Dimension: Adventures in Odyssey
Planet: Earth
Specific Location: Earth's Ionosphere
Time: Over two and a half weeks after the Paradox took over Equestria
"Brace yourselves," said Mattimeo calmly as the engine of Krausk's ship primed to jump, "There is a good chance that this could all go wrong. In that event, I will need everyone to be calm so that I can evacuate everyone safely."
"Well, at least there is a fallback plan," snorted Krausk as he typed in the activation sequences required. He then looked up meaningfully for a second before activating the drive.
A massive portal opened up. This portal looked slightly different than the others, because of the Phantom Device that covered the Amethyst Dimension. A shimmering ribbon of white light rippled around the edges of the large tear, and it intertwined and contorted with the red-glowing time-space distortions that emanated from the corners of the hole. Light and black energy sizzled and sparkled in a Tyndal-like effect at the edges as the portal continued to distort. Suddenly the tear went rigid as the drive sequence became complete. The portal then began to move forward inexorably to swallow the ship. All was well.
As the ship disappeared through the portal from end-to-end, Krausk let out a huge sigh of relief. Though he had not shown it, it had greatly worried him that the portal would simply have exploded, ending it all right there. Fortunately, it had not, and all was on track.
"Nothing on the scanners," muttered Franklin as he looked at the scanning-related post.
"I will decide that for myself," said Mattimeo emotionlessly. He slowly turned in place, his masked helmet oscillating slowly. It was obvious that he was looking straight through the walls of the ship, scanning with his omnipresent-like vision the whole of the dimension.
"Interesting," breathed Mattimeo, "There are no ships. There is a large group of Dimensional Lords within Capitol Prime, but there are no ships, and the defensive mechanisms posted around the dimension have been deactivated."
"It is possible for the Paradox to get this cocky?" said Daniel worriedly.
"It appears so," murmured Mattimeo. Finally, Mattimeo gave the nearest thing he would ever give to a shrug and said, "I am taking control of the helm. I will direct us to the Kappa Space Bridge."
Mattimeo strolled up to the helm and held his hand out over the controllers. In an instant, he had complete telepathic control of the ship. The ships gracefully pulled a sharp turn and headed off at high speeds towards a large planet that orbited nearby Capitol Prime.
"Ummm… Is it just me, or are we headed straight for that planet?" said Franklin nervously.
Krausk shrugged. "I guess so. That doesn't matter. I haven't known Mattimeo for more than an hour or so, but he certainly knows what he is doing."
"We are. It is not what it seems, though. Give me a moment, I am uploading the coordinates to the location Finnian Jones gave us to the Kappa System… Stand by…" said Mattimeo softly.
The ship continued to barrel towards the planet. As they approached, Mattimeo snapped a finger. The planet suddenly shimmered and vanished. It had only been a hologram. In its place was a massive metal structure easily the size of the planet. It looked like a mix between a Star-Gate, and the Death Star, with blue-glowing power channels running all over the multi-faceted surface. As the ship continued to approach, the giant metal ball suddenly folded outward with surprising speed. Like a fold-out toy, the ball expanded, exposing a giant hole in the center. This hole suddenly shimmered with dark lightning, and a massive blast of purple, black, and navy blue energy rippled from one end of the hole to the other. A massive swirling vortex of power slowly came into being in the wake as the energy continued to ripple across space. As the ship was less than a score of kilometers away, the vortex was complete. It was in the nick of time, too, and the ship blasted through the vortex.
In an instant, physics and chemistry went haywire, and everyone's vision turned red and warped and bent as they passed through the vortex. However, it was only for an instant, and, the next thing they all knew, they were floating in space in a new dimension.
"What… what IS this place?" breathed Franklin as he gazed out a port-hole. The dimension they were in was completely void. Not a single star shown in the sky, not a single piece of asteroid floated in space. It was utterly dark and empty.
Mattimeo slowly turned in place again as his borderline omnipresent vision took the whole dimension in at a glance.
As he did this, he said, "This is a void dimension. The outflow of Imagination Energy from Earth Prime does not reach here, thus, nothing here can exist."
"Well… then why do we still exist?" said Krausk, a little awed at his surroundings as well.
"We exist because we were just recently disconnected from the outflow. However, if we reside here for too long, we too will stop having substance, and our molecules will drift apart and dissolve into nothing."
"Then I suppose we should start moving," said Daniel.
"I agree," said Mattimeo emotionlessly, "I have located the planet. Hold on."
Mattimeo took hold of the nearest seat. His body began to shimmer. In an instant, everyone else began to shimmer as Mattimeo teleported himself and the rest of the ship to a specific location on the other side of the dimension. All of a sudden, the group found themselves orbiting a small metal construct that was illuminated by energy channels that crisscrossed the surface. It about the size of Earth Prime's moon.
Jetfire gazed at the metal moon and said, "Is that… Is that it?"
Discord conjured up bird-watching binoculars and said, "Oh, I don't know. It looks like a metal moon to me. Possibly… Oh! I got it! It's a metal moon! Positive!"
Mattimeo gazed at the moon. "It is. Daniel… are you ready? I can see the Crystal of Harmony from here. It is surrounded by a proximity semi-molecular dispersion field. You can disable it from down there. Unfortunately, we will be unable to help you once you are on the surface. It appears that a mini Phantom Device circles that structure. Thus, I cannot teleport you down there. Thus, you are going to have to perform an orbit-to-ground stratosphere skydive-like reentry.
Daniel nodded his head stoutly. "I am ready."
Mattimeo nodded his head in return and extended a hand, palm facing up. A large jetpack suddenly shimmered into existence as he conjured it up. He then handed it to Daniel.
"This is an Inquisition Extraction Class OGSSR Jetpack. Simply activate it when prompted to do so, and you will land safely on the surface," said Mattimeo as he conjured up a set of full body armor not unlike the Phasetroopers.
"And here," continued Mattimeo, "It a suit that will protect you. From my personal scans, it appears that there is no form of life support down there. Thus, you must be careful."
Daniel nodded. He clamped on the armor, and then put on the jetpack.
"I'll take you to the cargo bay," said Krausk, getting up from his captain's seat, "You can perform the jump from there. Follow me."
Krausk, followed by Daniel and Franklin, strolled through several long corridors and a couple of elevators. As they walked, no one spoke, but apprehension crackled in the air like lightning. In several minutes, though, they arrived at the cargo bay that Krausk had talked about.
"Good luck Daniel," said Krasuk as he opened up the entry doors and stepped aside.
Daniel nodded. He then turned to Franklin and shook his hand firmly.
"I will see you in a couple of minutes," said Daniel quietly. Franklin winked.
Daniel then entered the cargo bay and closed the doors behind him.
"Beginning decompressurization," said Krausk as he typed in calculations into a nearby terminal. Red lights began to flash as the outer doors of the ship began to unlock themselves. Then, suddenly, they were shot opened with a hiss.
Through the blast-proof windows of the inner doors, Franklin and Krausk watched as Daniel got sucked out and catapulted towards the surface of the large metal moon.
Outside, Daniel's breath caught as he accelerated rapidly towards the surface. Thanks to that sling-shot like effect of the decompressurization, he had already surpassed terminal velocity and was now barreling at high speeds towards his target. In several minutes, a metallic female voice rang in an earpiece.
"Activation of jetpack required in T-minus two minutes…"
"Very well, let's get ready," muttered Daniel to himself. He braced himself as he continued to fall at high speed. It was very unusual, hurtling through the sky like he was. There was no sound, and there was no wind tearing at his armor. He simply hurtled through empty space. There was no lens flare or bright light from the sun, and the sky above was trackless and blank.
Daniel had no more chance to ponder on his environment because, suddenly, the female voice started up again. "Ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one… activate."
At that instant, Daniel hit a button on his left gauntlet. The jetpack suddenly flared to life. Anti-gravimetric energy and focused streams of pure kinetic energy blasted out of the pack in a bright spiral of anamorphic-lens-flare-inducing light. Daniel decelerated gently yet rapidly as he continued to approach the surface.
The jetpack seemed to know exactly what it was doing and Daniel made a touchdown gently on the surface. The moment his boots touched the surface, an artificial gravity bubble emanated from his armor and encased him. Now he could walk easily across the surface. Daniel took in a deep breath as he looked around. Large glossy streams of glowing power lights crisscrossed the trackless plane before him, and intricate circuit-board designs covered every square centimeter of ground. This place was truly a marvel of engineering. But for what purpose, he did not know. Then Daniel saw it…
Less than a kilometer away was his prize. Floating a couple of meters off the ground was the Crystal of Harmony. Like Mattimeo had said, a shield bubble a dozen meters in radius surrounded the Crystal. Inside that shield bubble was another shield a couple meters in radius that crackled pure power. The first was glowing a faint blue, and looked like a gentle waterfall in the way it refracted and distorted light.
Daniel squared himself up and approached the bubble.
Suddenly, Mattimeo contacted Daniel through a telepathic link.
"Do you see the first bubble?" said Mattimeo through the link, "That one is safe to walk through. It is simply the sinkhole of the phantom device covering the planet."
Daniel nodded and stepped through. Other than a slight tingling sensation and a nanosecond of vertigo, nothing happened.
"Now, you see that second bubble?" continued Mattimeo, "That bubble could seriously harm me if I touched it. Thus, imagine what it could do to you. There should be an invisible terminal somewhere around… I see it. I am highlighting the exact location on your HUD."
Suddenly the helmet Daniel was wearing flickered to life as its HUD activated. A glowing indicator highlighted a blank spot to his right. Throwing caution to the winds, Daniel lifted a hand and tapped the area that was indicated. A large touch-pad terminal de-cloaked.
"Good," said Mattimeo, "Now here is the incredibly important part. On the top right-hand corner there should be an archaic 'A'-like symbol, like the one on my right shoulder-pad. Is that 'A' dark silver or purple?"
Daniel looked closely at the terminal and found the symbol. "It's purple," said Daniel.
"That is wonderful," said Mattimeo, though his tone remained calm and emotionless, "That means this terminal was made by Doxia a billion years before the Maelstrom War. That device has a master-key lockdown code that will allow you to shut down that shield immediately. Now listen carefully. I want you to type this into the terminal: I_Luv_Meshemedadas_Lulz_Hashtag_Swag."
"What? You're joking right?" said Daniel; nevertheless, he began to type the code in anyway.
"I am not joking unfortunately. That is Doxia for you," said Mattimeo. Daniel blinked. Had he detected a little bit of jovialness in the tone of voice?
At this moment, Daniel finished typing in the sequence, and suddenly the energy shield surrounding the Crystal of Harmony dropped. Daniel had a sharp intake of breath. This was it… here it was.
Daniel slowly raised a hand. He reached forward and lightly tapped the Crystal. Though there was no air, a musical tone somehow reverberated through his head as he tapped it.
"I've run a couple of scans," said Mattimeo, "It has a lattice structure and elemental bonds related to a quartz crystal. It will be easy to destroy."
"I'll do it," said Daniel. Reached back a fist, he charged it with the densest mass of pure power that he could manage. Then, with a yell, he punched the crystal. The energy built-up in his fist released in a massive concentrated shockwave… and the crystal shattered into nothing. A vision-distorting shockwave bubbled out of it and spread across the planet. There was a pause…
"It's finished…" said Daniel. Suddenly the energy channels crisscrossing the metal moon went out. Far away, in the Harmony Tree dimension, the unearthly aura that always surrounded the Tree of Harmony went out and the tree died. Then the Shield of Atraka went out as well. It was over. Daniel started when the lights went out, but then quickly compensated for the black-out by starting up the armor's personal lighting system.
"With the power off-line… I will be free to open a portal to you," said Mattimeo, "Stand by…"
The portal opened up, and Daniel strolled through. He shook hands heartily with Franklin, and then turned to Mattimeo with a smile. Then, suddenly his smiled died. The portal (which was still open) suddenly turned into a solid disk of energy and then collapsed. This meant that the Phantom Device had reactivated, and that the metal moon HAD TURNED BACK ON.
Then, the Paradox's voice rang out through Daniel's intercom and the ship-wide speaker system of Krausk's ship.
"I thank you, my friends, for bringing me my salvation. I cannot thank you enough. The Great Plan will be accomplished," said the voice of the Paradox gleefully. The insanity in his voice was as thick as honey.
"What… what does he mean?" said Daniel to Mattimeo desperately.
"If you are wondering what I mean," said the voice of the Paradox abruptly, "I will give you a little hint: If there was one thing I learned during the Maelstrom War, it was that backup is always good to have. It is required."
With that, the recording ended. There was yet another pause.
"I don't understand," said Daniel, "Why is he so happy? What did he mean?"
"By Kytax," said Mattimeo. His voice was still calm, but it had a tinge of surprise in it, "It means… There was never just one Crystal of Harmony. He built TWO."
"What?!" gasped Daniel. This was a nightmare come true.
"When you destroyed the main Crystal of Harmony, the system shut down for a second. The Tree of Harmony died and the Harmony system went offline. The Shield of Atraka lived off the energy emanating from the Tree of Harmony. Thus, when the tree died, the shield shut off permanently. Then, a second after the shield died, the system went back online as the Harmony System switched to the backup… the backup Finnian never found. The shield is down… by the Harmony System is still running."
Abruptly, the voice of the Paradox rang out again. "Oh, and in the event that you figured out my little hint… I cannot let you go and warn others. Goodbye forever."
Then… the whole metal moon went nova. The shockwave rippled through space in a cascading wave of energy and fire. The shockwave splashed against Krausk's ship's shielding, and sent it spinning. Systems went offline all over the ship, and hull breaches were torn throughout multiple decks.
"Artificial gravity, offline. Shielding, offline. Life support, offline. Primary power, offline. Emergency power, offline. Secondary evacuation lighting, offline. Escape pods, offline. Air conditioning, offline…" said Krausk's main computer system as the ship was tossed like a loose piece of flotsam in the wake of a hurricane.
"ENOUGH!" shouted Mattimeo. He clapped his hands together, and time within a parsec radius simply stopped.
Everything had frozen except for Mattimeo, Franklin, Jetfire, Daniel, Discord, and Krausk.
"By the Flaming Fallen One!" roared Jetfire as he floated in space, "That dastardly Paradox has out-thought us all! By the Primes… when I get my hands on him, I'll break my walking stick over his head!"
"We have no time to waste," said Mattimeo suddenly, "We need to move. I can repair this ship in an instant. We need to get back and warn the others."
"Don't you guys understand?" shouted Franklin, "It's over! We lost!"
Discord actually smiled softly. He floated over and put his lion's paw across Franklin's shoulders.
"No!" whisperer Discord, sounding serious for once, "We need to keep fighting!"
"Discord is right, for once, my lad!" exclaimed Jetfire, "Now! Are we going to kick some Paradox ass or not?!"
"I can have this ship operational again in less than a minute," said Mattimeo quietly, "We need to move fast. There is very little that can stop the Paradox now."
Dimension: My Little Pony
Planet: Equestria Earth
Specific Location: The Everfree Forest
Time: A several minutes before the destruction of the Crystal of Harmony
Ravencroft Solace, with two body bags slung across his back, approached the perimeter of the Everfree forest. The second he set foot in said forest, he was surrounded by armed Phasetroopers.
An Elite Phasetrooper then dropped from a tree above and approached Ravecroft.
"What do you have there, commander?" said the Phasetrooper suspiciously. It was obvious that he took after Pictor with being suspicious about everything.
"I have the bodies of Twilight Sparkle and Flaming Star as tribute for Pictor," said Ravencroft softly.
The Phasetrooper stared at Ravencroft for a moment, and then nodded. He took a step back and allowed Ravencroft passage into the forest.
"Pictor is with the Paradox at the Tree of Harmony," said the Elite Phasetrooper. Then he and his soldiers melted into the shadows.
Ravnecroft carried the body bags as he quickly strolled deeper into the forest. In several minutes, he was approaching the gorge that held the cave of the Tree of Harmony.
Looking around fervently, Ravencroft set down the body bags and opened them up. Flaming Star and Twilight tumbled out of them.
"That was both the worst idea ever, and the best idea ever," groaned Twilight as she massaged the back of her neck. Flaming Star got up and sat next to her. He began to rub he shoulders, releasing the tension. Twilight sighed and closed her eyes.
"I am sorry to interrupt," whispered Ravencroft, "But we must hurry. I know the Paradox and Pictor… They will be planning something."
"Just… a… moment…" sighed Twilight.
Ravencroft shook his head. "We don't HAVE a moment. Please!"
Flaming Star pulled a face. "You're right. We must hurry."
He got up and helped Twilight on to all fours. He then looked at Ravencroft. "Right. Where to?"
Ravencroft motioned for them to follow him. "Follow me. I noticed there was a small opening at the back of the cavern. We can use to spy on the Paradox and Pictor."
"Won't they just see us?" asked Twilight worriedly, "They're, like, omniscient aren't they?"
"Not when they are distracted," replied Ravencroft. He hurried them along, fervently hoping that they were not being watched.
Luck was on their side, and they were not detected as the scurried to the spot that Ravencroft had indicated. It was a long, thin, jagged crack that stretched slightly above the Tree of Harmony. It was a little difficult to see what was going on, due to the vision-distorting bubble of Atraka, but they could hear perfectly what was transpiring below.
"What do you want?" snapped Pictor below as he approached the Paradox.
"It is almost time," said the Paradox softly. "Krausk's ship left for Abbington Falls not half an hour ago. Soon they will be on their way. Thanks to that little attack via the hovercraft, they are all set in their belief that the Crystal of Harmony needs to be destroyed."
"Okay. I still don't understand what that has to do with the Great Plan… but okay. I just wanted to let you know that we are about to be under attack. Somehow the Ponyville ponies managed to pay for an incredible amount of weapons, and not they are invading the front. We have yet to reallocate our tanks, so they are making some headway. What should we do?"
"Don't do anything," said the Paradox, "Soon the Shield of Atraka will shut down, and we can activate the Harmony System. Then this will all be over."
Suddenly the two were joined by Vaporis. "You called me?" he asked.
The Paradox nodded. "I have set a little trap for Krausk and whoever accompanies him when they go to shut down the Crystal of Harmony. However, if there is a Dimensional Lord with them, they will neither be hurt by the trap, nor will they be slowed. Additionally my plan will become very clear. Thus, I need them stopped or slowed for just a short amount of time. Vaporis, can you do that for me?"
Vaporis returned the nod. "I can. I will go now."
A portal opened up beside Vaporis, and he exited through it. The Paradox turned back to Pictor and said, "It is almost complete. I can feel it. It is almost here…"
Then, suddenly, the Tree of Harmony stopped glowing. The braches blackened, and the twigs sagged. The bright, colorful aura that emanated from the tree died, and everything began to turn black. With that, the Shield of Atraka flickered and turned off.
Ravencroft's eyes lit up in hope. Flaming Star breathed a long sigh of relief. Twilight gave a little "squee!" of excitement and hugged Flaming Star tightly.
"My God… they DID it," breathed Pictor down below, "They DID it."
"And the shield is off," said the Paradox complacently.
"So… Now what?" snapped Pictor, "The freaking thing is dead now! How the hell do we come back from that?! Tell me!"
"Wait for it…" sighed the Paradox.
Ravencroft's eyes suddenly filled with horror as a creeping sense of terror and hopelessness seized a hold of his stomach.
Then… their worst nightmare happened. The sickening shade of black that had been creeping up the tree receded, and the glow returned. The tree straightened up, and resumed its previous luster. But the shield of Atraka… it did not return.
"Oh… no…" whispered Flaming Star in a strangled gasp.
"But… who… no… how…?" said Twilight, tears beginning to well up in her eyes as the magnitude of their failure fell on her brain like a heavy mantel.
"WE DID IT!" shrieked the Paradox. Suddenly, the Paradox performed a shuffling dance, and pure energy and power emanated from his powerful form.
Pictor simply stood to one side, eying the Tree of Harmony with satisfaction. Then he turned to the frenzied Paradox and shook his head.
"I will deal with you later," muttered Pictor. Then he shouted, "God! Paradox! Calm yourself! Start this thing and we can return to the Amethyst dimension and try to figure out how to explain to the remaining innocent Dimensional Lords how the Earth Multiverse has suddenly stopped existing!"
The Paradox stopped his dance and straightened up. "Oh. Of course. I apologize. I lost myself for a moment."
With that, the Paradox began to approach the tree.
"The hell you don't," hissed Ravencroft.
He reared back a fist, charged it with Shadow Energy, and punched the crevice that they had been peeking through. The crack exploded into large shards of rock, and dust billowed up as the shockwave brought down a large section of the cave's roof. Ravencroft leapt through the hole he had just made and confronted the Paradox.
"Oh. Ravencroft. Here to celebrate with us?" said the Paradox airily, not even sounding worried. "Hmmm… I see otherwise. You do not honestly think you can stop us, do you?"
"You would be surprised what I can do… Liar!" spat Ravencroft. His voice was still deathly quiet, but it resonated throughout the chamber nevertheless. Ravencroft then snapped a finger, and suddenly Flaming Star and Twilight – who had been about to join him – were encased in glowing chains. They were trapped, only able to watch.
"Did you come with friends?" said the Paradox calmly, "After all, it would be best if you had loved ones here to watch your passing."
"I have come alone," said Ravencroft, "But it does not matter. You know I do not fear death."
The Paradox gestured dramatically at Ravencroft as he turned to Pictor and said, "I cannot believe this. Does he honestly think he can stop us?"
Pictor shrugged, and then hurled a bolt of energy at Ravencroft's face. Ravencroft ducked quickly, and then leapt up, firing a stream of Dark Matter. Pictor did not even bother dodging. The stream simply bounced off his armor.
Pictor then rushed Ravencroft, hurling bolts of power.
Ravencroft ducked and dodged, all the while (for probably the first time in his life) shouting, "You cannot stop us, Paradox! There may be much evil, but there is also much good! And we know very well that there is more good than evil!"
"That's a lie, simply put," commented the Paradox complacently as he watched Ravencroft struggle to stay alive.
Ravencroft flipped over a sizzling bolt of pure death. As he rolled under another attack and dove between Pictor's legs, he shouted, "You're the lie! You've convinced yourself that killing everything will fix the problem… but it won't! It's cruel, maniacal, and selfish! You view life as something that can be restarted at a push of a button… but it is not! Life is to be cherished. It may be fleeting, but it is what makes the Multiverse such a wonder! You are letting your own mislead pursuits distort the happiness and peace you could have!"
"What… like the peace YOU have?" said the Paradox scathingly, "I think not. You are a miserable, sickening piece of meat. You are nothing. Your opinion and proverbs are worth less than dust."
Ravencroft bent backwards as another beam of power from Pictor almost took off his head. He then rolled to the side and threw up a flare of bright light. Pictor shook it off, but it gave Ravencroft enough time to do a couple of backflips to allow him greater space to maneuver. Pictor just laughed, and Ravencroft bit his lip as he realized that Pictor had not killed him yet simply because he himself found the conversation amusing.
"Paradox… Please, I beg of you. Find the good that is within you and turn back to the light," breathed Ravencroft, "I know you have good within you. If you turn back to the light, your past sins will be forgiven, and we will accept you with open arms. All you ever wanted was to see good become dominate. Why don't you give us a chance to show that your past dreams were not a lie?"
The Paradox stared at Ravencroft curiously. Then he said, "Life is a plague. I am here to extinguish it. Whether or not there is good in this multiverse is simply trivial. I just want to see every betraying, conniving, sickening monster – which is every living sentient species, I might add – dead and gone. I don't care about morals anymore. I want to see my dream, my plan, done. I have entertained this conversation long enough. I am terminating you."
With that, the Paradox snapped his fingers. Ravencroft's powers were stripped from him, and thick tentacles of stone erupted from the ground and wrapped around his ankles and wrists. The Paradox then conjured up a sword out of thin air and hurled it at Ravencroft. It speared him right through the chest.
"Good… will… always… win… with… people… willing… to die… for a… cause…" gurgled Ravencroft. Then, Ravencrfot Solace, the only one ever to truly understand life and death, died; blood oozing out of his mouth, eyes, and the wound in his chest.
"NOOOOO!" screamed Flaming Star. He flexed his muscles once and shattered the chains. In a fury, he leapt down and rushed the Tree of Harmony. He hurled a bolt powerful enough to blow a planet sky high at the tree. The bolt streaked through the air… and then froze in place, stopped by a single gesture from the Paradox. Then it winked out of existence. Flaming Star whirled around and prepared to hurl another bolt of power, but suddenly his abilities were stripped from him as well. Feeling extremely drained, Flaming Star dropped to the ground, gasping for breath.
"Well…" said the Paradox quietly, "What do we have here? I guess Ravencroft did not kill you after all. Well, I can quickly remedy that. Any last words? Too bad."
With that, the Paradox hurled a bolt of lacerating power.
Flaming Star saw the beam of death approaching, but he could do nothing to stop it. His limbs were like lead. All he could do was open his mouth and yell, "Twilight! I love y-"
The bolt shot straight through his throat. Gurgling, Flaming Star's eyes rolled back in his head. And just like that, the Firstborn died. Twilight screamed.
Note: Yeah... as I said, this is a ugly cliffhanger. Nevertheless, don't start mourning yet, for there is more yet to come.