31st May, 71 BNM
Nightfall [northern sunlight means its twilight brightness]
Quartz valley
Lowlands

A half-hour had passed since her death, and now the time had come to move her.
Queen Aurora's body lay covered in a respectful tarp as Crystal Guards shifted it into the ski-mounted chariot, their heads hung low out of mourning for the Royalist Queen.
Casting a sideways glance, the captain of the Guards looked towards a ridge, where Starswirl looked on from a fair distance. The Wizard's gaunt face was not unexpected, especially given the events of today.
With a wave of his hoof, the captain set off in flight beside the Earth Ponies as they pulled the sled carriage back to the Empire.

Quartz valley
Upper ridge plateau

As Starswirl came from the edge of the plateau to walk over to them, Ave-Dol sat on the ground quietly, the blue collar restraint still around her ethereal glowing blue neck. The Windigo/Alicorn hybrid was watched like a hound by Chack as he sat opposite her, green sword out as his normal, slightly damaged one was still sheathed.
Ave-Dol forlornly saw Chack staring at her, the Salamander's green eyes hard as the jade they resembled. He quietly stroked the green blade in his hand, which Ave-Dol couldn't resist taking her eyes off of for some reason. As Chack's stare was laced with an icy expression, she carefully averted her eyes as much as she could from his, drawn to the blade he stroked now.
The faintest of whispers on the wind seemed to emanate from it.
"Your sword. Why does it whisper?"
Ave-Dol's query didn't perk any change in Chack's mood, except that he paused his stroking slightly while he gave a small sneer at her.
"This was given to me, by a powerful being. One who doesn't like what you and the others would entail for the future if left unchecked. The first Alicorn turned forest spirit, Everfree, sound familiar?"
"The great forest spirit is real?" Ave-Dol remarked. She knew of Everfree from tales when she was living alone in solitude, away from the world, before Siral found her and asked for her help.
Off to the side, as he came over, Starswirl had overheard the
"Yes, and powerful. He us both the future, a future, where you and the others like you were under Siral's influence. A ruined world, about to be rebuilt as he saw fit."
"I..."
"But now that they're not all alive, that future is gone. But, clearly those left are not exactly harmless on their own..." Chack darkly remarked, his webbed fingers stroking the blade slightly as he stared into Ave-Dol's eyes.
"We aren't just monsters to..."
"You didn't make enough of an effort to stop that creature who razed hundreds of troops to ash, crushed them, destroyed them. I had a friend among them..."
"I'm, sorry..."
"Apologies are worthless. I know your history, if you'd been more proactive, less of a simple 'nanny' to the others while under Siral, acted on suspicions earlier, none of this may not have happened."
"Chack..." Starswirl warned, as Ave-Dol looked down as her voice began to shake with uncertainty in her tone:
"I, he had me in a predicament. If I tried to resist, they would lose their free will, I cared too much for them to risk them, to risk losing it all if I tried anything."
At this, Chack's look turned toxic, while he stopped stroking the blade as an almost mocking tone took over to mask the contempt already there.
"You mean you didn't wish to take that risk, out of fear of loss? You did nothing, and hoped things would work out. And when you finally crumbled and ran to Starswirl here, it was too little, too late."
"CHACK!" Starswirl's outburst silenced the Salamander, though he maintained the hard look on his face as he stood up to walk away slightly, having said what he wished to say.
Ave-Dol looked down in abject misery, to which Starswirl urged her with a hoof to stay there. Her glowing neck restraint stayed where it was, as she saw Starswirl storm over to Chack atop a ledge a few dozen metres away.

"You need not use such barbed words to her."
"She and the rest of her kind deserve no mercy, in battle or in dialogue." Chack rebuked, the Salamander whipping to face the taller Unicorn stallion with an angry expression:
"But she is not our enemy!"
"Not today. You saw the others. Four are dead so far, which leaves her, the murderous scorpion creature, and the unknown seventh. That one alone makes me wary, I saw what he could do at Tartarus." Chack recalled, as he vaguely remembered the battle at Tartarus's gates with multiple creatures.
Starswirl's next sentence however, made Chack's expression shift suddenly, as something glossed over in his gaze. Dissatisfaction, disappointment even, as he subconsciously had already made his choice.
"I suggest we use her, insight into them."
"You know fully well she would never help in bringing the others down. Not now that she knows what we have influenced in doing to four of them already."
"Chack. We must refocus our efforts. You said Aubelles knew the celestial spellwork? That means more Nationalist Alicorns do, a secret we thought they wouldn't have yet." Starswirl's words carried their weight and more. The amount of power the new spellwork unlocked, now shared between both sides, meant conflict with that level of magic involved would see cataclysms like today perhaps unfold more frequently.
"With the power vacuum left in Queen Aurora's death, I fear for her daughters. They are inexperienced, and I've seen enough history to know their claim may be openly challenged by other Alicorns that still endure."
"And the ability by both sides to use the Celestial magic means that whenever Alicorns take to battle, things will only get worse from here. Please, Equestria is in great danger of tearing itself asunder."
As Starswirl finished his near pleading tirade, Chack's expression turned away from the Wizard, his words now distant.
"Which is why, I cannot help you anymore."
Starswirl was stunned into silence, as Chack went on, quietly mumbling as he looked at his old sword, pulling it out to look at the acid burned blade as he spoke quietly, the wind whistling in the snow capped valley as he did so:
"I have no stake in this war, nor did I ever really. Aubelles was my only real friend among any of the sides. I came with you to solve the civil war from happening. But twice we failed, the first one, and now this civil war, happened despite our efforts, efforts of your design that I followed. Even with Everfree aiding us it was too late to stop it. Face it Starswirl, we cannot change Alicorns, unless they first become able to be changed."
"So you would abandon me?" Starswirl's reply was cold, his eyes narrowing out of spite and disbelief at the Salamander's newfound path he was explaining.
"No. I will pursue the Queen's murderer. Like me, she is now a wanderer, and she must be punished for killing a royal as any society is. You have your goals, I have mine. But after that, once the threat of Siral's creatures, as Everfree says they are is gone, I will return home to Salaman. I have grown too many years since I have been there."
"So you'd heed the advice of a forest god over me?"
Chack felt the hurt tone in Starswirl's voice acutely, but at this point, he simply couldn't care about it. The Salamander spoke coldly as he glanced at the Wizard with his small eyes, moist skin shaking as he spoke to the Unicorn:
"So far he has proven more aware of what dangers are to the greater world, and what remain the squabbles of Equestrians only."
As Chack spoke, his green sword suddenly glowed, as Everfree's distant enchanted voice rang out, the forest god explaining calmly to Starswirl, with perhaps a hint of remorse:
"They must be stopped. If even one remains, Siral remains. You know this."
A few moments passed, as Starswirl weighed this up, all that had transpired today, and said just now.
Further behind them, Ave-Dol's eyes widened slightly as she overheard Everfree's rumbling tone. She knew this too well, what Siral did, and what it entailed to stop him.
But with her conflictions and sympathies towards the others, dead or alive, she was in no position to make a judgement on this issue.
Starswirl however, had made up his mind, his tone turning cold as he spoke to Chack:
"You know what? Do that. Go. Pursue her with murderous intent."
"Like you said, I didn't do enough, nor did Ave-Dol, so we deserve each other. I can say the same about Teal Quirt and yourself. I was right to lose faith that you would be a example of kindness in this savage time all those years ago."
Starswirl's words cut deeper then Chack was expecting, as his expression softened at the Wizard's disappointment in him. Unlike when he was responsible for the rampage shortly before they came to Equestria decades ago, this time they had no joint goal to go towards as an alternative, no use of the cruelty that Starswirl had initially objected to. Now, their disagreements were tearing them apart.
His gaze turned hard however, as Chack reinforced his convictions, and beliefs in what he had to do.
Turning away from Starswirl, pulling out his green sword, Chack spoke quietly to Starswirl with an emotionless tone in his voice:
"Keep Ave-Dol, release her if you so desire to ease up your duties to Equestria's political mess. But let her know that I will be coming for her, once I have dealt with the other two that still live."
Unflinching, Starswirl simply gazed on as Chack slashed the air before him, a green tear in the air before him opening for him to leap into, teleporting through its portal. With a similar green snapping flash, the tear sealed itself.
Chack was gone, a last hunt of the remaining three on his own.

Minutes later

Ave-Dol was silent, as she saw Starswirl not move from his standing point atop the plateau, his thoughts unreadable. The Salamander had left, their ways dividing.
But as she hung her head, Ave-Dol quietly whispered:
"Damn you Siral. You tear apart so much even in death..."
A few minutes more passed, as Ave-Dol quietly stared down at the snow covered ground.
But to her surprise, she felt the neck restraint vanish from around her. Her hooves going to her neck in relief, she looked up at the Wizard.
Her grateful expression faltered as she saw the dark look on his face, and his eyes and horn imbued with dark magic.
"You will submit to my will from now on, your soul name makes it so."
As Ave-Dol's expression turned fearful, something began to build in the back of her mind, a pained expression in her head making her turn harsher as she spoke.
"It is that same magic, which is what, he...AGH"
Caught off guard, Starswirl saw dark magic flow from Ave-Dol's eyes as a voice, distinct from hers, spoke out to him. He knew the voice, warped by magic darker then even he'd tampered with, all too well.
"THEY, ARE, MINE. ALWAYS, MINE. EVEN THE USELESS HUSK HERE, MINE."
"We'll see Siral, your remnant you placed can't overcome me." Starswirl said, no regard for Ave-Dol before him as his own dark magic fired at her head. The Alicorn screamed as the magic erupting from her deepest soul and the invader's fought for control.
"I, I can't do that, please, no more...PLEASE!"
The dark magic flew from her in a fine mist, as Starswirl snapped from his gaze. He saw the Alicorn hybrid knelt forwards, slumped down in exhaustion, tears in her eyes as she pleaded:
"Is that all I am to him and you? A useless husk? A monster to be killed?"
"You haven't shown you can be more. The village you resided near in your misery before today's carnage, you drove them to lethargy and death by just being near them..." Starswirl recounted where he'd tracked her down. At this, Ave-Dol bitterly remarked to the wizard, her eyes never leaving the ground as her fiery red mane shimmered against her lanky, windigo blue coat.
"Before Siral, I left the Alicorn ranks. I wanted no part, no desire to selfishly pursue power. My desire to do less to be as peaceful as I could, became my greatest flaw. I, I wasn't proactive enough. And Siral turned my desire into a weapon to plague the minds of others to do nothing to the point of death. I cannot help what he did."
"But if you serve me, we can change that." Starswirl offered, his hardened expression softening ever so slightly as the dark magic finally faded from his eyes.
Shaking her head suddenly, Ave-Dol stressed to the Wizard as she gestured a hoof to her head, her mind, while she stood slightly. Starswirl backed up as she lost some of her composure.
"I, I won't. I, can't. He'll always be here!"
"No, I can help."
Calming herself, voice trembling as she did so, Ave-Dol sadly lamented.
"Your friend was right, the risks are too great with what Siral made of me and the rest."
"But we still have no knowledge of the final one. Where is the Seventh?" Starswirl probed, clearly seeking to gain some insight. But at Starswirl's urgent tone, Ave-Dol's own eyes narrowed in sudden possessive suspicion, as she said in a darker tone:
"Gone. A USEFUL MISPLACEMENT."
"I know enough that he is incredibly dangerous. Help me find him, keep him down, we don't have to kill him." Starswirl urged, his grey beard swaying as a breeze picked up on the mountain plateau they stood upon. Her wary expression falling to the ground again, Ave-Dol recalled the suffering Gauidum endured, from Siral wiping his personality and all memories save basic living skills, to Teal Quirt utterly shattering his mind to 'free' him from Siral's influence. If any of the Seven was a useless husk, it would be Gaudium, wherever he was.
"No. He, above others, has lost more then the others including me. Even if I knew where he was, I would rather die then let you know where that final creature is. He is helpless now, and I don't expect you would spare him because of that."
"You realize what you are saying?" Starswirl spoke in a suddenly less tolerant tone, his horn glowing a bright blue as he addressed her. Ave-Dol saw the hard look in Starswirl's eyes, and spoke with utmost certainty now.
"Protecting a last shred of innocence in this world. Completely removed of Siral's taint. If I do anything to my fullest, it is that."
Standing across from the Windigo/Alicorn hybrid before him, the Being of Sloth, Starswirl shook his head as he said one last question to her:
"I removed your restraints because I wanted to give you a choice. Stay and help me find the others, or run knowing you will be hunted. I would have no choice but to say what you are. I have my duty to Equestria, and you are a threat by association with Siral."
"I will not run, nor will I help you."
"So you would stand your ground then?"
"No more death, none by my hoof especially."
As she spoke, she looked at Starswirl, but her expression turned darker as she noticed the light blue hue his horn still had. He was viewing her with judgemental eyes, ready for something. He was committing.
"Of course you must protect those selfish leaders and the ponies under them... What is one more body among the piles already dead?"
As she finished, her tone becoming embittered, Starswirl's eyes widened as he saw her stand up to face him, but exposing a clear hole straight to her chest through the passive magic shields she had up.
But as she spoke, Siral's voice began to creep in, warping her as she fought off his desire to keep her alive for his own ends, a thought from her deepest soul planted there by her mutation.
"What are you waiting for? You know it... THE PROPHECY. Do it, you, must. Before he..."
As Ave-Dol's light blue horn began to light up, Starswirl saw dark amgic beginning to circle around her as Siral's embedded influence within her began to take hold. But at that moment, the exposed hole in her shields grew in size, as she bellowed at him right as Siral's dark powers were about to ensnare her mind:
"DO IT!"
Without hesitation, Starswirl fired his magic into her chest, the fierce blue beam penetrating her body before the dark magic about to take her over like a virus sealed her shields.
As the beam continued through her and burned into the ground, Ave-Dol's blue magic spluttered as the dark magic evaporated off her body.
His magic faded, and Starswirl saw the Alicorn/Windigo hybrid keel over to the side, slumping down onto the snow covered plateau, the light leaving her eyes.

Panting, his horn's magic fading, Starswirl stared down at the dead creature, the Being of Sloth, lying on the ground before him. The last breath left her body, and sure enough, like the others, he saw her body begin to deteriorate into the grey sludge, a shape within its mass slowly revealing itself.
But as this occured, Starswirl gave a stifled groan as the all too familiar sensation that came with another death by these creatures arose. The opposite of Sloth, and clearly, the last of those he met who actually carried out their exemplary moment in life.
All that varied was that he met Honesty and then Generosity, whereas their Sin being opposites died in the reverse order.

402 years ago

8th July, 473 BNM
Mid-Morning
Indo-Burmese sub-continent
Megheleya Provincial Kingdom lands
Malabutu Valley, Jungle riverbanks

12 years since the two wizards had left, after the Overlord had been slain by his own demon hordes. The jungle had long since recovered, now green where the toxic vines had deteriorated.
The temple the demon hordes and the Overlord occupied was reclaimed by the owners of it before they invaded decades before, the Cobra tribes restoring their old ways as swiftly as they could.
But among the jungles, word began to spread. And when it reached the cavern of the great Python, Chai, she knew.
The Huntress of Malabutu had died.

She'd simply taken a slow walk towards the jungle river, her usual prowling route. She recalled taking her cubs, both her first lost litter and her later pair of children, along these paths.
The river water rushed alongside, and she saw the fish she would normally swipe her paw at. In her older age, she couldn't run as fast anymore. It was the problem of her paw all over again, except this time, being caused by age, there was no shame in it. No need to kill for sport, to lie to herself, to compensate.
Seeing a comfortable rocky surface to lie down on, Nahia laid down to bask, tired as she always was in her age. The lightly swaying jungle trees shaded her slightly, but the rushing water soon lulled her into a midday nap.

Wary of the huntress and her reputation, birds from the tree branches watched her cautiously. But within a few minutes, they noticed she was sleeping very deeply.
And soon, her breathing came to a slow stop, as if a great sigh was released from her body.
And just like that, Nahia passed away. No fuss, no roar of triumph nor whimper of cowardice. Just straight with no need to mask who she was, a blunt huntress who preferred simplicity and calm in life above all.

Present

31st May, 71 BNM
Nightfall [northern sunlight means its twilight brightness]
Quartz valley
Upper ridge plateau

Shaking his head, Starswirl recalled to himself:
"That's it. That is the last of those who succeeded where Chack has yet to. If he ever will in this war."
Regaining his composure, Starswirl saw the grey sludge covering the snow capped ground, and could only stare at the light blue coated, blond maned Alicorn mare that lay dead among the liquid runoff from her once mutated, hybrid body.
He should have felt satisfaction for the death of another Being, sympathy for the death of the only one that rebelled and helped him, regret for having to kill hr when she openly sacrificed herself.
Instead, he felt nothing.
Giving a small sigh, Starswirl wondered if it had finally happened. If he had finally become numbed to loss, numbed to failure and disappointment by many things. His aspirations in the prophecy or not, protecting the royal parents, Chack being so unruly compared to the others, the whole war scenario about to get worse.
Given his lack of response for all of today's events, now that he was on his own, Starswirl could only harden his resolve.
Now he knew the mindset Aurora adopted in wake of the attack on Canterlot, her cold, less compromising demeanour.
How apt that Starswirl became as jaded as she was in wake of her death.
He continued to stare at the body for many minutes.
Finally, with no intent of disposing of her body, nor disrespecting it any more then Siral already had, the Grey Wizard simply walked away. Tired, bitter, and cold.
He left the remains of the Being of Sloth there in the mountains. A kilometre away in the valley it overlook, the remains of the Being of Greed lay there in their burnt and snow coated state.

Time would bury in snow and ice all the remains of the Beings who died wherever they fell in the frozen north.
If time didn't heal all wounds, it certainly did its best to mask them.

1 week later
Mid Morning
Nokotaford Royal Palace
Upper balconies

The procession to the mausoleum was quiet, black colours on the ponies that turned out.
News spread of the carnage, of monsters turned amok by Nationalist faction members, out of control. A defector dying among many army ponies to one that threatened to tear the Empire and many other settlements apart through his great rage-fuelled attacks. Another that pursued the Queen relentlessly in a bid of vengeance, and the last who slayed the Queen when she barely survived killing the one pursuing her. All three responsible for the Canterlot incident, dead. And with it, their monarch.
As the hundreds of mourners flanked the carriage's procession, with the ornate coffin atop it led by black cloaked guard ponies, Starswirl looked on from a narrow balcony in the palace's upper reaches.
Among the front of the procession, tears having been shed enough to maintain their composure for the official funeral, the two sisters walked forwards, clad in black dresses as their mother's casket trailed behind.
For the minutes that passed, Starswirl gazed from afar, his expression unreadable.
Far down, as their mother's body was respectfully placed in the mausoleum, next to the empty but symbolic coffin of their father, Luna hung her head low in silent mourning, while Celestia looked around quietly.
Her magenta eyes saw Starswirl on the distant balcony, a small shape among the palace's heights watching from afar. Distant, as he had been ever since a week ago, since he delivered the news.
She was saddened as she saw the distant form of Stasrwirl slowly vanish into the doorway he watched from, as the funeral went on.
Wrapping a foreleg over her sister's back in comfort, Celestia joined Luna in silence as their mother's coffin was sealed inside its hole, beside their deceased father.
Talk was already afoot, of what to do. Royalist Alicorns seeking power while the princesses 'recovered' after their mother's death, as they were inexperienced in battle that the monarchy needed in recent years.
It would seem that what was feared, in wake of the power vacuum, and the Nationalists knowing how to use the great power once exclusive to the Royalists, was coming true. War would now resume in wake of these creatures all seemingly dead.
Starswirl admitted it quietly to the sisters. Another of the beings, one who helped, even if insufficiently, had died that same day, sacrifice to serve her principles, and to protect another still out there.
As war seemed to revert to the status quo, Celestia and Luna's thoughts always carried the plaguing fear, that their mother's killer was still out there, and one other marauding creature that while not witnessed by them, had unleashed its power at Tartarus.
All that Starswirl told them was that his Salamander companion had set off in pursuit, but he said no more. There was nothing more that could be said, nothing more to say.

Author's Notes:

As a heads up, prepare for a slight time jump forwards next chapter, as the next 'arc' takes place a good while later from this time area. But from here on, the story is much less sprawling, more two tracked with Starswirl and Chack's perspectives.
Starswirl and Chack split at last, as the requirements of wartime show who truly has a personal stake in the war. With his only friend he made gone, Chack feels no real tie to Equestria, aside from unfinished business with the murderous Teal Quirt. That will be an important plot point later on.
And here is where Ave-Dol meets her end, voluntarily of course, to not cause trouble, to rob Siral of influence over a Being, but also to prevent her being used to harm the others who still live, namely Gaudium, who remains unknown in location to anyone since he ran off and vanished from the Citadel, devoid of memories.
Meanwhile, from here the two sisters are on their own. But on the horizon, given their relative inexperience with warfare or leadership compared to the Queen, and with the sudden death meaning they weren't as prepared as could be, opportunity knocks for those who otherwise remained obedient in the Royalists. Worse, the other side has the same 'superweapon' magic too.