//------------------------------// // 48. Dive Into The Heart Part 2: Trial Of Courage // Story: Spider in Equestria // by DarkSpider //------------------------------// Similar to before, there was a bright flash of light that temporarily blinded him. Just as quick as it appeared, the light faded, revealing Dark’s new location. Dark looked around, noticing that he was in the middle of a forest, the forest’s fauna bore a striking resemblance to the Everfree, the only difference being the thick fog covering the ground and obscuring some of the noteworthy features of the forest. Dark put his sword on his back and crossed his arms. "So what's the deal with this 'trial'?" A small giggle echoed from behind him, causing Dark to turn around quickly. The source of the laughter was a human, a girl who seemed to be around his age. The teen had long red hair with black highlights that went down to her waist with a small bead near the end of it, blue eyes, and wore a black jacket and a pair of dark grey pants. Dark blinked in surprise. "And you are?" “I’m your next trial, here to test your worth.” She replied quickly, smirking at him. “Saw your last trial. If we were operating under different rules, I would’ve given you a gym badge for a job well done.” She said, giving him a thumbs up. Dark deadpanned. "Funny. So what do you want?" She pouted, “So serious. You two are so alike sometimes.” She sighed, reaching over and scratching her head. “As I said before, I’m here to test you. This kind of light and darkness isn’t supposed to be in this world you know. So just to make sure that the light’s weapon is going to the right people, a series of trials were created to test your worth.” Dark blinked. "What do you mean?" “When you brought over those items from the other world, you invited the darkness to this world as well.” She said seriously, frowning at him. “You can’t have one without the other, it's some kind of yin-yang type of deal.” The human explained, humming. “So since the darkness is approaching your world, or heck, might already be here, a very special third party decided to intervene and set up all these test for you.” "What third party?" She grinned at him and shrugged. “Sorry! Can’t really say. I do know, but I just can’t tell you.” She waved at the air dismissively. “If you have anymore questions, you should save it for the last guy.” Dark rolled his eyes. "Fine. So what do I have to do?" The human teen smirked, crossing her arms. “First things first…” She took a deep breath and sighed. “It's obvious from the things you do that you want to be a hero. You risk your life to save others, and fight villains who wouldn’t hesitate to end you and yours.” She stared at him, looking at him in the eyes. “Why did you decide to be a hero?” "What?" Dark said, confused. She frowned, looking annoyed at having to repeat herself. “Why did you decide to be a hero? Need me to talk a little slower, maybe a bit louder?” She asked with a mischievous smirk. Dark narrowed his eyes. "Ha," he said sarcastically. He then sighed. "If you really wanna know, I like helping people. Makes me feel like I actually matter. Plus I know very well how bad it is if you just let people get hurt." He then crossed his arms. "With great power comes great responsibility after all." She hummed, pondering his answer. “With great power comes great responsibility… a bit cliche if you ask me, but it's a good answer, a good motto to live by.” Dark shrugged. "The motto of my hero and he's a good example of what happens when you use your skills selfishly." The teen closed her eyes. “That's good, it's great that you have a motto like this to pull inner strength from…” She opened her eyes and stared. “Being a hero, you can bring a lot of wonder to people’s eyes… but if you’re not careful.” She expression turned dark, and gave a cruel smile. “That wonder can easily be turned to ruin.” The teen was consumed by dark red flames, when the flames disappeared so did she. Dark looked around, hearing nothing but the sound of giggling. “Let’s see if you’re able to keep that wonder alive hero.” Dark felt uneasy as he grabbed the sword and readied it. "This is gonna suck, isn't it…" “Indeed it is Spider!” Turning around quickly, Dark spotted a black gloved fist about to hit him. Dark quickly jumped back to dodge the incoming fist. Seeing that he put a good enough distance between them, Dark started taking in everything about his opponent. The creature in front of him was covered in black leather clothing, covering his entire form. Covering his head was a black biker helmet, two bull like horns poked out of the helmet. From behind the creature two black wings stretched out briefly, before folding up again. “I’m going to enjoy this.” The disguised dragon-like creature said, cracking his fist. A black tail rose up and slammed hard on the ground. "Uh huh. And who are you?" Dark asked with his head tilted in confusion. “We haven’t met yet, but we will soon enough.” The dragon growled angrily. “You will know me as the Kingpin.” Dark looked him over again. "Well you certainly look big enough." He then blinked. "Wait, there's a Kingpin too as well as Hydra? You gotta be kidding me…" The dragon chuckled, “Oh there’s more than just that, I can guarantee it. Something that you will soon find out.” Quickly taking the bottom half of his helmet off, a stream of fire erupted from his mouth. Feeling his spider-sense take over, Dark quickly leaped towards the tree besides him and dodged the attack. Raising his arm, he fired a couple of quick webs at the drake, hoping to web his mouth shut. Taking a deep breath, the Kingpin fired another stream of flames, incinerating the webs before they even got close. Dark quickly jumped away from the tree, he gritted his teeth when he felt the intensity of Kingpin’s fire. Not giving him any time to act, the dragon-like creature shot towards him, raising his energy covered claw in the air. Bringing the claw down, the Kingpin ripped apart Dark’s shirt, just barely missing his chest. Raising his sword, Dark swung it down to slash at the villain. He gaped when he saw the sword stop mere inches from his head. The blade suddenly shot out of his hands, and started floating near the dragon. The Kingpin smirked behind his helmet. Shooting up towards the air, he pointed a claw at Dark and laughed when he saw the hero fighting against his own sword. Dark then took a quick glance at Kingpin before dodging the blade. "Wait, you have Magneto's powers?" “I have a superior version of his abilities, I’m not like the Kingpin in the comics.” He answered, clenching his fist. “I’m so much more.” Detaching the lower half of the helmet again, Dark briefly saw a red jaw before it shot a stream of flames at him. Dark immediately jumped away and shot another web at the dragon's face. "Yeah I can tell." Dark then blinked when he properly processed what he said. "Wait, how would you know about that version of Kingpin?" The Kingpin smirked. “Did you really think you were the only human to ever arrive in Equestria?” He suddenly shot out a pair of fireballs from his claws. “There has been others before you! And there will be others after! And I have been at this far longer than you have.” He said darkly. Flapping his wings once, he shot down towards Dark, his claws stretched out to grab him. Dark jumped over him, narrowly dodging the grab. "Okay, first off, I know I'm not the only one. My sister and cousins are Displaced after all. Second, you are clearly not human anymore. But thanks for the heads up that you're a Displaced." “It's not like that knowledge will be of any use to you.” He said, rising up in the air. “After all, we’ve been given a second chance, and we’re not going to let you get out of this alive!” Dark readied himself before he blinked in confusion at a single word. "Wait, we?" Dark felt his spider-sense scream at him to dodge. Listening to the warning, he just barely managed to jump out of the way of what appeared to be a spear made of light from impaling him. Turning towards the source of the spear, his eyes widened when he saw what appeared to be a gray copy of him, one with longer grey hair. The copy seemed to be wearing the exact same clothing he had, his eyes were like a reptile and were colored green with a scarf over the lower half of his face. The copy chuckled. “It's so good to see you again Dark, I never thought I’d get the chance to do this again. I must remember to thank that girl for bringing us here.” The being slouched, slowly dragging his feet closer to his partner. Dark felt a chill go down his spine as the copy spoke, its voice and eyes being eerily familiar to him but he couldn't figure out why. "And who the hell are you?" The copy laughed. “I am your shadow. Or perhaps it’d be more accurate to say I am a god, who has taken your form.” He shrugged. “Take your pick, both answers are true.” Dark deadpanned briefly before ducking from his sword trying to decapitate him. "Stop that!" He yelled at Kingpin. “Yeah! Stop that!” A shrill high pitched voice called out from the woods. “You can’t end the fun without me!” Dark turned pale as he heard that voice. A voice he heard in memories that Venom has shown him the day after they met. "Oh no…" Dark quickly jumped away from the spot he was in. Just barely avoiding a sharp red tendril that was about to impale him. Jumping out the woods was a bright red humanoid, with two large white eyes, and a full set of sharp teeth on its face. The being laughed as he spotted Dark. “Heeey there daddy!” Dark blinked, allowing his confusion to push aside his fear. "W-what?" "Didn't Venom explain it?" Carnage asked, tilting his head. "We came from you, your DNA allowed us to exist. So in a way, you're our daddy!" He giggled darkly, smiling at Dark's discomfort. "And we have a lot of catching up to do pops!" Dark sighed. "I am in hell…" he muttered before his spider-sense went off and he dodged his sword again. Carnage chuckled, his arms shifting into blades. “Not yet…” He hissed out before leaping at him, raising his bladed arms to slash at Dark. Dark quickly jumped away from the deranged symbiote. Before he could counterattack, a pair of arms shot out from his shadow and grabbed at his legs, not letting him move. Turning back towards his shadow, he saw the greyed out copy’s head poking out of his shadow. The copy chuckled, refusing to let go of his legs. “Carnage hit him now!” Carnage let out a shriek, darting towards Dark and slashing his chest as soon as he got close. Dark tried to raise his arms to defend himself, but two clones of the shadow villain shot out from the ground and held his arms, not allowing him to move it and allowing Carnage to continue his attacks. Raising one of his bladed arms, Carnage laughed. “Sucks that the fun has to end so soon, but that’s life I guess.” He chuckled, licking his lips. “And don’t worry about your friends, I’ll be sure to take really good care of them, you’ll probably see them soon!” The symbiote burst out in laughter, bringing down his bladed arm to decapitate Dark. Before the attack could hit, a black shield with a red border crashed into Carnage’s head, causing him to stagger backwards. Before the symbiote could react, a black tendril shot out towards him and wrapped itself around him, pulling itself back, and threw the red symbiote at the other side of the clearing. Suddenly three more black tendrils shot out towards the shadow villain and his clones, grabbing them and tossing them away. Dark fell on his knees, breathing heavily. Looking forward, he saw the discarded shield get picked up before a gloved hand reached out to Dark. After taking it, the person pulled him back on his feet and Dark saw someone who looked similar to him with a few differences, such as white streaks of hair on his head, his hair was a bit messier, and his cloak was pure black. Before Dark can respond to his savour, the person turned to where Carnage was and smirked. "Been wanting to do that since you woke up. Definitely felt satisfying." The symbiote tilted his head in confusion before his eyes widened. “Venom? Is that you?!” Carnage smirked and chuckled. “Always knew we would meet again dear brother. So what's with the new body? Things didn’t pan out with daddy dearest? Our old man didn’t want to play that game of catch with you?” He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter, because in a few seconds, it's going to be nothing but a red stain!” Venom rolled his eyes. "Boy am I glad you didn't get out…" "Venom?" Dark muttered, confused. The symbiote looked at Dark and smiled. "Hey. Sorry for being late. It was pretty hard getting here in all honesty." He then looked down at himself. "And before you ask, this was what I came up with for us to talk better than showing up on your arm." A moment later, the two of them moved to the side to dodge the sword again. "How long are you gonna keep doing that?!" Dark exclaimed to Kingpin. The Kingpin crossed his arms and smirked behind his helmet. “Hopefully…” He snapped his claws, smiling as Venom’s shield shot out of his hands and started floating by him. “Not for much longer now… just until you stop moving.” Pointing at the two of them, both the sword and shield shot towards them, the shield laying flat, trying to impale the heroes with the pointed edge. Besides the dragon, Carnage shrieked, charging towards them on all fours. Turning towards his partner, the Kingpin gestured around the area. “Don’t let them escape.” The grey copy nodded, taking a step forward. The shadow villain quickly turned his head to scan the area. Satisfied, the copy chuckled darkly as he surrounded himself in a dark aura. Spreading out his arms, the shadow villain spread out his aura and created a large army of clones surrounding the two heroes, the clones making a circle around them. One by one, the clones charged at them, using their large numbers to their advantage. Dark gritted his teeth in frustration, slashing at the clones running up to him, but no matter how many he killed, more just kept arriving. Feeling one of the clones jump onto his back, Dark staggered forwards, the brief moment of weakness allowed the other clones to pile onto him, all of them using their bodies to hold him down. Dark turned towards Venom and gaped when he saw Carnage slowly covering Venom’s body with himself. The deranged symbiote laughed as he slowly assimilated Venom. “Don’t worry dear brother! Soon you and I will become inseparable!” He burst out laughing at his own joke, watching with glee as Venom’s punches slowly became weaker and less frequent. “You can stop this you know.” The voice of the girl echoed around Dark. “Just give up, and you’ll be allowed to live. It's obvious that you’re not suited for this job.” Looking up, Dark spotted the Kingpin slowly making his way towards him, Dark’s sword in his claws. The dragon stopped, looking down at Dark as he gripped the sword with both of his claws. The Kingpin raised the blade over his head and chuckled. “Goodbye hero.” “Give up. You’re not going to win, why throw your life away?” The girl spoke again. Dark panted as he tried to get up but failed, his irises were glowing red with how angry he was. "I don't care. I rather die fighting then just give up to a bunch of monsters." “So be it.” The Kingpin said, giving Dark a wide smile behind his helmet. The dragon swung the sword down towards his neck. Dark closed his eyes, bracing himself for the pain that was about to hit him. After several seconds of not feeling anything, Dark hesitantly opened his eyes, and blinked in confusion when he saw all of the villains frozen, none of them moving a single inch. Suddenly one by one, all of the villains started disappearing as if they were never around in the first place. Both Dark and Venom slowly got up and looked around in confusion. Both of their attention was grabbed by the sound of clapping right behind them. Turning around, they saw the human girl smiling at them. Seeing that she had both of their attentions, she flashed them a grin and gave them a thumbs up. “Congrats heroes, you’ve completed my trial!” The two blinked in confusion before Dark said, "Wha?" "What are you talking about?" Venom asked. “Geez, maybe I should speak a bit slower and louder for you two.” The human pouted, crossing her arms. “Just as I said, you beat the trial! So congrats!” She raised up her hand and scratched her head. “Though I suppose I can see why you’re confused… So let me explain, and you better pay attention because I won't repeat it again!” She said, giving them a small glare. “The last trial was the Trial of Power, this one is Trial of Courage. Like the title implies, it's meant to test your courage and how strong your beliefs are.” She snapped her fingers, putting the two heroes on edge when the three villains reappeared behind her. “Let me tell you, you guys are going to get a pretty big Rogues Gallery with the way things are going now. So in order to test you guys, I plucked two of the most powerful villains, and one of the most dangerous, and brought them all together to test your courage.” She crossed her arms and gave them an apologetic look. Dark blinked. "Okay, how?" “My powers are all about illusions, so I created copies based off of the real deal.” She answered. “The goal of this trial wasn’t to defeat these three, that would’ve been impossible for you two with the way you guys are right now. The goal of this trial was to prove to me that you have the courage to keep going, that no matter how powerful your opponents are, you’ll always get right back up.” Venom narrowed his eyes. "Illusions, you say?" He asked. She nodded. “Yup, they’re just illusions. They were never real, you were never in any real danger, and all of the injuries and pain you felt were fake as well… I’m a pretty powerful illusionist if I do say so myself.” She boasted, looking smug as she bragged about her power. "That explains the look…" Venom muttered. “What do you mean?” She asked, tilting her head. “I always look like this.” "Sure you do," Venom said sarcastically as he crossed his arms. "To be honest, the hair is a dead give away." She glared at him, pointing a finger at him. “Quiet you! I’m pretty sure he hasn’t figured it out yet, and I would prefer it if it stayed that way!” "Why?" Dark asked. She waved at him dismissively. “Oh don’t worry about it, you just focus on completing these trials. Alright?” Reaching into her pocket she took out a small golden ring and tossed it behind her. The ring suddenly exploded in size, the middle part of it shining brightly. “Well whenever you’re ready, just step through the Warp Ring, it’ll take you to your next trial! Oh, and be careful when you encounter these guys in real life, my illusions were pretty spot on, but they aren’t as powerful as the real deal.” She warned, gesturing at the three villains. "So I'll really fight guys like this?" Dark asked. She nodded. “I’m sure Venom already warned you about Carnage. You probably won’t have to worry about this poser.” She pointed at Dark’s grey copy. “For quite a while, though that mostly depends on you and the choices you make. Kingpin however…” She looked at him and frowned. “He’s in Equestria right now, doing his own thing, gaining more power, and getting more ponies to join his side. He isn’t someone you want to take lightly.” She sighed. “I’m pretty sure I’m not really allowed to give too much info away, so if you have any specific questions about them, I very likely can’t answer it.” She waved her hands around in the air. “You know… something about time and all that junk.” Dark sighed before deciding to just go through the "Warp Ring", but not before he and Venom retrieved their weapons. After that, went through the ring. The girl watched the pair leave through the ring, after the duo stepped through it, she waited until the ring deactivated before letting out a deep sigh. Her body became consumed in red flames, she allowed the flames to consume her illusion as she reverted back to her real form. She stretched out her black furry limbs and let out a sigh of relief. “Finally, was getting tired of holding that form for so long.” Bringing a red claw up, she scratched her black furry muzzle and frowned. “I hope they’ll be okay. Probably should’ve gone a bit easier on them with this trial.” A few moments later, she shook her head, and smirked. “Nah, what am I saying? They’ll be fine, no need for me to worry so much.” The bipedal vixen grinned, watching as everything around slowly began to fade away. “Well… guess my job's done.” The vixen said, not losing her smile, even as she began to fade away. A few seconds later the bipedal fox and the forest around her all faded away, leaving nothing behind but a bright white void.