Chapter 28
“Bloody hell!” Starch exclaimed as he stumbled back, barely dodging the snapping jaws of Jun.
“What’s wrong? Can’t fight without your Ego’s?!” he laughed, jumping for Summer Breeze as she dove to the side, barely dodging the monster of a stallion. “Come on, just let me get a little nibble!”
She was terrified, as she still had her Shield, but that wasn’t enough to do anything against him! Even Starch has been struggling to handle him, as their attacks didn’t seem to do anything but give him pleasure.
With a roaring laugh Jun flared his wings and launched himself at Summer Breeze, catching her instantly as she attempted to dodge again.
“Got you!” he exclaimed as his jaw unhinged.
As he began to lurch forward, he let out a yelp as he was suddenly dragged backwards and thrown away, dropping the mare in the process.
“That was a bit too close,” Starch said as he helped Summer Breeze back up.
“Very close,” she said, a bit shaken up. “What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted as Jun climbed to his hooves and began to look around, seeming to have somehow lost them, despite them not moving. “If I knew how his powers worked, I might be able to get our Ego’s turned back on.”
“FOUND YOU!” Jun yelled as he locked his eyes on them and sprang towards them.
“Thank all that is good that this guy is an idiot like Lance,” Starch said with a smirk.
As he neared them, they split apart, making him decide on who he’ll deal with first.
He chose Starch as he galloped at full speed towards the smiling stallion.
The moment he reached Starch he sprang forward, mouth open wide as he went for the kill. Yet Starch didn’t waiver as he simple side stepped the muscled up Jun and grabbed one of his demon horns. With a yell of excitement he jumped up onto the back of Jun and straddled his back, holding his wings down as he grabbed his horns with both of his hooves.
“Get the fuck off of me!” Jun roared as he thrashed around.
“Well yee-haw!” Starch yelled as he held on. “Giddy up, little doggy! Uh, I’m out of cowboy terms so yipp yipp!”
“Stop that!” Jun growled as he fought to get the stallion off of his back.
As the Demonic stallion struggled to get free, he didn’t see the mare running towards him till it was too late. With a loud bang, Summer Breeze slammed his shield right into his face, right between the eyes. He stumbled back a bit as Starch yanked his head back up as she hit him again, then again, and yet again, each time right between the eyes.
“Fuckers!” he roared as he suddenly snapped forward, catching the hoof that had the shield attached to it in his mouth. Her eyes went wide as he clamped down, the shield easily surviving the bite, but not her hoof that was attached to it. A few of his teeth punctured through her leg, causing her to yell in pain as she tried to pull her leg free.
Starch began to slam one of his hooves into the side of Jun’s face, trying to get him to let go of her.
Jun began to shake his head side to side, like a dog going for the kill. Summer Breeze held her ground the best she could, but she was getting thrown around against her will nonetheless.
Just as it felt like he’d saw right through her leg, a fourth pony entered the fray, slamming their hoof into Jun’s face.
With a pain filled roar, Jun let her go and reared up, jumping backwards so he landed on his back. The force of having the massively muscled up Jun land on him caused Starch to lose his grip on him.
Now free, Jun jumped away from them, wailing like a child as he touched at his face. A knife was protruding out of his right eye.
“There, now you’re closer to being like Lance,” the new arrival said as he ran over to check on Summer Breeze.
“Thanks, Cody,” she said as he looked at her leg, which did not look good at all.
“Where’s my daughter?” he asked as he examined her wounds, taking out some gel that he’d gotten from Calypso and sprayed it on the wound, stopping the bleeding.
“I… I don’t know,” she admitted, realizing she hadn’t seen any of her friends since this had started. She could definitely hear fighting all around her, but she wasn’t sure if that was her friends or not.
“Okay,” he said, looking over to Jun as Starch danced around the still thrashing Demonic stallion, taking a few jabs at him when he could. “We can deal with this wannabe real quick, then I’ll go find Flippy Dew.”
She gave a nod as she noticed her Ego Spirit had reappeared next to her. Her eyes went wide as she looked at Starch and yelled, “our Ego’s back!”
“Oh booyah!” Starch laughed as he split into six copies of himself and laid into Jun. One of his copies ripped the knife from his eye and began to stab away at him. Jun seemed to go into a frenzy as he began to destroy everything around himself.
“I’m going to eat you! I’m going to eat your brain and take this stupid power of yours!” he roared, grabbing Starch’s and biting their heads off like a rabid animal.
The Ego Spirit flew over to them, holding it’s leg up as it turned into a sharp point and rammed it into the back of Jun. The spike-like appendage of the Ego Spirit drove all the way through the Demonic stallion's body, but it didn’t seem to do anything as he spun around and sliced a wing through the Spirit.
Cody looked back to Summer Breeze, seeing she had already mostly healed her leg with her Ego. “Okay, can you heal others like that?”
She nodded as her Ego attached to him, “I can, I’m just not very good at it.”
“Everything helps,” he said as he stood up and reached into his saddle bags, pulling out another knife. Now armed he sprinted towards the battle between Jun and the Starch’s.
Summer Breeze jumped up and ran after him, staying on the outskirts of the battle as she prepared to try and support them the best she could. Her own Ego Spirit rushed in to help, but Jun would just instantly focus it and get rid of it.
Cody, who wasn’t as trained as the others in his friend group, did his best as he clumsily dodged the attacks of the rampaging demon before him.
“Get his other eye!” a Starch yelled as the one holding the knife got his hoof bitten off, losing the knife inside of Jun’s mouth.
Doing the best he could, Cody ducked under a swipe of a wing and launched forward, going for a stab at the Demonic stallion's remaining eye.
But Jun, who may not be that clever or smart, was not that dumb as he leaned away from the attack and latched his jaws onto Cody’s hoof.
To his credit he didn’t react outside of gritting his teeth as he lost the end of his leg, his hoof getting swallowed by the smiling Jun.
“You little cunt,” Cody muttered as he jumped back in time to avoid any further attacks.
Summer Breeze panicked as she tried to seal the wounds. She didn’t know how to do anything else, so she couldn’t bring the hoof back.
Luckily for Cody, it was only his hoof and not his entire leg.
“That’s annoying,” he grunted as he looked at the slowly healing wound where his hoof used to be. Then his eyes went wide as he looked in the distance and suddenly flew away, leaving them without a word.
Summer Breeze blinked in confusion as he flew away, but a roar from Jun got her attention back to the fight.
ooo000<^>000ooo
“I’m not sure if we can handle this alone,” Jero yelled as he gracefully side stepped a swipe of the massive gorilla before him, his Traveler’s blade slicing away at the appendages as they swung for him.
“Well who else is there to call?!” Alexander asked as he used his portals to perform hit and runs against the Nightmare, using a rapier to jab away at the creature.
“Everyone powerful is gone!” Dude yelled as his Ego Saber buzzed through the air as he cut tendrils out of the air as the sprung from the back of the gorilla.
Jero grunted as he messed up a dodge and took a direct hit from the fist of the gorilla. Luckily he’d blocked it with his Traveler’s blade, so the damage was minimal.
The Nightmare, who’d been mostly quiet throughout their little skirmish finally chuckled. “This is almost delightful. You three are fighting with everything you have, and I’m just playing around.”
“Stop gloating,” Alexander said as he shot a portal under the feet of Jero, causing him to pop up behind the Nightmare, allowing him to slice away freely at his back side.
“Want to see me get serious? Just for a moment?” Nightmare asked as he morphed so that he was now facing Jero.
“Bring it,” Alexander taunted as he kept moving around the area with his portals.
“Alex, pay attention,” Jero warned as he deflected an attack and stepped forward, slicing off the jaw of the gorilla, who just ignored it as the darkness that made up his body just reformed the jaw back to normal.
“Okay, I’ll get serious, for one attack,” Nightmare said with a touch of glee as he smiled widely.
Jero prepared himself, not sure what to expect.
A crackling red tendril shot form his body and latched onto Alexander as he came out of a portal.
“Whoa! Wait wait wait!” he yelled as he lost control of his body and his own sword flipped around.
“Alex!” Jero yelled, moving to cut the red tendril. Yet he wasn’t fast enough as Alexander forced his own blade up through his chin and out the top of his head.
“Wonderful, isn’t it? Possession is so much fun,” Nightmare laughed as he let Alexander go as he collapsed to the ground.
Jero’s eye twitched as he began to attack the Nightmare with reckless abandonment, slicing away anything that came near him.
Dude on the other hand was in complete shock at what he’d just witnessed. Nightmare had just killed Alexander like it was nothing. Was he really just playing with them this whole time?!
ooo000<^>000ooo
Zorrow struggled to carry the two injured ponies on his back, one of them being Roxxy, who hadn’t woken up after her wounds were closed. He pushed himself to keep moving towards the Everfree forest, the town behind him starting to resemble the original Ponyville all those years ago when they were attacked by these same assholes.
“Where’s Champion?!” Reinhardt yelled as she dragged a sled filled with injured ponies. “That prick needs to get his ass down here and deal with these guys!”
“I don’t know!” Zorrow yelled as he saw Moxxi running ahead, waving for their daughter to get into the forest with everyone else who was leaving.
They wanted to stay and help more ponies, but the fighting was getting too intense at this point.
ooo000<^>000ooo
Flippy Dew struggled to stay in the air as her wings fought to keep her up. She’d spent so much energy just dodging and flying around, she was starting to run on empty. If he landed even one hit on her, she knew she’d be dead.
“Come on, I killed your friend and all you’re doing is running away from me? Letting this flimsy Spirit thing do all the work?” Richard asked as easily flicked away the Ego Spirit as it sprang for him.
She frowned as she pulled out her Ego infused Whip. It wasn’t very useful, but the fact it could move anyway she wanted might help here.
“Ah, a whip. You're going to whip me as punishment for killing your friend?” he asked in a smug tone. “You do realize I’ve been holding back, right?”
“You smug types are always ‘holding back’,” she sneered at him.
He laughed at this, as he was used to her being scared looking or making squeaking sounds as he attacked her. This was a nice change of pace for him.
“Want a taste?” he asked as red energy began to rise from his body. “Going down!”
The area around her began to get warmer as she suddenly was pulled straight down towards the ground at an alarming speed. She fought against it the best she could, but it felt like something strong was yanking her downward.
Her Ego Spirt flew under her and held on as she put a shield down below her. All any of that did was barely lighten the impact as she crashed through the shield and landed on her Spirit, their body only helping slightly as they disappeared almost immediately.
“Gravity control, pretty fun isn’t it?” he asked as he landed next to her.
She struggled to get up as he laughed and began to raise her up and down, shaking her in the air. “Wonder what all I can do with this power,” he muttered to himself. “Maybe crush you to atoms?” He said as she felt her entire body start to crumple in on itself. “No, that’s too easy.”
A sigh of relief escaped her lips as he released the pressure that had been crushing her.
“How about sending you to space? Have you ever wanted to visit space?” he asked with a laugh as she suddenly rocketed straight into the sky. She started to scream as she flew up, but as she felt herself reaching a height she’d never been before, she came to a screeching halt.
Then she began to lower back towards the town below. She couldn’t help herself as she began to cry. After a minute she was back over the town and still lowering towards the waiting Griffon.
There was nothing she could do, as she didn’t know if she could break out of his control.
“How was space?” he asked as she got close enough to hear him. “I think I got you pretty close at least. Hard to tell from all the way down here.”
She didn’t respond as she looked away from him, not wanting to cry while looking at him.
“Come on, don’t-” he stopped and looked to his right, a wide smile on his face. “Ah, you must be daddy.”
Flippy Dew’s eyes went wide as she turned and saw her dad standing not that far away from them.
“Let her go,” Cody said eerily calmly as he stood there on his hindlegs.
“I’m going to let you in on a little secret,” Richard said with a gleeful tone. “One of my few pleasures in life is killing someones loved ones right in front of their face. I’m just not sure which of you I want to kill first. Which do you think would be more traumatic?”
“I said,” Cody said as he took his saddle bags off and held them up as he dug through them. “Let her go.”
Richard just laughed as he walked towards Cody, keeping Flippy Dew suspended in the air. “You have the eyes of a killer,” he said as he stopped directly in front of Cody, who still had his left hoof in his saddlebag as he stood up tall on his hindlegs. “I think I’ll kill you in front of her. I feel like that’ll have more of an effect on her, Mr. Killer.”
“Yeah, I use to be killer,” Cody said with a smile. “Want to know the cool thing about that?”
“What’s that?” Richard asked as he leaned his face down towards Cody.
“It means I don’t care about doing it again,” he said as he ripped his hoof out of his bag and pointed an object directly at Richard’s face.
“Is that a fucking gun?!” Richard yelled as Cody smirked and flexed his hoof, firing a Ego bullet right into Richard’s face.
The massive griffon roared in pain as he flung himself backwards, slamming a clawed leg into Cody’s body, sending him flying.
“Daddy!” Flippy Dew screamed as she was released from the hold on her. She quickly flew towards her downed dad as the large Griffon thrashed around the area, screaming expletives at everyone and everything. It didn’t appear that the bullet missed the brain or anything important, since he was still up and yelling.
She landed by her father, tears in her eyes as she saw he had three slices across his stomach and chest.
“You need to go,” he grunted, reaching up and placing a hoof on her face.
“Not without you,” she said, trying to lift him.
“Stop, if I move I’m afraid everything will fall out,” he said, holding a hoof to his gut. “Go, Dewy.”
“Shut up, dad!” she snapped, flipping his hoof away as she focused on his wounds. Little forcefields appeared over the wounds, holding everything in.
“What’d you just do?” he groaned as she struggled to get him up on to herself. Her Ego Spirit appeared next to her and effortlessly picked her father up and held him in its grasp.
“Thank you,” she said to her Ego Spirit as she took off running, her Spirit following after her as her dad wondered how he was floating in mid-air, as he couldn’t see the Ego Spirit.
Behind them, Richard was sending balls of red energy everywhere, blindly destroying everything around him.
ooo000<^>000ooo
Mr. Bleak growled in pain as he flipped backwards into the darkness, disappearing.
Val just laughed as he flicked his bloody hoof to the side, “come on, Darkest, can’t you already see the ending of this fight? The more we fight the stronger I get.”
No response came as Mr. Bleak shifted through the darkness, trying to decide on his next move. An idea came to mind, but he wasn’t sure if it’d work.
“There you are, brother!” Val exclaimed as the darkness around Mr. Bleak suddenly pressed into him, betraying him as it crushed his body.
He flexed hard, breaking free of it and flipped into the air, disappearing into the tree cover above.
“Honestly, this is getting embarrassing,” Val yelled out as he kept absorbing the darkness around him.
Mr. Bleak frowned as he realized the longer he kept them in this Dark Field, the stronger his brother was getting. At this point he’s pretty sure he knows what powers his brother may have. Some kind of ability copying power and at least one other. He wasn’t so sure of the second one though.
Reluctantly he dropped the Dark Field around them, letting the light return to the area.
“Ah, giving up on that little trick already?” Val asked, scanning the area.
Focusing on the shadow under Val, he caused it to shoot up and stab into the side of the stallion.
Val let out a hiss of pain as he jumped to the side, using his hoof to absorb the shadow into himself. “Dirty little trick. But I must say, you’re using this power very simple mindedly.”
“Oh?” Mr. Bleak said as he moved through the shadows the tree cover provided.
“Oh yes,” Val said with a laugh. “For example, watch this.”
A moment passed as he looked around, then his eyes locked onto the area in which Mr. Bleak was standing, hidden in the shadows.
“Bang,” Val said in a cocky tone. A sudden pain exploded from inside of Mr. Bleak as he collapsed to the ground. He grabbed his side, coughing up a bit of blood.
He didn’t need his brother to explain that to him, it was the exact idea he’d just come up with.
“Before you try to do that to me, just know, I’ve already figured out how to use you silly power to defend against that. Hope you didn’t need that kidney.”
“Should of just blew my heart,” Mr. Bleak said as he stood up, wiping the blood from his face.
“And kill you so soon? Tsk tsk, no fun in that. We have a long history together brother, it’d be a shame to end it just like that,” Val said, feigning compassion towards his brother.
“How sentimental of you,” Mr. Bleak said as he attempted to use the darkness inside of Val to crush his heart, but nothing happened. Meaning he wasn’t lying about figuring out how to defend against it.
It didn’t take Mr. Bleak long to realize how his brother was doing it, so he mimicked it, taking control of the darkness within his own body, making sure to keep control of it at all times now.
“Ah, you figured it out,” Val said as Mr. Bleak felt a slight tug at one of his organs. “Guess I should’ve kept my mouth shut, huh brother?”
“Let’s stop playing around with each other,” Mr. Bleak said as he slung his hoof to the side, causing the tree next to Val to explode into splinters, sending all the shattered wood flying right at him.
Val dived out of the way, but was still filled with tiny pieces of wood in the process. He didn’t have time to recover as Mr. Bleak began to do the same trick to all the trees around him, taking control of the darkness within them, solidifying it and expanding it at a rapid pace.
A wave of energy burst from his body, blowing away all of the splintered wood before it reached him. “Nice trick, Brother.”
“I actually have another,” Mr. Bleak said with a smirk as he waved his hoof towards himself, causing Val’s shadow to fly across the ground and appear next to the large stallion. The shadow raised itself up and became a fully formed and solid version of Val.
Then in the same instant Mr. Bleak flexed his muscles, causing all of the shadows in the area to fly into himself, leaving nothing but the sunlight around them, not a touch of darkness to be seen.
This did not worry Val as he smiled as he began to exude energy again. Neither was speaking at this point, just staring each other down as their own respective energy swirled around their bodies.
“We’re done here,” Mr. Bleak said calmly as all of his appendages were covered in a pitch black smoke, obscuring them.
Before Val could say anything, a hoof appeared out of nowhere, crashing right into his face. He began to get thrown all around the area as hooves kept appearing out of nowhere and slamming into him.
He fought against them, but there was nothing he could do as Mr. Bleak just stood there, watching as he beat his brother down without having to move his whole body.
“Shadow Boxing,” Mr. Bleak said with a whistle, “you talked about having fun? Well this IS fun.”
Val let out a gasp as a hoof slammed into his gut and lifted him into the air as an onslaught of hooves began to crash into his stomach, keeping him suspended momentarily.
Two final hooves crashed together on either side of his head, causing him to go limp.
With Val finally down, Mr. Bleak began to walk towards him, watching for a counter attack. But the stallion stayed down as he neared him and opened his pocket dimension, pulling out a charm that could restrain anyone.
He tossed it towards his brother, ready to get him dealt with so he could go find his wife and daughter. But just as the little charm neared him, it suddenly stopped midair, a crackling red glow encasing it.
“Darkest Bleak,” a feminine voice said from nearby as a female unicorn appeared just on the other side of the unconscious Val. “It’s so good to see you again.”
“Lilith,” he said with a frown. “I thought you died a millennia ago.”
“I did,” she said sweetly, flashing him an alluring smile as she fluttered her eyes. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”
“About as happy as a bull on castration day,” he said dryly, getting a giggle out of her. “I assume this is all you're doing?”
“Naturally,” she said with a wink.
He just chuckled, keeping his defenses up, “you should’ve stayed dead, Lil.”
She just smiled at him as her body began to glow and Val suddenly jerked away as her magic engulfed him.
“Oh Vally,” she said as he pushed himself up. “Stop playing with your food.”
A sneer touched his face as he glanced at her, but then he returned his gaze to Mr. Bleak, looking just as furious as the day they first fought.
Mr. Bleak’s smile slowly faded as it seemed like more and more of the Anti-Ego was pumped into his body.
“My final gift to you, Valentine. Do not fail again,” she said in a strict tone as she faded away, as if she was never there.
“So that’s what this is about,” Mr. Bleak said as his own energy increased to its max.
“Same dance, different goals,” Val said as he disappeared, reappearing as he crashed into Mr. Bleak, sending the two tumbling into a portal that opened behind them.
Pushing hard, he broke contact with his brother and sprang back. Glancing around he found himself in a strange dimension, fire and brimstone everywhere.
“Oh this is not good,” he muttered, looking back at his brother to see him grunting and groaning as more and more crackling red energy flew into his body, seeming to come out of the walls around him. “Not good at all.”
Val took on a more demonic form as horns painfully burst from his head. He growled and coughed, sending a black sludge-like substance everywhere.
Not one for inaction, Mr. Bleak shifted through the air in his shadowy form and hit his brother with all he had, sending him flying backwards. Val tumbled through the air and crashed into a wall, shattering right through it and revealing a massive area beyond, fire and lava flowing everywhere as screams of agony were heard.
A low laugh could be heard as Val slowly stood up and appeared in the hole in the wall, now fully transformed into some kind of Demonic version of himself.
“Oh dear brother, this is not going to end well for you at all,” he said with a massive grin as a few strange and hideous creatures began to crawl through the hole, chittering and snickering as they moved towards Mr. Bleak.
Mr. Bleak sighed as he flexed his muscles, getting ready for the fight of his life.