//------------------------------//
// Chapter 51 - Welcome to the Madhouse 
// Story: The Cosmic King 
// by Theyellowninja13 
//------------------------------//

"You can call me.... Insanity."

Malicious growled and charged at Insanity, getting ready to obliterate the teen regardless of a small appearance change. Insanity just stood there, spreading his arms out preparing to take the punch. As expected, Malicious's dual Cosmic Powered punch connected with Insanity's chest, turning him into a fine blood mist.

Malicious stopped the second he processed this fact. "What the?" Suddenly the blood mist reformed into Insanity and decked Malicious in the schnoz, snapping his head back as well as shattering Insanity's fist.

Insanity landed on the ground, tripped over some rubble in time to avoid Malicious's follow-up punch, and accidentally kicked him in the chin, making Malicious bite his tongue. Malicious snarled and took a defensive stance against Insanity, who's hand was quickly reforming, chunks of flesh zooming over to the skeletal appendage and knitting themselves together over the bones like a glove. "You're definitely not Connor. You enjoy pain, don't you? And instead of having impressive strength, you use most of your energy in regeneration. Meaning I can't keep you down for long. But despite not being Connor, you're still him. I've studied that brat for decades. I know he'd never allow himself to not have a weakness someone can exploit to prevent him from being corrupted by his power."

Insanity casually turned around, his infuriating smile still on his face. "Well congratulations! You're still incredibly smart and observant! You should go on a game show. Use that intelligence for something useful. It's not like you're good at getting revenge." He replied simply. Malicious roared, and charged forward at lightning fast speeds, with even faster missiles exploding around Insanity. But to Malicious's surprise, Insanity caught each and every missile in his chest, allowing them to blow him to rapidly reforming chunks, while Malicious grabbed the combined torso and head and slammed him through countless walls, eventually landing in what looked to be a royal bedroom that hasn't been used in centuries. As Malicious looked around in surprise while Insanity reformed with the smile on his face, he saw pictures of a young alicorn mare posing with Connor, and sometimes Celestia were positioned in various frames across the room. He picked up one picture of Connor, Luna and the mystery mare as a young baby, that was placed on a dresser, and the picture was crumpled up, stained with tears and torn at some edges. The side with Luna appeared to have been torn off countless times with tape keeping it together.

"Who is this mare? She looks familiar..." Malicious said, before remembering his sworn enemy, who was finished regenerating, and upon glancing at the picture and the room they were in, lost his smile for a brief second. This didn't go unnoticed by Malicious, who quickly figured out the cause and was formulating a plan to get past Insanity's regeneration capabilities. But he needed to test something first. He stuck the picture out, and showed it to Insanity. "Who is this? You clearly care for her. Both you and Luna. Perhaps this is your daughter?" The smile flickered. Malicious mentally activated one of his weapons, which was preparing to fire. He just needed to stall. "I don't remember ever meeting her. She probably died before I arrived in this universe." Insanity clenched his fists in anger, causing blood to drip from his left hand, and his smile faded for a little longer than a second, with a slight wince from the pain of the cut. The smile quickly reformed, and the hand was healed.

'Just a little bit more.' Malicious thought. "She did die, didn't she? Shame that everyone and everything you get close to either dies or disappears. You lost your home and family. You lost your best friends. You lost your humanity. You lost your mind. You lost your daughter. You're gonna lose your wife soon as well. I'll make sure of it." Insanity's smile fell again, just long enough for a large missile to blast through the walls of the castle, making it's way at lightning fast speeds to the room they were in. The moment it burst through the walls to the bedroom, Malicious deactivated the explosives in it, allowing the rubble from the walls breaking to smack Insanity in the side of the head, disorienting him for just long enough to allow the missile, now a fast moving, nearly indestructible metal rod, to smash into the side of Insanity's head. The impact caused Insanity's eyes to spin like a slot machine, with a number of various symbols appearing and disappearing.

The symbols went by too fast to be seen, but it eventually stopped on a symbol of red-hot fire.





"CON-MPH!" I grabbed the stupid blue horse's mouth in time to stop her yell before we attracted attention to ourselves. No way we can stand a chance against Malicious at this point. I can only hope that Connor will finally actually do something for once and stop holding himself back out of boredom. We watch as Connor was thrown into the wall again, fell down clutching his head. Malicious walked up to him, and suddenly Connor started smiling. Not his normal 'hiding depression' smile that he normally gives to divert attention to what he obviously feeling, but a smile of pure madness, one that seeks pain. One of insanity.

"Crap." I mutter to myself, watching the transformation continue, still restraining this blue one to keep her quiet. The white one was too shocked by what we were seeing to say anything. Connor started screaming, his appearance changing, becoming pale, with pinprick bloodshot eyes, and a smile that causes his face to bleed.

"What's happening?" The white one asked.

"I'm not quite sure. But If I had to wager, it was the blows to his head that Malicious gave him. Malicious might have smacked Connor enough that he changed personalities. From Connor to his inner madness, I think." I responded, listening carefully to what this 'Insanity' Connor was saying.

"Personalities? As in plural?" Whitey asked.

"Yeah. I always figured he had several. He's been through a lot in his life, even before becoming a god. His mind wouldn't be able to handle it and started cracking, forming personalities to shove the trauma and other things on. This 'Insanity' is just what he says he is. The madness of Connor, a person who was killed, brought back to life, given godly powers and responsibilities, ripped from his home, family and friends, and never been able to get back. I'm assuming this isn't the only personality he has though." If he has an Insane personality, I'd imagine he'd have one for anger and sorrow as well. 

We watch as Insanity is instantly turned into a blood mist, before reforming and breaking his fist against Malicious's face. But despite the incredible pain he's going through, he's keeping the smile on his face as if he enjoys.... pain....

"Oh my Hiroshima." I face-palm, just now realizing something. "Insanity is the entirety of Connor's godly healing factor. Combined with Connor's insane masochism would make Insanity strive to receive, despite the fact he'll regenerate from anything. Malicious won't stand a chance in this battle of endurance." I look back over to see parts of Insanity being thrown through the walls. I turn to the two alicorn and gesture them to stay quiet and quickly follow me.

Running through the debris of the collapsing castle, I safely maneuver these two horses through to the battle. I hear the talking of Malicious getting louder, and knew we were close. But before I can get a view of what was happening, I heard a crack from above, and my instincts kicked in, causing me to flip around to face the confused princesses, and push them out of the way in time to grab the large flaming chunk of ceiling that would have turned the weakened pony princesses into pony pancakes.

Unfortunately, my body is still more charcoal than muscle and skin, and my powers aren't much, with most of them being burnt up in my anger earlier. So with a loud crack, my bones start breaking. I fall to one knee, my body not giving up yet. If Connor can hold out despite everything, SO CAN I! I force the entirety of my strength into my body, and start to push upwards on the stone. I notice it feeling easier and easier until I can practically feel nothing at all crushing me. Man, not giving up actually does work well. I let my face bleed as I managed to crack a small smile.

Until I realize that the ponies are holding it with their magic and let the stone drop to the floor. My smile fades into a snarl. "I had it on my own."

The white one speaks up. "Even if you did, which I doubt in your weakened state, we need you to conserve your strength. Working together, you and Connor might be able to stop Malicious."

"Well..." I was about to argue with her even more, when a huge explosion came from the room Insanity and Malicious were in, turning a good portion of the castle into dust. I shamble over to see a new form of Connor, and anyone who saw it could tell the personality that it was.

This time, Connor's hair was standing up, wreathed in flames with electricity jumping in between the hair. His eyes were literally just fire and his clothes had a dark red shade to them. Lightning was jumping off of him, burning everything it could.

This was definitely Connor's Anger.

And I feel like I'm being ripped off here. I'm the guy who's hair turns into fire and stuff.





Before Malicious even has a chance to respond, 'Anger' punched him so hard the next layer of his armor blasted off into the walls. Now Malicious looks more Iron Man-sized. Anger reared back for another punch, when Malicious dodged it, watching in terror as a huge portion of the castle was destroyed in an instant from the force of his punch.

It was obvious in that one moment, that if Malicious got hit by another one of those punches, there wouldn't be anything left to fit in a vial. Luckily for him, Anger contained the strength, not the speed, so Malicious is going to have to go on the defensive and take pot shots to get him to switch personalities.

'Crap crap crap crap!' Malicious thought, as he quickly nailed Anger in the temple, resulting in the same sound of a hammer striking titanium. 'Not only is he incredibly strong, but he has incredible defense.' Malicious side-stepped another punch with ease. 'But he's lacking in speed. That's my advantage.'

As Anger was pulling his fist back from the punch, Malicious grabbed his head with one hand, and repeatedly punched him in the temples, eventually getting the sound of denting before he had to dodge another punch.

Malicious went back in, getting a small tearing sound from punching Anger's head, before he realized Anger was going to kick his legs, and he managed to jump back in time for the kick to collide with the floor, causing a quarter of the castle to separate, falling off the mountain.

Anger stumbled under the debris falling on him and Malicious pressed on this, getting enough punches to reduce Anger's defense to near nothing, and sending a final punch into Anger's skull, blasting him back into the parts of the castle that were still standing.

'Connor' landed in a kitchen, quickly standing up as his appearance turned almost back to normal, but this time his eyes were glowing silver, and his body was giving off almost no presence. As if he didn't want to show his cards to the enemy. His eyes flashed around the room and he quickly rearranged all the pots and pans and other cooking ware, without any clear reason why he's doing this.

The second he finished, Malicious burst into the room, noticing 'Connor's' new appearance. "You changed again." 'Connor' was silent. "What? No stupid remark? Nothing? Are you his inability to speak or something?" 'Connor' stayed silent. "Doesn't matter. I'll destroy you anyways." With a roar, Malicious charged forward, about to punch 'Connor,' causing the castle to shake from the force of his power.

Right before Malicious could hit the teenager, a pot covered in purple energy fell from a cupboard high up, hitting Malicious's hand and diverting the punch just enough to pass harmlessly an atom's distance from 'Connor's' head. Malicious was shocked, noticing the purple glow, expecting it to have been controlled by 'Connor,' only to see that his face had a bored expression on it, as if he kept hearing the exact same joke over and over again and it was no long funny.

Malicious snarled and went to punch 'Connor,' again, but a purple-energy covered pan that was almost falling off a shelf until Malicious shook the castle again fell off and was right in front of 'Connor's' face as Malicious's fist collided with it and all the force of the punch went into the pan which just disintegrated.

Having enough of these events, Malicious rapidly threw punches at 'Connor' with each punch being deflected or blocked by conveniently placed dishes that fell. After a minute of failures, Malicious slid back, and glared at the god. "WHAT ARE YOU?!" He yelled, getting frustrated.

'Connor' sighed. "You want to know?" He said in a soft voice that commanded power. "I'm the Gamer. I'm Serious. I'm Wisdom. I'm Foresight. I'm the culmination of Connor's various abilities and traits that involve strategy. I can see the future. I know exactly everything that will happen. I placed all the pots and pans in this room so they would block your attacks, meaning I don't have to do anything. You can call me Strategy, if you so choose to. I know just about everything." He stared Malicious straight in the eyes, past the visor on the helmet, going as far as Malicious' very soul. "I know exactly how you're going down."

Malicious didn't say anything for a second, his hands trembling. "I don't care that you can see what I'm going to do. I DON'T CARE! I MUST DEFEAT YOU!!!! I WILL GET BACK HOME!!!" He charged forward faster than ever, but Strategy was suddenly behind him. Malicious spun on his heel, his fist moving to collide with Strategy's face. But Strategy just tilted his head to the left, causing the attack to miss. Malicious then tried to sweep Strategy's legs from under him, only for the god to appear behind him again.

This went on for several minutes, Malicious would attack, and Strategy would avoid the attack the instant Malicious began to move. Eventually it seemed Malicious was about to get a punch in, when the entirety of the armor on his right arm just fell to perfectly constructed pieces, leaving his right arm exposed down to the combat suit Malicious was wearing. Malicious stumbled back, panicking at the loss of one of his most important armor pieces, trying to figure out what happened.

The sound of several small metal objects hitting the floor rapidly got the doctor's attention, and he looked over to see Strategy dropping several dozen tiny screws onto the ground. 'No...' Malicious paled at the thought of what he was up against. 'He removed the screws from my armor during my attacks. I need to get him to change quickly. I won't stand much longer against this one.'

Keeping his eyes on Strategy, Malicious reached for a panel that extended out of his right hip, grabbing a small silver sphere. He watched as Strategy sighed, and took a deep breath, right as Malicious threw the bomb with his exposed hand right at the feet of Strategy. Strategy looked at it and looked back up at Malicious just in time to say one last thing. "Just like predicted."

The sphere quickly sprayed a yellow mist everywhere, causing Strategy to start coughing as the smell of rotten eggs filled his nose. He fell to one knee, allowing Malicious to quickly rush over, and slam his left powered fist into the top of his head, smashing him down through the floors of the castle, and even through the ground for dozens of miles until he fell into a large underground facility, filled with advanced machinery the world has never seen.

Connor collapsed against the floor, looking around at the familiar creations he made. He locked eyes with the most important thing in his existence, a large gate, inactive, but being powered by nearly limitless supplies of every kind of energy imaginable. Malicious landed on the ground in front of him, and pulled the teen up by his hair, before noticing that he was looking at something.

Malicious turned, and saw the large gate, a smile forming on his face. "Is that what I think it is? A Forced Interdimensional Cosmic Gate?! I'm guessing that it's your attempt at getting back to your world. Let's see if I can make you feel how I felt when you denied me travel home." He pointed his arm at it, and began to charge up a beam.

"NO!" Connor shouted, kicking Malicious' arm upwards, so the beam of Dual Cosmic Energy launched up thousands of miles, destroying even more of the castle, and leaving a sizable hole in the moon. Connor quickly pulled himself away from Malicious and stood in between the scientist and the portal. "I won't let you. I WON'T LET YOU! COMPUTERS! ACTIVATE DEFENSE SYSTEM OMEGA!" The sterile white facility glowed red with danger alarms as millions of turrets pelted Malicious with billions of Cosmic Energy blasts a second, but Malicious destroyed them all with a flick of his wrist, along with a large part of the facility.

"What's the matter? Run out of personalities?" Malicious mocked, walking closer to Connor and the gate.

"No." Connor chuckled. "I've got plenty more, but I managed to grab a hold of myself before Depression or Cyber took control. And you definitely wouldn't want Cosmic to be the one you fight." He looked back at Malicious in time to get slapped across the facility and into several machines, creating several explosions. Malicious took this time to quickly fire a blast at the gate, blowing up the machinery and causing the gate to begin collapsing. "NO!" Connor yelled, rushing over, trying to use all his waning strength to support the gate and prevent it's collapse. "I'm so close! I can't start all over again!"

Connor was too focused on the gate to notice Malicious fire an energy lance straight through Connor's regular leg, making him stumble and allowing the gate to collapse on top of him. Time slowed for Connor, who watched as the only device that could take him back home was falling around him.

"No..."

"No..."

Tears built up in Connor's eyes, as he sobbed in the middle of the wreckage of his life's work.

"No..."

'What do you fight for?' A voice spoke in Connor's head. It sounded very familiar but he couldn't recognize it at the moment.

'I fight for this country and those who live.... here....' Connor responded almost automatically, before he realized how big of a lie it was.

'What do you fight for?' It spoke again.

'I fight to protect my loved ones.' He responded, before shaking his head. 'No... I don't. I can't feel love... I don't fight for friendship. I don't fight to protect my family... What do I fight for?' This realization made him cry even more.

'What do you fight for?' It asked one more time.

'Don't give up hope.' The voice of an old friend rang through Connor's head. 'You're strong Connor! You've survived worse than this!'

Connor's eyes blinked with realization. 'I fight... for myself. I fight to continue living and one day find a way home! I FIGHT TO SEE MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS AGAIN!!! I FIGHT FOR YOU DISTAN!!' He yelled into his subconscious.

'You are worthy.'

'Worthy of wh....' Connor didn't even get to finish his sentence before he felt something unlock in his soul.

Suddenly, Connor's entire body flashed with thousands of different colored lights, as he began to stand up, and was looking at his Cosmic Form's arms, which were looking more and more different by the second. More energy was escaping from his form shaped like wisps of Cosmic energy, giving his appearance a much more ethereal look, as the stars his body showed glowed brighter and were bigger. His eyes glowed their golden color even more than usual. Several spikes made of a darker and more solid looking Cosmic Energy shot out of the top of his head, pointing up, making it look somewhat like a crown, with an countable number of small universes floating around in the crown.

Then Connor heard a ticking sound above his head. He looked up and saw big large white numbers above his head, showing the number .001%, the exact same level of power Connor has access to. But then it started going up. Slowly at first, but it sped up. It went to .002%, then .003%, then kept on getting faster and faster until it stopped on .1%.

As it went up in numbers, Connor felt like he was pulling more and more power from the universe, feeling a hundred times stronger than before. He looked at himself in shock as the numbers faded away. "Did I just... get a power boost?"

Malicious snapped out of his stupor and prepared for battle again. "Power boost or not. I'm going to kill you." Connor looked at Malicious, remembering that he was there, before his face took on a neutral expression. And then instantly started running at Malicious, fist pulled back, ready to punch him. "Bring it." Malicious smirked as he pulled his own left fist back, ready to turn Connor's head into dust with a single punch filled with more energy than all the attacks before.

Connor got to Malicious, and Malicious slammed his fist into Connor's face, hearing a loud cracking noise, and smiling with glee. Unfortunately, he realized too late that Connor didn't even flinch from the punch and was already moving his punch to the Dual Cosmic Energies container. Before his punch could even collide with Malicious, the scientist's armored arm began to have cracks along it, as the metal instantly indented, imitating an accordion as it instantly pulverized the arm trapped inside.

Malicious didn't even have time to scream in pain as the punch from Connor collided with his armored chest, instantly destroying the armor and energy core, and sent Malicious flying through the ceiling of the facility, crashing back into the castle, and eventually stopping miles above the castle. Connor instantly appeared above Malicious, and slammed his hands into his spine, sending him crashing into the city of Canterlot, destroying most of the buildings.

Connor landed in front of Malicious, and was about to finish it, when Malicious's shattered spine snapped back into it's normal position with a glow of purple and red energy. "You didn't..." Connor growled.

Malicious just started to laugh as he stood up, getting into a fighting pose in his combat suit, which was basically all black with silver stripes, and lines of energy glowing both purple and red. The suit resembled something like a skin-tight body suit, but with more padding. "That's right. All throughout the time I was wearing the suit, I was exposing myself to more and more energy from the core, absorbing it into my own body. That's why the suit was getting weaker and weaker, I was getting stronger and stronger. I may not have the same kind of powers you and Murphy have, but I can still fight you."

Not believing his power, Connor appeared in front of Malicious, and gave the scientist a back slap to the face, only to receive a kick to the stomach in return. Connor quickly retreated, as he caught his breath. He looked at Malicious, who had a slap mark across his face, and was rubbing his now sore neck. Quickly getting into a fighting pose, Connor knew this was going to be one hell of a fight.