[Leo]
I pulled us down into an ash choked sky. Rainbow snapped her wings out and caught me, while Yomega wrapped himself in psionic force. Far below us, the battle between Luna, Abes and my Shadow still raged.
"Fly us closer!" I called out to Rainbow. "I want to hit it with my sword!"
"You don't have a sword!" Rainbow shouted back.
Turning my head to the side, I clamped my jaw down on nothing. Returning my head to the front, I now held a large sword by the hilt. Its guard curved to face forwards and covered the bottom part of the blade with an intricate design. "It's my mind. I'll have a sword if I want to!"
"What's the plan, Leo?" Yomega floated closer to Rainbow and I.
"I'm going to hit it." I decided. "A lot. After that... I'll figure something out."
"How are we going to let them know we're coming?" The physic type followed up.
"I'll handle that." I pointed my blade at my Shadow. "Rainbow, sonic rainboom that fucker."
"Gladly." Rainbow winged over and dove. Yomega pulled himself down behind us.
I waited until we had about half a minute until impact. "Player five has entered the lobby!" I bellowed, watching Luna and Abes dive clear.
I jumped off of Rainbow and slowed my fall a bit. Rainbow dove into the Shadow, made a hard right and zoomed out level to the ground. The rainboom blasted a hole clean through it. I then landed on its head, sword first. I rolled with my momentum, pulling the sword through a ripping slash. I thumped paws first onto the ground and slid to a stop next to Yomega's hovering from.
Abes and Luna shadow-ported beside me as Rainbow returned to hover over me. I could see that Abes and Luna were panting heavily.
"Ah..." The Shadow purred as it reformed itself. "So you found the bitch."
I began growling, flicking my sword so that it was pointing towards my other side.
"Oh, how cute." It mocked. "You're angry with me. It won't help you, making me stronger like that. Your best heavy hitters are already at their limits, your precious alpha is useless against me, and your so-called trainer telegraphs too much."
"Stay here." I ordered those around me. "This is my fight." I stepped forward, blade tilted up over my shoulder.
"You might as well give up now, and save them all the pain of living-."
I interrupted it by hopping forward and letting the sword pull me into a spin. As it started to spin upwards, I jumped and spun the blade into the thing's muzzle. Rolling from there, I flipped over its head and plunged the sword into its back. Concentrating, I grew the blade until the point had buried itself into the ground.
I left the blade there and hopped off the Shadow's back. "You talk too much." I blurred into an Extreme Speed, slamming into its head repeatedly. With the sword pinning it in place, it couldn't move to dodge. I finally landed in front of it to build up a Solar Flare.
"So, what's yer plan, Leo?" It demanded as I charged. "What are you going to do? Kill me? Like those changelings? Like those ponies?" I flinched, almost losing my charge. "That's right, you're a murderer. How could I forget? That's all you know how to do!" My charge faded away as my ears and tail slumped.
"Don't listen to it!" Rainbow yelled out.
"But you know that I'm right!" The Shadow retorted, a smug smirk on it's face.
"Sh-shut up!" I bellowed. I blurred forwards, slamming the Shadow's lower jaw up into the rest of its face. I ricocheted back to the rest of the group, landing in front of Rainbow. "Luna do you know what the fuck this thing is?"
"We have our suspicions." Luna mused before we were forced to scatter as the Shadow launched a series of shadow balls after us. I blurred off to one side and traced the ball's trajectory as I moved.
Why does it look like none of those would've hit me? I thought as Rainbow rainboomed through the Shadow. She bounced off of the sword, causing the Shadow to vibrate and lose the balls it had formed. I blurred around my mindscape to get closer to Luna, before I remembered that it was my mindscape and just appeared beside her.
"Luna, this thing you think it is, can it hurt me?"
She hovered in place, keeping a wary eye out for any other attacks. "Well, yes, but it can't kill you. Not directly." I nodded. "It gets into your head, and wears you down until you either defeat it, release it, or kill yourself." I flinched again as Luna looked at me. "You weren't very far off from letting it win. It must have been with you for months for you to be that far along."
"No..." I admitted. "It's only been here since the wedding..." I chewed my lip as Luna arched an eyebrow at me. I sighed, then flickered beside Yomega. I grabbed him and appeared next to Rainbow. "Keep it occupied." I ordered. "I... I need to talk to Abes and Luna." I followed a gut feeling. "Here, Yomega, you'll need this." I plunged my paw into my chest and handed over a red orb. As it settled into Yomega, I appeared next to Abes. I grabbed onto him as Yomega launched off into an Extreme Speed. I teleported us both to Luna in time to watch him smack into the Shadow's head.
"So... Luna, I have a confession to make." I hung my head. "It is a matter that I worry may be considered treasonous. I admit my guilt to you in full acknowledgement that I will be punished to the fullest extent of the law."
Abes gave a weak chuckle. "What, you were in league with the Changelings all along?" Luna glanced between us with polite confusion.
"No." I took a deep breath. "The Shadow is not wrong: I am a murderer." I raised a paw to cut Luna off. "I have killed changelings during the Battle for Canterlot when I should've given them the option to surrender. I have also killed ponies during the same event. There was no mana bomb, your highness. Only me." I hung my head, ignorant of the sound of the battle behind me slowing to a halt. "I am responsible for the crater in the Scholar district. I only ask that you do not allow Rainbow to share my sentence, no matter how much she may beg you to do otherwise." I knelt down at Luna's hooves, awaiting her judgment.
"YOU FOOL!" The shadow bellowed from where it was pinned. "Now all of Eques will know of what you've done! You will never be allowed a moment of peace from their hateful scorn! You will-"
"Silence." Luna intoned. "We will be the one to determine Leo's fate. Not some mere wisp of indigestion." She looked at me impassively. "Leo Lancer, do you swear that this plea comes from the depths of your heart? That these events truly transpired?"
I swallowed thickly. "I do"
She raised my head with her hoof. "Then you must accept your guilt." She turned me to face the Shadow. "Only then can We determine your punishment."
But, I thought I already did? I was confused. Rainbow and Yomega were wrapped in Luna's magic and pulled to her side. The Shadow started to thrash and pull at the sword.
"You'll never be rid of me!" It raged. "So long as you fear, I'll exist. Every sorrow, every dirty little secret will only feed my power!"
I paused in thought, remembering Luna's words on this thing. I began to walk towards the Shadow. It redoubled its efforts to remove itself from my mental blade. Wisps of darkness bled off of it in an invisible wind, causing the Shadow to shrink as I got nearer.
Soon, I was standing in front of a small black furred Eevee, with gray where the light tan would've been. It cowered as far from me as the blade would allow, staring at me with wide, fright filled red eyes. "Y-you'll never be forgiven! They'll never forgive you!"
I sat in front of it. "... Rainbow already has. Yomega already has."
"Lies!" It wailed. "And, even if they did, no one else will!"
I reflected for a moment on all the various clichés and tropes I could apply to my situation. "Of course they won't." I sighed before lunging forward, pulling my Shadow close. "Not until I forgive myself first." I hugged my Shadow, its wailing piercing my ears, its tears staining my fur.
Just as my own stained its.
After a moment of mental concentration, I allowed the Shadow into me. A rumble shook my mindscape, I looked around in time to see the others fade away. I closed my eyes, feeling the verdant grass at my paws...
that, which was broken and undone...
be made whole once again,
the two become one...
So many anime flashbacks right now... sooo mannnyyy!
Ouch... Right in the heart... 🤜!
But dr who sentance was the best...
Just in case anyone doesn't know the meme...
I remembet hearing someonr say something along the lines of: everyone will have enemies and people that will hate them, but you just have to keep living.
This really felt like leo coming to understand that fully
No to figure out if this was what was stopping the eggs.
So, you accept your insane power level, even if it may harm others close to you?
Very well then, let us form a contract. I am thou, thou art I
It's on the featured page!
Worth remembering that they left Earth circa Season 5; any resemblance to Zacian is coincidental in-universe (the Zeraora was only seen by Luke, who isn't familiar enough with Pokémon to care that he doesn't recognize one).
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I already basically made that joke, but yes. Persona. As long as Leo doesn't try to use the gun, it should be fine to make it more explicit.
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If 2 people made the joke, then it's not subtle at all lol
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That was actually part of the reason I chose zeraora. It's a really cool pokemon that wasn't even known to the others, and the only one who saw it was just like, "Oh, another pokemon I know nothing about. Nothing new here."
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The Featured box has two sections. Spots 1–7 are for first-time features, while spots 8–10 are for updates to previously featured stories. Any story that has once been featured will always be featured when it updates.
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I chose Zeraora because it's heccin sick. Take Lucario, give him flight, plasma, and lightning powers, and remove most of his type weaknesses. That's Zeraora. Only downside I could see is that he can't talk, but he is capable of learning psychic-type moves, which doesn't preclude telepathy.
... I should probably update that story soon...
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That's the other reason I chose him. He's similar to lucario but better in most ways, at least all the ways that mattered in this. Plus, because we're doing a more practical approach to type advantages, Lucario's weak to lightning, as his metal bones direct the lightning right to his organs. That's also why he isn't particularly adverse to fire.
This entire arc has made me think of this song.
Thanks for the update, I needed that.
OMG this was beyond deep.
To quote Aloy from Horizon: Zero Dawn,
What was Sundered and Undone, shall be Whole! The Two... made One!
clip.cafe/cover/what-sundered-undone-s1.jpg
Hey when is the dramatic reading coming also does anyone know why the text to speech on here not working
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Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Apparently the videos have been pulled. I'm going to have to remove the link then.
My apologies to anyone who clicked it between them being pulled and now!
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You're welcome can you also let us know when you got the first chapter done
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Ah, that dramatic reading was done by someone else, I didn't ask them to. I don't have any plans to make EE a dramatic reading, but I won't stop someone if they want to do it themselves.
When are you going to finish this subplot. It just goes on and on and on.
Move the story along to something else.
Monk
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They show a lot of intelligence and fluttershy exists
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*Cough cough* Sif *Cough, cough*
This could probably have been resolved in a single chapter