//------------------------------// // Chapter 57 - Boss Fight: Cthorator. // Story: Terraria: Friendship Is Magic // by Pomp-Neigh //------------------------------// Everyone present on the flesh covered battlefield looks towards the skies as a large brain entity calls out to its ally. The Perforator’s Hivemind notices this and turns towards the entity seeking its aid. ”Lord Brainiac?!, how did they-” “All eyes on me, monster!”, Starlight exclaims as she lands a successful blow with her blade: Starfury, raining down pink stars in the process which causes the entity to cry out in pain. The unicorn is not alone as both Celebes and Zecora joins in and attacks their foe. The dryad would scorch the hivemind via her Fiery Greatsword while the zebra would repeatedly impale the hivemind with her spear: Dune Hopper. After sustaining various wounds due to a lack of concentration, The Perforators roars out in anger: ”Enough!, we shall continue this dance of ours very shortly!”, Suddenly, a bright red light emits itself from the entity which causes Zecora, Celebes, and Starlight to shield their eyes from the sudden surge of light. Claiming the opportunity, The Perforator’s Hivemind rushes towards the direction of Brainiac while its foes remains temporarily blinded. Brainiac was currently filled with anger and hatred, especially towards the four mares who had damaged the entity’s form. Fortunately for The Brain, the spawn of Cthulhu enacts an unusual plan as it then notices its ally, The Perforator’s Hivemind, drawing near. ”Lord Brainiac, how did they find you?!” ”That is not of any concern right now. Come hivemind, let us become one!” Upon hearing those words, the hivemind lets out a chuckle before exclaiming: ”Yes!, the time has come for the ultimate mind and the perfect body to join together. Let us achieve, perfection!” As this is going on, Twilight, Rainbow, Pinkamena, and Applejack finally erupts out of the same large hole that was created by The Brain. The ponies all look up to the sky only to bare witness to an unexpected event. However, they weren’t alone as everyone else present gazes upon the bizarre yet incredibly foreboding event taking place: Brainiac and The Perforator’s Hivemind starts to fuse together. [SHIM] [WHIRL] Rarity, Ritsu, Ceeman, Helena, Sai, and Vinny all suddenly appear in a beam of light mixed with ice thanks to the Ice Mirror. They were about to question their current predicament until the group joins everyone else present as they gaze upon the union taking place high above. Nearby and positioned within a small crater, Terralestia coughs up blood as she slowly starts to regain consciousness and says: “Wha... What’s going-”, The terrarian’s words stops dead in their tracks and her eyes widen in horror as she too bares witness to the event taking place high above. The forms of Brainiac and the Perforator’s Hivemind starts to meld together in a large blob of flesh. In addition, the three large flesh worm entities starts to float towards the union as if they were being sucked in by a black hole. The flesh worms joins the giant mass as it continues to pulsate and shift chaotically. This uncomfortable event causes some who bare witness to say: “That is absolutely disgusting!” “What’s going on?!” “No way... They look like they’re, combining?!” “Everyone be ready!, things are about to get crazy!” The writhing mass of chaotic flesh now starts to take on a new shape. Six large tentacles starts to stretch outwards but most notably is the fact that each tentacle resembles the largest member of the flesh worm entities. The main portion of this new being was comprised mostly of Brainiac, however, The Brain underwent a change that was similar to what The Eye Of Cthulhu had undergone. A mouth full of teeth was now present but what lies inside is what seemed to be a heart with a singular eye that now gazed upon it foes, below the newly formed entity. Positioned at the bottom portion of the creature, specifically where one would consider to be the brain stem, was comprised entirely of The Perforator’s Hivemind. ”Gaze upon our greatness, lowest filth. We are the culmination of the greatest mind and the strongest body, we are perfection, we are... Cthorator!” Every living being present looked up towards this new abomination with various expressions: Fear, anger, disgust, even curiosity. Twilight and her fellow ponies comes together as The Mane Six once again becomes whole along with Starlight Glimmer and Zecora. In addition, all of their friends they’ve made ever since they came to this world stood alongside them. The terrarians, goblin, slime Princess, kitsune, dryad, and lihzhard all stands at the ready to go to war alongside the ponies, and zebra, they’ve all come to love and befriend. Soon, even Terralestia joins in as she recovers from her loss against The Perforator’s Hivemind via drinking a Health Potion. The lavender alicorn narrows her features in determination and with her Canterlot Voice in full effect, she exclaims words that are similar to what a certain Princess Of The Sun once spoke against Razeem, The Moon Lord: ”NO!, YOU DON’T SCARE US YOU MONSTER!. I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT’S GOING THROUGH YOUR MIND, YOU SEE US AS NOTHING BUT DIRT, DON’T YOU?!. OUR LIVES MEAN NOTHING AT ALL TO YOU I SUPPOSE?!. WELL LET ME TELL YOU, CHTORATOR, I CARE NOT FOR WHO OR WHAT YOU ARE!. WE WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO HURT ANY LIVING THING IN THIS WORLD ANY LONGER. A WORLD THAT I’VE COME TO CALL HOME ALONG WITH EVERYONE ELSE HERE!” All of the alicorn’s allies who were present hears her exclamation as they then start to let out loud war cries and sound the metaphorical drums of war. Only one word needed to be spoken, the same word that came to everyone’s mind as the entire force shouts in unison: ”CHARGE!” ”Come you sacks of meat!, come to your slaughterhouse!”, Cthorator roars out as the entire legion before the entity rushes forward to engage in aerial combat. The abomination lets loose all of its tentacles as the appendages opens their maws hungrily. A series of strikes plays out as everyone starts to attack the large entity, at least those who managed to avoid the tentacles and weren’t eaten alive like many others: Twilight, Starlight, and Rarity alights their horns and blasts the monstrosity at full power. Using her Starfury, Starlight rains down the stars from above all while still unleashing her magic from the unicorn’s horn. Rarity summons her allies via their respective staves and continues to fire her magic based ranged weapon: The Bee Gun. In addition, much like her fellow unicorn ally, she unleashes powerful beams of magic out of her horn. Twilight unleashed her fury via dual wielding her staves: Sapphire Staff and Storm Spray, while screaming out as she unleashes her full magical reserves out of her horn. Terralestia joins the three mares in their assault and also duel wields the same staves as Twilight while also firing sharpened feathers from her wings, similar to what the harpies performed against Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy orders her summoned allies to go forth and attack their foe in full force, Princess Pinkie staying behind to protect her friend and summoner. The shy pegasus also fires away at the entity with her bow: The Bees Knees. Applejack and Pinkamena bump hooves as they then rush forward with their Rocket Boots all the while zooming towards their large foe via their Flurry Boots. Drawing their blades, which consisted of Applejack’s: Blade Of Grass, and Pinkamena’s: Bee Keeper, the two speedsters avoids the large tentacles and the opened maws at their end that tried to eat the two mares in the process. After performing the evasion, the two ponies starts to cut away at Chthorator and pieces of its flesh starts to fall off in the process. All the while, Celebes also cuts away at the entity and setting it ablaze thanks to her Fiery Greatsword. Rainbow Dash, Zecora, Ceeman The Arms Dealer, Gorglock The Goblin Tinkerer, Vinny The Demolitionist, and Gex The Witchdoctor all fires away at the entity in unison, using various attacks. Rainbow unleashes all the ammunition that was left of her Star Cannon all while Ceeman blasts away at their foe with a Minishark. Gex speaks in his native tongue and unleashes a large surge of ice projectiles from the lihzhard’s staff. Zecora repeatedly throws her magically enhanced spear, Dune Hopper, as the weapon multiplies itself into three identifiable clones, pierces the entity, and then returns back to its owner. Gorglock throws various Spiked Bombs, which was a result of combining a Spiked Ball with a Bomb, which results in various explosions. Incidentally, Vinny also joins in on this explosive event as he tosses sticks of lighted dynamite. Helena The Nurse makes her way around the battlefield as she heals anyone who became injured as a result of Cthorator’s retaliation. The injured, or at least those who managed to survive the monstrosity’s attacks, would go back down to ground level and seek aid from The Nurse before returning back to the war that was taking place high above. Sai Sahan and Tanner The Guide were giving out orders to their ground based forces which ranged from Mages unleashing their magic to Rangers firing upon the floating entity, being doubly sure not to hit their allies in the process who were still fighting high up in the air. The battle rages on and the large force continues to fight with all their heart and soul. Suddenly, Cthorator starts to glow with a red aura, its tentacles moving about chaotically, and roars out in exclamation: ”You underestimate the power of our body and mind!, you are now subjects to our will!”, A very familiar scenario takes place as everyone present is surrounded by a red aura. Sai Sahan and Rarity, despite being in two different locations on the battlefield both on the ground and in the skies, instantly recognizes this form of retaliation and shouts: “Oh no!, everyone!, it’s going to use Brainiac’s psychic powers!” - Sai Sahan. “Prepare yourselves!, darlings!. This is the same move that brute used against me and Sai!” - Rarity. Sadly, their warning does nothing to stop what happens next. Those on the ground are all raised high into the air and those who were already airborne are currently struggling in place. Then, everyone is forced down to the earth which causes them to crash violently into the fleshy landscape below. All beings present lets out various painful exclamations as they are then raised up again and slammed into the ground once more. This repeats for five more times before the red aura around everyone dissipates and, most disturbingly, they are all dropped down to the ground and either ends up unconscious or badly injured to the point that they can’t go on any longer. What was once a large force of adventurers and various forms of life who rose up against the abomination, was now scattered amongst the landscape. Among them, Twilight grits her teeth in pain as the alicorn looks around and takes in her surroundings. She could see some of her friends, those from Equus and Terraria alike, lying unconscious on the ground while those who were a bit more durable such as Applejack and Pinkamena, grits their teeth in pain as they struggle to get back onto their hooves. The two mares holds onto each other as they limp towards their alicorn friend. Ritsu and Gex were still conscious but badly wounded as they painfully try to get back onto their feet while also seeing familiar faces currently unconscious such as Rainbow Dash and Rarity. Celebes throws some of the rubble off of her as she and Zecora gets back up albeit with some wounds present. Fortunately, the dryad had the foresight to save a certain individual on the battlefield: Helena The Nurse. Nearby, a large pink slime erupts out of some rubble as Princess Pinkie then releases Fluttershy from her gelatinous form. The Slime Princess returns to her normal form seconds after. Shockingly, the shy pegasus wasn’t just unconscious... She wasn’t breathing either. This causes Princess Pinkie to question: ”Goddess Fluttershy?” “...” ”P-please... No... Wake up, fluttershy.” “...” Princess Pinkie puts a pink tendril onto her pegasus friend and suddenly gasps as she then says: ”No... No!, her life is slowly diminishing!, I was too late!.”, The pink slime then hops onto the pegasus before she continues with what could best be described as a prayer: ”Slime gods, please, I beg you to save her life. Please, Fluttershy loves slimes like us and she has never wronged us. The Slime Staff has saved her before, the very same staff that embodies your will. Please, I beseech you great ones... I’ll pay whatever price you deem fit if need be... Just, save my friend. Save Fluttershy!” [THUMMM] [THUMMM] [THUMMM] An unknown sound suddenly emits from Fluttershy’s unconscious form, it could best be described as a heartbeat mixed with a powerful vibration. Then, The Slime Staff materializes itself and floats before Princess Pinkie. The staff was covered in a red and purple aura as two voices suddenly speaks from the object: ”We hath heard thy prayer, my child. The one known as Fluttershy is more than deserving of our blessing. We have been observing this pegasus since the day she was granted: The Slime Staff.” ”We shall happily preserve her life, in exchange, we would like for Fluttershy to become the bearer of our essence: The Core Of The Slime Gods.” The red and purple aura suddenly leaves the staff and begins to meld together as an orb like object forms in the process. This orb lowers itself and phases right into the pegasus’s body, specifically, over Fluttershy’s heart. The two voices chuckles in unison as they say: ”As Princess Pinkie would often call thou...”, Suddenly, the shy pegasus starts to levitate and her body is surrounded by a red and purple aura. All of her wounds are healed in the process and her eyes are shot wide open as ‘Fluttershy’, says: ”Rise as our Avatar, Goddess Fluttershy!”