Chapter 16: Cruel Tricks
------Dolphy------
As we continued through the foggy Ominous Woods, a castle suddenly came into view. It was huge, but the fog must’ve been what kept us from seeing it sooner.
All four of us gasped at the sudden appearance of the imposing building. It was made entirely out of obsidian. It even used obsidian stairs for the roofs of the towers! I marveled at the sheer amount of the black rock that had been used to build the structure in front of us.
“That’s one mighty big castle,” Applejack said, breaking the silence.
“It’s so large, the fog makes it impossible to see all of it,” Twilight added.
I nodded in agreement, still too impressed to speak.
Suddenly, a figure appeared in one of the windows above us. I’d recognize those glowing white eyes anywhere.
“Greetings!” Herobrine called down to us, “I see you’ve finally caught up to me, puny dragon-like! It’s been eleven months, and your annoying little wife still hasn’t stopped telling me that you’d come to rescue her every time I see her! Well, you may be here now, but that means nothing!”
Suddenly, a set of obsidian stairs materialized out of nothing in front of the castle, leading to the massive piston portcullis.
“If you somehow survive and make it to me,” he shouted, doubt very heavy in his voice, “I’ll see you and your curvy little friends in my throne room! I have much to discuss with you!”
Cackling madly, Herobrine turned and started to walk away from the window.
“Get back here!” Dash yelled as she zipped towards the window.
Suddenly, she froze in midair, surrounded by a strange black aura.
“Don’t be so hasty, my curvy friend,” Herobrine said without turning around, “I have to prepare before receiving guests. I hope you’ll understand if I let my servants entertain you while I get ready.”
With the slightest jerk of his head, Herobrine’s magic field threw Dash back at us, and I caught her before she could hit the ground.
“That jerk,” she grumbled as I set her down, “he’s gonna pay!”
No one said anything else while we climbed the stairs. At the gate, I noticed a button and pushed it. The portcullis opened quickly, and we dashed inside before it closed behind us.
“I hope you don’t mind me trying to get to know you a bit early,” Herobrine’s voice said, seeming to come from everywhere at once.
Before we could react, we were all frozen in place by the same black aura from earlier.
“Don’t worry,” the voice chuckled, “this won’t hurt. I’m just examining all of the biological data that make each of you who you are, so I can send some extra-special friends to greet you. You’ll meet them later.”
The voice fell silent, and the aura released us.
“That varmint’s not gonna like what Ah’m gonna do to him when Ah get mah hooves on him,” Applejack muttered.
The room turned completely dark for a second, and then the light returned, revealing a large horde of zombies. But these zombies came in many different shapes and sizes, with two resembling each of the Crafter races, one male, and one female.
“These are the remains of some of the ancient Crafters who I took great delight in torturing to death,” Herobrine’s voice boomed throughout the room, “I took care to break their wills before they died, so that they wouldn’t even try to will themselves back. Without the original owners returning, I was able to reanimate these empty shells to do my bidding. I’m quite the brilliant planner, aren’t I?”
“I’ll tell you what you are!” Dash shouted, “You’re a motherb—“
“Save it,” I said as I put a hand on her shoulder. “We need to defeat these zombies, first.”
The two dragon-like zombies and the two monster-like zombies had taken to the air, and were speeding towards us. Dash nodded and rushed to meet them, knocking the male dragon-like zombie out of the air. It grunted when it hit the ground, but just took to the air again.
Twilight’s horn started glowing, and the two orc zombies were enveloped in a purple aura, pinning them in place. I took advantage of the situation and slashed them with my enchanted amethyst sword, felling both in one stroke each.
Applejack bucked at a dwarf zombie, sending it flying into an elf zombie, which knocked both to the ground. I rushed in and finished them off.
The four zombies with wings were now chasing Rainbow Dash, but she outmaneuvered them easily, causing them to crash into walls repeatedly, killing them one by one.
With the airborne zombies out of the picture, she collided with a rabbit-like zombie, killing it with the force of the impact.
Next, Applejack bucked the other rabbit-like zombie into a fox-like zombie, and they both fell over dead.
Meanwhile, Twilight picked up the other fox-like zombie with her magic and threw it at the other elf zombie, killing them both.
At that point, there was only a dwarf zombie and two human zombies left, so we knew we had this in the bag. They walked towards us, but they were so slow, I was able to pull out a block of TNT, light the fuse with my flint and steel, and then have all four of us run to the other side of the room, where we’d be safe from the blast.
The block exploded, destroying the zombies utterly, and we all breathed a sigh of relief.
“Very good!” Herobrine’s voice said as a pair of iron doors at the end of the room opposite the entrance opened up, “You might be stronger than I thought! Proceed to the next room, and see what I’ve prepared for you next!”
We ignored his insane laughter and made our way to the next room.
We saw zombified copies of ourselves waiting for us.
“Zombies?” I asked, disappointed. “Really? Slower versions of us? Did you really think that would—”
I cut off as the zombie copy of me pulled out an amethyst sword and rushed me at a full sprint, aided by the Level 4 Swiftness boots it was wearing.
I jumped out of the way as its sword struck nothing but the obsidian floor where I had been standing an instant before.
“Okay! Equally fast copies of us,” I said as I dodged another swipe. “That’s something I wouldn’t expect from zombies!”
Pretty soon, all of us were fighting exact duplicates of ourselves. Neither side made any progress for a long time, and then the zombies suddenly stopped.
“Huh?” Dash said, expressing the confusion we all felt.
“That was just a test,” Herobrine announced, “while examining you three curvy enigmas, I found quite a few memories of a certain being—actually, two—who are quite powerful, and meld the combined might of all three of your different kinds into one. Others might consider this cheating, or even cliché, but I’ve always wanted to create a zombie chimera! And your memories gave me all of the blueprints I need!”
The three pony zombies merged and grew larger, and in their place was something I’d never seen before. It had the wings of the Rainbow Dash zombie, the horn of the Twilight zombie, and the build of the Applejack zombie, but with all of those features exaggerated severely!
“Twilight,” I asked, “What’s that supposed to be? Have you seen anything like it?”
“I think he just created an Alicorn,” she said in disbelief.
“An Ali-what?” I asked in confusion.
“An Alicorn is a combination of all three pony races,” she explained. “Very few exist, and—“
We were cut off by the zombie copy of me jumping onto the zombie Alicorn’s back as if it were just another horse, pulling its sword back out, and pointing it at us in the command to charge.
Its gruesome steed complied, and we all had to dive out of the way of the attack.
“You really should’ve thought this over more carefully!” Herobrine cackled, “bringing all three kinds of you to the same place? You made this way too easy for me! And just so you know, I’ve amplified my new toy’s magic ten-fold! Still not as strong as mine, but it should pack quite a punch, nonetheless!”
“Wait, I forgot something,” he added. Suddenly, a stream of energy flowed from the zombie copy of me into the twisted zombie chimera-pony, and then the mount’s wings changed from feathery to ribbed, like the Enderdragon’s, but curved instead of blocky.
“That’s better!” the insane voice said as the twisted pair prepared to attack us again, “that should be intimidating enough! Now, I’ll leave you four to play with my new toy while I prepare to receive you. Don’t disappoint me!”
Herobrine’s voice fell silent, and the zombies rushed at us. The pony had its head lowered, intending to gore me with its horn. I moved to dodge, but the horn started glowing in a sickly green color, and I was pinned to the spot, unable to move.
Applejack tackled me, breaking the spell’s hold and knocking me out of the way, causing the twisted creature’s horn to hit nothing but the obsidian wall behind me.
“Thanks,” was all I could manage as I tried to catch my breath. That tackle had knocked the air right out of my lungs.
“Any time, sugarcube,” Applejack replied as I got to my feet.
I gripped my sword tightly and prepared for the pair to charge again.
They stood completely still instead.
I was about to attack, but they suddenly took to the air.
“Really quickly,” Herobrine’s voice said as the horrific pony rose higher into the air, “I didn’t just give it a boost in your curvy friends’ dainty magic, either. I gave it some of my power!”
He laughed manically as the creature’s horn glowed that sickly green color again. Lightning bolts started dropping from the ceiling, striking random locations all over the room.
“Look out!” I yelled as primed TNT also started falling from the ceiling. We all dove out of the way, but the explosions were too large. None of us were killed, but we were all hurt badly.
“Quick! Eat these!” I yelled as I tossed each pony an enchanted golden apple before eating one myself.
They complied, and we were all rapidly healed, and strengthened to boot.
The zombies roared at us, and the zombie copy of me pulled out a glowing Bloodwood bow. It was most likely an exact duplicate of the Failnaught. The damaging enchantments could kill easily, and the Homing enchantment would make dodging nearly impossible, especially since the zombie copied my abilities exactly. I was a really good shot, even without Homing.
My zombie duplicate knocked an arrow, drew back the string, and fired straight at me. I jumped out of the way, but the zombie turned its head to follow my movements, and the arrow followed its line of sight, following me.
I spun around and tried to raise my sword to block the arrow, but I was just barely too slow, and the arrow struck me.
------Ponies------
The Crafter doubled over in agony and screamed as his body burst into flames. He also looked quite sick, which meant he was likely poisoned again as well.
Rainbow Dash sped towards the pair of undeads and bucked the zombie Crafter in the face, knocking it off its mount to send it crashing into the wall on the other end of the room.
“Take that, you rotting carcass!” she said as it hit the ground. The zombie grunted and tried to get to its feet, but Dash slammed into it a second time, sending its bow spinning from its grip and pinning the zombie against the wall.
The zombie Alicorn landed and charged Rainbow Dash, but Twilight caught it with her magic, causing it to freeze in mid-gallop.
Applejack then bucked the zombie pony in the face, causing it to recoil from the impact.
Dolphy had managed to put out the flames by this point, and it looked like the poison had worn off, too. He switched to his bow and shot the pony zombie in the head, and it collapsed.
The zombie Crafter tried to bite Dash, but she let go and rammed into it again, causing it to slam into the wall yet again. This time, it grunted and died.
The group of four all tried to catch their breath after the fast-paced battle.
“Well!” Herobrine’s voice said as the iron doors at the far end of the room swung open, “color me surprised! You four really can fight! But just to let you in on a little secret: I made the two zombies mostly offensively based. They couldn’t take very many hits, anyway. You’ll find that I am no pushover. Anyway, I’ve stalled you long enough. Go through those doors, and we’ll see what you’re really made of.”
The voice fell silent, and the four exchanged glances before walking through those doors.