Aquapony squinted to try to make out the blurry figure obscured within the fog. As the mist cleared he could make out two distinct colors, a bold blue and a bright red. "No," Aquapony gawked in disbelief, "You couldn't have..."
"Oh," Ner' said excitedly, "I could!"
The fog continued to thin, allowing further detail to come into focus, revealing a stylized 'S' emblazoned on the figure's chest. "You didn't..."
"I did!" Ner' exclaimed with glee.
The last bit of fog cleared away, revealing beyond a shadow of a doubt who stood in the center of the arena. Looking rather worse for wear, but still rather intact was none other than the zombified body of Superguy, Aquapony's former boss. Patches of his coat had fallen out and small bits of bone poked out here and there, but the most obvious sign that Superguy was no longer a living pony was the unholy green glow emanating from his eye sockets, completely obscuring his eyeballs from view.
Superguy's jaw opened and an inequine voice, strangely distorted as though two others were speaking at the same time, came out of his throat. "Hello Aqua! Long time no see!"
That voice was more akin to that of a demon than of any pony. Aquapony had to surpress a shiver and looked on Superguy with disgust.
"The Master says I need to kill you now," the thing that used to be Superguy said. With no further warning the zombie launched itself at Aquapony, hooves outstretched and aimed for his head. Halfway through Superguy's short flight his flaming green eyes flashed and small gouts of green flame licked out to coat his hooves in fire.
Aquapony was only barely fast enough to dive out of the way, but even still one of Superguy's flaming hooves grazed along Aquapony's back, causing the aquatic hero to cry out in brief agony. Aquapony grit his teeth against the pain and managed to turn his frantic dive into a controlled roll which brought him right to the edge of the water. Quickly, he dipped a hoof into the water and started to draw upon his power.
Superguy recovered just as quickly, arresting the momentum from his lunge and lining up a second attack. He jumped high up into the air and flipped around to point his hind hooves toward Aquapony from above. A single powerful flap from Superguy's wings sent him rocketing straight down towards the ground-bound pony. The same green flames as before erupted around Superguy's leading hooves, amplifying the potential damage of the attack.
To the zombie's great surprise his hooves did not collide with his stationary target, but instead were ripped off course by a raging torrent of water that somehow flowed from the pool by Aquapony's hooves up and through the air over his head. The arcing stream of water crashed down onto the stone floor beside him, bringing Superguy along for the ride. A loud crack of breaking stone rang out when Superguy's body impacted the arena's floor.
Bounding back quickly, Superguy aimed blow after devastating blow at Aquapony. Each time Superguy committed to an attack green fire would arc from his eyes to coat his hoof, ensuring that any direct hit would be a lethal blow.
Not a single attack reached Aquapony. It was as if the water had come alive to protect him. Great jets of water flowed from every angle to knock Superguy's balance and aim off. Several times Superguy was knocked completely off his hooves and onto the ground.
Undeterred, Superguy tried to fire a laser at Aquapony from his eyes. When the normally-red beams passed through the unholy green flames in front of his eyes though, they were warped into great blasts of eldritch fire hot enough to slag boulders. The water still in the air flashed to steam as the empowered lasers roared towards Aquapony.
At the last second Aquapony seemed to melt backwards into the ring of water. The laser blasts passed harmlessly through the space where his head had been moments earlier and slammed into the wall, scorching away the illusion of cheering crowds and leaving behind a great ugly black mark. The only sign that Aquapony had been standing there earlier was a small ring of ripples emanating from that spot.
Superguy remained alert as he slowly advanced forward, wary of an attack from any angle. Just as he reached the edge of the ring his caution paid off. Faster than a cannon Aquapony burst from the ring of water behind and a bit to the right of Superguy, a fountain of water propelled Aquapony up and then abruptly changed course to direct him towards Superguy's back.
Almost as soon as Aquapony had emerged Superguy was whirling about with another laser blast ready to go. He fired the blast straight at Aquapony's face and smirked, since he knew there would be no way for Aquapony to dodge. Aquapony tried to twist out of the way, but he was just going too fast to get out of the way in time. Superguy's smile grew when he saw Aquapony catch the laser in his shoulder.
His smile fell away to a look of shock when, instead of burning to a crisp, Aquapony exploded into a cloud of a thousand shimmering water droplets. A faint rainbow shimmered briefly in the mist as it gently dispersed towards the ground. "What?!" Superguy exclaimed in outrage.
That outrage turned to fear when dozens of Aquaponies all burst from the water at once and started to rain down on Superguy like meteorites. In a panic Superguy fired a laser or two into the descending mass of Aquapony and was rewarded with a couple of the copies bursting into mist like the first one, but Superguy's efforts weren't nearly enough.
"Oh good show," Ner'Ghalad commented.
One after the other the Aquapony clones slammed into Superguy like very angry and very under-appreciated missiles. Each clone burst into a cloud of vapor on impact, and before long the entire arena was filled with light mist. When the last Aquapony clone had burst, an ominous bubbling began in the ring of water. It was a very battered Superguy that reluctantly turned to the bubbling to see what Aquapony would dish out next.
As if on cue, a gigantic draconic serpent erupted from the water. The serpent, while incredibly detailed and ferocious, was crystal clear and appeared to be made entirely of water. Riding just behind the serpent's head, wearing a magnificent suit of armor and wielding an ornate trident with familiar ease stood Aquapony.
The serpent opened its watery mouth and loosed a mighty roar. Superguy clapped his hooves over his partially decayed ears and cowered beneath the gigantic beast. At a motion from Aquapony the serpent lunged at Superguy. The zombie barely had time to raise his hooves to shield his head.
The watery serpent crashed down onto Superguy with an enormous splash and enough force to rattle the ceiling.
Superguy lay prone, coughing and spluttering. With stubborn defiance he tried to rise to his hooves, only to collapse again as his legs gave out. The zombie let out a determined growl and large swaths of green fire seeped out of his eyes to surround his broken legs. With the assistance of the unholy flame Superguy was able to stand and face Aquapony, who had waited and watched patiently for the fight to resume.
As soon as he saw Superguy was back on his hooves, Aquapony surged forward, striking with his trident. Superguy's movements were sloppy and slow, and Aquapony easily broke through the zombie's defense, scoring several damaging blows. Each time Aquapony's trident struck, a bit more of Superguy's green fire would flicker over the new wound. It wasn't long before Superguy seemed to be composed more of fire than of flesh.
A particularly fancy maneuver swept Superguy off his hooves and the zombified pegasus slammed to the floor hard. Aquapony leveled the tip of his trident at Superguy's neck. "Yield," Aquapony spoke in a voice hard as iron.
"Never!" the zombie shouted, then in a last-ditch effort to win fired one last fiery laser at Aquapony.
Aquapony dissolved into a light mist that instantly mixed with the slight fog still pervading the room. The laser passed harmlessly through empty space. Not half a second later Aquapony materialized from the fog on Superguy's other side, still leveling his trident at the zombie's neck neck.
"So be it," Aquapony said, then he plunged the trident down in one swift motion.
The green fire blanketing most of Superguy's body burnt out all at once, leaving only a small pile of scorched giblets at Aquapony's hooves.
Aquapony looked down on Superguy's remains with a mildly remorseful look in his eyes. His trident and the shiny armor he wore dissipated into mist and all the water still suspended in the air slowly flowed back into the ring around the edge of the room, leaving little evidence of the fight that had just transpired.
"You idiot," Aquapony said solemnly to Superguy's remains. "Didn't you know that fire is weak against water?"
About two seconds passed before Ner' said, "That was a terrible one liner. You know that, right?"
Aquapony sighed. "Yeah," he said. "I'm rubbish at coming up with witty lines with no preparation."
"Indeed," Ner'Ghalad agreed. "So, how do you feel about re-killing your former friend? Are you upset that you weren't able to save him?"
"No, not really. To be honest," Aquapony admitted, "I never really liked him anyways. He was a racist prick."
"True, true," Ner' agreed. "And he hardly put up any fight when I subjugated his will to my own. It was almost as if he wanted to serve me in undeath, but that's just ridiculous. Right?"
"Right. Well, I'd better get going," Aquapony said, making his way towards the exit. "I bet all the others are already done with their tasks and are waiting for me to finish up."
"On the contrary," Ner'Ghalad said, "You're the first one done! Nice work, by the way. I honestly didn't expect you to survive. I won't make the mistake of underestimating you again." Aquapony glowed with pride, but his face fell when he heard Ner' add, "...Near water, that is."
"Oh, screw you," Aquapony said as he walked towards the exit. "I'm going to wait for my friends over thataway."