-Heart of Everfree, Leon and Nyx's Location, Nyx's perspective-

As the other me neared, I began to pant. It was as if a heavy burden had just been placed on my shoulders, and even though I had been feeling drained, I had no idea what to do.

Light, sitting in the middle of the clearing, nonchalantly waved a wing, as the people sitting next to him, including Equestria herself, vanished. For some reason, however, he stayed behind.

"Where's all of the others?" Light said. He didn't seem upset or worried, he simply seemed to ask the question as though he were merely taking note of the difference in numbers.

Aria, behind me, shook her head. "They went to go get the Elements of Harmony."

Light laughed and pointed with his head towards Twilight and her friends, "Without them? They really had no idea what they're doing, do they?"

"It was naïve for you to come here," Oblivion cut in, "Origination, I can tell you aren't ready for any fight, and without any weapon, how do you expect to defeat me?"

I took charge, having been left a spectator for the entire time, though my strength seemed to slowly be leaving me, "I never said we expected to, Oblivion. Still, I didn't get here without everypony around me to help lead and guide me to where I am now. I might not have my memories, but I don't think sitting around and doing nothing is any better!" Advancing towards Oblivion, I slowly gasped for air, before finally falling to the ground.

Twilight rushed next to me in a panic, "Leon, are you okay?" She put her hooves on my shoulders as I slowly started to black out.

-Heart of Everfree, Leon and Nyx's Location, Leon's Perspective-

A memory in my gut stirred. That girl next to the other me… her name eluded me.

But I could hear it.

Twilight Sparkle.

Her name was Twilight Sparkle.

It was my lack of emotions that prevented her name from being heard. When I had died, I had lost my emotions.

Her name was the thing that brought my emotions to surface.

Emotions…

Why did I have them, now of all times?

"A tug of war," It was the one I had made an enemy, the Origination, Light, "Your soul and his want to be together, and if one of you dies, then the soul becomes whole. Still, the question is this: What would stop the soul from attempting to flee a body before the death even occurs?"

"So this some battle that has caused us to lose consciousness?" It was now beginning to be obvious, but I still asked with a hint of doubt.

"Do you have emotions, which belong to him?" He pointed to the other me, lying on the ground, then continued, "If so, you have your answer."

That winged-pegasus smiled as he began to walk towards Aria, Ace, and Twilight's friends. As soon as he reached them, he raised his wings, and as he did so, said, "I suppose we shouldn't be in the way, either."

With expressions which showed surprise that Light would do something so against the wills of Ace and Aria, he and the others vanished from the area, similar to the ponies that had been sitting next to him had.

"Remember this, Leon." His now-disembodied voice seemed to call out, "The elements of harmony were never my trump card. You were. Both of you."

I shook my head, though it seemed nopony else heard the voice. The emotions that should have been called fourth weren't there anymore. Across the clearing, the other me began to stir. Twilight, who had been focused on him, got up and looked around.

"They're gone?" She said with slight worry.

With no reason as to why, I laughed at her, "Don't worry, you'll both be fine."

And with that, I dashed towards the pony laying next to her, summoning fourth weapons as I did.

-Heart of Everfree, Leon and Nyx's Location, Nyx's Perspective-

Books and axes clashed above me. Flashing lights from the magic-imbued strikes had suddenly appeared above my head a Twilight reacted with superpony reflexes. Rolling from under the weapons, I charged towards my other self with all of the speed I could muster. With magical blasts and books dealing with all of the axes, I homed in on my other self, who noticed me as I charged. He didn't do anything, he simply smiled as I felt a massive force send me flying sideways.

"Can't forget about me, can you?" Oblivion looked down on me as I slid to a halt right by her feet. She summoned a beam of light in her hands and swung down. With almost no effort, the ground under her was completely destroyed. Not I, but the ground.

"Thanks," I said to Twilight, while keeping my eyes on our opponents. She had teleported me just moments before that beam of white light had struck me down.

I had entered a battlefield with beings of incomprehensible power. Here I was - an average pony with no special powers in the middle of a fight where the beings could destroy entire cities almost effortlessly.

Those moments spent talking with Twilight had been precious, as another wave of attacks approached us from Leon. Oblivion seemed to sit near the side, and only interfered when we seemed to get the edge.

-Heart of Everfree, Leon and Nyx's Location, Leon's Perspective-

She had not been helping me. She seemed to just… toy with them.

What was I even fighting for, now?

I had lost my longing to return to earth. I didn't know why, I simply had.

Also, I would die if Nyx died.

So what was I fighting for?

…

And then a wave of pressure swept over my mind. Oblivion's voice filled every corner of my mind, "What are you fighting for? For me."

…

Right.

-Heart of Everfree, Leon and Nyx's Location, Nyx's Perspective-

We were getting nowhere. Twilight and I couldn't get the upper edge.

"T-twilight," I began, stammering as I sidestepped another attack, this time causing tiny fragments of rock to strike the side of my body with some pain, "you gget Oblivion. She'll not let either of us get the upper hand if we keep focusing on Leon."

"Are you crazy! We can barely hold him back together, how do you expect to beat him on your own?" She seemed to lost focus on the fight momentarily as the magical collisions became dangerously close to us.

"Look, he can't kill me. If he does, we both die. If we keep fighting like this, we'll be too tired to even hold a candle to Oblivion!"

Behind us, a white figure appeared with a speed neither of us could even begin to understand, "There is a big assumption. As if you could hold a candle to me to begin with." Sweeping her arm, with no great speed of visible power, we were sent careening sideways, leaving a trail in the dirt. Twilight, who erected a magical barrier around us just in time, seemed to be panting from the effort protecting us from the blow and the collision with the ground took.

"Y- you're right." She said while regained her breath, "b-but make it q-quick. I don't know how long I'll be able to keep this up."

I nodded in understanding as I sprinted towards the other me.

I had lost once to him.

I wouldn't do it again.

-Heart of Everfree, Leon and Nyx's Location, Leon's Perspective-

It was the other me.

There was no way he could defeat me.

He was the weakest on this battlefield.

It was obvious, I wouldn't lose.

I chose to do this. … right?

-Heart of Everfree, Leon and Nyx's Location, Nyx's Perspective-

Pain. Each near-miss attack left a skin-deep wound on my coat. Tumbling around and leaping through the axes, I realized they moved too fast to keep up with.

I was surviving primarily on luck.

I was 1 body-length away from the other me when my brain seemed to lose control of my body. Everything moved on it's own, and adrenaline flowed through my body.

A duck, a sidestep, a flip. I landed on all fours, and with reactions faster than anypony I had witnessed, I quickly grabbed one of the battleaxes, by the handle, in my mouth.

A moment later, the strike came, as I swung my neck towards my other self, carrying the possessed battleaxe. Unable to react, the other me simply stood there. It had seemed impossible to him. He was supposed to embody logic. I was weak. He was strong. How had I so easily evaded the attacks?

The axe was on top of him, he couldn't move, but it was sheer luck I abandoned my attack. I had spotted something even more important that my own enemy.

Oblivion was standing over Twilight, a sword conjured from nothing laid in her hand. The area around the spot they had fought completely decimated from the attacks they had exchanged.

She raised her arm in the air, preparing for the swing. Abandoning any idea of self-preservation, I sprinted towards Twilight Sparkle.

-Heart of Everfree, Leon and Nyx's Location, Leon's Perspective-

He was running towards that unicorn, and I let him go. I didn't attack, I didn't interfere.

He would self-destruct trying to stop that attack. It would work in my favor if he died, anyways. He was my opponent.

Now what was I trying to kill him for, again? It wasn't to get back to Earth.

Then that dizzy feeling happened. What was it that Oblivion said it was, my soul beginning to…

In my blurry vision, I saw Oblivion begin to swing down her sword. She was aiming for Twilight.

Blood splattered everywhere.

The black body of a unicorn fell over on the ground next to Twilight Sparkle, limp and lifeless. Nyx had sprinted between the sword and the princess. The momentum he had from running ripped the sword from Oblivion's hand, but not before it had killed him. He had run, leaped, intercepted the blow, then landed. In that flash of time, his life vanished, but his soul didn't.

The surge of information that coursed through my mind was massive. What he, or I, had experienced, the past I had spent with Twilight Sparkle, and the emotions that seemed to begin to flow through me.

I felt sadness for that pony's death. My death.

I felt fear for what would happen to me.

I felt like a heavy burden had been lift off of my shoulders, as if some control that had been exerted over me had collapsed.

In my mind, a chess set appeared. The one that the other me had spent so long staring at trying to understand. I recognized their movements.

I could see what the board wanted me to see.

Twilight was still laying on the ground, in shock as to what had happened, underneath an unflinching woman in white. She had walked over to the limp, lifeless body that was laying on the ground, and she kicked it with no real power behind it. The still warm body recoiled from the kick ever so slightly, then waved back and fourth, as though it were made of some child's gelatin. Leaning over, she drew the sword that had embedded itself into my back and turned to face Twilight.

The board showed a crowned piece sacrificing itself, and as it did, it opened up a line of attack for other pieces. The pieces had lined up perfectly, and with that sacrifice, it had become checkmate.

Checkmate.

Game over.

For Me.

For Oblivion.
For everypony.

Materializing a small dagger in my hand, I called out to her.

"Your name is Nyx right?" I called over to her, then, as though venom were dripping from my voice, I continued, "Well, you shouldn't be using my name like that." I let the dagger pierce my chest.

Then, my hoof reached out and touched her ankle.

I was back in Nyx's body.

-Heart of Everfree, Leon and Nyx's Location-

"Oblivion, I believe you know what this is…" Pain wracked my body from the wound that should have been lethal. I couldn't move, and it was all I could do to move my arm and talk.

Her face, which had spent an eternity without fear of an end, changed. It was a look so foreign on her face. The delicate features that any human on Earth would have killed for, an expression of pure fear consumed her entire face.

"Checkmate."

It was just like how that other human, in that fight two years ago, had tried to end my life.

A kamikaze.

Whether it was some prototype Light had built that had failed the test of power, or what it was, it had the same purpose as me.

As the white light began to consume us Oblivion's face relaxed. "I suppose it is best this way…"

It confused me, as to why she would say that, and the horror that was on her face seemed to be replaced with a look of resignation, that she had accepted this fate.

And then, nothing. Everything was gone. Oblivion. My soul. My body.

-Heart of Everfree-

"The chess game has a type of opening called a 'Gambit'. It is designed with the idea that you sacrifice material for the sake of gaining a better position early on in the game. There are many types. The King's Gambit, the Queen's Gambit, and so on and so fourth. This is the same thing, but in the endgame. A sacrifice to end the game," An alicorn walked forward, the battlefield more scarred than what anypony could remember being done. It had not been that long of a fight, it was only a few minutes long, but things nopony could understand had occurred.

Suicides? Explosions? Ponies returning from the dead?

"I suppose she had wanted to lose this. She just wanted everything to end. Why else would she have walked instead of teleported to Ponyville? She loved me, you know. That's why she wanted to kill you in the first place." Origination paced back and fourth, piecing the story together as he spoke. Next to him, a beautiful goddess watched his every move.

"Equestria, this game is over and as much as I enjoyed this time here, all good things must come to an end."

The goddess, with tears in her eyes, nodded. She walked up and embraced the Alicorn. Around him, the ones he had brought with him reappeared from their hidden realm, as though they were ghosts which had materialized from smoke in the air. Celestia and Luna immediately rushed over to Twilight, who was still on the ground covered in Leon's blood. She had begun weeping uncontrollably where she lay and they went over to console her. As for the others, they stayed, listening to the rest of Origination's words.

"I screwed up when all of this happened, in a rush, I broke the seal that contained most of my powers. It wasn't calculated, it wasn't planned, and I made a mistake, one that condemned me to death," he paused in his speech and took a deep breath, "And now you, the Guardians of Equestria, I owe you my thanks, and I place my trust that you will all protect this land with your lives." He bowed his head, and made a small smile.

"Oblivion fell victim to what was the defense I had set up for this land. A boy I had protected since the dawn of time. His existence was an anomaly even I couldn't control, but I can control one last thing."

-Twilight's Mind-

He was gone.

I didn't care about the blood that soaked my body. I cared about the pony who had died.

… I…

I loved him.

No… I still love him.

But he was gone.

I had lost the pony who I had fallen in love with, even deeper than two years ago. I had just gotten him back. To lose him a second time. To know I'll never see him again…

I… I never even got the chance to tell him how I feel…

"… I loved him..." I said it through my sobs.

My sadness seemed to drown out all of the noise around me, and I could barely hear Celestia reply with her tender voice, "I know…" Her wing ignored the blood covering my body as she embraced my shuddering figure.

It didn't seem to help, but at that moment I would have given the world to make she she would never let go.

-Heart of Everfree-

Light walked over to the charred area where Oblivion and Leon had been, on the ground was a perfectly circular area. In it, charred in an even darker color, was an ornate circle, runic symbols covering every inch of the outer border and unusual lines crisscrossing within the inside of the circle. It was an odd sight.

And, as Light walked up to the body that had contained Leon's soul, he leaned down.

"Oblivion's power disappeared when Leon… well… did what he did. I-" he paused, "I had caused much of this to happen. I'm going to die anyways, so I figure this is an easier way to go."

He made a light laugh as he stood in the center of the runic circle.

"Goodbye, Guardians of Equestria. I've never had so much fun in all of my existence." He smiled, and as he lit up, so did the inscriptions on the ground. "This is my last act as The Origination. Just as the Figures found you worthy of their power, I find you worthy of mine. As for my life? Take it, for if I can no longer hold onto it myself. Good luck, my Proxy. Enjoy your promotion."

Engulfed in white light, a unicorn appeared. In all black, he held the cutie mark of a simple door. The one to Profectio, as it seemed to outline.

But Light had gone. Faded away into time. All that was left was his legacy.

Equestria.

It was only then that I finally opened my eyes.

I was alive. Around me everypony seemed unsure of what to do.

Then, in my eyes, the story's conclusion flashed. My death, Twilight's tears, Origination's sacrifice.

I got up and nodded, and with that, everypony smiled.

I had been granted the power of the Origination, I had become an almighty deity.

But at that moment, I was a simple pony. One who had died four times. Once on Earth, once a little over two years ago in Equestria, and twice in this last battle.

And that pony that just wouldn't stay dead had only one thing on his mind.

I walked past two surprised-looking alicorns, one white and one dark blue, and held the purple unicorn in my hooves.

"I'm never letting you go, you hear me Twilight?"

She opened her eyes, and through the tears a look of amazement appeared.

"You mean everything to me, Twilight. That's why I'll never let you go"

- Afterward for The King: The Story of Another Day-

That's the story. That's it. If I left any holes, oh well. I never was a writer, anyways. I'm a bit forgetful, don'tchaknow?

I can't even believe it's already been ten years since all of that happened. Life here in Ponyville makes time fly way too fast. Still, someone has to share this story. As for the original books? They vanished along with Light.

The gods who went to get the Elements of Harmony returned to find everything over and done with. I got more than a few apologies as that happened. Peddle seemed a bit crushed when he saw me and Twilight together, too. I think it was the first kiss that really caused him to freak out. Still, he found love elsewhere, in an ex-Wonderbolt named Spitfire. Trixie became a magician again, though it was now for everypony's entertainment instead of her own ego trip.

All in all, it was a bittersweet ending. The loss of Light weighed heavily on us all. That's really what drove me to write this book after all of this time. Still, I got to live a peaceful life in Ponyville with amazing friends. I'd have never imagined this when I was still human.

It was a shame, really, that this book will inevitably be placed in the 'fiction' section of the Canterlot library. Even in a land where magic is commonplace, things such as this seem too farfetched to be real. The war was real, the princess getting crowned was real, so why do ponies find this story so hard be believe?

Sure, there is historical evidence, but this could be viewed as a conspiracy, adding two and two to get five. But just trust me on this; ask Princess Twilight, she'll vouch for me. I promise. I mean, I married her, right?

Funny how odd this world, and every other, really is.

Thanks for reading.

~Prince Leon "Nyx" Sparkle

Sticking through to the end like this, it really means a lot. You guys are awesome. I can't believe that it's taken so long to write this, it feels like just last week I had begin writing the first few words.

Please review and let me know if there are any questions, as for now, I am going to focus 100% on my new project: Nopony's Innocent. It's going to take a VERY long time, as there will be a lot of proofreading to do. It is a oneshot that is currently 31 pages long. There are 15173 words using 80850 characters (including spaces). So, I hope to see you then!

And, as Leon said better than I could, thanks for reading.

~Eyeclops, signing off.