Chapter 11: Immovable vs Unstoppable
The whole fortress shook as rampant magic escaped the vault. Discord had barely managed to drag Scootaloo out of harm's way before the entire hallway began to warp and twist.
“What are we going to do?!” Sonata asked in a panic.
“I don't know!” Discord shouted over the noise.
“Can't you do something?!”
Discord wracked his brain, trying to think but came up short.
“Wh-what about her?” Sonata asked, glancing at Scootaloo.
Discord looked at the mare in question. She was groaning and squirming as if caught in the grips of a nightmare, as caustic, green chaos magic danced along her had.
“We need to get her to a doctor,” Discord said.
“I'll take her,” Sonata offered.
Discord's attention snapped to her, eyes wide in disbelief. “The only ones nearby would be with Dawn Shield. You'll be arrested as soon as you show up.”
Sonatas gaze feel. “Maybe they'll go easy on me if I bring her back. Daddy did say ponies are nicer than they were two thousand years ago.”
Discord wanted to say something to stop her, but he knew she was right. She's either going to be arrested now, or live a life on the run. Still, she was the only family he had that actually seemed to care.
“Be safe,” Discord said, eventually. “and tell them I'm going to try to stop this thing.”
“You be safe, too.” Sonata said as she settled Scootaloo onto her back.
“And... if I don't make it, tell Rainbow Dash, thanks for giving me a chance.”
Another wave of chaos magic spewed from the vault, turning the wall opposite the door to worms.
“Get out of here, now!”
Sonata gave a nod before taking off, giving one last look behind. “Don't make me have to keep that promise.”
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Sweetie ran, struggling to hold back her tears. If I find that Sombra... Terrible, disturbing things ran through her head; dark magic and necromancy were a common theme.
As she ran, a powerful burst of energy washed over her from behind, stopping her in her tracks.
Sweetie looked back, eyes darting across the sky, looking for any sign of mana eruptions but saw only a darkening sky.
Acting quickly, she placed Twilight in a nearby dumpster, thankfully only holding dry paper and cardboard, saying, “You'll be safe here. Sorry.” And turned back the way she came and ran.
I shouldn't have left her! she scolded herself. What kind of friend am I, leaving her to die alone?!
With a flash of magic, she teleported herself atop a small office building, hoping to see what was going on.
She expected to see nothing but a crater, half a mile wide.
What she saw, was Applebloom, standing in the center of a massive rune circle, a hundred yards across.
That's not a seal release. That looks like... Sweetie's breath hitched as a spark of hope took root. She recognized it. She had seen it once before.
Instead of storm clouds, though, the earth itself rose up like the hands of some ancient titan to enclose Applebloom in a gigantic stone sphere.
Fenrir leaped back, wary of this strange turn of events, growling.
With a thunderous crack, the stone cocoon shattered, but it was no delicate butterfly that emerged.
Instead, towering over the battlefield was a massive dragon standing on two legs, much like Spike often would. It was broad, covered in scales that looked like some ancient Griffinese armor.
It's face, though, was unlike any dragon she had yet seen. Instead of the long, toothy snout she was familiar with, it was short and had an almost mammalian look to it despite being scaly and furless. He even had three tendrils coming from his chin and upper lip almost like a mustache and beard.
It actually reminded her of herself, a strange cross between dragon and mammal. Even Spike's face still looked more like a typical dragon than this creature despite having a mane.
With a booming voice, the dragon issued, “I am Sekiryu, eldest son of Mina, Lord of Stone,” and drew the long, curved blade from the scabbard at his side.
Then, something happened that Sweetie Belle never saw coming.
Fenrir laughed.
“Finally.” The wolf's voice was deep, more so than even the dragon's, and had a strange, ethereal quality to it, as if speaking through a cheap microphone. “A true battle. I am Fenrir, servant of the Seven Lords of Hell.”
Sekiryu glanced back at Sweetie Belle. “Take your friend and flee, young warrior.”
Sweetie had to admit, it was quite intimidating being addressed by a demigod. Despite that, she shook her head and shouted back, “I can't do that. I need to see that the threat is dealt with. I know the dangers. Don't hold back because of me.”
The dragon held her gaze for a moment before he nodded and turned back to Fenrir.
“Dot,” Sweetie said, getting the attention of her VI. “Maintain video and thaumatic recording and analyze Fenrir.”
“Compliance.”
Sekiryu surged forward at speeds far greater than one would expect from a being of his size. His blade struck with the power and precision of a seasoned fighter, but Fenrir leaped to the side and lunged, teeth bared.
Sekiryu drove his forearm into Fenrir's open jaws. The wolf tried to bite down, but Sekiryu just pressed harder, forcing Fenrir to retreat. He wasn't fast enough, though, as Sekiryu's sword struck him across the face. Sekiryu's victory was not to be, however, as his weapon seemed to merely slide off the wolf's skin.
A readout of various data points scrolled across Sweetie's eyepiece as the two battled. It was too fast for her to read all of it, but one thing caught her attention.
“Dot, what's that reading coming from around Fenrir?” Sweetie asked.
“Analyzing,” Dot replied.
Data points danced along the screen, most of it was too fast for Sweetie to catch, but she was able to get the gist of it.
“I am detecting the presence of quasi-corporeal material around Fenrir,” Dot said. “Energy signatures share similarities to the being Nag-Ta, though this has six other arcane signatures.”
“Nag-Ta?! He’s dead,” Sweetie pointed out.
“Signature seems to be quite ancient,” Dot replied. “It was obviously made long before the encounter with Nag-Ta in the Everfree Region.”
“Can you determine its purpose?”
A crack like thunder echoed across the sky as Fenrir was sent soaring through the air. Sekiryu had swapped out the sword for a long, narrow wooden club with steel studs littering the sides.
“Judging by the way the energy responds to strikes, it seems to be the source of his extreme resilience.”
Fenrir leaped at Sekiryu, but instead of targeting the dragon, he latched onto his weapon. The giant wolf bit down hard, smashing the wood like old balsa.
As the battle raged, Dot’s scans allowed her to start tracing the enchantment on Fenrir. Lines of deep red began crisscrossing his body, twisting and looping as it went.
Sweetie’s eyes narrowed as she scrutinized the magic. “Is it just me, or does that enchantment look almost like... chains.”
“The data suggests it is some kind of quasi physical material holding the enchantments to protect Fenrir while existing between planes of reality.”
“Leaving them out of harm’s way,” Sweetie finished. “We have to tell Sekiryu!”
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
Rainbow Dash took a little time to bind her wings. The adrenalin had prevented her from feeling how painful they were after her flight. Now, though, she had to actively focus past the pain.
It was awkward standing without her wings to help balance, but she could manage. She was really starting to regret not practicing more on her hind legs.
Still, she could move fine and would be able to fight well enough to slice up the mindless beast and the fish-out-of-water.
She moved through the halls, scythes folded at her sides and ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice.
She could hear the crashes from the demon’s pursuit.
Rainbow didn’t know how the seapony lost control of her minion, but she didn’t really care. It was a distraction that would let her dispatch the monster easily, with little fight if any. Then the siren would die.
Slowly.
She ran towards the commotion, listening to the sounds of mare screams and wall breakings.
Eventually, she rounded a corner and saw the glowing demon advancing on a cornered siren.
This was her chance to take out the greater threat.
Rainbow ran across the floor, silently on cushions of air from her air seal.
As she approached, her magic suddenly faltered. Her hooves struck the stone floor with a loud clop.
The demon twisted around, red eyes narrowing at her.
Rainbow’s scythes extended with a metallic shink, as she took a defensive stance. Instead of pouncing, though, the demon turned back toward the cowering seapony.
Rainbow stared dumbfounded for a half second before shaking herself out of it and taking advantage of the monster’s indifference.
She leaped toward the monster, spinning her blades and burying each in the monster. One blade found its head, the other where the neck met the shoulder.
Instead of the beastial roar she expected, however, the monster let out a scream that would be more fitting from a filly.
And then, it exploded in bright, blinding light, that stung Rainbow’s eyes.
“What the hey?!” she cried.
Rainbow’s confusion turned to pure horror as her vision cleared and she was met with the wailing form of Aurora, clutching a bloody stump.
“Aurora!” Rainbow dropped her scythes and rushed to Aurora’s side. “No, no, no! Oh, geeze, no!”
She reached into the satchel under her wing and grabbed a healing potion. She looked at the stump. It was clean and could be saved, but she might not make it to the hospital in time. If she gave Aurora the potion, she would survive, but the leg would heal too much to be restored.
Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth, popped the cork, and stuck the bottle in Aurora’s mouth.
The filly coughed and sputtered as the liquid rushed down her throat, but the effects were quick to take hold. Immediately, she started to calm down as she fell into a deep sleep.
Just as Rainbow let out a sigh of relief, a wicked laugh came from behind her.
“How poetic,” Adagio mocked as she floated behind Rainbow with her scythes on her hooves. “You tried to slay the monster, but maimed a child.”
Adagio swung the scythes in wide, overhead arcs, aiming to finish Rainbow off in one strike.
She was understandably surprised when the ‘helpless’ pegasus erupted in a blast of lightning.
Adagio flew back and, in a moment of deja vu, found herself staring in the glowing eyes of a pony that wished copious amounts of harm on her.
This time, however, it wasn’t the uncontrolled rage of a child with too much power, but the focused fury of a mare with murder on her mind.
Rainbow rose up, held by the pure arcane forces she channeled.
She glared at the siren as arcs of electricity danced across her body.
“You killed Pumpkin!” Rainbow bellowed. “You drove Aurora to that, and you’re the reason I hurt her.”
“It’s not my fault you couldn’t-” what ever she was about to say ended in a blood curdling scream as rainbow grabbed her and forced every bit of electricity she could through Adagio’s body.
Rainbow continued to force lightning, keeping the voltage high and the current low just to ensure the mare suffered as much as possible.
She released her victim briefly. “Oh, don’t you die just yet. I’m going to make you suffer.”
Off and on, Rainbow turned on the electricity, hurt the siren for a bit, then turned it off to let her recover just enough to stay alive a little longer.
When the siren stopped squirming and screaming, she cranked it up, venting all her anger and frustration on one that actually deserved it.
Finally, she released her victim, dropping a blackened chunk of vaguely seapony-shaped charcoal.
Magically spent, she returned to Aurora’s side and collapsed beside her, pulling the filly into her as she considered her options. She couldn’t escort all the foals through the Everfree Forest, but she also couldn’t leave them alone.
All she could do was wait for someone else to find them so the foals could go home, Aurora could get medical attention, and Pumpkin could get a proper funeral.
Until then, all Rainbow could do was let out all the pain and sorrow, with only a sleeping filly to witness her moment of weakness.