June 1st

I woke up early the next day. Twilight was asleep next to me and there was a scroll on the night stand from Celestia. I opened it and read it over. I was to report to the castle as soon as possible to get ready for the fight.

I didn't want to wake Twilight, I couldn't take saying goodbye. "I love you Twilight." I leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. I lit up my horn and teleported to my room in the castle to find my robes and maul ready for me.

I donned them and walked the halls to the throne room. I eventually made it and upon entering, was greeted by a line of guards on either side of the rug leading to the thrones that were occupied by the Sun and Moon princesses. All were dressed for battle.

I walked along the carpet receiving stares of varying sorts. Most of them were of pity or hope and a few with anger. When I reached the thrones I kneeled down and hung my head.

"Rise champion. The time for you to fulfill your duty is approaching." Celestia spoke in a tone you would expect a queen of a thousand years to have, strong and forceful.

I did as she said and was met with the blank faces of Celestia and Luna.

"We will be moving out as soon as possible. Are you ready to fight?" She asked in the same time.

"I am princess Celestia." I responded with determination. I was as ready as I was ever going to be.

"Very good. Captain." She said while still looking at me.

A guard with a different set of armor came up and stood next to me. He was a pretty big stallion, and this coming from me.

"Yes, your highness?" He asked.

"Mobilize your troops and bring them into a defensive position around the city. Chrysalis wouldn't dare attack anywhere but here. Send one of your scouts along with Caine to the battlefield. Finally, bring the elements bearers to the castle. Chrysalis may only outright attack Canterlot but there is no telling what she will do to the elements if they are not protected." Celestia rattled off commands like she had been doing something like this her entire life. It made me wonder how many wars she had actually experienced.

"Yes, your highness. Blue streak!" He turned around and called out the name. A pegasus guard on the smaller side of the spectrum stepped forward with a 'yes sir'.

"You will escort the champion to the battlefield." The Captain told him.

"Yes sir." He responded. Blue streak motioned for me to follow him and we exited the room.

We walked down the hallway in silence. We eventually made it out of the castle and took flight. We flew about ten miles east of the castle. The battleground looked wierd, almost familiar. I realized suddenly that it looked very familiar. It was a park from earth, with benches, trees, and concrete pathways. It looked so out of place in Equestria, especially since they were still using masonry to build their complex structures instead of steel.

We landed down in the middle of the park and Blue streak left.

I sat down on one of the benches and waited for what felt like hours.

"Hello Caine." That voice. I know that voice, and I hate it. I stood up and turned around.

"Hi Sam. How's the family business been?" I asked my brother. He was about a head shorter than I was and his wings were a dark green with some black on the bone structure. Like mine they appeared bat like in structure but instead of feathers, they looked like insect wings. He looked bulked up as well. He was much bigger then the average man, but then again, compared to the average man I, myself, was ginormous. His horn was jagged and black like someone had shot large-caliber bullets through it on the ends. His eyes had also changed, instead of blue they were now a deep turquoise. He had some type of kilt on and a pike strapped to his back. (A/N: Sorry about this but some people don't know and it's pointless for me to put it at the end or beginning of the chapter. A pike is a spear with a metal shaft surrounding the wooden one to protect it and give it more reach if need be. And if you haven't figured it out yet a maul is a warhammer)

"I don't know. I haven't been home in almost a year!" He yelled at me, furious.

"Hey now, I haven't done anything. I was brought here against my will just like you were!" I yelled back.

"If I can kill you, I can go back home and get away from those disgusting creatures." He forewent the rest of the blame game to get straight to the fight.

"Good luck." I told him. We settled into combat positions but before we could start, he seemed to notice something.

"Wait a minute." He stood up straight. "I was stuck with those insects, what are you based off of?" Oh shit.

"What do you mean? Didn't they tell you?" I asked him, trying to get out of answering the question.

"No, they didn't. They just told me how to fight em. Which given how much that is based upon how they look, it is pretty remarkable that I wasn't able to figure it out. All I know is that they have hooves and that they are extremely weak." He said in his ' I'm a genius and you're not, dumbass' voice which pissed the hell out of me.

"I was stuck with anthropomorphic, horny, ponies with a male to female ratio of five to one favoring the females." That got him. I knew it would, my brother was a pervert and in my position, he would have dozens of illegitimate children at this point.

His face devolved into one of pure hatred and anger. "I'll kill you." He angrily whispered before he shot forward with his claws out. He moved like lightning and I had just enough time to side step him so he didn't gut me right then and there.

He got a cut on my shirt but it was repelled. He turned around quickly and went for a roundhouse kick to the head. I caught it in my hands and twisted, bringing his body along, and spun in circles, eventually letting go and sending him into a tree.

He went right through it and teleported. I read his signature above me and rolled out of the way of his pike, which impaled itself into the concrete below us halfway up the metal shaft.

I turned and fired a magical blast up at him, catching his arm but only barely. When I refocused on him I realized his wings looked almost translucent until I realized they were flapping at much faster rate than any pegasus wings I had ever seen. They were flapping so fast I could hear a slight buzzing if I listened hard enough.

He flew up high and his pike flew up after him into the clouds. If it was an air-born battle he wanted then that was what he was going to get.

I spread my wings and pushed off from the ground and flew up fast into the clouds. I stopped somewhere in the middle and sent out my tendrils. I found Sam right above me with a humongous source of magical energy. I closed one wing and flapped with the other so I dropped like a stone at an angle to the ground. I felt the burst go past me but it caught my arm. Searing pain shot up it and I looked down to see it almost cooking.

I was pissed now. I teleported to above the clouds and readied a top tier grenade. I felt it in my hand, it almost hurt to touch. It was one of my more powerful moves. It would clear the cloud covering and hopefully catch Sam in the blast. I dropped it and let it fall for a second then detonated it. The clouds were blown away and I felt Sam's magical energy falling extremely fast towards the ground. The clouds cleared just in time for me to see him smash into the ground and make a crater.

I flew down at him in a power dive. Before I got to him however, I was met with a hard punch to my stomach with the force of my fall and the force of the person hitting me going straight into my stomach. Whoever had hit me also stopped my fall. I looked over to see a bruised Sam with a triumphant grin on his face. I looked down at the crater for just a split second and saw the Sam in it, dissolving.

He started laughing but I wasn't done yet, not nearly done. I righted myself on his arm, grabbed his neck and, with all my force, dealt a sickening blow to his mouth. I felt the bone crunch under my hand and Sam screamed. Blood was pouring from his destroyed mouth and if it was possible, he was even angrier.

We fell away from each other and landed on the ground. I readied my maul and Sam, his pike. We rushed each other. He went for a stab but I twisted in a 360 and brought my hammer upside his head, sending him flying off deeper into the park. I rushed after him and right into a whack to the face from the shaft of his pike, putting me on my back. He stood above me and started stabbing the ground, I turned and each time he missed me. Eventually, though, he got me in my left shoulder, sending it deep into it and through muscle and bone. I almost passed out from the pain. I knew if I didn't win this fight soon I might lose the arm, and I really didn't want that.

I grabbed his pike while it was still in my shoulder and scissored with my legs, sending him crashing to the ground. I ripped the pike out of my shoulder and had just enough time to obliterate it before I felt Sam's fist connect with my knee, almost breaking it. I was forced to my knees and rewarded with a kick to the face sending me into a tree.

I conjured a magical grenade and cooked it. When Sam went in to take a shot, I dodged out of the way and glued it to his back. I leaped away as it exploded. When the smoke cleared I could see Sam on the ground and smoking. His left arm appeared to be gone along with part of his left wing.

I readied my maul and brought it down. What I hadn't noticed was that Sam had used the same trick twice. He left a copy in his wake as he teleported. I brought my maul down on his head but it just dissipated.

I turned around to feel a stab through my abdomen. I looked down to see a magical aura coming from a makeshift combat knife, sticking out of my stomach.

I saw Sam a few feet away with his right arm holding the shoulder of his missing left arm and his horn alight with the same magical aura surrounding the blade. I felt it twist and slash deep across my gut, sideways towards my kidneys and out. I saw blood fly and my vision was starting to get blurry. I stood up straight and looked at Sam, and he looked at me. We had one thought in our minds 'Kill my brother'. We charged.

Rarity's POV

We were at the castle with our elements and the princesses. Twilight was a wreck and barely functional. I wasn't much better and the girls were trying to console us. It had been an hour since the scout had taken Caine to fight the other champion. We could hear them clashing a few miles away. Every time one of them hit the other, it shook the ground. It was like a battle of the gods, which made me fear what would happen if the gods actually fought each other here.

Chrysalis hadn't shown her face yet but changling scouts had been seen near the base of the mountain.

While we were waiting Celestia tried to calm everypony down.

"It will be okay, Caine will triumph and when that happens, Chrysalis will retreat. We have nothing to fear." Except it wasn't working. Twilight cried harder and I almost started crying myself. The guards looked uneasy as well. Suddenly, a shockwave much more powerful than the ones before hand, erupted. Celestia brought up a seeing eye portal and we saw two beams of energy hitting each other in a wierd looking forest. Caine was ahold of white energy and looked to be near death while another human with changling parts, had a greenish energy and only one arm.

When the energy stopped, the portal blew up on us and we were left in the dark once again.

Caine's POV

Nothing we were doing was working. We were at a stalemate at this point. Sam had destroyed my maul and I had conjured my gauntlets. We weren't getting anywhere though. Each of his stabs, I side stepped. Each of my punches, he dodged. We couldn't hit each other with magic either since we were equally matched. In every regard we were matched.

I needed to end this. Neither one of us could go on for much longer. We had been fighting for what felt like hours. Each of us was drained of our reserves. I refused to let this end in a draw. I needed a plan. I needed to get close to him. Close enough to use the fail safe. It was my only shot. We would be fighting until one of us either got lucky or dropped dead from blood loss and with things going the way they were going, Sam was probably going to outlast me, he hadn't lost nearly as much blood as I had.

I needed a plan. One eventually sprang to mind but if done incorrectly, it would kill me. Especially if I didn't move fast enough.

With one final breath to calm myself, I started up the detonation process. I started glowing a myriad of colors from the different magical energies within me. I rushed forward straight into Sam's guard. And right onto his knife. I wrapped my arms around him in a vice grip. He couldn't get out but he could still do damage with his impaled knife.

I got ready to blow. I took down all the failsafes I had set up to keep myself from accidentally detonating while practicing. With one final thought of everypony I loved, I unleashed it.

We were enveloped in a white energy. It hurt me to be in it but I could feel Sam practically disintegrating under my grip. I had won, but at what cost.

When it was over, I was lying on my stomach with the knife still embedded in my chest. It was slowly being pushed towards my heart by my own body weight. I couldn't move, I couldn't think, I couldn't even blink. I was nothing anymore. All that energy had kept my alive and without any left, I might as well be dead. I felt the knife finally slip into my heart and I felt myself let go and into darkness.

Celestia's POV

"CAINE!" Twilight screeched at the top of her lungs, raw and full of emotion. We had just been hit by the shockwave of Caine's discharge and had seen the light of it a few seconds ago. There had been two crystals given to both Chrysalis and I to signal if our Champion and our opponents Champion were alive. Sam's had gone out but then Caine's had a few moments later.

Reports were already coming in of Chrysalis' troops retreating back to their hive. Eventually I told them not to bother me anymore, knowing that Equestria was safe once more.

Twilight slumped to the ground in a wreck. She wasn't crying anymore and her eyes were lifeless. I walked over to comfort her but had no idea what to say.

Caine's POV (The gods realm)

"Where am I?" I asked myself, although I couldn't hear my voice. I couldn't see anything, hear anything, or feel anything. I couldn't even taste the saliva on my tongue or smell my own blood. All of my senses were completely useless to me.

"You are in our realm, Hero." Said a voice that was neither male nor female, it sounded like it was inside my head. Like I had thought it, only in a voice different from mine.

"Where is your realm?" I said, though, I didn't feel like I did since I couldn't monitor anything.

"Beyond the living plane." Said a voice that was slightly different.

"Because that helps so much." I said with annoyance hopefully evident in whatever they were hearing.

"Moving on. You have won the battle but sadly have died right after. We are still obligated to grant you one freedom but you must know that we can not reverse something that was meant to be permanent unless we ourselves directly caused it to happen and sadly, we indirectly caused your death thus we can not bring you back to life. What is it you wish?" The first voice asked. I was angry but I felt it hard to keep that emotion. Everything I felt kept slipping away. I couldn't feel happy about winning, sad about never seeing Twilight again, or angry that they had killed me with their stupid ass game.

After getting over my inability to feel. I started thinking about what I wanted. I eventually thought of something that might work.

"Would it be possible for you to grant the ability of my counsel to my descendants and loved ones in times of great need?" I hoped I worded it right. If they screwed me I didn't know what I would do but thankfully, I had worded it in such a way that they would have to go to great lengths to misinterpret it.

They were both silent for a long time. Eventually they spoke in unison "Granted!".

Immediately I was sucked away and found myself in the throne room of Canterlot castle. I could see everypony around Twilight but something about her looked off. While I could see everypony, I could also see an aura coming from them, but Twilight, she had her own obviously purple one and an orange one just below the center of her body.

"Twilight?" I asked cautiously.

I saw her look up but put her head back in her hands a second later.

"Twilight, it's me, Caine." I said.

She looked up once more and this time around the room. Eventually her eyes settled on me and she looked like she was going to die.

She stood up and rushed over to me but went through me. The other girls stared on in confusion. After Twilight got over not being able to hold me she turned to me.

"Is it really you?" She asked.

"It is. The freedom I wished for was to be able to provide consul for my loved ones and descendents in times of great need. Apparently this applies."

She broke down after that. I waited until she was okay to speak again.

That second aura was really getting to me and I had to ask. "Twilight, why do you have a second aura?" She looked confused by my statement.

"I don't have a second aura." I saw Celestia's eyes go wide after Twilight said this.

"Celestia knows something about this." I told her.

She turned towards Celestia and walked up to her. "Celestia, do I have a second aura?" Twilight asked, bordering on angry.

"It would appear so my pupil." She answered sheepishly. No idea why.

Twilight seemed to stiffen at the response. She turned back towards me with tears in her eyes.

"Twilight what's wrong?" I asked, afraid for her.

She walked up to me and whispered into my ear. "A baby." I jerked away at this. Those weren't tears of sadness, they were tears of joy.

"That's amazing!" I exclaimed. I wasn't going to show Twilight my real feelings about not being able to see my child grow up. I needed to be happy for her.

I went to hug her but apparently my time was up. I started dissolving and before I could reach her, I was teleported away into another room with colt that looked a lot like Twilight's brother. He turned to me and looked shocked.

"Dad?"

Twilight's POV

I couldn't believe it. I was pregnant. With Caine's child, the stallion I loved with all my heart. My life wasn't over like I had thought. It was just beginning.

A/N: And that wraps things up! I feel like I did alright with this. This is the second version of this chapter. I didn't feel like the first one was good enough. I liked writing this story and I am glad so many people liked reading. I will probably get back to my other story sometime next month, thinking about taking a break. Maybe. I can be fickle. Well anyways, I would love to hear what everyone thought of this chapter. Everyone. I probably won't change it if it's bad because I liked the way I ended it but I would really like some feed back. If you would also take the time, give me a review of the whole story. That is what I usually do and I usually get thank yous from the authors who I give them to. Reviews of the whole story are good for us. Any questions I will be happy to answer, now that this story is over. See ya on the flip side.

Each ending is just another beginning in disguise. When one story ends, another rises up from the ashes. This is the cycle.