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// Chapter Eight 
// Story: Redux: Life In A New World 
// by Tohshi 
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I woke to Olympia’s cries. She sat next to me in the room we found ourselves in. I couldn’t remember how we had ended up here but I quickly picked Olympia up and cradled her next to me. She was covered in dirt and even with my attempts to comfort her she still cried. It took feeding her to get her cries to die down. I felt sore everywhere and I couldn’t help the shakes that held my form and made holding Olympia hard and terrifying at the same time.

The room was a mess as almost everything had been torn out of the place. The door to the place had even been ripped from its hinges and in its place was a large stallion who from the smell of it was rotting. I couldn’t see any wounds on the zombie though and worry built in me as I fed Olympia as best I could. At least she could have one more meal from me. I waited watching the door and windows for Grogar to show up and demand another beast. What had he done to my third child the one I hadn’t seen yet? I felt broken and battered everywhere and I couldn’t help but scream when the zombie stallion guarding the door turned to look at me. I threw up not being able to stomach the sight of his rotten face. I turned away from the door but couldn’t get away from my own vomit.

Despite the smell I eventually faded into sleep. Nightmares plagued me but only for a moment as Luna quickly dispersed them but left my dream in tack I could feel her magic pouring through me. It only took her a moment before she disappeared from my dream and I felt the nightmares eating away at her protection. Of the face and of Grogar. I couldn’t escape them. Then something shook me awake.

The whole world shook as something slammed into the ground. The zombie guard didn’t seem to notice but Olympia started to cry again as loud sounds of battle filled the air. I didn’t know what to do and so I just sat hearing the sounds of magic and crashes coming nearer. I still couldn’t find the energy to move and but my magic was there. I pulled on it as heavily as I was able and smashed a small bit of wood into the zombies head separating it from the rotting corpse. I no longer was trapped yet I could barely stand. I pushed with my magic on my own limbs forcing them to work. It was jerky and painful but I stomached it as best I could. I wasn’t going to let Grogar use me again.

The village was a mess of roars and beams of light. A large demon creature fought someone I couldn’t rightly see and I stared for a moment until I noticed my fur standing on edge. A small chuckle escaped Grogar’s lips and sent spasms through me. I only just managed to cushion Olympia from my own fall as Grogar walked up to us. He was smiling at me and I pushed myself away from him with my magic, ignoring the cuts that I was causing in my flesh. His magic caught me and pulled me to him.

“You can’t escape me. Now I need one more from you,” said Grogar. “Then I shall eat your soul.”

“No,” I screamed as his magic ate into me pulling out another pulse of magic. It burned so much. I couldn’t help the scream that escaped my mouth.

I had to counter balance the energies and a thought accrued to me. It would hurt possibly kill me but he wouldn’t get what he wanted. I reached for the other realms that I had passed through to the land of water and life and pulled on that connection. It sprung forward like a soothing breathe of fresh air but the fiery energy still poured out as well. I Felt the strain on my body increase as I doubled the out put and I felt my horns heat to the point of shattering as the orb above me grew to immense size. I willed it to concentrate to be smaller and stronger. The orb shrunk significantly with my will and Grogar looked on in awe. Even he didn’t know what he had unleashed. His magic reached out to me and tried to snuff the flow out but I fought against him and somehow won.

“No, you whelp,” said Grogar. “You won’t win. This will kill you and I will have a new minion all the same. I will make you pay though before I watch you die. That infant you clutch so desperately. I shall enjoy tearing its limbs off one by one.”

Olympia was plucked from me by Grogar’s magic and I saw her being pulled on by the forces I didn’t understand. I had to stop him as she screamed in pain. I had to.

A beam of light blasted Grogar as another a fiery Alicorn joined the fight. A shield erected around me and Olympia and she fell to harmlessly onto me. I didn’t have the strength to cradle her and the two of us instead just laid there in a crumpled pile. Celestia crashed into Grogar a sword of flames in her magical grip. She fought the demonic goat but he was able to deflect her shots. He laughed as he teleported his bell away. I didn’t understand as he started to glow in energy.

“Luna we have to end this now,” shouted Celestia. “He seeks to escape again.”

“I’m busy Sister,” shouted Luna some distant away. “There’s a demon that I am fighting.”

Celestia cut Grogar’s head from his body with one fell stroke and an explosion of green sickly energy burst from his body. Celestia’s shield around myself and Olympia held by burning away the green gas. Celestia though looked sick and I worried for Luna as well. The gas was cleared though as Celestia lit up like a bonfire. She grew so bright that it hurt to look in her direction. I focused on the orb of mana that was still forming above. I pulled on my connection to it trying to get it to come to safety but the orb instead pulled more and more mana from me. I felt the connection to the other realms waver inside of me and then they snapped and I felt something in me break.

“Luna quickly there is another creature forming. This one hopefully will be free of Grogar’s influence but I don’t know if I can deal with this one without you,” shouted Celestia.

“Some help would be nice,” shouted Luna back. I could see in the distance as she fought the enormous red beast that it healed as each wound she inflicted on the beast. “Then I will help you deal with this new one.”
Celestia launched herself into the air and hovered for a moment above Luna and the monster. Then a beam of light flew out of her and towards the sun high in the afternoon air. The beam connected and she smirked at the beast. A blast of solar energy ran back down the beam towards Celestia and rushed past her into the ground. The dust kicked up barely made it so my eyes didn’t burn out of their sockets from the light of the blast. When it finally ended I could barely see as everything seemed to go dark.

“There I helped,” said Celestia.

“Maybe a tad too much there, sister,” said Luna as she came to stand next to the bubble with wisps of smoke flowing off her scorched hide. “Persephone see if you can split the orb into smaller ones. Make twins or triplets if you are able.”

I couldn’t nod but I would have if I had been able. I pulled on the orb of dense mana splitting the thing in two then again into four. I ran out of strength an the orbs started to form into bodies I couldn’t shape them any more. One of them formed into a quadruped body but the other three orbs hardened and became egg like. I watched as the glow dissipated from all four of them and Luna caught them with her magic. The quadruped started to shift and elongate as it turned into something like my form. Two pairs of eyes opened and glowed through my hazy view. The looked much more like me than my other two children had and yet this one was still much smaller than me. I worried what I was going to do with a fourth child now that Grogar had stolen my third. My mind however had reached its limit and I faded from the world quickly.