Chapter Forty-Six
Rex
With his second smoke potion covering their front for a moment, Rex quickly raced over to the rest of the pack while Night bounded over the overturned desk to slam his sword into the aether constructed blade that the Nightmare created, blocking the creature’s swing and beginning to force to it backwards.
Once more, Rex found himself lamenting the fact he lacked the means to do anything more effective while the rest of the pack was-
“Hey Rex, do you hear that?” Vix-Lei asked him as she crouched behind the desk as Night flew past them with the Nightmare slashing in the air. Rex tilted his head and looked to see a door with a couple of equines standing on the other side.
Racing down to the door, he saw the Captain General, a few Royal Guards and a tall drone in Guard armour that had to be Memorizing Gaze on the other side.
“Rex the diamond dog,” the Captain General said to him, exuding authority in her voice alone. “Are you five well?”
“As well as we can be,” Rex said as Page flew around Night, creating a shield for him, only for her to spin to the side as the Nightmare went after her with waves of ice shards in the air.
“What are your plans to defeat that creature?” she inquired as she examined the doorway with her horn glowing. “We expect to be through within ten minutes at the very earliest.”
“While we were fleeing your Guards, we travelled to an alternate world where we saw the effects of the Elements purify a mare named Sunset Shimmer,” Rex replied. “These Elements are a set; while five were able to produce a rather… impressive effect, I am positive that it will take all six of them to defeat the Nightmare. Which means we need to find Xvital.”
“Did you say Sunse-” Memorizing began only for the Captain General to interrupt him.
“Ignore the prophecy; we have more pressing matters at hoof,” the mare said before turning to her Royal Guards. “Gather the ahuizotless’s belongings we confiscated; I will be performing a high powerful tracker to fi-GET DOWN!”
Rex dropped to the ground as something smashed into the door.
“Tsk tsk Generosity,” the Nightmare said as it slid up to his side with a hoof raised to smash his face in. “You are neglecting me.” Rex raised his arms in time to deflect the worst of the blow, sliding backwards only for him to crash into something familiarly soft and cozy. Grunting in pain, both Rex and Wind Breaker struggled to get to their feet as the Nightmare began to stalk towards them, wings forming on its sides. “If only you had kept that firearm, you might have had lasted a bit longer. Your kind has yet to scratch the true depth of what - what do they call them again, ah yes, Manechurian Dragons - can do. Not enough to banish me, of course, but with enough force could make me find another host.” It then turned its head towards the Captain General. “But of course you would need to destroy my host first and I doubt regicide is something you can justify.”
The Captain General must have said something that amused the Nightmare because it threw its head back and laughed. “Ah, your loyalty is really touching,” it said as a wave of air smashed Night, Page and Vix-Lei into the wall. “Once I kill these children, I must ask why Balance did not choose you Captains; such a better fit than these failures.”
“We are many things,” Rex grunted. “But failures are not among them!” He smirked, moments before there was a sudden shout, and then something very large and heavy came hurtling towards them.
Vix-Lei
“Hey Nightmare,” Vix-Lei shouted as she stood in front of a toppled filing cabinet with Señor Hardhead in her hands. “Heads up!” she shouted as she smashed the cabinet with her hammer and sent it crashing into the Nightmare’s side.
“You!” the Nightmare roared as it barely managed to raise a shield in time. “I should have just killed you from the start!”
“You’ll find a ’taur like me isn’t so easy to kill!” Vix-Lei taunted it, spinning her hammers. “Come get some!”
A black spear of energy was the Nightmare’s answer, which Vix-Lei narrowly dodged. “Whoa!”
There was a flash, and the Nightmare gawked. “What-”
Another flash, and it hissed as one of its false wings began, impossibly, to bleed.
Wind Breaker
From where he was still laying, Wind Breaker watched as tendrils of shadow shot out and their enemy’s wing began to reattach itself. “Fuck,” he heard Night Blade mutter. “I knew I should have pressed the attack.”
“You should have indeed, Loyalty,” the creature snapped. “You won’t get a second chance.”
Then it lashed out with another spear, impaling Night Blade’s own wing and evoking a cry of pain from him.
“I wonder how long it will take you to bleed out?” it wondered, a malicious smirk spreading out on its face. “Let’s find out, shall we?”
“Oh no ya don’t!” Wind Breaker roared, bringing up his crossbow and firing a shot at the creature possessing their King.
Unfortunately, a wall of shadow rose to deflect the bolt. “Foolish griffon! You’ll never defeat me with that toy!”
“Then how about this one?”
Vix-Lei
Vix-Lei frowned as she watched Night Blade and Wind Breaker making the attacks that she had started. Then, as the Nightmare taunted Wind Breaker about his crossbow, she decided to get its attention. “Then how about this one?”
Pulling something out of her side pouch, she reared back and hurled it at the Nightmare, beaning it on the back of the head and causing it to frown as it picked up the object to examine it.
“A rubber lizard?” it wondered aloud.
Then a desk hit it in the back of the head, exploding on contact.
The creature snarled as it was knocked forward, then lashed out behind itself to attack the minotaur.
It met a massive shield instead.
Page Turner
“My turn,” Page whispered as she faced the monster that had captured them, the fiend responsible for so many deaths… including her great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents, and so many other ponies and changelings.
“You wish to face me in a battle of shields?” the Nightmare laughed. “Don’t be foolish, child… I am so far beyond anything you could-”
It was cut off by a circular disc slamming it in the face. “You may use shields,” Page growled. “But I was born for them!”
“Then let’s see how skilled you really are Kindness,” the Nightmare hissed as it and Page began to circle one another. “Show me you can live up to the name Armor!”
Page answered by launching a multitude of energy shields at their enemy.
“Hah!” The Nightmare gloated. “Really? Is that the best you can do? That was pathetic! Even that fool Shining-”
It was cut off as an even bigger shield smacked it in the face. “Shining Armor was a great stallion,” Page snapped. “And I will not have you disparaging him like that!”
“Shining Armor was a weak-minded slave to emotions who allowed Chrysalis to take advantage of him!” the Nightmare shouted back as it blocked her next energy volley. “He was so eager to hop into bed with her… never once thinking something was wrong about his dear, precious Cadance being so eager to sleep with him before the wedding! And that’s how it all began, you know… if he hadn’t slept with her, Lamella Armor the First wouldn’t have been born… and you wouldn’t be here today! How does that make you feel, knowing how your line came about?”
“Shining Armor wasn’t perfect, but he was family,” Page snarled, deflecting the Nightmare’s next attack. “And as disgusted as I am with what Chrysalis did to him, that’s nothing compared to how utterly I despise you for what you did to everypony!”
“Feel this!” A flock of shadowy bats shot out from the Nightmare’s false wings, and swarmed the domed shield Page had instantly erected. Then, as they slammed against it repeatedly, they exploded.
With a cry of pain as her shield shattered, Page fell to the ground, unmoving.
Wind Breaker
“Page!” Wind Breaker shouted. Without thinking, he fired his crossbow straight at the Nightmare, while Night Blade rushed out to pull the mare he loved to safety.
“Cover me!” the other stallion yelled, and Wind Breaker nodded, leaping into the air with some slight difficulty before he began circling the room from above.
Something flew past his head, and he let out an awk of surprise when he realized it had come from behind him. Then he felt the extra weight on his back, and things suddenly became clear.
“My apologies,” Rex sounded somewhat breathless. “But I needed a better vantage point from which to strike.”
“No problem,” Wind Breaker managed as he continued circling. “You coulda warned me you were going to hop on though.”
“I’ll try to do so in the future,” Rex replied dryly before throwing another of his potion bottles, then took hold of Wind Breaker as the griffon jinked left, avoiding a bolt from the Nightmare.
They continued in this manner for some minutes, Rex throwing his bottles and Wind Breaker adding his own shots periodically, before one of his companion’s smoke bombs hit the Nightmare.
“We need to land!” Rex called from behind him, and Wind Breaker, his talons full of crossbow, nodded. Grunting as Rex squeezed his side tighter, he headed for the ground and found himself next to Vix-Lei who was pressing the rag that blocked out Rex’s smoke. Wind Breaker found himself coughing for air under the sheer thickness of it and he fumbled to get the rag pressed against his beak.
“Damnation; only one of the fire potions that Jeb gave me left…” the diamond dog that was on his back grumbled loudly.
“Fire, fire, fire,” Vix-Lei muttered to herself before breaking out into a massive grin. “Rex, I have a crazy idea.”
“Sometimes, crazy works,” Rex replied. “Tell me.”
Vix-Lei did, and alarmingly, Rex's tail began to wag fiercely while Wind Breaker acted far more reasonable and just gulped at Vix-Lei’s insane plan.
The Nightmare
It hissed and growled as it tried to displace the damnable smoke from the room but Generosity's tricks were confoundingly hard to dispel.
These Elements were beginning to prove themselves a true nuisance and it was beginning to regret not killing them and placing them into that false dream realm to mock the Lady of Dreams for when it reneged on the plan to merge their two Powers into one. Still, Magic was under its control and it could not lo-
Suddenly there were twin bursts of flames and Laughter was charging down at it while screaming a minotaur warcry as both of Laughter’s hammers were on fire.
It knew that Laughter carried a fake hammer and thus one was a decoy to distract it. The NIghtmare eyed the hammers as the minotaur raced towards it and threw one hammer.
The Nightmare instantly deflected it with a shield and sent it into the dragon glass steel windows where the hammer exploded into bits of fluff with thin spider web cracks on the near unbreakable window. The Nightmare froze at this, wondering how strong the minotaur was when it realized it had taken its attention away from Laughter who was now leaping into position to send its real hammer into an uppercut blow using both of its arms to power the swing.
The Nightmare was only able to create a shield at the last second but it was too late as the hammer connected to the chin of its host, causing the Nightmare to fly backwards and crash into the wall as it was forced to quickly heal the broken skull of its host, gasping for air and fighting back actual pain.
Night Blade
Night’s eyes went wide as Vix-Lei managed to send the Nightmare into the wall and seemingly defeat the Power, with the minotaur on the ground and holding her right arm, the broken remains of Señor Hardhead around her.
“Vix-Lei!” Page shouted as she flew down beside her, with Wind Breaker landing beside her and Rex hopping off the griffon’s back. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, totally,” she said in a weak voice, still on the ground and holding her bloody arm. “Just one question, guys; how bad is it to see bone sticking out?” She chuckled as she gripped her right arm right tighter to stem the blood with the white shine of her arm’s bone sticking out. “Just curious as I can’t feel anything and I want to know how badly I should be freaking out right now. ’Cause I think it should be a lot, to be honest.”
“Rest assured Vix-Lei that once we are safe and you are treated, I will inform you then how badly you should be panicking,” Rex said as he looked over the massive injury, clearly at a loss in how to begin.
“Thanks Rexy for always being a comforti-” Vix-Lei began before a roar forced them all backwards.
“ENOUGH!!!” the Nightmare bellowed as it forced them to the ground with its dark tendrils, holding their bodies down but leaving their head up to watch it. “I AM ANCIENT. I HAVE SEEN EMPIRES FALL, CIVILIZATIONS PASS BY AND AGES COME AND GO. I HAVE SEEN THE RISE AND FALL OF COUNTLESS RACES AND I SURVIVED THEM ALL! I WILL NOT BE MOCKED IN THE MANNER ANYMORE! YOU WILL ALL DIE NOW AND YOUR PRECIOUS XVITAL WILL WATCH ALL OF YOU DIE HORRIBLE AGONIZING DEATHS, UNABLE TO SAVE HER FRIENDS!” It screamed at them, raising five swords made out of darkness, stalking towards them. “TIME FOR YOUR ENDLESS SUFFERING TO BEGI” it froze in place, eyes going wide as it snapped its head in such a manner that would have killed a mortal creature. “No,” the Nightmare whispered to itself before screaming out in even greater anger, the room shaking in its outburst. “No, no, NONONONO!!!” The Nightmare whipped its head back, foaming at the mouth with a snarl that held far too many teeth. “THIS IS IT, YOU WILL ALL DIE NOW!” it screamed as it lifted the five swords over each of their necks.
“Hey you,” a voice called out from behind the Nightmare, with a dark bluish-purple hand reaching pull the Nightmare around. “Get the fuck away from my friends,” Xvital said before punching the Nightmare in the face with her glowing violet knuckle buster, a colour that matched the fully restored crown that was the Element of Magic now resting on her head.