Right Beside You

by Godslittleprincess

Chapter 5: The Wicked Feeding

“AJ!” Sunset screamed into her cellphone, “Twilight and I need you and the rest of the girls at Canterlot City Park NOW! Don’t forget your necklaces! Magical threat; no time to explain!”

She hung up as she turned back towards the being who was once Flash Sentry. What was once a kind, friendly young man was now staring her and Twilight down with malice burning in his glowing, red eyes.

“Honey,” Twilight tried to reason with him, “I know you’re still in there, and I know you don’t want to hurt me.”

The armored shadow man let out a wicked, gravelly laugh and replied, “The man you loved is gone. I’m Dark Reverb now, and you don’t know me AT ALL!”

He let loose a wave of black fire from his hands at Twilight who screamed as she once again held up her arms to shield her face. However, instead of hitting her directly, the fire circled around her creating a wall of black flames on all sides. She lowered her arms and looked around in surprise before doubling over and covering her ears as voices began to scream at her from within the flames. Actually, only one voice was screaming at her, Flash’s voice.

“I HATE YOU!”

“You never loved me at all!”

“You don’t even know what love is!”

“You’re such a selfish [censored]! It’s no wonder you don’t have any real friends!”

As Twilight continued to be assaulted by her beloved’s voice, the flames were inching closer and closer to her, the intensifying heat only adding to the pain she felt. Although hurt, confused, and on the brink of heat exhaustion, Twilight managed to keep her wits about her long enough to activate the magic in her geode necklace. As soon as she felt the wings form on her back, she used them to fly towards the one place where she wasn’t surrounded by black fire, straight up.

Twilight opened her eyes once she felt the cool night breeze on her face. She looked around, searching for a source of water or sand that she can smother the flames with. When she turned to her left, she saw a fountain in the middle of the park. Twilight grit her teeth in determination as she used her telekinesis to drench the fire circle she had been in.

When the steam cleared, she looked right into Dark Reverb’s eyes. Tears began welling up in her own as the words from the flames began to echo in her head. She scowled and gave her head a few resolute shakes to clear Flash’s, no, Reverb’s words from her mind.

“I don’t know how you’re making Flash do that, but you’re going to wish you hadn’t,” she declared. “Come on, Flash, I know that wasn’t really you. You have to fight the dark magic somehow because I REALLY don’t want to fight you.”

“Still gnawing away at that bone, are we?” Reverb chuckled viciously, charging up his flames for another attack. However, before he could blast Twilight out of the sky, a rainbow blur punched him in the face and sent him flying a few feet back.

“As much as I don’t like the idea of fighting my friends,” said Rainbow Dash as she skidded to a stop, “MAN! Did that feel good!”

The rest of the former Rainbooms followed at a much slower pace.

“Okay, Sunset, we’re all here,” panted AJ. “What’s going on?”

“The short story, the Dazzlings tricked Coin Bank into releasing an ancient Equestrian evil from Limbo, and now it’s taken over Flash and turned him into that,” Sunset rapidly explained pointing at Reverb.

Reverb got up and turned his attention to his attacker.

“Just for that,” he growled at Rainbow Dash, “you will BURN!”

Dark Reverb sent a powerful wave of black fire at the speedster who dodged it easily. However, some of the fire managed to graze the side of her arm.

“You pathetic loser,” Flash’s voice taunted her from within the flame.

“Yow!” Dash cried, clutching at her arm before looking up and around in confusion. “Hold on. What was that?”

“What was what?” asked Sunset.

“Okay, this is going to sound weird, but when that fire touched my arm, I thought I heard—”

“Flash’s voice insulting you?” Twilight interrupted as she touched down among her friends. “Yeah, that happened to me earlier.”

“But Flash would never say things like that to anyone,” Applejack pointed out, “not even if someone really deserved it.”

“Well, except for when he’s brainwashed,” Pinkie Pie noted, “like that time when the Dazzlings tried to take over the school.”

“Gah!” Rainbow cried, alternating between clutching her arm and clutching her head. “I can still hear him calling me a loser in my head, and my arm still kinda hurts! I feel like I just got punched in the feelings and literally punched at the same time!”

“I would say it’s more like evil Flash gave you a sick burn literally and figuratively,” prattled Pinkie.

“I don’t care what it’s like!” Twilight screamed. “And Flash is not evil! Let’s just blast that thing to kingdom come so that I can get my guy back from it!”

All her friends stared at her in surprise and blinked twice.

“Wow! She’s really ticked off,” Pinkie said to no one in particular.

“Wouldn’t you be too if this happened to the guy you’re going to marry?” Sunset dryly pointed out as she activated the magic in her geode. The rest of the girls, sans Twilight, did likewise.

“Light him up, ladies!” Pinkie cheered as the girls got into a V formation with Sunset in the middle. One by one, the girls rose into the air and channeled their magic to Sunset who focused it into a single concentrated, rainbow beam of power that she fired straight at Reverb.

Dark Reverb answered with a beam of his own, one made of black fire. At first, his beam was barely holding the Rainbooms’ at bay, but slowly, his beam began to inch towards the midpoint, then past the midpoint. Finally, the dark beam reached Sunset and shot the girls out of the sky sending them into the ground.

“What the—? How—?” Dash sputtered incredulously as she sat up clutching her head. “He just fought back against a rainbow laser AND WON?! They never fight back, and they ABSOLUTELY. NEVER. WIN!”

Reverb laughed his loudest, longest, most maniacal laugh yet, “You fools! Did you really think that after escaping Limbo a second time that I would let go of my new host THAT EASY?!”

With that, he shot a massive blast of black fire towards the girls which Rarity blocked with her diamond shields. Flash’s voice shouted at them as the fire hit the shields. However, thanks to Rarity’s shields dissipating the flames, all the girls heard were unintelligible shrieks of hate and anger. The screams weren’t nearly as emotionally devastating as what Twilight and Rainbow Dash had experienced earlier, but it still left the girls pretty shaken.

Sunset’s brain went into overdrive trying to formulate a plan to stop Dark Reverb. Replaying Reverb’s last sentence in her mind, she gasped in realization.

“Oh my gosh!” Sunset exclaimed. “The dark magic didn’t just corrupt Flash. It’s latched on to him like a parasite.”

“Well, how are we supposed to unlatch it?” Rainbow Dash yelled in frustration. “Blasting it out of him didn’t work, so what are we supposed to do? Hold him down and beat it out of him?”

“Not quite,” Sunset answered as a knowing smirk slowly spread across her face. “Girls, I have an idea!”

“Wonderful,” AJ cried in relief. “What’s the plan?”

“I’m going to need you girls to try to hold him down,” Sunset explained, “and while he’s held down, Twilight and I are going in.”

“Going in where?” Twilight asked, a look of confusion crossing her face.

“Remember back in Camp Everfree when I took the girls inside your head to help you get over being afraid of your magic? Well, now, you’re going to see how I did it.”

Author's Note:

Guess what anime inspired Flash's corrupted persona.

Comments

[Foxhelm]

.... um Vegeta during the Saiyan saga?... Freiza before the Universal Survival Arc... Seto Kiba before the Battle City Tournament... sorry I got nothing

[SuperSonicHeroes]

Wow, someone actually survived the Rainbow Lasers attack from when they Pony Up. That's never a good sign.

I feel ashamed that I don't automatically know the anime you are referring too. Is it Fairy Tail or something. Based on the powers seen thus far it is probably someone that uses black fire. If I find out what it is I am definitely going to watch it.

[Godslittleprincess]

10297034
10297110
Check the name. I borrowed the second half of it off the English dub name of some guy's living superpower.

[Ro994]

I won't even try to guess the anime cause I won't know, but MAAAAAAAAAAAAN, Flash's voice hauntingly insulting Twilight? That hurt my corazoncito
(Also Dark Reverb is such a cool name!!)