//------------------------------// // Chapter 18: The Unfairest Possible Fight // Story: The Forest of the Golden Abalone // by Unwhole Hole //------------------------------// The effect was audibly silent, but still gave the impression of sound—and force. Flurry Heart felt it hit her like a wave, the strain almost seeming to push against her armor and body—but, more importantly, cutting into her mind. It was more severe than she expected, somehow worse than the various sorts of pain she had come to almost excessively enjoy. It burned into her in a different way, and she could have sworn that she was being forced back across the muddy ground. Flurry Heart, though, was not one to acquiesce to the will of some pastel geezer—she held her ground, looking back into the blue eyes that bored into her. Her breathing accelerated, but her force of will and determination was far stronger than she had expected. With a shaking hoof and all of her divine might, she took a step forward. “That won’t stop me!” she screamed against the silence. “I am a literal GOD! I am the—the rightful queen of the Crystal Empire! You can’t stop me with your eyes, Fluttershy!” Fluttershy did not respond—and that somehow made it worse. The intensity only grew. Flurry felt her resolve wavering—and she focused her energy further, casting spell after spell upon herself. Enhanced courage, enhanced determination, resistance to magic—and others, again and again. A plume of support spells, the only type she had ever actually been good at, much to her chagrin. Born to a mother that could level empires with a thought, while her inferior daughter was relegated to the role of a cleric at best. She looked up, taking another step forward and, grinning even as her own black fluid dripped between her sharpened teeth, she dared to look directly into the eyes of the Beast. What she saw froze her—because something was wrong. She had experienced the Stare before, as a child, when she rightfully deserved it—but never to this degree. And, looking into Fluttershy’s eyes, she saw something incorrect. How the beautiful blue of her irises seemed to be hiding something. How, deep in her pupils, Fluttershy seemed to have a second set of eyes buried deep in the blackness of her main pair. A set of true eyes. Eyes that were a strange and hideous red. “Don’t make me do this, Flurry. I don’t want to hurt you.” Flurry braced herself. “What are you trying to do? Stare into my soul?” She forced a weak chuckle. “I’m an alicorn, Fluttershy. We don’t have souls!” A strange and unnatural voice slipped out of Fluttershy, a sort of low hiss—and her mouth twisted into a disturbing smile. “Then why can I taste it?” Something moved through the forest. Flurry felt her wings bristle with surprise, and her first instinct was to attempt to annihilate it with a burst of magic—but the concentration required was too great, and she felt herself collapsing as she tried to mentally prepare any sort of offensive magic. A pony burst through the trees. A unicorn who Flurry did not know, nor did she care to know. She could not recall having seen him before, largely because she was not as a rule especially observant. That was what she had hired Tuo for. This pony was apparently on the verge of a nervous breakdown, running and screaming due to a large slug that was now firmly affixed to his face. He was repeatedly running into things in his panic, screaming into the slug and producing a low, muffled gurgle. “Gft it uff! GFT IT UFF!” “I can’t help you right now, Snails, I’m busy,” snapped Fluttershy. “Stop running around, you’re stressing the slug!” “Imf strffng df sluf? DF SLUF? IM strifft!” “Then why not take it off? Gently?” Snails paused, having not considered this option—and removed the slug with his magic. His look of relief was replaced by one of horror when he realized he was holding it. Then, as he looked up to the horizon, his face seemed to grow even more pale—realizing that the giant slug was still there, now lying on the ground and slowly making its way to somewhere else. “Sweet Celestia’s hips,” he swore. “If you could maybe help?" snapped Fluttershy. "Please?” Snails set the slug down and gingerly stepped away from it. Then he looked up at Flurry Heart. “Hey, I know you. You’re Pound and Carrot’s friend.” He frowned. “Don’t remember all the makeup, though.” “She’s going through a phase,” whispered Fluttershy. “It’s not a phase!” Flurry glared at Snails, then back at Fluttershy—only to squeak as she was pushed back several inches. “What, it wasn’t bad enough you snuggle married mares? Now you’re doing it with stallions half your age? Have you no shame?” “I don’t think you can really understand the depths of my shame.” Snails looked to Fluttershy, nearly losing his lunch of snail slime from just the glancing blow of her Stare—and instead turned to Flurry Heart. He did not actually remember who she was, and did not follow politics well enough to understand the geopolitical implications of an Equestrian shoving the Princess of the Crystal Empire. He shrugged, then walked over to her. “Just like tipping cows back in college. Because you should always tip your cow, they don’t have good wages. Because of the speciesism and all.” “Are you calling me fat?!” “No idea.” Snails put his hooves on her side. She was unable to attack or dodge. He then proceed to push—only to be blasted backward by a sudden detonation of magic that held him aloft for a moment before slamming him down hard onto a pile of rocks. “She does not like to be touched,” snapped Tuo, his invisibility spell fading as he stepped from the shadows. “Believe me, I would know.” “Tuo! Idiot, quick! Get out a sword or a—I don’t know, a big stick and unalive them! UNALIVE THEM BOTH!” Tuo let out a long, exasperated sigh. “For the last time, we simply cannot do that. We are mercenaries, not assassins. We would never get another client again.” He gestured toward Fluttershy. “Nor am I apt to target an Element of Harmony. Other than Twilight. I would very much be honored by a wizard-battle with the famed Element of Magic, even if I am guaranteed defeat. If either of you could put in a good word for me.” “You just want to submit a marriage proposal,” snapped Flurry. “NO.” Snails coughed and started to stand up. Tuo tilted his head slightly, as if amused, and a column of compressed earth punched Snails in the chest, sending him reeling backwards. Once again without moving, Tuo cast another spell—and a translucent magical chain wrapped itself around Snails’s tail, pulling him backward with a cry. “Deal with the soft one yourself. Or refuse to. Bow to her and submit. I know how much you enjoy humiliation.” Flurry growled wordlessly. “I’m trying, idiot.” Snails, meanwhile, was hurdling through the air, and might have been contemplating his life had he very little of an internal monologue. He cast a weak spell, breaking the chain, which had the unintended effect of launching him further into the air. When he landed, he did so with extreme grace, bouncing off the side of a tree, flipping, and dropping neatly onto a mossy hillock. He then ducked to one side to allow a cutting spell to miss his head. “You put a slug on me!” The moss below him pulsed and suddenly shot upward, encasing him as it mutated and expanded, a result of Tuo’s biomancy. Despite his overall talent of as a generalist wizard, his special talent closely related to flowers. His biomancy was by far his strongest field, especially with regard to plants. His use of it was a clear sign that he his patience had come to an end—and that he wanted the fight ended immediately. Snails did not bother struggling against the enhanced moss that held him firm. He was held aloft, over Tuo, who walked up to him with a distinctly upper-class degree of leisure. “Going for the horn now, eh?” “Do I honestly look like a pervert to you? It is called ‘banter’, you would know that if you received more...well, frankly, any formal magical training.” “Sure, sure. But only one of us here has a graduate degree.” He paused. “Actually...did you even go to high-school?” “I was home-schooled.” “Yeah, it shows.” He shrugged. “I suspected it did. Hence why I am so glad to have Flurry Heart as a friend. And, as such, she is quite dear. So I would rather you not attempt to tip her over.” “Why? Are you going to?” “Only periodically. But,” he paused, “I am also aware that you set those marvelous little redneck traps that did, in fact, hurt her. Which does bother me more than it probably should.” “She regenerates. Like you.” “Yes. But much unlike you.” He summoned a cutting spell—but Snails just smiled. Although he had not managed to get Tuo to start monologuing, he had distracted him long enough for several hundred of Mildred’s tiny children to have eaten most of their way through the moss binding him. He broke free, drawing a tiny vial of mucous from his belt—but before he could throw it on Tuo, it exploded in his grasp, covering him with the stinking liquid. He thudded to the ground. “Well, that’s mean.” “You lit me on fire once already. I enjoyed it. I smell delicious being cooked alive. I suppose I should return the favor.” His horn flicked, and a spark appeared on the mucous—but no fire broke out. “That is not flammable slime,” noted Tuo, clearly confused. Snails just smiled. “No. It isn’t.” He stood up. Already the ground was beginning to shake, but softly. Leaves were overturned, rustling by the motion roiling through them. Frightened slugs pulled their way out of the layer, forcing themselves up trees to escape the vibration. “What did you just do?” Snails’s smile grew. “The type of snail that makes snails out of much tinier snails. You know those?” “No. I find snails distasteful except as escargot. And even then, it tastes very bad.” “They’re eusocial. And about six months ago, I saved the life of the Snail Queen’s daughter. She gave me a bottle of royal slime in case of emergency. And I think this counts as one.” “You weren’t intending to splash me.” Snails shook his head. “Nope.” The leaf littler of the forest suddenly burst open, pouring countless millions of near-microscopic snails upward in violent torrents of mucous and shells. They swarmed over Snails, their bodies linking through some unknown and understudied conception of group consciousness, drawn by the molecular signals of their queen’s goo. In seconds, Snails was coated, save for his face—and he was lifted from the ground, the snails assembling around him into the rough shape of one of Tuo’s own mechs. Except instead of being limited by crystal and iron, Snails was instead reinforced by the pure force of mollusks. He struck out with surprising speed. Tuo was forced to retreat, jumping back—only for the limb of the snail-construct to extend, wrapping around him with unexpected force. Tuo was forced to teleport, arriving on a branch in a nearby tree wide enough to support the weight of his armor. Teleportation was a difficult spell; learning it from Flurry had been fraught with disaster. Apparently it was a signature spell of House Twilight, the dark-mages of their lineage likely having been its originators. Few ponies could perform it with any degree of success. Snails, now encased in a living suit of armor made wholly of snails, reached up, his body flowing around itself as he shot upward toward the branch. Tuo responded in turn, no longer relying on the weaker wizard-spells his mother had insisted he learn. He, in opposition to her, was not only a collector of artifacts but one of the rarest biological entities and beings. His cutie mark, a Brassia orchid flower, marked him as a biomage. A plant pony. The flesh of the tree warped at his will, suddenly enlivened by his magic, an extension of his life force made manifest in wood and blossoms. It struck Snails hard, peeling through his body and sending plumes of snails every direction—snails that rapidly reassembled into constructs of new, larger snails that swarmed back to the hero of their colony. In fact, Tuo quickly realized that his magic was poorly suited to this type of foe. The plants that he wrapped around Snails were quickly devoured, consumed by the snails that coated him, rendering his armor even stronger. His only advantage, then, were the other aspects of his biology. As the snails wrapped around them, he ignited himself. The snails screamed out in fear and pain, fleeing the fire as Tuo leapt from the tree. His eyes did not need as much light to see, and his magic guided his perception toward the center of the snails—an area of different density. A plume of magic hidden in the writhing mass-of life force. Snails himself. Tuo could taste his heartbeat. But as he did, he felt a wave of icy fear move through his body. Unaccustomed to this emotion, he turned sharply, just as the snails surrounded him—and felt an even greater fear move through his body. He saw her, engaged in a battle with Flurry Heart that the latter could not hope to comprehend. Flurry did not understand the danger she was in. She did not hear the beat of so many impossible hearts compressed into a form that had for so long passed as a pure pony. She did not sense the magic, a sort so foul and horrific that even the dark mages of Flurry’s bloodline would have been loath to approach it. Flurry did not see the area spreading around Fluttershy. The creeping necrosis that poisoned the very land and air. Every plant it touched died, and was reborn, animated by hideous magic into manifold new and alien forms. Saplings faded, bent, and began to rot, that rot springing to life as flesh and singing bone, giggling as plant and fungus alike ceased their earthly form became horrors indescribable. Even Flurry was subject to the mutation. As she pushed forward, ever closer to the red eyes before her, her flesh began to change. Infused with magic, it began to warp, itself rotting and rising again as the living incarnation of that rot—only to dry and flake away, driven out by her hyper-advanced immune system. But she lacked Tuo’s heritage. She was one-fourth dark unicorn, as opposed to Tuo’s half. Although bolstered by her alicorn nature, her strength was not as great as her determination. She was already beginning to atrophy. “Flurry, stop!” he cried. “She’s a Tartaran!” Which was of course not wholly correct, as the term was a misnomer. The flotsam of the Yellow Realm that ponies called “demons” invariably lacked this power. This was not the primitive magic of a succubus or varnaq-mother, but something far greater. Of something purposefully created by the Most Beautiful Pony herself. Tuo summoned his magic, exploding outward before targeting Snails with a magical beam. He fired, but the snails compensated, moving Snails himself and making a hole—only for another wave to collapse around him, driving through his armor and threatening to breach his defenses completely. The tiny avatar of his HUD appeared. A small, cheerful representation of a pony that the armor-mages had named Proctor. “Warning,” she said. “Your armor seems to be in a state of critical failure. Detecting a snail concentration of over 700% the approved value. System error. Recommend surrender and apology.” “Engage self-destruct system, then.” “I’m sorry, I cannot allow you to do that, Mr. Milk.” “Engage. SYSTEM.” “That would incur a risk of operator error, with a 103% chance of occupant unaliving.” “I am immortal, I can withstand a nuclear blast!” Proctor’s tiny avatar shrugged. “I’m unfortunately not programmed to know that. And the First Law theoretically forbids me letting you get hurt. Badly, at least. So no explodey for you.” The snails breached his armor, swarming inside it. Tuo sighed, suppressing his desire to panic. He could not allow Flurry to come to harm. Her protection was ostensibly his responsibility. Not due to employment obligations, but as his only friend. Which meant he knew what he needed to do—and knew that it would be devastatingly painful. And not in the fun way. He summoned his power, focusing his biomancy inward, distorting the magical flow of his body on a fundamental transcription level—and lost total control of it, his mind evaporated in a wave of the chain reaction. The last thing he consciously knew as his brain metastasized into teeth and beating, hair-covered heart tissue was his exponentially growing flesh peeling its way out of his armor and devouring its way through the snails that dared to believe they could control him. Flurry was an immortal being, a living god, the one true ruler of all Equestria—after she managed to usurp her mother, of course, and then her aunt. And then probably deal with the fat one. Luna would be allowed a role as some kind of minister. Mainly so that Flurry herself did not need to work nights. Or this is what she convinced herself as she slowly collapsed under Fluttershy’s gaze. The world swam as she stared into the now fully-red, featureless eyes that seemed to stare back into her. No one she knew had survived the Stare at this level of intensity, or for this long. The effect was in its own sense interesting, but in the same way it was when she was with Tuo. Pushing her body to its limits. Then pushing past them and laughing as it broke. Her brain was probably collapsing. She saw Fluttershy through the haze, her skin the most beautiful shade of yellow—a yellow so much more brilliant than that of any pony she had ever seen before. Eyes so red, matching the flow of her mane. A pony so profoundly perfect. One that reeked of a scent so alluring. The smell of carnations filled the air. And, though this hallucination, she saw something standing at her side. A unicorn. One that was almost white. A pale horse. Which of course was not real. Death was not real. Not for a god. She blinked, and her mind swam. She saw the red eyes, and saw herself—looking down at her perfect white skin, at the runes and pentagrams engraved in a foreleg that was not hers. Only to blink and see that she was wearing her armor again. Armor and flesh that refused to accept tattoos or scars of any kind, no matter how hard she tried. Through her haze, she looked up and saw that Tuo had—infuriatingly—got the better fight. He got to fight a snail-based biomech, while Flurry was stuck in a staring contest with a pastel grandma. Except he was losing—because he was clearly not taking the fight seriously. He paused to yell something that Flurry did not hear, something about at Tartaran—but Flurry had no idea what that was, apart from succubi, which her father would not let her summon anymore. Fluttershy was probably not a succubus. They usually had horns and were actually attractive. She began to fade again—only to be suddenly awoken by the snail-mech exploding as a giant tendril of black flesh reached out, clutching the ground and hardening. It morphed, snapping and twisting as fluid and black flesh was rendered into bone, forming a vast claw. Then, from within the mass of snails, a new mass of flesh pulled its way out, shrieking in rage. It was almost as large as the snail construct—a writhing mass of indeterminate flesh, gushing fluid and rapidly reassembling itself into eyes, teeth, and toothed eyes—as skin became carapace and carapace became mouths that whistled through incomprehensible piping vocal organs. Embedded in it all, the remnants of Tuo’s ruined armor, encased in his hardening blood. “Crap crap crap!” she turned her attention back to Fluttershy and, as the writhing mass of flesh babbled and struck out at the snail-construct with its tentacles and hundreds of arms filled with teeth, she steeled herself to do something she very much did not want to do. Something that would be almost ridiculously painful, and not in the fun way. “I need you to let me go,” she demanded. “Why? You’ll just dash forward and try to unalive me.” “He can’t hold that form for long! He’s mutating too fast, skirting the edge of genetic collapse—if I don’t pull him back soon, I won’t be able to at all!” The mass was gripped by the giant construct, only to slither and slide past it, racing toward Fluttershy, pulled by poorly-derived magic that encased its body in red fire—only to be grabbed by one of its mouths and thrown back against a tree, where it split in half and re-merged around the back, slithering up the trunk and attempting to charge Fluttershy again. “Come on!” cried Flurry, growing desperate. “I have to help him and I can’t do it if I’m fighting you! I…” She could not bring herself to say it, but looking up at him, and at the mutation threatening to consume him, she forced herself to continue. “I give up! Uncle!” Fluttersy blinked, and Flurry fell forward onto her face, having been unaware of the sheer pressure that had been keeping her standing. Her body felt like jelly, and she was glad she was hiding her face in the mud on account of the humiliation she had just voluntaries suffered. It was fun when Tuo made her do it, but that was because she could always change her mind and force him to his knees—but this was just embarrassing. “Oh dear,” said Fluttershy, looking around her. “I stared too hard…” A tentacle suddenly reached out and grabbed her. She immediately blushed. “Oh no...not this again…” Flurry’s sword slashed through the air, held aloft by her magic, severing Tuo’s tentacle. The separate part immediately ossified into a hand, closing hard around Fluttershy. The other part burst open with a newly formed respiratory system, piping madly through flute-like tubes of bone and half-formed vocal cords. Flurry cast her support spells on herself, buying herself more time. Despite being a literal god, she still had limits—and next to no formal training in magic, apart from what her father had taught her. Which had been mostly useless. Unicorns and alicorns were entirely different species; their magic never seemed to work the way it was supposed to when she tried to use it. The snail-construct grasped what was left of Tuo, pulling him in. Flurry teleported behind it, casting a spell that dropped the temperature to well below freezing. The snails, being cold-blooded, immediately began to slow. The construct turned, as if to reach out to grab her, but she issued a sonic shockwave. The blast pushed the snails apart and, in their weakened state, they could not pull themselves back together quickly. With Snails himself exposed, Flurry shot a beam of icy magic directly into his chest—freezing him and the snails around him into a solid block of ice. She redirected her attack at Tuo, attempting to freeze him—but his mindless body compensated, developing a thick layer of blubber and black wool. New apertures opened, casting magic fire to warm himself—and he charged toward her, his thousands of teeth-filled eyes wide with terror and confusion. It was not even arguably a spell that had done this to him. Flurry understood it to be more of a flaw. She did not know how, exactly, he had been created, but understood it had been a difficult process. His father was a lumpy, self-important earth-pony and his mother a genetically perfect but physically ruined eastern-type pureblood unicorn. Whatever male portion actually made up Tuo’s genetics, it had been sourced from somewhere else—and whatever magic had bound it to him was inherently unstable. She changed her magic type, biasing it toward a support functionality while fully sacrificing her defense and offense parameters—at the same time redirecting the support spells she had cast on herself. The mass of flesh swarmed around her, puncturing her armor and herself—but this only increased her determination. The armor was strong, a combination of the pinnacle of Imperial engineering combined with the ancient and arcane relics of the far greater Empire that had preceded Cadence. She was forced to rely on it for the time being—because this was one of the few cases where she could actually know danger. She was like him—in a sense. The corruption that was tearing him apart could take root in her, if given enough time. Which, perhaps, he was subconsciously attempting to do—or to prevent. Her spells hit him with surprising force for being simple support spells—and he cried out in confusion as he was forced back, the power of the magic leeching the magic that supported his genetic instability and healing the anti-wounds that covered his body. The effect was immediate and dramatic but incomplete. The mutating flesh slowed, being driven back into a form that partially resembled a half-formed, distended parody of a pony. It was not enough. But Flurry had known that. It had been too long. Her magic alone would not be able to pull him back. She fired a shockwave, vaporizing the flesh that surrounded her and clearing a path. She saw the half-formed shape of his skull, and an eye in the right place. He looked so afraid. She charged forward, drawing a specialized weapon—or perhaps a surgical tool. An injector loaded with a single crystal she was not supposed to own, but had managed to steal just in case this happened. It was one of the few that did not originate from the Crystal Empire, nor one that had been quarried by rock-worshiping cultists in Equestria. It had not even been born in the earth—but rather formed by the action of flesh. It had been her mother’s, a gift from a batpony stallion named Anhelios who she had known a long time ago. She put the injector against his half-formed skull and fired it into his brain. Tuo’s head was knocked back by the impact, and the crystal sparked with strange magic—magic that flowed through his body, tearing through flesh and devouring entropy. Genetics were made orderly, mutations reversed, and aberration of growth suffused by orderly organization. The magic that flowed was an indicator of the true nature of the universe: that entropy was limited, and always decreasing, utilized as the greatest of fuels by the most powerful of machines and gods alike. The piping and gurgling became a shocked scream as he condensed back on himself, bones cracking and popping as he was violently reset to his original form. In seconds, he stood before her, surprised and nude. He blinked, clearly unsure as to where he was, and then spat out the crystal. It had grown slightly in size. “I...did the thing?” Flurry smiled. “Yeah. You did the thing.” Her magic surrounded his head—and then, with a crack, she reversed the direction it was facing. So that he could see his own back. Fluttershy screamed as Tuo dropped to the ground, twitching somewhat. “Don’t be such a prude!” shouted Flurry. “You know he deserved it!” Fluttershy stared in shock. “But—but—EEK!” Tuo stood up, grasping his head in his own magic and, with a crack, resetting it to its correct position. He sighed and, with a flash of red light, pulled Flurry’s spare sword from her scabbard, turned it with a flourish, and ran her through. Flurry gasped, her tongue lolling outward—and then she let out a tiny moan as he twisted the blade. “Oh...Tuo...penetrating me in front of Fluttershy? How—how forward!” She let out a long moan as saliva dripped from her mouth. "And you even twisted it inside me..." Fluttershy put both her hooves over her mouth in shock. “Oh my!” “We heal, right?” Flurry laughed, pulling her sword out of her, the wound almost instantly healing. She smiled broadly. “Did you know that he had as spell that can make your teeth explode? One. At. A. TIME.” “I do excel at dentistry,” admitted Tuo. “But I appreciate her more ‘rip-and-tear’ attitude. How quickly easily she blurs the line between ‘insides’ and ‘outsides’. Then, once I'm empty, she can wear me like a coat.” Fluttershy quivered, and took several steps back. From her perspective, they could not have looked more different—and yet there was a certain verisimilitude in both of their eyes. A sickness, from her perspective at least. She looked up to where Snails was frozen in place. The snails that had broken free were now falling to the ground, dripping and retreating back from whence they had come. Fluttershy had no idea how to free him. “So now what?” asked Flurry. “A change of plans, I think. I have inspected the temple design with our benefactor, from our schematics. With the path now open, t his one will prove useful. So we will capture her alive.” “Alive?” squeaked Fluttershy. “Would you prefer the alternative?” Tuo shrugged. “For the sake of sporting chance, we shall grant you a ten second head-start.” Flurry’s eyes widened—but she smiled. “A hunt? Seriously?” “With her love of animals, it seems appropriate.” “To hunt her down and put her in a cage?” Flurry laughed, ionizing her sword. “Sure. Let’s go. Starting...now.” Fluttershy stared at them, not understanding—but feeling disgusted at what they had both become. “Eight,” said Tuo. “You may want to run.” Fluttershy was about to protest, but found that she could not. Her hooves had gotten a wholly different idea and, once again, she found herself sprinting. It was about all she could do. There was an ache deep in her head, and she knew she could not summon any more Chaos—and her Stare was too powerful to stop Flurry without hurting her again. And, considering what it did to an alicorn, Tuo would probably not withstand it at all. Ten seconds was not long enough to thaw Snails, or even to figure out how. So the only option was to run into the woods. She did not go in any particular direction, but she heard the count inside her head—and felt the squeeze of the dried claw still wrapped around her midsection. “Five,” said a voice in the distance. “Four.” She squeaked, trying to run faster. “Three. Two.” A long pause. Then, finally, “one.” At that instant, Fluttershy tried to sprint one more time—but tripped and fell into a hole. She landed hard against something cold, wet, and soft. The hole was deep and oddly grave-like. And, as Fluttershy rubbed her head and regained her wind, she realized to her horror that it in fact was. Buried at the bottom was a limp body of a gray earth-pony.