Anarchy roared, molten tar and fire erupting from his distended maw towards Bedlam, who span his arms in wide to conjure a star spangled shield to protect himself. The tar slammed into it with enough force to push him back, leaving furrows in the ground.
The instant the attack abated, Bedlam snapped his talon, disappearing in a blink of light as Anarchy charged his position. The monster skidded to a halt in surprise, allowing him to reappear over its shoulder and slam down on it with an oversized cartoon mallet, the black substance surprisingly solid.
The draconequis sense of triumph quickly turned sour as the black ooze spawned several tentacles that wrapped around the mallet head and sharply pulled it into Anarchy's body, dragging Belam forwards with them.
"Sorry buddy, but I’ve been online long enough to know where this is going!"
Releasing the mallet, and using his momentum to rapidly snake around the giant's body, Bedlam came up in front of the monster with a cocky grin.
"So, how about we sit down and talk about this like reasonable creatures?"
Anarchy responded by lunging forwards, its jaw distending further to reveal rows and rows of needle-like teeth. A quick snap and they were suddenly held open by a car jack.
"Guess not," quipped Bedlam, before drawing a sword out of thin air and pointing it skyward.
"I have the power!"
Lightning crashed downwards, his body bulking out to cartoonish proportions, blonde hair sprouting from his head as a metal harness snapped shut over his chest. With a battlecry for the ages, Barbarian Bedlan charged towards Anarchy as it struggled to free its jaws.
The sword slashed out, separating a black limb from Anarchy's bloated form, as a spiked shield materialised on Bedlam’s free arm. He smashed it into the knee joint of another leg, pained bellows roaring from above as he worked to cripple his opponent.
The sound of rending metal signalled the end of the car jack, as Anarchy flailed its bulk in a futile attempt to hit the juvenile spirit of chaos. Bellowing uselessly as it was lifted up and over on the spiked shield. Bedlam heaving its body sideways a warriors battlecry!
Anarchy hit the ground with a splat, its oozing body deforming into the landscape that blackened and burned around it. It’s rage burning at being humiliated by Bedlam.
This is a cartoon! A childish, immature, thing that should have been left behind years ago! Destroy it!
Anarchy raged to itself as Bedlam charged again, bringing up the shield to deflect a burst of hot tar. But while he was distracted, Anarchy morphed its body into a puddle that split into two before sliding around the draconequis, who lowered the shield long enough to recognise his mistake as two black tentacles grabbed his legs and pulled hard.
Bedlam's body split like a wishbone, both halves flung carelessly across the smouldering orchard. Job done, the blobs slid across the ground before rejoining one another, glooping up and re-shaping until Anarchy stood whole, and undamaged, once again.
Idiotic Nusance
"That's probably the nicest thing I've heard you say so far."
"Indeed, though he could be a bit nicer."
Anarchy blinked, as TWO Bedlams floated in front of him wearing a pair of bowler hats and twirling a pair of curved canes.
"I'd say he's a bit speechless old chap."
"To put it mildly, he is speechless."
Mane of fire flaring higher and hotter in rage, Anarchy's tar like body leapt forwards once again in a cloud of sharp, stabbing tentacles. Both Bedlams ducked and weaved to avoid impalement, cocking the canes like a pair of shotguns before returning fire with a hail of jelly beans, which were harmlessly absorbed by the oozing body before them.
"Now that's not cricket!"
"I think perhaps some bowls are in order!"
Whipping out a pair of lawn bowls, the pair took aim and bowled as hard as they could, only for a wall of fire to erupt from the ground and intercept them before Anarchy charged the pair, his forelegs twisting into dark, crystalline weapons as he lashed and stabbed at them.
Sabres rattled as the two Bedlams, now in red and blue officers jackets and moustaches, parried the attack, but the aggression showed was forcing them back through the trees, the heat from Anarchy's body igniting them one by one.
"He needs to chill out, old bean!"
"I wholeheartedly agree!"
Snapping fingers, both Bedlams teleported back, one morphing into a fire extinguisher that the other turned on the monster before them. Anarchy's maw was wide open in a mighty bellow when it was suddenly filled with cloying, choking firemans foam. Burbling roars turning to coughs and splutters as the suffocating substance buried its head, then extinguished its mane, and finally subsumed the rest of it in a growing mass of rapidly hardening foam.
Extinguishing the rest of the orchard for good measure, Bedlam floated down beside the large white clump then imprisoned Anarchy. The extinguisher turned into his copy long enough for them to salute one another, before it vanished into stardust.
"You were good kid, real good,” the draconequis said, pulling out a stick of rock which he used to pantomime smoking a cigar. “But as long as I'm around you'll always be second best, shee."
Chuckling to himself, Bedlam spun around, preparing to snap teleport himself away, when his nostrils picked up something Taking a deep inhale, he gagged and coughed as the rank smell of decay assaulted his senses. With a rapidly growing sense of foreboding, he turned back to the white clump of foam.
Rot was consuming it from the inside out, the pristine white turning sickly green, then black as it curled and collapsed into itself, putrid smoke escaping the mass as Anarchy broke free, body bubbling like liquid in a cauldron.
Holding a perfumed cloth to his nose, Bedlam watched as Scott's face seemed to wither and sink into itself, until it looked positively ghoulish. His eyes were still yellow with red pupils, only now it was a sickly yellow, like pus from an infected wound. He glared down at the juvenile spirit and smiled a fanged smile.
Time for round two.
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With a *pop* Reiver and the CMC materialised on the other side of the orchard in a dazed heap.
“Urgh, Belam is really taking after Discord,” complained Scootaloo, as they untankled themselves.
“I think we have bigger problems,” interrupted Sweetie Belle, pointing a hoof towards the battle that raged across the rapidly igniting trees.
“He can’t do that! That's our orchard!” declared Apple Bloom, stomping a hoof.
“I don’t think he cares,” huffed Reiver. “My dad was always like this, he never liked it when he didn't get his own way. Anything he couldn't manipulate or intimidate he just got rid of.”
“So you’re saying, because he can’t get you, he's going to destroy my family's farm?!”
His shoulders slumped.
“Yeah, I'm so sorry Apple Bloom, I never wanted anyone to be dragged into my mess.”
“Hey, you can’t predict everything, let alone this.” replied Scootaloo, gesturing out towards the battle.
“Come on,” declared Apple Bloom, turning towards the farmhouse. “We need to get Applejack!”
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With a burbling Roar, Anarchy ejected a foul smelling torrent of boiling liquid towards Bedlam, like before he span his arms to summon the star spangled shield, only for it to melt and the searing attack to hit him full in the face.
Crying out in pain and surprise, Bedlam staggered back clutching his burning features, removing a claw, he saw part of his beak and a lot of bloodied feathers. With little time to fix the damage, he leapt backwards as Anarchy's body sprouted more limbs that swiped and sliced towards him, all of them having morphed into a variety of blades, axes and scythes.
Creating a pair of bracers, Bedlam tried to get airborne but Anarchy was right on top of him this time, keeping him grounded and on the retreat, the creatures bulk looking above the juvenile spirit as its limbs relentlessly tried to cut him to ribbons. His arms shuddered with every near miss, the blades impacting each bracer, chipping away the rock candy they were made of.
"Why did Discord have to like Sweets so much?" he quietly cursed his mentor, ducking under another swing that just nicked his horns.
Childish nonsense, just like that brat
Leaping up as another swing went for his legs, Bedlam, now clad in a green and brown robe, took a fighting stance and stomped his foot hard onto the ground. A wall of stone erupted upwards, smashing into Anarchy's jaw with a sickening crack.
However, his face fell as the creature's body oozed around the rock, melting and swallowing it whole. Shifting his stance, Bedlam heaved his arms up and across, the earth responding in kind as boulders broke the surface and flew towards Anarchy.
The monster didn't even move, instead, a long, dark, gun barrel surfaced from its body and fired a single shot at Bedlam's feet, the explosion vaporising the rocks and sending him flying backwards into a rotting tree trunk, as Anarchy's new state affected the orchard.
That is a real weapon he stated. Lets see you handle another
Staggering to his feet, Bedlam saw multiple, smaller gun barrels emerge from the monster's body before they opened fire in a rain of lead and metal. He lifted an open palmed claw, and the bullets froze mid air right in front of him.
"You know those aren't suitable for this programme."
Snapping his fingers, the bullets turned to butterflies moments before another volley was unleashed, a sabre of green light snap-hissed into existence and Bedlam, now in a brown robe, expertly deflected each one.
His momentum was interrupted when a solid mass impacted his gut, he fell to his knees, the robe burning as a black and rotten fist retreated into Anarchy's mass. A second flew a moment later, then a third and the draconequis responded by creating a set of boxing gloves to block them, only for Anarchy's body to burn and rot them away.
"What are you made of? Essence of Nurgle? What's next?"
Let me show you
Anarchy slammed his body to the ground, four of his legs thickening to tree trunk levels before a tank turret erupted from his back and took aim, shells flying towards the draconequis.
"Khorne it is then," he quipped in frustration.
The shells exploded with more force than they should have been capable of, decaying trees splintering as he tried to take cover the ground, splattering earth clods skywards as the orchard was ruined by Anarchy's assault.
"I have the power!"
Lightning crashed down again, and Barbarian Bedlam ran at Anarchy, sword held high, shield raised to deflect the next tank shell to one side as he leapt into the turret and drove the sword into it with a roar.
Anarchy bellowed in kind, bucking and shaking Bedlam off his monstrous form. Returning to normal, he got the pleasure of watching as cracks spiderwebbed out from the turret and it exploded in a cloud of fire and rot.
Insect! roared Anarchy. Give us our son!
"You have such a one track mind. Come on then, if you think you can catch me!"
Snaking himself skywards, Bedlam looked back. The orchard was ablaze in fire and decay, the blaze spreading to each tree like it was a living creature as the land rotted beneath, the soil turning a diseased black.
"Still spoiling things for others as well," he called down.
If he will not give up childish things, we will have to make him!
A tentacle suddenly erupted from the draconequis chest, impaling Bedlam from behind.
He blinked, then coughed, looking down at the sharpened limb before it wrapped around his body and dragged him right in front of Anarchys face, putrid breath washing over him.
Things like you should be forgotten.
"I'll have to disagree with you there," he coughed, tasting black tar as it ate him from the inside. "Things like me make life worth living."
Anarchy growled, smoke and ash smouldering up from his nostrils.
Things like you, made him weak! And weakness must be purged!
His maw opened wide, fire burning up from within once again as he brought Bedlam close, the heat washing over the spirit of chaos as he braced his legs and hands against the creature's jaws.
"Don't suppose you'd consider a breath mint?"
The column of fire roasted off the tentacle tip a second later.
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Galloping at top speed, the CMC and Reiver sped down the path towards Sweet Apple Acres farmhouse, however, en-route they ran into Big Macintosh coming the other way.
“Big Mac!” cried the group, all ponies skidding to a halt.
“What in tarnation is going on here?!” immediately demanded the stallion. “I was feeding the pigs when Twilight pops in and disappears with Applejack, then I hear a roar and all that smoke starts coming from the trees!”
They looked back, a thick cloud of black smoke now towered up into the sky, as an acrid smell of burning and rot drifted their way.
“Oh no…” whispered Reiver, just before a black and burned shape appeared in a cloud of smoke and crashed to the ground.
"Bedlam!"
Reiver and the fillies galloped forwards as the badly burned spirit of chaos lay in a crumpled heap, a hole in his chest leaking putrid tar.
"Too much," he coughed. "Did my best.”
He suddenly reached up and grabbed Reiver by the scruff of his neck, pulling him close enough to whisper one final instruction.
“Run….”