//------------------------------// // Last Stand // Story: We're all Equestrians now // by Wrinklenator //------------------------------// We’re all Equestrians now Chapter 8: Final Stand We all stepped outside of the hut. “Good my pony friends do not fret, for the Equestria’s fate has not been sealed yet.” Zecora told us, “Twilight will come back soon, and save her to bring Chaoi-Wa doom. We all nodded. “If Twilight is fighting through the shadow world, where will she break out?” I asked. “If her pace is timed as I imagine her power, it would be in Canterlot tower.” Zecora replied. Spike hopped on Rarity’s back. Rainbow Dash flew up and peered into the distance and came back down. “We gotta hurry, everypony. There’s a whole storm brewing over Canterlot!” We galloped through the forest, jumping over tree stumps and ducking under the low branches. “Ah still dun know about this, everypony.” Applejack started, “If the Elements of Harmony can’t do anything ta that monster, how can we stop him?” We exited the forest and looked upon Canterlot. A large dark cloud was spinning around the top of the highest tower. Purple lightning struck some of the buildings. “How can we stop him if we’re not going to make it in time!?” Glaciem said pointing at the castle in the distance. “I can take care of that, girls!” Pinkie Pie jumped behind a rock and moved it aside to reveal a trap door. We all peaked in it. It was heading down at what seemed to be a 45 degree angle. There were stairs of dirt leading down that were crumbling with a few bugs crawling around. “Pinkie? How did you…” Rainbow Dash looked in the hole and looked up at Pinkie. “Oh I always keep random trapdoors to Canterlot! You know, in case of emergencies like this one!” Pinkie assured. We all looked at each other with perplexed looks, “Does she always do this?” I whispered to Applejack. “That’s Pinkie Pie.” She told me and shrugged, “Jus’ go with it, partner. Pinkie Pie doesn’t make a whole lotta sense anyway.” She winked at me. “Come on, everypony! In! NOW!” Hollynight commanded and we entered single file. Rarity lit the tip of her horn as she trailed in the back as Hollynight had her own glow at the front. The tunnel flattened out and was at a normal 180 degrees after about eight straight minutes of venturing down. The tunnel was still large enough for us only to queue up in single file. “Pinkie, how long does this darn thing go?” Applejack asked. “Well, I have quite a few secret tunnels that go every which way… so…. I don’t know.” Pinkie said. “Ugh” Rarity moaned, “this is going to take forever.” “Hey,” Hollynight said, “Look everypony! The tunnel goes up again! We’re almost there.” “Pinkie, where does this exactly lead?” Rainbow Dash asked as we all started to see a small sliver of light at the top of the tunnel. “Right to Canterlot tower!” Pinkie squeaked happily, “Aren’t we lucky, Dashie! I had to make it like this because the audience may want to finish this story faster and the writ-” “What was that?” “Oh nothing.” “Okay, everypony,” Hollynight turned back to address all of us, “By the sounds I can hear out there, it looks like we don’t have much time. So as soon as we open that door, we’ll run up the staircase to the barred doors of the throne room. I’ll blast it open and Spike! Light us some torches.” Fluttershy reached into her bag with her snout and pulled out one torch at a time which Spike lit and passed out. “Take out as many of the spirits as you all can. Capidas and I will get Twilight.” Hollynight looked on us confidently. We all nodded in the affirmative. “GO!” she yelled and we charged out of the tunnel and to the stairs. The area was dark all around us and the wind howled at such a high volume. Black clouds covered the sky to the horizon line. Leafs, sticks and other debris were all flying around the castle as dark clouds blanketed the sky. There was a glowing light at the top as the Canterlot tower had lightning shooting up from it and shooting back down from the clouds. Voodoo spirits by the hundreds, maybe thousands were all swirling around it as if charging it up. The door had been sealed with chains of shadow around it. “Uh… didn’t see that one coming.” Hollynight’s face and ears drooped. “Oh dear!” Fluttershy squeaked. I reared up and concentrated hard. My front hooves turned into darkness and I quickly smashed the lock. Then I turned around and Applejack and I bucked the door open. “Good enough for me!” Rainbow Dash cried. The whole place was torn up and we could hear laughter. “Oh Twilight, you’re quite the struggler, aren’t you?” Chaoi-Wa chuckled. All of us ran up the stairs and made it into the throne room. He was om nom nom noming on some grapes with his legs kicked up, leaning backward on the throne. The throne itself was glowing white-purplish as it was pumping energy up through the ceiling into the tower. To Chaoi-Wa’s right, Celestia was gagged and under lock and key with four voodoo spirit guards around. Her horn and wings were black, a curse making her unable to use either. To Chaoi-Wa’s left, Twilight was kicking inside her clear dark gray bubble that was floating next to Chaoi-Wa as he relaxed on Celestia’s throne. “What’re you doing here?” Chaoi-Wa asked, “Can’t you see I’m about to turn your very dimension into smithereens? Once this baby is done charging, our great leader will have finally come back! I couldn't have just summoned him at any old place. Oh Celestia, your magic seems to have rubbed off quite well over this place.” He conjured some green liquid and took a sip. He snapped his fingers; one spirit appeared in front of each window pane along the room. “Hold them off for me, I’ve had a rough day.” “Okay,” I addressed my eight companions. “Spike, your fire could break Twilight’s encased prison, Fluttershy can lift you up as Rainbow Dash guards the two of you. Hollynight, Glaciem, Rarity, you have to free Celestia and protect one another. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, you and I can start taking” I turned back around. Chaoi-Wa was falling asleep. “Well, all I got to do is wait a few more minutes for the summoning to call for my final channel. Stark! Wake me when it’s time.” He yawned and lie down on a dark cloud floating just in front of the throne. The spirit next to him nodded. “GO!” I shouted. We all divided off into our groups; Rainbow Dash’s group to the right, Hollynight’s group to the left. I had tunnel as I charged along the red carpet to the throne. Spirits rushed face first to me. I jumped over them. I whirled my neck around for a quick glance to see Pinkie Pie bouncing toward me and Applejack swatting at one, vaporizing it. Rarity was smacking the cursed bindings of Celestia with her torch and Glaciem had slain three spirits with Hollynight. Spike was desperately melting the jinxed bubble in which Twilight was held. Rainbow Dash was getting exhausted keeping Fluttershy safe who had both her hooves on her eyes. She was struggling to keep Spike afloat. Chaoi-Wa woke up and stretched. “Jeez, can’t you give it a rest kid.” He made it so that the rug slid out from under me, causing me to gallop in one place. He formed a glowing clear purple orb in one hand and flung it forward. I made a noise that was equal to a muffled cannon and it blew me back, knocking me on my stomach. “It’s really quite pathetic.” He did the same to Applejack and Pinkie Pie. He slid down the rug and towered over me. He kicked me in the mouth. “Capidas!” Hollynight screamed. She dashed as fast as she could toward Chaoi-Wa. “Not so fast!” Chaoi-Wa spun on his heel and grabbed Hollynight in a magical grip. “Go on! Shoo, you dirty mule! Maybe you ought to be thrown into the shadow world?” He was starting to open a portal under Hollynight’s floating body. I saw the reflection of the opening in her eyes and the fear that coupled with it. I regained my strength and stood up. I charged into Chaoi-Wa and hit him square in the back. The portal closed and Hollynight fell straight down with a dull thud. Chaoi-Wa grabbed me from behind as he fell forward and shattered one of the window panes. We fell down the tower; both kicking and gnawing, okay, I did the gnawing as we fell. I smacked him in his forehead with my front hoof and he punched me in my gut. I went to bite him in the chest and I noticed a weird necklace with a voodoo tiki on it that was glowing an odd orange color. I grabbed that instead of his flesh and he and I smacked against the tower and were tumbling down the cliff. I grabbed a dent in the mountain’s edge and grabbed a thick branch with my mouth to stop myself in my slide downward. Chaoi-Wa latched on to a rock of his own. “Oh you fool….” He opened his hand that was not clinging to the edge and opened his palm at me. Nothing happened. “Wait, what!?!?” Chaoi-Wa was just as shocked as I was, “I don’t understand, I-” he felt and looked around inside his shirt and then back at me and was wide-eyed. I still had his necklace in my mouth. “Oh no…” he moaned and I jumped down. I smacked him in the face with my back hoofs on the fall then grabbed another secure spot. I peeked down to see him falling a way to a plateau. I slid down on my hooves, gently maintaining my balance. Panting as I arrived at the bottom. Then it dawned on me. This thing I had in my mouth was the key to Chaoi-Wa’s presence. I grinned. “No… wait, what are you doing?!” he was bruised and no longer able to use the power from the necklace to make him resistant to injury. I dropped the necklace at my hooves and reared up. “STOP! NOOOOOO!” Chaoi-Wa yelled. I put together all the strength I had left and brought it all down on the tiki part of his necklace with my hoof. It shattered into several pieces. All of which soon started to fizz with energy and jumped around like mini fireworks. I backed away as he crawled frantically to the pieces that dissolved into ash. “No… no no no…. no no no no! That was critical for my pals to get their pay. I-” he nervously spat out. I heard the same odd drum noises as I did back in the flashback of our first encounter. “Oh no.” Chaoi-Wa looked up at Canterlot tower as did I. The cloud above the tower spat and raged and a beam of green light came from it and engulfed Chaoi-Wa. The witch doctor shield himself from the brightness and shook in fear. I heard a thunderous raging language that sounded as if no living creature spoke. It literally shook the ground with every syllable uttered. The voodoo spirits came out from the broken window and started to swirl around the tower. I saw a shadow hand with three fingers and a thumb that were quite long and slender creep down the green light that connected from Chaoi-Wa to the white swirl in the dark cloud above Canterlot tower. “Please! Please, no! I beg you! Have mercy! I can pay off my debt to you, please! You don’t understaaaaaaaaahhh!!!” The dark hand ignored him and continued to make its way down. Chaoi-Wa ran, but the green beam followed him as if it was a searchlight. The hand kept following the path until… “ARRRRGHHH!!!” Chaoi-Wa exhaled and gasped for air. The hand was squeezing him tight. I could just watch in awe. I noticed out of the corner of my eye the broken window from where Chaoi-Wa and I fell. I could barely make out my friends and who I think is Celestia watch as Chaoi-Wa struggled in the grip of the shadowy hand moving him into the top of the dark cloud. “I just need another chance! Please, another chance!!! MORE TIME! ANYTHING! PLEASE! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Chaoi-Wa was sucked into the white swirl and the rest of the voodoo spirits were sucked into bright spiral of light. The dark cloud was next to go. It covered the sky as far as the eye could see and contracted into the bright light. The light exploded with a red wave spreading in all directions (Think Sonicrainboom!). The sun radiated proudly once more and the harsh winds were now a gentle breeze. I felt an enormous sigh of relief. I could stand in the warmth of the sun forever. “Capidas!” Hollynight ran up and tackled me in a big hug. “You did it!” She was in tears. I hadn’t noticed how long I had stood in that spot, apparently long enough for everypony to come down and praise me. “Thanks, Hollynight.” I hugged her back, “I’m so glad you’re safe.” “Aww!” Rarity sighed, “now don’t you two make an adorable couple!” Both of us jerked our eyes open and backed away from each other awkwardly. Then we just laughed. “Oh my gosh! Did you girls see that! Chaoi-Wa went all ‘blaaah!’ and Twilight was gone there for a minute, oh my gosh! Twilight, you must have been sooooo lonely! Spike here was super duper confident tha-” “PINKIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE” Twilight and Rainbow Dash shouted in unison. All of them got into a big group hug of their own. I felt a strange tingle inside of me. I looked down at my hoof and saw little beads of golden light were forming and then quickly evaporating. It was almost like I was sweating gold air tears. I could see that I was ever so slowly fading. My heart sank. Oh no. Chaoi-Wa’s spell was the only thing keeping me here in the first place. “Capidas? Capidas what’s wrong with your fur?” Hollynight trotted back over to me and grabbed my hoof. “It feels light as a Pegasus feather. Are you okay?” she her cheerful voice turned into expressing concern. I felt my ears droop and looked back down at my almost transparent hoof. “Chaoi-Wa brought me here,” I started, “I was here under his spell. It was the only way he could have entered this world. He needed another human. I was that human. The disguise he used also applied to me.” I dared not to look up at Hollynight, not yet at least. “Now that he is gone, the magic keeping me here has faded at last. I can no longer stay, Hollynight, I am so sorry.” I looked up to see her eyes as tear filled as mine. “So, you’re just…. leaving?” I nodded. A golden bubble of my own slowly incased me. I could only sit and watch Hollynight sob. “You’ve been a great friend, and I will NEVER forget you, I swear it.” I told her. “Neither will I, Capidas.” I put my hoof on my shell like transport. She put her own in the same spot and the sphere closed around me and sealed itself at the point where our hooves touched. I floated away. What I think was minutes felt like hours. Suddenly, my bubble became clear and I looked around and saw I was literally in the middle of the universe. I could see what felt like the entire cosmos around me. It was truly breathtaking. I saw galaxies and stars and even a raging pulsar star and one galaxy eating another. My bubble just floated me along to what I think is home. Why was I still a pony? I held my hooves up and just stared at them. Shouldn’t I have at least turned back by now? “HAIL CITIZEN, WE HAVE HEARD THE TALE OF THOU, THE GOOD HUMAN, WHO HAST CONQUERED THE VILE HUMAN IN AN ATTEMPT TO DESTROY US AND OUR WORLD!” I just about fell over. “Who, who are you!?!?” I hid by curling myself up in a ball. “MUST WE REPEAT OURSELVES?!?!?” I saw a dark blue pony with a horn and wings. “No, but you could turn your volume down by a tincy little bit.” I felt like Fluttershy. “Oh, sorry, you must excuse me, I forgot that nopony uses the uhh…” “What was that?” “Oh nothing!” she said. “Who are you?” “I am Princess Luna. You may know of me as Celestia’s younger sister.” “Why are you here.” I asked. “I am here to tell you this: You have a friend who is now heartbroken. She misses you dearly, Capidas.” Luna turned around in my bubble, which I had just noticed had grown, and casted a spell to cause a mirror to appear that showed the spot where I had left. “I still don’t understand.” Hollynight had her hooves in her face, constantly wiping away tears. “What don’t you understand, Hollynight?” Twilight asked her and went over to pat her on the back. “Why didn’t tell me this if he knew this was going to happen?” she sobbed. “Considerin’ how heartbroken you are righ’ now,” Applejack went up to comfort her too, “he must’ve felt the same pain of leaving and wanted to delay the pain for as long as he could.” All of the mane six, Glaciem and Spike were depressed with my leaving. Pinkie Pie had a fountain of tears and loud sobs going off. Celestia flew down from the tower and addressed all of them. “Like all things, they come and go.” She came over to the group and all of them but Hollynight turned around. “But Capidas will always be in your heart, Hollynight. Friendships can last for more than one lifetime, I am sure of it.” “Oh Capidas….” Hollynight lied down in the grass and put her head between her hooves. “Stop it, Luna!” I looked away once again saddened, “I can’t take it anymore.” “I know you can’t. That’s why if you truly care, if you truly love your friends; it’s possible for that love to create its own bond. If that is true, you can go back.” My ears perked up at the last word. “I can!?” I jumped. Luna nodded. “I… I… I… don’t want to leave. I want to stay longer. I want to be with my irreplaceable friend.” I put my right hoof where I think my heart would be located. Hey, I’m not an expert in horse anatomy. Maybe I should learn more about that… The bubble slowly became a dense gold again; I could no longer see through it. I then passed out. I woke up, as if something had awoken me just like when I fell asleep. It was nighttime. For how long was I gone? I looked down to see Hollynight, Glaciem and the mane six with Spike on Twilight’s back were trotting over the bridge at Ponyville. Hollynight was in the rear looking the most downtrodden, as her nose was nearly touching the ground. Hollynight sat down. The bubble of mine lowered down to the middle of the bridge after they all had crossed it. Spike looked back and stood frozen in shock. “What is it, Spike?” Twilight stopped to ask. Spike just stared, his jaw dropped. Twilight turned and so did the others, one by one. All of them gathered around me. It was one big hug fest. “Hollynight! There’s somepony here that would like to see you!” Glaciem called out. Hollynight turned around slowly and was in a combination of shock and jubilance. She galloped toward me as fast as she could and tackled me yet again with a hug. She rubbed my nose with hers and she helped to lift me up. “Hey, you know what this calls for?!?!” Pinkie Pie started to bounce up and down. “A PAR-” “Pinkie, not now, it’s late. We’re all exhausted and I, for one, need to get my beauty sleep.” Rarity flipped her mane, “How else do you think I maintain my elegant figure with such a beautiful crinière, darling?” All of them laughed, except for Rarity who was apparently being serious. “Come on, Capidas. Let’s go home.” “Home, I guess this is my new home. Here in Equestria, as a pony.” We walked off into Ponyville; that was good. I looked up at the clouds in the sky and saw Luna perched on one of the clouds. I nodded at her and she did so to me; that was good. Hollynight and I made our way into her house… … and that was very good. DA FREAKIN' END.... maybe I could write an epilodge or however it's spelled or something.... Like and favorite if you thought it was somewhat decent or something. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I don't even know why I finished it considering its positive rating is less than 50% by now (Nov. 24). As long as somepony likes it, it's good enough for me! : D