//------------------------------// // A Vampire and Her Wolf Walk Into a Desert Pt1: Tell Me Have You Seen Her? // Story: The Equestrian Omni-Knight // by Azure5555 //------------------------------// -Sugar Cube Corner: The Basement- “So, first time down here?” Pinkie asked me as we left the entrance to a subterranean hatch. “I didn't even know this place existed… do I smell pastries?” The cavern she lead us down began to pulsate with this sweet smelling pink aura. The farther down we went, the brighter the aura became. “This is where I make all my experimental treats! The stuff I'm not allowed to sell to the public.” She said happily. “Kinda like with what we're gonna do now?” She only giggled with wicked glee as we finally entered a chamber that looked like it was made from chocolate chip cookies. In the middle of the chamber was a chocolate brown forge shaped like a cupcake with the top portion even decorated to look like frosting, the entire thing sitting atop a pool of magma. “Sweet Christmas…” Things were gonna get really frickin sweet. -The Badlands- Glass. For as far as any eye could see, the land was laid with glass. A once inhospitable desert riddled with bone and sand was now a plane of endless glass. The result of what was meant to be the end of an armada became the end of a civilization. Hundreds of lives lost to the skirmish of an army of fire and a mare on a mission. A great fissure scars the land, an immense heat radiates from it's maw, and the remains of a once intimidating castle now lay half buried under shards of shattered crystal, desert sands, and bodies of fallen dragons. Deep within this graveyard sits a shattered queen surrounded by dying eggs and a princess in chains. This however was not the end, for the fires of hatred are not so easily extinguished. -Golden Oaks: Hero- “Provisions are packed?” I ask. “Ten gallons of water, twenty pounds of fruit, and sandstorm goggles.” Shining replied. “Weapons?” I start checking off boxes from a scroll in my hand. “Sharpened, shined, and stored.” “Are you ready?” Shining Armor looked at me, resolve burning in his tired eyes. “Always.” Horn aglow, the ex-captain garbs himself in specially made desert robes. “Are you sure you don't want other reinforcements? Spike? Angel? Illyrishy? Hell, maybe even Veral?” “And leave the town defenseless? No. Who knows, we may even come across outworlders to come save our hides.” The unreasonable unicorn that was Shining Armor pushed through the door of the library to our awaiting ride. Luna stood next to the Green Dragonzard, dressed in the same desert garb as Shining was. “Is this really everyone?” Luna asks. “Lyra and Bon Bon were busy, Twilight still needs to learn more about friendship and the bonds she now shares, and Shining is too stubborn to let anyone else go.” I said as I leaned on my mecha dragon. “Be glad I'm letting you two come along at all.” Shining said in annoyance. “He does know you're his only means of transport right?” Luna asked me as she clambered onto the dragon. “I'm sorry, I'm just on edge. I appreciate this, really.” Shining offered in apology. Luna helped the poor fool up as they settled. “It's cool, I've been there. There could be stragglers in the Badlands, so prepare to abandon ship if things go south.” With a vault and a kick, I landed on the dragon as it made it's ascent. From below, the town waved us off and shouted several good wills and shows of faith. -Roughly forty minutes later- “Are we there yet!?” Shining shouted in annoyance. “For the sixty fourth time, no! For the love of God man…” I screamed back. “What if we went faster?” Luna asked. “The G-forces would turn Shining’s brain to mush, skipping forward in time with Chaos Control is a bad idea with four different targets, and I don't feel like alerting anyone to our location.” “You mean Discord yes?” Luna asks me. “Just who or what is he?” Shining asks. “Moonpie? You know more about this Discord. What's his endgame?” I lurch the dragon down and bring us closer to a wide expanse of sand and glass. “He only wants to have fun. Tutoring two irritable alicorns for a hundred years will do that to a pony.” Luna says as if she was remembering something fond. “Pony!?” I shout with Shining. “Starswhirl. He was a fine teacher, and an even better friend...until the entirety of the kingdom screamed for his head on a silver platter. Oh that was quite a day…” Luna chuckled and rested her head on my back. “Uh...the Bearded? The...greatest unicorn to ever exist in ALL of Equestria’s history?” Shining asked in shock. “Called it. MY question is what does he want with an evil fire breathing hellspa-” From below us, the glass floor of the desert shattered as a tatzlwurm went mouth first into the body of the Dragon Zard. Abandoning ship with as much care as possible, we gathered our bearings and prepared for a fight. “Moonpie, Shining! Find the spire while I hold this overgrown vertebrate ba-” Several golden blades flew and proceeded to impale, slice, dice, thrust, riposte, and all in all shear through the massive death worm. Fifty blood soaked blades exploded outwards from within the beast and glided on towards a slowly descending Shining and his satchel. His eyes burned a fierce and fiery pink. “Dude! Watch out for burn out! Cast with your horn, not your heart!” I call out. With a dramatic turn, Shining began to walk away from the falling monster, his eyes returning to normal. As the saying goes...cool guys don't look at explosions. Hmm? Oh right, that whole “Cast with your horn, not your heart” thing. You see magic, as well as chi, operates on a fundamental emotional state of being. ANY living organism can utilize magic and soul power...but it doesn't mean they should. Magic can be channeled through one's heart in which case grants them the eyes of an Elemental. But there's a catch. See, if a mortal or inexperienced organism goes Elemental their heart gets taxed, mostly because you're pumping raw unfiltered mana through it to release pure and refined magical plasma. I.E. Elemental eyes. In essence, you're shoving crude oil into a super delicate centrifuge to get petroleum. Do it too long or too much and you quite literally engulf your heart in mystic fire. “The faster we find the castle, the faster I can enjoy my early retirement.” Shining said with a pained grunt. The poor fool fell from exhaustion and huffed and puffed as he righted himself. With a sigh, I cast a quick healing spell which helps the unicorn in steadying himself. Slowly walking forward, I take point and arm myself with the Kingdom Breaker. “Okay, no more killing yourself please. Tread likely folks, who knows what else lay beneath the san-” As if to taunt me, seven bursts of fire shot out of the sand. The dust crystallized from the flame and reflected the images of the Changelings I saw from Mili’s visions. The third set of hoof claws, scars of fire lay written upon their carapace, and once green eyes now burned crimson and gold. A living testament to the corruption of the Prime Orb of Fire. Oh...and they were absolutely bonkers. The first three went fang first in an attempt to bite my arm off only to get a mouthful of gold, courtesy of the massive hilt of my blade. With a swing and a crack, the trio fell as all signs of life left their bodies. Much the same happened with the last four, Shining impaling a pair with two of his fifty blades and Luna slicing her pair through the midsection with her Galaxy Star Spear. “Okay, we are def in the right place. Stand back folks, it's Giga Drill time.” Luna stops me at this point and puts her hoof on my arm. “We risk capture, Serenity is still exhausted from the ordeal against Akriloth, and we need to maintain some sense of caution.” Her eyes told me that we would be doing this as stealthily as possible, and there was no room for 'No’. “Okay.” I said with a sigh. Thus, we walked the earth. Our only guide through the blistering desert the planes of glass and the scattered remains of Alicorn shaped statues. Shining had to keep looking away, more than likely he paled at the thought of his most important pony lying dead surrounded by glass and sand. Minutes passed and the land became littered with more than just crystal and sand...ancient dragons lay in several states of decomposition, adolescent drakes of various elements were scattered about, some missing limbs and others missing heads. “This Cadenza...how powerful is she?” Luna asks. “Powerful enough I wouldn't tussle with her on a good day. The power of love is a curious thing after all,” I say as I get the sudden urge to skip and spin. I land ball first upon my right foot on top of a dead dragon's head. “Makes some men weep, and other men sing!” I'm getting into the groove little by little as I spot and spin across the exposed spine of the beast I was on and stop with with a raised leg in a point, my right arm to the sky, and my left thrust outward. “Change a hawk, to a little white dove!” I feel a rumble from beneath and break into song as the ground breaks apart. Several fire bugs scatter out and launch an attack against me, but I can't seem to care as I don my Thief of Hours and begin to ballet/kickbox the oncoming force, all to to the sound of Huey Lewis and the News. “Don't take mo-ney! Don't take fa-ame! Don't need no credit card to ride this train!!” Three rage riddled bugs bum rush me as four others pop from the broken sands. I hit the first three in delicate pressure points causing their inner fire to engulf them and then throw their bodies into the last four, eliciting a grand fiery explosion. “That's the power of love!” I stood in a victory pose, one fist on my hip and the other held out with a ‘V’.. The ponies in my presence however found no humor in my antics. I hung my head and hopped back to the slow uneventful walk. “Okay...not a fan of The News. I can respect that. Okay, but, BUT! Buuuut….More and more of these bugs are popping up. We're close to the castle I can fee-” More and more of the firebugs began to explode from the sand, we were outnumbered ten to one and I had no idea as to how we’d survive. “Get behind me!! I'm gonna do something really friggin crazy!!” Donning the robes of a Chaos Slayer, I began to tap in to the primal force that made Chaos what it was. Infusing the energy with my golem spell, I palmed the earth and infused the sands with wild magic. “VIZALAIN!!” A series of crystal spires jut forth from the ground, translucent and...carrying a child and wolf pup that looked terribly and terrifyingly familiar. “Waaaaah~!?” The girl comedically screams in confusion as she holds onto one of the spires. “What is going on!?” The girl was blonde, her hair not even reaching below her chin, minus the braided strand of hair that went down to her shoulder. On top of that, was a pink mob cap with a red ribbon tied to it. For clothes, she wore a sort of red vest like garment over a red dress with a semi-large skirt that cut off above her knees with a pink underskirt. She wore short white socks and some slip ons. Now, what was definitely strange  were the… wings, if you could call them that. The ‘wings’ were branches that sprouted from her back with only the ‘Thumb’ and ‘index finger’, nearly charcoal black as they arched outwards. Even stranger were the crystals hanging off the wings, each one having one color in a pattern; green, light blue, yellow, orange, back to light blue, then light green. Further more, she had a strange disk like object shaped like the sun almost, and it was large, almost covering her completely from behind and looked like a red sun with a golden border. It glowed a dull light with a hum and had four prongs at the center points, the one closest to the bottom being hooked and larger. The wolf pup was small like...well, a pup, and had a brilliant white coat that almost seemed to shimmer with how well cared for it was, strange red markings writhing around its body and a single spiraling disk with flames spewing out was floating a few inches off her back. Shining was the first to point them out...as much as I wanted to be wrong about what I was remembering. “Who are they!? I thought this was a golem spell!?” He shouts. “It was! I can't use Chaos magic correctly unless I'm drunk!” The changelings, now taking note of our new guests, began to charge at the pair like mortars. “Oh shit! Hit the deck!!” I screamed, grabbing my two companions and throwing us into the sand. “I gotcha!” We hear a female voice yell and a loud clang was heard almost like metal on metal. “Hey! Maybe they're on our side!?” Shining questioned as we took a glance skyward. Sure enough, the pup began to fling her disc like a frisby, three gongs ringing out as it impacted against a group of bugs. “Hhhmmmm, and we could also have just pissed off a goddess…” Shaking my head, I did the only thing I thought reasonable in this situation. “Armor change: Bard!” With a flick of the wrist, I pulled out my Green Dragon Ocarina, and began to focus on the pair. 'Give em’ Hell.’