I only own my OC’s and the plot. ENJOY!
The Adventures of the Elementals
Chapter 39: The Battle of Ponyville (Part 5)
It all seemed to happen so fast that nopony could register what was happening until it was too late to prevent it. Cinders were flying over every rooftop in town threatening to set the buildings ablaze. They were the only things that could escape the massive combination of force field magic and plasma construct shielding to keep the roaring pillar of fire from spreading into the streets. Shining Armor, Twilight, and Gem were all three straining to try and push it back.
The other ponies were all backed into a gap in between a pair of buildings as they tried their best to think. Right now their ally and/or brother was out there in the center of that giant pillar of fire, and he was the sole cause of it. The Equestrians had been told before the dangers of an Alamantian going out of control could do, but to actually be right there near it happening, it was frightening to say the least.
As much as they wanted to stay away from that literal hot mess, now was not the time for something like this to happen. Nightmare Moon was still out there doing Celestia knows what and Princess Luna was knocked out cold. They needed to reel Pyro in.
“What the hay is happenin’ to him?!” Applejack cried, not even daring to poke her nose out from the alley way in fear of it getting burned off her face.
“To sum it up in simple terms, Pyro’s powers have gone one hundred percent out of control.” Gem replied while straining to keep her shield construct up.
Even with the combined force field spells of Twilight and Shining Armor backing her up, Gem had surmised that no shield would be able to hold out forever against the unrestrained power of a godly reincarnation. That only made her even more scared than she already was; remembering who the cause of this was. Pyro was always the strong one. The rock. The calm one. To see him in this state was all too alien for even her brain to comprehend.
“Isn’t there any way we can get him to calm back down?!” Rainbow Dash shouted in search of any answer. “I’m sorry about what happened to your master but Nightmare Moon is still out there!”
“I still can’t believe Nightmare was able to get him.” Cryo suddenly began to grow afraid now. “Of all ponies it had to be Master Ma.”
“Cryo! Snap out of it!” The cyan pegasus shouted to the ice mover. “We can’t think about that right now!”
“Well I can’t help it, Dash! Look around you! None of us can!” The white unicorn angrily gestured to the other ponies behind him.
Not only she, but Applejack followed Cryo’s pointing and they clearly saw what the snow pony was talking about. Typhoon was up against the wall of one of the buildings trying to hold back her tears and steady her frightened breathing. Both hooves were clutched to her head as if somepony was yelling into her ears. Her partner was no help. Seeing Master Ma’s body made Fluttershy see just how real this fight had gotten. They had saved the world twice before this. From Nightmare Moon once before and from Discord. But neither of them ever tried to physically harm anypony. Not like this. This was just a whole new level.
It wasn’t any better with Rarity and Agua. The big blue stallion was grinding his teeth, pounding at the side of the wall. Meanwhile is partner was lying down on the ground. Both of her forelegs were tugging her mane as she tried to get a grasp on what she just saw and what was happening.
Terra’s hard shell had been cracked. The last time Applejack had seen her partner cry was at their welcoming party. When Terra had talked about her late brother, that was the moment she felt she and her partner truly made a connection with how much they value family. Now here she was again with her eyes about to let loose a fresh set of tears.
Pinkie Pie’s mane had deflated down to the point where it was as straight as a smoothed sheet of wood. It wasn’t just seeing Master Ma lying in a puddle of his own blood that made her nearly catatonic. It was the scream she heard come from Pyro right before he unleashed his full uncontrolled power. It was so full of anguish. Packed with despair, sadness, grief, and almost every other negative emotion that had, does, and ever would exist. The party pony didn’t think it was even possible for such a level of negativity to be reached. Yet here she was proven wrong. And by nopony else than the one stallion who actively worked to not show emotion.
Twilight, Gem, and Shining Armor didn’t have the luxury of grieving or feeling sad at all due to them holding the shield up. Applejack and Rainbow Dash both felt they had to save it for a later time. The former approached first. She hated seeing her partner cry the first time, and she wasn’t going to have it now. Standing in front of the sniffling earth mover, she brought a hoof to her face and turned Terra’s head so her red eyes locked with her partner’s green ones.
“Terra, ya gotta listen to me. All y’all gotta listen.” She started. “Ah know. Alright? Ah know how hard it is to lose somepony. Especially right in front of ya. Ah’m sorry about yer master. Ah’m sure he meant a lot to y’all. And Ah want ya to feel sad and grieve fer him ‘cause that’s what yer supposed to do. But Rainbow Dash is right. We can’t.” She stomped her hoof down. “Not now at least.”
The mentioned pegasus came in and hovered by her friend’s side. As she did, Agua had stopped his pounding on the wall and slightly turned his head to listen.
“We can’t think about what just happened. We have to think about what WILL happen if we don’t get back in gear. Nightmare Moon is still out there and I bet you anything she’s gonna use this chance to cause some real damage. And speaking of real damage, we also have to calm Pyro down.”
“And do you have any idea how to do that?”
The question came from the all blue earth stallion who put his hoof back down to the ground and turned around to face the two mares of honestly and loyalty. His face caused the two of them to slightly back away. Both of his eyes had fresh tears running out of them and the scowl he had seemed to burn right through them. For every slow step he took towards them, they backed up in tandem.
“Pyro…..our leader…..has literally become a never ending explosion. The power of Agni is causing that and none of us know how to willingly call upon our own godly power to counter it. So unless either of you have a plan of action ready to go right here and now, I strongly suggest that you two shut. Your damn. Mouths.”
That final word ended with the stallion of water showing all of his angrily grit teeth. His chest was clearly seen going in and out as his angry breathing was heard to all. The two mares just couldn’t understand it. Agua was usually the one who was more than ready to fight. To hear him like this was odd to say the least.
It looked like he was going to say something else to them but an ivory colored hoof on his shoulder stopped him. Turning his head, Agua saw his partner standing there, her own expression not changed at all.
“I know you’re angry.” Rarity muttered. “And I know you’re scared too. But snapping at them isn’t going to help us.”
“Then what do we do?” Terra finally spoke to answer. “We DID have a plan and now it’s completely gone to crap. Master Ma….”
She choked back a sob as she went on.
“…Master Ma is dead. And Pyro’s not going to recover from it so easily.”
“All he ever talked about since we first arrived here years ago, was finding him.” Cryo added on.
“His mind must be an absolute crazyfest right now.” Pinkie Pie voiced her thought.
“Oh eet ees.” Typhoon agreed. “I can hear heem.”
That got everypony’s attention as they turned to her. Even Fluttershy looked up to her partner who was still grasping her head with both hooves.
“Hees mind ees screaming. Eet’s like he’s right next to me yelling eento my ears and I can’t stop heem. I’ve been trying to block eet but he ees too unstable to do so.”
That’s when Twilight took a sharp gasp. An idea just came to her head. Judging by what the psychic pegasus had just said, it was probably crazy, had little to no chance of working, and crazy again.
“Typhoon, I need you to get me inside Pyro’s mind!”
Just like that, Twilight found herself on the receiving end of everypony’s eyesight. Even Shining Armor and Gem looked at her with the same expression as everypony else. Stunned bewilderment. The pony who was being requested to do this deed took a step forward. Her hooves dropped from her head and on the floor again.
“I….I’m sorry, Twilight. But….deed you just say-”
“You heard me! Use your telepathy and put me in Pyro’s head! We can’t help him out here but maybe we can do it in there!”
To the other Equestrians it sounded like it made sense. To try and calm Pyro down from the inside. But the Alamantians, the ponies who actually knew more about what telepathic connections entail thanks to their sister, they thought differently.
“Twilight, eet’s not zat easy!” Typhoon cried trying to convince her. “To dive eento hees mind while eet’s een zis current state, eet’s dangerous! Eet could destroy us! Êtes-vous fou?”
“It’s too risky!” Cryo argued back. “If this is what Pyro is doing here, just imagine what’s going on inside his mind! A place where there are no rules!”
The dangers did seem to outweigh the positives of this plan, but the lavender unicorn was not in a place to care right now.
“If you or anypony else here has a better idea, I’d love to hear it Typhoon!” She cried. “Gem, Shining Armor and I can’t hold up this shield forever! If we don’t do this, then all of Ponyville might be reduced to nothing but ash!”
“But…Twilight eet’s-”
“Do it, Typhoon.”
The pegasus of wind froze when she heard that voice. The voice of her partner. Turning her head, she saw Fluttershy was back on her own hooves now and approaching her fellow reincarnation.
“The risks don’t matter right now. Our home is in jeopardy and you’re the only one who can do what you do. If there’s any chance of calming him down, it’s with your power.”
“But Fluttershy,”
“No buts.” Fluttershy cut her off again. “Please Typhoon. It’s the only idea we have.”
“And probably the only one we’re going to get too.” Shining Armor added on. “I don’t like the idea of Twilight diving into his mind like that but we don’t have any other choice. We have to do it and we have to do it now.”
She was outnumbered here. Taking a sigh, the telepath relented.
“Alright. But zere’s another problem.” She said. “From zis distance I can’t form a stable enough connection for both of our minds to hees.”
As fascinated as she was with Typhoon delving deeper into how her telepathy works, Twilight grew slightly more afraid of this plan because of what that detail entailed.
“So you’re saying….we have to get closer to Pyro?” She hesitated to ask.
“Eef we want zis to work, oui. We do.”
Looking back, all of them saw that huge wall of fire. And now Twilight was just told that she had to walk through it in order for this plan of hers to have any chance at working. She wanted to wrack her brain to try and think of something else but there was no time. Expelling a sigh, she turned to her brother and the plasma mover next to her.
“Do you think you two can handle keeping the flames back on your own?” She asked.
“It’s gonna take some effort but I think we can manage.” Shining Armor replied, grunting as he pushed back on the battling flames.
“But it’s not going to be easy. You’re gonna have to work fast.” Gem answered completely unsure of herself.
“I’ll try.” Twilight’s spell readjusted and a spherical force field formed around her and Typhoon.
“Ohhhhhhhhhh please be careful you two!” Fluttershy cried out.
“We will! Promise!” Typhoon called back to her partner.
“Here we go!”
Twilight’s shield began to lift off the ground, carrying herself and Typhoon inside it. Slowly, she phased through the wall that made up Shining Armor and Gem’s force field and was brought all the way into the roaring fire. Nothing could be seen. No houses, no sky, not even the ground beneath their hooves was visible. There was just fire.
“Which way do we go?!” Twilight asked her guide.
Even though she couldn’t connect to him from this distance, Typhoon could still sense her brother. Meaning she was going to have to play navigator through all these flames.
“He’s zat way!” She pointed her hoof to the left. “Just follow my hoof and go straight ahead!”
Nodding, Twilight began to move the force field in the direction Typhoon told her to go. As se hovered through the burning air, she felt the force of these flames try and push her back but she fought through it. She had no idea fire could even have such a harsh push.
The sound of wood crackling and the whooshing noise the flames naturally made were caught in both mares’ ears. No doubt some of the nearby buildings were caught in Pyro’s out of control blaze. That only made Twilight pick up the pace in moving herself and Typhoon through it all.
It was only a few more seconds before she saw something shining through the fire.
“Typhoon, look!”
Twilight took her turn to point and through the flames Typhoon could make out just what the unicorn was seeing. A pair of glowing eyes. A few meters closer and they heard a new sound. Screaming. It was definitely from their closing target. It broke Twilight’s heart to hear her partner cry out in such pain and agony. She almost wanted to cry with him. Then she broke through one more wall of fire and a few tears did leak out of her eyes upon seeing what she saw.
Pyro was hunched over, crying out as if he were actually being hurt by his own power. Through his screams, tears were leaking out of his eyes and evaporating into steam only seconds afterwards. From multiple spots on his body, his legs, his back, his mane and tail, flames were gushing out of him like an open hydrant and swirling around in a vortex to create the fiery storm that was currently burning away at Ponyville.
“Brother…..”
Typhoon had a hoof up to her mouth, taking in the sight. After all the years she had known Pyro she had only experienced this once before. And back then it was nowhere near as bad as this time. Landing back on the ground, Twilight thought it a good idea to keep the field going at their hooves too. The ground was way too hot to stand on now. They stood atop the magical shield now only mere yards away from the screaming stallion.
Both of them wiped their tears away as they got ready to perform the deed. But first Twilight needed to take a little more insurance. Closing her eyes and gritting her teeth, her horn flashed even brighter than it already was as she poured more magic into the shield around her and her friend. After a few moments, she let loose a sigh in exhaustion and completely shut off her horn. Typhoon gasped in fear thinking the shield was going to drop but strangely, it didn’t.
“I reinforced the force field to self sustain for as long as it could.” Twilight explained through her pants. “But with all of this, it’s only going to last for at most a few minutes.”
“Zen zere’s no time to lose.”
After letting loose a deep breath. Typhoon brought one of her hooves up to Twilight’s head and softly pressed it into her left side.
“Alright. Zis ees eet.” The telepath said nervously. “Pyro’s consciousness ees unstable so be prepared for anything een zere.”
Closing her eyes, Typhoon began to work her own unique power. Her mind began to reach out like a spider stringing a web. Despite the difficulty it was to set up a link, she was able to connect herself and Twilight’s mind to Pyro’s. Now they just had to dive in.
“Here we go, Twilight. Un….”
As the pegasus began to count, Twilight’s breathing began to become irregular. No doubt she was nervous. She had never done anything of this sort before.
“Deux….”
Magical knowhow, she was a wiz at. But to separate her mind from her body and dive into someone else’s, one second away from doing it, absolutely terrified her.
“TRES!”
Typhoon expelled a lot of air through her nose as she concentrated hard to complete the mental connection. Her hoof pressed harder into Twilight’s head and the unicorn took in a shocked gasp feeling the pegasus truly use her power on her. It was by far the weirdest sensation she had ever felt and it was only in an instant. It was like her entire body had fallen asleep at the exact same time. Then her brain felt that only a hundred fold. She couldn’t think at all.
Then everything went dark.