//------------------------------// // Subject 232: Cake Combat // Story: Interviews With Equestrians // by Jmaster49 //------------------------------// Her skills were so impressive that I just had to find out more about them as soon as I could. “Um, Cheery--where did you learn how to do all of...that?” “Hm? Oh, my sister’s a professional wrestler,” she explained with a rather flat tone, “I subbed in for her once and after that, I decided to learn more about wrestling.” When the subject changed to the art of combat itself, her voice perked up, “It’s very fun! Once you get past all of the bumps and bruises that is…” Fascinating was too small a word. I needed to know more of what she was capable of. “Oh, I’d love to see more. And do you think your sister could show--” Cheerilee cut me off. “Don’t think so. She’s got a different life now.” She rolled her eyes as she trotted on ahead of me. “Our parents always preferred how she and her partner chose to live, anyways…” Oh dear. That explained a lot of things about Cheery that I didn’t realize until now. But there would be time to address those concerns later. For the time being, we had to keep up our defenses. I could only hope that Redheart could manage where she was… But next, we came across Sugarcube Corner. Just like the hospital before it, it was also being overrun by numerous demons. But the key difference was that we could see more than one pony who fought to keep their rightful place secure. “EAT THIS!” a young voice shouted followed by the crash of a familiar hammer-shaped cloud into the earth which caused various demons to scatter. Pound Cake! But this time, alongside that was a blue magical aura that cast force fields to drive them back. “Just a bit longer until Pinkie’s weapon is ready, bro!” “Sis, don’t strain yourself--SHA!” he spoke in between a swing of his cloud hamer, “If you start to feel dizzy again, then feel free to take a--” But he was cut off when one of the demons tackled him to the ground. “Ow! Dammit!” He would have been hit with a corrupted blast of magic from the demon’s horn had it not been for his sister. Pumpkin Cake fired a blast of magic at her brother’s attacker. But this was no ordinary spell. The demon was stunned for a few seconds before their body started to mutate and wriggle against their will. They eventually dissipated into a violent mist of red and black that faded with the soft breeze of the town-turned-battlefield… “Woah,” Pound Cake remarked, “Just what did you do to it?” The yellow unicorn levitated her brother upright, and dusted him off. “I told you I was a master of healing magic. That goes both ways. I simply overloaded its regenerative capabilities until it caved in on itself.” “...What?” She let out a sigh. “I shook it up and made it go boom.” “Oh! That makes more sense! Sorry, I could never really understand all of your weird magic stuff,” he replied with a grin. “Well what you lack in magical skill, you make up for it with your bravery, bro.” Pound Cake flexed his wings proudly. “Heh. Knew it. I’m a genius--hey look out!” She heeded her brother’s warning, and performed an evasive roll to avoid the next demon that tried to attack her. But this was no ordinary one--just like Screwy before it, this one took on a different appearance. Instead of red and smoky, this one was all black with solid white eyes. Shadowy even. Hrm… Beside me, Cheerilee had already devised our next plan to set in motion. “Same deal as before, hun.” “Hm?” I said with a raised brow. “You help out the kids, and I’ll take care of the ones surrounding the bakery,” she pointed to a small group of demons that closed in from the West, “Apparently Pinkie Pie is charging up some sort of weapon, so we need to buy her some time.” Good plan. After I saw what my woman could do earlier, I was the last one that needed to be concerned for her safety. If anything, those demon grunts were in for a bigger scare. “Alright. Hurry back, though. We may need your help,” I said with the smallest hint of a plea. Cheerilee brushed off my concern as she started to run. “You’ll be fine, sweetie!” Dammit. She was too cute. Oh yeah! What was I doing?! I needed to focus. Those kids needed my help. I raced down the side of the hill towards Sugarcube Corner where the shadowy demon had appeared. “This one isn’t normal, you guys,” I warned them as I skidded to a stop, “I can feel its aura. It’s familiar…” We all stared up at it, and then Pound Cake commented on what he figured this could be. “Wait a minute...this is the thing Flurry told me about. A shadow pony! They ran rampant all over the Empire when Sombra was around. If only she were here…she’d know how to handle it….” he mumbled as nervous bullets of sweat ran down the side of his head. “Okay bro, we don’t have time to worry about that,” his sister urged him to stay alert, “I’m sure there’s a way we can beat this thing. Even without her help.” I was less than confident. While I had spoken with Sombra a few times in my dreams, I was unsure of exactly how to defeat a shadow pony without high level magic. And just who was that soul anyway? How did a shadow pony end up in Tartarus? Unless… No way. Could it really be him?