Shock - Part 3
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Even the brightest of ponies are corrupt.
But in the end,
Who is the real monster here?
You are.
///
Time had passed since he had read the note; he had been laying in his bed in waiting and thinking of ways to beat them. He knew that if he was going to fight the ghastly form of Soothing Song, he was going to also have to fight the ferocious Swiftshock in a two versus one duel. He got up since it was almost time to meet them, believing it was better to confront them rather than be snuck up upon.
He quickly flew out of the castle, soaring by Snowfall and Soft Spoken in the process and quickly flying to the Northern District Tower. He landed in front of it and took in a deep breath, it was going to be a rough ride and he knew it.
The snow still wasn't falling this day so he could clearly see the sun as it was falling past the horizon, he did a flip upwards and flew vertically to the third platform.
As he reached it he found two ponies standing outside of the mansion; he landed a few meters from the two and spoke first, "Hello Swiftshock, Soothing Song." and Swiftshock stepped forward and was the first to reply, "Heya, weakling, I see your leg is still wounded." she smiled, "That makes it so much easier to capture you."
Soothing Song stepped forward next and spoke in a fiery echoing voice, "I told you to leave! I gave you a chance! No more chances now, you're going to die." his eyes were glowing a flaming red with a wispy stream eminating from them and his fangs grew in sharpness and size to resemble a changelings. Ghastly wings grew from his sides even though he was an earth pony in the beginning and Motion Reflux couldn't understand how this was happening.
He knew from reading the book that not even ghastly entities can do such transformations from their original form and from that knowledge he quickly figured something was wrong.
The dark entity grew slighty in size and then grew a horn, having spasms and twiches as this ghost began to transform in front of his very eyes. Swiftshock closed her wings swiftly, causing a ripple in space that disallowed flight to whoever was on the platform. Motion Reflux felt this wave of magical space and knew accordingly that he couldn't run anymore and neither could he even try to fly.
Swiftshock stood back, her mane covering her eyes and her head bowed down slightly as a signal that she wasn't going to interfere. Her personality completely changed from aggressive to submissive in this one instance. Soothing Song's transforming completed, he towered over Motion Reflux with his doubled size, his large wisp-like wings spreading apart in a magnificent yet sinister pose and his horn glimmering a shroud of dark aura. His eyes were solid red whilst the rest of his body was slightly transparent. His breathing was long and raspy as he glared menacingly at the worrying colt.
Motion Reflux hesistated and stepped back in horrible fear, this kind of transformation shouldn't even be possible to a ghost. He read that they should keep the form of their old selves but seeing this made him think otherwise. He took in a deep breath and reared the front portion of his body down in preparation. He waited a second and then charged at the large being at his fastest running speed, leaping at the enemies front.
Whisk...
He passed right through the giant ghost without any contact and landed on the ground face first and slid for a few inches. "Ouch..." is all he could get out as he shook his head and stood back up, only to be punched by a large hoof and sent flying once more. By the time he landed, this time on his back, his bandage revealed that more blood was pumping and adrenaline was flowing as he stood up and limped into balancing. His skidding across the ground had caused some fur to be slightly singed and his bandage to completely rip off. The blood from his left leg seeping out slowly from his wound.
Being punted further away wasn't too pleasant in the slightest and bleeding was a far cry from fun. He looked over to where Swiftshock was standing and she just continued to stand there with her eyes covered by the shadow of her mane. This distraction of staring at her didn't help him at all because the aggressive ghost closed the distance and stood in front of him, angry.
The ghost jumped up into the air and flapped his wings, flying. "Wha-What?!" exclaimed Motion Reflux because he knew that Swiftshock used her power to remove flight from the area but was shocked that the ghostly entity could still fly. Soothing Song flew vertically into the air, gaining height and stopping some distance away from the injured Motion Reflux. He then began to dive, his right front hoof extended and the whole right leg morphed into a sharp ghostly scythe.
The distance between the evil wisp and the blue pegasus quickly shortened as the blood-thirsty ghost closed in with his scythe-hoof...
Boom.. went the collision of the scythe against an object.
~
A Flash of white came to Motion Reflux as he felt like time froze around him and he entered a dream state. He began to see a flashback of himself when he was younger...
A young blue colt had just packed his things in a bag that sat upon his back, he was going to run away from his home. There was nothing for him here and there was no reason for him to stay there. He leapt into the air and soared with the darkness of Lunas night hiding him in his escape. He wasn't too good at flying at this age but a year by himself in his room gave him time to teach himself how to fly forward.
The flashback ended suddenly as a second flash of white engulfed his vision and time slowly ticked back to life...
~
He opened his eyes and took in a deep breath, surprised that he was still alive. Looking slowly to his side he saw that the shadow scythe lodged deep into the platform just two inches away from his head. He took out a sigh of relief and noticed that Soothing Song was stuck there. He rolled back to dodge a brief swipe from the aggressors other leg but made his wounded leg rip slightly more open, the blood gushing out at a slightly faster pace.
All he could do was let out a moan of pain as he stood up and stepped back, the dark ghost flailing about with his free leg trying to pull out his trapped scythe-leg.
Motion Reflux now had time to think, ignoring all the pain he had from his almost-broken back and bloody hindleg. It couldn't be a ghost because it wasn't obeying natural law, it couldn't be a pony because it could transform and morph. One thing crossed his mind that gave him a good idea, Soothing Song wasn't real.
He looked over to Swiftshock who had been standing in the same spot the whole time, she must have more control over the ghost than he thought if she didn't have to do anything. The large ghost pulled his scythe-leg out of the platform, freeing himself and looking angrily at Motion Reflux. This time though, he was ready for the attack as he deftly dodged the lunge by the ghost and ran towards Swiftshock.
One thing he knew was that a giant couldn't run too fast, so he knew that he could easily outrun him. He didn't take into account that the ghost could still fly although so he had to roll to the side in a lucky sense that the ghost was dashing towards him. The dark entity landed and skid across the ground on his hooves, turning one-hundred and eighty degrees and still keeping his maniacal stare against Motion Reflux.
Motion Reflux now knew how to beat Soothing Song, or whatever it really was so he waited until the ghost gave another lunge at him. The ghost did so as it was his only real means of attack and in one swift movement Motion Reflux dodged the lunge once more and made a mad dash towards the stationary Swiftshock.
"No!" the ghost shouted, taking too much time to stop and turn and fruitlessly trying to catch up to the quick pegasus. Motion Reflux jumped forward, reaching his forehooves out towards Swiftshock as he collided with her; wrapping his hooves around her body in a tight embrace as they both fell onto the ground.
"You created him..." panted Motion Reflux and Swiftshock replied confused, "What...?" then Motion Reflux answered, "You created this ghost... from your guilt and hate..." he pet her mane as the large ghost began to close the distance. He soothingly said, "You created him to seek revenge..." and he held her closer to himself and continued as time suddenly felt like it halted.
-
"You loved him, didn't you?" said Motion Reflux
"I... I did..." said Swiftshock, genuine tears began to flow out of her eyes.
"A long time ago, when you were both young... they killed him... didn't they?" he asked.
"T-They did..." she stuttered.
"You found him in front of your doorstep, dead, and you knew it wasn't an accident, didn't you?" he said.
"...I... I wanted revenge... I loved him and all of a sudden he was gone... it all clicked together so quickly..." she sadly answered, crying much harder.
“Shh... shh... it’s alright...” he soothing said to her, calming her.
“I couldn’t... couldn’t trust anypony...” she whispered.
He grabbed her cheeks with his hooves and gently turned her head so she would face him and whispering to her, “It’s all over with now... you can trust me...”
-
He pressed his lips against hers tightly and closed his eyes, her eyes shooting open in complete surprise as she blushed with intense heat. The ghost lunged one last time towards them but disintegrated into the mist before his scythe-leg could even touch either of them. Pulling away from the kiss, Motion Reflux smiled softly, "Let off all of those bad feelings on me, let me be your flight from them." he whispered softly to her as he cradled her in his hooves.
He nuzzled her softly as he ignored the pain of his bleeding wound and bruised back, whispering ever-so-softly into her ear, "I now realized... I love you, Swiftshock..." he smiled softly, "Even if we just met, I felt a spark between us and I knew that I had to save you..." he held her tightly in his forelegs, "I knew that it wasn't all your fault, it was your emotions controlling you completely for so long..."
She pressed herself against his body, "Ninny-colt, you sure are one for words." she wrapped herself around him in a loving embrace, "You are just like him..." she let out a sigh of relief, her horrible emotions deflected away for the first time in years for her.
She let go of her hold of the mystical field of flight, the aura she emitted had dissapated without anypony noticing and the ability to fly was restored in the area. She wiped away her tears with a hoof.
As if a magic barrier had been cracked, the Northern District began to shine brightly as the rays of the sun shot past the clouds and onto the tower; the pearl-white tower reflecting the light all around. A unnoticeable light grey mist was now seen as it rose away from the district, as if it had been freed from a mystic shield that covered it for centuries.
They both got up and stood, staring into each others eyes. She blushed softly and he pet her on the head with his hoof. "Maybe you should be cleaning out your basement..?" he smiled, she rolled her eyes and returned the smile, saying, "Yeah... I need to go do that, come over if you want to help or anything..." she looked at him seriously, "I don't really want help though, but if you want to... go ahead."
He laughed for a second and waved goodbye as she trotted quickly into her mansion, he looked over to the side and saw the ashes of a demonic familiar fly away in the breeze, turning white as if it had been let go of the sadness it took in. Motion Reflux took every single piece of knowledge in quite easily, now knowing there was more to this city than meets the eye.
He huffed and knew that this wasn't just a task of friendship anymore, he now figured out that it was a mission to save this city from the hidden problems beneath it; he knew who he was going to see about this issue but he first had to see a nurse pony about his injured back and see if he can get his leg sown up. His left leg had a large sliced mark visibly past the bloody mess that was drooling out of it but he kept calm so it wouldn't end up worse.
Now though, he's made three new friends as well as a lover...
-
A lover...
It was strange to him, he'd never felt this feeling of being loved ever since he was born, he couldn't remember anything before the time he arrived in Cloudsdale with a bag full of belongings when he was young. It was a blissful but scary feeling to him but it wasn't something to dwell upon, he liked this feeling and he wanted to continue to keep it, he loved her but he still doesn't know if she loves him. The kiss still continued to be sensed upon his lips and he couldn't get it away, it was his first kiss so it was strange and unfamiliar; he knew though that he had to do it to save himself and to save her from the evil ghostly entity.
-
He hoped that she did love him back but he did force that kiss on her though so he had a small belief of otherwise. He jumped off the edge of the platform and soared through the sky towards the main castle on the ground and his land on the ground was a roll into standing upright. He fell over although and groaned in pain, his back was in extreme stress and his leg had been bleeding for quite a bit now. He was about to pass out but luckily Soft Spoken just happened to trot out the gate and see him.
She gasped and covered her mouth politely with a hoof and she quickly shook him to keep him awake and sat, slowly beginning to cast a strong healing spell on him. A bright blue aura surrounded his body as the wound slowly began to close, the tissue and muscles connecting back together first and then the skin and fur growing over it afterward. Soft Spoken couldn't help his almost-broken back so the only thing she could do was levitate him with her magic and carry him to his room as fast as she can, running past the gate and through the doors into the left wing and finally past the door to his room and resting him gently on his superbly soft cloud bed.
She panted as sweat trickled off her forehead, her magical energy nearly depleted from healing and carrying a fully grown stallion. He wasn't that heavy and she figured that out from how little energy she needed to use to carry him, but the heavy healing spell was what almost drained her full magical prowess for the time being. She fell right beside him onto the bed and smiled, not able to speak as she calmed down and slowly regenerated her energy. He was feeling much better to be on something much softer instead of hard ground, he reached over and grabbed a large bandage in his hoof, pulling it back and slowly wrapping it around his body in an awkward circle to maneuver around his wings.
As he finished wrapped the whole roll of bandaging around his center body his muscles finally gave in as he went limp onto the bed, his physical energy all depleted from the fight and as much running as he did. He wasn't used to running so much as he always flew around most of the time. His head fell right onto the even softer pillow as he closed his eyes and passed out.
Soft Spoken reached a hoof over to his mane and pet it softly, smirking gently and getting up and off the bed. She wiped away the sweat from her forehead and nodded, soon walking out the room and closing the door.
"Sweet Dreams..." she whispered in a soft voice as the door slowly closed shut and she went back to doing what she was going to be doing.