//------------------------------//
// Demolition Destruction 
// Story: Living Darkness 
// by vildtiger 
//------------------------------//

Note: this happens several hours after the last chapter.

**at Tavish's mansion**

“— I saw the rise of human civilization. I watched as the city you adore being built and it's destruction! I— Merasmus knows so much more than you, you who are nothing more than a child—!!“

”Yes, yes I know you’re old and know so much more than little me. That’s why I’m asking you." The voice from the active orb flying over a bubbling caldron speaks.

Merasmus lowers his arms from the tirade he went on after have heard the absurd request this four hundred old Lux witch had asked of him. “I have more important things than brewing you silly love potions, Aramis!” He shouts irritated at the orb that is the direct contact to this other magician. He pinches his nose in annoyance when this kid of a witch begins to whine.

”Oh, why do all of you Umbra has to be so stingy?! You are so unfair~! Here I am losing my powers and also the herbs meant for the potion and when I ask for a tiny favor. The oldest and wisest of us refuses to help a youngster out. This potion is what allows my safety against the meanie humans~!”

“FINE!!” He shouts. “I will make you the potion if you STOP whining! But oh Aramis, you owe me big for wasting my time on something you easily could’ve done before the Equinox!” Not that she is going to listen, brat always tried to avoid potion making as she considers it too messy for her delicate hands. She’s never going to reach the age of thousand if she keeps up this lazy behavior.

“Oh think you so much! You’re the best!” Aramis cheers and the orbs stop glowing, sign she has hung up.

Merasmus groans loudly, now he has this to think about as well and he has to do it soon. The plant needed does not grow in the winter months and for the potion to have least after effects, the plant should still have its flower. “Lux… always think they are better than anyone…” He grumbles annoyed about having to deal with the light vision of the magical-gifted people. He much rather speaks with another Umbra, at least there he knows what he will be dealing with. Most Umbra prefers to stay secluded, in peace and practice their magic. Only give out their aid to those they consider worthy.   Merasmus is actually an exception as he has on his own contacted humans and used them to protect himself like a Lux would’ve done. He realized quickly that had been a bad idea, and yet Soldier had kept him safe during his time of weakness— even if that man has caused been more trouble than his safety ever was worth.

“Butler! Get out from your personal crypt, it’s time for my tea!”

Looks like Aramis has to wait, as he said; he has more important things he will be doing. “Be there in a minute ma’am!” Merasmus calls back, he grabs the orb and returns it back to the casket where other orbs lie. He then returns upstairs in order to tend to the bossy but quite good company old woman. He speaks a small spell and the tea starts brewing itself, while it does that, he prepares the tray with cups, medicine, and snacks in case she wanted that. Right, when he finishes, the tea has been made and another spell, the hot liquid flies into the teapot. He carries the tray into the living room and puts it besides Demoman’s mother. “Here’s your tea.” and since he has done this many times since he was giving this task, he put the sugar she wants into the tea and hands the cup to her.
Demo’s mother takes the cup and after have sipped it, she remarks. “Your talking book has been louder than usual. Keeps yapping about some master.”
The word master catches Merasmus attention, usually, the bombinomicon is its usual prankster self around Demo’s mother who fortunately can handle the magic book throwing bombs around, all thanks to her entire family being specialized in explosions and she has gained some kind of sixth sense on where to stand in order not to get hurt from an explosion. That saves him the trouble of constantly having to fight bombinomicon of not doing its magic near the mansion.
“I’ll be right back.” He tells her and heads over to where he last saw the sentient book.
Merasmus finds bombinomicon outside and from how it is jumping around by its own magic, something seems to be up. “What is the meaning of this behavior?!” He asks it in his magical voice.

Bombinomicon flies over to the wizard, not sure if it should be ecstatic or scared to the core of the voice of its master, commanding it to turn against Merasmus and destroy everything. “My master is coming, and boy does he want to mess you up!” It laughs but not as happy it usually does since it does like the many fights against the humans this untalented wizard put it through. “I hear his voice, no not my real, real master, the magic my real master put in me. That is the master I hear and he tells me to throw all my bombs at you.” It explains Merasmus as it jumps around the confused wizard.

“You didn’t hesitate of doing that in the past.” Merasmus remarks suspiciously of why the book does not want to do that prank this time. “What’s stopping you now?”

“Hey, those were good pranks, no real harm done!” Bombinomicon explains and laughs at the fond memories of it messing with Merasmus by turning the mercs heads into bombs and they ran into the wizard, blowing him up. Ah, good times— “But what dark-magic-master here wants is the kill you for real. And don’t let this get to your head, but I like you, Merasmus. Don’t wanna kill you for real, so I won’t obey master. But uh…” It flies behind the wizard in a sheepish manner. “I cannot help you either, you are on your own on this one.” and it disappears into a pocket dimension.

Before Merasmus can drag bombinomicon out from that dimension, he feels the aura of dark magic. Not the dimension and necromancy dark magic he and other Umbra magicians use; it’s nothing compared to the intruder’s magic. Merasmus summon his staff, wary for a fight. Last time he felt this kind of this chaotic magical aura was when he was in Equestria, standing up against a creature of chaos.
It’s not the chaos spirit though, but a man standing on the nearby hill. If not for the strong dark magic aura, Merasmus would’ve mistaken this person for an ordinary wander, but’s clear this is not some harmless human and ready himself for battle by summoning skeletons of the animals bombinomicon has killed during its bombing rampages. “Raise! Raise from your graves!!” He shouts in his magical voice and points at the intruder, the skeletons and zombie animals charges at the man who doesn't move, not even when the dead animals bite and scratches at him. To Meramus's horror, he realizes that the dead animal's attacks don't do anything against the person! “This is not good…” He muses, now afraid.
Maybe more firepower? Worth the try. He opens a pocket dimension and calls out. “Monoculus! I summon thee! Take out this fool!” The monster eye appears in a burst of booming laughter, takes a moment to orientate itself, then blasts eyes on fire at the intruder.

The intruder gets knocked down by one of the missiles, does quickly jumps on his feet and the next eye projectile the intruder punches back and hits the  Monoculus so hard that it rams into the mansion and explodes, taking parts of the building with it as it got banished back into its own pocket dimension.
Merasmus lets out a pained scream as he stood right beside the eye and got hit by its explosion. “Son of a— ARGH!” He cries out when some kind of monster from Monoculus dimension managed to escape cuts him over the leg with its incredibly sharp tail. He swings his staff at this snake monster thing and hit it away so it won’t cut him with its tail. Unfortunately, not having eyes does not make this creature blind, it “stares” at him before it charges as it readies its tail for another strike. Merasmus shoots magic at it but this creature is fast and in mere seconds it jumps at him and slices his chest with its tail. If he has been a young wizard or a human than this would’ve killed him. Still hurts like hell though. "Babmo Bibrundo!" He retaliate and a burst of fire leaves his staff and surrounds the monster. At his luck, this monster is immune to fire as it barely phases it, only heat up its metal like horns and tail, not good. He fires a freezing spell on it, not the full spell hit though, but enough to cool down its metal-like body and gives him enough time to teleport away and summon the Horseless Headless Horseman. The specter attacks the snake monster and the specter does have an advantage. Whatever the bipedal snake is using to sense its surrounding, it cannot “see” the Horseless Headless Horseman and the ghost managed to get several hits in. Not it would kill it, this monster snake is not out of flesh but more like a flexible metal. The Horseless Headless Horseman jerks away when the snake monster gets a lucky hit by its sharp tail and slices off one of its arms, and this makes it hard for the specter to swing its giant ax. The snake desperately tries to find its target and when the specter accidentally steps on it, the snake strikes. Somehow able to slice the ghost up and banish it back to the realm of the death.
Merasmus is really starting to get worried, he is throwing everything he got at it and he’s barely making a dent on that thing! Not better than this dark being is still standing looming on the hill, not sure if he should consider himself lucky or be extra worried that thing hasn’t joined the battle.

The snake trashes around a bit more, not aware it won over the Horseless Headless Horseman, when it does notice the wizard again, it dashes towards the wizard. A familiar scream catches its attention and it stops, snaps around and right when it does, four bombs blows up. It staggers in pain as these bombs were powered by an Element. This gives the wizard enough time to get away and with that ancient old magic user out from its area of sight. The snake turns to the new fighter, staring at the blood pumping through the veins of this human. It twitches its tail in an appetite to get these blood veins of hunger only it understands.

Upon the hill, the shadow turns to the three that have come to defend two in exchange for their immortality of respawn. The shadow chuckles amused by this. “You sacrifice the chance of immortality for a worthless wizard and woman? How…” It takes a moment to get the right word for this. “Unorthodox.”



“I have no idea what the bloody hell you called us.” Demo reloards his grenade launcher and aims again at the shadow’s new pet in the form of a blind snake with front legs, spiked head and a long tail that has sharp blades on each side. Really a freak of nature this thing is. Does not matter, it is going to die. “But you can say that to the devil when I send you down to him!” and fires, the bombs hit right on and the snake lands hard on the ground, now wheezing from the attack powered by the very elements able to defeat these fuckers. Pyro runs over and sends a burst of flames at the shadow, at first the fire does nothing against the shadow but as hoped, the moment the shadow retaliate and makes contact to the firebug. The element appears around her neck and fuel the flamethrower of the element of Hope. That sent the shadow on the run.
In the excitement of watching Pyro fighting the shadow, Demo forgot about the shadow’s pet, that until the monster snake tackles him down and cuts him with that tail.
“Demoman!” Heavy shouts, grabs the snake around the head and hurl it so hard against the ground that Demo swears he got launched a bit up in the air from the vibration of that slam down. He notices to why when he sees the faint pink glow of the element around Heavy’s right hand. Demo completely forgot the big guy never used the crystal bark and thus his power. It’s easy to see that Heavy’s power is super strength, no real surprise though. The snake did get a hit in though, it left a large slash wound over Heavy’s chest, one he needs to get looked at soon or he will bleed out.
The creature begins to thrash, trying desperately to get free from its earthly prison, it will soon too thanks to those claws.
“Where’s Eyelander when you need that old ghost sword.” Demo muses and scans the area for the sword, but it’s nowhere in sight.
A dark laughter makes both him and Heavy look up, on a half-destroyed wall stand the shadow, now in form of what he presumes was a Demoman before him.

“If you want your precious sword back, look no further than the beast at your feet.” and with that, the shadow disappears in a cluster of black gems.

…No way… Demo slowly turns to the thrashing monster snake, is that really… no, it can’t be! Can the Shadow Ponies really do such things?
The creature gets free and goes straight for him, or rather, his head. “Eyelander!” He calls and tries to catch it and perhaps stopping it using the tail to chop his head off. The snake came at him so fast that the impact made them both tumble down onto the ground, he refused to let go of its extended claws though, even when its tail cut his legs. “It’s me, your pal Tavish!” He is not even sure if the shadow spoke the truth, for all he knows; this could just be a feral monster snake that wants to eat him for dinner.
Then, against all odds, the snake stops. Its snarling expression fades, the tail go still and it no longer tries to reach for his neck.
It makes some weird noises as if it's trying to speak. “Eyelander, that’s really you?” Demo asks again, utterly dumbfounded when the creature, at first befuddled as if it has just realized its current situation, then slowly it nods. “Bloody hell…” Demo gasps, he can’t believe his own eye of what the Shadow Pony did to his ghost sword!
He does snap out from his daze of the sound a wall breaking down, snapping him back to the fact that part of the mansion got destroyed in the fight. Pushing the snake monster Eyelander off, Demo runs over to the half-destroyed mansion, fearing the worst that his mother is in the wrecked as she liked to sit in that area. “Mom! Mom!” He calls desperately and begins to search through the destroyed wall and room.
He tries to remove a large chunk of a wall but can’t even lift the bloody thing. Suddenly it leaves the ground so quickly that Demo jumps back, looking up he sees Heavy hold the destroyed wall as if it weighed nothing. The two simply exchange a quick nod before Demo is back at searching again, calling for his mother.

Miss Pauling, who has been keeping her distance during the fight, slowly approaches now the battle is over. She notices the wrecked mansion and she hurries over to check on the damage caused by the fight. Does stop a moment to stare at the weird snake creature that stands almost awkwardly at the once battlefield. Ignoring the seemly harmless creature, she walks over to help, passing Pyro who has found Merasmus and pokes the wizard who has disguised himself as a bush.

“Tavish? Since when did you get home?”

Everyone snaps their head up and sees Demo’s mother, hair filled with debris dust and she does have a few scrapes as she had been near the blast, yet somehow didn’t get buried or hit by a brick. She stops right before the destroyed wall and asks. “Did this wall get destroyed? Have you been practicing close to the house again?”

Demo lets out a choked sound from the relief his mother is alright. “Ay I did, sorry for that mom.” He speaks still quite chocked up but is unable to stop smiling when she smiles almost proudly and leaves with: “Be sure to clean up and get a new wall set up too. Do not want any critter inside the house.”
“Yes mom.” Demo calls back and laughs, not really sure at what though. He does stop and slowly turns back to the transformed Eyelander, not sure how to tackle this very unexpected outcome.

**half hour later**



Out from the camper, the hare jumps out. It sits still for a moment, listening for any sound if the battle is still going. When it hears none, it starts moving in closer, stops again near the mansion, watches Miss Pauling recommend where Heavy should put the many pieces of the destroyed wall. The hare walks over to them and quickens its pace when passing the two so they don’t accidentally stumble or drop a wall onto it. It leaps over the debris and into the living room, does stop for a moment and stares as if trying to comprehend the sight of Pyro playing fetch with a skeleton cousin of this hare. The snow hare does quickly snap out from its confused daze and it jumps further into the mansion. It trots over to the dining table and stops right beside Eyelander. The monster snake doesn’t react on it, completely unable to see the hare which is allowing a certain man to listen onto the conversation Demo and Medic have with Merasmus.

“What? A Tree of Harmony has grown in this world?” Merasmus asks in disbelief of what the Scot has told him on how they were able to defeat one of what he now understand was one of Disharmony's shadows. A being not even the most powerful witch or wizard ever can defeat. “How is that possible?”

“The scientists… who created respawn… used… the banished Elements as the liquid… to make us… continue to be put back together…” Medic explains from his seat and must admit that the simple walk from the camper to the mansion was a struggle, but at least he can still walk so that’s a win.

Demo nods and further explains to the startled wizard. “And for some reason, those of us who survived the one-year death trial, we can get a certain power if we touch the tree.” Which makes him wonder if team Vanguard is doing well in saving the alpha respawn from whatever assault it is under? “I do wonder if the others can keep it safe”

“FOOLS!” Merasmus shouts at the two, now understanding the whole deal of why a shadow of Disharmony got so involved into a fight. Everyone in the mansion turns to him in confusion, he’s too angry about these idiots blunder to care, though. “This is what they wanted! The Shadow Ponies used your bonds to force you away from what is most important: the Tree of Harmony! That’s why it turned your ghost sword against you!” He shouts at them aggravated, nodding to the monster snake. Meramus turns back to the once sword’s owner. “You better pray this other team can protect it; or you will lose the only power able to withstand the Dark Forces and you have doomed both worlds into a new era of darkness!!”

Putting down the large chunk of the wall. “What wizard talk about?” Heavy asks confused on what Merasmus means of a new era of darkness.
The wizard sighs loudly and explains them in a surprisingly hard tone. “Long before any of you were born– about 1000 years ago. Past bearers of the remaining elements fought against the very forces you are currently up against. I do not know why, but no matter what those bearers did, the Dark Forces kept gaining strength and soon the heroes were destroyed. I helped Celestia and Luna in this fight, but we stood no chance against the powers of evil. Only when we took the crystals of the Tree of Harmony we were able to stand against the Shadow Ponies creations.” He points at the silver necklace around Demo’s neck. “What you have is only the shards but still enough to fight against the dark forces. HOWEVER, these shards are useless without the tree. And because you didn’t see the bigger picture and instead went to save two lives, you might’ve doomed us all!”

No one speaks, what Merasmus said have shaken up some of them, thinking that they did the wrong choice. However one of them does quickly get over it. Pyro takes off her gas masks and tells the wizard. “If respawn gets destroyed, we will find another way to fight the Shadow Pony.” She smiles and for once looks normal for the remaining mercs. “We always have.” They have already found a way to defeat whatever enemy they have been facing, the Shadow Ponies are simply harder to kill, that’s all.

Merasmus sights, he do at times forget these mercs are idiots… “There is no other way.”

Well, this is interesting new facts, the whole reason they were chosen to bear the elements is that the alpha respawn needs bodyguards. Not the reason he thought but Medic can take it. He does also think they got chosen to keep the true bearers safe as well, they are all adept fighters after all. Speaking on the Alpha respawn. “We should… contact… team vanguard… hear if we… need to worry if we… can no longer be reckless… with our lives…” Good grief, why does even talking take all the energy from him? It’s bad enough he can barely move and what he caught on: a silly cold can kill him. Oh, he will be so mad if a cold is what ends his life.

Miss Pauling dial the team’s radio code and tries to get in contact with them by her long ranged phone. She didn’t get anyone at first, but after an hour of constantly calling, she finally got hold on Vanguard’s female engineer and Chio reports to them about the fate of the alpha respawn. ”It was Grey who assaulted the building, we got rid of the robots and saved the respawn but unfortunately; as we’re not used of doing frontal assault… respawn took quite the beating.” A moment of silence and she explains them further about the issue. “You should be careful out there, the respawn zones are still there but smaller and I don’t think it can put someone together who has been blown up. It just does not have the power for it and no matter what we do, it won't gain more power.”

“It needs the crystals.” Merasmus speaks, pointing at the shards around Demoman’s neck. “They are the source of power to the tree.”

”Well, then we need to get those.” Chio remarks from the radio ”Where do we find them?”

Demo looks down to the necklace and with a frown. “The Elements are in Equestria.”

“Then that’s where you will be going if you wish to restore respawn.” Merasmus tells them.

Seems like they will be going back to the pony world, Miss Pauling does not really look forward to it but if it means to restore the respawn, then so be it.  Respawn is what makes them able to stand up against Grey's robot army and if she knows Helen right, they soon will have to fight her too, which will be tricky without the respawn. “Can you tell Ignis he should come to these coordinates?” She asks the female engineer and gives the woman their coordinates. Engineer promises she will and they end the call.
Miss Pauling turns to the remaining mercs of Team Fortress. “We better get that wall repaired.”
Heavy, Demo and Pyro nods and they head over to repair the destroyed wall. Demo does, however, stop to cast a look Miss Pauling can only describe as the worry for his mother, she does not need to ask what troubles him. The brief fight with the Shadow Pony has proven that Merasmus cannot keep his mother safe.