//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 pt 3: Battle in the Enemy Stronghold II // Story: MLP FiM x Fairy Tail: Wizards in Equestria // by SonnL //------------------------------// Freed Having been separated from his teammates, Freed wandered in the fortress alone before he was confronted by simian monsters wielding spears. With his sword, Freed parried any incoming spear strikes and cut down several of the attacking monsters. “DARK ÉCRITURE: DESTRUCTION!” Freed struck down the rest of them with magical sword slashes. “I have no time for small fry! I need to find Laxus and the others!” Bickslow and Evergreen After they were separated from everyone, the two members of the Thunder Legion ended up in the sewage system. There, they battled a horde of slug monsters. “LINE FORMATION!” At Bickslow's command, all five of his dolls gathered in midair and then combined by standing on top of one another. The dolls then fired a large, vertical crescent-shaped beam that cut through and bifurcated any slug monster in its path. “FAIRY MACHINE GUN: LEPRECHAUN!” Evergreen continuously launched a torrent of energy needles made from concentrated dust until all the monsters were destroyed. “Why did we get sent to a place so filthy?!” Evergreen snarled. “Rarity would surely hate it here. I swear I’m going to take all my anger out on the next dark unicorn I see!” “If they think splitting us up will give them the upper hand, or hoof, then let’s show them how wrong they are. I’m sure Laxus, Natsu, Gray, Erza, Gajeel, and Juvia are tearing through this fortress as we speak.” Bickslow grinned. “Let’s get out of this sewer as quickly as possible. We have to find the others, and we need to save Shining Armor’s daughter, assuming we’re not too late.” Evergreen replied. “Yeah, the Upper 5 general was a real piece of work.” Bickslow frowned. “I get that his family was taken from him by a cruel and spoiled princess that was born an alicorn, but what he did to Flurry Heart was too extreme. Flurry Heart didn’t deserve that kind of punishment since she is not that princess.” “I hope Shining Armor doesn’t run into him. I don’t think an upper general is a foe that he can handle.” The two wizards proceeded to search for the way out of the sewer. Gray Right after putting two dark unicorns in ice, Gray stumbled upon a dungeon where dark wyverns were kept in cages and cells. Once he entered the dungeon, all of the cages and cells automatically opened, releasing the monsters. Most of them went through doors that appeared in thin air, which sent them to other places in the fortress. Some of them spotted Gray and attacked him with dark energy blasts. “ICE-MAKE: SHIELD!” Gray defended himself from the wyverns’ attacks by creating a large shield of ice in front of him. He then fought back by firing a volley of ice arrows. Juvia Deeply worried about Gray, Juvia frantically searched for him. “Don’t worry Gray! We’ll be together again soon!” Three dark unicorns suddenly appeared and attacked her by firing flame bolts. Juvia deflected the bolts with whips of water and retaliated by blowing the dark unicorns away with a water cyclone. “Nothing is going to stop me from finding my darling Gray!” Gajeel, Levy, and Panther Lily As battles went on throughout the fortress, the three were surrounded by orcs armed with hatchets. Panther Lily fended off the orcs attacking him with a flurry of sword swings. “IRON DRAGON CLUB!” Gajeel attacked the orc in front of him by transforming his arm into a large iron club. He then struck many more orcs by creating multiple smaller clubs from the end of the original club. An orc swung a hatchet aiming for Gajeel’s neck, but he caught the hatchet with his teeth and broke it by biting down on it. He then grabbed and threw the orc at the other monsters. “SOLID SCRIPT: FIRE!” Levy wrote the word, Fire, in midair and the materialized word ignited, incinerating some of the orcs upon contact. Another orc charged at Levy from behind. “Keep your hands off her!” Gajeel shouted as he punched the orc in the face. Mirajane While searching for her siblings, allies, and Flurry Heart, Mirajane (in her Satan Soul form) came across five stone golems. Upon seeing her, the golems quickly attacked her with energy blasts from their mouths. Mirajane withstood these attacks, emerging almost unscathed. “DEMON BLAST!” Mirajane charged a large ball of dark energy between her hands and fired a dark purple beam at the golems, destroying them. While flying through the corridor she was in, she heard a skirmish occurring. She rushed to the scene and arrived at a wide-open area where pony soldiers were battling an armored humanoid monster standing around 20 feet tall and wielding a gigantic battle axe. The monster swung its axe and blew some of the soldiers away. The unicorns fired magic blasts from their horns while the non-unicorns fired energy blasts from their spears. Some of them threw bombs at the monster. Due to its armor, the monster hardly suffered any damage. “Our attacks are ineffective!” A soldier cried out. The monster was about to crush a soldier with an overhead strike, but Mirajane stepped in and stopped the axe with one hand. With her immense strength, Mirajane pushed the monster back. “EVIL EXPLOSION!” Mirajane formed a dark colored sphere in her hands and fired it, striking the armored monster with a devastating explosion that is powerful enough to break its armor off. With the monster’s defenses severely weakened, the pony soldiers fired a barrage of energy beams at the monster. Four pegasi impaled their spears into the monster’s chest and repeatedly fired energy blasts until the monster falls. After the threat was neutralized, three soldiers expressed their gratitude towards Mirajane as they saluted her. “Thank you, Mirajane Strauss!” “Appreciate the backup!” “I’m glad you’re on our side!” “Don’t thank me just yet. The fight’s not over.” Mirajane replied as a platoon of goblins arrived. Mirajane then switched her Satan Soul form to Mirajane Seilah. “I order you all to sleep.” Using the Macro curse, Mirajane forced the goblins to sleep. “Woah. That was easy.” A soldier complimented. Lisanna and Elfman came across a group of lizardmen standing guard in front of a large iron door. As they fought the monsters, Lisanna used her speed and agility to evade attacks and counter, and Elfman used his brute strength to subdue the enemy. Once the lizardmen are defeated, Elfman then used his fist to smash the door open. The two then entered a chamber filled with mist. “What could be in here?” Lisanna wondered. “This mist is thick. I can hardly see anything.” Elfman pointed out. The two siblings then heard hoofsteps heading towards them. “Something’s coming!” Lisanna was alerted to the approaching presence. Emerging out of the mist was a dark unicorn mare and the siblings noticed the silver number 3 on her left eye. “A Red Moon General?! She’s Lower 3!” Elfman exclaimed. “My name is Grim Mist. Pleased to meet you.” The dark unicorn greeted. “Just our luck. Remember the last time we fought a Red Moon General?” Lisanna said nervously. “Yeah, I know. But there are times when a man has to stand and fight. And this is one of those times!” Elfman charged towards the Lower 3 and threw a punch. However, when his fist connected, the dark unicorn’s body instantly transformed into mist. “What the?!” Elfman pulled back. After reforming, the Lower 3 formed a giant fist out of the surrounding mist and struck Elfman, sending him flying into a wall. Lisanna then lunged at the general with incredible speed and attempted to slash her, but once again, the general turned into mist the moment Lisanna’s claws touched her. Grim Mist then used the mist around her to grab Lisanna and slam her into the floor. “It’s no use. With my ability to turn into mist at will, your attacks won’t harm me.” Grim Mist boasted. Elsewhere in the fortress, the Mane 7 are engaging the Red Moon General Lower 5 in battle. While sitting on a floating carpet, Nightmare Art fought by bringing anything he drew to life. Creatures that the dark unicorn manifested to combat the Mane 7 were cyclopes, minotaurs, wyverns, giant serpents, sentient storm clouds, and crystal titans. The wyverns and storm clouds guarded him, preventing anypony from just flying up to him. When Rainbow Dash attempted to bust one of the storm clouds with her hooves, she was zapped and launched back by an electrical field the moment she touched it. She also tried using wind to blow away the storm clouds, but they blew out powerful gusts to match Rainbow’s attack. Twilight fired magical beams, but the wyverns breathed out streams of dark purple flames to clash with her attacks. While Twilight and Rainbow were preoccupied with the wyverns and storm clouds, the rest of the Mane 7 faced off against the cyclopes, minotaurs, giant serpents, and crystal titans. Starlight fired a barrage of magic blasts, and Rarity conjured a volley of harpoon constructs. The cyclopes and minotaurs proved to be formidable as they used their spiked maces and axes to defend themselves from incoming attacks. Applejack managed to harm some of them by erupting large rock spikes from the floor. Starlight used telekinesis to take their weapons away and used them against the monsters. Meanwhile, Pinkie unleashed a bombardment of colorful cannon fire from multiple party cannons. Fluttershy had a pack of ethereal wolves to battle the cyclopes, minotaurs, and serpents. An ethereal bear stood close to her like a bodyguard. One of the serpents lunged at Fluttershy, but the ethereal bear used its arms to stop the attacker. Pinkie then destroyed the serpent with a party cannon blast. The crystal titans fired a storm of crystal shards from their hands, and Applejack blocked the projectiles with barriers of rocks. Rarity used giant wrecking ball constructs to attack the crystal titans, but these monsters are extremely durable. The battle is chaotic, but the Mane 7 are able to defeat some of Nightmare Art’s creations. However, for each construct they managed to destroy, Nightmare Art created more to take its place. “What do we do!? The general’s creations are standing between us and him and no matter how many we destroy, he’ll just make more!” Rarity complained. “Hmmm, what should I create next?” Nightmare Art wondered as he scratched his mane. While the general was lost in thought, pondering on what to manifest with his magic, Starlight quickly used telekinesis to grab his paint brush. “Ha! Got your brush!” Starlight then blasted it into millions of tiny pieces. “Now that your brush is gone, you won’t be able to create anything.” The unicorn grinned. However, Nightmare Art wasn’t fazed by the loss of his brush. “You’re a fool to think it would be that simple. I don’t actually need that brush to use my magic!” Nightmare Art’s mane became wavy and longer in length, and its color shifted to a multitude of colors. The general proceeded to manifest more drawings directly from his mane while drawing in the air. “He can use his own mane?!” Starlight exclaimed as her friends were also surprised. “I’ll say this again. Never underestimate a Red Moon General!” The Lower 5 boasted. “And now, let’s switch things up a bit!” What Nightmare Art created next were duplicates of ponies and creatures familiar to the Mane 7, and that certainly caught them off-guard as shocked expressions filled their faces. “Oh, the irony! Over a year ago, they banded together to save you. Now, they’re here to fight you!” The general chuckled as his new creations charged at the Mane 7. Rainbow used thunderbolts to repel the duplicates of the Wonderbolts as well as copies of some dragons, griffons, and hippogriffs. The fakes instantly exploded into splatters of paint when they crashed into the floor. Twilight and Starlight rapidly fired magic beams at duplicates of Ponyville and Canterlot residents. Fluttershy’s ethereal bear defended her from the fake changelings. Duplicates of Prince Rutherford and some yaks charged towards Pinkie, prompting her to blast them with her party cannon. Applejack crushed copies of some kirins, including Autumn Blaze, under a boulder. Rarity was forced to defend herself against copies of Coco Pommel and Sassy Saddles by repeatedly striking them with diamond-shaped shield constructs, and that experience made Rarity extremely uncomfortable. “Twilight Sparkle!” The voice of her mentor caught Twilight’s attention, and she then saw copies of Celestia and Luna. “Twilight, you should give up! There’s no point in continuing this fight!” The fake Celestia said. “Against Scarlet Night, there can be no victory!” The fake Luna added. The two duplicates both fired magic beams at Twilight, who quickly generated a barrier to shield herself. “Resistance is futile!” The fake Celestia bellowed. Twilight fought back by unleashing a powerful magical wave, destroying the two duplicates. After Starlight eliminated copies of Trixie and Sunburst, the copy of her father, Firelight, then stood before her. “Starlight! This is your father speaking! You will stand down this instant!” The fake Firelight demanded. Starlight wasn’t falling for it as she instantly disintegrated the duplicate. “As if I’m going to fall for that!” Starlight scoffed. Fluttershy was approached by a copy of her brother, Zephyr Breeze. “Fluttershy, it’s me, your dear brother.” The fake Zephyr Breeze said with a smile. “There’s no need to keep fighting. Please surrender and everything will be all right.” Rainbow Dash promptly unleashed a powerful gust of wind on the fake Zephyr Breeze, sending the construct crashing into a wall and reducing it into a paint splatter. “That actually felt good.” Rainbow said nonchalantly, which caused Fluttershy to briefly glare daggers at her. “Oh come on! That wasn’t the real Zephyr Breeze!” Rainbow said in her defense. “RAINBOW DASH!!!!!” Two voices familiar to Rainbow shouted out at her through a megaphone, causing the rainbow-maned pegasus to cover her ears. She immediately turned her attention towards the speakers and she saw copies of her parents, Bow Hothoof and Windy Whistles. The copies continued shouting at Rainbow through the megaphones they were carrying, creating turbulence in an attempt to throw her off. Rainbow Dash was taken aback from seeing constructs resembling her parents, but she quickly reminded herself that they were also fakes and blew them away with a mighty gust. “Using copies of my parents against me! How low can you go?!” Rainbow snarled at the Lower 5. Fluttershy soon found herself confronted by duplicates of her animal friends, including Angel Bunny and Harry the bear. Despite knowing that they’re fakes, Fluttershy couldn’t bring herself to attack them. The duplicates do not share the same sentiment as they charged towards Fluttershy. However, even though the pegasus would not physically harm them, she still knows one technique to use. “STOP!” Fluttershy bellowed as she utilized the stare, stopping the fake animals in their tracks. The stare was so effective that the fakes froze up in fear and then melted into puddles of paint on their own. While fending off the Lower 5’s constructs by throwing a plethora of sparkly explosive pastries at them, Pinkie noticed a duplicate of Mudbriar approaching her. “PARTY BAZOOKA SHOT!” With her party bazooka, Pinkie instantly destroyed the Mudbriar duplicate with a colorful explosive shot. Right after obliterating the fake Mudbriar, Pinkie was then confronted by a duplicate of Maud. “How dare you attack my boyfriend.” The fake Maud said in a monotonous and dry tone of voice, just like the real Maud would. Seeing Maud’s face caused Pinkie to hesitate. Unfortunately for her, the fake won’t hesitate. The Maud duplicate lunged at Pinkie, attempting to strike her with her hooves. Despite the fake’s fast movements, Pinkie was able to dodge her attacker’s hooves. Twilight used telekinesis to pull the fake Maud away and slammed it into the floor with enough force to reduce it into paint splatter. “Sorry Pinkie.” Twilight sheepishly apologized. “Wait a minute. If he can create duplicates of our friends and family, then can he also create duplicates of the other Red Moon Generals?” Pinkie wondered. “Shut your mouth, Pinkie! We don’t need to give him any ideas!” Rainbow yelled. “Your party friend does bring up a good question. The truth is I cannot perfectly replicate those more powerful than me.” Nightmare Art explained. “However, that doesn’t make your situation all the more better.” In the middle of the scuffle, Applejack was accosted by a duplicate of Granny Smith. Applejack’s eyes widened in shock upon seeing her grandmother’s face. “Applejack, why didn’t you save me!? I needed you! Where were you when I was murdered!? It’s your fault I died! You’re nothing but a failure!” The fake Granny Smith said scornfully. Even though Applejack knew that it was a construct, she was still stunned that it spoke with Granny Smith’s face and voice. Before it continued talking, Starlight quickly dispatched the fake with a magic beam. “Applejack! Don’t listen to it! That’s not Granny Smith! It’s a trick to distract you!” Starlight shouted. Applejack became deeply enraged by the stunt Nightmare Art just pulled. “YOU ROTTEN VARMINT!!! DON’T PUT WORDS IN MY GRANDMA’S MOUTH!!! DON’T YOU DARE INSULT HER MEMORY!!!” Applejack bellowed with tears of anger. With intense fury, Applejack launched a storm of rocks at the Lower 5 and his creations. She managed to destroy a majority of the duplicates and some of the artificial monsters, but the wyverns managed to defend Nightmare Art from the incoming rocks. Seeing that he had struck a nerve, Nightmare Art came up with a nefarious idea. He then descended to the floor and used his magic to surround himself with a multitude of Granny Smith duplicates. “If you want to reach me, you will have to go through this dear old mare. So Council of Friendship, how many times are you willing to kill her again to get to me?” The general said with a twisted smile. This psychological tactic was actually having an effect. The Council of Friendship was beginning to waver due to the memories of Granny Smith’s tragic death. “Heh, just as I thought. There’s always something that makes you tick.” The dark unicorn thought while grinning. Just then, another devious idea popped up in his head. He added duplicates of Flurry Heart into the mix. “Why haven’t you saved me yet?” “How long are you going to let me suffer?” The Flurry Heart copies whimpered with desperate eyes. Twilight was starting to tear up as she listened to the duplicates speaking with her niece’s voice. To torment Applejack, Nightmare Art drew and manifested copies of Darkspark, the dark unicorn who took Granny Smith’s life. “Hey Applejack! Look who’s here! It’s the one who murdered your grandmother!” Nightmare Art whistled. “Your grandmother would still be alive if she didn’t dare talk down to me. Too bad she had to pay for her stupidity.” A Darkspark duplicate taunted. In response, Applejack angrily crushed the copy of the dark unicorn with a boulder. “She should have known her place and for her insolence, she deserved to die.” Another Darkspark copy said, prompting Applejack to crush it as well. The Darkspark duplicates continued mocking Applejack, causing her to furiously lash out at them. Nightmare Art took delight in watching Applejack lose herself in a fit of rage and waste her energy destroying constructs that he can easily replace. “Applejack, please calm down!” Twilight pleaded. “Nightmare Art is playing mind games with you! Don’t fall for his provocations!” The Lower 5 wasn’t finished as he thought of something else to throw at the Mane 7. He then used his magic to create duplicates of some Fairy Tail wizards: Jet, Droy, Macao, Wakaba, Max, Nab, Laki, and Kinana. “Now this should be interesting.” The general smiled with anticipation. “I wish I could replicate the stronger humans, but these will still do nicely.” The fake Jet rushed towards Pinkie at breakneck speed and attempted to land a powerful kick on her, but Pinkie’s quick reflexes enabled her to dodge the blow. “PARTY CAKE BARRAGE!” With rapid speed, Pinkie threw sparkly explosive cakes at the Jet duplicate, but the fake dodged the cakes by running around at high speed. The fake Wakaba and fake Kinana created smoke and poisonous gas, respectively. Rarity responded by conjuring an oscillating fan construct to blow the smoke and toxic gas away. The fake Max unleased a sand storm, and Rainbow countered by using a twister to blow away the sand. “This is getting annoying!” Rainbow expressed her frustration. “I’m just glad he couldn’t create a copy of Natsu, Gray, Erza, Gajeel, Laxus, and especially Gildarts! I wouldn’t want to fight any of them!” Rarity remarked. The fake Macao launched a barrage of purple fire blasts, and Starlight struck back with a barrage of magic rays. The fake Droy threw a pack of seeds on the floor, which quickly turned into large vines. As the vines struck out at the Mane 7, Twilight used bursts of magic to destroy them. The fake Nab summoned the ethereal figure of a wolf-like creature on its left arm while throwing a punch at Fluttershy, but her ethereal bear blocked the attack. The fake Laki created multiple weapon-shaped blocks of wood that erupted from the floor, and Applejack countered by erupting large stone spikes from the floor as well. “ENOUGH OF THIS!!!” Starlight casted an advanced freeze spell to stop the movements of Nightmare Art and his creations. The Red Moon General was caught off-guard as he and his constructs were held in place while they were covered in a magical aura. “Grrrr. This won’t hold me for long!” Nightmare Art growled as he could still move his mouth. Indeed, restraining an enemy as powerful as a Red Moon General and his constructs at the same time was putting a huge strain on Starlight. “Now’s your chance! Hurry! I don’t know how long I can hold him!” Starlight urged. With haste, the Council of Friendship joined together. As they float in the air while engulfed in a bright magical light, they unleashed their rainbow wave on the dark unicorn and this time, the Lower 5 wasn’t able to stop it. “No! This isn’t supposed to end like this! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” Nightmare Art screamed as the rainbow magic vaporized him. With his defeat, his creations faded away instantly. After the Red Moon General was vanquished, the Mane 7 took a moment to catch their breath. “Is it… is it over?” Rarity asked. “Yaaaaaaaaay! We beat a Red Moon General!” Pinkie cheered. “Yeah! We’re so awesome!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she relished in this victory. “This is not the time to celebrate.” Twilight interjected. “This is only the beginning. There are nine more generals, and the one we just defeated was only the Lower 5, the lowest of the Red Moon Generals.” “Aww, way to be a buzzkill, Twilight.” Rainbow groaned. “Let me be frank, this battle is only going to get harder from here on out and our final enemy is Scarlet Night.” Twilight continued. “But before we reach the dark alicorn, we may have to face an upper general along the way. We may have to face… her.” “You mean the one that fought Celestia and Luna a while back, right?” Applejack asked. “Just to let you know, it took everything I had to immobilize Nightmare Art. So if we encounter another Red Moon General, don’t expect the same trick to work again.” Starlight commented. Twilight nodded. “Come on girls. Let’s continue the search for Flurry Heart. Once she is safe, then we can focus on defeating the enemy.” “Please hang in there, Flurry Heart. We’re coming to save you.” Fluttershy said. “If Scarlet Night awakens before we reach her, I hope we’ll still have enough strength to fight her.” Starlight spoke nervously. “We’ll have to. Failure is not an option.” Twilight replied.