//------------------------------// // Chapter 100.25: Shal-Quz Final Stand // Story: Griffon of Canterlot // by Electuroo //------------------------------// Griffon of Canterlot Chapter 100.25: Shal-Quz Final Stand The warped magical field rapidly expanded, hitting all three of them at the same time. Their field of vision was wavy and distorted, making it hard to see anything within the dome shield. Mark suddenly found Shal-Quz practically in his face unleashing a blast of magic. However, he had come prepared for the rabbit's tricks and he protected himself with his wings which were reinforced with a defensive spell taught to him by Shining Armor. Mark released his wings and unleashed a blast of electrical magic at her. However, almost faster than the eye could follow, Shal-Quz shifted her weight to the side so that the magic blast shot past her. The rabbit then dropped down to swipe a kick under all four of Mark's legs. As he toppled over, Shal-Quz leaped up while forming a mass of diamond around her right paw foot. Her attempt to slam it down on his head was met by talons grabbing it and throwing her away from Mark. Celestia, with wings flared open, stood in a battle stance next to Mark. She glanced at him as he got up, shaking his head. “Are you alright?” “Singed but still in the game. I can see what you meant about her swiftness – that reality magic is making it hard to see her movements.” Mark looked around the stage for their quarry. Celestia looked around too. “She's twisting our senses with that magic of hers. This is on another level to chaos. This is using chaos and order and blending the two.” “Any way to—” Mark turned, spotting the rabbit coming for Celestia with a flying kick. Celestia blocked it and unleashed a fiery punch, followed by a blocking kick as Shal-Quz deflected the punch. Mark unleashed a forehoof punch followed by a blast of lightning charged magic. She deflected both the punch and the lightning with reality magic around her paws. Shal-Quz twisted her paws around, forming several crystals which turned into winged beasts that roared. “I would love a good fight, but I'd rather end this now.” She and her crystal creations charged at Celestia and Mark. Celestia, with the uncanny flexibility of her griffon form, twisted out of the way of one creature's attack, grabbing it in passing. She then spun around and hurled it at Shal-Quz. Meanwhile, Mark grabbed two of the remaining crystal monsters with telekinesis and slammed them into each other, shattering them. He followed it up by blasting superheated magic at the rabbit. Shal-Quz deflected both attacks and leapt forward to slam an energy punch into Mark and Celestia, hurling both back into the barrier. “Found you, vermin!” Alpha yelled as he slammed his mallet down on the remaining crystal monsters, shattering all of them with one hit. The wolf snarled and swung the war-hammer at Shal-Quz who deflected its course with barriers created by her reality magic. “You are something else, but it won't help you, wolf.” She aimed a blast at him, but Alpha held his glowing mallet out in front of him. It parted the blast around the wolf and into the barrier behind him. “Imp–” Shal-Quz started to say before she was struck by the mallet, slamming her away. The warping broke as Shal-Quz hit the barrier on the other side. She bounced off it, landing on her paw feet with her white outfit smoking from the impact. “You will fall, rabbit!” Alpha leaped at her, slamming the mallet down. Once again, she deflected it to grab his armoured chest-plate and, with a foot paw under his stomach, him over her into the barrier. Shal-Quz then jumped up, avoiding another attack by Celestia and Mark. She formed a column of rocks which spun around and opened up, revealing a red glowing crystal that unleashed beams of magic down on all of them. They leaped and dodged the blasts, using shield spells to deflect the red beam shards away from them. Mark teleported behind her and unleashed a blast of magic which shattered the rabbit to crystal pieces. “What the buck?!” he exclaimed. “Oh, please! Do you really think I'd fall for that?” came the rabbit's mocking voice. Celestia shattered the flowing firing crystal and then, seeing Shal-Quz in front of her, punched to shatter that one. “I control reality. As I attack, the magic levels in me increase. I am getting stronger and more unstable.” Alpha looked around, seeing many versions of her now around him. He blocked kicks and punches, hitting back and shattering a few of them, even tossing one into many others. They reformed into more beasts, unleashing magic and attacking back. Mark destroyed many of them with kicks followed by punches and a focused beam of magic. He dodged blasts and tried to change into his celestial form but, to his shock, he couldn't. Shal-Quz caught him off-guard and hit him in the muzzle, throwing him to the ground on his back. She threw another power punch at the downed alicorn only for him to roll out the way. “I can't change forms!” Mark exclaimed as the rabbit ignored him for a moment to dodge simultaneous assaults from Celestia and Alpha, a blast of her reality magic turning their attacks on each other. Shal-Quz turned her attention back to Mark and grinned. “Oh, what a shame. Let me help you.” She held out her hands, palm outward, and a shockwave of magic too broad too dodge slammed into the green alicorn. His Celestial form flew out of him and they both hit the barrier with a thud. They looked at each other in shock, each knowing everything the other knew right up until the moment they had split. Now both were Mark and yet weren't. “Okay, that's new,” Markelestia said, seeing her stallion self beside her. Mark frowned. “I feel weaker. I think my... our magic has just been halved.” “I can—” They dodged a blast of hot liquid crystal that instantly turning solid on the ground where they had been a second ago. “We'll deal with this later! Let's focus on what's at hoof!” “Got it!” Both nodded and fired beams of magic at the rabbit. They may have been of two bodies but still of one mind. Shal-Quz dodged them, doing backflips and warp-shifting to the right and left. “Come on! Hit—Gaah!” Celestia slammed her fist into her face. Even as the rabbit staggered back, she turned to hurl a reality-charged beam of ice at Celestia. The Celestial griffon dodged it to punch Shal-Quz in the gut, followed by Marklestia punching with a forehoof to the face. Mark blasted her with an electrical charge, and Alpha hit the rabbit with a roundhouse swing of his mallet, hurling her into the top of the barrier. Shal-Quz had been hit hard and she hurt, but now she was away from their direct attacks and looking down at all of them. She snarled and formed a metal orb that extruded tentacles that went after all of her opponents. Outside the barrier, the crowd cheered on for Mark Wells – the Alicorn of Justice, Princess Celestia, and Alpha too. They booed when Shal-Quz got the upper hand at times, and they were hugely surprised by the Celestia alicorn that came out of Mark, although with his cutie mark. Nevertheless, they just thought it was all part of the show. Gilda and the other griffons arrived, hearing about the stage fight. “Sweet Grover! It's Shal-Quz!” Gilda exclaimed with alarm. Gale and Nightingale watched in horror at seeing the white griffon get grabbed by a tentacle and slammed into the barrier. However, her talons grasped the tentacle and, with a blast of her power, melted it into molten metal. She used her magic to form it into a ball and threw it at Shal-Quz. The rabbit deflected it and created more different colourful crystals, unleashing a flurry of rainbow beams at the four fighters. Nightingale said, “Why are we just staring? We've got to help mum!” She went to take off but a talon grabbed her. “Get o—” She saw who was holding her back and her eyes widened. “D-dad?!” She squawked in surprise. They all turned and Gallus gasped, seeing his idol in real life. “K-k-king Grover?” “Hello, my little Nightingale, it's been far too long. I wish we celebrate meeting again after all my years of searching to save you, but worlds are at stake right now and we can't do much but watch,” Grover said, looking dead seriously into the eyes of Nightingale. “Three magic casters are casting a spell that is affecting Shal-Quz. However, it takes time, so that what they're doing – buying time.” He looked back to the battle happening at the moment. Greystorm watched. “I can see it – they're fighting hard, but they're holding back too.” Gabby watched was happening around them. “Why do all the ponies think this is a show?” “Because it part of the plan to avoid panic,” Octicovix said as emerged in her griffon form. “Hello, Grey.” She smiled. Greystorm instantly hugged her. “Oh it's so good to see you again, my love. I wish it was—” “—in better circumstances? Yeah.” She hugged back and then they parted a little to watch the conflict. Gilda's eyes darted around at each of them. “Alpha's in there, and is that the alicorn Mark Wells? How the buck is a fake alicorn stallion holding up?” “He no fake, he real,” Gale said looking at the plush and at the green alicorn working with the Celestial form to take on the metal orb using their telekinetic magic to rip it to pieces. “That fake mum has same cutie mark as him. She is him.” “That dweeb is seriously weird...” Gilda muttered. A pony stepped up to them. “I sense such pureness from you child. It is intoxicating. How is that even possible?” Gale tilted his head to look at the green mare with the two tone ginger mane. “You no pony. You feel like Octicovix. You changeling, aren't you?” Chrysalis was surprised. “How?” “I get weird feeling, feel strange magic coming off you like Octicovix when she Pistol.” Gale responded, he turned to the shield which was flashing from the massive impacts of magic. “It's going to break.” Penumbra quickly rushed over to the queen. “We've got a problem! The spell is working but the intensity of the magic being used is weakening the shield fast! Twilight, Starlight and that dragon, Anubis, are struggling to maintain it and keep the spell working at the same—” She paused, seeing the dumbfounded look on Chrysalis' face. “Did you he—” “Yes I heard, but he knew before you told me,” Chrysalis said, looking at the teenage griffon. A red dragon came over. “Hey pure griffon!” They all turned toward the red dragon. Penumbra knew who he was in an instant. “Garble?” “Yeah, yeah, that's my name. Dad told me to give this to you right this second.” The red dragon held out a piece of paper to Gale. “He said you will know what to do.” Gale took it. “Erm... Okay?” He took it and opened it up, then looked up to see the dragon join an orange one. They nodded at Gale, then a flash of light caused the onlookers to close their eyes from the battle in the domed shield, and the two dragons were gone. “That was a younger Smolder too,” Chrysalis stated. “I wonder who the dad is?” Gale took a look at the note before giving it to Gilda. She read it out. “Remember that feeling when you felt that healed me and reformed my staff. I was once out to claim your magic for Grogar, but now I give you that helpful tip. Go to the casters and focus on that moment of helping and form it into three shining lights.” Gabby scratched her head. “I'm confused.” “I don't understand,” Penumbra said. “How does that help us with the shield that's about to pop?” Silvite stepped up. “Simple. The day Nowhere returned home was the moment Gale turned Thunderous into a twenty-foot tall statue that sits in my garden.” Gale looked up at her, she looked back down at him. “Do it, Gale.” Gale nodded and flew up, looking around for the casters. He spotted them – one was Twilight Sparkle but with wings. With her was Shining Armor with his guards, trying to help reinforce the shield itself. Another caster was a light purple pony with a dark purple mane with blue highlights, and the final one was Anubis. “Feel – remember moment... I will.” He closed his eyes letting the pure magic flow through his talons. Shining Armor was using his magic to help boost the shield. Many of his unicorns had attempted but had collapsed on the ground exhausted from overuse of magic, some of them with slightly cracked horns. “Twily! I'm all that's left standing to reinforce the shield! I can't maintain it much longer!” “We must keep trying! I know we can do it!” Twilight grated out, sweat pouring from her brow. Then she saw whitish-blue light in the corner of her eyes. Turning her head slightly, she saw Gale above them with both talons close together glowing brightly. Many con-goers pointed at the young prince, some cheering as if they thought it was part of the show. “I-is that—?” “Pure magic. Yes,” Shining said as he saw three orbs form. Then each fired a beam of magic which hit Twilight, Starlight and Anubis. Suddenly, Twilight stood strong her magic surging. Twilight gasped, feeling the warmth of magic surge through her. “Wh-what the buck is this!? I've never felt this kind of magic before! It feels so pure...” Starlight spoke up. “I can feel it too. I've never felt anything like this either, but it's giving us everything we need to speed this up!” “That's exactly what Prince Gale is doing. The cub's magic is amplifying our own!” Anubis confirmed. Gale finished casting the magic on them. Drained, he fell towards the ground. Penumbra launched herself up to catch the cub, and she glided down to land as the crowd parted for them. “I do good?” he asked weakly. “You did real good,” the batpony assured him. “Yay!” He raised a fist up weakly and she put one of her webbed wings against it. “Yay indeed,” she chuckled, helping him to sit up and watch. Chrysalis looked around at her fellow changelings in disguise who had felt the wave of pure magic too. They were alarmed by the overflowing of pure emotional magic that had washed over them. The queen had never felt emotional energy this rich before. ”Keep to your given tasks, don't let this influx of energy go to your heads! We need to finish what we started.” “Yes my queen!” they all responded. Both forms of Mark punched Shal-Quz hard in chest before the Celestial one began to glow and fuse back into the green alicorn. He blinked a few times, feeling momentarily disoriented by two perspectives rolling into one. “I'm whole again.” He looked around to see firing crystals start to go black and shatter before they turned to dust and faded away. “They did it!” Celestia made a sweeping kick to Shal-Quz's gut, sending her flying into one of the crystal monsters, shattering it to pieces. Alpha struck her in the back with his mallet and the rabbit landed in the middle of the stage, reeling from the pain that her magic had failed to save her from this time. Gasping, she looked around to see all her reality creations breaking down and the stage returning to normal. “Wh-what is happening!?” She could feel the magic draining from her fast. Mark gestured to the dome around them. “This isn't just a shield – we've been leeching away your magic,” he explained as electrical magic discharged from his horn. “You're done.” Shal-Quz grinned. “Oh, I am far from done. There's still enough reality magic to do this!” She slammed her fist down, causing a black crystal to burst out of the floor. She rose up with it. Mark's horn stopped glowing as its magic was pulled into the crystal. Celestia found herself unable to fly and cast any magic. Starlight knew what it was. “Nullcrystal! That's a bucking nullcrystal!” She could feel its drain on the shield but the pure magic from Gale had weakened its effect, so she and the others were able to to maintain the shield. Shal-Quz noticed but she had to take care of her primary problems first. She formed nullcrystal blades and threw them at Celestia, Mark and Alpha. The wolf dodged it with ease and threw his mallet toward Celestia to deflect the blade while leaping toward Mark. He grabbed the last blade a mere centimetre from the alicorn's muzzle. “Well, isn't that impressive! You not only dodged your one, but you deflected and stopped the others.” She formed two more in both paw hands. “I'll enjoy cutting you down.” Mark gulped loudly at seeing how close he had been to getting skewered. “Why do you look so familiar?” Alpha tossed the blade to the ground. “I am Alpha, once leader of a pack of wolves from China. I served Shen for twenty-plus years. I saw the darkness within and found inner peace. Now I serve Lord Gale to the end as his dream guardian. Once, I was a creation of dreams, but I was dragged into the physical plane because of the actions of this vile rabbit.” He walked towards Shal-Quz as she leaped down and walked toward him, spinning her blades. “I will show her the consequences of making that mistake.” Mark stared at the back of the wolf as he approached Shal-Quz. “Kick her sorry butt, Alpha,” Mark said with a grim smile. Alpha glanced back at Mark with his one eye. “I plan to.” He turned back and ran on all fours right at Shal-Quz. She charged at him to slash, but he slid under the blade, and then did a jump-spin to dodge the second. Alpha landed with his right paw foot in front and left to the back, his right hand paw gestured to Shal-Quz to come at him. “I will cut you to pieces, you stupid wolf!” The rabbit still had an amazing amount of speed and she slashed, kicked, and did spin flips to try and catch the wolf off-guard. Alpha deflected, punched and kicked back. Mark and Celestia watched helplessly as not only their magic was drained from them by the crystal but their strength too. As creatures of natural magic, they were vulnerable, but Alpha was embodied by reality magic and unaffected. They couldn't do anything but watch Alpha fight Shal-Quz. However, the wolf was easily countering her moves. Twisting to one side to evade a thrust, he kicked her in the chest and grabbed her wrist twist it to force her to let go of the blade, then grabbed the other arm to slam it into his knee, making her drop the other. Alpha then pushed her back to spin-kick the rabbit with force. Shal-Quz flew back into the crystal hard. She landed on one knee and slowly got up, bleeding from the side of her face that had struck the jagged crystal. She reached up and touched her cheek, seeing the red on the paw hand. “I see that I underestimated you,” she croaked before breaking into a cough. She spat out some blood before snarling, “Well then, let's see if you can do anything about this!” Shal-Quz formed a magical sphere in her right hand paw about the size of a volleyball. She pulled her arm back and Alpha shifted his stance into one that Mark had seen before. “Inner peace...” He whispered. “This is a reality bomb,” the rabbit explained with a smirk. “It doesn't need much magic and it's quite lethal. If it hits you, you're dust. If you dodge it, Celestia and the green alicorn are dust. Which of you are going to die?” She broke into a hacking laugh. “As with all villains, you are the same,” Alpha said with a sigh. “Your ego demands that you win without the need to end it quick. You have to make your victims suffer. You are as weak as they all are. You are all are bottomless pits of stupidity.” Shal-Quz snarled. “Stupid?! Then let's see if this will be you or them!” She threw the sphere hard at Alpha. “No, just you.” With a liquid fluidity belying his huge frame, Alpha caught it, sliding back to jump and start spinning around. Shal-Quz eyes shrunk to pin-pricks. “H-how is that even possible?! Nothing of this reality can touch a reality bomb!” Alpha smiled. “I am of the dream reality, not of this one. You are the reason I exist in the physical plane.” He came out of the spin to land and once again his arms guided the magic sphere. “As the panda once said... Skadoosh!” Alpha let it go and it flew toward Shal-Quz. It moved so fast that she was unable to react, but she wasn't its target. It sailed by her, missing her by inches and striking the crystal behind her. She looked back to see the reality bomb engulf it and vaporize the whole thing, the explosion sending her flying onto her back. With magic restored to Celestia and Mark, they got up and gathered together with Alpha who was still in his launch stance. “You're definitely not Boss Wolf,” Mark stated. “No, I am Alpha Wolf, guardian to Lord Gale, serving him to my last breath,” Alpha responded with a grin. Mark smiled back. They watched Shal-Quz slowly getting up, groaning in pain. The rabbit looked at each of them as she stood unsteadily on her feet. “Outsmart me will you? Play my game and throw it back in my face? I hate you griffons!” she spat. “It was Alpha who just kicked your butt,” Mark pointed out to her. “Yes, but he came from a griffon! The pure one!” She snarled, reaching into her sleeve to pull out a feather. “That was all I needed too.” She formed a small reality bomb orb, merging it with the feather. Celestia spoke out. “Give up, Shal-Quz. You've lost. What is that even going to do? You've got almost no magic left.” Shal-Quz held it up, an evil smirk on her face. She laughed humorlessly. “Simple. This is something I prepared previously. It's my Hail Mary, my endgame – the ultimate spoilsport. I shatter this and all griffons in every corner of both of your multiverses will turn to dust.” The battered and burned rabbit squeezed her hand paw around the sphere. Mark's pupils shrunk. If that magic was released, he would lose friends and family, even those that traveled to his Equestria that he knew were griffons and hippogriffs. “All type of griffs will be affected too!” Mark snarled. “You would be so petty that you would wipe out billions of griffs because you lost?! That isn't justice – that is plain insanity!” “I know!” she growled. “For over four thousand years I had to put those featherbrains down in this reality, over and over again! But they kept coming back and a whole new civilisation sprung up! They are of both chaos and order! They are like humans! They just don't know when to stop fighting and just give up! Even when the latest to come from Grover! I told Grogar that doing this over and over again would result in something escaping the loop of griffon civilisations that I caused to collapse!” Shal-Quz raised her free hand paw with a closed fist. “Grover found the Holy Grail of griffon kind, those damn Voyager-2 Archives! That piece of junk is what made them grand! And with it came the Finch Griffons. Those soft-paw small griffons were far more intelligent than any griffon came before. They did more things with the archives than any had before! When Zerra did what Grogar wanted him to do to that brat Nightingale, I told him that we had to put a end to griffon kind once and for all!” She pointed at Celestia. “But no! You filthy griffons became of interest to him! He found your challenging abilities a test against his own! You became his favourite play things! That's when I took my chance with Guto! I saw a way to destroy that kingdom. I created that monster to steal the idol to use it against him! But no, Grogar made sure that it never reached me by blasting that bridge and sending the idol down the abyss!” Celestia looked very startled by this, as did so many others. “You caused all that?!” “I found a way around it! I involved the changelings! Queen Chrysalis was a pawn in my greater plan. I used her to get close to the King and created her little throne for her kind to be safe! Got them to believe the ponies needed to be dealt with and start a war! They almost did!” Chrysalis, Octicovix, and all the changelings turned to the stage to stare directly at Shal-Quz. “But no! He fell in love with her! And she did with him! They said it wasn't worth it and that their love would feed the changelings. In turn, they helped the griffons out of despair! I had to make sure to break that stupid love between a bug and a griffon! I did so by making it seem he misused the communication orbs on Flaputa! I caused the massacre! I am the one behind that and now I will do it all over again with every living griffon!” She burst into laughter ready to shatter the orb. Octicovix collapsed upon hearing it but Greystorm caught her. The con-goers thought it was dark but still part of the act, none knowing that it was really true. Glacier had her wrist-pad device on, recording it all. Chrysalis knew who the father was from that moment. She knew what her counterpart did, freezing the egg of her daughter and only hatching it in the last fifty years or so ago. She had said to herself that she would never get personally involved with the hive matters of other versions of herself, but this one was a blow too low. Mark calmly walked up to the rabbit. “With what?” Shal-Quz goggled at him in disbelief. “With what?! With th—” She squeezed her paw hand to find nothing there. She looked up. “Wh-what?!” “You should have done it first and then boast but, as usual, you villains always have to monolog. It gave Twilight the opportunity to cast a precision portal spell. Your secret weapon is now in a dead dimension where it can't hurt anygriff.” Mark sighed. “What a waste.” He turned to Starlight and nodded. The dome shield came down. “You're finished.” With a scream of frustrated rage, Shal-Quz hurled her fist at the grim face of her foe. Mark snarled and a bolt of lightning leapt from his horn, striking the rabbit morph squarely in the chest. Shal-Quz's muscles locked up, her fist a couple of inches short of the alicorn's face. A strangled cry of frustration escaped the rabbit's throat as she stood there, frozen in place. Prince Mark's expression changed into a smug grin. “Like it?” he asked. “It's a special attack I developed with the aid of volunteers. The magic-enhanced lightning paralyses all voluntary muscles for about an hour. You're just a particularly unpleasant statue for the duration.” His expression switched to a sneer as he pushed his muzzle close to hers. “Don't buck with an alicorn, his world or his family.” Almost all the crowd around them cheered happily with chants to Mark mainly as he brought down the Lightning of JusticeTM to his foe. The only ones that weren't cheering were himself, Celestia, Alpha and everyone else in the team, Gilda, and the others. They all looked bleak at what Shal-Quz had told them. Now, faced with their victory, they had to figure out what to do with Shal-Quz...