “That’s odd. He said he was going to meet up with me earlier today but he never showed up.”

“He left this morning and hasn’t come back since then,” Daedalus responded, still not able to give any f***s.

Twilight stood there for a moment as if in deep thought as she contemplated his words. Then, suddenly, as if by a sudden flip of a switch, her eyes widen to the size of saucers as the expression on her face changed from ‘deep thought’ to ‘oh Celestia no.’

“Oh my,” she said aloud. Daedalus could not help but raise an eyebrow at that.

“Oh my what, Miss Sparkle,” Daedalus stated in his typical matter of fact manner, “is there something matter with him disappearing all of a sudden as though called forth to another dimension by some unseen force.”

“What?” Twilight replied, her saucer eyed expression not lessening in the slightest.

“Fine, go look for him around town,” Daedalus said, turning back to towards his couch, “who knows, perhaps he’s waiting at your house, reading your secret diary and all of the dirty little things you like to do at night out loud right…” he turned back, seeing only a blushing lavender shadow of what was Twilight Sparkle remaining, along with a trail of dust, prompting him to close the door and resume reading.

“Insane Stallion Proposes building Extra-Dimensional Jail,” Daedalus read aloud, glancing down at the headline before reading the article and loudly proclaiming, “Neat.”

Chapter 5

So Filia, that Mararuns guy or whatever the hell his name was, and I all made our way to a nearby abandoned building. It was familiar to me since it was the bar that the guys and I went to for Shining Armor’s bachelor party, there were even still bottles on the shelf behind the bar table. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was still any booze in any of them. Not that this was the best time for drinks. The dark grey unicorn offered to keep watch from the window, for now at least. Filia and I walked over to one of the booths to catch up abit.

“So…” I began to say, “It’s good to see you again Princess. Granted I hoped it’d be under better circumstances, but hey we didn’t exactly meet under good circumstances ether.”

“It’s good to see you too. So, how have things been in your universe? Are you and Rainbow Dash still dating?” She asked me. I couldn’t help but smile a bit at that.

“Well, technically we’re not dating anymore.” I said as I used my hooves to part my mane to show the ring around the base of my horn.

She took a second to get what I meant, “Oh, um…. congratulations to you two. When was the wedding?”

“It was back in April.” I said, reflecting on the day, well mostly just seeing Rainbow in her wedding dress. She looked so beautiful that day. I mean she’s always beautiful, but I digress. “So how have things been on your side since the war ended?”

“Well, surprisingly, the changelings haven’t made any attempt to get Queen Chrysalis. Though personally I think that’s a good thing, it doesn’t interfere with the rebuilding of Equestria. Granted we had to raise the taxes a little bit to get the money to do so, but it’s not hurting the economy too bad. Still, some ponies are a little upset. Though most know it’s still better than being ruled by Chrysalis and Drez.”

“Hmm… I see.”

“Then the Crystal Empire returned, my mother sent Cadence, the Elements of Harmony and I to protect it from King Sombra, wait do you know what I’m talking about?”

“Yeah, similar events happened over in my universe.”

“Okay, that saves some explaining time. Anyways, it was tough, but we held him off long enough for Twilight and Spike to find the Crystal Heart and using it to defeat Sombra. Cadence was put in charge of running the Empire, though personally I think she’s might not be the best choice.”

“What do you mean? My universe’s Cadence is doing just fine.”

“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure that Cadence still has her Shining Armor.”

“Oh, yeah… Sorry. I forgot that in you universe he’s… passed on.”

“Yeah, I mean no disrespect to Cadence, but she just has been very depressed since the war. I’m a little worried about her. Come to think of it, auntie Luna’s been acting kinda worried too about something, but that’s besides the point.”

“How about Discord?” I ask.

“What about Discord?” She asked sounding confused.

“In your universe did your mother set him free?”

“Yeah, but he gives me the creeps. I’m assuming he was reformed for you guys too.”

“Yup, Fluttershy and I reformed him. Hell, I even started calling him dad.”

“Well, good for you. Oh, is Twilight an Alicorn over on your side too?”

“Yeah, one for the best things to happen to me financially.”

“What?”

“Well now that’s she’s a princess and basically has money from the royal family, I got a large pay raise. I mean it’s not like Rainbow and I are super rich or anything, but it’s good to have extra money just in case. I mean, what if we ever decide to have foals? I know right now that’s not an option with Rainbow trying to get into the Wonderbolts and all. Though if we fail it definitely won’t be an option. Which reminds me what is your plan exactly?”

“Well…” She began, though sounding a little bit uneasy. “While we were all standing in front of the High Tower I was able to feel a strong magical field around it, most likely some kind of forcefield. So I figured that if I found two powerful unicorns to pry open the forcefield long enough for me to get inside. I could stop this “Stallion in the High Tower” before more lives are lost. I saw you at the gathering, so I went to find you first. I guess I was lucky that you happened to be with another unicorn when I found you. Granted you were fighting him. Good thing I stopped you two.”

“How do you know he’s even powerful?” I ask her.

“Well seeing that he beat you up pretty bad, he’s definitely at least as powerful as you are.” She then let out a loud yawn and then laid down on her side of the booth, “I’ll go over more of my plan tomorrow, but right now I think it would be best to get some sleep.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I just laid there in the booth, pretending to sleep. Pretending for two reasons, one, I still didn’t exactly trust this Mareruins guy, and two since I don’t trust him I couldn’t fall asleep even if I tried. Though eventually I opened my eyes and sat up. I saw the grey unicorn still by the window keeping watch. He was still looking outside, so he didn’t notice me get up.

‘Well, if I want to keep an eye on him, maybe it’ll be best to do so while acting to be keeping watch with him.’ I thought to myself as I slide out of the booth and begin to walk over to him

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mehrunes Dagon Razor sat in what remained of one of the booths next to a semi-broken window. It was only semi-broken because all of the other windows in the bar were either completely shattered or were simply holes in the wall at this point. This window was lucky enough to survive with only a few cracks in it. Though it looked as if it could go any minute.

On the other side of the window, the sun hadn’t set. Not that there was any sun to speak of. Or a moon. The sky hadn’t changed at all since he first got here. The sky was still giving off that purplish glow that seemed to emulate the sun when it really didn’t, and none of the stars in it had moved an inch. There weren’t even any clouds in the sky. Nothing had changed. All of this made telling time in this place kind of a pain in the flank. Razor himself wasn’t even sure if it’d had been an hour that had passed since he got here or 6, or maybe even a whole day. Time seemed to have no meaning here.

There wasn’t really anything much outside of his window, just a view of the cafe across the street, but since it was completely destroyed, it was just a view of rubble. So really there was nothing to look at. He couldn’t hear anything either. If there were any other battles going on, he didn’t hear any of them or anything that could have been signs of a battle. Even the dragon, which at this point was the only thing here that really worried him, was as silent as the rest of the city. While under normal circumstances that would have been a good thing, now it made him feel uneasy.

Really, there were a lot of reasons to feel uneasy in this place, but the silence only made it worse. Two of those reasons actually, were at this point, sound asleep behind them. He hadn’t heard anything from either of them after they finished that conversation of theirs an hour ago. Apparently the alicorn had some kind of plan, and in retrospect, it wasn’t that difficult for him to believe that she was Princess Celestia’s daughter in her universe. All the mannerisms were there, but still, that would have made them….

Either way, it wasn’t important. Then there was the other one. Clearly these two trusted each other, but Razor wasn’t sure he could trust either of them. He wasn’t an idiot. He knew what he was to them, and if they were friends, what was to stop the two of them from ganging up on him and taking him out when he wasn’t expecting it. Yeah, they said that they needed him for whatever plan that the alicorn had… Filia, that was what her name was, but still. They were friends. She was an alicorn, and the other one, he almost killed Razor when he went nuts. Against one of them, he had little doubt that he would win, but against both, he wasn’t so sure.

The thought did cross his mind to kill them both right now. They were sleeping, neither of them would know, but he didn’t even know if he had it in him to do that. Yeah, he had to kill them at some point, but doing it like that. It was just too cruel, even for him. Besides, if something went wrong and one of them woke up, then this whole thing would have gone from “seemed like a good idea at the time,” to “why did I decide to do this in the first place?”

As he dwelled on those thoughts for a while, his eyes moved to one of the holes in the wall that was formerly a window. Suddenly, a new thought entered his head. He could leave. He could just slip out while they were sleeping and leave them here. They wouldn’t even know he left. Then, maybe somepony or something else, maybe the dragon, could come in and take care of both of them. Then their blood wouldn’t be on his hooves. Yeah, it still would be in a way, but it sounded better than just killing them himself.

Suddenly, the sound of some other pony’s hooves hitting the floor took him out of his thoughts. Instinctively, turned to see that the black unicorn had woken up and was now walking towards him. Seth… Yeah, his name was Seth.

‘Damn,’ Razor couldn’t help but think. If he was going to get out of here, well, his chance was gone now.

“Hey,” Seth said to him as he sat down in the ruined booth across from him.

“Hey,” Razor said back to him, if only to be polite. “Can’t sleep?”

“Not really,” Seth replied without even looking at him. His attention seemed to be more towards the floor than towards Razor.

“Narcolepsy?” Razor asked. Seth either ignored him or was pretending not to hear him, as he remained silent for a few moments before he spoke again.

“I’m gonna try to put this as delicately as I can,” Seth said as he drew his attention back up towards Razor. “How do I know you won’t kill me in my sleep?” Razor couldn’t help but laugh a little bit to himself at that. “Is something funny?” Seth asked the moment that sound hit his ears.

“You don’t know me,” Razor replied to him after his laughter died down. He shifted in his seat a little bit so that he was facing Seth completely. “So let me explain this to you. If I ever kill you, you’ll be awake, you’ll be facing me, and you’ll be armed.”

“Thats…. reassuring…” Seth replied in a manner that might as well have said ‘yeah, sure that’s true.’ “Thanks.”

“It’s what I do,” Razor said to him as he turned his attention back to the destroyed cafe across the street. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Seth prop his hoof up against the edge of the window and leaned his head on his hoof, much like Razor was doing now. Razor couldn’t help but mentally laugh to himself at that. Was this guy trying to prove he was just as badass as he was? Yeah, like that was gonna happen.

The two of them remained silent for several moments before one of them spoke again. Surprisingly, it wasn’t Seth who spoke this time.

“So, you’re married to Rainbow Dash eh,” Razor said. Seth didn’t respond immediately, in fact, he jumped a little at that.

“How did yo-”

“You two were talking in normal indoor speaking voices you know,” Razor said before Seth could finish.

“Oh, right… So we were,” Seth said as a look that seemed to be a mixture of minor defeat and realization came across his face. He let out a loud sigh before he relaxed a little bit again and went back to looking out the window. “Yes, yes I am.”

“So what’s that like?” Razor couldn’t help but ask. If he was gonna continue this conversation, he might as well encourage it.

“How do I even put it into words?” Seth said as he got all dreamy eyed and he could tell that he was picturing the cyan pegasus in his head. “It’s the most amazing thing in the world. Every second I spent with her I might as well be in heaven.”

“Gotta say,” Razor said as he finished that sentence. “I never really expected her to marry somepony like you.” Razor regretted those words almost immediately as he said them. If he loved Rainbow that much… Razor’s thoughts were instantly broken at the sound of Seth letting out a little laugh like Razor did earlier.

“Yeah,” he said. “A lot of other ponies say the same thing. Hell, she even said the same thing before she met me. Still…” he said as he got all dreamy eyed again. The look on his face told Razor that he might as well have been in the clouds, which probably wasn’t too far from the truth. “She’s the most beautiful mare I’ve ever met. I’d do anything for her.”

“So then,” Razor said. “You must really wanna win this, huh?” After hearing that, it wasn’t hard at all for Razor to figure out what really kept this guy going.

“Yeah,” Seth replied, his head still in the clouds for several moments before he spoke again. “What about you, you got a special somepony?” The moment those words hit Razor’s ears, he felt as if his face caught on fire and he quickly looked away from Seth over at the corner of the broken booth bench he was sitting on as his mind immediately went towards one particular pony. One purple, particular pony. In reality, he was just blushing, but he didn’t want Seth to see it. Though this act did not go unnoticed by Seth it seemed.

“No, no no no, not really,” Razor replied rather quickly. “I… I I I don’t have anypony like that. Not yet I mean, I…”

“Really,” Seth replied, sounding more than a little confused. “Not even somepony that you’re interested in?”

“No,” Razor replied as quickly as he could, hoping that it would make Seth stop this line of questioning. Seth on the other hoof, seeing Razor’s reaction, had no interest in stopping now.

“Not even a little?” Seth asked.

“No,” Razor answered quickly, hoping a little more that he would stop.

“Oh come on,” he said, now sounding a bit more interested. “Don’t tell me it’s Rainbow Dash?”

“No, it isn’t Rainbow Dash,” Razor answered without even realizing it.

“AHA!” Seth shouted as he pointed a hoof at Razor. “So there is somepony that you like.”

‘F*CK!’ Razor couldn’t help but mentally scream to himself. He walked right into that one.

“So who is it?” Seth asked. “Is it Twilight?” The moment that name hit his ears, the small campfire that was Razor’s face suddenly erupted into what basically was the whole house he shared with Daedalus catching fire as he immediately looked away from Seth at the wall behind him. There mere mention of her name was enough to set him off as all kinds of images of her burned through his mind. His heart skipped a beat as every part of her called out to him. Her mane, her laugh, and of course, her sexy badonkadonk. Oh the things he would do to that badonkadonk.

“It is Twilight isn’t it?” Seth asked after a few moments. A few moments in which Razor kept thinking about Twilight. Of course, Razor didn’t respond. “Come on, you can tell me,” Seth pryed. “Even if we both somehow get out of this alive, we’re from different universes so it’s not like it’s gonna matter.” As much as Razor didn’t want to admit it, he did have a point.

“Yeah, it’s Twilight.” Razor finally came out and said. Now there was one more (and making potentially three) pony in his life that knew that. A fact that he wasn’t exactly happy about.

“Nice. I guess I can see why you’d like her. I mean, she is kind of attractive, in that nerdy librarian sort of way.” Seth said as Razor turned back around to look at him. Thankfully, the immense blushing on his face had faded, and if it were a fire at their house, Daedalus probably would have finished beating his flank for it too. “So you two married like me and Dash?” He asked. Razor didn’t respond, though the thought of that wasn’t too bad. Oh the things he would do to that badonka- “Engaged?” Seth asked again at Razor’s lack of a response. “Dating?” Still nothing, and at this point, Seth’s earlier enthusiasm with the subject seemed to have dropped. “Have you… even talked to her?”

“Yeah, once or twice,” Razor replied, turning his attention towards the ever so interesting spot on the floor that Seth was looking at earlier.

“So…” Seth began as he looked inquisitively at Razor. “What stops you from just asking her out? Knowing her, she’d probably say yes.”

“Dude!” Razor fumed at him. “We haven’t even known each other for that long.” Razor continued as his blush returned, completely oblivious to how weak that statement made him sound, though Seth didn’t miss it. “It’s not like I can just- Wait.” Razor said as he caught on to the other part of what Seth said. “Really….” he said, now his turn to be intrigued. “You really think so, you really think she would?”

“Well I can’t speak for the Twilight of your universe,” Seth replied. “But if she’s anything like the Twilight from my universe, then she REALLY needs to get a coltfriend.” At that, a small flicker of hope went up in Razor’s eyes and mind. Sure, it was small, and coming from a guy who was from another universe, he wasn’t sure how much it was worth, but still…

“Thanks,” was all he could reply.

“No problem,” Seth replied. “So, is the Twilight from your universe an alicorn too?” And the hope that was in Razor’s eyes left immediately in favor of curiosity. He heard both Seth and his alicorn friend Filia talking about that earlier, but he greatly doubted that what they were saying could be true. After all, spells to become an alicorn didn’t exist. If they did, then he’d probably know about them.

“No,” Razor replied. “No, she’s not an alicorn.”

“What?” Seth said, sounding kind of surprised. “Wait,” he paused for a moment and put his hoof to his chin. “Did the crystal empire return where you’re from?”

“Yes,” Razor replied. He could remember hearing about that. It was only all over every news outlet he could find when it happened.

“Okay…” Seth said, his hoof still to his chin. “Did Rainbow Dash get sent to the Wonderbolt Academy?” Razor only responded with a look of confusion. “Okay…” Seth said again as he tried to think of something that was probably more of a world changing event. After a moment, he seemed to have come up with one. “Did they announce that the Equestria games are going to be held at the Crystal Empire?”

“Yes,” Razor replied. He could remember hearing about that too. It was in the paper recently, though neither he nor Daedalus cared much for it.

“Okay,” Seth said, now seeming to have his bearings. “So, if that happened, then did Twilight get that spell that Starswirl the Bearded was working on from Celestia?”

“Dude, my friend Daedalus and I only just moved to Ponyville a couple weeks ago,” Razor finally replied. “We don’t even know half the ponies there yet let alone what’s happening on daily basis.”

“Oh,” Seth replied in understanding. “Wait,” he said again as something else about that statement hit him. “Didn’t Pinkie Pie throw you one of her ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ parties when you first arrived?”

“Yeah, yeah she did,” Razor replied, his mind going back to that party. It was a fun night. “But even with literally everypony in town in your house at once, it’s not like you’re gonna get to know EVERYPONY that well.”

“True,” Seth replied in more understanding. There was logic in what Razor said. Silence reigned between them for a few more moments before Seth spoke again. “So, if you don’t mind me asking. What made you guys decide to move to Ponyville?”

“Change of scenery mostly,” Razor replied, and that was true. Even with the enormous amount of property damage he may or may not have caused in Fillydelphia, a change of scenery was definitely necessary. “Better than Fillydelphia, that’s for damn sure.”

“Yeah,” Seth replied. “Though really, what’s not to like about Ponyville. Everypony’s nicer than you would believe, theres great food, great scenery, great weather-”

“And great mares,” Razor said before Seth could finish. Seth couldn’t help but laugh at this a little.

“Yeah,” he said after a bit. “And great mares.”

Chapter 6

Razor opened his eyes to see… Grey. Just the color grey, nothing else. After a few moments, his vision cleared enough to see the wall in front of him, as well as the piles of rubble that were stacked up against it. It did nothing to alleviate the grey.

After blinking a few more times to clear his vision up a little more, he covered his mouth with a hoof and let out a yawn before he sat up from the booth seat he was sleeping in. He then turned his attention to the hole in the wall. The one he was supposed to be watching for most of the night. Outside, nothing had changed. The sky was still the same, purple hue it had been since they got here, and neither the sun nor the moon were anywhere to be seen. At the edge of the hole in the wall however, leaning against the wall just a bit to the left of the hole, lay a sleeping, black unicorn.

Seth had offered to take up the second watch after the little talk the two of them had last night. Or was it only a few hours ago? Time was impossible to tell in this place. Either way, it seemed as if the harsh mistress that was sleep had gotten to him too. Suddenly, the sound of another, much more feminine yawn caught Razor’s ears as he turned his attention to the back of the bar to see an orange alicorn stretching both her wings and forehooves as she sat up from the booth she was sleeping in. Filia Solis. That was her name was.

She stretched her wings and hooves out for a few moments before she slumped back into the seat she was sleeping in and rubbed her eyes. Seeing her roused Razor enough from the half lidded, dream like state he was in enough to actually stand up from the booth bench he was sleeping on and walk over towards the still sleeping Seth.

“Yo, dude, wake up,” Razor said as he nudged Seth in the shoulder. It did nothing to rouse him from his sleep. “Yo, Seth, come on, Seth, get up.” Razor tried again as she shook him a little bit.

“Mmmmmmm…..” Seth moaned in his sleep as he rolled his head around. “Mmmmm, just five more minutes Rainbow…”

“Um… Seth,” Razor said, the look on his face would have been absolutely priceless if anypony would have been here to laugh about it. After he said that, Seth slowly opened his eyes and looked right at him.

“Oh, it’s you,” Seth said to him in a very monotone voice before bringing up a hoof and rubbing his eyes a bit.

“Hoping it was all a dream?” Razor asked.

“Yeah, you could say that,” Seth replied as he brought both his hooves up to his head and rubbed them against his temples for a little bit. Razor didn’t want to say anything to him, but in all honesty, he was hoping for the same thing when he woke up.

“Well, you two seem to be getting along better,” the two of them turned to see Filia walking up towards them. Razor almost had to struggle to keep himself from laughing at her. Perhaps it was because she hadn’t slept in any kind of bed, but she had the worst bedmane ever right now.

“Thanks,” was all Razor could say to her. Thankfully he was able to hold back his laughter enough.

“Morning, Filia,” Seth said as he stood back up.

“Good morning, Seth,” Filia replied to him politely, blissfully unaware of her aforementioned bedmane. Seth either seemed to be taking it better than Razor was, or he didn’t find it as hilarious, but he showed no reaction to it.

The awkward moment (for Razor anyway) was broken by the sound or rumbling. The sound of a pony’s stomach rumbling. Both Seth and Razor turned their attention to Filia, who only gave them a confused look.

“What, it wasn’t me,” she said to them. At that, both Razor and Filia turned their attention to Seth, who just laughed for a little bit and rubbed the back of his head with a hoof.

“Okay,” he said. “I guess I am a little hungry. I mean the last time I ate was yesterday at breakfast.” Both Razor and Filia responded with looks that might have said ‘are you serious?’ At this, Seth dropped his hoof and lost the humorous expression he had on before. “Oh come on,” he said. “Seriously, when was the last time you two ate anything?” Filia opened her but stopped herself before she could say anything. Razor just looked up towards the ceiling. When he thought about it, Seth was right. The only thing that Razor had eaten since well, ever, was that bagel with peanut butter that he had for breakfast.

“Okay…” Filia said as she let out an exasperated sigh. “I guess we can take a moment to get some breakfast.” At that, she looked up towards the ceiling like Razor. “That is, if we can find anything edible in this Celestia forsaken place.” Seth seemed to give her an odd look at that, but Razor, at that, thought of something.

“One second,” he said to Filia and Seth as he turned around and trotted over towards the bar. The two of them glanced at each other for a moment before they looked back towards Razor, who had hopped behind the bar and started rummaging around through all the cabinets back there. “F*ck where is it?” Razor said aloud as he searched. “Come on I know they gotta have at least one around here somewhere.”

Curious, both Seth and Filia walked over towards the bar. The couldn’t quite see what Razor was doing behind it, but they could see him moving around quite a bit. They could also hear the sounds of things being knocked on the floor as if he had no care in the world for them, which he really didn’t. Again, both Seth and Filia looked at each other, but again, they gave each other the same confused look.

“YES!” Razor finally shouted to himself as both Seth and Filia looked back to him. When he stood back up, in his magical grasp was an unopened bag of mixed nuts, which he dropped on the bar counter in front of Seth and Filia. The two of them just stared at the bag for a moment while Razor leaned against the bar. The bag really was unopened, and expiration date on them was still good.

“Nuts?” Seth said.

“Why would a place like this have a bags of nuts?” Filia asked.

“Because ponies like eating them,” Razor replied, only to receive silence from both Filia and Seth. “I take it neither of you have spent much time in bars.” At that, Filia shot him a look that basically screamed ‘Nah! You think so,’ Seth on the other hoof, just looked away from both of them. Apparently the corner of the ceiling was very interesting to him. Filia’s jaw practically dropped when she saw the reaction he gave. It was almost like she didn’t expect it.

“Argh, fine,” she said as she pulled up a barstool. “Lets just eat. It might be a while before we get to eat anything else.” At that, Razor looked down under the bar for a moment and pulled out three bowls, two of which he put in front of Filia and Seth.

Razor, Seth, and Filia all sat in the booth that Filia was sleeping in earlier. The suggestion to move there having been brought up by her, since it was really more comfortable there, something which Razor could not argue with. Either way, they had already finished their breakfast with about half of the bag to spare. Both Seth and Razor were still kind of hungry, but Filia had suggested that they leave some, just in case they would have to be here for a bit longer. Again, Razor could not complain about the logic in that.

Also during breakfast, Filia seemingly realized just how bad her bedmane was and combed it up real quick using a brush she made from magic. The same way both Seth and Razor made weapons from their magic. Razor was… surprised to say the least, that that technique could be used like that. Either way, it was kind of funny to watch her reaction.

“So, Filia…” Seth finally said after a rather silent breakfast. “Last night you mentioned that you had some type of plan.” That perked Razor’s interests. If this alicorn really did have a plan to get out of here, then he wanted to know what it was.

“Right,” Filia said. “Now that we’re all here, and nopony is trying to kill us, I might as well let you two know exactly what I need you two for.” Razor kept silent. “The plan,” Filia began. “Is to get into the High Tower.”

“And just how are we going to accomplish that?” Razor couldn’t help but ask, which frustrated Filia a little bit.

“Well,” she continued. “As I told Seth last night. When we were all standing in front of the High Tower, I felt some kind of strong magical field around it. Like a forcefield.”

“Yeah, I felt that too,” Razor said. “In fact, I’m pretty sure everypony there did.”

“Dude, let her finish,” Seth butted in, giving Razor a look that pretty much said ‘chill out’. Razor didn’t say anything in response, Filia however, looked even more frustrated. ‘Wow, she really is Princess Celestia’s daughter,’ Razor couldn’t help but think to himself.

“As I was saying,” she continued. “After we all got teleported into the city, I ended up close to the tower. I tried to get inside, but as you can see, that went about as well as you would expect.” Both Razor and Seth remained silent at that. “So, as the two of you can probably guess, I need some help getting in, and that’s where you two come in.” At that, she stopped talking and looked between the two of them, as if expecting both of them to say something. Razor however, remained silent, as did Seth.

‘Okay, no, you’re not going to get me with that one,’ Razor thought to himself as he inwardly smirked to himself. If she didn’t want him to talk, then he wasn’t going to talk. At least, not yet. Razor couldn’t have guessed Seth’s reason for being quiet though. Though it was probably just because he was being polite. After a few moments of not so awkward except for one of them silence, Filia let out another exasperated sigh.

“Okay, in short, I need to the two of you to open the barrier surrounding the tower for me so that I can get inside and defeat the Stallion in the High Tower,” she continued. A few moments after she was done talking, Razor slowly raised his hoof, just like he was in school again. If he wanted to speak, and now he really did want to now, he was going to do so on her terms, whether she liked it or not. The look on Filia’s face suggested that it took all of her willpower to NOT say what she wanted to. “Yes,” she said to Razor.

“Okay, that’s all well and good,” Razor said as he put his hoof back down. “But you still didn’t answer my question. Just how in Celestia’s name are we going to accomplish that?”

“The barrier surrounding the tower isn’t that much different from a regular magical barrier,” Filia explained. “At least as far as I could tell. There is a spell for high level unicorns that can get through magical barriers, so if the barrier surrounding the tower works the same way, then theoretically it should work.”

“If you knew about this spell,” Seth butted in, “Then why didn’t you try it yourself?” Razor was kind of surprised that Seth asked that. In all honesty, he was going to because he knew Seth wouldn’t. This guy just kept surprising him.

“The spell isn’t as easy to perform as you might think,” Filia explained. “For weaker barriers sure it’d be no problem, but depending on the strength of the barrier sometimes two, maybe three ponies are necessary.” Both Razor and Seth just stared back at Filia with looks of obvious confusion. “Picture it like this,” she continued. “Imagine a very large, very heavy, set of double doors. Doors that are too heavy for a single pony to move on their own. Now, by yourself you could maybe, MAYBE push one door open just enough for you to dash inside before it closes on you. Now, imagine if you had somepony helping you hold the other door open, then maybe you could slip inside while he’s holding the door for you. Now, in this case, imagine that you have two ponies helping you, one to hold open each door. With the two of them holding open the doors for you, ideally they should be able to hold it open long enough for you to dash inside before it closes on them. So basically, the more ponies you have holding the doors open for you, the better. For the barrier surrounding the tower, since I couldn’t get it open myself, I knew that I needed at least two other ponies helping me, possibly more if I could get them, but-”

“But we don’t exactly have the luxury of asking other ponies for help right now,” Seth said. “And I’m guessing it’s a pretty strong barrier.”

“Exactly,” Filia stated. “I know you’re a powerful magic user Seth, and Razor,” she said as she looked at him. “I may not know you, and to be honest, I’m sorry we had to meet like this, but if you really are powerful enough to beat Seth’s flank here, then you’re really the only chance we have at pulling this off.” She paused for a moment at that. Razor didn’t say a word. “Seth and I can’t pull this off on our own, and even if we could, there’d be no guarantee that one of us could get inside. So please…” she paused another moment after that. “We need your help.” Razor could see the desperation in her eyes. Hell, he could pretty much tell that if it wasn’t for her dignity as a princess, she would practically be begging him to help right now. He quietly took another deep breath before he could answer her.

“Look,” he said to her. “For what it’s worth, I’m more than happy to help.” At that, Filia’s face seemed to light up again. “But there’s still one, kind of not exactly small, problem.” Even if Razor was going to help, he still had to be realistic about this. That was one thing Daedalus taught him. “I can’t speak for Seth, but I don’t know this spell.”

“Don’t worry,” Filia said, her frustration seemingly long gone. “I’ll teach it to you. I kind of figured that you two wouldn’t know a spell like this. So I’ll show you how it’s done.”

“Okay…” Razor replied. He couldn’t argue with that logic. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Seth, who had been silent for a while by this point, with his hoof to his chin.

‘Huh, wonder what’s on his mind,’ Razor couldn’t help but think to himself.

I tapped my hoof on my chin. The others seemed to notice this.

“Is something wrong, Seth?” Filia asked.

“Maybe. There's one thing about all this that still bugs me.” I said.

“What is it?”

“You two remember that mare with the silly hat? And what happened to her?”

“Kinda hard to forget,” Menrums or whatever his name is replied.

“Well, she got struck down by lightning because she suggested for none of use to fight. Yet, here we are discussing taking down The Stallion in the High Tower, and here we are, perfectly fine.”

They both looked at each other, thinking about this.

After a few moments, Moorams said, “Maybe he just wants to see how long this alliance of our will last. Think about it, he said that he’s done this many times. I doubt we’re the first ones to decide to work together, and this battle royale thing does have a time limit. When time is running out, what then? Do we stick together to the end or do we try and tear each other's throats out. To him, watching that probably just gives him some extra enjoyment in this game of his.”

I thought about this for a second and said, “So, you think he’s testing our loyalty? Makes sense Ma… May… Mur..”

He just let out an exasperated sigh and said, “Just call me Razor. Everypony else does.”

“Okay, sorry Razor.” I said before I turned to Filia “So we have to make it to the tower. What if we run into anypony on the way there?”

“We either try to avoid them, or at least try to defeat them without killing them. So just knock them out or something. I mean we don’t want to be responsible for the death of an entire universe, right?”

At that my eyes started to shift back and forth nervously, and I couldn’t help it.

Filia seemed to pick up on this, “You didn’t...”

I sighed and told her, “I ran into a minotaur. I tried to pull out a few brick to use as projectiles, but the whole building ended up falling on him. I doubt he’s walking away from that.”

“I ran into some buffalo before I met Seth. I ended up burning him alive.” Razor admitted with shame in his voice.

“Seriously, you two?!” Filia shouted.

“What? We didn’t exactly have our heads on straight.” I said to her. “Besides, if I remember correctly you had no problem with me when I killed Dopple.”

“That was different! He was one changeling. What you two just did, those were whole universes.”

“I know. I realize that, but we can’t dwell on that now. If we get guilt tripped because of this, we might not be able to focus. On the matter at hoof.”

“He’s right. We did what we had to. It doesn't matter now. What does matter are the lives of all the remaining universes and the ponies that live in them. Besides, I seriously doubt that Seth and I are the only two in this that have killed somepony so far. Hell, that buffalo killed an earth pony before he fought me.” Razor said.

“Same case with me and the minotaur,” I added.

“Fine," Filia replied, but still not really liking it. "I guess you guys are right, but seriously, we need to avoid killing anypony else. You got that?” Filia said.

Razor and I didn’t say anything, but we both nodded in agreement.

“Okay,” Filia said, getting out of the booth, “Time to head out.”

Author's Notes:

Status: edited

Chapter 7

Rainbow Dash slowly opened her eyes to see the empty space next to her. She reached over to the side of the bed that was usually occupied by her husband and felt only cold space. She sighed as sat up.

“It’s fine Rainbow.” She said to herself before she rolled out of bed and stretched her wings, “Just eat something and go to work. After the clouds are done then go back to the library. Hm… actually Twilight couldn’t really help. Maybe Zecora can think of something.”

Rainbow walked out to her living room to see a tortoise shell laying on the couch. The owner of the shell poked his head out.

“Hey Tank,” Rainbow said to her pet tortoise looking at his shell. “When was the last time Seth cast the cloud walking spell on you?”

Tank just blinked in response.

Rainbow Dash just walked over to a nearby shelf and picked up Tank’s propeller, “Well, let’s just be safe.” She placed the propeller on Tank’s shell, strapped it on tightly and turned it on, making the tortoise slowly lift into the air. “Well, bye Tank, see you later. Hopefully Seth will be home soon… Hopefully.”

Daedalus sat on his couch reading the newspaper, as he was want to do. He was in the middle of reading an article about some political dealings regarding a recently elected senator that may or may not have been important when he heard a knock on his front door. With all the charisma of a pony of could give absolutely zero f***s, he neatly folded up the newspaper and set it on his coffee table before getting up and walking over to the door just as another knock came from it.

He opened his door to find Twilight Sparkle on the other side of it, along with her posse of friends Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie. They all seemed pretty worried.

“Ah, good morning to you-”

“Did Razor come home last night?” Twilight frantically asked before Daedalus could even finish his sentence. He simply stared at her for a few moments in his usual ‘I don’t give a f*ck’ manner before continuing.

“Ms. Applejack, Ms. Dash, Ms. Rarity, Ms. Fluttershy, Ms. Pie,” he paused for a brief moment before returning his eyes to Twilight. “Ms. Sparkle,” he said with a noticeable amount of uneasiness in his voice. All of them just kept silent for a moment before Twilight regained her composure and coughed a bit to clear her throat.

“Um, good morning to you too, Daedalus,” she said in a much more calmer manner. “Did Razor happen to come home last night by any chance?” she asked in an equally calm manner.

“No,” Daedalus responded immediately, not sounding at all worried about the fact that his roommate was still missing. “No, I don’t believe he did.” The moment those words hit Twilight’s ears, the look of mild concern that she wore on her face immediately changed to one of ABSOLUTE TERROR as he pupils shrank to the size of peas.

“Oh no…” she said aloud to nopony in particular. Daedalus couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. Just as sudden as he pupils shrunk, Twilight immediately turned around to face Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie, can you-”

“Already got the signs ready,” Pinkie Pie said with a salute before dashing off to who knew where.

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said as she turned to look at Rainbow Dash, who was hovering just over Applejack. “You go spread the word. Tell everypony in town.”

“On it,” Rainbow Dash replied as she flew off to who knew where.

“Daedalus,” Twilight said again as she turned back around to face him. “Come with us.”

“Why?” Daedalus asked in a manner that suggested he still didn’t give any f*cks. As if on cue, the moment he asked that, Twilight’s mouth dropped, but not quite to the floor. The look on her face was pretty much the epitome of the phrase ‘Are you kidding me?’

“Razor is missing!” Twilight practically shouted at him, though it didn’t budge Daedalus an inch. “Your roommate, your best friend is….” she frantically moved her hooves around in an effort to emphasize to nopony but herself that Daedalus should have gotten this immediately. “We need to fine him!”

“He’s been gone one day and you want to organize a search party?” Daedalus asked in the same monotone voice he always spoke in.

“He was supposed to meet up with me yesterday morning, but he never showed up.” Twilight said.

“An he didn’t show up for work yesterday either,” Applejack interjected.

“And you just said he didn’t come home last night!” Twilight again, practically shouted.

“Maybe he had a sudden family emergency and had to leave right away,” Daedalus suggested.

“Without telling you?” Twilight couldn’t help but ask with obvious ‘are you kidding’-ness in her voice.

“Yes,” Daedalus replied. “I did say SUDDEN family emergency, didn’t I?” Twilight couldn’t help but groan at that.

“You don’t know,” Twilight said, in a lowered voice this time. “What if he’s lost, or hurt, or worse.” She did sound worried for him.

“It’s Razor,” Daedalus replied. “He’s survived much deadlier things than anything you or the Everfree Forest can throw at him. I’m sure he’s fine.”

“But what if he isn’t!?” Rarity suddenly interjected, sounding just as worried as Twilight was now. “What if he’s lying in a ditch somewhere right now and he’s clinging onto life by his teeth because his luck decided to run out on him? He could be a bloody mess just waiting there for somepony to fine him. Lying there all bloody and broken and-”

“Then show me a body,” Daedalus said before she could finish as he leaned against the door of his house. At that, Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy all went silent. Also all of their jaws might as well have been on the other side of Equestria and they probably all forgot how to blink at this point. Fluttershy fainted.

“W….w…. what?” Twilight finally found the strength to ask when she could get her jaw working again.

“Show me a body, and I’ll believe he’s dead. Otherwise,” Daedalus said as he straightened himself back up. “I’m inclined to believe that he’s fine.” At that, whatever was holding Twilight’s mental faculty together finally broke.

“HE’S YOUR BEST FRIEND!?” Twilight screamed at Daedalus. “DO YOU EVEN CARE ABOUT HIM AT ALL!?”

“No,” Daedalus replied, still in the same manner as usual. Again, Twilight’s mouth and vocal cords ceased to from words. “He’s an adult. He can do as he damn well pleases.” Then at that, Daedalus shut the door to his house, leaving a still shocked out of her mind Twilight Sparkle standing there outside, along with an equally shocked Rarity and Applejack.

“Um…. what did I miss?” Fluttershy asked them as she got back up.

Princess Celestia had just risen the sun, and was sitting in her throne, but she had another matter on her mind.

“Has anypony found anything?”, she asked one of her guards.

“I’m sorry Princess Celestia, but the search for Princess Filia Solis hasn’t turned up with anything as of yet.” The guard explained.

Celestia looked down a little in sadness, “Very well, continue with the search and report to me if you find anything.”

The guard bowed and said, “As you wish Princess,” before trotting off.

As he left the throne room, Princess Luna walked in, “Greetings sister,” the Princess of the Moon said.

“Oh, morning, Luna.” Celestia said, still saddened.

“I take it that nopony has found Filia yet.”

“Yes, and I don’t know what to do. I haven’t been able to track her. It's as if she’s being hidden by magic more powerful than mine.” Celestia started to tear up a bit, “I’m just so worried about her. When Claymore died I promised that I would make sure that she’d be safe no matter what.”

“I understand. Remember sister you’re not the only one to have your daughter taken away from you.” Luna said with regret in her voice.

Celestia turned her head from her sister and simply said, “I know.”

Author's Notes:

status: edited

Chapter 8

Race To The Tower

Mute City by Powerglove

It was the same as ever in the universe of the dimensional battle royale. The sky still shone it’s purple hue, the stars hadn’t moved even an inch, the sun and moon still neglected to show themselves, and down one of the main streets of this, ruined city of Canterlot, Seth Disarmonia, Mehrunes Dagon Razor, and Princess Filia Solis all raced towards the High Tower with Filia leading the charge, Seth to her right, and Razor at her left. Despite the danger, the threat of imminent and mutually assured destruction, and Seth’s own fears that the Stallion in the High Tower would zap them all into dust at any instant he wished, they still ran. While Seth did occasionally glance up at the sky, nothing was about to stop him from running. Razor kept his own eyes peeled for anything or anypony that could jump out at them, and Filia Solis kept her focus forward. The look of determination on her face was one that couldn’t be shaken much less broken, not for anything. It reminded Razor a bit of himself. Then again, Seth did say that she was Princess Celestia’s daughter so that would have made them-

The sound of a sudden, very loud, very deep sounding roar broke Razor’s train of thought as the three of them all looked up towards the sky, but saw nothing. A cold chill ran down Seth’s spine as that noise hit his ears. Razor could see it. He didn’t stop running, but he saw Seth freeze up a little, as if in terror. Razor could understand why. He knew that sound. Even though he had yet to actually hear that sound himself in his life, he knew it. It was the unmistakable roar of a dragon.

Any thoughts that Razor had about the dragon that they all knew was there immediately left his head when he looked forward again and saw a red pegasus stallion with a purple mane coming right at him. Razor didn’t know where in tartarus he came from, but he was flying at them fast, like Wonderbolt fast.

Quickly, before the red pegasus could crash right into Seth, Razor teleported in front of him and kicked the red pegasus in the face with a spinning kick. At the speed the pegasus was flying at, the impact from Razor’s kick knocked him right off course and he flew straight into one of the many buildings that littered the side of the road.

The moment Razor’s hooves touched the ground again, Seth leapt right over him and continued running straight. After less than a second, Seth saw what looked like a ponyhole cover flying right at Filia like some kind of frisbee. Seth quickly spawned his rapier and cut right through the ponyhole cover like tissue paper before it could hit her, only to see a dagger flying right at him.

Seth’s eyes went wide as he saw it fly towards him. However, before the dagger could even touch him, it was suddenly deflected by a blue magical barrier that went up in front of him. At that, Seth looked over to his left to see Filia. Filia just winked at him as the magical aura surrounding her horn went away. Less than a second after she did though, from out of nowhere, a bunch of chains dropped down from above them and wrapped themselves around Filia’s neck.

“Filia!” Seth shouted just as he saw her get pulled up off the road towards the top of one of the nearby buildings. Before he could react though, he heard the sound of someone else teleporting in front of him. He quickly turned back around to see the gargoyle he saw back when this all started right in front of him, his wings open and a broadsword in his right hand. “Sh*t!” Seth screamed as the gargoyle brought down his sword right on him. In response, Seth quickly brought up his rapier and blocked the gargoyle’s blade, but the force of his attack was still enough to stop Seth in his tracks and push him back a few feet.

“Damnit,” Seth silently muttered to himself as he did what he could to keep the gargoyle’s blade from getting any closer to him. “Why do I always end up fighting gargoyles?”

“What's that supposed to mean?” The gargoyle practically growled at him as he pushed on his blade towards Seth. Even with his magic, Seth could barely hold on as he could see his own reflection in the gargoyle’s blade.

Suddenly, from behind him, a fireball flew right over Seth’s head and hit the gargoyle square in the chest. Not one to miss an opportunity like this, Seth then pushed back on the gargoyle’s blade and knocked him away from him just as Razor teleported in right above Seth’s head and kicked the gargoyle right in the chest where his fireball hit and knocked him onto his back. Seth just held his ground and kept his sword up as Razor barely brushed his mane with his kick. He was that close.

Before his hooves could even touch the ground, Razor created a magical barrier beneath his hooves, jumped up off of it, raised his right forehoof, covered it with flames and came down right on the gargoyle as he prepared to deliver a flaming punch right to its face.

Before Razor could even get close to him though, the gargoyle suddenly snapped his fingers and disappeared in a puff of black smoke. The literal instant that the gargoyle disappeared, a diamond dog that was wearing what could only be described as leather armor and had fourteen inch blades attached to both it’s arms suddenly dug from the ground right where the gargoyle was, leapt up right at Razor, and swung his right blade at him.

‘SH*T!’ Razor mentally screamed at himself as he refocused his magic and spawned his spear. Upon retrospect however, it probably would have been a better idea to just create another magical barrier. Razor managed to block the diamond dog's blade with his spear, but the impact of the blow knocked him back into the air a little bit. Then, in an instant, the diamond dog somehow flipped over in mid air and kicked Razor right in the gut with both his feet.

Razor flew back several feet and landed on his back. When he opened his eyes back up, at first he could only see the buildings and the night sky above him, but then, he saw something that nearly made his eyes go so wide that they threatened to burst out of his skull. The diamond dog had suddenly leapt into the air again and, with both blades drawn, he came down right on Razor.

Razor held up his spear to defend himself, but before the diamond dog could touch him, Seth suddenly came out of nowhere and blocked the diamond dog’s blade with his rapier. Razor looked past Seth for a moment to see the expression on the diamond dog’s face. In it he could see the obvious signs of anger, but there was something else there, something in his eyes. He couldn’t place it. He didn’t get to see it for very long though as Seth pushed the diamond dog away with a single downward swing of his rapier.

The diamond dog jumped backward a bit and landed on his feet. Right as he did, Seth ran at him and thrust his rapier forward. The diamond dog ducked to the side to dodge it, but Seth didn’t even give him a chance to react again and swung his rapier horizontally. The diamond dog leaned back against to dodge Seth’s blade, it’s tip barely touching his neck. Seth then swung upwards, but the diamond dog stepped backwards a bit and spun around Seth’s blade. When he came back around, the diamond dog swung his left blade at Seth.

Seth blocked the diamond dog’s blade with his rapier, but the diamond dog didn't stop there as he thrust his right blade directly at Seth’s torso. Seth blocked that too, but then the diamond dog quickly spun around and kicked Seth right in the head. Seth however, didn’t block that with his rapier. Instead, he spawned another sword, this one a katana, and blocked the diamond dog’s kick with that. He then swung upwards with his rapier again, which made the diamond dog back away, and then again with his katana. At that, the diamond dog leapt up into the air, did a backflip and landed a few feet away from Seth.

Seth then charged forward at the diamond dog, but as he did, Razor watched as the gargoyle from before suddenly appeared right behind him. Thinking quickly, Razor teleported from where he was to right behind Seth and held up his spear just as the gargoyle was about to bring his sword down on Seth.

“Sorry,” Razor said to the gargoyle as they locked blades, the beginnings of a smile starting to appear on his face. “Not this time.” At that, Razor suddenly stepped to the side and forced the gargoyle’s blade to the ground with his spear. He then jumped up in a cartwheel motion and kicked the gargoyle right in it’s face with both his rear hooves. The gargoyle rolled onto the ground for a moment before he rolled back onto his feet and threw a fireball at Razor. Razor quickly responded by creating three fireballs and throwing them right at him.

One of his fireball’s hit the gargoyle’s fireball and exploded. Razor's other two fireballs passed right through the explosion and flew right at the gargoyle, but gargoyle swatted them away like flies with his sword. Right as he swatted away the last fireball however, Razor jumped through the fire with his spear covered in flames and swung down on the gargoyle. The gargoyle just held his blade up with both his hands and blocked Razor's spear before it could touch him. The heat from Razor’s spear barely even made him flinch.

As Razor and Seth fought the gargoyle and the diamond dog, the two of them suddenly heard a loud “BANG!” noise that seemed to come up from one of the buildings behind them. Quickly, the two of them glanced back to see both Filia and a black unicorn stallion with a white mane wearing black rags around most of his body come crashing out from one of the windows of one of the buildings behind them and fly straight into the building across the street. The unicorn pinned Filia to the building, her weapon, a claymore sword, wrapped in chains by the unicorn’s weapon.

The two of them kept their weapons locked for several moments, their gaze never leaving each other’s eyes. Suddenly, Filia made her sword disappear, which distracted the unicorn for only a moment, but long enough for Filia to hit him in the stomach with one of her knees before she pulled back both her rear hooves and bucked him right in the chest off of her. Filia then spread her wings and flew off the building before she spawned a halberd, charged it with wind energy, and then swung downwards right at the other unicorn.

At the middle of the arc of her swing, a powerful gust of wind shot from her halberd and hit the unicorn with such force that he fell to the ground a lot faster than he otherwise would have fallen. A large cloud of dust came up the moment he hit the ground. Not done however, Filia flew straight towards the ground with her halberd forward. Right as she hit the ground though, a sickle attached to a long chain cut right through the dust cloud and went right for Filia’s face.

Filia quickly blocked the sickle with her halberd, then using her wings, she flipped herself over in mid air and swung her halberd forward again with another powerful gust of wind behind it. Her swing knocked away the dust cloud. With it gone, she saw the unicorn standing several feet away from her down the street, his weapon already in mid swing again.

Filia quickly held up her halberd and blocked unicorn’s weapon, which she now saw to be a kusari gama. However, the chain of the unicorn’s weapon wrapped itself around her halberd and, with a quick yank, the unicorn tore Filia’s halberd from her magical grasp. Filia watched her weapon disappear with an expression of shock on her face. As much as she couldn’t believe that this unicorn actually managed to tear her weapon away from her like that, she didn’t give him much of a chance to do anything else as she lowered her horn and shot a barrage of magical blasts at him as she spread her wings again.

The unicorn blocked every single one of Filia’s magical blasts with his sickle before he saw her take off and fly straight at him. The instant she was off the ground, he spun the sickle end of his weapon around and swung upwards with it. His weapon tore right through the ground between him and Filia like it was butter and came up right where she was.

Filia quickly rolled over in mid air and landed back on the ground, just barely missing the other unicorn's sickle. The unicorn however, didn’t give her a chance to just stand there as he spun his weapon around again and swung the other half of his chain at her, which she ducked under, then again with the sickle, which she jumped backwards to avoid, then again with the blunt end of his chain, which she ducked under again, and then again with the sickle, which she jumped over. The unicorn didn’t stop there however as he just kept attacking her with swing after swing of his kusari gama with no chance for a rest. Not even he seemed to be getting tired from constantly swinging his weapon like that. Filia on the other hoof, did what she could to dodge every single attack he hit her with, but if this kept up, even she knew that she couldn't last forever.

Razor jumped away from another swing of the gargoyle’s sword and looked back to see Filia fighting the other unicorn. He watched her duck and weave through every swing of the other unicorn’s chain, and while he was impressed with her ability to do that, he could tell that she couldn’t keep that up forever without getting hit. The sudden downward swing from the gargoyle distracted him for a moment as he held up his spear to block it. He and the gargoyle locked eye contact again for a moment. The look in the gargoyle’s eyes was similar to the diamond dog’s, there was rage, but a hint of something else in there too, though Razor couldn’t quite put his hoof on it. After a moment though, it finally hit him. He knew what it was that he could see in their eyes. It wasn't just anger or rage, but desperation.

The sound of stone getting cut behind him brought his mind back to the current predicament he was in. If they were gonna make it to the high tower, then they had to deal with these guys and do it quick. They were only slowing them down. The sound of blades clashing right next to him however, suddenly gave him an idea, and Razor's smile couldn't help but get a bit wider as it ran through his head, which confused the hell out of the gargoyle.

Without warning, Razor lit his spear aflame, but he didn’t throw it at the gargoyle or direct it anywhere. He simply kept increasing the ferocity of the flames. Within moments it became so hot that gargoyle had to take a hand off of his sword and cover his face, which made it easier for Razor to push right through his sword and get in closer. The gargoyle however, saw this coming and flew backwards before Razor could cut him with his spear. He flew back roughly six feet before he stopped himself and flew forward right at Razor with his sword raised.

Razor however, still wore the smirk on his face. It didn’t matter what the gargoyle did now, he just needed him away from him.

“Filia, duck!” Razor shouted before a column of fire suddenly came up around him, which made the gargoyle stop dead in his tracks before he even got close. When the column cleared, Razor was no longer there.

Momentarily distracted, Filia turned back to look where Razor was, but she couldn’t see him. When she turned her attention back to the unicorn however, all she could see was the sickle of his kusari gama coming right at her. It was too close to dodge, so she put up a magical barrier around herself and closed her eyes as she prepared to take the hit.

However, it never came. All there was was silence. At least as far as her fight with this one unicorn was concerned. She could still hear the sound of clashing blades behind her. When she opened her eyes, she saw that the chain and the sickle had stopped dead in their tracks. Across from her she saw the expression of the other unicorn. He seemed confused, as if what he was looking at didn’t make any sense, or more accurately was impossible. She then looked right next to her and saw the sickle, which was inches away from her face, wasn’t encased in a yellow aura anymore. The sickle at least, was encased in a green aura.

Suddenly Razor’s words rang out in her ears again. Without wasting a second she quickly ducked and got as low as she could as the entire length of the chain holding the other unicorn’s kusari gama together was suddenly overtaken by a green aura and torn from the other unicorn’s grasp. The kusari gama then flew right over Filia's head towards the remains of a column of fire that just went down. When she saw that, she instantly got what was going on.

“Seth!” she shouted as she jumped back up and turned herself around. The other unicorn charged up some more magic in his horn in an attempt to pull his kusari gama back, but before he could do anything, Razor suddenly landed on top of him and kicked his face down into the ground. The look on his face was the same gleeful smirk he showed the gargoyle.

“Ooooh I'm so sorry,” Razor said to the other unicorn. “Was that yours?”

The moment of the column of fire faded out, the gargoyle’s eyes went as wide as Razor’s had earlier as he watched the other unicorn’s kusari gama coming at him. Before he could even react, the kusari gama wrapped itself all around him. The chain that held the sickle to the weight at the end was the maximum possible length for such a weapon, thus the whole thing was able to tie up both the gargoyle's arms and his wings effortlessly as he fell to the ground.

Seth and the diamond dog locked both of their blades together as they both stood their ground. Seth looked right into the diamond dog’s eyes and didn’t look away. Likewise, the diamond dog wouldn’t move either. The moment Seth heard Filia’s voice however, his expression changed, which confused the diamond dog.

Without warning, Seth stepped forward and headbutted the diamond dog right in the face and disengaged both of his blades, which made the diamond dog stumble backwards a bit. Immediately after he did that, a flash of magic suddenly came from Seth's horn.

The diamond dog tried to take a step forward and swing one of his blades at Seth, but before he could, Seth teleported away from him. Instinctively, the diamond dog tried to take a step forward, but when he did, he found himself unable to. He then looked down at his feet to see that both of them had been encased on the ground. When he looked back up, where Seth was, he saw an orange alicorn flying right at him surrounded by a blue magical barrier.

“Well that’s not fair at a-” The diamond dog tried to say before Filia rammed right into him with such force that it knocked him right out of the ground his feet were encased on and knocked him back several feet before he could even finish his sentence. The diamond dog hit the ground several feet behind him and rolled over several times before he finally stopped. When he did stop, he didn't get back up.

The gargoyle struggled against the chains for a moment before they disappeared in a yellow mist as the other unicorn instinctively disengaged them. Before he could even move his arms however, another chain wrapped in a red aura suddenly came out of nowhere and wrapped itself around him. Seth then reappeared on top of the gargoyle and held his rapier to his throat.

“Don’t even think about it,” Seth said to the gargoyle.

Several feet behind both Seth and Filia, a bright flash of light suddenly came from the other unicorn’s horn, which caused Razor to cover his eyes. The other unicorn then bucked Razor off of him and stood back up. The moment the flash cleared, he spawned a bo staff and looked around, but Razor was nowhere to be seen. He then looked down, and his pupils went wider than his eyes could have possibly contained them as he saw what was unmistakably a fire seal burned into the ground beneath his hooves. Within an instant, the ground beneath him exploded in a massive ball of fire as he teleported to the top of a nearby building to safety, his bo staff gone.

The other unicorn just stared down at the street below him and saw all the destruction that was happening. He watched the explosion for a moment, but then he looked to the right a bit and noticed both the gargoyle and the diamond dog being subdued by Seth and Filia. The moment that sight hit his eyes, his expression turned sour and he turned around to leave. He could tell that now was not the best time to stick around. The moment he completely turned around however, he was met with Razor’s back hoof as Razor kicked him right in the face and knocked him back down into the street.

The sound of something falling got both Seth and Filia's attention as they both turned around to see the other unicorn fall from the top of a nearby building. Within seconds, they saw Razor teleport down into the street right across from him, the same sinister, almost gleeful smirk still on his face.

"Come on, is that all you got?" Razor said to the other unicorn as he slowly started walking towards him. The other unicorn didn't respond. He took a few moments to regain his composure before he stood back up. The moment he did however, Razor ran up to him and punched him right in the face with his right hoof, then again with his left, and then with his right again. The other unicorn stumbled back a bit before Razor stepped forward and threw another punch. This time however, the other unicorn leaned back to dodge it and threw his own punch, which Razor quickly grabbed with his hoof before kicking him right in the side punching him again with an uppercut to the jaw before letting go of his hoof.

Again, the other unicorn fell onto his back. Razor couldn't help but laugh at the other unicorn as he rolled onto his side and practically stumbled back to his hooves. The moment he was on his hooves, he spawned a katana of his own, turned around and swung it at Razor. Razor just leaned back a bit to dodge the blade as the other unicorn stepped forward and swung upwards. Razor leaned to the side to dodge the blade before the other unicorn brought up his blade and swung straight down at him. His blade didn’t even touch Razor however, as he grabbed it with his magic the same way he did the other unicorn's kusari gama and tore it from his grasp before headbutting him right in the face.

The other unicorn stumbled back a bit and grabbed his face in pain. Again, Razor couldn't help but laugh to himself for a bit at that and tossed the katana to the side as it evaporated into a yellow mist. After a few good solid seconds, the other unicorn pulled himself together and looked right at Razor with the rage of a beast from tartarus as lunged forward and threw a series of punches at Razor. Razor dodged and blocked every single one of them until he grabbed the other unicorn's right hoof. Again, Razor laughed for a moment before he brought his elbow down on the other unicorn's hoof.

The other unicorn screamed in pain as a loud “crack” noise came from his hoof.

"Hurts don't it," Razor said to the other unicorn in a voice that didn't really seem like his own.

“Razor!” Filia screamed as she took off running towards him. Seth was about to run too, but before he could he looked back at the gargoyle, who was still conscious. The gargoyle looked up at Seth with all the hatred he could muster before Seth hit him in the face with the butt of his rapier and knocked him out before following Filia.

The moment he heard his name being called, the gleeful smile on Razor’s face immediately dropped. He looked directly into the other unicorn's eyes for a moment, the expression on his face one of confusion. He then turned his head to see Seth and Filia running towards him. He then turned his attention back to the other unicorn. The look on his face, it could only be described as fearful, as if he were somehow afraid of what Razor could do to him. Razor didn't give it much though though as he quickly dropped the other unicorn's hoof and hit him with another uppercut to the face, which knocked him out cold. With that done, Razor turned to face Seth and Filia. The expression on Seth’s face was the same as ever, but Filia, she looked by all accounts… angry.

“What?” was all Razor said to them.

“Why did you do that?!” Filia shouted at him.

“He was going to kill you, what would you have done?” Razor responded.

“Well I wouldn’t have broken his leg,” Filia said to him.

“Hey, you told me not to kill anypony so I didn’t,” Razor responded.

"Yeah," Filia said. "But that doesn't mean you can cripple him like that. I mean, what if somepony else comes by and takes him out as an easy target?”

“Maybe," Razor said to her as he took a step closer to her, the look on his face one of frustration, "But it’s not like everypony else here was just going let us walk right up to the High Tower just to say 'hi' so it’s not like we were gonna through this without hurting anypony.”

"To be honest Princess he does have a point," Seth said, stepping between the two. "Yet you are right that now he’s easy pickings for a less merciful fighter here."

“So are you saying that you’re okay with this?” Filia asked Seth.

“Well…” Seth said pausing a bit to think of how to put what he wanted to say into words. “There’s a lot of other beings here and they must of been chosen to represent their universes for a reason. We can’t take too many chances with them, so I’m not saying that this is the most morally right thing to do, but we don’t have many better options.”

“Whatever,” Razor said to them as he rolled his eyes and started walking in the direction of the high Tower. Filia and Seth just watched him go for a minute. Filia kept her eyes on him for several moments, the look of ire in her eyes not fading.

"Look, I know, I get it," Seth said as he stepped up right next to her. "I don't like this that much either, and I'm not saying he's right, but for now, it's probably best if we just put this behind us and move on. Alright?" Filia was silent for a few moments before she responded.

"It doesn't mean I have to like it," she said as she slowly started walking in the direction Razor went off in. Seth stood still for a few moments before following her.

From there the three of them kept running in the direction of the High Tower until they could see the base of it. Right in front of them there stood a small park with a few more taller buildings surrounding them, as it usually was towards the center of Canterlot. The park, like the rest of this ruined version of Canterlot, looked no worse for wear, as there wasn't any grass in it, nor was there really much of anything anymore. It was more of a vacant lot of dirt with a few bent and broken benches and a bit of one wall still up for some reason. While the High Tower was still a ways away, they were getting closer.

“Help! Somepony help!” They all heard somepony familiar shout. The moment that scream hit their ears, they all stopped dead in their tracks. They all recognized that voice, which was why all of them were confused as all tartarus what that voice was doing here.

The three of them all looked down one of the many other streets of this ruined Canterlot to see another pony running towards them, a lavender colored mare with a purple mane with a magenta streak running through it.

“Twilight!” Razor shouted as he turned to make a mad dash for her.

“Razor wait!” Seth shouted at him, but to no avail.

Before Razor could make it more than a few feet however, Filia stepped in between the two of them and fired a magical blast from her horn directly at Twilight.

The moment the blast hit Twilight, she suddenly started spazzing out for a bit before her body was suddenly covered in green flames. When the flames cleared, a changeling with yellow eyes stood in Twilight’s place. Both the changeling and Razor stopped running the moment that happened, Razor with more of a screeching halt than the changeling as he stood there with his mouth hanging open.

The changeling paused for a moment and looked at itself to see that it was indeed, no longer in disguise.

Thinking quickly, Seth spawned a crowbar and threw it right at the Changeling.

“Well, crap,” the changeling said right before Seth’s crowbar hit it in the face and knocked it out cold.

“Okay, I’m not going to bust your flank for falling for that, though I must point out that telling by the muscle and lack of a mane that was a male changeling that you just wanted to tackle hug.” Seth said to Razor while playfully sticking out his tongue.

“Ha ha very funny,” Razor said sarcastically as he turned around and started walking back toward them. He did not seem amused in the slightest.

“What was that about?” Filia couldn’t help but ask Seth.

“Well you see Razor here…” Seth began to say before Razor suddenly teleported in front of him and glared at him with literal fire in his eyes.

“Don’t say anything or I will f***ing end you,” Razor said to him.

“Fine, but I’m sure the Princess here could put two and two together.” Seth said with a smirk. Razor just stared at him for a few moments before he responded. After a few moments, the fire in his eyes died down.

“You really are a snarky bastard aren’t you?” Razor said.

“Well that’s a little harsh," Seth said with a shrug. "But in my defense, my father’s the god of chaos, so I think I can get away with being a little snarky.” At that, any inkling of anger Razor had for Seth at the moment was immediately dropped in favor of confusion.

“Wait, what?” Razor immediately said the moment those words sank in.

“Guys! Focus!” Filia shouted at both of them. Both Razor and Seth turned to look at Filia, who didn’t really seem that amused either. “We still have a job to do, remember.” Both Seth and Razor kept their eyes on her for a moment before looking back up at the high tower, then back to her. “Right,” Filia continued once she was sure she had their attention back. “Let’s get going then.”

“No, really,” Razor said, not wanting to let this topic drop. “What was that he said about his dad being the god of chaos?”

“It’s not important right now!” Filia shouted as she started walking through park. Seth followed her shortly behind. Razor held out a hoof out to stop him, but he was too late, Seth was already on his way again. Razor stood there for a moment and let out a loud groan of frustration before he stomped his hooves in the ground and followed them.

The moment the three of them stepped into the vacant lot that used to be a park however, something large fell from the sky and landed right in the middle of it. When the cloud of dust that was kicked up from the blast cleared, the sight in front of them practically made them all freeze in terror. In front of them was the black dragon that they all saw when this whole thing started, and it’s eyes were fixed on them.

My eyes widened in terror the second I saw the dragon, and I, along with Filia and Razor all stopped in our tracks.

‘Gee, this is just great. Just bucking great!’ I thought to myself. ‘A dragon. A bucking dragon! Hell a black dragon!’

Now granted it’s a legend, but I've heard some ponies say that black dragons are the most vicious, bloodthirsty, and powerful type out of all the dragons. Plus, their scales are harder than any armor and a single scale from them can make a sword that can cut almost anything. Granted I’m not an expert on dragons so I didn't really know how much of that was true, and I don’t know how the color of ones scales would affect anything, but if that was true… then we might be bucked.

The dragon looked at us with a look that kinda surprised me. It wasn’t of rage like most of the other fighters we ran into. It seemed to be calm. I can’t describe it, but there was just a sense of honor about this dragon.

Then I saw a Razor ready a fireball.

“Okay, don’t take this the wrong way, I’m not trying to be a smart-flank, but it’s a dragon. I don’t think fire's the best choice,” I said to Razor.

Razor just shot me another glare.

“Maybe we can reason with it?” Filia suggested.

"Yeah well what do you suggest?" Razor said sarcastically.

We all turned back to the dragon, who was just sitting there waiting for us, like it wanted to see what we could do.

Right then the three of us ran at it.

‘Okay fire’s out the window here… Wait how do you beat a dragon? I mean Screwball would probably just throw acid in it’s face. That would be useful right now, but Filia probably wouldn’t like it,’ those thoughts ran through my mind as we ran at it. I spawned a tomahawk a threw it right at the dragon’s shoulder. The blade of said tomahawk shattered like a glass bottle thrown at a stone wall the moment it hit the dragon.

The pieces of the blade disappeared as I tried to think of what to do next, but then I saw that dragon turn it's attention to me. I charged up my magic and shot a blast on energy at it, aiming to hit it right between it’s eyes, but the dragon quickly turned and blocked it with one of it’s wings.

‘Okay can’t hurt it with fire, weapons, or magic blasts. This is bad. This is really really bad,’ I thought to myself, my eyes darting all over, ‘Since electricity didn’t even work on that minotaur, that’s out, and trying to trap something this big in the ground would use up most of my magic. Crap this is so bucked!’

Eventually I noticed what looked like a broken picnic table on it’s side, and I ducked behind it. There, I cast my invisibility spell and my shadow puppet spell.

I then made my puppet leap over the table and shout, “Hey! You overgrown lizard!”

The dragon kept his attention on what he thought was me, but was actually the fake me.

“Yeah I’m talking to you! You think you’re so big and scary?!” I made the puppet say, sounding braver than I probably was right now. “You think you can just kill everypony here just because you’re a dragon huh?!”

While my puppet continued to berate the beast I snuck off trying to find a weak point or something, then I noticed it's stomach. Now like I said, I’m no expert on dragons, but from what I do know thanks to talking with Spike, a dragon’s underbelly is not as thick as its scales, so that might be our best chance.

I got up close to the dragon unnoticed, thank you magic, and began to charge my horn up with electricity.

Suddenly I then felt a wave of heat behind me.

"SETH!" I heard Filia shout.

The moment I heard that I looked back and saw blue flames burning where my shadow puppet was, going out not long after.

I also saw Filia running to where it was. She looked at the spot where my puppet was for a moment, but then she looked at the dragon with what could only be described as pure rage in her eyes.

“How dare you?! How dare you?! He was my friend?! He had a wife! He had friends! And now he’s gone!” She screamed. Afterward she paused for a few second. “Now they're all gone... I'll kill you!”

Holy sh*t she really thinks I’m dead.

And that was when I felt it, so much electricity flowing through my horn, more than I’ve ever channeled before, I guess that’s what happens when you charge it for this long. I pointed my horn right at the dragon’s stomach, uncloaking myself as well. The dragon reeled back from that, showing clear signs of pain.

“Seth?!” Filia shouted at me with a mix of joy and surprise.

“I’m fine don’t-” I begin to shout, but then I suddenly felt the back of the dragon’s claw smack against me, sending me flying away like I was a fly or something.

I crashed into the table I was hiding behind earlier, smashing through it like it was nothing.

After a couple of seconds I tried to stand up despite the wave of pain, and I saw Filia taking flight, though she was quickly brought down to earth by a smack from the dragon’s tail.

The dragon, now airborne, looked down at Filia, and opened it’s mouth. I could see blue flames forming in the back of it’s mouth.

“Look out!” I shouted. I tried to sprint towards her, but the second I tried to run I felt even more pain than before and I ended up collapsing onto the ground.

As Filia stood back up the dragon shot it's azure flames at her. Filia looked up at this and her eyes went wide. Before she could react, there was a sudden quick flash of green and Razor appeared next to her. Without saying anything, he pushed her out of the way. Only for the flames to come upon him.

Filia was about to shout his name, as was I, but before we both could, we suddenly heard him laugh. Not long after, the dragon's fire turned from blue to orange. The fire then started to spin around, revealing the grey unicorn underneath, the sadistic almost gleeful grin back on his face. After a few moments, the flames went out and the dragon fell from the sky back to the earth.

“You know," Razor said to the dragon as he slowly started walking towards it. "When I was in the guard, they said that my fire was more potent than a dragon’s. I never did get around to testing that.”

Author's Notes:

status: edited

Chapter 9

Razor vs The Dragon

No Redemption by Combichrist

With the same sadistic smile that he wore during both of his previous fights, Razor walked forwards towards the black dragon with his head held high. Any pony with half a brain cell would have turned tail and ran so far that they would have preferably put a continent between themselves and the dragon if they could, but Razor didn’t. He just kept walking forward.

“Interesting,” the dragon growled as he watched Razor advance towards him. “Were you any other pony, I would say that you were merely acting brave for the sake of your so called friends, but you…” The dragon paused for a moment as he extended his neck a bit and looked Razor over. Right there, their eyes locked. “Something about you. I honestly don’t know whether you really are that arrogant, or that stupid.”

“Maybe I’m just stronger than I look,” Razor replied, his confidence not faltering at all.

“It matters not,” the dragon replied as he pulled his neck back again. “Whether it be in battle or in retreat, you will die like all those unfortunate enough to have crossed paths with me in this so called game.” Suddenly, Razor saw the dragon’s throat glow as he suddenly opened his mouth and shot his neck forward right at Razor.

Razor teleported out of the way right as the dragon’s jaws snapped shut on him. Enraged, the dragon let out a loud growl before he spread his wings and took to the skies before he opened his mouth and shot his azure flames down at the ground where Razor once stood. From there he then moved on to his left, towards Filia, who had already ducked behind a nearby wall that was still standing and put a magical shield around herself. From there the dragon then moved over towards the table that Seth still hid behind as he covered the ground in his azure flames.

Before he even reached the table though, suddenly, he let out a loud roar in pain as something landed on him and stabbed him right in the top of his mouth. The dragon looked up to see Razor standing on top of it’s head with a spear stuck right in the top half of it’s mouth. Razor then pulled back on the spear and diverted the dragon’s head, and by extension it’s flames, away from the ground and up towards the sky. The strain on Razor’s muscles was enormous, but still he held onto the spear as he kept pulling back.

The dragon, not amused by this at all, stopped shooting fire and quickly spun itself around in mid air and flicked it’s head and neck to it’s right, which with the dragon’s raw power and momentum, flung Razor from his head like a gnat. The dragon’s throat began to glow again as he prepared to blast his azure flames at Razor again. Before he could though, Razor suddenly disappeared via a teleport again. Instinctively, the dragon shut its mouth and turned around.

It looked behind it, then down towards the scorched earth below it, then above since it wasn’t about to fall for the same trick twice, but the dragon didn’t see Razor anywhere. Then, suddenly, from behind it, several large fireballs flew right at it and hit it’s back. Upon impact, they all exploded and knocked the dragon from the sky and back to the ground.

Right as the dragon hit the earth, Razor, who had come from out of nowhere, ran right up to it and, with raw magic surrounding hits right hoof, punched the dragon in its face. While no normal punch from a pony should have even made a dragon flinch, Razor’s magically enhanced punch knocked the dragon back as if it were but a pony. Not one to let down with one blow, Razor quickly charged his left hoof with magic and punched the dragon again, this time knocking back at least a foot. Before Razor could charge his right hoof again though, the dragon suddenly pulled it’s head back and headbutted Razor right as he was about to punch it.

The resulting impact from the dragon’s head knocked Razor off balance as he was knocked back several feet onto his back. Razor bounced as he hit the ground, but as he rolled back up, he got to his hooves and skidded himself to a halt. Right as Razor’s eyes met the dragon’s again, he saw it open it’s mouth, and in it’s throat he saw it’s blue fire emerging from it.

Quickly, Razor turned to the left and ran as the dragon shot another blast of fire from its mouth right at Razor. Not about to let him go though, the dragon followed Razor and kept it’s flames following him as it scorched the entire field and street in front of it. Despite the intense heat behind him, Razor kept running. He kept running until he saw a wrecked building in front of him. Without stopping, he ran towards it and dove inside through one of the windows.

The dragon however, didn’t stop it’s flow of fire as it scorched the building continuously until the whole thing was lit like a birthday cake with over a thousand candles as it crumbled to ashes. After a few moments of continuous flames, the dragon stopped and admired it’s work. Razor hadn’t come out of the building, so at best, he was ashes now.

Suddenly, the ground beneath the dragon began to feel hot as he held up his claw off the ground to see what was beneath him. Etched into the whole ground around him, was a large fire seal. The dragon didn’t show any response though as within moments, the entire ground beneath the dragon exploded in a massive ball of fire that could be seen even from the edge of the city. Seth and Filia, as close as they were, had to keep their own magical shields up to keep the sheer heat from burning them.

Without warning, suddenly from the sky, several more fireballs rained down on the ball of fire and exploded the second they hit the ground. After a moment, Razor reappeared in front of the inferno, the heat didn’t seem to be affecting him at all.

“HA! Is that all you got!?” Razor yelled at the flames as they kept on burning in front of him. The very sight of him made his eyes sparkle a little bit for some reason as the smile on his face grew a little wider.

Suddenly, from within the flames, there was a stirring. Razor saw it, and quickly put up a magical shield, but it was too late. From the flames, a black claw that was attached to a black wing came out and backhanded Razor right in the face. The sheer force of the dragon’s blow shattered Razor’s magical shield like glass and knocked Razor back at least twenty feet.

Razor landed in the street behind him and rolled for several more feet as the dragon, enraged as all tartarus now, leapt from the flames and chased after Razor, ignoring all things in it’s path. It chased after Razor as he rolled on the ground for several more feet before he stopped, at which point, the dragon opened it’s mouth and bit down right on him. However, like last time, he wasn’t there when he closed his mouth.

Suddenly, from above again, Razor fell on top of the dragon’s head and kicked it into the ground below with magic encasing both of his rear hooves. He kicked the dragon’s head right into the ground as he dug right through it easier than a diamond dog. Not done, Razor encased his right hoof in magic and raised it to punch the dragon farther into the earth, but as he did, the dragon, seemingly annoyed by this, spread his wings, pulled his face from the earth, and took off into the air.

Razor quickly grabbed the dragon’s right horn and held on for his own life as the dragon flew higher and higher into the air without stopping. After a few moments, Razor looked down at the ground beneath him to see that the remains of the park they had been fighting in was now but a mere dot in the map like surface below, yet still the dragon kept climbing. After a few more moments, Razor began to feel his grip on the dragon’s horn slip a little bit and he let go. Hundreds, thousands of feet, he had no idea how high up he was, but he began to fall right down through all of them as gravity took him back to the surface.

The dragon, sensing that Razor had let go of him, turned itself around and looked right at him, his throat glowing as bright as it always had. Within less than a moment, a concentrated blast of azure flames shot forth from its mouth right at Razor.

As he saw the flames coming towards him, Razor’s eyes went wide a little bit as he gathered up as much raw magical power in his horn as he could muster. The moment he was sure that the power he had was sufficient, he converted his raw magic into his own, orange flames and shot them up in one, powerful, concentrated blast right up at the dragon.

Razor’s orange flames and the dragon’s azure flames hit each other with the force of a train behind each. Despite the fall, and despite all odds, Razor still held on and fed more fire into his attack as he kept pushing on the dragon’s flames. Likewise, the dragon did not relent, not even for a moment. Both Razor’s and the dragon’s flames fought each other for dominance for several moments until they both suddenly exploded with the force of a sun.

The intense heat that came from the explosion was too much even for Razor as he had to cover his face. When he dropped his hooves to see above him, the only sight that greeted his eyes was the black dragon flying right through the explosion right down at him.

Instinctively, Razor teleported away right as the dragon snapped its jaws down on where Razor was. When he didn’t feel Razor crunching beneath it’s jaws again, he stopped and aligned itself upwards again as it looked down at the ground below. The dragon wasn’t an idiot; he knew that as something that had no way of flying, the only place that a smart being like Razor should have teleported to was the ground.

However, instead, Razor dropped in from above it again with a spear drawn and stabbed the dragon right through it’s left hand, and by extension, it’s left wing. The dragon roared loudly in pain for a moment before it spun around 180 degrees in mid air and flung Razor off of it’s wing and right into one of the building’s below it.

Before he hit the building, Razor put up a magical shield around himself as he crashed right through the building, out the other side, and landed right in the street below. Again, Razor bounced on the ground as his magical shield dropped the second he came out from the building and rolled for a few feet before he got back up on his hooves.

The pain in his hooves was enormous, as he not only had three rough landings on them, but had been punching something that was by all accounts, harder than punching through a wall made of metal. Yet still, Razor stood up and stood his ground, his breathing betraying the actual amount of stamina that he had left.

The dragon, it’s flying ability unimpaired, landed on top of the building that Razor had crashed through and looked down at him. He stared at Razor for a few moments as the two locked eye contact again. Neither one of their eyes left each others. The dragon made a low growl as Razor’s saw it’s throat glow again. The dragon however, saw and felt Razor’s breathing, and he could tell that it betrayed him.

At that, the dragon let out what seemed like a smile before it suddenly leapt off of the building and flew right at Razor with another loud roar.

Seth vs The Dragon

Rules of Nature (Platinum Mix) by Jamie Christopherson

I struggled to stand back up, as I was still in a rather severe amount of pain from being sent through that table. I looked around, and in the distance I saw Razor standing in the street, and the dragon flying right at him.

Even from here it was obvious that Razor was getting tired, and despite some obvious damage on the dragon, which did honestly surprise me, I knew he couldn’t keep it up forever.

Before the dragon could get him, I quickly teleported to Razor and before he had time to react or anything, I teleported both of us about 30 feet away.

The dragon then landed on the ground and turned towards the two of us.

“Razor, run!” I said to him.

“Like tartarus I will,” Razor said as he stepped up right next to me, spawned a spear, spun it around and lit it aflame with his magic. “I’m not done with this f***er yet.”

“Look,” I said to him. “You’re tired, and I can tell you’ve already used a lot of magic.” Razor took a few heavy breaths for a moment before he spoke again.

“What, this, this is nothi-” Razor tried to say before I interrupted him.

“Don’t bulls**t me!” I angrily said to him. “Look, just get out of here. Find Filia.”

“Why?” he asked, now seeming confused. “What are you going to do?”

At that, I looked down and said, “I’m going to try something, but if it works…… Then I definitely need you and Filia to be as far away from me as you can.”

Razor was silent for a moment as he seemed to seriously think about what I said. After a moment, he just nodded and teleported away.

With him gone I turned back to face the dragon, who seemed to be getting ready to shoot more of his flames. I just simply closed my eyes and thought, ‘Well I guess I have no other choice… So unless you want us to become the results of last time Rainbow tried to make pancakes, I suggest you help me out here.'

Suddenly I heard a faint laughter followed by a familiar voice, ‘Alright, fine, this seems like it could be fun.’

I then opened my eyes to see azure flames coming down at me and I instinctively put up a magic shield. As I did, I quickly looked down at my front hooves and saw my black coat slowly turning blue.

As the flames died, I dropped my shield and let out a laugh, a distorted laugh, and said, “I’ll give you a choice. Kneel before me or die you evolutionary reject.”

‘Boy that doesn't sound like a cliche villain line at all, General Zlop.’

‘Oh shut up!’

“What is this?” it said to me. “Another pony who think’s he’s somehow special? Do you really think that little trick is going to help you defeat me?" I didn't say anything at that. "Regardless, I'll just have to make sure to end this quickly."

I smirked at that and the words, “Bring it on,” came out my mouth.

I looked at the dragon who shot more of his fire at me, but I quickly formed a ball of magic around all of it before it hit me. Within an instant the fire died down from the lack of oxygen.

The dragon then lunged forward and raised it’s claw. Before it could hit me, I made a magic tendril shoot out from my horn and wrap itself around the dragon’s wrist, just like I did with Razor. The dragon then brought up it’s other claw, but I grabbed it with another tendril before it could do anything. The dragon pushed back against my grasp as it tried to get close to me, but I held it back. It tried to fly as well, but surprisingly, I was able to keep it from that too.

After a second of fighting, the dragon brought its head down low right in front of me and shot more of it’s fire right at me. I quickly put up a magical shield right as it did and its fire passed right over me like a rock. After the dragon stopped shooting it’s flames, I dropped the shield and headbutted the dragon, which surprisingly, actually did something.

The dragon roared in pain as if I had headbutted a normal pony and I threw it back away from me with my tendrils. The dragon landed on its back about twenty feet away from me. I couldn’t help but laugh as I saw this.

“Pitiful,” I said as the dragon rolled back onto its feet and let out a loud roar at me.

The Dragon then charged towards me and brought a claw up, but before it could slam it down on me I teleported on top of one of its left shoulder and pointed my horn at one of it’s scales, sampling it in a way.

By the time I was done, I looked up from the scale and was met by a dragon claw that like before, flicked me away like a bug and sent me into the next building, through a window. Thankfully I was able to put a magical shield over myself to avoid the broken glass.

I stood up and saw what was once a simple office building, though with some damages.

‘So is there a reason for scanning that scale?’

‘Trust me on this, I have an idea.’

‘Sorry, but why should I trust a thief?’

‘Because one, I’m not a thief, and two if we don’t defeat this dragon, we’re pretty much dead.’

‘Fine, what do you have in mind?’

‘Remember those stone gargoyles from Filia’s universe?’ At that I heard the voice laugh.

‘I see what you’re getting at. I can take care of this.’

I then teleported back down into the street and shouted, “Hey fluffy! You miss me?!”

‘Fluffy?’

‘Do you ever stop talking?’

‘Is that a rhetorical question?’

The dragon looked down at me and growled, but before it could do anything my horn lit up and my red aura appeared on several areas on the dragon’s body, each bit was around a single scale. Then I pull them all at once.

The dragon suddenly let out loud a roar in pain as about a dozen scales were spontaneously ripped out of it’s body. I then levitated them over to where I was.

Another distorted laugh came out of me followed by the words, “You know, they say a black dragon scale is sharp enough to cut almost anything, let’s test that, shall we?”

With that I sent six of the scales flying at the dragon right as he flew up into the air. Each one stabbed into the dragons gut and got stuck.

At that the dragon let out another painful roar as it held it’s injured stomach.

“Time to bring you back down to earth.” I’m not sure what the voice meant by that, but the next thing I knew, I teleported onto the back of the dragon’s left wing. I then I drove one of the scales into a cut that I assume Razor made earlier and slid down the wing, the scale cutting through it like butter.

As the makeshift blade cut through the bottom of the wing I teleported back to the ground and looked up to see the now one winged dragon, and the severed wing, fall down to the ground, the wing landing on an already destroyed building. The rest of the dragon on the other hoof, landed on the street in front of me.

“Alright, let’s finish this!” The voice made me shout as it levitated the rest of the scales around it, but I knew that this was enough. Using all my mental might, I am able to mutter the word, “No,” and forced him to drop the scales.

“No!? What do you mean no!? We… I mean, I, got this beast on the ropes!”

“Y-You’ve done enough. We don’t need to kill it.”

“Oh I see, you’re getting soft aren’t you Sethy-boy? Should I remind you what we did to Inferno and Dopple? So why not here? Is it because he didn’t insult that bitch of a wife of yours?”

“R-Rainbow…. has nothing to do with this, now let go!”

“And give you control again? Oh I don’t think so. Maybe now you’ll see what it’s like to just be a voice in somepony’s head. Gotta say I’m impressed that you’re still able to talk while I’m in control.”

I let out a grunt and shouted, “Filia! If you’re close enough to hear me, shoot me with that beam again!”

“What?! No! I…!” The voice suddenly screamed right before I felt a blast of magic hit me in the side and I fell to the ground. In my head, I heard the voice make a dramatic “Noooooo!” but it quickly got quiet.

From somewhere behind me, I could hear hoofsteps of somepony running towards me. Across from me, I saw Razor teleport in right over the dragon’s head and knock it right into the dirt, knocking it out cold.

“I didn’t hit you too hard did I?” Filia asked as she walked right up to me.

“No, it’s fine.” I said to her getting up.

“Okay, what the f*cking tartarus was that?” Razor asked as he walked up to us. "That's the second time you've done that. Seriously, what the f*** dude?"

“I’d rather not talk about it,” I said to him.

“Not talk about it?!” he said to me, sounding annoyed. “Last time you did that you nearly killed me, and now you just took out that dragon like it was nothing by cutting off it’s wing with it’s own scale, which I didn't think was possible by the way, then out of nowhere you stop and start arguing with yourself! Oh, and what else, oh yeah you said that your dad was the god of chaos earlier! I’m sorry, but no, just no, I’m not gonna let this go. Just what the f*** are you?”

“Razor, relax. If Se…” Filia began to say, but I held up my hoof to tell her to stop.

I let out a sigh and asked, “Are you familiar with a draconequus, Discord?”

“Yeah, it’s kind of hard not to be.” Razor told me.

“Well…” I said, taking in a deep breath. “He’s my father. He created me.”

At that Razor got a look of confusion and said, “Wait, what?”

“Yes. You see, Discord, he can make anything he wants with a simple snap of his talons, or lion claw depending on which hand he decides to use, but anyways, he got bored and with a snap he created me and my sister Screwball. Well, he created her about ten minutes or so before me, but that’s beside the point. So, here I am, a pony who’s technically not even two years old, but I have the body and mind of a stallion in his early twenties, and I’m already married to my dream mare.”

Razor just stood there for a few seconds to let what I just said sink in. After some time he said, “You’ve got to be sh***ing me. There's no way in tartarus that you’re two.”

“Almost, I will be in September,” I replied.

“Okay fine, but what does that ‘rage mode’ thing or whatever have to do with it?”

“Well from what I understand, it’s what Discord originally wanted me to be like, but it was sealed into my mind when he got defeated. Now it only really comes out when I’m either really angry, or in this I just sorta gave it control.”

“So it's like a split personality or something like that?” Razor asked, seemingly even more confused.

“No, I mean I was able to see what was going on and talk with it, but that’s about it.” Razor was silent for a few moments after that. After a while, he laughed to himself a bit and threw on a smirk.

“Dude, you really need to learn how to control that,” he said to me.

“Oh yeah, I need to learn how to control a being inside my head that only wants to destroy and kill everything it sees and the one time we were separated… Well if I went into that we’d be here all day.”

Then Razor said, “Dude, trust me, I can tell you’re stronger than that. I mean, you made it stop you from killing the dragon so….?” At that, his words trailed off a bit and he looked back towards the still sleeping dragon. “Oh right…. Do we still need to worry about that?”

“Don’t worry, he’s out cold,” Filia said. “I had to seal his wound with a spell to stop him from bleeding to death, but he’ll still never fly again.”

“You see!” I shouted at Razor. “I didn’t want to do that! I gave that dragon an injury that’ll affect it for the rest of it’s life if we all make it out of here. It’s even made me disfigure somepony else before, and it’s made me kill! You can’t even begin understand what that’s like?!” I then looked down towards the ground on the verge of tears. “Because of that, I sometimes fear that I might go to Tartarus when I die instead of some great afterlife with my friends or something. I know it’s stupid, but I don’t know. I’m just not sure if I’m a good pony half of the ti-.” Before I could even finish that last sentence, Razor suddenly grabbed me by the neck and pulled me towards him. I looked right into his eyes, the expression on his face was suddenly different, like he was suddenly more serious, and the look in his eyes, he was glaring at me.

“You’re not the only one that has to live with a monster inside him every single day,” he said to me. After a few moments, he let me go and started walking towards the tower. “Consider yourself lucky that in your case its actions aren’t entirely your fault.”

I wanted to ask him for some clarification on exactly what he meant by that, but I didn’t even know how to even begin to ask. I looked at Filia, but she just shrugged at me.

After couple of minutes, or at least what I thought felt like minutes, It really was hard to tell how much time has passed by here, we reached the High Tower.

“Okay you two, stand next to the tower and face each other from a couple of inches apart.” Filia ordered.

We did so, but Razor then asked, “So Filia, are you sure this will work?”

“To be honest, I have no idea, but it’s our best hope.” I wasn’t really sure how to feel about that.

With that she backed up about five feet away from us and her horn was soon covered by her blue aura. Then two beams of blue magic came from her horn and went into the both of ours. Now, I couldn’t see mine, but I noticed that around Razor’s horn was a mix of her blue aura and his green aura, so I could only imagine that it the same thing was happening with mine too.

Then, as if on their own, beams of magic shot out from both his horn and my horn and into the side of the force field surrounding the tower.

“Okay, now you two try to walk backwards, but be careful, the forcefield may be heavy.”, Filia told us.

We did as she said, and at first it seemed fine, but then once we were about a foot apart I found it harder to take the next step back. It felt as if I was trying to pull down a locked steel door using nothing but my telekinesis. Across from me I could see Razor struggling a bit as well.

Still, we kept on walking back. Despite the fact that I felt that I was on the verge of a migraine, I could only imagine the others felt the same, I suddenly heard something that almost sounded like plastic wrapping being ripped.

I glance at the forcefield and saw a small hole about the size of an apple. Once I realized that this was actually working, I kicked it into high gear, using all my strength despite the mental strain to pull this hole and make it bigger.

Then, after some time I looked again and I see that we did it. The hole was big enough for a pony to get through.

“Yes, now hold that for…” Filia began to say, but she was suddenly interrupted by the sound of her getting hit.

With her gone the spell broke and the hole started to slowly close.

“Well look at we got here, lad,” I turned my head to see the blue minotaur from yesterday, though he had some visible bruises and his left horn was chipped. With him was a buffalo with some burnt fur.

“You idiots!” Razor shouts at the two as he created another fireball.

The next thing I knew, I felt a magical grip around me and I was thrown through the hole with Razor.

After we landed on the other side, I got up to see Filia looking at us.

“Go!” She shouted, “I can hold these two off, go and finish this!”

After she finished that sentence the hole closed between us.

"Filia!" I shouted at her as I ran towards her, only to run right into the now closed forcefield.

“You heard the mare, let’s go!” Razor shouted at me.

"But Filia-"

"She's an alicorn, she'll be fine!" Razor said as he turned around and ran towards the tower. I didn't know what to do for a moment, but with Razor and I on this side of the forcefield and Filia out there, I knew there was only one thing we could do, so I hesitantly followed Razor towards the High Tower.

Author's Notes:

status: edited

Chapter 10

Rainbow Dash, after clearing the clouds for the day, flew out above the everfree forest where within about a minute she reached her destination, a small hut in the middle of the forest.

Rainbow knocked on the door three time and waited a few seconds. Then the door opened to reveal a certain zebra.

“Well this is a surprise, what brings you here from out of the skies?” Zecora asked Rainbow.

“Hey, Zecora, I… I need your help... It’s about Seth.” Rainbow said.

“Are you and your husband having trouble in bed? Is that why you stopped by my shed? A remedy I can make, but I will need to stop by the lake.”

“What?! Oh no no no no no. We’re fine there, trust me. It’s just… Seth’s gone missing. Yesterday he disappeared right in front of me and Twilight, and we haven’t seen him since. Twilight even tried a tracker spell, but it didn't work. I just thought maybe you could think of something.”

Zecora thought about that for a few seconds and said, “I may be able to help you see the location of your spouse, follow me, Rainbow Dash, into my house.”

The two mares then walked into Zecora's hut where she grabbed two bottles full of liquid, one red, one blue, as well as a bag of green powder.

“So, what are you going to do with those exactly?” Rainbow asked.

Zecora sat down at her cauldron and motioned for Rainbow to sit down next to her, “With these ingredients and this pot, we may see Seth no matter where he is to trot.” With that, Zecora poured both bottles into the pot at the same time. The liquids mixed to form a purple color. Then as soon as she was done with that, Zecora held up the powder and said, “Above my head this powder I rise, bring the image of Seth Disarmonia before our eyes.” She then threw the powder into the pot, creating a cloud of smoke which quickly cleared.

Suddenly, in the liquid, an image of two ponies appeared. Both of them were unicorn stallions, one was black, and the other was more of a dark grey. They appeared to be running towards some sort of tall building.

“Seth!” Rainbow shouted happily.

“Before you rejoice, I am sorry to tell you that he cannot hear your voice.”

Rainbow looked down at the cauldron and said, “Yeah I kinda figured that. At least now I know that he’s okay. Whose that pony that he's with though? I don't recognize him.” Zecora just shrugged at that, signaling that she didn't know either. After that, the image disappeared.

“I hope this deed has helped you in your time of need.”

“Yeah it did, thank you, Zecora,” after a few seconds Rainbow said, “Hey Zecora could I ask you something?”

“What do you want to know? Will it help your woe?”

“I’m just wondering why when I said I needed your help with something that involved Seth, your mind instantly jumped to me asking for vihaygra?”

“You wouldn’t be the first married mare to come up to me and ask for such a remedy,” Zecora said with a sly smile.

Rainbow just raised an eyebrow at that and said, “Well, thanks for the help. Now I feel a little better. I’ll see you later.”

“I’ll see you soon, and have a pleasant afternoon.” Zecora said to Rainbow as she left her hut.

Daedalus sat on his couch reading the newspaper, as he was want to do. He was in the middle of reading an article about how the recent rise of actual gods basically proved that Celestia and Luna either were or weren’t actually goddesses when he heard a knock on his front door. With all the charisma of a pony of was ABSOLUTELY LIVID, he threw the newspaper on the coffee table before getting up and walking over to the door just as another frantic knock came from it.

“FOR THE LAST TIME!!!” he screamed as he threw open the door to see a very panicked looking Twilight Sparkle on the other side. “ I DON’T GIVE TWO MEASLY F***S ABOUT WHETHER MY ROOMMATE IS DEAD OR N-!!”

“THAT’S NOT IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW!!!” Twilight frantically shouted at him. “GREAT CTHULHU HAS RISEN FROM HIS SLUMBER AND HE’S ATTACKING PONYVILLE!!!”

At that, Daedalus’s eyes suddenly went as wide as dinner plates, but that only lasted for a second before his expression returned to that of a pony who could give less than zero f***s and closed the door in Twilight’s face.

Daedalus’ Finest Hour

Il Triello (The Trio) by Ennio Morricone

Daedalus stood there with his hoof on the door for a few moments before he took in a deep breath, and then released. He then slowly dropped his hoof to the floor and spun around. He stood there for a only a moment before he stomped his hoof on the floor and looked up with all the confidence and vigor of a pony who knew what he had to do, a pony with a purpose.

With his head held high, he walked towards the back of his house. Past the living, past the kitchen and under the stairs, he encountered a door. A door that he never normally opened, as he normally had no need to go beyond the portal that was this door, but today, today he did. He opened the door to the cellar and looked down the very dimly lit stairwell that led into the unknown depths of the cellar.

Without slowing down or an ounce of hesitation, Daedalus descended the steps into the cellar, the light from upstairs providing more than enough light for him to see.

The cellar of Razor and Daedalus’ house was lined with all kinds of things, trinkets, and various other miscellaneous objects that Daedalus didn’t normally keep anywhere else in this house. Wine, architecture plans, old photos, books, all of it was here, but there was only one thing down here that Daedalus needed, and he knew just where to find it.

Past the wine, and past the old photos, Daedalus walked through the cellar until he reached one particular book shelf. The contents of said shelf weren't anything to brag about, nor were they anything out of the ordinary really. Sure, Twilight Sparkle would have liked to have gotten her hooves on some of them, but it wasn’t like Daedalus wasn’t the only pony who had copies of these. However, none of them interested Daedalus.

Using his wings, Daedalus flew up a bit until he reached the seventh level of the shelf. Five books over from the left, he found the one he was looking for. Once he found the one, he pulled it off the shelf, and then another one, and then another, and another. With those three books gone, behind them lay the object of Daedalus sought. Behind the books, was a very intricate lock. A lock designed by Daedalus himself. A lock that only he knew how to open. A lock that was as much a part of the shelf and the house as Daedalus was himself.

Without an ounce of hesitation, again, Daedalus stuck his hoof into the lock and twisted it in a way that only he knew how. After a series of clicks, the lock finally opened, and Daedalus pulled his hoof away as the secret compartment behind the shelf guarded by the lock opened. Behind the lock, hidden by everything else in the cellar, lay a secret that not even Razor knew. Something that not even Daedalus parents knew, that nopony knew.

Again, without even an ounce of hesitation, doubt, or even emotion, for he had none, Daedalus reached into the secret compartment behind the shelf and pulled out a brown, leather bound book. He brought the book close to him and blew all of the dust off it it as he held it in his hooves.

As he slowly descended from the air, he opened the book and silently flipped through it for a moment. After a few flips, his eyes caught something, something he needed. At that sight, the brimming confidence in him seemed to increase a thousandfold as he closed the book and looked up.

“I am needed,” he said.

After a few more minutes, the front door to his house opened up again, and Twilight Sparkle saw Daedalus standing in the doorway with the book tucked under his left wing. Without saying anything, he walked out of his house and towards Ponyville. Twilight followed behind him, the look on her face betrayed her actual thoughts. She was nervous, afraid even. She was sweating bullets, and even twitching a little bit, but Daedalus… Daedalus showed nothing.

He just walked towards Ponyville with his head held high, because that was what he was. A pony who showed no fear, no anger, no hope, no compassion, no greed, no love. He was a pony who gave absolutely zero f***s.

Author's Notes:

status: edited

Chapter 11

So the plan seemed simple enough. Step one, get into the tower, step two, find The Stallion in the High Tower, step three, kick his flank. There was just one major roadblock in this plan, there was no way into the tower. No doors, windows, or anything. It was just a large column of stone.

“So any ideas?” Razor asked.

“I don’t know, maybe we can teleport inside, though that could be risky. We could try to blast a hole through the wall, or I can use my modified gem finding spell to tear down part of the wall.” I said while examining the tower, but when I looked over to Razor to see what he thought, I noticed that he was no longer next to me. In fact, I noticed that I was no longer in front of the High Tower. I was now surrounded by familiar cloud walls.

I was home.

“What……. the……. f***?” was all Razor could say as he looked around. All he did was blink, and suddenly he no longer found himself in the ruined version of Canterlot at the foot of the High Tower. Rather, he was back in Ponyville.

He frantically looked all around him, as any and all logic he had told him that he shouldn’t be here. After all, he clearly still remembered the ruined Canterlot and all the fighting he had to go through just to get to the High Tower, but here he was, in Ponyville, just as he remembered it. Frantically, he still looked around, looking for something that would let him get his bearings, when suddenly he turned around again and saw…. Golden Oaks Library.

“Razor!” a very familiar voice suddenly shouted at Razor before a single thought could enter his mind. Instinctively, he turned back around to meet the pony shouting at him, but when he did, his vision was suddenly filled with the sight of an oncoming Twilight Sparkle. Before he could do or even say anything, she suddenly leapt towards him, threw her hooves around him, and practically tackled him to the ground. “Oh thank Celestia you’re okay!” Twilight said to him as she hugged him for all he was worth. “You were gone for so long. You have no idea how worried I was.”

“Twi…. Twi...light?” Razor barely managed to choke out before Twilight suddenly pressed her mouth against his and kissed him. The moment his somewhat rational mind could comprehend what was going on, Razor’s body froze and his eyes shot open as went as wide as they possibly could as Twilight’s tongue wrapped around his. As many questions as he had right now, and as confused as he knew he should have been, any rational thoughts he had immediately flew out of his head the moment he remembered that he was, in fact, kissing Twilight.

Before long, Razor let go as he closed his eyes and leaned up into Twilight’s kiss. They stayed there for several moments, but for Razor, it felt like an eternity, an eternity he didn’t want to leave. Eventually, after however long was necessary for them, they let go and opened their eyes, if only to take a breath. As they did, Razor opened his eyes and stared up into Twilight’s. Like her kiss, he found himself lost in them, and he didn’t want to leave.

“What... the hell...” I said, confused at what just happened. I mean, seriously how am I back home? Was this all just a dream and I just woke up now? No, if it was then why would I be in the middle of the living room, unless I’m sleepwalking.

Boy wouldn’t that be the last thing I need. I already get visits from beings who want to take over Equestria and/or kill me in my dreams. The last thing I need is to start sleepwalking.

“Seth!” I suddenly heard from behind me, and I turned to see a certain rainbow maned pegasus mare.

“Rainbow? What’s going on?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“What am I doing here?”

“You live here, remember?” she said, raising an eyebrow. “Married couples tend to live together.”

“No, I mean… I wasn’t in here a minute ago. I was in Canterlot, but a different version of it that was in ruins. There were other ponies, minotaurs, buffalo, and even a dragon brought there to fight to the death. I even ran into Filia and this guy named Razor, but now I'm suddenly here. I don’t understand what’s up with this.”

Rainbow tilted her head a little and said, “Are you sure you weren’t dreaming or something?”

“That table I was sent through sure as hell felt real.” I muttered.

“I love you, Razor,” Twilight said to him in the sauciest voice he had ever heard her say.

“I love you too,” Razor said back to her as he continued to get lost in her beautiful lavender eyes. They stared into each other for what seemed like hours without even so much as moving. Eventually though, part of Razor’s rational mind found itself back home. Hey, um…. Twilight.”

“Yes,” she replied to him without even breaking eye contact. Her voice sounding more and more sweeter, and somehow… more sultry, every time she spoke.

“Not that I don’t like this,” Razor began, also without breaking eye contact. “But umm…”

“Oh,” Twilight said as her face seemed to immediately light up like one of Applejack’s reddest apples. It was as if she seemed to only just now realize what position they were in… in public no less. “Right.” The moment that second word left her mouth, she pulled back (much to Razor’s dismay) and got off of him. She then held out her hoof to Razor to help him up, which he gratefully took.

“Thanks,” he said to her as he good back to his hooves.

“No problem,” Twilight said, the blush on her face not lessening even in the slightest. Since he was up, Razor took a moment to brush himself off, but he only managed to get across one brush of his coat before Twilight threw her hooves around his neck again and kissed him again, this time without tackling him to the ground.

As surprised as Razor was that she kissed him that quickly again, he didn’t let it bother him for more than a millisecond as he leaned back into her kiss and slowly wrapped his own hooves around her. After what was in reality only a full minute, the two of them finally broke apart, though they still wouldn’t let go of each other, and Razor didn’t want to. Eventually though, after a few moments, he had to.

“What day is it?” Razor asked the moment any part of his thoughts managed to get away from Twilight.

“Thursday,” she responded to him.

“Thursday?” Razor asked, now a little confused. “How long was I gone?”

“About a week,” Twilight answered him.

“A week, seriously!” Razor exclaimed, surprised. Not that he hadn’t disappeared for that length of time before, it was just that in the universe he still knew he just came from, it only seemed like he wasn’t gone for more than two days. “Celestia damnit, Daedalus is gonna have a field day with-” Before he could even finish that sentence, the realization of just who he was talking about hit him like an inappropriate slap to the face. “Oh who am I kidding,” Razor said as he brought a hoof to his face. “He probably doesn’t even give a-”

“What are you talking about Razor?” Twilight responded before he could finish with a giggle, which confused him a little. “Daedalus is gone.” If Razor’s rational mind wasn’t back yet, it was now.

“Gone, what do you mean gone!?” Razor asked, now even more confused than he was a moment ago. As much as he wanted to see the guy flattened to a pulp and strung up by his wings, he was still his fr………… a……. really cool pony that he knew.

“Don’t you remember Razor?” Twilight said as she got closer to him, close enough for their muzzles to touch… almost. “He left. He moved back to Coltarado Springs after you convinced him that you don’t need him anymore.”

“I…. I….” Were the only words that could come out of Razor’s mouth as a mixture of all kinds of emotions flooded his now rational brain. It was strange, it was like he was as happy as little a colt at Hearth Warmings Eve, and yet at the same time, even more sad than somepony who just went through a terrible breakup, a feeling he wasn’t entirely unfamiliar to.

“You know…” Twilight continued when Razor didn’t say another word. “After…” As she said those words, she lifted up her right hoof and used it to part her hair around the base of her horn. The sight that filled Razor’s vision at that made his eyes go even wider than the house he supposedly used to own and his jaw literally dropped open. He even felt his heart skip a beat, and then another beat, and then another, in fact he was pretty much convinced that his heart had stopped beating at that point. Around the base of Twilight’s horn was a golden ring with a bright ruby in the middle of it.

Razor tried to speak, but he could barely move his jaw, or even breath much less form any coherent words. In fact it would have been a pretty safe bet to assume that all his bodily functions had stopped and he was now in a state of permanent rigor mortis.

Suddenly, not that Razor noticed immediately because of the aforementioned rigor mortis, Twilight’s eyes went wide herself as she let go of her hair and without warning suddenly shot forward and embraced Razor in another hug.

“Oh thank Celestia!” she practically shouted, the force of her hug forcing Razor to breathe in again the moment she let up on him since it pretty much forced what little oxygen was left in his lungs out of it. “You were gone for so long I was so worried that we wouldn’t find you before he showed up.”

“He?” Razor asked…. barely. “Whose he?”

“Hello, Razor,” a strange, yet very, very familiar voice suddenly said from behind him, and the sound of it alone was enough to bring Razor out of his rigor mortis like state completely as Twilight got off of him.

“No…” Razor said to quietly that even Twilight, who was still inches away from him, barely heard him. “Can’t be….” Slowly, Razor stepped away from Twilight and turned around. When he did, the sight that filled his eyes nearly made him fall over.

A few feet away from him, standing in the middle of Ponyville’s main street, well, the main street leading directly to the library, was a pony that Razor hadn’t seen in a long time. He was older than he was, much older. His coat was a little bit of a lighter shade of grey than his was, and his mane, while it looked similar to his, was much shorter. His eyes were also green, like Razor’s though they seemed like a more lime shade of green as opposed to Razor’s more bright green. Also it was hard to tell, but he was about an inch or so shorter than Razor, but just barely. Finally, his cutie mark was a glowing orange seal that looked disturbingly similar to the fire seals that Razor placed on the ground whenever he wanted something to explode. Not only that, but like Razor’s cutie mark, his was also on fire.

The longer Razor kept staring at this pony, trying to find something, anything, ANYTHING that would make him absolutely sure that this pony wasn’t him, the longer his body kept trying to fight a losing battle to stay conscious, yet still somehow fought on. Slowly, Razor stepped away from Twilight and started walking towards this strange pony.

As much as Twilight wanted to follow him, or Celestia forbid glomp on him and start making out with him again, she stayed still and let Razor go. She knew how important this was to him, so she didn’t want to interfere. She even started crying a little bit as she watched Razor go, she really was so happy for him.

Every step Razor took towards this pony seemed like a hundred thousand miles, but still he kept going. He kept walking towards this pony without even a hint of stopping. The whole time he never took his eyes off of him, he never even blinked for fear that if he did, he would somehow disappear. All the while the strange pony just stayed still and let him come, the smile on his face acting as the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.

Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity to Razor, he finally reached the strange pony. He stood directly across from him, he looked into his eyes, and even though he was this close, he still couldn’t believe it.

“Dad?” was the only word that could come out of Razor’s mouth.

Rainbow giggled a bit at that before she flew over to me and wrapped her forelegs around me.

“Well it doesn’t matter if that really happened to you or not," she said to me. "You’re here now, and safe with me, forever.” And with that she pulled me into a kiss, but for some reason it didn’t feel right, like there was no real love behind it. It was hard to explain.

I seemingly out of instinct pushed her off of me, and she gave me this look in confusion and asked, “Is something wrong?”

“Yes, something is indeed wrong. The way you just kissed me. It just didn’t seem right. I didn’t feel any sparks of passion or anything,” I explained as best I could.

“What are you talking about?”

“Rainbow, you know I love you more than anything, you’re my whole world, but I couldn’t feel that love at all just then, and now I don’t feel anything either.”

“What are you saying? That you suddenly don’t love me anymore?!” She shouted at me.

I almost didn’t know how to respond to that, but then a thought popped into my head. “No, I still love my Rainbow Dash, but you’re not my Rainbow Dash are you?” I said with a glare.

“What are you suggesting? That I’m a changeling or something?”

“Maybe. Let’s just see if you are who you say you are. When's my birthday?”

“September 17th.”

“Where did we go for our first date?”

“Sugarcube Corner.”

“What’s my favorite color and why?”

“Magenta, because it’s the same color as my eyes. Seriously, Seth, this is stupid. I’m your Rainbow Dash and you should be able to see that.”

Crap! What if she’s right? Wait, she knows so much about me, what if she doesn’t know much about the mare she might be pretending to be.

“Hello, son,” Firebrand Razor said to Mehrunes Dagon Razor as he lifted up his right hoof and placed it on his shoulder. “It’s been a long time.”

Again, Razor tried to speak, but again, he found himself unable to. Here, in the flesh, standing in front of him, was his own father. His own father….

He tried to speak, but all he could do was breathe, and the more he tried, the faster he kept breathing. Eventually, he was close to hyperventilating.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Firebrand said to Razor as he pulled him closer into a hug, which only made it worse for Razor. His breathing didn’t slow, in fact, it only went faster. “It’s okay, it’s okay.” Razor’s dad said to him in a very soothing, very calming tone that Razor knew could only come from him. “It’s all okay Razor, I’m here now. I’m here.” At those words, Razor’s breathing finally slowed, and within moments it returned to normal. After a few moments, he then closed his eyes, and then, he brought his own hooves up and returned his father’s hug, and he didn’t let go. “I’m not going anywhere.”

At the sight of that Twilight couldn’t hold out any longer as she started crying. She was just so happy for the both of them.

After what seemed like hours, at least to Razor and his father, the two of them finally broke their hug and let go of each other. On Razor’s face as a smile, a smile that matched his father’s, and even though Twilight could only see the back of him, she knew it was there. She somehow just knew.

Suddenly, before the moment was even finished Razor brought up his right hoof and punched his father square in the face, knocking his father right into the dirt. On his face, the smile that was there not even a moment ago had been replaced by a look of pure rage.

“Razor!” Twilight practically screamed as she took off towards the two of them.

“It’s all right!” Firebrand shouted back at Twilight as he held up a hoof. Immediately, Twilight stopped, the look on her face was one of immense confusion. “It’s all right.” As he spoke again, Firebrand slowly got back to his feet before looking right at Razor. He didn’t even bother to pay any mind to the spot on his face where he son punched him. “I know how you must feel,” he said to Razor as he took a step closer to him.

“You do huh,” Razor said as he punched his father right in the face again with his left hoof, sending him rolling on the ground again. Again, Twilight tried to step forward and stop them, but again, Firebrand held up a hoof and stopped her. Razor could only glare at his father with all the hate and rage that he wouldn’t show an enemy rather than a family member.

“I wasn’t there,” Firebrand said as he slowly got back onto his hooves. As Twilight saw this, she slowly started backing away before she turned around completely and took off back towards the library. “I took off when you were just a colt. I-”

“Like Tartarus!” Razor shouted as he ran right at his father and hit him with an uppercut straight into his jaw. The resulting impact sent Firebrand up into the air a foot or so before landing on his back. Surprisingly, he was still conscious. “I know I’m a lot of things.” Razor continued as he walked towards his father and kicked him right in the stomach. “I know I’ve always been better at fighting than anything else, I know that I’m terrible when it comes to mares, I know that I have an arson streak from here all the way to Canterlot, and that I enjoy it way more than I should, Tartarus, I even know that most everything Daedalus says about me is true!” With each statement Razor let out, he gave another kick to his father. Firebrand though, didn’t fight back. He just lay still and let his son beat him. He didn’t say a word, he just let him. After that last one though, he stopped. His father tried to get up again, but as he did, Razor punched him right in the face again and knocked him back to the ground and rolled over onto his belly.

“I’ve never been very smart,” Razor said as he walked over towards his downed father again, who was again trying to get back up. As he did, Razor just walked right up to him and punched him in the face again, this time, he didn’t go down. “I’ll admit it, I’m an idiot, always have been, and I probably always will be too!” At that Razor punched his father two more times, once in the face and once in the stomach, still he didn’t go down. “I’ll even admit that I’m insane! Yeah, I admit it, I am insane! I’ve always been insane! I never really knew what was right and what I couldn’t do! But I’ve always known one thing!” Razor shouted as he threw one more uppercut at his father, which again knocked him down onto his back. “I’ve always known what’s real and what isn’t.” Again, his father tried to get back up, only for Razor to kick him right in the stomach again. Firebrand lay there on the ground for a bit clutching his stomach, but after that moment he surprisingly got back onto his legs and tried again to stand back up. “And I know that my father is dead!” With that, Razor punched his father one more time, the blow from his one knocked his father back several feet.

“WHO ARE YOU!?” Razor shouted at his father as he lay on the street of Ponyville, twitching. “My father died when I was a colt! I remember it! I remember the day he died! I remember his funeral! I remember how much my mother cried after you were gone!” As Razor shouted those words at him, Firebrand again, tried to get back on his hooves. Surprisingly, despite the intense beating that Razor had given him, he was again successful, and despite some wobbling, he did manage to get back onto his hooves without any issue. “So you can’t be my father! You can’t be my father because he’s dead! SO WHO ARE YOU!?”

“Son,” Firebrand said as he coughed up a bit of blood. “I know it must be hard for you to believe, I know this all must be, but I really am-”

“DON’T F*** WITH ME!!!” Razor shouted at his father as loud as he possibly could before he could even say another word. As he did, Razor charged forward, pulled back his right hoof, and threw one more punch.

“Rainbow, I got one final question, and if you are who you say you are it should be really easy. What's your middle name?”

“Duh, everypony knows my name’s Rainbow "Danger" Dash,” She said confidently.

I grinned knowing that I had her now and said, “Wrong!”

“What?”

“You’re middle name’s not “Danger,” it’s Vivian. It was chosen by your mother,” I began to walk closer to her and continued. “So, Rainbow "Danger" Dash, who are you really?”

“I-I-I’m Rainbow Dash. I’m Rainbow Dash,” she then started to hyperventilate a bit while repeating the words “I’m Rainbow Dash,” over and over again. After a minute or so of that I then noticed that her nose started bleeding.

“Umm… are you okay?” I asked her.

She put her hoof up to her nose, getting the blood on her hoof. When she saw it she started to laugh. It started as a giggle, but it quickly escalated to point that it could only be described as the cackle of a madmare.

I then noticed her face. Her eyes were now wide with her pupils shrunk, and she grew a disturbing grin on her face.

I backed up a bit, not sure of what was going on as I noticed the walls turn grey like a stormcloud.

Rainbow just glared at me and said, “What’s a matter Seth? Don’t you love me?”

Right before Razor’s punch could connect with Firebrand’s face however, something happened. Despite his injuries, and despite the fact that he had been making no effort to fight back this whole time, faster than Razor could see, Firebrand lifted up his left hoof and caught Razor’s punch. Angrily, Razor glared back at his father, expecting him to have something to say. Something that was important enough that he finally made the effort to block his attack just say it, but instead, he saw something else. Plastered on Firebrand’s face, was a smile.

It wasn’t a kind, gentle, fatherly smile like he had previously worn, this was different. The smile on Firebrand’s face spread was wide as it possibly could, and he was showing teeth, something he hadn’t done before. That wasn’t it though, his eyes, the ones that looked right back at Razor were no longer the eyes of a kind, loving father, but that of a sadistic madpony. They had sort of a maniacal gleam to them, like he was less than two seconds away from hitting the first thing he saw and enjoying it. It was a look that Razor was all too familiar with, he had seen it before, on himself.

Seth vs Fake Rainbow Dash/Mehrunes Dagon Razor vs Firebrand Razor

Own Little World by Celldweller

Before I could even react she flew right at me and did a roundhouse kick to my face, which knocked me to the floor.

I got up and quickly shoot a magical blast, but she saw it coming and flew out of the way. Then she flew straight at me like before.

I then tried to make a weapon before she could hit me, but she got to me first and punched me in the face before zooming off. I stumbled a bit, still trying to spawn a weapon, but then she returned with another punch to the face. She kept flying back and forth, hitting me each time until I fell to the ground.

Before Razor could even react, Firebrand suddenly punched him across the face with his other hoof, then again in the stomach, and then again one more time in the jaw, all while still holding on to Razor’s right hoof. With the maniacal grin still on his face, Firebrand dropped Razor’s hoof as Razor stumbled for a moment. The rage that he felt even more present than before, Razor quickly got back up and threw one more punch at him. Before he could though, he was suddenly stopped by a lime green magical glow, a glow that quickly encompassed his entire body as Firebrand picked him up and threw him into the building to his left.

Razor hit the building so hard that he nearly broke through the wall, but he didn’t. Instead, he just left a Razor shaped imprint in the wall. Pain struck through his whole body as he slumped down to his haunches, only to look up at his father to see him walking towards him, the sadistic smile still on his face.

“You’re out of your league, Razor,” Firebrand said as he walked closer to him. “Deep down you always knew that I was better than you in every way.”

“Maybe…” Razor said as he got back to his hooves, the only thing helping him up was the pure, unbridled rage he felt right now. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t beat you.”

“Right,” Firebrand responded with a laugh. “You… beat me. Well I guess if you wanna try there’s really nothing I can do to stop you is there.” As he said those words, several fireballs appeared around him as his horn lit up.

Before Firebrand could do anything with those fireballs though, Razor suddenly teleported out from between the two of them. Instinctively, Firebrand disengaged the fireballs and looked towards Twilight’s treehouse, but he didn’t see him. Then he looked the other way and saw Razor far away from him running down the street away from Twilight’s library, away from him.

“That’s right, RUN!” Firebrand shouted at Razor as he watched him run away. “Run away like you always do! It’s all you know how to do! It’s all you’re good fo-” Before he could even finish that sentence, Razor suddenly jumped up, teleported away again, and then before Firebrand could say the last word, reappeared right in front of him in mid air and kicked him in the face with both of his rear hooves. The force of the blow knocked Firebrand back a few feet onto his back again while Razor landed on his hooves with the style and grace that he was known for. The look of rage in his eyes was gone, instead, shone only sheer confidence in himself. If there was one thing he knew he had too much of other than his love for fire and Twilight, it was that.

“Lets go you son of a bitch,” Razor said as he watched his father get back to his hooves again. The sadistic smile still on his face. Around them, Ponyville inexplicably became darker all of a sudden, but neither of them cared enough to notice. They only had one thing on their minds.

The second Firebrand got to his hooves, Razor created six fireballs and threw them all at him. Firebrand however, quickly created a spear with his magic and used it to block all six of them and took a few steps forward towards Razor. As he blocked the last one, he looked ahead to see Razor running right at him. Instinctively he swung his spear horizontally at him, but before it could even touch him, Razor teleported away again. However, instead of appearing somewhere, else, he appeared only a few feet behind where he stood and leapt right at his father.

Razor tackled his father to the ground and grabbed his spear with his hooves. He tried to wrestle it from Firebrand, but his magic held form. Firebrand fought back against his son for a moment before he lit his whole spear aflame in Razor’s hooves. The fire didn’t even touch Razor’s hooves for more than a second before Razor let go and jumped forward right off of his father just before he could swing his flaming spear at him.

Right as Razor landed back on his hooves he turned back around to face his father, only to see him jump back up and throw his flaming spear right at him. Razor quickly ducked before the spear could hit him and it flew right over him. Before he could do anything else though, he looked back forward to see three fireballs coming right at him. Instinctively Razor put up a magical shield to stop them all, and each one exploded upon impact.

Before the last fireball even exploded, Razor looked through the explosion to see his dad teleport right in front of him with another spear in his magical grasp. Firebrand brought the spear right down on Razor’s shield and shattered it light glass. Razor quickly jumped backwards, barely missing his father’s spear. It came so close he could see his reflection in the tip, but it didn’t touch him.

The literal instant Razor’s hooves hit the ground again, Firebrand stepped forward and swung his spear upwards with another burst of fire in the blade, but Razor swerved to the side to avoid it. Firebrand then spun the spear around his neck and swung horizontally, but Razor leaned back to avoid it, but just barely. It was so close to his neck he could feel the heat from it on his throat and on his bottom jaw. After that, Firebrand then spun the spear around again and swung downwards on Razor again. Razor quickly spawned his own spear and blocked Firebrand’s.

With his own spear now in grasp, Razor pushed Firebrand’s spear away before spinning around and swinging upwards, which Firebrand avoided easily by leaning back. Razor then swung his spear horizontally, but Firebrand blocked it with his own and pushed it up above Razor’s head before he suddenly disengaged his own spear, causing the embers were on the blade to fall from the air right down into Razor’s face. With Razor momentarily distracted, he lost control of his spear for a moment, Firebrand punched Razor right in the forehead right at the base of his horn, which made Razor drop his spear, which Firebrand tore from his grasp and threw it away with his own magical grasp before it evaporated into the ether.

Razor staggered back for a moment due to the punch in his face, but only for a moment. The moment he was over it, he ran forward and threw another punch right at Firebrand with his right hoof. Firebrand quickly swatted Razor’s hoof out of the way before it could touch him. Undeterred, Razor quickly pulled back his hoof and tried to elbow Firebrand right in the neck. The moment he tried though, Firebrand grabbed his elbow with other hoof and threw another punch right at Razor’s face.

Razor quickly ducked his head to avoid his father’s punch, then got close and grabbed the hoof that was holding his elbow. Before Firebrand could react to that, Razor teleported the both of them up into the air where he spun his father around and threw him back towards the ground. Before Firebrand hit the ground, he suddenly teleported away and then reappeared right behind Razor and kicked him in the back with his right hoof, sending Razor flying towards the ground just like he meant to do to him. Razor collided with the earth in front of him and bounced off of it before landing on his side and rolling a few feet back into the space in front of Twilight’s library. Firebrand effortlessly landed back on his hooves a few feet away from Razor, the sadistic smile still adorned his face.

“Really, that’s all you’ve got?” Firebrand said as he slowly walked back towards Razor. “Cause I’m not even trying here.”

I lay down in a daze, though still able to think. ‘I can’t keep up with her. She can fly faster that I can cast my magic, and even if I’m able to cast something she’ll surely dodge it.’

The next thing I realized was that she was on top of me and put her hoof on my face, brushing my mane a bit.

I looked at her and saw her smiling and she said, “I’m sorry I had to do that Seth, but now we can relax and be happy together.”

“I will not be happy with you!” I shouted, quickly spawning a dagger and jamming it into her left eye.

She shouted in pain and reeling back a bit as the dagger fading into mist.

I stood up and saw her glaring at me with one eye shut, blood running out from under the eyelid.

The next thing I knew she grabbed a hold of me and we flew through the cloud wall. Thankfully it was a cloud wall or that would have hurt, and started to gain altitude once we were outside, and I saw that the sky was full of storm clouds.

We were several of hundreds, if not thousands of feet in the air, and next thing I knew we were going down, her speed kicking up. She kept flying faster and fast towards the ground. It took a moment, but I realized what she was doing.

She was going to do a Sonic Rainboom.

Razor barely managed to get back up after that attack. Enraged, he looked up at his father, who kept silently mocking him with that smile of his.

‘You f***ing monster!’ Razor mentally cursed the pony that had taken the image of his father. ‘I’ll kill you! I swear if its the last thing I do I’ll find a way to f***ing kill you!’ That was what he thought, deep down though, he doubted his ability to even do that if he could. He’d always believed that his father was the best soldier ever, as long as he’d been alive, that was the one thing he always knew about him. Whether that was stupid, foal like idolization or if there was any truth to that belief didn’t matter now. If there was a way to beat this guy, Razor honestly doubted he could do it. The longer he angrily stared at his father though, the more those thoughts began to cloud his mind.

Suddenly, as if against everything, after one more look in Firebrand’s eyes, something clicked in Razor’s head. An idea.

After a moment, Razor found the strength and will to use his magic again as his horn began to glow, which Firebrand seemed to notice. Quickly, Razor lifted up his right hoof up a bit and slamming it back into the ground before he lit the grass around him on fire and sent it right at Firebrand. Razor’s fire slid along the ground like a snake as it traveled from Razor over to where Firebrand was standing. Before it could even reach him though, Firebrand teleported away again.

Expecting that, Razor quickly leapt back to his feet and jumped backwards towards Twilight’s library. The literal instant he was off the ground again, Firebrand suddenly dropped down from the sky and punched the ground right where Razor previously lay with enough force to crack the ground and create a small crater. Then, right as Razor’s hooves touched the ground again, Firebrand dashed forward and threw another punch, this time with his left hoof. Razor quickly swatted that one out of the way with his right hoof, but Firebrand was quick and threw another punch with his right hoof almost immediately after Razor deflected the last one. Razor quickly ducked his head to the left to dodge it.

Undeterred, Razor quickly charged his horn and stepped back a bit before he pulled back his right hoof. Razor then stepped forward and threw his own punch, but as he did, he created a close range fireball and threw it right at Firebrand, despite the fact that he was less than foot away from him. Firebrand however, quickly ducked to avoid both Razor’s punch and the fireball. As he did, he quickly spun around so that his back was facing Razor and kicked Razor right in the chest with both his rear hooves.

The moment he saw that, Razor quickly pulled back both his fore hooves, put them against his chest, and successfully blocked Firebrand’s kick. Like with his punch to the ground though, Firebrand’s kick was more powerful than it should have been thanks to the aid of magic, so the force of the kick sent Razor back a few feet. Razor dug his rear hooves into the ground to slow him down as he flew backwards. When he eventually did stop, Razor fell back to all four of his hooves and ran forward back at Firebrand. Firebrand’s sinister smile only got wider for a moment as he watched Razor run at him, his horn glowing in anticipation as fire began to cover his body.

Right as Razor reached him, he threw another punch, but Firebrand, anticipating this, jumped backwards before Razor was even close to him. As he did, where he stood, a clone of himself made entirely of fire appeared where he once stood. Time slowed to a crawl for Razor as he watched his hoof go right into the fiery form that was his father. The fire covered his hoof like liquid, and it hurt.

‘SHIT!!!’ Razor mentally shouted as he watched his father’s fire clone start to loose it’s shape. He knew what was coming.

Suddenly, Firebrand’s fire clone exploded with a force and radius so great that it took out the windows of the surrounding houses, including the ones of the tree house, and even singed the leaves on the tree house. It even kicked up some of the dirt and incinerated the grass surrounding the explosion, which effectively took out all of the grass in that little area in front of Twilight’s library.

As the explosion cleared, and the fire died down, in the middle of it all, surrounded by a green bubble shield, was Razor. Physically, aside from one singed hoof, which he kept in front of his face, he was fine. Mentally however, not so much. Razor breathed heavily as the weight of all the magic he had to throw into that shield to block an explosion that big that close finally took hold of him. He kept the shield up for a few more moments as the fire surrounding him began to die down.

As he dropped the shield though, his hooves actually began to touch the ground that was unprotected by the explosion, unlike the ground that was directly beneath his feet. Cautious, Razor took a step forward, only for his hoof to touch not dirt or grass, but glass. The explosion that Firebrand created was so powerful that it turned the ground to glass, and it was still hot. Razor immediately pulled his hoof back the moment he touched it. Even for him the ground was too hot to even touch.

From there he looked back up in front of him again. Firebrand was nowhere to be seen. All he saw all around him was the now glassed ground, and the few fires that still remained from the explosion. Still cautious, Razor quickly turned around and looked behind him, but he wasn’t there either. He then looked to his left, then to his right, and then all around him one more time, but Firebrand was nowhere to be seen. Razor didn’t let down his guard though, he wasn’t about to be fooled, not this time.

Suddenly, as Razor looked to his left for what seemed like the sixth time, he saw a flash of light. Instinctively, he ducked, but nothing flew over him, no fireball, no weapon of any kind, no Firebrand, no nothing. Curious, but still cautious, he looked back over at where he saw the light, but there was nothing there anymore. Suddenly, out of the the corner of his eye, a flash of light caught his eye. Immediately Razor turned around, but again he saw nothing, then out of the corner of his eye again, he saw it. Again, he turned around, but again there was nothing. Then out of the corner of his eye again, and again, and again the flash of light kept coming back.

All around him, Razor saw what looked like flashes of light in the distance appearing and reappearing like twinkling stars. The looked almost like… the flashes of a teleport.

Suddenly, before Razor could go any further with that though. Firebrand suddenly appeared right in front of Razor via teleport, flew right at him, and punched him right in the gut. Firebrand’s punch, combined with the built up momentum from all the teleports as well as the extra bit of magic he put behind it, was enough to knock the wind out of Razor’s lungs right there as he coughed up blood the moment Firebrand’s hoof made contact with him before flying backwards thanks to the sheer force of the blow.

Razor practically flew backwards several feet before landing on his back and rolling on the glass covered ground before he ended up a few meters in front of the door to Twilight’s tree library. The contact with the ground burned his coat and flesh, but he couldn’t get back up. Slowly, Razor rolled onto his back, the searing heat from the glass covered ground burning him and stabbing at him every which way as he did. He then tried to get up, but the moment he tried to move his hooves, they were suddenly encased in what looked like ropes made of fire that suddenly wrapped up his hooves and tied them to the searing ground beneath him. After they were done, Firebrand suddenly appeared on top of Razor again and stood over him.

“HAHAHAHA,” Firebrand laughed maniacally as he punched Razor right in the face again with his right hoof, and then again with his left. “Its fun isn’t it Mehrunes!” As he screamed, he punched Razor again. “It’s fun to kick somepony’s ass and beat them into the dirt where they belong isn’t it!? Come on, I know I enjoy it, so you gotta enjoy it too! You are my son, aren’t you!?” Then, at that, Firebrand stood up again, then stood on his hind legs and raised both his hooves towards the sky.

Through his blood stained eyes, Razor looked up to see the sky darken a little bit more than it was. After a few moments, lightning followed the darkness, and following that, right above the two of them, was what Razor could only assume was a swirling vortex of fire in the middle of the sky.

“No…….” Razor weakly said as that sight burned into his eyes. He knew this move, it was the one move his father knew that he could never pull off. “No…. not that…”

“Yes, that,” Firebrand replied as he dropped back down on top of Razor again and punched him in the face again. After that, he then brought both of his forehoove to Razor’s neck and started choking him. “HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!” Firebrand kept laughing as he choked his son. “Come on son! I know you’re having fun! I know you’re enjoying this you psychotic little punk! So let me hear it! Laugh!” Razor tried to breathe, he tried to do something, but all he could do was make a noise. “I can’t hear you!” Firebrand said with enthusiasm as he brought his face closer to Razor’s and loosened his grip a little.

“Ha……” Razor replied as he made his horn glow a little bit. “Ha……..” Then suddenly, the ground below them started to glow. Startled, Firebrand looked back up to see that the ground surrounding not only them, but Twilight’s library as well, had been encased in a giant fire seal. Instinctively, Firebrand tried to get away, but Razor’s telekinetic grip suddenly grabbed him by his throat and pulled him back down towards him. Above the two of them, fire began raining from the sky. “HAHA!!!” Razor shouted at his father with the same maniacal smile on his face that he had been giving him as the fire seal around them began to glow brighter.

Then, suddenly, the ground beneath them exploded in a fireball that dwarfed Firebrand’s in both size and force. The explosion rocked all of Ponyville while above them, balls of fire rained down from the sky and hit the area surrounding Twilight’s library.

When Razor opened his eyes again, he found himself in some circular room with Seth standing right in front of him. The look on his face was one of immense confusion.

I spawned another dagger and stabbed her in the side again and again. “Let me go you impostor!” For every word I spoke I gave her another stab.

“No!” She shouted, still flying. “We’re going to be together! Even if we have to die together!”

Suddenly I then thought of something. ‘Well it worked with the dragon.’

I spawned my rapier by her wings and with one quick slash, it severed both of them clean off.

The fake Rainbow Dash screamed in pain as I pushed her away from me and teleported away.

I ended up on the front area of the cloud house. I then looked up saw the wingless, fake, Rainbow Dash fall right past me, not even screaming anymore. She was only saying one word in a tone that I could only describe as heartbroken, “Seth.”

After she said that there was a loud sound of bones cracking and snapping as she hit the ground. Somehow, I just knew that she didn’t survive.

I closed my eye, strangely feeling sorry for her, though I didn't know why. When I opened them again, I was in some circular room with Razor looking back at me with a confused look on his face.

Author's Notes:

status: edited

Chapter 12

Razor and Seth just stared at each other for several moments. Neither one of them seemed to want to speak first. All they did was blink. Eventually, Razor broke the thin layer of tension that was there by coughing and bringing a hoof up to his mane.

“Let me guess,” Razor said as he scratched the back of his head. “You had to fight someone you knew?”

“Yeah,” Seth replied. There was a hint of sadness in his voice.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Razor said as he put dropped his hoof back to the ground. “Who was it?” Seth didn’t respond to that. Instead, he brought his attention down towards the ground. The crack in the stone floor at his hooves seemed a bit more interesting than Razor at the moment. “If you don’t wanna tell me its-”

“No, no, its alright,” Seth replied before Razor could finish. Despite what he said, he pawed at the floor for a moment before continuing. “It was my wife. I had to fight my…. I had to kill my wife.” He paused for a moment after that. Razor just remained silent, he knew he didn’t need to. “But she wasn’t my wife. I mean, she was, but she wasn’t. She looked just like her, and she was exactly the way I knew her, but she-” Before he could go on, Razor cut him off with a laugh. “What’s so funny?” Seth asked kind of angrily.

“Nothing,” Razor replied. “Its just that you sound like you have everything you want?”

“What do you mean?” Seth replied, now honestly confused.

“I mean what I said, you have everything you want,” Razor continued. “You know, most of us spend our entire lives searching for something we want. Money, love, friends, somepony to laugh at our jokes, whatever, my point is, most of us go through our entire lives looking for stuff like that, but you… You don’t need to. You don’t need to go looking for anything you want because you already have it.” Seth didn’t say anything to that. It was he seriously didn’t know what to say. While Razor didn’t know at all what was going on in that head of his, he knew one thing.

What he said, that was what he told him, but it wasn’t the whole truth, that wasn’t why he was laughing. In truth, what he found funny was that somepony could be so much like him, and yet so completely different. So different in fact that he was a literal spawn of Discord, and yet so similar in that he may have been just as nuts as he was, and so different that despite being just like him, the experience he had was very different than his own. It was kind of funny to him.

“Okay….” was all Seth said after a few moments.

“Anyway,” Razor said as he turned away from Seth to look into the room they now found themselves in. “We’re not done here yet, so we better get moving?” With that, he started walking farther into the room.

“Wait,” Seth quickly said before Razor went anywhere. “You brought it up, so now I gotta ask. What about you, who did you fight?” Razor couldn’t help but smirk at that.

“Lets just say, somepony I hope never to see again,” Razor replied as he continued forward. Seth didn’t say anything in response. He thought about it at first, but in the end, he kept his mouth shut and followed Razor farther into the room they now found themselves in.

The new room they were in was very large, and very round, that was the first thing that both Seth and Razor noticed about it. It was also made of stone, like an older castle. The walls were lined with stone that were arranged like bricks. The floor on the other hoof, was different. It was smooth, not at all like the coarse stone that made up the walls. It was as if they were made of two different materials. Neither of them could tell how large the room was.

That wasn’t the interesting thing though. Directly in front of Razor and Seth, and indeed lining the whole room, were wires. Wires, like a pony would find on an electronic device. Wires of all sizes, shapes, and even a few that were as large around as their legs hung from the ceiling all around them and lined the walls, ceiling, and even most of the floor. It was like there was a jungle of wires in front of them. There were so many that they couldn’t see forward. It was a miracle that the spot they happened to be in after they got out of… whatever that was, was the only spot in the room that was untouched by the wires.

Razor and Seth paused for a moment and looked at each other. After a moment they nodded and continued. Slowly, the two of them made their way through the jungle of wires as they stepped around, over, under, and even between them as they made their way forward. They even hopped over some and stepped in between some of the ones that hung from the ceiling, but they didn’t stop.

Neither of them were really sure where they were going, but they kept moving straight. If anything, they knew that would get them somewhere, if only another wall. In front of them, the jungle of wires seemed to get thicker as they continued forward with little to no end of it in sight.

Eventually, the two of them came across one giant wire that was as large as both of them that hung directly in their path. Slowly, Razor crept forward around the smaller wires towards it. He then grabbed it with his hooves, and with a bit of help from his telekinesis, he lifted it up, put it on his back and then pushed it back so that Seth could get through. Seth just nodded at him again as he quickly stepped through the wires past Razor. Once Seth was through, Razor let go of the giant wire and let it fall back to the floor. It swung a little and bumped into the other wires as it fell.

Beyond the giant wire, the two of them reached another sort of small clearing, if only because all of the wires here seemed to be organized here. There were still many that permuted the ceiling and floor. The moment Seth stepped into the clearing, he froze. It was as if he was looking into the face of eternity, or more appropriately death, itself. He simply couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Confused, Razor walked up next to him and looked forward at what he was looking at. He found himself confused. In front of them was a large blue box of some kind. The front of it was opened up and all the wires that were in the room seemed to be coming from it, but that was it. It was a giant blue box with the words “Police “Public Call” Box” printed across the top.

I just stood there, jaw dropped at what was in front of Razor and I. There was the TARDIS, wires coming out from it like it was being cannibalized for parts. The first words to come out of my mouth at the sight of this was, “Holy shit.”

Razor looked at me and said, “Why holy shit? What is this thing?”

I looked back at him and replied, “The TARDIS.”

“Isn’t that a type of sauce?” Razor replied, confused.

“No. What?" I said to him. "No, it’s a time machine. Back in my universe it belongs to a friend of mine simply called, The Doctor, I even went to the past on two occasions with him and his assistant… but I can’t imagine why it’s here, and why it’s like this.”

“Wait, seriously," Razor said, now even more confused. "Did you say a time machine? You must be joking.”

“Is it that hard to believe?" I asked. "I mean, time travel is possible. Hell, Twilight knows a spell for it, unless that’s another difference from your universe.”

Razor was about to say something, but he was interrupted by a voice coming from The TARDIS, “Donuts are the key to greatness!”

“What?” I said in confusion.

“Wait, this thing can talk?” Razor asked me.

"We couldn't kill it," it said.

“I guess it does," I said to him. "I never knew that.”

“You know not of the-the-the psychic penguins!" The TARDIS shouted. Though to be more accurate it wasn't so much shouting as it was putting words in our heads. That was the only way I could really describe it. "That which is not dead can eternal lie! She lives in despair now! I am the spoon! Yellow skin, silver hair, black eyes. And with strange aeons even death may die! Rose are red, red is blue, aww my breadsticks! The abyss..... it speaks.... It came from there!”

I took a few steps forward and said, “Umm… hello… TARDIS.”

“Hello! I’m sexy,” The TARDIS said.

“Ummm…… sure." I said. "What happened here? Who or what did this to you?”

“There is more to life than what you see," it said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“She became like goddess! Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, GET IN THE VAN! It didn't matter how powerful.”

“What?” I said. "Just tell me. What happened?"

“... They all died.”

“Wait who died? Do you mean the beings of this universe? How did they die?”

The TARDIS was silent for a few seconds before it started shouting again, “Disco dance! Disco dance! 8 ducks are eating tiddlywinks! ! She couldn't save him, she couldn't save her, she couldn't save any of them. He laughs at pain! Bondage is what I know best! It destroyed us! I am a small potato, and I believe in you, you can do the thing!”

I just stood there and tried to make sense of what The TARDIS was saying, trying to see if there was a method to the madness, when I heard Razor suddenly call me from across the room.

“Yo, Seth!” Razor shouted as the TARDIS kept spouting off more random gibberish. It took him a moment, but Seth tore his attention away from the TARDIS and walked over towards Razor.

“It was very big. Bigger than a pinecone. Bigger than the color yellow. What is orange?” The TARDIS kept going on as Seth walked away from it.

Behind the TARDIS, beyond more wires, was another wall, and built into that wall, was an exit, and exit that led to a staircase.

“Come on,” Razor said to Seth as he started walking forward around the TARDIS towards the exit. Seth took a step forward, but no more than that. Instead, he looked back at the TARDIS, which continued to spout off nonsense.

“Pretty lady. Silly lady, Dead lady,” it said.

“Come on,” Razor said back to Seth. “Its not like we’re gonna do it any good standing here.” With that, Razor continued off towards the exit. Seth looked back at him, then back at the TARDIS, then back at Razor. He stayed there for a minute. In his head, a battle rage on regarding what to do, but it didn’t last long. He knew what needed to be done. Even though it pained him to now, he took in a deep breath, then exhaled as he ran around the TARDIS towards Razor.

It took Razor and Seth a few moments, but eventually they did make it through the wires to the exit. The voice of the TARDIS got weaker and weaker the farther away they moved from it.

“We. Could. Not. Win,” was the last thing they heard from it as they started climbing the staircase. Seth stopped for a moment and looked back at the TARDIS, but no more than that as he continued on up the staircase with Razor. By the time the two of them were no more than a few steps up the staircase, the voice of the TARDIS had died out completely.

Unfortunately for both Seth and Razor, the staircase they had just walked into was a spiral staircase. It went up for quite a long ways with no end seemingly in sight, but still, neither of them faltered or slowed down. If there was an end to this, they knew it would be at the top of this staircase. They didn’t know how they knew that, they just did.

“Hey, Razor, can I ask you something?” Seth asked as they climbed the staircase.

“Sure,” Razor replied.

“Well…” Seth began, unsure of what to say. “When we do this, if we do this… We’re going to go back to our home universes, right. Either that or die… I really hope its the former.”

“Yeah, you and me both,” Razor replied.

“Well, in either case, its not like we’re ever going to see each other again, and it never really hurts to ask, so…” Seth continued, but slowed for a moment at the end there.

“So what?” Razor continued before Seth could say another word. “What do you wanna know?”

“Well…” Seth continued. “After we defeated that dragon, you said that I wasn’t the only one that had to live with a monster inside them.”

“Yeah,” Razor replied.

“But you also said that I should be glad that its actions aren’t entirely my fault,” Seth said. “What did you mean by that?” Razor didn’t say anything for a few moments, but after a few moments, he started laughing again. “If you don’t wanna answer that you don’t-”

“No, it’s fine,” Razor said before Seth could finish. “And you’re right, its not like we’re ever gonna see each other again if we get through this.” He paused for a moment after that and took a deep breath. “Its nothing like what you got. When I was a colt, I used to get into fights. A lot. All the time.” Razor paused for another moment at that. Seth just quietly listened. “And I was really good… and I liked it. I liked it a lot. More than I probably should have. I liked it so much that I took any excuse I could get to get into another fight. I liked causing ponies pain. I liked knowing that it was my hoof that was punching them, that it was me who was knocking them into the dirt, me who was making them feel worthless, making them loose.” He paused for another moment after that and took in a breath. “It got so bad that I probably would have been sent to juvie or something like that if I kept going on like that.” There was silence for a moment after that.

“So what happened?” Seth asked, curious. “Did…. did you stop? Are you some kind of criminal or something?” Again, Razor laughed at that.

“I had this friend,” Razor continued. “The only friend I ever made back then. I’m still friends with him now. I saved him from getting beat up by bullies and well…. he helped me reign in all those feelings. All those thoughts, all that joy it felt to hurt somepony, he taught me how to keep it all in, and only use it when I need to, and even then… when to hold back. Tartarus, I’ll say it, he’s probably the only reason I’m anything close to a civilized pony and not some nut case on the run from the guards.”

“And…” Seth interrupted. “Do you still feel that? Do you still like fighting? Do you still enjoy it when you hurt somepony?” Razor didn’t respond for a few moments after that, but eventually he did.

“Yeah…” he said. “All the damn time, but you know what.”

“What?” Seth asked, curiously. At that, Razor, while still walking up the stairs, looked back at Seth. “That part of me, that's the monster, and I was it’s bitch for the longest time. So you know what I did?” Seth didn’t say anything, so Razor looked forward again and continued on his own. “I kicked its ass. I beat it’s pathetic, ungrateful ass into the dirt where it belonged, and I made it my bitch.” Suddenly, at that, Razor stopped and turned around to face Seth. “You want my advice on how to take control of that monster that's in you, here it is. Make it your bitch. Kick its ass any way you can, it doesn’t matter how, just make sure that it knows that you are its boss. It’s not the boss of you. Maybe it was at some point, but right now, it isn’t, and it never will be ever again, and don’t tell me its more powerful than you because thats bulls*** and you know it. So kick it’s ass, make it remember, you’re not its bitch, its your bitch.”

At that, Razor stopped and smiled. He smiled the first genuine smile he had since he got here. Seth, he just stared back at Razor with an unreadable look on his face as he tried to process everything he just said. That part at the end there, not a lot of it made sense to him, but he felt it. He knew what he was getting at.

“Well, come on,” Razor said as he turned back around and started heading back up the stairs. “We still got a stallion in a high tower to kill don’t we. Lets go.” Seth shook his head a bit at that as he mentally forced himself back on track before he followed Razor up the staircase.

“Yeah… um…. yeah,” he said as he followed Razor. As he followed him, he really took in his words. Whether they meant anything was something he would have to figure out later, but still… they made him feel better.

Eventually, after what seemed like forever to both of them, they finally reached the top of the spiral staircase. They reached the top to find themselves in a stone hallway. Directly across from them was another staircase that led back down, and to their right was a dead end, but to their left… to their left was a very large set of doors.

As the two of them stepped out into the hallway, standing next to each other, in front of them, were a very large set of double doors. The doors themselves seemed kind of familiar to them, but they couldn’t place it. They both stared at it for a moment before looking at each other.

“You ready for this?” Razor asked Seth.

“Yeah,” Seth replied. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Well lets not keep him waiting then,” Razor then said. At that, the two of them walked forward and with their magic, tried to grab the door, but before they could, they suddenly opened on their own, as if beckoning them to come on.

As confused as they were, neither of them really questioned it. They had come this far, anything beyond this was just another step closer to their goal. So, without any reason not to, the two of them stepped through the doors. The moment they were through, they closed behind them.

Beyond the doors, Seth and Razor found themselves in another hallway, but this one was different. It wasn’t like the stone workings of the previous rooms, nor indeed did it look like any other part of the High Tower. It was very long, and very ornate. Below their hooves, instead of stone floor, was a carpet, and on both sides of the hallway stretching all the way to the end, were very ornate, very elaborately designed stained glass windows. Beyond them, the two could see the purple hue that was the outside sky, with flashes of lightning adding to them. Between the windows were rows of pillars that also reached towards the end, and the ceiling was so well made it could have almost been considered a piece of art unto itself.

The more they both looked around as they walked through it, the more they felt their breath slip away in both disbelief, and fear. It wasn’t that what they were seeing was impossible or the fact that it was a much different room than the other ones they had been in. What scared them was that this room was even here at all, because they had both been here before. It was the throne room of the royal palace.

“You are the first ponies in a long time to grace this palace with your presence,” the two of them suddenly heard the booming, baritone voice from before say to them. Instinctively, they both drew their attention forward and stood ready for anything. When both saw what sit on the throne though, every ounce of confidence and resolve they had began to fade away like ashes.

Razor, when he saw it, his eyes went as wide as his skull could have possibly have let them, and his breathing slowly quickened until he was practically hyperventilating. His legs felt weak, barely able to support him, and he felt as if he could have been brushed over with a feather. Not because he was that weak, because he wanted to be.

“No….” was the only thing that could escape his mouth.

In front of both him and Seth, sitting on the throne, where Princess Celestia herself would sit, was an alicorn. An alicorn that was as large as Princess Celestia herself. An alicorn that had a lavender coat and purple eyes. Her eyes themselves were dark, as if they had stared into the abyss itself. Her mane and tail were almost dark purple in color, with a fiery streak of magenta running through it, and encased in both of them was a vast region of stars, almost like Luna’s mane, but somewhat different, as instead of just stars, they could also see galaxies and other cosmic phenomena in her mane. There were also streaks of rainbow running through both her main and tail, though these were only present at the ends and seemed to fade out as they went inwards.

As the two of them stared in awe of her, she stood up, stepped out of her throne, and slowly walked down the steps of her throne toward them, and that was when they saw it, her cutie mark. Her cutie mark was a magenta colored six pointed star with five similar white stars surrounding it.

“And I assure you,” she said as the baritone voice she spoke with died out and returned to her normal voice, a voice that both Razor and Seth knew all too well. “That you will most certainly be the last.”

In front of them, was none other than Twilight Sparkle.

Author's Notes:

status: edited

Chapter 13

Razor and I stood there in the remnants of what both of us remembered and understood to be the Canterlot Throne Room. However, what neither of us could understand was the existence and presence of this variant of Twilight Sparkle. This so called “Stallion in the High Tower,” which was obviously a blatant lie, unless it turned out not to be, but wasn’t about to check to make sure. Razor stood there, his knees buckling as he collapsed forward slightly before looking back up at the alicorn before him, her head tilting slightly as she watched this scene unfold before her.

“It would appear that you are shocked by my presence,” she spoke, that same velvety, soft voice that both Razor and I remembered echoing throughout the hollow chambers of the throne room.

“What the...,” I began to protest, stepping forward while Razor stood there. “What happened here?… What happened to you?”

“You mean why I built this tower and hosted this game of murder for all to participate in,” she teased, and I nodded in return. “Once upon a time, there existed a magical world called Equestria, inhabited by the very species called forth to fight in this tournament of brutality and bloodshed, and they lived, for the most part in peace. One night, a certain,” she flitted her mane, “princess found herself studying the stars and the movements they made across Luna’s night sky. One particular night, she noticed that one of her favorite stars had vanished from the night sky, and the following night, another vanished, until she noticed that with each passing night, the stars closer to her world had vanished into absolute darkness. She presented her findings to her mentor and the kindly and just Celestia investigated, but by then it was already too late. One morning, the citizens of Equestria awoke to see a large being entangling itself around the moon and moving ever closer to the atmosphere until at last, we saw it.” She paused for a moment as though the memories came flooding back to her and she attempted to fight off an increasingly painful migraine, though it proved to be ineffectual.

“The creature she discovered did not exist in any record or written bestiary in all of the libraries across the vast world she lived in, so she decided to name it: the Star Dweller. The creature’s form consisted of a black, almost amorphous shape with large, almost supernova colored eyes and vast claws that clung to the moon, but it stayed there, just watching us. Any attempts to communicate with it resulted in absolute failure and we were not sure of the beast’s intent until that day the reports came in from Zebrica. Creatures, nearly two stories tall, quadrupeds with mouthed tendrils descended from the sky, slaughtering hundreds, if not thousands in the first few hours, and when those few lucky enough to kill one accomplished this task, they soon discovered an even fouler consequence. Their blood was toxic, consisting of several dozen toxins, some known, but most unknown to ponykind, and whatever came into contact with it fell ill. Within seconds, necrosis set in and within a day, the body devoured itself in sores until at last what was left was a parasitic mucus of what was blood and flesh. The vegetation and fauna suffered quicker fates, merely dying off in seconds as the soil became black and toxic to the touch, causing the same necrosis as the blood.

“We had no choice but to genocide the remainder of the continent in order to prevent it from spreading, but by then, the creatures were already spotted in Equestria, Saddle Arabia and several other nations. One such thing appeared in Ponyville, just outside of the Apple Family’s farm and…” she stopped, her eyes streaming with tears, “I can still see Applebloom there, infected by the creature after Big Macintosh tried his best to fight it off, only to be devoured and the entire crop infected with the same disease. With no options, we burned the farm at night. I can still hear the shrill cries of Applebloom burning to death in the field. Celestia and Luna declared war on the creature, sending the greatest weapons of might and magic against it, but to no avail until at last, using our Rainbow Powers; we wounded the creature and celebrated with gaiety at the thing’s short retreat away from our space.

“Until the following morning when the news came to Ponyville and sent the mare into a state of absolution and despair.”

“Cadence!” Shining Armor screamed as he ran into the palace, drawing his wife’s attention as he used his magic to lock the doors shut. He staggered towards the approaching mare, bleeding profusely as he removed his helmet, the screams echoing from the surrounding cityscape against the palace walls and windows, penetrating those left open.

“Shining, what’s wrong?” she cried as she embraced him. “Please tell me it’s dead, that thing is dead, that creature it sent is…”

“All of my stallions... gone in a single instance,” he muttered, the door now being banged upon by Celestia and Luna knew what.

“Some eaten, others vaporized where they stood but all of them are gone…”

The door burst open to reveal a towering stallion-like creature, its coat and mane black as the very abysmal space from whence it arrived and eyes in the color of the very supernovas it dwelled amongst. Its wings outstretched like those of a hybrid of thestral, pegasi and dragon wings with a mane and tail dancing with an entire cosmos burning and flashing bright. The beast’s horn glowed a hellfire of dazzling light as hundreds of tendrils snaked throughout the room, clutching onto Shining Armor and dragging him towards it.

“SHINING!” Princess Cadence screamed as her husband was torn limb from limb as the beast unhinged its jaw and devoured the unicorn prince, the tendrils sucking up whatever spilled forth. “DAMN YOU TO TARTARUS!” she screamed as she launched a magical attack at it but the thing simple devoured the energy as though it were but food for it to sate its hunger.

".̴mul҉i̵hįn̷ ҉ni e͟uqm̢e͝t̴c͟o͢n ib̴er͢E͟ c͏enod ̸tedice̡d ͢mur̀a̢lucel҉om ̢ęaluc̴įt̡ra͢p͠ ҉tn̷u͟s xade ͠su͢dn͠u͞m̴ te as̀p̧i̵ ̡te ,śov̷ e͘t͜na tn̕ureuf ́iu͜q ̡,i͟rtse͞uqe s҉e҉tal̕u͟cit̛r̷ap ̡erareps̸ tnu͟sso̧p͟ ma̕ir̴o͠tci͏v҉ ͜em̛ ̡s͜id͠e͞r͡C̴ .̢ti̵sbA .͜su̴p͠m͜et́ te ͏s҉upme̛t͘ ̕ai̶nmo̷ ̶,t͜sè su̢lut̸ìt̴ ̢iuq̵ esp͝i ͞m̨enif͞ m͟ur͢o͠s̡rev̴i͠nu te n͞as͜m̧u҉cca͜ e͝aixal͞aG sèlo͞s ҉met̨n͘ar͞ove҉d͞ x̀i͟r͟t̶a̶r̛ơv̸eD͠ ͢m̕ưs͝ ͟s̕u̷d̴nuM҉."

[Translation: You think that you equestrian particulates can hope to defeat me, the very devourer of worlds that has existed long before you and shall exist until the very molecules of the particles fade into the nothingness of the abysmal night. I am the world eater, the devourer of suns, the consumer of galaxies, and the very harbinger of the End of the Universe that sees all time and is all time. Perish.]

In an instant, the Crystal Empire burned brighter than Celestia’s sun and all that remained of the great kingdom was but an ashen crater and the star dweller.

“Thus, the alicorn reclassified the beast, not as a star dweller, but as a Star God and named him: Abaddon, the All End. The star god set forth thousands of starlings that slowly consumed the planet and its wildlife until all that remained was the palace in Canterlot. Downhearted, the mare summoned her friends and made one last attempt to strike Abaddon and end his life.” Twilight stopped and slowly began to cry louder and louder until the cries became laughter, the laughter of a lunatic as she glared forward.

“I WAS THE SOLE SURVIVOR!” she shrieked, her howl rattling the very windows of the throne room she stood in, “Left alone to return to Canterlot to consult with the two princesses and that mad pony of a traveler! During the first two years of the war, a strange pony in a box appeared to help us try to defeat the creature before it could move onto other worlds, but the only way to do that was to convert the palace into a large version of his box, the Tardis. He refused at first, citing something about it being wrong, but it mattered little once he was killed. I bashed his skull into the floor repeatedly until his brains came spilling out, and all I did was laugh and laugh until Celestia came to get me. We began to cannibalize the machine instantly, affixing the machinery wherever and however was possible until at last, we built the very tower in which you now stand, which was when Celestia enacted the final part of the plan.

“I was to absorb her and Luna’s power before the creature could consume Canterlot because they could not bear to… LIES ALL LIES! I MURDERED THEM BOTH, STOLE THEIR POWER IN THEIR SLEEP AND SLIT THEIR THROATS! I absorbed their power with honor and grace and TASTED THEIR BLOOD AS IT RAN DOWN THEIR NECKS. I also absorbed the Rainbow Energy from the box and after some force, the powers of the Tree of Harmony until I became like unto Abaddon. With the tower protecting me, I set forth to MURDER HIM, but by then he moved on from Equestria to devouring other worlds until at last I encountered him at the end of it all with only the two of us left alive in all of creation.

“WITH MY GODDESSHOOD, I STRUCK THE FELL BEAST but he did not falter, only bleed, and then he attacked the tower, sending the Tardis into a frenzy which was when I knew what to do. Amidst the attack, I climbed into the box, tore open a hole into the Time Vortex, and stared into it, absorbing its power until finally I BECAME A REAL GODDESS, A TRUE GODDESS AND STRUCK BACK, WOUNDING THE FOUL GOD WHERE HE STOOD! However, it was all for naught as Abaddon retaliated and began to destroy the tower, and thus I opened a gateway and fell through it into this universe that you see now.

“For centuries, I dwelled here, seeing all the possibilities and knowing all the outcomes as the VOICES ECHOED IN MY BRAIN! SAVE ME TWILIGHT! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP! Until at last I knew what would become of it all. Abaddon dwelled in all time, all space, slipping from universe to universe, consuming all things, conjecture of course, thus he would move onto others. After all, the All God Faust would never create something as foul as Abaddon and let it live, so I saw how I could save everything from ever having to feel the pain of watching their universe devoured by that nightmarish abomination. I would summon forth champions from each universe and make them fight to the death, destroying the weaker universe’s with the power of the High Tower until at last, the strongest would be left to fend for itself. In killing them, I would allow them to know true peace in the greater here to after and never let Abaddon destroy my friends’ lives over and over and over again.”

I stood there, not really sure what to say at first, but quickly two words came out of my mouth, “You’re insane.”

“What?” she replied, looking more than a little pissed.

“How the hell is destroying other universes the solution!?” I screamed at her. “Do you really think you’re being merciful by doing this? I mean if you a “true goddess” then couldn’t you try protecting those universes from something like this? Because it sounds like all you’re doing it helping this Abaddon ac-.”

“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!” she screamed back at me loud enough to rock the whole throne room. “HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND?!”

“I’ve faced something similar before…,” I tried to say, but was interrupted.

“What, you mean that pissed-off alter-ego of yours?” Twilight said as he horn flared with raw magic. “He was nothing compared to Abaddon! Just like how you are nothing compared to me.”

With that a dark purple aura formed around her, which quickly faded and was replaced by some kind of elaborate silver armor.

I reacted by spawning my rapier, but before I could even do anything, a dark purple tendril wrapped around my front right leg and pulled me forward. It then let go and sent me flying at Twilight. I tried to use this opportunity to get a quick slash, but she was much quicker, as she hit me with her own hoof right in the stomach, making an audible cracking sound. My rapier vanished and I let out a cough, spitting out blood onto the floor.

The next thing I knew, I was thrown backwards through at least seven of the remaining columns of the throne room, before I fell back to the ground. At least one part of that knocked the wind right out of me. I tried to stand, but all I could do was stagger helplessly as I saw Twilight begin to walk over towards me.

“You know Mr. Disarmonia,” she said she spawned a rather large scythe. “When I was looking into other universes and chose you to represent yours, I had high hopes for you. You seemed so noble, yet so violent at the same time. It seemed like you’d be a good bet for the champion of all this, but you chose to make an alliance, putting your trust in others while in a situation where you couldn’t trust anypony, and look where it’s gotten you. I mean your “friend” is over there sitting like a bump on a log and you had a hard time facing him. Now you really think you can defeat a real goddess?” I just stared up at her as I finally got back to my hooves.

“You want to know what the last thing I learned about friendship was, Seth?” She said as she stopped right in front of me. I didn’t say anything. “I might as well tell you, its the least I can do. Friendship is meaningless. Sure it can make you happy, and sure it can give you something to fight for when all hope seems lost, but friendship isn’t magic. Friendship doesn’t give you strength, it doesn’t give you power, it doesn’t do anything but give you things to cry about when you inevitably lose them. True strength, true power, comes from you.” As she said that, she held the blade of her scythe at my throat. “Comes from yourself.”

“You’re wrong,” I replied to her. “Yo-”

“AM I! AM I REALLY WRONG!!!” she screamed right into my face as she pulled the scythe away from me. “Really Seth, I would have expected you to know this better than anypony else. Why do you think you were my favorite to win this little game!? Think about it. How many times have your “friends” actually helped overcome anything? Inferno, Chrysalis, Drez, your other half? Did they actually help you defeat them?” I… I actually had to stop and think about that for a moment. “You get it now don’t you? They didn’t do anything for you. You defeated all of them yourself, by your own hooves, with your own power, and you still won. Even if Drez did kick your scrawny little flank, you still won. Sure, the only reason you won that one was because they arrived at the last minute and blasted him with the elements of harmony, but in the end you still beat him. You have no need for friendship, you fought your own battles, and because of that you’re stronger than all of your so called friends!

“I thought you understood that. I thought you knew what it took to come into a game like this and fight for yourself because you knew that from all the challenges you’ve faced, of all the obstacles that you’ve had to overcome, that's what made you strong. THAT WAS WHAT MADE YOU THE STALLION YOU ARE! But no, instead, you disappointed me, Seth. You formed alliances, tried to make friends, tried to work together, and look where it’s gotten you. One ally whose so hopelessly in love with me that he even now won’t raise a single hair on his coat to hurt me, and another who gave her pathetic little life just so that you could get here, only to learn the truth, and die for it.” That… that last part… I could feel my eyes go wide enough to break out of my skull.

“Yeah, your friend Filia Solis, don’t think I didn’t know about her, I see everything that happens in this game,” Twilight continued. “Don’t worry, she isn’t dead yet, but she will be soon. She’s strong, like you, but the minotaur and the buffalo she’s fighting, they’re stronger. Its a little known fact about alicorns Seth, while its true we don’t age, we can still die. We’re just harder to kill than most ponies, but it can be done, and her time is coming soon.” I… I didn’t… I couldn’t believe. “But I think we’ve talked for long enough.” At that, she held her scythe to my throat again, then brought it back and raised it above her head. “Don’t worry, Seth. Your friends, and your wife, they’ll all see you again… in the afterlife.”

At that, time slowed for me, and I closed my eyes to not watch her bring the blade down on me.

‘I’m sorry.’ I thought to myself, ‘I’m sorry Rainbow, girls, and everypony else. I failed you. I tried. I really did, but I failed. I’m so-’

“CLANK!”

That sound, the sound of what I knew to be metal hitting metal drove me from my thoughts. Immediately, I opened my eyes to see Razor standing in between me and Twilight, blocking her scythe with his spear.

“Step away from the idiot you bitch!” Razor shouted at her, which surprised Twilight more than anything.

“Razor, it’s me, Twilight,” she said to him in the same, soft voice that both Razor and I knew her for. “Don’t you-”

“YOU’RE NOT TWILIGHT!” Razor shouted at her before she could finish and threw a large fireball right at her face.

Seth and Razor vs The Stallion in the High Tower

Final Destination Theme - Super Smash Bros Brawl

With all the strength, all the power he could muster, Razor pushed back against Twilight’s scythe and threw a concentrated burst of fire upwards right at her head, causing Twilight to double back a bit and turn her head away as the flames hit her face. With her momentarily distracted, Razor swung his spear forward, tore her scythe from her magical grasp and knocked it away from her while Seth quickly jumped back to his feet and ran out from behind Razor to his right.

With Seth out of the way, Razor then spun his spear around and thrust it right at Twilight. Before he could even touch her however, Twilight quickly recovered and, with her eyes filled with nothing but contempt, spawned an axe with a blade that was a massive as one of her wings and deflected Razor’s blow with it. Before he could even have a chance to react, with a speed that seemed to defy a weapon that size, Twilight spun the axe around and swung downwards right on Razor. Time nearly froze for Razor as he saw the massive blade of the axe coming down at him, and he nimbly jumped backwards right as it buried itself into the floor where he stood. The moment Twilight’s axe hit the ground however, several spikes that seemed to made of the same material as the floor came up from the ground and shot right in Razor’s direction.

Razor barely managed to avoid those as he could see the tip of one of them mere inches away from his eye as he teleported several feet away from both her and them. The literal instant he reappeared however, Twilight suddenly appeared in front of him, raised her axe, and brought it right down on him again. Quickly, Razor held up his spear and blocked it, but just barely. Razor barely held on as Twilight, with her alicorn strength, pushed the blade of the massive axe closer and closer to his face. He could see his reflection in the blade again, and past them, he could see Twilight’s eyes looking down at him. In them, he couldn't see anything but malice, contempt, but most of all, anger. The longer he looked into her eyes, the most his magical strength began to buckle as he struggled to hold up the massive weapon she was pushing down on him.

Suddenly, from Razor’s right, Seth suddenly jumped out of nowhere with his rapier spawned and swung at Twilight’s head. Twilight, barely taking her attention off Razor, noticed him. Before his sword could even touch her, Twilight simply raised her left hoof and blocked Seth’s blade with her metal hoof guard. With her momentarily distracted again, Razor quickly grabbed the blade Twilight’s axe with his own magic and started pushing her back. As hard as he tried though, he couldn’t get any farther than the blade. Twilight’s magic was strong. As he pushed her back, Twilight threw her hoof forwards and swatted Seth off of her like a gnat. Seth however, quickly back flipped and landed on his hooves not too far from Razor.

Still focusing on the axe, Razor pushed back on Twilight again with his own magic helping him as he feet practically dug into the solid palace floor beneath him. Seeing this, Seth ran forward right at Twilight and swung his sword upwards with his sword right at Twilight’s neck. Before his sword could even touch her, however, Twilight suddenly teleported away again with a flash of purple light as Razor, suddenly pushing back against nothing, swung upwards with his spear. Both Seth and Razor looked around, but Twilight was nowhere to be seen. Then, suddenly, another “ping noise” hit their ears as Twilight appeared behind them. Neither of them looked, but somehow, they both instinctively knew where she was.

The moment Twilight appeared she swung her axe horizontally at the both of them. Seth quickly ducked while Razor leapt up into the air flipped over the blade of Twilight’s axe right as it passed him. As Twilight completed her swing, both Seth and Razor turned around and charged right at her. Twilight responded by swinging upwards with her left wing and hurling some kind of wind blade right at them. Razor quickly stepped to the left while Seth rolled to his right as it passed by them.

Twilight then raised her axe again, but before she could bring it down, Razor quickly grabbed its blade again with his own magic and held it in place. As he did, Seth ran forward and stabbed Twilight right in the chest with his sword. Then, right behind him, Razor ran up and stabbed her right in the chest slightly above where Seth stabbed with his spear.

“AAAAAAAAWHHHHHH!!!!” Twilight screamed in pain as the axe suddenly disintegrated into a cloud of purple mist. As it did, she looked down at Seth and Razor, in her eyes was a type of rage they had not seen from Twilight, not ever. Expecting her to fall over, both Seth and Razor held their ground, but she didn’t. Instead, Twilight spread her alicorn wings and flapped them towards the ground, creating a massive gust of wind that knocked back both Seth and Razor several feet.

Razor got his footing back first as his hooves skidded on the palace floor for a few moments. Seth had to take a moment, as he tripped onto his back not too far from Razor. Their purpose not lost to either of them, they both looked forward to see Twilight grimacing at the both of them before she spread her wings and took off into the air. She flew straight up and hovered in place for a few moments as her horn started to glow and crackle with lightning as she began to concentrated a massive amount of magic in her horn.

Quickly, Razor shot forward towards her as Seth got back to his hooves. He watched her for a moment, and his eyes widened as he saw the amount of magic that was being built up in her horn. Even though he wasn’t as well versed in magic as some other unicorns he knew, even he could tell that whatever she was doing, with the amount of magic she was building up, there wouldn’t be anything left of either him or Razor by the time she was done with it, and she was charging it faster than Razor could reach her too. The lightning around her horn only increased the longer she charged it, and soon, several lightning bolts began to shoot out of it in random directions, hitting several parts of the floor, ceiling, and even a few of the columns that were still in the throne room around her. Seth could only feel his eyes grow wide enough for his head as he saw this, but then he tore his gaze from her horn and looked down a bit, and then his eyes widened for a different reason. Both his rapier and Razor’s spear were still stuck in her chest. Suddenly, his pupils hit the edges of his eyeballs as an idea hit him.

Quickly, Seth charged his own horn with magic, and within moments his horn lit up with sparks of electricity as he threw as much magic as he could muster into it. Twilight didn’t pay him any mind whatsoever as she continued to charge her attack. In between them, Razor was just about to reach her. Seth looked at Razor for a moment, then back at Twilight. He had to time this just right if he didn’t want to hit Razor. He could tell what he was planning, and for that to work, he had to make sure he timed this just right. In between the two of them, another bolt of lightning shot from Twilight’s horn at the ground.

Then, right as Twilight finished charging her attack, Razor jumped up into the air. The literal instant he did, behind him, Seth shot a concentrated burst of electricity right at Twilight and hit both the sword and spear that were still embedded in her chest. Twilight screamed in pain once again as the electricity channeled itself through the metal of the blades that were still in her and shoot throughout her entire body. Even the tips of her wings started to smoke a little bit as she canceled her attack. Beneath her, as she kept screaming in pain, Razor quickly placed a magical barrier beneath his hooves and used it to jump up again. As he did, he created twelve different weapons with his magic, his spear, a broadsword, an axe that was almost as large as he was, a sword with a blade so thick that nopony without magic could have possibly swung it, a halberd, a claymore, two scimitars, one curved sword, another spear, a double bladed sword, and just for good measure, a rapier and covered all of their blades with the hottest fire he could muster at that moment. Every single one of the blades he created practically glowed with how hot they were.

The moment Razor was level with her, he swung the claymore first and cut right through her like butter, then again with one of the scimitars, then again with his spear, and then again with each and every blade he had. Every time he hit her, a small explosion came out where he hit, damaging her further. Twilight screamed in pain again and again with each strike of Razor’s blades. From a distance, Seth watched as Razor kept hitting her again and again. He half expected Razor to just hit her once with each blade then stop, but he didn’t. Even after he used every blade, Razor kept them all up and kept going. As he watched Seth made a mental note to remember this attack. Sure maybe he couldn’t pull off the fire quite as well as Razor could, but he could definitely pull off something similar. Little did he know that Razor came up with this move on the spot from watching something Seth did during their fight.

With one more swing of his curved sword, Razor hit Twilight across the neck, but he didn’t stop there, he just kept going, and going, and going, and going until the strain of the magic was too much even for him at this point. Beads of sweat ran down his forehead, and his face as he hit Twilight again and again, throwing more fire and more force into each strike each time as the rage in eyes increased and the reality of what he was doing set in. Then, finally, he swung his spear at her one more time, and as it carved right through her like a hot knife, it exploded right when it was in the middle of her, making her scream in pain. Razor then hit her again with one of the scimitars, making it explode as well, and then again with the axe, and then again with the double bladed sword, and then again with each one of his weapons, every one of which exploded with more force than they had previously the moment they cared through her until finally, only the broadsword remained.

With one last burst of fire, Razor poured whatever he had left into the blade of the broadsword and brought it to both of his forehooves as Twilight flopped in front of him. As he did this, a small smirk crept across Twilight’s face. Finally, Razor grasped the broadsword, which practically glowed with the immense amount of heat it was radiating, and swung it down on Twilight Sparkle.

Before he could even complete his swing half way through, a dark, purple, magic tendril suddenly shot out from behind Twilight and grabbed the blade of Razor’s sword. As it did, Twilight pulled herself together and looked forward right at Razor, the look on her face a…. gleeful smile. Before Razor could even react, Twilight swung her right hoof and swatted Razor away from her with enough force to send him flying backwards, making his sword dissolve into embers as he flew.

The moment Seth saw this, he dashed forward towards Razor and lept up to catch him the second he was close enough. Before he could though, Twilight suddenly pulled herself together and dropped out of the sky. The moment her hooves hit the ground again, a massive, purple shockwave that shook the very foundations of the high tower shot out from all around her as he hooves cracked the ground she landed on and caused both Seth and Razor to fly backwards from the sheer force of it.

Seth and Razor flew backwards several feet until they were right at the foot of the entrance again. Seth landed on his back while Razor landed on his stomach a foot or so away from him. Thankfully, Seth managed to catch him somewhat before the shockwave hit them.

Before either of them could get back on their hooves however, two more purple tendrils suddenly shot out and grabbed both of them by their ankles. Before either of them could react, Twilight suddenly pulled both of them towards her. Then, right as they reached her, Twilight spun both of them around her, and then extended her tendrils so that she slammed each of them into two of the remaining columns of the throne room before throwing them to opposite sides of the throne room, Seth to her right, onto the floor, and Razor to her left, into the ceiling, after which he promptly fell to the ground after hitting.

Seth was again, the first one to recover as he struggled to get back to his hooves. As he did, the first sound to hit his ears was Twilight laughing. She wasn’t laughing maniacally, like she was insane, she was laughing like…. like she had just heard something funny, as if Pinkie Pie told her the funniest joke she had ever heard. As he looked up, he saw her standing in between the two of them, her body looking no worse for wear at all than when they first met here in this Celestia forsaken place.

It… His soul might as well have evaporated right there. She had no visible wounds. It was as if everything Razor threw at her did absolutely nothing at all. Upon closer inspection, however, he saw a bit of a burn on her coat, but the moment he saw it, it healed and within moments, he coat was as pristine as it always was. Behind her, on the other side of the room, Seth saw Razor struggling to get back to his hooves as well.

“You know,” Twilight said as she looked between Seth and Razor. “As determined as you two are, you aren’t very good listeners.” She paused for a moment at that to giggle to herself again as Razor got back to his hooves, only to fall back down again as his knees buckled under his own weight. “You see boys, you may think you got me all figured out, but theres one thing that, if you’d paid attention, you would have known already.” She paused for another moment at that to look between the two of them. “I’m a bucking alicorn! My magic is far more powerful than yours! Funny thing really, get enough magic and you’re basically untouchable. My wounds heal faster than you can make them.” At that, the reality of what they had just gotten into finally dawned on Seth. “We could do this all day, and you would not be any closer to beating me. Not, that it wouldn’t be fun.” She ended that last sentence with another laugh.

“But, I do have good news for you,” she said to both Seth and Razor as she looked between them one last time. “You see, there’s no need to wonder where your goddess is. Cause she’s right here. And she’s fresh out of mercy.” At that, the reality of the situation finally dawned on Seth. He, Razor… even Filia… they were all in way over their heads… At this point, he wasn’t even sure if this version Twilight could be defeated much less killed. He’d never fought an opponent remotely like this before. Even his father would look at her and be like “Yeah do not want.” He-

Before another thought could enter Seth’s head, another noise suddenly hit his ears. It sounded like laughter again, but it wasn’t Twilight’s, it was the laughter of another stallion. Looking past Twilight, Seth saw Razor, who had just gotten back to his hooves, and was just starting to catch his breath again, laughing maniacally, like…. like he was just so damn happy, and the look on his face only added to that. He was smiling.

For a moment, he thought Razor was insane, he had to be if he was laughing like that at a time like this. He thought… but then he remember all the time he’d spent with him while in this place. The way he was, the way he got when he was fighting, how he enjoyed it a bit too much, and then finally, the words that Razor told him while they were climbing the stairwell here.

“Don’t tell me its more powerful than you because that's bulls*** and you know it. So kick its ass, make it remember, you’re not its bitch, it's your bitch.”

For some reason that phrase stood out to him more than anything else, and then it hit him. Despite everything, Razor still wasn’t afraid. He still had hope that he could win. He still-

He had a thought, but then he looked at the ground, and at that, he couldn’t help but laugh as well.

Confused, Twilight looked between them, trying to discern why in her name they would be laughing right now. She knew that Razor was insane but still, there was no-

She had a thought, but then she heard the unmistakable sound of a horn glowing. Quickly, she turned towards Seth to see that it was in fact him, who had just cast a spell. In an instant, her face went from confusion to rage as she tried to walk towards him.

She tried to walk towards him, but when she tried, she looked down to find that her hooves were suddenly encased in the ground, as if she were standing there when the the floor of the palace was first built, as her hooves were literally trapped in the palace floor. As that sight burned into her eyes, she also noticed that the ground all around her suddenly felt very hot. At that, she lifted her head up and looked back towards Razor, who hadn’t done anything, but was still laughing.

Then, she looked down again. On the floor surrounding her was a fire seal, and her hooves were encased in the ground so she couldn’t run away. As she saw that, and as she felt the ground beneath…. well…. the ground that was part of her hooves now, grow hotter and hotter, she let out of scream of rage as the fire seal exploded, engulfing her in a massive ball of fire that nearly tore the room apart and caused the glass windows to shatter.

Seth quickly put up a magical barrier to deflect the blast. When it subsided, he dropped the barrier and quickly leapt to his right, right as Twilight sparkle rushed out from column of flames right at him with a sword that was so large that Seth doubted he could carry it. She swung at him, but Seth leapt out of the way, then rolled back onto his hooves and spawned his rapier again.

The moment he got back up, Twilight ran at him and swung upwards with her massive sword, only for Seth to lean back and to his left to dodge it. She then swung horizontally with it, but Seth just ducked to avoid that. Then she spun her sword around and swung downwards. Seth jumped backwards right as Twilight’s giant sword hit the ground, causing more spikes to come up out of the floor right where she hit.

As Seth landed, Twilight swung his sword to clear the spikes and then dashed forward right at him, but the moment she reached him and swung her sword, Seth suddenly disappeared via teleport. Twilight then looked up as Seth appeared right above her and swung down on her with a claymore.

Twilight quickly held up her giant sword horizontally to block Seth’s blade, which she did effortlessly as Seth dropped back to his hooves and pushed his blade against Twilight’s. The look on his face was the look of confidence he wore while climbing the tower.

“So you’re a goddess,” Seth said to Twilight as he pushed back against her blade. “You really think that means we’re gonna give up.” At that, Twilight just screamed and charged her horn with magic as she pointed it right at Seth. Before she could even fire it however, Razor suddenly appeared via teleport and kicked Twilight in the head with his right rear hoof, throwing off her aim and causing her to shoot an absurdly powerful magical blast past Seth towards the back of the room, leaving nothing but a stump as the force of her blast completely obliterated the chair that was her throne.

At the sight of that, Twilight let out a noise that could have only been described as a roar and turned her attention towards Razor. As she did, Seth quickly spawned a cutlass and stabbed Twilight in the chest, just right under her neck, causing Twilight to let out another roar in pain as she threw both her wings out and blasted both Seth and Razor back with a massive gust of wind that sent them both flying. Neither Seth nor Razor got very far however, as they both teleported before they even hit the ground.

Razor reappeared at the far side of the room near one the broken pillars. The second he reappeared, Twilight appeared right in front of him with a massive halberd raised above her head. Razor couldn’t help but smirk as he saw that. Without a second of hesitation, Twilight swung the halberd down right where Razor stood. Razor quickly leapt far to his left and rolled back onto his hooves before it could hit him, making sure to leap far enough to avoid the spikes that came out as the blade of Twilight’s halberd made contact with the ground. The second he got up, Twilight turned and swung diagonally at him again, her halberd cutting through the spikes in the ground it created easier than Razor’s blades cut through her. Razor quickly leaned backwards to avoid Twilight’s swing, but the second he got back up, Twilight swung down at him again, causing Razor to quickly hop backwards and to his left again to avoid that. Before Razor could make any more sudden moves, Twilight quickly spawned another halberd and swung it horizontally to her left right at Razor. Before it could hit him, Razor quickly jumped up, and flipped to his left over it, its blade just barely touching the hair on the end of his tail.

As he landed, he quickly continued with a quick roll to his left as Twilight swung her other halberd upwards where he stood. The moment he got back up onto his hooves, Razor created a fireball and threw it up right at Twilight’s face. It didn’t even get close as she deflected it with a magical tendril before she spun both her halberds around, causing Razor grin to widen a little bit as he watched her.

Twilight looked down at him with the epitome of rage in her eyes, but then, suddenly, before she could even make another move, several red magical energy shots came from her right and hit her square in the eye. After the first one hit her, Twilight held up her right wing to deflect them. As her eye healed, she looked to her right to see Seth at the other end of the room shooting energy shots at her. At that, she let out a scream as she threw back her wing, creating another gust of wind and deflecting all of the remaining energy shots that Seth threw at her, but Seth still held his ground. She then quickly turned to her right and threw one of her halberds right at him, her halberd spinning with so much speed and ferocity that it could have probably drilled through the tower. Before it could even hit him, Seth teleported away.

As that happened, Razor, who was still inches away from Twilight, quickly created three more fireballs, and threw them all up at Twilight’s face while she was distracted. All three of them exploded on contact as Twilight let out another scream of pain and turned back to face him with the halberd she still had raised. Razor held his ground and kept his attention up, ready to jump back when she swung, the grin he was wearing still on his face. Then, suddenly, as she brought the halberd down, Seth suddenly reappeared between her and Razor and created a magical barrier between them, stopping Twilight’s halberd dead in its tracks.

At that, Razor’s smirk only grew wider as he quickly teleported. When he reappeared, he reappeared in the air right between Seth and Twilight and landed right on top of Seth’s barrier. He then jumped up off of Seth’s barrier flipped backwards and kicked Twilight right in the jaw first with his left rear hoof, and then his right. Twilight threw her head back in pain as her halberd evaporated into purple mist, allowing Seth to drop his barrier and spawn his own spear.

Within seconds Twilight quickly recovered, and as she did Razor quickly teleported away before she could touch him. Seth then thrust his spear upwards right at her, but before it got close to her, her own magical barrier stopped him as a purple magical tendril suddenly shot out from behind her and wrapped around Seth’s waist. Twilight then lifted Seth up off of the ground, and threw him to her to her right towards the entrance of the room.

Seth flew for several feet before he suddenly disappeared. When he reappeared, he on the other side of Twilight and, with the momentum from her throw, he flew right into her, charged his spear with lightning, and stabbed it right through her neck. Twilight screamed in pain again as she suddenly erupted into a massive ball of green fire. Seth quickly teleported away before he could get burned. As the green flames died down, a magic tendril reached out from behind Twilight and pulled the spear out of her neck as she looked straight up and saw Razor coming down at her with his right forehoof drawn back.

As she saw him coming, the fire that had previously died down around her suddenly went up again in her eyes, and she screamed in anger as another one of her magical tendrils shot up out from her back again, grabbed Razor by the forehoof he was about to punch him with, spun him around, and then threw him back towards the entrance.

The second he left her grasp however, Razor teleported again. When he reappeared, both he and Seth appeared side by side in between her and the entrance. The looks on their faces clear of any doubts they previously had. Twilight let out a groan and grind her teeth in anger as she saw them like this. Then, without any hesitation, Seth spawned his rapier and Razor spawned his spear and both of them charged forward right at Twilight. Twilight could only let out another groan, this time of annoyance, as she saw this.

As Seth and Razor charged at Twilight, Razor jumped up in the air once they were about halfway to her and teleported away. He then reappeared in the air right in front of Twilight and thrust the end of his spear at her. In response, Twilight spawned a scimitar and blocked his spear, then she swung forward with it, pushed Razor off of her and shot what could have only been described as a sword beam out of her sword in his direction. Razor quickly teleported away again to avoid that, then, right as he did, Seth ran right up to her and swung the blade of his rapier right at her neck.

Twilight quickly moved her scimitar over to block him, but then, the moment she did, Razor reappeared behind Seth, ran up to her in the same direction he attacked before, and thrust his spear at her again. As he did, Twilight spawned another scimitar and blocked it again. Seth then pulled his rapier back again and swung upwards, but Twilight blocked him again. As if on some kind of cue, Razor pulled his spear back, spun it around, and swung it horizontally at her, which she quickly blocked too with her other scimitar. Then, Seth pulled back and attacked again, but again Twilight blocked him, and then again Razor followed, only to be blocked again, and then again with Seth, then again with Razor.

As if they had some kind of perfect synchrony, both Seth and Razor kept throwing attacks at Twilight one right after the other without relenting or breaking form in any way. While Twilight did successfully manage to block every single one of their attacks, even when they did mix it, such as Razor threw a fireball up at her or when Seth caught her hoof in the ground again. Despite that though, they kept pressing on, and even though Twilight did manage to keep them at bay, the two of them still managed to force her back, as they more they advanced towards her, the more Twilight kept backing up until they were within a hairs distance of what was once her throne.

The moment they reached her throne, Twilight could feel her rear ankles touch it, Seth, Razor, and her all locked blades, and Twilight looked right into their eyes, and in them she could see everything about them. Like those books she was fond of reading, through their eyes she read their minds. She saw everything about them, from the first moment Seth learned magic and tried to fuse two rocks together to build a house, to when Razor burned down his first house with Daedalus. She saw everything, and despite that, despite all she saw, even though they had every reason to be, neither of them were scared of her. They weren’t intimidated, they weren’t doubting themselves in any way, they weren’t even afraid of what would have happened if they lost. They just… were… they were just right there, in front of her, fighting her now. Her mind reeled back in utter confusion and lack of understanding at them, knowing that if there was just one shred of doubt that she could find in either of them, she could use that against them, but she couldn’t find any. Even if she did bring up their pasts, even if she could mention their past failures, she could see their responses, she knew what they would say, and that made her……

As Razor and Seth still pushed forwards on her, Twilight’s eyes went thin as she let out another roar loud enough to shake the whole tower. With one great thrust, she pushed both of her scimitars forward swung downwards with both of them. As she did, her whole body radiated with an immense amount of magic as a purple shockwave came off of her and blasted both Seth and Razor backwards away from her as they were sent flying.

Still, their will was yet broken, as they flew, both Razor and Seth looked back at Twilight. Without wasting an instant, Razor created as many fireballs as he could and threw them all at Twilight and Seth shot as many magical shots as he could muster at her as they both still flew backwards. As Twilight saw the barrage of fire and magic coming at her, both of her scimitars vanished in purple mist as her horn began to glow.

Then, suddenly, before any of Razor’s fireballs or Seth’s shots could hit her, before they could even come within a foot of her. They all just stopped. Twilight didn’t bring up a magical barrier so they didn’t hit anything, and Razor’s fireballs didn’t explode, so they definitely didn’t hit anything, and Twilight didn’t teleport away either, she was still there. All of their projectiles, they were just there, like they just suddenly stopped in mid air and refused to keep moving forward. As that happened, Razor and Seth flipped themselves over via teleport and landed back on their hooves. They skidded against the ground for a few moments before they finally stopped, and when they did, they looked forward. Seth’s jaw practically dropped and Razor’s eyes went wide. That… was not something they had anticipated.

At this, Twilight looked past their projectiles directly at them. A maniacal smile slowly crept across her face as she saw their reactions. It didn’t take either Razor or Seth more than a second to guess her intentions as they both quickly ducked as low as they could and combined their efforts to create a two layer magical barrier. The second they did, Twilight let out a snicker as she threw both the fireballs and the magical shots back at the two of them. However, the moment any of them got more than a foot away from her, they all disappeared with flashes of purple light.

Razor and Seth kept their heads low and their barriers up as they braced for impact, but it never came. Neither of them were about to be fooled though, so they kept their magic up, but even after several seconds of waiting, nothing ever came. No shots, no explosions, no heat from any explosions, nothing. Seth was the first one to look up. When he did, the only thing he saw was Twilight standing there with a grin on her face that practically screamed “I’ve already won.”

“What the buck?” Seth quietly said as he got back onto his hooves. Confused, Razor stood back up too. Twilight however, just watched the two of them for a few moments. As confused as they were, neither of them were foolish enough to drop their shield, as Twilight expected. At that, she just giggled to herself for a bit before she brought her right hoof up to her mouth.

Then, as if she were blowing a kiss, Twilight blew into her hoof, and as she did, her breath somehow stayed in her hoof and grew colder and colder until it began to crystalize into ice. Within seconds, floating inches above her hoof as a single icicle, which Twilight promptly grabbed with her own magic. Both Razor and Seth stood their ground and kept their shield up, ready for anything as they saw this.

Twilight just giggled to herself yet again as she took careful aim, and then shot the icicle directly at them. Both Seth and Razor stayed their ground and increased the power of their barriers. However, the moment the icicle hit their shields, like a golf ball to a window, both of their barriers shattered like glass as the icicle flew right in between them, and out through the other side of their barriers. Both Seth and Razor’s eyes went as wide as they could as they both looked back, following the path of the icicle.

After a moment, the two of them heard Twilight’s unmistakable laugh again as they turned around to face her, only to see that she was laughing about as hard as she would if Pinkie Pie had told her another funny joke. As intensified as both of their confusion was at this point, a sudden realization hit Razor first. She could have killed either of them with that icicle attack, yet she just used one to break their shield, that was all she wanted, and if she wasn’t preparing to attack, and since all of their projectiles disappeared, that meant…

“SETH, MOVE!” Razor shouted as he turned to face him. Still confused, Seth turned his attention back to Razor, but then his attention drifted up towards the edge of the ceiling as a flash of a certain purple light caught his eye, and he saw one or Razor’s fireballs coming down at the two of them from the ceiling. Time froze for Seth as his eyes threatened to burst out of his skull, the realization of just what was going to happen here finally hit him.

As quickly as they both could manage, both Razor and Seth managed to teleport out of the way before the fireball hit them. A second later they both reappeared on opposite sides of the room, only for two more flashes of purple light to appear, one at Razor’s feet, and one directly in front of Seth, to appear as one of Seth’s magic shots fire up from the ground right at Razor, and one of Razor’s fireballs suddenly appeared directly in front of Seth.

Razor quickly jumped up and flipped to his left while Seth quickly ducked under Razor’s fireball as it flew over him, only for another flash of purple light to appear out of the corner of his eye as he saw one of his own magic shots come down at him from the corner of the ceiling again.

“S***!” Seth shouted as he quickly rolled to his left back onto his hooves, only for another flash of purple light to appear on the floor right where he stood. As Razor flipped over in mid air to avoid the first magic shot, time slowed for him as he watched another flash of purple light appear above him on the ceiling, and one of his own fireballs coming down towards him. Before it could hit him, he quickly teleported away again and it exploded as it hit the floor right beneath him. Seth quickly jumped up and did a backflip the moment one of Razor’s fireballs came out from the ground at his hooves, just narrowly avoiding it, as he could feel the heat from it on his rear hooves. As he flipped over, his eyes followed the fireball as it went up towards the ceiling. Before it even got close to the ceiling however, rather than continuing on and exploding on the ceiling like Seth believe that it would, it instead disappeared in another flash of purple light. It was at that moment, as he saw that, that Seth realized just how screwed he and Razor were right now as he saw two more flashes of purple light come up right in front of him out of the corner of his eyes while he was still in mid flip.

“S***!” he shouted again before he teleported out of the way in a flash of red light as one of his own energy shots and one of Razor’s fireballs flew straight at him before disappearing in flashes of purple light moments after he did.

As Twilight watched Seth and Razor bounce, roll, and teleport all across the throne room in what she knew would be vain effort to avoid their own attacks, she couldn’t help but burst out laughing again. It was as if watching this was possibly the most entertaining thing she had seen in a long time, it almost took her a second to catch her breath as she nearly fell over. As her laughter kept escaping her mouth, with her magic she reformed her throne, fell back into it, and summoned a bowl of popcorn for good measure. After a few moments her laughter died down somewhat as she lifted up a piece of popcorn of with her magic and levitated it over to her mouth as she watched the fireworks.

Despite the immense amount of projectiles being hurled at them, neither Razor nor Seth slowed down or kept still, not even for a moment. Even without shields, they still refused to get hit by their own projectiles, as Razor leapt up into the air and flipped sideways as three of Seth’s energy shots appeared at his side and went right for his legs while one of his own fireballs appeared behind him right at his head, and Seth leaned backwards as far as he could go as one of his own magic shots and two of Razor’s fireballs flew right over him. As he did, another flash of purple light appeared right underneath his back, but the second it appeared, Seth teleported away right before another energy shot could hit him right in his spine. The moment he reappeared, he quickly spawned a katana and cut one of Razor’s fireballs in half right as appeared right in front of his face.

Across the room, Razor landed on his forehooves as another one of Seth’s energy shots appeared right behind his head and he jumped up again. It narrowly brushed his mane as it flew right past him. As he flipped through the air again, he caught a glimpse of Twilight Sparkle on her throne again as she moved another hoof full of popcorn into her mouth. For some reason, that pissed Razor off to no end. As he landed, Razor created one more fireball, but he didn’t throw it, not at all.

Then, suddenly, from his left, another purple flash appeared, causing him to quickly lean over as one of Seth’s energy shots, and one of his own fireballs flew right over him. As they passed over him though, he moved the fireball he created up, around, above him, and into the path of the oncoming fireball. Twilight may have been using them, but one thing hadn’t changed, and Razor knew that for a fact. They were still his, it was still his fire, and not even a goddess could change it.

The moment Razor’s fireball collided with the one that was thrown at him, Razor’s fireball absorbed the other one and nearly doubled in size. Then, right as he knew two flashes of purple light appeared both behind and in front of him, Razor jumped up into the air again right over him, and as he did, carefully moved his fireball below him and caught two more of his fireballs as they flew right under him, making his fireball grow until it was slightly larger than his head. Then, as he landed, another flash of light caught his eye up on the corner of the ceiling. Quickly he looked up, ready and saw that it was, indeed, another one of his own fireballs.

Before it could hit him, Razor swung his fireball around his head and caught that one too, making his fireball much larger than his own head now. With all of that fire, Razor turned his eyes back at Twilight, who was still eating popcorn and giggling to herself. Then, suddenly, right as three more flashes appeared right at his hooves, Razor quickly jumped up as three more of Seth’s energy shots came up from the floor at him and spin around as two more came down from the ceiling. As he did, he moved the fireball around his head, and then, when he came back around, he threw the fireball directly at Twilight Sparkle.

Narrowly, Razor’s fireball flew past all of the other projectiles that were appearing directly at Twilight Sparkle. As he saw it coming, she giggled a little bit as she made her own glow with magic again. Before she could do anything however, Razor let out a smirk as he spun around in place to avoid one more of his own fireballs, and his own horn lit up.

Before Twilight could do anything, Razor’s fireball suddenly disappeared with a flash of green light. Then, when it reappeared, it reappeared to her left, and, and struck her bowl of popcorn, effectively burning every kernel that was still in it until it was either pitch black, or just ash. At that, she looked down at her bowl of popcorn, the expression one of pure shock. She honestly didn’t see that coming. Sure she expected one of them to attack her, but, to attack her popcorn. That she didn’t see happening. Her shocked expression still on her face, she looked back out at Razor, who only smirked at her as he leapt up to avoid more of his own fireballs.

At this, Twilight’s expression went from shock to rage in mere seconds as she ground her teeth together so hard she probably could have chewed through steel. As she did, the bowl that was still floating next to her disappeared into a purple mist as all of the burnt popcorn fell to the floor as a pile of ash. The rage still on her face, she stood up, spread her wings, and flew up into the air as her horn began to glow with so much magic that both fire and lightning began to shoot out of it as well.

As he saw this, Seth’s eyes went wide as he narrowly dodged one more of his shots. Quickly, he spawned a hammer right as he deflected his shot with his katana, and threw the hammer right at Twilight. The moment it got within ten feet of her however, another purple magic tendril shot out of her back and knocked it to the side. As that happened, Razor, who was still in mid flip from one more of Seth’s energy shots, made his horn glow and grabbed the hammer with his own telekinesis. Quickly, the then made it teleport so that it appeared on the other side of the room, and flew right at Seth again. Confused, Seth shot a glance at Razor, who only gave him a wink in response.

Confused, Seth then looked back towards the hammer that was coming at him, then slightly above it as one more purple flash and his own shot appeared. Then, it hit him, he knew what he was supposed to do. A smirk crept across his face as he leapt to the right and made the hammer disappear in a flash of red light just before it hit him. The hammer then reappeared on the other side of the room from the ceiling as it fell right on Razor, who quickly made it disappear with his own green light before it moved back to Seth, who almost made disappear as he moved it back towards the throne room. As it flew across the room into another pillar, Razor made it disappear again as it was back in the mix of all the projectiles. It flew right through one of Razor’s fireballs and blocked one of Seth’s shots that was just about to hit Seth before he made it disappear again. Soon, the hammer as lost in the mix of the projectiles, with only Razor and Seth keeping track of it. All the whole, at the front of the room, Twilight kept charging her one attack, as what could only be described as a miniature sun appeared above her horn.

Once it was fully formed, Twilight looked back down at Seth and Razor, who were still dodging their own projectiles, and screamed at them. At that, Razor quickly looked up, and made his horn glow one last time. Suddenly, right as Twilight was about to throw the sun at them, Seth’s hammer came out of nowhere and hit her right in the left side of her face, causing her to throw the sun to her right instead, away from either Razor or Seth.

The sun went right through the remains of the columns and crashed right into the wall of the High Tower. As it did, it exploded with enough force to rock the high tower with the force of an earthquake powerful enough to tear the planet apart. Twilight shut her eyes as a vast, bright light began to radiate from the explosion. Seth and Razor did as well before they quickly teleported themselves away as several more purple flashes appeared all around them. Instead of teleporting again, however, their projectiles hit whatever surface they were racing towards and stopped, causing several explosions as Razor’s fireballs hit the walls, ceiling, and floor of the throne room.

Outside the High Tower, all throughout the ruined city of Canterlot, the sound of an explosion could be heard as all the remaining combatants stopped to look in wonder of what happened.

Directly beneath the High Tower, a beaten, but not nearly broken Filia stood her ground against both the minotaur and the buffalo as she held up a claymore and a war axe, breathing heavily as she struggled to stand. The minotaur and the buffalo on the other hoof, didn’t look much worse for wear as they stood their ground. All three of them, despite being in the heat of battle, looked up towards the top of the incredibly high tower they fought at the base of, and saw what could only be described as a sun tear open the wall of the high tower with a blinding light.

As she saw that, a twinge of hope returned to Filia, as a smile slowly crept across her face again, a smile that said that she was sure that all was not lost.

Across the battleground, a griffon took his claw off an earth pony’s throat and looked up at the light that tore through the high tower. The earth pony, despite being in a perfect position to counter the griffin now that he was distracted, didn’t, and instead stared up at the light on the side of the tower. The longer they stared, the more the griffon loosened his grip on the pony’s throat, and after a moment, he let go. He let go and walked to the edge of the building they stood on to watch the spectacle. The pony, cautious at first, stayed there for a few moments before he stood up and watched as well.

And, in the ruins of an old building, in a hole just large enough to fit him, a black dragon, who was still nursing his now crippled wing, lifted his head up and watched as another sun shined at the edge of the high tower.

Twilight kept her eyes shut for a few moments as the light from her sun still filled her throne room. Eventually, after a full two minutes, the glow subsided, and she opened her eyes, just a bit, only to see something spinning flying straight at her. Suddenly, before she could even fully opened her eyes, Seth’s katana flew right at her, and lodged itself in the base of her throat, causing her to scream out in pain again. Less than a second after Seth’s katana embedded itself in her, Razor suddenly teleported in front of her. With his own magic surrounding his right fore hoof, he then punched the katana with his hoof and forced it right through Twilight’s throat and out the other side. As if on cue, the moment the katana came out the other side, Seth teleported in right behind Twilight’s head, grabbed the katana with his magic, and then spun around in a motion to take her head off.

Before he could however, Twilight threw her head up and let out another piercing roar that shook not only the high tower, but the outside battleground as well, as everyone outside heard it as well, and teleported away with a flash of purple light. Both Seth and Razor landed on their hooves as Twilight disappeared, Seth spinning around a bit from the force of his swing that ended up hitting nothing.

Both Razor and Seth stood there for a few moments practically gasping for air as they had to take a few quick moments to actually breathe again. All the effort it took them to get out of that last attack really took a lot out of them. Still, as winded as they were, they both knew that they weren’t done yet, not even close. Both Razor and Seth quickly looked all around the throne room for Twilight, but she hadn’t reappeared. Slightly worried, they frantically turned and looked everywhere around the room they could possibly look, yet after a few moments of looking they still found nothing. Both of them could feel their heart beats increase a little bit, as they both somehow knew that Twilight would, at any moment, reappear and hit them with something they hadn’t ever seen before, again.

After one more glance around the room from both of them, Twilight was still nowhere to be seen. With nowhere else to look, they looked back towards each other with obvious looks of concern. Seth still held his katana close, ready for anything should she appear. It was at that moment that a sudden realization hit both of them. They were looking around the throne room, but what if…

Slowly, as they both realized this, they turned their heads towards the newly opened hole in the tower wall that Twilight had made not a few moments ago, and saw her hovering just outside it of, not more than 15 feet away from the tower. Both Razor and Seth stopped dead in their tracks as they stared at Twilight. Twilight, who, with her wings flapping slowly was now hovering just outside of the tower, in plain view of all who cared to look, and unbeknownst to all of them, many were looking, and many saw her. Not that it mattered to her at all, as Twilight kept her attention on the two unicorns till in her throne room. The look on her face now devoid of any emotion, not even rage, at all.

As Razor kept his gaze on her, and realized the position she was in, the realization of what she was about to do hit him like a ton of his own fireballs to the face as his pupils threatened to burst out of his skull.

“Oh f*** me,” were the only words that came out of his mouth. As if on cue, the look of pure hatred returned on Twilight’s face and she suddenly started flapping her wings harder, and harder, and harder, and from her wings came a full blown typhoon which she blasted into her throne room directly at Seth and Razor, sending them both flying backwards like rag dolls as the wind hit them like several punches to the chest. Behind them, the windows that looked out into the ruined city of Canterlot shattered to pieces by the sheer force of the typhoon. Before Seth flew out the now open window, he quickly spun around and stabbed his katana into the pillar directly behind him, which was somehow still standing. With his katana embedded into the pillar, he grabbed the handle with both of his forehooves and held on for dear life.

To his left, Razor was blasted back by the sheer force of the typhoon just like he was and flipped backwards as he flailed his hooves outwards, trying desperately in vain to grab onto something, anything that could stop him, but the smooth surfaces of the palace floor denied his hooves as he skidded backwards straight towards the window behind him. As that happened, Seth quickly looked over and saw him slide along the ground before Razor flipped over again. Seeing this, Seth closed his eyes and made his horn glow as he struggled to hold onto his katana.

Just before Razor flew out the open window behind him, he suddenly stopped dead in his as his forehooves caught onto… something, causing the rest of his body to fling backwards like a rag doll before flailing around like a flag. Looking forward, he saw that both of his forehooves were now embedded in the floor of the palace. Seeing that, he looked over towards Seth, who shot him a quick wink before he went back to hold into his katana. Razor responded with a quick smirk, but even as he did, he noticed Seth hooves slipping from his katana a little bit as he struggled to hold on. At that, Razor dropped the smirk and turned his attention back towards Twilight, the wind from the typhoon beating on his face and every part of his body like somepony was sending a powerful rising tide, or more accurately throwing stones at him more than blasting him with wind.

Outside, directly in front of them, Twilight never relented, not even for a second as she kept beating her wings harder, and faster, the longer she went on. With each beat her her wings, she sent out another powerful gust of wind which only served to fuel the typhoon that was now tearing her throne room, and parts of the high tower, to pieces the longer it went on. On the other side of the throne room, Seth struggled as much as he could to hold onto the handle of his katana, but after a moment, his left forehoof slipped and flew backwards into the wind. Seth groaned in pain as he struggled to pull his hoof back against the wind, but the sheer force of it kept his hoof from even moving an inch, no matter how hard he tried. Despite everything though, despite the wind, Seth practically screamed in pain as he slowly, slowly pulled his hoof back and grabbed the handle of his katana again as tight as he could as he closed his eyes. He couldn’t take much more of this.

Not too far away, Razor watched this happened, only to be distracted from it for a moment by the sound of a loud “CRACK” noise. At that he looked directly in front of him. In front of him, not too far from his hooves, was a crack in the floor that wasn’t there a moment ago. The longer he stared at it, and the longer the typhoon relentlessly attacked the room, the crack only grew larger and larger as he grew closer and closer to his hooves. Razor’s eyes went wide as he saw this happen and looked back up at Twilight. She was going to bring the whole tower down with this, or at least just this room. Whichever, she was going to destroy part of the tower to kill them.

Directly ahead of him, Twilight watched as Seth and Razor tried desperately to hold on against her typhoon as she kept beating her wings, and while she knew that they definitely wouldn’t hold out forever against this, it wasn’t enough for her. It stopped being enough for her ten minutes ago. With that she then threw her head to the sky as she let out another, ear piercing roar for all in the ruined city of Canterlot to hear as her horn lit up again. As her scream died down, she beat her wings faster as she stopped blowing wind from her wings, and started blowing fire. Within moments the typhoon became a typhoon of flames as the whole throne room lit up like a Ronan candle.

Razor’s eyes went as wide as they could, as did Seth’s as they saw the wall of flames coming towards him. The moment the reached him, Razor quickly teleported away with a flash of light. Seth however, didn’t think that fast, and put up a barrier around himself. While his shield managed to stop the flames, the wind somehow traveled right through his shield, forcing him to still hold onto his katana lest the wind blow him backwards out of the building while still keeping up his shield to stop the flames from burning him to death. His forehooves ached as he gripped felt himself loose his grip on the katana and his head throbbed as it felt like somepony were hitting him in the head over and over again with the biggest hammer they could find, but still he held on, if only just barely. While in his mind he knew that he could hold out forever, for his friends, for the real Twilight, his real Twilight at least, and Rainbow Dash… his Rainbow Dash, his hooves told a very different story as they began to slip.

Suddenly, outside, while Twilight was still blowing fire into her throne room, Razor suddenly appeared right above her, dropped down and landed on her back. With both his hooves and his telekinesis, he grabbed the bases of Twilight’s wings and pulled on them as hard as he could, forcing her to stop flapping, and by extension stop shooting fire into the throne room. The literal instant the fire stopped, Seth dropped his shield and dropped down to the floor with a “thud” as his katana disappeared in a red mist, his hooves barely able to hold him up as he lifted his head and looked outside.

Outside, Twilight thrashed, spun, and flailed her hooves and wings around as violently as she could as she fell from the sky, but still Razor held on. He had latched onto her like a piercing, and wasn’t about to let go anytime soon. Suddenly however, from her back, another purple magic tendril shot up, reached back down, and grabbed Razor around his midsection. With Razor in her grasp, Twilight tore him off of her like a leech and held him above her head as she flapped her hooves and steadied herself. Before she could do anything else however, Razor pulled his right hoof back and punched Twilight in the face as he used his own magic to tear her tendril off of him. Free from her grasp, Razor flipped himself over and fell down in front of her, making their eyes meet for a split second.

At that, Twilight screamed again as she flapped her wings and shot straight upwards into the sky. Before she could though, Razor, but the hair on the end of his hooves, grabbed her tail with his left forehoof and held on for dear life as he rode her up into the sky.

Back in the throne room, Seth had just barely gotten to his hooves as he clumsily walked over to the hole in the throne room. It took him a few moments, but eventually he reached it. The moment he poked his head out and looked down, as if on cue, Twilight and Razor flew straight up right past him with a speed that would have made Rainbow Dash proud. As soon as that happened, Seth looked up and followed them as best he could. He saw Razor holding on to the tip of her tail, but at the speed at which she was flying, he couldn’t help but think about just how long he’d last before he dropped like a stone.

As those thoughts rushed through his head, Seth grimaced as one thing came to his mind. He had to get up there. Somehow, he had to get up there and do something, but what? He could try teleporting up like Razor did, but given how exhausted his magic was already, as his head still felt like it had been hit repeatedly with a hammer, and the speed at which they were flying, he wasn’t sure that even if he teleported, he would end up right where they were. He could try teleporting above them, but if he missed, or off shot even by an inch, she would fly right past him and he’d fall to his death. At some point he doubted that he could even teleport that far. With that idea shot down, Seth let out a loud groan as he stomped his hoof into the ground, cracking it a little bit.

The sound of the ground beneath his hoof cracking hit his ears, and Seth looked down at his hoof. Slowly, he lifted up his hoof to see the damage he had done. It wasn’t much, but if he did that with his hoof, then what else could he do? He then looked back up and frantically looked around the throne room. Thanks to Twilight’s typhoon, bits of the room were now either heavily damaged or falling apart. Cracks practically littered the ground, ceiling, and even the remaining pillars, and rubble was everywhere. Seth even looked up and saw a chunk of stone fall from the ceiling to the floor. His eyes followed it, and as it hit the floor, a suddenly realization came to him. Slowly, his mouth formed a grin as he looked back out the window. It was a long shot, but it was the only shot he could think of right now.

With that, his horn began to glow. Immediately he winced in pain as the throbbing sensation from before returned like the pony with the hammer, but still Seth didn’t stop. As painful as this was, if he didn’t do this, then it wouldn’t have mattered in the end. Plus, it was the only idea he had as far as how to get up there without teleporting.

Back in the sky, Razor held onto Twilight’s tail with everything he had as wind rushed past his face. Compared to the typhoon from earlier though, this was a gentle breeze. Still, Twilight would not stop ascending as she kept flying higher and higher. Knowing full well that he would have to do something to stop her from flying higher at some point. Razor reached up with his other forehoof and grabbed Twilight’s tail as he slowly started to climb up it. The moment Razor’s other hoof tugged on Twilight’s tail however, Twilight looked down, and for a moment, her eyes locked onto his.

She then let out another roar as her horn glowed again. Within seconds, he entire body was covered in intense green flames, from her horn all the way down to the tips of the hairs on her tail. The moment the flames hit his hooves, Razor screamed in pain as he was burned, and let go of Twilight’s tail. As he fell, he kept his eyes up on Twilight, as the flames encompassed her whole body and she started to resemble a green sun more than a pony. Time slowed for Razor as he reached up with hoof, as if to catch something, but nothing was there, there was nothing to grab on to. The only thing he felt was the immense heat of the green flames, that even as he fell farther he could feel, as he moved closer and closer towards the ground.

With little options left, despite his own exhausted magic, he lit up his horn to try and teleport again, but before he could, he suddenly hit something. Instinctively, Razor failed out his hooves to feel the ground beneath him, only to confirm that he had landed on the floor of the throne room, but he could still see the sky, and he hadn’t been falling for more than ten seconds, it made no sense. Suddenly, before his mind could process another though, another, semi giant rock flew right past him, up into the green flames. Within moments, the flames became little more than embers as the dissipated and Twilight showed herself again.

Confused, Razor stood up, only to see that he was standing on a piece of the floor of the throne room that looked as if it had been torn from the ground like a piece of bark off a tree. It wasn’t that much wider than he as, and was somehow floating. All around the edges of the piece of the floor, Razor could see the unmistakable pattern of a red magical aura. Suddenly, from all around him, several more pieces of the throne room floated up above him and slowly moved towards Twilight, who only stayed in mid air and watched. At this, Razor looked down over the edge of the piece of the ground he was standing on and saw Seth standing on another piece of the throne room, this bit from the ceiling. His horn glowed with his red aura as several more pieces of the throne room, some large, some small, but mostly no larger than the two of them floated up between the two of them as Seth floated up to match Razor.

At that, Razor then looked back up at Twilight, only to see that many of the stones had positioned himself between him and her, forming what he could only describe as a “floating pseudo staircase.” Sure there were spaces of ten, twelve, maybe fifteen feet between each one, and they were all moving a little bit, but Razor could see it, it was a staircase. As he looked up at this, Seth finally floated up to his level. Razor looked at him and saw the obvious strain this was putting on him, but Seth, in response, just looked over to him, shot him a wink and then motioned his head up towards the stones, drawing Razor’s attention back up to them. It didn’t take more than a second for Razor to figure out what he meant, and he responded to Seth with a smirk before he looked back up at the first stone.

Without wasting a second, Razor leapt from the piece of the floor he was standing on, up to the next stone. It took some effort, and a bit of magic to make the leap, but he managed it. The moment his hooves left the piece of the floor though, a purple magic shot went right through it and blasted it to pieces. Seeing that, Seth looked back up to see Twilight charging her horn with magic.

Razor didn’t look back however, as he jumped from stone to stone, slowly working up way up to Twilight. Every time his hooves left a stone, Twilight shot it out of the sky, but still Razor kept going. He kept going with nothing slowing him down. However, the moment he tried to jump to what he guessed what his twelfth stone, one of Twilight’s beams of magic shot it out of the sky just before his hooves could touch it, causing Razor to fall back towards the ground again. He didn’t get very far though, as another stone moved out in front of him.

Quickly, just as he got close to it, Razor spawned his spear again, stuck it into the stone, and then using his forward momentum, flipped himself around, and then launched himself upwards the another stone that had moved in front of him as the stones around him started to form a new path for him. As he leapt up the stones again, he looked up to see Twilight directing her attention at Seth as she shot another magical beam down at him.

Seth quickly put up a magical shield right as the shot hit him, but the moment he did, the stones stopped moving. Razor, quickly catching on, conjured five fireballs and threw them all at Twilight, which directed her attention back at him, and allowed Seth to concentrate on moving the stones again. With that out of the way, Razor jumped up to the next stone as Twilight shot at him again. Narrowly, but nimbly, he avoided every shot she made at him as he made his way up towards her. Occasionally, she would divert her attention away from him and shoot at Seth again, but when that happened, all he had to do was throw a few fireballs at her and get her attention back on him again, which allowed Seth to do his thing.

Eventually though, right as Razor was just about to reach Twilight, Twilight caught onto what they were doing, and, after a bit of focusing magic into her horn, shot a barrage of magic shots at both Seth and Razor simultaneously. At that, Seth stopped moving the stones and put up a magical shield while Razor quickly spawned his spear again, stabbed it into the stone he was jumping onto, and used it to propel himself onto another, nearby stone that he wasn’t going for. After which Razor immediately jumped to another stone while Twilight shot the two he had previously been on to nothing, all the while still shooting at Seth too. Razor quickly conjured six fireballs and threw them at all, but she just shot six energy blasts right at him in response, which went through his fireballs like they were nothing before continuing on to where he was.

Narrowly, Razor jumped to another stone just as they reached him and tore the stone he was standing on to Swiss cheese. As he jumped to the next stone, he looked up at Twilight Sparkle, her horn shooting a constant barrage at both him and Seth. Carefully, he judged the distance as he jumped to another stone. It wasn’t enough, but if he got a little closer…

Razor quickly jumped to another stone before he could finish that thought, which Twilight promptly destroyed. Then, at that he jumped up to another stone, moving towards Twilight. Then, after Twilight destroyed the stone he was just on, Razor leapt up straight at her, ignoring any of the stones around him. Twilight promptly shot several energy shots at him, but before they could hit him, Razor teleported away with a flash of green light. Seth winced in pain a bit as he saw that, both from the pain of having to hold up his shield while still moving the stones, but also because he had no idea what Razor was doing.

Then, suddenly, Razor suddenly appeared behind Twilight and drop kicked her in the back of the head with both his rear hooves, which broke her concentration and forced her to stop shooting magic at them. Then, before she could do anything else, using his forward momentum, Razor leapt forward off of her head, spawned his spear, and stuck it into a nearby stone, which the then used to swing himself around and launch himself up onto a nearby flat stone. Twilight followed him as best she could as she charged her horn up again, but the moment she did, a rather large stone suddenly shot up from her left and hit her right in the face. Immediately, she looked over towards Seth, but then the second she did, several fireballs came from her right and hit her in the face again, drawing her attention towards Razor, who had just leapt to another stone and was moving again. At that, Twilight’s face contorted and twisted into a look of pure rage as she ground her teeth against each other so hard her gums started bleeding.

“YOU TWO THINK YOU’RE SO CLEVER DON’T YOU!?” Twilight shouted in what could only be the royal Canterlot voice as she charged her horn with magic, then, right as Razor threw his fireballs at her and Seth threw another stone, she sent out a massive purple shockwave all around her, which annihilated all of the stones and Razor’s fireballs.

From the ground, every being that was still alive saw this. Directly below the tower, Filia, despite all that she had seen, all that she had done in her life, couldn’t even begin to guess what it was she was seeing.

As the shockwave cleared, Twilight hovered in mid air for a moment. The skies were clear. The stones were gone, there was nothing. Even Razor and Seth were nowhere to be seen.

“IS THAT ALL!?” She shouted in the royal Canterlot voice at the open sky. “IS THAT ALL!?”

Then, suddenly, the moment that last word left her mouth, both Razor and Seth dropped down on her from above. As he landed on her back, Razor spawned his spear and stabbed her through her left wing before quickly leaning over and grabbing her right wing with his other hoof. Once he had them, he then grabbed them both with his telekinesis to make sure he really had them. Seth spawned his rapier as he landed on her neck, then stabbed her through it and out the other side right at the point where her neck met her jaw line. Then, as Twilight’s horn lit up again, Seth quickly charged his own horn and shot a massive jolt of electricity directly into Twilight’s own horn, causing her to scream in pain again as they began to fall.

From the ruined city of Canterlot, all the spectators looked onwards as they watched the object fall from the sky. None of them, not even Filia, knew what it was, but they all knew one thing. That whatever it was, they had better pay attention to it.

As they plummeted towards the ground, Twilight thrashed, twisted, struggled, did whatever she could to get Razor and Seth off of her, but they refused to move. Every time she tried to use magic, Seth would shoot another jolt of electricity into her horn again, and every time she would try to flap her wings, Razor only pulled them back. She tried teleport, but Seth saw the signs of it coming and shocked her horn again, causing her to let out another shriek in pain.

From the base of the tower, Filia, the minotaur, and the buffalo, all watched as they watched the object, which they soon saw was actually three objects, fell towards the ground. As they fell, Filia saw them slowly move closer and closer to the point that she recognized as the edge of the barrier protecting the high tower. They were going to hit it. Then, just before they hit it, Filia focused her eyes a little bit, and saw what the falling object was. Her eyes widened so large that her skull might not have been big enough for it as she saw the falling objects were Seth, Razor, and… Twilight…

Then, suddenly, like a pane of glass that nopony even realized was there, the moment they hit the barrier, it shattered. It shattered like glass as every pony, and being in that watched, saw what could only be described as clear, sparkling lights appear all around the tower before falling like snow, and eventually dissolving into nothing before they fell more than an inch.

As amazing as this spectacle was to watch though, Filia, the minotaur, and the buffalo didn’t pay any attention to it at all as Razor, Seth, and Twilight flew right over them. Time froze for Filia as she saw the position Seth and Razor were in, as well as who it was they were fighting, and she couldn’t believe it.

Then, with an impact that shook the ground around them, Seth, Razor, and Twilight crashed into the ruined city of Canterlot on one of the streets directly behind where Filia, the minotaur, and the buffalo were fighting. The impact sent up so much dirt and dust that it could be seen all across the city. Even the dragon, who had no crawled out of his hole, could see it plainly. Filia, the minotaur, and the buffalo all had to cover their eyes as it hit them, as they were at ground zero.

As the dust cleared, a sizable crater could be seen, and in it, Razor and Seth still stood on top of Twilight as she still thrashed around like a madpony. Filia, as she saw this, dropped her guard, and her weapon as she ran over towards them. The buffalo and the minotaur followed suit.

Twilight, despite being pinned, put up quite a fight as she tried in vain to throw Razor and Seth off of her. She flailed her hooves around for a bit before she finally found the ground and tried to stand. The moment she even tried however, Seth’s horn lit up and trapped all four of her hooves in the ground beneath her all the way up to her elbows. At that, Twilight screamed again as she tried to use magic, only for Seth to shock her again through her horn as he grabbed it with both his forehooves. The moment he touched it though, Seth screamed in pain as his hooves burned, but still he kept his hooves on it as he closed his eyes and bit his lip in pain.

Then, at that, Razor, on her back, with his hooves, his spear, and his telekinesis, gripped her wings as tight as he could, and began to pull. He pulled on her as hard as he could, then kept pulling harder. He threw all of the magic he had left into his hooves to make them stronger as he kept pulling, and pulling. Every muscle in his hooves screamed in pain as he struggled to keep a grasp on Twilight’s still trashing wings and his head felt like it was going to burst open from all the magic he was using, yet still kept throwing more into it as sweat rolled down his head and mane. He closed his eyes and ground his teeth together to fight through the pain, yet still, he kept going.

Then, just when the pain felt like it was going to overwhelm him, Razor opened his eyes, and relaxed his face. He then opened his mouth and let out a scream as he pulled on Twilight’s wings with anything, and everything he had left, even with the pain. He pulled and pulled until he heard an audible “crack.”

Then, at that, Twilight’s flesh and bones gave way as Razor tore her wings off of her and leapt up into the air off of her back with them in his hooves. As he did, Twilight screamed in pain louder than she ever had before and Seth opened his eyes back up again, only to show that they were now glowing red as he tore Twilight’s horn off of her head with his bare hooves, stabbed her in the back of her head with it, and then punch the horn clear into her skull, causing it to come out of her mouth, followed by a trail of blood as she stopped screaming.

That done, Razor let go of Twilight’s wings as he fell back to the ground. Even though he landed on his hooves, he still fell over flat on his face, as his hooves felt like wet noodles, and wouldn’t have supported him even if he wanted them to. Seth, after taking a moment to admire what he had just done, and grinning at the prospect of it, closed his eyes and shook his head for a moment. When he opened them again, they were normal. At that, he then slowly climbed down off of Twilight’s neck.

He winced in pain the moment his hooves touched the floor though, as they were still burned. He lifted his right hoof to take a look a bit, and saw that what Twilight had done to him, had burned his coat on the bottom of his hooves clean off. There was only skin there. Badly, badly burned skin, but skin nonetheless. He ignored it for the moment though, as he touched the ground with his hoof again and walked around Twilight over to Razor. Razor barely lifted his head up to look at him. When he did though, he saw Seth smiling at him. He couldn’t help but smile too. Then, after a few moments of silence, Seth suddenly let out a snicker, as did Razor less than a second afterwards. Then, suddenly, as Seth’s hooves gave out on him too and he keeled over and fell onto his side, both he and Razor descended into full on laughter as they there, beaten and broken within a nanometer of their lives.

“Seth! Razor!” The two of them suddenly heard a familiar voice shout to them. They didn’t even bother to look up, they knew who it was.

Filia ran right up to them as fast as she could, and within seconds, she was standing over them. She looked down on them for a moment as they barely looked back up at her. All kinds of concern wracked her body, mind, and soul the longer she stared at them. There were a million things she wanted to say, but no words could reach her mouth. Neither Seth nor Razor said anything to her, they just lay there laughing. As they did, Filia slowly looked up away from them and turned around. In front of her was something she couldn’t understand, would not, refused to understand.

In front of her, was Twilight Sparkle, as large as her mother, with her wings torn from her, her horn shoved in the back of her head, and the look in her eyes one of… anger. It defied description for her. Behind her, Seth and Razor’s laughter died down a bit as two more sets of hooves could be heard running towards them.

A few seconds later, the minotaur and the buffalo reached them too, and like Filia, they froze dead in their tracks the minute they saw the broken body of Twilight Sparkle. On the ground, they saw Razor and Seth, who were still laughing a little bit, but it was obvious that their breath was losing them. The two of them looked at each other for a moment, then back at Razor and Seth. The buffalo then walked around behind Razor, then reached down, grabbed him by his sides and helped him up. Likewise, the minotaur put his club away, then bent down and helped Seth back up to his hooves.

Razor barely stood for more than a second as he fell again, but as he did he fell right into the buffalo, who acted as a crutch for him to lean. Likewise, the minotaur held Seth up as he did his best to stand. After seeing that he couldn’t stand to save his life right now, the minotaur picked Seth up and threw him over his shoulder. There were about 50 things that Seth would have normally said in a situation like this, but right now, he couldn’t bring himself to say even a single word. Likewise, as Razor practically slid down the side of the buffalo, the minotaur walked over and grabbed him by the center of his back with his other hand, then lifted him up and put him on the buffalo’s back.

“Why?” They all suddenly heard a voice ask them. A voice that sounded like Twilight Sparkle. At that, both Razor and Seth’s ears perked up, as did the minotaur, the buffalo as they turned to face her. Filia’s eyes just shrank to the size of pinpricks as that voice hit her ears. After a moment or so, they all felt a distinctive rumbling beneath their hooves, causing Filia to slowly back up away from her, as did the minotaur and the buffalo.

Within seconds the rumbling increased to a full on earthquake as Twilight’s horn disappeared from her mouth, and she began to twitch a little bit.

“WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?” Twilight screamed at the absolute top of her lungs as she pulled her hooves up out from the ground, stood up, and turned to face them. Purple flames danced all around her whole body and purple, magic energy practically radiated off of her as the fire spread out from her back and on top of her head. The fire took the shape of her wings and horn before they were suddenly blasted away as embers, revealing her wings and horn in all their full glory, completely healed like they had never been touched. The look on her face shook Filia to her very core.

“Why do you fight so hard against your own salvation!?” Twilight Sparkle shrieked at the two ponies with such voluminous force as to send shockwaves throughout the whole city. “Why must you creatures fight against the very forces that desire to save you when in the end, your consistent rebellion succeeds only in the damnation of the nations of Equestria! I wish to help you for why else would I the immortal Mare in the High Tower work so hard to determine which dimensions could survive the onslaught of the immortal Abaddon and spare those that would die! Was it not the greatest of all alicorns, the lordly lady Princess Celestia of Equestria that once spoke the words, ‘We can only save the truly damned through extermination,’ when referring to the doomed damned!? How else could I save my friends time ad infinitum if I let them live to suffer the fate they encountered if I let them live to witness the destruction of Abaddon! I will save Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie, even if it means killing everything in existence to make sure that they will never die, so that your precious Twilight Sparkle and beloved Rainbow Dash will never die! So why, would you fight the salvation of all that you love!?!?!?!?”

“Isn’t it obvious!” Seth shouted back at her. At that, they all looked over towards him, and the minotaur, momentarily distracted by Twilight, let Seth push himself out of his grasp, off of his shoulder, and fall back onto his hooves. He stood there for a moment before he turned back around and painfully walked back towards Twilight, who stood towering over all of them. “When all of their lives are on the line. When everypony, everything we know is on the line. Given a choice, we’d rather fight you than fight everypony else here!”

“What he said!” Razor shouted as he somehow, miraculously stood back onto his hooves, hopped off of the buffalo’s back, and walked up right next to Seth. “And even if this ‘Abaddon’ thing is as real as you say it is. Then I’d rather take my chances fighting it myself than let some reject like you decide my future!” Those words… those words hit Twilight for a moment.

“YOU... YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!” she shouted back at them. “YOU-”

“OH WOULD YOU JUST SHUT THE BUCK UP-”

“OH WOULD YOU JUST SHUT THE F*** UP-”

Both Razor and Seth shouted as they lifted their horns to the sky as balls of fire appeared above them. They started out small, but within moments, they grew, and grew, and grew until they were larger than Twilight’s library.

“AND DIE!”

“AND DIE!”

Author's Notes:

status: edited

Epilogue

Rainbow Dash entered Golden Oaks Library to find Twilight sitting at a table reading a spell book.

"Hey," Rainbow said, getting the other mare's attention.

"Oh, hi Rainbow Dash. How are you feeling?" Twilight asked.

"Better. I mean yeah I'm still worried, but thanks to Zecora, I know that at least Seth is safe."

Twilight was about to say something when there was a sudden flash of light behind her. Both mares immediately looked over to see a certain black stallion standing there, though it wasn't long before he collapsed onto the floor.

"Seth!" Rainbow Dash shouted as she flew over to her husband.

Seth tired to stand up, though he didn't last long before he fell again. Thankfully, Rainbow stepped in and let him lean on her.

"Thanks beautiful," Seth said, giving her a peak on the cheek.

"Seth what happened? Where were you?" Twilight asked.

"I would love to answer that question," Seth responded. "But first I think I need to go to the hospital." When he said that, the two mares noticed his all of his wounds, including his burnt front hooves.

Seth was lying in a hospital bed with bandages around his front hooves and mid section, surround by the wielders of the Elements and Spike.

"...And that's everything that happened to me while I was gone" he said as he finally finished his story.

The mares all seemed quiet. Surprisingly, it was Twilight who spoke first. "So, you really had to fight me... Well a different version of me, but... I mean... I would really do something like that?"

Seth looked at her and said, "Twi, that wasn't you. Sure she might of been an alternate universe version of you, but she wasn't. Unlike her you haven't lost your way, you still have all of us."

With that Twilight gave a small smile and said, "Thanks Seth."

That was when Pinkie Pie bounced up in front of her and said, "Wow... Once you get out of here I'll totally have to throw you a 'Thanks for saving the multiverse' party."

"I don't really think that's necessary, darling," Rarity said.

"Why not? How often do I get a chance to throw one of those?"

"Ya'll throw parties all the time, Pinkie," Applejack deadpanned.

"But not a 'Thanks for saving the multiverse' party. Those are completely different. Fluttershy you got my back on this right?"

"Umm... I don't know... yes?" was all the yellow mare said.

"Girls, it's fine. I mean I agree with you all that it's not needed, but come on, its Pinkie, since when has that ever stopped her anyways." Seth said with a smile. He then turned to Rainbow, who had her forelegs crossed. "Is something wrong?"

"Well, in your story you did mention that you kissed another mare," she said coldly.

"She kissed me!" Seth quickly replied in defense. If he could put his hooves up, he would have. "And she was another you. Yeah, I know that would still be cheating, but I rejected her!"

Rainbow Dash just chuckled and wrapped her forelegs around Seth's neck. "I know," she said. "I was just messing with you."

"Rainbow, the last thing I would even want is to have you mad at me."

"Oh you would have to mess up big time for that to happen," she replied. After she said that, she pulled herself in towards Seth and gave him a good, long kiss.

When there lips parted, Rainbow whispered, "I missed you."

Seth just smiled and said, "I missed you too."

Their lips meet again, though with no sign of parting anytime soon. The two ponies barely noticed their friends leaving the hospital room to give them some space.

"I wish I could invite that Razor fellow too," Pinkie rambled on as she left with the others. "Since he helped save the multiverse too. Too bad he lives in a different universe though. I wonder where he is..."

Daedalus sat on his couch reading a book, as he was want to do. He was so deeply engrossed in his book that he didn't even notice his front door open.

"F***, you would not BELIEVE the day I've had," Razor said as he practically dragged his beaten, broken, half dead, and somewhat bloody near corpse of a body inside over to the couch. He didn't even bother to close the door behind him. With all the charisma of a pony who gave absolutely zero f***s, Daedalus didn't even budge, say anything, or even acknowledge his friend as he threw himself face first into the couch, shifting to the right it slightly.

"Daedalus," Razor said as he looked up at his friend. "Do you ever wonder if there are parallel universes?"

"No," Daedalus responded without taking his eyes off of his book as he turned the page. Razor just shrugged a little at that, which hurt his shoulders a bit.

"Whatever," Razor said as he shifted a little bit, smearing some of his blood on their rich Corinthian leather couch as he did. "It doesn't matter. Even if there are other ponies out there, even if there are parallel universes. Out of all of 'em." Razor paused for a moment to take a breath. "I'm still the best."

"Mmhm," Daedalus grunted as he turned another page. At that, Razor just chuckled a little bit to himself, which actually hurt his neck a little bit, and closed his eyes for a moment as a smile crept on his face. For a few long moments. Neither of them said anything to each other.

"Can you please take me to the hospital?" Razor eventually asked Daedalus.

Author's Notes:

Status: edited

The Story Continues

In the ruins of the high tower throne room, a figure suddenly appeared out of a cloud of dark purple arua.

The figure was tall and lanky, had yellow skin, a long, pointed nose, and long silvery-white hair. It's eyes were almost entirely black, though it's purples were a piercing red. It was also wearing a dark blue suit with matching stetson hat. The figure gave a large, almost disturbing grin and said, "Oh Miss Sparkle, how the mighty have fallen. You were one of my favorite play things, but I guess all toys must break sooner or later. Though throughout all these battle royales you've hosted you never realized something that I did a long time ago. It isn't any fun if they're not suffering."