Chapter Six: Jack’s Second Form, Enter Sunset’s Dreams
Jack didn’t know what had happened to him, but suddenly he felt a tremendous power flow through him, power that was unlike anything he had endured before. It was almost overwhelming, but despite having this new found power, he had far bigger fish to fry in the form of a metallic dragon and a feline runt.
“Now then… Shall the nightmare begin?” He said aloud as he watched as both Chappil and Hopp continued to get further and further until they looked like little ants from the distance. Smirking to himself, he clutched both his fists together and felt a sudden surge of ki flow through him, and he vanished from where he had stood.
Meanwhile, Chappil and Hopp continued to fly away as fast as they could to avoid combat with the frost demon and alert their master of this new threat. “Come Hopp, you need to pick up the pace… I felt that beast’s power increase ten fold.”
“I’m trying here… I’m slowly recovering the energy that I used earlier, but it’s not enough for me to try and keep up,” The cat figure told him. “Unless you have something on you to make my recovery faster, than-”
However, before Hopp could finish her sentence, the frost demon had appeared in front of Chappil, shocking the two before Jack punched Chappil in the chest, cracking his metallic chest as the dragon began to spew blood as the frost demon smirked at them.
“Peek a boo~” He said, elbowing the drakes neck before grabbing hold of his throat and began to strangle him. “Next time you try to fry someone, you’d better be sure they’re dead, otherwise, they’ll crush your metal like neck, like I am!”
“G-Gah! H-” Chappil tried to speak, but no words came out as the demon in front of him began crushing his throat, preventing any sort of oxygen to enter him as his vision began to become blurry. Hopp herself, watching her comrade like this, attempted to intervene by attacking Jack from behind in an effort to make him release Chappil.
“If I were you, I’d run for the hills Hopp, unless you want to suffer the same fate as this mindless brute.” Jack said to her, turning to her with a vile smirk, sending a shiver down Hopp’s spine. “Not that’ll make a difference.”
“Grr…” Hopp growled, glaring back at him. “What… do you want? You wouldn’t go as far as to transform like this or leave my partner struggling unless there was something you wanted to gain from it… So what do you want, you horned bastard?”
“Hahahahahaha!!! Is that what you’re honestly thinking!? Maybe when we were fighting before my sudden transformation, then I would have asked for your undying allegiance to to me. However, I’m willing to let bygones be bygones as long as you and your friend here agree to be my slaves for all eternity.” He explained, loosening his grip on Chappil’s throat a bit for him to breath.
“D-Do it… I don’t… Want to die… Like this-” However his words were cut short as the frost demon tightened his grip on the dragon’s throat.
“So… What will it be little kitty?” Jack said with a vile grin, not loosening his hold of Chappil’s neck.
“You swear to let him go?” She asked, before letting out a sigh as she realized there really wasn’t any other choice here. “...... I’ll do it.”
“Excellent…” Jack said, releasing his hold of Chappil, seeing him cough uncontrollably before kicking the drake to the ground, shocking the feline in front of him, before turning his gaze towards her.
“W-We had a deal-” But before she could finish, she suddenly felt a wave of pain in her stomach.
“I said, I’d allow you and your friend to live as long as you served me, but I never promised you that I’d allow you both to walk beside me unscathed now did I?” Jack whispered into her ear, before wrapping his tail around her chest and neck. “I’ll make sure you share the same amount of pain as your friend down there… When serving me, I expect absolute loyalty… And once I’m through with you, Hopp… You’ll be begging to stay by my side~”
Jack explained, before punching her in her stomach again, while also tightening his tail around her, cutting off air to her lungs as the frost demon’s tail continued to strangle both her neck and chest. He continued to punch her in the stomach for what felt like an eternity for Hopp. Sweat began to drip from her face as her stomach began to show bruises as her face began to turn pale, however Jack released his hold of the feline until he fired off a ki blast against her chest, sending her crashing down to the ground before being consumed in a large explosion.
“Hahahaha! Magnificent! I couldn’t have done that better myself!” Frieza said, watching everything that had transpired. “But I am rather curious as to why you think these weaklings will have any sort of use to you?”
“You said so yourself Frieza… If I’m gonna have any sort of chance to get you out of my body and take revenge against the merchant, then I’m gonna need subordinates, and true that small village I saved may not have had warriors, but I’m willing to take those pests as loyal servants. However, I need warriors, and now that I’ve unlocked this second form, I’ll torment these two into giving total allegiance to me!” Jack explained to his counterpart before flying down to the two he’d defeated. Glancing over to Chappil, who was now laying atop of an old dead tree, but Jack could still sense that he was indeed alive in there, before his gaze was set upon Hopp.
She laid on the ground, her clothes torn as the remains of it barely covered her body, she began coughing up blood. “W-what more do y-you want from me-?”
However he didn’t allow her to finish her sentence as the frost demon, began stepping on her head, crushing her skull with her feet. She began to scream in agonizing pain, but Jack didn’t listen to her pleas, and only began to press harder on her head. Jack normally wouldn’t have acted to brash towards them, especially since they had just pledged loyalty to him, however he felt Frieza’s evil influence begin to manifest itself from within. He had to make sure they obeyed him.
“Now don’t worry… Kitten… I’m not going to kill you… After all you had pledged your loyalty to me, but that doesn’t excuse you from being punished for an attempt to kill me.” Jack replied, lifting his foot off her face and brought it down hard against her chest. “Remember this pain… Attempt to betray me and I’ll do more than just bring you harm… I’ll torment you to the point where you’ll beg to serve me.”
Hopp didn’t say anything, but just bared with the pain as she felt his foot crushing her into the ground.
“L-Lord… P-Please… Spare her, she’s an intelligent asset… W-we swear… our allegiance to you-” Chappil paused as he struggled to get to his feet, but suddenly felt a tremendous force send him flying through the trees.
“I see, so you actually do care about your comrades well being, very interesting. I was beginning to think you were gonna allow me to torment your friend here a lot longer.” Jack said, setting his foot back to the ground as he turned back towards Hopp. “So… now that you know what’s in store for you in the future, I’m looking forward to the two of you serving in my cause.”
As Hopp was slowly getting up… she looked to see where Chappil was sent flying before coughing out some more blood. “S-so… what h-happens now?”
“It’s quite simple really, you’ll start telling me everything you know about this Frost! Don’t leave any details out, I want to know everything.” Jack stated, lifting the feline off the ground and making her stand. “So… Start Talking!”
However, Jack was unaware that the two of them were being watched far out into the distance, by two others, wearing similar cloaks to that of Chappil and Hopp. “It’s hard to believe that both Hopp and Chappil could be defeated so easily… It’s shocking really, don’t you think so Comfrey?”
“You’ve said it, Vikal,” Comfrey said, removing his hood, revealing a humanoid amphibian like creature with a stern look across his face. “I knew those two would be defeated, but betraying Frost, that’s the height of hubris. Cowards like that must be destroyed.”
“We need to report this to him immediately… He won’t be pleased by their betrayal, but perhaps learning that he isn’t the only Frost Demon here could take his interest.” Vikal spoke, removing her hood as well to reveal a beautiful women with pale white skin, long flowing light blue hair with pointy ears and purple eyes.
“Hmph! I’d prefer it if we eliminate them ourselves rather than inform our lord of this… Those two were the weakest out of all of us.” Comfrey explained, lifting his hand from his cloak and formed an orb of fire in his hands.
“True,” Vikal replied. “But if we intervene now, then we would need to fight that Frost Demon down there… and in our present state, we cannot take on the likes of him…” At seeing the fireball, Vikal glared directly at Comfrey, almost as if he was saying ‘don’t you dare try anything’ with her eyes. “If he were in his first form, we could’ve done it… but you saw how swiftly he dispatched them in his current state. Do you want to end up like them?”
“And you also forget that I have fought against, Lord Frost in his final form, as well as you. This pretender is nothing more than a joke, acting all high and mighty just because those idiots let their guards down.” Comfrey explained to her.
“And wouldn’t you prefer to face him when he is at your level… I always know that you prefer a challenge when it comes to fighting. Otherwise you wouldn’t really care about it at all.” She told him. “Now, we’re going back… If you even try to strike them now, I will consider that as defying a direct order from Lord Frost… and you know what will happen when he hears about that, don’t you?”
“Hehehehe… You really are trying to piss me off aren’t you, Vikal?” The amphibian asked as the fireball in his hands disappeared and he walked up to his partner and placed his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it tightly. “And just so you know… Just because Frost made you second in command, doesn’t mean you can order me around. The next time we see that pretender, I won’t hesitate to kill him as well as those treacherous worms. Are we clear?”
“Crystal.” She replied, at the pair disappeared into the darkness of the woods.
Meanwhile back in Ponyville, Sunset just couldn’t take her mind off that creature she saw in her dreams, there were so many questions whirling around in her head that it was just too much to keep track of and when she thinks she’s getting close to the answer, more and more questions keep forming in her head.
“Grr… Damn.” Was all the unicorn said as she crunched up a piece of paper into a ball and threw it across the room into a large pile of crumpled up paper. However before she could even begin writing her analysis of her dreams again, the door to her bedroom creaked open slowly, drawing the unicorn’s attention away from her work and she soon saw the Lunar alicorn standing by the doorway.
“P-Princess Luna?!” Sunset shouted, almost falling out of her chair.
“Hello, Sunset, I hope I’m not intruding on your privacy?” Luna asked shyly as she slowly trotted up to the young unicorn who had begun to straighten her mane.
“Uh… No! Not at all, Luna, you're always welcomed to come visit me.” She replied, before giving out a loud yawn. The princess couldn’t help but laugh as she sat beside her.
“Seems to me like you’ve been studying a little too much if you ask me?” She said, looking around the room, seeing scraps of paper scattered across the entire room.
Take a deep breath, while rubbing her eyes, she looked back at Princess Luna and couldn’t help but let out a weak chuckle. “Well… I have been trying these past few nights to figure out what I had seen in my dream, but I keep coming up empty. Not to mention that… Thing I saw.”
Luna herself raised an eyebrow, confused by what she meant. “Could you elaborate on what you mean?”
“Even I don’t know what it was Princess, but it looked like a demon, it had pale white and purple skin and a sickening laugh. I’ve been trying to recall what else I’ve seen, but from the looks of it, it was rather short, but it reminds me of some kind of reptile and it walked on two legs.” Sunset said, trying her best to describe the creature she had seen in her dream, but after a moment of silence, she turned to see if Luna had an answer.
“Did… it say anything?” Luna asked. Almost as if she was surprised by what exactly Sunset was telling her. “Like a name?”
“N-No… I only remember it’s… awful laughter.” Sunset said, rubbing her forehead, before another yawn escaped her mouth.
Yet… Sunset was not exactly expecting what Luna would say next as the princess used her magic to close the door to Sunset’s room. “Sunset… You are sure that was what you saw? And that it was exactly like how you described it?” All the unicorn could do was nod her head for a brief moment, prompting Luna to speak. “Sunset, that exact being was seen earlier today in Dodge Junction. An unknown creature was attacking the ponies that lived in Dodge Junction, but a creature of the same description that you told me intervened… and a witness of the whole thing said that she heard it say it’s name.”
“W-What was its name?” Sunset hesitantly asked.
“It called itself… Lord Frieza.” She replied, as the room suddenly went silent.
Sunset didn’t think that her dreams of the creature would actually be real, but even more so, she wondered if both of those dreams of the tall bipedal creature she saw in her dreams four nights ago and the one named Frieza she had seen the other night were somehow connected? However as some questions in her head have been answered, new ones appear, repeating the cycle of this mystery.
“P-Princess… If it’s true… that my dreams are showing me these… creatures, then is it possible that we can somehow put these dreams together and solve this problem?” Sunset asked as Luna stood up from her spot and motioned Sunset over to her bed.
“Well… First, I would need to see your dreams before we can do anything…” Luna told her, as she laid down on Sunset’s bed, waiting for the unicorn to approach her. “Just close your eyes and let me do the rest.”
Nodding her head, Sunset approached the lunar alicorn and laid beside her, resting her head on the bed and closed her eyes. “O-Okay I’m ready princess.”
Instantly, Sunset felt a surge of powerful magic flow around her. Almost as if it was ripping her out of her own body. But after a moment, she heard Luna speak again. “There… now, open your eyes.”
When Sunset opened them, she found herself in what almost looked like a forest. Not like the Everfree, but much different and calmer as she took in her surroundings. Before turning around and seeing Luna standing directly behind her. “Welcome to the Dreamscape… more specifically, your dreamscape.”
“Wait… This is my dream?” Sunset asked.
“It’s the plane of existence where your dreams manifest… Think of it like this,” Luna said as she pointed a hoof towards what looked like orbs that were glowing and sticking out from the ground. “We aren’t in a single dream, but in a place where all of your dreams have been saved here ever since you were born. In the evening’s, it’s my job to venture into other ponies dreamscapes to help them overcome any particular nightmares that they might be having.”
“But in this case, were trying to find out if my dreams are really something to be afraid of?” Sunset asked, looking at her surrounding area, to see if she could spot anything that could remind her of the two beings she had seen in her dreams.
“Well, there are ways to figure out which ones it might be…” Luna said, having Sunset follow her as the unicorn soon noticed what looked like a couple of orbs that were much… smaller than the others. And unlike the first ones, which glowed white, these ones glowed a light red. “Ones that are small in size mean that these dreams had occurred most recently… and if they’re red, it means that they weren’t exactly pleasant ones either. So this must be what has been bothering you recently.”
“Y-Yeah, but they look so weird though, it’s like they’re missing pieces from them.” Sunset pointed out, seeing that some of them were missing pieces. “Do you think you can reform them or even merge them together?”
“Hmm… It is possible…” Luna said, using her magic to pick up the orbs in an attempt to combine them. Not only did it make the orbs go bigger in size, but it also changed the color of the orb as well to where it seemed like a mix between white and red. “This one seems… mostly complete. But it seems to still be missing something.”
“W-Well, I’m sure we’ll at least learn something from it… At least until I can start remembering what I had seen.” Sunset stated, smiling towards the princess who couldn’t help but smile back.
“Very well… Shall we begin then?” Luna asked.
“Let’s do this.”