Chapter 54 Promo - Spoilers! · 5:20am Aug 4th, 2022
Proofed by Faith-Wolff and Skylark, art by Faith-Wolff
Camp Everfree
Spiraling gravitons and crackling torrents of magic smashed into one another, both emanating from the eyes of either combatant who stood a dozen meters apart. Boreas and Battra Lea’s beam clash created shockwaves that blew back billows of dust, ash, snow, and dirt in a small storm. Even with Boreas as previously damaged as he was, from fighting the likes of Megalon, then Mothra, then Australis, and now Battra; he was still literally and metaphorically kicking with wild abandon. No sense of true pain, no regard for the natural limiters to the body, and no heed to if X’s body got hurt or not meant any sense of caution was cast into the wind.
Even so, the stiff resistance the heroine was giving him combined with the attempted mental attack backfiring thanks to that annoying, pink, puffball meddler meant he now had a very fighting-fit guardian demanding his full attention. Boreas put his back into the attack, lurching forward and amplifying the graviton flow. Lea still managed to hold her ground, the crackling torrents of purple streaming from her eyes struggling but still managing to hold the golden devastation at bay.
And why was this witch from another realm smirking like that?!
Boreas’s current body had the physical force to easily pop a person’s head off, shrug off building-sized explosions, and hit hard enough to fire out energy attacks with that exact amount of force. But for all of its added durability, strengths, and abilities, it didn’t change the fact Monster X’s body was still human. Even with a much tougher constitution, he did not weigh all that much more than was expected and only had two feet to ground himself with.
Which meant he only had marginal stability that instantly crumbled the moment something much heavier hit him. The speeding van Battra had seen coming up behind him did the trick. Forced to maintain the beam lock with his attack coming from his eyes, Boreas hadn’t been able to turn his head to see it coming, as she had.
A few thousand kilograms of automobile T-boned into Boreas from an angle behind him, instantly wrenching him from his footing and throwing him almost a dozen meters from the transferred force. The contesting energy beams were interrupted, and Battra let out a shout as she threw herself full force into the attack the moment Boreas’ onslaught was cut off. The windigo let out an eerie shriek like howling wind, an uncanny cry that should not have been possible with X’s vocal cords, as he was blasted across the grounds of the camp and into the partially frozen lake.
The van, now sporting a roughly Monster X-shaped impact dent in the front, skid to a stop.
Figuring she had to be driving in the right direction when she spotted golden spiraling rays and crackling bursts of purple shooting into the sky, Sunset Shimmer had floored it as safely as she could down the mountain pass from the highway. Partially because of her rush to get there in time, and partially on account of having driven the whole way there.. Very awkwardly.
To compare the inside of the sirens’ van to a clown car would have been a gross understatement. Even with them having dumped out a lot of equipment on the spot just to be sure, it had been a tight squeeze fitting two above-average-human-sized transformed kaiju and six Rainbooms, almost all of whom were now sporting extra bits like magical hooves, horns, and wings, into a model of minivan only meant for four people.
Poor Irys had been clinging to the back of her seat as she had on the first trip, wide-eyed and hanging on to it and Sunset for dear life the entire drive like a scared cat. Sunset grit her teeth, trying to work through Irys’ grip whilst also having half of Applejack’s foot shoved into her side with part of who she thought was Fluttershy’s wing sticking out between the seats.
“ALRIGHT! EVERYONE OUT!” Sunset Shimmer squawked through her grimace.
The frigid water and jagged ice of the lake exploded outwards, erupting into a geyser as Boreas came bursting out of it. Launched into the air, the windigo landed with enough force to dent the ground with a small crater. The Northern Winds howled as they were wiped into a frenzy, exploding forth in multiple waves of frozen air and misery-laden mist to try and get some breathing room from the multiple threats he now detected. It did seem to force the new group to scatter, but he hadn't the time or focus to directly ascertain who they were. He huffed and snarled, chest still smoking from Battra’s attack. Boreas’s eyes started to crackle with golden energy while still trying to get his bearings as to what was upon him now.
Something quickly hit him again when a high-speed blur of blue rushed past him. He briefly caught the glimpse of cyan wings before a thick-heeled shoe came crashing into his cheek. It whirled back around, sprinting in a loop, and came rushing at him from the front. Combat instincts stolen from Praetorian 094 snapped into focus, catching the fist aimed at his groin.
“SORRYIKNOWYOU’REACTUALLYKINDAANICEGUYX,EVENIFYOU’RETERRIFYING!” Rainbow Dash piped out in fast motion as her foot, wrapped in an aura to resemble a hoof, went swinging up between Boreas’ legs; catching him off guard with her speed. The impact was strong enough to send the kaiju’s body, dense and heavy as it was compared to the high schooler, several inches off the ground.
The windigo didn’t register the pain, but the body did, briefly locking up as he stumbled forward and Dash rushed away to come in for another pass. But this time, Boreas had gauged her pace and locked on. He turned with the blow and counterattack, only to have his fist strike a solidified force that barely offered any give.
Rainbow Dash might have lacked complete super strength, but for her legs to be able to withstand the pounding force of sprinting at the speed she was going at there was ample power to be had. And where durability fell short, Rarity was able to compensate by blocking Boreas’ blow. The shimmering energy construct in the shape of a diamond was cracked under the force of the blow, but still managed to stop the hit, the gemstone flying into the irate windigo in a kamikaze run before shattering.
Boreas fumed. He’d always been a creature of personability. Always wanting to isolate and torment. Be it from his own sick pursuit of fulfillment through that isolation or just flat-out lack of experience, he wasn’t used to getting hit from multiple angles. Not alone, and especially not with Harmony’s magic– a wretched taint that, to him, went beyond bordering on toxic– surrounding him with all of these powers.
The presence was suffocating… So it was time to fight fire with ice. There was still some lingering negativity left over from Notus’ demise, and he’d engendered plenty himself. Jumping backwards in a series of great bounds to clear some distance, whilst peppering the general area with quick-fire graviton bursts to get some cover, he drew in the cold and desolation of that which was near him. Northerly gales roared to power, cold mist beginning to encircle the cackling windigo as a means of both shrouding him and collecting his power. He spied a cyan blur zooming across the campground in a wide arc meant to build up speed before swooping around to come at him for another pass. Boreas flashed bloody teeth as the temperature around the campground rapidly plummeted with the roaring storm building up.
He unleashed the galeforce in a continuous burst. The sheer winds, whose strength easily bent the surrounding trees, struck Rainbow Dash at full force, who’d been quick to pursue Boreas and had been about to make contact. She was sent skidding across the ground, grasping her head as the cold bit at her skin and the darkest of thoughts bit into her mind. The frost grew over her coat and body, adhering her to the ground and trying to choke her with dark magic. The magical wings granted to her started to flicker, like they were phasing in and out of existence.
“DASH!” Rarity cried out over the storm, the transformed girl sprinting to her downed friend’s side.
Her horn ignited and a glimmering crystal appeared in front of the floored Dash, blocking some of the wind whilst leaving Rarity exposed to the brunt of the wind shear. It cracked against the force, but another was thrown up only to suffer the same fate. Another still came, Rarity braving the storm to get to her friend’s side. Straining with all the power she had, the Bearer of Generosity used herself as a windshield to take the brunt of the gales that now swooped around her barriers; all in an effort to buy Dash time to get free.
Even through the pain, she still looked at her friend with a smile and frigid tears.
Boreas grinned, focusing on the pair. They might bear the goddess’ blessing, but they were still only frightened little children opposing him. And he’d crushed many of their age, younger and older, in his millennia of life. So what of their life and power? Alone they’d drown in despair and horror, just like he had once almost managed over a decade ago.
Two Elements were in trouble, but two more were right on the heels of the conflict to stop it. A pair of yellow wings beat even against the storm to reach Rainbow Dash and Rarity, carrying another in tandem. Fluttershy helped to push Sunset Shimmer at the two pinned-down Bearers, a grateful Rainbow grabbed onto Sunset’s hand to form a chain linking them with Rarity and Fluttershy.
Rarity strained, trying to pull her friends closer whilst keeping one arm up and constituting the crystal barrier, “I-! Can’t!-.. Keep it!”
The Element of Kindness’ eyes widened and her voice was audible even over the storm as she tried to push Rarity behind cover herself, “Rarity?! You’re hurt!-”
A brief look at Fluttershy’s sympathetically fearful face, even as frost started to build up across it and sting the girl’s teary eyes, was enough motivation to push the Bearer of Generosity further. She grit her teeth and tried to focus. Her gemstone sparked and a second gemstone was created to shield Fluttershy and Sunset Shimmer, the effort clearly taxing her in how she crumbled over. Three sets of hands caught her. Rainbow’s, Fluttershy’s, and overlapping either of theirs, Sunset’s.
The first two, the Bearers of Loyalty and Kindness, were the most affected by the storm. Both from their current condition but also from the hauntings of echoes from years past when they were in a similar situation. Cold without numbness, fear from all around, and pain that bit into the bone.
The North Wind cackled maniacally, amplifying the storm to try and keep any other rescuers at bay for even just a few moments longer. If he could just kill or disable one or two of the brats, he’d be that much more assured.
It was perhaps a piece of poetic chance of hubris, that Boreas was so focused on three souls he had tried so hard to freeze to death once when they were but young girls who stayed behind in an animal shelter. So focused, in fact, that he had forgotten the fourth. All those years ago, there was a “Tree Angel” to save them, the first Bearer of the Element of Empathy. Now, the second Bearer was doing the same.
A red gemstone flaring to life, Sunset Shimmer grabbed onto her friends as her empathic powers worked to project the three’s thoughts to one another, even over the howling storm. It transmitted memories and thoughts between her three friends who also once braved a storm like this, speaking without words and showing with feeling why they were even in that kind of situation. The loyalty in a young Rainbow refusing to evacuate if it meant helping a friend. The generosity from a child-aged Rarity giving up her coat to swaddle a shivering friend. The kindness given by a small Fluttershy in doing all she could to save every critter and friend she could. Every one of them felt it and experienced it through empathy.
The five Bearers from Canterlot High had all been afraid of their fitness for the task before them. If they could be up to par with heroines of another world who were older, wiser, and had been gifted such amazing abilities since birth. They were just five young women in a band. But it was moments of steeled resolve and memory like this, where they might best realize they, too, had been heroes since they were young.
The swell of Harmony’s magic from so many Elements working in tandem re-energized all of them, even without a song to focus it with. Fluttershy’s magical wings erupted outwards and surrounded her compatriots, yellow brilliance physically shielding them from the storm while causing all the ice built up across them to instantly melt.
And no matter how Boreas howled, the power didn’t falter. Instead, Fluttershy’s wings grew even more before snapping outwards. They broke apart, forming into a glittering swarm of light. Boreas wretched from the magic he sensed across the lights as they all took form. Hundreds of butterflies raced through the gales of wind. The legions of magical creations condensed together as they flew forward unabated, coalescing and amassing as a single force.
Boreas’ eyes widened as the yellow, glowing outline of a bear the size of a truck came erupting forward and smashed into him. The magical construct exploded on contact and almost rag-dolled the windigo, canceling out his storm before it could fully get going.
Staggered and sent sprawling into the mists he’d created, the only remnant of his storms reduced to cold air devoid of magic, the irate windigo was offered no reprieve. The girls’ exhibition of power had given the others more than enough time to catch up. Boreas quickly spotted a dark mass rapidly approaching from a different direction than the Elements. Opting to not try magic again but rely on his stolen body, the mass was met with golden torrents of power, the air distorting and particulates floating off the ground from the sheer pressure waves of distorted gravity. The graviton torrents streamed at the three figures rapidly closing in, spurring two sets of hands grabbed onto a pair of arms in the middle of the formation as the fourth held onto them.
Thrown forward by two sets of enhanced strength and the surges of thrust given by the one holding onto her, Irys had tears in her eyes and yet determination in her snarling, fanged, visage. Her eyes glimmered and the shriek she emitted cast a field across her spread arms. The sonic shield resonated and flashed, deflecting off sparks and stray bolts. The graviton torrent split and fractured against the bow of the barrier, Irys’ forward momentum of having been thrown at Boreas helping to keep her from being thrown back. With the gyaos careening closer and closer, Boreas was forced to cut the beams off lest he end up blasting himself. Not for fear of X being harmed, but for concern of being knocked down and ganged up on.
The moment Irys was about to collide with Boreas, and the graviton beams were cut off, the albino silenced her shield and curled herself in a ball. Changed as her body was, Irys was one used to maneuvering whilst airborne, and some abilities carried over. She planted her feet onto Boreas’ chest at the same time the windigo brought his arms up in a memorized guard. The look of pain yet fury on her face was palpable. The smirk on hers was of equal strength when runes flashed across her skin. Very briefly taking on her true power, the gyaos let loose a shockwave of stored-up sound that was beyond deafening in the close-quarters range.
Boreas thrashed, throwing all caution into the wind and causing his powers to fly out of control. Golden energy flew from his optics as the ground was split and torn under the graviton pressure waves. Deafened and dazed, he had no sense of how to aim, and fired off erratically. It left him unable to strike Irys when she kicked away and bounded off him to get some breathing room.
Under the cover of their retreat, however, the follow-up came charging in with no room for respite. One of them was pouncing and whirling through the air, as if spinning, and the other was bounding across the ground with super-charged leaps. Sparking and red hot, Anguirus shrugged off a stray graviton blast that hit him square in the chest, lunging downwards and yanking himself forward with two fistfuls in the ground. Still rotating from an adaptation of the Thunderball, he slammed into Boreas’ legs with enough force to dent the ground and send the superpowered fighter sprawling forward. Anguirus grabbed onto Boreas’ leg with one arm after planting his other into the ground, yanking forward and slamming the windigo flat into the earth and buried several inches into the ground.
Deaf, partially blinded, and knocked limp by the hit, Boreas was still blindly firing the optic blasts when he was wrenched off the ground. Sailing upwards in an arc, with Anguirus still holding his foot, Boreas couldn’t get out of the way from the follow up. The bounding force had closed the distance and Applejack had gotten some good pointers on how to put the extra strength of hers to good use. Last time she and X had clashed, a fist-to-fist lock had left her with a bruised hand. Even with her powers amplified with practice, and the crystalline Element around her neck, her sensei had gotten an idea based on her counterpart.
Applejack planted a foot firmly into the hard packed earth of the campground and fell back on ‘Sensei’ Junior’s instruction. She threw her entire weight to the side to pivot, using one drawn up leg in lieu of a tail to cock back, spun herself around whilst maintaining her momentum, turned around, and nailed Boreas right in the chest with a mule-kick. The magical aura approximating a hoof that wrapped around her foot struck home with a shockwave, blasting the air from Boreas’ lungs and sending the windigo careening through the air before crashing into the ground a dozen meters away.
No sooner than when he hit the ground did the earth, itself, seem to attack Boreas. The ground, gripped in a purple aura of telekinesis, was separated to swallow the windigo’s body up to the waist. Twilight’s hands shimmered with an identical hue of colors as she struggled to try and hold down even more of the thrashing windigo. Considering Boreas was acting in a full adrenaline drive, with next to no regard to whether he overexerted and harmed Monster X’s body, it was commendable she was managing to hold even part of him still with half frozen dirt.
Boreas’ eyes flashed yellow as he snarled, taking aim at the wretch holding him down. He knew he couldn’t let himself get pinned down going up against so many opponents at once, especially given he lacked his previous storm’s cover. The young princess’s own eyes widened as the flare of golden energy, larger than most prior blasts, came exploding from Boreas’ glare.
A hand was placed on Twilight’s left shoulder, before another did the same on her right. Crackling rays of purple intercepted Boreas’ optic blasts, Lea’s prism blasts holding them back in a beam lock. Optic blasts overpowered and held away the manic throes of the windigo, long enough for the rest of the group to close the distance and mass together upon him. The powerhouses of the ground were the ones to get into melee range.
"Hold his head away!" Anguirus grunted whilst blocking a haymaker thrown in a blind rage, absorbing much of the hit and grabbing the limb to keep it restrained in a deadlock of his own grip.
"Keep him from hurting X's body more!" a white blur spoke for Irys' as she pounced onto the other writhing arm, latching onto it with both of her arms whilst wrapping her legs around it. The combination of her jerking all her limbs down and weight pulled the limb to the ground fully.
“Just like last time! Get ready to purge 'em!” Applejack darted around the pair and grabbed onto Boreas’ head by the chin and neck, getting behind him and forcing the manic windigo’s face upwards as to deflect away any chance at optic blasts.
“Purge him?!” Lea shouted back as she perked up, “You fought another of these things already?! You can get the windigo out of him?!”
“Fought and destroyed, ambushed us right after you left,” Twilight yelped as she tried to keep her focus and assist in keeping Boreas pinned down via telekinesis, “B-But we’d need a siren’s magic to get them out of X’s body!”
“We’ll have to try, Princess! He’s not staying down!” Anguirus roared in retort.
“But- We don’t have Adagio or Aria here! Where’s Sonata?!” Twilight Sparkle shouted as the other Bearers formed up beside her, the alicorn taking special notice of just how devastated the campground was with a wary eye cast specifically to Sonata’s cabin. There had been some hope Lea had been successful until whatever happened here happened to change her, as Sonata was most certainly in no condition to sing when she left; but the full realization of something horrible having happened was biting at her.
The cabin represented that reality, completely destroyed with claw marks obvious on some of the destroyed timbers. A panicked grimace was shot to Lea, who seemed to be experimenting to see if any of her former sealing, barrier, or useful spellwork might still be functional.
Picking up on the grimness of the alicorn’s frown, and her own failure to get her seals to work again, Battra Lea looked aside painfully whilst still stubbornly trying to get anything besides optic blasts to work. “She has transformed into a windigo and ran off! Megalon and Pinkie went after her-”
“PINKIE WAS HERE?!” Fluttershy, of all people, belted out as her magical wings shot up and out in surprise that was similarly etched across every other one of the Rainbooms.
That momentary bout of dread, shock, and confusion was enough for the winds to kick up once more. Northern frigid gales started to intensify and Boreas let out an otherworldly shriek from a bygone time. He managed to wrench the arm Anguirus was holding down upwards, causing the Guardian Beast to stagger and bash into Applejack. Boreas’ head jerked upwards and forwards, trying to get free of the grip enough to take aim as horrific, golden torrents spewed from his eyes and bisected several distant trees.
Lea didn’t have time to explain everything and wasted no heed, rushing forward to put her only other asset, enhanced strength, to use. Shoving one hand under Boreas’ chin to further force it back and the other onto his arm to wrench it down, she put everything she had into keeping him physically locked down and restrained alongside Irys, Anguirus, and Applejack.
“We can’t hold him down forever and Aria isn’t back yet!” Irys cried out, wincing from the bits of frost starting to creep up her arms from points of contact with X’s body. Her pink eyes directly locked upon Twilight, the closest thing they had to a siren on hand, “Eventide, you’re our best shot!”
Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Sunset Shimmer all formed up in Twilight’s midst, the alicorn’s mind working at a mile a second. There were so many moving parts flying around right now. Her heart was seizing up in dreadful worry for both Pinkie and Megalon being in such a situation as they were in, and writhing just as much for Sonata. The poor girl hadn’t asked for or deserved any of this and the phantom sensations of the promise Sparkle had given her to help were painfully brought to the forefront. And how was she supposed to substitute for a siren?! She’d been with them for a time, yes, but she’d only recently really gotten a grasp on her magic again in this world! They-They needed Aria! Or Adagio!- Sonata was- and she couldn’t step up to do-
Her pulse was racing, but slowed on contact. One of her hands was taken by radiating golden light, the other by a warming blaze of red. Fluttershy and Sunset didn’t convey some grandiose speech as they took her into their steadying presence, that wasn’t needed. Not with their power being conveyed as it was.
They were missing Aria on account of her going to reclaim Adagio and Gigan with Godzilla, with the rest of the group having rushed to Everfree the moment they saw the explosions and light show. Enough to hear Gigan's brief ascension to his true form and declaration that spurred the evacuation. There were a lot of moving parts right now and they did not have all of the pieces. So, they'd just have to make the best of what they could do.
Aria's song had purged Notus out of Flash Sentry, so maybe something similar would work for her? Twilight had practiced alongside the sirens vigorously, and her talent was being a quick study of magic after all! The gemstone, this world's version of the Element of Magic, flooded her with power and presence that was bolstered by her friends. She felt just as emboldened and empowered as when she had first activated the Elements back in Equestria.
Was the power the exact same? Could she actually replicate siren or mermare song magic despite not being one?...
-No time to question; it’s nothing ventured, nothing gained!-
Twilight Sparkle braced, feeling like two halves to a whole with the Element. The inherent talent and calling of the bearer being one part that was complemented and accentuated by the physical talisman. If her counterpart in this world was also potentially worthy of the Element of Magic, that inherent magical tether might have been the exact reason Zephyrus had preyed on it.
“Applejack! Get him right between you and me!” Twilight called out as she started to hone her focus, joining hands with the rest of her fellow present Elements, “This world’s power likes to link up between Elements, get him into the crossfire!”
Lea nodded to her alongside her friends, as did Anguirus, Irys, and Applejack as the latter positioned herself directly behind Boreas to act as the path of least resistance for the magic spell. Boreas thrashed and snarled, trying to free himself as the northern winds howled in fury but not in victory. As powerful as his new body was, it had been worn down and overwhelmed. Restrained and unable to fight those pinning him down, he nevertheless continued thrashing to try and get free as the winds howled.
Twilight honed her focus, tethered to the others via Sunset Shimmer. She could feel all of them, and they, her, transmitting the message on how she might need their help to try and replicate the proper magic. Imperfect as he was, X was a good soul and that meant acting as a sort of unwilling buffer against the Elements if they just went to turn their power loose on Boreas wholesale like they had on Notus once Aria had purged him from Flash’s body. This hinged on her tapping into the full power of the Element of Magic, and using her skill and self to the best extent she could muster.
A slow hum seeped from her heart, beginning to take shape into song in her breath in emulation of the melody Adagio and Aria had so taught her; passed down from another princess of a bygone era. The Element of Magic upon her neck started to flicker with life, its fellow Elements embodied in her own group beginning to synchronize with it in similar fashion. She was the epicenter of it, the linchpin. Funneling every scrap of magic donated to her by her friends, funneled through her own voice and then cast to the last remaining Bearer in close proximity in Applejack.
Boreas screamed in rage, feeling the magic begin to activate. Red mist started to channel out of almost everyone present and into Twilight, collecting and taking aim right at him. He recognized the melody, and felt nothing but disgust and spite. Despite everything he had done to her, horrors unspeakable, that sea witch Hymnia seemed poised to have the last laugh.
Twilight's song, an echo of Hymnia's own evil purging spell, was a ballad aimed upon the victimized X. Love could take many different forms and while she most certainly was not romantically attached to X, the Princess of Friendship did have a bond with him nonetheless as an honorable soldier. Even in the beginning, when she offered herself up to spare her friends, she knew he never meant lasting harm against them and would keep his word. Even as an enemy at the time, it was respectable. And upon finding his motivation was out of love and protectiveness, they did quickly become amicable.
Had he been one of the initial six kaiju who arrived in Equestria, she very easily could've seen him becoming a fast friend. And she would not be a benevolent heroine if she let such a soul, wayward as it was, be bastardized like this. She would not let Boreas have her friend.
The salvo of magic was let loose, one laden with benevolence and the blessings of the goddess unknown to both alicorn princess now, and mermare princess a millennia ago. But even as part of it flew towards the possessed X with the intention of linking up with Applejack, two things went unnoticed.
The first was that a very significant portion of the magic instead flew backwards, away from Twilight and away from camp. There was another Bearer it sought, one who needed the help.
The oncoming mass of cleansing magic very likely could have purged Boreas from X's body, reaching into his heart and playing upon the platonic bond of respect and friendship that had formed between the wayward dragon knight and magical royal. It would poison the well, forcing Boreas out just as Notus had from Sentry's body... if the mind within the body was of Monster X to have such a heart.
Instead, held captive by Boreas, the mind of someone who knew and had bonded with Twilight Sparkle, Eventide Hymn, was not present. The lack of bond and lack of tether afforded some protection. It was a shortcoming nobody could have predicted, no one present having seen what Gigan saw within the Memory Stone to have relayed the information. They knew of the memory loss and the fractured mind, but not in the way it was divided now.
Still, the magic was commendable and certainly could have done something severe even if the initial impact of benevolence's poisonous presence upon the frost demon was slightly diluted. Had a western gale not joined the northern howls of wind.
Cold fingers grabbed onto Twilight’s necklace and she only briefly glimpsed the source when she turned her head. In one instant she was forced to look upon the very visage of horror cast in her own likeness. Eyes with burst blood vessels sustaining them red glaring at her through manically contracted pupils, extreme agony conveyed through the bursting dark magic erupting from her eyes and neck. Bits of frost and ice gouging out through the skin. And the disheveled hair was swaying in the air and half frozen in a wild frenzy.
Just doing this nearly caused everything they'd gambled on to fail. Every scrap of stolen power, every bit of experience, every piece of latent magic used to just hold up for an instant before being destroyed. Then in an instant, the nearly deceased was replaced by ice in the exact same shape.
The Bearers fell backwards from a shockwave, Irys and Anguirus' mouths dropped in surprise and horror, Applejack cried out as the jolts of magic from her friends being blasted back and their spell being cut off conducted into herself, Lea tried to loose a blast of energy at the intruder but only struct the now exploding ice sculpture.
Boreas grinned through bloody lips even as the explosion of magic from the equal and opposite ends of that magic born of clashing deities shuddered the entire campground. His captors managed to maintain their hold on him, but he didn't need to get free. He'd stalled for time long enough for the backup plan.
A voice of Twilight Sparkle gasped and she staggered, black, tarry blood oozing onto the ground with a cough; but someone decidedly not Twilight of any world looked back up at the assembled heroes with manic and deranged eyes. Zephrus forced himself to grin wildly, still smoking from the magical eruption of getting too close to the Elements. Had they not the meat-shield of a body to inhabit to resist the blast for even a moment, that act alone would have killed them.
The real Twilight Sparkle, knocked off her feet and trying to get up; looked on in horror as she realized something was missing.
“.. NO! NO NO!” She flailed, clawing at her neck and bringing up only a broken necklace tie that Gloriosa had fashioned for her out of a vine. She looked up to see it in the taunted grip of her vile doppelganger.
Zephyrus tisked mockingly even as their body convulsed and spasmed just from holding onto what they were. Shaking their head whilst wiggling the Element of Magic crystal in his grip. The Element shocked and conducted into them, causing a scream of agony. The windigo backpedaled as their eyes were flooded with the telltale, ghostly white of dark magic and the stolen siren necklace flared with power. The Element's glow flickered and dimmed, not going out but the resistance faltering. Leaking tarry ichor from their eyes and lips, Zephyrus heaved. Their eye was drawn to it knowingly and Twilight tried to kick her feet under herself as a means to rise.
“NO! DON’T!” Twilight screamed, reaching out for the Element as she began to run forward. An attempt to use telekinesis again was lukewarm at best, as having the crystal so violently ripped away so suddenly at her power on the fritz.
Others had already joined in the effort after realizing what had happened. A cyan blur was beginning to speed forward, amethyst energy was summoning crystals, a purple pair of prism beams lanced forward, and just about anyone who wasn't preoccupied holding down a windigo-possessed kaiju was charging forward.
And yet Zephyrus was not moved nor intimidated. There was a supposition one might make that all of the ice demons other than himself were too insane, crazy, or otherwise psychotic in some means or another to make an actual plan. But the truth was, as good as Zephyrus himself was at planning, there was no amount of misery he’d want to miss out on long-term; he was just as much of a sadist. This plan of his hinged on several pieces falling into place where they needed to, but in what order and how many pieces came to use was free to fate with a lot of wiggle room in between.
Three windigos wouldn't be enough as it was, especially after the battle with the goddess and her Pillars, then the Retainer that left the three remaining windigos much weaker than they were at their peak. Only one of them was at full strength, and he had been sealed away. For the massive storm across entire worlds, many more were needed. And be it by converting their daughters he'd arranged the siring of for such a purpose, or by bringing back his equal and opposite number denied to them so long ago, there were multiple paths to reach that conclusion. But, all good plans were just as much about denying your enemy victory as they were enriching yourself.
The Elements and their Bearers were probably the greatest threat to them out of anything. That's why he had sought their demise several times now when it was doable. And with the Retainer having done her duty to give them these nasty talismans, denial was the name of the game now.
Twilight Sparkle, this world's foolish girl, would not last long doing this. Her body would be torn apart from the strain. But, Zephyrus had never planned on using her long-term anyways. They just needed her power for a little bit longer, and there was a perfect way to also keep these pesky Elements from being as big of a problem as they could've been. Two birds with one stone, if this worked and didn’t rip both of them apart instantly...
The screaming was other worldly. It was a rare moment Zephyrus actually felt pain, let alone meaningful damage. The Element was fighting him with everything it had, even with the overpowering he'd given it earlier. Trying to stab through the comatose, dormant mind of the young girl he'd bastardized into using as a scapegoat and shield. It was a surreal experience as the agony clouded out any other physical sensation.
Zephyrus had lived long. Extremely long. Even he didn't know quite how much, other than it had been long enough to see mountain ranges change in size and shape. And all of it was flashing before his eyes.
The the downfall of one era, whether it was his purpose for being created or if he'd been reformatted from a prior entity he could not be sure. Times abyss was too long.
The shocks and convulsions caused black tar to erupt from the fissures across the arm holding onto the Element of Magic. It was killing him.
A call to arms. His weakest brother Notus had been summoned forth, and in turn brought out the second weakest of their number. But when Boreas hadn't been enough, the second strongest had entered the fray. Zephyrus could remember the amethyst eyes from the bearded unicorn the goddess had rallied alongside his fellows to face the windigos.
Otherworldly wailing, Sci-Twi's damaged body smashed into a hunk of debris and very briefly, the outline of an antlered figure seemed to burst out of her skin and shriek. Sonata's stolen gem, having siphoned magic for weeks and having been cultivated by the oldest dark magic user in existence; was rapidly being depleted trying to wear down the Element. Both were flickering on and off, warring as the Element tried to purge the corruption in the latter.
Zephyrus was dying. There was no doubt of it. The only question was, which would yield first. If he had a life and will to live for even a second more, or the will of the Element?
In some ways, the Western Wind never thought of themselves as a living thing. He'd never felt true compassion, joy, kinship, or the other mannerisms that emulated these Elements. Satisfaction only ever came from affirmation, be it of self or conquest. What irony it was, that only when it was flashing before his eyes and possibly because his essence was being infected by Harmony's magic; that he'd ever really thought himself as something alive and not an animate purpose.
If he was going to die, he'd fight for his life that remained. He'd killed an Element before.
Zephyrus stabbed themselves at the base of the neck with the Element of Magic and absorbed every ounce of magic that could be wrenched from it. Twilight Sparkle's body, inhabited by a monster of Grogar and infused with the magic of Harmony; would tear itself apart in about an hour from the contrasting energy and would take him with it. But, what was left of her soul and ambient magic would be fuel for his effort even if it was his last.
The western wind shot up into the air. The explosion of magic radically reshaped the form. Initially similar to what Aria and Gigan had fought, an additional dark magic wing exploded out of the malformed, icy one to complete a pair with the other.
Twilight’s body grew in height and size, icy constructs twisting around her limbs into more orderly shapes in the manner of bracers and cloven-hooved boots. A crown of frozen antlers erupted from her head, as dark aether encircled the malfested’s eyes. Pure black was all that appeared in their gaze initially, broken in span only by the flickering-on of dim, dead, blue light for pupils. Dark attire of dim violets and frigid icicles made up her garb, which alongside the antlered crown gave her the appearance of a dark echo of a sovereign. Unlike prior attempts, this Frostbite was mostly based on Twilight's power magnified; owing much of its more orderly appearance as much to the amplified magic of the girl as it was to Zephyrus losing much of his own powers.
This was all or nothing.
Frostbite Sparkle’s eyes turned about to face the still restrained Boreas and they extended a hand to them. The Element of Magic, flashing rapidly as if horrified by what was subjugating its power, dimmed as a darkening covered it. Sonata's gem, spent, was entirely blacked out and frozen over. He'd traded one power set for another and at a dire cost. This energy was going to kill him, he so he'd make due. Several circles of spinning energy formed over Frostbite Sparkle’s extended hand and arms, rotating in opposite and increasingly quick directions.
Multiple millennia of experience and time, and he had likely less than an hour left to use this power. Let his final acts be of spite for his worst of enemies. The goddess of creation, and the bearers of amethyst eyes.
This would be his masterpiece, or a dying failure. And if it was the latter, he'd live it up and try to take as many as he could with him!
But fortunately, for all of his losses in the stolen siren magic and diminishment of his own powers, family had given him a few ideas on how to make use of the exaggerated form of Twilight's abilities.
“Such a dear daughter of mine, giving me a wonderful idea!" Frostbite Sparkle, Zephyrus, smirked as they copied what Adagio had done to Gigan, sharing magic and power.
Lea's eyes widened in horror at realizing what Zephyrus was about to do and she dove in front of Boreas just as the lance of magic shot free from the Windigo of the East's hand and towards the Windigo of the North. A flash and burst of white graviton beams into her back caught her and everyone else off guard and managed to blast her out of the way.
Boreas puffed out his chest as he accepted the magical infusion. The spell flux Zephyrus fired into them wasn’t dark magic, and frankly, that made it agonizing to endure. But, endure it he did, before cracking a bloodthirsty grin beneath blinding lights from his eyes. A pillar of light overtook Camp Everfree as Anguirus, Irys, Lea, and Applejack were thrown off.
Boreas could feel the sudden flood of power, morphing his body into a mass and strength of a god only eclipsed by he and his three brothers' creator. Subtle visions and flashes of a bygone time, some chapter in the life of his daughter's choice in mate, greeted him. Of a similar infusion, an ascension that combined the remnant power of something called a Plasma Spark and the ichor of a horrific dragon with the body of a mortal man, an otherwise insignificant soldier. All for the purpose of trying to save a whole world, an empire of multiple worlds, but with a spouse first and foremost in their thoughts.
It was just about the extent of memory that remained in this body, and knowing it was a noble soul he had bastardized the form of, hijacking it made the victory only sweeter. As twin tails slashed through the air, cracking like whips.
Zephyrus finally let himself revel in success and loosed a victorious laugh, launching off the shoulder of the now kaiju sized Boreas and taking to the air on dark wings. The powers of Twilight were still the key to enacting this plan of his, but having your remaining compatriot be tall as a mountain with more than enough force to level one was certainly a huge plus.
The rising enormity blocked out the setting sun, casting a tall shadow with twin tails upon the assembled until practically all that remained of the campground was swallowed up.
The force of the laughter, gusting free from jaws the size of a bus was deafening; and the magnitude of the stomp that followed rattled bone and threw everyone back with the shock wave. Western and Northern winds billowed and coiled around the pillar of darkness the titan emerged from, leaving the ebony skinned monster clad in bone armor to tower over the campgrounds. The winged demoness hovered above Boreas' head shot into the air amidst the growing blizzard swirling above, giving the execution order to the meddlers that had proven so troublesome thus far. Laughter cast in Monster X's gargantuan voice rattled the airspace for miles, brilliance overtaking his eyes. Within a second's notice, a torrent of gravitons, cast in an eerie deathly white instead of their typical gold, flew straight down at the small crowd.
Irys, Anguirus, and Lea all called out; both for the defense of their fellows for what they knew was coming, and to try and counter it. Magic was brought to bear and aimed, a strong testament the Bearers managed that considering the death staring the heroes right in the face. Cabins and foundations were instantly vaporized or shattered when the graviton flares made contact with the center of the campground, the resulting pressure waves and burning heat rocketing forward. Camp Everfree was entirely destroyed to the bedrock, with the resulting crater rapidly growing.
Anguirus felt his body surge with magic even as he struggled to keep standing from the pressure wave beginning to impact his skin. Battra Lea squinted and had to cover her face whilst light flooded her body. Irys shrieked when the shock wave and heat hit her, losing her footing and being blown back until Anguirus and Lea caught her by the arms. Elemental magic flooded their bodies, but the impact was dealt before it had time to fully be absorbed and kick off the transformation. A second more and the larger wave would strike. They could survive it due to the transformation kicking in to even the playing field, but they'd be blasted backwards and leave nothing to protect those behind them. The very keys to the Windigos' defeat would be vulnerable to massacre by a monster of a bygone era possessing the body of a monster from another world.
But as he lost his footing and was thrown backwards, Anguirus glimpsed something. Or rather, someone he'd seen only once prior.
Burning light and pressure waves pushed forth harder and harder as the microscopic fractions of a second ticked by. Gloriosa Daisy ran in front of the group of Bearers. It was a foolish gambit. No more powers, no skills, no defense, and she was still bleeding out from her injury. There was nothing she could do against a human-sized kaiju, much less a true-to-form one, as a mere human without any magic. She could only draw Boreas’ attention to divert his aim slightly, the windigo lusting for death all the same no matter who it was. They’d all die within moments, so what did it matter in what order and how quickly?
And yet Gloriosa put on a brave face and still looked back at the group whilst her arms were spread to try and absorb as much of the explosion as possible. Hair blown back by the shock wave that slammed into her, simple tears running down cheeks that bore a brave smile. She looked at the shocked kaiju, the Bearers of the Elements, and beyond to two not present on the battlefield that had destroyed her home. Adagio and Gigan, she prayed they were safe.
She’d given up the Elements to the rightful Bearers. She’d help organize a peace between factions against a foe which fed on strife. She wasn’t some destined heroine to save the world, but the safeguard to enable them to save the world. And she got to meet a lot of great people, a wayward sorceress and cyborg most of all.
If this was how the story ended, she could take pride in that.
Gloriosa Daisy never stopped smiling bravely as she took the hit and the light overtook her.
Pillars of purple light ripped through the blizzard; with a streak of green joining them to part the icy gales.
There was a sound like the very thing that drew Gloriosa to the Elements in the first place; during another conflict in the wilds involving the dragon knight from the stars. She heard the sound of wind chimes.
When a light overtook everything in her vision, Gloriosa Daisy was fairly certain she was dead. If she was, this wasn’t a bad feeling necessarily. Initially, there was nothing, which also meant nothing bad; but that which there was no word to describe but ‘nothing’ soon became something. There was a sense of standing on terra firma, a grassy span that seemed to stretch on into infinity under a pure white sky. A hilltop overlooking a beautiful verdant forest, and at its precipice was the most beautiful tree Gloriosa had ever laid her eyes upon. A brilliant, shimmering, span that seemed to approximate the shape of an oak tree, but was instead cast out of crystal instead of wood and leaf. And upon the branches, seven jewels of various shapes and colors glowed like heavenly stars brought to the world. She recognized the sequence of colors, starting with magenta and ending in red. The hues of a rainbow; the seven Elements of Harmony.
Others joined her presence, flanking either side like they were forming a procession. Some tall, some short, forming every descriptor and description; all united in how she couldn’t clearly make out if they were flora or fauna. Many of them had the appearance of plant life in all of its forms chiefly, only approximating a human shape but not perfectly embodying it.
So many hands had bore a title and power, and yet almost all of them had departed themselves from humanity eventually while doing so. Living entirely in nature and for their calling. It wasn’t the wish of the Elements themselves for them to do this, but the mantle of the Retainer tended to seek out the isolated or lost in hopes of giving them a calling. To let them be ever free and find their happiness on their own whilst keeping the secret. That was, until several decades ago.
A mass of flowers stood up from the hilltop, in the midst of the collected assembly. Like a small hill rising, it ascended before sharply turning aside. The mattress of flowers and seeds composing the floral cloak broke apart and floated across the breeze in a cascading glow, the dew droplets across each petal creating a shimmering display as they reflected the light of the brilliant tree. The dazzling display obscured her vision briefly, and yet she could feel a familiar presence even before she had a clear line of sight. Glowing green eyes, a gaze she very briefly witnessed as a child on a fateful night, stared back at her warmly with fondness of a parental love that touched at the heart. The last time she had seen those eyes like that was the night she lost her mother. And it was perhaps now, to the strange twists and turns of fate her life had taken to get to this point, in the company of sirens, the chosen of the angelic, and the titans of the stars; Gloriosa finally realized something.
In some ways, her mother had never left her.
Wysteria's spirit stood before her, her form was eerily beautiful as it was recognizable to her daughter. Wysteria had been the first Gaea Everfree called upon that didn't find peace in solitude. She had kept her bonds and proceeded to only make new ones. She kept no secrets from her spouse and that led to her successor being closer to her than any had before. Had she not marched into an unwinnable battle she still triumphed over, the passage of the mantle would have been done in a way never before seen.
Gloriosa sobbed and laughed as she smiled, fully aware of what had probably happened to her body, throwing herself in front of a kaiju attack even whilst already bleeding out. If this was the last thing she got to see before going out in to whatever might be next or not, then her crazy life was worth living.
Wysteria mutually embraced her daughter as the other Gaea, the Pillars, and representations of any who held the goddess’ blessing in some form or another across the centuries drew in to close ranks. At the notion of Gloriosa’s demise, the last Gaea Everfree kissed her daughter's forehead and ruffled her hair as she would do if her child had acted silly tracking dirt into the cabin again. Gloriosa was acting foolish again, because there were two things Gloriosa soon realized.
Rushing into unwinnable situations for a shot at triumph regardless? Managing to pull out a miracle when fate rewarded such heroism?
Like mother, like daughter.
The intensity of the white light increased and Gloriosa heard the sound of wind chimes from the tree. The light changed from white to green.
“No…I killed you,” Zephyrus whispered with widened eyes as he hovered far above, wings beating steadily against the brewing storm.
The swirling masses of white gravitons, crackling like thousands of thunderbolts, were stopped mid-flight. The forest itself seemingly had sprung up for defense. Every tree in the nearby square mile had abruptly bent in words and sacrificed their structure and root work to create a barrier. A mesh weave of timbers with green magic amassed across it as a shield. Zephyrus was forced backwards in a haste as Boreas, in his stolen titanic body, screamed an enraged roar of hatred, disgust, and fear at who he saw through the woodwork.
Zephyrus and Boreas saw a dead woman, an echo from one of the worst defeats they had ever suffered. With not a single Element on her neck, Gaea Everfree smirked as she held up the shield.
The assembled Element Bearers' crystals had flared to life with a brilliance unseen before, creating a rainbow of glowing masses that instantly melted all of the assembled ice and burned away at parts of Frostbite Sparkle's dark magic form. Anyone present could instantly feel the amount of magic and benevolence therein magnified from what it was before.
What had been originally intended as a retainer to help safeguard and distribute the artifacts to the chosen had evolved. The process started when Wysteria befriended the lonely goddess and proved herself worthy of a heroic trait thereunto unknown. And by being fully willing to give up the first taste of power she ever had, and act well outside of the originally intended parameters to help bring peace between conflicting factions, Gloriosa Daisy had continued and added to that legacy of the Everfree. If the forces of evil were going to break the originally intended rules of engagement by unleashing horrors from a bygone time on this world, Harmony saw no reason why originally intended rules couldn't be bent for her side either. She’d just been looking as much for the right time to make her move as she was owning up to a promise the goddess had made to a fallen friend.
In some ways, she was reminded of how Bagan had been the one to talk to her about intervening more often; but she saw this very much as a choice she’d been sure of for a while all to her own regardless of if the other deity had any influence on this. She stepped in indirectly with Wysteria for heroic reasons, and Gloriosa had truly proven to be her mother’s successor.
“NO! NO! N̶O̷!̸ N̵͕̓O̶̞͝!̶̞́ N̷͖̩͔̒O̵̧͕͉̚!̸̞̜̿͆” Zephyrus screamed in pain as they recoiled through the air and nearly plummeted from the sky.
Massive wings broke their fall by exploding outwards and beating the whipping gales. He tried to activate the temporal distortion, freeze the flow of space and time to move back from what was causing his body to convulse. The siren necklace, previously drawn upon for the multitude of power it had drained away, flickered but refused to glow to strength. Instead, sparks and purple energy was emanating from their chest with their epicenter at the stolen Element. Zephyrus stifled a shriek, feeling an agonizing burning on their collar from the stolen Element of Magic that was actually causing their body to steam and smoke.
And yet, their bloodshot dark eyes were more hyper focused on the repowered Element Bearers and Gaea Everfree. Finally taking notice of the scalding they were getting from their own power source, Zephyrus grabbed at their throat and concentrated everything they had in their malefic power to stifle the uprising from the stolen magic. It took flying quite a distance away from the Bearers and Gaea to do it, but they did manage to very painfully refreeze the top of their chest as a form of shielding.
Light burst from the formation of heroes, three pillars erupting into the sky as a trio of titans began to take form. Between it and feeling his grip on this body tearing at the seams from being too close to the other Elements and Gaea, their tether trying to link up with what was stolen to purge him from the body, Zephyrus was privy to how on the clock they were.
They had to have four windigos for this to work to its fullest.
"WE DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS! BOREAS!” Zephyrus called out.
The possessed kaiju reignited their eyes with flashes of gold and forced the heroes to rapidly act. Another barrier was put up, this time reinforced with Rarity's crystal projections with the other Elements concentrating their magic into both her and Gaea. Even just doing this on the fly, their powers seem to work perfectly together in tandem.
The graviton torrent was blocked with a blinding flash, but preparations at a counter attack were abruptly canceled. When the flash of light along with the pillars of ascension cleared, three kaiju stood in the midst of the heroines whilst both windigo were gone. In their place was what looked like a tear in the air itself. A brief glimpse of the city of Canterlot was visible, Flim and Flam’s musical shop’s storefront visibly beginning to freeze over before an enormous foot matching Monster X's abruptly stomped down in front of the perspective. The portal slammed shut and there was nothing left, as the winds died down and relocated to another place.
god, this arc just don't wanna end, huh
with the rate of updates, i may just be able to catch the end of the story when i'm on my deathbed
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Alright, dude, while I have some misgivings about this teaser, Tarb has confirmed multiple times that this is going to be the final chapter of this arc. So knock it off.
Well I’m hyped for this chapter
This last chapter for the arc is going to be a blast
Oh this should be Fun.
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i did not have this info
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It was at the end of the previous chapter.
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which was several months ago
my memory is shit too
I'm going to recap to catch up again xd
Pumped for this chapter. I do feel that this promo may have revealed a little too much, but that's just my opinion.
If promo material can give me, for a lack of a better term, chills, it means the actual chapter is going to be the BOMB!
Let's a go!!!
Everyone wonders what's going on in this Arc but they have not noticed something..
How the hell did the EQG humans not notice by now
Also very hyped for this
The main story has finally returned let's get it
I can't wait for the finale to finally come out!!!
Time for Boreas to get his wannabe-Kurgan ass handed to him.