36 Endgame

I want to recognize, and honor, EpicSmiley12, The Random 1, anon, No Name, ChrnoKeeper, and anypony else who read my last update. Thanks for leaving your reviews.

Also, sorry if I'm putting too many Kingdom Hearts references in. I just started replaying that game, and it's slipping into my writing.

Faedran backed away, the final piece clasped tightly in the superior's clawed hand, white teeth no longer gleaming. This couldn't be happening. Everything had been so immaculately planned, so well executed, so well prepared. Everything had been pointing toward a flawless victory, the rise of a new Court member, one that would bring Grimm to the next stage of her proceedings.

But now…

Mauraxus was dead…well, really dead this time. Veyrul had been vanquished. Sirmyurin, Faedran's key mindbreaker, had switched sides, consumed by sentiment. And the superior, against all expectations, had just about run out of pieces…and options.

For the first time in centuries, Faedran felt, ever so slightly, afraid. The clawed fingers tightened around the piece, the final chess piece.

If this was played, the game was over, but if it was played, the results would be…unimaginable. The only other time Faedran had been forced to use this piece was...oh yes. That chess game against Balladium, the realm-shifter. And even then, it had almost destroyed everything. However, in the current circumstances, this was the only thing left to play.

Could the superior risk it?

The Elements of Harmony, with Sirmyurin hot on their heels, rushed to Veil's side. The ebony pony was lying face up on the stone floor, her remaining wing bent at an unnatural angle, broken. There was a deep notch in the wing guard that was mounted on it, testifying to the force of the clash between Veyrul's armor and its former host. Blood pooled around Veil's body, and although the crimson puddle was growing by the second, Veil was smiling, her yellow eye gazing lovingly at the orb that she held clasped in her bracer's grip.

She thought back to the duel. Wounded and drained of energy, Veil had known she would not be able to defeat Veyrul in a front on clash, so at the last moment, Veil had absorbed the armor's blow on her wing, instead grabbing the memory orb from between the open chest plate with her right foreleg. She had hoped that, if the source of power was gone, Veyrul would no longer be able to manifest as a solid consciousness.

"I…was…right…" she said faintly, ignoring the cries of concern and panic from her friends, ignoring the dull, throbbing pain in her chest. Ignoring the blood gushing down her sides.

"Veil! Veil! Don't close your eyes! Stay with us!"

There was a voice calling to her. It sounded familiar. Somepony she knew…Veil wished it would go away. She was so tired…

"Sirmyurin! What are going to do!"

"I-I don't know-"

The alicorn's rushed, frantic voice buzzed into Veil's thoughts, disrupting them. A cyan hoof entered her field of vision, only to be smacked away by a lavender one.

"Don't touch it, Rainbow! Even the slightest movement could be deadly. How do we remove it?"

Remove what? Veil thought curiously, shifting her gaze from the memory orb to the epicenter of her chest pains.

There, stuck halfway in her flesh and still glowing with red runes, was the bottom half of Veyrul's bracer blade. That must have been the snapping noise that they had heard during the duel's conclusion. They had hit each other so hard that Veil's opponent's weapon had shattered.

And by some kind of horrendous luck, had embedded itself in her body, perhaps as a final curse from the Court member before it was defeated at last.

The end of the blade rose and fell with every breath Veil took, her blood oozing out from all around it, sending trickles of warmth down her sides. Blue sparks danced around the wound, but no matter what Sirmyurin tried, nothing changed. Veil's vision began to grow dark around the edges, her friends' voices becoming fainter.

"It's…okay…girls…" Veil tried to say, but suddenly found herself unable to make a sound. Instead, a familiar metallic taste entered her mouth.

Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Sirmyurin all looked at each other desperately.

"What are we going to do?"

Nothing. Sirmyurin, this charade of yours has come to an end. You will come back with me and report to Grimm, or else I will play my final piece.

The white alicorn looked up at his superior, blinking away tears, the first open display of sorrow he had shown in decades.

"Faedran!" he cried, using his superior's name for the first time. "Don't do this. Help us save Veil, and I'll take all the blame! You can tell Grimm I sabotaged the mission. Just, please, don't play that last piece!"

YOU, you who have doomed this mission to failure, you who have decimated my every attempt to save it, you who showed no mercy when fighting for yourself, now have the audacity to beg for it? I am beginning to question your sanity. I will tell you this. Leave the target here, and when I report you to Grimm for insubordination, I will tell her that your mind was addled by local corruption.

The superior's clawed hand held a single white piece over the chessboard, ready to slam it down. Twilight and her friends didn't know what that piece was, but just from seeing Sirmyurin's reaction, transforming from the bold alicorn into a shaking wreck, was enough to make them tremble as well.

Veil coughed, a weak, spluttering noise that was more liquid than air. "Don't…worry…about…me…" she croaked, blood trickling from her mouth. "…You can…leave…me…here…I…won't…be…mad…" Unable to say any more, Veil's head tilted back and she closed her eye, the blade in her chest glowing brighter and brighter.

Well, do hurry up. Leave the target, and I will be lenient.

Sirmyurin gazed up into the red, pitiless serpentine face of the superior, and said what he should have said when Mauraxus asked him to perform the memory wipe.

"No."

Faedran's false smile dropped, and with it the white piece, the round base clicking onto the chessboard with an ominous echo. Around them, the manor began to shake, bits of the ceiling falling in, smashing to smithereens on the floor and displaying a vivid yellow sky above.

Checkmate.

"No!" Sirmyurin shouted, but his plea fell on deaf ears, and the superior Gigas flashed the party one last smug grin before vanishing into a yellow portal, the exact same shade as the churning sky above. Wherever the manor's third floor opened into, it wasn't Equestria.

The manor was coming down all around them, masonry shattering into fragments all around them and making huge splashes in the water. Wind howled around everypony, and the floor began to crack, yellow light erupting up from the fissures.

Sirmyurin's eyes were wide with fear as he stood paralyzed in the middle of the destruction. "The manor…what has Faedran done?"

Twilight tugged at the alicorn's foreleg. "Sirmyurin, come on! We have to get Veil out of here!"

The alicorn caught Twilight's gaze, yellow cat eyes meeting deep purple. His mane roiled and whipped as he shook the unicorn off. "You go. I'll keep the manor from falling."

Rarity and Applejack were instantly in his way. "Darling, you can't! We need your power! We'll never make it out without you!"

"Yeah! Yer our friend anyway! We're as sure as sugar not leavin' you here! We need your help!"

To their surprise, the alicorn gave them both a nuzzle before turning away.

"No. It was I who needed yours." Sirmyurin's horn began to glow with white light, the cracks on his hooves spreading upwards. "Now, go! If you hurry, Veil can still make it! And take Soulshatter. It's yours now."

"Sirmyur-"

"Go! In a moment, this whole place will be swarmed with Nexus Magistrates!" The alicorn's eyes were clenched shut with the effort, but he turned from his task to blast the doors back open, showing them the way out.

As Twilight and Rarity lifted the unconscious body of Veil off the floor, Sirmyurin turned to the Elements and whispered, "Tell her I'm sorry. For everything"

But the seven ponies were already gone.

Twilight and her friends galloped as fast as they could, dashing through the double doors, down the steps, and into the huge chamber that housed the black marble labyrinth. Upon reaching it however, they were astounded to see that the previously chaotic arrangement had been replaced with a simple, straight strip of black stone, leading back to the Hall of Minera.

There was a roar from behind them.

A nastily familiar roar.

"I WILL CRUSH YOUR SOULS!"

The Elements of Harmony turned their heads. A massive dragon made of blue fire was diving down at them, the indigo flames streaming out from behind it like a perverse kind of slipstream. The fiery dragon's eyes burned with hatred, locking its gaze on the seven mares that stood transfixed by this scene of awful beauty, the beauty of death that was Mauraxus.

Just when Mauraxus was about to crash right into them, something clicked in their minds, and the flame dragon missed the party by mere inches, the heat from his body crisping the hair on the ponies' manes and coats.

"RUN!" Pinkie screamed at the top of her lungs, as even more debris rained down around them, blocking off bits of the path.

As they ran, faster than they had ever run before, Soulshatter began to hum, levitating off Twilight's back and floating at her side. Mauraxus, ever relentless, screamed through the air after them, falling stone dropping harmlessly though his flaming blue wings.

The Hall of Minera passed in a blur, barely giving Twilight and her friends time to register that all the statues from before were now missing.

They galloped though the corridor that Talonbite had first appeared in, emerging in the tea room, but now, the tea room was not a room but a hallway. Ignoring the burning sensation in their legs and lungs and wings, the Elements ran and flew even faster, the raging fire dragon hot on their hooves.

Mauraxus flew even closer. The heat off his body was now igniting the carpet under their hooves.

Carpet. They were almost out.

The tea room suddenly gave way to the first floor foyer, the front door standing ajar, letting sunlight stream in, lighting up the hallway.

Almost there.

Mauraxus breathed a fireball at their backs, the blazing projectile arcing over their heads and hitting the archway above the door, setting it on fire with raging blue flames.

The door grew bigger, the sunlight brighter.

Applejack, who was at the back, felt the tip of her tail start to burn.

With a final shout, Twilight and her friends galloped out into the manor courtyard, the fresh air hitting their soot-stained faces and invigorating their oxygen-starved lungs.

Mauraxus exploded out of the door, setting the courtyard vegetation alight and lunging at Veil and the ponies protecting her.

"Crush…your…soul…"

"No," Twilight said with a calm finality, facing the oncoming being of fire. "I'll crush yours."

And, without even knowing how, the lavender unicorn swung Soulshatter with all her might, the sword following her will and plunging right into the burning beast's trunk, the dragon shrieking and being drawn back into the trembling manor.

"I CURSE YOU, BETRAYER!" Mauraxus bellowed, clawing at the edges of the doorframe in a last, desperate attempt to stay out. "I CURSE YOU WITH ALL MY SOULS!"

Then the door slammed shut, and the dracolich known as Mauraxus was gone forever.

Author's Notes

This was exhilarating to write.

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