This is what we do Chapter 36
By Foxgear
Mac stepped through the burning hell that was his hometown rage boiling beneath his calm exterior. Half the town was gone, nothing but rubble and ash with more still burning to the west as giant one hundred foot tall roots towered over the smokey skyline. The bakery his dad used to take him to, crushed, the hardware store where he brought his tools, gone, the lumber yard where he got the materials to rebuild the house, ashes. Fists clenched he looked at the giant blazing ape thumping its chest in the ruins of downtown. Stryker flew around the monster unleashing a storm of lead on it, but it had little effect. Stryker’s skills weren’t tailored for this kind of battle.
Digging his hand into his coat pocket, Mac retrieved five softly glowing blue gems. Ponying up, he popped the jewels into his mouth like they were candy, a cold chill ran through his body his scales turning blue. Sucking in a vast amount of air, his chest expanded as his breath became visible.
(Ice Breath!)
It was the ability he inherited from his father. The power to change the element of his breath-magic has gone underused in his time as a monster hunter. Now though, he was glad to have it. With an ear-piercing roar, Mac let loose the ice breath, the frosty mist shooting through the air straight at the Timber Kong. The blue beam of frost made the Kong pause his attack, hot steam rose off its arm, it turned and charged him. Mac added more power to the ice attack, the Kong’s flames dimming as its arms began to freeze over. The Kong reached for him, he dug his heels and added even more power. The ice beam widened almost entirely engulfing the Kong.
His lungs empty Mac stepped back breathless, the Kong’s huge fingers frozen mere inches from his face. Just a little more and it would have had him. Unslinging his maul from his back, Mac charged the weapon with magic, spun on his heel and let it fly. The hammer/ax flew through the frozen monster at near mock speeds. The Kong shattering into pieces of frozen wood.
Reaching out his hand, Mac called his hammer back like he was Thor and continued to march through the town. Not bothering to address the agape expressions of the emergency personnel. Instead, he casually walked to the defensive line. The patrons of Feri’s bar holding the line as waves of Timber Wolves flung themselves at the barrier. Compared to everything he’s fought up till now, Timber Wolves were just run of the mill.
“Step back,” He ordered to the men fending off the Timbers. Charging his maul, he swung it, releasing a blast of compressed magic that ravaged the Timbers ranks. What few remained looked at him and back where they came from and ran away.
“Yeah, right.” Still embodied with the power of ice, he let loose a breath attack on the fleeing wolves, turning them into a dazzling collection of ice sculptures.
“Holy shit son, where were you this entire time?” Gator inquired jovially. “Could have used ya three fucking hours ago.”
“It wasn’t his fault, it’s mine.” Feri declared hobbling out of a nearby alley. Stryker flew down next to him, the grey detective cradling his right arm. His radius stuck out through his coat. The two detectives observed the damage, Feri smiling sadly as he touched Mac on the shoulder. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes, but this one really takes the cake. I’m sorry, son.”
Mac patted his hand, smiling with understanding. “I was on the verge of doing the same, I can’t blame you for something I would have done too. You do a lot of things to protect the ones you care about. In hindsight…” Mac flexed his muscles and showed off his magic aura. “If I hadn’t gotten that nice nap in, I don’t think I would be as charged up as I am now.”
He didn’t know if it was just from resting or the fact, he had slept in Equestria, which was rich with magic, but Mac was feeling good. Not only good but great. Like Tony the Tiger great if that cereal wasn’t just flakes covered in sugar and actually really bad for you.
“Luna and Celestia are over there asleep if someone could go get them. It’s not safe for them here.”
“I’ll take care of it!” A random man said from the crowd. From his attire, he was one of Feri’s guys.
Mac nodded to Feri and took to the sky, trusting them to handle things in town, hordes of Timberwolves were regrouping below, but he ignored them. They were a waste of energy. Judging from the explosions pelting what was once the forest, the final battle was well underway. His arrival was sure to be a game-changer, everyone was probably running on empty by now, and he was refreshed. If he was fortunate, he could wrap this mess up in a few minutes.
Several volcanic erupts exploded on the ground. (Well… I can least get the mess with the girls fixed up. The rest of this… that’s future Mac’s problem.)
Patting the holstered dart gun, he got from Moon Dancer Mac checked the magazine. The weapon was similar to the once he used to implant in cattle with possibly ten vials loaded in the chamber. From the look of things, it didn’t actually shoot the darts, which means he’d have to get in close, stab the girls, and inject them. Given the number of vials, two shots in each girl might be enough.
Flying through a cloud of smoke Mac come across an area of land that wasn’t on fire, a large circle of barren earth covering a mile radius, fighting down below was Sixes against Maddie and Fluttershy.
Sixes looked ragged, his jacket was gone, his shirt half torn off, and one his pant legs were missing at the knee. The rinin himself looked haggard dodging both Fluttershy and Maddie with little tolerance for error having only brief seconds to try and get a hit in before the other charged at him. Forcing him to stay on the defense.
“Lava buckshot!” Sixes tossed a handful of heated stones that exploded in the air like fireworks. Gold fire danced on his fingertips, but Envy charged in and launched a wave of vines at him. He abandoned his crafting and fired another handful of stones.
Unslinging his maul, Mac picked his target as he drew the dart gun. Maddie just skidded to a stop, while Envy charged in, he waited. Maddie attacked. He dived toward the ground, counting the seconds as Envy engaged Sixes and Maddie fell back. The mad scientist skidded to a halt in his line of sight. He thrust the gun forward and gave himself a boast with his wings, but Maddie turned, saw him, and then let loose a sonic shriek!
Covering his ears Mac barrel rolled away toward Sixes landing beside the Rinin. “You got here sooner then I thought you would.” Sixes said, throwing another handful of stones at the girls. “But It’s good that you’re here. Keep them busy for me!”
Sixes jumped back, beginning to forge something, Mac having little choice but to comply with the demand as the girls focused their attention on him. Holstering the dart gun, Mac took his maul with both hands and swung at the approaching Envy unleashing a blast of compressed magic. She raised a wall of vines to block while Maddie ran in close like a snarling hunting dog.
He leaned in with his shoulder, throwing his entire weight against her smaller frame and sent Maddie flying back and flung his maul at her. Maddie let out a sonic shriek, but the maul powered through the hammer end slamming into her chest. Mac recalled his mallet as Maddie wheezed on the ground, her bones popping back into place while steam rose from her body.
“HIYA,” With a shout Mac brought the maul to bear on the prone Maddie. Aiming for her knee, Mac swung with all his might, metal meeting bone. There was a sickening series of ‘crack crack crack’ as Maddie’s left kneecap was pulverized. Much to his morbid fascination, the muscles and tendons instantly started fixing themselves, fragments of her shattered knee were pushed out of the body.
“Damn you!” Envy came roaring in from the west. Mac swung and fired off a compressed air shoot, throwing off her flight path. Envy’s wings caught the wind and pulled her back, he fired compressed magic at her, and she blocked with a green magic shield. “You won’t beat us, Mac! You won’t… bghbhgh!”
Envy’s rant was cut off prematurely as Sixes come flying in, his steel-plated knuckles digging deep into her face. Mac was sure he saw a few teeth flying through the air. Like a stone on water, Envy skipped across the ground. Sixes stood with his arm outstretched as gold steam rose to from his fist.
“I’m not done!” Sixes declared spitting molten gold onto his knuckles, the gold quickly shaped into rings on each of his fingers. “Ring of power: ATK +5, Ring of Power II: ATK +10, Ring of Power III: ATK +15, Berserker Ring: ATK Double!” All of Sixes’s muscles expanded with veins popping up everywhere, his fist shining with golden power. That wasn’t it either, he poured more gold on his left hand. “Ring of Magic: Magic +5, Ring of Concentration: Focus +5, Sorcery ring: Magic casting up, Ring of Solaris: All Stats +6! Rapid multi-craft Barrage of Solaris!”
All of Sixes’s rings exploded, but that was nothing as not one, not two, but five Spears of Solaris suddenly appeared before him, each of them glowing with intense power. One by one, Sixes took the spears and chucked them at Envy. Taking little more than second each to throw them. The space that Envy had been occupying looked like it just been carpet-bombed.
Mac could only gap in awe as the air pressure from the explosion rippled like waves in water, sucking up all the oxygen along the way. Many of the fires were instantly snuffed out, and Mac found he was short of breath as the shockwave breezed past.
“Are you fucking insane! We’re not trying to kill them!” He shouted, but Sixes wasn’t listening, he was already spitting more gold onto his hands.
“All ATK combo, Rings of Power I through VI and Rings of Magic I to VI, Axes of Apollo, Twin Suns!” With no other warning, Sixes launched the two Axes into the sky, the weapons turning into blazing balls of gold energy and broke into fragments that rained down like a meteor shower.
“Will you fucking stop already!”
Sixes wasn’t fazed by his screams and merely pointed toward what would most likely be Fluttershy’s final resting place, but when Mac squinted his eyes, he seriously thought he needed glasses because Fluttershy was floating in the sky holding her arm, hurt, but still alive. She hovered there for several seconds before fleeing.
“She’s got the green alicorn Amulet. The same power that’s inside me.” Sixes pointed with his thumb to his belly. “I was hoping that combo would have overwhelmed her defenses, but we can both clearly see it didn’t. By the way…” Sixes crafted a gold arrowhead and flicked it at Maddie. Flick wasn’t the right word, the arrow headshot shot through Maddie’s regenerated knee like a bullet. “Don’t turn your back to the enemy. That was lesson five Mac.”
“Right, sorry.” He replied, pressing his knee against Maddie’s stomach, she screamed and clawed at him, but couldn’t seem to decide between attacking him or cradling her knee. Naturally, Mac took advantage of this and pulled the dart gun from his holster and stabbed the needle barrel into Maddie, right in her shoulder blade. He pulled the trigger once, removed the needle, cocked the gun, and then jabbed it in Maddie’s other shoulder and fired again. Maddie’s struggles stopped.
“What’d you do to her?” Sixes asked, standing over Maddie.
Getting off her, Mac stated, “Hopefully cured her.”
The both of them stared as Maddie’s face relaxed, steam rolled off her body, and her skin began to return to its peachier tone. It was all looking good until Maddie shot up and puked out a bunch of black vile and started sweat out a foul black oil. The two of them cringed as Maddie became a haggard puking wreck, she let out wails of ear-piercing pain as every bit of darkness was purged from her body. She began to dry heave, and it looked like it was about done, when she started to choke, Maddie pounded on her stomach and puked out a black snake!
“I got this.” Sixes declared shooting a small fireball at the snake, burning it alive.
Maddie’s troubles weren’t over though, her hair turned bone-white, and she spat up four black balls. Upon closer inspection, Mac and Sixes saw that the spheres were in fact eggs. Sixes burned them as well.
“Maddie, you ok?” Mac inquired offering a hand to the hopefully cured mad scientist.
Maddie looked at him dead-eyed, her face haggard and covered with sweat. “Do I fucking look, OK? Macintosh? I just spit up a king cobra sized snake and its litter! Why don’t you shove a long phallic object down… ”
“Ok, ok, I get it.”
“Do you really? Because I feel like I just puked up a horse…”
“Focus, Maddie!”
“Right, right, so what’s the situation? And what the hell did you inject me with?” Mac pulled one of the darts from the chamber and handed it to her. Maddie frowned as she inspected the small vial. “What the fuck am I supposed to do with this? I don’t have any analyzing equipment on me! Wait, wait, sorry I see a serial number. Compounds are…” She trailed off mumbling to herself. “Hmm, Moon Dancer make this?”
Mac nodded.
Maddie laughed softly, “What a smart little cookie she is, I’ll have to give her a kiss when I see her. I would have never thought of this combo.”
“So, what is this stuff?” Sixes inquired taking the dart from Maddie.
“It’s… a… it’s better if you don’t know. I’m not sure Moon Dancer even knew what some of the compounds are actually made of. Scratch that she doesn’t, some of it was stuff my dad somehow got from Equestria and other places.” Maddie refused to meet Sixes' gaze. The rinin handed the dart back to Mac and let the matter drop. He knew what the Madhoof and his colleges used for material, and he didn’t want to revisit that pandora’s box.
“How many of those do you have Mac?” Asked Sixes steering the conversation away from just what they were injecting into people.
Mac softly counted the darts again, “Eight total, I thought we’d have to use two for each of them. It’s Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, and Fluttershy that’s left, right? How did your plan with Shadow Specter go?”
“We haven’t had a chance to use him yet. We were trying to soften them up so he’d have a better chance of success. These darts will hopefully give us a better shot.”
“Speaking of that, thanks for shooting my fucking knee after it just regenerated you prick!” Maddie screamed. She hissed as she pressed her palms against the gushing wound, the numbness from the antidote wearing off. “Please tell me one of you knows healing magic.”
Sixes held up a glowing red claw, Maddie gulped as he knelt beside her. “Fuck… give me something to bite.” Maddie bemoaned Mac tearing off a piece of his shirt and balling it up for her. Teeth clenched tight against the fabric she nodded for Sixes to seer the wound. The smell of her flesh being grilled had the odd effect of making her hungry.
(When was the last time I ate?)
“Let’s go, Envy is probably flying towards Kira and Shadow.” Sixes helped Maddie up and cradling in her arms princess style as he took flight with Mac beside him. Flying into the smoke-filled sky in search of the others, but they only found fire and haze. The heat created a powerful updraft that had tornadoes of fire springing up everywhere. The area was so saturated with magic; it was impossible to pinpoint anyone.
“Mac take these.” Sixes moved Maddie into a shoulder carry and tossed over a blob of gold that turned into four rings. “Those will buff your stats a bit. We’re going to need every advantage.”
Mac fixed the rings to his fingers, feeling his strength rise as he took up his maul again. In the distance, he saw lightning raining down from the sky.
“That’s most likely Kira, let’s go!” Sixes sped up, and Mac matched, the two of them soaring through the air. As they flew, Mac couldn’t help but notice Maddie’s worried expression as she inspected the dart gun.
He flew closer, “What’s wrong?”
“I wonder if this will be enough,” Maddie said absentmindedly. “The others are much further along than I was. This might not… well, we won’t know until we try.”
“We’ll find out soon enough.” He replied, steeling himself for the fight ahead.
Glowing rocks rained down from the sky, Kira flung a blade of lightning at them, making them explode prematurely. She backstepped deflecting several Lightning lances with her short sword and used her long sword to deflect another barrage of explosive stones. A strong wind blew smoke in her eyes, making her swing blindly. A lightning lance pierced her shoulder, while the pebble bombs pelted her. Kira skidded to a stop; her breath short as she patted down the fires on her kimono.
“You girls actually learned something since last time. I’m almost proud.” Praised Kira, mostly it was just to buy time to catch her breath. She didn’t like to talk about them, but she did have weaknesses. Heavily armored enemies and long-ranged attacks. There were a few ranged attacks in her arsenal, but close quarters were her bread and butter. This barren blazing wasteland was another disadvantage. There was nothing to use for cover or to use to get the drop on the girls.
“Don’t think we’re going to get distracted, old crone! You’re dead!” Spite spat throwing a glowing baseball-sized stone.
Now wanting to ruin her blades edges Kira fired a shot of lightning to blow up the stone and took two lightning arrows from Ebony in the thigh. The attacks didn’t really hurt her that badly. Mostly they just burned her flesh and made her body a bit numb. Lightning was her element, so she had some resistance to it. If it hadn’t been black lightning, it probably wouldn’t have hurt her at all. Really it was the dark magic in the electricity that was doing the real damage.
Thunder rumbled up above, heavy rain fell from the sky, dosing a lot of the flames. “BIG THUNDER!” Ebony shouted, several bolts of lightning fell from the sky and converged into one giant bolt, almost like a beam, the radius of the attack was large, and the rain caused it to surge in power.
Kira rather than waste time dodging an attack she couldn’t avoid. Crossed her swords over her head and endowed her blades with magic, the runes engraved on the jade tinted steel came alive encasing her in a protective sphere. Rising her long sword to the sky, she pointed her wakizashi at Spite. Ebony’s big thunder made contact with the tip of her sword, the entire attack compressed into the tip of the blade, lightning danced down her arm through her heart and into her other arm, the runes on her wakizashi sparking with power as a beam of compressed lightning shot from the tip. Spite held out her fake hand, the lightning burning the wooden appendage and charring it.
“You dumb cunt!” Spite sneered at Ebony as the attack fizzled out, Spite’s arm regenerating. “Why don’t you actually think before doing something for once in your stupid life!”
“You shut up! How was I supposed to know she’d do that? Huh!”
Spite brushed a waterlogged strand of hair out of her face. Held out a rock in the palm of her hand and imbued it with magic, the stone glowed and fizzed, but did not explode. She then chucked it at Ebony in a fit of anger. “How am I supposed to make things explode when you soaked everything! It may be magic, but my powers are still beholden to basic fucking physics! You can’t light a wet match!”
“Just dry them out!”
“Can you get any dumber?”
Before either girl could argue further, Kira, growing tired of their banter fired a white bolt of lightning into each of them. Spite and Ebony clutched their throats as darts of electricity protruded from their throats. A black mist rose from the affected area.
“Not enough to purity you, is it?” Kira muttered while pulling the jug of sake hanging of her sash and poured the contents on her katana. The blade shimmered with a white aura. Stalking toward the two, the elder rinin stuck the glowing sword into Ebony’s chest, black mist rose from the wound and Ebony screamed as her flesh began to sizzle. Kira pulled prayer beads from her sleeve, clapped her hands, and began to pray. “Oh, Ancestors of my beloved, heal this lost child of her affliction, purify the demon that dwells within her.”
Kira clapped her hands again, complex symbols of light appeared beneath Ebony and fired pillars of white light through her body, the more black mist rolled off her body, the more Ebony’s screams increased in volume as her body burned.
“Shadow!”
“Right!” Shadow Spector who had been sitting back, emerged from the ground and entered Ebony’s body, the blue girl lurched forward with vile black pouring from her mouth. Red wings sprouted from her back and she tried to flee, but Kira cut the wings off with her short sword and poured sake over the wounds. Ebony’s screamed increased even more as black bubbles of blood boiled from the slits in her back.
“Keep working on her, I’ll start purifying this one.” Kira turned her attention to Spite who was still withering in pain from the lightning spike in her throat. Her mouth moved, and Kira was sure she was throwing vulgar insults at her, but all that came out was a hoarse scream. Taking her jug of sake, Kira pinched Spite’s nose closed and pressed the mouth to her lips. Sake spilled out between Spite’s mouth, but Kira merely pushed the bottle further into her mouth, like a mother forcing a newborn to feed. “Where I’m from this stuff is considered akin to holy water, so don’t be so wasteful!”
The same black mist began to rise off Spite’s body. Kira watched with disgust as the SIN snake squirmed beneath Pinkie’s flesh, the snake’s body budging against the girl’s dark pink skin as it tried to get away from the purifying sake. With her claw Kira cut into Spite’s flesh and dug her fingers in deep, trying to grab the snake’s head.
“Came back here, you little parasite!” The snake dived deeper into Pinkie’s body, the bulge appearing on the girl’s back. “Damn little worm!” Burying her hand up to her knuckles Kira let loose a blast of electricity. The smell of cooked flesh filled the air, Spite, the snake, burst from Pinkie’s back withering in pain and smoking. With her free hand, Kira grabbed the snake by the neck and pressed her thumb on the top of its skull and squeezed. She grinned viciously as little menace squirmed, but she wouldn’t let it get away, she began toasting the snake with her magic, it withered and screamed as its body began to break down.
“Kira!”
Shadow’s warning come too late as vine shot through her shoulder and through Pinkie. Involuntary she let her grip on Spite slip as she cut the vine between her and Spite. Stumbling backward, her fingers slipped free from Spite’s shoulder. Five wooden spikes pierced her from behind. Kira cut the vine protruding from her back and staggered away from Pinkie/Spite. The snake diving back into its host body with glee. Shadow abandoned his attempt to free Rainbow Dash and possessed her. Saving her from another wave of vines that would have pierced her heart had he not possessed her body.
Phasing, through the attack Kira/Shadow, looked up to see Envy in the sky. The leader of the possessed girls swooped down and gathered up her two companions and flew off to the east.
“Get out!” Kira demanded, forcing Shadow from her body. “I appreciate the save, but I don’t like the feeling of having you inside my body.”
“Right, sorry.”
Upset at letting their prey slip away Kira plopped down on the ground and began to disrobe, throwing off her kimono top to reveal her bound chest. The white bandages stained with her blood.
“Pour this over my wounds for me, Shadow.” Kira requested holding out her jug of sake to the ghost man. He took the jar lightly pouring the contents to her wounds while she prayed. “Oh, Ancestors of my lover, speed up my healing.”
Kira’s wounds began to steam and close as artistic symbols appeared on the ground beneath her. By the time the ritual was done, Sixes, Mac, and Maddie landed before her.
“We cured one so far then,” Kira noted looking over Maddie’s disheveled appearance. “I am ashamed to admit I let my prey getaway. I was too careless, treating them as the same inexperienced children they were last time.” She stood and pulled her Kimono top back on and motioned for them to set Maddie on the ground. “I’ll tend to her, you two go off ahead. How are you doing Shadow?”
“Tired,” The Ghost man sighed sitting on the ground. “Sorry, I couldn’t separate the blue girl from her Sin. I almost had her, but… well… I’ve wasted a lot of magic for nothing.”
Sixes patted him on the shoulder, “We have alternatives thankfully, rest up and regroup with us later.”
He and Mac took off, leaving the three behind as they chased after the fleeing girls. Mac felt a bit of dread at Envy’s flight path indicated she was going back to town. The villainess suddenly veered north, and he worried she was going for the farm, but then she straightened out again.
(Where is she going?) Mac mentally pictured county map in his mind, trying to think of where they could be going. Their path was basically to nowhere… “Shit!”
“What?”
“She going to the town evacuation area!”
Envy led Spite and Ebony through the sky’s over Canterlot, she gave the town a wide berth, not wanting to attract the attention of the defenders. Sporadic gunfire popped off at them. The town's militia and police taking potshots at them. How’s they even know they were the enemy from all the way up here?
(Guess since Mac didn’t fly down to greet them, they assume he was defeated, or we slipped away. They’ll shoot at anything and everything whether they be friend or foe out of fear.)
Behind them, she sensed the approach of Mac and Sixes, they were a few minutes behind, enough time to enact her desperate plan. She hates to admit she was desperate, but she needed some more meat shields. Envy’s eyes gazed hungrily at the gathered townsfolk, waiting to be evacuated. Out in the open, exposed and crammed together like cattle. Mingled in that crowd was her primary prey.
“My children! Come to me!” Bats made of green energy materialized around her, dozens, hundreds of them. She cackled menacingly as her hungry gaze fell on the trembling crowd, most excitedly the schoolgirls. If her experience with magic was anything to go by, it tended to favor teenage females over males, and there was a wholes town worth of teenage girls primed and ready to be her new servants. “Get them!”
The bat descended on the crowd, parents and adults alike covered the children and teens, but that wouldn’t stop her bats. They ducked through their protective embraces, sinking their fangs into the unsuspecting girls. The reaction is instantaneous. Green bursts of magic erupted from the crowd, the infected girls transforming into Vampire Brides. All of them adorned with vicious fangs, leathery wings, and pointed pony ears.
They were basic transformations. Most likely they wouldn’t be any stronger than they had been when they first started this magic roller coaster ride, but there were nearly a hundred of them. One hundred innocent bystanders that wouldn’t hesitate to do her bidding.
“To all, Thessalians! Hear your Queen! The enemy is there! Go greet them!” With a cackle, she sickled her newly minted army at Mac and Sixes. “You two.” She denoted Spite and Ebony, “Go finish off the rabble.”
She pointed to the main street where the defenders were gathered. The gem told her four magical signals were coming from there. Weak, but they could become threats if given a chance to recover. This was her moment! She could win! She had the advantage and just had to press it!
“FULL THROTTLE FLAME!”
A tornado of fire shot up from the ground spiraling towards Spite and Ebony. The two of them fired explosions and lightning at the incoming attack, quickly negating it. Ferocious with Principle Luna hanging from his shoulders free fell towards the ground. It was with great delight that Envy noticed that Feri didn’t have wings, he had to use Luna to fly, and she was looking worse for wear. Maybe even more then he did. She barely managed to land them on the rooftop of a random building. The moment they touched down Luna last her wings.
“Pathetic! Spite, Ebony don’t bother with them, let the Brides take care of them.” Envy ordered nonchalantly sending her horde of new minions towards the defenders but made sure to keep twenty around as meat shields.
Gunfire erupted from the ground as Stryker, and the other humans rallied to fight against the Vampire brides, but their shots clearly had no killing intent in them as they hardly hit the girls. Most likely trying to shoot them down without hitting any vital organs.
“Envy!”
She turned around, Mac and Sixes making their dramatic appearance. Her vampire brides flew to intercept, Ebony and Spite acting as long-range support with their lightning and explosions. However, her meat shields weren’t as effective as she hoped they’d be. At least against a certain Night Patroller. While Mac clearly was holding back, merely tossing her Brides out of his way, Sixes blasted them with fire. Her meat puppets fell like burning flies, hitting the ground hard, withering in pain. Somehow, he was leaving them alive, but she doubted they’d ever truly recover from their wounds.
Sixes broke past Ebony and Spite aiming right for her. Mac aggravatingly met her two main minions leading them away. Leaving her to deal with the cold-hearted psychopath that was Sixes.
“You call me a monster! But who just downed seven innocent girls!” Mocked Envy, but Sixes didn’t take her bait, continuing to charge her. Snapping her wrists, she lashed out with two vine whips, which Sixes grabbed and incarnated them with his hands. His hand began glowing with gold, and he crafted golden spikes on to his knuckles. His first punch broke her barrier, the second landed in her stomach, the points exploding on impact!
Envy let out a horrid scream and slashed Sixes across the face with her claws, he grabbed her arms his hand burning hot, cooking her flesh. She kicked him, but he powered through, his wound searing closed.
“Your more of monster the I’ll ever be!” She screamed desperately.
“Maybe.” He replied coldly. But before he could do anything, a handful of her Vampire brides dogpiled him from behind, slamming him towards the ground.
Envy looked between him and Mac who was dealing with Ebony, Spite, and three Vampire Brides. She smirked viciously as she raised her hand and began gathering magic on the tip of her finger.
“Hiya!”
Mac swung his maul with all he had but relented at the last second opting to soften his attack against the transformed school girl. She was purple, with purple hair, Amethyst Star he thought her name was. He had graduated with her older brother. The girl was a red-eyed fang faced monster trying to maw his face-off, but it wasn’t her fault either. Even holding back though his attack was too much for her handle and he sent her flying into a building below.
She didn’t fly back up.
Before he could even start worry, another girl was on him. This time he used his hand, gathering magic in his palm he tried to just knock her way, but much to his surprise she grabbed his wrist and held on. He then realized her clothes were glowing. Spite/Pinkie was grinning devilishly with sparks shooting out of her palms.
“YOU BITCH!” Was all he could say before the girl, Roseluck, exploded. Mac hung in the air, Roseluck charred and naked in his arms. His entire right arm covered in burns. His flight magic faltered, his right-wing taking damage from the blast. Slowly he began to sink towards the ground. Roseluck moaned in pain, but he could do nothing for her.
“Have some more, Mac!” Spite shouted crazed touching three more girls with her sinister touch. The three of them flew at him, tears falling from their red eyes, but they still came. The more explosions rocked the sky, and Spite howled with a gut-busting laugh. “What fun! What torment! The irony of it all!”
“Shut up!” A blast of cold air shot out from the dissipating cloud, Spite used her fake hand to block the attack while Ebony fired a burst of lightning, but her attack broke down, becoming nothing but ions in the air. In the thinning black cloud Mac, shirtless and pissed off carried all four girls by their wrists.
“Take care of them!” He shouted, tossing the girls toward Feri and Stryker, but it was Celestia who caught them and brought them to safety. That taken care of Mac turned to Spite and Ebony as lightning arced over his skin. He inhaled, his chest expanding as the sound of static filled the air.
“THUNDER BREATH!”
Lightning shot from Mac’s mouth, that attack was so fast Spite didn’t have time to even think to dodge it as it blew a hole clean through her left shoulder. The attack was so focused it was more akin to a laser.
Not wasting his chance Mac flung his maul at Ebony, who used her speed to dodge, but she didn’t count on him be able to call the weapon back, and a chunk of her side was cleaved out by the ax head.
“GAH!” Ebony screamed, a swarm of Vampire Brides rush to their aid, dogpiling on top of him. Mac flung the mind-controlled girls away as gently as he could. Which still resulted in many of them crashing through buildings and making craters in the streets. His mind was whirling as the girls continued to pick, and pick, and pick at him, the lackluster slashes piling on top of each other. By the time he managed to knock the Brides to the ground, Mac was a bloody mess.
“Huff… Huff…” Breathless Mac whirled around to Spite and Ebony. Finding them nowhere in sight. Blood and sweat poured down his face into his eyes. Angry, he wiped the sweat away, flying in a zigzag pattern to keep from being a sitting target.
“Where are you!”
“Right here!” Ebony shouted.
Mac turned toward the sound of her voice, catching an explosion in the back, and then shot of lighting from the front. He staggered in midair still blind, firing off a lightning beam to try and keep the girls at bay. Another explosion and a lightning bolt hit him. His left leg a bloody burned mess and his right bicep numb.
“Oh, Maaac!” Sang Envy’s voice with glee. He turned toward the sound of it, feeling a tremendous amount of magic, and it was coming right for him!
“MAC!” He heard Sixes' voice and felt a rush of wind as they plummeted to the ground. Mac’s finally cleared his vision and found Sixes on top of him with a giant golden shield strapped to his back.
In the sky, Envy, Spite, and Ebony with more than twenty vampire brides floated with their hands aglow with magic. “Let them have it!” Envy commanded, her minions letting loose a rain of magical blasts upon the two.
The attacks struck Sixes' shield, the golden barrier absorbed several dozen shots before shattering to pieces. Sixes covered Mac the best he could as the attacks feel like rain upon them.
For forty seconds, Mac could only stare into Sixes' pained face as he took the brunt of the attacks. The smoke was so dense that nothing else could be seen and when the barrage had ended, Mac still able grabbed Sixes and ran into the nearest building.
“Why did you do that! Why!” Mac screamed as he placed Sixes against the wall. The rinin was delirious his words slurred, his head rolling limply, somehow, by some miracle he was alive. “Sixes stay with me!”
“Nico… quiet down… runt… this is… this is just a scratch…”
Mac stood speechless as Sixes' eyes closed. In a panic, he pressed his ear against the rinin’s chest, still hearing a heartbeat. (How is he alive?) Mac peeled Sixes from the wall, inspecting the Equestrians back, it was a wreck with burns and bruises covering the entire thing, but he wasn’t bleeding badly. Blood was seeping through the charred bits of flesh, but there was no blood gushing wounds.
“The pain must have been too much,” Mac concluded though he wouldn’t be surprised if Sixes' ribs and organs weren’t damaged. He lightly punched Sixes' leg, his body reacted. “At least you didn’t sever your spine.”
With little choice, Mac hid Sixes in the basement of the building. Turns out they were in the bank. He stuffed the unconscious Rinin in the vault which had been blown open at one point, but it would still make a sturdy structure for Sixes to hide in.
There wasn’t much time, and Mac hid Sixes under a pile of rubber-banded stacks of cash. Envy was sure to be looking for them. He had to keep them away from Sixes, god forbid she somehow turn him against them.
His hunch was quickly proven right as he heard the hiss of the Vampire Brides in the room above. He had to be thankful for villain laziness. Always sending in the minions first.
With a roar, he burst through the floor and slammed the Vampire Bride into the wall. He took a moment to feel regret as Photo Finish slumped to the floor.
“Sorry.”
More hisses caught his attention as what looked like the cheer squad stood outside the bank. Readying his maul, he charged them, even holding back as much as he could, he still one-shot them. The girls let out horrible screams of anguish. One of them was crying, holding her stomach, every movement was one of pain. He probably broke her ribs. Another girl was cradling her arm. Two were unconscious with blood pooling around their heads, and the last one was slumped against the wall.
Drawing the dart gun, Mac shook with anger. His rage is so great his eyes began to tear up, his emotions an absolute mess that he couldn’t hold back anymore. “RAAGGGH!”
Charging his legs with magic, he leaped into the sky, his eyes dead set on Envy, who through up a force field, so he changed his target and tackled Rainbow Dash out of the air. They careened to the ground, he stabbed the dart gun into her neck and fired the first shot. They crashed into a building, Explicit’s. In a pile of skimpy clothes, he held Ebony down with his knees, tanking her flailing random strikes as he cocked the dart gun. She squirmed, trying to keep the gun away. Mac threw his weight on top of her, knocking the wind out of her. With her pinned, he stabbed the needle where ever he could, in this case, below her breast.
He pulled the trigger and stumbled away as she began to wither. Black smoke rising from her body. Ebony/Rainbow screamed clawing at her chest, tearing her shirt apart to reveal the silver specs of jewel embedded in her chest.
“Fuck!”
Mac realized that was Grau’s jewel and ran to pry it out of her chest, but the fragments flashed, and a silver wave of magic blew him away. The pieces glowed and reformed into a small hexagon shaped jewel over Rainbow’s heart. The black mist stopped, and the darts were ejected from Ebony’s body.
“You’ll have to do better, boy.” The dual voice of Rainbow and Grau stated. A grey material began to sprout from Rainbow’s body, encasing her in bone armor. She reached out her right hand, a dragon skull formed and opened its mouth to reveal a cannon! “Die!”
The building exploded, and Mac came flying through the walls. Ebony, embodied with the power of Grau chased after him, brandishing a spine sword on her other arm. Clenching his fist, Mac activated the rings Sixes gave him, his fist glowing with gold energy, he skidded to a stop and punched the offending sword, shattering it to pieces.
One of the rings cracked and broke.
Following up the attack, Mac dug in deep and socked Ebony in the ribs. The outer ribs cracked and broke, followed by her actual bones.
The second ring broke.
With his power boast halved. Mac went for the knockout. He hit Ebony with an uppercut to the jaw, her head flying back an audible ‘SNAP!’ made him cringe as she fell flat on her back. His mouth agape, he just broke Rainbow’s neck!
“Shit…” He knelt beside her, unsure of what to do. Checking her pulse, he was relieved to find her still live. The silver gem in her chest pulsed, and the sound of bones popping disturbed him as Ebony’s neck fixed itself.
“What to do…” Mac eyed the glowing gem. There was no choice but to remove it, but he didn’t dare to until Rainbow fixed her neck. Seemingly understanding his intention, Rainbow’s body stopped just short of healing completely, leaving her head at an odd angle. “Fuck you.”
Ebony/Grau laughed in her dual voice, “I’m no fool boy, but you are.”
“What?”
The wall behind him exploded, pelting his back with debris. The cackle of Spite come from the new hole in the wall, along with another explosion! Mac flew forward, cracking his skull against the brick wall of the building. He got up, his face covered in blood, his vision obscured. Someone punched him in the gut, and then another bomb sent him through the wall.
“Poor, poor, little Mac. No friends, no family, and no one to help you in your hour of need. Just like always.” Spite stepped through the smoke and pressed her heel into his chest, digging deep. “How sad, so sad and pathetic. Did you really think that you? You, plain old Mac, could save the world?”
“I was never trying to save the world,” He coughed, grabbing Spite by the ankle. “I only ever tried to save my family. Even if they hate me for it.”
“What you….AHAGHG!”
In a swift and powerful move, Mac slammed his fist into Spite’s ankle, holding nothing back. The bone jutted out with an offensive snap. The last gold ring shattered. Mac holding Spite’s severed foot in his hand.
Spite screamed like a banshee. “What the fuck! What the fuck is with you and cutting off my limbs!”
Mac sat up and tossed the foot. “Have it back.”
Spite caught her foot, befuddled as she balanced on her remaining leg. Mac got to his feet and charged her, slamming her into the wall. Staggering back, Mac limped away and stumbled out into the alleyway.
Falling to his knee’s Mac pulled out the dart gun, groaning at he looked back at Pinkie’s prone body. His thoughts were everywhere, he couldn’t focus. He tried to get up and inject the party girl, but his legs wouldn’t move. Scratch that, his arms wouldn’t move either, going limp and dropping the dart gun on the dirty street.
In his limited field of vision, Mac saw a yellow hand pick up the dart gun, a delicate finger hooked his chin and raised his view to the glowing red eyes of Envy.
“My, my, you have been nothing but trouble, but even the mightiest fall, Mac. As Herculean, as you are, even the mightiest of heroes fall.”
“Hercules was poisoned.”
“Maybe, but my point remains.” Envy said while crushing the vials of antidote. “You’re next.”
Envy took hold of his jaw and began to squeeze, he grunted, feeling his bone crack under her mighty grip. He glared death daggers at her but could do nothing to stop her.
(Why won’t my body move?!)
“MAC!” A voice screamed from the sky. Envy looked up and was pummeled into the ground by Maddie, who expertly grabbled the villainess into a headlock. Sporting a new pair of leathery white wings, Maddie hauled Envy into the air, grinding her face against the brick wall of the building.
“Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!” Maddie screamed unintelligently, completely lost in her rage. “Fuck you for hurting him! The best man I’ve ever known!”
Maddie did a backflip and pile drived Envy into the street. If he could move, Mac would have cringed as Envy’s head was thrust into the earth, making it look she’d been decapitated. Leaving her there, Maddie ran over to him, only to be tackled by Ebony.
“Little cunt!” Ebony screamed slamming Maddie against the wall, her entire back exploding into a bloody mess.
“I just got that healed!” Maddie retorted clawing at Ebony’s face with her nails. Leaving four bloody scratch marks behind. Ebony covered her face and backed off, Maddie slamming her with a combo of punches to the face. A tooth skidded across the ground in front of him.
Screaming in rage Maddie socked Ebony one more time and knocked her against the wall of the other building. The blue girl slumped to the ground, steam rolling off her wounds.
“Come on!” Maddie urged, picking him up. “We gotta get out of here!”
“My body won’t move,” Mac informed her.
“Must be magic exhaustion. You overdid it, you fool.”
(I guess I was a bit reckless with my magic. I didn’t utilize it very well. I’ve never been this wasteful in a fight before.) Coming refreshed and fully charged had worked against him. He squandered his energy because he thought everyone would be on the brink of exhaustion.
From the rising steam from Ebony, and Envy pulling herself out her hole, he should have known better. Dark magic was a deep well. The girls were probably feeding off their life force, cutting months, maybe years off their life span to keep going.
“You didn’t forget about me!” Spite cackled flying through the wall, all the debris glowing and sparkling with magic.
Maddie hugged him and threw herself between him and the coming explosion. The blast hit both of them hard, Maddie’s eyes were wide staring into his with shock and fear. They skipped like a rock on a pond across the ground, flying separately from each other. Mac hit a parked car crashing into the interior. With a great effort, he managed to move and spot Maddie.
“No…”
She lay across the street, her mouth wide open, her eyes staring off into nothing, her body wrapped around a lamp post. Blood everywhere. He couldn’t tell if she was alive.
“Maddie! Maddie speak to me!”
She didn’t reply.
Mac pulled himself from the car, his legs were wobbly and wouldn’t support his weight, he fell to his knees as Envy, Spite, and Ebony emerged onto the street. Both Envy and Ebony were fully healed, while timber foot sprouted from Spite’s leg. More than two dozen blood-spattered Vampire brides joined them, each of them licking their lips of fresh blood.
Envy stopped in the middle of the street; her devious villainess smirks a violation of nature on Fluttershy’s usually meek face. She brandished her fangs swaying towards him seductive manner.
“My, my, finally at the end of your rope?”
“Don’t try to save face,” he spat. “You’re nowhere as powerful as you think you are.”
“True, if not for this McGuffin of a gem, I would have been defeated a while ago, but why deal with what ifs? You know?” She replied in a stupidly cutesy way, kneeling down next to him. “I think I’ll going to suck your blood and leave your body on display for Adagio to find.”
She bared her fangs, the tips brushed his neck, yet when she went to bite down. Envy fell through his body and busted her lips on the hood of the car. “What the hell?”
“Sorry, we took so long Mac!” Shadow Specter’s voice said from inside his mind. Mac looked to at his hands to see they were transparent. “I’ll keep you moving, you just focus on staying alive.”
In the distance, a haunting long drown out whining roar thundered; the sky flashed with white lightning as a what appeared to be a Chinese dragon soared through the air. It must have been a hundred yards long, and six wings adorned it’s back as it spiraled down to the street protectively encircling him. The dragon began to shine and shrunk to human size, revealing Kira.
“Damn wasted all my time just to get here.” She cursed, drawing her swords. Kira was visibly tired; her hands shook terribly like she had arthrosis or carpal tunnel. One of her swords clattered to the ground, and she was forced to her knees.
“Kira!” He/Shadow shouted to the valuable elderly woman.
“I’m fine! I just wasted too much magic healing the girl and transforming. How stupid can this old woman be! Acting like I’m still only three hundred years old.” She griped, trying to pick up her fallen blade, but her fingers wouldn’t tighten, they were stuck. Smashing her left hand against her knee, Kira made the grip on her other sword stick to keep a hold of it. Standing back up, she glanced over to Maddie. “Foolish girl, why’d you have to be so reckless. I guess I’m no better.”
Kira stood up a stance, but it was sloppy, a far cry from her usual strength.
Envy, still sporting a bloody lip, laughed along with the others. “Gods, this just keeps getting easier! You're all on your last legs! Scratch that you don’t have a leg to stand on!”
A gunshot rang out, and Envy’s head flew back, but there was no blood spray. The crumbled bullet fell the ground, a thin glowing green shield surrounded Envy’s body. Two more shots rang out, having the same effect, but the shooter was revealed to be Principle Luna of all people. She stood at the entrance of the alley, her hands trembling and tears falling from her eyes.
Envy gasped mockingly in surprise. “Oh my, look who it is! One of two the most pathetic and worthless educators in history! I shouldn’t be surprised you’d try to kill one of your students. Nice shot, by the way, way to try and gun down an innocent teenage girl, Luna.”
“Shut up! I’m not… I’m not letting you hurt my godson anymore! You could be my favorite student, and I’d gladly put you down like the fucking animal you are!”
Envy’s smirk disappeared as she pointed a glowing finger at Luna. “The feelings mutual.”
“Luna!” Mac screamed, running to his save his godmother, but Ebony and Spite pounced, gunning for Kira. He roared and ran to intercept them, knowing he’d never make it to Luna in time. Grabbing Kira, he looked over just in time to see a gold chain take the blast intended for his godmother.
All eyes turned to see Sixes leaning against the wall with his arm outstretched.
“How the hell are you still alive?” Envy screamed frustrated to the sky. “Fuck it! Everyone kill them!”
The Vampire Bride’s barred their claws, Spite made her wood arm into cannon and Ebony summoned her skull cannon, everyone was in their sights. There was nowhere to go, nobody could save anyone, but themselves, and even that was iffy.
Mac/Shadow dragged Kira running for Sixes, who was collapsed on the ground. Luna was still by herself with a Bride gunning for her, and Maddie was still laying there. Her fate unknown. Everything had gone to hell and then some.
“YEEHAW!” An orange blur and a familiar voice cried out. Applejack, his little sister Applejack, decked out with dragon scales, pony ears, and a tail come flying to the recuse slamming into the brides going after Luna.
“Don’t leave me out sis!” Applebloom ponied up, shouted landing on top of Spite before sprinting off to carry Luna and Maddie out of the fray. But they weren’t the only ones. Diamonds rained from the sky. Rarity in a white trench coat stood atop a building with her hand outstretched.
“Today I make my amends!” She declared using her diamond to herd the vampire brides away.
A fireball came flying down the street and hit Ebony square in the chest, sending her flying. It was Sunset Shimmer, radiating with power and sporting red wings of fire and a glowing horn of energy. She held up her fist, creating another fireball.
“Thank you, grandma, Fist of Solaris!” She fired a follow-up shot at Ebony and then took off after her.
“An Apple is an Apple, no matter what world it may fall in.” Mac turned towards the next newcomer, a woman who would mostly be Applejack in ten years stood in the middle of the street with another him, but bigger. Pony Applejack, and Pony him had come to earth. Applejack thumbed her chest and smiled wide. “An all Apples are family! And family helps family! No matter what! Come on, bro, let’s deal with the small fry!”
“Yep!”
The two of them charged into the horde of vampire brides, cutting through them with ease, Pony Jack using her long legs to kick them into next week, while Pony Mac merely picked them up and threw them like they were toys.
“If you’re all here… then…”
“You got it, Hun,” The sweet seductive voice of his wife replied. Mac turned, breathless at the sight of Adagio, Aria, and Sonata walking down the street sporting a new gold-colored gem around their necks. Adagio slanted over to him and kissed him. “Leave the rest to us, this what we do, after all, all of us. We’re a family of monster hunters. Not just you.”
He didn’t know if it was her presence or words, but Mac relaxed and fell into his wife’s arms. Her body pulsed with a warmth he’s never felt before.
“Time to rest, Mac. We’ll take care of everything.” Laying Mac against a nearby car, Shadow merged from his body and stood protectively over him. “Thank you,” Adagio nodded as she and her sisters took hold of their new gems and marched down the street.
Envy, Ebony and Spite regrouped before them, the villainess girls hissing with contempt.
Adagio grinned fearlessly, thrusting her hips forward, arrogantly, “Let’s show these girls what real power is.”
“So says the washed-up has-beens!” Ebony snarled.
Adagio took hold of her gem and pressed it to her lips, a devious grin spread across her lips, making Ebony take a step back. “I think now is the time for a comeback tour. Let’s do it!”
The Dazzlings pulled their gems free and threw them to the ground. A brilliant flash of light engulfed the trio, it was so intense that it made Envy’s flesh smoke by just standing near it.
“What is this… this isn’t the magic of friendship is it?”
From the light Adagio, Aria, and Sonata emerged basking in gold magic, transformed into something that resembled Daydream Shimmer, but even more intense. The three of them were clad in white leotards with gold trim and fin-like armor, their transparent fin-like wings gold in color. Stretching out her hand, Adagio created a trident and pointed at the villainess.
“This is a power beyond mere friendship, and far is too complicated for the weak verb called love. It’s something you're all far too young to even comprehend. Not that I feel the need to explain it. Just sit back and let Holy Mother Adagio send you to the pits of hell! Come on girls, time for the comeback tour!”
Envy, Ebony, and Spite howled as Adagio, and her sisters began to sing.