//------------------------------// // New Age // Story: Cards of Legacy // by SwordTune //------------------------------// "Just shut up Card Master." I haven't said anything yet. Twilight rolled her eyes and paced around him. "You take your sweet time being mysterious and wise." He was clad in his robes again, with a hood so large it shrouded his face and the cards that made it up. "But I'm not the one with the so-called 'grand plan,' or whatever you've been playing this game for. I can be patient, no other choice really, but you have a goal you want to see fulfilled." Then we're both in luck. The game is over. You win. Twilight's pacing stopped. Really, we're done here. She just looked at him expectantly, waiting for his elaboration. Fine, Princess. You get a prize too for your efforts. He flicked his hoof and a card shot from his sleeve. It nearly struck Twilight in the eye, stopping only at the last moment and hovering in front of her face. It was like the rest of his cards. Magic flowed through it, pumping like blood through the magic symbols that crisscrossed as if all the constellations in the night sky had converged into one point to overlap each other. That card is yours, Twilight. Should you choose to accept it. "And if I do?" she asked. Must we skip the elaborate explanation? Twilight sighed slowly, blankly staring at him, and nodded. The Card Master lowered his hooded head, as if in sadness. Very well. That card is mine. The Card of the Card Master. The one who possesses it is worthy of the title. "A successor..." mumbled Twilight. You have seen what needs to be done, though you may not know it yet. Accept it, and you will have the power to turn it into reality. "What reality? Power over time? More games?" Twilight looked at the card. It was the same on either side, unlike the rest of the cards with a backing and an image of its world. What needs to be done is this: kill Time. Twilight furrowed her brows and stared at the Card Master the way she usually did; once again she thought he was insane. Everywhere there is death. All things must die, and beings such as ponies and Shinies and griffons will suffer along the way. With you as the Card Master, that will all change. No past, no future, not even a present; stop the flow of time and all moments will merge into one, as they have merged in you. "It'll be chaos!" she exclaimed. It's already chaos! This will bring unity. Those who live, have lived, and will live, can exist as one, moving from time to time like you would a walk in the park. All mistakes to ever exist can be fixed, just by knowing all the moments in time at once. The world would be a paradise. "I refuse the card," Twilight answered. "Meddling with time never ends well Card Master." Because in the end, Time always remains the winner. It continues on and on no matter what. Few have ever traveled through time, and as you can attest, they all want to change something in their own perception of the world. Time walks away untouched. Not this time. Twilight shook her head. "Not with me." She tried to imagine the Card Master's world but she couldn't see the good in it. She saw the wars that would always exist, the conflicts that could be forgotten always staying alive. Ponies needed Time so they could put things behind them and be done with it, and even if the past wanted to be remembered, it couldn't do so without suffocating the future. The Card Master kept his head low as he nodded wistfully. I admire your conviction, Princess. It's far greater than the Sun's, of that I am certain. So please, understand that I do not wish to do this, even if I must. The Card Master's card flared bright like the sun itself before Twilight could react. The blast of magic first blinded her, and then sent her sprawling on the ground with a burst of magic. Her vision blurred from the force but the Card Master was already on her. He dropped his robe, dispersed into a cloud of cards and reformed by her side, picking up Twilight and swinging her back into the cold fog ground. Her horn sparked with magic as she groaned but she was already flying across the dark room. She heard and felt her back crack against the fog's barrier. She tried to open her wings to get away, but something was broken and the bone dug into her skin. "Don't do this," she pleaded. "I'm no good to you dead." There was no reply. Twilight scanned the room but she couldn't see anything but her own hooves. Even the blood dripping from her beaten face dripped into the fog and vanished. There was only her and darkness. Only darkness and hoof steps. "Sweet Princess, you're not going to die here." Twilight squinted her eyes at the darkness but couldn't make out the figure that spoke to her. "That would be such a waste. No, you're going to stay here with me, and you're going to learn to kneel to the Queen." ============================================================= Twilight's head throbbed like her brain was trying to escape from her skull. The last thing she remembered was refusing the card and being thrashed around by the Card Master. She tried to say something, even if only to hear her own voice, but she could barely muster a groan. It wasn't until the pain in her head stopped that she realized her situation. She couldn't move; each hoof was fixed in place by two tight leather straps. "What is this?" she asked, not really expecting an answer. "Look around little thing, don't you recognize it?" Twilight still couldn't see where the voice came from but given her position she simply listened and looked at her surrounding. The Castle of the Two Sisters, standing in its original glory. "Why here of all places?" The voice quietly chuckled. "I feel so alone. You don't even remember my voice." Twilight swallowed her fear. "What are you doing here, Nightmare Moon?" She saw why she couldn't see the Nightmare back in the dark fog. The night was dark and she was nearly invisible in it, her midnight coat blending in with her domain. "This is my home, Princess," answered the Queen. She walked calmly up to Twilight, examining the structure she was strapped to. It was a simple wooden "X," propped up by two thick wood beams behind it. "You don't look comfortable. Let me cut you down from this." Twilight let out a breath of relief as the Queen produced a knife from under her wing and cut her hind legs free. She felt herself slide down, the remaining leather straps struggling to hold her in place. "Then again, you did refuse the Card Master." Twilight winced as she drove the knife into her stomach, pinning her onto the cross again. Her face was twisted in anguish but the Queen didn't seem to notice. Twilight tried to pull her hooves free but the Queen simply pressed herself up against her. For a long time they both said nothing. Twilight remained still out of fear and the Queen of Nights enjoyed watching Twilight squirm. "Such a pretty one, aren't you?" Twilight cried in agony out as the Queen gripped the knife with magic and twisted it around. "Stop!" Twilight shouted through her teeth. "Please stop!" The Queen simply smiled and obliged. She stepped back to look at the bloody handle sticking from Twilight's belly, slowly dripping out blood with each heartbeat. "What did he ever see in you?" The Queen hissed and yanked the knife out, pushing it into her hind leg instead and tearing down through the skin. Twilight gave another sound of pain but her voice broke as her blood drained into the rest of her body, including her lungs and her throat. Whatever she did, the Queen didn't heed, simply taking the knife and slashing down her other hind leg in a similar manner. Satisfied with her introduction the Queen of Nights waved her horn and unfastened the straps that held Twilight, letting her slide off the wood and crumple to the ground. She snickered at the young alicorn as magic seeped into her, healing her wounds and refilling the blood she lost. Twilight gasped once she had recovered, taking in the air and coveting it. The Queen shook her head at Twilight and smiled to herself, imagining the torment she could inflict. "I was supposed to take his place," she told Twilight, who struggled to lift herself up from the ground. "The prophecy said some pony would, some pony born from the magic of the cards. So, when your Princess Luna came to stop the Card Master's games, he added her memories to the cards and made me, a card formed from the memories of the past." "I don't want to be the Card Master," Twilight said, stepping back to distance herself from the nightmare before her. Twilight immediate regretted those words as the Queen's face contorted into a deformed shadow. She spread her wings and rushed forward, striking Twilight in the chest with a hoof, driving her through the stone walls of the castle. "He chose a princess born without wings, an alicorn bastard given power and wings!" Twilight scrambled to defend herself, using her wings to shield herself. "Worst of all, you don't even want the honor of being his successor. Look at you cower, and here I thought there was a monster hunter in you." The Queen scoffed at her. "You're pathetic. After all he's done to turn you into the prophecy's chosen, you could at least stand and fight." Twilight tensed as the Queen stepped closer. She could see all the possible attacks like a fighter, and the Monster Hunter yearned to take over and take one last monster to the grave, but the Princess overruled her. She didn't have the Elements, and without them she wasn't sure how to beat the Nightmare. "I want to talk to the Card Master," Twilight finally said, halting the Queen's advance. "He's in charge, not you. I won't gain anything from fighting you." The Queen laughed at the Princess's attempt at negotiation. "He left you with me, darling. You may not know this, but ponies who come here do not leave. Not alive, anyways." "Celestia did," Twilight prodded. She watched as the Queen's eyes twitched at the mention of her sister. "You would do well to remember who you are," she growled. "You do not shine as bright as the sun, and anything less than that will be consumed by the night. That's why you're here, left to rot by the Card Master. Plead to him all you want, you're mine now." The Queen charged her horn to make her point, blasting a beam of magic. Twilight rolled out of the way and took to the sky, flapping her wings through the hole in the wall. She had a head start but the Queen gave chase, soaring after her faster than she would have expected. She twisted through the air, trying to lose her under and over the arches around the castle. Despite her efforts, it was inevitable the Queen would catch up. She felt the burn of the magic knock her down from the sky, forcing her to crash through the windows of the castle. "I'll prove I deserve to be his successor!" The Queen declared as she landed on top of Twilight, planting her hooves on her wings. "I can break you, and then you'll be nothing more than-" She roared as Twilight blinded her with a bolt of magic, falling back to recover her eyes. "I hope you enjoy being trapped in here, because nothing you can do can match what the Card Master is capable of. He believes in what he should do, even if it will destroy the world as we know it." She spun around and bucked the Queen in the jaw, knocking her down to the floor. "You have too much of Nightmare Moon, and no control. He'll never let you have his card." "No, I won't," the Queen sighed, "he's chosen you, and there's nothing you or I can do about it." "I refused him," Twilight told her. The Queen just spat blood at her hooves. "You dumb little bitch. You don't get to refuse the Card Master." Her horn glowed, commanding the black fog to seep up from the floor. "Accepting is always easier, but there are ways the cards can take you, and with their method's there's no resistance." The fog solidified, like the fog walls that trapped Twilight with the Card Master, only they didn't form a room. Tendrils of the fog slipped up from the ground, coiling around Twilight and digging into her skin. They passed into her, incorporeal yet still able to manipulate, pulling her down to the ground, where she grunted and attempted to escape. "I wanted you to myself," snickered the Queen of Nights. "It would have been so fun to see you submit to me. But I must carry out my duties as the Card Master commands." She twirled her horn and more fog rose up, wrapping around Twilight's legs and head, dragging her down until she couldn't help but taste the smooth stone of the castle floor. Finally, once the fog had wrapped every part of Twilight save for her head, the Queen knelt down and turned Twilight's face to the side. "Still, I want to look at you and savor every moment of the change." She shot Twilight a wolfish grin as smaller tendrils of fog sprouted from the ground and creeped into her mouth, gripping her jaw and forcing it open. With her job complete, the Queen of Nights happily stood back and watched. The air before Twilight crackled with energy and warped itself, whirling around like a whirlpool until a card popped from its magic. Twilight's eyes widened with recognition. The Card Master's card hovered at her lips, humming gently with power. From it came another card, peeling off like a sticker. It stuck itself to Twilight's skin, burning with magic to permanently join with her flesh. She would have screamed if she could, but more cards followed, coming off the Card Master's card like stickers, endlessly spawning from its magic as if a whole deck was compacted into a single card. All Twilight could do was wince as each card bit into her skin, until there wasn't a shred of her purple coat showing, and when the cards began filling her throat and lungs, there was nothing more she could do but thrash around and hope it would end. The cards were flooding out, each fighting to conquer her body and suffocate her with power. For once, the Queen of Nights watched the torture in horror, reconsidering her own ambitions to succeed the Card Master. Twilight was certain she'd die of suffocation, the cards had removed room in body for even air, but the magic in the fog decided otherwise. Every moment Twilight felt close to death magic would revive her, refreshing her senses to the endless barrage of torture. When the cards cut and shredded her inner organs and muscles, magic seeped into her and healed them. When she needed air, the magic provided just enough. And so it went, on and on. ============================================================= Well done, Princess. The voice woke Twilight to a mirror, back in the darkness of the fog. She didn't remember passing out, but she wasn't surprised. The cards forced their power onto her, and she couldn't have survived it for long. But she looked fine in the mirror. No skin made of cards, no dark hooded robe to cover her face. She was still herself. I wouldn't say you're exactly the same as before. The Card Master's voice echoed around the room, but he did not show himself. Twilight paced around the room, keeping her guard up once again. Princess, please. I am but a voice now. You control the powers of the cards, not me. "Then why am I still here?" she asked. I wondered that myself. It appears in your sleep your fears of your appearance summoned the mirror. If you want to leave, simply say the word. Twilight gazed suspiciously around her, but having no other lead on what to do, she commanded the fog. "I want to leave." You are the master. Your powers have no care for what you want, trust me on that. Don't tell them what you want, tell them what to do so you can get what you want. Twilight reached deep within herself and boomed the command with her impression of Luna's royal voice, carrying her command to every part of the fog. "Disperse and let me leave." It all went away. The mirror dissipated and went with the fog, clearing out into the floor boards of what slowly appeared to be a log cabin. It was unfurnished, effectively just a box made of logs and nails, and without the darkness it looked surprisingly small. "Where am I now?" Twilight asked, expecting the Card Master to appear in his pony form, just as he did when he tricked her into his game. But there was only herself. In her hoof, a key for the locked door with the etchings C.M. written on it. She didn't wait any longer to escape. Twilight stuck the key into the lock burst out the door for her first taste of freedom. Outside was the familiar surrounding of the Everfree Forest, albeit deeper than she had ever been before. Nail to a tree outside the door was a note, clumsily scratched onto the paper with a stick of charcoal. Always remember. Your are born from the magic of the cards, far more worthy than the successors I have tried to create. Whatever your feelings, do not forgo the powers of the past. Time may not need to die, as you want it. Or maybe it must, as I want it. The cards grant power of hindsight, but you may have a gift for foresight. This is why the magic has passed to you, Princess. Only you have the judgement to harmonize the world once and for all. Whatever your choice, look to the past and always remember. Above, the sun was shining and the birds were chirping. It was a nice day outside. Twilight thought to herself, considering everything that she had experienced, ultimately coming to the only reasonable solution. "I should go see my friends."