A Lampent's Lament in Equestria

by Iridescence T Wind

Chapter 25: Hunger

“Bloodlust – the disease that makes us the monsters we are known to be; it is what wipes away the last of our humanity.”
― Daniele Lanzarotta, Bloodlust

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Darkness, the feeling of death's door coming for him again, his soul was diminishing and his will fading. His flame, flickering, blind now without the eyes of his frame. Unable to move without the body that had contained it and dying quickly. His mind was growing slower and slower as his flame grew smaller and smaller. He hadn't been strong enough. It was his fault, in the long run of things if he hadn't shown up his friends wouldn't of been in danger to begin with. Now there was nothing he could do... That terrified him, the inability to do nothing more to save his friends as they were left to the mercy of that horrid machine and it's pilots. His flame drew even smaller, though soon enough he felt something unfamiliar. Something ancient, feral, imprisoned, and... alive... brush against his soul. It was the Soul of the snake that had been petrified by it's own stare. The Basilisk's, but it wasn't dead...

Soul pushed with what little strength he had left towards it, maybe there was something that could be done... But it would come with a price. He would have to merge with it, effectively merging the soul with his own. The side effects would be unknown but what choice did he have? His friends needed him. His time to return to the darkness wasn't just yet, after all his friend's stories were all just beginning.

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Meowth roared in victory, as did his comrades. One less threat to deal with and after this sort of fight, there was little stopping him from taking over the world but the princesses. He already had captured the Elements of Harmony's bearers. Ironically Soul's friends. Six more lives to add to the machine, particularly the powerful Unicorn mare who was holding a small red Pokédex. Wait, a Pokédex? Grabbing up the steering control's he swerved the machine to face Twilight's cage and made to reach toward the mare causing her to pale before the machine spat out quite loudly a few sentences driving all the other noise to a halt as it spoke aloud, "New Pokemon recognized, Number 608 Chandelure, the Luring Pokémon and the evolved form of Lampent. Chandelure uses its dancing flames to hypnotize opponents. Chandelure's flames do not burn physically; rather, they burn up the victim's soul leaving the untouched body behind. The spirits burned up in its ominous flame lose their way and wander this world forever. It is said that Chandelure actively seeks out those who have cheated death and are the strongest of the non-legendary tree for special attacks. Even being higher than Mewtwo, who had the ability to destroy the planet if he so wished with his mind."

"I-Impossible..." Meowth muttered, but the rumbling of stone behind the machine drew his attention. A long slithering spiritual howl with the distinct edge of a snake's hiss was heard as the statue began to fall apart. Clouds of dust and ash billowing out. The sky seemed to turn a vibrant red. A series of purple flames lit from the center of the dust and suddenly the area of the ground darkened and a ring of spiritual fire surrounded the area in a circle leaving the cages out but trapping the machine inside it. As the smoke cleared Meowth could clearly see what had caused it. A black chandelier like being with a round striped head filled with an intense purple flame. His arm's were adorned with four more short appendages attached to where the elbows would be each holding their own flames. Each of which swayed in a creepy yet hypnotic manner. The newly evolved form opened it's right eye. Attached to it's 'mouth' it was completely normal. Then the other eye opened. The entire machine's cockpit glass cracked under the menacing force of it. Soul combined this with a Mean Look before raising the ends of both appendage's to his mouth. A ball of dark energy that made the ground under him crack forming.

Meowth pulled at several levers and the machine barely made it as a destructive Dark Pulse obliterated the spot where the machine had been momentarily hovering before. He was about to ready a counter attack when a metal limb broke through the cockpit and into the seat barely an inch away from his throat. Soul had breached the cockpit. With a curt order to his comrades they ejected out of the emergency exits below. Leaving just the seven of them. Soul, Meowth, Yamask, Wobbuffet, Arbok, Wheezing, and Carnivine. The menacing eye first claimed Carnivine, after looking at Soul in the eye his comrade began to slow before realizing he was turning to stone, with a single swing the statue shattered and the soul was absorbed. Bringing it down to five.

Arbok and wheezing teamed up, taking turns spewing poison based attacks and smog to cover them but it was futile, there was no escape. A well aimed Nightshade left the two withering in agony before he attempted to finish them off. He was interrupted as Wobbuffet attempted to counter with a Bide only to Meowth's horror, be consumed ina colossal Flame Thrower Made of flames that took all three down in the same purple fire leaving nothing but soulless husk's behind. Now there was only two.

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Bloodlust had overtaken Soul, the Basilisk was still very well alive in his head, urging him on to strike at the cat next, oh how it had cheated death countless times. With falls that should of killed him countless times, failed inventions, beatings and even wounds that would be fatal to the cat it had withstood. This one had also harmed his friends, and forced this situation onto himself. The look of sheer fear on the cat's face was exhilarating. The coward was alone now, his comrades having fled or died in the field of combat, all out of tricks and now it was a greedy self serving cat versus a enraged reaper of death, as his prey attempted to flee he whispered menacingly loud and echoing, "No Escape.

Yessss... Strike him! the new side of his mind had spoken, it was a new conscious, completely in tune with his needs as of currently. The Snake had merged with him and as a result had shared in Soul's memories and experience in return granting his power, experience, and most of all his curse. The curse of Medusa's eye. The eye of a cockatrice but stronger, more primal and powerful without the ability to reverse itself. He gave in, Charging at the cat in a gout of purple unholy flames. The flames itself taking the temporary form of a lunging snake's head around him as he charged the cat. Meowth dodged if by barely, ending his movements in a skid he brought up his claws charging up a trick he had learned recently when experimenting with his powers, "Oh ya, lets see how you like this, Thunderbolt!"

With a swing Meowth summoned his arch enemy Pikachu's age old signature attack and threw a bolt of lightning at the Lamp causing a explosion of electricity with tendrils of overcharged electrons spiraling out in every direction, his smirk grew into a frown of disbelief though when he saw the protect bubble around the Chandelier like Pokémon, it hadn't even spoken or moved to activate it. A whistling sound to his right had Meowth instinctively dodge to the side as a arcing fireball exploded where he had been standing moments before. Though the expanding wave of heat that followed after caught him by surprise, igniting him on fire.

Soul watched as the threat screamed, thrashed, and withered in agony as it burned. Soul didn't care, it got what it deserved. He closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the screams as only a insane sadistic hunter would before silencing it with a meaty thud as one of his four smaller appendages clamped down on Meowth's mouth and burnt the soul out of it's former body and consumed it as fuel. It was over, but it was still hungering. More.... The Basilisk's Soul demanded once again. The purple flames of the arena's boundaries fading as he approached the next nearest source of prey... The one's helpless in their cages of metal... Wait.

That wasn't prey it was his friends. But the voice insisted that It was not, it was just more fuel to keep him strong and alive in case another hunter came. Soul resisted, his mind clearing and horror taking form on his face as he realized everything he had just done. How carelessly he had taken the lives of so many and left an enemy to such a grisly burning death before burning away his soul to wander forever. He closed his cursed left eye before his friends could see it, lest they turned to stone. It was harder than it looked to close it but once it was closed he could feel some semblance of influence lessen on his mind. The urge to kill however came as he looked upon his friends with his good eye. He could see every time each had risked their lives, some in fantastic ways as defeating Nightmare moon, or where Soul had helped them with the dragon and Ursa Minor. Others in ways that were much more mundane, an accident of Scissors that could of cut a blood vein, a Scooter Accident that could of broken several a Crusader's necks. Then there was just the plain stupid, risky high diving stunts and attempts to imitate professional fliers at life daring tricks where the slightest error could result in Pegasus pancakes.

Soul reached out, feeling the cage that held Twilight, it was easy enough to melt the bars down, having lacked a key and not wanting to search the wreckage of the battle that had started before. All the guards had fled and tracking down which had a key would of been too time consuming. With a strike of his arm the chains broke giving Twilight full movement of her legs before he noticed the small red device with an image of him on it's screen with two normal eyes and a series of reports listed under it. His eyes widened at that and now he understood the strange look Twilight was giving him, it was the same look that countless trainers had given him in his earlier forms. Looking to his left and right he saw similar looks varying between fixation of his hypnotic flames, mistrust, fear, and shock. The only one not in shock was Fluttershy, having been blindfolded the whole time. Lily and Rose didn't recognize his new body and the instinct of self preservation grew ever stronger. as well as the urge to run. Instead he whispered quietly, "I'm sorry..." and away he fled, leaving Twilight to undo her horn brace and free her friends before she could attack him just as so many trainers before had done upon learning about his family evolution tree from that infernal machine.

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"Where's Soul going Twi?" Applejack asked moments after his departure, "He looks scared stiff, for a... whatever he is."

"I... Don't know..." Twilight muttered quietly, her mind snapping back to the present as she turned away from the rapidly receding purple light, instead focusing on the red machine as she undid the magic halting clamp on her horn, "His... Pokédex entry is contradictory but, this is the top research from his own dimension's primary ruling race. There is no way that he could be a reaper of death, or another Mort, is there?"

"No way egghead," Rainbow assured her, "Soul is no way that kind of guy to be out reaping the recently deceased. Seriously, that guy can't even watch where he's going. Much less reap every-pony who dies in the world."

"Aww, I was going to throw him a Yay-we-got-rescued-by-Soul party." Ironically Pinkie pie was already out of her cage without any help, in her place inside the cage was a rope tied giant rubber ducky.

Twilight shook her head at her friends antics, "Well let's get everypony out of their bindings then, We will head to the castle and ask him ourselves and," she raised a hoof to interrupt Pinkie, "Yes, we will throw a party afterwards."

Though a familiar sound of flapping wings interrupted her attempts as her mentor who was also the princess of the day landed on the ground in front of them, "Hello every pony, did I miss anything?" Celestia asked before promptly getting attacked by a group of Pegasus rebels with Carrot Pies, Feathers, and even a large, inert mass of blue cotton candy.

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Soul had to see her one last time, Song. The filly he had felt a link to, he merely stopped and hovered in, smiling at the sleeping forms of Spike the Dragon and Zecora both on separate couches in the room connected to the bedroom. Quietly he wrote a note explaining his absence and left it on the table, signed. With the same noiseless glide he moved into the room, ignoring the much smaller details of how Song had cheated death and carefully brushing back a strand of hair out from in front of her face. It was adorable for the filly, It was also probably the last time he would see her. He would give her a hug, and tell her goodbye but the flames that now decorated him were unwieldy to his new body so he would probably instead accidently set the room on fire if he tried. Instead he focused the excess power of the Soul's he harvested into his limb for one final gift to the little filly he had the privilege to call his friend. He would leave, only after giving her the ability to see. The problem was so obvious now, only in the form of a long lasting illusion casted on the eyes with a tremendous source of energy, or more precisely the cost of a soul.

The price was minor compared to all that he had taken in his short time in Equestria. Now it was time to go, smiling sadly to himself he left, with no objective in mind of where to go but away. He knew he wasn't going to be welcomed very long anymore anyway. Maybe a change of scenery as he attempted to master the new persistent bloodlust that kept battering at his mind. A tear escaped his good eye, as he waved goodbye to the castle, to his friends, and his bright life as he left for the presumed north. It was goodbye.

Comments

[AggroViking]

oh shit...

[nightmaster0]

Please tell there's going to be a sequel.

[Iridescence T Wind]

2576270 Check my blogs. There is going to be one.

[Iridescence T Wind]

2579211 Ever heard of something called traveling?

Edit: Also someone has to reap the poor rock Pokémon who get massacred there.

[I came I read I felt]

That was a nice ending, but a bit jarring. Not that it wasn't nice or anything; it was very sweet. But the action itself seemed a bit out of the blue to me since there actually wasn't much character development with the various creatures that Soul met in Equestria. Like Red Wood, Steve, Rose, Berry, and Song had nice intros, but ended up a bit flat, just there to further the plot. And while the conflict with Meowth was a nice touch, it seemed to me that the pokemon in general were a bit overpowered compared to the rest of MLP cast. I realize that it was because of the planning and strategy that took place before, but it makes it so all the focus is on Lampent, and the other pokemon, and not the Equestrians. I feel that if the Equestrians were, say, a little bit less affected by the moves, since they weren't from the same universe, or if Twilight had done something with the pokedex to train the rest of the ponies, since, come on, hostile creatures, you have information on them, why not prepare? Lampent and his little gang were the only ones to "act" so to speak; even Celestia and Luna got written off, although I suppose that Arceus is really OP compared to them. And within that gang, Lampent seemed to carry the team, so to speak. Maybe a few more flaws, character flaws, would make it more realisitic. Although I suppose you've set that up quite well with the merging with the basilisk-pony thing. Overall, I liked it, and hope that the next one is even better!

[Iridescence T Wind]

2664277 Twilight would of deemed it unnesscary to inform others about these 'Hostile Creatures' and that the Pokédex itself may be able to tell what moves are being used I have never seen Ash rely on the Pokédex like a TM and teach another Pokémon to do anything. Same concept would apply that you would have to know how to train. While the cast in this particular instance has no real training except the Cutie-Mark Crusaders with Calm Mind. This can be explained though by how Pokémon can teach each other but the Pokedex offers no help in this regard. Twilight however is most likely will be developing combat magic in case of something like this happening again. As before there was no need to study such magic in the 'peaceful' (heavy sarcasm there) land of Equestria. Also snippets of the results after the ending are yet to be seen in the second book that is coming rather soon. (Trying to write the first chapter currently of the second book.) and a new chapter will be posted on here serving as a epilogue and link to the next book. Happy readings to you! and the best of luck!