“Wave of Light!” I shouted, dropping the holy sword downward and throwing it up as massive pillars of pure Light rushed through the horde of undead, sending them all flying away like Dynasty Warrior enemies.
“My my, even against my blessed, you are killing them very quickly.” Blood hummed, pleased by my performance as I blocked a greataxe the size of my body from cleaning me in two.
“Yeah yeah! How about you suck my left nut!” I shouted, pushing against the giant and sending a Shadow Tendril piercing through it’s skull, lifting it up into the air and slamming it down into the ground hard enough to crack this dimension’s ground and squashing several undead.
I don’t know how long I’ve been here, has it been hours? Days? I’ve killed countless numbers of these Undeads, but they always get right back up, stronger and stronger than before and I’m just barely keeping up with their numbers and growing powers, and what’s worse is that there’s five specific ones floating in the back, one a grey stick figure, a Platinum Dragon, an Elemental which looked like a god damn Primal Fusion which was a combination of all four basic elements which…fuck me sideways, cause Fusion’s are a bitch, Primals are even worse, but a Primal Fusion? Come on!
And it only got worse! Cause the last two were an Elder Titan, and worst of all is a Hechatonchires, a god damn Hundred Handed One! Where and how!?! “Ya know, this would feel a little more feasible with your ‘let’s make Simon stronger for my own amusement’ if I didn’t have those five fuckers watching my every move!” I snapped, dodging a swipe from a ghoul as I punted it’s head off.
“But I just want you to know what your raid bosses are before I step in.” Blood laughed. “And trust me, you’ll need all the strength you can gather from my many pets.” He said, sitting on a fucking throne like he was god damn Dracula swirling a wine glass filled with who know’s what red liquid he wanted
I didn't want to admit it, but I'm getting exhausted. I really underestimated this guy…
“Crap…” I panted heavily, dodging another attack as I tried to think of what weapons I could use to get me out of this bullshit, cause I had every weapon, every magic, every combination I could think of…come on think! “This fucking sucks…” I groaned, jumping back as I brought out a staff imbued with nature magic. “Gaea’s Wrath!” I shouted, slamming the staff down as vines burst from the ground and started to attack the undead, giving me at least a moment to breathe.
The ground suddenly burst into flames.
“Oh what the fuck!” I shouted, leaping away from the flames and standing on the ever growing mound of body parts.
Ugh. At this rate he might kill me… doubt he'd care if he did.
"Simon!"
I looked up, having heard someone new call my name. I spotted a tall armored white Alicorn, blue Alicorn and some snake-dragon looking Chimera also in armor.
“I’ll ask why you know my name later, mind giving me a hand here?” I called out, dodging to the side of yet another attack.
"That is why we are here." The blue one said, flying down and letting me climb on her back.
"Ah! Celestia! Luna! Discord, it's been far too long!" Blood said gleefully as the new arrivals.
“Not long enough Blood.” Celestia growled, slamming her hammer down…and atomizing a shit load of undead.
“Holy shit!” I yelped at the display of power, as I quickly got onto the blue alicorn. “And thanks…I don’t know how long I’ve been here, but it’s been…trying.”
"Been about an hour." Discord said. "At least back on Equis."
“Only an hour? Ugh…this sucks.” I said, bringing out an Eagle Bow and starting to fire off magic arrow’s at many undead that tried to creep up on us.
As the three helped me clear out these undead, Blood looked over the scene with a grin from his throne.
"I don't like that he's not doing anything." Luna said.
“He’s been laughing and watching me struggle, cause he want’s me to fight those five.” I pointed to the five that were still floating there.
“It’s been a while.” The grey stick figure called out, the three hearing his voice and realizing who those five were.
“Not again…” Celestia groaned lightly. “It just had to be those five…”
“Come on Tia, it can’t be that bad can it?” The Elder Titan said. “It’s just like old times…just, more enslavement.”
“Uh…how do you know those five?” I asked worriedly.
“We…used to be friends, way back in the day…” The chimera sighed. “Before Blood showed up and took them all away as his personal slaves…”
"It's what he does. He captures, torments, tortures. If he were to will it, in this place despite all the pain and all the agony you'd feel from your injuries you would not die, and if you got to heal from them it wouldn't last. He'd continue until either you broke and agreed to serve him, or break and go insane, in which he tosses you to the lost souls all stuck here in a hell he created."
"Guilty." Blood shrugged.
“Yeah…that’s not fun at all.” I shook my head. “So how do I kill this bastard if he’s pretty much god?”
"You can't." All three said.
"In the past we've blasted, stabbed, decapitated, hanged, poisoned, vaporized, atomized, sealed and even tried Soul Destruction. Nothing works on him." Luna said.
"The only thing that can work is… waiting…" Discord added.
"Whenever he appears he has a seemingly random amount of time to be free until whatever binds him and the others pulls him in and pushes out one of the others." Celestia finished.
“I…think I have a way to make it faster…” I said. “I remember one of the things that I grabbed from IQ’s bunker…I really don’t want to pull it out but it’s a knife that can…maybe kill him.” I said, remembering that Knife that just radiated Unlife, that damn thing is probably able to kill Blood.
"I'm not sure using that knife is a good idea." Discord said.
“Why wouldn’t it be a good idea?” I asked carefully. “I know it’s a…very dangerous weapon but still.”
"The last and only other person to use that blade rotted away at the atomic level. Whatever it is, it rapidly and deathly corrupts the user." Celestia informed.
“Oh…” I blinked. “Right…don’t use the murder knife, got it.” I said worriedly. “So…just gotta survive…and I think I know when he’ll start charging in.”
"When we're tired and he's bored?" Luna offered, slicing apart a rather tanky looking undead.
“Well, that,” I said, staring at him as he still looked entertained. “But when his time is almost out, he’ll send in those five…and then he’ll personally throw down at the last minute…” I said carefully. “Cause he’ll forever be entertained with me being his new ‘plaything’.”
"You forget each time his timer is random. It could be actual years before that happens!" Discord said, snapping his talons and turning a row of undead into… jello?
“Excuse me what?” I asked in surprise. “The hell did you do?”
"I'm the god of chaos, this is my shtick."
“Oh yeah…I really should have remembered that when you sent me flying twice.” I frowned, aiming up and firing off an arrow as it split off into a few thousand and hit their target’s with perfect aim. “So…just gotta wait…goodie…”
"Assuming he doesn't kill us first." Luna growled.
“True.” I sighed. “Oi…alright…let’s continue this Dynasty Warrior nonsense.”
I huffed as I pulled out a fresh weapon. I never expected to break any of them, let alone hundreds.
Luna, Celestia and Discord had long since had their armor broken off, their original weapons broke long ago and I lended them some whenever they broke.
Blood stood across from us, still grinning despite us all having deep wounds.
“The hell are you grinning about?” I asked, lightly moving back as I countered a ghoul with my bare fist, shattering it’s head like a raw egg. “Sooner or later, it’ll all come down to my fists? Heh…never thought this would happen…” I thought to myself bitterly.
"This has been fun." Blood said, cackling as those chains around his wings began to glow and unwrap.
"About time." Huffed Celestia.
“So, now it’s boss time?” I asked, bringing out two lightning chakrams and getting into my stance.
"His timer is up." Discord sighed, the lose chains floating out, then rapidly spun around Blood and wrapped around his body right.
"I hope we can do this again soon." Blood said, still grinning as his body began to glow, blinding us all.
When it faded, we were out of the pocket dimension, I.Q. on the ground where Blood was, and it was raining.
“What…the fuck…” I panted heavily, falling to my knees as a lot of the energy that was keeping me up and going was leaving me rather fast. “Just…just like that?”
"Blood is an insane one. We…" Luna started, suddenly stopped talking as she looked around. "We entered the pocket dimension in Baltimare… yes?"
"Yes? Why?" Celestia asked.
"Where is it?"
We all turned around, we were on the docks again, but the city wasn't.
“Uh…so I forgot to ask this during our long stay in Mr. Blood’s Wild Ride…but how does the day and night cycle work? Cause I coulda swore that the sun barely moved whenever I bothered to look before…all this.”
"I move the sun across the sky. Luna does the same for the moon." Celestia informed. "As for how time works in Bloods domain, we do not know."
"I actually tried to keep track but I couldn't. Even my chaos magic was limited in there." Discord said, looking around.
"So… it has definitely been a while." Luna said.
“So who the fuck was moving the sun and moon while we were all in there for god know’s how long?” I asked. “And how is this place not a barren wasteland due to the sun possibly never having moved?”
"Twilight or Cadence might have been able to. I left the spells where they could find them Incase Luna and I were ever absent or worse." Celestia said.
"Hey, that's new right?" Discord said, motioning towards something in the rain. Where the mist/fog of the rain nearly hid what seemed to be a statue.
“This better not end poorly…” I said, walking over to the statue carefully, more so because I was dead tired and could barely stay standing.
We all walked towards the statue. The rain mist and fog clearing a bit, letting us see the statue. A massive stone ship full of ponies, names written along the ships sides. Around it we began to see… rubble. Buildings and roads all smashed to craters and hills of rusted steel and brick.
The plaque read 'In Honor of The Lost When Baltimare Fell'
“Baltimare fell?” I asked, looking around quickly. “Hello!?” I called out worriedly. “Is anyone here?”
"How long were we in there?" Discord asked as a growing dread fell over us.
“Uh…” I said, quickly looking around and trying to take a step, but my body really didn’t want to move fast as I bent a knee. “Shit…” I groaned. “I…I don’t know if I can…stay conscious…”
"Here." Celestia said, levitating me onto her back. "We need to find help. Maybe I can contact Spike?" Celestia said, pulling one of her feathers from her wing and in a flash of gold and green it was gone.
"What do you think happened?" Discord asked.
"Looks like an air strike." We all turned, seeing I.Q. was up and walked next to us.
“Air strike? Why the fuck would that happen here?” I asked, trying my damndest to remain conscious even as literally all my energy left.
"My guess." I.Q. materialized a bottle, a green liquid within that she popped into my mouth. It had no taste but with each gulp I felt better, more energized. "The rifts broke."
"Impossible." Luna said. "That would have taken-"
"A year. Minimum."
“We…we couldn’t have been in their that long right? And what about these supposed Elements of Harmony that they talked about keeping it together?”
"If Twilight and her friends weren't able to stabilize it, then… maybe it was… unless…" Celestia frowned.
"Looks like it's been four years, two months, six days." I.Q. said, suddenly holding a smartphone.
“Four years!?!” I said in shock, jumping off of Celestia. “No, no that can’t be right, sure it felt long but that was because it was Dynasty Warrior central in there!” I said, starting to think of what could have happened…only to suddenly hear movement. “Oh, what the fuck now?” I groaned, as I looked over…and saw Grey Stick Figures, mindless test dummies looking ready to fight. “Oh what the fuck…”
They approached us, I.Q snapping her fingers and the test dummies turned to dust.
"Judging from the satellites of mine still in orbit, looks like Simon's old world and Equis collided and seem to be in a symbiotic orbit around one another. Makes for easy travel, but weather and ocean tides on both planets would be apocalyptic."
“I can imagine.” I said worriedly. “But…we need to find any survivor’s, I know that Hyun’s Dojo should still be around and look for anyone to help.” I said, knowing the number one guild in my world wouldn’t have just fell over to Faust or whatever the hell happened to her.
In a flash of smoke and green flames a rolled up sheet of paper appeared in front of Celestia.
Rapidly she unrolled it. "Spike's replied… no…" Celestia said, a look of pure horror washed over her face.
“What happened?” I asked worriedly.
"Rainbow Dash… was killed in battle, and Twilight has been… crippled." She said, the paper dropping and soaking up the water, turning to mush.
“Worse than I thought…fantastic…” I sighed. “Did it say where they are or if there was anyone helping them?”
"The… They're in the Crystal Empire. The barrier has been keeping them all safe." Celestia said trying to keep it together.
I sighed, gently putting a hand on her head. “People are still alive, people are still safe…things will get better, I promise.” I said softly. “So…just let it out…you're with friends.”
Celestia dropped to her stomach and cried.
The Crystal Empire changed. The barrier was bigger, lots of makeshift homes, farms. It expanded all the way to Sombra's shed.
"So you were stuck in that pocket dimension for this whole time?" Sombra asked. I came right here to see my daughter who was now three.
She looked… a lot like my mom. If I'm honest.
She was playing with Legos.
“Yes, I have been stuck in that place for four years…” I said, kneeling down to see my daughter. “Hey Dawn.” I said softly, feeling like crap that I missed so many years other life but it was very important.
She looked up at me, tilting her head confused. "Daddy, who that?" She said, pointing at me.
"You're biological father Dawn." Sombra said.
"Two daddies!"
"Eh… sure."
Honestly…hearing ‘who that’ hurt my heart a lot…but then hearing her cheer like that at least patched it up a bit. “I’m your daddy Dawn…I’m so sorry for being gone so long…a bad person took me away for a long time.”
"Yay! Are you gonna be kissy like mamma, Pappa and uncle?"
Wait what?
"Erm…" Sombra coughed. "I may… or may not be romantically involved with Cadence and Shining Armor…"
“Bruh, I thought you were gonna be single till the day you die?” I asked.
"So did I… but around Dawns first birthday, we all managed to sit down and have some drinks. Shining and Cadence feeling like shit given Twilight's current state of health, and… well, we all woke up in bed and it was clear things happened… After an awkward moment and some clean up, I figured if not for me, for Dawn. With I.Q. not caring or wanting to be a mother Cadence would be a good mother figure and she has been. In the end we just kept… together. Doesn't help that because of them I found out I'm bisexual too…"
“Cool…” I said. As the two of us stared at each other…”I’m the man in this relationship.”
“You fucking wish.” Sombra growled.
“I spent four years being watched over by a literal god of death as I had to deal with a never ending tsunami of undead that kept growing powerful.” I frowned, looming over the stallion. “I am also a master of Darkness, so try me.”
"I had to deal with Cadence's fetishes." Sombra countered.
“So Cadence is the tie breaker here.” I huffed.
"Oh trust me, knowing her she'd conjure up a magic dildo and make us both her bitch. Already has with me and Shining. Sometimes that mare terrifies me… yet I keep returning."
“The power of horny is strong I will agree.” I said. “Just look at IQ and…many of the fetishes I got from her…”
"Remember, Cadence is her granddaughter so, she got it from her most likely. In any case, things have been… well, not good since you, the princesses and Discord were gone. I'm sure you already know the element of loyalty is dead."
“Yeah, we got the message…” I sighed. “This sucks…but at least Hyun’s Dojo has been helping out…even with what few members there are…” I said, having seen that only the strongest Guild members were here with whatever refugee’s they could get. “But…it could be worse, that’s all I can say.”
"I suppose. At this point in the first war Equis had already lost fourteen billion. Six million globally is honestly better numbers than we could have expected."
“So that means a lot of the world hasn’t been destroyed yet, and there are bastions that haven’t suffered as much.” I said readily. “That’s good to know.”
"Just two." Sombra said. "The Crystal Empire here, and the Zebra Capital, Ariguth."
“Good to know…cause that sounds like an entire country away…fantastic…” I sighed.
"Other side of Equis." Sombra nodded. "everywhere else is either crawling with monsters, murderous sticks, and sitting in Canterlot on whatever is left of the castle throne is Faust."
“Great…” I sighed, rubbing my temples. “So…besides probably getting into a weird poly relationship with you, Shining and Cadence...I have to reforge hundreds of weapons, some armor for Celestia, Luna and Discord…and also be a father as I help try and stop Faust from all this nonsense…”
"Well, then good news is that Smog Iron has been working what remained of your worlds Blacksmithing Guild like dogs keeping weapons and armor for ponies and sticks alike flowing like water so, maybe you can work for him for a while and when you can reforge your weapons."
“Well, it’ll be tough but it’ll at least be something useful.” I said honestly, gently patting Dawn’s head. “All for a new safe world for Dawn.”
"You should go see Twilight at the Crystal Empire Memorial Hospital."
“Yeah, I’m gonna need to meet these Elements…or whatever is left of them after seeing one of their group killed and the other crippled…” I sighed, fearing what might be happening to the other four. “But first, food. Now where’s my dinner?” I asked Sombra with a cheeky grin like he’s my housewife.
"Blow me." They growled.
“We’re gonna have such a wonderful relationship I can tell.” I chuckled.
To be continued...