[Abes]
I barely glanced at Yomega as he fell through the ground, focusing instead on launching my balls at the Shadow Eevee. They didn't do much to it, just punching holes clean through it. Holes the thing quickly filled in.
I quickly formed another pawful of balls, flicking all save one out to random spots in the dreamscape. The last one I placed very carefully. "Luna!" I shouted. "King's pawn to 'E' four!" Then I pulled all of the randomly scattered balls into the Shadow Eevee at once. The Shadow just rolled the lights it had for eyes before flicking a shadow ball of its own at me.
"Queen's pawn to 'D' six!" Luna cried out as she coated herself in her magic and started another attack run. I heard the Shadow sigh as I dodged the attack it threw at me.
"Really, Luna?" It drawled. "You've been doing that with no effect for how-"
"Queen's pawn to 'D' three!" That's when I detonated my balls I had gathered within it with the one I had trailing Luna. I felt the explosion blast the air back, the rumble shaking the ground. The Shadow's mist was pushed to the far corners of Leo's mindscape.
Luna landed beside me. "That won't keep it gone for long."
"I know." I grumbled. "He's already reforming. Would this be easier outside of Leo's mindscape?"
"No." My mare sighed. "With the sigil on Leo's mind, it can't leave."
"Wait..." I paused, forming orbs and hiding them amongst the ruined battlefield. "Does that mean that we can't leave either?"
"Nay, for we originate from outside Leo's mind." Luna's horn began to glow while she glared at the reforming shadow. "This thing comes from Leo herself. It is those kinds of dangers that the sigil wards against."
I nodded, reaching out for some nearby rocks with my mind. "Does that mean that he may share some... traits with Leo herself?"
"I believe so. Why?"
"Great, so it's a normal dark." I nodded, pulling my mind back. "Psychic and Ghost are useless, and our dark abilities are next to. Fairy or bug would be good, but we need a physical fighter to really put the hurt on him..."
"What are you babbling about?" Luna snapped at me. "And don't equinize it, you'll make it stronger."
"Okay, sorry. Thinking about type matchups. Wish Conner was here." I took a step to the right as the thing finished reforming. "So, what's the plan?"
"For you to DIE!!" The Shadow roared at us at a volume to blast my fur back. I empowered my natural venomous sweat in time for it to swat me with an overgrown paw. I ploughed through an ash pile and a tree before rolling to a stop. "What the... What did you chaos spawn just do to me?!"
I stood up with a groan. "The only thing I could. You're made from Leo, right?" I began running, shadowporting to turn myself into a missile. "Poison's a bitch huh?"
"Queen's Bishop to 'G' four!" I shadowported away as Luna speared a lance of mental moonlight through the Shadow, knocking it to the ground.
The Shadow cried out in pain, throwing out blobs of darkness in retaliation.
"King's knight to 'F' three!" I warned, detonating my Shadow Ball minefield to the Shadow's annoyance. "Whatever you just did, keep it up!" I then gave the Shadow another of my makeshift Tackles. Why the fuck is this so hard?!
"Knock it off you-!"
I didn't catch what it was going to call me. Luna's royal capslock interrupted the thing. "Queen's rook's pawn to 'A' five!"
"WOULD YOU TAKE THIS FIGHT SERIOUSLY!?" It bellowed as it reformed itself again. Black flames began falling from its body as it started to rage.
Knowing that my limited options just got even more restricted, I hatched a desperate plan. Please work, please work, please work! I prayed as I shadowported directly under the Shadow. I called upon my connection to the moon as I called out. "NO! Queen's bishop to 'E' three!" Moonlight drifted down on me from above, through the Shadow. It roared in pain as I healed from my punting. ... Yay.
I quickly shadowported out before the thing could recover and strike back at me. It belly flopped down where I had been standing, but the three of us paused as we felt something shift over the mindscape. I was about to ask Luna if she had done something, but had to shadowport when the thing threw a dark ball at me.
I appeared about a mile behind my previous position. I faintly heard Luna call out "King's knight to 'H' six" as I realised my mistake. I had enough time to reapply my Baneful Bunker, and, thinking quickly, I got ready by stiffening my tail. Once the dark ball was close enough, I tried to get in touch with my inner green fairy and smacked the ball back towards the ongoing brawl.
I shadowported closer to the duel on the far side from where the ball was returning from. "Queen's bishop to 'D' two!" Both Luna and I gave the thing some space in time for the ball to crash into the Shadow.
The Shadow just reabsorbed the black goop into itself. "Really? What was that supposed to accomplish?"
"Reapply the poison." I shrugged, spotting a bright glow back from where we entered. "Guess it didn't take."
Luna looked at me, a spell falling from her eyes. "Queen's rook to 'A' six?"
"Hmmm. Queen's knight to 'C' three." We nodded at each other and shadowported in opposite directions.
"Okay, seriously." The shadow created two more of its black balls. "What the fuck is up with your chess bullshit? There's clearly no fucking strategy to it. I mean-"
The Shadow was burst apart by a rainbow explosion. The prismatic pony that caused it landed between Luna and I.
"Okay, so..." Rainbow pointed back at the thing she flew through. "Where are we, what was that, and where's Leo?"
I kept an eye on our adversary as Luna replied. "We are in Leo's mindscape, and she is presently in a deeper layer, Yomega is looking for her as we speak. As to that thing, We have our suspicions. For now, we must keep it occupied to provide Yomega time."
"It's reforming slower this time..." I mused, Rainbow whipping around to look at me in surprise. "... What? We're in a mind, Rainbow. Why wouldn't we be able to talk freely here?" I looked her up and down. "How'd you get here in the first place?"
Rainbow sheepishly rubbed her right hoof against her left front leg. "I, uh, was worried about Leo, so I went to give her some reassuring pets. I found myself here when I touched her."
Luna scowled as the Shadow finally pulled its body back together. "We thought we told Villhiem not to let anyone come into contact with us until this endeavour was complete..."
"Do you know..." The Shadow drawled as it reformed its head. "...How much that stings?" Rainbow cracks shifted about the thing's mass.
Luna, Rainbow and I shared a look. "I've got an idea!" We chorused.
"Do it!" Luna commanded as I shadow ported underneath the thing again. It flopped down on me, but I had already prepped a Baneful Bunker. Rainbow blitzed off to do her thing while Luna charged through the Shadow.
Once it stood up to retaliate against Luna, I dropped my Bunker and reconnected to the moon. It spat a stream of black flame out at Luna, cutting off as it felt the moonlight drift through it again. I shadowported out from under it as it unleashed a wave of its black flame from its body.
Luna was about to charge it again when it howled in pain and anger, the rainbow cracks flaring. "Did you do that?" She called out to me.
"No!" I frowned, just in time for Rainbow to crash through the Shadow. She didn't blast it apart this time, merely cutting a rainbow hole through it. She began arcing around for another run.
The Shadow flared its fire again, then twisted it into a shielding tornado. The cracks faded and the hole reformed as it panted. "You... god damned... fucking fools!" It snarled, flaring the shield and forcing Rainbow to abort her attack run. "I am all of her anger, all of her guilt! Since you've forced me to stay in here, I will kill her! I will kill her and be free! And there is nothing you can do to stop me! I cannot die while she hates!"
"Get out of my friend's head!" Rainbow bellowed as she powered through the flames. In a flash of pink light, she vanished before she could make contact.
We all stared at the spot she last was. "... Now that was just sad..." The Shadow mocked.
"Hey, Fuckface!" I called out, growing a Shadow Ball above my head.
"You know that won't work on me." The thing deadpanned at me.
I smirked. "Ha, you looked."
"King's bishop's pawn to 'F' five!" Luna called out after another moonlight spear lanced through the Shadow.
I split my massive Shadow Ball into hundreds of small ones, and prepared to harass the fucker squatting in Leo's mind. C'mon, Yomega. We can't keep this thing distracted forever...