Forces of Evil
/^(*vv*)^\
“Are you ready this time?” Yearling asked.
All of them now stood under a street lamp, the light casting four dark voluminous shadows under them. Applejack and Flutterbat nodded.
“You’re sure?” They nodded again. “You’re not going to just jump in with no plan again?”
“Don’t mean to be rude, darling,” Shadow interrupted and pointed behind her. “But the bad guys seem to be starting.”
Everypony turned. They were standing just out of earshot from their quarry, a large abandoned vegetable canning factory. Shadow had led them here, the secret warehouse that Sombra kept his ill-gotten gains and the rest of the idols. Sure enough, this is where he and Ahuizotl had fled to. Now they could hear chanting within, the barest hints of light spilling from the windows and getting stronger by the moment.
“Okay, do or die, I suppose,” Yearling stated.
“Don’t you mean Daring Do or die?” Applejack asked with smirk.
Yearling cast her a glazed look before grinning back. “You got the plan?”
“Eeyup.” Flutterbat nodded as well.
“Then everypony in positions.”
They scattered from the light. Shadow slipping away to her assigned task while Yearling flew to a nearby roof. Flutterbat carried Applejack into the air and began to hover just below the cloud line. The ambient light of the night showed a skylight on the roof of the warehouse and Applejack and Flutterbat were directly overtop it.
Flutterbat felt Applejack squirm in her grip and she looked down. The mare hung her head with a slightly guilty expression. “Look Ah… Ah’m not sure what you went through when we were both out but… Ah saw some things that should have been nothin’ but your business and… Ah’m sorry for that.”
Flutterbat was quiet for a moment then smiled. “Flutterbat know it hurts. Pain. Loved one. Never fade away. We just need be brave. See every day through. Have hope that those we love return.”
Applejack looked up into her eyes and smiled weakly herself. “Thank you.” The clouds above them parted and the light of the moon signaled them to move. Applejack set herself and drew her blade. “Let’s do this.”
---
Meanwhile, in the warehouse, Boss Sombra and Ahuizotl stood around the now completed ritual circle. The cat-monkey priest made strange hand motions while muttering a low chant under his breath. Every now and then he would point to Boss Sombra who would point to a goon who would ring a small triangle. The chalk lines on the ritual circle began to alight and ethereal energy began to pour from the idols into the lines on the floor.
Ahuizotl took a small break from his chanting. “Now we wait for the light of the full moon.”
“Perfect,” Sombra replied, gnashing his cigar in his teeth.
Ahuizotl crooked his eyebrow at the mob boss. “If you don’t mind me asking, why do you wish to perform this ritual? I am delighted to assist, especially after you give me the idols as payment, but what does opening a portal to another world do for you?”
Sombra glared at him, but there was something odd about it. His gaze was full of venom but there hid something deeper in it. Fear. He removed his cigar and shook it to extricate the ash. “You ever have an irrational idea pop into your head? Something so preposterous that your mind tells you it must be real?”
Ahuizotl frowned in thought. “Can’t say I have.”
He placed the cigar back in his teeth and clenched. “There’s something coming. I don’t know what it is but I’m getting out before I start to go crazy. This… dream isn’t gonna get the best of me.”
Ahuizotl’s frown deepened. What kind of dream was he talking about?
Moonlight poured down from the skylight and illuminated the circle. A burst of magic erupted and began to spin in a twister of colors. “It appears it is ready.”
Boss Sombra straightened his jacket and looked into the swirling vortex. “This ends our business.”
“Look up there!” Somepony shouted and both villains looked up. Through the skylight they could see the moon and silhouetted against the moon they could see… “Is that a freaking bat!?”
<___|=o
Applejack and Flutterbat crashed through the skylight, glass raining down on their surprised enemies. She glanced at the swirling vortex and cursed. “Damn, they already got the portal open! Put me down over there!” Flutterbat obliged and let Applejack fall to the floor of the warehouse where a bunch of goons were standing. She pulled her hakama back and let a rope shoot out from her 3-D device, it’s propulsion making her spin in the air. With the spin and the blunt of her blade she clubbed three goons in the head and landed with a flourish.
The rest of the goons seemed to focus on Flutterbat as she flew around unleashing her sonic scream to disarm the gun wielders. Meanwhile, Applejack carved her way to Sombra.
“You again?” Sombra shouted with an angry snarl. “I’ve had enough of this!”
Applejack jumped in the air and prepared to slice at the mob boss, but her sword stopped in midair as a glowing shield appeared between them. She glanced over to Ahuizotl who held his hands in a strange position, muttering incantations under his breath. His mutterings grew louder and he pushed his hands forward, a beam of light erupting from the shield and straight into Applejack sending her flying.
Sombra slapped Ahuizotl’s arms away and glared daggers at him. “I didn’t ask you to defend me!” He turned toward Applejack who was struggling to pull herself out of a busted crate. He cracked his neck and stepped toward her. “I didn’t become the biggest player in the city by letting others play my ball game.” The tip of his cigar was set ablaze and his horn began to glow viciously as he approached.
Ahuizotl rubbed his wrist with a scowl. “Last time I do you a favor for free.” He looked up at the bat Pegasus flying around above. “Hmm, should probably deal with her.”
“Hey, monkeypuss!” He turned in surprise to see a pair of hooves headed directly for him. Without time to react he got hit in the face and stumbled back angrily. When he shook it off a familiar Pegasus in a pail hat stood before him.
“You contemptuous whore!” he shouted, sparks beginning to fly from his fingers. “This is the day I put the great Daring Do in the ground!”
Daring put on her best smile and winked at him. “You’ll have to catch me first, Zotl!” She flipped off to a corner of the warehouse and Ahuizotl abandoned his post by the portal to follow.
Applejack barely got out of the debris in time for a large black hoof to come crashing down on where she once was. Boss Sombra’s hoof stomped the crate and its contents into a fine powder and the concrete floor cracked beneath his strength. Without losing any time he swung his horn at her and she pivoted to avoid it, grappling a nearby pile of crates and shooting up there.
Sombra strode slowly but angrily toward the pile. “Nice little gadget you got there. I’ll be sure to pry it off your cold dead corpse. I’m gonna need some kind of upperhand where I’m going.”
“Yeah, and where’s that?” Applejack asked.
“Another world, sweet cheeks!” Sombra replied. He bowed his head slightly and shot a beam of magic at the pile. Applejack felt the slight vibration beneath her before she jumped off. Immediately spires of rock and concrete sprang from the ground and skewered the boxes she had just been standing on. “And make no mistake, I will get the power I deserve there as well.”
“That sounds like a tall order,” Applejack replied from places he couldn’t see. “Sure you can handle rulin’ two worlds?” He looked around only to find that he had lost track of Applejack. Most of his goons seemed to be down thanks to the cries from that other mare so the part of the warehouse they were now in was oddly quiet and few. His eyes scanned the various hiding places she could be.
“That’s just it, my friend. I’m not coming back here.” Applejack pressed herself into the back of a painting that obscured her from view. She narrowed her eyes in thought as she listened to him talk. “This world is done for, caput! Don’t ask me why I just… No… you would know, wouldn’t you? After all you’re in it.”
Just what was this lunatic spouting about. “A cataclysm is coming. I can feel it in my bones. Every night I keep having the same damn dream and every time I see it. I see you, and your friend. But there are others too. And then there’s a masked mare. I don’t know what she did but it’s something bad.” Applejack could hear him grunt slightly as if he was trying to get rid of a head ache. “So many images. Can’t remember what’s real and what’s a dream. But I’m not crazy! I’m gonna find someplace nice and quiet with unsuspecting ponies and then I’m gonna show them that Boss Sombra shows no mercy. To hell with Boss, I’ll be a King!”
“Not today!” Applejack sliced through the painting and swept her sword in an arc to catch him, but he was gone. But she was sure she heard him right there.
“Too slow, sugar.” She looked up to see Sombra hovering just a few hooves above, his body covered in dark magic. Then he let it go and fell straight for her. She jumped to avoid but despite his small verticality he still slammed into the ground full force, a magic shockwave sending the floor erupting around her and knocking her sword out of her mouth. She skidded to a halt and turned in horror to see Sombra lift her sword with his magic and swing it to test. He gave her a wicked grin. “Bad luck, huh?”
---
Daring Do expertly dodged the attacks from Ahuizotl as he blasted magic at her again and again. Ahuizotl was quickly losing patience and was beginning to show signs of fatigue from using his magic as well. He made a hand motion to a large rolled up carpet next to her and it sprung to life. The top took on the shape of a snakes head and the tassles hissed at her like a tongue.
The tail of the carpet wrapped around her back leg and lifted her in the air. She dangled there unable to fly off or struggle as the carpet snake held her away from it. Ahuizotl strode forward, a victorious look on his face as he pushed his face toward hers. He grabbed her mouth and forced her to look him in the eye.
“Oh, how I have waited for this day,” he chuckled. “You have been a thorn in my side for far too long!”
Daring’s eyes darted behind him and she smiled while her face was squished by his hand. “Oh, I don’t think you mean that literally,” she mumbled.
“Oh, but I do,” Ahuizotl sneered and raised his tail hand to fire a spell at her. Suddenly a sharp pain spread through his hand and he let out a cry. His concentration severed he dropped the spell on the carpet and Daring fell free. Ahuizotl checked his hand and saw that it now had a spear protruding through it. He bared his teeth and turned to his attacker. A fashionable unicorn in a trenchcoat and hat stepped forward and winked saucily at him.
“Not as literally as that, I bet,” she grinned.
Ahuizotl didn’t have time to counter as another pain came to the back of his head, this one making his eyes cross and then falling forward unconscious. Daring stood behind him with a shattered old pot in her hooves.
“I’d have thought you wouldn’t want any of this destroyed,” Shadow said.
Daring wiped her hooves clean and let the pot rubble fall to the ground. “Eh, it was Post Mareabian Reconstruction era at best. No big loss.” Shadow simply continued her grin at her and Daring frowned. “What?”
“I thought the plan was for those two to keep them busy while we alerted the police?”
Daring’s face heated up and she rubbed the back of her head. “Yeah, well. You did that, right?”
“And you just wanted an epic boss fight.”
Daring stared blankly at her and then sighed. “Okay, so this lifestyle can be a bit addictive. Do you see now why I tried to leave it?”
Not far from them the cyclone of magical energy where the portal stood began to waver. “We’d better get those two out of here and get going before the police arrive,” Shadow worried. “You think they took care of Boss Sombra?”
Daring waved a dismissive hoof. “I’m sure they have it under control.”
---
Applejack felt her own sword cut into her arm and she let out a gasp of pain. She didn’t scream though as Sombra marched toward her swinging her blade again and again with sadistic glee. “Do you know why I don’t fight with guns or weapons, kid?” he asked. “It’s because I am the weapon! I started a small gang of thugs and turned it into an empire! And that was when I was ten years old. So right now, you are standing in front of me and my conquering an entire new world. And since most of my useless associates are down for the count, the act of disposing of you falls to me. Which I really don’t have a problem with.”
He slashed again at her and Applejack grabbed a bronze sword from the piles of treasure around her and parried. Sombra didn’t seem surprised as he kept pressing until they were both nose and nose, slight sparks flying from the blades. “Why?” she murmured under her breath as she struggled against him.
“Why what?” Sombra asked.
Applejack narrowed her eyes, already losing her mouth’s grip on the old sword. “Why… are you this way? Why does power mean so much to you? When he…” She trailed off, her mind going to the Sombra from Flutterbat’s memories. She looked into Boss Sombra’s eyes and saw none of the same kindness or decency, just anger and lust for power. But then her mind drifted to her own Sombra. Even his eyes weren’t like this. They were cold and calculating, like a heron preparing to snatch a fish as it passed by its feet. Each one of them, they were different. Differently evil or differently good. But what made them that way?
Boss Sombra grinned at her. “You want to know why I care about power? Ask that sword in your teeth. Ask those piles of gold. Ask the legions of ponies that come at the stomp of my hooves! You can only appreciate power when you’ve had none of it. I was born with nothing and the world never handed out so I took and took.” His grin widened and he pushed a little harder driving Applejack back a bit. “That’s what power is! Taking what you want from the cowards that hold it!”
A loud screech broke both their concentration and Sombra released his grip on the sword. Applejack tumbled forward from the momentum of her push just in time to see Flutterbat careen through the air and sock Boss Sombra right in the jaw. Her strength wasn’t impressive but the force from the speed made Sombra’s face contort and his jaw crack before he was flung head first into a pile of crates. They exploded on impact and coins flew into the air raining lightly down on his now unconscious face.
Applejack looked up agape at Flutterbat who was still panting from flying so fast. She looked down with a worried expression and held out her hoof. Applejack took it and stood up. “Ah… don’t know what to say.” She looked between Sombra and Flutterbat.
The mare looked to Sombra too before glancing down with a pained expression. “Flutterbat… is Flutterbat,” she breathed. She looked up and caught Applejack’s eyes then pressed a hoof to her chest. “Applejack is Applejack.” She looked to Sombra. “Papa is Papa. Nopony else.”
Applejack slowly nodded in recognition, smiling a little at the wisdom of the mare before her.
Suddenly, Yearling flew in front of them looking nervous. “I don’t know if this is another moment between you two but we need to get moving if you want that ride!”
A moment later they were all circled around the vortex. Shadow was already there looking none the worse for wear. “Took you long enough.”
Applejack glanced at the twisting energies and saw that it was beginning to sway. “Can we still use it?”
Yearling nodded and pointed to the runes around the magic circle. “Just keep the image of where you want to be most in heart and step in.” She caught Shadow giving her a bemused smirk. “Or so it says, not that I think there’s anything to all this.”
“A cynic to the end, huh?” Applejack smiled at her. She gave the mare a hug and Yearling reluctantly reciprocated. Flutterbat hugged Shadow who embraced her fondly. “Ah guess this is goodbye.”
“I guess,” Yearling replied. She motioned for Applejack to lean closer and whispered in her ear. “So, just what is your friend anyway.”
Applejack smiled. “She’s Flutterbat. And Ah’m Applejack.” She held out a hoof.
Yearling’s smile increased and she shook it. “Nice meeting you, Applejack.”
She paused a moment, a question bubbling up from the back of her mind. “Hey, you said that this sword,” she motioned to the katana now back in its scabbard, “was called the Ringogatari. That means Story of Apples. What kind of story was it?”
Yearling’s smile faded slightly and she frowned at the ground. “It’s a tragedy. One about two sisters who loved apples. One of them runs away while the other pursues. They meet once more years later under an apple tree and a fight ensues…” she paused as if she didn’t want to continue but Applejack looked on expectantly. “It ends with the death of one of them.” Applejack’s expression did not change but she was quiet. “Did you want to know more?”
“No,” Applejack said. “Ah’m fine with that. Thank you.”
Flutterbat and Shadow finished their goodbyes. Both mares stood at the edge of the magic circle, the swirling portal now quickly losing its consistency. Just then a large sound echoed from the portal making it shift even more. The sound seemed to shake the ground as well, everypony present freezing in place and feeling a shiver down their spine.
“What was that?” Applejack muttered. It felt so familiar.
“I’m not sure, but you better get going!” Shadow shouted over the noise. “I can hear sirens!”
Applejack glanced at Flutterbat who gave her a reassuring smile. She offered her hoof to her and AJ accepted. “So the one place we want to be most, huh?”
She knew that was with her sister. Until they were reunited it would always be that. But right now she was needed elsewhere. She could feel it in her bones. Her friends were in danger and she needed to be there. Fighting every urge and emotion she had, pushing every happy memory with her sister down until even her face became a blur. Applejack stepped forward and into the portal.
@#$%^&*&^%$#@
Something had been bothering Rainbow for a while. Normally when she walked through the garden in the morning, the serenity of stone sculptures and the tranquility of the koi pond would soothe her soul. Needless to say she spent a lot of time here ever since Applejack’s betrayal.
Just the thought of a pony she had known since foalhood abandoning her like that. It filled her with an anger that no amount of meditation could put at ease. Still, she sat before the pond in quiet contemplation as she tied her mane back in its traditional bowknot. She had a duty and she would still see it completed.
She pulled from her belt her two short swords. Applejack had always been partial to her katana since it was forged as a present from her father, but Rainbow had received the other two swords in the set. Daito, katana, Applejack’s. Shoto and tanto, wakazashi and dagger, Rainbow’s. Her father hoped that by splitting the set of these swords that it would bind the two mares as sisters. And he was right for a while. She did eventually come to see her as a sister. Which made it so much harder to hunt her like this.
Rainbow held out the shoto, the middle sword, and unsheathed it, pressing it’s broadside to the sun’s rays. “Tell me where she is,” she whispered to the sword. Silence. This was the same thing again and again, day after day. Before, there was a pull. Rainbow could either mentally or spiritually feel the swords of the set begging to be one again. But not now. Ever since that report from Sukutaru’s squad about her disappearance, Rainbow had feared the worst. Was she truly taken by demons? Was that why the swords didn’t even try to reach out to each other anymore? Despite her enmity, she still saw Applejack as a sister, and in the end wished her no ill will. But she would still have to answer for her crimes. So said Lord Fuji.
“A servant cannot have two masters.” Rainbow spun on her heels and grabbed the sword in her mouth before turning on her interloper. Nopony was allowed in the garden while she was here. The pony before her was blue with glasses and a cheshire grin that reminded her of a story she’d once read.
“This place is forbidden,” she commanded. “Who are you? I don’t recognize you. A thief?”
The pony stayed calm despite her threats and the sword to his throat. “You’d probably recognize my calling card. Look me in the eyes.”
She glared at him but did as suggested, focusing on his eyes. Those yellow eyes. A shiver ran up her back. “The eye. You?” The pony merely shrugged in acknowledgement. She grit her teeth and pressed the sword a little deeper into his skin, surprised not to draw blood. “What are you? A Demon?”
The stallion’s grin diminished and he looked down at the sword. “I can see that I’m not going to get through to you unless I do something you’re not expecting.” With that he walked straight into the blade. Rainbow flinched slightly as her sword passed through his neck and out the other side. When she examined the sword though, it was bloodless. So was the stallion’s neck, that didn’t have a cut on it. “Ready to talk?”
Rainbow drew her sword back but didn’t return it to the scabbard. It would be foolish to go against a yokai you didn’t fully understand. Best to play along for now. “Alright, talk.”
“First let’s get one thing straight, I am no monster or spirit. Nothing as simple as that. Tea?” He offered her a steaming cup and Rainbow accepted it. Then her eyes widened. When did she wind up sitting in her study? The stallion was also now dressed in a fashionable kimono with an eye pattern covering it.
“If you’re not one of those things, then what are you?” she asked, setting the cup aside for now. “Some kind of sorcerer?”
He looked to corner of his vision and puckered his lips in thought. “I suppose that’s an alright approximation. Let’s just say that I have knowledge you and others could find useful. Knowledge like the location of a certain renegade.” He raised an eyebrow to her as he took a sip of tea.
Rainbow tried to hide her surprise and excitement. “Fine, so you know where Applejack is. Why would you help me?”
His ears twitched and his smile became slightly creepier. “Because I recognize a devoted servant when I see one. I simply want you to be rewarded for your efforts.” Rainbow frowned. “You’d forsake your adoptive sister just to follow your lord’s command. Such loyalty must be commended and I’m the kind of stallion who likes to commend ponies on their service. I’m kind of gathering a bunch.”
Rainbow raised a curious eyebrow. “Gathering them for what?”
He waved a hoof. “Never you mind that for now. Do you want to find Applejack or not?”
Rainbow’s eyes narrowed at him and she pulled her sword onto the table. “Gathering them for what?”
The stallion smirked at the blade. His ears twitched once more and his smile faltered. “Really? You want me to tell her?” he whispered though she could still hear him. He seemed to be arguing with himself. But the argument ended when he winced and grabbed his head as if struck by a massive headache. “Okay, all cards on the table then. Settle in. This is going to be one long story.”